A/N: I'm in the writing mood, so I decided to add another drabble (more of a one-short, really; it's long) and this time it's about Gwaine, because he is so awesome.

Title: The Tavern List

Author: FlYiNgPiGlEtS

Summary: Camelot's Golden Age through the eyes of Sir Gwaine.

Ratings: T

Characters: Gwaine is chief of this chapter, but pretty much everyone is in it - Merlin, Arthur, Gwen and all the knights, including Lancelot. This is kind of AU, so Mordred isn't in it.

Pairings: no slash. Arthur/Gwen, though not much.

Spoilers: up to series 3, I guess. No really big ones, since it's a little AU.

Disclaimer: unfortunately, I don't own Merlin; it belongs to the BBC and Shine.

II: The Tavern List

Gwaine had been to nearly every tavern in the land. It was common knowledge that the drunkard even had a list on which he recorded each and every tavern he had ever been to so he never returned to the ones he was kicked out of (which was over half) and so, when it came to bragging, he always had something to add. The Tavern List, he called it, and was quite proud of the ingenious creation.

When he had met Merlin and the then-prince Arthur, the number had been 345.

It had been a normal day for him before they showed up. He woke up with no idea where he was, minus a few items of clothing, to find he had another large gap in his memory and quite a sore head. The only anomaly was that he woke up beside a chicken, flapping feathers and all, instead of some random barmaid. It was weird, sure, but he had awakened to worse before.

Gwaine had sold the chicken to a passing merchant and bought himself some more clothes, then took off to spend the rest of his money on mead. After finding the nearest tavern, he sat himself down and willowed in the carefree feeling of the alcohol sweeping through his system, flirting merrily with each women that passed him by. What better way to spend the afternoon?

He hadn't even looked up when the pair had entered, taking a seat and ordering their drinks from Mary. They were just two more strangers back then, two more faces he wouldn't remember tomorrow; he had been perfectly content with letting them pass though his life without him even sparing the duo a second look.

Then Dagr had entered and all hell broke loose.

Honestly, he hadn't intended to wind up in another bawl. He had been in enough of those to know that he should have tried a lot harder to avoid them, but he craved danger almost as much as he craved alcohol, so it was practically invertible that he would get involved in this particular fight. Looking back, he was very glad he had.

Gwaine's memory of it was quite hazy, due to both the three tankards of mead he had already had and the blood loss he suffered afterwards, but what he did remember was something he would become quite familiar with: Arthur looking out for Merlin and Merlin looking out for Arthur.

They had also looked out for Gwaine in that fight. That was something else he would also become used to, but he hadn't really thought much of it at the time; in fact, he had been slightly – all right, incredibly disrespectful of their kindness towards him. Spending all their money in the Rising Sun probably wasn't a good idea, but he had saved Arthur and Merlin's life, even if it got him banished.

The time between leaving Camelot and meeting Merlin again was a distant blur. 345 turned to 381 and somewhere along the way he realized he had made something of a friend in Merlin. That was new and strange, yet refreshing and nice, and he wasn't really sure what to make of it until Merlin came asking for a favour – then he realized that, for a friend, you would do anything… even save a pompous, pratish prince from a few wyverns.

He didn't like Arthur at first, but then he didn't like anyone noble. In the end, he saw why Merlin stuck around, why the warlock was so willing to lay down his life for Arthur; the prince's cause was an honorable one, one he didn't think he would mind following some day. Perhaps it would take a while for Arthur to truly change his ways, but he had Merlin and Gwen and with those two, he was sure the prince could do anything and everything. So Gwaine believed in him, albeit secretly, and followed him into battle again to reclaim Camelot from Morgana. It was what you did for a friend, for someone you respected – and one day, he knew as he fought that immortal army, he would feel that way about Arthur like he did Merlin. He only hoped that Arthur wouldn't let him down.

And Arthur didn't. He gave Gwaine something he never thought he would want, but would be lost without now – his knighthood. He became Sir Gwaine, Knight of the Round Table, one of Arthur's most trusted men.

It was odd, really, having people trust him, rely on him. It was even stranger to have a home; for so long, he had drifted from tavern to tavern, conceiving the best list ever made (and hopefully nothing else), but now he had a place, a purpose. Gwaine – that's Sir Gwaine to you, actually – was settled.

Arthur became king and things finally fitted into place. Gwaine was needed here in Camelot, where he had friends – friends he wouldn't hesitate to call family, even – and he didn't want to be anywhere else. With the help of his fellow knights and Merlin, he calmed his rowdy ways and became a well-respected member of court. Sure, he was still loved danger and mead and women, still joked about and refused to take anything too seriously. He was still Gwaine, and always would be, but he was becoming something of a legend, and for all the right reasons. Some people were even calling him a role model these days.

For the first time in his life, Gwaine felt like he had achieved something. He was proud of himself, but most of all he was proud of the man who had helped him to get to where he was: Merlin. The Round Table wasn't complete without him.

Gwaine still remembered the day Merlin finally took his rightful place next to Arthur as Court Sorcerer. He knew the man had been hiding something, knew that all those 'strokes of luck' shouldn't have been dismissed so quickly. When Merlin told him the truth long before Arthur ever knew, he was happy that his friend could trust him, though he may have been a little annoyed that the warlock had told Lancelot, of all people, before him, at least until Merlin showed him some very cool party tricks. When the king finally found out, Gwaine was more than happy that he also accepted Merlin's magic, despite it taking him a while to come around, even after aforementioned party tricks. But eventually it worked out and magic returned to the land and so did the position of Court Sorcerer. The title just seemed to fit Merlin and, from that day onwards, Albion's Golden Age was truly upon them; the Once and Future King ruled with both Emrys and his beautiful Queen at his side, the Round Table very much complete, and all was good and well. He was right; Arthur really could do anything with Merlin and Gwen at his side. And, no matter what, Gwaine respected him; Arthur was the man he was meant to be, the man Merlin always believed he would be, and none of them would have him any other way. He was more than their king now; he was their friend.

He completed the Tavern List quite a while after that, when they were all well into their later years (although Arthur insisted those were not grey hairs Gwen saw – it was just a trick of the light). It was regarded as somewhat of a monumental day when Gwaine went to the only tavern he had never visited, accompanied by King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Lord Emrys (yes, Lord; Arthur had insisted) and Sirs Leon, Elyan, Percival and Lancelot. He wrote down the name of the tavern and then counted all the others to make sure he hadn't added them wrong. Satisfied, he looked up at his friends, who were waiting expectantly for the final tally.

"701 exactly," Gwaine announced.

They cheered and clapped and patted the knight on the back. Soon, the conversation had turned to their many years together. They sat and they reminisced about all their adventures, about the many more they would have. It was a brilliant night and a fantastic way to finish the list.

When it was time to turn in for the night, far earlier than they ever had in their youth, Gwaine had stood as they gathered their things and, over the commotion, bid them all farewell with a "Goodnight, my friends." Because they were his friends, his oldest and best, all of them, and he owed them so much.

The Tavern List became quite the useful artifact. His fellow knights told their children and, when the time came, their grandchildren the stories behind each tavern. They may not have been the ordinary bedtime stories, but would you ever expect 'ordinary' from them? They didn't even know what the word meant; their Court Sorcerer could talk to dragons, for goodness sake! Oh, the stories they told about that…

It was never the life Gwaine expected; it was better. So much better.

His luck number would always be 345.

So that turned out a lot cheesier than I expected. It was kind of the AU Golden Age through Gwaine's eyes, I suppose.

Let me know what you thought. Any prompts? :)