"If there's one thing your father isn't, it's a fool." Merlin said as he switched channels on the television.

"Apparently," sighed Arthur. "Between Gwen asking for the city hall blueprints, your association with her, our friendship and your resignation, he worked it out."

"Did you confirm it with him?" Gwen passed Arthur a glass of coke before settling down next to him on the sofa. "Do we really have to watch this?"

"It's the finals. I need to know who wins Camelot Sings. And it's my house."

Gwen laughed. "Is he always like this?"

"A literal dictator at home," said Arthur solemnly. "And to answer your question, when he confronted me, it was as if I went back to being that little boy who's petrified of his father."

"And? You told him everything?"

Arthur scoffed. "Of course not. It was basically, deny, deny, deny."

Next to him, he felt Gwen relax and sink into the sofa. "Good."

"You do realize that he will find out for sure on Wednesday. Bids are public. Then there's the presentations." Merlin dragged his attention from the television to say. "I am so glad last Friday was my last day."

As they sat watching the recap of each finalist's journey through the competition, Arthur found his mind wandering. Singing competitions weren't really his thing. They were, however, very much Merlin's thing. The rest of dinner with his Dad went by with the usual amount of stiltedness. Once possible, Arthur steered the conversation to art and sports – two things his Dad enjoyed debating about. By the end of dinner, his Dad had even smiled somewhat fondly at him and told him to come by again. Arthur had returned the smile, stopping himself from pointing out that his Dad had essentially thrown him out of the family home. No, that wasn't completely true. He had, during the fight, in a huff, declared that he no longer wanted to live there anymore.

Merlin suddenly sat up straight. "Look! Can you believe the judges gave Jacintha such high scores? It's all rigged, I tell you."

"Everything is rigged on television," said Gwen mildly. "And I thought she sang well."

"Not that well." Merlin folded his arms and slumped into the sofa. "I voted for Gideon."

A timer went off and Gwen hopped off the sofa. "Pies are warmed."

"I'll help," said Arthur as he stood as well. "Merlin is boring company anyway."

"I heard that! Don't forget you're living here rent free."

Gwen laughed, her pony tail bouncing as she darted into Merlin's kitchen. Once inside, she picked up the bright orange over mitts and opened the oven. "Get the plates."

Bossy, thought Arthur. That went into the negative list – although in all honesty, the two sides of the lists had now merged into one long list of being Gwen.

"Plates, Arthur."

Obediently, Arthur grabbed three plates from the cupboards and laid them out on the counter just as she turned and placed the oven tray down. The delicious scent of her pies tickled Arthur's nose.

"Angel of pies," he murmured.

"What?" She looked up, pushing stray hair off her face. "What did you say?"

Arthur grinned. "I said you're an angel of pies."

Gwen opened, the closed her mouth. He could tell she was stifling a smile. "Angel of pies huh? That's - well - that's unique."

Reaching out, he tucked her stray hair behind her ear. "You're unique."

And there it was again, that strange tension, curling around them like a warm blanket, twisting around them and pulling him towards her. It made it hard for him to look away from her and for that brief moment, she was the only one in focus. Arthur wondered if Gwen felt it too, this attraction, or if it was just him. But unlike him, she didn't seem caught up in the moment, swatting his hand from her hair and rolling her eyes at him.

It was probably just him and this was the result of spending long hours with her. He really should call Elena back.

Carefully, picking up one pie, Gwen placed it on one of the plates. Her eyes focused on the pie, she suddenly said, "Gwaine asked me for dinner on Thursday. Like a proper date."

"What?"

"Don't sound so surprised. Some people think I'm attractive." Another pie was placed on another plate.

"I'm just wondering if you should be mixing work and pleasure."

Gwen made a rude gesture at him, then eased the last pie onto a plate. "I like him. He's charming and nice."

"Nice," smirked Arthur. "Someone needs a dictionary."

This time, she smacked his shoulder, then pushed two plates to him. "I said yes, but I'm nervous. It's been a while since I've been on a date."

"Why are you telling me?" Arthur asked as he took the two plates.

"Because I thought we were friends. And this is what friends talk about." She picked up the other plate and the bowl of salad Merlin had prepared earlier. "And Merlin is completely apathetic about romance and dating."

Arthur smiled. "That he is. So why are you nervous?"

"Why is who nervous?" Merlin called from the sofa.

Crossing over to him, Arthur shoved a plate at him. "Gwen is going on a date and she's nervous."

"Oh! I'm sure whoever it is would love Gwen. Even Arthur likes you now."

Arthur could see the amusement in Gwen's eyes. "Even Arthur? Why, Arthur, I thought I'd charmed you from the get go."

"Anyway, Merlin is right. There's no reason to be nervous. Gwaine obviously likes you already if he's asking you out." He settled back on the sofa, pressing his fork into the pie. "Just be yourself."

"So says the guy with women throwing themselves at him," muttered Gwen.

"What women?" Arthur shifted forward to look at Gwen who sat on Merlin's other side.

"I mean you're Arthur Pendragon, surely women are crawling out of the woodwork to date you."

"Maybe before it got splashed all over the newspapers about how I left the company." He took a bite of pie. Yummy as usual. "People generally don't want to cross my Dad."

Gwen groaned. "And I smartly got involved with you and your family."

"Me too," said Merlin around a mouthful of pie.

"Hey, we're doing something worthwhile here. Anyway, it's too late for you two to back out now."

Both Gwen and Merlin made indistinct noises. Applause erupted on the television and the three of them directed their attention back to Camelot Sings.

"I have an idea," said Gwen suddenly. "We could make it a double date."

"What? Arthur and I with you and Gwaine?" Merlin asked. After a brief pause, Merlin grinned. "It could be fun."

"I am not pretending to be your date," said Arthur. "That's a ridiculous idea."

Merlin shot him a mock hurt look. "Why not?"

"Because – because you're not my type."

Gwen laughed. "What is your type?"

"Not skinny, big eared, I-don't-see-the-point-of-romance Merlin," said Arthur huffily. "And if you mean double date with Elena, then I guess I could ask her. I don't understand why you're so nervous anyway. It's not like you've not spent time with Gwaine before."

Privately, Arthur thought that if Gwaine didn't realize how great Gwen was, it was his loss. Because despite his first impressions of her, Gwen had grown on him and while he'd never tell her because she would never let him live it down, he was very fond of her. As a friend, that is.

"That was work. It's different. What if we have nothing to talk about? What if I say something wrong?"

Merlin shook his head. "Dating is overrated. And apparently so much trouble. Where's the phone? I need to vote for Gideon again."

Arthur, Merlin and Sarah arrived at Gwen's house early in the morning the next day.

"Sorry," said Arthur. "I know we have a lot to do today but Morgana's babysitter had a family emergency."

"It's no problem," said Gwen as she took Sarah from Arthur. "I was up earlier and made some final adjustments to the design. Shall we go take a look? Hello Sarah. Have you missed me?"

Arthur stood at the door as Gwen pressed her face into Sarah's neck, laughing when Sarah clutched at her hair. She blew Sarah a kiss, then made her way to her office. Something tugged at his heart.

"Hey." Merlin elbowed him. "Have you forgotten how to move? Or close your mouth?"

Arthur blinked. "I was just thinking of Elena."

"Huh. Well, stop it because tomorrow the deadline and we still have a lot of loose ends to tie up."

In the office, Gwen had brought out her nephew's highchair and deposited Sarah in it. When Arthur passed Sarah her favourite toy, she was sufficiently amused for them to leave her alone.

"Right, what changes have you made?"

Gwen spread out her blueprint on her worktable. On it was the familiar design that they'd discussed over the past few weeks. His first instincts were right – Gwen was an excellent architect. But more than that, she was an excellent architect with a love for Camelot and her history.

Her pencil popped into her mouth again. "Here, take a look at this. I've decided to keep the stairs and to make up for the loss in retail space, I thought that we could shift some things around. So."

Taking the pencil from her between her lips, Gwen spoke of the changes she had made and wanted to make, her pencil caressing the paper. Arthur watched the sweep of her arm as she drew, the passion in her voice and the way her eyes sparkled and the completely irrelevant thought of how she'd never seemed more beautiful entered his mind. Merlin was caught up in Gwen's enthusiasm, scribbling down notes in that battered note book he carted around and neither of them noticed when Arthur muttered something about getting a drink and disappearing out of the room.

As he walked to the kitchen, Arthur let out a long breath. What was wrong with him and all these strange thoughts and feelings about Gwen? He rubbed the back of his neck, then took a glass from her sink - messy woman didn't even bother to put her things back into the cupboards - filled it with cold water and gulped as much as he could down. Swiping a hand across his mouth, he told himself to get a grip. Once they submitted their bid, he could get some space. For a while at least.

Crying jolted him out of his thoughts and Arthur dashed back into the office.

Merlin had Sarah in his arms and he was rubbing her back but Sarah was having none of that. The moment she spotted Arthur, she cried even louder and reached for him. Quickly Arthur crossed over and took her from Merlin.

"Did something happen?"

"No. I think she's hungry? Or she needs a diaper change."

"I'll deal with her."

Back in the kitchen again, Sarah crying in one arm, Arthur heated up her food.

"Sweetheart, don't cry, alright? Food will be coming, hmm?" As he talked, he paced the small kitchen. "Just a while more."

While Sarah was no longer wailing, she was still sobbing. The microwave beeped and Arthur took out her warmed mashed peas.

Sitting on a stool, Arthur put her on his lap and peered down into her red-tinged eyes and tear streaked cheeks. Lifting a spoon of mash to her mouth, he continued talking. "Alright sweetie. Let's talk ok? Let me ask you a question – do you like Gwen? Hmm?"

Sarah gurgled as she gulped down a spoonful of mash.

"No. You cannot feed yourself. I learnt that lesson already." Arthur lifted another spoonful to her lips. "Do you think Grandpa will be mad that I lied to him?"

Sarah babbled more nonsense.

"You're right. He's going to be so mad. But you know what? He thinks I can't do anything without him. Well, we'll show him. Gwen's designs are gorgeous and Merlin, well, he's Merlin and he's worked hard to make the whole thing profitable. So we'll be fine."

Her sticky hand wrapped around his wrist. Arthur smiled down at here and shook his head. "How do you get so much food around your mouth?"

In response to Arthur wiping her mouth, Sarah beamed gummily. Then, with surprising agility, lunged for the spoon. "You naughty girl," laughed Arthur.

Arthur read the proposal once more. He'd already read it for what seemed to be a million times. But it had to be perfect and Arthur wasn't sure that it was. Although with his eyes feeling like sandpaper and his head aching, he was doubtful that this read through was going to be of any use. With a sigh, he sipped at his now cold coffee. Sprawled on Gwen's oversized armchair was Merlin, his head at an angle that would surely result in a neck ache the next day. In his hand, he held his trusty notebook. Then Arthur turned to look at the sofa he was leaning against.

Gwen was stretched out on the sofa, her top had run up so Arthur could see a strip of dark flesh just above the waist band of her shorts. He watched in fascination as her stomach rose and fell as she breathed. His eyes slowly drifted up to her face. Her lips were slightly open and her eye lashes fell against her cheeks. The light from the table lamp fell on her, giving her that angelic glow once more. Again he felt an odd tug at his heart.

He quickly turned away and ran a hand over his face. It was close to three in the morning. Their alarm was going off in about four hours and Arthur was still not asleep. Gwen had given him a blanket but her floor was hard and his mind was too full of the proposal and the many ways he could make it better.

Gwen stirred.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"What's the time?"

"Almost three. You should sleep in your bed."

Yawning, Gwen stood unsteadily. Her top fell, covering her stomach. "Yeah. You should get some sleep as well. We've done all we can."

Arthur smiled up at her. "I will."

Her returning smile was sleepy. Reaching down, she touched his shoulder gently, sending a slight shiver through him. "Good night, Arthur."

"Good night, Gwen."