Happy Easter Merlin
AN: Just a little Easter fic that I thought of in a random moment. D'you know, I found out somewhere that apparently 'Gaius' in Latin is 'Happy' hmmm....
Summary: It's Easter Monday in Camelot and Arthur is confused when Merlin shows up for work, he then finds out that Merlin has no clue as to what Easter is and thinks that Arthur has gone insane. The prince enlists the help of Morgana and Gwen to teach Merlin about Easter. Friendship only, no slash!
Disclaimer: It turns out that being utterly and completely obsessed with the TV show does not mean you can claim ownership of Merlin, so I –While being totally obsessed with it- do not own it, though if I only did... *wanders away in thought*
Anyway, enough of that, Happy Easter Fanfic-reader-people-couldn't-think-of-a-term-for-it-so-said-this :)
Before you read I know that they didn't have Easter or E-eggs or even possibly chocolate back then but I needed them for the fic to work
Arthur Pendragon yawned and stretched as he awoke on Monday. He sat up and remembered that today was Easter and that his father had organised a celebration tonight with King Bayard of Mercia was to attend with his recently obtained nineteen year old ward, Clarissa. The prince groaned as he remembered this. It meant he would have to dance with her even be polite to her. Heaven forbid his father might try to get them to marry!
Arthur decided to get up at that point. Climbing agilely out of his bed the prince walked to his screen, where Merlin had laid him out some clothes the night before, Merlin having had the day off for Easter today, Arthur would have preferred not to, but Morgana –somehow- talked him into it.
That was the reason he was more than a little bit surprised when, after he was dressed, his chamber door opened!
"Merlin what on earth are you doing here!" He exclaimed as his manservant walked in with his breakfast.
"Um," Replied the raven haired man "I'm bringing you breakfast, like I do every morning..."
Merlin looked more surprised than the prince was.
"But Merlin, it's Easter" Arthur spoke slowly, knowing what Merlin could be like sometimes
Merlin cocked his head to the side "Are you feeling well My Lord?"
Arthur gaped "Am I...? Well of course I am! It's you I worry for, you idiot!"
When Merlin continued to look completely baffled Arthur let out a sigh of exasperation "Didn't you celebrate Easter in Ealdon?"
"Ealdor sire, and no, I've never heard of, what was it, Ester?"
"Right that explains it then" Arthur walked past Merlin to sit at the table which Merlin had put his breakfast onto "And Merlin?"
"Yes sire?" said his manservant, who had walked over to make his bed
Arthur turned to look at him over his shoulder "It's Easter." Shaking his head the prince turned back around to begin his breakfast. Sometimes he really wondered about that servant of his.
Later that day Arthur raised a hand and knocked on the door of Lady Morgana's chambers. Gwen answered, looking very surprised at seeing the prince.
"My Lord," She curtsied as she spoke
"Guinevere," He greeted her politely "Is your mistress here?"
"Why yes My Lord, would you like to speak with her?"
"With you both, if you would,"
The maidservant looked surprised but opened the door wide and allowed him to pass her.
The Lady Morgana was stood standing by the window, looking out into the courtyard. She turned as she heard him enter. Her eyes widened; evidently she was shocked.
"Arthur," Her tone was cordial, yet her eyes still seemed surprised "What is it you wish to speak about?"
"It's about Merlin," Arthur started
"I beg your pardon, My Lord, did you say Merlin?!" it was Guinevere who had spoken, the words bursting from her unwillingly. She bit her lip and looked down in embarrassment.
"Oh and I forgot," Said the prince suddenly, breaking the few seconds of silence that had happened after Gwen's outburst. "Happy Easter,"
"Happy Easter Arthur." Said Morgana, amused
Gwen said nothing, looking at the floor as was proper to her station as a servant. Arthur frowned a little.
"Happy Easter Guinevere," He spoke her name so there could be no confusion as to who he spoke to.
She looked up, surprised that the prince would say such to a servant "Happy Easter, My Lord,"
"Right, now then," He spoke as if at a council meeting "About that manservant of mine,"
"What about him?" asked Morgana, who had moved from the window to stand beside them.
"Well, he turned up for work this morning," Said Arthur
"Yeah, so did Gwen, isn't that normal," Stated Morgana
"Ah," Said Gwen, just understanding what the prince meant "You mean because Uther gave the servants the day off for Easter?"
"Yes, thank you Guinevere, but that's not the strange part. When I spoke to him, it became clear to me that he has never celebrated Easter. The idiot didn't even know what it is! He called it Ester and asked if I was ill!"
Morgana and Gwen stared at him before bursting into laughter. Arthur, after a little princely glaring at them, saw the funny side and laughed too.
"Right..." Said Arthur as he struggled to stop his laughter "Well anyway- hang on-" He broke off, looking at Gwen "Why are you here if you have the day off?"
Gwen looked at him "My Lady had need of me, so I came for the morning. I stayed in the antechamber last night."
"For my nightmares..." put in Morgana
"Ah, well, as I was saying, I came to ask for your help..."
"Our help?" Morgana looked sceptical
"Yes, to teach Merlin about the Easter celebration." Arthur finished "Will you help?"
"I will," Said Gwen
Morgana smirked "Yes anything for Merlin Gwen." Morgana murmured to her maidservant, making her blush lightly "I will help you Arthur, so what do we do?"
"Well I was thinking that we could give him an Easter egg..."
"That's a start..." muttered Morgana
"I was hoping that, if I engage Father in a conversation at the lunch feast, then you could steal one of the eggs from the table and Gwen could take it to your chambers and we could give it to Merlin later. I thought about asking the kitchens for one so I went and they said that all of them were for the feasts today so they wouldn't give me one."
"Right... Okay, we'll do that." Morgana had spoken "Now Arthur, Gwen, could you leave so that I can prepare for the celebration"
"Of course My Lady, I will see you there" Guinevere left with a curtsey
"Thank you Morgana," Arthur followed and Morgana walked over to her wardrobe
"So father, how do you feel about...?"
Arthurs plan had just begun, as the King turned to speak to the prince Morgana carefully slipped one of the chocolate eggs from the table. She then signalled Gwen over to refill her drink. Merlin, who stood behind Arthur and was there to keep the prince hydrated, could have sworn that as Gwen walked away from her mistress and out of the room to re-fill her jug, that she carried something.
He turned the thought aside as Arthur waved at him for more wine. He walked forward, still wondering at the strange celebration and completely clueless as to what his friends planned.
Later that day, Merlin sat alone at the table in the physician's chambers, Gaius had gone out to tend to Sir Leon, who had injured himself during training with the knights. Suddenly the door opened, Merlin thought it was probably Gaius until he heard three sets of footsteps. He stood and faced the door.
He saw Morgana, Gwen and Arthur standing in a line.
"Um...?" He wasn't sure what to say to the unusual trio.
"Happy Easter Merlin," They chanted
Then Gwen walked forward and presented him with something. It was egg shaped, only larger and made of chocolate. Someone had iced 'Happy Easter' on the front in blue.
"Um, thanks, but, what is it?"
They laughed at him.
"So, this is what people get for Easter when they celebrate it each year?"
"Yes Merlin, you idiot," Said Arthur in amusement, they had just finished educating Merlin on the Easter celebrations.
"Oh," Merlin broke the egg into four pieces and handed them around to each of his friends, who sat around the table with him.
The Kings son and ward sat opposite him and Gwen was next to him. Each accepted the chocolate.
Merlin broke a piece off of the part left for him and went to eat it.
Suddenly a thought struck him and his hand, holding the chocolate, paused on the way to his mouth "Where did the egg come from?"
All three of them looked awkward suddenly
"We stole it," Morgana said bluntly, and they told him about the whole of their plot
After about an hour of each other's company, Morgana stood and said she should probably go and ready herself for the celebration in an hour's time Arthur followed, moaning about how he was going to be forced to dance with Bayard's Ward, and Merlin stood up to see them go.
Gwen stood before him; she turned to leave but then stopped and walked forward slowly. Putting her hand up to his face, she pulled his head down and placed a light kiss on his mouth. Then she released him and walked away, leaving Merlin staring after her.
As she reached the door, a second before she left, she murmured, just loud enough so that it reached Merlin's ears;
"Happy Easter Merlin,"
END
AN: Okay so I'm not sure how it ended up as a Gwen/Merlin fic but it did somehow. I just wrote what came to me. Anyway hope you liked and a review would be nice for Easter...
Happy Easter Merlin fans!
S