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"Stop feeding your coffee addiction!"
Arthur swipes the note on his desk and crumbles it up. He hums happily as he takes a careful sip of his (black) coffee. It is only his first cup of the day. He does not have an addiction. He'll probably just have one more in the afternoon… post-lunch for a wind-me-up drink.
He's allowed to have that. After all, it’s not easy trying to convince Morgana to (hush) for once when it comes to their father's concerns -- which may or may not be legitimate concerns. His father probably isn’t telling them the whole picture and Arthur wishes Morgana would stop guessing.
Ah, the smooth taste of a black coffee.
Arthur looks up after hearing a knock on the door (it’s not Morgana because she never knocks) and finds Gwen holding a cup of steaming hot coffee. “Oh! I didn’t know you already had one.”
“I woke up early this morning and thought I can go get my own coffee. You can leave it here if you want.”
Gwen shakes her head. “Maybe that’s not… a good idea, Arthur. You know how you are when you have too much coffee.”
“But you don’t even drink coffee!” He stands up from desk and takes a deep breath before walking to his assistant. “We shouldn’t let a cup of coffee go to waste. And you walked all the way there to pick it up for me.”
Gwen takes a step back, inching her way to the door and defending the cup from Arthur’s grabby hands. “It really isn’t trouble. You know how much I enjoy talking to Freya and the rest of them… I’m sure someone on this floor wouldn’t mind free coffee. You know how they are when they see free food in the kitchen.
I should leave you to whatever you’re doing. Your coffee is getting cold, Arthur.”
Arthur begrudgingly drinks his slightly-lukewarm coffee after Gwen leaves. Ever since he found out about the new schedule at Merlin’s coffee shop (it’s not really called that but it may as well be since Merlin bought out some of the share and had more given to him from Gaius) that Merlin is working there every Tuesday morning, he’s been trying to leave his flat early to avoid the line up at Merlin’s coffee shop. It doesn’t help that some foodie magazine declared the shop as THE BEST COFFEE EVER (or whatever the headline is -- not that Arthur went out of his way to buy a copy and rip out the article about the shop), the queue every morning has increased. The only reason Gwen can get a cup is because she knows everyone who works there. Not to mention that Arthur is too used to Merlin’s coffee and if he doesn’t have a cup of it every morning, he gets cranky. No one wants a cranky Arthur (see: Arthur and the Water Cooler).
Theoretically Arthur doesn’t have to wait in the queue every morning since he is friends with everyone there but he wants to spend those precious 10 seconds chatting with Merlin at the counter especially since Merlin has shortened his shifts to only one Tuesday morning and one Thursday evening to make room for his lessons at the university. Apparently brewing coffee counts a course there.
*
A few mornings later and after Arthur hinted at Gwen to not bring him coffee on Tuesday mornings, he finds a cream envelope on his office desk. It must be the annual Morgana Christmas Party because there is no mistake in that (still surprisingly) elegant handwriting of hers. Considering how impatient Morgana was during her lessons, the one thing she never rushed was her impeccable handwriting - even if it meant spending longer writing her assignments.
After so many years of the same invitations, Arthur doesn’t even bother opening it up and plans to send the RSVP via email if he was lazy, or walk over to Morgana’s office (see, she totally works here) to let her know if he was around the area.
Gwen can’t contain her excitement when she pops her head into Arthur’s office. “Arthur, did you see Morgana’s invitations this year?”
“It’s the same one every year, Gwen.”
“You’re no fun. Are you having a plus-one this year?”
Arthur is not taking the bait of asking who Gwen is bringing. Everyone knows it’s Lance. “It’s the same answer every year.”
“You sound old! I know we’re the same age and everything but you’re seriously becoming a grandpa.” Arthur feels like this is a deja vu of last year. And actually the year before that. At least last year Gwen hasn’t got together with Lance so the two of them could ignore the plus-one box in the invitation.
“Where’s my coffee?”
“I know you don’t want me to Mother Hen you, Arthur, but you could just ask him to be your plus-one.”
Arthur shakes his head. “If I wanted to ask, I would have done it ages ago. Besides, he is going to be there anyway.”
“You know that is not the same.”
“Goodbye Gwen.”
“See if I get you coffee tomorrow,” Gwen places the paper cup on her boss’s desk with a smile.
“Thank you,” Arthur replies sincerely.
*
“Just a second!”
Arthur scans the coffee shop and is surprised at how empty it is for a Thursday evening. It is cold but not snowing yet - there usually is a queue for hot chocolate from those cutesy couple he bump into here. Then they move to a table in the quiet corner and sneak glances at each other while sipping their cups.
Merlin wipes his hands on the dishcloth and flashes a brilliant smile at Arthur. “The usual?”
Arthur turns his attention back to the man on the other side of the counter. “Everyone’s been trying to get me off coffee…”
“I know. Gwen brings it every time we chat. ‘I swear Arthur’s been sneaking coffee behind my back!’ or ‘I’m going to withhold his coffee from him if he keeps being rude to me!’”
Arthur laughs, unsure how often those conversations happen between his two friends. “Maybe I should try something else while I’m here. Anything not caffeinated?”
Merlin turns to look up at the chalk menu. He points to the SEASON SPECIALITY section. “You could always try Freya’s famous hot chocolate. It comes with one of her also famous cookie that she bakes every morning. Well, I mean she bakes more when she runs out - not that we still have the cookies from this morning. But you know, sometimes they don’t sell as well and...”
“Merlin! I’ll take one. And the cookie too. Thank you.” Arthur points to a vacant table by the counter and Merlin nods in acknowledgment before grabbing a tall mug for Arthur’s hot chocolate.
Arthur shuffles the leftover newspaper left on the table. He’s read most of the important ones during his morning coffee already. One can’t be too careful in case his father summons him and quizzes him on the current events, especially what is happening in the British economy.
“You know, we’ve known each other for so long but I still don’t know what you do at work. I only know Gwen makes sure you have your coffee every morning and Morgana complains about having to go to the same building as you and your father every day.”
Arthur waves his hands. “I do some of this and some of that. Mostly just making sure Father and Morgana get along at work and the company doesn’t go into ruins every workday.”
Merlin slides one of the two cups of steaming hot chocolate towards Arthur. “I even heated up the cookie for you so the chocolate at the top melts a little.” He sits down opposite of Arthur and blows cold air into his own cup.
“You don’t have to watch the counter?”
Merlin shakes his head. “It’s been pretty quiet tonight. Didn’t you hear? There might be snow tonight. And if anyone decides to take a chance on the till, I’m sure some knight in shining armour is going to save the day and take down the robber before he even gets the chance.”
Arthur flushes at the knight comment and hides it by taking a bite out of Freya’s homemade cookie. “Wow, this is really good.”
Merlin frowns. “I thought you’ve tried Freya’s cookies before. She brings them to Morgana’s Christmas party every year.”
The two heads turn to the door when they see a familiar face walk in, stopping short of the conversation.
“Gwaine! What are you doing here?” Merlin dashes to the door and envelopes his friend in a big hug.
“Waiting for you to close up. Actually I thought you would have kicked everyone out by now. You know want your customers to be stranded now, would you?”
Arthur rolls his eyes as he tries to swallow down the last of the cookie. “It’s only a light dust of snow. We’ll be fine.”
Gwaine shrugs off his scarf and gloves and plots them onto Arthur’s table. “Well, if I had known you’d be here, I wouldn’t have come. You can take care of Merlin now, can’t you?”
:”Yes! Everyone - if you’ve finished your drinks. You should head on home. It is supposed to snow soon… so I guess I should start closing up too. Thank you for coming down to my coffee shop. We hope to see you again in better weather. Or any weather.”
Gwaine pulls off the rest of his winter weather gear and rolls up his sleeves. “Merlin, where do you need me? There’s us strong capable men who will help you close up shop,” he says as he kicks Arthur’s chair sharply.
“At least let me finish my drink first,” Arthur mumbles under his breath. He gulps down the rest of his hot chocolate and going ow ow ow because he forgets it’s still hot.
It’s not like he doesn’t like Gwaine per se, but the fact that Gwaine always end up running into Arthur and Merlin alone time and it becomes Gwaine and Merlins time plus Arthur never helps Arthur’s opinion on Gwaine. It is like the man has some sort of radar to know when he needs to show up and break up the two. Otherwise, Gwaine is great to party with at a club or even sit down with a beer at a party on the sofa. But probably won’t be on Arthur’s first to call list if he needed help in anything.
The most recent occurrence was back few months ago when Gwaine popped up during a shopping trip between Arthur and Merlin. Merlin needed some new trousers to make himself presentable to the new partners and the future investors of the coffee shop. He had this ridiculous suit jacket that fit him nicely and some shirts that didn’t look too badly but the trousers, that definitely needed some work after the hems were all ruined from it being too long in the first place.
“Arthur, are you sure about these?” Merlin asked, looking at his trousers from the mirror. “Don’t you think they’re a little too tight?”
Arthur probably zoned out a little because the next thing he knew Merlin was waving his hands in front of Arthur’s face. “Arthur? Are you all right?”
Arthur was all right. He was just too busy staring at Merlin’s trousers from where he was sitting. And at the mirror behind Merlin showing Merlin’s backside with those trousers on. This was definitely worth the trip of letting Merlin pleading and successfully dragging him into the shops.
“They look okay,” Arthur said as he tried to act all nonchalant. “You should pay for them so we can go do something more fun.”
Merlin grinned happily and nodded. “I’ll get ouf of these and then I can buy you the ice cream I promised you.”
“Arthur! Merlin! Fancy seeing you here!”
Arthur internally cringed when he heard that voice. He had mastered the technique of internalizing the hatred while keeping a calm and collect look on his face. “Gwaine.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I was looking for new trousers too. What a coincidence. I didn’t know you came to this tailor too.”
Merlin looked to Arthur. “Arthur suggested this shop since they’ve been making trousers for his family for years. I mean, it is a little out of my price range but they gave me a really great discount so I couldn’t say no to all the help.”
Arthur for one knew Gwaine definitely did not use this tailor because he would hear it first thing from his father if his father knew he was sharing a tailor with the likes of Gwaine. Probably would have made a ruckus about dropping Gwaine as a client or else he would take his business elsewhere. No one dared to go against Uther Pendragon, especially not when it came to the man and all his rich business clients who also need tailor suits made.
“Well, you look great in those. I hope you’re taking them. They make your ass look delicious.”
Arthur ended up getting ice cream with both Merlin and Gwaine. He swore the ice cream definitely tasted off that day.
(The most ridiculous one happened in Arthur’s office last year when Merlin was nice enough to bring takeout during The Most Stressful Week of Arthur’s Life where Arthur was stuck in his office for an entire week straight, relying on Gwen for a fresh change of clothes every morning, showering in the building’s gym, and sleeping in the makeshift bed that was supposed to be the sofa for clients to sit on.
Anyway, Merlin brought over Chinese takeout that night - it was Indian the night before, yum. They had been ribbing each other over a coffee shop patron’s crush on Merlin when suddenly Gwaine popped in to say hello. Arthur swore there was no one else working on his floor, or really, the entire office and the only purpose of Gwaine showing up was to break up the easy camaraderie between Arthur and Merlin.
Needless to say, Merlin packed up and left home pretty quickly after, with Gwaine in tow. To this day, Arthur never found out why and how Gwaine was there. He definitely made a fuss about it the next morning to the security staff who said they never saw Gwaine that night.)
Now he has to help Merlin with closing up shop! Doesn’t he pay his employees for this? Or his co-owners (Freya and Mithian who also bought shares in the coffee shop)? He has someone come by his flat every week to clean for him because he doesn’t have time to clean. It’s not like he doesn’t want to help Merlin with closing shop but he and Merlin were having such a nice time together before Gwaine interrupted.
“C’mon, a little clean up won’t hurt your precious ego. You sit behind your big desk all day anyway. Your bones will get creaky and old that way.”
“Fine,” Arthur mumbles under his breath.
The three of them quietly clean up Merlin’s coffee shop with Merlin giving his friends directions on how to put the chairs away and toss the rubbish into the appropriate bins.
“You two should come by more often to close up. It is much faster without Freya or Will distracting everyone.”
“You can thank me with a batch of those chocolate muffins,” Gwaine tosses the wet rag into the sink. “I don’t even mind adding a few stones.”
Merlin laughs, patting Gwaine’s shoulders with kindness. “I don’t think you can even add a few stones with how much you run on the football pitch.”
Arthur stands awkwardly on the side with the last of the newspaper in the bin. “Um, I guess we have everything now? It’s starting to snow.”
“Right! Did either of you drive? You should go first, with the car frosting and everything.”
Arthur walks to Merlin with a determined look on his face. Merlin is crazy to think he can walk home in this condition! He will probably get frosted bites before he reaches around the corner. “You’re coming with me. I have leather heated seats.” He takes Merlin’s elbow and directs him to the door.
Merlin mouths a quick sorry to Gwaine as everyone vacates the shop. Gwaine laughs and hugs Merlin farewell and gives a quick nod to Arthur before trodding off to find his own vehicle.
Arthur is watching his breath in the cold air and shuffling back and forth as he waits for Merlin to close up his shop. “C’mon, c’mon.”
“I’m going as fast as I can! If you are in a hurry, I can go home by myself.”
Arthur softens his muttering and sighs in relief when Merlin pockets the keys and signals that they are ready to go. As they walk towards his car, he notices the lack of anyone on the street. They’re all probably safe inside their homes already -- unlike the two of them still wandering to find the car and drive home. “If the weather worsens, are you still going to open shop?”
“We can’t really afford to close up shop for even a day. The sales are getting better for Christmas because people are buying the merchandise, I don’t think we are going to get more sales come springtime.”
Arthur stops in his track and stares at Merlin. It will not be good if Merlin loses his shop if it is losing patrons. He knows his long Merlin had spent turning Gaius’s run-down shop into the successful one today. “If you need help with the business side of things, I can help with that stuff… like any time.”
Merlin’s eyes widen to coin-size and grins when he sees Arthur’s deadpan serious expression on his face. “We aren’t doing that poorly! It’s just sales after January had always been poor so we need to do extra well now to tie us over to summer when everyone is happy to spend their extra income on the pricier drinks.” He tugs on Arthur’s sleeve, “I don’t think I can feel my face anymore.”
Arthur happily drives Merlin home and even waits until Merlin is safely inside the door to his building before (carefully) driving home.
*
Merlin: Are you coming to the coffee shop tmr?
Arthur: Prob. Y?
Merlin: Just asking.
Arthur: K.
Merlin: Have u found anything for the gift exchange for Morgana’s?
Arthur: U mean the thing I buy right b4 the party?
Merlin: Every1 can tell you grabbed the last thing on the shelf
Arthur: They shouldn’t expect nth otherwise
Merlin: I hope I dont get urs then
Arthur: It may be a good one this yr
Merlin: Anything is better than the gift card & mug
Arthur: M banned gift cards after that. I put a lot of $ in that too!
Merlin: U should think of something better this yr
Merlin: U put more thought into my gift
Arthur: Easier to buy 4 u than those ppl
Merlin: Well think of something nice. Morgana will be furious again
Arthur: Glad u said again bc she should expect it by now
Merlin: Well, same guest list this year, I assume?
Arthur: Haven’t heard ntn else
Merlin: Oh, Gwen and Lance are finally going together
Arthur: Finally
Speaking of gifts, Arthur stares at his phone, he hasn’t started Christmas shopping this year and there is only two weeks left before the 25th. Usually he has a good idea of what to buy for his father, Morgana, Merlin, Gwen, and Hunith but this year his head has nothing but numbers and contracts swimming in there.
Arthur checks his phone again and no reply from Merlin. He guesses that Merlin dozed off in his bed again. He hopes at least Merlin pulled the duvets up before sleeping because that room is too cold for humans to sleep in. It was a useful gift from Arthur since he had to suffer sleeping there multiple times during winter. Arthur made sure he bought the ones with the best material with heat-induction materials to keep all the heat in without letting the tiniest of cold slipping through.
Arthur fell asleep with the thoughts of getting Merlin the perfect gift this Christmas.
*
Arthur goes to the coffee shop and sees Merlin (with a Santa hat on) waving him towards the counter. Usually Arthur queues at the back of the line and Merlin knows this is the sequence of how things worked.
“You’re here! Gimme a second.”
Arthur skips the long queue to watch Merlin pour coffee into the largest cup the shop offers. After making sure the lid is tightly secured, Merlin hands him the cup and a brown paper bag.
“What’s this?” This is veering off their usual course of action.
“Open it!”
Arthur places the coffee on the counter and opens the bag to find it filled with chocolate chip cookies.
“It’s on the house! I remember how much you liked it last time so I made sure Freya baked a little extra for you. Don’t eat it all in one go though.”
Arthur gawks at the amount of cookies in the bag and takes one out. It’s still warm under his touch. “I’m going to have to hit the gym more often.”
Merlin grins and sticks his hand out. “The coffee isn’t free, Pendragon.”
Arthur pulls out a fiver and hands it to Merlin. “Keep the change. Thank Freya for me, too.”
“Arthur!” Freya happily goes around the counter to hug Arthur, who may or may not be eating one of the cookies already. “I heard from Merlin that you loved the cookies. I am slightly angry to hear that you’ve never had one until now, but happy that you liked them so much. Merlin made sure I baked these for you. Extra chips and extra butter. He kept pestering me about it all weekend as if I would forget!”
“I heard that!” Merlin calls out from the other side of the shop over the loud noise of the smoothie machine.
“No you didn’t!” Freya yells back. She lowers her voice, “He was super insistent on it too. Like you’d die if you didn’t get a bag of cookies to go with your coffee. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely have them for Morgana’s party. I’m so excited!”
Mithian rushes out from the back. “Freya, your cookies are burning!”
“Oh! Bye Arthur! Come back soon! Maybe on days that don’t start with a T!”
Mithian waves at Arthur. “The cookies aren’t burning but I am swamped back here.”
Sometimes Arthur wishes he worked in a joyous place like this, then he sees the queue going out the door and he is glad he can have some peace and quiet in his office where he doesn’t have to get scalded by hot coffee or patronized by cranky customers.
*
“Next year I’m writing Must Return This Card as RSVP on it but I know you still won’t read what it says.”
Arthur looks up from another wordy and boring contract that his father was insistent that he read over even though they pay people for these things. “Morgana, not now.”
“We pay people for these things,” Morgana snatches the papers from Arthur and scowls at them. “And Uther is going to make them read through all of them again anyway.”
Arthur reaches up and takes the document back. “It doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
Morgana shrugs, “As long as I don’t have to read it, whatever.”
“What do you want, Morgana? You didn’t come all this way just to see what I’m doing.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I was here to see Gwen and thought to stop by before I leave for the day. It isn’t easy planning a party you know.”
“You mean everyone brings food and presents and you just provide the alcohol.”
“I also wanted to see if you had any special request for your present this year. I’m buying everyone’s tonight.”
“Just… no more pairs of things.”
“You didn’t like the pair of cups I got you?”
“It was a little more than just cups… you also got me a pair of wine glasses, a pair of soup-sized mugs, and even those tiny china tea cups!”
Morgana shrugged and pushed herself from the couch. “I thought it was thoughtful. Just pairing your flat for an extra flatmate.”
“And the year before! Twin set of bathrobes, towels, pillowcases, and slippers. Are you planning to buy a twin set for every room in my flat?”
“Oh that is a brilliant idea. Maybe I’ll buy matching cushions for your couch and seat covers for your car seats. I guess you did know what you want for Christmas, Arthur.”
Arthur bangs his head against his desk. “Out.”
“He isn’t going to wait forever, Arthur. Ta!”
*
“Merlin speaking. I mean, hi Arthur, this is Merlin! I was wondering if you know what you are bringing for food to Morgana’s. I thought we could try my mum’s recipe for this cake she always baked. I went back last week and she dug out a box of these aged-yellow cards recipes for me. Something about being passed down from her mum or what not. We’re probably going to sell these soon but we can probably test the recipes on our friends. Though we shouldn’t tell them that they’re the guinea pigs.”
“I forgot to mention that you should probably call me back as soon as you can so we can figure out which of these recipes we should make. Um. It’s Merlin calling!”
*
Arthur arrives at Merlin’s shop expecting a queue out the door. Okay, maybe not because it is the evening before Christmas Eve and there is still a bit of snow left on the ground and Merlin’s shop isn’t exactly near all the shopping areas. Still, he expects there to be people sitting inside with a coffee in hand and a half-eaten croissant on the table.
He has to stick his head to the windows and wipe away his breath on the glass to see the dim light pouring out from the kitchen in the back. This is weird -- the sign on the door says closed with a note that says it is closed for the evening, but Merlin is the one who asked Arthur to be at the shop at this time. He pulls out his phone and double checks his calendar.
Arthur tries the door and finds it easily opened to his touch. He remembers there being a light switch near the door because one time Merlin thought it would be nice to hang some ornaments near the switch but didn’t realize every time the ornaments would nick the switch, the lights would flicker. It lasted a day and scaring the scarring the customers. Gwaine almost convinced a food blogger to write a post about a ghost living and haunting the place. Good thing Gwen put a stop to it immediately. (That was the Merlin and the Ghost in the Coffee Shop story. There was a Merlin and the Ghost story, but it was a totally different time and place and much sillier than this one.)
“Merlin?” Arthur calls out before flicking the lights on. The sudden change in lights blinds him temporarily. “Merlin?” He tries again and walks towards the kitchen.
“In here!”
The back of the shop, where the kitchen is at, is lit up by a mixture of coloured and white Christmas lights surrounding walls. There are snowflakes and decorations scattering around the table tops and hanging from the racks.
“What is all this?” Arthur asks, his eyes trying to take everything in around him. Everything around him except for Merlin, who is slowing walking towards him with a small chocolate cake in his steady hands.
“I don’t think I can wait another year to tell you this. I think… no, I know I love you, Arthur Pendragon. I tried to think of some big romantic gesture to you to see me and declare my love to you - you know, the movies that Gwen and Morgana say they don’t like so they make me go with them but secretly loves.”
But all I could think of was baking you this cake that I found in my mum’s recipe box. In the margins, it said to fill it with love. I don’t know if I did what it says, but I gave it my all.”
Merlin pulls a fork out from his back pocket and hands it to Arthur.
“Last Christmas I was worried about the coffee shop and didn’t really need the distraction of wondering if I should ask you to the party. The year before, you were stressed out about Uther and the company and looked like a zombie so I thought best to ignore it. The year before that one - “
“Okay, okay, I get it Merlin,” Arthur closes the gap between the two and takes the fork from Merlin. “We just had piss poor timing.”
Quietly Merlin adds, "and I wasn't sure if you liked me that way before that."
Arthur can't tell if his heart just grew ten sizes from happiness or shrunk in the opposite direction because of his stupidity when it came to his feeling with Merlin. He knows that he has ignored the thumping of his heart plenty of times but hasn’t realized it did not just affected him -- Merlin had probably seen all the stares and looks pointed towards himself from Arthur.
He takes a small piece of the cake with his fork and places it into his mouth before it can fall onto the ground. He can feel the love oozing out from the chocolate and the cake. They all seem to be yelling at him to take another bite. Instead, he forks a small piece and points it towards Merlin.
“I hope this isn’t your only present for me," Arthur replies cheekily.
Merlin shakes his head, "For that you're going to have to wait until Christmas. "But I do have something for you right now."
Arthur raises an eyebrow as Merlin closes the gap between them.
"I've been waiting to do this for a long time." He leans in and places a hesitant kiss on Arthur's lips, testing the water as it'd seem. He has forgotten the chocolate cake between them because Arthur can feel the icing of the cake sliding down from his shirt down to his trousers.
“Merlin,” Arthur growls against Merlin’s lips.
“Sorry! I’ll bake you another one. It tasted good though, right?”
Arthur takes the plate from Merlin and carefully places it on the baking counter with the fork before returning his attention back to his new love and his best friend. “Right now, I don’t think I care that much for the cake. You can just bake me another one another time.”
“Good. I have a lot more recipes I need to try before I can sell it here. Freya says she will help too since she’s much better at the baking than me.”
“Merlin, now is probably not the good time to talk about work,” Arthur mumbles against Merlin and kisses him. Merlin responses immediately, sensing Arthur’s urgency with his mouth. The two of them lose count of how long they stood in the kitchen with the soft glow of Christmas lights surrounding them, the heat from the oven still warming the room, and the smell of chocolate making every kiss they share even more magical.
Despite how odd their first kiss is, Arthur thinks there will be plenty of better ones to come.
*
“Does that mean you’re coming to Morgana’s party as my plus-one?”
“Uh, I think you’re the one who’s going as my plus-one.”