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Key in the Kingdom

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Summary: "It was an ordinary day. Then he met her." Contains spoilers for season 1 and now spoilers for the first half of season 2. Please read epilogue warning!

Categories Author Rating Chapters Words Recs Reviews Hits Published Updated Complete
Television > MerlinmorenaFR151460,277209833,02818 Nov 0924 Apr 12Yes

First Encounter

I decided there weren't enough Buffy crossovers in the Merlin fandom - or Merlin crossovers in the Buffy fandom - and this is the result. This is just a short-ish, fun thing I'm writing in-between my main fic, The Prophecy of Four.

Disclaimer: I own neither Merlin, nor Buffy nor anything in between.

Key in the Kingdom

First Encounter

It had been a perfectly ordinary day. And then he met her.

Arthur Pendragon was just on his way down from the battlements. He shivered slightly at the sudden temperature change, as the inside of the castle was much cooler than it had been outside in the sun - it was a truly gorgeous day out, bright sun and clear blue sky. Prime weather for a potential enemy attack, which is, of course, why his inspection had taken twice as long as usual. It never paid to be too cautious.

An entire month had passed without anything dangerous or mystical happening, which left the entire castle in high spirits. Even his father had been in a good mood during lunch and Morgana had seemed calmer than she had in a while. She'd even smiled at him. The morning drills with his knights had gone smoothly with everyone in top form and resulted in only a few scratches and bruises.

To top everything, Merlin had been in an unusually competent mood and had managed to bring his breakfast up to him in the morning - on time and still warm - without spilling anything. In fact, he'd managed to last all the way through most of lunch before proving he was still the same young man Arthur employed and not some teacup enchanted to look like his manservant. What, exactly, he'd managed to trip over was a still complete mystery to Arthur, but the surprised noises and flailing arms had been rather comical to watch. Though, it was a shame about the wine. Even as Arthur had rolled his eyes and said something suitably scathing, he'd noticed his father holding back laughter out of the corner of his eye.

So maybe it was a very good day, if completely ordinary.

But all that changed as Arthur got to the bottom of the tower stairs and saw her.

She was standing in the middle of the corridor, blinking in confusion at the stone walls. Being the hot-blooded young man that he was, the first thing Arthur noticed was how bare her shoulders were, a green slip of fabric that hung off them being the only thing that covered her torso. She was wearing odd-looking breeches, which hugged her form and left very little to the imagination. Really, the girl might as well have been naked for all the good her clothing did. Despite her skinny form, Arthur couldn't help how his throat went dry.

He shook his head. He was the Crown Prince of Camelot; crown princes did not have their brains turn to mush at the mere sight of a half-naked woman. It was the sort of thing an enemy could easily exploit.

"What are you doing here?!" he demanded loudly, glad his voice sounded calm.

The girl yelped and turned around, long brown hair swishing behind her. Her green eyes were wide and full of surprise.

"Uh, um, hi," she stammered. "Sorry, I didn't see you there. I, uh, seem to be kinda lost." She paused and scanned the corridor again. "Really, really lost." She looked back to him. "Where am I?"

Arthur frowned. The girl's accent was strange, not like anything he'd ever heard before and Uther had entertained plenty of foreign nobility over the years, so he'd heard a lot of different accents.

"You happen to be in the north part of the castle leading up to the castle battlements," he said slowly, watching her reactions. Annoyance flashed through her eyes.

"Don't suppose you could be a bit more specific?" she asked. "I kinda guessed I was in a castle or something, 'cause the stone walls and all look very castle-like. Not that I've been in a whole lot of castles, mind you. But, um, anyway, if this is a castle then it should have a name. Most castles have names, right?"

Arthur stared at her. She stared back. After a few moments she began to bite her bottom lip nervously and it was then that he suddenly realized she was expecting him to respond.

"So, you're saying you have absolutely no idea where you are?" he asked in the same tone he often used on his manservant that essentially translated to: 'is it really physically possible for someone to be this stupid?'.

The girl smiled nervously.

"Yup, sorry, really don't."

Arthur sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Then how, exactly, did you get here?"

No response.

Arthur looked up and froze at the now-empty corridor. He ran down the length of the hall and then around the corner. He stopped and then went to look back to the corridor where he'd just been.

The girl was gone.

Arthur stood there for a few moments, before heading towards his chambers. Perhaps he was just tired. The strangest things always seemed to happen on the most ordinary days.
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