Gossiping is good for the soul (except when it isn't)
Title: Gossiping is good for the soul (except when it isn't)
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~2,100
Spoilers/Warnings: No obvious spoilers but it does take place beyond season 1.
Authors notes: This fic was started in January based on something I drew on a postcard for freedomdarkness (and she has also done some of the beta work for it as well)tintop-lizzy did the initial beta and then suggested that it be either shorter or longer, I chose longer and the fic ended up twice as long as when I started. Also it's nowhere near as serious as the summary implies :)
Summary: One day Merlin accidentally breaks Gwen's mind.
It was a normal day in Camelot.
Well, in fact, it wasn’t just a normal day, it was a very good day in Camelot. No bandits were troubling the outer boundaries, Mercia had observed the peace treaty and none of their men had been spotted in Camelot for many months and, best of all, there had been no magical attacks in the last few months (which was something of a record, it must be said). All of this had led to Uther deciding that he was now able to leave Camelot for a few weeks to visit an old friend in one of the neighbouring lands.
This meant that Arthur was left to rule Camelot in his absence and, as such, Arthur had discovered that he much preferred his role as Crown Prince. Although, there were some perks that he rather enjoyed...
***
Gwen was sitting comfortably in the afternoon sun, mending one of the Lady Morgana's gowns. This grove really was one of her favourite spots on the castle grounds. The soft sound of the river flowing through the reeds and the even softer sound of the wind blowing through the birch trees all made this an ideal place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the castle.
She was humming quietly to herself when a loud clanking drew her attention to Merlin, who was approaching with Arthur's armour in his arms. Obviously, he too meant to take advantage of the pleasant weather. She made as if to stand to help Merlin with the armour but Merlin waved her down and staggered the last few feet before dropping the armour on the ground. He slowly started to sit down and the sound of his joints complaining and the grimace of pain on his face brought forth the concern that Merlin quite often seemed to inspire in Gwen.
"Are you all right Merlin?"
"I'm fine Gwen. It’s just Arthur being more of a prat than usual,”
Merlin looked down at the armour and gave a deep sigh before turning to her with a cheeky smile on his face,
“You don't want to trade do you? You do the armour and I'll finish mending that...”
Gwen laughed and Merlin feigned an offended look for a moment before a bright smile curled on his face.
"I can actually sew! I got extremely sick one winter and, to keep me busy, while I recovered my mother taught me to sew. Got rather good at it too after a month of practice."
Gwen laughed some more, "Really?"
"Yes really."
"Sewing isn't very manly is it though? Not that I'm saying that you're not manly because you are but not like Arthur. Arthur’s really manly. Not that I really like Arthur-- Oh, but you know what I mean..."
Merlin took pity on her,
"I agree. Arthur would just tease me if he ever found out. It’s not as if he usually has a reason but I don't really want to give him any ideas."
Gwen resumed her sewing while Merlin picked up Arthur's breastplate and started polishing. They both worked in contented silence for a few minutes before Gwen heard a small yelp of pain from Merlin. She looked up and saw that Merlin was rubbing his left knee.
'He must have dropped the breastplate on it,' she thought.
"Merlin?"
"It’s nothing, Gwen. Just rested the breastplate on a tender spot, I’ll get a salve from Gaius tonight and I’ll be fine in the morning.”
This didn't settle Gwen's mind all that much,
“Did you walk into something? I don’t mean that you’re clumsy because you’re not. Except sometimes but that’s not really your fault as you have got rather long -”
Merlin’s snort cut her off, "Its Arthur's fault that my knees are sore."
Gwen was now confused. Was Arthur hurting Merlin on purpose? Normally they got on quite well and Arthur never seemed to take offence even when Merlin was being rather cheeky.
"If Arthur is hurting you I can tell Morgana. You know that she'll make Arthur stop."
Merlin laughed,
"It’s nothing like that, Gwen. Like I said; it’s just Arthur being more of a prat than usual, this whole being in charge thing has gone slightly to his head."
Gwen was relieved. That did sound like Arthur or, to be fair, it sounded like the Arthur that Morgana complained about on a regular basis because, really, Gwen couldn’t claim to know Arthur all that well.
Merlin put the breastplate down and picked up Arthur’s sword. He looked at her and the smile on his face convinced her that he was fine. She picked up her sewing and, quickly, scanned the surrounding area to make certain that there was no-one around who could overhear them, she turned to Merlin.
“Did you hear the latest about Lord Cartwright?”
A smile erupted on Merlin’s face,
“No.”
Lord Cartwright and his various dalliances were an endless source of gossip and Gwen knew that though Merlin pretended to be above it he very much enjoyed hearing all the gory details. She took a deep breath and started her story,
“I heard this from one of the cooks, who heard it from one of the scullery maids and I’m not sure where she heard it from. Possibly Thea...”
The impatient look on Merlin’s face persuaded her to get to the point.
“Well, his wife caught him in the stables with Brom, the stable-boy, and, by all accounts, the Lady Beatrix was furious. She was shrieking, and Lord Cartwright was cowering in the corner and, then, she called Brom a strumpet! Then, they, apparently, got into a fistfight and he managed to give her a black eye! The stable master had to separate them.”
Merlin’s eyes were like saucers but his face soon turned thoughtful,
“Are you sure that’s what really happened? It sounds rather unlikely.”
Gwen sighed,
“It does, unfortunately. I think the story might be slightly exaggerated but, still, Lady Beatrix does have a black eye and, there is no way that Lord Cartwright could have managed that.”
Merlin’s shoulders were shaking in an effort to suppress his laughter.
“He is a bit of a doormat isn’t he? ”
“And this isn’t the first time that he was fooling around with one of the servants.”
The confusion on Merlin’s face was evident and it took Gwen a moment to remember that he hadn’t been in Camelot the previous time.
“A few months before you arrived Lord Cartwright was besotted with one of the serving boys, Earmon if I remember correctly, he would follow him around and sigh dreamily. It was like something out of one of the ballads -”Gwen cut herself off not wanting to sound like a sappy girl in front of Merlin.
Thankfully, Merlin ignored her last few words and launched into a spiel about Amelie, the chambermaid who had fallen pregnant with what she had said was Arthur’s child. Gwen let the curious mixture of Merlin’s pride in Arthur and his ranting about Arthur's stubbornness wash over her.
They sat there, casually catching up on all the latest gossip with Gwen occasionally pointing out spots of dirt that Merlin had missed. At last she finished mending Morgana’s dress. As she set it aside her gaze was drawn to the water. She quickly pulled off her shoes and walked over to the river, before sitting down and plunging her feet into the water, carefully keeping her dress from following. Looking back over to Merlin’s amused face, she waved him over.
Merlin slowly got up and walked over to where she now sat. He pulled off his boots and rolled his trousers up and sat down next to her, sighing happily at the perfect temperature of the water. Gwen looked over at him and the smile slid from her face.
“Merlin, how did you get those bruises on your knees?”
Merlin looked down at his knees and the grazes seemed to surprise him. He grinned wryly and said,
“Arthur.”
Her eyes widened. What could Arthur be doing to Merlin that would get him bruises like that?
Concerned she asked,
“Do you want to talk about it?”
"I don't think I should really talk about it."
However, Merlin looked slightly torn, as if he wanted to talk about it but wasn't quite sure what to say.
"You can talk to me Merlin, we're friends after all."
Merlin nodded his head and started hesitantly, gradually gathering pace with the story.
"Arthur... has been doing all of the things that Uther normally does and he's been complaining about it every night and going on about how he prefers being the Prince and even patrolling is better than listening to all the petitioners. So, then, I told him that people had to do what he wanted because he is the King for the moment and he got this look in his eyes. You know the look, right, Gwen?"
Gwen nodded. She was very familiar with that look. She remembered seeing it often when Arthur was younger and realised exactly how much he could get away with.
"So, anyway, I immediately regretted saying that, but he didn't do anything so, I went back to my chambers for the evening. The next day everything was going normally until Arthur dismissed the last petitioner. He signalled the guards to leave and, then, smirked at me."
Merlin looked unsure about continuing so Gwen gave him a supportive smile.
"He told me to undress, while he just lounged on the throne. I said no, of course. I only do that when we’re in his chambers. And then he said 'I'm king! You have to do what I say' And smirked at me again, the arse. I tried mentioning that somebody might walk in but that didn’t help and then he said he’d put me in the stocks if I didn’t. I normally don’t mind the stocks but they’re awful this time of the year - the kids get all the really rotten fruit and pelt me with that. It takes days to come out of my hair. I shouldn’t have given into him. Stupid prat. The floor in the throne room is really hard, you know?"
Gwen's gasp of shock stopped Merlin’s ranting. Merlin turned to her and she saw the irritation on his face turn to concern.
"Gwen, Gwen? Are you okay? Please, say something?"
Gwen remained unresponsive as Merlin waved a hand in front of her face. Vaguely, she heard him running off to get help, but, all she really heard were Merlin's words looping in her head and, her mind supplied the images to go with those words. She couldn't rid herself of the mental image.
What seemed like seconds later but, was most likely minutes, brought the sound of footsteps approaching her. Morgana's concerned face was, suddenly, in front of hers. She could hear Arthur complaining loudly to Merlin the background. Something about Morgana bursting into the, no she couldn’t think of that word, room and dragging him out. ‘Arthur.’ No, she really didn’t want to be thinking about Arthur or Merlin at this moment.
"Gwen? What's wrong? Merlin said that you stopped responding and that nothing he said could snap you out of it,"
Gwen tried to find the words to explain but no words came out of her mouth. She saw Morgana turn her gaze towards Merlin.
Merlin flushed red all over including the tips of his ears. He ignored Morgana's silent question.
Gwen tried again to find the words to explain and, this time, she was slightly more successful,
"Merlin... Arthur... Throne room...," was all she got out before the images flooded her mind once more. Morgana clearly managed to figure out what she was on about from just those few words, if the rather murderous expression on her face was any indication.
Morgana turned to Merlin and Arthur and started shouting at them. Gwen only caught snatches.
"...Arthur!”
“…the throne room!?”
“…one of the guards!"
"Merlin...”
“…spine!”
“…known better!"
“…again!"
Eventually, Morgana let them go back to the castle, Merlin with a very shamed look on his face and Arthur with a slightly petulant look on his. Morgana gracefully sat down next to Gwen and looked at her before smiling gently,
“I really can’t believe them sometimes,” she said ruefully shaking her head.
Gwen had to agree, "Neither can I."
"Perhaps Gaius has a potion that can remove a few memories..." Morgana said hopefully.
Gwen flashed her a look that plainly said 'I certainly hope so'.
A few minutes passed in silence before Morgana stood up. She offered her hand to Gwen,
“Come on Gwen. Let’s go find Gaius. I’m sure once we explain what happened he’ll be happy to help us.”
Gwen let herself be pulled up and she and Morgana slowly made their way back to the castle.
Behind them the grove was silent save for the water and the wind.
Feedback and concrit would be awesome :).
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~2,100
Spoilers/Warnings: No obvious spoilers but it does take place beyond season 1.
Authors notes: This fic was started in January based on something I drew on a postcard for freedomdarkness (and she has also done some of the beta work for it as well)tintop-lizzy did the initial beta and then suggested that it be either shorter or longer, I chose longer and the fic ended up twice as long as when I started. Also it's nowhere near as serious as the summary implies :)
Summary: One day Merlin accidentally breaks Gwen's mind.
It was a normal day in Camelot.
Well, in fact, it wasn’t just a normal day, it was a very good day in Camelot. No bandits were troubling the outer boundaries, Mercia had observed the peace treaty and none of their men had been spotted in Camelot for many months and, best of all, there had been no magical attacks in the last few months (which was something of a record, it must be said). All of this had led to Uther deciding that he was now able to leave Camelot for a few weeks to visit an old friend in one of the neighbouring lands.
This meant that Arthur was left to rule Camelot in his absence and, as such, Arthur had discovered that he much preferred his role as Crown Prince. Although, there were some perks that he rather enjoyed...
***
Gwen was sitting comfortably in the afternoon sun, mending one of the Lady Morgana's gowns. This grove really was one of her favourite spots on the castle grounds. The soft sound of the river flowing through the reeds and the even softer sound of the wind blowing through the birch trees all made this an ideal place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the castle.
She was humming quietly to herself when a loud clanking drew her attention to Merlin, who was approaching with Arthur's armour in his arms. Obviously, he too meant to take advantage of the pleasant weather. She made as if to stand to help Merlin with the armour but Merlin waved her down and staggered the last few feet before dropping the armour on the ground. He slowly started to sit down and the sound of his joints complaining and the grimace of pain on his face brought forth the concern that Merlin quite often seemed to inspire in Gwen.
"Are you all right Merlin?"
"I'm fine Gwen. It’s just Arthur being more of a prat than usual,”
Merlin looked down at the armour and gave a deep sigh before turning to her with a cheeky smile on his face,
“You don't want to trade do you? You do the armour and I'll finish mending that...”
Gwen laughed and Merlin feigned an offended look for a moment before a bright smile curled on his face.
"I can actually sew! I got extremely sick one winter and, to keep me busy, while I recovered my mother taught me to sew. Got rather good at it too after a month of practice."
Gwen laughed some more, "Really?"
"Yes really."
"Sewing isn't very manly is it though? Not that I'm saying that you're not manly because you are but not like Arthur. Arthur’s really manly. Not that I really like Arthur-- Oh, but you know what I mean..."
Merlin took pity on her,
"I agree. Arthur would just tease me if he ever found out. It’s not as if he usually has a reason but I don't really want to give him any ideas."
Gwen resumed her sewing while Merlin picked up Arthur's breastplate and started polishing. They both worked in contented silence for a few minutes before Gwen heard a small yelp of pain from Merlin. She looked up and saw that Merlin was rubbing his left knee.
'He must have dropped the breastplate on it,' she thought.
"Merlin?"
"It’s nothing, Gwen. Just rested the breastplate on a tender spot, I’ll get a salve from Gaius tonight and I’ll be fine in the morning.”
This didn't settle Gwen's mind all that much,
“Did you walk into something? I don’t mean that you’re clumsy because you’re not. Except sometimes but that’s not really your fault as you have got rather long -”
Merlin’s snort cut her off, "Its Arthur's fault that my knees are sore."
Gwen was now confused. Was Arthur hurting Merlin on purpose? Normally they got on quite well and Arthur never seemed to take offence even when Merlin was being rather cheeky.
"If Arthur is hurting you I can tell Morgana. You know that she'll make Arthur stop."
Merlin laughed,
"It’s nothing like that, Gwen. Like I said; it’s just Arthur being more of a prat than usual, this whole being in charge thing has gone slightly to his head."
Gwen was relieved. That did sound like Arthur or, to be fair, it sounded like the Arthur that Morgana complained about on a regular basis because, really, Gwen couldn’t claim to know Arthur all that well.
Merlin put the breastplate down and picked up Arthur’s sword. He looked at her and the smile on his face convinced her that he was fine. She picked up her sewing and, quickly, scanned the surrounding area to make certain that there was no-one around who could overhear them, she turned to Merlin.
“Did you hear the latest about Lord Cartwright?”
A smile erupted on Merlin’s face,
“No.”
Lord Cartwright and his various dalliances were an endless source of gossip and Gwen knew that though Merlin pretended to be above it he very much enjoyed hearing all the gory details. She took a deep breath and started her story,
“I heard this from one of the cooks, who heard it from one of the scullery maids and I’m not sure where she heard it from. Possibly Thea...”
The impatient look on Merlin’s face persuaded her to get to the point.
“Well, his wife caught him in the stables with Brom, the stable-boy, and, by all accounts, the Lady Beatrix was furious. She was shrieking, and Lord Cartwright was cowering in the corner and, then, she called Brom a strumpet! Then, they, apparently, got into a fistfight and he managed to give her a black eye! The stable master had to separate them.”
Merlin’s eyes were like saucers but his face soon turned thoughtful,
“Are you sure that’s what really happened? It sounds rather unlikely.”
Gwen sighed,
“It does, unfortunately. I think the story might be slightly exaggerated but, still, Lady Beatrix does have a black eye and, there is no way that Lord Cartwright could have managed that.”
Merlin’s shoulders were shaking in an effort to suppress his laughter.
“He is a bit of a doormat isn’t he? ”
“And this isn’t the first time that he was fooling around with one of the servants.”
The confusion on Merlin’s face was evident and it took Gwen a moment to remember that he hadn’t been in Camelot the previous time.
“A few months before you arrived Lord Cartwright was besotted with one of the serving boys, Earmon if I remember correctly, he would follow him around and sigh dreamily. It was like something out of one of the ballads -”Gwen cut herself off not wanting to sound like a sappy girl in front of Merlin.
Thankfully, Merlin ignored her last few words and launched into a spiel about Amelie, the chambermaid who had fallen pregnant with what she had said was Arthur’s child. Gwen let the curious mixture of Merlin’s pride in Arthur and his ranting about Arthur's stubbornness wash over her.
They sat there, casually catching up on all the latest gossip with Gwen occasionally pointing out spots of dirt that Merlin had missed. At last she finished mending Morgana’s dress. As she set it aside her gaze was drawn to the water. She quickly pulled off her shoes and walked over to the river, before sitting down and plunging her feet into the water, carefully keeping her dress from following. Looking back over to Merlin’s amused face, she waved him over.
Merlin slowly got up and walked over to where she now sat. He pulled off his boots and rolled his trousers up and sat down next to her, sighing happily at the perfect temperature of the water. Gwen looked over at him and the smile slid from her face.
“Merlin, how did you get those bruises on your knees?”
Merlin looked down at his knees and the grazes seemed to surprise him. He grinned wryly and said,
“Arthur.”
Her eyes widened. What could Arthur be doing to Merlin that would get him bruises like that?
Concerned she asked,
“Do you want to talk about it?”
"I don't think I should really talk about it."
However, Merlin looked slightly torn, as if he wanted to talk about it but wasn't quite sure what to say.
"You can talk to me Merlin, we're friends after all."
Merlin nodded his head and started hesitantly, gradually gathering pace with the story.
"Arthur... has been doing all of the things that Uther normally does and he's been complaining about it every night and going on about how he prefers being the Prince and even patrolling is better than listening to all the petitioners. So, then, I told him that people had to do what he wanted because he is the King for the moment and he got this look in his eyes. You know the look, right, Gwen?"
Gwen nodded. She was very familiar with that look. She remembered seeing it often when Arthur was younger and realised exactly how much he could get away with.
"So, anyway, I immediately regretted saying that, but he didn't do anything so, I went back to my chambers for the evening. The next day everything was going normally until Arthur dismissed the last petitioner. He signalled the guards to leave and, then, smirked at me."
Merlin looked unsure about continuing so Gwen gave him a supportive smile.
"He told me to undress, while he just lounged on the throne. I said no, of course. I only do that when we’re in his chambers. And then he said 'I'm king! You have to do what I say' And smirked at me again, the arse. I tried mentioning that somebody might walk in but that didn’t help and then he said he’d put me in the stocks if I didn’t. I normally don’t mind the stocks but they’re awful this time of the year - the kids get all the really rotten fruit and pelt me with that. It takes days to come out of my hair. I shouldn’t have given into him. Stupid prat. The floor in the throne room is really hard, you know?"
Gwen's gasp of shock stopped Merlin’s ranting. Merlin turned to her and she saw the irritation on his face turn to concern.
"Gwen, Gwen? Are you okay? Please, say something?"
Gwen remained unresponsive as Merlin waved a hand in front of her face. Vaguely, she heard him running off to get help, but, all she really heard were Merlin's words looping in her head and, her mind supplied the images to go with those words. She couldn't rid herself of the mental image.
What seemed like seconds later but, was most likely minutes, brought the sound of footsteps approaching her. Morgana's concerned face was, suddenly, in front of hers. She could hear Arthur complaining loudly to Merlin the background. Something about Morgana bursting into the, no she couldn’t think of that word, room and dragging him out. ‘Arthur.’ No, she really didn’t want to be thinking about Arthur or Merlin at this moment.
"Gwen? What's wrong? Merlin said that you stopped responding and that nothing he said could snap you out of it,"
Gwen tried to find the words to explain but no words came out of her mouth. She saw Morgana turn her gaze towards Merlin.
Merlin flushed red all over including the tips of his ears. He ignored Morgana's silent question.
Gwen tried again to find the words to explain and, this time, she was slightly more successful,
"Merlin... Arthur... Throne room...," was all she got out before the images flooded her mind once more. Morgana clearly managed to figure out what she was on about from just those few words, if the rather murderous expression on her face was any indication.
Morgana turned to Merlin and Arthur and started shouting at them. Gwen only caught snatches.
"...Arthur!”
“…the throne room!?”
“…one of the guards!"
"Merlin...”
“…spine!”
“…known better!"
“…again!"
Eventually, Morgana let them go back to the castle, Merlin with a very shamed look on his face and Arthur with a slightly petulant look on his. Morgana gracefully sat down next to Gwen and looked at her before smiling gently,
“I really can’t believe them sometimes,” she said ruefully shaking her head.
Gwen had to agree, "Neither can I."
"Perhaps Gaius has a potion that can remove a few memories..." Morgana said hopefully.
Gwen flashed her a look that plainly said 'I certainly hope so'.
A few minutes passed in silence before Morgana stood up. She offered her hand to Gwen,
“Come on Gwen. Let’s go find Gaius. I’m sure once we explain what happened he’ll be happy to help us.”
Gwen let herself be pulled up and she and Morgana slowly made their way back to the castle.
Behind them the grove was silent save for the water and the wind.
Feedback and concrit would be awesome :).