(Hello! I wanted to join the party and do a coffee shop AU and as always, I don't want to do it like everyone else, so enjoy this, it will be a three chapter arch I think. So, it's not even a one shot, it would have just been too long for that. LOT'S OF NOTICES: I do not own Merlin, there is a heck of a lot of swearing in this, and possibly sexual themes later on.)

"So, what was it like?" Gwaine asked, because he would. Leon spit and sputtered, looking close to sweating as he rubbed his brow. He didn't like being center of attention like this, he was the behind the scenes guy; scoring enough goals in footie that someone could come up, (usually Arthur or Lance) and make the last goal and take all of the glory. He was the kind that secretly liked poetry and the soaps he watches with his gran on the days he goes to visit her.

"It was…alright," he mutters, stressed, as he looked over to the window. Probably praying someone would drive by and shoot him, so he didn't have to talk anymore.

"Tell us more than that, you bloody traitor!" Gwaine demanded, because that was how Gwaine was; loud, annoying, and aggressive. But strangely loyal to his friends, and a bloody drunk at the age of fourteen.

"Fine, it was good," Leon stuttered on, looking nervously back at the group surrounding him. "I mean, the coffee was shit, utter shit, but the lemon tart was fabulous."

"This guys a twat!" Gwaine announced, loud enough that Arthur's mother might hear in the back. "Fucking traitor!"

Arthur swift in his stance, shoving his hands in his pockets and threw a few nervous looks behind him, to see if his mother was coming out; the last thing he needed was to be told off for Gwaine's mouth. His mother was not a mean woman, far from it actually, she was the kindest person Arthur knew, but she didn't like kids swearing, she didn't like being (or others being) disrespected and, honestly, that's all fourteen year olds do these days, disrespect people and themselves and things in general. In the name of growing up, of course.

"That's where Nim wanted to go, what was I supposed to do?" Leon asked, looking upset by this whole thing. Like Gwaine, he was loyal, fiercely so, Arthur knew he wouldn't do anything to upset his friends if it wasn't an absolute necessity, like touching a girls boobs obviously was.

"You fucking tart…" Gwaine said, exasperated, with a disapproving glare and a shake of the head. It hadn't even been Gwaine who Leon betrayed, but Gwaine had always been keen on the rivalry between DeBois and Sugar and Spice, he liked to talk about it more than Arthur did, sometimes even brought up ways to bring in more business. (Not that any of them worked.)

"Watch your language, young man!" came a sharp voice, full of a different kind of disapproval and both Arthur and Gwaine turned around. Arthur feared the worst while Gwaine shrugged off the comment and walked up to her, where Ygraine stood cleaning the front counter.

"Leon betrayed us, Mrs. P," Gwaine explained to her, leaning over the counter where the mother had just washed, clearly ignoring the wetness there. Ygraine looked up from her work and frowned, looking from Arthur and then to Leon and then, finally, to Gwaine.

"I very much doubt that," she told him. Gwaine looked like he had just been slapped with the rag in her hand and pulled back, pointing back to Leon.

"This complete a-donkey, went over to Sugars last night, Mrs. P," Gwaine told her, expecting her to react right away, when she didn't he made a noise like a child makes when he's being unfairly punished, and went on. " He had a right good time too, the wanker!"

Ygraine rolled her eyes at Gwaine's choice of words. "So what?" she asked, as if she didn't know, the rivalry had been going on for years, before Arthur was even born. Both companies were handed down from generation to generation and would be handed down again, to Arthur, and from Hunith, the owner of Sugar and Spice to her son, Merlin, who was, (In Arthur's opinion,) much more of a wanker than Leon ever could be.

They hadn't liked each other from the start, Merlin and Arthur. Arthur hadn't always lived in this town, he only moved here with his mother about five years before now, after she divorced his father and inherited the family coffee shop. Arthur came with her, while his twin sister, Morgana stayed with their father in London, at first, Arthur likened it to The Parent Trap and one day thought he and Morgana would think up a plan of getting their parents back together, except now he relized how better off his mother was without her husband, how much happier she was being here, in her coffee shop, and realized that he and Morgana didn't like each other so much.

But he liked her much more than Merlin, the wanker. It's never easy being the new kid in school, you always feel out of place, and what you really don't need is some skinny, toothpick boy screaming at you that you're a prat in front of the entire lunchroom. He didn't care that he had spilled Merlin's lunch all over the floor, the idiot shouldn't have had the bloody (Hello fucking Kity) lunchbox open and should have gotten out of the god damn way when Arthur yelled to move. He didn't care that he shouldn't have been running, he was late and he only had so much time to eat before the next set of classes, it was his first day and he was nervous.

"It's just a friendly rivalry," Ygraine was saying now, shrugging off the idea that the families were at war, like Gwaine had just suggested. But it wasn't friendly at all, you either go to DeBois, where you get the best cup of coffee of your life and (maybe) some second-rate baked good, or you go to Sugar and Spice and get (probably not so) great baked goods and shit coffee. You never go to both, you go to one or the other, it wasn't up for discussion. Families were divided by this, weddings were called off because of this, it was an age old rivalry and not at all friendly.

Arthur's friends were shooed out after awhile, Gwaine looked offended, still going on about how Leon was a traitor, whom looked affronted while the others were laughing about it. Once the door was shut and the jingling bell stopped ringing, Yrgaine looked back at her son , shaking her head.

"Your friends are something else."

He smiled and nodded, "I guess."

Mere moments later he was ushered out of the door as well, but he fought and fussed, pleading with his mother who followed behind him, determined. It seems Gwaine struck something in her, something that Arthur wished would go away.

"You'll see," she was saying, as she pushed him across the street. He felt like a traitor, just like Leon., He wondered if this was how Leon felt. "You kids make up silly stories in your heads. There is no reason why we cannot be friendly with the competition."

"Because they're the competition, they need to be crushed, not given fruit baskets!" Arthur argued, wrenching himself out of his mother's grasp, once they hit the sidewalk on the other side of the street. He looked longly to their little coffee house.

"You sound more and more like your father every day," she commented, pushing open the door, the little bell dung, just like theirs did, but it played the song of betrayal. They were betraying their coffee shop and their ancestors. Poor nan, Arthur thought. Probably rolling in her grave right now. Although she had been cremated, so technically it would be rolling in her urn.

"Hello!" came a cheery voice, coming from the back. "How may I help-oh, Ygraine." The women who stepped out from behind the back was Hunith Cane, a short, kind faced woman, who looked nothing like her son at all. "How can I help you?"

"We were just stopping by, seeing how things were going," Ygraine said cheery, even though Hunith's voice and cheeriness had faltered. Arthur stood behind his mother, feeling like an utter fool for even being in here. He had never stepped foot in Sugar and Spice before, but apart from being filled with the enemy it had a nice homey feel to it, framed pictures on the walls and it smelled amazing. Not that Arthur would admit any of this, not even on his death bed.

The wallpaper was pink behind all the framed pictures and some artwork done by children, they looked like utter rubbish, so he figured they were painted by Merlin at some point or another. The counter was a light blue color and Arthur suddenly wondered if the whole place was designed by Barbie. There was a little Chinese cat on the blue counter that waved one paw and had a plate with a cupcake on the other, it was stupid, but strangely cute at the same time, Arthur would never admit that either.

DeBois was nothing like this. It had a bit more woodsy theme, like a cottage and was equally as homey feeling. (Even more so, actually.) It had wood panels for wallpaper and one whole wall was a bookshelf, filled with any book you can think of. Ygraine bought them all off Ebay and Craig's List for cheap. There was also a fireplace, for when its winter and the customers wanted to sit cozy by a fire.

Arthur felt more at home there, he felt like an outsider standing here, like it was his first day of school again and he was just waiting for Merlin to come out and call him a prat. He looked out of the front store window, longingly at DeBois across the street. There was a couple outside right now, wondering why the door was locked, Arthur thought of making an excuse about wanting to go over there and serve them, but thought better of it when Hunith opened her mouth again.

"Oh, you know, business is great," she grinned, a bit showy, looking around her store. "Got another wedding on Saturday, fourth one this month, couldn't ask for a better turn out. We do make some marvelous cakes here."

"Sure you do," Ygraine nodded, with a tightened smile. "How is your-"

"Course we make many wonderful things here, like tarts and pastries, everyone 'round town is always talking about it, asking me to send them this and that," Hunith was glowing with gloat at this point. "I swear I haven't the time to do anything anymore, I had to hire on three new bakers."

"That's lovely," Ygraine said flatly. Arthur checked, and his mother was definitely scowling. He smirked. Hunith didn't seem to notice though, or if she did, she didn't care. Or maybe was glad about it, Arthur thinks it is the latter.

"How's your coffee house, still staying afloat?"

Arthur had never seen Ygraine so angry, not even with his father, before their divorce.

XXX

For the next two months all Ygraine did was read cook books, but none of the cookies or pastries she made were any better than usual. Arthur was force fed so many different things he didn't want to see sweets again for weeks. She had tried her hand at wedding cakes too, only one couple ordered a cake, with blue and pink flowers. Ygraine had misread the order and gave them blue and yellow flowers instead, and felt so bad about it that she gave them a full refund, plus the cake, that tasted a bit like gingerbread. Arthur had no idea how she managed that.

She decided after three months of trying to outdo Hunith with baked goods, that she would go back to her roots, which was coffee and came up with something called The Cinnamon Twist and The Pink Lady, for girls, or blokes, if they so fancied. Business was booming, as it should be.

Arthur was glad to help out every afternoon, it pushed off his homework and he would rather spend time with his mum than be alone at home all the time. Just like his mother, he had almost grown up here, it felt like a second home. His friends took the piss every chance they got though, coming by to see if he wanted to go to the park and play footie or go hang out at one of their houses. Sometimes he wanted to, but then he looked over, across the street, at the line forming outside of Sugar and Spice and declined, he was going to bring in as much business as he could for his mother.

Arthur felt just as exhausted as his mother did every night when they got home from the shop, while his mother would start her day early in the morning at the coffee shop, Arthur would be at school, learning useless shit he didn't need to know, because his life was already planned. He was going to take over DeBois, maybe change the name to Pendragon, if he so fancied, and put Sugar And Spice under. He would stand outside, possibly with a very nice beard, and laugh as Merlin packed up his things and drove away, never to be seen again.

It was a beautiful dream, he had it almost every night, he wanted it so bad. More than the time he wanted a puppy.

Arthur wasn't the best in school, his friends teased that he was a bit dumb, but he wasn't dumb, he just didn't give a fuck. His mother never had time to harp on him about doing school work and he liked that, he took advantage of it and didn't bother doing it most days. Which lead him to fail miserably. Which now, lead him to being in the library after school hours, cramming for a test the next morning in English. God, he hated English, mostly because he had that class with Merlin. Merlin, with his overwhelming annoyingness and who thought he was so bloody bright, answering questions when the teachers asks them, like you are supposed to do that. If you have one ounce of cool in your body, you know damn well that you are not.

"Need some help?" he was asked and he looked up so suddenly that he hurt his neck. His eyes widened when he saw Merlin standing there, hands clutching the handle of his bag that was over his shoulder. Not a fucking chance, Arthur thought. "Are you studding for the English test? I'm pretty nervous about it," Merlin continued, nervously moving from foot to foot, like he had to pee. Yeah right, Arthur thought, Mr. I'm So Bright I have to Wear Shades, as if he's worried. "We could study together?"

"Study with the enemy?" Arthur said out loud, by accident, but he was quite sure he would have said it anyway. Merlin frowned.

"You know, we don't have to hate each other, just because our mothers are-"

"No, I think we do," Arthur stopped him. "You probably wanted to feed me the wrong answers so I failed the class, don't think I'm not on to your game, Cane!"

"Why are you always such a fucking prat?" Merlin snapped at him, looking a bit red faced, like he was super angry or embarrassed, Arthur thought perhaps both. Angry because he had been caught being a wanker and embarrassed because he should be!

"I don't know, why are you so spineless?" Arthur fought back, shrugging off Merlin's comment. Merlin dropped his bag then, looking close to tears, or to ripping out Arthur's hair, not that he could, he was a bloody toothpick.

"Ugh, god, why do I even bother with you?!" Merlin demanded. "Why do I even try to be your friend?!"

"Don't know, don't care, but do stop…please."

Merlin scoffed. "Hah, you know the word please, I'm shocked."

"That's because my mum raised me with class, unlike your mum, who fucked around once and ended up with a retard baby."

Arthur was suddenly pushed out of his chair then, something bony and rather brittle on top of him, hitting him. He almost laughed, sending his fist into Merlin's jaw.

They both ended up with detention for two weeks. It was worth every minute.

XXX

"You have got to stop fighting at school, Arthur," his mother warned, as she put ice on his lip. "If you don't stop, I'm going to have to punish you."

"What are you going to do, ground me from the coffee shop?" he retorted, spiteful. His mother never punished him, he didn't like the idea of it.

"Maybe I will," she said, with the same level of concern. He rolled his eyes and pulled away from the steadiness of her hands, looking away. "I'm just worried, Arthur…"

"It's fine."

"I don't believe that for a second."

He jumped off the back counter then, surprising her a bit, he headed toward the back door, ignoring her as she asked where he was going. He walked to the small park just down the street, sitting on top of one of the picnic tables and ran his tongue over the cut on his lip, The bloody taste stung his tongue and he winced.

He hadn't been in a fight with Merlin this time, funny enough, he had been in a fight with the idiot's best mate, Will, who thought that any of this was his business, the little fucker. He came off worse though, bruised ribs, Arthur laughed at the thought. Luckily, he had gotten off school grounds before any teachers caught him, he thinks Will was busted though and that both pleased him and angered him, because surely the weasel would tell them who he was fighting with.

Arthur had gotten detention three times this last month, just for fighting, all of the pervious times had been fighting Merlin, who couldn't fight to save his ass. Even so, the principle, the stuffy asshole he was, said if he caught Arthur fighting one more time, he was going to expel him. Now if Will told he would be fucking booted out a school. Arthur rubbed at his face with his hands, his mum would kill him.

He heard footsteps on dried grass and looked up, defensively. But it was only his friends, Leon, Percy, and Lance. They all sat around him at the table, without saying anything.

"Gwen just told me what happened," Lance said, after a moment of them just sitting there. "I told the lads."

"How does Gwen know?" Arthur asked. Gwen, a very sweet girl, whom Arthur might have snogged once, but her heart eyes were very much set on Lance. Who, with dark hair and a perfect body for a fifteen year old, was a bloody dream boat. He wished them the best, if only they would stop being so stupid and just get it on already.

"She's friends with Merlin," Lance shrugged, tapping his fingers on the wooden, red table. Of course Gwen was friends with Merlin, she was friends with everyone. "I guess Merlin is pretty pissed about it."

"Who cares?" Arthur shot back. He wanted Merlin to be mad, because Arthur was mad.

"You know, Merlin really isn't that-"

"You better not finish that sentence, or we're finished!" Arthur glared as Lance so hard that Lance pulled back, eyes widening.

"I'm sorry," he commented, after a few seconds. Arthur shot him another glare, this one much less deadly, and turned back to the nothing he was looking at before.

"What you need is something to take your mind off all this," Percy said then, and the others agreed quickly. "Gwaine's got some stuff, we could go over to his tonight and get pissed."

"What do you say, Arthur?" Leon asked, placing a gentle hand on Arthur's back. He nodded. Maybe getting completely shit-faced would make him feel better.

XXX

Pleasantly high and mostly drunk, Arthur still didn't feel any better. He was angry, but it was a different kind of angry, before he had been violently angry, ready to punch someone. He just felt spiteful now, like he wanted to get Merlin where it hurt, where it hurt the most.

Percy was out cold on the floor by Arthur's feet, snoring logs. For the biggest of them all, he handled his drink (and his 'chocolate,' according to 1975,) horribly. Leon was watching the telly and Lance was sitting next to him, on the phone with Gwen, flirting plainly. It seemed only when he was completely pissed, did he have the balls to make any moves.

"God, fuck that Merlin," Arthur said, because he should be enjoying this, he should be laughing and acting stupid, but instead he was mad. Gwaine nodded from in front of him. The two were sitting in the bay window Gwaine's mum loved so much, Arthur wondered how much she would love it once she found out that's where Gwiane hid his pot and cigarettes. Under the cushions.

"He needs to pay," Gwaine said, dangerously, before swigging at his beer. "Kicking his ass isn't working, he needs to be shown whose better."

"I'm better," Arthur retorted and Gwaine nodded. It made Arthur smile at bit. "What did you have in mind?"

Gwaine was very well known for the pranks that he often pulled on people. The lads had spent all of last summer having a prank war. Arthur was on Gwaine's team for a reason, they had won after turning the others hair green for weeks.

"Fire," Gweaine shrugged, so causally Arthur didn't understand. "Set the bloody place on fire!"

"You mean…?"

"Sugars, yeah," Gwaine nodded. This might possibly be the worst idea Gwaine ever had but in the moment Arthur thought it was great, his drunken brain telling him this would help him, that Merlin would learn his place then. Fire, of course!

"Yeah, alright," he agreed.

Two hours later, with their mates all snoring, Gwaine and Arthur snuck out, into the garage and Gwaine pulled a rag from his back pocket, pouring gasoline all over it from the containers that fill up his scooter any other day.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Arthur asked, as he followed him down the sidewalk. He felt a bit fuzzy, like his brain was up in the sky, flying around him. That might be because they had taken another hit before they left, but he still thought this was a pretty bad idea nonetheless.

"Chickening out?" Gwaine chided, and the bad thoughts left Arthur's not so properly working mind.

Being that it was after midnight, no one was out, and it was a bit eerie on the street, he looked over at DeBois coffee shop as they stunk behind Sugar and Spice, he thought their shop looked pretty lonely and that was a rather fucked up thought. He pushed it out of his mind and looked back to Gwaine, who jiggled the handle on the back door and it popped open. He smirked up at Arthur; he was a bloody criminal mastermind.

"Light this," Gwaine told him, holding the rag in the air by its tip. Arthur pulled a red lighter from his pocket and took a few goes at it, his fingers just as high as the rest of him was. He finally got the blaze going and let the flame touch the rag. It lit instantly and Gwaine chuckled, throwing it inside the building.

"Fuck you, Merlin!" he said as he shut the door again, smirking back at Arthur like he just did the greatest thing in the world for him. "Let's get out of here!"

"Yeah," Arthur nodded, chasing after Gwaine, as he ran up the ally.

XXX

When Arthur woke up, he was lying across Leon and Lance's knees and felt something very uncomfortable in Lance's lap. He jumped up so fast that he tripped and landed on Percy, who let out a huff and then continued sleeping. He staggered up and nearly puked from all the moving he was doing, his eyes were all fuzzy and he still felt the uncomfortable thing on his thigh and, oh yeah, it was just a lighter. He laughed and headed toward the bathroom.

He freshened up in the bathroom, took a quick shower and tried to remove all of the smoke and alcohol from his clothes by using some of Gwaine's horrible aftershave. It was Saturday so he was heading over to the shop, to help his mum out. There was no reason to go home, his clothes weren't that dirty. Twenty minutes later, he left all his sleeping friends and headed down the sidewalk to DeBois.

As soon a he reached the street though, he knew something was off, the road was blocked by barriers, and people were crowding around. He passed the barriers without notice and headed down the street, all of the shops that he passed were closed, and that was very odd for a Saturday afternoon. But something odd was clearly going on here, he worried for his mum so suddenly that he started running.

He stopped dead in his tracks, moments later, DeBois was fine, and his mother was nowhere to be seen but he suddenly just knew she was fine, she was fine because across the street, nothing was fine over there. The entire front of Sugar and Spice was black, the windows were broken and firemen littered the street. Two big firetrucks on, but not being used. The fire was out, the flames looked like they had been huge too, most of the building was charred and from what he could see, everything inside was melted.

He heard crying from somewhere and he turned to his left to see his mother, well there she was, safe and sound. She was clutching on to Huntih, who looked as if she might have just staggered out of bed, and was crying her eyes out, body shaking with hard sobs.

Arthur stepped forward, but stopped again, feeling that uncomfortable thing on his thigh again that just turned out to be a lighter and Oh god, his heart suddenly came up and lodged itself in his throat. Oh god, oh god…

His lungs suddenly shivered up and stopped working; he had to sit down on the sidewalk before he fell over. He looked up at the charred building across from him and he did this, he did this!