Chapter Fourteen

Hello, everyone!

I'm so sorry about the late update! I've had a rough couple weeks, and I kind of needed a break. But I should be mostly back on schedule now!

This chapter isn't the most exciting. But it's kind of necessary.

Thank you so much for all your support; whether it be reviews or follows for favorites or just reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Enjoy!

The morning hadn't been going great to begin with.

To start with, Merlin hadn't gotten much sleep because Gwaine had been turning and tossing nearby all night, making a lot of noise. Far to weary to get up and move away from the restless knight, Merlin had stayed put. He knew why Gwaine couldn't settle down and he understood. But later he wished that he had moved. (Though to be fair, Gwaine hadn't gotten any sleep either.)

At first light that morning, Elyan, who had been on the last watch, discovered that one of the horses had managed to slip its tether and wander off in the dark. By the time the animal was found (it hadn't gotten very far, thankfully), it was going on midmorning.

Then an insane somebody had come crashing through the trees (very unhelpfully keeping just out of sight) and shouting at the top of his lungs that he had a loaded crossbow ready to fire.

Naturally, none of the knights (being Knights of Camelot, after all) dropped their weapons. Rather, they all pulled them out and looked around wildly for whoever was yelling at them. And, of course, Arthur started yelling back.

Then, just as the man with the crossbow started swearing at the king of Camelot, Elwin jumped up, from behind the log Gwaine had thrown him next to, and yelled incredulously, "Aldwyn?"

Wait, his brother's here?

There was the sound of something being dropped, as well as branches and bushes being hastily shoved aside, and a tall, dark-haired man clad in nondescript brown and green leapt into the camp. "Elwin!" he shouted.

Stunned, the knights, Arthur, and Merlin stood still and gaped as Elwin ran forward and threw his arms around Aldwyn, who returned the embrace readily. But his eyes were scanning the camp. "Where's Everard?" he demanded. "Where is your brother?"

"I'm here." The other twin emerged from behind the horses. Stepping forward, he quickly accepted a brief hug from his older brother as well. "Yes, Aldwyn, I'm haven't died...What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, of course! Where on earth were you? Are you all right?" Without waiting for an answer, Aldwyn glared around fiercely at the others. "If you hurt one hair on their heads…" Although by this point, the knights had already lowered their weapons and looked a little less threatening.

"They rescued us." Elwin said quickly, grasping his older brother's shoulder. "They're our friends."

Merlin saw that Aldwyn relaxed only slightly after this assurance, plus Everard went stiff and looked more worried than ever.

Then two other people chose to enter the camp at that moment; an older man in a long brown cloak with scruffy dark hair, and a young woman with her jet black locks braided and wound around her head. She carried the apparently abandoned crossbow gingerly. "Aldwyn, would you please unload this before it shoots someone?" Her light grey eyes were clearly relieved when Aldwyn took it from her. But she kept the long dagger she held in her other hand out and ready.

While he removed the bolt with practiced ease, Aldwyn continued to look around at the party from Camelot. "Introductions, anyone?" he said in a cheerful tone, though clearly unnerved by the stares.

After a moment of exchanging apprehensive glances with the assembled knights, Arthur stepped forward and held out his hand. "I'm Arthur Pendragon."

Aldwyn's jaw dropped, but he quickly collected himself and shook Arthur's hand. "Nice to meet you, Your Majesty." His voice had that cautious yet haughty tone that Everard so often adopted. "As you may have gathered, I'm Aldwyn."

"Everard and Elwin's older brother." Arthur nodded. "They mentioned you."

"How nice of them." Aldwyn grinned and tried to ruffle Elwin's hair; the boy ducked and snorted in amusement while Everard rolled his eyes. Aldwyn returned his attention to Arthur. "This is Cleva and that's Ryle." he said, gesturing to his companions. He also shot a glare at Ryle, who merely raised his eyebrows.

Merlin, however, was occupied with looking at Cleva. Is she the same Cleva Gwaine mentioned? From what he could see of the expression on Gwaine's face, Merlin would say yes. I wonder when they'll recognize him?

Arthur continued the introductions, pointing out each person in turn. "This is Sir Leon," the blond knight nodded, "and Sir Elyan, and Sir Percival…and that's my manservant Merlin over there, looking scared and pathetic…and Sir Gwaine."

The effect on the newcomers at that name was instantaneous. Before, they'd barely spared a glance anyone in the clearing save for Arthur and, of course, the twins. Now Aldwyn's eyes widened as they flew to the dark-haired knight, Cleva let out a startled gasp, and Ryle started (there was no other word for it) smirking. Somehow the expression worried Merlin. Is it possible that he knew about Gwaine already? And who is he, anyway? Gwaine had never mentioned anyone named Ryle. At least, not that Merlin could remember.

Gwaine looks like he's about to pass out, Merlin noted with concern.

He had a feeling that this situation would not turn out entirely well.

Of all mornings, they just had to pick this one to show up.

Gwaine was seriously considering running away again. It was a very appealing idea at the moment. Not only was he being faced by his older cousin and former friend (neither of which he wanted to be confronted with this early on the journey), his stomach was still churning with worry over his sister. Something was terribly wrong with Elen, and he couldn't do a thing about it.

And then Aldwyn and Cleva and that sneaky Ryle had shown up.

He hadn't even realized who was pointing a crossbow at them until Elwin had shouted Aldwyn's name. The older man's voice was different. Or maybe Gwaine had just been gone too long…

And Aldwyn had a substantial beard now. That had startled Gwaine far more than it ought to have. Uncle Harlan had a long beard, didn't he? And Father was hardly clean-shaven. But this was Aldwyn, and it didn't seem right.

Well, why is that? Couldn't possibly be the length of time you've been away, can it?

And Cleva…Good Lord, the last time he's seen her she'd been just a girl! And now…she was all grown up. And quite pretty. Somehow, it was stranger than seeing the twins as teenagers, or Aldwyn looking other than a handsome adolescent.

And how exactly do you think you look to them?

The other knights were clearly startled by Aldwyn, Cleva, and Ryle's reactions. Cleva was gaping, Aldwyn was staring, his eyes growing wider and wider by the second as comprehension dawned on his face, and Ryle was smirking wickedly. Gwaine could care less about Ryle's feelings; he'd hardly ever spoken to the man in Bernicia, even though he'd lurked around the royal castle quite often. He was quite knowledgeable when it came to magical creatures and distant kingdoms; in other words, a useful source of information. But not a very savory personality. The creep's probably seen me this far south before…Ugh, that's a scary thought; him spying on me…

But Aldwyn and Cleva were a different story. Aldwyn was his cousin, Cleva was his friend. And they both recognized him. The look in their eyes confirmed it. Besides clear recognition, there was curiosity. Confusion.

And fear?

And I'm just a word or two away from being revealed as Everard and Elwin's cousin, which will lead to a lot of extremely awkward questions. Questions I don't know if I can answer.

And he didn't know how to get out of this situation.

A glance at the twins showed him that they were equally worried and confused as to what to do. Everard gave him a warning look, Elwin's gaze flitting nervously from Gwaine to Aldwyn.

However, the next move was not made by any of them.

Gwaine barely registered any movement before Cleva slammed into him, wrapping him in an embrace so tight that he was temporarily robbed of the capability to breathe.

Coughing, he managed to gasp out, "Cleva…choking here…"

She released him abruptly…then cuffed him over the back of the head. Hard. "You," she snarled menacingly, "are very, very late." But she said it surprisingly quietly.

It took him less than a second to recall their last conversation. "Still got that smile?" he asked softly, with a hint of his usual humor. It was the only thing he could think of to say.

Tears in her eyes, Cleva laughed a little, though she was clearly trying to hold onto her anger and failing miserably. "You noble fool."

"I try my best." he said jokingly, though he was unable to stop tears from gathering in his own eyes.

As she stepped back a little, he looked beyond her to gauge the reactions of the others. Aldwyn was still frozen, Ryle was still smirking, Merlin and the twins looked worried. Arthur and the knights just looked flabbergasted. Elyan was muttering something to Percival, who shrugged in response.

Gwaine was pretty startled himself when Elwin, of all people, came to the rescue. "I told you, Everard!" he said boisterously, elbowing his brother. "It was the same Gwaine!"

Moments later Gwaine was thanking all the higher powers he'd ever heard of that Elwin had such an overactive imagination and that Everard was so intuitive when it came to Elwin. The brown-eyed twin immediately seemed to pick up on his brother's scheme. "I didn't say that it wasn't him!" Everard protested, very convincingly. "I just said we ought to be sure before we start dumping accusations on him!"

"But we wouldn't be accusing him of anything! We would just be asking…"

Catching on to what the twins were suggesting, Gwaine spoke quickly, "Ah, so I see we were avoiding asking each other roughly the same thing!" He grinned at Aldwyn. "I wondered if they were your brothers! Honestly, twins with the names Everard and Elwin? I really should have put it together and said something…"

"Must be all the ale you regularly consume. It's destroyed your common sense." Merlin chimed in.

Gwaine shot a grateful look at his friend as Elwin started talking again. "So you really are my brother's old friend? I didn't realize you knew Cleva, too."

By this point, Aldwyn's eyes were nearly bugging out of his head, but Cleva's confusion was rapidly melting away into a carefully placed mask of mild annoyance. "Of course I knew him!" the young woman snapped. "And you," she glowered at Gwaine, who found himself cringing slightly, "you need a lesson in being observant. Or in speaking up, perhaps."

Finally, finally, Aldwyn caught on. "Come on, Cleva, it's Gwaine. Unless he's changed drastically over the last ten years or so, he probably needs a lesson in keeping his mouth shut."

Gwaine clearly heard Leon mutter, "Can't argue with that."

Striding forward, Aldwyn reached out and gripped Gwaine's arm tightly. Gwaine returned the gesture, forcing himself to meet his cousin's icy grey eyes. "Aldwyn, mate, when did you grow a beard?"

Aldwyn smiled; a forced smile. "Somewhere around the time I got married, co…old friend."

"Ah, yes. Braeden, Elwin said? Don't recall the name…" Liar, liar.

"I don't know if you met her ever, but she's lovely. Gorgeous, actually."

"I have no doubt of that, you self-important flirt." Gwaine grinned.

"And I suppose you're breaking hearts left and right, pretentious rooster that you are."

Wow, I never though I'd actually be happy to hear that insult. "Well, I learned from the best." he shot back.

"So you two know each other?" Arthur broke in to their conversation.

Gwaine turned to the king, mouth suddenly dry. "Why, yes, Arthur, we do. Aldwyn and I used to be very good friends years and years ago…"

"Before you decided to wander off to Lord knows where and never sent any word on your whereabouts, you absentminded fool." Aldwyn punched Gwaine's arm.

Gwaine hit him back, grinning. This, at least, felt familiar. "That's Sir Gwaine to you, Aldwyn!"

Cleva had quickly begun to regret her impulsive embrace. She hadn't been thinking; well, she hadn't been thinking much of anything but Gwaine's alive and he's okay and he's right here. She hadn't realized how worried she had been about him until she saw him standing in front of her, years older and wearing the Pendragon red but still undeniably there.

So she'd run forward and hugged him, as if only a couple weeks and not ten years had passed since their parting. And now she regretted the gesture, not least because Gwaine had seemed so uncomfortable with it.

And then she'd realized that he hadn't told his friends from Camelot that he was related to Everard and Elwin. This became clear when the twins started a loud argument over their own stupidity and reluctance during which they clearly labeled Gwaine as an "old friend" of Aldwyn's.

Why are they lying about his identity? Cleva made up her mind to ask Gwaine why in private as she effortlessly joined in the deception. Aldwyn caught on a minute later while Ryle…Ryle was still smirking like he was up to no good.

Never mind Ryle; Gwaine's the important thing right now. Him and the twins.

Cleva couldn't help but wonder how those three were ranked in Aldwyn's mind.

Aldwyn and Gwaine clasped arms like old companions (which they were, in a way) and joked with each other (rather stiffly) for a minute. Then they began to patch together a rather rambling tale of them being friends back in Bernicia while the twins interjected with their own comments every so often. Cleva, as she was not called upon just then to contribute to the conversation, took a couple minutes to unobtrusively scrutinize each of the travelers from Camelot in turn. So Percival's the big one who looks confused, Elyan's the dark-skinned one who looks even more confused, Leon has longer blond hair and he looks intrigued…King Arthur's fairly obvious, he just looks interested…the manservant, Merlin, he looks nice enough…Funny, he looks worried, more so than the others…And he keeps looking at Gwaine like he's going to go up in smoke at any second…

"…I appreciate what you have done for my brothers, but there is no need for you to go any further." Aldwyn's clipped tones called Cleva back to the current discussion. "You may return to your city if you wish; we'll take the twins from here."

Cleva nearly panicked when she understood the implications of what Aldwyn was suggesting. The Pendragon and his knights will go back to Camelot…and Gwaine will go with them. We'll never see him again. "Old friend" wouldn't be enough justification for him to come with us…What is Aldwyn thinking? His expression was so stony right now that Cleva had trouble figuring out what was going through his head. Is he forgetting that Gwaine's technically not with us? Or is he planning to leave him behind?

Could he really be that angry?

King Arthur spoke then, drawing her attention. "Unless you truly have grudge against us, I would still like to help escort the twins back to your homeland."

"And why is that?" Aldwyn said suspiciously.

If he wasn't a prince, I would kick him for using that tone of voice, Cleva thought.

Thankfully, Arthur Pendragon was apparently a decently patient fellow. He didn't get flustered at Aldwyn's skeptical inquiry. "I like to finish what I've started." he said calmly. "Besides, you'll be safer traveling with more than a couple companions. And I must admit, I've become rather interested in visiting Bernicia."

Is that a threat? Cleva rather thought not, but Aldwyn kept his guarded expression. "Well, if you put it that way…" The man's clear grey eyes scanned the assembled company; coming to rest, briefly, on Gwaine. "Everard, Elwin, what do you say?" Aldwyn asked suddenly, his gaze switching to the boys.

Cleva suppressed an amused smile at the identical blank looks on the twins' faces. "You're actually asking us for our opinion?" Elwin asked incredulously, then he grinned. "This," he said at the knights, "…is an incredible turn of events. Never before has our dear but portentous older brother…"

Everard cut his brother's joking words off. "I say let them come with us. It would probably be safer, since we have so far to go."

As Aldwyn turned from his brother back to Arthur, Cleva caught Everard's eye and gestured subtly with her head in Gwaine's direction. Is he why you support the Pendragon's suggestion?

The teenager nodded slightly in confirmation. Cleva took a deep breath, partly in relief, partly to steel herself for whatever lay ahead.

They'd have Gwaine in sight for a while longer, at least.

Only an hour or so after Aldwyn Barclayn and his companions had descended upon the camp, the company set off. Arthur and Ryle took the lead; thought only after the dark-haired man had a long argument with Aldwyn over the merits of that idea.

Watching them, Merlin figured that Aldwyn only surrendered so that he could ride behind and talk easily with his brothers. Merlin could see the man's true concern for his brothers; it showed in his apparent unwillingness to take his eyes off of them, his constant inquires after their health (he was aghast when he learned that Elwin had been hurt; much to the younger boy's dismay), and in the way he often reached out to lay a hand on Everard or Elwin's shoulder momentarily, as if to assure himself that they were still riding next to them. Merlin, watching furtively so not to embarrass the brothers, found it quite touching. But he knew that the others were at least listening to them; every time Everard and Elwin sighed heavily and responded exasperatedly to Aldwyn's endless reprimands and loudly voiced concerns, Merlin glimpsed at least one of the knights grinning in amusement. It was a bit funny, Merlin had to admit.

Cleva was nice enough; at least she was polite (Ryle had already been incredibly rude to everyone; rude in a sly, sarcastic way that was deeply annoying and very offensive).

Merlin had asked Gwaine about Cleva already. Maneuvering around so that he was next to Gwaine as they checked their horses' saddles, Merlin had asked quietly, so not to draw unwanted attention, "Same Cleva?"

The way the dark-haired knight yanked on the saddle girth was answer enough. Merlin had more cause to worry than that, however. Gwaine had barely spoken since the night before (except for that strained conversation with Aldwyn). Undoubtedly it had something to do with his sister's predicament. Gwaine was convinced that his sister was in terrible trouble; Merlin of all people knew the value of such instincts.

Well, she was going to Bernicia, wasn't she? Now we're going there. Maybe we'll find her on the way. Maybe we can get her out of whatever trouble she's landed herself in.

Merlin hoped so. Elen might have tried to kill him, but she was Gwaine's sister. Gwaine was his friend. And Merlin was loyal to his friends.

But what will Gwaine do if he's forced to choose between his duty as a Knight of Camelot and his family?

That was a question that Merlin felt even Gwaine didn't want to answer.

Well, that one was a lot of talking, staring, and thinking. I hope it was okay, though!

I'll try to update soon!