AN: So I decided to write a little holiday fic. The aim is to end it on xmas itself. Happy holidays everyone and thank you for reading!
As the personal assistant to Dr Gaius, an elderly, curmudgeonly professor of history, Gwen often finds herself doing the strangest of things – none of which are actually in that contract she signed. So when he summons her into his study, passes her a caged bird which she has never seen before and tells her he needs it delivered to Round Table Coffee, a twenty minute bus ride from his apartment, she simply nods and picks up the cage. Who knows what goes on in that brain of his anyway? Well, she does since she deals with almost every aspect of his life but that's not quite the point here.
"Hello!" says the bird. It cocks its head at her and regards her thoughtfully. She grimaces at it. Birds are not really her thing.
"It's for Merlin," says Dr Gaius, barely looking up from his papers. "Don't put your fingers in the cage. Have a coffee on me."
Gwen answers but Dr Gaius's attention is back on the book he's reading. Cage in hand, she leaves his dusty room and thanks her lucky stars that she doesn't have to do any housework, aside from the occasional brewing of drinks.
"Goodbye!" The bird is clearly a smart one. She wonders where Dr Gaius got him from.
The coffee shop is pretty crowded when Gwen steps into it, glad for the gush of warm air that hits her when she opens the door. Now, who on earth is Merlin?
Someone points her to a tree that looks like it's about to fall over and when she squints, she can see a pair of feet under it. Carefully, she pushes her way through the crowd and calls Merlin's name. A head pops from the tree.
"Bird for you," she says, stretching the cage towards him.
His eyes dart from her to the bird, then back to her again. He grins. "Hello! It's nice to finally meet you."
"What?" She blinks in confusion. Finally meet her?
Merlin grimaces, then he yells, "Arthur!"
"The tree is your business, Merlin."
Gwen turns and sees Arthur who is serving at the counter. He turns at the same time, blonde hair, bright smile and blue eyes that seem to bore through her when they meet hers. Something shimmers in the air between them and a sense of déjà vu fills her. But Merlin is talking to her and she redirects her attention to him, biting down a smile when she sees his twigs in his hair.
"That's not a Christmas tree."
Merlin shrugs. "It's a tree and it's almost Christmas. Makes it a Christmas tree to me. Why are you giving me a bird?"
"Dr Gaius says to give it to you."
"Well," says Merlin with a huff. "Tell him I'm still mad at him and a bird isn't going to change that."
"Alright," she says and hands the bird over. Before she can warn him not to put his finger in the cage, Merlin is yelping and scolding the bird.
She offers to look at his injury and somehow, ten minutes later, she's seated at a small table, squashed next to Arthur who has come over to laugh at Merlin and opposite a whining Merlin. They puzzle over the bird and she promises to ask Dr Gaius, even though she knows he will never give a proper explanation.
"Have you been here before?" Arthur cranes forward and looks at her with narrowed eyes. "You seem familiar. Do I know you?"
She shakes her head but she doesn't add that he looks like the type of person she wouldn't forget.
Arthur is still staring at her. "What's your name?"
"Gwen Leodegrance."
"Well." He blinks, shakes his head then smiles widely. "I'm Arthur Penn, owner of this lovely place."
"It is lovely." And that isn't a lie. It's a small, cozy coffee shop and their flavoured tea is the best she has ever tasted. She wonders why she has never noticed this place before.
"Cracker!"
Merlin tosses a napkin at the cage. "Hush. How would you like to try my latest concoction?"
"I wouldn't if I were you," says Arthur.
"Gwen is a nice girl, unlike you," sniffs Merlin as he stands. "It's yummy."
"Sure," she says and she's served some coffee drink smothered in whipped cream that Merlin calls Christmas Surprise. One sip and she's trying to stop her face from scrunching up. "I think it's far too bitter."
When Merlin's face falls, Gwen almost feels like lying and taking back her words. Arthur shake his head and sighs that he told Merlin so. Then the conversation veers off on a tangent and Gwen finds herself in a debate over Christmas trees (Merlin thinks any tree will do, Arthur insists that conifers are the way to go and Gwen has never thought this much about trees before) which quickly turns into a discussion about the environment.
"I need to help out at the counter," says Arthur. As he stands, he touches her on the shoulder and smiles at her in a way that makes her insides wobble. "Maybe you'll drop by again?"
By the time she leaves the coffee shop, she'd spent over an hour there.