Pairing(s): Merlin/Arthur, Lance/Gwen, Leon/Percy
Disclaimer: Merlin characters are the property of Shine and BBC. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Thanks to my lovely betas for all their help. Blumpusblue was great (thanks so much!) with her SPAG and word changes and camelittle helped me tremendously with Brit pick and her very astute change suggestions for the last scene (the last few lines were her idea!). But all mistakes are mine and mine alone!

It was beautiful in a garish, overly decorated kind of way. Arthur knew that Merlin loved pretty things, especially at Christmas time. After all, Merls was a sap and very artistic and Arthur would have liked to call him a girl's petticoat just to get a rise out of him, but Morgana would have his bollocks if he did.

But the egg was just Merlin's style. More ostrich than chicken, or maybe something else, it was really huge for an egg. Someone had painted it in red and green swirls of fancy knots and then decorated the top with gold and silver rhinestones in a triskelion design, and it would be dazzling enough in the sunlight for Merlin to go ohh and ahh about.

Arthur knew just where Merlin would put it, up on the mantel, right by the red dragon they'd bought in Wales, and the figure of King Arthur trying to pull out the sword from the stone – Merlin couldn't stop laughing about that one since he claimed it looked like Arthur on a bad day – from Tintagel castle.

They'd already decorated the fireplace for Christmas with garlands of evergreen and red berries and there were candy canes - well what was left of them after Merlin got hold of them. The tree was in the corner, next to the window, with the rich smell of pine wafting in the room, and pine needles littering the floor but who was complaining. Merlin loved the holidays and that was that.

Merlin was like a kid at Christmas time. He'd go from package to package and try to guess which was in each one, lifting them, shaking them a bit but not too much in case they were fragile or something. He was really good at guessing, too, an almost magical touch, and it sometimes spoiled the surprise, but not always. Arthur finally had to resort to adding bricks to some of them just to put Merlin off the scent, and adding stickers that marked others as fragile so there wouldn't be the tragic repeat of last Christmas.

Not knowing if the egg ornament was solid inside although it felt heavy enough, Arthur didn't want to take any chances so 'fragile' sticker it was on the package.

Finally, the day arrived. Food eaten, they moved to the lounge for present giving time. The Christmas pudding was especially good this year thanks to Lancelot and Gwen's kitchen skills, and they were all groaning a little from being overstuffed, but they didn't turn down a second helping or a third while exchanging gifts. Morgana's wine was perfect although Gwaine slurped it down like it was water and got a little – a lot – drunk. Merlin couldn't stop grinning because this year he hadn't tripped and spilled the gravy. And all was right with the world.

Gaius, as always, played Santa, and Percy and Elyan his delivery elves. There was laughter and hugs as presents were opened. Merlin's mum and dad were on a cruise, but they had sent a pair of dragon-shaped ornaments that Merlin immediately hung on the tree. Gwen gave Morgana hand-made chocolates, Elyan received a set of hammer and tongs that he'd been eyeing for a while, Leon gave Percy a book of poetry from his favorite author. Gwaine did not get a case of wine, but Merlin had brewed up hangover remedies with Gaius's help, enough to last Gwaine at least a week.

Lance, of course, was shy about his gift to Gwen, but when she opened it, her eyes were bugging out at the sapphire ring. And there were knees bent and Gwen saying yes and immediately everyone started talking at once. The rest of the presents were forgotten in that moment, and there was much rejoicing and more wine.

Much, much later, all of the presents but one had been unwrapped. There was ripped paper everywhere and ribbon and packaging, enough to fill Merlin's recycling bin several times over.

Arthur wasn't nervous about Merlin's reaction. After all, he didn't get nervous, although his knee bouncing told a different story. Merlin's gift to him, a hand-made scarf of the finest bamboo yarn woven in an intricate pattern of Celtic knots and red dragons, was around Arthur's neck, warming him.

He held his breath a little, watching Merlin tear apart the wrapping, watching him reach in to pull it out. As he did, Merlin was frowning a little. That wasn't good.

Did Merlin not like his present? Was it too garish, too ugly for him?

Then as he turned to Arthur, the most beautiful smile appeared, and Arthur could breathe again.

"Arthur, this is… do you know what this is?"

Arthur just shrugged, a bit confused. "It's an egg. I thought it was ostrich but it's bigger than that. Maybe a dinosaur one? I thought you'd like the artwork. They had several in the store but this one reminded me of you with the… ummm… knots and the thingy design on top."

"Gaius, it's… it's…." Merlin stopped a second, looking down at the egg. There were tears in his eyes.

Gaius piped up. "Merlin, perhaps we should discuss this later, someplace quieter with less distraction. Not in front of…" Gaius's eyes were flicking between Arthur and Merlin, and Arthur was growing suspicious fast. Was there something to hide here? What was going on?

Merlin seemed to wake up to the fact that everyone was watching him. But as Gaius raised that one eyebrow of his – the doom one, Merlin said, "Yeah, okay. Arthur, thank you so much for this. You have no idea of what a treasure it is. I'll just put it in the bedroom for safe-keeping and we'll have more pudding."

No one was buying it, but they all liked Merlin so there were nods and Gwaine reached for his glass, and while everyone wasn't looking, Merlin slipped into the other room with his gift, Gaius close behind.

Arthur was looking, though. He wasn't having any of this secrecy stuff. He'd planned on marrying Merlin at some point, but he'd poured his heart out to Merlin already, and if Merlin was keeping secrets from him, that would be a sticking point to his plans.

From behind the closed door, Arthur could hear mumbling and Merlin arguing with Gaius about telling Arthur the truth and something about wanting to get out. That it couldn't wait.

Just as he was about to open the door and push his way in and find out just what was going on, there was a flash of light underneath the door and a weird sort of cracking noise and Merlin's delighted laughter.

That was enough for Arthur. Flinging the door open, Arthur not-quite shouted, "What the hell is going on?"

Gaius was standing there looking incredibly guilty, and Merlin had a white something in his arms that was squirming, and pieces of painted shell and rhinestones scattered around him.

As Merlin's grin turned troubled and he started to say something, the animal, thing, whatever, made a squawking noise and launched itself up, flying – flying! – over Arthur's head and back toward the lounge.

"Aithusa, come back here." Merlin was scrambling past him, shouting at the beast, shoving Arthur out of the way. "You naughty boy, come back here this instant."

As Arthur ran towards whatever that was, there were shouts of astonishment and a shriek or two from one of the women, rough threats from Leon and Percy, and things breaking.

If their flat had been a bit of a mess before, it was now utter chaos. Gwaine was laughing in the corner as that Aithusa thing flew over their heads and landed in the tree. Morgana was standing there, looking gob-smacked which wasn't a good look on her, and the others were either rushing to get out of the way or looking at it with confusion.

The tree wobbled then, the fairy lights on it flickering out, and some of the ornaments went bouncing off into the mayhem of paper and boxes and noise. As Aithusa launched itself into the air again, the push was enough. The tree toppled slowly downward, shedding garlands and more ornaments as it fell, and the crash was rather spectacular if Arthur did say so himself.

Merlin let out a screech. "Aithusa, stop this right now." But as Merlin stepped over feet and boxes and the end table, Aithusa apparently wasn't done.

It flew over Morgana's head, avoiding her hands, and went for the mantel. Its wings flapping furiously, it made a kind of wobbly not-quite landing, its claws clamping onto the evergreen garland.

Unfortunately, it wasn't attached. And as Aithusa tried to hold on, the greens were tumbling down, along with the red dragon ornament and King Arthur's sword-stabbing-the-stone figurine.

That's when a strange thing happened. For an instant, it looked like they were hanging in mid-air, not falling at all. Then in a blink of an eye, Merlin was there, catching the important ornaments at least, the dragon and King Arthur, one in each hand. The rest of it, the evergreens and other decorations, flopped onto the floor next to the grate. It was a mess.

Aithusa was flying again, clearly put out that it had nowhere to land. But Morgana took charge, even as Merlin was yelling at the creature to stop. She calmly put on her leather jacket, Saint Laurent chic, then put out her arm, cooing to the thing as she did, telling it what a good boy it was and how she'd love to pet him and take him home with her and feed him treats.

Damn if it didn't work.

The dragon or creature or whatever it was, landed, wings flapping, on Morgana's arm, tearing open the leather but not Morgana's skin thankfully. Then as Morgana stroked the little beast, it began to purr, making adorable hiccupping sounds as she cooed and talking softly to it and told it that she'd always love it, no matter what the wankers said.

She cradled it in her arms, then, looking at Merlin with such an ecstatic face that Arthur was a little embarrassed to see her so happy. Merlin was next to her, stroking the thing, telling it that there was left-over pudding and would it like some?

Never mind that the rest of them were all staring at them both and the creature, too, like they'd just seen a ghost or maybe the rise of a demon, and looking at Merlin as if they'd never seen him before.

Finally, Merlin must have realized that things looked bad. He turned around, shielding the little beast and Morgana's cooing from their view. "All right. So now you know. It's not like I wanted to keep it from you, but dragonlords aren't exactly welcome these days."

Lance piped up. "Merlin, it's okay. We're just startled, is all. I've never seen a dragon, at least a baby one and…."

Gwen took over, one hand on Lance's arm. "What Lance is saying is that we're thrilled to see your new baby dragon and we hope we will see a lot more of it… Aithusa, is it?... and you next week at our New Year's party. In the meantime, I think we need to clear out and let you have some alone time with your new… umm… dragon."

At that, everyone who wasn't Morgana and Merlin started making noises about getting home and how it was snowing, and the traffic would be terrible and thanks for the excitement. Well, Gwaine said the last one, but he was still grinning at all the mayhem, the wanker.

The next few minutes was a flurry of coats and present gathering and hurried good-byes. Even Gaius left.

Then just Merlin and Arthur remained, and Morgana who was still standing there cooing at the beast. Well, them and the mess left behind.

Arthur pulled on Merlin's arm, forcing him to march into their bedroom. With a loud bang as the door closed, Arthur said, "Okay, what the hell is going on? I thought dragonlords were extinct. And you certainly don't look extinct so spill."

Merlin was a fount of information. "Ummm…."

Scowling at him, Arthur wasn't exactly happy with that. "Yes, I can see that, Merlin. Good job with the explanation. I'll just accept that you've been keeping secrets from me since we met and take it from there, shall I?"

Arthur turned to go. If nothing else, he could stay with Morgana until he could find a new place to live and then spend the rest of his life nursing his broken heart and never trusting anyone again. Shouldn't be hard, right?

Merlin looked like he was beginning to panic. "Arthur, Arthur, wait. I…" He grabbed onto Arthur's scarf, the one Merlin had knitted him, the one Arthur had forgotten was around his neck in all the confusion, then let go when Arthur sent him a disgusted look. "I know I didn't tell you about my powers, but your dad is a wanker and hates magic people. And you never disagree with him and I wasn't… sure you'd still… want me after you knew."

"Magic people?" Arthur was confused. "I thought you were a dragonlord."

"Ummm…." Merlin turned a bright shade of pink. It wasn't a good look on him.

Folding his arms across his chest, scowling at Merlin, Arthur said, "So, are you a dragonlord or not?"

Merlin nodded. "Yeah, I'm a dragonlord. Well, I mean I will be once my dad is dead or…. Well. It's complicated."

"Well, that cleared everything up." Arthur didn't like complicated. His life was weird enough with his wanker dad and his half-sister hounding him half the time to wake up and be his own man. Damn it, he was his own man. He just didn't disagree with his dad in public, or in front of Morgana, or, hummm, maybe he needed to rethink some things. But not right now. Right now, there was the huge news about dragonlords and possibly magic people and Merlin.

"Look, Arthur, I'm sort of a dragonlord in training. The powers don't pass to me until my dad dies and I don't really want him dying any time soon, okay? I can call dragons from their eggs, they are very rare these days, and when you gave one to me, I thought maybe you knew?" Merlin scrubbed at his hair, then looked down, clearly unhappy. "I guess you didn't, did you?"

"No, Merlin, I did not." Staring at Merlin, waiting for something more, and when it didn't come, he said, "Were you ever going to tell me?"

"I was waiting for the right time." Merlin looked like he was going to cry.

"And when was the right time? Tomorrow? Next week? After our 50th wedding anniversary? When, Merlin?" Arthur knew he was being an arse, but damn it, he was hurt, okay.

"I thought maybe after a really good shag? You get all handsy then and a little less likely to shout and I thought it…," Merlin said, looking contrite and a little hopeful. "Wait, what did you say? Anniversary?"

There was a crash in the other room and Morgana's voice rising a bit. It sounded like she was telling them to stop shagging and come and help.

Arthur just glared at Merlin, then opened the door to find Morgana still cradling that annoying Aithusa and feeding it the last of the Christmas pudding. Damn it, he was saving some for tomorrow, for after a lie in and a couple of bouts of enthusiastic shagging. Not that it was going to happen now.

"We are not shagging, you witch. Just clearing the air. We're almost done anyway." Arthur said. Merlin didn't say anything, but his was an unhappy silence behind Arthur.

Morgana put down the spoon, then burped the annoying lizard – dragon – whatever, and handed it back to Merlin. At that, Aithusa crawled up and perched itself on Merlin's shoulder, the tail curling around his neck like a kerchief, its head tucked into Merlin's throat. A moment later, there was a little snore and a puff of smoke wafting past Merlin's ear.

"He wants you. I have no idea why." Then as she picked up her bag of presents, she said, "I'll be back tomorrow and you can tell me all about it then, Merlin. I want to hear all your dragonlord stories and about the magic, too."

And with that, she opened the door and walked away, her heels clicking down the hallway. Merlin shouted after her, "I don't have stories."

Morgana's laugh echoed and echoed until Merlin finally closed the door.

Arthur took off the scarf Merlin had made him, letting it drop on top of the mess. He didn't know what to think. "Do you have stories? Or even an explanation?"

Merlin shrugged. "It's not like we tell everyone about things. There are still lots of prejudices out there and I was beaten up more than once when I started coming into my powers."

Arthur was still trying to wrap his head around the whole dragonlord thing and now there were powers. Powers! Hell, it just got worse and worse. Arthur thought he could be forgiven if his voice got a little loud. "What? Powers, what powers? You never mentioned anything about powers."

"Ummm…." Merlin said. "Well, ummm, you see…."

Arthur interrupted, even louder this time. "What powers?!"

With that, Aithusa opened one eye, gazed a moment at Arthur with annoyance, then went back to sleep. There was another puff of smoke, thicker this time. It would have been cute if the whole thing wasn't so frustrating.

"Well, I can freeze time." Merlin started to say, but hesitated as Arthur sent him a death glare. When Arthur didn't say anything else, just gestured for him to continue, Merlin said, "Then there's the magic and I can juggle, but that's not magic, and I can talk to people with my mind but not you since you're not magical - not that you aren't magical because you've made me shout nonsense whenever you use your tongue on my…." Merlin stopped at that.

Arthur remembered the last time that happened like it was yesterday – because it was. But that wasn't important. Arthur just sighed and gestured for him to go on, hoping to speed this confession up. He was getting a headache.

"Well, that's not magic either, but I can push things with my mind and make things float and I clean the flat with magic. And sometimes I thought about maybe using magic for ummm, you know, shagging. Because it can increase… ummm… pleasure a lot and… ummm… extend stamina. If you'd like."

So instead of taking over the world with his magical powers or using it for good like some kind of superhero, all Merlin could think about was sex. Typical. The man was an idiot.

"But… ummm… with Aithusa, that might be a little difficult as he'd probably want to watch. At least until he got bored and go off flying someplace. But if you want, Morgana could take him for the weekend, and we could… ummm… see what happens."

Arthur put a hand up to stop this before it went any further. "So let me get this straight. You've magical powers and you want to use it for sex instead of helping the world solve its problems." Merlin nodded. "And Aithusa is like the child we apparently now have, interfering with our sex life on a daily basis when all you want to do is enhance our shagging with magic." Merlin nodded again. "And Morgana would be like the crazy aunt." Merlin was still nodding. The man was a menace. "And how do you think she'd react if you asked her to take this dragon for the weekend? We'd never hear the end of it."

Merlin shrugged. "She uses magic for shagging, too. I don't think…."

"She what?!" shouted Arthur.

Grimacing a moment, Merlin said, "Oops, she's going to kill me. It's supposed to be a secret."

"Are you telling me that Morgana, my half-sister, the one I've been having arguments with for the last decade, has magic?" Merlin nodded. If he kept this up, he'd get a crick in his neck. "And that she is having affai… you know what, I don't want to know that. It's bad enough she's been keeping a huge secret from me without going into her sexual exploits."

"Some of them were pretty inventive. She was telling me about the time…."

Arthur really didn't want to know anything about inventiveness or magical sex or anything else having to do with his sister. Ugh.

Interrupting again because by this point, Arthur had had enough, he said, "Okay, here's what we are going to do. You are going to find a place where this Aithusa creature can sleep – not in our bed! Then you and you alone are going to clean up the flat as a reward for lying to me all this time. I am going to get roaring drunk. And we'll talk about it in the morning."

Merlin nodded again.

When Arthur woke in the morning, his mouth tasting like someone died in there, he opened his eyes to find Aithusa's nose about two inches away from his face. Yelping, because a dragon was in his bed, he scrambled back against the headboard and tried to calm down.

Merlin was sprawled next to him, snoring away, looking all loose limbed and scrumptious. He wanted to wake Merlin with kisses and a morning shag as he'd once planned to do before all the chaos of yesterday. Instead, a dragon was poking his head into Arthur's chest and chirping.

What was Arthur to do? The stupid creature looked hungry and Arthur would never get back to sleep if he kept getting hit in the chest with that warm nose. Tentatively, Arthur reached out and stroked its head. There was another chirp and Aithusa hopped up on Arthur's lap, straight onto his full bladder, and began to hum a happy little tune. Ignoring the fullness, Arthur kept patting it, feeling the warmth under his hand, and frankly, his heart was thawing with all that snuggling and the stupid way Aithusa looked at him, adoration in the dragon's eyes. Not that Arthur would admit to anything.

But he quietly picked up Aithusa, cradling him in his arms and setting him down on towels in the bathroom so that Arthur could pee away some of yesterday's anger. Then Arthur took him into the kitchen and fed him some of the leftovers and listened to the humming contentment of a baby dragon.

That's where Merlin found them both.

Sending Merlin a tentative nod and gesturing for him to sit, Arthur reached for the eggs to cook Merlin breakfast. But as he looked down, Aithusa gazed back at him, the dragon giving a little chirp, his head bobbing.

Arthur decided that maybe eggs wasn't a good idea after all.

Merlin didn't say anything, just smiled and stole some of Arthur's toast.