giddy
bunnysworldTitle: Dreams of Avalon
Rating: PG
Pairing(s): Merlin/Arthur
Summary: Arthur loses his mobile and Merlin finds it
Warnings: none
Word Count: 1024 (oops, sorry!)
beta: Big thanks to
issy5209!Prompt: Lost
Notes: This drabble stuck to the prompt like none before. When issy sent it back, it took forever to drop in my inbox. Some other mail is still missing...
Merlin slumped into a seat in the tube, so ready to go home. It had been a nice dinner party at Gwen’s but the united match-making efforts of his friends just got to him. A while ago it had been easy to laugh it off that each and every time he met up with them, they had a new bloke there they wanted him to meet. But at the moment, he felt restless. It was okay to be single, but at the same time it wasn’t. So it got on his nerves that he had to deal with the ‘gay guy of the week’ each time they met up.
He leaned his head back against the window and took a deep breath before sitting up a bit straighter again. They meant well, he knew, but sometimes they choked him with it.
Letting his eyes wander over to the only other occupant of the car, Merlin wondered why someone like him would ride the tube at all. Judging by his clothes and the way he held himself, Merlin guessed that he was some business bloke from the financial district of the city. But he was kind of cute, all blond and blue-eyed and focused on something on his Iphone. So unlike that horrible Cendred bloke Gwaine had dragged along to meet him tonight.
Merlin closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them as the train approached a station, the business fella stood at the doors, ready to get off the car. Too bad, Merlin could have looked at him a while longer.
When the man had stepped off and the doors closed again, Merlin noticed the Iphone lying on the vacated seat.
“Hey, you left your…” But the train was already moving again.
Carefully, Merlin picked it up, unsure what to do. He could have left it at the info point but there was none at his station, so he decided to take it home for now. He could still hand it to someone in charge of the lost and found the next day.
After a long hot shower, Merlin had curled up on the couch, flipping through TV channels to find something he could fall asleep to, he eyed the mobile on the coffee table.
Picking it up, he found it wasn’t locked and pulled up the contacts. Of course, he didn’t know any of the names, it was ridiculous to hope that. But there was one entry that caught his attention. It said “Call me”.
Since he didn’t find any ‘home’ or ‘ICE’, his eyes were drawn back to the ‘Call me’. For a moment, he was convinced that this was one of them sex hotline, most likely one of them SM ones. But instead of calling random people from the list at this time of night, he could as well try this number.
“Hello?”
“Err…yeah, hi, good evening. I…you don’t know me, but…what does your mobile look like?” That was quite a stupid question to ask and Merlin rolled his eyes.
What he didn’t expect was the laughter that rang down the line. “What do you look like?”
“Me?” This phone call got more confusing by the second, but at least it wasn’t one of them hotlines.
“Let me guess. You’re about 6 feet, black hair that cries for a haircut, blue eyes, old jeans, Nike sneakers, plaid shirt and a blue hoodie?”
“Err…” The bloke had just described what he had been wearing tonight. “Yeah?”
“And at the moment you’re holding my Iphone which has a red cover with a golden dragon.”
Merlin turned the mobile around, even though he had admired the fine details of the dragon’s wings before. “Yeah.”
“Hi, I’m Arthur and I would like to take you out for dinner.”
“I’m Merlin,” Merlin said automatically. “You…,” he started laughing, “you didn’t!”
Arthur chuckled. “Looks like I did.”
“You purposely lost our mobile and hoped I would call you?” Merlin shook his head. Who on earth would give up an Iphone like this just to meet him?
“I knew you would.”
“I could have just left it right there.”
“Chance I was willing to take. So…will you go out with me?”
“I…err…why didn’t you just ask me on the train?” Merlin shook his head. He couldn’t believe it. Someone would risk losing their expensive mobile for the slim chance of getting to know him?
“You looked as if you weren’t happy about something and so I figured it was probably a bad time.”
Had he been so obvious? “Yeah, I might have said no.”
“And now? Is it a better time? Will you say yes?”
Merlin chuckled again. The guy had some nerve. “I don’t even know you. You might be a serial killer or something.”
“You might have taken my mobile and sold it off on ebay.”
“That would have meant you just losing a mobile. I could lose my life.” But the bloke didn’t sound like he was planning something nasty. And someone who was crazy enough to ‘lose’ his mobile on the tube to meet someone else might be fun to be with.
“You could gain a dinner. If we don’t click, you give me my mobile back and the dinner was the thank-you for returning it. All you will lose is a couple of hours.”
Merlin couldn’t help but smile. He closed his eyes and tried to pull up the image of Arthur sitting on the train. “Where will we go to?”
“I thought…I don’t know. We could do the fancy thing in suit and tie, but I’d much rather prefer that little restaurant, Dreams of Avalon. They have great food, ranging from burgers and pizza to steak and salads. They have vegetarian stuff, too, if you’re into that. It’s not too posh but not a burger joint either.”
“I love that place.” Merlin smiled. It was his favorite restaurant in all of London. They didn’t mind who you were and what you looked like, they always made you feel welcome there. And the food was great.
“So…tomorrow? Seven thirty?”
“Okay.”
And after the date was settled, they talked all night…