The next time Merlin had seen Morgana was a few weeks later, at a 'celebration' party for Morgana and Leon's engagement, even though they had already been engaged three months. Leave it to the Pendragon's to be incredibly annoying and push their happiness into other peoples faces. The arrogance of the party was not the problem however, the problem was and is the fact that Merlin was even there in the first place. See, he had obviously not wanted to go, but after two weeks of not answering phone calls or texts from Morgana he caved when she asked, he thought he couldn't see the trouble in stopping by, eating a cake and leaving, only of course that is not how it happened. When Merlin had arrived the party was already so busy that there was no where to really stand, all the food had been mulled over and Morgana was nowhere to be seen. Somehow Merlin had ended up sitting with Gwen of all people, at one of the plastic picnic tables set up outside in the back garden. Merlin figured out of the options of people he actually knew there, stuck between Uther, his mother or Gwen, Gwen was the lesser evil. At least she actually pretended to like him, his mother just looked at him with guilt at a damn near constant basis, and Uther openly hated his guts, so really...did he have an option?
Gwen was drinking a glass of white milk, a weird choice next to the nearly endless options for food and drink the Pendragon's most likely did have before Merlin arrived, but Gwen informed him she had heartburn, which was normal for a pregnant person, and couldn't drink anything else. Ten minutes into sitting with her and making mindless conversation about what she planned on naming her unborn child, Gwen paused in her words about girl names that she liked to openly look disgusted in the direction of the backdoor.
"Oh God, she's here...how sickening..." she suddenly said, and it took Merlin by surprise, he stopped and looked to where Gwen's eyes were darting, it was on a blond woman with her hair done up in a high ponytail, making her look a bit like a genie, her short, blue dress wasn't helping as it was a bit too tight. Merlin remembered her from somewhere. "Pray she doesn't come over here...I don't want to vomit up my milk."
"Who is that?" Merlin asked, Gwen looked over at him with distaste, as if him not knowing offended her.
"That's Arthur's girlfriend," said Gwen, and the mention of Arthur's name made Merlin's stomach drop, out of every single person Merlin did not ever want to see, he was at the top of the list, and if Arthur's girlfriend was here didn't that mean...? Merlin suddenly wanted to drop dead. "You should remember her," Gwen continued unphased, unlike Merlin. "She used to go to school with us..." Gwen let out a dark, sultry laugh. "I hope she likes my sloppy seconds. I wasn't foolish enough to stay with him though...dumb bitch."
It struck Merlin then, as his eyes traveled back to Gwen with shock, that although she acted differant as an adult now, maybe Gwen was still a little bit the same. "I...I didn't know he had a girlfriend," Merlin managed to say and he had to admit, it was the wrong thing to say, he shouldn't care.
"They've been together for almost two years now," Gwen said almost off-handed, but Merlin could tell she wasn't at all, because her eyes were dark and her glare was rather obvious. "He won't commit though, even though she really wants that ring...even cried about it, but he won't do it. He isn't the type." Merlin didn't say anything to that, because he didn't want to, he had to force himself not to talk. Gwen sighed then. "Anthony doesn't like her either, says she's mean and doesn't like to play with him...because she's a child and selfish."
"Why would he be with someone his kid doesn't like?" Merlin did ask this though, because it was almost automatic, but as was Gwen's response.
"Because he's an asshole..."
Merlin had to get up and walk away pretty soon after that, it was too much, he just needed a moment of clearing his head after having a conversation even remotely close to do with Arthur. He just couldn't handle it. He knows by now, after all this, he should be over it, it shouldn't hurt. And it didn't hurt, not exactly, it felt more so like a numb little stabbing, like hitting a bandage that was covering a spot that did hurt at one point. Which didn't make much sense in Merlin's head, but he was not very interested in making sense, just as long as that bandage stayed on nice and tight. Merlin was in the kitchen now, regardless if there was food or not, he had to at least look, and that's when he finally found Morgana. She looked tired and stressed, not to mention a little green, as if she was under the weather and with all these people all over her, Merlin could understand why.
"Merlin!" she said happily when she saw him, ignoring the old woman in the cheetah print hat and walked away from her. Leon was following behind her, as if a confused puppy. She hugged Merlin and looked at him with large, warn-out eyes. "I'm glad you came."
"I've been here awhile."
"Sorry..." she muttered. "It's just really busy. I told Hunith it should be a small party, but my father got involved and-"
"Involved is an understatement..." trailed off Leon. "When we're finally in our house...we're not doing these things."
Morgana grinned at her future husband. "No, never..." Merlin just looked at them, not really sure what to say and not really sure if it would be appropriate to leave yet. "Are you having a nice time?" she asked then and when Merlin just stared back, she huffed. "Sorry, don't answer that..."
"I saw Arthur's girlfriends," said Merlin then and he wanted to kick himself after, because he shouldn't have mentioned that. it did not matter. Morgana's tired eyes got a little wide and he quickly added, "Not that I care, but if she's here doesn't that mean he is, too? I don't want to see him."
Morgana sighed then, "You know you will see him at my wedding, right?" Merlin had yet to agree completely to being involved or even going at all, and if she wanted to say things like that and add this idea onto his already damaged mental health then he was very liable to say he couldn't make it. "But he's not here," she offered then. "He's with his son. Tony wouldn't do well at a boring party like this."
"Kid has a point..." mentioned Leon, but Merlin was just too busy being delighted he was safe once more.
Morgana rolled her eyes, with irritation in them. "Leon..." she said, sounding tired again. "Shut up."
(A/N: So I know...it's a little short, I had wanted to add more but nothing felt right to add after the end of this scene, so I will just go into the next chapter and make that one a little longer. I had wanted to post this yesterday, but I had too much schoolwork to finish, I ended up staying up until 5 am, so I just didn't have time to add this into that long, long night. That being said, I have no idea when another update for this will be, but enjoy it anyways!)
