IDOM

Here's a little modern AU that definitely takes place after my coming divergence of 5x13 :)

"I really don't see why I still have to be your servant. It's the 21st century, for Goddess's sake, Arthur!" Merlin grumbled. Arthur, for his part, didn't even bother to hide the smirk that broke out on his face, as he signed another paper.

"You're not my servant, Merlin. You're my personal assistant. There is a difference, you realize?" Arthur replied calmly, not even bothering to look up as he pushed away the sheets of paper he finally finished signing. Turning on his Mac, he leaned back in his office chair, interlacing his fingers together while resting his arms on the chair's arm rests, finally looking up to regard his harried friend.

"Sure. If by difference you mean an extra word, then yes, Arthur. There is a difference. But is there a difference in anything apart from the job name? No!" Merlin exclaimed, setting down a cup of 'coffee' with a pointed glare. Arthur winced as the dark liquid sloshed against the edges of the cups, a few drops spraying onto the glass desk. At least Merlin had remembered the coaster this time.

"You don't have to do my bed anymore," Arthur pointed out, his tone helpful but his face teasing, as he took a napkin and swiftly wiped away the droplets.

Merlin opened his mouth as if to counter the statement, before shutting his mouth, then opened it again.

"Well I don't. But you have someone else to do it for you, along with cleaning your entire house," he said.

Arthur raised an eyebrow as he leaned back, this time with the mug in his hands. "Isn't that the point?" He asked, pausing to take a sip of his 'coffee'. Caffeinated blood, more like. Still did the job, just as well, if not better though. "As my personal assistant, you don't do my bed. Had you been my servant, I'd have been paying you monthly instead of the cleaning services," Arthur said, speaking slowly as if talking to a child.

Catching onto his own blunder, Merlin finally just decided to blind Arthur - thankfully, not literally - with one of his cheeky grins before swooping up the papers Arthur had finished signing a moment ago into one arm.

"Will you be wanting me to fax a copy of this to Morg-Katie, then, Arthur?" Arthur nodded, too busy taking a longer gulp of his drink to give a verbal reply. He didn't say anything of the darker haired man's blunder, though. The duo were still trying to recover from the initial shock of seeing an exact look alike of Morgana - minus the medieval clothing - walking into Dragon's Inc. (owned by none other than Arthur, of course) who, for all intents and purposes, acted exactly as Arthur's half sister would. Before she went all hell intent on murdering everyone, that is.

Instead, with the same fierceness that was so akin to his sister that Arthur felt a pang in his chest just thinking about it, Katie had her mindset on making sure her goals were accomplished. And this time, it was to further expand and ensure her own company, Serpents Corp. survival, success and high profiting. By starting a partnership with Arthur's business.

So when Katie had sat down in one of Arthur's meeting rooms, her own PA, whom Katie referred to as 'Angeline, but Angel for short' - and both Merlin and Arthur had to keep biting their tongues to avoid calling either of the women by the wrong names. With the sharpness of their teeth in particular, by the end of the day, there tongues were definitely sore and bleeding - standing behind her, Arthur and Merlin felt a strange sort of deja vu, barely registering Katie's words as she laid out her plans, terms and conditions for a partnership.

And the way she spoke, the way she behaved, Arthur couldn't believe that it wasn't his sister that sat in front of him, with her back casually slouched, and yet alert and poised at the same time, with her relaxed tone but her sharp, assessing gaze. He wasn't sure if her had trouble believing or not that this was no longer the woman hell bent on ruining his life and legacy. Well, he highly doubted the former, but the latter he had at that moment yet to see. But it was so far clear that neither women had any recollections of who Arthur was before he started donning tuxes or jeans. But then again, perhaps Katie did, but Morgana had been an excellent actress, even in her time.

But now, with the official documents signed, Arthur was ready to start a shared partnership with the person who looked and behaved like his sister, with the hopes that he could one day form a relationship like that once again. But this time, avoid going wrong wherever it was like he did then, and try not to let her kill him.

Though he doubted that no matter what, she'd be anywhere close to being able to get rid of him this time around, what with being a vampire and all. He wondered if she still had her magic, though she probably couldn't be anywhere near a match for Merlin, who after all these centuries, had so much time to practice his magic that Arthur was sure the warlock could not completely wipe away the planet's existence with just a thought, should he wish to.

On the other hand, there was also the woman who was once his wife…

"-Not listening to me are you? Fine. I have a daughter. And she's an adult. And she plans on making her wicked way with you," Arthur blinked, his thoughts returning to the present and refocusing his gaze on Merlin from over the top of his mug - his now empty mug, he noted sadly. It was such a good cuppa too, and - he took a sniff - O blood group. His favorite.

"You're going to have to pardon me for not being interested with someone centuries younger than me, Merlin."

The warlock blinked, and Arthur was sure that had it been possible, he would have blushed as well.

"Oh of course now you pay attention. Anyway, I was saying-"

"You don't really have a daughter though, do you?" Arthur couldn't help himself, as he asked. He didn't regret it though, not after seeing the myriad of emotions tumbling through Merlin's face, from confusion to shock to embarrassment, and all the others in between.

"No! Goddess, no! I was just seeing if you were paying attention, like I said. Anyway," he repeated, clearing his throat. "After I fax these, we're to have a board meeting with your branch managers today at eleven AM, but before that you told me to remind you to send an email to Mr. Gallifrey about finally deciding on who you've wanted to appoint as the executive assistant, which you shall be informing everyone today at the one PM meeting, consisting of the Vice Presidents-" Arthur tuned out the rest of Merlin's words. He had already memorized his schedule for today, but his attention was lost the moment Merlin mentioned the email. Right. He planned to get to that one immediately.

As soon as Merlin brought him another one of those special coffees.

Arthur sighed, swirling around his 'pomegranate juice' in its cup, staring with vague wonder at the tiny, almost minuscule bubbles that didn't escape his enhanced eyesight when they formed if he gently sloshed the juice against the sides of his cup - much more carefully than Merlin had been with his coffee that morning, especially as he was holding his cup near his meeting's papers - as opposed to the slight downward incline resembling the beginnings of a tornado if he swirled his cup.

"They're all here Arthur," Merlin muttered from his side, not even bothering to lower himself to Arthur's ears, knowing that the fellow vampire would be able to hear him anyway.

Taking that as his cue, Arthur straightened his tie, standing up to regard all the men and women who entered. Apart from Katie and Angel, the former who was present for the meeting and sitting at the opposite end of the table with the latter standing behind her, there weren't any other faces that had come back from their last, so the faces who looked back at him in this room were of those he had accumulated over his time in building his career as of this century so far. In a few years though, despite all of Merlin's sleights to make it look as if the two Camelotians were aging, there would either come a time when Arthur's 'son' would take over the career, or when Arthur handed his company to someone else and let himself start anew, with Merlin always loyally by his side.

Of course, the two had had their skirmishes and would temporarily separate over the times, but they had always gotten back together by the end, not necessarily as King and his servant, or even warlock, but more as Arthur Pendragon, and his friend, Merlin.

"Alright. Good afternoon," there was a small murmur as everyone returned his greeting, before he continued.

"I'd like to keep this meeting short, as I'm aware you've all most likely just come from lunch and are probably getting ready to fall asleep from full stomachs," there were a few abashed grins that passed around, while Katie rolled her eyes. "We'll start with this," Arthur opened his file and took out a printed copy of his conversation with Mr. Gallifrey, along with another document. "As most of you should know, for as long as Dragons Inc. has been in business, we have yet to fill the executive assistant's post, and I have come to a decision as to who should be appointed for that role," he waited for a moment, watching as a couple of faces had turned into barely concealed greed for the role, making a mental note as to enquire those people's positions in his company, before turning around to face Merlin.

"Congratulations, Colin. You've been promoted."

He couldn't help but grin, watching Merlin just blink for a moment, doing a double take as he re-processed Arthur's words. Without waiting much for a reply, he turned back to the Vice Presidents and Katie, watching in amusement as those who had looked greedy now either looked angry, a few people looked a bit crestfallen, but majority of the group seemed to be nodding in approval of Arthur's choice.

Katie, just regarded Merlin with a cool gaze, as if to re-assess whatever she had thought of him earlier.

"Moving on…"

"You've made me executive assistant," Merlin deadpanned, the moment Arthur's office door shut behind him.

Arthur sat back in his chair, looked up at Merlin.

"Yes," he answered simply.

Merlin didn't say anything, just raising his eyebrows as he looked at Arthur hopelessly, gesturing him to elaborate.

Arthur sighed, giving in. "Frankly, you've been complaining about being a personal assistant so much, I thought that this should help shut you up."

Merlin stared at him as if Arthur had suddenly gone and gotten himself enchanted. Actually, he had a feeling that Merlin was going to want to check him to make sure that he wasn't under a spell, later.

"But executive assistant? Seriously, Arthur? Do you know how much more of a workload you've just assigned for me?"

Arthur burst out laughing.

"Oh, and you'll be getting your own office too!" He managed to say, before another wave of laughter overcame him.

I'm thinking of another chapter… maybe world war era or maybe just as Arthur and Merlin being firefighters or something, just anything that sort of expounds on the idea of both of them with vampiric abilities and living for longer, as I feel like this didn't really cover that. Any ideas on what timeline or how it should go? I'm welcome to prompts!

But as it is… in done with this now. This fic will be marked as complete, but who knows, maybe I might come back to it?