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[ He lightly picks at the pocket of his trousers, not looking at her as she stretches out, it seems better than staring anyway. ]

When do you consider knowing someone well enough?

When you can guess what they're thinking, or if you can finish each other's sentences.

[ hm, that's not all, but it's definitely perked athena up. talking about friendship makes her happy, ok ok. ]

Or when you don't have to tell each other that there's something wrong. They just know.

You have a considerable advantage on that last one... it seems rather unfair.

[ Well, he isn't lying. ]

It's not like I'm good at hiding what I'm feeling. So my friends are lucky on that end.

[ well, she's good at lying about being sad but OTHERWISE... ]

[ Well she isn't lying there. ]

Considering the amount of times you've cried now-- [ He shifts and hooks one ankle over the other, stretching his legs out. ] --I really can't disagree with that.

[ her eyes fall into a droop, not liking where this conversation is headed. ]

I'm not the only one who's cried here.

[ not that... she actually saw him crying, but you know. details. ]

You aren't. [ Well at least he's admitting it. ] But after you smiled and laughed too, so I suppose that's okay.

[ He clears his throat, voice going a little quieter. ] It's nice when you laugh, too. [ You know... other than the meaningful stuff. ]

[ here's an idea. ]

You know what else makes me laugh?

[ she maintains eye contact while her hand slides down to grab a stick of pocky.

then she shoves a small part of it in his mouth. ]

Wha-- [ He's definitely suspicious of where this is going, but really he should have expected something like this. Athena is a menace when she wants to be, but it doesn't mean he's any better.

He chews it quickly, hand reaching to the side for the bowl of popcorn he shoved there to take a few and shove them into her mouth. ] Now that isn't nearly as funny as this.

[ christ. while her mouth is busy, widget decides to say what she's thinking for her. ]

Not again! Not again!

[ her eyes look around, and sadly, the other snacks are a bit too far for her to reach without moving. she can't be sneaky. ]

Why you...!

[ out of food to shove in his face, she proceeds to mess up his hair instead. :') ]

You started it?! [ He isn't entirely sure what she plans on doing next, his hair being messed up definitely wasn't something he'd expect and instantly he tries to sink down out of the way. He isn't as vain as Arthur is with this (he doesn't look at metal trays to check his reflection after all) but he spent time on that today. ]

Stop! [ Ah... too late. His hands try to cover his head before she does too much damage... but alas.

He gives up, and instead twists to reach for her side again, intending on paying her back by tickling her again. This time is probably more embarrassing too because of the fact that this time he'll be able to see her face.

She brought this on herself. ]

[ yeah, too bad merlin. you've decided to pick on the wrong person... it just had to be that person who has to win all the time. ]

Not until you give u— Ahahaha! [ she squirms as she tries to get away from his hold, but now that she's practically kneeling on the couch just to reach his head, it doesn't end well for her. she topples over and ends up hitting her head on his chest, and her arms fall to his shoulders as she tries to balance herself.

she can't even say anything because she tries to catch her breath and not laugh too loudly. ]

[ Too bad she can't win all the time, huh?

It's easy to get caught up in the moment too, laughing along with her even if he isn't the one suffering through it right now. It is way better with her like this, even if she's close again now and he isn't sure if this is crossing too many lines--

--but it doesn't matter considering one hand keeps tickling her while the other noogies her gently, it's enough to mess up her hair too now, anyway. ]

Who's the one who should be giving up, again?

[ she can barely breathe now, and as she gasps for air, she pulls at his shirt in an attempt to stay where she is because she'd fall off the couch otherwise. somebody help her. ]

I can't [ WHEEZE. ] breathe.

[ Her hair sufficiently messed up he lets go of her head at least and instead presses his other hand against her waist to help keep her steady. He doesn't move it, and even his other hand slows a little.

It's all so he can lean down a little, and while he's trying to not laugh at the situation she's found herself in he says into her ear: ] That sounds an awful lot like surrender if you ask me.

[ the whole tickling session's made athena dizzy, as well as breathless, so she tries to calm herself down now that merlin's stopped. inhale, exhale...

and everything seems fine for a few moments, and she thinks she can go back to normal despite how close merlin is being right now. but then she hears the sound of the door opening. she freezes.

and she does the first thing that comes to her mind.

which is push merlin down the sofa and cover his face with a pillow.

now to wait expectantly for ai (hopefully it's ai and not somebody else...) to enter...

sweats... profusely... ]

[The door opens and it's Ai entering inside with a yawn; it's been a long day! She's carrying bags of groceries (real food, not just snacks) and beams at her roommate.]

Hello, Athena! We're going to have rice and chicken stir fry and some vegetable soup on the side! We need to regain our strength after all and-- Oh, is someone else...

[Ai stops when she sees that certain someone being smothered with a pillow... Athena????]

...

I... Um...

[ATHENA PLEASE DON'T COMMIT MURDER IN OUR APARTMENT???]

You... Shouldn't... Do that...

[ Merlin's hearing isn't anywhere near as good as Athena's. He's also distracted, concentrating more on how Athena is getting her breath back. His hands drop, and it's when he lets down his guard she's moving suddenly and he's almost falling off the couch.

He opens his mouth to yell, to ask what she's doing but he just ends up with a mouthful of pillow.

This is what he gets for letting his guard down. A lesson well learned considering he didn't exactly think to take a deep breath before this started. His hands move to try and find Athena's wrists while he's trying to not cough into the material. He's already starting to feel dizzy when he hears Ai speaking and suddenly this makes a little more sense but--

why this?

His hand tries following her arm up, patting at her lightly. It's when Ai suddenly trails off that his breath really is falling short (has it been two minutes? he isn't even sure now) that his hand flails a little to try and push her off, moving through air until he hits something soft. He can't gather his thoughts enough to magic the stupid pillow off, and it's way too close for him to concentrate on it properly.

His hand slumps against her, falling to her lap as he starts blacking out.

R.I.P. ]

[ THIS IS A MESS. athena now looks like she JUST woke up, and now this... she looks down at the hand on her and turns as red as a tomato for a few seconds. when the hand drops, she's painfully relieved for reasons which may be better not being publicised.

but then she realises something... and she blinks once. twice. ]

Ai? [ she slowly lifts the pillow from merlin's face. ] Oh my god-- how do we wake him up?

[ will he wake up if she slaps him?! let's try to find out. ]

Oh, it's Merlin... Wait, Merlin!! Athena, why were you smothering him!?

[DROPPING THE BAGS and rushing over.]

He's still breathing right?!

[ The pillow being removed is the start to his body kicking back in, realising it can reach oxygen again. He sucks in breath while his eyes are still shut, coughing and spluttering his way into consciousness. He can feel the light slaps on his face, but that really didn't do anything.

His hand flops to the side as he tries to roll, his lungs tight. He can hear Ai panicking by this point, but he's struggling to gain consciousness again to tell her he will be if he's given room. ]

[ oh good! he's still alive. athena didn't mean to be too rough on him, truly. so she feels really bad. something like this has never happened before...

she isn't giving him the space he needs, though. instead, she stays where she is--still on the couch and practically looming over him. her plan (which she clearly didn't think about) backfired drastically. and now she's paying for it. ]

Hey. Hey, I'm sorry-- [ this is probably the first time merlin's heard (if he can hear her, anyway) athena sound so concerned.

she then looks at ai, panicking like hell. ]

I think he'll be fine! Could you stay here for a bit? I'll go get some water.

[ athena may have asked a question, but she sure is getting up now and heading to the kitchen. ]

Ah... [Well, there Athena goes, so Ai goes quickly over to Merlin, pulling him so he's sitting straight, back against the couch.]

Merlin, can you hear me? Let me just...!

[One hand moves up to his forehead, the other placed lightly against his throat. Her eyes glow for a moment and Merlin should feel a tingly rush that relieves him of the physical discomfort he just endured.]

[ He tries to move with her, but his foot slips on the floor and he's definitely still woozy. His eyes are a little glassy, but as soon as she reaches for his forhead and throat and does whatever it is she's doing his breath starts to even out and his hand goes to his head.

He blinks at Ai a few times. Slowly. Calmly. It's like he's just trying to catch up until finally he says a soft: ] Thanks.

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