Queens

Ros

One they had arrived back to the castle, Ros was surprised enough that Arthur was actually right. Uther hadn't even took notice of her absence, which she was glad about. It was nice to know now that she was free to go places beyond the gardens. Sure it was hard to get a grip of Uther's feelings towards her, but she didn't mind. He had never acted as a father to her, there were always just nannies and handmaidens, never a father. He acknowledges that she is his daughter sure, she's treated like a princess, and she dresses like one and eats like one and has the manners of one. She goes out for tournaments and jousts, and Uther acts like a father then, but when they return to the castle he goes back to ignoring her, always leaving an empty pit in her heart. It's been this way ever since she was a small child, at least that's what she remembers.

She was out in the stables now, brushing her horse, whispering praise to it, petting it's white hide. A clatter of buckets outside the stalls made Ros jump a bit, and there were curses coming from an unknown mouth. She placed the brush on a shelf and let herself out of the stall, only to be met with a very wet Merlin on the floor with two buckets laying on their sides. She closed the door gently, latching it properly before she walked over to him and reached out a hand. "Are you alright?" She said to him.

"Yeah I'm fine, just going to need to-" he looked up and stopped mid sentence, "oh Princess Ros, um yeah I'm fine."

"You're drenched, here let me help you." She took his hand, ignoring his protests and helped him to his feet. "What happened?"

"Really Princess it's nothing I-"

"Ros, you don't need to address me as Primcess all the time, only when we're around Uther or lords or something," she waved a hand at him.

"Oh well, Ros, I just tripped over my own feet I suppose, really I'm fine though, thank you for helping me," he laughed nervously , "Although I'm really the one who should be helping you. Anyway, I really should go though, Arthur wants fresh water in his room within the hour." He leaned down and picked up the two, now empty, buckets.

"Wait, you carried those all the way from the faucet?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That's a long way to be carrying buckets of water, doesn't my brother understand that? Here let me help you," she tried to grab one of the buckets but Merlin pulled it away before she could grab it.

"Your highness, it's my job, really you shouldn't be carrying buckets of water, you'll ruin your dress."

"Oh to hell with my dress! Let me help, I have nothing better to do. Do you know how many times I've walked around the castle? Too many for me to count, now give me a bucket won't you?"

"Your highness really I-"

"Ros, call me Ros. Now Merlin give me a damn bucket, please." He handed her the smaller of the two buckets and she nodded her head. "Thank you, now lead the way to the faucet, we should hurry because my brother does have quite the temper." He laughed at that.

"That he does, I've learned that the hard way." He began walking and she matched her pace to his, walking beside him as they walked in silence to the faucet at the edge of the wall.

He held the buckets under the faucet while she pumped it, filling the buckets with water. Again he handed her the smaller of the two and they walked back to the castle together, to Arthur's room. "Here's your water," Merlin said as he placed down one of the buckets. Ros placed hers down as well. Arthur emerged from behind a screen wearing a new set of clothes. Ana sat in a chair next to the bed looking rather bored.

"I asked you to get that over an hour ago," He looked over at Ros. "What are you doing with Merlin?"

"I was just helping him carry the buckets, he fell while he was walking by the stables."

"Merlin you idiot, you asked my sister to help you?"

"Arthur stop being such an ass," she said to him, "I offered to help him and I wouldn't take no for an answer. Anyway, I should go now. Morgana invited me to have lunch with her. Don't be too harsh on these two." She motioned to Merlin and Ana, then nodded at Arthur, who had a weird smile on his face.

As she walked out she heard them begin to talk, and she smiled to herself. She began to make her way down the halls towards Morgana's room, dreading the lunch that she was about to have. Sure Morgana and herself were friends, but she had always loathed Morgana. Uther had treated Morgana more like a daughter than he ever treated Ros, and Morgana knew this and she felt terrible. So of course Ros had accepted her friendship, even though there was always going to be a place inside her that was always going to be Jealous of Morgana.