Arthur listened to Merlin, it took an entire day for Gwen to come back over. It was already Monday evening when she had finally come back. Arthur had just gotten home from work, and she showed up in the same angry, rude mood she left in, but when Arthur asked to talk to her nicely, her whole personality changed and although Merlin stayed in the kitchen while they went and talked in the sitting room, he did eventfully hear her high-pitched giggles and he figured that didn't sound like the giggle of a break up, so everything was going to be fine again. Merlin tried to stand there and figure out how he felt about their reconcile, but truthfully he wasn't entirely sure. Yes, it had been his idea for Arthur to make up with her, but that was out of some form of desperation, not care. Merlin couldn't honestly care if they did breakup or not, some part of him might actually be happy about it if they did, the jealousy side of him anyway. And maybe that made him a bad person, but apparently he already was one, so it didn't even matter. The reason he even wanted them to work it out is so he didn't lose Arthur, it honestly had nothing to do with Gwen at all. So in turn, he figured he was really just indifferent about it. A few minutes later the both of them were walking back into the kitchen, Gwen holding onto Arthur's hand as if she were afraid to get lost or something. She let go once they got more into the kitchen though, and then ran over and hugged Merlin tightly. Needless to say, Merlin was taken aback by this.

"Uh...what-?"

"I'm so sorry, Merlin," said Gwen, in a voice that sounded near tears. "I have been treating you so terribly and I...I never meant to!" she sniffed and Merlin really didn't know how to react. Arthur just smiled at him over her shoulder and Merlin sighed, patting his sister on the back gently. "I've been horrible to you and I should have never sent those texts, can you ever forgive me?" She was crying, and that was putting it lightly. Large tears were rolling over her bronze cheeks as she pulled back and looked deeply into his eyes. 'You're my best friend, the only other person I trust besides Arthur, that's why I asked you to do this, and because I get jealous and I wish I could be married to him instead...I forget you're only doing this for me."

"Um..." Merlin responded, still not entirely sure what to say and further, not entirely sure if she was being genuine. Perhaps Arthur had put her up to this. "It's okay, Gwen, I understand..." he finally said and she let go of him entirely, mopping the tears away from her eyes and sniffing her nose once more. She turned back to Arthur and he walked closer, she wrapped her arms around him now and looked at both of them.

"We're all family, I just want to act like it, no more secrets or feeling like you can't say what's on your mind...even if you think it might upset one of us," Gwen was saying now, and Merlin had to think that the only one who gets upset over everything is her, but he just nodded along. "I want everything to be open and honest from now on...no more misunderstandings."

Arthur leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, and Merlin wanted to vomit all of a sudden. The only thing worse than them fighting all the time is them being loving toward each other, because it killed Merlin just a little bit more every single time he had to witness it. Yet, he was the one who had talked Arthur into this. Gwen had decided as a gift she was going to cook them dinner and shooed them both from the kitchen. Arthur went into the sitting room to watch the telly but Merlin really didn't want to be around him, because he was feeling disgusted with both himself and the idea of having to see them kiss ever again, so he went up to his room. To be truthful, he honestly didn't know why he was feeling so absolutely defeated at the moment, maybe because during all this he felt as if he had had Arthur, at least in some form, but now he was seeing that it wasn't actually true at all, he didn't have any part of Arthur at all, because contrary to what some papers say, they're marriage still wasn't real, even if Merlin wished it were.

He tried to will away the tears now, but they just wouldn't listen. Merlin hated how much he had been crying lately, and had been doing so for some time now if Arthur knew how to comfort him so well. It was never like this before. Merlin hadn't even cried this much over Gwaine and he had cheated on him, for months, somehow that was easier than this. Somehow a lot of things seemed easier than this. "I wish I could be hit by a bus..." he said to no one as he rolled over, onto his stomach and shoved his face into his pillows. Would the pain in his chest ever go away? Maybe he was having a heart attack. Instead of worrying about his current health state he sort of just fell asleep as a crying mess and only woke up to someone knocking on his door. It was Arthur who didn't wait to be allowed to enter his room, he just did it. Merlin didn't look up when he started talking, because he honestly didn't want to see him.

"Gwen finished dinner..." he was saying. "Are you sleeping?"

"No," Merlin lied.

"Are you alright?"

"No," Merlin told the truth.

"What's wrong?" asked Arthur, Merlin rolled over and laid flat on his back now, still not looking at him, but he could feel Arthur's gaze on him. "I thought you would be happy Gwen apologized to you."

"Not if you forced her to."

"I didn't," said Arthur and Merlin wasn't sure he believed that. "It was all her, she does feel very badly about the texts. I told her something like that can never happen again."

Merlin huffed. "I hope..."

"I believe she knows what she was doing was wrong, she wants this to work out, I want it to work out..." Merlin didn't say anything to that, he just continued to lay there. "Come on, get up and eat, she's made chicken..."

"Chicken's your favorite not mine, I prefer ranch potato's."

"Oh Lord, Christ...don't tell your father that!"

Merlin smiled at Arthur's reaction and then forced himself to get up. He went down stairs with Arthur, and Gwen had already set the table. They had pan-fried chicken and green beans, all while Arthur and Gwen did all the talking, and Merlin just kind of sat there being depressed. No one said anything about it though, he finished eating first, because Arthur had seconds, and elected himself to start cleaning up. Soon after Merlin started wrapping and covering, and shoving things into the over-stuffed fridge, Gwen came in smiling from ear to ear. He didn't say anything to her as he continued cleaning, she started to as well. She put all the pans in the sink to soak and started washing the counters with a dish-rag. After a few silent moments of this though, she stopped and looked at him.

"Merlin,'" she said in a sweet voice and he paused, looking back at her. She dropped the rag on the counter and walked closer to him, he only raised his eyebrow at her, as she got closer and titled her head toward him, as if so Arthur didn't hear what she was about to say next. "We can play nice for now, for Arthur's sake," she said, in a very cold voice. "But just know you are on very thin ice with me, if you even dare to ever go against me again..." she took a deep breath and rolled her eyes. "It simply won't be acceptable, do you understand me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, quite plainly and then tried to walk away from her, but she leaned forward and grabbed his forearm with her cold hand.

"I know it was you who wanted the hotel, do you think I'm stupid?" she retorted at him, voice colder than her hands. He wanted to say yes, but didn't. "Luckily your little games won't take Arthur from me, but I am warning you, be very careful..."

She released his arm then and he stood there for a second, considering his options here, should he tell her it was actually him who convinced Arthur to stay with her? Should he tell her that Arthur had wanted to leave her? But no, he didn't say anything, he just left the kitchen and went up to his room.

(A/N: Hello, I hope everyone is good. I just want to talk about the future of this fic for a second, I'm really trying to finish writing it by November 1st, because I will want to start writing my Nanowrimo, I still haven't come up with an idea yet for it, I mean I have a whole month but if you guy's got any ideas of a story you might like to see me write, tell me, I'd love to see them. It can be whatever, canon, au, modern au, I don't care. But yeah, the first part of this story was actually my nanowrimo for last year, so I would really like to get it to a point where it can end...at least for now. I don't care if I have posted it all by Nov, but I need to have finished writing it. I think maybe 8 to 10 chapters more from where I am in the story right now, which is slightly ahead of you. We'll see, I don't mind if it's long. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed!)