Chapter 10
And here it is. Thank you KittyRin and A-Wonderful-Afterlife for your suggestions! :D
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One Good Shot Deserves Another and Aces High!
"How can any man be so incredibly unlucky?" slurred one of Arthur's knights. Gwaine had taken more than a few shots of Tequila already, and while he was looking a little green, he found it uproariously hilarious that the Prince had 'earned' the privilege—a lost hand of Poker—not once, but three times that evening!
"Okay, okay. So, I'm seeing some potential for alcohol poisoning," said Camelot's most frequent guest, Lleanne Warren, barely containing her own giggles. She turned her own inebriated gaze to her best friend. "We need to add, um, provisions."
The Regent's new wife burst out laughing, taking the deck into her own small hands. She began shuffling the deck like a pro—too many hours spent looking for things to do at the hospital on a quiet night. "Oh, yeah. I think so," she agreed with a grin, nodding enthusiastically. "So...what, either take the shot or-"
"OH!" Lleanne cackled a bit, leaping to her feet from around the dining table in Kelly's room. She pointed to Kelly. "Take the shot or take something off...your...person." Her sentence was spoken so precisely, as to let the consequences sink in to their medieval counterparts, and she got another nod of agreement.
Kelly dealt out eight hands and slammed the deck down in the centre of her table. "Dude! You are so on, it ain't even funny."
"And if you refuse to do either one, expect to be 'gotten' at any given time, anywhere, and in the most embarrassing manner possible," Lleanne added firmly, moving her pointed finger to each and every person around the table. She seated herself again, taking up her hand. She automatically grimaced at her hand. "Oh, crap..."
Kelly laughed at this, throwing her head back. She caught her husband trying to peek past her shoulder just before setting down the cards. Sending him a sharp glare, she added, "And cheaters either take two shots of MY choosing, or you lose two items of clothing. So, eyes back on your own cards, already!"
Arthur visibly flinched, unable to hide his own smile. He would never admit it to anyone, but he loved that southern twang that touched his wife's words when she got worked up. That was part of the reason he egged her on—but she really did scare him at times. She was small, but she could do more damage than some of his own men!
He recalled the tale of the first time she had met Gwaine. She had flipped the man straight over her shoulder, knocking the breath from his lungs. Oh, how he had ribbed the knight mercilessly for weeks following that run-in with the doctor.
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Several hands later, and several severely drunk knights later, Arthur sighed in defeat, throwing his second boot into the pile on top of the table. He cast a look to his servant and truly took in the scrawny man's appearance since this had all begun. Merlin was very drunk, and one more shot might just make him lose his dinner, so Arthur volunteered the man's neckerchief, throwing it onto the pile, when Merlin laid down a very, very poor hand.
"Arthuuuur," Merlin whined pitifully, gesturing toward his favoured piece of cloth. "That's my favourite one! You can't just throw it out there without my consent!" His blue eyes flashed with anger, turning gold momentarily.
Arthur looked down in time to see his sword-belt leave his person and settle on the pile. Angry, he glared at his servant. "It's not the same thing, you idiot! Now, I command you to give it back this instant!"
Both boys glared at each other for a long moment before releasing identical, defeated sighs. Each was returned his treasured item and each one gathered the courage to take yet another shot of that dreadful alcoholic beverage called 'Sambuca'. Both men cringed comically as the awful drink hit their gullets.
"Gods, that's foul," Merlin groaned, slamming his shot glass down with violence.
"Foul is putting it lightly," Arthur contributed vehemently, slamming his own glass down.
Sir Leon went red the moment he laid his cards down. His was a hand to be quite ashamed of, and he wordlessly took off one of his boots, setting it with all the rest...
Gwaine looked up from his hand, smirking, to look at the Princess—the real one, not the Regent. "Wha d'ye have?" When Kelly laid her cards down, with a bit of a grimace, Gwaine crowed loudly, nearly rocking off of his chair. "Oho! So, the ladies who set this disaster in motion are finally getting payback!"
"Sure, call it that," Kelly said with a forced straight face. Her arms disappeared into her t-shirt, and within seconds a lacy blue bra was thrown onto the pile. She then folded her arms across her chest and shrugged. "I call it justice."
Every man in that room was struck speechless. As everyone looked to the Prince for permission to proceed, Arthur simply blinked at the article in fascination. Tilting his head, he stated, "That's new."
Kelly shot her husband a sideways smile. "Yeah. I got a few of the same bra in different colours."
Arthur's face went crimson, but not nearly as pronounced as his servant's shade of embarrassment at seeing a woman's undergarments just laying there...on the table...
Lleanne disrupted the silence with a small cheer. "Yaaaaay! For once I don't have the worst hand since the invention of this game!" She set down a Royal Flush, doing her little 'victory dance', earning a large number of irritated glares.
And this was another historical first; Strip Poker with shots within Camelot's hallowed halls.