"Gwaine, if you go too far out we'll never see you again!" Arthur shouts out as he stays close to the shores of the lake.
"Oh, but my dear prince...How will you rescue your fair maiden!?" Gwaine retorts with a wide sarcastic grin.
"Funny, I don't see anything resembling the words fair, nor maiden. Come towards the shore, that way we don't have to worry about you."
"It's only me, you, and Merlin. Also, it was your idea to go for a swim, princess."
"Be that as it may, I'm not coming in to rescue you from the middle of the lake. If I had to do that anyone would easily think I allowed you to drink an entire tavern and go for a swim." Arthur started swimming where he was at. He could touch but just barely.
"Merlin, you look uncomfortably dry up there. Join us!" Gwaine smiles at Merlin who is simply sitting on a blanket just before the shore line.
"I'm fine up here. Besides, if the two of you need anything and it requires being dry...well, I'm already here." Merlin smiles as he inwardly hopes they just leave it at that.
"Very well then" Arthur answers and slowly swims towards where Merlin is. Once he sees that he's not paying attention he goes underwater and jumps in front of Merlin, hoping to get his servant soaked. Once he realizes he's succeeded he laughs. "Gwaine's right, you should join us. Especially now that you're soaked."
"I said no, Arthur. Now I have to dry my clothes...I just washed these." Merlin gets up and walks back over to where they made camp, leaving a confused Arthur and an irritated Gwaine.
"Arthur, perhaps you shouldn't have done that. It's not like he was being stuck up about it. He just didn't want to swim...and who knows...maybe he doesn't know how and didn't want to feel embarrassed. I'm sure there's a lot we don't know about him, simply because we don't ask or because we or rather...you agitate him with what you just did."
"Calm down Gwaine. He's just being Merlin. He's stubborn, pig headed, and not to mention an idiot. He'll bounce back."
Gwaine quickly makes his way out of the water but stops next to Arthur. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, Your highness, but you just described yourself. He is not a dog, cat, nor any other kind of animal that can simply bounce back and instantly be happy with their master after they've forgotten what happened...and he may not be royal or a knight but he's still human, and perhaps you've forgotten with that rather large royal stick up your arse, but humans below knighthood and royalty have feelings too!"
Slightly stunned at Gwaine's outburst the only thing he asks the only thing that can come out of his mouth at the moment "Hey, where are you going"
"To go find out if Merlin is okay. Not that you care." Gwaine walks up the hill and towards where they had made camp. It was near a cave, and hidden by some trees in case of bandits or if they needed shelter.
"That damn royal prat! This was my favorite shirt too!" Gwaine can hear that Merlin is unhappy so he's careful to tread lightly but soon regrets doing so once Merlin takes his shirt off.
'I've been in far more than my share of bar fights and I've never had that many scars!' He thinks to himself as he analyzes every scar from the boys hands, arms, shoulders, neck, back, and when he turns to face the fire...his torso. Right in the middle of his chest is a huge burn mark that has healed over time but is clearly still painful. A burn like that would hinder a man from doing much of anything having to do with their arms or heavy lifting, and he knew that's practically all The royal prat had him do.
"Damn, I had just applied medicine to this wound." Gwaine looked to where Merlin was inspecting and he noticed whip marks.
'Surely there's no way Arthur...Those are fresh markings...and there are fresh sword and arrow wounds too.' Gwaine quickly and quietly made his way back to where he left Arthur.
Once he got there he noticed Arthur drying off and he had already put some of his clclothes on himself.
Arthur looked up at him and noticed the strange look on his knight's face. "What, did Merlin tell you to leave him alone? He always was a..." Before he could finish Gwaine had him pinned to the ground.
"What the hell did you do to him!?" He growls at him as he holds the prince down while trying to keep his voice quiet.
"What are you talking about?"
"Look, I know I'm a drunkard, and I know I may not be the greatest knight, but I am not a damn fool! What did you do to Merlin for him to have so many damn scars!?" Gwaine could see his own tears fall on the king's chest. He didn't want to believe that Arthur could be so cruel and he didn't want to believe that Merlin had been hiding so many scars or why he was hiding them. He just wanted to know what the hell was wrong with his friends. Merlin had been his first real friend, so he was more concerned with him than anything.
"Scars...Gwaine, what are you talking about?"
"Scars, wounds, burns...he has recent scars that would've been caused by a sword, dagger, arrow, and even whip marks. Dear God, Arthur...don't tell em you whip Merlin."
Arthur's face goes visibly pale and he looks at Gwaine with a horrified look. "Whip marks?"
"Y-you didn't..." Realization at Arthur's reaction caused him to loosen his grip in the young king. "You didn't whip him."
Arthur scrambles to sit up and lean against the tree behind him. He places his head in his hands as he looks down to the ground. "Gwaine, I could never...I would never intentionally harm Merlin. Most of the time I wish he would stay out of the damn battle, but he doesn't. I don't ever remember hearing about him getting whipped."
"I suppose you know nothing of the burn mark on his chest either, princess?"
"Burn mark?"
"It practically takes up his entire chest. It looks so deep...I don't know how he's able to do what he does for you. Any other man would find it a strain on their body."
"What do we do, Gwaine? It's not like we can walk right up to him and say, Hey tell us about your scars and how they happened...I just upset him..."
"I don't know...perhaps when we get back we can ask Gaius about it. He would know what's going on."
"That sounds like our best bet..."