Graciously nodding at Lord Mannford, Arthur excuses himself and surveys the room where the annual Albion de Bois gala is being held. His father is deep in conversation with Agravaine on the other side of the hall, laughing in a way that only Arthur can tell is not quite genuine and doesn't bode well for his uncle. He shakes his head and decides to take advantage of the lull to make his way towards the bar.
He's already had as much as he knows he ought to while technically on duty and representing the bank, but he catches Merlin animatedly telling a story to Gwen behind the bar, and he wants nothing more than to slip behind the counter and spend the rest of the evening with his best friends. Settling for the next best alternative, he pulls up one of the stools that had inelegantly been placed along its edge and grins when Merlin places a soda in front of him without his needing to ask.
"Thanks." He raises his glass to Merlin and takes a sip.
"It can't have gotten worse?" Merlin asks, but Arthur catches an amused lilt in his voice and fixes him with a deadpan look. "What? I saw you chatting with Vivian… and Elena... and what was that last one's name?"
"Victoria." Arthur groans and begins to put his head in his hands, but he catches Gwen fixating on unnecessarily rearranging the row of champagne flutes on the tray she'd put together and his brows knit together. She'd been her usual self when he'd stopped by her and Merlin's flat before the gala, teasing him for the clumsy knot of his tie and lingering as she'd straightened it for him, but he'd noticed her growing progressively quieter each time he'd approached the bar.
Merlin looks between them and gives a half smile. "Were none of them to your liking?"
Arthur lets out a puff of air trying to pass as a sardonic chuckle and shakes his head, not looking away from Gwen. Her curls fall forward as she leans over the bar and create a curtain that covers her reaction, but he knows the meaning of her quiet, has observed it before in very different circumstances, and his heart jumps at the possible meaning. He lightly shakes his head before turning back to Merlin and is pleasantly surprised by the assertiveness in his own voice when he speaks, "There isn't anyone on this side of the bar to my liking."
Gwen looks up at that, hair clearing her face to reveal the beginnings of a smile. "I wouldn't let your father hear that."
Arthur shrugs and grins at her. "Well then maybe he would stop trying to set me up with each and every one of his friends' daughters."
Merlin snorts and shakes his head at the two of them. "What he'd do would have you committed."
"That might be better than putting up with anymore of…" Arthur trails off as both Merlin and Gwen's eyes widen in warning, and he turns to find an elderly man walking toward him with a young, flaxen-haired woman in tow. "Ah." He shoots Gwen a half smile and stands, to extend a hand to his father's friend and colleague as he comes to stand beside him. "Walter."
He watches Gwen disappear with her tray of drinks as they exchange pleasantries and hopes she knows just how much he'd meant what he'd said. He nods as Walter asks if he's met his daughter, and his lip quivers as Merlin tries to cover a laugh with a cough. Eleanor is, unfortunately, no stranger to their group, and Arthur wonders how Walter thinks he's still being subtle after all of this time.
"Indeed, we were briefly up at Oxford together." In fact, she'd been up at the same time as all three of them and had crossed their paths as she'd attempted to disgrace Gwen in one of the student-run papers, but, being the worst kind of snob he'd ever encountered, he doubts she'll acknowledge their presence.
"Of course." Walter smiles. "I'll leave you two to catch up then." He nods at them and scuffles off across the room. Arthur watches him nod to Uther as he joins him, and his father raises his glass, gesturing towards Eleanor.
Arthur sighs and turns back towards his former classmate and gestures towards Merlin. "I believe you know Merlin?"
Eleanor looks taken aback and frowns at his bartending uniform. "I don't believe so, no. So Arthur-"
Arthur shoots Merlin a look, and Merlin leans over the counter with a pointed smile and extends his hand towards Eleanor. "We were at Oriel together. I beat you at chess once, and then you spread malicious rumours about my best friend."
"I don't -" She looks down at Merlin's hand and gives the limpest handshake Arthur had ever seen.
"Merlin's acting as my assistant as he works on his doctorate."
"Is that so?"
Merlin nods. "I'm working on the importance of ethics in financial establishments. Are you interested in ethics, Eleanor?"
"Merlin…" Arthur rolls his eyes, but he knows Merlin thinks Eleanor's behind the string of vicious articles that had appeared about him over the past few weeks, and given the reputation she'd held while they were at university along with her interest in journalism, he's inclined to agree with him.
"I suppose?" Eleanor's falsely cheerful falsetto comes out more in a more forced manner than was usual.
Merlin nods. "Because I also get to rout though the papers for articles on Albion and Arthur as part of my job, and I've come across quite a few by Eleanor Champion in the gossip columns lately. Not the same last name of course, but her writing style seems oddly familiar."
Eleanor blanches, and Arthur feels a little bad for her, but he's had enough of people betraying him and his loved ones while pretending to be his friend, and so he holds back a smirk as Merlin asks, "What did she call you in that last one, Arthur?"
"Hmm, I can't quite recall. That isn't important now, though. How have you been, Eleanor?"
"Oh just wonderful!" Eleanor's usual, cheerful falsetto fails her, and she looks towards a group gathered around Morgana. "If you'll excuse me, I just need to…" she trails off, gesturing towards Morgana and takes off before they can say goodbye.
Morgana catches Arthur's eye as she spots Eleanor and raises a single, angular brow. He shrugs in apology, and Morgana smirks. She had been two years ahead of them at university, having skipped ahead in most of her classes, but she'd crossed Eleanor countless times at family functions, and Morgana's dislike for her was even more pronounced than Merlin's.
Arthur shakes his head and turns back to his friend. "That was awful."
Merlin gives him a half smile and begins spearing martini olives. "I know, but I'm certain it was her."
"I think you're right, but I don't understand what I ever did to her."
"Well you've never agreed to date her, and you stood up for Gwen during the great debacle."
"Of course I stood up for Gwen! She completely made up that story and I wasn't about to leave you and Gwen alone to deal with -"
"Arthur!" Merlin interrupts. "I know." He completely fails to hold back a smile, and Arthur feels the heat begin to spread through his cheeks. Having listened to countless over the past few months, years if he was being honest with himself, Merlin was well aware of his feelings for Guinevere.
He nods and looks down into his drink. He clears his throat and wants to express his concern for what slanderous things Eleanor might come up with if he were to enter into a relationship, but then Morgana walks towards them, serene and smiling to everyone but Arthur and Merlin. She does nothing to soften the clicks of her heels against the marble floor of the hall, and the slight glint in her eyes alerts them to her exasperated mood.
"I absolutely abhor that woman."
Merlin nods as she leans against the bar. "I take it you'd like another?" He holds up a martini glass, and Morgana smiles.
"Yes, please, and then I'm getting out of here."
"Father isn't going to be happy if you leave now."
Morgana shrugs, lifting her eyebrows and her glass. "Then you can stay. Gwaine's asked me over tonight, and I'd much rather spend the rest of the evening with him."
Merlin's expression dulls as he tries to busy himself with something behind the bar, and Arthur wonders if he knows just how obvious he's being.
"Is she finally gone, then?" Gwen reappears with a tray full of empty glasses and hovers before Arthur and Morgana.
"Thank goodness," Morgana replies, sipping her drink and shoots Gwen a smile. "I still can't believe you agreed to work tonight. It's an insane evening."
Gwen shrugs. "It's calmed down now, and besides I need to work as many events as I can before I start to actually write my thesis."
"You're still brave. Just attending this event is bad enough."
"We're all going to need to be brave," Merlin interrupts. "Uther's headed this way."
Morgana finishes her drink and hands her glass back to Merlin with a grin. "That's my cue to leave then." She winks at Arthur and Gwen and saunters towards Uther.
Gwen shakes her head and squeezes Arthur's arm as they watch Morgana kiss Uther on the cheek and walk out of the hall. He knows the gesture is in reassurance, but his pulse quickens as Gwen wraps her fingers around his arm, and he forgets his father's approach as he watches her resume her position behind the bar.
Uther gives him the talking to he'd come to expect as the evening had worn on, oblivious to Merlin and Gwen behind the bar. He reminds him that it's his duty to represent Albion at all times, to mingle with their guests and above all, to assure the bank's future by forging alliances with the younger generation of financiers. His tone never wavers, deep and firm, and he smiles through his speech, nodding and waving at the occasional guests who pass by them and stop at the bar for drinks.
Arthur knows his father has always been more concerned with public image than personal feeling, but he feels himself growing progressively more annoyed as Uther continues to speak and begins to tune him out, exchanging exasperated glances with Merlin and Guinevere whenever Uther turned to smile away.
"I just don't understand, Arthur," cuts through his thoughts, and Arthur finds himself gaping at his father.
"What is there not to understand?"
"I introduce you to lovely young women at every event that we host. Intelligent young women who come from the same background, share the same values, and would make excellent business allies for Albion."
Arthur swallows and nods slowly. "With respect, Father, I don't wish to think of strategy when it comes to dating. I come from the same background as these women, yes, and they are, for the most part, admirable individuals, but I don't have anything of value in common with them, and I will not date them simply because it is convenient. I deserve better, and they certainly deserve better than a man whose heart does not and cannot belong to them. When I date, it will be because I want to, and certainly, when I marry, it will be for love, not for taxes and financial optimisation."
"It is your duty, Arthur. As my sole heir to the bank, it is your duty to think of it before all else. You've had your time to listen to your heart and have your unsuitable flings, but that time is over."
"I am twenty-six, Father," Arthur replies, his voice low, and, despite his growing anger, he finds himself needing to fight back a smirk as he hears Merlin mutter something about it also being the twenty-first century.
"And I was twenty-five when I married your mother and created an alliance between Albion and De Bois International. Your uncle and I believe it is time for you to do the same."
Having had a similar conversation weeks ago that had not ended well, Arthur bows his head and hopes his father his father will take the gesture as an acquiescent nod and leave him be.
Uther nods and smiles. "I knew you'd understand." He pats Arthur on the back and excuses himself, going to re-join Agravaine and Lord Godwyn.
"I certainly don't understand," Arthur groans and leans against the bar once his father is out of earshot. "Can we follow Morgana's lead and just leave?"
Merlin gives a wry smile. "We both have another two hours to cover on our shifts."
Gwen reaches across the bar and places her hand over Arthur's. "I am due for a break, though. It would only be for twenty minutes, but we could get out of here? There's a small café down the block that should still be open, and I could use a caffeine fix."
Arthur nods, threading their fingers together. "I'd like that."
Gwen squeezes his hand once and smiles before letting go and moves towards the hidden door behind the bar. "I'll just get my coat and meet you by the front entrance in two minutes then."
Arthur watches her walk out, smiling all the time, and jumps when Merlin clears his throat. His friend is beaming at him when he looks over. "Promise me one thing, Arthur?"
"Yes?"
"Tell her how you feel this time. Uther was right that it is time, even if he has no idea what it's actually time for. It's been a year since she left Lancelot, and I promise it'll go better than you think it will."
"How can you possibly know that?"
"You aren't the only person to confide in me, Arthur."
Arthur frowns. "You haven't told Gwen…"
"No. And I wouldn't have said anything now, but I'm sick of the two of you walking around each other in circles. Now go before you make her wait."
"Thank you, Merlin." He smiles at his friend and quickly makes his way towards the door, duty and strategy be damned.
