FIC: What Does A Snow Monster Sound Like?

[winter-mod.livejournal.com]

Title: What Does A Snow Monster Sound Like?
Pairing(s): merthur. Merlin/Arthur
Prompt: Prompt #20: Family fic: building a snowman or playing in the snow with nieces/nephews and talking about adoption.
Word Count/Art Medium: 1961
Rating: T
Contains (Highlight to view): * Slight anxiety expressed by character. *
Disclaimer: Merlin characters are the property of Shine and BBC. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Thank you to ratsbys on discord for the beta.
Summary Arthur & Merlin watch their friends' kids for the day.

Link to AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35470144

As the freezing cold snowball hit him square on the nose, Arthur bit his lip to stop himself from swearing. He found himself wondering, not for the first time, why the hell he thought this was a good idea again.

Merlin, Arthur’s boyfriend of two years winced. “You alright?” he asked from his spot sitting on the freshly powdered snow while playing with little three-year-old Gaia. Liam, her six-year-old brother, was grinning a few meters away looking quite proud of his shot.

Arthur wiped the leftover snow off his face and tried to smile but ended up grimacing instead. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

He wished he could blame Merlin for having to watch the Knight children, really, he did, but unfortunately, it had been his own stupid idea.

When Merlin had come home the week prior from lunch with Freya, his ex-girlfriend who was still a good friend, he had gone off on a tangent about how exhausted she looked. And while Freya went on and on about how cute her kids were, it was clear they were running the poor pregnant woman ragged.

Arthur couldn’t help but agree, as the other day he had caught Leon, his oldest friend and Freya’s husband, sleeping with his eyes wide open in a meeting. Arthur, being the good friend that he was, waited until everyone had left the meeting before waking the poor sleep-deprived bloke up and caught him up on what he missed.

With a third kid nearly there, and two already rambunctious little ones, Leon working on a big project at the office, and Freya trying to finish her next book before the baby arrived, the two were completely spent. Thus, it had surprisingly been Arthur’s, not Merlin’s idea to offer to give the poor parents a break and watch the little ones for the day.

Merlin smiled at him in that terrible way that made it clear he was trying very hard not to laugh at him, which somehow always made him both want to strangle and kiss Merlin when Liam, the snowball perpetrator, hit him in the face with a bloody snowball again!

Arthur frowned. Was he allowed to throw one back at the little terror? He desperately wanted to ask Merlin, but after he insisted to Merlin that he was great with kids the other day he couldn’t quite ask now, could he? No, he certainly couldn’t, he decided. Not after all the dubious looks Merlin had given him.

Because the thing was, Merlin was right to doubt him.

Arthur had zero experience with children. He hadn’t really been around young children growing up. He had known adults that had kids, but seeing as they were mostly his father’s business associates’ he’d never met any of them unless they were around his age. It wasn’t until Leon and Freya had Liam that Arthur had really interacted with a baby.

It hadn’t bothered Arthur too much until he had started dating Merlin. Merlin, who was bloody brilliant with kids, and clearly wanted kids himself! Arthur wasn’t against having them per se, he just hadn’t thought about it before. But now he was.

Did he want kids? Would he be a good dad? And most importantly , Would Merlin still want to be with him if he didn’t?

They hadn’t talked about kids yet, much to his relief and horror. It was like a timebomb, one Arthur didn’t have an answer to. Which was why he had suggested the whole babysitting thing in the first place. So, Arthur could get an idea if he could at least get an idea of what he wanted. Except Arthur had no idea what he was supposed to be doing.

Was he simply supposed to watch? Or try to play with them like Merlin was doing? How did one even play with kids?

He was so busy spiraling over what the hell he was supposed to be doing that he, unfortunately, became the perfect target for Liam to throw yet another snowball at. At least this time it hit him on the arm.

Merlin laughed. His eyes twinkled as he said, “You know you can throw one back at him.”

Arthur silently cursed Merlin for knowing him so bloody well. “Yes, I know that Merlin,” he snapped. He then crouched down and began putting together his own snowball.

Liam, seeing this, screamed and giggled as he ran over to hide behind his little sister as she doodled strange markings into the snow with a stick.

He huffed. “That’s cheating Liam!”

His stupid boyfriend then decided it would be hilarious to parrot back his words from the other night, grunting, “I’ll have you know I’m great with children, Merlin.” Bastard.

“I don’t sound like that,” Arthur huffed. Merlin smirked at him. “Alright fine, I may have exaggerated my experience with children.”

Merlin chuckled. “Oh trust me I already knew.”

“How!” Arthur had been hiding it so well! You know, except for not knowing if he could throw a snowball at Liam.

His dark-haired boyfriend looked at him in a way that could only be described as oh, honey before speaking. “Arthur, at Liam’s first birthday Freya plopped Liam in your lap while she ran to grab something, and you stared at him until she came back like you were about five seconds away from having a panic attack.”

He grimaced, unfortunately, he remembered that. It had been back before they had become sort of friends, but after Arthur had, admittedly wrongly, believed that Merlin was only friends with his ex-girlfriend because he wanted her back. In fairness, Freya and Merlin were very close and Arthur simply hadn’t wanted to see Leon’s heart get broken.

“I didn’t realise you saw that.”

Merlin snorted, “Of course I did. It was- Liam! Give Gaia her stick back! -Utterly hilarious.” Liam grumbled but gave it back, now looking for his own stick.

“Yes, my potential meltdown was very funny,” Arthur spat. So, his boyfriend knew he was shit with kids. This was perfectly fine. Great, even.

He felt the insides of his stomach twist painfully.

“It was kind of cute actually. You so plainly had no idea but were trying very hard not to drop him.” Merlin said, tugging him over so he was sitting next to him on the snow. He then squeezed Arthur’s hand.

Arthur swallowed, “I still don’t know what to do around kids, but I want to. I want to know. I want to be good with them. Because… I want to have them someday.” And as the words left his mouth, he knew it was true. He did want to be better at this. He wanted to know how to make them laugh, wanted them to like him, and he really did want his own someday.

“Arthur Pendragon, are you asking me to have your adopted babies someday?”

And oh God, only Merlin would find a way to tease him about this.

“Who said I was talking about you?” He teased back, “I’m only dating you until I convinced one of my celebrity crushes to marry me.”

Merlin snorted. “Okay like you have a shot with Tessa Thompson or Andrew Scott. Me, however…”

Arthur rolled his eyes affectionately, “Oh please if I don’t have a shot you bloody don’t.”

Sometime during their argument Arthur failed to notice Merlin dipping his hands into the snow and making a snowball, which he then shoved into Arthur’s face, causing him to fall flat on his back.

He then leaned over Arthur and whispered, “I would love to have kids with you someday Arthur, but until then,” he stood up and shouted gleefully, “Kids! Attack!”

To Arthur’s horror, they did.

Liam, who apparently, during this whole conversation had been preparing for another attack was now cackling like a cartoon villain as he threw snowball after snowball at him.

Gaia, on the other hand, strolled over right next to Arthur and began plopping snow on top of him like she was burying him in the sand at the beach. Somehow, she was completely oblivious and immune to her brother’s snowballs humming the entire time.

Maybe it was Liam’s enthusiasm or Gaia’s carefree approach, but Arthur found himself laughing so hard he was nearly in tears as he tried to shield himself from all the snow.

“Alright, I give! You win! I surrender!” he shouted after a few minutes.

“Yay! I won! Uncle Merlin, Uncle Arthur said I won!” Liam shouted, jumping up and down in excitement.

“Yeah, I heard. Congrats Liam,” Merlin replied looking so amused that he had to be holding back another laugh.

Arthur was still on the ground when Gaia poked him. “Uncle Arthiee! Uncle Arthie!” Amused by the new name he mumbled, “Yes Gaia?”

Gaia, with all of her tiny stature, gave him a very serious look as she said, “You! You be the, the snow monster and you have to try and chase us, because um, you’re a snow monster, and that’s, that’s what snow monsters do!”

“I see, I’m a snow monster then?”

“Yes! You’re a snow monster and you have to try to catch us!”

Arthur nodded, “Right.” As quickly as he could he jumped into a sitting position and threw out his arms.

Gaia screamed in delight as she ran towards her brother.

He stood up shaking the snow off him before shouting, “Arrrrrrrrr I’m… a snow monster! And I’m, er, coming to get you!” He wasn’t quite sure what a snow monster sounded like.

He glanced at Merlin. Merlin looked at him, utterly surprised and pleased as punch by his antics.

He took a step towards him, “You too if you don’t start running!”

Merlin nearly choked laughing as he started running towards the kids.

Arthur then spent the next half hour stomping around the park as Liam and Gaia screamed gleefully while Merlin yelled “watch out he’s coming!” in mock horror.

Some of the other kids in the park even joined in, much to their amusement, with their parents watching from the sidelines. They had been going on for quite a while when Gaia stopped.

“Uncle Merly, I’m tired. Can we go home?” Gaia asked, rubbing her eyes.

“But I want to keep playing!” Liam whined.

Arthur and Merlin shared a look. Merlin turned to Liam, “How about we play some more later? I don’t know about you, but I’m getting rather hungry.”

“Me too,” Arthur nodded. He then asked if one of the other parents wanted to take over. Thankfully one of the mums leaped at the chance.

Still, Liam pouted.

Merlin grinned as he reached for Liam’s hand, “How about if you’re both very good on our walk home we’ll get pizza for lunch?”

“Pizza, Pizza!” Liam shouted.

Arthur gave him a dubious look. Would Leon and Freya be alright with this? Merlin shrugged. “What, we’re just the babysitters.”

Arthur was about to respond back that they should at least get something green along with the pizza when Gaia tugged on his coat. “Uncle Arthiee carry me!”

He looked down at her sleepy face and nervously nodded. “Alright.” He pulled her up and settled her into his left arm, with his right protectively covering her back, as he laid her head on his shoulder.

“Am I doing this right?” he hissed to Merlin.

“Yeah, doing fine,” Merlin said, smiling at him so fondly that Arthur felt warm all over.

“Can we build a snowman after lunch?” Liam asked as walked between them, still holding Merlin’s hand.

“Of course, we can, right Arthur?”

Arthur nodded. “Yeah, looking forward to it.” And they did.

And if Arthur imagined what it would be like building snowmen with his and Merlin’s future children while they did it, well he certainly wouldn’t admit it.