Be Mine?

The class room was in a rush as the kids and the parents laughed and filtered about playing games and having a good time at the holiday party. It was Valentine's Day and the class room of the 1st years was decked out in red and pink hearts and cupids that hung as if in flight from the walls and ceiling. Everyone was having a good time well except the one little child who had brown hair like a bark of a tree and wide eyes that looked around the place in amazement. His name was Merlin and he was new to the school and not a whole lot of people knew him or tried to get to know him because Merlin was very, very shy and was really, really clumsy.

He sat in the red plastic chair at the end of the room and watched as the kids, boys and girls, whispered with each other and smiled or yelled to and throw as they chased each other around and even some boys went over to girls with a sly smile and whispered into the girls ears and the girls blushed and smiled back shyly. But not one person came up to Merlin and that caused the boy to lower his gaze to the floor and scuff his trainers on the ground whishing he could be home right now with his mother and on the soft over stuffed couch watching a movie, but no he had to be here.

He didn't even have his book with him because he had awoken late this morning and forgot it on the table in the kitchen and he had been at a good part too. Merlin licked his lips as a sudden idea came to him. He knew a place that had books, tons and tons of books and he knew the way there too, but the teacher had said that no one was supposed to leave the class. Merlin rubbed his arm and glanced to where his teacher had been standing. She was talking with a parent and throwing back her head laughing so loud that it hurt Merlin's ears, surly, he thought coming to stand on the ground, no one would notice if I left really fast and came back?

So that's what he did. He walked over to the door and walked right out. No one stopped him and no one came out the door and yanked him back inside and it wasn't until he had went down the first stair well that he finally let go of the breath he had been holding. He let himself smile and he skipped down the hall, went through another stair well until he was outside the big oak doors of the library. He pushed them open and went inside.

He allowed himself to get caught up in the sight of the big book cases that seemed to surpass the roof of the school and reach all the way to space. He breathed in the smell of books and let the soft noise of the older students who were in the study area as they talked softly sooth his troubles away. Merlin nodded to himself and went to the back wall where he knew his favorite books were, he picked one of the shelves, looked at it, then picked another one and one more before he went over to a table and sat down. He pulled one of the books over and drove right into the story of a brave princess and her loyal knight.

It wasn't until the strike of the clock in the room that he looked up and was surprised to find he had been there for a good ten or fifteen minutes and had not been called back to class. He looked around and saw most of the students had left for class or moved deeper into the upper level deck of the library. Merlin was wondering if he should go back to the class for they had to see he wasn't there when someone casted a shadow over his books he held in his hands. Merlin looked up slowly afraid to see a teacher but to his surprise it was only a student who could not have been a year older then himself.

The brown haired boy looked at the blonde who stood in front of him and into the deep green eyes that were full of amusement, confusion, and something else that made Merlin feel light headed and his heartbeat fast. The boy had on a red t-shirt with a dragon on it and blue jeans that dragged to the ground and Merlin saw to his surprise, no shoes!

"Hi," the blonde boy spoke with a smile and a loud voice, "names Arthur, who are you?"

Merlin blinked and when he finally figured how to speak he said softly, "My…..my name is Merlin."

The blonde named Arthur nodded his head and pulled out a chair across from Merlin and sat down, " I thought so. Tell me Merlin how come you're at the library when the others are in the class rooms at the party?"

Merlin bit his lip, was this Arthur someone sent to bring him back? He swallowed; he didn't like to get into trouble. He shot Arthur a guilty look, "The party was boring and I forgot my book at home, really, I didn't mean to run away. I was only hoping to be gone for a few seconds, I swear. I don't want to get into trouble, please!"

Arthur looked taken back at Merlin's shout and his slight wobbling of the lips for he pulled back and waved his hands in the air and said quickly, " Hey, hey, you are not in trouble! Don't cry please, look if someone were to come in here we would both be in trouble and then everything would be ruined. You would go back to that silly party and I would be back in the class room learning math which I don't want to do!"

Merlin gulped back tears, "You mean you weren't sent to bring me back?"

Arthur shook his head at Merlin, " No I wasn't unless you want to go back?"

"No. But how did you know who I was?"

Arthur raised an eyebrow for a second and then smiled and said with his chest puffed out, "Because I have been watching you! You come in here almost every day, sit at this table, and read these books and I heard you tell the lady at the desk your name and I have wanted to talk to you and so here we are."

Merlin cocked his head and thought how weird this Arthur was for watching him but when he looked Arthur up and down, at his blonde hair and his smile and his eyes he found that really, where he should be scared or creeped out, he was in fact kind of happy someone had been paying attention to him. He crossed his arms, " Well, here we are. What are you doing out of class? I didn't think 2cd years had parties?"

Arthur leaned back into his chair and sighed, " we don't, but I didn't feel like doing math so I came here and have been here for a while, and then I saw you so I came over. How come you are not at the party? Don't you think they are fun?"

Merlin shook his head and huffed, " No because no one even knows me in there. I came here last week and not one person as tried to talk to me which is probably because I don't like people very much or talk too many."

"You're talking to me," said Arthur his face on his hand and then he snapped his fingers, "Hey you want to come home with me after school Merlin?"

Merlin blinked at Arthur. He had just met him and already he was being asked if he wanted to come over, merlin had never been asked that before. He opened his mouth but then shut it. What if this was a joke? What if Arthur let him go to his house and then left him Merlin lost and alone and then Arthur would come back and tell everyone how Merlin thought he had a friend.

" um, no I shouldn't. My mum is expecting me home after school, Arthur."

Arthur frowned at this but then his eyes lit up again and he grabbed Merlin's hand with his own, "well how come I come home with you, Merlin? My dad's not coming home until late and he said I could go over to friend's house if I wanted to. So how about it?"

"but- but we are not even friends!" said Merlin in shock and Arthur smiled and shrugged at him as if to say so we could be. Merlin looked at Arthur's hand and then to his own, there was something about Arthur that he liked but what? What could be about this blonde haired boy who he just met that made Merlin feel so calm and fine? "All right. I guess you could. It be nice to have someone to hang out with and I just got a new board game that I have been dying to play."

"Yes!" shouted Arthur and then he hopped off the chair and walked away from Merlin but then stopped to look over his shoulder, "meet me out front, Merlin!" and then he was off.

And that was how Merlin had come to be waiting outside by the front door, bundled in a heavy coat and a scarf around his neck. He tugged at his hat and glanced at the front door of the school again, it was getting very cold outside and so windy that the hearts on the shops across the way were blowing in the wind. When he finally figured it had all been a joke on the other boy's behalf and had begun his long walk home, he heard the door open and the yellow haired boy, now with shoes on, race over the sidewalk and almost ran into Merlin as he stopped. His pale face was hidden within his hat of his jacket.

"You are not leaving without me, are you Merlin?" said Arthur with a smile and Merlin found himself shaking his head no.

They began to walk down the street and Arthur began to talk about this and that and Merlin found himself laughing and talking just as much. They were just about ten minutes from home when Merlin's teeth chattered against the wind and he huddled deeper into his coat. It was so cold. He glanced over at Arthur who was rubbing his hands together with friction to stay warm. Arthur must have caught him starting for he stopped and looked over and paused, looking at Merlin. Merlin felt his face grow hot and he looked away.

"Ho-how come you wanted to talk to me so badly?" Merlin found himself asking the other when silence came onto them like a bog.

He thought Arthur had not heard him and was about to ask again when Arthur said, " Because you seemed nice enough, you like to read, you're quite, all my friends have names from the Arthurian myth and your name is Merlin and I'm Arthur, and….."

Merlin stopped and looked at Arthur who was now blushing as he had been a second ago. Merlin turned his head and said, " And what?" For all Arthur seemed to be, he was nice and funny, if a little adventures, but Merlin didn't peg him a shy.

Another blast of cold wind come over them and Merlin yelped as his hat was torn of his head and was blown away back behind them. Merlin found his feet running for it as fast as he could, for his mother had made him the hat for his birthday and he loved it so much. He heard Arthur follow, his footsteps loud as his, as Merlin stopped as he saw it high up in the birch tree trying to struggle in the wind. He whimpered and wondered how he was to tell him mum when he stopped his train of thought as Arthur, his hands bare and his bag now on the ground begin to climb the tree. Up and up he went until he reached the branch. He hung from it with his legs, swung back and then forward, his hands managing to nip at it and retract it from its caper.

Merlin gaped as Arthur shimmed down and dropped to the ground. He dusted off the hat and walked over to Merlin and looked at him with the green eyes that seemed magical to Merlin. He opened his mouth to say thank you when Arthur put the hat onto Merlin's head, tugged it onto his head past his ears, and smiled at him. He leaned in and whispered into his ear, his breath hot, " I also wanted to meet you because I think you're cute, Merlin, and I wanted to ask….will you be my Valentines?"

Merlin watched as Arthur face fell when he didn't answer and he sniffed and began to walk away, his face down. Merlin licked his lips and his heart pelted like a drum. He glanced at the tree and then at Arthur's back as he began to walk away. Merlin put a hand to his head to hold his hat in place, and he padded after Arthur, he yelled his name and when Arthur turned around his eyes a dry red, Merlin let his arms go around Arthur's neck and after a second Arthur's returned the hug as he snagged his arms around Merlin's back. They stayed like that, Merlin's head in Arthur's neck before they broke apart smiles and giggling.

"I'm not a big person of this valentine's day," said Merlin and as Arthur frowned he pushed on, "but I think I might like you and it's funny for we just met."

Arthur shrugged, "well we have a lot of time ahead of us, but let's start with walking home it's so cold!"

Merlin grabbed Arthur's ungloved his hand with his gloved one and held it tight as they began to walk to Merlin's house once again, and ever since then, to this day, both out of school and working good jobs, they spent ever valentine's Day at the little tree, wrapped in each other's arms and smiling for Merlin had been Arthur's ever since and always will be.

Happy early Valentine's Day to one and all! Please leave a review!