Merlin One Shots

Day Five of Christmas

A/N: More humor than fluff but it's still nice.

"'Important meeting', he says. 'Not allowed to miss it' he says." Gwaine muttered under his breath. The knight scowled as he made his way to the banquet hall, where Arthur was waiting, along with royalty from some kingdom that Arthur hadn't told him the name of.

Gwaine had planned on being in tavern right now, (ideally, along with Merlin) and spending the holiday getting even more drunk than usual. But, because the knight had rotten luck, he wouldn't be able to do any of that.

With the scowl still present on his face, Gwaine walked confidently into the banquet hall, where the chatter of busy nobles greeted him. He forced a fake smile on his face, turning to meet the visitors like a good knight would, but stopped short, an expression of shock on his face.

The look on the visiting king and queen's face matched his, until chaos broke out.

"You!" The king shouted, leaping forward. Gwaine tried to bolt, but the visit guards blocked his way on orders of their queen. The knight glanced at the window, serisouly considering it as a way of escape, but didn't get time to choose as he was tackled to the ground. He grunted, flailing helplessly underneath the weight of the king.

"You've been eating too much." Gwaine grunted, trying to shove the man off. The king, in fact, didn't have a single ounce of fat on him.

"It's from stress eating. And when you're brother-in-law goes missing, it's very stressful." The king shot back.

"Get off him, Kay." The queen shoved her husband, before reaching out a hand to help the knight up. As soon as Gwaine was on his feet, he was pulled into a tight hug. "I missed you, you old donkey." Gwaine chuckled, hugging her back.

"I missed you too, toad."

"I hate to break up such a touching reunion," Gwaine stiffened, pulling away when he remembered just where he was. Arthur stormed forward. "But what is going on here?!" Gwaine shot a desperate glance at both his sister and her husband, who shrugged uselessly. He desperately searched for Merlin, but the manservant shook his head, clearly trying to bite back a grin.

"Betrayed by my family, and my best friend." Gwaine muttered. "You see, princess, did I ever tell you about my wonderful little sister?" Arthur growled in irritation.

And suddenly the window was beginning to look very tempting again.