*looks up from the book he’s reading and smiles* Hey, Summer. What’s going on?
As a matter of fact, you ARE that important, he insisted, walking over to her and draping an arm across her shoulders. He sighed slightly. Look, what happens or doesn’t happen between you and Gwaine is nobody’s business but yours and his. Nobody should be sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong.
Summer turned her face into his shoulder and burst into tears. “I shouldn’t care so much,” she whispered. “I know they’re just idle gossipers, they’ll talk about anyone who comes along, and it might not have been me. If anybody can know these things it’s me, but I just want to be — ” She stopped, and gulped hard, sniffling gracelessly.
“You don’t love me,” she said at last. “I want to meet someone here who sees /me/, and loves me, everything, all the things you know, and I’m such a failure.”
He gently rubbed her back as he listened to her, clueless about what to say at first. Listen to me, he replied softly. You are not a failure. You will find someone someday, someone who will love you with all of their heart and whom you will love with all of yours. It will be worth the wait.
She nodded, face still hidden in his shoulder. “Patience is hard,” she muttered. “I want someone now.” Summer forced herself to pull away from Merlin, realising that if she kept leaning on him, in this kind of conversation, things would start being awkward very quickly.