An uneasy feeling pulled Arthur from a dream he instantly forgot. His mind was pleasantly foggy and Merlin's weight rested comfortably on his arm and chest. He pressed slightly to that comfortable weight and tried to say something, he wasn't sure what, but he heard himself mumble something incoherent before a feeling of wrongness intensified and he started to really wake up. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Morgana's face hovering way too close to his.

"Gah!" He was startled. His whole body was covered in a cold sweat. Morgana chuckled at him. Merlin mumbled something and curled his legs, but stilled again. Arthur tried to keep as still as he could, even if he started to feel quite conscious of Morgana staring at him cuddling Merlin, both without shirts. Oh God, Merlin didn't have a shirt! He would not like it if he knew Morgana had seen him like this. He tried to forcefully relax his muscles in a way that wouldn't wake Merlin up.

"What are you doing here?" he whispered as aggressively as he could. "Well, good morning to you too, little brother." She said softly back. "I just came to see if you were already up." Arthur glanced at Merlin's alarm clock and it told him it was only minutes past seven. "No!" he shout-whispered. Morgana just grinned at him in the most annoying way. "Well I can see that. I can also see that you really are dating." Arthur looked at her in disbelief. He was getting steadily more annoyed and less startled, he felt insulted. "Of course we are!" Morgana just continued grinning and Arthur's blood pressure started to seriously rise. "Well it's kind of hard to tell when you don't even hold his hand… I hope you keep him satisfied in private at least." and she winked.

A hot rush of embarrassment flooded his whole body. The last night came to his mind and he was suddenly very conscious that Morgana might have heard them through the wall. Was that why she was here? Had Hunith heard them all the way downstairs? Did she usually hear them in her bedroom? "Oh, you are blushing little brother!" Morgana teased, looking like the fattest cat who got the creamiest cream and that was it. Arthur wanted her out of his room.

Merlin yelped a sleepy "wha?" and Arthur just then realised he had dropped Merlin unceremoniously from his arms when he had leaped to push Morgana out of their room. He turned to look at Merlin automatically and he looked spooked, wide eyed and he was rapidly pulling his blanket to cover himself. "Good morning Merlin!" Morgana chimed and Arthur's temper boiled to a new level. "Out! Now!" He pushed Morgana through the door, slammed it shut and leaned against it for good measure. He breathed hard a couple of times and then he looked at Merlin. He was fiddling with the edge of his blanket, his shoulders pulled up, looking small and nervous. Arthur groaned to the ceiling. This was not how he would have liked to start their morning.

The breakfast was a strained affair. Morgana acted as if nothing special had happened, Arthur glared daggers at her until he remembered that was not a wise course of action and moved onto trying to tell Merlin with his eyes how sorry he was of Morgana invading their room like that and how he now realised he should have controlled himself last night. They could have saved it until Morgana had left. Merlin tried to sit as far away from anyone as possible and he barely ate. Hunith served them all breakfast looking worried. Arthur felt anger on her behalf. She wasn't a servant.

It got better when they left the house. The aquarium was awesome. They had a new exhibit for the holidays that would definitely be swarmed with families soon. Arthur was almost glad that the tension had made them leave early. There were marine biologist students by a few of the tanks talking about the inhabitant, their name and personality and facts that Arthur would never have guessed. Merlin seemed to fall in love with all the creatures, laughing and smiling as he asked questions. There was a new tank of jellyfish that had been built like a spiral so they could walk through and it looked like they were surrounded by them. The colour of the lights changed slowly and with that, the slowly floating jellyfishes looked almost magical. Merlin looked beautiful when he looked at them, simple joy present on the features of his face. Morgana exaggerated a shiver and acted like she was in a haunted house. She told them she had been stung by a jellyfish once.

As expected, when they left there was a line outside. Merlin was chatting about the exhibit and Arthur felt good that they had been able to come. He was a bit proud of his choice. "So where to now, I'm starving!" he asked, hoping they could carry the good mood with them.

"There's an Italian place with good reviews not far from here, fancy that?" Morgana asked, fiddling with her phone. Arthur had a vague sense that he had heard the name and so he took his own phone out. He took out the list of LBGTQIA+ friendly places, but it was not in it, so he opened the black list instead and there it was. Merlin rolled his eyes on the sight of both of them on their phones. "No. It doesn't support-'' Arthur stopped dead as he realised what he was saying out loud and to who. "Show me." Morgana said and took his phone. She glanced the list and nodded as if the place had already offended her. It felt incredibly good. Merlin looked uncomfortable while Arthur showed the list of restaurants who were openly supportive. They found a nice Italian restaurant that had participated in Pride last year that wasn't too far away since they had the car. Morgana hooked them both under her arms and started to lead them away from the mass of people that was swarming by the door. It was so nice that she was this supportive of them. Even Merlin smiled a little. Arthur was about to thank her when he heard: "Hey! Arthur!"

Arthur spun his neck around fearing who he would see, but it was just some random boy waving to another random boy, but it still shook Arthur. He realised he didn't want to see anyone from their school or anyone who knew him. Thinking of school made him anxious, almost nauseous. He tried to shake the feeling by reminding himself it was only Saturday and he still had two whole days, but it didn't help.

Morgana didn't notice. She kept walking, so Arthur didn't stop either. "It's cool that my brother is gay. I'll tell anyone!" She was in good spirits and Arthur could appreciate the sentiment, but he was distracted. "Demi-bi" he muttered. "What was that?" Morgana asked curiously, suddenly turning all of her attention to Arthur. It felt foreign.

"It's… nothing really." he muttered, averting his eyes. He felt like he had been put under a spotlight and felt stupid for just blurting that out. He had trouble asking Morgana how the weather was over the phone, he didn't need to start a conversation about the nuances of his sexuality in the middle of a street. Merlin looked at him with interest so blatant it made Arthur feel very strongly that he should have had this conversation with Merlin a long time ago. It felt like he had been the one keeping secrets now.

"So are you telling me you are… asexual?" Morgana looked at him wide eyed, her forehead wrinkling and Arthur had to duck his head again. "From the spectrum, yes…" He muttered to the pavement. He glanced at Merlin who now looked confused. No wonder considering last night. "So you are only interested in…" She began, trailing off as if remembering she really didn't need to talk about sex with him either. "...if you love-" she continued, sounding and looking unsure of herself. "Have a strong emotional connection" Arthur corrected automatically. There was a pause. "You really love him." She concluded. She looked at Merlin and he answered her stare blankly. And then Merlin's eyes widened and he looked at Arthur. He had to turn his gaze down again. He didn't want to see what reaction Merlin would have to that. He had wanted to have this conversation with him privately. He had screwed this up too.

"Um" he managed and nodded. "Oh you're cute, little brother." She said softly, but Arthur scowled. "Cut the little brother crap!" And he tore himself from under Morgana's arm. He could hear Morgana say something to Merlin, but he couldn't hear the words.

Arthur was already sitting in the driver's seat when Morgana and Merlin reached the car. He forced himself to act calm and they made it to the Italian restaurant with no problems. The food was nice and the service was awesome. There was a small rainbow flag in a pencil holder by the counter, but otherwise it was just a normal, good restaurant. He managed to nudge Merlin's foot with his and it felt great how Merlin didn't even react but left his foot where it had been. He would have to take them out more. To new places. To places they were openly supported. There was a whole list available. He would leave a positive review of this place when he had the time.

Morgana tried to converse about something that had been on the news for ages and was apparently super important/interesting, but Arthur had never heard of it. He had not read any newspapers but he had wanted to, he had always kind of seen it as something people who could be taken seriously did. Lucky for him, Merlin did know what she was talking about and so Arthur could at least pretend he knew what they were talking about. It seemed to be something history related, but Arthur had a hard time even remembering what the topic was. Something made him feel like everything was happening all at once. He could hear the conversation from the next table as clearly, or as unclearly, as the one happening right in front of him. The food was good, but it didn't make Arthur feel full. He wasn't hungry anymore, but he couldn't really enjoy it either. Merlin's foot next to his was comforting and it grounded him, but his shoes felt too hot and, as he paid for their meals, he felt a distant stress that his money wouldn't last forever. Someday he would have to get a job to pay for all this. He wasn't sure how he would survive working a job when he wasn't even average at schoolwork.

Morgana wanted to go to some special food market so Arthur drove them there next. She bought three bags of sauces and spices and told them it was impossible to get this stuff in her town, so she was getting some for her friends as well. Arthur wondered what her friends were like nowadays. He wished he could meet them one day.

Saturday night was more relaxed. Morgana had bought some old photos with her and it was great to see them. Arthur asked for copies and Morgana actually told him these were copies so he could have them. Arthur loved them! There were of he and Morgana as kids and she even had a few with his mother in them. He had no idea how to tell her how grateful he was.

Morgana was still snappy towards Hunith who tended to cling to Merlin. It was impossible for Arthur to sit next to him, as Merlin naturally placed himself between the two women, but all in all it was good. He was tired but he wished Morgana could stay longer. Tomorrow seemed to come way too soon. She had been so nice. Arthur felt the love he had for his sister and he wanted to show it somehow, but he didn't know how. He tried telling her about being the captain and telling her about all the matches he had won. He told her all about his best grades and how he would get his yellow belt by Summer. She showed polite interest half of the time and the other half of the time she turned her attention to Merlin, asking him if something or another was true and the conversation tended to slip towards another direction. Arthur felt he was lying half of the time and bragging the rest. He was painfully aware that he had no real skills and how uninteresting and childish the topics he talked about must seem to Morgana.

Hunith tried her very best and she let them stay up late without comment. Morgana seemed to judge her harshly. Probably because she had married Uther. But at least she didn't say anything out loud. That was probably because of Merlin too. Arthur was thankful. Hunith didn't deserve any of that. But he felt awful that he had no idea what to say or do to defend Hunith. Even something small and simple. This was the woman who had taken him in, fed him, had given him her blessing to date her son, share a room, sleep in the same bed...

They retired to sleep when Morgana started to nod off and Arthur was again equally disappointed and relieved. He felt so tired and there were only two days before school. Merlin wore his full pyjamas and buried himself in his blanket, but held Arthur's hand when Arthur offered it to him. He passed out almost the second Merlin turned off the lamp.

Waking up in the middle of the night felt like trying to swim in syrup. Arthur could hear the knock on their door and he tried to open his eyes, but when he managed to get some sense of what direction was what and where he was, Merlin was already up and talking with his mother. And only then he heard it. Wailing, sobbing and something breaking. He was up in a second.

It was Merlin who coaxed Huntih back downstairs. He promised they would get her if needed, but it truly was better if she didn't come in right now. Arthur was half expecting Merlin to tell him the same. To go back to sleep, that it's better if he went alone. And he would have been thankful for it, but Merlin did no such thing. He gestured for Arthur to go before him, and Arthur knocked and opened the door hesitantly. He had no idea what he could do.