Day 5 of the Valentine's Day Countdown

It was another 15 years before Queen Guinevere joined her love, brother and most of her friends in Avalon. She was the last of the group to pass, excluding Merlin of course.

She passed peacefully, the first of them to do so, simply closing her eyes to sleep.

When she opened them again, she was underwater. She felt rather calm about it, unworried about her current surroundings. At some point she noticed idly that she no longer looked like a widowed queen of forty winters, but instead the young woman she had once been, the one who had had a life of adventures, the serving girl in love with the prince. The only thing disrupting her peace was a mental itch, an insatiable urge to rise up, a calling out of the lake. She rose out of the lake as easily as walking, perfectly dry, which should have been her first clue that she was no longer in the mortal realm. (Except she had already known that, on some level.) and walked to the shore. It looked almost exactly like a lake shore not too far from Camelot, but everything was reversed, right was left, left right.

It's a like a mirror world. Gwen mused, taking in the scene. Like the mirror world Merlin had told her about once during one of his infrequent non-funeral visits: Avalon.

Avalon! The word seemed stirred something inside Gwen, waking her from her dreamlike daze. Avalon, the place where the others had gone after death.

The place where Arthur was.

As if her thoughts had called them forth, figures emerged from the woods. Five bright red cloaks, their owners smiling, welcoming and warm.

"Hello, Gwennie" Elyon said, using the name she hadn't heard since childhood.

"Elyon" She breathed, crying and laughing all at once. "Elyon!" She ran and he hugged her tightly, holding close the sister he hadn't seen in 15 years. Eventually he released her and she turned to the other knights, hugging them all tightly as she greeted them. Percival, who had been gone eight years, Leon, gone for 11. Gwaine, who had been gone since the battle of Camlann, and Lancelot, who she hadn't seen in almost 20 years. All her friends, all so dear to her and yet…..

"Arthur?" She asked them questioningly. He had to be here, in Avalon, waiting until his kingdom needed him again. The knights smiled at her mysteriously and parted, revealing a silhouette of a man moving towards them through a shroud of mist.

"Arthur?" She hardly dared to breathe the name as the figure quickened his pace. She couldn't see his face yet, but her heart was singing a song she hadn't sung in fifteen years, and she knew. And then she was running, racing towards the man who caught her in his arms and spun her around as easily and smoothly as he had so long ago.

"Guinevere" He whispered at the same time she whispered his.

And then they were kissing, deeply and passionately, as if all the love and thoughts and empty nights and aching hearts could be expressed in that kiss.

"You waited" Arthur whispered when they finally broke apart, his face alive and filled with love as he looked at her. "You waited, you never remarried"

"Of course I didn't" Gwen whispered back. "With all my heart, Arthur. I love you, then, now and forever. I'm always here, as long as you want me."

"Always" Arthur told her, kissing her again.

Destiny choose him as the Once and Future King, and her as the Once and Future Queen. But even destiny cannot force love as passionate and as strong as the ones the possessed. Destiny gave them their titles, but their love was everlasting.

I am SO SO SORRY guys! My computer completely crashed Friday night, preventing me from updating Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday. I'm getting them up as quickly as I can, but be patient. I should be up to speed by tomorrow.

Also, 100 Reviews! WHEEEW!