This one is very much inspired by the fact that my area (FINALLY) have been forecast snow at the end of the week. We got about two flakes today! 8D

I still don't own anything to do with Merlin, it all still belongs to the BBC.

Just to clear things up for you all: Arthur is a lawyer (as mentioned in the previous section), and Merlin is a vet.

Enjoy! c:

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, an excess of mince pies.

*****

Arthur was used to snow. Having grown up in what he affectionately called "the middle of bloody nowhere", just down the road from where he lived now, snow was not new to him. As he was growing up, he would help his father clear their driveway of the stuff, and at least one school day every year was cancelled because the roads were too dangerous to drive on. Over the years, without him noticing, Arthur had begun to find snow rather boring.

Merlin, however, was in no way familiar with snow. Unlike Arthur, Merlin had grown up in the suburbs of London, in a penthouse flat, and the closest thing to snow he had ever experienced was an extremely thick frost. Although it was the same colour, frost was no nearly as fun as snow.

This was the reason why Merlin had dropped his spoon one morning, splattering cereal and milk all over the counter when the weather lady had warned people in their area of the risk of heavy snow over the coming week.

While Merlin very quickly turned the volume up on the TV so he could hear every word he was being told about the predicted weather, Arthur let out a quiet groan. "The roads are going to be chaos," He tutted, checking his watch. "No doubt I'll be late."

"Do you really think it's going to snow?" Merlin turned to look at him expectantly, scooping a spoon of cereal into his mouth and crunching loudly.

"Oh, probably." He huffed. After buttoning his suit jacket, Arthur attempted to shrug on his overcoat, and finish his coffee at the same time. "Have you seen my scarf? The red one?"

Merlin jabbed his spoon towards the front door. "On the hook. Where it always is." Placing his bowl into the sink, he frowned at Arthur. "Why so glum? Snow is a good thing! I'd love a white Christmas…" He trailed off, staring off into the distance, a dreamy look crossing his face.

"I'm sure you would, but getting to the city and back everyday is slow enough as it is, snow will just make it even more difficult."

"But think of how pretty it would be! The trees covered in snow; the garden untouched when we wake up… Mind you, I don't look forward to digging my car out every morning."

"Exactly. Snow merely causes problems." Merlin opened his mouth to argue, but he was interrupted by his pager. "Trouble on the Ark?" Arthur smirked, attempting to tie his shoelace without looking.

"For goodness sake, Arthur, it's an Animal Hospital, not Noah's Ark!"

"Whatever, Doctor Dolittle." He straightened up and grabbed his briefcase. "Now, some of us have to go to work."

"See you later." After a brief kiss goodbye, Arthur left to go and de-frost his car.

"Doctor Dolittle…" Merlin grumbled, grabbing his keys. "Is that the best he can come up with?"

*****

As Arthur had predicted, the roads had been chaos. It seemed that everyone had abandoned what they were doing, and decided to drive to their holiday destination before the snow set in and made them late to Christmas dinner at the grandmother's, or wherever the hell else they were going. They may not be late then, but Arthur was late now. His phone bleeped insistently every few seconds, telling him he head received a text message. He noticed they were getting more and more irate, as his colleague got more and more impatient.

His phone bleeped loudly, before falling silent. Momentarily confused, Arthur jammed his phone into the hands-free dock, and opened the message.

Too l8. U missed the demonstration. U'll have 2 w8 4 the nxt batch of cases. Gutted :P -Owain.

Arthur let out a growl of frustration, bashing his fists against the steering wheel. Today didn't look good.

*****

Merlin was having a wonderful day, unlike Arthur. It had been a slow morning, which allowed him to catch up on the paper work between appointments; one of the veterinary nurses had brought in a ridiculously large amount of mince pies, and it seemed everyone was as excited as him about the forecasted weather. So over lunch, in good cheer now he was armed with a plate of pies and a steaming mug of tea, he chose to ring Arthur, to see how his day was going. As soon as Arthur answered the phone, Merlin knew Arthur's day had been rubbish.

"What?"

"Well that's a lovely way to greet your boyfriend." Merlin put his feet up on his desk, sucking the excess icing sugar off his thumb. "I'm guessing your day hasn't been that great? How was the traffic?"

"Bloody awful. I got here an hour ago."

Merlin frowned. "But it's lunchtime. Did you get a good case?"

"No. By the time I'd got here, all the cases had gone. I'm stuck on admin until the next lot comes in." Merlin guessed Arthur had just attempted to gesture at the large pile of paperwork, but in his anger, had instead knocked it all off the desk, if the quiet whoosh and the loud cursing was anything to go by. "How's your day been?"

"Pretty good actually. Freya brought in mince pies!"

"Save one for me?" Merlin paused before answering, as he faintly heard Arthur mumbling to someone else. The someone-else replied sharply, to which Arthur sighed. "I've gotta go. Speak to you later, yeah?"

"Yep. Try not to work too hard."

"I'll give it a go." He listened as Arthur rummaged around for something, before he added, "Love you."

"You too." Maneuvering around his feet, Merlin chucked his mobile onto his desk and attempted to reach for his mug of tea before he went back to paperwork. He was very close to being able to grab it, when there was a knock at the door. "Doctor Emrys?"

"Come on in." Merlin smiled as Freya popped her around the door, tray of pies clutched in her hands.

"Would you like another pie?"

"Oh, go on then." Merlin smiled. Paperwork could wait, he decided.

*****

Maybe putting off paperwork for the entire afternoon wasn't such a good idea after all. Merlin glanced at the clock and sighed. At quarter to seven, it was pitch black outside, and Arthur's desk lamp wasn't doing a very good job of allowing him to see what he was doing. He glared at the unfairly large amount of forms and appointment notes he had carefully sprawled across the desk.

Sighing, he leant back in his chair. He had previously told himself that he would not get distracted, and would have it all done by the time Arthur had gotten home. And considering the fact that Arthur was an hour late, the amount of work Merlin had actually completed was pretty dismal.

Bored out of his mind, Merlin chose to slowly spin around the chair, and watch the room turn as he went around. As he took a close look at Arthur's "office", he frowned. How long had the walls been such a horrid beige colour? He'd never noticed it before, but now that he had, he couldn't un-notice it. His nose wrinkled in distaste. A few spins later, he picked up on the sound of Arthur pulling up on the drive.

"Merlin? I'm home." Arthur called. Dropping his briefcase with a thump, he pulled off his scarf and coat, shaking them both out. Merlin frowned. Why on earth would he need to shake them out? It wasn't raining.

"Come here, would you Merlin? I've got something important to show you."

Merlin paused for a moment. Curious, he wandered into the hallway, to find Arthur very hurriedly fluffing up his hair, very much like he would do if he had been rained on.

"Now, close your eyes. Go on. Close them. Stop peeking!" Arthur huffed, and Merlin frowned as he heard him opening the front door. He stepped forward cautiously after Arthur's gentle encouragement, and stood with his toes pressed against the lip of the doorframe.

"Can I open my eyes? It's cold."

"Be patient; you won't be disappointed." He slipped his arms around Merlin's waist, leaning his chin on his shoulder. "Now you can."

Merlin slowly opened his eyes, feeling suspicious. He was shocked to find that Arthur had been right – he was anything but disappointed. His face lit up with a large grin as he took in the sight before him. The entire front garden, his car, the garage roof, and their drive were completely covered in several centimeters of snow.

Arthur smiled against his neck. "Merry Christmas, love."