A note to Tuke:

Yea….the scene break thing was caused by this site. I used to have dashes, sets of them, breaking scenes up and stuff. For some reason, I guess this site decided not to let people use dashes any more. When I realized what was happening, I started putting the dots instead.

(Note: In this part, I kind of bend time a bit with the concert. The actual dates were from April to June, but I stretched it to October. Just go with it.)

Seven Years Ago….

August, 2002

..

The minute Arthur walked into the school, everyone noticed him. With his father's recent promotion and the deaths of Cedric, Jared, Meko, and Charles, Arthur had inherited the title of Most Influential Student…or something. Everyone wanted to be a part of his clique.

Everyone wanted to be part of Morgana's clique too, until they learned that she hung out with the two poorest students in the school.

"Really," Morgana would say when someone walked away after meeting Merlin and Gwen, "You would think people would want to be friends with the two smartest people in school."

"Morgana," Gwen would disagree quietly with a blush and a shake of her head.

Merlin didn't care either way. He had Morgana and he had Gwen and he had a feeling that they would be the only two friends he would have in this high school. And he had Arthur. Arthur couldn't do anything with him until the fame died down a bit, but Merlin knew that Arthur would come to him when he could and when he was sure no one would find out.

People might see the way their relationship was laid out as selfish on Arthur's part, because Merlin had to lie to his friends so that Arthur could keep his status and money, but it wasn't. If any of Arthur's new fans found out about Merlin's relationship with Arthur, he could find himself in quite a lot of pain, or even death. And if no one at school found out, there was still the danger of Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon. He was now the head of police for all of Camelot, and Merlin could only imagine what the man would have done to him if he ever learned that Merlin had made Arthur realize he was gay.

Thankfully, it was all his imagination and none of it was a prophetic feeling, so Merlin wasn't truly worried about it.

Merlin had his first Advanced Placement classes this year: Psychology, Algebra, and European History. He was also already set up to take AP Sociology in the Spring thanks to the four by four block scheduling that Camelot High had. It took a lot of work to maintain those three classes by themselves, let alone all his normal high school courses, but he was managing quite well. Then there were Merlin's extracurricular activities, such as:

"Hey, look," a member of the soccer team began, motioning with his head over his shoulder where Merlin had just walked by. "It's him."

Arthur glanced over and let a glare slide into place. "Hey Freak!" he called down the hall.

Merlin didn't stop walking. He kept going until he reached his locker, and then steadily ignored the jocks as he opened it and started exchanging his books. Arthur led his whole little gang over to surround Merlin at his locker and lightly tapped the one next to Merlin's on the side where his locker door wouldn't hide it.

"I said, 'Hey'," Arthur repeated snidely.

"What, don't have any manners, Psychic Man?" the soccer player from before jeered. His name was Scott.

Arthur frowned. He tilted his head a bit and sneered at Merlin cruelly. "Of course he doesn't," he said pompously. "After all, if he really could see the future, he would've stopped Cedric from getting in that car, right?" he jabbed. "If he had any manners, that is."

There was a slight pause in the bullying at the mention of the car wreck, but the other jocks quickly got over it. If Arthur would mention it, then it was ok, right? A football player slid over next to Arthur and wrapped an arm around his neck in a mock-friendly manner.

"Too true, man," he agreed. "Then again, that's only possible if he really can see the future. So come on," he turned his attention to Merlin, who was still pointedly ignoring their jabs, "Predict something for me." He grinned meanly. "I know. Tell me how I'm going to die. Come on, tell me. If you can that is."

Merlin paused for a moment, and then continued messing with his books. All four of the jocks with Arthur, and Arthur himself, laughed. Merlin sighed, shut his locker, pulled his backpack over his shoulder, and began to walk away.

Arthur smirked. "Oh, don't run away!" he called out teasingly.

Merlin stopped walking, and in a calm and clear voice responded, "From you?"

His tone made Arthur stop. How to properly react? The football player, Adam, frowned. "Oh, you've got a bit of a backbone, do you, Freak?" Merlin just stood there with his back to them and said nothing. Adam frowned deeper. "Hey, if you've got something to say, then say it." Nothing. He glared harshly. "I said," he began, removing his arm from around Arthur's shoulders and grabbed Merlin by the back of the shirt, "say something!"

Arthur jerked minutely. Then, acting like this didn't worry him, he said, "Calm down, Adam. He's not worth getting angry at."

"Yea, Adam," Scott agreed in Arthur's same tone. The other jocks made noises of agreement as well.

Adam shook his head. "No," he refused stubbornly, flipping Merlin around and holding him harshly by the shoulders. Merlin stared right back at him. "I want an answer," he seethed.

Merlin took a moderate sized breath. "Fine." He shut his eyes for a moment and then opened them, staring directly into Adam's eyes. In a quiet voice that Arthur could barely hear, Merlin said, "Two weeks to the day after your twenty-eighth birthday, you're mother will die of cancer. Your father will suffer a serious mental breakdown a week later and you, being the good son, will try to help him in any way you can. Four days later, he'll pull a gun on you-"

Merlin braced himself the moment before the fist made contact with his face. Adam released him just before he punched him, so Merlin was sent sprawling on the hallway floor. Several students in the hallway turned to see what was going on, then looked away when they saw it was Merlin. Adam was shaking in anger.

"Don't you ever talk about my family that way, you son of a bitch," he cursed. "Or I swear I'll kill you with my own hands." Without waiting for anything else, Adam turned and stalked away.

The other jocks hurried after him. Arthur waited only a moment, watching as Merlin pushed himself up off the tile and rubbed his right cheek, before following along. As soon as they rounded the corner into another hallway, Gwen was kneeling next to him and helping him stand.

"Thanks, Gwen," Merlin said with a smile. Already his cheek was swelling a bit.

Gwen gently touched his cheek and frowned. "Someone should do something about this….It isn't right."

Merlin took both of Gwen's hands in his own. With a soft smile he said, "It's fine, Gwen. Some things are the way they are for a reason." She gave him a confused look and he shook his head. "You'll understand someday. I promise."

Gwen frowned. "Is this one of your future things, or just a promise?"

Merlin's smile grew. "It'll happen." He hadn't felt anything about when Gwen would learn about him and Arthur, but he got a good feeling when he promised her that, so it was basically the same thing.

Gwen gave a smile, but it quickly faded. "I'm sorry, Merlin." She shook her head and clenched her hands together, which were still enclosed within Merlin's hands. "I always wait until the danger is over to come out and help you. I need to be braver."

Merlin let go of her hands and placed his right hand on her left shoulder. She loosened her hold on her own hands. "I know you'll be there when it's over, though, Gwen…and that's good enough." He grinned. "You're brave enough just to be friends with me, and with Morgana of all people," he joked.

"Excuse me?" an angry voice chimed, making both Gwen and Merlin jumped apart from one another and turned to see the narrowed eyes and frown of Morgana Pendragon. "What's wrong with me?" she accused.

Merlin shook his head. "Not what I meant, Morgana…You know that."

Morgana stared at him with a hard expression for several long moments, and then she sighed before smiling lightly. "I know. I'm unapproachable, right? Well, who cares? Come on," she motioned down the hall, "Fourth period is about to start."

Merlin smiled and nodded. He knew they'd make it on time.

..

"Ouch," Merlin hissed out. Arthur pulled his hand back like he'd been burned and held his elbows on the table instead.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, looking at the table top in the Classic Café. The whole place was set up to look like an old-timey café in France, and the table cloth he was looking at was a simple white color with no design.

Merlin shook his head. He waited as the waitress walked over and placed their meals down in front of them before he spoke. "It wasn't your fault." Arthur clenched his teeth but said nothing. "It wasn't," Merlin emphasized. "Adam has anger problems. He'll get those fixed within the year."

Arthur looked at Merlin from under his bangs and the effect of that was just so breathtaking that Merlin couldn't breathe for a moment. "And that stuff you said about his mom?"

Merlin blinked once, took a deep breath to regain his senses, and then shut his eyes. "She's got cancer right now, but even though she knows it, she won't tell anyone about it. In eleven years, she'll get really sick and the doctors will tell her husband and son that it's already way too late. She'll survive two more years, but that's it….His father won't be able to survive without her. He's like a lovebird, and when his mate dies he'll go insane. Adam'll be a pro football player by then. He'll try to heal his father by taking a temporary leave from his team. Four days later, his father will wake up in the middle of the night and, thinking his son is a burgler, shoot him. Adam's leg will never heal properly, and he'll never play football again. The accident will clear his father's head, but crush all of Adam's hopes and dreams. He'll be in a car accident a year to the day after his mom dies, and die before they can get him to the hospital."

Merlin opened his eyes and saw Arthur staring at him intensely. Did Arthur find his premonitions that interesting? Arthur sighed once he realized that Merlin was done.

"Heavy," he began. "I don't understand how you do it. You say you can't see it, just feel it….but you're always so accurate."

"It's more…When you read a story, you can sort of see what the characters are doing and where they are based on the context clues with your imagination. I think about what I want to know, and I'm overcome with a feeling that works sort of like the context clues. Then, my mind paints a mental image of what I know will happen and I know if I'm right because the feelings change depending on what I add to the image. So, with Adam, I saw him at age twenty-eight looking the same way he does now at fifteen." Merlin picked up his chicken sandwich. "You on the other hand…," he trailed off, taking a bite of the sandwich as if he didn't have a care in the world.

Arthur waited until Merlin had swallowed, but when his boyfriend just continued to eat, Arthur's jaw dropped. "You're teasing me again!" he accused. Merlin smirked at him and Arthur scoffed. "Man you're cruel."

"It's just one of the things you love about me," Merlin teased offhandedly, looking to the air to his left, then paused. He looked over at Arthur and saw the blush dusting his cheeks. This feeling…

"I…," Arthur tried, but stopped. He shook his head. "Just eat your sandwich, stupid," he evaded smoothly before taking a harsh bite of his own sandwich.

"Arthur-"

"How are you doing in your advanced placement classes?" Arthur interrupted.

Merlin stared at Arthur for a few moments and then poked his sandwich idly. "I'm doing fine. Mr. Yvons says I wrote the best paper he'd ever read. I didn't think it was all that great. I mean, do you think an in-depth study of Napoleon Bonaparte's exile on St. Helena until the day he died is something that interesting?"

Arthur shook his head. "I could never write that paper. How long did you research that?"

"I don't know," Merlin shrugged. "A week? There isn't much on that period of Napoleon's life. It was the least adventurous period of his long and successful career." He shook his head once and took a bite of his sandwich. "How are your classes going?"

Arthur shrugged in return. "Fine, I suppose. I'm not nearly as impressive as you are." He stared out the window across the room. "I'd love to say it's because I'm too busy practicing my sport, but I know that's not a reason."

Merlin grinned, folding his hands in the air above his now empty plate. "True, but you do look quite fetching when you run."

Arthur nearly choked on his sandwich and Merlin considered himself victorious. Besides, he was pretty sure he knew what Arthur had been about to say before: Ninety-nine point eight percent sure.

..

Sigh

Merlin set down his pencil with a sigh of his own and looked over at Gwen. "You've sighed four times in the past six minutes, Gwen," he informed her calmly. "What's wrong?"

They were supposed to be studying for an AP Psychology test that was scheduled for that Friday, but Gwen had been simply staring off into the distance with a faraway look on her face the entire time.

She blinked. "Oh," she shook her head. "Don't worry about it. It's noth-Wait a minute. You don't know?"

Merlin shrugged. "I'm purposefully not looking because Morgana told me last week, again, that she wanted some suspense in her life and I figured I'd give you the same courtesy," he explained.

His dark skinned friend giggled. "You're funny, Merlin." She shook her head gently and smiled at the air. "I was just thinking…That girl in my Algebra II class…she just broke up with her boyfriend of three years. I was wondering if I'll ever have a boyfriend…and how I'll know if he's "The One"? Because, let's be realistic, but you can't expect the first boy you date to be "The One"," she reasoned.

Merlin held back a snort. Arthur was his first boyfriend and Merlin knew no one else would ever come close. Still, Gwen didn't even know Merlin swung that way, and he wasn't about to educate her on that fact. He wanted to, God knew he wanted to, but that had the possibility of starting a huge landslide of issues. So he would just keep silent until the right time came along.

"So what if I find this great guy and we date for a long time but then he moves away or we just don't love each other anymore, and what if we never actually loved each other from the start?" Gwen continued to muse aloud. "But beyond that…I mean, what if I meet The One but I do something stupid and they hate me? What if we're happy together but then one of us dies? Is there another One I should be looking for or is that it? Or what if I die before I meet The One? Is there another One for them? Or vice versa?"

"Gwen," Merlin interrupted. She stopped abruptly and turned her attention on her psychic friend. "The more you worry about it, the more problems it'll cause." He quickly felt into Gwen's future and found a warm and comforting presence there. "Just live. You're going to find your One, I promise. And he'll be kind and compassionate and everything you've dreamed of," he assured her. "But you can't push love. It doesn't work like that. Try to force it, and you just shove it away. It just happens, and you've got to let it just happen."

Gwen stared at Merlin for a long time, trying to figure out how to respond to that. At length, she said, "You know…I'm not sure if you just told me my future, or if you just gave me a really great speech about life." She smiled. "That was really deep, Merlin."

Merlin shrugged. "I know. I have my moments." He pointed at her book with his pencil. "Now study with me. Mrs. Ryans will have a fit if the whole class fails again."

Gwen rolled her eyes playfully. "You mean, the whole class except you? You totally threw off the curve last time, Merlin," she chastised teasingly.

"Well, maybe if you studied instead of daydreaming about love, you wouldn't need the curve, Gwen," Merlin responded in kind. She punched him softly in the arm and they both laughed.

..

It was October 11th and the tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

The dining room was a perfect porcelain white with a sleek black table set up with white plates and napkins beautifully arranged and true silver utensils at each plate set up the way you see in movies like the Titanic. There were silver candle sticks with long white candles and a glass chandelier hanging above the center of the table. All in all, the place was immaculate and faultless. It was sterile.

Arthur sat staring at his plate, his breath as stiff as his back. To his left, at the head of the table, sat his father. Uther Pendragon was straight backed in a suit, cutting his meat into tiny pieces before bringing them to his mouth piece by piece. He was just as immaculate and faultless as the room he sat in. Across from Arthur, on Uther's left, sat his adoptive sister Morgana. She wore a beautiful deep maroon dress that wrapped around her neck and exposed her shoulders. Her hair was done up beautifully up off her shoulders with only two locks of hair curling gently just in front of her ears. When she caught Arthur staring she gave him a happy smile.

Well, at least one of them was happy it was his birthday.

Yesterday, Arthur had celebrated his birthday early with Merlin and his uncle Gaius. They'd had a cake Merlin had made himself (from a box) that was chocolate enough to kill a horse. Merlin had kissed him over a dozen times and hugged him almost constantly and gave Arthur a necklace with a dark red stone. Even now, that necklace was hidden under the suit he was wearing as he and his family ate. Gaius had congratulated Arthur on turning fifteen and Merlin teased him about getting wrinkles and gray hair. There had been streamers and confetti and noise makers and chocolate mint ice cream and they tied each other's hair in little ponytails and took funny pictures of each other and painted their faces with cake and ice cream (Gaius included, unwillingly). It had been the most amazing birthday Arthur had ever had.

Case in point, the current situation.

It was 7 p.m. and Arthur was seated at the formal dinner table with his family. They were all dressed in their best but no one was talking to anyone. The only sounds in the room were the ones made by their silverware as they ate their cottage pie dinner and spotted dog pudding. The only thing special about that was that typically they had no dessert at all. After dinner, if they wanted, Arthur and Morgana could go make themselves something for dessert; anything small enough for one person. On holidays and special occasions, dessert was included in the meal.

Just as they all finished eating, Uther spoke up. "Congratulations, Arthur," he began in his typical tremble of a voice. "Today you turn fifteen years old. Now, you are leaving the world of children behind and moving up into the world of adults – adult problems, skills, jobs, ….relationships," he added, albeit a bit reluctantly. "These all require a new level of responsibility and I expect you to uphold a good character at all times."

"Of course, father," Arthur agreed with a small incline of his head. "I'll do my best."

Morgana stayed silent. She'd had this same speech from Uther four months ago, when she had turned fifteen.

Shortly afterward, Morgana and Arthur were dismissed. They both went up the stairs towards their respective bedrooms but Morgana stopped Arthur at the top of the stairs with a gentle hand on his arm. "What?" he asked, not rudely but not kindly either.

Morgana smiled. "We may not be blood related, but you are still my younger brother. Here," she said, handing him a small package. "Happy Birthday."

Arthur looked at the wrapped gift and then to Morgana's smiling face. "Thanks, Morgana," he let out quietly.

Morgana shook it off with a wave of her hand. "Come on, don't be getting all soft on me!" she teasingly chastised. "We can't have people thinking we like each other now, can we?"

Arthur grinned. "No. Who would ever want that?" he asked sarcastically. His grin slipped into a small smile again and he squeezed Morgana's left shoulder once, gently, before giving a nod of his head and entering his bedroom without another word.

Seated at his desk, Arthur carefully unwrapped the gift Morgana had bought him. Inside the wrappings was…an envelope in between two little sheets of cardboard. Frowning in confusion, Arthur slit the top of the envelope open and pulled out-

"Oh wow!" he gasped out, his eyes going wide. "Two tickets to the Pop Disaster Tour!" Hurriedly pulling out the letter also in the envelope, Arthur nearly ripped it open.

Dear little brother,

I know you won't admit it, but you love these guys. So I went ahead and bought you the tickets. You can take whoever you want (as long as it isn't me). Maybe you'll find yourself a girlfriend while you're at it! :)

By the way, don't let dad find the tickets or know about the concert. He'd absolutely FLIP if he knew!

Morgana

P.S. I've included something extra along with the tickets just in case.

Narrowing his eyes, Arthur picked up the envelope and shook it upside down. Almost immediately, a little tiny package fell out. Arthur stared at it, the envelope in one hand and the tickets in the other, in horrified shock.

A condom.

Glaring, Arthur grabbed the offending item and tossed it angrily into the waste basket next to his desk. "What on earth is she thinking?" he grumbled. "Still…," he looked back at the tickets still in his left hand and smiled. "I can take Merlin somewhere now that he doesn't know about." He frowned a bit. "Then again, he might already know…hmm…." Arthur placed a hand to his forehead. "I don't understand how the whole thing works…" He shook his head. "Oh well. It's worth a try, and it'll be fun either way."

After all, it was Green Day, Saves the Day, and Blink 182 in concert, together. Sweet.

As it turned out, Merlin had known Arthur was going to ask him out some place, but he'd purposefully forced himself not to feel it out because he wanted to be surprised. That made Arthur smile. Now it was October 24th and Merlin and Arthur were standing near the theater where the concert was to be held. Arthur and Merlin were both shocked at the sheer number of people in attendance. It was Camelot City and it was the Pop Disaster Tour, but whoa! There were a ton of little kids with their parents, a ton of middle schoolers, and several truck loads of high school kids wearing belly shirts and short shorts or baggy clothes, almost all black or grey of some sort, with wacky colored hair and piercings all over. There were a few people in their twenties, but they were few and far between all the others.

Merlin and Arthur fit right in. Phew.

Merlin's hair looked wet the way he'd done it. His nails were painted black and he wore a large black t-shirt with GREEEN DAY emblazoned across the front and a tight, long sleeved black shirt underneath it. He wore black converse and tight black jeans. He looked hot and Arthur could barely take his eyes off him.

Arthur wore a similar Green Day shirt, but in a smaller size and long sleeved, with a deep dark blue short sleeved over shirt hanging open over top. He wore black sketchers and dark blue jeans. He'd tried to make himself look a bit unlike himself by gelling his hair like Merlin's, but he wasn't sure how well he'd done. He still got the impression that he looked like Arthur Pendragon, leader of the rich kids' gang at Camelot High. He felt a bit out of sorts in this crowd because he was used to being around the high and powerful group and not the middle class one. What if someone recognized him, or both of them?

Merlin interlocked his fingers with Arthur's. Arthur looked down at their hands and then up to Merlin's encouraging smile. "Don't worry. Everything'll be fine."

Arthur smiled and held Merlin's hand tighter. "Yea." He nodded. "It will." Then, without releasing Merlin's hand, Arthur trudged forward past all the little shops and into the main concert hall.

..

Quite some time later, long after the concert had let out, Merlin and Arthur were just nearing Dackling Road. Arthur had his left arm around Merlin's waist, and Merlin had his right arm around Arthur's waist in return. Merlin leaned his head on Arthur's shoulder and they both stopped walking.

"The concert was great," Merlin commented with a big smile. "I loved the part where the chickens and bees came out and we all shouted 'Shout!' at the top of our lungs," he laughed.

Arthur grinned. "Really? I liked the part where Billie called those people up on stage and the one kid fell down, and that other one practically squeezed the life out of Billie in that hug," he said, chuckling under his breath.

Merlin smirked. "Why Arthur, I wasn't aware you loved pain that much. Could it be you actually enjoy beating me up?" he teased, taking a step back from Arthur but never dropping his smirk.

Arthur looked practically offended. "No! Why on earth would I want to see you get hurt?" he asked incredulously.

"It was a joke, Arthur," Merlin said somberly, shocked at Arthur's reaction.

Arthur frowned and pulled Merlin into a one armed hug again. "Well…I don't think it's very funny. I never want you to get hurt. I….I care about you too much."

Merlin frowned at the ground, but not because he was upset. He knew Arthur cared about him a lot. He knew how Arthur felt even when he was hiding it. He just…he wished Arthur would come out and say it himself.

"I care a lot about you too, Arthur," Merlin replied in kind. He cleared his throat. "You need to get home. You're dad's already getting worried and suspicious."

"Right," Arthur mumbled. He gave Merlin a slow, gentle kiss before pulling completely away from his boyfriend. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

Merlin grinned. "Bright and early. Don't stay up late. We've got school in the morning," he reminded teasingly. Arthur was going to be up for at least another hour.

Arthur stuck his tongue out for the briefest of moments and then shoved his hands in his pockets. "Goodnight, Merlin." Then he walked away down Dackling Road towards his house and Merlin hurried away from the rich territory and back to his middle-class home.

He entered the house quietly, so as not to wake Gaius at this hour of the night, and walked softly to his room. Grabbing a change of clothes, Merlin took a quick shower. Once he was dry, Merlin pulled on his night pants and then paused. He looked at the fog covered mirror for a second before wiping a streak clear with his right hand. Staring into his own eyes, Merlin sighed.

"Goodnight, Arthur," Merlin murmured. He could see the future, and yet he had trouble saying aloud what needed to be said. "I love you."

tbc.