Phew, finally! I apologise for how late this is, but today's been pretty hectic. xD
I still don't own anything to do with the Merlin series, as it all belongs to the BBC. I also don't own any songs mentioned in here, they all belong to the respective artists. c:
Reviews are love. (:
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, public humiliation.
*****
Arthur really had no problem with carols. Some of them he liked. No, it was not the songs, but the damn people who insisted on bothering him and wasting his time every year. It also irked him that once they had finished their horridly out of tune, make-your-ears-bleed performance, they expected him to give them money. For a performance that bad? No way. Arthur's money was staying safely in his wallet, thank you very much.
Despite Arthur's constant grumbling about how carolers "weren't as good as they used to be", and how it was all a con, whenever he managed to get to the door before Arthur, Merlin would happily listen to their rendition of the songs, then give them something nice and loving, like a mince pie. It was always very clear that they had hoped for money, but anything was better than a door to the face.
As the doorbell rang one evening, Arthur scowled at the front door. "Merlin, can you get it?" Despite being practically in front of the door as he wandered through the hallway, Arthur really didn't have the patience today.
"'M 'ushing my teef!" Arthur continued to scowl as he wrenched open the front door. Surprised at the sudden appearance, the carolers hesitated before launching into a very loud, very bad version of "We three kings".
"We three kings of nuh nuh nuh nuh-"
"That's quite enough, thank you." With that, Arthur slammed the door in their faces.
*****
Friday evenings were Arthur's favourite time of the week. He liked them because he'd finished work for the week, and because he had the next two days completely to himself. Except, when he finally flopped down onto the sofa to catch up with the Rugby matches he'd missed, the I've-got-time-to-do-what-I-want mood was completely shattered when Merlin chose to turn on some very loud Christmas songs, and attempt to deafen everybody within a two mile radius as he sang along to "Stop the Cavalry".
"Merlin!" Arthur wasn't surprised that Merlin didn't respond. Nothing short of the roof cave in was going to get his attention. So, feeling too lazy to get up and turn down the music himself, Arthur simply turned up the volume on the TV. Even at almost full blast, he could only just hear the mumbling of the commentators. Despite "not hearing" him a moment ago, Merlin seemed to notice the increase in the volume of the sport, and childishly turned up his music to ridiculously loud proportions.
So here it is merry Christmas, everybody's having fun!
Arthur let out a shout of frustration and angrily jabbed at the "off" button on the TV remote. Stomping into the kitchen, Merlin smiled innocently at him. The music was very suddenly cut off as Arthur practically tore the iPod out of its speakers.
"What?" Merlin asked, pretending to be confused. "I thought you liked this song?"
"Not anymore." Arthur ground out, glaring at Merlin across the counter.
"Oh, shame really. I love that song." Merlin grinned at him before returning to gleefully burning his dinner. Grumbling, Arthur stomped off upstairs.
*****
It wasn't until a few hours later, when Arthur had laid down long enough to get over the atrocity of his dinner, that he decided he was in the mood for listening to Christmas songs. With Merlin downstairs, busy being enthralled by the happenings of some ridiculous TV show, Arthur deemed it safe to roll off the bed, plug his iPod into the speakers and stick it on shuffle. Mouth pulled down into a frown, he stood and repeatedly tapped at the "next" button until he found a decent song. Smiling at the first Christmas song that appeared, Arthur bobbed his head along with the beat, before launching into a full-blown air-guitar rendition of Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody".
*****
As Strictly Come Dancing finished, Merlin switched off the TV, grabbed his mobile that he'd just been texting Gwen on, and began to make his way upstairs. As he neared the final step, he frowned. Was that a Christmas song he could hear? Arthur was listening to it willingly? And from the sounds of it, he was dancing too. This Merlin had to see…
*****
Oblivious to the slight opening of the door, Arthur added a head bang to his routine. Fighting back sniggers, Merlin pulled his phone out of his pocket and started up the camera.
As the chorus began, Arthur grabbed the nearest microphone-shaped object and proceeded to belt out Noddy Holder's scream of "It's Christmas!" into his toothbrush.
Before he could stop himself, Merlin let out a short bark of laughter. Arthur stopped dancing abruptly, and slowly turned around to face him. Merlin very quickly stowed his phone into his pocket before Arthur threw his toothbrush at Merlin's head, with a horrified cry of, "How long have you been stood there?!" At the look on Arthur's face, Merlin spluttered out a laugh before very quickly shutting the door and running for the safety of the kitchen.
*****
The first thing Arthur always did on a Saturday morning was crawl out from beneath the covers, flip open his laptop, and check his Facebook. Call it a habit, but Arthur couldn't help it. Normally, not much had happened. Someone commented on someone else's status, joined a group, or uploaded a photo, but nothing major.
However, on this particular Saturday morning, there was a strange amount of activity coming from Merlin's profile page. Puzzled, Arthur went to find out what he'd missed.
When he saw it, Arthur really wished he hadn't. He was faced with a very grainy, but unmistakable, video of himself prancing around his bedroom, singing into his toothbrush. Horrified, he scrolled down the page quickly; but not quick enough to avoid his cry of "It's Christmas!"
Arthur's horror deepened as he saw the sheer amount of comments. 289 in a few hours?! After several moments of hesitation, Arthur read the first few:
Morgana LeFay: Arthur's idiocy never ceases to amaze me. At least now we have something to publicly humiliate him with.
Gwen Collins: Wow. Is all I can say. And is that a toothbrush? Pure brilliance.
Owain Knightley: I lol'd. Really hard. This so going around work! Merlin, you are a legend.
Lancelot DuLac: Stunning performance! Do you think Arthur would be interested in a position on the dance team? I mean, they're all twelve-year-old girls, but I don't think they'd mind. :P
Hunith Emrys: Wonderful! Especially the toothbrush part. Can I have a copy of this for the album? Love, Mum.
As Arthur slowly closed the lid of his laptop, he began to fear he would never ever hear the end of this.