Summary: Leon explains the concept of nobility to Gwaine, who should know better

This was written for the Matthew1972 for his Christmas Wishlist over on Heart of Camelot.

Matt's wishes? Basically one for anything Gwaine, and another for anything Leon. I stirred them together and this is what came out.

And check out the book cover done by the man himself. Thanks Matt :)

Friendship, not slash (in case it matters to you!)

My usual thanks to LyricalSinger for beta reading.

Noble

Arthur shook his head at his rebellious knight. Gwaine had been on edge all week, and the King was at a loss as to why. The man had been in plenty of tournaments before, and although it didn't happen often, had lost bouts more than a few times. The King did not know what it was about this competition against Caerleon that seemed to have Gwaine ready to take his fights from of the tournament grounds and into the adjacent fields at the smallest provocation.

It was true that the man Gwaine had just lost to was quite a bully, even compared to many of Queen Annis' other knights. He had also been whispering in Gwaine's ear all through the match, presumably with the usual chit chat meant to distract and rile his opponent.

Gwaine did many things that were not in keeping with the usual noble traditions of these types of games, from his swagger when he took to the field, to his stance with a sword, to the lewd embellishments he liked to have added to his weapons. Losing focus during a fight, and letting his opponent intimidate him with mere words were not among them though. Neither was refusing the goodwill arm clasp between the winner and the loser following a match.

Now, Arthur could only watch as one of his best knights threw down his weapon in disgust and stalked off the crowded field, elbowing as many Caerleon men as possible on his way.

Arthur pursed his lips in dismay. He'd have to talk to the man. Even Annis was frowning as she watched Gwaine leave the field. Although the Queen had become a trusted ally, Caerleon's noble tradition was not as refined as it was in Camelot. What Arthur considered poor sportsmanship was common, tolerated and even approved of in Caerleon as a sign of vigor and manliness in the face of a loss. But Gwaine was acting like a twelve-year-old squire who'd lost his first match. A spoiled and arrogant one at that!

"He's not a happy man, is he?" said a voice beside the King.

Arthur turned with a scowl as Sir Leon drew up beside him, a smile of amusement on his face at Gwaine's exit from the field.

"It's not funny, Leon," said Arthur. "These games are supposed to showcase our code of chivalry. I can't have one of my knights, and especially not one of the Round Table, sulking like a child when he loses. What will Annis think?"

Leon's smile broadened, "I'm sure she was thinking more about how her Sir Udolph beat him so masterfully, than about what our Sir Gwaine was doing afterward, Arthur."

"Maybe so," Arthur acknowledged, "But it has to stop Leon. Do you know why he is acting this way? I've never seen him like this before."

Leon shook his head, "No, Sire. But I think the man he was fighting was going on about how the commoners you have knighted have no place in a competition for nobles, and that always has been a sore point with Gwaine."

Arthur didn't look convinced, "That might explain this fight, if Gwaine was the type of fighter to take any heed to an opponent's tricks of tongue, which he isn't, but they cannot all be getting at him with that tactic."

"No…. you are right, Sire," said Leon .

"I could go and talk to him if you like," spoke up Merlin, who had just finished packing up the King's gear, and had come over to join the two nobles.

Arthur looked at him for a moment. "No. Don't take this the wrong way Merlin, but I feel that being seen fraternizing with a servant may not be the best thing for Gwaine right now."

"But…he's a good friend," Merlin protested, "And he doesn't care if I am a servant. It's nobody's business."

"I know, I know," said Arthur, holding up his hand to forestall more argument. "And I know it's wrong, but Leon thinks the problem may be that Gwaine is being singled out because he is not of noble birth. I don't know why he is so sensitive to it right now, it's certainly never bothered him before, and rightly so. But if that is the problem, then being seen with you would just add fodder, and I'm not sure that would be the best thing right now."

Merlin scowled. He didn't like it at all, but he could not argue with Arthur's reasoning. "Fine," the young warlock finally said, "But would you like me to fetch him for you? Certainly a servant coming to relay a message can't be taken as fraternizing," he spat.

Arthur had to smile at Merlin's offence, though he did understand it.

"I know where he's likely stalked off to," said Sir Leon. "I could go and talk to him if you like. He is my friend too, after all."

"Yes, and if anything, having my Senior Knight seen with him will help his reputation," Arthur said, thinking about it.

"And being seen with me will harm it," said Merlin quietly, not quite being able to hide his hurt at the idea.

Leon and Arthur both gave him sympathetic smiles, and the King added an understanding squeeze to his manservant's shoulder, but there was no point in anyone denying it.

"Okay, Leon. I will leave Gwaine to you," said Arthur having come to his decision. "But also tell him that if he is not able to rise above this attitude, I wish him to withdraw from the rest of the competition. If he wants to sulk, he can do it in his rooms and out of sight of our guests. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Sire, I will make sure he knows," said Leon.

"Gwaine, just the man I was looking for," said Leon less than a half-hour later. Gwaine had been in the Rising Sun tavern, exactly where Leon expected to find him, seated at his usual table with his usual pitcher of ale set in front of him.

"I'm not in the mood, Leon," said Gwaine taking a big swig from his tankard, and picking up his pitcher to refill it.

"Not in the mood for what?" Leon prompted. "I've just come to have a drink with a friend, and you looked like you could use one after that morning round on the tourney grounds," he added, taking a seat and holding up a finger to signal for his own drink. "I think Merlin ran and rescued your sword from one of the Caerleon men. Almost cost him a finger it looked like."

"Merlin's a good man," Gwaine said, not being able to help a brief fond smile at the thought of his friend. His scowl returned even deeper than before though, "And those Caerleon pigs would not know a good blade from a hammer," he spat.

Leon studied the knight silently for a few moments. Only when he had received his ale and taken a few swallows did he dare start the next part of the conversation.

"I….I'm from Caerleon myself, you know," he said quietly.

Gwaine looked up sharply and stared at Leon. Putting his tankard down he said, "No…. not possible. You're nothing like…..them…."

"Nonetheless. I am….," the older knight insisted. He picked up his mug again and took another swallow, waiting for Gwaine to decide what to do with the information.

"Well…. I am too," the brash man finally said. "And I hope it does not show," he added, draining his tankard in one go and signalling for a new pitcher.

Leon smiled. He'd had a hunch about the other man before, but with this admission he was certain. 'Gwaine' was not a very common name in Caerleon, after all.

"So…. How did you come to be in Camelot then?" Gwaine asked, his curiosity finally overriding his desire to avoid talking about his first home.

"Oh, my father was a Camelot man through and through; sided with Uther when he conquered it. But my mother was from Caerleon and was my grandfather's heir," Leon explained.

The knight took another drink and continued, "Since my father was the sixth son and was not going to inherit in Camelot, he asked for Uther's blessing and my parents moved to Caerleon to take over the estate shortly after they married. So I grew up there."

"But you are not there now," said Gwaine suspiciously. "Why not? Everyone seems to think Annis is so wonderful."

Leon chuckled at the ridiculous statement. "Annis is NOT like her husband though, is she?"

Gwaine just made an unintelligible grumble, causing Leon to laugh harder.

The older knight quickly became serious once more; Gwaine had asked exactly the right question for what Leon wanted to tell him

"When I was just turned ten, my father had a falling out with King Caerleon," Leon admitted. "And he decided that I'd be better off training in Camelot. Up until then, it was expected that I would join Caerleon's knights."

Gwaine opened his mouth in surprise. "Why did they fall out?" he asked. "Did he ever say?"

Leon set his drink down and pushed it to the side. Sitting up straighter, he said, "Indeed he did, Gwaine. And it's something that has always stuck with me."

The Senior Knight paused to consider his words. "It actually all started well before then," he began. "When I was a boy of about five; I don't even remember it really."

Gwaine leaned forward with a smile, interested to hear the story. He'd forgotten about his displeasure over the tournament.

"I do remember that my father was angry over something the King had done," Leon continued. "My mother had told him about something that had happened to one of her friends, and he started to shout about not wanting me to serve under a man who would not repay loyalty with loyalty just because of a lost battle, and he would teach me differently. I had no idea what that meant though."

"Well, I can certainly understand it," said Gwaine softly, pushing himself back in his chair.

Leon quirked his mouth up knowingly. "The very next day he made me walk with him to a house at the other side of town," the knight said. "Once we were there, my father did something strange. He left a sack full of bread, meat and cheese at the door, knocked and we left before anyone came to open it."

Gwaine's brows shot up in surprise, "Did he, now?" the knight asked.

"He told me that since the King would not care for the families of men who had been loyal to him, it was our duty as nobles of his realm to do so," Leon answered.

Gwaine took a long swig of his ale, and put down his tankard, eyes never leaving Leon's face.

The older knight held the younger one's gaze for a moment before continuing, "And we did that every fortnight for several years." Catching Gwaine's eyes again, Leon softly added, "Sometimes in the later years… sometimes there was little boy at play outside, sometimes with his sister, sometimes not."

Gwaine swallowed, uncomfortable now with Leon's story, though he could not bring himself to tell the blond knight to stop.

"This continued until the day my father and Caerleon had their falling out," Leon said. "When we arrived at the house that day, it was gone. We were told that it had burned to the ground a couple of days after our previous visit. And when my father asked where the tenants had gone, he was told that the woman had asked the King for help, but he had rejected her. So, she had decided to take her children out of the city and far away from the man who had rebuffed her."

The younger knight's grip on his tankard had been tightening as he'd listened, and he'd turned his face so that he was staring down at the table. Leon could see him trying to blink away tears.

"My father went to the King in an outrage," Leon continued. "He was furious that Caerleon had not helped her. Father told me later that this was the second time - he had previously denied her any allowance from the State after the death of her husband in battle. That was what first angered my father, and started off our visits to that house."

"Your father was a man of strong principles," Gwaine said, "I can see where you get it from."

Leon smiled, "Yes he was," he said. "And the next thing I knew, he had us packed up and heading to Camelot. I've never been back to the estate, though my mother has made a visit or two since the Kingdoms have become allied again. She is ensuring that the place is ready for her grandchildren to take over," Leon said with a roll of his eyes. "And I never saw the boy again, either….at least…. not as a child," he added, looking pointedly at Gwaine.

It took several long moments for Gwaine to compose himself enough to look Leon in the eyes again. "How….how long have you known?" asked the brown-haired knight.

"I've wondered about it since the very first time I heard your name," admitted Leon. "Your sword hilt is Caerleon-made. I recognized the smith's mark. But your attitude towards Annis' knights confirmed it."

Gwaine shook his head with resignation. "That sword hilt is the only thing I have from my father," he finally offered.

The two men regarded each other, each one struggling to find words for the thoughts swirling in their heads.

Of all of the men he had expected to find out about his secret, Leon was among the last. The blond knight simply was not the type of man to pry or to listen to gossip and rumour.

But Gwaine had often considered confiding in the older knight. It's not that he didn't trust his other friends, but he doubted they would understand his reasons for denying something they had only ever dreamed about. Even Merlin, who Gwaine was sure had a secret of his own, still sometimes asked him outright why he did not let Arthur know, especially now that Camelot was allied with Caerleon.

Leon would be able to give him a different perspective. He would have been the last person Gwaine would have gone to in his earliest days in Camelot. But as time had gone by, the two men had become close friends. Gwaine had come to see that Leon truly was noble, and more than that, that Arthur held Leon up to be the standard he expected from all of his retainers. Almost as much as Merlin's words had, this had convinced Gwaine that he was ready to give up his mercenary ways and follow Arthur to Hell if his King requested it.

Although he did not know it, adult Gwaine had played a large part in Leon's own shift in views, from those held by Uther to those of the King he would also follow to Hell.

Leon smiled, but then became serious once more. "I think I can understand your reasons for not wanting to be acknowledged as a noble," he said. "And I will of course respect them."

Gwaine blew out a small breath of relief. He had not really thought that the older knight would expose his secret, but it helped to have it confirmed

"And, I can also guess why you seemed ready to take of Sir Udolph's head on the ground today. I heard what he was saying to you."

Gwaine scowled, "That cur. He has no idea. Men like him are exactly why I am ashamed to have been born a noble. Conceited, contemptuous, over-entitled…" he listed, quickly adding on a 'No offence intended!' with an apologetic smile to Leon.

"Yes, well unfortunately you are behaving every bit as he expects of you," said Leon getting down to the reason he'd come to find his friend in the first place, and causing the younger man to scowl again. "You are better than this, Gwaine, and you are doing a disservice to yourself and to Arthur by it."

Gwaine finished his drink and poured another from the pitcher, refusing to meet Leon's eyes.

"And to Merlin too."

That caused the younger knight to look up again.

"You may not be a commoner, Gwaine," Leon explained. "But Udolph thinks you are, and acting like this just provides the proof that he is right: about your skills, about your intelligence, about your ability to be a leader. And he puts it all down to you being a commoner."

"Well, I'm not like to change his mind, am I?" spat Gwaine.

Leon frowned at his friend. "You are missing the point, Gwaine," he said. "Granted, Udolph is everything you accuse him of. But he is not the only one you have faced, and many others, both of Camelot and Caerleon, are watching these contests."

Gwaine still refused to get the message, but without giving him a chance to retort Leon pressed his point. "Look, it took me quite a long while to really understand that being born a noble did not make a person better than anyone else."

The younger knight looked at Leon with surprise. He had never known that Leon had ever thought otherwise.

Leon nodded, "And it took you, Lancelot, Elyan, and even Merlinto prove it to me by example," he insisted. "So there is more at stake here than just you losing a bout to some idiot of a visiting knight."

It seemed as though the younger knight had finally understood, since he nodded thoughtfully, and had the decency to look ashamed.

"For Merlin, for Elyan, for Arthur… for all of Camelot… and for yourself too, I think… you need to go out there and prove that your nobility is not a thing of blood but only of your actions – win or lose," Leon insisted. "Isn't that what you've always told everybody?"

"Yes, but apparently I am also an idiot," laughed Gwaine at having his own words thrown back at him.

Leon also laughed, glad that he had gotten through to his friend.

"And now, forgive me for leaving you," the young knight said, putting down his tankard and pushing it away decisively, before standing. "But I have a sword to retrieve, and then I need to prepare for my next contest; one that I fully intend to win … or lose in the spirit of everything Camelot stands for."

Leon smiled up at the young man, whose change in attitude was plain to see.

"Thank you for setting me straight, my friend," Gwaine added with a soft smile as he headed towards the door.

He hated to admit it to himself, but Leon felt almost as excited as a boy attending his first tournament, while he waited for Gwaine's match late that afternoon.

Arthur caught his senior knight's eyes with a question from where he sat beside Annis at the other end of the stands. His manservant was standing in his usual place behind the King, but was not paying the slightest attention to either his master or to Leon. Merlin's focus was completely on the archway where the competitors would soon enter the field.

Just as the herald trumpet signalled the beginning of the match, Leon gave Arthur a smile and a nod, and could see Arthur visibly relax, ready to enjoy the competition.

This time, it was the Gwaine that they had come to expect. This Gwaine never took his eyes off of his opponent, and was completely deaf to any sort of taunts. The result was never in doubt; Gwaine won his match in less than a minute and this time it was the Caerleon knight that threw down his sword and stalked off the field without acknowledging the victor.

Gwaine picked up the sword with a smile, and made a show of offering it on outstretched palms to the man's squire, throwing in a bow and a flourish. The young boy took the weapon with wide eyes, clearly awestruck with the performance of the knight who he'd been told would be an easy mark.

Gwaine could only give his best scoundrel's grin, and then putting a hand on the boy's shoulder, he turned the lad and sent him after his master with a friendly push.

As his friend left the field to greet well-wishers, Leon glanced around at the spectators, noticing many looks of appreciation aimed at the young knight, Queen Annis' not least. Camelot's senior knight had no more doubt that, noble born or not, Gwaine would evermore do his part to ensure that all of the knights of Camelot got the respect they so deserved.

A/N My Gwaine head-canon, at least for this story .

I place him at about five years younger than Leon. The first time Gwaine's mother had been denied by the King was immediately after her husband and been killed, which happened when she was pregnant with Gwaine. She may or may not have petitioned Caerleon at that time.

I think it could be reasonable that she had at least something saved up to live off of for a few years after her husband's death, and that Leon's father was angry because the King did not give her some sort of allowance to supplement it (possibly did not do so for any of his knight's killed in that battle). I have her asking for help when Gwaine was around 5 (and Leon, 10), and disaster wiped out everything she'd still had left.