Chapter Text
No one ever believed Merlin when he told them Gwen was his sister, and look, he understood why. He wasn't a fool, there were very clear differences between them. For one, Gwen's complexation was flawless, and her freckles made her mocha skin only stand out beautifully. While Merlin's frosty white one constantly got blotchy and randomly red in spots, for what might be no reason at all. Honestly, it was quite easy to explain their family-hood, if anyone would stop gawking at them long enough to listen.
Gwen, or Guinevere, was ten years Merlin's senior, their mother, Hunith, had been married to Gwen's father, Tom, and had Gwen when she was only nineteen. And much like most things, when you are nineteen, their marriage didn't last. Hunith and Tom got devoiced, after eight years of marriage and one whole baby. Hunith married Balinor, Merlin's dad, while Tom married Jen, or Jenivine, and had a son of his own, Elyan. Merlin's brother, but not really brother, as there was no actual blood there. And this might all seem like a headache, confusing and stressful, but it was rather pleasant. Tom and Hunith got along, as they both agreed they were far too young to have gotten married and other all, wanted to give all of their kids a happy life. Both step parents treated the children with love and respect and everyone was overall, just happy.
Gwen called Balinor dad and Jen mum and Merlin called Tom Uncle Tom and Elyan was always kind of a troublemaker and was always grounded most of the time anyway. But Gwen, sweet, loving and caring Gwen, didn't seem to get the message their mother had tried to push into them over the years. This message being don't rush into things, such as marriage. But Gwen didn't listen, when Gwen was eighteen she got engaged to this bloke named Lance, and by the time she was twenty they were married. Ten years later, now Merlin was twenty, Gwen was thirty and she was getting divorced.
Her dear, dotting husband, Lance had run off, into the night one night and didn't seem to plan on coming back. It wasn't all his fault however, things hadn't been the same since Gwen had the miscarriage's. Most couples, Merlin read, didn't last long after such a horrible thing, let alone three. They were still technically married, no papers had been delivered to Lance, as no one knew where Lance was, so nothing could proceed until he was found. This however, didn't stop Gwen, about four months ago she started dating this bloke named Arthur. And there were just some things about Arthur.
Arthur worked at the advertising company Merlin had interned at the last two summers. That was how Gwen met Arthur actually. She had come to see Merlin one afternoon, and Merlin hadn't been there, but Arthur had. Not only was Arthur almost as tall as Merlin, which made him pretty tall, as Merlin was a human sized string bean, but also blond and big shouldered. He had probably plaid footie in his uni days and he definitely worked out every morning before work. He spoke with a deep, British, but not always voice, because he wasn't originally from the UK. Said voice was very silky and he sometimes grew a beard that made him look kind of rugged. However, that being said, Arthur Pendragon was a complete asshole.
He was rude and arrogant, he never thought he was wrong about anything, and once threw a very hot coffee in Merlin's face because the shop had forgotten the third sugar he had asked for. He was horrible and awful, and Merlin hated him. So that's why, he had no idea what Gwen saw in him and this whole thing really...is how Gwen's boyfriend ruined Merlin's life.
It was late after uni one day, at the end of April, Merlin's Spring break was fast approaching and he couldn't wait for it, that was when he had gotten the news. He had turned on the news and found out the company he had interned at for two summers and had planned on making it three, even if he did hate who he always got stuck with. They were being investigated for fraud and their company was being shut down. This news was kind of alarming, as Merlin had hoped he would get a job there, once he had finished school. Now, he was going to have to start all over.
His front door suddenly burst open and Merlin didn't react to this. There was only two possible people it could be, unless it was a murderer, which if it was and Merlin didn't turn back, well then...color him stupid. However, it wasn't. It was Gwen, one of the two people of course. She threw herself onto the sofa he was sitting on and looked put upon.
"Did you see? she asked, and as Merlin literally had on the news, he only looked over at her with a look of confusion. "Market Kings has gone under...I don't know what Arthur will do now."
"Oh no...he won't be able to afford all those fancy dinner dates anymore...what will he do?!" retorted Merlin and Gwen slapped his arm.
"Still," said Gwen, pressing on with the point. "He must have known about this for weeks, but he didn't tell me."
From what Merlin knew about Arthur, that was pretty normal for him, so Merlin only shrugged. "He probably didn't tell you for the same reason you haven't told mum and dad you're dating him..." said Merlin. "Embarrassment."
"I'm not embarrassed to be dating Arthur, he is wonderful," retorted Gwen. "I just don't want people to think I am a two-timer. I am still technically married to Lance."
"Who ran away in the night..." Merlin trailed off. "So who can really blame you?"
Gwen sighed then, rather troubled and Merlin knew these things still hurt Gwen terribly. He frowned now, sadly. Suddenly though, Gwen's phone started ringing, she pulled it from her purse and smiled at the screen. "It's Arthur!" she announced, before hitting the buttons on the phone and placed it to her ear. "Hello...oh I saw, I am so sorry, Sweetheart. What will you do now?...they hadn't told anyone...?"
Merlin rolled his eyes and stood up, he hardly needed to listen to her one-sided conversation and honestly, Merlin cared very little about what Arthur planned to do in the future, now that he was suddenly unemployed. He was just honestly happy at the thought that he would never have to see Arthur again. But by the time he got to the kitchen, Merlin remembered his sister was dating this man, which meant he would probably have to see him. Merlin decided on tea and put a cup of water into the microwave, because he was a lazy Brit and didn't feel like putting the kettle on.
By the time the hot water dinged that it was done, Gwen was walking into the kitchen, off the phone already. "Arthur wants to meet me somewhere, he says he has something important he wants to talk to me about, but he wants to do it in person," she explained and looked rather scared. "Do you think he's breaking up with me?"
Merlin shook his head, but truthfully, he wasn't entirely sure. "I don't think so," he told her though, even if he didn't know. "Arthur is a jerk, he would just do it over the phone if he was going to."
"I hope he isn't," said Gwen then, still looking panicked and Merlin didn't know why. He had been broken up with twice before and both times he hadn't felt panicked at all. The first time, in high school, the girl...her name was Freya, simply broke up with him because he kept coming over to her house and didn't spend any time with her, instead he had spent time with her brother, Will, and she hadn't liked that. She had told him he was being kind of gay and a few years later when he had actually slept with that same brother, he supposed she had been right. The next time Merlin was broken up with was just that passed winter, when his boyfriend of two years broke up with him for this really huge bloke, but he and Gwaine had still stayed friends, best friends honestly. It had become more and more of a friendship as the time went on anyway and Merlin had saw it coming for a long time.
Gwen, however, was always blindsided by failing love. For being so much older than Merlin, she was really kind of immature and hopeless when it came to love. But as Lance was her first everything and this whole dating thing was kind of new to her, Merlin supposed he understood. "It will be fine, I'm sure." he told her, as she was leaving. Truthfully, if it wasn't actually going to be fine, Merlin didn't know how yet, but the comforted look his sister gave him as she left, said he had been right in lying to her. Because honestly, what Arthur was going to tell her...it wasn't going to be fine at all. It was actually quite bad.