Just Hold Me [ merlin x arthur ]

7 - confessions

he watches gwen as she spoke yet his gaze shifted to the other , falling concerned as his brows furrowed together , fingers fiddling at his fork as he eyed him , letting the silence linger for a second as he gulped

" . . i - if thats what you wish . . then i shall forget - "

he responds , tone softer if it was even possible than how it was before " unless theres anything else you wish to tell me - "

the king and queen shared a look between each other , communicating unspoken between the two but in the end guinevere let out a soft sigh and smiled apologetically towards merlin ." my apologies merlin , it seems that will be all for now . . allow me to see you to the door. . " she spoke kindly , moving to stand before any protest could be made about it as she moved over to merlin .

his gaze hardly left the blondes for a few good solid seconds before back to the other with a small nod , himself slowly getting up - turning to grab everything but decided to leave it and come back later on incase they hadn't finished , as he pushes his chain in followed by picking up his plate before turning on his heels—

beginning to shuffle his way out , sure he had an urge to just blurt it out , hating how much it sat on his shoulders- but shook his head and kept his gaze to his feet

arthur wouldn't look at merlin—  he couldn't , if he did he knew it was going to be out on his face for merlin , to see and he could risk it at the moment , was gwen going to tell him all he confided to her personally , had he not stopped her ? arthur didn't wish to think of that but you could never be too careful .

leading him towards the door gwen gave merlin one last kind smile before she dipped her head in slightly so she could bring her voice down . " there are somethings you and I need to discuss and I ask that you keep an open mind . . remembering who it is we are discussing ."

with one glance back towards the blonde she backed up , opening the door for him " have a good evening merlin."

his blue hues shifted to her from the corner of his eye as she spoke , himself about to reach for the handle as she spoke , as he couldn't help but narrow his eyes slightly with a small nod

" i have to return to clean up either way - you have my word as i will - " he responds , tone as soft as hers . himself looked back over his shoulder for a moment before sending her a small smile , " . . you too — both of you - " sending her a reassuring nod he shuffled his way out , closing the door behind him - dropping the act as his smile fades ,, heading off toward his old man

gwen gave him a soft smile as the door shut , her attention drifting back over to the silent king . she moved back over to him on gentle feet , placing a hand on his arm once she returned , she wouldn't say anything yet . . . let him pick his food in silence so he could stay in his head as he pleased he had every right to be there though she didn't feel remorse for her actions . . it is what needed and still needs to be done

reaching the end he stumbles in not even bothering to speak to giaus , yet he could tell something was up — merlin telling him not to worry as he sat down across from him . if anything himself had lost his appetite - but his mind kept pondering back to gwen , curios as to what she wanted to discuss , hoping it wasn't bad,, then again - he knew he overthought a little too much .
as the other snaps him out of his thoughts, telling him to eat before he forces him too .

it took only a few moments of silence before arthur and her spoke , not necessarily bickering but certainly talking sternly about their opinions .
arthur stirred on the fact he wasn't entirely sure of his thoughts and gwen slowly pressing the matter that if he wasn't sure then he wouldn't have spoken to her .
though their conversation didn't last long , it ended with arthur pushing away from the table and walking away to his desk , leaving his plate a mutilated matter of untouched and pushed around food and guinevere to eat in a slightly tense silence on her own .