fifty-fifty.dreamwidth.orgTitle: Of Kilts, Rainbows and Happy Endings
Rating: Explicit
Pairing/s: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon
Character/s: Merlin, Arthur Pendragon
Summary: It’s Arthur’s first ever Pride and Merlin is wearing a kilt.
Warnings:
Word Count: 1,416
Prompt: #368 - Pride
Author's Notes: Yeah, I took the prompt pretty literally. But hey, it’s Pride month! \o/ This basically a bit of a continuation of A Moment of Pride, but you don’t need to read it to understand this fic. Also sorry the fic is so lame.
“Come on, Merlin!” called Arthur. “Aren’t you ready yet?”
“In a minute!” Merlin called back from the bathroom. “I’m almost done!”
“Done?”
“Yeah,” said Merlin, his voice suddenly louder as he appeared in the doorway. “How do I look?”
Arthur surveyed him with a raised eyebrow. Merlin was wearing a white T-Shirt with rainbow colours, some kind of skirt with folds in it similar to the ones he’d seen women wearing on the street that was black and hidden amongst the pleats were all the colours of the rainbow, and a stout pair of black leather boots that went half-way up his calves. They were strangely reminiscent of the boots he had worn once upon a time back in Camelot with all the buckles and straps on them. Arthur couldn’t help but smile fondly at them.
His eyes were outlined in black, like Morgana and other noble women had done for feasts and his hair was neatly styled, which was a bit of a miracle because normally Merlin could barely run a comb through his hair most mornings. That was to say nothing about the rainbow colours smeared on his cheeks drawing attention to his ridiculously sharp cheekbones.
“Are you wearing a skirt?” Arthur asked incredulously.
Merlin looked at him, his chin jutting out proudly. “No, it’s a kilt. But so what if it was?”
Arthur shrugged. “I was just curious, I mean, I seem to remember you paid an awful lot of attention to women’s clothing back when…”
Merlin’s cheeks reddened and he looked away, chewing on his lip.
“Hey, it looks good on you...” Arthur said, smiling and pulling Merlin towards him until they were face to face and he brushed his lips against Merlin’s, “I’m just a bit confused as to why.”
“Because,” replied Merlin. “You’ll see why. You’re honestly not going to wear anything special?”
As they approached the door Arthur checked his pocket for the wallet Merlin had given him to store the money that was now used in exchange for items and services in this modern world.
“I am,” Arthur replied, gesturing to his Pride coloured “Love is not a choice” T-Shirt.
With a sigh Merlin pressed another kiss to his lips. “I guess I did promise to ease you into it. Let’s go.”
***
Arthur watched Merlin jumping around in the crowd with a fond smile. He couldn’t really say that he was enjoying himself, large amounts of people were still a bit touch and go for him. He still wasn’t used to how fast everything was in this new world. An endless assault of noise and colours and images all the time. But Merlin was happy and that made Arthur happy. He could deal with it all for an afternoon. He could deal with it for Merlin.
They rarely went into the city these days. After a few months, things had become too much for Arthur to adapt to. Despite Merlin’s best efforts, Arthur struggled to cope. Arthur missed peace and quiet. He couldn’t deal with never experiencing actual silence in the lively city. And he had wanted to have a purpose and actually do something with his life, he wanted exercise and fresh, clean air that didn’t smell funny. So they talked about moving to the countryside. Merlin joked that they should get a farm, but Arthur actually thought that was a good idea. So they went ahead and did it. They purchased a small farm in a rural area of sussex and spent most of their time there, whilst still keeping a small flat in London for when they wanted to visit the city.
Arthur had thrived, he loved the solitude and the slower pace of life. He loved the work and having living things to care for. It suited him down to the ground and Merlin had continued to be endlessly patient with him. Teaching him how to do pretty much everything all over again on top of teaching about everything that was new.
When Merlin had mentioned that Pride was coming up, Arthur thought back to his first few weeks in London and all the flags he’d seen in the shops. He had been so naive then. He’d grown a lot this past year. And he wanted to know more about Pride. Merlin’s face had lit up when Arthur had said that they should go and he asked Merlin to tell him more.
Merlin hadn’t said much about his previous attendances of these parades and Arthur had been afraid to ask, because he wasn’t sure he would like the answer. But from looking around he could see that both he and Merin both fit in. Some people were dressed more flamboyantly, and others were dressed more simply, like him. Arthur hadn’t wanted to ask anything about if Merlin had had previous relationships. He had certainly seemed to know what to do in the bedroom, so Arthur assumed that he had. But he had also become aware of the fact that he had a jealous streak a mile long when it came to Merlin, and he found himself gritting his teeth at even the idea that Merlin might have had intimate relationships with other men. So he was interested to see what exactly Merlin and the other people would get up to at Pride. He felt a bit like an observer rather than a participant.
Colourful, loud and racious vehicles rumbled by, blaring out music so loud that Arthur was sure he would never be able to hear again and it made his head ache. He watched partly with awe and fascination and partly with embarrassment at the scantily clad men on the platform passing them by, who were gyrating and dancing with each other. Arthur wasn’t a prude—he and Merlin had gotten up to some pretty eye opening and enlightening things over the past year—but he wasn’t really sure that he would have the nerve to be so publicly… well, sexual. He was happy enough being naked with Merlin. But he certainly admired them for their courage to be so bold.
As the afternoon wore on, the sun shining down on them as the alcohol and other things flowed freely around them, Arthur felt his headache build and started to feel increasingly trapped and panicky. He took deep long breaths, trying to calm himself and ward off a panic attack .He wasn’t used to being around so much mental stimulation and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could take it.
“Hey,” said Merlin softly, in a quieter moment between the floats. He looked at Arthur with soft, concerned eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Arthur replied.
“You’re a terrible liar,” Merlin told him, as he slid both his hands into Arthur’s. “We should go home.”
“But you’re having a great time!” Arthur protested. “And I’m fine.”
“Arthur, I’m not so selfish as to want a good time when my boyfriend,” they both smiled at that, “isn’t coping well. We’ll go home.”
“Honestly, I’m—”
Merlin gave him a sly grin and guided Arthur’s hand under the back of his kilt and Arthur’s breath hitched at the feeling of warm skin suddenly beneath his fingertips.
“Wha— Why aren’t you wearing any—”
“It’s tradition to never wear anything under a kilt,” Merlin said. He gasped when Arthur slid his hand fully under the kilt to fondle his arse.
“But—But—” began Arthur, before he dove in for a kiss. “Fuck...”
Arthur was the first to break the kiss, he grabbed Merlin firmly by the hand. “Let’s go,” he told him and started to push his way through the crowd to leave.
***
No sooner was the door opened with Merlin and Arthur stumbling into their flat, had Arthur shoved Merlin up against the wall. He pushed the kilt up around Merlin’s waist, his hand sliding up Merlin’s thigh to cup his arse as his tongue invaded Merlin’s mouth.
“Fucking hell, Merlin. You don’t know what you do to me,” Arthur groaned, as he moved one hand to enclose around Merlin’s cock. Merlin cried out, his head tilted back against the wall. “I can’t believe you did that to me. Do you know how hard I’ve been all the way home? I’m gonna make you pay for it.”
“Counting on it,” Merlin groaned as Arthur tightened his grip and Merlin fisted Arthur’s hair.
“Bedroom,” Arthur told him.
“Kilt on or off?” Merlin asked as they raced down the hall.
“Oh Gods, on, Merlin. Always on.”