Merlin's POV
I groaned as Gaius pulled the covers off of my body, exposing my skin to the chilly morning air. He looked down at me sternly. I groaned and rolled onto my stomach to shield my eyes from the sun. Not to mention that my head felt like it had been stampeded by every single one of the knights horses. I am never drinking again.
"Get up Merlin. Just because you stay out at ungodly hours in the morning, that doesn't mean you can slack off on your job. Where were you anyway?"
"Uh…" Trying to think of a believable excuse was more difficult than it seemed. No wonder Gaius always used the same one. I couldn't exactly tell him that I was drinking with Morgana in her chambers at extremely inappropriate hours at night. Thinking of Gaius's usual lie gave me an idea for both an excuse as to why I was out and to give me a reason to ask for a hangover tonic.
"I was at the tavern." Gaius's eyebrows shot up and I could tell he didn't believe me.
"Well that's nice. Care to tell me the real reason now?" He asked sarcastically. I looked at him with what I hoped was an innocent expression.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I figured I may as well go and see what all the fuss was about since I have never had time to go before." I insisted, trying to make my lie more believable. Gaius just rolled his eyes and walked back out the door, obviously deciding it wasn't worth trying to get the truth out of me.
"I take it the means you want a hangover remedy then?" He called through the door, trying to catch me out.
"That would be great! Thanks Gaius!" I grinned to myself, my lie had worked out perfectly. Knowing how effective Gaius's hangover tonics were gave me the extra motivation to pull myself out of bed, knowing that the longer I stayed in there, the longer I would have this splitting headache. Not to mention that the later I was, the angrier Arthur would be. I changed into my usual clothes, wincing when I fell and bashed my knee trying to put my pants on. After checking in my small shard of mirror, I decided that I was presentable enough, and made my way downstairs.
Gaius didn't look up from his breakfast but pointed to my side of the table, where both my breakfast and hangover tonic was waiting. He watched intently as I sat down, obviously wanting to see if I drank the vile liquid. Even Gaius knew that it tasted bad enough that no one would take it without cause, not even to play along with their own lie. I scrunched my nose and downed it in one go, trying hard not to bring it back up again. I swallowed half a cup of water straight after, trying to get rid of the vile taste.
"Never gets any better." I said with a cough before moving on to my breakfast.
I walked into Arthur's chambers, ready for the verbal bashing that was sure to follow my tardiness. To my surprise, he was already up and dressed, chainmail and all.
"You're dressed!" I said incredulously.
"Obviously." He said while rolling his eyes, obviously offended by my surprise. His expression brightened a second later and he gestured me over.
"I bought something for Morgana. To show her how much we missed her." His tone darkened at the end, and it stopped me from making some smart remark about how he was the one acting like a girl this time.
"What is it?" I asked instead. Arthur smiled, his mood swings were worse than a woman's at that time of the month. He grabbed a box of his desk and opened it so I could see.
"What do you think?" He asked excitedly. I looked at it in wonder.
"They're beautiful." I replied without hesitation. The box contained a set of earrings, a necklace, both placed on a silk embroidered cloth. The earrings and necklace matched with their identical green jewels, the only difference between the jewels being the size. The jewels were smooth and perfect on the outside but looked as though they were shattered on the inside, which only enhanced their beauty. I couldn't help comparing them to Morgana, so similar in a way. On the outside, they were beautiful and cold, like Morgana's expressionless mask she wore almost all the time now, while the inside was shattered and broken, but only the more enthralling because of it.
It was the cloth that had me frozen in place though, and I was surprised Arthur didn't laugh at me or call me a girl. Instead, he watched my reaction carefully, obviously trying to see whether I approved of it. He should never have been worried. The cloth was a deep purple, with red embroidered names sewn into each corner. It wasn't the craftsmanship that had me struck dumb however; it was the names that Arthur had asked someone to sew into this for Morgana. In three different corners were Arthur's, Gwen's and Morgana's names, and in the final corner was my own name. I tore my eyes away and looked at Arthur.
"Arthur, this-" I broke off, not knowing how to continue.
"It's what?" He asked worriedly, obviously taking my furrowed eyebrows as an expression of displeasure. I still couldn't speak and Arthur got more and more nervous, and started to babble.
"I just thought that it would be nice you know, because we used to go on all these adventures together, just the four of us. If it's silly though, I don't have to give it to her, I can always-"
"Arthur!" I exclaimed and he shut up instantly. "It's beautiful. It's so amazing that I don't know how to describe it…" I said and Arthur caught onto the tone that suggested I wasn't finished.
"But?" He prompted. I hesitated.
"But why am I on here? I understand why you and Gwen are. You two were her closest friends but I'm just a servant. Why would you put my name on this? She wouldn't want it there" I honestly didn't understand why he would think Morgana thought that highly of me. I mean, we may have been friends once, but even then I didn't mean anywhere near as much to her as Arthur and Gwen did, and she definitely didn't think of me as a friend anymore. She now hated me more than anyone else, except maybe Uther. She may even hate me more than Uther.
Arthur looked at me as if I was stupid.
"Are you serious? I know how you felt about her, and as hard as it is to believe, she saw you as a friend, if not more." He said, and I laughed, thinking that Arthur was finally back to being his usual sarcastic self. Either that or he had gone mad.
"You're funny Arthur. You should be court jester, not me."
"Laugh all you want. You aren't the one that had to put up with Morgana lecturing you to be nicer to your servant because he had done so much for you." I felt a tingle go down my spine at Arthur's words. Had Morgana really stood up for me? No wonder my betrayal hit her so hard.
"I wouldn't mind if you were nicer to me." I said in a weak attempt at a joke. It worked though, and Arthur laughed.
"Don't be such a girl Merlin, if I go easy on you, then you will just go soft. I guess Morgana was right about that too, something about you being a lover, not a fighter." He slapped me on the back and moved back to his desk, happier now that he knew his gift was perfect. I gulped. If only Arthur knew how much harder it was being a lover than a fighter. When you fight, you can only get killed. Being a lover hurt more because it can tear apart your very soul.
Admit it, you thought the gift was going to be the dagger. I thought I should take a little break from the constant Merlin and Morgana scenes, so you guys didn't get too bored. I hope you enjoyed it anyway though, and decide that it was good enough for a review? No? Okay then…
