Prompt from Giselle Pink.
Pairing: Merlynn/Arthur.
Prompt: Arthur and Merlynn are talking about who they'd killed over the years - her's is bigger.
Title: Body Count.

Warning: I haven't exactly been exact, because there's been a lot of bandits and wars; which could be so many to count, and I went through each chapter, rounded up a number - but I did get the main enemies (the one's with names). But, come on, this is AU. It's not meant to be completely accurate.

Enjoy :D


Merlynn was magic.

It took Arthur two weeks to fully wrap his head around it, and now, he was still at a loss. The woman who had been by his side - supposedly saving his life - was a magical creature, a woman that had magic running through her veins. The thing his father hated most. Oh, how he would be shouting at him from the heavens because of it. But, he didn't care anymore. He accepted it.

But, he was curious.

Just how many people had Merlynn saved his life from?

"Really?" she asked dubiously in response to his own question. "Must you know this Arthur? I mean, will it make you sleep better to know how many people I've killed?"

"Yes," he said with a firm nod.

"Age before beauty," Merlynn stated with a teasing smile.

Arthur rolled his eyes at her behaviour, but began. "The first person I ever killed was a bandit leader and three of his companions - so four. Then there was the druid camp, which I guess," he swallowed the lump in his throat from the thought, "was about thirteen."

"By your own weapon?" she questioned, but he was glad that her eyes held no judgement. He nodded guiltily. She didn't prod at him. "Go on."

"I'm not sure how many bandits and soldiers I've killed over the years - I guess about thirty men and women." Arthur soon realised how high the body count was by his own hand, which was increasingly adding to his guilt. He did the math; sixty two people. "So, you're turn."

Merlynn gulped a bit. She wasn't sure she could count the number of people she'd killed. "Well, there was that woman - Mary - who tried to kill you with that dagger, when I first became your servant." Her eyes lowered to her hands. They faced each other in his bedchamber, seated cross-legged on his bed together. Merlynn didn't want him to judge her for all the people she had killed in her lifetime - all for him.

"That was you?"

"Yeah, how else were you going to avoid that dagger?" she raised a brow in his direction.

Arthur scoffed. "You saved me, even though you hated me."

"It's my destiny to constantly be saving your prat-tish arse," Merlynn told him. "You would be long dead by now if it weren't for me. Anyway, technically I gave you the access to kill Valient, but I gave that kill to you. So, one by now."

"Ha. You've got nothing on me."

"Please, I've barely even started!" She couldn't believe that they were teasing each other about the bloodshed they had committed in their lives, but was a bit glad because of it. She was finally able to really open up to him, and this was something that she hadn't even told Gwen, or Lancelot. "I killed that girl, Sophia, and her father when they tried to sacrifice you to the Sidhe." Arthur rolled his eyes. "I killed that idiot Cedric."

"Who?"

"You know that servant you acquired and he tried to take my place and then the gargoyles turned to life and tried to kill you because you're a clotpole who doesn't listen to me?" she rambled, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned against the headboard.

He smiled sheepishly. "Oh. Yeah - oops. How did you kill him?"

"He - he got possessed by a stone that was found in Cornelius Sigan's tomb, and tried to kill you - like everyone else does. Um, he then tried to convince me that I should get revenge on you for how horribly you treated me - to have you 'kneel at my feet', was his words. He thought that we would rule the whole of Camelot, perhaps all the kingdoms, together. I killed him, absorbed the soul of Sigan, and put it back in the stone," she told him simply with a shrug. Merlynn finally noticed her king's expression.

He looked gobsmacked. Truly, and utterly gobsmacked. His mouth gaped open, his eyes the size of saucers. "This is what you do when I'm not around, huh?" he joked with a nervous laugh.

"Yeah," she ran her hand over her hair with a grimace.

"How do I never notice these things?" he exclaimed.

Merlynn shrugged. "Because you're oblivious, my king. Does me cheating a little to help you win count as my murder points?"He considered it for a moment, then shook his head; she breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Because then I'd have about twenty extra under my belt." He frowned slightly - that was a bruise to his ego. Then, she didn't stop. Arthur barely heard half the nonsense and names that was spilling from her lips; he didn't even try. She took a deep breath, and stopped. Finally. "Seventy-six."

"Seventy six?" he echoed in shock.

"Mhm. Give or take a few. I lost count on most of the bandits and the soldiers," she laughed.

"Wow. You're quite a -"

"Murderer?" Merlynn guessed. "That's what I am. Half the time I'm protecting you, though, and trying not to get sliced to bits. So, I guess there were good intentions behind them - as were yours."

"I just can't believe you beat me!"


So, this is the first one-shot. What did you all think? :) This will be updated whenever I have a concrete one-shot written up, so it could go from one to five days.