Archive of Our Own ^beta

It all started on a dark and dreary Tuesday.

Well, no. That’s not quite true. It was actually a clear and sunny day. The birds were singing, people were laughing, and there was a general aura of nervous excitement in the air that always accompanied the beginning of a new term at Camelot University.

Merlin’s mood, however, was very dark and dreary.

And it was Tuesday.

It was while he was in this state of general despair, hunched over his desk with his chin resting in one hand while the other clutched a mostly full coffee cup that he’d managed to largely forget about that Morgana sauntered into their shared office, prattling on about the latest gossip that Merlin usually at least somewhat cared about. But today he just… really didn’t.

“And then Elena spilled her drink all over him! I swear, Merlin, it was just like the beginning of a bad romcom. So clearly they’re going for coffee tomorrow and I’m sure it’ll be true love.” Finally, she seemed to notice that Merlin’s responses were nothing more than vague agreements and that he wasn’t actually listening.

She let out a huff and sat in her chair, forcibly spinning Merlin’s seat around so that he was made to look at her. Anybody who didn’t know Morgana would see only the air of annoyance surrounding her due to not being the center of attention, but it was less that than the look of genuine concern in her eyes that had Merlin shying away and quickly turning his gaze to look out the window. Clearly, Morgana was having none of that though. She grabbed the top of Merlin’s head and turned it so that he was once again looking at her. Satisfied that she at least had some of his attention now, she let go of him and said seriously, “Merlin, what is it?”

Merlin sighed, shaking his head slightly and running a hand through his already messy hair. He really didn’t want to talk about this, but he also knew Morgana would get it all out of him eventually, so he just told her. “It’s nothing, really. It’s just that I found out my rent is going to go up again if I renew my lease, and I was barely able to afford it before. I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I’ll probably have to move, though I can’t imagine I’ll be able to find anything much cheaper.”

Morgana grinned, her smile full of a deviousness that Merlin really didn’t have the energy to even attempt to process the reasons for right now. “Actually,” she said, “I may be able to help.”

Merlin looked at her skeptically. “How?”

Morgana had smugness written all over her face. “It just so happens that my brother is rather unexpectedly looking for a roommate.”

“Your brother?” Merlin repeated, even more skeptical now. “You mean the pompous git you’re always complaining about?”

Morgana, of course, took this comment completely in her stride. “The very one,” she confirmed. “You two will get on famously.”

Clearly, she had already made her decision that this was, in fact, going to happen. Merlin was much less sure. “Morgana, I don’t know about this. I don’t even know if I want a roommate,” he hedged.

“Nonsense,” she replied. “You’re worried about money and a roommate is a good way to save.”

Well, Merlin couldn’t really argue that. So he tried a different tactic. “Fine. But a roommate suddenly leaving is hardly a stellar recommendation for your brother.”

Of course, Morgana had a rebuttal for that as well. She waved her hand through the air as if she could physically push away all his concerns. “Oh, don’t worry about that. It had nothing to do with Arthur. Cedric was arrested.”

Merlin’s eyebrows climbed up towards his hairline. “Arrested,” he echoed.

Morgana nodded, clearly unconcerned with the matter. “Yeah, I guess he decided it would be a good idea to rob a bank. The cops disagreed.”

“I see,” Merlin said, a bit blandly. “I guess that is rather unfortunate for Arthur.”

Morgana shrugged. “Not really. Cedric was an obnoxious bootlicker and Arthur enjoyed the attention for about five minutes before even he was sick of it. Roommate situation aside, I think he’s glad to be rid of him.”

“Ah. Well…” Merlin trailed off, not really having any arguments that sounded even vaguely logical, even to him. He really didn’t think, “But what if he doesn’t like me?” was going to discourage Morgana from her conviction on the matter.

Seeing that Merlin still looked unsure about the situation, Morgana softened slightly. “Merlin, it’ll be fine, I promise. I really think this could be good for both of you. You know I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t.”

And Merlin did know that. For all of Morgana’s love of chaos, she didn’t generally put the people she cared about in situations like this if she knew they would go terribly. He let out a long sigh. “Fine, if Arthur agrees, I’m open to the idea.” Not that he had any doubt Morgana could convince anyone of anything that she was this set on.

“Now,” he said, glancing at the time and standing up, “I need to go try to convince a bunch of freshmen that I don’t hate Of Mice and Men.”

As predicted, Morgana got through to Arthur too, and she assured Merlin that he was, “more than happy to have him, really.” However, he suspected Morgana may have been exaggerating a little when, upon the door to his new home being opened for him a couple of weekends later, he was greeted with a skeptical, scrutinizing look by an unpleasant-looking (in personality at least) blonde man.

Merlin just stared back at him for a few moments- and wow, absurd levels of attractiveness must be a family trait then- and tried very hard not to look as nervous or uncomfortable as he was. Finally, he decided the silence had become painful enough, and raised an eyebrow. “Arthur, I presume? I’m Merlin. Are you going to let me in anytime soon?”

Arthur scoffed at the admittedly probably too rudely-phrased question. “You can’t talk to me like that.”

Despite knowing that the response was pretty much justified, Merlin’s hackles raised, and he was about to make some sort of retort, but was suddenly interrupted. “Heavens, are you two posturing already?” said a very familiar voice from inside the flat, making both men jump rather dramatically and, if Morgana’s snort of laughter was any indication, comically. “Honestly, I should have known. Arthur dear, would you please pretend for a moment to be a civilized human being and let Merlin inside?”

Amazingly, Arthur looked a bit sheepish at the admonition and immediately moved aside, muttering what Merlin assumed was either an apology or a devastating insult- he really couldn’t tell.  Still feeling a bit on edge, Merlin nodded slightly in thanks and walked through the door and into a reasonably sized, though not overly large, well-furnished sitting room.

“Now, sit down, both of you,” Morgana instructed in a long-suffering tone that suggested she thought it was rather ridiculous to have to be doing this, which was confirmed when she continued, barely waiting until they obeyed. “You know, it’s rather ridiculous that I need to do this as you are both grown adults who have, in fact, socialized with people before. But here we are.”

Arthur and Merlin simultaneously glared at her, and Arthur backed his up with a rather petulant-sounding, “Morgana, I am not a child!” which made Merlin snort, in turn leading to Arthur’s glare being turned on him.

Merlin tried to pretend he didn’t notice and turned his gaze back to Morgana, who replied with a, “Of course not, brother dear. I just said that,” absolutely dripping with false sweetness. “Anyway, as I was saying, it seems introductions fall to me. Arthur, Merlin. Merlin, Arthur,” she said, gesturing to each of them in turn. “Now, shake hands and express how wonderful it is to meet one another.”

Merlin hated that that was, in fact, the reasonable thing to do here and debated for a moment whether or not to disobey anyway, just to show Morgana that she wasn’t the boss of him. A quick glance at Arthur’s expression suggested that he was experiencing a similar dilemma, but wanting to prove that he was not, in fact, a child and that his mother did teach him manners, he just sighed and extended a hand. Thankfully, Arthur took it.

“Hello Arthur, I’m Merlin. It’s very nice to meet you.” It didn’t sound entirely genuine, but it was certainly better than his initial greeting.

“Likewise,” replied Arthur with approximately the same level of genuineness.

An awkward silence, peppered with residual glares, followed this until Morgana let out an exasperated huff. “Honestly, Arthur. Offer to give him a tour. I know physicists aren’t generally well-known for their communication skills, but this does seem like common sense.”

Arthur glared at her again, but didn’t offer a retort this time. Instead, he turned to Merlin and offered what was probably supposed to be a smile, but looked much more like a grimace. “Let me show you around, Merlin, and then we’ll help you move your things in.”

Morgana sputtered in protest. “Who’s this we? Carrying heavy boxes is man’s work.”

Arthur just stared back at her, completely unimpressed, before counting off his arguments on his fingers, “One, you are the one who insisted you be here today. I certainly didn’t invite you. Two, Merlin is your friend, which means you should be helping him anyway, preferably without complaining. And three, really Morgana. You are an active feminist, and you aren’t fooling anybody with your nonsense about ‘man’s work.’”

Morgana… didn’t seem to have a response to that actually. Merlin begrudgingly had to admit how impressed he was that Arthur had managed to render her speechless. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen that happen before. Finally, she agreed, albeit unenthusiastically, and after Arthur quickly showed him around the flat, the three of them got Merlin settled into his room.

After an almost painfully awkward dinner that Morgana insisted Arthur needed to provide as payment for her help (why it was Arthur instead of him that needed to buy her food, Merlin didn’t exactly understand, but he wasn’t going to argue), she departed and Arthur and Merlin were left alone for the first time.

They sat in the living room for a while, looking at pretty much everything except for each other until the awkwardness became too much for Merlin. Despite it being much earlier than he usually went to bed, he stood, muttered a, “Well, good night then,” and retreated to his room. Once safely inside, he leaned against the door, closed his eyes, and let out a long breath.

He still wasn’t entirely sure what to think of Arthur, the annoyingly attractive, arrogant prat who somehow managed to cow Morgana and didn’t hesitate to help Merlin move in, even though he didn’t know him. He hesitantly allowed himself to think that maybe he wouldn’t turn out to be so bad.

Merlin took it back. Arthur was the worst.

He woke up early the next morning to get ready for an 8am lecture- something he felt should be illegal, especially on Mondays, but he didn’t make the rules- and was floundering around the kitchen for coffee in his half-conscious state. He was just finishing preparing it when Arthur’s disapproving voice made him jump and almost knock the cup over.

“That’s mine.” Merlin turned to face him and blinked in confusion at the words, trying to process them.

“What?” he asked.

Arthur rolled his eyes far more dramatically than was necessary and repeated himself in a tone that implied he was speaking to a child. “The cup, Merlin. It’s mine.”

Merlin looked down at the cup he had pulled from the cupboard without thinking and stared at it. Huh. So it was. Merlin didn’t own any plain white coffee cups. He tended to only buy overly tacky ones because he thought it was funny. But really, why did it matter? He looked up at Arthur again. “So?”

Arthur fumed at the dismissive response, his nearly-permanent glare intensifying and his arms crossing over his chest. “So, it’s mine. Use one of your own monstrosities.”

Ok, that was too far, especially before Merlin had gotten a chance to have his coffee. “Excuse me, did you just call my delightful coffee cups ‘monstrosities’? At least they aren’t the most boring ones you can possibly buy.” He held up the one he was using as evidence.

“Boring and tasteful are not the same thing, Merlin,” Arthur retorted. He actually lifted his nose in the air, and despite everything, Merlin gave a single snort of laughter.

Arthur’s fury intensified. “And just what is so funny?”

“Nothing,” Merlin said innocently, finally raising the cup up to take a sip. “Absolutely nothing.”

“No, I want an answer.”

Merlin snorted again. “I’m not really sure you do.” He took another sip and reveled in the feeling of his head beginning to clear.

That just made Arthur defensive, his posture stiffening. “I know my own mind, Merlin.”

Merlin made a mental note about just how much Arthur clearly hated being questioned and filed it away for later. He set his coffee down and crossed his arms, studying Arthur carefully before responding, mostly just to let him stew. “Well, alright. I’ll tell you, but just remember that you’re the one who asked.”

Arthur nodded expectantly.

“Well, Arthur, I just think it’s funny how petulant you’re getting over something as minor as a coffee cup. It makes me wonder how easy it’ll be to get under your skin in other ways. The mental picture is amusing. Especially since you clearly expect me to bend to your every royal decree, and well, that just isn’t going to happen.”

Arthur’s face reddened slightly, Merlin assumed from anger. For a few moments, he didn’t reply, and Merlin figured that he’d won and allowed himself to start feeling smug. He’d taken another large drink of his coffee by the time Arthur responded, almost in a mutter. “Well at least my choice of career has actual value.”

The comment stung a little, as it always did when people made such implications, but not nearly enough to drown out the triumph he felt at the increased surety that he’d won the argument. “Well,” Merlin said, glancing quickly at the clock, “as much as I’d love to stay and discuss both the positive impact that literature has on the world and, more importantly, how terrible that argument was as a response to what I said, I need to leave before I end up being late to my class.”

He didn’t wait for a reply before he left the kitchen to quickly grab his things and leave for class.

Morgana was already in their office when Merlin made his way there after his lecture finished. They exchanged a cursory greeting, and she dove right in with, “So how is the new living arrangement going?”

Merlin tilted his head to the side, trying to decide how to respond. “It’s… interesting.”

Morgana raised an eyebrow. “Interesting how?”

“Interesting like he’s a massive prat, but I can already tell it’s going to be way too fun to figure out all the best ways to annoy him.”

Morgana’s grin was positively feral. “Oh, this certainly is going to be fun to watch.”

Merlin didn’t entirely know what she meant by that, but he did know that look all too well, and he suddenly found himself quite wary of his friend now that her legendary scheming abilities were clearly being set on him. In more than one way, life was definitely about to get interesting.

For a few weeks, finding ways to annoy Arthur is exactly what he did. He never did anything too awful, mind. Nothing that would disrupt Arthur’s life too much, but he purposely did little things that he knew, or at least hoped, would get on his nerves.

One night, he left his dirty dishes in the sink even though Arthur had lectured him at length about always cleaning them promptly.

The next day, he sang as loudly as possible in the shower. He didn’t actually understand why that one was so big of a deal, and it hadn’t actually been intended to annoy him, but he still got a smug sense of satisfaction at the glares that Arthur sent his way for the rest of the evening.

One morning, he got the milk from the fridge, opened it, and stared directly into Arthur’s eyes as he drank straight from the carton. It wasn’t even Arthur’s milk (Arthur was completely opposed to sharing milk even though it made no sense to have two open cartons in the fridge at the same time), but Arthur still fumed and lectured him about how unsanitary it was.

A couple of times, he even snuck into Arthur’s room while he wasn’t home and changed some small symbol from whatever problem he had been doing on his chalkboard. He could barely contain himself from snickering out loud when he heard Arthur muttering to himself about how he, with a PhD in physics, could have mistakenly written F=mv instead of F=ma. While Merlin had expected to get caught for that, he thought it was absolutely hilarious that he didn’t.

And, of course, Merlin made a habit of using Arthur’s coffee cups at least once or twice a week. Eventually, Arthur even stopped yelling at him about it and took to giving him the silent treatment instead. Not that Merlin cared, obviously.

Arthur tried messing with Merlin in return, of course, but it drove him crazy that Merlin never acted bothered. Of course, that was at least mostly because Merlin was better at internalizing his annoyance than Arthur was, but he certainly didn’t need to know that. Not when Arthur got so annoyed at Merlin taking everything in stride. It practically made it worth it that he constantly had to fix all of his pictures on the wall that kept “mysteriously” becoming askew. The fact that Merlin always blamed it on the kids upstairs running around and shaking the walls made Arthur look amusingly pouty when he thought Merlin wasn’t looking.

All of this came to a head, though, when Merlin came home one evening about two months after he had moved in, exhausted and starving, to Arthur grading exams at the table. This in and of itself wasn’t an infrequent occurrence given that he was a professor. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for Merlin to be grading the papers that his advisor dumped on him at the same time, the both of them occasionally exchanging scowls, but mostly ignoring each other.

What did seem abnormal, though, was the depth of Arthur’s frown as he bent over the stack of papers, red pen in hand. He always looked a bit annoyed when he was grading, but now he looked completely dejected. Merlin wasn’t sure what brought on the change, but it was that realization that immediately drove out any thought of purposely annoying his roommate tonight.

Instead, after watching Arthur for a moment and seemingly going unnoticed, Merlin went to the kitchen without a word and made two cups of tea, taking care to use one of his own cups for himself. He then took a deep breath to give himself courage, and went to set one of them in front of Arthur as he sat down across from him with his own cup.

Arthur looked up, startled, fixing his eyes first on the tea in front of him and then on Merlin. He had dark circles under his eyes, and Merlin noted that this was the least pompous he’d ever seen him look. Even though as recently as a couple of weeks ago, he might have mercilessly mocked him for the change in demeanor, Merlin was surprised to find that he didn’t really have the inclination now. He wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t dislike Arthur as much as he once did or if he was just tired of constantly maintaining a grudge, but he decided to wait until later to examine that.

Nobody spoke for a rather awkward stretch of time, but eventually Arthur took a sip of his tea and muttered a quiet, unguarded, “Thanks.”

Merlin nodded in response and then, a few moments later, gestured to the papers in front of Arthur. “Bad exam?” he asked.

Arthur sighed and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. “Very. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people simultaneously forget everything they’re being tested on.”

Merlin gave a “hmm” of understanding but otherwise remained quiet. He thought that might be the end of their unprecedentedly civil conversation, but then Arthur spoke again. “Maybe I should have taught the material better.”

Merlin shrugged. “Maybe, but did you teach it any differently than you have in the past?”

“Not really.”

“Okay then.” Merlin straightened in his chair and looked directly at Arthur. He waited a moment until he met his gaze. “Look, Arthur, I know you’ve done more teaching than I have, but what my little experience has taught me is that every group of students is different. Some are more prepared than others, more dedicated than others, have more time to study than others. You can’t expect every group to understand as quickly as all the others. You are not the only factor in this, and while I do believe you should always strive to improve, one bad exam doesn’t mean you’re a bad teacher any more than it means everyone in your class is a bad student.”

Arthur said nothing, but he at least looked like he might be thinking about what had been said.

“You’re a good teacher, Arthur,” Merlin continued, ignoring the part of him that still protested giving Arthur anything resembling a compliment and injecting as much earnestness into his voice as he dared.

Arthur scoffed. “How could you possibly know that?”

Merlin shrugged, a smile tugging at his lips. “Students talk and I’m not deaf.”

“Could have fooled me,” Arthur muttered under his breath, but it looked like he was holding back a smile too.

Merlin rolled his eyes. “I heard that. Good to know that this is the treatment I can expect for giving you a pep talk out of the goodness of my heart.”

Arthur actually laughed at that, and the tension in his shoulders eased a bit. In that moment, Merlin felt something shift between them. He was still wary that it would last, and he wasn’t completely giving up annoying Arthur (he doubted he’d ever get tired of that), but they continued talking and laughing for hours while they split a pizza that Merlin had ordered, and Merlin found himself thinking that it might be nice if he could consider Arthur a friend.

Indeed, things certainly didn’t change completely right away, but by the time Morgana came over about a week later with takeout in hand and a declaration that they were having a movie night, the pranks from each of them felt like they were more in good fun than to portray any hints of residual malice. There were fewer unprompted glares, and probably at least two thirds of their conversations were civil. There was more laughing and less scowling, and Merlin just overall felt good about how things were going.

In fact, Merlin and Arthur had just been laughing and griping about the events of their week when the knock sounded. They exchanged a confused glance, neither one of them expecting anyone, before Arthur got up to answer it. He returned a moment later looking extremely peeved and trailed by his sister who, in contrast, looked eerily pleased with herself. Despite the hint of wariness gnawing at him, he got up and hugged her. “Morgana, not that I’m not happy to see you,” here he had to try not to laugh at Arthur’s vehement head shake from right behind her shoulder. “But what are you doing here?”

“Stop it Arthur,” she said in lieu of an answer. “You know you like spending time with me.”

Arthur looked affronted. “Okay, there’s no way you saw that.”

“I didn’t have to, dear brother.”

“Hmm. Just like you don’t have to say anything for me to know you’re up to something.”

Morgana smirked. “I’m always up to something.”

Arthur’s eyes narrowed and he folded his arms over his chest. “My point exactly. Now answer Merlin’s question.”

She heaved a put-upon sigh. “Maybe I just want to spend time with my favorite little brother, is that so wrong? From what Merlin says, you’re getting along better these days and I’m hoping we can finally all do something fun without the two of you bickering all night.”

Arthur narrowed his eyes further, clearly looking for the hidden meaning in that, but he didn’t push the issue. “Fine. But only since you brought us food.”

Arthur went to the kitchen to gather the necessary plates and utensils, and by the time he returned, Morgana was lounging in an armchair and Merlin had taken his place on the sofa. Arthur set down the dishes and then took a seat next to Merlin, and Merlin wondered if he was just imagining that he was slightly closer than he really needed to be.

For a while, they just ate and chatted about nothing in particular, all of them smiling and laughing and having a very pleasant time. Morgana didn’t even make too many comments aimed solely at embarrassing Arthur, though she wouldn’t really be Morgana if there weren’t any.

Merlin didn’t entirely know what to think of the number of comments about Arthur’s dating life and how he hadn’t shown “this much interest” in someone for far too long. Who was he showing interest in now, and why did Merlin even care? Sure, ever since they’d started getting along better, he’d found himself remembering how attractive he had initially found him, but that didn’t mean he wanted to date him. Their friendship was still tenuous enough.

But still, they were talking a lot more now. If there was someone Arthur was interested in, why was it that Merlin couldn’t even fathom who it might be? He might assume it was Morgana’s friend, Gwen, since Arthur did seem to talk about her quite fondly (though really, who wouldn’t?), but last time Merlin had seen her, she and Lance seemed like they were practically married. So who then? Percy? Yeah, Arthur had mentioned once in passing how strong his partner for his current project was, but it didn’t seem like he was romanticizing it or anything.

“Merlin?” He jumped when Morgana said his name in a tone of voice that suggested it wasn’t the first, or possibly even the second time she had said it.

“What?” he asked, trying hard not to blush at the direction his thoughts had been going.

Morgana raised an eyebrow, her expression suggesting that she knew exactly what he had been thinking about. “I asked what movie you wanted to watch.”

Merlin shook his head slightly in order to clear it. “Right, sorry. The Lord of the Rings?” he suggested.

Arthur threw his head back and rolled his eyes dramatically. “Again? You literally watched that last week. And possibly the week before if I remember right.”

Merlin’s face reddened. “It’s my favorite,” he mumbled defensively.

After that, he didn’t fight it when Arthur suggested they watch the latest Avengers movie, even though he didn’t really care about it. Morgana went to make some popcorn while Arthur found the movie, and once everyone was settled, they put it on.

About half an hour into the movie, Merlin was already bored and very fidgety, and he ended up twisting so that his legs were laying over Arthur’s lap. Arthur half-heartedly tried to push them off, but Merlin put them right back, and Arthur just rolled his eyes and stopped fighting it. But when Merlin still didn’t stop fidgeting, he did use his arms to hold them in place. The contact was warm, and he found himself much more comfortable than he would have expected in the position he was in. By the time another half hour had passed, Merlin’s eyelids were getting heavy, and he was asleep not long after.

He woke suddenly as someone shook his shoulder, and he jerked his head up from where it had apparently been resting on Arthur’s shoulder, his legs having been moved from his lap at some point while he slept. Merlin only had a second to be impressed about how much he had moved around even when he was asleep for such a short amount of time before he fully registered the position he had found himself in upon waking. Immediately at the thought, he felt his face redden, and he lurched to his feet as quickly as he could. Quickly enough, in fact, that if Morgana hadn’t been there to steady him, his still half-asleep wobbling would almost definitely have sent him toppling to the floor.

Trying his best to regain his dignity after he steadied himself, he declared, “Well, that was fun. We should do it again sometime.”

Morgana’s smirk was positively devious. “It was rather fun, wasn’t it?”

Merlin’s blush deepened at the comment, but luckily he was saved from having to respond by Arthur being a prat as usual. “How would you even know? You slept through half of the movie.” And well, that was easier to find a response to. He turned and glared at Arthur.

“Well maybe I just think sleeping is more fun than watching a bunch of people beating each other up for hours.”

“Maybe if you even tried, you’d see that there’s far more of a plot than you give it credit for,” Arthur retorted.

“Oh, the plot is interesting enough,” Merlin conceded. Arthur looked smug at having won, but then Merlin continued and the annoyance came back in full force. “Everyone just spends so much time beating each other up that the plot isn’t developed enough to be worth it.”

“Well you-“ Arthur began, but it was at this point that they heard the front door open and then shut again. They both looked around to find that Morgana was now absent, and there was a note by the TV, written on the back of the receipt from dinner.

I didn’t want to interrupt. Good night boys.

Well, that was… strange. Merlin really didn’t know what to make of it, and judging from Arthur’s expression when he read it, he didn’t either.

A moment later, Arthur cleared his throat. “Well, I’m off to bed then.” Merlin just nodded, and not long after, he went off to bed too, still pondering the strange events of the evening.

For a while, things pretty much continued as normal, with perhaps a few exceptions. Movie nights, with or without Morgana, became a much more common occurrence, usually happening at least once or twice a week. Half of them ended in stupid arguments, just like that first one did, but it was still rather nice.

Maybe it was just Merlin’s imagination, but it felt like it was becoming normal for them to end up rather close together by the end too, shoulders pressed together, legs somehow tangled up, an arm stretched out behind the other person. It always seemed to be something, and Merlin couldn’t even really tell who initiated it most of the time.

Eventually he did admit, if only to himself, that he really wouldn’t mind whatever this… thing… with Arthur was developing into something more than friendship. But every time he thought on that too much, he would remember Morgana’s comment about Arthur being interested in someone, and he would push the thought out of his mind.

But still. There were the movie nights, and it seemed like the number of casual touches during an average day was increasing all the time as well. Merlin would hand Arthur something and Arthur’s hand would linger on his just a little longer than necessary. Merlin would come home thrilled about a compliment his advisor gave him on his thesis work and Arthur would get this huge grin on his face and sometimes actually hug him.

It was driving Merlin absolutely crazy. Logically, he knew some friendships were just like this, but it wasn’t something he himself had really experienced, especially with someone he was interested in.

In his weaker moments, Merlin thought that maybe, just maybe, Morgana could have been referring to Merlin with that comment. Maybe Arthur was interested in him too. But how likely was that, really? They hadn’t even been civil towards each other for very long before then. Merlin hadn’t even really had time to develop actual feelings yet. He definitely didn’t believe that Arthur could have liked him before the night with the grading and their first real, mostly unguarded conversation. Nobody glared that much at someone they liked. Right?

Unless, of course, Arthur was just emotionally stunted enough that that was all he knew how to do. Merlin knew that he himself was pretty bad at expressing his feelings, but it seemed hard to believe anyone could be that bad.

But as much as Merlin tried to convince himself that he was wrong, he couldn’t bring himself to completely give up hope.

It was maddening.

It wasn’t until final exams for the semester were over and the grading was done that anything changed. Merlin had just gotten home from his last meeting with his advisor before the holidays and plopped himself on the couch when his phone rang. He couldn’t help the small smile when he saw that it was Arthur calling him, and he quickly answered.

“Hey Arthur, how’s it going?”

“Great actually,” he replied. “Percy and I just made a big breakthrough on our project and I feel like celebrating. I just wanted to see if you wanted me to bring home some food. Maybe pizza and a movie?”

Merlin refrained from pointing out that that was how they spent most weekends, just like he refrained from asking why it was him instead of Percy that he wanted to celebrate with. No need to sabotage himself.

So instead of saying any of this, he just smiled and said, “Yeah, that would be great. This week has been exhausting and it would be a relief to not have to cook anyth- Arthur?”

He bolted upright in a sudden panic at the loud noise on the other end of the call. Was that a crash? “Arthur!” No response. The line had gone dead. “Fuck!” he yelled as he stood up, throwing his phone on the couch in frustration. He began to pace and run his hands through his hair as his heart pounded and his thoughts raced faster than he could possibly keep up with.

A couple minutes later, still panicking but at least calm enough to think about what to do, he picked his phone back up and dialed Arthur’s number. It went straight to voicemail. Not really expecting a different result, he called the number again. Nothing.

He thought briefly about going out and trying to find him, but he had no idea where he might be, so he settled for obsessively checking his phone for any accident reports, hoping against hope for some evidence that Arthur was okay.

What if Arthur wasn’t okay though? What if he was hit by a bus or something and he was dead and that was why he wasn’t answering? Fuck, what if Arthur was dead and Merlin had never even told him that he had feelings for him, his infuriating, supercilious, adorable, considerate, intelligent, absolute prat of a roommate?

Merlin collapsed to the floor in front of the sofa, his head between his knees, paralyzed by fear and grief. He didn’t know when he had started crying, but his body was shaking uncontrollably with sobs.

There was no telling how long he had been like that by the time a hand was firmly clasping his shoulder, causing Merlin to practically jump out of his skin. He hadn’t even heard anyone come in. He jerked his head up to see…

“Arthur?” He was shocked to hear how broken his voice was speaking that one word.

“Merlin, are you okay? What happened?” Arthur looked and sounded so concerned and Merlin just… He couldn’t handle it. Suddenly filled with a probably unreasonable fury, he jumped to his feet, nearly knocking Arthur over in the process.

“Am I okay?” he shouted. “Do I look okay Arthur?”

Arthur got up too from where he had been crouching at Merlin’s side, his hands in front of him in a gesture of surrender. “I just-”

But Merlin didn’t let him finish his sentence. “No, Arthur. Don’t you get it? I thought something horrible had happened to you! I thought you were dead and I wouldn’t ever get to tell you that-” his voice broke again, and he couldn’t seem to get anymore words out.

Arthur gave him a moment, then tentatively reached out to lightly grab Merlin’s arm, taking a step closer to him when he didn’t shake him off. “Tell me what, Merlin?” His voice was quiet, gentle, his eyes filled with so many emotions that Merlin couldn’t even begin to pick them all apart. And in that moment, he was speechless for a completely different reason.

“That I-” he managed eventually, but then he just gave a slight shake of his head and tentatively, ever so slowly, began to lean forward, his eyes darting between Arthur’s eyes and his lips, his intention unmistakable.

When Arthur didn’t pull away, their lips met in a sweet, gentle, if embarrassingly wet thanks to Merlin’s tears, kiss. The sensation made Merlin feel dizzy, and if it weren’t for his grip on Arthur’s shoulders and Arthur’s hands wrapping around his waist, he feared he might have fallen over.

Several long moments later, Arthur pulled away just enough to be able to breathe, their foreheads still resting against each other and their noses brushing.

“So,” Arthur said just above a whisper, “can I expect that you’ll always get this worked up over my phone dying?”

It really said something about his current mental state that Merlin just snorted a laugh at that. “Well, that depends,” he responded, just as quietly. “Is it always going to make a terrifying noise and then die when you’re talking to me?”

Arthur huffed a quiet laugh too and his face broke into a cheeky grin. “Why Merlin, I didn’t know you cared.”

“Prat,” Merlin muttered before going in for another kiss.

Eventually, a stomach would rumble and one of them would remember the pizza that Arthur had brought home, but nobody was particularly interested in watching a movie after all.

“Well it’s about time,” Morgana said the moment Merlin walked into their office the next day, a huge grin on his face that hadn’t left since everything that had transpired the evening before.

Merlin blinked, startled out of his own little world where all he could seem to think about was Arthur. He sat down and faced her. “Sorry, what? About time for what?”

Morgana let out a chuckle that was somehow a bit condescending. “Well, I imagine that obnoxiously happy look on your face isn’t because I’m here, nor do I think it’s the fact that you’re here doing work when classes aren’t even in session. So I can only assume that you and my brother finally got your acts together and brought my master plan to fruition.”

Merlin’s cheeks reddened and he spluttered a bit before fully processing Morgana’s words. “Wait, your plan?” he asked as his brain came to a screeching halt. “What plan?”

This time, Morgana full-on laughed. She didn’t stop for a long time, long enough that there were actual tears in her eyes and Merlin was growing a bit impatient for an answer. “Oh Merlin,” she finally got out between fits of laughter. “My dear, precious, oblivious Merlin.” Okay, now Merlin was just feeling insulted. “Why do you think I got Cedric arrested and set things up for you to move in with Arthur?”

Merlin just stared at Morgana for a long moment, not really sure he understood. “You’re saying that you got Cedric arrested?” he repeated, his tone dripping with disbelief.

“Of course I did. I overheard him and his idiot coconspirator discussing it when I was visiting Arthur and called in an anonymous tip to the police.”

The corner of his mouth twitched in a sly grin. “That’s lucky.” Morgana didn’t argue with that assessment, even though he knew how much she hated any of her brilliance being attributed to luck.

But then he thought of something else. “But wait, how did you know I would need a new place to live? And this still doesn’t explain what your ‘master plan’ was.”

Morgana rose an eyebrow. “Merlin, you were always complaining about your old landlord and how expensive your rent was. I was going to suggest you move even before your rent was increased. That timing was simply a coincidence.”

Well, Merlin certainly couldn’t argue with that. He was pretty sure she still would have been able to convince him to move even if the situation hadn’t been so dire. He nodded.  “That’s fair. But what exactly was your plan? Why did it matter that we live together?”

Morgana looked at him like he was stupid, and her tone became condescending. “To get you two together of course.”

“To get us…” Merlin shook his head. “How could you possibly have known that we would ever get together?”

“Because I know both of you. I’d actually decided a while ago to set you two up, but I was trying to decide the best way to do it. When the room opened up, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to force you to interact without being able to get away from each other.”

Merlin rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t bring himself to be to upset with her antics, not when they had worked. Not when he was happier than he could remember being in a long while. “You’re just lucky it worked,” he teased. “We could just as easily have ended up hating each other.”

She snorted. “Not likely.”

Merlin just shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand you, Morgana Pendragon.”

She sighed and leaned back in a very put-upon manner. “Nobody ever does, really.”

“She what?!” Arthur shouted when Merlin recounted his conversation with Morgana later that evening. The two of them were eating dinner on the couch, sitting far closer together than was necessary, or even convenient for the purpose of eating, but at this, Arthur jumped up, his whole body tensing. “How dare she!”

Merlin just laughed. “Arthur, it’s fine.”

Arthur fumed. “It most certainly is not fine. This is the last straw. She’s meddled in my life far too many times already, and I won’t stand for it! I’ll…”

Merlin quieted his rant by getting on his feet as well and pulling Arthur to him in a tight embrace. “Arthur,” he said, staring into his eyes. “I promise that next time your sister decides to interfere in your life where she doesn’t belong, because I don’t think either of us has any doubt that there will be a next time, I will be right beside you in yelling at her or whatever action you think is necessary. But,” he placed a chaste kiss to Arthur’s lips, drawing their bodies closer together. It lasted only for a short moment before Merlin pulled back just enough to smirk and say, “I rather think she should get a pass just this once. Don’t you?”

Merlin could practically see the gears spinning in Arthur’s head, the desire for retribution against his sister at war with the same feelings of love and happiness that Merlin was feeling. Finally, he rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine, just this once. But I’ll not go so far as to thank her. She doesn’t need the encouragement. And I’m holding you to that promise by the way.”

Merlin couldn’t help but laugh as he kissed him again, full to bursting with the feelings of joy and new love.