Title: To The Highest Bidder
Fandom: Merlin
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Gwen/Arthur, Merlin, Sir Leon, OCs.
Word Count: 1,472
Warnings: Firstly, pretty cracky. Also: Subject of slavery. Subject of [men] being bought [by women] for sexual favors. Crude sexual comments. Some public humiliation. …But mostly upbeat?
Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin. All I possess is my adoration for it.
Summary: After Arthur is captured by slave traders, Gwen, Merlin, and Sir Leon go on a covert op to buy him back at an auction.
A/N: Written for the prompt "Arthur/Gwen - Arthur is taken prisoner while off at war, but his captors have no idea who they've captured and make him a slave in a far-distant land. When Gwen finds out, she has to purchase him back." (except I forgot the 'while off at war bit') for a "Kink Me! #11 – Project Diversity" at the lj comm kinkme_merlin.
This fic is going off the assumption that Leon knows about Gwen & Arthur. But he can keep the romance secret cuz he's cool like that and one of Arthur's besties or what have you.
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It will be fine, Gwen told herself. You've impersonated a lady before and been believed.
Only this was so much different from when she had to pretend to be Morgana.
Because this time she couldn't show the smallest bit of fear. And if she messed up, there was more than her life at stake. There was Arthur. And Merlin and Sir Leon, too.
The manservant and knight had come to her house in the middle of the night, hurriedly explaining how Arthur had been taken by slave traders while he and Merlin were hunting. (How Merlin had managed to escape was a wonder to everyone.) The men hadn't seemed to know who Arthur was, but if they found out, it could prove even more disastrous. The legion of knights couldn't head out until morning. And from what Leon knew of these slave traders, they would probably arrive too late, Arthur sold and in an entirely different part of Albion by then.
"So then what are you doing here?" she asked.
"Because we need you," Merlin said.
"I came up with a plan and Merlin's offered to help," Sir Leon explained. "But for the plan to work best we need someone to act as a noblewoman."
"Me?"
Merlin pulled a dress out of his rucksack, no doubt pilfered from Morgana's old things.
"It's for Arthur, Gwen."
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"Everything's going to be alright," Merlin whispered with a discreet squeeze of her hand. He stood at her side and a step behind, acting as her servant.
"How can you be so sure?" she whispered back.
"Arthur and I have been in worse. This? Piece of cake. You'll see."
He gave a small reassuring grin and she wondered whether or not he was lying.
The crowd around them grew more and more restless as they waited for the auction to begin. Behind her on her other side, Sir Leon edged closer and closer to her in accordance with him being her bodyguard – both for their charade and in actuality.
"I will be by your side the entire time, acting as your guard. I will do everything to make sure no harm comes to you." The look in his eyes had made her realize it wasn't just his chivalry that he spoke from, but his understanding of how important she was to Arthur.
And having a knight with them did help reassure her, considering the unsavory company that seemed to attend slave auctions. But Gwen could hardly worry for herself considering Arthur's situation.
Finally, after Gwen was becoming surer and surer that Arthur had already been sold – or even dead – a dozen men were led onto the stage before them. They all had chains about their wrists, most of them shirtless, and many of them at least a little dirty. Gwen's disgust for the slave trade deepened at the sight of them, hoping that that Camelot's legion arrived in time to free them as well. Sir Leon had only enough readily-available money for one purchase.
It was why he and Merlin had needed her. Slaves were typically bought a few or more at a time. Except – as they had uncomfortably informed her – for the rare occasions where slaves were purchased with other purposes in mind. A noblewomen buying a man as a plaything wasn't all that common, but not unheard of either. It wouldn't arouse suspicion and that was the important part.
Gwen's eyes somehow slid past Arthur on their first track down the line. The panic was thankfully momentary, as she spotted him near the end. He didn't notice her or the others (what reason would he expect to find them there?), instead eyeing the burly men in charge of the slaves. She knew he was making up plans, weighing his options. The bruises and cuts on his face and chest were evidence of fighting against his captors. But there looked to be no real damage, thank god.
Another man stepped onto the stage. He was dressed finely, evidence of the slave trade's profits. But Gwen could tell he was no nobleman, no amount of wealth able to hide his crude demeanor. He outstretched his arms, calling attention to himself so that the chatter around them died down.
"Welcome, gentlemen… and lady, as I see we have with us today." Gwen doesn't miss his leer or the mutterings around her. It was obvious they did not receive many women.
She refused to let them get to her, instead fixing the man with a steady gaze.
"Perhaps we should let the lady start us off. It would be the polite thing to do," he mocked.
The crowd met him with guffaws of laughter.
"Well, my lady? Have any of them caught your eye?" He clapped the nearest slave on the shoulder, who flinched at the contact.
Gwen hesitated for just a moment to keep from desperately blurting it out like she wanted to.
"The fair-haired one. Third from the end."
Arthur, who hadn't been paying much to the proceedings in favor of studying his captors, was shoved forward by one of the guards. He stumbled a bit, before being firmly guided by the shoulder to the center of the stage.
Only then he really saw her. There was a flicker of shock on his face, his eyes skimming over her, Sir Leon, and Merlin before landing back on her. But he quickly covered up his recognition even if he couldn't stop staring at her.
"Drop trou," the presenter told Arthur.
"What?"
"Lower your trousers for the lady, boy," he ordered. Behind him, one of the guards took a threatening step forward.
"Alright, alright," Arthur answered, hastily undoing his laces so that the chains on his wrist clinked loudly together.
And then he tugged them down to his knees.
Gwen's first instinct would have been to avert her eyes, as propriety would demand. But she knew that she couldn't if she wanted to keep up their ruse. So she looked, trying to keep her eye critical and her face passive. Except she couldn't help the way her cheeks burned and her breaths refused to steady.
She had seen naked men before. But never Arthur. And never had the sight of a man affected her quite this way – the muscular build of his thighs, the angles of his pelvic bones, down to the thatch of dark blond hair and his manhood protruding from it. Arthur was then nudged in the shoulder to turn, now exposing his backside to her. Gwen was no less aroused by this, thinking of the previous times she had noted how his arse fit in his trousers and how this was no disappointment.
Arthur was told he could pull back up his trousers and turned back to face the audience.
"Satisfactory, my lady?" The presenter asked.
Gwen swallowed and did her best to mask both her embarrassment and arousal. "He will do."
He nodded and smirked. "A fine pick, my lady."He then turned his attention to the whole audience, his voice booming once again. "Tall. Strong. Good for hard labor, whether in the fields … or in a lady's bed," he finished with a suggestive wag of his eyebrow.
Whistles and catcalls erupted, making Arthur's face fight the desire to put them all in their place for perversely jeering at Gwen.
"So perhaps we will start the bidding at… 80 crowns?"
"80 crowns," Gwen called immediately.
A few others joined in, some only half-heartedly.
83, 85, 88, 90, 95, 98, 100, 105, 107, 109, 110, 112, 114…
Most of the bidders dropped out, until just one other remained. Gwen was growing anxious. They only had 123 crowns and change.
"117," said the rival bidder lazily.
Unlike many of the other buyers, this man was definitely of noble blood. He was probably the best dressed of them all, and with an amount of style that the others seemed to lack. Besides his clothes, his manner looked that of a lord in that he appeared to think himself better than everyone else.
"Just let her have 'em, Claudius!" a shout came from somewhere in the crowd. "Poor thing looks in need of a good lay."
Gwen's face instantly grew hot as laughter broke out.
"119," she said firmly.
Her rival paused, looking her up and down as his lip curled.
"Well, fine," he conceded nastily. "But only because her thighs are practically shaking from wanting to be spread."
The auctioneer confirmed the sale over the sound of more laughter, so that she didn't even pay heed to the obscenities shouted at her.
Meanwhile, the auctioneer looked at Arthur. "You have any idea how lucky you are? Not only are you spared from hard labor, but the mistress you'll have to service looks like that?"
Arthur couldn't help his smile. "I think I have a pretty good idea."
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More A/Ns (if anyone's interested):
So, I'm not entirely sure if the prices would be very accurate. But I did some research. Found out that a strong young man cost ~$15,000* in modern American dollars (well, 1998. It was the best they had). That's about £10,512 (or $ 18,145 AUD), which would have been 565 medieval shillings, which is 113 crowns. Also, chainmail cost 100 shillings, which is 20 crowns.
*I found two different ways of pricing slaves. I used the conservative one. Turns out that a "Number One man" (which I assumed to mean physically strong) at 19-25yrs old could cost as much as $24,000 modern USD (or £16800 or $29,000 AUD).
(All modern currency conversions as of 5/20/10.)