Merlin walked into the house from the outside, it was getting colder and colder as the end of November drew closed. The wind was blowing and his nose was nearly frost bitten. When he walked in he threw his bag onto the floor and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He needed to look up why his car was making a weird noise and obviously Google would know, right? This noise had started on the way back from Merlin's school, heading back home after failing his human sexuality's final, probably anyway. He walked into the sitting room eyes on his cell phone screen, he wasn't really watching where he was going as he typed; 'Why is my car making a screaming noise when I accelerate?' As Merlin hit enter he had just reached the sofa and instead of trying to lay down on it, which is what he had wanted to do, as he was now depressed from his car and his exam, instead he tripped over someone's feet. Arthur's, to be exact.

"AHH!" Merlin yelled, trying not to fall and Arthur only looked up at him as if he were an idiot, maybe he was. Merlin frowned either way. "Why are you here?"

Arthur blinked and titled his head to the side. "Because...I live here?"

"I thought you were going out with Gwen?"

"I was but she canceled on me to go out with her mother instead," explained Arthur, as Merlin finally sat down now and continued looking at his phone again. "Texting someone important?"

"Why...? Jealous?" retorted Merlin, looking over from his phone again, all Google was saying is it was probably something wrong in Merlin's engine and he was getting even more depressed now. He didn't have money to fix that. Arthur only raised his eyebrow and glared at Merlin a little bit. "I'm not texting anyone...I'm searching for why my car is making such a weird noise."

Arthur's look faded at once, into a much more concerned one. "What's it doing?"

"Screaming, mostly...which I can relate to, but still I'd rather it not-"

"Let me look at it."

Merlin stopped his rambling, to stare at Arthur confused. "You don't know anything about cars!"

"Of course I do!" retorted Arthur, as he stood up. "What does my dad do for a living?"

"He owns his own business," said Merlin and Arthur nodded.

"What kind of business?" asked Arthur and when Merlin only stared at him, Arthur rolled his eyes. He knew the answer was he sold boats, but forgive Merlin if he didn't see the relevance here. "He buys, sells and fix's up boats!"

"Okay...but that's a boat, what does that have to do with my car?"

"An engine is an engine, Merlin," said Arthur, in that snotty asshole like tone he probably learned from Gwen. Merlin frowned. "I can at least tell what the problem might be..."

Arthur put on a jacket and disappeared from the house. Merlin waited a good twenty or so minutes before he went out to make fun of Arthur for having no idea what might be wrong. Google said it was some kind of belt in the engine, Merlin didn't think Arthur could figure that out. Merlin walked outside to find Arthur hunched over Merlin's car, the hood up. As he walked closer he noticed Arthur's jacket sleeves rolled up and his hands were covered in car dirt. Merlin smiled at this, even though he couldn't be seen, it probably was better that he wasn't. Arthur was just adorable, well at least ninety percent of the time, the other ten he was either being an asshole or with Gwen. But Merlin tried not to focus on that ten percent too terribly much. Merlin got closer and leaned with his backside on the front of his car, folding his arms and looking over at Arthur with a grin.

"Give up yet?" he asked. "You know I can just take it to a shop, right?"

Arthur glanced over and pointed to the inner parts of the car. "The crankshaft pulley is starting to fail in the engine. It's not too bad yet, but if it breaks entirely it's very dangerous to drive, it throws off the cars timing."

Merlin blinked a few times and allowed his smugness to wash away for a second or two. "How'd you know all that?" he asked and then when Arthur looked over at him with raised eyebrows, all the smugness came right back to Merlin and he nodded. "Oh that's right, becuasue...an engine is an engine, Meerlin!" he made fun of Arthur, and in turn he sighed deeply rolling his eyes, Merlin grinned at him. "I didn't think you'd actually figure out what's wrong with it."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," said Arthur, looking back at the car now. Merlin continued to grin, he wasn't really trying to make Arthur feel bad, he was just messing with him. So, he changed his tactic now.

"Actually..." he said now. "It's kind of attractive when a guy's good with his hands...and knows how to fix things." Arthur looked over at him and Merlin's grin changed to a bit more of a smile, he bit his lip. "You know...like the hot older dad types, who can fix everything...it's kind of sexy."

"Are you calling me somebody's dad again?" retorted Arthur and Merlin shrugged.

"You could be my dad..."

Arthur paused, turning more toward Merlin now. "Do you listen to yourself when you say things or do you say them...just to talk?"

"What?" Merlin retorted again. "You don't want to be Balinor? He's good people. Good with his hands, too..."

"For Christ's sake..." Arthur complained and Merlin laughed, very hard. "Well, it's nice to know you're purposely trying to irritate me."

"Why?" said Merlin. "Because I called you my dad?"

"Well...yes, you're calling me old...again, and making this weird."

"Okay...you don't want to be my dad, noted," said Merlin. "What do you want to be then?"

"What do you want me to be, Merlin?"

"Sabastian Stan, but I know that's too much to ask..."

Arthur looked at him, deadpanned, "I hate you..."

Merlin ignored this, and Arthur went back to messing with bits of the car. "I had a dream about Sabastian Stan the other night, I knew it was him too and and that I was dreaming, but I couldn't date him and I was mad about it."

"Why couldn't you date him?" offered Arthur, apparently still humoring Merlin, at the very least anyway. Merlin sighed, very deeply.

"Because I was married to you, for one thing...also, you know...I'm a guy."

"He could be into that, you never know...you don't know him personally."

"What?" asked Merlin. "Infidelity?"

"I meant..." Arthur turned to look at Merlin again and Merlin smiled, because Arthur looked a little concerned at what he was saying. "Being gay..."

"I could only wish, but I don't think so..." Arthur nodded, but didn't look away from Merlin for some reason. Merlin titled his head a little to the left and continued to look at him right back. "What...?" he asked, after a minute or two of this.

"Do you ever dream about me?" Arthur asked then, in such a little boy voice that Merlin's smile got ten times too big for many reasons. He shrugged one shoulder though.

"Sometimes..."

Arthur's mouth twitched a little and it looked like he wanted to say several things all at once, but he chose, "What kind of dreams?"

Merlin laughed a little, he couldn't help it. "It depends," he was vague, but then remembered one dream he had. "A few weeks ago I had a dream that we were in a market and you were shouting at me."

Arthur's brow forwarded and he looked worried. "Why was I shouting at you?"

"Because the carts wheels were glued to the floor and we couldn't move our stuff."

"Why would I shout at you for that?"

"Because I was the one who glued them," Merlin grinned.

"That's not surprising with you," said Arthur and this was clearly not the type of dream he thought Merlin should be having about him. "So, is that all I do in your dreams, shout at you?"

Merlin shook his head no, "You're in my dreams all the time...we do lots of stuff."

It was Arthur's turn to grin at this. "Well, it's nice to know you're dreaming about me."

Merlin supposed he had walked right into that one. "Oh, because you don't dream about me?!"

"Perhaps I do..." Arthur shrugged. "But I wouldn't tell you even If I did"

Merlin's mouth fell open a little, at the pure and utter asshole behavior. "I couldn't careless, I'm not asking!"

Arthur smirked. "Good, because I'm not telling you."

"Asshole...-"

"But if you were...in my dreams, you wouldn't be shouting at me," said Arthur, as he looked at Merlin knowingly. "At least not for a negative reason."

Merlin's mouth fell open just a little bit more, at what Arthur might have meant by that and at the utter nerve of him. Arthur laughed at him now, completely ignoring the car's problems and instead looking so directly at Merlin that it made Merlin's skin burn. He almost forgot that it was cold outside.

"You're an utter bastard," Merlin told him, yet he didn't get up from leaning on the car, he did stand more straight, but he didn't leave. They just stood there staring at each other. "I can't stand you!"

"It's never nice to lie, Merlin...." Arthur trailed off, because he knew that wasn't true. Merlin knew very well that it wasn't true, even more so than Arthur did. And this, well...it just happens sometimes, they fake fight or flirt fight, if that is a thing. It was strange, whatever it was. But not one single bit of actual anger was coursing through Merlin's veins, though plenty of other things were. Like adrenaline and frustration and far too much desire. Merlin bit down hard on his bottom lip to try to get his head out of this very bad place.

"Because our whole relationship isn't built on lies?" he retorted though, because he had to. He was compelled. "Seems like I can keep doing it then..."

"I said it wasn't nice...I didn't say you couldn't do it," said Arthur.

"Good," Merlin said back pointedly. "Because I don't have to listen to you."

"I can make you listen," warned Arthur, leaning forward and moving one of his dirty, car hands to the other side of Merlin, trapping him where he was stood at the car. They were now entirely too close for this to be considered a 'safe' flirt fight and Merlin's heart suddenly started beating much too fast. He could hear it in his ears.

"I dare you to try..." he said, nearly breathlessly and Arthur was far too close and getting closer, or maybe Merlin was getting closer to him. He couldn't be sure because he couldn't quite see straight, he was blinded by stupidity, and his heart was beating so loudly. So loud, in fact, that he almost didn't hear Arthur's phone ringing from the depths of the man's jacket pockets. But Arthur did, just before their lips touched, and he pulled away to answer it. The utter shock of the lack of lips on his made Merlin shutter with either cold or upset-ness, he tried to push that all away so he can be a normal human being again, but he was both quickly and slowly losing his mind, he just knew it.

"Hello?" said Arthur into the phone, and Merlin was sure he didn't know who it was, because he had been too distracted to have even looked at the ID. He hadn't really moved that much away from Merlin either, only removed the hand he was keeping Merlin trapped with. All that being said, he was close enough that he could hear Gwen's voice on the other end of the call. Of course it was her, Merlin wasn't surprised at all. He did frown though. "Oh...hello!" he was saying now and Merlin had to wonder where his head was at, Merlin often wondered this but half the time he didn't even think Arthur knew and that was fine, but stuff like this is what keeps the small bit of hope Merlin keeps locked away in his heart, just that much more alive. Arthur goes from being bashful and weird just talking about being gay, probably because he doesn't want to accidently be offensive, and then thirty seconds later is about to kiss him. It was obvious why Merlin was confused, but what was he supposed to even do about this? He had no idea. "I don't think we're doing anything the twenty-sixth," Arthur was saying now and Merlin pulled himself from his thoughts to listen a little bit more, not that if this was Gwen, did he really care what she had to say. "That sounds great...yeah, we'll be there. Right...alright, bye...yes, thank you. Bye!"

Merlin stared at him, this had to be one of the strangest conversations with Gwen he had ever had over the phone. "What did she want?" he asked, once Arthur pocketed his phone again.

"That was Gwen-"

"Well, no shit..."

"Excuse me?"

"Who else calls you?"

"...and your mother."

Merlin's eyes widened a little, "What did my mum want?"

"They were calling to invite me...and you, to a Thanksgiving party your mum wants to throw me, so I feel more welcomed into the family."

Merlin smiled, "That's nice."

Arthur nodded, "Yeah," he smiled back at Merlin and then froze, apparently it was at that second he remembered that right before this call they were about to kiss. He frowned then and took several steps back. "I ought to go wash my hands..."

Merlin only shrugged, "Yeah...you probably better..."

(A/N: I would like to say many things, the first being that this is 2000 words of rubbish, only the last 400 words were the reason it was written, not even that many words honestly. I just needed to set up this Thanksgiving party, but at least I had fun writing this chapter. Secondly I would like to say WHY I haven't posted in 20 days and that is because I got irritated with ppl complaining that this story is taking too long and ect. That is not to say I can't take criticism, because I want you all to tell me what you like and what you don't like, I'm fine with that. But remember I post this story on two different places and every update I do I am getting so many comments about how this is ridiculous and this is taking too long, and it annoyed me, like I'm just being super honest right now. I know it's taken a long time to get the full story out there, but like it's fanfiction read it or don't, you know, it's free, I'm doing this for free, there is no exchange of money, I am not doing this for anyone except myself so why can't the story be how I want it to be? You know, like just enjoy the ride, I'm not in a rush. Like, I get ppl read FF to see their two favorite characters get together, but that's not how I like to write sorties, I never get these two together just to do it, because I like to have fun with it, I like to have drama and problems, because I know the they are still end game so why rush? I realize that this is technically a sequel and we're still dealing with them having the same issue of being in a fake marriage, but that's the entire premise of the story, so that can't go away yet and in my opinion the stakes have changed a great deal since then, so it's not exactly the same. I really tried in the last twenty days to write a new story, just to get away from this one, but I can't, I keep coming back to this one. I really like this story, I have fun writing it, if you think I'm taking too long I'm sorry, either don't read it if it annoys you or wait until I post a lot of chapters and read it all at once, Idk...and I don't even know when I will be updating again, I just chose to tonight because I realized it's been so long, anyway...rant type thing over, I hope you enjoyed. )