FIC: Meet-Cute (Merlin)
Title: Meet-Cute (AO3)
Rating: G
Word Count: 490
Pairing: Arthur/Gwen
Summary: Written for this prompt at kinkme_merlin: "Modern!AU. The story of how they met."
A/N: I wrote this a while ago, and just wanted to have it on my journal too. Fair warning: this is pure, unadulterated fluff.
They met and fell in love during university. Arthur was into boxing in those days, and Gwen was working part-time at the reception desk of the student health clinic. Whenever she tells the story to friends, Arthur always pipes in at this point to add that, if you really thought about it, they'd been destined to meet.
Arthur would say he didn't really notice her at first, but Gwen remembers otherwise, remembers some rather telling things Arthur said early on about liking the flowers she sometimes threaded through her hair...
("You do that a lot, don't you?" he said on his fourth visit, pointing vaguely at her head. "The flowers. They're... nice," he ended awkwardly, when Gwen looked up from entering his next appointment into the database, honestly confused.)
Or about admiring her outfits...
("I like that top you have on," he said. "Very... purple." She already thought him a bit weird by then, but thanked him all the same.)
Soon enough, however, they were progressing steadily from mostly perfunctory conversations about open time slots in the schedule for the clinic's doctors to see to Arthur's bruised ribs, fractured nose, and various mild concussions, to slightly less perfunctory conversations about such riveting topics as the weather and exams, to all out flirtatious exchanges where they talked about... well, just about everything.
And Gwen, despite her worries about behaving unprofessionally in her place of work, couldn't help but note that Arthur had awfully broad shoulders, and had been getting banged up rather often lately. Suspiciously often, even.
"You know, you could just drop by and tell me about your marathon study sessions and the truly alarming amount of Red Bull you've ingested in the name of Macro Economics without bothering to get a black eye first," Gwen said one day, smiling.
She'd expected one of his typical responses, delivered while Arthur wore one of the myriad ridiculous, goofy expressions he could contort his face into, that somehow managed to insult you while also making you laugh and like him even more than you had the second before.
Instead, Arthur went somewhat serious and soft-eyed, and said, "I'd stand in front of oncoming traffic if it meant I'd get to talk to you a little more."
Gwen knew it was a ridiculous thing to say-quite over-the-top and cheesy, really-but she also found herself suddenly unable to look Arthur directly in the eyes.
Her heart beat wildly, heat working it's way up from her belly to her cheeks as she replied, fumbling over her words in a way she thought she'd grown out of.
"Oh. Well....um. That's. I, uh... I don't think that would be necessary?"
When she finally forced herself to look up it was to Arthur's smile, wide and joyous and unaffected in a way she'd never seen before. In a way that wasn't ridiculous or goofy at all. And she had no choice but to smile back just as brightly.
Rating: G
Word Count: 490
Pairing: Arthur/Gwen
Summary: Written for this prompt at kinkme_merlin: "Modern!AU. The story of how they met."
A/N: I wrote this a while ago, and just wanted to have it on my journal too. Fair warning: this is pure, unadulterated fluff.
They met and fell in love during university. Arthur was into boxing in those days, and Gwen was working part-time at the reception desk of the student health clinic. Whenever she tells the story to friends, Arthur always pipes in at this point to add that, if you really thought about it, they'd been destined to meet.
Arthur would say he didn't really notice her at first, but Gwen remembers otherwise, remembers some rather telling things Arthur said early on about liking the flowers she sometimes threaded through her hair...
("You do that a lot, don't you?" he said on his fourth visit, pointing vaguely at her head. "The flowers. They're... nice," he ended awkwardly, when Gwen looked up from entering his next appointment into the database, honestly confused.)
Or about admiring her outfits...
("I like that top you have on," he said. "Very... purple." She already thought him a bit weird by then, but thanked him all the same.)
Soon enough, however, they were progressing steadily from mostly perfunctory conversations about open time slots in the schedule for the clinic's doctors to see to Arthur's bruised ribs, fractured nose, and various mild concussions, to slightly less perfunctory conversations about such riveting topics as the weather and exams, to all out flirtatious exchanges where they talked about... well, just about everything.
And Gwen, despite her worries about behaving unprofessionally in her place of work, couldn't help but note that Arthur had awfully broad shoulders, and had been getting banged up rather often lately. Suspiciously often, even.
"You know, you could just drop by and tell me about your marathon study sessions and the truly alarming amount of Red Bull you've ingested in the name of Macro Economics without bothering to get a black eye first," Gwen said one day, smiling.
She'd expected one of his typical responses, delivered while Arthur wore one of the myriad ridiculous, goofy expressions he could contort his face into, that somehow managed to insult you while also making you laugh and like him even more than you had the second before.
Instead, Arthur went somewhat serious and soft-eyed, and said, "I'd stand in front of oncoming traffic if it meant I'd get to talk to you a little more."
Gwen knew it was a ridiculous thing to say-quite over-the-top and cheesy, really-but she also found herself suddenly unable to look Arthur directly in the eyes.
Her heart beat wildly, heat working it's way up from her belly to her cheeks as she replied, fumbling over her words in a way she thought she'd grown out of.
"Oh. Well....um. That's. I, uh... I don't think that would be necessary?"
When she finally forced herself to look up it was to Arthur's smile, wide and joyous and unaffected in a way she'd never seen before. In a way that wasn't ridiculous or goofy at all. And she had no choice but to smile back just as brightly.