Arthur
"Arthur." Uther said seriously.
"What?" Arthur muttered, shoving a piece of toast in his mouth at the breakfast table.
Merlin was gone today. He had left in the morning to go to Ealdor for the day and return in the evening with his friend 'Will'. He knew it was selfish of him, but he kind of wished Merlin had stayed, so they could hang out again. But then Gwaine had asked him if he wanted to go kick around a ball with him and the boys and he knew he couldn't refuse.
"Are you even listening to me?" Uther barked. "Don't answer that. Anyway, I'm sorry I'm telling you this at such short notice but there's this charity ball on Sunday night. In seven days exactly. I've bought us all tickets. As a respected member of the society, you can understand why I'm expected to attend."
"Okay." Arthur agreed, in a monotone voice.
"I also bought a ticket for that Gwen girl; I expect she'll be your date?" Uther asked.
"Yeah," Arthur answered. "That she will."
Merlin
Hunith had tears in her eyes as she pulled her son in for a tight embrace outside the train station. Once she let go, Will jumped on Merlin, punched his shoulder and gave him an awkward one armed hug.
"Fuck, I've missed you, mate." Will admitted.
"You too, Will, you too." Merlin laughed.
"Well, I've got lunch prepared at home. Let's head off, shall we?" Hunith suggested warmly, signalling to her car which was parked just down the road.
Arthur
"And he scores!" Gwaine commented, mocking Arthur's swift kick into the goal post.
"Fuck off, Gwaine." Arthur said wearily.
"Oi, you twats." Bors yelled out. "We're heading down to McDonalds. You two up for it?"
Gwaine gave a quick thumbs up to him.
"Oi what's bothering you, Princess?" Gwaine questioned Arthur as he picked up the ball and started walking in the direction that Bors and the others were walking at.
"Nothing." Arthur hissed.
"You can tell me." Gwaine insisted.
"And what? Have you spread it around the whole school?" Arthur grunted. "Not a chance."
"I promise I won't!" Gwaine grinned widely.
"I'm going to go talk to Bors now." Arthur changed the subject abruptly. "I haven't spoken to him in a while."
Arthur jogged hastily forward to catch up with all the others, ignoring Gwaine's shouts of protest.
Merlin
"I'm going to come down again in a few weeks." Merlin promised to his Mother, who leaned forward to kiss his cheek.
"I know, darling, I love you." Hunith smiled.
"I love you too." Merlin hugged her, feeling like he was five year's old again.
"Bye Mrs Emrys." Will smiled, and Hunith leant over to peck him on the cheek as well.
"You boys have fun alright?" Hunith said cheerfully.
…
The train ride was pretty uneventful apart from Will getting into an argument with one of the passengers over god knows what. Merlin had to usher him quickly away from them and take a seat somewhere else in the nearly deserted carriage.
Over two hours had passed before they could finally get off the train and onto the station. Will pulled his hoodie over his head and picked up his backpack before following Merlin out of the station and onto the streets.
"So where does Gaius live?" Will questioned.
"Just down there." Merlin pointed into black. It was dark out.
"Man, I have so much to tell you," Will exclaimed.
Merlin laughed happily as he clapped his best friend on the back.
"Well?" Merlin grinned. "What's been happening?"
Arthur
He was tired after catching up with his friends and Gwen had insisted he come over for dinner tonight. He didn't know exactly what for, but it was probably some sort of date. So he wore his very best trousers and light grey shirt and walked past a couple of houses to her house just past seven pm.
He rang the doorbell cautiously and she greeted him with a large lip-gloss coated smile. She had applied an excessive amount of make-up on her features, which didn't look bad. But they just didn't look her. She was wearing a low cut, short black dress and had tied up her curls into a messy bun.
She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him in, shutting the door behind her.
"Um, Gwen, what are you doing?" Arthur questioned anxiously.
"I sort of feel like, we've been distant lately." Gwen intoned. "But I think I know why."
And she crushed her lips against his, throwing her arms around his neck.
"Gwen." Arthur pulled away. "Gwen. This has to stop."
"Why?" Gwen asked sultrily.
"Because, it's not the right time." Arthur said.
"I'm sorry." Gwen murmured. "I'm sorry. I just thought."
"I know," Arthur comforted guiltily. "But, we'll do this when we're both ready, yeah?"
"Thank you, I didn't think I was. I just thought you'd want it, because everyone's been doing it lately and, you know." Gwen sighed embarrassedly. "Oh god, I've just caused an awkward situation haven't I?"
"No, of course not- alright, maybe a little one." Arthur replied. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you- would you like to come with me to the charity gala on Sunday night?"
Merlin
They ate dinner hurriedly and now they were both lying on their beds. Merlin, on his actual bed, and Will, on a mattress on the ground.
"Do you fancy anyone?" Will questioned, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the dark ceiling.
"Um, no, of course not. " Merlin lied.
"I know when you're lying, Merlin, your voice goes all high pitched when you're about to finish your sentence." Will rolled his eyes. "Tell me."
"Fine." Merlin admitted. "Yes there is someone. And it's a relief finally talking about it to someone because there's no one here I can tell. And before you ask, I'm not telling you his name. Just that he's fucking irritating, I can never understand him at times and I don't even know why I like him so much. I really shouldn't but I can't help it."
"Is he straight?" Will asked.
"Yes, no- I don't know." Merlin burrowed deeper into his pillow. "He's confusing."
"Is he leading you on? Tell me his name. He sounds like a right wanker to me. I'll fix him up good and proper." Will threatened.
"What, so you can yell out loud that I like him in the middle of the street?" Merlin scoffed. "I don't think he's leading me on."
"He sounds confusing as fuck." Will replied before protesting. "That was one time!"
"It was humiliating." Merlin argued.
"Is he in your little group then, the one I'm meeting tomorrow?" Will continued relentlessly.
"Will?" Merlin called out.
"Yeah, mate?" Will answered.
"Go the fuck to sleep."
…
Gwen, Elena and Lance were waiting for them outside the quaint little café at the corner of the street.
"Will, behave." Merlin warned quietly as they were fast approaching.
"That's the hundredth time; you've told me that, I am, I am, I swear." Will hissed back.
It was just past twelve, they were catching up for lunch and Merlin seriously did not need Will to turn the whole meet-up into an embarrassing situation and there was a high chance that he would.
"Hi!" Gwen welcomed Will. "I'm Gwen; it's nice to finally meet you."
"I'm Lance," Lance added politely.
"My name's Elena," Elena said cheerfully.
"Nice to meet all of you." Will said, eyeing Merlin for his approval. "And as you already know, since Merlin probably talks about how amazing I am all of the time, I'm Will."
"Well, let's go get some lunch, I'm starving!" Gwen exclaimed, giggling.
They ordered drinks as soon as they sat down. Merlin, Will and Elena got cokes while Gwen and Lance ordered juices- they were both similar like that.
"So do you lot know about Merlin's big secret gay crush." Will asked loudly, smirking at Merlin's horrified expression.
Elena choked on her drink.
"What. The. Fuck." Elena nearly shouted. "YOU FANCY SOMEONE AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME."
"Elena! Shut up!" Lance hissed.
"Will! Shut your big fat mouth." Merlin growled, he could not believe that Will had just done that, he barely knew these people.
"So, who is it Merlin?" Gwen insisted, half laughing.
"Leave him alone!" Lance defended. "I'm certain he'll tell us when he wants to."
"Thank you, Lance!" Merlin cried out.
"When he was telling me about him. He sounded like a massive twat. I need to get to the bottom of who he is." Will joked.
"It's Gwaine. Isn't it?" Elena persisted.
"No- No, it's not Gwaine." Merlin scowled at Will who was had this confident little smirk on his face.
"I just heard my oh-so-beautiful name being called." Gwaine suddenly approached them, wearing a black apron over his maroon shirt and black jeans. "What's up?"
"Oh, I forgot you told me you worked here now." Elena huffed.
"Started just last week…I want to piss off my parents as much as I can." Gwaine said. "Anyway, do you guys want to order anything? And nice to meet you Merlin's friend Will. I'm also Merlin's friend Gwaine."
"Yeah you too mate," Will replied humorously.
"Is this the bloke you like, Merlin?" Will whispered in Merlin's ear. Loudly.
"No!" Merlin kicked his friend under the table.
"I'm offended, sweet cheeks." Gwaine laughed, winking at Merlin.
"Gwaine, you know what I mean," Merlin smiled.
"Well, Elena and I are going to share a bowl of chips. Lance wants grilled vegetable Panini." Gwen ordered.
"What do you two want?" Elena asked.
"I'll have fish and chips." Will said.
"I'll just get the pumpkin soup." Merlin added.
'Rightio then, have fun kids." Gwaine grinned, jotting down the orders.
"Gwaine, I'm three months older than you." Elena raised her eyebrows. "You can't talk."
Gwaine hushed Elena and swaggered off.
Arthur
"So, we met Merlin's friend, Will, today." Gwen said over the phone to him in the evening.
"Oh yeah," He replied back. "Is he alright?"
"He's pretty outspoken but he's funny," Gwen said. "Kind of like an extreme version of Elena. We just came back from dropping him off at the station."
"Ah okay," Arthur laughed. "Anyway, I have to go now, dinner's almost ready."
"Alright, bye, love you." Gwen said just before he hung up.
Arthur grabbed his leather jacket of the desk chair in his room and marched down the stairs. Surprisingly, Uther was home, and Uther never got home till past twelve. It was only past six now, what the fuck was his father up to?
"Where are you heading?" Uther asked.
"Off to a friend's to study." Arthur lied. "Why are you home so early anyway?"
"I have a few business matters, to deal with." Uther replied. "What about dinner? Whose house are you going to?"
"I'll have dinner there. It doesn't matter." Arthur muttered.
"Be home by ten." Uther said.
"Yeah, dad. Bye." Arthur said, slamming the front door shut behind him. His father would barely notice he was gone.
He was off to Merlin's. It took around ten minutes to walk there, but time flew by pretty fast since he had his iPod in, listening to Coldplay as he rushed through the streets.
Arthur saw Merlin's figure behind the high window of the house, he was typing away at the laptop. Arthur shuffled through the lawn and picked up a small stone that lay on the side of a potted plant.
He tossed up at the glass and saw Merlin jump in fear and rush over to see the small commotion. He flung open his window and stared angrily at Arthur.
"What do you want?" Merlin shot at him.
"Nothing, won't Gaius hear you?" Arthur questioned.
"No, because he's gone down to London for the rest of the week. He's been invited to some conference on this pharmaceutical drug or something. Go to the front door, prat." Merlin yelled out.
Arthur waited patiently out the front for the lanky boy to open the door and let him in.
Merlin
What the hell was Arthur even doing here? It's not even as if he had bothered to call or text to inform him that he was coming. He just suddenly thought it would be alright. Merlin slammed down the laptop quickly and hurriedly ran down to let Arthur in.
"What's up?" Merlin asked amusedly, staring at Arthur's shiny leather jacket. Fuck, he looked really hot in it.
"I was bored." Arthur shrugged, leaning against the doorframe.
"And you didn't tell me you were coming beforehand?" Merlin moved out of the way to let the other boy inside.
"Nope." Arthur stated simply.
"Well, I was just about to make some tea. Mac and Cheese because quite frankly, it tastes really good, if you want some, you better help me." Merlin smiled, walking to the small kitchen.
"I love Mac and Cheese. And, I'm absolutely starving. So, I'll show you how a real pro makes it." Arthur smirked.
"It's the packet stuff, you ass, and it all tastes the same." Merlin rolled his eyes.
"It depends on how you make it, and more importantly, who makes it." Arthur said arrogantly.
Merlin shoved him playfully.
"How come you didn't introduce me to your friend Will?" Arthur questioned jokingly.
"I thought you wouldn't be interested." Merlin answered truthfully. "I didn't think."
"Jeez thanks." Arthur retorted, crossing his arms because he was slightly hurt at the fact that Merlin didn't think he was important enough to be introduced to his friend.
"Sorry, next time, yeah?" Merlin laughed guiltily.
The truth was, he was scared of Will finding out about his little crush because they'd known each other since they were practically babies and he was sure Will would pick something off about his interaction with Arthur.
Phew, so I hope you've all liked this chapter :') Next one will be shorter but it'll have more Merthur moments, yay :D Thank you for the zillionth time for leaving feedback and reading/adding to faves/story alerts- the whole lot. I'm actually dying due to overload of feels from the 'Hollow Queen' ep idek I'm so emotional haha please send help. So excited for next week's Merlin, it looks so good. But poor Merlin, my bb :3 I'm not going to spoil anything, don't worry ;)
Reviews are love *have a bucket load of response love from me*