As soon as she opened the door to her chambers, you threw yourself dramatically at the foot of Morgana’s bed and let out a loud groan. The two of you had just retired from an extremely draining feast with the king of Camelot and a piggish prince from a neighboring kingdom.
“Another suitor? Can’t Uther preoccupy himself with Arthur’s love life?” You whine into the mattress. You can hear Morgana chuckling as she gently sits next to you causing the bed to dip slightly. She’s close enough that you can just barely feel her knee pressing into your hip, but you make no effort to move.
“He’s just ‘trying to secure my future’,” She lowers her voice during the second part of her statement in an attempt to sound like Uther. “As if he isn’t just thinking about the most powerful ally for Camelot, not what’s truly good for me.”
You lift your head from the comforter so you can glance up at Morgana. Her face is somber and her eyes are glassy and focused on her hands in her lap. She’s so lost in thought that when you reach out to nudge her leg your touch causes her to jump slightly.
“Arthur’s got your back, though. He won’t let Uther marry you away to any old man in any old stinky palace.” You say with a smile. She gives you a halfhearted smile back; almost like she’s just trying to make you feel better instead of herself.
“- Besides I won’t let anyone take you away.” You add on quietly. You lay your head back down on the bed, turned so that you can still look at her as she sits beside you. She twists to look back at you and sighs.
“I’m waiting for him to give up, just for a little while.” She says as she straightens back out, moves her hair to her shoulder, and leans back so she can lay next to you horizontally across her mattress. “He’s just so relentless.”
“Maybe we should convince him there’s a wizard in the castle so he can be occupied with that instead of your future engagement.” You giggle, causing her to let out a puff of air in amusement.
“If it wouldn’t get at least half our servants slaughtered I’d say it was a good idea.” Her voice is light, but you can sense the truth in her words. Uther was never one to act rationally when the possibility of magic is involved.
“S’pose we should just find you a prince then.” You murmur. A pang of anger spears through your chest as you say the words. You love Morgana, perhaps more than you should, and you couldn’t bear the thought of some man coming to take away your closest friend.
“I don’t want a prince.” She says, her gaze focused on the ceiling above the bed. Her hands are clasped together on her stomach, she’s pressing them together so tightly that her knuckles are turning white. It was a habit she had developed when she was nervous, but couldn’t express it. You noticed she did this a lot during stressful conversations with Uther and it had been even more frequent with the neverending line of suitors she encountered at the king’s command.
“A king then! Nice thinking,” You joke, but you know that’s not what she meant. She didn’t want to be sold off at all.
She’s quiet for a few minutes. You watch her, enjoying her presence but wishing you could take her into your arms and reassure her that you wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. How could you promise such a thing, though? You had no more power in the palace than she did. Hell, you were barely a step up from Merlin in terms of political power. Her breaths were deep and even, and your eyes wandered down her form to watch her chest rise and fall. The movement was hypnotic, the repetition of breaths soothing you to the point of becoming drowsy.
Just as your eyes begin to flutter shut, Morgana’s voice breaks through the silence and startles you.
“Do you believe in love at first sight?” She asks. When you open your eyes, you see Morgana has turned to look at you. Your noses are barely an inch away and you are met with her bright emerald green eyes looking back and forth between yours. As if she’s trying to read the answer on your face.
“I suppose, I’m not sure.” You say, trying to keep your eyes from straying from hers. “I feel like it could happen, but how are you supposed to know when you feel it? How does anyone know what it feels like?”
“I’d like to think I know what it feels like.” Her voice is so low she’s almost whispering. She’s so close to you, you notice, that you can smell the soap in her hair and the floral cologne that she wears.
“Been in love recently, have you?” You joke, but the words feel foreign on your tongue. You didn’t like the idea of Morgana falling in love. Not with some random person you hadn’t met yet, and definitely not one of the stuffy suitors that she had been presented with.
“The day I first saw you,” She starts as a light blush dusts across her cheeks. “I think I might have felt it. Love at first sight.”
Your heart starts pounding so fast you’re sure Morgana can feel it from where she’s laying on the bed. “You mean you…” You aren’t even sure if you can finish the sentence. Surely she couldn’t mean what she was implying.
“I saw you talking to Merlin out in the square when he first arrived.” She said, her gaze flicking down to your lips momentarily before settling back on your eyes. “My heart stopped for a minute and then began beating so hard I thought I would die. When you laughed at something he said, I saw how perfect your smile was. I got jealous that he made you smile before I could.”
Your mind was reeling, and you had to close your eyes for a moment to listen as she continued.
“When you walked into the palace you walked right up to me, I couldn’t breathe. You told me you were looking for King Uther to inquire about the Lady-in-Waiting position, and I couldn’t even speak to you. I was too nervous.” She continues and you giggle.
“I remember that. I thought you were being rude when you pointed to the throne room at first.” You look at her, a small nostalgic smile spreads across her face. In this moment, with her laying beside you and recounting the day you met, it was like a dream. You never felt more at peace before while also having your heart feel as though it was trying to escape from your chest.
“As soon as you left the palace after talking to him, I asked what he knew about you.” Morgana begins to look sheepish. She turns her head to stare back at the ceiling, the blush on her cheeks growing darker. “He didn’t say much, but he could tell that I had developed a certain fondness for you immediately.”
Her words caused a blush to erupt on your own face as well. “A fondness?” You inquire.
“He saw that I liked you and said that you would make a good friend.” She confesses, “But he didn’t realize that those feelings were much more than platonic.”
You sit up so that you’re leaning over her slightly and able to look at her face as she speaks. Silently, you beg her to continue her thoughts.
“I didn’t even realize they weren’t platonic at first,” She admits. “The more time we spent together, though, and the more men that were thrown my way I started to realize what it means when my stomach does flips every time I see you.” She bites her lip and finally meets your gaze once again.
“You-”
“I think that I may have felt love at first sight when I saw you.” Morgana’s eyes are watery as she speaks. “I’ve rarely had those feelings again since that day, and when I do I only have them for you.”
“What do you mean?” You croak out, your voice thick with emotion.
“Every time you smile I want to capture the moment mentally so I can remember the things that make you happy. When you cry I want to kiss you until you feel better, I want to soothe your aches and comfort you when you’re sad. I want to hold you close when you’re cold and hold you even closer when you’re nervous or scared.” She explains as you gaze down at her. “When someone asks you to dance at a ball I want to push them aside so I can be on your arm all night. I want you to only laugh at my jokes and whenever I see something that reminds me of you I want to show you or give it to you immediately just so I can see your face light up.”
Tears form in your eyes at Morgana’s confession. To know that every emotion you had felt for her in the time you have been together you repressed because you thought it wrong or that she didn’t reciprocate was for nothing. Every night that you lay in bed wishing that you could tell her how you felt but knew you couldn’t was not in vain. You had spent so much of your time together pining for her, only to realize that she had been pining for you too.
Your head felt so light you were sure you were going to fly away. You could barely keep yourself upright as she spoke.
“I think I love you.” She declares.
You’re silent. Your eyes widen and your mouth drops open slightly in shock.
“Do you hate me for it?” She asks nervously, her eyes dart back and forth across your face once again looking for the answers you haven’t spoken.
Slowly, you reach one hand out to cup her cheek. Your thumb brushes a tear away that has fallen down her face.
“Hate you? Morgana I couldn’t even if I tried.” You lean down and capture her mouth with your own in a gentle kiss. Your lips meet with a feather-like touch, as if you’re scared she will break like glass if you press too hard.
You can hear her gasp into the kiss and your face breaks out into a smile as you lean back to look at her. Her pupils are dilated and her cheeks are rosy from the blush and possibly the tears.
“I think I may love you too.” You say, fighting the joyous laughter that is bubbling in your chest.
It takes her a moment to register your words, but when she does she reaches up and places both hands on either side of your face. With your face in her palms, she pulls you down to meet her in another kiss. This one, though, is not as gentle as the former. She melds her lips to your own and you try to follow her lead as she kisses you with a sort of passion that you hadn’t felt before. She nips at your bottom lip, it’s your turn to gasp and she takes that opportunity to gently lick the spot she bit before deepening the kiss.
You wrap your arms around Morgana’s neck and tangle your hands in her hair as she detaches her lips from your mouth and slowly starts kissing from your jaw down to the base of your neck. Morgana’s hands have wandered from your face to your hips and suddenly you feel as though the world is spinning. There’s a pressure on your back, and you look up to see the ceiling above you. Morgana flipped the two of you over, but is unphased as she presses chaste kisses across your collarbone.
“Morgana,” You gasp.
“Yes?” She pries herself from your chest to look down at you. Her pupils are blown and her lips are swollen and red. In your eyes, you can’t think of a time where she has looked more beautiful.
“I think love at first sight is real.”
“Do you, now?” She grins and presses a kiss to the side of your mouth. “Oh how easy you are to persuade.”