That morning, Merlin was awakened by a cold, wet substance suddenly attacking his face. Opening his eyes and sitting up in bed, he saw his room mate, Arthur, standing above him with a water gun aimed at his face. Merlin was about to tell him off (it's not nagging, he swears, though Arthur and Morgana disagree) before he felt his head start spinning. Then Merlin remembered the party they had held the night before, celebrating all of the four friends not only passing their finals but passing with flying colors. As was expected when your house mate was the smartest person in your school. Literally. They'd had her tested.
Anyway, the party was more of a private celebration among good(ish) friends, Merlin, Arthur, Gwen and Morgana. Arthur had started the party out by bringing home three six packs of beer, saying that it was the "only way to party right". Merlin and Gwen, both strongly opposed to all forms of drugs and alcohol, were completely against the idea, while Morgana was suddenly struck by a brilliant idea. After some whispered words with Merlin, he and Morgana, both competitive, blunt, honest, and the bane and shine of Arthur's existence, insisted they bring out Rock Band. Who ever got the lowest score had to drink a bottle. They agreed and the fight began.
It wasn't long before Gwen and Merlin were completely drunk, Morgana couldn't stand straight, and Arthur kept insisting to no one in particular that he was only just beginning to feel tipsy. Though he was really telling this directly to the Teddy bears they had all made each other for Christmas. Oddly, they all looked the same; yellow with the odd patch of multi-colored heart fabric here or there. On Merlin's, it was over his left eye, Morgana's was on the right eye, Gwen's was all over his stomach, and Arthur's was on the inside of both the hands and the feet. They had all stitched whatever they had named their bear in purple thread on their belly.
Now, back to the present, where Arthur had dropped the gun carelessly onto the floor and was busy downing Tylenol and Diet Dr. Pepper. Because his football coach told him he needed to watch his weight, he'd gone from unhealthy eating and working out like a jock (because he was a jock) to unhealthy eating and working out like a jock, plus a Diet Dr. Pepper. He threw the Tylenol at Merlin and opened the mini fridge, pulling out a root beer for Merlin without even having to ask what he wanted.
Merlin always thought it was funny how Arthur insisted he hated him, but knew more about him than anyone else. Well, that is, other than his twin sister, Morgana, but that was a given.
Merlin nodded and grabbed the plastic bottle, mumbling a thank you before gulping it all down. He then set the half finished drink on his bedside table before laying back down and trying to go back to sleep.
Arthur merely chuckled. "Oh, isn't that cute? You think you can go back to bed?" He was squirted again. Merlin attempted to ignore him. Maybe if he pretended Arthur didn't exist and didn't snap at him, he would just go away. Like a bad dream. Unfortunately, this tactic apparently didn't work on living nightmares. The covers were ripped from him and he was squirted repeatedly.
"Now get up or I'll pull your shirt up and squirt you there."
Merlin immediately shot out of bed, falling off the side and onto the floor. He got up and held his aching head, looking like a wet, crumpled heap of too-big shirt and equally misfitting pajama bottoms in the form of an 18 year old boy.
"Not. Cool. Arty.", Merlin said moodily.
Arthur snorted. "Like I care. And don't call me that."
"Make me." Merlin stuck his tongue out at Arthur, who was about to do just that when the door opened. Outside were Morgana and Gwen, both attempting to walk and pull shirts and shorts over their bathing suits. They looked at the two boys curiously then their gaze moved to the bed.
"What happened?"
Arthur snorted, letting go of Merlin's shirt. "Merlin wet the bed."
Merlin tried to protest but found himself unable to correctly form sentences. He instead settled on waving a hand at the three annoyances and headed over to the clothes closet/dresser, taking off his shirt and throwing it on the floor on the way there. Arthur did a wolf whistle, Morgana whooped, and Gwen blushed and laughed at the other twos antics.
"Very funny, guys. Hey, here's an idea, why doesn't someone tell me why my sister and my best friend are in skimpy bathing suits? 'Cause I would really like to know."
Arthur faked a pout. "But I thought I was your best friend?"
Merlin stuck his head out from inside of the wardrobe and gave Arthur an unimpressed look. "Never in a million years, Arty. But it's nice to see it's you talking again, not just the hangover. Welcome back."
Arthur shrugged his shoulders, not able to argue with that logic. "Good to be back."
Morgana interrupted, using a politely annoyed. "Hey, Merlin? Yeah, I was just wondering if you were still wondering why we are in bathing suits or if you were good with just chilling here with Arty all day."
"No!" both of the college students answered simultaneously.
"Well then, the answer to your question is this: Get dressed in swim trunks; we're going to Kiwi Lake.", she answered with an excited smile like this was the coolest thing we'd done in years.
Arthur and I just looked at her blankly.
Her happy expression evaporated and she suddenly looked very tired and testy. "Look, I called Gaius and he says the best cure to a bad hangover is a good swim or bath in cold water. So we are gonna go to Kiwi and swim for an hour, then get smoothies at Merlin and Arthur's new job, right in time for their first shift. Enjoy. If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen making breakfast."
She then sulked out of the room, a worried Gwen following after her.
As soon as they were out of hearing range, Merlin turned to Arthur.
"Do you think she'll be mad when she figures out we completely forgot to fill out the resumes, let alone schedule a job interview?", Merlin asked as he slipped on a pair of blue swim trunks and a baggy orange swim shirt.
"Yeah, probably. We can fill out the resumes at the lake and I'll call the owner and ask for an interview for us. It's not that big of a deal though. Didn't he pretty much tell you we were guarantied to get the job, interview or no?" Merlin nodded as he walked over to the door, grabbing his root beer on the way there. "We're just really lucky that my Uncle Gaius is dating the owner. Though it's kind of weird when I go to work at his bookstore and see them making-"
Arthur covered his ears. "Ew. Don't say it. Old people love is gross enough without details."
Merlin stuck his tongue out at Arthur, who had just noticed Merlin's over-sized shirt and had to stop himself from laughing out loud with a hand to his mouth. "Um...Hey buddy, I think you got the wrong shirt."
Merlin looked down and frowned. "Really?"
Arthur laughed and went to pick up a smaller orange shirt, throwing it at Merlin. Merlin quickly switched into the shirt, throwing the other one at Arthur who slipped it on. They both fit perfectly on the teens. Merlin smiled brightly, then headed out the door and into the kitchen, Arthur close behind him.
In the kitchen, Gwen was busy cooking and Morgana was busy catching up on her sleep on the bar counter. Merlin quickly went to help Gwen with the eggs which he feared would burst into flames soon if no one flipped them. Arthur stole a piece of bacon from the plate of finished food, then went to grab plates, forks, and drinks for everyone.
"So Gwennie, what's for breakie?", Arthur asked as he "set the table". Aka, he put plates at the end of the bar and put the forks, spoons, and knives in a coffee cup next to them. He put the drinks on the bar in front of the seats they usually sat in. Except Morgana's, which he put down the back of her shirt. This woke Morgana up with a start and she quickly pulled the drink out and glared at Arthur who put his hands up in defense.
Gwen smiled and rolled her eyes at both Arthur's wording of his question and his harsh method of waking up Morgana. "The usual. Omelets for you, pancakes for Merlin, biscuits and honey for Morgana, Waffles for me, and enough bacon to feed an army."
"Does Merlin even know how to make an omelet?", Arthur asked as Merlin finished cooking the two eggs and began filling them.
"Yes, Arthur, I do in fact know how to cook. And if you're not careful, I'll make a mistake and pour hot sauce in it before I give it to you."
Gwen laughed. "It's true, when we worked at Ihop, if he didn't like someone, he spat in their food before he brought it out to them."
Arthur almost choked on his diet Dr. Pepper laughing and Morgana was hitting his back like crazy. Merlin severely doubted that this would have helped, had Arthur really been choking. After Arthur calmed down, he looked at Merlin skeptically.
"While I think that's funny as heck, and it's good that you're finally sticking up for yourself, if you do that to my food, I will literally strangle you. Just a warning."
Merlin laughed and put the finishing touches on his omelets before grabbing a plate. "Watch this.", he said excitedly as he tossed the omelets into the air and then caught them on the plate. Gwen clapped, Arthur murmured something that sounded like "show-off", and Morgana turned to Arthur, saying, "I taught him that."
Merlin handed Arthur his pancakes, then turned to Morgana. "I'm about to make hot chocolate. Want some?"
Morgana giggled. "Is there even a need to ask?"
Gwen smiled, happy that the two twins were getting along for once. While Morgana and Merlin didn't often get into actual fights, Morgana was very fond of teasing him.
"You are both so weird. You do know that normal people stopped drinking hot coco after Christmas, right?"
Merlin laughed, while Morgana said, "Yes, but if you haven't noticed, we're not normal people."
It was true. Gwen had skipped two grades, being 17, and was the smartest kid in their college. She was majoring in Math and Science, but her real talent was her violin. She was extremely talented and wanted to eventually become a composer for pieces performed on it. She was of African decent and had flawless almond colored skin and curly, glossy chocolate colored hair.
Morgana and Merlin had skipped one year and were a different story. If you were to list the amount of things they had in common, you would say they both had jet black, wavy hair and pale, porcelain skin. They both loved coco, and gave up on being ordinary a long time ago. They both liked the colors blue, green, and orange, but were indecisive so instead of having them listed as first, second, and third favorite, they were first-first, first-second, and third. The idea had been that green and blue were both first and could be interchangeable. They were both hypocrites and they knew it, but tried to refrain from showing it a lot. They changed what they liked faster than you could pinpoint and hated most fruits and vegetables.
Other than that, there was nothing. Merlin was incredibly smart, but easily distracted and hated studying. He was a college getting a general degree, not because he wasn't good at anything in particular or because he couldn't decide what he wanted to be, but because he was good at too many things. He was a pianist as well as a singer. He was an artist and a writer. He loved history, drama, and literature. He was an optimist and a pessimist. He was confusing and had never been someone you could label. In middle school and high school, he had floated from table to table, not really having any friends but not having any enemies either. He was well liked by everyone, yet they thought he was weird. He changed his style often, sometimes all black, sometimes all color, sometimes both. He loved all types of music, except country and rap, and especially less known bands. Those bands he always posted on his Twitter and Facebook, gaining them more popularity.
Morgana was beautiful and graceful (unlike her brother, who couldn't stand straight, often tripped over nothing, and had a habit of tilting his head to the right without noticing it), but when she opened her mouth, you couldn't help but wonder where all that lady like presence from before had went. She loved teasing people and was found smiling more often than not. She loved drama and was a talented actress when it came to getting what she wanted. She loved make-up, but believed that you should not use it because it was only covering up the natural beauty god had given you. She liked dresses but insisted that she had man legs. It wasn't true, because they had compared her legs to her brothers and they were almost the same (Merlin would never hear the end of it, after Arthur found out he had girl legs). She wanted to be a high school European History teacher. She loved pop music and was a skilled guitar player.
Arthur was a tall, blond, 19 year old football player. He didn't particularly like football, but played because it was sort of expected of him. He was extremely popular, attractive, and the son of the boss of the biggest and most popular record company, Pendragon Studios. Which was a helpful thing when the four friends decided to form a band.
He had met the other three on his first day of the fifth grade, when he accidentally picked a seat next to Gwen. They talked and he learned he shared most of his classes with her. Then, halfway through the school year, Morgana and Merlin had moved in. The twins had demanded that they share at least all their core classes, and their P.E. classes were at the same time. While Arthur only shared two core classes with them, they were all in the same study hall and all four of them were in jazz band, where Arthur played bass guitar. After they were all listed the best in their sections, they decided to become a band with the help of Arthur's father. Their first gig was the fifth grade talent show, where they decided to call themselves "Camelot". In sixth grade and seventh grade, they didn't see much of each other outside of band practice. Then in high school, they gained a new member, Lancelot. He was on Arthur's football team and a good friend. He played drums and fit in well with the rest of the group, especially Gwen, who he began dating. Then, after he broke up with Gwen, he left the band as well. In a way, he pulled the group back together. After he left, there was a gap in the group, but after a while, the gap was almost gone. Now they were closer than ever, even enrolling at the same college, Albian College. Unlike most people, none of them had any relatives or friends with enough space for all four of them. So, seeing as they were all opposed to college dorms, they bought a house. It was small, with only two rooms, two bathrooms, a living room/entry way room, and a kitchen. The girls shared one room while the boys shared another. They all paid for it equally.
Anyway, Merlin quickly heated up water and poured in coco mix. After he stirred, he put sprinkles in it, then whip cream, then more sprinkles. Arthur blanched.
"Geez, Merlin, think you got enough sprinkles in there?"
Merlin sneered at him, handing Morgana an overly sugared cup of coco. Just then the oven and microwave simultaneously dinged, signaling that both the waffles and the biscuits were done. Morgana smiled and went to get the honey. As she loaded up her plate, she also grabbed a plate and a few waffles for Gwen, setting the plate in its rightful spot on the bar in front of her chair. Gwen smiled and thanked her.
Now that they had finished everyone else's meals, Gwen and Merlin began on his pancakes. They used the type that didn't require raw eggs, so it was okay to eat the batter. After they poured enough batter for at least six pancakes onto the skillet, Gwen began flipping them (when they were ready, of course) and Merlin began devouring the rest of the batter with a spoon. It was common knowledge among the members of the group that Merlin was completely obsessed with pancakes and loved the batter more than anything. After all, it was quite good.
After they all finished eating their food, they began packing a bag for the trip.
"What do you think we'll need?", Merlin asked helpfully.
"Um..towels definitely. Remember, the water gets really cold in the morning. We'll need to bring the beach ball and that noodle thing. Then food and drinks. Arthur and I will cover that, you guys just go find the water stuff. And remember to bring sun screen Merlin, you know how easy we burn."
That was also true, but embarrassing. Merlin and Morgana were almost albino in skin color and were incapable of getting a tan. In fact, once, when the group decided to go canoeing, they had accidentally forgotten to bring sun screen, and they had been subjected to Morgana and Merlin's whining for almost two weeks after. Although, in their defense, the sun burns were bad enough to leave water blisters.
After their bag was packed, they all climbed into the SUV they all shared and headed out to Kiwi Lake. Kiwi Lake was actually an undiscovered lake the group had found as kids and named. No one really remembered why they had called it Kiwi Lake but it was called that now and that was that. It was hidden by the impressive amount of trees surrounding it and didn't see a lot of rain so it stayed pretty clean. They had made a dock and a rope swing a few summers ago, though it had taken a while. All in all, it was beautiful. It was third on Merlin's list of favorite places. Out of five, that was pretty good.
As a rule, Arthur almost always drove. Merlin was terrified of driving, having yet to get his license and really not wanting to get one ever. Morgana got distracted too easily to stay on the road and Gwen liked to take naps while they drove. Apparently, riding in a car made her sleepy.
While Gwen slept, Arthur, Morgana, and Merlin were having an intense argument over what music to play.
"Arthur can you put this in?", Merlin asked as he passed Arthur his iPod, pulling up a specific band he had fancied lately.
Arthur took one look, snorted, then threw it back at him. "The Strokes? Really? No. I'd rather listen to Justin Beaver." Merlin looked offended and was about to defend the band before Arthur cut him off, bringing out his own iPod. "Don't worry, cupcake, I've got Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand on here so we should be good."
Merlin's jaw fell. "Oh. My. Gosh. You hypocrite! The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys have almost an identical sound! They shoot for the same audience! Hey, don't look at me like that. And eyes on the road."
Arthur looked back at the road, glaring at Merlin from the corner of his eyes. "Look, I'm driving so I choose what we listen to, pip-"
Before Arthur could make things worse by calling Merlin short, Morgana broke in. "Hey, don't I get an opinion? I want to listen to either Lily Allen or Kate Nash. Lily Allen made a new CD, and a friend got it for me, so we've gotta check it out."
Arthur and Merlin looked at each other before turning back to Morgana. "No."
Morgana scoffed in indignation. "Well, why not? They are certainly better than Franz Ferdinand!"
There was an audible gasp throughout the car. Then all hell broke loose. Merlin leaned an arm back and grabbed Morgana's hair, pulling hard. Morgana screeched and began tickling Merlin, something Merlin hated more than anything. Eventually, when Merlin and Morgana had calmed down, they decided to play We Are Scientists, The Killers, Donora, and another new band for Merlin called The Hoosiers.
Finally, they pulled up to the large lake and got out, running out to the cool water.

AN:

This is my first fic and I can honestly say that, while I am not entirely pleased with how it turned out, I had a lot of fun writing it C: I love multi-chapter fics, so this is probably going to be pretty long if I don't get bored with it. Btw, crappy ending is crappy, and i apologize ten fold. The character descriptions are completely off, I think, but they will work. I based Merlin and Morgana entirely on me. I drink hot coco all year and love pancake batter. It is awesome sauce and you know it. Also their character descriptions are based on me. Um, one thing to mention, all the bands mentioned in this fic (other than Camelot, of course) are 100 % real and are highly unappreciated (at least, in the States, they are). So, if you want, you can give them a listen on iTunes, Youtube, Pandora, what ever! They are all incredibly talented C: Anyway, rate and review or DIE! Kidding, kidding, but any advise, criticism, or encouragement would be much appreciated. I would like at least a little feed back so i know how I'm doing so far.

I wish you all fun, food, and plenty of FanFiction :P

Singcerely, Pans