The club mentioned in the summary is created in this chapter :) There is a hidden reason behind it but it won't surface until later.
After eating some breakfast, they piled in Arthur's car and headed for school. It was only the third week of term. The day passed relatively normal. They had chemistry as their final lesson of the day. They chose tables at the back of the room, Arthur and Merlin at one and Gwen and Morgana at the other.
The only thing that got them through Mr. Gaius' boring lesson was the fact that Arthur kept touching Merlin's leg. Gwen and Morgana, at the next table, kept "awwing" and then hushing one another up so they didn't draw attention to themselves.
After the lesson they stayed back to asked Mr. Gaius. "Mr. Gaius," Arthur said, "we want to start a club and we wondered if you'd want to be our... um, adult person." Morgana rolled her eyes at Arthur's stupidity.
"Depends on what this club is, Arthur," he said.
"Well, this weekend, sir," Merlin said, "we discovered something we all loved."
"Arthurian legends," Morgana added.
"And we know you love them as well, so we just thought.." Gwen said.
"Then why didn't you start by saying that?" Mr. Gaius asked. "Of course I would. We just need to agree on a name, a meeting time, and we will need to hang posters around letting others know."
After a little discussion, they agreed to meet on Mondays after school and that the club would be called 'King Arthur's Court' (Arthur smirked proudly at this). Mr. Gaius told them he would take it to the headmaster to have a form signed and he would let them know the following day if it was accepted.
Arthur dropped Gwen and Morgana off at Gwen's house for a bit while he went to Merlin's. It was half past three and Hunith wasn't due home until four. Their intention was to do homework, but they got.. distracted.
They were sitting in Merlin's room with their books opened. Much like the night before. They were in the middle of kissing when they were interrupted.
"Are you two sure you're not gay?" an amused voice asked.
They jumped apart and looked up to see Hunith smiling in the doorway. Merlin shouted, "mum!" while Arthur shouted, "Hunith!"
After an awkward silence, Merlin said, "I thought you weren't getting home until four."
"Honey, look at the clock." They both looked and it was already after four. "Come on you two, I'll make you some tea and we can talk about it."
Once at the kitchen table, Hunith poured them tea then asked, "So, does this mean you two are more than friends now?"
"Boyfriend," Merlin said nodding to Arthur.
"Boyfriend," Arthur confirmed.
"Finally! Well, I'm happy for you and I've waited a long time to see if this would happen. I will not treat you any different you know, like preventing you from staying the night here or at Arthur's. I trust you not to rush into anything that might ruin your friendship."
"Thank you, Hunith," Arthur smiled. "We've decided on a few things."
"Firstly, if this doesn't work out, we've already agreed that it wouldn't ruin our friendship and we will just pretend it never happened," Merlin said.
"Second, we aren't telling anyone yet until we know it will work out," Arthur said.
"You say your not telling anyone, but I take that to mean Gwen and Morgana know, right?"
They nodded. "Morgana walked in on us last night and they eavesdropped on us talking this morning," Merlin said. He omitted the shower part, his mother did not need to know that.
"That girl is evil, are you certain you're related to her?" Hunith asked Arthur.
"I wonder that myself," he laughed.
"You're taking this rather well," Merlin said.
"Well, I told you I've been waiting for this for a while."
"How long?" Arthur asked.
"At least two years, maybe longer. You two have always seemed closer than just friends, even though you didn't realise it."
After they finished their tea, they returned to Merlin's room and began their homework. They didn't get much done before Hunith got home. Arthur stayed for dinner then headed to Gwen's to pick Morgana back up. He gave Merlin an awkward goodbye kiss before leaving. It was awkward because Hunith was in the living room smiling like a mad woman.
Merlin spent the rest of the night on the internet or watching tv. He was pretty lonely even though his mother was with him. When he went to bed that night, he couldn't get to sleep.
Meanwhile, as soon as Morgana got into the car in front of Gwen's house, she bombarded Arthur with questions.
"Soo," she began. "How did it go? What did you do? Did you guys kiss again?"
"Hello to you too, Morgana," he responded dryly. "We worked on homework mostly. And if you must know, yes we kissed again, but Hunith walked in on us."
"How did she take it?"
"Merlin and I have come to the conclusion that she has lost her mind just as you and Gwen have. She said she had been waiting a long time for us to get together like that."
"Really? Gwen and I should really have tea with her!"
"Yeah, she forced us to have tea with her while we talked about it."
"Oh, she gave you the talk?"
"No. Besides, we're a bit too old for that talk now, had that years ago. She said she trusted us to not rush into anything and ruin our friendship. She also knows that besides her, you and Gwen are the only ones that know."
Morgana nodded her approval and asked, "mind if I tell Gwen?"
"Why not? I know you will even if I say no."
As soon as he pulled into their driveway, Morgana bounded into the house and up to her room to call Gwen. Arthur entered the house and found his father relaxing with his feet up watching some old person show.
"Hey, dad!" he greeted as he sat down.
"Arthur," Uther said, smiling. "I trust you had a good weekend and a good day at school?"
"It was a really good weekend. We watched movies Saturday night and Merlin and I went swimming yesterday. I do think you should send Morgana to 'shoppers anonymous' though. School was great too, we started a new club and Mr. Gaius is going to help out."
"Maybe I should cut her allowance?" Uther chuckled. "What sort of club?"
"One on Arthurian legend. We all found out we share an interest in it."
"Your mother and I were interested in that as well. So were our parents. Our family had a different surname originally until my grandfather, who loved King Arthur, changed it to Pendragon."
"Really?" Arthur asked. "I should tell Merlin!"
"I'm sure he'll find that interesting. Oh, and I have some bad news, son. I have to go on another business trip this weekend. To Paris this time. Merlin can come over or you can go over to his place if you want."
Arthur hid his glee well and mocked sadness by saying, "really? Again?"
"Sadly. Be sure to tell Morgana to come down so I can tell her. She just ran upstairs without even saying hello," Uther said. "Have you already eaten?"
"Yeah, I ate with Merlin and Hunith."
He stopped by Morgana's room to tell her Uther wanted to talk to her and she was still on the phone with Gwen. Arthur went to his room to play some games, he was in the mood for the Wii tonight.
He was laying down trying to sleep but was unsuccessful. He missed Merlin. Almost as though his mind had been read, his phone rang for a text. From Merlin: Can't sleep. Can you? Arthur resonded with: Not at all. Seconds later Merlin responded with: video chat? Arthur happily agreed. Moments later he was online and accepting Merlin's call.
"I miss you," both of them said at the same time.
"Well, we definitely don't keep anything to ourselves do we?" Merlin laughed.
"I guess not! We haven't even been going out for a full day and we are admitting that."
"That's why you couldn't sleep?" Merlin asked. Arthur nodded. "Me too. It feels like part of me is missing."
"That's how I feel," Arthur said. "Dad has to go to Paris this weekend. I was wondering if you wanted to stay here or for us to stay at yours?"
"I'd rather come over there. We can go swimming again."
"Sounds good to me."
They talked for about an hour before they fell asleep. They left the video chat on all night.
Meanwhile, Uther was in his office looking over the video from the outdoor security cameras. All seemed normal. Merlin and Arthur went swimming Sunday morning and then went back inside. Later Morgana and Gwen joined them and said something to make the boys pull them into the water in retaliation.
Uther choked on his tea when he saw Gwen and Morgana kiss. "Well, I did not see that one coming," he said to himself.
He watched as Arthur dragged Merlin to the other side of the pool where they talked. Next thing he knew, his son was kissing his best friend. "Now that does not surprise me," he chuckled. "I wonder if Hunith knows yet. I'll call her tomorrow."
Uther decided to never check the pool camera again out of fear of witnessing something much worse.
Yeah, that's right, Uther is a Merthur shipper! :) Almost every story I've read, Uther is portrayed as a dick, like his is in the show sometimes. I wanted to portray him as caring and supportive here. You get to see a bit more of Uther in the next chapter!