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Frankly, Gwaine couldn’t understand how the woman wasn’t already falling at his feet. He hadn’t encountered these sorts of problems in a long while. That was the problem with aiming for the nobility, and so far this woman was proving very keen to cling onto the stereotypes her kind produced. Though Gwaine couldn’t obviously blame this woman for the injustice the nobility had caused his family, she was part of the problem, they all were. The nobility were so caught up in their own little worlds of affluence that they didn’t see the world for what it really was. Gwaine doubted this woman had ever known hardship, and it made him slightly sick to think she was in such a high position whilst others in Cantia, and beyond, were starving. He wasn’t going to stand here and waste his voice lecturing her though, because she wouldn’t listen or wouldn’t care, both were one and the same to Gwaine. He hadn’t yet come across as selfless noble, and he had been travelling for years now. Perhaps the trend would never be broken, and his theory would always be correct.

A mirror? There was a novel thought, and Gwaine chuckled, not showing an ounce of what he was thinking. He was used to hiding his own feelings, and masking them with a barrage of flirts and teases. Well, perhaps if he couldn’t get this woman to come round to his way of thinking, which of course would be a great shame, he could irritate her instead. Maybe if he had more respect for her he would just leave her alone, make his excuses and go and find the nearest other thing in a skirt to occupy his thoughts with. However, irritating this woman, however he chose to do so, would, Gwaine though, prove the best idea for this morning. He had nothing better to do, and his reputation wasn’t known in Cantia yet. It was time to make a name for himself. “But a mirror is a rather impractical object to give such a delicate young Lady.” He winked at her, she would either be insulted at that or bow to his superior knowledge of such things. She had stepped away from him, an action which did not slide unnoticed, but Gwaine stepped back up to her and grinned down at her, as she was slightly smaller than he was. “A jewel would suit you more, as it would compliment your beauty, rather than trying to imitate it.” Yes, she was probably a woman who enjoyed the finer things in life; it didn’t take a genius to figure that out.

Well that was disappointing, a Lady of honour was of little use to Gwaine after all, they were usually the most boring anyway. Gwaine shrugged, “I don’t know what you mean my Lady.” He said with feigned innocence, trying to think of how he could prolong this meeting. He was sure he could bring her round to his way of thinking. “Allow me to introduce myself, forgive me, I was being rude.” He swept into a rather over exaggerated bow, and flashed the woman a grin, “And what can I call you?”

Gwaine had found himself in Cantia. The place had such a nice ring about it that he couldn’t help but feel that this would go well. He had been travelling around the various Kingdoms for long enough now to know when a Kingdom just had the right feel about it. As long as this Kingdom had free flowing ale, and good looking women, Gwaine would be more than satisfied. The road had quickly turned into the free flowing society of a small town. It was quite picturesque, and the stalls in the market were already open for business, even this early in the morning. Hmm. It was probably too early to head for the nearest tavern, so Gwaine continued to walk around, trying to find something to distract his attention. Usually, it didn’t take much to distract Gwaine, but this morning it was hard to rebuke his thoughts from a glass of ale. The tavern probably wasn’t even open yet. One day Gwaine would have to get his own tavern, and it would be open all day every day. Then again, he would end up drinking his own wares. That wouldn’t go well. He could just get someone else to do the business side of things for him, he could just enjoy the free ale.

Taking a rose out of a passing maidens woven basket, Gwaine tried to motivate himself to think up some sort of antic to take his morning in a new direction. It had been a while since he had tried out his charms in a serious sort of way. The last few taverns he had stayed in had been dry of female company, and it had generally just been the local drunks he had to share the company of. That had been alright, but there was nothing like the company of a woman was there? Gwaine winked at the maiden who had turned round as if to protest at his stealing one of her wares. However, she then just proceeded to blush and walked off in the opposite direction. Gwaine smiled to himself, Cantia was already looking promising. He continued upon his way, not really giving the woman a second thought. His attentions had already been taken by a pretty young blonde who was crooning her neck over one of the stalls. Casually, and looking as if he’d practiced the move a hundred times, he slid rather smoothly so he was now leaning on the stall, and looking up at the woman. How could that fail to grab her attentions? He held up the rose and observed it slightly, and then extended it towards the woman, “Forgive the intrusion my Lady, but is this yours? If not then I insist you take it, as it compliments your beautiful eyes.” That was probably a bit cheesy for Gwaine, but it was first thing in the morning, and he was a bit rusty. It would do for now though, he just needed her attention, and then he could work his charms.

Gwaine was quite taken aback by Robyn’s response. She might have appeared all sweet, and dainty whilst on the stage, and even in their earlier words, but she was now showing herself to be quite a strong willed woman. She was clearly used to male attention, because she wouldn’t have been able to string lines like that if she wasn’t used to the odd wink, and good word in the right direction. However, it wasn’t anything Gwaine hadn’t heard before, and perhaps Robyn thought that she was posing a new challenge to him. Gwaine had been to nearly every kingdom in Albion, and the women he had met had been very diverse, but they all seemed to think they could win one over on him. They all thought he was like every other man in the crowd, and in that, lay Gwaine’s strength. It meant he could toy, and tease with women whilst allowing them to believe that they had the upper hand. They never did around Gwaine of course, but it was quite amusing to watch them try. “You mean my smile is not enough to convince you?” He pouted slightly, “A shame, because I was looking forwards to hearing your suggestions…” He pressed his lips together, trying not to smirk. If she was interested in him, she would tell him anyway because that was just logical wasn’t it? And she was interested, or at least Gwaine assumed so. Everything about her stance suggested she was interested, so he was looking forwards to hearing her suggestions.

Gwaine was starting to hope that the rest of his stay in Camelot was this eventful. Although Robyn wasn’t from Camelot, he hoped the women around here were more diverse than ones he had come across in the past. He was already enjoying himself in the new Kingdom, and he had only been here a matter of hours. “I don’t allow my rules to be broken you know.” Gwaine said softly, and shifted the hand which had been cupping her chin to caress past her cheek. Robyn might have enough words to duel with his flirts all afternoon, but at the end of the day, he still believed he had the upper hand. He loved seeing the effect his caresses had on women. Once he had finished, he put his hand back on the table, and took a swig of ale. It would be interesting now to see how she came back from that. However, the niggling worry in the back of Gwaine’s mind was still there, that her brother might be drinking in here soon. Hmm, he should probably be more subtle in his advances, but Robyn was demanding more of a hands on approach, and he was enjoying every moment of it.

Now, it wasn’t that Gwaine never paid for his drinks. It was just that he got so many drinks for free, it might appear that he was building up a tab on the bar. He and the owners of the Rising Sun had a sort of agreement, or at least that was what he assumed. After all, he only spoke to them when he was half cut already, so they could hate him for all he knew. He presumed they didn’t, as he was still allowed in the tavern, so everything was fine and dandy so long as he got his ale at the end of the day. “Well they still let me back.” He said with a shrug, “Must be my good looks swinging things in my favour eh?” He winked at his fellow brother and let a chuckle purse his lips. He enjoyed the tavern, after all, the atmosphere was always electric, and there was always a story to be told, or a story to be heard. It all sounded rather cultural, but it was quite the opposite, and most of the stories were forgotten in a drunken haze of ale. It was how Gwaine liked it, that ideology hadn’t ever failed him in the past, so he doubted it would fail him in Camelot.

Ah, Gwaine had another challenge at his fingertips. Gwaine had once tried to teach Percival how to charm women, and well, that had gone rather oddly. Perhaps he would have more luck with Elyan. After all, Elyan did have the fortunate advantage of being the brother of the woman everyone now expected to become Queen. If Gwaine knew women, and Jesu he knew plenty of women, that would only bode well for Elyan. Perhaps Elyan didn’t know how to handle female attention as well as Gwaine did (well, who did?) but he would have to get used to it soon, because he was quickly becoming the most eligible bachelor in all of Camelot. “You may have to get used to the female company.” Gwaine mused with a chuckle. “But don’t worry.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder, “Because I am a walking dictionary of charm, if you have any women problems come straight to me.” Gwaine didn’t know anyone quite as versed as himself in the art of charming women, and he wanted to keep it that way. He would advise of course, but he could never allow one of his fellow brothers to become better at the game than himself. That would never do.

Gwaine just chuckled as Elyan pulled his cloak further around his shoulders. It was quite a cold night out, but years of wandering had meant Gwaine didn’t feel the cold as much as he used to. He shrugged at his friend, “Soon you’ll have ale to warm your blood, it’ll be fine.”

The fact that the barmaid had spilt some of the ale was slightly irritating. That was good ale she was wasting! Gwaine didn’t move an inch at the scene he was seeing, instead he just chose to let out a short chuckle and finished off the ale he was currently drinking. He knew Percival wasn’t that well versed in courting, but he didn’t think that it was this dire.

Gwaine couldn’t believe how forwards this barmaid was being with Percival. Gwaine usually had to work a lot harder to even get a response. Maybe he needed to take lessons from the man, no, his methods were perfectly fine, Percival was just getting lucky tonight. It was beginners luck, that was all Gwaine could put it down to. He just raised his eye brows at the barmaids hands were already at Percival’s shirt. He stood close by, just in case Percival fainted at this sudden female attention, he wasn’t quite sure how used to female attention Percival was, so it was probably for the best. Gwaine was well versed in female attention, and often found it hard to be shocked by women at all, but Percival’s little catch was turning out to be quite the vixen. Gwaine didn’t flinch as Percival tried to brush the barmaid away from his drenched shirt, he was rather enjoying this, what came next though surprised Gwaine quite a lot.

He was torn between laughing and just looking shocked as the shirt was whisked off Percival’s back. Gwaine just stared at his friend for a few moments, and then quickly realised he was just looking at his friend shirtless. Awkwardly Gwaine’s eyes just went to the table and he made a rather odd sounding ‘erm’ sound. Then the situation sunk into Gwaine’s mind, and he let out quite a sharp laugh and put his head in his hands. Gwaine couldn’t stop himself from laughing. He had never been in a situation where a woman had stolen his shirt, at least without getting something in return. Well, he supposed that they had their ales, but more female attention on Percival’s part would have been more preferred wouldn’t it? Gwaine took the ale the barmaid had left there and took a sip. “Was it worth losing your shirt?” He asked his friend carefully. Ale was well worth anything of course, but now his friend was half naked in the middle of the tavern. This was rather awkward.

Gwaine couldn’t understand why Iwan was so determined not to like him, or enjoy their mission. What was the point in being a Knight if you didn’t enjoy yourself? It was a vocation, being a knight of course, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have to be an enjoyable one. Gwaine raised his eye brows at Iwan, what sensible man wanted a thunder storm. “More dramatic yes, but then my tunic would get soaked though.” A mischievous smile ran across Gwaine’s lips, “Or maybe you’d appreciate that?” Gwaine knew many women who would appreciate him in a wet tunic, but perhaps Iwan wouldn’t be as appreciative as any of them. It would be a pity if he wasn’t of course. Gwaine ran onto the next problem that a storm would cause. That of course was that would mean his hair would get wet, and that just wouldn’t do would it? However, Iwan probably wouldn’t appreciate

Gwaine looked around him for something beginning with S, and found himself at a slight loss. Well, there were the obvious things, but he would have thought Iwan would have been a bit more of a challenge than that. “Spoilsport?” Gwaine suggested in jest and with a wink, “No? How about sword?” That was probably a more acceptable answer, but in his opinion Iwan was a real spoilsport. He didn’t really seem enthused, or taken in by anything at the moment. He could tell that Iwan was only doing this to keep him occupied. “Not enjoying this are you?” Gwaine asked, not really caring that much what Iwan loved or didn’t love, “What do you want to do, and you can’t just say nothing, because that isn’t an answer.”

Gwaine ran a hand through his hair. He had walked half the way with Brynn and her mother, but then he had doubled back to get the bread he had been trying to eat throughout their little conversation. He wasn’t sure what to do with himself now, he was too alert to sleep now, and Brynn’s words still rung round his ears. He hadn’t meant to annoy her, but she had clearly been upset about Caitrin in some sort of sense. Sometimes he thought Brynn let herself get dragged into things emotionally which weren’t really any of her concern. It wasn’t a bad thing though, after all, if there were more people like Brynn in the world then it would be a better place.

He knew his friend would get no rest tonight, she would probably be helping her mother as Caitrin went into her labour. He pulled a face, slightly disgusted. Those were women issues; nothing to do with him. He would rather go the tavern and forget all about what he had heard about this evening so far. However, he was still wandering through the castle; half a loaf of bread in hand. Gwaine was still following the corridors as he heard a slight shuffling. Poking his head round the corner, he smiled as he saw a familiar face sat in the corridor, opposite one of the guest chambers. “Griff, fancy seeing you here.” He grinned and walked towards the man, setting himself down beside him. He supposed this must be where his wife was giving birth. It was a bit weird of him just to be sat outside a random guest chamber, then again, this was Griff.

Looking on at Griff, and then back to the door he gave a short chuckle, “Didn’t fancy it in there then?” Gwaine couldn’t blame his friend, after all, men weren’t supposed to be anywhere near the woman when she was giving birth were they? He couldn’t imagine it being particularly fun anyway, so much better that they just avoid it altogether. Gwaine didn’t know that much about Griff and Caitrin’s relationship, well, he had seen it at its lowest point but that was it really. “How are you holding out?” Gwaine asked casually, and offered Griff some of the bread, “Want some, it’ll be a long night after all.” He supposed everyone would be worried about Caitrin’s welfare, well, she was the one in labour, but the waiting was sometimes worse. So he could help Griff along in any way he could, and perhaps jest and tease the man along the way.

Gwaine was quickly becoming to feel very awkward in the situation he had been thrown into. After all, this was clearly a conversation that Brynn wanted to have in private with her mother, rather than having her friend here. Gwaine was hardly useful in these situations, he didn’t know, and didn’t want to know, anything about women’s business. Child bearing, and everything that went on with it was for women to talk and worry about. Gwaine was only interested in the start of the childbearing process, just like every other normal man in Albion. Gwaine had never met the Lady in question, or not at least formally. He had seen her, and heard of her, but never personally exchanged words with her. After all, what interest would he have in her? She was one of his best friends wives, which meant she was completely off limits. “I’ve never met her.” Gwaine shrugged slightly, and put a hand through his hair, “But she can’t be arrogant, and she has a very big heart. She forgave Griff after some massive argument they both had.” Gwaine had been the one to convince Griff to try and move on from Caitrin after that little incident. Of course Griff, thankfully, hadn’t completely listened to him and he had gone back to his little fiancée eventually. Whatever had happened between them both, Gwaine knew Caitrin had completely forgiven Griff, so she must be nice in some sense. This was coming from Gwaine of course who, before meeting Arthur, would have never considered standing up for a nobleman, or a noblewoman.

Gwaine didn’t like the fact Meghan was trying to make him make Brynn see sense. Really, none of this was any of his business, he had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time eating the wrong bread. He still had some of it in his hand, but for now he just pushed it into his pocket and pressed his lips together. “I’m not telling Brynn anything.” He said firmly. Gwaine knew Brynn well enough anyway to know she had her own mind. Better that she should just make her own decisions anyway. He pressed his lips together into a frown, suddenly feeling very guilty at his friends words. “Brynn I’m sorry.” He wasn’t exactly sure what he was apologising for, but he needed her to calm down. Getting herself into a state like this wasn’t going to help anyone. Griff was a good friend to Gwaine, so perhaps he could intervene in this matter on his behalf. Jesu knows they had been through enough together. “Meghan, if you don’t want to help maybe I could go and find someone who can? I’m sure there are midwives knocking around?” He had no idea, but anything to get him out of this kitchen was a preferable option right now, “This girl obviously needs some help.” He cast a sidewards glance to Meghan, wondering if she would be in such a frame of mind if it was Brynn, and not this Caitrin, who was about to have a baby.

Gwaine knew that he was supposed to be supportive friend in a sort of way, after all he didn't know how many women Percival had tried to charm in the past. However, it was too amusing watching him try to charm women to remain in the role of the supportive friend for too long. Gwaine was putting all his effort into not bursting out laughing at his friends efforts. After all, he was sure that the only reason that the girl was making eyes at Percival was because she couldn't see Gwaine. That was the only explanation really. The fact she described Percival as sweet left a small smile found Gwaine's lips. He had never been called sweet by any woman, he preferred other compliment to be honest.

He was slightly irritated that no woman was making eyes at him just yet. Perhaps he would have been better off coming on his own if he had craved female company. However, wasn't this night supposed to be him and Percival drinking together? Or maybe he had just thought to remember that because Gwaine wasn't getting any female attention. He was watching the barmaid who was talking to Percival, and he was wondering how his friend hadn't jumped on her yet. She was biting her lip and everything! Gwaine rolled his eyes, and drained his ale, feeling the need straight away to grab another one. Before he shifted to the bar, he ribbed Percival in the back, as a silence had fallen with his friend. He knew Percival was quiet by nature, but this really wasn't the time for him to play the mute. He actually needed to say something now. "Say something!" Gwaine half hissed, still trying hard not to laugh as he went over to the bar to get himself another drink.

By the time he got back with his ale, that he hadn't had to pay for of course, the woman had come over to their table. How rude of her, especially if she was going to ignore Gwaine's rugged beauty. Gwaine resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Percival looked to him for help. Half coughing into his hand he looked up at his friend, "Do something." He coughed, so his friend could catch his drift, "Take her hand! Before I do it for you."