A/N: Hello beautiful people from the internet! I'm here with the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it!Thank you for the follows and the favourites, plase review? By the way, this fic is gonna be longer than expected, probably ten chapters yay! Sorry if you think I take too long to post my chapters, I've had a terrible writer's block and I'm working on other writing project.

Enjoy and review please!

Words without A/N: 1866

4. Making a Plan

''Have you ever needed someone so bad? Have you ever wanted someone you just couldn't have? Did you ever try so hard that your world just fell apart? Have you ever needed someone so bad?'' Def Leppard.

Gwaine must have been extremely tired to fall asleep as he did, he could barely remember crawling into bed. He stood up and took a look at himself, I´m a mess, he thought. He was just wearing one of his boots, his shirt was nowhere to be found and he must have fallen asleep while taking his pants off because they were just covering his knees. It was still early so he asked a servant to bring him some hot water for a bath.

After he was clean and dressed with fresh clothes, he sat on the bed and began to think, he wasn't sure about his feelings anymore. There was some relief because he was sure they would get permission to go and rescue Arthur and Merlin; however, the guilt was still there. And there was also the deal with Leon, he had told Gwaine he would forget about the whole thing, but can you forget about something like that? Great, he thought, just great. When Gwaine walked out of his room, he encountered Percival and Elyan.

''You're late.'' Percival said.

''Late for what?'' Gwaine asked.

''I thought you were going to tell him.'' Percival said to Elyan.

''No, that was you.'' Elyan complained.

''Tell me what?'' Gwaine asked.

''Leon asked us to go to his room; Agravaine and Gauis are going to be there as well.''

''And none of you told me?''

''Pers was supposed to tell you!''

''It was Elyan!'' Percival said.

''Alright, it doesn't matter, let's go.'' Gwaine said, heading to Leon's room.

''So... how are you?'' Elyan asked, following the knight.

''Fine... I guess.'' Gwaine answered, felling weird, they never used to ask that.

''Okay, good, I just...''

''What?''

''Nothing.''

''What?''

''He wants to know what happened with Leon yesterday.'' Percival said.

''You wanted to know too!'' Elyan said angrily.

''Why didn't you ask Leon?'' Gwaine asked, somehow annoyed.

''Because we talked about other things and he's... well... intimidating.''

''Intimidating? I am far more intimidating.'' Gwaine said, offended. ''He's just taller than me!''

''Everyone's taller than you, Gwaine.'' Percival said.

Gwaine sighed. ''Nothing happened, okay?''

''What do you mean?''

''That nothing happened.''

''But, there must have ha...''

''Let me put it in a different way... nothing changed.''

''So you did tell him.'' Elyan said.

''Yes, but he wants to forget about it. And it's the best thing to do now. Forget about the whole thing, okay?'' Gwaine said, feeling angry and annoyed. He didn't want to forget, but he needed his friends to shut up.

They walked quietly to Leon's room; Agravaine and Gaius were already there. Gwaine could feel how his heart jumped when he saw Leon, he was sitting on his bed and he seemed better. He smiled at them but, his eyes showed empty feelings.

''Oh, I'm glad he's here.'' Agravaine laughed. ''I was starting to wonder where our little Sir Gwaine was.''

''My lord.'' Gwaine said dryly, he had never liked Agravaine.

''Now that all of us are here... well, I think you have some explanation to do.'' He said looking at the knights.

''Sire, let me tell you what happened.'' Leon answered. ''We were on a mission with...''

''What mission?''

''It was a very secret mission, sire, the king didn't tell us about it until our first night away, and you know about the spy of...''

''But I can't see the spy here, Sir Leon, can you?'' Agravaine asked with his typical sarcastic tone. ''Tell me about it.''

Leon hesitated and sighed before continuing. ''The mission was about finding a slave trader outside Camelot, but we didn't know much about him.''

''Gradel...'' Agravaine muttered.

''Sorry?''

''A slave trader I met long ago: Gradel.''

''Do you think we are talking about the same man?'' Leon asked, wondering how and why Agravaine knew a criminal.

''I could be.''

''Anyways,'' Leon continued, after looking into the other man's eyes for reasons. ''Probably halfway through the journey, we had the bad luck of encountering some bandits, more than twenty. All of us had to fight and we were focussed on that.''

''So you didn't care about your king.''

''My lord, it was a though battle, we could hardly pay attention to someone else. We did care about Arthur, I saw him seconds before he was captured, I tried to get to him, but got wounded, as you can see, and I had a blackout before I could warn the others.''

''And which one of you was the one who decided to save Sir Leon, no offence, instead of the king?'' Agravaine asked to the other knights.

''The three of us made choice, sire.'' Percival said quickly.

''Can I know the reasons?''

''Of course, Agravaine.'' Gwaine said, angry and making emphasis while saying the name, he didn't mind being disrespectful because Agravaine was being and idiot, talking as if Leon's life was worthless. ''I really want you to know that the conflict didn't end when Arthur and Merlin were taken away. We were fighting with at least three bandits each when we noticed that they were already far away. We needed to finish with them before doing something else. The men who had the king had ran away quickly and we couldn't have reached them even with the horses. I'm sure we were all closer to their territory than to Camelot. We were three exhausted knights and a mortally wounded one, we had no choice.''

''But...''

''My lord,'' Leon interrupted and gave Gwaine a 'be careful' look. ''I think it doesn't matter too much now what happened there, the point is that Arthur is now a prisoner of this slaver trader. Sire, we would like to ask for permission to find Arthur.''

''A mission to rescue Arthur, huh?'' Agravaine said in a stupid tone. ''I am not sure if that is possible.''

''But, sire...''

''I need to think about it, Sir Leon.''

''Think about it? He is the king and your...''

''No discussions here, I need to think about it because what you have done proves me that the knights of Camelot don't receive the training they...''

''Then choose others! We will tell them where to go and what to do... but we can't let Arthur there.''

''We don't even know if he's alive!''

''Sire, if you could let me speak,'' Gaius said, interrupting the fight. ''I don't think Arthur is dead. A king's death is tremendous and rumours spread quickly. Also, when someone dies, the first people to know are not always the friends but the enemies. If the king was dead, we would already know. Morgana would certainly know and she could have started an attack. Camelot can't stand alone without its king for too long.''

''Gaius, even if your statement makes sense, I just believe that you want the knights to go on this dangerous and suicidal mission to get your assistant instead of the king.''

''My lord, I love Arthur as much as I love Merlin, they are both really important for me. And it's not about what I want, but about what Camelot needs.''

''Well, Gaius, as I said, I need to think about it.'' Agravaine said, heading to the door. ''Knights, I will inform you about my decision.''

''He's an idiot.'' Leon said after Agravaine left the room.

''Be careful with that.'' Elyan said.

''He is one... and I don't trust him.''

''How come?''

''I mentioned the slave trader and he remembered one, why would he know him? And see how much he tries to believe that Arthur is dead? I bet he doesn't want us to rescue him. Something is telling me he is not completely loyal to Camelot.''

''That is a big accusation, Sir Leon.'' Gaius said.

''But you saw it, Gaius, you said something very clever and he had to start talking about Merlin to avoid your point.''

''What I'm trying to say is that we should be careful talking about it, we will discuss it more carefully later... Gwaine, Elyan and Percival, do you mind bringing some breakfast for all of us while I change Leon's bandages? We have to talk about this.''

''Leon's right, he's an idiot.'' Gwaine said as he and his two friends walked to the kitchen.

Percival laughed. ''God, Gwaine, you have been so reckless these past few days.''

''What do you mean?''

''You want to assume all responsibility, you talk almost screaming to Agravaine and treat him as if he didn't understand a thing, and now you say this at the top of your lungs in the middle of the castle.''

''Well, Agravaine can come and kiss my...'' Gwaine started, but closed his mouth when one of the cooks looked at him in a nasty way. ''And yes, I want to assume the responsibility because it was my fault.''

''It wasn't... and you know it's dangerous to act like that in front of that man.'' Elyan said.

''And what is he going to do?''

''He's the king's uncle! He can do whatever he wants and you know he doesn't like us, specifically the three of us because of our blood.''

''Alright, have it your way and. Hey Pers, why did you tell him the three of us had made that choice?''

''It's partly true and Elyan's right, it could have been dangerous for you.'' Percival said.

''Why is everyone suddenly so worried about that?'' Gwaine asked, grabbing an apple.

''Well, to be honest, Elyan and I talked a bit about it, but...'' Percival hesitated and grabbed some food. ''It was Leon who asked us to cover your back.''

''He did?''

''He's worried about you.'' Elyan said.

''He's worried that I find him tremendously sexy?'' Gwaine asked, hiding his feelings behind humour.

''This is serious, Gwaine, we all lied to Agravaine because we can't even imagine what we would have done if you had told him the truth.''

''Arthur would understand, but Agravaine? Don't even think about it'' Percival said. ''Should we go back?''

''Sure.'' Gwaine said and walked behind his friends. He was feeling somehow relieved that Leon didn't resent him; he was actually worried about him. He hadn't ruined their whole relationship after all. But he didn't know which was worse: Leon ignoring his feelings and 'forgetting', or him being angry at Gwaine.

They got to Leon's room and saw that the knight had been able to walk to the table. Gaius had brought chairs for all of them. They sat and began to eat.

''So...'' Leon started with his mouth full of food. ''Five days and I'll be completely fine, what do you think?''

''It's good, isn't it?'' Elyan asked.

''Yes but will you be ready that day?''

''Aren't we always ready?'' Gwaine said.

''I don't think they're getting it, Leon.'' Gaius commented.

''Get what?''

''We leave in five days to rescue Merlin and Arthur.'' Leon said.

''So we don't care about what Agravaine said, do we?'' Percival asked.

''No.''

''We ride at dawn?''

''As always.''

And with that, the plan was made.

TheLoner7