There was loud music playing, from where, Merlin was not sure, perhaps from opened doors of homes and pubs and places that normally filled the street. Now, the street was covered in tents that had little tables of food and places to sit around them. Flashing, colored lights danced on walls and the ground, on buildings and into windows. It was a real party, and Merlin felt a little uncomfortable. Not only did most of the guests not speak English, but the last party Merlin had been to hadn't ended so great. The three entered the crowd, getting separated and then found each other three different times. Once by a waiter, serving plates of food to dancers, once by dancers themselves, who were too busy feeling the music to move out of the way, and the third time by a fighting couple, of which the woman in the couple slapped the man. Morgana watched on pleased at this, that's how they lost her for the third time, before finding her again.

"Right, well...this is fun," said Arthur, as they had reached the other side of the street. Morgana seemed to have gotten distracted by a group of people, who looked like they were meant to be in a fashion show, not at a street party. Their makeup and hair were done up, even the men, and they all wore matching black clothing.

"I'll be back in a little while," said Morgana, and walked off. Merlin watched her go, walking over to this group of people. They seemed to be suspicious of her at first, but then she said something sassy, Merlin could tell by the way she moved her hands, and then they all nodded their heads and she sat down at their table. Merlin looked back at Arthur. and he had been staring in the same direction as he was. When he noticed Merlin had looked over at him, he looked over too and their eyes met for a moment.

"Drink..?" a man stood there, in his hands, was a trey of long, tube shaped glasses, filled with a red-ish, orange liquid. Arthur took one, so Merlin did too. Arthur glared at him.

"Is it alcoholic?" he asked the man.

"Si," the man nodded and Arthur reached over and took the glass from Merlin's hand.

"Not for you then," said Arthur, as the man, who clearly didn't want to be in the middle of this, walked off.

"Hey!" retorted Merlin, lamely, as Arthur downed his glass and tried to drink Merlin's too. But Merlin took it back before he could put his lips on it.

"Merlin," said Arthur, darkly. "After last time, you're seriously going to even consider drinking...?"

"Listen, I never said anything about that!" retorted Merlin. If he was going to be forced to be at this party, he was going to at least do what he wanted.

"Oh, that's why you didn't talk to me for a week after!" retorted Arthur back. Merlin frowned and instead of replying, he just started drinking the drink. It tasted a bit like orange juice, that had floor cleaner in it...it wasn't good, but Merlin was going to drink it anyway. "Fine...okay, fine!" Arthur said, trying, apparently, to sound like he was in charge of this situation, yet he was definitely not. "But you can only have two drinks, okay?"

"Okay," Merlin shrugged. "Until you find Pablo and ditch me and then I'll just do what I want..."

"I'm not going to ditch you, Merlin," Arthur sighed. "Jesus Christ."

They traveled deeper into the street, finding another man with a trey of drinks. These were pink, and kind of tasted like flowers They also found tables filled with foods, like cheeses and cold meats and olive plates. Arthur loaded up, and Merlin just stood there, taking another pink drink from a passing man and sipped it. He was starting to feel it, that numb feeling he had felt before, when he had tried Pot, but that one came on faster, this one started much slower. He hadn't even noticed it at first.

"Oh, Arthur!" said a voice behind them, and Arthur, full plate of cold-cuts, turned around, so did Merlin, to see Pablo there. "You made it, prefect." The man wasn't dressed in party clothes, but waiter clothes, he too, carried a a trey of drinks. These ones, clear. Merlin decided to reach over and take one, as they spoke. Arthur gave him a dirty look, as he did.

"I did, yeah," said Arthur, eyes going from Merlin, who was now drinking the drink very openly. This one burned his throat, it was very strong, he could tell it was going to pack a punch later. There was an awkward sort of look between the two and then Pablo just walked off, without saying anything else. Arthur turned back to Merlin. "Excuse me...did I not say only two?"

"Did you? I can't remember that..." said Merlin. He felt like his speech was slower and his reacting time, too. He tested this by trying to blink quickly, but it felt like it was taking awhile.

"Merlin..."

"Who cares, Arthur?" Merlin figured this; He had always been good, he was a good kid for his dad and he tried to be one for his mother, too, but she didn't respect him enough to see it and did nothing but put him down all the time, so why should he be good? Why should he not experience life? At least here, in another place so far away from his real life. For once, he was not going to be the wet blanket.

"I never thought you were a wet blanket..."

"Did I say that out loud?" asked Merlin and Arthur's eyes widened a little.

"Holy shit..." he rolled his eyes now, and sighed. "Let's go sit, eh?"

Merlin agreed and followed Arthur over to a blue sofa, half under a tent and half not. They sat down and Arthur ate his cold meats and cheeses, Merlin watched him, but he was very bored now. What he really wanted right now was another one of those clear drinks. He watched as a waiter passed and he sighed, longingly. He jumped up, as another one came around and this girl, she seemed to notice him and walked over. She smiled very sweetly at him, and blushed when he smiled back, but he didn't pay her no mind, not really. He just took two drinks and went back to sit down.

He offered one to Arthur, who took it. "She thought you were cute."

"She's dumb then!" retorted Merlin, as he sucked at the orange drink in his glass.

"Why do you say that?"

"I don't know-hmmm..." Merlin said, and then started laughing at himself for sounding dumb. He finished the drink and licked his teeth, annoyed and bored again. "I want to dance!"

"Oh...for god sake..." said Arthur. "You're completely pissed off your ass, aren't you? I can see it in your eyes..."

"Don't look in meh eyes, ya weirdo!"

"And now you're talking more Irish!"

"Sh...no, don't talk about me!" Arthur shook his head at this, and finished the drink Merlin had brought him. "Sorry you're not havin' as much fun with me as you would be with Pablo or the girl in the shed..."

"There was no girl in the shed!" said Arthur, tiredly. "And I'm not interested in Pablo."

"Would you be interested in Pablo if I wasn't here?"

Arthur paused for a long time and said, "Probably..." Merlin frowned, he didn't know what that meant, even though he had asked the question. "You don't have to be sorry about it, there's a million Pablo's out there."

"I'm not sorry," said Merlin, quickly, and Arthur raised an eyebrow at this. "I just want to dance...dance with me!"

"No...I'm not drunk enough for that," said Arthur, Merlin frowned again. "Dance yourself!"

"Fine!" Merlin stood up and moved away from Arthur and the sofa a bit. He closed his eyes and let the Spanish music consume him. "I could dance like this..." his arms floated in front of himself and he moved them around. He made sure he kept his eyes closed, because, for some reason, he didn't want to see Arthur. He could hear him laughing, though.

"You look like a zombie..."

"I could try this," Merlin let his arms fall and instead started shaking his hips. He kept doing that for a long time, not opening his eyes just in case, because he was worried about what he would see, maybe people were watching him, he hoped Arthur had stopped. He finally grew tired after awhile and stopped. He opened his eyes to see Arthur still watching him.

"All out of your system now...?"

Merlin laughed, because it was kind of funny, and he plopped back down on the sofa. He was very tired. "Mmm...," he mumbled, eyes becoming droopy. "I want to take a nap..."

"Let me find Morgana and we can leave, okay?"

"You don't wanna stay and say goodbye to Pablo...?"

"No, shut up..." retorted Arthur, as he stood up. "Wait here."

And Merlin did, he waited...he thinks, because as soon as Arthur walked away, everything became very dark. Black, everything was black actually, he didn't know what was happening, but he felt like he was moving, spinning...still dancing maybe. But no, he couldn't be dancing, because he was laying down, on his back...but the world moved, it swirled around him.

When Merlin opened his eyes again, the first thing he noticed was the horrible feeling in his stomach, the second was that he was no longer on a sofa in the nighttime sky, but in a dark hotel room. He bolted up, and just started screaming, just straight out screaming. What was happening to him? Where was he? Had someone kidnapped him while Arthur left to get Morgana? A light quickly came on and from across the room, there was Arthur, on the sofa...in their own hotel room.

"Merlin!" shouted Arthur, but he had stopped screaming by now. Arthur was crossing the room to get to the bed. Merlin looked around, and didn't see Morgana anywhere though. "Are you okay? Why are you screaming?"

Merlin couldn't quite think straight, and the pain in his stomach was getting worse, much, much worse... he was tying to ask Arthur where Morgana was, but every time he tried this, he felt something in his throat. He clutched his belly and tried to swallow hard.

"No...no, no, here!" said Arthur, quickly, leaning down and picking up something off the floor. It was the rubbish bin, he trusted it into Merlin's hand. "Not on the bed, Morgana will have our heads." Merlin got sick very quickly after that, and when he was done and feeling even worse, Arthur sat down on the bed beside him and patted him on the back. "Welcome to the hangover, Mate..."

Merlin shook his head, which was starting to hurt quite a lot and he struggled to speak. "Where...where is she?" he got out and Arthur gave him a strange look. "Morgana...?"

"She's still at the party, she didn't want to come back, so I left her."

"You abandoned her there?!" Merlin shouted, but felt something push at the back of his throat again, he tried to ignore this. "We have to go get her!" he made to stand up and Arthur grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "LEGOOfME!"

"Merlin, she's a big girl, she can handle herself, what you need to do right now is rest." Merlin frowned and sat back down on the bed. Arthur started rubbing his back again, when Merlin whined from the pain in his stomach. "It sucks...I know."

It was quite nice, not the feeling in his stomach, or head, but any means, but Arthur's gentle pats on his back, it was soothing and he quickly found his eyes drifting open and closed. Once Arthur had noticed this, he took the bin from Merlin's hands and placed it on the floor next to the bed, in a place he knew Merlin could see it. Merlin fell back into the bed again and Arthur made to leave the area, but Merlin reached up and grabbed his arm, before he could go.

"Don't leave..."

"I'm just going over there," Arthur pointed to the sofa.

"Don't leave!" Merlin shook his head. Arthur listened, he got back on the bed and sat there, looking at Merlin. Merlin rolled over onto his back, it felt like a brick was in his stomach. He made a face, and grumbled a little. And at that moment his head pounded so hard it felt like he got punched in the face. "My head..." he whispered. "Arthur...rub my head, I don't think I can."

"Wow...you're so needy," whispered Arthur, Merlin heard him, he just chose to ignore it. Arthur leaned forward anyway, and used a thumb and middle finger to make small circles into Merlin's forehead. Merlin sighed, in almost relief, but it still hurt a bit. "Better?"

"No," mumbled Merlin. "I'm dying..."

"You're not dying..." said Arthur, he could tell, even though he wasn't looking, that Arthur was smirking. "You should've listened to me when I said only two drinks."

"Well, I'm so sorry, dad."

"Shut the fuck up," said Arthur, in a stern sort of way, kind of like Uther. But he didn't stop rubbing his head, so Merlin continued talking.

"I was just trying to experiment, that's what teenagers do, right?"

"It's like I'm a bad influence on you or something, I think..."

"You are," Merlin nodded, which made Arthur's hand slip into his hair, which he quite liked that too, so it was okay. "But for other reasons..."

"Meaning what?" asked Arthur, but Merlin didn't answer. "Merlin..."

"I'm sorry...are we still supposed to be talking?" retorted Merlin. "I thought I was dying over here."

"You're an utter bastard..."

"Hmm...true. My parents were never married, so I am a bastard."

Arthur laughed and fell deeper into the bed, so that he was mostly laying down, the only part of him still up right was his head, supported by his arm and hand, the other hand's fingers were still running through Merlin's hair. This made it, so he was pretty much leaning Over Merlin. Which meant they were very close. Merlin's eyes opened to look over at him and he grinned a little.

"If I die right now I want you to have my guitar," he told him, semi-seriously, Arthur smiled, and looked over Merlin's face for a long moment.

"I'd hope so, as I gave it to you. But what about the dog? I gave you him too, mind..."

"Oh, Dragoon goes to Morgana, sorry..." said Merlin, biting on his lip, because he just couldn't not look at Arthur, he was so close and perfect; He was just perfect to look at, his eyes were so blue, brighter and lighter than Merlin's own blue ones, and his lips were nice and his jawline...

Merlin felt his heart racing and his body grow hotter and hotter, and he thought, for a second, it was because of Arthur and it might have been, at least a little bit, but then he felt a jolt in his stomach so fierce he nearly head-butted Arthur to get to the bin on the floor in time. He felt terrible, just simply terrible, his stomach turned and turned and he feared moving away from the bin at all, just in case.

There was a bang and a chain being moved, and then suddenly Morgana was standing at the end of the bed, looking at Merlin with concern. "Morgana, do you know what time it is?" complained Arthur. "It's after four in the morning and you're only getting back now?"

"Oh, please..." she retorted, still looking at Merlin. "What's the matter with him?"

"Hangover," said Arthur, simply. Morgana sighed and headed over to the sofa. Merlin felt another jolt and started getting sick in the bin once again. "Oh my god...I can't listen to the sound of him barfing all night."

"Morning...I think you mean," said Arthur, darkly.

"I'm going to sleep in the lobby..."