Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Merlin or anything affiliated with it.
It's one thing to talk about something useful, like battle strategies, Arthur thought in irritation, but it's another thing entirely to sing tavern songs.
"Bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale, for our blessed lady's sake, bring us in good ale!"
At first, Leon couldn't help himself but join in on the first two roaring renditions of the tune. Against his training, he ignored Arthur's complaints and demands to cease and desist but after the third repetition he stopped for lack of air. After the fourth repetition his smile shriveled taut against his face. After the fifth repetition he was complaining right along with Arthur. "Is that the only song you know?"
Elyan resisted the urge to smack himself on the forehead. "Leon, you just let the cat out of the bag."
Indeed, Gwaine quickly stopped speaking and his mouth curved in a Cheshire grin. "I'm glad you asked, Leon. I'm glad you asked."
Arthur looked over at Merlin with a clenched jaw as if wanting to say something. Merlin raised an eyebrow and Arthur leaned in to mutter, "If he wasn't such an excellent swordsman I would've sacked him ages ago."
"He's not all that bad…" Merlin trailed off, looking over at Gwaine as he proceeded to sing brazenly. He tried to put an arm around Percival's shoulders but he ultimately couldn't reach them.
"Time to pass with goodly sport, our spirits to revive and comfort-"
"… Though his pitches are a bit off."
Arthur looked bewildered and he had to raise his voice to be heard above the singing knight, "Since when did you know anything about drinking songs?"
"It doesn't take a regular to know when a pitch wrong!" Merlin defended himself. It seemed as if he's been doing that a lot since he reached Camelot. Someday he really should go to the Rising Sun and learn some new songs, just to show Arthur.
"-To pipe, to sing, to dance, to spring, with pleasure and delight following sensual appetite!"
It was hard for Lancelot not to join in and sing, but it felt wrong to be having such merriment when another days' walk from here was a suffering village in need of their help. Gwaine saw Lancelot's troubled expression and laughed. "Didn't care much for that song? I've got a verse from another that you'll enjoy:
Long live all girls, gracious and pretty!
Long live the women too,
Tender and lovable,
Good and industrious!"
The laughter that burst forth from Merlin was contagious and soon all the men were laughing. Gwaine was pleased to see that he even got Arthur to chuckle. "Glad to see you're joining in on the fun, Princess," he smirked.
Arthur quickly scowled and darkly muttered to the path they were taking.
"Hey, hey, long live the sanity of our company!" Gwaine shot his hands up in the air and cried, "Complainers can go perish, may our friends ever flourish!"