Arthur usually preferred Christmas Day alone with the dogs. Around that significant day he did 'drinks' at his house for various people but in carefully controlled numbers. Gwen and the dog walkers came as a mob, which the dogs loved as Christmas toys and treats came as standard. And he managed to cope with his father, and Morgana, as a pair. Gaius usually dropped by, and the neighbours sometimes came in.
The dogs probably had no comprehension of the sudden movement in the house, but it came with treats and attention, so they were happy. Arthur always opened the door and politely listened to the carol singers, who knew Arthur's house was a place to go. He took a decent amount of time to listen, and put good money into the charity pots, and it amused the dogs. Gwaine, naturally, joined in, howling along with the singers, and much to one group's amusement got cut off abruptly when Lancelot got bored and batted him on the head. Arthur had to cut that visit short as he shut the door on the singers and went to separate the now rowing dogs.
Merlin took it with his usual bemusement, but as long as he could hang about near Arthur he was fine. As a general rule, moments of severe stress could be noted by the carrying of the red hoodie. Merlin now kept it in the basket, or upstairs at night. But he had coped with the invasions, and strange behaviour, well.
Christmas had it's order in Arthur's life, which meant as he answered the door and saw Morgana unscheduled, he felt a little stunned.
"Hi," Arthur said tentatively. Morgana looked angry, which meant she was nervous, and she held a tin in front of her as if it could act as a shield.
"I came without dad," she announced; although that much was obvious.
"Right, come in," Arthur said. Morgana tentatively came over the threshold, looking around as she realised there were no dogs, other than Merlin, who had followed Arthur and sat looking up from him to Morgana. She looked down at him tentatively and then looked around as she heard laugher from Arthur's lounge.
"Oh, I didn't realise you had people!" Morgana hesitated slightly, stunned into immobility. She had never been in Arthur's house with other people.
"It's only the dog lot," Arthur said to her sounding slightly amused at her discomfort. Morgana generally seemed so poised in social situations, it was Arthur that usually had trouble.
"Don't worry, they don't bite."
Morgana glowered at him, but allowed the hand Arthur had on her back to guide her towards the lounge.
"Funny!"
"What? Oh, I see! Not on purpose," Arthur said as he realised the pun. "Mind out Gwaine!" he added as the dog nearly got himself spiked on Morgana's heels. Arthur positioned Morgana carefully, who stared down at the milling dogs nervously, then up at the people in the room as Arthur said.
"Guys this is my sister Morgana; and this is Elyan, Elena and Mithian my dog walkers and I think you might have met Gwen, the vet."
Gwen smiled. "Yes, we have met. Hi."
She didn't move, Morgana noted, as Gwen had Lancelot sat at her feet, resting his chin on her leg, eyes looking up at her in adoration. And, Morgana noted, was drooling onto her jeans, not that Gwen cared. Morgana felt pain for the denim that was suffering, but she knew Gwen's jeans were not an expensive kind. Then Morgana felt mean for judging her on that scale. All that ran through her head in seconds, and she felt hot, and nervous, and things that she never often felt. Dealing with Arthur on his own was difficult but fine, now she had people that liked Arthur and that made it harder work which made Morgana feel even worse for thinking such a thing. Her brother was nice, and likeable.
"For Gods sake, Gwaine!" Arthur said, using his foot to push the curious Westie out of the way of Morgana's heels.
Looking down Morgana watched the white fluffy body dart out of the way of Arthur's guiding foot, then Gwaine turned to look up at her curiously, tail wagging, head tilted as he assessed her potential for fussing over him.
"I brought biscuits," Morgana said. "I baked them myself."
"Nice," Elyan said.
"For the dogs," Morgana added.
"You baked dog biscuits!" Elena shrieked in delight. "Brilliant! How do you do that?"
"Look on the internet and you can find anything."
"That is so lovely, and sweet," Elena said. "I wouldn't make that much effort and I love dogs and pets and it's my job!"
"Have you made us any?" Elyan asked hopefully.
"Well, to be honest I think when it comes to Arthur he might just... oh, seriously!"
She raised her tone, and voice, as Arthur opened the tin, picked out a biscuit and bit off the end, chewing thoughtfully.
"Would," Morgana carried on. "snack on dog biscuits anyway!"
Arthur looked surprised, chewed the small amount of biscuit and then swallowed it.
"I've done it before. They're proper dog biscuits," he said of Morgana's contribution.
"That really is weird Arthur," Elena said.
"Is it?" an innocent faced Arthur announced, looking down at the biscuit, genuinely very confused.
"Seriously have you tried all your dog's food?" Mithian asked, although she seemed to know the answer.
"Most of it," Arthur said casually. Gwaine watched, ran at him and launched himself up on his hind legs to such an extent that he overbalanced himself and rolled onto his back. The dog minders roared with laughter, Gwaine recovered and ran in a circle before coming back to Morgana. Feeling a little sorry for the dog, as the humans in the room laughed and she picked a biscuit from the tin leaning down to offer it to Gwaine. He sniffed it, wagged his tail, looked at the other dogs before grabbing the biscuit and running off. Leon and Percival looked at Morgana, tails moving gently, ears pricked as they slowly slunk forward. Gwaine grunted in satisfaction as he started to chomp on the treat.
"They're a hit," Arthur said as he handed the one he had partly eaten to Leon and gave another to Percival. He gave one to Gwen to give to Lancelot and then Arthur crouched down to Merlin. Arthur gave it to the lurcher, who took it in his jaws and hung onto it for a moment. Straightening up Arthur looked at Morgana.
"Sit down, I'll get you a drink, what would you like."
Morgana perched on the edge of a chair. "Just an orange juice, I'm driving," she said quickly. Arthur nodded.
"Okay, hang on." Arthur put the tin down on the table and wandered off to find what Morgana wanted. Elena reached in to distract Gwaine from hassling Morgana, she broke the biscuit up and started to tease the little dog, who went into a round of excited barking. Morgana thought it slightly mean but she couldn't really correct Elena, who clearly knew more than she did, and Gwaine didn't seem distressed.
"That box is lovely," Mithian said, more to fill the pause to ease Morgana than actually wanting to voice it.
"Very Christmassy, I couldn't find anything like that for love nor money," Elyan said. He looked embarrassed as Gwen raised her eyebrows.
"I keep them from other Christmases' and then reuse them. I'm sure I have a few Easter ones as well," Morgana said fiddling with the hem of her skirt at the same time. She relaxed her shoulders as Arthur returned with a glass of orange juice and the rest of the carton sitting in an ice bucket.
"It's just a sneaky way to not use wrapping paper," Arthur informed her.
"It also looks nice," Elena said. "I might have to start doing that."
"Boxes are good as well," Morgana said. "There is a girl in the admin pool who makes them, and decorates things, made to measure."
"Is that the one going on honeymoon?"
"Yes," Morgana said, a low blush starting to cover her cheeks. Arthur looked away, reaching to the orange carton to top up Morgana's half-full glass. The other clearly realised there was something going on between the siblings that they didn't want to talk about.
Gwaine distracted everyone by leaping into Elena's lap.
"There's nothing wrong with buying your Secret Santa recipient something nice."
"She said she couldn't afford a second week, but I made sure she got some inclusive deals for the week she was there," Morgana said, almost defensively to her brother. Arthur shrugged, picking up another dog biscuit, breaking it into pieces.
"Sounds nice, surely she appreciated it," he said before looked down at the dog at his feet. "Merlin?"
Merlin took the biscuit bit with his tail wagging. All four pairs of eyes stopped looking at the two Pendragon's and they went to the dog instead. Merlin snuggled close to Arthur as he chomped on the dog biscuit. Gwen reached to get another one for Lancelot. On Elena's lap Gwaine rolled onto his back and flailed his back legs as she rubbed his belly. Percival and Leon snuffled around until Elyan offered them another treat.
"How much weight do your dogs put on at Christmas?" Elyan asked.
"None, I spend a lot of time walking them," Arthur said. "Come on Merlin, do you want another one?" Merlin gazed up adoringly.
"It's so cute how clingy he is," Mithian said as Merlin sniffed the biscuit and then took another bite. Gwaine stopped flailing and watched from the comfort of Elena's lap. Morgana watched everything, seeing how comfortable the four people were in her brother's house, and she felt oddly out of place.
"Sorry?" Morgana jumped, snapping out of her contemplation as she realised Elyan had spoken to her.
"No," Arthur answered in her stead. "Pets are not Morgana's thing."
"I wouldn't have the time," Morgana added. "It wouldn't seem fair."
"Not dogs then, but maybe a cat, they do their independent thing."
"Or a goldfish, very little work," Elyan added.
Arthur privately wondered if his dog walkers were subtly taking the piss out of his sister. They had been there for some bad moments involving his family, but it did seem unfair to take it out on his nervous looking sister. Which meant that they were trying to include her, but Morgana, whether deliberately or not, sometimes made that hard.
"There's cleaning the tank," Arthur told Elyan, just as a slight warning, in case they were being mean.
"Ew!" Morgana grimaced, unaware of any interplay.
"There you go," Arthur concluded. "Not a pet person."
"Some people aren't." Gwen said as she rubbed Lancelot's ears. "And at least some people have the sense to acknowledge that, rather than just blundering into it and then realising it's actual work."
"True," Arthur conceded, petting Merlin, who snuggled closer, tail wagging. Arthur cuddled him.
"I don't know where Arthur gets it from," Morgana said, feeling a little uncomfortable about the discussion and wincing slightly as Leon ambled past her, heading off into the hallway, Gwaine cocked an ear in interest, but clearly felt far too comfortable in Elena's lap to bother investigating.
"You would," Arthur grumbled at Leon.
"I'll do it," Mithian said getting up and following in the dog's wake. They all heard sounds of insistent scratching.
"You're a guest," Arthur objected. Mithian shrugged.
"Picking up a bit of dog mess is hardly news to me. Aren't you very neat," she told Leon as she went out to find he had messed perfectly on the newspaper Arthur had left out. There was a rumbling bark from Leon, who agreed with this assessment and politely stayed with her while she tided up.
"Don't worry about it," Gwen told Arthur as he almost got up to take over from her.
"We never mind your dogs, they are the best behaved, Even you," Elena said to a floppy, contented Gwaine.
"I think we all have to be very proud of Arthur," Mithian announced as she returned, with Leon trotting next to her. "He took the dog run down."
"I did that months ago," Arthur pointed out.
"Only three," Mithian said sagely as she sat down again. Leon went over to Arthur as he reached into the biscuit tin again. Gwaine cocked an ear, and rolled slightly to assess the action, and he slowly slithered off Elena's lap in such a well-poised and comical fashion that even Morgana laughed.
The situation seemed to ease then and then the bell rang again.
"Aren't you popular tonight?" Gwen said.
Gwaine yapped and ran for the front door. Arthur looked quizzically at Morgana who looked embarrassed, but Arthur knew it wasn't his father. She'd warn him about that. Gwaine paced around the door yapping as Arthur went to answer it, Merlin following him.
"Gaius!" Arthur announced, without much surprise. If it wasn't Uther, then Gaius was the only family friend, and close enough to just turn up.
"I stopped by."
"It seems to be an evening for it," Arthur said stepping back to allow Gaius in. Gwaine fussed around, wagging his tail, Gaius held up a packet.
"I brought some treats, and also something for you, my boy."
There was also a box, neatly wrapped, which Arthur took.
"Thank you, everyone is in the living room. I've got my dog walkers and Gwen, my vet over."
"That's nice, it's good for you to socialise," Gaius said and he stomped off into the living room. "Good evening," he announced to the group and he paused to kiss Morgana before taking the armchair. Gwaine followed eyes fixed on the treat bag.
"Arthur, these poor dogs probably have to run marathons to work off their Christmas food," Elyan said.
"No they don't, although I do spend most of Christmas day walking," Arthur said. "Because I enjoy it."
"And I get stuck with dad, all day," Morgana said. "Which, actually wasn't meant to sound quite like that but..."
"Er, yeah," Elyan agreed. "Co-share of family obligations."
Gwen stuck her tongue out at him.
"Sorry, you know I..."
"I know," Morgana snapped at Arthur. "What annoys me is you thinking that I'm quite happy with it even if you're not, because I quite clearly don't have my own life to get on with."
That seemed to really kill the mood. In the end the group who he had invited didn't leave early. It was nearly eleven in the evening when they left and that was usually around the time Arthur wanted to settle down with the dogs, but for some reason it felt like they had been pushed out, even though they stayed for an hour talking about subjects which were safe and unassuming. Morgana listened to Elyan for twenty minutes as he told a story about a horse minding job he had done. And Arthur got the feeling Gwen and the others only hung on because they could sense he felt a little rattled.
In the end, however, Morgana and Gaius stayed longer, moving into the kitchen as Arthur tided up. Morgana helped a little and then sat down at the kitchen table. Gaius ran water into the sink to wash up. As he returned from the lounge with some more empty glasses Gaius' and Morgana's heated conversation ceased and Morgana rummaged in her bag.
"What is going on?" Arthur demanded.
Neither of them spoke, for a few seconds Morgana continued to rummage, dogs wandered around Arthur, sensing his tension and Gaius put a pile of plates into the sink. In the end Morgana pulled something out of her handbag and handed it to Arthur. He stared at it incomprehensibly for a second before his eyes widened.
"Oh," He said. "Oh, right then. What do we do?"
