There was a knock at the front door, Merlin heard it from the sitting room, where he lay on the sofa. rewriting a line or two, of the two songs he had chosen to show his mother, who was still very cross with him over the date thing. But he knew he had to get this over with, and today...today was going to be the day.

"Boys?" he heard from the foyer, and he knew he was one part of 'Boys,' so he got up and headed out of the room. When he entered the foyer, there was a large brown box sitting on the ground at his mother's feet and Arthur was coming down the stairs, the other part of 'Boys.' "Your suits just come in..."

"Oh...joy," said Arthur, as he walked nearer and met Merlin in front of Hunith. Hunith payed him no mind, instead chose to lean down and open the box. She pulled out a sharp, black dress coat, in a plastic casing, and handed it to Arthur.

"I know we didn't have any time to do a proper fitting, but the measurements your father gave me should be good," she told him, he shrugged and took the suit coat she offered. She continued to rummage through the box until she found the trousers that matched and offered them to Arthur, as well. "And Merlin..." she said his name with much more dislike, he chose to ignore that, but Arthur's eyes narrowed a bit, as she spoke. "I didn't think it was necessary to get you a new suit, so I had one of Arthur's old ones resized...I hope you don't mind, Arthur," she flashed him a kind smile and thrust something into Merlin's hands. It was a suit, slightly less black than Arthur's, but still nice enough to suit Merlin just fine. He wasn't a dressy person.

"I don't care," said Arthur, but his voice said he sort of did, but clearly not for the suit. "Why wouldn't you buy him a new one?" he demanded. "What if dad has an event? He does, sometimes...Merlin will need to dress for that."

"He can wear this one, it looks fine enough," said Hunith, seeming to finally notice Arthur's distaste in this idea. "It's not very important for Merlin to have a suit. He doesn't need to go to those events, if Uther needs someone there, you most likely will go."

Arthur frowned, "Whatever..."

Merlin didn't know if he agreed with Arthur, he supposed he did, it was quite rude that she didn't get him a suit of his own, but right now he wanted to focus on the song, and if she was already in a bad mood, she would never agree to hear them. Hunith picked up the box off the ground and started heading for the stairs, and Merlin wanted to stop her, but when he called out her name...well, Mum, she didn't answer, completely ignored him, and continued up the stairs. Merlin sighed.

"I just wanted to sing her the god damn songs..."

"Merlin," said Arthur, seriously. "You need to stop letting her treat you this way...because if you don't, I'm going to punch her in the face and then I'll go to prison and ruin my Footie career..."

"What am I supposed to say?" asked Merlin, in return, he didn't know what Arthur wanted, no matter what he did Hunith still acted like he was a burden on her life. He could do great in school and act like the shy little boy he once was, or still was sometimes, and she would still act the same. "Nothing I do will change her, I don't care enough to..."

"My mother wouldn't have acted this way," said Arthur. "She loved me, she wouldn't have treated me like that...that's not love."

"Neither would my dad," retorted Merlin, annoyed with Arthur, which he didn't like being at all. He never wanted to be annoyed with Arthur, ever, but it did happen sometimes. "But you know what your mum and my dad have in common? They're both dead, so...it doesn't matter what they would've done, they're not here to do it."

And Merlin walked off, into the kitchen, because now that he couldn't play the songs for his mother, he needed to make Morgana cupcakes, as Hunith was clearly too busy with wedding thoughts to care about anything else, and Morgana had requested this, as her birthday was the following day. Morgana wasn't home right now, she had gone out with a friend, which Merlin didn't know she really had, because she never mentioned them, and he was going to wait for her to get home and have her help, but he needed to get his mind off of things...and what better thing to do than bake?

Merlin made the cupcakes completely by himself and by scratch. Vanilla cupcakes, made with only egg whites so the white cake and chocolate frosting would make a balance, of light and dark, which reminded him a lot of Morgana, for some reason. While the cupcakes cooled on a rack, Merlin made the chocolate frosting from scratch, too. Merlin had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, but he was beginning to think baking could be an option...he was really quite good at it. Arthur came in, around the time Merlin started piling the frosting into a decorating bag, Merlin didn't say anything, because he really didn't know what to say, it wasn't as if he was really mad at Arthur or anything. If anything, Arthur just wanted what was best for Merlin, and he understood that, it was just he couldn't do anything about it, and he just rather not deal with it.

"I didn't mean to piss you off," said Arthur, from behind him, he had been in the fridge, and obviously that had just been an excuse to come in the room, as he shut the fridge door as soon as he had opened it. "I don't like when you don't talk to me..."

"I'm not not talking to you," said Merlin, but he didn't turn around. "I just don't know what you want me to do...I can't change her."

"I know," said Arthur, softly. "But that doesn't mean I don't want to shank her." Merlin bit his lip, trying not to smile, maybe not at what he said, but the tone of his voice...it was very nice. "You deserve so much better than that, and I'm sorry if I want you to have it. But if you don't want to deal with it, I'll leave it alone."

"Yes, leave it alone," said Merlin, sealing the decorating bag with a loose knot and turned around to face Arthur at last, he was frowning. "And don't look so sad, I'm fine, really..."

"Liar," retorted Arthur, but he moved nearer to Merlin and made a face, Merlin really didn't know what it meant exactly, and Arthur looked into his eyes. "You don't hate me...I can tell."

Merlin laughed, despite not wanting to, and shook his head. "I never said I did..."

"You better not," retorted Arthur, leaning forward and around him, sticking his fingers into the bowl of chocolate frosting. He stuck one into his mouth and Merlin glared at him. "Sorry...taste testing."

Merlin pushed him out of the way and made his way over to the rack of cooled cupcakes. He frosted each one, perfectly, with the same amount of frosting on each, and all designed the same exact way. He was so into this, he had forgotten...well, no, not forgotten he was there, just very heavily ignoring the fact that Arthur was there, eating all of his frosting. Arthur was very, very distracting. This was the man, after all, who had ruined Merlin's schooling completely. Because if he wasn't Face-Timing him all hours of the night, because he was a push over and a needy bitch, who just wanted to look at Arthur sometimes, if it wasn't that...then he was home and just bringing all sorts of chaotic feelings upon Merlin that he really wished he didn't feel...of course he had no idea of any of this, and Merlin planned on keeping it that way, but still.

He very much noticed Arthur's presence behind him, once again, and he was nearly done with the cupcakes now, and he didn't want to get distracted, but it seemed Arthur didn't care, because he literally leaned his chin upon Merlin's shoulder and watched him for a whole thirty seconds, before that became too much for Merlin to bear and he elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ow!" complained Arthur. "Asshole...what was that for?"

"Bothering me!" retorted Merlin, he looked over at him, and rolled his eyes deeply. Arthur had the bowl of frosting in his hands still and had eaten more of it than he probably should have. And this man was supposed to be an adult? Or at least more of an adult than him...? "You have chocolate on your face..."

"Oh?" retorted Arthur, and like a flash, took a finger full of chocolate and wiped it across Merlin's cheek. "So do you!"

"Are you three?!" demanded Merlin, dropping the cupcake he was holding and turning toward Arthur. Arthur smiled at him, almost evilly, and shrugged.

"Three and a half, actually..."

Merlin, despite his better judgment and knowing that he shouldn't, took the spoon from in the bowl Arthur was holding and flicked it right onto Arthur's nose. "There!" Arthur's mouth fell open, for only a second or two, before he grinned and dipped his entire hand into the frosting and went to throw it. "NO...Arthur...don't!"

"You did this to yourself!" And thus Arthur began to chase Merlin around the kitchen with a handful of chocolate frosting. He lost a lot along the way, on the floor and on cupboards and a chair, at the table, as he chased him around the nook, Merlin screamed, as he slipped on some chocolate on the floor and nearly fell over. He didn't fall, but he did end up getting caught, by two large hands on his wrists. He now had chocolate running up his arm. "Take it like a man, Merlin!"

"No...NO!" he yelled, as he had been yelling, the entire time. He wondered how the rest of the house hadn't heard this. Of course it was just Uther and Hunith and they probably wouldn't care if he was screaming for help. This thought, though depressing, was completely lost by Arthur running his chocolaty fingers over Merlin's forehead...

"Simba!" he whispered heavily, and then licked his fingers. Merlin stared at him, as he did this. He was in the middle of wondering why he found that kinda hot and also wondering why Arthur was such a weirdo.

"Freak..." he mumbled, playfully.

Arthur grinned, eyes traveling over Merlin's chocolaty body for a very long moment, "You love it."

Merlin looked at him, for a long while, wondering if he did actually love it or not, and he supposed it was true, he did, because if not, then his heart probably wouldn't have skipped a beat when their eyes had just met, and Merlin probably wouldn't have just bit his lip, watching as Arthur licked his own, if he did not love it...so yes, maybe Arthur was right. Or maybe, it was just him he loved, and the weirdo thing he would just have to live with...

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CHRIST ARE YOU TWO DOING IN HERE?!" Came the very angry voice of Hunith, and the two jumped apart at once. And now, Merlin suddenly wished that, if she had come because she heard him screaming for help...that she would not have.

(A/N: I know I haven't updated this in a bit. Once a week makes it feel more like once a month. I'll try to get another update out this week, no promises, but I will try! Hope you enjoy this chapter. It was kinda sad, but there were some cute parts!)