Merlin didn't get a call back from Arthur that evening or the following morning, but he tried to stay calm, he knew that Arthur was a very busy man and would get back to him when he could.

One positive of this morning was that Gwaine was around so he was able to give Merlin a lift into work so he didn't have to get up earlier to take public transport, even if it meant he still had to spend the journey to work in silence as Gwaine hadn't been eager to speak.

When Merlin got to his floor and to his desk, he looked across the room to Leon's office. Uther was yet again talking to the other man, although he hadn't been working in the office very long, he thought it was weird for the owner of the company to appear twice so close together and after talking to a few of his colleagues, he found it was very unusual for Uther to be around so often.

"What do you think he's doing here?" Merlin asked a woman at a nearby desk.

"I have no idea but it can't be anything good...if you want my guess, I would say that Uther doesn't think that Arthur is doing a good enough job with the company and wants Leon to take over, either that or he wants Leon's help or advice on how to talk control back from Arthur," she told him and Merlin couldn't hide the surprise on his face.

"He'd really do that...why Leon?"

"You don't know a lot about Uther Pendragon do you?" She laughed before answering his second question. "Uther has known Leon since he was young, he's like a second son to him...one he probably prefers to his actual son."

"A lot of family drama?" Merlin guessed.

"And then some," she laughed again before another colleague drew her attention elsewhere.

Merlin really had a lot to learn about Arthur Pendragon, he thought about googling him but that wouldn't look very good on his work computer. He would just have to get the information from Arthur himself, whenever he actually got a chance to talk to him.

Merlin had made his way up to the floor that held Arthur's office as soon as he could, going straight for the first person he saw.

"Hi, Guinevere is it?" Merlin asked, recognising the woman.

"Um, yes, you can call me Gwen."

"Gwen...do you know when Arthur will be available?" Merlin asked, nodding towards his office.

"I'm not sure, his father arrived unexpectedly and they have been in his office a while, he will let me know when he's free...I can let you know when that is?"

"No, it's okay, I'll see if I can catch him some other time." Merlin said, smiling, before he walked away from the desk. He knew that Uther was still with Leon which meant Gwen was lying, why did Arthur want people to think that he was with his father, or was that something he'd just asked Gwen to tell him?

Try as he might, he couldn't stop thinking about that for the rest of the day, he really was becoming paranoid. Towards the end of the day he was given a distraction away from Arthur and that was to Gwaine, who had apparently gone home and hadn't thought to tell the person he had taken into work, so now he had to take the bus home.

He'd sent Gwaine a text when he found out he'd gone home but had received no response and when he got home, Gwaine wasn't there. Merlin tried to phone him but found Gwaine had turned his phone off, there was no way of getting into contact with him and maybe that was what he wanted.

Merlin threw a vegetable lasagna ready meal into the microwave, poured himself a glass of wine and settled into the sofa with his dinner and turned on the television, finding some brain numbing to watch to get rid of all his worry and anxiety.

Lost in the show he was watching, he didn't realise the time until it was almost one in the morning and decided that he should call it a night.

Merlin was about to switch off the television and head to bed when his phone began to vibrate and looking at the screen, he saw that it was Arthur calling him. He debated whether or not he should answer the call, he had been wanting to speak to Arthur after sending him several texts but he was also annoyed that Arthur couldn't drop him another text throughout the week.

Before Merlin had a chance to decide, the call rang out and Merlin waited to see if he would receive another call or a voicemail and after a minute the voicemail symbol popped up on his phone but there were no other phone calls in the following ten minutes and Merlin decided just to go to sleep and ignore whatever Arthur had to say in the message. If he really wanted to talk to him he could come and talk in person.

Merlin had set his alarm early as he didn't think that Gwaine would be home to give him a lift into work the following morning and when he woke up he found that he was right, his friend and roommate still wasn't home.

Taking the bus into work as well as not knowing what Gwaine was up to left Merlin in a bad mood. He politely greeted his colleagues but kept mostly to himself in the morning, with little interruption, it was obviously clear that Merlin didn't want to talk. There was still chatter around the office, which was fine and helped keep his mind off other things, but when the chatter died down, Merlin curiously looked up from his computer to see everyone in front of him, staring at him, well, just behind him, so he turned around and found Arthur standing there.

"Arthur...what are you doing here?"

"I heard you were looking for me yesterday," he smiled.

"Um, yes...I was, but you were with your father."

"Yes, we had some business to talk about...but I'm free now. I tried to call you last night." Arthur said, looking at the others in the office, who quickly turned away and got back to their work.

"I was asleep, I was going to come and try to see you again, rather than phone you when we were in the same building." Merlin lied with a genuine smile.

"Shall we go up to my office and talk?"

"Sure."

The two men ignored the eyes that followed them across the office and to the elevator.

"Everyone looked shocked to see you," Merlin said when the doors had shut. "I take it you don't come down to the offices very often?"

"Unfortunately I'm not able to as much as I'd like, too many meetings and things to sort out, I thought things would settle down after a while and I would have the chance to be more involved with the rest of my employees but that hasn't happened yet."

The lift dinged and the doors opened to show the floor of the building that housed Arthur's office. They walked past Gwen at her desk and into the office where they took seats just as they had when Merlin first had his interview.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around much this week or been able to respond to texts or calls…" Arthur started. "It's been a hell of a week, my father has been on my back non stop about how awfully I'm running the company."

"I saw him talking with Leon the other day, I'm assuming about the same thing?"

"My father would much rather Leon run this company than me, he's always preferred his 'adopted' children to me."

"Why did he give you the company in the first place?"

"It was just a small company when he did but I hired the right people who helped to turn it into what it is today." Arthur shrugged.

"So he only thinks you can run a small company and now this has become bigger he doesn't want you to run it anymore?" Merlin summed up and Arthur nodded.

"Basically yes, he can't take the company away from me now that he has no stakes or shares in it and is trying to find a way around that to take it and he can only do that by using someone in my employ."

"Like Leon?" Merlin asked and Arthur nodded. "Do you really think Leon will try and take over the company?"

"I'd like to think that he wouldn't, he's one of my oldest and closest friends...but my father can be very manipulative, so I'm not sure...anyway that's enough talk about my father, I wanted to talk about us."

"What did you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to know if you were seeing anyone else, not that I would blame you for doing so...I haven't exactly been very responsive recently."

"I'm not seeing anyone else...are you?"

"No I'm not." Arthur smiled. "So how about a re-do? Friday night at Club Camelot?"

"It's a date." Merlin grinned.

With another date planned with Arthur, Merlin felt in much higher spirits and the week felt like it sped past and soon it was Friday and Merlin was once again on his way to Club Camelot with Arthur, sharing champagne in his limo much like they had done previously.

The Club was just as busy as usual when Merlin and Arthur pulled up to the entrance but they walked straight in and to their booth.

They talked, they drank and they danced and by the early hours of the morning the two were very drunk and had decided to call it a night and head out of the club, deciding to walk through the city back to Merlin's apartment instead of taking the limo.

Merlin don't know what came over him. One minute he and Arthur were stumbling down the street and the next minute he was pulling Arthur into an alley and pushing him against the cold brick wall.

"Should we be doing this here?" Arthur said, although made no move to stop Merlin from undoing his jeans.

"Why not? There's no one around." Merlin responded and Arthur had no further argument as Merlin's hand slipped into his boxers.

Arthur managed to get his brain to work enough to do the same to Merlin, undoing his trousers so that he could handle Merlin's erection, stroking the length until he was fully hard.

The two were flush up against each other as they jerked the other off, their mouths meeting every now and again in sloppy kisses.

"Arthur…" Merlin groaned as he felt himself getting close to the edge. He started moving his hand faster on Arthur's erection, running his thumb over the head to try and stimulate him as much as possible, he wanted them to come at the same time.

"Oh fuck, Merlin." Arthur cried out, his heading hitting the brick wall behind him as he came, coating Merlin's hand and some of his own shirt. The sight of Arthur coming undone did it for Merlin and he erupted over Arthur's now still hand.

They held each other up whilst they caught their breath and once they did they cleaned themselves up as much as they could, using a discarded bottle of water they found and Merlin's hoodie.

"Come back to mine tonight." Arthur asked, still panting slightly.

"I…" Merlin had started to say but the ringing of his mobile cut off their conversation. Looking at his phone, he saw it was Leon who was calling him.

"Leon, is everything okay?"

"No, Merlin, it's Gwaine...he's in the hospital…" Leon's panicked voice answered the phone.

"What? Why? What happened?"

"I'll text you the address of the hospital I'm at, please come quickly Merlin...I don't know what to do." Leon said before ending the call.

"Merlin?"

"I have to go, it's an emergency, I'll call you later." Merlin promised, giving Arthur a quick kiss before leaving the alley to find the closest bus stop.

The bus took him straight to the hospital that Leon had told him Gwaine was in a short time, but the journey seemed longer at that time of night as well knowing something bad had happened. When the bus finally pulled up to its stop outside the hospital, Merlin raced off it and into the building, slowing down at the reception.

"I'm looking for…" Merlin started to say to the woman behind the reception desk but stopped when he saw Leon walking down a corridor towards him.

"Merlin, this way." Leon gestured before turning back around, Merlin hot on his heels.

Gwaine was in his own room, laying in a bed covered in blankets. His face was very pale, he had an IV and was hooked up to machines that were monitoring his heart rate and other vitals. It was like he'd just walked in on an episode of Holby City.

"What happened?"

"He overdosed, they wouldn't tell me exactly what he had taken but it was a lot of it...mixed with alcohol."

"An overdose?" Merlin repeated and Leon nodded before sitting down on one of the chairs in the room.

"This is my fault." Leon sighed, pressing his face into his hands.

"Leon...Gwaine has always taken rejection badly, it's not your fault, you made it clear what you wanted." Merlin said, placing a hand on the other's shoulder. "And to be honest with you, I'd never known Gwaine to take drugs, none of us could have seen this coming."

"Things will be different when he wakes up." Leon promised.