Chapter 6: In Which Spells Are Broken And Happy Endings Are Had

"Sir Gwaine?"

The voice came from behind him, startling him out of his thoughts. Gwaine turned and was surprised to see Merlin looking at him, concerned. Unbidden, a smile crossed his face. How was it that even when she was under a spell and hated him, seeing her was still the highlight of his day?

"Merlin," Gwaine answered. "I was just looking for you."

"Oh?"

"I found Millie in your old clothes," he said hesitantly, not sure if the statement would offend her. He wouldn't have worried about such things before, but she was so temperamental now…

As it was, she was currently dressed in all the finery suiting a noble. It also seemed that she had finally managed to get her enlargement spell to work (if they ever made it through this, Gwaine was never going to let her live that down), and she looked so decided un-Merlin-like (but still lovely) that Gwaine had to hide a cringe.

"I gave then to her," Merlin explained, apparently not noticing his reaction. She gestured at the gown she was wearing. "This is far more appropriate."

Merlin's gesture brought Gwaine's attention back to her chest, but this time for different reasons. There, resting between her collar bones, was the necklace he had given her those many months ago. He couldn't help but smile to himself.

"You kept the necklace I gave you."

It wasn't a question.

Merlin looked down at it, her hand going to touch it, surprised. "Oh, I suppose I did."

"You know, the woman who sold it do me said it was supposed to protect you from evil. Fat lot of good that did, eh?"

Merlin's brow wrinkled and she stared at Gwaine, clearly not understanding what he meant. He shook his head, dismissing her concerns, and her gaze fell for a moment. Then, looking back at him, her hands reached behind her neck to undo the necklace's chain.

"Here, you can have—" she began, but Gwaine stopped her by reaching out and pulling her arms back down and away from the clasp. His hands slipped down to grip hers, and he gave them a gentle squeeze.

"Keep it."

That's when they both noticed how close they were to each other. Gwaine's attempt to stop her from returning the necklace had brought their chests almost flush together, and Gwaine still held Merlin's hands in his.

Merlin looked down at their joined hands and frowned, but when she looked back up at him, Gwaine noticed her eyes held something. For a moment, they were void of the emptiness brought on by the spell and instead filled with something akin to wonder.

"You really love me, don't you?" Merlin whispered.

"I do," Gwaine whispered back. "Very much."

Gwaine could've kissed her then (should've kissed her), but he was suddenly hit with the knowledge that he wanted her to kiss him. It wouldn't make a difference, spell-wise, but it would make the difference to him and to her, maybe, and that was reason enough. Gwaine had never kissed a woman against her will and he wasn't about to start now. He especially wasn't about to start with Merlin.

"I'm sorry," Merlin said, breaking him out of his thoughts and stepping away from him. Gwaine let her, effectively letting what might be his one chance to break the spell slip through his fingers. He prayed it was worth it.

"Don't be," he admitted. "It's been my privilege to love you."

"I loved you, too, didn't I?"

"Once upon a time," he agreed.

Merlin looked thoughtful. "I never did mean to hurt you."

Gwaine shook his head. "I know you didn't."

"How can I begin to make amends?" Merlin sighed.

Before Gwaine could offer her a list of things that he believed would work, Merlin was stretching up onto her toes and pressing her lips gently to his.

It wasn't a mind boggling kiss, as far as kisses went (and he and Merlin had shared some very impressive ones). It was a simple and quick peck on his mouth. Yet, Gwaine still felt his mind go blissfully blank and his face go pleasantly warm, as always happened when Merlin kissed him.

Something shifted in the air— Gwaine couldn't describe it, but he knew then that Merlin was Merlin again, and he was pulling her towards him again, ignoring her surprised squeak, and kissing her properly.

Eventually, though, they both needed to breathe, and they pulled away from each other. Merlin, Gwaine was pleased to see, was pink in the face and smiling like a loon. Her eyes were bright and shining and looking up at him like he'd hung the moon and she was back and oh, thank the gods and what did they do now?

The brightness in Merlin's eyes was quickly overtaken by confusion as she looked around her, realizing they were in the middle of an empty hall in the castle.

"Where am I? What's happened?" Merlin demanded. "What am I wearing?"

She looked down.

"What happened to my—"

"You were under an enchantment," Gwaine interrupted. "A love spell."

Merlin didn't look happy with this news. "How big a fool did I make of myself?"

Gwaine couldn't help but shoot a pointed look at her chest. "A pretty big one, I'd say"

Merlin swatted his arm half-heartedly. She looked around her, seeing nobody and seemingly a bit confused. "What now?"

Gwaine huffed a sigh as he thought. Seeking to console Merlin a bit, he took his hands and placed them on her shoulders, rubbing gently. She appreciated the gesture and let him know of the fact with a grateful smile.

"Right. I'll go find Arthur and the others, let them know that you're back to normal. Any chance you can go find out who enchanted you?"

Gwaine was pleased to note a familiar sparkle enter Merlin's eyes at that query. It did not bode well for the person in question.

"Oh, yes. I most certainly can."

Gwaine was not keen to leave Merlin at the moment, not when he'd just gotten her back, but there was nothing else for it. The king needed to be informed that his court sorceress had returned (so to speak). He walked away from her, heart heavy, but no less determined because of it, and went to seek out Arthur on the training grounds.

Arthur's response at being told that he had kissed Merlin and un-enchanted her was a bit surprising ("Well it's about time!"), but his reaction afterwards was more expected: he called the other knights of the Round Table together in one of the council rooms. He asked a passing servant to let Merlin know where they were.

She came to them a few minutes later, looking both pleased with herself and a tad vindictive. At some point, Gwaine noted, she had taken the time to fix her chest, which pleased him more than he could say.

She was back.

Good.

"Merlin," Arthur announced, allowing himself a small smile as she closed the door behind her. "It's good to have you back."

Merlin positively beamed at him. "It's good to be back."

"Assuming that Gwaine has brought you up to speed as to what you've been up to these past few days—" Merlin flushed and nodded. "—then I don't suppose you've had a chance to figure out who's responsible for this whole mess?"

"Oh, yes." Merlin nodded again, this time more eagerly, as she took a seat. "It was Lady Lucinda. No doubt about that."

Arthur and the others had not been expecting this. Gwaine, in particular was surprised. He had been pitting all of his hatred on Humphrey these past few days, only to find out he had the wrong person. Well. No reason getting too worked up about it. It's not as though Humphrey wasn't a horrible person.

"Are you sure?" Arthur sputtered. "But why would Lucinda want to enchant you?"

"How should I know?" Merlin asked, exasperated. "My magic only stretches so far. Honestly, Arthur. Do I have to do everything around here?"

Finding out who had cursed her was the first thing she had done once the spell was broken (Well, alright, second thing, after fixing that unfortunate incident with her chest).

"Right," Arthur said with a sigh. "I suppose we'll have to call the Lady Lucinda to the throne room, then, and see if she has any defense for her actions."

As the group proceeded to the throne room, Arthur couldn't help but take stock of her former maidservant, pleased as he was to have her back. As a general rule, nobody ever noticed servants because it was their job to be unnoticed.

Merlin had never had this ability.

It was partially because of how she looked: Merlin was too startling a combination of natural beauty (however much she denied it) and overall strangeness to not be noticed. Added in with her ever present grin and inability to keep her mouth shut when the situation called for it, Merlin was a well known face in a city where servants were rarely payed attention to.

Arthur had always payed attention to the little things with Merlin since she did not seem to have a subtle bone in her body.

Others had already started to fill up the throne room. Arthur took his customary seat at the throne, Gwen next to him, and Merlin standing up with them. In the resplendent dress she wore, she looked both out of character and born to the nobility. No hint of a smile was on her face as Lucinda was brought forward by the guards.

"Lady Lucinda," Arthur began, then paused. The allegations she was being charged with were strange, to say the least. Merlin had seemed sure that it was Lucinda, and he was inclined to trust her, but there was no telling how the lady would react when accused. "You have been brought forward under the charges of the unlawful use of magic."

The lady sputtered and all color drained from her face.

Shock, Gwaine wondered, or guilt?

"I don't understand, your highness," she finally said. "What exactly am I being accused of doing?"

"According to our Court Sorceress, you are the one responsible for laying enchantments upon her. Do you deny these allegations?"

"Of course I deny them!" she responded. "Are you sure your Court Sorceress isn't mistaken?"

"I'm never mistaken," Merlin said as loftily as she could. She avoided meeting Arthur's gaze. Thankfully, he decided not to say anything for once, and Merlin decided that maybe this whole being-noble thing had some merit to it.

At this point, Lucinda was shifting nervously and eyeing the crowd surrounding her. None looked particularly sympathetic— Merlin had been well loved as a servant and healer's apprentice, and she was likely to be even more well loved now that she had more or less toppled the kingdom's archaic and strict rules on magic.

Finally, after several breathless moments for the court, Lucinda turned around and made a mad dash for the doors. Gwaine heard Arthur mutter to his wife, "Why do they always try to run?" as the guards seized the fleeing noblewoman.

"Why did you do it?" Merlin demanded. "What have I ever done to you? I've never even met you before!"

Lucinda, seeming to have decided that she had nothing to lose, let out a slightly hysterical laugh. "You? This wasn't about you, child. This was about him!"

Lucinda pointed at Arthur, who raised a bored eyebrow and drawled, "Do tell."

"Your stupid trade agreements with my husband would have ruined things for me— all the money the castle would've lost! You were supposed to be distracted by your worthless sorceress until it was all said and done! Then Robert had to go and discover my plans! He always was a sniveling coward—"

"Enough," Arthur said sharply, clearly not in the mood for hearing the name of a good man slandered. He gestured for the guards to pull her away, looking sick and tired of the whole mess. "Take her to the dungeons. The council can decide what to do with her later. The rest of you are dismissed."

Her rantings and ravings were lost on those in the throne room as she was marched out the doors. The rest of the crowd, no doubt sensing that the show was ordered, hastened to obey their king's orders, leaving only Arthur, Gwen, Merlin, and the knights, who crowded around their royals

"Well, that was enlightening," Leon said drily.

Merlin, meanwhile, had turned to look rather guiltily at Arthur. "I'm sorry, Arthur."

"Sorry?" he asked.

"It's just— this was supposed to be a time for celebration. For you and Gwen, I mean. Instead you spent it worrying about me…"

"I wasn't worried about you, Merlin," he said with a snort. "You're surprisingly resilient for such a tiny thing." At her guilty look, his tone softened. "We have nine months to celebrate Gwen's pregnancy. And I much rather have you around to celebrate it with us."

"The queen is pregnant?!" Gwaine gasped. Next to Arthur, Gwen put her head in her hands, but was unable to hide her small smile as the knights all hastened to give their congratulations.

"We plan on waiting until the visiting delegations have left before making an official announcement," Arthur admitted. The knights didn't seem to have heard him, however, excited as they were.

Gwaine reached out and pulled Merlin to him, planting a kiss on her mouth as he did so. "You knew and didn't tell me?"

"It wasn't my secret to tell," Merlin laughed. "For once."

There was really no denying that, Gwaine found, so instead he just pulled her in for another kiss.

"Can you two please wait until I've left the room before you do that?" Arthur complained.

Merlin and Gwaine did what they did best.

They ignored him.

AN: So, there it is. Final chapter! I feel like the ending is a bit weak since I didn't plan it out as well as the other parts of this story, but hopefully you guys like it. I've had a lot of support for the de-aging story, so I'll start planning that out. I'm still unsure if I'm gonna do a full length story or a long one-shot (depends if I can come up with a decent plot), but either way, it probably won't be out until around Christmas- I wanna take some time to give my other stories some love (you can read them if you'd like *wink-wink, nudge-nudge*).

Thanks for the support, guys!

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