Built Zoom - Untitled
Title: Untitled
Author: Built Zoom
Summary: Arthur/Percival, Arthur and Percival hook up via Grindr ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grindr ) [ Prompt Here] It was all Merlin’s fault. Well, Merlin and Morgana’s.
***
Arthur should have known better than to tell Merlin that yes, he was perfectly alright with his best friend asking out his sister, but for crying out loud, it never even crossed his mind that Morgana would accept. Morgana’s last two (three? Four?) Boyfriends had being muscular powerhouse and Merlin was...Merlin. He thought she’d say no, not ask “What took you so long?” and lift him up into a kiss that left the poor boy wondering in around in a daze several minutes later (though that could just be Merlin).
And he was happy for them. He was. He got over his stupid crush on Merlin when he was 12, and he knew that Morgana was more likely to hurt Merlin than the other way around, so who wouldn’t have being happy?
Unfortunately, a side effect of Merlin and Morgana being together was that they could put their evil heads together and plot to take over the world!
Or at least decide that Arthur needed to know the bliss of being in a relationship.
“I am perfectly happy being single.” He had told Morgana at least 100 times. “And even if I wasn’t, I don’t need any help finding someone.”
Morgana rolled her dark eyes. “When’s the last time you had a date?”
“Last week.”
Morgana snorted. “With Whom?”
As he opened his mouth to reply, she added, “And Gwen doesn’t count. You know she has a boyfriend.”
She held his phone between her fingers. “It’s just like Facebook. You like Facebook.”
He didn’t.
“One date.” Merlin said, taking the phone from Morgana and sliding it across to him. “That’s all we’re asking.”
And because he knows that they both mean well, he takes the phone and looks at the guys they’ve selected as potentials...and almost promptly pushes the phone away.
First Guy gives his name on the top as Cedric, but his messages are all signed Cornelius. And what’s written in them, about what he’d like to do to Arthur...He blushes at the idea of Morgana reading things like that, never mind Merlin.
Second guy he actually knows. It’s Elyan, Gwen’s brother, and he’s actually rather surprised that Morgana didn’t recognise him. Or maybe she did and was trying to push him towards somebody else.
He and Elyan had hooked up, once, when they were both younger, and while things hadn’t ended badly between them, that was a can of worms he had no intention of reopening, however accidently.
Third was Valiant.
Just no. Being there, fucked that and never again.
He typed a hurried text message, suggesting a time and place to the fourth guy and shoved his phone back at Morgana like it burned.
“Happy now?”
“No.” Morgana sighed, reading the message. “You’ve only given us a week to get you ready.”
***
Blind dates were not Percival’s thing.
If his flatmate, Gwaine, were here, he’d ask if Dates of any description were Percival’s thing, which Percival couldn’t really argue with. He hated the ritual of getting dressed up, going to some overpriced restaurant to make small talk with some guy, normally while Gwaine steadily seduced the guy’s friend next to him. And normally Percival’s guy too.
His few relationships, that had lasted more than a couple of dates, had being guys he met in his local, or played rugby with, and the dates had mostly consisted of the same things they did when not dating, except ending up at one or other’s place (or once the empty changing rooms) and sex.
Alright, there had being Lancelot, but that had ended when Percival found out he had a girlfriend. He wasn’t that sort of guy.
But then Gwaine had met Leon through Grindr and declared an end to his man whore ways (Elyan had a pool running on how long that would last). Percival didn’t mind, it meant an end to the weirdness of a double date.
But then Gwaine decided that he must spread the happiness he had found around and signed Percival up for Grindr.
He had nothing against Grindr. Elyan had being on it for months and had some good dates from it, it just wasn’t his thing.
“What’s the worst that can happen?” Gwaine demanded.
“Aside from the risk of meeting married guys, homophobes and complete and utter psychopaths?” Elyan had asked, ticking these points off on his fingers.
“Sounds like most of my dates.” Gwaine had laughed. Percival had laughed too, but he wasn’t sure if Gwaine was joking, certainly not thinking about some of the man’s exes. “Come on, Percy, you’re game right?”
And he had nodded and Gwaine had kidnapped his phone and set up a profile.
He hadn’t meant to do anything with it, just ignore it as he did most of Gwaine ideas.
Then he saw one of the men in his area.
Arthur Pendragon. Blond hair, blue eyes, five foot nine, Captain of the Camelot Knights rugby team.
Eylan knew the guy and said that he was alright, “Once you got past the patitishness.”
So he sent a message suggesting they meet.
He didn’t think anything would come of it, but when he checked his phone after practise, there was a message, suggesting a time and place.
The time worked o.k. for him, better than O.K. in fact, because Leon would be back; meaning Gwaine wasn’t likely to tag along. And the place was an up market “gastro pub” which actually did some half way to decent food.
He texted his confirmation and hid his phone at the bottom of his bag.
No way did he want Gwaine scaring this guy off before he’d even had a chance to meet him.
***
He was just going to walk in, explain what had happened to this guy, this, he checked his phone again, Percival, and leave.
Alright, the guy might think he was a whimp being scared of his sister and his best friend, but there was no way he was going through with this date, because it was stupid!
He was a little late, Morgana’s insistence that he looked fabulous had resulted in a two hour battle with her, which ended up with face cream in Morgana’s hair (Merlin had the pictures to prove it) and lipstick down Arthur’s favourite shirt.
Which had meant he had to change again, so he was even more late.
But it didn’t matter, because he wasn’t going on this date.
He wasn’t going to stand the guy up, because that wasn’t fair. It was his fault Arthur’s sister was psychotic.
He was going to go in, apologise to the guy and leave. Not hard.
He pushed open the door and stepped though, dropping his head to avoid the low hanging beam. He scanned the room, before spotting a guy sitting at a table, looking slightly tensely at his pint.
The look of a guy who thinks he’s being stood up.
This seemed confirmed when the guy jerked his head at the sound of the door opening.
Light brown hair, blue eyes and tanned skin, a nice natural tan too.
On Second thoughts, maybe Morgana wasn’t an evil witch.
“Hi,” he said, heading over to the table. “You must be Percival. I’m Arthur.”