fic: Four Times
Title: Four Times Merlin Did What Arthur Wanted, and One Time He Didn't.
Rating: A Very Hard PG.
Pairing/Characters: Arthur/Merlin, Morgana, Gwen
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: OMG, CRACK-ALERT. They're fairies, ok. IDEK. Partly Inspired by the Disney Hercules line: "Hey you, get off my cloud"
Summary: See title.
-1-
“Hey you, get off my flower!”
Merlin jerked hastily upright, his relaxed body tensing in surprise and nearly causing him to tumble off the daisy he had been sunning himself on. Looking around warily he noticed a few other fairies also sunning themselves on similar flowers, but looking directly upward brought into his line of sight Arthur Pendragon - the son of the head fairy.
Merlin groaned in pure annoyance.
“We went over this yesterday,” he said through grit teeth. “It’s not your flower. I was here first, which makes it mine until I leave it. Go away you stupid prat.”
And he rolled over, content to ignore Arthur and enjoy the morning sunshine, before it got too hot.
The flower tilted alarmingly as another body landed on it. Merlin glared at the other fairy, his wings twitching minutely in his annoyance. It figured that the only fairy stupid enough to carry around a thorn like a sword was also the only fairy stupid enough to bother Merlin - the most powerful of the whole group.
Arthur smirked down at him. “Get off my flower,” he repeated smugly, brandishing his thorn like it meant something.
Merlin, noticing a crowd of buzzing bees approaching the field, sighed and took off - doing his best to pretend that he was still annoyed, and not inwardly laughing about the oncoming trouble. He leapt into the air, his wings catching the sunlight and hiding the glow of his eyes as he trapped Arthur on the flower he desperately wanted.
The rest of the fairies took flight as the bee’s got closer, but Arthur was forced to remain behind, with only his thorn to protect him from being pollinated.
-2-
"That wasn’t very nice, you know,” Arthur said, pushing himself into the prickly bush several hours later, where Merlin was now lounging to avoid the noontime heat.
“Hm?” Merlin looked up from his strawberry, his cheeks stained pink with the fruit’s juices. He busied himself with cleaning his face, and not laughing at Arthur’s pollen covered self.
“Trapping me with the bee’s,” Arthur told him, scowling. “That was low - even for you.”
“You’re the one who wanted that flower. I was just making sure you enjoyed it to its fullest potential.” Merlin flashed him an innocent smile.
“Well, to pay me back,” Arthur said, narrowing his eyes and placing one hand on the thorn he’d placed at his belt. “You can hand over the strawberry and leave me alone.”
“Feel free to leave at any time,” came the terse reply.
“This is my bush; I don’t see why I should have to.”
“You’re infuriating.”
“You love it.”
Merlin didn’t answer, instead choosing to squash his snack into Arthur’s blond head, taking extreme delight in the large pulpy chunks which clung to Arthur’s clothes and skin, before alighting off the prickly branches and disappearing to peruse the rest of his day.
-3-
Merlin was playing in the lake with Morgana and Gwen when Arthur next found him. His hair was still pink from the strawberry juice, though he had cleaned himself of the pulpy chunks. Morgana fell over laughing as she spotted her brother, splashing Gwen rather thoroughly as she landed in the water. Gwen was trying to be polite and hide her smile behind her dainty hand, but Arthur wasn’t fooled in the least.
“You cretin!” He raged, storming up to Merlin, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “What makes you think that you can-”
“You said you wanted the strawberry,” Merlin told him calmly, not even a hint of a smile on his face - which only irritated Arthur more. “And the bush. You told me to leave them to you, so I did. I didn’t even trap you there - you should be grateful.”
“Merlin!” Gwen had probably been trying to sound shocked, but Morgana’s laughter tainted her words.
“Serves you right!” Morgana crowed, her eyes now staring at Arthur’s pink hair. “Trying to steal from Merlin, again. You know it only gets you into trouble.”
“Well,” Arthur said, his scowl deepening as her laughter failed to cease. “Merlin, I think you should help me wash this stain out of my hair, as it’s your fault that it’s like that.”
Merlin snorted, rolling his eyes skyward. “Fine,” he said flatly, before pushing Arthur into the lake.
He and the girls flew away before Arthur reemerged, spluttering in anger.
-4-
A summer shower fell in the early evening and Merlin was sheltering himself on a tree branch near the lake, waiting for it to let up so he could fly home for the rest of the night. Of course, Arthur was stuck on the branch with him - as the newly returned blond had been following him all day with a scowl.
For the last half hour there had been relative silence, their latest fight causing Merlin to seal the other fairies lips shut and steal his thorn. The thorn now lay somewhere on the ground, useless now that the rain had gotten to it and softened the wood. Arthur was doing his best to portray with his eyes how displeased he was with the situation, but Merlin was contemplating the lake, and otherwise ignoring his reluctantly silent companion.
“I suppose,” he said finally, as the rain began to let up, “that I may as well put you to rights.”
He moved his blue eyes from the lake to Arthur and stood up calmly, his wings fluttering a bit.
Arthur didn’t lessen his glare, but he did look just the littlest bit hopeful.
“After all,” Merlin continued sourly. “You’d probably just follow me home if I didn’t undo it now.”
Arthur nodded. He really would have. He had been planning on it, actually. He knew that Merlin might forget and leave him as he was. It had happened before - it would doubtlessly happen again.
Merlin fluttered slowly over to his companion, landing in a crouch right next to him - their faces inches away from each others. Arthur looked wary.
Merlin graced him with a single, soft kiss, releasing the spell as their lips parted, before turning and heading home.
-1-
“It figures that you’d be a space hog,” Arthur complained much later that night. He had crawled into Merlin’s home - a hollowed out space in an old oak tree - and sprawled himself on the nest-like bed there.
And Merlin refused to move over and allow the other fairy any space. So Arthur was forced to take the slighter frame into his arms and cuddle as close as possible.
“Kiss me again,” he whisperers into the dark hair curling behind Merlin’s ear.
Merlin merely groans and rolls over. Arthur follows his movements perfectly, arranging it so that they’re still face to face.
“Merlin, please?”
“No,” Merlin grouses. “Go away. Go to sleep. I don’t care, just-”
His words are cut off as Arthur leans in and kisses him. Merlin doesn’t really kiss back, instead he finishes his sentence “let me sleep” against Arthur’s lips, and satisfied, the two drift into sleep.
Clearly, clearly I have issues that I need to work out. Like: seriously, I've turned them into fairies. ...what?