A note: In my world, everybody ships Merthur except Gwen. And Gwaine is totally Merlin's bffl. Seriously, who else smiles that big when Merlin walks into a tavern? Who hugs Merlin? I'll ship 'em for that-but I love them just as much as bros. And I've been dying to write Gwaine!POV because I love Gwaine. I sometimes love him more than Arthur, tbh, because he's nice to Merlin and Arthur has the emotional range of a teaspoon. Buuut, Merlin is stuck on the prat.
And my God, I want to watch season 4. Apparently, Arthur is pantless?
Gwaine didn't particularly like Arthur, which he felt was the most galling part of this whole knighthood gig. Most of it he liked-having his own spot at the tavern, regular pay, a home that was more than the doorstep of wherever he'd passed out the night before. And of course, having friends was a nice feeling.
But when one has friends, one ends up doing stupid things with them. Like taking horses and riding out at midnight to rescue a kidnapped Prince, instead of waiting for the King's orders. Not that those were likely to come. Uther was as broken a man as Gwaine had ever seen. Even more pathetic than the peasants who did backbreaking labor each day in fields only to see half their crop go to rot before they could harvest it and the other half taken by taxes.
It was his private opinion that it would do those peasants a world of good to see their King as he was now. It would up morale.
But of course, Gwaine didn't give the orders, and Arthur was doing his best to keep Uther's condition a secret. More importantly, Merlin was backing up Arthur and Gwaine liked Merlin. Enough to be riding full speed through a forest at night to rescue Merlin's stupid Prince.
Gwaine was just waiting for one of the horses to trip and die. They were pelting through a forest, in pitch black, and they weren't even on a path! It was miraculous that none of the branches that kept whipping over Gwaine's face hadn't thrown him off the horse.
No, what was really miraculous was that Merlin had managed to show up at the house Gwaine and Lancelot shared in town with three horses, one of them Arthur's own steed, and gotten them out of the city without making a noise. If Gwaine had less blind faith in Merlin, he might have regarded that as a bit suspicious.
As it was, Gwaine was focused on not falling off the horse. Merlin, ahead of him forging the path, was silent. Lancelot, behind him, was swearing under his breath. Gwaine was rather proud to hear all the language he'd taught the other knight being properly utilized.
"Merlin!" He called. "We can't keep riding! One of the horses is going to fall!"
"No, they won't." Merlin sounded…grimly sure. Gwaine fell silent. They kept riding all night, pushing the horses harder than was wise. Merlin drew his horse to a halt at dawn, glaring into the sunrise.
"Are we finally stopping then?" Gwaine asked wearily. They came out of the forest at the top of a hill, overlooking an enormous body of water and a port town. Merlin frowned.
"We have to. Arthur is being kept at the castle of Neurae, and it's on an island." Merlin gestured to the town below them. "We need to find someone who will take us across the bay."
"How are we supposed to do that?" Lancelot asked. He looked exhausted.
"You're knights!" Merlin shrugged. "Go bash someone." Gwaine chuckled.
"Fine. I'll go convince someone that we have the money to rent a boat, and Arthur can repay them when we get him back. God knows his belt buckles are worth more than my wages." Gwaine swung off his horse and patted her neck. "Can you two see to the horses?"
"Will do." Lancelot said. He dismounted and settled with his back to a tree, closing his eyes. Gwaine snorted and trotted down to the port. Of course, it would be Merlin caring for the poor horses. Always was, even with Lancelot, who was actually a decent fellow for a knight.
Well, right now that was cosmic justice. Gwaine had been having a most titillating dream back in Camelot. Then Merlin had woken him up banging on the window, and made him wake up Lancelot, and made them both go with him. Little sot deserved to clean up after the horses.
"We've got a boat!" Gwaine announced triumphantly. He'd managed to convince a teenager that they would return the boy's boat and pay him for the time they took it out. The deal was helped along by Gwaine's buying the boy a pint. Then a few more.
Honor code shmonor code. It was easier to reason with people when they were drunk.
"Good." Merlin got to his feet. The horses were clustered around a tree, where there was a spring-funny, Gwaine didn't remember that being there, but it had been half dark-and were grazing on a patch of grass. "Let's go."
"Can't it wait?" Gwaine said plaintively. "You two might've been napping this whole time" he kicked the still asleep Lancelot "but I'm tired!"
"Arthur was taken in bed, by people from a castle on that lake." Merlin chose to ignore Gwaine's complaints.
"How do you know all this?"
"He wasn't in his chambers, and a ransom note was. Then I did some research." Merlin smiled. Gwaine rolled his eyes. Fine. Merlin could be mysterious if he wanted to, it wasn't as though Gwaine wasn't keeping his own secrets. And Gwaine's were rather more potent than most, so he was in no position to ask about what Merlin hid.
"Arthur really should appreciate you more." Gwaine grumbled. "I mean, you dragged the finest knight in Camelot and his sidekick out of bed at midnight and somehow got the information about the Prince's location and his captors…not to mention you stole his horse."
Merlin looked sheepish. "Arthur's stallion is the fastest in Camelot, and he's strong enough to carry both of us when we get Arthur back…" Gwaine refrained from commenting on the wisdom in just bringing another horse. Doubtless Merlin had simply forgotten.
"Right. Let's just get the princess and go home." Gwaine muttered. He hauled Lancelot to his feet and pointed to the town. "Our ship is on the easternmost dock. Let's get to it before anyone notices that we're here."
"Seconded." Lancelot pulled his boots back on as Merlin strode off. "He's a bit agitated, don't you think?"
"Well, it's Arthur." Gwaine shrugged at his fellow knight. "You know Merlin when it comes to his highness. Though I'm still in the dark as to how he plans to steer a tiny little boat to an island fortress and wrest Arthur back from god knows who."
"Don't ask." Lancelot finally stopped hopping in place and got his boot on. They both hurried to catch up to Merlin.
"Merlin, do you know how to sail a boat?" Merlin waved away Gwaine's question.
"I'll figure it out. Let's go." Gwaine glanced back at the horses. Well, they were isolated, and that beast of Arthur's could deal with horse thieves…eh, it probably wasn't animal cruelty to leave them.
"As you wish." Gwaine showed them through the town, to the dock where their boat was. Merlin eyed the sailboat. "I can sail. Or at least, I'd sail it if there was some bloody wind."
Sadly, the weather was humid and windless.
"Great. Rowing." Lancelot sighed. "I paid for passage to a place once by manning the oars. Rowing is terrible."
"Merlin, tell this wimp to quit complaining." Gwaine peered at Merlin. His friend was at the prow of the boat, looking out into the waters of the bay with his back to Gwaine and Lancelot. He was mumbling to himself. "Merlin?"
"Just figuring out which direction we sail in." Merlin said. Gwaine blinked.
"I thought I heard you say something else." A gust of air blew his hair out. "Hey! The fates are on our side my friend, we've got wind!"
"Right. Steer us to the north. Please." Gwaine hopped into the boat with gusto. Lancelot followed more warily.
"No problem! Your luck is faithful Merlin; this is a northward breeze. Lancelot, you take the rudder. Merlin, feel free to stay there and give directions." Gwaine unfurled the sail. The wind instantly filled it, and as soon as Lancelot had the mooring line cut they were skimming the waves. "Should we be prepared for a fight?"
"It's probably just a few of them!" Merlin called over the wind. "I hope." Gwaine groaned.
"Great. Princess had better appreciate this." Gwaine sighed. "Is that the fortress?"
"Yup." Lancelot eyed Merlin.
"That is a 60 foot high stone box." Lancelot commented lightly. "And you expect three men to storm it." Gwaine burst out laughing.
"At least we've got a reputation mate. It beats the perilous lands." Lancelot humpfed. Gwaine grinned. "Merlin, do you have a plan?"
"…sneak in, get Arthur, run." Merlin managed to smile brightly. Gwaine noticed that the smile had dimmed from when he'd seen Merlin in town before Arthur was captured. Then he'd been chasing after Arthur with a load or armor, tripping over his own feet and being ignored.
"This is your plan?" Lancelot asked incredulously. Gwaine snickered. Lancelot glared at him. "Why do you enjoy this?"
"I thrive on chaos."
"Shhh." Merlin hissed. The boat bumped against the rocks. Gwaine started. They'd had a brisk wind, but now he couldn't even see the shoreline. Had they traveled that fast? "Come on."
Merlin led the way from the boat and over the rocks. Gwaine shivered as he followed. They'd left the scarlet cloaks back in Camelot for the sake of caution, and Gwaine was missing his. The things were really quite warm.
"Here." Merlin had found them a door. "It's unlocked."
"Really?" Gwaine shook his head. "This is the worst secured fort I've ever invaded."
"It's not invasion it's…" Merlin shrugged. "Reconnaissance."
"Rescue mission." Lancelot corrected him. The knight unsheathed his sword. "Merlin, do you know where Arthur is?"
Merlin closed his eyes. Gwaine eyed him. "The keep. It's across the courtyard. He's unconscious, we should hurry."
"How the hell do you…" Gwaine shook his head. Merlin was already hurrying away, presumably in the direction of the keep. Lancelot was striding after him. Telling himself that he could have a talk with Merlin about assumptions later, Gwaine followed.
Weirdly, Merlin knew exactly where he was going. The fortress was nearly deserted. Gwaine wondered if Merlin's luck was actually going to hold and override the stigma of bad that followed him around.
"Seize them!" Merlin slid to a halt. Lancelot hissed a curse. Gwaine swore loudly.
Of course their luck didn't hold.
"I can't believe this." Merlin muttered. Gwaine eyed the people surrounding them. "These people. Again."
"You know them?" Lancelot asked. He was keeping his eyes trained on the blue crystal pointed towards him, and the creepy stare of the men holding the staff. Gwaine frowned.
Something about this made his stomach flip flop.
"Sidhe." Merlin grumbled. Gwaine groaned. "You know them too?"
"I've seen them." And that was all Merlin needed to know about that. He'd never talked to one, but he'd grown up too close to the borders of the worlds. "Aren't they small and blue?"
"Not when they're like this." Merlin said. He raised his voice. "The Sidhe elders do not hold council here, you have no reason to bring Arthur to this place."
"You're well informed, boy." Gwaine twisted around. A woman in a white robe, also carrying a staff, walked towards them. He relaxed when he saw her face. She was dark haired, but with red eyes.
"We came for Arthur." Merlin said. Gwaine felt his respect for Merlin go up a notch-he was glaring at her with no fear whatsoever. Lancelot edged closer to Merlin.
"How wonderful for you. We won't have him much longer." She said. Her eyes coasted over the knights, lingering on Gwaine. Gwaine grinned at her.
"Handing him over without a struggle? Thanks lass." The look she sent him could've curdled milk. Lancelot sighed.
"You both know that things work better when you don't antagonize people, right?"
"She took Arthur, she antagonized us first." Merlin responded. He folded his arms. "You're Sidhe, banished from Avalon and seeking to return, right?"
"Correct."
"Then you know it's only one soul per person, so who're you leaving behind?" Merlin looked at the three stone faced men.
"The Sidhe High Council would never take us back." Gwaine idly wondered what they'd done. "But they're hardly the only persons who could take us into Avalon." She smiled, and her eyes flickered an even darker shade of red. "All waters lead to Avalon, boy. The gates are only one opening."
"So you're trading Arthur. Do you know how unoriginal that is?" Merlin asked. His hands were twitching. "Did you hurt him?"
"Not yet." Gwaine had to admit that she was at least honest.
"Give him to us." Lancelot stepped forward, his hand on his sword hilt. "Or we will be forced to destroy you."
"You would destroy us?" She burst into cruel laughter. "We are the Sidhe, masters of magic. What could you possibly do?"
If that wasn't a perfect cue…
Gwaine lunged forward and used his sword hilt to bat away the point of a staff, then chopped down. His blade sliced through the wood of the staff, and with a sound like a thunderclap the crystal exploded. Gwaine dropped to the floor. The explosion ruffled his hair and sent tingles running down his spine.
"Gwaine, roll!" Gwaine rolled. Lancelot's sword flashed on the edge of his vision, and a second later there was the unmistakable sound of a limb hitting the floor. Gwaine kept rolling and shifted to a standing position, bringing up his sword in time to finish the job Lancelot started. The man's body joined his arm on the flagstones.
Where was Merlin? Gwaine whirled around. Lancelot had the same idea he did, apparently, and had gone immediately for the staffs. Another was on the floor in fragments, and he could see the woman in white running for the other side of the courtyard.
Merlin bolted after her, ignoring the one remaining warrior. Somehow Merlin had taken out the man by him, who was now sprawled on the floor with a trickle of blood running from his mouth.
The last warrior was whipping his head around, trying to decide whether to follow Merlin or take out the knights. Gwaine solved the problem by stabbing him as ran after Merlin. Lancelot decapitated him as he passed.
The man shouldn't have looked so shocked. In Gwaine's experience, everyone with magic looked down their nose at mere mortals, but they were obviously skilled fighters.
Oh how he enjoyed killing arrogant fairies. It was worth the trouble just to see their faces.
"Get your hands off him!" Gwaine slid into the room and to Merlin's shoulder. Lancelot was just behind him, and ended up at Merlin's other shoulder. Merlin's fists were clenched as he looked at the woman.
One of her hands hovered above Arthur's forehead. She smiled, and extended the other towards them.
"I am not so easy to kill as my brothers. Ruetis in Ignis!"
Well crap. Gwaine had hoped to die a death not related to magic at all. At least he'd be going out next to friends, that was an unlooked for pleasure. Gwaine closed his eyes.
The temperature in the room went up slightly.
Wait. He wasn't dead yet. Gwaine opened his eyes. Merlin had flung himself between them and the Sidhe woman, and his hand was extended, the back to the magic. The stream of blue light from her staff hit Merlin's hand and was absorbed.
…that was unexpected. Gwaine peered around Merlin, and yep, his eyes were glowing gold. That was very unexpected, Gwaine wasn't even going to try processing it until he had more time to contemplate how the hell he missed something that huge.
He would instead focus on enjoying the look of utter shock on the Sidhe's face.
"Lancelot, grab him!" Merlin reversed his hand. A massive jet of blue light flew from his hand and sent the Sidhe flying away from Arthur. Lancelot, who unlike Gwaine was not in shock, sheathed his sword and slung Arthur over his shoulder. "Gwaine…"
"I'll cover you." Merlin nodded. "We should run, no?"
"Right." Merlin jerked his head left. "The boat is that way."
Lancelot moved Arthur to a more comfortable position and set off with Merlin. Gwaine paused to eye the Sidhe woman. She didn't look out of the count, so Merlin would need a knight by him who wasn't toting an unconscious prince.
Gwaine dashed behind them, sword out. Lancelot could run admirably well for someone carrying a heavy load, but they weren't running fast enough to be off the island as soon as Gwaine would've liked.
Or perhaps they were. No one accosted them in the time it took to heave Arthur into the boat and get in, Lancelot crouched next to Arthur and Gwaine figuring out the sails. Merlin kept his eyes trained on the castle.
Gwaine was just thinking that maybe this could still go by without a hitch when they pushed off, and the Sidhe woman ran from the castle. Lancelot swore quietly, and Gwaine groaned.
"You will die!" Gwaine mused that this was not the most creative of women. She may have been willing to trade an innocent man to god knows who for passage to Avalon, but she was certainly not good at threatening people.
She raised her staff and took a deep breath, preparing to send some awful curse their way.
Merlin moved faster. With a glance at Arthur-one of these days, Gwaine had to tell him to stop doing that if he wanted to not tip off everyone in Camelot to his feelings-he raised his hands and muttered "Ruo."
Invisible force rumbled from Merlin's palm. It slammed into the Sidhe woman and snapped every bone in her body, sending a fine pink spray into the air behind her. It didn't stop there. That wave of magic kept going, knocking down the fortress wall and the infrastructure of two towers.
Merlin winced as the entire fortress collapsed in on itself. "Oops."
"Merlin?" Lancelot wasn't at the oars-the force had worked both ways, sending their little boat skidding over the waves.
"It was an accident!"
"Do you destroy castles by accident often?" Gwaine asked. Merlin hunched down and waved his hand, sending wind into their sails.
"Not usually…" The rest of the journey passed in silence, and it wasn't until nightfall that they made it back to their horses.
"Well." Lancelot looked between him and Merlin. Merlin was sitting by Arthur and carefully not looking at Gwaine. "I'll go get some firewood. Be back erm, in time."
Gwaine was fairly sure that the look Lancelot sent him said that he would not be out of earshot for things as loud as a person drawing a sword. Gwaine felt somewhat insulted by that.
He and Merlin sat by the fire for a few minutes in total silence.
"You should tell him." Gwaine commented softly.
"And be executed?" Merlin shook his head. His eyes were old, and for the first time Gwaine saw shadows in their depths.
"I meant that you love him." Merlin froze. Gwaine sighed. "You aren't very subtle about it Merlin. I mean, I know I wouldn't destroy a castle for just anyone."
"…I can't." Merlin stared at him, desperation in every line of his face. "He'll send me away. And he needs me to protect him."
"I suppose so." Gwaine shivered as Merlin touched Arthur's forehead again, his eyes flashing gold. "Magic, eh?" That made a lot of things make sense. And here he thought Merlin had wanted him to risk wolves so he could cry over Arthur's nearly dead body in privacy.
"I can't help it." Merlin huddled up by the fire, not meeting Gwaine's eyes. "It's like Arthur and my magic are bound together and I can't stop using magic any more than I can not love him."
Gwaine sighed. "C'mere."
"…What?" Gwaine shuffled over to Merlin. "Gwaine, what are you…"
Gwaine hugged Merlin. In a manly, not at all womanly and concerned way. Merlin relaxed, in an also not at all womanly way, and Gwaine wondered how long it'd been since someone had hugged the poor boy. And when had Merlin gotten so thin and shaky?
"Are you two trying to make me nauseous in addition to the headache?"
"Arthur!" Gwaine released Merlin, letting the sorcerer focus his attention wholly on Arthur.
"What am I doing here?" Arthur glared around. "All I remember is going to sleep."
"You were kidnapped! And we rescued you." Arthur glared at Gwaine, not paying much attention to Merlin's explanation. "Lancelot is getting firewood."
"I was kidnapped and it only occurred to you to bring two knights!" Arthur demanded. He was still glaring at Gwaine in a…murderous way, if Gwaine read his Prince right.
"They were the two who'd listen to me!"
"Great. Me and the moron brigade." Arthur glared at Gwaine once more for good measure than rolled over. "Wake me up in the morning, Merlin."
"Why did we rescue him again?" Gwaine grumbled to Merlin. Merlin grinned, gazing in a stupidly lovestruck way at Arthur's back. "I'll just go find Lancelot and make sure he hasn't died collected firewood."
Gwaine got up and went off to find Lancelot, musing that Arthur was certainly in a foul mood.
A/N: Huge thanks to Sofiajedi, who did the Latin for me. It means "perish in fire", and it's actually in the correct tenses! We both take Latin, but she is a genius and veritable Latin dictionary, whereas I cram until 1am before tests and scrape out good grades by memorizing every single word and forgetting it the day after the test. I don't even remember first declension unless I study. Hey, at least I don't spend class giggling about "facio" and "Lesbos", like some students.
/end random talk about dead language.