Merlin's mother came and picked him up around half passed twelve, Gwen and Arthur had already left for the day, Merlin honestly had no idea where they were going, probably lunch. He knew where he was going with this mum though. They were going curtain shopping, which sounded dreadful, and it would probably be dreadful, but someone had to do it. Gwen was normally the one their mother took to do things like this, but she had gotten out of it by saying she had plans, however those plans were actually with Arthur. Which, probably could have been changed pretty easy. You could always go have lunch later or another day. But it was fine, Merlin didn't mind spending time with his mother. It had been a long time actually, since it had just been the two of them. They went to several different stores, even a few thrift stores, and all the while Hunith was being very picky about what she wanted.

"What about this?" Merlin held up a red, long curtain with bolded gold embroidered circles.

"No, that's awful," said Hunith. Merlin had to agree, so he put it back down. "So, I was talking to your brother the other day, the night before he left for his trip. He came over to have dinner with us, He told me some things..."

"About himself?" asked Merlin.

"Not exactly," said Hunith. "He told me he heard you, Gwen and Arthur fighting when he came over to see you lot." Merlin paused at this and panicked for a second. She had meant when Gwen and Arthur had gotten into a fight about Merlin going with Elyan, he must have heard some of it. He sucked in a sharp breath and she stopped looking at the racks of fabrics, to instead look at her son, with intendment. "Why were you fighting?"

"I wasn't fighting," said Merlin, before he could really think about this and Hunith's eyes widened. He wished he hadn't said that.

"Why was your sister fighting with your husband?"

"Well...it wasn't really fighting," Merlin lied, and he really didn't know what to say. "Basically Elyan asked Arthur and I to go with him, but Arthur couldn't go, so obviously I wasn't going to go either, but Gwen wanted me to go...I suppose she thought it would be good for me to get out of the house some, and Arthur got mad."

This wasn't a total lie, not exactly, it was just rearranging the truth, honestly. But yet, still Hunith looked at him with intense judgment. "Why do you let your sister have so much involvement with your marriage?"

"I wish she didn't..." he said, and that was the absolute truth. "But with everything that happened with Lance and stuff...I feel kind of bad. "

"Merlin, it isn't normal for her to be over there all the time, you three are always together," said Hunith. "You and Arthur are still newly married, still young. Or at last you are," Merlin noted that slight dig at Arthur's age, he noted it, but he completely ignored it. "You need time to be alone, to be a couple. Having Gwen over all the time is going to damage your relationship. I hardly think Arthur likes having your sister butting in to your marriage, obviously he doesn't if he yelled at her...and he had every right to."

"They're friends," said Merlin, which was another lie. "I don't think he minds too much."

"I think he does," said Hunith. "I'm going to talk to her about it, this is getting ridiculous."

"Don't talk to her about it!" said Merlin, in alarm. The last thing he needed was Gwen bitching at him for this, on top of all the other reasons why she hated him. "I'll do it."

"You had better, Merlin...I'm serious," she warned. "You are jeopardizing your relationship with Arthur."

As Merlin and Arthur's 'relationship' was already doomed before it even started and the only relationship that was being jeopardized beyond repair was his and Gwen's, Merlin didn't take Hunith's warning very seriously. He only nodded and turned back to the many racks full of curtains. After awhile of looking and going to a few more stores, Hunith never actually made a purchase because she didn't like any of the curtains she saw. Merlin had been reminded at least seven different times just exactly where Gwen get's some of her attitude from, not that Merlin didn't love his mother...not that Merlin didn't love Gwen, it was just annoying. After pointless shopping and a quick lunch at a pub, Merlin's mother took him back home and when he was getting out of the car he was surprised to see Arthur's car in the driveway. He didn't think Arthur and Gwen would be back for hours, that was normally how it went. Merlin said goodbye to his mother and headed inside. The house was quiet when he walked in, which was odd, Gwen normally made some sort of noise, normally because she was complaining. But there was no sounds. Merlin walked into the kitchen and put the take-home box he had gotten, that contained the rest of his food from the pub, in the fridge. By the time he was done with this and turned around, Arthur was standing in the archway of the kitchen, looking at him.

"Have fun?" offered Arthur, and Merlin glared at him.

"Obviously," he retorted. "I just love drapery..."

Arthur smiled at this. "Who doesn't?"

Merlin ignored this and half-way looked around, expecting Gwen to just pop out somewhere. Like a witch does, in bad dreams. "Where's Gwen?"

"I have no idea," said Arthur, "I've been home all day, she stormed out on lunch and hasn't called me since."

Merlin frowned. "Why?"

"Oh, she's still mad at me apparently, and I just pretend everything is fine...sort of thought it was, but whatever," said Arthur, in an almost bitter tone, but he was trying to hide it. "I really couldn't care less."

"What is she still mad over?"

"Apparently how I talk to her is disrespectful, and how I talked to her the other night, about the trip with Elyan, really did her in."

Arthur shrugged, as if this didn't bother him, but Merlin knew it did. "That's because you didn't agree with her."

"Oh, I know," retorted Arthur. "But I'm not going to either."

Merlin was about to say something when his phone started ringing in his pocket, he pulled it out and saw Gwen's name. "It's her!" he announced, he almost didn't want to answer it, but he did. "Hello...?"

"What the hell have you been telling Mum?" Gwen yelled through the phone, Merlin sighed then. Of course she didn't listen, Hunith never listened, she always thought she knew better. "She says you've been telling her how I am over there too much and I spend too much time with Arthur, and how I am interfering with your marriage!" She was shouting by the time that she got to this part. "IT'S A FAKE MARRIAGE AND IF ANYONE IS SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME WITH ARTHUR IT'S YOU!"

"I didn't say anything like that!" Merlin retorted. "She said that to me, because Eylan heard you and Arthur fighting the other day and told her!" Merlin began shouting too, which is something he rarely did. But he really wanted to make his point known. Arthur was watching him, when he mentioned Elyan hearing them fight his eyes grew wide, but he didn't say anything. "Maybe you shouldn't start a fight with my FAKE husband while people are over!"

"Don't blame this on me!" seethed Gwen. "Stop involving your mother, you're not a child...oh wait! You are!"

The phone went dead after this and Merlin wasn't even mad that she had hung up on him, he was actually happy, as there was no point in arguing with her anyway. He pocketed his phone again and neither Arthur nor Merlin spoke to each other for a good long while after this. Because really, what was there to say?

(A/N: Gwen just continues to get more unlikeable, that was never my intention. Perhaps she will get redeemed at some point...we'll see. Anyway. Hope you all enjoyed this quick update.)