Author's Note: What's up y'all (you all). Like I mentioned in my story before that's either done or almost done, that I've come up with this small bit right here. Like I said, it's a modern Merthur story with multiple pairings. You'll see those soon enough. Anyway, I really hope you like it as much as you like my other story!
Summary: Modern AU. Their true misfortunes started when Mordred, their rebellious roommate, stole from two of the most famous celebrity royals, and they were Morgana and Arthur Pendragon. Now the trio, Gwen, Mordred and Merlin must go to court and plead their case which they know they'll lose. Things become topsy turvy when Arthur Pendragon, rich and famous falls for Merlin, poor and a minimum wage water. As if things couldn't be worse, the three have absolutely no money to pay to the Pendragon family, if and when they are sued. Though, Arthur sees more in Merlin than a quick way to get a unneeded money.
Pairings: ArthurXMerlin GwenXLancelot MorganaXMordred MordredXOC
Warnings: Slash, Modern Alternate Universe.
Rating: T may change to M.
Disclaimer: I do not own BBC Merlin.
It was snowing outside, and Merlin dreaded that type of weather.
To most people, it was a sign of Christmas, winter, and happiness, but no not for him. Firstly , he didn't have any money to buy anyone a gift, though there weren't a lot of people he cared for. Secondly, he had no money which meant no car, and that meant walking home in the snow. In addition to that misfortune, he lived in a terrible neighborhood.
Nevertheless, he still had three more hours of serving people, and cleaning tables. He didn't mind it as much as people thought he would. It gave him time to be away from home, it gave him time to think about what his life was, or what it could be.
He was young, just emerging the age of twenty four years old, though he looked nineteen. His knowledge far exceeded his years, as he had to quickly learn how to take care of himself and his family, at least that's what he thought of them as.
Years prior to this, this his job and present life, his mother and her two friends had died in a head on car wreck. He was left alone, wandering the streets and evading the authorities for just shy of a month until Gwen, had found him. Her parents were killed in the accident along with his mother, so the two, being best friends, decided to somehow continue on life without their parents. Months after their parent's death's, they would receive money from one of Merlin's late Mother's friends. And old man named Gaius, and this amount of money kept them on their feet until he died, by that time they were just emerging their teenage years, or at least Merlin was.
Gwen was a bit older than he was, juggling work and school at the same time. By that time, the two lived in a small two story house just outside the city of London.
Even though it wasn't as big as the two had hoped, the outside was beautiful with a green backyard and front yard. Gwen sometimes found peace in planting various flowers that would grow large. Merlin, on the other hand, found peace and comfort in reading and studying. He was smart and brilliant, many of his teachers as he grew always told him that he was destined to be something greater than he was. But never had he thought of leaving Gwen behind, therefore he kept his dreams to himself.
When Merlin was about eighteen, the two had come across a small thief robbing their house. Also about this time, their once peaceful neighborhood had been plagued with gangs and hoodlums. So it wasn't strange to find someone robbing from them. To their surprise, it was an orphaned twelve year old that went by the name of Mordred. Seeing as though he had no other place to stay, the two invited him to stay with them, and he had lived with them ever since.
As he grew, his relationship with Gwen strengthened, while his relationship with Merlin severed. The two could never seem to get along, mainly due to the fact that Mordred had problems with authority. He'd always try to be the "bad kid" often getting in fights in their neighborhood, or at school, which resulted in him getting kicked out more than often. This left Gwen and Merlin (who was finishing school himself) scrambling to find him a new place of study.
When Mordred messed up like this, he and Merlin would usually have loud arguments that would result in physical fights, leaving a very small Gwen to break them up.
These fights would usually leave things broken, and both of the boys badly injured, so to avoid them, Merlin liked to stay at work very late, like he was doing now.
He wouldn't have to worry about Mordred, and Gwen was always at the small restaurant with him. The two could talk and serve at the same time, after all, hardly anybody ever visited the place.
Every so often, Merlin would see the lights of an expensive car driving by, and he could only guess that it was the car of a famous celebrity. They tended to do that, drive by the poor areas just to brag and show off. Merlin and Gwen had gotten used to it, on the other hand, Mordred hated it.
He'd often become very angry and complain about it, saying that if he ever got the chance, he'd kill one of them. Gwen had advised him to keep those thoughts to himself, as he could get arrested for just the slightest offense.
Merlin had partly agreed with him, though he never told anybody. It was known to him, and only to him that it was a celebrity that was drunk that night that his mother and Gwen's parents were killed. The man, Merlin hated to remember his name, had crashed headfirst into his mother's car and when he finally became sober, he didn't even donate a penny to his victims.
This hardened Merlin view on the wealthy, and deep down inside, he agreed with every bit Mordred had to say about them. But he was only a poor student waiter, he would never get his chance, and it had just been something he'd learned to live with.
"Merlin, it's almost time to close shop." Gwen's voice echoed through the restaurant from the kitchen window. "Bundle up, it's cold outside."
"Sure." Merlin replied, his thick, Irish accent rolling off of his tongue. He presently cleaned wooden tables that were coated with mess left from the people who had eaten on them. He hummed a familiar tune to himself just to keep himself motivated. "Give me a second."
He looked at the clock that nearly read eleven o'clock. Quickly, he picked up his lagging pace until he had finished all the tables. He then took his towel to the back and placed it in the sink.
"Kara," Merlin said as he saw a young girl asleep in the corner. He softly nudged her with his foot. "It's time to go." His calm voice woke her up from her precious sleep.
"Is it?" She yawned and stood up. "Thank you Merlin, I'll be going now."
The two exited the kitchen, and to their surprise, someone had entered the old restaurant looking less than pleased. It was Mordred. He stood there with his arms crossed as if he had some type of authority.
"What do you want?" Merlin asked. "Shouldn't you be at home?"
"I was here to inform Gwen that there would be a snow storm, and that we should leave soon." Mordred dryly replied.
"Mordred, is that you?" Gwen had emerged from the kitchen and quickly ran over to Mordred. She pulled him into a deep hug before releasing him and staring at Merlin.
"Your clothes, they have powder on them." She softly said as she went over and started to pat him down.
He wore a black blouse, black pants and black shoes. Everybody did at that moment excluding Mordred, it was their uniform.
"Thanks Gwen, but we can wash them when we get home." He gave a slight smile as he turned to look at Kara. "You should be getting home soon, after all, you heard what Mordred said..."
"Yes um..." Kara looked at Merlin a bit and blushed. He didn't seem to notice her as she attempted to smile. "See you tomorrow Merlin, Gwen..." And with that, the young girl was gone.
"Are we leaving or not?" Mordred asked in anger. "We'll be stuck here if we stay any longer."
"Unlike you Mordred, we have a responsibility to_" "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Don't start now, at least not in public." Gwen begged. "After all, we are almost done. After that we can walk home together."
"I'm not sure I want to walk home with him." Mordred said, eying Merlin.
"We'll, I didn't say I was pleased with your presence either."
Before the two could get into it any further, they saw bright lights, those of a wealthy person's car stop right outside of their restaurant. Merlin had suddenly realized that he'd forgotten to switch the sign on the door to "Closed" which meant he couldn't stop the two as the got out of the car.
They were certainly well dressed, he could see that from the large window. They had long coats, gloves and scarves made of fine material. He knew they had to be warm.
One was a man while the other one was a woman, they seemed to engage in small talk before they had entered the shop.
When the two entered, Merlin felt his heart harden like it had all those years ago.
"Table for two." The man said, with a demanding voice.
"I'm sorry, but we are closed." Merlin replied calmly. "Perhaps you can come back tomorrow." And with that, Merlin attempted to make his way to the back, but the man had roughly grabbed his arm and forced Merlin to look at him.
Arthur hadn't expected the waiter to be so young, neither so beautiful in his opinion. He thought he was a young Irish lad, attempting to instigate a fight but his facial expression wore nothing but genuine anger and for a split second fear.
Morgana touched Arthur's shoulder, bidding him to let the boy go. "Sorry_"
"Follow me for your table." The Waiter said, obviously pissed. As the two followed after him, Arthur cast a nervous glance to Morgana who rolled her eyes in anger. When the two were finally seated, the waiter began to talk.
"My name is Merlin...what can I get you to drink?" He asked with the most uninterested voice.
"Tea please." Morgana said. "Semi sweet." Merlin rolled his eyes at this, but wrote it down on a small pad.
"And you, sir?" He looked at Arthur. "What do you want?"
"I'll take a strong brandy." Arthur replied. Within seconds, the waiter left and Arthur continued to stare as if he was still there.
"Arthur!" Morgana yelled hitting him. "Stop it."
"I can't help it..." Arthur said. "There is something about him, he...he's different!"
"Arthur, you've literally only known him for two seconds and I think he dislikes you. Plus dad, would never let you engage in a real relationship with him because for one, he's poor and secondly, he's a man." Morgana sighed. "You're not like him Arthur, he's not like you."
"Is it wrong for me to dream? I've pissed him off haven't I?" Arthur sighed.
"And it was wrong of you, we couldn't gone somewhere else." Morgana snapped.
"I have to make it up to him, but how?" The blond itched his head. "Oh shh, he's coming."
Merlin returned with a semi sweetened tea and a strong brandy. "Anything else?" He asked.
"That'll be all, thank you." Morgana said, all the while Arthur sill stared at Merlin.
"What is it?" Merlin asked. "Is it the fact that I'm not wearing nice clothes like you or your little girlfriend?" The waiter crossed his arms. "You know what, never mind...just hurry up and get out of here."
"No, that's not it..." Arthur said. "I just wanted to say sorry!"
"I'd never believe one of your kind." Merlin had left before the siblings could say anything else.
"Of course you wouldn't stand up to them." Mordred taunted as Merlin walked into the back. "You're afraid of them aren't you."
"Shut up." Merlin commanded.
"Fine, I'm just telling you the truth." Mordred laughed and left the kitchen leaving Merlin and Gwen alone.
"You didn't see the way he stared at me." Merlin said. "Like he judged me."
"Don't let him get to you." Gwen comforted. "Don't let them get to you...do you know who they are?"
"No, and I don't want to. They're all the same, aren't they?"
Gwen shrugged and managed a smile. "Are you going to go and check on them soon, or do you want me to?"
"I will, they only wanted drinks. Let me get them their bill ready." Merlin had made a trip to the cash register finally back to the two's table. He slammed the bill on the table.
"Just pay and be done with it." He ordered without looking at them. His view was on someone else, someone who looked much more suspicious than usual, Mordred. He decided to ignore the fact the blond boy handed him the check.
Arthur Pendragon. It read, and the name sent shivers down Merlin's spine. The girl next to him had to be Morgana Pendragon, and that made him feel even angrier.
"Thank you," Morgana rose and headed towards the door. She slung her open purse over her shoulder. Merlin didn't say a word back, he only watched her leave.
"Um..." Arthur stood and extended his hand for Merlin to shake. The waiter only crossed his arms and walked away. "I'll be back tomorrow Merlin, my actions today were rather childlike." Merlin ignored him until he vanished to the back with Gwen.
"Let's get Mordred and get the hell out of here."
When Morgana sat in the car, she became frantic as she looked through her purse.
"I didn't drink the brandy, if that's what you are thinking." Arthur comforted.
"No, my wallet...it's missing." She said frantically. "One of them...I think they stole it."
"You must've dropped it." Arthur hadn't put his keys in the ignition yet.
"I know they stole it!" She yelled. "That boy with the curly hair...he wasn't a employee,i it was him!"
"Let's go inside and look then, we can_" "No." Morgana's phone was already pulled from her pocket. "I'm calling the authorities right now. I won't let those thieves get away with my things."
I'd write more, but I'm stuck in a really bad situation...so please review!
I don't own BBC Merlin.