Disclaimer-I do not own Merlin, it's so heartbreaking *tear*

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Chapter 11-Nothing

As Merlin walked down the road that would lead him onto Arthur's street he tried to muster up the will to be angry at the blonde but was unsuccessful. He didn't feel like fighting and screaming nor did he feel like crying. In fact, he didn't feel very much at all.

However as he walked up the Pendragon drive and banged his fist on the door he clearly felt the pain in his knuckles from knocking so hard.

The door was opened by a man Merlin assumed to be Arthur's father. He looked incredibly stern and gave off a sense of power and authority much like a king.

"Is Arthur at home?" Merlin asked not quite managing to keep his tone completely civil.

"What business do you have with my son?" Uther retorted. His tone was cold and menacing but Merlin could detect Mr. Pendragon's care and protection for his son.

"We go to college together." Merlin answered. "I was hoping Arthur could help me with an essay."

"Is that so?" Uther asked looking down on the boy on his doorstep. "Then why do you not have any books with you?"

Merlin faltered and mentally kicked himself at his flawed lie. Of course, deception had never been something Merlin was good at. He valued honesty too much to ever be an accomplished liar.

"Is he in or not?" Merlin asked trying to sound polite though he was sure he just sounded rude.

"Uther darling who is it?" A soft voice asked.

A few moments later the speaker joined her husband at the doorstep.

"Oh, hello young man. How can we help?" Ygraine asked gently as she smiled at Merlin.

Arthur's mother was very pretty in a delicate kind of way. She had the same blonde hair as her son only hers was longer. Arthur had also inherited his mother's high cheekbones.

"I'm here to see Arthur miss." Merlin answered her respectfully.

"He's in his room love, go right on up." Ygraine told him forcing her husband to move out of the way so Merlin could pass. "First door on the left." She instructed.

"Thank you." He replied graciously as he made his way up the stairs.

As he neared the landing he could hear Arthur strumming his guitar as well as singing a song completely off-key and very badly out of tune.

"I see why Morgana's the singer in the band and not you." Merlin said and a startled Arthur whipped his head around to find him stood in the doorway.

"Merlin." He exclaimed sounding pleased to see him. He gently set his guitar down and ran a hand through his blonde hair before smiling at his visitor. "I wasn't expecting to see you."

"Arthur!" Ygraine's voice called from the bottom of the stairs. "Your father and I are popping out; we'll be back in an hour or two."

"Ok mum." Arthur replied before listening to the sounds of shuffling feet then the slam of the front door. "So what's up?" Arthur asked returning his attention to Merlin.

"Just thought I'd come round." Merlin shrugged as he looked about Arthur's room.

One of his walls was covered in posters all depicting the vampire Spike from the T.V series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

"You're a fan I take it?" Merlin asked gesturing to the Spike wall.

Arthur just grinned in response as he watched the other boy walk about his room. Merlin picked up a unicorn figurine from off of a shelf and turned it about in his hands looking at it from every angle.

"Morgana made it for me." Arthur informed him. "Years ago."

Without a word, Merlin placed the unicorn back where he'd got it from before browsing through Arthur's bookshelf. The blonde didn't strike him as much of a reader but the bindings on every book showed that they had clearly been read on more than one occasion. All the Harry Potter's were amongst Arthur's collection along with a number of books by Stephen King and Dan Brown. Merlin also spotted Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as well as what seemed to be Roahl Dahl's entire works.

Turning away from the pieces of literature that could easily transport him to another place if he cared to lose himself within the words, Merlin instead faced Arthur and the cruel reality of their situation.

He crossed the beige carpet and crawled onto Arthur's unmade bed. He shifted about in it a little testing out how comfy it was.

"Is this where you planned to seduce me?" Merlin asked as he propped his head up and landed his blue gaze on Arthur. "Or was it my bed you planned to fuck me in?"

Those two questions froze Arthur's heart and made his insides squirm with guilt and his face burn with shame.

"Well Arthur?" Merlin asked. "I'd like to know."

Merlin did not raise his voice. He delivered his words with an air of calm which only served to make Arthur feel worse. The blonde would have preferred it if the other teen had shouted. Anger was something he could understand, he and his father were forever at one another's throats so anger was an emotion he could easily respond to. Tears and a tone of hurt and betrayal would also have been understandable and Arthur could probably even handle that.

But Merlin's lack of emotion, that was torture. There was no feeling in the other boy's words at all. The words were empty, dead and Arthur couldn't stand to hear them.

"How would you have taken me?" Merlin questioned when Arthur didn't respond. "Would you have fucked me like this so you could see my face?" Merlin then moved to position himself on his hands and knees. "Or would you have fucked me like a dog?"

The blonde could only stare at Merlin wordlessly as he slowly shook his head.

"So how much was I worth?" Merlin asked standing up to face Arthur and the blonde was relieved to hear a bit of anger creeping in to the other boy's voice. "Well come on Arthur tell me. How much was getting your dick in my ass worth to you? How much did winning my love mean to you?"

"Morgana." Arthur finally choked out. "She told you."

"Yeah." Merlin confirmed as he stared hard at Arthur who could not bring himself to make eye contact. "I guess she felt guilty about keeping secrets. Now answer my fucking question. How much was I worth?"

"One hundred pounds." Arthur answered in a small voice.

"That's it?" Merlin scoffed before letting out a humorless laugh. "One hundred pounds, is that all I'm worth to you?"

"Of course not." Arthur told him desperately. "That bet was stupid and cruel and I wasn't thinking properly when I made it but…when I got to know I didn't care about the bet anymore I cared about you."

"Shut up." Merlin sneered. "And stop looking at me like I just killed your pet dog or something for fuck sake. You're the bad guy here not me."

"Ok, ok I'm the bad guy." Arthur agreed. "But Merlin…"

The blonde continued to speak but Merlin wasn't even listening. He was pacing the length of Arthur's room up and down with his hands over his ears. Out of the corner of his eye he could make Arthur out and saw that his mouth was opening and closing but he could not hear the words that sounded from it. There was a whistling noise clogging up Merlin's brain, like a kettle about to boil. His vision was becoming cloudy and blurry as if he was looking at everything through a thick fog. Suddenly he felt far too hot so he shrugged off his jacket and dropped it somewhere on Arthur's floor. His t-shirt came off next.

"Merlin, what are you doing?" Arthur asked as he took hold of his arm to cease his movements.

After blinking a couple of times everything came back into focus and he could hear clearly again, as if someone had switched the sound back on. He surveyed Arthur in silence for a while before striking him in the face with his fist as he had done the first day he'd met him.

Releasing a yelp of pain, Arthur staggered backwards clutching his aching jaw. He'd barely had time to fully register what happened before Merlin hit him again.

"You're disgusting." Merlin spat at him as he shoved the blonde against the wall with enough force for Arthur to bash his head. "Pathetic. Fight back you heartless piece of shit. Fight back!"

For someone so slender and so innocent looking, Merlin really knew how to put up a fight. The boy was definitely stronger than he looked and the force of each blow felt like being hit by a hammer.

"I said fight back!" Merlin yelled as he gripped Arthur's throat and smashed his head against the wall again.

With gentle yet firm hands, Arthur pulled Merlin's hand away from his neck and forced the other boy away from him.

"I don't want to fight you." Arthur wheezed as he wiped his bloody lip on his shirt sleeve.

Merlin made to thump Arthur again but this time the blonde caught his arm and then twisted it around his back.

"Calm down." Arthur told him. "Just let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain." Merlin hissed as he wriggled and squirmed trying to get out of Arthur's hold. "You're a sick twisted bastard who wanted to fuck with my heart just like you did to Leon."

Arthur let the struggling teen go and Merlin overbalanced before tumbling to the floor. He picked himself up and lashed his body around to face Arthur again.

"You wouldn't have won the bet anyway." Merlin told him as he stepped close to the blonde so as to whisper in his ear. "As if I could fall in love with someone like you. You're nothing."

That said, Merlin snatched his top and jacket off the floor before leaving the room and pulling the garments back on as he walked down the stairs leaving Arthur rooted to the spot in his bedroom with Merlin's final words echoing in his head again and again.

"I'm nothing." Arthur whimpered before his legs gave way and he collapsed to the floor.

Turning his head, he caught his reflection in his full-length mirror. He his face was covered in blood, some already dried and some still wet and flowing. There was an angry red handprint staining the flesh of his throat from where Merlin had been strangling him. His bottom lip was two times fatter than it ought to be and his right eye was starting to swell. It was also obvious that he'd be sporting several bruises for a few days.

"I'm nothing." He repeated brokenly as he looked in disgust at his bloodied battered form.

To Be Continued

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