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From the moment that Merlin woke up he knew it would be a good day. It was Christmas morning. Exactly one year ago today he and Arthur had finally realized that they both had feelings for each other.
Merlin sat up in bed, gently pulling the soft covers off of himself and untangling himself from Arthur, who had wound his arms tightly around Merlin, spooning him. After finally managing to get Arthur’s vice-like grip off of him, he got up and walked to the bathroom.
As Merlin returned to the bedroom, he stared down at the sleeping man with a soft look in his eyes.
Arthur had grabbed a pillow to cuddle in his absence and was lightly snoring. The sunlight streaming through the windows made his blonde hair glow in a way that seemed otherworldly and the peaceful expression on his face made Merlin’s heart swell with a wave of affection. This man was his.
There was suddenly sleepy blue eyes looking into his own as Arthur slowly woke up. Just as quickly as they looked at him, they quickly squeezed shut as Arthur let out a loud groan and buried his head under a pillow.
“Merlin, I swear to god if you make me get up this early on Christmas I will kill you.” Arthur muttered into in the pillow. Merlin let out a laugh and walked over to the bed to poke Arthur on the side, which was met with a loud protest and a flying pillow to his face.
Still laughing Merlin headed to the kitchen, calling out to Arthur “If you want pancakes then you better get your arse downstairs”
~*~
Merlin hummed along to the Christmas playlist he had put on as he stirred the pancake batter and poured it on the pan. He was flipping the pancakes when there were suddenly two arms circling his waist and warm pair of lips on the nape of his neck.
Abandoning the pancakes, Merlin turned around and wrapped his arms around Arthur’s neck.
“I guess the pancakes got you out of bed” Merlin laughed. Arthur grinned lecherously.
“Oh it wasn’t the pancakes that got me up, it was seeing your gorgeous arse as you walked out of the room”
Merlin’s retort was stopped before it came out seeing as how his mouth was suddenly occupied with Arthur’s.
The kiss started out soft but quickly became heated as Arthur lifted Merlin up and put him on the kitchen island. The way Arthur kissed him never ceased to amaze Merlin. While the kisses were quite heated and possessive at times, there were always the kisses in between that were soft, almost hesitant as if Arthur was still asking Merlin for permission, as if he wanted to ask Merlin whether he still wanted him.
Merlin’s thoughts trailed off as Arthur fit their hips together just right and he let out a moan into Arthur’s mouth. Merlin could practically feel the smirk on Arthur’s face.
Just as Merlin’s fingers hooked around the waistband of Arthur’s sweats, a sudden shriek from the fire alarm sent both the men reeling back.
“Oh god the pancakes”
~*~
Merlin stared down at the charred remains of the pancakes in dismay as Arthur tried to choke back laughter. Merlin turned around and glared at him.
“This is your fault you know”
“Its not my fault I’m so irresistible” Arthur grinned.
“You’re a prat, that’s what you are” Merlin muttered under his breath as he scraped the remains into the trash.
“Look why don’t we just order pizza?” Merlin turned around to look at Arthur incredulously, who was waving his phone at Merlin.
“You want pizza for breakfast on Christmas?”
“Why not, its also our anniversary”
“Well because…” Merlin trailed off as he realized that they were going to have pizza no matter what he was going to say.
~*~
It took a while to find a pizza place that actually delivered on Christmas but they finally managed to find one and ordered a large pepperoni.
While they were waiting for it to arrive, Arthur convinced Merlin that opening gifts was a good idea. It was an unspoken rule that they would open each others gifts last. So they opened all the others first.
The first gifts they opened were from Hunith. Merlin wrinkled his nose as he stared at the usual Christmas sweater, a hand knitted blue atrocity accompanied with a large red M in the center. Arthur had received the same except in red and gold with an A in the center. Arthur’s response was just to put it on and urge Merlin to do so as well, which surprised Merlin but he did it anyways knowing that Arthur always loved things that were handmade.
The other gifts were all opened in the next half hour. They had gotten a wide assortment of things, everything from cologne to lube (the latter from Morgana with a note telling them that she expected them to use it all that day, which had caused Merlin to turn a rather vibrant shade of red). They had just finished putting away the last of the presents when the doorbell rang, announcing the presence of the pizza.
~*~
After paying the pizza boy, Arthur brought the pizza to the living room where Merlin was lying down by the fire reading a book that had been on the coffee table. The light of the fire was reflecting off his face, making his cheekbones seem even more pronounced. His lips were gently parted and his eyes were concentrating intensely on the book.
Arthur smiled at the sight then slammed the pizza box down by him, startling Merlin out of his reverie. Merlin smiled up at Arthur and reached for the box, but Arthur’s hand slammed down on it.
“We have to open each others gifts first, Merlin” Merlin pouted but then shot up after hearing what Arthur had said and ran to their bedroom. Arthur got his present from his coat, where he had hid it. He looked down at the plane tickets in his hand and took a deep breath.
Merlin suddenly came back to the room, stubbing his toe on the table and cursing loudly. Arthur shoved the tickets back into the coat. In Merlin’s hands there seemed to be a big leather bound book. Merlin put the book on the table.
“You go first” Merlin said as he looked pointedly at Arthur.
Arthur gave a sigh and then took out the plane tickets from the coat. Merlin looked at them with wide eyes.
“Well I have some time off next month and I was hoping we could go to the countryside and get out of the city for a while…”
“Yes!” Merlin launched himself into Arthur’s arms. Arthur looked down at him in amusement.
“Well now you’ve seen my gift can I see mine?’ Arthur asked jokingly. Merlin quickly retracted his arms from Arthur and almost seemed nervous as he reached to get the book. He shoved the book into Arthur’s hands and looked away slightly blushing.
Arthur opened the book and a slow sort of wonderment filled him. There on the front page in Merlin’s loopy handwriting were the words : Reasons Why I Love Arthur Pendragon.
They had been together for a year but neither of them had said those those three words yet.
As Arthur flipped through the pages he saw that each page had a picture of him Merlin had taken sometime that year. There was one of him mid-laugh head thrown back, one where he was sending a look of fond exasperation at Merlin who had been taking way too many photos that day. Next to each was a number and a reason.
3. Because he’s such a prat was next to one where Arthur was glaring into the camera.
24. Because his laugh is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard was next to the one of him laughing.
Arthur flipped to the last page and there was picture of them kissing on Morgana’s couch last New Years.
50. Because I can’t imagine life without him
Arthur looked up to stare at Merlin in amazement. Merlin had progressively gotten redder as Arthur had read on and was now staring at the floor. Arthur reached out and lifted Merlin’s chin, forcing him to look at Arthur.
Arthur leaned in and brushed his lips against Merlin’s.
“I love you too” he murmured as he drew back from Merlin.
~*~
After eating the pizza, Merlin lay curled up with Arthur on the sofa. Merlin’s head was on Arthur’s chest and their feet were tangled together under the blanket they had dragged out of the closet.
“You know we should make today a tradition for every Christmas.” Arthur murmured into Merlin’s hair.
“We should make burning pancakes and ordering pizza an every year thing?” Merlin laughed.
“ If it leads to this then yeah we should” Arthur said seriously, looking down at Merlin. Looking at up at Arthur’s achingly earnest face, Merlin just nodded.
“Okay”