Oh, yes, more, sorry, I forgot. Finals.
…
Arthur, disheveled and slightly exhausted from walking over thirty blocks, opened the door to the apartment he shared with Lance with a disgruntled sigh.
Lance looked up from the coach.
Gwen, her blouse as disheveled as Arthur was, also looked up from the coach, but at least she had the decency to seem mortified.
Arthur glared at the two of them. "You know, Lance," he said, every word thick with malice, "next time you decide to share the apartment with your fiance, perhaps you should rescue your leader from the supervillain first, or at least make sure he's alive."
"Er..." Gwen stood up, "Arthur, this isn't what it looks like."
"I'm exhausted, I've spent the last several hours either hanging over a vat of acid, climbing through a deathtrap, or walking here, so I don't care if Morgana was out looking for me by herself. I'm going to bed," Arthur slammed the door of the apartment shut with a load crash.
"We were told not to look for you," Lance said, "Ultraman had the entire Justice Union on a search, we were told not to get in the way." Lance stood up, "How did you escape?"
"I got out by myself," Arthur lied.
"Does your fa... Ultraman know you got out? You should call him."
Arthur glared at Lance. "Go shag your fiance," he snapped.
"We are not!" Gwen glared at Arthur. "I will grow a venus flytrap in your brain!"
"I'm so frightened, plants," Arthur deadpanned. Lance opened his mouth to retort but Arthur stopped him, "I have talked nonstop for almost eight hours with a supervillain, I'm tired of talking. I'll send my father a text."
...
People just don't send Ultraman texts.
Arthur especially, should have known better than to send 'Stop the search party I made it out alive'.
"You could have used the door," Arthur mumbled into his pillow. It was going to take days to replace the window in his apartment.
But Uther stepped through, and, with a wave of his hand and a telekinetic wave of his hand, the window was back in place. "Why exactly didn't you find me?" Uther demanded.
Arthur, who was currently collapsed on his bed, his face buried in his pillow, simply shrugged.
"This is not a game, Arthur," Uther reminded him.
"You call it a game all the time," Arthur mumbled. The frequency should have been too quiet for Uther to hear, but Uther was not a normal man.
"Perhaps we've all forgotten that these battles are not to be taken lightly!" Uther seethed, "This Magic Man defeated even me, fluke or not, and I hear that you and your team, who has yet to even complete their schooling, went after a lead on him? And not only did you follow the lead, but he was there and then, due to a startlingly amount of inaction, you were kidnapped!"
"It's really weird to talk to you when you're in costume," Arthur mumbled into his pillow.
"Sit up!" Uther demanded. And then, leaving Arthur no chance to do so, he flung the covers from Arthur's bed and grabbed his son by the ear, pulling him to a sitting position with the force that would have torn off the head of a normal human.
Thankfully Arthur wasn't human, even if it was in only one respect.
"I was defending you in front of the Justice Union and then you pull a stunt like this!" Uther shouted.
"A stunt? We were the only team at the University and every member of the Justice Union was downtown for that 'Incredibly Important' meeting of yours! The entire city was undefended and look what happened? A skyscraper destroyed as well as the university!" Fully awake, Arthur was prepared to scream back at his father as much as he needed to.
"Yes, it's a miracle no one was killed," Uther noted, "however-"
"It's not a miracle, it was the Magic Man, he planned it like that," Arthur interrupted.
Uther glared. Ignoring the change of subject, he continued, "Every mob member and thief has been working overtime ever since my defeat, all heroes have had more than their fair share of work, and I pulled every single one off of duty to search for you! Do you realize the chaos that left the city in?"
"We do have a police," Arthur reminded him.
"They're inadequate, ungifted, normal humans, Arthur!" Uther sighed, rubbing his eyes with his hand, taking off his half-mask to do so. "Arthur, are you injured?"
Arthur glared. "You ask now?" He asked incredulously.
"Be glad I asked!" Uther snapped, "Are you injured?"
"No," Arthur told him, "just bumps and bruises, nothing serious."
"Have you eaten?" Uther's voice almost, almost sounded caring.
"Yes," Arthur said, thinking back to his breakfast. And suddenly, a horrific blush crossed his face. I was fed breakfast by a supervillain, I was flirting with a supervillain! Arthur thought in panic.
Not for the first time in his life, he was glad that one of the four powers his father didn't have was reading minds.
"Well," Uther swallowed. "Due to this stunt, I'm not sure what to do about my decision."
"What decision?" Arthur asked, confused.
"Nevermind," Uther said, waving Arthur off with a wave of his hand, "you'll find out tomorrow at school." Uther frowned, "There are many students working right now, using their powers to help repair the school, it should be at least functional by the first classes tomorrow."
"I was just kidnapped, what do you want me to do? Rebuild the school in two hours and then go back to sleep?" Arthur growled.
"Sleep then," Uther said, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"As Ultraman or as my father?" Arthur asked.
"I am always your father," Uther said, and before Arthur could say anything to the contrary he was out the window yet again.
Arthur lay back down on his bed, buried his face in his pillow, and groaned.
...
Arthur was walking to the university when someone dumped a bag over his head and pulled him into a moving vehicle. He shouted, and delivered a kick to his captor, which had a pleasant crunching noise like a broken bone; then he heard a voice that halted him in his tracks.
"Calm down!" The Magic Man said, a leather glove touched Arthur's shoulder, "It's just me."
"Just you?" Arthur ripped the bag off his head. He blinked. "Is this a limo?"
"Champagne?" The Magic Man asked, nodding his strange, porcelain face at Arthur, holding out a glass.
Confused, Arthur looked at the front, but the glass was tinted. There was no one else at their end of the limo, just him, the supervillain, and a fridge which Arthur had just kicked in half. The Magic Man was still holding the champagne in front of Arthur. "It's nine in the morning," Arthur declined the drink.
"Would you prefer a cinnamon bun?" The Magic Man's voice seemed to hint that he was smirking under his mask.
"No!" Arthur said immediately, and he could feel a blush creeping up on his face. "What do you want now?" Arthur demanded.
"I have a spy," the Magic Man informed him, "in the Justice Union."
Arthur's jaw dropped. "What?"
"It costs a lot of money, but I do have access to some information now. It wasn't my idea, actually, but it works," the Magic Man sat back in his seat.
"So?" Arthur pressed.
"I can make you the next king of superheroes," the Magic Man offered.
Arthur frowned. "How?"
"Are you aware of the current actions of the Justice Union?" The Magic Man asked. Arthur shook his head. "As incredible as it is," the Magic Man seemed to revel in this information, "the Justice Union is retiring."
"My father would never retire," Arthur said quickly.
"He's the one who's insisting they do, in his words 'we're all too old for this'." The Magic Man folded his hands together, the picture of a nefarious villain. "Until I kidnapped you, the majority of the members of the Justice Union were fine with your father's decision to let you succeed him as the leader of the Justice Union."
"My father was going to have me succeed him?" Arthur asked, disbelieving.
"Was is the operative word there," the Magic Man replied, "turns out, no one wants a leader who can be defeated so easily by a supervillain like me, so the vote has now shifted away from your favour, and you are not going to be allowed the role of a hero after all. Unless something miraculous happens, you are going to be informed to seek a job in a circus or the army, as you're very qualified for both."
Arthur swallowed.
"But I'm willing to make that something miraculous happen," the Magic Man told him.
"How?" Arthur asked suspiciously.
"Magic," was the answer.
...
Arthur was rushed before Uther, the Jaygirl holding his arm. The entire extended Justice Union of over fifty members was bent over a three-dimensional map of the city, but Jaygirl, one of the lead seats, slammed open the doors without even knocking.
"I want to change my vote!" Jaygirl cried out in excitement.
Uther turned around, and even with the half-mask covering the upper part of his face the surprise was clearly visible.
"He's a flier!" Jaygirl said in excitement.
...
I got the job by lying. I became an image of good and morality by lying. I am a hypocrite. Arthur paced in his room, deep in thought, not caring that he was bothering Lance.
"We've already got the seats, Arthur, but we have another year of school," Lance reminded him, "calm down, eat churros, play a video game." Lance had this annoying perpetual smile ever since he learned he was the Speed's chosen replacement.
"Lance!" Arthur stopped pacing for a moment and glared at him, his hands curled into fists.
"Fine, go back to being weird," Lance stood up. "I'm going out with Gwen and Morgana, care to join us?"
"No," Arthur said.
"No?" Lance repeated in surprise.
"No." Arthur returned to pacing. Every step seemed to echo hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrite.
What do I do when they realize I can't fly? Arthur thought nervously.
...
Merlin escaped from the penthouse by putting on normal clothes and pretending that he was going to his lair.
Anything to get away from his mother's angry gaze.
...
Arthur escaped from his tormented feelings, changing into normal, non-university-issued, clothing, and decided to take a walk.
...
There was a celebration in the park, an anniversary of some sort, but no one who was there to celebrate actually cared. There was the kind of annoying loud music that echoes your heart beat, food obviously spiked with alcohol, and enough police officers in attendance that the party wasn't going to be called off.
Merlin had never, in his life, crashed a party, but he was a supervillain now, so why not? Although he was severely under dressed for a party, Merlin just walked into the clearing. No one challenged him, not even when, after a few minutes of trying to dance, he made his way over the the heavily alcoholic brownies and punch.
Of course, because Merlin was, in reality, a complete idiot, he accidentally tripped over someone's feet and ended up knocking another person to the ground on the way there. At least the other person had the grace to laugh, but when Merlin and Arthur locked gazes Merlin wished Arthur had just shoved him away.
Of all of the hundreds of people at this stupid party, of the millions of people in Metropolis, Merlin ends up falling on Arthur Pendragon.
"You okay, didn't hurt yourself?" Arthur asked when Merlin hesitated before getting off him.
"I'm sorry, I'm really, really clumsy, I didn't mean, to, uh," Merlin stumbled over the words.
"I hope you didn't mean to, otherwise it was a poor attempt of hitting on me," Arthur grinned.
Merlin was too shocked to reply. Without his mask covering his features, Merlin couldn't help but feel exposed as Arthur's bright eyes looked straight at him.
"I was just thinking about getting drunk myself, care to join me?" Arthur asked.
"No, not... I mean yes, yes!" Merlin stuttered, "We... well, uh, what I meant... was..."
"You're not drunk already, are you?"
"No, just uhm." And then Merlin laughed nervously, "Didn't expect to fall into someone as handsome as you."
"Ah," Arthur said, knowledge coming to his features.
Merlin expected him to walk away any moment, after all, Arthur had made it very clear that he was not gay.
"Do I know you?" Arthur asked instead, "You seem familiar."
"I wish," Merlin smiled.
Arthur blinked for a moment, and then, after what seemed like a momentary battle with his conscience, asked loudly, "How about that drink?"
Merlin let Arthur take the lead, and before Arthur's confident steps the crowd just seemed to part, so Merlin made himself as little as possible behind him and got to the brownies and punch without tripping over any more people. Is this like a date? Merlin wondered, staring at the back of Arthur's head in confusion. It can't be, can it?
Arthur poured them both drinks, handing the one to Merlin, and he didn't seem to think it was odd. "Drink up, I say five or so of these will make us sufficiently drunk to both of our satisfaction."
Arthur drowned the first drink so quickly that Merlin had to comment. "Are you trying to get drunk for any reason?"
"Getting rid of guilt," Arthur said, "are you?"
"The same," Merlin realized with a sigh. And then, mimicking Arthur, he downed his drink in one go. "Fill her up," Merlin held out his glass.
They had a few more than five glasses. Eventually, they simply couldn't hold the glass straight, their hands kept shaking. And a few blurred memories of dancing dogged Merlin's steps, he just remembered that it was very fun and he was calling Arthur 'Arthur' although Arthur had never told him his name and Arthur was calling Merlin 'Blue-eyes'.
What hit Merlin like a ton of bricks was when his cup spilled on the ground and, laughing, he backed up against a tree. Then Arthur, hesitating a long moment, softly pressed his lips against him. There wasn't any tongue, it wasn't even rough, Arthur simply placed his lips on Merlin's. It was sweet, Merlin realized, but even more so, it felt... kind.
"Merlin," Arthur whispered, pressing their foreheads together.
"You kno' miy nahme?" Merlin asked, his words slurred together.
"I' jus' cahme to me," Arthur mumbled. He pressed his lips against Merlin's cheekbone. "Tha's funny, isn' it? Merlin an' Arthur."
"Wha's funny?" Merlin asked. And he laughed, although he didn't know why. Arthur kissed him again, his lips light on Merlin's, and Merlin wrapped his arms around Arthur's neck.
"Merlin an' Arthur," Arthur repeated, "lihke Camelot."
"Neverh heard of ith," and Merlin jammed their lips together with as much passion as he could muster, but that was not a lot because he was really, really drunk.
Thankfully, Arthur was much stronger.
...
Merlin woke up in someone else's bed. And that was the very best way to wake up, in his opinion. He sat up, wiping sleep away from his eyes.
The room was rather small, not what Merlin had expected, but the effect of the size could have something to do with the fact that it was a complete mess. Not only were clothes thrown about, popcorn kernels on the floor, and a pizza box on the ground, a large television that apparently had previously been hanging on the wall had been torn from its place, and Arthur's dresser had fallen to the floor.
Merlin had a faint recollection that Arthur had been snogging him and had shoved him against the television, and Merlin's magic had knocked down the dresser, so he probably shouldn't attribute that mess to Arthur's bachelorhood.
Somewhere in the piles of clothes, Merlin realized, was his shirt. Unfortunately, Merlin was still wearing his pants. That was very disappointing. This is, perhaps, the worst one-night stand I have ever had, Merlin realized. And although he'd only had three, he was pretty sure the purpose of a one-night stand was to have sex. Not just snog like high schoolers and get off after just a little friction and a shirtless Arthur.
Merlin was rather looking forward to getting shagged by Arthur. Which had the double epiphany; first that he was, for the first time in a long while, actually attracted to someone, and second that he was so gay.
When Merlin had disentangled himself from the sheets, which was very hard to do and eventually his magic had to help him out, he found himself on his hands and knees searching for his shirt. He couldn't actually remember what shirt he'd worn, but eventually he found one he was certain Arthur didn't own because it was too short and bore the legend 'The angels have the phone box'.
He'd just managed to be dressed when the door opened and he rather wished he wasn't.
"You're awake," Arthur said, surprise in his voice.
Merlin's throat was dry. It was really unfair that Arthur should look so good shirtless. It was inhuman for a person to look so good shirtless. "Yeah," Merlin said.
Then, of course, things got awkward. Arthur began to tap a rhythm on the doorframe and Merlin fiddled around with his collar. They did that for about five minutes until Merlin finally managed to say, "Should I go then?"
"Go?" Arthur asked, confused.
"Yeah, as in leave, go home," Merlin answered. Arthur didn't reply, so Merlin pressed, "We're all done here, aren't we?"
Arthur blinked rapidly.
Oh, right, Merlin remembered, he's probably got a hangover. Then Merlin remembered to act slightly in pain, as if he had a hangover too.
"We uh... we don't have to, if you don't want," Arthur was saying.
Merlin missed it. "What?"
"We don't have to be done, unless you want to be done," Arthur repeated. Shuffling his feet like an innocent, blushing schoolboy, Arthur added, "I don't want to be done."
Merlin grinned. "I don't want to either," he confessed.
Arthur grinned back. With one long, superhuman step, he crossed the room over to Merlin. "So, what exactly do you want?" He asked.
Merlin pretended to be deep in thought. "Well," he hesitated, "we could... snog a bit and then eat breakfast?"
"Lunch," Arthur corrected.
Merlin blinked, "Is it that late?"
"Almost twelve," Arthur nodded.
Merlin punched him lightly on the arm. "Why didn't you wake me up?"
"You looked nice, sleeping," Arthur said, blushing a bit, "besides, it's Monday, who wants to wake up early on Monday?"
"It's Tuesday," Merlin corrected, "yesterday was Monday."
"Thank God," Arthur mumbled, leaning his face closer to Merlin's, "I hate Mondays."
...
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