The Future Queen's Star - Drabble - For AJsrandom
Title: The Future Queen's Star
Recipient:ajsrandom
Author: tansyuduri
Rating: PG
Pairings: Arthur/Merlin
Summary: Gwen has gone so long without a sign. Is she right to still hope for her and Arthur to be together?
Warnings: No warnings. Content tags include; Wishing upon a star, Andter and Gwen Fluff, and more!
Word Count: 1353
Author's Notes: Hey AJ! this is my first time writing Arthur and Gwen though I love the pairing., I tried to include surprises and fluff!
Thank you to the mods and to my beta thesongistheriver on AO3 This can also be found on A03
Disclaimer: Merlin is owned by the BBC and Shine. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made. Don't send us to the dungeons.
Clutching her well-worn cloak around herself and looking up into the night sky, Gwen noticed the falling star. She was slightly sore from working all day and attending to nobles at the festivities in the castle, but now was finally alone and at peace. The woman standing alone outside her house bit her lip. She knew what a falling star on the solstice meant.
There were so many things to wish for. So many things she wished for all the time. For the people of Camelot. For her friends. But this wish was supposed to be for her. A shooting star around midnight meant to wish for something related to her own desires.
Gwen had already wished multiple times for the return of the missing Morgana. She needed to think of something else. The only thing that came to her mind now was a certain blondprince. Arthur … Gwen thought.
Let there be a sign I’m right to hope. That there is a reason I cannot get him out of my mind. We kissed, and I feel the connection between us. What I feel for him-I know it’s real … but I also know it might never be enough. A sign. That is what I wish for. Just a sign.
Gwen, shivering in the night, surrounded by the snowy lower town, picked out the falling star and smiled up at it. “I wish for a sign that one day we might actually be together.”
Pulling her cloak tighter around her purple dress, Gwen headed inside her house to finally get some rest.
She was about to change into her nightdress when there was a knock at her door. Gwen lay the soft garment on her bed and grabbed a nearby candelabra. One could never be too sure lately. Moving to the door, she opened it with one hand and held the candelabra in the other.
The hooded figure at the door looked down at her improvised weapon from earlier with amused eyes. “You were going to attack me? With that?”
“Arthur!” Gwen could feel a smile come to her face. “Not everyone has swords within reach at all times you know,” she teased him. Gwen set down the candelabra nearby.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
“Oh! Oh, right, please do.” Gwen flushed and opened the door wider to let in her prince. He was holding a basket under one arm and Gwen felt like shaking her head
It was so Arthur: To surprise her like this. To bring her whatever was in that basket. And to do it at night after she was so tired from work. Still, the presence of Arthur in her house seemed to fill her with new energy.
“What is in the basket?” Gwen asked as she moved to take a seat at the table and Arthur removed his cloak, hanging it up nearby her own.
He turned to grin at her with the smile that made her heart flip over. “A surprise.”
“Is it food from the palace kitchens again?” Gwen raised a brow in a gentle tease,
“Partly,” Arthur confessed as he moved further toward the table. “Sadly, for any attempts at me ever cooking anything, the palace staff would recognize me and ask questions.”
“And this has nothing to do with the fact you cannot cook?”
“That too,” Arthur admitted.
Gwen pressed her hands to her mouth, fingers pressed together, and laughed.
Arthur smiled at her with that smile, and sat down opposite her, placing the basket on the table
“I know you must not have had much time to celebrate so I got you …” he trailed off. Then he began lifting things from the basket
“A spiced chicken.”
Gwen could feel her mouth watering.
“A new dress.” He set this aside.
“And some flowers.” He pulled them out.
Gwen was already stroking the cloth of the dress. It was a beautiful thing, but common enough she could actually wear it.
The flowers, however, took her aback. “Flowers? On the winter solstice?”
“Merlin found them,” Arthur admitted “Occasionally he does do something useful-but don’t tell him I said that.”
Gwen laughed again. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” she said, making a note to thank Merlin for the flowers as well.
“There is one more thing I got you.”
Gwen looked up at him. “Another thing?”
Arthur leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers. Gwen’s hand rose to his cheek as she kissed him back, fierce and full of passion. She never knew if they would be able to kiss again. His lips tasted like the spiced wine served at the banquet. His hair was soft beneath the tips of her fingers. She could feel his own hand caress her head as the heat of their lips threw other thoughts from her mind.
When they finally broke apart Gwen pulled him back in for another kiss, slightly shorter this time but just as sweet. Finally she let Arthur go.
Arthur cleared his throat. “We should, er … likely eat the chicken before it cools.”
“Oh! Right, the chicken, of course.” Gwen moved to get plates and cups and served it to them both, taking care to slice it perfectly.
“So,” Gwen asked. “What prompted all this?” She started to eat.
Arthur smiled and then dug into the chicken as well. “It has been a while since we have had any chance to talk without you acting as a servant. I’ve missed our talking.”
“I’ve missed talking to you too, Arthur,” Gwen admitted. Their moments together were so rare. There was a topic to bring up and she knew it might be hard, but she needed to talk about it with him.
“How are you coping with Morgana being missing? I still wake up some mornings and prepare to go serve her in her room before I remember.”
Arthur seemed to hesitate and Gwen gave him a knowing look. She knew how hard it was for Arthur to be vulnerable to anyone. It had been drilled into him all his life, by his father, to never show weakness. But Arthur was not his father. Gwen knew that as much as she knew herself.
“I miss her,” Arthur finally admitted. “Sometimes I sit at the table with my father and don’t start eating because I’m waiting for her … I can see it in his eyes, too. My father … how much he misses her. We all do.” Arthur paused. “She's one of the three people in my life who treats me as more than just a future king.”
“Do you still think she’s out there? That we will find her?” Gwen asked
“We have to,” Arthur said in a rough voice.
Gwen reached a hand across the table for Arthur’s, covering it with her own. “I know she's still alive. Sometimes it's as if I can feel her … she will be found, Arthur.”
“If you have hope and my father does as well, who am I to doubt you both?” Arthur rubbed his thumb over her hand.
They were staring into each other's eyes when the bells started to ring.
Arthur stood up as if shocked. “They must have figured out I’m not in my bed. I have to get back.”
Gwen felt both disappointed and happy that they had had this time at least.
“Then you need to go! Say you heard reports of a beast and wanted to check with witnesses in the lower town if you’re caught,” she told him.
Arthur stood up, grabbing his cloak and then pulled her to him in one last parting kiss.
Gwen let herself be pulled, feeling his strong heartbeat against her own chest and kissing him deeply before pulling back.
“Go! Go!”
And Arthur exited into the snowy night, leaving behind the hope she had wished for. It was her sign. Her sign from the falling star that she was right to hope that one day there would be a Camelot where they could be together. And deep inside her was another glimmering hope that one day she would be Arthur’s wife and queen.