Dismantle The Sun

Chapter 17

They floated aimlessly. Josephine plowing her way through the deep space of nowhere, going nowhere, routless and firectionless. Arthur sat in his pilot's chair, staring out at the stars that surrounded him, the ones that they slowly drifted passed. He was listless, livening up only to bark orders at his worried crew. Leon stood next to him, watching his old friend with concerned eyes. In the corner, Elyan and Lancelot were in quiet conversation. Gwaine sat at in the pilot's seat.

"Arthur" Leon started gently from his shoulder. The captain in question turned his head slowly to look at the captain.

"You need to eat something. Percy's making soup. You love soup, have some soup okay? And then we'll work out what to do about everything else" the first mate said clamly, his expression kind but schooled to keep it absent of any pity. Arthur wouldn't stand to be pitied.

"Everything else?" Arthur asked, spacily. His eyes were sad and his tone disengaged.

"You're the king, Arthur, you can't just ignore that." Leon said kindly, laying a brotherly hand on the king's shoulder. Arthur sighed deeply, he raised his hand to the bridge of his nose and pinched it between his fingers.

"I'm just a pirate, Leon, what can I do?" he asked mournfully. He looked around the bridge, even though he'd only had her a short time, Josephine felt like home. Much like Merlin, his traitorous mind supplied.

"You're not just a pirate. You're a captain. We follow you." Leon pointed out to the captain.

"You could take the throne! You'd be a better king than Agravaine, that man's a monster!" Gwaine insisted.

"How?" Arthur sighed, his voie was defeated.

"I hate to say it, but Gwaine's right. You know Agravaine's never going to rest until he kills you." Leon said.

"If he can catch me" Arthur muttered in response.

"Are you literally running away from your problems now?" Percy asked, arriving with a bowl of kindly soup and plopping himself down in his chair, as he raised a judgemental eyebrow. The king stared at him for a moment until he made an eating gesture. Arthur glared and took a bite. It was good soup.

"I am tactically retreating from my problems." the captain sniffed disdainfully, taking another furtive slurp. Leon smiled slightly, glad that Arthur was finally taking an interest in food. The comms officer shook his head and turned back to his station.

"If not the throne, what about Merlin?" Leon proped again. Arthur resisted the urge to flinch at the name, it felt like a physical wound, a laceration of his flesh.

"What about him?" he replied with a glower at his friend.

"Go get him back! He'd be with you in a second if you asked him. You know that." uged the first mare.

"Do i?" He responded almost abestmindedly, putting down the still mostly full soup bowl, staring into the void of space, at the distant starts flashing past, unseeing eyes always searching for the brightest among them. His heart was an ancient abandoned cathedral. It loomed lonely, empty of the joyous spirits which once lived in all its dark knooks, its walls hairlined with cracks of discontent, its once full pews now bear, but its shell still a resolute testament to his devotion to Merlin. But still a dark fluttering though danced beneath the flying bettresses, glanced through the empty portals where jewelled glasses once shone, rested again the altar of his heart.

"Gwaine, did you kiss Merlin" he asked, finally voicing a thought that had nagged and niggled at him since the star had left them. Gwaine cocked his head and smiled.