The One

Chapter 3

Arthur send the picture to Gwen with a shy smirk. 

Pretty good looking ey?

Gwennyyy is typing...

Meh, not really my type. Seems like he's yours though 😏

Oh for sure. I think he is a beautiful greek god

Gwennyyy is typing...

A greek god? Really Art? I don't think he looks like much of a greek god...

Shush child, he is more muscular than he looks. Anyway I've really gotta go now. Gotta get dinner and then go to sleep so I have enough energy for tomorrow! I'm so excited!! Ly xx 

Lyt xx 

He puts his phone on his bedside cabinet and plugs it in "I was wondering what you wanna do for dinner?" he says quickly glancing up at Merlin and then looking down at the floor again. "We could order something" he says "That's a Good plan. But the question is what are we gonna order." Arthur asks fiddling with the sleeves of his jumper "Well, I fancy Chinese, I don't know about you!" he says "Me too. I'm gonna order my favorite! Sweet and sour duck! What do you fancy?" Arthur looks up from his phone, which has the online menu on it, to see Merlin staring at him intently. He looks sheepishly at his feet."M-merlin?" He says trying so hard to sound relaxed when he most definitely does not.

"Sorry," he says his face saying the opposite as he kept staring at Arthur "No harm done" he says with a nervous laugh. Yes, Harm done! Arthur was overthinking everything because of that stare "I'll have the kung pow chicken, please." he says confident as ever his eyes tracking Arthur as he paced back and forth. Arthur puts in the order and then lays down on his bed looking at the ceiling. Then Merlin speaks up "So, Arthur! Tell me about you! I wanna know everything!" He tilts his head to the side to look at Merlin confusion lining his features. "Well, there's not that much to tell. I grew up in Birmingham alongside Gwen, the girl we sent the selfie to earlier, because her dad and my dad are best friends. She's one of the only close friends I have and she keeps me from doing stupid things." I say with a smile "Otherwise It's always been me and dad because my mum died while she was giving birth so I never met her." he says sighing. "That's rough Arthur. I'm sorry about your mum." Merlin says "I don't dwell on it too much but thanks" he says smiling sadly. He pauses for a second. "Now it's your turn!" Arthur says his smile lightening.

"Well," he starts "I was born in a little village just off the coast of Cornwall called Ealdor. I grew up there with my mum and my best friend Will. Neither my father or Will's parents were around anymore. In different senses though. My father just got up and left because he's a cowardly bastard and he changed his mind about kids." he sighs. 

"And then Will's parents died in a car accident when he was three. So my mum offered to take him in instead of sending him to some sort of institution. And that's how my best friend became my adopted brother!" he says grimacing "That is one confusing family tree right there Merlin," Arthur says letting out a chuckle "I'm sorry about your dad being an asshole though" he says trying not to look Merlin directly in the eyes. "It's not like it was your fault" Merlin says looking straight at Arthur. This made Arthur feel weird so he looked up and their eyes met.

And they would have stayed like that if they weren't so rudely interrupted by the knock at the door. 

♥︎♥︎♥︎

Arthur gets up and opens the door to the delivery man. "One sec, let me get my wallet!" He grabs the wallet out of his bedside draw. "Will card work?" The delivery man nods and pulls out a card machine. Merlin watches Arthur Intently. The way his joggers fit so perfectly around his shapely arse. Oh my god Merlin! Stop! No! You are a straight man! he keeps telling himself wishing he could just throw himself at him! Unfortunately, as confident as he seemed, he definitely didn't have the self confidence to do that. What if he was rejected? That would play out to be an awkward few years..

Arthur turns round from paying and saying goodbye to the driver. He walks over to merlin and perches next to him on his bed. Oh how he wishes he hadn't turned around, that man's backend really was a sight to see. 

They ate in comfortable silence and then when they were done Arthur collected the tainfoil to take to the rubbish bin downstairs "No, I'll do that. You paid for the food." Arthur looked at him with a soft gaze. "Thanks Merlin." he smiled "No problem!" he returned the smile cleared the rubbish together and took it down to the bins. When he returned he found that the room was empty all of a sudden. "Arthur?" he asked. No reply. Must of gone to buy a drink or something. He goes to sit on his bed when he realises that asleep on his bed was Arthur. He looked so cuddly there and Merlin had the temptation just to climb in there with him...

No, No, No. STOP IT MERLIN! GOD! So he decided to just sleep in Arthurs bed which was a benefit for him anyway because it smelled like Arthur AGAIN! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON?! Then he realised he must be having a gay crisis. He'd heard of them before and had friends that had one at some point in their lives. He never thought he was gay though.. Maybe he was? I mean it would clear up the fact that when the boys at school used to talk about girls that he kind of tuned out of it. He always thought it was just because he couldn't care less unless someone liked him. It all made sense now. And even though Arthur was openly gay and stuff he couldn't tell him that he liked him. Not yet anyway.

He took his phone out of his drawer and rung Will. He locked himself in the bathroom so that just in case Arthur woke up he couldn't come in or hear his conversation. "Merlin..what the fuck are you doing calling me at 10:34PM... on a Sunday" He started to cry "Merlin? Why are you crying? I'm sorry I didn't mean to sound rude or-" Merlin cut him off. "It's not that Will. I need someone to talk to right now about a problem and I can't talk to my roommate about it because well... he is the problem. I, um, think I have a crush on him.." the line was silent. "Will? Help me! He thinks I'm this confident and brave person when I'm not. Will?" he heard someone pick up the phone again. "Sorry, Mer! I had to go get a notepad and pen so I can be a good therapist. Ok. So you have a crush on your roommate and It's confusing you because..." he trails off "Because I thought I was straight" Merlin say his voice cracking.

"I'm just so fucking confused. I don't know what's happening! I don't think I'm gay? But at the same time, I recall that when we were younger I never wanted to look at playboy magazine or watch love Island and "compare the hot birds" , as you well know some of the idiots in my class would do, or anything like that because I just wasn't interested in girls and I thought that it would come over time! It never occurred to me that I could be gay?!" 

"Ok, well you need to be careful. I know he said he's gay and I'm sure he is. But be careful that he wasn't just telling you because you're one of his closest friends at the moment" he sighed "That could end nastily.."

"Ok, I think I just need to sleep" Merlin says. "Thanks Will."

"Absolutely, no problem! If you even need someone to vent to I'm here!" 

And then the line went dead.