Always Time For Tea (Gwen)

[Merlin Emrys]

Accepted? Accepted what? What was she-
Oh.

Merlin had listened to the whole thing with calm expectation, waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when the end of the speech finally came, Merlin really wasn't sure what it was that he was supposed to be taking from it for a moment, and why, exactly, she'd been worried about telling him. When the realisation came, he realised.
Unfortunately, he read into it far, far more than he should have.

Forcing an encouraging smile onto his face, he nodded stiffly.

"Right. Of course. Well, that makes perfect sense, actually," he tried to make himself believe the words he was saying. "I can't think of anybody better, actually. You're, well, you're the best woman for the job, actually..." he realised he'd said actually about three times now and stopped, his grin becoming strained and nervous. "I'm... very happy... for you both... wonderful..."

[Guinevere]

“Happy?” she said and raised an eyebrow, “you’re happy for us both?”

She folded her arms, and gave him a ‘Really?’ look. “Well than that makes one us then. Because I’m pretty sure there are two of us who are really not happy with the situation, because I’m pretty sure there are two of us who would rather be with other people, anyone but each other to be honest,” she said, smiling a little.

“Merlin, he doesn’t want to marry me, and why would I marry him? He has terrible taste in…everything,” she said wrinkling her nose in disgust, “I mean we get along fine as friends but as a couple, please I’d have him killed before the wedding night…and if I’m being completely honest, even if we did last longer than that I’d be cheating on him with the first knight I met in Camelot.”

[Merlin Emrys]

Funnily enough, the whole rant just made him breathe one big sigh of relief.
He wasn't entirely convinced there wasn't something going on between Arthur and Gwen, but hearing those words still made him feel a whole lot better about the situation. As long as he ignored the possibility that she was just lying to him.

"So it's definitely just for the kingdoms then?" He asked, unable to hold back the beginnings of a grin now that he was feeling a little more relieved about it all "You two actually have to get married.. well... that's actually... sort of hilarious..." he snickered slightly "Oh you poor thing."
He didn't sound all that sympathetic, but it was clear he was trying.

[Guinevere]

“Yes, just for the kingdoms,” she said and smiled with just a hint of sadness about it.

She knew it was always going to be that way that she would have been lucky to marry for love, especially after her mother had died and her father started looking for a husband for her. No, she was never going to marry for love so she may as well do it for something useful. Looking up at Merlin she said, “Oh shut up. It’s not funny at all, and I don’t see why you are laughing.”

She reached forwards and picked up her teacup in mock annoyance, “it’s not like when we go back you will be miraculously freed from your duties. You’ll not just be his manservant, you’ll be mine too. You’ll never, never be free of us.”

[Merlin Emrys]

For a moment, Merlin worried he'd said absolutely the wrong thing, it probably wasn't all that great for Gwen to get reminded that she was about to marry someone she could only just tolerate, for the sake of an awful lot of people, many of whom she would never meet. Neither of them would really complain, of course, or ever consider doing something different, because both Gwen and Arthur loved their respective kingdoms dearly. They would make excellent rulers one day.

At least she managed to not focus on the slightly more bitter aspect and got right back to teasing him about it, which made him feel much better.
He just stuck his tongue out at her.
"Tell me something I don't know. Arthur keeps firing me and I still can't get rid of him."

[Guinevere]

“He’s like this really bad penny you cant get rid of, or that one bit of hair that just wont straighten no matter how many times you run over it with the tongs,” she said pulling at a bit of her, the dastardly hair in question, “but then I guess, over time you grow to love them and would miss them if their annoying presence wasn’t there anymore.”

Well this was going much better than she thought it would, he appeared to be taking it very well. “I suppose it’s just a blessing that you will still be about, I can rely on some intelligence from at least one person. And we wont have you as a manservant anymore, no that just wouldn’t do. I’m sure we could find some other, more suitable position. Oh I know!”

She reached across and took his hand and grinned evilly, “Court jester. No! The royal sock washer! No, no! The royal bed warmer!”

[Merlin Emrys]

"Something like that." Merlin agreed with a laugh. He had to admit that there was a time he definitely would have wished to be free of Arthur, but now he'd pretty much come to accept that Kilgharrah was right, they were two sides of the same coin, nothing would ever separate them - this may have had something to do with falling in love with the prat, but it wasn't really important what had made him come to agree with the dragon, the fact was that he had.

Pulling his hand from hers, he folded his arms and levelled a flat look her way.
"Royal bed warmer?" He said disdainfully, though he would have had the same tone whichever of the three she'd finished on "I think I'll stick to being manservant if those are my options."

[Guinevere]

“I didn’t say who’s bed warmer you would be,” she said and winked, “don’t knock it until you’ve tried it and all that.”
 
Yes joking about it was best, just laughing. That would help, perhaps if she could just keep laughing about it everything that was wrong with it would disappear and they could just…get long with things. Maybe they could be happy, Arthur and her, maybe they could make it work, she would feel eternally guilty because of Merlin but maybe they could just…make it work.

“I suppose there are worse people in the world I could be betrothed too,” she thought about it and a dark look appeared on her face and she mumbled, “a lot worse.”

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin just shook his head, laughing.
It was lucky, he reflected, that Arthur was edging into the territory where it was ok to make jokes about that sort of thing, because it made it much easier to pretend it wasn't still horribly, horribly awkward for him. He didn't want to make anybody else uncomfortable, so he was getting much better at laughing it off with everybody else and pretending it was just a random fact of life that was, sure, a little bit rubbish, but what could you do.
In reality, he'd really prefer it if people didn't remind him every now and again that he'd pretty much ruined his chance at relationship happiness by falling head over heels for an utter prat, and worse, one he'd never in a million years actually have a chance with, because of a list of reasons as long as his arm.

"Definitely." He zoned back in just in time to focus on what was really important here, and that was cheering up Gwen - he already knew he'd never have Arthur, Gwen had only just found out she was stuck with him. "And you've already got him whipped."

[Guinevere]

“That I do,” she said happily, a little too put on but she was sure Merlin wouldn’t notice “it wasn’t really that hard, I could see why it was so easy for Meg to get her talons into him. Underneath all the sarcasm and prattishness, there’s just one big old softie there who just wants to please everyone. She did a lot of things wrong but she got that nickname right, kid, cause that’s what he is just one big kid…or maybe a puppy.”

She struck a dramatic pose, one hand on her chest the other back of her hand to her forehead, and said, “It’s just so hard being me you know? Controlling all these men, telling them what to do and having them fall at my feet. It would be nice if there was some role reversal, I mean is it too much to ask for a man who wants to take control?”

[Merlin Emrys]

It was really hard to imagine Arthur as some kind of eager-to-please puppy, even having seen the way he was around his father, it wasn't really a puppy that came to mind first of all, and he definitely wasn't like that with Merlin.

He laughed at the dramatic pose, shaking his head slightly.
"Oh come on, if some man came and tried to dominate you, you'd probably just stare at him until he apologised and ran away."
Now that he could actually imagine. One of the things Gwen and Arthur actually had in common was a very commanding presence, although in Gwen's case she had a lot of other charms at her disposal when brute force didn't work.

[Guinevere]

“Not necessarily, one can get tired of being constantly superior to all men,” she said smiling, “I like one that talks back, that provides a little bit of a challenge, otherwise I get bored. I like the drama. Getting my own way without a fight is just tedious.”

Gwen smirked a little evilly and said, “You’re the same and don’t say you aren’t because you totally are. You will happily stand for hours arguing with Arthur trying to make him understand your point of view, but one look from him and you roll over and say ‘yes sire’.”

[Merlin Emrys]

"Of course, I'm sure." Merlin grinned a little "As long as you do get your own way in the end."

He didn't stay grinning for long though, turning red at her next words and suddenly finding the tabletop absolutely fascinating.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He mumbled. He couldn't really argue against it, couldn't even really justify it as being anything to do with being Arthur's manservant, since it was usually his actual job that he tended to argue about.
He wished he could take it back as soon as he'd said it though, since he did know exactly what she was talking about, but now he'd gone and said that, she was likely to keep talking about it.