Timing Is Everything; Merlin Modern AU
Title: Timing is Everything (4/5)
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings/Characters: Arthur, Gwen, Merlin, Morgana. Special guest appearances from Gwaine, Lance, Leon, Percy, Freya and Uther. Plus others inc OCs. (Eventual Arthur/Gwen and Merlin/Morgana. Slight Gwaine/Gwen and Merlin/Freya)
Warnings: Occasional spouts of bad language.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: PG13
Summary: Their lives were never meant to be intertwined... but you can't rewrite destiny.
Author Notes: Today, December 2nd 2010, is my one year Merlin fic anniversary! Woohoooo! To celebrate I am starting to post my 50,000 NaNoWriMo story that I wrote for the gorgeous Queen of Jenalot; mustbethursday3.
As usual these days, thanks go to sgmajorshipper for her beta work on this part.
My Merlin Prompt Table
PART One | Two | Three | Four | Five a | Five b
Ringing roused Gwen from her bath. Her mobile phone was flashing next to the cold tap. She groaned, she was relaxed and comfy and incredibly wet. The ringing was insistent. After a good half a minute she gave in on any idea she had about having a relaxing bath before bed and grabbed for her phone with her dripping hand, “Hello?”
“Guinevere?”
“Arthur?” she climbed out of the bath. She couldn’t talk to him and be completely naked at the same time. Something about it seemed wrong to her, “What can I do for you?” she asked pulling a towel from the radiator and wrapping it around her torso, holding it together with an arm across her ribs.
“Can you come to the yard?”
“Uh, yeah?” she said looking around at her discarded clothes and thinking about how long it would take her to dry herself and get to the place at such a late time. “Why?”
“Just get here ASAP?”
“You’re worrying me,” she grabbed the hand towel from the circular hold and started to scrub it over her legs and feet.
“Don’t. Everything’s fine.”
She stopped, “You’re sure?”
“I have all my limbs and CK is fine,” she heard rustling on the other end, “See. That was him saying hi, by the way.”
“Right okay,” she looked down at herself and wondered why in this moment of madness she was contemplating agreeing with this request. She scratched her forehead with her thumbnail and sighed, “I’ll be there in twenty minutes, okay?”
“Bring your coat.”
X
Gwen pulled up in the small car park and shut off the engine and lights of her old car. It was pitch black in the car park. She had gathered it was sub-zero temperature outside from her short trip from the front of her building and to her car. She was bundled in several layers including a jacket beneath her coat and two scarves. The moonlight cast shadows across the fields. It was then she caught a glimpse of a silhouette.
She climbed out of her car the cold winter air attacking her bare features instantly and quietly shut the door; it was late and she didn’t know if the occupants of the farmhouse would sleeping, “Arthur?” she called out, her voice low.
“You came,” he turned and smiled at her. She pulled her coat around her wishing she was back in her bath with the warmth of it hugging her body.
“How could I not? It’s not everyday somebody calls you at ten o’clock at night - when you are in the bath, no less - and asks you to meet them somewhere.”
“You were in the bath?” Gwen doesn’t know if his expression is him contemplating what the image would look like of her scrambling around in her natural glory for her phone or him feeling no remorse of dragging her out of it. She feared it might be a little of both. He discarded the thought after a moment after lingering on it too long, “Well, it’s pretty cold. After the other night I didn’t think you’d come out into the cold.”
Gwen laughed and pushed one hand into her pocket, from it she produced a small bundled, “I came prepared,” she pulled the bundled apart to reveal a pair of ‘one size fits all’ gloves. She pulled them on and pushed her hands back into her pockets, “What are we doing here?”
Arthur didn’t answer right away. He ran his tongue over his teeth and clicked his tongue, “Come with me,” he guided her along the fence towards the gate. He opened it and held it for her.
She hesitated, “Are we allowed in here?”
“I’m in here all the time.”
“I mean at this time of night?”
“I don’t see why not? Besides, I asked Sophie earlier and she said she’d tell her parents so they didn’t call the police on intruders.”
“So you planned this?”
“I might have done,” he was coy. She had been pulled out of a relaxing bath to be hit on? She smiled at him. He took her hand and led her through the gate. She felt the need to spin under his arm when he lifting her hand above their heads. She nearly refrained but she had to move under their arms so he could lock the gate again behind them. They both laughed. He let her hand go once she’d spun away from him; it was awkward for him to hold on any longer both for mental and physical comfort.
Gwen put her hands back in her coat pockets as they wondered towards the centre of the field. The flag points were still up from Arthur’s practise during the day.
“What are we doing?”
“Here,” he had taken her to the centre of the field, “You said something about the stars in the city not being as bright as they are out here. So I thought I’d prove you right,” a grin broke out on Gwen’s face. She’d never imagined that anybody was listening to her. Now she was reliving her childhood. Not that Arthur knew that.
Gwen looked up and, as she’d said, the stars above her were brighter than she’d ever seen them. She didn’t know quite what to say, “Arthur…”
“I know,” he interrupted, “I’m amazing.”
“You made me drive out here, out of my bath, at ten o’clock, to star gaze?” she asked with a casual mocking her voice. Though she’d rather have her bath the thought of stargazing with Arthur wasn’t one that filled her with complete dread.
“Yeah?”
“You’re insane,” she said truthfully with a hint of laughter in her voice.
“I’m happy being insane.”
“Good for you.”
“I have this feeling,” he said suddenly.
“Sounds ominous.”
“Very funny. I have a feeling that you are good with stars and things. You pointed them out to me before.”
“The only ones I knew,” she said amused.
“Then we can make up new ones,” he looked up and searched for a cluster of dots he could rename, “There!” he pointed. He pulled Gwen to stand in front of him so she could follow his line, “Ready?” she nodded. He traced a line down diagonally. He brought his other hand up to hold the point before he moved off to trace another line down. From his original stopping point he traced onwards.
“No, you’ve lost me.”
“I’m calling it ‘The Knight’. That bit is the lance. There is the knight and there is the horse.”
“Okay. My turn?”
“Your turn,” Gwen looked up at the stars. She searched. It was hard. There were so many she could see that making a clear image was hard. She finally settled on a picture with a small grin on her face.
“There,” she pointed. Arthur crouched so he could follow her finger as she traced her picture.
“Some sort of deranged rabbit?”
“How did you know?” she laughed elbowing him in the ribs, “No,” she traced it again, “Use your imagination.”
“Merlin!”
“No.”
“It’s a dragon,” he said softly into her ear, “and if you look next to it, there’s a pen,” Gwen snorted a laugh and leant back into Arthur’s chest. On instinct he wrapped his arms around her waist. Gwen rested her hand over his and smiled.
“That was terrible,” she said looking up sideways at him.
“But you still laughed,” he argued back. He looked down at her, a lot closer to her than he had anticipated. The corner of his moth tugged into an awkward smile. He swallowed, “Come on. It’s cold.”
“That’s it?”
“I have a blanket in the boot of my car,” he reasoned, “We’ll be warmer there,” he released her from his grasp and started to walk back towards the gate.
I was warmer then…
She submitted and followed him back towards the car; Don’t do this to yourself, Gwen. He’s not interested. And you shouldn’t be either.
X
Whoever was knocking on her door at eleven at night was going to be punched or have it slammed back in their face or both. Most likely.
Arthur was either in bed or still not back yet and considering the porch light was still on she assumed it was the latter. It wouldn’t be him; he knew where the spare key was to let himself in. Morgana could see her annoyance through the window in the door. Her jaw dropped.
“What do you want? I was sleeping.”
“Mor-ga-na!”
“I’ll say it again, what are you doing here?”
“I came to see you,” he reached out slipping his hand into her hair, “I’ve missed you,” she could smell the alcohol on his breath.
She pulled her head away from him and pushed him back; hard, “Get the hell away from me,” Al stumbled out of the doorway and onto the driveway, “Who do you think you are? You can’t just turn up here. Time to leave.”
“I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here with you,” he scrambled towards the door reaching out for her, “I love you.”
“Yeah, so much to slept with somebody else!” she would have pushed him back again but instead she swiped out at him and pelted him hard around the face with the flat of her hand, “Just go. Fuck off!”
She slammed the door in his face.
Slowly, Morgana made her way to the stairs and sat down on the bottom step. Al was still knocking on the other side of the door. Ignoring him, she hoped, would make him go away. He was shouting at her through the letter box. Morgana clamped her hands over her ears in attempt to ignore him.
After five minutes her gave up hope.
After another five minutes later and the front door opened. Arthur came in with a smile on his face. He hadn’t seen Morgana initially too caught up in himself to see her sitting at the bottom of the stairs with her head in her hands.
It wasn’t until she sniffed that he noticed her.
“Morgana?”
“Nice night?” she said wiping the tear tracks fro her face and smiling up at him as convincingly as she could.
“What’s wrong?” he asked straight away.
“Nothing.”
“What did Merlin do?”
“Nothing.”
“Morgana,” he said with warning in his tone, “Tell me,” he sat down on the step next to her and looped his arm around her shoulder. He gently rubbed small circles into her arm in attempt to soothe her.
“Al came over. He was drunk.”
“You let him in?”
“No, but he wouldn’t leave,” she shook her head and tried to fight back the tears. “I hate feeling like this. I want to be happy, to move on. But,” she sniffed. Her breathe caught in her throat and she coughed, “he makes it so hard.”
“Because he’s a wanker. You deserve better than him. You always did.”
“But he’s still able to influence my life.”
“Then cut him out. Replace him.”
“I’m not making him the rebound, Arthur, that’s not fair on either of us.”
“Merlin?” Arthur asked only to confirm that his current thoughts were correct, “I thought you were already together? Ish?”
“Ish. I can’t do it. I love him but- but I can’t move into anything with him if Al still has the power to make me feel like this,” Arthur hugged her into his chest and kissed the top of her head.
He gently soothed her, “It’s okay. He’ll wait for you. He’ll wait until you’re ready.”
X
Merlin walked around his office with his phone to his ear and a grin on his face, “He did what?”
“He called me and made me go to the yard. I thought he’d hurt himself or something so I went.”
“Out of your bath?” Merlin laughed.
“Yeah,” she laughed down the phone. Merlin could see her now hitting herself in the forehead, “When I got there he was all mysterious and took me into the middle of the field.”
“Creeper alert. Creeper alert.”
“Very funny. He’d taken something I’d said and acted on it. It was nice.”
“And then what?” Merlin asked her. He left like one of those gossip girls who just wanted to know everything that everyone had said so he could go and spread it around everywhere.
“Well it was freezing so we ended up in his car-“
“You didn’t!” his jaw dropped. He had expected more of her than to sleep with a guy she had hated not long ago in the back of his car.
“No, Merlin, Christ. Head out of the gutter please.”
“Sorry.”
“No. We ended up talking for ages. We were sat in the back of his jeep thing with the back door open wrapped in this blanket all warm and cosy. Just talking.”
“How romantic,” Merlin said deadpan.
“It was one of the best nights out I’ve had in a while.”
“Now I’m hurt.”
She ignored him, “Five months ago I never even dreamt of thinking anything like this.”
“What have I been telling you? You really should start to listen to Uncle Merlin, Gwenkins,” he loved it when he was right. So it might have taken a bit of convincing from Morgana for him to realise it, but it really did make sense, “Did anything happen?”
“No. Well, nearly, but no.”
“What have we got to do with you? Put you in Seven Minutes of Heaven or something?”
“What?”
“I’ve been watching too much American TV. Ignore me.”
“Gladly.”
“Seriously. Just go for it. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
“Then I’m positive you’ve lost it. We were going to- and he walked away. Not me.”
“Maybe he thinks you don’t want it.”
“Maybe. Well, we’ll never know. I’m not throwing myself at him; not a chance.”
“Gwen-“
“If he’s not interested I’m not making a fool out of myself for nothing. He’s got to make the first move,” Merlin sighed in annoyance at his friend and started to explain the inner workings of every guy’s mind to his best friend.
Sometimes it wasn’t just him that needed the advice.
X
There was a loud knock on her front door that roused Gwen from her RSC adaptation-a-thon as she graded the Year 11s second drafts of their coursework all about Blue Remembered Hills. They’d spent the week acting out scenes from it and over this weekend they would be writing about that. Now she was reading about the character analysis.
Each piece was the same.
The knocking was a welcome break.
Dressed in joggers and a loose t-shirt Gwen made her way to her front door. She pulled it open half expecting one of her neighbours or Merlin.
It was neither, “Arthur?”
“Hi, sorry am I interrupting anything?”
“Only the third act of King Lear.”
“Oh,” he looked torn between thinking he was interrupting too much and running back to his car and asking if he could actually come into her house with whatever it was that he wanted.
Gwen laughed, “Come on in,” she pushed the door open and led him in.
Arthur looked around. Taking in the new surrounding. He smiled as he spotted the number of pictures frames on the wall above the television. There were a number of her and Merlin. One of her and an older man that Arthur assumed was her father, “Nice place.”
“Small place.”
“It’s homely. It’s very,” he looked around, “It’s very yoooou,” he declared.
“Is that actually a compliment?”
“Of course it is. It’s quirky. I like it,” he fiddled with his hoodie zip and continued to look around. He didn’t know whether to sit or stay standing.
“Is there a reason you’re here?” Gwen asked hitting the kettle on.
“Yes! You forgot your jacket,” he produced it from the satchel he had thrown over his shoulder and presented it to her also like a proud spaniel giving his owner a stick, “You left it in the back of my car the other night.”
“Oh, I’d wondered where that’d gone.”
“I saw it when I left the yard earlier, so I thought I’d drop it over on my way past.”
“Your way past?” she asked with a furrowed brow, “I live further away from the yard than you do.”
“Figuratively speaking. I was in the car, I might as well drop it in whilst I remembered. Can’t have you getting cold now can we?”
Gwen didn’t mention that she did have other coats, many of them in fact, “Thanks.”
“No worries.”
“Tea?” she asked at the kettle popped. She had her mug on the counter already with a tea bag in it waiting to be filled.
“I don’t want to get in the way.”
“You won’t,” she said grabbing another mug without an argument from him. She threw a teabag in it and started to fill both cups with hot water, “I’m only marking the same thing over and over. Somebody needs to give those kids some individual flare.”
“Isn’t that what you do?”
“So far it’s not being so successful,” she poured milk into each cup and started to stir them.
“Ah. Well maybe you need to do some sort of session. A game or something. Make them all come up with a word of their own,” he said looking at one of the pieces of paper that had been abandoned on half of the sofa. He looked at the titles of the coursework and quickly through it back down again.
“Do you even know what their coursework is about?”
“Not a clue, but it’s a good place to start if you want individuality?”
“Duly noted,” she replied as she picked the teabags out of the cups, “Sugar?”
“No thanks.”
“Here,” she handed him a plain black mug and sat down on the sofa where she had stated to create some sort of nest.
“Cheers. So what is their coursework?”
“You really want to know?”
“You take an interest in what I do. Time I returned the favour.”
“Yeah, but what you do is interesting. Mine’s not.”
“What’s their coursework?” he asked again this time with a harder tone to his voice. Gwen relented and started to explain it to him as she curled into the edge of the sofa. She moved the pile to the coffee table to let him sit down next to her so he could look at what she’d been presented with, “So if they were a little more incentive it would give them higher marks and you less of a boredom headache?”
“Yeah.”
“I stand by what I said before. Get them all to come up with something. Or in a pair or something and that way you get a more varied response.”
“I’ll do that then,” she replaced the piece of coursework she had in her hand to the top of the pile and left it. There was no point marking more when she was writing the same damned thing on each one.
Gwen grabbed the DVD remote and pressed the play button. She turned back to Arthur; it could play on in the background, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen it before and needed to follow every word, “I never thanked you for the other night.
“What, for disturbing your bath?”
“Yeah,” Gwen grinned at him, “Seriously. I had a good time. Even if it was cold.”
“Wasn’t too bad, was it?”
“No. Not too bad. At least this time I actually ended up stripping a layer.”
“I thought that was all to rouse my attention.”
“Might have been,” she waggled her eyebrows and started to laugh. She had hardly been wearing the best ‘look at me’ clothes. She’d been in so many layers that even the thought of a low cut top had been laughable. She was cold and in scarves and jumpers, “seriously, I had fun.”
“Yeah, me too.”
X
There was always something Merlin didn’t understand when it came to his friends and that was there inability to see what was right before their eyes. Why couldn’t the world be black and white sometimes? Everybody told him that by thinking that it made him naïve. As far as he was aware or care to be aware of, the world could be pretty simple and almost everything boiled down to one of three things; money, work or sex. Sometimes it would fit into all three and it was those things he tried his hardest to avoid.
Those things were the ones that got messiest.
He could understand taking things slowly. Morgana had issues she needed to work through and there was only so much help that Merlin could give her. Some of it she had to do on her own and other parts she had to do with Arthur’s help.
There was honesty with Morgana that Merlin didn’t have with anyone else. Sure, he had an unspoken policy with Gwen in which he told her everything and she told him. They trusted each other with everything; there wasn’t anything he didn’t feel he could tell her. But it went to a whole new level with Morgana, somehow.
She’d told him all about her encounter with her ex-boyfriend a few nights ago when they had met for coffee one evening when they were both free of other commitments. Morgana had started submitting Arthur’s details into the competitions for the next year; gathering the information that they would need for travel.
She had been open with him. Told him exactly why it had upset her.
That’s what it came down to with her. He knew he could trust her implicitly.
Morgana hadn’t been looking for reassurance or a helping had. She’d wanted to get the story off of her chest. She looked more relaxed near instantly afterwards. Once the topic was done Merlin knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t want him to dwell on it. She’d said her piece, that was the page read and turned to the next.
“What are we going to do about them?” Morgana asked him with a spark returning to her eyes. One that he missed whenever she was upset.
“Is there anything we can do?” Merlin asked shrugging his shoulders and looking over his coffee at her, “They seem like a bit of a hopelessly doomed case to me,” he reached over the table top and took a gentle hold of her hand.
“We need to do something. Even if it’s just to open Arthur’s eyes a bit. He’s a bit of a dimwit sometimes.”
“Gwen’s birthday is coming up. We could try then?”
“What’s she doing?”
“What we do most birthdays.”
“Try and take over the world?”
“That,” Merlin cracked a smile, “That right there is why I love you,” he pulled her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Morgana smiled genuinely at him.
X
Somehow Gwen had managed to engross herself so much in making sure the god awful script didn’t come across as completely amateur with the younger kids performing that she did little else other than rehearsals and research and doing extra bits and pieces towards the final shows than she had the year before.
The play itself wasn’t as bad as she had thought but it wasn’t the most inspiring thing she had worked with before. She’d hit herself in the head with it enough ties over the last few weeks to know it really it wasn’t that bad.
“Gweeeeen,” somebody was calling. She was alone at home trying to sleep, why was somebody trying to wake her up, “GWEN!” the same person shouted in Gwen’s ear making her jump a foot in the air out of her seat not her bed, “Here.”
Ellis handed her a cup of black coffee which she accepted, “I was dreaming I was at home having a bubble bath. I thought I’d fallen asleep in there. I had half a mind to tell you to ‘fuck off’.”
“To which you have every right. But lunch is over and you’ve got a tutor group to tend to,” Gwen groaned. Of all the other things recently and she had stupidly said she would take over from one of the English teacher’s tutor groups whilst the lady went on maternity leave.
“Great. You know those kids hate me right?”
“I doubt it. None of the kids here hate you.”
“These ones do. I have no idea what to do with them so I just let the do whatever.”
“And that is why I’m sure they love you. Anyway, I thought you said that Simon kid was in there?”
“Yeah, he is. He’s the only one in there that doesn’t eye me like he wants to eat me.”
“That kid admires you, I’m sure he’ll turn the rest back to like you soon enough.”
“Hopefully. Though the sooner whatever her name is comes back the better. I’m not cut out for this.”
“Get an early night tonight, Gwen.”
She would if she didn’t already know that Merlin was planning on coming over, “It’s my birthday today, did you know that?”
Ellis shook his head, “Happy birthday.”
“Thanks, but all I want to do is sleep. No chance of that.”
“It’s Thursday night, I’m sure your friends would understand.”
“Merlin has this rule; you can only celebrate your birthday on your birthday otherwise it’s cheating.”
“That friend of yours is a little bizarre isn’t he, Gwen?” Gwen nodded and smiled. He really was but she loved him for it, “Go on go. Otherwise you’ll be late.”
Gwen groaned to herself and picked up the mug of coffee from the desk and took it with her without another word.
X
Twenty-five had never been a birthday that had stood out to Gwen. It was an age she was to become and carry on. She didn’t care much for ages. She was still the sae school year as Merlin. She’d just be turning thirty in five years now instead of six. Not that it made that much of a difference to anyone.
She was shattered and she didn’t mind if she celebrated the rest of her birthday with her head on her pillow and unconscious to the outside world. Or in that bath she had dreamt about earlier in the day.
Last year she had celebrated with Merlin. They’d gone to the cinema and Pizza Express, eaten too many sweets and frozen on the way home because they had decided that walking was a good idea on the winter night. A really clever idea.
This year she wasn’t expecting to be much different. She hadn’t even made a plan with Merlin; she was in her joggers and a loose t-shirt. It wasn’t like she’d need to make an effort for him. She’d assume he’d come over with a pile of DVDs and have a half pepperoni half Hawaiian pizza on order with Dominoes to come at nine with a share size diet coke and a portion of chicken strippers and free Garlic bread.
Not that he was predictable at all…
When the knock on her front door came at seven o’clock she couldn’t help but feel like Merlin was early. He usually came at eight o’clock so they could watch two movies, eat pizza and he’d be home for midnight so he could get enough sleep before he had to work with his particle science in the morning without falling asleep.
Gwen had never found his work that interesting; but he was rather adorable when he started going off on one about it. It made him happy so she couldn’t really complain about it. She enjoyed his rambles as much as she enjoyed his company. They defined him. Besides, his eyes glazed over when she started on about the work of Stanislavski or how Brecht transformed Kafka into something workable.
The second thing Gwen hadn’t been expecting was for Merlin to be carrying two pizzas. What happened to ordering in, and why did he have two? He also had three sides’ boxes and two large bottles of diet coke that he must have bought from the supermarket.
“Merlin?” she looked at the load in his hands and held open the door for him. Had she tried to take something she would have unbalanced him.
“Are they here yet?” he asked as he manoeuvred over to the dining table and slowly put down his load in an order that must have been opposite to the way he had picked it up. It balanced out and he didn’t drop anything.
“Are who here yet?”
“Morgana and Arthur.”
Gwen’s eyes widened, “Why are they coming over?”
“It’s your birthday, the big two-five!”
“It’s not that big a thing, Merlin.”
“Well, they’re our friends,” he shrugged, not seeing anything wrong with what he had done, “so I thought I’d invite them over.”
“This is nothing to do with your inane idea that Arthur likes me and I like Arthur, is it?”
“Not at all,” he grinned at her.
“Merlin!”
“It’s not, honest,” he said raising his hands, “It’s your birthday. I wanted us to enjoy it,” he slowly reached into his bag and pulled out a copy of Moulin Rouge, “See. Tradition,” Gwen visibly relaxed. Now she looked less likely to kill him if he said something she deemed out of line Merlin took his chance to comment, “And if Arthur knows all the words there’s an extra point for him!”
Gwen grabbed out for the first thing she could; she pulled a grape from the bunch and launched it at Merlin hitting him square in the chest; “You wound me, Gwen.”
Her doorbell rang out again, twice in quick succession; Arthur’s trademark ring, “Behave,” she warned as she walked back towards the door. She suddenly clocked that she was still wearing her ‘it’s only Merlin’ outfit. She squeaked, “You open that.”
She dived into her bedroom already half pulling off her shirt before she shut the door with her foot. Merlin laughed. He couldn’t help it. He shook his head and walked towards the door with a sly smile on his face. Perfect. His and Morgana’s plan was going to work perfectly, he could feel it.
“Welcome. Birthday girl is getting dressed.”
“You mean she wasn’t before?” Arthur commented with a raised eyebrow. It wasn’t a visual he was completely adverse to. This was Gwen though; she was always ready for things an hour in advanced. Why was she still getting ready now? He shrugged it off as he did the same to his winter coat and hung the rain soaked garment on the hook by the door. Morgana did the same.
“How’re you, Merlin?” she asked him politely.
“I’m good.”
“We brought cake!” she declared happily presenting him with a box, “We didn’t bake it. Honest,” Merlin looked at the box, clearly one from their local supermarket and smiled. He’d been there whilst Morgana had test ran her baking skills and spectacularly failed five times in a row to make a simple Victoria Sponge.
“We even bought candles,” Arthur supplied waving the bag he had in his hand in front of Merlin who helpfully took them from him and over to the table where Morgana had now placed the cake.
The door of Gwen’s bedroom opened, revealing the birthday girl, now dressed in a pair of decent skinny jeans and thick knit cardigan. She had her knit-upper Uggs on her feet acting as a pair of slippers - doing a slightly more respectable job than her Shaun The Sheep ones that were currently stuffed under her bed.
“Hi,” she greeted walking straight passed her guests and over to the dining table to swipe the Moulin Rouge case and headed over to the DVD player to put it in.
“Help yourselves,” Merlin declared opening the pizzas and sides. He too the first slice of pepperoni and swiped a slice of Hawaiian for Gwen; “here.”
“Thanking you,” she took a large bite out of it and sighed in contentment, “Pizza and Ewan, what more does a girl need on her birthday?” Merlin collapsed into the armchair to Gwen’s puzzlement. They would usually cuddle whilst they watched Moulin Rouge, tissues at the ready. Now he was forfeiting that for an armchair he said was uncomfortable and ‘haunted’.
Morgana slumped into the other armchair and grinned at Merlin. It didn’t go unnoticed by the birthday girl but she settled back into the pillows she’d abandoned on the sofa and watched as the film started on her old television.
“Budge up,” she looked up to see Arthur stood with a plate and a couple of slice of pizza on it and the box of chicken strippers in his other hand. She curled into the arm of the sofa leaving him more than two thirds of it to sit in. He abandoned the box of chicken between them and started on his pizza.
X
“The hiiiillssss are aliiveeeeee with the sound of muuuuuusiccc!” both Gwen and Merlin sang at the top of their lungs before bursting out into a fit of laughter. Arthur too laughed and Morgana had a mouthful of food but was smiling along with them when her mouthful allowed her to do so.
Arthur reached over to grab the last chicken stripper from the box at the same time that a giggling Gwen had. His fingers brushed hers causing him to jerk back his hand, “Sorry.”
“No, go ahead, have it.”
“I’ve eaten loads of them already. Beside, it’s your birthday,” Gwen smiled and picked it up from the box. She popped half of it into her mouth and bit down on it leaving half of it and offered the leftovers to Arthur. He smiled and accepted it, throwing it into his mouth in one go, barely even chewing it before he swallowed.
“Love is like Oxygen,” Merlin quoted, eyes firmly fixed on his friend, smirk teasing at the corner of his mouth, “Love is a many-splendored thing! Love lifts us up where we belong.”
“All you need is love,” the four of them said in unison. They looked at each other and laughed, “Freedom! Beauty! Truth and Loooove!” Merlin shot Gwen a look over the piece of pizza he had in his hands. She knew exactly what that look was saying to her.
The Diamond Dogs of the Moulin Rouge started their dance; the ruffling of their skirts and their sexy number with the men visiting. Gwen couldn’t help but bob along.
X
The film passed relatively quickly. It quickly became apparent that the film had been one that Morgana had forced Arthur to watch at least once a year since it came out and he hadn’t objected much of late to it. He found himself enjoying it. Especially since he could join in with the singing along and messing around now.
Once Christian started singing not so secretly to Satine the four of them were all belting out the lyrics. For fun Morgana and Merlin had stood up, acting things out for extra giggles; “Storm clouds may gather and stars may collide,” the girls sang at the top of their voices.
“But I love you,” the boys took over, Merlin looking over-the-top in love with Morgana for comedic effect and Arthur slipping a glance to Gwen, watching as she happily watched her best friend make a fool of himself for her benefit.
“I love you,” they sang back, this time Gwen looked over at Arthur, smile on her face. He didn’t know if she was merely in the sing of it, or it meant anything more to her. She was too happy to bring her down with such trivial things now.
They were approaching the big notes; the ones they were really going to go to town with. Merlin and Morgana had taken each others hands. Their big declaration of ‘love’ was coming and they were ready for it.
Then they were plunged into darkness. Every electric object in the house wound down with the depressing ‘I’m off now’ noise at once. The performers both complained. “Not fair!”
“I’ll find a torch,” Merlin declared heading over to the kitchen.
“Don’t bother,” Gwen said, “Don’t have a torch.”
“Why on earth not?”
“Never needed one before,” she shrugged; not that she could be seen.
“Fine. I’ll go see if it’s just us or an actual thing,” Merlin said fumbling his way over to the door, his eyes still not used to the darkness.
“I’ll go with you,” Morgana said sprightly following the sound of his footsteps towards the flat door. Had Gwen been able to see she would have noticed Merlin grab Morgana’s hand and guide her past the table to the door without hitting anything. Then she would have thrown something at him for being a pain in the arse. Was he ever going to define this thing?
“And then there was two,” Arthur said relaxing back into the sofa. He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Yeah.”
Arthur had an idea. He pushed himself up from the sofa and, after managing to walk into the arm of the sofa and the empty pizza box Merlin had discarded earlier, he found his way over to the table and grabbed the box of matches and the bag with the birthday cake candles in it. He was careful on his way back not to walk into anything and sat on the edge of the sofa once he got back there.
“Here,” he fumbled in the carrier bag and pulled the box of small candles out and gave her the first one he pulled out of the box. He grabbed another for himself. He abandoned the bag on the floor and grabbed the matches from where he had balanced them on his knee. He carefully got a match out of the box and blindly ran his fingers over it to get it the right way around. It took him two attempted to strike the match so it sparked to life.
He carefully held the match up to the candle that he presented Gwen with and lit it and repeated the action with the one he had in his left hand, “Hello,” he grinned, now able to make her out in the flicking light the small candles were casting. They wouldn’t last long before they threatened to burn their fingers but then hopefully neither would the power shortage.
Gwen’s grin was big enough to rival the Cheshire Cat as she looked at the small candles in their hands and realised just how ridiculous they must have looked. That or they looked like giants...
“Well, happy birthday from the power board.”
“Thanks,” she laughed, “Just when we were being given a good show.”
“We were giving better than we got,” Arthur said with a smirk on his face. It was an obvious lie but Gwen smiled in return all the same.
“I think we all killed it. Just a lot…”
Arthur laughed and looked at the small candle in his hand. It was melting quicker than he had anticipated, the wax melting and dribbling slowly down the sides nearly burning the tips of his fingers but luckily cooling and setting before it reached them for now.
Gwen was relaxed back against the cushions of her sofa with the arms of her cardigan rolled up to just below her elbows. She was watching the candle intently as the wick burned. With a sigh Arthur too shrank back into the sofa, he rested his temple on the top of the cushion looking down at the woman who seven months ago had knocked him over in the road and threatened his sporting career. Back then he had never contemplated that he’d been sat with her on her birthday wishing that she would just look at him.
She did. In exactly the moment he deemed it so she did it. With that small smile tugging at her lips that she got when she was truly happy. She rested her head next to his and took a deep breath, sighed contently and closed her eyes.
“That was a big sigh,” he commented with his voice no more than a whisper, “Everything alright?”
“Yeah,” she gave a small nod but didn’t open her eyes.
X
Merlin led Morgana to the hallway window and looked out into the dark street. It was deserted. All the streetlights were without power as well as the rest of the buildings in the street that they would see.
“This could be going better than planned,” Morgana complained.
“Maybe it is. Maybe they’re having rampant sex on the sofa now we’ve gone.”
“Thanks for that mental image, Merlin. That was something I wanted in my head.”
“Sorry,” he leant against the window sill and reached out with his hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, “Why do we concentrate on them so much?” he asked her fiddling with the strands of hair he had between his fingers.
“Because it’s easier.”
“Avoidance trumps happiness?”
“Something like that. Projecting onto others what we wish upon ourselves?”
“They do say ‘treat other how you wish to be treated’,” he said wistfully.
“So we force them on each other because we want them to force us on each other?” Morgana asked jokily. She laughed, mirrored by Merlin near instantly, “We’re not good at this, are we?”
“And yet we pretend we are.”
“Maybe we just need to stop pretending,” she said leaning into his hand. She pressed a kiss to the palm of his hand and looked up at him through half open eyes, “My name’s Morgana Pendragon and I’m crap at romance.”
“Nice to meet you Morgana. My name is Merlin Emrys and I’m hopelessly in love with you,” she pushed up the distance between them and kissed him lightly on the lips. She pulled away from him again to gage his reaction. He gently chewed his lip and broke into a smile. Morgana rested her head against his shoulder and sighed.
“It wasn’t that hard was it,” she chuckled into his shoulder.
“No. It wasn’t.”
X
If Gwen wasn’t careful she’d fall asleep with a full belly and a cheerful state of mind which would undoubtedly lead to good dreams involving none other than those present in the room at current. She had the candle Arthur had given her in her hand; she could feel the heat of its small flame against the tops of her fingers.
Arthur kept an eye on his candle; it was reaching his fingers so he blew on it gently. The corner of Gwen’s mouth curled up at the feeling of a cold breeze on her face, “Careful,” he mumbled gently taking the small candle from her fingers and blowing that one out too.
“Now how will we see?” she asked opening her eyes, it took her a moment to focus on him but once she did she could focus on his features in the moonlight that streamed through the window. The street light was out, it must have been the whole street, if not more, that suffered, “Hello.”
“Hi,” he smiled. He leant against the back cushions with his arm propped on the top of them, his eyes still on her. She fidgeted and mirrored his position; her elbow brushing his as she did. She let her arm extend just slightly so her fingers gently traced his. Arthur took the contact as permission to intertwine his fingers with hers. Arthur had never particularly felt nervous before but he imagined that this was what it felt like.
Instinctively his gaze flickered between her eyes and her lips, back and forth several times before he settled on eye contact. Subconsciously the pair of them both wetted their lips and slowly leant forwards towards each other. Arthur tilted his head to the side, into the pillows of the sofa and Gwen the other way.
Slowly her eyes drifted closed; Arthur’s following suit.
There was a loud beep as the fridge powered back up - Gwen hadn’t even thought about the gradually defrosting food in her freezer in all of the kafuffle. The noise in itself scared them into jumping out of their skins and away from each other but now the lights were back on the pair of them skirted back away from the other. Arthur cleared his throat and Gwen found a spot on her Uggs that she could look at and keep staring at, fiddling with her own fingers with her hands in her lap.
The front door opened again not long after. Merlin and Morgana entered both looking pleased. They clapped eyes on the pair sat on the sofa and scowled. They were sat like two awkward teenagers who didn’t know what to make of each other. Surely that couldn’t be it? Morgana was convinced her half-brother had a thing. A big thing. And Merlin had been adamant that Gwen had reciprocated the thing in a big way. Why wasn’t there tongue contact?
Merlin inwardly groaned and closed the door behind him; “Powers back,” he said lamely as he marched to the armchair he had been stationed in before their epic sing along.
“Thanks for the update,” Gwen said not looking up fro her shoes and playing with a loose wool on her cardigan. Morgana looked between the you-should-be-(according-to-her-and-Merlin)-couple and glanced at Merlin. The fools had managed to cock up their - unintentionally aided - foolproof plan…
They were meant to be making out like their lives depended on it by now.
Maybe they were wrong. Maybe they weren’t digging each other like they had expected.
X
They’d finished Moulin Rouge once Gwen had decided it was time one of them put the film back on. There were no more of their epic sing-alongs; nor did Merlin and Morgana get back up to dance. Once the film was over Gwen had gotten up again and changed the disc to one of the action films Merlin had brought with him.
No more getting stupidly close to the people she shouldn’t.
Half way through the film Arthur had excused himself to the toilet. Gwen took the not-so-awkward opportunity to get up and go and put another round of popcorn in the microwave for their consumption. She leant against the kitchen counter, watching the film from there whilst the corn popped. She yawned to herself. It was a lot later now than she had planned to stay awake. Given the choice she’d be in bed fast asleep and she would have been hours ago.
X
Arthur stood looking at himself in the mirror. How did he let himself get like this? It was stupid. The lights coming back on wouldn’t usually be something that would stop him from doing what he wanted before now…
This was far more nerve-wracking than any equestrian competition had been for him.
He ran the cold tap and held his hands in a well under it; it filled quickly. He leant over the sink and splashed his face with the water and rubbed his eyes. Somehow it felt like it would help him to see more clearly. It didn’t of course, he didn’t even feel remotely better after he had done it so he shut off the tap and grabbed the hand towel up fro it’s circular hold and dabbed his face.
Arthur sighed.
He was Arthur Pendragon; Olympic gold medallist and serial competitor. He didn’t get nervous.
So why did he feel like a whole harem of butterflies were battling their way out of his stomach at that exact moment? Arthur let out a long breath ad rubbed his hands over his face again. He couldn’t go on like this. Morgana wouldn’t let him and neither would his head.
He’d nearly kissed her.
The girl who’d nearly brought about the end of his life as he knew it yet none of that mattered because of the way the drama teacher’s eyes lit up whenever she spoke about what she cared about. Or the way she smiled when he said something completely preposterous but not completely out there. She cared about his opinions and what he had to say even if most of the time she disagreed with him vehemently. He could have a heated debate with her without it ending up in an argument like it often did with Morgana or Gwaine.
It was decided.
Arthur couldn’t just leave it like that.
X
Light streamed across the darkened - this time purposefully - room as Arthur returned from the bathroom until he clicked the light off and they were plunged into darkness again.
Instead of heading back to the couch, Arthur walked over to Gwen and leant against the kitchen counter next to her. He stood watching the TV just as ‘intently’ as she was. He allowed himself to slip down against the front of the kitchen cupboard so he was slightly more level to her; “We need to talk.”
“About what?” she replied equally as quietly without so much as taking her eyes off the screen as Hugh Jackman rode through the forest on the back of a horse and carriage at high speed.
“You know what.”
“Do I?” she said mock-obliviously.
She was infuriating, “Fine.”
Arthur Pendragon had never given up so easily in his life.
He left her standing there just as the microwave finished its cycle and beeped three times loudly. Gwen waited a second for the last few piece to pop before she pulled open the door. Another piece of popcorn popped and she jumped slightly before she grabbed the hot bag from the small appliance.
Gwen separated the popcorn into four bowls; her temper had started to rise and she didn’t want to be reaching into the bag at the same time as Arthur again. She gave a resigned sigh and headed back over to her friends somehow balancing the four bowls on her journey over. She deposited one each with Merlin and Morgana and placed both bowls left in the middle of the sofa so she didn’t have to directly interact with Arthur.
She grabbed her bowl to her chest once she had settled into her seat again, eating the snack with so much vigour and speed she was certain to get hiccups.
X
As the film continued Gwen had abandoned her half full bowl of popcorn on the floor where her feet would have been had they not been tucked beneath her body as she curled into the arm of her sofa with her eyes closed, blissfully unaware that she had been sleeping for the last ten minutes and Arthur had indiscreetly been watching her since.
He cared little for vampires and werewolves and Frankenstein’s monster. It was a fantasy world; which apparently he was staying in too. Only his fantasy didn’t include monsters and death. Quite the opposite.
Gwen sighed in her sleep and shifted slightly, outstretching one of her legs. Her foot brushed Arthur’s thigh. He moved awkwardly, pulling himself away from the contact. She didn’t move again after that, much to his relief.
It wasn’t long before the credits were rolling. Gwen was still sound asleep on the sofa and showed no signs of waking up. Merlin looked positively sleepy too, Morgana was the only one who had remained perfectly awake throughout the entire thing. It was something she had always done, even as a child, just to ensure that everybody was seen off okay or transported home without leaving a tonne of worried people behind.
Merlin stretched and sleepily looked over at his best friend’s sleeping form and smiled over at her. He stood up and disappeared through the only other door in the flat. He reappeared seconds later with a pillow and a duvet that Morgana and Arthur assumed was from her bed.
“Aren’t you going to move her?”
“And risk waking her up?” Merlin looked at Arthur as if he was crazy, “I might look macho and strong, but I’m really not.”
“I can move her,” Arthur offered but a hand on his shoulder told him most directly that it really wasn’t a good idea and listening to Merlin was for the best; even if he didn’t want to believe it for himself.
“One thing you should know about Guinevere Leodegrance. She likes to sleep. Secondly, she’s very dramatic. Wake her up and she’ll throw the biggest strop you’ve seen this side of the solar system. Trust me. She’s very good at it. She’s got that ‘Best Teacher’ mug for a reason.”
“Right… it that case I think we’ll head home then,” Arthur suggested looking over at Morgana who nodded.
“You okay getting home, Merlin?” she asked him, concern etched on her face.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
The pair of siblings left leaving Merlin on his own in his best friend’s living room. He shook his head looking at Gwen as she slept, “What does it take with you? Have we got to hit your heads together or something?” he sighed, bent and kissed her on the forehead, “Happy birthday, Gwen.”
X
In the dead of night one man led awake staring at the ceiling above his double bed. It was only occupied with one person. Thoughts kept running through his head about another that he wished into his bed. He could see her vividly. He could feel her there next to him.
In his dreams he could feel her lips on his as she bid him good night. He could feel the touch of her hands as she pulled his arms around her waist so he spooned her in his sleep. He could still see her face next to his on the cushions as they sat in the dark. He didn’t know what it was about it. He loved her. He thought.
Maybe.
He was never sure these days. He kept his head so much in the game that he’d never had much more than the occasional three night stand. She meant more to him than that. That much he did know.
When the sun rose the next morning he couldn’t tell if he had actually fallen asleep or whether he had spent the whole night with his eyes closed thinking about her. It hurt his head to figure it out. He was so tired but he could have sworn that he hadn’t been there for seven hours when his alarm went off to wake him.
Arthur spent the whole of the next day lamenting about it.
He picked up his phone and checked it. Nothing.
Half an hour later and he checked it again. Nothing.
He knew he could phone her, text her, he could probably even turn up on her door step and demand she talk to him but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. If she wanted to talk to him then she could make the move; he’d tried to speak to her and she had shot him down. Where was the use in trying again?
Arthur lived in a, usually happy, world where he got what he wanted. He worked at things in his life and he got what he wanted in the end. But this? He’d tried, he’d worked and he’d gotten nothing in return.
She wasn’t interested. She’d made that clear.
He didn’t see her for another two weeks when Morgana decided enough was enough and dragged him to the pub. Not their usual haunt with Gwaine and the other boys either but the pub where they did the quiz once in a while with Gwen and Merlin. It wasn’t a Sunday night, but a Tuesday. The pub was empty apart from two figures in the corner.
There were Christmas decorations on the walls, hanging from the ceiling and in the centre of the tables. He’d forgotten about Christmas. He needed to get his two annual presents for Morgana and his father. He had nobody else to buy for.
Merlin perked up when he saw Morgana come through the door. Arthur knew it wasn’t the only time he’d seen her the last few weeks. He’d seen Merlin in their house first thing in the morning and he didn’t want to pay any more time thinking about that than he had to. He was all for his half-sister being happy but he didn’t want to know the details.
Arthur sat down on the bench next to the table they were sat at. He didn’t look at Gwen. He could feel one pair of eyes on him though. He could tell from the way the top of his head was burning as he looked at the floor that it was Morgana glaring at him.
He shifted in his seat; he didn’t even have a pint to wallow in. His phone vibrated in his pocket.
Grow the fuck up. I don’t know what
happened and I don’t want to. Just grow
up.
He looked up at Morgana who appeared to be having an in-depth conversation with Gwen about the play. She’d agreed to go and see it when it was performed the next week. Arthur had agreed to go originally but now he wasn’t so sure. He doubted she’d even want him there.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” he said standing up. He headed over to the toilets, walking passed the backdoor that went into the beer garden. He didn’t even need to relieve himself he just wanted to get away from them. He stood by the sink for long enough to deem appropriate. He walked back out after thirty seconds and headed to the bar. He pulled his wallet fro his pocket and set a fiver on the bar and ordered his pint.
He looked over to his friends. He caught Gwen’s eye and smiled slightly at her. She responded in kind. He only looked away when the barman tapped him on the shoulder to give him his change.
“Thanks,” he took a sip from the top of it. He didn’t move straight away. He looked up, she was immersed in conversation with Merlin and Morgana again. Arthur sighed. He didn’t want to be the fourth cog in an already working machine.
He pushed off of the bar and headed back towards the toilets, this time heading out of the back door of the pub and into the cold. He pulled his jacket tighter around him and sat at one of the benches. He relaxed back and stared up to the sky. Gwen had been right; it was easier to see at the yard.
Standing in the middle of the field with her just looking at the night sky had been good fun. It had been simple. There hadn’t been expectations. There hadn’t been any awkwardness when they’d sat beneath the blanket for an hour just talking to each other.
How he longed to be there now. He escaped his problems there regardless of what they were or who he was with. He always had lost himself when he’d gone to the stables as a kid. He entertained the idea of sneaking away their now. He could just call a taxi and be there within the next twenty minutes. The only thing stopping him was the fact that Morgana wouldn’t let him hear the end of it.
She would be bad enough because he’d come outside to be alone.
Something he wasn’t for long.
“I wondered where you went,” a soft voice stated. She came and sat next to him, not looking him in the eye but up at the sky like he was.
“Just needed some space,” he said.
“You’ve had a lot of that for two weeks,” she said simply looking from the night sky to him. He didn’t look at her though, he kept focused on the sky like his life depended on it.
“So have you,” she watched as his words came out in small rasps of cloud. The heat of his breath against the cold of the winter air.
“I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me.”
He looked at her then, “Why on earth would you think that?”
“Because you didn’t get in contact at all.”
“Neither did you,” they both laughed awkwardly. They were twenty-five years old. They shouldn’t still be acting like this.
“What’s going on with us?” Gwen asked.
“I don’t know.”
“We nearly-“
“I know.”
“But we didn’t.”
“We might have.”
“I know,” there usual ease with each other had gone. Arthur felt awkward, he didn’t know what to say anymore. He had to know, but it was a question of whether he just came out with it directly or asked her in a hypothetical nonsensical way.
“Did you want to?” He chose the former. He wasn’t sure how he wanted her to answer. Hell, he wasn’t sure if he wanted her to answer at all. He was in two minds about it. On one hand he wanted to know if he was wasting his time. On the other he was shit scared that she wouldn’t give him the answer he wanted.
Gwen deflected, “Does that matter now?”
“I don’t know; does it?” he damn near growled in response.
“We’re obviously not comfortable about it.”
“It is a little weird.”
“Why?” She asked him. She knew why it was weird to her. She wasn’t used to being the centre of any attention. She blended in. She went about her business and nobody paid her any attention and here he was painting her at the middle of his vision.
“Because there’s a mountain of reasons why this is a bad idea.”
“This?”
“Everything. Our friendship. Our,” he trailed off. He was looking at her so intently that she couldn’t have looked away from him even if she had wanted to. He was so close now, the merest of movements and she could have kissed him or him her.
“Our what?”
“Whatever this is because it sure isn’t friendship,” his voice was quiet. He wetted his lips and leant to her slightly. He didn’t want to force her into anything but if she wanted it he would deny her of the kiss that nearly happened. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment before looking him; going slightly cross-eyed due to their close proximity.
“We shouldn’t.”
“Give me one good reason why not,” he said with his mouth only an inch from hers.
“Because,” she faltered, “because we don’t want this,” she pulled away from him and stood up from the bench. She had her back to him, with her eyes tightly closed.
“I can’t speak for you, but I’ve wanted to-“
“Don’t,” she cut him off.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t make this harder than it already is,” Gwen moved towards the door of the pub. The chill in the air was biting at her bare skin. There was only so much she could take of him and the weather in one go.
“Why are you making this hard?”
“Because you don’t like me, Arthur,” she left him thee then pushing into the building with a force he hadn’t seem fro her before.
“I think I can speak for myself,” he watched her go, he couldn’t bring himself to move, “Gwen,” he shouted, “Guinevere!”
Arthur ran a frustrated hand over his face and sighed. Angrily he brought the back of his foot into the wood with such a force that he felt as if he could have bruised his heel, “Idiot,” he said to himself under his breath, “Fucking idiot.”
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings/Characters: Arthur, Gwen, Merlin, Morgana. Special guest appearances from Gwaine, Lance, Leon, Percy, Freya and Uther. Plus others inc OCs. (Eventual Arthur/Gwen and Merlin/Morgana. Slight Gwaine/Gwen and Merlin/Freya)
Warnings: Occasional spouts of bad language.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: PG13
Summary: Their lives were never meant to be intertwined... but you can't rewrite destiny.
Author Notes: Today, December 2nd 2010, is my one year Merlin fic anniversary! Woohoooo! To celebrate I am starting to post my 50,000 NaNoWriMo story that I wrote for the gorgeous Queen of Jenalot; mustbethursday3.
As usual these days, thanks go to sgmajorshipper for her beta work on this part.
My Merlin Prompt Table
PART One | Two | Three | Four | Five a | Five b
Ringing roused Gwen from her bath. Her mobile phone was flashing next to the cold tap. She groaned, she was relaxed and comfy and incredibly wet. The ringing was insistent. After a good half a minute she gave in on any idea she had about having a relaxing bath before bed and grabbed for her phone with her dripping hand, “Hello?”
“Guinevere?”
“Arthur?” she climbed out of the bath. She couldn’t talk to him and be completely naked at the same time. Something about it seemed wrong to her, “What can I do for you?” she asked pulling a towel from the radiator and wrapping it around her torso, holding it together with an arm across her ribs.
“Can you come to the yard?”
“Uh, yeah?” she said looking around at her discarded clothes and thinking about how long it would take her to dry herself and get to the place at such a late time. “Why?”
“Just get here ASAP?”
“You’re worrying me,” she grabbed the hand towel from the circular hold and started to scrub it over her legs and feet.
“Don’t. Everything’s fine.”
She stopped, “You’re sure?”
“I have all my limbs and CK is fine,” she heard rustling on the other end, “See. That was him saying hi, by the way.”
“Right okay,” she looked down at herself and wondered why in this moment of madness she was contemplating agreeing with this request. She scratched her forehead with her thumbnail and sighed, “I’ll be there in twenty minutes, okay?”
“Bring your coat.”
X
Gwen pulled up in the small car park and shut off the engine and lights of her old car. It was pitch black in the car park. She had gathered it was sub-zero temperature outside from her short trip from the front of her building and to her car. She was bundled in several layers including a jacket beneath her coat and two scarves. The moonlight cast shadows across the fields. It was then she caught a glimpse of a silhouette.
She climbed out of her car the cold winter air attacking her bare features instantly and quietly shut the door; it was late and she didn’t know if the occupants of the farmhouse would sleeping, “Arthur?” she called out, her voice low.
“You came,” he turned and smiled at her. She pulled her coat around her wishing she was back in her bath with the warmth of it hugging her body.
“How could I not? It’s not everyday somebody calls you at ten o’clock at night - when you are in the bath, no less - and asks you to meet them somewhere.”
“You were in the bath?” Gwen doesn’t know if his expression is him contemplating what the image would look like of her scrambling around in her natural glory for her phone or him feeling no remorse of dragging her out of it. She feared it might be a little of both. He discarded the thought after a moment after lingering on it too long, “Well, it’s pretty cold. After the other night I didn’t think you’d come out into the cold.”
Gwen laughed and pushed one hand into her pocket, from it she produced a small bundled, “I came prepared,” she pulled the bundled apart to reveal a pair of ‘one size fits all’ gloves. She pulled them on and pushed her hands back into her pockets, “What are we doing here?”
Arthur didn’t answer right away. He ran his tongue over his teeth and clicked his tongue, “Come with me,” he guided her along the fence towards the gate. He opened it and held it for her.
She hesitated, “Are we allowed in here?”
“I’m in here all the time.”
“I mean at this time of night?”
“I don’t see why not? Besides, I asked Sophie earlier and she said she’d tell her parents so they didn’t call the police on intruders.”
“So you planned this?”
“I might have done,” he was coy. She had been pulled out of a relaxing bath to be hit on? She smiled at him. He took her hand and led her through the gate. She felt the need to spin under his arm when he lifting her hand above their heads. She nearly refrained but she had to move under their arms so he could lock the gate again behind them. They both laughed. He let her hand go once she’d spun away from him; it was awkward for him to hold on any longer both for mental and physical comfort.
Gwen put her hands back in her coat pockets as they wondered towards the centre of the field. The flag points were still up from Arthur’s practise during the day.
“What are we doing?”
“Here,” he had taken her to the centre of the field, “You said something about the stars in the city not being as bright as they are out here. So I thought I’d prove you right,” a grin broke out on Gwen’s face. She’d never imagined that anybody was listening to her. Now she was reliving her childhood. Not that Arthur knew that.
Gwen looked up and, as she’d said, the stars above her were brighter than she’d ever seen them. She didn’t know quite what to say, “Arthur…”
“I know,” he interrupted, “I’m amazing.”
“You made me drive out here, out of my bath, at ten o’clock, to star gaze?” she asked with a casual mocking her voice. Though she’d rather have her bath the thought of stargazing with Arthur wasn’t one that filled her with complete dread.
“Yeah?”
“You’re insane,” she said truthfully with a hint of laughter in her voice.
“I’m happy being insane.”
“Good for you.”
“I have this feeling,” he said suddenly.
“Sounds ominous.”
“Very funny. I have a feeling that you are good with stars and things. You pointed them out to me before.”
“The only ones I knew,” she said amused.
“Then we can make up new ones,” he looked up and searched for a cluster of dots he could rename, “There!” he pointed. He pulled Gwen to stand in front of him so she could follow his line, “Ready?” she nodded. He traced a line down diagonally. He brought his other hand up to hold the point before he moved off to trace another line down. From his original stopping point he traced onwards.
“No, you’ve lost me.”
“I’m calling it ‘The Knight’. That bit is the lance. There is the knight and there is the horse.”
“Okay. My turn?”
“Your turn,” Gwen looked up at the stars. She searched. It was hard. There were so many she could see that making a clear image was hard. She finally settled on a picture with a small grin on her face.
“There,” she pointed. Arthur crouched so he could follow her finger as she traced her picture.
“Some sort of deranged rabbit?”
“How did you know?” she laughed elbowing him in the ribs, “No,” she traced it again, “Use your imagination.”
“Merlin!”
“No.”
“It’s a dragon,” he said softly into her ear, “and if you look next to it, there’s a pen,” Gwen snorted a laugh and leant back into Arthur’s chest. On instinct he wrapped his arms around her waist. Gwen rested her hand over his and smiled.
“That was terrible,” she said looking up sideways at him.
“But you still laughed,” he argued back. He looked down at her, a lot closer to her than he had anticipated. The corner of his moth tugged into an awkward smile. He swallowed, “Come on. It’s cold.”
“That’s it?”
“I have a blanket in the boot of my car,” he reasoned, “We’ll be warmer there,” he released her from his grasp and started to walk back towards the gate.
I was warmer then…
She submitted and followed him back towards the car; Don’t do this to yourself, Gwen. He’s not interested. And you shouldn’t be either.
X
Whoever was knocking on her door at eleven at night was going to be punched or have it slammed back in their face or both. Most likely.
Arthur was either in bed or still not back yet and considering the porch light was still on she assumed it was the latter. It wouldn’t be him; he knew where the spare key was to let himself in. Morgana could see her annoyance through the window in the door. Her jaw dropped.
“What do you want? I was sleeping.”
“Mor-ga-na!”
“I’ll say it again, what are you doing here?”
“I came to see you,” he reached out slipping his hand into her hair, “I’ve missed you,” she could smell the alcohol on his breath.
She pulled her head away from him and pushed him back; hard, “Get the hell away from me,” Al stumbled out of the doorway and onto the driveway, “Who do you think you are? You can’t just turn up here. Time to leave.”
“I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here with you,” he scrambled towards the door reaching out for her, “I love you.”
“Yeah, so much to slept with somebody else!” she would have pushed him back again but instead she swiped out at him and pelted him hard around the face with the flat of her hand, “Just go. Fuck off!”
She slammed the door in his face.
Slowly, Morgana made her way to the stairs and sat down on the bottom step. Al was still knocking on the other side of the door. Ignoring him, she hoped, would make him go away. He was shouting at her through the letter box. Morgana clamped her hands over her ears in attempt to ignore him.
After five minutes her gave up hope.
After another five minutes later and the front door opened. Arthur came in with a smile on his face. He hadn’t seen Morgana initially too caught up in himself to see her sitting at the bottom of the stairs with her head in her hands.
It wasn’t until she sniffed that he noticed her.
“Morgana?”
“Nice night?” she said wiping the tear tracks fro her face and smiling up at him as convincingly as she could.
“What’s wrong?” he asked straight away.
“Nothing.”
“What did Merlin do?”
“Nothing.”
“Morgana,” he said with warning in his tone, “Tell me,” he sat down on the step next to her and looped his arm around her shoulder. He gently rubbed small circles into her arm in attempt to soothe her.
“Al came over. He was drunk.”
“You let him in?”
“No, but he wouldn’t leave,” she shook her head and tried to fight back the tears. “I hate feeling like this. I want to be happy, to move on. But,” she sniffed. Her breathe caught in her throat and she coughed, “he makes it so hard.”
“Because he’s a wanker. You deserve better than him. You always did.”
“But he’s still able to influence my life.”
“Then cut him out. Replace him.”
“I’m not making him the rebound, Arthur, that’s not fair on either of us.”
“Merlin?” Arthur asked only to confirm that his current thoughts were correct, “I thought you were already together? Ish?”
“Ish. I can’t do it. I love him but- but I can’t move into anything with him if Al still has the power to make me feel like this,” Arthur hugged her into his chest and kissed the top of her head.
He gently soothed her, “It’s okay. He’ll wait for you. He’ll wait until you’re ready.”
X
Merlin walked around his office with his phone to his ear and a grin on his face, “He did what?”
“He called me and made me go to the yard. I thought he’d hurt himself or something so I went.”
“Out of your bath?” Merlin laughed.
“Yeah,” she laughed down the phone. Merlin could see her now hitting herself in the forehead, “When I got there he was all mysterious and took me into the middle of the field.”
“Creeper alert. Creeper alert.”
“Very funny. He’d taken something I’d said and acted on it. It was nice.”
“And then what?” Merlin asked her. He left like one of those gossip girls who just wanted to know everything that everyone had said so he could go and spread it around everywhere.
“Well it was freezing so we ended up in his car-“
“You didn’t!” his jaw dropped. He had expected more of her than to sleep with a guy she had hated not long ago in the back of his car.
“No, Merlin, Christ. Head out of the gutter please.”
“Sorry.”
“No. We ended up talking for ages. We were sat in the back of his jeep thing with the back door open wrapped in this blanket all warm and cosy. Just talking.”
“How romantic,” Merlin said deadpan.
“It was one of the best nights out I’ve had in a while.”
“Now I’m hurt.”
She ignored him, “Five months ago I never even dreamt of thinking anything like this.”
“What have I been telling you? You really should start to listen to Uncle Merlin, Gwenkins,” he loved it when he was right. So it might have taken a bit of convincing from Morgana for him to realise it, but it really did make sense, “Did anything happen?”
“No. Well, nearly, but no.”
“What have we got to do with you? Put you in Seven Minutes of Heaven or something?”
“What?”
“I’ve been watching too much American TV. Ignore me.”
“Gladly.”
“Seriously. Just go for it. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
“Then I’m positive you’ve lost it. We were going to- and he walked away. Not me.”
“Maybe he thinks you don’t want it.”
“Maybe. Well, we’ll never know. I’m not throwing myself at him; not a chance.”
“Gwen-“
“If he’s not interested I’m not making a fool out of myself for nothing. He’s got to make the first move,” Merlin sighed in annoyance at his friend and started to explain the inner workings of every guy’s mind to his best friend.
Sometimes it wasn’t just him that needed the advice.
X
There was a loud knock on her front door that roused Gwen from her RSC adaptation-a-thon as she graded the Year 11s second drafts of their coursework all about Blue Remembered Hills. They’d spent the week acting out scenes from it and over this weekend they would be writing about that. Now she was reading about the character analysis.
Each piece was the same.
The knocking was a welcome break.
Dressed in joggers and a loose t-shirt Gwen made her way to her front door. She pulled it open half expecting one of her neighbours or Merlin.
It was neither, “Arthur?”
“Hi, sorry am I interrupting anything?”
“Only the third act of King Lear.”
“Oh,” he looked torn between thinking he was interrupting too much and running back to his car and asking if he could actually come into her house with whatever it was that he wanted.
Gwen laughed, “Come on in,” she pushed the door open and led him in.
Arthur looked around. Taking in the new surrounding. He smiled as he spotted the number of pictures frames on the wall above the television. There were a number of her and Merlin. One of her and an older man that Arthur assumed was her father, “Nice place.”
“Small place.”
“It’s homely. It’s very,” he looked around, “It’s very yoooou,” he declared.
“Is that actually a compliment?”
“Of course it is. It’s quirky. I like it,” he fiddled with his hoodie zip and continued to look around. He didn’t know whether to sit or stay standing.
“Is there a reason you’re here?” Gwen asked hitting the kettle on.
“Yes! You forgot your jacket,” he produced it from the satchel he had thrown over his shoulder and presented it to her also like a proud spaniel giving his owner a stick, “You left it in the back of my car the other night.”
“Oh, I’d wondered where that’d gone.”
“I saw it when I left the yard earlier, so I thought I’d drop it over on my way past.”
“Your way past?” she asked with a furrowed brow, “I live further away from the yard than you do.”
“Figuratively speaking. I was in the car, I might as well drop it in whilst I remembered. Can’t have you getting cold now can we?”
Gwen didn’t mention that she did have other coats, many of them in fact, “Thanks.”
“No worries.”
“Tea?” she asked at the kettle popped. She had her mug on the counter already with a tea bag in it waiting to be filled.
“I don’t want to get in the way.”
“You won’t,” she said grabbing another mug without an argument from him. She threw a teabag in it and started to fill both cups with hot water, “I’m only marking the same thing over and over. Somebody needs to give those kids some individual flare.”
“Isn’t that what you do?”
“So far it’s not being so successful,” she poured milk into each cup and started to stir them.
“Ah. Well maybe you need to do some sort of session. A game or something. Make them all come up with a word of their own,” he said looking at one of the pieces of paper that had been abandoned on half of the sofa. He looked at the titles of the coursework and quickly through it back down again.
“Do you even know what their coursework is about?”
“Not a clue, but it’s a good place to start if you want individuality?”
“Duly noted,” she replied as she picked the teabags out of the cups, “Sugar?”
“No thanks.”
“Here,” she handed him a plain black mug and sat down on the sofa where she had stated to create some sort of nest.
“Cheers. So what is their coursework?”
“You really want to know?”
“You take an interest in what I do. Time I returned the favour.”
“Yeah, but what you do is interesting. Mine’s not.”
“What’s their coursework?” he asked again this time with a harder tone to his voice. Gwen relented and started to explain it to him as she curled into the edge of the sofa. She moved the pile to the coffee table to let him sit down next to her so he could look at what she’d been presented with, “So if they were a little more incentive it would give them higher marks and you less of a boredom headache?”
“Yeah.”
“I stand by what I said before. Get them all to come up with something. Or in a pair or something and that way you get a more varied response.”
“I’ll do that then,” she replaced the piece of coursework she had in her hand to the top of the pile and left it. There was no point marking more when she was writing the same damned thing on each one.
Gwen grabbed the DVD remote and pressed the play button. She turned back to Arthur; it could play on in the background, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen it before and needed to follow every word, “I never thanked you for the other night.
“What, for disturbing your bath?”
“Yeah,” Gwen grinned at him, “Seriously. I had a good time. Even if it was cold.”
“Wasn’t too bad, was it?”
“No. Not too bad. At least this time I actually ended up stripping a layer.”
“I thought that was all to rouse my attention.”
“Might have been,” she waggled her eyebrows and started to laugh. She had hardly been wearing the best ‘look at me’ clothes. She’d been in so many layers that even the thought of a low cut top had been laughable. She was cold and in scarves and jumpers, “seriously, I had fun.”
“Yeah, me too.”
X
There was always something Merlin didn’t understand when it came to his friends and that was there inability to see what was right before their eyes. Why couldn’t the world be black and white sometimes? Everybody told him that by thinking that it made him naïve. As far as he was aware or care to be aware of, the world could be pretty simple and almost everything boiled down to one of three things; money, work or sex. Sometimes it would fit into all three and it was those things he tried his hardest to avoid.
Those things were the ones that got messiest.
He could understand taking things slowly. Morgana had issues she needed to work through and there was only so much help that Merlin could give her. Some of it she had to do on her own and other parts she had to do with Arthur’s help.
There was honesty with Morgana that Merlin didn’t have with anyone else. Sure, he had an unspoken policy with Gwen in which he told her everything and she told him. They trusted each other with everything; there wasn’t anything he didn’t feel he could tell her. But it went to a whole new level with Morgana, somehow.
She’d told him all about her encounter with her ex-boyfriend a few nights ago when they had met for coffee one evening when they were both free of other commitments. Morgana had started submitting Arthur’s details into the competitions for the next year; gathering the information that they would need for travel.
She had been open with him. Told him exactly why it had upset her.
That’s what it came down to with her. He knew he could trust her implicitly.
Morgana hadn’t been looking for reassurance or a helping had. She’d wanted to get the story off of her chest. She looked more relaxed near instantly afterwards. Once the topic was done Merlin knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t want him to dwell on it. She’d said her piece, that was the page read and turned to the next.
“What are we going to do about them?” Morgana asked him with a spark returning to her eyes. One that he missed whenever she was upset.
“Is there anything we can do?” Merlin asked shrugging his shoulders and looking over his coffee at her, “They seem like a bit of a hopelessly doomed case to me,” he reached over the table top and took a gentle hold of her hand.
“We need to do something. Even if it’s just to open Arthur’s eyes a bit. He’s a bit of a dimwit sometimes.”
“Gwen’s birthday is coming up. We could try then?”
“What’s she doing?”
“What we do most birthdays.”
“Try and take over the world?”
“That,” Merlin cracked a smile, “That right there is why I love you,” he pulled her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Morgana smiled genuinely at him.
X
Somehow Gwen had managed to engross herself so much in making sure the god awful script didn’t come across as completely amateur with the younger kids performing that she did little else other than rehearsals and research and doing extra bits and pieces towards the final shows than she had the year before.
The play itself wasn’t as bad as she had thought but it wasn’t the most inspiring thing she had worked with before. She’d hit herself in the head with it enough ties over the last few weeks to know it really it wasn’t that bad.
“Gweeeeen,” somebody was calling. She was alone at home trying to sleep, why was somebody trying to wake her up, “GWEN!” the same person shouted in Gwen’s ear making her jump a foot in the air out of her seat not her bed, “Here.”
Ellis handed her a cup of black coffee which she accepted, “I was dreaming I was at home having a bubble bath. I thought I’d fallen asleep in there. I had half a mind to tell you to ‘fuck off’.”
“To which you have every right. But lunch is over and you’ve got a tutor group to tend to,” Gwen groaned. Of all the other things recently and she had stupidly said she would take over from one of the English teacher’s tutor groups whilst the lady went on maternity leave.
“Great. You know those kids hate me right?”
“I doubt it. None of the kids here hate you.”
“These ones do. I have no idea what to do with them so I just let the do whatever.”
“And that is why I’m sure they love you. Anyway, I thought you said that Simon kid was in there?”
“Yeah, he is. He’s the only one in there that doesn’t eye me like he wants to eat me.”
“That kid admires you, I’m sure he’ll turn the rest back to like you soon enough.”
“Hopefully. Though the sooner whatever her name is comes back the better. I’m not cut out for this.”
“Get an early night tonight, Gwen.”
She would if she didn’t already know that Merlin was planning on coming over, “It’s my birthday today, did you know that?”
Ellis shook his head, “Happy birthday.”
“Thanks, but all I want to do is sleep. No chance of that.”
“It’s Thursday night, I’m sure your friends would understand.”
“Merlin has this rule; you can only celebrate your birthday on your birthday otherwise it’s cheating.”
“That friend of yours is a little bizarre isn’t he, Gwen?” Gwen nodded and smiled. He really was but she loved him for it, “Go on go. Otherwise you’ll be late.”
Gwen groaned to herself and picked up the mug of coffee from the desk and took it with her without another word.
X
Twenty-five had never been a birthday that had stood out to Gwen. It was an age she was to become and carry on. She didn’t care much for ages. She was still the sae school year as Merlin. She’d just be turning thirty in five years now instead of six. Not that it made that much of a difference to anyone.
She was shattered and she didn’t mind if she celebrated the rest of her birthday with her head on her pillow and unconscious to the outside world. Or in that bath she had dreamt about earlier in the day.
Last year she had celebrated with Merlin. They’d gone to the cinema and Pizza Express, eaten too many sweets and frozen on the way home because they had decided that walking was a good idea on the winter night. A really clever idea.
This year she wasn’t expecting to be much different. She hadn’t even made a plan with Merlin; she was in her joggers and a loose t-shirt. It wasn’t like she’d need to make an effort for him. She’d assume he’d come over with a pile of DVDs and have a half pepperoni half Hawaiian pizza on order with Dominoes to come at nine with a share size diet coke and a portion of chicken strippers and free Garlic bread.
Not that he was predictable at all…
When the knock on her front door came at seven o’clock she couldn’t help but feel like Merlin was early. He usually came at eight o’clock so they could watch two movies, eat pizza and he’d be home for midnight so he could get enough sleep before he had to work with his particle science in the morning without falling asleep.
Gwen had never found his work that interesting; but he was rather adorable when he started going off on one about it. It made him happy so she couldn’t really complain about it. She enjoyed his rambles as much as she enjoyed his company. They defined him. Besides, his eyes glazed over when she started on about the work of Stanislavski or how Brecht transformed Kafka into something workable.
The second thing Gwen hadn’t been expecting was for Merlin to be carrying two pizzas. What happened to ordering in, and why did he have two? He also had three sides’ boxes and two large bottles of diet coke that he must have bought from the supermarket.
“Merlin?” she looked at the load in his hands and held open the door for him. Had she tried to take something she would have unbalanced him.
“Are they here yet?” he asked as he manoeuvred over to the dining table and slowly put down his load in an order that must have been opposite to the way he had picked it up. It balanced out and he didn’t drop anything.
“Are who here yet?”
“Morgana and Arthur.”
Gwen’s eyes widened, “Why are they coming over?”
“It’s your birthday, the big two-five!”
“It’s not that big a thing, Merlin.”
“Well, they’re our friends,” he shrugged, not seeing anything wrong with what he had done, “so I thought I’d invite them over.”
“This is nothing to do with your inane idea that Arthur likes me and I like Arthur, is it?”
“Not at all,” he grinned at her.
“Merlin!”
“It’s not, honest,” he said raising his hands, “It’s your birthday. I wanted us to enjoy it,” he slowly reached into his bag and pulled out a copy of Moulin Rouge, “See. Tradition,” Gwen visibly relaxed. Now she looked less likely to kill him if he said something she deemed out of line Merlin took his chance to comment, “And if Arthur knows all the words there’s an extra point for him!”
Gwen grabbed out for the first thing she could; she pulled a grape from the bunch and launched it at Merlin hitting him square in the chest; “You wound me, Gwen.”
Her doorbell rang out again, twice in quick succession; Arthur’s trademark ring, “Behave,” she warned as she walked back towards the door. She suddenly clocked that she was still wearing her ‘it’s only Merlin’ outfit. She squeaked, “You open that.”
She dived into her bedroom already half pulling off her shirt before she shut the door with her foot. Merlin laughed. He couldn’t help it. He shook his head and walked towards the door with a sly smile on his face. Perfect. His and Morgana’s plan was going to work perfectly, he could feel it.
“Welcome. Birthday girl is getting dressed.”
“You mean she wasn’t before?” Arthur commented with a raised eyebrow. It wasn’t a visual he was completely adverse to. This was Gwen though; she was always ready for things an hour in advanced. Why was she still getting ready now? He shrugged it off as he did the same to his winter coat and hung the rain soaked garment on the hook by the door. Morgana did the same.
“How’re you, Merlin?” she asked him politely.
“I’m good.”
“We brought cake!” she declared happily presenting him with a box, “We didn’t bake it. Honest,” Merlin looked at the box, clearly one from their local supermarket and smiled. He’d been there whilst Morgana had test ran her baking skills and spectacularly failed five times in a row to make a simple Victoria Sponge.
“We even bought candles,” Arthur supplied waving the bag he had in his hand in front of Merlin who helpfully took them from him and over to the table where Morgana had now placed the cake.
The door of Gwen’s bedroom opened, revealing the birthday girl, now dressed in a pair of decent skinny jeans and thick knit cardigan. She had her knit-upper Uggs on her feet acting as a pair of slippers - doing a slightly more respectable job than her Shaun The Sheep ones that were currently stuffed under her bed.
“Hi,” she greeted walking straight passed her guests and over to the dining table to swipe the Moulin Rouge case and headed over to the DVD player to put it in.
“Help yourselves,” Merlin declared opening the pizzas and sides. He too the first slice of pepperoni and swiped a slice of Hawaiian for Gwen; “here.”
“Thanking you,” she took a large bite out of it and sighed in contentment, “Pizza and Ewan, what more does a girl need on her birthday?” Merlin collapsed into the armchair to Gwen’s puzzlement. They would usually cuddle whilst they watched Moulin Rouge, tissues at the ready. Now he was forfeiting that for an armchair he said was uncomfortable and ‘haunted’.
Morgana slumped into the other armchair and grinned at Merlin. It didn’t go unnoticed by the birthday girl but she settled back into the pillows she’d abandoned on the sofa and watched as the film started on her old television.
“Budge up,” she looked up to see Arthur stood with a plate and a couple of slice of pizza on it and the box of chicken strippers in his other hand. She curled into the arm of the sofa leaving him more than two thirds of it to sit in. He abandoned the box of chicken between them and started on his pizza.
X
“The hiiiillssss are aliiveeeeee with the sound of muuuuuusiccc!” both Gwen and Merlin sang at the top of their lungs before bursting out into a fit of laughter. Arthur too laughed and Morgana had a mouthful of food but was smiling along with them when her mouthful allowed her to do so.
Arthur reached over to grab the last chicken stripper from the box at the same time that a giggling Gwen had. His fingers brushed hers causing him to jerk back his hand, “Sorry.”
“No, go ahead, have it.”
“I’ve eaten loads of them already. Beside, it’s your birthday,” Gwen smiled and picked it up from the box. She popped half of it into her mouth and bit down on it leaving half of it and offered the leftovers to Arthur. He smiled and accepted it, throwing it into his mouth in one go, barely even chewing it before he swallowed.
“Love is like Oxygen,” Merlin quoted, eyes firmly fixed on his friend, smirk teasing at the corner of his mouth, “Love is a many-splendored thing! Love lifts us up where we belong.”
“All you need is love,” the four of them said in unison. They looked at each other and laughed, “Freedom! Beauty! Truth and Loooove!” Merlin shot Gwen a look over the piece of pizza he had in his hands. She knew exactly what that look was saying to her.
The Diamond Dogs of the Moulin Rouge started their dance; the ruffling of their skirts and their sexy number with the men visiting. Gwen couldn’t help but bob along.
X
The film passed relatively quickly. It quickly became apparent that the film had been one that Morgana had forced Arthur to watch at least once a year since it came out and he hadn’t objected much of late to it. He found himself enjoying it. Especially since he could join in with the singing along and messing around now.
Once Christian started singing not so secretly to Satine the four of them were all belting out the lyrics. For fun Morgana and Merlin had stood up, acting things out for extra giggles; “Storm clouds may gather and stars may collide,” the girls sang at the top of their voices.
“But I love you,” the boys took over, Merlin looking over-the-top in love with Morgana for comedic effect and Arthur slipping a glance to Gwen, watching as she happily watched her best friend make a fool of himself for her benefit.
“I love you,” they sang back, this time Gwen looked over at Arthur, smile on her face. He didn’t know if she was merely in the sing of it, or it meant anything more to her. She was too happy to bring her down with such trivial things now.
They were approaching the big notes; the ones they were really going to go to town with. Merlin and Morgana had taken each others hands. Their big declaration of ‘love’ was coming and they were ready for it.
Then they were plunged into darkness. Every electric object in the house wound down with the depressing ‘I’m off now’ noise at once. The performers both complained. “Not fair!”
“I’ll find a torch,” Merlin declared heading over to the kitchen.
“Don’t bother,” Gwen said, “Don’t have a torch.”
“Why on earth not?”
“Never needed one before,” she shrugged; not that she could be seen.
“Fine. I’ll go see if it’s just us or an actual thing,” Merlin said fumbling his way over to the door, his eyes still not used to the darkness.
“I’ll go with you,” Morgana said sprightly following the sound of his footsteps towards the flat door. Had Gwen been able to see she would have noticed Merlin grab Morgana’s hand and guide her past the table to the door without hitting anything. Then she would have thrown something at him for being a pain in the arse. Was he ever going to define this thing?
“And then there was two,” Arthur said relaxing back into the sofa. He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Yeah.”
Arthur had an idea. He pushed himself up from the sofa and, after managing to walk into the arm of the sofa and the empty pizza box Merlin had discarded earlier, he found his way over to the table and grabbed the box of matches and the bag with the birthday cake candles in it. He was careful on his way back not to walk into anything and sat on the edge of the sofa once he got back there.
“Here,” he fumbled in the carrier bag and pulled the box of small candles out and gave her the first one he pulled out of the box. He grabbed another for himself. He abandoned the bag on the floor and grabbed the matches from where he had balanced them on his knee. He carefully got a match out of the box and blindly ran his fingers over it to get it the right way around. It took him two attempted to strike the match so it sparked to life.
He carefully held the match up to the candle that he presented Gwen with and lit it and repeated the action with the one he had in his left hand, “Hello,” he grinned, now able to make her out in the flicking light the small candles were casting. They wouldn’t last long before they threatened to burn their fingers but then hopefully neither would the power shortage.
Gwen’s grin was big enough to rival the Cheshire Cat as she looked at the small candles in their hands and realised just how ridiculous they must have looked. That or they looked like giants...
“Well, happy birthday from the power board.”
“Thanks,” she laughed, “Just when we were being given a good show.”
“We were giving better than we got,” Arthur said with a smirk on his face. It was an obvious lie but Gwen smiled in return all the same.
“I think we all killed it. Just a lot…”
Arthur laughed and looked at the small candle in his hand. It was melting quicker than he had anticipated, the wax melting and dribbling slowly down the sides nearly burning the tips of his fingers but luckily cooling and setting before it reached them for now.
Gwen was relaxed back against the cushions of her sofa with the arms of her cardigan rolled up to just below her elbows. She was watching the candle intently as the wick burned. With a sigh Arthur too shrank back into the sofa, he rested his temple on the top of the cushion looking down at the woman who seven months ago had knocked him over in the road and threatened his sporting career. Back then he had never contemplated that he’d been sat with her on her birthday wishing that she would just look at him.
She did. In exactly the moment he deemed it so she did it. With that small smile tugging at her lips that she got when she was truly happy. She rested her head next to his and took a deep breath, sighed contently and closed her eyes.
“That was a big sigh,” he commented with his voice no more than a whisper, “Everything alright?”
“Yeah,” she gave a small nod but didn’t open her eyes.
X
Merlin led Morgana to the hallway window and looked out into the dark street. It was deserted. All the streetlights were without power as well as the rest of the buildings in the street that they would see.
“This could be going better than planned,” Morgana complained.
“Maybe it is. Maybe they’re having rampant sex on the sofa now we’ve gone.”
“Thanks for that mental image, Merlin. That was something I wanted in my head.”
“Sorry,” he leant against the window sill and reached out with his hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, “Why do we concentrate on them so much?” he asked her fiddling with the strands of hair he had between his fingers.
“Because it’s easier.”
“Avoidance trumps happiness?”
“Something like that. Projecting onto others what we wish upon ourselves?”
“They do say ‘treat other how you wish to be treated’,” he said wistfully.
“So we force them on each other because we want them to force us on each other?” Morgana asked jokily. She laughed, mirrored by Merlin near instantly, “We’re not good at this, are we?”
“And yet we pretend we are.”
“Maybe we just need to stop pretending,” she said leaning into his hand. She pressed a kiss to the palm of his hand and looked up at him through half open eyes, “My name’s Morgana Pendragon and I’m crap at romance.”
“Nice to meet you Morgana. My name is Merlin Emrys and I’m hopelessly in love with you,” she pushed up the distance between them and kissed him lightly on the lips. She pulled away from him again to gage his reaction. He gently chewed his lip and broke into a smile. Morgana rested her head against his shoulder and sighed.
“It wasn’t that hard was it,” she chuckled into his shoulder.
“No. It wasn’t.”
X
If Gwen wasn’t careful she’d fall asleep with a full belly and a cheerful state of mind which would undoubtedly lead to good dreams involving none other than those present in the room at current. She had the candle Arthur had given her in her hand; she could feel the heat of its small flame against the tops of her fingers.
Arthur kept an eye on his candle; it was reaching his fingers so he blew on it gently. The corner of Gwen’s mouth curled up at the feeling of a cold breeze on her face, “Careful,” he mumbled gently taking the small candle from her fingers and blowing that one out too.
“Now how will we see?” she asked opening her eyes, it took her a moment to focus on him but once she did she could focus on his features in the moonlight that streamed through the window. The street light was out, it must have been the whole street, if not more, that suffered, “Hello.”
“Hi,” he smiled. He leant against the back cushions with his arm propped on the top of them, his eyes still on her. She fidgeted and mirrored his position; her elbow brushing his as she did. She let her arm extend just slightly so her fingers gently traced his. Arthur took the contact as permission to intertwine his fingers with hers. Arthur had never particularly felt nervous before but he imagined that this was what it felt like.
Instinctively his gaze flickered between her eyes and her lips, back and forth several times before he settled on eye contact. Subconsciously the pair of them both wetted their lips and slowly leant forwards towards each other. Arthur tilted his head to the side, into the pillows of the sofa and Gwen the other way.
Slowly her eyes drifted closed; Arthur’s following suit.
There was a loud beep as the fridge powered back up - Gwen hadn’t even thought about the gradually defrosting food in her freezer in all of the kafuffle. The noise in itself scared them into jumping out of their skins and away from each other but now the lights were back on the pair of them skirted back away from the other. Arthur cleared his throat and Gwen found a spot on her Uggs that she could look at and keep staring at, fiddling with her own fingers with her hands in her lap.
The front door opened again not long after. Merlin and Morgana entered both looking pleased. They clapped eyes on the pair sat on the sofa and scowled. They were sat like two awkward teenagers who didn’t know what to make of each other. Surely that couldn’t be it? Morgana was convinced her half-brother had a thing. A big thing. And Merlin had been adamant that Gwen had reciprocated the thing in a big way. Why wasn’t there tongue contact?
Merlin inwardly groaned and closed the door behind him; “Powers back,” he said lamely as he marched to the armchair he had been stationed in before their epic sing along.
“Thanks for the update,” Gwen said not looking up fro her shoes and playing with a loose wool on her cardigan. Morgana looked between the you-should-be-(according-to-her-and-Merlin)-couple and glanced at Merlin. The fools had managed to cock up their - unintentionally aided - foolproof plan…
They were meant to be making out like their lives depended on it by now.
Maybe they were wrong. Maybe they weren’t digging each other like they had expected.
X
They’d finished Moulin Rouge once Gwen had decided it was time one of them put the film back on. There were no more of their epic sing-alongs; nor did Merlin and Morgana get back up to dance. Once the film was over Gwen had gotten up again and changed the disc to one of the action films Merlin had brought with him.
No more getting stupidly close to the people she shouldn’t.
Half way through the film Arthur had excused himself to the toilet. Gwen took the not-so-awkward opportunity to get up and go and put another round of popcorn in the microwave for their consumption. She leant against the kitchen counter, watching the film from there whilst the corn popped. She yawned to herself. It was a lot later now than she had planned to stay awake. Given the choice she’d be in bed fast asleep and she would have been hours ago.
X
Arthur stood looking at himself in the mirror. How did he let himself get like this? It was stupid. The lights coming back on wouldn’t usually be something that would stop him from doing what he wanted before now…
This was far more nerve-wracking than any equestrian competition had been for him.
He ran the cold tap and held his hands in a well under it; it filled quickly. He leant over the sink and splashed his face with the water and rubbed his eyes. Somehow it felt like it would help him to see more clearly. It didn’t of course, he didn’t even feel remotely better after he had done it so he shut off the tap and grabbed the hand towel up fro it’s circular hold and dabbed his face.
Arthur sighed.
He was Arthur Pendragon; Olympic gold medallist and serial competitor. He didn’t get nervous.
So why did he feel like a whole harem of butterflies were battling their way out of his stomach at that exact moment? Arthur let out a long breath ad rubbed his hands over his face again. He couldn’t go on like this. Morgana wouldn’t let him and neither would his head.
He’d nearly kissed her.
The girl who’d nearly brought about the end of his life as he knew it yet none of that mattered because of the way the drama teacher’s eyes lit up whenever she spoke about what she cared about. Or the way she smiled when he said something completely preposterous but not completely out there. She cared about his opinions and what he had to say even if most of the time she disagreed with him vehemently. He could have a heated debate with her without it ending up in an argument like it often did with Morgana or Gwaine.
It was decided.
Arthur couldn’t just leave it like that.
X
Light streamed across the darkened - this time purposefully - room as Arthur returned from the bathroom until he clicked the light off and they were plunged into darkness again.
Instead of heading back to the couch, Arthur walked over to Gwen and leant against the kitchen counter next to her. He stood watching the TV just as ‘intently’ as she was. He allowed himself to slip down against the front of the kitchen cupboard so he was slightly more level to her; “We need to talk.”
“About what?” she replied equally as quietly without so much as taking her eyes off the screen as Hugh Jackman rode through the forest on the back of a horse and carriage at high speed.
“You know what.”
“Do I?” she said mock-obliviously.
She was infuriating, “Fine.”
Arthur Pendragon had never given up so easily in his life.
He left her standing there just as the microwave finished its cycle and beeped three times loudly. Gwen waited a second for the last few piece to pop before she pulled open the door. Another piece of popcorn popped and she jumped slightly before she grabbed the hot bag from the small appliance.
Gwen separated the popcorn into four bowls; her temper had started to rise and she didn’t want to be reaching into the bag at the same time as Arthur again. She gave a resigned sigh and headed back over to her friends somehow balancing the four bowls on her journey over. She deposited one each with Merlin and Morgana and placed both bowls left in the middle of the sofa so she didn’t have to directly interact with Arthur.
She grabbed her bowl to her chest once she had settled into her seat again, eating the snack with so much vigour and speed she was certain to get hiccups.
X
As the film continued Gwen had abandoned her half full bowl of popcorn on the floor where her feet would have been had they not been tucked beneath her body as she curled into the arm of her sofa with her eyes closed, blissfully unaware that she had been sleeping for the last ten minutes and Arthur had indiscreetly been watching her since.
He cared little for vampires and werewolves and Frankenstein’s monster. It was a fantasy world; which apparently he was staying in too. Only his fantasy didn’t include monsters and death. Quite the opposite.
Gwen sighed in her sleep and shifted slightly, outstretching one of her legs. Her foot brushed Arthur’s thigh. He moved awkwardly, pulling himself away from the contact. She didn’t move again after that, much to his relief.
It wasn’t long before the credits were rolling. Gwen was still sound asleep on the sofa and showed no signs of waking up. Merlin looked positively sleepy too, Morgana was the only one who had remained perfectly awake throughout the entire thing. It was something she had always done, even as a child, just to ensure that everybody was seen off okay or transported home without leaving a tonne of worried people behind.
Merlin stretched and sleepily looked over at his best friend’s sleeping form and smiled over at her. He stood up and disappeared through the only other door in the flat. He reappeared seconds later with a pillow and a duvet that Morgana and Arthur assumed was from her bed.
“Aren’t you going to move her?”
“And risk waking her up?” Merlin looked at Arthur as if he was crazy, “I might look macho and strong, but I’m really not.”
“I can move her,” Arthur offered but a hand on his shoulder told him most directly that it really wasn’t a good idea and listening to Merlin was for the best; even if he didn’t want to believe it for himself.
“One thing you should know about Guinevere Leodegrance. She likes to sleep. Secondly, she’s very dramatic. Wake her up and she’ll throw the biggest strop you’ve seen this side of the solar system. Trust me. She’s very good at it. She’s got that ‘Best Teacher’ mug for a reason.”
“Right… it that case I think we’ll head home then,” Arthur suggested looking over at Morgana who nodded.
“You okay getting home, Merlin?” she asked him, concern etched on her face.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
The pair of siblings left leaving Merlin on his own in his best friend’s living room. He shook his head looking at Gwen as she slept, “What does it take with you? Have we got to hit your heads together or something?” he sighed, bent and kissed her on the forehead, “Happy birthday, Gwen.”
X
In the dead of night one man led awake staring at the ceiling above his double bed. It was only occupied with one person. Thoughts kept running through his head about another that he wished into his bed. He could see her vividly. He could feel her there next to him.
In his dreams he could feel her lips on his as she bid him good night. He could feel the touch of her hands as she pulled his arms around her waist so he spooned her in his sleep. He could still see her face next to his on the cushions as they sat in the dark. He didn’t know what it was about it. He loved her. He thought.
Maybe.
He was never sure these days. He kept his head so much in the game that he’d never had much more than the occasional three night stand. She meant more to him than that. That much he did know.
When the sun rose the next morning he couldn’t tell if he had actually fallen asleep or whether he had spent the whole night with his eyes closed thinking about her. It hurt his head to figure it out. He was so tired but he could have sworn that he hadn’t been there for seven hours when his alarm went off to wake him.
Arthur spent the whole of the next day lamenting about it.
He picked up his phone and checked it. Nothing.
Half an hour later and he checked it again. Nothing.
He knew he could phone her, text her, he could probably even turn up on her door step and demand she talk to him but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. If she wanted to talk to him then she could make the move; he’d tried to speak to her and she had shot him down. Where was the use in trying again?
Arthur lived in a, usually happy, world where he got what he wanted. He worked at things in his life and he got what he wanted in the end. But this? He’d tried, he’d worked and he’d gotten nothing in return.
She wasn’t interested. She’d made that clear.
He didn’t see her for another two weeks when Morgana decided enough was enough and dragged him to the pub. Not their usual haunt with Gwaine and the other boys either but the pub where they did the quiz once in a while with Gwen and Merlin. It wasn’t a Sunday night, but a Tuesday. The pub was empty apart from two figures in the corner.
There were Christmas decorations on the walls, hanging from the ceiling and in the centre of the tables. He’d forgotten about Christmas. He needed to get his two annual presents for Morgana and his father. He had nobody else to buy for.
Merlin perked up when he saw Morgana come through the door. Arthur knew it wasn’t the only time he’d seen her the last few weeks. He’d seen Merlin in their house first thing in the morning and he didn’t want to pay any more time thinking about that than he had to. He was all for his half-sister being happy but he didn’t want to know the details.
Arthur sat down on the bench next to the table they were sat at. He didn’t look at Gwen. He could feel one pair of eyes on him though. He could tell from the way the top of his head was burning as he looked at the floor that it was Morgana glaring at him.
He shifted in his seat; he didn’t even have a pint to wallow in. His phone vibrated in his pocket.
Grow the fuck up. I don’t know what
happened and I don’t want to. Just grow
up.
He looked up at Morgana who appeared to be having an in-depth conversation with Gwen about the play. She’d agreed to go and see it when it was performed the next week. Arthur had agreed to go originally but now he wasn’t so sure. He doubted she’d even want him there.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” he said standing up. He headed over to the toilets, walking passed the backdoor that went into the beer garden. He didn’t even need to relieve himself he just wanted to get away from them. He stood by the sink for long enough to deem appropriate. He walked back out after thirty seconds and headed to the bar. He pulled his wallet fro his pocket and set a fiver on the bar and ordered his pint.
He looked over to his friends. He caught Gwen’s eye and smiled slightly at her. She responded in kind. He only looked away when the barman tapped him on the shoulder to give him his change.
“Thanks,” he took a sip from the top of it. He didn’t move straight away. He looked up, she was immersed in conversation with Merlin and Morgana again. Arthur sighed. He didn’t want to be the fourth cog in an already working machine.
He pushed off of the bar and headed back towards the toilets, this time heading out of the back door of the pub and into the cold. He pulled his jacket tighter around him and sat at one of the benches. He relaxed back and stared up to the sky. Gwen had been right; it was easier to see at the yard.
Standing in the middle of the field with her just looking at the night sky had been good fun. It had been simple. There hadn’t been expectations. There hadn’t been any awkwardness when they’d sat beneath the blanket for an hour just talking to each other.
How he longed to be there now. He escaped his problems there regardless of what they were or who he was with. He always had lost himself when he’d gone to the stables as a kid. He entertained the idea of sneaking away their now. He could just call a taxi and be there within the next twenty minutes. The only thing stopping him was the fact that Morgana wouldn’t let him hear the end of it.
She would be bad enough because he’d come outside to be alone.
Something he wasn’t for long.
“I wondered where you went,” a soft voice stated. She came and sat next to him, not looking him in the eye but up at the sky like he was.
“Just needed some space,” he said.
“You’ve had a lot of that for two weeks,” she said simply looking from the night sky to him. He didn’t look at her though, he kept focused on the sky like his life depended on it.
“So have you,” she watched as his words came out in small rasps of cloud. The heat of his breath against the cold of the winter air.
“I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me.”
He looked at her then, “Why on earth would you think that?”
“Because you didn’t get in contact at all.”
“Neither did you,” they both laughed awkwardly. They were twenty-five years old. They shouldn’t still be acting like this.
“What’s going on with us?” Gwen asked.
“I don’t know.”
“We nearly-“
“I know.”
“But we didn’t.”
“We might have.”
“I know,” there usual ease with each other had gone. Arthur felt awkward, he didn’t know what to say anymore. He had to know, but it was a question of whether he just came out with it directly or asked her in a hypothetical nonsensical way.
“Did you want to?” He chose the former. He wasn’t sure how he wanted her to answer. Hell, he wasn’t sure if he wanted her to answer at all. He was in two minds about it. On one hand he wanted to know if he was wasting his time. On the other he was shit scared that she wouldn’t give him the answer he wanted.
Gwen deflected, “Does that matter now?”
“I don’t know; does it?” he damn near growled in response.
“We’re obviously not comfortable about it.”
“It is a little weird.”
“Why?” She asked him. She knew why it was weird to her. She wasn’t used to being the centre of any attention. She blended in. She went about her business and nobody paid her any attention and here he was painting her at the middle of his vision.
“Because there’s a mountain of reasons why this is a bad idea.”
“This?”
“Everything. Our friendship. Our,” he trailed off. He was looking at her so intently that she couldn’t have looked away from him even if she had wanted to. He was so close now, the merest of movements and she could have kissed him or him her.
“Our what?”
“Whatever this is because it sure isn’t friendship,” his voice was quiet. He wetted his lips and leant to her slightly. He didn’t want to force her into anything but if she wanted it he would deny her of the kiss that nearly happened. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment before looking him; going slightly cross-eyed due to their close proximity.
“We shouldn’t.”
“Give me one good reason why not,” he said with his mouth only an inch from hers.
“Because,” she faltered, “because we don’t want this,” she pulled away from him and stood up from the bench. She had her back to him, with her eyes tightly closed.
“I can’t speak for you, but I’ve wanted to-“
“Don’t,” she cut him off.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t make this harder than it already is,” Gwen moved towards the door of the pub. The chill in the air was biting at her bare skin. There was only so much she could take of him and the weather in one go.
“Why are you making this hard?”
“Because you don’t like me, Arthur,” she left him thee then pushing into the building with a force he hadn’t seem fro her before.
“I think I can speak for myself,” he watched her go, he couldn’t bring himself to move, “Gwen,” he shouted, “Guinevere!”
Arthur ran a frustrated hand over his face and sighed. Angrily he brought the back of his foot into the wood with such a force that he felt as if he could have bruised his heel, “Idiot,” he said to himself under his breath, “Fucking idiot.”