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Night cascades over Camelot, everyone turning to their pillows. Merlin has just gotten done with the last of his chores, heading back down to his and Gaius’ chambers. The day had been like any other: he got up late, committed treason in multiple ways, got rid of some assassin, and got knocked over the head by Arthur throwing things. Normal day.
Merlin rushes through the halls, wishing to sleep as soon as possible, though he ends up catching himself on a table, causing his trousers to rip.
“Ah, fuck,” he whisper-shouts to himself as he stares at the opening, now able to see the bottom half of his leg. He checks around the corners of where he stands, making sure no one is near so he can cast a quick fix it spell. However, since Merlin has amazing luck, his eyes land on the Lady Morgana.
He tries to hide himself but she manages to see him, calling out his name and heading in his direction.
“Merlin? Are you quite alright?” she asks as the boy tries to hide the giant hole in his clothing.
“Fine, my lady.”
“You have a hole in your leg,” she points, a small smile appearing on her face.
“Oh…right.”
“I know how to sew, if you’d like me to help you,” she offers, though he quickly turns it down, trying any excuse to get out of this situation.
“No! No…I’m fine, really.”
“You know how to sew?” When Merlin doesn’t immediately answer her, she takes it as a no. “Look I know I’m the king’s ward but I don’t mind helping. Come on, it won’t take long.”
Merlin can’t get another word in before Morgana is pulling him along up to her chambers. They arrive and by this point the boy has just accepted his fate, so he walks in after giving her a weak smile. She follows after, closing the door and seemingly missing the guard standing a couple of feet away.
“Right, just sit on the bed and kick your leg up,” Morgana says as she moves to find where she last places her needle and thread.
“What? No! I couldn’t possibly-”
“Merlin, it’s fine. Besides, as compensation maybe you could listen to me as I rant about my day. I know you don’t really care much about how people speak of royalty.”
He thinks for a second before reluctantly agreeing, sitting on her bed and lifting his leg up. This is ridiculous. Merlin thinks to himself. He could have solved his own problem with the blink of an eye but no, he had to let Morgana, the literal king’s ward, see and now here he was, sitting on her bed as she fixes his clothing. He just hopes that Gaius will be asleep by the time he gets back.
Morgana starts on his trousers as he begins to talk about her day, calling both Arthur and his father a bunch of names. Merlin can’t help but laugh as she insults the man he serves, though he tries to hold himself back when she mentions Uther. She is still his ward after all.
A while passes, and Morgana is finally done stitching up the rip. Throughout the time, they both become a lot more relaxed, Merlin even adding fun insults for the prince.
“Well, thank you, Morgana. You really didn’t have to help,” Merlin says as he looks at his leg, the thread barely visible.
“It’s no problem. And I needed someone to talk to,” she replies. “I know I have Gwen, but she’s so kind and would never talk ill of anyone-”
“And that’s my speciality?” he jokes back, earning a laugh from the lady. “I better be heading back, Gaius is probably wondering where I am.”
“Of course, sorry for keeping you,” Morgana begins as she stands up and walks over to the door.
“Please, I would take any opportunity to talk shit about Arthur. Seriously though, if you’re ever in need of a buddy to complain about Prince Prat, I would gladly be of service.” As his words fall, he does a little bow.
“I think if that were to happen you’d be here every night,” Morgana laughs out.
The two say goodnight and Merlin finally makes it back to his chambers, Gaius fast asleep. He heads up to his room and quickly falls asleep, surprisingly enjoying his time with Morgana. She’s quite similar to him in a way, they both don’t care for a lot of what Uther and Arthur, though specifically Uther, does. Only she is a lot more vocal about it to him, considering Merlin would just be killed.
Back in Morgana’s chambers, she has a better night's sleep than usual, her talk with Merlin cheering her up a lot. She quite likes him; likes how honest he is when it comes to his opinions. Besides, it would probably annoy Arthur if he found out they were becoming close, so that’s just a bonus.
—
The next morning becomes a repeat of the day before for Merlin. He half asses his chores, insults the future king, and ends up killing some old guy out for revenge. Again, normal day. But when night falls over again, he spots Lady Morgana heading up to her chambers. He wishes to speak to her again, since he honestly had a good time, but he won’t initiate anything.
“Merlin!” he hears her voice yell from the top of the stairs.
“Morgana, how are you?”
“I’m fine. Had to sit through a boring speech though,” she starts off, coming closer to the servant.
“Yeah, Arthur wasn’t too happy about that either, and now I have a red mark on my forehead to show his anger,” he replies, pointing up to the sore spot on his face.
“God, what is wrong with him!”
“What isn’t?” he bites back, the two falling into quiet giggles.
“Do you want to come up? Gwen has left already,” she suggests, Merlin immediately agreeing. He needs to rant about Arthur, and as much as he does it to Gaius, the old man’s responses aren’t nearly as great as Morgana’s.
So the two of them head back up to Morgana’s chambers, though they end up bumping into Lancelot on the way.
“Oh, hello Lady Morgana,” he states, bowing his head in her direction. “And Merlin.” He waves at his friend.
The two say hello to him, however from his perspective they look eager to leave. So he says goodbye and walks off, snatching a quick glance behind him to see the two of them enter her room.
Odd. The knight thought.
—
“Yes, Arthur, that is what I said,” Lancelot stated as he swung his sword at the prince. The knights were training as usual, and he had simply brought up the fact he saw Merlin and Morgana go into her chambers.
“Do you know what they were doing?” he asks, his eyebrows knotting together.
“No…they seemed excited to go in though,” he replies, a small smirk forming as Arthur makes a face.
“Well she’s my father’s ward, so they'd better not be anything going on with them.”
“Since when would Merlin care about that?” The prince swings at him, pushing him to the ground.
“Shut up.”
Arthur isn’t jealous. No, of course not. Why would he be? It’s just his sister-who’s-not-his-sister and his servant. Lousy servant. Arthur made a mental note to give more chores to Merlin that day.
—
“He gave me like double the amount of chores I normally do! Double, Morgana, double!” Merlin was back in the lady’s room, gossiping slash ranting about the clotpole called Arthur Pendragon.
“Do you want me to embarrass or annoy him at dinner tomorrow with Uther?” Morgana calmly shared as she sat at her desk, trying fun new hairstyles.
He stares at her for a moment before answering. “Yes please.”
This was the third night in a row these two had been having this go on. It was quite fun, a way to relax and breathe without having to deal with anything. This day Arthur had been in a far worse mood than usual, throwing more things at Merlin and overall being a bigger dollophead than needed. It wasn’t even like his servant had done anything wrong, not at least that he could think of. But Merlin doubts anything he’s done, that Arthur is aware of, needs to be responded with a jug of wine over his head.
“He is the most ridiculous, petty, arsehole-y, mean, loud man I have ever met! I mean, he stained my clothes! Wine is hard to get out, Morgana, not that he’d know since I do all of his laundry! Ugh! I hate him.” His last sentence is muffled by the pillow he stuffs his face in, though she manages to understand just fine.
“I second all of that,” Morgana remarked, annoyance coating her words. She has grown very fond of Merlin, more so than she was before, and now anytime anyone starts insulting him she just wants to kick them.
The rest of their night plays out the same, and so do the following ones after. A couple of weeks go by, Morgana and Merlin trying to meet up as often as they can as soon as they’re both done with their duties, completely oblivious to the talks in the castle.
Which is surprising, considering those two are about the biggest gossips in the whole citadel. They’re both so caught up with other stuff though, and no one will talk to the king’s ward about it, or even utter the words when she’s near. As for Merlin, well they giggle and laugh and whisper when he’s around, though he takes no notice. Too caught up trying to save the life of the man who is making his a living hell.
—
“It can’t be true, Gwaine, it just can’t be!” Arthur declared as he paces up and down in the armoury. By now all the knights have heard of the rumours, that the Lady Morgana and Prince Arthur’s manservant are secretly courting. Somehow Uther hasn’t heard, because if he did Merlin would most likely be dead.
“Look, I didn’t think Merlin would be interested in someone like her,” Gwaine starts. “But everyone is talking about it. At least half a dozen guards have seen him go into her chambers, and Lance himself saw it too. They were excited to be behind the door, probably because they were going to have s-”
“Please stop talking,” Percival interrupts the man before Arthur can try to stab him.
He really didn’t think they would be a thing, especially when he first heard about it. He thought it was ridiculous, mostly because he assumed his servant would remain single for his entire life. Not because he was jealous, definitely not that.
“Look, Arthur,” Leon tries to reason. “I don’t know how much I believe it either, but I don’t get why you’re so annoyed at the idea. I mean sure, Uther would be pissed, but I assumed you didn’t care about status.”
“I don’t!”
“Then why do you give a shit, Princess?”
“Because! I- I just do…okay.” Arthur tries to come up with a good reason but gives up, knowing he has none. He doesn’t entirely understand why he cares so much either, maybe it’s just because he doesn’t want anything to happen to either of them in case Uther ever finds out. Yeah…that’s totally why. “Like you said, if my father found out he would be furious. I just don’t want anything bad to happen to them.”
None of his knights say anymore, but he knows they don’t believe a word he had said. He doesn’t either.
—
“Did you hear?” Merlin asks Morgana as they sit on her bed, eating a bunch of snacks they had taken from the kitchen.
“What?”
“Apparently Gwaine was with some lady last night” he answers, half his words muffled as he stuffs his face.
“Ooh, do tell!”
“I don’t know much but apparently he stayed over at her’s, then got kicked out at like 7 in the morning!”
The two sorcerers (Morgana had caught Merlin using magic to sharpen Arthur’s sword and once he saw her watching he blurted out ‘well you also have magic, Morgana!’ … a very heroic way of finding out for the both of them) have turned their ranting sessions into gossiping ones, both of them as nosy as ever. Really, at this point it’s just idiotic that neither of them have heard about their apparent relationship.
Their talks range from all sorts of things: complaining about Arthur, complaining about Uther, complaining about everyone who they get a bad vibe from, complaining about everyone, gossiping about royalty and nobles, gossiping about affairs, and also about secret relationships. That last one is ironic, not that they have any idea.
Arthur has eased up on Merlin a bit, slowly accepting what the truth was. Merlin and Morgana were together, and he wasn’t allowed to be upset. He had no reason. Though in the back of his mind he knew why; but he’d rather be dead than admit to his feelings. Uther taught him that.
“He’s pissing me off! Seriously, Merlin, if something doesn’t change I’m just going to kill the king!” she exaggerated, falling back on the soft mattress.
After quieting his giggles, he finally responded. “As much as I would like for that to happen, if Uther dies right now it’s going to mess with my destiny. But maybe when the time is right you can.”
“Why don’t you ask your dragon friend when the right time is?” Oh yeah, Merlin had basically spilled just about everything to Uther Pendragon’s ward.
“He hates that man. Kilgharrah would say that anytime is the right time to kill Uther.”
“I like him.”
Laughter fills her room again, the guards from outside getting more confused by the day. They were used to seeing Merlin go in, and they were used to being questioned about it, but they never answered. The guards had no idea what was going on, for all they knew the two could be sword fighting. They hear laughing, screaming, yelling, gasping (that one made the two guards look at each other), as well as a bunch of other stuff. They decided not to question it after hearing a couple rumours, they just assumed that was what was going on. Everyone did.
Well besides Uther. The king, somehow, was still completely oblivious to the words jumping from mouth to mouth in his very only castle. No one dared to mention it in his presence, let alone to the man himself, so he went unaware.
—
A few more days pass and Uther, Arthur, his knights, as well as a visiting kingdom are in the hall for dinner. The Lord had a son, and considering the way he was portraying both his boy and his kingdom, Uther had assumed they would ask for Morgana’s hand in marriage.
Dessert came around and soon enough the topic was brought up. Practically everyone in the room has stopped, Morgana and Merlin out of surprise at the ask, and everyone else because they assumed she was taken.
“Isn’t Morgana already taken by Merlin?” Gwaine whispers, though after a couple drinks his quiet voice has lost all meaning.
Uther immediately turns to the knight, his face turning bright red. “What did you just say?”
“Um...Morgana and Merlin are courting?”
Merlin's eyes go wide as the suggestion occurs in the room. Which he only realises a second later that everyone will take it as a ‘oh no me and Morgana have been found out!’ instead of a ‘what the fuck are you all on about?’.
At once the king stands from his chair, the visiting nobles being as shocked as him. Morgana was stuck in place, and Merlin’s eyes met with Arthur’s. Uther walks right up to Merlin and starts yelling in his face, all sorts of profanities falling between the two.
“Uther!” Morgana shouts, silencing every other murmuring voice. “What the hell are you all on about?”
“Morgana,” Arthur starts, assuming she’s mad at her secret being told. “We know Merlin’s been sneaking into your chambers practically every night.”
“Is this true?” Uther demands. “Answer me!”
And then, laughter consumes the silence. All eyes turn to the servant as he nearly doubles over from cracking up.
“You think this is funny!”
“Oh- I can’t believe- there’s no way!”
“Boy you listen here-” The king is cut off by his ward joining in with Merlin, her chuckles much quieter than his.
No one understands what’s going on. Arthur is severely confused, as are the knights. Gaius is realising exactly where his ward has been going, though he’s fully aware that the courting rumours cannot be true. As for everyone else, well they’re just stunned. A servant is laughing his arse off as the king himself tries to threaten him.
“You all actually think that’s why I was in her room?”
“So it is true then!”
“Yes, Uther, it is. But not because were fucking courting!” Morgana corrected, no longer caring much for her manners.
“I mean, really, I’d rather date your son!”
And once again the room jumps into chaos, Arthur’s face turning as red as Camelot’s colour as Gwaine smirks at him.
Merlin and Morgana explain everything and he calms down the king by telling him there would never be anything between them. Normally Uther would still be furious, a servant talking crap with his ward? Absolutely not! However, considering literally everything that’s gone down in the last ten minutes, he’s decided to let it go. Besides, right now he’s too busy questioning if he needs to get his son a new manservant or not.
—
The night ends in the weirdest way possible, but it does eventually end. Arthur is still a mess and right behind him follows the reason for his red face. Merlin’s smile hasn’t left at all, so at least one of them is getting fun out of this situation. He thinks about his odds, his servant had told Uther he should be more worried about their relationship than his with Morgana. Then again, he only said that to get his point across.
Usually Arthur tries his best to think over situations that are this risky, but the way his knights looked at him as he left with Merlin buzzed in his head. Also, he had a lot of wine. Fuck it.
“That honestly made my night, I mean why on earth would anyone ever even think that me and her would ever-Hmpf!”
Merlin’s words get cut off by Arthur’s lips, though he completely ignores everything he had wanted to say as he leans into the kiss. The blonde’s hands cup the raven-haired’s face as his servant wraps his hand around one wrist, his other making its way to the back of Arthur’s neck. They pull away, their eyes still closed as their foreheads rest against each other. Both of them have lovesick smiles on their faces, though neither care.
“So about what you said to Uther; that you’d rather date his son?”
Merlin’s eyes shoot open to look at him, and instead of answering with a word or two, he just pulls the prat back in. Arthur understood every piece.