Part of it was Will's fault and part of it was Merlin's fault and part of it was Fate laughing like a snide little dick on the sidelines. The sun was waning on the horizon and the park was starting to empty out and Merlin thought 'Why the hell not?' because it wasn't like anyone would see him anyway. His best friend, Will, had gotten into the parkour thing lately, claiming that his ability to scale rooftops and backflip off brick walls would charm any girl into sleeping with him. Merlin didn't care about the girls or the fate of Will's dick, but he did kind of want to try the parkour thing because running around freely like that looked pretty fun.

Only, Merlin wasn't the athletic type of guy. He was the type of guy who wore skirts more than shorts and dresses more than shirts and girl's combat boots more than sneakers. He preferred bangle bracelets and earrings to man-watches and skater shoes. He really wasn't prepared for physical exercise, at the very least.

So when Will challenged him to copy that backflip he just did off the back of a wooden bench, Merlin accepted knowing that he probably wasn't going to make it. Will knew it, Merlin knew it, the stray cat hanging out in the bushes knew it. The only people who didn't know, really, were the skater boys speeding down the lane just as Merlin took his running start.

And Merlin's brain had just enough time to register the gorgeous blond Adonis balancing on a skateboard (as he had every friday for the past three months without fail, amen) before he took a running jump onto the bench and yelled 'HARDCORE PARKOUR!' and did a half curl in the air and slammed his head on the bench and died a little.

But only a little.

His vision swam, but his ears caught the mocking laughter perfectly.

Even Will was laughing as he peered over the back of the bench and said, "Fuck, dude."

But then there was Adonis, tanned skin and blue eyes hovering over Merlin's wrecked body with a case of uncontrollable giggles asking, "You alright?"

Merlin tried to say "Yes" but it came out more like "Mmm?"

Which led to Adonis (Arthur, Merlin reminded himself. Arthur who sat in front of him in chemistry and pretended like he didn't exist except for when he asked too many questions about the exam review, god forbid) somehow suddenly shirtless and pressing his sweaty cotton t-shirt against Merlin's head while telling Will to call an ambulance. Up close (when did they get close?) Merlin could see the worried edges of Arthur's mocking smile and the twitches of his eyebrows that wanted desperately to furrow. Somewhere in the background, the skater boys were still laughing. Probably taking pictures. Probably making fun of him on every iPhone app known to man. But Arthur was worried about him and Merlin forgot to care.

Literally, he forgot.

He passed out and woke up on stale hospital sheets, being told he had a concussion and to never try parkour again. His mother frowned heavily at him all the way home and his uncle Gaius frowned even harder when Merlin joined him on the sofa couch to watch TV. Merlin didn't mind any of it, though. Because when he first woke up, there was a haphazard card made out of a hospital sign-in sheet that said "I'll teach you how to do that properly, if you like. Anytime. -Arthur." And no inch of Merlin cared if it was literal or a weird innuendo or a bout of pity because some little bit of Arthur Pendragon cared, and that was more than the weird boy who wore skirts more than shorts ever thought he would get from the boy who was Adonis on wheels, and that was some kind of love story already.