fic: it's the way you look at him
Title: it’s the way you look at him
Rating: PG
Genre(s): romance
Word Count: ~1,500
Pairing(s) / Character(s): Bradley / Colin, Katie, Angel, Anthony, Richard, Rupert
Warnings / Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or its cast and crew, etc.
Summary: Inspired by the numerous photos of Bradley and Colin, especially this one taken by yavannauk.
“Have you seen yourself?” Angel asks one day, tied into a beautiful new dress, pale coral-red, and hair curling along her neck.
Bradley squints at her, standing in the afternoon sun. “I looked in the mirror this morning, like I do every morning,” he replies playfully.
Angel shakes her head, the smallest of amused smiles lingering. “I mean.” She pauses. “With Colin.”
“What about him?” Bradley asks, wondering what Angel is harping on about. He’s always with Colin, nothing special about it - they have the most scenes together, after all, and they’re best mates.
“It’s just...” Angel trails off, watching Bradley carefully, then sighs. “Never mind.” She hurries off to her next shoot in the castle, leaving Bradley to ponder alone.
The next time it happens it’s with Richard, who’s fashionably dressed in a hairnet, wig, glasses and all.
“Bradley,” he greets, joining him under the secure shade of a tree.
“Hi Richard,” Bradley responds with a smile as Richard takes the seat next to him. “How’s it going?”
“Very well, I think. However, this is not the most comfortable of accessories.” Richard touches his hairnet and chuckles.
They make small talk for about five minutes, until Richard suddenly says, out of the blue, “I knew I was in love when I couldn’t stop looking at a boy.”
Bradley blinks, wants to say Excuse me?, but can only stare dumbly instead.
Richard turns a knowing smile on Bradley, slowly stands up, and pats him on the arm. “It’s all in the eyes,” he declares sagely, and wanders off.
When Katie, dressed in battle gear, sidles up to him during Colin’s shoot, Bradley doesn’t think anything of it. They stand side by side in companionable silence and watch Colin stretch his arm, holding his slender fingers out at an imaginary foe, again and again.
Finally, when Jeremy has a word with Colin about angles and expressions, Bradley turns to Katie, and realises with a start that she’s staring at him. He grins. “See something you like, McGrath?” he teases, joking.
Katie merely smirks back. “I think you should ask yourself that question, Bradley.” With a little wave, she walks off.
Bradley is with Colin, sitting in a corner of the field waiting for the crew to set up, and they’re chatting about the script when Colin makes a witty remark about Uther, causing Bradley to burst out laughing. “Speaking of the Devil,” Bradley then quips when he spies Anthony approaching them, dressed in chainmail that matches Bradley’s current armour. “Ready to fight it out to the death, Dad?” he jokes, standing up and taking the sword Colin offers him.
Anthony chuckles, and onscreen father and son leave Colin to traipse towards the centre of the field, where Andreas is waiting. “Colin’s a funny lad, isn’t he?” Anthony says, looking at Bradley.
Bradley catches Anthony’s eye, wonders why he’s looking at him like that with such a meaningful smile, but nods nonetheless. “Yeah. He is.”
Rupert and Bradley are sitting together on the castle steps, sharing earphones and humming along to Bradley’s iPod, when Colin wanders by. “Col,” Bradley motions at him. Colin waves back, but makes apologetic gestures that he is needed elsewhere, and continues on his way.
As Bradley stares after his back, humming forgotten, Rupert asks, “When are you going to tell him?”
Bradley turns to Rupert, then looks down briefly to flick his thumb over his playlists as the song has finished. “Tell him what?”
“How you feel.” Rupert claps Bradley on the back, supportive and encouraging. “It’s all right, man. It can’t be easy.”
“What do you mean, how I feel?” Bradley looks up again, having chosen a song, and frowns in confusion.
“About Colin,” Rupert replies, watching Bradley. “How you feel about him.”
Bradley blinks, looks bewildered. “Er... He’s a mate. My best mate. What are you talking about, Rupert?”
“Um.” Rupert struggles to find words for an awkward moment. “Right. Of course. Never mind. Forget I said anything.” He promptly starts humming along to the song playing in their ears, and avoids Bradley’s questioning stare.
“Mum,” Bradley smiles into his phone, “stop fussing, I’m fine. Just a few bruises here and there, nothing I can’t handle.”
“You’ve always been so prone to injuries,” Bradley’s mother sighs from her house in Devon, far, far away from France.
“It comes with the job,” Bradley tries to appease her as he paces around his room, staring out of the window where the sun is setting, ready to plunge the city into darkness.
“That’s what you said about football,” Mrs James responds dryly, then chuckles. “Actually, I saw a photo of you the other day. Both you and Colin are looking good.”
“Yeah, we’re doing great,” Bradley nods to himself, opening his laptop and sitting down at it as he turns it on.
“What’s going on between you boys anyway?”
“What do you mean, Mum?” Bradley types in his password.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Bradley, I’m your mother,” Mrs James chides. “I know there’s something going on between you two. I’ve known all of your girlfriends and boyfriends since you were five years old, don’t start hiding things like this from me now.”
Bradley freezes, almost dropping the phone out of the crook of his shoulder as his fingers halt above the laptop keyboard.
“Bradley?”
“Mum, Colin and I aren’t dating!” Bradley blurts out, half laughing. “What gave you that idea?”
“You’re not?” Mrs James sounds almost disappointed. “But he’s such a good-looking lad, and a wonderful actor. You’re always talking about him.”
“Because he’s my best mate,” Bradley insists, abandoning his laptop entirely and clutching the phone closer. “Who told you we were dating, ‘cause it’s a lie!”
“No one did, darling,” Mrs James replies. “I just assumed. The photo I saw of you two, the way you were looking at him - you look like you’re in love. You don’t look at just anyone like that.”
Bradley falters, and his brain refuses to process this sudden onslaught of information. “I... I do love Colin, but not like that,” he insists.
Bradley’s mother sighs softly down the line. “Are you sure?”
Colin is about to turn off the TV when a knock comes at his door. He swings it open and is surprised to see Bradley, looking a little too awake for this time of night. “Hey,” Colin greets. “Is everything okay?”
“Um, yeah,” Bradley replies, waving a hand in the air distractedly. “Do you, er, still have those photos? Of us - all of us - on set and stuff?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Can I see them?”
Colin thinks that this is a rather odd request, even for Bradley, but he nods and holds the door open.
Bradley sinks into Colin’s bed and watches his co-star move around the room, following his figure intently. When Colin finds the pack of photos and turns to hand them to Bradley, he catches his stare and offers a small smile. “Are you sure everything’s okay?” Colin asks again.
Bradley merely nods and takes the photos, immediately starts looking through them.
“Are you looking for something?” Colin tries again, sitting down beside Bradley and peering over his arm.
All of a sudden, Bradley stops, fingers catching on the hard edges of the photographs. He’s already flipped through several, mainly of him and Colin, laughing around on set, filming their scenes as Arthur and Merlin, bantering about Colin’s vegetarianism or Bradley’s Buffy obsession. The one he currently holds on top is a close-up of the two of them (they’re nearly all of the two of them, just them) joking together, Bradley’s eyes trained fondly on Colin, and Colin alone.
“Oh bugger,” Bradley mutters softly to himself as he stares at the photo, analyses the contours of his face and the look in his eyes, before glancing at Colin, captured smiling radiantly.
“What’s wrong?” Colin is truly worried now, hand coming to rest on Bradley’s wrist.
Bradley wants to pull away in shame, but he wants to lean into the touch too, so warm and alluring. His eyes flicker shut as he steadies his breathing, before he turns to look at Colin, looks at him straight and honest. Colin stares back, concerned and confused.
“I think,” Bradley says, slowly, “I’m in love with you.”
Bradley doesn’t know how he’d never noticed it - the way he always looks for Colin in crowds or when entering a room, how he can’t stop laughing with Colin because he’s so damn funny, the flutter in his stomach when Colin touches him (rarely, but it happens, and Bradley wants it, wants it more, all the time). Colin is his best mate, but that’s not just it.
Bradley waits as Colin absorbs the shock, can see his blue, blue eyes widen minutely, but that is all the reaction he shows. Until finally, gradually, a smile blossoms on Colin’s face, beaming wide and beautiful.
“You’re smiling,” Bradley finds his voice, but it’s croaky, relieved and terrified both. He watches Colin, looks panicky but also adoring - emotional and heartfelt. “That’s a good thing. Right?”
“Yeah,” Colin whispers, blinking hard, and his grip tightens on Bradley’s wrist. “Yeah, it is.”