onceandfutureprat

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[Arthur's been back for a few hours actually, but he's been spending that time trying to reconcile everything that happened at home with what he knows from the Barge. And it's a confusing mess in case you were wondering.]

How long was I gone from here?

If we haven't met, I'm Arthur Pendragon, king of Camelot and a Warden here.

Merlin, if you're still here, I'd like a word with you.

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[The fuck magic part. :|] I don't recall you welcoming the druids back to Camelot.

[Oh that.] "I may someday welcome back the druids. In the meantime, I have promised them respect and they will get that."

[How he is going to make that happen, he has no idea. He's not ready to repeal his father's laws, doesn't want to even. Uther spent almost twenty five years making the kingdom safe from people like Morgana and Nimueh and Morgause, vengeful sorceresses and countless others who will stop at nothing to hurt his people and the crown. Perhaps he accepted that it wasn't magic that made you evil, but it was still a dangerous force to be reckoned with.]

Promises are pretty but that isn't enough. What you may do isn't worth anything to people who have wanted nothing but to be accepted their whole lives!

"Maybe if someone wasn't using magic to kill my father and to dishonor my knights and to try and ruin my marriage to the woman I love, I'd be a lot more open to the idea."

And maybe if I hadn't been lied to all my life I wouldn't have had to do any of it! You've no one to thank for that but Uther.

"That's your reason? He lied to both of us, Morgana!"

[Arthur seemed to regret the words the second they left his mouth, as he opened his lips a couple times to say something else but the words never came. It didn't matter, because his father was gone and they'd never gotten the chance to really talk about it. Uther had been in a daze for over a year before his death. Arthur had been the good son, burying his feelings and thoughts on the matter of Morgana being his half sister because he could see how much losing her trust had ruined his father.

He felt ten years old again when he wondered if Uther would have mourned the same way for his son as he did his daughter.]

"He's still gone. You're fighting a ghost."

And still you forgive him! His death changed nothing! [And maybe she should take that to heart and realize that Arthur's death maybe won't change anything either, but. She can't quite see her way around to that yet. Instead, she watches him, then paces away, shaking her head.]

You would forgive him anything, and that is were we will never, never see eye to eye. [Because she'd tried, once, and he threw it in her face. She turns back to him, glaring.]

I saved his life, once, do you remember? From an assassin I hired. He made me change my mind. And then he proved that he would never changed, and I regretted saving him at all.

[Even if there was something that Arthur could never have forgiven Uther for, he'd never show it. He'd never make a public show of it because there was no honor in that, especially when the former king was dead.

Arthur blinked at her for a few moments, because actually, he didn't remember what she was talking about immediately. And that had less to do with her and more with the fact that there had been multiple attempts on Uther's life over the years.]

"Well you got your wish," [Arthur snapped at her. He didn't know it in Camelot but Merlin told him what happened here and he couldn't get over it. Uther would have died if nothing had been done but he'd tried, he'd wanted to give magic a chance to prove itself good, and if she hadn't acted, it probably would've worked. Things would have changed around Camelot. But she did and they didn't and all Arthur was sure of was that Morgana and people like her were a great threat to Camelot. People like Merlin weren't but Arthur was sure that Merlin was a very rare breed of wizard.]

"That's still no excuse to go after Guinevere or my knights."

No, I should let you all live on happily while I disappear into ignominy.

[Maybe that plan was flawed - in so, so many ways - but she hadn't believed he could change. And she didn't want people thinking that Arthur could be anything but his father's son.

In some ways, it was like they were children again: she couldn't let him win, no matter the cost.]

"A path you chose by acting with dishonor!"

What else could I do! [She's shouting now, totally heedless. Sorry neighbors.]

Pretend he would change? Keep his secret? Let my servant take my throne?

[That's alright, Arthur's shouting back at her]

"Guinevere was your friend and you should have been happy for us! You should have stood by your family and Camelot! You should have trusted me and come to me when you found everything out!"

My family! Because they stood by me so well. You would have been honor bound do tell Uther and you always were our father's son. All I wanted was to survive, I did what I had to do!

"And I was always your friend!" [And that was all of it really, even when he'd been jealous of her as a kid or found her extremely annoying, she was his only real friend for years. The knights he knew, but he was their leader and their future king. They played to his ego because they felt bound to keep him happy. It hurt, that she could toss all of that aside and hate him so much.]

"There was a time when all you had to do was ask."

So long as Uther wasn't looking. Or have you forgotten that? You'd disobey him so long as you didn't have to do it to his face.

[And for all that she spent a year and more lying to them, she's still so bitter about that. He wouldn't stand up for her or the things she believed in, he wouldn't even speak out against Uther's awful decisions, and it fell to her every time to disagree and argue and be punished.]

You aren't my friend, Arthur, and you were a poor one when you were. All my life, there has only ever been one person who's shown me truth and compassion, and it wasn't you. [She spits it out like she's disgusted with him.]

[He maybe deserves it, because he could have done better. He could have reached out to her more, been less self absorbed, could have done a lot of things really but none of that mattered now. They couldn't change any of it.]

"The witch was very good at twisting truths for her own gain."

[Hey now. That's dangerous ground buddy. Her eyes narrow, and she's seriously contemplating throwing him across the hall.]

She twisted nothing.

"Whatever you say, Morgana." [He offers her a shrug because he doesn't care to fight about her sister. And dismissing her is one of the few things he knows will bother her until the end of time.]

[Fuck you forever. She's snapping at him for that.] Is that how you intend to rule, dismissing what you don't agree with?

"You aren't my subject or even the ruler of another land. You attack my people and my land, and you show no interest in compromise or peace. I don't owe you an audience."

You asked for this audience! [She's trying to laugh, to mock him, but she wants to kill him for reminding her that she has nothing.]

"It won't happen again."

See that it doesn't. [And she is turning away because fuck you Arthur, she isn't afraid to turn her back on you. But she pauses and turns back, a smirk pulling at her mouth.]

Give your wife my regards, the next time you run home. I'm sure I'll see her soon.

[Arthur stiffened, bristling like a cat in response to that. "I will reign hell down on you if you ever hurt her again, Morgana. I don't care what it takes or where we are."

You'll try. [She turned again, pushed her door open, and closed it behind her. If she's very lucky, maybe Gwen will come here and save her the trouble of having to find her.]

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