Dressed head to toe in black Kevlar body armour, leather boots and soft black capes, the Knights marched on through the muddy terrain. They'd been walking for days, their last village was a week ago and now they were going home. Each of them was drenched in sweat and mud from the long journey. And each of them smelt worse than the toilets when they'd been flooded. Their emotions were strained and each of them were angry with everything around them.

"Keep moving!" Leon urged them, the tiredness in his voice clear. "Come on!"

"Keep your goddamn voice down." Gwaine sighed. He clicked his neck and rolled his shoulders, the marching was beginning to wear down his body as well as his mind. It was boring, and everything looked the same. The scorched trees, the stunted plants, this area wasn't safe for anyone to be travelling. Feral packs of nearly human mutants lurked nearby, willing to tear the flesh off the bones of an unwary traveller.

"Since Arthur isn't here, I am in charge and you will call me Sir." Leon growled, his voice a lot quieter and a lot more dangerous. If this had been anyone but Gwaine, they would have shut up. But Gwaine didn't know when to shut up, and often enjoyed pushing buttons.

"Keep your goddamn voice down, Sir." He said mockingly, a smile playing at his lips. There was a chorus of chuckles from the patrol team, the loudest from Elyan and the softest from Percy, before Leon shot Gwaine a look that could curdle dairy.

"Keep moving." Leon said, his hand on his sword.

Their swords were new, but these weren't the regular swords used by every day troops. No, these were the black swords of the Knights. Each one was made out of a metal that had been discovered inside the mines surrounding Camelot, they could block bullets without taking any damage; yet when there was a fire and a hammer nearby with someone willing to use them properly, the metal could by bent to anyone's will.

"May-" Gwaine started one more smart ass reply but was interrupted by Elyan's shout of joy.

"HOME!" Elyan yelled, his face lit up and a huge beam showed off his teeth. "We're home!"

"Home?" Lance cocked his head, looking out over the plain beneath them. It clicked in his head that he was looking right at it, the cliff on the other side of this plain was where Camelot was. From here it was impossible to make out the city's walls. But with an hour or so of walking, they'd be there.

Camelot stood against a cliff, the concrete walls blended with the grey stone of the cliff. Deep caverns went miles into the cold, hard earth seemingly all the way into the core. Small villages nested atop it, their only jobs were to produce the food and electricity for the populous that dwelled within the caves.

It had been built as a last resort, a hiding place for a few thousand people. Safety from the roaming packs of wild bandits, the mutated animals and the feral dogs that attacked anything with a pulse. The nuclear bombs that had ruined the bloodstreams of the royal and the noble had wrecked the land. As such, there was only a limited space for the Pendragons to rule over, but they did it well. Despite the fact that the current king, Uther Pendragon, despised mutants.

"Let's get going boys!" Leon grinned, pushing past them all and nearly running down the sloped hill that led to the plain of tall grass. The tired Knights followed him, each nearly tripping over their own feet in their haste to get down the hill. They found a worn path through the grasses that were nearly as tall as Percy, and started down it.

About half an hour later, their tiredness was gone. Instead there was an air of excitement and a slight buzz. They were close enough to the city to hear the general hubbub of a small city and to smell the ashes in the smoke that left the chimneys. The hot sun beat down on their shoulders, but it was less than the scorching hot that had crushed them the last seven days. The air was warm rather than scalding, and it no longer hurt to breathe in too deeply.

"I love this!" Gwaine grinned, taking a deep breath of the air. "Smell that, you can smell the forges."

Percy nodded, a grin on his face, he'd once said that if he wasn't a Knight, he might have become a blacksmith. Gwaine had a love of all things common; if it wasn't noble he was attracted to it like a moth to a flame.

"Hot food!" Elyan exclaimed, waving his arms around his head. The others were lucky his sword was in its sheath and his gun was strapped across his back. "Warm beds! Showers!"

"Women." Gwaine chimed in, a sly look in his eyes.

Elyan flushed, his cheeks turning darker. "I..."

Gwaine's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Never?"

"I- uh..." Elyan saw the entire group's eyes on him. He dropped his own eyes to his shoes. "Fuck you, man." He turned on the ball of his feet and stalked off into the tall, dead grass, hiding his face.

Gwaine opened his mouth, he looked like a fish until he said "I was just kidding, I didn't..."

"You need to be more careful with what you say. 'Specially to the kid." Percy muttered as he pushed past Gwaine into the tall grass that Elyan had just walked into.

He followed the trail of dead, broken grass and eventually caught up to Elyan who was sat on a stone in a small clearing. He was staring at the ground, muttering to himself. Percy stood there for a second, letting Elyan decide what to say.

"He... I mean, it..."

"He was just being a dick," Percy offered, "it was just a joke."

"I know," Elyan smiled weakly, "it's just that I feel... Bad for not having... You know."

"Yeah." Percy nodded, walking over to Elyan and sitting next to him. "Trust me."

They sat in silence for a second before Elyan muttered, "I just haven't found the right one, yet. You understand?"

"Yeah, me neither." Percy admitted. Elyan's eyebrows shot up and hid in his hair. Percy laughed, a sweet chuckle. "What, you think I have? No, not yet. I... Can't do it." He paused, looking at the younger man, "Can't talk to people much, don't make friends easily either. It's the stature, scares them off."

"Really? Well, don't worry, man. I think you're hot." Elyan laughed, play punching Percy's huge arm.

Percy rolled his eyes and leaned back against the pleasantly warm rock. "Of course you do. I'm the hottest guy you know."

"Oh, I don't know..." Elyan grinned, flexing his arms, "I'm pretty hot myself."

They were both laughing when Leon's head popped into the clearing. He looked worried, his eyes were searching them both for and sort of wound. "Goddamn it you two, you completely disappeared. Don't go off and sulk like a child Elyan, it's not professional."

Elyan nodded and stood up, Percy followed him and together the three made it back to the path. They walked on in silence, with Elyan and Percy shooting each other secret glances and covering smirks. The atmosphere as they joined the Knights was relaxed, with a small apology from Gwaine that Elyan insisted wasn't necessary.

"Now, you two especially," Leon chided, "stay on the damn path!"