Kink Me! #4
Kink Me! #4 Closed to new prompts Welcome to Kink Me! Merlin #4!
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After Arthur had been working for half an hour, Merlin took a pitcher of lemonade and two glasses outside and set them on the weathered stone table. “Hey, take a break.”
Arthur came gratefully over, wiping his forehead with a cloth, and flopped down on the bench. “It looks better,” Merlin said, trying to look at the garden rather than Arthur’s sweaty chest.
Arthur poured a glass of lemonade and downed half of it before answering. “Thanks. For this too,” he said, lifting his glass slightly.
Merlin poured himself his own glass. “Well, I don’t want you to keel over from heatstroke.”
Arthur grinned again, and Merlin sternly told his stomach to behave.
“So why do you need a gardener anyway?”
Merlin grimaced. “My uncle gave me this house in his will, and I have no clue what to do with it. Even if I wasn’t still at university, I’m hopeless at gardening.”
“What are you studying?” Arthur asked.
“Literature.”
“Ah.” Arthur nodded, but it looked like he wanted to say something else.
“What?”
“Well, it’s just…what are you going to do with a degree like that?”
Merlin shrugged. “No idea. I'll figure something out.”
“Look, you were right, there’s tools in the shed, but they’re all rusted. I’ll have to bring over mine tomorrow.”
Merlin nodded. “If you need anything, like…oh, I don’t know, fertiliser, or weed-killer or whatever, let me know.”
Arthur nodded. “I will.”
***
Over the next two weeks, Arthur cleaned out the garden. Merlin brought out drinks every so often for the first week, and by the next week he was helping Arthur. He might not know anything about plants, but he could skim the pond, or pull out dead flowers just fine.
Sometimes he thought Arthur was looking at him as he knelt in the flower beds pulling weeds, but he convinced himself he was imagining things.
He dreaded the end of the day, when Arthur would leave and he’d have to revise for a test or wade through Mallory. He still managed to get all his assignments on on time, but he’d be glad when break came.
He considered asking Arthur to stay at the house; there was more than enough room, after all, and the housekeeper and cook both lived with him, but he couldn’t find a way to ask without sounding creepy.
When the flower beds were cleared out, Arthur said, “So what do you want in here?”
“Uh…”
“Oh, right, sorry, you don’t know plants. OK if I pick something?”
“Yeah, sure.”
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He was always telling Merlin things about the garden; what type of plants grew best in the type of soil he had, when to plant, how to care for various kinds of flowers. Merlin was learning more about gardening from Arthur than he ever had in his life, and was surprised to find it was interesting.
“Want to help me plant the bulbs?”
Merlin was dubious. “Should I? I mean I don’t want to mess them up.”
“It’s fine, come here.”
And so Merlin knelt in the flowerbed, getting the knees of his trousers all dirty, as Arthur handed him a trowel and showed him how far down to put the bulbs so they’d sprout. Merlin concentrated on not putting the bulbs too deep or too close together, covering them over and just dampening the soil, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth.
He looked up suddenly to find Arthur staring at him, a bulb forgotten in his hand.
“What?”
Arthur jumped. “Nothing! You’ve just got a bit of dirt on your cheek,” and he reached out with his thumb and wiped it away.
Merlin was going to point out that Arthur’s hands were far dirtier than his face was, but Arthur’s thumb lingered, stroking over his cheekbone, and then he leaned in and kissed him and Merlin forgot to think.
Arthur pressed him down into the dirt of the flowerbed, and he was going to have to throw out these clothes, not that they were that nice anyway, he knew he’d get dirty and Arthur was mouthing along his throat and pushing his shirt up and he decided he really did like gardening after all.
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You make horticulture sound so hot, btw. unf. (Actually, I like this so much that I kind of want more! Don't get me wrong, it's perfect as it is. It's just that, I really have a kink for this universe, lol.)
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Though I was a bit confused when mentioning azalea "plants", since azaleas come in bushes....
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