Disclaimer: Merlin (c) BBC, but yes, I covets it, precious, very much...

Notes:: So I was reading over Come What May, and decided I really didn't like it...so I took it down. Maybe it will be reposted later. This is a birthday gift for dear Emily, responsible for my Merlin conversion. Happy birthday love! Mwah.

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Arthur/Merlin:: She is Guinevere to one, Gwen to the other. And yet, that is all she is. She's not as stupid as she looks.

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Gwen, the simple blacksmith's daughter with more than her share of good fortune, likes things simple. So much so that she has even shortened her name to something common sounding. Guinevere sounds much too imposing, like a queen. She is Gwen, and that is all. Gwen is not as stupid as she likes to think that she is. She understands and knows that the heart is a fickle thing, and although the legends always speak of true, undying love...Gwen's heart is one of those fickle ones. Those hearts are not brave, nor are they beautiful, and they never make legends.

She likes Merlin, adores him, loves him even. She loves the way that he smiles and laughs at everything she has to say, although half the time, she's clumsy, and stumbling for words. He calls her simply Gwen. It's a name she understands. Her love for Merlin is innocent as a girl's love is for a boy.

And then, there's Arthur, Crown Prince of all of Camelot. Where Merlin makes her heart pound and her face blush in the most girlish way...Gwen doesn't know what to think about Arthur. She doesn't understand him. At all. She privately shares Merlin's opinion that Arthur is a bit of a prat...but Arthur is honorable and dignified when he needs to be.

Which, admittedly, is not very often.

That doesn't explain the way her stomach clenches when he speaks to her. Guinevere, he calls her. It's a name she barely understands, called by a man she scarcely understands.

The night when she realizes that her heart flutters for Arthur, Gwen despairs for her love of Merlin, and wonders if he will care that she thinks about Arthur (only sometimes.) But it's hard to love Arthur if she doesn't understand him. That doesn't keep her heart from fluttering.

Gwen is really not as stupid as she looks. Because the love that she harbors for both the prince and his servant sour quickly into something like envy, when she catches them looking at each other. Their eyes say things that she has only read in love poetry. They speak in verses of a single word.

"Merlin."

She watches Merlin, and takes in the way his entire face shines, just as the sound of his name. "Yes, sire?" He's never looked at her like that, and he's never said her name like that.

"Come, we're going back." And Arthur, the ever gallant knight, has never offered her his hand, in friendship or in love, but he extends a hand to Merlin, who takes it and stands.

Guinevere wonders if Arthur will ever offer his hand to her.

"Gwen, you're coming, right?" Merlin looks at her pointedly. Gwen feels foolish, and wonders why she is even here, in her hands are a couple of yellow daisies, and she nods. She will put these in Morgana's bedroom.

"Well, come along, if you're coming, Guinevere." Arthur throws a look at her careless over his shoulder, wearing a half smile, "We don't have all day."

Merlin flashes her a grin, and turns to walk quickly--so that he can catch up with Arthur, who is already halfway down the hill.

End:: 5/05/09 ~ Complete