So many lovely reviews and tracking and fav'ing. I decided to update with a new chapter as a post S3 toast to everyone reading and because chapter two was so cliffhangery and such.


"Where's Gwen?" Merlin asked bursting into his office without a knock or God forbid an acknowledgment from the occupant on the other side of the door. He never does it to Gwen.

"She won't be joining us today," Arthur replied, smiling wide and then adding, "It's just you and me."

"Great, you're such a horrible kisser, she's avoiding you now. Already, I am being made to suffer. I hope you can live with yourself."

"She had a lunch meeting; stop being so dramatic, Helen Mirren."

"That's Dame Helen to you and that woman is national treasure."

"Why do I even bother with you? Besides, haven't you always wanted something like this to happen between Gwen and me?"

"We have," he replied.

"Merlin, do you even have an original thought anymore or do you just absorb all of my sister's viewpoints through osmosis?"

"Osmosis? Is that what you and Gwen call it when you snog? Because Morgana and me, we–"

"Stop right there," he pointed his finger, along with his stern objection. "Merlin, I shouldn't have to remind you that she's my sister and I don't ever want to think of the two of you in that way; ever. And for the love of God, will you both stop sending me photos of yourselves while in the act."

"Now who's being dramatic?"

"Let's just go now, before I am being made to revisit my breakfast."

Merlin was being dramatic. He and Gwen had worked hard to get past these sort of debates with the three dark-haired wonders. Now they would likely have to start all over again.

Arthur reflected for a moment as he pushed the button to the ground floor inside of the lift. Gwen had no need to avoid him over their kiss – he hoped she understood that, though now he was thinking that her lunch meeting was announced rather suddenly and she hadn't even stopped by his office to let him know, instead she sent him a text. He'd scarcely seen her all day, but it's only lunchtime yet.

They stepped out into the marble lobby of the Pendragon Building, crossed the street and went a few blocks off the main road to the little sandwich shop where he and Gwen would sneak off to to have a quiet lunch before Merlin started to tag along.

The two of them were fixtures in the dressed down eatery that looked like something out of medieval fantasy book, complete with large tankards of world class selection of ale, playfully labeled as mead for effect, and modern day waitresses dressed up as serving girls.

Arthur sighed. He could accept just being friends, if that's what she wanted, he told himself.

"So it meant nothing to you?"

"I don't know, Merlin. Dear Lord, you're like a trained dog."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not following, either it was a meaningful kiss or it wasn't. So which one is it?"

Trained dog or not, his friend certainly knew how to cut to the chase. Maybe there's a slight chance that Merlin could offer some constructive advice, just this once.

"Okay. It was like this. It was nothing, at first, just a little 'sorry for inflicting the bodily harm on your person' peck."

"Is there such a thing?" He retorted.

"In this instance." He gave back Merlin's snarky tone with an equal measure of his own. "Anyway, it was quick. In and then out…but then I went back."

"You went back?" He exclaimed.

"Sort of; it really was just one kiss though and it was fine, but at some point it started to feel different than all the other times."

"Different?" He asked, then his eyes widened. "You two had kissed before?"

"No," Arthur answered dismissively.

"So then what other times are you talking about?"

Arthur sat still like a statue, wordless and transfixed.

"Oh," Merlin said surprised, finding an answer in the non response. After his initial brow-raised expression, he narrowed them before adding, "Oh. All of the other times?"

Arthur looked at him nodding slowly.

"Including the times with Sophia?"

A nervous sideways glance answered that question.

"Oh," Merlin repeated again fully grasping the gravity of his friend's dilemma.

Arthur didn't exactly know why he was having this conversation with Merlin instead of perhaps the more reliably reticent Lancelot. But after Gwen, he considered him his closest friend. It wasn't always that way, but in the last few of years she had always been there for him, no matter what. At the moment, however, talking to her about this was not an option.

Finally, his friend asked, "So what are you going to do?"

"There's nothing to do. She was pretty clear."

"I don't know if I would say that what she said was clear."

"Her exact words were: 'So it meant nothing, yeah?'. And I'm telling you Merlin, she was not asking."

"How do you know for that sure? Women sometimes say one thing and mean the exact opposite."

"Merlin, I know this woman like the back of my hand."

His blue-eyed mate opened his mouth to utter something Arthur had no doubt would be yet another inappropriate and likely successful attempt at wit. "Don't," he warned him.

Merlin's mouth absorbed the bite-size chunk of sandwich in his fingers instead of speaking.

"There's very little that I don't know about Guinevere. We've lived together, practically as husband and wife, for three years." His words seemed to ignite a spark that blew out all of his consternation concluding on one final, long sought after answer. "That's it."

"Hmm?" Merlin replied, finishing his chewing action on the last bit of his portabella burger and then sucked his fingers clean of any traces of ketchup.

"What I said. We've been together like a married couple in our place all this time. With her being single and my being dumped, the crisp, clean line of our friendship just got a bit blurred," he said. The only thing missing was the 'ta-da'.

"That…," Merlin said with a pause before continuing, "…is what you think it is?"

A slightly less confident Arthur responded, "Maybe. You obviously don't agree."

"We have our theories," he replied haughtily disregarding his friend's nearly predictable eyeroll.

"Why am I'm not surprised. You and my sister and your theories; you're all wrong."

"You think so."

"I know so."

"All right then, Arthur, answer me this: Why do you want to get married?"

"What an absurd question. Why does anyone want to get married?"

"We're not talking about them, we're talking about you."

"I'm not even going to entertain this right now." He motioned the corseted woman for the check.

"Oh come on, humor me," he said.

Now he knew for certain that it had been a bad idea to have this conversation with him. It would have been awkward to talk to Lancelot about it, but this much self analysis and confessing could only be drawn out of him by this man or his sister.

The pair seemed to have a supernatural quality about them; cornering people and then lulling them into spilling their guts and hearts and revealing every little secret that they tried to hide. They were either especially talented psychotherapists or very evil sorcerers.

Arthur was about to answer when Merlin stopped him to say, "Ah ah, be honest. It's just you and your best mate here, talking as men."

Arthur sighed again.

"For the record, after this bit I'm not sure whether or not you are my best mate." Merlin made a 'whatevs' face that he ignored. "To answer your question, honestly, I want to get married because I want what you and Morgana have," he said, hoping that the shameless flattery might put him off the chase, even if it was in fact the truth.

"Uh huh," he replied, nodding a cocked head.

It was not the reaction he had hoped to get, nor was it the one that he secretly wished for. Merlin was being strangely elusive now and the curious nature of the response was too much to disregard. Arthur took the bait.

"Is that so terrible?" He asked.

"No, not at all," Merlin answered.

"Then, what?" He was more than annoyed at him. Merlin was usually much more forthright, especially when he was this sure of himself.

"Nothing."

"No, not nothing. We're talking as men, remember. So talk."

"Fine, then."

He watched as Merlin calmly, purposefully swallowed a few large gulps of the sugary, carbonated drink that he'd ordered along with the vegetarian meal. Gwen had already managed to wean him off that stuff since he had a tendency to overindulge in red meat.

She took great care in ensuring he ate healthier once she'd moved in. Within weeks she was able to get him to cut milk out of his diet. It wasn't very difficult to give up; however, he drew a hard line in the sand when it came to his meats and eventually, they came to a compromise where he could continue with his steak and potatoes diet if he opted out of the fizzy drinks and she was allowed to have all her fancy cheeses.

"Did you ever consider that the reason you proposed to Sophia was to see what Gwen would do?"

"Merlin, what on earth are you talking about? I proposed to Sophia because I wanted to marry her."

"Yeah?" He asked.

Arthur thought that Merlin was turning skepticism into a new art form today, even for him.

"Yes, Merlin, I did and I cannot believe we just had this conversation. In fact, we never had this conversation."

They paid for lunch and walked back to the office. The therapy session was over and the only thing that Arthur was sure of was that his own theories about that morning were bogus. The thing about Sophia and the marriage proposal still nagged at him though.


A quick, petite knock came to his door and the pretty little head of his current machinations popped inside of the doorway.

"Busy?"

"No, not for you."

He reminded himself again to be more careful with his choice of words. She didn't seem to mind it though. Gleefully, she entered his office and walked around his desk to sit between him and his computer screen. He noted her proximity to him and her ease with the idea of being so close and decided that the lunch slight was not avoidance.

New knots tied themselves around the old ones in his stomach.

"Don't be angry with me," she said.

"I could never be…," he stopped himself before finishing. Voicing his true thoughts would not afford him any practical gains. "Go on."

"I had lunch with Leon and I offered him the position on the spot. I hope that's all right with you."

"Sure," he said. "You know that I trust your judgment."

"Oh, thank God," she replied. "I was worried about it the entire time. I mean, I told him 'You're hired' ten minutes after we sat down."

"He was that impressive?"

"Hmm, hmm," she noted, with a little nod. Her gaze went to the view outside the window behind him. What was she thinking about, he wondered?

A horrible feeling invaded his mind all of a sudden. He decided that finding out was the better risk.

"If I didn't know you any better, I would say you were smitten."

She returned to him and whatever she had been thinking about was gone. "Well, he is rather tall," she said.

"Guinevere, height is a relative term next to you, literally."

"Was that really necessary?"

"I suppose it was a bit much, apologies."

"Accepted."

She smiled and he felt at ease again.

"So how was your boys only lunch?"

They went on talking for far longer than they should have, considering that it was still the middle of the work day. The ride home was the same and she tried again to teach him how to do something more than boil water in their kitchen.

Normally, when they went through this little Julia Child routine, he really didn't train his thoughts to her instructions too much, believing he was beyond salvation with a frypan.

He wasn't sure what he had been thinking about on those other occasions and while he hadn't really noticed it until that day, he found that he was happy just watching her do it, anything for that matter; especially when she would lick sugary things from her fingers and then offer him the spoon.


A/N:I love Helen Mirren and did a little nod to her because she is a national treasure and she played Morgana in my favorite King Arthur retelling "Excalibur".

Next update not likely before Friday.

Also, I've decided to extend the story out a bit more since I'm having loads of fun with these guys and their shenanigans.