Kink Me! #31
Kink Me! #31
Closed to new prompts!Welcome to Kink Me! Merlin #31! :D
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Arthur turns up twice more before the week is out, once with a friend named Lance in tow. He still looks at Merlin with open interest and curiosity in his eyes, but he doesn't make any more outright flirtatious gestures, which is more than can be said for Lance.
"Somewhere, swelling strains of violin music just started playing for no reason," Merlin mutters from the corner of his mouth, watching Lance and Gwen gaze besottedly at each other from under their lashes.
Arthur looks on incredulously. "Is it just me, or did everything just go all soft-focus and glowy in here?"
"It's the sunbeams. They're contractually obligated to backlight all Epic Romance. If they ever actually kiss, we'll all go blind."
For whatever reason, Gwen chooses this moment to at least vaguely rejoin reality, glancing over at Merlin with a distinctly dazed expression. "What?"
"Nothing," says Merlin, sighing. "Don't worry about it. Go back to your soulful gazing, there." He turns to Arthur, making a face. "Want to go get drunk?"
"So drunk," Arthur agrees, watching Lance beam shyly at Gwen.
Merlin takes off his apron. It's still fifteen minutes early for the end of his shift, but it seems only fair. Gwen gets a gorgeous hunk making cow eyes at her across the counter, and Merlin gets a fifteen-minute head start on drowning the kind of sorrows that come with having the most gorgeous gay man he's gotten anywhere near inf a long while be the recently-closeted son of Uther Pendragon.
Life has to make some accommodations, after all.
***
For the first time in a long time, Uther doesn't bother to wait impatiently outside the coffee shop. He turns up at the counter instead, bold as brass, ten minutes before Merlin's shift is due to end.
"My son," he says, loud and fierce, "is infatuated with you. He mentions you constantly. Not a day has passed since he met you that I haven't heard your name."
"Uther," hisses Merlin, eyeing the suddenly-interested crowd around them with growing dismay.
"Why are you being so difficult about this?" Uther demands. "It's obvious he's attracted to you, you seemed to enjoy his company well enough - "
"Uther," says Merlin, louder.
"Surely things cannot be so different among your people that mutual attraction and pleasant company are not considered reasons to date - "
"Uther!“ Merlin snaps. "Shut up, and go sit down. I will be with you in ten minutes. You are making a scene."
It must be the first time in living memory that anyone has dared to boss Uther Pendragon around, much less scold him like an errant schoolboy, but after a single, shocked beat of hesitation, he actually obeys. Merlin would crow with vindictive delight if he weren't busy being fatally mortified in front of all his coworkers and a fair-sized crowd of customers. He ends up abandoning the counter to Gilli, and retreating to clean the espresso machine with his back to the room, face burning.
"Your...people?" ventures Gwen, out the side of her mouth, sounding like she's fighting a laugh.
"The gays," Merlin mutters darkly. "We're a bit like the martians, only sparklier and less familiar with Earth customs."
Gwen politely hides her laughter in a stack of napkins, and Merlin devotes the last few minutes of his shift to remembering all the reasons why he hasn't punched Uther yet, and convincing himself that it would be a real shame to break that streak now.
Ten minutes later, he slams a cup of plain black coffee down in front of Uther with what he considers to be an impressive display of restraint, and drops into the chair across from him with a glare.
Uther opens his mouth, but Merlin holds up a hand to cut him off before he even gets started.
"No, you are going to sit quietly, and you are going to listen. This may not seem like a very important job to you, but this is where I work. I need this job, and I do not appreciate being humiliated by one of your tantrums in front of my friends, coworkers, and customers."
Uther has the grace to wince at that, though likely as not, it has more to do with his own lapse of dignity than any guilt over Merlin's discomfort.
-cont'd-
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