This takes place in an au where everything is pretty much the same except it's in the modern world. Because of the existence of magic, it's not the same as our world, but there is electricity and the internet and phones.
This is a sequel to An Ineffective Spell, but if you don't want to read that, the only relevant information (which isn't even that important, just mentioned a couple times) is that Merlin comes out to Gaius, Gwen, Arthur, and Gwaine as aromantic. Arthur doesn't believe him at first, and Gwaine reveals that he is also on the asexual and aromantic spectrum.
In this universe, the equivalent events to the Servant of Two Masters just happened, which is that episode where Morgana takes over Merlin's mind so he tries to kill Arthur. At this point, Arthur knows that there's a traitor close to him, and Agravaine is pointing him towards Gaius. Morgana has just had her first meeting with Emrys, who she knows will be her downfall, and is desperate to find Emrys's identity. A lot of the events in the Secret Sharer happen in this story, but they're mostly explained.
Gwaine ducked, barely avoiding the giant tail swinging towards him. Avoiding the debris on the floor, he ran to his right. If he could get in front of the creature, he could fire into its eyes or mouth, and maybe find a weak spot, somewhere that bullets could get through its thick skin and stop the creature's destructive rampage. It turned with him, chasing one of the younger knights, and Gwaine looked up just in time to see the creature's tail knock down a bit of the wall far above him. There was no time to move out of the way. But instead of falling straight down, the chunks of stone swerved right, missing Gwaine completely. He looked forward and, unsurprisingly, saw Merlin turning away from his direction. How no one else had noticed all the convenient 'accidents' that always happened around Merlin, Gwaine did not know.
But there was no time to dwell on that. Gwaine charged forward, firing his gun. This was pointless, he knew, though he hoped otherwise. The creature, with some strange, difficult to remember name, was undefeatable by any ordinary means, according to Gaius. But there was no other option except to try. Besides, the bullets managed to distract it long enough to save Leon from being trampled on, which wasn't nothing.
The palace bedroom where the knights had managed to corner it was in chaos. Bits of torn sheets and furniture were everywhere, scattered among the rubble. The creature was only barely contained, and it was clear that this would not last much longer.
The creature's tail smacked the room again, this time on the ceiling, as it lunged at Arthur, who dove out of the way just in time.
"Look out!" Elyan cried. The ceiling was beginning to crumble, collapsing on top of the creature. The knights scrambled out of the room. Gwaine glanced at Merlin again. The ceiling, while weakened from the battle below, hadn't seemed so fragile a few moments before. And it was interesting how it was only the ceiling inside of the room that was affected, while on the other side of the doorway, there was not even a crack.
The knights cautiously gathered around the remains of the room. There was no sign of life within. After a few minutes of nothing, Arthur directed a couple of them to clear away the rubble. The rest watched, alert, ready to shoot if the need arose.
After the stone covering the creature's head was lifted, the knights froze, waiting for it to strike back. Nothing happened. They waited some more, and still the creature did not move. It's eyes were closed and it gave no signs of breathing, but with such an unknown beast, they didn't know if that meant anything. Cautiously, they removed more stones on top of it, revealing that one of the larger stones had pierced its heart, killing it.
"How did that happen?" Bors asked.
"It must have been luck," Arthur said. "Leon, call Gaius and tell him to come here."
The rest of the knights stood around the creature muttering amongst themselves, watching it as if it might spring back to life at any moment. Gwaine listened to them for a bit before turning to Merlin.
"Strange how a rock can go through skin that bullets don't even nick," he said.
"What? Um, yeah. Very odd. I guess it was luck, like Arthur said."
"We seem to be very lucky a lot."
"Yes we do," Merlin said.
It suddenly struck Gwaine as incredibly unfair that so many of Merlin's accomplishments were credited to luck, even if it was the safest option. In one of the only countries where merely having magic was punishable by death, Merlin could never receive the praise he deserved, though Gwaine knew that he would never ask for it.
Only a few days before, when he joined Arthur on his search for Merlin, who they thought could be dead, Gwaine spent the better part of two hours rambling about the best qualities of Merlin. In part, it was to distract Arthur (and himself) from his worry, but in a way, to commemorate Merlin, in case he was dead. He could never speak about the extent of Merlin's bravery and self-sacrifice without revealing Merlin's magic, but the characteristics of Merlin, whether as Arthur's manservant or a powerful sorcerer, were the same. And though Gwaine could never just tell Merlin everything he admired about him, he did want Merlin to know some of that.
Across the room, Gaius had arrived, walking towards Merlin. Feeling a little impulsive, Gwaine said: "Anyway, thanks." Thanks for saving me back there, for saving all of us. Thanks for risking everything just to do that. Thanks for doing it over and over again.
"For what?" Merlin asked, smiling in an adorably confused manner.
Gwaine opened his mouth as if to answer, just in time for Gaius to appear.
"Merlin!"
Merlin looked up at Gaius. "Sorry, I have to go," he said as he rushed to the creature's side with Gaius.
Agravaine knocked on the door to King Arthur's office.
"Come in," Arthur called out.
Agravaine did, standing across the desk from Arthur, his hands folded behind his back. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Yes. Please sit. It's about the—the monster, I forget what it's called."
"Sir?"
"We had no warning when it entered the palace. It should have set off a dozen alarms but there was nothing. We only found it after it destroyed a few rooms. Someone let it in."
"You think we were sabotaged? Perhaps it was the traitor."
"Only a very trusted few, including you, Gaius, and my closest knights, could be capable of doing something like that." Merlin and Gwen probably could too, but Arthur couldn't even consider the possibility that they would keep major secrets from him.
"Do you have any idea who it might be?"
"I am nearly certain it is not any of my knights. They wouldn't have had a chance to betray me before, when the bandits attacked. It's unlikely that there are multiple traitors, one for the first time, and another for this one."
"I have suggested Gaius before," Agravaine murmured.
"Gaius is an old friend. I trust him. He has saved us all many times."
"It is difficult to believe he would do such a thing. Yet he has a history of practicing magic, does he not? He told you where to find the sorcerer that killed your father. And we know that he has knowledge of the beast."
"But that knowledge was incorrect. We defeated it without the use of magic. What reason would he have to lie? Or tell us the information in the first place? It would make him seem more suspicious."
"But if giving that information makes him seem less likely to be the traitor, it is possible that that is the reason why he gave it. Gaius is intelligent enough to double-bluff. Perhaps he gave you the incorrect information to frighten you. So you would give up sooner."
Arthur frowned. "He would know that has never worked in the past."
"He may have been mistaken."
"I trust Gaius, and can't believe he would do something like this."
"Then it wouldn't hurt to question him. Just as a precaution," Agravaine said smoothly.
"I will take your suspicions into consideration, but I don't think it was him. We can ask him your questions tomorrow. But in the meantime, go to Sir Geoffrey and tell him to do thorough background checks on everyone on this list here. I hadn't done this before because all of those people have personally given me great reasons to trust them, but perhaps that was a mistake."
"Yes, sir." Agravaine bowed, taking the paper and exiting the room. Once he was a safe distance away from anybody who could overhear him, he pulled out his phone, enchanted by Morgana to be safe from being tapped.
"Yes?" she answered.
"My lady, the plan has failed. It was somehow killed by a falling ceiling."
"Mere rock could not have killed it," Morgana hissed. "It has to be the work of Emrys."
"The plan concerning him is going better, my lady. I have used this event to make Arthur even more suspicious of Gaius. His trust in the old physician is weakening. We are set to question him tomorrow about his involvement in magic. I will ask him about Emrys, but if that fails..."
"Good. I have found someone who could get the information about Emrys from him in more... unconventional ways. Don't let your side of the plan fail."
"Of course, my lady," Agravaine said, but she had already hung up.
The next day, Gwaine dropped by Arthur's office to ask him what they were supposed to do with the beast's corpse, now that it had been fully examined by Gaius. Instead, he found Merlin doing the king's paperwork.
"Doesn't he have a secretary to do all of that for him?" Gwaine asked.
"Oh, hi, Gwaine," Merlin said. "Yeah, he does, but some of this stuff is supposed to be done by only Arthur himself, so of course I get to do it. I know pretty much everything he does, so he can get away with making me do it sometimes."
"Do you regularly do the king's duties for him?"
"Only right after we have an emotional moment." Merlin finally looked up at him, grinning. "Not that it was as much of one for him, but still."
"Oh?" Gwaine asked, leaning against the desk. "What happened?"
"Arthur was discussing Morgana with one of his advisors. I was standing in the background in case I was needed for something, as I often do. They were talking about measures to take against her, and if there was any of way of convincing her to stop, so they started talking about her motivations, and that kind of lead to a list of everything from before that pointed to her betrayal. Morgause's influence during Morgana's kidnapping, her stubbornness and clashing with Uther over policy and magic, the way she sometimes talked about a dream or bad feeling that ended up being true, that kind of thing.
"The advisor said something about how she never wanted to date, always immediately turned down suitors, and how some of her worst disagreements with Uther were over arranging some kind of beneficial marriage with someone. It was so bad he gave up on that, apparently, since she wasn't his heir or anything so it didn't matter much. She didn't even show interest in dating girls. It was all about how of course she was evil, if she never loved anyone; she was barely even human. I think he tried courting her at some point, but she kept turning him down, eventually humiliating him publicly when he didn't stop?
"Arthur just glared at him coldly, and asked him, 'how does lack of romance equate to evilness?' Because there's lots of terrible people who fall in love, and many good people who don't, and love can be the driving factor of many awful deeds. He accused the advisor of being sore that she never liked him back and said that some people don't fall in love or have interest in dating, and that's fine. It was really great. Arthur didn't look at me or anything, but it still kind of felt like it was about me.
"So once the guy left, all upset, I told him, 'thanks,' and he just rolled his eyes and told me to do some of this urgent paperwork because he needed to meet with Geoffrey of Monmouth. I think that means he's really accepted me?"
"It took him long enough," Gwaine said, but he was grinning, sharing some of Merlin's joy, and he clapped him on the back in celebration. It was good that someone Merlin loved so much seemed to fully accept and support him as aromantic.
After Merlin had come out to Gwaine, they started talking more about their orientations. It started out slow, as almost hesitant remarks along the lines of "Romantic attraction doesn't make any sense," or "It's so hard to tell sometimes when people are flirting with me" or "It's annoying how Bors keeps saying I would be happier if I had a more permanent relationship with any of the people I sleep with." Each time it was almost a question, as if wondering 'Is this something you share with me? Is this something you're okay with talking about?'
Until eventually, somehow, they had once gotten into a deep discussion. And things went smoother from there. Jokes were made, to the confusion of the others, sly glances were shared when anyone said something that sounded funny under the context of their aroaceness, and more conversations went on.
Merlin had told Gwaine about the others' reactions to him saying he was aromantic, and though Gwaine was far from happy about Arthur's, he was unsurprised. He had gotten similar ones many times. It was good to know that Arthur was one of the ones who came around and truly did believe Merlin, instead of just half-heartedly pretending to. Merlin deserved the best from people he loved.
"Better than never," Merlin said, still looking relieved that it had not been 'never.'
"That is true. Even now, my half-brother, Gaheris, doesn't believe me, and I gave him the simplified version. We weren't very close, but still."
"I didn't know you had siblings," Merlin said
Gwaine shrugged. Even with Merlin, who knew his secret ancestry, he didn't talk much about his family.
"Gwaine." Arthur's voice crackled from the radio that Gwaine wore on his belt. "I need you to come to the meeting room."
He lifted it and pushed the response button. "I'll be there in a minute," Gwaine promised, puzzled at the stern tone Arthur used.
"What did you do this time?" Merlin joked as he followed Gwaine into the hallway. Though Merlin hadn't been ordered to come, both of them knew that if he showed up anyway, he would not be unwelcome.
"I can't imagine," Gwaine said, and though he said it as if in jest, it was the truth.
At Arthur's meeting room, the smaller one for more private discussions, all the other head knights were already there. Elyan, Leon, Percival, and Arthur were seated around a circular table, the kind the king was so fond of. It couldn't have been something he did wrong if all of them were there. Arthur wouldn't gather everyone just to call him out on something, though this only created more questions. Judging from the others' vaguely confused expressions, they didn't know the purpose of this meeting either. Gwaine chose the chair across from Arthur.
"What is this all about?" he asked, smiling uncertainly.
"You," Arthur said, his serious tone lowering the mood of the room. "You all know how we were ambushed a few days earlier when we went on a route that few knew about. And yesterday when that creature got into the castle, it did so without setting off any of the alarms. All security records of how it could have been done were wiped. Both of those things could only have happened with help from the inside."
"You don't think that I...?" Gwaine started.
"Gwaine is no traitor!" Percival declared, as the others nodded.
"No," Arthur agreed. "Or at least, I don't have any information pointing towards that conclusion, though the traitor is still unfound. But I had Geoffrey of Monmouth do some thorough background checks on everybody who could possibly be a suspect, just in case. Now, everybody who is hired to work for me is screened, but all the people at the top, who would have had the clearance and knowledge to betray me as they did, have earned my trust through other ways, and few of them have been extensively checked. Especially since in the past, knights could only come from noble families and were already known, so many new knights traditionally aren't thoroughly checked."
Any relief Gwaine had felt at not being thought traitor slowly vanished, replaced by a growing dread. Some of it must have shown on his face, because Elyan shot him a vaguely concerned look.
"What we found for yours, Gwaine, was quite interesting," Arthur said expressionlessly.
"Oh?" Gwaine asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
"Some of parts of your records are hidden. It's done very well, and before, we assumed they weren't important, just a byproduct of you errant days. But we looked harder, and found out your real identity, that you, for some reason, neglected to tell us, Gawain, son of Tristan de Bois."
"You're a noble?" Percival gasped, almost mock-offended.
"You're related to Arthur!" Merlin exclaimed.
"Yeah," Gwaine said reluctantly.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Elyan asked.
"What? That my name at birth was Gawain? You never asked. Gwaine was a nickname, you know? And I got used to it so I kept it. I never claimed it was my legal name," he said, pretending to not know what Elyan was really asking.
"You have noble blood," Leon said. "King Uther could have made you knight all those years ago."
"I'm not a noble," Gwaine said. "I wasn't raised like one, and I spent most of my life hating them."
"But why?" Arthur asked, his tone revealing his true motivations for this meeting. Arthur was angry at Gwaine for not telling him in a way that could only come from some amount of hurt and betrayal. Gwaine couldn't know the exact reason why, his connection to Arthur's mother perhaps, or just his keeping secrets, but it was undeniable.
But Gwaine was in no mood to indulge in Arthur's self-centered display. He was not obligated to tell anyone every personal detail. So he put the truth into blunt words:
"Where do I start? They're so snobby and self-important. Not to mention elitist and bigoted. They wouldn't offer any help to my mother once my dad died. As his wife, she should have inherited some of his money. But the Duke of Cornwall, my dad's uncle, I think, twisted the law so she got none of it and almost took me away from her. They hated that my dad married her because she was a commoner, and probably because they were racist, though of course they wouldn't admit that outright. They didn't make her life easy in any other way either. I've never forgiven them for that. And my history with nobles didn't improve from there. I don't want to claim that title, I don't want to be like them. They probably don't want to claim me either, what with my coarse behavior and half-commoner status.
"If I'd taken Uther's offer, I wouldn't have fit in, and I wouldn't have wanted to. I'm not a noble at heart. I've never met one worth liking. Present company excepted," Gwaine said, shooting a glance at Leon and Arthur because maybe he was being a little too harsh. The offended look on both their faces lessened. "Merlin had a really high opinion of you, Arthur. And he convinced me to let you prove yourself good in my eyes. I thought that maybe after you were king, things might change and I could really be a knight under my own terms. And I was right, wasn't I? It was worth the wait. I don't want to be judged by my 'noble blood,' just on my own merits."
"But Tristan de Bois of Cornwall," Leon said. "That's Arthur's uncle. The one that tried to kill King Uther."
"Yeah. I didn't know much about him until after the first time I came to Camelot. When I came back here for good, I thought it wasn't really something to mention. I still wanted to keep the noble thing a secret, plus it's not something to brag about. 'Hey, my dad tried to kill the former king. Twice. Let me join your knights?'"
"I don't judge people on their parents," Arthur said. "You know that. And you've proven yourself to be worthy of my trust many times. You should have told me. We're family."
Gwaine shrugged. "It still didn't seem worth mentioning. I didn't want people to know my heritage. Still don't."
"It doesn't matter either way for you, if it's kept a secret, does it?" Merlin said, looking at Arthur. "He's a knight of Camelot, which is the only benefit of having noble blood that he cares about, so if he wants to keep it a secret, there's no reason to not."
"You don't have to tell me what to do, Merlin," Arthur sighed. "If that is what you want, this information won't leave this room without permission, unless necessary for the safety of the kingdom."
"Yeah, that sounds good," Gwaine said. "Though I can't see why you would need to tell someone to save Camelot."
"A lot of strange things come back to bite us," Arthur said.
"I swear I won't tell anyone," Elyan said.
"Neither will I," Percival added.
"You have my word," Leon promised.
"Yeah," Merlin said. His vague response was excusable, considering he had known Gwaine was of noble heritage for a long time, and had told no one.
"Okay," Gwaine said. He trusted them all with such ease that it surprised him. He had never imagined that he could trust so many before he had come to Camelot. They all really were his friends, Gwaine realized. Not just coworkers he was close to.
"You're like the opposite of Lancelot," Merlin said, amused by a sudden realization. "He was knighted before they realized he wasn't noble, and you were knighted before they realized that you were."
"Figures. He was very different from me in a lot of ways," Gwaine agreed. "And he'd make a far better noble."
"Yeah..." Merlin said.
"Well, if that's all, I'll be leaving now," Gwaine said.
Arthur nodded. "All right. But come back later. We have some catching up to do, cousin."
Gwaine made a face at him as he left the room, the others following him out.
"I guess it had to come out sometime," he muttered to Merlin, once out of earshot of the others.
"At least it didn't go too badly. Things won't change much," Merlin said.
"Yeah, except they will all make jokes so obvious it will be a wonder if the other knights don't suspect something, and they'll certainly tease me when we're alone. Arthur will probably try to be on better terms with me. Did you hear what he said? About catching up? Like I would tell him anything more than what I'd already be willing to tell him now that he knows we're related? Can't imagine what we would talk about. Still, there are worse nobles to be related to."
"Like Agravaine," Merlin said distastefully. "I would talk to Arthur about not telling him."
Gwaine scowled. "I didn't think about that. He seems kind of shady, right? Can't believe he's also my uncle. You're right. I guess that's one thing we can talk about during our little family meeting."
Gwaine entered the king's private dining room that evening. Arthur and Guinevere were already there, with food laid out across the square table.
"I hope you don't mind, I told my wife," Arthur said, as Gwaine pulled out the chair across from Gwen to sit.
He did mind, but it was more the principle of the matter. If Arthur had asked him to tell her, or even just informed Gwaine that he was going to do so, he would have been more than fine with that. As it was, he felt fairly irritated, but not wanting to offend Gwen, who was in no way at fault, he didn't let it show.
"I forgot to tell you, but I figured you knew I would. And since you thought it was perfectly okay to not tell me important things, I thought it would be good."
Internally, Gwaine sighed. He knew Arthur had reason to be upset, but this seemed extraordinarily petty. Even Gwen looked a little tired by his comment. He had clearly been holding a lot of feelings in early, in front of the knights.
"What's this about, Arthur?" Gwaine asked. Technically, as a knight, he needed to use some sort of title to address his king, but since Arthur seemed so insistent on focusing on their familial relation and Gwaine was hardly known for his propriety at the best of times, he couldn't care less. "Do you want me to admit that I was wrong to hide it from you? Because then sure. I shouldn't have done that. But it was part of a secret that I wanted to keep for my own reasons that had nothing to do with you. Aren't you the one who's all about how actions matter more than blood? If you want to yell at me, fight me, or whatever, fine. But even I know that dinners are a time where people at least pretend to be civil with each other. If you have something you want to say, just spit it out now instead of this indirect anger thing you're doing. This meal's gonna be awkward enough without that."
Gwen caught Arthur's eyes before he could respond, and held them for a few moments.
Arthur sighed. "Okay. You're right. I said I wanted to have this dinner to get to know you better as a cousin, not to be angry."
"This is a conversation you need to have another time," Gwen agreed.
"Sounds good to me," Gwaine said, though nothing had been really resolved, only pushed away for later.
There was a few moments of strained silence.
"So, um, how was your day?" Arthur asked.
"You know," Gwaine said, "The thing about you being my boss means that you already know what I did professionally, and what happened outside of that is weird to talk about."
"I'm sure you both have had more than enough of work-related discussion, what with the attack just yesterday, anyway," Gwen said. "My brother said it's all any of the knights have talked about since it happened."
"That's true," Gwaine said, ready to latch onto any possible conversation starter that would keep away the awkwardness. "How is Elyan?"
"Mostly fine. There was one deep cut, that needed some stitches, but he'll be fine."
"Good." Having already seen Elyan just a few hours earlier, up and walking around, Gwaine knew that nothing so serious had happened, but he hadn't known the details. With nothing better to say, Gwaine said, "He's had worse, I suppose."
"Yeah... I worry sometimes. He's older than me, but as the more responsible of the two, in a way it feels like he's the younger sibling and I need to watch out for him."
"He is pretty protective of you though," Arthur said.
"He is. Do you have any siblings, Gwaine?"
Gwen was perfect royalty, Gwaine thought. Somehow, using Arthur's terrible conversation starter, she had eased the tensions, then smoothly swung them around to the subject that all of them knew was the main point of the meeting.
"Yes," he said, feeling he owed it to both of them to tell them the truth, instead of changing the subject after a brief and vague response as he normally would. He didn't have anything to hide anymore, anyway. "Two younger brothers—half-brothers, from my mom's side, so no relation to you. Gareth and Gaheris. Haven't seen any of them in a while though."
"Oh?" Gwen asked.
"Nothing dramatic. Just, you know. Time and distance."
"Did you ever meet my mother?" Arthur asked suddenly, as if he had been waiting the whole evening for the chance to bring up the question.
"What?"
"Your father was obviously close to my mother. Why else would he duel my father after her death? And you're older than me."
"Oh..." Gwaine realized that he now knew why Arthur had been so bitter about him not saying who his father was. Arthur knew very little of his mother, which Gwaine knew was one of the major holds Agravaine had on him. If he thought Gwaine knew anything about her, no wonder Arthur was angry that he kept their relation from him. Speaking in a tone a few shades softer, he said, "I barely remember my own father. Only vague impressions. I was three when our parents died."
"Somehow... I assumed you were older."
"I'll ask my mom? If she's seen your mother. Next time we talk," Gwaine said. "But she probably hasn't. My dad's side of the family really hated her, I'm not exaggerating. Like, you know what all the conservatives think of you marrying Gwen."
"Thank you," Arthur said quietly.
Remembering Merlin's comment from earlier, Gwaine said, "You promised not to tell anyone. And I know you keep your word, mostly, but could you not tell Agravaine?"
"Even though he's our uncle?"
"I don't think he knows who I am, but I never got along with that side of my family, and I would prefer he doesn't know. I know you disagree, but I don't entirely trust him either."
"He's been nothing but good for this kingdom, Gwaine."
"He hasn't earned my respect like you have. It's not specifically him I don't want to know, but I figured if you broke your promise to tell Guinevere here, you'd have reason to do the same to him. Not that I have any objections to you knowing, Gwen."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," she said.
"If that's what you want," Arthur said.
"It is."
"Tell us more about your mom," Gwen prodded. Gwaine complied.
It ended up being better than he expected. Most of the awkwardness was gone, and they soon moved on to less emotional topics. He had never really talked to either Gwen nor Arthur casually like this before, but it was nice. Even when he had nothing to say, Arthur and Gwen were good at talking to each other without making him feel left out. Despite his complaints from earlier, Gwaine found himself thinking that if this became a regular thing he wouldn't mind so much.
They ended up staying there far longer than Gwaine was sure that any of them had planned. It was only during a lull in the conversation when Arthur stifled a yawn that he realized how late it had gotten.
"Hey, maybe we should go to bed now. Just for Arthur's sake, here, of course, since he's so tired," Gwaine said.
"Just for Arthur, of course," Gwen echoed, amused. "I'm sure Gwaine and I could go all night."
"Well, neither of you have to manage a country, do you?"
"I'm not so sure about that. I don't know about Gwaine, but for me at least..." Gwen said, causing Gwaine to laugh. Dropping her teasing tone, she said, "You do have a point though. It's pretty late."
"I better be off then," Gwaine said, standing up. "Good n—"
He was suddenly interrupted by the loud clamor of the alarms.
Arthur jumped out of his chair, heading to the door with a hand on his gun, groaning as he did so. "What is it this time?"