Arthur Pendragon.
Blond hair, blue eyes, straight-A student but an athlete first and foremost. Blunt to the point of being rude, so much so that his best friend would call him an ass every time the opportunity presented itself.
His best friend being Merlin Emrys, of course. Not that Merlin would know, with how shitty Arthur's treatment of him was.
(Not that Merlin didn't give as good as he got, but it's the principle of the thing, y'know.)
That's beside the point.
Often, Merlin would ask Arthur how he was doing.
Most of the time, he would wave the question away and find a distraction, but on bad days...
"Well..." Arthur began. (And wasn't that a fantastic beginning when telling someone all about your mental state.) Merlin could feel a frustrated rant coming on. In 3...2...1...
"As you know, my mother died giving birth to me." Merlin did in fact know. He knew more than even Arthur about the cause of Ygraine's death.
Merlin steeled himself for even more lies, heart breaking for Arthur's situation. All he wanted was for Arthur to learn of the truth on his own, and maybe not kill Uther in the process. God, what was life coming to that he was protecting Uther Pendragon.
All he really wanted was for Arthur to be safe.
Because he loved him.
Anyways...wait what the fuck?
Oh right, Arthur was still talking. Shit.
Merlin did not hear a single word that came out of Arthur's mouth. And damn, that mouth...
Shit. Fuck. Shitfuck. Tuning in now, after who knows how long (like 8 minutes and 42 seconds straight of Arthur pouring his heart out and Merlin daydreaming), Merlin finally caught on to the conversation at hand.
"—So why did you lie to me!" Arthur demanded.
Merlin twisted his hands together as if that would help the situation. "What," he hesitated. "What do you mean?"
Eyes to the ground, Merlin could envision the dumbfounded expression on Arthur's face as the silence reigned.
"What do I mean? What do I mean, he says." Arthur looked close to ripping his hair out, and silently Merlin acknowledged how much of a shame that would be. Arthur had nice hair, not as nice as Gwaine's, but very nice nonetheless.
Focusing again on the current happenings, Merlin wondered for a moment if he should take Arthur somewhere to get his head looked at. It couldn't be healthy for someone to just talk to themselves like that in the presence of others. He decided that he should probably say something else to stabilize Arthur's state of mind, he really seemed to need it.
"I'm sorry," he said. As always, he was lying. And he was doing it incredibly well. Merlin continued, "I don't believe I've lied about anything. Specification would be greatly appreciated so that I'll be able to pinpoint exactly what I didn't lie to you about."
Arthur stalked up to the confident, oh so stupid boy, hands lifting to make a motion that looked vaguely like he wanted to choke Merlin. But he would never choke his best friend. Never. It would never happen. Unless...
Moving on, "I know you lied about my mother." Fuck.
"Tell me why you did it." Shit.
Arthur was so close, the two boys' legs were pressing together. Merlin was sure that Arthur could hear his breath quicken and his heart try to escape his chest. And then Arthur pushed him back and placed his arms on the wall behind Merlin's head and fuck fuck fuck shit Merlin never had any chance of focusing on the very serious exchange they were having when they could be exchanging something even more serious in the same exact position.
Merlin suddenly realized that he was supposed to be talking. All the confidence seemed to have fled from his body, and he tried to back up further only to have his back hit the wall again. Held in place by Arthur's eyes on his, he explained.
He spoke of how Morgause was telling the truth when she said it wasn't the hospital that caused Ygraine's death, but Uther's. He told Arthur about his own research into the situation, how Gauis had confirmed that Uther had pressured Ygraine into having a child, knowing that her body couldn't handle it.
Merlin revealed that he had lied to protect Arthur, at which point the blond scoffed, only to clam up when Merlin's gaze turned even more somber. Arthur was made to realize that if he had found out his father had destroyed a good hospital's reputation to absolve the blame from himself, he would've acted rashly and ruined his own life, and Merlin didn't want that for him.
When he had finished, Merlin pretended not to see the tears welling in Arthur's eyes and Arthur did the same for him. After a long embrace that they both knew Arthur would never admit to having, let alone initiating, they left for home.
That had been only days before, and even though Merlin thought the matter was resolved, Arthur hadn't talked to him since. Merlin wanted to start up a conversation but thought better of it, in case Arthur wasn't ready.
He could see Arthur do the same each time he walked by the boy's locker.
Another week later, Arthur asked Merlin to stay over at his house. His dad and wouldn't be there that night, away on business, and Morgana would be staying at Gwen's, so they could just hang out and have fun.
They didn't know just yet how much fun they would be having.
(Just a bit less than Morgana and Gwen would be.)
That night, they ordered some food and opened up some of Uther's beer cabinets, a bit of revenge for his tomfoolery and general assholish behavior.
They drank and drank and drank until they were so drunk they barely felt alive. They watched cheesy movies with the intention of making fun of them and then realized they were actually amazing. Or at least, they seemed to be, based on the way their stomachs panged from laughing.
Although, that might have just been the alcohol.
Merlin noticed Arthur staring at him for what seemed to be the hundredth time that night, and so he turned to him.
Arthur startled like he thought he was being stealthy, but he kept staring.
Merlin stared back.
The air was charged for a moment, Merlin couldn't tell what with, and then Arthur turned back to the movie.
Merlin followed, but his mind was caught on that moment before he shook his head. He must've been really drunk, for a second there he thought he could see his own emotions reflected in Arthur's eyes.
It really was an exciting night, the two of them laughing it up and smirking every time they caught each other's eye. By the end, it feels like only seconds have passed with them in each other's company. With the number of movies they watched, it must have been hours.
Merlin turned to Arthur again, taking another sip of beer, and sees Arthur bite his lip. He ignores it.
"We should probably take a shot at sleeping at some point tonight." He smirks again and laughs as Arthur nearly chokes.
"We're not even drinking out of shot glasses." He said, still coughing.
"And?" Merlin asked, grinning widely as he drank a bit more. He belatedly realized that they were closer on the couch than before. "Hey, Arthur," he nudged the other boy and waited for him to listen. "Get down on the floor."
"What? Why?" Arthur questioned even as he moved from his seat. The answer had him flushed, but Merlin just attributed it to the alcohol. Again.
"I want to touch your hair."
So Arthur sat between Merlin's legs on the floor as Merlin played with his hair. It was comfortable, relaxing even.
This was his downfall.
At some point, Arthur chose to look up from his position. Merlin wasn't looking at him at first, eyes fixated on the movie, but his hands were still tangled up in Arthur's hair and he felt the tilt of his head underneath his fingers.
Looking down, all Merlin did was smile.
And Arthur broke apart.
Ignoring Merlin's complaints at the lack of hair in his hands, Arthur got up and turned until he was standing right between Merlin's legs. He barely even hesitated when moving closer, taking Merlin's face into his hands and holding him there softly,
Just as Merlin was about to berate him for joking around, Arthur grasped him tighter and moved closer. There they were, nose to nose, and Merlin was panicking because what the actual fuck was going on. He didn't think that Arthur had drunk that much, but he must've because wow.
Arthur was kissing him.
Merlin's eyes and mouth opened wider at the same time, and Arthur took the opportunity to kiss him sweeter and deeper and better and wow.
Because Arthur was kissing him and he was kissing him back.
And then it was over.
And Arthur hightailed it up the stairs to his room. He was gone. And Merlin was still sat there. Moving to get up, his body felt numb. It continued to feel numb as he looked towards the stairs and thought better of going up there. It was still numb when he cleaned up the living room. And when he turned off the TV. And when he left, because he couldn't possibly stay over after that.
The numbness didn't fade.
It wouldn't.
Not when Arthur came to school the next day and nothing was different. Not when Arthur couldn't remember a thing from the night before, only confused about Merlin's questioning.
There was nothing there. There never would be.
Merlin wasn't even sure it had happened.
Unbeknownst to him, Arthur was sure it had.
Not that he would say anything. The idea that he would was absurd.