[Fic] Every Beginning Is A Sequel...After All [Part Three]
Part 2
2012
When he sees Arthur at Gwen and Lance's wedding it takes him only a few seconds to connect the dots.
“Wait, Gwen was married to Arthur Pendragon?” Merlin asks as he stands besides Lance.
“Yeah, why do you know him?”
Merlin ignores the question, instead asking, “Why is he here then?”
“Their split up was amicable. And they stayed as friends.”
“Who stays friends with their exes,” Merlin grumps as he watches Arthur from the corner of his eyes.
He's too thin, Merlin thinks as he studies him. His eyes were still the ever sky blue highlighted by his dark suit. They've always remind Merlin of the color of the sky the morning they had first met, but they look much older. Tired, Merlin thinks.
But Arthur smiles brightly as Gwen walks down the aisle. Merlin can't breath for a moment and he turns away, instead concentrating on the besotted look on Lance's face.
When Arthur makes his way to his side after the ceremony, Merlin nerves are half-expectant, half-anxious.
“I didn't know you knew Lance.”
“I didn't know Gwen was your ex-wife.” And immediately Merlin regrets his words, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that.”
Arthur winces, smiling ruefully, “It's okay. I know how it looks.”
“Are you all right then?”
“Yeah. It was something I had known. We had been already drifting apart the last time I saw you.”
“This must be weird then?”
“It could be worse, but Lance is a good friend and at least they both waited after the divorce so really I can’t complain,” But Merlin notes the way Arthur’s lips twist downward and how his shoulders slump.
“Arthur…”
“It’ll take time. And I already had a year to come to terms with it.”
They stand in companionable silence, Arthur slowly sipping his champagne as Merlin picked at the strange caviar hor d'oeuvre on his plate.
“I'm surprised Gwaine isn't here with you,” Arthur asks after a beat.
“We broke up a few months ago,” Merlin says as if it's nothing.
“I'm sorry.”
“No, no. I'm over it. I'm totally fine.”
Merlin shifts uncomfortably as Arthur scrutinizes him, “Well that's good then. Even though Gwen and I had been growing apart for over a year, it took me awhile to get over that. So you're pretty strong.”
Merlin shrugged his shoulders. He had been numb the first week after the breakup, but it had been easy to push all his feelings aside. Much like Gwen and Arthur, he and Gwaine had started drifting apart as well but Merlin wasn’t sure when it happened. Only that one day, suddenly the things he wanted weren’t the same things Gwaine wanted.
They make small talk for a few more minutes before Arthur has to leave, “Duty calls,” he says amused, “One of these days we’ll need to stop running into each other like this.”
Lance is gesturing for Merlin, and Merlin shares a quick smile with Arthur before he’s pulled away to join the rest of the wedding party for pictures.
~*~
The next time he runs into Arthur three months later he’s not even surprised. But what’s unsettling is the frisson of anticipation that sparks up his spine and the way his lips twitch wanting to smile.
Arthur looks better than he did at Gwen and Lance’s wedding, his blond hair growing a little too long, his eyes still catching Merlin’s with the same intensity as they did ten years ago.
“You know we passed the stage of chance and coincidence a good while ago. If I didn’t know better, I would say you’re stalking me,” Merlin said greeting Arthur as he walked up.
“What can I say, maybe it’s destiny?” Arthur replied grinning.
Merlin grins back, “I didn’t think you knew what a bookstore was.”
“I’ll have you know I received first-class honors when I was at uni.”
“That still doesn’t mean you actually read.”
“Do I need to quote something?” Arthur asks, his head tilted challenging Merlin.
“You can actually quote things?”
“I have travell’d a long way merely to look on you to touch you. For I could not die till I once look’d on you. For I fear’d I might afterward lose you.”
Merlin suppresses a shiver as Arthur’s voice dipped low, the words sparking along his skin.
“Poetry?” Merlin guesses.
Arthur blushes and Merlin stares at him in surprising, watching the tint of red spread across his cheeks.
“My mother loved poetry. It was the only thing I had left of hers.”
He rests a hand on Arthur’s shoulder and Arthur smiles sadly, “It was a long time ago.”
Somehow Arthur convinces him to grab coffee at the adjoining cafe and much like it had been on the flight back to London, the time flies.
~*~
He isn’t sure how the text messages started. Only that after seeing him at the bookstore and exchanging phone numbers, a couple of weeks later Arthur texts him while he’s at work.
Do you remember that time we met at the airport?
Yeah.
I knew it was you before I even saw Gwaine.
What made you go down memory lane?
I’m at JFK waiting for my flight.
I didn’t know you were on the other side of the pond.
For a conference.
You were in the States for one last time too.
You remembered. I think I might be flattered.
It was more along the lines of ‘why is this prat on the same flight as me.’
Don’t lie Merlin.
~*~
The texting comes easy. Arthur has always been flirty but over the weeks Merlin starts to see the humor and intelligence behind the bad jokes and teasing insults and he’s not sure how his emotions became a tangled mess. Despite everything, Merlin knows better than to fall for a straight bloke. But with each text, his heart skips a beat and Merlin pushes aside all his doubts. He knows Arthur is just a friend but that doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy this.
It was even more surprising when he found himself waiting for Arthur at the airport after another one of his trips out of the country. Arthur looks pleased to see, blue eyes shining as he rolls his carry-on behind him.
“Do you need to travel so much?”
“No, but it fills up the time, you know?”
Merlin does know, it was why he spent long hours at the lab.
“But,” Arthur says looking at Merlin fondly, “I think I might take a break from all the traveling. Maybe build some roots again.”
“What are you? Some sort of tree?” Merlin teases him as they leave the airport.
~*~