Merlin bounced Sarah on his lap, making silly faces at her as she laughed and swung her arms around.
"Something up at work?" Arthur tried to sound nonchalant as he flipped the channels on the television. So many channels, so few things to watch.
"I thought you said you couldn't care less about the going-ons at work." Merlin blew a raspberry at Sarah which only made her laugh more.
Arthur frowned at Merlin. "Don't get her too excited. She won't nap if she's too excited."
"Two days of babysitting and you're an expert, are you?"
Arthur leaned over and tweaked Sarah's nose, smiling when she turned her attention from Merlin to him. "I'm the one at home with her while you work."
"If anyone heard us, they would think we're a couple," sighed Merlin. "This is why I am single."
"What about your neighbour?"
"What? You mean Gwen?"
"Yes. I mean, she's pretty enough and she cooks a decent pie."
Merlin cocked an eyebrow at him. "You damn with faint praise. She was nice enough to share her dinner with you last night. You could have at least shed the arrogant, cold Pendragon act."
"What does it matter? She wasn't particularly friendly herself."
With a shake of his head, Merlin sighed. "She came to give you dinner. Not make friends with you. And I like her so I rather you not destroy my friendship with her."
"Alright," said Arthur dismissively. He wasn't even sure why he cared. Too used to people falling at his feet, Morgana would probably say. It was funny how quickly things changed. As much as he told Merlin he didn't care, he could still remember the large headlines from a two weeks ago when his father announced his departure from the family firm. And in the immediate aftermath, how people he'd thought were friends acted.
"If you're interested, your father is planning to buy over the old city hall building."
"I heard," said Arthur as he reached to take Sarah from Merlin. One thing he'd discovered since becoming an uncle was that holding a happy baby was one of the best way to ease any stress he was feeling. "I am sure people are unhappy that another of our heritage building is being destroyed."
"Ah, so you have been keeping up with the news. And I truly believed you when you said you didn't care."
Ignoring Merlin, Arthur lifted Sarah up and blew on her stomach. At the end of the day, Pendragon Holdings was still his company and despite what his father might think, Arthur only wanted the best for it and upsetting the people of the town they operated in seemed in direct opposition to that. Not that his father cared, Arthur thought bitterly.
"Not that I don't like having Sarah here, but when is Morgana coming back?"
"If all goes well, in two weeks." Arthur brought Sarah to him and kissed her. "But it's ok, right, sweetie? Because Arthur and you are going to have lots of fun when mommy isn't around."
"Well, I have to go meet my mom for tea now." Merlin hopped off the sofa and tossed the remote at Arthur. "Don't watch anything Sarah shouldn't watch!"
"Go away, Merlin and leave me and Sarah alone."
Arthur thought his life could be divided into before Sarah and after Sarah. Before Sarah, he had been the perfect son, doing whatever his father wanted no matter how uncomfortable it made him. After all, as his father often told him, success was never easy. Then Morgana had come home pregnant, refusing to name the father. That had, unsurprisingly, resulted in an all-out brawl between Morgana and Uther. One that had ended with Morgana deciding to move out of the huge family home and Arthur stuck in the middle.
Sarah started to fuss in her stroller. Shaken from his thoughts, Arthur leaned over the stroller and made some cooing noises before noticing that her favourite stuffed dog was missing.
"Woof, woof," she said, her eyes wide and sad.
"Did you throw your doggy out?" Arthur stood from the bench and crouched next to the stroller, peering around to see if he could find it.
"Looking for this?"
Lifting his head, Arthur found himself looking up at Gwen. In her hand was Sarah's stuffed dog.
"Yes, thank you." He stood and reached for it.
Instead of passing the dog to him, Gwen merely looked sardonically at him. "A thank you. Must be my lucky day."
Arthur stifled a rude retort and watched as she bent over the stroller. A smile broke over her face as she waggled the dog in front of Sarah. Of course Sarah reacted with glee, clapping her hands then pressing her head against the stuffed toy. Gwen said something to Sarah and tickled her stomach, causing her limbs to flail. As the two of them played, Arthur stood awkwardly to the side. It would probably be the height of rudeness to tell Gwen to stop playing with Sarah. And it wasn't as if he had a good reason. Plus, Sarah seemed to like Gwen.
"You know, she smells like she might need a diaper change."
That she was telling him what to do chafed and he scowled down at Gwen. "I changed her before we came out."
The shrug was slight but the disapproval contained in that tiny action came across strongly. "Suit yourself."
Gwen stood, brushing her skirt. An uncomfortable silence, broken only by Sarah's nonsensical chatter to her stuffed dog, settled over them.
It was Gwen who finally broke it. "So, you and Sarah are staying with Merlin?"
"For now."
He could see the curiosity in her eyes, just like everyone else. All of them wanted the gossip behind the breaking up of the Pendragon family. Like vultures. Self-consciously, he tugged the hood of his sweatshirt further over his head. Aside from Morgana and Merlin, Arthur wasn't about to trust anyone else.
When it was obvious he wasn't going to say anymore, Gwen gave him an amused look then leaned over the stroller again. "Good bye sweetheart. Maybe your uncle will change your diaper soon."
Sarah waved her hands and gurgled.
Gwen didn't even bother saying good bye to him, simply walking off, her heels clicking against the pavement. Annoyed, he bent down and sniffed at Sarah, his annoyance growing when Sarah did appear to need her diapers changed.
"Let's go home, Sarah."
The moment Arthur started to push the stroller towards Merlin's place, he realized what a mistake it was. Gwen was clearly on her way home as well. Now he was stuck either seeming like a stalker or talking to her. He could, he suppose, wait another ten minutes or so, before going home but he wasn't sure how long Sarah would remain calm and happy in dirty diapers. And pushing a screaming Sarah would attract far too much attention.
He cleared his throat.
Gwen stopped and turned. "Going home to change Sarah?"
"It's almost lunch time." He continued to walk until they were standing side by side. "I have to feed her as well."
"Hmm."
He should really have waited that ten minutes. Sure, they were walking together but they weren't talking and Sarah was starting to fuss, probably, Arthur thought uncharitably, because of the tension Gwen was causing.
"She's an amazingly well-behaved girl," said Gwen finally. "I remember my brother doing nothing but cry."
"Sarah is a darling. Although the way she takes to strangers, I fear for her when she can walk. She'll happily go off with anyone who even smiles at her."
Gwen laughed. "My friend has a toddler just like that. He once put a leash on her."
Horrified, Arthur stopped walking. "A leash? Like a dog?"
"Exactly. He did it once, then stopped after too many people stared at them."
"Well," said Arthur. "That's awful. I would never do that to Sarah." Clearly Gwen would, since she mentioned it. Somehow, he apparently had a list of likes and dislikes for Gwen and this he put firmly in the dislike column, next to unfriendly and bossy. The only thing in the like column was pie.
He could feel her eyes on him. "I have to admit when Merlin told me that you were staying with him and babysitting your niece, I thought he was pulling my leg."
"Why?"
"Arthur Pendragon, living in a small house? Looking after a baby? The tabloids never prepared me for that."
"Most of that crap is made up."
She didn't say anything and when he looked at her, he could see the disbelief written on her face. Galled by her unwillingness to even extend him the benefit of the doubt, he asked mulishly, "what kind of person you think I am?
Ticking off her fingers with far too much glee, Gwen said, "Ambitious, selfish, heartless and from what I've personally experienced, rude."
"There is nothing wrong with being ambitious."
"There is when you don't care what you destroy in your quest," she said coldly. "Like the community center."
Guilt washed over him. The community center had been the straw that caused the rift between him and his father and what led to him being dismissed by his father. And yet, he'd not been able to save the community center. Not that he was going to share any of this with Gwen. Gwen who like everyone in Camelot figured that reading the newspapers was enough to judge him.
Silence descended on them again but this time, Arthur didn't care. Ahead, he could already see Merlin's place. He quickened his pace, leaving Gwen to walk behind.
