It was a Tuesday evening, Gwen was rearranging the food cupboard while Merlin and Arthur sat in the sitting room, because neither of them had the mental strength to help her. Merlin was trying to read for his final on Human Sexualities', which he should be good at...seeing as he's gay, but for some reason he had sucked this entire class. Meanwhile, Arthur was streaming an American Football game off of his phone and it was kind of annoying. Hold the kind of.

"AND HE'S RUNNING...MAKING A BREAK FOR IT...OH, HE'S BEEN TAKLED! FOURTH AND DOWN!" the phone was screaming for a moment, or off and on every few minutes really, and Merlin didn't understand why, because every time he looked over all he saw was grass, but whatever. Merlin tried to ignore it, as he searched 'What's Fourth Down in American Football?' But the answer made even less sense than the screaming. Suddenly, the screen on Arthur's phone went black and it started ringing. Arthur swore openly.

"What?" asked Merlin, Arthur showed him his phone and it was his mother calling. "Answer it!"

"No, the Delphine's are winning!" complained Arthur.

"I don't even know what that means!" retorted Merlin and then leaned over and pressed the screen, on the 'Talk' button on Arthur's phone, Arthur glared at him. "You can watch it later..."

Arthur huffed, and put the phone to his ear. "Hello, Mum!" he faked happiness. Merlin smiled at this, cheekily, just so Arthur would see it. He did and his glare deepened. "No...I wasn't busy...yes, I was watching the game. At least dad get's to...no, it's fine." Merlin couldn't hear what Arthur's mother was saying on the other end, but he had talked to his own mother enough times to get the idea. Pretty much all mother's were the same, it's like they took an expert class in Guilt before their children were born. "Merlin's right here...he's studying for a test, I'll let him know you said hi," Merlin nodded in greeting at this, because he was watching Arthur talk to her anyway, he didn't need to be told later, which Arthur already knew. "Wow...really? When?" Arthur continued talking. "Christmas? Oh...I don't see a problem with it, Merlin's family has a lot of traditions, but we can work around it."

Merlin was confused by this though, for many reasons. Of course yes, Merlin's family had a lot of stuff they did around Christmas, but why was Arthur talking about this suddenly? And why were they going to be working around it? "What?" he whispered to him now and Arthur held up his hand, telling him to wait. But Merlin didn't want to. He pouted and Arthur obviously noticing this, as they were looking at each other, leaned over and pinched him in the ribs, which made Merlin yelp in the same whisper, "Ow...prick!"

"Oh, I'm sure that will be fine...no, I'm excited!" Arthur continued talking to his mother. "What about Morgana?" Morgana was Arthur's sister, the likes of which he didn't mention very much, other than for the fact that they didn't get along very well and he thought she was a bitch. "Oh, that's fine...obviously I would like her to be there. Maybe in the future...Right, well I'm going to get off now, I've got to talk to Merlin about this...No, I'm sure he'll be excited, too...Alright...love you, too...Bye."

Arthur hung up the phone and looked down as he set his phone down, not even turning the game back on. Even though the Mammal's had been winning, or whatever their name was. He looked back at Merlin with semi-alarmed eyes. "What?!" Merlin prompted again, feeling anxious. "WHAT?!"

Arthur sighed, "My mum and dad just booked a flight for Christmas..."

"Where?"

"Here...obviously."

"They're coming here?"! said Merlin, in alarm now too. He felt like it was suddenly very hot in the house and he kinda wanted to run away from it. "Why...?"

"Because they've never met you and haven't seen me in two years," said Arthur, and Merlin got that, he really did. But he was still very alarmed

"Holy shit..."

"That's not even the best part..."

"What else could there be?" asked Merlin, exasperated. Arthur faked a grin.

"They want to stay with us."

Merlin huffed, "Good luck telling Gwen that."

Arthur shook his head. "Oh, I know..."

Arthur had avoided telling Gwen about his parents all the way until almost bed time, when Gwen had finally given up on the cupboard and came to join them in the sitting room. Arthur wasn't going to say anything either, Merlin could tell because he was avoiding eye contact with her and continued looking at his phone when normally Arthur wasn't too phone-obsessed at all. Gwen obviously noticed this, because she noticed everything yet also nothing. Which basically means she noticed when it was something to do with her, not any other time. She frowned at him and positioned herself, instead of between them on the sofa, now on his lap.

"Who called you earlier?" she asked, as she pressed her lips to a spot on his neck and Merlin kinda wanted to get up and leave, so he could die from disgust somewhere private. But he did not, because he wanted to know what Arthur was going to say.

"My mother," said Arthur, with no other explanation.

"What did she want?" promoted Gwen. Arthur took in a breath and shrugged, acting as if this was not a big deal. Even though it was in fact, a big deal.

"She and my father are coming to visit for Christmas," he said quickly. And Merlin supposed just to get it all out with and over, he carried on quickly after. "And they want to stay here...not necessarily," he sugar-coated it. "But she did ask..."

Gwen stared at him for a moment, down at him, because she was elevated from being on his lap. Arthur looked as if he were starting to sweat, just under his lip. Merlin said nothing at all, only watched. "Well if they're going to stay here than you had better start cleaning out the third room."

"What?" said Arthur, confused. Merlin looked over and stared at her, more openly now, too. Just completely confused. She ignored Merlin entirely, but either way, that was not at all what he thought she would say.

"Obviously they can't sleep in a dirty room and really...you've needed to clean that thing out for ages, it's long overdue," said Gwen, was she being stupid on purpose? Merlin had to wonder. Because see, Arthur's, and as an extension he supposed, also Merlin's house, has a third bedroom rather than just the two. Which obviously housed Arthur and Merlin, separately, the third one was full of stuff, Merlin didn't know what stuff, as all of it was Arthur's, but he supposed junk. However, if Arthur's parents were staying over for Christmas they obviously would assume Merlin and Arthur, who are married, would be sharing a room...which meant the room Merlin currently lived in is the room they would stay in. So now, Merlin wondered, if Gwen was choosing to play dumb on purpose or did she really think they would continue NOT sharing a room while Arthur's parents were there?

Arthur didn't seem to want to question it, because instead, he just promptly agreed. "You're right," he said, nodding his head. "Merlin and I will start on it this weekend."

Merlin frowned at this and wondered how he always got roped into this stuff.

(A/N: Hello all! I know it's been a minute since I updated this, I have just been busy, work is very busy and long and now school is starting again on Monday for me, I would just assume updates will be a bit all over the place until I can sort it all out. I hope you enjoyed tho.)