Merlin fic: Alright.
Title: Alright
Author: amazonbard88
Rating: PG-13 for a naughty word and kissing.
Disclaimer: I don't claim any ownership over the characters.
Beta: (if used) Due to being out of action with the flu I left it too late to get this beta'd before the deadline; all mistakes are my own.
Author's Notes: Written for merlinxarthur's fanfic challenge #1, I used picture #6 found here as my inspiration. This is my first time posting anything publicly *is nervous* so I'd greatly appreciate any constructive feedback.
...
He woke abruptly to the shrill sound of his phone alarm screeching obnoxiously in his ear. Departing from his usual ritual of hitting the snooze button three times he sprung out of bed immediately and hoped, as he shut it off, that nobody else had heard it’s shrieking through the thin walls of the cottage. He stood frozen, trying to determine any sound of disturbance through the seemingly deafening pound of his own heart. A snort from somewhere down the corridor stopped his breath for what seemed like an hour, not returning until the distant sound of steady snoring met his ears.
Quickly and silently he pulled on a jumper and slipped into a pair of shoes, careful to avoid the creaky floorboard near the end of his bed. It took all his effort not to just bolt down the stairs two at time; instead the short journey to the back door was painstakingly slow, muscles tensing at the merest thunk of his feet or brushing of fabric. Negotiating with the old door was just as nerve wracking but finally, finally, he felt the fresh breathe of morning on his cheeks.
Briskly he made his way round the side of the cottage, the frosted grass crunching under his well worn shoes, until he reached the front of the weathered building. Sneaking a glance up at the front windows, he set off down the road. The first fingers of dawn were reaching through the dense fog that wove through the trees lining the road and the old fences either side glittered in the early morning light. The sight seemed almost magical, in the way that finding a four leaf clover or a ring of toadstools in the back forest had been when he was younger, had he not been so eager to get out of view of the house he would have probably wasted a minute absorbing the sleepy beauty of it all. As it was, he hurried down the path, frequently glancing back the way he came and hoping that he wouldn’t hear the clatter of a window and the sound of his father’s voice ringing angrily through the hush of the morning. If this were anybodies life but his own he probably would have laughed at the stupidity of having to sneak out of his own house and fearing the wrath of his parents at the age of twenty two, but this was his life and he knew that, in his situation, anything other than sneaking would not exactly be conducive to his health.
After the third curve in the road the house had almost completely disappeared from view and he allowed himself to relax a little; he slowed his pace and silently congratulated himself on a plan well executed. He continued on a little way down the path until he came to the section of fencing that dipped a little lower than the rest of the taut wire and, careful to place his hands on the non-barbed area, he pulled the two rows of wire apart and crouched through the gap. He glanced down at his watch and, pleasantly surprised with what good time he was keeping, started making his way across the paddock at a more relaxed pace. After a few minutes he came to the other side of the field and squeezed through the fencing in the same way as before. Running alongside this fence was a small glade of trees that opened out onto another paddock, which signified that he was now officially on Pendragon land. Thankfully for Merlin’s own hide it was very rarely that a Pendragon made their way down to this bottom pasture these days, well, save one and that certainly had nothing to do with land acquisition disputes.
All the land around these parts belonged to Uther Pendragon, the pastures that didn’t had been acquired, which was really just a nice way of saying he had bullied all the local farmers and land owners until they’d sold their land to him. Uther had been able to systematically bully and buy off all the surrounding lands, except one, Merlin’s parents refused to give in to Uther, no matter how much money he offered them over the years for their land. Merlin, when he was young, asked his father why they didn’t just sell to Uther, and Balinor had told him that you never stop fighting for something you believe in and he was never going to let a greedy pig like Uther Pendragon take the land that had been his father’s and his father’s before him. Over the years they’d had livestock poisoned and crops fail but nothing could ever be traced to Uther, though his father was sure he’d been the culprit. Nowadays they only kept a few sheep, some hens and a horse which they had more than enough room to accommodate but, even still, they refused Uther’s every offer. Needless to say Merlin was forbidden from going anywhere near Pendragon land.
Which was exactly why he needed to sneak out of his house this crisp morning; if his father knew he was entering “enemy territory” he’d probably be disowned, and if he knew the reason for crossing into Uther’s land well Merlin was pretty sure before being disowned he’d get a hiding bigger then the time he put his hand down Will’s pants when he was six years old.
Merlin pushed these thoughts out of his mind and continued toward his destination; the orchard on the other side of the field, the third row in, to be exact. Getting closer to the now bare trees he glanced at his watch again and faltered as he noticed the hands in the exact same position they’d been in the last time he’d checked. Merlin groaned; if the hands hadn’t moved that meant his watch had stopped, and if his watch had stopped that meant he was-
“Late, as usual Merlin.”
There he was, the arrogant prat in all his glory, the reason Merlin was sneaking out of the house like a teenager at this god awful hour of the morning, risking life and limb fo-
“Honestly, Merlin, it’s like you’re late on purpose. I’ve never met anybody, in all my life, who manages to consistently run late like you do, thank god I wasn’t planning on - mmph.”
Merlin kissed him because, well, they could do banter, very well in fact, but he didn’t feel like spending an hour debating his own tardiness when that ridiculously pouty mouth could be put to better use. So Merlin pressed more firmly against Arthur’s surprised lips until he felt the blonde soften against him, a hand coming to rest on the back of his neck, pulling him deeper into the kiss. God, no matter how many times he kissed Arthur, Merlin’s stomach would flip-flop nervously like it was the first time all over again. Well, maybe not the first time, because god knows that was awkward as fuck, but he’d get that same ache in his chest and tingly feeling running down his arms every single time.
Merlin felt teeth against his lips and pulled away to see Arthur grinning lazily at him, cheeks flushed and lips shining and Merlin smiled back like some love-struck sixteen year old.
“Morning,” said Arthur, bringing his other hand up to brush the hair off Merlin’s forehead and Merlin shoved him playfully in response.
Arthur’s hair fell softly in front of his clear blue eyes, the sunlight giving the smooth strands an obnoxiously golden glow compared to Merlin’s untidy mess that he hadn’t even bothered to run a hand through. As if he knew what Merlin was thinking, Arthur shook his head affectionately and initiated another kiss, which Merlin sank into happily.
Merlin’s toes felt frozen but his neck was warm where Arthur’s hand rested and his heart sang happily while they got lost in the warm haze of lips and tongue and wandering hands until they both needed to pull back for air.
“So, I’ve been thinking,” said Arthur, breath puffing rapidly against Merlins cheek.
“Don’t do that too often, you might hurt something,” sniggered Merlin in response.
“Oi, I’m being serious.” But Arthur managed to hold a wounded expression for all of three seconds before he started to grin like a fool.
“The thing is,” Arthur began again, expression serious, “I love you, quite a bit actually, despite your ridiculous ears and questionable dress sense and while I really get a kick out of this whole cloak and daggers type setup we’ve got going on here I kind of don’t want to keep this to myself anymore. I want to tell people, Merlin, I want to take you out to dinner and take you back to my place and not have to worry about when I can sneak away to see you next or whether we’ll be found out.” Arthur’s words all came out in a rush and Merlin didn’t fail to notice the softness in his voice and the flush on his neck that indicated Arthur’s nervousness.
“I think we should tell our parents, Merlin, because even if they’d rather die then see us together they need to know, because what I feel for you isn’t going away and I can’t keep you my secret forever.”
Merlin was stunned; he had certainly not expected to hear anything like that when he’d thrown himself out of bed at the crack of dawn. Before Merlin had a chance to respond his stomach gurgled loudly, effectively ruining the moment. It seemed to break the tension in Arthur’s face; he laughed loudly and threaded his fingers through Merlin’s own.
“Come on, let’s get something to feed the beast you’ve got hiding in there and we can talk to Hunith and Balinor while we’re at it.”
Arthur spoke as if telling sworn enemies of your family that you were shagging their son was as casual as talking about the weather, and Merlin let himself be pulled along in a daze; his head buzzing with white noise.
It wasn’t until they had squeezed through the last fence and walked halfway down the tree-lined path that Merlin came back to himself and realised his grip on Arthur’s hand was tight and sweaty with anxiety. He stopped abruptly and Arthur looked at him with what was obviously forced confidence and Merlin loved him more then ever.
“Yeah, alright,” Merlin said finally, “we’ll tell people.”
“You’re a prat for springing this on me, but I love you, which means everything will be alright in the end, yeah?”
Arthur smiled warmly and, within full view of Merlin’s house, leaned forward and pressed his lips tenderly against Merlin’s.
“Yeah, everything will be alright Merlin,” agreed Arthur, and the pair of them set off towards the house, hand in hand.
the end
Author: amazonbard88
Rating: PG-13 for a naughty word and kissing.
Disclaimer: I don't claim any ownership over the characters.
Beta: (if used) Due to being out of action with the flu I left it too late to get this beta'd before the deadline; all mistakes are my own.
Author's Notes: Written for merlinxarthur's fanfic challenge #1, I used picture #6 found here as my inspiration. This is my first time posting anything publicly *is nervous* so I'd greatly appreciate any constructive feedback.
...
He woke abruptly to the shrill sound of his phone alarm screeching obnoxiously in his ear. Departing from his usual ritual of hitting the snooze button three times he sprung out of bed immediately and hoped, as he shut it off, that nobody else had heard it’s shrieking through the thin walls of the cottage. He stood frozen, trying to determine any sound of disturbance through the seemingly deafening pound of his own heart. A snort from somewhere down the corridor stopped his breath for what seemed like an hour, not returning until the distant sound of steady snoring met his ears.
Quickly and silently he pulled on a jumper and slipped into a pair of shoes, careful to avoid the creaky floorboard near the end of his bed. It took all his effort not to just bolt down the stairs two at time; instead the short journey to the back door was painstakingly slow, muscles tensing at the merest thunk of his feet or brushing of fabric. Negotiating with the old door was just as nerve wracking but finally, finally, he felt the fresh breathe of morning on his cheeks.
Briskly he made his way round the side of the cottage, the frosted grass crunching under his well worn shoes, until he reached the front of the weathered building. Sneaking a glance up at the front windows, he set off down the road. The first fingers of dawn were reaching through the dense fog that wove through the trees lining the road and the old fences either side glittered in the early morning light. The sight seemed almost magical, in the way that finding a four leaf clover or a ring of toadstools in the back forest had been when he was younger, had he not been so eager to get out of view of the house he would have probably wasted a minute absorbing the sleepy beauty of it all. As it was, he hurried down the path, frequently glancing back the way he came and hoping that he wouldn’t hear the clatter of a window and the sound of his father’s voice ringing angrily through the hush of the morning. If this were anybodies life but his own he probably would have laughed at the stupidity of having to sneak out of his own house and fearing the wrath of his parents at the age of twenty two, but this was his life and he knew that, in his situation, anything other than sneaking would not exactly be conducive to his health.
After the third curve in the road the house had almost completely disappeared from view and he allowed himself to relax a little; he slowed his pace and silently congratulated himself on a plan well executed. He continued on a little way down the path until he came to the section of fencing that dipped a little lower than the rest of the taut wire and, careful to place his hands on the non-barbed area, he pulled the two rows of wire apart and crouched through the gap. He glanced down at his watch and, pleasantly surprised with what good time he was keeping, started making his way across the paddock at a more relaxed pace. After a few minutes he came to the other side of the field and squeezed through the fencing in the same way as before. Running alongside this fence was a small glade of trees that opened out onto another paddock, which signified that he was now officially on Pendragon land. Thankfully for Merlin’s own hide it was very rarely that a Pendragon made their way down to this bottom pasture these days, well, save one and that certainly had nothing to do with land acquisition disputes.
All the land around these parts belonged to Uther Pendragon, the pastures that didn’t had been acquired, which was really just a nice way of saying he had bullied all the local farmers and land owners until they’d sold their land to him. Uther had been able to systematically bully and buy off all the surrounding lands, except one, Merlin’s parents refused to give in to Uther, no matter how much money he offered them over the years for their land. Merlin, when he was young, asked his father why they didn’t just sell to Uther, and Balinor had told him that you never stop fighting for something you believe in and he was never going to let a greedy pig like Uther Pendragon take the land that had been his father’s and his father’s before him. Over the years they’d had livestock poisoned and crops fail but nothing could ever be traced to Uther, though his father was sure he’d been the culprit. Nowadays they only kept a few sheep, some hens and a horse which they had more than enough room to accommodate but, even still, they refused Uther’s every offer. Needless to say Merlin was forbidden from going anywhere near Pendragon land.
Which was exactly why he needed to sneak out of his house this crisp morning; if his father knew he was entering “enemy territory” he’d probably be disowned, and if he knew the reason for crossing into Uther’s land well Merlin was pretty sure before being disowned he’d get a hiding bigger then the time he put his hand down Will’s pants when he was six years old.
Merlin pushed these thoughts out of his mind and continued toward his destination; the orchard on the other side of the field, the third row in, to be exact. Getting closer to the now bare trees he glanced at his watch again and faltered as he noticed the hands in the exact same position they’d been in the last time he’d checked. Merlin groaned; if the hands hadn’t moved that meant his watch had stopped, and if his watch had stopped that meant he was-
“Late, as usual Merlin.”
There he was, the arrogant prat in all his glory, the reason Merlin was sneaking out of the house like a teenager at this god awful hour of the morning, risking life and limb fo-
“Honestly, Merlin, it’s like you’re late on purpose. I’ve never met anybody, in all my life, who manages to consistently run late like you do, thank god I wasn’t planning on - mmph.”
Merlin kissed him because, well, they could do banter, very well in fact, but he didn’t feel like spending an hour debating his own tardiness when that ridiculously pouty mouth could be put to better use. So Merlin pressed more firmly against Arthur’s surprised lips until he felt the blonde soften against him, a hand coming to rest on the back of his neck, pulling him deeper into the kiss. God, no matter how many times he kissed Arthur, Merlin’s stomach would flip-flop nervously like it was the first time all over again. Well, maybe not the first time, because god knows that was awkward as fuck, but he’d get that same ache in his chest and tingly feeling running down his arms every single time.
Merlin felt teeth against his lips and pulled away to see Arthur grinning lazily at him, cheeks flushed and lips shining and Merlin smiled back like some love-struck sixteen year old.
“Morning,” said Arthur, bringing his other hand up to brush the hair off Merlin’s forehead and Merlin shoved him playfully in response.
Arthur’s hair fell softly in front of his clear blue eyes, the sunlight giving the smooth strands an obnoxiously golden glow compared to Merlin’s untidy mess that he hadn’t even bothered to run a hand through. As if he knew what Merlin was thinking, Arthur shook his head affectionately and initiated another kiss, which Merlin sank into happily.
Merlin’s toes felt frozen but his neck was warm where Arthur’s hand rested and his heart sang happily while they got lost in the warm haze of lips and tongue and wandering hands until they both needed to pull back for air.
“So, I’ve been thinking,” said Arthur, breath puffing rapidly against Merlins cheek.
“Don’t do that too often, you might hurt something,” sniggered Merlin in response.
“Oi, I’m being serious.” But Arthur managed to hold a wounded expression for all of three seconds before he started to grin like a fool.
“The thing is,” Arthur began again, expression serious, “I love you, quite a bit actually, despite your ridiculous ears and questionable dress sense and while I really get a kick out of this whole cloak and daggers type setup we’ve got going on here I kind of don’t want to keep this to myself anymore. I want to tell people, Merlin, I want to take you out to dinner and take you back to my place and not have to worry about when I can sneak away to see you next or whether we’ll be found out.” Arthur’s words all came out in a rush and Merlin didn’t fail to notice the softness in his voice and the flush on his neck that indicated Arthur’s nervousness.
“I think we should tell our parents, Merlin, because even if they’d rather die then see us together they need to know, because what I feel for you isn’t going away and I can’t keep you my secret forever.”
Merlin was stunned; he had certainly not expected to hear anything like that when he’d thrown himself out of bed at the crack of dawn. Before Merlin had a chance to respond his stomach gurgled loudly, effectively ruining the moment. It seemed to break the tension in Arthur’s face; he laughed loudly and threaded his fingers through Merlin’s own.
“Come on, let’s get something to feed the beast you’ve got hiding in there and we can talk to Hunith and Balinor while we’re at it.”
Arthur spoke as if telling sworn enemies of your family that you were shagging their son was as casual as talking about the weather, and Merlin let himself be pulled along in a daze; his head buzzing with white noise.
It wasn’t until they had squeezed through the last fence and walked halfway down the tree-lined path that Merlin came back to himself and realised his grip on Arthur’s hand was tight and sweaty with anxiety. He stopped abruptly and Arthur looked at him with what was obviously forced confidence and Merlin loved him more then ever.
“Yeah, alright,” Merlin said finally, “we’ll tell people.”
“You’re a prat for springing this on me, but I love you, which means everything will be alright in the end, yeah?”
Arthur smiled warmly and, within full view of Merlin’s house, leaned forward and pressed his lips tenderly against Merlin’s.
“Yeah, everything will be alright Merlin,” agreed Arthur, and the pair of them set off towards the house, hand in hand.
the end