Author's Notes: So this notion took hold of my brain, once again because of a planned cosplay. Fem! Merlin is also just a ton of fun to write but I have yet to do anything that could really be coined 'main universe' Fem! Merlin. So… Here it is. A series of One shots, maybe a few two shots about Fem! Merlin and her relationship with Arthur and the Knights. Also there will be at least two different ships here.

Scars

Gwaine was watching Merlin trying to get a crossbow down when her tunic rode up as she reached up. He grinned, Merlin was one of the most attractive women he'd ever met. Her dark hair cut unusually short, her bright blue eyes with sparkling flecks of gold that glinted whenever the light caught her eyes. Her skin was clear and pale as the full moon, her lips full and always cherry red. He could appreciate beauty when he saw it and he saw it in Merlin but not just her body, her mind was even more beautiful. She was intelligent and sassy and took nothing from anyone. She was his first friend, and he knew he was falling for her but he didn't want to do anything about it. He didn't want to ruin their friendship. But as her tunic rode up he couldn't help but glance at her back. His eyes widened.

"Merlin! What the hell?" Merlin turned looking at him questioningly. He marched over to her spun her around and pulled the edge of her tunic back up to where it had been moments before, revealing an ugly scar about the length of his palm and two fingers wide. Merlin squeaked and batted his hands away from her shirt. The two of them were alone in the armory so no one saw this rather unknightly act on Gwaine's part. Merlin's beautiful eyes were guarded, as if a wall had sprung up behind their blue depths. A wall of secrets that Gwaine could tell had been there for years. He'd only seen it a few times before, like when Merlin had made up excuses for being missing for several days at a time. But he had always assumed she was running off to have a bit of fun, she didn't have much working for Prince Prat that was for sure. But the scar on her back spoke of other adventures that he had no clue had even happened. Merlin cleared her throat.

"It's a scar Gwaine. They happen." She tried to walk away but Gwaine gently grabbed her wrist. She looked back at him the wall still firmly in place. It looked wrong in those normally shining bright innocent eyes, it looked dark.

"How did it happen? I've never seen a scar like that. I know scars it has to be a few years old." Merlin sighed.

"It's from a sting ok." Gwaine's eyes widened.

"A sting! Merlin it's longer than my hand! There's nothing I've ever seen that could give you a sting like that and leave you alive." Merlin rolled her eyes and pulled her arm free. She straightened her tunic and brushed off her brown skirt glaring at Gwaine the whole time.

"I'm stronger than I look Gwaine. I have to go, I have chores to do." With that she flounced out of the armory. Gwaine stared after her for a minute before his brain caught up to the rest of him and he rushed off after her. But by the time he started looking she was long gone. It wasn't until then that Gwaine understood what Arthur meant when he said his maidservant was impossible to find when she didn't want to be found. No one could find her that day after their little conversation and as the knights all gathered for dinner together Gwaine couldn't help but bring it up.

"Has anyone seen Merlin?" Lancelot looked up from his plate almost immediately, looking slightly suspicious and worried. Leon shook his head.

"Now that you mention it I haven't seen her all day. She's normally running around after Arthur, poor girl has to put up with him all day. I don't blame her for skiving off for the day." The rest of the knights nodded sympathetically. Gwaine wasn't to be deterred though.

"Odd question but keep with me. Is there a creature that lives near Camelot, within let's say five leagues, that has a sting longer than my palm and about as wide as two fingers held together?" The other knights raised eyebrows at the roughish man but he just took a bite of his food and waited for them to answer. Leon cleared his throat lightly and answered.

"By that description I'd say that you were looking for a serket. Nasty bugs, live in the Darkling Woods. Come out to hunt at night. Most who see them don't survive. I only know of one person who was stung in the last, oh fifteen years who survived." Gwaine raised an eyebrow, he had an idea about who that person was but he had to know for sure if he was right.

"And who would that be?" Leon's eyebrow had taken on a very Giaus like position on his face as he answered.

"I think you already know the answer to that if you're asking but I'll humor you. It was Merlin." Lancelot choked slightly and Percival smacked him between his shoulders to help him breathe. Elyan raised an eyebrow but it was Leon's turn to ask questions.

"Why are you so curious all of a sudden?" Gwaine sighed and told his fellow knights of the round table the truth about what he'd seen that morning. Leon nodded.

"That's right none of you were around at the time. It was almost three years ago now. Merlin disappeared for a few days, not that that's wholly unusual but when she showed back up she had this thing lodged in her back. Gwen found her bleeding on the stairs to Giaus's chambers the next morning. Giaus removed three inches worth of sting from her back. It was a miracle it didn't kill her, but the bigger miracle was that she'd managed to run into a serket too young to produce poison, which according to Giaus is about one in a million. She showed back up right before an army of the dead attacked while Camelot was under siege so there wasn't a lot of time to think about it." Leon munched on an apple thinking about the past for a moment. Lancelot looked stunned, as did many of the others around the table. Gwaine grinned slightly.

"And I'm betting Merlin took up arms beside the knights, like she always does, propriety be damned." Lancelot grinned at that and Leon nodded.

"Wound be damned too, she got reinjured during the fight, couldn't work for a week, Arthur wouldn't stop complaining." Lancelot nodded looking contemplative. Gwaine elbowed him in the side.

"Well! You look like you've got something to say Lance." Lancelot glared at the unwanted nickname. He shrugged.

"It makes you wonder what other battle scars Merlin's got that we don't know about." The rest of the knights nodded contemplating the slim pale woman they had all come to care deeply about over the last few years.