Title: Borrowings
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Wordcount: ~1100
Challenge: Six - Crossovers and Fusions
Summary: Fusion with Mary Norton's The Borrowers. In which Merlin is a Borrower, Arthur is a Human Bean, and Merlin sneaks into Arthur's bed one night.
A/N: I have besmirched my childhood. I have besmirched it good.
Warnings: Microphilia/Macrophilia
Masterlist When Arthur was woken up by the feeling of tiny feet on his stomach, his first reaction, before he was properly awake, was to squirm frantically. It wasn’t until a little voice yelled,
“Hey, watch it!”
That he realised who was in his bed and equally frantically stilled himself. “Merlin?” He gingerly pushed himself up on his elbows. “That you? What the hell are you doing?”
Merlin’s response was too quiet for him to hear. Arthur reached over - very, very carefully, so as not to send Merlin flying to the floor - and turned on the bedside lamp. Merlin was, best as he could tell in the dim light, barefoot, and dressed in what was probably his own pyjamas. Not an ordinary borrowing expedition, then.
“You almost threw me off!” Merlin was kneeling now, gripping the skin of Arthur’s stomach with both tiny hands. “You should be more careful. You could’ve killed me!”
“You were crawling around on my stomach! While I was asleep!” Arthur blinked, still not quite awake. “What are you doing here?”
“I dunno. It was hot. I couldn’t sleep.” Merlin relaxed his pinching grip and settled down amidst Arthur’s happy trail. “Wanted to talk.”
Arthur has long since come to terms that he will never, ever get used to talking to a five-inch-tall man. It’s just too strange. Merlin is fascinatingly tiny, an intricate, miniscule miracle, and yet at the same time he’s just as awkward and ordinary and human as anyone else Arthur knows, and the first time they’d spoken he’d been so incredibly cocky, drawing himself up to his full five inches - or five and two eighths, as Merlin insisted - and looking Arthur straight in the eye.
“I’m not small,” he’d said. “You’re too big.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” said Arthur. “World’s pretty much on our scale, not yours.”
“Only the parts of it you built,” said Merlin, with a tiny grin.
Now he was toying with the wispy blond hairs on Arthur’s stomach, looking
completely at home, and Arthur can’t say he’d never thought about this, about having Merlin on his body. Oh, he’d thought about it. He honestly wasn’t sure he wasn’t dreaming right now. His cock was starting to show interest. He did his best to will it back down.
“What d’you want to talk about?” he asked.
“I dunno.” Merlin shifted about, his little hands cold against Arthur’s skin, steadying himself against Arthur’s trembling.
“Can I pick you up?” Arthur blurted out.
“If you like,” said Merlin, pulling himself to his feet. He clambered up onto Arthur’s hand eagerly - not at all like the first time, when he’d been so reluctant. Arthur remembered that he’d been able to feel Merlin trembling, and he remembered how he’d been struck by a sudden childish desire to play with Merlin like a doll.
“I was thinking about you, that’s all,” said Merlin as he settled himself on Arthur’s hand. “I couldn’t sleep, and I was thinking about you.”
Arthur nudged him with the tip of his thumb, and Merlin doesn’t protest, so he nudged a little more, up against Merlin’s side. His fingers looked so huge and clumsy next to Merlin’s delicate body, but he wanted to touch so badly.
“D’you remember the first time I let you look at me?”
Arthur was stunned for a moment, because he’d just been thinking the same thing. “Of course I do,” he said. How could he forget that?
“It was weird,” said Merlin, “I knew I shouldn’t be letting you see me, and I was scared, but - I liked it. I liked the way you looked at me. Still do.”
Arthur was really starting to get hard now, and Merlin must have been able to hear the cloth of his pyjamas rustling, because he glanced over his shoulder.
“Why’d you always look at me like that?” Arthur was stroking him now, running his thumb along Merlin’s chest, gentle, and Merlin didn’t complain.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Arthur lied.
“Yeah, you do.” Merlin was smiling now - or Arthur thought he was, it was hard to get a proper look at his face. He shivered, pushed Arthur’s thumb away, and began to strip off his tiny shirt. His skin underneath was so soft and he hissed when Arthur touches him again. “Be careful?”
Arthur could break him so easily and they both know it.
Merlin braced his hands against Arthur’s palm and pushed up, and suddenly Arthur was touching his crotch, feeling his tiny prick hard in his trousers and any questions he may have had about Borrower anatomy are answered. He didn’t dare move. He couldn’t believe Merlin was letting Arthur touch him like this. Merlin must trust him more than he let on.
He let Merlin do the work instead, pushing himself up against Arthur’s fingers, letting out noises so soft and quiet that Arthur could barely make them out. His palm was sweating.
“Look at me,” Merlin said, head falling back. “Are you looking?”
“Yeah,” said Arthur, voice hoarse, and Merlin came, tiny body seizing up in Merlin’s palm, and god this was really happening, Arthur felt a little light headed. He was aching hard.
Merlin slumped back against Arthur’s hand with a satisfied moan. It took Arthur a while to find his voice.
“So you wanted to talk, then?” he said.
“Uh huh,” said Merlin. Arthur closed his hand around Merlin’s prone body a little, and Merlin seemed to like that, seemed to like being held. He was still for so long that Arthur thought maybe he’d fallen asleep.
“Come on,” he said, squeezing Merlin carefully. “Come on, get up!”
“I don’t want to move, you’re comfy,” said Merlin, eyes still closed, but he sat up anyway and began to take off his trousers, letting them slide down onto the bed, and then he was naked in Arthur’s palm, curling in on himself. Arthur touched his back, then realised he could feel the bones of Merlin’s spine through his skin and he was so delicate and Arthur was suddenly terrified of breaking him.
“You’re so tiny,” he said, breathless.
“M’not,” said Merlin. “You’re big.”
“Yeah, you are,” said Arthur. “Seriously. My cock’s probably bigger than you.”
Merlin looked up at him. “Why would you say that! That sounds terrifying! And I bet it isn’t, anyway.”
“Want to test that out?” said Arthur.
“Oh god,” Merlin moaned.
But they did, and it was, if only a little.