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Gwaine doesn't like Arthur.
Respects him, sure. Admires his fighting prowess, yeah. Envies his freedom and pities his lack of it in equal parts. He'll follow him into battle and mostly follow orders as he does so, because chances are Arthur’s on the right side of a fight, and even if he isn't he's got Merlin to push him until he is. But he's more than capable of all that without actually liking the man.
Which isn't to say he dislikes him, at least not all the time. On the issue of liking or disliking Arthur, most days Gwaine is pretty much neutral.
Yesterday, when Arthur came back to Camelot without Merlin, Gwaine was as close to hating him as he's ever been. He knows it wasn't Arthur’s fault, that shit happens in a fight and that he himself lost track of both Merlin and Arthur far too easily, but still. Merlin is injured and alone and Arthur was the last one with him, and Gwaine is incapable of letting logic overrule his emotions.
Besides, every moment he spends hating Arthur is a moment less he spends hating himself.
Merlin is more than capable of looking after himself, Gwaine knows that, and so he let Merlin out of his sight. Merlin has held his own against wyverns and immortal armies, survived evil spirits and Arthur before he's had breakfast, and Gwaine figured a few mercenaries with swords wouldn't be a problem either. Even when they got split up, he thought everything would be fine.
His lover disappeared in the middle of a fight for their lives, and Gwaine wasn't even worried about him until Arthur was found alone and frantic about Merlin being injured.
So, yeah. If he doesn't hate Arthur, he’s going to be too busy hating himself to do anything useful.
It gets a little harder when he enters the courtyard hellishly early (though, really, the only reason Gwaine didn't spend the whole night hunting for Merlin is that Percival physically dragged him back to the city, and waiting this long is his very best attempt at a compromise) and finds Arthur there arguing with Gwen about resuming the search.
He keeps up an irritating chatter as they ride for a number of reasons. Part of it is because Arthur definitely deserves to be irritated, another part is that it helps to distract both of them from their worry, and a third part would be that he doesn’t actually give a shit if anyone overhears them. If Merlin is somewhere in the vicinity, he’s a lot less likely to hide from Gwaine than he is from a horse with an unidentified rider, and if the mercenaries who attacked yesterday are still in the area… Well, a fight would do a hell of a lot to calm Gwaine’s nerves right about now.
And then Arthur responds to one of Gwaine’s inane comments by asking if he’s only out there because he wants a reward, at which point Gwaine thinks maybe he won’t have to wait for mercenaries to pounce before he gets that fight.
“I’m helping you” – because of course Arthur would think of it in terms of that, Gwaine helping Arthur locate his hapless manservant instead of Gwaine graciously allowing the tosser to come with him as he searches for the man he loves – “because we’ve got to find Merlin.”
“And finding him will be reward enough?”
“Exactly,” Gwaine answers, imbuing it with every ounce of well duh he can possibly muster up.
Arthur is silent long enough that Gwaine turns to look at him, because usually Arthur would snap back at him for something like that. He’d take insult at Gwaine’s tone, the fact that he’s not my lording all over the place, or some other incomprehensible thing that Gwaine’s apparently done wrong, and depending on his mood he’d either shout or lecture until Gwaine promised to never ever do it again.
Right now, though, Arthur is just staring like Gwaine’s said something utterly baffling rather than absurdly obvious. Gwaine waits, watching for the moment Arthur realises exactly what’s going on between Gwaine and Merlin.
Finally, Arthur’s eyes widen a fraction, his mouth opening just a little in surprise. “Oh,” he says.
“Oh?” Gwaine repeats, since, honestly, he was expecting a little more of a reaction than that.
“You’re not such a bad person, I guess,” Arthur says, and maybe he doesn’t sound entirely convinced but he’s also smiling so Gwaine’ll take it. “I suppose Merlin could do worse.”
In light of the fact that Arthur’s not been quite as much of a tit about his sudden realisation as he could have been, Gwaine allows him the first hug when they find Merlin. After all, he’s sure he’ll get a lot more than a hug when they’re back in Camelot again.
(He doesn’t, not that night, but that’s another story)