Merlin: L/G: Leon Hearts Gwaine
Title: Leon Hearts Gwaine
Series: Merlin
Rating: PG
Pairing: Leon/Gwaine, with mentions of Arthur/Merlin, Lancelot/Gwen, Elyan/Percival, and lesser mentions of Arthur/Gwen and Gwen/Morgana
Disclaimer: dis- (not); claim- (mine); -er (no, really)
Summary: Written for this Kink Me! Merlin prompt, base on this comic on Dev!Art. In which Merlin turns Gwaine down, everyone becomes matchmakers, Elyan finally realizes something important, and Gwaine learns that it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
Also, this is crack, and fluff, and I don't even know.
-
Merlin smiles sheepishly. “No, really, I can’t. I mean, I would, obviously, since you’re, you know, but I’m kind of, well, you see.” He’s blushing, he knows he is, and babbling, which can only mean that he’s been spending too much time with Gwen because he’s starting to sound like her. Merlin’s not even sure what he’s saying, or if it makes any sense, but evidently it does because Gwaine looks like someone just kicked his puppy. Twice.
Or maybe Gwaine’s turned into the puppy, because Merlin can’t remember his eyes being that big and round and watery before, or his lips quite that trembly. Then again, he’s never actually seen Gwaine turned down by anyone and then told that no, it’s not going to happen. Ever. So it’s a bit of a shock to just see him standing there, letting Merlin rip his heart out and grind it into dust.
Really, though, Merlin thought that the confession came out of nowhere. He’d never even suspected that Gwaine felt that way about him. Arthur had warned him, half-heartedly, as if it was a joke of some sort. Merlin does not think it’s funny. Gwaine doesn’t either, obviously.
Out the corner of his eye, he sees movement, and almost like its destiny (destiny, yeah, because he’s had so much luck with that) Leon walks by at that moment, armor gleaming like always, cloak red and… pretty, and thinks this will do. Merlin, as if without thought, grabs his arm. “Leon!” he half shouts, like it’s an epiphany. “Leon’s free. What about him?”
Gwaine looks almost as flabbergasted as Leon does, and okay, maybe it is kind of funny, but he’ll never admit it to Arthur because Arthur’s ego is big enough without telling him he was right about this too.
Leon can barely speak, squeaking out a very unmanly, “What?” before clearing his throat and repeating, “Wait, what?” For a moment Merlin almost feels sorry for him. Poor Sir Leon doesn’t even know what’s going on, but at least Gwaine doesn’t look quite so heartbroken anymore. In fact, he looks kind of put out.
“What is this, Spamalot?” Gwaine mutters, then shakes his head. “Not everyone is gay, Merlin. I’m sorry, Leon, if you’re at all uncomfortable with this.”
When Gwaine turns and leaves, Leon is left blinking and Merlin can do nothing but gape.
-
Percy glances between his friends, thinks he’s imagining the slight tension there. Merlin had told him, earlier, what had happened. It takes him a while to speak, too busy picturing the two of them together, what it would be like and if it would be as weird as he thought. Probably not, because separately they were awesome, but together… well, it would be twice the awesome.
“You should try it,” he says over lunch, sitting between Gwaine and Leon. He’s glad, for once, that he’s not sitting in front of them, because they both choke at that admission, Gwaine on his water and Leon on a mouthful of food and it goes everywhere.
“What?” Leon asks lightly, and Percy thinks that yeah, Merlin was right, red really does look pretty on Leon.
“Why do you say that?” Gwaine asks, and Percy notes that he’s blushing too. It’s kind of endearing.
Percy shrugs. “I think you’d look good together.”
“Oh?” Leon looks like he’s trying too hard not to be interested in that answer but Percy just shrugs again and smiles.
“You both have good hair,” he says simply, and then leaves them to continue his training.
-
Arthur, in a rare mood of matchmaking madness, decides that Gwaine and Leon should be paired as a team for the rest of their lives. Or at least until Gwaine turns his sights from Merlin and onto the completely available Leon who everyone thinks will be perfect for the romantic Gwaine and his flirtatious ways. Surprisingly enough, he doesn’t flirt with Leon.
Arthur swears Leon pouts because of it, but it might be because he has to take one of Gaius’ potions for the wound in his shoulder gleaned from what Arthur guesses was a Gwaine’s hair is gleaming distraction. He could be wrong. Merlin is constantly telling him not to immediately think himself correct in an assumption unless he has undeniable proof.
He can’t explain it though. He just knows Leon is pining and distracted. Hell, even Arthur is distracted sometimes when Gwaine does his little hair flip thing. After all, Gwaine is Gwaine - Arthur suspects even monks would break vows if the bastard so much as winked in their direction. Arthur’s been tempted before, not that he’ll ever tell Merlin.
But really, not even Merlin could ignore the signals these two are putting out. Gwaine pines for Leon. Leon pines for Gwaine. Arthur swears that if they don’t do something about it soon he’ll knock them unconscious, tie them together, and lock them up for a full week until they make it like rabbits.
He doubts Merlin will let him, but he can think about it.
-
Lancelot has begun telling stories to the kids, things adapted from the bards that come through with tales of princes and princesses and magic kisses. It takes a while for anyone to catch on to exactly what he’s saying to the young impressionable minds of the future.
When the children start turning up at the training field yelling “kiss him, kiss him” the knights mostly just roll their eyes. But then they start chanting “Gwaine and Leon, Gwaine and Leon” and suddenly it all makes sense. Surprisingly Lance keeps a straight face throughout the whole confrontation about filling the imaginations of kids throughout Camelot with false promises and no, Gwaine will not kiss Leon’s shoulder better, that’s what medicine’s for.
It takes a week before one of the castle maids comes over to ask if Gwaine really likes to be bent over Leon’s knee and spanked like a naughty boy and then buggered senseless under the light of the moon. Gwaine, impossibly, turns red and splutters about training while Leon just laughs at him.
Later at the tavern, after a hard day’s training and battling the latest castle gossip, Leon sits beside Gwaine and buys him a round. As he goes to take a big swallow, Leon turns to him and asks, “Do you?”
Gwaine chokes. He knows what the question is about, knows what Leon is asking, but somehow he hadn’t been expecting it. “Do I what?” he says instead. It’s been a long day, he reasons to himself. Leon could be asking about anything.
Leon looks evenly at him, and after several mugs of ale Gwaine knows that shouldn’t be possible, but somehow Leon still manages it. It burns where Leon’s eyes touch him. “Let me rephrase it, then. Would you?”
Now the barmaid is looking at him, but in a less heated, more I’ll-kill-you-if-you-spit-on-my-bar-again way. It should terrify him, but at the moment he’s more concerned about Leon and-dear god, is he really asking this? “How drunk am I?” It’s posed to anybody who will listen but no one answers. Maybe he should try another bar. And another drink.
“Merlin’s an idiot. Arthur’s confused. Lance and I are the only ones who know what he want - or, rather, who. We’ve decided it’s finally time to do something about it.”
Leon’s talking to him, he knows Leon is talking, but Gwaine doesn’t want to pay attention, especially with the way lips are moving and forming words and- “Do something about what?” Gwaine should really learn to keep his mouth closed.
“Who does Arthur always talk about?”
This one was easy. “Merlin.”
“And who is Arthur going to marry?”
Leon should come up with something harder. Gwaine snorts at the private thought and then answers, “Gwen.”
“Who does Gwen fancy?”
“Lancelot. And Arthur, too, I suppose.”
“And what about Lancelot?”
Gwaine turns to look at Leon, blinks at him. “Seriously? A dead man could answer these questions. What’s the point of them anyway? And I thought Arthur and Merlin were ‘well, you know’.”
“Not yet, and that’s the problem.”
Gwaine rolls his eyes. “Oh, of course it is.”
“We’re working on it,” Leon insists. “I’ve been hiding Arthur’s boots under his bed, so when Merlin goes to retrieve them… well, the prince gets a nice view. It’s only a matter of time before his self-control snaps and he ravages Merlin within an inch of his life.”
Gwaine narrows his eyes and purses his lips. “I guess you do have to watch out for the quiet ones.”
-
As it turns out, Arthur has very little self-control when it comes to his manservant because the next day he’s late for training, and when he finally shows up he’s limping and blushing and Merlin looks way too happy to be taking orders. After a few words, the cheer spreads to Lancelot. Gwaine scoffs from where he stands beside Leon.
Leon just presses his hand firm against Gwaine’s shoulder and leans in to say simply, “I told you.”
It’s a taunt, Gwaine knows it is. Somehow, he must have alcohol still in his system because his mouth stupidly asks, “What about you?”
Leon smiles at him. Just smiles, and he knows it should send feelings of dread down his spine or make him think terrible thoughts about idiots who always seem to get what they want, but instead he just feels warm.
Huh, the big guy’s growing on his after all.
-
“It’s nothing, I’m fine.”
For some reason, nobody is believing that particular statement. Elyan is holding him down so that Gaius can wrap his forearm with bandages that are too quickly turning red. Merlin is on the other side trying to force something gross and possibly needless down Gwaine’s throat between protests.
“It’s just a scratch.”
“No,” Arthur declares with his arms crossed, standing somewhere above them and blocking out the sun. “Leon’s fine. You’re just an idiot.”
Gwaine tries to shrug, but it’s kind of hard with Elyan’s weight pressing down on him. He’s not going to deny it. He is an idiot, and it was stupid of him to get distracted so easily. He was supposed to be the distracting one, not Leon.
They’d been sparring, like usual, and it had been a weak moment. Leon had smiled. And then his hair had caught the sunlight. Everything over the past few weeks came crashing down on Gwaine in that moment. Oh, he thought, paused. Oh. That’s what he meant.
The pause was barely longer than a blink, but it was long enough for Leon’s sword to scrape against his forearm and split the skin there. And okay, it is probably worse than fine, and definitely worse than a simple scratch, but how can he explain that he was too caught up in Leon’s pretty to care?
As was oft his luck in these things, everybody already knew the cause of his distraction, including the distraction himself, if that stupid smug grin was anything to go by.
After everyone else leaves, Leon remains. It takes a moment for him to move closer, to just stare down at Gwaine before he sits. And Leon doesn’t stop looking at him, refuses to move his eyes away. Gwaine’s sighs irritably and lets his head fall to the side. “Okay, seriously, just do it already.”
In a flash Leon is on his knees beside Gwaine’s bed, injured arm in his hands and head pressed against Gwaine’s wrist. “Do not scare me like this again,” he says simply, but Gwaine feels the order in the words and wants nothing more than to listen to them, to him. Leon presses his lips to the bandage and to the areas just above and just below; it makes the inside of Gwaine’s elbow tickle.
Gwaine smiles when he can finally see Leon’s face again, and has to laugh a little. “You’re right, kisses do make it feel better.”
Leon flushes, and the red helps accentuate his eyes.
“You look good in red,” Gwaine says, and then wonders what was in that potion that Merlin forced in him, because usually it’s only alcohol that makes him speak before he thinks.
But Leon just laughs and presses his lips to Gwaine’s. “Yes, so I’ve been told.” A moment later he sobers and pulls away. “I was wondering if you were ever…” He trails off in a rare moment of self-doubt; he hadn’t even been this nervous when he’d told the king his wife was a troll.
“Yes, well,” Gwaine says, clears his throat. “The princess did call me an idiot. I’m inclined to agree. Just, don’t tell him that.”
Somewhere just beyond the door there was a clatter and a noise that sound suspiciously like Merlin cursing. “I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Leon says with another kiss. “I think Merlin just took him down a peg.”
Gwaine laughs and then abruptly stops with a wince. “I can’t believe I just bit my tongue.”
Leon’s eyes light up. “That probably hurts. Let me make it better for you.”
-
“What do you think the king’s going to do when he finds out half his knights are screwing the other half? Except for that one, you know, who’s trying to steal away the future queen?”
“I’m more worried about what the king’s going to do when he finds out his son is screwing his manservant.” Elyan sits up and turns to Percival, tries not to be distracted by the wide expanse of exposed chest there. “Wait, who’s trying to steal away Gwen?”
In the night air, there is but one name that rings throughout Camelot. It reaches the little house that used to belong to the blacksmith but now belongs to the once and future queen.
Gwen stops the kiss and pushes Lancelot away. “Maybe we should wait for marriage?” she suggests halfheartedly.
Lancelot sighs but nods. “I can’t believe he’s the only one who didn’t know. At least we have Arthur’s blessing.” Lancelot frowns for a moment, looking into the distance. “What do you think he’s up to right now?”
“I’d really rather not know.” Sometimes she hates being the only woman among a mess of noble knights and royal pains. So while Lancelot is busy thinking about Arthur and Merlin and whatever they may be doing, Gwen makes a plan to somehow entice Morgana back to Camelot.
If only for her own sanity.