For a start, I'm sorry for how long this took to get up, I just wanted it to be the best I could manage. I promise to get the next chapter up within a couple of days to make up for it
Warnings: This is SLASH from the beginning. It's also a sequel to Accidental Train Ride so it'd probably make more sense if you read that first. Arthur is a little OOC, more like the man he is in series three than series one in his attitudes. Morgana, on the other hand, is more like our series 1 Morgana, and Morgause is not related to her in any way. Some Uther bashing, a little violence at one point, some swearing.
All characters belong to the BBC, I just bring them out of the closet from time to time.
1. Evidence and Emails
The judge peered over the stand and nodded. "What is your decision?"
A single juror stood with a face that remained expressionless no matter how hard Arthur willed him to give some indication.
"We find Merlin Emrys to be innocent. The death of Nimueh Priest was self defence."
The judge banged his hammer as Arthur let out a sigh of relief. Of course, he'd known they couldn't really convict Merlin of murder, when he'd killed the woman to protect fifteen other people, including two small children. Still, he'd read about miscarriage of justice in the past.
Merlin met him outside the courthouse with a shaky grin. "Thank god that's over."
Arthur smiled and discreetly clasped Merlin's hand in his own; the hand that wasn't still encased in a pot. "There was no way they could convict you; she was a raving lunatic with a machine gun, and you stopped her."
Merlin nodded. "Thanks. For your testimony."
Arthur shrugged. "Least I could do."
They stood awkwardly together on the steps. Merlin looked unhappy.
"I guess this is it then."
Arthur frowned. "What? What're you talking about?" Merlin pulled away from him a little.
"You live too far away; I can't afford the fare every week to come and see you. Besides…your father doesn't approve of me. And he doesn't even know about what we are."
Arthur swatted him on the arm. "You complete pillock Merlin. If you can't come see me, I'll see you. I don't mind; we can go for dates every weekend. My father won't care to ask where I am; Morgana's always gallivanting off and he never bothers."
Merlin blushed. "I don't want to be any-"
"If you say trouble I'm going to throttle you." He seized Merlin's hand again. "I don't give a damn what my father thinks about you. It's what I think that counts here. Admittedly I don't want to tell him about my preferences just yet, but it doesn't mean I like you any less."
He was sweating slightly; coming out to his father was something he doubted he was ever going to have the courage to do, and he was hoping desperately Merlin was going to overlook the fact.
Merlin seemed willing, nodding. "Thanks. I want to tell my mum though, and Will. I'll make them swear not to tell anyone else though."
Arthur considered; Hunith he was fine with. The Will whom he'd never met was a different matter entirely. Merlin seemed to read it on his face, because he stepped closer and, after looking around cautiously, gave Arthur a quick peck on the cheek.
"Will's been my best friend since we were toddlers. He would never, ever do anything to hurt me or anyone I liked."
Finally, Arthur nodded.
oOo
It took forty minutes for him to get home; he and Merlin had parted ways at the station, and the journey was lonely without the now familiar smile. His father had offered to send a car to collect him straight after the verdict, but he would've felt uncomfortable rushing off straight away and leaving Merlin to travel to the station on his own.
Merlin. Arthur felt a slightly guilty, fuzzy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Immediately the feeling rushed to his face and he felt his mouth curving into a smile. A woman walking past gave him an odd look, and he tried desperately to wipe the grin away, but it proved impossible. Merlin just had that effect on him.
The three weeks of turmoil following the terrorist attack on the train he and Merlin had been on had been the busiest of his life. First, there had been the incident itself, that traumatic enough for a lifetime. He barely remembered most of it, a blur of fire, smoke and blood. Merlin had suffered a head injury and a broken wrist; Arthur had got off with only a mildly sprained ankle and a bullet line on his arm.
Nimueh had been there, brandishing weapons and threatening to kill everyone who'd managed to haul themselves out of the bombed train wreck. Merlin, tucked away out of sight, had escaped her attention and managed to turn one of the guns on her; therefore preventing a major disaster.
After waking up in hospital they'd shared a few words and a kiss. The relationship, although odd, looked like it was going to be fairly steady.
Arthur had, at first, been worried about Merlin, but it seemed he didn't feel much about killing someone else. The fact he'd saved fifteen lives probably helped dull any possible guilty feelings he could have had.
Then came the court case – necessary he supposed – and an inquiry into Nimueh's death. Now it was cleared up he was looking forward to actually spending some time with Merlin.
They'd had hurried meetings before and after court hearing sessions, hospital appointments and interviews, but nothing official yet. There had been a couple of phone conversations, but Arthur was nervous about anyone hearing and preferred emails. These, although they'd helped in getting to know each other more, weren't nearly as satisfying as being able to meet together. Arthur fully intended to email Merlin first chance he got and arrange to go out for lunch on Saturday.
When he let himself into the house it was dark, so he tiptoed up the stairs and took great effort in opening his door without it squeaking. He switched on the light; and promptly let out a yell.
Morgana was on his bed, entangled with the sheets and her girlfriend. Said blonde girlfriend, Morgause, was wearing very little and Morgana wasn't much better.
Hastily he covered his eyes.
"Two questions Morgana; one, what the fuck are you doing, and two, why are you doing it on my bed?"
Morgause scrabbled for clothes whilst Morgana remained on his bed, completely unabashed and half-naked.
"In answer to two, my room has a leak. As for one, I really don't think you want to know."
Morgause gave a snort. Arthur rolled his eyes.
"Where's dad?"
"Out. Business conference or some shit. Morgause wanted to make up for lost time; my arm was out of action for a good few days."
Arthur shuddered and tried to scrub his imagination clean, but he suspected he'd need bleach to accomplish the task.
"Well I'll need to sleep sometime soon. Can't you guys do that in the spare bedroom?"
Morgana pulled a face; the spare bed was notoriously hard and lumpy. "I suppose. Morgause needs to go before dad gets back anyway, or he'll likely have a heart attack."
Arthur, for once, agreed with his sister. Within five minutes they'd left and in order to distract himself from any possible noises that might filter through the walls he put his iPod in and fired up the computer.
His emails read Inbox: 2. The first was an advert trying to persuade him to buy tampons, which left him snickering for a couple of minutes. The second was from Merlin.
To: PendragonArthur
From: MerlinLovesMagic
Subject: Saturday?
Hey
Figured you'd want to go out sometime soon? I know a good sandwich place not far from where I live. We can go to the cinema too, if you want. They're showing everything from violent bloody 'don't-you-dare-unless-you're-over-18-movies' to Disney. Up to you, only we'll have to go visit mum as well or she'll beat me with some kind of cooking utensil.
Haven't been back long and already mum's been crying twice. Once when I told her about the court case (I mean it was pretty obvious I wasn't charged, otherwise I wouldn't be coming home) and again when I told her about you. Will explain more on Saturday. Dragon's driving me mental. Arthur smiled at Merlin's inappropriately named dog. Honestly, I'm away for a few days and he starts worrying. He's worse than mum.
How're you? And Morgana? Hope to see you Saturday!
Merlin
Arthur smiled to himself for a few minutes, looked up some train times and then set about on a reply.
To: MerlinLovesMagic
From: PendragonArthur
Subject: Saturday?
Hey yourself
Sandwiches and movie sound good; I can catch a train that gets me to yours at around eleven, and if you meet me at the station then we can go straight there. My treat please? Happy to watch whatever you want, but despite my father constantly dragging me out hunting if we're in the country, I'm not mad keen on gore. Action or comedy is good. Of course I'll visit your mum; wouldn't want you sustaining any ladle related injuries.
Sounds like chaos over there. Dad's out at the moment so it's pretty quiet here. I got back and found Morgana and her girlfriend doing it on my bed though, so that livened things up.
Apart from the overwhelming need to erase the image of my sister half-starkers and horny I'm fine. You?
See you there!
Arthur
PS: Email company need to check the gender of the people using them; got an advert for tampons in my inbox.
Normally he wouldn't have said anything about the tampons, but it would be the kind of thing Merlin would laugh at. He pressed send and jiggled a bit to the music in his ears.
Someone tapped his shoulder, making him jump. Morgana raised her eyebrows and mimed removing headphones; he did so.
"Jesus you're deaf. I came to tell you Morgause is gone now, so we can talk."
He narrowed his eyes; Morgana never wanted to talk. Fight yes, squabble, yes, steal his possessions, yes, but they rarely talked.
"What about?"
"About Merlin."
Arthur blanched. "How did you? Fuck." A feeling of panic settled on him. "You won't tell dad will you? You won't right?"
She rolled her eyes. "Would you ever tell him about me and Morgause?"
He shook his head with feeling. "Never!"
"There you go then. Why would I tell him about Merlin?"
"Because you're a vindictive cow who'd enjoy seeing him slowly flay me alive?"
Her gaze immediately went icy. "I don't know where you've got that opinion of me from, but I really thought you knew me better than that." Her eyes became sad. "I care for you Arthur. I really do."
He nodded. "Sorry. I'm just het up over this whole thing. I know you wouldn't really do it."
She smiled. "So go on then. Give me all the juicy gossip."
He rolled his eyes in return. "There isn't much to give. We kissed at the hospital, then there was the court, and now we've agreed to go on a date next Saturday. Not much more to it."
She pouted. "Damn. I was hoping for material capable of making Morgause's toes curl, and that's saying something. You know, once she-"
Arthur covered his ears with his hands. "Please don't. I really, really don't need to know."
She stuck her tongue out. "If you weren't as bent as periscope I'd call you homophobic."
"It's not that you're doing it with a girl. It's the fact you're my sister and to be frank I don't find girls that attractive in the first place."
"Well fine then." She stood up. "It's late; dad'll be back soon. See you in the morning yeah?"
"Sure."
She paused in the doorway. "And Arthur – be careful round dad. It's been hard to keep Morgause hidden all this time. With both of us at it he might work something out."
Arthur nodded and turned back to his computer. Merlin still hadn't emailed back – he was probably in bed like a normal person – so Arthur shut the thing down, threw on some pyjamas and crawled into bed, trying to forget what it had recently been used for.
He lay away thinking of Merlin; thought maybe this whole thing wasn't worth it. But he only lingered on that for a second before he realised just how much it mattered. He waited for Merlin's emails on tenterhooks, even if the other man only wrote a couple of lines. When he saw the message he'd get a sense of excitement, and when he saw Merlin, he enjoyed it. They might just walk and talk, but it was something.
He was glad he had Morgana; she was eccentric and moody, but she stuck by the things she cared about, and she did, to some extent, know what he was going through. Admittedly it was probably easier for her, playing for both sides, because she'd had a couple of boyfriends, thereby alleviating any suspicions his father might have had. Also people didn't seem to suspect girls as much.
Arthur had known he was gay since he was twelve and gone on his first school residential. Having walked into the communal showers and seen five boys showering he'd turned around and hidden under the duvet for the rest of the night.
After that he'd tried dating one girl, who'd had a hopeless crush on him, and it had been a disaster. Being twelve they hadn't done much more than kiss a little, but he hadn't enjoyed it and eventually broken up with her. Uther hadn't even known about it, but Morgana had; that combined with the knowledge that she was bisexual herself had led her to the right conclusion.
He'd only known about her when he'd come home early from a party when he was twenty, she was twenty-one, and found her sprawled on the couch with Morgause. Their relationship had continued, in secret, for three years now, which was a miracle in his opinion. Then again, his father was rarely at home.
His mind wandered back to Merlin again; Merlin was just over three years Arthur's junior, although he looked even younger. Arthur wondered if it would make a difference, but Merlin often acted older than he really was. He had a job too, having missed out on Uni because of his background. Arthur supposed that, so long as he liked Merlin, it didn't matter.
Feeling pleased with this conclusion, he fell asleep grinning.
Ok, so not a right lot happened in this chapter I guess - it's more of an introduction than anything else. Bear with me; hopefully the next one will be more interesting, I'll have it up within a couple of days unless my account goes down again. Sorry for any mistakes I made, I don't have a beta, just a friend who reads them through and convinces me they're ok XD
Also, sorry for the email addresses being messed up for Merlin and Arthur, it wouldn't let me put them in any other way.
Thanks for reading, please review!