bunnysworldTitle: Driving home
Rating: PG 13
Pairing(s): Merlin/Arthur
Warnings: none
Word Count: 622
Prompt: Sleigh ride
Summary: Arthur is trying to make his way to Merlin’s place.
Notes: Not beta’d.
Arthur cursed. If only he had left the office half an hour early…oh well, who was he kidding? The road conditions had been bad this morning and only gotten worse throughout the day. The snow was coming down hard and the warm roads slowly cooled and what had been slush in the morning, was slowly freezing over. Some idiots didn’t have winter tires on their cars yet – it was December, who could possibly imagine the weather turning bad? – and there had been accidents all over the place.
Now he was slowly making his way through a massive traffic jam, highly concentrated as even his winter-ready car was starting to slip on the icy road.
“The weather outside is frightful…” His car stereo cheerily announced.
“I can SEE that!” Arthur hissed and switched stations.
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”
Arthur sighed. The only nuts roasting here were his. There must be something wrong with the seat heating. His butt and privates were cooking while his back got cold the moment he switched the damn thing off.
Did all those stupid radio stations play Christmas carols today?
“Just hear those sleigh bells jingling
Ring-ting-tingling too
Come on, it's lovely weather…”
Arthur switched the radio off and pulled as far to the side as possible. The only thing he could hear ‘jingling, ring-ting-tingling’ was the police car trying to clear the path for an ambulance and it was definitely NOT lovely weather. Quickly, he hoped that the ambulance would be able to help whoever had gotten injured and that everybody would be home for Christmas safely.
Merlin’s place was only another twenty miles away. He would be able to go those 20 miles, right? Or would he be stuck in the car for the night? Merlin…Arthur just wanted to see him. Merlin would make everything better. They hadn’t seen each other in three weeks and even though he said he missed him, Merlin had argued for him to stay put this afternoon when it became clear that driving wouldn’t be a piece of cake. Arthur couldn’t. He wasn’t a big fan of the holidays, but he knew how important they were for Merlin. He had to make it there.
The cars slowly passed the scene of the accident and it looked just like there was a lot of damage to the cars involved, the guys from the ambulance moving as if they weren’t in a hurry, though. Good, so nobody was seriously injured.
When he finally pulled up in Merlin’s driveway or rather slid into it, Arthur was shot. It wasn’t as if he had been driving so far, the whole process of bad weather, stupid drivers and crawling along the motorway had been exhausting.
He climbed out and stretched, despite the icy rain still coming down and the occasional large and very wet snowflake hitting his face.
“Arthur!” Merlin’s excited face appeared as a window opened. “You’ve made it!”
“Stay where you are, I’m coming.” Arthur couldn’t help but smile. Quickly, he grabbed his coat and bag, slammed the car door shut and made his way to the front door.
“Arthur!” Merlin wrapped his arms around him and kissed him deeply the moment he opened the door. Finally, he let go and pulled Arthur inside. “How was the drive?”
“More like a sleigh ride.” Arthur set his bag down and toed his boots off. He already felt a lot better in Merlin’s presence. When he entered the place and it was warm and cosy and beautifully decorated, the table set, some delicious smells coming from the kitchen and Merlin’s little cat Freya causally strolling over and then pressing against his legs, meowing, Arthur knew the ordeal of coming here had been worth it.