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Red Sky

Gaius checked in on Merlin before he went to bed, making sure his charge's ribs were still bandaged tightly, and that he was comfortable before heading downstairs to his own bed, pulling the door shut behind him. It was about three hours later when the door opened and someone walked in making sure they were quiet and stayed to the shadows. He slipped past the sleeping old man, before waving in a stream of other people. He kept watch as they all crept up the stairs and then followed them up making sure the door was firmly shut behind them.

Gwaine grinned at Elyan, Percival, Leon and Arthur they had all made it into Merlin's room without being detected by Gaius, who he was now convinced had the hearing of a bat. Operation Defy Gaius was well and truly underway. The knights positioned themselves in similar positions as before, but this time Elyan sat next to Percival at the door freeing up a seat for Arthur. They all sat in silence until Gwaine reached into his cloak and pulled out a wineskin that all the knights were sure was filled of some kind of alcoholic beverage.

"How in hells name did you manage to fit that into your cloak?" Elyan whispered as he accepted the wineskin from Gwaine after Percival shook his head, not wanting to have a repeat of last time he went drinking with Gwaine.

"Hidden pockets," Gwaine whispered back also pulling an apple from his cloak making a deliberate move, so everyone could see the two pockets he was referring to.

"I asked Gwen to sew them in for me." He said grinning as Arthur shook his head, taking the wineskin from Elyan and taking a large gulp and passing it onto Leon. They all jumped as Gwaine took a loud bite from his apple spinning around to face the door. Nothing. They all laughed quietly about how easy they all had jumped before returning to the relative silence with muttered thank yous, being exchanged as the wineskin was passed between them. After a while they all started sharing stories from tales from when they were younger to their time in Camelot. The majority of Gwaine's stories had the Knights cringing one moment the laughing the next.

It was Percival who called for silence. Shushing them, making them all listen as they heard the footsteps approaching the room. Percival, Elyan and Leon all moved to the blindside of the door while Gwaine and Arthur ducked behind the bed, just hidden from the view in the doorway. They all held their breaths as the door opened.

"And you call Merlin an idiot! You didn't think i'd realise you were missing from bed?"

The men all released a sigh as Gwen finished her harsh whisper aimed at Arthur, pleased they were still safe from Gaius' reign of terror over his patients in his chamber. She smiled fondly at them moving closer to Merlin's bed and sat down in one of the seats. She saw the empty wineskin and gave all of them a dirty look to which only Percival was able to be excused from. The knights rearranged themselves then continued with their stories.

The knights all laughed as Elyan finished a tale about Gwen from when she was younger. Gwen felt her face redden as she leaned into Arthur's chest starting to feel sleepy from her long day. Leon grinned as he then told of how Elyan might have misplaced his sword on the first day of training as a knight, only for Leon to point out that it was strapped to his side, where he had placed it two minutes before hand. Everyone laughed as Elyan went redder than his sister had before Gwaine shushed them pointing at Percival. The strong knight was leaning against the wall arms crossed at his chest snoring softly. Gwen's awws were drowned out by the other knights laughing. Within 20 minutes the rest of the knights, Gwen and Arthur had followed Percival's example and were sound asleep.

Gaius woke up around six as he always did, making sure the fire was still going so he could start to cook breakfast once he checked on Merlin. He moved towards the stairs and froze. He had pulled that door shut last night. It was now lying slightly open. He looked around his room, nothing was amiss. He climbed up the stairs, pushing the door carefully the rest of the way open. He shook his head and walked into the centre of the room, the knights, King and Queen were all sleeping at awkward angles in his ward's room. This was not what he had meant by a proper night's sleep. He used his foot to nudge Leon's leg, knowing it would start a chain reaction. Leon jumped up and tripped over his cloak – which had been used as a blanket during the night – and landed on top of Elyan who shoved him onto Percival. Now Percival, is a strong man who doesn't know his own strengths, so he was very surprised that when he shoved Leon that he flew across the room, skidding to a stop at the King and Queen's feet nudging them awake.

"Percival!" Leon cried astounded by his fellow knight's strength. Percival just shrugged apologetically. Gaius cleared his throat alerting everyone to his presence.

"Now, can any of you – Gwen excluded- remember what I said last night?" Gaius asked, getting mumblings from the knights. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"That you didn't want to see us before lunch tomorrow." The knights chorused.

"Exactly, now seeing as Gwaine is the only one who listened …"

"What?" Cried everyone, looking around the room is became evident that Gwaine was gone.

"… I was saying, seeing as Gwaine is the only one listened to me he'll be excused, but the rest of you won't mind running some errands for an old man like me will you?" Gaius said raising his eyebrows staring down his friends. The knights, King and Queen all rose to their feet and trudge out of the door listening carefully as Gaius handed them medicines and gave them instructions on the way out.

"I'll see you after midday." Gaius called after them as they walked down the hall.

"I don't believe it!" Leon cried meeting up with Elyan and Arthur as they walked back up to the castle. "He must have woken early and left without waking us. The whole thing was his idea in the first place." Arthur nodded in agreement while Elyan walked along beside them, trying to straighten out the kink in his neck from leaning –read resting- on Percival's shoulder last night.

"Go and get cleaned up, get some lunch and then meet back at Gaius' at midday, spread the word okay?" Arthur asked. Seeing he got nods from both knights he headed off to his and Gwen's chambers to get cleaned up, and maybe catch a nap before he headed back to the physicians room. He'd see Gwaine with the others and get some pay back. Maybe he would be kind enough to clean out the stables as Merlin took a break. Yeah he thought as he entered his chambers, being King was great.

Okay aiming for one more chapter, so review and share the love :)