Saccharine Torments
Chapter 10: Tangled Hearts
Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin and I make no money from this fanfiction.
Chapter dedicated to DoubleMMia to make up for being evil with where I ended my last chapter!
She stared at Gwen with the look of someone who could not entirely believe what they were seeing. Like Gwen was a mirage of some sort, taunting her with everything that she could no longer have; comfort, friendship and…love. She'd never even had Gwen's love to begin with and it had eaten away at her for years. Slowly, it had begun to drive her mad, her cruel ignorance started to get to her. The mere fact that Gwen, who seemingly had no power, could bring her down so low, it was unbearable.
"Gwen?" her tone was just like that of any normal person on awakening from sleep, muffled and unguarded.
"Yes, my lady?" Gwen replied, automatically, although the words weren't quite right for this scene.
She winced as Morgana grabbed her hands roughly, clutching them so tightly, like Gwen was the only thing left to hold onto in this world, like her life depended on it. Gwen's heart beat wildly with hope against hope.
For a moment Morgana didn't answer just stared, then she brought up Gwen's captured hand and pressed her lips to it, in a kiss that was far more sensuous than an innocent kiss on the hand should be. Gwen didn't even try to resist or shy away, she was entirely immobile, she merely closed her eyes, allowing passion to wash over her.
"This is power," Morgana thought, as she jerked Gwen's arm towards her, pulling her onto the bed and into a violent lip-lock. Their first kiss had been Gwen's style: gentle and romantic, but their second belonged entirely to Morgana.
She switched their positions, putting herself on top, enjoying the sight of Gwen below her, so yielding and wide-eyed. Morgana wasn't sure whether it was adoration or fear she saw in Gwen's eyes, perhaps a little of both.
This was what she needed, what she craved.
Slowly, deliberately, she started to unlace Gwen's dress…
Later…
When Gwen awoke it was still dark, she bolted up, confusedly- unsure as to where she was for a disorientating second. Then she remembered and turned her head to look upon Morgana, whose legs were tangled up with her own. She was still asleep, deeply asleep, or so it appeared. It made Gwen's heart swell just looking at her love, and she wished she could just stay there forever.
But as much as Gwen was swept off in the romance of it all, she was still a practical woman; she knew that Morgana might not welcome her presence in the harsh light of day.
Slowly, so as not to wake her, she slid out of the bed, picking up her dress from where it had been flung on the floor and quietly putting it back on before taking one last look at Morgana before exiting and somehow finding her way back to her own room and into her own bed. As she lay there, hope fluttered anxiously within her; this could be the breakthrough she had been looking for, couldn't it? It was with these thoughts in her mind that she started to drift into the world of dreams.
Morgana had not been as asleep as she had appeared; she had been watching Gwen with one eye barely open, watched as she left. She wondered, was it shame that prompted Gwen to leave in such a hurry? She had known Gwen so well in the past, back when her loyalties were unquestioned, now she found herself questioning every single action taken by the other woman.
And as satisfied as she was from the encounter, there was still something else she craved. But instead of pondering that, she closed her eyes again and found herself falling back to sleep.
Morgana walked down the beach, staring out to the seemingly infinite sea and its gentle blue-grey waves. She picked up a flat rock; the kind Arthur had taught her to skim with when they had visited the sea as children. This one was almost perfectly smooth, she turning it over in her hands, before just throwing it into the ocean- making no attempt to skim it over the waves.
She became aware of someone standing behind her, watching her. She spun around, sharply, to see who dared sneak up on her.
And low and behold, it was none other than Gwen.
"What are you doing, Morgana?" Gwen asked, kindly, all too kindly.
"Nothing, nothing at all," she replied, turning away from her. She eyed the sea, which had somehow grown rough and stormy in that short spell of time since Gwen's arrival, and felt oddly drawn to it. Stripping down to the shift underneath her dress, she started to wade in until she was waste deep in the icy water.
"Are you coming?" she called back to Gwen, not even bothering to turn around.
Gwen walked towards the water, the toes of her bare feet just touching the water, hesitating at that edge between sand and sea. Morgana continued, submerging herself completely. She began to struggle as she started to drown, her arms waving frantically as salt water violated her mouth. She had gone willingly and now she was trapped there, she could feel the breath inside her grow less and less…
"Morgana!" Gwen screamed from the shore, inaudible to Morgana's ears. She started to run into the waves after Morgana, hoping to catch her before it was too late…
Both Gwen and Morgana awoke with a start, sweating and shaking. The two of them were used to bad dreams by now but that dream was different.
'What has she done? What has she done to me?' Morgana thought frantically, knowing that for once, she had not been the one in control of their shared dreams.
Yay, I actually completed this chapter quite quickly! Please review (I know from my traffic that people are reading but just not commenting).