Summary: Arthur and Morgana are definitely not in love.
Notes: 1. Morgana and Arthur aren't siblings; Morgause and Morgana aren't siblings.
2. I ended up writing a hateable version of Gwen and I am very sorry for it. I like Gwen, mind you, she just turned out as kind of a bitch in this story.
3. BTW, I'm sorry that this doesn't make sense. The relationship doesn't develop. I'm probably going to rewrite this later and hopefully write a much better version.
It's Kind of an ArMor Story
Morgana knows when she's being seduced.
Uther seduced her first, when she was sixteen and dreaming of a young and handsome lover. Now she's eighteen and dreaming of a king recently dead.
Arthur's trying to seduce her now, and it would work, but she's wondering what his motive is. Is he just trying to absorb the girls he wants from the previous royal harem before kicking out the rest?
(The thought of Freya, or Morgause, or even that bitch Sophia getting kicked out on the streets after years of loyal service to Uther strikes a chord in her.)
She supposes that Arthur thinks she'll be easy, especially since he already wooed Merlin over. But Merlin, even if he was Uther's favorite from the moment he went to his knees for him, was always half in love with Arthur. And thus has no problem with continuing to service the royal line of Camelot.
"So, Morgana, what do you say?"
She smirks the famous smirk that always got Uther hard. "I say yes. On one condition."
"And what is your condition?" Arthur asks, immediately on guard.
"Don't kick out anyone from Uther's harem. I don't care if Sophia's a bitch or Nimueh's tried to kill you at least twice, you aren't kicking anyone out unless you've got my or Merlin's approval."
"Easy enough," he says.
"Then I say yes. Cheers to your success as king, Arthur."
She's never felt so needy.
Morgana's quite aware that she was one of Uther's favorites, but she's definitely not one of Arthur's. His favorites are men- Merlin and a select few of his knights. Consequently, he only ever pays attention to her maybe once every four months.
She finds that not even sex with Morgause can get her out of her funk.
So she decides to sleep around a bit. Their first night together, Merlin's slow and gentle, the way he always does it with Freya. Their second night- well, no one can look them in the eyes the next day. She wouldn't be able to look herself in the eyes either, to be honest.
After him she swindles all the knights into bed. Percival's good, which actually isn't surprising, and Gwaine is, of course, even better. Elyan's mediocre and Leon's too chivalrous to be any fun, which explains why Arthur never sleeps with them.
The real prize, though, is Lancelot. He may only have eyes for Gwen, but other parts will pay attention for other women. She does a bit of roleplaying with him, imitating Gwen's voice and mannerisms, and in return she gets some of the best sex of her life (not counting Merlin and Morgause, of course).
And then Arthur decides to order her around.
"Stop sleeping with my knights, Morgana! The only person you're going to fuck is me!"
"Too bad, I'm not giving up Morgause," she retorts. "Or, actually, I'm not giving up fucking anybody. You can count on me and Merlin again, and definitely me and Lancelot, and Percival and Gwaine? Both to die for, and I will die before I refuse to have sex with either."
"I am your king, Morgana, and you will listen to me!"
"Oh, shut up. I might not be a trained sorceress, but Nimueh's at least taught me how to levitate a dirty bucket of water and tip it onto someone's head."
Arthur winces at the mention of his Court Sorceress. Or maybe at Morgana's implied threat. Who knows? He's a hard man to read.
"Besides, it's your own fault. The only reason I slept with them is because you weren't sleeping with me. Three times a year, Arthur? An insult." Then she whirls around, hair flying, and proceeds to disappear from his sight.
Arthur increases the number of times he sleeps with her to at least once a week.
She's rather pleased, she must admit. She's up there with Merlin now.
Of course, it all goes to shit when they're twenty and the royal king of Camelot decides he's in love with Guinevere.
So she might be friends with Gwen, but the girl refuses to marry Arthur unless he disbands his harem. So now, the stupid ass is trying to choose between the group of men and women (or more specifically, the group of men and one woman) who have always been devoted to him and the supposed love of his life.
"It's not fair," Morgana whines.
"She's the love of his life," Merlin says placatingly.
"That's what he thinks. I've seen the way she eyes Lancelot!"
"Gwen's over Lance."
"Right."
"...Okay, maybe not. But 'Gana, she's a good person at heart. She doesn't just want the crown. I'm pretty sure she has some affection towards Arthur."
"An affection that she thinks is love? I have more love for Arthur than she does, and that's saying something."
"Well, it's not like he can marry one of us!" Merlin exclaims, exasperated. "I mean, I had the same concerns as you! And I brought it up to that dollophead and he just goes and says 'I can't marry you, Merlin, it's not accepted' and I said 'Fine, what about Morgana?' and he said 'I can't marry her either. Have you forgotten that you both came from Uther's harem?' and then I asked why he couldn't marry one of the princesses in his harem-"
"Wait wait wait. Sloooow down, Merls. Arthur's got princesses in his harem?" Morgana asks, immediately interested.
"You didn't know?" When she shakes her head, he hmms under his breath. "Do you remember Princess Elena and Princess Mithian?"
"Oh, they were absolute beauties," she croons, remembering the two women. Then she perks up. "How in the name of the old religion did he get those two to sleep with him? I barely got them to sleep with me! And they were lesbian!"
"You slept with them too?" Merlin questions, eyes opening wide. "I thought it was just Arthur and me. I mean, I only slept with Mithian. Elena was only interested in Gwaine. She didn't even like Arthur that much. And they're lesbian?"
"Well, I have a little secret tidbit for you," she whispers confidentially. "Guess what? They're having an affair."
"In all seriousness?"
"They are!" she cackles. "By the triple goddess, I'd like to get in on that!"
"You're not the only one!"
They grin at each other, wide, face-splitting grins. She would never have expected being best friends with, of all people, Merlin, but after Arthur announced that he was in love with Gwen, her friendship with the other girl kind of deteriorated. And she and Merlin already had a pretty close connection anyways, being in two consecutive kings' harems.
"So..." she starts, "You want to do a bit of bondage?"
"Can I be the one tied up?"
"Anything for you."
Arthur releases everyone from his harem. Merlin and Morgana in particular get a grand old speech about loyal service to two of Camelot's monarchs.
Gwen agrees to marry Arthur.
Merlin's obviously heartbroken.
"The poor boy always loved the stupid king," Morgause whispers sympathetically to Morgana, then reaches out to him. "Come along, Merlin. Nim's going to teach us teleportation spells today."
He smiles at her pathetically, holding her hand like a lifeline. Morgana's heart breaks a little. (If she really thinks about it, it's broken already.) "Okay, Morgause."
Gwen bounces past giddily, then catches sight of them and turns around. "Good morning!"
"Good morning," she answers, pasting a smile on. Morgause starts pulling Merlin away.
"I just remembered, I never showed you my engagement ring, 'Gana!" She lifts her left hand, and a silver band gleams proudly on the fourth finger. "Isn't it beautiful? Arthur tells me he had it specially made!"
(The ring looks suspiciously like one she lost around the time of their engagement.)
"It's beautiful, Gwen," she replies. Her cheeks are beginning to hurt.
"Well, I'm off to make wedding plans!" The girl exclaims brightly. "It's nice having seen you, 'Gana. I feel like we barely talk anymore." Then she's flying down the corridor, curls bouncing.
"There's a reason for that," Morgana mutters.
"Do you love her?"
Arthur startles from where he was previously staring into the fireplace. "What?"
"Do you love her?" Her heart is pounding in her chest and she feels sick, but she needs an answer. "Gwen? Do you love her curly hair and her giddiness and how she's nice to everyone?"
"'Gana?" he asks, confused. "What?"
Is this what it's like to feel heartsick? She shouldn't feel this way; it's Merlin who's in love with Arthur, not her. So she continues. "Do you love the way she still looks at Lancelot sometimes? Or how about the way she and Elyan never talk? When she rubs her engagement ring in Merlin's face and is completely oblivious to the pain in his eyes?"
"Morgana-"
"Don't interrupt me!" she shrieks, suddenly furious. "Do you love everything about her, Arthur? How she's a sweet, innocent virgin? How she forced you to disband your harem? Are you prepared to spend the rest of your life with her?"
"I don't understand," he says, eyes pleading. "Why are you asking me this?"
"Do you love her?"
They stand in silence. Her chest heaves and tears prickle in her eyes. Am I heartsick? Heartbroken? I can't be!
"I don't love her." It's a quiet whisper. "I love you."
"I made Arthur admit that he doesn't love Gwen," she admits as she curls up with Merlin. She likes to share his bed, both platonically and in the throes of sex.
"I don't love him anymore," he says, much to her surprise.
She props herself up on one elbow and looks him straight in the eyes. "Merls..."
"I actually don't."
Morgana stares into his eyes, searching the familiar blues for any trace of a lie. There's none. "Then who snapped you out of it?"
He shifts uncomfortably. "To be honest, you. I love you, Morgana."
"Wait, what?"
Merlin laughs, deep and booming. "I meant as friends, sorry."
"Okay, good, because I kind of only see you as a friend."
"I meant that I love you, the way best friends do, and I'm not in love with our dollophead of a king anymore. I think you are, though."
She buries her head into his sleepshirt. "No, I'm not."
He runs his fingers through her hair soothingly. "All right, Morgana. You're not in love with him."
"Why am I in love with him?" she asks his chest, feeling her heart speed up again. Her head aches.
Merlin chuckles. "I don't know, 'Gana. That's a question you'll have to ask yourself."
"I don't want to be in love with him. He's going to marry a perfectly pretty girl and what have I done? I've made him say that he's in love with me, and it doesn't even make sense, because I'm just supposed to be his whore and that's all!"
She gets jerked sharply upwards, facing Merlin, who's now very pissed. "'Gana! Don't talk about yourself that way! Don't call yourself a whore!"
"Isn't that what I am, though?"
"Well, I'm one too, okay? Do you see me calling myself that?" He's actually furious.
"No. I'm sorry, Merls. I won't call myself that again, I promise."
His eyes calm down, and he lets her slump down onto him again. "I know it doesn't make sense, 'Gana. It doesn't even make sense to me. I mean, really, it's only been a few months since you started sleeping with Arthur regularly, and a few weeks since you got relieved from that privilege. I do know that you love him, though. Somehow. I don't know. It's kind of messed up."
"It's very messed up," she corrects.
The next morning, they wake up to a crying Gwen who tells them tearfully that she and Arthur aren't engaged anymore.
Morgana sweeps into Arthur's room and says, "You know, I love you."
He smiles the biggest smile she's ever seen.
She still doesn't understand why she loves him, even after she says "I do".
fin
Loves, please R&R so I know what specifically to rewrite. ~jedikhaleesi
