Love Riders

Chapter 4: Unrequited Love

The girls were halfway to the castle, when Merlin told them that he needed to find Gaius. At first the girls were shocked that he even knew who Gaius was, but then they started helping him find where Gaius was. After what had seemed like hours of the trio searching for Gaius, they finally found the sign that said "Court Practitioner" on it.

They knocked three times and then they opened the door. "Hello?" Merlin and Victoria said at the same time. They looked at each other for a second and then at something else.

The trio was looking around the room for a little bit and then Evangeline started to speak. "Hello? Is anyone here?" The trio kept looking around the room until they saw someone standing by a balcony reading a book.

"Hello?" Evangeline said a little bit louder. The man apparently didn't hear her. Victoria and Merlin made a coughing sound at the same time. He must of heard them that time, because he went to turn around but the balcony broke and he fell off the edge.

For a moment Merlin's eyes flashed gold and time seemed to slow for a little bit. The man's bed was quickly put underneath where the man would have fallen. Then everything went back to normal time.

The guy, who the girls recognized instantly to be their Uncle Gaius, looked at Merlin. "How did you do that?" Gaius asked concerned. Merlin was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "I don't know—I," Merlin said sounding confused.

"Don't lie to me boy!" Gaius said sounding serious, knowing perfectly well how Merlin did that. The girls didn't know what was going on between their Uncle Gaius and Merlin.

"I was born with it," Merlin said mimicking Gaius' serious tone. Gaius looked like he was taking a moment to process what was just said. "No! That's impossible, it can't be!" Gaius said looking afraid.

"Who are you?" Gaius asked Merlin with some curiosity in his question. Before Merlin could answer the question, Victoria responded to her Uncle Gaius. "His name is Merlin, Uncle!"

Merlin looked between Gaius and the girls for a while trying to process the information. "What if someone saw you do that, boy? Do you know what the penalty is, if you got caught?" Gaius said in a serious tone.

"No one saw. I promise no one saw anything," Merlin said in a calming kind of way. The girls walked over to Gaius and gave him a hug, which he kindly returned. Then he looked back to Merlin and asked, "Aren't you supposed to be here until Wednesday?" Merlin chuckled softly and replied, "It is Wednesday!"

Then Merlin handed him a letter of some sort. Gaius read it for a moment and then looked back at Merlin with a smile. The girls looked outside and then at each other, as if remembering something. "We just remembered that Arthur invited us to go see him training, we'll catch up with you later Uncle!" Evangeline said as the girls were walking out of the door.

Merlin looked confused for a minute before he asked, "Uncle?" Gaius just chuckled and replied, "Sit down. This may take awhile."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The girls were walking over to where Arthur and the other knights were training in a quick walk, as they didn't want to be any later then absolutely necessary. When the girls arrived they instantly noticed Arthur sword fighting with Sir Peter. Victoria also noticed that Sir William was watching the training from the sidelines with a few of the other knights.

Sir Peter, one of the knights that had a crush on Evangeline, seemed to have the upper hand in the sword fight. Sir William, on the other hand, was one of the knights that had a crush on Victoria. He seemed be staring and smiling at her from across the field.

Arthur almost bumped into Evangeline but was stopped when Sir Peter said, "Oh. Hey, Evangeline!" Evangeline acknowledged Sir Peter with a quiet, "Hello Sir Peter."

Arthur turned around and smiled when he saw Evangeline. "Hello m'lady, how are you today?" Arthur said bowing, then took her hand and kissed the back of it gently. Evangeline tried to hide her blush as she said, "I am doing fairly well, thank you for asking me." Then she curtsied followed by Victoria doing the same.

Arthur and Evangeline stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like centuries. Though as they were staring into each other's eyes, they were getting closer and closer to each other. They were inches apart from each other, that they could practically feel the other's breath on their skin.

Victoria interrupted the special moment with a coughing sound. As if they were brought back to reality, Arthur awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and said, "I should probably get back to training. It was nice seeing you fair maidens."

"Somebody's got a crush!" Victoria said to her sister in a sing-song voice.

"No I don't, I see him as a brother. That's it. I swear!" Evangeline shot back to her sister through almost gritted teeth.

Victoria was going to say some smart remark, but she was stopped by seeing Arthur and the knights bullying a servant by having the servant hold up a shield and move around while Arthur threw daggers at the shield. Victoria also noticed, in her peripheral vision, that Merlin had walked out.

Victoria instinctively picked up the hem of her dress and ran over to get the shield from the boy. Evangeline called after her sister saying, " Hey, Vickie wait!" But Victoria wasn't listening. So, Evangeline instinctively picked up the hem of her skirt and ran after her sister.

Once Victoria got to where all the guys were, she grabbed the shield but it slipped and it started rolling. Thankfully Merlin caught it with his foot. She smiled up at Merlin, as she was helping the servant get out of the way.

When Evangeline got there, she saw her sister talking to the servant off to the side. As she got closer she heard Arthur and Merlin talking to each other in a hostile way. Victoria walked back to where Arthur and Merlin were. She stood instinctively behind Merlin and Evangeline stood instinctively behind Arthur. The girls could tell by the looks that Arthur and Merlin were giving each other, that a fight was going to break out between them. The girls tried to calm the boys down by saying things like 'Let it go!' or 'It doesn't matter, just walk away!'

Their attempts, however wise, proved to be useless. Arthur and Merlin wouldn't listen to what was being said. Victoria was jealous, however, when she saw how Merlin was looking at her sister. Arthur must have seen though, because he wrapped his arm around Evangeline's waist causing Evangeline to blush. Merlin, feeling protective over Victoria, grabbed her hand intertwining his fingers with hers causing Victoria to blush.

Arthur saw that Merlin had taken her hand and was getting annoyed at this point. "Victoria let go of his hand and come over here to me and Evangeline." Victoria was about to protest, until she saw the very stern look her sister was giving her. Victoria bowed her head and walked over to Arthur and her sister, slowly letting go of Merlin's hand. Once she reached Arthur's side, Arthur told Sir Peter and Sir William to escort the girls back to their rooms while Merlin gets sent to the dungeon.

Once the girls were outside of their chamber and Merlin was being taken to the dungeon, the girls turned towards Sir Peter and Sir William. "We have to go see our Uncle Gaius, is that okay with you kind gentlemen?" Victoria asked Sir William and Sir Peter.

After the girls got the ok from the knights to go see their Uncle Gaius, they made a mad run down flights of stairs, through stars until they reached the place that had the sign "Court Practitioner." They burst through the door and Victoria frantically let out, "Merlin's being taken to the dungeon for getting into an argument with Arthur." Gaius looked between his two nieces for a moment before he finally said, "I'll see what I can do. Thank you girls for telling me."
And with that Gaius left the room in a mad dash towards the throne room. The girls then left a moment later after they had catched their breath.