Kink Me! #31
Kink Me! #31
Closed to new prompts!Welcome to Kink Me! Merlin #31! :D
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He's convinced that will be the end of that, but someone apparently forgot to tell Uther, because two days later, he's waiting outside the coffee shop when Merlin's shift ends.
"Arthur says he has no intention of coming out at the office unless and until he has a significant other he'd like to bring to a company event," Uther says abruptly, sounding for all the world as if he's picking up the conversation exactly where they left off.
Merlin stares at him for a long moment, and then gives a resigned sigh. "Curry?" he suggests glumly.
Ten minutes later, they're sitting down in a shabby little Indian restaurant Merlin eats at a minimum of twice a week. Uther, as usual, looks wildly out of place but determined to ignore it.
"Don't you think that's a bad idea?" Uther demands, once they've placed their orders.
Merlin forcibly restrains another sigh. "Why would that be a bad idea?"
"Well, it's just - discourteous." Uther scowls. "What happens when he actually has this significant other? He just...turns up with a man on his arm? No one will be prepared, everyone will be forced to simply...deal with it, on the spot."
"Seriously, you don't find that even a little bit ridiculous? That people would care? I mean, I realise they will care, that's the way the world works, but how is that Arthur's problem? If you met and started dating some twenty-year-old college girl, you would hardly be obligated to send out an email about it ahead of time to make sure everyone was comfortable with your choice."
"I don't care about that," Uther snaps. "I'm talking about his date. He's talking about bringing an innocent person into a highly uncomfortable situation without even warning anyone. How is that an acceptable way to treat someone you care about?"
Merlin blinks, baffled by this sudden twist. "Who the hell do you work with? Organised crime?"
"What?"
"You're making it sound like they're going to get shot. It's a business dinner, not a hate crime. They'll have an awkward night. Some people will look at them funny; some might say shitty things. But it's not like his date would be going in blind. I mean, presumably he'd have told the guy in question what to expect, and if Arthur is okay with it and his date is okay with it, then what's the problem?"
"It's...ungentlemanly." Uther sets his jaw, and then has to pause while the waitress arrives and stare at his plate for a while as if he's never in his life seen anything like what's on it before. After a moment, he seems to remember himself. "It's cowardly, that's what it is. If Arthur wants to bring a man to a company function, fine, but he's got no call to be dragging his date into the path of any unpleasantness that may follow. That is no way to treat a - someone. I raised him better than that."
Merlin tears off a piece of naan, and sighs. "Uther. Is there a date?"
"What?"
"Is there a date? Is this an actual thing that is happening, or are we dealing in hypothetical future boyfriends, here?"
Uther frowns. "Arthur is not currently seeing anyone, no."
Merlin had assumed as much. "So, what's the real problem, then? You can't really be obsessing about the mental welfare of a fictional man your son isn't even dating yet, who may or may not hear a couple of snide remarks at some imaginary future dinner party. What's actually going on?"
Uther opens his mouth, then closes it. He looks wrong-footed again, and deeply uncomfortable.
"Eat your curry," Merlin says, taking pity on him.
His expression suggests that there are a great many things he would rather be doing with his time, like possibly wrestling live eels, but Uther reaches for the naan with a scowl.
For a while, they eat in blessed silence. Merlin tries to figure out how his life has come to this - gay guru to a repressed Tory business tycoon - but comes up with no answers that don't start and end with 'crazy uncle Gaius.'
-cont'd-
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