Hi guys! Sorry this chapter's a little late, I've been driving back from New Jersey all day. I'll try to get tomorrow's up before noon central time, but no promises! Enjoy!
It had been a little over a month since that first day of school, and Arthur's life had greatly improved. His father rarely bothered him anymore, preferring to pretend he didn't exist.
Despite his efforts, Arthur hadn't made any friends aside from Merlin. He'd tried, but it was too difficult. Everyone thought he was weird.
When Arthur sat down next to Merlin on the bus that day, he noticed the other boy's eyes were glossy like he'd been crying. "Wh-what's wrong?" He asked.
"I'll tell you later," Merlin mumbled, so quietly that Arthur barely heard. It was unusual for the dark-haired boy to be quiet; he usually shouted all of his opinions for the world to hear. Arthur nodded in reluctant agreement. He wanted to know now, but he could understand Merlin's hesitation. There were a lot of people on the bus, and if Merlin didn't want to be overheard, it was definitely not the best place to talk.
Arthur spent the rest of the day trailing awkwardly behind Merlin. He wanted to talk, but Merlin wouldn't. Art was the only class that he seemed like himself in. Over the past month, they'd been working on their project, and they were almost done!
Arthur wasn't ashamed to admit that his half looked a lot worse than Merlin's. Merlin's side had an incredibly accurate depiction of Arthur reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, complete with 'their' park in the background. Arthur's side had a not-so-great interpretation of Merlin painting the painting of Merlin painting the painting of Merlin painting… ect.
Arthur was so focused on painting that when Merlin suddenly spoke up, he physically jumped. "We need to finish today," Merlin said simply.
"Wh-what? Wh-why?" Arthur asked, panicking. He was nowhere near done. There were so many details and- Whoa, calm down. Just let him explain.
"I, uh, don't want to tell you yet," Merlin answered, still not meeting Arthur's eyes.
Arthur didn't bother responding, only shaking his head and going back to work. He knew something was wrong, but without knowing what, he couldn't help. Regardless of that, Arthur worked extra hard that day and actually finished his side. Merlin did the same, and they were the first ones to finish. It didn't feel right, though. Merlin didn't even smile.
It was after all their classes were over that Merlin finally said something. Arthur had resumed his awkward not-next-to-but-still-walking-with position. Merlin turned around, finally meeting Arthur's gaze. His teal eyes were sad, and Arthur really wanted to fix that.
"Could you meet me at the park today? I know it's not our usual day, but I need to talk."
"Y-yeah, of c-course," Arthur replied. He was glad that Merlin was going to talk. "Wh-what t-time? S-same as a-always?"
"Yeah," Merlin replied, and the two climbed onto the bus.
The ride home was silent, and when Arthur got home, he just wanted to fast-forward to 9:00. That was when he usually left to go see Merlin in the park on Fridays. When school started, they'd stopped going every other day because they saw each other at school. Fridays were the best option because they could stay as long as they liked because there was no school in the morning.
However, he didn't have the power of time travel, so Arthur was going to be alone and bored until his father got back. Then he'd be alone, bored, and criticized.
Arthur got home around three, so he had about three hours until his father showed up. Of course, he had to make dinner before that. Or did he? It was always very confusing, because if Arthur cooked, he was called a girl and scolded for doing feminine things, but if he didn't, he was called useless and scolded for being lazy.
Oh well. He didn't have to worry about that right now. Instead, Arthur did his homework. It was nice and simple, but he couldn't focus; he was too worried about Merlin. What if he was hurt? What if someone in his family died? There were so many 'what if's running through Arthur's mind, and they were making it increasingly difficult to do three-digit multiplication.
After an hour of torturous worrying, Arthur finally finished his homework. He was left with two hours until his father came home. He hadn't decided if he'd cook or not, but he decided to leave space for it, about an hour, which left another hour to do whatever.
Arthur had long since finished The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, but he hadn't read anything since then. School took up most of his time, and he spent the rest with Merlin. So, he decided to do some research on Merlin's 'gift'. It really intrigued him, and although he'd seen many demonstrations, he never got much of an explanation.
Arthur walked into his father's office and took the laptop. He carried it into his own room, and sat on the bed. He reached over and grabbed Fire Aslan, mostly out of habit. The tiny lion had become one of Arthur's favorite things in life, second only to Merlin.
Arthur opened Internet Explorer, cursing internally at his father's reluctance to download Google Chrome. Even Firefox would be better than this.
After waiting for it to load (which took a while), Arthur typed "Gold eyes magic" into the search bar. Merlin never called it magic, but it's what Arthur always called it in his mind. He knew not to just search for "magic" because it would all be fictional.
After scrolling for almost the full hour, Arthur frustrated shut the laptop, resisting the urge to throw it on the ground. No matter what he searched, it was all fictional!
Arthur sat on his bed for a few minutes before he realized he'd forgotten the most important part of doing research on magic on his father's laptop: clearing the internet history.
After returning his father's laptop, Arthur thought about what to make for dinner. He was tired of his father's complaining, so he decided to compromise and order pizza. He got one cheese pizza, which was all they'd need, especially for just the two of them.
When Uther came home, there was pizza on the table, a stack of plates and napkins next to it. Arthur was sitting patiently on the couch. He didn't want to know what would happen if he tried to eat before his father had his first bite.
They ate in silence, and as soon as he was done, Arthur ran off to his room. However, he didn't go unnoticed. "And just where do you think you're going?" his father asked, and Arthur panicked a little.
"I-I'm j-j-just g-going t-to b-bed," he stuttered.
Uther sighed, "As long as you don't bother me," and went to his room. That was it. No 'goodnight', no 'sweet dreams', no anything. Arthur was used to it, though, and as soon as he got to his room, he picked up Fire Aslan and climbed out the window to see Merlin.