Hooray for the fourth installment! I really thought this wasn't going to get finished today... ^^'

I'm just looking forward to my day off from exams tomorrow, so I've got plenty of time to write the next parts!

I still don't own any part of the Merlin series, because it still belongs to the BBC.

Reviews would be fantastic, and I hope you enjoy!

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, embarrassing relatives.

*****

Merlin was worried. Arthur had tried to convince him that it was nothing to get in a flap about; it was only one day. Not even a full 24 hours. Maybe not even 12 hours. But it wasn't the length of time that Merlin was worried about; it was what could happen in that length of time. Merlin was about to go through every boyfriend's worst nightmare.

Arthur's family was coming over.

Not only was Arthur's family coming over (Which was bad enough as it was), but Merlin's family was coming over too. At the same time. This was the bit that had Merlin worrying. Well, not really worrying. More panicking.

****

"You've met my father before though, Merlin. Surely that makes it less of a big deal?" Arthur had been banned from the living room as Merlin hoovered, and was instead standing in the kitchen doorway, shouting over the noise of the machine.

"No it does not make it less of a big deal! We met in a coffee shop, which he chose, if you remember, and I barely had to talk to him; just answer a few simple questions that left very little room for him to think I had some kind of mental affliction. But this time, he is coming to our house, with the rest of your family, and my family, which I highly doubt is going to go very well. So, this is definitely not less of a big deal! This is a very big deal. Bordering on colossal." Merlin finished, taking several deep breaths before hovering the same piece of carpet he had hoovered twice already.

"Merlin. Merlin!" Arthur cried, trying, but failing, to catch his attention. As Merlin continued to not hear him, Arthur sighed, before stepping forward and wrenching the plug out of the socket. The noise of the vacuum fizzled out with a whine.

"Arthur! What are you doing? I need to hoover!"

"You already hoovered that spot. Twice. Now look, stop worrying so much, it'll all be fine. You said Gwen was bringing the food, Morgana was bringing the alcohol, and that Lancelot said he would be on drunk-relative-patrol, thus limiting the amount of embaressing events involving grandparents to almost zero." He carefully took the vacuum from Merlin's hands. "Look at me," He grasped Merlin's shoulders tightly, looking him straight in the eye. "It will be fine." Merlin was surprisingly compliant as Arthur pulled him in for a hug. "So there's nothing to worry about."

*****

Halfway through the evening, Arthur realized that Merlin had every right to be as worried as he had been. Lancelot had had to pull out at the last minute, leaving Arthur to run around madly, politely taking away glasses of whiskey and wine from those older relatives when they looked a bit red in the face; his father seemed even more miserable than usual, and now had cornered a terrified Merlin, proceeding to interrogate him about every single detail of his entire life; Morgana's latest boyfriend, who's name Arthur couldn't remember for the life of him, had almost knocked over the Christmas tree in his drunken stupour, causing Merlin to very suddenly shout "No!" in Uther's extremely unimpressed face, as Hunith leapt forward to set the poor tree on it's feet again. Family gatherings, Arthur decided, were exhausting.

Arthur let out a long sigh as he poured himself another beer. Staring at the build up of white froth on the surface, Arthur took a long gulp.

"So, what is it you do, Arthur? Merlin tells me you're a lawyer?" Arthur jumped, almost spilling his entire glass down his front. Merlin's uncle merely looked amused.

"Ah. Um, yes. I'm a lawyer, yes." Arthur nodded fervently, trying desperately to remember the man's name.

"Edwin." He supplied helpfully. Arthur shook the offered hand, trying to understand why Edwin still looked extremely amused.

"Nice you meet you, Edwin."

"And you. So, what sector do you specialize in? I wanted to be a lawyer, back in the day, just didn't get the grades…"

"It did take an awful lot of hard work… And I specialize in the public sector, as a trainee barrister." Arthur was surprised to find it very easy to talk to Merlin's uncle, despite the constant off-putting expression on his face. After fifteen minutes of political discussions, and other manly important things, Merlin appeared at Arthur's elbow. Strangely, he too looked very amused.

"Uncle Edwin! How's the trombone going? Do you mind if I borrow Arthur for a moment?"

"Merlin, my boy! The trombone is going swimmingly, although your aunt might say differently!" He laughed to himself for a moment, before waving the two away. At this, Merlin pulled Arthur into the kitchen.

"We're out of beer. Don't suppose you could go and get some, could you?" Merlin's face was abnormally straight as he tried very hard to hold in his laughter."

"Not until you tell me what's so damn funny! Edwin seemed to find looking at me very amusing as well…" Arthur folded his arms, glaring at Merlin. It was at times like this that you could very clearly see that Uther was his father.

"You, err-" Merlin snorted, and waved his fingers absently over his upper lip. Arthur frowned and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. When he pulled his hand away to look at it, his face fell. A line of beer froth was sat very smugly on his index finger.

"I had this… on my lip. For the entire time?!"

"Er, yes." Seeing Arthur's expression twist from devastated to extremely agitated, Merlin chose to take his leave. "Don't forget the beer!"

*****

Merlin let out yet another sigh, staring glumly at Arthur's once immaculate living room. "Remind me again why we can't do this tomorrow morning?"

Arthur turned to him, arms full of empty beer bottles. "Because tomorrow you'll just wake up with a hangover and then it'll never get done." He shrugged and attempted to open the front door. Failing, he turned to Merlin, who happily abandoned his half-full bin bag to open it for him. "And besides," Arthur called from the garage, attempting to carefully place the bottles down, without actually being able to see what he was doing. "You were the one who wanted this party in the first place, so you can't complain about the clearing up."

Merlin merely grumbled, leaning against the doorframe. He could faintly see Arthur's outline as he struggled to right the several bottles he had just knocked over. It didn't seem to be going very well, however, as Merlin could hear more bottles being knocked over, and Arthur getting more and more irate.

"Need a hand?"

"I need a light!" Merlin snorted, as Arthur continued. "Why do we not have a light out here?"

"Because you haven't put one up?"

Arthur strode back into view, after loudly shutting the garage door. "Don't just stand there," he scolded. "Or would you like to be up until the early hours of the morning cleaning?"

"Arthur, it is the early hours of the morning…" Arthur stopped halfway through the doorway, blinking quickly for several moments. Merlin shrugged. "You were quite happy staying up until the early hours of the morning when you were on that stupid playstation game, keeping me awake! What was it? Call of Duty?"

"Well, you gave it to me!"

"No I didn't! You stole it before I got a chance to give it to you!" Arthur looked sheepish as he stepped into the hallway. "What am I supposed to give you for Christmas now?" He huffed, closing the door. "So quit you moaning."

"Yes, sir."

"Shut up, Arthur."