Title: Fated
Rating: PG
Pairings:G/L, A/G
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, they take place in the movieverse, which is Disney's, though I suppose the original characters ought to be credited to Mallory (author of Morte d'Arthur)

Fated

Guinevere floated noiselessly through the shadows of the forest. The only proof that she was of this world and not an ethereal creature of another were the light prints left in the snow. She glanced behind herself, every now and then, as though looking for someone. She wandered into the wood, and found who she was looking for.

"You're late." he joked.

"You're early." she replied.

"Honestly, if you knew me, you'd never say that. I'm rarely early for anything." Lancelot glanced at her.

"Nevertheless, you came when I called you."

"I am always at my lady's bidding."

"You mock me, sir knight?"

"Only a little, lady." His eyes turned from jovial to serious. "Why have you called me?"

"Because I have seen you. I have seen you follow me with your eyes. When I was bathed earlier, I felt eyes upon me and knew that they were yours. Yet you turned away. Why? I find it difficult to believe that the famous Lancelot is a stranger to the female form."

"I am no stranger, that is true." he admitted. He shifted uneasily from foot to foot.

"You leave something out."

"You are not destined to be mine." he looked up at her, and there was something suspiciously like tears in his eyes. "You see my eyes upon you, lady, but I see yours upon my friend, and I see his upon you."

"I am pledged to him." she said simply.

"By whom?"

"Fate."

"I don't believe in fate. I make my own fate. If such a thing exists, it has not done its duty by me, nor I by it."

"I did not come here to argue the existence of fate with you, Lancelot. Though, since you bring it up, why argue that there is no such thing when you have only just admitted its existence?"

"I did no such thing." Lancelot bristled.

"'You are not destined to be mine.'" she mimicked him. "If that does not confirm a belief in fate, I find it hard to explain."

"You are not destined to be mine, lady, because Arthur claimed you."

"No man 'claims' me, sir knight." she said hardly.

"He may not claim you personally, in your eyes, lady, but in the eyes of his fellow knights, indeed, his fellow soldiers, you are his. It is he who will decide if you and he are fated."

"I think you put words in his mouth and thoughts in his head." anger flashed in Guinevere's eyes.

"Why would I?" Lancelot shot back.

"You would have me hate him and love you, rather then give my love to both." she spat. "It hardly goes in your favor."

"Perhaps. Perhaps I would have you love both, but that is not for either of us to decide."
"I will love whom I will." Guinevere cried angrily.

"It is not for you to decide when Arthur expects all of your love." Lancelot retorted. "Arthur is rather simple when it comes to love. Perhaps because his life is complicated he thinks love should not be." Lancelot mused.

"The man I love does not expect me to worship at his shrine day and night."

"He would also not expect you to be talking in a dark forest in the middle of the night with his best friend, especially since he does not trust his best friend with women."

"Arthur does not govern me."

"He will, Lady. He will govern you and I shall die for you, and of the two of us, you will love him." Lancelot spoke in a quiet voice. Guinevere stared at him a moment.

"I will never stop loving you." She said quietly, then turned and walked back toward the camp.

Lancelot stared after her for a moment, a single tear sliding down his cheek, then he too turned and walked back to the small encampment. And above him, the stars shone down, the only witnesses to a small twist of fate.

A/N: This is my first KA fic, and I've only seen the movie once, so any help is appreciated!