Merthur One-shots

Whom His Heart Belongs

And Gwen's rejection had hurt the most. Arthur had wanted to MARRY her, for god's sake. He had been so sure.
“I'm sorry, Arthur. But I cannot marry you, when your heart doesn't belong to me.”

'Of course I love you!', Arthur had thought. After all, it had been Gwen who broke the love spell that made him fall for Vivienne. It had been a true love's kiss! Of course he loved her!
But Gwen had shook her head.
“That's not what I mean. I love you too, Arthur. But – I don't have your heart. And I already gave mine to someone else.”

'I understand, if you love someone else. But – you can't make a decision about my heart!', he had said. 'And people don't belong to each other. That's not how it works. You can't give a person so much power over yourself. That's -'
“It's scary, isn't it?”, Gwen had smiled at him. “I have never met a man who is more reserved than you are. Who is so scared to state his own opinion and reverts to everything he's been told by his father. The tiniest bit of self doubt and you hide immediately.
And yet -
You've given your heart away. And the thing is – you don't even know it. Because the person holds you so dear and protects your heart with all his might, that you never had to fear anything.
You've given it to the right person, Arthur. You trust him blindly.”

Arthur had stared at her for a full minute. Unable to respond.
'I'm asking you to marry me, Gwen. Because I love you. I gave away half the kingdom for you.
I want to spend the rest of my life with you!'
And only you, he had wanted to add. But the words got stuck in his throat.

Gwen had shook her head.
“You have given half your kingdom for me, that is true.”, she had looked at the ground in shame, almost.
“But you never wanted the kingdom to begin with. You don't want the responsibility. You want to run away. You told me as much. If you could, you would take this person with you and give up the entire kingdom. Not just half of it.
But his hopes in you are so strong that you stay. You're here for him. You're leading the kingdom for him. You are the greatest king Camelot has ever had, for him. Not anyone else, but because of him.”
She had smiled and then she laughed.

“Here you are, asking me to spend the rest of my life with you. But him?
You never had to ask.”

'Who are we even talking about?', Arthur had finally given in to his instincts. Because what the hell? Gwen had done her best to stay neutral at first. But it was clear now that she had a specific person in mind.

He tried to think of someone. Someone he would give his kingdom up for? Someone he was leading the kingdom for? Someone he trusted blindly?
Since it was clearly a man she was referring to, was it any of the knights? He trusted them all! He would give his own life for each of them.
He couldn't imagine running away with one of them though. They were his knights and loyal to Camelot. He would never take them away from their duty.

Gwen had sighed, before putting a hand on his shoulder and kissing him on the cheek.
Arthur let her. Even though he knew, letting her do as much meant he accepted her rejection. What else should he do, anyway?
He couldn't force her into a life long relationship.

“Just open your eyes.”, Gwen said and then she ordered him out the door, because Arthur had waited in her house.
Of course he had to blow the candles out first. Whose idea was it to decorate the entire house with candles again? Right... Merlin.
Arthur would kill him for it. It was supposed to be romantic. Now it felt just awkward to put out the candles like that. Not to mention he constantly feared his own cape to catch fire.

“Are you still moping?”
Arthur opened his eyes. And looked right back into dark blue ones. They may be blue, but they were also gray. And the dark gray made them look almost black in the dimmed room. Only small golden specks reflected light.
The light came from the small fire that still burned in the chimney. Maybe that's why Merlin what had come here for in the first place.