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The castle was swarming with people, and yet it felt empty somehow. Your footsteps echoed around the hallways, only increasing the feeling of loneliness. Everyone was behaving strangely lately, although you thought that perhaps they were only busy. It did feel like something was happening that you had no knowledge of.
A familiar figure appeared before you, and your heart skipped a beat at the sight of his him. He didn’t glance at you, yet you didn’t know if it was because he had not noticed you or if he was pretending not to.
“Arthur!” You called him as your paths crossed and you stopped before each other. “Arthur, dear”
“Not now, Y/N” He briefly replied, not bothering to even look at you still.
“But…” You held on to his arm, feeling the cold touch of his metal armguards spreading through your body and freezing your heart. “I just want to talk to you”
“I have somewhere to be” Arthur replied, continuing to walk like you weren’t there. Your fingers slipped off his arm as he did, leaving you holding on to nothing. An empty void joined the coldness of your heart.
Not knowing what else to do, you just stood there in the middle of the hallway, watching how he walked away. Arthur didn’t turn around nor glanced at you over his shoulder. Not even once.
You sighed, restless as you thought of a way to end your strife. What was the matter with him? For quite a while now you had been together, inseparable, but now… Arthur seemed to avoid you, he was distant and impatient. Perhaps he didn’t want to be with you any longer, perhaps he had grown tired of the relationship.
The sound of footsteps claimed your attention, and you smiled hopefully as you lifted your gaze. It must be Arthur, who realized his ill manners and had returned to apologize, surely! On the contrary, you saw someone else hurrying along the hallway.
“Merlin!” You called, mentally begging for him to pay attention to you. Fortunately, your friend stopped in his tracks and smiled at you. It was a warm gesture, familiar and comforting. It seemed that he had nothing against you, unlike everyone else.
“Yes?” He asked, looking you up and down. “Is something the matter, Y/N?”
“I…” You frowned, overwhelmed by a sudden urge to cry. Noticing this, Merlin put a hand on your arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. This encouraged you enough to continue speaking. “I fear Arthur is mad at me”
“Arthur?” Your friend chuckled, letting go of you. “That’s silly, Y/N. You know Arthur adores you”
As he spoke, Merlin averted his gaze. Watching him intently, you realized he was pursing his lips as though he was trying to keep quiet. You knew him enough to realize he kept something from you, as you had imagined.
“He is upset with me, isn’t he?” You sighed, wringing your hands in concern. “What is happening, Merlin? And why won’t anybody tell me?”
“I…” He cautiously returned your gaze. His eyes shone with empathy. “I can’t tell you”
“He will break up with me” You stated, more convinced by the second.
“No, I promise! You… he…” Merlin clicked his tongue, suddenly quite agitated. “I can’t tell you, Y/N, I’m sorry!”
“Have I done something wrong?”
“No” He paused to urgently take your hands in his. “You have nothing to worry about”
“But-“ You started, growing quiet when he vehemently shook his head.
“Trust me, Y/N” Merlin dedicated you a sweet smile. “Arthur loves you, and everything will make sense soon”
His eyes lingered on yours, silently asking you if you were okay and if you had understood what he was trying to tell you, if you believed him. The answer to all of those was no. You didn’t understand what was happening, and you were too hurt by Arthur’s demeanor to believe Merlin’s words of comfort. Nonetheless, you nodded your head.
“I must go” Merlin resolved, squeezing your hands one last time before letting go of them. “Be patient, he will come back to you”
There was this gentleness in his voice that meant to comfort you, just like the softness in his gaze. You nodded again, causing him to smile at you again before walking away.
Once more, you were left standing there alone as they left you behind. You resolved to return to your hiding place and walked inside your chambers again. They were too big for you, and Arthur only visited them during the night, although you were asleep by the time he arrived and lied down with you. As you lingered on your restless slumber, he held you tight every night and sighed at the wonderful feeling of you between his arms. You weren’t aware of this. Otherwise you wouldn’t be so worried over the situation, over your fear that Arthur had stopped loving you, because he loved you more than ever.
Unbeknownst to this, you absently paced up and down the room. You stared at the vase before you, delicately caressing the fragile petals. You remembered the day Arthur gifted you those flowers. Or rather, when he made Merlin bring them to you. You feared those days were over, in which you and Merlin joked about Arthur’s sappiness and his never ending gifts and affections directed at you. You feared that Arthur had grown tired of you, and you would wither like those flowers without their nurturing.
_
After quite a restless night, the sun had finally come out. The darkness ended, yielding to the light of dawn. Unable to fall back asleep, you feebly lay in bed. Negative thoughts plagued your mind, as well as that craving sensation that haunted you. Your hand fell over the side of the bed, there where Arthur was supposed to be laying with you. It was cold and empty. Had he visited your shared chambers at all last night?
You were startled when a knock suddenly came on the door. Quickly sitting up, you hurried to make yourself decent by clumsily combing your hair with your hands.
“Yes?” You asked, nervously reaching out for the hand mirror on your bedside table.
“It’s Merlin” Came his voice from the other side. “May I come in?”
You frowned, finding it unusual that he was so polite. As much as he was a servant, Merlin was your friend and often took some liberties. It was rare for him to knock at all.
“Of course” You muttered when you confirmed in your reflection that your appearance was good enough. Slowly, the door opened to reveal his smiling face. He peeked inside, looked behind him, and then came in.
“What’s the matter?” You asked him, wondering why he behaved so strangely.
“Someone wants me to deliver these to you” Merlin’s grin lingered, and it only grew wider as he revealed the big bouquet of flowers he concealed behind his back.
“Merlin!” You exclaimed in awe, taking them from him and admiring them in your hands. There were flowers of all colors, all of them producing a pleasant scent to accompany the beautiful sight they were. “Who sends them?”
Exchanging a glance with him, you had a growing suspicion. Butterflies erupted in your stomach at the thought, and they only increased when your friend looked behind him.
“Y/N is wide awake” He was saying to whoever hid behind the door. “You can come in now”
At the sight of a tall blond man, you tried to hide your excitement. Arthur had become so distant that your familiarity turned to hesitance and forced closeness. Nonetheless, as he stood there you couldn’t even be mad at him. Despite his broad complexion and high stature, he appeared incredibly vulnerable as he timidly averted his beautiful blue eyes.
“Arthur?” You whispered, nearly afraid to scare him away.
“I’m sorry, Y/N” He started, daring to look up into your eyes. “I know I haven’t been the best partner these last few days”
“Y-You were busy” You chuckled, trying to pretend like it didn’t hurt you. “Camelot needs you as much as I do”
“Perhaps, but that wasn’t the reason” Arthur took a cautious step forward. “I will never be too busy for you”
“Then why…?” You uttered, growing more confused by the second.
“I should go” Merlin suddenly mumbled, nervously stepping away, only to be stopped.
“Merlin, don’t leave me” Arthur begged him between grit teeth. Something was definitely the matter for him to require Merlin’s presence. What was he about to tell you that he needed his closest friend’s moral support?
“Arthur, you’re scaring me” The flowers shook in your hands. When you locked eyes with him, you were astonished to see no concern or sadness in them, only fondness. “What happened?”
What could excuse this behavior from both of them? What could possibly be occurring for him to be rendered in such a timid, timorous yet smitten state? It made absolutely no sense.
“I realized something” Arthur continued walking towards you until he was right before you. Then, he took the bouquet from your hands and absently handed it to Merlin. “Something that changed everything forever”
You helplessly glanced at Merlin, watching how he replaced the old withered bouquet of flowers with the new lively and colorful one. He was pressing his lips together and making a great effort not to watch you and intrude in that intimate moment.
“W-What is it?” You uttered as your gaze returned to your lover.
“I realized I am hopelessly lost in love with you” Arthur smiled, and despite it all you noticed the nervous twitch in his lips. “And how wonderful you are… and that I want to spend the rest of my life with you”
“What…?”
“Y/N…” One of your hands flew to your mouth when you saw Arthur sinking one knee on the floor and adoringly peering up at you. “Will you marry me?”
“What?!” You exclaimed, ignoring the badly contained noise of Merlin snickering next to you. “Is that what you were hiding from me?”
“Um…” Arthur, still kneeling down, froze for a moment. “Yes, I wanted to surprise you”
“I told you it was a bad idea to distance yourself…” Merlin said under his breath.
“Shut up, Merlin” The other one replied, soon after focusing his attention back on you. “For weeks I thought about the best way of proposing and yet… none of them seemed good enough for you, so… I decided to improvise”
You were left speechless by this discovery. When Arthur tenderly squeezed your hand, it dawned on you. You finally realized what was happening. Arthur had just asked you to marry him, he was proposing to you! That was what he was hiding!
“You scared me so badly” Suddenly overcome with emotion, you felt tears welling up in your eyes. “I thought you didn’t love me anymore”
“Forgive me, my love… That was never my intention” Arthur said from below. “Believe me when I say I could never stop loving you. I will make it up to you, I promise”
“Uh… Y/N…” Merlin whispered, calling attention to his long forgotten presence once more. “You haven’t given him an answer yet”
“Oh!” You exclaimed, startled by the realization. You had started shaking from head to toe at some point. In your mind, you were screaming at yourself to say ‘yes’ but you only gawked at him. You couldn’t utter even that simple word.
“Y/N” Arthur tried again, nearly making you swoon by the way in which he lovingly gazed at you, like his kingdom wasn’t even as precious to him as you were. “Will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?”
A sob struck you, making it impossible to talk. You only stared at him, embracing the warmth of his hand against yours and just then seeing the beautiful ring he held up to you.
Moving sneakily, Merlin nudged you in the ribs. That gave you the encouragement you needed to reply once and for all. Unable to speak as you cried tears of joy, you decided to energetically nod your head instead.
Arthur heaved a big sigh, as he had been seemingly holding his breath all this time. His smile was almost blinding as he cheerfully jumped to his feet and slipped the ring around your finger. It was quite a hard task, as you were still shaking, though he only laughed a little about it. After all, his fingers felt clumsy too.
“I love you” He said, tenderly cradling your face into his hands and kissing you on the lips.
“I love you too…” You managed to say between sobs, hiding your head in his shoulder as you recovered from the many emotions that overwhelmed you.
As he tightly held you in his arms, Arthur laughed out of sheer happiness. You clutched on to his white tunic, starting to laugh a little yourself as you ran out of joyful tears. He placed a hand on the back of your head and sweetly kissed your temple.
“It didn’t quite go as I expected” Merlin joined your laughter too, although his sounded more amused than moved by emotion. “It was a disaster, honestly”
“You’re not helping, Merlin” Arthur told his friend. “Why are you laughing?”
“You should have seen your faces” Your friend laughed, pointing at both of you.
Arthur rolled his eyes, exasperated by his manservant as usual. It pulled a smile out of you, calming your racing heart as everything returned to normal.
“I thought you were worried about Y/N’s answer” He told him, but Merlin shook his head.
“I wasn’t, I knew Y/N would say yes” Merlin shrugged a little. “You’re made for each other”
Arthur left behind his joking reprimanding and vexed tone and acquired a more genuine one as he smiled at Merlin.
“Thank you, old friend” Soon, however, the gesture became mischievous. “But you have a lot to do now. You must help Y/N plan the wedding: the flowers, the food, the guests…”
Merlin sent you a look, one that screamed ‘help me’. You laughed, feeling how your nerves faded away completely and the excitement and glee settled. Arthur continued listing the things that Merlin needed to do for the wedding, and you only laughed more and clung on to him as he teased his friend.
Your eyes were directed towards the fresh bouquet adorning your vase. Red, yellow, pink, violet, orange, blue… all the color that stained the petals seemed to seep into your life, transforming the dull black and white existence that you had been trapped in during all those long days into a rainbow of euphoria that foresaw happy days and loving moments.