Merlin Oneshot: there's just no getting over you
Title: There’s Just No Getting Over You
Author: phys_nut
Beta: none, cause it’s short (and my beta will kill me if she knows I’m working on something OTHER than my HP emo fic… ^^;; )
Summary: It’s the distance that breaks them up.
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Word Count: 457
Warnings: Angst, Modern AU
A/N: howaya! What’s the craic? I’ve been working on a sort of humour/crack Merlin fic, which was going to be my first, but RL angst overcame me today and I needed to vent so I literally wrote this 15mins ago, sorry if it isn’t that great!
It is the distance that breaks them up. At first just a year apart, Merlin suddenly announces his place in Texas may turn more permanent if the opportunity arises, and in retaliation, Arthur panics and acts distant and aloof during their daily phone calls. This results in a total breakdown in already poor communication, and the two men are at each other’s throats for weeks before a mutual break up occurs. While on the phone afterwards, they are pleasant and significantly more relaxed with each other; they share news, jokes, laughs and gossip, and don’t mention the future. Then the year ends and Merlin is coming home - no one knows for how long - and his friends and family are happy and celebratory.
Arthur and Merlin internally freak out the first time they go to meet up, but their lunch is pleasant enough, even if they itch to hold the other’s hand, nudge his leg, hug and kiss him on the cheek. Arthur manages to compose himself, but Merlin, ever the one to wear his heart on his sleeve, is far more obvious about how he’s feeling. The thing though, is that Arthur likes being single, likes the peace and freedom that comes with being responsible for only himself, doing whatever he wants and not being accountable to anyone. So he does what he feels is right, and treat Merlin with harsh words of not wanting to be around someone who can’t be just friends with him, who’s mopey and will bring him down. This is followed by indifferent treatment, scathing looks and teasing, while openly talking about various good-looking men and women flirting with him. Merlin turns into a wreck, breaks down in Arthur’s sitting room and runs, Arthur waving him off with an eye roll at Merlin’s dramatics. Merlin is absent for the next two weeks. Arthur tells himself that he doesn’t care, that this was the only way to go about setting Merlin straight, that Merlin will calm down, get over it and come back, and Arthur will have his best friend back.
And that’s exactly what happens. Merlin turns up at Arthur’s door unannounced with a six pack and a rake of DVDs, and the two of them take off from four years ago, before they started their relationship: hanging out every other night, ogling hot people, getting drunk and experimenting in cooking whatever food they find in the kitchen after stumbling in from the pub. Arthur makes sarcastic and witty comments, and Merlin laughs and looks at him like there’s nowhere else he’d rather be than beside Arthur.
It isn’t until, years later, Merlin stops looking at him like that, that Arthur, chest heaving with a strange pain, realises what he’s truly lost.
***
A/N: so what do you think?? please let me know! :D