Oh brother (Galahad)

[Deleted]

Lancelot just rolled his eyes, beginning to get pissed off with the guy's devotion to how wonderful his brother apparently was.
"If he really was a great knight, I probably would have heard of him, that's all I'm saying." he added as calmly as he could manage "He would have to be good to have become a knight before me."
He hadn't meant to actually give voice to that thought, but he'd had it twice now and it just slipped out in his frustration.

"Just, complications, .. drama, that's what they call it, you don't see it coming." He added, hoping to distract Galahad from his statement, he was beginning to wish he'd never thought to warn the boy that you didn't always get what you wanted.

[galahad]

Galahad's eyebrows crept upward towards his hairline slightly. Was Lancelot trying to say that he was better than Galahad's brother regardless of who he was?

"That's what I'm trying to say," he persisted, stubbornly. "Maybe you have heard of him and no one knows he's my brother. He might not even know he has a brother, you know? Maybe when he was taken by the sorceress, she wiped his mind of all his memories. He was very small, anyway."

Drama. He wondered if this counted as drama.

"You could introduce me to the great knights," he suggested. "Then I could ask them myself."

[Deleted]

"Ask them what?" Lancelot snapped back, feeling very irritable now. "Like you said, he might not even remember. Sorceresses apparently run around taking people all the time and they don't remember anything, I certainly don't."

Galahd's stubbornness was driving him mad, all he'd been trying to do was help, and it wasn't like he hadn't taken back his offer of helping him find his brother. It didn't help that Lancelot himself didn't know his family, it didn't bother him that often because he focused so much on his destiny, and because he hadn't exactly had a bad upbringing, but swanning around somewhere was this guy who was apparently, probably already marching ahead with Lancelot's destiny and had a brother looking for him and the tiny, childish part of his mind that he was barely aware of was throwing a tantrum because it just wasn't fair.

[galahad]

Galahad faltered slightly. For some reason, he hadn't equated his own irritation with causing that same feeling in someone else...surely Lancelot didn't have that much to be irritated about. It wasn't his unknown brother who was being insulted, it was Galahad's.

"Ask them...you know, where they've come from, what they remember about their families. If they were maybe kidnapped when they were small." Because those were definitely questions that were appropriate to ask noble knights you'd only just been introduced to. "I know it might seem strange at first, but...it seems only fair. If you had a brother you'd never met, wouldn't you want to know about it? Wouldn't you want him to come and find you?"

He lifted a hand, dragging his fingers through the long strands of his hair, and sighed.

"It's just this," he explained. "Maybe he's a great knight who doesn't need a brother. But...if he doesn't know I exist, I think he has the right to be informed."

And besides, I need him.

[Deleted]

Lancelot rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"I've already told you those are stupid questions to ask around here, I was taken away from my parents by the Lady of the Lake and don't remember anything about my family, I'm sure I'm not the only one in a place like this." Maybe it was because Galahad still seemed to think it was something special, but was ignoring the fact that Lancelot was pretty uniquely placed to know how his brother might actually feel, after all, their life stories were practically identical, at the start anyway. Then Galahad actually did ask him what he'd think.

"Of course I'd want to meet him!" He practically shouted "But I also wouldn't want him to have such a stupid, hyped up image of me that he felt nothing but disappointment because I didn't live up to his stupid expectations."

[galahad]

For some reason, it irritated Galahad more than anything had yet that Lancelot's suddenly confessed life story was so dramatically similar to his brother's. Not because it proved that he was right, that Galahad's search was going to be more difficult than he thought, but also because...well, if things had begun so similarly for Lancelot, what was to say that Galahad's brother wasn't also puttering around just hoping to be a knight?

He was also deeply offended at that last remark of Lancelot's. His expectations weren't stupid...were they? They were just idealistic, and probably a little naive.

"You know," he said, his jaw set firmly, "that's not fair of you to judge me that way. My expectations are what they are...I wasn't given a whole lot to work with, you know? I know nothing about him...all I know is that he's my brother and I love him and whatever he's like I want to be the same. I'm not stupid, I know he might not be the exact thing I imagine. For all I know, you could be my brother, except that my brother couldn't possibly be so irritating and set on wreckin' other people's hopes and dreams."

He immediately felt bad for that last tirade, and his expression softened, his fists unclenching themselves at his sides.

"I'm sorry, that wasn't...you've helped me, and I do appreciate it, that wasn't right of me to shout at you."

[Deleted]

"Yes well I'm sure if I did have a brother he wouldn't be an annoying brat like you." Lancelot shot back, immediately regretting it - especially when Galahad calmed down enough to apologise. He had a bit of a point, he was just sort of ruining that image. What if Galahad never found his brother, but now couldn't even console himself with knowing he was a great knight, because Lancelot just wouldn't let him go on thinking that?
Of course he'd love the man when he met him, he'd probably be too overjoyed to have his brother back to care who or what he was, Lancelot knew he'd love to have a brother - even if he was, as he said, an annoying brat like Galahad.

"No, I'm sorry." He apologised sincerely "You were right what you said earlier, about knights being noble and courtly, and I haven't exactly been acting very refined. I swear to you, that I, Lancelot Du Lac, will do everything in my power to make amends for my poor behaviour by helping you locate your brother." He kicked the knight-like language up a notch, almost trying to fix the whole thing by going too far in the other direction - not just because he felt bad for Galahad, but also because, well, he really did want to be a knight, and he had to learn to keep his temper.

[galahad]

Galahad was unreasonably relieved that maybe he hadn't positively ruined the only friendship he'd formed so far. He could get over being called a brat; he reasoned that if he had grown up with his brother, they probably would have called each other much worse things than that on occasion. Like he'd said, he wasn't stupid. He knew that siblings didn't grow up hand in hand without a single fight their entire childhoods. He'd grown up around other families, and they certainly didn't all get along all of the time.

"It's all right," he assured Lancelot, "I've got a bit of a...te-wha-" He felt like something had smacked him in the throat and chest, knocked the air clean out of his lungs. "What did you say?" It's just a coincidence, there are probably plenty of people out there who call themselves that. Plenty. Lots. Numerous. Still...

"Your name is...your name is Du Lac?" He couldn't be. He couldn't be. He wasn't...he wasn't like any of the things Galahad had imagined. He wasn't a horrible criminal, either, but...

[Deleted]

"Yea." He nodded, frowning a little and wondering what had surprised him so much. Did he know the name? For a second Lancelot almost held his breath, he knew that the name was his real surname, the Lady of the Lake had told him that much when she'd revealed his noble heritage, perhaps if Galahad knew of it, it would mean he actually did have a family - and whether he'd thought about it or not, he definitely wouldn't say no if there really was a family out there waiting for him.

"It's my family name, my real family, the family I was taken from." He added, in case that meant anything more "I was told about my family just before I came here, because I needed to be nobility to become a knight, the Lady of the Lake had to tell me so I could prove my birth. Why... do you know the name?"

[galahad]

Galahad sat down on the bed, hard. It had been...freaky but attributable to coincidence before. Now it was just...it was staring him in the face, and all he could do was stare back at it and hope that he could deal with it with all the grace of someone who had just started in on a quest...only to find that the primary objective of said quest was standing right in front of him.

"It's..." He hesitated, not because he didn't know what to say, but because once he said it, there wasn't really any going back. What if Lancelot really didn't want a brother? What if he didn't want to believe that Galahad was really it? After all, he'd just been behaving like...well, like Lancelot had said, like a brat.

"It's my name," he finished, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. "Galahad Du Lac, that's my name...my family name, too."

[Deleted]

Then it was Lancelot's turn to sit down rather heavily on a conventiently placed chair, staring into space in shock for a moment.
It was him, it had to be him, it was just too much of a coincidence...
All that jealousy and envy that he'd been denying he was feeling, that was all aimed at... himself? He was the brother Galahad was looking for? He was a brother... he had a brother... a more tangible glimpse of family than a name and a story, than a foster mother who was training him for a destiny.

The reality of what he'd missed out on hit him suddenly, and hard, the boy in front of him wasn't much younger than he was, imagine what life could have been like, growing up with him, bickering and hanging out and being the best of friends and the worst of enemies all at the same time because they were brothers.

"And... your.... your parents, Ban, and Elaine?" He asked, just to make sure, although as soon as the idea had begun to sunk in, it made perfect sense. Their story was the name, their names were the same, they even did actually look a bit alike, now that he was actually thinking about it... he had a little brother...

[galahad]

Galahad stared at the floor, because nothing else seemed to be holding still. The room was spinning, his mind was spinning, his whole world was spinning, like the fates themselves had picked his little life up in a box and given it a good shake until the pieces just happened to land next to one another.

He nodded, wordlessly, because the strangeness of hearing someone else say his parents' names that way gave him another sudden jolt that he didn't recover from for a few seconds.

He felt almost like he ought to re-introduce himself, now that he knew who he was talking to. Hello, I'm your brother Galahad, I don't believe we've ever met...But how, what were the odds of...

It hit him like something had slapped him in the face. He'd already said it, for heaven's sake. Something was guiding him. Something had brought him here, and not only had it put him in the right place, it had practically pushed him into the same room as his brother.

He finally looked back, feeling as if he was seeing Lancelot through completely new eyes. How had he not noticed? He had come here looking for someone who looked a bit like him, and he hadn't even seen the way Lancelot's hair parted at almost exactly the same place his did, and how...how had he not...

"You...you're...you're going to be a magnificent knight, I'm sure of it," he said, and it wasn't quite clear whether he was saying that to tell Lancelot or to reassure himself.

[Deleted]

Lancelot almost held his breath until the confirmation came, just the tiniest of nods and it rearranged his whole world. He had family, he had a brother, a brother who was sitting right there in front of him, in the same room, here at Tintagel.

He felt slightly awkward for a moment, the panic suddenly hitting him like a freight train. All he'd heard since he met the boy was how wonderful his brother was going to be, and how rubbish he, Lance, was in comparison, was he a massive disappointment now? Was Galahad wishing they'd never met, that he could have carried on with this idealised image in his head? What if he didn't become the best knight? What if he didn't even become a knight? He couldn't let his little brother down after he'd waited all his life to find his great knight of a brother, could he?

"I will." He said, as firmly as he could manage, though it wasn't all that convincing, so he took a moment and tried again. Remembering his destiny, remembering what he had always trained for, and determined not to let his brother down now that they had finally met. "I promise, it's my destiny, I'll be the brother you've been waiting to meet. I'll be the greatest knight Camelot, no, anywhere, has ever seen." He declared, this time sounding much more confident about it.

[galahad]

Galahad was suddenly staggeringly confused. Here was his brother. His actual brother, the one he'd been waiting his entire life to meet, and he had just spent the last ten minutes explaining to said brother exactly all the things he was supposed to be. And of course he never would have said all that if he'd known he was talking to his brother, because it was just strange to actually tell someone straight up that you expected them to be the hero you had dreamed up before you'd met them.

His whole life he had tried to live up to the idealized version of his brother he had in his head. He had pushed himself, done all the physical training he had known how to subject himself to, had been the most polite boy in the vicinity only to practice for a future in the court of a king, and he had done it all because he wanted to live up to the grand destiny he just knew his brother was living, too.

It only occurred to him at that moment that he might have just given Lancelot that burden, too. Living up to someone else's version of himself, how dreadful would that be? Galahad shook his head vehemently.

"No. No, you're going to be those things because you want them, because it's your destiny. Not so you won't let me down."

[Deleted]

"Well I won't let you down, because it is my destiny." Lancelot smiled a little, he was feeling quite giddy actually, even though those worries still lingered in the back of his head, Galahad's words had been enough to put them out of immediate reach for the moment, and he could go back to the incredible happiness that was finding some family.

"Do you still want to be my squire, when I am a knight?" he asked after a moment "Or you could just train with me and maybe then Arthur will make you a knight as well, if you prove yourself, and we can be knights together!"

It was a good job that Galahad had already been thinking of going in that direction, because Lancelot was now incredibly taken with the idea of him and his brother, side by side in battle, the greatest knights Camelot had ever seen.