Merlin doesn't belong to me
Heart to Heart
000
Uther was troubled. There was something really wrong with Arthur. Why else would he insist that he loved Vivian to the point of dueling it out with her father, Olaf? For Arthur to insist that he loved a girl he barely knew let alone even really spoken to, as far as Uther knew, there had to be something really wrong with him.
There was one more contest to go and from the looks of it, Arthur wasn't going to survive the swordfight. Uther had to do something… he would try and make his son see reason. He stood up from his seat and went to the tent where Gaius and Merlin were seeing to Arthur, he couldn't sit and just watch his son die.
000
As he neared the tent, Uther could hear voices, a girl was talking to Arthur. He had left Morgana in her seat and he sincerely hoped that it wasn't Vivian with Arthur now.
"… then let me make amends," the girl said and he heard Arthur gasp. Who was that with his son in the tent and what was she doing to him?
Uther opened the tent and stopped.
Arthur and the girl were kissing.
What was wrong with Arthur, he was in the middle of a contest with Olaf over Vivian yet he was kissing another girl?
Uther shock turned to anger when he recognised the girl. It was Morgana's servant, Guinevere, the blacksmith's daughter.
"What am I doing?" Arthur asked her. Uther was at least glad to know that Arthur was obviously confused about what he was doing. He had to be confused if he was kissing a servant girl. Uther would have walked in to talk to them and get to the bottom of it there and then but he was called away by one of the knights.
000
Uther watched Olaf and Vivian disappear into the distance. He couldn't understand how Arthur had finally come to his senses and stopped the fight before either he or Olaf had been killed but he was glad of his son's wisdom.
Obviously there had been something wrong with Arthur, and it was probably something to do with his facing his mortality.
He would talk to his son about it and about kissing girls.
000
"Yes, Father?"
"Be seated," Uther urged Arthur.
"I saw you Arthur," Uther said.
"I don't know what you mean."
"I saw you kissing that serving-girl in the tent," Uther said.
"Father, I can explain," Arthur interrupted, although he had no idea how he was going to explain his feelings for Guinevere to his father.
"I get it," Uther smiled at him, "you obviously were not in your right mind."
"Right, of course," Arthur agreed.
"You thought you were going to be killed by Olaf and decided to kiss that girl to remind yourself that you were still alive."
"Okay," Arthur agreed slowly. What was his father going on about?
"All of us do crazy things when we're facing death," Uther assured him, "although I thought that someone with your experience fighting, and all those close calls you've had over the years, would be better prepared than the average man but I was wrong."
Arthur nodded. He wasn't going to correct his father's misconceptions about why he had kissed Guinevere.
"I only advice I have for you now is this," Uther stood up and walked over to his son's side, "just because you kissed a girl and won the fight it doesn't mean you always have to do it."
"Father?" Arthur was puzzled.
"You need another tactic to reassure yourself, like praying or something."
"Yes, Father."
Arthur stood up to leave his father's room thinking about the weird conversation they'd just had.
"And Arthur," Arthur paused at the door and looked at his father, "next time you have to kiss somebody don't pick a servant. You'll give her the wrong idea." At Arthur's look he continued, "You don't want a servant thinking that because you kissed her she's entitled to special treatment or anything like that."
"Yes, Father."
000