Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Merlin or anything affiliated with it.

Perhaps he was ignored as a child and now, finally, people were listening and he took advantage. Perhaps he just thought more than the average man. Perhaps he was anxious and vocalizing his complaints kept him calm.

Either way, Gwaine's mouth was open and nothing could shut it.

"My feet are sore," he spoke aloud. Elyan wondered if Gwaine even cared if anybody listened.

"If you had bought new boots when I suggested, then perhaps they wouldn't be sore," Leon responded.

From the front, Arthur briefly closed his eyes as if in pain before he spoke. "Leon, don't give him the satisfaction of an answer, that'll only encourage him."

Gwaine smirked at Arthur's tired inflection in his voice, "You know: you've got a point there, Princess. An answer is just an opening for conversation, wouldn't you think?"

Merlin snorted at Arthur's dramatic sigh and exchanged humorous looks with Gwaine.

"I'm just making up for Percival's lack of conversation." Gwaine couldn't understand how one could be so quiet, even if he was more a man of action.

"Only because he can't get anything in edgewise." Lancelot patted Percival's back, jokingly apologetic.

Gwaine tilted his head in thought and realized he might have been cutting off Percival this whole time. He turned back and saw the man in question. "Sorry, mate. Go ahead and speak your peace." Hopefully that sounded genuine; despite running in the same group together since he was welcomed back into Camelot, Gwaine was still intimidated and a bit fearful of the muscles that man possessed.

Percival thought carefully, deciding what he wanted to say. He didn't believe that any word should be wasted, though it was obvious Gwaine did not share his belief. Finally deciding upon something, he inhaled quietly to prepare himself to form the words, though in his time of contemplation, Gwaine grew impatient and opened his mouth once more.

"Nothing comes to mind, I guess."

Percival released the remnants of his sentence in a barely audible sigh.

"I've always wondered, Perse- can I call you that?- how did you ever get those biceps?"

Arthur cut in, a smirk on his face, "For every minute you spoke he trained for half that amount."

"Do you lift horses for sport?" For every daft suggestion Arthur made, Gwaine made it a point to voice twice as much. "Or do you uproot great trees to plant them someplace else?"

Merlin gave a short laugh, though at Arthur's glare he quickly turned his laughter into a fit of coughing.

Percival grinned to hide how uncomfortable he was with all the attention. "I worked in a quarry before Lancelot found me. And it is Percival." Wasting words was one thing, but shortening words was an insult for the other syllables. He sharpened the edge of his second sentence, knowing that Gwaine would not listen otherwise. Percival knew that Gwaine harbored a slight fear of him and he used this knowledge whenever he could to silence him for the benefit of everyone.

And it never failed.