Title: The New Student
Rating: G
Pairing/s: None
Character/s: Arthur, Merlin, Morgana, Mentions of friends
Summary: A Modern Day AU, where Arthur confronts Merlin.
Warnings: None
Word Count: 403
Prompt: Envy
Author's Notes: This is my first drabble and first time writing on here, I'm excited to be doing this! I haven't written too much lately so I guess you shouldn't really expect gold from this drabble, sorry!
Prince Arthur was well aware of the new student who attended the university he was at. Though he wasn’t aware of the fact that his half-sister, Morgana, had taken the new student in and had become good friends with him.
The new student, who Arthur then found out was named Merlin, happened to be welcome by Arthur’s friends as well when Morgana started to bring him to the lunch table. Everyone loved Merlin instantly, who always wore an easy smile and twinkling eyes, and also seemed to have an endless supply of candy in his pocket. Arthur only watched in silence during lunch.
At first Arthur had tried to give Merlin a nice welcome. He smiled at Merlin’s jokes, talked when words were thrown at his direction, and gave homework tips when the occasional pencil was thrown across the room in frustration. Though he enjoyed talking with Merlin, Arthur often found himself talking more to someone else instead.
It wasn’t before long when Arthur started to feel it. The feeling of hatred directed towards Merlin. During lunch Arthur began to decrease his interaction with the boy, steaming with envy on the sidelines. Merlin’s life just seemed so easy and…free. Not to mention the fact that Merlin also got along with basically everybody.
However, after receiving a long lecture from Uther about kingly responsibility, Arthur found himself upset at Merlin. So upset, in fact, that once Arthur passed Merlin in the hallways of university her pulled him to the side.
“How do you do it? What game are you playing at?” Arthur demanded.
“What are you talking about?”
“The fact that your life is just set all nice. Or how you can easily get along with people—you’re not forced to fake a smile in front of famous people whom you’d rather not talk to. Even the fact of constantly being under the threat of getting disowned by your own father upon going against his wishes.”
“Listen, Arthur. Everyone has some sort of difficulty in life. You just keep focusing on your own difficulties. What you need to do is to take a break.”
“How can I take a break during my time at university?”
“You take a break during the weekend by going sightseeing with me. Funny, I’ve been here for three months, yet I never went sightseeing…”
Arthur just started at Merlin, wondering how he never thought up such a simple solution.