Note: just a little drabble about how they felt just before they meet in the forest. 3x10. tiny spoilers. hope you like :)
Love And Certainty
She stares critically at herself in the mirror, smoothing an imaginary lock of stray hair away from her face. She has done this a dozen times already, hands nervously straightening her dress before rearranging the little peach-coloured flowers she had carefully entwined in her soft, dark locks.
Part of her wonders what she is doing, thinking that she might possibly, genuinely have captured his heart as surely as he had captured hers.
Gwen isn't sure how she got to this stage, where she is not just a serving girl but a serving girl who is on her way to see Camelot's Crown Prince in a clandestine meeting. She tries to calm the thudding of her heart which threatens to burst out of her chest. Somehow, her feelings for Arthur and his for her have become common knowledge to more people than she would care to know but there is no time to worry about it now.
There is a knock at the door. She draws her shawl a little closer around her and with a last look in the mirror and deep breath, she steps from behind her little curtain to greet Merlin who has come to take her to Arthur.
He gently opens the door after a brief knock and he stops in the doorway at the sight of her. His mouth is open from where he has begun to speak but no words come out – they have caught in his throat at the sight of his friend.
She is, in a word, beautiful. She is, indeed, his friend but he remembers how once upon a time, they might have been more if he had been willing to go down that road. His feelings for her had never veered towards the romantic but in rare moments like this one where her hair catches in the sunlight and her soft smile lights her face, Merlin admits to himself that he does wonder what might have been if he had taken his chance with her those few years ago.
Merlin gives himself a shake and lets go of those thoughts. No matter what passes through his brain at the moment, he also knows that the true love he had found for himself lies gone but not forgotten in a clear lake that will always hold a special place in his heart and his soul. Instead, he compliments her warmly and prepares to lead her to where he knows her destiny lies.
It had not taken long for him to set up the picnic area once he had decided on his course of action. He can't quite believe how long he has taken to finally gather up the courage to openly show his feelings for her but the time is now and he is nervous.
To the world she is only a serving girl who he is entitled to have dalliances with providing it remains just that but he knows that she means so much more. She is everything that matters to him, everything that he loves in this world - more than Camelot, more than life itself.
Arthur means to show Gwen how much he cares for her, at this point in time, he would happily declare his love in front of the whole world and damn the consequences! Even so, a tiny niggle in the back of his mind questions his decision.
He uses the silver platter to quickly check his appearance and does not notice Merlin and Gwen's arrival until Merlin makes the terrible squawk which he thinks passes as a bird-call.
He whirls round at their presence and is rendered temporarily speechless by her. In that instant, any lingering doubts he has melt away and he is certain that his heart no longer belongs to him but is, instead, the sole property of the young woman who stands like an angel in front of him.