So this is based of a prompt called canvases which can be found at spacealtie on tumblr. Um its not what they prompt asked for specifically. But I tried. I wanted Merlin tattooed, and I really wanted to write him as an artist. I've never written Merthur before, and its not my main ship so sorry if it is disappointing to anyone.

Merlin had always liked art. It was just an extension of who he was. He'd probably be happy if he could make a paintbrush and official extension of his hand. He had been accepted to the school on a full scholarship. It really was a blessing in disguise because he wouldn't have been able to afford it on his own, he'd be stuck teaching classes at the local community center, in Ealdor. Which basically meant helping the three people who actually attended the class that 10 had signed up for.

Merlin got the scholarship once his art got noticed. In his last year of school. He was working on his final project, it was historical castles in the UK, and pairing them with figures from Arthurian legend, mainly because he loved Arthurian legend, and he got to do a self portrait of him as Merlin, minus the big pointy hat. It was totally a thing for vanity. But he didn't care.

The project got three awards, and then someone bought the entire collection. When he met the buyer he got scared the man was named Uther Pendragon. Merlin had talked to his friend about he did it just because of his name, but his friend pointed out that Merlin really had no place to talk. Merlin was scared though because he didn't paint the Arthurian legend Uther in the brightest of light, and it was obvious. He was just glad the man seemed to like the paintings. It was then he also found out that Uther was in line for the throne as was his son.

Merlin was happy when it was all over, he could go on trying to figure out what to do for his life. He applied for scholarships and schools. And when he was granted a scholarship for art at a prestigious school, he accepted. He was going to go to school, and do what he wanted, and then when he was old and couldn't paint commissions any more, that was when he would teach people.

After he sold his final project collection he was commissioned to do two paintings. One was a portrait, which he hated doing with every sense of his being. The other was just a dragon, and the person who wanted it remained anonymous, had seen his final project, and told him to go crazy. So that is what he did.

He had finished it a few weeks into the semester, and was carrying it out of the building. It was raining. And he wanted to curse something. He had to hurry to the bus stop with his giant painting, and while trying not to get himself wet. Merlin hated getting wet, he was the weirdest person ever, he took the quickest showers he could, and baths were out of the question. Merlin had once decided to not shower at all, he had looked into alternatives. He lasted about a week, before his teachers and mother scolded him, and his friend Will told him he was going to throw him into the lake and watch him flail if he didn't shower. Merlin showered.

So Merlin was making his way trying to not drop the painting when someone bumped into him. The painting fell, thankfully the covering on it, kept it dry, and it fell face up. Nothing was ruined. He however landed in a puddle on his butt. "Watch where you're going, mate."

Merlin was holding in his anger, "Mate, we aren't mates, you should probably do the same you idiot."

Merlin glared at the blond man, and went to picking up his painting, "Well why don't you continue on running like there is a stick up your ass, I have places to be."

Merlin was on his way, and the blond man watched him. He made his way to the bus stop, and soon he was headed to his apartment. He planned on wrapping himself in a fuzzy towel and sitting in front of a fire, til he was dry. Sitting on the bus he could smell the wet, and it irked him.

A few days had passed, he had the painting framed, and shipped it off to the buyer. The address was in the UK. He wondered where they were. It was a step closer to getting his artwork on the walls of the museum.

He was in one of his lecture classes, and the lecturer was discussing the different types of things that could be considered art, or took a lot of artistic ability. Tattoos were brought up. And Merlin was inspired. The talk went on for the entire rest of the lecture, apparently the teacher was a tattoo artist himself. He worked at a shop called The Rising Sun. He was able to discuss the difficulties of the medium, and many other things.

Merlin had decided he wanted a tattoo. He didn't know when he would get one, or of what. But he could hold off on that. He needed money, and the money from his last commission was going to go his rent, and food for the month. Living was very important; he also contemplated buying a hair dryer too. Towel drying just wasn't all too affective.

Tattoo or not, Merlin was still very much inspired. That night he began a new painting. He was able to afford paint supplies because he had had created a checking account for them when his mother found he first really liked painting. She added in a few dollars every month, and it all added up. He also was notorious for stealing from the school, not like they minded, and there Merlin traps didn't work. He was a promising student, even his mentor said so.

So he painted a man's arm, and began painting armor on it, but like it would be tattooed. He thought of a new collection. He would paint different body parts like that. But not all with armor, he thought one he could do as a robot, and another as the actual human body. He knew these weren't to entirely original. But he thought it was a unique idea. So he worked well into the night on his first piece. The arm of armor.

A few days later, and he was getting tea at a nearby café. He had been sitting for a while, doodling in his notebook. He thought about doing it on the coffee cup, but he refused to be that hipster. He wasn't a hipster, and he didn't like to get wet. He was the epitome of what a cat was, but he was most certainly not a cat. He wasn't even a cat person, he had always wanted a dachshund.

He was actually drawing one right now, sipping his tea. It was raining again, he picked the wrong place to live for not liking to get wet. The door dinged, and a person he had seen before, but he couldn't remember where from was now in the queue.

Merlin went back to drawing, and then he heard someone walk over, "You're that clumsy bloke that ran into me, aren't you?"

Merlin looked up, and he remembered, blondy. "No, I believe you were the running doing all the running. You almost ruined my painting by the way."

Blondy sat down, "Not like it was important. You're just a student."

Merlin's eyes narrowed and he let his pen rest, "No, it wasn't important, it was just a commission for someone. He had already waited for the piece for a few months, because I had to put it off due to another commission. It took me a month to paint, so no it wasn't important. It was a dragon that I couldn't redo even if I wanted to."

Blondy froze, "Wait you painted that?"

Merlin tilted his head, "How the hell would know?"

"I bought it."

Merlin had been taking a sip of his tea, and he choked on it. "What?"

"Sorry for being anonymous, and all about it. Name's Arthur."

"So you're about being anonymous, but not for running into me?"

"No that was all your fault."

Merlin glared and rolled his eyes. "You don't have to be an ass about it, just admit it. If I had run into you, you'd have been the one on the ground."

"Do I not get to know your name, and besides you couldn't knock a feather over even if you tried."

"You know my name, arse."

"Right, Merlin, like the bird."

"Or the wizard. My mum likes Arthurian legend, as do I. Did a whole series on it."

Arthur sat and listened to Merlin babble about art for a while. When he checked his watch. He was late, "Sorry got to go."

Merlin hadn't even realized that he had been talking, and was surprised that Arthur hadn't interrupted. He wondered if the blond man could even understand what he was talking about. He wondered if Arthur could even follow the conversation.

He heard Arthur call out to the Barista Gwen to call some guy named Gwaine that he was going to be late because his mobile was dead.

Merlin went home and finished the arm painting. He brought it to his lecture the next day to show the professor, and ask if it was correct. He didn't have any experience with tattoos so he wanted to make sure he was portraying them accurately. The teacher smiled, flipped his hair. "That's amazing, I'd like to have it."

Merlin held the painting tentatively, the man did half inspire the painting. "Em, it was going to be part of a series."

The professor nodded. "Of course, that would be my luck."

Merlin thought for a minute or two, "But you can have it."

The professor looked at him, "Not if you plan on making it into a series, I want to see the whole thing."

Merlin nodded, he could work with that. He had already started on the next piece anyways.

A few weeks later, and Merlin had finished the next two pieces. His teacher asked about them, and Merlin showed him pictures on his phone. After a few months Merlin had finished, and brought them to the professor's office hours.

He had never seen the guys office, but it truly was unique, and the man was drinking whiskey, which he was almost certain was against school rules. But then again the man wasn't really teaching the curriculum that he was supposed to, so he figured that he really didn't care to much about rules.

"Now Merlin, you told me I could have the paintings, but I really rather pay for them."

"You haven't even seen them, they might be awful."

The professor smiled, "If they are awful, then I am Jack Daniels."

Merlin laughed, and began to show the teacher the paintings. "I got inspired by that one lecture where we were discussing different mediums."

Gwaine looked at the picture of the torso; it was really a man's back, "Where did you get the inspiration for the body in this one."

Merlin shrugged, it'd been Arthur really. He had seen him a few more times, once running, and a few times at the coffee shop. They still couldn't agree over who caused their first little incident. But they could talk. Merlin had also found out that Arthur did know about art and more than he let on. He found that Arthur was in school for business, but worked in a tattoo parlor against his father's wishes. He also found out his father was the same person who bought his works of Arthurian legend. Which is how he found Merlin and was able to ask him for the commission. "Just some bloke I saw running," was Merlin's answer.

"Say, why don't you come down to the parlor, its where I want these anyways. You can tell me how they should be installed."

Merlin nodded, and then he got an idea, "I know how you can pay me for them."

"Name your price."

"Give me a tattoo. I've not been able to afford one, nor have I any idea about what I want. But that's how you can pay me."

The professor smiled. "Well, sounds like we have a deal."

It was a week before he could actually go to the tattoo parlor and help install the paintings. The place he quickly found out was a bar that his professor had frequented and was not happy that it was closing. So he repurposed it. Sounds more and more like him every day. When he saw Arthur walk in he was a bit in shock, the man had no tattoos, then he realized that that Arthur had told him he worked in a tattoo parlor.

Merlin sighed, he should have seen this coming from miles away. He should have not been stupid. He knew his professor's name was Gwaine. He knew Arthur worked for a Gwaine. He was stupid, and idiot Arthur would call him, because Arthur seemed to prefer that over his real name, Merlin didn't seem to mind.

Merlin helped Gwaine install the painting, "Sorry Merlin, I have to go to some stupid seminar, apparently Gaius is about to tell the administration that I keep vodka in my office, and I must go and stop him. Arthur here can give you your tattoo though."

Arthur's head popped up, "What?"

Gwaine turned around, "You'll get compensation, I said I'd give him a tattoo as payment for the art."

Arthur had stopped what he was doing and looked at the wall. The art was pretty impressive. He sighed, "Fine, but no need to pay me Gwaine."

Gwaine smiled, "Suit yourself," and he headed out the door.

"So, any idea what you want, Merlin. Perhaps something like what you painted."

Merlin shook his head, "No, all that's too generic, accept for maybe the armor one. I could see you with that though." Arthur was looking at the torso one with interest. He had noticed the arm, and if he were to disobey his father and mar his body that was totally how he was going to do it.

Then he got an idea, "Do you trust me?"

Merlin shook his head, "No."

Arthur turned Merlin around. "Sure you do."

Merlin turned back around, "No, I'm pretty sure I don't."

"Stay still. You'll love this."

Arthur sat Merlin in one of the chairs as he worked on the design, he was going to put it on Merlin's back, and it would probably take more than one trip to get it done, but he was going to do it, and he knew Merlin was going to say yes. After about an hour he showed Merlin the design. Merlin looked at him, "This is surprisingly good."

"Gwaine wouldn't have hired me if I was anything but the best."

Merlin rolled his eyes, "Is that why he didn't hire me?"

"Shut up, Merlin."

The tattoo took three trips to finish, because Merlin's pain tolerance was not good. Arthur laughed at him, til Merlin pointed out that he had no tattoos. Merlin and he talked as he was given the tattoo. And the finished produce was a Merlin spread eagled on his back. It was the bird, and Merlin had loved the idea of it.

After the tattoo was finished Arthur asked him to dinner. They weren't really sure what their relationship was, if it even was something. Soon after, Merlin became a staple in the tattoo parlor, he helped some of the artists peg down particularly difficult designs.

Merlin had been painting at home, and he finally finished a piece. He told Arthur about it, and Arthur wanted to see it. Sure enough, Arthur was very much a fan of it. Merlin said he couldn't have it.

And then Merlin got an idea. "Do you trust me?" he asked.

"No." Arthur said, Merlin rolled his eyes, and made Arthur sit on the floor. "Take your shirt off."

Arthur looked at him. "What? You are more insane than normal, Merlin."

Merlin was busy with paints, "No I am perfectly sane, just trust me alright."

Merlin came back with paint, and he looked at Arthur, "Are you going to teach me to pain?" the blond man asked.

Merlin shook his head, "No, I'm going to paint, and you're going to let me."

"What?" Merlin shut him up when the brush hit Arthur's body. Merlin was going to use him as a canvas.

"Tattoo artists aren't the only ones who can use people."

Arthur glared at him, "This will come off right?"

"I asked you to take your shirt off for a reason, dollophead."

"Dollophead?"

"Yes, dollophead."

Arthur just rolled his eyes. Soon enough he found out Merlin was a messy painter, because the man's shirt got dirty. Merlin growled, he rather liked this shirt, and took it off. Both men shirtless, and whatever Merlin was painting was taking shape.

Merlin was sitting in between Arthur's legs, as he continued to paint on the man's chest, and a little bit on the arm. Merlin was painting a dragon. Arthur soon realized. Merlin got closer to Arthur as he continued to pain, and was getting more intricate with the details.

Merlin had set the brush down, and was looking at what he had done when Arthur decided it was time for a break, he took Merlin's face with his hands, and kissed him. Merlin was a bit taken back but returned the kiss none the less. He only broke it to say, "Don't you dare ruin my painting."

"I haven't yet, now have I," Arthur smirked, and kissed Merlin before the other could retort.