Chapter Text
“I am really, really sorry. I am. But I don’t have any cash on me, or in my bank account or in my shoe. Really.”
Merlin took a second to be rather proud of himself for that quite coherent response as he was backed slowly to the end of the dank alleyway. The three men in front of him advanced slowly, one brandishing a rather large, pointy looking knife.
“I am sure we can squeeze something out of you,” the Beefy one in the middle taunted before turning to the tall skinny blonde one to his left. “What do you think we’ll get for his kidney?”
Merlin was pretty sure his gulp was audible from the street.
‘Beefy’ opened his mouth, probably to ask Merlin nicely to lay face down on the floor so he could calmly and politely remove all of Merlin vital organs, when there was a shuffling from behind Merlin in the alley and a warm hand clasped onto his shoulder.
“Good afternoon gentlemen.” Merlin turned his head slightly to see a rather charming smile. The newcomer removed his nicely warm hand from Merlin’s shoulder before stepping subtly between Merlin and his new friends. “My name is Gwaine.”
“Merlin,” Merlin offered with a small awkward wave when Gwaine turned his sparkling eyes at him. The man then winked before turning back around to the trio in front of them with a flick of his hair.
For a moment the three men considered this ‘Gwaine’ in front of them, the man standing between them and their prize. They seemed to share some sort of silent communication of loaded glances and eyebrows before they turned as one and took a step forward.
What happened next was a bit of a blur to Merlin. There were hands and feet and punches and kicks. Really, it was just a large tangle of bodies going from one side of the alley to the other. Merlin helped where he could, throwing a well-timed can or plastic bottle. The strategy seemed to be working out pretty well for him until he got the tall skinny, blond one (aka the one with the sharp, pointy knife!) right on the back of the head with a pretty respectable throw (he secretly wished Arthur had been there to see that!) and helpfully reminded the man that Merlin was there.
One of the guys was down already and didn’t look like he was planning to get up and Gwaine was rather busy with stopping the ‘Beefy’ from wringing his neck, so Merlin wasn’t expecting a miraculous rescue.
Backing up down the alley further Merlin’s gaze was focused on the glinting metal aimed in his direction. In its panic his brain seemed to latch onto the fact that the very deadly knife was very shiny, and ‘how did they get it that shiny’, ‘maybe after they’ve hacked my bits up they’ll be able to tell me their secret because I always have trouble with my cufflinks-‘ but the ineptitude of his brain under blind fear was interrupted as ‘tall-blond-and-skinny’ was barrelled off to the side, his head knocking violently against the wall before he slumped down to the ground.
Merlin surveyed the alley in front of him with three unconscious bad guys and his saviour hunched in the middle. Merlin took a minute for his mind to clear before his eyes widened in shock.
“Oh God,” he whispered coming up beside Gwaine and the shiny knife that was now protruding from the man’s thigh. “Oh God, um, OK. We should take you to the hospital.” He began to get his arm under Gwaine's shoulder only for it to be pulled away.
“Oh no. No hospital,” Gwaine gasped. “Believe me, I’ve had worse.”
He had one hand against the side of a dumpster and the other clasped on his thigh just above the protruding knife. All Merlin could do was flail his arms a little.
“But you’ve just been stabbed!”
The rogue merely grinning at Merlin from under his swathe of hair. “Tis only a flesh wound sweetheart. I can take care of myself.”
“But the police-“
“Ah – I would prefer it if we could not involve the old plod in this today.” Gwaine gestured around at the bodies littering the floor, looking paler by the minute. “We are not exactly best friends as it is.”
“But why…” Merlin started to ask before he stopped.
Gwaine had come from behind him in the fight, which meant he was already in the alley before Merlin entered it. And why would someone be hanging around an alley at six o’clock on a Wednesday evening.
“Oh,” he exclaimed when it all fit together with the dirty jeans and the patched-up coat. “You’re homeless,” his mouth blurted and he immediately threw his hand over his bloody big mouth. “Oh god that was rude wasn’t it? I’m sorry, Arthur always says I babble when I’m nervous or in shock. This one time we were jumped and I told the police woman all about my-“
But Merlin was spectacularly cut off when Gwaine went from pale but looking quite amused, to falling towards the floor. Merlin lunged, another uncharacteristically competent manoeuvre, and caught the falling man beneath the armpits.
“Ok,” Merlin whispered when he had Gwaine’s arm across his shoulder. “I’m going to take you back to mine.” Even half-conscious Gwaine still managed to throw a lecherous grin in Merlin’s direction. “Not like that,” Merlin mumbled blushing. “I live just over the road above my uncle’s Pharmacy; he’s taught me a few things.” Merlin took Gwaine’s sag into his hold as acquiesce and began shuffling them awkwardly and slowly out of the alley.
*
“Merlin?”
Merlin mumbled incoherently and buried his face even further into his pillow.
“Merlin,” the voice called again.
“Mmph,” Merlin mumbled. “Five more minutes.”
There was an undeniable deep chuckle up somewhere past Merlin’s head and another deep murmur of “Merlin.”
In horror Merlin shot up and straightened in his seat from where his head had been snuggled into Gwaine's stomach.
“Sorry!” Merlin uttered, wiping the drool away from his face quickly. “You spiked a fever in the night and I was worried, so I sat here, and I must have fallen asleep, I swear I wasn’t like, watching you like some deranged sleep stalker or anything. God and I drooled on you, that’s so disgusting, I’m really sorry.” Merlin tried to ineffectually wipe away the drool patch left on the thin sheet covering Gwaine bare torso.
A warm hand covered his own and stilled them. Merlin followed the hands up the sculpted arms, past the strong shoulders to the sparkling eyes in front of him. “It’s really fine,” Gwaine said.
“Um, sorry,” Merlin squeaked again shifting back into his chair and running his hands over his face lest they try to paw at Gwaine again.
“No really,” Gwaine smirked, leaning back against the headboard and resting his hands behind his head. “It is many the night when I dream about being drooled upon by a handsome man.”
Merlin dipped his head to hide his blush but hearing Gwaine's deep chuckle he didn’t think he had been too successful.
“I only woke you because I heard your answer machine go off out there,” Gwaine gestured out towards the living room passed the guest room door. “Whoever it was he sounded angry. Jealous boyfriend perhaps?”
Merlin looked at his watch and groaned, he knew exactly who would be calling him at ten past nine on a Thursday morning. “Much worse,” he sighed before giving Gwaine an apologetic smile and a promise of breakfast and retreating to the front room.
The flat above Gaius’ shop wasn’t big or modern or that well insulated, but it was big enough for Merlin and his fish tank and a TV and that (despite what Arthur said) was all that he needed.
He reached the phone in just a few strides and took a fortifying breath before dialling the number ingrained into his psyche. As the line rung he looked around his kitchen, trying for the life of him to remember where he put the frying pan last time he used it.
“Where the bloody hell are you!” Arthur’s voice boomed through the phone as soon as Vivian, Arthur’s secretary, patched him through.
“And good morning to you too Arthur.” Merlin commented whilst trying to dislodge the pan from its hiding place behind the blender and a half full box of dead batteries.
“You know full well that I have breakfast with my father every Thursday and you know that you are supposed to call me within twenty minutes of arrival with some kind of emergency so I can leave. An hour Merlin! I was there for an hour with my father. Just me and him!” Merlin rolled his eyes as Arthur voice got higher and higher.
“You know I am not your assistant any more Arthur, you could have got Vivian to do it.”
“An hour Merlin!”
“Fine,” Merlin sighed, finally retrieving the pan and placing it on the hob. “But I was kind of indisposed this morning. I…” Merlin paused knowing how this was going to go down. “I might have been a little bit… attacked last night.”
“WHAT!”
“Now Arthur, calm down. I’m fine really.”
“Vivian - Cancel all my appointments for the rest of the day.”
“Arthur really-“
“And call Gwen… and Morgana.”
“What! No - Arthur!” Merlin yelled. “I am fine! I promise. This guy helped me, saved quite literally actually. I don’t have a scratch on me. Gwaine, the guy, he jumped right in front of the knife-”
“Knife!” Arthur shrieked again and Merlin could hear more ferocious packing of papers in the back ground.
“It was only very small. Anyway, like I said I am totally fine. Gwaine saved me; it was quite heroic actually…”
Merlin trailed off, distracted by checking the expiry date on the box of eggs.
“Merlin,” Arthur stated blandly after a few moments silence. “Where is this Gwaine character now?”
“Um, well… he didn’t want to go to the hospital or the police, it turns out he was actually homeless so-“
“Merlin!” Arthur groaned. Merlin knew that tone and could just picture him slumping forward with his head rested against his desk. “He’s there isn’t he. Sleeping in your bloody spare room.”
“Um… maybe.”
“Merlin!”
“But he seems very nice.”
“God Merlin! And I bet you made him a cup of tea and gave him a biscuit before you tucked him in.”
“…Well he had lost quite a bit of blood so he needed the sugar.” Merlin heard another groan and bang that could have been Arthur hitting his head against the desk.
“Did you even bother to check he wasn’t a psychopathic rapist before you invited into your house?”
Merlin paused for a moment, the one egg hanging precariously over the sizzling pan. “…I really don’t think he would tell me if he was, do you?”
“That’s it. I’m coming round. Someone in this world needs to save you from yourself!”
“Really Arthur, don’t-“ Merlin tried to protested but Arthur had already hung up the phone.
*
With a tray laden with two plates of scrambled eggs on toast and two glasses of orange juice Merlin eased his way gently into the spare room, his eyes fixed firmly on the tray begging it not to topple to the ground because then all he would have to offer his knight-in-shining-armour would be some muesli… which he would have to eat dry because he had forgotten to buy milk – again.
It wasn’t until he got to the bed that he realised it was empty. “Gwaine?” he questioned and nearly jumped out of his skin, fumbling the tray, when a hand appeared on his forearm.
“Here,” Gwaine said with a spark of amusement, taking the tray from Merlin. “Why don’t I take this before we have to eat it off the floor.”
Gwaine sauntered over to the bed side table placing the tray there, looking far too cocky for someone wearing only a short pink bathrobe that Gwen or Morgana had probably left here at some point.
But Merlin couldn’t help but think in the furthest recesses of his brain that if anyone could pull off thin pink cotton it would be Gwaine.
Seeming to sense Merlin’s… observation for his state of dress Gwaine gestured at his strong bare legs.
“I was going to get dressed… but I couldn’t seem to find my clothes?”
“Oh,” Merlin mumbled, startling back to the present. “I hope you don’t mind, I put them in the wash. There was blood on the jeans and a small hole, but it is easily fixable. My friend Gwen is good with that sort of thing. I can’t count the times she’s had to patch up jeans and shirts for me. I remember this one time-“ Merlin quickly stopped himself and looked up to Gwaine who was standing beside the bed, arms folded eyes sparking in mirth. “You should really be in bed you know,” Merlin deflected herding Gwaine down onto the mattress. “You should keep off that leg.”
“You know,” Gwaine mused, pushing himself up to sitting against the head board. “You are rather cute when you are flustered.” Merlin turned his head to pick up the breakfast plates but could feel the traitorous flush creeping up his neck. “And when you do that your just plain adorable,” Gwaine chuckled reaching out and ruffling Merlin's hair.
“Am not a puppy,” Merlin grumbled handing Gwaine his food and settling into the chair he had vacated earlier. Merlin peeked up from under his lashes to see Gwaine staring at him in what was fast becoming a popular look of delighted amusement.
Their breakfast was strangely nice. It was quiet, almost silent, as they ate their way through the meal. Gwaine ate his quickly and with relish which was unusual given the calibre of Merlin’s cooking but then – ah right, homeless. Merlin kept forgetting that.
Gwaine didn’t seem homeless. Although Merlin supposed the only criteria required to be classed as homeless was in fact ‘no home’ Gwaine wasn’t what he imagined a homeless person to be. He was chatty and friendly and flirty and gorgeous. Not that homeless people couldn’t be all those things it’s just that Merlin had never met one before. His teeth weren’t black and rotting and apart from the worn clothes the only other thing was that he had dirty hands and face which Merlin cleaned best he could with a bowl of water last night. He really should offer him use of the shower and –
A loud thud and the sound of the front door straining against the chain broke Merlin from his inner dialogue.
“Merlin!” came the familiar bark from the front door.
“God,” Merlin groaned, placing his plate on the floor.
“Boyfriend?” Gwaine asked with a grin.
“No – just Arthur.” Merlin stood and went to leave the room before turning and shooting Gwaine an apologetic glance. “Just… yeah, I am sorry about him. For the record.”
When Merlin reached the front door he could see Arthur’s large suit clad arm trying to reach around to undo the chain holding the door closed.
“Arthur you prat. You have to move back so I can let you in.” After a short arm tussle of Merlin batting Arthur’s hands away only for them to bat back he finally managed to force the door closed. No sooner had he removed the chain Arthur pushed the door open almost sending Merlin into the wall.
“Oh, do come in Arthur,” Merlin mumbled sarcastically to himself as he re-latched the door.
“What is the point in giving me a key if you are going to latch the door so I can’t come in?” Arthur asked storming into the main room.
“What is the point in you installing the chain if you don’t want me to use it?” Merlin countered.
“It is supposed to stop thieves and murderers from entering, but I supposed it is redundant if you invite them in for tea and crumpets.” Merlin just rolled his eyes but automatically took the coat and briefcase Arthur handed to him. Some habits were hard to break. Arthur surveyed him for a quick moment. “You don’t look like you were attacked.”
“I told you I was fine.” Merlin rolled his eyes and turned away towards the hall closet.
Arthur ‘hmphed’ in response and darted his eyes around the flat. “So, where is he?”
“He who?” Merlin asked.
“Don’t be cute Merlin it doesn’t suit you.” Arthur turned and stalked into his front room, eyes darting around the room as if he expected a rabid dog to pounce any minute. Merlin followed at a more sedate pace, knowing it futile to mention Arthur was being an idiot.
“If you are talking about Gwaine, he is in the bedroom. Sleeping, so leave him be.”
“Of course he’s sleeping,” Arthur muttered, turning around, seeming happy that there was nothing rabid or dangerous in this room. “Or he could be making out the window with all your worldly possessions.”
“What do I have exactly that he would want to steal?”
“I don’t know, your maidenly virtue.” Merlin just scowled at that. “Or he could be trying to kidnap you and hold you ransom, which I will be forced to pay to save your scrawny behind. It could all be part of a nefarious plot. Bet you didn’t think of that when you were playing hostess!”
Merlin stood across from Arthur in the front room and crossed his arms. For someone who went to Oxford and had the highest education money could buy he really was an idiot sometimes.
“Are you suggesting that Gwaine planned for three men to attack me in an alley and hid out in the same alleyway so he could come to my daring rescue, getting stabbed in the process, under the slim chance that I might invite him back to my flat to patch him up so that he could hold me for ransom?” Merlin gave Arthur a mini version of the Gaius eyebrow which seemed to deflate Arthur’s indignant fury a bit. “Don’t you have work to be doing?” Merlin asked, a very slight whine to it.
“Nope. I think I am fine right here.” Here being the end of Merlin sofa where Arthur spread himself out, eyes glued to the guest room door.
Merlin just sighed in resignation, “Coffee?”
*
“So, I am guessing you’re Gwaine?”
Merlin sloshed boiling water all over his fingers at the sound of Arthur’s voice, eager to get the coffee’s out to the front room before Arthur could do anything particularly prattish.
“You would guess right.” Merlin came around the corner to see Gwaine stood leaning in the guest room doorway, still in the pink bathrobe. “And you are?”
“That’s just Arthur.” Merlin broke in making his way across the room.
“Ah.” Gwaine nodded, knowingly. “The Boyfriend.”
“So what if I am?” Arthur countered, his gaze no less than sub-zero as he took in the half naked man in the door way. Gwaine just smirked looking more amused than threatened.
“Arthur is not my boyfriend. He’s just a prat,” Merlin stated pointedly, placing his own mug on the coffee table. “And he has a gorgeous girlfriend, Gwen. Who would make a gorgeous wife if he ever gets his thumb out his butt and proposes.”
“It is not my love life up for discussion right now Merlin.”
“And neither is mine – drink your coffee.” Merlin thrust Arthur’s mug into his hands with a look that told him that was quite enough. But Merlin didn’t delusion himself that it would do any good. “And you…” Merlin turned to Gwaine. “You are supposed to be resting that leg.”
Merlin was more than aware of Arthur’s scowl as he helped Gwaine hobble over to the armchair.
“Tea?” he asked once Gwaine was settled. Gwaine leant back languorously in the chair, laying his arms over the rests and shamelessly spreading his legs, giving Arthur nothing short of a challenging look.
Merlin would never admit to the squeak that he emitted before he hastily dropped a cushion in Gwaine's lap and fled to the kitchen and his kettle.
“It was quite lucky you were lurking in that alley yesterday.” Arthur’s unimpressed tone drifted through from the front room.
“Lucky for me,” Gwaine responded. “A night in a soft bed is hard to come by.”
“So very fortunate for you that Merlin is a sucker for stray dogs.”
“He has been very… accommodating.” Merlin could practically feel the salacious grin in Gwaine’s voice and silently wished for any latent magic he might possess to manifest now so he could project to Gwaine that antagonising Arthur in the mood he was in was not a good idea for Merlin’s continued freedom. Merlin caught up to his train of thought and frowned. No, he wished for any latent magic he might possessed to manifest now so he could turn Arthur into a toad and magically teleport him back to his work desk where Vivian would have to deal with him croaking prattishly all day.
“Merlin brought back a puppy he found in the park once,” Arthur continued, ignoring Gwaine’s innuendo. “It bit him. We had it put down.”
“Poor Puppy,” Gwaine commented.
“I had to take Merlin to hospital for stitches then I had to watch Merlin cry as he packed away all the toys he had bought for it.”
“Hey!” Merlin shouted from the kitchen, sticking his head around the corner. “I did not cry!”
“Oh please Merlin; you were a total girl about it.”
Gwaine just raised an eyebrow in Merlin’s direction as if to say ‘really?’. Merlin huffed and returned to the kitchen to collect the now ready tea.
“I don’t know why you feel the need to tell everyone we meet that story,” Merlin moaned bringing the mug through to Gwaine.
“I think it’s rather precious. It shows you have a good heart Merlin,” Gwaine said sincerely as Merlin handed over the mug, staring Merlin right in the eye. Merlin seemed caught for a second in his gaze, not moving from the uncomfortable hunch he had adopted to hand Gwaine his drink.
Arthur’s buzzing phone broke the moment and Merlin stood back up jerkily, clearing his throat and distractedly straightened the magazines on the coffee table.
“Vivian, I thought I told you I was busy all day?” Arthur barked into his phone. “Well can’t he move it to tomorrow…. Fine. I said fine. I will be in shortly. Yes… Ok then. Bye.” Arthur stabbed his phone a little harder than necessary.
When Arthur turned back around Merlin already had his coat and briefcase held out in front of him. “Your Kingdom awaits,” Merlin stated in a mock dramatic voice.
Merlin quickly hurried Arthur out the door nodding along as Arthur stated that he ‘would be calling Merlin later’ and ‘he had better pick up or he was sending Morgana round.’
Once the door was firmly shut and the chain securely in place Merlin let out a deep breath.
“Wow,” Gwaine murmured from where he was still sat in the armchair. “You’re sure he’s not your boyfriend?”
Merlin let out a short laugh. “Positive.” He ambled over and dropped ungracefully onto the now empty sofa, his limbs dangling everywhere. “He’s actually a great guy,” Merlin confessed. “But he just likes to cover that up with his personality.” Merlin heard Gwaine snort and turned his head to see Gwaine studying him carefully from his seat. Merlin pushed down the urge to wriggle and focused on the ceiling.
“So how do you and the princess know each other? You don’t seem to be the kind that run in the same circles,” Gwaine asked after a while.
“You’re right – I am much too cool for him.” Gwaine chuckled as Merlin grinned over at him. “Actually, when I had to drop out of Uni my Uncle got me a job as Arthur’s assistant. I thought he was a spoilt bully, he thought I was a clumsy idiot. It’s a friendship based on carefully thought out insults and mocking. Truly the stuff of fairy tales.”
“You don’t work for him anymore?”
“Well I suppose I kind of do,” Merlin said with a shrug. “I work in the R&D Department at Camelot, and Arthur’s the CEO…”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Gwaine said, leaning forward in his chair with curiosity. “Arthur’s the CEO of Camelot…. That was Arthur Pendragon, of Pendragon Industries. The Pendragon that owns half this town?”
“Well that Pendragon is really Arthur’s father, but Arthur will probably take over some day-“
“Jesus,” Gwaine sighed, leaning back in his chair, staring off into space. He blinked out of it and took a sip of his tea. “Well now I wish I hadn’t been so nice to the bloke.”
*
It wasn’t until after Merlin had given Gwaine use of the bathroom, cleaned the bloody guest sheets, forced Gwaine into an old pair of his joggers (the pink bathrobe was becoming highly distracting) and had lunch that Merlin’s mouth blurted out the thought that had been circling his head all morning.
“How come you’re homeless?” As soon as it had escaped Merlin clapped his hands over his mouth. “Oh, that was rude. I can’t ask that. It’s just that you’re so nice and normal and… You don’t have to answer me. Forget it. I’m just being nosey-“
“No Merlin. It’s fine. You can ask.” Gwaine looked at Merlin as they cleared the table of their lunch plates, with a face so open that Merlin couldn’t help the blush.
“Sorry, you really don’t have to tell me about it.”
“It’s really not that interesting,” Gwaine said, handing Merlin the sponge as he stationed himself next to Merlin ready with a tea towel. “My father died when I was young, my mother never really knew what to do with me. When I finished school I left. Move from place to place, doing odd jobs here and there. I spent the summer on a farm in the north helping them out. Not a bad deal; free meals and a bed for labour. Headed here next.” Merlin passed Gwaine a clean plate which Gwaine started drying. “I can usually get into hostels and places like that, just been unlucky the last couple of weeks. Lost the last of my money on a poker game with two drag queens. “
Merlin couldn’t help but laugh at the pout Gwaine sported at the comment. “They probably wasted all my hard-earned money on more Botox – best poker faces I’ve ever seen.” Merlin carried on laughing until Gwaine cocked him one of his grins and they slipped back into comfortable silence, punctuated with the splash of the washing up bowl and the squeak of the tea towel.
After that Merlin had some work he had planned to do from home today so left Gwaine the remote and a stack of his most recent DVD purchases for Gwaine to browse and withdrew to his bedroom.
When he came out nearly three hours later it was to the melody of Ed Helms singing along to a piano, interrupted every now and then by Gwaine’s snores.
Merlin smiled fondly down at the sleeping man on his sofa. Even after a decent amount of sleep last night you could still see the bags under Gwaine's eyes and the light pallor to his skin, but it didn’t take away from the overall package. Merlin had no problem admitting that Gwaine was an extremely handsome man. You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see that. But admitting that to himself didn’t mean anything. He didn’t fall for everyman that crossed his path with a sob story – thank you very much Arthur. He wasn’t quite that pathetic yet.
Merlin grabbed a blanket from the armchair and threw it over the man, leaving him to sleep some more.
An hour or so later the DVD had finished and Merlin was eagerly pursuing and old copy of National Geographic he had found on the sofa when the phone rang.
“Shit,” Merlin hissed, scrambling from the chair in his haste to get to the phone before it woke Gwaine. It was too late though. Gwaine blinked sleepily at him from the sofa. Merlin mouthed ‘Sorry’ in his direction which he waved off with a lazily gesture, stretching out his rested muscles.
“Hello?” Merlin spoke into the receiver.
“Merlin – still alive I see,” Arthur’s dry voice echoed down the line.
Merlin groaned. “Where’s Gwen, I don’t want to speak to you again today.”
“Oh that’s nice. Your best friend selflessly comes to your aid and you give me attitude.”
“You’re not my best friend, I changed my mind. I liked Gwen long before I could even tolerate you. And I selflessly gifted you my best fag-hag so you could disgustingly hetero things together, don’t think I can’t take her back.”
“Arthur, give me the phone.” A sweet female voice sounded down the line. There was some scuffling on the other end before Gwen’s lovely tones came over the line. “Sweetheart, are you OK. When Arthur told me I was so worried.”
“The idiot’s fine.” Merlin heard Arthur say in the background.
“Arthur, honey. Why don’t you make yourself useful and chop those vegetables for me?”
“How do you do that?” Merlin asked when he could no longer hear Arthur’s voice. “I can never get him to do anything!”
“It the breasts,” Gwen stated.
“Ah. That would be it.” Merlin smiled when he heard Gwen’s twinkling laugh from the other end of the phone.
“So really Merlin. Are you OK? Do you need me to come over?”
“Really Gwen, I am fine, I promise.”
“OK, well… You call us if you need anything, and you’ll come over for dinner on Saturday.”
“I will be there, and I have some jeans that could use your expert hand if you have the time.”
“Course honey; just give them Arthur at work…. Wait – Arthur, put that down.” Gwen sighed on the other end of the phone. “I’ve got to go, Arthurs’s waving the Tabasco sauce around the Bolognese sauce again. Love you.”
“Love you too,” Merlin chuckled and hung up the phone. He turned his head to the sofa to wax lyrical about how wonderful Gwen was and that he had no idea what she was doing with Arthur when he saw that the sofa was empty.
Someone cleared their throat behind Merlin and he turned to see Gwaine dressed in the clothes he had been wearing the night before, now cleaned and dry but no less shabby, and his coat in his hand. Something cold squeezed tight around Merlin’s heart.
“Wh-What are you doing up?” Merlin stuttered.
“You have been really great Merlin, thank you. But I really should be going.”
And it was ridiculous. Ridiculous that Gwaine should be leaving now, ridiculous that Merlin should feel so adrift at that thought. Ridiculous that Merlin hadn’t known that this was going to happen today or tomorrow. Ridiculous that after less than 24 hours sharing a living space the thought of Gwaine’s presence not in it made Merlin want to grab hold of something tight and never let go.
“No!” Merlin snapped out.
“No?” Gwaine raised a confused eyebrow at Merlin.
Merlin took a second to gather an argument that was more coherent than the mantra of ‘No, No, no’ that was running through his head right now.
“Gwaine, I can’t let you go back out and sleep next to a dumpster when I have a perfectly good room here going to waste!”
“I know you like to help people Merlin, but I have been looking after myself for a long time. I don’t need your charity.”
“It’s not charity. I am being completely selfish I swear,” Merlin said quickly. “If you go I will be really worried and won’t be able to eat or sleep and Gwen will come over and force feed me soup and Morgana will make me drink whisky. And I hate whisky. So I will have a perpetual hangover and will be eventually fired from my job because you cannot successfully research the healing properties of willow bark mixed with sodium with a whisky hangover. Then I will be forced to come live with you and you will have to put up with my moaning because I will have to carry Kilgharrah’s tank everywhere with me.” Merlin gestured wildly towards the fish watching this whole conversation with an air of bored disinterest. When Gwaine didn’t seem convinced be Merlin tried a different tactic. “Look you said you spent the summer at a farm and got free room a board for helping out? Well… you could do the same here!”
“You have cows you need milking Merlin?” Gwaine said raising a sarcastic eyebrow.
“No.” Merlin scowled. “But there are loads of… other things. Like…” Merlin cast his eyes around the room, “Like this chair has a wobbly leg, I am sure you could fix that and… the garbage disposal had never worked properly and… loads of stuff.” Merlin fixed Gwaine with his look that usually made Gwen coo and hug him and even had at times been proved to soften Morganas eyes – just a tiny bit. “Please.”
“Fine,” Gwaine huffed after a long stretch of silence, dropping his shoulders in defeat. Merlin couldn’t help the manic grin that sprouted on his face. “But just for a little while OK!”
*
For the next few weeks Merlin’s day looked like this:
Get up and creep through his morning routine of teeth brushing, hair taming and caffeine inhaling before carefully shutting the door.
Dodge traffic on his bike to the Camelot Offices.
Purchase two strong-as-tar coffee’s and one frothy, milky thing for Vivian as part of his longstanding apology vow to her for getting promoted and leaving her in charge of Arthur.
Spend an hour or so calming Arthur down from whatever rage he was in that morning, escaping when his coffee was finished and Arthur’s face had gone from red to pink.
Receive a kind smile and a cookie from Helga, one of Arthur’s longest standing minions, he would escape down to his lab where he would sit in front of a laptop trying to find the right chemical composition to cure AID’s, or acne, whatever was on the agenda for the day.
Around twelve he would go to his office and skim quickly though any mail that had been put on his desk and receive a phone call from Gwaine once he had woken. Gwaine would ask if there was anything Merlin needed doing that day, Merlin would say he wasn’t Gwaine’s boss, Gwaine would make an innuendo, Merlin would try to come up with a witty retort whilst trying to reign in his blush. This was usually the time that Arthur would barge in the door, usually hiding from his father or Morgana, so Merlin would give a hasty goodbye to Gwaine and eat whatever Arthur had bought from the cafeteria for Merlin that day.
After lunch he would carry on with his ground-breaking research until the clock hit half four, give Arthur a wave through the glass doors of Arthur’s office which Arthur would return distractedly with a phone glued to one ear.
Dodge traffic on his bike on the way back from Camelot Offices.
Return home to dinner on the table (which was usually fantastic), another thing in the house fixed (which was useful) and a cheekily grinning Gwaine welcoming him home and asking if he ‘had a good day at work dear?’ (which never failed to make Merlin roll his eyes and smile).
It was in Gwaine's third week of staying with Merlin that his day fell to pieces at the seams.
He managed to get out of the house OK, only to be met with torrential rain and the remembrance that he had lost his kagool on an ill-fated trip to Scarborough with Arthur, Morgana and Gwen.
He ran over a nail, flattening his tyre on the ride to work.
Which meant he was later than usual and the queue for his usual coffee ship was out the door, so he had to settle for the sludge in the office’s cafeteria.
Said sludge didn’t help much to alleviate Arthur’s mood whose face was closer to puce than pink when Merlin finally gave up and ran for his labs.
Then things just got worse…
“Fuck!” Merlin mumbled emptying his backpack all over his desk. It was lunch, he should be relaxing eating a pasta salad or a sandwich or even a small cracker. But today was his bi-annual run down of his departments work (department being a very generous term used to describe Merlin and two spot-faced graduates) in a meeting on the top floor headed by none other than Uther Pendragon – and Merlin couldn’t find his notes.
He was sure he had packed them. They had been right there on the table the night before and he checked them compulsively for the fourth time and put them in a shiny plastic folder Arthur had bought him and they had been right there – but then his memory went blank. Did he forget them? Where they hiding under the rest of his paper work or… Merlin had a horrible image of hours of typing and spelling mistakes floating in a puddle on Kings Street where they could have fallen out of his bag.
“Fuck,” he hissed again when he ascertained that they really weren’t in his bag.
The shrill ringing of his phone barely broke him out of his blind panic and he groped for the device blindly as he continued to leaf through the papers on his desk.
“Yeah?” he called distractedly into his phone whilst bending down under the desk to see if his notes had decided to crawl away and hide.
“Well good afternoon to you too,” a warm voice said down the line, as always with a hint of amusement in its tone.
“Oh – Hey Gwaine.” Merlin tried to sit back up in his chair, hitting his head on the edge of the desk in the process. He spluttered out a succession of curses whilst rubbing at what was definitely going to become a lump.
“You OK?” Gwaine asked. “You sound… busy.”
“No,” Merlin moaned into the phone. “I am not OK. I have a huge meeting this afternoon with Darth Vadar himself and I cannot find my bloody notes. Uther is going to crucify me and eat me for lunch.”
“Notes?”
“Yeah. I wrote pages of notes so I would know exactly what to say and I wouldn’t start babbling.” Merlin’s pulse sped up as he had vivid flash backs from the last time he had been in a room with Uther. “God!” he groaned. “He already thinks I’m an idiot! If I go off on another lecture about all the different types of peas again he is going to have me committed, or worse: demoted back to Arthur assistant!”
“Merlin.” Gwaine's calm voice came over the phone line. “You need to breathe!”
“Breathe? How can I breathe when my career salvaging notes are currently being picked from the streets by birds to line their nests?”
“You can fear not Merlin for I know for a fact that your notes are not being used as sparrow blankets.”
“Really?”
“Yes. They are currently sitting innocently on the dining room table.”
“Oh thank God!” Merlin sighed in relief. They were fine, it was fine. All he had to do was quickly ride home grab the notes and he should be back just in time for the meeting, he had plenty of time-
Merlin looked at the clock and groaned, letting out a string of expletives.
“What did you injure now?” Gwaine asked.
“My Bike!” Merlin wailed. “I got a puncture this morning. There is no way I will have enough time to get home and back on foot. I don’t even have any cash for a taxi!”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“How can you tell me not to worry about it? I am about to be fired, very publically. Probably in the lobby so everyone can see what an irrevocable idiot Merlin Emrys is-“
“Merlin shhhh,” Gwaine soothed. Merlin stopped his monologue quickly and took a deep breath. “Now sit down.” Merlin let his legs go and dropped, rather than sat, down into his office chair, his eyes still wide and breathing ragged. “Now stay there and drink something, preferably without caffeine but I am not expecting miracles. And don’t worry about the notes.”
“But-“
“I said don’t worry.”
“But the-“
“Merlin… Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” Merlin said without hesitation.
“Well I would hope so seen as you are letting me live in your house… Now don’t worry about the notes. Just sit and breathe and that’s all you need to worry about.”
So Merlin did as he was told. Or he tried to.
It had been twenty-three minutes exactly since he had hung up the phone to Gwaine, and he knew it had been twenty-three minutes exactly because all he had done since he hung up the phone was stare at the clock and watch the minutes tick away; stare and watch as the last minutes of his life ticked away and the strange calm that had nearly soothed him whilst speaking to Gwaine slowly ebbed away.
His leg began to frantically jiggle up and down. He didn’t try to stop it. It was no use. He was going to get up there in front of the board (including Katrina who perhaps hated him even more than Uther seemed to) and make an absolutely fool of himself. At least with Uther he knew it wasn’t personal, he hated everyone. But Katrina seemed to have a personal vendetta against him. He was going to stand up there and have no idea of what to say. It didn’t matter how high his IQ was, or how he could picture chemical structures in his mind as easy as some people could construct day dreams; put him in front of an audience and he would blush and babble and sweat and – God, he hoped he had brought deodorant with him today.
*
“Merlin?” Arthur’s voice called from the door way to Merlin's office, ten minutes before the meeting.
“Yeah,” Mumbled Merlin weakly.
“Merlin, where are you?”
Merlin heard Arthur polished shoes scuffle against the carpet until they came into view and then a blond head popped down into Merlin eye sight.
“Merlin, what are you doing?”
“Hiding.”
“Idiot. Get out from under your desk.”
When Merlin made no effort to move Arthur grabbed one of his scrawny arms and hauled him up. “What the hell is wrong with you? We are supposed to be upstairs in ten minutes.”
Merlin stood, numb, as Arthur circled him, tutting at his shirt and trying to straighten his hair. “Have you even eaten lunch?”
“You didn’t bring me anything,” Merlin mumbled, only just remembering that he hadn’t eaten. But at the thought of food his stomach clenched dangerously and he decided that maybe that was a good thing.
“Hopeless,” Arthur sighed, seeming to give up on Merlin’s hair and tie, he came around to Merlin’s front and grabbed his shoulders. “Merlin. You need to focus.” Arthur punctuated this with a small shake. “Meeting with the board. My father. Research. Focus and breathe. It will be alright.”
Merlin finally became aware that Arthur had been pulling Merlin forward towards the door.
“Notes,” Merlin mumbled, feebly trying to resist Arthur’s manoeuvring.
“What?” Arthur asked distractedly but a commotion in the outer office had him breaking eye contact and looking over his shoulder.
“How the hell did you get passed security?” were the first words out of Arthur’s lips when a flushed looking Gwaine hurtled into Merlin's office doorway clutching a plastic green folder in one hand.
“Gwaine?” Merlin asked, half in wonder, half in surprise.
“My natural charisma and good looks,” Gwaine responded giving Arthur a devious smirk that suggested that yes, that was exactly how he got through security.
“We don’t have time for this,” Arthur grumbled pulling Merlin more roughly passed Gwaine and out the door.
As they passed the open doorway Gwaine pressed the folder into Merlin lax hands and gave them a quick squeeze, breathing “Good Luck” into Merlin’s ear. Merlin just stared at the man with wide eyes as he was tugged up the hallway and away.
“Thank You!” Merlin called back, looking over his shoulder one last time before Arthur dragged him around the corner.
*
In celebration of not being sacked, committed or killed Arthur took Merlin for a quick after-works drink. Arthur grumbled when Merlin said he would have to just text Gwaine to let him know, who had disappeared from the building by the time the meeting had finished.
“He’s not your bloody wife Merlin. You don’t need to check in,” Arthur huffed, taking a drag from his pint and leaning back in their booth.
“I am not checking in. I am just being polite. He may have cooked dinner and I wouldn’t want him to go to all that trouble for it to just go cold.”
Arthur surveyed Merlin over the rim of his glass and shook his head. “I knew it.”
“Knew what?”
“You have a thing for him. You fancy him!”
“I do not!” Merlin replied shrilly.
“Oh, Merlin you really do! This will go nowhere good!”
Merlin took a deep breath, clenching his jaw. “Arthur, I told you nothing is going on. He’s just a friend, like a roommate. Like you and Leon in Uni!”
“Merlin,” Arthur said softly in a very un-Arthur like way. “It can’t go anywhere. He is only staying until winter breaks and then he will be gone.”
“Well it’s all very good that I DON’T fancy him then isn’t it.”
Arthur just raised an eyebrow and took another sip of his pint.
Merlin stayed out later than he was intending to and stumbled in, a little worse for wear, at just gone midnight. Gwaine was already in bed and his leftovers were sat neatly packaged in Tupperware with a note on top:
Hope you had a good night. There’s paracetamol on the side. G.
Something dangerous clenched in Merlin’s chest.
*
It was a Wednesday. Not a very special or noteworthy day. Right in the middle of the week, nothing decent on TV. But Merlin opened the door when he got home that evening and a soft, familiar melody hit his ears.
“Gwaine?” he asked cautiously, taking off his scarf and coat.
“Merlin!” Gwaine’s head popped out of the kitchen with two wine glasses in hand. He thrust one at Merlin, grinning.
“Have a good day at work?”
“Yeah it was fine… What is this all in aid of?” Merlin flapped his free hand as he simultaneously tried to keep hold of his wine and take of his coat.
Gwaine just grinned and helped Merlin’s hand out of his coat sleeve.
“The wine? It was just on offer at Tesco’s but the rest…”
Gwaine grabbed Merlin’s free hand and dragged him into the front room and gestured into the corner.
And Merlin saw what had been making that achingly familiar tune as he entered the flat. It was his mother’s record player. It had stopped working towards the end of her illness and Merlin had packed it away and promised her he would get it fixed. Then she had taken a turn for the worse and Merlin had never got round to it.
Merlin felt tears prick behind his eyeballs as he ran his fingers over the top, remembering days watching his mother clean the house singing out loud to Queen or Abba, and evenings sat together on the sofa with the soft sounds of Glenn Miller accompanying the night.
“I found it in the cupboard.” Gwaine was saying, pulling Merlin from his trip down memory lane. “I hope that’s alright?” he frowned at Merlin in concern
“No. Yeah, yeah. That’s fine.” Merlin sniffed, clearing his throat. They stayed silent for a minute. “It was. It was my mothers,” Merlin told Gwaine. Slight understanding dawned in the other man’s eyes. “I always promised her I’d get it fixed.” Merlin laughed brokenly.
“Would you like dinner?” Gwaine asked quietly, a look of uncertainty in his eyes as if he was waiting for Merlin to bolt or break down. Merlin took a deep breath and smiled.
“Yeah,” he breathed out. “Yeah that would be good.”
They sat and ate and slowly Merlin's tension faded away as they laughed and joked as normal. Gwaine just had so many stories to tell and Merlin could never get enough of hearing them, about the adventures and people Gwaine had met in his life. At times Merlin found himself almost envious of this homeless man at his dining room table. He had seen so much and learnt so much that Merlin felt as if he had been living under a rock all his life.
After dinner they washed up together as normal and retreated to the sofas to finish the wine. This time they were more silent, listening to the crackles of the old records spinning on the deck until a familiar song came on that made Merlin smile.
“What?” asked Gwaine noting the fond smile and faraway look on Merlin's face.
“This song,” Merlin said wistfully. “It was one of Mum’s favourites.” Merlin grinned as the memory became clearer in his head. Even after all these years he had never learnt the name of it but the tones were soft and soothing and he found himself unconsciously swaying in time.
Merlin stayed in his own memory for a few moment s and when he blinked out of it there was a hand trust out in his direction. He followed it up to meet Gwaine's eyes standing before him.
“Dance with me,” Gwaine said.
“What?” Merlin laughed disbelievingly.
“Come on. You’re practically dancing as it is. Dance with me.” The hand stayed in front of Merlin's face until Merlin rolled his eyes and grabbed it. Before he knew it he was being pulled up from the sofa. He over balanced and fell into Gwaine’s chest with a thump who began to spin Merlin all over the room regardless of the beat of the song until they were both laughing.
Once their breathing calmed down they settled into each other’s arms. Merlin awkwardly fidgeted, he had never been a good dancer, he was never sure where to put his arms or his legs or where to look or-
“Merlin relax,” Gwaine breathed very close to Merlin's ear. “Just close your eyes.” So Merlin did. “Listen… listen to the music and just move with it.”
So Merlin did, and he melted into it.
Merlin felt Gwaine’s strong arms around him and the sounds of his mother’s favourite song in his ears and suddenly the flat that he had been his mother’s that he had moved into after her death wasn’t just that anymore. It was his home.
The song ended and Merlin jerked from where he had been resting his head on Gwaine’s shoulder. Gwaine’s eyes were large and warm brown and he could see the slight streaks of green in them. He could see Gwaine’s bottom lip was slightly chapped and Merlin had the unconscious urge to latch onto it with his own.
Merlin pulled back quickly from where he was leaning forward as if to do just that. “Urm,” he mumbled. “I just – toilet. Yeah, toilet. Be right back.” Merlin bravely retreated to the bathroom locking the door behind him and pulling out his mobile.
Arthur picked up after two rings.
“Hello?”
“Remember what you said before about me fancying Gwaine and I told you to stop being ridiculous that I was just being friendly and doing a nice thing…” Merlin started without any introduction.
“Yeees?”
“Well…Maybe I might just have a small crush,” Merlin stated, cringing in the silence that followed.
“That’s it,” Arthur said decisively. “I’m moving into your room until this whole fiasco is over.”
“…I really don’t think Gwen will like that.”
“I am sure that Gwen can handle herself for a week or two whilst I stage an intervention. I mean – really Merlin?” Arthur sighed in exasperation.
“What’s wrong with Gwaine?” Merlin said defiantly
“For starters you met when he was sleeping in an alley. He seems to have a complete aversion to getting a job and he eats all the hobnobs!”
“I told you I would buy you some more-“
“That is highly irrelevant Merlin! You have absolutely no instinct when it comes to dating and men.”
“I slept with you once didn’t I?” Merlin grumbled, disregarding their unspoken rule never to bring up the absolutely awful cloakroom sex they had attempted to have at Merlin’s first work Christmas party.
“What an excellent example.” Arthur huffed. “You slept with your extremely straight boss, whilst you were both drunk, who you have argued plenty of times in the past is a pompous prat and ‘clot-pole’ I think the word is. What a great example of your healthy outlook on relationships.”
“Obviously not totally straight,” Merlin mumbled with little else to respond.
“Edwin, Cedric, Valiant…” Arthur continued, “all prime examples on how you cannot be trusted where your heart… or lower regions, are concerned.”
“Come on Arthur, Gwaine’s not like them. Ok - he is a bit of a flirt, but he is genuinely nice and kind. And he does the dishes and I know you would like him once you get to know him.”
“I don’t want to get to know him.”
“Why not?” Merlin asked, disbelievingly.
“Because it will make it remarkably more awkward when I have to beat him to a pulp for stealing from you or breaking your heart!”
Merlin’s mouth curled into a fond smile and warmth curled in his chest. For all of Arthur’s blustering and moaning he really was Merlin's best friend.
“I love you too, you Prat. I can handle it for tonight at least, and I will see you in the morning.”
Arthur grumbled, uncomfortable by Merlin’s outwardly display of affection and said his goodbyes.
Merlin sank onto the closed toilet seat with a large breath. As unhelpful as advice from Arthur usually was it normally helped him gain some kind of handle on the situation. And his situation was that he had a crush on his temporary roommate. Emphasis on the temporary and the roommate.
His temporary roommate that was a complete flirt and Merlin wasn't even sure if he was into guys or if he just didn't discriminate when it came to his knee wobbling smiles.
And really you couldn't blame Merlin. Gwaine had been his knight in shining armour and, as Morgana normally helpfully pointed out every chance she got, he did have a bit of a hero kink. Plus Gwaine had he hair and the eyes and the smiles and the body and the flirting. Need he go on - so it absolutely, definitely wasn’t Merlin’s fault.
Now that he had established that to himself he did feel a lot better.
Merlin squared his shoulders. He could do this. He could live with a gorgeous man who was also a little bit wonderful and not throw himself at him.
Which is what he had almost done out there - god. Gwaine had done a lovely thing and fixed his mother’s prized possession and made dinner and Merlin had almost thrown himself at the man. Now Gwaine was probably out there thinking that Merlin was trying to get sexual favours in payment for a roof over his head.
The square of Merlin’s shoulders slumped a tiny bit but he quickly shook his head and steeled his vision. He was Merlin Emrys, the man who had successfully refrained from bludgeoning Arthur to death with a stapler in his three years as the man’s assistant, he could resist one gorgeous man.
When Merlin finally emerged from the bathroom he didn't know whether to be disappointed or relieved that Gwaine had turned the music off. The man stood to the side of the player putting the albums into a box he had found. When the bathroom door clicked shut Gwaine whipped his head around, flicking his soft hair over his shoulder in a move that was most definitely stolen from a Pantene advert. Merlin held back a whimper and decided that the universe really did hate him just a little bit.
“How's Arthur?” Gwaine asked with a little knowing smirk on his lips
“What” Merlin spluttered, still recovering from… well, the whole package really. “No I didn't – I, well…” but Merlin sighed as Gwaine’s smirk just got bigger at his stuttering, and rolled his eyes to the ceiling to try and dissuade his bluish. “He’s fine”
Gwaine chuckled and closed the lid down on the player. “Right, well… I'm off to bed,” Gwaine stated, clapping his hands in declaration.
“Oh…” Merlin said in surprise. He had a whole apology speech planned for his earlier misconduct still running through his head, but Gwaine was turning into this bedroom as if Merlin hadn’t just almost tried to stick his tongue down his throat in the living room. “Um, yeah. Goodnight Gwaine”
Gwaine sent his customary wink over his shoulder before the door closed behind him.
A short while later Merlin lay in his own bed, unsleeping, staring at his cracked ceiling. Half of him was relieved that Gwaine had dismissed the whole incident so easily; the other half was brooding over the fact that Gwaine could disregard him so easily. And another half was calling him ridiculous and telling him to get some bloody sleep, which was mathematically impossible but that’s just the way Merlin’s life seemed to go sometimes.
-
Gwaine and Merlin always did the weekly food shopping on a Friday night. The shops were quieter then, Gwaine argued, and the fridge was then fully stocked for the weekend. When he had pointed this out Merlin had just shrugged and pointedly not mentioned that most of the time he ended up surviving on last minute purchases from the corner shop or leftovers from Gwen.
That Friday night Merlin shuttled the trolley forward down the aisle of Tesco’s, riding the motion with his feet on the wheels.
“What about cooking?” he asked as he sailed past Gwaine staring at a shelf of tinned tomatoes.
“What?” asked Gwaine, smirking as Merlin turned the trolley around and rode it back toward him
“As a job I mean.”
Gwaine hummed in thought, finally selecting a tin and chucking it in the trolley. “I like cooking, but I don't know whether I would want to do it for a living.” Gwaine grasped the end of the trolley and steered them towards the end of the aisle.
“If you enjoy it you would,” Merlin said, leaning his elbows on the trolley bar, letting Gwaine guide him around. Merlin had a lot of fidgety energy tonight. It might have something to do with all the sexually frustrating thoughts he was continuing to have about his roommate. “Once you find something you love to do you can't imagine doing anything else… like me”
“You complain about your job daily,” Gwaine mused.
“No - I complain about work. I enjoy the job I do. When I was working for Arthur I always felt like I was waiting for… I dunno, something, and then when I got the job I knew what it was.”
“I don't want to build my life around a job.” Gwaine turned them, into the next aisle. “My father did that. Built his life around his job, then he lost his job and his life fell apart. For me to stay in one place I would want something more than a salary to hold me there.”
Gwaine stared straight at Merlin then. Merlin had been trying to avoid that over the last few days because when Gwaine looked at him like he was doing now it felt as if his eyesight was penetrating into Merlin’s soul, pinning him in place. He imagined what those eyes would look like dark with arousal or glassy with pleasure the way his large hands might –
And those were inappropriate thoughts to be having in the toiletry aisle in Tesco. Merlin cleared his throat quickly and grabbed an item from the nearest shelf before moving on.
“Merlin,” Gwaine called back. Merlin turned over his shoulder to see Gwaine looking at him with one raised eyebrow. Merlin’s responding frown of confusion seemed to indicate he had no idea what Gwaine was trying to communicate so the man strode forward and picked a box out of the trolley. “I really don't think we need those unless there's something you’re not telling me?”
Merlin stared at the box of Tampons now in Gwaine's hand and was sure the rush of red on his face was sending out a heat signal visible from space.
Gwaine just grinned and put the box back. “Tell you what,” Gwaine said, tearing the shopping list carefully in two, he handed one to Merlin and kept one for himself. “Supermarket sweep – last to the checkouts has to clean the bathroom.”
Forgetting about his prior embarrassment Merlin grinned. “Deal!” he shouted as he zoomed away.
*
“I could ask Gwen you know,” Merlin said as he stacked jars in the cupboard. Gwaine just raised an eyebrow handing him another jar from the shopping bag, with the look that said Merlin had done that thing again where he started a conversation in his head and expected everyone to follow. “About a job – in cooking.”
“Merlin…” Gwaine started hesitantly, he adopted the same look that he wore every time Merlin brought up him leaving or staying. It was a strange mixture of emotions, but Merlin could read the pity and regret a mile off.
“No, I know,” Merlin said quickly, shutting the cupboard and unnecessarily fiddling with the pasta bags on the counter. “You want more than a job. I get it. But maybe... if you found something that made you want to stay I could ask Gwen. She owns a catering company.”
“What kind of thing, around here, would I find that would make me want to stay?” Gwaine was looking at him, now with a different look. Again it was difficult to read but it held something like expectancy, like Merlin should know the answer to this question already.
“I dunno,” Merlin mumbled, “Like.. a girlfriend or something.”
“A girlfriend?”
“Yeah – what about those drag queens you told me about, they sound like a laugh.” Merlin chuckled uneasily. Gwaine blinked down at the floor and up again, his normal smirk fixed on his lips.
“Nah – too high maintenance for me. I’m gonna head for a shower, you good here?”
Merlin nodded but Gwaine was already shutting the bathroom door behind him. Merlin was left with a bag of pasta in one hand and the feeling that he had said the wrong thing.
*
“And then,” Arthur continued raging on the fourth circuit around his office, “she had the nerve to accuse me of ‘pandering to a bigoted fool’. All I did was tell him he was entitled to his opinion then I get it in the ear from Morgana for the hour car ride back.” Arthur paused his pacing long enough to point an accusing finger at Merlin who was calmly sipping coffee in the chair opposite Arthurs desk. “I don’t see what you were doing that was so important that you couldn’t come with me. At least when you’re there it takes all of Uther’s energy sending you death glares that he can’t start bemoaning about the fact he doesn’t have any grandchildren.”
“I told you I was busy,” Merlin replied, with a nonchalant shrug.
“And Gwen had ‘work commitments’.” Arthur used sarcastic little quotation marks. “Nice to see where I fall in your list of priorities.”
Merlin rolled his eyes and took another sip on his coffee waiting for Arthur to calm down enough for him to sit.
‘Two….. one’. Merlin mentally counted down the two final laps of muttering and scowling and then Arthur flopped down into his executive office chair and took his first sip of caffeine. The effect was instantaneous as Merlin watched the tense line of Arthur shoulders fall a bit. Merlin hid his smirk behind the lid of his coffee cup.
“So.” Arthur raised a pompous eyebrow. “How was your ‘extremely busy – too busy to save Arthur’ weekend?”
“It was fine,” Merlin muttered. He didn’t want to mention that the reason that he said he was busy was so that he could take Gwaine out somewhere. The man had been strangely absent from the flat for the past week and Merlin had the suspicion that he had done something wrong. So he had planned to take Gwaine to see the new blockbuster at the cinema and then maybe dinner afterward. Which would have been fine, friends go to dinner together all the time.
But when Merlin had woken on Sunday it was to a note on the fridge saying that Gwaine would be gone all day, and Merlin hadn’t seen him since. He assumed that Gwaine returned home because he remembered falling asleep on the sofa but he woke up in his bed. But Gwaine’s bedroom door had been tightly shut as Merlin crept out to work in the morning and he didn’t have the nerve to check the man was in there. The sight of a sleeping Gwaine might have been too much of a temptation.
“Busy with Gwaine?” Arthur asked, coyly peeking at Merlin through his lashes.
Merlin scowled back. “No actually, he was busy”
“Doing what?”
“I don’t know, he doesn’t need me to check in on him.”
“That’s exactly what you should be doing,” Arthur said, imperiously. “Making sure he does nothing untoward. A tight leash is what these people need. I tell you, put me in charge of this country’s prisons for one day and I’d have all these yobs sorted.”
Merlin snorted. “You would probably forget to feed them all and you’d come back a week later to find every single inmate dead…. Like ‘Fluffy’.”
“You forgot to feed him!” Arthur yelled, staring incredulously at Merlin.
Merlin matched his looked and raised him one eyebrow. “He was your hamster!”
They stared at each other for a moment. Merlin broke first, his lips quirking upwards a fraction. Arthur hid his smile behind his coffee cup mumbling a half-hearted ‘shut up Merlin’.
*
That night Merlin pushed the door open to his flat, arms laden with takeout bags and promptly tripped on something in the hallway. Thankfully he managed to right himself without spilling the contents in his arms and gave himself a proud smile. He turned to look at the offending item carelessly sitting around to trip him and the smile melted off his face.
It was a duffel. A very full duffle. One that did not belong to Merlin.
“Oh – you’re home.”
Merlin swung round to find Gwaine stood in the hallway ahead of him looking nervous.
“You’re leaving?” Merlin asked; his voice weak.
Gwaine cleared his throat and shuffled awkwardly. “I thought it for the best, for now anyway.”
“What do you mean for now?” Gwaine opened his mouth to respond but Merlin quickly pieced together the scene he was seeing and noticed the coat in Gwaine hand. “You were just going to leave without telling me?”
“Not like that,” Gwaine rushed to say. “Look… I just don’t know how to do this properly.”
“Seems to me your doing fine. You’ve got your bag packed, coat on. All you need to do is walk out the door. I’m sorry I must have interrupted, please continue.”
Gwaine frowned in frustration coming down the hall towards Merlin. “Merlin that’s not it. I’m not ‘leaving’ leaving. I’m just-“
“Leaving,” Merlin finished for him, taking an angry step to match Gwaine’s. “Right? Because there is obviously nothing keeping you here.”
Gwaine’s expressions stuttered and the man visibly straightened his shoulders. “I’ve been given no reason to assume I am welcome to stay.”
“I said you could stay as long as you want!”
“That’s not what I mean Merlin!”
It wasn’t until then, until he felt the warm breeze from Gwaine's breath across his face that he realised just how close they had moved. Merlin’s takeaway bags had been dumped unceremoniously somewhere behind him and Gwaine’s duffle sat forgotten by the door. The close proximity seemed to knock all thought from Merlin’s mind. He knew they were arguing about…. Something. But the proximity of Gwaine’s lips made it hard to concentrate on that right now. If he leant forward an inch or so their lips would be touching. His gaze was locked on Gwaine's lips, a tongue sneaked out a laved them, they were just so shiny, and lush. If he just leant. ..…
The phone rang.
They both turned their heads to the side to look at the offending item, shrilling loudly into the stillness of the flat.
“I should get that,” Merlin stated, still staring at the phone.
“You should,” Gwaine replied, his voice deep and hoarse.
“Yeah.” Merlin still stayed still for a few seconds before grabbing for the handle.
“Hello?” Merlin listened to the other end of the line for a few seconds before his eyes grew wide and his biggest grin blossomed on his face. “What?”
*
“We’re Engaged!” Arthur and Gwen yelled simultaneously as Merlin and Gwaine entered the pub hastily.
Merlin instinctively ran up and enveloped them both in a hug before releasing them both and scooping Gwen back up into his arms, whispering furious well wishes into her ear.
He finally pulled back to find Gwaine and Arthur stood awkwardly next to each, Arthur purposefully not making eye contact and Gwaine looking highly amused.
“Sooo,” Merlin asked dragging Gwen back to their table of friends. “I don’t care how many times you’ve told the story, how did he do it?”
“Well…” Gwen mumbled, blushing slightly and glancing up at Arthur.
Merlin glanced in confusion between the two for a moment before catching the amused gleam in Morgana’s eye and catching up. “Oh my god!” Merlin shrieked, smiling with glee. “You proposed to him!”
“Really Merlin,” Arthur spoke in his ‘high and mighty prince’ voice. “I thought you more progressive than that. There is nothing wrong with a woman taking charge every now and then.”
“Exactly,” Gwen said. “I knew he wanted to, but you know how Arthur is with emotions. He would probably make it sound like a business transaction. So I thought I would save everyone the pain and just bite the bullet myself.”
“How very progressive of you,” Merlin teased.
“Quite. But when we tell Uther the news Arthur will have thought of a perfectly lovely engagement story, won’t you dear?” Gwen batted her eyelashes at Arthur who smiled, ridiculously besotted back.
“Of course dear. Now Merlin – help me with the drinks. Champagne for everyone!”
Merlin spared a moment to look for Gwaine who was in discussion with Leon, who he had met a few times. Gwaine offered Merlin a slight nod and smile, more solemn than his usual ones but it told Merlin Gwaine wouldn’t be disappearing until they had talked.
Arthur must have noticed this because a second later a possessive arm was round Merlin’s shoulders guiding him through the crowd to the bar.
“I can’t believe Gwen proposed to you,” Merlin gawfed whilst they were waiting propped up against the bar.
“What’s wrong with Gwen proposing to me?”
“Nothing if you are a normal bloke, but I just find it hilarious that she beat you to it.”
“I bought a ring,” Arthur pouted.
“A ring that I picked out,” Merlin pointed out. “And picked up, and hid in your floorboards for you.”
“But we won’t be telling anyone about that will we Merlin?” Arthur asked, fixing Merlin with a strong glare. Merlin grinned some more and gave Arthur hand where it rested on the bar a patronising pat.
“Of course Arthur.” Arthur narrowed his eyes but kept his mouth shut, for about two seconds.
“So Gwaine's still here then?” Arthur asked, a strange lilt in his voice.
“Yes,” Merlin responded shortly, not wanting to go into it with Arthur about why he was still here when Merlin didn’t really know either.
“Have you put a lock on your bedroom door yet?”
“Arthur!”
“Oh, don’t look so scandalised with me. Don’t pretend you’re so innocent when I have the mental scars from that toilet scene at G.A.Y to prove you wrong – I still have no idea how you got your legs all the way-“
Merlin clapped a hand over Arthur’s mouth to stop the rest of that sentence as the bar man came up and he quickly placed an order for two bottles of champagne. Merlin carefully released Arthur’s mouth watching cautiously in case he started talking again.
“Gilli was a very nice guy I’ll have you know,” Merlin stated with forced nonchalance. “And we are still good friends. Plus – Gwaine doesn’t think of me in that way.”
“Oh please,” Arthur said with a roll of his eyes. “I can practically hear the dirty thoughts he has every time you bend over.”
“Arthur!” Merlin hissed again when the barman returned with the drinks and a tray of glasses. Merlin offered him a strained smile which was returned with a glare before Arthur handed his credit card over. Merlin decided a change of subject was in order, and quickly before the barman came back with the receipt and heard another fresh piece of Merlin’s love life. “So, you’re engaged!”
It wasn’t the best conversation starter but it seemed to move Arthur’s thoughts away from Gwaine.
“God,” Arthur groaned. “I have to start organising a wedding.”
“It can’t be that hard can it? It’s like a really big party.”
“I said that to Gwen and Morgana earlier and they both gave me death glares.” Merlin winced in sympathy. “Actually,” Arthur cleared his throat. “I wanted to talk to you about that… the wedding. Gwen wants to just have Morgana as her maid of honour, and we thought…. You both have black hair and strangely pale and…” Arthur cleared his throat again.
“Arthur,” Merlin said slowly as he watched Arthur fidget, something the man only did when he was about to say something others may construe as ‘nice’. “Are you trying to ask me to your best man?”
“Yes?” Arthur replied just as slowly, peering at Merlin as if gaging his reaction.
“I thought…” Merlin paused, scratching the back of his neck, “maybe Leon?”
“Well, I am asking you, you idiot,” Arthur said with a huff, looking anywhere other than Merlin.
“Of course I will Arthur!” Merlin grinned.
Arthur grinned back, his smile and eyes bright with happiness before he quickly took a hold of himself. “Well… good,” he said, clearing his throat. “Maybe you could invite Gwaine as your plus one or something.”
Just like that Merlin’s grin vanished. “I told you Arthur, it’s not like that. His bags are already packed to leave.”
Arthur frowned at Merlin in confusion. “I thought-“ but he was cut off by Elyan storming over asking what the hell was taking so long with the drinks.
Merlin frowned after Arthur and Elyan, wanting to hear the rest of what Arthur was going to say but they got swept up in toasts and speeches and joke’s, mostly at Arthur’s expense but he took them with grace, his blushing fiancée tucked neatly into his side.
To Merlin’s frustration he was stuck sat on the opposite side of a very large huddle of tables from Gwaine, who kept taking small furtive glances in Merlin's direction in between lulls in conversation with Leon and Percy.
“Stop drooling,” a voice cooed in his ear. At a pointed eyebrow, Bors and Galahad quickly made space for Morgana to sit beside Merlin. Merlin smiled as Morgana gracefully dropped into the now vacant spot.
“I wasn’t drooling.”
“Merlin dear, I can feel your heart palpitations every time he looks at you. I am not stupid.”
“What is everyone’s great interest in me and Gwaine tonight?” Merlin huffed. “By tomorrow he will be gone so you can all just calm down.”
“Really?” Morgana raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Gwaine who was casting more frequent looks over towards Merlin but looking more and more worried as they conversation went on. “Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” she offered cryptically before gracefully standing and heading towards the restrooms.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Merlin yelled after her. But she just raised one well-manicured hand over her shoulder twiddling her fingers in a mock wave before the crowd ate her.
Merlin was starting to get pissed off. Something was going on with everyone, and Merlin wanted to know what the hell it was.
He looked back over to Gwaine who was watching him cautiously, not listening as Leon and Percy talked around him.
Merlin stood quickly and walked round to him as Gwaine stood in preparation.
“Gwaine, what the hell is going on?” Merlin whispered harshly when he reached him. “Everyone-“
“Hush everyone!” Gwen called from her seat. Arthur held out a hand and helped her to stand. “Listen,” she continued. “I know you’ve all been very patient, and I promise this is the last speech of the night. But I just wanted to thank you all for coming out to celebrate with us tonight and that I hope you will all be at the wedding. And I would like to send a special thanks to Gwaine for agreeing to come on board with ‘G’s Catering’ for the time being to allow me some time to plan this whole thing. So thank you!”
Gwen lifted her glass in Gwaine and Merlin's’ direction. Everyone followed suit but Merlin was too busy looking from Gwen to Gwaine and back again with wide eyes.
“Gwaine… what?” he started to ask, but that was all he seemed to be able to say.
“Anyone who can shut Merlin up is alright in my books,” Arthur called, slightly drunk from Gwen’s side. “To Gwaine!” Everyone else joined in with laughs but Merlin just stared shocked at Gwaine.
“You’re staying?”
“I thought, maybe I would try it out for a while.” Gwaine said, smirking. Merlin just stared back open mouthed.
“So you found something worth sticking around for?”
“I think so,” Gwaine replied, his hips swaying as he came closer to Merlin.
“Oh.” Merlin’s heart plummeted. So that’s what Gwaine had been doing the past few weeks. He had found a girlfriend, or boyfriend. Merlin always did think the tiller at the corner shop blinked her eyelashes too much when him and Gwaine came in for their papers on the weekend.
“Merlin.” Gwaine’s hushed voice tore Merlin's from his grim thoughts and a warm hand slipped into his. He looked down with renewed shock and his heart rate tripled as large tanned fingers entwined with his. He looked from that to Gwaine’s eyes, a mixture of confusion, shock and hope written across his face. Gwaine just smiled, raising one had to smooth across a cheekbone. “Arthur was right,” Gwaine mumbled, their lips almost touching. “You are an idiot.” And then he leaned in.
“Wait, wait,” Merlin pulled back and Gwaine gave what could only be called a growl of frustration. “Your bags…. I thought you were leaving?”
“Well, if you had let me finish a sentence instead of going into a rage back at the flat you would have found out that my bags were packed to move into Eylan’s spare room,” Gwaine explained but Merlin’s confused frown persisted. “Look,” Gwaine huffed with a roll of his eyes. “I told you I don’t have mush experience with this… relationship stuff. I just wanted to try and do it right. And wooing you whilst sleeping two walls apart may be more than my, up until now extreme willpower could handle.”
Merlin’s smile had steadily grown bigger during Gwaine’s speech and was now blinding. Without warning he pounced, every long-held fantasy about kissing Gwaine at the forefront of his mind as Gwaine's strong arms caught him and held him tight and their lips met, finally.
Whoops and cat calls sounded from their friends that surrounded them but Merlin paid them no mind.
*
One Year Later
“Arthur,” Merlin tried interrupting, rolling his eyes when the man continued to bark down the phone line at him.
“- and then the caterer called and said they were out of chicken and would we be OK with Salmon instead!?! And I told him – I told that flash bastard, if I wanted bloody chicken I would have ordered bloody chicken. Now Gwen is five minutes away from catering the whole thing herself and I still have to pick out the flowers for our suits – and did you know how much flowers cost?? I could just sneak out to next doors garden and raid her flower beds for what this is costing. I mean – we are going to throw them away! And they want to charge us-“
“Arthur!”
“And don’t even get me started on what Gwen’s dress is costing me. But will she hear a word about it – nooooo. All I said was it was ridiculous to pay that much for a dress she was only going to wear once and I was on the sofa for two nights!”
“Don’t sound so hard done by,” Merlin cut in. “You slept in the spare room which has a king size bed and its own en suite. It’s hardly a thread bare sofa. And I heard the actual story from Gwen don’t forget. What you actually said was ‘for that price I hope you keep it so you can wear it to your next wedding’.”
“Take her side why don’t you,” Arthur mumbled down the line.
“Look – it’s a week before the wedding. You’re both stressed. Just… my advice, as the person dragged along with Morgana and Gwen to every single dress fitting, is just to smile a nod at everything.”
“But-“
“Everything!” Merlin barked. “She wants swans at the reception, she wants to write her own vows, she wants Mike Tyson to give her away; what do you do?”
“Merlin-“ Arthur tried to growl but Merlin cut him off.
“What do you do?”
Arthur sighed a very put-upon sigh before responding petulantly. “Nod and smile.”
“Well done, you’re learning!” Merlin said with a sarcastic smile. “Now – it’s nearly midnight, and I have been on the phone with you for almost an hour. I am going to bed.”
“You know,” Arthur mused. “I don’t like this happiness thing on you. It makes you much less eager to humour me.”
“I am just trying to help you gain some independence before I hand you over to Gwen, you’ll be her problem soon.”
“Hilarious,” Arthur drawled. “Fine, you go, do… whatever it is that you do. I will just silently simmer in anger… all alone.”
“Excellent – goodnight Arthur!”
Once Merlin hung up he smiled fondly down at the phone and shook his head before he looked up to see his boyfriend exit their bedroom.
“The Princess?” Gwaine asked with a raised eyebrow.
Merlin smiled and grabbed Gwaine’s outstretched hand and allowed himself to be pulled towards the bedroom. He reached up to card his fingers through Gwaine's long locks settling his hands at the nape of Gwaine neck before he surged in for a deep kiss.
He felt Gwaine’s groan through his chest and Gwaine's hands gripped tightly at his waist as he backed the man up towards the open bedroom door. “Wait, wait,” Gwaine mumbled against Merlin lips before extracting himself.
Merlin watched with curiosity as Gwaine quickly jogged over to the side table and bent down to reach underneath it. Admiring his boyfriend’s impressive derrière Merlin didn’t realise what Gwaine was doing until the man straightened up, the phone cord dangling uselessly from one hand.
He gave Merlin a winning grin before he bounded back over and backed him into the bedroom. “Just in case,” he mumbled against Merlin’s lip. Merlin only laughed delightedly in response locking his arms around Gwaine's neck as the door shut behind them.