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Dec. 22nd, 2011 09:02 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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merlin_holidaysTitle: If it’s not too late for coffee (I’ll be at your place in ten)
Recipient:lullabylily
Author:ourspacesongs
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur with a hint of background Gwen/Lance
Word Count: 16,200 words
Warnings: University AU, blink and you miss it dubcon, mostly just lots of boys being frustratingly in love
Summary: Based onlullabylily’s prompt “Arthur tries to court Merlin by stalking him across the building with a coffee cart. Merlin thinks Arthur is an obnoxious prat.”
Author's Notes: So this was going to be short and then somehow morphed into this not at all short thing. Thanks so much to my amazing beta W, to D and L for brit-picking (and educating me on the British school system), and to R and my entire flist for cheerleading. You all rock! Title from Copeland’s Coffee.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavor.
There's so many things I have to say
I'll stay up all night to hear about your day
We do the best we can in a small town
Act like kids in love when the sun goes down
-Copeland
When Merlin told this story in the years to come he would take a few liberties with his first thoughts upon seeing Arthur. He usually came up with something he thought sounded sophisticated and romantic, because really, Holy fuck, please let me suck your cock – his actual first thought when confronted with the blond haired blue-eyed god that is Arthur Pendragon – was not something one wanted to repeat to countless frail relatives at family reunions or to nosy coworkers at dinner parties. So Merlin usually said something along the lines of: “From the first time I laid eyes on him, I knew we would end up together,” which would always elicit coos and murmurs of “how precious!” from his audience, but was complete and utter shit, because after Merlin got over the initial shock of Arthur’s beauty, he realised that Arthur was a total arse and vowed to avoid him at all costs. But of course, Arthur, being the arse he was, completely ruined all Merlin’s plans.
***
It was Merlin’s first day of university. He and Gwen had both decided to attend Albion Uni. There had been a brief period where they had both pretended that they would be fine separating and going to different schools and Merlin had even almost put Oxford first on his UCAS form before Gwen had shown up on his doorstep with beer and Chinese food and declared that Merlin would not under any circumstances be leaving her alone; they were going to do this like they had done everything else, together. And so they had. They had even found a little flat just off campus together because Merlin had heard that the halls were horrendous (specifically he’d heard that someone had accidentally swallowed a cockroach that had crawled into their mouth while they were sleeping. Merlin wasn’t sure how reliable his source was, but he wasn’t about to take any chances when it came to ingesting large insects), and luckily Albion had an opt-out policy when it came to Freshers housing.
Gwen and Merlin had decided to walk to campus to explore a bit before the Fresher’s week activities started the next day. Merlin was dragging his feet as Gwen pulled him up and down staircase after staircase and pointed out the buildings where their classes would be and where the best dining hall was and the short cut to the library. Merlin’s head started to spin and when he saw a sign that said coffee, his eyes locked on it and he headed towards it almost involuntarily, tugging Gwen’s arm to get her to follow him. Gwen continued rattling off random facts about the building they happened to be standing in front of, but stopped short once she saw the gorgeous blond, complete with a ridiculous bright orange and white striped apron and cap (and really, Merlin thought, anyone who can look that gorgeous whilst wearing such a hideous uniform should be given some sort of award), standing behind the coffee cart. Merlin, trying for cool, but failing miserably by the looks he was getting from Gwen, strode up to the cart, cleared his throat, and ordered a coffee, black with no sugar. Gwen caught up with him, ordered some fancy drink with five parts, and the two of them stood admiring the man as he moved behind the cart, preparing their drinks.
“You’re new here,” coffee cart man said as he poured and stirred, somehow managing to look completely mesmerizing despite the simple task.
“Yeah,” said Merlin, tearing his eyes away from the muscles moving in coffee cart man’s forearms as he lifted a carton of milk, “We just moved in, thought we’d take a quick look around campus before all the craziness starts tomorrow.”
“I’m Arthur,” coffee cart man offered as he handed Merlin a drink, “Arthur Pendragon.”
Merlin choked a little on his coffee at that name. Pendragon? That must make him Uther Pendragon’s son. Uther Pendragon, the Dean of Albion University. Rumor had it that there was some scandal involved in him assuming the position, something about a large sum of money being anonymously donated to the school around the same time Uther had been appointed. Merlin had no idea that his son went here as well.
“Ah, so I see you’ve heard of me then. That’s good. You’ll want to remember that name I think.”
“Excuse me?” Merlin said. He shot Gwen a look that clearly said this guy is full of himself.
“Well, you may find that certain doors will open for you if you can say you’re friends with Arthur Pendragon,” Arthur replied, apparently not noticing the expressions on both Merlin and Gwen’s faces.
“Um…ok.” Merlin started, “But we’re not friends. You don’t even know my name.” And honestly I don’t think I want to be friends with you, Merlin continued in his head.
“And what is your name then?” asked Arthur with a slightly mocking tone.
“I’m Merlin and this is Gwen,” Merlin answered, gesturing next to him at Gwen who was watching this exchange with a strange smile on her face.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Merlin and Gwen,” Arthur said and then he stepped out from behind the cart, took Gwen’s hand and actually kissed it. Like this was the fucking 1900’s or something.
Merlin scoffed audibly, and Arthur looked up. “Is there a problem?” he asked and the look on his face was so pretentious and haughty that Merlin had a sudden urge to throw his coffee in Arthur’s face. But he controlled himself and instead settled for, “You can drop the knight in shining armor act mate, she’s not interested.”
Arthur looked momentarily taken aback and then asked, looking slightly less sure of himself, “Is Gwen your girlfriend?”
At that Merlin actually laughed. “My girlfriend? No, god, no she’s just my mate, my best mate, but not my girlfriend.”
“Should’ve known you’d never pull a girl this gorgeous.”
“I’ll have you know I’m very…desirable. I attract loads of beautiful women. Tell him, Gwen.”
Gwen shot Merlin a look that said I am NOT getting involved in this and said nothing.
Arthur chuckled, stepping back behind the coffee cart. “Sorry, not sure I believe that, mate. Can’t really see you as a ladies man.”
Merlin was taken aback for a moment, not quite believing the way this conversation was going. He was not going to stand here and be insulted by some guy he had just met, even if that man was unbelievably gorgeous despite the fact that he was wearing what should have been an incredibly unflattering apron and cap with a coffee mug on it, and had perfect hair that reflected the sunlight and made him look slightly angelic and perfectly muscled arms and a meticulous chiseled jawline and….Merlin shook his head. He could not let himself get distracted by these trivial things, Arthur was obviously a prat and needed to be reminded of it. Merlin would be doing him a favour, really.
“You’re a prat.” Merlin spat out with as much vehemence as he could muster (although it admittedly had sounded a little more impressive in his head) and fixed Arthur with what he hoped was a watch your step, mate glare.
Arthur laughed out loud at that, throwing his head back and exposing his long neck which Merlin was mostly definitely not picturing himself licking.
“A prat? Really? That’s the best you can come up with? I’m a little disappointed.”
“How much for the coffees?” Merlin bit out, over arguing with Arthur and now just wanting to pay and get the hell out of here.
“Four pounds fifty.”
As Merlin dropped the money into Arthur’s outstretched hand, he thought of something.
“Hey, and why are you working here anyway? Isn’t your father like one of the richest men in the country? Surely you don’t need this job?”
Merlin thought he saw something flash across Arthur’s face suddenly, but he recovered quickly and said with a smile, “I like to mix with the common folk sometimes, you know, see how the other half lives.”
Merlin sighed and shook his head. “Whatever. Thanks for the coffees.” He grabbed Gwen’s arm and turned to lead them away. As they walked away, he heard Arthur called from the cart.
“See you around, Merlin, and remember what I said; knowing a Pendragon can come with a lot of perks.”
When they were out of ear shot of Arthur, Merlin turned to Gwen.
“Can you believe that guy? Just because he’s the Dean’s son he thinks he can just go around insulting people? God, he is exactly the kind of guy I hated in school, I thought we’d gotten away from them by coming here. Apparently not.”
“Oh, I didn’t think he was that bad,” Gwen said.
“What? Not that bad? Gwen, he was obviously flirting with you, and he kissed your hand! I mean, who the hell does that anymore? Remind me to take a different route when I go to class will you? I’m already stressed about all these classes, the last thing I need is to be taunted about my lack of female appeal first thing in the morning.”
Gwen laughed, slipping an arm around Merlin’s and pulling him close. “I’ll try to remember, but Merlin, I really don’t think he was flirting with me.”
“Of course he was, didn’t you see the way he was tossing his hair around and bragging about his money and how impressive he is?”
“No, Merlin, what I mean is, I don’t think it was me he was flirting with.”
Merlin honestly did not know how to respond to that, so he said nothing and thankfully Gwen, in a beautiful example of why she was his best friend, said nothing else on the topic, and instead continued on with her lecture about the history of the buildings around them as if the entire coffee cart incident had not happened.
***
It turned out that as usual, Gwen was right. In retrospect, Merlin probably should have listened to her right off, because then he might have been able to skip over the incredibly awkward experience of being pursued by Arthur Pendragon and onto the absolutely amazing experience of being fucked by him. But of course, since they were them, they skipped the easy straightforward path and opted instead for the painfully convoluted and confusing one.
***
Merlin realised something was going on around the second time that Arthur “just so happened” to have his coffee cart stationed along the path from Merlin’s flat to the building where Merlin’s classes were held. (How Arthur knew where Merlin lived was another extremely disconcerting question that Merlin conveniently chose to ignore). The first time Merlin was running late and was so focused on not getting lost or tripping down the steps while he checked his schedule for the room number for the twentieth time that he didn’t even see Arthur until he practically jumped out in front of him, shoving a large coffee cup in Merlin’s face. This led to a couple of things: 1. Merlin ending up with coffee all down his front and 2. Arthur somehow blaming Merlin for this, saying it was his fault for being such a clumsy git. And so Merlin arrived at his first class, on his very first day of Uni, late with coffee staining the front of his shirt. Which, he thought as he dropped into the only empty chair in the back of the room, was all Arthur Pendragon’s fault.
The second time wasn’t much better. Merlin was walking with Gwen to his afternoon class since hers was in the same building when he heard someone bellowing his name from up ahead in a way that vaguely reminded him of the way the rugby guys at his school used to greet each other in the hallway. He rolled his eyes and grabbed Gwen’s arm, dragging her quickly past Arthur’s cart without looking up, afraid that if he made eye contact he would end up with another coffee shower, or even better, another lecture on his apparent inability to walk like a normal human being. However, this was apparently not enough to deter Arthur who actually ran after them, striped apron flapping in the breeze. He caught them half way to their classrooms, drinks in hand (and if Merlin was a little impressed that Arthur managed to full on sprint while carrying two cups of coffee without spilling a drop, he definitely did not let Arthur know). Arthur presented the cups of coffee with a smug little smile that made Merlin want to smack him, but at the same time was unnervingly attractive. Merlin assured himself that it was just his carnal instincts, he couldn’t help it if his body didn’t realise that Arthur was an entitled, arrogant prat and not someone that he should be at all interested in. Gwen graciously accepted her cup while Merlin rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh, pointedly ignoring the coffee Arthur was holding out to him. Arthur made a probably-meant-to-be-teasing-but-actually-came-out-as-insulting comment about Merlin’s choice of t-shirt and his unkempt hair and Merlin managed to grit out, “we’re late,” before tugging Gwen’s arm so hard she almost lost her balance.
This continued day after day, and around the time that Merlin began to lose track of how many times Arthur had assaulted him with coffee, Arthur parked his coffee cart right outside Merlin’s building and managed to ambush him just as he was walking out the door. Merlin was still pulling his jumper over his head and rubbing the sleep from his eyes and completely not in the mood to deal with Arthur fucking Pendragon.
“Listen, mate,” he started. “I don’t want any of your coffee. I just want to walk to class in peace without having to worry about you jumping out from behind a bush and scalding me with boiling liquids. Is that too much to ask?”
Merlin meant this to sound stern and possibly a little bit intimidating, but he had to pause in the middle for a yawn and he thought that may have ruined the effect he was going for. Arthur looked slightly taken aback, as though he was not at all used to people refusing his advances.
“I know this may come as a shock to you, Arthur, but not everyone worships the ground you walk on.”
“I bet you fifty quid the majority of students at this school disagree with you,” Arthur shot back smugly.
“Well that’s only because they’re blinded by your ridiculously perfect hair and have never actually had a conversation with you. Or had you attack them with hot beverages.”
Arthur struck a pose, as though a swarm of paparazzi had suddenly appeared from behind Merlin’s building. “Oh, so you’ve noticed my dashing good looks then?”
Merlin groaned. “You are impossible. Does this act actually work for you? People honestly find this appealing?”
“Oh, you have no idea,” Arthur said, grinning broadly.
“Gross.” Merlin rolled his eyes and started walking towards his class, which he was now probably going to be late for, again. Arthur jogged a bit and caught up, falling into step beside him.
“You forgot your coffee,” he said as he handed Merlin a cup. “And you really look like you need it. We don’t need you nodding off in class and disturbing everyone with your snoring.”
“I do not snore,” Merlin retorted. “But if I take this will you please stop stalking me? It’s getting slightly disturbing. I’m actually considering calling the police.”
“I am not stalking you. How was I to know that you lived in this building? This is just where I was stationed to be this morning. This was a complete coincidence.”
“Oh come off it, you expect me to believe that you just happened to appear on the pavement on my way to class every day this week?” Merlin fixed Arthur with what he hoped was a don’t fuck with me glare, but he couldn’t be too sure because he wasn’t very good at intimidating facial expressions. They never seemed to work on Gwen; she always said he ended up looking either constipated or confused.
Merlin realised that he must not have pulled off intimidating because Arthur actually started laughing. Merlin scowled and sped up but Arthur increased his pace as well, staying right alongside Merlin.
“Don’t you have some work to do anyway? I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to just leave the cart sitting all alone like that. There are all kinds of nefarious characters on this campus that might run off with it.”
At this Arthur laughed even harder, throwing his head back, and Merlin couldn’t help but notice how the muscles in his neck moved as he laughed and how the sun hit the curve of his jaw, somehow making it look even more perfect than usual. “Nefarious characters? Really? Well, I’ll have to watch out for them, then, won’t I?”
“I think I can make it the rest of the way to class on my own, thank you, so if you’ll kindly leave me alone, I would greatly appreciate it.”
Arthur had that look on his face again, that smug, self-satisfied look that Merlin apparently found attractive and maddening at the same time.
“As you wish,” Arthur said with a smirk, “but after a few mornings without my bright shining face, you will be begging for my coffee.” Arthur waggled his eyebrows in a way that made Merlin think that the coffee he was referring to was not the kind that Merlin held in his hand.
“I strongly doubt that,” replied Merlin, trying not to stare too obviously at how impossibly blue Arthur’s eyes were. If he was prone to writing disgustingly romantic poetry, he may have compared them to endless pools of glistening water on a summer’s day, but he most certainly was not and so the thought definitely did not even cross his mind.
“We’ll see,” said Arthur with a wink as he headed back towards the cart. Once Arthur was a safe distance away, Merlin sighed with relief. At least he had that problem taken care of; now he just had to get his classes under control. And maybe start showing up on time.
***
Arthur was true to his word. He did not sneak up on Merlin with coffee or chase him across campus or hide in the bushes outside Merlin’s building. For a week. The day after their last encounter, Merlin kept expecting Arthur to show up around every corner, but after a few days without a sign of him Merlin began to relax. He was beginning to get overwhelmed by his classes; this whole Uni thing was turning out to be a lot harder than he was expecting, and even though they were only about two weeks in, he had somehow already fallen hopelessly behind. So in the flurry of problems sets, quizzes, essays, and exams, Merlin completely forgot about Arthur. That is until he showed up outside Merlin’s class, complete with hideous apron and hat and coffee in hand.
“Miss me?” Arthur said with a completely fake sweet smile.
“Not in the slightest,” murmured Merlin as he pushed past him towards the door of the building.
“Oh, come on, not even a little bit? Me and my gorgeous hair?”
Merlin was really not in the mood to put up with this. He was pretty sure that he was well on his way to setting a world record for shortest time taken to flunk out of school. “Arthur, I really don’t have time to deal with you right now, I have class.”
Merlin stepped through the door and set off towards his classroom, expecting Arthur to give up and go back to man his cart. But Arthur, being as stubborn and apparently clueless as he was, followed Merlin inside, completely ignoring the short line of students that had formed in front of his cart.
“This is the physics building right? I’ve never taken a physics class, sounds interesting. Mind if I tag along?” He phrased it as a question, but Merlin was fairly certain that he didn’t actually mean it as one, so he chose not to answer and just kept on walking.
“So what are we learning about today, Merlin? Newton and the apple? E equals MC squared? Planets? No, I guess that’d be more astronomy wouldn’t it. You should take an astronomy class, I’d bet that would be wicked.”
Merlin continued to ignore him until they reached the door of the lecture hall. He stopped and turned towards Arthur.
“Alright, this is it, you can go now, don’t want to keep your customers waiting.”
“Oh no, they’ll be fine, I don’t want to miss this opportunity to brush up on some basic science. I get awfully tired of my classes, all economics all the time, it gets pretty dull.”
Merlin did not have the energy to argue with Arthur, so without another word he pushed open the door to the hall and collapsed into his normal seat, a few rows from the back of the large lecture hall. Arthur dropped gracefully into the seat next to him, still donning his ridiculous hat. And he continued to talk. And talk. And talk. Throughout the entire class. Merlin did his best to focus on what the professor was saying, he turned his body so he was curled around his notebook and facing away from Arthur, but that did nothing to deter him. Arthur leaned in close and whispered in his ear, a running commentary on what was happening in class. Merlin hissed at him to shut the fuck up numerous times but Arthur seemed unperturbed by Merlin’s obvious annoyance and continued to pester him with random thoughts and comments.
Merlin could feel the anger rising in his chest, hot and ugly and probably a bit of an overreaction but Merlin did not care. As soon as class ended Merlin grabbed Arthur’s apron and dragged him out of the room and around the corner into an empty hallway. All of the stress and anxiety that he had been feeling the last couple weeks bubbled up and mixed with the absolute fury he was feeling towards Arthur at this moment and before he knew it he was yelling at Arthur, full on shouting, and even though he knew most of the building could probably hear him, he kept right on going.
“Leave me the fuck alone, Arthur. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but it’s not going to work on me. Maybe uni is a joke to you, god knows you don’t have to worry about getting kicked out having your father as dean, even if he did have to bribe his way into the position, but it’s not a joke to me. I worked my arse off to get into this school and now, thanks to you, I’m one step closer to failing and having to drop a class. So just stop it, ok? The whole thing, the coffee, the flirting, the following me around campus, just stop.”
When Merlin finished his speech he just stood for a moment, breathing hard. He looked down at his feet, trying to catch his breath and regain his control and when he looked up Arthur had a strange expression on his face. He looked equal parts confused and shocked and if Merlin wasn’t mistaken, he thought Arthur looked a bit hurt.
“Alright,” Arthur said, voice quiet, lacking the usual teasing tone. “Alright, I’ll stop.”
Merlin, suddenly embarrassed by his outburst, gave Arthur a little nod, picked up his bag from where he had dropped it at his feet, and turned and walked out of the building, fighting not to break into a run once he cleared the door.
When Merlin had walked a few yards he threw a quick glace over his shoulder to make sure that Arthur hadn’t attempted to follow him from the building. He hadn’t. But as the door swung open with the rush of students entering and exiting, Merlin could see Arthur standing in the same place against the wall just inside the door, staring after Merlin. And the look on Arthur’s face made something like guilt settle in Merlin’s stomach, heavy and uncomfortable.
***
The “classroom confrontation”, as it later came to be known to the two of them, was a topic that Merlin and Arthur rarely discussed. They had a kind of unspoken agreement that the fight and the week that followed should be all but erased from any future retelling of their epic love story. Neither of them was proud of their role in the incident and they usually jumped right to the kissing because that was what everyone wanted to hear about anyway. But in reality, they had to wade through weeks of stubbornness and clumsiness before there was kissing of any kind. And even then they were a long way from happy ever after.
***
When Merlin got back to his flat that day he told himself he was relieved. He had taken care of the Arthur problem and would no longer have to worry about being attacked on his way to class or having to listen to Arthur ramble on about who knows what while he is supposed to be listening to his professor explain the fundamentals of physics. But a small part of Merlin’s brain was rebelling and kept reminding Merlin that this also meant that he no longer had to deal with Arthur's shockingly blue eyes or shiny golden hair, or how he touched Merlin’s arm sometimes when he talked to him, or the way he smelled like a mixture of sunshine and honey, or –
No, Merlin told himself, no no no, he was happy. Now he could focus on important things, like not failing all his classes and getting kicked out of school the first month. Or like finding time to talk to Gwen, who he had not seen in over a week, and who he was fairly sure thought he had died or something. This was a good thing, Merlin repeated to himself, but that little disobedient part of him kept conjuring up images of Arthur with his hair flowing in the breeze, smiling that smile that definitely did not make Merlin a little weak in the knees because that was completely girly and clichéd. However, this flowy-haired smiling Arthur was also conveniently mute, and so Merlin had to remind himself that however painfully pretty Arthur Pendragon was, he was also an absolutely incorrigible prat, and not someone that Merlin could ever possibly have even the smallest of crushes on. Ever.
And then there was that tiny nagging feeling of guilt that would spring up every now and then when Merlin thought of Arthur’s face when he had looked back and seen Arthur standing in the doorway. He had just looked so un-Arthur-like that Merlin didn’t even know how to interpret it. Merlin knew that Arthur’s stalking had been some misguided attempt at flirting, and that Merlin had probably over reacted a bit and maybe hurt his feelings (if it was possible to hurt the feelings of someone as pompous and conceited as Arthur), but he had deserved it, right?
Merlin didn’t see Arthur for an entire week. Which was totally fine with him. It wasn’t like he missed Arthur or something. He may have mentioned him once or twice to Gwen, in passing, but only to complain about how arrogant and ridiculous Arthur was, and he definitely made no mention of wanting to run his fingers through Arthur’s hair or lick his way down Arthur’s impeccably toned chest. But Gwen, in her slightly creepy ability to tell what Merlin was thinking without him having to say anything, was apparently able to deduce this on her own, and one afternoon, while Merlin was enumerating the many reasons why he would never ever ever date Arthur Pendragon, Gwen interrupted him and suggested he ring Arthur so that they could just shag already and she wouldn’t be subjected to this any longer. Merlin threw a pillow at her and attempted to subtly change the subject, and Gwen, again showing why she was the perfect friend, let him.
Then Arthur showed up at Merlin’s flat.
When the buzzer in his flat went off signaling that someone was waiting to be let into the building, Merlin pressed the “open door” button without thinking, assuming it was Gwen, who had a habit of just calling him to let her in instead of digging around in her enormous purse for her keys. So when there was a loud knock on the door about two minutes later, Merlin, who was working on a particularly difficult question in his problem set, was so startled he nearly knocked his tea off the edge of the table. When he didn’t answer the door right away, there was another knock, softer this time, a little hesitant. Merlin stepped towards the door to peer through the peep hole in case it was an psycho murderer at the door (although he wasn’t sure what kind of psycho murderer would be knocking politely on his door in the middle of the afternoon) and inhaled sharply when he caught a glimpse of the blond hair and toned shoulders that meant that Arthur Pendragon was standing outside his flat. That part of his brain that he had been fighting since he last saw Arthur suddenly flared up again full force, having now apparently recruited most of the rest of Merlin’s brain to its cause. Merlin told himself that there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for the way his heart had suddenly sped up and for why his palms where now slightly sweaty. An explanation that had nothing to do with the image that had just sprung up in Merlin’s mind of dragging Arthur to his bedroom…
Then a voice came from the other side of the door, and Merlin detected something he had never heard in Arthur’s voice before. He sounded nervous.
“Hey – um, Merlin? Are you in there? I know you told me to leave you alone, but – I just wanted to – well, can I - ”
Merlin cut him off, opening the door half way and moving to stand in the opening. Arthur stood across from him, for once not wearing his coffee cart uniform and instead dressed in simple jeans and a red t-shirt. Merlin couldn’t help noticing that while he looked gorgeous even in that ugly apron and hat, Arthur looked absolutely stunning in red.
“Oh, hi.” Arthur looked slightly surprised, as though he’d expected Merlin to just ignore him and leave him standing in the hallway talking through the door.
“Hi.”
Merlin gave Arthur a little half wave, waiting for him to start explaining what he was doing, showing up on Merlin’s doorstep unannounced.
“So – um, I don’t want to bother you, and I promise I didn’t bring any coffee,”- at this Arthur held out his hands, as if to demonstrate he was telling the truth - “but I think I owe you an apology.” Arthur paused. His eyes were darting around the hallway, looking everywhere but at Merlin before settling on staring down at the carpet. His hands were clenched tensely at his sides and his entire body emanated discomfort.
He took a deep breath, starting again. “I’m sorry for bothering you during class; that was…uncalled for. Just because I’m hating my classes doesn’t mean I had to go and ruin yours. And also sorry for, well, stalking you. I just -”
Arthur looked up and Merlin could see a deep red blush creeping up his neck. For a moment Merlin was distracted by how this new coloring somehow made Arthur’s eyes look even more blue than usual, if that was possible, but when he looked again, and took in Arthur chewing his bottom lip and running nervous fingers through his hair, Merlin’s chest tightened a bit. Arthur just looked so lost and unsure of himself that before he even knew what he was doing, Merlin was speaking.
“I guess I kind of overreacted, I was just having an incredibly shit day, shit week actually, but I really shouldn’t have blown up at you like that. It wasn’t your fault. Well…it wasn’t entirely your fault.” Merlin gave Arthur a teasing little smile that he hoped was reassuring.
Arthur chuckled and smiled back at him, visibly relaxing. But when he spoke again, there was a slight waver in his voice, and Merlin could tell that underneath his laughter he was still a little uncertain of how to behave in this situation.
“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just, well, I think I’m having some sort of quarter life crisis, but also, well – I guess – I liked you, and I thought that maybe -,” he paused again, tugging absentmindedly on the bottom of his t-shirt. “I don’t know. Anyway, that’s all, I just wanted to come over and apologise in person for acting like such a dick.” Arthur took a step back and turned to walk back down the hall.
“Arthur, wait.”
Arthur paused and looked back at Merlin, an unreadable expression on his face.
Merlin sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes. “So, you’ll probably tease me endlessly about this, but this week may have possibly been a tiny bit boring without having to watch out for incoming coffee attacks at all times. And I may have missed your hair. But only a little.”
Arthur smiled and ran a hand through his hair, striking another obnoxious modeling pose.
“Alright that’s enough of that or I’ll take it back.”
“So you missed me, huh?” Arthur asked, apparently having regained his arrogance in a matter of seconds.
Merlin shook his head. “No, I must have been mistaken. I was thinking of that other blond who’s always following me around. I have quite the fan club you know; I told you, I’m a popular guy.”
Arthur snickered and Merlin kicked him in the shin. “Alright, alright, sorry. So are you going to invite me in, or do you want to just hang out here in the hallway?”
Merlin rolled his eyes again, but he stepped back, opening the door wide enough for Arthur to slip through.
"Got any coffee?" he asked as he brushed past Merlin. Merlin just laughed and followed Arthur into the flat, pulling the door shut behind him.
***
Merlin was completely unsurprised the next morning when he came downstairs to find Arthur waiting for him around the corner from his flat, two cups of coffee in hand, with the ridiculous hat and apron unfortunately back as well.
“This again? I thought you said you were done stalking me. Remember that little conversation we had just yesterday?” Merlin attempted to arrange his face into an expression that conveyed disinterest but he could feel the corners of his mouth twitching involuntarily.
Arthur grinned at him, a huge goofy grin so wide that Merlin was concerned his face was actually going to split apart. (And maybe made Merlin’s breath catch in his throat for just a moment, but that wasn’t important)
“Well, I know how you get when you have to go days without seeing my luscious locks. I wanted to spare you the pain.”
“Oh, how kind of you.”
“I thought so. I’m really just worried about your well-being here.”
“You’re so noble.”
“I have been known to be quite chivalrous at times.”
At that Merlin lost control of his apathetic expression and broke into a grin to match Arthur’s.
“You are seriously the biggest twat I have ever met.”
“I am not! I just brought you coffee and saved you from having to cry yourself to sleep at night because you miss me so much.”
“Git.”
“Is that really the best you can do?”
“Wanker.”
Arthur grinned at him. “Arse.”
“Plonker.”
And then it just descended into childish name calling that lasted most of the way to Merlin’s class. As they approached the physics building, Merlin could feel Arthur get a bit twitchy next to him, obviously remembering what had happened last time they were here, but whatever he was thinking about didn’t seem to impair his ability to tease Merlin relentlessly about his mismatched socks and wrinkled shirt. When they reached the building, Arthur stopped abruptly outside the door, apparently wanting to make it clear he had no intentions of following Merlin inside. Merlin turned to wave awkwardly before stepping inside.
“See you later?”
“Yeah, see you,” said Arthur, raising his coffee cup in a kind of little salute as Merlin slipped through the door.
They fell into an easy sort of pattern after that, and as weeks went on they spent more and more of their free time together. Some afternoons Arthur would go over to Merlin’s and they’d attempt to get work done, others they would spending lazing around outside talking and shirking their responsibilities, and most nights they would either go out to the pub with Arthur’s friends, whom Merlin had actually grown quite fond of, or stay in and order food and watch bad movies.
Arthur was still his same old obnoxiously attractive, arrogant self, but Merlin was starting to see that that wasn’t all there was to him.
One day they were sitting in the student union eating lunch, Arthur complaining about some annoying girl in his economics class, Merlin half-listening while he made a mental list of all the things he had to accomplish that night. Merlin jumped and almost knocked his salad into his lap when Arthur punched him in the shoulder.
“Merlin! Are you listening to me at all?”
“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Merlin answered absently.
“Well, you’re not even looking at me, you’re staring off out the window.”
“I’m listening, god, you’re such an attention whore.”
“It’d just be nice if you’d actually, you know, look at me while I was talking.”
“Alright, alright.” Merlin put down his salad fork and fixed Arthur with an intent, if slightly off-putting, unblinking stare. “How’s this?”
“Better. So, do you want to go?”
“Go to what?”
“Merlin, I thought you said you were listening to me!”
Merlin sighed, dropping his gaze, “Ok, I was mostly listening to you. I’m just kind of freaking out about all the work I have to do.”
Arthur gave Merlin’s leg a little kick under the table and Merlin squashed Arthur’s toes with his other foot.
“Lance is having a party at his place tonight, I told him I might stop by; it sounds like it’ll be fun.”
Merlin remembered Gwen telling him something about this party (she had been spending quite a bit of time with Lance since Merlin had introduced them a couple weeks ago), but like this time, he had only been half listening and had completely forgotten about it until this moment.
“Arthur, I really don’t think I can. I’ve got loads of revising left to do before my exam plus a problem set and I still haven’t finished that essay that’s due Friday. Tonight’s really not a good night.”
Merlin could actually see Arthur’s face fall and it kind of made Merlin want to forget about all the work he had to do and go to the party just so Arthur would smile again. Merlin was admittedly a little bit obsessed with Arthur’s smile, even though his teeth were kind of crooked and awkward, it was absolutely blinding and you just couldn’t help smiling back at him.
“Oh, come on. You’ve been spending every night at the library for the past week. You need a break.”
“I really wish I could Arthur, but I need to do well on this exam, I’m just barely passing the class as it is. You should go though; Lance always throws a good party.”
Arthur seemed to consider this for a moment and Merlin thought he was going to move on and change the subject, but instead he said, “Do you need any help studying? I could come over and quiz you or something if you want.”
And then it hit Merlin. Arthur didn’t want to go to the party because Merlin wasn’t going. He would rather hang out with Merlin than Lance and Gwaine and his other friends. And that’s when Merlin realised that, somewhere along the way, without either of them really noticing it, they had gone from teasing and tolerating each other’s existence to proper friends, and maybe, Merlin thought sometimes, something more. And Merlin had to admit, it was kind of nice.
One thing they weren’t doing however, was shagging. Merlin was a little confused about this, because that day that he had invited Arthur into his flat, he had kind of expected there would at least be some kissing involved. But Arthur had remained true to his word, and had stopped trying to flirt (or at least what he tried to pass off as flirting) with Merlin. It wasn’t that Merlin was only hanging out with Arthur to get in his pants, but some days it caused him actual pain to have Arthur’s disgustingly chiseled body and stupid golden hair around him all the time in a completely platonic way. Gwen was convinced they were sleeping together and that Merlin was for some reason keeping it a secret from her. Merlin didn’t blame her, when he thought about it; they were basically dating, just without the sex part. They spent all of their time together, and sometimes Arthur even spent the night at Merlin’s when he didn’t feel like trekking all the way back to his flat in the middle of the night. Sometimes there were moments though where Merlin felt like they were on the edge, where all they needed was a little push and they would move from being just friends to being more than friends. But whenever they happened upon those moments, Arthur would make a dumb joke or change the subject or come up with an excuse to be somewhere that was not near Merlin. Merlin wasn’t sure if this was because Arthur thought Merlin wasn’t interested or if Merlin had misjudged him all along and Arthur had only ever wanted to be friends. In either case, they never talked about these moments and so they just kept sidestepping around them, pretending not to notice.
Part II
Recipient:
lullabylilyAuthor:
ourspacesongsRating: NC-17
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur with a hint of background Gwen/Lance
Word Count: 16,200 words
Warnings: University AU, blink and you miss it dubcon, mostly just lots of boys being frustratingly in love
Summary: Based on
lullabylily’s prompt “Arthur tries to court Merlin by stalking him across the building with a coffee cart. Merlin thinks Arthur is an obnoxious prat.”Author's Notes: So this was going to be short and then somehow morphed into this not at all short thing. Thanks so much to my amazing beta W, to D and L for brit-picking (and educating me on the British school system), and to R and my entire flist for cheerleading. You all rock! Title from Copeland’s Coffee.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavor.
I'll stay up all night to hear about your day
We do the best we can in a small town
Act like kids in love when the sun goes down
-Copeland
When Merlin told this story in the years to come he would take a few liberties with his first thoughts upon seeing Arthur. He usually came up with something he thought sounded sophisticated and romantic, because really, Holy fuck, please let me suck your cock – his actual first thought when confronted with the blond haired blue-eyed god that is Arthur Pendragon – was not something one wanted to repeat to countless frail relatives at family reunions or to nosy coworkers at dinner parties. So Merlin usually said something along the lines of: “From the first time I laid eyes on him, I knew we would end up together,” which would always elicit coos and murmurs of “how precious!” from his audience, but was complete and utter shit, because after Merlin got over the initial shock of Arthur’s beauty, he realised that Arthur was a total arse and vowed to avoid him at all costs. But of course, Arthur, being the arse he was, completely ruined all Merlin’s plans.
It was Merlin’s first day of university. He and Gwen had both decided to attend Albion Uni. There had been a brief period where they had both pretended that they would be fine separating and going to different schools and Merlin had even almost put Oxford first on his UCAS form before Gwen had shown up on his doorstep with beer and Chinese food and declared that Merlin would not under any circumstances be leaving her alone; they were going to do this like they had done everything else, together. And so they had. They had even found a little flat just off campus together because Merlin had heard that the halls were horrendous (specifically he’d heard that someone had accidentally swallowed a cockroach that had crawled into their mouth while they were sleeping. Merlin wasn’t sure how reliable his source was, but he wasn’t about to take any chances when it came to ingesting large insects), and luckily Albion had an opt-out policy when it came to Freshers housing.
Gwen and Merlin had decided to walk to campus to explore a bit before the Fresher’s week activities started the next day. Merlin was dragging his feet as Gwen pulled him up and down staircase after staircase and pointed out the buildings where their classes would be and where the best dining hall was and the short cut to the library. Merlin’s head started to spin and when he saw a sign that said coffee, his eyes locked on it and he headed towards it almost involuntarily, tugging Gwen’s arm to get her to follow him. Gwen continued rattling off random facts about the building they happened to be standing in front of, but stopped short once she saw the gorgeous blond, complete with a ridiculous bright orange and white striped apron and cap (and really, Merlin thought, anyone who can look that gorgeous whilst wearing such a hideous uniform should be given some sort of award), standing behind the coffee cart. Merlin, trying for cool, but failing miserably by the looks he was getting from Gwen, strode up to the cart, cleared his throat, and ordered a coffee, black with no sugar. Gwen caught up with him, ordered some fancy drink with five parts, and the two of them stood admiring the man as he moved behind the cart, preparing their drinks.
“You’re new here,” coffee cart man said as he poured and stirred, somehow managing to look completely mesmerizing despite the simple task.
“Yeah,” said Merlin, tearing his eyes away from the muscles moving in coffee cart man’s forearms as he lifted a carton of milk, “We just moved in, thought we’d take a quick look around campus before all the craziness starts tomorrow.”
“I’m Arthur,” coffee cart man offered as he handed Merlin a drink, “Arthur Pendragon.”
Merlin choked a little on his coffee at that name. Pendragon? That must make him Uther Pendragon’s son. Uther Pendragon, the Dean of Albion University. Rumor had it that there was some scandal involved in him assuming the position, something about a large sum of money being anonymously donated to the school around the same time Uther had been appointed. Merlin had no idea that his son went here as well.
“Ah, so I see you’ve heard of me then. That’s good. You’ll want to remember that name I think.”
“Excuse me?” Merlin said. He shot Gwen a look that clearly said this guy is full of himself.
“Well, you may find that certain doors will open for you if you can say you’re friends with Arthur Pendragon,” Arthur replied, apparently not noticing the expressions on both Merlin and Gwen’s faces.
“Um…ok.” Merlin started, “But we’re not friends. You don’t even know my name.” And honestly I don’t think I want to be friends with you, Merlin continued in his head.
“And what is your name then?” asked Arthur with a slightly mocking tone.
“I’m Merlin and this is Gwen,” Merlin answered, gesturing next to him at Gwen who was watching this exchange with a strange smile on her face.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Merlin and Gwen,” Arthur said and then he stepped out from behind the cart, took Gwen’s hand and actually kissed it. Like this was the fucking 1900’s or something.
Merlin scoffed audibly, and Arthur looked up. “Is there a problem?” he asked and the look on his face was so pretentious and haughty that Merlin had a sudden urge to throw his coffee in Arthur’s face. But he controlled himself and instead settled for, “You can drop the knight in shining armor act mate, she’s not interested.”
Arthur looked momentarily taken aback and then asked, looking slightly less sure of himself, “Is Gwen your girlfriend?”
At that Merlin actually laughed. “My girlfriend? No, god, no she’s just my mate, my best mate, but not my girlfriend.”
“Should’ve known you’d never pull a girl this gorgeous.”
“I’ll have you know I’m very…desirable. I attract loads of beautiful women. Tell him, Gwen.”
Gwen shot Merlin a look that said I am NOT getting involved in this and said nothing.
Arthur chuckled, stepping back behind the coffee cart. “Sorry, not sure I believe that, mate. Can’t really see you as a ladies man.”
Merlin was taken aback for a moment, not quite believing the way this conversation was going. He was not going to stand here and be insulted by some guy he had just met, even if that man was unbelievably gorgeous despite the fact that he was wearing what should have been an incredibly unflattering apron and cap with a coffee mug on it, and had perfect hair that reflected the sunlight and made him look slightly angelic and perfectly muscled arms and a meticulous chiseled jawline and….Merlin shook his head. He could not let himself get distracted by these trivial things, Arthur was obviously a prat and needed to be reminded of it. Merlin would be doing him a favour, really.
“You’re a prat.” Merlin spat out with as much vehemence as he could muster (although it admittedly had sounded a little more impressive in his head) and fixed Arthur with what he hoped was a watch your step, mate glare.
Arthur laughed out loud at that, throwing his head back and exposing his long neck which Merlin was mostly definitely not picturing himself licking.
“A prat? Really? That’s the best you can come up with? I’m a little disappointed.”
“How much for the coffees?” Merlin bit out, over arguing with Arthur and now just wanting to pay and get the hell out of here.
“Four pounds fifty.”
As Merlin dropped the money into Arthur’s outstretched hand, he thought of something.
“Hey, and why are you working here anyway? Isn’t your father like one of the richest men in the country? Surely you don’t need this job?”
Merlin thought he saw something flash across Arthur’s face suddenly, but he recovered quickly and said with a smile, “I like to mix with the common folk sometimes, you know, see how the other half lives.”
Merlin sighed and shook his head. “Whatever. Thanks for the coffees.” He grabbed Gwen’s arm and turned to lead them away. As they walked away, he heard Arthur called from the cart.
“See you around, Merlin, and remember what I said; knowing a Pendragon can come with a lot of perks.”
When they were out of ear shot of Arthur, Merlin turned to Gwen.
“Can you believe that guy? Just because he’s the Dean’s son he thinks he can just go around insulting people? God, he is exactly the kind of guy I hated in school, I thought we’d gotten away from them by coming here. Apparently not.”
“Oh, I didn’t think he was that bad,” Gwen said.
“What? Not that bad? Gwen, he was obviously flirting with you, and he kissed your hand! I mean, who the hell does that anymore? Remind me to take a different route when I go to class will you? I’m already stressed about all these classes, the last thing I need is to be taunted about my lack of female appeal first thing in the morning.”
Gwen laughed, slipping an arm around Merlin’s and pulling him close. “I’ll try to remember, but Merlin, I really don’t think he was flirting with me.”
“Of course he was, didn’t you see the way he was tossing his hair around and bragging about his money and how impressive he is?”
“No, Merlin, what I mean is, I don’t think it was me he was flirting with.”
Merlin honestly did not know how to respond to that, so he said nothing and thankfully Gwen, in a beautiful example of why she was his best friend, said nothing else on the topic, and instead continued on with her lecture about the history of the buildings around them as if the entire coffee cart incident had not happened.
It turned out that as usual, Gwen was right. In retrospect, Merlin probably should have listened to her right off, because then he might have been able to skip over the incredibly awkward experience of being pursued by Arthur Pendragon and onto the absolutely amazing experience of being fucked by him. But of course, since they were them, they skipped the easy straightforward path and opted instead for the painfully convoluted and confusing one.
Merlin realised something was going on around the second time that Arthur “just so happened” to have his coffee cart stationed along the path from Merlin’s flat to the building where Merlin’s classes were held. (How Arthur knew where Merlin lived was another extremely disconcerting question that Merlin conveniently chose to ignore). The first time Merlin was running late and was so focused on not getting lost or tripping down the steps while he checked his schedule for the room number for the twentieth time that he didn’t even see Arthur until he practically jumped out in front of him, shoving a large coffee cup in Merlin’s face. This led to a couple of things: 1. Merlin ending up with coffee all down his front and 2. Arthur somehow blaming Merlin for this, saying it was his fault for being such a clumsy git. And so Merlin arrived at his first class, on his very first day of Uni, late with coffee staining the front of his shirt. Which, he thought as he dropped into the only empty chair in the back of the room, was all Arthur Pendragon’s fault.
The second time wasn’t much better. Merlin was walking with Gwen to his afternoon class since hers was in the same building when he heard someone bellowing his name from up ahead in a way that vaguely reminded him of the way the rugby guys at his school used to greet each other in the hallway. He rolled his eyes and grabbed Gwen’s arm, dragging her quickly past Arthur’s cart without looking up, afraid that if he made eye contact he would end up with another coffee shower, or even better, another lecture on his apparent inability to walk like a normal human being. However, this was apparently not enough to deter Arthur who actually ran after them, striped apron flapping in the breeze. He caught them half way to their classrooms, drinks in hand (and if Merlin was a little impressed that Arthur managed to full on sprint while carrying two cups of coffee without spilling a drop, he definitely did not let Arthur know). Arthur presented the cups of coffee with a smug little smile that made Merlin want to smack him, but at the same time was unnervingly attractive. Merlin assured himself that it was just his carnal instincts, he couldn’t help it if his body didn’t realise that Arthur was an entitled, arrogant prat and not someone that he should be at all interested in. Gwen graciously accepted her cup while Merlin rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh, pointedly ignoring the coffee Arthur was holding out to him. Arthur made a probably-meant-to-be-teasing-but-actually-came-out-as-insulting comment about Merlin’s choice of t-shirt and his unkempt hair and Merlin managed to grit out, “we’re late,” before tugging Gwen’s arm so hard she almost lost her balance.
This continued day after day, and around the time that Merlin began to lose track of how many times Arthur had assaulted him with coffee, Arthur parked his coffee cart right outside Merlin’s building and managed to ambush him just as he was walking out the door. Merlin was still pulling his jumper over his head and rubbing the sleep from his eyes and completely not in the mood to deal with Arthur fucking Pendragon.
“Listen, mate,” he started. “I don’t want any of your coffee. I just want to walk to class in peace without having to worry about you jumping out from behind a bush and scalding me with boiling liquids. Is that too much to ask?”
Merlin meant this to sound stern and possibly a little bit intimidating, but he had to pause in the middle for a yawn and he thought that may have ruined the effect he was going for. Arthur looked slightly taken aback, as though he was not at all used to people refusing his advances.
“I know this may come as a shock to you, Arthur, but not everyone worships the ground you walk on.”
“I bet you fifty quid the majority of students at this school disagree with you,” Arthur shot back smugly.
“Well that’s only because they’re blinded by your ridiculously perfect hair and have never actually had a conversation with you. Or had you attack them with hot beverages.”
Arthur struck a pose, as though a swarm of paparazzi had suddenly appeared from behind Merlin’s building. “Oh, so you’ve noticed my dashing good looks then?”
Merlin groaned. “You are impossible. Does this act actually work for you? People honestly find this appealing?”
“Oh, you have no idea,” Arthur said, grinning broadly.
“Gross.” Merlin rolled his eyes and started walking towards his class, which he was now probably going to be late for, again. Arthur jogged a bit and caught up, falling into step beside him.
“You forgot your coffee,” he said as he handed Merlin a cup. “And you really look like you need it. We don’t need you nodding off in class and disturbing everyone with your snoring.”
“I do not snore,” Merlin retorted. “But if I take this will you please stop stalking me? It’s getting slightly disturbing. I’m actually considering calling the police.”
“I am not stalking you. How was I to know that you lived in this building? This is just where I was stationed to be this morning. This was a complete coincidence.”
“Oh come off it, you expect me to believe that you just happened to appear on the pavement on my way to class every day this week?” Merlin fixed Arthur with what he hoped was a don’t fuck with me glare, but he couldn’t be too sure because he wasn’t very good at intimidating facial expressions. They never seemed to work on Gwen; she always said he ended up looking either constipated or confused.
Merlin realised that he must not have pulled off intimidating because Arthur actually started laughing. Merlin scowled and sped up but Arthur increased his pace as well, staying right alongside Merlin.
“Don’t you have some work to do anyway? I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to just leave the cart sitting all alone like that. There are all kinds of nefarious characters on this campus that might run off with it.”
At this Arthur laughed even harder, throwing his head back, and Merlin couldn’t help but notice how the muscles in his neck moved as he laughed and how the sun hit the curve of his jaw, somehow making it look even more perfect than usual. “Nefarious characters? Really? Well, I’ll have to watch out for them, then, won’t I?”
“I think I can make it the rest of the way to class on my own, thank you, so if you’ll kindly leave me alone, I would greatly appreciate it.”
Arthur had that look on his face again, that smug, self-satisfied look that Merlin apparently found attractive and maddening at the same time.
“As you wish,” Arthur said with a smirk, “but after a few mornings without my bright shining face, you will be begging for my coffee.” Arthur waggled his eyebrows in a way that made Merlin think that the coffee he was referring to was not the kind that Merlin held in his hand.
“I strongly doubt that,” replied Merlin, trying not to stare too obviously at how impossibly blue Arthur’s eyes were. If he was prone to writing disgustingly romantic poetry, he may have compared them to endless pools of glistening water on a summer’s day, but he most certainly was not and so the thought definitely did not even cross his mind.
“We’ll see,” said Arthur with a wink as he headed back towards the cart. Once Arthur was a safe distance away, Merlin sighed with relief. At least he had that problem taken care of; now he just had to get his classes under control. And maybe start showing up on time.
Arthur was true to his word. He did not sneak up on Merlin with coffee or chase him across campus or hide in the bushes outside Merlin’s building. For a week. The day after their last encounter, Merlin kept expecting Arthur to show up around every corner, but after a few days without a sign of him Merlin began to relax. He was beginning to get overwhelmed by his classes; this whole Uni thing was turning out to be a lot harder than he was expecting, and even though they were only about two weeks in, he had somehow already fallen hopelessly behind. So in the flurry of problems sets, quizzes, essays, and exams, Merlin completely forgot about Arthur. That is until he showed up outside Merlin’s class, complete with hideous apron and hat and coffee in hand.
“Miss me?” Arthur said with a completely fake sweet smile.
“Not in the slightest,” murmured Merlin as he pushed past him towards the door of the building.
“Oh, come on, not even a little bit? Me and my gorgeous hair?”
Merlin was really not in the mood to put up with this. He was pretty sure that he was well on his way to setting a world record for shortest time taken to flunk out of school. “Arthur, I really don’t have time to deal with you right now, I have class.”
Merlin stepped through the door and set off towards his classroom, expecting Arthur to give up and go back to man his cart. But Arthur, being as stubborn and apparently clueless as he was, followed Merlin inside, completely ignoring the short line of students that had formed in front of his cart.
“This is the physics building right? I’ve never taken a physics class, sounds interesting. Mind if I tag along?” He phrased it as a question, but Merlin was fairly certain that he didn’t actually mean it as one, so he chose not to answer and just kept on walking.
“So what are we learning about today, Merlin? Newton and the apple? E equals MC squared? Planets? No, I guess that’d be more astronomy wouldn’t it. You should take an astronomy class, I’d bet that would be wicked.”
Merlin continued to ignore him until they reached the door of the lecture hall. He stopped and turned towards Arthur.
“Alright, this is it, you can go now, don’t want to keep your customers waiting.”
“Oh no, they’ll be fine, I don’t want to miss this opportunity to brush up on some basic science. I get awfully tired of my classes, all economics all the time, it gets pretty dull.”
Merlin did not have the energy to argue with Arthur, so without another word he pushed open the door to the hall and collapsed into his normal seat, a few rows from the back of the large lecture hall. Arthur dropped gracefully into the seat next to him, still donning his ridiculous hat. And he continued to talk. And talk. And talk. Throughout the entire class. Merlin did his best to focus on what the professor was saying, he turned his body so he was curled around his notebook and facing away from Arthur, but that did nothing to deter him. Arthur leaned in close and whispered in his ear, a running commentary on what was happening in class. Merlin hissed at him to shut the fuck up numerous times but Arthur seemed unperturbed by Merlin’s obvious annoyance and continued to pester him with random thoughts and comments.
Merlin could feel the anger rising in his chest, hot and ugly and probably a bit of an overreaction but Merlin did not care. As soon as class ended Merlin grabbed Arthur’s apron and dragged him out of the room and around the corner into an empty hallway. All of the stress and anxiety that he had been feeling the last couple weeks bubbled up and mixed with the absolute fury he was feeling towards Arthur at this moment and before he knew it he was yelling at Arthur, full on shouting, and even though he knew most of the building could probably hear him, he kept right on going.
“Leave me the fuck alone, Arthur. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but it’s not going to work on me. Maybe uni is a joke to you, god knows you don’t have to worry about getting kicked out having your father as dean, even if he did have to bribe his way into the position, but it’s not a joke to me. I worked my arse off to get into this school and now, thanks to you, I’m one step closer to failing and having to drop a class. So just stop it, ok? The whole thing, the coffee, the flirting, the following me around campus, just stop.”
When Merlin finished his speech he just stood for a moment, breathing hard. He looked down at his feet, trying to catch his breath and regain his control and when he looked up Arthur had a strange expression on his face. He looked equal parts confused and shocked and if Merlin wasn’t mistaken, he thought Arthur looked a bit hurt.
“Alright,” Arthur said, voice quiet, lacking the usual teasing tone. “Alright, I’ll stop.”
Merlin, suddenly embarrassed by his outburst, gave Arthur a little nod, picked up his bag from where he had dropped it at his feet, and turned and walked out of the building, fighting not to break into a run once he cleared the door.
When Merlin had walked a few yards he threw a quick glace over his shoulder to make sure that Arthur hadn’t attempted to follow him from the building. He hadn’t. But as the door swung open with the rush of students entering and exiting, Merlin could see Arthur standing in the same place against the wall just inside the door, staring after Merlin. And the look on Arthur’s face made something like guilt settle in Merlin’s stomach, heavy and uncomfortable.
The “classroom confrontation”, as it later came to be known to the two of them, was a topic that Merlin and Arthur rarely discussed. They had a kind of unspoken agreement that the fight and the week that followed should be all but erased from any future retelling of their epic love story. Neither of them was proud of their role in the incident and they usually jumped right to the kissing because that was what everyone wanted to hear about anyway. But in reality, they had to wade through weeks of stubbornness and clumsiness before there was kissing of any kind. And even then they were a long way from happy ever after.
When Merlin got back to his flat that day he told himself he was relieved. He had taken care of the Arthur problem and would no longer have to worry about being attacked on his way to class or having to listen to Arthur ramble on about who knows what while he is supposed to be listening to his professor explain the fundamentals of physics. But a small part of Merlin’s brain was rebelling and kept reminding Merlin that this also meant that he no longer had to deal with Arthur's shockingly blue eyes or shiny golden hair, or how he touched Merlin’s arm sometimes when he talked to him, or the way he smelled like a mixture of sunshine and honey, or –
No, Merlin told himself, no no no, he was happy. Now he could focus on important things, like not failing all his classes and getting kicked out of school the first month. Or like finding time to talk to Gwen, who he had not seen in over a week, and who he was fairly sure thought he had died or something. This was a good thing, Merlin repeated to himself, but that little disobedient part of him kept conjuring up images of Arthur with his hair flowing in the breeze, smiling that smile that definitely did not make Merlin a little weak in the knees because that was completely girly and clichéd. However, this flowy-haired smiling Arthur was also conveniently mute, and so Merlin had to remind himself that however painfully pretty Arthur Pendragon was, he was also an absolutely incorrigible prat, and not someone that Merlin could ever possibly have even the smallest of crushes on. Ever.
And then there was that tiny nagging feeling of guilt that would spring up every now and then when Merlin thought of Arthur’s face when he had looked back and seen Arthur standing in the doorway. He had just looked so un-Arthur-like that Merlin didn’t even know how to interpret it. Merlin knew that Arthur’s stalking had been some misguided attempt at flirting, and that Merlin had probably over reacted a bit and maybe hurt his feelings (if it was possible to hurt the feelings of someone as pompous and conceited as Arthur), but he had deserved it, right?
Merlin didn’t see Arthur for an entire week. Which was totally fine with him. It wasn’t like he missed Arthur or something. He may have mentioned him once or twice to Gwen, in passing, but only to complain about how arrogant and ridiculous Arthur was, and he definitely made no mention of wanting to run his fingers through Arthur’s hair or lick his way down Arthur’s impeccably toned chest. But Gwen, in her slightly creepy ability to tell what Merlin was thinking without him having to say anything, was apparently able to deduce this on her own, and one afternoon, while Merlin was enumerating the many reasons why he would never ever ever date Arthur Pendragon, Gwen interrupted him and suggested he ring Arthur so that they could just shag already and she wouldn’t be subjected to this any longer. Merlin threw a pillow at her and attempted to subtly change the subject, and Gwen, again showing why she was the perfect friend, let him.
Then Arthur showed up at Merlin’s flat.
When the buzzer in his flat went off signaling that someone was waiting to be let into the building, Merlin pressed the “open door” button without thinking, assuming it was Gwen, who had a habit of just calling him to let her in instead of digging around in her enormous purse for her keys. So when there was a loud knock on the door about two minutes later, Merlin, who was working on a particularly difficult question in his problem set, was so startled he nearly knocked his tea off the edge of the table. When he didn’t answer the door right away, there was another knock, softer this time, a little hesitant. Merlin stepped towards the door to peer through the peep hole in case it was an psycho murderer at the door (although he wasn’t sure what kind of psycho murderer would be knocking politely on his door in the middle of the afternoon) and inhaled sharply when he caught a glimpse of the blond hair and toned shoulders that meant that Arthur Pendragon was standing outside his flat. That part of his brain that he had been fighting since he last saw Arthur suddenly flared up again full force, having now apparently recruited most of the rest of Merlin’s brain to its cause. Merlin told himself that there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for the way his heart had suddenly sped up and for why his palms where now slightly sweaty. An explanation that had nothing to do with the image that had just sprung up in Merlin’s mind of dragging Arthur to his bedroom…
Then a voice came from the other side of the door, and Merlin detected something he had never heard in Arthur’s voice before. He sounded nervous.
“Hey – um, Merlin? Are you in there? I know you told me to leave you alone, but – I just wanted to – well, can I - ”
Merlin cut him off, opening the door half way and moving to stand in the opening. Arthur stood across from him, for once not wearing his coffee cart uniform and instead dressed in simple jeans and a red t-shirt. Merlin couldn’t help noticing that while he looked gorgeous even in that ugly apron and hat, Arthur looked absolutely stunning in red.
“Oh, hi.” Arthur looked slightly surprised, as though he’d expected Merlin to just ignore him and leave him standing in the hallway talking through the door.
“Hi.”
Merlin gave Arthur a little half wave, waiting for him to start explaining what he was doing, showing up on Merlin’s doorstep unannounced.
“So – um, I don’t want to bother you, and I promise I didn’t bring any coffee,”- at this Arthur held out his hands, as if to demonstrate he was telling the truth - “but I think I owe you an apology.” Arthur paused. His eyes were darting around the hallway, looking everywhere but at Merlin before settling on staring down at the carpet. His hands were clenched tensely at his sides and his entire body emanated discomfort.
He took a deep breath, starting again. “I’m sorry for bothering you during class; that was…uncalled for. Just because I’m hating my classes doesn’t mean I had to go and ruin yours. And also sorry for, well, stalking you. I just -”
Arthur looked up and Merlin could see a deep red blush creeping up his neck. For a moment Merlin was distracted by how this new coloring somehow made Arthur’s eyes look even more blue than usual, if that was possible, but when he looked again, and took in Arthur chewing his bottom lip and running nervous fingers through his hair, Merlin’s chest tightened a bit. Arthur just looked so lost and unsure of himself that before he even knew what he was doing, Merlin was speaking.
“I guess I kind of overreacted, I was just having an incredibly shit day, shit week actually, but I really shouldn’t have blown up at you like that. It wasn’t your fault. Well…it wasn’t entirely your fault.” Merlin gave Arthur a teasing little smile that he hoped was reassuring.
Arthur chuckled and smiled back at him, visibly relaxing. But when he spoke again, there was a slight waver in his voice, and Merlin could tell that underneath his laughter he was still a little uncertain of how to behave in this situation.
“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just, well, I think I’m having some sort of quarter life crisis, but also, well – I guess – I liked you, and I thought that maybe -,” he paused again, tugging absentmindedly on the bottom of his t-shirt. “I don’t know. Anyway, that’s all, I just wanted to come over and apologise in person for acting like such a dick.” Arthur took a step back and turned to walk back down the hall.
“Arthur, wait.”
Arthur paused and looked back at Merlin, an unreadable expression on his face.
Merlin sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes. “So, you’ll probably tease me endlessly about this, but this week may have possibly been a tiny bit boring without having to watch out for incoming coffee attacks at all times. And I may have missed your hair. But only a little.”
Arthur smiled and ran a hand through his hair, striking another obnoxious modeling pose.
“Alright that’s enough of that or I’ll take it back.”
“So you missed me, huh?” Arthur asked, apparently having regained his arrogance in a matter of seconds.
Merlin shook his head. “No, I must have been mistaken. I was thinking of that other blond who’s always following me around. I have quite the fan club you know; I told you, I’m a popular guy.”
Arthur snickered and Merlin kicked him in the shin. “Alright, alright, sorry. So are you going to invite me in, or do you want to just hang out here in the hallway?”
Merlin rolled his eyes again, but he stepped back, opening the door wide enough for Arthur to slip through.
"Got any coffee?" he asked as he brushed past Merlin. Merlin just laughed and followed Arthur into the flat, pulling the door shut behind him.
Merlin was completely unsurprised the next morning when he came downstairs to find Arthur waiting for him around the corner from his flat, two cups of coffee in hand, with the ridiculous hat and apron unfortunately back as well.
“This again? I thought you said you were done stalking me. Remember that little conversation we had just yesterday?” Merlin attempted to arrange his face into an expression that conveyed disinterest but he could feel the corners of his mouth twitching involuntarily.
Arthur grinned at him, a huge goofy grin so wide that Merlin was concerned his face was actually going to split apart. (And maybe made Merlin’s breath catch in his throat for just a moment, but that wasn’t important)
“Well, I know how you get when you have to go days without seeing my luscious locks. I wanted to spare you the pain.”
“Oh, how kind of you.”
“I thought so. I’m really just worried about your well-being here.”
“You’re so noble.”
“I have been known to be quite chivalrous at times.”
At that Merlin lost control of his apathetic expression and broke into a grin to match Arthur’s.
“You are seriously the biggest twat I have ever met.”
“I am not! I just brought you coffee and saved you from having to cry yourself to sleep at night because you miss me so much.”
“Git.”
“Is that really the best you can do?”
“Wanker.”
Arthur grinned at him. “Arse.”
“Plonker.”
And then it just descended into childish name calling that lasted most of the way to Merlin’s class. As they approached the physics building, Merlin could feel Arthur get a bit twitchy next to him, obviously remembering what had happened last time they were here, but whatever he was thinking about didn’t seem to impair his ability to tease Merlin relentlessly about his mismatched socks and wrinkled shirt. When they reached the building, Arthur stopped abruptly outside the door, apparently wanting to make it clear he had no intentions of following Merlin inside. Merlin turned to wave awkwardly before stepping inside.
“See you later?”
“Yeah, see you,” said Arthur, raising his coffee cup in a kind of little salute as Merlin slipped through the door.
They fell into an easy sort of pattern after that, and as weeks went on they spent more and more of their free time together. Some afternoons Arthur would go over to Merlin’s and they’d attempt to get work done, others they would spending lazing around outside talking and shirking their responsibilities, and most nights they would either go out to the pub with Arthur’s friends, whom Merlin had actually grown quite fond of, or stay in and order food and watch bad movies.
Arthur was still his same old obnoxiously attractive, arrogant self, but Merlin was starting to see that that wasn’t all there was to him.
One day they were sitting in the student union eating lunch, Arthur complaining about some annoying girl in his economics class, Merlin half-listening while he made a mental list of all the things he had to accomplish that night. Merlin jumped and almost knocked his salad into his lap when Arthur punched him in the shoulder.
“Merlin! Are you listening to me at all?”
“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Merlin answered absently.
“Well, you’re not even looking at me, you’re staring off out the window.”
“I’m listening, god, you’re such an attention whore.”
“It’d just be nice if you’d actually, you know, look at me while I was talking.”
“Alright, alright.” Merlin put down his salad fork and fixed Arthur with an intent, if slightly off-putting, unblinking stare. “How’s this?”
“Better. So, do you want to go?”
“Go to what?”
“Merlin, I thought you said you were listening to me!”
Merlin sighed, dropping his gaze, “Ok, I was mostly listening to you. I’m just kind of freaking out about all the work I have to do.”
Arthur gave Merlin’s leg a little kick under the table and Merlin squashed Arthur’s toes with his other foot.
“Lance is having a party at his place tonight, I told him I might stop by; it sounds like it’ll be fun.”
Merlin remembered Gwen telling him something about this party (she had been spending quite a bit of time with Lance since Merlin had introduced them a couple weeks ago), but like this time, he had only been half listening and had completely forgotten about it until this moment.
“Arthur, I really don’t think I can. I’ve got loads of revising left to do before my exam plus a problem set and I still haven’t finished that essay that’s due Friday. Tonight’s really not a good night.”
Merlin could actually see Arthur’s face fall and it kind of made Merlin want to forget about all the work he had to do and go to the party just so Arthur would smile again. Merlin was admittedly a little bit obsessed with Arthur’s smile, even though his teeth were kind of crooked and awkward, it was absolutely blinding and you just couldn’t help smiling back at him.
“Oh, come on. You’ve been spending every night at the library for the past week. You need a break.”
“I really wish I could Arthur, but I need to do well on this exam, I’m just barely passing the class as it is. You should go though; Lance always throws a good party.”
Arthur seemed to consider this for a moment and Merlin thought he was going to move on and change the subject, but instead he said, “Do you need any help studying? I could come over and quiz you or something if you want.”
And then it hit Merlin. Arthur didn’t want to go to the party because Merlin wasn’t going. He would rather hang out with Merlin than Lance and Gwaine and his other friends. And that’s when Merlin realised that, somewhere along the way, without either of them really noticing it, they had gone from teasing and tolerating each other’s existence to proper friends, and maybe, Merlin thought sometimes, something more. And Merlin had to admit, it was kind of nice.
One thing they weren’t doing however, was shagging. Merlin was a little confused about this, because that day that he had invited Arthur into his flat, he had kind of expected there would at least be some kissing involved. But Arthur had remained true to his word, and had stopped trying to flirt (or at least what he tried to pass off as flirting) with Merlin. It wasn’t that Merlin was only hanging out with Arthur to get in his pants, but some days it caused him actual pain to have Arthur’s disgustingly chiseled body and stupid golden hair around him all the time in a completely platonic way. Gwen was convinced they were sleeping together and that Merlin was for some reason keeping it a secret from her. Merlin didn’t blame her, when he thought about it; they were basically dating, just without the sex part. They spent all of their time together, and sometimes Arthur even spent the night at Merlin’s when he didn’t feel like trekking all the way back to his flat in the middle of the night. Sometimes there were moments though where Merlin felt like they were on the edge, where all they needed was a little push and they would move from being just friends to being more than friends. But whenever they happened upon those moments, Arthur would make a dumb joke or change the subject or come up with an excuse to be somewhere that was not near Merlin. Merlin wasn’t sure if this was because Arthur thought Merlin wasn’t interested or if Merlin had misjudged him all along and Arthur had only ever wanted to be friends. In either case, they never talked about these moments and so they just kept sidestepping around them, pretending not to notice.
Part II
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Date: 2011-12-27 07:14 am (UTC)