FIC: My Life is an American Sitcom (Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Lancelot, pg-13)
Title: My Life is an American Sitcom (and I do not approve)
Author: ayane_tsurugi
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Lancelot
Word Count: 4,348
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are the property of Mr. Capps, the Beeb, etc. I make no money from my efforts here; I’m just playing around.
Warnings: Language, sexual situations, Modern AU
Summary: Two secret relationships + one flat = a good dose of hilarity and a little bit of drama.
Author’s Notes: Killing three birds with one stone, this fic is for this kinkme_merlin prompt, picture #5 at merlinxarthur's Fic Challenge 3, and the wonderful, fabulous, illustrious inadaze22, who turns 25 today and absolutely does not get to bitch about it. All mistakes are mine, point me at any typos, and feedback is love!
Week One
Merlin startled awake, a firm hand shoving his shoulder and Arthur’s voice whispering too close to his ear.
“Merlin, wake up,” Arthur emphasized with another light shove. “I need you to get under the bed.”
“What?” he whispered back, not entirely sure why they were whispering. “No!”
“Merlin,” Arthur complained, shoving more intently. “My flatmate’s at the door. He just needs to borrow some running shorts; he’ll be gone in two seconds. Please.” He nibbled the lobe of Merlin’s ear in affectionate apology and Merlin sighed, sliding off the edge of the mattress. Resting his cheek on the cold, dusty wood floor, he was just glad he’d stolen a pair of Arthur’s pyjama bottoms when he’d had to pee earlier that morning.
Just as he was considering going back to sleep (the floor wasn’t so bad, really, once you got used to inhaling dust), he heard another male voice say, “Thanks, mate,” and Arthur’s head appeared upside-down in front of him. Merlin glared.
“I take it you haven’t told him about me yet?” he asked, grabbing the bottom of the metal bedframe and pulling himself out. Arthur offered him a hand, but he ignored it, shoving himself to his feet. He ran a quick hand through his hair to dislodge any lingering dust.
Arthur swung his legs around so that he was sitting in front of Merlin and fitted his hands around Merlin’s waist, pulling him close. He started placing wet, open-mouthed kisses across Merlin’s chest. “So, so sorry,” he said in between. “I really owe you one.”
“You owe me several,” Merlin argued, but let his fingers come up to tangle in Arthur’s hair anyway. It was embarrassing how easily he gave in to him sometimes. “And breakfast. You definitely owe me breakfast.”
Arthur’s hands gravitated around to squeeze his arse and the morning erection that had flagged during his quality time with the floor came rushing back. Merlin straddled him, settling on his lap.
“How about we take care of this,” Arthur suggested with a none-too-subtle roll of his hips, “and then I’ll buy you coffee at that café you like.” He turned his attention to Merlin’s neck, getting a low groan in return. “What’s your usual order again? Large cup of sugar, side of coffee?”
Merlin’s laugh turned into a gasp when Arthur bit the underside of his jaw, following the sting with his soft, warm tongue.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Yeah, yeah, okay.” And then they stopped talking.
***
Alibi made, Lance slipped into the pair of borrowed running shorts and pulled on his trainers. As far as Arthur knew, Lance spent every morning on a half hour jog, followed by an early Psychology lecture.
In truth, his jog only ever lasted as long as it took to cover the two blocks between their flat and Gwen’s.
As for his imaginary Psychology lecture, he liked to think Imaginary Lance was passing.
Gwen pulled the door open just as he was about to knock, still bleary-eyed and clutching a mug against her chest. “You realize I made my schedule so that I wouldn’t have to see half seven every morning,” she said in greeting, leaning up onto her toes to kiss him.
“I know,” he said against her lips, then stepped inside, dropping his bag to the floor. “Have I mentioned how sorry I am about that?”
“About as many times as I’ve told you to grow a pair and talk to Arthur,” she agreed, and he winced.
She stepped away from him, turning into her small kitchen to pour him a cup of tea, and he followed. “Soon,” he promised, wrapping his arms around her from behind. “Just as soon as he has a new girlfriend, I’ll tell him - you know he never stays single for long. But I can’t tell him I’m in love with his ex while he’s alone. It’s an unwritten rule.”
She hummed her unfavorable opinion of that and offered him the tea. “I’d be more inclined to believe you if you hadn’t been saying the same thing for two months now. As it is I think I’ll stick to calling you a coward.”
He took the cup but didn’t pull away, pressing a kiss to the side of her neck and she sighed.
“This whole chivalrous loyalty thing would be annoying if it wasn’t so charming,” she informed him. He laughed against her skin and pulled her mug out of her hand, setting them both on the stove.
“What would you say to a lie-in? You’ve got time before you have to meet your biology lab partner, right?”
“Physics,” she corrected, and started pulling him toward her bedroom in answer. “And he’s not coming over until the afternoon.”
“Perfect,” he said as she climbed onto the mattress and only just remembered to kick off his trainers before curling up behind her.
***
By the time Gwen woke up again, it was past half one and her lab partner was due to knock on her door in fifteen minutes. Cursing, she wriggled out of Lance’s arms and ordered him out with a kiss and a shove.
When the knock came, she’d thankfully had time to pull on some real trousers and a clean shirt, but the reading she’d meant to do that morning was a cause long lost.
“’ello,” she greeted, moving back to let Merlin inside. “I, er, might be a bit behind. I meant to get caught up on the reading this morning, but I completely overslept.”
His wide grin as he set his bag on the sofa wasn’t half relieved. “Don’t worry about it; I didn’t get much done this morning either.” He coughed, his hand smoothing his hair reflexively, and she fought back a laugh. “We can just start from the beginning? I managed most of the problem sets without doing the reading anyway.”
Not for the first time, Gwen congratulated herself for inadvertently teaming up with a Physics genius and smiled at him. “Sounds great.”
Week Two
“Arthur?”
“Yes, Merlin?”
“What are we doing in the bathroom?”
Up until thirty seconds before, they’d been in the middle of waiting for their Chinese takeaway order to be ready. Then Arthur had spotted Lance right outside the door to the restaurant and pushed Merlin forcefully through the swinging loo door. He was going to have to make up for that later.
“My flatmate was out there,” he explained, turning to Merlin with his best sheepish smile. “I forgot how much he loves this place.”
Merlin looked distinctly unimpressed, but to his credit didn’t roll his eyes. “Right,” he said, and moved around Arthur to reach for the door.
He grabbed Merlin’s sleeve. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to get our food. He doesn’t know me, remember? Probably won’t look my way twice. Unless he can smell you on me.” His mouth made an exaggerated ‘o.’ “He’s not a werewolf, is he?”
“Fuck off,” Arthur laughed, and dropped his sleeve. “Fine, just come back for me when you’re finished.”
“I don’t know,” Merlin said. “I may just leave you here for shoving me into a public loo, you wanker.” He really did roll his eyes this time, but grinned at Arthur before he stepped back out into the restaurant.
***
From: Arthur
To: Lance
Exam in the am. Looks like an all-nighter. Don’t wait up.
From: Lance
To: Arthur
That sucks. Good luck, mate.
From: Lance
To: Gwen
Arthur pulling all-nighter @ library. Sleep over?
From: Gwen
To: Lance
Be there in 15.
***
When Arthur stumbled in the next morning, it was to a quiet flat that smelled deliciously of coffee. He’d had to leave Merlin behind before eight that morning to get to his exam - he hadn’t been lying about that, just the part where he’d been fully prepared for over a week - and more than anything he’d wanted to go back after it was over, but Lance knew his habits too well. After an all-night study session, he could inevitably be found the next morning asleep on either the sofa or the kitchen table, wherever he sat down first, and if he didn’t show up at all, Lance would worry.
Having a secret boyfriend would have been a lot easier if Lance was an uncaring, unobservant arse. Or if Arthur could stand to sleep without Merlin anymore.
Surely it wasn’t normal, feeling that way when they’d only been together a little over a month. But then again, nothing else about his feelings for Merlin thus far had been normal either.
Before Merlin, he’d never had more than a couple unacknowledged bi-curious thoughts. There had been plenty of girls in his life, even if none of them really stuck around very long. In fact, before Merlin came along he’d never really thought about having a long-term relationship. Everything he’d done before had either been about sex (Vivian, Sophia, Vivian again) or friendship that he’d wanted to see something more in (Gwen).
But even Gwen only lasted a few weeks. He’d never had the urge to call or text her when they’d only been apart a few hours. They hadn’t spent nearly every night together. He hadn’t had to quell the ridiculous desire to say “I love you” on the third date.
And he really did want to tell Lance. He just couldn’t figure out how. He knew it wouldn’t be a matter of anger or disgust. Knew Lance wouldn’t turn him away. But at the same time, they’d been mates for years. It would change the way Lance looked at him, or maybe even their friendship. He had to be ready for that.
In the kitchen, he found a mostly-full pot of coffee with a sticky note on it that read ‘Hope the exam went well’ in a hand that didn’t look particularly like Lance’s but must have been. He grinned, poured himself some, and settled at the kitchen table.
A few minutes later he heard a door open and Lance wandered into the kitchen looking for all the world like he’d been out for hours. When did he make this coffee, Arthur wondered.
“Mornin’, “ Lance mumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. “How’d i’ go?”
“Great.” Arthur nodded at him and lifted the cup in cheers. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“Coffee?” he asked. Arthur pointed at the pot, raising an eyebrow at him. “Oh. Right, coffee. No problem.”
Arthur laughed. “You’re really not a morning person, are you mate?”
***
Lance held up the pair of jeans to get a better look and tilted his head. They definitely weren’t his. Holding them experimentally against his waist, he was pretty sure he couldn’t get into them even if he tried. And since he and Arthur had been the same size pretty much forever, they probably weren’t his. They were much too long to be Gwen’s. So where on earth did they come from?
“Um, Arthur?” He popped his head into Arthur’s room and held them out. “Are these yours?”
Arthur frowned, like he was about to deny it, before his eyes widened in recognition. “Oh right, yeah. Yeah, those are mine. Did I leave them somewhere? Sorry about that.” He jumped up and grabbed them, tossing them onto the bed and grinning apologetically at Lance.
Lance let his eyes drift to Arthur’s waist and his eyebrows raised in question. He didn’t look that much thinner.
“Been losing weight?”
Arthur’s answering laugh sounded almost nervous. “Er, yeah. Trying to. They’re my…goal jeans.”
He laughed loudly at that, and Arthur scowled. “Sorry mate, but goal jeans? Do you have a ‘thinspiration’ too, you big girl?”
Lance ducked back out the door just as one of Arthur’s trainers smacked against it.
***
Gwen flashed Merlin a look of concern as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat for the fifth time in five minutes. “Are you okay?”
He grinned crookedly at her and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just…pretty sure these jeans aren’t mine. I think I may have put on my boyfriend’s this morning by accident? They’re a bit,” he held the waistband away from his stomach with his thumb, “bigger than I’m used to. He’s a lot more muscle-y than me.”
Gwen just laughed and offered him a belt, which he accepted.
Week Three
Arthur flopped onto the sofa and clicked the telly on, frowning when he felt something small poking into his thigh from between the cushions.
Lifting up, he stuck his fingers in and pulled out a round, plastic compact. He turned it over in his hand just as Lance walked out of his room.
“This yours?” he asked, holding it up. He flipped it open and smirked. “Not really your colour, is it?”
Lance barked a short, nervous laugh. “Oh. I’ve been, uh, working with some of the drama students on a theatre production.” Arthur raised a surprised eyebrow. “Extra credit, right? For my Psychology lecture. Acting’s all about psychology, you know.”
“So you’re…acting?”
“Er, no. Not really. It’s more the - you know, the other stuff. Behind the scenes. Techie stuff. Costumes.” Lance rubbed the back of his neck, shrugged.
“Which is why you have make-up.”
“Um. Yeah. Must have dropped it into my bag by accident.” He took it from between Arthur’s fingers. “I should probably take it back, yeah? They might need it.”
“Yeah,” Arthur laughed, turning back to the telly. “You should do that.”
***
“You know,” Arthur said, and Lance looked up. “I haven’t seen Gwen in ages, have you?”
Lance coughed, an attempt to keep his voice level. “No I haven’t. I hadn’t realised how long it’s been. It’s - awful. She lives pretty close, doesn’t she?”
“Just a couple blocks,” Arthur agreed. Lance studied his face for signs of accusation, but saw only wistfulness and contemplation and relaxed. “We should go see her one day.”
He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, she would like that.”
***
Merlin was just at the end of his shower when he heard the door open and gently close. “If you wanted shower sex, you should have come in earlier,” he said, but Arthur just stuck his hand in and turned the water off.
“My flatmate’s Psych lecture let out early,” he whispered, holding out Merlin’s clothes. He had Merlin’s bag on his shoulder as well. “You’ve got to get out of here.”
Merlin glared at him and began pulling on his clothes as quickly as possible. “I get that you’re ashamed of me, but I have to meet my lab partner in fifteen minutes. What do you expect me to do? Climb out a window?”
He followed Arthur’s gaze over to the toilet and up where, yes, there was a window that led outside into some bushes.
“Oh, you can’t be serious.” Arthur turned pleading eyes on him. He growled. “You absolute wanker.” Clothes on and sticking to his still-soaked body, he snatched his bag off of Arthur’s shoulder and stepped up onto the toilet bowl. He turned and grabbed the front of Arthur’s shirt, pulling him forward. “I don’t know what your peace offering for this one will be, Pendragon, but it had better be fucking epic.”
Arthur pressed a hard kiss to his lips. “I’m not ashamed of you, Merlin. I’m not.”
Merlin made a disbelieving sound in the back of his throat as he turned, shoved the window open, and tossed his bag out. When he pulled himself out after, he almost landed on his feet and only got stuck in the branches a little bit.
***
“Merlin!” Gwen exclaimed when she opened the door. “You’re early. And…wet. Why on earth are you wet? Did it start raining?”
Merlin just mumbled something about ‘epic’ and ‘toilets’ and flopped onto the sofa.
Week Four
When Gwen’s alarm clock went off at 7:15, she nearly threw it against the wall. She’d barely slept at all that night between writing a paper for her English professor and catching up on her Maths homework. She hadn’t even made it into her bedroom until after four.
She slipped back to sleep just in time to be reawakened by Lance’s four steady knocks at the front door.
Groaning, she pushed herself up and walked to the door, but when she opened it to see him in his running shorts and trainers, she simply couldn’t take it anymore.
“Did you tell him yet?” she asked in lieu of a hello and he blinked a couple of times, then shook his head.
“Then your Psychology lecture has been cancelled for the day. Go home, Lance.” She shut the door on his argument, crawled back into bed, and went to sleep.
***
Merlin clasped his hands under the cool water, gathering some and splashing it onto his face. After he’d toweled off, he grinned at his reflection in the mirror, but it faded to a grimace as he heard the faint click of a key in the flat’s main door.
True to his fears, Arthur slipped through the bathroom door carrying his clothes and his bag. Without a word, he stepped into his jeans and pulled the t-shirt over his head. Arthur stared at him, probably offering silent apologies, but he didn’t meet his eyes.
Once again he climbed up, pushed the window open, and tossed his bag through. Before he followed it though, he said, to the windowsill, “I think I’ll sleep at mine tonight.” He paused, swallowed. “Alone.”
He heard Arthur’s sharp intake of breath behind him, but couldn’t turn around. He wasn’t going to fold this time. “See you later, Arthur,” he whispered, then pulled himself up and out. On the ground, he straightened himself, avoided the gaze of a startled dog-walker, and began the short walk home.
***
From: Lance
To: Gwen
I’m sorry.
From: Lance
To: Gwen
Gwen, please talk to me.
From: Lance
To: Gwen
Arthur’s been depressed all day. Won’t look at me. Did you say something to him?
From: Gwen
To: Lance
No. I didn’t. But you should.
From: Gwen
To: Lance
Coward.
***
The day after she sent Lance away, she came back to her flat after her Maths lecture to find Merlin sitting in the corridor, half an hour early. He had his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped tight around them. His head was bowed forward, almost touching his knees. He looked like shit.
“You look like shit,” she said, and he looked up. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked like he might have been crying.
“I know,” he said, pushing himself to his feet. “Didn’t sleep last night. Can’t sleep without the stupid arse anymore.”
She wrapped an arm around his waist and led him to the door, which she unlocked and pushed open. “In you go,” she said. “No studying today. I need to bitch about my boy troubles, and obviously you do too.” She pushed him onto the sofa, then went into the kitchen to make tea. “Sugar? Milk?”
“Sugar,” he said, his voice strained. “Lots of sugar.”
When she returned, he took the tea gratefully. Aimed a wobbly sort of smile at her from where he’d leaned his head back.
“Okay,” Gwen said, settling next to him. “You first. What did he do?”
Merlin took a sip of tea and a deep breath before he could start. “He refuses to tell his flatmate about me.”
He went quiet, so she nodded encouragingly at him. “We’ve been together almost two months now. He’s - I don’t know - stuck in this bizarre gay crisis mode where he’s perfectly fine kissing me in public, but he’d rather ask me to hide under his bed or climb out his bathroom window than explain me to his flatmate.”
“You climbed out a window?” she asked, incredulous, and he grimaced.
“Twice. When I showed up here last week soaked through? That was the first time; I’d just got out of the shower. Then again yesterday morning. So I told him I was going to sleep alone last night, only I didn’t, because apparently I can’t sleep anymore without his stupidly attractive face pressed against my shoulder.” He stopped again. Drank more tea. Closed his eyes. “And the thing is, I’m pretty much in love with the bastard, so I don’t know if I can make myself break it off. Not really.”
Merlin stared into his tea cup and a long silence settled between them, broken only when Gwen nudged his foot with hers and asked, “Is the sex at least good?”
The question startled a laugh out of him and he returned the nudge. “Legendary.” Awkwardly, he cleared his throat, and then turned on the sofa to face her. “Now, your turn. What’s yours done?”
“Well, actually,” she said, grinning as she realised the similarity in their stories, “he refuses to tell his flatmate about me.”
“Seriously?” he asked, quirking an amused eyebrow and she nodded.
“Lance is,” she paused, “far too noble for his own good. He and his flatmate have been best mates since before they started Uni and I met them both during our first year. But technically, I did date his flatmate first, for a whole misguided three weeks. So now, he says that it’s an unwritten rule that he shouldn’t date his mate’s ex while his mate is single, and has therefore made up some crazy lie about a Psychology lecture so that he can run over here every morning and crawl in bed with me, even though Arthur and I parted amicably and there’s no way he would have a problem with us, and-” She cut off when she saw that Merlin’s eyes had gone wide. She’d been rambling anyway. “What?”
“Arth-,” he coughed, “Arthur’s last name. What is it?”
She tilted her head. “Pendragon. Why?”
***
As he was being pulled along behind her, Merlin mused that he had never met a woman so scary when she was angry. Including his mother.
Gwen just laughed and said, “Oh, just wait ‘til you meet Arthur’s sister. I’ve got nothing on Morgana.”
***
Lance nearly dropped his keys when he opened the door to their flat and saw Gwen sitting on the sofa. Arthur, who’d been walking in behind him, stopped dead as well. There was a bloke he didn’t know but thought he might have seen before (the Chinese takeaway place? He couldn’t remember) sitting beside her and eyeing Arthur nervously.
“Boys!” Gwen said, standing up. When the bloke didn’t rise too, she pulled at his arm until he joined her. “Great, you’re home. I think it’s time for introductions.” She indicated her friend. “This is Merlin, my lab partner. Merlin,” she indicated Lance, “this is Lance. We’ve been dating for almost three months now.”
Lance turned anxious eyes on Arthur, but he seemed inexplicably to be staring at Merlin.
“And this,” she pointed, “is Arthur, Lance’s flatmate. Arthur, have you met Merlin?”
Arthur made a strangled sort of noise, then cleared his throat to cover it up and nodded. “Um, yeah. Yeah, he’s-” his eyes slid to Lance, then back to Merlin, who looked just as anxious as Arthur did. Gwen was the only calm one in the room. “He’s my boyfriend.”
He heard Merlin let out a breath.
“Precisely!” Gwen said, and clapped. “Now, you two idiots,” she nodded at Lance and Arthur in turn, “are going to go in the kitchen, and you’re going to stay there until you stop lying to each other and making us all miserable. Understood?”
***
All things considered, it was a rather short conversation. The kind only two blokes can have when they don’t really want to be talking. It went something like this:
“So. Boyfriend?”
“Yeah.” A cough. “Gwen?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s brilliant, Lance, really. She’s great.”
“It’s not weird or anything?”
“You know we only dated for three weeks, right?”
“Er.”
“And it’s not weird for you, this Merlin thing?”
A shrug. “You’re still you. Date who you like.” Pause. “Gwen’ll be here a lot, probably.”
“Yeah, Merlin too.”
“Cheers. Just keep it down, yeah? I don’t need to know how well you suck cock.”
“Fuck off.”
***
Later, when Gwen had rescheduled her study session with Merlin and walked off with Lance back toward her flat, Arthur settled on the sofa and pulled Merlin into his lap.
“I’m sorry about that,” Merlin said, and though the relief was obvious on his face, Arthur could still see worry in the lines around his eyes. “I didn’t know she was going to just - out you like that.”
He shook his head, resting his chin on Merlin’s shoulder. “Don’t be. I should have done it ages ago.” Just feeling the warmth through Merlin’s shirt and breathing in the smell that was distinctly him made Arthur’s eyes start to droop. “Did you sleep at all last night?”
Merlin sighed and slumped heavily against him. “Not even a little bit. You?”
“I wrote a paper for my econ lecture that’s not due for another three weeks, e-mailed my sister, and cleaned out the refrigerator.” Merlin laughed, and Arthur grinned at the sound. “Let’s not do that again, agreed?”
It sounded like ‘I love you’ even to his own ears. And that was how he meant it.
“Definitely agreed.” Merlin worked his arms between the sofa cushions and Arthur’s back and held tight. “Now don’t move. I’m gonna take a nap.”
He scoffed an amused protest and made to stand, hooking one arm around Merlin’s back and another under his legs. "Come on." He lifted him easily and shook his head. “You’re far too light, you know that?”
Merlin hummed his assent into Arthur’s neck. “’m wiry. And flexible. You like the flexible, remember?”
He dumped Merlin, fully clothed, onto the bed and climbed in after him without bothering to kick his shoes off. He had more important things to do.
Wrapping his arms around Merlin’s waist, he pressed his face against the other boy’s shoulder and Merlin wriggled into the contact with a sleepy, content sound.
“Go to sleep, Merlin,” he said, but Merlin cut him off with a quiet snore.
Author: ayane_tsurugi
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Lancelot
Word Count: 4,348
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are the property of Mr. Capps, the Beeb, etc. I make no money from my efforts here; I’m just playing around.
Warnings: Language, sexual situations, Modern AU
Summary: Two secret relationships + one flat = a good dose of hilarity and a little bit of drama.
Author’s Notes: Killing three birds with one stone, this fic is for this kinkme_merlin prompt, picture #5 at merlinxarthur's Fic Challenge 3, and the wonderful, fabulous, illustrious inadaze22, who turns 25 today and absolutely does not get to bitch about it. All mistakes are mine, point me at any typos, and feedback is love!
Week One
Merlin startled awake, a firm hand shoving his shoulder and Arthur’s voice whispering too close to his ear.
“Merlin, wake up,” Arthur emphasized with another light shove. “I need you to get under the bed.”
“What?” he whispered back, not entirely sure why they were whispering. “No!”
“Merlin,” Arthur complained, shoving more intently. “My flatmate’s at the door. He just needs to borrow some running shorts; he’ll be gone in two seconds. Please.” He nibbled the lobe of Merlin’s ear in affectionate apology and Merlin sighed, sliding off the edge of the mattress. Resting his cheek on the cold, dusty wood floor, he was just glad he’d stolen a pair of Arthur’s pyjama bottoms when he’d had to pee earlier that morning.
Just as he was considering going back to sleep (the floor wasn’t so bad, really, once you got used to inhaling dust), he heard another male voice say, “Thanks, mate,” and Arthur’s head appeared upside-down in front of him. Merlin glared.
“I take it you haven’t told him about me yet?” he asked, grabbing the bottom of the metal bedframe and pulling himself out. Arthur offered him a hand, but he ignored it, shoving himself to his feet. He ran a quick hand through his hair to dislodge any lingering dust.
Arthur swung his legs around so that he was sitting in front of Merlin and fitted his hands around Merlin’s waist, pulling him close. He started placing wet, open-mouthed kisses across Merlin’s chest. “So, so sorry,” he said in between. “I really owe you one.”
“You owe me several,” Merlin argued, but let his fingers come up to tangle in Arthur’s hair anyway. It was embarrassing how easily he gave in to him sometimes. “And breakfast. You definitely owe me breakfast.”
Arthur’s hands gravitated around to squeeze his arse and the morning erection that had flagged during his quality time with the floor came rushing back. Merlin straddled him, settling on his lap.
“How about we take care of this,” Arthur suggested with a none-too-subtle roll of his hips, “and then I’ll buy you coffee at that café you like.” He turned his attention to Merlin’s neck, getting a low groan in return. “What’s your usual order again? Large cup of sugar, side of coffee?”
Merlin’s laugh turned into a gasp when Arthur bit the underside of his jaw, following the sting with his soft, warm tongue.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Yeah, yeah, okay.” And then they stopped talking.
***
Alibi made, Lance slipped into the pair of borrowed running shorts and pulled on his trainers. As far as Arthur knew, Lance spent every morning on a half hour jog, followed by an early Psychology lecture.
In truth, his jog only ever lasted as long as it took to cover the two blocks between their flat and Gwen’s.
As for his imaginary Psychology lecture, he liked to think Imaginary Lance was passing.
Gwen pulled the door open just as he was about to knock, still bleary-eyed and clutching a mug against her chest. “You realize I made my schedule so that I wouldn’t have to see half seven every morning,” she said in greeting, leaning up onto her toes to kiss him.
“I know,” he said against her lips, then stepped inside, dropping his bag to the floor. “Have I mentioned how sorry I am about that?”
“About as many times as I’ve told you to grow a pair and talk to Arthur,” she agreed, and he winced.
She stepped away from him, turning into her small kitchen to pour him a cup of tea, and he followed. “Soon,” he promised, wrapping his arms around her from behind. “Just as soon as he has a new girlfriend, I’ll tell him - you know he never stays single for long. But I can’t tell him I’m in love with his ex while he’s alone. It’s an unwritten rule.”
She hummed her unfavorable opinion of that and offered him the tea. “I’d be more inclined to believe you if you hadn’t been saying the same thing for two months now. As it is I think I’ll stick to calling you a coward.”
He took the cup but didn’t pull away, pressing a kiss to the side of her neck and she sighed.
“This whole chivalrous loyalty thing would be annoying if it wasn’t so charming,” she informed him. He laughed against her skin and pulled her mug out of her hand, setting them both on the stove.
“What would you say to a lie-in? You’ve got time before you have to meet your biology lab partner, right?”
“Physics,” she corrected, and started pulling him toward her bedroom in answer. “And he’s not coming over until the afternoon.”
“Perfect,” he said as she climbed onto the mattress and only just remembered to kick off his trainers before curling up behind her.
***
By the time Gwen woke up again, it was past half one and her lab partner was due to knock on her door in fifteen minutes. Cursing, she wriggled out of Lance’s arms and ordered him out with a kiss and a shove.
When the knock came, she’d thankfully had time to pull on some real trousers and a clean shirt, but the reading she’d meant to do that morning was a cause long lost.
“’ello,” she greeted, moving back to let Merlin inside. “I, er, might be a bit behind. I meant to get caught up on the reading this morning, but I completely overslept.”
His wide grin as he set his bag on the sofa wasn’t half relieved. “Don’t worry about it; I didn’t get much done this morning either.” He coughed, his hand smoothing his hair reflexively, and she fought back a laugh. “We can just start from the beginning? I managed most of the problem sets without doing the reading anyway.”
Not for the first time, Gwen congratulated herself for inadvertently teaming up with a Physics genius and smiled at him. “Sounds great.”
Week Two
“Arthur?”
“Yes, Merlin?”
“What are we doing in the bathroom?”
Up until thirty seconds before, they’d been in the middle of waiting for their Chinese takeaway order to be ready. Then Arthur had spotted Lance right outside the door to the restaurant and pushed Merlin forcefully through the swinging loo door. He was going to have to make up for that later.
“My flatmate was out there,” he explained, turning to Merlin with his best sheepish smile. “I forgot how much he loves this place.”
Merlin looked distinctly unimpressed, but to his credit didn’t roll his eyes. “Right,” he said, and moved around Arthur to reach for the door.
He grabbed Merlin’s sleeve. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to get our food. He doesn’t know me, remember? Probably won’t look my way twice. Unless he can smell you on me.” His mouth made an exaggerated ‘o.’ “He’s not a werewolf, is he?”
“Fuck off,” Arthur laughed, and dropped his sleeve. “Fine, just come back for me when you’re finished.”
“I don’t know,” Merlin said. “I may just leave you here for shoving me into a public loo, you wanker.” He really did roll his eyes this time, but grinned at Arthur before he stepped back out into the restaurant.
***
From: Arthur
To: Lance
Exam in the am. Looks like an all-nighter. Don’t wait up.
From: Lance
To: Arthur
That sucks. Good luck, mate.
From: Lance
To: Gwen
Arthur pulling all-nighter @ library. Sleep over?
From: Gwen
To: Lance
Be there in 15.
***
When Arthur stumbled in the next morning, it was to a quiet flat that smelled deliciously of coffee. He’d had to leave Merlin behind before eight that morning to get to his exam - he hadn’t been lying about that, just the part where he’d been fully prepared for over a week - and more than anything he’d wanted to go back after it was over, but Lance knew his habits too well. After an all-night study session, he could inevitably be found the next morning asleep on either the sofa or the kitchen table, wherever he sat down first, and if he didn’t show up at all, Lance would worry.
Having a secret boyfriend would have been a lot easier if Lance was an uncaring, unobservant arse. Or if Arthur could stand to sleep without Merlin anymore.
Surely it wasn’t normal, feeling that way when they’d only been together a little over a month. But then again, nothing else about his feelings for Merlin thus far had been normal either.
Before Merlin, he’d never had more than a couple unacknowledged bi-curious thoughts. There had been plenty of girls in his life, even if none of them really stuck around very long. In fact, before Merlin came along he’d never really thought about having a long-term relationship. Everything he’d done before had either been about sex (Vivian, Sophia, Vivian again) or friendship that he’d wanted to see something more in (Gwen).
But even Gwen only lasted a few weeks. He’d never had the urge to call or text her when they’d only been apart a few hours. They hadn’t spent nearly every night together. He hadn’t had to quell the ridiculous desire to say “I love you” on the third date.
And he really did want to tell Lance. He just couldn’t figure out how. He knew it wouldn’t be a matter of anger or disgust. Knew Lance wouldn’t turn him away. But at the same time, they’d been mates for years. It would change the way Lance looked at him, or maybe even their friendship. He had to be ready for that.
In the kitchen, he found a mostly-full pot of coffee with a sticky note on it that read ‘Hope the exam went well’ in a hand that didn’t look particularly like Lance’s but must have been. He grinned, poured himself some, and settled at the kitchen table.
A few minutes later he heard a door open and Lance wandered into the kitchen looking for all the world like he’d been out for hours. When did he make this coffee, Arthur wondered.
“Mornin’, “ Lance mumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. “How’d i’ go?”
“Great.” Arthur nodded at him and lifted the cup in cheers. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“Coffee?” he asked. Arthur pointed at the pot, raising an eyebrow at him. “Oh. Right, coffee. No problem.”
Arthur laughed. “You’re really not a morning person, are you mate?”
***
Lance held up the pair of jeans to get a better look and tilted his head. They definitely weren’t his. Holding them experimentally against his waist, he was pretty sure he couldn’t get into them even if he tried. And since he and Arthur had been the same size pretty much forever, they probably weren’t his. They were much too long to be Gwen’s. So where on earth did they come from?
“Um, Arthur?” He popped his head into Arthur’s room and held them out. “Are these yours?”
Arthur frowned, like he was about to deny it, before his eyes widened in recognition. “Oh right, yeah. Yeah, those are mine. Did I leave them somewhere? Sorry about that.” He jumped up and grabbed them, tossing them onto the bed and grinning apologetically at Lance.
Lance let his eyes drift to Arthur’s waist and his eyebrows raised in question. He didn’t look that much thinner.
“Been losing weight?”
Arthur’s answering laugh sounded almost nervous. “Er, yeah. Trying to. They’re my…goal jeans.”
He laughed loudly at that, and Arthur scowled. “Sorry mate, but goal jeans? Do you have a ‘thinspiration’ too, you big girl?”
Lance ducked back out the door just as one of Arthur’s trainers smacked against it.
***
Gwen flashed Merlin a look of concern as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat for the fifth time in five minutes. “Are you okay?”
He grinned crookedly at her and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just…pretty sure these jeans aren’t mine. I think I may have put on my boyfriend’s this morning by accident? They’re a bit,” he held the waistband away from his stomach with his thumb, “bigger than I’m used to. He’s a lot more muscle-y than me.”
Gwen just laughed and offered him a belt, which he accepted.
Week Three
Arthur flopped onto the sofa and clicked the telly on, frowning when he felt something small poking into his thigh from between the cushions.
Lifting up, he stuck his fingers in and pulled out a round, plastic compact. He turned it over in his hand just as Lance walked out of his room.
“This yours?” he asked, holding it up. He flipped it open and smirked. “Not really your colour, is it?”
Lance barked a short, nervous laugh. “Oh. I’ve been, uh, working with some of the drama students on a theatre production.” Arthur raised a surprised eyebrow. “Extra credit, right? For my Psychology lecture. Acting’s all about psychology, you know.”
“So you’re…acting?”
“Er, no. Not really. It’s more the - you know, the other stuff. Behind the scenes. Techie stuff. Costumes.” Lance rubbed the back of his neck, shrugged.
“Which is why you have make-up.”
“Um. Yeah. Must have dropped it into my bag by accident.” He took it from between Arthur’s fingers. “I should probably take it back, yeah? They might need it.”
“Yeah,” Arthur laughed, turning back to the telly. “You should do that.”
***
“You know,” Arthur said, and Lance looked up. “I haven’t seen Gwen in ages, have you?”
Lance coughed, an attempt to keep his voice level. “No I haven’t. I hadn’t realised how long it’s been. It’s - awful. She lives pretty close, doesn’t she?”
“Just a couple blocks,” Arthur agreed. Lance studied his face for signs of accusation, but saw only wistfulness and contemplation and relaxed. “We should go see her one day.”
He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, she would like that.”
***
Merlin was just at the end of his shower when he heard the door open and gently close. “If you wanted shower sex, you should have come in earlier,” he said, but Arthur just stuck his hand in and turned the water off.
“My flatmate’s Psych lecture let out early,” he whispered, holding out Merlin’s clothes. He had Merlin’s bag on his shoulder as well. “You’ve got to get out of here.”
Merlin glared at him and began pulling on his clothes as quickly as possible. “I get that you’re ashamed of me, but I have to meet my lab partner in fifteen minutes. What do you expect me to do? Climb out a window?”
He followed Arthur’s gaze over to the toilet and up where, yes, there was a window that led outside into some bushes.
“Oh, you can’t be serious.” Arthur turned pleading eyes on him. He growled. “You absolute wanker.” Clothes on and sticking to his still-soaked body, he snatched his bag off of Arthur’s shoulder and stepped up onto the toilet bowl. He turned and grabbed the front of Arthur’s shirt, pulling him forward. “I don’t know what your peace offering for this one will be, Pendragon, but it had better be fucking epic.”
Arthur pressed a hard kiss to his lips. “I’m not ashamed of you, Merlin. I’m not.”
Merlin made a disbelieving sound in the back of his throat as he turned, shoved the window open, and tossed his bag out. When he pulled himself out after, he almost landed on his feet and only got stuck in the branches a little bit.
***
“Merlin!” Gwen exclaimed when she opened the door. “You’re early. And…wet. Why on earth are you wet? Did it start raining?”
Merlin just mumbled something about ‘epic’ and ‘toilets’ and flopped onto the sofa.
Week Four
When Gwen’s alarm clock went off at 7:15, she nearly threw it against the wall. She’d barely slept at all that night between writing a paper for her English professor and catching up on her Maths homework. She hadn’t even made it into her bedroom until after four.
She slipped back to sleep just in time to be reawakened by Lance’s four steady knocks at the front door.
Groaning, she pushed herself up and walked to the door, but when she opened it to see him in his running shorts and trainers, she simply couldn’t take it anymore.
“Did you tell him yet?” she asked in lieu of a hello and he blinked a couple of times, then shook his head.
“Then your Psychology lecture has been cancelled for the day. Go home, Lance.” She shut the door on his argument, crawled back into bed, and went to sleep.
***
Merlin clasped his hands under the cool water, gathering some and splashing it onto his face. After he’d toweled off, he grinned at his reflection in the mirror, but it faded to a grimace as he heard the faint click of a key in the flat’s main door.
True to his fears, Arthur slipped through the bathroom door carrying his clothes and his bag. Without a word, he stepped into his jeans and pulled the t-shirt over his head. Arthur stared at him, probably offering silent apologies, but he didn’t meet his eyes.
Once again he climbed up, pushed the window open, and tossed his bag through. Before he followed it though, he said, to the windowsill, “I think I’ll sleep at mine tonight.” He paused, swallowed. “Alone.”
He heard Arthur’s sharp intake of breath behind him, but couldn’t turn around. He wasn’t going to fold this time. “See you later, Arthur,” he whispered, then pulled himself up and out. On the ground, he straightened himself, avoided the gaze of a startled dog-walker, and began the short walk home.
***
From: Lance
To: Gwen
I’m sorry.
From: Lance
To: Gwen
Gwen, please talk to me.
From: Lance
To: Gwen
Arthur’s been depressed all day. Won’t look at me. Did you say something to him?
From: Gwen
To: Lance
No. I didn’t. But you should.
From: Gwen
To: Lance
Coward.
***
The day after she sent Lance away, she came back to her flat after her Maths lecture to find Merlin sitting in the corridor, half an hour early. He had his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped tight around them. His head was bowed forward, almost touching his knees. He looked like shit.
“You look like shit,” she said, and he looked up. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked like he might have been crying.
“I know,” he said, pushing himself to his feet. “Didn’t sleep last night. Can’t sleep without the stupid arse anymore.”
She wrapped an arm around his waist and led him to the door, which she unlocked and pushed open. “In you go,” she said. “No studying today. I need to bitch about my boy troubles, and obviously you do too.” She pushed him onto the sofa, then went into the kitchen to make tea. “Sugar? Milk?”
“Sugar,” he said, his voice strained. “Lots of sugar.”
When she returned, he took the tea gratefully. Aimed a wobbly sort of smile at her from where he’d leaned his head back.
“Okay,” Gwen said, settling next to him. “You first. What did he do?”
Merlin took a sip of tea and a deep breath before he could start. “He refuses to tell his flatmate about me.”
He went quiet, so she nodded encouragingly at him. “We’ve been together almost two months now. He’s - I don’t know - stuck in this bizarre gay crisis mode where he’s perfectly fine kissing me in public, but he’d rather ask me to hide under his bed or climb out his bathroom window than explain me to his flatmate.”
“You climbed out a window?” she asked, incredulous, and he grimaced.
“Twice. When I showed up here last week soaked through? That was the first time; I’d just got out of the shower. Then again yesterday morning. So I told him I was going to sleep alone last night, only I didn’t, because apparently I can’t sleep anymore without his stupidly attractive face pressed against my shoulder.” He stopped again. Drank more tea. Closed his eyes. “And the thing is, I’m pretty much in love with the bastard, so I don’t know if I can make myself break it off. Not really.”
Merlin stared into his tea cup and a long silence settled between them, broken only when Gwen nudged his foot with hers and asked, “Is the sex at least good?”
The question startled a laugh out of him and he returned the nudge. “Legendary.” Awkwardly, he cleared his throat, and then turned on the sofa to face her. “Now, your turn. What’s yours done?”
“Well, actually,” she said, grinning as she realised the similarity in their stories, “he refuses to tell his flatmate about me.”
“Seriously?” he asked, quirking an amused eyebrow and she nodded.
“Lance is,” she paused, “far too noble for his own good. He and his flatmate have been best mates since before they started Uni and I met them both during our first year. But technically, I did date his flatmate first, for a whole misguided three weeks. So now, he says that it’s an unwritten rule that he shouldn’t date his mate’s ex while his mate is single, and has therefore made up some crazy lie about a Psychology lecture so that he can run over here every morning and crawl in bed with me, even though Arthur and I parted amicably and there’s no way he would have a problem with us, and-” She cut off when she saw that Merlin’s eyes had gone wide. She’d been rambling anyway. “What?”
“Arth-,” he coughed, “Arthur’s last name. What is it?”
She tilted her head. “Pendragon. Why?”
***
As he was being pulled along behind her, Merlin mused that he had never met a woman so scary when she was angry. Including his mother.
Gwen just laughed and said, “Oh, just wait ‘til you meet Arthur’s sister. I’ve got nothing on Morgana.”
***
Lance nearly dropped his keys when he opened the door to their flat and saw Gwen sitting on the sofa. Arthur, who’d been walking in behind him, stopped dead as well. There was a bloke he didn’t know but thought he might have seen before (the Chinese takeaway place? He couldn’t remember) sitting beside her and eyeing Arthur nervously.
“Boys!” Gwen said, standing up. When the bloke didn’t rise too, she pulled at his arm until he joined her. “Great, you’re home. I think it’s time for introductions.” She indicated her friend. “This is Merlin, my lab partner. Merlin,” she indicated Lance, “this is Lance. We’ve been dating for almost three months now.”
Lance turned anxious eyes on Arthur, but he seemed inexplicably to be staring at Merlin.
“And this,” she pointed, “is Arthur, Lance’s flatmate. Arthur, have you met Merlin?”
Arthur made a strangled sort of noise, then cleared his throat to cover it up and nodded. “Um, yeah. Yeah, he’s-” his eyes slid to Lance, then back to Merlin, who looked just as anxious as Arthur did. Gwen was the only calm one in the room. “He’s my boyfriend.”
He heard Merlin let out a breath.
“Precisely!” Gwen said, and clapped. “Now, you two idiots,” she nodded at Lance and Arthur in turn, “are going to go in the kitchen, and you’re going to stay there until you stop lying to each other and making us all miserable. Understood?”
***
All things considered, it was a rather short conversation. The kind only two blokes can have when they don’t really want to be talking. It went something like this:
“So. Boyfriend?”
“Yeah.” A cough. “Gwen?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s brilliant, Lance, really. She’s great.”
“It’s not weird or anything?”
“You know we only dated for three weeks, right?”
“Er.”
“And it’s not weird for you, this Merlin thing?”
A shrug. “You’re still you. Date who you like.” Pause. “Gwen’ll be here a lot, probably.”
“Yeah, Merlin too.”
“Cheers. Just keep it down, yeah? I don’t need to know how well you suck cock.”
“Fuck off.”
***
Later, when Gwen had rescheduled her study session with Merlin and walked off with Lance back toward her flat, Arthur settled on the sofa and pulled Merlin into his lap.
“I’m sorry about that,” Merlin said, and though the relief was obvious on his face, Arthur could still see worry in the lines around his eyes. “I didn’t know she was going to just - out you like that.”
He shook his head, resting his chin on Merlin’s shoulder. “Don’t be. I should have done it ages ago.” Just feeling the warmth through Merlin’s shirt and breathing in the smell that was distinctly him made Arthur’s eyes start to droop. “Did you sleep at all last night?”
Merlin sighed and slumped heavily against him. “Not even a little bit. You?”
“I wrote a paper for my econ lecture that’s not due for another three weeks, e-mailed my sister, and cleaned out the refrigerator.” Merlin laughed, and Arthur grinned at the sound. “Let’s not do that again, agreed?”
It sounded like ‘I love you’ even to his own ears. And that was how he meant it.
“Definitely agreed.” Merlin worked his arms between the sofa cushions and Arthur’s back and held tight. “Now don’t move. I’m gonna take a nap.”
He scoffed an amused protest and made to stand, hooking one arm around Merlin’s back and another under his legs. "Come on." He lifted him easily and shook his head. “You’re far too light, you know that?”
Merlin hummed his assent into Arthur’s neck. “’m wiry. And flexible. You like the flexible, remember?”
He dumped Merlin, fully clothed, onto the bed and climbed in after him without bothering to kick his shoes off. He had more important things to do.
Wrapping his arms around Merlin’s waist, he pressed his face against the other boy’s shoulder and Merlin wriggled into the contact with a sleepy, content sound.
“Go to sleep, Merlin,” he said, but Merlin cut him off with a quiet snore.