Chapter 8

The dark haired man took another swig of his drink, glancing lovingly into Chantelle's bust. Or was it Mary's? Lucy's? It didn't matter for long, because even as he tried to recall her name, Gemma, because yes, that was her name, had slapped his face and stormed back off towards her friends. Ah well, he thought to himself, as he swirled his cider around, plenty more fish in the sea. And even if there are not bites today, there was always drowning his woes in alcohol. And with that he ordered another cider from an equally attractive waitress, shamelessly flirting with her as though the previous girl had never existed.

As the girl wandered off to collect his order, a large man leaned against the bar next to Gwaine, his weight almost indenting the surface.

"For god's sake Gwaine, slow down on the alcohol intake! This is what, your tenth beer and sixth girl, and it's only half five! What would Merlin say if he saw you, isn't he supposed to be tutoring you Monday?"

"Ah Percy you worry too much!" Gwaine replied, his eyes twinkling with mischief at the thought of his younger study partner. "Merls knows I'm in Cornwall for a bachelor weekend, he won't expect me to come back on Monday unless it's with a raging hangover! Besides, him and Arthur have gotten pretty close, wouldn't surprise me if they aren't revising together anyway!"

"I don't think they're revising together Gwaine?"

"Well why not?"

"Because Arthur's sat over there with a pint."

After ranting his thoughts at Sherlock and Mycroft, Arthur had spent the first five minutes feeling pretty smug with himself. That was until he realised he was now no closer to finding Merlin than he was before, only now he was alone with no clue as to where to look next.

I'm not going back there, he thought to himself. If that bloody Sherlock can come up with ideas then there is no reason I can't!

Right then, first things first. Places. If I was an evil psychopath with tons of money, where would I go?

Wait. Didn't Sherlock say-

"On the way here I searched the current owners of Yamaha FZR's in Cornwall, and out of all those beaches only two have private storage sheds large enough to hold both a boat and Merlin, with only one of them currently in use, down on Loe Bar road. There is also currently the sister boat, nearly identical to the FZR, the FZS, in one of the docks, the Square Sail Shipyard."

I bet Sherlock has forgotten he even said that! I can get there first and rescue Merlin, before they even arrive. How's that for deducting, he thought smugly to himself. Arthur pulled up his phone, and searched the address of the Square Sail Shipyard, before making his way there.

There was something not quite right about the area, Arthur thought as he gazed at the rusty iron bars that enclosed the shipyard, not that he could put his finger on it. He climbed over the metal bars, wincing as rust caught under his fingers.

Sound. There was not a single sound throughout the whole pier. Not a single soul. Until-

"Help!" came a soft cry of pain Arthur knew only too well. "Please stop it! Let me go! Please, anybody!" The voice was almost non existent, and Arthur almost thought he'd made it up. That was until-

"Arthur? Arthur, where are you, you prat?" There was only one idiot who got to call Arthur names and was allowed to live. He quickly sped along the pier, frantically trying to pinpoint the source of the yells, which were now mingled with cries of pain. "Sherlock! Mycroft? Anybody? Wait, what's that? Please get off me! What are you doing?! Stop-" A shriek of pain interrupted whatever Merlin was saying, and suddenly the voice was a lot quieter. Arthur had already pinpointed the sound though; and without even stopping to consider his actions he charged into the boat shed.

"Merlin! Moriarty I swear to God I'm going to kill you! Merlin!"

"Arthur? Arthur, where are you, you prat?" came a reply, and Arthur span around to the source of the sound.

Which was a prerecorded message on a laptop, the words 'Getting warmer,' flashing across the screen.

Fuck it, Arthur thought, I need a drink.

Gwaine nudged Percival's shoulder. "So why do you reckon Pendragon's down here?"

"Maybe he's down here for the same reason you are, to get out of your mind drunk!"

"Nah, that can't be it, Pendragon is way too goody goody to be down here on a weekend break."

"Whatever it is, he looks upset about something, we should probably just leave him be," Percival said softly.

And so of course Gwaine immediately decided to put his empty glass down and strode over to the melancholy looking man, much to Percival's disapproval.

"Oi, Princess, what are you doing so far from the castle! I would have thought you would be more the stay in the fort sort!" Gwaine said loudly, sitting himself down next to Arthur, helping himself to the pint glass on the table.

"Gwaine, do you listen to anything I say?" Percival asked, sitting himself on the chair, although in his case it was more like two chairs, opposite the pair. "So Arthur, what are you doing down in Cornwall."

"I was looking for a friend," Arthur muttered, tears pricking the corners of his eyes.

"Was it a girl friend?" Gwaine asked. "Did she dump you? If so I have the perfect liquid cure for-"

"No, it was stupid. I had so hoped I would find him here, I had thought I would be the one to save him."

"So it's a guy? Didn't know you swung that way Arthur but whatever floats your boat. Does Merlin know?"

The word 'Merlin' seemed to break a barrier in Arthur, because it appeared Arthur had gone from upset to angry.

"Wait a minute, is it Merlin? Are you dating Merlin?" Gwaine asked, surprised.

"Shut up Gwaine, before you get into something you really don't want to be a part of."

"Wait, so you are dating Merlin?" Percival injected, forgetting his irritation with Gwaine in favour for curiosity.

"Did you break his heart Pendragon because if so I swear I'll break your-"

"We're not dating Gwaine!" Arthur finally snapped, pulling the beer out of Gwaine's hands and taking a large gulp.

"Then what are you doing down here?" Percival asked.

"I-" Arthur faltered. "Merlin's brothers paid him a visit."

"So?"

"Well, one of them was supposed to be dead, for nearly three years now."

"Ah."

"And then to top it all off, Merlin's now been kidnapped by some bloody psychopath who is also supposed to be dead."

"I see. Now Arthur, don't hit me, but how much beer have you actually had?"

"Gwaine, I'm serious!" Arthur yelled, slapping the brunette hard round the back of the head.

"Ok, ok!" Gwaine yelled, hands raised in a sign of submission. "So, how are we saving him."

"What?"

"Oh come on Arthur, we both know if any messed up shit happened to us, Merlin would be there to help us out. It's clear Merlin wasn't here, but we can find him. Now, do you have any clue where Merlin might be?"

"Well, Sherlock said something about Mumbai."

"See! We've got a lead."

"We've got no way of getting to India though," Percival reminded the pair.

"Actually, you do," came a voice from behind them.

"Bloody hell, where the hell did you come from," yelled Gwaine.

"Oh please, it wasn't hard to deduce that a student like Arthur would come to drown out his sorrows at the largest tourist pub," replied Sherlock. "Rather boring actually, I would have left you here but John insisted that we needed you. I personally can't think of why though."

As the three other men stood up, Sherlock raised a hand to stop them. "I'm afraid there's only room for one imbecile in the car, anymore and I wouldn't be able to think for all the stupid in the air."

Gwaine looked like he was about to protest, but Percival stopped him. Arthur still made no move to follow Sherlock.

"Why should I let you help us?" he asked the detective.

"Because I'm the one with the brains, Mycroft had the transport and John has the AK47. Because you are the one Merlin cares about and will want to see. And because I was wrong, and you were the one to help Merlin when I couldn't."

There was silence for a moment, then Arthur gave a small smile.

And that was how Gwaine and Percival were stood outside of the pub, very confused, as they watched Arthur get into a car that looked like it belonged to the mafia, promising to tell then when Merlin was safe. Then they were gone.

"Any clue what just happened?"

"Nope."

There was a pause, then-

"Shots?"

"Shots."

"Wakey wakey pretty boy, it's nearly time to start the show. Now the fun can really begin."

I know what you're thinking. What! She's actually on time updating! :) Well I hope you enjoyed the latest update. Now I have good news and bad news, similar to last week.

Firstly, the bad news. I'm having to take a three week hiatus. Suffice to say over the next couple of weeks I have a dance exam, a LAMDA exam, ESB, shitloads of essays for my AS's (particularly German) and the bar mock trial. Not to mention the countless after school activities I do on top of that. I'm very sorry, but something had go give, and this won't be going towards UCAS or a job :( real life sucks

However the good news is that this story has hit 50 reviews! (Jumps around and does an Irish jig). As such, I've decided to create some one shots based on this series in the run up to the sequel, which I am still currently planning out, although I hope to have the first chapter up by New Year. As such, I am gonna be taking requests as to what you want to see, so feel free to express ideas in the form of a review :)

So, tell me what you want (what you really really want) and I'll see you all in three weeks! Sorry again! :(

P.S. Thank you to those who found a typo error due to both predictive text and sleepiness, the crew are going to Mumbai, not Dubai! Sorry for the confusion!