It was morning and Merlin was eating a hard boiled egg, minding his own business and thinking about his life choices. Sitting across from him was his life choices, who was eating scrambled eggs instead of hard boiled, not saying much. That was fine, they really didn't need to say much at all, the opportunity was quickly taken from them anyway, as the quiet, mundane morning was quickly and forcefully ruined by a slamming of the front door and the screaming of the name, "ARTHUR!" as if it were both a curse and a blessing, Merlin kinda thought it might be, too. "ARTHUR...WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Eating," replied Arthur with no intent of standing or saying more than this. He was sometimes grouchy in the mornings, also the night before had been filled with the two of them fighting, which is why Gwen was not there that morning to make the eggs Arthur was eating, because she had fled the night before in anger. But that was fine, Merlin had made them instead. It was obvious by how Arthur was acting he assumed the fighting was going to continue, but instead Gwen walked in, walked over and threw her arms over his shoulders, and kissed him hard on the mouth. This seemed to surprise Arthur and disgusted Merlin, truthfully. When she pulled away she was smiling.

"Lydia and Sofia are coming to visit me in a few days," she announced and when Arthur didn't react more to this than a raise of the eyebrow, she sighed and continued on. "I went to high school with them, they are coming over Saturday night, so we had better start cleaning this place up-"

"Why are they coming here?" Arthur cut in and Gwen stopped and looked at him, as if she were worried about his reaction.

"Because this is were we live?" she retorted back, nonetheless, and he just looked at her still. "I could have also told them I live here, too..."

"Why?" he asked, Merlin watched this, watched as Arthur quizzed her and as Gwen looked uncomfortable for several long seconds before answering him. Merlin chose not to get involved with this, mostly because Gwen couldn't careless what he had to say and he had never liked Lydia or Sofia anyway.

"Because..." she stalled, pretending to measure two of her manicured nails before continuing. "I might have told them we were married."

"I'm married to your brother?" Arthur offered quickly, and Gwen frowned, only just now looking over to Merlin quickly, as if he were something dirty to look at, before looking back at Arthur.

"Don't remind me," she retorted once again, but then huffed. "But not everyone needs to know that, Arthur!"

"I sort of thought that everyone did need to think that so this charade, as you called it, could continue?" spat Arthur and it was once again every obvious he was still mad over the previous night, Gwen looked alarmed for all of three seconds before she forcefully put herself into Arthur's lap and smiled at him as if he were a baby. He didn't seem to like this much, because unlike normal, he didn't put his arms around her waist, he just glared.

"I know, I do...but it would be nice if we could pretend just for one evening, to practice for the future?" she offered and the way she spoke to him, it was as if she were speaking to a small child, he continued to look irritated. "Oh come on, Arthur, just humor me this once?"

"My life is spent humoring you..."

"Well," she retorted for the third time, though she at least attempted to keep her voice light this time. "Don't make it sound like I am such a monster!"

After this, no one said anything else, at least not about the dinner thing. Merin had gone about his day normally, he avoided doing school work, watched the telly and pretended to read a book before he was back in the kitchen again, making a sandwich and then at the kitchen table, eating. This was a mistake because right as he started eating Gwen came in and slapped a magazine down in front of him. He sighed and looked up at her as she sat across from him and pointed to pictures on the pages.

"Which one do you think?" she asked, and Merlin stared at her, because she hadn't asked his opinion in a long time. This only meant one thing, Arthur had already dismissed her, because she would have obviously asked him well before asking Merlin anything. When he didn't answer right away she got annoyed. "For mine and Arthur's dinner with friends, what meal do you think?"

Mine and Arthur, right of course, leave it to Gwen to always state dominance. He shrugged then, not sure, there were plates full of chickens on the magazine. "Steak?" he offered and she rolled her eyes. "I don't know...?"

"They're woman, Merlin, they don't want steak!" she argued and then sighed dramatically. He didn't know what woman could possibly have against steak, why did gender matter over a slab of beef? "Honestly, I don't know why I bother asking you anything..."

"Me neither..."

"You're utterly useless..." she said, Merlin nodded, not being offended or affected by these words at all, but she pretended as if she hadn't just insulted him and carried on talking. "I think I ought to make cordon bleu." Merlin didn't say anything, because he couldn't careless and she didn't want him to say anything anyway. She was basically using him as a way to talk to herself, she never wanted any suggestions from him in the first place. "It is fancy, yet easy to make. Maybe as a side I will make roasted potatoes..-"

She continued talking but Merlin began ignoring her, he ate his sandwich and then got up even though now she was talking about desserts and what snacks to serve with tea. He went back into the kitchen, even as she carried on and she hadn't even noticed when he left the kitchen. Not even when he had turned the light off on the way out. She was just too engrossed in herself to care about anything else and honestly, that was pretty normal for Gwen anymore.

(A/N: This is a very short chapter, I realize this, but the next one will be longer. This is kinda just a filler but I didn't want to make one huge, long chapter, I like the break it up instead. No matter, I still hope you enjoyed!)