Arthur was not fond of cats, but the day Merlin stepped through the door carrying a white stripped ginger cat he thought he would give it a chance. Now Arthur hates cats, believing the devil himself lived within Ginger. Yes, Merlin called their ginger cat Ginger.
"Oi, Lucifer down." Arthur scolded as the cat jumped up on the table with the intention of raiding his morning meal, her claws extended and paw in mid air over his strips of bacon, before he swatted his hand at her causing her to hiss and swipe at his hand instead before buggering off. "Her name's ginger, dear." Merlin said sleepily as he made his way into the kitchen, bare chested, looking for food and caffeine.
He peaked Arthur's forehead before sitting across from him, Ginger purring loudly and rubbing against his shins begging for his affection. "I'll call the bloody wench whatever I want when it comes to my bacon. Dirty rotten scavenger. Besides, it's better than Ginger."
"See, that's why she doesn't like you. Cats are a lot smarter than you think and she can literally feel the animosity coming off you towards her." Merlin said scratching the top of her head.
"Good then maybe she'll feel this." Arthur said as he flipped off the cat who now had her yellow eyes focused on him, her hair raised and a low, throaty growl directed towards him. "Besides, I thought the name was fitting, not to mention she was my favourite spice girl." Merlin defended with a slight grin.
"Whatever it's your mongrel, you can name it after whatever spice girl you like." Arthur said returning his grin before grabbing the newspaper and standing from the table. "Anyway have a good day at work and I'll see you when you get home." Arthur said going over and giving him a kiss before heading to the wash room. He was humming a tune as he shut the door and unfolded the paper before sitting down, the same old boring news as always, except he didn't feel like he was alone, like someone was definitely watching him.
Slowly he lowered the paper until he could see just over the top of it, meeting yellow eyes that stared holes in him. Satan was sat in the sink, watching him intently, and that made Arthur very uncomfortable. "shoo! I don't watch you while you go about your business." he said rolling up the paper and swinging it at her in order to make her leave, but she only brought out her claws and began to shred the paper.
"You ruined the puzzle you beast!" Arthur said outraged. The puzzle was his favourite bit to do and now it had shred marks all though it. "That's it, I'm not putting up with you today, no sir-e, I am not. I'm just going to pretend that you don't exist and then I'm-" Arthur stopped mid-sentence. He sounded like an absolute loon. "I'm yelling at a bloody cat who doesn't understand a word of what I'm saying." he said looking directly at her and only getting a hiss in return. "Yep I'm ignoring you."
Arthur was mostly out of the house that day running errands so his interactions with the Satan spawn cat were a minimum at this point, until he walked through the front door of his apartment. Ginger had decided that his leg would make a wonderful scratching post and decided to claw her way up it, causing a few choice words to escape his mouth as he did his best trying to shake her off his leg which only resulted in him hopping around and looking like an idiot.
"I will throw you form the window, release me!" Arthur yelled before bending down and prying her from his leg. "That's it, I'm done with you." he said as he tossed her onto their bed and slammed the door quickly, the sound of her clawing and meowing harshly coming from the other side seconds later and Arthur somehow knew that opening the door would seal his fate, and for once he was actually afraid of the cat.
Merlin came home exhausted and Arthur could tell just by the way he tended to carry himself after a long day, and usually he wanted to cuddle with him and the cat on the couch. "Where's Ginger?" he asked immediately when the orange purr ball hadn't come to greet him at the door. "In our room." Arthur said and was quick to jump up and block Merlin's path from opening the door. "You don't want to do that." he said nonchalantly and with his best grin. Truthfully he was terrified that the cat would jump out at his face and do to it what she did to the paper that morning.
"And why not?" he asked and then the cat started crying once it heard Merlin's voice. "How long has she been in there?" Merlin said with wide eyes and a slightly angered look directed at Arthur.
"Long enough to stew and plan out my murder, which she will probably go through with once you open that door." Arthur said with a pleading look.
"For crying out loud she's a cat! She's also probably starving and if she decides she does in fact want to eat you, I wouldn't blame her." Merlin said pushing past him and opening the door. Ginger pranced out, making Arthur jump up onto the cushions of the couch as if that would somehow stop her, and rubbing up against Merlin's legs before running off to the kitchen where her food bowl was. "See? She didn't kill you, though I would have." Merlin said before taking a seat on the couch and changing the channel on the telly while Arthur relaxed down beside him.
"I'm sorry for locking your cat in our room." Arthur said after a few tense moments of silence. "Just don't do it again." Merlin said with his eyes trained on the telly, clearly not in the mood for an argument and Arthur was thankful. Ginger hoped up on the couch between them before hoping into Arthur's lap and laying down while looking up at his scared face. "Did you break the cat?" Merlin asked surprised.
"No but I think she broke me." he said with fear laced in his voice and eyes causing Merlin to bust out laughing.
