Ehhh, so Gwaine's reaction just took up an entire chapter, meep! Sorry! Next chapter is definitely Morgana's!
Enjoy READING!
CHAPTER - 35
Arthur knew that if he knocked Gwaine would most likely not answer so he took his spare key from his jacket pocket, and then looked down at it in trepidation.
He told himself he had to resort to using Gwaine's key only because Gwaine wasn't answering his calls or text messages. He only wanted to clear things up, set things straight.
So saying he inserted the key into the lock and turned and the door gave way into a well-lit hall, Gwaine's apartment was considerably less grand than his but it was no dump either and Arthur moved carefully removing his shoes so that they wouldn't make a sound on the floor and alert Gwaine to his presence, thereby giving him enough time to ward himself off in the bathroom or something.
Still his luck ran out though as Gwaine walked into the hall with a can of coke clutched in one hand, he stopped short halfway between the adjoined kitchenette and the hall.
"Arthur, what are you doing here?"
Arthur frowned at the expression of near panic on Gwaine's face instead of the rage and anger he'd expected, instead of coming right at him with fists flying Gwaine looked this close to bolting out.
"Gwaine, you okay?"
That was not Arthur.
Arthur's eyes narrowed, Gwaine froze and Arthur noticed Gwaine's laptop perched on the small glass dining table and in five quick strides Arthur reached where Gwaine was standing still frozen before he realized what Arthur was doing and blocked him on the way to the lap top.
"Arthur! Damn it! Stop this."
"Why? What do you have to hide from me?" Arthur asked grinning now as he teased, "Are you having some live cam sex or something?"
Finally after a small tussle Arthur reached the lap top, Gwaine quick on his heels only to find himself staring at Percy.
Who as it turned out looked none too pleased to see him.
Arthur's fledgling amusement from a moment ago died a sad death as he reeled back and stared at Gwaine who didn't meet his eyes, instead he leaned forward and said "We'll talk later Perce, bye!"
And Arthur's flaring temper was incensed further when Percy winked and blew a kiss at Gwaine before saying "Later baby…" all sotto voice like he still had some claim to Gwaine, an ugly green vine took firm root in his belly, it's branches spreading and seizing as Percy's face finally disappeared from the screen.
The innocent blue Skype log blinkered at them both from the screen as Arthur's fists clenched in climbing fury and Gwaine finally stepped back and leaned against his kitchen counter, his posture screaming defiance, just daring Arthur to try and make this an issue.
Arthur turned to him, face carefully blank of any expression as he asked "How long?" with a certain contained calm, the anger just itching to break the surface and let loose unfettered.
Gwaine was all nonchalance as he took a sip from his coke, like he wasn't the least bit bothered. "What do you mean?"
Arthur gritted his teeth, a vein pulsed at his temple and Gwaine sucked his cheeks in and refused to be cowed, though he realized with all the years of knowing Arthur that he was this close to throwing punches.
"I meant" Arthur stated in clipped tones from where he was standing behind Gwaine's tiny dining table, "How long have you been going behind my back and talking to Percy?"
Gwaine snorted, no humor evident in his voice, he snapped "Going behind your back? What are you? My husband?"
Arthur head went back in bafflement, "What is that supposed to mean?"
Gwaine tilted his head and said still in that way too causal tone, "What it exactly does, you have no right to come in here and demand answers out of me for talking to a friend."
"FRIEND?" It was Arthur's turn to snort in derision, as he rounded the table and came to stand closer to Gwaine, "Is that what you want to call it now? That Percy is nothing but a friend?" Arthur made air quotes when he said the word friend, and then coming closer still he asked "Do you really expect me to believe that?"
Gwaine's lips twisted in a sneer before he said "I don't care whether you believe it or not, now is there a reason you broke into my apartment?"
Gwaine moved away, turning his back to Arthur and walking into his hall as Arthur followed close on his heels.
"Forget my fucking reason Gwaine, what the fuck are you doing talking to Percy?"
Ah! There was the childish petulant and totally hypocritical outburst Gwaine was waiting for.
"I've said it once and I'll say it again, it's none of your goddamn business!"
Arthur twisted Gwaine around with a hard bruising grip on his shoulder and now that he was facing Gwaine he exploded "Are you trying to cuckold me? Have you been talking to him this whole time? All this time when you said you loved me" Arthur's voice turned mocking and nasty at that and Gwaine shook himself away pushing Arthur's chest hard, making him stumble back a few steps.
"I'm not your fucking boyfriend Arthur! That was not your deal"
"THERE IS NO DEAL!" Arthur shouted and then when Gwaine opened his mouth again he spoke loudly over him, "You're mine, you've always been mine and I'll be damned if I ever let someone else near you again! NO MORE GWAINE, you hear me? No fucking more!"
Gwaine rocked back on his heels, his eyes narrowed and mouth parted halfway in want of something to say but knowing not what. What was he supposed to say to a declaration like that? Is this all the fucked up reciprocation he could hope to get from Arthur? Did he even want it?
Instead of all that though what he said was, "You have some guts coming here and yelling at me for talking to Percy after you advertised to the entire world that you're dating Merlin."
Arthur looked contrite only for a fraction of a second before he said "That was a misunderstanding, we were just hanging out as friends."
"You expect me to believe that? With your track record?" Gwaine echoed Arthur's earlier words and Arthur looked sheepish now, damn journalists, they were the worst pack of vultures in the world.
"You can't believe in the rot they write, you know better than that"
"DO I?"
"Yes." Arthur insisted hotly, and then more desperately he added, "I'm not dating Merlin, I'm not fucking Merlin and I'm certainly not cheating on you!" The 'like you' was obvious in Arthur's accusing stare.
"Oh yeah? So I'm just supposed to ignore the fact that you flaunted your boyfriend publicly, and take your word for it because you're just so trustworthy?" Gwaine's voice dripped with sarcasm.
"For the last fucking time, Merlin is not my boyfriend, and I'm not sleeping with him or marrying him or asking him to cross dress or whatever the fuck they've written about! IT'S ALL LIES!"
Gwaine was right in Arthur's face after that, "But you want to, you want to fuck Merlin, you want to fuck every living thing that moves and you're not going to stop! Not on my account at any rate, so what do you want from me Arthur?"
Arthur stopped stumped, this close to Gwaine Arthur could see the brown hue of his eyes, how in their anger the hazel color was swallowed up by the black, every tiny hair on Gwaine's neat stubble, his mouth pulled into a disconcerting frown, hair every which way shiny and begging to be run through and tugged like always, God's he was beautiful.
And Arthur may have said that out loud because Gwaine moved back surprise visible on his features and Arthur remembered wanting, wanting for so long, "I want you" he said honestly, and he'd never meant anything more.
Seeing Gwaine squalling and swaddled in Annis' arms nothing but a head full of downy hair and pinched cheeks visible and feeling so happy he was fit to burst, teaching him every single thing he knew from walking and talking to fencing and horse riding, always wanting to monopolize Gwaine's time and getting angry and downright unreasonable when Gwaine got closer to anyone else who was taking his attention away from Arthur, freaking out about wanting Gwaine in ways he knew he was not meant to want him, trying to loose himself in others to forget only to find himself succumbing to that ever present need, throbbing and persistent, Gwaine turning him away for all these years, all this time when he'd had to stand by and see so many people who were not him, touch, take, mark what was rightfully his.
"I want you" Arthur said again for good measure and closed the distance between them before Gwaine could say anything, he touched his lips to Gwaine's.
Gwaine sighed against Arthur's mouth insistently brushing tiny kitten licked kisses to his, the hell of the thing was that whenever Arthur was this close and intimate, Gwaine tended to forget exactly why it was a bad idea to let it continue, but not this time.
He put both his palms on Arthur's chest and pushed, taking himself back a few steps at Arthur's rather shocked look, his features twisted half way between anger and exasperation.
"That's not going to cut it Arthur."
"What?" Arthur said still smarting at having been pushed back once again by Gwaine.
"I'm not going to be some fuck buddy you can use and throw after you get bored with fucking me, so think…hard" Gwaine added crossing his arms, "What do you want from me?"
Arthur rolled his eyes skyward, thoroughly maddened he asked "When did you die and become Vivian in Pretty Woman?"
Gwaine didn't take the bait, except for a slight narrowing of his eyes he remained calm and collected as ever and Arthur threw his hands up in the air.
A minute passed where neither of them said anything, Arthur intently staring at a point on the wall in Gwaine's flat, Gwaine observing the hard eyed stare with his arms crossed feeling on the edge of a precipice.
And then all Arthur said was "I don't want to fuck Merlin."
Gwaine hissed, "You can't even talk to me without bringing his name into it!"
Arthur sighed, "I'm here, trying to explain myself to you, and I've never so much as bothered with a morning after good bye before."
"Is that supposed to make me feel special?" Gwaine snapped.
"YES!" Arthur shouted while Gwaine's eyes widened in indignation.
"Oh! And let's just the forget the ring that you bought for Merlin, not to mention the date that you took him on where you claim not to have even fucked him."
"I didn't buy a ring for Merlin" Arthur said his patience with this whole debacle stretching thin, "And Merlin asked me! I didn't, I swear."
"Oh that's so much better, you went out with Merlin because he asked you!"
"Yes!" Arthur said, and then after a beat, "I mean NO! It wasn't like that."
Gwaine turned and threw his hands in the air, "I'm done with you!" he shouted.
When he almost ran for the bedroom however Arthur put a firm hand around his shoulders and turned him about.
Gwaine's face was pinched with fury and Arthur said it all out in one breath, "He asked me for help to buy a birthday present for Morgana because he's a clueless berk, so I did. That's all that it was about. Some stupid reporter saw it fit to write lies as soon as they saw me together with a man. We're not dating, we're not sleeping together, the only person I want to fuck in the entire world right now is you!"
Gwaine deadpanned, "Am I not ever so lucky?" he asked putting all the scorn he felt into it as he turned and marched into his bedroom slamming the door closed in Arthur's face as he did.
And Arthur was so confounded he screamed "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
He heard a muffled 'get out' from Gwaine on the other side of the door. He could kick the thing down, he thought getting angrier and angrier. Why was Gwaine being so unreasonable about this? Arthur wasn't the one courting ex-boyfriends here! He had no right to talk!
He fumed for ten minutes straight and when his anger didn't cool in the slightest after that Arthur shouted "I'm staying right here Gwaine!"
The room was silent, Arthur huffed, "GWAINE! Open the bloody door, you're acting childish."
There was a loud snort, for the benefit of Arthur's ears from the other side of the door.
"I can break this door down and you know it!"
Again silence and Arthur put his hands in hair and pulled, and then stopped when his hand came away with a few of his precious blond locks.
"Do you think I won't do it?" Arthur shouted again staring at the door broodingly.
Silence.
Arthur gave a strong kick to the door, not intending for it to break but pretty hard enough to get the message across.
And the response was immediate, "Don't you dare, or I'll run straight back to Percy in America!"
"Are you blackmailing me?"
"Don't like being in a position of disadvantage much do you?"
"You'll hate America anyway."
"I loved the Hamptons!" Gwaine insisted hotly and Arthur could feel his ire even through the door and he grinned as he lowered himself on the ground and leaned back against the door, stupid Gwaine. His trousers were bespoke Ralph Lauren and Gwaine was making him sit on the floor like a common plebian, him Arthur Pendragon, CEO of Pendragon Corps at the impressive age of twenty seven.
"American's have no polo, football or cricket!"
"I'll pick up baseball."
"No you wouldn't!" Arthur retorted.
"Gwaine…baby…come on, open the goddamn door."
"Why?" Gwaine's voice sounded soft and unsure and Arthur had to strain his ears to hear it. He was wearing Gwaine down, finally.
Arthur sat up straighter and asked "What do you mean why?"
"I mean why do you want me to open the door Arthur….have you figured out an answer?"
"An answer to what?" Arthur asked turning to look at the door dubiously wishing Gwaine could see his face right now.
"Go home Arthur" was what Gwaine said instead of answering and Arthur groaned.
"It's late, I'm taking the couch."
"Whatever…"
"Sure you don't want to generously share your bed with me?" Arthur asked injecting a note of suggestion in it.
Gwaine snorted loudly again, "I'm not sleeping with you."
"I promise not to touch you" Arthur said crossing his fingers as he did, like hell he wasn't going to, if Gwaine just opened the damn door, then Arthur was sure he could make him forget all about this stupid misunderstanding. Then instead of all the irritated arguments, he could hear something he actually wanted to hear from Gwaine's mouth, mainly his name as he fucked Gwaine into oblivion on his bed. He should have grabbed Gwaine and buggered him silly straight away, all this talking had accomplished nothing.
"Good-bloody-night Arthur! Kick the door and I call the cops."
"Leaves no room for misunderstanding, does he?" Arthur muttered to himself before getting to his feet and making his way towards the couch in the hall, switching off lights as he did.