A/N – I had a wonderful response to my first Merlin modern AU (Mr. Merlin), so I figured I'd try another one! It's right around Halloween as I write this, and I am in the mood for Halloween fluff and good feelings. J
Halloween Cookies
As the sun dipped beneath the horizon on a brisk autumn evening, Arthur sank into his favorite recliner, exhausted. He'd taken the day off work because his husband, Merlin, was sick with the flu, and not well enough to care for their three-year-old daughter, Ava. Merlin was a stay-at-home father while Arthur worked as the Chief Public Defender for the city of New Haven, Connecticut.
While Arthur loved spending time with his dark-haired, blue-eyed little angel, caring for her all day was exhausting, possibly more tiring than dealing with a room full of frustrated legal clients, most of whom faced the threat of long, harsh jail sentences.
So far today, Arthur and Ava had gone to the park, then played tag in the back yard. After that, Arthur raked up golden autumn leaves and Ava leapt into the billowy piles for hours on end. Then there'd been a lunch of tomato soup and crackers, story time, followed by Ava building a tall castle with her wooden block set; her new obsession was knights and castles, and occasionally princesses. Next, she wanted to do her Yoga for Kids DVD, and begged Arthur to join her, so he did (that darn yoga routine was tough). And she'd refused her nap.
After today, Arthur had a new respect for Merlin's ability to take care of the home and Ava. How did he do it without collapsing in an exhausted heap by 5:00 in the evening? Arthur owed his husband a gift – an expensive one.
Though his work as a lawyer was challenging and Ava was a bundle of endless energy, Arthur loved his career and home life and wouldn't trade either for the world. The fact that he and his husband, his soulmate, had created such a wonderful family still amazed him. He loved Merlin more and more with each passing year. It was hard to believe they'd been together as a couple for ten years, since age nineteen, and had been married for five.
After finishing university, they'd moved from England to America. Arthur had gone to law school and Merlin completed his Ph.D. in botany. Merlin was an expert in plant pathology, and did incredible things when it came to managing plant and crop blight. Yes, Merlin had always been the brilliant one in Arthur's eyes.
Right before they'd adopted Ava, Arthur and Merlin moved from a modest city apartment in New Haven to a spacious, beautiful Tudor-style home in the idyllic rural town of Woodbridge, Connecticut. At first, they both had reservations about the move. It was one thing to be two married men in a big city – no one gave them a second glance. But what would it be like under the watchful eye of neighbors in a sleepy, quiet town?
Still, they moved into this home because it was the perfect place to raise a child. The schools were the best in the state, the neighborhood safe and quiet, and the house stood on five acres of land, abutting a huge woodland preserve.
And although they were adopting an infant, during the first week in their new home, Arthur and Merlin built an elaborate wooden swing set. Then a sandbox. Next came the castle-shaped treehouse, and it was the treehouse that drew the neighbors into their yard. A group of eight neighbors congregated in the backyard, admiring Arthur and Merlin's handiwork. Immediately, Arthur pulled Merlin close and introduced Merlin as his husband. Arthur had lived as an openly gay man since college, and he was not about to hide who he was. If people didn't like it, they could shove off.
But as it turned out, the neighbors welcomed them with open arms. It seemed as if everyone had a gay brother or gay uncle, and two of the women in the group were lesbians, married, with four daughters.
That day had been a turning point, and Arthur and Merlin felt completely welcome from then on. The neighbors had even gone so far as to throw a wonderful surprise baby shower for Arthur and Merlin the week before the men brought Ava home. Arthur, not one to demonstrate emotion publicly, had cried.
This was a wonderful place to live.
For the time being, Merlin was on leave from work so he could be home with Ava until she started full-time preschool next year. He still worked on occasional botany projects to keep his skills sharp, which would allow him to return to the workforce with ease whenever he was ready.
"Daddy? Oh, daddy…" Ava shook Arthur's foot. "You sleeping?" she asked, in that sweet, little-girl voice of hers penetrating his thoughts.
Arthur started. He must have dozed off for a minute. "No, little love, just relaxing for a moment."
Ava tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes, staring at Arthur as if she had no idea what relaxing meant. "We make scary cookie? Yes, daddy? We can do that?
Ava climbed into his lap, a hopeful look in those wide, blue eyes. Arthur's one weakness was that he could never deny his daughter anything. At first, he'd had concerns about adopting, and worried he might not ever grow to truly love the child. Merlin was a natural parent, nurturing and giving, but Arthur wondered if he had the capacity to be a good father. Yet he needn't have worried, because from the first moment he'd held that warm, beautiful baby in his arms, he'd loved her.
However, just because he wanted to make Ava happy didn't mean he possessed the ability to make cookies. Arthur was no baker. Merlin was the cook and baker in the family. Arthur made one dish well – lasagna. That single entrée comprised the entire repertoire of his cooking skills, and it's what he served any time he had to cook. But cookies? That was a tall order.
Still, he was a grown man with a law degree. He'd survived three grueling years of law school! He defended men and women accused of awful crimes. Surely, Arthur had the ability to follow a simple cookie recipe. What was that website his best friend and colleague, Gwen, was always talking about, the one with all those recipes on it? Since becoming engaged to Leon, Gwen spent her lunch hour perusing that site for wedding menus. Pinterest! That was it.
"Of course, my Ava, we can make cookies." That was Arthur's pet name for his little girl, my Ava. "Let's look up a recipe. What kind would you like to make?"
"Halloween kinds! Ghosts and punkins and leafs and skells."
"Skells?"
"Daddy! Skells." She pointed up at the Halloween window cling shaped like a skull.
"Yes, of course. Let's get the tablet from the office so we can find a good recipe."
Arthur rose, took Ava's hand, and they wandered down the hallway to the home office. He took a seat at the desk and pulled Ava into his lap, where he turned on the tablet and they perused the many, many recipes for Halloween cookies on Pinterest. It was perfect! There were so many choices: crisp sugar cookies, chewy chocolate chip cookies, cookies shaped like goblin fingers, and of course, ones shaped like ghosts, pumpkins, leaves, and skulls. This didn't seem so difficult. He and Ava would bake up these cookies and surprise Merlin with them later. Hopefully, Merlin would feel well enough to sample one.
"All right, let's bring the tablet into the kitchen and gather up everything we need."
"We need bowls and food and spoons and eggs," Ava announced, as she bounded down the hallway and into the kitchen.
Tablet in hand, Arthur scanned the recipes as he entered the kitchen. He read the necessary ingredients out loud. "Flour, sugar, butter, brown sugar, vanilla, confectioner's sugar, baking soda, baking powder, eggs, vanilla… I think we have most of that." But then he saw odd ingredients, such as chia seeds, ghee, gluten-free plantain flour, organic, fair-trade cacao, cashew milk... "I'm not sure we have all this," he muttered, "but we can improvise."
Arthur settled Ava in a seat at the kitchen table while he collected the ingredients from the pantry and cupboards. Once all the bowls, spoons, dry and wet goods were in place on the table, Ava announced, "I crack eggs."
"Good idea, sweetheart. We need four eggs cracked into the biggest bowl."
She picked up an egg, grinned, crushed the whole thing in her hand, then dumped it into the bowl, shell and all. "Just like daddy does!" she said. "He crack eggs just like this!"
"Um, no, I don't think he does it like that…"
But before Arthur had the chance to stop her, Ava crushed three more eggs. Arthur grabbed up the hand sanitizer wipes and cleaned her, then spent the next fifteen minutes picking shards of eggshell out of the bowl.
"Oh, I forgot to preheat the oven," said Arthur. Absently, he pressed the "temperature up" button on their stainless steel wall oven, and returned to the table to measure dry ingredients. As he measured and poured, Ava stirred carefully. There. This wasn't so hard. Good ol' Pinterest!
"I doing a good job, daddy?" asked Ava with a smile as she stirred.
"Yes, you're doing an excellent job!"
She giggled, then sneezed right into the mixing bowl. A long string of snot dropped into the dough, but Ava kept stirring.
"Oh, boy." Arthur retrieved a tissue from the countertop and wiped Ava's nose. "It's best not to tell daddy about that."
Ava nodded. "Daddy is sick," she said gravely.
"Yes, he is."
She dropped her wooden spoon and started sniffling, then wailing. "Daddy might die!"
"What?" Arthur took a knee in front of her chair and held her. "No, no. Daddy is not going to die."
Ava gazed at him with hopeful eyes. "Ever?"
Arthur hated questions like this, because he didn't like lying, but he also didn't want to upset his daughter needlessly. "Daddy won't die for a very long time, not until you're old and have your own family."
This statement seemed to calm Ava, and she resumed her stirring. "Okay. I make cookies for daddy."
"Good idea. He'll love them."
"And know what else, daddy? I be a knight for Halloween, with a sword, AND a pink dress!"
"What a great idea," said Arthur with a smile, picturing his daughter clad in plastic armor with a frilly dress poking out the bottom. "But for now, keep stirring."
Finally, the dough was sufficiently mixed. Arthur spread flour (not plantain flour) all over the kitchen table, and he and Ava rolled out the dough with a rolling pin. They didn't have cookie cutters, so with a sharp paring knife, Arthur tried to cut the dough into Halloween shapes. Yet rather than leaves, skulls, and pumpkins, the cookies looked like lopsided dogs or maimed hands. However, Ava professed she loved them, so after arranging the treats on baking sheets, Arthur popped the cookies into the oven.
While the treats baked, Arthur opened a new app on the tablet, one where he and Ava could decorate and carve digital pumpkins. The two of them became engrossed in designing an elaborate blue pumpkin when the piercing shriek of the kitchen smoke detector sounded. Moments later, a thick stream of black smoke poured from the oven and spread throughout the kitchen. Yes, the cookies were ablaze
Arthur knew better than to open the oven and allow the flames to leap out, so instead, he flung open the kitchen door, turned on the ceiling fan, and waved the tablet in the air to help the smoke dissipate.
Ava sat in her seat, covered her ears, and cried.
"Hells bells," muttered Arthur, fanning the air furiously with the tablet. He turned to Ava, whose red, terrified face was streaked with tears. "It's all right, Ava, I promise…"
Seconds later, Merlin – pale, red-nosed, and bleary eyed – rushed into the kitchen. His eyes scanned the room, taking in the flour-and-sugar-covered disaster. Merlin swept a sobbing Ava up into his arms.
"Arthur, what's going on?"
Arthur felt awful for waking Merlin. The poor man stood there in plaid pajama bottoms, a rumpled white t-shirt, his black hair standing every which way.
"Uh, cookies," replied Arthur, still fanning the air with the tablet.
Merlin, bouncing Ava on his hip, wandered over to the oven. "Arthur! The display says 500°!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!" Merlin jabbed his finger at the oven's "power off" button. "Did you use a recipe?"
"Of course!"
"Did you think they meant 325° Celsius? Because that would be over 600° Fahrenheit, and our oven doesn't even go that high." Merlin chuckled. "How long have we lived in America? We use Fahrenheit here."
Arthur shrugged. "I forgot. I am so sorry I woke you." He pressed his lips to Merlin's forehead. "Hey, your fever's down."
"No, don't kiss me. I don't want you to catch anything."
"I kiss daddy, too," said Ava, now calm, since the smoke detector had stopped wailing.
"No, sweetie. I don't want you to get my yucky germs," said Merlin.
"Daddy..." Ava studied Merlin's face. "I see the big green snots up your nose."
Arthur burst out laughing.
"Nice, from the man who almost burned down the house," said Merlin with feign displeasure. "And please put the tablet down before that ends up as a casualty, too."
Arthur placed the tablet down on the kitchen table, and Merlin glanced at the screen.
"Pinterest, eh? That's a dangerous website."
"So I've learned."
"Daddy?" said Ava to Merlin, resting her head on his shoulder. "We have no cookies now."
"What about pizza instead?" asked Arthur. "Doesn't that sound good?"
She picked up her head and smiled. "With olives?"
"Big, Halloween-ish black olives."
Arthur collected Ava from Merlin's arms. "Are you well enough for a bite of pizza?"
Merlin ran his fingers through his dark, rumpled hair. "I think so. Do you mind if we eat it in bed, though?"
Arthur and Merlin often bickered over this topic. Arthur hated the notion of eating in bed, especially when he'd once picked a piece of popcorn out of his ear after Merlin had indulged in a pre-bedtime bowl. But after the cookie disaster, Arthur had little right to complain.
"Sure." Arthur pulled his cell phone out of the rear pocket of his jeans. "I'll call in the order."
"Pizza in bed! Yay!" cheered Ava, climbing down from Arthur's arms. "I get napkins."
While Merlin and Ava settled into bed, Arthur called in the order. Within half an hour, the pizza delivery boy arrived with one large pie. The boy coughed once Arthur opened the door, presumably from the strong odor of incinerated cookies wafting from the house. Arthur handed the boy a large tip.
Arthur gathered up paper plates and bottles of water, and joined Merlin and Ava in the master bedroom. The two were already snuggled beneath the covers, and Ava clutched a large stash of napkins, which was probably a wise idea.
As Arthur doled out pizza slices and water, Ava said, "Daddy, can we watch a very scary Halloween movie?"
Arthur grinned. "Such as?"
"Charlie Brown and the BIG pumpkin movie?" Ava flashed a hopeful smile.
"Good choice. That's a classic," said Arthur.
He set up the DVD, clicked off the bedside lamp, and eased into bed next to his gorgeous little girl and his half-sick husband. But before he indulged in his pizza slice, Arthur tied Ava's hair back with a ponytail holder; her locks were growing so long. She was going to be a real beauty one day with those light eyes, long dark hair, and olive-toned skin.
"Press play, please daddy," said Ava with her mouth full, having taken a too-large bite of pizza.
The movie started, and there Arthur and Merlin sat in bed with Ava sandwiched in between them, covered in warm blankets, eating mediocre pizza off paper plates as they watched a children's film. Arthur couldn't help but chuckle. Years ago, Arthur and Merlin would have been hosting a wild Halloween party where people drank too much and dressed in skimpy costumes, but Arthur thought this was a million times more enjoyable.
By the flickering light of the big-screen television, Arthur grabbed Merlin's hand and gazed at him. Maybe, just maybe, Arthur was ready to open his heart and home to another child. He and Merlin had discussed this before, but not recently. Perhaps now was the time.
"I think I'm ready for another one," whispered Arthur, trying to not disturb Ava.
"Another one?" asked Merlin with confusion.
"Another child."
Merlin's gaped at Arthur. "Really?" He leaned over Ava and kissed Arthur square on the lips. "This is what you want? That makes me so happy. Let's do it. I'll call the social worker in the morning…"
"Yuck, no kissy, daddies!" giggled Ava. "And no talking. We watch movie!"
Arthur pulled Ava close, and she smiled up at him.
"I love you, my Ava," he said.
She leaned up and kissed his cheek. "I love you too, daddy." Ava then turned to her left and kissed Merlin's cheek. "And I love you, daddy."
Arthur's heart swelled. These moments with his family were to be cherished, and he'd make sure to appreciate every last one.
Love was a precious gift.
THE END