Touched By The Gods

A/N: This chapter is Jariadne and somewhere between the T and M rating. Chapter 2 is K+ rated friendship between the three boys. I'm hoping to add more chapters to this in future.

Royal Commands

(For Matt72's Christmas Wish List)

"Why are you here, Jason?"

He turned at the sound of her voice, a daft smile already plastered across his face. "Hello." She raised an eyebrow at him, only her head and shoulders peeking around her bedroom door. "Ah.. your Highness," he added hastily.

"And?"

"I'm guarding you, obviously."

"I have others to do that for me."

He shook his head. "I trust no-one else."

"You're forgetting your place again."

He couldn't help but smile. "I'm outside your room, obviously." As much as he knew he should show more deference towards the Queen of Atlantis, it still felt so wrong to do so.

"Don't do that," she said with a small frown.

"What?"

She shook her head. "You know we can't be together."

He shrugged. "I know."

"And yet..."

"Yes?"

She shook her head. "It makes no sense, Jason but, the strange pull I feel whenever you're near must mean something."

"What pull?"

"Can you not feel it? The sense that we are somehow connected?"

He frowned. "I know it hurts when we're apart. I know it feels right when we're together."

"And it shouldn't," she replied with a nod. "Such a relationship would not be allowed and the gods should not be encouraging us."

She wasn't looking at him so he felt able to smile a little at her superstition. "It would be so much easier if you were King of Atlantis instead," he said off-handedly, now totally distracted by her proximity and beauty.

"What?"

He replayed what he'd just said and shook his head, suddenly embarrassed. "Ah... that's not quite..." he said hastily, and then grinned as she yet again arched an eyebrow. "I just meant that it's not at all unheard of for kings to have romances with their female subjects with no consequences. It just seems a shame that you can't do the same."

He smiled cheekily as she gaped at him for the suggestion. "Jason! I never would. That would hardly be fair on you."

He didn't break eye contact. "It might be fun. You know... following your every order."

Her eyes widened and he noticed her lick her lips. He wondered what thought might have just appeared in her head at that moment.

"Ridiculous," she said after a short pause, starting to close the door. "Goodnight, Jason."

"Goodnight."

~o~0~o~

Some time later the door creaked open again and Jason stood up immediately. He noticed she seemed unable to look him in the eye. As tempting as it was to speak, he waited for her to begin.

"You have a point, you know?" she whispered, eventually.

"I do?"

"About men in power."

"Yes." He tried hard to keep his expression neutral. "Hardly seems fair, does it?"

"Only of course, it is different," she continued. "Such things are likely to have... consequences."

"That rather depends," he replied.

"On what?"

"On exactly what orders you might wish to give me."

Her eyes widened and she looked nervously up and down the corridor for a moment, considering.

"Then I order you to come into my room," she said, eventually.

"Your wish is my command," he replied, starting to move forwards.

She did then smile slightly. "No, remember. I'm the one giving the commands."

Jason's heart started to beat faster. Was she really going to play along?

"And?" he asked.

She held his gaze for a moment, eyes only betraying the smallest amount of emotion. "I order you to take off your shirt."

An easy one, and it wasn't as if she hadn't seen him that way often enough already. He grinned and stripped, enjoying the way her eyes widened as he removed the garment.

His smug smile at her reaction quickly fell as she approached, and his heart now started to beat quickly. She then raised a hand and gently touched his chest, and Jason closed his eyes as his whole body seemed to spark to life at her touch.

"Can you feel it now?" she asked. "That pull?"

"Perhaps."

"It feels real. It feels magical."

"Yeah..." He was distracted as her hand started to move again, tracing gentle lines across his chest, even though she didn't seem entirely focused on the task.

"Do you really have no idea what I mean?" she asked. "Only sometimes I think... your speed, your luck... The gods have blessed you and that normally means..." She frowned.

"Yes?" Jason asked.

"The gods favour their own and grant them their own gifts. Their own sorcery."

He looked at her sceptically. "Sorcery?"

She nodded and looked up at him with large, dark eyes and Jason had no idea what she was thinking. "I have another order for you?"

"Oh?"

"Kiss me."

He grinned again. "I thought you'd never ask."

~o~0~o~

Ariadne was Queen of Atlantis though, which meant she would still have to form a marriage alliance with someone of importance and so, as she'd said earlier, there was a limit to how far they could take this little game. However, that didn't mean they couldn't push the restrictions right up to that limit, and so it wasn't long before they were both naked on her bed and Jason was following Ariadne's latest order to kiss her in as many places as possible.

Actually, it had been less of an order and more of a desperate plea, but he was hardly going to spoil their game by pointing that out to her. He even briefly contemplated giving her a few orders of his own, although he was fairly confident that that would be pushing his luck.

This was still a dream come true, though, even if he was under no illusions that it would last. In the cold light of day he expected Ariadne to mumble comments about it all having been a mistake or perhaps even apologise for the orders, even though they both knew Jason was never going to have objected.

However, as his lips travelled lower, if wondered if he made tonight really memorable for her, perhaps, on some future occasion, Ariadne might decide she had a few more orders she wished him to follow.

She gasped as he reached her lower stomach and he looked up, eyeing her cheekily.

"Shall I stop, your highness?" he asked.

"Don't you dare," she replied. "Your Queen orders you to continue."

~o~0~o~

A/N: This Christmas, a new challenge at 'The Heart of Camelot' saw me actually write something other than 'Merlin'! Members wished for stories (and many other things) as part of their wish lists, and I finally started to write for different fandoms.

As well as these two stories, I also started a Merlin/Harry Potter crossover idea which is likely to be extended and I may also move over here, once I've worked out how to label it.