A/n: Final chapter! Also: HOBBIT. Just saying. Fantastic. Go see it if you haven't.

Mrs. Godfrey's Spider

Chapter Two

Fortunately, Merlin didn't seem to mind that Arthur had decided to keep the spider (provided it stayed at the office, and he never had to associate with it if he chose not to), and called him a "big softie" with that amused gleam in his eyes. Aside from the sticky note Gaius and Alice had left on their door the morning after the incident ("I don't know what you boys are up to, but for the love of anything holy, please keep it down!"), their relationship continued along swimmingly. They often bounced between the two flats, their possessions effectively mixing.

One day when Arthur came home late from the office, Merlin was already huddled under a blanket on his couch with something cued up on the DVR and a bowl of popcorn resting on one of the cushions with a dent already eaten out of it. "Come onnn…" Merlin insisted, patting the seat next to him. "I've been waiting fooorrrreeevvvveerrrr."

Arthur quickly stripped out of his work clothes, leaving nothing but his plain undershirt and boxers, and tossed them on one of his chairs. After sliding in next to Merlin, he realized that Merlin was similarly dressed (only the shirt was Arthur's and thick socks covered those ever-freezing feet of his). Snuggling in, Merlin plopped the popcorn in between them. "Okay, Arthur, I figured this movie would be good for the both of us. Now you can tell me if we should stop, but I figured you could tell me how obviously fake the spider is and I could tell you what's horrible and why I find this whole thing funny."

"Don't tell me it's a B-list horror movie about spiders…" Arthur groaned.

"Nooo, it's not just that! It's a B-list horror movie about spiders from the 1950s! The best kind. I figured if we both can deal with it, we can work our way up, you know? Like you've been going on and on about how Terry is cute. Maybe you can show me those pictures I know you take on your cellphone." Arthur blushed, unable to deny the claim, and Merlin simply laughed, pleased with himself.

"Fine, but we stop it if either one of us starts freaking out, deal?" Arthur sighed, hoping that this would work out for the better. If not, at least he could claim Merlin personally responsible and forcibly use him as a giant teddy bear for the duration of the night.

"Deal!" Merlin chirped and started to play The Tarantula. As Merlin grabbed his hand under the blanket, Arthur couldn't help but smile. Merlin was trying to do this for the both of them. Maybe they could watch horror movies together next Halloween. Maybe someday, he could bring Terry home to officially join the family. Maybe they'd be liberated of their shackling fears altogether.

Surprisingly, watching the movie together was an overall satisfying experience. When Arthur pointed out that they were using a real tarantula for a handful of the scenes, Merlin laughed at how slow it was moving and how ineffective it was as a giant monster. And whenever the spider's limbs clouded over the camera's angle as it descended on a poor victim, the schoolteacher mocked it, making "spider legs" out of his arms and waving them in front of the both of them. Merlin's constant laughter, bad jokes, and crude pantomiming helped assuage Arthur's general unease; before long, the couple had devolved into fitful giggling, holding onto each other for support, the popcorn spilling between them.

By the end of the movie, the two kind of shuffled out of the blanket, displacing more popcorn in the process. They agreed that it was tomorrow's problem and stumbled into Arthur's bedroom.

After Merlin finished with the bathroom, he walked over to Arthur on the bed, making the same "spider arms" he had earlier before draping himself over his boyfriend.

"If you're trying to seduce me, that's the most unattractive thing I've ever seen," Arthur chided before swooping in for a kiss.

"Are you sure about that?" Merlin rolled his eyes in opposite directions, scrunched his face up to give himself triple chins, and curled his upper lip inward to expose most of his top teeth.

Arthur snorted, "Idiot, I'm sure." Merlin pouted and stuck his tongue out, feigning anger for all of two seconds before dropping the façade. Pushing Arthur down with his palms, Merlin pressed in for a deep kiss, grinding against his thigh. Running his hands up under Arthur's shirt, Merlin collected it enough to pull it over Arthur's head when they separated for breath. The two crashed together at the next available moment, and Merlin started trailing down Arthur's jaw to his neck, taking light nips as he hit softer bits of flesh. Arthur writhed beneath him, and Merlin smiled as he moved lower. Once the brunet had taken to toying with Arthur's nipple, Arthur had enough and rolled them both over. "Shirt, off," he growled, and Merlin fumbled, unable to remove it the entire way.

Arthur ignored it and let it pool just below Merlin's collarbones. He was too distracted by returning the favor, rutting desperately against Merlin's thigh as Merlin lifted to meet him. Unlike the brunet's light nips, Arthur sunk his teeth along the fleshy expanse of Merlin's chest, resulting in a squirm and a pleased groan. Merlin wasn't joking on the day they first met. After a few more tactfully placed bites, Arthur returned to Merlin's mouth, red and swollen. "Can we?" Merlin breathed.

"Yeah, just…Let's…" Merlin got the cue, and they both tried to pull their boxers off at the same time, resulting in Arthur smashing his nose into Merlin's head. They both reeled back, apologizing profusely and checking that the other hadn't been terribly injured. Making eye contact, they grinned and snickered, a chorus of "we really can't do anything right, can we?" and "what is this we, prat?" filling the air.

After some more careful maneuvering, the two managed to strip themselves of all their clothing, tossing it aside to be found another day. Arthur wasted no time and dipped to Merlin's waist, kissing lightly at the small bit of pudge that formed just above his sharp hipbones. As Arthur bit down on the jutting bone, Merlin cried, "Arthur, you're not a dog with a bone!"

Making a concerted effort to look back at his cock, he looked up and beamed, "But I do have a bone!"

Merlin was speechless for a moment, unsure of just how he'd walked into that one, and sighed, "I hate you." Arthur merely huffed a laugh and lifted one of Merlin's legs, nibbling at the soft flesh of his inner thigh as the brunet keened, "Can we get on with it, already?"

"Pushy, pushy, Merlin. Foreplay, and I'm not done playing," Arthur practically purred, pressing a kiss to the tip of Merlin's cock, fondling his balls with one hand, firmly holding his lover's hips down with the other. Licking a line down Merlin's length, Arthur grinned as Merlin writhed, forcing him further into the mattress, before hollowing his cheeks and taking in as much as he could manage. Humming, the blond bobbed up and down, restricting Merlin's movements to avoid choking. That stupid thumb trick never worked as it should.

"Arthur, I can't!" Merlin yanked Arthur back up by his hair, his mouth departing with a wet pop.

Looking up at Merlin, completely disheveled, about to be completely undone sent a surge to his own cock. "Do you not want me to…?"

"No, it's embarrassing," Merlin moaned, covering his eyes with his forearm.

"Can I still…finish you off then?" Arthur asked, and Merlin nodded as a flush traveled across his face, reaching the tips of his ears. Pulling himself up, he gave Merlin a quick kiss on the lips before grinding their cocks together, using his hand to make quick work of them both. Grabbing some tissues from the nightstand, Arthur cleaned the both of them up a bit and tossed the sullied tissues in the general direction of the trash can.

Merlin peeked from underneath his arm and asked, "Can we still…?" He couldn't find a word that didn't sound utterly hokey.

"Of course we can, idiot. Now come on, off with that arm. Yes, there good, now I can see the way you look at me." Arthur grinned at tapped Merlin's cheek with his flat fingers.

"Oh?" Merlin's eyebrow quirked upwards. "And how exactly do I look at you?"

Sighing wistfully, Arthur put a hand on his heart, fluttering his eyes to the ceiling, and whispered breathily, "Like you've just met the love of your life and you never want to go a moment without him…"

Merlin laughed heartily, shoving Arthur's shoulder. "More like 'why aren't we shagging yet' and 'huh, I wonder if I've got any clean shirts for work', you conceited clotpole."

Arthur giggled like the child his anatomy disguised.

"I'm going to clot your pole if you don't do something already," Merlin moaned.

Arthur doubled over with fits of laughter, smacking the mattress, repeating, "I'm going to 'clot your pole' he says." As Arthur laughed, Merlin glared and sighed, flopping back onto the mattress with a resigned huff. It took the blond a solid minute to reign in his composure and take a few stable breaths. "Sorry, sorry…Do you still want to?"

Merlin grumbled for a few seconds before finally admitting, "…Yes."

Arthur stole a pillow from the headboard and quickly tucked it under Merlin's lower back. Scrambling over Merlin's supine form, he opened the nightstand drawer, procuring a condom and a tube of lube. He quickly stroked himself erect and opened the condom, rolling it over the tip to the base. Unscrewing the lube's cap, Arthur applied a generous amount to his fingers and swiftly inserted a finger, pushing it in and out. "You've been stretching." Merlin's legs spread wantonly wider, his own cock standing attention.

The brunet scoffed, "What else do you think I even do when I'm not sleeping over here?"

"I dunno, prepare for sleeping over here?" Arthur smirked, inserting another finger, making a scissoring motion as he pushed and pulled.

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a – oh," Merlin moaned and pulled Arthur closer to him, gripping hard onto his shoulder blades. Arthur added another finger, and Merlin rocked into him with an urgent need. "Please?" he whined, his breath hot against Arthur's collarbone.

"You know, my first impression of you was right," Arthur began, making sure to add some additional lube to ease the way. Lining himself up, he pushed in, and Merlin's legs jerked, tightly wrapping around Arthur's midsection, trying to pull more of him in. "You're demanding, and pouty, and noisy, and ridiculous, and I don't know what to do with you," he accentuated each word with a thrust as Merlin moaned underneath him.

"I…don't know…this seems…f-f-fine?" Merlin suggested, nails digging into Arthur's shoulders as they both increased the tempo.

Giving a particularly rough thrust, Arthur warned, "I'm not going to last long, idiot."

Merlin mumbled something into Arthur's shoulder that he hoped was something along the lines of, "Thank fuck, neither can I." Luckily, he did not have to wait as Merlin came between them, and Arthur took it as a cue to release.

After pulling out, Arthur collapsed bonelessly on Merlin, who promptly shoved him over onto his side of the bed. As tired as he was, he leaned over and retrieved the box of tissues and removed the condom with one, balling it up and tossing it aside. He cleaned the both of them up enough so they wouldn't wake up stuck to the sheets. Kicking the tissues (box included) off the side of the bed, Arthur grabbed for the mug of water on his nightstand, taking a hearty swig.

"Hey, I want some," Merlin croaked with his hand out.

"Just don't choke, alright?" Arthur handed the mug to Merlin, who took a gulp with his head partially off the flat bed.

"This is the mug I said I'd never use again, Terry's mug." Examining the thing, he confirmed that the mug was indeed once his, and placed it on the flat of his stomach.

Arthur froze. "You don't mind?"

"What?" Merlin looked over owlishly. "That you took it or that I'm using it? I don't really care about either. Here," he offered, returning it to Arthur, who drained the rest of it.

Arthur smiled and placed it back on the nightstand, turning off the light as he did so. As he pulled the comforter over them, Merlin muttered, "G'night, Arthur."

"Night, Merlin."

Arthur did not have nightmares that night.

End

A/n: Yay awkward sex! There you go. Anyway, the next fic in this series is NOT actually complete yet, but I can roughly tell you what it will be about. It's Halloween (yay out-of-season holiday fics?), and Merlin manages to drag Arthur to his home in Ealdor to finally meet his mother. The trip doesn't exactly go as planned, what with an incident in the corn maze and a temporary, new addition to the Emrys household.

I'm going to try and get this one out before a Christmas fic (which I hope will be on time), so that's roughly my timeline. Again, if you want to read more of these, be sure to put me on your author alert list, and don't forget to favorite/leave a review! (Seriously, I live on reviews, and this little series is my first attempt at actual fluff - usually, I'm a terrible, awful whumpy person.) OH, ALSO, if you have a short prompt you're itching to see written, go ahead and send it and I'll see what I can do.

- gecko