Author's Note: Welcome to my new fanfiction, Blue Eyes and Marshmallows. This will be a multi-chapter and is a modern AU. It's also Merthur. Later on, there's Perwaine and Gwancelot (is that the right ship name? It's what I call it, haha). I'm super duper excited for this and hope that you are too! Reviews would be lovely please. I'll update every week or so. Enjoy! –Ella.
Chapter One
"One of the reasons that the Battle of Hastings was so interesting was – Merlin?" Dr Gaius, Merlin's third period History teacher, folded his arms and stared at the curly, dark haired boy who just so happened to be near unconsciousness, his eyelids drooping. Morgana, Merlin's feisty best friend, nudged him awake with her elbow. He glared at her, annoyed, until he noticed the whole class looking at him. He rubbed his eyes, a confused expression appearing on his face.
Sheepishly, Merlin opened his textbook. "Sorry, sir."
"That's better. Now, continuing…" Dr Gaius turned back to the board. Merlin rolled his eyes and put his head on the desk. His peace was interrupted when a note landed on his desk. He presumed it was some sort of death threat from one of the idiots sitting at the back of the room, or some sort of joke about how he would never have a relationship. He sighed, opening it, but relaxed when he saw it was from Morgana.
Check out my stepbrother staring at you. – Morgana
Merlin's eyes widened and he stared at Morgana, who gestured frantically towards Arthur, the school's golden boy. He looked and immediately he locked eyes with the boy. Merlin was the first to look away, flustered. Why was Arthur Pendragon looking at him, of all people?
Why's he looking at me? – Merlin
I'm gonna go with he either wants to kill you or he likes you. – Morgana
The first is probably more appropriate. – Merlin
You'd be surprised. – Morgana
Merlin rolled his eyes, not bothering to send a note back. He didn't particularly care why Arthur was staring at him. Sure, he happened to have the most massive crush ever to exist on the face of planet earth on Arthur, but still. He was also gay, and that made things respectively awkward. Their two friendship groups never mixed, and Merlin had always received nothing but cruel remarks and tripping ups from them. Arthur never took part in it, but he didn't stop it either.
"It's the end of the lesson. Put your textbooks on the shelf and take your workbooks home to write your essays in. I expect them here on my desk in one week's time. See you then," Dr Gaius dismissed the class and Merlin leapt to his feet, happy it was lunchtime at last. He put his pencil case, planner and workbook away, before taking his textbook to the shelf and slinging his backpack on his shoulder. He grabbed his folders to take to his locker, and walked outside the classroom to wait for Morgana.
"Come on, I'm starved. Also, Gwaine, Gwen and Freya are probably waiting for us." Merlin moaned impatiently as Morgana was last to leave the classroom.
"Okay, okay!" she ruffled Merlin's hair and the two walked to their lockers, putting their books away and continuing to the canteen. Grabbing a tray, Morgana turned to Merlin.
"Why do you think he was staring at you?" Morgana grinned.
"You get right to the point," Merlin observed.
"Oh, be quiet," she laughed.
"I have no clue, honestly," Merlin grabbed a bottle of lemonade, a salad and a chocolate bar, before paying and following Morgana to their usual table. They put their stuff down.
"Hey, thank god you're here. Gwaine and Freya are trying to convince me I should ask out Lancelot." Gwen sulked.
"Well, you should." Morgana pointed out. Gwen's gaze turned to Merlin.
"Merlin?" she asked.
"I'm not getting involved," he put his hands up in mock surrender, but then added quietly: "You should."
Gwen rolled her eyes and picked at her lunch, and Merlin grinned.
"We have more pressing matters at hand. My idiot of a stepbrother was staring at Merlin practically all the way through History," Morgana told the other three. They all squealed (including Gwaine) and looked at Merlin.
"Why, though?" Freya asked.
"We have no clue!" Morgana shrugged.
"Stop making such a big deal out of this. It's not as if he doesn't know me, I'm his stepsister's best friend. Our groups don't mix, obviously, and I've never spoken to him, but there are probably perfectly normal reasons why he should have happened to be staring at me." Merlin said.
"Why don't you go ask him, Morgana?" Gwaine asked, ignoring Merlin completely.
"He doesn't like me talking to him when he's with his friends. Besides, they're all perfectly irritating." Morgana inspected her nails and looked back up at Merlin. "You'll have to ask."
"What? No! No, no, no. Never. Morgana, don't be stupid." Merlin's face went pale and he folded his arms.
"Merlin, how else are we going to find out why he was staring at you?" Freya sighed.
"We're not going to find out!" Merlin exclaimed. Morgana sighed.
"Fine, Merlin, I will ask him tonight. But don't pretend you don't want to know," she grinned. Merlin, extremely fed up with the three girls, turned to Gwaine for help. He shrugged.
"He's still looking at you, and I'm rather interested to know why." Gwaine nodded in the general direction of Arthur's table. They turned around to see Arthur staring intently at Merlin. It made him rather uncomfortable; so he turned back.
"Okay, I'm interested," he sighed. "But I will not go and ask him why. I'll leave that to you, Morgana."
"Perfect," she smiled, before grabbing her bag and getting up. "I have a Spanish class to get to. Merlin, don't forget we have plans this evening. Be at mine by 6, please." She winked and walked off.
"Well, looks like you'll be going to the Pendragon household tonight!" Gwen exclaimed.
"By hell, she planned that pretty well," Gwaine chuckled.
"Merlin, Arthur will be there!" Freya squealed.
"Okay, okay guys. Yes, but it doesn't mean I'll speak to him." Merlin replied. Freya and Gwen sighed before getting up and making some excuse about going to their Drama class, when really they just needed somewhere to vent about Merlin and Arthur.
Gwaine turned to Merlin.
"We have fifth period Science together, right?" Gwaine asked. Merlin nodded.
"Cool. Let's go," he clapped his hands, and together they walked to Science, Gwaine holding in the temptation to start a conversation about Arthur.
After a long Science lesson which involved Gwaine spilling various (unharmful) chemicals on Merlin, it was finally time to leave.
"See you, Gwaine!" Merlin called a quick goodbye to his friend and left the classroom, looking at the ground. He was almost outside when he bumped into Arthur's best friend Lancelot.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Why, Merlin!" Lancelot smiled.
"Um, hello…" Merlin replied uneasily.
Lancelot winked before continuing.
"It's okay. Have a nice evening!"
Puzzled, Merlin continued on his way home. Once he was there, soaking wet from the rain, he gave his mother Hunith a kiss on the cheek and went upstairs to get changed and dry. After drying his hair, making it look particularly wild and not at all attractive, he put on a Doctor Who shirt, jeans and his old green hoodie, before turning on his laptop. He had a good three hours before he had to go to Morgana's – he was going to write a bit more of the story he'd been working on, about King Arthur and his knights. Obviously, having a name from the legend, he was obsessed with Arthurian stories and decided to write one of his own. It was beginning to be longer than he'd ever hoped, and even though it would never leave his laptop, he was enjoying writing it.
After he'd worked on his story, he went downstairs to eat, before grabbing his bag and a couple of the movies they had planned to watch.
"Bye, mum!" he called to Hunith, who was doing laundry upstairs.
"Bye, love! Are you staying the night at Morgana's?" she replied.
"Yeah - I've got all my stuff, and uniform for tomorrow," he smiled. She nodded, and he walked out into the cold night.
He arrived at Morgana's house shivering, before ringing the doorbell. Luckily, Morgana answered and beckoned him inside.
"It's freezing!" Merlin moaned as he gave her the movies and followed her upstairs, into the family's 'movie room'. Morgana had set up snacks, drinks and places to sit.
"Arthur and Lancelot will be joining us, as well as Gwen!" Morgana said excitedly. Merlin almost choked on his own spit.
"You… you, you… why?" Merlin sunk down onto the couch, and Morgana sat down next to him. "Do they even like Marvel movies?"
"Arthur does – I'm not so sure about the other two, but they'll probably be staring romantically into each other's eyes or whatever crap those two do," Morgana replied. "Relax, it'll be fine. I'm going to my room to grab a couple more movies – if Arthur comes in, just be normal. Okay?"
Morgana smirked at him before leaving the room. Knowing her, she'd set this all up. Merlin sighed, staring at the blank wall. He wasn't really okay with this, but he couldn't exactly leave. He'd just have to get Morgana back, some way…
Whilst thinking of plans of revenge, Merlin's train of thoughts was interrupted when Arthur entered the room.
"Hello," he said, and Merlin turned around, startled. Arthur's hair was tousled and he was still wearing his uniform, but he'd taken off his tie and blazer.
"Um, hi." Merlin forced himself to reply. "I'm Merlin."
"I know," Arthur grinned. "I'm Arthur."
"I know," Merlin smiled back.
"Good, seems like we both know each other." Arthur sat himself down next to Merlin. "What are we watching?"
"Um, Thor first, and then the Avengers, and then 27 Dresses because Morgana insisted we watch it." Merlin said.
"27 Dresses… really?" Arthur asked.
"Hey, I happen to quite like it!" Merlin said defensively.
"Okay, I'll give it a go." Arthur chuckled. "It's a bit of a contrast, superhero movies and then 27 Dresses."
"Ah, that's how me and Morgana do things," Merlin said.
"Well, it'll be fun," smiled Arthur. Just at that moment, Morgana returned with Gwen and Lance. Merlin and Arthur immediately got up, saying hello to the two.
"I have all our movies!" Morgana announced. "Now sit."
Merlin sat down on the couch, and Arthur and Morgana sat on either side of him. Gwen and Lancelot sat on two beanbags in front of the couch. Merlin's eyes lit up when he saw the bowl of marshmallows.
"Marshmallows!" he squealed, before picking up the bowl and grabbing three at once. Everyone laughed.
"I bought those just for you and Arthur because nobody else here likes them, so enjoy!" Morgana said lightly, and Merlin glared at her, before turning to glare at Arthur as he took a marshmallow.
"Hey, I like them too!" Arthur pouted. Merlin, unable to resist to Arthur, let him take a handful out of the bowl. Morgana put the first movie into the DVD slot, before they all sat back to watch the movies.
Five or six hours later, they were almost at the end of 27 Dresses. Merlin was in tears as Jane and Kevin had an argument, and Arthur was watching him, a small smile on his face. Morgana watched Arthur, not at all surprised by his actions, due to what he had told her earlier.
Earlier
"You were staring at Merlin the whole way through lunch today." Morgana said to Arthur as they opened the door to their house.
"You said that like a statement." Arthur replied.
"That's because it is," she rolled her eyes. "Why?"
"None of your business!" Arthur grabbed a diet coke from the fridge.
"Oh, but it is. Merlin is getting slightly freaked out and a bit worried," Morgana said airily.
"He's getting freaked out?" Arthur asked sadly, letting his guard down.
"What, you wanted the staring to seduce him instead?" she laughed.
"No, I just don't want him to be scared of me."
"Why?"
"Because."
"Because what?"
"Because I like him, okay? In that awkward more-than-friends way. I also don't know if he's gay or not, and yeah…" Arthur trailed off.
"Hah! I knew it!" Morgana squealed, dancing around the kitchen. "You barely know him, though. Come to the little movie night get together I'm having. Invite Lance as not to seem weird – I'll invite Gwen. It'll be awesome!"
"Sure… I guess…" Arthur replied, not sure if he had any say in the matter anyway. He went upstairs to his room to read before Merlin and the others arrived. He was as nervous as he'd ever been.
Later
At the end of 27 Dresses, Merlin, Morgana and Gwen were crying. The film was on one of those soppy romantic ones that Merlin loved, and he couldn't help crying. Arthur probably thought he was a total idiot, but he couldn't stop himself. He grabbed a tissue out the box Morgana was holding and wiped his eyes, but froze when a comforting arm slid around his shoulders from Arthur's direction. He squealed inwardly but sat back down comfortably, leaning into Arthur. They both smiled, content with the position they were sitting in.
After the movie was over, Merlin went into Morgana's room with her and Gwen. Uther didn't mind him sleeping with them, just as he didn't mind Merlin was gay. He and Hunith were good friends, and had known each other for a really long time. Besides, Merlin being gay meant hardly anything was going to happen between him and Morgana or Gwen.
He lay down on the mattress that Morgana had put on the floor for him, and listened to Morgana and Gwen's chatter. He was too tired and confused to join in, as he usually would. Did Arthur actually like him?
"Morgana," Merlin said suddenly.
"Yes, honey?" Morgana asked.
"Does Arthur like me?"
"…I wouldn't be lying if I said yes." Morgana smiled. "You must not say anything to Arthur about you knowing though – he doesn't feel comfortable enough with what he knows about you. Just be patient."
Merlin nodded, the butterflies in his stomach flying wildly around. He rolled over, content with the fact that Arthur Pendragon might not be as big of a prat as he seemed. And that he might fancy Merlin.