"Arthur can we stop cleaning now?" Leon groaned as he and Lance settled the sofa back into place.

"No, you still have the den to do and then I want Hunith's room cleaning again, and the bedding should be done once you have finished cleaning it, you can make the bed," Arthur smirked from where he was seated on his and Merlin's armchair reading.

"You can afford cleaners to do all this!" Lance huffed blowing one of his curls from out of his eyes.

"Merlin doesn't like hiring cleaners, he says it's a waste of money and a sign of pure lazyness," Arthur shrugged turning his page.

"Then why are we doing the cleaning while you sit there?!" Leon scowled.

"Because I am organising you, and I want everything perfect for Hunith coming, and considering everything with Merlin you still owe me!" Arthur glared slightly over his book and watched with satisfaction as Leon and Lance hurried out the room.

"Are you sure Merlin is going to take you inviting his mum here without him knowing well?" Gwaine asked as he walked into the living room, he was covered in flour and had his sleeves rolled up.

"I hope so, I want to assure her I'm not treating him badly like Will has her convinced, I can't take time off work and Merlin off University for another few months, so she had to come here," Arthur shrugged.

"You know I am sorry don't you," Gwaine said softly making Arthur look at him.

"I love Merlin," Arthur said with a small frown. "And he loves me, I thought that you would support us, not make the man I love feel uncomfortable in our relationship,"

"We were trying to protect you, wrongly, but we did it with the best of intentions, and we'll make it up to Merlin," Gwaine said firmly.

"You can carry on cooking a meal that will impress Hunith," Arthur smirked going back to his book.

"Yes sire," Gwaine drawled shuffling back to the kitchen.

Four Months ago

"You're a prat," The blue eyed, dark haired man glared at him before spinning on his heel and stormed off down the road. Gawping after the young man who had spoken to him in a way he was pretty sure no one had ever spoken to him Arthur tried to figure out what the hell had just happened.

He had been making his way down the street talking on the phone to Leon about the new security contract that they were writing up when someone had walked into him, hot coffee hitting his shirt. He realised that he had lost his temper a little, and perhaps he shouldn't have said that his shirt cost more than the man's entire wardrobe after running a scathing eye over said man's clothes. But really he should have been watching where he was going. And even if Arthur hadn't really even him the chance to apologise, the man had unknowingly messed up Arthur's morning. He couldn't go into a meeting with coffee stains on his shirt!

Even so, the blue, blue eyes of the man that had bumped into him haunted him all the way to his office, through changing his shirt with the spare one he kept there, down into the meeting with the board he had had to use his utmost charm on to apologise for being late, and even over the next few days they kept popping into his head.

It was with a tired sigh, nearly a month later when the fey young man's image was nearly gone from his head, that Arthur walked into the bookstore.

It was complete chance really, he was in the area for a meeting with an up and coming firm that he reckoned were going to do very well and wanted a section of their company. Instead of getting the company car back he had decided to get some fresh air and relax his exhausted mind and walk to forty minutes back to Pendragon inc.

He had never been able to resist a book shop, especially not the old, personally owned ones that were generally crushed full of books like a treasure trove. Hoping he would be able to find a couple of books he had not read, and maybe something for Morgana, he had hurried inside. Only to be met with those blue eyes again. Blue eyes that blinked at him before squinting slightly.

"You! You're that Prat!" The younger man declared pointing at him, drawing the attention of the couple of other people in the store to them both.

"And you're the idiot that walked into me," Arthur bristled.

"Hey! Mines was a genuane mistake, yours was generally just a horrible personality," The man shrugged.

"Do you speak to all your customers like this?" Arthur asked stepping fully to the counter so that he could lower his voice, though the other shoppers seemed quite interested in what was going on.

"Only the clot poles," The young man shrugged.

"Clot…that's not even a word!" Arthur glared.

"Sure it is look it up in the dictionary," The younger smirked.

"Oh, and what would the description for a 'clot pole' be?" Arthur snorted.

"You of course!" The tone indicated that the younger man seriously questioned Arthur's intelligence, those blue blue eyes were glittering mischieviously clearly enjoying winding Arthur up.

"Do you seriously do any business?!" Arthur shook his head.

"Are you seriously in here buying books?" The younger man snorted.

"And why wouldn't I be?" Arthur raised his eyebrow.

"You look more like the type that likes to sit watching sports on tv beating your chest, exorcising and then spending the rest of the night admiring yourself in the mirror," The younger man smirked. Arthur took a second before he couldn't hold in his laughter.

"Come out for a meal with me tomorrow and I will show you that your assessment is incorrect," Arthur smirked leaning against the counter.

"No!" the younger man snorted, but after a moments pause letting Arthur know he had a chance.

"Brilliant, I'll come and pick you up tomorrow then, 1600,"

"I said no! And I don't finish till 1700 anyway,"

"Chinese good for you?"

"I said no!"

"Wonderful, see you tomorrow," Arthur smiled making his way to the door.

"I said no!" the younger man shouted.

"I said no!" The younger man glowered as Arthur walked into the store.

"I heard you many times," Arthur shrugged calmly leaning against one of the bookshelves.

"So I'm not going out with you,"

"Do you enjoy working here?" Arthur asked looking around the shop.

"I…yes," The younger man seemed thrown by the change in coversation.

"I would love to work in a bookstore, surrounded by books all day," Arthur smiled softly looking around.

"I love the smell of them, all the old books," The younger man admitted with a blush.

"I always smell a new book before I read it," Arthur chuckled making his way to the counter.

"Why are you here, I said..."

"No, yes I heard,"

"Well?"

"I wouldn't ignore you wishes, but I will push the boarders," Arthur admitted with a rakeish grin before holding up the bags he had been holding behind his back.

Arthur was pleased to see that the younger man couldn't hold back his grin when he saw the bags of Chinese, two very big bags of Chinese.

"I wasn't sure what you would like so I got a mixture of a lot of things," He admitted.

"So you thought you would come here and try and prove you are not a clotpole by supplying me with food... its a good chance, but you didn't have to spend that much money," The younger man sighed.

"I make more than enough to buy you a bit of Chinese. So, do you need to lock up?" Arthur asked.

"I haven't agreed yet," The younger man raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, I will just sit down here then, with my food," Arthur perched himself on one of the two steps that raised half the shop from the floor. He pulled off his jacket, and then started unpacking the cartons of food that he had with him, laying them out on the food around him. He kept his eyes lowered but watched the younger man out the corner of his eye. He watched as he hesitated and then moved to the doorway and locked up before flipping the sign to closed.

"Are you going to give me a name at least?"

"Arthur Pendragon,"

"Ok Arthur Pendragon I have just text that to my friend, if I disappear the police will come looking for you!" He warned before sitting down next to him.

"You think I am some kind of killer?" Arthur asked amused.

"I don't know, can't be too careful," he shrugged.

"Am I at least allowed your name?" Arthur asked.

"Merlin,"

"Nice to meet you Merlin," He smiled at the other man, feeling hope when the younger man blushed slightly. "So how did you come to work here?"

"My Uncle owns the shop, when I moved here to go to uni he offered me a job to help boost my funds a little, and he needs help here so it worked out for both of us," Merlin shrugged, hesitantly picking up a box and takin a few mouthfuls.

"Where are you originally from?" Arthur tilted his head and rolled his eyes when blue eyes glittered mischievously. "And don't say Ireland, I can hear the accent,"

"I am from a small town near Galway called Ealdor," Merlin grinned.

"And uni brought you here?" Arthur asked curiously, holding out a box Merlin had been eyeing.

"Yes, my friends and I decided to move here for uni, we are in different departments but luckily its the best uni for what we wanted to do, and we all got in," Merlin smiled fondly. "And I am an art student, before you ask,"

"Sorry, I am just very curious about you," Arthur flushed slightly realising he had been interrogating the other man.

"There is not anything really interesting about me," Merlin flushed shaking his head.

"I would have to argue," Arthur smiled slightly, his eyes intent as he looked at the younger man. Merlin's face little up bright red at the words and look. "Can I see some of your work?" Arthur asked.

"Its not great," Merlin huffed but he pulled his phone out and moved to sit beside Arthur.

"You sent a picture of me too?!" Arthur choked as the phone opened and the text Merlin had sent to his friend was revealed with a side picture of him.

"Of course, you could have given me a false name," Merlin shrugged before exiting his messages and going to his pictures.

The paintings were spectacular, and that was not just Arthur's attraction for the younger man speaking. His paintings all had a fantasy theme, images of dragons, phoenixes, griffins, knights, magicians and various other images that could have come out of a medieval story.

"I said they weren't very good, I am still learning and..." Merlin stopped rambling and trying to pull his phone away when Arthur gripped his wrist gently.

"They are amazing, you are very talented,"

"You're just trying to flatter me," Merlin shook his head.

"I'm not, I don't give compliments where they are not deserved, they are really good Merlin," Arthur said as honestly as he could watching as a pleased, shy smile crossed his face.

"So, what do you do?" Merlin asked, making no move to go back to where he had been sitting, just settling comfortably and reaching for another box.

"I...run my own business," Arthur said slowly. He had had so many people change their mind on him when they found out how much he was worth.

"Oook, doing what? Selling drugs? Guns? Pimp?" Merlin asked. Arthur blinked before he burst out laughing.

"Do I look that suspicious to you?" He asked between his laughter.

"No, actually you look like an accountant," Merlin said dryly, before laughing himself at the offended look Arthur shot him.

"I run a security firm, we supply various forms of security for different situations depending on what is needed," Arthur shrugged. "Its quite boring,"

"It doesn't sound like it," Merlin hummed. "Do you know how to be a bodyguard?"

"Yes I have acted as a body guard," Arthur grinned.

"Cool! So how long have owned the business?"

"Seven years now, I set it up with my good friend,"

"How did you come to set it up?" Merlin asked curiously.

"I worked for my father, but I didn't agree with the way that he did things, and we argued. I decided that I didn't want to live like that anymore, and if I stayed I would have no relationship left with him. So I left and set dong something that I would enjoy," Arthur looked at Merlin and flushed a little. "I'm sorry that was a little heavy,"

"No, that seems like a brave thing to do. It was difficult leaving my mum, I changed my mind about coming to London about twenty times, I had not even packed to come the day before we were due to leave," Merlin admitted.

"What made you decide to come in the end?"

"My mum, I came home and she had packed my things for me and told me I had to leave because she had a line of men planned for dates and the lucky one would be coming back with her to have wild sex all round the house, and I would cramp her style being there," Merlin grinned when Arthur choked on his mouthful of fried rice.

"She..."

"She has always had an amazing sense of humour and personality. I get that from her I like to think,"

"Tell me something about her?" Arthur requested gently. Merlin hummed tapping his lips with his chopsticks before grinning.

"When I came out one of the other mum's that lived on our street told her that she had failed as a parent and had raised an abortion, and that we would both burn in hell,"

"Wow, intense, what did she say?" Arthur huffed.

"She didn't say anything. She just walked back into the house. And spent the night painting rainbow flags which she hung from all the windows, the car, the gate, and she spent the next three weeks walking around in rainbow coloured clothes until the tops arrived,"

"Tops?" Arthur asked through his snickers.

"Yup, 10 tops declaring in various ways how proud of me she was, and then she also got car stickers. It didn't help that 5 of the other houses on the street heard what had happened and hung LGBT flags up themselves, and nearly all the others clapped every time they saw my mum,"

"That sounds good...I thought my dad was going to pass out when I told him," Arthur smiled. "My sister started cackling and called her best friend,"

"She called her best friend?" Merlin asked confused.

"Yup apparently they had been placing bets on me. I was late coming out the closet, 24,"

"There is no right or wrong time besides when you are ready," Merlin shook his head.

"Thank you," Arthur smiled. "So my friends and sister were very supportive, scarily so. My sister tried to get me hooked up at parties numerous times," Arthur shivered.

"So, no one at the minute?" Merlin tried to ask discretely.

"No no one right now. My last partner was six months ago, I found out they were only with me because of my money," Arthur found himself admitting.

"I am sorry," Merlin frowned.

"No its...it hurt me a lot, and it made me a little wary, but I got over it with my friends and enough whisky to pickle my liver," Arthur said dryly resting his elbows on the floor and leaning back comfortably.

"So why the interest in me?" Merlin frowned. He looked so confused that Arthur shook his head.

"Aside from the shallow fact that you are gorgeous, you have a personality that sparks in your eyes, your fiery and quick witted. Couldn't help myself," Arthur admitted freely.

"I'm really not that interesting," Merlin muttered blushing brightly.

"Well, perhaps you are not that bright, but I am sure we can work around that," Arthur laughed when Merlin spun around to glare at him, at least until he threw a piece of sweet and sour chicken at him, which landed with a splat on his cheek.

Arthur blinked at the dark haired man for a second who sat there laughing before he reached into a nearby box and threw some noodles from the chow mein at the other. Merlin started before his eyes sparked, and before Arthur knew it he was involved in a food fight.

They were diving for boxes, throwing new food at each other while being unable to stop laughing as they battled it out. Arthur wasn't sure when they had made their way to each other, but the next thing he found himself pinning Merlin down on the floor before spluttering as he had rice poured over his head.

He looked down at Merlin, covered in food and sauce, a huge, happy grin on his face, his eyes sparkling a deep sapphire blue as he looked up at Arthur. He couldn't stop himself from leaning down and pressing a gentle kiss to those full lips, not wanting to push it, but not being able to help himself.

Of course they slightly regretted the food fight when they had to make their way in a circle around where it had taken place cleaning up stray rice, chicken, noodles and vegetables. But every time he looked at Merlin Arthur could not stop himself from grinning like an idiot. The younger man had kissed him back, and had not been upset with the kiss.

"So, do I get a second date?" Arthur asked nervously as he stood at the door to leave once their clean up was done.

"That depends," Merlin bit his lip.

"On?"

"If you would fancy going to a gallery do with me on Saturday? I need to attend and it would be nice having someone with me, though I will understand..."

"I would love to," Arthur said softly before brushing their lips together. "Just tell me when and where you want to meet," He said pressing his card into Merlin's hand.

"Ok," Merlin grinned happily.

"Ok," Arthur found himself grinning back.

"I will see you then,"

"Yes you shall," Arthur brushed a kiss to Merlin's cheek before turning and dragging himself away before he could change his mind.