It was late Saturday evening, Merlin was in his room for two reasons: One, being that he had a big mid-term test on psychology that he was studying for and two, Gwen and Arthur were down stairs watching a movie. Now, most of the time Merlin would join them for such activities as movie watching. But Gwen had, in confidence and in secret, as she was making popcorn in the kitchen, told Merlin it was probably much better of an idea if Merlin sat out of this movie. As she and Arthur needed their alone time. They always had lots of alone time, but whatever, Merlin didn't protest, he just gathered up his books off of the dining table and went up to his room.
It might have been maybe forty-five minutes of Merlin being in his room, really trying to care about the words he was reading, when his phone rang. He was thankful for the distraction, at the very least. But when he looked at the ID he got concerned. It was Jen. Now, yes they were family, technically and also not technically. But Jen never normally out right called Merlin unless something was wrong, normally all points of contact from other parts of the family went through his mother, who then told him. It was just how it worked. Merlin assumed a lot of families were that way, so he never questioned it. But now here she was calling him and he felt worry bubble in his chest as he pressed the answer button.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Merlin, Sweetie, how are you?"
"I'm good..." he said, and she sounded okay, like everything was fine. Did she just butt-dial him and felt guilty so decided not to hang up? Was something really wrong and she was just putting on an act? Merlin's chest got tighter and tighter as he sat there, waiting for her to speak. "Is everything okay..?"
"Yeah, everything is great. Tom says hello, I'm sure you've talked to Ely lately," she said. Ely was Elyan, it was his mother's nickname for him, and only she was ever allowed to use it. Or else you would get gut-punched. That being said, Merlin was confused now, why had she called then? But this question didn't take too long to answer, because Jen carried on talking. "Actually...I had just gotten off the phone with your mum, she called me because she's a little concerned."
And there it was. Jen was a therapist, anytime anyone had an issue they called her because she was the only one with a brain in this family. Hunith was the brawn and Jen was the brain, and then there was Gwen who was soaking up both woman's personalities like a sponge and becoming unbearable. "Why is she concerned?" Merlin asked, and sometimes he wished he had learned long ago just to hang up on people, but that wasn't the way he was raised. Unless you really piss him off, then all bets are off. "What happened?"
"Well, see...she's been concerned for awhile, actually, Merlin. She's been concerned for about four months now," said Jen and Merlin sighed. What happened four months ago? Oh yes, he had married Arthur four months ago. "She is concerned about your marriage, to be honest."
"Why?" pressed Merlin, irritation settling in. He knew this, because he felt his lips getting more and more pursed together as the seconds ticked by. "Nothing's happened, Arthur and I are fine."
"That's just it, you all are fine, but we don't see that. You're mother told me you two come over every few weeks for dinner and you barely look at and you never touch each other," said Jen, tying to sound relatable, but really she sounded like a woman from the eighties trying to relate to her 2000's niece. It wasn't working. Give up the 'Cool Aunt' act. "You are meant to be in love, you're in the Honeymoon stage...Hell, there was no honeymoon and didn't even stay together at your own wedding reception. Honey, I think you can see why she's so worried."
"Arthur and I don't like showing affection in public."
"You and Arthur or just Arthur?" Jen retorted quickly.
"Both of us!" Merlin snapped back, with a deep sigh afterward. "Listen, Arthur and I are in love, really in love...you don't know what happens behind closed doors. Ask Gwen, she's always here, she sees it more than other people. There is nothing wrong with not wanting to have sex with each other at the table with my parents watching..."
"It's not about having sex with each other at the table, Dear," said Jen very pointed now, and like she might denoise him as a liar soon. "It's about the energy you give off, you two don't give off the energy of a couple in love..."
"I don't know what you want me to say," said Merlin then. "I love him...I know he loves me, just because we don't show it in front of other people, that isn't my problem-"
"You're mother has a right to be worried about you."
"Maybe she does...but what am I supposed to do?"
"Talk to Arthur, get to the root of why he has such a fear of showing his emotions in public. I know you, I know you are alright...you have shown emotions toward your pervious boyfriend in front of us before, you have conformed to Arthur's wants. Get to the bottom of it. Is he afraid of what people may think of him? He has never been in an intimate relationship with another man before...so he says. Allow him the chance to speak his truth," explained Jen. "Allow him to confide his problems in you and then take steps to move passed it. If not for your own sake and your relationship as a whole, because trust me a cold man is not someone you want to grow old with. If not for yourself, than for your mother. A mother's love runs deep and the last thing they want to think is that their child is unhappy in the man they have chosen to spend their lives with..."
"I get that, but..." Merlin trailed off, at a loss.
"You know how badly hurt your mother was when all that happened with Lance and your sister?" said Jen now. "Don't do that to her, too. She doesn't deserve it. Take care of your problems now, before they are too big to fix."
Merlin gulped, he waned to argue this. Say that this was not only none of his mother's business, but also none of Jen's. But he couldn't do that, how could he? If he said half the things he was thinking he would look like a horrible son and he DID love his mother very, very much. "I'll try..." he whispered and he wasn't even sure this whisper was loud enough for Jen to hear, but then she spoke again.
"If you need any help or if things get violent, do not be afraid to call me."
Merlin agreed to this and then hung up. But then he paused, his face crinkling up in confusion. What did she mean violent? Did she think Arthur was going to punch him because his family wanted them to act like they were actually married for once? Gwen might want to punch him...but Arthur wouldn't He wanted this to work. Gwen had stopped wanting this to work at some point in the passed four months and instead, she decided to spend all of her time reminding Merlin Arthur wasn't his. That was fine though, he knew this and from now on he and Arthur could handle the other bits on their own.
(A/N: Hi...long time, no update. At this point I am just trying to tie up loose ends, I want to actually FINISH stories here, I mean this one is not my main focus, About Merlin is, but this chapter was written a long time ago and when I reread it, it was actually pretty good, in my opinion, so I posted it. Hope you enjoyed it, I hope you're still reading, I still like this idea...)
