Work Text:
Arthur stared at the laptop screen, eyebrows furrowed in concentration and his finger hovering over the mouse track. His eyes scanned the screen again, looking for something, anything, that he might have missed, but there were no clues. He was going to have to risk it, he knew that. It had reached that point where he couldn’t figure out any more on his own, and this leap of faith was necessary. His finger slowly moved towards the left mouse button, as he tried one last time to find something that would help him.
The silence in the flat was disturbed by the faint sound of keys in a lock, and then the front door opened, and slammed shut. The noise made Arthur jump, and his finger accidently tapped the mouse track, pressing on the square next to the one he had been meaning to. The image on the screen exploded in a sequence of mines, which was joined by the sound effects that filled the room with loud bangs. Arthur had forgotten that the speakers had been at full volume, and he jumped again, this time so much so that he almost knocked his laptop off his legs that were propped up on the coffee table. It was a close call, but he managed to catch it before it fell to the floor, and he looked up in time to see Merlin’s head poking in through the doorway.
Merlin wasn’t looking at Arthur. Instead, it looked as if he was staring at the laptop and trying to figure out what Arthur had been doing, his eyes squinted so that Arthur could barely see the blue of his irises. Arthur tried to move the laptop out of Merlin’s sight before Merlin could see that he had been playing games, but he wasn’t fast enough; Merlin’s look of concentration flickered to one of annoyance before quickly changing to a neutral expression.
“I see you’ve been busy working today,” Merlin said, an edge to his voice. He shrugged off his suit jacket and collapsed into the armchair, sinking into the old cushions. With one hand, he took off his tie and threw it onto the coffee table.
Arthur watched him from the corner of his eye as he found the report he was supposed to have been reading. Merlin’s shoulders were tense, his eyes were closed and he had his head leaning against the back of the chair, his hair stuck up in spikes the way it went after Merlin ran his hand through it too many times.
It was similar to, but not entirely indistinguishable from, his post-sex hair.
Comparing Merlin now to how he had been this morning – cheerful and bright eyed and constantly kissing or touching him – Arthur could only guess that he had had a bad day at work. Never mind bad, it must have been truly terrible, because he usually curled up to Arthur and moaned for a bit while Arthur stroked his hair, and then he was fine. But seeing Merlin avoid him and sit on the other side of the room made Arthur’s chest ache, hating to see Merlin stressed like this. It occurred to him that by seeing Arthur playing games when he had come home from a terrible day might have annoyed Merlin even more.
Merlin still had his eyes closed, and Arthur closed his laptop slowly. He stood up, trying to be as quiet as possible, and walked around the back of Merlin’s chair, where he rested his hands on Merlin’s shoulders, rubbing them. Arthur felt the tension start to lessen, and then Merlin let out a deep breath and his shoulders sagged.
“Hey,” Arthur muttered, continuing to rub Merlin’s shoulder’s gently.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Bad day at work?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Arthur stayed silent, knowing that Merlin would get it off his chest in his own time. He didn’t have to wait long before Merlin started speaking, the words falling out of his mouth in his annoyance and stressed out state.
“Two staff called in sick so everyone was feeling the pressure, but apparently being short of staff makes everyone incompetent. They were coming to me for help on everything, and I have this report to do for head office so that wasn’t getting done. Then we did get some awkward customers coming in who refused to take no for an answer and everyone was getting annoyed, so I ended up helping them out just to keep everyone calm and I still didn’t get that report done and they want it for the end of this week. Why did I take this job?” Merlin’s voice grew more and more whiney and hopeless as he spoke, making the ache in Arthur’s chest grow until all Arthur wanted to do was cuddle and kiss him and never let him go to work ever again.
“Because the pay is good, and you would hate sitting around here all day while I was at work.”
Arthur leaned down to kiss Merlin’s forehead. Merlin relaxed further and raised an arm. Arthur watched as Merlin’s hand searched the air next to him, before it bumped into the side of Arthur’s head, stroking to the back of his neck and up, to where Arthur felt Merlin’s fingers knot in his hair. Arthur smiled.
“You know what’s good about sitting at home all day, though?” Arthur said.
“You get to play games and not do any work?” Despite his attempt to make it sound casual, Arthur could still hear the irritation in Merlin’s voice.
“That’s just a bonus.” Arthur reached to kiss the spot between Merlin’s eyebrows. “No, you get to see what films they show on TV during the day.”
“So?”
“So –” Arthur pressed a kiss to the tip of Merlin’s nose. “- you can record them for your boyfriend so he can watch them when he’s stressed about idiots at work.”
“What did you record?”
“What are you talking about? I’m saying things you could do for me if you didn’t work.”
“Don’t be a prat, what was on TV?”
“How should I know? I was working all day.”
“Arthur.”
“Merlin.”
“Tell me.”
Merlin’s eyes finally snapped open, staring into Arthur’s, and Arthur stared back, a small smile on his face now that Merlin seemed to be preoccupied with his teasing rather than work.
“Go order takeaway for dinner and we can watch it.”
“Tell me what it is and I’ll order takeaway.”
Arthur couldn’t help it, he huffed a breath of laughter. The corners of Merlin’s eyes crinkled up in a smile, and Arthur was struck by how gorgeous he looked right now with the tousled hair, the bit of scruff on his chin because he had forgotten to shave that morning, and his face lit up by a smile that showed a flash of white teeth. Arthur felt his heart melt a little, and knew that he’d just fallen in love a little bit more.
Arthur moved an inch further and kissed his lips. It was slow and chaste, and Arthur revelled in the feel and taste of Merlin’s lips, something that he would never get tired of, even when they had grown old together and were old and wrinkly. Arthur couldn’t imagine a day when he wouldn’t want to kiss Merlin.
He pulled away, but moments later Merlin’s fingers tightened in his hair and pushed his head back down for another kiss. Arthur hummed in pleasure, and felt Merlin shiver beneath him.
Breaking the kiss again, Arthur rested his head on Merlin’s shoulder this time. Merlin’s hand dropped from his hair, and he made a small moaning sound that Arthur was sure that he wasn’t supposed to hear.
“I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
“I’m hungry.”
“You’re a prat, you know that, right?” Merlin started to get out of the chair, and Arthur moved so that he wasn’t leaning on him. “This film better be worth it. What do you want?”
“Whatever you want.”
Merlin paused, turning around to look at Arthur. “You’re normally very fussy about what you want. Is everything ok?”
“Ha ha. I’m fine.” Arthur reached forwards to take one of Merlin’s hands, sliding his own to Merlin’s hips as he took the few steps closer. “I just – I don’t mind whatever you want.”
“You’re being very touchy feely tonight.”
“Well, God forbid I want to kiss my boyfriend because he’s so handsome and I love him.”
This time, Merlin was the one to lean in for the kiss. He tugged gently at Arthur’s lips, and at one point his tongue ran fleetingly along them, teasing, before the kiss was broken, and Merlin was watching him, confused, but smiling.
He stepped backwards. Arthur let him, his hands falling to his sides as Merlin left the room, glancing behind him as he went, still smiling.
Arthur could hear Merlin’s voice as he spoke on the phone while he turned on the TV and searched for the film he had recorded, and he had to work to stop himself from smiling. He scrolled past the film several times before he started paying attention and actually saw it. He settled on the sofa, pressed ok on the remote, and paused the film before it started playing, stopping it on the black screen.
A few minutes later, and Merlin hadn’t returned. Arthur couldn’t hear his voice from the hallway anymore, and he was wondering where Merlin had gone, had just decided to go searching for him and was struggling to get up from the too comfortable sofa when Merlin walked into the room. He had changed out of his suit, and was now wearing sweatpants that hung low on his hips and one of Arthur’s hoodies that drowned him. Merlin padded over to him in his socks, and Arthur pulled him down to him, moving them both until they were comfortable; Merlin was lying across the sofa, his feet nestled against the armrest and knees bent, his head in Arthur’s lap, who was sat upright, his feet once again resting on the coffee table.
“Are you going to tell me what it is?” Merlin asked.
“Nope, it’s a surprise,” Arthur answered, smiling, and running his hand through Merlin’s hair. Merlin swatted at him to stop, but it was half hearted and Arthur carried on.
“Well? Watching a black screen isn’t very entertaining, can you press play?”
“I was going to wait until the food arrived, it won’t be long, will it? And what did you order?”
“They said fifteen minutes, and pizza. I got a Hawaiian.”
Frowning, Arthur said, “But that’s my favourite.”
“I know, that’s why I got it.”
Arthur shook his head, but let it go. He knew that if he pressed it further, saying that he’d let Merlin choose so they could have what he wanted, then it would devolve into a pointless argument and his plan to cheer Merlin up would backfire spectacularly. He leaned over to kiss Merlin; the angle was awkward, but that didn’t stop them. It was short and sweet, hinting at something more, until the doorbell rang, and Arthur broke the kiss with a sigh.
“I’ll get it,” he said. Merlin raised his head to allow Arthur to get up, and Arthur grabbed his wallet from his coat in the hallway on his way to the door.
He was soon back at the flat after paying the pizza delivery man at the door to the building. The flat was still silent, surprising Arthur, as he had thought that Merlin would have started watching the film, taking the chance while he was out of the room. He entered the living room, and saw that Merlin hadn’t moved from the sofa. Merlin grinned up at Arthur when he saw him, and Arthur couldn’t help grinning back, placing the pizza box on Merlin’s chest, before retaking his seat.
“Right, you ready?”
“I’m dying of anticipation,” Merlin said, not even looking at the TV, but opening the pizza box and giving a slice to Arthur. Arthur rolled his eyes.
He accepted the pizza slice, and reached over for the TV remote, pressing play and turning the volume up.
The blackness of the screen faded into colour, showing a crowd of heads, people making their way through the crowd, hugging their family and loved ones. Arthur waited until Merlin would recognise it, surprised that he hadn’t already…
It was only when Hugh Grant’s voice filled the otherwise silent room, that Merlin dropped the piece of pizza he was holding and turned away from the TV to look at Arthur, eyes wide and the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile.
“It isn’t even Christmas, what was this doing on TV?”
“I don’t know, but Sky clearly has awful taste in films.”
Merlin hit him. “You love it really.”
“Only because I know you like it.”
Merlin’s grin softened and he reached up to grab at the front of Arthur’s shirt, pulling him down for another kiss. Merlin let go of Arthur and pulled away when Hugh Grant’s voiceover ended, turning his attention back to the screen, but not before Arthur heard him whisper “I love you” against his lips.
They watched the film in silence, with Arthur starting to stroke Merlin’s hair again, more interested in watching Merlin than the film itself. He couldn’t help it; Arthur loved the smiles that appeared on Merlin’s face at the disgustingly cheesy scenes, and the way his face crumpled up in laughter. Occasionally, Arthur would kiss Merlin’s forehead, and when he did, Merlin’s eyes would glance in his direction before going back to the TV.
Two hours later, the film was ending and Merlin was tapping his foot to the beat of the song playing over more shots of families reuniting at Heathrow Airport. When the screen turned black, and the credits started rolling, Merlin tore his gaze from the TV properly for the first time since the film had started.
“Thank you.”
“What for?” Arthur asked, playing at not knowing what Merlin was talking about.
“Don’t be a prat. You know, for taking my mind off work.”
“Oh, well,” said Arthur. “I was going to tell you about the film anyway.”
Merlin was beaming up at him, as if he knew that Arthur was lying, and Arthur tried to keep a straight face. He lasted a few seconds before he couldn’t help smiling back. Merlin wound an arm around his shoulders, dragging Arthur down again, and he complied, kissing Merlin deeply, full of meaning, and promises, and the things that he could never say, because words would never do justice to how much he loved Merlin.
Arthur said I love you a thousand times in every taste of Merlin’s lips. In every caress of his body, Arthur promised to be always be at his side. Each stroke of Merlin’s hair was an oath to never let any harm come to him.
And every longing look into Merlin’s eyes - like now, when Arthur broke the kiss to rest his forehead against Merlin’s – eyes so deep that Arthur felt as if he was staring directly into Merlin’s soul, was a vow to always be the best he could be, to be the man that he knew Merlin deserved.