Merlin strummed his guitar, not aggressively, but very passionately, as his phone sat propped up on unused school books and a hair thing the dog had stolen from Morgana to chew on. Arthur watched, from the small screen of the phone, nodding along. Merlin was showing him the cords to a song, a song...actually, that Merlin himself had written. Arthur seemed very impressed by this.

"That sounds great," he said, after Merlin had finished. Though, still strummed along, to whatever beat was going on in his head. Merlin, over the course of a month had learned to play the guitar, much faster than he ever thought possible, and finding much more joy in it than he ever thought he would. He honestly loved playing, or making sounds, he even found himself at school thinking of strings he wanted to try and not only that, but because he started to come up with his own tunes, he had also started to write words to go along with them. He would assume those weren't very good, he hadn't showed anyone the words yet...he didn't think he was a very good singer, he had only ever taken choir, and never got a solo or anything. "I wish I was that talented..."

"Oh, shut up!" retorted Merlin at this, strumming the guitar loudly in protest. "You can play piano-"

"But so can you..."

"-And you can kick a ball much further."

"That part's true, I am pretty great at that," said Arthur, with a smirk. Merlin smiled at this, shaking his head. "It's like I'm a god..."

"Wow..." said Merlin, but he could not find any true, real, annoyance in Arthur's words. He more just found it to be funny. "Stop, before you get a big head..."

"I came out of the womb with a big head, the doctor's had to use a plunger," Arthur made the motion of...plunging and Merlin closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Gross, stop!"

But just then, his bedroom door burst open and in walked his mother. Hair done up in curlers and looking quite annoyed. "Merlin, stop playing with that toy and go to sleep!" she shouted. "I hate that thing! grow up!" She stormed right back out and Merlin paused, for a second, before turning back to Arthur, and strumming, and okay maybe a little quieter this time, the chords to the song he had thought up.

"What a lovely woman," Arthur rolled his eyes. "Not fake in the slightest."

"I'm going to ask her tomorrow if I can sing a song at the wedding," said Merlin, without thinking. He had been thinking about it for awhile, but he hadn't expressed that to anyone yet, and really...Arthur was the best one to run it passed. Arthur looked at him for a full minute, before replying.

"Why?" he asked. "It's a fake marriage."

"I know, but..." Merlin muttered, feeling a little bashful about it. "I just...I want to show how...I don't know, I'm much happier here than I thought I'd be. And I work so hard on these songs I make and I want to share it...at least one of them."

"I think you should," said Arthur, smiling. "If it means something to you...it's cute."

"It's not cute!" said Merlin, scrunching his face up. "That's rude!"

"It is, you're such a good son, Merlin," chided Arthur, making kissy faces. "You wuv'em sooo much!"

"I hate you..." Merlin trailed off and set his guitar down, picking up his phone and walking over to his bed. It was already midnight, luckily, it was Saturday, so he didn't have school. "She's going to say no, I know she will..."

"Fuck her, do it anyway," said Arthur, baby voice gone now. "I wouldn't even tell her, just whatever band they pick."

"I want her blessing though, I don't want her getting mad at me."

Merlin laid down in his bed, above the covers and watched Arthur in the screen, he had been laying in his bed the whole call, under a red duvet that looked very comfortable.

"I can call my dad and talk him into it," said Arthur, after a long moment. "If they want my sperm, they're gonna do what I say."

"No," Merlin shook his head. "I want to be in control of it, I need to handle my own problems. If she says no, I'll just talk her into it somehow."

"Are you sure?" offered Arthur. "I'm very persuasive..."

"I'm sure you are..." Merlin rolled his eyes, but they grew heavy and he wanted to close them soon.

"I've persuade many people right out of their panties..."

"Please...no...I'm tired, stop being gross," muttered Merlin. His eyes were fluttering open and shut, and yet they still stayed on the phone. It just wasn't occurring to Merlin to hang up. He found Arthur to be very comforting at times. Not even just when Merlin was in a bad or sad mood, but just always. And, it was true, Merlin knew Arthur was a lot older than him, and been through much more life than Merlin had yet, but still. "Can I be honest with you...?" he said, still half a sleep, he probably wouldn't be saying it if he wasn't so tired.

"Um...if it's about me being gross, then no," said Arthur, Merlin peaked open his eyes and stuck out his tongue. Arthur laughed. "Alright fine, go 'head."

"I've been thinking about stuff and..." he said, slowly, not because he meant to, but because he was too tired to go faster. "And...you're kinda my best friend."

Silence, for a long time, so long, Merlin felt a little nervous and peaked open his eyes again, and looked into the phone. But it was then, Arthur started laughing. And shame, yes actual shame filled Merlin's body. "Holy shit," said Arthur, shaking his head. "I didn't know where that was going and I got really scared there."

"Uh...wha..." Merlin made noises, sitting up a little bit, honestly, confused. "What did you think I was saying?"

"I didn't know, but I...fuck," Arthur continued to laugh, very hard, for another whole minute. When he noticed Merlin wasn't laughing too, he tried to calm himself down, but the grin was very clear. "You really mean that?"

"What part?" sad Merlin, a little bitter now. "Because I don't remember what I said..."

"The best friend thing?" offered Arthur, with a glare into the screen.

"I don't know now..." said Merlin. "You were being kinda a prat right after and I don't know if I can be friends with that."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Well, I was going to say, maybe it's a little weird...but you were becoming mine too, but never mind now."

"I guess...just forget I said anything," Merlin pouted. "I didn't mean it..."

"I'm going to come through this phone and rip your lips off...so you can't talk anymore..."

"That's a felony..." Merlin continued, with the same would-be clam voice and pout. "I would have to call the police..."

"I'll call them for you..."

Merlin's face changed suddenly, it scrunched up, like he had smelled bad cheese. "Rude..."

"You need to go to bed, fool, you've lost your damn mind," said Arthur into the phone. But he didn't look mad, neither was Merlin, not really. He just liked giving Arthur a hard time sometimes, and since he had ruined the best friend thing with...whatever he thought, he deserved it.

"This is just what my face does when I see you," he pulled the face again and Arthur huffed.

"Goodnight, Merlin," he said. "Fuck you."

"Goodnight too, Arthur," said Merlin, boyishly. "See you later, Gator..."

The call ended with the sound of Arthur laughing. Merlin put his phone on charge, turned off his lamp, and laid back into his bed again, but this time under the blankets. Though, now he was finding it hard to fall asleep, his mind kept playing over the conversation he just had with Arthur, at least the last little bit of it. And even though the best friend thing had been ruined, in a way, he still couldn't help but have a smile form on his lips, and maybe he didn't know why exactly. Maybe he just wished that he was still talking to him on the phone, he wished that he wasn't so tired and they could stay up later talking...but there was always tomorrow, he would call him again.

(A/N: Hello! So, I don't know if I have said this yet, but I try to give Hunith an accent, because she is from the Ukraine, so...I wanted that to come across, but sometimes I just feel like she says weird things. If you have ever felt that way, know it's because I'm trying to showcase her accent. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter!)