cold
osky291Title: Arthur's Memorable New Year's Eve
Rating: G
Pairing/s: Arthur/Merlin
Character/s: Arthur, Merlin, Morgana, Gwaine, Gwen, Lancelot
Summary: What title says. Or, the one where the gang goes to watch the Ball Drop.
Warnings: None
Word Count: ~850
Prompt: New Year
Author's Notes: Happy New Year everybody!
Sorry about the sloppy writing and extensive use of braces but I just... its just... its too cold okay! And yeah, this is what I did this NYE right down to the bread and Nutella, apart from the getting myself a boyfriend part of course.
"No scissors, no weapons, no needles, no big purses, no..."
"What? No big purses? I knew I shouldn't have brought the bag!" Merlin turned away from the cop and whispered in a panicked voice to Arthur, who was nearest among his friends and tightly lodged in front of him.
Arthur merely rolled his eyes. "You're not even carrying a purse, Merlin," he whispered back, pretending to not be affected by Merlin's breath in his ear. At -2°C, it was even more of a struggle repressing the shiver. He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts, which was the only part of his body he could move right then anyway. He reckoned not being allowed to enter would actually be a blessing. "Besides, there's nothing in your bag except sweaters. Which you will need, trust me."
It was New Year’s Eve. The gang was in New York City for the first time and Merlin had dragged them all out to watch the famous Times Square Ball Drop. Arthur had been least interested and had only agreed when Merlin had resorted to his puppy eyes (after his 'Miley Cyrus is going to sing' bait had failed miserably to tempt Arthur). They had arrived at 3 in the afternoon to find that it was snowing. Arthur had regretted his decision even more when it turned out that what seemed like the rest of the world had had the same idea as Merlin, and now they were stuck in the crowd, queues be damned, waiting for the cops to let them into the premise.
"Stop pouting, princess," Gwaine called out to him over Morgana's head about two hours later, after they had gone through two security checks and finally entered 7th avenue and settled in, which roughly translated to dislodging enough space in the crowd to move their hands around a bit. "I should be the one pouting, you know. My pub-hopping idea got overruled."
"Yeah, come on Arthur. It’s not so bad, right?" Merlin said more softly, interrupting Arthur's retort to Gwaine about calling him that name again. Merlin had ended up behind Arthur again somehow, and Arthur could tell by his voice that his spirits were not as high as when they had started out. "It's only an hour till the ball is raised."
That did nothing to cheer Arthur up, but an unfortunate side effect of being in love with your best friend was to not want him unhappy, so Arthur straightened out his face and pushed the guy in front of him (ignoring the glare he got in return) to half turn towards Merlin.
"Yeah alright, I suppose," he said, trying out a smile.
The effort was worth it because Merlin's face brightened immediately. Next to him, Morgana sniggered quietly. Arthur shot her a warning look as Merlin turned to look at her.
"What's funny?" Merlin asked.
Thankfully, Morgana caught Arthur's look and turned to point at some people in front of them.
"He wants to get in her pants so bad," she said. Merlin squinted past her to check what she was pointing at. Morgana took the opportunity to shoot Arthur a look instead. Arthur drew upon his years of silent-sibling-communication experience to translate it to "Do something about it. Soon."
He sighed.
He didn’t need Morgana to tell him that, he knew he needed to do something about this crush-that-was-much-more-than-just-a-cru
“Yeah, he’s got it bad,” Merlin said, turning back to him. Arthur blinked for a moment before he remembered what they were talking about. He turned to look at the couple Morgana had pointed at.
“She looks like she wants it too,” Morgana commented. “She just needs to know that he feels the same way.”
Arthur rolled his eyes and tried to change the subject, not very comfortable at the creepy turn this conversation was taking. But before he could get a word out-
“Then he should just tell her,” Merlin said, still looking at the couple. He shook his head as if exasperated and turned to look at Arthur. “It’s better for the both of them.”
Luckily Merlin’s focus was shifted just then by Gwen asking if anybody had brought food, (Gwaine had commented on how it was her duty to pack the food since she was the girl, which hadn’t gone down well with either Gwen or Morgana. Thankfully Lance had broken up the fight by producing a pound of bread and a Nutella jar from his bag) because Arthur was left staring at Merlin, dumbstruck.
He caught Morgana giving him a smug look and got his face back in order. But he would forever remember this New Years Eve with fondness, even though they had to stand out in the cold for 8 hours with a million other people to watch a tiny ball drop a few feet, because he would kiss Merlin at midnight and Merlin would kiss him back, and he would finally ask him out.
(Morgana would take a picture of them kissing, which would hang on their wall some months later when they eventually get a place together, but that is a story for another day.)