Oh dear, Guinevere has a plan! And that is never a good thing!
I'm not good with ff terms so I have no idea whether this is a one-shot, two-shot... whatever.
All I know is that this is Chapter one, and there will probably only be two chapters :D
Enjoy!
Oh dear, Guinevere has a plan!
"Leave me alone."
"Merlin!" Gwen hurried her steps to keep up with her friend's long strides.
"I know what you're going to say so don't bother, the answer's still no. Now leave me alone." He went to turn a corner swiftly, in hope to lose the girl hot on his tail. Unfortunately he forgot that she had much better hand-eye coordination than him, causing him to misjudge the distance between himself and the corner of the wall, crashing into it and his friend to be the one who caught him.
"Are you okay?" Gwen peered at Merlin's unscathed face anxiously as he gripped his head.
"Yes Gwen I'm fine, but I have to go." He went to leave but she tightened her grip on his sleeve.
"Merlin just hear me out." He rolled his eyes at her but stayed put due to the death grip on his tunic. "Morgana and I have been talking and we need to know..."
"I've told you! No no a thousand times no!" He shrugged out of his friends grasp and slipped into the Princes chambers along the corridor.
"Merlin!" He winced as his master called his name from where he was sitting in his chair. It was that tone of voice he used when he was angry but tried not to show it.
"Y-Yes sire?"
"Pray tell me why Morgana came into my chambers an hour ago asking me whether I have feelings for you?" Merlin cringed, he had hoped to avoid this, or at least that Morgana and Gwen would keep their questioning to just him, rather than drag the prince down with him.
"I don't know Sire, but trust me; you're not the only one. Gwen has been asking me for days, I just had to literally run away from her." Arthur chuckled, before remembering he was supposed to be annoyed at his manservant and frowned again.
"Yes well, I don't see why they would even think such a thing, so I need you to tell them otherwise."
"I have!" Merlin shouted, temporarily forgetting the Princes stature, although even if he had remembered he would have probably acted the same way. "What do you think I've been saying to Gwen all the times she's asked me?!" He let out an exasperated sigh, only to get a pair of raised eyebrows from the prince.
"How am I supposed to know Merlin? I just can't understand where they would get such ideas from. Certainly not from me that's for sure." He scratched his chin, hoping it would hurry his thinking.
"They're just reading too much into things." Merlin stated confidently, moving around the room to pick up any stray objects that the prince had strewn there, purely to make Merlin's life more difficult, he was sure of it.
"Obviously." The prince agreed, watching his manservant scurry around, like he usually did.
There was nothing wrong with that.
"Have you got a bruise on your forehead?"
"What did he say?" Morgana glanced at her handmaiden in the mirror as she scurried in carrying a large pile of washing.
"What do you think he said?" Gwen dumped the washing onto her mistress's bed with a grunt. "No no a thousand times no!" She mocked. "Or something like that. How about Arthur?"
"He just stared at me like I had twelve heads, denying that he knew what I was talking about." She rolled her eyes before continuing to drag the expensive brush through her thick, raven locks.
"Men," Came the reply from the bed where Gwen was folding up the washing, "Are idiots."
Morgana laughed. "I know. Can't even admit they have feelings for each other." Gwen nodded sadly in agreement before suddenly grinning, her eyes lighting up. "Oh dear, Guinevere has a plan."
"Left, Right, Left, Head!" Arthur swung his sword at his manservant, expecting him to miss every swing. Surprisingly, Merlin had managed to block every single one of Arthur's swings... Well until he swung at his head that is.
"Ow!" Merlin staggered backwards slightly, attempting to balance himself before falling back to land on his bum.
"How many times have we done this?" Arthur raised his eyebrows at Merlin who sat sheepishly on the floor, helmet skew-whiff.
"A few." He mumbled to his feet.
"And yet you still forget to block your head, why?"
"Because I'm an idiot." Arthur opened his mouth to argue back before shutting it in surprise as Merlin got back to his feet.
"Yes." The prince furrowed his brow as him manservant fixed his helmet with shaky hands.
"Okay, I think I'm ready." Arthur heard his voice crack slightly. Merlin really hated training.
"No it's okay, I can see you're just as useless as usual and do not have the patience to teach you today, you can stop now and just relax..." He tailed off as his manservant let out a sigh of relief and collapsed backwards onto the grass.
"Thank you sire." Arthur chuckled as the raven haired youth had almost completely disappeared from within the long blades. "Have you ever done this?" The voice from the grass was directed at Arthur.
"What lay in the grass like an idiot?" He scrunched his nose up at the thought.
"Yes exactly." He watched as Merlin's arms appeared out of the grass in a stretch. "It's very relaxing."
Arthur stood still; staring down at the long grass which was almost up to his knees, contemplating why lying in it would be anything other than... dirty. "No I don't think so."
"Don't knock it until you try it," Came the response, followed by a chuckle. "I sound like Will!" Another small laugh erupted out of the grass. Arthur smiled slightly, remembering the boy who had risked his life for him, even after expressing his hatred for the prince.
"Okay I'll come and lie in the grass with you for two minutes, only to prove that it's really not that great." Merlin grinned, knowing the prince couldn't see him.
The prince looked around for a few seconds, before lowering himself onto his knees. "Now what?"
Merlin sat up to see the prince perched awkwardly a few feet in front of him. "Lie back, relax, take in the scent and listen to all the sounds, don't just sit there." Arthur scoffed before lowering himself back onto his elbows, kicking his feet out in front of him until he was completely hidden by the plants.
"Right, relax..." He took a deep breath in and closed his eyes, breathing slowly before scrunching his nose up once more, for a different reason this time. "Merlin!" He shouted in his authoritative voice, "What do you mean the scent?! It stinks of manure!"
He heard Merlin's silvery laugh make its way to where he was laying. "I meant the smell of the grass, just ignore the manure!" He chuckled again, causing Arthur to grumble, wondering why he was still lying on the floor.
Breathing through his mouth, not wanting to risk smelling the 'scent' again, he focused on listening. He could hear the distant sounds of the markets, people shouting over each other, haggling, but it was almost washout out by the amount of wildlife, birds chirping, and bushes rustling. How hadn't he heard that before? It wasn't like kneeling in some grass improved his hearing.
He listened harder, hearing his own heart thumping against his chest and decided to focus on it, closing his eyes and feeling his heartbeat throughout his body.
"Are you relaxed yet?"
"Shut up Merlin."
"It's simple, we just need to get one of them to express their feelings for the other, whilst the other is in earshot, so they'll follow suit."
"What?" Morgana frowned at her maidservant, who sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Let's say we get Merlin to express his feelings for Arthur," Morgana nodded, "and Arthur was listening, then Arthur would know that Merlin liked him and reciprocate the action."
"But what if we're wrong, what if only one likes the other. Then their friendship would be ruined because of us."
Gwen raised an eyebrow. "They both like each other, I'm sure of it."
Morgana didn't look convinced, but agreed to the plan anyway.
"Oh shit!" Merlin's eyes widened as he caught sight of the coffee coloured handmaiden down the corridor from him. "Urm," He looked around for a hiding place but came up short.
"Merlin!" He glanced back to where Gwen was running towards him and settled on just running as fast as his skinny legs would carry him, just as long as it was in the opposite direction of a certain someone.
"Oh for God's sake Merlin I don't want to talk to you about that!" He didn't believe that for a moment. "Please slow down." He skidded around the corner before continuing at the same pace up the stairs. "It's Morgana she's- dead!" He stopped in shock and turned to face the girl who was panting up the stairs, a small smile on her face.
"You're lying you bitch."
"True," she leant on the wall to catch her breath. "But that's a dead end." She gestured to the locked door at the top of the stairs before closing the door at the bottom and leaning against it, still panting. "Now Merlin, we need to have a conversation about a certain royal."
"Uther?" Merlin quipped hopefully. "Oh I know he's a pain, but he's the king! There's nothing we can do about it! Can I go now?" Gwen narrowed her eyes at the boy before shaking her head.
"Do you love Arthur?"
"No."
"Yes you do."
"No I don't!!"
"Yes you do!!!"
"Gwen, if you're just going to ignore everything I say why did you even ask?"
"Because, Merlin," She stressed the word for emphasis, "I want you to just admit it! You have to admit it at some point, you know that don't you." Merlin sat on middle step and put his head in his hands.
"Why do I have to admit it? Why, when it is so much easier not to, when left unsaid it will just go away, stop any unnecessary awkwardness and it won't ruin the friendship I have with Arthur." Gwen stared at him, unable to believe that he had actually admitted to being in love with the Prince, even if it was in his own, depressing way.
"But you do love him?"
"Gwen!" He shouted, looking her in the eye for the first time. "You have no idea how hard this is for me! You can't just waltz around in your pretty dress and flowers in your hair," he gestured to her head, "It is illegal for people to be gay, as you know, plus I am a servant which Arthur never fails to remind me, that reminds me! Arthur doesn't even like me that way! If in any way at all, I couldn't ever produce Arthur an heir. Plus magic is illegal so-"
"What does magic have to do with anything?" Merlin looked up from his rant to see that Gwen was sitting next to him, a hand reassuringly on his shoulder and her eyes filled with worry.
"You know Uther, he'll accuse it of... being magic or something." He improvised, adding in some hand gestures for good measure. "Look Gwen, this is something that is impossible to act on, for all of those reasons and more no doubt, but the most important is that Arthur doesn't feel the same way anyway, meaning that you should just leave it. It doesn't matter whether I love him or not."
"But Merlin, Arthur does feel the same way, and none of those things matter to him, I'm sure. Plus it wouldn't be the first time he's gone against his father." Merlin let his head drop into his hands again as Gwen pulled him into a tight hug.
Arthur pulled away from the door sharply.
"Did you hear my, err purse?" Morgana had known it was an awful excuse, but she needed Arthur to hear the conversation between Gwen and Merlin and Arthur wasn't exactly the brightest button in the box, so saying she lost her purse on the stairs and 'can he hear it?' was the best thing she could come up with having no prior notice.
"Urm, no... No I don't think it's there, excuse me Morgana." Arthur pushed past her and continued hastily up the corridor, just as Merlin and Gwen escaped the staircase.
"Hi! I was just looking for you Gwen!" Morgana grinned hastily at the two, hoping not to draw attention to the Prince who was moving rapidly away from them.
"I've got to go and see Arthur." Merlin ducked past Morgana to see the figure moving down the corridor. "Were you just speaking to him?" He turned to face Morgana once more, only to be met with a sad gaze and an ashamed look. "Did he hear me?"
"Merlin I-" Merlin shook his head and covered his ears, walking down the corridor in the opposite direction, tears stinging his eyes.
He felt betrayed.
:)