They arrived at Camelot's gates about a half hour later, it was about four in the afternoon and the heat of the day was mainly over. The entry was unceremonious, with just a scout to show them to their beds and the shower. The group split into two sections, one that just wanted to sleep, and one who felt the need to shower. The first section was made up of Leon and Lance. The second was Gwaine, Percy and Elyan.

Leon and Lancelot trailed off to their beds, collapsing onto them and falling asleep almost instantly. Gwaine and Elyon ran to the showers, Gwaine stripping on the way. Percy walked behind at his own pace, watching the people around him. Some of them looked fit and healthy, but the majority looked sickly from being inside the caves too long, red from being under the sun too long, or thin. A lot of people looked thin, even the solders. His eyes cast over the people running around with weapons, or food, or even clothes. It was nice being back in the city, even if he was only in the army district.

He reached the showers, a stone building where hot water was pumped through the pipes and came out scalding. It was exactly what he needed right now; after nearly a month on the move, hot showers were a welcome extravagance. He wandered into the building, ripping off his top as he kicked off his boots. He picked up and towel and slung it around his neck. He stripped his trousers off and wandered into a showering cubicle before removing his underwear.

As Percy stood under the stream of heated water, Gwaine was humming to himself and Elyan was telling him to shut up. Percy smirked to himself and shut his eyes. He ran his fingers over his scalp and felt the collected dirt wash away. It felt so good to be clean again, even if he did have to listen to Gwaine sing badly and Elyan complain about it.

"Gwaine, please stop it. I like that song and you're actually butchering it."

"And eyyyy-aaayy-eyyyyeeeee will alwaaaaays loooove yooooooo-ohhhhh."

"Gwaine, shut the fuck up!" Elyan shouted, throwing his shirt across the stall divider and smacking Gwaine in the face with it. There was a muffled yelp and then Elyan was begging Gwaine to "at least put some pants on". Percy didn't even want to know what they were up to, but it sounded like Gwaine had his hands over Elyan's mouth and was singing badly.

"Quit it Gwaine." Percy muttered, ducking out of the shower and picking up his towel. He wrapped it around his waist and walked past them; Elyan was in a headlock with his mouth covered by one of Gwaine's hands. Percy pulled one of Gwaine's locks as he walked past, Gwaine let go of Elyan, who dashed to grab a towel to wrap around his naked body.

The three of them were now semi wrapped in towels with huge grins on their faces, being home had made them giddy with delight. Percy felt himself about to yawn, but locked his jaw so that it wouldn't be seen. Knowing Gwaine, something would have been shoved down his throat if he had yawned. The feeling passed and Percy grabbed his clean clothes, pulling on his trousers and letting the top hang over his shoulder. He dropped his own dirty clothes into the laundry and left the showers. Not before Gwaine shouted something about his fine ass though.

Percy smiled and let the sun hit his bare, broad shoulders as he wandered to the training room. He stood outside for a second, watching the new troops sparing. A pair stopped, both of their eyes fixed on him. One said something that he was too far away to hear and the other laughed, blushing slightly. Neither looked at him as brazenly again, instead they gave him small glances and seemed to tease each other about something.

Their drill master told them to stop and take a break. Both of the boys that had been looking at Percy drifted away from the group, towards him. Quickly, Percy put his shirt on and walked down to the training grounds. He picked up a sword and hefted the weight in his right hand. This was one of the training swords, several years old and made of plain unadorned metal. Nothing like his own Knight sword, which was on its way to be cleaned and repaired along with the other Knights' swords.

He faced the straw dummy across the field. It was about the height of a normal person, which was good, but it was still. It lacked the sharp, jerky movements of the hunter packs or the slow, liquid movements of their mages. He pushed all those thoughts out of his mind and attacked it, slicing it from the navel to the jaw and then beheading it in one smooth motion. The two boys looked impressed, and so did a few of their classmates.

A small group broke off to come and see what Percy was doing. He'd set up five more dummies and viciously carved a path through them. A familiar laugh came from the top of the stairs. Percy looked up and Gwaine was stood, a shadow against the sun. He descended and picked up a sword from the rack.

"Come on, I want to play." He teased, smirking. "Dolls are no fun."

Percy bit his lip and nodded. "Sure, yeah." He spun the blade in his hand, gently pacing up and down, deciding where to get the best position. He knew that Gwaine was fast, but he had strength Gwaine could only dream of. He was going to be careful so that he didn't hurt the smaller man.

Gwaine smirked and asked the youngers to step back, which they did. He bounced on the balls of his feet and launched himself at Percy, violently bringing his sword down to hit the taller man's head. Percy's instincts kicked in and his sword raised to meet Gwaine's, he battered it aside and tapped Gwaine's side lightly. There was a soft "ooh" from the crowd. Gwaine span around and tapped Percy's arm, lightly drawing his sword over the skin. A dark line of blood sprung up from the edge of the sword. The crowd hissed air through their teeth and a few small comments were heard.

"Oh shit, Perce. I'm sorry." Gwaine said, lowering his sword.

Percy looked at it, wiping away the blood with his thumb. "No problem." He flicked his wrist and caught Gwaine's inner thigh. "But you'd be a whole leg less right now, if this was a real fight."

Gwaine laughed and struck another three blows, all of which Percy parried, but not with ease. He was a lot larger than Gwaine; and while he had the strength, Gwaine had the speed. They sparred for nearly half an hour, while their audience grew larger and larger. Several training squads had been dismissed and were now congregating around the recently returned Knights.

The sun had begun to set and the air was getting colder. Percy saw Gwaine shiver, so he put his sword down. "I'm done."

"Not fair." Gwaine complained, "Neither of us won."

"I forfeit then." Percy shrugged. He pushed through the quickly disappearing crowd and padded up the stairs. His large steps made Gwaine jog to catch up. "I'm hungry."

"You quit our fight, for food?" Gwaine sighed. "God, I just... You're so... Ugh."

Percy nodded, "Yup."

"It was fun though, maybe we should do it again?" Gwaine offered, a slight hint of a please in his voice but not on his lips.

"Sure," Percy nodded. "If you can get up early enough."