The Warlock and the Dragonlord

This one is a bit shorter, but maybe I'll add the next chapter a little sooner to make up for it... possibly. Enjoy!Just a little more bonding.

Also, keep an eye out for other fanfics that I'll try to add soon. I have one Star Trek one-shot from Sulu's perspective, and a Marvel one that I am currently working on, then a few other random ones.

...
Merlin felt ridiculous, to be honest. He wasn't sure why he was so stressed about cleaning before Arthur came over for dinner, because in reality, they didn't even have enough stuff to justify a cleanup. Yet, he had always seen Arthur's looks — as much as his friend tried to hide it — whenever he was in the rundown part of town, and Merlin was trying hard not to feel a little self-conscious.

He wished some of the grime from the walls could actually be cleaned off, but he'd been scrubbing at it for an hour, and it wasn't budging. The rag was disgusting, but the walls were no better than before, other than the fact that the bacteria might be better cleaned off now. That meant he wasn't going to have any luck actually making this place seem even slightly nice.

He huffed a sigh and sat back on his feet from where he was kneeling. The walls were gross, the baseboards had been packed with dust for so long they were dust-stained, the floors were permanently sticky, and the cupboards looked a lot more disgusting sitting this close to them. How had he never noticed?

Granted, he'd lived in alleyways, homeless shelters, or a forest for quite a few months before they could afford an apartment, so maybe he just got used to the dirty. Arthur, however, wasn't, and he'd been hoping to make it a little more bearable for his friend.

"Screw it." Merlin tossed the washcloth into the sink from where he was sitting, not caring to get up quite yet. Arthur would be fine.

He sat for another few minutes until he heard the front door open and knew Gaius was coming in. He didn't get to his feet fast enough as he walked into the kitchen.

Gaius stopped as he spotted him. "Uh… why the floor?" Yet, the tone was more amused than confused, which, fair, because Merlin had a habit of sitting just about anywhere, usually he'd be on the counter or table. Sometimes even perched on the back of the couch.

Merlin rolled his eyes. "I was trying to scrub the walls, to no avail. Seriously, these things are going to be eternally grimy. We will probably have to cover it up with paint if there's any hope. Otherwise, we'll just have to demolish them and start anew."

Gaius arched his eyebrow. "Wow, Merlin Emrys, actually cleaning something for once. Doth mine eye deceive me?"

Merlin groaned and stood. "It'll never happen again, so don't get used to it," he said playfully, moving to give his uncle a hug.

"Yeah, I figured not. You going to help me with dinner?"

"Do you want it edible?" Merlin tried to copy Gaius' eyebrow arch, knowing that it wasn't anywhere near intimidating. Gaius just looked at him, unimpressed, and Merlin sighed. "Yeah, okay, I'll help."

"Good." Gaius went to his room to get cleaned up after the day, and as soon as he was done, he was back out to start dinner.

His helping was merely doing exactly what his uncle told him to do in any given step, because otherwise the food really would be inedible. Merlin was not good at cooking. It was a wonder he didn't starve during the day while Gaius worked.

"So what did you do all day?" Gaius asked casually. Originally his uncle hadn't enjoyed knowing what Merlin spent his day doing, as he hated the fact that he was on his own around the town. But now that Merlin was getting older, and that he'd been on his own for over a year now, he had learned to calm down since Merlin has been hurt or anything so far.

"I went to the library and read a book about World War 2." Merlin stayed busy cutting the tomatoes, careful not to cut his finger this time. "Then I checked out a textbook for math and worked on that for a while. It took a minute to understand, but I think I understand how to do slopes and find the X and such. I'll have to have you check it though. Or Arthur I guess. He's good with studies."

Gaius chuckled. "Your friend would probably be a safer bet to ask. I haven't done much math since college."

Merlin whistled. "And clearly, that was awhile ago." He smirked, and Gaius swatted him with a hand towel. "Ouch!" He pulled away sharply. "Gosh, Uncle Gaius, you can really do some damage with that thing."

Gaius raised his brow again, and had Merlin looking down at his hands, struggling to keep a straight face.

"How was clinic today?" Merlin changed the subject, looking up at his uncle to check his expression as he asked. As expected, the look of exhaustion passed over his face, and Merlin couldn't help the frown. His uncle worked nearly non-stop, when before he and Hunith split the work. Gaius wouldn't ever tell Merlin, but he was pretty sure his uncle had a bad back, some pretty bad scoliosis from birth that had made it hard to fully function ever since he was in his teens. Merlin wished he could help his uncle, but he was too young to get a job. Merlin would do the occasional odd-end service, like shoveling, but that would only do so much to earn a few dollars, and wasn't enough to make a dent in the bills.

"It was a good day. I didn't have too many people, and the people I had were all fairly easy and kind to work with." His tone was light, not matching the pain in his expression, however the smile confirmed that overall, the day was good. He knew that his uncle would never let a little pain make his day negative, not when it was something he lived with his whole life.

"Good." Merlin felt a breath release. He hated when Gaius had a bad day, he never wanted him to be so stressed.

"I did have one lady come in that reminded me a little of you." Gaius had a soft amused smile on his face. "She wouldn't stop rambling. She started telling me about the courses she was taking, and somewhere in there had gotten to the trip she was taking to New Zealand, and the cavity that had gotten so bad she had to get a root canal, and I'm still not sure how we got to either of those topics, if I'm quite honest."

Merlin grinned. "Those are the best kind of conversations."

"You only say that because those are your kind of conversations." Gaius said wryly, not looking over.

"Point in case." Merlin agreed, finally done with the tomatoes. He gently shoved them to the side of the cutting board. "Anything else you want me to cut?"

"You can cut the bread. Maybe dry the cutting board first though. I should have had you do that first." The tomato soup his uncle was making from scratch was boiling, and he added some of the diced tomatoes into it, leaving the rest for the panini's that they would eat with the soup.

Merlin cut the bread, then pulled out the broccoli sprouts and pesto sauce, knowing he'd be wanting those next. After that, Merlin's job was mostly over, and other than putting everything back in the fridge when Gaius was done with it, he sat himself on the counter, continuing to chat absentmindedly as he also watched the clock. Arthur should be getting there in just a few minutes.

And as soon as he heard knocking, Merlin was up off the counter and rushing to the front door.

He opened it hard. Too hard, it bounced off the wall, almost closing again before Merlin caught it, and would have put a hole where the handle nearly collided if it wasn't for the door stopper, that he has adamantly called 'boingy-thingy' ever since he was little, rather aptly named, if he said so himself.

"Wow," Arthur drawled. "That was a little excessive, don't you think?"

Merlin scowled at him. "Shut up, prat."

Arthur laughed. "Well? You going to invite your dinner guest in?"

"Hm." Merlin looked him up and down. "I don't know, I'm still deciding. I might rescind my offer."

"Rather rude, don't you think? I came all this way and everything. You really going to kick me onto the curb?"

"Getting closer to doing so," Merlin quipped back.

"Merlin! Let Arthur in!" Merlin startled at his uncle's yell. "That silly boy." Was then muttered under his breath, and Merlin grinned at the fondness he heard, stepping to the side to let his friend in.

"How was your day?" Arthur dropped the teasing tone, turning serious. Merlin appreciated that about his friend. Arthur may like to joke around, but he truly showed he cared.

Merlin turned his smile to his friend. "It's been good. A long boring day, mostly, but at least I got to look forward to tonight."

"You'd probably be well off going to school, you might get less bored. Well…" He tilted his head. "Actually, that's debatable. Some classes are crazy boring as well, and you'd be stuck in your seat listening until the bell rung. At least this way you can leave whenever you want."

Merlin laughed and led him into the kitchen. "True, not sure how my ADHD will handle sitting in a chair all day when I'm not used to it. Being homeschooled has its perks."

"Ah, Arthur, good to see you again, my boy." Gaius smiled warmly, gesturing to a seat. "Go ahead and sit, this is just about done."

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do to help?"

"No, I enlisted Merlin before you came. He managed to not burn anything or lose a finger, so I'd say it was well accomplished."

Arthur was grinning at Gaius' dry wit, something they'd seemed to share a fondness of from the moment they first met, and Merlin figured in little time Arthur and Gaius would become best friends, and Merlin would be the one they joke with. The thought should make him grumpy, but instead he felt excitement at the idea. He knew neither would actually be rude to him, so he was just ready to watch the quips come. It wasn't many that could keep up with Merlin and Gaius, but he figured they would be well matched.

"Pretty impressive. I'm pretty sure he tripped over his shoelace the other day. I kinda don't know how he's still alive."

Gaius snorted. "Ain't that the truth."

"Hey, I can function just fine." Merlin narrowed his eyes at the two of them. Both of them gave him near the same incredulous looks, before Gaius turned back to dishing the soup out. Despite Gaius telling Arthur he didn't need to, Arthur grabbed one of the bowls and the plate of grilled cheeses, helping Gaius get it all to the table.

Once they were all seated, they dug in quickly. Merlin was never prone to much manners while eating, but it was clear that Arthur did. While Merlin dug into the sandwich, tearing it and getting it and soup all over his fingers when he dipped it in, Arthur had cut the sandwich in half and alternated bite for bite.

After he finished eating, he watched his two favorite people bicker, joining in occasionally, and felt his heart warm and his magic settle. He was so glad that they got along, and very happy to have a friend again. He still missed Will, and even Freya, but he was glad that he finally got the chance to have another good friend. He was glad that he was able to go to Arthur's school and chat with the principal, and he was getting more and more excited about the prospect of going to school with Arthur. He'd even managed to get into some of the same classes as his friend, which would be nice.

He was nervous to start school as this would be his first school experience. He'd grown up at home, and being in a small town, he hadn't actually had much of a social life. This would be a huge change, and a part of him wondered if he would ever feel ready.

But, he knew it was time for some change.

"Hey, earth to Merlin." Arthur waved his hand in front of his face, snapping Merlin from his thoughts.

"Wha— Yeah?" He mentally shook his head.

"We were thinking of watching a movie. You going to join?"

"Yeah, sure." Merlin nodded.

"And, in case you missed it, I invited you and Gaius to watch my game tomorrow, if you have interest." Arthur looked a little nervous, probably because he knew Merlin's opinion about sports, but even though he hated sports, he liked his friend more. Of course he would go support him.

"Yeah, Arthur, I'll come watch you tackle and be tackled." Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Cool." Arthur relaxed a little, and Merlin was glad to see that he actually looked pleased. Yeah, it was nice to have a friend again.