So Elfy and I were swapping headcanons one night-er, well, I was pestering her with headcanons-and I sent her one about Terence enjoying hunting and she one-upped me with EILEEN being a very good hunter and Terence finding that "just about the hottest thing ever" and then this happened

"Up, lad, we're going hunting."

Terence blinked at the sound of his master's voice in the Squire's Court and looked up from polishing Galatine. "…Now?"

Gawain shook his head, a sneaky smirk lingering on his face. "No, first thing tomorrow. But according to how much you complain when we go, I figured you'd need to start getting ready now to be ready tomorrow."

The squire scowled and stood, handing over the sword. "I complain because I happen to like hunting, thank you very much."

"Then you ought to be glad we're going."

"I like hunting, not playing the part of glorified pack horse. Which is what I have to do when we're not in Avalon or questing or going on our own."

"How do you know we're not going on our own?"

"Because you call me your grace when we go on our own, you great tease."

Gawain's smirk grew and he stared into the distance as he sheathed Galatine. "Huh, I do, don't I?"

Terence grunted and started out of the Squire's Court and toward the castle, the knight trailing along behind him. He waited until they were well inside and fewer people hung around before asking, "Well, out with it. Which overconfident stuffed-armor show knight are you hunting with tomorrow?"

"How did you know—"

"Because you only ever spring these things on me after someone says something incredibly stupid and you want to teach them a lesson."

He scratched his beard as they walked. "Am I really this predictable?"

"You'd be surprised. Who is it?"

"Sir Col—"

Terence groaned. "That twit with the face the kitchen maids have been writing sonnets to all week?"

"—and Sir Carradoc—"

"Oh, no, Milord, he's awful—"

"—and the Lady Eileen."

The squire stopped in his tracks. "Eileen's coming? I thought she didn't care for hunting."

Gawain shrugged. "She doesn't. But you'll recall that she'll go if her brother-in-law asks her as a very special favor—"

"Yes, I recall," Terence said with another scowl. Terence had been gifted a falcon their last visit home, and had been eager for the chance to explore the woods with Gawain and test the bird. Unfortunately, he'd been hung up in council affairs the whole time, and Eileen had reluctantly gone with Gawain in his place. He began walking again, backwards up a flight of stairs so he could continue the conversation. "Why did you feel the need to ask this very special favor?"

"Because Col's been touting his 'triumph girls' lately and they've both made a few rather scathing remarks regarding a woman's purpose—"

"This is a Maiden's Knight thing."

"Well, if you want to put it like that, yes, I suppose it is."

"Fantastic." Terence turned forward and took the stairs two at a time, shooting ahead of Gawain. The knight raised his eyebrows, but didn't bother to keep Terence's pace.

He didn't catch up until he reached his own chambers, walking in to find his squire packing a bag. "On the bright side, Eileen will be there."

Terence scoffed. "So we can make eyes at each other and hope both our fellows are too thick to notice?"

"Are you angry with me?" Gawain asked, his voice light with amusement.

"No," Terence said, pausing his work long enough to shoot Gawain an exasperated smile. "Just wanting to go hunting. I hate going in groups like this."

"I'll make it up to you."

"You'd better."

"A whole week out of the castle. I'll say I've had a vision of some adventure or other and we'll pay a surprise visit to the Other World. We can just muck about if you like, or we can go to Avalon and hope you don't have any pressing responsibilities to perform. I'll even pack up if you want."

The squire laughed. "Very funny, but I'll do the packing. That's a nice 'make up' for one little hunting trip."

"I'm in a good mood. And I want out of the castle anyway. And I'd like to take Guingalet, so he'll need grooming today and rubbing down when we're done—"

"Hmph. Knew there had to be a catch." Terence bound the straps on the bag. "I suppose I'll go do that now then?"

"Yes, please." Gawain smiled widely as the squire filed out of the chambers, and ducked with a laugh when a wooden cup sailed toward his head.

Terence was sure they'd never see anything, much less shoot it. Col's horse wasn't suited for forest traveling and nickered fearfully every time a leave twitched around her hooves. Carradoc's horse was quiet, but the main himself was not, shifting in his saddle as they rode, trying to whisper conversations with the others, coughing and clearing his throat when he wasn't talking. Terence trailed behind the company, riding the horse that also bore the gear they'd need if they did manage to bag a kill. He was glad to be in the woods again, but even the most muffled sounds coming from the show knights muted all other sounds in the forest.

Four hours into the hunt, Terence tired of trying to glare holes into the back of his master's head. He trotted his horse around Eileen and Carradoc whispering in front of him and came up alongside Gawain and Col. "Milord, we're not going to find anything."

"I say, that was flip," Carradoc said, looked down his nose at the squire. Terence rolled his eyes, leaning back in the saddle so only his master could see. "Gawain, do you usually allow your squire to be so insolent?"

"You're new to court, aren't you," Eileen asked, and Terence could hear the amusement and disapproval in her voice even if he couldn't see her face.

"We both are," Col answered for him, flashing Eileen a flirtatious grin and—did he just flutter his eyelashes? Terence blinked, hoping he'd been seeing things. "And unaware that the customs of Camelot allowed for such beautiful and dainty young ladies of good breeding to attend such a violent thing as a hunt."

Eileen smiled back at him. "I haven't seen any hunting yet."

Terence coughed to hide his laughter, inviting more foul looks from the two younger knights. Carradoc sniffed. He was well-known among the castle servants to have a vile temper and distaste for those he considered lower than himself. "You really ought speak with him," he said, leaning toward Gawain and lowering his voice.

"Oh, I do, every day," Gawain said. "He just doesn't seem to listen. Right cheeky little imp, he is, but dead useful." He winked at Terence from the side, and Terence offered Carradoc his widest, cheekiest grin. "He's right, too. We've been noisy. Haven't you wondered why we haven't seen any animals?"

Col broke off in making sappy faces at Eileen to glare at Carradoc. "It's him, always coughing and trying to talk. You'd think he'd never been on a hunt before."

"Me?" Carradoc growled. "What about the Lady Eileen? I mean no offense, my lady, but a woman on a hunt is clearly a bad omen. You would have had a much more productive day staying in and seeing to your sewing."

Terence fixed his eyes on the horse's mane in front of him. He tried not to become angry on Eileen's account, knowing she could get angry enough for the both of them, and Gawain playing Maiden's Knight wouldn't help. He snuck a sideways glance at the two of them—Eileen's cheeks were turning red, but Gawain still just smiled.

"Look, my squire's a woodsman since birth. What do we say we all lay low and quiet while he checks if there's any game at all to be had here now?"

Carradoc scowled, but Col was back to making simpering faces at Eileen and didn't hear the suggestion. Gawain nodded to Terence, who slid off his horse and off the path in a single motion. He smirked to himself as he picked up the sound of Carradoc's voice in exclamation at his sudden disappearance. Ordinarily he wouldn't be so petty, but something about Carradoc just made him angry. He slipped further into the wood, ducking around trees and instinctually avoiding dry leaves and the odd twig.

Soon the muffled sounds of the hunting party faded into annoying background noise and the forest slowly came alive again. Squirrels and rabbits darted through the underbrush to either side of him and songbirds trilled overhead. He saw wolf tracks, a fox den, and a spot where a boar had been rooting near a tree, but nothing to indicate there was anything close by. He doubted they'd see it anyway, as loud as their unwelcome companions were. He sighed slightly, startling a quail that hadn't noticed him into taking the air, and turned to head back to the party.

As he neared the other four, however, he heard the quiet shuffling of a deer off to the west. He set his shoulders, head ducked as cautiously edged in that direction. He only tiptoed far enough to see a glimpse of dun fur moving through green saplings and brown trunks before heading back to the company as fast as he could.

Terence wasn't sure how to appear with warning, and he was very aware someone would shout if he just popped up as he usually did. He watched the group from behind a tree for a minute or two, then snuck his way around, walked out of the bushes, and grabbed Guingalet's bridle. The aughiskey's large body and tree cover blocked him from view of the two show knights on Gawain's other side. Guingalet, used to him doing things like this and able to smell the faery on him from a small distance anyway, merely snapped at his fingers and Gawain tensed, but didn't jump. He waited a moment for Eileen, guiding his horse, to get a glimpse of him before smiling and jerking his head to the west with a finger to his lips.

Gawain nodded and turned to the two knights, shushing them with a look and leading them after Terence. Eileen followed on the other side, closer to where the squire remained largely hidden from sight by the black horse at the lead.

Somehow the two unwanted members of the hunting party managed to stay silent long enough for Terence to lead them within sight of the deer through the trees. Gawain inhaled softly as he glimpsed the buck—he would never not be impressed with Terence's skill in the woods. He bent in the saddle and started to pull his own bow from his side, knowing very well he was rubbish with the weapon and would miss by miles. Terence, stuck in his "glorified packhorse" role, was not armed with anything more than a dagger and was now wishing for his bow, even if he wasn't allowed to make the shot as a squire. Carradoc and Col caught sight of the motion before they saw the deer, and immediately started whispering to each other, poking and jabbing and rustling in their saddles in their efforts to reach across to Terence's packhorse where they'd stowed their gear.

But it wasn't any of them that managed to bring the deer down.

The buck pricked its ears at the sound of the loud knights squabbling, and is it looked up an arrow struck the sweet spot in its breast with a dull thwick of a bow no one had even noticed being drawn. It gave a soft grunt as it dropped, then tried to rise again. Terence's jaw dropped and his face flushed as Eileen urged her horse forward even as the deer was falling, replacing the bow in her hand with a hunting knife. She turned Caesar aside at the last minute, casually dropping from the lady's saddle as he moved, caught her footing with barely a slip, stepped forward, and slit the dying buck's throat before it could cause itself more pain. She stood up straight and looked at the company behind her, Col and Carradoc blushing even darker than the gaping Terence, and Gawain smirking at his fellows. She had barely a drop of blood on her.

"What?" she asked sharply as Caesar trotted back to her. She waved her knife at them. "It's not like any of you useless lumps were going to hit him, were you?"

Gawain trotted away from the gobsmacked knights toward his squire. "Close your mouth," he muttered with obvious mirth. Terence's teeth clicked closed. "Well, I think that's all we're likely to bag today. Col, why don't you and Carradoc prepare the buck for field dressing? I'm not sure my squire's up to it just now. Unless you'd like to do the honors yourself, my lady," he said, nodding at Eileen.

She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I'd just as soon head back, if it's all the same to you. I really don't care much for hunting."

Col spluttered, coming to his senses first. "Then why did you come with us today?"

"So you wouldn't look like complete ninnys, coming back empty-handed. You're free to take credit for the kill if you like, I really don't care," she said offhand, winking at Gawain. The two grew red-faced again, and Gawain bit back a chuckle. They'd die before admitting Eileen bagged the buck, but they'd die before taking the credit and risking Eileen and Gawain telling the whole court the truth as well. They'd be treating the court women with more respect after this. "I'm heading back to the castle for a nice hot bath."

She started to trot off. Terence shook his head, a shiver seemingly going through him, and grabbed at the reigns of his horse. "Per-permission to escort the lady, milord?" he stammered, his face still glowing. If it began raining, he'd likely start steaming. "It's getting dark. Could be trouble on the way."

It was barely after midday. Gawain grinned again, looking at the squire eyeing his wife with a kind of hungry awe. He contemplating keeping Terence with him—and the idiot knights, who probably hadn't the slightest idea how to field dress a deer—but then took pity. "Oh, go on, the both of you," he said, waving a hand. "Just don't let me sleep in tomorrow."