Chapter 11

Merlin looked from the text book to his watch, as he had been doing every ten minutes for the past twenty. As soon a class ended, Merlin headed to the library. He expected Arthur to not be long after him, but after a half hour waiting, he wondered if Arthur was going to show up or if the blonde was just pulling his leg.

He was nervous on tutoring Arthur now that he knew that Arthur was Excalibur. He didn't want Arthur to learn that he was Wizard. He liked Arthur, a lot, but he didn't want something that could never happen. He knew what would happen if Arthur found out that Merlin was Wizard. No man with a thousand dollar car would want a bag boy for a boyfriend.

Arthur was now a half hour late. Exasperated and irritated, he grabbed his phone and dialed. He wished he had gotten Arthur's phone number, that would have been the smart then to do, but he'd have to settle for second best.

It run twice before it was answered.

"He's that annoying?" asked Gwaine with a laugh.

"You mean he's not with you?" said Merlin confused.

Gawain looked in surprise at Percival, who cocked an eyebrow questioningly.

"No, last I heard he was heading to the library see you and that was a half hour ago."

"Well, he's not here. I've been waiting a half hour. I figured he'd be with you or Lancelot."

"Nope, Lance is on a date. Arthur would only interrupt that if his life depended on it."

"Can you call him and find out why's he's not here?" asked Merlin.

"Sure. Give me a minute." Gwaine hung up and started dialing Arthur.

"What's wrong?" asked Percival.

"Arthur is late for his date with Merlin," said Gwaine.

"Why would Arthur not be with Merlin?"

"I don't know," said Gwaine as Arthur picked up the phone.

"Gwaine, hi," said Arthur almost happily.

"Arthur, why aren't you tutoring with Merlin? He's at the library waiting."

"Oh, sorry, Gwaine," said Arthur. "I got sidetracked."

"By what?" asked Gwaine.

"Gwaine, I found him."

Gwaine blinked in surprise and turned to Percival.

"Him?"

"Wizard. I found him."

Gwaine's mouth gaped in shock. Arthur had found out who Wizard was, then why wasn't he with Merlin?

"Who?" he asked.

"It's Mordred. Mordred le Fey."

Gwaine almost dropped his phone in shock. Gwaine knew of Mordred le Fey. The man continually hit on every gay man that walked in the hotel. Merlin told Gwaine that he lost track of how many times he had caught Mordred walking out of a room disheveled and looking thoroughly shagged. If Mordred was making Arthur believe that he was Wizard, than something was going on.

"Arthur, are you sure?" he asked.

"We've been talking for a half hour, and he knows everything about me. It's been great."

"Arthur, he can find things about you on the internet."

"No, it's more than that. Trust me, Gwaine. It's him."

"But what about Merlin?" Gwaine hoped that by mentioning the other boy's name, Arthur would get his priorities set and hopefully hit it off with Merlin.

"Can you tell him I'm sorry and that I'll meet up with him tomorrow? I want to spend more time with Mordred."

"Uh, okay," said Gwaine.

"Thanks," said Arthur happily and hung up. Gwaine hung up and turned to Percival in shock.

"Arthur think Mordred le Fey is Wizard?" asked Percival, also shocked.

"Yeah," said Gwaine.

"But how?"

"Mordred apparently has information, private information, on Arthur. Arthur really believes Mordred is Wizard."

"God," said Percival still in shock. "Should we tell Merlin?"

Gwaine thought hard for a minute. According to Gwen, Merlin had been apprehensive on meeting Excalibur. From how Merlin acted around Arthur, it was obvious the other man didn't want Arthur to know who he was, but why? By telling Merlin that Mordred was portraying himself as Wizard, it would obviously hurt him, and Merlin had enough hurt in his life.

"Not yet," he said. "Let's find out how this goes."

He dialed and waited for Merlin to answer.

"So?" asked Merlin.

"Arthur said something came up," said Gwaine. "He said he'd meet with you tomorrow. Some place, same time."

Merlin groans. He had to work tomorrow, but luckily he had the dinner shift at the restaurant. He could easily squeeze Arthur in for a tutor session.

"Stupid clodpole," said Merlin angrily. "Fine. I'll see him tomorrow."

"Bye, Merlin."

Both hung up. He turned to see Percival giving him a skeptical look.

"What?"

"We should have told him," said Percival.

"If we told him now, there would be anger and guilt and a whole lot of emotional mess that we can't deal with right now. Merlin's a nice guy, but he gets in over his head. If he finds out that Mordred is claiming to be Wizard, everything will go down the loo. Better to get to the bottom of this and send the bastard packing, and then get Arthur set up with the real Wizard so we all can live happily ever after."

"You just want a chance to play fairy godmother don't you?' asked Percival with a slight smile. Gwaine smiled back.

"Duh," he said.

"Question is, why would Mordred say he's Wizard? How does he even know about Wizard and Excalibur?"

"I don't know, but it can't be good," said Gwaine. "You know he drives a Mercedes? No way is he paying for that with a waiter's salary."

"So, you think Mordred's after Arthur for his money?" asked Percival.

"Maybe, but we'll have to wait and see."

"Sure thing, Sherlock."

Percival paused in thought.

"What if Arthur mentions Mordred during their tutor sessions?" he asked. Gwaine paled.

"Oh, shit."

XXXXXX

Merlin stuffed his phone back into his pocket and started packing up his books. He couldn't believe the nerve of Arthur. The guy all but ordered Merlin to be at the library at a specific time, but never showed up for some apparent reason. He had better things to do with his time than tutor some hot shot rich brat who was more than likely going to inherit daddy's big company whether he got a business degree or not.

Throwing his pack over his shoulder, he walked out of the library, nodding a farewell to the head librarian, Geoffrey, and walked out. Hopefully, he'd be able to catch the next bus home. He only had to wait a few minutes until the bus came and he climbed on. As he took a seat he pulled out his phone and dialed.

"He can't be that bad," said Will, reminding Merlin of what Gwaine said a couple minutes ago. Merlin would have called Gwen, but she was on some mysterious date.

"He never came," said Merlin.

"What?!"

Merlin cringed at his friend's outburst and looked around to see if anyone else had heard it. Luckily, no one else seemed to have heard it.

"Why?" asked Will when Merlin put the phone back to his ear.

"Apparently, he had something more important to do," said Merlin.

"But you still get paid, right?"

"I should hope so, or else I'm doing this for nothing."

"What are you going to do now?" asked Will.

"Study. I got a test in poetry and Musical Composition. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Later."

Merlin hung up and shut his phone off and stuffed it in his pocket he pulled out his poetry textbook and started to read.

XXXXXX

Arthur hung up after talking with Gwaine and put his phone back in his pocket. He felt horrible for ditching Merlin to talk with Mordred. He had been looking forward to studying with Merlin and explain further why he needed a tutor, but then Mordred showed up outside of the library. He was shocked when he found out that Mordred was Wizard. Of all the people he'd thought would be Wizard, Mordred want one of them.

He looked back at Mordred who was waiting at the table in the cafe they were currently drinking coffee in. while he was happy to finally "meet" Wizard again, he did feel something was a wrong. What Gwaine had said stuck in his head. There were a lot of stuff about him that could be found over the internet, but a lot of what they were discussing only what they said in private emails and chats. He was sure that Mordred was Wizard.

Mordred sat in the café, confident that his plan was going well. He had Sophia pay a hairdresser to cut his hair in the same style that Merlin had it at the banquet and he had to play down his clothes. He was too used to his designer clothes and now has to wear clothes from a thrift store. And they itched.

He looked up as Arthur spoke on the phone. He couldn't believe how hard it was to be Merlin. There were a lot of things he knew about Merlin since he often spied on the other man during breaks while he spoke with his friends and followed him to his gigs. He had known for a while that Arthur was Excalibur and that Wizard was Merlin, through how to the two idiots didn't figure it out he'd never know. He knew all of Merlin's likes and dislikes so it was easy to find topics for conversation with Arthur, it was his backstory that he needed cleared up.

The problem was he hated most of the things Merlin liked. He didn't see anything interesting about the Doctor Who series or its spinoffs. He was never adept at music, had no clue on how to play the guitar and couldn't grasp classical literature. How Merlin could get into any of that stuff was beyond him.

He saw movement and saw that Arthur had hung up. Mordred straightened in his chair and smiled at Arthur.

"What did Gwaine want?" he asked.

"I completely forgot that I was to have a study session with Merlin," said Arthur sitting down. "I said I'd make it up to him tomorrow."

"What do you need to study for?" asked Mordred. He was thankful that Sophia texted him as soon as she overheard Arthur make plans to study with Merlin. He needed to separate the two if his plan was to work.

"Hotel Business," said Arthur.

"I can help you with that."

Arthur thought for a moment. Mordred did work at the hotel with Merlin, but he made a deal with Merlin to have the other boy tutor him and a Pendragon never backs away from a deal.

"No," he said shaking his head. "I made a deal with Merlin and I'm going to keep it."

Mordred frowned at Arthur's response. It wasn't what he wanted to hear. He had to keep the two away from each other. If Arthur learned who Wizard really was, everything would blow up in his face.

"Arthur, I want to go on a date with you," he said with a flirty grin. Arthur looked at him in surprise.

"Really? But my dad…"

"We'll keep it discreet. Two friends hanging out together for a night on the town."

Arthur thought for a moment. Having a date with Wizard was a dream come true for him since they started communicating through the college website.

"Yes," he said.

"And, Arthur," said Mordred, "we can't tell anyone."

"But my friends know I'm gay. They'll understand…"

"No, Arthur, they'll never understand." Mordred places a hand on Arthur's in sympathy. "Your friends, Merlin, they've never liked me. I don't know why, but they don't. You can't tell them about us, Arthur. If you do, they'll try to tear us apart. Promise me you won't say anything."

Arthur looked at Mordred in surprise. Arthur's friends knew how much Arthur wanted to meet Wizard, and to keep it from them felt wrong to Arthur. When he told Gwaine who Wizard was, Gwaine was very surprised but didn't sound like he hated the man. Only cautious. Arthur didn't think Gwaine would act against Mordred after knowing how much Arthur wanted to meet him. That wasn't how Gwaine was.

"I promise."

XXXXXX

Lancelot was laughing at something his date said when his phone went off. He frowned when he saw who had sent him the text. Gwaine knew better than to call him on a date. Whatever it had to be important otherwise Gwaine wouldn't have sent it. Opening the text he stared in surprise at what was written.

Red Alert! Meeting at my place ASAP

The alert of his date's phone told him she got the same message.

"Wonder what that's about," said Gwen.

"I don't know, but we better find out," said Lancelot. "Gwaine only sends out a red alert when it's really serious."

Paying for their meal, Gwen and Lancelot left and drove to Gwaine's and Percival's place as quickly as traffic would allow. They both received a look of surprise when they arrived together.

"Shut up," said Lancelot. "Is everyone here?"

"Almost," said Gwaine. "We just have to wait for Will."

"Here," said Will walking through the door. "What's this about?"

"Arthur meet with Mordred le Fey, and now thinks Mordred is Wizard," said Percival, cutting to the case.

"What?!" said Gwen and Will.

"How the hell did this happen?" asked Elyan.

"More important, how did he find out about Wizard and Excalibur," said Lancelot.

"We don't know," said Gwaine. "I'm guessing he has some kind of hacking skills or something, because Arthur gave him questions that only Wizard would answer. He truly believes Mordred is the one."

"What are we going to do," asked Elyan.

"Are we going to tell them?" asked Gwen.

"I've thought of that, but every scenario I could think of turns out bad," said Gwaine. "We have to get Arthur and Merlin to fall in love with each other as Arthur and Merlin, or else they'll never will."

"So what do we do?" asked Elyan again.

"Looks like we're going to have to start Operation Merthur," said Will.

"Merthur," asked Percival confused.

"Arthur and Merlin together," said Will. "I would have called it 'Operation Get Merlin and Arthur to Fall in Love With Each Other' but that would be a mouthful."

"That would be a mouthful," said Lancelot. "Merthur it is."

"So, where do we start?" asked Gwen.

Immediately, all the friends start throwing ideas around, and Operation Merthur began.

TBC