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“Merlin, you’re drooling.”
“Am I?” Merlin asks, distractedly. “But – he – “
Across the gym, Blond Adonis is finishing up his next set of reps. Merlin takes a sip from his water bottle, hardly noticing when it sloshes down the front of his t-shirt.
“Merlin!”
…
“Merlin?”
…
“He’s going to notice you staring, you know.”
“I can’t help it. It’s like trying to ignore the Venus de Milo.”
“I’m sure he’d be more than flattered to hear you say that.”
“Seriously! Look at those arms – that chest – there’s no way he got those at a gym.”
“Merlin! This is bordering on skeevy!”
“What do you expect me to do, Gwen? It’s like he’s a chocolate cake, and I’m a fat kid on a diet.”
“Just – go swim or something. You’re creeping me out.”
“Merlin!” suddenly Merlin’s view of Adonis is obscured by an overly tanned, hirsute gym rat. Lovely.
“Hello, Gwaine,” Merlin says tiredly. “How are you this evening?”
“Fine, just fine,” Gwaine grins. “I see you’re working on your lats today. You know, I know this excellent stretch –"
“Oh my god,” Merlin murmurs as Adonis moves over to the pull-up bar and rolls up his sleeves. “Fuck me.”
Gwaine smirks. “Say, Merlin, would you-"
But Merlin’s already half way across the gym, grabbing a random free weight off the rack in the center and positioning himself just at the edge of the weight training mat. Adonis has got his eyes shut now, head bobbing in time to the top 40 playing over the gym’s loud speakers as he does reps.
“You’re seriously creepy, you know that?” Gwen asks, coming up behind him with a set of 10lb dumbbells. “You, my friend, are a stalking stalker who stalks and you need to get off your arse and do something before I spontaneously combust from all this – “ Gwen waves her hands about – “Peripheral lust you’re giving out.”
“But he’s so – perfect.”
“Merlin!” Gwen says exasperatedly. “He’s just a person. Like you or me.”
“Look at him, Gwen! No one gets a chest like that from going to the gym. Or that belly? Gwen, did you see the belly?”
“I never pegged you for a chub chaser, Merlin.”
“Shut it! He’s perfect. He probably works as a firefighter or a professional mountain climber or something, pecs like that.”
“You like pecs, Merlin?” Gwaine pops up eagerly next to them. “I know this great move – it’s how I got these babies here!” And Gwaine actually starts flexing his pecs individually.
Merlin turns to Gwen, who has her hand over her mouth and seems to have developed a sudden, violent cough.
“I wonder what his name is?” Merlin murmurs to Gwen.
“Who?” Gwaine looks over at Adonis. “Oh that’s Arthur. Hey, Arthur!”
Arthur looks up. He nods at Gwaine, and then smiles at Merlin and Gwen. Merlin feels his heart leap into his throat, and starts violently choking.
“Are you okay?” Gwen asks, as Adonis-Arthur looks concerned and drops down to approach them.
Merlin tries to nod, but Adonis-named-Arthur is approaching and the room is beginning to feel strangely airless.
“Merlin!” Gwen looks alarmed now. “Merlin, take deep breaths!”
“Hey,” and now Adonis is leaning over Merlin, who’s sunk down to place his hands on his knees. “Hey, you’re okay now. Put your head between your knees for me, please.”
Adonis places one large hand gently on the back of Merlin’s head, and Merlin thinks he might have died. He thanks his lucky stars that his Mum had him baptized and apparently Father Dominic was wrong about that whole gay-hell thing, because if there are Arthur Adonis Angels in heaven he’s pretty much set.
“Right, now slowly breathe in for me. One…Two….” Arthur picks up Merlin’s hand and places it on his own chest, breathing deeply so Merlin can mimic the pattern. “Three…Four…. That’s it.” And it’s actually working; now Merlin is breathing easier and his vision is starting to come back in focus.
“Five…Six… There we go,” Arthur smiles and stretches out a hand to help Merlin upright. “You’ll be all right now, mate. Feeling okay?”
Merlin nods, not quite being able to bring himself to answer Arthur with words. His first interaction with Adonis that doesn’t involve him being a creepy creeper who creeps, and he’s gone and had a panic attack.
“Merlin!” Gwaine throws an arm around Merlin’s neck and Merlin stiffens, trying not to flinch and throw Gwaine off. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
Adonis’ smile is a bit more polite now, and Merlin’s heart sinks. Fucking Gwaine.
Fortunately Gwen’s there to come to his rescue. “Gwaine, I think your boyfriend’s calling you,” she says, and points at Percival, another of Gwaine’s victims- er, objects of affection.
Gwaine looks up and sees Percival doing squats in all his god-like physical glory and disappears before Merlin can blink. Merlin winces. He’s going to have to buy Percy a drink later to make up for all this.
Arthur smiles at Merlin cautiously. “Are you okay? You can tell me if you aren’t, I’m an EMT.”
Ah. That explained the pecs. “Quite all right now, thanks,” Merlin manages, and he sticks out a hand at the end. “I’m Merlin, by the way.”
“Arthur.” Adonis beams at Merlin, and he knows he’s got a ridiculous smile on his face that Gwen will never let him live down, but at this moment he doesn’t care.
“Would you like to sit down for a moment, Merlin?” Arthur asks, gesturing to the juice bar at the other end of the gym. “In my experience, lightheadness is often brought on by low blood sugar. Maybe I could buy you a smoothie?”
Merlin grins. “That would be great, thank you.”
As Merlin turns to follow Arthur, he notices Gwaine flexing his pecs for Percy, and fights back a grin.