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Merlin awoke to a loud rattling sound coming from a large truck. A moving truck to be exact. It drove up to to the flat across the street from Merlin's and parked in front of the building. Following it, was a much smaller, quieter vehicle.
Setting his stuffed plushie Kilgarrah aside, Merlin rubs his eyes and stretches his limbs as he gets up off his bed. His footsteps are stiff and he stumbles his way to the window in order to better observe the scene before him.
A man in his early thirties with dark curly hair and a women of the same age wearing a light green sundress with dark straight hair braided down her back, get out of the car. They take a moment to observe the flat's exterior,then go to unload the truck.
They start bringing out chairs, chest of drawers, tables, among other furnishings. Everything is carefully lifted and wheeled into their flat.
The back door of the smaller vehicle opens and a boy with dark curly hair about Merlin's age gets out. He's wearing a black hoodie with a plain red shirt underneath, black pants, and bright blue shoes. In his hands he's carrying a coloring book and some crayons.
The kid looks up at his new home then turns his head to look directly behind him. Immediately he meets Merlin's eyes. The boy stares at him intently with wide eyes and Merlin thinks that maybe he shouldn't have been so nosy. He should act friendly he thinks, then the kid wouldn't be so alarmed. Merlin smiles at him and waves, but the boy just continues to stare at him.
Merlin feels a bit uncomfortable now. He keeps waving because he doesnt know what else to do. Finally the boy breaks Merlin's gaze and runs to his own front door. Merlin is about to turn away when he sees the boy give him a wave from inside the doorway.
He smiles at himself. He's made a new friend.
•••
"The Le Fey's just moved in across the street. We should visit them later. They even have a boy your age Merlin." Hunith is bustling around the kitchen preparing a batch of chocolate chip cookies for their new neighbors. Merlin is seated at the dining table eating a bowl of cereal.
"I saw them when I woke up. The boy waved at me." Merlin says around a mouthfull of Lucky Charms.
"That's wonderful honey. You should make friends with him. He's probably a bit scared being in a new place and may be in need of some new friends."
"Okay, mommy." Merlin is excited. He couldn't wait to play with this new kid. Merlin didn't think anyone could ever have enough friends and was super happy to make another.
•••
Hunith knocked on their neighbor's door. Merlin was standing beside her rocking on his feet, shaking with excitement.
The woman opened the door. "Hello! You must be one of our neighbors!" Her smile is bright and she invites them inside.
"Yeah we live just across the street. I'm Hunith and this is my son Merlin. I baked some chocolate chip cookies for you and your family. I hope you enjoy them."
"Oh my goodness we will. I have a little one as well. His name's Mordred. My husband is out getting groceries right now but he should be back soon. The cookies look absolutely decadent. Thank you so much!" She takes the tray from Hunith and sets it on the counter. "You must tell me all about the area we moved here from quite a ways away. My name is Jess by the way."
She pulls up a chair for Hunith and sits across from her at the dining table. They make fast friends and are laughing and cracking jokes in no time. Jess tells Merlin to go to Mordred's room while she talks with his mom.
Merlin approaches his door and knocks before he enters like his mom tells him to do in order to be polite. Although he never bothers when it's Arthur's door.
He finds Mordred coloring on his desk.
"Mordred?"
Mordred turns around and looks at Merlin for a second then goes back to coloring.
Merlin is thrown off by his behavior. "Ummm. Hi. I'm Merlin."
"Hi." answers Mordred. His voice is so faint Merlin isn't sure whether he imagined it of not.
He approaches Modred's desk and looks over his shoulder.
Wow. Merlin is awestruck by the brilliant picture before him. Mordred is quite the artist. He's using bright and bold colors as he fills in the dragon piece by piece. He colors neatly in the lines and leaves no white space behind.
He's never seen such beautiful coloring in his life.
"Wow. Mordred that looks really pretty." Merlin can't stop staring at the dragon. It looks like it may fly off the page.
"You really think so?" Mordred finally looks at Merlin and speaks to him in a normal voice.
"Yeah. Mordred you color better than anyone I've ever seen. You should be an artist when you grow up."
Suddenly Mordred's cheeks got really red. "Thank you Merlin. You want to color with me? You can share my crayons." He gives Merlin a small smile.
"I'd love to!"
Mordred rips out a picture of a prince from his coloring book for Merlin to color.
"I'm going to color him just like Arthur!" declares Merlin.
"Who's Arthur?" asks Mordred.
"He's like my own prince so I'm going to make this prince look like him." Answers Merlin. "You'll probanly meet him soon. He comes to my house almost every day."
"Oh, okay."
They continue coloring in silence until Hunith and Jess come in the room to announce that it's time to go.
Upon entering the room Jess is suprised at the scene before her. "Is Mordred actually sharing his crayons?" Jess mocks an expression of shock. "Hunith, I think Merlin has charmed my son. Mordred never shares his crayons with anyone."
Hunith laughs. "That's my boy. He's quite charming. Come on Merlin, Arthur will be at our house in fifteen minutes. We got to get going. Say good bye to Mordred."
"Bye Mordred. Thanks for sharing your crayons with me."
"Bye Merlin. Thanks for coloring with me and you can use my crayons as much as you like."
Jess raises her eyebrows at her son who looks away from her but not after giving Merlin a final smile.
Oh no. Hunith thinks. My boy's already taken.
•••
Arthur arrives at their home shortly. They decide to play in Merlin's room.
Upon entering the room, Merlin tells Arthur to close his eyes and hold his hands out. He then places the coloring he did at Mordred's house in his hands.
Arthur opens his eyes and stares at the paper before him. It's a prince standing in his castle. A prince that bears a striking resemblance to him. With gold hair and blue eyes.
That's not all though.
Next to the prince is drawing of a man that wasn't marked by bold black lines indicating it was freely hand drawn. He has dark black hair and equally blue eyes. He's shown giving the prince a kiss with little cartoon hearts surrounding them.
In the top left corner there is a message:
"I LUV YOU MY PRINTZ, YUR TROO LUV MERLIN."
"I love it Merlin!" He sticks it in his pocket and then turns to envelop Merlin in a hug and smother his face with kisses.
"Hey, you're going to get my face all wet again." Merlin says then rubs his face against Arthur's shirt.
Arthur tries to turn away and then they collapse on to the floor laughing and rolling around with Merlin trying to dodge Arthur's kisses. He tries to poke him in his stomach where he knows Arthur is the most ticklish but with no avail. Arthur is holding his arms away, but then Merlin uses his feet to shove Arthur off and wraps himself around his back.
Suddenly the doorbells rings. They look at each other questioningly and Merlin shrugs his shoulders.
Soon after they hear a knock at Merlin's door.
It's Mordred.
He's holding the drawing of the dragon that he'd been working on earlier; except now it's finished.
"Hi Merlin. I want you to have this." His hands are slightly trembling as he gives Merlin the drawing.
"Wow. Thank you Mordred it's so awesome!" He gives him a huge grin and hugs him.
Arthur quickly approaches the two. "Who are you?" Arthur snaps as Merlin pulls away from Mordred. Mordred's cheeks are suddenly very red.
"Arthur, this is Mordred. He's my new neighbor from across the street. He's the one I got the prince coloring page from."
"You're Arthur?" Mordred's voice is soft and he looks at Arthur's hand which is set firmly in Merlin's.
"Yes. I'm Arthur, Merlin's best friend." Arthur looks at him and tries to read his reaction.
Mordred looks a bit pale now and takes to looking down at his feet. "Oh. Well I think I have to go now. I hear my mom calling me. Bye Merlin... and Arthur." He turns around and practically runs out the door.
"That was weird." Merlin turns to Arthur. "I thought he was going to stay and play with us."
"Not with me around though, he likes you."
"Well I like him too. He's a bit shy but I think that's because he's just moved here. He's great at coloring though I mean look at this." He shoves the coloring page in Arthur's face.
Arthur swats it away. "No, Merlin. I mean he like likes you. He has a crush on you."
"What? That's crazy. He just met me."
"I'm serious. You should have seen how he was looking at you. I know that look. I wanted to pull you away from him. Why did you even hug him?" Arthur tries to relax his emotions but it's hard because he feels hot all over.
"Because he made me a very nice drawing. Wait a second. Are you jealous Arthur?" Merlin asks, recognizing the firm set of Arthur's lips from whenever Gwaine hugged Merlin.
"No way." Arthur turns away from Merlin and takes to fixing his gaze outside the window.
"Because if you are..." Merlin approaches him from behind and wraps his arms around his waist, then rests his head on Arthur's shoulder. "I'd tell you're acting very silly since I'll always only love you."
Arthur smiles at that.
"I just wanted you to know in case he ever tries to kiss you."
"I would never let him do that. I'm sure you're just imagining things he probably just wants to be my friend. Only my friend." Merlin takes the drawing and puts it on his desk.
"If you say so... " Arthur sighs and looks at the picture. "He is a pretty good artist."
Shortly after, the boys are called down for lunch. Merlin takes Arthur's hand and places a soft kiss on his lips before they race to the dining room.