Sweet Revenge
Summary: Years after graduating from boarding school, Prince Arthur faces a school bully when he arrives in Camelot for a jousting tournament that coincides with his birthday and coming of age celebration.
Chapter One : The Three Best Friends
The roosters crowed as the yellow sun peeked over the mountains to shine on the castle of Camelot. The servants began rousing to start preparations for their Prince's birthday feast in the evening. He would be turning twenty one and will be officially crowned the Prince and Heir of Camelot. The manservant of Prince Arthur, Merlin, was extra busy for the day. He was up before the roosters and was down in the kitchens supervising the preparations of Arthur's breakfast. Once it was done, he took the tray and headed to the Royal chambers.
Another servant up before the sun was Ms Ashley, the Royal Event planner and assistant to Arthur and to Uther, the king. She was always easy to spot among the castle staff. She had a leather binder filled with papers always tucked under one of her arms, or she would be walking with it open and she was always a step or two behind either Arthur or Uther. The past few days, she had been running around getting things done for Arthur's birthday and coronation and organizing the jousting tournament.
However, Ashley and Merlin were not just servants. They were Arthur's two best friends from the days of their boarding school years. In fact, they were his only two friends in the boarding school. Being a prince, it shouldn't have been hard for Arthur to make friends, except that in boarding school, he wasn't a prince. Four years ago, Arthur Pendragon was Artie deBois, a ward of a knight, not the son of a king. King Uther had wanted his son to be mingled with common children to get him more ground. The Albion school allowed both prominent and common children to attend. However, it was in Camelot's enemy's territory and for Arthur's safety, his name was changed and sent to live with Uther's friend, Sir Ector.
Of course, being regarded as a peasant made him unable to participate in the sports, especially his favorite, jousting. He was allowed to handle the equipment as a squire. To make things worse, the school's popular student, Lancelot of Winterborne, made it his life's mission to make Arthur's a living hell. He made Arthur the jousting team's flunky mascot. They made him and Merlin clean armor, muck stables and fix lances. They did it never realizing that Arthur was a prince. Arthur felt bad for Merlin because the young wiz science kid had befriended Arthur who was sharpening swords. He offered to help, but that just got him on the squire team.
The two of them met Ashley when they defended her from Lancelot and his lackeys who were pushing her to the ground, shoving her books out of her hands and making crude remarks to her. That's how the three of them became friends.
Merlin and Ashley were part of the commoner children scholarship program. They came from different villages of the country. Merlin's mother was a teacher at the school and he never made friends because he was a teacher's kid. Ashley was the daughter of a farmer who considered not pretty by the prominent girls. She was the school nerd because her grades were the highest of their class. She had eidetic memory and was able to memorize the books. The two of them shield Arthur as much as they could and he did his best to protect them. They eventually formed a bond of friendship that was unbreakable.
He felt he couldn't trust them because he couldn't tell them the truth about his status. He would go back to Camelot for the summer to do his training to becoming a prince and knight of Camelot. Every summer he'd go back, he would plead with his father to allow him to tell Merlin and Ashley. Uther would always say no, but say he would consider it. After hearing so much about them for six years, the summer before Arthur's last year he allowed Arthur to tell his two friends so long as they keep quiet.
At first, the two didn't believe him until Sir Ector also told them. The truth of his status didn't change anything and they understood why he couldn't tell them. Some of the jousting team were sons of lords and barons who lived in the enemy territory where the school was located and would tell the king. They grew even closer that last year and imagined what Arthur could do to Lancelot if he ever stepped foot into Camelot.
"Oh, ban him from competing in jousting tournaments," Merlin once said.
"Make him to all the squire work that you do," Ashley said. That had all of them laughing.
After graduating, Arthur returned to Camelot with his two friends in tow. It was in Camelot that Merlin discovered he had magic and told Arthur. Magic was banned in Camelot, but his friendship with Arthur had the prince keeping quiet. Gaius, an old friend of his mother, allowed Merlin to be his assistant. When Merlin saved Arthur's life, he was made Arthur's manservant. Ashley's skills at organizing were put to the test when Uther made her the Royal Event planner. She also became the maidservant to the Royal Family. Over four years, the people of Camelot grew to love their prince even more and seeing the three together in the market town was an annual thing. The three were always joined at the hip. Uther had noticed a change in his son when he's around his two friends and felt glad that he had sent him to the school. Those two made him a better person and Uther found himself thinking that whomever his son chose to be his wife would be one lucky woman.
Arthur, however, had fallen in love by the time he had turned twenty, with Lady Morgana's lady in waiting, Guinevere. They met when Morgana had come to Camelot to live after the death of her father. At first he didn't pay any attention to her, but after he was injured by a magical creature and Merlin and Ashley were off trying to find a cure for it, Guinevere nursed him at one point during the night. She said things above her station to give him comfort. She had thought he was unconscious, but he had heard every word. He even remembered her holding his hand, pressing it up against her lips. He called her on it when he got better and she got flustered as she tried to deny it. She scurried away before he had a chance to continue the banter. Over the course of a year, they danced around each other, flirted and even shared a kiss or two. Arthur even went as far as to risk his life for her to save her from some bandits against his father's orders.
Merlin and Ashley knew long ago that they were made for each other. Now it was the matter of getting Uther to see it. Arthur's been the victim of love potions twice and even though he really was in love, Uther might not believe him. Gwen kept Arthur grounded which Merlin and Ashley were grateful for. She was also the one person they could go to if Arthur was in a state neither of them could get him out.
Merlin turned into the hall just as Ashley did from the another hall and they greeted each other.
"Morning, Merlin," she said.
"Morning, Ashley," he said. They both stopped seeing Gwen coming down the hall from Arthur's chambers. "Uh-oh," he said. "What do I say?"
"What are you talking about?" Ashley asked. "Morning, Gwen," she said as the handmaiden approached them.
"Good morning," the handmaiden said.
"You know, he really doesn't like it when you leave before he wakes up," Ashley mentioned.
"He can blame Merlin," Gwen said. "Besides, he's up already."
"Really?" Ashley and Merlin asked together. They always had to wake him up themselves. Arthur Pendragon never got up on his own, unless he had help.
"As in out of bed up?" Ashley asked.
"He's still in bed, but he's awake," she said. "Well, I have a lady to tend to. Bye," she said walking passed them down the hall.
"What did she mean by asking you?" Ashley asked.
"Um, well ..." Merlin started to say.
"Merlin! Ashley!" a shouted came from Arthur's room.
"Then again," she said. "I could ask Arthur," she said looking at Merlin.
"Are you nuts?"
"Merlin!" Arthur shouted. Ashley gave Merlin a little push to get him going and leaned against the wall to wait for Arthur to get decent. Merlin opened the door to see a shirtless Arthur sitting up in bed.
"Morning, Sire," he said carrying the tray in. Arthur glared at him and Merlin corrected himself. "Morning, Arthur."
"That's better," Arthur said.
"Ashley's waiting outside," Merlin said.
"Does she have her binder?" Arthur asked.
"She always has her binder," Merlin said picking up a basket to get the dirty clothes. Arthur groaned as he got out of bed and stretched,
"Hand me a shirt?" he asked. A white shirt hit his face followed by a chuckle from Merlin. "Thank you," he said before pulling it on. "I'm decent!" he shouted and he sat down as Ashley came into his room.
"Good morning," she said a little too cheerful for him.
"No one is that cheerful this early in the morning," Arthur said.
"Was that Gwen we saw leaving?" she teased.
"Yes," he said. "We slept on either side of the bed." He took a sip of orange juice then put the cup down. "Yet, we ended up in the middle of the bed." Merlin and Ashley chuckled as he sat down on the table and started to eat.
"Well, while you eat, I'll go over your itinerary," she said opening her binder causing Arthur to chuckle. "What?" she asked.
"Is that necessary?" he asked. Ashley sighed out closing her binder.
"All right. What are you doing today?"
"Oh, see, I planned on spending the day with Guinevere," he said.
"Told ya," Merlin said from the far side.
"Wrong answer," she said opening her binder again. "This morning, you have Grimmund taking his final knighthood test. It's very important that you're there because he has to fight you."
"Right," Arthur said before spooning some oatmeal into his mouth.
"Your afternoon is free though," she said.
"Guinevere isn't," Arthur said.
"Can't be helped," she said. "Late afternoon there is a small rehearsal for the coronation," she said causing Arthur to nearly choke on his orange juice.
"Rehearsal?" he asked finding his voice amidst his coughing. "Are you serious?"
"Your father and Morgana are on board for it," she said.
"Then I guess I have to go."
"Right again," she said smiling. "Merlin, it's your responsibility that you get him to the hall for it," she said. "If he's not there ..."
"He'll be there, I promise," Merlin said lifting a basket of clothes. "Well, if I'm not needed anymore, I must get these to the laundry."
"I can get him to the armory, Merlin," Ashley said. Merlin nodded and left the room with Arthur's clothes.
Arthur finished breakfast and clothed behind a screen before emerging into the hall. He twirled himself around presenting himself to Ashley. He and Ashley began to walk the halls to the Great Hall where the king would be. Arthur always greeted his father in the morning before going off to perform the duties he had for the day. Suddenly, a thought just hit him. "You know, I hadn't really thought of it until now."
"What?" Ashley asked. Arthur stopped causing her to as well and they faced her.
"Lancelot."
"Good grief. What made you think of him?" she asked.
"Not sure," he said crossing his arms. "Morgana mentioned something in passing a few days ago." He looked around to make sure no one was listening and lowered his voice. "She had another one of those dreams of hers. She heard Lancelot's name being called in it."
"It was just a dream."
"They're not just dreams when Morgana has them," Arthur said. "My life had been saved numerous times because of her so called dreams," he said.
"Now that you mentioned it, him not coming to a jousting tournament is weird," she said.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and he won't show up at all," he said.
"One could only hope," she said and they started their walk to the Great Hall again.