merlin_holidays | Happy Merlin Holidays, ourspacesongs!

Title: 'I tried to put my finger on it, I might have inhaled you'
Recipient:

hate_blueprint
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Arthur/Merlin with a side of Gwen/Lancelot and Arthur/Sophia.
Word Count: 4,477
Warnings: None really.
Summary: When you love your best friend you have to wait for them to catch up and get with the program.
Author's Notes: This was a lot of fun to write and I had a great prompt. I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavor.

Sometimes he really hated his father. It was teenager 101 to hate your parents but Arthur only had his dad so in a way the hate was doubled. Admiration and respect were the strongest emotions for his father, and all he wanted to do was make him proud. However, when Arthur did everything right and amazed everyone, his father expected more from him. It was just what his dad did, and maybe one day he could understand why. He loved his father and knew he was a great man ... however, sometimes he really didn't like him.

Uther Pendragon was one of the country’s best businessmen, who had ridden out the recession without going bankrupt. He was a great man, but being the only son of such a great man could be lonely in that big old house without his only parent.

Once again, Uther had to go away on business and leave Arthur home alone. This happened several times a month, and Arthur may be used to it but it didn't stop him from wanting his father to just be there and listen to him. No, that would be weird. Arthur just wanted to know that his dad was somewhere in the house and if Arthur wanted to tell him something then he could.

Not that he wanted to tell his dad about his problems. His dad wouldn't understand; which was why, as his father had left that morning, Arthur had only given him a small, fake smile when his father had said goodbye in the short and abrupt way that Uther had. Saying goodbye to his son was too much bother for the great Uther Pendragon, and this thought left Arthur with an unwelcome taste of bitter in his mouth.

This is why he made a decision that changed his life. For the better or for worse he hasn't decided yet.

---

"Come on, mate," Gwaine said with a cheeky grin as he sat down next to Leon at their usual dinner table. “You always tell us no but it's not like your dad is going to know."

Leon rolled his eyes at the same time that Gwen did. They heard the same speech every time Gwaine caught wind that Arthur was home alone.

"You have that big house, and if you're worried about your dad seeing the mess, well, you have a maid don't you?"

"He has a maid, but what if she tells Uther?" Leon reminded them all that it was obvious that somehow Uther would find out about the party.

"We'll all clean it up before the maid even sees it then," Gwaine replied, like it was obvious.

"You'll be the only one cleaning so don't bring me into your promises," Morgana added with a tone of indifference. "But Gwaine does have a point. You are so worried about what Uther thinks that you're unwilling to have any fun, Arthur. You need to live as a teenager and rebel a little before you become a stress head VP at your father's company." His cousin shrugged at Gwaine’s look of awe as he stared at her. Usually she would keep out of the constant quest of Gwaine's to have a party. This wasn't America where they had parties every weekend, though to everyone it appeared that Gwaine thought it was.

It was rainy old England, where you were lucky to manage to get some alcohol that was, most of the time, some form of gut-rotting cider or ulcer-inducing vodka that tasted awful and made you regret things the next day, and then sit in a park drinking and making mistakes in the dark. So the opportunity to have an actual party would be nice, as the weather was getting colder and no one wanted to sit out for hours trying not to freeze to death while they handed around a can of strongbow that Gwaine had managed to pilfer from his dad.

"I'm not going to become a stress head, Morgana," Arthur said firmly, though there was an undertone of a snarky attitude running through him.

"I saw you yelling at the printer in the library the other day," Morgana reminded him. "You called it a clotpole. You've been spending too much time around Merlin." She smiled. "Speak of the devil. Here comes lover boy."

Arthur turned in his seat to see the trio who were approaching the table as they smiled and joked with each other. He had to keep his face from creasing into a smile as Merlin smacked his hip into the side of one of the tables in the cafeteria. He scowled at Morgana as he turned back.

"Gaius kept us behind so we could help him with putting the science books back," Lancelot said as he grabbed a chair and added it to the table and sat down next to Gwen, who smiled adoringly at him. It just made Arthur worried that he was making the same look.

"Those things aren't books. They're instruments of torture that are as heavy as tomes on ancient encyclopaedias. I think I pulled a muscle," Merlin said as he sat down in the available seat next to Arthur. His best friend just assumed that Morgana had left the seat open for him just like Lancelot had done. Did they all think that way? Was it written on him somewhere that he came with a sidekick? When had he become Merlin and Arthur instead of just being Arthur? He already was the son of Uther Pendragon, the footie team's captain and head boy. The only time he was ever just Arthur and nothing else when he was with Merlin alone. That was the way that things had become since he met Merlin ten years ago.

"You moved five books and then fiddled with some beakers while we put the rest away," Percival said with a grin.

Merlin opened his mouth but Gwaine butted in before he could speak.

"Before we have a fight on our hands between the wispy wizard and the juggernaut shall we get back to the matter at hand?" Gwaine asked as he leant back. "Arthur is going to have a party."

"He is?" Merlin asked as he looked to his best friend with the look that had been dubbed by Gwaine as 'Arthur is a monumental prat'.

"I am," Arthur replied.

"You are?!" Everyone asked loudly enough that several people around them turned in their seats. Gwaine's voice was one the loudest, maybe because he hadn't thought his party plans would come to fruition.

"Why not?" Arthur expected someone to tell him exactly why they thought he wouldn't say yes to the party idea. Their shock might have been because he always said no, but Arthur was banking on that they would call him a bore. He had been insulted already by being called a stress head.

"Because you're Arthur," Merlin retorted with a cheeky grin.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked as his friends all nodded with Merlin's answer.

"Main thing is: looks like we're having a party!" Gwaine shouted loudly as he jumped up from his chair and grabbed Percival's arm. "There's some preparation to be done, my old boy."

"Lead on, old fellow," Percival replied as the two twirled the end of imaginary moustaches and raised their eyebrows before they left the table with the sound of laughter following them.

Arthur decided to ignore the worrying looks that Gwen and Leon were giving him. He had enough of his own worry to deal with than theirs adding to the soup pot of his feelings. Maybe he shouldn't have agreed but for once he was saying fuck it all, like Gwaine did. He didn't have to be Uther's son or the head boy. He could just be Arthur, who was seventeen and just wanted some fun instead of always doing the right thing. Who was to say that being a little rebellious wasn't a good thing?

---

It was definitely a bad thing when more people arrived at Arthur's house and he knew only half of the people who had turned up so far. He had a sneaking suspicion that there was the entire sixth form at the party which meant there had to be over a hundred people there at the very least. It was a good thing that the house was big enough, but there would be a lot of cleaning up to do afterwards.

Gwaine was not going to get out of helping and neither were the others.

Arthur had no idea where any of the alcohol had come from but most people had a bottle or a can in their hands. It looked like the fake ID business was booming, or half the sixth form would be complaining about being grounded because their parents had discovered their drink cabinets to be half empty.

The bass was thumping so loud that he could feel the steady thuds under his feet and up through his legs. There was one thing for certain: that this party would go down in Camelot Secondary School history. The stuff of legends that all the little year sevens and eights for the next ten years would wax on about, and like most legends it will become more myth and hearsay than fact.

Most people in the room would exaggerate what had happened. There were so many people there but through the bodies he could spy his friends and the people he just knew. Gwaine trying to balance a pint glass with beer in it and failing made him smile, as the glass was two thirds filled and it kept sloshing violently every time he moved to the crowd's delight. That must be why his hair was a hairdresser's wet dream. Wasn't beer supposed to be good for hair?

His smile quickly disappeared when he caught a glimpse of the girl he thought he had been in love with for the past year, until a month ago when he had overheard her talking about how much she hated him and how she was only going out with him because it was best to get an early start. She'd got it into her pretty little head that he would fall for her, marry her, and then she'd be so close to his father's money that all she had to do was not sign a pre-nup and a sizable amount of money would be hers. It hurt him that she would do something like that to him, and his pride took quite a knock at the thought that he was stupid and gullible enough to let her to do that to him because he loved her and thought she loved him back. He definitely felt pretty stupid when he found out. It had only happened just over a month ago but Sophia had already been through a string of boyfriends. It was expected of him to do the same but he had never been one to go from girl to girl.

Being a teenager was like being an adult, but on drugs that made everything more intense and made everything seem that much more important. At times Arthur really couldn't understand it. He had to be the perfect son and act like an adult even though everyone treated him like a child. His teachers piled on the work so he could get into Oxford just like his father wanted, but they still thought of him as a child. It was the teenage hormones that made him so intensely focused on the bad points of his life. The same could be said about the good points. Those first feelings of something that felt a lot like love. He'd been so focused on that feeling with Sophia before she'd decided to kick his heart in the arse.

However it didn't take long for his eeyore-esque black cloud to dissipate from over his head. It was ridiculous how fast his mood changed as he caught sight of Merlin pretending to accidentally bump into Gwaine time and time again.

"Hey..." a feminine voice said next to him as a hand landed on his arm. He realised as he turned to face the owner of the voice that he had been so busy watching his best friend that he hadn't noticed Vivian.

"...Hello, Vivian," he replied and wished that he was having fun with Merlin and Gwaine instead of having an awkward conversation where Vivian would flirt with him and Arthur would have to try to not act like an idiot.

"Do you want to talk outside?" she asked and before he could say no she had grabbed hold of his hand and started to lead him outside with a sultry look that was really lost on Arthur.

---

"Oh, look over there," Gwaine said as the crowd moved away from around him after the beer had split all over the place and covered Gwaine and unsuspecting victims.

Merlin had expected to see something ridiculous happening at the party, like breaking of furniture, humiliation, or two people getting too cosy in public. However he found none of those things, but just Arthur and Vivian talking. It should have made him feel sicker than a hangover he would get if he had drunken all the alcohol in the house, but it was remarkably funny.

"Oh, Merlin," Gwen cooed as she put her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. "One day he'll realise that you're right there in front of him!"

"I think your adorable relationship with Lancelot is turning you into a total girl. You're spouting chick flicks now, mademoiselle," Gwaine replied, and chortled as he slapped Merlin on the back. "She means one day he'll figure out how much he hungers after your superbly magical cock."

"I am a girl, and...he probably already knows he wants Merlin. You know what Arthur is like. He can't see what's always been there." Gwen hugged him again and tapped Gwaine on the arm which was probably supposed to be a slap but she was just too nice to hit him.

"You should just walk up to him naked and tell him to fuck-- Ow! What the hell was that for?!" He glared at Gwen for two seconds before he grinned and leant forward to kiss her on the cheek before he strolled off.

"One day he'll realise," she said sympathetically and hugged him again.

Merlin just smiled at her, because it was sweet of her to try and make him feel better, but he wasn't that oblivious in his teenage unrequited love to not see that Vivian's and Arthur's conversation wasn't going so well. Merlin had spent so many years watching Arthur that he knew all of his best friend's faces, including the awkward 'I wish I wasn't here' face that was currently on Arthur's classically handsome face.

If Merlin didn't want to kiss Arthur then he would hate Arthur for being so handsome. Even though he enjoyed taking the mickey out of Arthur over everything from his looks to his intelligence he still knew that Arthur had all these things.

"Morgana!" Gwen shouted as she spotted her best friend and beckoned her over. "Will you tell Merlin that Arthur will turn Vivian down, the two of them will get together and live happily ever after in sparkly gay bliss?" she asked once Morgana was close enough to hear her over the sound of the music.

"Gwen...Merlin doesn't need for us to make him feel better. Somebody else is doing just that," Morgana told them.

"What do you mean?" Gwen looked over to where Morgana pointed to the large patio doors, which Arthur and Vivian were standing the other side of.

Merlin watched in delight and horror as Gwaine and Percival carried a large bucket of some form of liquid over to where the pair were standing. The music must have been too loud or the conversation too awkward for them to notice the two mischievous but silent young men creep up on them. For Merlin the next few moments were ones he wanted to keep in his mind forever. They swung the bucket up high using their strength and the water flew in an arc and came crashing onto the unsuspecting pair. Vivian's shriek as the water hit her drew the attention of most of the party goers but no one said anything until Gwaine piped up.

"I saw some nasty rainclouds earlier," he said as the bucket was thrown behind him. "Those torrential downpours are getting worse."

Their grins were as innocent as could be, and Merlin could hear laughs being stifled behind hands as Vivian fumed.

"How dare you?!" she shrieked before she stomped off with a glare for anyone who even looked at her.

Once she had left, Arthur looked at his friends. He was happy that they had come to his rescue but he wasn't thrilled at being soaking wet on such a cold night.

"Bloody British weather," Percival muttered as he looked up to the sky and tried to stop the grin that threatened to run all over his face. He didn't succeed and Arthur left him and Gwaine clutching each other as they tried to not fall down from laughing.

"I feel much better now." Merlin grinned at the two girls as the three walked over to Gwaine and Percival to try and get them to stop laughing like hyenas.

"I just wanted to get Arthur wet for you, mate. I think I might have succeeded!" Gwaine declared loudly and went off in search of the bucket.

"...maybe we should find Leon, Elyan and Lancelot and get them to help us keep an eye out on those pair so no one else gets drenched," Gwen mused as Percival staggered off after Gwaine. The other two nodded, as with all their combined resources they wouldn't be able to watch the entire house. They could get Morgana to scare the living wits out of them and make them stop trying to do it again.

After the soaking incident the party went off without a hitch for a drunken teenage party. Arthur had returned to the party after ten minutes just a little damp, but Vivian hadn't. Gwen was the only one who was bothered about this, after she asked whether they all thought Vivian wouldn't be too upset. The times she asked increased with each alcoholic beverage she had, though eventually she stopped drinking and just laughed at everything. Gwen wasn't the only one who was drunk and none of them could really claim to be sober. Especially Gwaine and Percival who had passed on from mischievous hijinks to being comatose together on one of the sofas in the living room. They were drooling, cuddling and had offensive scribbles on their skin that was showing.

---

"Let's get you into bed," Leon said as he stumbled over to Arthur's bed and supported him, with Merlin on the other side as Arthur was really heavy and awkward to deal with and even worse when he was drunk.

Arthur laughed as he fell onto the bed, and his chuckles became muffled by the quilt under his face. He said something but that was also lost.

"What was that, Arthur?" Leon asked as he panted from the exertion of lugging Arthur's weight up the stairs with only Merlin, who could have been knocked down by a harsh gust of wind.

"I said...thanks for the offer but you're not my type," Arthur slurred before he slumped his face back into the soft covers that were something like clouds for him right then. Soft clouds to support his spinning head.

"And with that I'll leave you in Merlin's capable hands," Leon said before he quickly escaped and left Merlin alone with a drunk Arthur.

"How come you're not drunk?" Arthur mumbled as he rolled onto his back and slid off his shoes using the edge of his bed.

"Because I didn't drink as much as you," Merlin replied and sat down on the edge of Arthur's bed, which wasn't a double but not as slender as Merlin's rickety old bed. "You never should have challenged Gwaine in that drinking match."

"I might throw up on you," Arthur mumbled as he violently lurched upwards, but Merlin was already half way across the room to get something for Arthur.

---

Arthur woke in the middle of the night, or the early hours of the morning if the bleak white light that snaked into the room through the gaps in the curtain. Arthur discovered two things next.

One: he was in that magical time when he felt less drunk and more sober but he didn't have a hangover just yet. His head was fairly clear though he wasn't one hundred percent okay just yet.

Two: a very warm body was pressed against his own. A male body if the hard on that pressed into his hip was anything to go by.

He really didn't know what to do. Should he move and possibly wake up his bed partner? Who could the body belong to? The last person he remembered talking to was Merlin. However he didn't think that telling his best friend that he was going to be sick would lead to hot sex and then falling asleep. He was still clothed, which diminished his chance of having had sex with Merlin that he hadn't remembered.

It was so warm under the covers that Arthur didn't want to move, despite that fact that he knew he should. It was so much easier just to move a little so he was more comfortable, and he moved away from Merlin. He would have fallen back asleep if he hadn't realised that Merlin was awake.

His blue eyes were dark as Arthur looked at him. Merlin moved until he was leant over Arthur and smiled down at him. "How're you feeling?" Merlin asked as he shifted around to conceal his erection.

"Good," Arthur replied quietly before he coughed and repeated himself at a pitch that made him sound like a man instead of a lady on the other end of a sex line.

"You sure? You're not going to throw up?"

"I threw up?" Arthur asked.

"No, but you told me you would repeatedly and then passed out on me," Merlin said with a cheeky grin that was all teeth and cheekbones.

Arthur sighed in relief as at least he hadn't thrown up on Merlin. They'd been friends for years but no one wanted to throw up on someone who they liked more than just in a friendly way.

"Oh, and you know you snore, right? It might have been because you were drunk but it was like sleeping with a fog horn," Merlin rambled on and shifted a little as he spoke. His mouth opened again but Merlin didn't say another word as he rubbed against Arthur's erection with his knee. It was Merlin's erection's fault, though Merlin wouldn't know that the only reason why he was hard was because a warm body had been pressed against him.

"You're hard?" Merlin's voice was barely a whisper by that stage but there was no mistaking his smile as anything but predatory as he felt Merlin's knee shift against his erection, enticing him to make a decision.

Arthur grabbed Merlin by his messy bed head hair and pulled him down for a kiss. After all there was no use in pretending that they weren't both hard because of the other.

Merlin kissed him back just as hard, and he then bit into Arthur's lip to gain admittance, which he was given willingly by Arthur. Their tongues fought for a few minutes until they both gave up trying to control the kiss and just let it happen. Arthur slid his hand down Merlin's body and was a little surprised how it felt oddly normal. It wasn't like he had been expecting Merlin to have breasts and then realised he hadn't when he felt hard pecs beneath his fingers. Merlin was firmer than he looked.

"Arthur, are you-" Merlin started but was cut off by Arthur's lips again.

"I'm sure, you idiot!" He kissed Merlin and pulled him down on top of him. If he hadn't been sure then he wouldn't have kissed Merlin.

Or taken his shirt off.

And Merlin's.

He'd never been so sure of anything else in his life.

Their jeans and pants followed the shirts as they were thrown onto the floor next to Arthur's bed.

Merlin wasn't the only one who was firmer, as Merlin found out minutes later when Arthur's cock slid past his lips. Arthur's fingers curled into Merlin's hair and made it even messier than beforehand. Arthur was a little shocked, as in his wildest dreams he would never have thought they would have kissed never mind that Merlin would be sucking him off in the bedroom where they regularly had study sessions together. He'd never be able to study with Merlin in his bedroom without remembering just how good Merlin's tongue felt on his dick. It wasn't particularly the most talented blow job, but Arthur thought it was amazing. Merlin was enthusiastic and it was just a blow job, not rocket science. The main instructions being suck and lick. However Arthur had only received one twice before, as Sophia protested every time he had suggested it.

"Merlin..." he groaned, "Have you done this before?" he asked breathlessly and thrust his hips upwards as Merlin sucked on the head of his penis.

"Nope. Porn and Cosmo magazine are oddly educational," Merlin replied as he wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and aligned his body with Arthur's.

"You learnt that from porn. Of course you would study porn like it's homework." Arthur rolled his eyes but Merlin then rolled his hips downwards and Arthur lost all of his thoughts in the sweet slide of skin.

They rutted together for another minute before it stopped being a sensual rhythm and descended into them just rubbing together in an attempt to feel everything more intensely. Arthur panted as he thrust against Merlin.

It didn't take long for him to orgasm, calling Merlin's name as he did so. Merlin followed minutes later and Arthur was glad that Merlin hadn't learnt that from a porno, as he would have probably woken the whole house up. He grinned at the thought, but most of his smile was down to how he might have just slept with his best friend, who might be more than just a best friend now.

"What are you grinning about?" Merlin asked with a smile as he flopped down next to Arthur and pushed Arthur over so they could fit.

"...if you don't know then you're more clueless than I thought."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

delorispea.livejournal.com

omg my favourite trope ever. best friends to more :D

i loved it <3

ourspacesongs.livejournal.com

aww super cute! I love it! You got so many things I love in there and used my picture prompt ♥♥ High school boys who don't know how to admit their feelings is one of my favorite things EVER and you did it adorably!

Thank you so so much! ♥