OK, here we go: We do not own any of the characters here, we are not making any money. I just wanted to put that out there again. Chapter 4 is in the works! Remember to review!

Practice was just a half an hour from being over and Arthur hadn't insulted Merlin yet. Arthur was always insulting Merlin whether they were at practice, a tutoring session, nearly anytime they saw each other during the day.

The last thing coach wanted them to do was to run through some drills. When it was Merlin's turn he did it nearly perfectly and kicked the ball right passed Percival's outstretched arms and into the goal. When Merlin turned around everyone looked nearly as surprised as he felt. Whenever they had run that drill before Merlin had he fell flat on his face. He didn't even pay attention to what happening with the drill has but he looked up when he heard his name.

"I've told you a million times Greenburg, STOP MESSING AROUND! If you don't start taking this more seriously I'll put you on the bench for a game or two and see how you feel about it then. I'll have Merlin play for you! Not only does he actually try, he might actually be better than you! Take a lap." When coach had finished yelling at Eric Greenburg the drill continued. Merlin knew that coach had just said he was better than him to make a point, but knowing Eric, he might not.

Arthur's Point Of View:

Practice was over and the whole football team crowded into the locker room. Arthur couldn't wait to get home and forget about today. His teammates were all being strangely cold towards him ever since he made fun of that Freya girl. The weird thing was he kind of felt bad about it too, he never felt bad about making fun of people. Except for that one time when they were all seven and he had switched lunches with Anthony Carper, in his defense Anthony's mom made the best lunches with white bread instead of wheat, but Arthur hadn't known that Anthony was allergic to peanuts and went into anaphylactic shock when he took one bite of Arthur's peanut butter and jelly sandwich and had to be taken to the emergency room. But that was the only time and he had almost killed the kid.

He felt bad the minute he saw her crying, which was right after he said it, he had been trying to convince himself that she wasn't really crying and he had been doing a pretty good job of it too. But then Gwen cornered him. Gwen talked to him for about five minutes in that parental voice that makes you wish they were actually yelling. Gwen had the power to make anyone feel ashamed of themselves. Of course he knew Freya was nice, and he didn't mean to make her cry. An idiot could see that she was shy and had more trouble than most making friends, she did only have two, and he has to go and call her a loser. Hopefully tomorrow everything would be back to normal or Gwen might actually make him apologize.

Arthur was finished taking his cleats off when he heard a commotion. He rolled his eyes, it was probably nothing but as team captain he had to check it out. Most of his teammates had left, the only ones still here where Eric, Merlin, and Gwaine who Arthur knew was taking a shower. When Arthur found whoever was making the racket he was too late.

To call it a fight would be a gross overstatement. A fight usually includes two people and they both fight and that's definitely not what was happening here. It was all over in one punch to Merlin's face. Eric didn't look like he was going to do anything else but Arthur decided something had to be done anyway.

"Eric! What do you think you're doing?" Arthur yelled.

Eric looked surprised to see Arthur, obviously thinking he had left already. "He thinks he can just take my spot on the team!"

"Eric, you're an idiot. You've seen Merlin play! Coach was just trying to make a point. He wouldn't actually replace you." Arthur said.

"But coach said-" Eric began but Arthur cut him off.

"Eric just get your things and leave before you make more of an idiot of yourself." Arthur said sounding exasperated. Eric shot Arthur a glare, grabbed his football bag and stormed out of the locker room. Then Arthur crouched down to Merlin's level. "Are you alright?" Arthur asked.

"I'll be fine." Merlin said in a way that made Arthur sure that he hadn't forgotten the incident in bio either. Merlin was feeling around for his glasses with one hand and trying to stop his nose from bleeding with the other.

Arthur picked up Merlin's glasses, or the two halves of them and handed them to Merlin. "Look, I'm really sorry about today."

"It's not me who you need to apologize to." Merlin said. He looked mournfully down at his glasses then put them in his bag. He then took off his t-shirt and put on his sweatshirt. Arthur thought this was really strange until Merlin started using his shirt to stop his nose from bleeding.

"I didn't mean to make her cry."

"I don't care." Merlin grabbed his own bag and left the locker room.

Just as the door swung shut Gwaine came out of the shower. "What was that about?" He asked as Arthur was putting on his normal sneakers and tying the laces.

"Eric took coaches comment about benching him a little too seriously today. He punched Merlin in the face, broke his glasses and gave him a blo…"

"Wait Eric broke his glasses?"

"Yeah, right in half."

"And Merlin just left."

"Yeah, Gwaine why…"

"Merlin's practically legally blind without his glasses."

"So?" Arthur asked wondering why Gwaine was making such a big deal about this.

"Merlin takes the bus home, the public bus actually. He has to walk across roads and stuff to get home."

"Oh."

Gwaine rolled his eyes. "One of us needs to make sure he has a ride home or something."

Arthur looked at Gwaine expectantly, who just gestured to his bare feet and the towel around his waist and said, "I would, but I don't think Merlin's into that" and waggled his eyebrows with a smirk. Arthur rolled his eyes, grabbed his bag and ran out of the locker room to find his teammate.

He found Merlin in the front lobby of the school holding his phone, whose screen was blinking the empty battery symbol which meant it was dead.

"Do you have a ride?" Arthur asks.

Merlin turns toward Arthur who is standing further away than he was in the locker room. He can see now that Merlin is squinting, trying to see Arthur. "Maybe, my brother might be at home. I'm not sure yet." Obviously lying, he couldn't call his brother on a dead phone.

"I could walk you home." Arthur offered, trying to make it sound as awkward as possible.

"Why would you do that?"

Arthur shrugged, "Where do you live?" He asked not answering Merlin's question.

"Baker Street, why?"

"I pass that street every day to get to school. It's barely out of my way." Arthur said, completely lying.

"As if, I don't know where you live but I doubt it's anywhere near me." Merlin had always imagined the Pendragons living in a huge mansion somewhere, and none of the houses near Baker Street even came close.

"I just don't want you to get hit by a bus or something."

"Gwen yelled at you about what you said in bio didn't she?" Merlin.

"She said I had to apologize, but I'm not good at that so I'm trying to make it up to you."

Merlin rolled his eyes, "Fine, we'll have to take the tube though, we've probably missed the bus." Merlin and Arthur set off across the school parking lot and Merlin told Arthur which trains they would have to take and which stops they would have to get off at. "Don't you have a chauffeur or something that could pick us up?"

"Yeah but he's not here yet. I'll text him your address and then call him when we get there so he knows when to pick me up."

Merlin tried not to laugh. Arthur obviously didn't know that Merlin was joking about the chauffeur.

Merlin and Arthur's journey went smoothly. Merlin couldn't tell what any of the tube trains where or read where any of the stops where but that's why he had Arthur. Merlin even suggested that Arthur see if there was an opening anywhere for a seeing-eye dog, he'd be great for the job. His comment earned him an elbow in the stomach but Merlin could tell that Arthur didn't really mean it to hurt.

"So you live with your brother." Arthur tried to make conversation as they got off their next tube and started walking to Baker Street.

"Yeah him and his roommate, John."

"Oh so your brother's… Not that there's anything wrong with that…"

Merlin was momentarily confused as to why Arthur was so flustered all of a sudden, then comprehension dawned on him and he started laughing. Arthur shot him a worried look. "No, they're just roommates. John and Sherlock are just friends. Although Sherlock is a little strange."

"He can't be any weirder than my sister."

"You have a sister?"

"Well she's my half-sister actually. Morgana, she's in our year. You know the gothic creepy one that hangs out with Morgause and Cenred." They had reached 221B Baker Street now and Merlin waited outside while Arthur pulled out his cell phone to call his chauffeur, when he saw his phone blinking the empty battery symbol at him. Arthur sighed and Merlin cursed mentally knowing what was going to be asked next. "Could use your home phone, since both of ours are dead?"

"Sure." Merlin said trying to sound calm when on the inside he was going nuts. He was tempted to just say no and lock Arthur out. Even though he had come to the conclusion that Arthur was an alright guy he still didn't want him to see Sherlock newest project cut apart on the kitchen table. Arthur was the one guy Merlin was sure would use this at school to make Merlin's life as terrible as possible. But Merlin gritted his teeth and faced it like a man. He unlocked the door and let Arthur into his house.

Thankfully Mrs. Hudson was out and Merlin and Arthur were able to go upstairs without anyone asking how their day went a million times. Merlin put his hood up on his hoodie to hide his bruised face, even though he knew Sherlock was going to notice something off with him and call him out on it.

"Hello Merlin." John said when Merlin entered the apartment.

"You're home later than normal." Sherlock said, not giving Merlin time to answer. Sherlock was at the kitchen table, just as Merlin feared and knew he would be, looking at something under his microscope

"I got held up a bit at school, I had to take the tube instead of the bus. Oh and this is Arthur," Merlin explained when John looked questioningly at the blonde teenager. "He's the football team captain. My glasses broke at school today, and Arthur helped me get home today since I can't read anything." Merlin pulled the two halves of his glasses.

"How'd they break?" John asked taking the glasses from Merlin and looking them over.

"He got punched John, that much should be obvious." Sherlock explained sounding bored.

"How did you know that?" Arthur asked while Merlin and John shared a look that said they didn't want to know.

"Well, Arnold."

"Arthur."

Sherlock continued like Arthur hadn't interrupted him, "Merlin's hood is up, and Merlin's hood is never up so he must be hiding something. Every other day Merlin's t-shirt is showing somewhere from underneath his sweatshirt and today it isn't. Sure he could still be wearing one; it would be odd if he wasn't, except I can see it peeking out of his sweatshirt pocket. It's white and it's covered in blood. He must have had a bloody nose after practice today and used his t-shirt stop the blood from getting everywhere. Even though Merlin's hood is up I can still see the evidence of him having a bloody nose and a black eye forming. Merlin's glasses broke, but in half, something that hardly ever happens and is hard to accomplish on one's own. So Merlin's trying, and failing, to hide something on his face, he had a bloody nose, a black eye, and his glasses are broken. It quite obvious he got punched in the face. Probably after practice, so he upset someone at practice."

The whole room was silent. Sherlock went back to his microscope, John tried to process what Sherlock had just said, and Arthur was staring at Sherlock in shock. Then Arthur's shock turned to admiration and he broke the silence.

"That was so cool." Arthur exclaimed.

"Who punched you, Merlin?" John asked, he looked serious and Sherlock pulled out his phone. Merlin was ready to bet that Sherlock was pulling up a stalker website ready to enter the name as soon as Merlin said it.

"It was nothing, just a misunderstanding." Merlin answered.

"Did you say something to him?" John guessed.

"I'll explain everything later," Merlin said with every intention to never bring up the subject again, "both Arthur and my phones are dead and Arthur has to call his ride so they can pick him up." Merlin picked up the cordless phone from its cradle and handed it to Arthur.

After Arthur had been picked up by his chauffeur and Merlin had shut himself in his and Sherlock's room to avoid everyone. He put his hood down and looked into the mirror to look at the damage done to his face. He winced; Sherlock was right there was a bruise forming and looked like it hurt just as much as it did. Later, when Merlin was done looking at his bruised face and was working on homework at his desk, still in his and Sherlock's room, the door opened and Sherlock came in. Sherlock sat of his bed expectantly.

"I'm not going to tell you who punched me." Merlin said, not looking away from his homework. He was using his back-up glasses, which were the glasses he used before he got his new ones. His head hurt right behind his eyes because the prescriptions were too different.

"You know I'll find out eventually."

"Yes, you and Mycroft will find out and together you'll exploit every skeleton in their family's closet and get his family deported. I may not like them but I don't want you to destroy their lives. Besides Arthur will be having them run about sixty laps tomorrow anyway. He'll get what's coming to him."

Sherlock's face lit up. "So Arthur knows who it is and he's on the football team."

Merlin mentally kicked himself, knowing he had probably given Sherlock enough information to figure it all out. "Sherlock! My face hurts, my head hurts, I have a huge amount of homework to do and you're not helping matters."

Sherlock rolled his eyes. "I just wanted to give you this." Sherlock dropped an ice pack wrapped in a paper towel on Merlin's desk. "I also wanted to talk about when you wanted to schedule an eye appointment to get new glasses."

"Oh thanks," Merlin said, feeling bad for getting mad at Sherlock. Then remembering that Sherlock woke him up this morning with his violin at three in the morning and not being mad anymore. "I was actually thinking about getting contacts, but I know they're expensive."

"Not when Mycoft's paying." Sherlock said and they both laughed.

Merlin's phone, which was connected to its charger lit up and buzzed to say he got a text message. Merlin picked it up, confused when he saw Arthur's name on the ID. Arthur had given all the football players his mobile number so if they needed they could text him about scheduling but Merlin had never texted Arthur and Arthur had never texted Merlin.

You're brother's AWESOME, was that brains he was dissecting?

Merlin laughed and texted Arthur back, with one hand because the other was holding the ice pack up to his eyes, saying:

No just intestines I think, what does your sister dissect on your kitchen table?

The hopes and dreams of small children.

Merlin burst out laughing; maybe Arthur wasn't nearly as bad as Merlin thought.