Work Text:
Tonight was the night. The night Merlin would have sex with Arthur. Fully conscious, sober sex. Arthur had invited him to his place.
“Listen, why don’t you come by, we have some dinner, some wine a little bit of music and we’ll see what will happen.” He had said on their last date. And Merlin knew what would happen, wanted it to happen again. A few months ago they had meet each other in a club and the very same night fucked at Arthur’s place. Merlin had been drunk. He wasn’t sure how drunk Arthur actually was, but he himself was wasted, or he would have never…
as he woke up in a unfamiliar bed next to a unbelievable hot blond god he barely remember meeting, he practically run out of the apartment. He feared that when Arthur, he remember his name after wracking his brain a bit, woke up, he would regret sleeping with him. With that skinny, weak excuse of a man. He couldn’t deal with seeing disappointment in the other man eyes, when he realized what a wimp he had pulled last night. For whatever reason Merlin had written his phone number down before he left. Maybe by some kind of delusional hope, that Arthur was interested in seeing him again. And really, the same morning just after he was back from his morning run, his phone had buzzed with a message:
I woke up and you weren’t there :( did I do something wrong?
Merlin hurried to reassure him, that it wasn’t his fault.
No, please don’t think that, I just had to work early. I had a great time yesterday.
Me too. Can we meet again?
And so they met in a bar and at a restaurant.
Every time the were scheduled to meet, Merlin was so nervous that he nearly didn’t show. But thankfully his best friend Gwen did not let him chicken out and drove him to his dates, practically kicking him out of the car. They were nice dates. Arthur was charming and interesting, maybe a little big headed but not as much that Merlin found it revolting. And to Merlins surprise, he seemed honestly interested in him. He asked a lot of questions about him and they talked until they were the last people in the restaurant and the staff were sending them nervous glances, because they wanted to finally close up. He did not comment on Merlin’s choice of salad and he gave him compliments on his eyes and his smile rather than pointing out how skinny he was. Maybe it was the wine, that Merlin wasn’t used to, that made him feel light and confident, slightly flustered and made it easy to talk, but Merlin genuinely enjoyed his dates with Arthur.
Now he was on his way to Arthur’s Apartment. Walking, instead of taking the bus, just to get rid of all the nervous energy that made his head spin. Gwen would have told him, his head was spinning because he hadn’t eaten all day, but he pushed this thought aside.
Arthur opened the door with a blinding smile and Merlin would have fawned over that, but he was to distracted by the smell that hit him. It smelled like rich tomato sauce and melting cheese. It made him feel hot. He was supposed to eat that. To sit down, like a civilized human being, make conversation and eat whatever Arthur put in front of him. He was sure he could make up some kind of excuse, he could tell him that he was allergic to gluten or tomatoes or lactose intolerant. But than Arthur would feel bad, and this was the last thing Merlin wanted. To make someone else feel bad, because his relationship to food was messed up. He would sit down and he would fucking eat. He had saved all his calories today for this dinner, so he would just fucking eat it.
“Hey, are you all right?” Arthur asked, looking down at Merlin’s clenched fists and up to his flushed face again.
Merlin pulled himself out of his reverie. “Yeah, I’m fine, just a bit nervous, you know?” He said shyly.
Arthur smiled again. “No need to be nervous, I won’t bite” he promised, “unless you want me to”, he added. Merlin rolled his eyes to this flat joke, but he couldn’t suppress a smile. He followed Arthur inside the flat. Everything was fine, he could do this.
They made a bit of conversation, while Arthur was finishing up in the kitchen. Merlin had to really concentrate on the conversation, more than once the thought of the lasagna in the oven distracted him so much, Arthur had to say his name twice, to get his attention back.
He thought he could do it, until Arthur pulled the lasagna out of the oven. Merlin could see the Béchamel sauce wobble under under the thick layer of molten cheese. He now was able to eat three meals a day, as long as they where healthy. But this was NOT healthy. He didn’t know what to do. If he refused to eat it, Arthur would think he was strange. That he had a problem. Nobody wanted to burden themselves with people who had obvious problems. He felt that he was about to panic. In his desperation he leapt on to Arthur and kissed him passionately. He would do everything to lead Arthur away from his perfectly planed dinner date. If he had to dance naked, he would do it. If he had to play horny, he would do it. And even if this was way out of his comfort zone, it was a thousand times better, than sitting down to eat this monstrosity of a meal.
Arthur’s eyes widened in surprise, as Merlin practically flung himself at him. But then he tightened his grip around his waist and smiled into the kiss.
“But what about the lasagna? It will get cold…”, he protested weakly.
“You could always reheat it”, Merlin whispered and tried to sound seductive.
“Hmm, you bet. I’m already hungry”, Arthur deepened the kiss and the way he held him tight, made Merlin feel so small, so good. This time meaning it, he kissed back.