Finding Himself for agenttrojie
Title: Finding Himself
Author: ayane_tsurugi
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, talk of sex
Word Count: 2738
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavor, I'm just here for fun.
Summary/prompt: For agenttrojie. University AU - Arthur breaks his arm in some uni extracurricular activity and needs a note-taker ... the note-taker ends up being Merlin. Feel free to go overboard with bossiness, rebellion, meetings after class, kicking fights under desks during seminars etc.
Author's Notes: A very snapshot view of the fic your prompt truly deserves. Obviously, I didn't get to the porn, but I hope you enjoy it a little bit anyway.
I. The Beginning
Merlin knew he was going to regret answering his mobile even before Gaius said, in a tone that was just a bit too gleeful, "I have a new assignment for you."
"Mhm." He crammed the second chocolate biscuit of the morning into his mouth before answering and Gwen rolled her eyes at him over the top of her mug. "Another broken leg?"
"Broken arm this time, I'm afraid," Gaius said, sighing in the long suffering way he did every time he talked to Merlin these days. "And don't talk with your mouth full. It's disgusting."
"Sorry Gaius." He grinned conspiratorially at Gwen and pulled the notepad next to the phone closer to him. "What do you need me to do?"
Gaius worked as the on-campus physician for Camelot U, Albion's top Uni, which Merlin definitely wasn't attending. After he'd finished sixth form, he'd come to the startling conclusion that he had absolutely no idea what he wanted to do next and, therefore, was considering taking a year off for the purposes of self-discovery.
His mother, of course, had been extremely supportive in her own way. She gave her wholehearted agreement that finding oneself was an important process, followed by an order in no uncertain terms that he was to call Gaius and offer his help, because "finding himself wasn't an excuse to be a useless layabout for a year."
When she teamed up with Gwen, who'd been trying to convince him to share her flat with her for ages, there was really nothing left for it.
"Well," Gaius said, "what he needs most is a note-taker. You'll be attending his classes with him, possibly helping him with some of his longer assignments."
"Tell me he's at least studying something interesting. Psychology, Literature, something that isn't going to put me to sleep."
"He's in the Economics program, I believe." Merlin groaned, and the gleeful tone was back in Gaius' voice. "You're to meet him tomorrow morning at ten in front of the main library. I've already told him to look for you."
"Of course you have," he sighed. "Fine, I'm on it. What's the bloke's name?"
***
"Arthur Pendragon?"
He wasn't quite sure why he was asking - there was only one bloke standing in front of the library with his arm in a cast, after all. And then he was being sneered at, so he figured it might have been hope; maybe the nice broken-armed boy he was actually supposed to help was shy and…hiding in the bushes or something.
"You're late."
Oh good, Merlin thought. Another complete arse. He'd thought he'd suffered the worst of it a couple weeks ago, when he'd been helping around a bloke called Valiant (his real name, which Merlin found ironic in a really blatant sort of way), but at least Valiant hadn't been exactly his type.
He tried not to give Arthur an obvious once-over, but it was difficult. Very difficult. He settled for keeping his eyes on Arthur's face, which wasn't too bad a tradeoff, all things considered. Especially with that jawline…
Buggering hell, this was going to be torture.
Merlin rolled his eyes. "By like three minutes. Christ, do yourself a favour and unclench."
"Excuse me?" Arthur raised an imperious eyebrow and the edges of his mouth turned down. "You can't talk to me like that."
Entitled as well. Just brilliant.
"It would seem that I can, considering I just did. But if I've offended your delicate sensibilities, you're more than welcome to fend for yourself."
Arthur scowled, fist clenching the strap of his bag tighter. "I'm more than capable of taking care of myself."
Merlin snorted. "Of course. Been ambidextrous long, have you? Or are you just going to commit everything to memory? Because I may come along anyway to watch if that's your plan."
"Oh just shut up - Merlin, is it? Where did Gaius find you?"
"I'm his nephew." Or, well, close enough.
"Great. Of course you are." Arthur rubbed his good hand over his face, and then turned, making for a nearby building. "If you're coming, come on. I've got class in five minutes and I'm not mucking it up because of you."
"Coming, Your Highness!" Merlin said, dripping with false cheerfulness, but when Arthur threw him a glare over his shoulder, he found himself grinning for real. This was going to be awful, but at least he had someone to annoy along the way.
***
It was, unsurprisingly, an unmitigated disaster.
Arthur had three classes in a row, each more boring than the last, and a tendency to kick Merlin underneath the desk when he thought Merlin wasn't writing fast enough or taking notes on the right things.
Whenever Merlin would spell something wrong, Arthur would lean in close and whisper, "Just how incompetent are you, Merlin?" and grin smugly when Merlin shuddered and had to wipe at his overheated ear.
That first day set the tone for the whole week. Five days of being kicked, prodded, and called an idiot more times than he could count (really, did Arthur know any other insults?), Merlin knew only one thing by the end: this meant war.
***
II. The War
"Merlin…"
Merlin smirked at the ground, schooling his expression into not-so-masterful innocence before he looked up. "Yes, Arthur?"
"What is this chicken scratch?"
"It's your notes, Arthur. You saw me writing them."
"My notes…in what language?"
"It's English!" Arthur scoffed in obvious disbelief. "I just wrote in cursive."
"This is completely illegible! Merlin."
"Oh, don't be so melodramatic."
***
Gwen shook with silent laughter as Merlin let his head thud again and again against the tabletop. "So Gaius made you rewrite them?"
Merlin groaned. "He just had to go to Gaius, the great whinging sod."
"You can't give up the war just because you lost one battle, Merlin," Morgana told him. Morgana was Gwen's girlfriend, and a mostly permanent fixture in their flat, even if she technically hadn't moved in, and was really only there a few nights a week. He suspected she just had that effect on people.
"What you need," Gwen added, a new tone to her voice that made him look up, "is a new strategy."
***
Handing Arthur three classes worth of entirely legible, but hot pink notes at the end of the next day was completely worth it.
As was getting to hear Arthur say, "Touché, Merlin. Touché."
***
III. The Truce
Three weeks in, Arthur ended the day (they finished early on Tuesdays) by inviting him to lunch.
Merlin gave him a wary look. His initial crush, of course, hadn't abated in the slightest, but neither had the fact that Arthur was more often than not a prize pillock. "Why?" he asked, falling in step next to Arthur as they headed for the car park.
"Because I'm trying to poison you and not being very subtle about it, obviously," Arthur said, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, Merlin. It's almost noon, do you want something to eat or not?"
And so Merlin grinned broadly at him and said, "Sure," irrationally pleased when Arthur gave him a smaller grin back.
***
"You like him!" Gwen exclaimed. She plopped down onto their old, soft sofa next to him and threw her arms around his shoulders. "That's adorable!"
Morgana tsk-ed from across the room, where she was picking out a DVD. It was movie night, and that day he and Arthur had gone to lunch for the third time in just over a week. "It's just like Merlin to fall for the enemy. His heart's just too big."
"I'm right here," he complained. "And my heart's not too big, it's just slightly masochistic. It goes for arses and straight blokes, and I'm pretty sure this one's both."
"You don't know he's straight," Gwen reasoned, "and I'm sure he's got a nice arse." Morgana made a face at that, but walked off to make popcorn before he could ask her about it.
He laughed and leaned into where she was still hugging him. "Yeah, he does. If only he wasn't a giant one himself."
"Doesn't seem to matter much," she pointed out. "You still want to get in his trousers."
"Gwen," he groaned, but she just squeezed his shoulders tighter and grinned.
"I wonder if he's a top or a bottom. Do let me know when you find out. Oh, perhaps he likes to top from the bottom!"
He flushed bright red and, in the kitchen, Morgana dropped a metal popcorn bowl with a loud clang.
***
The seventh time they went to lunch, not that Merlin was counting really, Arthur asked, "So have you thought about what you're going to do, once you've found yourself or whatever?"
Merlin shrugged. "Not really. I mean, that's rather the point, isn't it? But I'll probably end up going to Uni somewhere. There are lots of nice places here in Albion. Or in London, even."
Arthur frowned a bit at that. "You could come here. Camelot's better than anywhere you could go in London."
"Says the son of the Dean," Merlin laughed, trying not to think about other reasons Arthur might not want him to go to London. Hell, he probably wouldn't even see Arthur again after the cast came off.
"Still, you have friends here, don't you?"
He nodded. "Sure. My flatmate and her girlfriend, if no one else." You, he didn't say.
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "You live with two lesbians? That must be fun."
"Mostly lost on me, I guess," Merlin said. "Probably fancied blokes for too long."
He tried not to be too depressed when Arthur promptly choked on his sandwich.
***
"Has Gaius told you when you'll be able to get that thing off?" Merlin asked one day after Arthur's last class, as they walked back across campus to where they'd both parked that morning. It had been seven weeks, and if nothing else Arthur wasn't wincing as much anymore. That had to be a good sign.
Arthur grinned wryly at him. "Eager to be rid of me, Merlin?
That wasn't the problem, not at all. What loomed in Merlin's mind was the paper Arthur had due in a couple of weeks - he managed the few hours a day he already spent with Arthur, but if he had to spend several more hours stuck together in a library with him, he wasn't sure he could stop himself staring like a besotted idiot.
But of course he couldn't very well say that, so he sent Arthur a teasing grin instead and said, "Only always."
***
IV. The Party
It would figure that Morgana was the type of person to celebrate Samhain by throwing a huge party.
It would also figure that the reason he'd never been invited to Morgana's was because she lived in a bloody mansion.
"Gwen," he marveled as she practically pulled him up the walk, "Gwen! Your girlfriend is rich."
Gwen huffed a laugh. "Actually, her step-father is rich. And why are you so surprised, Merlin? You've seen her shoes."
***
Inside, amongst the throngs of people, Merlin promptly lost Gwen, but it wasn't too difficult to find her again. After a couple of minutes, a loud cheer rang out from one of the rooms and he followed the sound, thinking that if he went that way, at least he'd be entertained.
The room he found was the most crowded yet, with a big space in the middle emptied except for two people. There was a giant telly mounted on the wall and…yep, it was a Wii Fencing tourney. Brilliant.
He spotted Gwen cheering off to the side and pushed his way through, realizing about halfway there that one of the combatants was actually Morgana. He reached Gwen's side just in time for the match to end with a victory to Morgana and the cheerful winner to spot him and shout, "Merlin! You're here!"
But he couldn't offer more than a distracted half-wave as her opponent, upon hearing Merlin's name, spun around to look as well. Arthur, with no cast in sight.
Well then.
***
"You could have told me," he said, once Arthur had dragged him outside into the cool night, where it was quieter. "What was the plan when I showed up tomorrow? Just keep the sling on and pretend? I'm really not as stupid as I look."
"Merlin, shut up."
He scowled. "You don't get to be an arse right now, Pendragon. You lied to me."
"Did it ever occur to you, Merlin," Arthur said, taking a step into Merlin's space, "that maybe I just wanted to keep you around a little longer?"
"You can't take me on as a permanent lackey just because you like bossing me around. My job doesn't work that way."
Arthur rolled his eyes and took another step closer. "Did it occur to you, then, that maybe I just like hanging out with you?"
Merlin's eyes widened. "Oh God, you're drunk, aren't you?"
Arthur raised an amused eyebrow. "What makes you say that?" He took another step, so close now that Merlin took a hurried step back.
"Common sense?"
Arthur smirked. "Common sense is for losers. Maybe," he said, taking one last step forward and grabbing Merlin's wrist so that he couldn't move away again, "I figured that if I told you, you'd fuck off and I wouldn't get a chance to do this." His other hand moved up to cup the back to Merlin's neck and pulled him forward until their lips touched.
Merlin froze for the briefest of moments before he melted into it, thinking that, even if Arthur was drunk, which he still suspected he was, at least he'd get to do this once.
It stayed chaste just long enough for Arthur to decide that Merlin wasn't going to pull away, and then he was licking into Merlin's mouth, wet and sloppy, making noises of contentment when Merlin kissed back just as enthusiastically.
"If you really are drunk," Merlin said once they'd pulled back for breath (though not very far - Arthur's hands hadn't moved and Merlin's other arm had wrapped itself around Arthur's waist), "I might murder you tomorrow for getting my hopes up like this. Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to do that? Though," he turned his head and sucked a kiss onto Arthur's jaw, "I've wanted to do that a bit longer."
Arthur laughed, husky and a bit breathless. "I'm not, I promise I'm not. Had to stay sober until I battled Morgana."
"Oh right," Merlin said, temporarily distracted from his assault on Arthur's jaw. "I meant to ask, how do you know Morgana?"
Displeased by the loss of Merlin's lips on his skin, he briefly reclaimed them with his own before he said, "Step-sister. My dad married her mum when we were kids."
This time Merlin laughed. "No wonder she made that face when Gwen and I were talking about your arse." Arthur's eyebrows raised in amusement. "And when Gwen started wondering whether you were a top or a bottom. I'm supposed to report back once I've found out, by the way." He leaned in close so that his lips were right next to Arthur's ear. "But I figure you'll top from the bottom."
Arthur rested his head against Merlin's shoulder, breathing gone ragged. "Shit. You bloody tease."
"Who said anything about teasing?" Merlin asked, and he was being dragged back into the house before he took another breath to laugh.
***
V. The End - Several Months Later
"I don't suppose you had anything to do with this?" Merlin asked, holding up the acceptance letter he'd just opened from Camelot. It was movie night again, and this time there were four of them - two of whom weren't looking him directly in the eye anymore.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Merlin," Morgana said, going back to studying the DVD rack even though they all knew she already had something picked out.
"We didn't do anything. If the Dean were to have put in a good word for you, it was simply because he liked you as a candidate. Nothing to do with being my boyfriend or Morgana's best friend at all, right Morgs?"
"Right. And don't call me that, Artie, you know I despise it."
They were both very unconvincing. But as he found himself sitting with Arthur's arms around him, nowhere he'd rather be, he decided he didn't much care.
Author: ayane_tsurugi
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, talk of sex
Word Count: 2738
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavor, I'm just here for fun.
Summary/prompt: For agenttrojie. University AU - Arthur breaks his arm in some uni extracurricular activity and needs a note-taker ... the note-taker ends up being Merlin. Feel free to go overboard with bossiness, rebellion, meetings after class, kicking fights under desks during seminars etc.
Author's Notes: A very snapshot view of the fic your prompt truly deserves. Obviously, I didn't get to the porn, but I hope you enjoy it a little bit anyway.
I. The Beginning
Merlin knew he was going to regret answering his mobile even before Gaius said, in a tone that was just a bit too gleeful, "I have a new assignment for you."
"Mhm." He crammed the second chocolate biscuit of the morning into his mouth before answering and Gwen rolled her eyes at him over the top of her mug. "Another broken leg?"
"Broken arm this time, I'm afraid," Gaius said, sighing in the long suffering way he did every time he talked to Merlin these days. "And don't talk with your mouth full. It's disgusting."
"Sorry Gaius." He grinned conspiratorially at Gwen and pulled the notepad next to the phone closer to him. "What do you need me to do?"
Gaius worked as the on-campus physician for Camelot U, Albion's top Uni, which Merlin definitely wasn't attending. After he'd finished sixth form, he'd come to the startling conclusion that he had absolutely no idea what he wanted to do next and, therefore, was considering taking a year off for the purposes of self-discovery.
His mother, of course, had been extremely supportive in her own way. She gave her wholehearted agreement that finding oneself was an important process, followed by an order in no uncertain terms that he was to call Gaius and offer his help, because "finding himself wasn't an excuse to be a useless layabout for a year."
When she teamed up with Gwen, who'd been trying to convince him to share her flat with her for ages, there was really nothing left for it.
"Well," Gaius said, "what he needs most is a note-taker. You'll be attending his classes with him, possibly helping him with some of his longer assignments."
"Tell me he's at least studying something interesting. Psychology, Literature, something that isn't going to put me to sleep."
"He's in the Economics program, I believe." Merlin groaned, and the gleeful tone was back in Gaius' voice. "You're to meet him tomorrow morning at ten in front of the main library. I've already told him to look for you."
"Of course you have," he sighed. "Fine, I'm on it. What's the bloke's name?"
***
"Arthur Pendragon?"
He wasn't quite sure why he was asking - there was only one bloke standing in front of the library with his arm in a cast, after all. And then he was being sneered at, so he figured it might have been hope; maybe the nice broken-armed boy he was actually supposed to help was shy and…hiding in the bushes or something.
"You're late."
Oh good, Merlin thought. Another complete arse. He'd thought he'd suffered the worst of it a couple weeks ago, when he'd been helping around a bloke called Valiant (his real name, which Merlin found ironic in a really blatant sort of way), but at least Valiant hadn't been exactly his type.
He tried not to give Arthur an obvious once-over, but it was difficult. Very difficult. He settled for keeping his eyes on Arthur's face, which wasn't too bad a tradeoff, all things considered. Especially with that jawline…
Buggering hell, this was going to be torture.
Merlin rolled his eyes. "By like three minutes. Christ, do yourself a favour and unclench."
"Excuse me?" Arthur raised an imperious eyebrow and the edges of his mouth turned down. "You can't talk to me like that."
Entitled as well. Just brilliant.
"It would seem that I can, considering I just did. But if I've offended your delicate sensibilities, you're more than welcome to fend for yourself."
Arthur scowled, fist clenching the strap of his bag tighter. "I'm more than capable of taking care of myself."
Merlin snorted. "Of course. Been ambidextrous long, have you? Or are you just going to commit everything to memory? Because I may come along anyway to watch if that's your plan."
"Oh just shut up - Merlin, is it? Where did Gaius find you?"
"I'm his nephew." Or, well, close enough.
"Great. Of course you are." Arthur rubbed his good hand over his face, and then turned, making for a nearby building. "If you're coming, come on. I've got class in five minutes and I'm not mucking it up because of you."
"Coming, Your Highness!" Merlin said, dripping with false cheerfulness, but when Arthur threw him a glare over his shoulder, he found himself grinning for real. This was going to be awful, but at least he had someone to annoy along the way.
***
It was, unsurprisingly, an unmitigated disaster.
Arthur had three classes in a row, each more boring than the last, and a tendency to kick Merlin underneath the desk when he thought Merlin wasn't writing fast enough or taking notes on the right things.
Whenever Merlin would spell something wrong, Arthur would lean in close and whisper, "Just how incompetent are you, Merlin?" and grin smugly when Merlin shuddered and had to wipe at his overheated ear.
That first day set the tone for the whole week. Five days of being kicked, prodded, and called an idiot more times than he could count (really, did Arthur know any other insults?), Merlin knew only one thing by the end: this meant war.
***
II. The War
"Merlin…"
Merlin smirked at the ground, schooling his expression into not-so-masterful innocence before he looked up. "Yes, Arthur?"
"What is this chicken scratch?"
"It's your notes, Arthur. You saw me writing them."
"My notes…in what language?"
"It's English!" Arthur scoffed in obvious disbelief. "I just wrote in cursive."
"This is completely illegible! Merlin."
"Oh, don't be so melodramatic."
***
Gwen shook with silent laughter as Merlin let his head thud again and again against the tabletop. "So Gaius made you rewrite them?"
Merlin groaned. "He just had to go to Gaius, the great whinging sod."
"You can't give up the war just because you lost one battle, Merlin," Morgana told him. Morgana was Gwen's girlfriend, and a mostly permanent fixture in their flat, even if she technically hadn't moved in, and was really only there a few nights a week. He suspected she just had that effect on people.
"What you need," Gwen added, a new tone to her voice that made him look up, "is a new strategy."
***
Handing Arthur three classes worth of entirely legible, but hot pink notes at the end of the next day was completely worth it.
As was getting to hear Arthur say, "Touché, Merlin. Touché."
***
III. The Truce
Three weeks in, Arthur ended the day (they finished early on Tuesdays) by inviting him to lunch.
Merlin gave him a wary look. His initial crush, of course, hadn't abated in the slightest, but neither had the fact that Arthur was more often than not a prize pillock. "Why?" he asked, falling in step next to Arthur as they headed for the car park.
"Because I'm trying to poison you and not being very subtle about it, obviously," Arthur said, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, Merlin. It's almost noon, do you want something to eat or not?"
And so Merlin grinned broadly at him and said, "Sure," irrationally pleased when Arthur gave him a smaller grin back.
***
"You like him!" Gwen exclaimed. She plopped down onto their old, soft sofa next to him and threw her arms around his shoulders. "That's adorable!"
Morgana tsk-ed from across the room, where she was picking out a DVD. It was movie night, and that day he and Arthur had gone to lunch for the third time in just over a week. "It's just like Merlin to fall for the enemy. His heart's just too big."
"I'm right here," he complained. "And my heart's not too big, it's just slightly masochistic. It goes for arses and straight blokes, and I'm pretty sure this one's both."
"You don't know he's straight," Gwen reasoned, "and I'm sure he's got a nice arse." Morgana made a face at that, but walked off to make popcorn before he could ask her about it.
He laughed and leaned into where she was still hugging him. "Yeah, he does. If only he wasn't a giant one himself."
"Doesn't seem to matter much," she pointed out. "You still want to get in his trousers."
"Gwen," he groaned, but she just squeezed his shoulders tighter and grinned.
"I wonder if he's a top or a bottom. Do let me know when you find out. Oh, perhaps he likes to top from the bottom!"
He flushed bright red and, in the kitchen, Morgana dropped a metal popcorn bowl with a loud clang.
***
The seventh time they went to lunch, not that Merlin was counting really, Arthur asked, "So have you thought about what you're going to do, once you've found yourself or whatever?"
Merlin shrugged. "Not really. I mean, that's rather the point, isn't it? But I'll probably end up going to Uni somewhere. There are lots of nice places here in Albion. Or in London, even."
Arthur frowned a bit at that. "You could come here. Camelot's better than anywhere you could go in London."
"Says the son of the Dean," Merlin laughed, trying not to think about other reasons Arthur might not want him to go to London. Hell, he probably wouldn't even see Arthur again after the cast came off.
"Still, you have friends here, don't you?"
He nodded. "Sure. My flatmate and her girlfriend, if no one else." You, he didn't say.
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "You live with two lesbians? That must be fun."
"Mostly lost on me, I guess," Merlin said. "Probably fancied blokes for too long."
He tried not to be too depressed when Arthur promptly choked on his sandwich.
***
"Has Gaius told you when you'll be able to get that thing off?" Merlin asked one day after Arthur's last class, as they walked back across campus to where they'd both parked that morning. It had been seven weeks, and if nothing else Arthur wasn't wincing as much anymore. That had to be a good sign.
Arthur grinned wryly at him. "Eager to be rid of me, Merlin?
That wasn't the problem, not at all. What loomed in Merlin's mind was the paper Arthur had due in a couple of weeks - he managed the few hours a day he already spent with Arthur, but if he had to spend several more hours stuck together in a library with him, he wasn't sure he could stop himself staring like a besotted idiot.
But of course he couldn't very well say that, so he sent Arthur a teasing grin instead and said, "Only always."
***
IV. The Party
It would figure that Morgana was the type of person to celebrate Samhain by throwing a huge party.
It would also figure that the reason he'd never been invited to Morgana's was because she lived in a bloody mansion.
"Gwen," he marveled as she practically pulled him up the walk, "Gwen! Your girlfriend is rich."
Gwen huffed a laugh. "Actually, her step-father is rich. And why are you so surprised, Merlin? You've seen her shoes."
***
Inside, amongst the throngs of people, Merlin promptly lost Gwen, but it wasn't too difficult to find her again. After a couple of minutes, a loud cheer rang out from one of the rooms and he followed the sound, thinking that if he went that way, at least he'd be entertained.
The room he found was the most crowded yet, with a big space in the middle emptied except for two people. There was a giant telly mounted on the wall and…yep, it was a Wii Fencing tourney. Brilliant.
He spotted Gwen cheering off to the side and pushed his way through, realizing about halfway there that one of the combatants was actually Morgana. He reached Gwen's side just in time for the match to end with a victory to Morgana and the cheerful winner to spot him and shout, "Merlin! You're here!"
But he couldn't offer more than a distracted half-wave as her opponent, upon hearing Merlin's name, spun around to look as well. Arthur, with no cast in sight.
Well then.
***
"You could have told me," he said, once Arthur had dragged him outside into the cool night, where it was quieter. "What was the plan when I showed up tomorrow? Just keep the sling on and pretend? I'm really not as stupid as I look."
"Merlin, shut up."
He scowled. "You don't get to be an arse right now, Pendragon. You lied to me."
"Did it ever occur to you, Merlin," Arthur said, taking a step into Merlin's space, "that maybe I just wanted to keep you around a little longer?"
"You can't take me on as a permanent lackey just because you like bossing me around. My job doesn't work that way."
Arthur rolled his eyes and took another step closer. "Did it occur to you, then, that maybe I just like hanging out with you?"
Merlin's eyes widened. "Oh God, you're drunk, aren't you?"
Arthur raised an amused eyebrow. "What makes you say that?" He took another step, so close now that Merlin took a hurried step back.
"Common sense?"
Arthur smirked. "Common sense is for losers. Maybe," he said, taking one last step forward and grabbing Merlin's wrist so that he couldn't move away again, "I figured that if I told you, you'd fuck off and I wouldn't get a chance to do this." His other hand moved up to cup the back to Merlin's neck and pulled him forward until their lips touched.
Merlin froze for the briefest of moments before he melted into it, thinking that, even if Arthur was drunk, which he still suspected he was, at least he'd get to do this once.
It stayed chaste just long enough for Arthur to decide that Merlin wasn't going to pull away, and then he was licking into Merlin's mouth, wet and sloppy, making noises of contentment when Merlin kissed back just as enthusiastically.
"If you really are drunk," Merlin said once they'd pulled back for breath (though not very far - Arthur's hands hadn't moved and Merlin's other arm had wrapped itself around Arthur's waist), "I might murder you tomorrow for getting my hopes up like this. Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to do that? Though," he turned his head and sucked a kiss onto Arthur's jaw, "I've wanted to do that a bit longer."
Arthur laughed, husky and a bit breathless. "I'm not, I promise I'm not. Had to stay sober until I battled Morgana."
"Oh right," Merlin said, temporarily distracted from his assault on Arthur's jaw. "I meant to ask, how do you know Morgana?"
Displeased by the loss of Merlin's lips on his skin, he briefly reclaimed them with his own before he said, "Step-sister. My dad married her mum when we were kids."
This time Merlin laughed. "No wonder she made that face when Gwen and I were talking about your arse." Arthur's eyebrows raised in amusement. "And when Gwen started wondering whether you were a top or a bottom. I'm supposed to report back once I've found out, by the way." He leaned in close so that his lips were right next to Arthur's ear. "But I figure you'll top from the bottom."
Arthur rested his head against Merlin's shoulder, breathing gone ragged. "Shit. You bloody tease."
"Who said anything about teasing?" Merlin asked, and he was being dragged back into the house before he took another breath to laugh.
***
V. The End - Several Months Later
"I don't suppose you had anything to do with this?" Merlin asked, holding up the acceptance letter he'd just opened from Camelot. It was movie night again, and this time there were four of them - two of whom weren't looking him directly in the eye anymore.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Merlin," Morgana said, going back to studying the DVD rack even though they all knew she already had something picked out.
"We didn't do anything. If the Dean were to have put in a good word for you, it was simply because he liked you as a candidate. Nothing to do with being my boyfriend or Morgana's best friend at all, right Morgs?"
"Right. And don't call me that, Artie, you know I despise it."
They were both very unconvincing. But as he found himself sitting with Arthur's arms around him, nowhere he'd rather be, he decided he didn't much care.