01.
He presses his ringed index finger to her lips, his other to his own, pushing her further into the wall behind her. The clashing of armour against chain mail as a guard patrols down the corridor gaining on them. They couldn't move from the alcove without being seen, and there was no way they could just waltz out in front of him. Gwen stifled a laugh, biting her lip beneath his appendage. Her soft snort causes him to move his finger and cover her mouth with his hand.
As the guard passes, Arthur can feel the heavy beat of Gwen's heart. He lets out a sigh of relief and stands a little straighter, hand still over her mouth just in case. He feels her smirk under his hand and sees the mischievous glint in her eye before he feels the wet of her tongue darting onto his palm. He yelps in disgust as he removes his hand with great speed. Gwen sniggers as she forces herself onto her tiptoes and kisses him lightly on the lips before dashing out of the alcove and getting back to work.
Arthur looks down the corridor after her, smiling to himself watching her disappear.
02.
When he sees her watching from a window as she shakes out a sheet, he can't help but falter as Leon lunges an attack to his left. Leon catches the only part of his arm not protected by mail, armour or his gloves and he can feel a shooting pain spiral through his veins. As he cries out in pain, Gwen nearly drops the sheet out the window in shock.
"I'm sorry, sire," Leon exclaims as he rips off the bottom of his sleeve and applies pressure to the bleeding wound. Leon looks up to where Arthur's gaze had been just to see the flash of curls as whoever it was ran away.
Within minutes Arthur is in Gaius' quarters, the medic on hand with bandages after Merlin had run ahead. The wound itself wasn't half as bad as the initial cut had felt like. Within a few minutes the bleeding stops and the physician wraps his forearm in the bandage.
The door is open and Arthur sees a flash of lilac. He spots Gwen standing in the doorway. "Okay?" she mouths and he smiles and nods. He watches her posture relax, a relief lifted, and her panic fade away.
03.
When Arthur is called into battle, they both worry that they will never see each other again. After the Dragon's attack they all fear that maybe this time he won't return. Despite his promises, and disregarding his whispered words, the pit of Gwen's stomach can't help but churn.
When he goes to tell her he loves her, she stops him. She tells him to save it, save it for when he comes back. She knows if he says it now and he doesn't return it would hurt that extra bit more. He says he will write to her when he can and she makes him promise to never tell her. He can tell her anything, anything but that, and he agrees, if only to appease her.
He sends her letters once a week. She replies the second she receives them. All of them sighed 'Merlin' so nobody suspects a thing. There are letters from Merlin too. Some for Gwen, some for Gaius.
Every letter Gwen gets, the more hope builds inside her that it won't be long until she sees him again. If she doesn't, she doesn't know what she'll do. The thing with wars is they are never pretty.
04.
He is tired. His muscles ache and his eyelids are drooping. There was nothing that was going to stop him from following his feet once he'd checked in with his father. He'd have gone before but with all the Knights returned to Camelot and the castle, he knew his father's suspicions would be roused if he didn't return with him.
That's if he hit the panic button and sent out search parties to scour Camelot and surrounding lands to find him – like he had on Arthur's fifteenth birthday when he had disappeared into the meadows of the outskirts of the city, only to be found by Morgana hours later.
Over the years Arthur had learned his father's rules and regimes.
Now though, with his father sedate and his men safely home, he was free to do as he pleases. Though a hot bath and a plate of food wouldn't have gone amiss, seeing Guinevere had been his priority.
Hood over his face, and the darkness aiding him as he sneaks through the town; he makes it to Gwen's with no hassles or further precautions.
He knocks on her door with a wanton fever, "I thought I'd never see you again."
05.
"Wasn't here. Didn't see it. Couldn't have stopped you," Merlin chants as he attempts to runs out of Arthur's chambers as the young Knight prepares himself for another week as Sir William.
"Just tell my father-"
"Tell him you've gone to fight a beast and end up in the stocks! I know, I know. Wasn't here. Didn't see it. Couldn't have stopped you."
"Exactly," Arthur nods as he swings his bag onto his shoulder in preparation to leave.
"Have fun!" Merlin teases, the wide grin on his face causing Arthur to scowl and lunge to whack the servant around the head missing by an inch as Merlin ran a mile.
It was that time again, and Arthur had made sure that 'Sir William of Daira' was available to participate in this years joust. Although Arthur would participate and he'd not get much of the day to spend with his lady, he'd have the nights and the mornings to be with her. To hold her in his arms and just be.
A boy and a girl, a man and a woman - together with each other - without a worry. Playing house for a couple of days, living a 'normal' life.
06.
When there is another creature attack on Camelot, Gwen is back in her position as Gaius' assistant during the troubled times as Arthur is out fighting. This time there is a hoard of miniature dragon-esque birds. Nobody knows just what they are, but there are suspicions of magic and Gwen is worried.
Not only because of the sorcerer, but because no matter how hard he tried, Arthur has a knack of being injured by these animals. Nobody knows how dangerous these creatures are, and if he is bitten by one how lethal it might be. The future King of Camelot might be in danger along with all of his Knights.
As it turns out they are about as dangerous as a rabbit, but they are cause havoc in the town, upturning everything, chewing through wood and blasting down walls.
Yet Arthur manages to stand in the wrong place at the wrong time, and just as one knocks a loose brick off of a high wall, Arthur walks beneath it, the heavy stone crashing into his shoulder, making him cry out in pain.
Gwen knows why Gaius allows her to treat him and she is grateful that he does. Once again.
07.
As the Prince of Camelot, Arthur knows there are a lot of things he should never do. Sneaking out of the castle to see a serving girl is probably one of those things on top of the list. Doing so at midnight probably even more so.
Staying until early in the morning, at which point he would walk her to the castle as the maids and menservants, was certainly against his father's ideals.
Holding her in his arms all night, that was certainly out of the question. Watching her sleep with a smile on his face, that was more than forbidden. It didn't even enter into Uther's mind set that his son would ever consider falling in love with somebody of Gwen's station. Sing her as a mistress yes, but this was already far beyond anything he would consider acceptable.
If he could see him pull up the sheet over Gwen's shoulder as she shivered in her sleep, Uther wouldn't be impressed by his son's chivalry, but angered by his action. The soft kiss that he placed to her temple as she slept? Less than impressed.
But then Arthur didn't care. Not with Gwen nestled sleeping peacefully on his chest.
08.
A long hot summer was really taking its toll on all those in Camelot. The well seemed to be the prime location for all of the townsfolk whenever they got a spare minute. Gwen was collecting more water for Gaius before she started her evening work serving the female nobles who were residing in the castle.
Arthur sees her from the window and smiles. He needs a drink, and the well was the perfect place to get one. The water was fresh and colder than any other source.
"Guinevere," he whispered into her ear as he helps her pull the bucket up from the bottom of the well.
"My lord," she tried to keep her composure, tugging the bucket from his grasp and trying to escape him.
"I was wanting for a glass of water."
"If you have a glass my lord, I'm sure I could oblige."
"I have no glass," he stops her and cups his hands into the water, sipping from the bowl they make. He looks up at her, and grins. The people around then have stopped at the sight of their prince.
"My lord," she screams as he splashes her and the people start to talk.
09.
When word reaches the King he is less than pleased. He orders his son and the servant girl to him. He has to see it for himself, this gossip he has heard.
What he doesn't expect is for there to be no sign of enchantment. With the evidence stacked up against that theory and when they stand before him, they know exactly why they are stood there.
She looks at the floor, nervous. He doesn't leave her side, determined not to let him father talk them down. It is the three of there in the room. No bumbling servant to come to Arthur's defence.
"You know nothing of love."
"You know nothing of love."
"Do not test me, boy."
"Don't push me, father. I know what I want. I'm not going to give it up because you tell me to!"
"She is a servant," Uther points out to his son, looking on Morgana's former maidservant with disgust.
"I had noticed," Arthur bites back, "Yet she is nobler than any of our kind. No woman in court matches her."
"So you might say, but she is no Princess."
"I don't want a princess."
"No, it appears that you want the pauper."
10
Many years later, when their children are growing in respectable young adults, the King and Queen hear rumours about their youngest son. Somewhere in the town there is a Blacksmith and his daughter.
The royals have seen here a fair few times. They might have well started the rumours themselves, they as good as did anyway. A few words to Merlin about their son here, a misplaced joke with his son there, and soon Arthur could the change in his son.
The usually puckish teen was quiet and withdrawn.
Arthur knew all too well what his son was going through. One day, he could be King. One day he'd fall in love and if it was with the young black haired girl, he wouldn't deny him. For years he fought with his father's beliefs and ideals, he wouldn't be the cause of the same hateful feelings in his own son.
On a jaunt to the lower town, Arthur noted how his son loitered around the Blacksmith on their journey. He back tracked, whispering in his son's ear and carrying on his way to the lower town. He smiled to himself, maybe this was the start of another fantastical 'forbidden' love.