Archive of Our Own ^beta

"That was absolute rubbish, we're going to have to do it again" called Arthur from the front of the room, eliciting a groan from the rest of the group, which
he determinedly ignored. The Camelot High choir had a performance in three days and Arthur was going to make sure that it was perfect. "Let's start from
'Rocket ship on my way', and remember to put some attitude into the actions, okay?" He ignored the mutinous looks he was receiving, and the muttered "I'll
show you attitude" from Morgana.

The choir could be forgiven for it's less than enthusiastic response, because Arthur had been working them like dogs for the past week, and the
closer it came to performance day, the madder he became. He directed the choir like a man possessed, often not letting them stop for breaks, and keeping them
up to hour over time. It wasn't that they didn't like Arthur, quite the opposite really, there was a reason they elected him to be the director after
all. But he was a perfectionist, and it was grating on a lot of nerves.

Merlin, unlike Arthur, was not impervious to the glares the other members were shooting his boyfriend, and had been observing the group from his position with the baritones. In the past week, Arthur had shouted at Percival for moving, scolded Elyan and Will for talking, had a screaming match with
Morgana, kicked Gwaine out of the room multiple times, and reduced Elena and Gwen to tears. If he kept this up, Arthur would have a rebellion on his hands.

Arthur gave the signal to end the song, and Merlin heard the steady thump that meant that the Altos and Tenors in the back row had fallen against
the walls behind them, a habit they had gotten into when Arthur stopped letting them all sit down between practices. Arthur gave the room a disappointed look,
and Merlin groaned inwardly.
"It's no good" said the blond running a hand through his hair "The sopranos are singing the tenor part, the tenors are a little slow on the
actions, and altos, it's 'Don't. Stop. Me now.'" He made a cutting motion with his hand after each word "Staccato then legato" He looked around at them,
"We'll need to do it again.
There was a collective sigh. "Can we at least take a break first?" asked Vivian, batting her eyelashes at him from the soprano section.
"Yeah Arthur, we could all use one." added Mithian from the altos.There were murmurs of assent from the rest of the room.
"We can't take a break now!" said Arthur, looking incredulous "The performance is three days away, and we're no where near ready." Merlin winced, this wasn't going to be pretty.
"That's not fair on us, Arthur!" yelled Lancelot, and the other tenors shouted in agreement. The room erupted into chaos, each section shouting over the
other, trying to get their director to see sense. Leon turned to Merlin and said, only half jokingly, "If we all go at him at once, we could take him, right?"

Merlin was spared having to answer by Arthur, who bellowed "That is enough" before stalking angrily out of the room.
"That could have gone better" muttered the brunet. The entire room turned to stare at him, even their supervisor, Gaius (whose main job seemed to be
preventing them from setting the room on fire or murdering each other, because he didn't really involve himself on choir affairs otherwise) and he blushed.
"I'd better do something about that, then." he said. The others continued to stare at him. Gaius raised an eye-brow. Merlin sighed. "Right" he said, before
following Arthur out of the room.

He found the other boy leaning against the wall, staring intently at the opposite one. Merlin stood next to him.
"You look like you're trying to burn a hole through that wall"
Arthur grunted. Merlin sighed.
"They do like you, you know, they're your friends"
When Arthur turned to him, Merlin wasn't expecting to see tears in his eyes.
"Do you-" his voice cracked, and he cleared his throat "Do you think I'm a bad director?"
Merlin shook his head determinedly and laced his fingers with Arthur's "Of course not, you're a great director, and you love what you do. You just get...
carried away sometimes."
Arthur let out a small chuckle, and then groaned "They must hate me"
"They don't hate you, Arthur, they're your friends, and they're used to you being a git."
"Hey!"
Merlin shot him a grin "You have to remember that they're human too, love, and they're exhausted. They need thing like breaks, and water, and sitting down,
and encouragements. They can't put up with the ruler-of-a-small-island-nation-Arthur that you've been behaving like for the past week."
"You put up with it."
"Well I'm used to you now, aren't I?"
Arthur grinned, and said "let's go back inside"
Merlin nudged him lightly "Do you promise to be on your best behavior?"
Arthur put his hand over his heart "Promise"
Merlin leaned over and pecked him on his lips. "Let me go in there and calm them down first, alright?"

The choir had become restless in the time Merlin was speaking to Arthur, and when the former re-entered the room, there was a small explosion of
people talking over each other. Merlin held up his hand. "He's promised to be on his best behavior" he said. There was a resounding cheer headed up by
Gwaine and the other baritones. Merlin shushed them. "I want you to apologize though."
"What!"
"Why should we!"
"He was the one being a git!"
"Shut up and listen!"
A hush fell over the room.
"Arthur loves the choir, and he wants us to be the best he can be. Yeah, he's a git, but he does it because he cares, and half the time he doesn't realize he's being a tosser in the first place. And I get it, you were ticked of, I was too, but we could have handled it better as a group."
"Easy for you to say, you're shagging him" piped up Mordered from the tenor section.
Merlin turned on him "Arthur is really apologetic about the way he's been acting, and frankly, if you don't believe he was trying to do what was best for
the choir, then you can leave." he said with a voice full of cold fury.
"You can't kick me out, I have a solo." he said with a tremor in his voice
"There are at least four other people here who know the solo as well as you do, so I'll ask you just once, are you willing to apologize for screaming at him?"
"Yes." came the begrudging reply
"What about the rest of you guys?"
The others exchanged glances, before Lance said "Merlin has a point you know, we could have handled it a lot better." There were a few nods, and murmurs of
assent. They really did like Arthur a lot, and were feeling a bit sheepish about the way they reacted.
Merlin clapped his hands together. "Excellent!" he said, before sticking his head out of the door and calling Arthur in. The blond walked in, and Merlin
placed a reassuring hand on his boyfriend's shoulder before taking his place with the baritones.

Arthur stared at the group. The group stared back. Then, Leon cleared his
throat and said "Hey, Arthur, we wanted to apologize for the way we reacted. We could have handled the situation a lot better, and we're sorry."
Arthur was touched when he saw the group nod solemnly (even Mordered, and he was pretty sure the little bugger genuinely hated him) and heard the sporadic apologies
("Yeah mate" "really sorry" "could've been better") which filled the room.

He cleared his throat, and said "No guys, it's my fault, and I'm sorry. I've been a bit of a git this past week haven't I?"
"More than a bit!" called out Will
Arthur calmly flipped him the bird, and the rest of the choir laughed. And just like that, all was forgiven.
"Let's do it one more time from the top, and then we can take a break, okay?"
asked Arthur.
The choir straightened up, and Arthur gave the signal to start. And then they
sang, they sang to the best of their ability.
"Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive..."
Arthur couldn't help but smile as he gave the signal to stop at the end of the song.
"That was perfect guys, let's take a break!"
There was a deafening cheer, and Arthur caught Merlin's eye. His boyfriend smiled encouragingly. Everything was going to be fine.