Timing is Everything; Merlin Modern AU
Title: Timing is Everything (3/5)
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
The summer sun beat down across the park. Children were laughing as they played in the park; their worries over for another six weeks. Gwen would have thought that given that she spent the rest of the year around kids she would want to avoid the park at all costs during the holidays, but it was a nice day out.
“It’s not fair, you know,” Merlin started as he licked the melting ice cream from the cone in his hand. He’d insisted after their jaunt around the park that he got an ice cream complete with a flake and now he was expertly working his way around it without getting it all around his chops.
“What’s not fair?”
“You get six weeks off! Not only that, you get two weeks at Christmas. Two weeks at Easter and three random other weeks off a year! And you can’t tell me you actually do anything on a ‘Teaching Development Day’.”
“Merlin, you are my dearest friend, that doesn’t mean I won’t resort to telling you that you chose the wrong career. If you want the time off, you should have become a teacher.”
“Or an injured sportsman,” Merlin said a little too brightly. Though Arthur was on his way back into sport he still wasn’t allowed to compete. The doctors didn’t want him to put too much strain on his leg at any one time.
“Or injured sportsman. Though I don’t think he’s enjoying it.”
“No, but I’m sure he will,” Merlin elbowed her in the side as they walked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gwen hit him with the back of her hand as they walked. Merlin laughed into his ice cream; she knew.
“Morgana said that Arthur said that you two are starting afresh?” he said in one breath. He felt like he was twelve again and relaying some god forbidden argument between his friends.
“Yeah. It’s nice,” she admitted. Merlin raised an eyebrow, “When he doesn’t hate me he’s actually pleasant company.”
“Oh yeah?” the sparkle in Merlin’s eye made her hit him again. She poked her finger into his ice cream and stole some of it, licking it off of her finger.
“Stop it; or I’ll start about Morgana.”
“There is nothing going on between me and Morgana,” he said licking his ice cream. The flake was threatening to fall out so he picked it out with his fingers and licked the ice cream off of the end.
“No Merlin, not at all,” she swiped the chocolate from him and ran off a few paces in front and ate it. No qualms against his spit already being on it.
“There isn’t!” he shouted as he swiped out at her to have a gander at getting his chocolate back.
“Sure,” she said, teasingly eating the rest of the chocolate, “Come on; we’re going to be late if we don’t hurry up. I don’t want to miss food service hours.”
“Come on then. Sunday roast awaits us,” he said cramming down on the ice cream in the cone, making his teeth hurt and giving himself brain freeze.
“But now there’s an empty swing!” Gwen complained, pointing over to the park. It was getting late and the kids were starting to peel off back home; being forced away by their parents.
Merlin mock groaned and ran after her as she took off for the play area. Give it five minutes and they would be kicked out for being in the park with no children and playing on the equipment at twenty-four years old.
x
They sat around a table in the corner of the pub with an answer sheet in front of them, each answer so far filled. Morgana had taken charge of writing, her and Merlin answering most of the questions with the occasional input from Gwen and Arthur, but they seemed to have it down; “I said we should get a bigger team.”
“And I didn’t listen to you, yeah I know,” he said before shushing her so he could hear the next question, “Oh come on, that’s easy,” he stole the pen off of Morgana and started to scribble; the other three lost on the science question. “Simple.”
“If you say so,” Morgana said reading back over the answer and raised her eyebrow, “Really simple.”
“How many questions left?” Arthur asked, he sat relaxed back against the bench.
“About five or six. There’re usually thirty. Then time to get a drink whilst they mark, then results.”
“Right okay,” Arthur sat with one hand around his drink he other tapping his knee. He’d never been to a pub quiz in his life, he didn’t see himself as the sort. He hadn’t seen Morgana as the sort either but here she was really getting into it.
“If you want to go you can,” she said. He looked offended that she would even consider it, “Merlin will only keep the money for himself.”
“No, I was just wondering how much of a chance there was that I might actually get a question to answer that none of you know the answer to.”
“Fat chance of that,” Morgana laughed.
“This is why we leave early sometimes, because we don’t know any answers,” Gwen turned sheepish and looked deep into her glass, “We left early the night we met.”
“The night you ran me over,” Arthur said as flippantly as he could manage, still bitter about the situation. He wanted this friendship to work and so far so good.
“Yeah. We literally had no answers after the first round so we decided to give up.”
“Bit defeatist.”
“We were never going to win.”
“No?”
“Not a chance. The team over by the bar are awful cheats. They can see the answer sheet in the barman’s hand.”
“Why not sit there then?”
“Because they get shirty. They are the locals. It’s their table and every Sunday they come in and if they aren’t here they reserve it so when they come in they can sit there.”
“So they can cheat?”
“Well yeah, otherwise it’s not a great table to sit at. You get boshed about by the people going to and from the bar.”
“Oh, okay. Just how often do you two come here?”
“It used to have student night. We came here a lot when we went to Uni.”
“Ah. I never got the uni experience, I guess. Just rode horses all the time. Around in the sand; around the fields doing cross country; show jumping. I would have been a jockey but I grew too much,” it was true, he was rather broad. Not that Gwen had spent the last half an hour inspecting what he looked like beneath his inappropriately tight white t-shirt.
“You missed out on debt and essays and student living and did I mention the debt?” Arthur laughed, “Besides, you were already doing something you love, what’s the point in losing money when you could earn it?”
“Hey, hey, Gwen! Were you listening? Drama question!” Merlin sudden flailed an arm in her direction.
“Shakespeare question.”
“What was it?”
“In which play is the line ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?’ Blah di blah.”
“You don’t know?”
“No. Now fess up.”
“Merchant of Venice.”
“You’re sure?” she gave him a stony look, “okay,” Merlin pointed to the slot, “Merchant of Venice,” Morgana scribbled it down. Merlin reached over the table to high five Gwen, she hit his hand lamely, “That was rubbish.”
“It’s all you deserve.”
“Cold.”
“Learn Shakespeare.”
“We’re a team, you’re meant to help.”
“It was an easy question.”
“Shush! I can’t hear the questions,” Morgana snapped. She was getting into it as much as Merlin did.
“Final question!” the barman announced, “How many states of matter are there and the tie break: name them.”
“Pfft,” he snatched the paper from beneath Morgana’s arm and nicked the pen from her hand. He started to scribble down all of the 6 answers.
“Are you sure?”
He gave her an incredulous look, “Yes I’m sure.”
“Positive.”
“Morgana, I’m a scientist for a living, I think I know what I’m talking about.”
“Okay,” she relented, “If you’re wrong-“
“He’s not wrong,” Gwen said plainly, she trusted her friend’s knowledge and his competitive streak. She drank the remainder of her drink and relaxed back. The thing was over, she could now pay no attention not at all.
“Is he always like this?”
“Oh yeah,” the barman came by and grabbed the paper from the table and carried on past to swipe the rest of the answer sheets from the competitors, “He’s more fun when he loses.”
“I bet.”
“When I lose?” Merlin asked, offended by such claims.
“My darling friend, you never win.”
“That was before we had a team,” Merlin hadn’t wanted a team. He wanted to battle through and continue to lose on his own (with Gwen’s help) rather than split the money between more people. Yet here he was using her own knowledge against her, “With Morgana and Arthur on my side, how can I lose?”
“Who said I was on your side?” Arthur asked. He was teasing, Gwen thought, but she could never be sure.
“You’re here aren’t you? That’s you on my side.”
“Right, I’m getting a drink, anybody want anything?”Gwen declared hitting her hand down on the tabletop lightly. She pushed to standing and looked across the table at the two black haired individuals.
“Yeah, I’ll come give you a hand,” Arthur said slowly standing with her and pushing back his seat with the backs of his legs.
She eyed his left leg, then his grey aids, “With your crutches?”
“I can hobble along without,” he said as if it were the biggest feat of his life. A grin broke out across his face, “I don’t particularly need them anymore,” he said truthfully. He’d rather not use them at any point but he still found on occasion that his leg would ache if he walked on it too long. He was better off safe then sorry.
“Right, please be careful. I don’t want you blaming me for injuring yourself again.”
“Injuring myself? I didn’t injure myself! You injured me!” he poked her in the back of the shoulder as they walked towards the bar. She looked back over her shoulder at him and smiled bashfully.
“Sorry.”
“Bet you planned it!”
“Of course I did. I willed you with my magical powers to walk out in front of my car so I could run you over and have you hate me for two months. Yeah, it was a really good plan, wasn’t it?”
“You like being treated badly?” he said, leaning against the bar net to where she stood waiting for custom. She raised an eyebrow at him, “Okay, no. Sorry.”
“I’m sorry. You’re sorry. I think we’ve established we’re all sorry. So now can we not mention it again?”
A loud clanging of a spoon against a metal tankard sounded, drawing their attention away fro each other and towards the barman who’d been in charge of the quiz. He stood in the middle of the competing tables with the answer sheets in his hands, “Attention!
“The team in third place this week are ‘Team Green’, in second is ‘Team Excalibur’,” Gwen looked over to Merlin. He looked positively furious. They hadn’t won. Gwen knew it. She said he shouldn’t get so complacent about it, “And in first place and the winner of this week’s pot is ‘Team We Like Peas’.”
“We like peas? Really?” Arthur laughed, he turned back towards Gwen, “How unbearable is he going to be?” he said nodding his head towards Merlin.
“He’ll be annoyed and ranting for hours. You learn to tune him out.”
“And you’ve had how many years practise at that?”
“Nearly eight?”
“Right.”
“You’ll get used to it. Now, what did you want to drink?” she leant on the bar in front of her and greeted the other barman with a smile and ordered her vodka, lemonade and lime.
x
The room smelt of worn leather in the summer haze. The man in the tack room zipped up his boots over his riding trousers. They were perfectly clean having only just been bought out of their box for the first time in ten weeks. Their owner brushed off the toes and turned his attention back to his top half. He made sure his t-shirt was untucked and tightened the Velcro on his gloves.
He grabbed his helmet and crop from the workbench by the door and exited. A bubble of excited rose through him; he hadn’t been on a horse for so long; too long. This was going to be good fun. He hoped that riding a horse was like riding a bike. He’d heard it was, but he’d never been in the position to find out.
As he walked out into the yard he was greeted by his sister and his horse.
“Now that is a good sight to see,” Morgana said truthfully, “I’d started to forget what it looked like,” she grinned. She ran her hand under Camelot King’s mane, “Be good for Daddy, CK. He’s missed you.”
Arthur didn’t say anything as he approached. There was no sign of a limp on his left side for the first time since he’d been ridded of his crutches. He greeted his horse with a kiss on his nose and scratching him behind his ears.
“You ready for this?” Morgana asked him, her voice was full of genuine concern.
“I’ve never been more ready for this,” he said putting his foot into the stirrup and pushing up, he swung his right leg over with practised ease. His left leg didn’t even twinge in pain at the weight exerted on it, “So far so good,” he rubbed the flat of his hand over CK’s shoulder. He gripped the reigns properly and gently kicked him on into a walk, “It’s good to be home,” he said under his breath and headed straight for the paddock.
“Be careful!” Morgana shouted as he started to trot away from her. He waved a flippant hand at her. Nothing could hurt him up there. He’d never injured himself falling off before and he didn’t intend on starting now.
Morgana leant on the fence watching as Arthur gently kicked the horse into a canter and started off in circles around the edge of the field. He came past Morgana, as he did he pad her no heed; he was off in his own world. She brought her phone out from her pocket and aimed it at him taking a few photos.
She sent the best of which straight to Gwen;
He’s fine. You didn’t break him too much. Mx
She hit send and grinned. This was where he belonged and they both knew it. Now he just had to get back into practise. It wouldn’t be good for him to get straight back into competitions. He still had to build up the muscle in his leg again.
With the wind under his shirt as he sped up into a gallop down the long straight he stood in his stirrups and let CK go as fast as he wanted. He grinned as the horses pace increased. Forget the cosiest of rooms, or the most scenic of places, this was home to him. Any other place didn’t feel right.
As the fence approached Arthur pulled CK back into a trot and rounded the corner, “How about some jumps, eh?” he said more for his own benefit. He directed CK towards the jumps and took the first one with ease, never losing his seat, “Good lad,” he cooed, gently patting the side of his neck and rubbing it affectionately.
Morgana felt her phone vibrate in her hand. She looked down at the screen and burst out laughing;
Damn. Can’t even run over somebody correctly.
Glad he’s okay. Xxx
“I bet you are,” Morgana smirked. She abandoned her phone back in her pocket. As much as Arthur could stay there all day, she had things to do and people to talk to and an argument to settle with their father.
X
In the scientists labs in the south of Bath one man sat - so desperately bored - that he had spent the last ten minutes throwing Skittles in the air trying to catch them in his mouth whilst sat on his wheely chair. He crashed into his own desk and fell forwards from his chair with a clatter.
A small burst of laughter sounded behind him.
“Freya! Hi,” he scrambled to his feet.
“Hi.”
“What can I do for you?” he asked gently. He bent to pick up the green bugger he had missed pre-embarrassing performance.
“I came to tell you that today is my last day,” she said softly looking at her feet, “I got a job in London. They told me last week. I’ve not had much time to tell you. I’ve been looking for a flat and packing. They wanted me to start as soon as possible.”
“Oh. Who for?”
“Still for Grant Tech, but in the London Labs.”
“Oh right. Well, uh, good luck, I guess,” he hugged her, “I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too but we both know this was never going to work,” his smile upturned slightly, but he knew what she was saying. The connection they had didn’t reach that far, “You’re a great guy, Merlin, but your heart isn’t with me, is it?” she said honestly. She didn’t look hurt, she looked happy. She was getting a new start in life and all she wanted was to see those she liked in her life get what they wanted, “It was worth a shot, but we’re better off as friends. I’ll email, I promise.”
“I’m going to miss you Freya Lakes.”
“I’ll miss you too, Merlin Emrys,” he kissed her on the cheek and hugged her to him again, “You are a good friend, the best I could ask for.”
“No, I’m not. But thanks for saying it. Good luck. Don’t leave tonight without saying good bye, okay?” she nodded in agreement, “Don’t become a stranger.”
“Don’t leave her hanging. She likes you. You just have to go for it.”
X
Merlin had never spent so much time hugging female company than he did that day. He had always been comfortable enough with Gwen to lie with her on a sofa and have her hug him as she rested on his - presumed uncomfortably hard - chest.
“It’s for the best,” he mumbled into her hair. He had her arms around her shoulder holding her body to his. He wanted the comfort and she could give it to him without being awkward, “Promise me that no matter how much we might grow as people, we won’t grow apart.”
“I promise,” she gave him a light squeeze, “You don’t have to worry, I’m not going anywhere.”
“I liked her,” Merlin admitted his other arm was back behind his head and he stared up at the ceiling. He sighed.
“But?” Gwen prompted. Merlin didn’t comply, “But she’s not Morgana?” she asked. She could feel Merlin nodding against the top of her curls, “you should tell her.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?” Gwen probed moving so she was looking down at him.
“The same reason you won’t tell Arthur you think in his pants would be a nice place to be.”
“Because she’s an arrogant twat most of the time, with no respect for anyone but herself?”
Merlin grinned and laughed at her. She didn’t deny it, but she also had a point; “Maybe not the same reason then. I notice you aren’t saying no...”
“Shut up, Merlin. Stop deflecting. This isn’t about me,” she settle d her head back against his chest, “This is about you.”
“Why can’t girls be as easy as you?”
“Hey!” she hit him hard in the stomach. He flinched in automatic response. He laughed awkwardly, eventually it turned into giggles.
“I mean, easy to get along with. I can tell you anything. Why can’t I be more eloquent with other people?”
“Because I’m like a bloke to you. My breasts mean nothing to you.”
“That must be it. I have no desire to fondle your boobs, yet you make it so easy for me,” he said jokingly moving his hand over her chest. She batted his hand away, “Oh but Gwen, you love me.”
“Yes, I do. Very much, but you are never touching my chest.”
“How else am I meant to learn?”
“From the internet like everybody else.”
“Gwen! You disgust me.”
X
The Pendragon Household had never been much of a bitter place as the children had grown up. They were a year and a half apart in age. Arthur the winter baby whilst Morgana was the summer child. The family had been most dysfunctional.
Morgana’s mother, Vivienne, had died not long after she was born. She had been diagnosed with end stage cancer late into her pregnancy. She had forgone chemotherapy for her baby. She didn’t want to harm her baby who had her whole life ahead of her when she was so close to the end without much chance of winning her battle. She’d given up her life for Morgana. As she’d grown up Morgana had never known - she would never have understood - but as she’d grown older Uther had sat her in the chair and told her everything. It was hard to miss something you had never known.
Arthur knew that.
Uther Pendragon didn’t have much luck with his love life. He never got a happy story. Six months after his wife had died he’d meet Igraine Queen. They’d lived three months happily with each other. To begin with they were nothing more than lovers. She was the one Uther went to when he got too stressed.
Three months in that changed. He knew he loved her. Never more than he had loved Vivienne, but never less either. Two months later and she told him she was with child. It was never planned. Seven months after that and Igraine had died in childbirth. She’d lost blood faster than they could give it to her. There was nothing anybody could do.
For months Uther couldn’t look at his son.
They had grown up together like any other brother and sister would. They argued. They played. They fought together against their father and played their fantasy games. Arthur the knight in shining armour with Morgana the witch, his deadliest enemy.
When Uther had explained to both of his children the circumstances of their births, he’d had to admit that they weren’t of completely the same blood. It had affected the way they acted with each other for a month before they’d gone back to be the bickering siblings they had been before. It was all they’d known, solid fact wasn’t about to change what they felt in both their hearts and their heads.
Whenever he introduced her to anyone she was ‘My older sister, Morgana.’
Arthur was always her annoying younger brother.
The only time they ever used it against each other was when they were in a bad mood with the other.
Nobody would question their siblingship when they heard the way Arthur had been teasing her. He was relentless. Whenever he had anything on Morgana that he could use for such purposes he would and Morgana would in return.
“’It was nice to see you earlier. See you soon. Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.’ Ooh, Morgana, what a romantic,” he chided with her phone held above his head as he read from the screen.
“Give it back, Arthur!”
“I don’t think so. It’s too good,” he flicked to the next message, “How quaint,” the next again, “Now, Morgana. I would have thought better of you, you filthy being.”
She kicked him hard in the shin - his left shin - making him drop the device straight into her hands as he clutched at his leg, “Bitch,” he cried as he fell back onto the sofa, “That fucking hurt!”
“Then you shouldn’t be such a child. Or would you like me to read your string of messages with Gwen?” she said swiping his phone from the end table before he could. She smirked and started to click through the menu, “’Oh Gwen. Hurt me again. I love it when you play rough.’ Now who’s the filthy one?”
“You made that up!”
“Doesn’t mean you haven’t sent it,” she said with an evil flash in hr eye. She started a new message and started frantically typing as she ran away from Arthur and across the hallway to the downstairs bathroom.
“Morgana!” he ran after her. He was too late. She slammed the door as he’d come to the hallway and clicked the lock across before he could get to her, “Morgana!” He slapped his hand against the door continuously, “Give it back!”
“Apologise!”
“Morgana!”
“Say you’re sorry and I won’t press send.”
“Fine! I’m sorry, now give me my sodding phone back.”
“Oops, stupid touch screen. I didn’t press that!” she shouted at the phone. She opened the door and looked at him with an apologetic expression on her face.
“You fucking bitch, Morgana,” he declared as he grabbed his phone back from her. She cackled. He looked at the string of texts and poked Morgana hard in the arm when he saw that the last thing on the string was a message Gwen had sent him two days ago.
“Owh. You deserved that, twat.”
“You deserved that, bitch.”
“I didn’t send it. What do you take me for? It’s totally true though.”
“Perhaps I should draft a text to Merlin after all; ‘Dearest Emrys; touch my sister and I’ll serve your head to our father on a platter for brunch. All the best, Arthur.’”
X
Gwen pushed the trolley around in front of her. She weaved the young children who somehow seemed magnetized to her trolley’s path. She’d nearly run over the same child five times, “I hate children. I hate children,” she repeated to herself as she rounded an aisle.
“Not a very nice thing to say, Miss,” she looked up to see Tom standing with a smile on his face with a woman who was clearly his mother.
“I hate smalll children. I hate small children,” she said looking to him for approval.
“That’s better. And another thing: Ready made tomato and basil pasta bake? You should know better.”
“Like you know better, Thomas,” his mother said with a smile on her face.
“It’s for Tuesdays after staff meeting,” Gwen defended, “Gwen,” she introduced herself to the older woman, “Be nice or I’ll mark you down,” she remarked to the boy in her Year Thirteen class.
“I have every respect for you,” he said with a wicked smile on his face, “All hail Miss Leodegrance, best teacher ever.”
“You’re the Drama teacher?”
“Guilty as charged.”
“He never shuts up about you,” Gwen looked up at him. His cheeks were blushing a rose colour. She smiled at him; he was one of her better students.
“Mum,” he said in a warning tone.
“He’s a good student,” Gwen responded as she smiled at him, “I better go; I have ready meals to eat and coursework to mark.”
“I knew it.”
“What was that, Tom? ‘D’ you say?” she asked looking at her shoulder at him.
“I’m moving on. See you Friday, miss.”
“Bye Tom,” she waved and carried on into the bakery section of the store.
X
Five minutes later and she stood staring at the white wine on the shelf. She was debating sending a few extra pounds on a nicer bottle or going with the ‘3 4 £10’ deal they had advertised. She grabbed a single bottle of Chardonnay and went to move off.
“I thought you had better taste than that,” Gwen turned to see a familiar figure standing with a basket in one hand and a French stick in the other.
“It’ll do. It’s not like I have guests,” she shrugged off the blonde’s remark and put the bottle in her trolley. She didn’t care for quality, she just wanted a nice warm feeling in her head as she spent her evening marking. Wasting her time away with the inane chore that seemed to take up more of her time than any other action. Including sleep.
“You lead a sad existence.”
“Sadly most days I am without your stellar company.”
“Just say you need me, Leodegrance, and I’ll always be there,” he winked and grabbed one of the more expensive bottles of wine. It was alright for some.
“I’d rather stick pins in my eyes,” she replied jovially.
“That’s a shame. Morgana’s left me on my own tonight to go on a date with Merlin-“
“It’s not a date-“
“-so I’m cooking for one. Could do it for two?”
“And have you charge me with your crutches, I don’t think so.”
“They took them away from me.”
“That’s a shame. Thanks for the offer but-“
“You’ve had a better one?” he said thumbing through some of the things in her trolley and raising an eyebrow at her. She pushed her trolley out of his grasp and looked at him sternly.
“In the form of five acts and beautifully poetic language, actually.”
“You lost me at ‘five’.”
“Don’t worry yourself. I have A-level coursework to mark,” she said excusing herself.
“Over the summer?” he fell into sync beside her. She couldn’t even shake hi off like she had Tom.
“It’s the resubmitted pieces.”
“Ah. The good old resubmit.”
“It might be good for them but it’s not good for me. More work? No thank you.”
“I thought you liked your job?”
“I like the practical side of it.”
“But not the theory?”
“Exactly.”
“What about Newton’s Theory?” Arthur asked her with a teasing smile on his lips. He cared little for science.
“Do you even know Newton’s theories?”
“Do you?”
She contemplated reeling them off at him. She decided against it knowing one word would do to show her knowledge; “Merlin.”
“Fine. You win. I’ll leave you to your shopping and poor taste in wine.”
“Not all of us are Olympians. We can’t all afford to drink good wine every night. You know what I might not bother,” she thrust the bottle back onto the shelf where she had taken it from with a huffed, “I might just drink tea!”
“How very stuffy, English librarian of you.”
“Leave Buffy out of this,” Gwen squinted. She was most certainly not a stuffy librarian. British, however, she was. She always would be. But she was far from stuffy and she resented the implication that she was.
“Oh, she knows,” Arthur threw his head back in joy, “You just went up in my expectations.”
“I didn’t peg you for a Buffy geek.”
“I didn’t peg you for a masochist,” he countered.
“Hey, what?” Gwen’s jaw dropped. How could he just come out with that in the middle of the supermarket? There were kids around. And at least one of her students, “You’re the masochist.”
“Never said I wasn’t,” he left it at that. He winked at her and disappeared into the throng of children and adults that seemed to be loitering in the alcohol aisle. Gwen shook her head in disbelief. Defiantly she grabbed the ‘bad’ bottle of Chardonnay and shoved it back into her trolley. She felt satisfied.
X
Night out. You and Merlin are invited.
The boys are coming if that persuades
you more than I can. See you tonight.
Gwen hadn’t expected to have any plans. She’d even bought herself a good bottle of wine to drink whilst marking the GCSE coursework drafts she had been given. She was young and in need of a good night out, she was hardy going to turn it down.
Where are we meeting? Be great to
see Gwaine and Lance again. They’re
Better company than you are, Grumpy. X
She had a class of new year-sevens to teach now. She had to set a good example. She slipped her phone back into her desk draw and shut it away from view. New students were always fun to play with. You got to insert your authority before they realised in a few weeks that she was a complete push over. They were all still getting to know each other as well so it helped that she didn’t look like a complete loser learning their names like she did with new year eight classes she got.
She walked into the corridor where all the students were lined up, noisily waiting to come in; “Aright!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. The girl in front of her continued to talk animatedly to the two behind her in the queue. Gwen placed her hand on top of her head and turned her around to face her with her finger to her lips. The girl blushed and immediately stopped talking, “Thank you. Right, when you come in I want you to put your belongings along this wall. Take your shoes off and sit in a circle in register order.”
Gwen walked in and was followed by the chatty girl. She pointed to where she wanted them to place their things. She headed back into her office to grab her register and pen and other things she would need. She opened her draw and checked her phone.
I am not grumpy. I’ll uninvited you
if you say that again. Rugby Club at
7. Bring a jumper.
The rugby club? Really? She’d lived in Bath for a long time, shed never been to a rugby match, “There’s a first time for everything,” she said to herself. She discarded the device back in the draw without replying. She had a class to teach, authority to insert and young minds to meld.
“Right, my lovely people, I’m Miss Leodegrance. Every Friday morning for the next year you’ll be in here with me. In a minute we’re going to play a few name games,” there were a few pumps fists. Kids, Gwen thought, they always like the games, “both for my benefit and for yours. For a lot of you this is your first week with the others. So we’re in the same boat.”
She took the register and started putting names to faces. She started to pick out in her mind which of them would be trouble; she was usually right.
“Right okay. First game’s first…”
X
“Is she coming?” Arthur shook his head at his friend in disbelief. He’d only just sent her the message after all. It wasn’t like she was Superwoman.
“Honestly, she’s teaching, she won’t reply until lunch,” Arthur said in her defence. His stomach grumbled at the idea. He’d been up early to go to the yard and put Camelot King through his paces. Morgana was still refusing to let him enter competitions.
“Well aren’t you a creepy little stalker.”
Arthur narrowed his eyes, “I asked Morgana.”
“Yeah right, you creep,” Gwaine laughed through a piece of Dairy ilk at his head. It dropped into Arthur’s lap and he ate it, answering his stomach’s call, “I can see you now if you ever get around her place in her draws smelling her things.”
Arthur’s brow knitted in disgust, “Grow up. If I’m smelling her things is because she’s shoved them at me.”
“So you’ve thought about it?” Gwaine dug with a twinkle in his eye.
“No,” Arthur said bluntly. His friend waggled his eyebrows at him, “I haven’t!”
“Never imagined what’s beneath the clothes?” Arthur could see Gwaine’s mind working overtime. She was a reserved person when it came to clothing, even if they went on a night out on the town. She went for legs rather than chest, which Arthur was thankful for in regards to his two best friends. She needed saving from them and her modesty did most of that for her, “Beneath those woman power shirts? OR,” he said loudly making Arthur jump, “That really cute Bambi one. Seriously, mm.”
“No,” he said finally, “Learn to look up.”
“I do. And I appreciate it. Then I look down and appreciate the rest too.”
“And what about the inside?”
Gwaine snorted and grinned at his friend as he laughed, “You’re a joker. Like that is all you’ve ever thought about.”
“Well, no-“
“Hah! I knew it!” he pointed at his friend accusingly and threw another piece of chocolate at his head. It rebounded off over the back of the sofa.
“Stop it! And I’m a bloke, of course I’ve thought about it.”
“You just lied to me!”
“It was once and I was drunk,” he’d convinced himself then that that was the only reason he’d think about her in that way at all. It had been four months but he was still a little bitter about her running him over. He convinced himself that he shouldn’t think of her in any other way other than the woman he knew because she broke his leg and that didn’t go past occasionally thinking that she might look a little bit hot naked.
“But you remember thinking it. Do you want to find out?”
“No. Now drop it. She’ll reply when she replies,” he stood up and journeyed behind the sofa to retrieve the square of chocolate before it melted into the rug or something else Morgana would hang him for.
x
Gwen clapped her hands loudly and raise her right arm in the air. Within ten seconds the class was silent with their hands up all looking at her, “Okay, great work today guys. Unfortunately it’s time to go. For next week I’ll try and learn some more of your names,” she smiled and granted them permission to leave.
“Here,” Ellis thrust a script at her. She barely even caught it before he let it go.
“What’s this?”
“Christmas show,” he said blankly looking less than impressed.
She squinted at the front and read the title, “Shakespeare 4 Kidz,” she cringed, “Midsummer’s Night Dream? Really Peter?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to respecting the greats?”
“Well that’s not what we’re being told to do.”
“Then we do ‘Bugsy Malone’ or I don’t know ‘Oliver!’,” she complained not even reading the script, the words ‘original’ and ‘songs’ should never adorn a Shakespeare play in her eyes.
“We can’t. This is what the Head wants us to do with the young ones this term. I promise you get to pick next term for the older kids, okay?”
Gwen didn’t even argue back. It was pointless, neither of them had power over what the Head wanted. Instead she cast the script onto the pile of papers on her desk. She’d read it over the weekend with the rest of the stuff. It was the start of term and she already had plenty to do.
She fished her phone out of her desk draw. She had three messages.
Gwen, I demand an answer soon.
Love you, Arthur x
She raised an eyebrow and discarded the message noting the next one from him as well.
That was Gwaine. Please ignore him.
We’ll see you tonight, hopefully.
The final message was from an unknown number.
Arthur told me to take your number.
I don’t think he appreciates me telling you
The truth from his phone. Gwaine <3
She smiled. Typical of him. She saved his number as a new contact before she started her replying spree.
Damn. I was about to say I love you too.
I’ll see you later. Never been to a rugby match
before. I know. Failure of a Bath resident,
right? Xxx
Send.
Hey Gwaine. I’m sure he needs your help.
See you tonight? Gwen
She slumped back into her chair and placed her phone on the desktop.
“You seem awfully chipper,” Ellis stated looking up from his computer screen to her. He’d been struggling with making a poster advertising for the auditions of the winter play. I would take him hours yet, but he refused to ask Gwen for help. One day he would be fluent with computers, he’d told her. One day that wasn’t soon.
“Good class,” she said, it was partly true. They were a good bunch of kids and for once she had been wrong. None of them, as yet, had tried to make her life hell. Give it a month or so for them to settle in and there would be gum in her hair and ripped pages of scripts on the floor.
“With year sevens? Who are you and where did the sane Gwen go?”
“They aren’t that bad.”
“They are annoying and untalented and in need of severe shaping.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” sometimes she didn’t understand why Peter Ellis was a teacher. He hated young kids. He hated people who couldn’t act more and sadly that was the majority. He didn’t like having to work too hard on tuning their artistic flow into a dramatic output.
“Then they make us go and do this shit? How are we meant to teach them about good drama if we can’t do good plays?”
“You’re the Head of Department, Peter. Tell him you don’t want to do it and give him a selection to choose from.”
“I’m on a fine line with my ‘outrageous ideas’ as it is, Gwen. One more time and he’ll be looking for a ground for dismissal.”
“Then ride it and stop complaining,” she plugged her iPod into the speaker that the pair of them had bought last term so they could have small parties when they got bored, “Now, would you like to be treated to Take That, or have your own choice?”
“Anything but Take That.”
“Robbie Williams it is,” she said grinning evilly. Ellis groaned, “I’m joking. I’m joking,” she said, selecting a random artist from the list without looking, “Sort of.”
X
Standing outside of the entrance to the rugby ground, Gwen sunk her head into her scarf and tried not to shiver. It was cold for September. Merlin stood next to her in a thinner jacket and seemed perfectly comfortable. Gwen rubbed her bare hands over her arms and wished that she’d found her gloves before leaving her flat. It was quarter to seven; she would have had time.
She spotted Arthur with his familiar blonde wash of hair in his usual jacket. Gwaine was next to him with his rugby shirt on, in support of the home team Gwen imagined. Morgana was next to the looking just as cold as Gwen felt, she wasn’t wearing a coat and she had a knee length skirt on, “Morgana is officially insane.”
“Looks good though.”
“Tell her that then, ‘Hey Morgana. You’re mental, but you’re hot’.”
“Very funny.”
“Tell her.”
“No.”
“Spoilsport,” she muttered into her scarf as the group had arrived, “You never said it would be this cold,” she complained directly to Arthur who seemed, like Merlin, to be perfectly happy wearing not a lot.
“I said wrap up.”
“You said bring a jumper! This isn’t jumper weather.”
He laughed, “Come on. Lance will already be in there. We’ll meet him afterwards.”
“Okay?” she looked at him through squinted eyes. She obviously had never asked Lance that much about his life down here at the Rugby Club. He wasn’t very forthcoming with the information that was for sure.
“You’ll see,” he led them in, flashing some sort of pass at the bloke on the door. They went up a staircase that led into a bar that overlooked the pitch, “Drinks?”
“Will I be judged if I get a coffee?” she asked as she rubbed her hands over her arms in attempt to warm up. The friction warmed her hands but failed at warming her arms much at all. Arthur smiled and reached out to assist in rubbing her arm single-handedly to try and war her up.
“Not at all,” he ordered himself a pint and a flat white coffee for Gwen. The others piped up their orders and gradually they were presented with their drinks, “Cheers mate.”
“Any time, Arthur,” the barman replied taking his twenty-pound note and handing back his change.
“He knows you?” She hadn’t met many people that could identify Arthur; even with his Olympian status. Most of the time people just stared at her or asked if he was the bloke from that new BBC drama. She’d given up trying to explain who he was. She had never tried telling them how they’d met. That would be a question for the Emrys Grandchildren; ‘How I met your mother?’ Merlin would say, ‘Aunty Gwen ran over her brother.’
“We come here a lot,” Arthur broke Gwen was her small day dream and handed her coffee cup to her.
“Right, okay.”
“Come on, the match will start soon,” he guided her out through a pair of double doors. The other three followed dutifully, “Through there,” he pointed into one of the boxes, “less breezy in here.”
“Still not jumper weather,” Gwen grumbled cupping her coffee in her hands. It hurt slightly to have something so hot against her hands when they were so cold, but in time her hands would warm up.
“Cheer up. It might never happen,” he prodded with a wicked grin on his face.
“I hate that saying. Why is that meant to make me happy?”
“Because the shit might never happen.”
“Well the good stuff might not either,” she caught his eye for a second before quickly looking away and down onto the pitch. She noticed the players stretching to one side in their tracksuits. They stripped themselves into their shorts and long sleeved rugby tops. Gwen visibly shivered, “I don’t want to be them.”
“No?”
“Too cold.”
“Tell that to Lance,” Arthur pointed down to the pitch at one of the men stood in the white kit.
“Is that? Oh my god,” an amused grin broke out on her face as she noticed their friend standing down on the edge of the pitch.
“That’s why we come here a lot.”
“He never said.”
“You never asked. Not directly.”
“I asked him what he did!”
“He told you he worked here,” Arthur shrugged, he could understand his friend’s want to remain a little less than anonymous. Within the city he would occasionally get mobbed by the young fans of the team and he liked to remain in the background, “He just didn’t specify and then Gwaine swooped you up before Lance could stun you with his macho rugby player ways.”
“Much more manly than riding horses, eh Gwen?” Gwaine interjected having overheard their conversation. He took the seat next to her putting her between the pair of best friends.
“You can make better innuendos about riding though.”
“True. Like if there was a horse called Gwen, he could said ‘I rode Gwen last night’ and we’d all think-“
“Yes, thank you, Gwaine,” Arthur cut him off. If looks could kill Gwaine would be a goner.
“Just saying.”
“Thus proving my point,” Gwen mused. She elbowed Arthur in the side, “Cheer up. It might never happen,” he raised an eyebrow at her.
“Just what are you implying Miss Leodegrance?”
“That’s up to you,” she suggestively waggled her eyebrows before bursting into laughter. Gwaine found it most amusing too, high-fiving her.
X
Merlin and Morgana sat on the other end of the row, both in silence subconsciously rubbing their arms against the cold, “Do you think they get it yet?” Merlin asked Morgana looking over at the back of his best friend’s head as she laughed at whatever it was Arthur had just said.
“Probably not. Arthur’s slow on the up take. Even with Gwaine giving helpful hints every time he can.”
“What about us?” Merlin said quietly, “Are we slow on the uptake too?” Morgana looked up from her drink, staring at him quite intently. Slowly she transferred her drink from her left hand to her right and took Merlin’s hand from where it had been between his thighs keeping warm. She latched her fingers through his with a small smile on her face.
“Maybe just a little.”
X
Despite having little idea for what was going on Gwen found herself having a good time. She cheered and eventually she warmed up. Lance didn’t get to play until late on in the second half but once he was on pitch he clicked into action scoring a try within the first minute on pitch.
He had the ball again and was running down the side of the pitch towards the try line when a player took him sideways and he went flying over the edge of the pitch and landed. He’d managed t throw the ball back towards on of his team mates, but both he and the man who had tackled him ended up in a mini heap.
“Shit,” Gwen exclaimed covering her mouth with her hand, “Is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine,” Gwaine replied, “See, already on his feet,” they all watched their friend topple back over again, “Or not.”
“You sure he’s okay?” Gwen asked looking worried.
“Look like he’s got hold of his ankle,” Merlin said looking down. For the first time since they arrived Gwen looked over at him. She noticed the arm he had around Morgana’s shoulder, however casually.
“He’s up,” Gwaine said in running commentary, “He’s jumping annnnnd he’s fine. Back on he goes.”
They all visibly relaxed. Gwen looked back to Merlin and watched him run his hand up Morgana’s arm. On the way his fingers managed to find a section of her hair and started to gently fiddle with it subconsciously.
Gwen gently elbowed Arthur and discreetly pointed down towards them. He smirked and looked back to the game completely unsurprised.
“How long left?” Gwen asked.
Arthur checked his watch, “’Bout five minutes.”
“Okay, and who’s winning,” she laughed at herself. She had no idea.
“We are.”
“Oh; good.”
“Celebratory drinks on Lance afterwards,” Gwaine gleefully clapped his hands together; he’d do anything for a free drink.
“It’s not over yet,” Morgana said pointing towards the man who had tackled Lance running up the pitch with the ball in his hands. They all cheered a little too much when one of Lance’s team mates brought him down to the grass and the ball got passed off to somebody on their team.
The final whistle blew. The home team erupted into cheers, congratulating each other and the home crowd -a definitely majority - all burst into a wave of woops and whistles. Merlin gave his trademark two fingered whistled and cheered with the rest of them, having extracted his arm from around Morgana to do so.
X
They ended up in the members bar with the rest of the team and a number of drinks they hadn’t paid for. Gwen had ended up speaking to a number of the team without rally knowing who any of them were which they all seemed to find rather refreshing.
“Good match to start you on,” one guy had said to her.
“You’re one of Arthur’s friends? He knows the best people,” one, rather drunk man, had told her. He had his arm around her shoulders and his face a little too close for comfort.
“Do you think they’ll notice if we steal you?” she had declined their request, untagled herself from his clutches and made her way back to the table that her friend were sitting around.
“Making new friends?” Merlin smiled. To Gwen’s surprise he was sat the opposite end of the table to Morgana with a spare seat next to him for Gwen to steal.
“Yeah. I have no idea what any of their names are.”
“Me either,” Morgana said honestly, “I only come because the guys drag me.”
“You love it,” Arthur retorted.
“Watching Lancey-boy running around in tight shorts makes my life complete,” she pressed a joking kiss to his cheek. Lance pulled away from her and wiped the red lipstick from his cheek. Morgana winked at Merlin who started to burn the same colour as her lips.
“Definitely a highlight for me too,” Gwaine said drunk and repeated Morgana’s action from Lance’s other side.
“You people are crazy and embarrassing,” the team member spoke up taking a long swig from his rapidly emptying drink.
“Awh, but we love you,” Gwaine ruffled his already messy hair and downed the rest of his pint, “Next round is on you, mate.”
“So we’re the last three.”
“You get free drinks, we don’t.”
Lance sighed and stood. He grabbed the few littered empty glasses, “Anybody else?” Nobody else piped up or shook their heads. They were fine, “Okay, one Guinness for my friend coming up.”
“Morgana we should head,” Arthur stated looking at his watch, “Early start tomorrow.”
“We’re off to see the wizard,” she replied looking to Merlin and Gwen and rolling her eyes, “Hooray.”
“We’ll go with you. Out of here, I mean,” Merlin declared looking at Gwen. She felt like she couldn’t disagree and stood to leave too.
“Boring!” Gwaine declared from his seat and swiped Arthur’s half full glass with a thumbs up, “Cheers.”
X
Gwen and Arthur dropped back from Morgana and Merlin once they reached the outside. They were all walking back, not living particularly far. Gwen shivered, soon regretting her decision and pulled her coat tighter around her, “Will they?” she asked him staring at the back of their heads.
“Not if you keep staring like that,” he jibed.
“Well what else am I meant to do?”
“I don’t know? Stargaze?” he said and pointed up and the clear night sky, “It’s all kinds of beautiful.”
“Nicer from the yard,” Gwen stated matter-of-factly.
“How do you know?” Arthur asked looking down at her confused. As far as he was aware she had only been there once and that was during the daytime months ago.
“Out of the city, away from the lights. It always looks better then,” she’d been camping many-a-time in the New Forest with her father when she was younger. Her mother had hated it, so they’d gone alone. They would set up a tent on one of the campsites and spend their days walking around through the woodlands and spend their nights lying out on a blanket looking up at the stars. It was the only time in Gwen’s life when she had felt truly free or all of the daily pressures.
“Well maybe one day we should test the theory,” Gwen smiled and nodded in agreement as she pinpointed the only constellations she knew, “My other was correct,” he said and motioned towards his sister and Merlin. The latter was currently stooped an inch to kiss his counterpart, “Ewh, that’s my sister. I don’t need to see this,” Gwen reached up and placed her hand over his eyes, “Yeah, thanks. That makes it all better.”
“I thought it might.”
“Have they finished yet?” Gwen removed her hand to show him. He groaned and put her hand back over them. He held her hand firmly in place.
“You could just turn around,” she suggested her arm starting to ache from the lack of blood pumping around it.
“Yeah,” he said turning away from her hands and facing back the way they’d come, “And your hands are cold.”
“Sor-ry,” Arthur grinned and gently rubbing her hands between his, his back now to Merlin and Morgana. Gwen shivered. She’d rather head to her nice warm flat but she didn’t want to interrupt her friends by walking by. Give it another minute though and she might be forced to. She looked down to her hands, Arthur’s still encased them but he had stopped moving them. The friction between them previously had warmed them substantially and now his warm fingers were still keeping hers warm, “Thanks.”
“No worries,” he grinned. He shot a look over his shoulder, “I’m going now!” he shouted and dug his hand into his pocket for his car keys, “Move it or lose it!” he turned back to Gwen, “See you soon, yeah?”
“Yeah, pub quiz Sunday. Merlin says he has a good feeling about this week.”
“I bet he did.”
X
Merlin sat flicking through a magazine in the small staff canteen that adorned the first floor of his lab. He had a Crunchie in his hand as he fingered through it. He came across an out-of-date article he had read before about the CERN project in Geneva, “Never ended the world, did it?” he grumbled and turned the page angrily.
“They’re saving that for 2012,” somebody said from the doorway behind him,
“That’s bullshit too,” he snapped back and looked over his shoulder to see Morgana standing in the doorway with a visitor ID attached to the lapel of her jacket, “Hi.”
“Hey,” Merlin replied slightly startled by the appearance of his - he didn’t know what. She pushed off and crossed the room to him.
“You alright?” she asked.
“I’m fine. You?”
“Yeah, better now.”
“Small talk over?”
“Yeah.”
“Merlin-“
“Morgana-“
They both laughed awkwardly, “Go ahead,” the scientist offered.
“Last night,” Morgana started. She slipped into the chair opposite Merlin and crossed her leg over her knee, “last night was the best I’ve felt for a long time. After the way things ended with Al- you’ve been so brilliant with me and with Arthur and everything that has happened.”
Merlin inwardly cringed. He’d heard speeches like this before. Generally they were followed by the words ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’ and a number of insults on his intelligence, “If this is your way of telling me not to get my hopes up then I understand completely.”
“No!” she said suddenly, “No. I just- could we take it back a notch? Once Arthur starts competing again I’m not going to be around and that’s not fair on you.”
“I know that. I can deal with that.”
“I know you won’t, but after the way Al managed to end things, I don’t want to fall for another wanker.”
“Thanks,” Merlin said looking a cross between bemused and hurt.
“I don’t mean it like that. I know you wouldn’t ever. But-“
“But there’s still that niggling feeling inside of you that says that I might.”
“Yeah.”
“I accept that,” he said reaching out and resting his hand on hers on top of the table they were sat next to, “How about a coffee in Costa once I’m finished tonight?”
“I’d like that,” Merlin rose out of his seat, throwing the magazine onto the table and leant towards her and placed a light kiss on her forehead.
“Too much?” he asked with a light smile on his face but with worry in his eyes.
Morgana shook her head, “Just right.”
Next Part
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
The summer sun beat down across the park. Children were laughing as they played in the park; their worries over for another six weeks. Gwen would have thought that given that she spent the rest of the year around kids she would want to avoid the park at all costs during the holidays, but it was a nice day out.
“It’s not fair, you know,” Merlin started as he licked the melting ice cream from the cone in his hand. He’d insisted after their jaunt around the park that he got an ice cream complete with a flake and now he was expertly working his way around it without getting it all around his chops.
“What’s not fair?”
“You get six weeks off! Not only that, you get two weeks at Christmas. Two weeks at Easter and three random other weeks off a year! And you can’t tell me you actually do anything on a ‘Teaching Development Day’.”
“Merlin, you are my dearest friend, that doesn’t mean I won’t resort to telling you that you chose the wrong career. If you want the time off, you should have become a teacher.”
“Or an injured sportsman,” Merlin said a little too brightly. Though Arthur was on his way back into sport he still wasn’t allowed to compete. The doctors didn’t want him to put too much strain on his leg at any one time.
“Or injured sportsman. Though I don’t think he’s enjoying it.”
“No, but I’m sure he will,” Merlin elbowed her in the side as they walked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gwen hit him with the back of her hand as they walked. Merlin laughed into his ice cream; she knew.
“Morgana said that Arthur said that you two are starting afresh?” he said in one breath. He felt like he was twelve again and relaying some god forbidden argument between his friends.
“Yeah. It’s nice,” she admitted. Merlin raised an eyebrow, “When he doesn’t hate me he’s actually pleasant company.”
“Oh yeah?” the sparkle in Merlin’s eye made her hit him again. She poked her finger into his ice cream and stole some of it, licking it off of her finger.
“Stop it; or I’ll start about Morgana.”
“There is nothing going on between me and Morgana,” he said licking his ice cream. The flake was threatening to fall out so he picked it out with his fingers and licked the ice cream off of the end.
“No Merlin, not at all,” she swiped the chocolate from him and ran off a few paces in front and ate it. No qualms against his spit already being on it.
“There isn’t!” he shouted as he swiped out at her to have a gander at getting his chocolate back.
“Sure,” she said, teasingly eating the rest of the chocolate, “Come on; we’re going to be late if we don’t hurry up. I don’t want to miss food service hours.”
“Come on then. Sunday roast awaits us,” he said cramming down on the ice cream in the cone, making his teeth hurt and giving himself brain freeze.
“But now there’s an empty swing!” Gwen complained, pointing over to the park. It was getting late and the kids were starting to peel off back home; being forced away by their parents.
Merlin mock groaned and ran after her as she took off for the play area. Give it five minutes and they would be kicked out for being in the park with no children and playing on the equipment at twenty-four years old.
x
They sat around a table in the corner of the pub with an answer sheet in front of them, each answer so far filled. Morgana had taken charge of writing, her and Merlin answering most of the questions with the occasional input from Gwen and Arthur, but they seemed to have it down; “I said we should get a bigger team.”
“And I didn’t listen to you, yeah I know,” he said before shushing her so he could hear the next question, “Oh come on, that’s easy,” he stole the pen off of Morgana and started to scribble; the other three lost on the science question. “Simple.”
“If you say so,” Morgana said reading back over the answer and raised her eyebrow, “Really simple.”
“How many questions left?” Arthur asked, he sat relaxed back against the bench.
“About five or six. There’re usually thirty. Then time to get a drink whilst they mark, then results.”
“Right okay,” Arthur sat with one hand around his drink he other tapping his knee. He’d never been to a pub quiz in his life, he didn’t see himself as the sort. He hadn’t seen Morgana as the sort either but here she was really getting into it.
“If you want to go you can,” she said. He looked offended that she would even consider it, “Merlin will only keep the money for himself.”
“No, I was just wondering how much of a chance there was that I might actually get a question to answer that none of you know the answer to.”
“Fat chance of that,” Morgana laughed.
“This is why we leave early sometimes, because we don’t know any answers,” Gwen turned sheepish and looked deep into her glass, “We left early the night we met.”
“The night you ran me over,” Arthur said as flippantly as he could manage, still bitter about the situation. He wanted this friendship to work and so far so good.
“Yeah. We literally had no answers after the first round so we decided to give up.”
“Bit defeatist.”
“We were never going to win.”
“No?”
“Not a chance. The team over by the bar are awful cheats. They can see the answer sheet in the barman’s hand.”
“Why not sit there then?”
“Because they get shirty. They are the locals. It’s their table and every Sunday they come in and if they aren’t here they reserve it so when they come in they can sit there.”
“So they can cheat?”
“Well yeah, otherwise it’s not a great table to sit at. You get boshed about by the people going to and from the bar.”
“Oh, okay. Just how often do you two come here?”
“It used to have student night. We came here a lot when we went to Uni.”
“Ah. I never got the uni experience, I guess. Just rode horses all the time. Around in the sand; around the fields doing cross country; show jumping. I would have been a jockey but I grew too much,” it was true, he was rather broad. Not that Gwen had spent the last half an hour inspecting what he looked like beneath his inappropriately tight white t-shirt.
“You missed out on debt and essays and student living and did I mention the debt?” Arthur laughed, “Besides, you were already doing something you love, what’s the point in losing money when you could earn it?”
“Hey, hey, Gwen! Were you listening? Drama question!” Merlin sudden flailed an arm in her direction.
“Shakespeare question.”
“What was it?”
“In which play is the line ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?’ Blah di blah.”
“You don’t know?”
“No. Now fess up.”
“Merchant of Venice.”
“You’re sure?” she gave him a stony look, “okay,” Merlin pointed to the slot, “Merchant of Venice,” Morgana scribbled it down. Merlin reached over the table to high five Gwen, she hit his hand lamely, “That was rubbish.”
“It’s all you deserve.”
“Cold.”
“Learn Shakespeare.”
“We’re a team, you’re meant to help.”
“It was an easy question.”
“Shush! I can’t hear the questions,” Morgana snapped. She was getting into it as much as Merlin did.
“Final question!” the barman announced, “How many states of matter are there and the tie break: name them.”
“Pfft,” he snatched the paper from beneath Morgana’s arm and nicked the pen from her hand. He started to scribble down all of the 6 answers.
“Are you sure?”
He gave her an incredulous look, “Yes I’m sure.”
“Positive.”
“Morgana, I’m a scientist for a living, I think I know what I’m talking about.”
“Okay,” she relented, “If you’re wrong-“
“He’s not wrong,” Gwen said plainly, she trusted her friend’s knowledge and his competitive streak. She drank the remainder of her drink and relaxed back. The thing was over, she could now pay no attention not at all.
“Is he always like this?”
“Oh yeah,” the barman came by and grabbed the paper from the table and carried on past to swipe the rest of the answer sheets from the competitors, “He’s more fun when he loses.”
“I bet.”
“When I lose?” Merlin asked, offended by such claims.
“My darling friend, you never win.”
“That was before we had a team,” Merlin hadn’t wanted a team. He wanted to battle through and continue to lose on his own (with Gwen’s help) rather than split the money between more people. Yet here he was using her own knowledge against her, “With Morgana and Arthur on my side, how can I lose?”
“Who said I was on your side?” Arthur asked. He was teasing, Gwen thought, but she could never be sure.
“You’re here aren’t you? That’s you on my side.”
“Right, I’m getting a drink, anybody want anything?”Gwen declared hitting her hand down on the tabletop lightly. She pushed to standing and looked across the table at the two black haired individuals.
“Yeah, I’ll come give you a hand,” Arthur said slowly standing with her and pushing back his seat with the backs of his legs.
She eyed his left leg, then his grey aids, “With your crutches?”
“I can hobble along without,” he said as if it were the biggest feat of his life. A grin broke out across his face, “I don’t particularly need them anymore,” he said truthfully. He’d rather not use them at any point but he still found on occasion that his leg would ache if he walked on it too long. He was better off safe then sorry.
“Right, please be careful. I don’t want you blaming me for injuring yourself again.”
“Injuring myself? I didn’t injure myself! You injured me!” he poked her in the back of the shoulder as they walked towards the bar. She looked back over her shoulder at him and smiled bashfully.
“Sorry.”
“Bet you planned it!”
“Of course I did. I willed you with my magical powers to walk out in front of my car so I could run you over and have you hate me for two months. Yeah, it was a really good plan, wasn’t it?”
“You like being treated badly?” he said, leaning against the bar net to where she stood waiting for custom. She raised an eyebrow at him, “Okay, no. Sorry.”
“I’m sorry. You’re sorry. I think we’ve established we’re all sorry. So now can we not mention it again?”
A loud clanging of a spoon against a metal tankard sounded, drawing their attention away fro each other and towards the barman who’d been in charge of the quiz. He stood in the middle of the competing tables with the answer sheets in his hands, “Attention!
“The team in third place this week are ‘Team Green’, in second is ‘Team Excalibur’,” Gwen looked over to Merlin. He looked positively furious. They hadn’t won. Gwen knew it. She said he shouldn’t get so complacent about it, “And in first place and the winner of this week’s pot is ‘Team We Like Peas’.”
“We like peas? Really?” Arthur laughed, he turned back towards Gwen, “How unbearable is he going to be?” he said nodding his head towards Merlin.
“He’ll be annoyed and ranting for hours. You learn to tune him out.”
“And you’ve had how many years practise at that?”
“Nearly eight?”
“Right.”
“You’ll get used to it. Now, what did you want to drink?” she leant on the bar in front of her and greeted the other barman with a smile and ordered her vodka, lemonade and lime.
x
The room smelt of worn leather in the summer haze. The man in the tack room zipped up his boots over his riding trousers. They were perfectly clean having only just been bought out of their box for the first time in ten weeks. Their owner brushed off the toes and turned his attention back to his top half. He made sure his t-shirt was untucked and tightened the Velcro on his gloves.
He grabbed his helmet and crop from the workbench by the door and exited. A bubble of excited rose through him; he hadn’t been on a horse for so long; too long. This was going to be good fun. He hoped that riding a horse was like riding a bike. He’d heard it was, but he’d never been in the position to find out.
As he walked out into the yard he was greeted by his sister and his horse.
“Now that is a good sight to see,” Morgana said truthfully, “I’d started to forget what it looked like,” she grinned. She ran her hand under Camelot King’s mane, “Be good for Daddy, CK. He’s missed you.”
Arthur didn’t say anything as he approached. There was no sign of a limp on his left side for the first time since he’d been ridded of his crutches. He greeted his horse with a kiss on his nose and scratching him behind his ears.
“You ready for this?” Morgana asked him, her voice was full of genuine concern.
“I’ve never been more ready for this,” he said putting his foot into the stirrup and pushing up, he swung his right leg over with practised ease. His left leg didn’t even twinge in pain at the weight exerted on it, “So far so good,” he rubbed the flat of his hand over CK’s shoulder. He gripped the reigns properly and gently kicked him on into a walk, “It’s good to be home,” he said under his breath and headed straight for the paddock.
“Be careful!” Morgana shouted as he started to trot away from her. He waved a flippant hand at her. Nothing could hurt him up there. He’d never injured himself falling off before and he didn’t intend on starting now.
Morgana leant on the fence watching as Arthur gently kicked the horse into a canter and started off in circles around the edge of the field. He came past Morgana, as he did he pad her no heed; he was off in his own world. She brought her phone out from her pocket and aimed it at him taking a few photos.
She sent the best of which straight to Gwen;
He’s fine. You didn’t break him too much. Mx
She hit send and grinned. This was where he belonged and they both knew it. Now he just had to get back into practise. It wouldn’t be good for him to get straight back into competitions. He still had to build up the muscle in his leg again.
With the wind under his shirt as he sped up into a gallop down the long straight he stood in his stirrups and let CK go as fast as he wanted. He grinned as the horses pace increased. Forget the cosiest of rooms, or the most scenic of places, this was home to him. Any other place didn’t feel right.
As the fence approached Arthur pulled CK back into a trot and rounded the corner, “How about some jumps, eh?” he said more for his own benefit. He directed CK towards the jumps and took the first one with ease, never losing his seat, “Good lad,” he cooed, gently patting the side of his neck and rubbing it affectionately.
Morgana felt her phone vibrate in her hand. She looked down at the screen and burst out laughing;
Damn. Can’t even run over somebody correctly.
Glad he’s okay. Xxx
“I bet you are,” Morgana smirked. She abandoned her phone back in her pocket. As much as Arthur could stay there all day, she had things to do and people to talk to and an argument to settle with their father.
X
In the scientists labs in the south of Bath one man sat - so desperately bored - that he had spent the last ten minutes throwing Skittles in the air trying to catch them in his mouth whilst sat on his wheely chair. He crashed into his own desk and fell forwards from his chair with a clatter.
A small burst of laughter sounded behind him.
“Freya! Hi,” he scrambled to his feet.
“Hi.”
“What can I do for you?” he asked gently. He bent to pick up the green bugger he had missed pre-embarrassing performance.
“I came to tell you that today is my last day,” she said softly looking at her feet, “I got a job in London. They told me last week. I’ve not had much time to tell you. I’ve been looking for a flat and packing. They wanted me to start as soon as possible.”
“Oh. Who for?”
“Still for Grant Tech, but in the London Labs.”
“Oh right. Well, uh, good luck, I guess,” he hugged her, “I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too but we both know this was never going to work,” his smile upturned slightly, but he knew what she was saying. The connection they had didn’t reach that far, “You’re a great guy, Merlin, but your heart isn’t with me, is it?” she said honestly. She didn’t look hurt, she looked happy. She was getting a new start in life and all she wanted was to see those she liked in her life get what they wanted, “It was worth a shot, but we’re better off as friends. I’ll email, I promise.”
“I’m going to miss you Freya Lakes.”
“I’ll miss you too, Merlin Emrys,” he kissed her on the cheek and hugged her to him again, “You are a good friend, the best I could ask for.”
“No, I’m not. But thanks for saying it. Good luck. Don’t leave tonight without saying good bye, okay?” she nodded in agreement, “Don’t become a stranger.”
“Don’t leave her hanging. She likes you. You just have to go for it.”
X
Merlin had never spent so much time hugging female company than he did that day. He had always been comfortable enough with Gwen to lie with her on a sofa and have her hug him as she rested on his - presumed uncomfortably hard - chest.
“It’s for the best,” he mumbled into her hair. He had her arms around her shoulder holding her body to his. He wanted the comfort and she could give it to him without being awkward, “Promise me that no matter how much we might grow as people, we won’t grow apart.”
“I promise,” she gave him a light squeeze, “You don’t have to worry, I’m not going anywhere.”
“I liked her,” Merlin admitted his other arm was back behind his head and he stared up at the ceiling. He sighed.
“But?” Gwen prompted. Merlin didn’t comply, “But she’s not Morgana?” she asked. She could feel Merlin nodding against the top of her curls, “you should tell her.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?” Gwen probed moving so she was looking down at him.
“The same reason you won’t tell Arthur you think in his pants would be a nice place to be.”
“Because she’s an arrogant twat most of the time, with no respect for anyone but herself?”
Merlin grinned and laughed at her. She didn’t deny it, but she also had a point; “Maybe not the same reason then. I notice you aren’t saying no...”
“Shut up, Merlin. Stop deflecting. This isn’t about me,” she settle d her head back against his chest, “This is about you.”
“Why can’t girls be as easy as you?”
“Hey!” she hit him hard in the stomach. He flinched in automatic response. He laughed awkwardly, eventually it turned into giggles.
“I mean, easy to get along with. I can tell you anything. Why can’t I be more eloquent with other people?”
“Because I’m like a bloke to you. My breasts mean nothing to you.”
“That must be it. I have no desire to fondle your boobs, yet you make it so easy for me,” he said jokingly moving his hand over her chest. She batted his hand away, “Oh but Gwen, you love me.”
“Yes, I do. Very much, but you are never touching my chest.”
“How else am I meant to learn?”
“From the internet like everybody else.”
“Gwen! You disgust me.”
X
The Pendragon Household had never been much of a bitter place as the children had grown up. They were a year and a half apart in age. Arthur the winter baby whilst Morgana was the summer child. The family had been most dysfunctional.
Morgana’s mother, Vivienne, had died not long after she was born. She had been diagnosed with end stage cancer late into her pregnancy. She had forgone chemotherapy for her baby. She didn’t want to harm her baby who had her whole life ahead of her when she was so close to the end without much chance of winning her battle. She’d given up her life for Morgana. As she’d grown up Morgana had never known - she would never have understood - but as she’d grown older Uther had sat her in the chair and told her everything. It was hard to miss something you had never known.
Arthur knew that.
Uther Pendragon didn’t have much luck with his love life. He never got a happy story. Six months after his wife had died he’d meet Igraine Queen. They’d lived three months happily with each other. To begin with they were nothing more than lovers. She was the one Uther went to when he got too stressed.
Three months in that changed. He knew he loved her. Never more than he had loved Vivienne, but never less either. Two months later and she told him she was with child. It was never planned. Seven months after that and Igraine had died in childbirth. She’d lost blood faster than they could give it to her. There was nothing anybody could do.
For months Uther couldn’t look at his son.
They had grown up together like any other brother and sister would. They argued. They played. They fought together against their father and played their fantasy games. Arthur the knight in shining armour with Morgana the witch, his deadliest enemy.
When Uther had explained to both of his children the circumstances of their births, he’d had to admit that they weren’t of completely the same blood. It had affected the way they acted with each other for a month before they’d gone back to be the bickering siblings they had been before. It was all they’d known, solid fact wasn’t about to change what they felt in both their hearts and their heads.
Whenever he introduced her to anyone she was ‘My older sister, Morgana.’
Arthur was always her annoying younger brother.
The only time they ever used it against each other was when they were in a bad mood with the other.
Nobody would question their siblingship when they heard the way Arthur had been teasing her. He was relentless. Whenever he had anything on Morgana that he could use for such purposes he would and Morgana would in return.
“’It was nice to see you earlier. See you soon. Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.’ Ooh, Morgana, what a romantic,” he chided with her phone held above his head as he read from the screen.
“Give it back, Arthur!”
“I don’t think so. It’s too good,” he flicked to the next message, “How quaint,” the next again, “Now, Morgana. I would have thought better of you, you filthy being.”
She kicked him hard in the shin - his left shin - making him drop the device straight into her hands as he clutched at his leg, “Bitch,” he cried as he fell back onto the sofa, “That fucking hurt!”
“Then you shouldn’t be such a child. Or would you like me to read your string of messages with Gwen?” she said swiping his phone from the end table before he could. She smirked and started to click through the menu, “’Oh Gwen. Hurt me again. I love it when you play rough.’ Now who’s the filthy one?”
“You made that up!”
“Doesn’t mean you haven’t sent it,” she said with an evil flash in hr eye. She started a new message and started frantically typing as she ran away from Arthur and across the hallway to the downstairs bathroom.
“Morgana!” he ran after her. He was too late. She slammed the door as he’d come to the hallway and clicked the lock across before he could get to her, “Morgana!” He slapped his hand against the door continuously, “Give it back!”
“Apologise!”
“Morgana!”
“Say you’re sorry and I won’t press send.”
“Fine! I’m sorry, now give me my sodding phone back.”
“Oops, stupid touch screen. I didn’t press that!” she shouted at the phone. She opened the door and looked at him with an apologetic expression on her face.
“You fucking bitch, Morgana,” he declared as he grabbed his phone back from her. She cackled. He looked at the string of texts and poked Morgana hard in the arm when he saw that the last thing on the string was a message Gwen had sent him two days ago.
“Owh. You deserved that, twat.”
“You deserved that, bitch.”
“I didn’t send it. What do you take me for? It’s totally true though.”
“Perhaps I should draft a text to Merlin after all; ‘Dearest Emrys; touch my sister and I’ll serve your head to our father on a platter for brunch. All the best, Arthur.’”
X
Gwen pushed the trolley around in front of her. She weaved the young children who somehow seemed magnetized to her trolley’s path. She’d nearly run over the same child five times, “I hate children. I hate children,” she repeated to herself as she rounded an aisle.
“Not a very nice thing to say, Miss,” she looked up to see Tom standing with a smile on his face with a woman who was clearly his mother.
“I hate smalll children. I hate small children,” she said looking to him for approval.
“That’s better. And another thing: Ready made tomato and basil pasta bake? You should know better.”
“Like you know better, Thomas,” his mother said with a smile on her face.
“It’s for Tuesdays after staff meeting,” Gwen defended, “Gwen,” she introduced herself to the older woman, “Be nice or I’ll mark you down,” she remarked to the boy in her Year Thirteen class.
“I have every respect for you,” he said with a wicked smile on his face, “All hail Miss Leodegrance, best teacher ever.”
“You’re the Drama teacher?”
“Guilty as charged.”
“He never shuts up about you,” Gwen looked up at him. His cheeks were blushing a rose colour. She smiled at him; he was one of her better students.
“Mum,” he said in a warning tone.
“He’s a good student,” Gwen responded as she smiled at him, “I better go; I have ready meals to eat and coursework to mark.”
“I knew it.”
“What was that, Tom? ‘D’ you say?” she asked looking at her shoulder at him.
“I’m moving on. See you Friday, miss.”
“Bye Tom,” she waved and carried on into the bakery section of the store.
X
Five minutes later and she stood staring at the white wine on the shelf. She was debating sending a few extra pounds on a nicer bottle or going with the ‘3 4 £10’ deal they had advertised. She grabbed a single bottle of Chardonnay and went to move off.
“I thought you had better taste than that,” Gwen turned to see a familiar figure standing with a basket in one hand and a French stick in the other.
“It’ll do. It’s not like I have guests,” she shrugged off the blonde’s remark and put the bottle in her trolley. She didn’t care for quality, she just wanted a nice warm feeling in her head as she spent her evening marking. Wasting her time away with the inane chore that seemed to take up more of her time than any other action. Including sleep.
“You lead a sad existence.”
“Sadly most days I am without your stellar company.”
“Just say you need me, Leodegrance, and I’ll always be there,” he winked and grabbed one of the more expensive bottles of wine. It was alright for some.
“I’d rather stick pins in my eyes,” she replied jovially.
“That’s a shame. Morgana’s left me on my own tonight to go on a date with Merlin-“
“It’s not a date-“
“-so I’m cooking for one. Could do it for two?”
“And have you charge me with your crutches, I don’t think so.”
“They took them away from me.”
“That’s a shame. Thanks for the offer but-“
“You’ve had a better one?” he said thumbing through some of the things in her trolley and raising an eyebrow at her. She pushed her trolley out of his grasp and looked at him sternly.
“In the form of five acts and beautifully poetic language, actually.”
“You lost me at ‘five’.”
“Don’t worry yourself. I have A-level coursework to mark,” she said excusing herself.
“Over the summer?” he fell into sync beside her. She couldn’t even shake hi off like she had Tom.
“It’s the resubmitted pieces.”
“Ah. The good old resubmit.”
“It might be good for them but it’s not good for me. More work? No thank you.”
“I thought you liked your job?”
“I like the practical side of it.”
“But not the theory?”
“Exactly.”
“What about Newton’s Theory?” Arthur asked her with a teasing smile on his lips. He cared little for science.
“Do you even know Newton’s theories?”
“Do you?”
She contemplated reeling them off at him. She decided against it knowing one word would do to show her knowledge; “Merlin.”
“Fine. You win. I’ll leave you to your shopping and poor taste in wine.”
“Not all of us are Olympians. We can’t all afford to drink good wine every night. You know what I might not bother,” she thrust the bottle back onto the shelf where she had taken it from with a huffed, “I might just drink tea!”
“How very stuffy, English librarian of you.”
“Leave Buffy out of this,” Gwen squinted. She was most certainly not a stuffy librarian. British, however, she was. She always would be. But she was far from stuffy and she resented the implication that she was.
“Oh, she knows,” Arthur threw his head back in joy, “You just went up in my expectations.”
“I didn’t peg you for a Buffy geek.”
“I didn’t peg you for a masochist,” he countered.
“Hey, what?” Gwen’s jaw dropped. How could he just come out with that in the middle of the supermarket? There were kids around. And at least one of her students, “You’re the masochist.”
“Never said I wasn’t,” he left it at that. He winked at her and disappeared into the throng of children and adults that seemed to be loitering in the alcohol aisle. Gwen shook her head in disbelief. Defiantly she grabbed the ‘bad’ bottle of Chardonnay and shoved it back into her trolley. She felt satisfied.
X
Night out. You and Merlin are invited.
The boys are coming if that persuades
you more than I can. See you tonight.
Gwen hadn’t expected to have any plans. She’d even bought herself a good bottle of wine to drink whilst marking the GCSE coursework drafts she had been given. She was young and in need of a good night out, she was hardy going to turn it down.
Where are we meeting? Be great to
see Gwaine and Lance again. They’re
Better company than you are, Grumpy. X
She had a class of new year-sevens to teach now. She had to set a good example. She slipped her phone back into her desk draw and shut it away from view. New students were always fun to play with. You got to insert your authority before they realised in a few weeks that she was a complete push over. They were all still getting to know each other as well so it helped that she didn’t look like a complete loser learning their names like she did with new year eight classes she got.
She walked into the corridor where all the students were lined up, noisily waiting to come in; “Aright!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. The girl in front of her continued to talk animatedly to the two behind her in the queue. Gwen placed her hand on top of her head and turned her around to face her with her finger to her lips. The girl blushed and immediately stopped talking, “Thank you. Right, when you come in I want you to put your belongings along this wall. Take your shoes off and sit in a circle in register order.”
Gwen walked in and was followed by the chatty girl. She pointed to where she wanted them to place their things. She headed back into her office to grab her register and pen and other things she would need. She opened her draw and checked her phone.
I am not grumpy. I’ll uninvited you
if you say that again. Rugby Club at
7. Bring a jumper.
The rugby club? Really? She’d lived in Bath for a long time, shed never been to a rugby match, “There’s a first time for everything,” she said to herself. She discarded the device back in the draw without replying. She had a class to teach, authority to insert and young minds to meld.
“Right, my lovely people, I’m Miss Leodegrance. Every Friday morning for the next year you’ll be in here with me. In a minute we’re going to play a few name games,” there were a few pumps fists. Kids, Gwen thought, they always like the games, “both for my benefit and for yours. For a lot of you this is your first week with the others. So we’re in the same boat.”
She took the register and started putting names to faces. She started to pick out in her mind which of them would be trouble; she was usually right.
“Right okay. First game’s first…”
X
“Is she coming?” Arthur shook his head at his friend in disbelief. He’d only just sent her the message after all. It wasn’t like she was Superwoman.
“Honestly, she’s teaching, she won’t reply until lunch,” Arthur said in her defence. His stomach grumbled at the idea. He’d been up early to go to the yard and put Camelot King through his paces. Morgana was still refusing to let him enter competitions.
“Well aren’t you a creepy little stalker.”
Arthur narrowed his eyes, “I asked Morgana.”
“Yeah right, you creep,” Gwaine laughed through a piece of Dairy ilk at his head. It dropped into Arthur’s lap and he ate it, answering his stomach’s call, “I can see you now if you ever get around her place in her draws smelling her things.”
Arthur’s brow knitted in disgust, “Grow up. If I’m smelling her things is because she’s shoved them at me.”
“So you’ve thought about it?” Gwaine dug with a twinkle in his eye.
“No,” Arthur said bluntly. His friend waggled his eyebrows at him, “I haven’t!”
“Never imagined what’s beneath the clothes?” Arthur could see Gwaine’s mind working overtime. She was a reserved person when it came to clothing, even if they went on a night out on the town. She went for legs rather than chest, which Arthur was thankful for in regards to his two best friends. She needed saving from them and her modesty did most of that for her, “Beneath those woman power shirts? OR,” he said loudly making Arthur jump, “That really cute Bambi one. Seriously, mm.”
“No,” he said finally, “Learn to look up.”
“I do. And I appreciate it. Then I look down and appreciate the rest too.”
“And what about the inside?”
Gwaine snorted and grinned at his friend as he laughed, “You’re a joker. Like that is all you’ve ever thought about.”
“Well, no-“
“Hah! I knew it!” he pointed at his friend accusingly and threw another piece of chocolate at his head. It rebounded off over the back of the sofa.
“Stop it! And I’m a bloke, of course I’ve thought about it.”
“You just lied to me!”
“It was once and I was drunk,” he’d convinced himself then that that was the only reason he’d think about her in that way at all. It had been four months but he was still a little bitter about her running him over. He convinced himself that he shouldn’t think of her in any other way other than the woman he knew because she broke his leg and that didn’t go past occasionally thinking that she might look a little bit hot naked.
“But you remember thinking it. Do you want to find out?”
“No. Now drop it. She’ll reply when she replies,” he stood up and journeyed behind the sofa to retrieve the square of chocolate before it melted into the rug or something else Morgana would hang him for.
x
Gwen clapped her hands loudly and raise her right arm in the air. Within ten seconds the class was silent with their hands up all looking at her, “Okay, great work today guys. Unfortunately it’s time to go. For next week I’ll try and learn some more of your names,” she smiled and granted them permission to leave.
“Here,” Ellis thrust a script at her. She barely even caught it before he let it go.
“What’s this?”
“Christmas show,” he said blankly looking less than impressed.
She squinted at the front and read the title, “Shakespeare 4 Kidz,” she cringed, “Midsummer’s Night Dream? Really Peter?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to respecting the greats?”
“Well that’s not what we’re being told to do.”
“Then we do ‘Bugsy Malone’ or I don’t know ‘Oliver!’,” she complained not even reading the script, the words ‘original’ and ‘songs’ should never adorn a Shakespeare play in her eyes.
“We can’t. This is what the Head wants us to do with the young ones this term. I promise you get to pick next term for the older kids, okay?”
Gwen didn’t even argue back. It was pointless, neither of them had power over what the Head wanted. Instead she cast the script onto the pile of papers on her desk. She’d read it over the weekend with the rest of the stuff. It was the start of term and she already had plenty to do.
She fished her phone out of her desk draw. She had three messages.
Gwen, I demand an answer soon.
Love you, Arthur x
She raised an eyebrow and discarded the message noting the next one from him as well.
That was Gwaine. Please ignore him.
We’ll see you tonight, hopefully.
The final message was from an unknown number.
Arthur told me to take your number.
I don’t think he appreciates me telling you
The truth from his phone. Gwaine <3
She smiled. Typical of him. She saved his number as a new contact before she started her replying spree.
Damn. I was about to say I love you too.
I’ll see you later. Never been to a rugby match
before. I know. Failure of a Bath resident,
right? Xxx
Send.
Hey Gwaine. I’m sure he needs your help.
See you tonight? Gwen
She slumped back into her chair and placed her phone on the desktop.
“You seem awfully chipper,” Ellis stated looking up from his computer screen to her. He’d been struggling with making a poster advertising for the auditions of the winter play. I would take him hours yet, but he refused to ask Gwen for help. One day he would be fluent with computers, he’d told her. One day that wasn’t soon.
“Good class,” she said, it was partly true. They were a good bunch of kids and for once she had been wrong. None of them, as yet, had tried to make her life hell. Give it a month or so for them to settle in and there would be gum in her hair and ripped pages of scripts on the floor.
“With year sevens? Who are you and where did the sane Gwen go?”
“They aren’t that bad.”
“They are annoying and untalented and in need of severe shaping.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” sometimes she didn’t understand why Peter Ellis was a teacher. He hated young kids. He hated people who couldn’t act more and sadly that was the majority. He didn’t like having to work too hard on tuning their artistic flow into a dramatic output.
“Then they make us go and do this shit? How are we meant to teach them about good drama if we can’t do good plays?”
“You’re the Head of Department, Peter. Tell him you don’t want to do it and give him a selection to choose from.”
“I’m on a fine line with my ‘outrageous ideas’ as it is, Gwen. One more time and he’ll be looking for a ground for dismissal.”
“Then ride it and stop complaining,” she plugged her iPod into the speaker that the pair of them had bought last term so they could have small parties when they got bored, “Now, would you like to be treated to Take That, or have your own choice?”
“Anything but Take That.”
“Robbie Williams it is,” she said grinning evilly. Ellis groaned, “I’m joking. I’m joking,” she said, selecting a random artist from the list without looking, “Sort of.”
X
Standing outside of the entrance to the rugby ground, Gwen sunk her head into her scarf and tried not to shiver. It was cold for September. Merlin stood next to her in a thinner jacket and seemed perfectly comfortable. Gwen rubbed her bare hands over her arms and wished that she’d found her gloves before leaving her flat. It was quarter to seven; she would have had time.
She spotted Arthur with his familiar blonde wash of hair in his usual jacket. Gwaine was next to him with his rugby shirt on, in support of the home team Gwen imagined. Morgana was next to the looking just as cold as Gwen felt, she wasn’t wearing a coat and she had a knee length skirt on, “Morgana is officially insane.”
“Looks good though.”
“Tell her that then, ‘Hey Morgana. You’re mental, but you’re hot’.”
“Very funny.”
“Tell her.”
“No.”
“Spoilsport,” she muttered into her scarf as the group had arrived, “You never said it would be this cold,” she complained directly to Arthur who seemed, like Merlin, to be perfectly happy wearing not a lot.
“I said wrap up.”
“You said bring a jumper! This isn’t jumper weather.”
He laughed, “Come on. Lance will already be in there. We’ll meet him afterwards.”
“Okay?” she looked at him through squinted eyes. She obviously had never asked Lance that much about his life down here at the Rugby Club. He wasn’t very forthcoming with the information that was for sure.
“You’ll see,” he led them in, flashing some sort of pass at the bloke on the door. They went up a staircase that led into a bar that overlooked the pitch, “Drinks?”
“Will I be judged if I get a coffee?” she asked as she rubbed her hands over her arms in attempt to warm up. The friction warmed her hands but failed at warming her arms much at all. Arthur smiled and reached out to assist in rubbing her arm single-handedly to try and war her up.
“Not at all,” he ordered himself a pint and a flat white coffee for Gwen. The others piped up their orders and gradually they were presented with their drinks, “Cheers mate.”
“Any time, Arthur,” the barman replied taking his twenty-pound note and handing back his change.
“He knows you?” She hadn’t met many people that could identify Arthur; even with his Olympian status. Most of the time people just stared at her or asked if he was the bloke from that new BBC drama. She’d given up trying to explain who he was. She had never tried telling them how they’d met. That would be a question for the Emrys Grandchildren; ‘How I met your mother?’ Merlin would say, ‘Aunty Gwen ran over her brother.’
“We come here a lot,” Arthur broke Gwen was her small day dream and handed her coffee cup to her.
“Right, okay.”
“Come on, the match will start soon,” he guided her out through a pair of double doors. The other three followed dutifully, “Through there,” he pointed into one of the boxes, “less breezy in here.”
“Still not jumper weather,” Gwen grumbled cupping her coffee in her hands. It hurt slightly to have something so hot against her hands when they were so cold, but in time her hands would warm up.
“Cheer up. It might never happen,” he prodded with a wicked grin on his face.
“I hate that saying. Why is that meant to make me happy?”
“Because the shit might never happen.”
“Well the good stuff might not either,” she caught his eye for a second before quickly looking away and down onto the pitch. She noticed the players stretching to one side in their tracksuits. They stripped themselves into their shorts and long sleeved rugby tops. Gwen visibly shivered, “I don’t want to be them.”
“No?”
“Too cold.”
“Tell that to Lance,” Arthur pointed down to the pitch at one of the men stood in the white kit.
“Is that? Oh my god,” an amused grin broke out on her face as she noticed their friend standing down on the edge of the pitch.
“That’s why we come here a lot.”
“He never said.”
“You never asked. Not directly.”
“I asked him what he did!”
“He told you he worked here,” Arthur shrugged, he could understand his friend’s want to remain a little less than anonymous. Within the city he would occasionally get mobbed by the young fans of the team and he liked to remain in the background, “He just didn’t specify and then Gwaine swooped you up before Lance could stun you with his macho rugby player ways.”
“Much more manly than riding horses, eh Gwen?” Gwaine interjected having overheard their conversation. He took the seat next to her putting her between the pair of best friends.
“You can make better innuendos about riding though.”
“True. Like if there was a horse called Gwen, he could said ‘I rode Gwen last night’ and we’d all think-“
“Yes, thank you, Gwaine,” Arthur cut him off. If looks could kill Gwaine would be a goner.
“Just saying.”
“Thus proving my point,” Gwen mused. She elbowed Arthur in the side, “Cheer up. It might never happen,” he raised an eyebrow at her.
“Just what are you implying Miss Leodegrance?”
“That’s up to you,” she suggestively waggled her eyebrows before bursting into laughter. Gwaine found it most amusing too, high-fiving her.
X
Merlin and Morgana sat on the other end of the row, both in silence subconsciously rubbing their arms against the cold, “Do you think they get it yet?” Merlin asked Morgana looking over at the back of his best friend’s head as she laughed at whatever it was Arthur had just said.
“Probably not. Arthur’s slow on the up take. Even with Gwaine giving helpful hints every time he can.”
“What about us?” Merlin said quietly, “Are we slow on the uptake too?” Morgana looked up from her drink, staring at him quite intently. Slowly she transferred her drink from her left hand to her right and took Merlin’s hand from where it had been between his thighs keeping warm. She latched her fingers through his with a small smile on her face.
“Maybe just a little.”
X
Despite having little idea for what was going on Gwen found herself having a good time. She cheered and eventually she warmed up. Lance didn’t get to play until late on in the second half but once he was on pitch he clicked into action scoring a try within the first minute on pitch.
He had the ball again and was running down the side of the pitch towards the try line when a player took him sideways and he went flying over the edge of the pitch and landed. He’d managed t throw the ball back towards on of his team mates, but both he and the man who had tackled him ended up in a mini heap.
“Shit,” Gwen exclaimed covering her mouth with her hand, “Is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine,” Gwaine replied, “See, already on his feet,” they all watched their friend topple back over again, “Or not.”
“You sure he’s okay?” Gwen asked looking worried.
“Look like he’s got hold of his ankle,” Merlin said looking down. For the first time since they arrived Gwen looked over at him. She noticed the arm he had around Morgana’s shoulder, however casually.
“He’s up,” Gwaine said in running commentary, “He’s jumping annnnnd he’s fine. Back on he goes.”
They all visibly relaxed. Gwen looked back to Merlin and watched him run his hand up Morgana’s arm. On the way his fingers managed to find a section of her hair and started to gently fiddle with it subconsciously.
Gwen gently elbowed Arthur and discreetly pointed down towards them. He smirked and looked back to the game completely unsurprised.
“How long left?” Gwen asked.
Arthur checked his watch, “’Bout five minutes.”
“Okay, and who’s winning,” she laughed at herself. She had no idea.
“We are.”
“Oh; good.”
“Celebratory drinks on Lance afterwards,” Gwaine gleefully clapped his hands together; he’d do anything for a free drink.
“It’s not over yet,” Morgana said pointing towards the man who had tackled Lance running up the pitch with the ball in his hands. They all cheered a little too much when one of Lance’s team mates brought him down to the grass and the ball got passed off to somebody on their team.
The final whistle blew. The home team erupted into cheers, congratulating each other and the home crowd -a definitely majority - all burst into a wave of woops and whistles. Merlin gave his trademark two fingered whistled and cheered with the rest of them, having extracted his arm from around Morgana to do so.
X
They ended up in the members bar with the rest of the team and a number of drinks they hadn’t paid for. Gwen had ended up speaking to a number of the team without rally knowing who any of them were which they all seemed to find rather refreshing.
“Good match to start you on,” one guy had said to her.
“You’re one of Arthur’s friends? He knows the best people,” one, rather drunk man, had told her. He had his arm around her shoulders and his face a little too close for comfort.
“Do you think they’ll notice if we steal you?” she had declined their request, untagled herself from his clutches and made her way back to the table that her friend were sitting around.
“Making new friends?” Merlin smiled. To Gwen’s surprise he was sat the opposite end of the table to Morgana with a spare seat next to him for Gwen to steal.
“Yeah. I have no idea what any of their names are.”
“Me either,” Morgana said honestly, “I only come because the guys drag me.”
“You love it,” Arthur retorted.
“Watching Lancey-boy running around in tight shorts makes my life complete,” she pressed a joking kiss to his cheek. Lance pulled away from her and wiped the red lipstick from his cheek. Morgana winked at Merlin who started to burn the same colour as her lips.
“Definitely a highlight for me too,” Gwaine said drunk and repeated Morgana’s action from Lance’s other side.
“You people are crazy and embarrassing,” the team member spoke up taking a long swig from his rapidly emptying drink.
“Awh, but we love you,” Gwaine ruffled his already messy hair and downed the rest of his pint, “Next round is on you, mate.”
“So we’re the last three.”
“You get free drinks, we don’t.”
Lance sighed and stood. He grabbed the few littered empty glasses, “Anybody else?” Nobody else piped up or shook their heads. They were fine, “Okay, one Guinness for my friend coming up.”
“Morgana we should head,” Arthur stated looking at his watch, “Early start tomorrow.”
“We’re off to see the wizard,” she replied looking to Merlin and Gwen and rolling her eyes, “Hooray.”
“We’ll go with you. Out of here, I mean,” Merlin declared looking at Gwen. She felt like she couldn’t disagree and stood to leave too.
“Boring!” Gwaine declared from his seat and swiped Arthur’s half full glass with a thumbs up, “Cheers.”
X
Gwen and Arthur dropped back from Morgana and Merlin once they reached the outside. They were all walking back, not living particularly far. Gwen shivered, soon regretting her decision and pulled her coat tighter around her, “Will they?” she asked him staring at the back of their heads.
“Not if you keep staring like that,” he jibed.
“Well what else am I meant to do?”
“I don’t know? Stargaze?” he said and pointed up and the clear night sky, “It’s all kinds of beautiful.”
“Nicer from the yard,” Gwen stated matter-of-factly.
“How do you know?” Arthur asked looking down at her confused. As far as he was aware she had only been there once and that was during the daytime months ago.
“Out of the city, away from the lights. It always looks better then,” she’d been camping many-a-time in the New Forest with her father when she was younger. Her mother had hated it, so they’d gone alone. They would set up a tent on one of the campsites and spend their days walking around through the woodlands and spend their nights lying out on a blanket looking up at the stars. It was the only time in Gwen’s life when she had felt truly free or all of the daily pressures.
“Well maybe one day we should test the theory,” Gwen smiled and nodded in agreement as she pinpointed the only constellations she knew, “My other was correct,” he said and motioned towards his sister and Merlin. The latter was currently stooped an inch to kiss his counterpart, “Ewh, that’s my sister. I don’t need to see this,” Gwen reached up and placed her hand over his eyes, “Yeah, thanks. That makes it all better.”
“I thought it might.”
“Have they finished yet?” Gwen removed her hand to show him. He groaned and put her hand back over them. He held her hand firmly in place.
“You could just turn around,” she suggested her arm starting to ache from the lack of blood pumping around it.
“Yeah,” he said turning away from her hands and facing back the way they’d come, “And your hands are cold.”
“Sor-ry,” Arthur grinned and gently rubbing her hands between his, his back now to Merlin and Morgana. Gwen shivered. She’d rather head to her nice warm flat but she didn’t want to interrupt her friends by walking by. Give it another minute though and she might be forced to. She looked down to her hands, Arthur’s still encased them but he had stopped moving them. The friction between them previously had warmed them substantially and now his warm fingers were still keeping hers warm, “Thanks.”
“No worries,” he grinned. He shot a look over his shoulder, “I’m going now!” he shouted and dug his hand into his pocket for his car keys, “Move it or lose it!” he turned back to Gwen, “See you soon, yeah?”
“Yeah, pub quiz Sunday. Merlin says he has a good feeling about this week.”
“I bet he did.”
X
Merlin sat flicking through a magazine in the small staff canteen that adorned the first floor of his lab. He had a Crunchie in his hand as he fingered through it. He came across an out-of-date article he had read before about the CERN project in Geneva, “Never ended the world, did it?” he grumbled and turned the page angrily.
“They’re saving that for 2012,” somebody said from the doorway behind him,
“That’s bullshit too,” he snapped back and looked over his shoulder to see Morgana standing in the doorway with a visitor ID attached to the lapel of her jacket, “Hi.”
“Hey,” Merlin replied slightly startled by the appearance of his - he didn’t know what. She pushed off and crossed the room to him.
“You alright?” she asked.
“I’m fine. You?”
“Yeah, better now.”
“Small talk over?”
“Yeah.”
“Merlin-“
“Morgana-“
They both laughed awkwardly, “Go ahead,” the scientist offered.
“Last night,” Morgana started. She slipped into the chair opposite Merlin and crossed her leg over her knee, “last night was the best I’ve felt for a long time. After the way things ended with Al- you’ve been so brilliant with me and with Arthur and everything that has happened.”
Merlin inwardly cringed. He’d heard speeches like this before. Generally they were followed by the words ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’ and a number of insults on his intelligence, “If this is your way of telling me not to get my hopes up then I understand completely.”
“No!” she said suddenly, “No. I just- could we take it back a notch? Once Arthur starts competing again I’m not going to be around and that’s not fair on you.”
“I know that. I can deal with that.”
“I know you won’t, but after the way Al managed to end things, I don’t want to fall for another wanker.”
“Thanks,” Merlin said looking a cross between bemused and hurt.
“I don’t mean it like that. I know you wouldn’t ever. But-“
“But there’s still that niggling feeling inside of you that says that I might.”
“Yeah.”
“I accept that,” he said reaching out and resting his hand on hers on top of the table they were sat next to, “How about a coffee in Costa once I’m finished tonight?”
“I’d like that,” Merlin rose out of his seat, throwing the magazine onto the table and leant towards her and placed a light kiss on her forehead.
“Too much?” he asked with a light smile on his face but with worry in his eyes.
Morgana shook her head, “Just right.”
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