ten

It hadn't been Arthur's idea for a fancy dress party. The last fancy dress party he'd been to was at the age of five. Some well meaning aunt had dressed him up in a hideous rabbit costume, sending him too a friend's house with a large present and a quivering bottom lip. But once he'd got there and seen all the other children, most in even worse costumes than him, he'd cheered up immensely and eaten far to much jelly and ice cream and had been copiously sick.

Seventeen years later things really hadn't changed, but this time he had Merlin. He was leaning against the banisters, Arthur wasn't sure if Merlin was watching him hob nob with his peers and equals, but it was a nice feeling. He grinned over at the young man over the head of the pretty blond supermodel; Merlin returned the grin, nodding at the women. Leering, in a way that Arthur supposed was supposed to imitate him. Arthur had to stifle his laugh.

Merlin was happy just watching, holding silent wordless conversations with Arthur. Part of him knew he should be jealous watching Arthur turn on the charm, but he wasn't. In these moments he really didn't think they did need to 'talk' later. They'd barely known each other for a month but it felt as they'd known each other for a life time, but not this life time.... Merlin shook his head, of course they did, but he'd been fooled before. If Arthur really was who everyone thought he was perhaps...this time...

Morgana looked up and caught Merlin's eye, perhaps catching the confusion of his mind. She made towards him but someone got there first.

"Merlin Emrys, please to finally meet you."

Merlin stepped back from the bright smile and hand extended for him to shake, the long fingernails reminding him an animals blooded claws.

"Err...sure, please to meat you too miss..."

"Yasmina, please, Yasmina Perry-Bentley. You must be Arthur's new flatmate."

It was a statement not a question; Merlin cast his mind back, wondering where he'd seen that name before.

"Have we met before?"

She laughed and shook her head, Merlin half expected him to ruffle his hair. "No! So tell me, does Arthur snore, we're all dying to know."

"How should I know?" he searched the crowd for Arthur, Morgana having gone AWOL on the way to rescue him. But his knight in shining armour was in an intent discussion with a man Merlin had seen, only just recently, accepting the Nobel peace prize.

"Oh come on Merlin." Yasmina smiled predatorily "its okay, you can tell me! Everyone in the office thinks its wonderful Arthurs finally found a partner and you..."

"Hang on." Merlin snapped. "Arthur isn't gay!"

"Of course not, officially." She winked conspiratorial, he eyes unquestionably full of hunger for a good story.

"But it's obvious you and him."

"Miss Perry-Bentley."

They both looked up at Morgana. She had a bag of Doritos in one hand, a bowl of Guacamole in the other. She looked like she'd want nothing better than to smash the bowl over Yasmina's head.

She squeezed Merlin's hand, reacting to the startled rabbit look in his eyes.

"Still looking for rumours for that rag of yours?"

Yasmina puffed herself up like a cobra, a cobra with sickly sweet venom.

"The News of the…"

"Whatever," Morgana dismissed her and turned to Merlin, "Thought you might want to try some of this."

But the journalist hadn't finished, "I hope you enjoyed yourself travelling, Miss Pendragon. Your brother must have missed you?"

Morgana clenched her fist and Yasmina smiled even sweeter "Poor thing, he has had such a hard time recently, all the rumours of alcoholism and the like in the papers it so…"

"And who started the rumours?" Morgana hissed.

Merlin had to physically hold Morgana back. "Don't rise to her." He thought pleadingly. She nodded, she'd heard.

Yasmina laughed, and to the casual observer you would have thought she was the witch, "You both must be such a disappointment to Uther Pendragon, a Gypsy daughter and a son that can't stop hitting the bottle and on other men…"

Merlin dropped the seer's hand suddenly, her palms had suddenly got hot and a spark had nearly ignited his cuff.

He ran after her as she ran through the door to the entrance hall. Before he'd caught up someone grabbed him from the dark corner. Merlin whirled round, half expecting it to be the journalist. He found himself inches from Arthur's face. He'd been close enough all the time and seen the whole thing.

"I heard."

Merlin bit his lip, "is it true?" he blurted without thinking. "Sorry that isn't polite, I meant..."

"It doesn't matter to me what they think."

Merlin nodded, "Good."

Arthur smiled and tried to lighten the mood. "Be careful with Morgana. She set fire to my phone once."

Merlin's eyebrows went skyward. "She set fire…"

"Yeah, well not really. She was shouting at me down the line and at that moment it must have short circuited, that was the only explanation anyway. Nearly burnt my hand."

Merlin filed this away in the bulging draw in the forefront of his mind titled 'things to ask Morgana later'.

"This 'talk'," Arthur started, but Merlin interrupted with a light finger on his lip. It was strange how that bare inch of skin made his hopes soar.

"I'll come and find you."

Arthur nodded. "Sometimes it feels…" he shook his head in frustration of not finding the right words.

"It sometimes feels like I know what you're going to say or do or think the split second before you do. Like I've known you all my life."

"No," Merlin murmured "Like I've known you for a lifetime I can't remember."

From the balcony Morgana watched Merlin squeeze Arthurs hand and slide out the door, waving to her. Arthur's eyes watched him go, the azure depths unreadable and unsure.

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You know the drill, review pretty please. I'll add the next chapter quicker...