Valentines
Merlin scowled into his coffee. This was undoubtedly the worst day of the year. Valentine's Day.
He snorted and took a gulp of the scalding drink, relishing the bitter, burning sensation on his tongue as it contrasted with the fowl pink, fluffy, laciness of his office. His workmates were either blushing and handing over hand-made pink cards over their desks or blushing and receiving hand-made pink cards over their desks.
At least no one was stupid enough to give him a card; they all knew his feelings towards the naff celebration.
"Merlin!" He shuddered at the happiness in his friend's voice.
"Good Morning Gwen."
"Lance gave me a card!" She blushed and pulled a ridiculously lacy card out of her bag. Merlin stared at it for a moment before raising an eyebrow at the overly-excited girl standing by his desk.
"Congratulations."
"Just because you're a sour puss! Why do you hate Valentine's Day so much anyway? It's wonderful!" She fluttered her eyelashes and held her card to her chest. Merlin pretended to vomit.
"It's not even real celebration Gwen, it's stupid and fluffy and disgusting." He scowled at her before taking another gulp of his coffee.
"It's not like you haven't got any offers either Merlin, I mean Will definitely likes you, and Leon. They both asked you out-"
Merlin cut her off, "Gwen if I'd wanted to go out with them, I would have asked them myself." She sighed and raised her hands in the air defensively.
"Okay, okay fine, you carry on being a bitter old man." He stuck his tongue out at her as she marched back over to her desk and folded her arms in a childlike manner. Merlin couldn't help but giggle.
Okay, maybe Merlin wasn't being completely truthful when he said why he hated Valentine's Day so much. Of course he didn't like and of the gross pink and fluff, but there was something much more important then that.
When he was three, he realised he could do magic and when he was five he remembered Camelot. He remembered Uther and Gwen (Yes, it was the same Gwen he worked with now, she simply didn't remember.) and Morgana and Gaius... and he remembered Arthur.
Arthur. The man he was undoubtedly in love with, and who loved him back. He really did, he told him almost every day. He gave him gifts and stole kisses in the corridor. He'd spend hours agonising over long love poems, although he would deny it to Merlin, who had watched the whole thing, before scribbling it all out and calling Merlin and idiot. Affectionately of course.
Merlin sighed once more and let his head drop to the table with a loud bang, making a few of his workmates jump.
"Are you alright Merlin?" One of them called over. He raised his hand as his answer and closed his eyes; he would have to endure an entire day of complete sappiness.
"Merlin you have a client." He groaned and pulled his head off the table, which took a lot more effort than you would think. Merlin was a journalist, a good one at that. But it probably meant he was needed to go and interview some rich snob who thinks they are better than everybody else and will make Merlin want to throw himself off a cliff.
"I'm coming." He dragged himself out of his seat and over to the door to meet with his client in the 'meeting room', which was only there so the higher-class clients didn't have to sit in an office with all of Merlin's scummy colleagues.
Will, another friend of his who didn't have a crush on him, despite what Gwen might think, was standing by the door holding a pile of papers and biting his lip. His eyes lit up when he saw Merlin.
"Hey mate! Urm there's quite a rich guy in there... not famous of anything but don't be rude... he has a lot of money." Merlin took the papers from the brunette and began rifling through them.
"Thanks for the warning Will, but I'm never rude." Will raised his eyebrows.
"Maybe not normally but this guy is an ass." Merlin shrugged and pushed open the door, still reading the papers.
"Good Morning my name is Merlin Emrys and I..." He trailed off as he saw the man standing in the room in a clean, grey business suit and a crisp white shirt. His blond hair pushed over the side of his face to reveal two, beautiful blue eyes.
"Good Morning my name is Merlin Emrys and I...? And I what?" The man folded his arms and raised his eyebrow.
"Urm, sorry... I... Urm..." Merlin babbled, unable to take his eyes off Arthur, his Arthur!
"My name is Theodor Richards; I'm assuming you're here to interview me, are you not?" Merlin couldn't answer. Theodor? This was definitely Arthur. He blinked quickly, remembering where he was.
"Urm, yes... Yes I am." Merlin scanned the first page of the notes he had just been given as he sat down. Arthur-Theodor sat down in the seat opposite him. "So, why are you here? My notes aren't particularly-"
"Have we met?" Merlin looked up to find Art-Theodor staring at him, his brow furrowed, "You seem really familiar."
"I'm not sure...urm... if we could get back to..."Merlin gestured to the papers he was holding, knocking them out of his hand in the process. "Whoops." He knelt the ground to gather up the papers, slightly annoyed that Theodor stayed seated and just watched him, his eyebrows knotted together.
"Prat." Merlin muttered under his breath, a well practised action from many years ago.
"What was that?"
"Nothing. Ass." Merlin whispered the second word as he stacked the sheets into a neat-ish pile and sat back on his chair again.
"No, I'm pretty sure we haven't met, I would remember if I had met someone who was such an idiot." He rolled his eyes.
"And I would remember someone who was such an ass." Merlin countered without thought, it was a frequent thing between him and Arthur.
"Merlin?"
"Hmm." Merlin looked up from the sheets to see the blond staring at him, his mouth wide open. "Yes Arth-Theodor." He bit his lip, cursing himself inwardly for his mistake.
"What did you call me?"
"Theodor?"
"No, what were you going to call me?" The young man looked like he had just had an epiphany, eyes wide open.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Arthur. It was Arthur wasn't it?" Merlin waited a moment before nodding briefly. Theodor's face broke into a grin. "I knew you would remember me!" He stood up and flung his arms around Merlin's neck, causing the youth to tumble backwards, clutching at the chair for support.
"What do you mean? Theodor?"Arthur let go of Merlin briefly to club him lightly around the head.
"I never thought I was Theodor, I just didn't want to introduce myself as Arthur Pendragon to you if you didn't remember... that might have been a bit strange, you'd probably think I was insane. Plus you should have seen your face!" Merlin scowled for about two seconds before grinning and bringing his lips together with Arthur's after hundreds of years waiting.
"You're still a Twat." Arthur pulled away, mock offended.
"Why is that?"
"You made Valentine's Day suck every year, watching everyone else with the person they love and me waiting for you." Arthur rolled his eyes at the soppiness of Merlin's confession.
"You are such a girl Merlin! And anyway, I'll be with you for every Valentine's Day for the rest of your life, including this one."Merlin grinned and grabbed the sides of Arthur's face with his hands and kissing him hard on the mouth, not hearing the door crack open.
"Sorry to interrupt Merlin but, oh!" The two boys turned around to see a bright red Will standing in the door way, averting his eyes so he was looking at the wall. "I... didn't realise you two... knew each other... urm... bye." He slammed the door closed, leaving Merlin and Arthur to stare at it for a second, before bursting into hysterics.
"Will hasn't changed." Arthur smiled fondly and brushed his hand against Merlin's cheek.
"I love you."
"I love you too... even if you are still a Prat." Arthur grinned and captured Merlin's lips in another kiss.
Merlin decided maybe Valentine's Day wasn't the worst day of the year. In fact, it might just be the best...
I know, I know, soppy, cheesy, predictable... but it had to be done!
Hope you enjoyed it :D
Please review x
