Chapter Text
It was shaping out to be a great morning for Arthur. He woke up to the smell of coffee and his one night stand was already gone. He hated having those "look, it was just a shag" conversations and more than once he had to call for security when whoever wouldn't leave.
He looked at his nightstand and saw that it was 10 AM. So what if he had slept in a little. It was a Saturday and most people didn't even work on Saturdays. He threw the covers off himself and naked as the day he was born, walked into his kitchen to have a cup of coffee. He thought that Gwen's ability to fix a timer to his espresso machine warranted a raise. Too bad she didn't work for him. He liked Pellinore, but Gwen was an amazing P.A. It really was a shame that he lost her to Morgana. It really shouldn’t have been surprising though. He started losing things to Morgana ever since she came to live with him and his father when she was 10 and he 8. She was the beloved step child and his father made it Arthur's duty to keep her happy.
Speaking of Morgana, he agreed to meet with a friend of hers, Marvin or whomever, who was supposed to be the next up and coming architect in Camelot. Arthur was the CEO of the very successful and renowned Avalon Tech Inc. but he wanted to branch out of his father's "built from the ground-up empire” and establish his own. He had been working on a plan for several years but before it could become official, his father suffered a stroke and had to retire early. Five years later, his plans were once again ready to come to fruition. He was ready to turn his position of CEO over to his father's trusted COO, Simon Godwyn and CFO, Charles Bayard. He spoke about this at lengths with his father and the only reason Uther agreed on his plan was because Arthur agreed to still be a major shareholder of the business, albeit behind the scenes. There was no way Uther would let Arthur fully give up his hold on what Uther spent, nay sacrificed, his life making. All Arthur had to do now was create his official company name and build his own company from the ground up so to speak.
The clock read 10:17. Arthur's meeting was for a 12:00 lunch. He had time. He waltzed back to his room and went for a long shower.
*
Merlin was having a shite morning. His alarm didn't go off because his mobile was dead. His mobile was dead because the charger wasn't hooked on. His charger wasn't hooked on because he remembered that he tripped on it last night, but didn’t bother to check it because he was too exhausted. After silently cursing himself and his clumsiness, he went to wake up and round up his kids.
Having dropped off Percy and Kay at Freya's house and Lizzy at his mum's, he had to rush back to his house to pick up his work portfolio for his meeting with Morgana's brother. If only things could be that simple. Heading for the door, he dropped his portfolio after slipping on some spilled milk – he decided then that whoever came up with the phrase "don't cry over spilled milk" was an utter asshole – and had to scramble to put everything back together. His meeting was at 12 and it was 11:50 already. The restaurant was a half hour away. He decided he would have to splurge on a cab but that would at least shorten the time to 15 minutes away at best. He just hoped that Morgana's brother wouldn't mind too much.
*
Arthur arrived at the quaint, little restaurant at 11:50. Arthur prided himself on being early if not punctual to all his meetings. He set the reservation under Morgana's surname because he didn't want Melvin to know exactly who he was meeting. Morgana promised all she said to her friend was that he was her brother so he shouldn't know who he was meeting with today.
When his watch showed that it was 12:10, Arthur was still in his pleasant mood from the morning so he let it slide. He decided to give the man time for traffic or whatever terrible excuse he was sure to make. When it hit 12:30, Arthur started to get annoyed. This Mervin was starting to spoil his good mood. He decided to phone Morgana. She picked up on the third ring.
"What is it little brother? It's very rude to make phone calls while you’re in a meeting," Morgana drawled.
"I didn't call for a lesson in meeting etiquette, Morgana," said Arthur, gritting his teeth. "Your friend is a no show so I was wondering if you wanted to join me for lunch."
"Oh, really? I hope nothing happened to him. Okay, give me 20 minutes."
"Make it—" click.
"ten minutes..." With a sigh, Arthur hung up his phone. He didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence as Morgana hung up on him. Then he saw the maitre d’ pointing towards him and saw that a frazzled looking man was making his way towards him. Arthur was not amused. As soon as the man reached the table, Arthur spoke with a look of utter business cool.
"You're 30 minutes late, Maurice. Had you not been a friend of Morgana's I would have left 15 minutes ago. Fortunately for you, I was hungry. As first impressions go, you look unkempt and it's not very professional being late, is it?"
Merlin had to stop his jaw from dropping. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
"Sorry I'm late, Mr. Le Fay. I had a very hectic morning. I even splurged on a cab to get here but there was an accident several streets down so I mostly jogged the rest of the way here. And by the way, it's Merlin, not Maurice. Not very professional to get the name of the person you're meeting with wrong, is it?”
Arthur shot his gaze up this time. He was met by startling blue eyes that he knew were trying not to glare. Arthur was annoyed and amused at the same time.
"On that note, my name isn't Mr. Le Fay. It's Pendragon. Arthur Pendragon." Arthur didn't like to use his name to set an impression, but he let it slide this time.
"Oh, CEO of that Avalon Company or whatever, yeah?" Merlin said, not as impressed as Arthur wanted him to be
"Yes," Arthur gritted, "the one and only."
"Oh, brilliant. The building could have been designed better, but you didn't have me then, did you?" Merlin said with a slight tease.
"Excuse me? You can't talk to me like that. I could have you blacklisted from major companies for that alone!" Arthur said, amusement gone.
"Whoa, calm down. It was just a joke, I can only imagine what a joy it would be to work with you" said Merlin, all traces of teasing gone as well.
"And who says you would be working for me?" Arthur huffed.
"My designs alone speak for themselves. Here's a couple of buildings I've designed over the years." Having said that, Merlin handed over a large portfolio from his messenger bag for Arthur to peruse.
Arthur barked out an arrogant laugh.
"Your designs speak for themselves all right." said Arthur handing Merlin back several of his pieces. "Is this some sort of joke? These are children's drawings"
Merlin realized that some of Lizzy and Kay's pictures must have gotten into his portfolio when he dropped it this morning. He was about to tell that to Arthur when Arthur proceeded to unwittingly put his foot in his mouth.
"This one is slightly damp. I won't even ask. And this one! This one would be half decent if you didn't color like a blind child." Arthur said still laughing.
That was it for Merlin, however. That was the cherry on top of his shit-tastic morning. Merlin didn't need this job anyway so he let himself go.
"You are an utter prat. I don't need to stand here and be insulted. You know nothing. I don't even need this job. I came as a courtesy to Morgana. So much for being professional. You can fuck off, thanks very much!" With that, Merlin got up, picked up his bag and stormed off.
Arthur was gawping. He didn't even realize he still had Merlin's portfolio in his hands until Morgana stepped up to him a couple minutes later.
"Was that Merlin I saw storming off down the street? I couldn't be too sure. Arthur? Arthur!" Morgana snapped her perfectly manicured fingers in Arthur's face.
"Huh, what? Oh, yeah, probably." said Arthur, batting Morgana's hands away. "Where the hell did you find that one, Morgana?"
"I met him through Gwen. He's Lance's best friend and business partner."
"Right, I forgot he's in architecture. Ah, so he's the elusive 'Emrys' of the 'Emrys & Du Lac Architecture'. Why didn't you just set up a meeting with Lance?"
"Because, Merlin is the genius behind all the designs and Lance is more on the operations and finance side of things."
"Genius? His designs were pathetic!" Scoffed Arthur
"What the hell are you talking about? His designs are beautiful!" Argued Morgana.
"Just look." Arthur said and handed over Merlin's book.
Morgana snatched it and after flipping past several detached pages, was giving the fond/impressed smile she rarely gives out. Arthur was puzzled.
"Okay, I know you're fond of crayon because you have a brat of your own, but what the hell has got you looking like that?"
Morgana just handed the book back but open to the page she was looking at. Arthur gasped. It was breath-taking. The detail of the small country house was magnificent and it was colored in with watercolor, not crayon. He noticed on the bottom left corner, the inscription “Ealdor” was hastily written. Then, as there was nothing for it, he flipped through more the rest of the book and saw picture after picture of gorgeous buildings and other structures. Arthur started to get an uneasy feeling. When he looked up, Morgana was looking at him with a piercing stare.
"What. Did. You. Do." Morgana said with false patience.
With a resigned sigh, Arthur told her everything from the moment Merlin got there to when he stormed out.
"Fucking hell! Arthur James Pendragon! Tell me you did not! I cannot even."
"Morg—"
Morgana held up her hand to stop Arthur from saying anymore. She then took a couple of deep breaths.
"The only reason I'm not slapping you upside your arrogant little head is because Merlin is right and you know nothing. He really doesn't need this job, but I thought he was the only one who would be able to relay the vision of the building you want on paper. Know this, Merlin is doing well for himself seeing as he's a divorced man with 3 kids. But the absolute kicker is that Lizzy, his youngest little angel, was in an accident when she was 2, causing her to be heavily visually impaired. She can only see in fuzzy colors and that's it!"
Arthur felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. Sure, he didn't know, but that still didn't excuse his behavior.
"'colors like a blind child' fucking, honestly, Arthur! What happened to all your 'professionalism'" Morgana said, still in her righteous anger.
"I don't know. Everything went out the window when it came to your friend. I don't. Ugh, shit. I've fucked up, haven't I" admitted Arthur.
"You think?!?" Morgana nearly shrieked.
Arthur cringed, but then had an idea.
"Morgana, please. Stop yelling. We've had an audience for the better part of 10 minutes now. And before you can yell at me for saying that, I have an idea." Arthur said quickly.
Morgana huffed and Arthur took that as his cue to continue.
"I'll go hand deliver his portfolio on Monday and apologize. Profusely."
"No."
"No?" Arthur was confused.
"You'll drop it off today."
"But—"
"No buts, Arthur. I mean it." Morgana then took out her phone to text Arthur a time and address.
"You expect me to drop all my plans for the rest of the day and—"
"Save it, Arthur. No one works on a Saturday anyway. Besides, I’m practically your best mate, Lance is with Gwen, Gwaine is out of the country, and—”
“Okay, okay. It’s unsettling that we have the same group of friends sometimes.” said Arthur, resigned to his fate.
“If I hear that you didn't go today, so help me, I'll tell Uther all about what you really did during your ‘gap year’." Morgana said with an evil smile.
"You wouldn't." Arthur gasped.
"Fucking try me, Arthur. Merlin's become a dear friend of mine so don't for a second think I wouldn't. Plus, when have you ever known me to make empty threats."
Arthur gulped.
"Exactly. Now let's order lunch.”