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In hindsight it was pretty obvious that something was wrong and for someone who spotted magical threats on pretty much weekly basis it should be embarrassing how long it took Merlin to figure out that something was off. But then again, he was always on the lookout for attacking warlocks or raging witches and not conspiring knights. So no one could really blame him that it took something absolutely obvious to tip him off.
That something obvious was Gwaine. Of course it was. Gwaine was hardly ever not obvious. It happened one day when Merlin was walking out of the kitchen, Arthurs dinner in his arms, when he saw the knight coming out of another corridor. He seemed to be in hurry, which was unusual enough. Training was over and Gwaine always tried his best to be late for everything else. The one time he was actually on time for something was because Leon had told him the meeting was an hour earlier. The look of betrayal in Gwaine’s eyes had been hilarious.
That was suspicious enough, but then Gwaine did something that Merlin thought was impossible.
The cook had given him an extra chicken when he was in the kitchen earlier. Merlin suspected that the new cook was trying to make a good impression on Arthur, but the king's ego was large to begin with, and he didn't need another subject buttering him up.
That was why Merlin, when he saw Gwaine coming, thought it would be a nice idea to offer the chicken to his friend. Gwaine was rarely without some sort of food and even though the new cook was a bit of a suck up he made a mean chicken.
With this amazing idea Merlin shouted for him. “Gwaine! You want one?” he asked grinning, holding the plate in the air. “We don't want our princess going up another hole in the belt, do we?”
Gwaine turned around at that, a look on his face like the one you saw on children when their parents caught them with thing there weren’t supposed to touch.
“Merlin, mate! What are you doing here?' he asked, his eyes wide.
Merlin raised an eyebrow at that. “Getting dinner for Arthur... like always.”
Gwaine's question confused him. Sure, he was a little later than usual today because he hadn’t been in the mood to deal with the new cook, but Arthur didn’t have to wait that long. The knight shouldn’t be that surprised to see him here, especially with his track record.
“Right, right. Sure, dinner, makes sense.” Gwaine often rambled, but he usually had a specific topic that he was annoying the other person with, and he didn’t stumble around his words like that. He seemed to get more nervous by the minute, throwing quick looks down the way he came, and if it weren’t already late, Merlin would have teased him a little more. However, he had been late for the past three days, and he really wasn’t looking forward to spending another day in the stocks.
“Anyway.” Merlin said, shooting Gwaine one last weirded-out look before showing him the chicken again. “You want this?”
“Ah, no thanks, mate, but I’ve got to go.” He turned around and said, “See you around,” before disappearing down the next corridor, leaving behind a shocked Merlin.
Gwaine refusing food was impossible! It didn't happen! It was the equivalent of Uther allowing magic back into Camelot: utterly impossible and completely out of character. Even if Merlin hadn’t suspected anything beforehand, that would have been an eye-opener.
Aside from shaking Merlin to his core and causing him to doubt everything he knew about the other man, it also made him curious. What was going on here? Why was Gwaine so surprised to see him here?
The only way to find out was to investigate, so Merlin did the only logical thing and swerved off his route to Arthur's chambers to step into the corridor from which Gwaine had come. He would be very late, but this was worth a day in the stocks!
There was nothing out of the ordinary at first, just a plain old corridor with some banners and a candle holder full of cobwebs. Merlin kept walking, determined to find out why Gwaine had been so nervous. The knight practically enjoyed breaking the law, so Merlin wasn’t too worried that something horrible had happened, but maybe he had accidentally burned down the library, or broken that hideous statue of Uther’s grandfather that Arthur had yet to throw out (Merlin had tried to convince Arthur that the statue was even uglier than the troll Uther had married once, but so far, he had only managed to get the statue moved to a less busy part of the castle. Arthur insisted that he couldn't throw out a statue of his great-grandfather, but Merlin knew that the king didn't like it much either.).
Then he heard voices. Muffled and hushed, but Merlin would recognize those voices anywhere. The door to a room at the end of the corridor was slightly ajar, and beyond it, he could hear Leon, Percival, Elyan, and Lancelot talking. He couldn’t make out much, but a few fragmented phrases filtered through the gap:
“Totally gonna fail,”
“Too much at stake,”
“They can’t find out,”
“Just act normal,”
Merlin blinked. Who was they and what couldn’t they find out? And what was at stake?
His mind immediately jumped to treason. Or an assassination plot. Or maybe an underground fight ring. Were the knights gambling again?
Before he could make up his mind or find out more, the door opened. Luckily for him, the door swung outwards, giving him a few seconds to jump behind it. A few potatoes rolled off Arthur's plate, and Merlin grimaced when they hit the floor with quiet thuds.
The knights didn’t seem to hear anything when they left the room. Leon looked around to see if the coast was clear, while Merlin tried his best to blend into the wall behind the door. Apparently, the head knight hadn't spotted anything suspicious, because he waved for the other knights to follow him. They left quickly after that, but Merlin heard Elyan say, “We're done for if Merlin or Arthur find out what we're doing.” before disappearing around the corner.
For a few minutes Merlin didn’t move, thoughts spinning in his head. Were the knights really planning a coup? No, that couldn’t be, right? Not Arthur most loyal friends! Maybe they were cursed? Morgana was powerful enough to cast a spell like that, but as far as Merlin knew the five knights hadn’t been on missions without him and Arthur in a while, so there was no opportunity for Morgana to hex them… at least outside the castle. Had she somehow managed to get inside? He dismissed that thought quickly. He would have felt her if she was in the vicinity of him or at least her magic.
But that only left him with more questions. If the knights weren’t cursed then why would they plan to overthrow Arthur? Or was that even their plan? Merlin tried not to jump to conclusions because of Gwaine acting strange and a few overheard words without context. Maybe there was a completely harmless explanation. There had to be. If only his mind would stop jumping to treason...
Eventually, Merlin emerged from his hiding place and began walking towards Arthur’s chambers. The food had gone cold, but a quick spell made the chicken warm up again. The king wasn’t happy about Merlin’s delayed arrival, but instead of throwing him in the stocks, he threw a potato at him. Merlin was so distracted that he didn’t even try to move out of the way, and was promptly surprised by mashed potato in his ear. That at least seemed to appease Arthur.
----
Over the next few days, Merlin kept a close eye on the knights. Much to his dismay, he discovered more concerning behaviour. The five of them kept whispering to each other and casting more glances than usual at him and Arthur. How did he not see it before?!
At that point, Merlin was fairly certain that the knights weren’t planning a coup. After the initial shock, he realised that was a bit too improbable. Assuming that none of them were cursed led Merlin to believe that something else was going on, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was.
Every time he tried to get close and listen to them when they were whispering they stopped immediately and scattered, which was not suspicious in the slightest…
Merlin even tried talking to them. He knew Leon and Lancelot wouldn’t talk, they were way to good at keeping secrets for that, so he tried the other three.
Elyan was the first. After a council meeting, Merlin cornered him. He started subtly, just mentioning that he thought they were acting a little differently to usual. Elyan simply chuckled and suggested he should maybe worry more about fluffing Arthur's pillows than about their behaviour, since the king would probably want to take a nap after such a boring meeting. He was right, but that didn’t bring Merlin any closer to solving this riddle.
Percival was next. Merlin managed to get him alone after their training was over. This time he was a lot more accusatory. Maybe the gentle giant would break if he guilted him enough.
He was wrong!
The second Merlin brought up their secret meeting the other day, Percival gave him a sheepish smile. “Merlin, I really don’t know what you mean.”
Then, in a move that could only be described as unnecessarily large but impossibly gentle, he patted Merlin on the head, turned him around by the shoulders and lightly nudged him toward the exit.
“You should probably eat something,” he said. “You get cranky when you’re hungry. Why don’t you get yourself and Arthur something nice from the kitchen, mh?”
As a last resort he tried Gwaine. Gwaine was always an odd mix off a great lair and a horrible secret keeper. This time Merlin went all in. He had him come to Gaius’ champers under a false pretence and decided that with him the worried friend bit would work the best. While putting some healing ointment (just some lotion Gaius had made some time ago) on his wrist he started talking about how worried he was about Gwaine.
“I’m just worried, you know?” Merlin said, trying to sound soft and nurturing, the way Gaius did when he was about to tell someone they were dying. “You’ve been acting off. I care about you.”
Gwaine looked touched. Then guilty. Then very guilty.
“All right, all right,” he said, burying his face in his hands. “I didn’t want to say anything but… I have been hiding something.”
Merlin leaned forward. This was it.
“I think the stable boy has cursed me.”
“…what.”
“I swear my ale’s been warmer lately. That’s not natural, Merlin.”
Merlin just blinked.
“Also my hair’s been lying flat. You know how it never lies flat!”
“…You’re deflecting.”
“I’m spiralling,” Gwaine corrected.
----
After that disaster Merlin stopped trying to get the knights too spill. If not even Gwaine would tell him then there was no use to it. Instead he started tailing them.
It started to interfere with his duties to the king but Merlin was too intrigued to care too much. Sadly the knights seemed to be on to him. They didn’t have any more secret meetings and even stopped whispering to each other. Did they give up on their not-coup-coup or was Merlin too obvious spying on them? He didn’t know. What he did know was that they now did other, weirder things.
Percival suggesting that he and Arthur should enjoy a snack together was just the beginning.
It started with small things. Lancelot kept telling Merlin how much Arthur valued him. While it was nice to hear, it was also really weird, especially since he only did it right before Arthur came back into the room. Gwaine told him that the king had apparently been talking about Merlin in his sleep, which he thought was "cute" (Merlin thought so too, but they didn't need to know that). For some reason, Elyan started multiple conversations about love right in front of him and Arthur. These always became disgustingly romantic towards the end, which was why Arthur ran out of the last one before Elyan could finish reciting his poem. Percival became oddly clumsy around them, always bumping into them, so that Merlin suddenly found himself in Arthur's arms. Even Leon wasn't his usual self. He included Merlin in council meetings to 'strengthen his internal insight', whatever that was supposed to mean. He also seemed to be more forgetful than before. On more than one occasion, he was late to a one-to-one meeting with the king (more like a one-to-two meeting, since Merlin was always there to take notes or chime in with ideas, good or bad).
You might think that that was weird enough, but no. Things only escalated from there.
About three days after the secret meeting Lancelot suggested that Merlin should accompany him and Arthur on his weekly patrol through the woods surrounding Camelot. While it wasn’t customary for the king to go on patrol, it had been a tradition of Arthur’s for years. Each week, he took a different knight with him and rode around the town and through the forest once. Arthur said that it strengthened his bond with his knights and the trust of the townspeople, which is why he decided to continue the tradition when he became king.
It was Lancelot’s turn this week to join the king, and Merlin knew he had been looking forward to it for a while. The reason why Lancelot suddenly wanted Merlin to come with them was beyond him, but he wasn’t one to turn down a pleasant ride through nature, so he accepted the invitation.
He should have known it was a trap!
The beginning of the ride was fairly normal and peaceful. While enjoying the nature around him, Merlin listened to Lancelot and Arthur discussing proper sword care, a topic that didn't interest him in the slightest.
He had always felt at home in the woods. The trees seemed to ground him and the clean air calmed him more than any soothing tee ever could. He didn’t get to enjoy this very often. Nine times out of ten, he was outside the castle because he was accompanying Arthur on a mission or a hunt, and neither of those was very relaxing.
The peaceful atmosphere made him let his guard down, not completely, of course. There was always the chance a vengeful witch would jump out of a tree. But it was enough to make him hesitate when Lancelot suddenly announced he had to return to the castle immediately because he’d ‘forgotten to do something important’.
He didn’t say what. Just turned his horse around and galloped off before either Merlin or Arthur could get a word in.
Merlin stared after him, mouth slightly open. “What just …?”
Arthur only shrugged. “Must’ve been something urgent.” He glanced at the path ahead. “We’re almost halfway done, so let’s finish this.”
And with that, he spurred his horse onward like nothing strange had happened.
But Merlin wasn’t ready to drop it. “You didn’t think that was suspicious? What could possibly be more important than patrolling with his king, but not important enough to remember before the patrol?!”
Arthur shrugged again. “Maybe Gwen asked him to do something. Nothing suspicious about helping out your beloved.”
Merlin opened his mouth to launch into a well-reasoned rant about loyalty, priorities, and the statistical unlikelihood of Lancelot forgetting anything ever, but they broke through the treeline before he could say a word.
The clearing wasn’t large, but it was filled with wildflowers, their colours vibrant, the scent soft and sweet. It felt almost staged.
Arthur reined in his horse and looked around. “This seems like a good place for a little break.”
He glanced over his shoulder at Merlin and smiled. “Why don’t you take care of the horses and get the food ready? I’ll find us a spot to sit.”
Merlin grumbled, but did what was asked of him. Although he still found it odd that Lancelot had run off like that, he had to agree with Arthur. This was a nice place to stop for a while.
He might not be the best manservant ever, but he had thought to bring some food with him just in case they needed it. There wasn't much: just a loaf of bread, some cheese and a waterskin. After all, he hadn't expected Arthur to suggest a picnic.
However, his worries were unjustified.
Instead of the simple meal he had packed, there was a whole banquet in the saddlebags. There was a blanket big enough for the both of them. The water had been replaced with expensive-looking wine. The cheese was gone. In its place were grapes, apples, thinly sliced meat and even a little chocolate.
Before Merlin could do more than stare, Arthur appeared behind him. “Would you look at that! And here I thought you would never think in advance.” He clapped him on the shoulder, his hand lingering.
They spent the next hour lying on the blanket eating and even though Merlin was still not convinced of Lancelot’s excuse, he had to admit that this was quite nice.
----
Unlike Lancelot Percival didn’t even bother leaving the town. His behaviour on the training grounds escalated completely. Not only did he kept stumbling into Merlin, which by the way only happened when Arthur was standing right beside him, but he’d also become way too enthusiastic in his fights with the king.
Percival was very tall and very strong man, so it was only logical that his strikes had a little bit more power behind them then the ones from the other knights but he seemed to forget that lately.
He knocked Arthur to the ground more often than Merlin knocked over candleholders, and left enough bruises and shallow cuts that Merlin had to patch him up constantly.
This only happed with Arthur though. Around the other knights Percival was as controlled as ever. Except maybe Gwaine, who had started to make fun of Percival’s ‘stumbling’. He hit the ground almost as often as Arthur.
Two days after Lancelot’s suspicious disappearance Percival and Arthur were fighting again, a demonstration of defence techniques for the new knights. It was a good fight or at least Merlin thought so. He didn’t know enough about it to give a fair assessment, but that didn’t stop him from judging it. Percival’s strikes came from all angles, and the king blocked every single one, but the knight didn’t ease up. Quite the opposite actually.
Percival’s hits became more and more powerful and then Arthur tripped. One of Percival’s blows had him stumbling back slightly, which would usually not be a problem, but there was a small rock on the field this time. Arthur's boot got caught on it, causing him to lose his balance for a moment. That was all Percival needed to take a big swing with his sword and crash it against Arthur’s shield with enough force to make the king fall to the ground with a loud thud.
Thankfully, Percival stopped then and looked down at Arthur. Both men were breathing heavily. For a moment, everyone on the field stood still, waiting anxiously to see how Arthur would react. It was rare for a knight to defeat the king, and it probably wouldn't have happened this time if it hadn't been for the rock. Merlin could therefore understand why nobody said a word.
Although the silence seemed to last for ages, it was quickly broken when Arthur started laughing. After congratulating Percival on his victory and saying that the new knights could learn a lot from him, he got back up on his feet.
He seemed fine but Merlin knew him well enough to see that his arm seemed to be hurting. He grabbed his bag where he stored some essentials for treating injuries and waited until the speculators scattered. When only the king, Merlin, and his closest knights remained, he joined them, because he knew that Arthur would never show weakness in front of so many people.
Sure enough, as soon as the last of the new knights had left, Arthur swore and gave Percival a stern look.
“Seriously, Percival?! Did you have to hit so hard?” There was a hint of anger in his voice, but he seemed to be mostly joking.
Percival ducked his head, trying to look guilty, but Merlin could have sworn he saw him smirk.
“My apologies, my king. I should have restrained myself.” He looked up again, his face unreadable, “Merlin should take a look, just in case. In the tent over there, perhaps?”
Merlin agreed with him, even if was just because of the chance to see him shirtless, but Gwaine seemed to have different plans.
He clapped Arthur on the shoulder and said, “Oh, come on! Our king isn’t made of glass. He can take a bit of banter!”
Merlin gave him a confused look, but before he could say anything, Elyan chimed in. “Indeed. He's strong as an ox; there's no need to fuss.”
“Guys!” Leon said warningly while Lancelot pressed his lips together to stifle a laugh.
Percival yanked Gwaine’s hand off Arthur’s shoulder. “I think Merlin should check him out. I am pretty strong.” He emphasised the last part by gripping Gwaine’s wrist until the other knight cursed and took a step back.
This was getting more ridiculous by the second!
Arthur seemed to agree, shaking them both off and taking a few steps closer to Merlin. “Enough!”
The order was effective enough to stop Percival, Gwaine and Elyan from bickering, even though Percival was still clutching Gwaine’s wrist and Elyan had started pulling on Percival’s arm to free his friends hand.
“Since none of you are training to be physicians, I will trust Merlin’s judgement on this matter.” He looked at Merlin as though as he was waiting for his approval.
Merlin nodded, gave the knights a suspicious look, and started to lead Arthur to the tent at the edge of the field.
He was still nowhere close to finding out what on earth they were planning, but by now he was sure that it wasn’t malicious... at least not on purpose.
----
A few hours later Arthur and Merlin were sitting in Arthur’s chambers. Or Arthur was sitting with a bandaged arm, going through some reports, while Merlin walked circles, reading a speech that Arthur had written earlier.
They had reached an unspoken agreement some time ago: Arthur would write something, and Merlin would read it and point out where he could improve the wording or add arguments that the king hadn’t thought of.
They never talked about it. Arthur would hand Merlin a speech or a letter, which Merlin would then go through, despite the fact that, unlike Arthur, he had never received a proper education in writing, public speaking or diplomacy. But the king didn’t seem to care. He was grateful for everything Merlin contributed, even though he would never say that out loud.
It was late and dinner was long gone, but they both enjoyed the quiet. They didn’t often have the time for this. With Arthur's duties and Merlin's alleged tavern visits, it was difficult to find a time when they could simply exist next to each other.
Today, however, they weren’t so lucky.
There was a knock on the door, and Leon entered the room with a giant stack of papers in his arms.
“I am sorry to disturb you, sir, but I have a favour to ask.” he raised the documents, “My squire has fallen ill and I must get home to my wife and the baby, so there is no one left to fill out these supply orders. I know it is late but nobody but you knows how to do it.” He looked genuinely apologetic but Merlin didn’t buy it. Whatever the knights were planning, this was part of it!
Arthur sighed and motioned for Leon to put the papers on his desk. “I understand. Just put them here and I’ll get to them.”
Leon bowed a little. “Thank you, my lord. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Sir Leon”
With that he closed the door, leaving behind a giant pile of work.
Arthur ran his hand over his face and started shuffling through the documents. “This will take at least two hours, if not more.”
Merlin joined him at his desk and took a few papers, skimming over them. Leon usually placed the supply order after ensuring that the patrol guards were at their stations. However, his wife Katrina had just given birth to their third child, a little boy who was suffering from colic. Despite having a maid, Leon liked to help his wife out whenever he could. Tonight must have been particularly bad if he had to leave before completing his tasks.
“I could stay if you want me to, maybe get an apple from the kitchen.” he offered. Arthur liked to snack on something while doing paperwork.
He at him confused, “’Stay if I want you to’? Of course you are staying, you are doing this with me!” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Merlin opened his mouth to argue but Arthur shoved half of the order forms into his arms and pointed to a chair on the other side of the room, “Come on, get to it. I want to go to sleep.”
“What about my sleep?” he asked but he was already on his way to drag the chair next to Arthur’s.
“What do you need sleep for anyway, Merlin? You hardly do anything all day.”
Merlin just scoffed and sat down opposite of Arthur, snatching the feather he was using out of his hand. If they had to stay up late, he should at least have some fun.
----
Leon was the most subtle one of the knights so far. If it hadn’t been for all the other suspicious things they were doing, Merlin could have really believed that he simply didn’t have the time. It was a nice evening; despite all the supply orders they had to fill out. At some point Merlin even ran down to the kitchen and got them two left over pastries from dinner and the hours flew by.
And yet, by the next morning, with far too little sleep, Merlin was just as suspicious as he was before. Leon might have had to leave to be with his wife but there was no way he couldn’t find someone besides the king who could do his work. Gwaine might have been too lazy to do so but not Leon!
Then it was Elyan’s turn and he was everything but subtle.
His speeches about love became longer and longer to the point where he started reciting poetry that he had to read from a piece of paper because they were too long to memorize them.
He also came up with more and more ridiculous excuses for those poems. First, he said they were just nice and he wanted to share them, then they were new codes for the knights or a possible side hustle he was trying out. His latest one was that he found them lying around and he wanted to know if they might be cursed.
“Two stars circle the same bright sky,
One crowned in gold, one cloaked in night.
They fight, they fall, they …“
“Elyan. Enough.” Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose.
“But I haven’t even gotten to the metaphor about the two doves yet!” Elyan protested, holding up the second sheet.
“If you say the word ‘dove,’ I swear I’ll…”
Merlin coughed loudly to cover his snort. “It’s… uh, very touching, Elyan, but I don’t think its cursed.”
Elyan didn’t seem convinced. „How would you know if you didn’t even let me finish?” Then he pulled a face as if he had just had an epiphany. “You know, I once heard that some curses are only visible in front of a fire. Why don't you two go up to Arthur's chambers and check again? I've already lit a fire.”
He shoved the sheets into Merlin’s arms and turned him around by his shoulders. Why did that keep happening to him? And why did the knights seem to do it with such ease, as though Merlin weighed no more than a bag of feathers to them?!
“A fire?! It's the middle of the day, Elyan! I don't have time to sit in front of a fire!” Arthur protested, but Elyan wouldn't relent.
Instead, he took Merlin’s wrist and started pulling him along back to Arthur’s chambers. “No worries, my king. I’ve taken care of your schedule. You now have half an hour to… to see whether or not this poem is cursed and to do other things.”
“Other things?” Merlin asked, but before Elyan could answer, not that he seemed to be planning to, they arrived at Arthur’s chambers, and the knight pushed him inside.
The king was still standing in the doorway, looking at Elyan as though he were a cat that kept pissing on the curtains.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you all lately, but this is ridiculous!”
For a moment, a mixture of fear and guilt flashed across Elyan’s face, but it was quickly replaced by intense seriousness.
“Sir, this is anything but ridiculous! If this poem is truly cursed, it could pose a great danger to unsuspecting poetry enthusiasts! As the king and the kingdom's strongest fighter, it is your duty to protect Camelot’s citizens from such evil!”
It was such a load of bullshit that Arthur didn’t even protest when Elyan gave him a little push, much softer as the one he had given Merlin, and closed the door in front of him.
After a moment of stunned silence, Arthur turned around with a look on his face that said, 'Can you believe this idiot?'
“Whatever is going on with them lately, it sure is amusing!”
Merlin could only chuckle in response.
----
“Gwaine, I swear by the old gods, if you don’t let us out, I’ll make sure the cook never makes you an apple pie again!”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Try me!”
It was a bold-faced lie. Merlin could barely convince the new cook to give him an apple, even when pretending it was for Arthur. But Gwaine didn’t know that and drastic times called for drastic measures.
Merlin had no idea how they got to this point. One moment he was walking with Gwaine and Arthur through the castle; the next, Gwaine yelled something about an attacker and pointed to a small room next to them. Of course, Arthur had drawn his sword and run into the room, with Merlin right behind him. Then the door had slammed shut, leaving Gwaine outside with absolutely no danger inside.
They tried to open it, but the knight seemed to have locked it and refused to open it again. Instead, he yelled something about being sorry but having to win no matter what. Despite numerous threats from Arthur that he would have to clean the boots of every knight and their squires, Gwaine wouldn't budge. So, Merlin had to bring out his most powerful weapon.
“You'll never taste an apple pie again! I'll tell every tavern in the city to refuse to make one for you! And right now it’s apple harvest season. Everyone will be baking pies and you'll only be able to smell them!”
The gasp that followed this threat was so load that they could hear it through the heavy wood.
“You are cruel, Merlin! Cruel!”
“Then open this door, Gwaine! Open it and I won’t do it.”
There was a moment of silence, during which Merlin threw Arthur a triumphant look. Then another voice spoke up.
“Don’t give in! We’re so close!”
Arthur stepped next to Merlin again. “Leon, is that you?!”
“I am sorry, Sire, but we cannot give up now!”
“Lancelot?” Merlin was growing more confused by the second. “What on earth is going on out there?” he asked, at the same time as Arthur shouted. “Give up on what?!”
“The bet on you two kissing, for fuck’s sake!” yelled Gwaine, sounding very exasperated.
A shocked silence fell inside and outside the room. Arthur and Merlin stared at each other, their eyes wide. Then they started laughing.
They laughed so hard, they didn’t notice the door opening again or the very confused looking knights on the other side.
They only stopped when Gwaine let out an indefinable noise that sounded a lot like an irritated duck.
“Is this what this whole thing was about? Us kissing?” Merlin asked once he had caught his breath.
“This is serious, Merlin. You are not the ones who had to endure you endless pining and sickening looks! We were desperate!”
Now Percival chimed in. “Do you have any idea how often you look at each other’s lips?”
“Or behinds?” added Elyan.
Arthur quirked an eyebrow. “You look at my behind, Merlin?” he asked in a playfully seductive tone.
Merlin snorted. “Of course I look. It’s a very nice behind.” He whipped his head around and stared at the knight pointedly. “I've been staring at it ever since we kissed for the first time. Four. Months. Ago!”
“Four Months ago?! I have been reading poetry for nothing?!” Elyan sounded very distraught.
Gwaine tore at his hair. “Are you serious? You’ve just lost me 20 coins!”
“You bet 20 coins that we would kiss if you locked us in a room together?” Arthur exclaimed. He would look offended if it wasn’t for the big grin on his face.
Gwaine raised his hands. “Hey, in my defence, it seemed like a very good plan at the time!”
Arthur patted him on the shoulder when he and Merlin finally stepped out of the closet-like room. “And that's why you don't make the plans around here.”
While Elyan and Gwaine still seemed pretty upset, Leon looked at them with playful doubt. “I’m not sure if I can believe you.” He said, smirking wider than Merlin had ever seen the usually very mature man do before. “I think you need to kiss right now to prove it.”
Before Merlin could respond snarkily that he didn't need to prove anything, Arthur took his hand, pulled him into his arms and kissed him so passionately that Merlin would have fallen over if it weren't for Arthur's solid arms around his waist.
Every thought that wasn’t about Arthur’s lips had disappeared from his head. A moment before, he had thought how ridiculous the whole situation was, but now his mind was wiped clean. For him, right now, nothing but Arthur’s soft lips and strong arms existed.
This wasn’t their first kiss, not by far, but each one still felt new and exciting. Just like the one in the clearing after Lancelot had left them; the one they shared after the knights had cleared the tent at the training ground; the one in Arthur’s chamber late at night, over order forms; and the one in front of the fire that Elyan had lit.
It was only when Arthur pulled back a little that he started to become aware of his surroundings again. Leon and Lancelot started clapping, Elyan and Percival cheered and Gwaine pretended to retch.