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"We're here!"
There's no answering call when Gwen steps across the threshold of Merlin's flat. She toes off her shoes and pokes her head around the arch to the kitchen as Arthur closes the door behind them.
Not there either, and she can see the open bathroom door, so not there. She leaves Arthur in the kitchen with the bag of shopping, and wanders through the flat.
Ah, there, tucked on the couch, laptop on his knees, and his ridiculously huge headphones in place. He spies her as she moves into his frame of view, and shoots her a wide grin as he shoves down the headphones.
"Gwen! That fic!" he yelps gleefully, leaping up to grab her arms, half-tangled in cables, "Oh my Gods, I'm in love with them! The ball scene! And the planetary leap? All the angst and tenderness! And the baby, oh my Gods I can't even-"
"Who's had a baby?"
Arthur's bemused voice rounds the threshold before he does, and Merlin shuts his mouth quick. Gwen tries her best not to laugh at the way colour floods his face. Arthur looks a little put out.
"Nobody." Gwen supplies, when it becomes obvious that Merlin is having an internal meltdown, "Merlin and I were just talking about something I'm writing."
"Oh!" Arthur's face clears, and Gwen has to laugh at the notion that he was so wounded someone was having a kid that he didn't know about, "New editing gig?"
He drops onto the sofa next to Merlin's vacated spot, and Gwen hums. A single glance at Merlin tells her all she needs to know. He looks like he might combust.
"What's your new book about?" Arthur asks, oblivious, though he's noticed now how red the other man is.
Gwen decides that enough is enough. Yes, Arthur has frowned upon fanfiction in the past, and teased her mercilessly, (only her, because he's still too afraid if his sister to dare) but she has a sneaking suspicion that if anybody is to soothe Arthur's eye rolls into interest, it's Merlin.
"It's not a book," she says airily, beginning to guide the still-mute Merlin back onto the couch, "it's a new fic I'm working on. Merlin's been kind enough to offer notes."
She smiles in the face of Merlin's betrayed dismay, and then turns a sharp look on Arthur when the blonde brays a laugh.
"Sorry," he coughs, looking not at all sorry, "I thought Merlin only edited real writing."
Gwen continues to glare at him, until he squirms a little.
"Not that, you know, your fanfiction isn't real writing, I only meant-"
"All writing is real writing." Merlin croaks, and Gwen pats his hand, and settles on his other side.
Arthur's face is doing something strange, and Gwen can't help but laugh again.
"I didn't know he reads that stuff, did I?" Arthur snaps at her, expression finally forming into a pouty sort of sullen as he eyes Merlin, "I'm not a mind-reader."
There's a moment of silence while Gwen attempts to wait out one of the most stubborn people she's ever met. It takes a while, before Merlin deflates a little, looking sheepish and uncomfortable.
But then Arthur caves, instead.
"So what's it about, then?" he asks the ceiling, arms loosely crossed over his chest, "Who did you impregnate?"
Gwen blurts a high laugh at his wording, and the smirk curling his mouth tells her it's his way of apologizing.
"Spock." she answers, checking her nails and peering at the laptop's open screen, to see where Merlin is so she doesn't spoil anything further.
"Spock!?"
Arthur's surprised outburst is hilarious. Gwen smiles demurely at him, like Morgana is so good at.
"Star Trek's Spock!? That Spock!?"
"Yes, that Spock."
"But-" much spluttering, "but he's a he!"
And it's then that Merlin huffs a short bark of laughter. Gwen can't blame him, Arthur's face is twisted in consternation, his face flushed, and it's always funny to hear his confident, posh voice falter with absurd levels of confusion.
"It's fanfiction, Arthur." Merlin sighs, resigned to the inevitable teasing, "Just like regular fiction, you can do anything with it. Mpreg is like... Fantasy, or Science Fiction."
And he looks so pink still, so keen to avoid Arthur's incredulous gaze, that Gwen cannot help but tease him herself, just a little.
"Or Magic." she hums, watching the deep red leak back into both their faces.
"I see." Arthur says at last, although he doesn't look or sound sure at all, "That's... Interesting, I guess?"
Gwen grins.
"It is."
"And Spock's.. uh. Baby. That's... Whose?"
"Oh, Kirk's, of course. Actually Merlin inspired the fic, telling about the rewatch you guys were doing."
"Oh my Gods," Arthur gasps, finally catching on as he claps Merlin on the shoulder, "You SHIP them!"
Merlin makes a weird, whining sort of groan and looks like he wants to sink into the couch and disappear. Arthur, of course, has recovered and grins at him wickedly.
"Shut up."
Arthur crows gleefully at his mate's pathetic sniping, earning himself a glare.
"Oh, you do. It's because Kirk's all suave, isn't it?"
Gwen settles in and pulls out her phone to keep Morgana updated, as the pair beside her fall into a heated bickering she knows from experience will end up with them inevitably all over each other and her excusing herself before she witnesses something she shouldn't.
Like an attempt to test her suggestion for a new use of Merlin's magic.