A. N. ("Arthur's Notes"): Fun in the library! Leon and Merlin seem like just the sort of people that would be into riddles and logic puzzles and the like. Most of the puzzles we found online at various places (the one Gwaine tries to tell is an Anglo-Saxon riddle, part of a series of the dirtier kind of riddle that apparently the Anglo-Saxons loved). Enjoy!

WARNINGS: Sexual content, violence, and strong language slightly amped up from what you'd expect from Merlin, but nothing serious. There will in the series be a gay relationship, but otherwise no slash.

Previous Stories:

The Odd Couple: The Adventures of Sir Leon and Sir Gwaine (May Glenn), The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship (May Glenn)

FRIDAY KNIGHTS: THE UNQUIET CASTLE

Gwaine and Leon are starting to get the hang of running Camelot while Arthur is gone. How will the knights react when the castle itself begins to rebel against them? Meanwhile, Gwaine begins his quest to unite Leon and Lady Elaine in holy matrimony-or at least in a double-date.

Leon hefted the stack of books into his arms and started for the library.

It was a large assortment of books, and thus not easy to carry. The patents of nobility were particularly cumbersome, as were the royal annals and records. All stacked up in his arms they went above his eyebrows, and he made his way cautiously so as not to run into anyone. He had borrowed them from Geoffrey a few weeks back, almost as soon as Gwaine had told him about his family's cruel treatment at the hands of Caerleon. Leon hoped to find in the records some sort of explanation, possibly even a misunderstanding. But the annals in particular were painfully clear and brief in explaining what had happened-and it happened just as Gwaine had told it.

Leon didn't promise to help Gwaine lightly. Especially if Gwaine only let his past be known under duress of drink. But now that he knew the particulars of Caerleon's treachery, he didn't know what else to do except find Gwaine's lost siblings. That could be difficult, and he wouldn't hear back from that merchant for several weeks. It was possible that his siblings were untraceable, living somewhere far beyond Camelot's influence. He had to at least try to find them. Still, that didn't mean he needed to tell Gwaine. He certainly didn't want to get him angry, or get his hopes up. It would be better to wait until he had proof of Gwaine's siblings' wellbeing, and pretend as if he had forgotten about the whole thing.

It would be better to get the books back before Gwaine saw them with him, too. Geoff would be wanting them back anyway. The fact that he took the books away with him probably upset Geoffrey to no end, who was the type of librarian that wished books were attached to their shelves on little chains.

He jimmied the door to the library open with his elbow and turned awkwardly on the spot to get in. "Geoff?..."

BAM! Someone ran into Leon from the side just as he stepped inside, causing him to drop all of his books. There was a shout that sounded like Merlin, and a load of hard corners and edges dropping on his boots suggested that he had also dropped his books as well.

"Sorry!" Merlin said, quickly picking up his books.

"It's alright," Leon said, helping to gather up the fallen books before Geoffrey caught either of them.

"Bit of light reading?" Merlin asked as he stacked his books up.

"Oh, yes, just—you know. Some reading." To change the subject, Leon picked up one of Merlin's books at random. "I didn't know you liked to read so much. What's this one?"

Having failed entirely to glean anything really useful from the book he'd taken from the archives, Merlin stacked them on the table in the main room while Gaius was out taking medicines to less mobile patients, and then managed to pick up the whole stack and carry them all the way to the archives. Having also failed almost entirely to get any decent sleep, he did not realize the age-old problem of carrying the "lazy man's load", and nearly lost the whole stack walking down a flight of stairs. The top one fell off as he was opening a door, and he couldn't even bend down to pick it up without causing the rest to go into an avalanche of literary material, and so he just stood there staring at the traitorous volume.

Oh, right. Magic. If he hadn't been carrying all the books, he definitely would have face-palmed. Merlin blamed his lack of thought on lack of sleep, and levitated the book to the top of the stack.

Once in the safety of the archives, he relaxed his grip on the books just a little, and went to the table to set them down. Rather, he was going to go to the table, but as he rounded the corner of a shelf, he ran headlong into Leon, who also had a load of books. He, of course, dropped his own, and then jumped so they wouldn't land on his feet. One of the heavier ones dropped corner-down on his left foot and he bit off a curse.

Merlin tried to get to the books first, especially to gather the ones that would take a bit more explanation than he was quite ready to give. Leon, however, in true helpful-Leon fashion, completely beat him to it- due in no small part to the fact that Merlin had been biting off curses aimed at certain inanimate objects.

"That one?" he said, and tipped his head to try and read it upside down. "That one is about common household pests, because Gaius has been having trouble with rats," he said off the top of his head. Of course, they'd been having trouble with no such thing. And now he'd have to mention this to Gaius in case Leon went and tried to help him take care of the problem. Not that Gaius wasn't used to covering for Merlin's random excuses… He was even competent at making them up himself. That tavern one, for example. Merlin was sure he'd never hear the end of it.

As he picked up the rest of the books, a leaf of paper fluttered out from between two of the fallen volumes, and he turned it right-side-up to look at it. Oh! One of the riddles he'd found. Merlin grinned crookedly.

"Sir Leon, are you any good at riddles? I found this one…" he said, holding the paper out so the knight could read it. If, indeed, he could read Merlin's nearly-illegible chicken-scratch handwriting.

What does man love more than life
Fear more than death or mortal strife
What the poor have, the rich require,
and what contented men desire,
What the miser spends and the spendthrift saves
And all men carry to their graves?

Leon raised an eyebrow, half-smiling. "Do you not know the answer, or do you want me to guess?"

"Bit of both," Merlin said with a coy shrug. Leon had a feeling that Merlin was trying to distract him. Unfortunately, a good riddle was one of the few things that could always distract him. He snorted and sat back against one of the library shelves, his brow knotted.

"Hmm, that's a tough one. How about….Absence? No, no—nothing!"

Merlin opened his mouth to object, then looked up at the ceiling as he spoke the words of the riddle silently to himself again. "Oh, yeah!" he said. "I couldn't manage the second to last line."

"I don't often try ones with more than four parts," Leon said, grinning. "I used to find riddles all the time to annoy Arthur with."

Merlin looked surprised and interested. "Did it work?"

"Well, it'd get him out of bed, if only to throw a sword at me. He loathes them."

"Good to know," Merlin laughed.

"Here, I've got one," Leon offered. "What belongs to you but everyone uses it more than you do?"

"My time?" Merlin said with a laugh.

"…Close," Leon said.

"My…Oh, no wait—I've heard this one! It's um—My name!"

"Right!"

"I've got to write that down," Merlin said. He grabbed one of the books and started to scribble in the margin with charcoal.

"You really have to think about every word with these things," Leon said, getting excited.

Merlin nodded enthusiastically. "Like that one—"

"—About the heart—?"

"—And the triple analogy—?"

"BRILLIANT!"

Merlin looked as if he was about to ask Leon another when they were interrupted by a cough. They looked up to see Geoffrey standing above them with his arms folded. He was glaring at them and the books, which were still strewn about the floor.

"I've got a riddle for you," he said. He stepped towards them as they spoke, making them scoot cautiously backward with each line until they ran up against a bookshelf. "What's got four arms, four legs, desecrates books and isn't allowed in the library for a month?"

And with super-human speed, he gathered up the fallen books and stormed off. Leon and Merlin stood up, feeling rather sheepish.

Inexplicably, Gwaine's head appeared over a stack of books. "Kids these days, don't know how to treat a library well," he said, hefting a book under his arm.

"What's that?" Merlin said.

"This?" Gwaine held the book up. "Naked ladies."

Leon blinked. Merlin blushed.

"It's art!" Gwaine said defensively. "Hey, hey—I've got a riddle! A thing of much interest lies on the thigh of a man, under it's master's cloak. It's stiff and hard and pokes inside a—"

"A key," Merlin and Leon said in unison. Gwaine cursed under his breath.

"I've been meaning to talk to you two anyway," Leon said, heading for the door. "We need to plan the homecoming banquet."

"You mean feast, right?" Gwaine said hopefully.

Leon rolled his eyes. "Fine. A feast. You'll still have to dress up."

"Damn!"