So this is late, but! Work, y'know. And the intended recipient didn't mind so it's all good. It's a drabble of a christmas au; we did an exchange this year and it was so much fun! :)

I hope you all enjoy it as muh as she did :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin; never have, never will.

Looking down at the brightly wrapped present cradled in his hands, Arthur had never felt more ridiculous. The girl at the store chose the most cheerfully obnoxious wrapping paper on purpose, he just knew it. He had told her to wrap it the complete opposite to himself—something he really should have thought twice about—but was the big green bow really necessary? He was embarrassed just holding it, he couldn't imagine adding it to the steadily growing pile of presents that were already under the large tree in the living room of his childhood home.

When the season had started, he hadn't expected more than his sister to join him for the holiday. But then Merlin had found out that they planned on spending Christmas alone in the house that always felt like it was too much for just one person, and somehow his best friend, his mother Hunith, and his uncle Gaius were added to the number of people who were going to be there.

Somehow from there it was decided that the rest of their friends were going to be there, as well, and one of the girls—Arthur suspected Gwen, who you never guessed of mischief because she had such an innocent face—decided that they just had to do a Secret Santa exchange. It was for only their small group of friends (Hunith and Gaius opted out of the idea early on), and when it came Arthur's time to pick a name, he pulled out Merlin's. He doubted that was an accident.

It worked out well for him, he supposed—he had been wanting to buy his present for Merlin for a long time now, and this presented him with the perfect opportunity for it. The item in question was an old, well-worn chess set. It was practically an antique, and had actually belonged to the Emrys family; when they first found it in the thrift shop, the look on Merlin's face was an expression Arthur had never seen before.

It wasn't until he had explained, in a soft, melancholy voice about how it had belonged to them until they'd had to sell it to be able to afford to continue living in their home (an event no one in the family ever talked about), that he understood. When he shared later that his father teaching him how to play chess using that set was the only memory he had of him—that was when he knew that someday, somehow, he would end up getting it for him.

Arthur just hoped that whoever pulled his name knew what he wanted nearly half as well.

Christmas was going better than Arthur ever thought it would; it was nice to have so many people—so much family—in his house. It brought warmth to the place that had been missing, and left him so relaxed he forgot to worry about how his gift was going to be received. When it came time to open their Secret Santa gifts, Arthur found himself sitting on the loveseat closest to the fireplace with Merlin beside him, their thighs pressed together as they got comfortable.

It wasn't until his stupidly wrapped gift was sitting in his hands that he remembered why he was worried about it in the first place; the gift, while definitely something his best friend had been wanting, was also something he had chosen not to get thanks to the price of it. What if he found out it was from him—or worse yet, about his feelings for him? That was a disaster waiting to happen.

But now it was too late to take it back and find something else; Merlin was already opening the present, their friends snickering about the wrapping, laughing at the flush that spread on Merlin's cheeks when Arthur replaced the bow onto his ridiculous Christmas sweater. It helped to distract him from the way his pulse was racing, eyes focused on Merlin's face instead of the gift in his hands.

The shock and disbelief, followed by joy and wonderment that shined on his face was worth whatever happened next; Arthur would do anything to make him look like that again, and again, for the rest of their lives.

Well, I hope everyone had a good holiday season, and will have a great year to come!

Thanks for reading; leave a review? ^^