Work Text:
Everyone was late.
It was Saturday night, friends’ night, and they were supposed to gather at their favourite pub, The Round Table, but everyone was late—except for Merlin and Arthur. They were sitting at the table with the RESERVED plate, not sure if they should order a drink or wait a few minutes more. Outside the rain was now pelting down.
Merlin leant back in his chair and looked around, briefly locking eyes with a tall man at the bar, before turning back to Arthur.
‘Do you think they purposefully told us a wrong time so we won’t be late?’
‘Nahh. My sister’s always super late from everywhere and the others aren’t any better.’ Arthur didn’t glance up from his occupation—he was busy making a paper airplane, using a single sheet menu. ‘Or each and every one of our friends let us down us, take your pick.’
‘Gaius won’t thank you for ruining a perfectly good menu.’
‘But at least he’ll have a perfectly good paper plane.’ Arthur looked at his work with satisfaction written all over his face, then placed the plane on top of the RESERVED plate. ‘Okay, I’m done waiting for them. I’ll have a beer—anything for you?’
‘Yeah, a beer would be nice. Wait, I’ll give you some money.’
Merlin took out his wallet but as he opened it, a few coins escaped and rolled all over the ground. One of them ended right next to the feet of the tall stranger at the bar.
‘This round is on me, mate.’ Arthur patted his friend on the shoulder and headed towards the bar to order their drinks. As Merlin looked after him, he spotted the tall man approaching him with a smile on his face and a coin on his palm.
‘I trust this is yours.’
Merlin took the coin, his fingertips briefly touching the stranger’s palm. ‘Uhh, thanks, you really shouldn’t have bothered.’
‘No problem. Though I played with the idea of keeping it as my lucky coin.’
‘Well, then, thanks—’
'Val. Short for Valiant.’ He flashed a cocky grin. 'You know, because I’m so brave and everything.'
'Really?'
'No. It's actually Valentine.' Val put a hand on the back of an empty chair. ‘May I—?’
‘Actually— Well, sure thing, yes, why not.’
Val had barely took a seat when Arthur appeared with two glasses of beer. He frowned when spotted a stranger sitting at their table.
‘Thanks, man.’ Merlin took a glass. ‘Arthur, meet Val. Val, this is Arthur.’
‘Val?’
‘Valiant.’ Seeing Arthur’s puzzled look, Val snickered. ‘No, not really. It’s Valentine, if you’re interested.’
‘I’m not in—’
Merlin’s phone started buzzing on the table and through the general noise of the club they could hear, albeit faintly, Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River.
Merlin answered the call, ‘Hey, Morgana!’
Arthur raised his glass. ‘Tell her I said hello.’
‘Arthur says hello… She says you should answer your phone…’
‘What does she mean?’ Arthur reached into his pocket for his phone. Three unanswered calls from Morgana. Right. ‘Oh. Shit.’
‘And she says… I can’t hear what she says…’ Merlin pressed his phone-free hand onto his phone-free ear in order to block out the noises of the club. ‘Sorry, darling, wait a minute, I can’t hear anything, I will go outside…’ He mouthed a sorry to the two guys and made a beeline for the front door.
An awkward silence stayed behind him.
‘So,’ Val tried.
Arthur carefully took a sip of his beer—an “I’m busy with drinking my beer so I cannot have a conversation right now” sip. But even though his chance companion was clearly uninterested in any kind of conversation, after some fidgeting with a coaster, Val went for it again.
'So, how long have you been together?'
Arthur almost spat out his beer in surprise. ‘What? No! You mean…? Merlin? And me?! No, no, no, no! We're not together.’
‘No? Because you look like—’
‘Absolutely not. We're just friends. Old friends,’ he said, emphasising the last word.
‘Okay, don’t eat me.’ Val threw up his hands in a theatrical self-defensive way. ‘So, Merlin is free? Not seeing anyone?’
‘Er, actually... not. Yes, I mean, no— He isn’t— See, he has a boyfriend.’
Much to his relief, Merlin arrived back to the table.
‘What did my sister want?’
‘She said—’
‘Briefly, okay?’
‘Uh, okay, clotpole.’ Merlin took his seat. ‘So, Morgana called to tell that she was on her way and that Gwen’d called her, right before leaving home, so she was on her way by now, too, and Gwaine’d called Gwen that he’d be at least an hour and a half late, and that you should get your hearing checked by a doctor if you can’t hear your phone.’
‘Fuck him,’ Arthur grunted and Val chose these words as his cue for leaving for the bathroom.
Merlin sat down. ‘Why the sour face?’
‘Val asked if you were seeing someone,’ Arthur shifted uncomfortably, ‘and I might have said that you had a boyfriend.’
‘Arthur!’
‘Sorry, it just slipped out.’
In Merlin’s opinion, Arthur didn’t look sorry at all.
‘But why?’
‘I— I just don't like his face, okay?’
‘And what if I like his face?’
‘Then tell him that I lied about you having a boyfriend!’ Arthur stood up so vehemently he pushed the table, accidentally knocking over Merlin’s glass. ‘Shit! Sorry. I’ll bring something to mop it up.’
Ten minutes later Arthur returned with a handful of napkins and a glass of beer. He put the latter in front of Merlin, tossed the napkins on the pool of beer gathered on the table, then just stood there, spectacularly uneasy, putting his weight from one leg to another.
‘Thanks,’ Merlin nodded. ‘Gonna sit down or what?’
Arthur slowly sank down onto his chair. 'So, um, where is Val?' he asked, gesturing towards Val’s still empty seat. ‘Did the toilet monster eat him or what?’
‘He went to get something to drink. I don't think he will come back.’ Merlin shrugged. ‘We ran out of things to talk about, as it seems.’
‘I’m not sure about that. I had the impression he was interested in you.’
‘Well, after I told him about my sweet boyfriend Bradley, now visiting his grandmother in Brighton, me missing him a lot, Val quickly lost his interest.’
‘You could have just told him that I'd lied.’
‘Apart from that it's funny to invent a boyfriend, I didn't like his face that much.’ Arthur shot him a questioning look. ‘I won't call my best friend a liar in favour to become a one-night stand of a moron,’ Merlin said with a smile and Arthur returned it.
‘Cheers, mate.’
Fifteen minutes later Morgana arrived with a soaking wet girl hot on her heels.
‘Hiya! What did I miss?’
‘Nothing, really.’ Merlin pulled out the chair next to his for her. ‘Random guy came but Arthur, always the knight in shining armour, protected my virtue by saying that I had a boyfriend from Brighton.’
Morgana frowned. ‘Arthur, you could have just said that you were his boyfriend.’
‘What? No,’ her brother protested.
‘No way.’
‘So, you aren’t together?’ the wet girl asked.
Arthur replied without thinking, ‘Yes, we are.’
‘What?’ the others asked in unison.
‘What?’ he asked back.
Merlin knitted his brows. ‘Did you just…?’
‘Totally not,’ Arthur shook his head.
‘Oh, but you did,’ Morgana grinned.
‘Then I meant no when I said yes, okay?’ He turned to the wet girl, ‘I’m sorry, but who are you again?’
‘Oh, geez, sorry!’ Morgana squeaked. ‘She’s my brand new umbrella friend! I met her at the bus stop. And by meeting her I mean that as I was getting off the bus and she ran into me.’
‘Yeah, it was raining cats and dogs, so I tried to run home and I bumped into her— But Morgana was so nice, didn’t even get angry with me, and since we were heading to the same direction, she offered to share her umbrella—then she invited me in to meet her friends!’
‘Ahh, another knight in shining armour,’ Merlin cooed. ‘It runs in the family.’
‘Whatever,’ Morgana grimaced at him. ‘So, guys, this is Freya. Freya, these two idiots are Arthur and Merlin.’
‘Hello.’
Merlin smiled. ‘Nice to meet you, Freya.’