The Twelve Days of Christmas
Title: The Twelve Days of Christmas
Chapter:1st Day of Christmas
Author: AGDoren
Rating: Mature
Genre: Family/Humor, Modern/AU
Spoilers: none
Characters, pairings and trioings: Guinevere, Merlin, Arthur, Tom, Elyan, Uther, Igraine, Morgana, Hunith as well as original characters Beverly- Gwen's mother and Tom's wife, Janine- Gwen's older sister. Merlin/Gwen/Arthur, Uther/Igraine, Tom/Beverly
Summary: Merlin, Guinevere and Arthur set out to find the perfect Christmas tree but with Christmas just twelve days away its not an easy task. How far will they have to go for the perfect tree?
Author's notes: This was a originally a much shorter fill an MC6 fic battle prompt but I always wanted to make it longer. The fic will include Twelve Chapters, a prologue and an epilogue, expect short updates daily through Christmas, enjoy my gift to you. All location mentioned are real places in and around Chicago, IL.
The 1st Day of Christmas, Oh Christmas Tree
"What about this one?"Arthur pointed to a decent sized tree with good color. It was nice but-
He pulled his cap down to cover his ears and looked at Gwen with expectant blue eyes.
"I don't know." She complained. Her father and grandfather used to go and get the most beautiful blue green spruce trees full, bright and nearly lush in comparison to the trees on the city lots. There was nothing wrong with these trees but they looked dull, faded, these would be shedding their needles almost immediately. They should have gone right after Thanksgiving.
"It is a nice tree." Merlin walked up. The wind blew hard then and he grimaced, he was so thin the cold went right through him.
"Let's just take this one." She agreed feeling guilty at how uncomfortable they both looked.
"No Guinevere," Arthur said taking her mittened hand in his. "We'll find one you like."
"No we should just take this one. We're all frozen and tired."
"I'm not frozen or tired," Merlin said. "It's early. Let's try a couple more places."
"Yeah." Arthur nodded.
Gwen smiled with delight, took an arm a piece and started them toward the car. She wanted to kiss them both right now for not complaining as she dragged them from tree lot to tree lot passing up perfectly nice trees in the freezing Chicago weather. As soon as they were settled in the front seat of the Lincoln she gave them each a kiss on the cheek.
"I'm sure we'll find one at the next place."
They didn't find a tree and instead went home exhausted, defeated, half frozen and ordered jerk from Uncle Joe's. Merlin made them mugs of hot chocolate to sip while they waited for the delivery and they lounged on the living room floor in front of the fire place. Gwen laid her head down on the carpeted floor wishing they had taken one of the trees. She did not want to go back out tomorrow and do it all again.
****
"Gwen?" Merlin said her name softly. "Gwen?" He shook her gently wanting to be certain that she was actually asleep. When her only response was to rollover and face Arthur, Merlin grinned. He ran hand one hand over her warm silk smooth skin and placed a little kiss on her dark curls. She smelled musky and warm from the scent of their lovemaking.
He snuggled closer to her, spooning up against her warm, petit body, tempted to either wake her up or let himself drift back to sleep. He pressed closer to her and brushed on leg against Arthur's.
Merlin groaned softly, he was supposed to be waking up Arthur.
Silently he got out of bed shivering as the cool night air hit his bare skin. They kept the bed room cool so that the three of them might share one bed comfortably. Quickly he slipped on his robe and moved quietly to the other side of bed. He shook Arthur's shoulder. The other man woke almost instantly and Merlin handed Arthur his bathrobe.
Arthur slipped out of bed and grabbed the blanket draped over the trunk at the foot of the bed. Merlin waited while he spread the blanket carefully over Gwen and then the two men slipped into the hall.
They went to the second bedroom, formerly Merlin's room and flicked on the light. It served now as a study of sorts but Merlin's bed was still there.
Arthur booted up Gwen's computer and googled tree farms in Illinois.
"Bellevidere, Forest View." Arthur muttered the names of distant suburbs aloud and Merlin leaned over his shoulder scanning the search results.
"What do you want for Christmas?"
"Nothing," Arthur said.
"Look at that one." Merlin pointed to a link, "just a couple hours away, in Lemont."
Arthur clicked it with a smirk.
"Puckerville Farms in Lemont, IL," he said in a happy twang.
"They have beautiful trees," Merlin said looking at the pictures of spruce, douglas, cedar, etc... "Arthur I'm not getting you nothing for Christmas."
"Merlin," Arthur faced him and did exactly what Gwen had said he would do. "As long as I have my two most favorite people in the world I don't need anything for Christmas."
Which was Arthur's very nice way of saying you can't afford anything I want for Christmas so don't worry about it.
Arthur didn't even wait for a reply just turned back to the computer.
"Yeah look at this, Camelot Castle is closer." Arthur said.
Merlin scanned their description. "No trees," he said at last, "just holiday stuff."
"Yeah, Puckerville it is." Arthur said. "Its gonna take a couple hours to get out there."
"We'll have to leave in a couple hours." Merlin said. "Probably shouldn't go back to sleep."
"No." Arthur looked at him and glanced leisurely at the double sized bed that hadn't seen any use for months now. "Not much we can do in two hours in the middle of the night." Arthur rose and shrugged out of his bathrobe before striding over to the bed and Merlin felt his nostril's flare at his lover's direct invitation. Merlin swallowed momentarily forgetting about Arthur's Christmas present.
"We don't want to wake Gwen." Merlin said eyes locked on Arthur's.
"Course not. It would ruin the surprise." Arthur sat down on the edge of the bed.
He walked round the desk to stand in front of Arthur.
"She's just on the other side of that wall."
"I know Merlin." Arthur said tugged at the belt of his robe and grinning smugly. "Gwen isn't going to wake up anytime soon."
He studied Arthur's bottom lip and leaned forward bending at the waist and while Arthur leaned back on his elbows. Merlin rested his hands on either side of his lover palms flat on the bed. His face was less than an inch from Arthur's now and he paused before kissing him.
"We have to be quiet, cause if we wake her up she'll wonder why we're in here."
Arthur stared at him for a moment and Merlin could feel the heat radiating from the other man's body, smell the musky smell of the three of them emanating from his skin.
"Shut-up Merlin."