A/N: I thought I have this chapter up day before yesterday, year after I first time posted this story, but life and everything around it interrupted the idea. I rote this chapter for a month and longer, and when I finished it, I discovered that it was 15 Microsoft Word pages and I decided to cut it in the middle, so it would not be to long. The other half I hope to have up in the Sunday, if life does not interrupt again.
I hope Arthur is not out of character in this chapter, but I felt like this is how he should have really reacted.
Now read and enjoy.
When the soldiers had disappeared and Gwaine had come out of the archway alive and with his smartass ways, Leon took a deep breath. He looked at Arthur who had gone to his father. He was torn, he should stay and be beside his king and prince, but he wanted to go find Merlin and Lancelot. He looked at Arthur and saw understanding in his eyes. The prince nodded at him giving him the leave.
Leon took off, he ran, he broke his own mantra never to run, but he needed to find Merlin, to make sure, that he still had the love of his life. He would not bear to lose her when he just had gotten her.
He ran thru the corridors, he heard stones stumbling down and he knew where he should go. The old chapel, it had not been used in years, if he had something like the Cup of Life, he would have placed it there.
He reached to the door fearing the worse, he saw Lancelot and then Gaius. What was Gaius doing there? but he could not ask the question because his eyes fell on Merlin. Standing there alive and well but shattered. With just few strides he was by her, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "You are alive."
"Yes, and so are you." she sobbed into his shoulder.
"You did it, you destroyed the army."
"Yes.
"And Morgana?"
"She disappeared, I wanted to talk to her, I wanted to convince her to come back to us. But Morgause was insured, and Morgana lost her mind and I lost her, I could not save her."
"My darling, we do not know it. I would like to lock her up, but if you feel there is something to save in her, I will help you."
She hid her face in his shoulder and sobbed. Leon but his arms strongly around her and pulled her close. He ran his left hand thru her hair. It was the only thing he could do.
He raised his gaze and his eyes locked with Lancelot and he saw when everything clicked for the other knight. Smart man, he could only think.
"You know who she is!"
"Of course, I do, for years now. As have you."
"And you never..." the question stayed unfinished.
Leon sighed, Lancelot did not know him, as the ones who had asked him the question before. "No, I never even thought about it. I do not hate magic; I grew up with it. She has never harmed Camelot or prince Arthur. She cannot do anything about how she is born."
Lancelot looked at them and nodded. That moment Leon knew what he had to do. Merlin would be angry at him, but later she would understand and be calm again.
"I cannot always protect her, from herself and the situations."
As Leon had thought before, smart man, Lancelot understood what the other was doing. "I will do everything to be there and protect her when you cannot." Leon knew, Lancelot was playing along, but the saw the younger man meant it.
Merlin reacted as Leon had suspected. She pushed herself from Leon. "I do not need anyone to protect me."
"Are you sure, I can name..." that moment Merlin hit his arm and pain shot thru it. He had forgotten about the slash he had gotten in the fight. He winced and Merlin saw it. "You are injured."
"It is just a flesh wound." Leon countered but Merlin was already looking at it.
"If this is just a flesh wound, I am the queen of Essetir. Its needs stiches." She looked at him again, "How are the others?"
"Just some minor wounds, bruises, scraps. The king is in the worst condition." Saying last he looked at Gaius.
"What is wrong with him?" Gaius approached.
"It seems he has lost the will to live, he was numb, he did not run to fight like he usually would do. He sat in the corner like he was afraid." Leon explained.
"Trauma can do that to a person. Things he lived through under the reign Morgana and knowing she was his daughter." Gaius looked at Merlin, "I am going to tend to the king, you start with the others."
Merlin nodded and followed him, Leon and Lancelot after her. At the doors she looked at them. "I do not need protection of two burly men."
"I object to it. There are so many reasons and past escapes, that you really need protection." Leon hulled.
"If I did not love you, I would hate you." Merlin spat out and followed Gaius.
"Do you really know into what you have gotten yourself into." Lancelot asked.
"Yes, and I am waiting for every moment ja enjoy them." Leon smiled and hurried after the physician and his apprentice. Lancelot shook his head; he had never heard that Arthur second in command was mad.
Leon rubbed his forehead and looked at the paper on the table, report was waiting to be written, but a headache was forming behind his brow. Gods be damn, he had to write what happened to him and then go and collect everyone else's account's as well. There were so many knights still missing, Leon nor Arthur did not know if they were dead or in hiding, everything was such a mess.
He should have started it that morning. Circumstances prevented it, he Lancelot, Gwaine, Elyan and Percival had to go to the Castle of Ancient King's and bring Gwen back. Now, it was evening, he was stuck behind a desk and had seen Merlin only once. When they had gotten back from their little excursion, Merlin had sat with Arthur on the stairs of the castle, as they had been in public, he had gotten only little touch on his cheek, then she had been swept away with Gwen and Arthur.
He held back from hitting his head on the table and stared at the plank parchment. He took a breath and started his account. He had placed a full stop on the first sentence when his door opened, and someone entered. Leon did not raise his eyes and continued writing; he knew very well who it was: Arthur. Uther laid in bed; he would not surprise anyone in the near future.
The knight kept writing, raising his eyes when Arthur sat on the chair opposing Leon's desk.
"Arthur." Leon raised his brow, Arthur had taken is usual position, leg over arm of the chair.
"Leon." Leon's brow rose higher, something was wrong, that was quiet Arthur and Leon knew that right that moment he was not getting anything out of the prince. If Arthur would be pacing and raving, the situation would be different, but quiet Arthur needed time. So, he turned back to what he was doing before and waited.
Leon had reached the middle part of his report when he raised his head again and looked Arthur again. Both his brows shot up this time Arthur was biting his left thumbs nail. Nerves gesture, one Leon had not seen in years. He himself had helped Arthur train it out of him, after Uther had threaten to lock the boy in his room with no food and water until the habit was broken. Arthur had been fourteen when he finally had gotten rid of it.
"Arthur," The boy now prince looked at him, "nail."
Arthur looked at him then his thumb, wonderment appeared on his face. The man had not even notice he was doing it. He shook his head, took the thumb from his lips, and looked at the distance again. Leon continued his writing.
When he looked the prince again, he had taken his dagger and was playing with that. Sign of stress again, but it was not as disgusting as the nail biting.
Leon had one last sentence to write when he heard thud, he raised his head and found that Arthur had thrown his dagger and embedded it into one of the ceiling logs. Arthur was looking at him like he was waiting Leon to start yelling. Leon knew better, so should Arthur, Leon never yelled, only in very dire circumstances.
The finished the sentence, signed the document and but his seal under it, then turned to Arthur. "I know you own the castle, but would you please try not to destroy my room, I would like to live here for few years more."
Arthur's shoulder slumped; the fight he had collected into himself faded away. Leon rose, he moved towards Arthur and then figured it as a bad idea. He leaned against his desk crossed his arms and legs and waited. He knew Arthur and he knew him well, there was going to be a rant. But not like the rants he had with Merlin. Leon had witnessed a few and caught the object, what Arthur threw at the girl, when Merlin ducked, and they would have hit him. No, this rant was going to be so much more different.
"I am regent," those words came out as a whisper, Leon hardly heard them and then the voice grew stronger, "I will replace the king until he feels well enough to govern this kingdom again." and it grew angrier, "that arsehole of a father of mine," Leon was glad that the voice had not grown too strong, insulting a king was a treason. But Arthur was regent now, highest power in the kingdom, what could they do to him.
"He lied to me, to Morgana, that she was only his ward, but she is my sister, I would have accepted her. Gods know I loved her as sister, I still do, even if I hate her. Everything what Uther did, led to this fucking point." Leon's eyebrow rose, he did not remember when Arthur last used his father's given name, if he had ever. The F-word, that was not so unusual,
"Everything he did, his hate for magic, his lies, got us where we are now." Arthur turned to Leon, desperation and sadness was written over his face. "Why did she not trust me? Why did she come to me when she discovered she had magic? I know I have done dreadful things by the orders of father, and they are part of the thousand regrets I have. But I would have helped her." Leon sighed, he himself had thousand and one regrets over the things he had done over the years under King Uther's rule. The question Arthur asked he had asked from himself when he had spoken to Merlin and Morgana. He had seen from their eyes that they had known that they could come to him, but something had stopped them. Leon suspected why, his reputation being Uther's man, the girl forgot who he was. Reputation made the man, in everyone's minds.
Leon looked his prince, his little brother. The boy, now just a boy, was on the edge of breaking down. He rose from his lean and approached Arthur, he opened his arms and waited, offering comfort, and let Arthur decide if he accepted it.
Arthur looked at him, just a second and in a moment the knight arms were full. Leon threw him closer; he knew the prince wanted to cry, but his upbringing as Uther's son and the knight of Camelot did not let him.
"It is alright to cry, forget the teaching "no man is worth your tears." Let it go and cry, it helps it lets you heal your soul, I am here, and no one will ever hear of it."
As he said it, he felt how Arthur started shaking and the first tears dampened his shirt. "I want my father and sister back." Leon ran a hand through Arthur's hair and over his back, he knew how the prince felt, "I know." He soothed.
"I do not want to be a regent or a king, not yet. Father is too young to hand the rains to me, I do not want to rule Camelot." The words were said full of anguish that Leon bulled the prince closer. The knight had known since the man in his arms was a teenager that only thing Arthur wanted to be was a knight. The boy had acted like the prince and a future king, but behind closed doors he hated it, Leon knew it well, many time they had sat and discussed it. Arthur had come to terms with it and hoped that it would be many years to come. But it had not happened, here he was at twenty-one and a regent.
"I know, little brother, I know, but think of it as a chance to make things better and hand your father back a greater kingdom then you got it, when he is better." Leon said that even knowing that there was small chance of Uther recovering. Gaius had said so much. "Think it as an opportunity to make changes, to start creating the kingdom you always wanted to have when you were king."
"I cannot do it alone."
"You are not alone, you are forgetting The Round Table, you have me, Merlin, Gwen, Gaius, Lancelot, Elyan, Percival and even Gwaine."
Arthur chuckles against is chest. "Even Gwaine."
"Yes, you are not alone, we are there for you." Arthur nodded at that, Leon felt how the prince was finding his composer again, moments later Arthur stepped back tears dried off. He patted Leon's shoulder and headed to the washing basin in the corner to wash his tears of his face.
Leon leaned against the desk again and waited. When Arthur turned back to him, he was almost back to himself, he was Arthur, not the royal prat, not the first knight of the kingdom, not the regent, he was Arthur, his friend and brother.
"Do you want to stay the night?" Arthur stopped at the question.
"If it's not too much trouble." The words came out with a relief, like Arthur had wanted to ask, but something had stopped him.
"No trouble at all." Leon smiled, pushed himself away from the table and headed to the door.
"Where are you going?" Arthur was confused, fearing that Leon would let him have the room and find someplace else to stay.
"I am going to find someone who could find Merlin and tell her were you are. She probably bringing you food. Dinner bells tolled when I started to write and you have been here when I was half thru with it, so you have not eaten. And I want to find out how our new knights are doing, I heard Gwaine saying something about tavern." Leon smiled reaching to the door.
"Of course, he was." He heard Arthur muttering and smirked.
To be continued