Work Text:
“For God’s sake, just let him drown.”
“Arthur.” Gwaine said, and for once he sounded like the reasonable one. Arthur hated it when Gwaine was the reasonable one.
“Why don’t you save him this time?” Arthur bargained. Gwaine was a lifeguard too, it wasn’t just Arthur. Though to be fair, Gwaine was off duty.
“Arthur.” Gwaine said with a raise of his brow which said that Arthur was being thick.
“Okay, fine.” Arthur said as he jumped down from the lifeguard chair and tore off his aviators. With his red rescue tube in hand, he jumped into the pool and swam over to the boy who was struggling in the water. He put the boy’s arms over the float device and leaned back so that he was resting on Arthur’s chest. Kicking his legs, he made it to the edge of the pool, where the idiot held onto the side.
“Thanks.” He said as he took a couple deep breaths, his ears flaming red.
“I told you to stay out of the deep end.” Arthur gritted out.
“Um…” The boy said as he stared at Arthur. “Sorry?” He shrugged.
“For the love of-” Arthur breathed out through his nose, “Stay in the shallow end.”
“But-!”
“This is the fifth time I’ve had to jump in here, so for my own sanity, please stay on that side of the pool.” He said with a pointed look to the shallow end of the pool with the clearly print 4ft sign.
Camelot's public pool was filled to the brim with people on a Saturday afternoon. This was supposed to be a fairly simple summer job before his last year of secondary school. Saving a boy from his own idiocy was not on his summer to-do list.
“I was just…” He said weakly, “The kids were pulling on my legs.”
“Uh-huh.” Arthur said dubiously. Arthur doubted the kids in the pool had pulled him under five times. Not to mention that there hadn’t been any kids around him.
“Just, stay in the shallow end for a while?” Arthur said, on the ends of his sanity.
The boy nodded before he dipped under the water and swam to the other end of the pool. Arthur sighed with relief. Pushing himself out of the water, he made it back to his chair, where Gwaine looked far too amused.
“What?” Arthur snapped.
Gwaine shrugged. “Nothing.”
Arthur waited for Gwaine to finally give up on keeping quiet and tell Arthur what he was thinking. While he waited, he climbed into the chair and let the water cool him off in the blazing sun.
“You know…” Gwaine said after barely a minute of silence. “At least you’re saving Merlin. There could be worse people to have to save repeatedly.”
“Who?” Arthur asked as he pushed back his wet hair from his eyes as he watched the pool.
“Merlin.” Gwaine repeated. “The boy you just saved from drowning.”
“For the fifth time.” Arthur said. “What about him?” Arthur looked to the shallow end where Merlin was talking with a girl. As long as he wasn’t under water, Arthur thought Merlin was fine where he was.
“I’ve talked to him. He seems friendly.” Gwaine said. “He’s with his friends from Ealdor” Gwaine pointed to a grouping of chairs piled with bags and towels. There were a couple of boys playing cards and a girl sunbathing beside them.
“Is that Gwen?” Arthur asked. Now that he was looking, he recognized the girl Merlin was talking to in the pool. She had moved to Ealdor Secondary a couple years ago, but Arthur had known her in grade nine.
“Yup.” Gwaine said with a pop of his lips. He pointed to the group, “And that’s Elena. You remember her?” The girl who was sunbathing sat up and Arthur could now see the girl he had know in primary school. Arthur could see that she was still all wide smiles and snorting laughter. Arthur always liked that about her.
“You think I could get her number?” Gwaine asked. Arthur rolled his eyes. Of course Gwaine wanted Elena’s number.
With his eyes back on the pool, Arthur said, “I don’t see why not.”
When Arthur looked back, Gwaine was talking to Elena at the group’s spot. Gwen and Merlin were out of the pool (Thank god, Arthur didn’t think he could stand another drowning) and they were talking with Gwaine too.
A kid ran past, floaties securely around his arms. “No running!” Arthur shouted for the millionth time that day.
Looking back, Gwaine was fully emerged into the group. They were all playing cards now as they laid in the sun. Gwaine was next to Elena and Gwen was leaning against one of the boys who must have been her boyfriend. Merlin had a towel in hand and seemed to be trying to get the water out of his ears.
Gwaine was right on some accounts. Of all the people who could have been struggling in Camelot’s pool, Merlin wasn’t so bad. He was an idiot, yes, (Who went in the deep end if they were a poor swimmer?) but he was nice. It hadn’t been that hard to drag him to the side of the pool, and it did make Arthur’s day more interesting to say the least. Not to mention that Merlin was cute. Arthur still wasn’t exactly all the way out about the whole ‘I think I like boys’ thing, but his friends knew he leaned toward boys more than girls. He had never acted on it before, but Merlin was attractive and very much Arthur’s type, with his dark hair and pale skin plus his full lips and bright eyes.
Gwaine was right, if Arthur had to save someone five times, at least it was Merlin.
When it was the end of Arthur’s shift, he passed the rescue tube to Gwaine who was now on duty.
“It’s all yours.” He said and gestured to the pool, still filled with people on this hot weekend.
“You should go over and talk to Gwen. She said she’d like to catch up.” Gwaine said with a grin. There was something in his eyes that Arthur didn’t like. He never did trust Gwaine when he had that glint in his eye.
Arthur narrowed his eyes, telling Gwaine he knew he was on to his schemes, before he grabbed his towel and headed over to where the group of friends were sitting. Luckily there didn’t seem to be any schemes about when he walked over to the group.
“Arthur!” Gwen waved him over. “I haven’t seen you in forever, come on. I’ll introduce you.”
Lance was Gwen’s boyfriend, as Arthur had thought. Next to him were Will and Merlin who went to Gwen’s school. Elena, who recognized Arthur, laughed and punched him in the arm as a greeting. Arthur now realized she would be perfect for Gwaine.
He caught up a little with Gwen and Elena before he had to head home. Promising to hang out again, Arthur headed out to the cart park. Out of Camelot’s fenced public pool, Arthur was surprised to see Merlin running toward him.
“Hey!” Merlin came running up to Arthur, his bare feet slapping against the cement. It must have been hot but he didn’t seem to mind. He stood in front of Arthur for a moment, just staring.
“Hi?” Arthur said, waiting for Merlin to say something.
“Um!” Merlin said before he actually started taking. “I just wanted to say thanks. You know...for the whole...” He made a vague gesture which must have meant constant drowning.
“You really need to work on your swimming, Merlin.” Arthur said. “Or how to tell little kids to knock it off.”
“They were just having some fun.” Merlin said with a shrug. “I wasn’t struggling that badly.”
“You sure about that, Merlin.” Arthur deadpanned.
“Yeah, okay.” Merlin rubbed the back of his neck and Arthur couldn’t help but watch the way Merlin’s collarbones stuck out as the blush ran down his pale neck.
“So I was just wondering.” Merlin shifted his bare feet on the cement, “Gwen might have mentioned it, but Lance is having a pool party in two weeks. I mean, it’s at Lance’s place but he said you’re welcome to come.”
“I just met Lance. You sure he’s okay with that?” Arthur said. In year nine Arthur and Gwen had a weird thing that only fourteen year olds would call ‘dating.’ In reality it was more like an awkward week of hanging out. That hadn’t lasted long. Arthur wasn’t sure if Lance would want him around, even if he and Gwen were definitely just friends.
“Yeah, I asked if you could come.” Merlin said. He’s eyes widened when he realized what he said. “I mean, it would be fun. More the merrier, yeah? You can bring Gwaine too.”
Arthur grinned at Merlin’s rambling. He looked cute with his wild hand gestures and wide smile. Arthur thought that it would be nice to see Gwen more, and Elena was always fun to be around. Gwaine would be at his beck and call if Arthur got him closer to Elena. Plus, Merlin would be there. Arthur was starting to see that as a positive.
“Sure.” Arthur said. “And if there’s a pool, someone will have to keep you from drowning.”
Merlin smiled. “I will need someone to rescue me. You seem to have a knack for it.”
Arthur looked down and smiled. He wondered if Merlin was flirting or if it was just hopeful thinking on Arthur’s part. “Well I did have a lot of practice today.”
“So you’ll come?” Merlin asked, a hopeful look in his eyes.
Arthur said yes and to his surprise two weeks seemed like too far away.
***
Arthur decided that Morgana Pendragon was a menace. She was evil and had ulterior motives. Somehow she had convinced their father that she needed moral support at her next tournament and now Arthur had to go as some sort of encouragement.
“I’m not even going to pretend to understand why I have to be here and I refuse to cheer for you.” Arthur said as they drove to the school, where the private swim tournament was being held. Morgana and he were in the same year, and they had rarely gotten along. The only thing they seemed to agree on was when their father was being unreasonable, but only when it affected both of them. At the moment, their father was only being unreasonable to Arthur, so Morgana was happy to see him suffer.
“Coach said the tournaments need more people so they can sell more snacks. You eat more than anyone I know so I thought I’d bring you.”
“Hey!” Arthur protested.
“Oh get that stick out of your ass.” Morgana said.
Later, he sat in the stands with a soda in hand because it was the cheapest thing at the snack table and he refused to give Morgana any satisfaction.
“Arthur!”
He turned around to see Gwen and Lance sitting a few rows up. They waved for him to come and join them.
“What are you doing here?” Gwen asked after he climbed over the bleachers.
“Morgana dragged me here.” Arthur said.
“When I talked to her last she had mentioned that she got in.” Gwen said. Despite being in different schools Morgana and Gwen had managed to still keep in contact.
“She must be good. It’s not easy to get into this tournament.” Lance said.
Gwen nodded. “Morgana’s very good. When we were little she always swam circles around me.” She turned to Arthur. “Remember when we were in grade eight? I think that’s the only time she lost a race.”
During gym class in grade eight, Morgana and he had raced in the pool and when Arthur had won, she had been furious. They had always been competitive siblings and neither of them liked to lose. To be fair to Morgana, Arthur hadn’t beaten her since. Arthur had always thought it was that race that fueled Morgana’s swim training from then on.
The races started. The thing about swim tournaments was that they were only exciting as the swimmers made their final lap and one of them were crowned victor. Otherwise it was a mix of watching swimmers do the same stroke over and over again and then waiting around for the the next race.
The announcer over the speakers called out the next race. “Next up we have the second heat for the boys 200 meter breaststroke.” The announcer called out the names of the boys.
“Merlin Emrys.”
Arthur stiffened. Merlin wasn't a common name. He looked across the pool to where a boy with a blue cap was taking his place at the edge of the pool. He rolled his shoulders and pulled the goggles over his eyes.
“Go Merlin!” Gwen and Lance yelled, confirming Arthur’s suspicions.
Arthur Pendragon had been completely hoodwinked.
With the blaring noise of the the horn, the race started. Arthur watched as Merlin dove into the pool, not a trace of struggle. In fact, Merlin was swimming perfectly. In complete contrast to last Saturday, Merlin was not drowning. In fact, he was winning. After the second lap of the pool, he was ahead of all the other boys.
As the boys entered the last lap, it wasn’t even a question who had won that heat. Merlin had finished before any of the other boys. Not only could Merlin swim, he was good at it.
Arthur looked over to Gwen and Lance with his arms crossed and his brow raised. They at least looked a little apologetic. Over his shoulder, Gwen waved to someone and when Arthur turned he could see Merlin’s wide eyed expression even from across the pool.
Merlin ran over to the bleachers, taking off his swim cap so that his dark hair stuck up in every direction. At the edge of the bleachers, Merlin looked up at Arthur, still wet from the pool, his goggles around his neck. Arthur wished that Merlin would at least wear a towel because Arthur was going to find it difficult to look at him when he was only in his blue speedo.
“Oh Merlin.” Arthur said, “I see you took some swimming classes since we met.”
“Okay I deserve that.” Merlin said with a little wince. “Can I talk to you?” Merlin asked. Arthur nodded, making his way down the bleachers. Merlin grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the prying ears of the bleachers.
“So is there a reason you couldn’t swim last weekend? Because you seem pretty good at it now.” Arthur asked with his arms crossed.
“The first time, I really was drowning!” Merlin said earnestly. “Some kids had grabbed my legs and I couldn’t get up to the surface for breath.”
Arthur crossed his arms, “And the other four times?”
Merlin blushed bright red. “Well...I mean...Um!” Merlin bit his lip and then said, “Well you saved me the first time and- I don’t know! I am absolute shit at talking to cute boys and you were just so fit and I just wanted to get your attention. I admit the fifth time was out of hand.”
Arthur was stunned. It took him a moment to process what Merlin had said, and apparently it took Merlin a moment to realize what he had said too.
Merlin covered his mouth to muffle a curse. “I mean… It’s just that I was talking with Gwaine. I said you were cute and he said you might be interested...I was just kind of hoping...”
Arthur relaxed with a sigh as he ran a hand over his face. “You’re a complete idiot, Merlin.”
Merlin looked like he was biting his lips to keep from talking anymore.
“You thought drowning would get my attention?” Arthur asked, a smiling spreading over his face. Merlin wanted his attention. Merlin though the best way to get a lifeguard’s attention was to fake drowning. Merlin thought he was cute. Merlin was idiotic, but Arthur already knew that.
Merlin smiled hesitantly. “Like I said, I’m not very good at talking.”
“I can see that.” Arthur couldn’t help the little laugh that burst out of his chest. Now Merlin was grinning, looking very hopeful.
“So...you’re not…? Or would you be interested…?” Merlin said, not seeming to be able to think of a proper sentence.
“Well,” Arthur said, licking his lips and letting his eyes freely run over Merlin, just to make himself clear, before lifting back up to Merlin’s eyes. “I would say I’m interested.”
Merlin made some kind of noise that might have been a squeak of approval.
“I’ll be at Lance’s party next weekend. Will you be there?” Arthur asked.
“Yes! I’ll be there. Definitely. Absolutely.Yup.” Merlin said. His smile was wide and Merlin’s eagerness only made Arthur’s stomach fill with butterflies.
The announcer called for the final heat of the boys 200 meter breaststroke. “I have to go.” Merlin said as he gestured to the pool.
“Don’t drown.” Arthur said, and Merlin grinned as he ran back to the pool.