Author's note: I wrote this for myself. Literally: I made a prompt for a comment fic meme and I answered it for myself. It is chock full of Rotary student inside jokes and random crap about Belgium! Also some French, which I'll translate at the end.
But first: Quick is a Belgian fast food chain, fry stands are a Belgian national treasure, and The Four D's are rules that Rotary exchange students have to agree to follow. (No drinking, no drugs, no dating, no driving. Some of us take special pride in having broken all four). Also exchange students in Belgium have a tradition of meeting at a bar in the city of Liege every Wednesday afternoon to party, because Belgians have a half day at school on Wednesdays. Awesome, I know.
Okay, enjoy!
Merlin was cruising Facebook, as he was wont to do on a Monday afternoon after school when his host brothers were at football, when a chat window popped up at the bottom of the screen. The little picture was the first thing he recognized, it always is- Arthur hanging upside down off a jungle gym. 'At least he changed it from the champagne guzzling one,' Merlin thought, because sure, it had been taken at a Rotary function, and sure, Arthur was standing next to a Rotarian in the picture, but STILL... Okay, maybe Merlin was a little paranoid.
Arthur 4:43pm
sooooo, i didn't see you at liege on
wednesday.
Merlin 4:43pm
Had a class fundraiser. How was it?
Arthur 4:45pm
oh you know. morgana smuggled in
cachaça and ginebra got totally
bourée off of it
Merlin 4:45pm
You forgot the word for drunk again,
didn't you.
Arthur 4:46pm
you'd think, of all the words i
should be able remember, right?
Merlin 4:48pm
I'm surprised you're not saying it
in Spanish, considering how much
time you spend with Ginebra.
Arthur 4:50pm
shut up we go to the same school ok
besides i think she's into one of
the other mexicans.
Merlin 4:50pm
Poooooooor Arthur!
Arthur 4:52pm
whatever. anyway tomorrow after
school i'm taking the train to
charleroi, meet me at the station at
16h30.
Merlin 4:54pm
Dude. What if I had plans tomorrow?
Ever think of that?
Arthur 4:54pm
what, you have a scout meeting
tomorrow or something? come onnnn
let's go to the irish
Merlin 4:55pm
...Fine.
Which is how Merlin found himself taking the 15 minute train to Charleroi the next day. He met Arthur in the lobby and they walked through the city to the Irish Pub.
"We should stop at Quick after, right?" Arthur said predictably as they walked past the fast food place.
Merlin didn't answer, just rolled his eyes. If they were going anywhere afterward, they would go to a fry stand like they always did.
They arrived at the pub and pushed open the old wooden door, Arthur entering first and securing a table near the television in back.
"Yeeeess, they're playing the match!" Arthur exclaimed, sitting down and immediately latching his attention on the screen.
"Every time I've ever been in here, there's always a match up there, Arthur," Merlin pointed out. This time it was Arthur's turn to ignore Merlin.
Merlin sighed and went up to get the drinks. When he came back, Arthur finally turned his attention away from the game to gratefully receive his Chimay Bleue.
"Oh my god are you serious?" Arthur cried, gesticulating wildly at Merlin's cherry beer. "Stop getting those girl beers, it's driving me crazy!"
"I like kriek, okay? It's good!" Merlin said defensively.
"That's it, I've decided. You're officially a girl, Merlin. I hereby dub you Merlina."
Merlin sputtered, reddish beer dribbling ridiculously down his chin. Reaching for a napkin, he managed to say, "You can't call me that."
"I most certainly can," Arthur confirmed, and then switched to a high pitched voice: "Bonjour, je m'appelle Merlina et je suis LOSER!"
The bartender shot them a glare a minute later when Merlin was still laughing so hard that he'd fallen off the bench.
After the pub they ended up going to Quick anyway, because Arthur made these stupid puppy dog eyes and insisted, "but we always go to the friterie, Merlina, come oooooon". Merlin acquiesced on the condition that Arthur never ever call him Merlina again, ever.
As soon as they got their cheeseburgers, Arthur called over his shoulder, "Let's eat near the river; sound good Merlina?"
Merlin swore under his breath in French. Seriously, Americans. There was something seriously wrong with those guys.
"Americans are weird?!" Arthur gasped on the walk back to the station later, when Merlin grumpily explained his theory on Arthur's sheer annoyingness. "Yeah right! It's you Antarctica people who are crazy!"
"You're thinking of the Arctic, Antarctica is down south," Merlin corrected, but Arthur held up a hand.
"The point is, you guys ride moose to school and shit. Wait are there penguins in Canada?"
It took the rest of the way to convince Arthur that no, there are no penguins native to Canada. (Merlin figured he'd save the moose discussion for another day. Or maybe never).
"Okay so you ARE coming to Liège tomorrow, right?" Arthur asked when they were about to separate for their respective platforms.
"Yeah I've got nothing going on tomorrow," Merlin said. "But we seriously need to tone it down a bit, or Rotary's really gonna start cracking down on us."
"Whatever, they say that every year. Are you an exchange student or what? Don't be a baby," Arthur scoffed.
"You're a shameless D-breaker!" Merlin said as Arthur started jogging up the stairs to his platform.
"YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS!" Arthur shouted back, causing several locals to turn and stare at him or back at Merlin.
Americans. Seriously, so obnoxious.
The next afternoon in Liège was what Arthur would call "epic". Merlin would call it "asking for trouble", but his whiny worries fell on deaf and drunk ears.
"I'm not whiny!" Merlin whined, fiddling with his glass of Red Bull with vodka. Arthur was very sneakily taking his water bottle full of cachaça out of his jacket and pouring it into his Coke.
(Seriously how did Morgana manage to bring an entire year's worth of cachaça with her from Brazil? Did her parents send her alcoholic care packages or something?)
Mission accomplished, Arthur tapped his glass to Merlin's and drank three huge gulps before responding. "You definitely are. You're like a girl. Actually, most of the girls here whine less than you, so never mind. What, is it a Canadian thing?"
"Would you stop talking about me being a Canadian?!" Merlin said, exasperated.
"Dude you totally started it when you said I was annoying because I was American, so ta gueule!"
"Toi, ta gueule!"
"No, you!"
"No, you!"
"I said it first, so shut up!"
At this moment, Morgana appeared seemingly out of thin air next to their table. "So, my barakis! Are you finally gay now? I am waiting, you know," she said, pulling up a chair. The place was starting to fill with exchange students.
"Wait, what?" Merlin asked, bug-eyed.
"Morgana thinks we're homo for each other or something," Arthur said as he looked down at his suddenly very interesting glass. His perpetual smug expression was gone, replaced by something a bit more self-conscious. But paradoxically still somewhat arrogant. It was Arthur, after all.
"Yeah that's... so true," Merlin said with not a small amount of sarcasm and a bit of a smile.
"Except for the part where we're not gay," Arthur said.
"No Merlin only bi I think, but you, you are completely gay," Morgana said.
"Stick to Portuguese and French, your English sucks," Arthur pouted.
"No, you suck. Merlin!" Morgana cackled like this was the funniest thing ever said aloud. Merlin smirked into his drink, and Arthur just twisted his lips and narrowed his eyes, which Merlin could just tell was a learned expression.
"Probably from someone in his new host family," Merlin pondered. Then he cursed himself, because he was tracking Arthur's progress so closely he could even detect new facial expressions. It's one thing when Merlin notices that Arthur starts saying "aïe" instead of "ouch", that's obvious. But this, this was just creepy.
"Hey Arthur.. Do you like, notice when I learn new words and shit?" Merlin asked later when they were both considerably more drunk. "Tomber la chemise" had already played once, and Ginebra had let Morgana draw a penis on her chest in Sharpie and was somehow still wondering why all the male students were paying so much attention to her.
"Yeah of course," Arthur answered, and then started laughing. "You remember," he said when he'd calmed down enough to talk, "when you learned 'baraki' back in October, and you drank all that champagne at the thing, and you introduced me to your club president as 'mon ami le gros baraki'?"
Merlin, who had been taking a drink of beer when Arthur had started talking, and who had recognized which story Arthur had been going to tell, and who had already started laughing three words in, was currently trying to wipe the beer off the front of his shirt all while laughing in a spectacularly loud and drunken fashion.
"My host mom almost pissed herself laughing, man! Oh my god they didn't let me forget that all the way until I left in December."
They were both still laughing when the opening notes of "Tomber la chemise" were heard and subsequently drowned out by the overjoyed cries of the exchange students.
"Ready to go topless again, Merlina?" Arthur asked, standing up and offering Merlin his hand.
"You bet your ass," Merlin replied.
For all that Merlin complained about these Wednesday afternoon parties being "a bit much", he had to admit there was really nothing better than dancing on a table shirtless next to girls in bras and guys waving their shirts in the air like lunatics. (Especially when those guys were Arthur, but Merlin would never admit such a thing when sober).
"So why were you asking that earlier? About realizing when you learn stuff?" Arthur asked later when the party had died down and most of the students had already started back for the train station.
"I don't know, I was just wondering if it was normal. We don't speak French with each other that much but I still always notice when you pick up new stuff," Merlin explained.
"It's like Morgana says I guess, we're just destined or something. Soul mates! Written in the stars!" Arthur was proclaiming loudly, putting his arm over Merlin's shoulders. They were standing in the tiny street outside the bar with a few other exchange students who were slowly filtering out and wandering away towards the direction of the train station.
Arthur guided him in the other direction. They walked down the empty alley side by side, not a centimeter of space between them.
"Where are we going?" Merlin asked, and Arthur jostled him a bit. Merlin stumbled, but Arthur's arm around his shoulder stopped him from falling over.
"Just taking the long way, we've got plenty of time until the next train," answered Arthur.
"If we miss the train again je te tuerai, j'te jure," Merlin promised. His death threats were ignored, however, which just wouldn't fly. This was serious business. "Did you hear me, Arthur? Did you hear what I said?"
He repeated his taunts several times before Arthur turned and slammed him into the wall of the nearest building. His forearm pressed against Merlin's collar bone, he leaned in close to breathe in his ear.
"Qu'est-ce t'as dit? Tu vas faire quoi, encore? Vas-y, dis-le encore une fois," he murmured. A shiver ran down Merlin's spine, and Arthur seemed to notice. "Ah bon, rien à dire? Tu veux quoi, alors? Tu veux que je fasse..." Arthur pressed his lips directly against Merlin's ear. He traced his tongue along his earlobe, lightly, for barely a moment. "...ça, peut-être?"
Merlin realized several things in that moment. One, that Arthur speaking French was the sexiest thing ever in the history of all the world. Two, that really, he had always thought so. Three, Arthur was really really gay for him. And four, Merlin had always really really hoped that he would be.
"I guess I won't have to kill you if you could kiss me properly," Merlin managed to say, bringing one hand up behind Arthur's neck, and securing the other around his waist.
Arthur pulled away a bit, looked into his eyes for a long moment, and then finally smiled. "Oh, I think I'll make it a little improper, if you don't mind," he said with a smirk.
"Go for it," Merlin said happily.
And so Arthur did.
Translations:
"Ta gueule! / Toi, ta gueule!"- "Shut up! / "You shut up!"
Baraki: very Belgian word, sort of means loser. Good for nothing. Also implies a level of tackiness and lack of class.
"tomber la chemise": a song that asks you to take off your shirt. And we do.
"je te tuerai, j'te jure"- "I'll kill you, I swear"
"Qu'est-ce t'as dit? Tu vas faire quoi, encore? Vas-y, dis-le encore une fois"- "What'd you say? You're gonna do what? Come on, say it one more time"
"Ah bon, rien à dire? Tu veux quoi, alors? Tu veux que je fasse... ça, peut-être?"- "Oh really, nothing to say? What do you want, then? You want me to do... this, maybe?"