Gay Goth

The day following the locker room mishap Arthur didn't talk to Merlin at all. Merlin was worried that he'd pushed Arthur too far, but it didn't seem like Arthur was angry with him so he decided to wait it out instead of jumping to conclusions.

He didn't have to wait long because the next day Arthur came to him. While at Camelot. With other people around. He just came up to Merlin smiled and said, "Hey, you." like it was something they did every day and Merlin was so surprised that he just stared at him.

Arthur looked back at him with a raised eyebrow but then realized Merlin wasn't going to say anything back and went on, "I wanted to talk to you."

Merlin's brain finally came back online and he said, "I didn't hear from you at all yesterday... I thought you might be mad at me."

"Mad? No. I was just thinking things through."

"Things?"

Arthur looked at him for a long moment before saying, "I don't think it has anything to do with you being a guy."

Merlin figured he had to be misunderstanding what Arthur meant. Apart from the topic, he was being extremely forward which didn't reflect Arthur's behavior at all. He had to mean something else. "What?" Merlin asked, figuring Arthur would prove him right and explain himself, meaning something completely different than what Merlin was thinking he meant.

"The fact that you're a guy," Arthur repeats slowly, giving Merlin an intense look, "I don't think that has anything to do with why I'm freaking out. Well... it might be a small part, but it's not the main part."

Merlin blinked at him, completely silent.

"Don't tell me I've finally left you speechless."

"It's not because I'm a guy?" Merlin asked dumbly.

Arthur gave him a desperate look like he was talking to a child, Merlin didn't blame him, before going on to say, "I've never dated anyone, and the idea of being that close to someone kind of freaks me out. I don't think you being a guy is even factoring into the equation much, if at all."

Merlin let it all sink in and well... holy shit. Wasn't Merlin supposed to be some kind of genius or something, cause he hadn't seen this coming at all. He thought for sure that this was all some big-gay-crisis stuff going down, and Arthur goes and drops this bombshell. Sure Merlin had known that Arthur wasn't close to many people and thought that it could cause him to be a little closed off in a relationship, but he had never considered that it had made him completely closed off to relationships all together.

Merlin took a deep breath and looked at Arthur, who was looking back at him with an expression that said if he didn't respond soon he was going to hit him or storm off, possibly both.

"Arthur..." He hoped desperately that the words that were about to come out of his mouth would be helpful, but Merlin wasn't exactly convinced that his mouth was connected to his brain right now. "I'm glad that I was wrong about the reason. And I can completely understand the real reason, and it's okay." Merlin smiled softly at him, trying to soften the mood. "And if the idea of being with me ever stops terrifying you... just let me know, okay? I'll still be here." Merlin looked directly into his eyes, hoping he wasn't pushing it, "But... could you just think about something until then?"

Arthur's expression during Merlin's little speech had changed from the near angry one it had been before to the one of complete amazement it was now. He nodded his head absently and said, "Yeah, yeah I can do that."

Merlin took a deep breath, hoped he wasn't jumping to conclusions, then said, "I know you. Better than anyone else in the entire world... Just keep that in mind while you're freaking out about the idea of being close to someone, yeah?"

Arthur looked surprised and Merlin desperately hoped that what he'd just said hadn't come across wrong because it'd sounded a little too rude to his own ears. Merlin was relieved when Arthur simply said, "I can definitely keep that in mind," and smiled before walking away.

REFERENCES

how the turn tables -The Office US

"I know you. Better than anyone else in the entire world." -Supernatural [Emilia; ik this is one of your fav quotes, babe, so I jumped at the chance to use it. #bfffff]