SC4 || Entry 2: His Hero
Title: His Hero
Themes and/or Prompt/s: HEROIC :
"I'll walk, but not in old heroic traces,
And not in paths of high morality,
And not among the half-distinguished faces,
The clouded forms of long-past history.
-Emily Bronte
Rating: G
Word count: 2603
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Gwen other characters: Merlin, Sir Leon, Lancelot, King Uther, Morgana
Spoilers/Warnings: *Optional* not really episode 1x4
Disclaimer: We do not own Merlin.
Summary: Defying King Uther to save Merlin was a pretty risky gamble for Guinevere. Arthur can't help but admire how brave she is. When he realizes that her bravery was inspired by love Arthur begins to wondering if a woman as brave as that would ever love him.
Author’s notes: So this is my first attempt at co-authoring anything for Merlin and my partner's second. Anyway we worked very hard on this and we hope you like it.
His Hero 1/1
"Merlin!" Arthur strode into his quarters "Don't forget the chain mail needs a good wash and-" He paused mid sentence. Guinevere and Merlin sat side-by-side on the floor in front of his chest. In Merlin's hand his chest plate, while Guinevere held the shoulder plate. The pair sat rather close, dark heads almost touching, knees not quite touching. Arthur felt the start of a smile, it was almost sweet.
He cleared his throat. Guinevere leapt to her feet and curtsied in one movement. Merlin of course didn't bother to rise at all.
"Sire," she smiled, twisting her hands.
"Your highness," Merlin squinted up at him nodded and returned his attention to the chest plate.
"Guinevere."
"I'm helping Merlin, he wasn't feeling so well, since you know," She chewed her bottom lip briefly, looked at Merlin over her shoulder and pointed at him with her thumb.
Arthur felt a touch of a smiling playing about the corners of his mouth. She hadn't stopped moving since he'd come into room. He'd planned to harass Merlin if his manservant hadn't seemed too sickly. Guinevere's presence reminded him of something else he'd been wondering about.
"Right," Arthur paused again.
The maid was now completely still. She'd trained her eyes on Merlin, tiny hands loose at her sides, gaze soft, a little lovesick smile playing about her face. She was indeed in love with him, which of course explained her bravery. Merlin started to lift his head and in less than an instant her entire demeanor changed. She took up the shoulder plate and was seated beside Merlin in a moment. The two servants continued polishing his armor, Guinevere chattering on as if she hadn't been gazing adoringly at him only a moment ago.
Merlin the idiot, had no idea that this incredibly brave and sweet little maid was completely in love with him. Arthur sucked his tongue with disgust and strode out of the room; he had an audience with his father.
**
Arthur loved being in charge of the knights. It was one area he knew he was good at and one area in which his father mostly kept his nose out of. He walked around the training ground as Sir Gavin yelled out commands to the new recruits. Metal clanked against metal, the sound comforting in his ears. Occasionally, Arthur would correct someone’s posture, rebuke a recruit for his lack of concentration and offer praise.
But quickly that was not enough. He was itching to be part of the action. Unsheathing his sword, he swaggered to Sir Leon who was inspecting the weapons.
“How about a duel, Leon?” Arthur grinned cockily as he swung his sword. Leon hadn’t beaten him in a duel in months.
“Sure,” grunted Leon as he grabbed his sword.
Without too much difficulty, Arthur disarmed Leon, pointed the sword at his throat and chuckled. “You need to put up more of a fight.”
“That was merely a warm up my lord. Best of three rounds?” Leon picked up his sword again. When Arthur nodded, Leon smiled and said, “Great. Let me get some water first.”
It was then that Arthur noticed Lady Adriane lingering at a corner of the training field. He shook his head. “I don’t think its water you want,” Arthur said to Leon’s back. He rolled his eyes yet he continued to watch as Lady Adriance laughed at something Leon said, before brushing his hair and dabbing at his face with her fancy handkerchief.
Then from the corner of his eye, he spied Merlin sneaking into the training tent. Arthur sighed. He was again late for training. What a useless servant he was. And, right on cue, Arthur thought of Guinevere. Over the past few days it had been like that. Think of Merlin, think of Guinevere. It annoyed him so he was glad that Leon had finished allowing Lady Adriane to fuss over him.
Leon dealt the first blow which Arthur blocked easily.
Leon had a beau. And Merlin had an admirer.
Arthur swung his sword at Leon, forcing him to dodge.
How on earth did Merlin get an admirer anyway?
Leon gained the upper hand slightly, forcing Arthur to move backwards.
Especially one like Guinevere. She had too much courage, too much heart for someone as silly as Merlin.
Arthur dipped to avoid Leon’s blow but lost his footing.
He quite liked the way she smiled as well. It was almost like sunshine.
Leon’s blow landed squarely on his upper arm and Arthur dropped his sword. Immediately, he scrambled to grab his fallen sword but it was too late. With the tip of his sword pressing against Arthur’s chest, Leon grinned.
“You were distracted my lord. Perhaps a lady?”
Pushing Leon’s sword away, Arthur huffed. “Don’t think you’ll beat me in the next round. And you’re wrong. There’s nobody.”
Then he wondered why he felt slightly deflated.
**
He supposed he should have seen it coming. After all, his father was far from subtle about such things. Still, when Uther took him aside one morning and said quite seriously that it was time that he started thinking of choosing a wife, he was taken aback. For some reason, Guinevere’s face popped into his head but he was quickly distracted by his father explaining the qualities needed in a wife.
Deciding that choosing a suitable wife shouldn’t be much different from choosing a good knight, Arthur set about his task. Painstakingly, he drew up a list of questions but when he came face to face with Lady Clara, he balked. It was embarrassing. But, as he told himself, like sword fighting, practice makes perfect. He just needed to find someone to practice with.
So when Morgana wandered into his room for some chit-chat, he pounced on the opportunity. He didn’t tell her what he was up to of course because that would just be more fodder for her to mock him.
“Have you ever risked your life to save someone else’s?”
Morgana’s response was to frown at him. “I think every time I speak up for you in front of your father should count.”
“No it doesn’t and you never speak up for me.”
“Ha!” Morgana scoffed. “I always stand up for you.”
How many times had he told himself not to let Morgana get under his skin? He growled and continued with the next question. “Will you do another person’s chores for them if they were incapacitated?”
“What on earth are you talking about? Will you?”
“Just answer the question Morgana!”
“Not until you tell me what this is about.” Crossing her arms, Morgana glared at him.
Clearly this was a bad idea. “Would you risk being thrown into the dungeons for anyone?”
The glare disappeared and in its place was concern. Morgana lifted her hand and placed it on Arthur’s head. “Are you ill?”
Swiping at her hand, Arthur snapped, “No I’m not. Why won’t you answer my questions?”
“Because they are ridiculous.”
At least his questions made Morgana leave him alone, he told himself later as he stared at his list of questions. That Morgana wouldn’t answer any of them was probably a reflection of her difficult nature and not of his questions.
**
“So you would go out of your way to save someone?” Lady Michelle was fairly attractive and she had a wide smile. He wasn’t so sure about the thing on her head she called a hat though. It looked like it might come to life at any moment and attack him.
“Why, of course.”
“Even if it meant that you would lose all your limbs and suffer from great pain?”
Lady Rachel didn’t think she would be able to go without food for a week to save a friend. Lady Sarah hesitated when he asked if she would be willing to risk the dungeons for a man’s life. Lady Clara was scandalized (and complained to his father) when he asked if she would break the law for a man’s life.
“So you don’t think you would offer yourself up as a kidnap victim to save another person’s life?”
“That’s a bit extreme isn’t it? I would ask for help though.” Lady Lucretia smiled as she ran her fingers through her long hair.
With a swift stroke of his quill, Arthur put a line through Lady Lucretia’s name. He stared in dismay at the piece of paper in front of him. He had gone through all the eligible noble ladies over the last three days and now all their names had a strike through them.
Why was it so difficult to find someone who was brave? At this rate, he’d be single for the rest of his life.
**
Normally Arthur loved training the knights, but today- His eyes strayed up to the overcast sky and danced over the practice field. Guinevere was there watching. She did not have her eyes on Merlin, today they followed Lancelot. Arthur looked at her ill fitted clothing, barely combed hair, rough homespun cloak…thought about her cracked split nails and rough hands…She was a servant, yet- she smiled that sunshine smile at Lancelot and the wind streamed through her black curls. In that moment she was beautiful.
Lancelot the fool threw himself into an attack on sir Gareth and found himself quickly disarmed. Arthur sniffed, the other man had been trying rather stupidly to impress her.
"Sire," Merlin handed him a tin cup filled with water. "Lancelot is something else isn't he?"
"Not so much right now."
He might forbid onlookers for a while; they tended to distract the men when training. He watched Lancelot run to pick up his sword saw him glance quickly at Gwen. Gwen smile back and shyly dip her head. It looked like Merlin was missing his chance with Gwen.
"Merlin aren't you at all concerned about your future?"
"Hmmm?"
"Your future, don't you have someone important to you? Someone that you need to take care."
Merlin was thoughtful for a moment.
"Of course my mother, I should probably arrange a visit with her."
Arthur took a deep breath.
"Yes, but don't you have a lady friend that you want to take home with you maybe someone short, nice smile, very brave?"
"Mhmmm the only person I know like that is Gwen." Merlin's expression was quizzical.
"Hmmm."
"But uh' she's kinda' got a big nose don't you think?"
For a moment Arthur stared, he could feel his lip curling. Before he could stop himself he yanked on one of Merlin's ears and pulled it even with his mouth.
"Is this small Merlin?"
"Ow! Ow! Owowowow!!!"
Arthur released the other young man then. Merlin rubbed his ear.
"That hurt, a lot."
"Shut-up whining Merlin."
For a long moment Arthur stood silently arguing with himself. Her nose, she was brave and sweet and Merlin was thinking about noses. Besides there was nothing wrong with her nose, he kind of liked it.
"There's nothing wrong with her nose." Arthur said after a while. "It has a certain," He considered his next word carefully "regality."
"Arthur," Merlin was looking at him slyly now. "Do you-"
"Shut-up Merlin," he rolled his eyes and stalked toward the training field "Idiot."
____________________
Back to Masterlist/Voting Post || E1 | E3 |