Merlin had never been so scared in his life.

The call that your best friend had been involved in a car accident and was being taken to hospital for surgery was not one that you ever hoped you'd get, especially on the night of your 26th birthday party when you knew that said best friend had been travelling to see you.

Merlin was not scared, he was petrified.

To make matters worse, the call had come from Will's phone, and Merlin had picked up and directed insults and profanities down the phone before hearing the voice of the female paramedic come from the other end.

Merlin had been very drunk, but nothing, he thought, had ever made him sober up so quickly.

He scoured the room for someone he knew would not have been drinking and spotted Lance talking to Gwaine in a corner of the living room. Talking was perhaps a loose term for it. From Merlin's position, it looked like Lance was trying to resist Gwaine's advances, Gwaine having forgotten that they were both heterosexual males, and both in heterosexual relationships. He pushed his way through the crowd of people obstructing his path to Lance and threw himself in front of Gwaine with what was probably more force than necessary.

"Merlin," The amused grin that had previously been plastered across Lance's face disappeared. "What's happened?"

Merlin could barely find his voice, still not quite believing what he had been told. "Will. Car accident. Hospital." He choked out.

"Let's go," Lance said, grabbing Merlin's arm and pulling him along behind him making a beeline for the coat cupboard. Merlin had always admired Lance for being the headstrong leader that he was, and appreciated it in that moment more than he had in any other. He was not the type to collapse in on himself when put in a difficult situation, which was exactly what Merlin was doing right now.

"Gwen," Merlin mumbled, knowing in the back of his mind that he should tell her what had happened, and should not let Lance leave without letting her know. Lance had reached the coats and was shoving Merlin's old leather jacket into his arms. "Find some shoes, I'll go and tell her what's happened. Do you want everyone to leave?"

"No, not yet, don't panic them, just tell Gwen to make sure everyone's gone by the time I get back," Merlin had forgotten that he had been walking around in the comical socks he had received from Gwaine a few hours earlier and stumbled up the stairs into his bedroom to search for some footwear. The first pair he came across was his worn pair of navy Vans which had been a gift from Will many years ago. He pulled them on, his head full of images he did not want to be seeing. Will unconscious. Will paralysed. Will dead.

"Merlin," He heard Lance shout from the bottom of the stairs. He quickly grabbed another hoody to put on under his jacket and bolted back down the stairs. "Let's go."

•••

Merlin had known Will since they were four years old. They had met on their first day of primary school and had formed a lasting bond after Will had pushed Merlin into the sand pit. They had been inseparable ever since.

They had been a constant in each other's lives, always being there to help the other threw the next obstacle life threw at them: Will's father leaving when they were 6, Merlin's sexuality crisis when they were 14, Merlin's mother falling ill just before they'd been set to leave Ealdor to go to university.

Nothing could have ever prepared him for this turn of events. After they had graduated, Merlin had moved south to London with Lance and Gwen, who he had met in Leeds and had lived with alongside Will for two years. Will had stayed.

It had been hard for them to adjust to not seeing each other every day and not living together, but they both knew it had been for the best, otherwise there was no way either one of them would comply. Will had been offered an amazing job with an accounting firm in Leeds and could hardly afford to turn it down. Everyone had been shocked, but everyone grew to accept it, as well as the prospect of Merlin's name no longer being attached to the end of Will's.

At first Merlin had tried to bury himself in his own work to keep his mind of missing Will but soon his friends began to notice that Merlin's slight frame was getting thinner and the bags that had become a permanent fixture underneath his eyes.

They had forced him to leave the house, and for that he was actually grateful. Lance and Gwen often speculated about what would have happened if they had not intervened, and they agreed it would not have been pretty.

At first, the three had lived together in a flat that was too small for them but which was easy for them to pay the rent on. It had been a two bedroom affair on the outskirts of the city, miles away from anything that was of any use to them. As they began to earn more money they soon realized that where they were living was not practical for any of them. So they moved further into the city, the new flat similar to the last but bigger and in a better location.

By this time, their circle of friends had grown, and Merlin was spending a lot of time with Gwaine, who worked in the building across from his. Gwaine was a self professed womaniser, who was also partial to a male's company every now and again. He and Merlin had dabbled and things had looked to have been going well for the pair, both taking their 'relationship' more seriously than they had originally intended, until Gwaine had met Sophie and he realised that Merlin didn't quite do it for him. He hadn't minded, he knew what they had had was not supposed to be permanent, only a release for their pent up sexual frustrations, drinks and sex, but they had eventually fallen into a comfortable pattern and were not afraid to act more like they were in a relationship. This allowed them to stay friends and form a bond that almost matched the one he had had with Will for his entire life.

Gwaine had not lasted long with Sophie. Although he was besotted, she was younger, less mature and soon realised that Gwaine wanted more from her than she was willing to give.

Up until this point, Merlin had been accepting of Gwen and Lance's need to have sex, loudly, almost every day, but he was reaching the end of his tether, so when his Uncle Gauis had offered him his old house in the city centre which he would have no use for when he went to Africa, he jumped at the chance to move away from the love birds. Gwaine had moved in with him shortly after Merlin had acquired the deeds to the house.

Throughout his time in London, Merlin had had a small number of relationships, all failing once the new partner had decided that Merlin was having a secret affair with Gwaine. Even after Gwaine began seeing Elena, the pattern continued and Merlin remained a sad, lonely 20-something with a huge craving for sex. Lots of sex.

•••

Merlin jumped out of Lance's car as soon as they passed the hospital entrance. It was busy and Lance was going to have trouble parking, and Merlin needed to see Will.

The nurses were infuriatingly unhelpful.

"We can't tell you anything, you aren't family."

So Merlin wandered the floors until he found the room that had William Grayson written next to it on the wall.

The room was empty.

Merlin sat outside and waited. And waited.

Lance turned up eventually and sat with him for a while, holding Merlin while he let out the tears he had been holding back since he got the call, but Gwen called and Lance reluctantly left Merlin on his own, promising he would back in the morning.

Will was wheeled back to his room at around midnight. Gwen's brother, Elyan, was on duty now and he took pity on Merlin and told him what he could.

Will was badly injured. A petrol tanker had crashed into Will's small car on the motorway and the doctors were still shocked that Will had made it out alive.

That didn't mean he was definitely going to be alright. He had a number of broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a broken arm, a broken leg, internal bleeding and possible brain damage. It was bad. If he made it through the night, he was likely to be ok. Will was a fighter, but Merlin didn't know if he would be able to fight this.

Knowing there was nothing he could do, Merlin made his way to the canteen in search of some food. He had left the party less than 3 hours ago, and had been drinking on an empty stomach. He was hungry and was beginning to feel a hangover developing.

The canteen was virtually empty. He picked up a sandwich and a bottle of water from the fridge and got to the counter before realising he didn't have his wallet. He couldn't help patting his pockets, hoping he would discover some change. He didn't.

A tall, blonde figure had appeared being him in the queue, waiting to purchase 2 bottles of diet coke. Merlin motioned for him to jump in front of him and began to retreat to put the sandwich he was so looking forward to back.

"Hey," called a voice from behind him. He turned round to see the blond waving him back. "I'll get those, if you don't have any money,"

"You don't have to do that, its fine," he replied, turning back around.

"Seriously, you look like you need something to eat. You left your wallet at home because it was an emergency, right?"

"Yeah, I didn't even think about picking anything up, I barely even remembered my shoes," he had subconsciously moved forward to the counter again. "Sorry, you didn't need to know that,"

"Don't worry about it, here," the blonde handed Merlin his food and water, staring sceptically at the water. "I barely know anyone who actually buys water to drink," They walked towards one of the many empty table and sitting down opposite each other.

"I'm erm, well I wasn't drinking fruit juice earlier tonight," Merlin replied, not wanting to admit that he was hung over.

"Ah, that why you're in here then? Party accident?"

"Not exactly," The blonde looked ashamed that he had jumped to this conclusion and picked up one of the bottles of coke to take a sip.

"Sorry, I shouldn't be intruding; it's none of my business,"

Merlin couldn't help himself when he began to tell the story of what had happened. The blonde listened intently and let Merlin tell him a lot more than he needed to know, again. When Merlin looked up, he felt tears in his eyes and the blonde reached into his back pocket and pulled out a rumpled tissue out, handing it to Merlin. "Thanks. For listening and for the tissue. Whenever I try to talk to anyone I actually know about Will I feel bad for boring them, at least I know it's not a story you've ever heard before, or are likely to hear again for that matter," The blonde laughed and for the first time Merlin really looked at him.

He was beautiful.

He sported dark circles under his eyes, similar to the ones he was sure he probably had, had a golden head of hair that came down to around his ears. Said hair was ruffled as though its owner had spent all evening running his hands through it. His piercing blue eyes showed the signs of sleepless nights but Merlin was fixated most of all by his cheekbones. This delectable stranger had the most perfect cheekbones. In fact, his jaw line showed that the blonde had perfect bone structure overall.

Merlin had been staring. And so had the blonde.

They both snapped back to reality, both a little embarrassed but seemingly too tired and worried to care.

"So why are you here?" Merlin asked before he could tell himself not to be rude and that it was none of his business, but the blonde replied without hesitation.

"My father had a heart attack," he said.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, is he going to be alright?" Merlin inquired.

"They say he should be. We don't really have the best relationship, he doesn't approve of my career, but this has made me see that I wouldn't want to lose him whilst we're on the terms we're on. Plus, I don't want him to wake up to my sister and not me and for him to think I don't care, so I thought I should stay,"

"What do you do?" Merlin silently reprimanded himself for being too nosey.

"I'm a dancer, but my father expected me to follow his footsteps into the family business. He's a physiologist, or he was before he retired,"

"That doesn't sound like too bad a job; at least he wasn't pushing you into medicine or anything,"

"When you put it like that it doesn't sound that awful. I just don't like to be told how I'm feeling, so I couldn't be the one doing it to someone else. Besides, dance is my passion, it always has been, and I'm following in one of my parents footsteps," the blonde looked down into his bottle; he looked pensive, as though he didn't want to talk about it. Merlin couldn't stop himself.

"Your mother is a dancer?"

"She was. She died when I was young,"

"Shit – I – I'm so sorry," Merlin searched the blonde's eyes for a sign that he was angry or offended, but found none.

"Don't be. Through the dance, I feel as though I never really lost her," the blonde was staring back into Merlin's eyes, showing his that he didn't mind Merlin's intrusiveness. "I always danced when I was young, classes, shows, that kind of thing, but my father never expected me to want to carry it on. He thought I'd get embarrassed by the time I was old enough to know how to be, but I guess I never did," Merlin was impressed. He had always admired men who were passionate about what they did, and the stranger was certainly that.

Merlin was staring again.

"Look, I really should be getting back. My sister will be wondering where her drink is," Merlin had freaked him out. Too much staring. Shit.

"Of course, sorry, I didn't mean to keep you from your father,"

"Oh don't be, I'm grateful to get away from it for a bit really." The blonde stood up and brushed his hands off on his jeans. "I'm Arthur, by the way," he held his hand out and Merlin shook it. "Let me know how your friend is in the morning, I'm sure we'll both still be here," Arthur told him the room his father was in.

"Thanks for giving me someone to talk to," Merlin said before he turned to walk out of the canteen.

"Hey," Arthur called after him. "Do you expect me to call you tall, dark and handsome or do I get an actual name?" Merlin felt the tips of his ears redden.

"I prefer that to my actual name," Merlin, why are you flirting, he thought. "But my name's Merlin," Arthur smiled to himself as he walked away. Merlin.

•••

Will did not make it through the night.

He didn't even make it through the time that Merlin had taken to eat his sandwich in the company of his new crush.

Merlin felt terrible.

He couldn't stay outside the room and found himself wandering once more. He finally came to a stop outside the toilets where he sank to the floor, pulled his knees up to his chest and cried.

"Merlin?" A female voice called his name from down the corridor. He looked up to see Morgana, Gwaine's friend Leon's girlfriend. Merlin had only met her a handful of times but she was distinctive enough in looks for Merlin to know that it was her. She paused in front of him before sitting on the floor next to him and pulling her into him. He didn't want to cry on her, he really didn't, but he could not control the broken sobs that wracked through his body. Morgana soothed him and stroked his hair until he quietened and pulled away in embarrassment.

"What happened?" she asked gently, offering Merlin a tissue which he took from her gratefully.

"My birthday party. Best friend. Car accident. Didn't make it." He hiccupped his way through the disjointed sentences before starting to sob once more. Morgana put up with him and pulled him to his feet when he was ready.

"Come with me. I'll ring Leon to come and pick you up and he can take you home,"

"You don't need to do that. Its past midnight, you don't need to wake Leon up, if you could just call me a cab I'll be fine,"

"To be honest, I'd rather not just stick you in a taxi in this state; I'd rather know you're getting home safely. Leon won't mind, and he's already up because I was on the phone to him just before," Merlin found himself wondering what Morgana was doing in the hospital at this time of night, but couldn't find the energy to ask. He mumbled his thanks and let Morgana put an arm around his waist to help keep him up whilst they walked to wherever Morgana was taking him.

They finally reached what looked to be a private room with the curtains drawn on the inside and the door firmly closed. Morgana pushed it open as quietly as she could and let Merlin in before turning back down the corridor to find a payphone to call Leon from.

"Merlin?" Merlin found himself face to face with Arthur. Without the energy to deal with this, or to keep himself on his feet, he felt his legs give way underneath him. Arthur moved quickly and managed to catch him before his head hit the floor.

Arthur hauled Merlin's body up and placed him in the seat Arthur had just vacated. The seats in the private rooms were much nicer than the ones in the bog standard rooms, he found himself thinking, before his eyelids closed over his eyes and he blacked out.

•••

Morgana returned to the room a few moments later to see Merlin passed out in a plush chair and Arthur sat across the room on the floor against the wall.

"His friend was in an accident," Arthur said at the same time as Morgana said, "His friend died," they both gave each other puzzled looks as if to say, how do you know that. Arthur clearly hadn't seen Morgana let Merlin into the room and had thought he had come back to talk some more.

"He's a friend of Leon's; I've met him a few times before and just found him outside the toilets crying." Morgana explained. "How do you know him?"

"I paid for his food in the canteen when I went to get the drinks and we talked a bit. His friend was still alive then. I told him where I was in case he needed to talk more and when he came in I thought that's what he wanted to do. But he saw me and passed out."

"I just rang Leon, he's coming to pick him up and take him home so he doesn't have to stay here, he should only be 20 minutes,"

Merlin was conscious for the entire exchange but chose to keep his eyes closed. His head was pounding and though Arthur and Morgana were barely talking above a whisper, the noise of their voices rang through his head. He was confused for a moment before he remembered, and slipped back into unconsciousness.

•••

Leon entered the room quietly and took in the scene in the room. He nodded his greetings to Arthur and wrapped his arms around Morgana from behind the chair she was seated in and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "How is he?" he asked, indicating that he was asking about Uther.

"He'll be fine, I'm more worried about Merlin now," Morgana replied, getting up from her chair to bury herself in Leon's arms. He held her and placed his lips to the top of her head.

"Is Merlin asleep?" He asked.

"Something like that," Arthur replied, his voice rough. He stood up, wincing at the pain in his legs, and silently crossed the room to place a hand on Merlin's shoulder. He shook it to see if he would wake up and when he didn't he turned to the others. "Should we ask someone to come check on him, see if he's alright?" Morgana contemplated it but before she could talk Merlin stirred and opened his eyes a little. "I guess not," Arthur mumbled.

Merlin wondered what they had been talking about before he came to but once again, could not find the energy to enquire.

Leon untangled himself from Morgana's limbs and bent down in front of Merlin. "Merlin, I'm really sorry about Will." They had met briefly when Will had been visiting once and Leon had come to the house to pick Gwaine up to take him to their weekly football match. Merlin had no doubts that Lance had filled him in on the details of their tricky relationship at some other point. He felt a tear roll down his cheek and was once again being offered a tissue, this time from Leon. "I'll take you home, if you want,"

Merlin could only find it in him to nod and tried to stand up. He collapsed forward onto Leon, who scooped him up with ease. Merlin was out again by the time Leon was stood up. He leant across to kiss Morgana quickly and then followed Arthur out of the room, who had volunteered to open doors, seeing as Leon had his hands full.

"Have you got him?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah I've got him, look at him, you didn't think he'd be very heavy did you?"

"No, I suppose not,"

"Look, I'm going to stay with him tonight, he has a spare room and I can just crash there. It's just that, his housemate is possibly the least compassionate person in the world and I doubt Merlin will want to deal with that when he wakes up, will you tell Morgana for me?"

"Yeah of course, I think I'll go back to hers as well, if we leave here that is. Ring us in the morning and let us know how he is?" Arthur asked.

"Sure." Leon motioned towards his back pocket. "Could you get the key?" Arthur retrieved the key and unlocked the door to Leon's car. He then helped Leon fasten Merlin into the passenger seat after deciding it would be too difficult to get him secured across the back seats. Merlin was awake enough to remember the lingering hand across his cheek before Arthur retreated and closed the door as quietly as he could.

Enjoy! I've been wanting to write a Merthur fic for the longest time so I thought I might as well just do it. The next chapter is being written now but I don't know how long until it's up. I also don't know about the length of the chapters, this was originally going to be some colossal work but I wanted to get up what I'd done so far and see if I got any feedback so just chose an appropriate place to end the first chapter from what I'd already written. Please please let me know what you think so I know whether or not to continue, thanks!