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Its a few days after their return from The Cauldron of Arianrhod, when the door to Gaius's chamber's slowly opens to reveal Gwen. Merlin smiles warmly at the sight of her, noticing she's wearing one of her old dresses, the one that means she's been into the lower town undercover, which explains the basket in her hand.
She ventures further in, setting said basket on the table, before turning to look at him with mischief in her eyes "Merlin, i fear i haven't seen nor spoken to you in far too long" she says dramatically, causing him to chuckle and move closer "and that just wont do, so i have declared today best friend day and we are going to catch up and you are going to tell me all the gossip I've missed" she continues, gesturing for him to sit down with her.
Once he's settled, gwen takes off the blanket on top of the basket she'd brought, to reveal honey cakes, one of their favourite rare treats from the lower town "you, Guinevere are the absolute best, have i ever told you?" Merlin says seriously, his smile growing bigger and more genuine in a way it hasnt in months, maybe even years. Gwen just laughs "not recently" she responds playfully, causing merlin to gasp dramatically, making her giggle "well that won't do at all!" He says, making her giggle more and its amazing to hear after everything she's been through recently.
Whilst Gwen gets the honey cakes out, Merlin gets some drinks for the two of them, adding honey and a sprinkle of lavender as he knows they could both do with the calming smell after the past few weeks. Once the two have settled, gwen looks at him expectantly, eyes bright and mischievous as she waits for him to start talking.
He makes a show of thinking, something he's always done before they start gossiping "so, Lady Edith and Lord Archibald finally got caught having their affair" he says, watching as her face lights up as she was the first out of all the servants to notice something going on between the two of them "i told you!" She responds, looking rather proud of herself.
He shakes his head in fond amusement "oh and how could i forget, Lillith and Charles finally stopped dancing around each other and started courting" he continues, his tone filled with fond exasperation as those two had been awkwardly dancing around their feelings for each other before Merlin himself had come to Camelot!
Gwen laughs brightly and claps her hands "well now i owe Henry a few silver coins" she says as she'd bet that it would be a few more years before this happend. Merlin chuckles in amusement, before telling her stories of the knights being idiots, how he helped with his first birth and how he'd been the one to notice her strange behaviour the moment she returned to Camelot.
Gwen listens attentively as shes always done, asking questions and rolling her eyes at her husbands cluelessness and smiling fondly at his attentiveness, occasionally nodding at his half eaten honey cake so he eats some more before he continues talking, because while he's gained muscles from all the work hes done around the castle over the years, hes still too thin for her liking, he rolls his eyes good naturedly every time she does it and takes a bite just to appease her.
They talk for most of the day, Gaius unintentionally joining them when he returns from the lower town, not so sneakily grabbing a honey cake for himself as they're secretly his favourites too.
Which is how Arthur finds them once the sun begins to set, his wife and best friend talking and laughing, surrounded by left over honey cakes, Gaius listening to them across the room where he's reading. He stands in the doorway for a few seconds, just taking in the familiar sight, happy to see the two of them returning to their normal dynamic again, hell Arthurs just happy to see Merlin actually laughing again and glad to see how relaxed his wife is around him.
He eventually joins them, kissing Gwen's cheek and ruffling Merlin's hair just to see him roll his eyes, before he nicks the last honey cake, making the two of them complain before he steals his wife back for the night, though not before she and Merlin share a few hugs and promises to do this again sometime as she'll be the one to share court gossip with him next time, causing Arthur to groan and Merlin to grin like a mad man.