Hey, readers!
I hope you enjoy this cute Arthur-Shayla moment. As always, thanks for reading, and as always, nope, don't own Merlin.
Arthur and Guinevere: Missing Moments
Chapter 7
Shayla at five months (September):
Merlin comes into the Royal Chambers one morning in late September to be almost ambushed by Arthur and Gwen. "Shh!" They both say, Arthur putting a hand up to Merlin's mouth to stop him from talking. After a moment of silence, both Arthur and Gwen breathe a sigh of relief. Arthur slowly takes his hand away from Merlin's mouth. "May I ask what that was about?" Merlin whispers.
"Sorry, Merlin," Gwen says. "Shayla got absolutely no sleep last night-making us get absolutely no sleep last night too. She was upset all night long for some reason-
"She was completely inconsolable," Arthur says.
"What?"
"If you have a baby, Merlin-
"Which I don't-
"-You learn this very quickly," Arthur says. "There are levels of crying."
"Levels?" Merlin repeats skeptically. He glances over at Gwen, who nods knowingly, making him look back to the King.
"There's the kind-of crying," Arthur says. "There's the stirring-from-sleep crying, there's the hungry crying, there's the wet crying, there's the unhappy crying, there's the overtired crying, and then there's the Inconsolable Crying."
"And what is that, exactly?"
"That, my no-baby-possessing friend, is a level of crying so intense and loud and awful that she cannot bring herself out of it alone. It's the one that hardly ever happens, and it's the one that unfortunately befell us all last night."
"She's sleeping now, though, finally," Gwen says, yawning. "That's why we reacted to you the way we did, Merlin. If she were to wake up upset again I don't know what we would do...I don't know what I did wrong," Gwen says, beginning to walk around the main room of the Royal Chambers, her voice wavery. "I tried-
"Guinevere," Arthur says, stopping her pacing, putting warm hands on her shoulders. "I told you already, you did nothing wrong. It was just...a bad night."
"Bad? Arthur, a 'bad' night is when you forget to burp her and get spit-up all over yourself."
"I learned my lesson on that one, yes indeed," Arthur murmurs, making Merlin hide a smile.
"Last night was...I don't even know what last night was," Gwen says. "Bad, like I said. Awful, really."
"I know it was," Arthur murmurs. "You need to sleep," he says quietly to her after a moment.
"I know." Gwen rests her head on her husband's shoulder for a second, closes her eyes. After a second, Arthur puts both hands on her shoulders again, marches her over to the bed.
"In you go, my beautiful sleep-deprived wife," Arthur says, holding up the corner of the comforter for her.
"I can't, Arthur, we've got that meeting-
"Correction: I have a meeting. You, my darling, are going to stay here and sleep."
"And when are you going to sleep?" Gwen asks.
"I'm the King. I don't need to sleep," Arthur says confidently, making Merlin laugh into the palm of his hand.
"Sure," Gwen says unconvinced with a smile. She gets under the covers, though, all the same.
"Trust me, Guinevere. You sleep, I'll go to the meeting. Everything will be fine. You'll see."
A/G * A/G
Arthur isn't fine. He falls asleep about halfway through the meeting, making Merlin, again, laugh into the palm of his hand.
"And, meeting adjourned," Merlin whispers, making the men around the table laugh-quietly, of course.
"Woman problems, huh?" Gwaine says saucily, getting up from the table to follow the others to the training field.
"More like baby ones," Merlin replies. "Shayla had a bad night last night, making Arthur and Gwen have one too."
"Love's sacrifice, is it not?" Gwaine says, his eyes sparkling.
"It is," Merlin agrees, smiling down at the sleeping King.
A/G * A/G
Hours later, Arthur wakes up. And when he does, he is upset.
"What happened?" He exclaims as he did in 3x02. "Where is everyone?"
"You've been asleep for six hours, Arthur," Merlin says. "The meeting is long over."
"What?" Arthur sighs, rests his head in his hand, his elbow propping up his hand. "Why didn't you wake me?" Merlin shrugs.
"Because I knew if I did, you'd stumble through your whole day, sleepless, and that's no good for anyone."
"In case you haven't noticed, Merlin, that's what I've done practically every day since Shayla was born."
"I do know that," Merlin says. "That's why I didn't wake you. I didn't want you to go back to Gwen and Shay grumpy and upset. Trust me, no one wants that." Arthur rolls his eyes at his servant's last comment.
"I can't believe you didn't wake me up," is all Arthur mumbles under his breath before he pushes his chair back and leaves the council chambers. But when he gets back to the Royal Chambers, the King's disgruntlement is forgotten when he sees his wife and daughter. Gwen smiles, kisses her husband's cheek, hands him their daughter, who snuggles into her father's tunic when she sees who it is. "Hi, Shay," Arthur says sweetly to her. "Yeah, hi."
"I heard you fell asleep?" Gwen asks with a smile, resting her chin on her husband's shoulder from behind as he sits in the chair behind their desk.
"How'd you find out?" Arthur moans, putting a hand over his eyes, Shayla in the crook of his other arm.
"Leon stopped by and told me," Gwen says, a smile in her voice as she sits in a chair next to him. "I guess things weren't as 'fine' as you thought."
"I guess not," Arthur admits sheepishly. "I really do love you, Guinevere," he says after a moment, glancing at her meaningfully.
"I know, I know you do," Gwen says, reaching over to lightly caress his face. "I love you too."
"And I love you too, Shay, a lot, a lot, even if I lose sleep for you," Arthur says to his daughter, making Gwen-and Merlin-laugh.