Chapter 9: Submission

In which something is supposed to be taken, but is given instead.

Gilgamesh clicked his tongue, irritated. Such a plain, nearly empty room so close to his private quarters...

Enkidu, so innocently faithful, knowingly or not, helped Gilgamesh lure Siduri outside - they should be busy in the temple district for at least half of the day. With neither of them close, the king could continue, what had been so insolenly interrupted last night. And, to make things more interesting, he decided to come directly to the Servant's room. A surprise attack would not give this thing time to prepare excuses, the king assumed. But he did not expect to find the chamber empty this early in the morning.

The silver lyre rested in the corner, covered with a cloth. There was a barrel in the centre of the room, with a single lotus blooming on the water surface. It screamed 'Enkidu's doing' louder than thousand words.

The king was reaching out his hand to touch the flower, but something hit him in the back with surprising force. Bursting with anger, he looked at the wet towel on the floor.

"I did not expect anyone to be here. Please forgive me, my king," Rider said politely, standing in the entrance to the room, fresh from the bath, with still wet hair stuck to his back and shoulders.

But he did not look sad or apologetic, not at all. Gilgamesh could not yet decide, if he should be amused or angry by this display of insolence.

"Do you always throw your things around the room like that, mongrel?" - the king asked, smirking.

"I find myself doing that a lot lately." Rider sighed, pretending to be worried about it. "It's a nasty habit, really. I must have picked it up from someone in the palace."

For the first time since the summoning Gilgamesh was left speechless (even if only for a second, and even if it would cost Arjuna his life, the Servant thought it was worth it). He angrily threw the random thing from the portal to his treasury at Rider, aiming for the head.

Arjuna dodged it swiftly, as if nothing had happened. His still wet hair twirled behind him during that movement and some stray droplets fell on the king's face.

Rider did expect a response, but not this violent. Golden portals opened around him, swooshing weapons of many kinds pursued him mercilessly all around the place. Some of them flew out into the corridor, others stuck in the walls, but none managed to hit the annoying familiar yet.

As a moving target, Rider seemed slower and less durable than Enkidu, but his movement patterns were completely different, so the practice was worth spending a while in the end. The Servant must have thought the same, because he did not look bothered by the attacks. It seemed that they both had a very specific understanding of the term 'fun' and enjoyed a good fight more than they would admit. Until...

"Please, my king, not the flower!" Arjuna covered the barrel with his own body, spreading his arms in a protective, and kind of pleading, gesture.

"You would risk an injury to save a flower?" Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow. Just how stupid this material ghost could be?

"Unlike other things in this room, it's a living creature, so why hurt it needlessly? It was a gift I really cherish. Please, spare it, my king."

Gilgamesh winced, thinking of Enkidu. They wouldn't be pleased, knowing what happened to their flower, for sure. But he hadn't yet dispersed the golden glow behind his back. There was one more thing he wanted to know, before deciding, what to do.

"Why are you so attached to it, mongrel?" - he almost growled, not hiding anger and jealousy in his voice anymore.

"Out of respect towards the giver, I must repay their kindness by caring for this flower with all I have," Arjuna replied, so solemnly, it would sound ridiculous in other circumstances. "And it reminds me of my homeland," he added quietly. "It's an important symbol."

"A symbol of what?"

"Of many good things. And of beauty that can grow even from the dirt."

"Hmm." The king closed the portals, satisfied and amused by this explanation. What a strange land it must have been, with even weirder inhabitants. Although Gilgamesh couldn't be so sure about the latter. Judging from their shared 'dreams', most people there were quite normal, just this one seemed so idiotic it hurt.

"Thank you, my king." So Gilgamesh could be merciful. For some reason Arjuna found this information very important. "Nothing justifies my childish behavior today. It won't happen again."

Watching those big, dark eyes, partially hidden under long eyelashes, that slightly bowing posture, seemingly modest, but actually exposing the main advantages of a female body, Gilgamesh wondered, if it was Rider's natural pose or something he had learned in the past, for some mysterious reason.

"I'm tempted to make you stay permanently in this form," he said, unusually serious this time.

"As long as it won't affect my fighting potential, I do not mind."

But Arjuna's gaze, full of barely tamed anger, told something different, in Gilgamesh's opinion. It reminded the king of the last night's dance... and the reason, why he had come to this thing's chamber in the first place.

Having no desire to restrain himself anymore, Gilgamesh unceremoniously seized Rider's neck, along with strains of wet hair, pulled the Servant closer and kissed him without warning. Arjuna tensed at first, as if he wanted to push away the assaulter - and, to the king's surprise, those slender, female arms seemed strong enough to do so! - but his instinctive resistance eased up almost immediately. Gilgamesh would take it for a display of praiseworthy self-control, if not a small, desperate gasp Rider let out, when their lips separated.

The King of Heroes started laughing at this discovery.

"You're actually enjoying this!"

"That wasn't the plan?"

Gilgamesh snorted. Rider really thought he had outsmarted him? That his false enthusiasm would discourage the king from playing with new toys?

"It's even better. Pleasure is what I enjoy the most and there's no real pleasure in the reluctant or passive."

"My only pleasure is in serving faithfully," Arjuna replied mechanically and regretted it just a second later.

"Then serve me."

Rider gave his Master another long, powerful stare. Gilgamesh smirked triumphantly. The beast within had been cornered at last.

"If this is what you wish for, my king, I will," Arjuna said and the boldness in his voice sounded strangely atractive. "But it's my duty of a Servant to stop my Master from playing with forces he does not fully understand."

"Oh? You dare threaten me?"

"It's just a warning, my king. Servants are entities made of magic, bound by its rules. Some of our skills are constantly active, others activate against our will. It's not something to be taken lightly. Who knows, what may happen, if..."

He did not manage to finish the sentence - Gilgamesh just threw him on the bed, having enough of talking for today. Entertainment was just a secondary gain. The king came here to punish this thing, not to let it lecture him or have fun.

Arjuna gritted his teeth, reminding himself of what he had so solemnly proclaimed many times before - it was a duty of a Servant to obey Master's orders, whatever they could be. Just like the dance last night, it was a performance. Another test. A challenge. A battle.

"Do not make me wait, mongrel." The king smiled from the above, shining like a pillar of sunlight, which meant that his divinity had aleady triggered activation of that annoying Noble Phantasm...

No, not again! The last conscious thought, before drowning in the river of raging magic, flashed in Arjuna's mind like a weak sparkle, then went out irretrievably.

For a moment it looked to Gilgamesh like his Servant became a completely different person. It was not something the king liked the most, a scared virgin, with whom everything seemed fresh and exciting, but hesitation between shamelessness and self-hatred he could feel from Rider had some charm as well. And that kiss just now... tasted so sweet. No, too sweet, too intoxicating. Not normal anyway.

Gilgamesh quickly realized it was an effect of a strong spell. He could still shake it off, but... was there really a reason to do that? Rider's behavior was quite amusing, especially the way he seemed fixated on the red traces of power on his Master's skin. The King of Heroes laughed at loud. It was already much better than he expected!

At least until the flow of magic changed direction, causing a painful imbalance in Gilgamesh's circuits. Things like 'taking' and 'giving' merged into a completely new phenomenon, so messed up, that Gilgamesh could not really tell, what was happening to him.

What kind of trickery is it? How this thing can get stronger by submission? Pushing oneself to the limit - this is the way of humanity, a difference between a man and a beast!

But a Servant's power comes from their legend. And, in that legend, Rider pushed himself to his limits in exchange for this particular body. He went through hours of preparation and rituals, memory loss and finally total destruction of his ego, all in exchange for spiritual knowledge.

This was what Gilgamesh, in his almighty arrogance, failed to understand... Or rather decided to ignore that simple truth, even though Rider openly warned him about it.

What an annoying power this Servant has... to be loved by the divine. Although the human part of Gilgamesh wanted to outright murder this thing, the vain two-thirds of a god in him were pleased by the worship.

Still, how dared it pour such strange emotions into its owner? And how could it look at him like that?

They stayed like this, in a state of tensed confusion, so close their foreheads were touching, for a disturbingly long while.

"Won't you say something, my king?" - the Servant asked eventually in a flat voice. Crimson irises filled his entire field of vision. "It's getting really awkward like that."

In a burst of anger, Gilgamesh squeezed Rider's wrists with such force they would have been crushed, if they had belonged to a human being.

"How dare you unleash your Noble Phantasm at me?!"

"I wish no harm to my Master," Arjuna explained innocently, watching Gilgamesh with dreamy eyes. "I did nothing, my king. You did it yourself."

So this is how it worked? Like Gilgamesh concluded a moment ago, if he hadn't changed Arjuna into a woman, he would have achieved what he wanted - punishment and humiliation of this annoying Servant. He was the one who messed things up, by underestimating the capabilities of his own weapon.

"Should I leave you alone, my king?" - Rider asked, feeling that Gilgamesh's hold on his wrists lessened a bit.

"I haven't finished with you yet. Your punishment is far from over."

"Punishment?" This time Arjuna looked really confused and worried. So it wasn't a game, test or simple malice? That changed everything. "For what crimes? How did I wrong you, my king?"

"You don't need to know that."

"But how would I correct my behavior then? So it's not a punishment, just a way to take out your frustration on me, my king."

Gilgamesh grinned like a wild beast.

"You're free to self-destruct or challenge me, if you don't like it."

"That would mean I failed as a Servant." Rider's eyes narrowed; that focused, angry light sparked in them again. It looked so out of place in his disheveled, submissive state, that Gilgamesh almost laughed at loud. How could he act so serious, while being pinned to the bed? Maybe too much bliss had already damaged his brain? "I cannot do this."

"Or maybe you're just enjoying it? Ha, ha, ha, don't look at me like that, I'm not condemning you! To seek out pleasure is a sign that one is human. And there's no greater pleasure for a woman of this era than to be mine."

The provocation worked this time and Arjuna wanted to scream: 'I'm not a woman!' with every fibre of his being, but he would only make a fool of himself. The facts were clearly against his claims now. Rider swallowed, when Gilgamesh blinded him with fully unleashed divinity, triggering the activation of that annoying Noble Phantasm again.

Do not underestimate me, King of Heroes! You may have fun for now, but I won't ever... Oh. Oh, my...

Gilgamesh did have fun, indeed, but there were also things he wanted to know. How many times Rider could use this troublesome Noble Phantasm? How much divine knowledge could he absorb before breaking? Any vessel, even the most potent one, would overflow eventually. Those were the rules of magic, were they not?

Ah, finding out the answers would be extremely satisfying!