"Arthur!" Gwaine roared, bounding after the king. "Where are you going?" He demanded. Arthur sped up his pace, his face set in a grim expression. His lips were pursed tight and he turned his face away from the knight.
"I'm going to my chambers." Arthur hissed. "Where it's not legal for anyone to follow me."
"And suddenly every fine detail of the law matters, does it princess? I don't remember it being lawful for you to knight peasants but you did it. It wasn't legal to allow anyone on your quest for the trident but you weren't complaining then! It wasn't legal when Merlin-"
"Don't mention the name of that sorcerer." Arthur spat. Gwaine froze in shock. He shook his head slowly.
"No. This isn't you Arthur. He's your friend. Are you going to let something you learned not twenty minutes ago change that? Is that what a king of Camelot is expected to do? Because if you can betray Merlin for something that-that for all we know he can't help- then you're not the ruler that I hoped you were." Arthur's expression seemed to shift from anger, to regret, and then back to anger.
"What would you have me do?" He asked. "Send out a search party?" Gwaine shrugged.
"Nah, that's boring. I was thinking more along the lines of you going yourself, with the knights of course. Like we always do?" The knight flashed Arthur his most charismatic grin, one usually reserved for only the prettiest barmaids, or when he really, really needed a discount. He could see the king weigh the options inside his mind, but in the end the laws that his father had drilled into his brain won over.
"I can't do it." Arthur whispered. "I can't waste such resources on a sorc- on a servant." The king seemed to prefer the latter word as it was less… condemning. Gwaine, on the other hand was turning from charismatic to livid faster than he could down a pint of mead.
"You idiot!" he roared, not caring if his words would land him in the dungeon for a week. "You bloody well don't care if he's a servant, don't pretend! What about the search parties we sent out when the bandits got Merlin? And when they didn't succeed we went out ourselves! When the Dorocha attacked you sent one of the knights that you needed home in the hope that Merlin's life would be spared. Don't try and act like anything but the prat you are your highness, because I will come up with something to counteract anything excuse you come up with." Despite himself, Arthur swallowed. Gwaine's fists were balled together so tight that there were likely nail sized crescents engraved into his palms. His usually carefree expression was twisted into such a rage as only a scrawny idiot manservant could cause.
It was all so tempting, to run off and save Merlin, but something told Arthur that he just couldn't. In a way, the choice was either his father or his best friend. And his father had worked over twenty years to prove the evil of magic. It had killed Arthur's mother, it had killed Uther, it had almost caused him to kill to kill the man! It had torn Morgana from the family and caused more attempts on his life then Arthur cared to count. To just now run off and accept it as anything but what his father had told him- wouldn't that make him a betrayer?
But Merlin….
Idiot Merlin. Disrespectful Merlin. Loyal Merlin.
Merlin, one of the only men who had ever seen him cry.
Arthur turned his back in what his knight had perceived as anger, but really it was meant as nothing more than make sure that it stayed that way with only Merlin seeing him cry. Because now he could feel the tears pricking at his eyes as he made the decision of duty over self indulgent.
"I can't." He whispered. Gwaine let out a loud cry of exasperation.
"So that's your final answer?" he spat. "You're leaving your friend at the hands of- of- well who knows who?" Arthur gave a stiff nod, his back still facing the knight. Gwaine heaved a sigh.
"So that's it then." He mused. He turned around so the two men's backs faced each other. In a way they looked like nothing more than two children in a feud over the last sweet roll. And then Gwaine walked away.
"Where are you going?" Arthur asked. There was anger in his voice, but only to coat the sadness. Gwaine tried to plaster on his usual carefree smile as he delivered his final line.
"Just because you aren't coming doesn't mean we aren't. The knights and I are getting Merlin."
A/N: I am a horrible person for taking this long, aren't I? My brother is getting married Friday so we have been super busy! But this story still has a ways to go since Arthur is sorta… being prattish. So I shall write on, hopefully till the end. Anyone like Rise of the Guardians? Because I have a RotG fic that's growing inside my mind as well. And I put in some of Arthur's thought process as well so ya'll won't hate him.