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Sir Leon strode towards the castle feeling, all in all, rather good.
He had felt disoriented and more than a little hurt when he had woken up all alone in the clearing, but he reasoned that whoever had survived the dragon’s attack had had to leave hastily, either to retreat or bring good news to the king. He wondered briefly if he had been the only survivor, but he figured the dragon would have come back to finish him off if it had not been slain.
Carefully not looking too closely at the pile of blackened remains he had woken up near, he had got to his feet and begun the long trek back to the citadel.
Walking through the lower town, his hopes were confirmed as life had seemed to return to normal: The Great Dragon was dead. Several of the townsfolk greeted him with smiles and rather wide eyes. Leon was vaguely flattered by the attention.
He had just entered the courtyard when he spotted Gwen. He was raising his hand to greet her when she saw him, and her eyes went huge as if she had seen a ghost.
He barely had time to wonder what was wrong before she dropped the basket of washing she was carrying, sprinting over to him. She threw her arms round him and promptly started sobbing into his shoulder.
Leon was startled and then worried: he had not seen his oldest friend like this since her father was executed. Perhaps she had received news of Morgana, or gods forbid Elyan…
“Gwen what is wrong?” He demanded, gently extricating himself and setting his hands on her shoulders, looking concernedly into her eyes.
“You’re ok…” she whispered, face now wreathed in a watery smile. “Arthur said-”
Fear clenched his heart. “Is Arthur all right? What happened-“
“Yes, yes he’s fine, he killed the dragon!” she cut him off, beginning to laugh now, a little hysterical to Leon’s ears.
“So what’s wrong?” he pressed, growing more alarmed
But she was distracted, staring at him, her forehead creased in a curious frown.
“I thought-“ she murmured, then broke off and shook her head with a grin. “I’m just glad you’re all right. You should hurry though, the council is in session.”
Before he could say another word she pressed a kiss to his cheek (bustling courtyard be damned, apparently) picked up her washing and walked away, still smiling.
Now rather confused, Leon shook his head and entered the castle.
He had nearly made it to the council chambers when he ran into Merlin - quite literally.
There was a horrendous clanging as the armour he was carrying fell to the ground, completely ignored by the serving boy, who was standing frozen and staring at him with an expression that was rapidly becoming familiar, as little as he understood it.
“SIR LEON!” Merlin yelled at the top of his voice, shaking out of his daze after a moment and launching himself at the knight, hugging him tightly round the middle like an overexcited toddler.
“Unhand me, Merlin,” Leon said gruffly, acutely aware of the crowded corridor but secretly rather pleased.
He tried to be kind to all the servants, but he was particularly fond of the brave, gangly boy, despite his flagrant disregard for protocol when it came to addressing the prince. He had been deeply concerned at his riding out with them without even armour to protect him, and was glad to see him unscathed.
Merlin let go of him, still beaming and now wiping tears from his cheeks.
Now thoroughly bemused by the onslaught of crying, hugging servants, Leon squinted at him.
The boy looked absolutely exhausted; there were deep shadows under his eyes and his posture was slumped. There was something else too: the longer he looked at his grinning face, the more it seemed like it was about to crack.
“Are you all right, Merlin?”
The grin grew impossibly wider and he nodded a little too enthusiastically.
“’Course! The dragon’s gone... I mean dead, and Arthur’s ok and you’re here… I did wonder but I thought… you should probably go see him, wouldn’t want to keep the prince waiting!” he gabbled.
Before Leon could get another word in, he hugged him again, (First Knight of Camelot be damned, apparently) before gathering up the armour he had dropped and wandering off.
Now extremely confused, Leon continued on to the council chambers.
When he opened the door he found the council gathered in serious discussion, Arthur sitting with the king at the end. He too looked exhausted but thankfully unharmed.
Everyone turned round when the door opened. Arthur’s head jerked up in shock.
Before Leon could speak the prince jumped up and lunged for him, excusing himself and dragging Leon outside.
He then pulled Leon into his third hug of the day. Leon, resigned by now, patted him soothingly on the back. At least the prince wasn’t crying- oh for God’s sake. Tears sparkled in Arthur’s eyes as he pulled back and stared at him for a moment. Then-
“You’ve got to stop doing this.”
“My Lord?”
“I was about to read your name from the list of the dead!” the prince hissed.
“I believe I was knocked unconscious-“ the knight broke off as Arthur closed his eyes and dragged a shaking hand across his face.
”No Leon, you were- the dragon- it burned- it burned all of you. Myself and Merlin were the only survivors.”
Shock and sadness rushed through him at his words, but Leon stood firm.
“You must have been mistaken, I am unhurt.”
The words snapped Arthur out of his distress and into the more familiar territory of anger. “Yes, I know, just like at Brechffa!”
Leon began to feel a little embarrassed. “Not this again, Sire,” he said reproachfully.
“You got a sword through your chest! Your heart stopped beating!”
“I was simply in a coma, ask Gaius-“
“What about Andor!”
“It was only an arrow-“
“Chemary?“
“That cliff wasn’t that high-“
“And what about the other day on patrol?”
Leon blinked. “I was swimming.”
“You were underwater for ten minutes! We thought you’d drowned!”
“I was swimming.” Leon reiterated blankly.
“Gods, you sound like Merlin!” He began mimicking in a high pitched voice, “'They’re only nightshade berries Arthur, I don’t know why you’re so mad!'"
Leon opened his mouth to defend Merlin - he too was partial to nightshade berries, even if they clearly weren’t enjoyed by all - but closed it again at the look on Arthur’s face. After the week he’d had the prince clearly couldn’t cope with his opinions on fruit being disagreed with.
Arthur heaved an unnecessarily (it was just fruit) long suffering sigh. “Look - just get in there, we’ll tell my father what you told me, and we’ll say nothing more about it, all right? I can’t deal with this.”
Leon was just as nonplussed as ever, but decided it best not to question him. He nodded and laid a placating hand on his arm “Of course, Sire.”