Knights' Olymics aka The winner takes it all
Title: Knights Olympics aka The winner takes it all
Author: bunnysworld
Rating: PG
Pairing: Percival/Merlin
Spoilers: No spoilers
Warnings: fluff, lots of fluff, nothing but fluff, ye have been warned
Word Count: 1886
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, the boys aren’t mine. Just took them out to play a little. I give them back unharmed - if I have to. Own nothing, no copyright infringement intended.
Summary: Percival participates in the knights’ Olympics and wins a bit more than a medal
Thanks to the wonderful tambear13 for the quick beta.
Notes This is just a reaction to the results of the knights’ Olympics challenge over at knightsinarmour where Percival kind of accidentally won the gold in the most important discipline. I blame this all on thecheekydragon
Percival stood in the throne room with all the other knights of the inner circle and chewed on his bottom lip nervously. They were all waiting for the results of the last competition.
He had loved the idea of competing in these games. It was a relatively peaceful year so far and all they ever did was practice. A bit of competition couldn’t hurt, could it?
Little had he known that magic would be involved, but it was only logical since Merlin had been the one to give Arthur the initial idea.
It started out all innocent on day one with moving target archery. Which Percival wasn’t good at, the arrows just too slim and delicate for his big fingers, so he went away with no medal and the laughter of his fellow knights still ringing in his ears because he broke two of his five arrows.
He made up for that during the apple-bopping contest the next day. He wasn’t such a good swimmer and didn’t like getting water into his ears but the children in the lower town made him play this with them, so he had quite a bit of practice and finished third place.
The next up was his favorite, the sword clashing. And he’d have won that, if his foot hadn’t caught on a stray root. So he had to watch Gwaine taking the gold and the kiss on the cheek for the winner from the court sorcerer while he was left with the silver.
To his own surprise he finished third in Enchantment Deflecting. In real situations he was usually the last to even notice that magic was involved. He’d grown up with it and it was totally normal to him, so he had no natural warning system like some of the others had. In a little corner of his heart he thought that probably Merlin, who was throwing the spells, had something to do with it. Merlin, the reason why he had stayed in Camelot. The wonderful warlock with the thick black hair, tall and lithe, who was so easy to talk to and listened to what he said like…like his opinion mattered to him. But Merlin wouldn’t jinx a competition in his favor, would he? It was a nice thought though, and left Percival all warm and fuzzy inside.
Which was probably the reason why he slid down the castle wall ungracefully and landed on his butt at his King’s feet the next day. For a fleeting moment he’d thought of Merlin instead of concentrating on his climbing and his fingers slipped and FLOMP!...there he was, in the grass, on his back like a bug, grunting as the air was knocked out of him. Merlin tended to the scrapes on his arms and cheek right away with some healing charms that made Percival tingle all over and blush slightly.
The next contest was even worse! Naked jousting! He could not go out there all naked! Usually Percival wasn’t shy. But…there was Merlin, watching! If he’d ever done a full-body-blush, it was then and he didn’t really compete for fear of physical reaction. Not that his fellow knights didn’t have those, but Percival found the presence of spectators - even though there just were two, Arthur and Merlin - very awkward. So he finished last.
To make up for this, he gave all he got in the Dragon Fire Dodging competition. But the huge dragon was kind of intimidating, so for a split second he just looked at him and that was when the dragon got his chance. The burns on his shoulder and cheek hurt quite a bit, but once again Merlin was right there with cooling healing charms and after half an hour, his skin was as good as new.
The eighth day was the one of Throne Room Bowling. Actually it was planned as Court Yard Bowling but it was raining and so the activities were moved to the throne room. With a bit of magical help of Merlin, the round table was moved out of the way in no time and they all had a lot of fun trying to knock the pitchers at the other end of the room over. A fierce blush crept on his face when Gwaine commented on his ability of ‘being good with balls’ when he was awarded a bronze coin.
The following day seemed to be easy. Chalice Throwing. Percival had the advantage of being the tallest and he’d done this as a child, back in his village, with his best friend Henry. They could stand on a field, throwing small branches or stones forever. So he threw the chalice the furthest and won the competition. What made him beam even wider was the fact that Merlin came over, patted his upper arm and told him how well he’d done before he put the wreath on his head and kissed his cheek. Percival fell asleep with a huge smile on his face that night.
Since they only learned what the contest would be on the day it happened, Percival paled when he heard it was called ‘Merlin wooing’. Each knight had about half an hour to prepare and five minutes to sweep Merlin off his feet.
Percival blushed and paled and started to sweat. He’d dreamed of getting a chance for this for months, but now that it happened, he wasn’t sure what to do. He always thought he’d run into Merlin somewhere in the castle and they wout get to talk and go to the tavern for an ale or something, and things would progress. But… Five minutes? What was he to do in five minutes? And…in front of everybody! When it was time to return to the throne room, he still had no clue and his hands started to sweat and he was breathing quickly.
He watched Elyan talking about horses and couldn’t help but stare at Merlin’s sweet smile. Then Leon told him a joke and Merlin did that wonderful laugh where he almost folded in half and his eye crinkled up. Lancelot just took Merlin’s hand and led him to an open space to dance. Whoa, nice move. Percival would have never thought of that! And then it was Gwaine’s turn, Percival sure he’d never stood a chance against Gwaine. Gwaine produced a flower and got real close to Merlin, whispering a few things into his ear that seemed to make Merlin blush and giggle. Percival felt all jealous when Gwaine had the nerve to kiss Merlin’s neck.
And then it was his turn and he still had no plan. He stepped forward nervously, wiping his hands on his breeches. He just looked at Merlin for a long time.
“Percival?”
The encouraging smile on Merlin’s face made him take a deep breath.
“Youknow…I’vefanciedyouforawhilenow.” He took another deep breath. If he didn’t get it out now, he never would. “Ireallylikeyou. Wouldyougoforanalewithme?” Percival blushed bright red. That went swell. He’d made a total fool out of himself and still had about four minutes twenty-five left to get himself deeper into this.
Merlin looked at him and blinked.
“Would you? I mean…wecouldgoonapicnicifyoulike.” He wiped the sweat off his temple. This was going so wrong. And all of his friends were there to witness and mock him about it later.
“A picnic?” Damn, that smile on Merlin’s face was distracting.
“Yes, there’sthisniceplacenottoofarfromhere.” Now he even started to gesture with his hands and probably looked all ridiculous doing so. “It’sreallyniceandquietandthere’stherivernearbyandyouprobablylikeitthere.”
As much as he tried to, he couldn’t make himself slow down. Once he started talking, the words all wanted out. But he felt his chances slip away with every breath he took. Elyan had talked about what they both liked, Leon had made Merlin laugh, Lancelot was a great dancer and Gwaine, well, he was Gwaine in all of his Gwaine-ness.
And maybe this was the only chance he ever got to tell Merlin how he felt. To emphasize his words, he just leaned forwards and pressed a kiss on Merlin’s lips, before pulling away quickly. “Sorry,” he mumbled, his shoulders sagging, his head hanging, he couldn’t even look at Merlin. How could he do such a stupid thing? The shame burnt high on his cheeks and his ears.
Even though he still had time left, he knew it was a lost cause, so he just stepped back in line with the other knights, avoiding looking anyone in the eye and waited for the king to dismiss them.
An hour later they all were called back to the throne room. Percival didn’t really feel like going, but he could hardly ignore an order from Arthur. So he shuffled in behind the others, not really listening to Arthur’s speech of how much fun the games had been for all involved and that they thought about making them an annual festivity.
“You all did well,” the King sounded pleased, “but the results of today’s competition are still to be revealed. It was all up to Merlin to decide who wooed him best. Merlin?”
Merlin stepped forward. “You all were great. There are just a few things I like better than others.” A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth and Percival’s heart sank. As if Merlin would like a babbling fool.
“To make a long story short. Second runner-up…Lancelot.”
The other knights clapped and laughed and howled as Lancelot stepped forward, took his rewarding kiss to the cheek and a bronze coin from Merlin and grinned widely.
“Runner-up: Gwaine.”
Gwaine made a show of pouting, insisting that he was best anyway and that he should have won this and took Merlin’s face in both hands and put a big wet smooch on his lips, then held the coin he got up for the others to see as he stepped back into line.
So it was either Leon or Elyan who won. Probably Leon who’d made Merlin laugh. Merlin loved to laugh. Percival tuned the sounds out completely. He didn’t need to hear that they’d won Merlin’s heart.
He was startled back to reality when Leon nudged him with the elbow. “What are you waiting for?”
Percival looked around. They all looked at him. “Wha…?”
Merlin smiled widely. “Congratulations.”
Stumbling forward, he accepted Arthur’s handshake and the gold coin, still not understanding what was going on. He’d…he’d won? Merlin had chosen him? But…why?
As he bent his head for Merlin to put the wreath on it, Merlin whispered “There are two horses and a picnic waiting for us in the courtyard. Would you show me that place you were talking about?”
Percival straightened up, his face beet red but a huge smile slowing showing. Merlin liked his idea best! He liked it so much that he wanted to go on that date with him! For real! So he nodded, grabbed Merlin’s wrist and pulled him along as he made his way out of the throne room.
As they were riding out of the courtyard side by side, Percival cleared his throat. “Can I ask you something?”
Merlin turned and nodded. “Sure.”
“Why me?”
The smile on Merlin’s face got wider. “You were the only one who was honest.” He slightly tapped his horse’s sides with his heels and galloped ahead.
When Percival finally caught up, Merlin still grinned. “And I like you, too.”
Author: bunnysworld
Rating: PG
Pairing: Percival/Merlin
Spoilers: No spoilers
Warnings: fluff, lots of fluff, nothing but fluff, ye have been warned
Word Count: 1886
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, the boys aren’t mine. Just took them out to play a little. I give them back unharmed - if I have to. Own nothing, no copyright infringement intended.
Summary: Percival participates in the knights’ Olympics and wins a bit more than a medal
Thanks to the wonderful tambear13 for the quick beta.
Notes This is just a reaction to the results of the knights’ Olympics challenge over at knightsinarmour where Percival kind of accidentally won the gold in the most important discipline. I blame this all on thecheekydragon
Percival stood in the throne room with all the other knights of the inner circle and chewed on his bottom lip nervously. They were all waiting for the results of the last competition.
He had loved the idea of competing in these games. It was a relatively peaceful year so far and all they ever did was practice. A bit of competition couldn’t hurt, could it?
Little had he known that magic would be involved, but it was only logical since Merlin had been the one to give Arthur the initial idea.
It started out all innocent on day one with moving target archery. Which Percival wasn’t good at, the arrows just too slim and delicate for his big fingers, so he went away with no medal and the laughter of his fellow knights still ringing in his ears because he broke two of his five arrows.
He made up for that during the apple-bopping contest the next day. He wasn’t such a good swimmer and didn’t like getting water into his ears but the children in the lower town made him play this with them, so he had quite a bit of practice and finished third place.
The next up was his favorite, the sword clashing. And he’d have won that, if his foot hadn’t caught on a stray root. So he had to watch Gwaine taking the gold and the kiss on the cheek for the winner from the court sorcerer while he was left with the silver.
To his own surprise he finished third in Enchantment Deflecting. In real situations he was usually the last to even notice that magic was involved. He’d grown up with it and it was totally normal to him, so he had no natural warning system like some of the others had. In a little corner of his heart he thought that probably Merlin, who was throwing the spells, had something to do with it. Merlin, the reason why he had stayed in Camelot. The wonderful warlock with the thick black hair, tall and lithe, who was so easy to talk to and listened to what he said like…like his opinion mattered to him. But Merlin wouldn’t jinx a competition in his favor, would he? It was a nice thought though, and left Percival all warm and fuzzy inside.
Which was probably the reason why he slid down the castle wall ungracefully and landed on his butt at his King’s feet the next day. For a fleeting moment he’d thought of Merlin instead of concentrating on his climbing and his fingers slipped and FLOMP!...there he was, in the grass, on his back like a bug, grunting as the air was knocked out of him. Merlin tended to the scrapes on his arms and cheek right away with some healing charms that made Percival tingle all over and blush slightly.
The next contest was even worse! Naked jousting! He could not go out there all naked! Usually Percival wasn’t shy. But…there was Merlin, watching! If he’d ever done a full-body-blush, it was then and he didn’t really compete for fear of physical reaction. Not that his fellow knights didn’t have those, but Percival found the presence of spectators - even though there just were two, Arthur and Merlin - very awkward. So he finished last.
To make up for this, he gave all he got in the Dragon Fire Dodging competition. But the huge dragon was kind of intimidating, so for a split second he just looked at him and that was when the dragon got his chance. The burns on his shoulder and cheek hurt quite a bit, but once again Merlin was right there with cooling healing charms and after half an hour, his skin was as good as new.
The eighth day was the one of Throne Room Bowling. Actually it was planned as Court Yard Bowling but it was raining and so the activities were moved to the throne room. With a bit of magical help of Merlin, the round table was moved out of the way in no time and they all had a lot of fun trying to knock the pitchers at the other end of the room over. A fierce blush crept on his face when Gwaine commented on his ability of ‘being good with balls’ when he was awarded a bronze coin.
The following day seemed to be easy. Chalice Throwing. Percival had the advantage of being the tallest and he’d done this as a child, back in his village, with his best friend Henry. They could stand on a field, throwing small branches or stones forever. So he threw the chalice the furthest and won the competition. What made him beam even wider was the fact that Merlin came over, patted his upper arm and told him how well he’d done before he put the wreath on his head and kissed his cheek. Percival fell asleep with a huge smile on his face that night.
Since they only learned what the contest would be on the day it happened, Percival paled when he heard it was called ‘Merlin wooing’. Each knight had about half an hour to prepare and five minutes to sweep Merlin off his feet.
Percival blushed and paled and started to sweat. He’d dreamed of getting a chance for this for months, but now that it happened, he wasn’t sure what to do. He always thought he’d run into Merlin somewhere in the castle and they wout get to talk and go to the tavern for an ale or something, and things would progress. But… Five minutes? What was he to do in five minutes? And…in front of everybody! When it was time to return to the throne room, he still had no clue and his hands started to sweat and he was breathing quickly.
He watched Elyan talking about horses and couldn’t help but stare at Merlin’s sweet smile. Then Leon told him a joke and Merlin did that wonderful laugh where he almost folded in half and his eye crinkled up. Lancelot just took Merlin’s hand and led him to an open space to dance. Whoa, nice move. Percival would have never thought of that! And then it was Gwaine’s turn, Percival sure he’d never stood a chance against Gwaine. Gwaine produced a flower and got real close to Merlin, whispering a few things into his ear that seemed to make Merlin blush and giggle. Percival felt all jealous when Gwaine had the nerve to kiss Merlin’s neck.
And then it was his turn and he still had no plan. He stepped forward nervously, wiping his hands on his breeches. He just looked at Merlin for a long time.
“Percival?”
The encouraging smile on Merlin’s face made him take a deep breath.
“Youknow…I’vefanciedyouforawhilenow.” He took another deep breath. If he didn’t get it out now, he never would. “Ireallylikeyou. Wouldyougoforanalewithme?” Percival blushed bright red. That went swell. He’d made a total fool out of himself and still had about four minutes twenty-five left to get himself deeper into this.
Merlin looked at him and blinked.
“Would you? I mean…wecouldgoonapicnicifyoulike.” He wiped the sweat off his temple. This was going so wrong. And all of his friends were there to witness and mock him about it later.
“A picnic?” Damn, that smile on Merlin’s face was distracting.
“Yes, there’sthisniceplacenottoofarfromhere.” Now he even started to gesture with his hands and probably looked all ridiculous doing so. “It’sreallyniceandquietandthere’stherivernearbyandyouprobablylikeitthere.”
As much as he tried to, he couldn’t make himself slow down. Once he started talking, the words all wanted out. But he felt his chances slip away with every breath he took. Elyan had talked about what they both liked, Leon had made Merlin laugh, Lancelot was a great dancer and Gwaine, well, he was Gwaine in all of his Gwaine-ness.
And maybe this was the only chance he ever got to tell Merlin how he felt. To emphasize his words, he just leaned forwards and pressed a kiss on Merlin’s lips, before pulling away quickly. “Sorry,” he mumbled, his shoulders sagging, his head hanging, he couldn’t even look at Merlin. How could he do such a stupid thing? The shame burnt high on his cheeks and his ears.
Even though he still had time left, he knew it was a lost cause, so he just stepped back in line with the other knights, avoiding looking anyone in the eye and waited for the king to dismiss them.
An hour later they all were called back to the throne room. Percival didn’t really feel like going, but he could hardly ignore an order from Arthur. So he shuffled in behind the others, not really listening to Arthur’s speech of how much fun the games had been for all involved and that they thought about making them an annual festivity.
“You all did well,” the King sounded pleased, “but the results of today’s competition are still to be revealed. It was all up to Merlin to decide who wooed him best. Merlin?”
Merlin stepped forward. “You all were great. There are just a few things I like better than others.” A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth and Percival’s heart sank. As if Merlin would like a babbling fool.
“To make a long story short. Second runner-up…Lancelot.”
The other knights clapped and laughed and howled as Lancelot stepped forward, took his rewarding kiss to the cheek and a bronze coin from Merlin and grinned widely.
“Runner-up: Gwaine.”
Gwaine made a show of pouting, insisting that he was best anyway and that he should have won this and took Merlin’s face in both hands and put a big wet smooch on his lips, then held the coin he got up for the others to see as he stepped back into line.
So it was either Leon or Elyan who won. Probably Leon who’d made Merlin laugh. Merlin loved to laugh. Percival tuned the sounds out completely. He didn’t need to hear that they’d won Merlin’s heart.
He was startled back to reality when Leon nudged him with the elbow. “What are you waiting for?”
Percival looked around. They all looked at him. “Wha…?”
Merlin smiled widely. “Congratulations.”
Stumbling forward, he accepted Arthur’s handshake and the gold coin, still not understanding what was going on. He’d…he’d won? Merlin had chosen him? But…why?
As he bent his head for Merlin to put the wreath on it, Merlin whispered “There are two horses and a picnic waiting for us in the courtyard. Would you show me that place you were talking about?”
Percival straightened up, his face beet red but a huge smile slowing showing. Merlin liked his idea best! He liked it so much that he wanted to go on that date with him! For real! So he nodded, grabbed Merlin’s wrist and pulled him along as he made his way out of the throne room.
As they were riding out of the courtyard side by side, Percival cleared his throat. “Can I ask you something?”
Merlin turned and nodded. “Sure.”
“Why me?”
The smile on Merlin’s face got wider. “You were the only one who was honest.” He slightly tapped his horse’s sides with his heels and galloped ahead.
When Percival finally caught up, Merlin still grinned. “And I like you, too.”