Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
The story is AU but the characters are like in the middle of season 4, approximately.
This is my first attempt to write something in this direction and it's very gooey I think. Sorry for that, but the characters somehow took control...
Nevermind. I hope you like it somehow. And I would like your review (grammar reviews are heartly welcome. and reviews on characterization because this was really a problem for me ^^°). This chapter is part 1 of 2.
„There must be another way"
"There is no other way"
"Maybe there is one. You could stop fighting. You could stop trying to take over the throne of Camelot. Those people were your friends. It was Uther who denied you. But he's dead. Why do you fight Arthur? He's your brother. I bet he would forgive you."
She laughed.
"Look at you. So handsome, so selfless … always trying to bring about peace. You know exactly why I fight. I only want what is rightfully mine.
But speaking of my dear brother… what would he say if he knew that Sir Gwaine, the greatest knight in the five kingdoms, knows exactly where the king's greatest enemy is, without telling him? How would you explain that? Or the fact that you are visiting me, in my new estate, every time you're supposed to be on a quest or in the tavern? He would surely be interested in your reasons. So Sir Gwaine… What are your reasons? "
"You know exactly what reason I have…" he said seriously.
"Oh do I? Let me think…what was it?" she replied with an impish grin. She acted as if she was thinking about it very hard and then clapped her hands in excitement.
"Oh yes I remember. You love me! That was the reason. The brave and loyal knight has fallen for the evil witch!" She cackled.
"I really wonder what my dearest brother would say to that. Maybe he would sentence you to death because of treason. However it's really ironic. You betray your friends and your kingdom and risk everything because of someone who doesn't love you back. Kind of funny, don't you think?"
"Don't say that. You don't mean that." He said, looking hurt.
"Aww poor Gwaine." She stopped to walk around and bent forward to Gwaine, who sat on a chair, and gave him a short kiss on the lips. As she withdrew, he wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her standing in front of him.
She sighed and did one little step that closed the space that had been between them, so Gwaine had to tilt his head back. She leaned her forearms on his bare shoulders and with one hand ran her fingers through his hair and ruffled it a bit.
"Poor, poor Gwaine, indeed. Just look at you. It would be so easy to cut your throat right now. Your love makes you a defenceless fool" She whispered, grabbed his hair with her left hand and pulled it back a bit, so that he had to tilt back his head even a bit more.
Her face was only a few centimetres away from his and she looked him in the eyes while running two fingers down his cheek, over his jawline and tipping them softly on his chin. Her eyes wandered from his eyes to his mouth and back again. She was so close now he could feel her breath on his lips.
He opened hers a bit, like she was about to kiss him and then suddenly let go his hair and put her head back for a bit. She removed her fingers from his chin and gave him a little nudge in is cheek. Her look was as cold as ice again.
"Well my dear Sir Gwaine, you'll find that I perfectly mean it when I say that I don't love you. And deep in your beautiful little head you know that it's true." She said and gave his forehead a tip with her forefinger, grinning amused in anticipation to see the pain on his face, her words would cause him.
But he stared up to her, earnest and somehow grim without any sign hurt emotions. He could see the confusion in her eyes. He grabbed her wrist, pulled her hand to his face and brushed a little kiss on her palm. She gasped in surprise.
"If I didn't know you so well, I would say there is a little touch of pink on your cheeks, milady" He said grinning. Her eyes filled with anger.
"Don't be ridiculous! And now stop grinning at me like a total idiot!" She snapped.
She hated when she didn't had the control of a situation. Teasing him was fun, she enjoyed his admiration and the suffering she could cause him by playing with him. And sooner or later, so she believed, her behaviour towards him would crack him and he would give away the information she needed to take over Camelot.
But this situation was different. His winning grin and his eyes so piercing on her, it seemed like he turned table and was playing with her now. She boiled with anger.
"Did you hear what I said?! I said I don't love you! You mean nothing to me! The only reason you're still alive is because you will give me the answers I demand! I could never love you and I never will! I ha…"
She couldn't finish the sentence because Gwaine had took her face in his hands, pulled her down a bit and kissed her passionately, as if he wanted to wipe away the words she just said or was about to say.
When they stopped she found that she had been wrapping her arms around his neck. She withdrew them abruptly and looked cross.
"Well you know what's funny? I never thought someone could kiss back like that, without at least liking me somehow. Not to mention the times we laid down together" Gwaine said with a smugly grin.
Morgana slapped him in the face.
"Hold your tongue sword-boy! I should have killed you right after you refused to help me!"
Gwaine chuckled. "So, then why I'm still here and alive if you don't love me-like you claim".
Morgana, her face red with anger, took her hand and laid it on his chin, pressing his cheeks together. She tried to stay calm, but she had difficulties with it so that her next words were more hissed then spoken.
"Because, my dear Gwaine, you're of service to me. You're in fact already a traitor of Camelot. You may not tell me the things I want to know, but that's only a matter of time."
With a little push she took her hand off his face.
"I will never tell you how to defeat Arthur and you know this" he said gravely.
Morgana, who had started to walk around again, in order to calm down, changed her tactics again. Anxious to make her next words sound like a casual remark, she stood in front of her shelf, took a jar out and examined it with the highest concentration, while she said: "Well you would… if you really loved me."
She shifted her head a bit, pretending to examine the content of the jar in a better light, and gave him a look through the corner of her eyes, looked at the shelf again, replaced the jar and then turned herself towards him again.
He smiled the smile she knew so well, resigned somehow and hurt, but at the same time slightly amused and a bit bitter. "You're a wicked woman, milady" he said.
"Aww ouch! There's no reason to be so mean. You hurt my feelings" she said whiny, one hand pressed at her heart, and then laughed a cold and bitter laugh. "Look at you! And yet you love me… no matter how wicked and evil I am" She nearly spitted the words out.
Gwaine looked her in the eyes with all the emotions he had for her and said with a soft and calm voice:
"Yes I do."
This look was the worst. He often looked at her like that and it always made her feel confused and a bit tingly inside. And the fact that he had this effect on her made her furious, especially because he seemed to know about it. Like he knew about that, for some reason, she doesn't feel able to use her magic against him. He grinned at her and her cheeks felt like they were glowing.
"Get out! Get out immediately!" she said with clenched teeth feeling the enormous urge to hit him again.
He got up with a little smirk on his face and said: "Well at least I should get my shirt back on don't you think?"
She looked at him icy and crossed her arms, tapping with her feet on the ground, while he went to the bed and lifted his shirt up from the floor next to it. He put it back on very slowly. She did an angry snort.
He, visibly amused, walked towards the door, stopped next to her, put his right hand on her waist and gave her a little kiss on her left temple. "I'll be back in a few days. No need to worry love" he said playfully.
She foamed with rage.
"Get off you dirty bastard!"
He chuckled walked to the door, opened it and hesitated a last time.
"I love you too" he said with a wink and then ducked as the jar; Morgana had been examine, sailed through the air and crashed at the door.
"Almost" he chuckled and left in order to ride back to Camelot, where his friends had no idea that he hadn't spent the day in the tavern, but with Camelot's greatest enemy. The witch…the Lady Morgana… the high priestess of the old religion and to him…the woman he loved.