I’ve been reading about the history of hand kissing as a diplomatic gesture and now all I can think about is Merlin and Arthur (not that I needed the excuse).
We all know Arthur is touch starved but wouldn’t as much as hug Merlin when he was back from the dead let alone come near him on daily bases, but hear me out, what if Merlin gets injured, nothing major but he gets unconscious and Arthur comes to check on him but is too terrified to do anything except reach over to Merlin’s bloodied hands to look at them but then he brings them to his lips and kisses them before he knows what he was doing, and he doesn’t think much of it because, you know, Merlin was injured and the sight of his hands limp and small terrfied Arthur.
Except then Arthur can’t take it off his mind. He notices Merlin’s hands all the time now. When he’s doing his chores around Arthur’s chambers, when he’s polishing his armor, when he’s handing him a cup and it drives Arthur crazy, because he’s always through of Merlin’s hands as small and bony like the rest of him, but then he realizes that they’re anything but; they were the hands of a servant, strong with callouses on his fingers and palms, and that should’ve been reson enough for Arthur not to be so fascinated but he is.
Then one day it’s winter and Merlin’s been doing chores all day in the freezing cold and Arthur notices his hands are red and his knuckles are sore and starts to tease him but Merlin sniffs adorably. Arthur sighs and orders him to sit by the fire in his room, except Merlin crouches down by the fire instead, and Arthur rolls his eyes because of course Merlin couldn’t obey a simple order like sitting in a chair properly, and before he could stop himself, Arthur comes closer only to see Merlin trying to rub his hands together by the fire and Arthur doesn’t think before he reaches over and grabs Merlin’s hands and between his and blows warm breath over them and then kisses Merlin’s knuckles before he could stop himself.
The whole thing takes less than a second but Arthur is mortified and Merlin looks like he’s short-circuiting and Arthur wonders if Merlin knows the meaning of the gesture of hand kissing at court, that a person should only kiss the hand of someone who’s of the same social status or higher, usually a woman but still, and Arthur knows he should take it back, crack a joke to break the moment, but doesn’t want to. Until Merlin takes his hands back and pretends nothing’s happens.
Anyway, later when the magic reveal happen and after everything, Merlin is mortified and raises his hands to Arthur to tell him that his magic is Arthur’s, terrified that Arthur would send him away, except Arthur reaches over and takes Merlin’s extended hand and kisses it and Merlin melts and I dunno I’ve been thinking about this a lot.
The third and finale chapter of the fanfic based on this post is up. You can find it here. enjoy <3
