Strangers with the Same Eyes
This One-Shot is my idea on what Morgana and Gwen were giggling about in 'The Beginning of the End' when Merlin walked in with Mordred. It was meant to focus on the slowly boiling Merthur in the series at that point, but ended up going dark at the end with an implied betrayal from Morgana :S Anyway, since the episode was basically Merthur-less, I thought I'd add my own :D
Pairings: Implied Merlin/Arthur and Gwen/Morgana friendship
Review please x
The ruby liquid poured into the goblet like a stream into the ocean, with such ease that it seemed almost as if it instinctively wished to be drunk. Setting the jug down with a thud as it hit the wood, Gwen took her seat facing the Lady Morgana, who smiled at her graciously. It was still early in the day, the sun had no yet reached its highest peak in the sky, and so, the women were having lunch early, or more precisely, finishing it off.
"Did you hear Arthur and Merlin this morning?" asked Morgana, lifting her eye brow in a knowing way as she brought her drink to her lips. Gwen smiled,
"Hear it? I think the whole kingdom heard it, my Lady. Although, I have no idea what their argument was over" replied Gwen, moving plates about on the table, as always, she was organized.
"Well" started Morgana, leaning forward, "Arthur is due to train with the knights this afternoon and Merlin apparently dropped Arthur's breakfast all over his armour, tripping over his own feet in the way only Merlin can". Gwen chuckled,
"I swear, he'd lose his head if it weren't screwed on" she replied and Morgana helped herself to one of the plump purple grapes off the centre plate,
"Then, Merlin dropped Arthur's second armour right on her royal highness's feet. And, well, being Arthur, he had to make a fuss over that as well". At this, both the maidservant and the seer grinned, the image of Arthur cursing in pain in their minds.
"No wonder Arthur was mad" commented Gwen, and Morgana smiled,
"There's more" she announced, raising her eyebrows suggestively. Gwen's eyes widened,
"Oh, really?" she questioned and the king's ward nodded, taking up a knife and carefully cutting at a pheasant breast as she spoke,
"Merlin then went on to catch the seam of the table cloth and pulled it clean off the table, dragging everything with it. The contents were mainly pot and each and everyone of them smashed, with rather a loud bang" Morgana said slowly, her smile widening. Gwen giggled lightly,
"Oh my" she replied, taking a sip from her own glass, "And that's what caused all the shouting?"
"Oh" Morgana replied, dismissively, "It seemed Arthur was the only one shouting in their lover's tiff" at this Gwen spluttered into her drink,
"My lady!" she exclaimed and Morgana merely snickered as she forked the meat into her mouth, with all the grace of a lady,
"Oh, Gwen" replied Morgana after she'd swallowed, "You cannot deny you have seen it also!"
"I don't know what you're talking about" replied Gwen as she rose from her seat, picking up some of the empty plates as she talked, and carrying them over to a near-by table out of the way.
"You must have seen the way they look at each other!" Morgana cried, "Have not you seen the way Arthur watches Merlin sometimes when he thinks no body is looking?"
"I don't think it would be right talking about Prince Arthur in such a manner" replied Gwen, and Morgana chuckled, also getting out of her seat and helping the maidservant.
"Gwen, no one will hear us. But surely you have noticed the way they are always so desperate to save each other's lives? There's not a day that goes by where Merlin doesn't rush past me in the hall, muttering at an incoherent speed about a way to save Arthur or Uther". At this, Gwen chuckled,
"Well, I must say, I have noticed that" she murmured and Morgana smiled, knowing she was finally getting somewhere,
"And have not you noticed the way Merlin is the only one Arthur will allow to change his mind? It is undeniable the way Merlin has changed our prince" Morgana said, standing beside the table and taking her goblet up again. Straightening out, Gwen brushed the front of her dress off with a smile on her face,
"It has to be said that he did challenge the word of knight Valiant on what Merlin had told him" admitted the maidservant. The seer grinned,
"I do believe there may be something going on between the two of them" she said in a low voice, her eyes mischievous. Gwen gaped at the seer, but she was smiling,
"Oh, Morgana! You cannot say such things!" she exclaimed and Morgana chuckled,
"It is so obvious they respect each other as more then servant and master, but I believe it could be more then friends" explained the seer and Gwen giggled,
"And you imagine that behind closed doors, they hold hands and spend hours debating over who loves who more?" teased Gwen, but Morgana shrugged,
"I do not think they have admitted their feelings yet, Gwen, but perhaps. You never know, Merlin does tend to be in Arthur's room awfully early in the morning, perhaps he has spent longer there then we all imagined if you get my drift"
Gwen was silent for a moment, an awaiting silence filling the air between the grinning seer and the wide-eyed maidservant who was biting her lip as to stifle the fit of giggles that suddenly erupted from her, that were soon joined by the seer.
"This is foolishness!" cried Gwen and Morgana grinned,
"Oh, I think not. Perhaps you and I should devise a plan to get Merlin and Arthur to admit their feelings" Morgana thought aloud. The maidservant turned serious, but her eyes still smiled,
"You truly believe this don't you?"
"Of course I do" replied Morgana, her goblet in mid-air and they both smiled, "Although, you never know, they might already have got something going on. Perhaps we should ask" and Morgana put a finger to her chin in mock thought, watching from the corner of her eye as the maidservant froze, a picture of horror littering her features, before she fell about in another fit of giggles.
Morgana too giggled, feeling slightly light-headed. Maybe she had had one glass to many.
Without warning, the door to her chambers was flung open and Merlin stumbled in, his arm around a young boy, all clad in green. 'Speak of the devil, and he shall appear' was Morgana's first thought. Gwen turned around at the noise, still smiling. She didn't recall hearing the manservant's footsteps.
"Have you forgotten to knock Merlin?" the seer accused, her voice startled and annoyed. Merlin's face was dark and his eyes dilated with fear. The women's smiles soon evaporated.
"The guards were after him, I didn't know what to do" Merlin explained throughout gasps, and both the maidservant and the king's ward looked down to the boy in Merlin's arms.
Morgana froze, entranced by this strange boy. His eyes, deep emerald in colour, were brimming with fear. Yet, pain cracked at their edges; suspended on a web of something she saw everyday in the mirror, in her own eyes. Something she had only ever come to fear herself. Magic.
Gwen turned to her Lady, curious of her actions. Without a second thought, some inner instinct, something the seer could never describe - like her dreams of a future that had yet to pass, so full of horror that they forced the young women to awake in a room still dark, screaming and sweating - told her to protect the boy. To hide him. To aid him.
And so, Morgana told Merlin to take the boy behind her screen, and that was the start of something so new to the seer. That was the start of her true soul beginning to show. No one listened to Morgana. No one took her opinion. No one listened when she warned them on her dreams. No one who could do something about it, at least. But this boy started a chain-reaction, caused a wall to build itself between the seer and the king, a wall of hatred.
Other events, such as Gwen's father's death, and a reminder of how Morgana's own father was sent into battle, promised to be given aid by that very king, whom then didn't send him any and caused her father's death. It all piled up and up, and eventually, Morgana held only ice for the king.
Like Mordred, Morgana grew cold and hollow in time to come, all due to meeting such a stranger as that druid, a stranger with the same eyes.