Morgana hated her birthday. She hated Uther's awkward attempts at presents, she hated the formal banquet he always insisted on holding in her honour and she especially hated the annual lecture he gave her on being a year older. Over the years Arthur had done his best to make it bearable. Initially he had roped Merlin into helping to throw her a little private party in his chambers with cake and decorations, but after several years of at best a lukewarm reception from the King's ward he had realised that the best thing he could do was just act normally and offer her the occasional sympathetic smile.
Morgana stared at the ceiling. Maybe if she just lay there all day everyone would forget what day it was and leave her alone. She clung to this vague hope for about ten minutes as the moments before the day began continued to slip from her grasp. She was just starting to think she might stand a chance of drifting back to sleep when there was a rattling on the other side of the room and her maidservant entered her chambers.
"Good morning, Lady Morgana."
Except that it was not her maidservant. Morgana sat up.
"Where's Gwen?" she asked bluntly.
"Guinevere is sick, m'lady," said the girl, "she sends her apologies. I am here in her place. If you don't mind, m'lady, the king has requested your presence for breakfast."
Morgana sank back into her pillows. Perfect, she thought, the only thing that could possibly have made this day bearable and she was ill.
"I am sorry, m'lady, perhaps you didn't here me. The king..."
"Yes alright!" said Morgana, flouncing out of bed.
She deliberately chose the simplest outfit she owned in an attempt to mark the day as distinctly ordinary and walked down to breakfast where she was greeted to a table overflowing with food. It was ridiculous, Morgana thought, that this much food could possibly be offered up to three people. This could feed an entire village for a week and here it was being offered to her, Arthur and Uther as one meal. Merlin, who appeared to be serving them, looked on hungrily. Morgana didn't feel too sorry for him, she imagined that Arthur would, as usual, order them both breakfast in his chambers as soon as he could excuse himself.
"Morgana!" said Uther, beaming and rising from his seat to envelop her in an awkward hug, "Happy birthday."
Morgana smiled and sat down at her place, silently appreciating Arthur's total disregard for her presence. Merlin gave her a small smile which she returned halfheartedly. Uther then began laying out his plans for the day. She was first to go to a joust being held in her honour, then back to her to chambers to change for a parade through the town in which she was the centre piece. Afterwards Uther wished to speak to her in private (this would be the lecture) and then she was to change again for the banquet that evening,
Morgana nodded gloomily and excused herself as soon as possible. Uther had bought her new outfits for all the events and they were both uncomfortable and unflattering. She made her way to the joust clutching at her waist where the first dress dug into it already bored at the mere prospect of the event. Now a joust may sound exciting, and in many ways it is, but when you have been to as many jousts in your life as Morgana had it all begins to seem a bit like some men on horses running towards each other with big sticks.
Arthur agreed with her. Much as he loved participating, he found watching jousts incredibly tedious. Normally the two would pass the time chatting or playing noughts and crosses just out of Uther's eye line, but this year Arthur was irritatingly distracted by his manservant who he had somehow managed to convince Uther he needed standing right behind him. The two spent the entire two hour event giggling and chatting, and when they weren't Arthur could not seem to keep up a conversation. Morgana spent a while trying to figure out why until she noticed Merlin fiddling teasingly with the hair at the nape of Arthur's neck.
After the joust came the parade. Another awkward dress and several hours of waving left Morgana severely down beat. Then her lecture. She was a year older, a year closer to becoming the woman Uther knew she was capable of becoming. This was the year they would continue to search for a suitable mate, this was the year she could become queen of some neighbouring kingdom, and to symbolise this Uther presented her with some jewellery. Just like he did every year.
Morgana went through the moods, solemn, dutiful, pleased and finally euphoric at the gift. He probably didn't even choose it himself, she thought as her guardian fastened the clasp on the silver necklace he had presented her with this year, he was probably seeing it for the first time too. This was followed by a compulsory hug and then he sent her to change for the banquet.
Gwen's surprisingly incompetent replacement helped her dress into the most garish yellow dress she had even seen but despite its obvious hideousness it was still met with oo's and ah's from the assembled guests. The evening dragged, first came speeches, long rambling things often with more reference to politics than the event of her birthday followed by a compulsory dance with both Arthur and Uther which eventually turned into a bit of a free for all.
Uther spent most of the night sat talking to lords and earls and such whilst the knights spent most of their evening drinking and chatting up passing serving girls. Morgana spent her time watching Arthur. First he and Merlin tried to avoid each other. Then they started sneaking looks every now and then. After about an hour they deliberately ran into each other several times, managing a grope in some place or other as they did. Clearly this was some kind of game.
Once most of the knights had either retired or passed out, Arthur sauntered over to where Merlin was standing in a corner. Personal space practically non existent, Arthur said something which incited a raised eyebrow from Merlin. Merlin's reply saw Arthur quickly down his drink and drop the empty glass on a nearby table as Merlin grabbed his free hand and the two left the room at a brisk pace, both grinning like idiots.
Morgana wondered how on earth they managed not to get caught. Surely Uther must know. Maybe he just didn't care. Morgana decided she had sat through this long enough and headed up to her chambers.
Pushing the door open she prepared to send away the substitute and collapse into she found herself stopping in the doorway. Gwen was sat on her bed in a long white night dress, her hair loose and running down her shoulder. Without saying anything Gwen got up, changed Morgana into her night clothes and helped her into bed. Gwen then slid in behind her and wrapped one arm around Morgana's waist, moving her hand up to clutch Morgana's own.
"Was it very bad?" she asked.
Morgana nodded. Gwen gave her hand a comforting squeeze and moved up to kiss her neck.
"Happy birthday, Morgana."
Morgana turned over so she and Gwen were face to face, noses touching, legs interlocking under the sheets. Neither felt any need to say anything. This moment was perfect.