They jumped him in the armory, of all places.

At first Arthur swung his fists angrily, ready to fight to the death even if he was exhausted and had just been taken out of his armor and had no weapons, but then he saw who it was and he became too shocked to put up much of a fight.

They sat him down in a chair and gazed down at him sternly.

Arthur glared at them. "What exactly is the meaning of this?"

"It has come to our attention," Leon began.

Gwaine elbowed him. "Save the speech." He pointed at Arthur. "Arthur, you are my king and I serve you unto death, but if you hurt Merlin, your insides are going to be outside your body."

Arthur stared. "What?"

Elyan nodded. Arthur had a sneaking suspicion that the others—and possibly Guinevere—had put him up to this. "We like Merlin."

"He's our favorite, actually," Percival admitted.

"And we don't want to see him hurt," Lancelot finished.

"There's no better person in all of Camelot," Leon explained.

"I know that, I married him," Arthur protested.

"We're just saying," Gwaine shrugged. "You hurt him, we hurt you."

"We really don't want to do that, though," Lancelot said.

Arthur stared at them for a minute, then stood up. "Right. I'd like to take this moment to remind you all that I am your prince and someday your king, and I can have you all on the executioner's block any time I fancy."

"You wouldn't do that," Gwaine said with smug certainty. And, damn him, he was right.

Arthur sighed and rubbed a hand across his face. "Look, I wouldn't have married him if I—"

"Well, yes, but marriages aren't always happy, are they?" Percival said philosophically.

And, well, Percival being philosophical, that was the last straw.

"I'm sorry, did you idiots skip over the fact that I love him?" Arthur demanded, nearly shouting the last few words.

A strange squeaking noise came from behind all of them, and they turned.

Merlin was standing in the door to the armory, eyes wide. "I, um, you—I was just, armor," he stuttered, holding up Arthur's newly un-dented breastplate.

"I think that's our cue," Lancelot said meaningfully.

The five knights filed out, each giving their version of I'm watching you to Arthur as they did so.

When they were all gone, Arthur turned to Merlin. "How much did you hear?"

"Just—just the last little bit of it." Merlin set the breastplate in its proper holder. "Did you," He took a steadying breath. "Did you really mean that?"

"What? That I love you?" Arthur's brow furrowed. "I should have thought that was obvious by now."

"No, no, I know that, I just—you've never said it before."

"Yes, I have."

"Not in front of other people. Not even at the wedding."

Arthur wracked his brain, trying to think of a time, and came up empty. He supposed that he had been used to hiding for so long, it had simply never occurred to him to admit it to anyone besides Merlin himself.

He held out his hand. "Merlin, come here."

Merlin came, because he always did when Arthur told him to (in both meanings of the term), and Arthur pulled him in so they could rest their foreheads together. "I can't shout it from the battlements just yet, but that doesn't mean I'm ashamed of us, of what we are together. I'll happily tell anyone it's safe to tell, and someday everyone in Camelot will know."

Merlin blushed and smiled bashfully. "You really don't have to…"

"Yes, I do." Arthur brushed their noses together. "Because I love you."

Merlin's blush deepened, and his grip on Arthur tightened momentarily. "You know, it was kind of funny."

"What?"

"All of them threatening you, saying I was their favorite."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "There'll be no living with you after this, will there?"

Merlin's smile grew. "Nope."

Shortly after that, Arthur realized something. It took him running into a few whispering, gossiping servants and receiving sly winks and congratulations from people in the lower town, but eventually he figured it out.

Once again, he gathered his knights to him.

"All right," he said. "Which one of you talked?"

They all pointed at each other. Arthur groaned.

"But if you're not going to do anything to make Merlin unhappy," Gwaine said, smirking, "Then surely it's not a problem if everyone knows?"

Arthur threw his hands in the air. "I give up!"

His Knights of the Round Table just laughed.