Title: matchless mice, and other spoils
Fandom: Merlin
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 328
Summary: As the King's ward, Morgana is allowed - nay, expected - to have opinions about Arthur.

Morgana has a somewhat ... unique view of Camelot’s crown (and only) prince. It would be hard for her not to, after being raised beside him for the vast majority of their childhoods, as practically siblings in act if not blood, with all the squabbles and conflict and isolation that being under Uther's direct protection that that entailed. It is a position that makes it her duty to inform him that he acts like a self-assured idiot, loudly and to his face, each and every time he acts like a lout rather than a prince raised. No one else will, and she has a duty to the kingdom to keep his inflating ego in check. (And, as acting Lady of the castle, he reflects on her ... raising. On her ability to discharge the duties she has been tasked with. And it's not as if she has any desire to make a household with any of the lords and landed gentry that come to court; but eventually she must and she intends to approach the situation with the best possible footing.)

And yet, even if he goes on hunts when he is better served learning management of his vassals (Morgana knows more of running a kingdom than the future king, and she will, at most, become lady of a holdfast to secure a treaty that Camelot needs, which both is a deplorable and utterly preventable state of affairs), Arthur is … sometimes gallant. Not that she cares for his hunting, but when he tramps up to her solar, his poor manservant staggering after, and presents her with what she first takes for a not too small dog, she is pressed to admit that he can, at times show some redeeming qualities.

The bear pelt is large enough to cover her entire bed, warm enough to eliminate cold drafts, and sturdy enough to shelter from a full flight of Saxons' arrows. Gwen approves. Morgana can't bring herself to disagree.