AN: So, here it is, finally the end! I actually hadn't realised how much time had passed until I looked at the original post date of this fic, and I'm just beginning to wonder what to do with my life now. This is my first multichapter fic that has actually been finished and has been this long, so I'm quite proud of it! I'm really glad so many of you have enjoyed it, and I have really appreciated all the favourites, follows, and lovely reviews from everyone! Writing the story was already fun to do, but you have all made it even more enjoyable, so thank you all so much! Thank you to rigaudshemlock, MerlinEmrys88, GuestM, and ninagayler, too, and I've really appreciated the continuing support from you guys!
I'm excited to tell you that I do actually have a plan for something to occupy me, and that is yet another fic, of course! With a couple of uni assignments I won't be able to write it until June, but it's all planned out, so watch this space. It's going to be an AU, but canon era (so if you prefer modern, I understand haha), where Arthur meets Merlin outside of Camelot, and learns a few truths about magic.
Arthur sat comfortably, lounging on his sofa as Morgana often reprimanded him for. Still, he was being rather productive, trying to create a CV, so he had something to tell her if she just walked in. Which was always a risk, he warned Merlin when the man offered to come round. Offered to come and help him, he remembered, but right now was leaning against him quietly, so quiet in fact that Arthur had thought he might be sleeping, but he was definitely reading his book. Definitely.
"You were supposed to be helping me," Arthur complained, staring at the screen in front of him with a horrible feeling. It wasn't exactly hatred, but… "not 'reading'," he emphasised with air quotes, and Merlin shoved back from him, trying to appear insulted. They both know he was sleeping, though.
"I can't help it if job stuff tires me out," the man shrugged, emphasising his own point with a huge yawn, to which Arthur only rolled his eyes. Merlin ignored him, instead leaning against him again and shuffling to get closer, and while Arthur showed some contempt for it, watching his partner with weary eyes the whole time it took him to get settled, the image of it all, the feel of it, made him warm inside. It was a comfort he had never really experienced before, especially not with Richard, having someone not just warming a side of the bed, but lazily sitting with him and doing absolutely nothing.
Not that he would ever admit any of this to Merlin. Maybe in a moment of weakness, but not right now. Not when the man was supposed to be helping him figure out his skills, rather than falling asleep.
"It's late," the escort sighed, "why don't we come back to it tomorrow?"
Arthur put a hand over his forehead, "we said that yesterday, Merlin, and here we are!"
"Well, maybe you should just accept that you have no skills."
"Then what role would you have in this relationship?" He smiled as he heard Merlin huff a little laugh.
"Maybe being the world's biggest dollop-head counts as a skill,"
"If you can get a job then clearly I don't need skills." Even the strange exchanges they had where they just purely insulted each other, Arthur liked. He had never thought this would be him, settling down, but he could hardly imagine any other life anymore. He blamed Merlin for that. "You made me quit my job, you have to help me."
"What?" Merlin sat up then, speaking louder than before with a baffled smile as he stared at Arthur with confusion, "I didn't make you do anything, you just grew a back bone!" He shook his head, "or Morgana gave you one," he muttered, and Arthur narrowed his eyes at him. Merlin had become irritatingly immune to that stare, though.
Arthur dropped his head back against the wall behind them, staring up at the ceiling as he moaned, "why am I with you?"
He could practically hear Merlin's grin as the man shuffled closer to him, "because you love me."
Sighing, he brought his head back up to look at the idiot escort with the most perfect grin he had ever seen, with the most pixy-looking nose, with the biggest ears, with the strangest sense of humour; damn, he thought, he really did.
"Don't be ridiculous," he huffed, but the twitch of a smile gave him away, and Merlin's only grew wider.
"I love you, too," the escort said kindly, as if the words easily came to him.
Arthur stared at him with a bewilderment, that this man was somehow even more courageous than him; every part of him is pushing him to say something to move the moment on, to not expose himself emotionally, a fear tampered but still there. He finds a strength in Merlin's shared stare, though, his presence, and says seriously, "I do. Love you," and Merlin smiles a softer smile, because he knows it was hard for Arthur to say, but he won't tell him so, and Arthur appreciates that.
"Why has it taken you so long to write the thing, anyway?" Merlin frowns, moving away from the moment so Arthur doesn't have to, so he doesn't feel guilty if he does. "You've been unemployed for how long now, exactly?"
Arthur shrugs, "I had savings, I felt a break was needed."
Merlin huffs, pushing himself off the sofa, and Arthur looks forlornly at the empty space, already missing his warmth beside him. "A break? When do I get one of those?" Arthur watched the escort as he stumbled tiredly into the kitchen, losing view of him but still staring at the doorway.
"Why did I quit my job again?" He shouts to him, ignoring Merlin's own complaining for now. There are days when he will listen to Merlin tell him about each different job of his, about all of the chores Gaius is having him do, – the man who still frightens Arthur just a little; Merlin thinks it's probably the eyebrow – about the new research he has to start on, which Arthur offers to try and take up but Merlin just stares at him until he admits he's just bored, and about all the events he goes on. Jealousy still stirs in him at the mention, and Merlin didn't even bring up the dates at first for a while, but when he hears the snorts of Merlin's laughter, sees his eyes light up as he tells him some historical fact Arthur needs a lot more background knowledge to understand, when he tells him he loves him, Arthur knows Merlin is his, and he is Merlin's.
Unfortunately, Merlin is less compassionate when it comes to Arthur's complaints about unemployment. It might not have helped that he did take quite a long break, but still. He needed to get his father's voice out of his head, and annoying his partner as the days went by really helped that.
"Because you have something called integrity?" Merlin appeared at the doorway, leaning against the frame with a hot drink in his hand, "or am I dating the wrong person?"
Arthur ran a hand through his hair, "maybe not, but I probably am."
Merlin smirks, offering that huff of laughter again, the one that Arthur knows is tired laughter, that Merlin is too sleepy to offer any insult, and it feels good that he knows it.
"Maybe," a mischievous smirk slides across his face, and with a glint in his eye he says, "I could do what you do. I think I'd make quite a good escort,"
And he swears Merlin stands a little straighter, eyes widening, more awake than before at his words, and he feels a spark of amusement run through him that he never felt with others. "Actually, I think I'd make a great escort," he continues his tease as Merlin eyes him sceptically.
"You wouldn't," Merlin shrugs.
"Perhaps you're just worried that I'd take your clients from you," he reasons, "you do, after all, look like a stoat."
Merlin's eyebrows draw in then, a perplexed smile coming in, "is that an insult? Stoats are adorable, have you ever seen an ugly stoat?" Arthur said nothing, unable to respond to that. Maybe he did find his partner adorable. It didn't mean he also didn't find him irritating at times. "At least I don't look like a bone idle… toad," Merlin adds, a yawn causing him to pause, although Arthur believes it's not his tiredness that causes the rather poor insult, because Merlin's just bad at that.
"You're saying I look like a toad?" His face scrunches in half confusion, half amusement.
"Yeah, and maybe one day you'll magically transform into a handsome prince," Merlin grins happily, tiredly. Damn, did he ever stop being adorable?
"I don't believe you," Arthur shook his head. Then, raising an eyebrow, he stared at Merlin suggestively, "but, if you wanted to test your theory, isn't it true love's kiss that breaks such a spell?"
Merlin stood straighter again as Arthur winked.
Arthur was pleased when he took the hint.