Fic: Second Chances
Title: Second Chances (1/3)
Author: oomnydevvotchka
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Word Count: 6.5k
Warnings: Mild homophobia
Summary: This prompt over at Kink Me Merlin.
Arthur stood outside the door to his father's office, fidgeting with his cuff links. After a few seconds, he took a deep breath, straightened up, and knocked on the door.
"Enter."
Uther Pendragon was, by all accounts, an intimidating man. He ruled with an iron fist over his company, Camelot Inc., and expected that his son would do the same after his retirement. All Arthur's life, he had been groomed for his position as a CEO, and the inevitable high society life that would come with it.
Which was why Arthur knew that his father would not take this particular meeting well at all.
Arthur had known that he was gay as a maypole since he had gotten off with Leon Knight in the footie locker room at the age of 15. However, he'd never found a man worthy of uprooting his comfortable life as Camelot's golden boy.
Until six months ago. Six months ago, he had literally bumped into a big-eared man on the street, and somehow managed to fall head-over-heels in love with him. Now, he wanted to take the next step in their relationship, and ask Merlin to move in with him.
First, though, he needed to tell his father about the relationship. Arthur refused to hide this, to act like Merlin was a dirty secret. Merlin was worth destroying his relationship with his father for. And destroy it, this would.
Arthur pushed the door open, walking into Uther's opulent office. The man himself sat behind an overly large desk, in a chair that Arthur had always thought looked like a throne.
Uther looked up from the paperwork on his desk to give his son a tight smile. "Arthur." He acknowledged. "Sit. What is your business with me?"
Arthur sat. "Father. I wanted to tell you that I am in a steady relationship, and I'm going to ask my partner to move in with me."
Uther's face brightened. "It's about time you settled down. Why haven't I met this girl yet? Is she poor?
Arthur sighed. “No, Father. Listen-"
"You don't have to lie to me. A poor girl can be taught propriety. Look at Kate Middleton."
"Father-"
"Is it that secretary from your office? Well, that isn't ideal, but at this point I'll take anything. After you kept rudely rejecting every woman I offered to you, I despaired of ever finding you a match."
"Father, I-"
"However, you'll have to get this 'moving in with her' out of your head. Cohabitating before marriage is frowned upon in our circles. You should simply propose to her, I know Morgana would be happy to help plan the wedding."
"Father! Could you please stop talking and listen to me for one second!"
Uther did not look pleased at his son's insubordination, but Arthur wasn't concerned with that at the moment.
Arthur made sure he was sitting up perfectly straight in his chair, and looked his father directly in the eye. It would not do to show any weakness here.
"It is not my secretary I'm dating. My partner's name is Merlin. I say 'partner' and not 'girlfriend' because Merlin is a man."
Arthur had been expecting an explosion as soon as he released his words. Instead, Uther merely grew quiet, bringing his clasped hands to his forehead. After a few seconds, he dropped his hands again and fixed a steely gaze on his son.
“Arthur. I don’t quite know what has come over you, but you know full well how important it is that you marry a suitable woman in order to keep up the public image of Camelot Inc. You must stop this foolishness immediately”.
Arthur matched his father’s cold gaze with one of his own.
“I am in love with my boyfriend, and I will not leave him for the sake of your vanity.”
That did the trick. Arthur had seen some impressive rages from his father over the years, but he was sure that Uther’s face had never before turned quite that shade of purple.
“What you call vanity” Uther hissed, leaning forward in his chair, “is my concern for your future. I did not build this company from the ground up to see it go to ruins under the leadership of someone like you.”
Arthur snorted. “What, now that you know I’m gay, I’m less capable of running the company than I was before? I always knew you were intolerant, but this is a new low for you.”
Uther pushed away from his desk and made his way around it with a speed that belied his age, standing in front of Arthur. Abandoning any pretense of calm, he yelled “This company’s success relies on its public image, and having a CEO that’s living an…alternative lifestyle -”
Arthur jumped up himself, so quickly that his chair toppled over. He didn’t notice, distracted by the blind rage his father’s words were causing in him, the way Uther dismissed the most meaningful relationship Arthur had ever had without a thought.
“I am living the exact same ‘lifestyle’ as I was before, as I have known I was gay since I was fucking fifteen!”
“You’ve dated many women since you were fifteen, I don’t see why you can’t -”
“Each and every one of those women was a lie, made up so I didn’t have to deal with this exact conversation.”
The two men were nearly toe to toe, their shouts escalating as time went on. Uther, not used to this level of disobedience from Arthur, decided to end the conversation. He took a few deep breaths, attempting to find the calmness with which he had started the argument.
“If you insist on continuing your relationship with Melvin -”
“Merlin”
“Merlin, I will have no choice but to disown you.”
Arthur looked as though someone had slapped him across the face. He had known that Uther would take his confession badly, but he had been holding out hope that Uther would be able to see past his prejudices for his own son. Arthur snapped his mouth shut and replied with a quick “Fine. You’ll not have to worry about seeing me again.” before turning on his heel and exiting the office, letting the door slam shut behind him.
***
Immediately after leaving his father’s office, Arthur made his way towards Merlin’s flat. After a fight with his father, Merlin was one of the few people who knew how to make him feel better. Merlin knew that Arthur often didn’t want to discuss the argument, but simply needed a distraction, so he didn’t stew in his anger. That tended to make Arthur even angrier.
It was things like that that solidified Arthur’s conviction that he had done the right thing by breaking with his father. He was upset, of course, and hurt that Uther could dismiss him so easily, but he also felt unexpectedly…relieved. All his life, nearly every choice Arthur made had been carefully calculated to earn Uther’s approval, and now he would no longer have to consider Uther, would never have to weigh whether or not something was important enough to him to risk Uther’s wrath.
So, it was an angry, hurt, confused, relieved, and overall emotionally unstable Arthur that knocked on his boyfriend’s door.
“Come in!” Merlin called from inside, and it was as though Arthur couldn’t open the door quickly enough.
Merlin was curled up around a textbook on his thrift store sofa, hair damp from a recent shower and dressed in one of Arthur’s jumpers, which was so large on him that the sleeves covered his hands and made it difficult for him to turn the pages. It was the most adorable thing that Arthur had ever seen.
Merlin looked up from his reading at Arthur’s footsteps, and his characteristic grin spread over his face. However, the grin was quickly replaced by a concerned frown when he took a look at Arthur’s face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, untangling himself from the sofa and getting to his feet.
Arthur sighed. “I’ll give you one guess.”
“Your father?”
“Isn’t it always?”
Merlin walked over to Arthur and slipped his arms around his waist. “What’ll it be this time? Shitty TV and takeaway, pub, or football?”
Arthur couldn’t resist hugging Merlin back even if he wanted to. “Actually, I think I want to talk about it this time.”
Merlin gave a theatrical gasp and put a hand to Arthur’s forehead. “Talk!? You’re dying, aren’t you?”
Arthur batted his hand away and said, far too casually. “Do shut up. I think I was just disowned.”
Merlin’s eyes widened in shock, and he stepped back, leading Arthur to sit on the sofa. “Tell me what happened.”
It was a demand, not a request, and Arthur shouldn’t have found that as endearing as he did. “I told him about us. He tried to get me to leave you, and when I refused, he disowned me. Then I stormed out.”
“Oh Jesus. I’m so sorry.”
“What the hell are you apologizing for?”
Merlin looked down, fidgeting slightly with the cuffs of Arthur’s jumper. “I hate that you had to choose between he and I.”
Arthur pulled Merlin back into his arms, burying his face in Merlin’s unruly hair. “You didn’t ask me to choose. He did.”
“Still. He is your father.”
Arthur snorted, but found that these words didn’t affect him as much as he thought they would. “Not anymore, apparently.”
They sat quietly for a few minutes, Merlin still feeling unnecessarily guilty about the situation. However, something about the conversation didn’t sit right with Merlin. He looked up at Arthur. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
Arthur blushed at Merlin’s perceptiveness, and then tried to pretend that he wasn’t blushing. He had wanted to make a big deal about this, but Merlin could be like a dog with a bone when he thought Arthur wasn’t being truthful with him.
Arthur took a deep breath, and then just blurted it out. “What I actually told my father was that I was planning on asking you to move in with me.”
Merlin met Arthur’s eyes, and his grin spread over his face again. “Oh really? And when are you planning on doing that?”
Arthur relaxed at the teasing. “I was going to move all your things to mine while you were sleeping and leave you to figure it out by yourself. It wouldn’t take me very long, most of your things are shit.”
Merlin swatted at him lazily. “Prat. See if I move in with you now.”
Arthur shifted slightly, fumbling in the pocket of his jacket. “Guess I’ll just have to give this spare key to someone else.”
He dangled the key in front of Merlin’s face, and Merlin snatched it out of his hand. “Oh no you won’t. Mine. No take-backs.”
“So I’m stuck with you, then?”
Merlin moved to straddle Arthur’s lap and leaned in for a kiss. “Yep, looks that way.”
***
When Arthur left his office, Uther tried to go back to doing paperwork, but kept getting distracted by the thought of what had just occurred.
Out of his two children, Arthur had always been the one that he could count on to understand and obey him. He loved Morgana, of course, but she was headstrong, prone to fighting him for the sake of fighting. Arthur wasn’t weak willed; he just saw the importance of his father’s work, the importance of his own cooperation, for the sake of the greater good
Yet, it seemed it was Arthur who Uther had lost.
It wasn’t that Uther was a homophobe, exactly. Frankly, he’d rather his son have a dalliance with a man than risk getting some poor girl pregnant out of wedlock. It was more the fact that Arthur wanted to flaunt this relationship, let the world know that he was a homosexual.
For Uther may not be a homophobe, but many of his associates, affiliates, and acquaintances would take exception to Arthur’s lifestyle choice. Leaving his company in the care of someone who was openly gay could be disastrous, and he refused to let anything happen to Camelot Inc.
Still, that didn’t mean that Uther was happy about this situation. He loved his son, and not only for the constant reminder that Arthur gave him of his beloved Ygraine.
Looking up, Uther realized that it had been over half an hour since he had actually gotten any work done. Clearly, he needed to put this matter out of his mind. Arthur would come to his senses and realize that his bond with his father, his bond with the company, was far more important than his boyfriend.
***
By the time Uther left work that day, he was in a much better mood. His productivity had gone up a great deal since he had stopped thinking about the situation, and he had managed to convince himself that Arthur would apologize to him within a week, and things would go back to normal.
He should have guessed that things wouldn’t be that easy.
The second Uther walked through the door of his house, he found himself face to face with a furious Morgana.
“So, I’ve just spoken to Arthur” she said, her calm tone a complete contrast to the anger on her face.
Uther was not eager to fight with both his children in the same day, so he responded with a neutral “Hello, Morgana.”
Unfortunately, this only seemed to enrage Morgana further. “Hello!? I’ve found out that you disowned Arthur because he’s gay, and all you have to say to me is hello!?
Morgana sounded much too casual when she mentioned Arthur’s sexuality. “Did you know he was gay?”
Morgana scoffed. “Please. I’ve known our dear Arthur played for the other team since he was twelve.”
“He said he’s only known since he was fifteen!”
“Well, everyone already knows that I’m smarter than him, especially when it comes to emotional matters. Nevertheless, that does not excuse this disgusting example of bigotry.”
Uther felt a bit of a headache coming on, as he often did when Morgana got on one of her soapboxes.
“Morgana. I don’t care that Arthur’s gay, but if he’s to run Camelot Inc. in the future, he cannot show any weakness, lest he be ripped to shreds.”
Morgana looked at him with disbelief. “Being gay is not a weakness, Uther. And it certainly does not make someone less capable of running a company.”
Uther stepped around her and began to make his way to the kitchen, eager for a bit of a drink. Talking to Morgana could be a bit like talking to a beautiful, assertive brick wall.
“Not everyone thinks the same way you do, Morgana. You’re young, and don’t remember the time when everyone thought that it was a weakness, and morally wrong to boot. I’m merely looking out for the interests of the company.”
Morgana followed him. “You’d put the interests of the company over the interests of your own son?”
“You may say as well that Arthur is putting the interests of his lover above those of his father.”
“It is not Arthur’s job to put your interests first! You are the father in this situation, Uther, and it is your job to accept your children for what they are!”
“That should go both ways.”
“No, it shouldn’t!” Morgana was full out yelling at this point, which was unusual for her. She, like her father, tended to prefer a calm rage. “You were the one who decided to have children, you are the one who must support them! Frankly, if you knew you were going to ascribe more importance to your job, then maybe you shouldn’t have had children at all!”
With this last assertion, Morgana turned on her heel and left. Uther watched her go with a sinking feeling.
Her last comment made him feel profoundly uncomfortable, and more than a bit guilty.
Part 2