The Calm Before
Summary: They stand on opposite sides of a war that will destroy a kingdom. They have chosen their paths, they cannot change them. But for one night her holds her in his arms and lets her forget. Mergana. One shot.
AN: unsure where this came from and I'm not sure what it's like, you tell me.
o0o0o0o
He stands in the clearing as still as the trees that surround him. He is waiting, watching, listening, head slightly bowed. The night is deceptively calm, the numerous stars shining, stranded in the inky blackness of the sky. There is a slight breeze that teases at his jacket, whispers through his hair, longer than it once had been. The neckerchief, red as the blood spilled by day on the battlefield, quivers in the wind. He never stopped wearing it.
Keen ears pick out the slight noises in the silence, the snap of a fallen branch, the rustle of a dress...
His head snaps up, and there she stands before him. She who is also unchanged, as fair as the day he first looked upon her, but no longer inside. She wears a dress as black as her hair, loose and pushed back from her face by the moving air. She stands but a few paces from him and he tries to ignore the flutter of his cut, torn, bruised heart, one that was broken by her betrayal.
Merlin
Her voice whispering in his mind feels like a caress and he sees her as she once was, fair and kind hearted. Now the legends in Camelot say she exchanged her heart for one of stone.
'Morgana,' the single murmur of her name has emotion flickering behind the closed doors of her eyes. She takes a step closer to him.
'It will happen tomorrow, the final battle.' She looks up at him and he can see the faint tear tracks on her pale face. Yet could he believe them? Could he believe anything she said?
'Why are you telling me this?' he keeps his voice calm, though his heart is beating like that of a small bird in the jaws of a cat.
'Because—' she closes her eyes and lowers her head for a second, a shuddering breath escapes her and she looks back at him. 'Because, even after all this time, I can't help it, I can't stop – can't stop loving you.'
His stomach seems to do a back-flip and before he can restrain it, a hand moves. His hand cups the side of her face and his heart breaks over for what he knows he must say.
'Morgana, it can never be. You chose your path, and I chose mine, that cannot change now.'
'I know,' her eyes blink back tears 'but I cannot help but wish it could be different.'
Merlin's traitorous arms snake around her waist and pull her close to him.
'I never have – and I never will – stop loving you Morgana, but I will not abandon my king, and you will not give up on yours.' He kisses her then, soft and lingering, but when he tries to pull away her fingers twine in his tunic and pulls his mouth back against hers.
This is only the calm before the storm, they both know this, it is inescapable. But right here, right now, they forget those to whom they have sworn allegiance, they forget the war, they forget everything but themselves. Tomorrow they will stand on opposing sides, but for tonight they are simply two people in love. And for now, that is enough.
Thank you for reading (even if you hated it) :)
S