After about an hour in the mall, Merlin had yet to buy anything and Arthur had bought a black hat for his mother that looked a bit too much like a French beret and Merlin had told Arthur not to buy it, but he did it anyway. They were sort of heading back toward the car now, or at least Merlin hoped because he was over this shopping thing and still he had yet to find Arthur a gift, not that he could buy it with Arthur there, but an idea of one would be nice. If Arthur was having the same struggle with buying Merlin something...he wasn't acting like it. But Merlin thought he was much easier to shop for, he pretty much liked anything. Arthur was not that simple. Merlin just really wanted to get him a nice, thoughtful and meaningful gift, he just didn't think he would be finding it here.
"I could buy these for my mother," said Arthur then, walking over to a window display of differant colored jewel earrings. "A nice diamond set, it will go with her hat."
Merlin didn't think that they would, as the hat was ugly, but he didn't say this because something else was gathering his attention now. This earing display was in the same shop the two had bought their wedding rings in almost a year ago now. If Arthur noticed this, he didn't say anything about that either. Merlin walked closer to the display and saw below the earrings were sets of rings as well. They were all differant colors, some bands and some diamond rings and he liked all the bright colors. He glared over at Arthur then. "Why don't you ever buy me diamonds?"
He was more or less joking, but Arthur had the nerve to look a little disgruntled at him in response. "Because you're a man?"
"And that's suppose to matter?" Merlin retorted. "I deserve diamonds...I have to put up with you all the time."
"Oh, I am just so sorry, you poor thing," said Arthur back, in a mocking way. But Merlin supposed then that he had figured out Merlin was kidding. He didn't really want diamonds, that was more of a Gwen thing. He did like to tease Arthur though.
"You have no idea what I have to go through..." he sighed heavily. "Having to wake up to your ugly face every morning and then I have to pretend I actually like you?" He huffed. "And what do I get for it? No rings...no checks...no sexy pool boy to flirt with."
"We don't even have a pool?" questioned Arthur and Merlin smirked, but quickly slapped Arthur in the arm.
"And no pool?!" he announced. "The nerve..." he turned toward Arthur then, and as they were both standing rather close looking through the window at the display, he was nearly on top of him when he turned. "Don't I deserve nice things, Mr. Pendragon?"
"Not really," retorted Arthur, turning to look at Merlin with a dark smirk. "What have you done for me lately?"
Merlin huffed again, "You're mean to me..."
"Get over it," said Arthur back, but he was talking softly now, not so much a smirk, more so a grin on his lips as their eyes met. Merlin tried to force a pout but it didn't work, instead he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Arthur's left cheek. Arthur seemed half way surprised by this, but just stood still all the same.
"Make me," Merlin said in a whisper, as he pulled away and turned to walk off. Arthur made a move then, and reached out, grabbed him around the waist and pulled him back. Arthur put both arms around Merlin's middle, he could feel the bag with the stupid, ugly beret pressing against his spine, but he ignored that. As now, they were pressed chest to chest in front of the Christmas earing display.
"You missed," offered Arthur and Merlin's smile returned tenfold, as he looked over Arthur's face.
"Did I?"
"Mm...I believe you did," he said back, and he was talking in such a slow, husky, soft voice, it made Merlin want to die or maybe probably something else entirely. "I always assumed you had terrible aim, not exactly a surprise there..." said Arthur and Merlin nodded. Merlin was also sort of waiting for Arthur do to something, it had seemed like he was going to, but they were just sort of looking at each other now and neither had leaned in. "...do you really want diamonds?" asked Arthur, after a few seconds of this. Merlin laughed unbelievingly. "I assumed you were talking shit, as per usual with you, but..."
"No," said Merlin then, with a roll of the eyes. Their eyes had been on each other the whole time, so Merlin knew Arthur saw it. "I could do with a few other things though..."
"Oh yeah, like?"
Merlin shrugged, "I'll let you decide that..."
"Oh, I see how this works," said Arthur. "How gentleman of you..."
"I am very gentle," offered Merlin with a smirk then and Arthur grinned.
"But not a man..."
Merlin huffed, "I am offended," he said, though he wasn't really offended, but then he tried to wiggle his way out of Arthur's grip and Arthur tightened said grip. "Let me go...if you're not going to kiss me I would like to be released, you prat."
"Who says I wasn't going to kiss you?"
"I don't know...you still haven't done it yet."
"Oh, I'm so sorry...I didn't know you were on a strict schedule. Here..." said Arthur, and then left a peck of a kiss on Merlin's lips. "Happy?"
"You call that a kiss?" offered Merlin. "That was like a fist bump for lips...that was pathetic." Arthur then huffed aggressively and surged forward again, connecting their lips in a much more forceful kiss, but then pulled away much too quickly. Merlin would still not categorize that as a kiss either, more of an aggressive lip bumping. So, Merlin leaned forward and brushed his lips against Arthur's. "Has anyone ever told you that you're really bad at this...?" he whispered and then pressed his lips against Arthur's with more pressure, and for much longer than Arthur had done to him. Obviously they weren't going to start seriously kissing in a mall. But still, Merlin wouldn't say no if Arthur had wanted to. After a few seconds, Merlin pulled back and pushed himself away from Arthur. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?"
"...I don't know," said Arthur, kind of offhanded and a little dizzily, Merlin thought then that maybe it was, at least for him. Arthur sometimes just needed a lot of work. He was still uncomfortable about being with Merlin in more than just a co-existing together way. If a relationship consisted of only living together and picking on each other at a damn near constant basis, then Arthur would be perfect at this...but it didn't, there was still the intimacy aspect of a relationship and Merlin could tell Arthur was still uncomfortable with it, if he even wanted it at all. It seemed like he did sometimes, but then other times Merlin really couldn't tell.
(A/N: Getting another update within the same month? WHOA! I am as surprised as you are! In all seriousness tho, I traveled a lot during Nov so I had no time at all to write a nanowrimo, and actually this story is the product of a nanowrimo from a few years ago. So, I figured instead of writing a whole new story for this month I can just finish one of my old ones within the month and I chose this one over About Merlin because this one is easier, so I will definitely have a lot more updates for y'all in the near future. For now, I hope y'all enjoyed!)
