Title: Lady Merlin

Author: RomaMarufixx

Rating: K+

Pairing: Fem! Merlin/Arthur

Summary: Lady Merlin was raised in by Ygraine and Uther beside their children Morgana and Arthur. When Uther suggests Merlin marries to a prince from an ally kingdom Arthur becomes outraged and has to come to the fact that he is in love with her. Based on a prompt from and dedicated to Lady Blade WarAngel.

Word count:

Disclaimer: Merlin belongs to the BBC.

A.N/ First Chapter of this fic, enjoy, there will not be another week or so.

Merlin grunted to herself as her maidservant ran a cob through her notty raven hair, Merlin made small noises of discomfort whenever the maid came across a large not and had to tug hard.

"Almost done m'lady, you have to look your best for today." The maid said and Merlin groaned louder.

"Why? Ugh, everyone in the kingdom knows that Morgana is the one with beautiful hair and a pretty face, I am the normal one."

"You are also pretty Lady Merlin." Her maid said, shocked that her mistress have basically called herself plain and ugly.

"No I'm not, ugh, does this mean I'll have to wear make up?" Merlin said, tilting her head backwards to look at her maid.

"Yes it does." Her maid answered, ignoring what she had said before, you could never win an argument with Merlin about her looks, she would always call herself ugly even though she was one of the most beautiful woman in all of Camelot, everyone would agree!

"I hate wearing make up." Merlin sighed but let her maid put some on her face.

"I know Lady Merlin, but it is only for today." Merlin nodded and allowed her maid to finish her make up before leading her to the court room where the King and Queen were summoning all of the members of the court.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, me and my wife have gathered you all here today because we have an important announcement." Uther said, holding Ygraine's hand.

Arthur and Merlin were stood to one side of the king and queen while Morgana stood on the other side. Arthur leaned over to Merlin and whispered in her ear.

"My mother's too old to have another child...right?" Merlin giggled and nodded at Arthur who smirked.

"As we did four years ago to Morgana, it is time we marry off Lady Merlin who is now eighteen." Merlin and Arthur looked at the King and Queen in shock.

Four years ago, when Morgana had turned eighteen she had been married off to King Uther's best knight, Sir Leon, who's five years her elder, the two had been friends before they had married and their marriage was slightly awkward but not as awkward as two strangers marrying, they didn't show any personal displays of affection out in public so whether or not they were romantically involved or not.

But Merlin knew that their relationship was now more than friendly and had been that way since a month after their marriage and Morgana had even shared some very exciting news, Gaius had old Morgana last month that she was pregnant, only one or two months gone, but still, pregnant!

Morgana had told Leon last week and he took it very well, he was actually overjoyed to become a father, and unlike most men, he didn't care if he didn't get a son, he just wanted a healthy child.

Morgana hadn't told anyone else part from Merlin and Leon, and of course Gaius, since she was only three months pregnant but was planning to tell the King and Queen and the court next month as her pregnancy would begin to show and she would have to get some new dresses to fit her.

But Merlin couldn't think of herself getting married and having children, at least not for a few more years, she was only eighteen and Arthur was far older than her, twenty-one, why didn't they marry him off before they married her off?

"Prince Marcus of Mardon will be arriving tomorrow afternoon, he is the future husband of Lady Merlin." the court applauded loudly as Uther brought Merlin forward so the court could see her better and applaud her more. Merlin blushed and looked away, back at Arthur who had a stern look on his face and refused to look at Merlin.

"Did you know father would marry you off to some Prince!?" Arthur questioned her angrily as he stormed into Merlin's chambers later that evening, Merlin's maid quickly made her way out of the room not wanting to get in between the argument.

"What? Of course not, if I had known I would have refused to marry him! I don't even know who he is, I've never met him before? How could you think that!"

"Well, you didn't say anything to father about not wanting to marry the man!"

"How was I suppose to do that!?" Merlin shouted.

"Um, I don't know, just tell him!"

"And embarrass me in front of the court! I couldn't do that, the man raised me from a child, if it wasn't for him I would most likely be dead right now! I owe him so much, if he wants me to do this for him, I'll do it."

Arthur was going to reply when Ygraine walked into the room and by the look on her face she had heard the whole of Merlin and Arthur's argument.

"Mother." he acknowledged her and she nodded at her son.

"Arthur, if you would leave me and Merlin alone to talk please?" Ygraine asked, obviously seeing how stressed Merlin was and Arthur was not helping her in the slightest.

"Of course Mother." He said before glaring at Merlin and then leaving them alone.

Merlin sat on the edge of her bed and stifled a sob as she covered her face with her hands. Ygraine had seen her cry enough time having raised her since she was a small child. Ygraine rubbed Merlin's back, comforting her.

"Merlin, I'm sorry, I did try and talk Uther out of it, as I did with Morgana, but he is a stubborn man." Merlin nodded.

"At least Morgana was friends with the person she married, I have no idea who the man I'm marrying is I've never met him before!" Merlin said, sobbing back into her hands, no tears yet escaping her eyes.

"You have met him before Merlin."

"What?" Merlin said looking up at her mother figure. "When?"

"Almost 13 years ago, don't you remember?" Ygraine asked her and Merlin rolled her eyes.

"Ygraine, I can hardly remember what I did last week, do you really think I'll remember thirteen years ago?" Ygraine chuckled.

"I guess not, you're memory is not the best." Merlin couldn't agree more with that statement. "Well, when you were two years old, myself and Uther found you in the forests abandoned, as you already know." Merlin nodded, knowing the story already, she had always been raised knowing that she was not Uther and Ygraine's daughter, they didn't want to lie to her, but they were the closest thing she had to parents and a family since nobody knew who hers was.

By the time Uther and Ygraine had brought her to Camelot they already had two children, their oldest, Princess Morgana who was six years old and Prince Arthur who was five years old.

"Well a couple of years later Uther began discussing with me about the possibility of arranged marriages for our children. I objected, wanting our children to marry who they loved, but making allies with other kingdoms was very important to him, no matter what I said, and when you and Morgana were only children he began searching for possible nobles and royals that you could marry one you got older."

"What about Arthur, did Uther not want to marry him off to some princess?"

"No, well at least not until Uther himself became ill and Arthur would have to take the throne, but as the two of you will not take the throne, he wanted to marry you two off as soon as you turned eighteen, anyway back to you and Lord Marcus." Merlin sighed and Ygraine chuckled.

"When you were five years old, Uther had managed to find someone who would be an excellent match for you, the Prince Marcus, who at the time was eight years old."

"Well, at least he's not twenty years older than me." Ygraine nodded.

"That is the only thing I was happy with about this arranged marriage, well he and his parents came to Camelot so that the King and Uther could talk about the proposal of marriage."

"Why did Uther want me to marry Prince Marcus and not any other Prince or Lord or someone or other?"

"Prince Marcus' kingdom is very big and has one of the most powerful armies, even more powerful than Camelot's, that and the King was very old, so he would have to be looking for a wife for his son and you and Morgana were the only girls young enough for his son, since you were younger the King chose you and ever since we've been waiting for this day."

"And why did nobody tell me any of this?"

"I wanted to, but Uther would not let me tell you, I'm sorry Merlin." Ygraine said, comforting the stressed teen.

"It's okay, Ygraine, you and Uther have done so much for me, marrying this man is the least I can do to show you two how grateful I truly am." Merlin said, a smile on her face even though Ygraine knew too well that it was faked.

"Although." Merlin continued, looking downwards. "I still don't understand why Arthur reacted so harshly."

"Oh, Merlin, you are oblivious." Ygraine said before kissing her forehead and leaving Merlin alone in her chambers, even more confused than she was a few moments before.

"Merlin! Come on let's play." A small Morgana called out to the other raven haired girl who stumbled on over to the older girl.

"No, Morgana she's playing with me." A moody Arthur said, catching Merlin by the arm and not allowing her to walked over to Morgana, instead of kicking up a fuss Merlin stood there with Arthur.

"Arthur, Merlin, Morgana." the sweet voice of Ygraine called out to the children and they ran over to the source of her voice.

"What is is mother?" Morgana asked, her unusual green eyes wide.

"I've got someone for you too meet, this is Prince Marcus." she introduced the pale boy with brown hair and matching brown eyes. He was older than all the three of them so they were a little scared to play with him, well, all apart from Arthur. "I'll leave the four of you to play." Ygraine said, walking off the green and back into the caste.

"Hello Marcus my name is Morgana." The oldest girl said proudly and held out her hand which was shook by the brown haired boy.

"It's nice to meet you Morgana." he replied politely.

"I'm Arthur." Arthur said plainly, his expression sour, but Marcus was polite to him, smiling and nodding at the other prince and then turned to the third child who looked very nervous.

"And you are?" Marcus asked, and after receiving no answer from the girl he moved closer and spoke again. "It's okay, you can tell me your name, I don't bite." he chuckled and earned a little smile out of the girl.

"Merlin, my name is Merlin." she said.

"Merlin? That's a pretty name." the Prince said and Merlin smiled, embarrassed, both ignored the glare they were receiving from Arthur.

"Do you want to play with me, in the forests perhaps, we don't have forests like them in Mardon!"

"Sure!" Merlin said, grinning but before the two could walk off Arthur stopped them.

"No!"

"Arthur, she wants to play with Marcus, leave 'em alone." Morgana told her younger brother.

"No, she's playing with me!"

"Prince Arthur, please, I'm only here for a little while and I wanna play with Merlin." Marcus tried to reason with the upset prince.

"She's mine!" Arthur said as he tugged Merlin away from the other prince. "Not yours!" and with that he took Merlin and stormed off into the castle.

"Don't worry Marcus, you can play with Merlin later, when Arthur's cooled down. Do you want me to show you the villages?" The prince nodded eagerly.

Merlin stirred awake from her dream, looking at the deep blue drapes that covered the top of her King sized bed. Turning her head she saw it was dark outside and groaned, why did she wake up so early?

Whilst lying in her bed, she thought back to the dream she was having before she woke up, but somehow she could have sworn that it was actually a memory instead of a dream...she'd have to ask Ygraine once it was morning, although not over the morning meal, she didn't want Uther to get over excited about he remembering more about her soon to be husband, nor did she want to upset Arthur any more than current things had.

She wondered why Arthur got so upset after he had heard what Uther