Authors Note

Hey everyone! So sorry for the massive delay in the posting to this new chapter, but I hope you all like it. I had fun writing this, and I hope you have fun reading it! Thank you to everyone who left feedback!

Chapter 3

The Party

"Arthur!" Guinevere fussed as she brought bowls of snacks from the kitchen and set them on the coffee table; where Arthur had his feet perched as he lay back lazily picking at the sausage rolls she had brought out a moment ago.

"Will you please stop it?" Guinevere fumed, slapping his hand away from the bowl, knocking his feet from the table too.

"We'll have guests arriving any minute!" She raged at him, her head of tight hazel curls flung down her back as she frowned at him, whereas the young man just scoffed and laughed.

"It's not a children's tea party Gwen." Arthur laughed at her expense, bringing himself up from the chair. "They're our friends." He emphasized the word to her as though she were a disobedient dog. "Stop fussing, I'm not going to get all dressed up for Gwaine." He laughed at his own joke, and the mere thought, before he left to go towards the kitchen to pull a beer from the fridge.

"It's not just our friends! There'll be a few people from college, work, old neighbours…" Guinevere went on, as she leant on the back of the sofa, looking for him to answer her, but he was digging through the fridge like a curious cat.

"Enlighten me Gwen." He began, as he pulled jars and egg cartons out of his way. "Why are they coming to our house, to attend our party, if they're not our friends?" Arthur asked, turning to look at Guinevere finally, with a playful smirk on his face.

"It's common courtesy!" She shot back him, folding her arms with a light frown, realising that he did have a point; but she'd never admit it.

"No it's not!" Arthur scoffed, as he made his way back into the living room to thump back down on the chair, his arms full of food and more than enough beer. "I couldn't care less what your work colleagues think, if they don't like me then I'll kindly assist them out." He laughed at himself, and Guinevere began to think that this wasn't his first beer either, so she decided to ignore him, she wasn't going to argue with him now; she'd save that for later.

"Stop messing everything up!" Guinevere frowned, shouting at Arthur, thumping him around the back of the head with a cushion before she fixed it. "And stop eating everything, it's not for you!" She growled, like a fiery lioness, snapping a bowl from his hand.

"Right, tell me that when you're throwing it out later." Arthur rolled his eyes, he had expected his usual friends to come over, some alcohol to be involved as they played the x-box or something, and the girls (and Merlin possibly) would gossip in the kitchen but he knew how Morgana would rather have fun beating him in a game of virtual soccer than go and natter about girlish things. But Guinevere had taken control of the whole thing, bought stupid amounts of food, and burnt a few CD's, the only thing that the two agreed on was the alcohol. And now Arthur would have to spend his evening entertaining stupid, stuck up snobby people he didn't know. Great.

"Fine!" Morgana cussed down the phone at one of her best friends. "But I'm only going because you're blackmailing me into it!" Morgana spat angrily, slamming her phone shut and practically throwing it with a temper down on the coffee table.

She didn't like Arthur, (well she did, but Merlin didn't need to know that) but the threatening thought that Merlin would even bring it to his thoughts made her stomach swirl in discomfort. "If you have nothing to hide, then you won't mind me bringing it to his attention!" Merlin had smirked down the phone at her. She didn't want to go to this party, she had planned on calling Gwen last minute saying something had come up, like her great, great, great aunt from Poland was visiting or some rubbish like that, but now she had to go, and deep down she knew that. Great. It was either that or face the horrid consequences in the morning, yes- she'd kill Merlin later and it was that thick thought of sadism that gave her the energy to get changed into some more practical than pyjama bottoms and a miss-matched t-shirt.

"Cool Party…" Gwaine chuckled to himself, as he watched Arthur trot over to him with a frown, aggravated by the man now laughing along in conversation with Gwen.

"Shut up!" Arthur snapped, folding his arms in annoyance as Gwaine took a swig of his beer. "If that Anthony What's-His-Face makes another dig about my shirt, I'll put him through the window!" Arthur retorted slyly, the sense of loathing in his tone was unbearable.

"What's wrong with your shirt?" Gwaine raised a brow, curious- his shirt was just a normal, white shirt.

"Exactly!" Arthur boomed, throwing his hands in motion, before he swept his fingers through his blonde hair. "I knew Gwen shouldn't have brought her work 'friends', bunch of prats- the lot of them!" Arthur glowered, before Gwaine knocked his arm.

"Oh come on, that Victoria over there doesn't seem that bad, if you get what I mean." Gwaine nudged his friend and winked, casting a flirtatious look at the young fair-haired woman in the corner; she blushed and began whispering to her friend.

"Great. You've probably slept with Anthony too." Arthur rolled his eyes sarcastically, before letting a small chuckle escape his lips; Gwaine always did manage to cheer him up.

"I wonder where Merlin and Morgana are…" Arthur asked, Gwaine couldn't help but pick up the worried tone in his voice.

"I just arrived ten minutes ago, it's still early yet." Gwaine comforted, taking another swig of his beverage.

"Yes, and that's your third beer…" Arthur made a face; Gwaine was unbelievable; Arthur would be carrying him home within the hour if he continued.

But they're bickering stopped when they both heard the front door bang shut, someone had entered- it was obviously Merlin, he was the only one who never found it appropriate to knock, nope- he just barged on in whenever it suited.

"Ah, speak of the devil." Gwaine nudged his friend's arm cheerfully again, when he saw Morgana and Merlin make their way through to the lounge.

Merlin was dressed ruggedly, wearing a sky blue shirt with denim jeans, nothing spectacular, since he practically lived here Arthur doubted why he would ever dream of dressing up. Morgana however looked radiant, she always did. But tonight she had made the extra effort. She wore a fitted black dress, with lace detailing. Her hair lay down her back, perfectly straight, all matched with a pair of black heels; it was a party after all.

"Morgana!" Guinevere beamed as she broke off her conversation with her friend Anthony and threw her arms around Morgana. "How're you feeling?" She whispered into her ear, but Morgana just shook her head and confirmed that she was perfectly fine.

But she was far from fine, now she would be expected to sit here, at this party until the little hours of the night dwindled in, and she would have to get a taxi home since she was positive everyone would get drunk out of their minds, and sing praise at Gwen and Arthur on their engagement. Great.

"Morgana!" Arthur grinned as he approached her and Merlin.

"It's lovely to see you too Arthur!" Merlin replied sarcastically, with a fake painted smile, before he made a disgruntled face and scoffed.

"Oh shut up Merlin, I see too much of you as it is!" Arthur brushed him off, ignoring his good humour, but Gwaine patted him on the back and he and Merlin disappeared to the kitchen, possibly to raid the fridge of more beer.

"Hello!" Morgana smiled, trying to act normal; as though nothing was wrong, she could act- despite what Merlin said.

She wasted no time in pulling him into a hug; it was the normal thing to do; had she stood there and stared around awkwardly, he would've suspected something and pestered her until she answered.

"How're you feeling?" Arthur asked when she broke the embrace, the sweet smell of her perfume lingered.

"I'm fine, honestly." Morgana replied, unable to meet his gaze though, but she tried, feeling her stomach squirm and persist it was much too awkward, but she ignored it, understanding it was wrong, she could never have him, so teasing herself by allowing her eyes to lose themselves in his sapphire stare was only cruel.

Arthur watched her, she did seem better than last night, but something was… wrong. He sensed it, as though she was masking something. There was something she wasn't telling him.

"Right." Arthur smiled, now would be a great opportunity to bring up last night's events, he certainly didn't want to in case she got annoyed, but if she was hurting he wanted to know.

"Did Merlin leave you home okay last night?" Arthur asked, being wary- he was walking on ice right now.

Morgana froze her face dropping as she tried to maintain her composure, why would he bring up last night? Because she had acted like an idiot, that was why.

"Yeah, he just… dropped me off, it was fine." She shrugged, her eyes wary, trying to act as though nothing had happened, but she distinctively remembered rushing up the motorway in a huff with Merlin when he brought up Arthur, she cringed at the memory.

"Right, right." Arthur replied, looking away from her, he wasn't going to get his answers that easy; he would just have to bite his tongue and get on with it.

"You seemed… Upset last night." Arthur went on, unable to meet her gaze at this moment, in fear of what her expression might be. "Is everything alright?" Arthur finally brought his head up to meet her gaze, her face was emotionless and he didn't know why.

Morgana stared back at him, what could she say? Deny it of course, but she feared she had already let too much slip last night and now she was doing a worse job of concealing her overbidding emotions.

She let a coy laugh escape her lips, brushing off his comments. "What?" She lied, trying to look exasperated. "I'm fine, what're you talking about?" She chuckled, but the flakiness of her giggle was sickening, and she was sure he sensed it.

Arthur furrowed his brows, taking her modest laugh as an insult. "Well, I saw how you were so keen to slip away with Merlin yet you practically begged to walk when I offered to drive you home." Arthur snapped, making her stop her fake chuckles.

Her face was now frozen, shocked at his outburst. She realised now how idiotic she had been, she was more than happy to slip away with Merlin, yet she protested too much with him- surely he felt hurt by it, like he had done something wrong.

Morgana didn't exactly know what to say, she was afraid she might reveal too much in a simple utter, or come across as nasty if she didn't come up with a reason for her actions the previous night.

"Well, you had people over- it would have been unfair for me to take you away from them." She tried forcing a light smile to try and brighten the mood, although she felt strange for referring to Gwaine and Lancelot as 'people'.

"Morgana- what is it?" Arthur asked, ignoring her last reply; he knew as well as she did that she wouldn't have normally been so courteous to her friends, but rather demand Arthur drive her home on a cold November night.

"What have I done, tell me." Arthur asked his voice now soothing and comforting, losing its previous harsh tone, it was replaced with overwhelming guilt, as though he felt her sadness was his fault. His eyes looked into hers, and she realised he cared, whatever it was he didn't want to argue with her, to fall out with her, or to bicker with her like they normally would have, this time he wanted to understand her problems and try and fix them; but he could never, he could never fix the problem if he was the source for her sadness, yet the utter realm of her happiness at the same time.

Arthur was being honest with her; for once he was being kind. She wanted so desperately now more than ever to confide in him, to return the complete honesty and trust he was enfolding in that moment, but she couldn't, and she felt selfish because of it.

"It's nothing." She replied after a few long moments, pulling her lips into a small smile as she bashfully looked away from him. Morgana immediately regretted her choice of words, by stating that it was 'nothing' meant that there was something wrong, she was just digging herself deeper and deeper into this hole she'd made for herself.

"Morgana…" Arthur sighed, leaning against the door frame, folding his arms, his lips pulled in a smug smirk. "I know you're just jealous that Gwaine is paying more attention to Victoria over there, than you."

"Oh yes, I'm utterly devastated Arthur, that he finds more appeal for a woman who likes to reveal unnecessary amounts of flesh." Morgana replied with a sarcastic pout. She glanced to Victoria, the girl looked as though she forgot to put on a skirt and she was sure her cleavage would fall from that very low cut top- never an attractive look.

They both laughed, and Morgana was glad for the release. For that single second everything seemed fine again, she was brought back to the time when Arthur was hers, when they were young children and Guinevere wasn't on the scene, when he would return the kind affections she showed him, all in the innocence of childhood. But the horrible reality was brought back to her as she gazed at him now, how he was no longer hers and that Guinevere would be his wife and Morgana was expected to deal with that, when she just couldn't; it wasn't fair.

"Come on, what is it?" Arthur asked again, feeling that he was getting closer to the revere.

"Really Arthur, I'm fine." Morgana told him, she couldn't deny she was getting rather snappish, she wasn't going to tell him yet she feared he thought differently. As if he could fix her feelings. Now he had made her realise that she couldn't do this anymore, he would never return her feelings, and it wasn't fair that she lived in hope, how her heart fluttered when he spoke with her, she was always in denial that perhaps he liked her too, but she knew now he wouldn't and could never and it only grieved her.

Morgana went to shove past him, her brows furrowed from his constant persistence but he stopped her, grabbing her arm, as his face lost all humour. Obviously trying to be funny wasn't going to be the best way to get through to her.

"Please…" Arthur begged, the longing in his eyes could have melted her right there, sizzled her heart into goo, she would have revealed everything to him, just because he had asked her to, she would do anything for him; but now things were different.

"You couldn't fix it even if you wanted to." Morgana replied with an aggression she had forged from her thoughts, that he would never be hers, and she was raged with jealousy. With that she snagged away from his grip and stormed away, leaving Arthur's mouth hanging ajar.

What had he done? Arthur wasn't sure, but Morgana was acting oddly. One moment she was laughing along to his jokes and now she was storming away from him. How had things gone so wrong in a matter of minutes? He wanted to help her, she was troubled and it saddened him that she would rather not confide in him.

Arthur never neared Morgana for the remainder of the night, in fear of what her reaction might be; she was having weird mood swings he didn't want to meddle in. He'd talk to her when she wasn't in such a bad mood, or perhaps he'd ask Gwen to discover what was up with her. He'd work it out tomorrow.

Morgana on the other hand felt very awkward, she didn't know hardly a soul at this party. Lancelot was off talking to Leon and Elyan. Percival had approached her earlier for a small chat before he slipped away with Gwaine to annoy Guinevere who was trying to balance herself out between all her friends.

"You look miserable." Merlin told her as he wandered over to her with a wide, smug grin.

"That's probably because I am." Morgana replied sarcastically, bringing her eyes to her watch to gaze at the time, it read 11:35pm, still too early to leave.

"Why? Aren't you enjoying yourself?" Merlin asked her as he leant against the worktop beside her.

"Well, last time I checked Merlin, blackmailing wasn't fun." Morgana replied, giving a heavy exasperated sigh. She would rather be at home right now, tucked up in bed, without the annoying music blurring in the background, or the ignorance of everyone here.

"Well, I wouldn't consider it blackmail if you have nothing to hide." Merlin smirked, as he looked to her. She liked Arthur, it was so obvious, and she put up too much of a fight of protest every time he told her this.

Morgana balled her hand into a fist and punched Merlin in the arm. "Ow!" He squealed like a girl, furrowing his brows and rubbing his fatal wound gently, eyeing Morgana with a vicious frown.

"Now, that was fun." Morgana smirked, leaning her arms on the worktop, holding her head up proudly at her recent achievement. She lingered there a moment, Merlin had grown quiet and walked away from her, annoyed; she had obviously hurt him, but he needed to man-up a bit in her opinion, he'd thank her for the bruise later.

Morgana's smiled faded and her bored expression replaced it, she sighed and furrowed her brows before another figure approached her.

"Well you look like you look like a wet blanket." Gwaine muttered with a smirk as he approached her. He had now lost count of how many beers he had drank, and he would be lying if he said his head wasn't spinning.

"And you look like you can't see straight." Morgana replied slyly, taking a sip of the drink she had been holding for what seemed like ages.

"That's because I can't." Gwaine laughed, and Morgana did too.

"But…" Gwaine began again after he'd finished chuckling with her. "I do know you're the most breath-taking thing on two legs."

Morgana let another chuckle escape her lips as she smiled into her glass; draining it. "And how many girls do you use that line on?" Morgana retorted smugly as she let yet another laugh escape her lips.

"No, no!" Gwaine replied, dropping all humour from his voice. "It's true." He told her, eager for her to understand.

"You stench of Budweiser, your speech is slurred and you almost walked into the fridge coming over here." Morgana told him. "I think it'd be best if you just went home, got a shower and went to bed before you do something stupid." She tried to explain, although keeping a smile firmly on her lips at his expense.

"Hmm… That seems like a good idea…" Gwaine replied, practically drooling over every word. "…If you were to join me." He added a smug wink.

Morgana laughed, making him chuckle slightly. "Come on, if I don't go home with you, you'll just go find someone who will."

Gwaine laughed too now, he couldn't deny that that was possibly what he'd do, and Morgana knew as well as anyone what his womanizing ways where like, he was famous for them. But Morgana- she was different, she was breath taking, every ounce of her being was utter amazement. He knew he'd wake up in the morning and hate himself for being such an idiot now, but that was how he woke up most Saturday mornings. In truth he had always thought Morgana out of his league, and perhaps that was why he'd drank stupid amounts of alcohol tonight just to gain the courage to near her and slyly confess his feelings- but he was smart, he wasn't too deep about it, which kept her laughing and as long as she was laughing he knew he was doing something right.

Morgana was in mid laugh when she caught sight of Arthur and Guinevere across the room, making out in a tempestuous manner. It sickened her, and she didn't want to admit the hurtful pang in her stomach when she seen them, carefree; completely devoted to each other. It should be her Arthur was kissing, not Gwen. Morgana had been there all along, seen him grow from boy to man, Guinevere- she was there no more than ten years, if even. What did she have that Morgana didn't? Arthur.

Without wasting another second Morgana grabbed Gwaine who was in front of her in a rather fierce manner, taking him off-guard she pinned her lips to his, having to almost stand on her toes with his towering stature.

She'd never really liked Gwaine, not in that way. No, she had just seen him as the womanizer, and she didn't like messing with those types. Although she remembered when she'd first sighted Gwaine, she had commented on his good looks to Guinevere who had embarrassed her later that day by stating it in front of him. Of course, he was nice to look at, but she doubted he had a brain in his thick head; it was a rather rude and nasty thought but true all the same.

Morgana had no idea what she was doing just now, but she knew what ignited her to do it.

Through the now lustful kiss, she opened her eyes spied on Arthur who was still kissing Gwen, not paying any attention to her whatsoever. But that only made her kiss with Gwaine harder and more libidinously.

Gwaine couldn't believe his luck. Morgana was kissing him. Why, he didn't know- but he certainly wasn't going to stop and ask questions. This only proved that Morgana liked him too, he was used to women throwing themselves at him, but he had never expected to be cradled in a lustful embrace with Morgana.

Morgana suddenly regretted her brash decision to kiss Gwaine, but it would be nothing to him, right? He'd certainly just tick her off on the list he probably had of women he had to kiss.

But Arthur wasn't looking- why? Perhaps he was too wrapped up in the embrace of his fiancé to taking any heath. But Morgana knew she had to get noticed.

"Come on." She whispered seductively into Gwaine's ear, through his thick, dark locks.

He shivered tenderly to her touch, but succumbed to it all the same, and allowed her to trail him outside but the hand, passing Merlin as he did, Merlin gave a look of confusion, Gwaine simply shrugged in reply.

Morgana pushed Gwaine against the thin rail of the small balcony type patio, locking her lips to his once again; knowing she'd caught the attention of Arthur now, surely.

She kissed him, allowing herself to go further than she ever expected, her tongue was squirming against his, tracing the inner line of his teeth, as his lips pulled and pursed against hers, grabbing and circling in a lustful motion, enjoyable to him but she could take no heath of the temperament of the heated kiss, her mind was flush with thoughts of Arthur; it was extremely wrong, but no one could get into her mind thankfully.

Why should Arthur care? She was foolish, but at the time when Gwaine was standing before her, when she had her fair she of white wine and Arthur was peering over the couch at her snogging Guinevere- it all seemed like a fairly wonderful idea, now- not so much.

"I'll go get my coat." She whispered, breaking her lips free of his, now they were stained a pinkish colour from the smearing of her lipstick and the swelling throb of his violent kiss.

Gwaine could say very little, except a light chuckle in disbelief as he watched her beautiful figure aver away and back inside.

"What are you doing?" Merlin snapped immediately when Morgana had left.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Gwaine replied smugly, pulling a hand through his handsome locks.

"Morgana isn't one of those easy girls at your office you know, she's our friend." Merlin growled, annoyed that his friend had taken advantage of a drunken woman.

"Calm down Merlin, she kissed me." Gwaine informed her.

"Don't go home with her." Merlin said at once. "She's not in the right frame of mind, I don't want her doing something foolish." He knew of her love for Arthur and he knew full well this was an act to get him jealous, Morgana wasn't the type to go kissing guys at parties, even if she had worked her way around all the males in his group of friends.

"How do you know what her right frame of mind is Merlin." Gwaine scoffed.

"She's drunk, and so are you." Merlin told him angrily.

"Oh, her being drunk is the only reason she's inviting me home." Gwaine asked, his brows furrowed in rage at the realisation of Merlin's words.

"Well… Yeah." Merlin confirmed.

"Shove off Merlin!" Gwaine belted out immediately. "You're just jealous."

"Jealous?" Merlin half-laughed, disbelieving his friends words.

"Well, why else would you be telling me she's too drunk to know what she's doing." Gwaine asked wryly.

"Well… Because she is." Merlin told him, unaware of why he was reacting the way he was.

"Oh, so I don't deserve a girl like her, is that it? And you do?" Gwaine was getting peevish and irksome.

"Gwaine, you're twisting my words." Merlin breathed calmly. "And this is drink talk; you don't really mean what you're saying."

"Don't tell me what I mean Merlin, I know perfectly well." Gwaine sneered.

Morgana poked her head out of the patio door again, to see Gwaine and merlin chatting.

"Taxi's waiting…" She eyed him lustfully.

"See ya Merlin." She smiled before her hand was wrapped tightly around Gwaine's again.

"Bye Arthur." Morgana commented as she passed him still snogging Guinevere on the couch. "Nice party Gwen." She grinned again, before her and Gwaine had left the party completely

"I can see…" Gwen muttered, whilst Arthur sat scratching his head in confusion.

"Did I… Did I just see that correctly?" Arthur asked absently, scrunching his eyes in confusion.

"I think so…" Guinevere replied, just as puzzled.

"Since when did they…" He indicated at Gwaine and Morgana, as Merlin entered.

"Since ten minutes ago." Merlin muttered, hands dug in his pockets, a look of defeat on his face.

"She'll regret it in the morning, you'll see." Merlin sighed. "She'll be phoning me crying about how Gwaine played her…" He slumped down in the seat next to Arthur.

"I don't really think she's that type Merlin." Guinevere replied with a small laugh.

"Yeah, she's just as bad as Gwaine." Arthur commented with a chuckle.

"Aw, never mind Merlin." Arthur told his friend, messing up his hair. "I'll give them a week." Arthur winked, thinking Merlin was love-struck and devastated at Morgana's new found love.

"I don't fancy Morgana, Arthur." Merlin replied, with a small laugh.

"It's alright Merlin, we won't tell." Arthur replied with a knowing smile.

Suddenly Arthur realised that was probably why Morgana had been so off earlier- it all made sense. She liked Gwaine, and she really was jealous of him showing other girls more attention. He was happy to see she had got what she wanted, and now that meant she would stop being so snappish with him, now he only have a love distraught Merlin to deal with, perhaps he'd set him up with Elena… She was just as clumsy as he was; they'd get on great together.

Authors Note

Please R&R if you would like me to continue! I hope you all enjoy my story! :)