Profound Bond

Chapter 3-A Disagreement

As the days went by, Bella became more relaxed. Morgana was happy to see her again and Gwen was very nice to her as well. The three of the them soon became great friends.

Later one night, Bella was up late fixing a dress for Morgana, when Merlin walked in. When Bella smiled up at him as he passed her, she noticed something peculiar. Although it was hard to tell in the dim candlelight, Bella could just see a redness on Merlin's left cheek.

She was immediately on her feet and bounding up to him. Merlin tried to avoid her but she was too quick for him. She grabbed him by the wrist and spun him around to face her.

"What's this?" she asked in horror, running her hand over the obvious hand-shaped mark on his face.

Merlin simply brushed her off saying, "It's nothing," and "He didn't really mean it."

Bella knew straight away who had done this. She sprinted down the stairs as fast as she could, running across the courtyard and into the castle. When she reached it, she burst through the door to his chambers.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Bella shouted at the top of he lungs.

"B-Bella!" Arthur yelped, trying to cover his bare chest with a pillow. "What are you doing here?!"

"HOW DARE YOU HIT MERLIN?!" She screamed, snatching the pillow from his grip and whacking him over the head with it.

“You can't yell at me like that!" Arthur shouted back, almost as loud as Bella. He pulled the cushion out of her hands and chucked it across the room.

“I DON’T CARE!" Bella yelled, picking up a brass pot and throwing it at Arthur. He dodged it with ease. "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? First you act all strangely, and then you slap Merlin! What is wrong with you?!"

Arthur stood there, his mouth wide open in shock. Bella grabbed a small dagger from where it lay on Arthur's table, and threw that at him as well. Arthur only just avoided it.

"How dare you?!" Arthur screeched, "That could have seriously injured me!"

"That was the whole point!" Bella bellowed. Just as Bella picked up a candlestick and was aiming it at Arthur, he grabbed her by the arm.

"Enough," he commanded, glaring sternly at her. “You asked me what my problem was. Well... my problem is you," he began to say, a little more calmly, although his voice still sounded cold and full of anger. "You went missing for two years, Bella. Everybody was worried sick about you. We spent over a year looking for you. And all that time I thought you must've been kidnapped... or worse. My father barely ate or spoke for months. He was devastated!"

Tears were starting to form in Bella's eyes. Arthur had never yelled like this at her before. She slowly placed the candlestick back onto the table.

"So my problem, Bella, is that after all I've done for you, you don’t even talk to me anymore," Arthur spat out. "You've been back for three weeks, now. Every time I try to speak with you, you avoid me or just smile and keep walking. We were such great friends, Bella... What happened?”

"Sire!" Yelled two guards, running through the doors and cutting Arthur and Bella's argument short.

"We heard shouting," one of the men said. "Is something the matter? Are you in danger?"

"No... no, nothing's the matter. I'm not in any danger. Bella and I just had a bit of a... disagreement, that's all. Sorry to alarm you. You may return to your posts," Arthur explained.

When the guards exited the room, Arthur looked at Bella, and she stared back. Bella glared up at the young prince, only just managing to hold back her tears. She took a deep breath, desperately trying to compose herself.

After a moment of stillness, Arthur stormed from his room, leaving Bella to dwell on everything that had just happened.

~~~~

Moments later, Bella decided to head back down to Gaius's place. What she didn't expect, was that on her way, she would bump into her newly-made friend, Guinevere.

"Bella," Gwen said with a cheerful grin, "What are you doing up?"

"Finishing some errands," Bella lied, "What are you doing?"

"Morgana was having trouble sleeping," Gwen explained, "I promised I would stay with her until she fell asleep."

Bella didn't reply.

"Are you alright, Bella?" Gwen asked, furrowing her brows.  "You seem... Troubled."

The red-haired girl tried to come up with excuses, but just couldn't manage any. She stood there speechless, mouth opening and closing as she thought of words to say.

"Come back to my house with me,"  said Gwen. "We can talk there."

~~~~

Bella told Gwen the entire story. When she had finished, she broke down crying. Guinevere rubbed her shoulder sympathetically.

“Why did he hit Merlin, and why is he being like this?” Bella asked Gwen.

“Well, he was pretty upset today," Gwen suggested, pulling out a cloth and wiping Bella's tears away. "I suppose he's mad at you... because he was worried about you."

"It's my fault," Bella sniffled, "I should've written to him to tell him I was okay... Or something."

“You should speak with him again tomorrow," Gwen continued. Bella nodded. "Maybe then you can smooth things over."

Bella thanked Gwen over and over for her kindness and counsel, then set off back to her temporary lodgings with Gaius and Merlin. Tomorrow would be a new day. A chance to speak to Arthur again. Bella only hoped they would not break into a disagreement again.

She didn't think Arthur would survive another argument with her, considering how close those objects had been to hitting him. Now that she thought about it, perhaps throwing so many objects at the Prince of Camelot had not been her wisest decision.