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Merlin fixed his collar for the third time and concluded he had a terrible wardrobe for someone as gay as he was. But he had washed his old dress pants and bleached the turning-gray dress shirt until it was white enough to tempt all manner of possible stains, and concluded that he looked rather normal despite his effort. Arthur, of course, would probably be wearing a tuxedo, since he seemed to consistently outshine Merlin in dress.
With a sigh, Merlin checked on the cats to make sure they were comfortable and then headed down the stairs. His feet dragged on the long steps as his heart pounded in his ears. Merlin was going to see Arthur again.
When Merlin finally caught sight of a well-dressed figure leaning against a slick black car, his breath caught and he had to take a moment to compose himself. He could feel his heartbeat pulsing in his fists, and he had to wait to try and calm down. He wondered if Arthur could smell how fast his heart was pacing.
Merlin stepped out of the building and their gazes touched. Arthur smiled brightly, but with a turn of his head he hid it. Arthur looked back, composed, and nodded, "Merlin," he said.
"Arthur," Merlin replied nervously, "nice to see you again."
Merlin stepped into the car, and Arthur drove. It was the kind of car that Merlin had only seen on television, and had never even imagined sitting in, much less owning. It fit Arthur like a glove, and in the dark suit and dark shirt Arthur was wearing he seemed to sink into the night as it was. Arthur looked good. His blonde hair looked professionally, his skin was pale and flawless in the dark, and his blue eyes shone. Arthur was consistently perfect. Merlin, for all his effort, looked like crap.
They hardly said a word. Arthur merely told Merlin where they were going and then, needlessly, informed him when they'd arrived. Merlin spent the majority of that time staring nervously out the window at Arthur's reflection in the glass.
Merlin got out of the car before Arthur could come over to his side, and he could see by the slightly disappointed look on Arthur's face that he'd been planning on opening the door for him. Merlin, feeling slightly nauseous at the idea although he didn't know why, stared at the place Arthur had brought him to. It was a restaurant on its own dock overlooking the river. White fairy lights hung down the edge of the dock and around the dimly lit restaurant, leaving ghostly images in the water.
"Is this..." Merlin looked at Arthur, "I mean." He swallowed. Trying to adopt a lighthearted tone, Merlin joked in absolute seriousness, "Are they all vampires there?"
Arthur said, "Yes."
Merlin nodded. "Is..." He felt like a child for asking, but he couldn't help wondering, "Is it safe?"
"No one will touch you if I'm there." Arthur told him, "You won't be the only human, you know."
"Guess I do now." Merlin looked at Arthur and gave him a weak smile. Arthur, calmly, held out his arm. Merlin gladly took it. He was grateful to be able to hold onto Arthur as they stepped into the restaurant, which smelled strongly of perfume and something metallic, and the hostess was a woman with obvious fangs and long, sharp nails that clicked over the seating chart. "Pendragon," she said, her voice ringing with annoyance.
"Hello," Arthur said.
The hostess, who never revealed why Arthur's presence seemed to grate her, flipped through her book to find a reservation and then seated them at a place excluded from the rest of the restaurant by water on two corners and a pillar on the other. It was nice, with the lighting and the space, Merlin felt like they were alone. Of course, that raised another host of problems and he found himself blocking almost all of Arthur's attempts at conversations with one word answers. The ordered, Merlin was pleased to find that there was normal, human food on the menu. Arthur abandoned pretense this time, when the waiter, a heavy set man with dark tattoos on his arm and a stain on his shirt that looked like he was drinking blood on the job, brought the food Arthur had only a large, metal cup and a straw. When they had been walking through the restaurant Merlin had seen others with the same 'meal'.
Merlin wondered if vampires called blood a meal or just a drink and spent a long moment pondering that while Arthur stared at him with a slightly terrified expression on his face, and then he asked.
Arthur blinked at the question. "I don't... I guess we call it 'blood' or 'food'. We drink it, but..."
"Nevermind," Merlin said. He tried, very strongly, to ignore the fact that Arthur was drinking human blood just across from him. He managed to keep a calm face, but the food was starting to taste like ash in his mouth and his stomach began to churn.
"What made you believe?" Arthur asked suddenly. He coughed, and then added, "I mean, you seemed so set on the face vampires couldn't be real."
"Percival... explained it to me," Merlin said. His hands suddenly relaxed. He couldn't be in danger here, because Arthur wasn't the only one protecting him, Percival would be somewhere. Then his heart sank. He was relieved that two vampires were there to save him from the countless other vampires. His head hurt.
"I'm sorry," Arthur said suddenly, his words rushed, "it was my fault. Maybe I should have told you sooner, I definitely should have told Morgana, and I should have explained it better, I just didn't now what to say. Of course you acted that way, and I mean, even if you did believe me we wouldn't have been any better off, because finding out that someone is a monster might even be worse than thinking they're just a jerk and I-"
"Arthur," Merlin interrupted, "it's fine. I'm sorry, I should have at least let you explain yourself. I was confused, and angry, but that doesn't give me an excuse-"
"Of course it does! Are you kidding? If I found out that you were a werewolf-giant-hydra or something like that, I mean, you can't have been expected to act calm-"
"I shouldn't have yelled like I did, I'm sorry for that-"
"And I'm sorry!" Arthur said finally, "And that's the end of that." Arthur's bright blue eyes looked straight at Merlin, his gaze piercing and comforting, "Let's start over."
Merlin thought that was a great idea.
They spent a very long time talking about trivial things, Merlin feeling a bit too overwhelmed to bring up vampires again and he had no idea why Arthur indulged him. Arthur paid for the meal, and when Merlin half-heartedly attempted to stop him he told Merlin quite seriously that it would be in poor taste for the boss to make the new employee pay for his meal.
"Oh, right," Merlin remembered, "you said..." His face flushed, "You don't have to do all of this. I haven't been unemployed long."
"Nonsense. In truth, there is a job opening at my company that you are perfect for." Arthur stood up from the table. "I can walk you over there, it isn't far from here, and explain what you would be doing if you decided to accept."
"It's late," Merlin said.
"It's not even the middle of the night," Arthur protested with a shake of his head.
"That's late anyways," Merlin replied.
"It's not like it's morning, it's..." Arthur blinked. "Right. You live backwards."
'Backwards', Merlin translated, as in humans live during the day instead of being normal and living during the night. Merlin scrunched up his nose in distaste at the thought. "You live backwards, we came first."
"I don't think so." Arthur said with the air of someone quoting a famous passage, "'Vampyres are the oldest beings to walk upon the green Earth, the first Vampyres'."
"You can't be," Merlin interrupted.
"Yes," Arthur protested. He took Merlin's arm, and led him out of the restaurant, leaving the table for their vampire waiter to clean. Merlin didn't say anything else until the door shut behind them, and he was certain the hostess was no longer glaring at them.
"No," Merlin said when they were walking down the dock. "How can vampires come before their food source? Without humans you would starve. Plus, aren't you all humans who were bit by a vampire?"
Arthur stopped in the road and stared at Merlin. It took him a long time to properly think through what Merlin had said, his mind visibly working behind his eyes. "Yes, I suppose you're right," he said in response to Merlin's first question. Then, as if he didn't want to dwell on that for long, he immediately jumped to the second question, "Some vampires are made from humans. The strongest are from multiple generations of vampire, however. I'm Seventh generation."
"That's not very long," Merlin said naively. He noticed that they began walking again, and Arthur walking straight past the car purposefully.
"For humans, seven generations isn't long. For vampires, it's an eternity. Four generations of vampires ago we were helping build the pyramids in Egypt."
Merlin bit his lip and nervously asked a question that jumped to his mind, "How old are you, Arthur?"
Arthur tripped. He quickly recovered, his balance better than an Olympic gymnast except for the fact he's stumbled over nothing only seconds before. He tensed. "Is it important?" Arthur explained slowly, "Vampires age much slower, especially as they get older, you'll catch up with me in hardly any time at all."
"It'd still like to know," Merlin said kindly.
Arthur took a deep breath. On his exhale, he breathed, "Fifty-seven."
Merlin's head jumped into calculations. His eyes widened. "Thirty-nine years," he said softly, "that's older than twice my age."
Arthur grimaced. "I'm considered young for a vampire."
"You're older than my mother," Merlin breathed, "wow."
Arthur ran a hand through his perfect hair, his eyes illuminating like a god's with the light of a passing car, and said softly, "I must disgust you."
Merlin laughed. "You? You're some handsome, powerful, immortal hero, why aren't you disgusted to be seen with me?"
"Now that's ridiculous," Arthur scoffed. He shifted his collar. "Hero?"
"You saved the kittens."
"Is that all it takes to be a hero?" Arthur grinned.
"To the kittens, surely," Merlin replied.
Arthur laughed, a perfect, pleasant, unguarded laugh. "But not to you."
"Paying off my rent? Giving me a job? Taking me out to dinner?" Merlin pretended to think very hard. "I suppose that almost makes up for being a vampire. Now, being my hero? You'll have to do much better."
Arthur smiled, and, stepping closer, shoved Merlin gently with his shoulder.
The lab was dark. Arthur had flicked on the lights, but they still only half-lit the floor, just like all the other lights in the building. Merlin figured the light was better for sensitive vampire skin, since today was the first time Arthur didn't have an overwhelming smell of suntan lotion hanging around him.
It might also have been for the bats. There were several, spacious, cages, each with different specimen that blinked out at Merlin as they passed by. Arthur had Merlin's shoulder in his hand, and he was practically dragging the speechless eighteen year old through the room. "I took over this company when my father took full responsibility of our coven," Arthur was saying, "and while the company supports several... well, what we call 'extraneous' and you would call 'normal' businesses run by vampires, our main goal is primarily vampire oriented."
Arthur paused, and Merlin encouraged him with a, "uh huh," that he could barely manage to stutter with his awed expression.
"The main goal of this company is improving the strength of our coven. Especially after that idiot vampire Meyer revealed one of our kinds greatest secrets, the whole powers thing, to the entire human race... the majority of vampires have been far less secure." Arthur fumbled with his pockets for keys to open a door in front of them. He was giving what seemed to be a well-rehearsed speech on vampire life that he'd memorized entirely for Merlin's benefit. It wasn't Merlin's fault, though, that he could barely pay attention. "This research facility is a way of helping us understand the root of our powers, most vampires prefer to go back to the 'Dracula Days'." Arthur laughed at himself and explained to the utterly lost human beside him, "That's slang of course, for the times when vampires concentrated more on their bat-shifting abilities and less on their typically useless second powers, since everyone knows Vlad the Impaler wasn't even a vampire."
Merlin's heart had stopped. Arthur had opened the door, and right in front of him stood the most beautiful creature he had dared hope to see. A Flordia Bonneted Bat.
"You're just through here. Sorry, we lock this room at night for some reason," Arthur said, unconcerned. His hand on Merlin, he forced Merlin into the room, helped Merlin when his feet didn't work, and tried to pull the enamored human out the other end.
"Is that what I think it is?" Merlin asked breathlessly, the words a whisper on his frozen lips.
Arthur carefully followed Merlin's gaze to the cage that took up most of the room. "It's... a bat? One of the lesser vampires shifts into this type. You might have met her at the Bite when you were there. She's always in purple. Anyway," Arthur said, bored, "you can have plenty of time to study it later, since you'll be the only lab assistant on this floor."
"What?"
Arthur sighed, and looked at Merlin, giving him a cool grin. "You'll have an office, don't worry, with a view. But see, the thing is, vampires cannot do research like this. We're fighters, not good at staying still, and it's hard to think when you're constantly fighting this undeniable thirst. That means we can't hire vampires for jobs that don't keep them active or allow them incredible amounts of leeway. Research this vital is simply impossible for us."
"So... you hire humans?"
"We can't hire many humans, of course, which is why for a very long time there's only been one. He was an old friend of my father's who never Turned, for reasons he's never said. You'll like him, he's a Dr. Gaius Kayson. He's been working as long as I've been alive," Arthur said. A blush suddenly rose to his face, and he coughed.
Merlin hardly noticed as the rarest bat in the word scratched its face and blinked at him.
"When I realized you were looking for a job... well, with your background and now that you... know. It was a perfect fit."
"'Kay."
Arthur smiled. "You'll take the job."
"Sure. Whatever. Do you have a bio on her?" Merlin asked eagerly, unable to tear his face away from the creature before him.
"Are you sure you don't-"
"Can I start tomorrow?"
"I haven't informed Gaius, but I'm sure-"
"Where is this place? Do you have an address so I can plan a bus route?"
Arthur frowned. "I could bring you in the morning. If you don't mind, it's certainly no trouble for me."
"How early can I come back here?"
Arthur leaned back stubbornly on the wall. "You really are a workaholic like your friend said, aren't you?"
"I did it," Merlin announced into his phone. He collapsed on his couch. Too full of energy to sleep, his fingers beat a pattern on his knees as he tried to contain himself.
"..one in the freaking morning," Will growled.
"I went out with Arthur," Merlin said. Merlin covered his face with his free hand, holding back a laugh that threatened to burst from his mouth. He had, hadn't he. All that work trying to get over Arthur and it had done nothing. After all the terrible things that had happened... it was over. They'd fixed it. And not even the threat of blood loss could get Merlin to break this off for the second time. Arthur was a god; he was a gorgeous, blonde, fit, vampire, who actually liked Merlin despite Merlin and who was rich, and a CEO, and got Merlin a job with the most rare bat in the entire world so his career could go on, and more importantly, Arthur was the sexiest thing in a suit that Merlin had ever seen. And Arthur was his; he belonged to MERLIN of all people. And even if it lasted only 'til Wednesday at least it had lasted for any time at all. Fuck it, the only problem was age, but Merlin did believe there was no barrier for love, and although thirty-nine years was borderline pedophilia even in Merlin's book, it was still borderline pedophilia, because Arthur was beautiful.
"Fuck. What? What the hell? Sorry, Sophia... I mean Anne, whatever. I just... excuuuuse me. Let me... Gracia, right, I knew that. It's early. Sorry. You too, Heather."
Merlin waited patiently and tried to ignore the words Will accidentally spoke within the phone's range.
"Arthur? I thought you broke up," Will said.
"Finally disentangled yourself?"
"...oh, god. Please, don't tell Rachel-"
"Will, I don't know who any of those five girls are and right now, I really, really, don't care."
"Arthur?"
"Yes," Merlin grinned into his couch. He had half a mind to throw a pillow in his face and start squealing, while the rest of him wanted to bury himself in kittens and cry. Merlin wondered if this was how girls on their period felt constantly, and was then sincerely grateful to whoever controlled his genes that he turned out male.
Merlin wondered if Arthur would still like him as a girl. Merlin wondered what the fuck was going on with his head.
"How, why, what?"
"And I have a job," Merlin exclaimed.
"You did? Where-?"
"And did you know vampires exist? Anyway, I have to tell Lance."
"WHA-"
Merlin hung up the phone and dialed the second number of the night. While it rang, one of the kittens mewed so Merlin scooped Sherlock up out of the box and cuddled him on his neck. The kitten hissed and Lance picked up the phone with a, "...Merlin...?"
"I got a job," Merlin said.
"...Now?"
"Well, actually, I got it with the company that owns the company that I went to see yesterday, do you remember?" Merlin asked.
"Vaguely," Lance replied, confused.
"Turns out Arthur is the CEO of the company that owns the company I was trying to get a job at, so he hired me to work for him at a research lab with one of the most prominent scientists I've ever met, Dr. Gaius Kayson, he's one of the leading minds working with biotechnology, I have several of his papers, I used them for research during me job." Merlin happily petted the kitten which pawed its way to the corner of Merlin's elbow and stuck its head between Merlin's warm body and the couch.
Lance, to his credit, wakened considerably faster than Will. "You're back together with Arthur?" Lance asked slowly.
"Yes," Merlin replied quickly, "not because of the job, but because we were talking-"
"And," Lance interrupted. Calmly, enunciating every word, Lance asked, "What part of you thinks this is a good idea?"
Merlin blinked. "What do you mean?" The phone beeped, the sound it made when someone else had tried to call but the line was busy. It was probably Will.
"Merlin, sometimes I think your mother made you watch too many sappy romances when you were younger," Lance said stiffly.
"She did," Merlin conceded.
Lance sighed into the phone. "It's just, you can't jump into a relationship and let the other person control all of your life. You need to be your own person before you immediately belong to someone else."
"My own person," Merlin repeated, disbelieving.
"Fine," Lance said, "take the job because for God's sake, you know that you need it and jobs don't come easily, but you need to lay down the law. And the instant he seems like he's controlling you, call me, alright? I know..." Lance breathed.
"What?"
"I know I'm... a terrible person for..." Lance's voice was laced heavily with concern, "I don't want to bring this up but, this is what James did. It started out as great until he completely controlled your life and he could take any part of you with a snap of his fingers. Don't let Arthur do that."
"At least this time I have you to protect me," Merlin smiled although a great part of his initial excitement had faded. And Percival, he added in his head. And that reminded Merlin. "Arthur is a vampire," Merlin said. He hung up the phone before Lance could reply and then, quickly, turned the nasty piece of communication off before the two of them could call back with more questions or lectures.
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