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“...it does not only contain water in its leaves, your majesty,” the visiting noble whispered conspiringly, “but legend has it that it also stores the owner’s hopes and dreams.”
Arthur stared at the weird looking plant in his hands with badly concealed confusion. He had never seen such a plant before. It had thick leaves that stuck up as if reaching for the sky and the leaves were thick and smooth.
“Er, thank you,” he finally said, still somewhat confused about the odd present. And anyway, what was that about hopes and dreams? That just sounded inappropriate and like something he would have to ask Merlin about later, just in case this turned out to be another one of those instances in which a visitor tried to put him under a spell. For the moment though, he didn’t worry too much because Merlin stood next to him sniggering while Arthur tried to subtly elbow him in the ribs and simultaneously smile encouragingly at the beaming noble.
****
Arthur sighed in relief when the noble was gone. There had just been something incredibly weird about him, despite Merlin repeatedly telling him “I honestly think he just has the hots for you, Sire”. However, that explanation didn’t do anything to soothe his nerves, especially since the object of his own affections laughed every time Arthur was subjected to awkward flirting and advances. He grumbled. It wouldn’t have hurt Merlin to look at least a little jealous when the foreigner had tried to give Arthur a kiss.
Despite being once again alone in his castle, Arthur couldn’t help but feel the presence of something otherworldly. It might just be his imagination but he would swear that the plant he had gotten as a present gave off a weird energy. So, Arthur did what he always did when he had a question he didn’t know the answer to, he asked Gaius.
Ever since he’d become king and one night stumbled over Merlin practicing magic, he knew that he could ask the two of them about anything that irked him or rubbed him the wrong way, no matter how weird it sounded even to his own ears. When Uther was still king, Arthur always pretended as if he didn’t notice odd things going on around him or phenomena that he didn’t know how to explain. He was relieved, honestly. And felt much safer now that he knew that Merlin would be there to take care of him than he ever had. Merlin. Arthur couldn’t help but chuckle while he picked up the potted plant and started his descend to Gaius’ quarters. Merlin. It all came down to him, after all, didn’t it?
“Hopes and dreams, huh?” he mumbled to the plant and smiled, “reckon you can help me with that particular infatuation?”
When there was no answer from the succulent, he shook his head, still smiling softly.
“What am I doing talking to a plant?”
“That was what I was just about to ask,” sounded a sudden reply from one of the corridors Arthur passed. At the sound of it, he was so shocked that he almost dropped the plant.
“Careful, there,” Merlin snickered and swaggered over, steadying the pot in Arthur’s hands and stroking one of the plant’s leaves.
“You just got her, would be a shame if you dropped her so soon, eh?”
Arthur raised an eyebrow. “Her?”
“Of course,” Merlin took the plant out of Arthur’s hands and walked away from Arthur, slowly making his way to his own rooms, “she has a very feminine vibe to her, don’t you think?”
Arthur looked back at the plant and let out a loud laugh.
“Only you, Merlin. Only you.”
“Aithusa”.
“What?”
Merlin beamed at the plant.
“That’s what we should call her?”
Arthur gaped at his manservant, mouth opening and closing like a fish under water. He was as ridiculous as he was adorable and Arthur had to try everything in his might not to kiss him right then and there.
***
“So in conclusion, sire,” Gaius stretched the word as if he was worried Arthur didn’t understand him otherwise, “the plant itself is not magic per se. The magical powers it is supposed to have come through superstition alone.”
Arthur frowned. “So, it’s like mistletoe?”
Absently, he looked outside the window and watched the thick snow fall around him. The castle had been decorated with the plant in preparations for the Yule Ball and quite a few people had been trying to catch their king underneath it...
“What?” Arthur asked when Merlin snorted and looked at him with obvious glee.
“Mistletoe isn’t magic,” he grinned, “that’s just stupid. Is that why you’ve been avoiding the corridors more than usual?”
Arthur blushed and tried denying it, but a part of him knew that he was being stupid. He just didn’t fancy having to fight off superstitious castle staff, that was all.
Gaius waved them both off.
“Yes, yes, quite like mistletoe,” he said.
“These plants are called succulents and only need to be watered once in a fortnight. They preserve water in their thick leaves and can therefore sustain themselves for a longer time than a usual plant. Some people believe that for that reason, they must be magic, immortal even and that the owner of such a plant will be rewarded.”
“Rewarded how?” Arthur and Merlin asked in unison.
Gaius raised an eyebrow.
“According to legend, the taking care of a succulent grants the owner wish fulfilment,” he cackled, “absolute tosh, if you ask me.”
***
“Co-parents?” Arthur screeched, enraged.
Merlin grinned and shrugged, his hair falling slightly in his face as he did so.
“Yeah, I could take care of the plant when you’re out doing your king-ly duties and you take care of it when you’re...er... not.”
Arthur protectively cradled the pot against his chest.
“What are you trying to do with...Aithusa?”
Merlin held his hands up as if in surrender.
“Nothing, sire, I am merely trying to help you take care of her.”
Slowly, Arthur set the plant back down on his windowsill, where he’d made some space where the plant would catch enough of the winter sunshine and where it would be warm enough but not blazing due to the fire Arthur liked to have burning in the evenings. He’d draped some hand towels around it to make it feel more comfortable. Arthur had long stopped pretending it was to soak up the water that sometimes landed next to the pot instead of in it, when he watered her.
Aithusa was important to him. Not just because of the superstitious ideas the she actually might be able to help with his one wish in life – Merlin – but he’d also fallen in love with the little plant that kept growing and the leaves stretched into the air as if they were reaching for the sky. It was utterly adorable, Arthur thought.
“I don’t trust you,” Arthur said warily eying his friend and hoping that the fast and (to his ears) loud beating of his heart wouldn’t betray him, “but I shall instate you as a co-parent, IF,” he continued a little louder as Merlin started dancing on the spot as soon as Arthur had granted his wish, “if you should prove yourself a horrible co-parent however, I will annul this arrangement.”
Arthur looked triumphantly at Merlin, trying to sound superior and trying to prove to himself that he could still demand things happening on his terms, even when it came to Merlin. He didn’t expect Merlin to start laughing out loud however.
“Sure, sire, you can divorce me, if I should harm our daughter. However, please trust,” at this point, he took a step forward and reached for Arthur’s hands, his face sincere and his eyes glowing, “that I would never do anything to hurt either of you.”
Before Arthur could say anything to that, Merlin released his hands and started giggling before leaving Arthur’s chambers entirely.
Arthur let himself fall on his bed.
To what exactly did he just agree to?
***
Over the next few days, Arthur did feel a little odd around Merlin. Probably because Merlin did take his role as Mother to the plant quite seriously and had started to sing to Aithusa while rocking her on his lap.
Which did something to Arthur, he didn’t know how to explain except that he had to flee his own room whenever it happened because he couldn’t bear to look on and know that this is the most domestic he and Merlin would and could ever be together.
To Arthur’s horror and Merlin’s delight, the faster the Yule festivities were approaching, the more people tried catching Arthur under one of the ‘magical’ mistletoe plants that would ensure them their king’s love. The idea to kiss someone below the plant didn’t just appeal to the castle servants it seemed, as Arthur overheard one of the knights talking during training.
“No, seriously lads! It’s true! If you have a maiden you wish to woo, the day of Yule is the day to catch them under the mistletoe! The moon and the sun will be aligned in perfect symphony which will not only release the plants natural magical powers but bring them about tenfold!”
Arthur stopped in his tracks for a second and was immediately pushed to the ground and on his back by Sir Leon.
“Sire, are you even paying attention?”
Arthur nodded and slowly got up. “Say, Leon, do you reckon Olivier is right? That tomorrow is a good day for professing one’s love?”
Leon grinned widely. “Someone on your mind, my lord?”
Arthur blushed and said nothing, which apparently told Leon what he needed to know. When he cleared his throat and stepped closer to Arthur, all mockery has left his voice and he sounded caring instead, when he said: “I think any day is a good day to profess your love because there’s nothing more pure and beautiful than that. But as far as Olivier’s ideas are concerned? It’s superstition. If you believe in it, by any means, go for it.”
He nudged Arthur softly with his elbow before offering his sword back which he’d taken from him during their fight.
Arthur thanked him and frowned, deep in thought.
He wasn’t a superstitious person, in general. However, he couldn’t deny that Aithusa did also start out as superstition and had brought him and Merlin much closer together. Co-parenting a plant. The domesticity made Arthur weak in the knees. So he decided that he would do it. He would tell Merlin how he felt. Tomorrow. Before the Yule feast.
He exhaled carefully. What could go wrong?
***
Arthur ran his fingers through his hair for what seemed like the millionth time that day. He felt harried and frustrated and so nervous.
He’d tried no less than seven times to tell Merlin how he felt about him but it always went wrong at one point.
The first time, Merlin thought he was talking to Aithusa who was carefully being cradled by Merlin at the time and earned him a wide grin: “She’ll grow extra strong if you tell her you love her!”
The second time, the Arthur was just about to come to the three words he’d been so desperately waiting to say before a servant burst through the door to ask for Merlin’s help. Merlin of course immediately went with him with an encouraging clap to Arthur’s back and the parting words: “I treasure you as a friend, too, Arthur”.
The third and fourth tries, Arthur simply gaped at Merlin without a word leaving his mouth since every single spark of confidence seemed to have left him. Both scenes ended with him fleeing the room, leaving Merlin behind.
The try after that, Gaius came into the room halfway through, took one look at Arthur’s red face and immediately conducted a health check for the king.
During the sixth try, they were standing in the court yard and before Arthur could even start to form coherent sentences, a maid had seen him and ran after him, mistletoe firmly clutched in her hand. He had no choice but to... run, had he?
Just now, the seventh try, ended with the knights coming over and dragging both of them with them, already happily drunk and singing.
Arthur thought he should just give up. Obviously, he wasn’t meant to tell Merlin how he felt.
He paced nervously up and down his room, trying to sort out his thoughts when the door opened and a flushed Merlin came in.
He looked somewhat disgruntled and if Arthur didn’t know any better, angry.
“Care to tell me what that was just then?” he demanded and Arthur froze on the spot.
“What do you-“
“Don’t play dumb with me, Arthur. You were just saying all these nice things about me – have been for the whole day actually – and then you never get to the point. What is your point, Arthur?”
Merlin strode up to him and Arthur quickly picked up Aithusa, holding her in front of himself, knowing that Merlin wouldn’t possibly do anything to him while holding their daughter. Actually, he knew that Merlin would never do anything to him, period. But for some reason, the familiar weight of their plant and the pot just calmed him down and he found that he didn’t feel quite as wrong-footed anymore.
He sighed.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been... weird today.”
“You don’t say,” Merlin huffed sarcastically.
Silence stretched between them before Merlin just lifted his hands in mock surrender.
“I give up, whatever it is you wanted to... Arthur, what are you doing?”
In the spur of the moment, Arthur had raised Aithusa up over his head and turned her upside down, holding on to her and hoping that she wouldn’t fall out of her pot. A few chunks of soil tumbled down on him and he knew he would need a bath after this. But in this moment, he didn’t care. He thought of the magic of flowers and the mistletoe and decided to give this one more shot. If mistletoe worked like this, why wouldn’t Aithusa? After all, she was a supposed to be a magical plant.
“I, er,” Arthur stammered and looked at Merlin, to the plant and back at Merlin.
“It’s Yule,” he mumbled as if that was enough information.
“You...” Merlin stopped. It was his turn to look bewildered between Arthur and the plant. Finally, his eyes widened.
“Are you... using Aithusa as mistletoe?”
“Mistletoe? No, Merlin, don’t be silly, Aithusa is much superior to- mhhpf.”
Arthur didn’t come any further in his outrageous defence of his plant before Merlin cupped his face in both of his hands and fit their lips together.
Slowly, Arthur let his outstretched arm, in which he held Aithusa, sink and pressed her against his stomach, while his other arm sneaked around Merlin’s waste. He closed his eyes and kissed back, trying to pour all his feelings of love and longing and I-am-only-my-best-self-when-I’m-with-you into the lazy press of lips. With a smacking sound, Merlin backed away slightly, his hands still holding Arthur’s face in place. His thumb stroked softly over Arthur’s cheekbones and Arthur had trouble keeping his eyes open because of how good it felt to be caressed like that.
“Is this just because it’s Yule?” Merlin asked in a whisper and Arthur could almost hear vulnerability in his usually so self-assured and confident servant.
He shook his head slowly, trying to keep Merlin’s hands right where they were.
“This is an I’m kind of in love with you thing and it just happens that for some reason I thought making a move on Ythe day of Yule would bring me luck,” he whispered back, his voice breaking halfway through.
The answering grin Merlin gave him was worth all the nervousness and all the failed attempts Arthur thought, when they closed the gap again and kissed once more. Both trying to learn the other in a new and exciting way.
The next time they paused, Merlin carefully took Aithusa out of Arthur’s hands and placed her on her shelf.
“Good thing we already have a child, huh?” he giggled and Arthur couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’re a dork,” he said fondly.
“Says the one who used our daughter as a substitute for mistletoe like a madman,” was the reply, spoken with a glint in Merlin’s eye.
Arthur shook his head and huffed a laugh.
“Come here, you, before i use something else as mistletoe.”
Merlin stepped back in Arthur’s embrace and they continued where they’d left of mere seconds before. Showering each other in slow, fond kisses and feeling like they were on top of the world. Arthur couldn’t help but sigh into the kisses in content.
He would have to send the noble who gifted him Aithusa a gift, he thought. After all, she did fulfil his biggest wish.