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It was a bit bizarre being like this. Strangeness written in every new muscle, in every lacking weight, in every gained part. Having to change her gait, how she moved, even how she breathed due to the bits she was now lacking and the ones she had sitting weirdly between her thighs.
Gwen was trying very hard not to think about it. But well it was a sort of all encompassing thing, being in Merlin’s body. The changes just far too noticeable in every movement for her mind not to drift back to the oddness of the day.
It had been a strange sort of spell to put them as they were. One, she had no clue of the true purpose of. But well now they were a bit trapped, until Gaius could find some sort of solution in his mountain of research.
Arthur had just about popped his lid when they tried to explain it to him. Gaping with the biggest of blue eyes as his stare jumped back and forth between Merlin looking as he did in her body, same slumped shoulders despite her lacking height and quirk of flailing his limbs about in all directions when he talked that she very much was grateful that she had never picked up, as unbecoming as it looked on her even if it felt perfectly natural when Merlin was doing it with his own bones, and her uncomfortably shifting about in his frame, arms poised in front of her and a shrug sitting on her body while she bit at her lip, probably looking just as unbelievable as Merlin looked through the entire explanation.
Seemingly not all that sure what to do with himself when the person he had been courting jumped into his servants skin, Arthur had offered to just send them both to help aid the physician in his research, but well, the castle wasn’t about to run itself, and with both of them down she was quite convinced everything would fall apart, just knowing how much Merlin did to help anyone who asked. And with Gaius practically saying that he was as confused on who to talk to as they felt with both of them appearing as they did at the moment, it was mutually decided for them to just take up their normal chores for the moment.
Or well, her taking up Merlin’s normal chores and Merlin taking up hers. Uther being in such a state that it would do more harm to try to have someone else serve him. So, Merlin offered to take care of the king while she focused her attention on the prince. Something that Arthur greatly disagreed with, even if he was absolutely flummoxed by speaking to her wearing Merlin’s face.
So, instead of trying to get him dressed, a prospect that had both of their cheeks warming, she offered to take up some of the less offensive bits of Merlin’s job.
Pushing her focus back into the chore at her fingertips instead of the peculiar feeling of drifting in another person's skin, the laundry basket sitting heavy in her arms. She couldn’t pop her hip as she usually would to hold the load, no curve to her body to hold it aloft, and so she was forced to use her arms, already burning with fatigue. How Merlin did this chore damn near every day and still didn’t have the muscles to make it any easier she would quite literally never understand. But well, she was never one to complain about work, even with the peculiarity making her mind race with different oddities of being in a man’s frame as a certain appendage rubbed strangely against her thigh.
What she wasn’t expecting was for a hand to wrap around her burning forearm and drag her from her path. A shriek at the tip of her tongue as she was drawn into a hidden alcove. Her foot ready to bring down heavily on whoever had the nerve to do this.
It died quite suddenly when a flower was presented under her nose, when she saw the person doing the yanking. Twirling the stem carefully and with a great teasing quality, Gwaine smirked up at her, an angle she had never seen of the man from her usual viewpoint. His eyes filled with gleeful wonder as the smile grew more in place.
“A prince such as yourself shouldn’t have to lump around washing, especially when it's not even your own” Hit with the strangest déjà vu as she was, she just sort of blinked at him funny as he ran through the same flirting routine as he had in the market all that time ago. Allowing him to use the hand not carrying a delightful purple flower to pluck the basket from her aching arms and drop it to the floor. Him, continuing with his playfulness, moving even deeper into her space since she was stuck a little silly with this strangeness added to her day. “I’ve missed you” Gwaine whispered lightly, leaning closer and closer to tuck the flower behind her ear with his breath lingering on the piece of exposed flesh. Behind Merlin’s ear, she had to remind herself before she could attempt to shrug off his advances and tell him exactly how inappropriate this was.
And well, she wasn’t given all that much time to think at all on why Gwaine would feel this comfortable with a certain servant, as the distance continued to shrink between their bodies. Ducking under pursed lips attempting to find her own, or more accurately Merlin’s own, and rushing to scramble any sort of response out of her mouth while her fingers fumbled for the basket, “Unfortunately I’m no prince” coming to the same answer as she had back when she had witnessed this the first time.
When finally she had gathered her chore up again into fatigued, tender arms, she lifted her eyes to look at Gwaine. His brows furrowing as his eyes narrowed at her, looking her up and down curiously, almost worried in nature “If I did something to upset you Merlin, you can tell me. There is no need to put up this act”
And well, that stopped her dead as she realized that her response had conjured such seriousness in the man that usually always tried to play it so breezy, especially with a flirtation not taken too. Pointing towards a thought, even more remarkable than all this day had brought her, that this might have been a more regular thing than she was privy to. That Merlin, her best friend in the world, whom she told everything to, might have got himself into a relationship and just neglected to tell her. That the man who knew every embarrassing detail of her own crazed dating escapades, didn’t bother to mention any of his in return. “Traitor” she let loose, whispered to herself, before she could even hope to tame it, making the concern and questioning bloom even greater on Gwaine’s face, scrutinizing her even more with soft brown eyes.
“What?” he said, once again grabbing at the basket Gwen was purposefully keeping between the two of them. Only resulting in her once more dodging his attempts. “Merlin,” he huffed slightly, again trying to gain closeness as he stepped closer, only for her to elude him again in this strange game of circles they were playing, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing” she rushed. Not wanting to go through all the explanations again with just how much she was burning with new-found ridiculous knowledge that needed a certain outlet to explode towards.
“But,” he once more tried to push into her space, resulting in Gwen evading him once again, continuing in this eccentric dance. The weight between her legs keeping her slightly off foot in her movements. No wonder Merlin was so clumsy. “This isn’t working” Finally stopping all together to throw his hands out to the side. He sounded slightly surprised, slightly shocked, only revealing how much more she didn’t know about Merlin’s life than she thought. “You usually love me pulling you away for a spare moment.” Betrayal of the highest order. Just how many of these little escapades had she not known about in the slightest “Just tell me what I’ve done so we can talk it out”
Instead of latching onto the latter words like he clearly wanted her to, storing them away for when she had Merlin’s ear to shout in, she clung to the former. Again forcing her slightly distracted mind to come up with something to get the knight to stop with his attempts to get her speaking. “No, Sir Gwaine, it’s not working” she was being short with the wrong person. She knew that. Her hurt should have been aimed at a certain servant wearing her skin. Yet, right now all she had was Gwaine. “But I liked that you tried, and you know when to give up” Shunning away from him one last time, pulling the flower from its precarious position tucked behind a certain liars ear and handing it back to the stunned man at her front, who took it in an absent sort of way before turning his examination on the purple petals. Allowing her to turn and start her track to locate a certain rat who thought it fine to keep her in the dark.
She only made it a handful of steps before his voice rose up once again, understanding washing into it and with her damn near actually hearing the gears turn in his brain, “Gwen”
It had her stopping dead in her tracks. Back straightening and stomach clenching at being found out so quickly. A breath caught in her throat, right above the strange Adam’s apple that should not be a part of her neck, slowly spinning to look at the knight, who once more had a slight smile on his face with the damn near confirmation that was her body language. The flower still twisting between two fingers absently, even with his eyes locked on her.
“You’re not Merlin” he accentuated every word with a step closer, not near as crowding into her space as he was a mere few moments before, keeping the distance decent, if not still near just so they could both keep there voices down despite the empty hallway, even with a predator's gait and an all-knowing sparkle in his eye. “Merlin would never call me Sir, no matter how angry he was with me, not with any seriousness anyway” Using the flower to point at her as her lips formed a tight line. “And Gwen has given me that exact run around once before.” the stem finding its way between his teeth, now that the accusation was issued, still somehow continuing to talk even with his mouth preoccupied, “I’m right, aren’t I?” Smile accentuated by the petals drifting with his breath.
She didn’t have it in her to lie, not with all that had happened and all that she was going to have to deal with now. So even though her face was probably clearly pointing to just how annoyed she was, she nodded, allowing one more to be brought into the weirdness of the day.
A victory written in a fist pounding the sky and a joyous look adorning his features as he gloated that he had figured it out with just his gestures.
And well, now that all the cards were on the table, she decided that she wasn’t done attempting to decipher the past several months to see how angry she got to be with Merlin, fishing for even more information, “How long has this been going on for” a nod of her head and a pointed look all she could do with her hands still full.
One side of Gwaine’s mouth ticked up even higher, “I don’t know what you're talking about” He spouted with the upmost boldness.
“Come off it” she interjected, “I need to know how long Merlin is going to be in trouble for”
An eyebrow raised in challenge, “Not much of an incentive for me to tell you that then.” Maddeningly protective in this. Which would have been sweet if it weren’t so infuriating at the moment, “Now why don’t you tell me how you two managed this?”
“I asked first”
“But my question is so much more relevant” Gwaine still had that absurd smile about him. Only really cracking and pulling the flower away as she quirked her head to the side and blew air out of her nose in a rush of hotheaded rage. “And well I need to know how much I should be worried” Showing the fear where the cockiness had been festering before.
Fine. As annoyed as she was she couldn’t really deal with Gwaine actually fretting about the deceiver she was never going to speak to again. “A witch spelled us as we were picking herbs for Gaius. It’s fine. We’re working on it”
The smile grew once again at the confirmation that everything was just dandy, minus the being robbed of her own body. Damn near blinding, shinning with appreciation and care. “Around two months.” he replied, filling in the missing bit she had asked for with a wave of his hand, “Started after that night I got drunk a few weeks back, and he helped me home. I kissed him, and he responded in kind” His tongue finding its way to prance over his lips as if he could still taste Merlin there. And if she wasn’t ragging mad she would have found the fact that Gwaine’s cheeks were pulled so taunt almost cute as he relayed the story. “Merlin wanted to keep it between just us, for a little while at least”
Oh, so it was that fibbers fault. Two months she had spent in the dark. Two bloody months. She was going to have to wait to confront him, otherwise she worried for the state of her ears when she got her body back. The way she was going to yell at him probably not all that suitable for human consumption. It wasn’t as if this were a secret of any real importance. Not one she was likely to spread about either. So the idea that she wasn’t trusted there put actual hurt in her flat chest.
“So” She hadn’t realized how long she let the silence stew as she thought through all the ways she was going to torture Merlin. Gwaine drawing her back to the present with the drawn out word. “You’re just in Merlin’s body?”
“Don’t be lewd” she huffed. It wasn’t said specifically suggestively but knowing Gwaine’s brain it wasn’t hard to see the thoughts spinning about.
Both of his hand raised to display his innocence. “Just thought it must be strange is all, going from being a woman to a man in the blink of an eye”
And well, it was really rather nice for someone to commiserate with her over this predicament. No one really mentioning the fact that this was as bizarre to her as it was to the others. As wild as the day had been, no one really having time. She wasn’t really expecting it from Gwaine of all people but right now she would gladly take it. “It really is, and well Merlin is so -”
“Well endowed” Gwaine finished for her, gesturing to where her basket was covering.
“Yes” Eye going wide with the understanding being pointed at her. “It just always seems to be… in the way” her cheeks once more growing warm with what they were discussing, but weirdly thankful for it, all the same.
Gwaine hummed thoughtfully, finally sticking the flower he was holding behind his own ear as he brushed his hair out of the way, on his way to crossing his arms over his chest. “Have you tried pissing yet”
Jerking a bit at the candour at which he proclaimed it, yet surprising a sort of light laugh out of her, “What?”
“That would be my first thought, if I’ve never had one before. Way more practical, way more fun than how you lady’s go”
Another chuckle rising out of her at the absurd turn of the conversation, “I wouldn’t know” she managed out finally, through the weirdness that this was even a talking point she was ever at a place to have.
Gwaine nodded thoughtfully, “Well if you need some help, I know the area pretty damn well”
And you know what, why the hell not? She deserved a little fun after all this. Not to mention it would probably torment Merlin that little bit more to know all they had got up to. No doubt probably beyond embarrassed by Gwaine seeing him in such a state. Bowing her head and having her own grin gain life at a plan of revenge taking shape, “I would love some help”
With that they quickly dropped off the laundry, before skipping their way about the castle. And when they finished their first attempt, Gwaine regaled her with enough water for a horse so she could do it all over again.
And well, he was rather right. It really was more fun.