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000
St. Anthony's Hospital had an annual fundraiser that was always held on the second Saturday in June come rain or shine. This year the organisers had outdone themselves; where usually the staff members were expected to man stalls filled with homemade goodies and afterwards attend the ball; this year the fundraiser even had a theme – Medieval Times, and they were expected to be in costume, there would be a lot of activities including a melee, a sack race and dancing, and of course the selling of items that was going to raise the funds, and then of course the ball at one of the best hotels in the neighbourhood.
Everyone was excited about. Everyone, that is, apart from Arthur Pendragon.
"Morgs, you can't be serious."
"Good morning to you too," Morgana smiled at Arthur, who had entered uninvited into her office.
"You can't be serious," Arthur repeated.
"You know me," she told him, "I don't know how to be anything but."
Morgana le Fay was the chief administrator at St. Anthony's and as such made most of the decisions there. She was also the closest thing that Arthur had to a sibling have gone to live with the Pendragons after the death of her parents in a car accident when she was eight. She and Arthur were about the same age – he was three months older – a fact that he lauded over her time and again.
"What is this?" Arthur threw the invite at her. "Since when does the fundraiser have a guest of honour?"
"Since they put me in charge," she said.
"What happened to Irene?"
"She's on maternity leave," Morgana told him, "you know that."
"Yes," Arthur agreed, he did know that. "But why you?"
"If you must know no one wanted to do it," she said, "so I offered."
"Good for you," he said, "but why ask Mum and Dad to be the guests of honour?"
"Just think about it," she replied, "it will add something more to the whole event. They're like royalty and the whole medieval theme is just perfect."
"Really?"
"Yeah," she laughed, "and you get to be the prince so you should be happy."
"Do I seem happy to you?"
"If you're unhappy now wait until you hear the whole of it."
"Whole of what?"
"I've decided that we'll have an auction as well."
"Auction?"
"Yes," she said, "and I think a bachelor auction will be better than a bachelorette one, don't you think?"
"Morgs, no."
"Thanks Arthur, bachelor auction it will be and now that I think about it the surgeons will do very well since most of you lot are single."
"Morgana!"
She smiled at him, triumphantly, and then made a note on her iPad before standing up to leave the room.
"Don't worry, brother-dear," she said as she pushed him out of her office, "you still have two whole weeks to get into shape."
000
"I can't believe you're going to do this."
"Do what dear?" Ygraine asked Arthur.
"Be guests of honour at the fundraiser," Arthur said.
"Morgana was kind enough to invite us," Uther said, "and it's a great honour to be asked; of course we said we'd do it."
"It's a great cause too," Ygraine added, "and if she thinks that our presence will ensure that St. Anthony gets the new machines that it needs then of course we can't refuse."
Arthur nodded sullenly; of course they had no choice but to agree but didn't mean that he had to like it.
"I love costume parties," Ygraine continued, "and it will be just like one of those. I've already began coming up with ideas for our costumes."
"Our costumes?"
"Yes," Ygraine said, "your father and I will be king and queen of course, and you and Morgana will be the prince and princess."
"No."
"I've already checked out outfits on the internet and visited the local shops but I don't think they have what I want, I'll have to widen my search."
"Mother!"
"It's better if you just accept it for what it is," Uther told his son, "your mother is determined to do this and you know you can't stop her."
"What do you think of these crowns?" Ygraine asked, she was going through a catalogue of some sort. "Personally, I think they are too much, don't you? We should get simpler ones, just a plain gold with one stone maybe. I think I'll make them myself; a big one for the king, a smaller for me, and even smaller ones for Arthur and Morgana."
"Of course dear," Uther agreed.
"I think I've decided on the colour of the robe," Ygraine said, "I've found the colour that will work better with our colouring; of course dear Morgs will have to wear something else because of her pale skin and black hair and I think green will suit her best but of course she will have to wear something with the family colour as well."
"Family colour?" Arthur couldn't help but ask.
"Yes," Ygraine smiled at her son, "Red. Red's our colour."
"Of course it is," Arthur replied.
"Morgs said that you were taking part in the auction as well as the melee, with the ball that means that you'll need three outfits but the rest of us will only need two."
"Mother, please stop," Arthur begged her.
"This will be fun," Ygraine pulled her son in for a hug, "you'll see."
000
"Am I invited?" Elyan asked her.
"You want to come?" Gwen was surprised.
"It sounds like fun," Elyan shrugged.
"Really?"
"What?" Elyan was defensive.
"It's about the melee, isn't it?"
"What melee?"
"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about," Gwen told him, "you just want to fight, don't you?"
"I've been practicing really hard," Elyan was excited, "and that seems like a perfect opportunity to show off my skills."
"The melee is only for staff," Gwen said. Thank God for that, she thought to herself.
"The guests of staff can also take part," Elyan said, "I read the small print."
Gwen glared at him.
"And since both you and Valiant are members of staff, I can attend as your guest."
"You really did read the small print," Gwen was amazed.
"I would have asked Arthur or the other guys," Elyan said, "but it would have been awkward if they already had dates and I want to surprise them when they see me fighting in the melee."
"Somehow I don't think they'll be surprised."
"What are you going as anyway?"
"Haven't yet decided actually," Gwen replied.
"I'm going to be a knight of the realm," he said proudly. "I already got my costume."
000
"She doesn't listen at all," Arthur complained. "It was like I was talking to myself."
"She's just enjoying herself," Gwen told him, "and it is fun and for a worthy cause too."
"You're just saying that because no one is deciding what you are going to wear."
Arthur had met Gwen as she was on her to a late lunch. They'd been in the theatre together for six hours. Gwen had overseen the cleaning of the room as usual and afterwards had decided to go to a nearby café for lunch instead of eating at the hospital cafeteria; it was Wednesday which meant quiche and something with cabbages. She was in the mood for some fish and chips and the café was a sensible choice.
On her way out she had run into Arthur who had been on his way to meet up with Merlin but he had sent his friend a text instead, and joined her.
"Honestly I think I would be glad if someone decided for me," Gwen said. "All the shops I've been to are so expensive and I don't want to be dressed as a servant."
"The servants' clothes can't be that bad," he said although he honestly had no idea about what he was talking, "and besides you'd look good in anything."
Gwen decided to ignore that compliment and hoped that she wasn't blushing.
"By the way, thanks for my letter," Arthur said. They had of course met since she'd written the letter a week ago but they hadn't really been alone.
"I should be thanking you," Gwen told him, "I can't believe you got into a fight because of Elyan."
"I would get into a fight because of Elyan any day," Arthur said, "but it wasn't really a fight."
"He said you used swords of some kind," Gwen said.
"It was more like sparring really," Arthur shrugged, "not a big deal at all."
"Really?"
"I learnt to fight almost as soon as I began to walk," he said.
"With swords?"
"With everything," he replied, "my father said that it was important and a family tradition. Every Pendragon should be able to defend himself."
"It must have been fun," she said drily.
"It was fun actually," Arthur smiled in remembrance, "especially when Morgs came to live with us."
Gwen didn't bother to ask who Morgs was; everyone at St. Anthony's knew that Morgana le Fay was like a sister to Arthur Pendragon.
"So you know how to fight," she said, "that doesn't mean that I like knowing that you did so to help my brother."
"I had to help you," he said quietly, "and as it turned out I knew the best way of dealing with Agravaine."
"You know him?"
"He's my mother's cousin," he admitted, "although I didn't know that he was the man threatening Elyan until I entered the club."
"He's your mother's cousin and he made you fight?"
"What can I say?"
"I can't believe this," Gwen said, "your own uncle making you do that."
"It was easy," Arthur said, "Gwaine is good with the sword so between the two of us we made short work of the six men Agravaine pitted against us."
"Six men?"
"Agravaine was never one to play fair," Arthur said easily, "but like I said, it was easy."
Gwen was staring at him in shock. Without thinking about it, Arthur took her hand in his and squeezed it softly. "Guinevere," he began, afterwards Arthur would swear that he didn't even know what he had been going to say or do but they were interrupted by Valiant's loud, "Gwen, there you are." He walked over and joined them at the table, "Mary said, you'd come here for a bite. Hey, Arthur."
000
"So you just left?" Merlin asked him.
"What else would I have done?" Arthur replied. "Valiant wanted Guinevere to look at the costumes that he'd chosen for them to wear for the fundraiser."
"What are they going as?"
"Didn't ask," Arthur said, "I left as soon as he said that he wanted her to go with him to the shop."
"You'll never believe the costume Mom was so eager for me to see," Merlin changed the subject.
"Was it the Court jester, I wonder?"
"Very funny."
000
