Yay! One of the longest chap in this story! Special thanks for those who reviewed, faved, subscribed, and C2d this story! *bows* And please feel free to tell me anything you want by commenting. :D Critiques, comments, flames, suggestions, etc. accepted! lol
DISCLAIMER: I WISH I own Merlin
…
CHAPTER X: Love Squares
LONDON
Lance arrived at their meeting spot early that weekend so that he could compose himself better. He patiently waited as he stared passively at the clock. He eventually heard his name getting called by her sweet little voice and when he turned to her, he expected to see her always smiling face but... he saw something better: she was beaming.
He immediately flushed at the sight of her. She was especially pretty that day with that emerald hairclip and knee-long skirt of hers. Still no make-up, perfume, or anything like that– but little changes really made her look so much better. Don't get him wrong though, Merlin had always looked beautiful to Lance.
"Morning." She grinned and Lance could not help but feel weak. There was something different in the way she looked at him. She was just no longer glad to see a friend, she was happy to see him specifically. At least the feeling was mutual now.
"Did anything happen that put you in such a good mood?" He asked half-jokingly.
"Yes." Was her blunt reply.
"Mind telling me?"
"Not yet… You may be shocked if I rush too much."
"Pardon?" Somehow a smirk found its way on his face.
"Patience, my friend." She said and there was something nostalgic about her words and her tone.
"Merlin—"
"Your mother's waiting, you know…" Merlin cut him off, determined not to bomb everything on him at once. Lance noted the firmness in her expression and decided to let the issue go… for now.
And it wasn't like Lance had much of a choice.
*Several minutes later*
They stood in front of the store marveling the number of people coming in. "Not bad." Merlin smirked, and noted the faces and reactions of the customers, knowing how satisfied they must be.
"Thank you." Lance replied and then gestured for them to come in. But when they took a step a sudden thought appeared in his head and he held her shoulder to stop her. "Ah. Be warned of my brother, Merlin, in case you meet him."
"His womanizing streak had gotten so much worse these past few days for reasons we don't understand. Mother just assumed he finally fell for a girl and was dumped. In any case, be wary of him. Flirting is like his middle name." He sternly stated particularly not wanting her to fall for his brother's devious charms.
Merlin gaped at him at his uncharacteristically long sentences, but then she shrugged—seeing he had not noticed. "...okay..." she said, and proceeded to following him into the French door.
Creak
"Merlin~!" Alyana immediately yelled as soon as they entered the room. She flushed at the moment she realized everyone was staring at her.
"Mother..." Lance pleaded to stop embarrassing them. But a second later, he found himself on their shoes as well. He really didn't have a chance to do so since he was too busy formulating his conclusions with her current behaviour.
"Stop staring." Merlin pouted in irritation. She thought that Lance was going out of his way to annoy her by mimicking what the others were doing. He immediately looked away as he pushed the blood rushing up his cheeks down. Everyone else who saw just let out a knowing smile.
"I reserved special treats for you~" Alyana grinned and Merlin immediately went closer to her.
"Thanks." She muttered to the raven haired woman, and helped herself.
Then the cookie melted inside her mouth and she beamed. Lance heated up while Alyanna laughed, reminded of why she wanted to be a cook in the first place.
…
After an hour or so, Alyana asked her son to take Merlin out to watch a movie or something. They were so busy with studying that she wanted them to relax for a bit especially now that Lance (and her other son) seemed to have gained psychological problems – not that her oldest son actually studied hard.
Lance and Merlin reluctantly agreed with the help of the woman's extreme convincing powers.
"Thank you for having me." Merlin smiled at the older woman who just grinned in reply... and maybe sending a sly smirk to her son's direction along the way.
"Have fun."
Lance grimaced.
Watch a movie, she said. It will be fun, she said.
That blasphemous statement would be proven wrong in a while.
On their way to the cinema, Lance abruptly stopped his tracks… no longer able to take the building up tension. "Tell me now, Merlin." He implored silently and her eyes widened by a bit.
"Uhm…" She muttered and slowly looked around, as if to see if anyone could hear. "Do you believe in past lives?"
"Depends…"
"Then, did you by some chance, get these weird dreams…?" He nodded and then the most ridiculous possibility came to him. His eyebrows furrowed and he whipped his head to her.
"D-Did you dream of me?" He asked, tone with anticipation that caught him off-guard.
But the she nodded and Lance could not contain the happiness he felt.
He walked a step closer and hugged her. To his delight, Merlin hugged him back. He felt his cheeks steam when he heard the people murmur things like 'What a cute couple'. But the she just had to ruin the moment for him.
"We were very good friends before as well. Could you imagine? We must be destined to be best friends forever!" She exclaimed happily as her head rested on his shoulders. Lance, on the other hand, felt that it was a huge truck that rested on his shoulders. His grip on her tightened in a mix of emotions.
"Care to elaborate on that? You know..." He cleared his throat. "Just for the heck of it."
"We knew each other in our past lives. Those dreams—they show us what happened." She said enthusiastically and he understood the implications completely– to the point that he wished he didn't.
"H-How do you know that we were friends, then?"
"Remember the day I cancelled on you? Did you wake up that day suddenly having strong feelings for me?" He nodded reluctantly at her questions. "The emotions and feelings we had then returned to us around that day… so—"
"You felt that I was a much closer friend than you had anticipated." He continued her sentence with a grim tone of voice. Merlin separated from him in anxiety.
"Didn't you think I was your friend back then, too, Lance?" She asked in an almost begging him to say otherwise. He saw in her eyes that she cared for him greatly… If only it wasn't just as a friend…
And so, he just mustered all the courage he could muster, and feigned a reassuring smile.
"You are my best friend. Always have, and always will..."
…
They decided to watch a movie about a girl from the classical period who fell in love with a humble soldier of her family. Honestly speaking, Merlin did not want to watch it, but it was the only one showing that seemed tolerable enough. It was also going on for more than a week now so not a lot of people would be lining up.
Well, that was what she thought before she saw the poster.
It was Bradley hugging this gorgeous girl and was gesturing for a kiss. Her eyes twitched.
'I don't want to watch this.' She mused but she did not want to be a bother to Lance. She sighed.
Maybe she'd just close her eyes or something.
...
The movie started relatively... peaceful... for her. Peaceful enough that she and Lance could have a nonchalant chat, but it wasn't even a quarter of the movie when she suddenly froze, facing the screen. "Merlin?" Lance called an instant before he noticed her new state. His eyebrows arched upon seeing the expression of despair in her face as she stared at the screen.
"Merlin...?" He called again, but this time looking at her line of sight.
Bradley James and the actress were having a very intimate kissing scene.
"Professional. It's purely Professional. Professional. Professional." He heard Merlin whisper to herself careful not to let anyone hear. He still did hear the chant regardless because of his enhanced sense of hearing. He opened his mouth to call her name again, but stopped as soon as everything came together.
Her reaction. The odd flashes of that guy's face in his mind every now and then, which he dismissed since he was a known actor.
Merlin's new boyfriend...
He wasn't a genius for no reason, after all.
He passively laid back to his seat in an attempt to calm himself.
'It's not fair.'
…
They walked to her house in a semi-comfortable silence. When they were half-way there, Lance broke it by deciding to apologize. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you watch that."
"It's fine. It was my fault for not telling you and for being overly possessive of him." She said. "…not that we're officially dating, but yeah—"
"What do you mean?"
"We're in love, definitely." She said and a car felt like it just hit his gut. "But no memories have come about that, so we're taking it slow."
"A-Aah..." He uttered, not knowing what to say. They stood there for a few moments in quiet until a very... uninhibited voice called his name.
"LANCE?" Someone called from in front of him, but behind his companion. It was his brother with yet another unfamiliar woman.
"Glenn?" He voiced out, and Merlin finally got out of her trance and turned around. Her eyes widened in recognition. Well, not really. Not yet. But the feeling of close camaraderie was definitely there. She smiled at him instinctively, since she couldn't really give him a hug since she didn't know him yet. She hoped that, with luck, a few memories would pop out or something as well.
But no such luck.
In fact, her luck seemed to have ran out—
For a visibly shocked Glenn let go of his woman and ran to her. He grabbed her waist and quickly pulled her closer to him to give her a—
BAM!
Was the first thing she heard as she comprehended what the newcomer was about to do. But at that time, the handsome (in a gruff way) man was already on the floor. She immediately turned to Lance who was panting as he relieved the tension inside of him.
"Don't you ever do that again, brother!"
Merlin stared blankly at the siblings, one of which was trying to calm the other down.
"Now, now, Lance. How was I supposed to know she was your girl?" He asked nonchalantly effectively hiding the bitterness behind it.
"S-She's not my girl..."
"Then what are you mad about?"
"You were going to kiss her. In case you don't know, that's rude." Lance stated in annoyance getting Merlin to blink. He was going to kiss her? She thought that he was just going to give her a simple peck on the cheeks or something as a greeting to wherever he came from.
"Did he?" She voiced out, quite sceptical of Lance's accusation.
"I told you he's a hopeless flirt."
"Oh yeah…" She mumbled in recollection. Glenn's eyes widened at the realization that the girl was believing his brother. 'The nerve!' He thought forgetting that the statements were completely accurate.
"HEY! I-I am not! I don't even know that woman she's been following me this whole time—"
SLAP
"GLENN YOU JERK!" The woman cried and ran with as much dignity as she could.
"You're a jerk." Merlin commented as she gazed sympathetically with the woman. She didn't follow since it wouldn't do any good. Besides she was not going to help her get back with such a playboy. Glenn flinched at this and his eyes a little wide, surprised.
"Miss- I—"
"I need to go home now, Lance."
"Okay."Lance nodded and then shifted his gaze to Glenn. "See you later, bro."
Silence
And Glenn just watched them go farther and farther away from him. Completely freaked out by what just happened.
CAMELOT
GAIUS'S CHAMBERS
5TH C.A.D.
It had been a whole night since her meeting with Lancelot and she hoped that he was alright. She sat up and stretched before making her room. She nonchalantly opened the door to the main area, in the hope that Lancelot was also up and about already. And he was, eating with Gaius.
"Good morning…" Merlin muttered as she went to the main room. The two men responded the same. They ate in relative silence, and Merlin completely oblivious to the fact that Lancelot was stealing glances of her and Gaius glaring him off.
"So, what might you be doing in Camelot?" Gaius asked the handsome lad just to cut him off staring at his daughter—well, in a sense.
"I came here to be a knight, Sir."
"I see…" The old man mumbled, disappointed. Merlin caught this and tilted her head in puzzlement.
"What is it, Gaius?"
At the question, Gaius looked at the lad and asked: "Are you of noble blood?"
"No, Sir." He replied honestly getting Gaius to sigh in sympathy.
"Then you cannot be a knight. The First Code of Camelot states that only those of noble blood could become knights. Uther implemented it to make sure he can trust his soldiers." Their eyes widened and Merlin whipped her head to his direction.
"I see…" was all he uttered, but the sadness could not be masked. Merlin was about to comfort him when she felt a hand on her shoulders.
"Merlin, I have some errands for you to do."
"Bu—" She retorted. But Gaius's expression did not change.
"You can take Lancelot with you and give him a tour of Camelot." He said. "He saved your life, the least you could do is make sure his trip doesn't go to waste."
"Okay." Merlin replied. Little did he know that he'd regret telling her that later.
….
After getting ready for their day, Gaius left since he was called for by the king. While the two decided that they go and do the errands Gaius asked of her first. They chatted about their lives as they walked around town. They were unusually comfortable with the other and became friends immediately.
One moment though, Merlin looked at him comprehendingly causing him to flinch at her stare.
"What?"
"You looked especially sad when Gaius told you that you can't be a knight… Why do you want to be a knight?" She asked. She was curious as to how such an honorable man like Lancelot would want to work for someone like Uther—not that she's saying that the knights were bad, it's just that she just couldn't see why the good knights were sacrificing their lives for the murderous Uther.
Silence ensued for a while, and Merlin waited patiently. It was obvious Lancelot was trying to compose himself. It was when they reached their destination that he finally spoke. "My whole village was massacred by bandits from the north. I was the only survivor. The pain I felt back then is what kept me going."
"I'm sorry I triggered the memory." Merlin told him and he gave her a reassuring smile, before shaking his head. "I dedicated my life to the art of combat after that, and it made me stronger. I swore that I would never let anything like that happen to anyone again—" He paused and let out a pained sigh.
"But I guess it's all really just a dream of a peasant, after all..."
That sadness in his voice made her feel very depressed. Her brain immediately tried to look for a way to help her new friend—and it did, not even a second later. She unconsciously grinned at her idea.
"I might be able to help you with that…"
Lancelot stared at her incredulously, "How?"
"Just trust me." She replied confidently.
She was going to pay him back, no matter what.
…
Merlin watched Arthur thrash the arrogant newcomer with hidden amusement. Arthur was extremely pompous himself, after all. He just happened to have the skills to back it up. "Seriously. How the hell am I going to defend the kingdom with a bunch of weaklings?" He ranted as she walked with him inside the castle.
"I… may have the answer to your problems." She stated getting Arthur to scoff in mockery.
"Merlin. I do not think a stick like you can help me defend Camelot."
"Oh—I don't mean me, I mean someone else."
"Fine. Is he of noble blood?"
"Yes." She lied. She was not good at it but she had already prepared herself hours beforehand so he wouldn't notice. Hopefully.
"Very well. Take him to the training grounds tomorrow, then." Phew.
"Thank you." She whispered, and then a curious thought appeared above her head.
"Arthur…?"
"Hm?"
She cleared her throat. "Hypothetically speaking… If there is an incredibly valiant man who dedicated his life to save others, he'll be a good knight correct?"
"Of course… Merlin, I don't get w—"
"What if he's not a nobleman…?"
"…then he can't be a knight." He answered not helping Merlin and her fears one bit.
"Don't you think the code is wro—" She slipped but managed to stop herself. But apparently, not on time.
"Why am I having this tingly feeling that you're up to no good?" Arthur stated stepping closer to her, while she fiercely berated herself for being such an idiot.
"W-What are you talking about, S-Sire?"
"You're a bad liar, Merlin." He stated again leaning closer. He ignored that alien feeling attacking his gut. Merlin gulped and quickly browsed for believable excuses.
"I… sort of wanted to know if there's a possibility of me being a… k-knight…"
Arthur chuckled lightly. Not the mocking laugh, just the light-hearted one.
And Merlin found herself loving the sound of it.
"Unfortunately, I don't think that'll ever happen."
"Me neither…" She answered monotonously staring at the blue eyes that was awfully close to her emerald ones. Arthur flinched at the realization and immediately backed away. He cleared his throat, repeated what he said about the new applicant meeting him in the training grounds, and immediately walked to his chambers.
…
The next day, Merlin and Lancelot went to visit the best seamstress in Camelot – Guinevere in preparation for Arthur's test. Gwen was definitely a very beautiful girl inside and out, and Merlin would not be surprised if any guy would fall for her… which was what she thought was happening right then and there.
Merlin stifled a giggle as she saw an utterly embarrassed Lancelot as Gwen took his sizes.
'Lancelot sure was shy when he's with women.' She thought extremely amused… and totally forgetting that she, too, was a woman.
After their humorous and adorable awkward moments together, they thanked the girl simultaneously and slowly walked back to Gaius's chambers.
"You two are close?" He asked awkwardly. She nodded.
"Yeah." A moment of silence came after, and it was Lance who broke it.
"She's very beautiful." He commented, trying to gauge her reactions. She just nodded again.
"Yeah. She's the best seamstress in town and the gentlest person I know, too."
"How close are you two?"
"She's a close friend of mine."
"I see…" He whispered comprehendingly. Merlin, being naturally nosy and was unconsciously eager to play cupid, asked him slyly:
"Do you like her, Lancelot?"
"I suppo—" He uttered reluctantly, about to tell Merlin she seemed like a good person, but he was cut off by unhampered glee.
"Of course you do. Who wouldn't? You two look great together!"
"Merlin—" Lancelot called knowing precisely where this was all going. He really did think that Gwen was pretty and obviously a very kind woman, but—
"Yes…?" She asked with eyes literally shining 'I'm going to be a match-maker~!'
"Nothing." He just muttered. And then he thought that Merlin must really be bored.
…
Merlin and Gwen went to watch 'Sir' Lancelot's first trial. Merlin smiled, 'Sir Lancelot' sounded nice. Unfortunately, Lancelot wasn't ready when Arthur attacked and was defeated easily. He was assigned to clean the stocks afterwards. She stifled a laugh at the sight of him entering Gauis's chambers all full of mud. You have to admit that it was funny when it's happening to someone else.
"Are you alright?" She asked as seriously as she could.
"How do I look?" He spat back getting her to chuckle. He just sighed and went to take a bath. As he walked towards the room, Merlin realized that she may have been somewhat insensitive and hence decided to lift his mood up by something she (proudly) arranged herself.
"Lancelot." She called firmly, and he turned to her begrudgingly. "Be sure to clean yourself properly and dress up nicely, okay?"
An eyebrow rose. "Okay…? Why?" He meant the dressing up nicely part.
"I invited Gwen for dinner." She grinned and waited for a nice little reaction, but it didn't come. He didn't look enthusiastic of the news at all.
"Y-You're supposed to be glad, Lancelot." She stated, befuddled. The knight-to-be arched his eyebrows in perplexity when he realized Merlin's enthusiasm with playing match-maker… for some reason he had yet to understand.
"Aa…" He feigned a delighted smile. She returned it with an awkward one and a little bit of internal convincing,
'He's glad! Of course he is. He's… just not good at showing his emotions… yes! That must be it.'
Wishful thinking, it was. And she will absolutely not even consider she was wrong.
Guinevere stood by Gaius' door, dressed in her best attire. She wanted to look prettier… for him.
Gwen could not stop her heart from beating every time she looked at that handsome face of his – so to save herself from utter humiliation, she just avoided looking at his gaze altogether. The only time she looked at him again was before they left and they had an awkward chat – much to Merlin's amusement. She shifted her gaze at the cross-dresser and just knew she was planning something.
She followed them as stealthily as she could until they went to the stairs. She heard Lancelot calling her 'beautiful'.
And she couldn't believe how happy she was.
The invite to dinner and the huge grin pasted on Merlin's face was more than enough to tell her that Merlin's part-unconscious desire to be an actual woman was starting to manifest in one of the oddest way possible. She was reluctant to agree because she would still feel nervous around him, but she didn't want to disappoint her enthusiastic friend. Merlin had become much too important to her.
So she took a deep breath and knocked the door with poise.
…
"He said 'How was I supposed to defend the kingdom with this bunch of weaklings?'!" Merlin acted like Arthur and they laughed.
A few hours passed since Gwen came in and they were having a great time – Merlin and Gaius made sure of that. They were the ones to open topics since Lancelot wasn't very talkative and Gwen was nervous beyond concern, albeit she didn't show it.
"I think nobles have way too many privileges to become truly strong."
"Ah." Gwen uttered and looked at Lancelot. Lancelot smiled at her.
"I-It's fine. No offense taken." He said, and it took Merlin long seconds to actually absorb that she slipped up.
"Oh." She squeaked. "I'm sorry Sir Lancelot. You are an exemption, yes?" They chuckled awkwardly.
But in the end, their little dinner together ended up nicely. Gwen politely took her leave, as it was getting late.
"Bye Gwen~ " She muttered at her friend, who was then walking out. Gwen blinked since she thought Merlin would walk her home. Well, under normal circumstances Merlin would – but this wasn't one of those moments. Merlin was a scheming maniac that day.
"Lancelot, I have to help Gaius out with… something. Mind taking Gwen home for me?" She asked sweetly, but still passably 'manly'. Lancelot flinched slightly at this but knew he didn't really have much of a choice—especially when he was the one asking the favour…
"Very well…" He stated and then shifted his stare to Gwen. He smiled.
"Shall we?"
…
Lancelot and Gwen walked in semi-comfortable silence. But Lancelot, as non-talkative as he was, decided to talk. "I'm sorry Merlin must be dragging you to this…" He muttered.
"Oh… it's fine. Aren't you the one getting dragged, though?" She smiled, finally starting to feel more like herself. He smiled back.
"Not really… He saved my life before so requests like this really don't cause me much harm…"
"Ah… So s-he saved your life, too? Merlin seems to really have a knack for saving people's lives, huh?" She stated and he chuckled at several memories.
"Yeah. I bet he saved Arthur's life many times as well..."
"But he doesn't seem too grateful, though." Gwen commented looking at the pavement.
"He is the Prince." He replied seeing how… haughty the prince could become.
"Well, looking at them—I don't think he knows…"
"What do you mean by 'looking at them'?" He asked surprised at the anxiety that appeared for no apparent reason. Gwen saw this as simple perplexity.
"Uhm… I'm sure Arthur would be a bit nicer to him if he did. They are actually close friends, you know… even if neither of them would admit it."
"I see…" He whispered and continued walking in a trance until Gwen called his name a moment later.
"Lancelot?"
"Yes…?" He asked nonchalantly.
"We're here." She announced, somewhat amused at his startled expression.
"Ah… sorry about that." He chuckled. "Well… goodnight Guinevere."
"Goodnight… and thank you for taking me home." She smiled and kissed him on the cheeks.
…
Flinch
Arthur could not believe what he was seeing. He was doing his rounds that night because of the number of new people who came in due to that beast. He thought it would be eventless, in all honestly. He didn't expect to see Guinevere was cheating on his manservant… not that he should care—
Then Merlin's smiling face popped up out.
'Go away.' He said to it, but to no avail. He couldn't believe the feeling of despair he felt every time he imagined that happy face of his turning into a sad one.
"Sire?" One of his knights called from behind. He was lucky he was a few meters away to have any idea of what's going inside him.
"Yes…?"
"We should move to the next area, now." He stated and Arthur nodded firmly. He should really just ignore his servants' – and a knight-wannabe's – love life. Yes, he should.
But then he wondered if he could…
.
.
END OF CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI: COMPLICATIONS
Because Morgana loves to make things complicated for everyone else.
REPLIES TO ANGELS:
Princess Falling Star- I'm glad you're still reading. XD Thank you for the comment~! hehe
Guest[7/2/12]- I'm a very happy to hear that! :D I hope you liked this chap, too, but you can tell me the truth. XD Thx for the review!
Akela Victoire- (ch3) Haha. Thanks for the review, and I'm relieved that it wasn't.
Shakespeare's Lemonade- (ch1) Yeah, I get that a lot. I'll fix them when I find the time. Thanks for the review~
Jhoi Marie Boli- (ch2) Hahaha. Love the puns there, jhoi! Lol. Yeah, it was either the docmanager or me forgetting. They'll be fixed someday. XD And thanks for the review~
cheekysorcerer- Yeiy~! haha. Thank you for the review, and I hope you liked this new update! You can be honest though. XD
Natasya Ivashkov- No, no, thank you for reading. XD And Thanks for the comment as well~! Hope you liked his reactions, lol.
Giselle Pink- Thank you for the review~! I am seriously relieved that you thought so. Hehe. I hope I can keep it up, but do tell me if I'm not quite reaching expectations. *grins*
saroura92- Yeah, I agree.. and he's such a good guy, too. XD And Thanks for the comment!
Dzeuljeta- (ch1) Thank you for reviewing! Lol, it's good to hear that I'm actually not bad with descriptions. XD
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