Chapter Text
It was the first snow of the season; the entire castle had been blanketed in a layer of white. It was your first time ever seeing snow in a city, and you found yourself in complete awe of the way the colors of the market still stood vibrant against your pale surroundings. One color, however, that continuously caught your eye was the striking red of a certain knight’s cloak.
You watched from the window of your room as the knights sparred in the designated training grounds (which you had luckily been given a perfect view of). With a dreamy sigh, you laid your chin in your palm and observed the way that none of them could take themselves seriously with the snow laying beneath their feet. Such an environment turned even the strongest of men into children, if only for a few hours.
“Merlin!” King Arthur screeched as melting snow dripped from his nose. Apparently, Sir Gwaine had started a snowball fight, and luckily ducked before his enemy – Merlin – could retaliate. You watched with glee as each and every knight was dragged into his antics, and couldn’t help but feel a warmth rise in your cheeks, despite the cold air, when Gwaine happened to look up and lock eyes with you from your station at the window.
He waved up at you as a smirk found its way upon his face, as it did so often whenever he saw you, and you pretended to only just notice him standing below you. Even though your window was open, and you had obviously been staring. Who’s to say you weren’t just lost in thought and happened to be staring at the man of your dreams.
"A maiden, trapped in a tower?” He called up to you, “This seems like a job for a dashingly handsome knight, I shall rescue you, m’lady!”
You scoffed as you peeked down at him, bouncing on the balls of his feet with his hands tucked behind his back like an overexcited child. You couldn’t help but tease him a little, if only for the sake of humility, “A brave and handsome knight you would say?”
"All that and more, only the best for you, my dear fair maiden!”
"Then be a doll, Sir Gwaine,” You smiled down at him as he began to walk towards the side door that leads into the castle kitchen, “And fetch Sir Percival for me.”
Your quip made him stop in his tracks and the rest of the men, who had turned to watch your exchange as you had both been yelling, fell into fits of laughter. Percival dropped into an overexaggerated bow and beamed up at you.
"Anything for a fair maiden!” He called out and quickly brushed past Gwaine before he could react. You watched as he slipped through the door mentioned before and looked back at your admirer. Gwaine simply stared up at you, the shocked expression adorning his face making him look like a gaping fish.
He looked as though he wanted to say something but was cut off by King Arthur, “Gwaine why don’t we let y/n alone and we continue our training before it snows again.” Gwaine nodded, still staring at you, and followed after the king. Suddenly, he was taking training very seriously and even began to show off a bit. You chuckled to yourself until you heard a knock at your door.
"Lady y/n,” Percival’s voice rang clear despite the thick wood that separated the two of you, “Would you like an escort to the training grounds?”
You opened your door and began to grab the dark purple cloak from your wardrobe, “I would just love an escort. Thank you, Sir Percival.”
"It is my pleasure, m’lady,” He smiled down at you as you took his arm. As many times as you’ve seen and interacted with Percival, you would never get used to his height compared to yours. It was comical, especially since he had quite a few inches on even the tallest of knights.
The two of you spent the walk towards the rest of the knights chatting about his most recent adventure while you added your own quips every now and then. You had grown to be fairly good friends with the knights considering how often you had to spend afternoons staring at them for their portraits. You couldn’t say you didn’t enjoy it either, they were all quite handsome.
"– And that’s when Gwaine lit his socks on fire. He says it was an accident but I doubt anyone could be that clumsy,” Percival and you laughed before he sobered and continued, “Truly, I think he realized it was a bad day and we could all use a laugh. He’s a good man like that.”
You shook your head lightly, a sweet smile breaking out across your face, “He is a good man.” You repeated.
Percival gave you a knowing side glance, but you elected to ignore it as you had finally made to that side door that would allow you to see Sir Gwaine again. Despite appearing to be a confident, sarcastic tease to him, he could capture your heart with one look and you always needed to prepare yourself before you saw him. That way you wouldn’t give into his charmer ways.
Percival began to pull on the handle until you reached out, grasping his wrist, “Just give me a second.” You whispered. He gave you a short nod and waited as you hurriedly tried to smooth your hair, despite it looking the same as it always does, and adjust your dress so it wasn’t askew. Watching you fix your imaginary imperfections made Percival chuckle, knowing that Gwaine was just as crazy for you as you were for him. If anyone had seen this part of you, they’d not question your fondness for your knight.
"Ready?” He asked as you had tucked the same strand of hair behind your ear for the twentieth time. You looked up at him, radiating with nervousness and appreciation:
"Yes, thank you.” You grinned, trying to digest the butterflies in your stomach.
Percival wasted no time yanking the door open; a blast of cold air hit you in the face and you suppressed a shiver against the temperature change. Unintentionally, this caused you to lean into Percival more to shield you from the winter chill.
It was a completely innocent action, but upon seeing the two of you, Gwaine had a deep frown set on his face. He couldn’t help but hate how close you were to one of his best friends. The jealously burned in his stomach and he thrashed his sword against a wooden beam, used as a sparring dummy, as hard as he could.
Letting himself get caught up in his own world, he was unaware of his surroundings and surprised when he was knocked on his rear by a cold force hitting him in the face.
Shocked, he looked over his shoulder, snow muffling the sound of your voice, as you ran towards him.
"I am so sorry!” you picked up your skirts and ran towards the man you had just taken out with a rogue snowball. “I was aiming for your shoulder I swear!”
He looked up at you, snow sticking to his eyelashes and matting up his hair, and you couldn’t help but think about how beautiful he was. “It’s alright,” He grunted, trying to get the cold snow – now water – out of his ear and out of his collar.
You knelt down next to him and began to pull ice out of his dark brown locks, “Are you alright? It hit you square in the face.”
"I noticed,” Gwaine laughed at your observation, “You may not have been aiming, but you’ve got a strong arm.”
You gazed down at him, your fingers brushing against his cheek as you brushed more melting snow off him. Instinctively, he leaned into your touch and your face burned at the show of affection.
"You’re alright?” You repeated, your voice barely above a whisper.
"I am doing wonderfully,” He sighed as your hand cupped his cheek.
“Alright you two,” Merlin called cheerfully, “Gwaine I have to clean that armor and if you get it rusty in the snow, I will have to kill you.”
You giggled and helped him up, enjoying an afternoon playing in the snow and enjoying each other’s company.