Hey guys! Sorry for the late upload (I really am terrible with updating) but I was at a complete loss for ideas. But, hopefully, this extra long chapter will make up for it!
I really hope you enjoy it!
Morgana sighed happily as she glanced at the training fields across from her place under the cover of the castle, drinking in the perfect features of one knight in particular. Sure, she had noticed Gwaine's attractiveness many times before (you'd have to be blind not to) but she'd never felt any...pull towards him. And now? Now she could literally think of nothing but him. Him and his dazzling smile; him and his drool-worthy muscles; and him and his ridiculously perfect hair. Her sewing project-which had served as an excuse to come down and watch the knights train in the hazy sunshine-lay forgotten by her side as a dreamy smile rested on her lips, her eyes trained on a single knight.
"My God, he is perfect," She whispered quietly, a longing sigh escaping her mouth as she watched him parry a blow thrown by one of the other knights.
"I know I am," a voice chuckled as someone sat down beside her, sweat glistening on his skin in the sunlight. She shot Arthur an annoyed look before turning back to the fields.
"Not you," Morgana dismissed swiftly, not once noticing the unreadable emotion that flashed through the prince's blue eyes before disappearing quickly.
"If not me, then who? God forbid you're talking about Merlin," Arthur snorted.
"Don't be so mean, Arthur," Morgana commented, shoving his arm playfully. "Merlin is really quite a sweetheart."
The prince of Camelot rolled his eyes at her description of his manservant.
"I think my ears are bleeding."
"Either way, no-one could ever beat Gwaine..." She sighed, shrugging her shoulders as if it were a common fact. Her companion frowned.
"Did I hear correctly? Gwaine?" Arthur sneered, stressing the knight's name as he said it. "Since when have you had a thing for Gwaine of all people?"
"Love can hit you in the most unlikeliest of times, Arthur," Morgana replied, moving forward to rest her chin against her palm.
"Love?"
"Yes, love. This complex and mature emotion that only people who don't go around sleeping with every girl they see experience," She shot back, giving him a pointed look as she did so causing him to growl quietly at her statement.
"I don't go around sleeping with every girl I see."
"Yes, you do."
"No, I don't."
"Evangeline, Mary, Sophia, Celia-" Morgana began, counting off each name on one of her slender fingers systematically. A small yelp forced its way past her lips as Arthur abruptly grabbed her hand, directing her shocked attention at him.
"I haven't slept with every girl I've seen," He stated quietly, the fire suddenly extinguished in his eyes. And, for some peculiar reason, Morgana felt her face heating up as a crimson red slowly stained her cheeks under his gaze. But, there was this dull, relentless pounding at the back of her head, reminding her of something extremely important.
Or, maybe, someone?
"Arthur!"
Ah, yes. Gwaine, Morgana swiftly pulled her hand away from Arthur's warm grasp, returning her focus back onto the handsome knight as a soft smile encompassed her face. Gwaine skidded to a stop in front of the pair, aware of both their intense gazes on him (both for very different reasons) as he pointed back to the training fields.
"The boys are finished with their initial drill, Arthur, and are waiting for you to lead them on to whatever's next," He stated, glancing strangely at Morgana who seemed to be sending him rather admiring looks.
"Very well," Arthur replied, standing up before quickly but determinedly brushing past him. Gwaine stared back at the prince's retreating form as his mind went over his unusual behaviour. Had he done something wrong?
"Don't worry about Arthur, Gwaine my love, he's just in a mood today."
Gwaine slowly nodded, comprehending her words, before he whirled around suddenly to face the grinning Lady Morgana.
"My love?"
"Why, yes! Isn't that what lovers call each other?"
He let out an amused laugh at her serious expression.
"I am flattered, my Lady, seeing as you and I are both exceedingly attractive but it would also be highly inappropriate, don't you think?"
Her eyebrows shot up at his comment.
"Inappropriate? Why? I love you!"
Gwaine blinked at her sudden and extremely unexpected profession of love.
"...Did Merlin put you up to this?"
"No! Everything I feel and do is for you, my dear," Morgana frowned, quickly wrapping her hands around Gwaine's neck. She raised an eyebrow as his posture immediately stiffened at her contact. "What's wrong?"
"My lady, this is wrong," Gwaine explained as he gently tried to push her off of him.
"Don't you love me?"
He shifted uncomfortably underneath her vice-like grip as his mind whirred with all the different but highly possible punishments being seen in compromising situation like this with the King's Ward would cause.
The very likely one, and the one in the forefront of his mind, being death.
"I-"
"Get your filthy hands off of her!"
Morgana screamed and pushed Gwaine out of the way just in time to dodge an attack from behind him. She looked behind her to see a sword lodged into the ground before glancing at the attacker.
"Lancelot? What on earth are you doing?"
Lancelot ignored her as he focused solely on the other dazed knight, swiftly grabbing him by his chainmail and pulling him up. Gwaine swallowed at the fury that seemed to be blazing in his eyes.
"How dare you touch her like that?"
"Lancelot, I was-"
"I will have you killed before you approach my love like that again!"
Gwaine frowned, a puzzled look drifting onto his face.
"My love? I swear, this place has finally gone m-" Gwaine was cut off by a furious yell from his attacker who promptly threw him into a nearby wall before drawing his sword from the ground. Gwaine quickly rolled out of the way of another attack before pulling his own sword out of its scabbard.
"Look, Lancelot, I really don't want to fight you but if you keep attacki-" Gwaine parried a blow with his sword before ducking and swiveling around to get behind his fellow knight who screamed with uncontrolled rage. The ring of the metal blades clashing against each other echoed sharply around the fields, attracting the attention of the other knights who were training there.
"Fight me, you buffoon! Fight! Me!"
"If you insist," Gwaine kicked his friend in the back of his knees causing the latter to stumble onto a crumpled heap on the floor, his sword landing a few metres away from him.
"What is going on here!" Arthur yelled, his eyes narrowed as he approached the trio and studied them; one of his knights lying on the floor, another breathing heavily as he towered over his comrade and the Lady Morgana cast off to the side looking half amused and half horrified at the spectacle. Arthur sighed before steeling himself up tiredly for the explanation.
"I have absolutely no idea," Gwaine offered after a short pause.
"He was embracing my Morgana!" Lancelot bit out, hands blindly grabbing for his sword. Arthur clenched his jaw before ordering another knight to confiscate swords from both him and Gwaine.
"'Your Morgana'?" Morgana lashed out, storming towards the group of men. "How dare you!"
"I was simply protecting you, my love."
"I am not your love! If anything, I am Gwaine's!"
"Again, will someone tell me what the hell is going on here?" Arthur snapped, feeling his sudden spike in anger increasing even more under the suffocating heat of the sun.
"Um, I might know..."
Everyone's heads swiveled around at the exact moment to face Merlin as he stood at the very back of the group, his shoulders stooped and a reluctant look in his eyes. If the atmosphere hadn't been so tense (and if Arthur's face hadn't been so thunderous), the scene would've been rather comical to an outside eye.
"What did you do?" Arthur snapped, his muscles tensed with one hand casually resting on the hilt of his sword. Merlin, upon seeing his reaction, gulped.
"Well...I was really only trying to help..."
Gwaine exchanged a hesitant glance with Lancelot who, for the meantime, had calmed down though he was standing suspiciously close to Morgana who seemed to be inching closer to himself with every passing second.
"For the sake of my sanity, Merlin, please explain without making it too confusing," He said. Feeling a warm, feminine presence right next to his body as well as Arthur's cold glare boring into his head, he surreptitiously cleared his throat and edged away. "Right now, Merlin."
Merlin nervously rubbed the back of his neck, took a deep breath in and began.
"There's this being, Cupid and, you've got to understand, I really did just want to help..."
"...the arrow must've accidentally hit Morgana somehow and-"
"Seeing how I was the first person she saw, she became infatuated..." Gwaine murmured, ignoring the slight twinge in his gut when it became apparent that the Lady Morgana had fallen in love with him solely via magic. Merlin nodded.
"I really am sorry. I didn't mean for...everything to spiral out of control."
Arthur sat perfectly still on a barrel, staring at an unspecified location as he slowly processed the rather far-fetched story his manservant had just given him. His face stony, he continued to sit wordlessly. Morgana and Lancelot, on the other hand, seemed to be full of complaints.
"-dare you imply-"
"-my love for the Lady Morgana-"
"-that my feelings for Gwaine-"
"-are simply because of some arrow!"
They yelled, their cries of dissatisfaction merging together as their words soon became mangled in one another's until it became something akin to an incomprehensible babble of fury.
"You two, be quiet!" Gwaine hissed, his voice straining as he glanced around at the puzzled looks they were attracting. "You'll draw the whole castle to us otherwise and I don't think the King will be pleased to know that the people he has been housing have been playing with magic!"
"I really couldn't care a whit about the King, my dear, just as long as we're together," Morgana simpered, a delicate smile on her lips. Both her and Gwaine ignored the sneer sent towards them by the other knight.
"Arthur? You're strangely quiet," Merlin commented, redirecting his focus onto the silent prince. Arthur gave no reply. Even Morgana felt a twinge of worry for him.
"Arthur? Arthur Pendragon, I do believe you are sulking!"
The Prince of Camelot jerked back into focus, growling at the comment whilst Morgana grinned in satisfaction. He opened his mouth to snap out a particularly vicious response (partly to let out the great deal of anger he could feel building up inside of him) before thinking better of it and turning to Merlin instead.
"Well?"
Merlin blinked.
"Well what?"
Arthur narrowed his eyes, his frustration quickly taking a hold of him.
"Well as in what the hell are we supposed to do to fix this?" He spat. "You're the genius who couldn't let well enough be so you had better have a solution for the damned mess you've created!"
Merlin felt a spark of rage light inside of him, spurred on by the fact that he had only been trying to help his friends. Why couldn't anyone else see that?
"It's not my fault! You didn't seem to be able to take care of your own ridiculous love life so who did it fall to for everything to be fixed yet again? Me, that's who! Like it always is!" The sorcerer complained, his breath coming out in short, heavy pants as he began to pace. "You really don't seem to have any trouble giving everyone else blame but, when it comes to you and all the trouble you've caused, you seem to become rather hypocritical!"
Arthur snarled in rage, jumping to his feet as he drew his sword with a deafening sound, the light shining brilliantly off of the polished metal. He pointed the tip of it at his wide-eyed but resolute friend.
"You had better shut up this very moment, Merlin, before I throw you into the dungeons!" He growled, a dangerous undercurrent to his tone.
"You-"
"Guys!"
Both turned around to face Gwaine as he stared back at them tiredly.
"I don't know about you but I've had enough of impromptu swordfights in the fields, thank you very much," He stated, looking pointedly at the drawn sword in Arthur's hands. With a quiet grumble, he sheathed it back again. "Good. Now that everyone has had their fun, I say we figure out a way to put everything right again."
"A waste of time, if you ask me, because there is nothing wrong in the first place," Morgana muttered, crossing her arms in a huff.
Arthur sighed before running a hand through his blond hair.
"You're right."
"Really?" Morgana asked, immediately perking up.
"No, I was talking to Gwaine," Arthur replied, the ends of his lips unwillingly quirking up into a small smile. "What do you suppose we do?" With this, he faced Merlin once again but with a far calmer disposition as he addressed his manservant. Upon seeing that the prince really meant no harm, Merlin stepped closer.
"I could always talk to Cupid again."
"No. That idiot has done enough damage," Arthur muttered, shielding his eyes against the bright sun.
"I'm sure the archive has some texts on this matter," Gwaine suggested, his eyebrows pulled together into a tight frown. Upon hearing this, both Arthur and Merlin raised their heads and, with one shared similar glance, they ran towards the castle. Gwaine stared at their retreating forms.
"Sometimes, I really don't know whether I love or hate this place," He commented lightly before looking back at the remaining two people. "Are you two coming or should I just leave you here?" He paused before reaching back and taking a firm grasp of both their wrists. "Just to be on the safe side, I think I'd better drag both of you along. God knows what kind of trouble you'd get mixed up in otherwise!"
Ignoring both of their protests ("I am not going to be manhandled by anyone!", "I can use my own two feet very well so I'd appreciate it if you let go!"), he dragged them both along at a steady pace down the corridors and towards the archive room.
"Ah, Gwaine, about time you arrived," Arthur smirked, glancing up from the heavy book on the table. His eyes landed on the two struggling bodies next to him. "Good, you brought them along too."
"We're here, now let go of me!" Morgana snapped, lightly slapping Gwaine's bare hand. Upon being freed, she rubbed her own wrist before pausing. She squinted painfully. "Why on earth does my head hurt so much?"
"Merlin, do you want to explain?" Arthur asked, looking back down at the book again.
"Not really..." Merlin coughed. If Arthur had reacted that strongly, then who knew how Morgana would act upon hearing it when the spell was over?
"Have you found anything?" Gwaine asked, releasing his hold on Lancelot's wrist and ignoring the dark look being shot at him.
"Hmm? Oh, yes. Take a look at this."
He approached the pair surrounding a heavy tome, sneezing briefly due to the many dust particles near the area. He leaned in closer to the page.
"The ziziphus lotus," He recited before straightening up. "What on earth does that mean?"
"Read on."
Sighing, Gwaine did so. His eyes scanned the words the followed the image of a peculiar looking flower with bright purple petals and an orange stem. Upon finishing the paragraph detailing its effectiveness against love potions of any sorts, he glanced reluctantly up at Arthur.
"We're going to go looking for this plant, aren't we?"
Arthur nodded gravely in response.
"Fine. How soon?"
Arthur's gaze flickered to the window and the setting sun just beyond it and then to the two figures standing by the doorway, each lost in a world of their own.
"Tonight."
"Tonight?" Merlin and Gwaine echoed. With one look at the determination in Arthur's eyes, Gwaine stood up.
"Very well then. I'll start pack-"
"You're not coming with us."
He paused in his tracks, a confused expression settling onto his face.
"I'm not?"
"He's not?" Merlin asked, a similar look on his own face. Arthur shook his head.
"I need to bring Morgana along with me and I am not going to have her fawning all over you whilst I'm trying to save her life."
Almost immediately, a smile tugged on the edges of Merlin's lips as comprehension dawned on him whilst Gwaine could only manage to stare back at Arthur in bemusement.
"'Save her life'? She's only infatuated with me, Arthur! It's not as if it'll kill her."
"Either way, you are not going!" He ground out, a heavy tone to his words. Gwaine blinked before sighing in defeat.
"Fine."
"Good," Arthur nodded. "Anyway, I'll need someone here to look after the knights while I'm gone and you're the perfect man for the job. You'll also need to cover our disappearance to my father."
Gwaine laughed humorlessly.
"Oh, lying to the king! That will definitely be interesting."
"So, Arthur, who is going with you?" Merlin inquired, the book closed and clutched tightly in his grasp.
"You, of course."
"Of course," He repeated tiredly. "And anyone else?"
Arthur thought about it.
"Gwen, Morgana will need a maid. And, I suppose, Lancelot. No matter how lovestruck that fool is, he does fight well and we do need to cure him too."
"Anyone else.?"
"No. I don't want to attract too much attention to the fact that we're missing. Unless you've managed to shoot anyone else you haven't told us about with those stupid arrows?" Arthur asked, one eyebrow raised in faint amusement.
Merlin shook his head sheepishly.
Arthur nodded and began heading towards the exit, grabbing a hold of Morgana's wrist as he approached her, much to her chagrin.
"Arthur, let go."
"I'm escorting you to your rooms, my lady."
"Escorti-"
"To ensure you don't sneak off to anywhere you're not supposed to be," He muttered, glancing behind him at Gwaine. Morgana huffed but complied nonetheless.
"So, we're leaving tonight, right?" Merlin asked as he followed Arthur towards the corridor.
"Yes, Merlin."
"And where exactly is this flower located?"
Arthur paused, his head cocked to the side before turning around and shrugging.
"I suppose we'll find out somewhere along the way. After all," Arthur flashed him a quick smirk, "that is part of the adventure!"
Merlin sighed, watching as he took Morgana along with Gwaine and Lancelot walking behind them without a single glance to the other. He looked around the room one last time before walking reluctantly towards the door.
"Part of the adventure," He mumbled. "Oh, joy."
And that's chapter 7 done, n number to go! :)
Thanks for all the lovely reviews folks, I'm glad to see you're enjoying this story. With my updating scheme, you're going to have to bear with me since I'm not exactly all that frequent unless inspiration strikes me.
That's why, with this Narnia story I'm currently writing, I'm trying to finish all my chapters before I post them but it's such a long process! Hopefully, I'll get it done though.
Can I just say, I cannot wait until October 6th because (apparently) that's when the Season 5 of Merlin is coming out! At long last! I can't wait!
Until next chapter (or if I post another story ahead of that time!).
(And Christmas is coming soon! So excited! I'm already listening to Christmas songs! :P)