Fic-A Rose By Any Other Name, 1a/?
Title: A Rose by Any Other Name, Chapter 1/?
Author: ne_rien
Rating: PG14-ish
Word count: This chapter (parts a&b) runs at about 3,107 words
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin, Morgana, Morgana/Merlin if you squint really hard and stand on your head
Spoilers/Warnings: Modern AU so it’s slightly crack-tastic. Contains mild language and sexual content. Also, this hasn’t been Brit-picked and I know almost nothing about football so forgive any errors.
Disclaimer: If I owned this show, it would be sexy!times all the time bbs. I also didn’t write the lines from the play; that was all good Mr. William Shakespeare.
Prompt: Written for camelot_love's Spring Fling promptU-5: Arthur, Gwen, Morgana, and Merlin all get in their high school spring play "Romeo and Juliet” courtesy of the lovely wickedvampirate's . Writing high school!Merlin & company broke my brain bb, sorry. I had to make them a little bit older; I hope you don’t mind!
Author’s notes: Once I was finally able to start on this fic, it was hard to stop it! Our characters are in their third year at university. Gwen and Morgana are best friends and flatmates as are Arthur and Merlin. Gwen’s broken off with Lancelot and Arthur finds himself taking rather desperate measures to insert himself into her life. Cut text from a Michael Buble song, title comes from a line from “Romeo and Juliet.” Also! LJ is being a menace and saying this post is too long, so follow the link at the end to 1b. <33
There were definitely times where having Morgana Le Fay as a best friend was something Gwen considered a plus; unfortunately this was not one of those times. Gwen folded her arms across the front of her jumper, waiting for the willowy beauty to catch her breath between laughing fits.
“Are you nearly done laughing then?” she asked, her expression one of thinly veiled annoyance as she glared down at her friend. They’d just met outside of the theater classroom after their final class of the day to see if Professor Gaius had posted the outcome of last week’s auditions yet. It turned out he had and the results were far from what either had expected.
“Not…not even remotely!” Morgana wheezed from where she had collapsed in one of the comfier couches on campus. “I-I-I can’t believe you and my-my-my brother are playing the star crossed lo-lovers-“she collapsed into laughter again, clutching her side, completely oblivious to and uncaring of the strange looks passersby were giving her.
Gwen rolled her eyes. “It’s not that funny and it’s just acting Morgana. I am an adult woman; I can be perfectly mature about all of this, and I’m sure Arthur can too.”
An extremely unladylike snort followed that statement. “‘Arthur’ and ‘mature’ go together like ‘classy’ and ‘The Jerry Springer program’ and by that I mean not at all. That may literally be the last word I would use to describe him.”
“That’s rather harsh,” Gwen commented, relieved that her friend had stopped laughing.
Morgana stood up, brushing nonexistent creases from her emerald green tunic dress. “Maybe, but you didn’t have to grow up with the tosser; I did.” Her eyes narrowed in a way that made Gwen relieved not to be the cause of it. “You never had him put frogs in your sock drawers, or tell your mates that you wear rubber pants to bed, or dunk your best dolls’ heads in paint to ‘give them new looks’,” she groused.
Gwen, an only child, felt the corners of her mouth twitching upwards in amusement. “No, I can’t say I have,” she conceded, trying to imagine a young Arthur Pendragon. He’d likely been all shaggy blonde hair and big blue eyes with the same ability to charm those around him so that he managed to get his way.
“Oh, enough about that wanker; all this talk about him is killing my buzz,” her best friend sighed, grabbing her bag from the couch and gesturing for Gwen to follow her out of the building.
“Killing your--? You’ve been drinking?”
“God yes. You think I could be bothered to sit through a lecture on chemical thermodynamics if I wasn’t half pissed?” Morgana grinned unrepentantly as her friend frowned disapprovingly. “Oh, don’t do that. I’m letting you drive us back to the flat; aren’t I? Here,” she handed Gwen the keys to her cobalt grey Mercedes-a present from Uther, her foster father. “Better?”
Gwen forced a smile, unwilling to confess to her friend that she was worried she had been behaving too recklessly lately. “Better.”
Morgana grinned, relieved. “Great. Let’s head back to ours then; I want a chance to look over the script before rehearsal tomorrow so I can figure out how to make this Nurse person more interesting.”
** **
“You can’t be serious!”
Arthur arched his brows, a bit surprised at how stunned Merlin evidently was by the news that he was going to be playing Mercutio. “I’m afraid so Merlin. It looks like either A) you’re a better actor than you’ve shown all of us, or B) Professor Gaius is a complete idiot.”
Merlin smirked as he leaned against a wall. “If the second one’s true, then I guess that explains why he gave you the role of Romeo when you haven’t had a date in oh,” he glanced at his watch “Over ten months or in other words, not since Gwen and Lancelot fell out.”
Arthur scowled at his flatmate and friend, his face flushing red in embarrassment. “I could kill you, you know; with my bare hands. I’m sure I could enlist Morgana to help me bury your body afterward.”
“I noticed you aren’t denying it,” Merlin replied, ignoring the threat. “This could be your chance to put us all out of our misery. I know I’m tired of watching you making eyes at poor Gwen every time we hang out together, and I’m sure Morgana is too.”
“She has no idea,” Arthur mumbled, pretending to read the magazine he’d picked up sometime during Merlin’s rant.
“How can you be so sure?”
The University’s football captain aka the rugby team’s 3rd time championship MVP arched a brow sardonically as he flipped past a two page ad for trainers. “Don’t you think that if Morgana knew, she would be using this knowledge at every possible opportunity to torture me?”
Merlin rolled his eyes. Arthur was right of course, he just couldn’t fathom as an only child why those two spent so much time making the other’s life hell. “Well at least I know now why you dragged me to auditions last week.” He grinned suddenly as an idea hit him. “You do realize there’s a kissing scene?”
“I have read this play several times before Merlin; I’m not a buffoon,” Arthur growled, his face red.
“Of course you’re not,” the biochemistry major replied in a tone that suggested he believed otherwise. “You know if the idea of kissing Gwen makes you uncomfortable--”
“Who said anything about anyone making anybody else uncomfortable?!”
“-then I’d be glad to trade roles with you.” Merlin’s expression turned thoughtful. “I’m honestly a better candidate for the role anyway. You’re too broad, too bulky, and too-- what’s the word?-supercilious.”
The footie magazine was tossed to the wayside by now and the University of Camelot’s star was glaring at his flatmate with an expression that promised retribution.
Merlin struggled to maintain his composure even as he let his eyes dart quickly toward his bedroom where he had a locked door that he would need to safely get behind if Arthur was to decide to give him a right pasting. “Besides, I’ve kissed Gwen before, and I really wouldn’t mind doing it again.”
A muscle in Arthur’s jaw ticked. “You kissed Guinevere?” he repeated incredulously.
“Just the once. Well, I didn’t so much kiss her as Morgana dared Gwen she wouldn’t kiss me and she did. Oh yeah, and then there was the time last year when she forgot to bring her research paper to class and I brought it to her, but that was just a thank you…probably.”
“I’m going to kill you Merlin,” Arthur very nearly growled.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Right, I’m shutting up now. But since it’s been so long since you last kissed a woman, I can offer a few tips if you need them-“he didn’t get a chance to finish the joke as a cushion hit him squarely in the face.
Part Two Here