Baby It's Cold Outside (Merlin)

[Arthur]

This had seemed like such a good idea a week ago.

In hindsight he probably should have taken a look back at all the previous times he had ever gone away for a holiday and taken note of what had happened then.

Holiday the first castaway keys; he fell in love with his manservant for the evening, got incredibly drunk with Gaston and sang karaoke, sang at Meg’s window, climbed up to Meg’s hotel room, threw up in her bathroom, was extremely awkward with Merlin the next day and fought a Hydra.

Holiday the second, the Avalon Nautilis: joined by annoying sister who got drunk, was told by girlfriend that she kissed another guy, went after said guy with mace and broke up with girlfriend, attended dance with strange but pretty girl called Meredith who had just turned up at his doorstep, nearly got sent to an alternate dimension by sister, saved by Meredith and Cimorene and then Meredith ran away, spent a long time looking for Meredith, got back together with Meg just as Meredith returned and he was caught in a very awkward situation, got nominated for Prom King, lost to a girl dressed as a man, went to look for Meredith found out that manservant was Meredith and Gawain was Gwen, fired Manservant, was miserable and without socks.

Holiday the third, camping; …not much of anything really.

Holiday the fourth, Castaway keys, again; manservant ended up sleeping with arch enemy Apollo and got angry at Arthur for keeping secrets and quit job, just as he realised that maybe, just maybe he might actually really quite care for manservant…also, fell in love with Kaylee the psycho for the evening. Bad times.

So what made him think this holiday was going to be any better.

Well for one thing, him and Merlin were fine, they were more than fine they were good, really good. Friends and everything, sure there was still a bit of awkwardness but it was exciting and new awkwardness that sort of made him just want to laugh as opposed to run away. That was good. And he had heard there was no karaoke ANYWHERE in the place, that was also good. And all his crazy psycho girlfriends were not present to be sang at or fall in love with. Also good. And even if he did fall in love with his Manservant…it…really didn’t matter that much since he kind of sort of already was in love with his manservant. So really…nothing could go wrong.

Famous last words.

“No I’m sorry sir,” said the woman at the desk with the Santa hat on her head, “I definitely have you booked in to the Honeymoon suite.”

“It was a twin room,” he said to the woman before turning back to Merlin, “I definitely booked the twin room. Two beds. I booked two beds.”

He wasn’t angry, he wasn’t even annoyed, in fact he was still smiling a little when he said it. He just couldn’t not be happy, and the whole situation was just funny as opposed to completely embarrassing, which is probably what it should have been.

“I’m sorry but there’s no more twin rooms available,” said the woman apologetically, “I could transfer you to two single rooms if you prefer?”

Arthur turned to look at Merlin and considered his options.

He turned back to the receptionist and said, “we’ll just take the suite. May as well since I’ve paid for it.”

The receptionist gave a knowing smile and said, “of course sir, one honeymoon suite for Mr and Mr Pendragon.”

“What?! No, no that’s not, I mean to say, that isn’t what its under, is it? It really shouldn’t be, it, what?!” said Arthur turning red.

He really shouldn’t book these sort of things when he was drunk.

[Merlin Emrys]

It wasn't that Merlin didn't trust Arthur, it was just... well, he didn't trust Arthur, sure he'd managed to talk the prince out of running back home, but he still felt like they were on tenterhooks sometimes, like the slightest thing would send him running... even if he did seem to be as awkwardly giddy about the whole thing as Merlin was, and even if they did have some sort of strange almost-flirting moments.

...Ok so clearly he should be more generous in his estimation of how Arthur was handling the situation, but he still worried that having to share a bed might just tip Arthur over the edge. Or maybe he was focusing on that possibility so he didn't have to face his own worries about sharing a room, a bed, with Arthur.

The thing was, though, that when Arthur turned to him with that smile playing about his lips, as if he was about to start laughing at the whole thing, it just seemed to make everything...melt away, and suddenly he could see the funny side too, and it took all his effort to keep from laughing - even when she mistook them for a couple (which, really, is not that much of a mistake, is it?) he just found it even funnier.

"Emrys and Pendragon, not that it matters for the paperwork. Thank you very much for your help," he stepped forward to rescue Arthur, once he had his amusement under control "now take the keys, Arthur, and let the nice lady get on with her job."

[Arthur]

Clearly he was on automatic pilot as he did as Merlin said and reached forward to take the keys from the woman and said, “uh, yes, thank you very much for your help.”

The woman smiled that stupid knowing smile again and handed him the keys. “It’s no trouble sir, and if you will be requiring a table for dinner tonight please don’t hesitate to call down and I shall book you one,” she said with a wink.

Arthur grabbed the keys and turned to pick up his and Merlin’s bags, before heading off towards the lift. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t not embarrassing, it was a little embarrassing. It wasn’t as if they knew many people here, they didn’t have to…hide, not that there was anything to hide, there wasn’t, they hadn’t even really brought up the whole being in love with each other thing never mind act on it. Act on it. One bed. They would be sharing a bed and they could…act…on…it…

“So I was thinking once we unpack and stuff we might take a walk up the slopes do a bit of skiing, doesn’t that sound great, I hear skiing is the best,” he said, starting to ramble, pressing the button repeatedly to shut the lift doors once Merlin was in, “of course we’ll need to hire ski stuff but I’m sure that wont be a problem, and of course we’ll need to get you a hat for those ears. Don’t want them catching frostbite and falling off now do we?”

[Merlin Emrys]

Amusing as he was now finding the whole situation, he couldn't help but turn slightly pink when the woman offered them a table and winked, and he hastily thanked her and hurried off after Arthur to hide it.

"Sure, skiing, that sounds like a great idea... strap two bits of wood to my feet and push me down a hill, what could possibly go wrong?" Merlin prided himself on his academic and magical ability, but he was well aware that he was not nearly as coordinated as... most people, really. In fact he was rather more than a little clumsy, but at least he felt good natured about it, and he was only joking, he was fairly sure he'd handle skiing... probably... he hoped...

"Leave my ears alone, there's nothing wrong with them, you love my ears," he taunted, and then realised that... actually, Arthur did love his ears, or at least loved him despite them. It was probably best not to think about that, it usually gave him a stupid grin that made him look dorkier than usual.

[Arthur]

“I didn’t say there was anything wrong with your ears,” he said once the doors had finally closed and he could stop pressing the button, he turned to Merlin and smirked, “in fact, I was ensuring their safety. Why would I want you to lose them when as you say, I love those ears.”

It was a rather strange thing, but he actually did. There was just something about them, the way the stuck out, he hadn’t ever really noticed it before but it was just another part of all the things that made the dark haired man such an endearing little idiot. And he wasn’t afraid to say it. In private. When no one else was listening. Nor did it make him turn red or blush. In private. When no one else was listening or watching. In fact, he felt pretty confident about saying things like that when it was just the two of them…that was interesting…

“And I think skiing sounds like a great idea,” he said and smirked again, “I at least will get great entertainment out of watching you tumble down in the snow face first…why isn’t this thing moving?!”

[Merlin Emrys]

Thinking about it and hearing it straight from the horse's mouth were two entirely different things, and it was obvious which one was going to be more effective. As soon as Arthur uttered those words, the grin came. That stupid, dopey grin that was just as embarrassing as blushing, and knowing his luck he was probably doing that too. Why was Arthur being all smooth? Oh, because he was Arthur, the prat.

"I bet you will, as well," he rolled his eyes to try and distract himself "you'll find the whole thing hilarious. At least I'm not the idiot who doesn't know how to press lift buttons," he nodded towards the panel of unpressed buttons by now-closed doors.

[Arthur]

Arthur looked down at the buttons and then looked back up at Merlin with a slightly embarrassed look. “I knew that,” he said and quickly pressed the button for their floor before putting his hands behind his back, “I was just testing you. You know, on your modern technology. I figured if you can work a lift then you can ski down a mountain with minimal damage.”

The smile hadn’t gone unnoticed and in a reaction he couldn’t quite control he had smiled also. It had never been like this before, and that is what was very interesting. He had courted girls in the past, nothing serious, just a brief fling here and there, and mostly he had just been the smooth prince and she was the fainting lady. That was easy. Then there had been Meg where every sentence had landmines in it and the most the exchanged was barbed and sarcastic words. Sure, they were doing a little of the same here…but it was happy…carefree…none of it was really hurting the other. It was…nice. And he was smiling.

“Then again, if you really don’t want to go skiing,” he said in what was a sympathetic tone, as the lift began to ascend, “we could do the next best thing people can do in the snow…make a snow dragon.”

[Merlin Emrys]

"Testing me? Sure, sire, of course you were," Merlin taunted. It felt a little odd to use one of Arthur's titles, but it was sort of... it was different, now, it wasn't a title it was more like a nickname or a term of endearment, another way to tease him a little.

When he started to offer they not go skiing, Merlin opened his mouth to immediately protest that they didn't have to not do something just because he wasn't going to be any good at it (they'd probably never get anything done if they did that) but instead he just started laughing.

"A snow dragon? That sounds... complicated, do you think we'd actually pull that off?"

[Arthur]

Arthur was going to have to have a word with his manservant about using that word. He didn’t quite know when it started but all of a sudden that word had started sending all the wrong signals to all the wrong places. Or rather all the right signals to the right places, just not in public, or when Merlin was around, that was bad, bad, bad signals. “I’m sure we’ve been over this Merlin,” he said closing his eyes and taking on the tone of a person who was greatly exasperated, “you’re highness will do, or Arthur even, so long as my father isn’t around…or High imperial lord emperor of the entire galactic empire…you can use that as well. But not…that other one.”

Hopefully getting him off the subject he said, “Oh I’m sure a snow dragon will be very easy to make. And besides, I can use you as a reference for one since apparently you’ve seen the one that lives under the castle…that’s still weird by the way. Knowing that. I could have lived without knowing that piece of information. I thought after telling me that you were going to start saying that there were harpies living in the battlements.”

[Merlin Emrys]

"I don't get what the problem is all of a sudden," Merlin rolled his eyes, completely oblivious to the effect he was having on the prince - which was probably why Arthur had kept his returning feelings a secret for so long, Merlin wasn't good at spotting them even when he knew they were there. "and I'm not going to call you high imperial lord emperor, prat."
That, too, was becoming a particularly endearing term of endearment.

"If there are harpies living in the battlements, I assure you, Arthur, that I know nothing about them," he grinned, phrasing it in a deliberately unsettling way, knowing that Arthur was now probably going to start worrying about that possibility.