Merlin supposed he should have known. Last week, when he was having dinner at Arthur's house and he had asked if Merlin liked the home. Merlin should have known then, but truthfully. With everything that was happening, the housing situation was the last thing on Merlin's mind. He had just gotten off of a three-way call with his mother and Jen, who were talking about all the food they were going to make at this make-shift reception that was going to take place after the wedding, at Merlin's family home. He wasn't entirely sure who had come up with that idea, all he knew is that it wasn't him and it was probably Gwen. Either way, he had just hung up the phone when Gwen came blowing in through his door, with several cardboard boxes under her arm.
"I hope you have been getting things together," she said and Merlin, who had been doing nothing but sitting on his sofa, only looked up confused. "You haven't, have you?" she let out a huff and rolled her eyes. "Men are so lazy..."
"What are you trying to get me to do?" he asked, because he really was confused, but he really should have known. She stared at him then with a raised, painted on eyebrow.
"You're kidding, right?" she offered back. "Packing!"
It dawned on Merlin then and he felt something cold run through his blood. "I have to leave my flat?" he asked, and this actually saddened him. "But I love my flat..."
"You can't be married and live in two separate houses. Obviously, Merlin!" retorted Gwen. Merlin frowned, he didn't even feel like arguing the point that it wasn't as if the marriage would be real anyway, he was just genuinely upset by this. "Stop moping, it will be alright."
But Merlin didn't think that it would actually be alright. Nothing about this was alright and it wouldn't be anytime soon. He helped her pack anyway. First, in the kitchen and then in Merlin's bedroom. It was depressing. Watching slowly, how everything was disappearing. Kind of like Merlin's whole life. It was just going right down the drain. At one point, Gwen had even told him not to bother packing the furniture, even though it was Merlin's own furniture, because apparently Merlin's things were ugly and Arthur had better taste. Well, good for him.
"Not in girlfriends," Merlin had muttered under his breath, so Gwen didn't hear, after she said this. That being said though, he didn't think Arthur had very good taste in husbands either.
Four hours after starting to box Merlin's life up, Elyan showed up at the front of the building with a large truck, to ship it away. He helped them load the boxes they had packed already into the truck and made weird faces and went. "Oh, Mate." several times during this time. So many times, in fact, that Merlin almost shouted at him that they weren't mates, they weren't even brothers! But he held his tongue, because he wasn't about to ruin the relationship he had built with Elyan for all of their life because of Gwen and her dumb ideas. Instead, he only rode with Elyan in the truck, instead of Gwen, who took Merlin's car. Merlin was supposed to know where Arthur lived, which he did. That's why he was supposed to ride with Elyan, to give him directions, little did he know this was only the second time Merlin had ever even been to Arthur's house.
The drive was quiet, Elyan kept looking over at Merlin with wide, worried eyes and Merlin didn't tell him to stop or that he had nothing to worry about. Truthfully, Merlin didn't know if he had anything to worry about or not. Did it really matter that Merlin was going to lose the next two to five years of his life, compared to Gwen's happiness? Honestly, it almost felt like he was going to prison for a crime he didn't commit.
When they arrived at the house, Arthur was waiting on the front step and looked his own level of sweaty and stressed out. Merlin wondered why because it wasn't as if he had been there to help pack or move boxes. Maybe he just didn't like the idea of someone invading his house, Merlin wouldn't either. He didn't like the idea of invading someone else's house. Nothing would be Merlin's anymore, everything would just be Arthur's...including Merlin.
That thought made Merlin's heart almost come up out of his mouth. He couldn't move for a second, lost in thought. But it was when his side of the truck opened, it startled him back into this world. Arthur had opened the door to his side of the truck and offered his hand to help him out. Fake chivalry, how disgusting...
Merlin took his hand, even though he didn't need it and jumped out of the truck. As soon as he was on the ground, he let go, and Arthur just stood there, looking at him, in what might be worry. Merlin couldn't be sure. He really didn't know Arthur very well, but he supposed that would be over soon enough. Kind of.
"Hi," said Arthur shortly, and Merlin nodded, looking away from him.
"Hi," he repeated, not wanting to meet his eyes. For some reason, he didn't want him to see the sadness in them, but he had to have known it was there, because Merlin felt Arthur's hand touching his elbow for only a second, and then it was gone as Gwen called Arthur over to help open the back of the truck. He walked away and Merlin watched him go, it was odd, the touch. They didn't touch, they hadn't even so much as shook hands as of now, but it was almost as if Arthur was trying to comfort him, as if he knew. But Merlin pushed those thoughts away as Gwen started shouting at him to help.
"These are your things, Merlin, and you're just standing around!"
Too bad she couldn't have children, Merlin thought, as he stalked over to the back of the truck. She would be good at it, good at making her children both annoyed and not able to stand her. She would be the kind that would ground you because you didn't clean your room to her liking. Merlin, instead of complaining in his own head, just started focusing on carrying the boxes inside the house. After an hour of this, Elyan got impatient.
"I got to go," he said, looking at his watch several times in a minute. "I only rented the truck for a few hours."
"Oh fine," Gwen had retorted, even though Elyan had been talking to Merlin. Merlin only stood there now. "The rest of the things can be brought by car."
Elyan left after this and Gwen went up stairs, to the room that would be Merlin's, even though they lied to Elyan and said they were just 'putting the boxes in there for now,' Elyan had to be smarter than that, surely. Surely he would know what was happening. Either way, if he did or not, he didn't say and no one thought to question him. Except Merlin, but apparently what he said didn't matter. Gwen went up there to unpack, even if that wasn't her job and these things were not hers, she apparently couldn't stop herself. That left Merlin and Arthur alone in the sitting room. Merlin didn't say anything, just stood there, with the blue lamp from Merlin's old room in his flat in his hands.
"I don't know why Gwen's rushing you," said Arthur, and Merlin looked over at him. It wasn't as if he forgot Arthur was in the room, of course he hadn't, he just hadn't expected him to start talking. "I told her you could stay at your flat until after the wedding," Arthur continued and Merlin frowned at his words. "She said no, that it looked odd. But I don't want you to feel uncomfortable."
"I'm not," Merlin lied and it was Arthur's turn to frown.
"I know you're not telling the truth," he said and Merlin didn't deny it. "But I'm not bad to live with, I promise. I never leave the seat up and I always clean my dishes..."
"I don't," said Merlin, and Arthur smiled at him. Just a little bit, anyway. "I don't put the seat down either.."
"Thank God, neither do I," said Arthur, in an obvious attempt to make the mood a little lighter, his smile grew and Merlin smiled back at him.
"I suppose we're perfect for each other then," said Merlin and Arthur just looked at him for a long moment. Merlin bit his lip, not sure if he should say anything else. He decided to. "If you don't throw coffee on me, that is..."
Arthur rolled his eyes now. "For fuck's sake...let that go, I didn't mean to hit you!"
"Yes, but you did and you did mean to throw it, so..."
Arthur huffed. "Yes, because I was pissed off!"
"Well, calm down, you don't have to get so angry. You're a prat."
"But you never listened to a thing I said!" argued Arthur and Merlin shrugged.
"And I'm not going to now either...just by the way."
Merlin grinned at him, maybe a little arrogantly, and Arthur let out a long sigh. "Lord help me..."
(A/N:I know I am back at it again with these updates. But I really want to get this one finished so I can start posting the sequel. I want this one to be over by the end of this year. That's not too long now. Only four more chapters to go! Thanks as always, for reading.)