Santa's Grotto

Disclaimer: Don't own Merlin WAHHHH :'(

A/N: First AU, just a festive fic... It's Merthur, don't like? Don't read. Nothing explicit. Yeah and hopefully enjoy...

For 1MERLIN_FAN

Summary: AU (no magic) - Merlin's got a job as an elf at Santa's grotto, he hates the stupid costume he has to wear and becomes increasingly embarrassed when a certain blond man comes to visit Santa that he recognises from a previous encounter.

Merlin has two jobs; he has to to help his mum pay for his university fees. His first job he has had since he started uni a year ago, it doesn't pay much but he needs it. He's a waiter at a restaurant in the evening (his first job), a uni student during the day and an elf at the weekends. Yes you heard it right, an elf, not a real one of course but just dresses up as one at the weekend for Santa's grotto. It's embarrassing and Merlin HATES it, but the pay is good so he grits his teeth, smiles and greets the kids as they come to meet Santa. It's not that Merlin is a scrooge, he loves Christmas in fact, it's his favourite time of the year but he's beginning to find the fact that children point at his ears and laugh telling him that they 'love his fake ears' kind of annoying after the thousandth time.

"Merlin?" His boss Gwaine was clicked his fingers in his face, Merlin had the tendency to daydream, drop plates and trip over, any accident possible you name it, Merlin has done it, but Gwaine didn't have the heart to fire his friend. "Steak for table 14" he repeated calmly "And smile Merlin!"

"Sorry, this better?" Merlin plasters on his widest of grins, one that makes the corners of his eyes crinkle at the sides in the way that all the women adore.

He picks up the plate and weaves his way through the tables, avoiding tipping the plate full of food into an old woman's lap, and reaching table 14 without too many accidents. He's so proud of himself he almost misses the blue eyes that stare up at him, the golden hair, those lips...

"Anything else you'd like?" Merlin asks not taking his eyes off of the blond and completely ignoring the girl he's with.

"No we're fine thanks." Merlin tears his eyes away from the man and notices the girl that just spoke and his heart sinks. She's amazingly pretty, even Merlin can admit that and he's instantly jealous. She had long black hair pulled to the side in a plait, hardly any make-up, naturally stunning and wearing a tight fitting red dress. Merlin turns to leave and manages a graceful exit from the table... until he somehow manages to step on his own shoe and trip forwards, catapulting himself into the blond man who instantly fell off his chair, and they ended up in a massive heap of tangled limbs across the floor, momentarily scrabbling on the floor, trying to get out from underneath each other.

Merlin face flames red as he disentangled himself from the other man, getting to his feet and offering the man a hand.

"I'm so sorry! I'm clumsy and I just tripped over my foot and..." Merlin let his hand fall to his side as the man got to his feet by himself.

"You idiot! Do you know who I am?" The man bellowed at Merlin, who took a hasty step back managing to keep his balance for once, the whole restaurant was watching the show now and only the man's 'date' seemed to find the situation amusing.

"Erm... no, but I've already said sorry, and it's not like I did it on purpose..." Merlin trailed off at the look on the blonds face.

"I" The man puffed out his chest to make himself look important "am Arthur Pendragon. THE Arthur Pendragon!" Arthur looked expectantly at Merlin.

"Er, that means nothing to me" Melin pulls a face that's meant to say 'I'm sorry i'm not very good with things like that' but Arthur obviously took as 'I don't care who you are, and I'm just trying to be very rude', which definitely was not what Merlin was going for. "Look, would you stop being such a prat?" Merlin told Arthur confidently, completely forgetting me was at work until Gwaine came rushing up to him putting a hand on his shoulder telling him to go home and that he would sort everything out.

As he left he heard the girl with Arthur apparently called 'Morgana' trying to calm him down. Merlin grumbled under his breath about the man being a 'prat' and 'clotpole' and if 'beautiful' slipped in there sometimes, Merlin wouldn't admit it. He walked home, only living a short way from the restaurant.

Arthur was fuming on the way home. Moaning to Morgana about how 'people had no respect these days' and how the man should 'definitely be fired without question'. Morgana just allowed him to complain to himself as he drove her home where she lived with her husband Leon and her daughter Leia, who Arthur prefers to call 'Mini Morgana'. When they reach the house Arthur pulls up and she waves him goodnight and he drives off back to his apartment, and if on the way home he could only think about the man's amazing cheekbones or how adorable cute his ears were, he didn't think about it and would certainly deny it.

Both men went to bed that night denying that they would want to see the other man ever again as long as they lived. Arthur chose not to think about Merlin's face, but about how the clumsy idiot managed to ruin his meal. Merlin chose not to think about Arthurs eye's, but how he had been such an insufferable prat about the whole situation when it was only just an accident!

R&R please :D Like to know if people like/dislike what I'm writing, there will be a second chapter.