Guinevere is not an idiot.
Many people know this far too well, but she thinks that sometimes Merlin forgets. He forgets that she has a natural sixth sense for detecting romance, she knows who is involved with who and all the scandals and controversial relationships drifting around Camelot. As soon as she sees two people she knows quite clearly if they are involved with each other or not.
And she is almost always right.
So when Merlin happened to turn up at her door quite a few weeks ago, towing a quite delirious Gwaine with him, she of course happened to notice the tight grip of Merlin's hand on the other man's. She also noticed their apparent swollen lips and Merlin must have caught her staring because he coughed awkwardly and covered his mouth before dragging Gwaine inside.
Merlin had even admitted to the kiss he had shared with Gwaine, almost in an ashamed tone, but also a tone that was laced with a degree of uncertainty. Guinevere could almost identify it as confusion, as Merlin happened to linger a little bit too much on the details of the kiss, she was quite assured that Merlin was confused about what he had wanted from his friend.
But then of course she tried not to make quick judgements; both men had been drunk after all. The kiss, which had saved them from the barman, had merely been a distraction, nothing at all too serious.
But as the weeks wore on, Gwen could not help but pick up on something strange, the air between her two friends becoming very different.
On the Monday of the new week, she had caught them wandering around the market. Because of her wariness of Morgana these days, she had time for her eyes to wander about when she had spotted them. They were both chatting animatedly, talking about who knew what when she saw Gwaine give Merlin the look. The look she had seen on many faces before him, a look of almost blissful calm, a look of what could only be described as some form of…adoration.
If she wanted to be completely cliché, she could almost say it was the look of love.
But as Morgana demanded her attention, she had to tear her eyes away from the unfolding scene, her mind not completely made up about the both of them.
When Wednesday had rolled around, Guinevere was making her way through the castle, Morgana's laundry in hand as she walked briskly along the halls. She had stopped as she heard the sound of a familiar giggle; Merlin's to be exact, followed by a deeper chuckle, one that belonged to none other than Gwaine.
"You have to stop doing that!"
"There's no law against it is there?"
Guinevere strained her ears to listen to what was going on only to be graced with the sound of the two men laughing again. She huffed in slight annoyance, she was never one to eavesdrop or put her foot in other people's business, but if her two best friends were up to something she wanted to know.
As the halls grew silent again, giggles erupting every now and then, she could only guess what was going on. Taking a deep breath, she turned to walk along the hall that the noise was wafting from. Her eyes snapped up quickly, only to be momentarily disappointed that she hadn't caught two of her boys doing something remotely inappropriate. But she kept up her façade walking past briskly and smiling a hello, again taking note of Gwaine's swollen lips and Merlin's almost bleeding ones.
But even after the eventful Wednesday, Guinevere still hadn't made her mind up.
On the Saturday of that week, she had been in Gaius' chambers, sitting down and waiting for a remedy to take to Morgana. She was quite tired and almost missed Merlin as he departed his room, greeting Guinevere hurriedly. Almost a minute later, Gwaine also departed from the very same room, his eyes looking mischievous and almost shining in the morning sun that streamed from the open window. But, just as Merlin had, Gwaine gave a greeting to both Gaius and Guinevere before departing hurriedly.
Gwen could not help her mind wander to the possibilities of what her two favourite boys were up to.
Then the Saturday of the following week, after being away from Camelot and Arthur for so long, she had finally found the proof she was dying to uncover.
As she rode into Camelot, flanked by newly knighted Gwaine, Elyan, Percival and Lancelot she could sense Gwaine's apprehensive mood. Her previous discoveries knew exactly what he had been waiting for and she couldn't help but smile, finally seeing Arthur and having the blonde in her arms, on her lips lightening the mood increasingly.
For a while, she had completely forgotten about Morgana and Uther and the almost, but not quite, defeat of Camelot. Because that Saturday was when she witnessed Gwaine and Merlin being together. The warlock had grabbed Gwaine's wrist as the knight walked towards him, the two men indulging in a gaze that she knew almost too well.
Gwen has a sixth sense for romance, one that is never ever wrong, and after a rough month of debating the possibility of something between Gwaine and Merlin, she couldn't have made her mind up fast enough.
