A Merry Occasion [Gwaine]

[consultingwarlock]

It was a week after the catastrophic events of Morgana and Morgause's abrupt seizing of the throne, and things were slowly returning to some semblance of normalcy. The throne room was slowly being rebuilt, with around a dozen servants being drafted in to help move the numerous stones that had fallen in the wake of Morgana's furious outburst in order for the structure to be repaired. When it was finally completed, however, the chances that Uther would be regaining his thone were looking slim. He had been struck by the betrayal of Morgana harder than most, and as such had fallen into such a depressive state that even Arthur could not get him to move out of his chambers. Arthur himself was now acting as Regent King, which meant he had taken on the responsibility of the Kingdom whilst his father was too ill to run it himself.

This meant that he had taken on a lot more duties, and that, in turn, meant a lot more work for Merlin. However, out of a rare display of leniency, Arthur had agreed to cut down on Merlin's chores for this day, as today was to be the first collective training session of the newly knighted Knights of Camelot, and he wanted Merlin in attendance. Merlin had readily agreed, eager to see his friends in action against one another - not to mention eager to avoid the cleaning of Arthur's chambers - and had made sure he completed all the assigned chores set for that day as quickly as possible. (He even managed to wake Arthur up on time, which was accompanied by a 'I'm sorry, what have you done with the real Merlin?', and a pillow thrown at his head when Merlin had joked that he'd been enchanted.)

So now he was leaning against the fence that bordered the training ground, watching as Gwaine, Percival, Elyan and Lancelot were put through their paces by Arthur, Leon and a few knights he knew only by name. He'd already witnessed Gwaine's epic fight against Sir Caridoc, where, in front of all in attendance, he had risked a potentially mortal blow to gain the leaverage needed to flip the sword right out of Sir Caridoc's hands. Merlin had laughed aloud at this, shaking his head in amusement. Only his friend would be both foolish and brave enough to try that move. Now the group was breaking up, Arthur giving them a moment of respite. Spotting Gwaine, he ducked under the fence and walked towards him, grinning, "How was your first official training session as a Knight of Camelot?"

Setting: The Knight's Training Ground
Time of Day: Afternoon
Timeline: A week after the events of The Coming of Arthur (Part 2)
Tag: Gwaine

[thegwaine]

Sir Gwaine. It was still taking some time to sink in, and Gwaine wasn’t really sure that it ever would. It felt strange to be here now, training with the other knights of Camelot, and thinking that this was his life now. Not long ago he had jus t been continuing his nomadic lifestyle of ale, women and wherever his horse decided to take him. It had been his life for so many years now that even sleeping in the same bed night after night was a completely alien experience for him. His fellow knights didn’t have that same experience that he had. Some had led nomadic lifestyles, but not to the extremes that he had. Gwaine wasn’t trying to make himself sound special, or different, but he knew it would be hard for him to explain to any of the knights why he was finding it hard to adjust.

Gwaine was enjoying his time as a knight though so far. He was proud, in some respects, because he felt like he had earned this, just like his father had before him. He was sure his father had been a great, and fair knight, and Gwaine intended to follow that example. He had no interest in becoming a stuck up noble, he would still be him completely and utterly, just with a title to go with his day to day activities. He was enjoying the training session that had been laid on for them today, and he grinned at his fellow brothers as they all began to break up from the session. It was their first proper day out training in public, some had come to see the new knights again, and others had stayed to watch the entire thing. Gwaine had noticed some pretty young ladies who had been batting their eye lashes in his general direction. He had made a mental note of looking them up when they were alone. Though that sounded quite sinister, it was meant in quite a general way. It was always harder to charm a group of women when they were separate rather than together.

Gwaine was however quickly torn from his thoughts about the women as he noticed that Merlin was approaching him. He shot his friend a toothy grin, he’d noticed him watching, but he had just assumed that he would be clearing up after Arthur when the training session had finished. He was quite happy to be wrong on this occasion and he nodded at him, his grin still on his face, “Well, I think I made an impact.” He chuckled, sure his friend had seen all the antics he had got up to. He was probably too daring with a sword sometimes, but that was how he liked it, he preferred his sword technique to be quirky and different because it always caught his opponent off guard. “Did Arthur make you stay and watch?” He asked with a chuckle, knowing that it was the sort of thing he would do, just in case he had need of Merlin during the session.

[consultingwarlock]

"An impact is one way of putting it," Merlin laughed, "I'm not sure Sir Caridoc will be forgetting you in a hurry." At Gwaine's question he peered around his friend, looking for the familiar blonde head anywhere nearby. When he finally spotted Arthur talking to another knight, he returned his attention back to Gwaine, saying, "He did. Not that I minded, this is much more preferable to mucking out the royal stables." Shooting his friend a grin, he glanced back in Arthur's direction. "Besides, I've finished all my set chores for the day. Arthur agreed to cut down my workload so I could be here while you were training. He didn't mention anything about cleaning up afterwards..."

Letting the sentence trail off, he gave Gwaine a look that he knew his friend would be able to decipher. That part was true, Arthur hadn't said anything about what he wanted Merlin to do after the training session was complete. Probably too busy planning what is is he was going to be teaching his knights over what his servant was assigned to do once the training was over. Sidestepping slightly, he made sure Arthur's view of him was blocked by Gwaine's tall frame, before peering around his friend to check the Regent King was still too preoccupied to worry about his whereabouts. He knew that if Arthur did eventually spot him, he'd be told to do a multitude of chores like clean Arthur's armour, run him a bath, fetch his dinner... And Merlin would be collapsing onto his bed later on that night exhausted. He was always looking for ways to get out of doing his work, and this time he had a somewhat valid excuse. Of course, Arthur wouldn't be pleased, but then again Merlin would prefer an angry Arthur to polishing chain mail.

Looking at Gwaine again, he gave him an innocent look, fighting to keep the smile off his face, "Was there anything you needed help with, Sir Gwaine? As I have no orders from Arthur, I thought I'd come over and give you a hand."

[thegwaine]

Gwaine looked back round at Sir Caridoc. He had known that some of the knights hadn’t been sure what to expect with him, and his fighting style, but if anyone was in doubt that he was more than capable of taking on his fellow knights then he would have already squashed those doubts. “Well, I’m always ready for round two Merlin.” He grinned, knowing none of the knights, as far as he knew, held him in a disagreeable way. Sir Caridoc had already promised him a rematch, so all was well and good. Perhaps Gwaine could start bringing wagers into his fighting. Then he wouldn’t have to pay for any ale ever again, or at least not the majority of them. Hmm. This could work in his favour. Gwaine smirked as Merlin confirmed that Arthur had made him stay and watch. Probably just so he could be told later how good he was, as if he didn’t know that already.

What did make Gwaine laugh however, was the fact Merlin said that Arthur had cut his workload. “Jesu, he’s not ill is he?” he jested to his friend. He would have thought that watching them all train would have been in the middle of a long list of jobs for Merlin. After all, Arthur never seemed to have a lack of jobs for his friend. It puzzled Gwaine that Merlin always seemed so happy, and willing to do it all. Gwaine had only had one experience of doing a job for Arthur, and after cleaning the entire knights boots he could comfortably say he was not suited to be a servant. The last part of Merlin’s speech though grabbed his attentions. Well, if Arthur hadn’t given him any jobs then they would be wise to vacate the area before the regent King remembered this fact, and robbed his friend from his side. “Well, we should probably move then, before Arthur decides he needs the entire arsenal polishing.” He winked at his friend and clambered over the fence so he was now standing beside Merlin. Clapping him on the back, he grinned, “Well, you could escort me to my chambers where I need to get changed.” He held up a finger, “And then, perhaps suggest somewhere where we can get an ale.” Or several.