"Know"

Work: King Arthur
Character(s): Gawain/Galahad
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG
Warnings: mild slash -but they're such a cute pairing! ;)


I storm off to my chamber – our chamber – in disbelief, Gawain just a few level-headed steps behind me. I stop in the center of the room; he closes the door quietly behind him, prepared to hear me in his usual quiet manner.

"What's this 'Galahad as well' business?" I ask. "Well? You think you can just volunteer me to come along with you on this little errand of the bishop's? This madness? They lied to us, Gawain; they took our freedom and then acted as though they were so noble in returning it – and now they use its suspension as a threat? They want us to risk our necks to save some family which stands for everything that has oppressed us? They expect us to put our lives on the line, brave a storm we can't possibly hold back? It's suicide! Suicide's a sin according to Rome, isn't it? Isn't it?"

"Galahad—" he begins.

"Don't you—" I interrupt him, and then realize that I am at a loss for what to say. I sink down onto the edge of the bed, my head in my hand. When I look up, he is still standing there, waiting for me to finish. I sigh. "We were to be free men, Gawain. Free. Free to go where we choose, to do what we will – no more of this meaningless servitude. And now, it's all gone in an instant. And then you just agree to it?"

He approaches me and speaks at last. "We'll do what we have to, Galahad. We'll have our freedom whether we succeed or fail. The only word we need is Arthur's." I nod, wanting to believe him. "Besides," he continues, "there's no sense in you complaining about it. You know you'd have come anyway."

And I let him lean down to kiss me, because I know he's right.