Merthur: True Love's Kiss

Trying

Guinevere rose with the sun that morning, as she always did, dressing quickly and eating her rather meagre breakfast ravenously. By the time she left her home - which, as always, seemed far too empty and cold after her father's death - the rest of Camelot was waking. Last night she had offered to watch over Merlin, not wanting Gaius to tire himself out, but he dismissed her, saying that he'd be awake anyway, researching some things. The old man had barely slept since Arthur brought Merlin back, understandably, but she had to find some way of getting him to rest. Otherwise, she feared Merlin wouldn't be the only one confined to a bed.

She knocked twice on the physician's door, and, upon receiving no reply, slowly opened it: Gaius had fallen asleep on the table at some point in the night, his head buried in a peculiar looking book. Gwen smiled at the sight, a sigh of relief escaping her lips, and entered the chamber, striding purposefully towards Merlin.

To her disappointment, he appeared no better, so the serving girl lightly set down the basket she had been carrying, and proceeded to change his bandages. As she stripped him of the pus and blood soaked cloth, she resisted the urge to press her hands to her nose - the wound stunk like rotting meat. Even she could tell he didn't have a lot of time left.

Just as she was finishing, Gaius stirred in his sleep and, feeling the sunlight hitting his face, opened his eyes to see the young woman bending over Merlin.

"Ah Guinevere, my dear," he muttered sleepily, trying to make sense of his surroundings.

"Good morning Gaius. Did you get some rest?"

He grumbled a reply before getting up and stretching his legs, then fetching a jug of water and pouring himself some. "I have good news," he declared when he had drained a goblet.

"Did you find a cure?" she asked, raising herself slowly.

"Well, yes, I... I suppose I did."

"That's... That's wonderful Gaius!" she exclaimed, her beautiful face suddenly lighting up with joy. "So Merlin will be alright, won't he? Oh I knew you'd save him, I knew it!" Gwen ran up to the physician and squeezed him tightly, unintentionally knocking the wind out of him.

"Yes, well--"

"Is something wrong?" She paused, unsure what to make of the worried expression on Gaius' face. "Gaius?"

He took a deep breath before continuing. "Guinevere, you regard Merlin as a... Good friend, do you not?"

"O-of course I do," she answered sweetly, albeit with a hint of doubt in her voice. "But, what has that got to do with anything?"

"Would you do anything to save him?" he pressed on, ignoring her question.

"Yes..? I suppose I would..."

"Good." With that, he moved closer to Gwen and looked her straight in the eye.

"Gaius? What is this about?" She felt confused and scared at once, waiting in anticipation for the physician's reply.

"Guinevere... I want you to kiss Merlin."

Time seemed to slow down for both of them, Gwen not quite believing what she'd heard, Gaius almost dreading her reply.

"Excuse me, Gaius? Wh-what relevance does kissing him have to making him better? And for the record, why can't you kiss him instead?"

"Let me assure you, there is a proper reason behind all this."

"Well go on then," she ordered, clearly flustered by the physician's request. "What is it?"

"It's the cure," he replied simply, preferring to look at his feet rather than at Gwen. "Those bitten by the morgul must be kissed by their true love in order to recover. Otherwise, their fever and infection will worsen and... They will die."

"So... You think I'm Merlin's true love?" Gaius could sense the scepticism in her voice, feel the tension in the air as she watched him, arms crossed.

"Not exactly but--"

"But what?"

He sighed, exasperated. "I haven't got a clue who else it could be, who else I could possibly ask! Please, Gwen, you must try."

Gwen thought about what he said, and found herself agreeing. Although Merlin was kind to most people that he encountered, he wasn't close to very many - almost as if he had a secret to hide. To the best of her knowledge , the only people he talked with much was her, Arthur, maybe Lady Morgana, Lancelot (who had left Camelot a few months back anyway) and...

That was where her list ended.

"Alright," she begun, "I'll do it. For Merlin's sake. Although, there's one thing I want to know in advance."

"Very well."

"What exactly is a morgul?"

"A morgul is magical creature with the head of a snake and the body of a bear - supposedly conjured many centuries ago by a powerful sorcerer, to kill the royal family of Gdenir," he explained, "Merlin, I'm assuming, was attacked by the bear half. And just as well, for the snake's venom is lethal."

Gwen nodded, and turned to face the sleeping man. As much as she enjoyed Merlin's company and treasured him dearly, she didn't love him. Her feelings on the matter were worsened by the fact that her desire to see him get better conflicted heavily with her current, very different, love interest, and if she were to be completely honest with herself, she wasn't sure whether she wanted him to recover after the kiss, knowing full well what that would mean.

Nevertheless, she obliged, and kissed him gently on his chapped lips.

Immediately afterwards, Gwen opened her eyes and looked at Merlin, looked at him for a long, long time. There was no immediate improvement: his breaths were still ragged, skin still sweaty, eyelids still firmly closed.

"Maybe it isn't immediately effective?" commented Gaius from the other end of the room, and Gwen felt herself starting to lose all hope.