Gwaine-wise the last episode was an epic fail (he hardly had any lines, and when he did, some of them didn't even make sense or were totally out of character, like the that's sir Gwaine to you), but the model knight's (I don't know his name) crossdressing, Freya's appearance and some other scenes more than made up for it. To make this more fun, I'm starting to play a little, so make sure you can tell the difference between what actually happened in the series and an individual character's focalisation. Also, on a totally unrelated subject: has anyone else noticed that Gwen looks the prettiest when she's afraid or otherwise unhappy? Just before she and Arthur kissed I was like wow.

I'm a little miffed now because the next season might only start in 2012, and in my opinion that's as good as cancelled.

Chapter 5

The original plan had been 'wake up, have a talk about what does it all mean?, wait until Arthur wakes up, then go get the cup back'. Of course, nothing was ever as simple as that. The quest itself had been intended to be a straight-forward retrieval mission, and now the future of Camelot was at stake. Every once in a while, Merlin wished he had someone else's life. No destinies, just a quiet life with a few friends. No warlocks trying to take over the kingdom, just lying in the sun. No burned down Camelot. No thousands of innocents dead.

And yet, this was his life. As he, Arthur, Gwaine and Elyon made their way through the halls of the castle, Merlin shot an instinctively worried glance to Arthur. The crown prince was limping his best, and admirably relatively quickly, but his speed was fading. Elyon noticed the same, and whispered as much to Merlin. They decided to split into two groups, Gwaine and Elyon headed to the dungeons while Merlin dragged Arthur to Gaius' chambers.

Gwaine agreed to the plan. He had seen Merlin's face: as he had said earlier, his destiny was to protect Arthur. Gwaine couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy, which he quickly brushed off, angry at himself. How old are you? Honestly. The kingdom is coming undone and you're depressed because Merlin is worrying about someone who just pulled a poisoned arrow from his leg? Really? He shook his head to clear his mind, then motioned Elyon to the dungeons and they left too.

In the dungeons, they did a quick search but didn't find Gwen nor the king, until they saw a group of undead soldiers dragging Uther upstairs. They followed them discreetly for a while to make sure where they were going, and then ran to share the information with Arthur, who sent them off with Gaius.

The next couple of weeks were difficult. Arthur had sunk into depression after finding out that his sister was evil, that his kingdom was all but ruined and oh, by the way, that he even had a sister in the first place. Gwaine didn't know whether to laugh or cry sympathetically whenever he saw the prince pout. After a while, there wasn't much for him to do. They didn't stand a chance against Morgana's army, so they just waited for something to change. Gwaine himself found himself in new a situation: usually he didn't stick around long enough to get bored. Even Merlin started talking to himself one night, and went off by himself. Gwaine let him go because hey, we all deal with stress in our own way.

Things started picking up when they were attacked and Lancelot and Percival joined them. Bringing them along sparked a new, different kind of energy to their group, which up until now had been rather gloomy thanks to Arthur. Now that they had some actual fighters in their group, they could actually start planning their coup d'état. To get back to the present, they were walking to the old castle, Gwaine seized the chance to talk to the two men that had just joined them. Percival turned out to be a bit on the quiet side but Lancelot was friendly enough.

"Anyway, thanks. Without your arrival it would've taken us longer to take down those thugs."

Despite how his words sounded, Lancelot knew what Gwaine meant. He had always been good at noticing things other people overlooked and this time he had a feeling there was more to Gwaine than met the eye. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the rugged adventurer shooting sideway glances at Merlin, who, busy looking after Arthur as usual, remained oblivious of the other man's gaze. While it was out of the norm, Lancelot didn't have a problem with the idea of two men getting together, as he'd seen much worse things in his time, he just didn't want his friend unwittingly getting caught up in something like that. So, the next time he had a moment alone with Merlin, he laid the situation out to him rather bluntly.

"Gwaine lusts after you." To his surprise, Merlin didn't even seem phazed by his announcement.

"Oh?" Merlin uttered, failing miserably as an actor. He started unsaddling his horse.

Lancelot was quiet for a moment, stunned. "You knew?" Merlin's face betrayed him. "You are sleeping with him? Wow. You're not just up to your old tricks, you bought a whole new bag of tricks. Alright, it's not a perfect metaphor but really.."

"I am not sleeping with him!" Merlin interrupted his rambling. "But I do know how he feels."

"And how do you feel?" Lancelot turned to look at Gwaine, who was looking at him like he wanted to seriously hurt him, then looked angry at himself. "He is definitely jealous of you. But he doesn't seem like he enjoys being that way."

Merlin didn't look. He pretended to be fascinated with his horse's saddle laces. "I don't know what to do about him. He has made his interest clear, sure, but how can I develop feelings for him when he's never around? I've spent more time with you than with him. Not that I'm saying, ugh,-"

"It's okay Merlin, I get it", Lancelot said, raising his hands to deny Merlin's insinuation. "He's here now, though." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

"I know, and I have a feeling it's because of me. He's always on the road, and he loves it there. Being with me would mean him staying in one place, and I think he's just going to end up feeling trapped."

"Sounds to me you have put a lot of thought into rejecting a guy you presumably don't even like." Lancelot remarked, striking Merlin speechless. Smiling, he raised a suggestive eyebrow at Merlin and left him to think about his words. As he went to join the others, Gwaine greeted him enthusiastically, without a trace of his anger before. At least he knows when he's being a prat and tries to fight it, Lancelot thought and saw Arthur, who motioned him to join him.

Becoming a knight had been Lancelot's dream ever since he could remember, but seeing Gwen kiss Arthur so soon afterwards reminded him of the fact that he'd had other dreams, too. He needed a moment alone, and noone noticed when he left.

Meanwhile, Gwaine had mixed feelings over becoming a knight. Deep inside, this was what he wanted, but with the title came a price: his life would never be the same. Assuming they wouldn't die during their next mission, being a knight would mean being bound to Camelot. Forever. I guess my traveling days are over. Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. He could see Merlin more, though depending on how their next conversation would go, that might turn out to be more of a curse than a blessing. Can I really become a knight? Not to Uther, of course, but to Arthur. Yes. As for Merlin, he was going to have to figure something out. He was going crazy, just a while ago he'd nearly charged Lancelot simply for talking to Merlin. Gwaine had never been the jealous type, but to be fair, he'd very rarely had anyone he truly cared about either.

Merlin was going over the plan with Arthur when Gwaine came and yoinked him and dragged him away. Unfortunately for Merlin, Arthur didn't mind as this gave him a good opportunity to test Percival's skills with the sword.

"What do you think you're doing?" Merlin exclaimed, staggering away from the adventurer-turned knight.

"I want us to settle this now. We are going to die tomorrow, and I don't want to die without knowing the truth."

"Well aren't you the optimist."

"I'm bloody serious."

Merlin stayed silent for a while. "I can't tell you 'no' or 'yes' with the information I have now."

"What do you mean? You either want to be with me or not, it's not a gray area question. Or is it?" Gwaine argued calmly.

"I don't love you because I don't know you. I have enjoyed our time together, though. There could be something there, there might not."

"So this is what you are giving me before we die? Ambivalence?"

"More or less, yes."

"I want to make this simple. It doesn't seem to me like you even care, so let's just call it quits here and now. We're both free to do what we want."

"Weren't we before?" Merlin asked, trying to hide the fact that despite his cold words he was hurt by Gwaine's accusation. "Are we still friends?"

Gwaine tilted his head. "Until one of us dies..so, more precisely until tomorrow." He left Merlin and ran into Lancelot. The man's, or now the knight's expression revealed that he had heard everything. "Listen, I don't know what you think.." Gwaine tried, desperately trying to come up with a believable lie.

"I'm surprised. I thought you had a shot with him", Lancelot remarked and walked by him. Gwaine turned to look after him, trying to digest the pieces of information he'd just received.

To all of their surprise, they didn't die, and Camelot was once more governed by a male Pendragon. Uther was so distraught by the events that Arthur had to assume command for the most part. He sincerely hoped his father would get well and not force him to become king before he was ready for it. However, he saw this as a good chance to prepare for his future, so he handled his duties to the letter. Uther hadn't even cared about the fact that he had knighted Gwaine and Lancelot, though, according to Merlin, Gwaine was actually of noble birth, so Uther would've only been mad at him about Lancelot, really. And Elyon. Oops. Fortunately, at least Percival's father had been a knight, otherwise Arthur would have had to feel guilty over going against his father's wishes. Now that he was king, not by title but by action, the whole court was his to command. This meant that, for the time being, he had no need for an individual servant. Knowing this was only temporary, Arthur had no qualms about assigning Merlin to the messiest knight in town, but considering that the boy had come to be a friend to him, he figured he owed the boy better than that. He pondered for a while. Merlin seemed to get along well with Gwaine but even better with Lancelot. Lancelot, however, seemed like he had always been a knight: he was structured, organised and would do well with even an inexperienced servant. Gwaine on the other hand might struggle trying to fit into the life at court, and Merlin, having been the manservant of the royal heir, would help him ease into it. Arthur smiled, pleased with himself for having reached a decision. For once he felt he had done something nice for Merlin.