tampered | (no subject)

When; The Monday after Hellweekend...I MEAN...visitors weekend
Rating; PG
Characters; Charlie McGee and Merlin.
Summary; Merlin's attempting to cheer Charlie up after a nightmare of a weekend.
Log;

The past weekend was, in Charlie's opinion, crap. She always hated these visitors weekends. Too many people, too much noise. It felt like a sort of invasion. Not quite along the level of the Daleks or the Weeping Angels, but close enough. The first visitors weekends she'd experienced, she didn't see anyone she knew and she was counting on that for this past one.

Apparently this was not her luck. Ed arrived. And then her father and it had just turned into a huge, overwhelming cluster of emotions that Charlie was sure she'd lose her mind. She didn't say much to anyone about either, just that they were there and it was upsetting to her. Ed's visit had been significantly more problematic and someone almost got hurt. Not Charlie, she stopped the mess but still. Stressful.

But today was better. The extra people were gone and she was going to visit Ariadne's horse with Merlin. This was all Merlin's idea, too. He'd heard of Charlie's attachment to a horse named Necromancer and how she missed the horse a ton after a curse that involved the City turning into the Wild West and God help Charlie, she kind of loved him for arranging this.

Not that she'd say this out loud.

She'd packed food for them to eat. Various sandwiches (ham and cheese, turkey and cheese, and a few PB&Js just because she didn't know how long they'd be out). There were even cut up apples and carrots, some of which were for Sunny. And Charlie'd packed a few bottles of water, as well.

Yep. She was prepared.

Now, all she had to do was wait at her apartment for him.

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Nah, he was going to wait. Seeing Phantom and Petrichor running towards him, though, he squat down right after he closed the door behind him and reached out his hand to pet them.

"Hey there."

Charlie left the bathroom a moment later, hair tied back for once. She almost never wears her hair like this. The sight of her boyfriend playing with two of her pets makes her smile some and she leans her shoulder on her bedroom doorframe, arms crossed slightly.

"I'm pretty sure my pets adore you. They don't often get like this around people. Phantom and Petrichor are usually content to just run in giant circles when people are around."

She watched them a moment more before moving to the kitchen, grabbing the cooler she'd filled earlier.

"I packed...probably more than I should have. Blame being excited."

Well, to be fair, Phantom and Petrichor would have had plenty time to get used to him by now. Not that he could deny that there had been a sort of "love at first sight" thing. Or something like that.

Which was a very good thing. With them being together and all.

"I'm sure we can make use of it all," he said with a quiet chuckle. She really liked horses, huh...

This is very true. Merlin had been coming over often and on her days off, Charlie was hardly seen without them. It was no surprise the cat and fox liked him. It also probably helped that Charlie adored Merlin.

"I'll follow you," Charlie said, holding her hand out for him. "I'm not sure where we're going."

Edited 2012-07-05 19:28 (UTC)

Smiling, Merlin grabbed Charlie's hand and pushed open the front door. "Uhm... Want me to carry that for you?" he asked, nudging his head at the cooler.

"Maybe if it gets heavy," Charlie said with a small smile, shifting the cooler a bit and pulling her door shut. She lets go of Merlin's hand long enough to lock the door before reaching for his hand again. Her fingers lace through Merlin's and she squeezes slightly. "Thank you for this, by the way. It is definitely needed after this weekend."

She's pretty close to falling in love with him, just for this. As ridiculous as it sounds.

Merlin shook his head, not in dismissal but because it was really such a simple thing to arrange. He could do something much more if given enough time, really.

Not that he didn't know simple things could be great too.

"Anytime."

Anything more than this and Charlie wouldn't know how to handle it. There would be so much time spent just hugging Merlin and trying to figure out what she did to end up with someone like him in her life.

At the moment, she's just happy to have him. And it's not even that long a walk to the stables. She's sort of surprised how close they were to her apartment and decided maybe she'd try to visit more often.

"Which one is Ariadne's?" Charlie asked, setting the cooler down and stretching her arms a bit.

There would be something bigger one day. Merlin hadn't been able to do that with Freya because they'd had to hide, so now that he could, he definitely would. So Charlie might want to prepare.

For a moment, he just watched as she stretched before he turned to the folds. "She has this yellow-like colour, I'll go call her. Did you bring any treats? That's how to get on her good side."

Charlie nodded, crouching by the cooler and opening it. The apples and carrots were in a bag on top and Charlie held it up slightly.

"Right here." She was pretty sure that was how you got on any horses good side. It worked for Necromancer. Any time she went to visit him, she had carrots or an apple or something for him to eat and he always seemed excited by it.

"Great. Grab a piece and let's get her."

Yeah, it was probably how you got on any horse's good side. Horses were simple that way, troublesome and complicated in others.

Charlie grabbed a couple of apple slices from the bag, looking up to actually look at the horses there. And then she grinned, watching them clearly something she enjoyed.

"I haven't been around this many horses in years," she mentioned calmly, heading over to Merlin and holding out one of the apple pieces.

Merlin smiled and grabbed the piece, running his fingers over her hand entirely on purpose while at it. "Well, now you know you can go here," he said as they reached the fence.

Leaning on it, he whistled and called:

"Sunny! Come here, we've got something for you!"

Charlie smiled at the brief contact, enjoying the faint goosebumps that ran up her arm. She held onto her bits of apple, watching for Sunny and smirking in amusement as the horse went for Merlin first. Smart horse. Sunny knew what to go for what was familiar, something Charlie could appreciate.

She headed over to Merlin, leaning her shoulder against his for a moment. When she was sure it was okay, she held out her own apple slice in the palm of her hand, keeping her fingers flat and herself calm.

"Hi, Sunny. Look at you. You're absolutely lovely," she said as Sunny took the apple. That made Charlie grin and she turned to look at Merlin. "Is Sunny usually this friendly?"

"She's a bit cautious, actually," Merlin said and reached out to stroke his hand along Sunny's neck. "That's why you give her treats. Easy to get to her that way."