Hi, Cat speaking! I don't own any of these plots. I don't own any of these characters except for Elaine. Basically, I don't own it. Also, an explanation which works better than my summary:
Elaine is my Merlin OC. She basically exists to observe the goings on in Camelot and make snarky comments. Yes, she has an... unusual background, and the anachronisms are on purpose. She does not affect canon at all, so if it seems like there's a pairing you don't like, don't worry. (Unless it's canon; then I can't help you.) She will merely watch, and sometimes make wrong assumptions, and sometimes develop feelings of her own. (She is a person, after all.)
The stories are written as though they are her thoughts, in a way, so the odd style is completely on purpose if you haven't noticed. Similarly, she cannot comment on things she's not there for, and she doesn't figure things out any sooner than the rest of you.
This is similar to a fic about someone called Wynona, by Beatlesgirl9; we did not steal each other's stories, we just came up with the concept at the same time. She is amazing, by the way, as is her OC Wynona. Ok, now read!
The first time Elaine sees Merlin, she has no idea that the most powerful warlock ever is that boy in the stocks, being pelted with tomatoes. (And if Uther doesn't like magic, how have tomatoes stayed in Camelot this long?)
She shakes her head pityingly and continues on, returning home (home, home, Camelot is her home!) after a week spent gathering herbs in a not-so-near forest.
The second time she sees Merlin is not so much later, when he's come to Gaius after being released from the stocks and is puzzled to see this young woman humming horribly off-key and mixing some sort of tonic.
"Ah, Merlin," Gaius says, and Elaine stares at the boy in surprise. "This is my apprentice, Elaine Ragnelle. Elaine, you remember my telling you about the boy coming to live with us?"
"You never mentioned his name," Elaine says reproachfully. She smiles at him, Merlin of the big ears and blue eyes, and she is not crushing on him, not Merlin, but he is adorable, really. "Nor that he wasn't a child. You had me expecting to sing lullabies over a cradle."
Gaius looks suitably ashamed.
Then there's the time when he has just come back from speaking with the dragon.
Elaine is standing by the door, arms crossed and eyebrow raised, when Merlin re-enters. He stops and stares at her in horror.
"He's right, you know," Elaine says without preamble.
Merlin blinks and tries for a charming smile. "Who?" Elaine is silent and Merlin winces. "Well, what can I do?"
He doesn't know, Elaine realizes. He knows that he can do all of this, but he doesn't know why it's so important, and he has no idea that he can trust me...
So she makes two chairs move across the room so they can sit. Merlin stares at her.
"Sit."
He does, or they do, and they're silent for a while.
"Well... I can do that," he admits, and she knows. This is hard for him, he's only just arrived, and newly made clear to him is weight of his gift. He doesn't know how much, even, and Elaine hopes for his sake he never fully will.
"I know." They're quiet again.
In the morning Elaine wakes up, and she's on her bed, with a blanket over her, and she knows somehow that her family, odd and makeshift as it is, will last.
Because when he does magic, his eyes glow gold, and so do Elaine's.
After Arthur is saved, Elaine sits with him – Merlin, that is, not the prince (he knows nothing about her, not even the simple fact of her existence, and she likes it that way) – and they talk. Elaine doesn't talk much, but this is something she knows, and she's comfortable here.
"Arthur's a prat," she begins, "but he'll get better."
Merlin looks at her in the way the maids had when they'd taken bets on how long Merlin's job would last and Elaine had said forever, all pitying and sorry that they couldn't improve her mental state.
"In fact," Elaine goes on, "You two? Nigh inseparable. I'm sure of it."
Merlin laughs. "A seer you are not," he says, and it's ok that he doesn't believe her, because she knows, and she'll be earning loads and splitting the money with Gwen if it turns out she's not that Guinevere, and if she is, well, Elaine can just visit the tavern that many more times.
Elaine is sometimes a disappointment, sometimes a drunk, sometimes a bitch or a pagan or a heathen or a nerd or a piece of shit (all her oh-so-encouraging father's words, of course). But the one thing she never is, is wrong.