Reel_Fic Two: In This Together, Part II

[xaritomene]

Title: In This Together, Part II

Author: xaritomene

Movie Prompt: "High School Musical" Or, as I persisted on calling it right up to the end of writing, "High School Magical". IDEK. o.O

Pairing: Merlin/Arthur

Rating: PG. C'mon, people, Disney. ^_^

Word Count: My very shortest reel!fic at a mere 9,395 words, and still cut into two parts for length. :( Editing, what is this editing of which you speak?

Spoilers/Warnings: Well, HIgh School Musical stuff. *g* Possibly offensive to musical-lovers.

Author's Notes: Beta'd by the wonderful phantomjam  who is amazing and thorough and just all round brilliant. All mistakes left are most definitely my own, put sneakily in after she'd gone through it. kuhekabir was equally wonderful in looking it over for me, and the awesome   smokey2307 cheerled, beta'd it while it was still in bits and listened to me whine about it. ^_^

This may not be what people were expecting from this film, because I'm not really involved in HSM as a fandom; but I had loads of fun writing it. Hope you enjoy!

**


Lunch break the next day found Arthur lurking awkwardly behind a mop and bucket at the back of the theatre, careful that no one could see him but unable to quell the strange fascination with it. He just wanted to see what happened, obviously. Nothing more than that. But he was sure, too, that he could do far better than half the idiots actually up on stage auditioning.

"Hey." He jumped. Merlin was stood behind him, hands in pockets, looking awkward.

"Hi. What are you doing here?" he asked, at the same time as Merlin said, “I thought you weren't coming?"

They both laughed rather awkwardly and Merlin shook his head. "I guess we both couldn't contain the curiosity, right?" An enormous grin followed his words.

"Something like that."

"Nothing to be ashamed of."

"No, of course not." Arthur agreed quickly.

"So - why are you hiding behind a mop?"

Arthur's flush deepened, and he put the thing quickly to one side. "I was just - y'know. Keeping a low profile."

Merlin's grin was entirely too knowing for Arthur's comfort but he let it pass. "Well, if I'd got here first I'd probably have done the same thing," he said in a friendly sort of way.

"Yeah." Arthur agreed, "I'm sure you would have done. Can't have the magic geek involved in something like a musical."

"No, of course not," Merlin agreed, with an almost unwilling smile. "Nor the school sports hero.” They stood in awkward silence for a moment before Merlin rallied. “Why don't we sit down? It's more comfortable than lurking behind mops."

Arthur returned his own rather uncomfortable smile and perched next to him on the very back row of the auditorium.

The person on stage forgot his words and Ms. Nimueh waved him off with a brief, sweet, "Lovely tie, Pellinore, shame about the singing voice. Next!"

"Ms. Nimueh is - a little harsh..." Arthur observed, hesitantly, and Merlin nodded fervently.

"These people are all - really brave."

They watched in silence as the rest of the auditionees stumbled and stuttered their way through the song until it got to the last pair, whose 'interpretive dance' version was frankly terrifying. The girl playing the piano actually stopped playing in favour of staring in blank horror at their antics, and even Nimueh looked rather taken aback.

"Well, that was just - very disturbing, go and see a counsellor," she said rather sharply once they were done. "Now, is there anybody else? No? Well then, why don't Sophia and William give us an idea of how these things should be done? Sophia? William?"

Sophia offered her teacher a sweet, sweet smile and rose, pushing Will back when he  tried to leave the row first, her tap shoes clicking ominously as she ascended the stage.

"Like the pincers of some terrifying, poisonous insect," Arthur whispered to Merlin, who stifled a snort. They both slid down in their seats when a couple of heads turned towards them.

They watched in cowed silence as the two actors passed the piano, watching - with a wince on Merlin's part - as the girl behind the piano said, "Um, sorry - what key?"

Will smiled kindly at her. "Oh, we had our rehearsal pianist do an arrangement. Don't worry."

The curtains swung shut to complete silence in the auditorium, and then, as the music started, four hands appeared through the gap, clicking. Merlin and Arthur stared.

The entire performance was polished, beautifully done and totally soulless. The most interesting part was when Will did some sort of weird dance step that Sophia evidently didn't approve of, and got a lady-like shove for his pains.

"Even the interpretive dance was better than this," Arthur muttered to Merlin, who nodded in agreement. The dance had been deeply disturbing but at least it hadn't been so relentlessly - twee.

A burst of terrified applause broke out in the auditorium as Sophia fixed them with her sweetest, most dangerous smile and Nimueh stood, clapping regally. "Very good, my dears," she said, smiling back. "Now, are there any other pairs who would like to audition? Anyone?"

Arthur slunk down and slid towards the door.

"Nobody?"

"I will." Arthur froze, just in the safety of 'outside'. That had definitely been Merlin's voice.

"You?" Ms. Nimueh gave him a dubious look. "I'm sorry, the single auditions have been and gone, and you do not have a partner."

Arthur winced. "I'll audition with him," he said from outside the door, and returned to the auditorium, trying not to shrink away when Nimueh turned to him.

"Arthur Pendragon!" she said, sarcastically. "And all alone! Where is your - sports posse, or whatever you call it?"

"Um, team, actually," he said, and she waved a hand.

"Irrelevant. Well, I'm afraid that I called for more pairs, twice. No one responded, and free time is now over. Maybe the spring musicale."

"He has a really amazing voice." Arthur argued, but Nimueh shrugged.

"Then he should have used it to speak up sooner." With that, she swept out, leaving the auditorium empty except for Arthur and Merlin.

Empty except for them and the girl on the stage, the pianist, who chose that moment to trip over her own feet, all her music flying out of her grasp. Both Arthur and Merlin ran to help her, gathering up the music and trying to get it back in order.

"Thanks," she said, very shyly, and Merlin smiled at her.

"Hi, I'm Merlin. Nice to meet you."

She took the hand he offered her. "Gwen."

"So, Gwen," Arthur glanced at the last piece of music in his hands, "you wrote that song Sophia and Will sang? And the whole show?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "But - it doesn't look much like it's going to stay my show if the two of them get the roles. Which they will. They always do."

Well... it is still your show," Arthur said, with a smile. "You're like - the choreographer in fencing."

"Um - thank you?" she said, doubtfully.

"The choreographer is the one who decides what moves you make in a show fight." Arthur explained. "You're like that for this show."

She smiled, suddenly. "D'you want to hear how the song's supposed to sound?" She asked, eagerly, drawing them over to the piano and handing them each a copy of the song. Merlin met Arthur's eye with a grin and a shrug, and gestured with the music. And really, what could Arthur do? He couldn't refuse to sing, after all.

Despite never having seen the music before, they had heard it a lot over the course of the free class, and the music told them when to come in; all in all, Arthur didn't think they did too badly. And if he stared at Merlin a little more than the music, well. He'd been acting. Obviously.

Evidently, Nimueh was equally impressed. She reappeared in the doorway of the auditorium, and called, "Emrys? Pendragon? You have a call-back. Gwen, give them the duet from the second act, and work on it with them.”

Merlin grinned, and Gwen seemed ecstatic, but Arthur stared down at his sheet music.

"Call-back?" he groaned.

**

They arranged to meet Gwen during the only free period they all had that coincided - the one before break - and Arthur said, awkwardly, "Y'know, this is all fine, but - my father can never know. Ever. Um - ever."

Merlin frowned. "Well - OK, but... why not?"

"Drama isn't really his thing." He skirted it awkwardly.

Luckily, although Merlin gave him an odd, worried look, he didn't comment on it, and both of them seemed to accept it. Given that it shouldn't get back to Uther, Arthur kept himself very calm about the rest of it when he talked to the rest of the team.

"Arthur, what the hell is this about the musicaaaaale?" Lance asked, mimicking Nimueh's pronunciation with a troubled look on his face. "You're up for a call-back with that new kid, Merlin."

He nodded, stretching out the muscles in his arm. "Yeah," he agreed. "Thought I'd branch out. Y'know, something more for my UCAS application."

"Arthur, if you win the Nationals for fencing, universities won't be able to accept you fast enough." Lance pointed out, and Arthur turned to face him.

"Look, I - like singing, OK?" he said rather belligerently, going on the offensive in the hopes that it would ward off further argument. "And I want to audition."

Lance held up his hands. "OK then!" he said quickly. "If you'd just said that to start with, I would never have-"

"Well then." He backed off, feeling rather guilty. "Sorry."

"OK then."

They practised a couple of passes, running through the basic thrust-parry-riposte routine absently. "So. Merlin, eh?"

Behind his fencing mask, Arthur blushed.

**

The other side of the school, in the abandoned room where the Sorcathletes met, Morgana was having a similar reaction. "But - I don't understand," she said, "you're - well, why a musical? When you're such a good sorcerer?"

Merlin gave his new friend a smile. "I can enjoy more than one thing," he pointed out, and a normal girl might have flushed, but Morgana was far too collected to do something like that.

"Well, I suppose so," she agreed. "Are you sure it won't take your mind of the Sorcathlon? It is the day before the auditions, after all."

"I'm certain." he said firmly, and she nodded.

"Well, OK then." She paused, while the group went through a couple of simpler spells, warming up. "So. Arthur Pendragon? Really?"

**

Sophia had had a rather different reaction and had, frankly, exploded. "Call back?!" she shrieked at Will, who had nodded timidly then had a brainwave.

"Maybe we're being Punked! Or it's some kind of You've Been Framed thing! Maybe there's a camera on us right now!"

"Oh, shut up, Will!" she snapped. "We're not being Punked, and the only time I'm going on TV is to accept my Oscar!"

He recoiled. "Just trying to help," he muttered, rather sulkily.

"Well, you didn't." She frowned, pouting. "All my plans are ruined!" Evidently she was only a couple of seconds away from stamping her foot. "That Merlin was supposed to be safely on the Sorcathlon where he can't do any damage to my relationship with Arthur-"

"What relationship with Arthur?"

"Shut up Will!" she shouted. "And now we're not even going to be in the musicale! This is terrible!"

"They might not get the parts...?"

"I don't want to take that risk," Sophia said firmly and completely without irony. "And he's Arthur Pendragon! Of course he'll get the part!"

"Well, we'll just have to make sure they can't audition, or something," Will said reasonably.

"Oh, don't be stupid, Will, that would - never... wo- We'll just have to make sure they can't audition!" She beamed, all smiles again. "That fencing tournament is the day before, right?"

"Yes...?"

"And the Sorcathlon too?"

"Well - yes...?"

So if the auditions were on the same day...? At the same time?"

Will stared.

**

"...so you see, Ms. Nimueh, moving the auditions forward would be better for all concerned."

Nimueh looked at her for a long, long moment, until Sophia started to squirm under the weight of her vivid blue stare. "Well..." she said, finally. "If you really think the musicale would suffer..."

"Who'll come and see two boys singing on stage together?" Sophia asked, supremely confident. "And Arthur Pendragon is exactly the sort of person who wouldn't devote the right amount of time to the musicale. Or the right attitude."

"Very wells" she nodded. "Not a bad plan."

Sophia left, with a self-satisfied smile; Will trailed after her, totally confused as to what had just happened.

**

This new and unexpected turn of events caused a horrific alliance in the school - between the real athletes and the Sorcathletes - after Merlin and Arthur had complained to their respective friends at great length.

"Look, we just want Merlin to be happy," Morgana said, regally, and though Merlin shot her a grateful smile Lance just shrugged.

"You're nicer than us then. We just want Arthur to stop talking about the sodding thing."

"Hey!"

Morgana's lips twitched. "There's that, too."

"So what are we going to do about it?" Gwen asked, heading off a potential argument with a shy glance at Lance.

Morgana tapped her lips thoughtfully and glanced at the rest of her team. "Neither of us want our events cancelled, but neither of us can win without Merlin or Arthur," she said frankly, and no one disagreed with her. "So we need them to be cancelled for long enough that Merlin and Arthur can audition, but not long enough that we have to forfeit. What will do that?"

Blank looks met her from the fencing team.

"Oh, honestly," she huffed, "Do you lot ever think without a stick in your hand?”

“This, from a witch?” Lance asked Arthur, sotto voce, then wilted under the force of Morgana’s glare.

“A fire drill, you idiots!"

"Of course!" Lance grinned. "Perfect!" His face fell. "But - how will we do that?"

Morgana met his eyes squarely, a little grin playing around the corners of her mouth. She held one and up, flicking her fingers and calling sparks into the air around them. "I'm not a Sorcathlete for nothing."

**

The day of the auditions, the Nationals, and the Sorcathlon dawned bright and clear, and though there were lessons for the morning they ended at lunch break - any students not involved in the activities were required to report to one of them, but that wasn't a problem for the Sorcathletes and the actual athletes. They spent some of the time they should have spent in warm up and practice with each other, nominally having a last-minute going-over of the plans, but it was little more than an excuse to spend some time together - despite all evidence to the contrary the two groups got on well.

Morgana's sharp eyes picked up on the growing affection between Gwen and Lance but kept quiet, and if everyone else noticed the looks between Merlin and Arthur they were surprisingly tactful - for a group of sportsmen and social misfits, at any rate.

**

The Nationals started well; Arthur won his first match with grace, and shook his opponent’s hand firmly, smiling in the friendly, polite way his father had taught him after his first competition when, in Uther's words, he "looked like a hooligan". It hadn't been a hard match, but Arthur was on edge, waiting for the sign to leave the gym, and he had only had half his mind on it.

In the science lecture room Merlin reasoned the arithmancy of a spell out faster than his opponent from Mercia School and demonstrated his answer for good measure, giving Camelot School the lead early on in the competition. It was only when he sat down that Morgana started twisting her fingers through the silent spell which would fool the heat sensors in the gym into thinking that a fire had broken out and, when she nodded at him, Merlin himself flicked a spark towards the cauldron bubbling over the bunsen burner, causing purple smoke and ominous green sparks to bubble out of the top.

The whole of the Sorcathlon team stood as one, heading for the exit as quickly as possible.

"Go on, Merlin!" Morgana urged. "Run, you stupid bastard!"

**

In the theatre, a handful of people watched as Sophia and  Will delivered a professional, polished performance of one of the songs from the later part of the play, just before the one Merlin and Arthur were due to perform. The reception was only really enthusiastic from a couple of the pair’s more devoted hangers-on, but they bowed gracefully they'd finished their performance of the song - or, rather, Sophia curtseyed gracefully, and Will bowed rather jerkily - and Nimueh graced each of them with a regal smile.

"Nicely done, my dears," she said, fondly. "Now, next on the list - Arthur Pendragon and Merlin Emrys?" She paused and Sophia, on stage, smirked. Gwen caught it and frowned. "Arthur Pendragon and Merlin Emrys?"

"I'm sure they'll be here in a moment, Ms. Nimueh," Gwen managed, tentatively, but Sophia tossed her head.

"Arthur has a fencing match," she said sweetly, "and Emrys has that stupid - Sorcathlon."

Gwen, not sure she'd be able to keep her tears of frustration and disappointment back if she stayed - all their hard work, ruined! - stood and ran backstage. The musical she'd worked so hard on was ruined.

Sophia's smirk just grew. "Well, that's showbiz, isn't it, Ms. Nimueh? I suppose they must have decided being in a musical wasn't so important to them after-"

"Ms. Nimueh!" Merlin threw the doors open, and sprinted down the aisle towards the stage, closely followed by Arthur. "Ms. Nimueh, we're here!"

Nimueh stared. "Wha-"

"We're not too late, are we?" Merlin asked, fixing blue eyes on her face. For the first time in her life, Nimueh herself began to squirm under someone else's blue gaze.

She steeled herself, drawing herself up. "You have a bad habit of missing your cues." She said, icily, "Not a good way to begin your theatrical career. I called for you several times-"

"But we're here now!"

Just as he said it, the theatre doors opened and most of the school poured in through the doors, evidently alerted by the work of Lance and the fencing team along with Morgana and the Sorcathletes to what was happening. Sophia's expression was just off blissful.

"We'd be happy to perform again for our fellow students, Ms. Nimueh!" she offered hopefully, but Nimueh ignored both her and the sudden influx of students.

"Coming in too early is just as bad as coming in too late," she told Arthur quellingly after his interruption, "and besides, you do not have a pianist."

"Oh yes they do!" Gwen said, quickly, running on from the wings. "Pianist present, Ms. Nimueh."

Sophia took a step forward. "You really don't want to do that," she threatened, already seeing her chances for this role slipping away; if these were the kind of audiences having Arthur Pendragon, even with this Merlin boy, starring in the musical could bring, Nimueh was definitely going to choose them. It was only a school musical, but numbers still mattered.

Gwen stepped right up to her, seeing the results of this audition as clearly as Sophia and liking them far more. "Oh, yes. I really do."

Nimueh paused, then grinned, actually looking amused rather than sarcastic for once. "Now that's showbiz."

Sophia stepped back, shocked, and Gwen grinned triumphantly. "Can they sing now, Ms. Nimueh?"

The teacher nodded slowly, a calculating look in her eyes. "Shaking things up a bit is good for all of us, I suppose," she said and nodded. "Well then, Mr. Pendragon, Mr. Emrys - surprise me." She headed back down into the auditorium and stood watching as Gwen started the music.

A sympathetic technician in the lighting box changed the lighting to a soft blue as the introduction played. Merlin swallowed, took a deep breath... and started the song. His voice cracked on the first note and a low chuckle - started by Sophia - ran through the audience. Pleadingly, Merlin looked at Arthur, who took his hand without thinking.

"How about I start it this time?" he muttered, and Merlin nodded, relieved. "You know my part, right?"

"Yeah."

"OK." Arthur took a deep breath, and for the first time, Merlin realised that his friend was just as nervous about this as he was. "Let's do this thing."

It was only then that the mics kicked in, and Arthur's last sentence echoed round the auditorium several times, magnified far above its original murmur. A warmer wave of laughter swept across the theatre, starting from Morgana and Lance, and Arthur's hand squeezed Merlin's once, before he started to sing.

“You know the world can see us... in a way that’s different than who we are...”

By the time the last notes died away, the entire school was on its feet, singing along and dancing - even Ms. Nimueh's fingers were tapping against her clipboard and Sophia's was the only long face, sulking at the back of the theatre. Will, bless his heart, was dancing along just as much as the rest of the school, though with markedly more coordination and, unseen in the doorway of the auditorium, Merlin's mother and Arthur's father were stood, staring at their children as they sang their hearts out on stage.

Admittedly their feelings at that moment were a little different; Uther was torn between a feeling of regret and one of hurt, firstly hurt that Arthur could betray his mother's memory like that, and secondly regret that he had evidently stopped his son from doing something he was good at. No good parent could ever feel anything but sorry for that.

Hunith's feelings were simpler; the sight of Merlin enjoying himself so fully, none of the pressure he felt when he was performing magic for his school, was a joy to her. Though, she would be asking herself for a long time to come how she hadn't seen this new-found talent of his before.

The applause at the end of the song was riotous, an actual standing ovation, and Arthur and Merlin grinned stupidly at each other, eyes shining.

Art unplugged his microphone, and leant forwards - "Kiss kiss kiss kiss!" a small part of the audience started chanting, but that was the group who read slash and he ignored them - and whispered, "we've still got competitions to win, remember."

Merlin just laughed at him. "Right. Because as a big sports star you're too used to all of this to want to bask in the moment."

"No, I'm too new to all of this to know how to." Arthur corrected with a grin. "Besides, I'd rather bask in a moment when it's just you and me."

Merlin pulled back. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah. You, me, after-party?"

"And they say romance is dead." But they both knew that what Merlin really meant was 'yes'.

**

Half an hour later it was all done, and students were pouring into the gym from all over the school to congratulate the sports stars on winning the National Young Fencer's Competition, the Sorcathletes on a high of their own from their win.

"You should have seen Merlin!" Morgana shrieked over the noise at Arthur, "it was amazing, he just knew everything! With a mind like that, he's a shoe-in for Oxbridge!"

"You should have seen Arthur!" Lance yelled at Merlin through the crowd, "no one could touch him, it was incredible! He'll be in the Olympics for sure!"

Finally, Merlin and Arthur managed to somehow meet in the middle of the huge crowd.

"So, a musical, huh!" Merlin bawled in Arthur's ear, and Arthur winced, but grinned.

"Yeah. And another round in the Sorcathlon for you, and another competition for me. Think we'll manage it?"

Merlin glanced around the celebratory crowd, all happy for them, all celebrating with them, and nodded. "Yeah, I reckon so. I mean, we're all in this together, right?"

Arthur's hand found his. "Right."

**

There! Finished! Hope you liked. ^_^