A/N: My new story :) Let me know what you think! It won't be updated near as fast, probably actually very slow cause I'm still working on my Waking Up to Stars. That's top priority. Also that will be updated either tomorrow or the day after. My new house has no wifi, so I'm having to work on it at work. Thanks to my fans for staying with me :) Also please review!

Chapter 1

It started at a bar. The bar, Ealdor, was his favorite bar by far. It had the loud music and the constantly being used pool table and the crowded booths in the back and the constant supply of hot women. Arthur was having his usual scotch, watered down of course, and attempting, successfully he might add, to pick up the tall, long – legged blonde with a crooked smile and a beauty mark above her lip in order to blow off steam from his stressful week at work. He leaned forward to ask her to go home with him, his lips brushing against her ear.

In Arthur's defense, it was all going fine and dandy until he had leaned forward to ask her to go home with him, his lips brushing against her ear and sending a shiver down her spine. Of course, she had hurriedly stammered yes, big surprise there, but then she just had to go to the bathroom before they left.

And that is the moment when Arthur's life was shot to hell.

"Can I get you anything else?"

Arthur tore himself away from where he was watching the blonde disappear into the crowd towards the bathroom to look at the bartender.

"Uh, no. Actually, I'll take the bill."

He expected the bartender to comply, because well, that's what he was supposed to do. But this one just stood there, like an idiot, for a minute before he said, "You should let her go home. You've had your fun, my friend."

Arthur glanced back up from his scotch, his eyebrow shooting up. "Do I know you?"

"Uh, no. I'm Merlin-" He held a hand out, a black leather bracelet on his wrist, his English accent thick.

Arthur stared at the hand, "Yet, you called me your friend?"

Merlin laughed, short and curt, dropping his hand. "Yes, that was my mistake."

Arthur downed the rest of his drink, trying not to show how much it burned his throat on the way down and muttered, "Yes, it would seem it was."

Again Merlin laughed, wiping his hands on the towel that was slung over his shoulder, "Yeah. I could never have a friend that could be such an ass."

Well, fuck a duck. That got Arthur's attention. He was Arthur Pendragon. At the young age of twenty-six he was the CEO of Camelot, a large security company that had contracts with most of New York City, including this very bar. No one, except for his father and sister, talked to him that way. He wouldn't stand for it, especially not for this…hoodlum.

"Nor I one that could be so stupid." He bit back.

The idiot smiled. Smiled damn it. Like he thought Arthur was kidding. He did have a brilliant smile though, one that looked like it could light up even the darkest rooms and the hardest hearts. He wasn't actually bad looking, not if you were into that type of thing and Arthur was not. He was tall, skinny, but not scrawny, definitely more athletic. He wore a plain black shirt and low cut black jeans and, of course, he had a wallet chain that swung from his back pocket to his front belt loop because that was just oh so original. Both wrists were cusped in black leather bracelets and Arthur was almost expecting his fingernails to be painted black, but they weren't. On the inside of his bicep, there was a tattoo of a Hebrew word and his forearm bore a strange triskelion. How ironic that the man with the most blinding smile in the world was clad in all black.

"Well if you're done checking me out, I'll get your bill."

That woke Arthur right the fuck up. "Get over yourself, Merlin. Just get me my bill and leave me alone."

For once, Merlin didn't smile, he just glared and said in an utterly bored tone, "Prat," he glanced back to where the blonde Arthur had been trying to take home was on her way back, "Listen, she's a regular here and a sweet girl. I know you plan on sleeping with her and leaving in the morning, because you're just that kind of guy," he held up his hand as Arthur started to interrupt, "but I'm asking you not to. Either go and stay with her until she wakes up or don't go with her at all."

The blonde (what on earth was her name) finally made it back to the bar and gave a small wave, "Hi, Merlin."

"Hello, Elena." Merlin nodded and then with one more meaningful look pointed at Arthur, turned to head towards the register.

"You ready to go?" Her smile was so sweet, so innocent when she turned to Arthur that his insides churned.

He swallowed. Hard. "Actually, you want to get a few more drinks first?"

"Are you trying to get me drunk, Arthur?" She winked, but nodded and motioned for Merlin.

Merlin seemed relieved enough that he wasn't taking her home quite yet and proceeded to make them two apple martinis, on the house. The rest of the night he left Arthur on his own, occasionally returning to pour them a few shots.

It was around two in the morning when Elena apologized, saying she had to leave, she had to be at work early in the morning and gave him her number. It was around three when Merlin finally brought Arthur's bill to him.

He didn't say anything, not until Arthur handed him the cash. He stood there for a second, fidgeting with the card before he looked up, through his dark bangs and said, "Thank you. You know, for not using her like that."

If he really thought Arthur was going to let him off the hook that easy, he was truly an idiot. "I'm not like that you know. I wouldn't have just left her in the morning."

Merlin frowned, it was an unnatural and painful look on him. "Maybe not in the morning, but you would have. I know your type."

"Oh do you, Merlin? What's my type exactly?" He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the bar and his chin on his hands and looking ever so intrigued.

Merlin's eyes flashed dangerously, "Oh, I don't know. Let's see. You're wearing business clothes. Formal, which means you're probably at the top of some too posh company. You paid for a ridiculously expensive bill – and how you are not falling over by now, I'll never know – with cash and your eyes say you are running on very few hours of sleep and probably have been for awhile now. Which means you can't just be some rich kid that inherited his daddy's money. You must work some high-paying, too-good-for-you job. You have no time for yourself and you wear no wedding ring," he gestured to Arthur's hand here, "so either you're cheating on your spouse because she won't put out for you anymore because you're probably never home or maybe you're not married because you don't have time for a relationship because of your hectic work life. In fact, the only thing you do have time for is a quickie on your stupidly expensive therapeutic bed in your stupidly expensive flat and this quickie not only satisfies your sexual needs, which of course we all have, but it also helps you blow off steam from work."

Arthur stared, silent.

"You maybe wouldn't have left her tomorrow morning, but you would have left her the day after or maybe a week later, or a month later. No matter what, you would have left. Because nothing matters more than work," he leaned forward on the bar, his voice lowering a notch, "And do you know how I know that? Because you got here at ten, still dressed in your work clothes, which could only mean that you came straight from work and didn't go home to dress in something more comfortable," he stood back up, straightening his back and fixing Arthur with a look that Arthur couldn't quite decipher, "So am I along the right lines?"

Arthur's mouth opened like a fish and then he shut it and then repeated the action. He looked down at his hands, at the empty hand that held no wedding ring even though half of his friends were married, "Is that some kind of talent of yours?"

Merlin says "I'm a bartender" as if that would be a proper explanation and then finishes with a rude, "Now if you don't mind, my shift is over so I would like to leave."

Arthur stands, grabbing his suit jacket , and throws a ten dollar bill on the bar for tip because well, fuck him. Merlin glares, but picks it up and shoves it in his pocket.

When Arthur finally does get home, to his ridiculously expensive apartment, he sits in bed and stares at the ceiling and ponders about how much he hates that stupid bartender with the stupid smile and the stupid ability to read people.

Arthur returns to that bar a few times, but he only ever sees Merlin one more time and even then Merlin is too busy to notice him.

Arthur is extremely fine with that.

It's a month before Morgana drags Arthur to Ealdor with her and Leon because 'he needs to forget work and get absolutely white-girl wasted'. Apparently, his stress from work is starting to show on his face because even Leon, who is the most unobservant person Arthur knows, notices.

Arthur is still griping by the time that they reach the bar and he's praying to whatever gods will hear him that Merlin is not there because he might off himself.

One glance behind the bar and Arthur lets himself relax because Merlin is not there.

He's having all types of fun, sitting in the front booth, the one by the pool tables, on his phone checking work emails when Morgana decides he should buy the next round. He's almost all the way to the bar when a clumsy buffoon nearly charges into him.

"God, mate, I'm so sorry. I didn't see you there."

Arthur is about to make some bitchy comment when he catches a glimpse of the man. The gods must really have it out for him.

The man glances up and his face splits into a grin, "Well, would you look at that. If it isn't Arthur Pendragon."

"Hello, Merlin." And Merlin smiles like his name just won him the lottery. Arthur is standing close enough to him to smell it and there is a glint in his eye that means Merlin is drunk, "Aren't you supposed to be on the other side of the counter?"

"Nope, because this man is lucky enough to have a day off today." It would have been almost impossible to tell since Merlin was wearing almost the exact same outfit.

"Well good for you." And Arthur moves to sidestep him, but Merlin reaches out a hand and blocks his way.

"Why didn't you tell me you were Arthur Pendragon?"

"I told you my name was Arthur."

"But you didn't tell me the Pendragon part."

Arthur glares back at Merlin, chin tilted slightly up because Merlin is slightly taller than him, though Arthur would never admit to that. "Why do you care? Regret calling me an ass now?"

Merlin laughs, "No, you're still an ass. I just didn't realize you were a famous one."

"Fuck off." Arthur finally manages to maneuver around him and head to the bar.

"Prat."

Arthur rolls his eyes and glances over his shoulder to see Merlin disappear into the crowd at the back of the bar. Morgana makes some comment about how the guy he was talking to was cute but Arthur tries to ignore it.

When he's buying his next rounds, Merlin manages to already be at the bar and Arthur is actually positive he's going to die from stress.

Merlin takes one look at him and he's even drunker than he was an hour ago and gives him a small smile. Arthur takes one look at him and wants to leave.

"Hey, wait," his voice is low as he grabs Arthur's arm, "Look, my friend wants to meet you. She saw me talking to you and she kind of has thing for you so she asked me to come get you."

Arthur looks at him like he's insane, "You think I would go anywhere with you?"

"Look, I'm not exactly thrilled either. I don't know what she's so excited about, you're a right arse, but it would mean a lot to her." Arthur didn't budge, "I'll buy you a shot?"

"I'm here with my sister and friend." Arthur says and he's beginning to realize that both he and Merlin are absolutely awful at explanations.

"Are they as annoying as you?" Merlin smirks and Arthur feels annoyed.

"You're not doing a very good job of convincing me."

Merlin opens his mouth to retaliate, but is cut off, "Is he bugging you? I do apologize for his behavior. He can be a bit of an asshole sometimes, but it runs in our blood."

Merlin turns to look at Morgana, who is now standing beside Arthur, smiling like the devil she is. Merlin's pupils dilate and he smirks, his voice hoarse, "well, fuck me."

Arthur feels a whole new level of annoyance at that.

"I'm Merlin." He says cheerfully, drunkenly offering his hand to her.

"Morgana." Her smile is equally cheerful and Arthur wonders if he could kill himself by bashing his head into the bar.

"I was actually just inviting your brother over to my table. I have a friend that's familiar with your name. She wants to meet you, both of you actually."

Morgana is all smiles as she turns to Arthur, playfully swatting his arm, "Well, that just sounds delightful, doesn't it, Arthur?"

Arthur grumbles but somehow that's not enough. And that's how he finds himself being herded towards the back table with Leon and Morgana, a drunken Merlin basically skipping in front of them.

When they arrive at the table of five, the first thing that Arthur notices is that Merlin hangs out with a lot of ridiculously good-looking people. There's a girl with beautiful olive skin and black curls pressed into the corner with a ridiculously attractive man that Arthur might even be jealous of, and a man with a scruffy beard and to-die-for hair sitting next to a tall man with bulging arm muscles. In between the two pairs is a very grumpy looking man who can't be older than his early twenties.

"Guys!" Merlin is already off to his drunken rambling, "This is Arthur and Morgana Pendragon. And that is – actually I don't know your name, sorry."

"Leon." Leon whispers shyly and Arthur smirks at him.

Merlin stares at him for a minute before his face scrunches up into all kinds of confusion, "What?"

A little louder this time, "Leon."

Merlin still looks confused but seems to have given up on understanding and instead turns around and introduces him as Liam. He then points to the curly headed girl, "That's Gwen, my best friend, we used to work together back in the day. Like way-back in the fast-food days. And that is Lancelot, her husband. We met through..." he seems to be struggling with words at this point.

"Oh Merlin, don't' be ashamed. They dated." Gwen exclaims and Arthur can tell she's a little more than drunk too.

"Gwen, really?" Merlin mutters and turns to look at Arthur and Morgana, and Leon too, "He's an ex, but mostly," he shoots a glare back at Gwen, "just a friend."

"You're gay?" Morgana sounds off.

Merlin laughs and Gwen looks ashamed for saying anything. "I'm bisexual."

"I'm just happy to hear the 'bi' part." Morgana smiles, teasing.

"I'll keep that in mind," Merlin blushes and smirks and Arthur wants the floor to swallow him all at once.

"So will I." The one with the to-die-for-hair smirked, raising his glass and winking.

Merlin laughed and returned back to the group, starting with Lancelot again. "That's Lancelot. That's Will, my childhood best friend and my flat mate. That's Gwaine, he's also my flat mate," he laughs at something, Arthur isn't sure what, "And that's Lance's friend, Percival. We call him Percy though."

Arthur nods at everyone and then scoots into the booth after Merlin drunkenly pushes him into it. Gwen is immediately launching questions at him and Morgana, though she seems a lot more preoccupied with Morgana even though she asked for Arthur originally. Arthur jumps in to answer a few questions, but mostly tries to block out Merlin's drunken rambling and Will's icy glare.

"So you're bi?" Arthur says. Such a good conversation starter, but Arthur doesn't know what else to say. His father raised him to believe that homosexuals and bisexuals were unnatural. He had been raised to keep his distance from them and for so long, he believed them to be almost as unnatural as the magical population. The very thought of either of them made him uncomfortable.

Merlin looks at him like he's ridiculous, but then smiles that sunshine smile and nods, "Well kinda. Mostly straight, but I guess there's some gay in there too," He gestures to his crotch and Arthur thinks he's going to be sick.

"Mostly straight, huh?"

"Well, Lance was really the only guy," And Lance glances over to them at the mention of his name and smiles. It isn't sad, not like Arthur thought it would be when you're sitting at the same table as your ex. Lance must have done the dumping then.

Arthur's voice lowers to a whisper and Lance is still watching them, "How long did you two date?"

"You don't have to whisper. Gwen knows the whole story. She's okay with it," Lance says and squeezes Gwen's shoulder. Gwen pauses in her conversation with Morgana and nods at him.

"We dated for three years." Merlin says and his voice isn't sad either and Arthur is confused.

"And then he met…?," Morgana is pointing to Gwen, her eyebrows raised in question.

Gwen laughs, so does Merlin, and Lancelot smiles a little, "Actually no. I met her a year or so after Merlin broke up with me."

"You dumped him!?" Arthur glances between the two because yes, Merlin is an attractive man, again if you're into men, but Lancelot is even more attractive, if you're into men of course. And Arthur is not. It didn't match up. The most attractive always dumped the other one. That's just the way the world worked.

Merlin seemed to pick up on his line of thinking and frowned, "Yes, you asshole."

Dammit, even drunk Merlin was intuitive. Lancelot smiled good-naturedly and Arthur was beginning to gather that he was nothing but good-natured, "I wasn't too surprised. He'd been hanging with the girl quite a bit, it was obvious to everyone except himself that he was crazy about her. He left, but I saw it coming long before he did it."

Merlin now smiled sadly.

"You left him for a girl?" Morgana asked.

"Yes. Oh, you guys should have seen them together," Gwen leaned forward, her hands clasped together, "They were wonderful. So in love. You couldn't help but smile around them. Freya was…she was just everything Merlin needed. They belonged together. You should tell them how you proposed, Me-"

Arthur suddenly interrupted, trying to get rid of the images of Merlin and a girl frolicking through a field of daisies, Lancelot crying in the background, "Isn't it awkward for you to hang around with his ex?," he turned to Merlin, "And isn't it awkward that your ex fell in love with your best friend?"

"No." Merlin smiled, "No, I was thrilled that he found Gwen. I was happy that he could be as happy as I was with Freya. I'm glad they found each other. I wouldn't want them with anyone else."

Gwen beamed at him, "Merlin is family. No matter the history between all of us, he will always be family."

"Oh, I dated Gwen too." Merlin laughed, "I forgot to mention that one. It was only for a month."

"Merlin is a real charmer here. Can't you tell, eh princess?" Gwaine spoke for the first time and his breath smelled of liquor and cigarettes and something else Arthur couldn't recognize.

Arthur's head hurt.

"So, this Freya…are you two still together?" Morgana didn't seem to thrown off by the fact that Merlin had dated forty percent of his friend group.

Merlin's drunken smile immediately disappeared. "Uh, no. We didn't go through with the wedding. Tragic love story, I know. Anyway, that's enough about my life story, who wants to come with me to buy the next round?"

Gwaine volunteered and together the two drunkenly disappeared into the crowd.

Morgana raised an eyebrow and Gwen gave a sad smile, "I'm sorry. He just doesn't like to talk about it."

Arthur really thought Gwen ought to shut up, but she reminded him deeply of Morgana, always gossiping and butting into everyone's business.

"I can see that." Morgana nodded. "Do they still talk?"

Arthur could see that she was trying to act concerned, but he knew that she was only asking all these questions so that she could see if she stood a chance with Merlin or not. It deeply sickened him.

"Uh," Gwen looked uncomfortable and she glanced to Lancelot, who looked down at his drink, circling his finger over the rim, "No, not really."

"She died actually."

Arthur turned to Will, who was the one who had spoke. His icy eyes were on Morgana, as if he could read her intent as well, "He's never really recovered."

Arthur took that as he's not interested, quit trying.

Morgana's eyes widened and she immediately looked to Gwen, "Oh my gosh, I didn't know, I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's okay. It was over two years ago. Actually two years last Saturday." Gwen tried to offer a sad smile, "They were to be married two months after she died."

"How?" Leon, who had been the most silent one, except for Percival spoke up, "I mean how did she die?"

Will was the one that spoke again, "They were in a car accident, Merlin was driving."

"His car hydroplaned." Gwen finished.

"She was in a coma for a few days, but after they took her off life support, she…"

The table was silent and Arthur immediately felt like an ass for judging Merlin. No one spoke until Merlin basically fell onto the table with a tray of shots.

"You all look somber," how ironic that he was the one who should say that, "I declare all of you must do a shot."

Morgana smiled and there was a hint of pity in her eyes and Arthur hated her for that. He hated pity, always had. Hated how people looked at him with that same damn look when he told them about his mother's death, or how people looked at him when he left the office late.

Merlin seemed to ignore it and held up a shot glass, everyone mirroring him, "To new friends and famous prats."

Morgana snickered at that and with a cheer, minus Arthur's, because Arthur does not cheer for anything, they downed it.

Merlin smiled his brilliant smile and pushed another shot under Arthur's noise and Arthur prayed to God that he would survive this night enough to be at his early meeting on Monday night.

A/N: Please, please, review! :) Love you all!