Title: Lonely Ghosts
Author: EachPeachPearPlum
Rating: M
Warnings: pfft. Usual. Language. Sex. Violence. Other?
Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd be able to tell you when series five starts. As it is...anyone else have any idea?
Notes: Yeah, I know. A week late. WAY got an update last week, though, and I try to spread them out where possible. Next one soonish, but not specifically sure when. Pretty please love me and review? Peach.
Welcome to the jungle,
We got fun and games.
Welcome to the Jungle - Guns N' Roses
Chapter Five - Fun and Games
Arthur dodged a Koopa shell, then whooped as it hit Merlin's unfortunate Luigi instead. Merlin grimaced, stuck out his tongue, and, God, it was just like being teenagers again, sitting on the floor with their backs against the sofa and legs sprawled out, bickering and throwing insults. The only thing missing was Hunith yelling for them to keep it down whenever they got too noisy and, much as Arthur loved Merlin's mum, he wasn't too bothered about her not being there.
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"So you and Gwaine?" Arthur said, somewhere into their second hour of infantile regression.
Merlin didn't glance away from the screen, presumably thinking this was just another attempt to distract him on Arthur's part. It wasn't, although Arthur couldn't say why he was asking, or why the idea of Merlin and Gwaine being in a serious relationship was perturbing him so much. All he knew was that usually Merlin would have asked him to help clear out his mum's attic, even in the time between partners where Merlin and Gwaine were messing around together, and this time he asked Gwaine instead.
"What about me and Gwaine?" Merlin asked after a moment, when Arthur didn't continue – of course he didn't continue, because he wasn't going to tell Merlin that he felt offended at not being dragged in to help, and maybe just a little upset, too.
"Nothing, really," Arthur replied, because, what? Was he just supposed to ask if Merlin was only shagging Gwaine because neither of them was in a long-term thing, or if it was because they were starting a long-term thing with each other? "I was just wondering," he added. "Isn't it weird, though? You and he are friends."
"Hmm," Merlin said, stealing Arthur's mushroom on the game. "Not really, no. We've only been mates for a couple of years, not like us. And anyway, it's Gwaine." He glanced away from the TV screen for a second, grinning at Arthur. "Why all the questions, anyway? You jealous?"
"Well, he is gorgeous," Arthur answered, reaching across to scrub his hand over Merlin's hair, putting the uncomfortable twisting in his stomach down to nothing more than disloyalty to Val.
(Honestly, the number of things he could be in denial about at one time)
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"What the hell, Arthur?"
Arthur looked up from his position astride Merlin's thighs, staring at his boyfriend. Val stood in the doorway to the living room, keys still in his hand, facial expression some impossible combination of wide-eyed staring and narrow-eyed glaring.
Arthur released his grip on Merlin's wrists and scrambled to his feet. "Merlin stole my controller," he said, and although it was the truth – wrestling matches were a common occurrence back when they played as kids, as well – it sounded like a lie. Worse, it sounded uncertain, like even Arthur wasn't sure it was true, and Val's frown showed that he didn't believe it in the slightest.
Merlin sat, then stood, and Arthur fought the urge to offer him a hand up. He took a decent sized step away from him instead, just for good measure, because there was no way touching Merlin was going to make Val look any happier.
"Merlin," Val said – growled, almost, voice low and a little menacing – without moving his eyes away from Arthur's. "You should probably be going home now, before Gwaine starts wondering where you are."
"No, it's fine," Merlin answered, so wonderfully, painfully oblivious of the tension filling the room. "He's out tonight, and then going back to his. Do you want to play Mario with us?"
Arthur winced, stepping in front of Merlin before Val could reply, trying to keep Val's ire directed at him. "Merlin, carry on playing, yeah? We'll be back in a bit." He walked from the room, praying that Val decided to follow him without saying anything else to Merlin.
Fortunately, he did, and Arthur heard the chirpy music start back up as Merlin unpaused the game, muffled slightly when Val closed the door behind them. "It really wasn't what it looked like," Arthur said immediately, before Val had the chance to open his mouth. "I promise, I was just trying to get my controller back." Val's expression was still so very doubtful, and Arthur rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Val, I've been friends with Merlin since we were children. If something was going to happen between us, it would have happened years ago, and not on the floor of my boyfriend's living room."
It wasn't the smartest line of argument to take, Arthur realised, but only once he was too far into the sentence to stop. He braced himself for Val's response, expecting angry words at the very least, but there was nothing. Just the silence, and Val's frown, and maybe that was worse.
"Look," he said, when it got too much to bear. "I love you. I wouldn't. Not with Merlin, not with anyone."
Valiant stared at him for a long, long moment, frosty and not necessarily believing. "Okay," he agreed eventually, and then smiled. Arthur tried to keep his sigh silent and his relief hidden. "I was thinking we'd get pizza tonight. Ask Merlin if he wants to join us."
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Arthur spent the evening too busy being pleased about the fact that his boyfriend had apparently decided he didn't hate his best friend any more to realise just how suspicious Val's sudden change of heart was. He had two of the people he loved most in the world – not that he was going to admit that, ever, because Val wouldn't take well to it and the information would go straight to Merlin's head, making him giddy and unbearable for weeks, if not months – with him, getting along well, and for once Val wasn't sending him hurry up and get rid of him looks.
No, Valiant was not just polite to Merlin but actually friendly as well. It was a pleasant change.
(If Arthur had any sense he'd have been worrying about his motives. Arthur had no sense whatsoever)
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"I'm going to turn in," Val said, about half ten, a couple of hours after they'd switched from playing Mario to watching repeats of comedy news quizzes on Dave. He stood, stretched, and smiled down at Arthur. "Don't stay up too late, yeah?"
Arthur shook his head, glancing at Merlin, who also stood. "I should be heading home, really."
"Stay here," Val answered, still smiling, and Arthur marvelled again at his ability to make invitations sound a quite a lot like orders. "It's late. Arthur can make up the spare room for you."
Arthur nodded, looking at Merlin. "Stay," he agreed. "You might as well, seeing as Gwaine isn't around."
"Yeah," Merlin agreed, grinning at Arthur, then a little more cautiously at Val. "Thanks."
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"...And you know where the bathroom is," Arthur finished, having listed just about every fact about the house he could imagine Merlin possibly needing to know.
"The one with a bath in it, right?" Merlin replied, rolling his eyes. "I'm not a child, Arthur. Go to bed."
"Sorry," he said, because yeah, it was easy when it didn't matter. "Goodnight, Merlin."
"Goodnight, Arthur. Sweet dreams."
"Girl."
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Arthur wasn't expecting Val to be waiting up for him. He should have been, maybe, but he wasn't.
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"Not tonight," he murmured as Val wrapped an arm around his waist and pressed a kiss to his neck. "Tomorrow."
"You said that yesterday," Val replied, no less softly, lips tracing a path along Arthur's shoulder blade as his hand edged lower, pulling gently at the hem of Arthur's shirt.
Arthur squirmed slightly, trying to pull back from the hand on his stomach – it didn't hurt anymore, thank God, but he was possibly a little bit ticklish and Val knew it – which served only to bring his back into full contact with Val's front. "I didn't know yesterday that you were going to invite Merlin to stay in the room next door to ours," he muttered, stilling Valiant's hand with his own.
"Merlin," Val sneered, just the tiniest edge of teeth to his kisses. "What, we can't fuck because your friend is in the house? I never knew you were such a prude, Arthur."
"What?" Arthur asked, then remembered to lower his voice again. He rolled over so that he was facing Val, the hand that had been on his stomach sliding across his lower ribs and then down his spine, resting heavily at the small of his back. "That's not what this is. I just don't..."
He stared into Val's eyes, then at the faint creases that marked his forehead and turned down his mouth into something hard and a little cold, unrelenting and unforgiving. "Don't what, Arthur? Are you ashamed of me?"
"No!" Arthur gasped, almost silent for all that it was emphatic. "No, of course not. Why would you think that?" He held Val's gaze, like that would somehow help him to see into his head, work out where his words were coming from. It didn't, of course, and the only thing Arthur could think of to do was push gently at his shoulder until Val rolled onto his back, pulling his own t-shirt off and reaching to turn out the light before climbing on top of him.
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"I love you," Arthur groaned, voice hoarse, legs around Val's waist, one hand tangled in his hair, the other gripping the headboard behind his back. "I love you," he promised, Val's nails tracing lines along his spine, mouth pressed against his shoulder, not quite muffling his answering moans. "I love you."
(The worst part was that it was true. It would have been so much better if it wasn't)
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Merlin blushed his way through breakfast, vanishing almost immediately afterwards with some bullshit excuse. Val smirked. Arthur was pretty sure he knew exactly how a lamppost felt when a dog pissed on it.
He was territory, pure and simple, and Val couldn't have made it a whole lot plainer if he'd hung a sign around Arthur's neck saying hands off. It hurt, more than the realisation that Val had played him like a piano in order to thoroughly stake his claim.
"What," he said, as soon as the front door closed behind Merlin, "the fuck was that, Val?"
Val reached out to him, leaning across the table and tugging the collar of Arthur's shirt down a little to look at the fresh mark at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. "What the fuck do you think it was, Arthur?" he asked, sounding blasé, completely unbothered by Arthur's anger.
"You wanted him to hear us," Arthur accused, Val's lack of concern only making him more certain of this. "You planned it, as soon as you got back and found him here."
Val didn't even deny it, although Arthur hadn't really expected him to. Val wasn't always completely honest with him, obviously, but then Arthur wasn't entirely truthful himself sometimes, and neither of them bothered with outright lies, particularly not blatant ones. "So what if I did?" Val replied. "So your friend heard us have sex. It's not a big deal, Arthur. I'm fairly sure Merlin's slept with people, especially given all the things I've heard about Gwaine."
"Yeah, well, I'm fairly sure Gwaine doesn't make Merlin do anything with an audience."
"Make, Arthur?" Valiant repeated, and Arthur realised just how much of a mistake that sentence was. "Be very careful, love," he said, getting up from his seat at the breakfast table, voice low and dangerous. "Someone might take that as an accusation."
"I didn't mean that," Arthur said, rising as well, taking a step away from the table as Val circled around to stand next to him. "I didn't...that wasn't what I meant." And that was the second conversation like that in less than twelve hours, and Arthur wasn't at all happy with it. "Don't make this conversation into something that's my fault, Val, because it isn't." He didn't look away, even though in most conversations he probably would have done, because he wasn't going to let Val treat him like he was making accusations of rape in order to change the subject.
Val glared back at him, not backing down – he never did – but not moving any closer either. He nodded once, slowly, before speaking. "What was I supposed to do, Arthur? Do you really just expect me to put up with the way he looks at you?"
"Merlin doesn't look at me," Arthur denied, immediately and without thought. Merlin was his friend, nothing more, and Arthur was pretty damn sure Merlin didn't want to change that. And then he said what was probably the stupidest thing he'd ever said to Val, possibly to anyone, and really couldn't explain why he said it, or why it sounded so hopeful. "He doesn't, does he?"
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Light travelled faster than sound.
Arthur didn't remember much from physics lessons at school, but he remembered that.
Apparently, as he learned today, pain didn't.