DOLL-op head

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It was a strange thing, Gwen thought, that someone would make dolls of Merlin and Morgana and leave them laying in the middle of the Physician's quarters for no reason.

She contemplated the figures, they were made of wool, with black tresses (and she had a suspicion that it was truly their hair), large blue and green eyes painted over the fabric, as well as clothing matching their styles: a blue tunic, red scarf, brown pants and jacket on Merlin's doll and a red hood and dress for Morgana's.

She had found them two months from now, when Gaius was possessed by that goblin, yet only now she was remembered of their existence.

Even though she was extremely tired due to her time watching Morgana for any improvement on her mistress' condition, she didn't want to go to sleep at that moment, so she caught herself fumbling with a box she kept in her room and found the dolls.

When the thought of playing with them (as she did a lot as a little girl, dolls where always her favorite toys) crossed her mind, Guinevere thought that it was silly and shameful that a fully grown woman would even entertain such idea, but in her tired state her thought of line was begging to blur, so she gave in to the impulse.

It wasn't as if someone would see her doing it or that it would have great consequences on the world or her friends, it was only an amusement to divert her mind from the thought that once again she almost lost her best friend, even though she wasn't sure that the Morgana that had returned to them was the same person. No one had an idea of what she had been through in the last year, so she supposed that it wasn't her friend's fault for being different, yet sometimes she missed how their friendship used to be so open, whereas now it seemed that they were both stepping on eggs, too afraid to make certain questions or to express what they truly felt.

Gwen sighed, overthinking wasn't helping, then maybe it was time to amuse herself with a little bit of playtime. She giggled, thinking that Merlin and Morgana would make a beautiful pairing in real life and that their children would be the most beautiful pale and black haired little ones that would ever step on Camelot.

Surely, she sometimes would imagine her own children with Arthur (for a brief moment before remembering how their love was something so unattainable that it was for the best that she didn't think at all) and for her they would be simply perfect, no matter how they are born (and certainly beautiful too), but in a different way from Morgana and Merlin's.

She was quite aware that they wouldn't get even close to be wed, much like her and Arthur, and that perhaps whatever feelings they shared it wasn't love at all (even if Merlin would look at Morgana with such longing sometimes that Gwen was certain that he did love her, and other times it was Morgana that would stare at her window for long moments, her gaze following Merlin across the training field), yet that didn't stop her imagination, because dreams are for free and if you don't get too attached to them, they won't hurt you if they don't come true.

Guinevere made the dolls face each other and touch were their lips where supposed to be, pretending that they were kissing.

Meanwhile at Morgana's chambers

"What are you doing here?" Morgana asked Merlin, as he entered her chambers.

"Arthur sent me to look after you. He's worried about the intruder." He lied, trying to deflect the true reason that had brought him there.

"I don't need you." She replied curtly, turned and stepped closer to the door, then he rushed and blocked her way, saying:

"He was quite insistent."

Annoyed, she tried to shove him off and he caught her arm to avoid being hit, holding her when she tried to extricate herself from his grip.

Getting more and more enraged by each second, Morgana was so distressed that she was about to use her magic to disentangle from his clutch, but exactly at that precise moment she felt herself being dragged towards Merlin and for her utter shock he was inclining to meet her advances, worse their faces were coming closer and at that point they would definitely kiss if they weren't stopped.

To their absolute terror, their closed lips touched, while their eyes remained wide opened. She tried to push him off, to get rid of his improper physical contact, as he also attempted, desperately, but their bodies wouldn't obey them, it was as if there was a force keeping them there, doing the polar opposite of what they truly wanted.

By each passing second that their mouths remained linked their minds run wild trying to figure out what was happening.

Morgana struggled to say between muffled sounds:

"Wuahff bdu wu bwuink wu ware bduin?" Her eyes flashed with a deeply ingrained rage and he could see she was trying with everything she got to access her magic and throw him far away from her, and in the current circumstances he wouldn't even be mad at her for that, in fact he would be thankful if that meant they would be separated from one another.

But, as apparently almost everything in Merlin's life, things wouldn't just go as he wanted them to and the "kiss" extended for more excruciating seconds, then it suddenly ended, finally granting them some distance. This time Morgana pressed her both hands against his chest and have more leverage to push him as far from her as she could, meanwhile yelling:

"What the hell! Have you gone insane?! Get off me!" She manage to say and he replied: "Believe me, kissing you would be the las–" before he could finish his sentence they were once again prompted by the same unknown force that completely disregarded their wishes. As they came closer she was saying "Oh, no, f–" and was interrupted as their lips touched again, while she basically growled in anger and frustration.

He grabbed her elbows in a vain attempt to shove her off, which didn't work. He understood that he could touch her as long as it wasn't intended to separate their bodies or break the kiss. It was ridiculous, truly, they were declared enemies and yet anyone that saw them now would be certain that they were in fact lovers. At least she didn't try to speak again and wetted his lips with her saliva. It was too much for him, he was tasting her without his consent, more of this would give him weird thoughts, the same ones that he was ardently battling to suppress.

It was surely not her doing, if all the death glares she thrown his way and the animalistic sounds of pure hatred could give him a hint. There was absolutely no explanation that he could think of, he was certain that it couldn't be his magic as it was a long ago since the last time it acted on its own (and surely it wouldn't go wild just to snog his mortal enemy).

When they broke apart again her eyes glowed gold.

Merlin felt her magic trying to expel him from near her and, at the same time, an opposing force keeping him still holding her.

At an ordinary house in Camelot's lower city, Gwen felt a strange difficulty in keeping Merlin's doll close to Morgana's, so she held the representation of her friend with a little bit more strength until it was easy to hold him again. She giggled and inclined both dolls closer.

They kissed again and by now Morgana wasn't sounding like a caged animal, in fact she was silent and with her eyes closed, which only disturbed Merlin even more. What was she thinking? Did she had any clue of what was going on with them?

Once more there was some distance between them and he spoke:

"Do you have any idea of what is happening to us? Not even your magic was strong enough to free us, Morgana, there must be an explanation."

"No, I do not, but I do have an idea of how to get rid of you once and for all. Gu –" She was about to yell, he tried move his hands to muffle her voice and realized he couldn't, then he bent down to kiss her again and she met him halfway. At least their puppeteer had a good timing and for now they were saved.

When the kiss ended, Merlin spoke first:

"If you call the guards how will you explain that you can't be separated from me? And worst, when we start kissing again they'll see, I'm sure a lot of wild rumors will start of how the Lady Morgana snogs common servants."

"Who cares about what the common folk think? And more, I'll just tell them that you enchanted me. I'm sure Uther will have your hide for your improper actions." She mocked him and smirked, certain that she won their little argument.

"Then you'll be snogging a corpse, my lady, one without skin. I'm sure that this 'situation' can't be solved merely by the King's command." He retorted and her smirk fell from her lips, as if she had just tasted something sour.

She fisted her hand and hit his chest in anger, while Merlin was doing his best not to grin at her little tantrum, as it would only make it worse.

Their feet moved on their own towards her bed and they both fell on it. Merlin dragged his body upwards, resting his head on one of the pillows and shortly after that Morgana was hovering over him, pressing her body against his, and he held her waist.

It was too much, all that kissing was messing up with his head and now they were pressed against one another in a rather intimal position and he could clearly see the contours of her bosom rising up and down with her breathing. A natural response of his body was only a matter of time and when it came, he prayed to every divine being he had ever heard of that she wouldn't realize it. Unfortunately, as many times in Merlin's life, things didn't go exactly as he wanted them to.

She stared at him with contempt, putting up a cool and composed face, and said:

"Pervert."

"What?!" He exclaimed in indignation while she smirked, self-satisfied that he lost his calm demeanor, and he added: "I'm not! I don't want this! You're the one with magic here, you must've enchanted u–" Then their lips joined once more.

It was messing with her head too, being stuck with him and kissing him repeatedly had made her forget her goal for the night and it was also having certain effects that she didn't want to admit.

She hated him, truly, but underneath all that animosity there was a certain curiosity of what would be like to experience his touch on her skin, kiss his pouty lips, and turn the tension between them in rough and passionate intimacy.

It wasn't out of love that she desired him in such a manner (she was sure of it, her love for him had died in the day he poisoned her, she told herself daily), it was that need to overpower him as he struggled against her, to have him on her mercy, make him beg for her forgiveness. All of it stirred something in her that she couldn't exactly understand what it was, only that she would sometimes catch herself imagining such scenarios and feeling a pressure burn inside of her.

Then something surprisingly happened, they put some distance between their faces and Morgana spoke:

"I love you Merlin, more than anything in this life." Her eyes widened and she was stunned with what she had just said, then the shock left her features, being replaced by of one of her death glares while her nostrils flared. Merlin noticed she was about to protest about something but then it was his turn to say something mad:

"As do I, more than anything, more than my own life."

He winced afterwards, as if he had just committed high treason and was caught red-handed.

At her house, Guinevere was now voicing the dolls and giggling, very amused:

"Then promise me that you'll always be by my side, that we'll always be happy, the four of us."

She giggled again and voiced Merlin's doll:

"I do, you and me and Arthur and Gwen. Nothing can break our love and …"

"… friendship." He was astonished. Had he just say that, truly?

By now Morgana's face was so red (he assumed that it was because she was angry, judging be the killing intent in the room, certainly not because she was blushing for their promise of undying love of moments ago) that she matched her dress' color. Well, certainly Morgana and her stares full of hatred were a common occurrence in Camelot, but right now he was certain that she would either scream (and try to blow his head off with her magic) or spontaneously combust.

"Whoever did this will suffer such a painful and excruciating death that shall loathe the very beginning of his or her existence." She said, seriously and instead of scorn her overly exaggerated response to what seem to be a juvenile view on love and friendship, he gulped, suddenly feeling a heat at the pit of his stomach.

She noticed his reaction and how his Adam's apple wobbled, then suddenly she wanted to kiss him harshly, to assert dominance over him – or fight for it – and just be damned with it all. Alas, the one controlling them didn't think it was time for kissing and made them get up from the bed (Morgana and Merlin cursed inwardly that they didn't have a chance to heat up things, while keeping their facades of pure dislike of the other).

For some unknown reason Gwen had this imagination that Morgana would be the knight and Merlin the damsel in distress in their relationship (which was mostly ingrained in the fact that her mistress could beat up basically anyone in sword fighting, even Arthur, and had that wild and rebellious nature, while Merlin wasn't exactly a fighter and more of a loving and helpful kind of person), so she did something with the dolls that was rather unconventional: she made Morgana's carry Merlin's in bridal style.

"I'm dying! Who'd knew that for such a skinny and malnourished servant you'd weight so much!"

"Shhhh. Quiet down, Morgana. Do you what the guards to come and see this?!"

"It isn't like they do their jobs properly, they won't come! Get off me!" She retorted, her arms trembling.

"I don't weight so much, just put up with it for a little bit, I'm sure this will end soon." He replied, bracing her shoulders for support as he tried to distribute the pressure his body was exerting over her.

"I thought that too, before!"

"My hero." Merlin said out of nowhere, which made Morgana look at him as if he had grew another head, and then again their mouths pressed, only that this time Morgana actively tried to bite him and succeeded.

"Mhmmmm." The two made the same sound for different kinds of pain.

Seemly entertained enough with staging her friends' love, there was only another thing that Guinevere wanted them to do, which was them spooning when sleeping.

She put them at her bed, like before, this time with Merlin's doll behind Morgana's, making sure he'd hold her waist.

"Oh, thank the Goddess!" Morgana panted as they went to her bed again.

"Don't be so quick or else you can jinx it." Merlin warned.

"Oh, please, nothing can be worse than to be forced to kiss you." She countered.

"Believe me, it can be worse. I had to kiss you! And you even bit me!"

"You should be thankful for this, Merlin, for this will be the only time in your live you'll ever kiss a real woman instead of a donkey!" She scorned and he answered, sarcastically:

"You have no idea. I'd rather kiss a donkey a million times over you." Then he spoke with a husky and low voice, directly at her ear: "And you're not even a woman to begin with, you're just a wraith full of hatred."

Instead of belittle him back as expected, her next words made him feel guilty:

"If I am a wraith is because you've killed me and I never knew precisely why. You clearly despise me, Merlin. Tell me, is it my magic that made you do it? Is it because despite all your sweet words you are just like everybody else, filled with prejudice against those with magic that can only think that a good sorcerer is a dead one? Did you pray for me to die in these last few days and thus Camelot would be rid of such a vile existence?"

"No! I don't think that those with magic are evil! I –"

"Then why did you poison me?!" She growled with gritted teeth. She didn't turn to look him directly so he only faced her hair and couldn't even glimpse her expression.

"I … I … It wasn't because of your magic, if that's what you're wondering." He tried to dodge the question.

"Then why?! I don't understand you, Merlin! You came to me saying that we could find another way after you threw me in hell!"

"I didn't want to! You gave me no other choice!"

She finally turned to him and he noticed her eyes getting red and glistening:

"Quiet. If I hear another one of your lame excuses I'll blow you into little pieces with my magic." She squinted her eyes to make her threat more serious, but he knew she was bluffing, there was no such a spell and her magic wasn't even strong enough to break them free from this unknown compulsion to be near one another, kiss and say ridiculous things.

She then moved again, making him face her hair. They fell asleep like this and only with the morning rays Merlin noticed he was freed. He stared at her before he left, with regret. But it was too risky now, he had tried and she chose to shut him out at every turn, so he just turned his back on her and walked back to his own bed.

A/N: It was supposed to be a crack fic, but I always add too much drama! I just can't help it! I know I should've been writing "What would happen if Morgana was less Pendragon like" next chapter, but this idea of someone finding magical dolls of them and then making them kiss haunted me, I couldn't find peace if I didn't write it! So here it is.