Author's Note: Well, hello. Right. I've got a lot of fics currently in limbo - but this was something I'd left hanging for months on end. I've no real reason for writing this fic, I just really felt like writing Merthur. Lie. I love them.
Disclaimer: Merlin and Arthur aren't mine, the characters described here are property of the BBC. If they were mine, Gwen would've married Lancelot and Merlin would've bedded Arthur way earlier on.
Draconique
The phone was ringing off it's hook when Merlin Emrys stepped out off of the bathroom of the spacious flat he and Arthur shared (well, owned, but Arthur wasn't going to tell Merlin that), still dripping from his bath. The caller ID was listed as "Arthur Mobile" - he smirked as he picked it up, pressed the speakerphone button and set the phone back on it's dock.
"Merlin, what took you so long to pick up the phone?" came the saradonic question, but to Merlin, it really sounded like Arthur was missing him.
"Well, good morning to you too. I'll have you know I was in the loo, you prat." Merlin retorted. "How's Hong Kong?"
"It's boring, and it's midnight here - and I should be asleep, but instead, here I am... Trying to talk to my idiot boyfriend."
"Prat." Merlin snorts, shrugging on a blue long sleeved shirt, and buttoning his jeans. He had a meeting with Arthur's sister (also his editor) - because Morgana was being anal about his next novel, but with good intentions.
"Sorry..." Arthur says quietly after Merlin doesn't speak for a while. "This trip is just wearing down on me is all."
Merlin can feel the longing in his voice, and he smiles sadly. He feels the same way.
"I miss you too, Arthur." Merlin whispers, sitting by the phone. "I know you should be sleeping - I'm sure you've got more meetings in the morning."
He wants to let Arthur go before he starts trying to persuade the blond to come home for him, and because Morgana will have his hide if he's late.
"Merlin..." Arthur starts.
"Arthur..." Merlin replies, using the same inflection that Arthur would when saying his name. He doesn't do it often, but when he does - it just means that there are a ton of things he wants to tell the blond. They sit in silence for a while. Arthur on his hotel bed and Merlin on their bed. Halfway around the world, Arthur finally speaks up.
"You miss me, eh? Idiot. Have you been out with Morgana and Gwen again?" he smiles and kicks off his shoes. Merlin hears them drop and it's almost as if Arthur's in the same room - he hears the contented breath that escapes Arthur as the blond settles onto the bed, the short scuffle as he switches the phone from his right hand to his left.
They both lapse into silence again. Not wanting to say much else, but Arthur knows that his sister will never forgive them both if Merlin is late.
"I wish you were here. You know... You could... Pop over for a while." Arthur suggests.
"No. You know what happened the last time I tried that. I love you, Arthur, but I'm not going to attempt teleportation again for a while. It was embarrassing! More for me than for you, I'll have you know." Merlin retorts, exasperated.
Merlin's magic has always been unstable when it comes to bending the fabric of reality to be somewhere else - or teleportation, if you fancy it. The last time he attempted it, he ended up where he wanted to be - Arthur's lap... Sans most of his clothing... in front of Arthur's parents. Though they were already seeing each other at the time - and all parties were aware of Merlin's abilities - Uther's furious blush and Ygraine's giggles mortified Merlin enough that he absolutely refused to attempt teleportation ever again.
"Sorry, right..." Arthur chuckles lightly, after all, he was the one who got the most of Merlin's brazen nakedness that day. He yawns, and Merlin knows he has to let the phone call go.
"Five more days, Merlin, and I'll be home."
"I know. I miss you so much, and this whole saying good morning to you at midnight kills the romance."
"I love you, idiot."
"Love you too, prat."
Arthur hangs up, and Merlin sets the phone back in its cradle, smiling sadly before grabbing his satchel, his mobile already speed dialing Morgana to tell her that he would be at their favorite coffee nook in a few minutes.
Morgana surveys Merlin's manuscript like a hawk would a defenseless mouse. As chief editor at the publishing arm of Pendragon Inc., she has to deal with all sorts of writers and their idiosyncrasies, but as many of them are good, she puts up with all of it. Granted that she has always had a soft spot for her dork of a friend (and forthcoming sister-in-law if Arthur ever stops being a coward and pops the fucking question), she just cannot take it when he's moping about with a deadline hanging over his head.
She's been sitting at their usual spot at The Rising Sun cafe, dressed to kill, as always, black hair fashionably loosened over a gorgeous deep green two-piece suit, very little make-up today - and black stiletto heels that she's thinking of using to stab Merlin with if he doesn't stop sighing like a high school girl pining for the hottest boy in school. She can't find anything wrong with the latest bits of Merlin's novel (the second in a planned series of seven about gifted teenagers from across the world, gathered to stop the rise of some evil using powers obtained from books), but reaches across the table and wallops him over the head with it.
"Oi!" Merlin yelps, batting his manuscript away when Morgana attempts a second hit.
"Merlin! Snap out of it!" Morgana admonishes as Gwen comes back and sets down three tumblers on the table. "I know you miss Arthur but we have a deadline. This is good, but I need your head in the game."
"I know, Morgana... You don't need to tell me that." Merlin sulks, he just really misses Arthur.
"Merlin, I know he means the world to you... But he wouldn't want you sulking on his account. Also... You know what happens when you sulk too much..."
Gwen means well when she puts her hand on top of Merlin's - she's suffused in her own glow though, Lance having proposed just days ago. The ring on her finger is a gleaming reminder of that day, and though Merlin is completely happy for her, it doesn't show when he's moping about Arthur not being around.
Morgana whips out a red pen and starts correcting Merlin's manuscript. Story-wise, it's already gold, but knowing Merlin - and she does - he's overused the commas and dashes again. The look on her face is one of concentration as she makes annotations here and there, leaving Gwen to deal with the mopey boy in front of her.
"He's just... Never been away this long, and hopping from country to country, continent to continent... It's making me crazy when I have to figure out the time zones in relation to where he is."
"Merlin, he's not halfway around the world because he wants to. He's doing it because he needs to. You don't see me moping about, and Lance is right there with him. I miss him, too, Merlin - but there's just something utterly romantic -"
"About saying good morning when it's midnight?" Merlin cuts Gwen off swiftly, a smile coming to his face.
"Don't you think?" Gwen is appealing to Merlin's inner romantic, a tactic she knows will work. Even Will would do it if he were less stuck up about being a "dude", as he liked to put it.
"I guess... But Gwen, wouldn't you rather that Lance was in your bed every night? And not just for the sex, but for the cuddling and the pillow talk and..."
Morgana finally sets down Merlin's manuscript with a soft thud, red scratches and earmarks visible. Merlin's going to have to go back and edit all of it, but at least Morgana's "editor face' is gone, replaced with a more friendly visage. Now that the sordid business of secondary revisions to Merlin's manuscript was done, there was time to chat.
"You know, it would be easier if you just teleported over to Hong Kong and be done with it. Lord knows Arthur could probably use a good shagging by now."
The smile that plays on Morgana's lips is knowing, if a bit naughty. She knows that her brother's affections for his boyfriend will be his undoing, at least in the bedroom. Gwen looks at her with a face that naturally reads "are you kidding me?", as if she's suggested that he teleport there in little else apart from his knickers.
'Which may not be such a bad idea in and of itself...' Morgana snickers in the corner of her mind.
"Merlin..." Morgana purrs, and Merlin notes that she used the same inflection he does when Arthur wants something. "You're an all-powerful sorcerer, I'm just saying, you could teleport over to his room at the Mandarin in Hong Kong. I bet you even know the room number."
Gwen sees the extremely naughty glint in her best friend's eyes and she knows that the other woman has it in mind to mess with Merlin's head... And his powers. Then again, were she in his shoes, she would not have wasted a second and immediately whisked herself away to be with Lancelot.
'Clothing be damned...' she thought, taking a good swig of her cappuccino before joining in.
"Well... I don't see why not, Merlin. I mean surely teleporting to his room isn't such a bad idea. If I were you I'd pop over to wherever Lancelot was as well. "
"See, Merlin... Gwen agrees with me. You should just teleport to Arthur, hang it all if you're clothed or not."
The desire wasn't exactly naked in Merlin's eyes but the girls were on to something, if anything, Merlin was finding it excruciating to not have Arthur next to him in this booth, with him in the shower... In him before they slept...
'Great, now they've got me thinking about Arthur...' Merlin thinks, but trails off as he hears Arthur in his mind, voice soft and velvet with lust, the blue of his eyes twinkling as he kisses Merlin breathlessly.
He felt the magic pooling in his stomach (or an orgasm, seeing as the mere thought of Arthur made the blood rush to his nether regions), and for a second his eyes flash golden, though he catches himself briefly to say:
"No! I can't always be pining after Arthur. We're grown men - I'm a semi-successful writer dealing with the sequel to his first novel and he's being groomed to be CEO. I can't just teleport over to his hotel for a quick sha-"
The girls see his eyes flash gold, and his face flush red - both unmistakable signs of his magic... and his erstwhile arousal. He doesn't even manage to finish his statement when he crackles out of existence.
-FZZT!-
Morgana and Gwen are suddenly alone in the booth, a small, swirling cloud of smoke and the smell of electricity gusting out of existence where Merlin was. The girls took one look at each other smiled. If there was one way to screw with Merlin's powers, it was to suggest the use of one such power to him - especially if it was what he wanted to do in the first place.
"He'll be livid with us when he gets back." Gwen quipped, sipping on her cappuccino.
"At least he'll be properly shagged, Gwen. Now let me see that ring that Lancelot thinks is worthy of my best friend." she smiles, green eyes still alight with mischief.
3:45 AM, Room 421
The Landmark Mandarin Hotel, Hong Kong
Arthur Pendragon was, by all rights, quite lonely. This godforsaken business trip his father had taken him on was an utter bore. He wasn't exactly needed here, owing to the fact that his uncle Tristan was serving as Uther's number two to close the deal. He wondered if it had all been a ploy to get him away from Merlin. Not that Uther didn't like Merlin... He was at least civil with his son's boyfriend.
He sighed. The phone call hadn't been enough. Though business was mostly concluded, his mother was flying in from Tokyo to spend a few days with them before they all flew back to London 'and Merlin...' Arthur thought was no denying it at this point: he was head over heels in love with the writer. Had been for years, and the feeling had yet to abate - it came to a point that his mother and Merlin's mother, Hunith, were asking when he was going to make an honest man out of Merlin.
Which was basically the point of this trip - the business portion of it notwithstanding - he wanted time away from Merlin to find a ring. Sure, he could just pop down to Sotheby's and get Merlin an antique blue diamond ring for their engagement, but that would never do... It had to be something odd, that was for sure - but it had to be something that fit his boyfriend's quirky personality, and his magic - like a platinum ring inlaid with blue-green opal in the shape of a dragon around the band and three sky-blue diamonds set in dragon's talons. Said ring was in the custom collection of Alicia Yang, a jeweller and collector. According to his contact at Sotheby's, the ring was perfect for Merlin, when Arthur described Merlin to the woman.
He smiled wistfully. He'd seen a picture of the ring, faxed over by Ms. Yang's assistant the day Arthur arrived in Hong Kong. It was a two decades old, fairly new, created by Ms. Yang's grandfather apparently. Arthur would have purchased the ring immediately as he landed, but Ms. Yang had left instructions that she wanted to meet whoever wished to purchase the ring. Sure, he had found it odd, but consented anyway. He was to meet her tomorrow, but as he was having a problem sleeping...
He'd all but drifted off to sleep when suddenly, the sound of crackling electricity and the smell of singed hair permeated the room, along with a thud at the foot of his bed. Arthur shot up in bed to find a pair of shocked golden eyes looking at him.
"Merlin?" he exclaimed, flabbergasted.
Endnote:
Well, I seem to be evil enough to end it with a cliffhanger. This was just to break the monotony and I can't really say when the second part will be up. I hope you all enjoyed it :) Reviews would be awesome.