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“I demand that you bring my …my Merlin in here right this minute!” Arthur says behind the hand that covers his mouth.
The dentist looks at his assistant and she scurries out of the room.
“I realize this is your first cavity, Mr. Pendragon,” the dentist says, and Arthur really dislikes the tone he’s taking with him, “but you must know something about numbing shots.”
“You are not sticking that needle into my mouth!” When Merlin appears in the doorway, Arthur sighs and brings his hand down. “Merlin, they are trying to stick a six-inch needle into my mouth!”
Merlin’s look to the dentist is a little apologetic, Arthur thinks as he struggles to sit upright in the chair they’d reclined him in it a moment ago, an evil-looking light shining in his face.
Merlin comes over and sits on the stool the dentist vacated earlier when Arthur pushed him back at the sight of the needle.
“Arthur, it really is only a prick,” Merlin says honestly, “It’s got a numbing agent in it that works so you won’t feel the drill.”
Arthur’s eyes widen, his heart speeding up. “The drill? Who said anything about a drill? You said fill, not drill!” That’s it; he’s getting out of there. He makes to rise, but Merlin holds him back.
“Arthur, if you don’t take care of this tooth, it will cause you a lot of pain, and you’ll eventually lose it.”
The dentist clears his throat. “Perhaps some Nitrous oxide would be in order.”
Arthur glares at him and the dentist looks away.
“That’s laughing gas, right?” Merlin asks.
“Yes,” the dentist replies. “It usually calms our frightened patients so that the procedure is no problem.”
“Who says I’m frightened?” Arthur says gruffly. “I’ll have you know, I’ve…”
“Arthur,” Merlin stops him. “Please just use the laughing gas and let’s be done with it.”
Arthur sighs and settles back in the chair. “They’ll be no needle?”
“We’ll discuss that in a moment,” the dentist replies, slipping the mask his assistant hands him over Arthur’s face. “Now just breathe in deeply, Mr. Pendragon. There you go, that’s it. Now, about that needle; yes, we’ll need to use it, or you’ll have considerable pain. Is that all right with you?”
For some reason, Arthur no longer cares about the needle. He feels good. Really good. He nods his head, but reaches out for Merlin when Merlin makes to leave.
“You can stay,” the dentist tells Merlin, and Arthur smiles at him.
“You’re nicer than I thought,” he says.
“Thank you,” the dentist and Merlin exchange smiles.
This time when the needle approaches, Arthur doesn’t flinch.
“Little pinch,” the dentist tells him, but Arthur’s head floats somewhere up on the ceiling and he really can’t be bothered by little pinches. Merlin holds his hand, and Arthur gives Merlin’s a squeeze. Even the loud sound of the drill doesn’t faze Arthur.
Before Arthur knows it, the procedure is over.
“We gave him quite a lot of gas. He needs to lie here a moment until his head clears,” the dentist tells Merlin, taking the mask off Arthur’s face.
“How are you feeling, Mr. Pendragon?”
“Call me Arthur,” Arthur replies, smiling widely.
The dentist chuckles. “All right, Arthur. I guess that answers my question. See the receptionist on your way out, but stay here for at least five minutes or so.”
When he’d gone, Arthur turns his head and looks at Merlin. “Your hands are cold.”
Merlin looks down at where he holds Arthur’s hand in both of his.
“Why didn’t you say so?”
Arthur smiles, he suspects in a goofy way. “I didn’t want you to let go.”
Merlin laughs. “You’re a mess. I heard you all the way in the waiting area demanding your Merlin.”
Arthur frowns, head still swimming. “I didn’t know what else to call you. I was going to say fiancé, but what if the man with the huge needle was a homophobe?”
Merlin shakes his head, smiling. Leaning in, he kisses Arthur softly on the lips.
“I didn’t feel that.”
“You’re numb; you will be for a while.”
“Oh.”
As soon as Arthur is more or less himself, they leave the dental office and head down the street to the pound, for Arthur promised Merlin a cat.
Merlin fairly bounces on his feet in excitement. “I can’t wait! It’s been at least two hundred years since I’ve owned a cat.”
As they pass the puppies, Merlin looks over at Arthur, eyes wide and beguiling.
“No, no way,” Arthur tells him. “Too many late nights listening to it whine. And then it will eat our shoes. And then it will throw them up. Let’s stick with the cat.”
Merlin pouts but continues on through a door and into a room filled with cages of meowing felines.
“Oh, fuck,” Arthur sighs, knowing Merlin will never be able to choose. He watches as Merlin goes from cage to cage, speaking to each animal in turn in a ridiculously high voice.
“Not a kitten,” Arthur calls to him. “Too much trouble.” That should narrow it down a bit.
Arthur’s attention is drawn to a cage where a dingy-looking white cat lies on newspaper, its unsettling blue eyes wary.
Arthur clears his throat and makes a spsppssss noise at it, trying to draw its attention. The cat’s ears twitch forward and it flicks its tail, but otherwise it doesn’t move. Arthur stoops to gaze into the cage.
“What about this one, Merlin?” he says. Merlin walks over to join him, peering into the cage.
“You like this one?”
Arthur shrugs, unsure of what drew him to the cat. “It’s okay. You’re the one who wants a cat.”
Merlin looks at the tag on its cage. “It’s due to be euthanized tomorrow, Arthur! We have to get it.”
“What? They’re going to kill it? Why?”
“They do it to all of them after a certain amount of time. They don’t have room for them all. This one’s been spayed already, so we won’t have to take care of that...that’s good. So she isn’t too young.”
Arthur looks at the cat, which stares back at him. He thinks about what Merlin said earlier. “It’s not big and fat like you wanted.”
“We can fatten her up,” Merlin says. “I like her. Let’s get her, Arthur. We can’t let her be put down!”
Indeed, they can’t.
Merlin names her Aithusa, after a dragon he once knew.