Arthur, proportionally blowing everyone away, had skipped going to work the next day, especially when his text had went unanswered. It took all of his will power, and a huge pep talk(which took most of the morning if he was being frank), but he had successfully pulled his phone out of the closet, only to see that he had no updates.
And no matter how many times he had told himself that it didn't matter, that one silly little text wasn't the end of the world, he still found himself moping around the streets of a very crowded shopping alley looking for something to entertain himself with. Not that Arthur Pendragon wanted to admit it, but it was nagging the hell out of him.
As he walked towards an Indie store that everybody seemed to be staying away from, Arthur did not blame his sour mood on that little piece of information; not at all, not one tiny bit. He'd been let down more than once in his long line of relationships so it was-
"Good morning, sir. How can I help you?"
Blinking precariously for a moment, Arthur realized that he had walked into the store without even realizing it.
"Great! Now the fricking kid's voice is in my head too!" Arthur yelled to no one in particular.
And when the voice spoke up again, Arthur's eyes widened because it was so incredibly familiar. "Umm, I don't think we sell that here, sir."
He blinked once at the wall, and then swiveled his head slowly to stare at the anonymous speaker. "You're…" Arthur began slowly once he found his voice. "You're Merlin Emrys."
"Umm, yeah…good job reading my name tag. Though, I'm blaming Gwen on you finding out my last name. I hate it when she gives that out to random strangers." The kid with the ridiculously big ears, the kid who he'd watch for a year, the kid who brought him joy whenever he smiled, was finally talking to him and Merlin had no idea how much it meant to him. He knew how sad it was that he was fricking coming undone by someone who wasn't even famous, especially that of a guy! But it was happening and Arthur didn't know what to say.
Luckily Merlin was there to save him. "If you're looking for medication or drugs or whatever, we don't sell it here, mate. The store down the block does, however."
"No-it's not-I'm not looking for medication." Arthur stuttered, his face heating up for no reason. "I was just looking around and happened to walk in here."
Merlin rolled his eyes and stalked off towards the front counter. "Well, you can take a look around but I guarantee you won't find anything. Nobody ever does when they come here on a whim." And with that, he promptly went back to flipping through a magazine as if Arthur wasn't there.
"…okay, sure. I'll just…" Arthur trailed off after a moment. He backtracked his way towards the front of the store quietly, pretending to be interested in a stack of music (which of course he wasn't since it was all in a different language). Picking up one pink and white cd that held the image of a bleeding lamb, Arthur shyly snuck a glance at Merlin's profile.
He had scruffy, curly black hair that didn't help conceal his big ears at all. Though, Arthur could see slight laugh lines around his mouth which he guessed was appropriate for someone so cheerful. Trailing down to his torso, Arthur noted that he was ungodly skinny and very gangly for an eighteen year old. Covering his torso was a soft worn out looking gray jumper which he complimented with black skinny jeans and a gray beanie. For someone who spent all his time making videos at home, he was awfully good looking…but not that Arthur noticed or anything. He wasn't into blokes; defiantly not a guy…nope. All his past relationships had been girls who were very pretty and self-assured about their looks.
This is getting bloody ridiculous, Arthur thought angrily. Why the hell am I freaking out anyways!? He's a bloke, just like every other bloke I've ever talked to before. So then why am I freaking out about talking to him? It shouldn't be so bloody damn hard!
"Fuck this," Arthur snarled, setting the cd back down as he marched to the front counter.
"Couldn't find anything interesting?" Merlin hummed without looking up.
"No…I mean yes-I mean that's not what I wanted to talk about." Arthur walked bravely up to the desk, confident in his sexuality.
"Okay, then shoot." Merlin said. He put a slip of paper in-between the pages and closed the magazine. He didn't look irritated, but that was only the outside.
"I just wanted to know," Arthur began confidently. "If you…"
"Yes?" Merlin asked after a second of silence.
But Arthur found he couldn't talk…at all. His mouth was bloody dry and his hands were sweating profusely; all because Merlin had glanced at him with his stupid idiotic crystal blue eyes, with the long stupid lashes that brushed against his stupid perfect face and…and…ah fuck. Why did he even come into the bloody store in the first fricking place?!
There was only one thing to do if he wanted to save at least a little bit of his pride ; he had to run. And run he did, all the way out of the store even as Merlin yelled for him to stop.