Profound Bond

Chapter 6- Why me?????

It had been a couple of days since Arthur and Bella's... moment... and Bella had every reason in Camelot to still be angry with him. She had tried to avoid him as much as possible. Morgana, who had known Bella for so long she could hardly miss a trick, noticed something was wrong with Bella.

"Are you feeling well, Bella?" The Lady asked one morning while she was getting out of bed. "You seem tired."

"I don't know what you mean, M'lady," Bella said calmly as she picked up Morgana dirty washing basket.

"Or annoyed," Morgana went on, "Like there's something you're dying to talk about. Has Uther been giving you grief again?"

"Nothing like that, M'lady. It's just..." Bella gripped tighter to the basket and stared at the ground.

"You know you can tell me anything, Bella," assured Morgana.

"H-Have you ever had strong feelings about someone, but you knew you in your heart it could never work out?" Bella asked.

"Has this something to do with Arthur, by any chance?" Morgana questioned, sitting down at her mirror. Bella turned around to look at Morgana properly.

"Why would you say that, M'lady?" Bella said with an unintentional shake in her voice.

"Because Arthur asked me the same question yesterday," Morgana replied while brushing her hair, and acting was like it was nothing.

Just at that moment, Arthur came barging through the door.

"Arthur!" Morgana exclaimed, looking annoyed. "Have you ever heard of knocking?"

"Gaius requests your help," Arthur said very quickly, looking at Bella "Merlin has fallen ill," he added.

Bella ran straight to Gaius's room. She sprinted as fast as she could, Arthur and Morgana had trouble keeping up with her. Wow, she's fast, thought Arthur. As they came to the last corner Bella once again ran right into Leon. As she fell, Leon caught her.

"Thank you," Bella said as she stood back up and straightened up her dress.

"You'd better keep an eye on where you're going," Leon chuckled. She smiled as she walked passed him. Arthur gave Leon a look, as if to say 'back off'. He didn’t know why, but he felt jealous. When Bella stumbled inside of Gaius's room she saw Gaius putting a blanket over Merlin.

"He's not dead, is he?" Bella asked, walking over to see Merlin. He was pale and didn't move once.

"Thankfully, no, he is not," Gaius said to Bella, but also to Arthur, who was now standing behind her. "He has a very bad case of the flu," The physician continued, "He will not be able to work until he has fully recovered, sire."

“I will have to speak with my father to see if I can get another servant to take Merlin's job until he is better," said Arthur, pushing Morgana out of his way and stepping closer to where Merlin was lying.

“No need for that," Morgana said with a slight smile on her face, "You can have Bella until Merlin is well again." Bella turned to Morgana with a murderous look in her eyes.

“Why me? Why not Gwen?" Bella asked, trying to worm her way out of it. She was not keen on looking after Arthur, the Prince of Arrogance and Idiocy.

“Because I'm afraid that Guinevere is also unwell," Gaius said plainly. Morgana smiled at Gaius, then walked out the door. Bella grumbled angry words under her breath and stormed out after Morgana.

~~~~

The morning after, Bella woke up early to tend to Arthur. While walking down the stairs to the kitchen, Bella wondered how she was going to wake Arthur.

Once she had collected Arthur’s breakfast, she walked up to his room. When she walked in, Arthur was still asleep. Hoping to wake him, she stomped loudly over to his desk, slammed down his breakfast (making it sure it made a loud clang) and opened the curtains.

Arthur merely mumbled something incoherently and continued to sleep. Bella looked around the room to see what else might aid her in waking him up. She could whack him with a candlestick? Although, that sounded a little too extreme. If she yelled really loudly, maybe that would do it?

Bella walked right up to his bed and was about to shout at him, until another thought popped into her head... She picked up the cup of water that sat by Arthur's bedside and poured the freezing liquid all over Arthur. This woke him up.

“What was that for!?" Arthur said, waking with a jump.

“Good morning to you too, sire," Bella said, with a cheesy smile.

“Why did you pour water over me?" Arthur said, shaking the water from his hair, then grabbing a towel and wiping his face. Bella ignored him. She went into his wardrobe and grabbed a blue shirt and brown jacket.

“Put these on. Your father wants to talk to us in the Throne Room," Bella said walking out of his room, so he could get changed. Bella waited outside Arthur’s door.

It took Arthur a whole ten minutes to get dressed, probably seeing as he was hopeless when it came to anything but sword fighting. The prince walked from his room to and found Bella waiting for him. She was tapping her foot impatiently and had her arms folded.

When she saw him, she grabbed him roughly by the wrist. Both of them walked down to the Throne Room together, neither of them spoke once. Just as they were about to enter the Throne Room, Arthur pulled Bella aside.

“I would just like to apologise about the other day," he said quietly, "Can we just forget about it?”

“Forget about what?” Bella spat bitterly. She pulled her arm out of Arthur’s grip. “Uther is waiting for us," she said. Arthur pushed open the huge Throne Room doors. There waiting for them was Uther. His brows were furrowed and his face etched with utter distress.