tygermineTitle: What If I Told You I Owned A Deerstalker Hat?
Rating: G
Pairing/s: Merlin/Arthur
Character/s: Merlin, Arthur
Summary: There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a Hardy Boy...
Warnings: none
Word Count: 580
Prompt: Random Tag: Detectives
Author's Notes: My geek may be showing in this...
Arthur had a secret.
One he kept very close to his chest.
In the late hours of the night, when he should be getting some sleep to deal with the inevitable disasters that will happen at work the next day, he pulls out a well-worn box set of Murder, She Wrote DVDs and spends at least two hours escaping into the small town of Cabot Cove.
See, his childhood dream had been to become a detective. He wanted to be Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Jessica Fletcher, Adrien Monk, Jonothan Creek, Leroy Gibbs, Steve McGarrett, Veronica Mars, Seeley Booth, Inspector Morse, Agatha Raisin and DCI John Luther.
He wanted to be the cool detective in a small town solving mysterious deaths with a quirky sidekick. He also wanted to be a damaged veteran in a large city taking down corrupt politicians and then celebrating with a glass of bourbon in a dive bar.
The problem with these dreams is twofold.
One, his father would not have been too pleased with him. Not that it mattered, but it kind of did. They’d made so much progress over the years to the point where his father actually respected him as an adult and a businessman. He also realised that running around with a gun and chasing down criminals would not be kind to his father’s heart.
The other problem was that every great detective had a sidekick and Arthur, well, he had… no one.
There was no one who he felt he could trust enough to have his back. No one who shared his passion for solving mysteries. No one he could banter with in front of a whiteboard full of clues.
So Arthur quietly enjoyed his detective series at home, in the dark and didn’t dream of wearing a fedora and trenchcoat and catching bad guys.
“So, I have a confession to make,” Merlin was sitting at the bar next to Arthur one night. This would be their first proper date as the night they met was more a blur of flying shirts and unzipping flies.
Arthur leaned closer with a predatory smile and an arched eyebrow. “Is it something salacious? Scandalous? Scurrilous?”
“Not really, but ten points to Hufflepuff on the alliteration.”
“If anything, I’m a Slytherin.”
Merlin rolled his eyes dramatically. “Nevermind. What movie should we go watch? I hear there’s stand up night upstairs.”
“No, you can’t dangle something like that and not follow through.”
Arthur watched Merlin’s face go through a series of expressions before settling on one that was almost embarrassed.
“The reason I couldn’t meet you last night was because I was doing this LARP evening with some friends.”
“Dungeons and Dragons?” Because Arthur was hip to the geek culture.
“Dresden Files, actually.”
“Who did you play?”
“Harry Dresden. He’s this wizard detective- nevermind. It’s niche thing. Like liking the Barenaked Ladies. No one actually knows who they are.” Merlin seemed to sink in on himself.
“I know who he is.”
This made Merlin perk up in surprise. “You do?”
Arthur nodded. “I may not look it, but I really like detective stories.”
“For someone who looks like a footballer, you’re surprisingly geeky. Do you have a pair of thick-framed glasses somewhere, because that would open up a whole new dimension to what we can do in the bed-”
Merli didn’t finish his sentence as Arthur had grabbed him by the elbow and practically dragged him back home to play out some very kinky Sherlock/Watson fantasies.