Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters - I just like to write about them X3
A/N: Christmas one shot - Originally written last year for a fanfic contest - It actually won! No one was more surprised than me. Anywho a short Christmassy tale - Enjoy!
"Merlin – What are you doing?" Arthur asked, peering inquisitively around the edge of the open wardrobe door to where Merlin was, crouched on the floor, madly diving his way through the contents of the stuffed shelves, throwing it carelessly over his shoulder into piles as he went.
"You've got moths," Merlin said emerging from the wardrobe, his hair slightly ruffled and his face strained into a frown of annoyance. "Look!" he exclaimed as he held up one of Arthur's shirts and wiggled his fingers through a spread of perfectly round holes that had been nibbled into the silk - Clearly the moths were winning this battle.
"And who's fault's exactly is that?" Arthur asked, though it was rhetorical question, as he took the shirt and examined it critically before tossing it back onto the pile with a slight shrug.
"I don't think anyone's been back here in years," Merlin grumbled, disappearing back into the dark bowls of the wardrobe. "There could be a whole other country in here and you'd never know," Merlin grumbled some more, as he re-emerged with another bundle of clothes. "When was the last time you saw any of these?" He asked holding up a tiny blue shirt, complete with golden stitching on the breast in the shape a tiny gambling dragon.
"Hey, I remember this!" Arthur said, snatching the shirt from Merlin and holding it up. "My favorite shirt," Arthur said fondly, stroking the little dragon lovingly with one finger.
"Really? – Looks a little snug," Merlin said, a sly smile creeping onto his face.
"Not anymore you idiot!" Arthur growled throwing the shirt at Merlin, causing him to duck to avoid it – One thing that had certainly improved since Merlin started working for Arthur were his reflexes, you could never tell when the Prince was going to throw something at you, but when he inevitable did you had to be pretty nimble to dodge it. Merlin grinned to himself, pleased with his neat avoidance maneuver, and went back to haphazardly pulling clothes out of the wardrobe as Arthur stalked off across the room muttering something about 'useless', 'idiotic' and 'bumpkin' – Merlin was starting to take all this name calling as a sign of affection.
"What's this?" Merlin asked a few minutes later as he re-emerged, pulling what looked like a scrunched up ball of silvery white paper from the back corner of the wardrobe.
"I have no idea," Arthur said, not bothering to get up from chair he had taken to pouting in beside the fire, "But I'm sure you're going to tell me anyway." He said with deep sarcasm, clearly showing he couldn't care less what treasures his whimsical servant had happened unearthed now.
Merlin pulled the ball of paper apart, expecting it to flatten out into some sort of old document, or a page from a book of some kind. What he found instead perplexed him all the more, it certainly wasn't a document; there was something wrapped up in all this old paper. Merlin paused, holding the handful of now shredded paper and stared at the thing he had uncovered. It was impossibly smooth, round, and clear, just like a bubble that had some how been frozen mid-flight and petrified into crystal. Gently, afraid of breaking the fragile object, Merlin tipped it careful out of its wrappings into his spare hand – As soon as it made contact with his palm it began to glow with a bright blue light, making him promptly drop it in surprise. Cursing to himself he dived after it, missing by a hairs breadth, and gritted his teeth, expecting to hear the tinkle of breaking glass and to see the perfect orb break into a thousand tiny pieces; instead all he heard was a gentle tinkling and chinking as, to his surprise, the sphere bounced away over the stone flagged floor, finally coming to rest beside Arthur's boot.
"What's this?" Arthur asked, echoing Merlin's exact question from a moment ago, as he reached down and plucked the object from the floor. "It jingles," Arthur said giving Merlin a confused look as he shook the ball again – The chiming was audible even to Merlin, who was still sprawled on the floor several feet away. "How does that work?" Arthur asked turning the object over in his hands, trying to discover it's secret. "This all there was?" Arthur asked, still shaking the sphere.
"Yeah – Er -" Merlin fished in the crumpled paper, "No – Actually there's a note here." Merlin said holding up a scrap of aged parchment.
"Well, what's it say?" Arthur said with clear exasperation, the fact there was a note was quite important, but it was completely like Merlin to over look it.
"Oh right – Erm – It says…" Merlin fumbled to unfold the note, while Arthur drummed his fingers impatiently on the arm of his chair, "It says…To Arthur, for your first Christmas. I hope you think of me every time you light this. With love…" Merlin paused and looked up at Arthur, his eyes wide "…With love your Mother."
"My -" Arthur began to snort, when what Merlin had said clicked. His Mother… Arthur jumped to his feet and practically ran, crossing the room in two strides, to rip the note from Merlin's hands. He skimmed it over quickly himself, before standing frozen, holding the note, his hand shaking slightly. "My Mother…" He murmured, staring at the orb in his hand with a new painful intensity. "What's Christmas?" Arthur asked after a moment's silence, repeating the words from the parchment and staring at it if his will power alone might make it come alive and give him some answers.
"You don't know what Christmas is?" Merlin said in disbelief, recovering from his own shock, "It's the mid-winter festival - With feasting and trees and decorations and ...Stuff," Merlin continued expecting Arthur to interrupt him at any second to tell him bluntly that he wasn't stupid, and was in fact familiar with Christmas, when he didn't Merlin found himself floundering - How did you explain Christmas?
"I've never heard of it" Arthur said, raising one eyebrow and giving Merlin a skeptical look which suggested he might just be making this festival up.
"Just because you've never heard of something, Arthur, does not mean it doesn't exist," Merlin retorted, just managing to keep his exasperation in check. "We celebrated it ever year in Ealdor, the whole village used to get together and put up a tree in the square - Really dangerous actually," Merlin mused, "Me and Will nearly flattened Old Man Creedy one year."
"While tales of your childhood are fascinating Merlin it still does not explain this!" Arthur said waving the orb under Merlin's nose. "Can you concentrate, just for a moment please!"
"Alright. Alright," Merlin said, waving Arthur away, "It must be a decoration for the tree. It's a big pine tree and everyone hangs all sorts of things from it, like that." he gestured to the orb still clutched in Arthur's hand.
"Why?" Arthur asked simply - Chopping down a tree then moving it into the middle of a village to coat it in shiny things seemed like a complete waste of time to him, and called in to question the sanity of people who might undertake such a fiesta.
"Er-" This question had completely stumped Merlin, he had no idea why they did it, just that they did, "It's good fun," Merlin settled for in the end, with a slight shrug.
"Apparently," Arthur said eyeing Merlin still a little sceptically, he had often wondered about Merlin's mental capacity, now it seemed his idiocy was perhaps not all his own fault - His whole village was like that, and they had seem so normal when Arthur had been there - Poor - but normal. "That doesn't explain why my Mother left me a decoration for a festival we don't even celebrate in Camelot!" Arthur said, waving the orb under Merlin's nose again.
"Well how am I supposed to know?" Merlin demanded, roughly shoving Arthur's arm away before the Prince rammed the orb up his left nostril, "Maybe Camelot used to celebrate it too." That suggestion gave Arthur pause for thought.
"You think my Father banned it?" Arthur said making a connection; it was twenty years since his Mother had died and twenty years since he was born, twenty years since the purge.
"I never said that," Merlin said quickly, holding up his hands, it was always dangerous territory when you brought up the subject of Arthur's father, especially when criticism could have been implied.
"But he could have done?" Arthur persisted.
"Maybe - I don't know - Why are you asking me? Why don't you ask him?" Merlin said defensively – How the heck was he supposed to know? Merlin hadn't even been born in Camelot.
"I can't ask my Father that," Arthur said visibly deflating.
"What about Gaius?" Merlin suggested, helpfully.
"He's not going to tell me either is he?" Arthur said with annoyance, Gaius was almost as bad as his Father when it came to talking about any time before the purge. "But he'll tell you..." Arthur said a smile creeping across his face as he eyed Merlin with new hope.
-.-.-.-
"Christmas was an ancient festival – Celebrated in the time before the great purge, it was something that began centuries ago. Originally it was simply twelve days of feasting and had nothing to do with magic, but over the years more and more traditions came to be associated with it and gradually more and more magic was involved – In the end it became almost a celebration of magic. As I'm sure you can guess it was one of the first things Uther banned."
"What sort of magic?" Merlin inquired, stabbing at the lumps in his soup, trying not to seem too interested – He had promised Arthur he wouldn't breathe a word to anyone, not even Gaius, about their discovery.
"Oh – All sorts of things – Mostly parlor tricks to entertain the nobles. Candles that never went out, ice that never melted, butterflies inside of boxes, glass orbs that glowed blue – Pretty things like that." Gaius said sadly, remembering all those years gone by, and gone forever.
"Glass orbs?" Merlin ventured, still trying not to seem too interested as he chased what he suspected to be a Brussels sprout around his bowl.
"Yes – They used to shine blue when a sorcerer lit them," Gaius reminisced, "They were made of the finest glass - Ever so delicate, yet never broke," Gaius explained, indicating with his hands roughly how big they had been. "You seem awfully interested all of a sudden," Gaius said, notice Merlin's preoccupation with his vegetables, a sure sign he was up to something. "Why the sudden curiosity?"
"Oh – No reason," Merlin said, realizing he had nearly been rumbled, "I was just wondering if the festivals here were the same as in Ealdor."
"I'm afraid not Merlin – And if I were you I wouldn't bring up the subject of Christmas again, and certainly not around Arthur or Uther." Gaius warned, threatening Merlin with his spoon.
-.-.-.-
"I've spoken to Gaius," Merlin announced as he slammed back through the double doors, with out knocking, as usual.
"Good," Arthur a tonelessly, from where he was stood in the window alcove staring blankly through the stained glass, "But you're too late."
"Why's that?" Merlin asked nonplussed.
"My Father's already explained everything to me," Arthur informed him in flat monotone.
"Really?" Merlin said unable to keep the surprise from his face, "And he was alright with it?" He couldn't imagine Uther happily telling his son about a festival that had once involved magic.
"Yes – Really – In fact he was so pleased when he found my present that he threw it out the window," Arthur said so brightly he was obviously being sarcastic.
"Ah…" Merlin said, following the direction of Arthur outstretched arm that pointed to the window over looking the battlements and the forest beyond – Uther had quite an arm on him, that orb could be anywhere between the stables and Mercia.
"It doesn't matter," Arthur said with a slight shrug, though he didn't turn around to meet Merlin's eye, "It's my fault anyway – I shouldn't have left it on the table where anyone could see it. You should have seen his face…" Arthur trailed off into silence. "Anyway Merlin," Arthur shook himself slightly and turned round to change the subject before Merlin saw him brooding over it, "We've got... Merlin?" but Merlin had already gone.
-.-.-.-
"Merlin…" Gaius asked slowly, "What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for something," Came the slightly muffled response from the shrubbery.
"I can see that – What exactly is it that you are looking for?"
"Oh nothing important…"
"Really?" Gaius said sceptically "Something of yours is it?"
"Not exactly-" Merlin admitted, emerging from the vegetation, "Something of Arthur's - Uther threw it out the window."
"I see - And Arthur sent you to find this orb of his did he?"
"No – Arthur didn't send me. It's just – You should have seen his face Gaius, it was a present from his Mother, you could see how much it meant to him and…Wait – How do you know anyway?"
"I heard about it from Uther," Gaius said shortly. "And Merlin - May I suggest a summoning spell?" He added in a slightly lower voice.
"What?" Merlin groaned, popping back up from a bed of nettles, "I didn't know there was such a thing – I've been grubbing around out here for hours," Merlin complained showing Gaius his muddy hands. "If you knew all along why didn't you tell me about it sooner?"
"I thought it might teach you a lesson about lying to me in future," Gaius said, with a slight roll of his eyes that suggested he sincerely doubted his actions would have any effect at all on Merlin's future honesty.
-.-.-.-
"Arthur! Arthur!" Merlin called as he banged through the doors, without knocking, again, his scarf clutched in his left hand.
"Remember that conversation we had about knocking?" Arthur inquired so politely he was obviously being sarcastic.
"I found it!" Merlin announced, obviously delighted with himself, thrusting the scarf at Arthur.
"Congratulations – I wasn't aware your scarf was missing; just think what a tragedy that would have been." Arthur said rolling his eyes and turning his back on Merlin.
"It's what's in the scarf Arthur," Merlin said bluntly.
"Fine – Show me - You'll only go away when - You found it!" Arthur cried. "But how? Where did you?" Arthur gabbled, staring a Merlin, almost lost for words.
"I got lucky," Merlin said with a nonchalant shrug.
"Lucky! It could have been anywhere! I won't forget this Merlin," Arthur said, clapping Merlin on the shoulder. "I owe you one."
"More like one hundred," Merlin muttered to himself.
"What?" Arthur said rounding on Merlin.
"Nothing - Merry Christmas Arthur."
"What?"
"Merry Christmas – It's what you say to people."
"Why?"
"You just do alright."
"I've never heard of that…"