merlin_holidays | Happy Merlin Holidays, xthursdaynextx!

Title: I Got You
Recipient:

castmeaway
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Arthur/Merlin (also side, non explicit A/Sophia, A/Vivian, A/Percival and A/Gwen- trust me, it's still all about A/M!)
Word Count: ~ 5.1K
Warnings: None
Summary: Merlin was the one that Arthur would never drop, because he had always been there to catch Arthur in return.
Author's Notes: So this isn't exactly the story that I set out to write, but apparently it is the one that wanted to be written. It was inspired by this performance by Melanie and Marko on the last season of SYTYCD. I really really hope that you like it

xthursdaynextx!
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavor.

~*~

Arthur

Merlin groaned as he made his way out onto the street. The world around him was hazy from alcohol, and he was grateful that it wouldn't take him much time to walk back to campus. Morgana and Gwen were still in the bar, tipsy and giggling and not likely to leave anytime soon, but he was done for the night. It had been a long week.

He pulled his jacket closer around him and dug through his pockets for his cigarettes. It wasn't a habit he indulged in often, except when he was drunk, but the motions of lighting the cigarette were soothing and helped to bring the world back in focus enough for the walk back.

"Merlin!" someone called after him, and he stumbled over his own feet before he caught himself and turned around to find Arthur jogging up to him. "Merlin!" Arthur yelled again, and then he was suddenly too close for Merlin to comprehend how he had moved so quickly, and entirely too loud.

Arthur was panting slightly from the cold and his jog, and he seemed steadier on his feet than Merlin, although most people usually were even at the best of times, but his glassy eyes suggested that he was about as drunk. Arthur arched an eyebrow when he noticed the lit cigarette in his fingers.

"You mind?" he asked. Instead of waiting for an answer, or for Merlin to offer his pack, he snatched the cigarette abruptly away from him, and took a long drag. A moment later he blew the smoke out from the corner of his mouth with an exaggerated sigh, but made no move to offer it back to Merlin.

"What did you want?" Merlin finally asked with barely restrained annoyance, despite Arthur's behavior, which had actually been generally good over the course of the night. Aside, that is, from a pointed smirk and raised eyebrow when Morgana had first introduced them.

"I just wanted to apologize," he said after he took another drag. "For what happened, earlier in the week. I didn't want to say anything in front of Morgana. She would have given me hell," he offered Merlin a wry smile, "but I uh...that is to say, I know I was..." he faltered.

"An ass?" Merlin suggested, though he could still feel his eyebrows raised in surprise that Arthur had bothered to apologize at all.

Arthur shrugged and then straightened abruptly when drunken shouting drew his attention to a crowd of people stumbling away from the bar. "Anyway. That's all." And just like that he was off again, waving at the group of people and calling for them to wait up. Merlin shook his head and headed off in the same direction, but at a slower pace, resigned to a long walk back to campus listening to Arthur's friends and their drunken banter. He felt no inclination to light another cigarette.

And that was when it happened. He was only a few feet behind the group, and he watched as Arthur stumbled out into the street, playfully shoved by another of the hugely buff guys walking with him. Which would have been fine if there hadn't been a car.

When people asked him later how he did it, Merlin had no answer. He saw the car out of the corner of his eye and he was moving before he had a second to even think about it.

His body impacted with Arthur's a mere second before the screeching car barreled past, and they fell to the hard pavement in a painful jumble of limbs, with Merlin sprawled on top of Arthur. They were close. So very close that when the abrupt panic of the moment passed, he became aware of how wide and how blue Arthur's eyes were looking up at him.

They stayed like that for a long moment, in stunned silence, their breath echoing loudly around them in the dark. It was Arthur who finally broke the silence.

"You saved my life."

~*~

Sophia

Arthur in a relationship wasn't a new thing. Arthur in a relationship that saw the light of the next morning was, though.

Arthur flopped across Merlin's small dorm room bed, completely ignoring the papers and books that got scattered across the floor in his wake. If he had even the smallest inkling that he had interrupted Merlin's studying, he didn't show it in the least. In fact, he didn't seem aware of anything at all as he droned on about how pretty Sophia was, how blond her hair and green her eyes. How her voice did things to him.

This was the point that Merlin finally pulled himself together enough to throw the slender book in his hands, Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", and he still couldn't decide if he absolutely loved or hated it, at Arthur's head. His lack of guilt for his treatment of the book was probably telling, he decided.

"I don't really want to know," he said quickly, while he still had Arthur's attention, "and I REALLY don't care."

Their friendship was an odd thing. After Merlin had saved Arthur's life last year, Arthur had decided Merlin should be his friend, and like most things that Arthur did, he hadn't bothered to consult anyone, least of all Merlin himself. He had simply taken it for granted that Merlin would want his company, and had so smoothly forced the issue, that they had fallen into their strangely symbiotic relationship before Merlin even knew what hit him.

And now, most days he was pretty certain he should be infuriated by Arthur. Moments like this most of all, when he showed an astounding propensity for being an oblivious ass. Of course, what made it all that much more maddening was that Merlin was just as certain that tomorrow, or maybe the day after, sometime soon anyway, Arthur would turn around and do something equally noble or sensitive or wonderful. He would lean over and patiently help the girl next to him in one of his classes, or he might drive half an hour away from campus to find the exact brand of store-bought cookies that Merlin's mother would give him when he was sick or sad, and Merlin would forget about all his annoyances and complaints until the next time Arthur barged into his room like a force of nature.

So the part of him that was infuriated wanted to say, "You know, she's only after you for your money mate," but the part of him that prided himself on being a bigger person than Arthur didn't quite have the heart for it now that Arthur was looking up at him, upside down, from his flopped position across Merlin's bed. So he sighed and sat down at his desk chair and with a resigned sigh.

"If you really have to tell me about it..." Not that the prompting was much needed, and he let Arthur get out all the things he wanted to say, although Merlin couldn't quite help the rude gestures and noises he made when Arthur started to talk about anything even related to sex with Sophia.

"La la la la la," he said as he scrunched up his face when Arthur starting telling him about her adventurous tendencies in bed. "God! Did I really need to know that?!"

So of course, Arthur being Arthur wasted no time in making a game of randomly slipping in little tidbits, thankfully not terribly explicit, of his sexual encounters when Merlin was least expecting it.

Still, as horrible as it all was, and it wasn't really, it was still clearly better in the long run that Arthur was coming to him about his relationship than to Morgana. He shuddered, because that was a truly terrible thought. Morgana was barely patient with Arthur's antics at even the best of times.

"And I think I'm going to buy her a bottle of tequila for her birthday because...she really likes it when I bite her neck...," Arthur finished in a rush before Merlin could cover his ears and twist his face in disgust.

~*~

When the inevitable break up came, Arthur was a force of nature of an entirely different sort, and the whirlwind of his heartbreak battered at Merlin's sympathy in ways that stung sharply at his own heart.

Merlin still wasn't entirely sure what to do with an Arthur with wide tears running down his face, despite the stoic set of his jaw. So he clapped an awkward hand on Arthur's shoulder, not quite a hug, and hoped it would be enough.

~*~

Vivian

Vivian had come into Arthur's life about two months ago and Merlin had instantly disliked her. Hated her even – Merlin rarely hated anyone – and he wasn't the only one.

Morgana had met her first, and when Merlin had walked into the bar to meet with her and Gwen afterwards, he had nearly mistaken Morgana for some sort of feral cat. If she had had hackles, they would have stood up, and the force with which she spat her words from her perfectly-glossed lips was startling.

This, combined with the soppy look on Arthur's face when he told Merlin about Vivian, had sent alarm bells ringing in his head so loudly that he got a headache, and had still in no way prepared him for the reality that was Arthur's most recent love interest.

"Arthur dear," Vivian said in mock sweetness, "would you mind getting me some more champagne?" She fluttered her eyelashes and gave a girlish pout that had Arthur scrambling off in half a heartbeat. He looked back at Merlin for a second though, his eyes wide and dopey as if to say 'isn't she wonderful?'. Merlin really didn't think so.

He couldn't figure her out at all in fact. After the Sophia incident, Arthur had become, and not so surprisingly really, extremely cautious about his feelings, especially when it came to the arrogant stepping stone – always looking for a way to climb a little bit higher – type of women that Vivian fairly personified. He couldn't figure it out. She was pretty, sure, and smart, but the cruelty and callousness in her that was so clear to everyone else didn't seem to penetrate into Arthur's head at all. If anything, her attitude actually brought out the very worst in Arthur, made him more of a prat than usual, which was saying something.

"Now," Vivian said, turning sharply on her heels. Her glittery blue cocktail dress shimmered in the hard lights of the ball room, which had been decked out in celebration of Arthur being made partner of his father's firm. "It's Martin, right?"

Merlin shook his head and opened his mouth to correct her.

"Now Martin, I don't know who you think you are, but just so you know, Arthur is mine. Whatever cute little university friendship you had going on was all well and good, but he's important now, and there's no place for people like you in his world. In my world." She sniffed disdainfully at his off the rack suit and the smudges of paint still staining his hands. "I think you'll see fit to limit your...ah, interactions with him, won't you?" 'Like a good little boy' was the part she didn't say. "Arthur deserves to have the right kind of friends in his life. It's only a shame that he's actually related to that sister of his, although she does wear the most fashionable shoes...," she trailed off and her interest slid so quickly away from Merlin that he was left gaping in surprised wonder at her.

"So I'm curious," a coldly smooth voice said from behind them, and Merlin and Vivian both turned sharply around to meet Arthur's stony expression. Vivian's eyes lit up as she saw him, and Merlin was shocked that she didn't even seem to register Arthur's mood at all. She smiled brightly and practically danced to his side to take hold of her second glass of champagne. Her expression only fell when Arthur refused to release it into her grasp.

"Arthur, honey?"

"I'm curious what kind of people do you think I should be friends with?" he gritted out.

She blinked and looked confused.

"I heard what you said to Merlin. So I'm curious."

"Oh. That." For the first time, she began to look uneasy."It's only that, he's not exactly very fashionable. You deserve so much better than common people like that. He isn't like you and I."

Arthur didn't say anything for a long moment, and thoughts flew across his face faster than Merlin could read.

Finally he said, "I am nothing like you!" He threw her champagne down the front of her dress before stalking away, one hand grasping at Merlin's wrist and hauling him along after him.

~*~

Later that night, he and Arthur sprawled drunkenly across Merlin's old, paint spattered carpet. Beer bottles littered the floor, along with Arthur's expensively cut suit jacket and Merlin's cheap "off the racks" one. They had both long stripped down to their unbuttoned shirts, dress pants and bare feet, and the cool air felt good against their overheated skin.

"You're exshactelly the...the stype of person I should be friends with," Arthur said as he rolled his head onto Merlin's shoulder and fell asleep.

~*~

Percy

Merlin had always known, in a theoretical kind of way, that Arthur was bi. In the past, this mostly presented itself, at least as far as he had ever been able to tell, as a sort of equal opportunity appreciation for beauty of either sex. Arthur would be as quick to eye (and comment on) another man's arse as he would a woman's breasts, so long as they belonged to one of the beautiful people who typically surrounded Arthur anyway. He was lucky that way, that he was equally as attractive to the people that he himself seemed to be attracted to. Which often left Merlin not quite sure where he fit in, though Arthur quickly bullied away any of his early efforts to distance himself. By now he had long learned to simply go along for the ride and revel in the moments when Arthur's absolute focus was bestowed upon him, and enjoy the peace when it was not.

The thing was, Merlin had never known Arthur to actually date another man. If pressed, he could probably guess a few men Arthur had slept with, but he couldn't be sure, and really, he didn't like to think about it. Arthur having thoughts about other men was something that he was happy to keep in that box marked "theoretical". Dating for Arthur had always meant women until now, and for reasons that he didn't like to think about much, Merlin preferred it that way.

So when Merlin met Percival, he was surprised.

"Percival," the man said, holding out his large hand. "Actually, most people call me Percy. And you're Merlin right?" He was tall and muscled, and for all that he was soft spoken, it was quickly clear that he had a wickedly sharp sense of humor that Merlin suspected was what had kept Arthur's interest. It was obvious what had drawn Arthur's eye initially though.

And Merlin liked him, which was also a new thing. He generally hated Arthur's flings, although fortunately few of them retained Arthur's interest for long. After Sophia, he had kept his heart closed off about as tight as a bank vault. He might let a few people wander in from time to time, poke around in the clinical way of most of his fucks, but no one ever stayed. In fact, it had taken Merlin almost an embarrassingly long before he realized that Arthur didn't really have many friends. He had a family in Morgana and Gwen and Merlin. He had his footy mates, a group of rough and tumble guys who Merlin jokingly called Arthur's knights, but that was it.

For now, Percy still fell into the "fling" category only by virtue of Arthur being his typical oblivious ass of a self. What Merlin knew, was that Percy had already been demoted, and long before he had even realized there had been a problem.

What did surprise him, and it was actually a pleasant surprise, was the fact that, while Percy had yet to realize it, he had also not fallen as far as most, and was quickly making a spot amongst Arthur's knights.

"I don't understand," Percy said slowly, a week later. He eyed Merlin from where he sprawled in his lounge chair. The bustle and chatter of the picnic washed over them, a pleasant hum of noise and life against the warm late summer evening. "It's like...there was a switch that suddenly got turned, and he went from lover to friend without bothering to tell me."

Merlin winced at that. He could understand that, being on the receiving end of Arthur's sudden and unexplained redefining of a relationship, it was about as Arthurian as you could get. Poor Percy couldn't quite seem to grasp the concept yet, although he looked more surprised and confused rather than hurt or angry.

"He's just like that," he finally explained. "It's not personal. Arthur just..."

"Has commitment issues?" Percy laughed ironically.

"Something like that," he agreed, hating the way something inside of him twisted almost painfully.

They said nothing for a long time after that, and the laughter and noises of people having a good time flowed around them. Percy looked contemplative in his sprawl, and was the first to break the comfortable silence.

"Except for you."

Merlin frowned. "What?"

"I knew that about him going in, the commitment thing," Percy started slowly, and his words had a hint of bitterness. "I mean, I hoped...but it doesn't matter. I'm not really surprised by this, although I wasn't expecting to lose him quite so quickly or abruptly." Percival stopped for a moment, then looked up directly into Merlin's eyes, and he didn't bother to hide the...was it jealousy that flashed across his face?

"He might have issues, but they don't apply to you, do they?"

Merlin laughed. "Oh no. No, no. Arthur and I..."

"You're not anything like his other friends are you? I see how he looks at you. Not like he looked at me," he paused and looked almost angry for a second, "or how he looks at those women, but he does look. And talk about you when you're not around. He might drop everyone else at some point, but not you."

Merlin wanted to be offended by the implication that he didn't quite fit in with Arthur and his glitterati friends; he certainly wasn't as well-built and athletic, or as rich and hugely successful, as nearly everyone else Arthur spent time with. He couldn't be, though. He had been Arthur's friend for years now, and he took pride in the place he had in Arthur's life. He enjoyed the fact that he could be something to Arthur that no one else was.

"Gwen has been around as long as I have," he said finally, and then he added, "We're more like family than anything else," because he didn't know what else he could say.

Percival looked at him for a long time and then shrugged indifferently, took the last swig of his beer and got up to get another. "Whatever you say, mate," he said, patting a hand on Merlin's shoulder as he passed.

Merlin looked after him for a moment, then turned his head the small degree necessary to bring Arthur into his sight. Almost as if sensing his gaze, Arthur looked up just then and caught his eyes, smiled, and raised his own beer in friendly salute.

He sighed. Whatever he had said to Percival, whatever he told himself, this most recent relationship suddenly made him uncomfortably aware that he actually was attracted to Arthur, and that there was at least some possibility that his desire could be returned.

He pasted a smile on his face and nodded back at Arthur in acknowledgement. He was so screwed.

~*~

Gwen

Of all of Arthur's relationships, Gwen made Merlin's heart hurt the most, because he loved her too. She was his friend, had been a part of their little family for as long as Merlin, and really, he couldn't fault Arthur for finally finding love in her, of all people.

He briefly recalled Percy's words over a year ago at that picnic, about him being the one to stay in Arthur's life longer than anyone else, and he shook his head. Gwen had been there just as long, and it was no surprise Arthur had finally recognized what a good friend she was.

No. Not a friend. She was more than that, and for all that it hurt to think about her and Arthur together, when Merlin was only just beginning to understand his feelings toward the other man, he wanted nothing more than for both of them to be happy. If it was with each other, then all the better. Gwen was the best person he knew and they deserved each other.

"What do you think?" he asked Arthur, as he stepped out of the little dressing stall. He didn't like suits as a rule, but if Arthur wanted him as his best man, then suffering in a suit was nothing compared to the dull ache in his heart.

Arthur only stared at him, his blue eyes wide, like they had been that night Merlin saved his life, and Merlin shifted uncomfortably. The look on Arthur's face was strange and one he had never seen before, and it made his heart stutter in his chest.

"Arthur?" he coaxed, and Arthur jerked his head as if coming out of a daze.

"Sorry. You uh...you look good," he said slowly, moving toward Merlin to gently smooth an invisible wrinkle in the shoulder. "And thank you, Merlin. I couldn't do this without you."

His voice was soft and roughly intimate, and Merlin realized with an indrawn breath how close they were. It took all of his strength to back away, paste a smile on his face.

"It's what friends are for," he said. Then, very softly, he added, "Gwen is lucky to have you."

If Arthur heard the last, he showed no sign of it.

~*~

Merlin rubbed sleepily at his eyes and shuffled toward the door, wincing when the bell rang again, and then again and again.

"Shit," he cursed softly as he stumbled forward, and then proceeded to stub his toe on the edge of the coffee table. "I'm fucking coming," he yelled at the door, as he half hopped towards it. "Fuck!"

He threw the door open sharply and opened his mouth to demand an explanation from whoever it was banging on his door at one in the morning.

Only, he never got a chance. Arthur barreled through the entrance and before his brain could comprehend what was happening, Arthur was walking him backward into the room and kissing him.

And for all that it was a dominating and desperate kiss, he relaxed into it almost immediately, kissed back with equal desperation, and brought his hands to curl convulsively at Arthur's shoulders.

Arthur. This was Arthur.

Who was supposed to be getting married to Gwen in less than a week.

He jerked back, stumbled away, and bent half double to get his crazed breathing under control.

"Arthur," he gasped, still breathless, and he looked up through his lashes at Arthur standing rigid and tense in his living room. Tears slid from the corners of his eyes, and his bruised mouth quivered with tension. "Arthur," he said again, "What's going on? Why..."

He was so confused, desperate to understand, but even as he thought about it, anger washed through him as well, and chased the tremors from his limbs.

"You chose Gwen," he finally ground out, and then he turned away because those words hurt, hurt even worse with the taste of Arthur still tingling on his lips. He moved quickly into his small kitchen, and deliberately ignored the small voice in his head that told him he was running away. The soft shuffling of steps told him that Arthur was following him anyway, and he finally turned when Arthur spoke. The tears were gone and his face was tightly shuttered, but his voice still shook.

"Gwen broke it off."

"So what? You wanted a rebound fuck? Wanted to reassert your masculinity?" Merlin hissed, though he regretted the words almost immediately when Arthur flinched and buried his shaking head in his hands.

"I had to see if she was right," he said brokenly. "We haven't been right for a while I think, since she hired that new guy Lance..." Arthur trailed off and shook his head. "But that's not why... She said I was just projecting my feelings for you onto her."

The words rushed out of Arthur's mouth and struck hard at Merlin's heart, made his hands shake again.

"I had to see if she was right," Arthur repeated. "She said I was a coward."

Neither of them said anything for a long time after that. Arthur kept his head buried in his hands, and Merlin tipped the chair he was sitting in now back onto the rear legs and closed his eyes. He was pretty sure he had loved Arthur for a long time. Maybe since the very beginning, he allowed himself to admit, but it had always seemed like an impossibility.

Arthur sitting here at his table was such a familiar thing. He had done it a thousand times, complaining about everything from Morgana and Uther to the dozens of relationships he had had over the years. Only, now Merlin was the focus of Arthur's attention, and he didn't know what to do. For the first time he had nothing to say, and the thought of comforting Arthur as the friend he had always been was unbearable.

The whistle on his kettle startled him out of his thoughts, and he got up and went through the motions of making tea for him and Arthur. He put two sugars into Arthur's tea, none into his own, before he even thought about it.

"Was she right?" he finally asked softly, as he set the steaming mugs down onto the table. He almost didn't want to know, but he refused to allow himself to run from this, to allow Arthur to. He didn't think their friendship would survive it.

Arthur looked up at him then, his eyes were startlingly wide and blue and clear. "Yes," he said softly. "I..." he shook his head, then firmed his jaw and continued. "No one ever measured up to you. I don't think I even realized I was comparing until she told me I was. I just...I always counted on you being in my life, being what I needed."

"Then why?"

"I've been with other men before," Arthur started. "Percy...," he shrugged. "But I always thought I would marry. It was always expected. I think...I think that Gwen was the closest I could come to you, and still make everyone happy."

"Everyone?" Merlin snorted bitterly. He turned his head away.

"No. Not everyone. It has always been you, though. You have to know that. I was blind, and I hurt you. God, I hurt myself, over and over and I could never figure out how or why. But it's always been you. It's always been you there when I needed someone, when I was at my worst and at my best, and I swear that I will never take that for granted again."

Merlin looked at him for a long time and then he nodded slowly. It was late. Arthur looked like a mess and his own heart hurt and still beat too quickly in his chest.

He made a decision.

"Come on," he said, taking up Arthur's hand and pulling him up. "It's late." He led Arthur to the small closet of a guest bedroom with sheets that he knew would still smell like Arthur, but he didn't follow him into the room. "Tomorrow," he promised, then pulled the door shut, and leaned brokenly against his side of it.

~*~

Merlin

He laughed happily into the kiss that Arthur pressed to his mouth. "Get off, you mutt," he mumbled.

"Why would I want to do that?" Arthur asked with a superiorly raised eyebrow. He tackled Merlin back to the bed, and pinned his wrists loosely above his head. "When I'd much rather be here ravishing you!"

Merlin glared playfully and bucked his hips, and finally managed to squirm free. "And as much as I would like that too, we're going to be late for the wedding, and I really don't want to deal with Morgana if we are. Off!"

Arthur sighed dramatically and gave a sulky pout, but he finally did climb off, and he handed Merlin his jacket in half-hearted repentance.

Merlin took it and smiled, but when Arthur tried to step back Merlin grabbed his hand and stopped him, spun him around so they stood close and face-to-face.

"Arthur," he said, letting his voice turn serious. "Are you sure you're really okay with this?"

Arthur laughed at that, a soft happy sound, and pulled him the last few inches into a hug, his face nuzzled comfortable and familiar into the curve of Merlin's neck.

"Gwen deserves this. Lancelot will be good for her. How can I resent that? Especially when I have you?" He pulled away and he was smiling brightly. "I made my decision, and it was the best one I have ever made. How can I resent her for doing the same?"

He leaned forward and kissed Merlin then, and Merlin's heart leapt in his chest. They had been together for almost two years now, and the happiness that still thrilled through his veins when Arthur looked at him like that, half fey, told of the certainty of many more years to come.

He allowed himself a small inward smile as he remembered the rehearsal dinner last night. He remembered how Arthur had recounted the night Merlin had saved his life, and Arthur's fond smile as they had caught each other's gaze right at the end.

"...and that was the moment when I realized I couldn't survive- literally!" he laughed, "without Merlin in my life."

He had always been there for Arthur, before he even realized his feelings, and now...He let Arthur hold him, and kiss him in return.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

SWEET and DOMESTIC. THANKS for writing this. It gives me warm feeling all around.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

Really adorable.

thank you!

Oh! This is great! Heart-hurty until Arthur finally got his head out of his arse and then such a lovely ending. Kudos!

It was a little hurty...but Arthur came around eventually.

Oh God, it pretty much is like this, isn't it? Thank you for that happy happy ending. ♥

it is!

Aww, this was so lovely! Thank you so much <3

The part near the end when Merlin had begun to realise his feelings for Arthur but Arthur was marrying Gwen was delightfully angsty, and I especially liked when Arthur saw Merlin in the suit, and then just burst through the door and started kissing him <3 <3.

Also, Arthur marrying Gwen because he's projecting his feelings about Merlin onto her is exactly what's happening in the show. Silly Arthur. At least here he came to his senses and they got their happy fluffy ending. Thank you for this.

I'm so so glad that you enjoyed this. It wasn't what I set out to write, and I know it didn't follow your prompts exactly, but I hope I still worked in the spirit of your prompts and likes.

Thank you sooo much for your lovely words! (it was so hard to keep this a secret. I don't know how many times I wanted to go friend you, but was afraid it would be super obvious that I was the one writing your story! paranoid much?!)

Thank you so much darling and I hope you had a great holiday season!

~Jess

Awesome!

thanks darling!

This was really sweet and so cute! I like the way you broke down Arthur's different love interests. Good job!

I'm glad this format worked for you. thank you.

Such a lovely story. Absolutely loved it all ♥

aww, this was absolutely adorable and sweet and cute. totally lovely on a cold winter day <3

I'm glad you enjoyed this. thanks.

Bursting through door to immediate kissing....um, thanks for the new kink ;) great job

I know right! There totally needs to be more of that!

Oh, this is so wonderful! I love how it's told person-by-person, with the slow progression of Merlin's feelings for Arthur, and the way it showed Arthur's characterization as well. I also love how they didn't fall into bed together right when they discussed their feelings, and that we have to imagine what happened based on the ~Merlin section. Ah, it's so adorable. <3

I'm so glad this format worked for you. thank you so much!

Awww, very sweet.

Aw, this was a lovely wonderful read :) Thank you ♥

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Great story. I love how Arthur was suppressing his feelings for Merlin in the other people. Love that Gwen was the one to set him straight. Well done.

It's totally what he does in the show, right?!

Completely and utterly what he does in the show. Hee!

Very sweet. Thank you!

thank YOU! I'm glad you liked.

Of course Arthur would bully Merlin into being friends with him. This was sweet. I may have cheered when Arthur gave Vivian the boot. Thank you!

Of course! I liked that part too!

Thank you.

This was great! A real feel-good fic.

Thank you!

So, so sweet! That last line was so swoon worthy!
Thx for sharing :-)

So sweet! My heart broke when A was gonna marry Gwen along with Merlin's but it was so well toll, loved it.
Thx for sharing!

It was wonderful and heart hurting watching Arthur give his heart away again and again and again and Merlin being there for comfort and companionship but never getting his love in the way he wanted.

Good on Percy for seeing through both men and good on Gwen for calling Arthur on his true feelings for his best friend. I don't think Arthur would have ever kissed Merlin otherwise and they may never have found this happy life together.

Happy Merlin Holidays, xthursdaynextx!

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