Chapter four – Through my façade

Arthur slumps forward in his chair, doing his utmost to listen his teacher, but with something as uninteresting as trigonometry, it was a difficult feat.

"Are those bags under your eyes designer?" Arthur hears, and snaps to attention at the voice.

"Ha-ha, Gwaine, you're so funny."

Gwaine sniggers, and Arthur subconsciously notices the delicate laughter of Gwen behind him. He smiles at her laugh, the sort of laugh that made you smile no matter what kind of mood you were in.

A couple of minutes later, he feels someone gently tapping on his back.

"Hey, seriously, are you alright?" Gwen asks him, in that gentle voice of hers. "You look terrible."

"I'm alright, Gwen. Just…A little incident with the neighbour last night. I got back home about one in the morning."

She smiles sympathetically at him, and Arthur decides there's no way he can tell her the truth. If anyone were to ask, he definitely did not stay awake until about three wondering about Merlin. Definitely not.

While Arthur packs his stuff away, prepared to leave for lunch, he wonders if telling Gwen about Merlin was a valid option – he didn't have to tell her the full truth, just tell her what kind of trouble he was in and that was it.

He wouldn't tell her how much he cared.

"Oh, hey, Gwen!" He alerts her, approaching behind her.

"What's the matter?" She asks, a gentle smile on her face.

"Well, the thing is…There's a boy who lives opposite me, who I'm sorta worried about…"

"Black hair, blue eyes? Way too skinny to be healthy?" Gwen asks him, frowning and slight panic in her voice.

"Yes! Do you know him?"

"Well, my mother is a police officer, and one time she received a report of domestic violence. I saw a picture of him…and it was pretty obvious. But by the time my mother and the police got there, the house had been deserted. I fear if it was reported again, the same thing would happen."

"I guess I've just got to try and help him without anyone knowing, then…" Arthur thinks aloud, and Gwen suddenly has a proud smile on her face.

"You're helping him? How?" She asks. "Is there any way I can help?"

Arthur wonders for a minute, trying to come up with some way Gwen could help.

"Yeah, there is, actually."

-Merlin-

Actress's voice, Gwen thinks to herself as she smooths the crinkles in her shirt out. She had to play the part for this, else it wouldn't work. So, with shaking hands, she knocked loudly on the front door of the house.

For a second, there was no response, followed by an odd scraping sound, the sound of unlocking and the door was swung open.

Gwen swallowed; this was not what she expected.

Because standing in front of her, was Uther Pendragon.

(A/N: Please don't throw rotten vegetables at me! I'm sorry it took so long to get this up, especially when it's so short, but I got major writers block; which I know, is not a valid excuse. Sorry.

Anyway, I have actually been looking forward to writing Gwen into this story, because she is one of my favourite canon characters, and while I do ship Merthur, I think they do make a good couple. I haven't actually decided on the pairing yet, so if you'd like to see Arthur/Gwen, let me know in a review.)

As usual, I do not own Merlin. If I did, you'd know.