This was supposed to be posted on the anniversary, sorry I'm late! It's also written for the Merthur Week 2020 on tumblr, prompt day 4: "What are you hiding, Merlin? + fun. I hope you enjoy the fic and Merry Christmas! :)

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MAGNETIC PAYBACK

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It wasn't uncommon for Merlin to smuggle various magical beings back into Camelot—whether to help them and then let them go, chase them down and figure out how to stop them, or on rare occasions to keep them—but usually, most of the time, Arthur was none the wiser.

Well, that wasn't the case today.

And what a perfect day it was—one day before Christmas! So of course when Merlin was sneaking through the castle in the middle of the night, carefully holding a little pink fairy in his palms behind his back, and his face collided with Arthur's chest, the prince's first thought was that Merlin was hiding a present.

"What are you hiding, Merlin?" he asked with a curious smirk on his face. He tried to hide the interest in his eyes, but Merlin knew him far too well.

Arthur's eyes jumped down to Merlin's lips, but instead of lingering there as usual, he cleared his throat and looked behind Merlin's shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of what Merlin was holding.

Merlin didn't let him and took a step back, clearing his throat and trying to hide his nervousness—he just hoped, with how Arthur kept staring at him, that his red cheeks weren't too obvious. Then he shook his head and put on his signature innocent smile.

"Nothing."

Arthur crossed his arms over his chest, the interest in his eyes replaced by annoyance. "I can clearly see you're hiding something, Mer lin," he said. "You know you can't lie to me. I'm the prince."

Merlin shrugged. If Arthur was curious enough to hide behind his title and not let this go, perhaps a bit of truth wouldn't hurt then.

"Well, if you must know, it's a pink fairy that glows in the night and grants wishes."

As expected, Arthur's eyebrows creased together, annoyance winning over curiosity. The little pink fairy squirmed in Merlin's palms and Merlin squeezed them tighter, trying to communicate to her that it was alright.

Arthur huffed, rolling his eyes. "Fine. Keep your secret, if it's that important that I don't know." He walked past Merlin and Merlin watched him, turning around so as to keep his hands out of Arthur's sight.

"But just so you know," Arthur added, a little smirk back on his face, "your Christmas present had better be good."

And with that he was gone, Merlin letting out a huge sigh of relief. His heart still hammered in his chest from the encounter, so he took another deep breath just to calm down. Damn Arthur and his stupidly polished armour and attractive face, with the impossibly blue eyes and full red lips and . . .

He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts and loosened his grip on the fairy, slowly bringing her up in front of his face. "Sorry about that," he whispered. "He's gone now, but we'd better hurry."

The fairy angrily patted away the creases on her dress and glared up at Merlin. Then her eyes found the corner the prince had disappeared behind and she narrowed her eyes up at Merlin instead. "You know that I can read minds, right?"

Merlin felt heat return to his face. "Uhh-"

"Whatever." She crossed her arms on her chest. "Just don't squeeze me like that again."

Merlin swallowed nervously. "Sorry."

The last thing he wanted was to make her angry. Forest fairies were powerful and he really didn't want to get turned into a frog . Again.

He clasped his other hand over the fairy carefully, making sure that she was comfortable and that he wouldn't drop her, and continued on his way up to the tower—to his and Gaius' quarters. Once they were safely inside, he locked the door and uncovered the fairy again—she was glowing now, and that was not a good sign.

Fairies had control over whether they glowed or not, and if the fairy's face was anything to go by, she did not want to glow right now, especially not in the middle of Camelot of all places.

"Have you got her?" Gaius stepped out from behind a table, several books spread out in front of him.

Merlin nodded, raising his hand with the fairy slightly higher to show her to the old man. "She's here, safe and sound."

He walked over to the table and carefully let her step out of his hand onto the wood. Immediately, the fairy folded her arms over her chest and frowned angrily.

"You know," she raised her tiny voice, looking at both Merlin and Gaius, "just because I wear a pink dress and glow does not mean that I'm a she."

Oh.

"Sorry." Merlin sat down so he could better see the fairy's angry little face. "Sorry about that."

Gaius was frowning in confusion. "Why are you wearing a dress then?"

The fairy turned to look up at him, his tone defensive. "I happen to like it?" He sounded like this was not the first time he had to explain himself.

Merlin cleared his throat. "So, um, what should we-"

"Just call me Ryan. Everybody else does." He signed and unfolded his arms, then sat down on the table. Once he made himself comfortable, he folded his arms across his chest again, obviously frustrated with the whole situation.

Merlin and Gaius shared a look and shrugged. "So, how's your wing?" Merlin asked, trying to see Ryan's wings in the dark of the room. They seemed transparent, sort of. Well, he could probably see them in the daylight, but now—not so much.

Although he did notice something move ever so slightly above Ryan's head, like a barely visible shift in the air.

"They hurt." Ryan sighed. "You know, this wouldn't have happened if you weren't spying on me."

Merlin bit his lip. Ryan was right of course, and once again, Merlin felt the need to apologize. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, yeah." Ryan waved his hand nonchalantly. "Just get this over with already, I've got a date tonight and they're all the way on the other side of the forest." He unfolded his arms and lay down on his stomach. "Can you see them?" He pointed at his wings.

Gaius moved closer, adjusting the glasses on his face. "I'm afraid not."

"Yeah, I figured." Ryan sighed. "And you, Emrys?"

"Just slightly," Merlin answered. "But not really."

Ryan groaned, mumbling, "what a waste of dust," as he reached into his pocket, stood up and blew a bit of dust from his palm high into the air. It sparkled as it rained down on him and coated his wings, making them visible. Then he lay down on his stomach again and supported his head on his folded arms. "I'm so tired," he mumbled into his forearm.

Now that Merlin could see his wings properly, he could finally see what was wrong with them. There was a slight tear in the middle of the left one and it looked like it must have hurt. Merlin bit his lip again, feeling guilty. He caused this.

If he hadn't been spying on the fairy in the first place (well, not purposely, he just stumbled upon him in the forest and watched for a few minutes how Ryan danced on the leaves—it was so fascinating), he wouldn't have accidentally startled him and Ryan wouldn't have slammed into the tree, hurting his wing on his way down as he fell.

Merlin was just lucky that once Ryan had realised that he was Emrys, he'd kindly turned him back into a human and hadn't decided to leave him a frog forever.

And then he'd requested Merlin's help, which made sense, so Merlin had taken him back to Camelot and here they were.

The only reason Gaius knew about it in the first place was that Merlin had been out in the forest looking for fairies—apparently, there was a potion that needed fairy dust in order to work properly, so Merlin's mission had been to find a fairy and politely ask them for some.

But nothing was going according to plan, and now they had an angry (and apparently very tired ) fairy with a broken wing lying face down on their table among the books and candles.

So, how do you fix a fairy's wing?

Luckily, it turned out that Ryan knew just what to do, he only needed the help because he couldn't reach his wings with his tiny arms and he refused to get help from his date. So Merlin was relieved to know that half an hour later, the wing was fixed and Ryan was finally smiling up at both of them.

"I'd say thank you." He put his hands on his hips and flew up in front of Merlin's face. "But this really was your fault."

Merlin didn't dare argue with a powerful fairy, so he just nodded and gave a smile in return. "No thanks needed." Should he ask for the fairy dust? Would that make Ryan turn him into a frog again?

As if in answer to that thought (well, Ryan did say that he could read minds), Ryan groaned and reached into his pocket again. He flew over to Gaius and reached out his hand. "Hand," he commanded. Gaius offered his palm and Ryan let the few sparkly grains fall down to the old man's hand. "It's powerful, so this should be enough," he explained.

Gaius looked down at it, the dust sparkling up at him. "Thank you."

"Hm." Ryan crossed his arms over his chest. "I'd better get back and ready for my date now." He smiled dreamily. But before he flew away, he turned back to Merlin, his brows creased together in thought. Then he turned to Gaius with a question. "Has he got a girlfriend? Boyfriend?"

Gaius blinked at him in confusion, glancing at Merlin. "Not that I know of, no."

"Alright then." Ryan turned back to Merlin and flew closer to his confused face. He reached into his pocket once more and unexpectedly blew the dust right into Merlin's face.

Merlin blinked and moved away instinctively, but to his surprise, he didn't feel anything. "What was that?" He asked, alarmed.

Ryan flew high above them, out of reach. "This is both payback and a gift." When Merlin looked like he didn't understand at all, Ryan rolled his eyes. "You can't go to your prince like . . . well, this. " He gestured at the whole of Merlin. "So, the least I could do was curse you with magnetic lips." He rubbed his chin and looked up as if contemplating something. "Hm . . . I might be using that spell myself in the near future."

"What?" Merlin yelped. Magnetic lips?

Ryan just looked down and winked at him. "No need to thank me." And just like that, he flew out the window. A second later, his head popped back and he added, "and don't worry, it'll only last for a day!" And then he was just gone.

Merlin touched his lips, fear gripping his heart. "What did he do to me?" His eyes found Gaius, but the old man looked just as confused as he felt.

"I don't see a difference." Gaius shrugged.

Merlin rushed to a mirror, but Gaius was right—there was nothing. At least nothing visible. "Can we remove it? Whatever it is?"

Gaius shook his head. "Fairy magic is strong, Merlin. You might end up removing your mouth altogether if you don't know what you're doing."

Merlin looked down as if he was seriously thinking about it. But Ryan didn't seem evil, and he did say that it was a gift . . . and if it would be gone in a day . . .

A hand landed on his shoulder as Gaius stepped closer. "Perhaps you should go to sleep. We've had enough happen in one night, and remember what tomorrow is."

Merlin sighed. Of course he knew what tomorrow was. And he still didn't have a present for Arthur.

"Yeah." He nodded, a yawn suddenly interrupting him.

"Goodnight, Merlin," Gaius smiled at him, patted his shoulder, and reached for tweezers on the table to pick up the individual grains of dust and keep them in a little glass jar. It was getting late, so they would have to finish the potion later.

After another worried sigh, Merlin nodded and went to his little room. "Goodnight, Gaius," he called before he closed the door. And as soon as he changed into his nightshirt, his head hit the pillow and he tried to forget what had happened with Ryan. Maybe the enchantment really was to help him. Maybe he'd wake up feeling more confident tomorrow, who knew.

Whatever the spell did, it was forgotten the moment he closed his eyes and his mind drifted into sleep.

xoXÖXox

The next morning Merlin awoke with a slight headache and only a vague memory of what had happened the night before. Just as Ryan had disappeared from his mind, so did the knowledge of the spell he'd apparently put on Merlin's lips. The only reminder now was that Merlin's lips felt somewhat numb.

When Merlin opened his eyes and stretched, however, there was only one thing on his mind — and it wasn't the numb feeling.

It was Arthur.

He didn't know what exactly it was about the prince today, but there was something pulling him to go see him as soon as he could. He still didn't have a present for him, but he was sure that he could come up with something. He still had the whole day to think of something. And besides, there was this warm feeling in his chest that assured him that everything would be alright. As soon as he saw Arthur today, he would know exactly what to give him.

And Merlin didn't doubt that feeling for a second. He knew with absolute certainty that something good would happen.

He just needed to see Arthur.

But first, he needed to get out of bed, put on his best clothes, wash his face, and get Arthur's breakfast from the royal kitchen. Usually, all of this would take him some time, but today it all felt like a blink of an eye and before he knew it, he was standing outside Arthur's door with a tray full of food in his hands.

He didn't bother knocking. He never did, and Christmas day was no exception.

He strode right in and immediately, the feeling in his heart grew stronger and some of it transformed into butterflies in his stomach. He tried his best to ignore it as he set the tray on the table, but as soon as he raised his head and his eyes found Arthur in the room, there was no escaping it.

Arthur was already up and dressed, standing by the window, holding a piece of cloth in his hands. The early sun illuminated his hair and shoulders and Merlin couldn't help but notice that Arthur had dressed himself in his best tunic today.

But what was more surprising than finding the prince already awake and ready was the sudden pull Merlin felt gather behind his lips. The numb feeling grew stronger and then stopped, transforming into some sort of movement—and Merlin's head jerked forward.

"Uh-hm." Merlin gulped, his eyes widening.

"Merlin?" Arthur finally turned around to look at him, the cloth in his hands disappearing behind his back. And that did it—as soon as Arthur looked at him and Merlin caught sight of his blue eyes, his lips inched forward once more and he had no choice but follow it.

And they were inevitably pulling him towards Arthur.

Magnetic lips, literally.

Arthur's eyes widened when he saw Merlin march towards him with a panicked face. "Merlin, what—" but he didn't get the chance to finish because Merlin grabbed his shoulders and his lips immediately connected with their target, stealing Arthur's breath.

It only took a second or two before the prince inevitably melted into it, dropping whatever he was holding and instead putting his hands on Merlin's hips, pulling him even closer.

The reaction didn't surprise Merlin as much as the fact that this was finally happening for real. Honestly, he'd known for some time how Arthur felt about him (well, he assumed he did, anyway), he was just scared to do anything about it—both of them were, apparently. But this morning, all his fears were gone and his lips had a mind of their own.

And all they wanted to do was taste Arthur's.

Merlin barely got a chance to take a breath before Arthur's lips were on his again and the kiss continued—soft movements, eyes closed, noses touching, hands roaming free. A little moan slipped out from the back of Merlin's throat, and if it was any other day, he would have probably been embarrassed by it, but not today. Not when Arthur's fingers landed on his chin and tilted his head just right.

It wasn't until some time later that Merlin realized that the magical pull was gone.

And yet they were still kissing.

And Merlin still didn't have a present for Arthur.

Reluctantly, he pulled away, finally giving his lungs a chance to properly breathe.

Arthur was practically panting in front of him, lips swollen, but still so inviting. Arthur's dazed eyes found Merlin's and he blinked a couple of times. "Merlin . . . what . . . what was that?"

Merlin swallowed, still keeping his hands on Arthur's back where they'd apparently travelled on their own, and Arthur's arms still holding him close in return. Instead of kissing, they were now staring at each other, Arthur awaiting his answer. But did Merlin even have one?

"Um . . . "

An idea crossed Merlin's mind, a little voice returning from a distant memory.

This is both payback and a gift.

"A gift," Merlin echoed, offering a small awkward smile to Arthur. "It's my Christmas gift for you." His cheeks flushed, all his magically gained confidence dissolving. "Uhh, I just couldn't wait until tonight, sorry."

Arthur held his gaze for a moment, a small smile finally returning to his face. "Remember how I told you that your gift had better be good?"

Merlin swallowed nervously. Was he not a good kisser? "Yes?"

Arthur pulled him closer, their noses brushing. "This was the best gift of my life ." He laughed softly, and Merlin couldn't help but chuckle too, as he pulled Arthur even closer and enveloped him in a hug.

He'd wanted to hug Arthur so many times, and now he finally could.

It was a good day.

"And my gift for you," Arthur mumbled into his neck and then pulled away, but not too far. "Is somewhere around . . . " His eyes searched the floor below them until he spotted the piece of cloth he'd been holding earlier. "Here."

Merlin stepped back to let Arthur reach for it, and when Arthur presented it to him, Merlin gasped. It was a brand new neckerchief—the colour was royal red and a little gold dragon was embroidered in the corner.

He loved it.

"I thought you could use a new one," Arthur said, his voice soft, careful fingers reaching behind Merlin's head to remove his current old neckerchief. Merlin kept watching him as Arthur tied the new neckerchief around his neck and adjusted it under his chin.

When he was done, he took a step back to admire the view and nodded to himself, a smile on his lips.

"I love it." Merlin reached for Arthur's hand and pulled him closer for another kiss—not as long as before, but just as sweet.

When they pulled away, they were both out of breath and beaming with happiness.

"Merry Christmas, Merlin," Arthur whispered, a blush still visible on his cheeks.

Merlin kissed Arthur again. "Merry Christmas."

the end

This fanfic is pure self-indulgence, I just needed to write it after spending an entire week reading Destiel fanfiction :D I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading! :D