FIC: Meet Me In The Sky (We were waiting for you) (Merlin/Gwaine; Arthur/Merlin; Arthur/Gwaine - G)

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Title: Meet Me In The Sky (We were waiting for you)
Author/Artist: ???
Pairing(s): Merlin/Gwaine; Arthur/Merlin; Arthur/Gwaine *Arthur/Merlin/Gwaine*
Prompt: 27
Word Count/Art Medium: 3,319
Rating: G
Contains (Highlight to view): *Teen Angst, Poly, miscommunication*
Disclaimer: Merlin characters are the property of Shine and BBC. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Title's inspired by the Lilly Allen song; but the story isn't. It's just all about angst-y teens.
Summary: Gwaine wants to invite Merlin to the Winter Formal. Merlin's sure the whole thing is aimed at Arthur. Arthur, of course, thinks Merlin is an idiot.
Read it on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12854745

Gwaine was known to be a very confident man, but he would be lying if he said his heart was not in his mouth as Merlin walked out from the building and in full view of the park. The sent the boy something that he hopped was a charming grin, and the answering smile was one of Merlin’s typical ones: capable of lightening up a whole city from the bright light in his eyes alone. The blue orbs scanned the scene in front of him, and Gwaine wondered how it looked like — him and the technician along with the hot-air balloon almost ready to rise to the sky.

“Come on!” he called, and the taller boy rushed closer.

“Oh, you are stepping up your game, aren’t you?” Merlin seemed excited about it, as the Irish had known he’d be, bless him. “A hot-air balloon! I doubt anyone’s going to go bigger than this.”

“I’m trying to make a lasting impression,” he replied with a wink. Merlin laughed out loud, shaking his head as if to say that Gwaine was incorrigible.

“I’m sure you are,” was the answer, and damn if the boy did not know the effect of that look coming from under the long dark eyelashes. “Tell me your plans.”

“I’ll do you one better,” promised Gwaine. “Hop in!”

It seemed that he couldn’t believe his ears — adorable, if anyone asked — but nodded in agreement to the request. Gwaine entered the balloon with the ease of someone who’s at ease of their own body, ignoring the door in favour of displaying his skills and jumping over the edge. Merlin, well aware of his own clumsy tendencies, opted for a more traditional route. With a nod, the technician started to work on getting them in the air.

“You know, most people would think you’re not a romantic,” Merlin said, watching as they rose through the air. “But look at this. It’s wonderful.”

“I’m glad you liked it,” he answered, coming to stand closer to his friend. “Is it everything you’d wish for in a prom invitation?”

Merlin shrugged, his head inclined in a way that showed just half of his smile.

“Oh, you know I’m a sucker for this sort of sentimentality,” he confided, before looking straight at Gwaine. “I’m not the best judge — not the best example — but I’m sure that even Arthur won’t be able to find fault with it. I mean, even if he does complain, he’ll still love it.”

“Arthur?” Gwaine asked, a bit confused as to why exactly the Princess was being brought up at this point.

Merlin did not answer, just stared out, watching the whole landscape rolling under them. They were now high enough that they could see the city beneath them, the green field of the park where they had met, the school building ahead with the outside fields where the Lacrosse team was training, small as ants from the distance. They were above most buildings, and only the hospital was in the same height, still far enough that it didn’t matter. It wasn’t the first time Gwaine was in the air, and he knew the view could be breath-taking, it was exactly the reason why he had chosen the hot-air balloon in the first place, timing it just right so that they would be coming down along with the sun, hopefully painting their descent and a glorious kiss in gold, orange, pink and red.

As beautiful as it looked, it held no candle to the company. He knew the sight even better than that of the city, from the many many hours spent watching his best, oldest friend, but he never tired of it. There was something entrancing about the lines in his face, a beauty that seemed almost mystical. High cheekbones and a pouty mouth, the contrast between the fair skin and dark hair that, in a girl, would summon to mind Snow White. All the smiling had caused his eyes to be prematurely lined, which was just another charm. There was so much to admire in his looks — not to even mention the amazing person he was — that he couldn’t phantom how someone could not be attracted to him. And yet, Merlin seemed completely clueless about his own potential, stuck in a time where he had been all ears and way too skinny, still a child near his adolescent friends.

Gwaine was decided that he would see how much he was wanted.

“You know, I’m kind of jealous,” Merlin offered, ever the conversationalist. “Arthur Pendragon does get it all — the looks, the money, the spot as team captain, even good brains, and then there’s — well, you. And now this. I would kill to get someone to do something like this to me. So, yeah, I’m sort of jealous right now. Still — I’ll count my victories and be grateful that you brought me to the test-drive.”

“This is not a test-drive,” Gwaine corrected, but his friend did not pay him the slightest heed.

“Oh, no, it’s fine — I’ll take what I can get, and I’m sure Arthur deserves it…”

“Merlin,” he called, trying to get a word in edgewise of the endless stream of chatter that his friend could get into, especially when he felt somewhat nervous. “Merlin,” he repeated, and the boy finally stopped babbling and turned towards him, a question in his eyes. “This is not about Arthur.”

“Isn't it?”

Gwaine had always had a particular weakness for the whole deer-in-the-headlights look, Merlin just could pull it so well. It was part of his charm that he was utterly guileless, his eyes shone, completely open even if his lips were pressed against each other in some tension. He couldn’t help but to smile at the scene, he would never have imagined things to go any other way.

“No. In fact, not sure if you noticed, but he's not around,” the older boy gestured around, as if inviting his friend to notice the absence of the blond one; which, of course, was obvious considering they were standing inside a balloon.

“Ah. I hadn't - no, yeah.”

“I've been trying to get to you - honestly,” Gwaine took a deep breath, trying to organise his thoughts and put it the best way he could. “Look at all this,” he said, gesturing towards the blue sky and the city view and the bright red air balloons that had been tied to the field they had come from, forming the words that asked Merlin out to the Winter Formal. “It's all for you.”

Merlin’s eyes grew to the size of saucers, it was as if he could not believe his ears. Maybe it had never occurred him that this was not the sort of thing that would work for Arthur — doing it, yes, because he loved grand gestures and being seen as generous; but he wouldn’t be comfortable with being on the other side.

“Me? I mean... Me? But you and Arthur have been going strong for over a year!”

“Around that, yes,” Gwaine agreed, though why exactly Merlin had decided to declare things everyone already knew, he didn’t know. As their best friend, Merlin had been there every step of the way. It had been to Merlin that Arthur had first (finally) confided that he might be gay — and it had taken Gwaine a good measure of illegal alcohol to pry the secret away from Merlin. He had been there the first time Gwaine made a pass at Arthur (not his general “you know you want me” sort of line, the one he served indiscriminately to both men and women around him, the one that had been named everything from saucy to lecherous, but a real, dashing invitation that did not lean solely on his rakish good looks), he had learnt of their first date (if it could be called that), and all initial steps of their relationship. Even if he had grown a bit distant from the two of them since, hanging out almost exclusively with Will, Freya and their little gang, he could still count.

“Just last week he presented a sculpture of you, in the nude, full size for the art fair!”

Merlin’s voice kept rising, as he got more and more worked up about it, but Gwaine was deaf to it as he laughed, nodding.

“What can I say? The princess is talented - and not just in the art department, let me tell you...”

“... So how come you're asking me out?”

Ah.

It hadn’t occurred to Gwaine up to that point that he would need to explain this part. Merlin had been their best friend for years — both Gwaine’s and Arthur’s, even if they hadn’t been really friends to each other before — so he should know how Gwaine dealt with commitments and how Arthur hated impositions from the outside. Their thing was their own, and never they should have to explain what sort of agreements they had or hadn’t settled on. Then again, not saying was probably the reason behind Merlin’s exclamations.

“Thing is, Merlin, Arthur and I - we're not like that,” he tried to explain. “We're not exclusive.”

Merlin’s eyebrow rose at this, clearly and openly judging him for the words he had just said.

“"Not exclusive" is just something people say when they want to get away with murder,” the younger boy declared, crossing his arms against his chest. “And to be clear here, by murder I mean cheating.”

“I'm not cheating,” Gwaine exclaimed, impatient and more than a bit hurt that he had had to say it. “I'm not a cheater.”

“Right...” Merlin answered, but it was clear in his voice that he didn’t believe what he was saying.

“Look - Arthur is more than on board with this,” he insisted, because it was important that Merlin get it. “In fact, he was the one to suggest the balloon theme.”

“He told you to take me out, up in the air, and to ask me to Winter Formal?” Merlin asked, his voice thick with annoyance, then shook his head. “Look — I get it. I’ve been a lousy friend. I just sort of left you too behind and… I can understand that you’d try and find ways to get me to… You know, stop being an ass; but this — this — well, you are the ones being assholes about the whole thing now. I think it’s perfectly understandable that I did not want to be the third wheel after you two decided to stop hating each other and shag each other instead; I think it’s absolutely normal that you’d think I was being too harsh and wanted to make me talk to you again; but this is a little too… In your face, mocking, stupid way of trying to force me back.”

Gwaine could only blink, unable to believe that Merlin had got it all so completely wrong. He had wanted to do this himself — to go all the way. He had fought Arthur for it, and yet he had, once again, managed to botch it completely. He could only stare, wordlessly, at Merlin’s angry expression, the festive red of the helium balloons flying upwards and past them depressive rather than festive. His one-time best friend just shook his head once again, as if he couldn’t begin to express his disappointment in Gwaine, and it hurt so much that he found in himself the strength to appeal once more.

“Merlin, it’s not like…”

“I don’t care,” the boy replied, closing his eyes as he stepped forward, shouldering Gwaine to speak to the technician. “Take us back down.”

The man looked at him, waiting for confirmation and he could only jerk his head in a nod. Merlin had made his feelings on the matter completely clear, and there was little he could do but accept.

Merlin could hardly control his temper as he got out of the balloon; his feet were stomping as he moved towards the field where the lacrosse team was just leaving. He got one of the spare sticks and walked right up to Arthur, his hands trembling in anger as he pushed the metal against the team’s captain, stopping his steps. It was a silly thing to do, Merlin was scrawny even if he was a tad taller than the captain and the other boy didn’t even need to brace himself against the hit, absorbing it without effort with his own stick, his eyebrow risen in a question.

“I take you’re upset, Merlin. Generally, we use words to express it, not lacrosse sticks.”

Though they had barely spoken in the last year, Arthur’s voice was exactly the way he remembered, the posh timbre doing things to Merlin’s skin that were very unwelcome at the moment. It fed, instead, into his anger as he spitted his answer.

“That’s rich coming from the captain of the lacrosse team.”

The said team was all around them, and for a second it was as if Arthur was a king and them his knights, ready to act under his command. Even enraged, he knew he did not have to fear Arthur, it didn’t matter that they weren’t close anymore, he was too principled to use their loyalty to stop a scene. Instead, he made a small gesture of dismissal, and they started to disperse, though they threw both of them worried looks. For the first time since he had decided it was best to step away, Merlin wondered if he had been unfair to more than just Arthur and Gwaine. The other boys on the team had been his friend’s too; Leon and Percy for example, Lance and him had been so close that he had been the first to figure out Merlin was into boys. As they were left alone, Arthur cleared his throat, and this immediately brought the rage back.

“So, what was this about?” Arthur asked, hand on his hip.

“Your boyfriend,” Merlin hissed, indignant. “Who just tried to ask me out a thousand feet above the ground and claim it was your idea.”

“Ah,” the captain said, with a nod. “I forgot he was doing it today. My bad,” then he seemed to notice, once again, that Merlin was furious and frowned. “From the looks of you, it didn’t go well.”

“He is your boyfriend,” Merlin repeated, “he should be asking anyone else out.”

“Didn’t we just establish that I was all for it?”

“How can you?” He gasped, because — he knew he wasn’t ever going to be real competition for Arthur, but being so thoroughly taken for granted still hurt. “I know you, Arthur. You’d never be just fine with him sleeping around, with the risk of losing him, not even if you were about to end it. Do you really think so little of me? Or did you think this would be a good way to cajole me into talking to you again? Some pity company for a dance and I’d be glad to just sit and watch as you two get at it? No!”

Once again, he pushed his stick against Arthur’s, but this time the boy pushed it right back, his face burning red — if from shame or anger, Merlin did not know or care.

“So that is what you think of me; that I’m some sort of entitled asshole that would just string people along and play with their feelings? No wonder you stopped talking to me if that’s how you truly feel, but Gwaine always did any and everything for you, you should give him more credit than that!”

“Gwaine’s always ready to hit on anything that moves,” Merlin dismissed it, because it was true and they both knew it. “I just thought there was a line…”

“Between flirting and meaning it?” Arthur completed, as it was a very common comment about his boyfriend’s behaviour. “There’s. And he meant it — Every. Single. Word. There’s no pity invitation at play here. If you don’t know that Gwaine has always been in love with you, you’re even more of an idiot than I always said you were!”

The exasperation in his voice along with his words got Merlin stuck between mad and stunned. How could it be…?

“In love with me?” he repeated, and Arthur slapped his head for good measure.

“Yes, you dolt! He has always been in love with you. He has always wanted to ask you out, he just never had the nerve to do it! For God’s sake, you know Gwaine. He’s very bold, except when it really matters.”

And, yes, this had always been true of Gwaine, but it still made no sense.

“Have you two broken up?” He asked, wondering at the apologies he owned to the other boy.

“What, Gwaine and me?” Arthur asked, before scoffing. “Not as such, no.”

“Then, why….?” Merlin could really understand just what was going on.

“Why I told him to woo you? Well, I didn’t - I rather fancied doing it myself, and I surely would’ve been better at it than Gwaine — he owns me five bucks now — but since he made such a big deal out of it, I let him do it.”

“Wait, what?” Merlin asked, completely perplexed. What had he just heard?

“Which part you didn’t understand, Merlin? The one where I said I let him do the honours or the one where I said I’d be better at doing it, which, by the way, you know it’s true. Honestly, with such big ears, once would’ve imagined lack of hearing would be the least of your problems…”

The tips of the said ears grew hot at the comment, but Merlin didn’t really pay it any heed, he was used to such comments in general and from Arthur specifically. Either way, it palled in comparison to the rest of the things said.

“Are you asking me to the prom?” It made no sense, but he had to confirm that this head was going crazy. “As in the plural you?”

“A bit slow, are we?” Arthur said, but his grin was fond, the one that had always melted Merlin’s insides. “We’ve been waiting for the best chance to talk to you about it for ages.”

“What?” Merlin said, his voice weak, but Arthur was looking to something behind him.

Of course, Gwaine was coming towards them, and Merlin was left feeling both overwhelmed at the idea of going out with both and ashamed at how poorly he had judged the two boys who had been his close friends. Even from afar he could tell Gwaine’s expression was one of sadness, but Arthur seemed unfazed at it all.

“So, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you regret not letting me handle it?”

Gwaine looked from one to the other, as if he was not sure of what to make of the whole thing.

“Did he say yes to you then?”

“Excuse me,” Merlin interrupted, because, damn, he was right there, and they would not have a conversation as if he wasn’t around. “I said nothing.”

“At least I managed to make him understand the idea and accept it was a true invitation,” the blond boy replied with a shrug.

“Luckier than me, then,” Gwaine looked at him from the corner of his eye. “Maybe we should put our powers together to convince him.”

Merlin could only blink as they got next to each other. Arthur’s arms were crossed against his chest, but Gwaine’s encircled both with his arms, bringing them closer.

“I don’t know, I’m second-guessing the whole thing,” the blond answered, still smiling. “Not sure if it’s worth it.”

“Liar,” Gwaine whispered, grinning and coming closer. “You can hardly stop thinking about him.”

“I’m never telling you a secret again,” Arthur’s arms dropped, coming to touch Merlin. “So, what do you say?”

And Merlin knew exactly how to answer.

He didn’t need words for it.