#merlin (throwing arthurs stuff out the window) : do it then | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ameliora-j · 3 years

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twin flame ii // gw x reader

words: 2k

warnings: angst. like a LOT. bestfriend breakup, mention of blood

a/n: this one is significantly shorter than the first,, sry besties :)

part one | part three | part four

your heart twisted itself in pained knots, increasing the pounding of your head tenfold. it had been this way for days now. christmas with the weasleys came and went and the tension between you and george was thick. you could barely even look at each other without passing hard glares. you had all planned to go to the field at the back of the burrow and play quidditch, and you were currently tasked with collecting george. you knocked gently on the twins’ door before opening it. “hi georgie,” you beamed.

“hello butterfly,” he spat the nickname bitterly and you were taken aback. you ignored the twinge of pain in your chest as you stepped further into the room.

“um… we’re all gonna go and play quidditch. if you wanna join,” you offered a smile. “i need my broom partner,” you had never learned how to fly a broom. you figured life should be lived on the ground, the way merlin intended it to be.

“no thanks,” he grumbled.

“c’mon georgie, we’re the dream team!” you persisted.

“why don’t you ask charlie to be apart of your dream team. seems he’s already replaced me with everything else in your life,” the last part was muffled, not intended for your ears, but you still heard it. you furrowed your brows slightly before answering.

“don’t be silly georgie, i can’t play quidditch without my partner. you can’t break up the dream team,” you pushed, ignoring your confusion.

“yn, i’d really rather not watch you eye-fuck my brother. go ask him to be on your team. or better yet, learn to fly a broom. it’s truly not that hard of a task, even a simpleton such as yourself should be able to catch on quickly,” he seethed.

your heart skipped a beat as it sunk to your stomach and tears pooled at your bottom lash line. you nodded once and pivoted on your heel to leave the room. you sniffled quietly as you closed the door to his room and went downstairs. “george?” fred asked as you came into view.

“he doesn’t wanna play,” you murmured half heartedly as you pushed passed the group of people to go outside. you released a sigh as you plunked yourself down onto the grass, lying back and throwing your arms over your eyes as you forced yourself to keep your tears at bay.

“hey, ynn, c’mon you can fly with me,” charlie offered with a smile as he held a strong arm out to you.

“nah, ‘s okay charlie. i’ll watch with fleur and hermione,” you murmured softly.

charlie’s brows furrowed slightly. you had never called him ‘charlie.’ it was always ‘char char.’ “you okay?” he asked and you simply nodded in response. he released a sigh as he jogged to the center of the field where his other siblings, and harry, were at.

“what happened mon amour?” fleur asked you softly.

“he called me stupid,” you sniffled. “said i replaced him with charlie but i didn’t,” you whimpered softly as you confided in the two girls sat on your sides. “he hates me. this was a stupid plan. ‘m just gonna go home,” you sobbed softly, causing fleur to pull your head to her lap as she trekked her fingers through your hair.

“i’m sorry, yn. i didn’t know he would react like this,” hermione spoke softly.

“not your fault, mione,” you murmured half heartedly as you stood and wiped your eyes. “‘m gonna go home,” you released a shaky breath as you pushed yourself to stand.

you dusted your bottom off as you walked back into the burrow. you waved your wand, packing your stuff neatly in your bag before you wrote a note, thanking molly and arthur and left it on the counter. you grabbed your bag and headed to the fireplace, throwing the floo powder and taking yourself to your childhood home.

“hey yn!” your older brother greeted. “thought you were spending break with the weasleys?” he asked, confused.

“yeah,” you murmured despondently as you walked up to your room.

“okay?” his brows furrowed slightly. when you got to your room, you took out a pair of sweatpants and a gryffindor sweatshirt that you stole from george’s wardrobe and forced yourself to shower.

the water was hot. boiling even. you should have flinched at the heat. screamed. cried. something. but you didn’t. you couldn’t. you were uncomfortably numb. so you just stood there, unmoving, staring at the shower wall as the scorching hot water fell over your body. your breaths came out irregularly as you stood there. your body was screaming for you to get out. to turn down the heat of the water. to do something to stop the pain of the burns. but your mind told you that you deserved this. you needed to feel something other than the pain twisting around in your chest.

by the time you stepped out, your skin was tinted with a slight pinkish color. you took a ragged breath in as you dried yourself off and pulled on the sweatpants and sweatshirt. you didn’t even bother brushing through your hair as you pulled up the hoodie and tied the strings tightly. you whimpered soft as your tears made a trail on the floor on your trek back to your room. you crawled out of your window and climbed up to the roof. you ended up falling asleep on your roof, exhausted from the weight of your tears.

you spent the rest of your christmas break—and longer—at your own home. you didn’t return untill fred had owled you telling you had three more days of paid vacation for the year. you flooed to your shared apartment with the twins and changed into your uniform, brushing through the knots in your hair that had accumulated over the days you laid in bed, sulking. you walked down the stairs into the shop as you pulled your hair into a ponytail and took your post at the till. “sorry ‘m late,” you murmured to fred, who appeared to be filling in for you at the present moment.

“you okay, bunny?” fred asked as he slid over so you could take over. you could only manage a despondent hum as you began working.

“thank you for shopping with weasley’s wizard wheezes, were you able to find everything okay today?” you asked the young wizard at the counter with a smile that didn’t reach your eyes.

that’s basically how the rest of your day went. forcing your tears back everytime george had to speak to you and being only half present with the customers instead of your usual lively self. when the day had ended and george locked the doors, you walked into the twins’ office and handed fred an envelope. “what’s this, bunny?” he asked you.

“my two weeks,” you murmured softly.

“you’re quitting?” he asked with raised brows.

“yeah,” you murmured. “found a job uh… closer to home. my brothers will be by to collect my stuff tomorrow,” you told him. “‘m gonna go pack,” you didn’t let fred say more as you quickly turned on your heel and walked back up to the apartment. “sorry,” you murmured as you bumped into george on your way up. he only gave you a distracted grunt in response.

as you walked up the stairs, you heard the argument brew between fred and george on your behalf. “fix her!” fred demanded.

“i didn’t do anything!” george defended.

“you broke her,” fred pushed back.

“she’s fine,” you could practically hear george roll his eyes.

“she’s quitting.” fred deadpanned.

“what?” george asked, shock lacing his tone.

“and she’s moving back with her brothers. so go and fix her. make this right,” you decided to end your eavesdropping here and rushed upstairs and into george’s room, where all your things were kept. you knelt on the floor as you took out your suitcases. you were halfway done when you heard the door creak open.

“butterfly?” your heart twisted and tears stung the backs of your eyes at the nickname you hadn’t heard in over a week. “whatcha up to?” he asked.

“packing,” you murmured softly, but he heard. and boy did he miss your voice like hell.

“for what?” he asked curiously as he sat on his bed.

“‘m moving back home. got a new job,” never once did you look up from your task, for you knew if you did, you would break.

“where at, butterfly?” he knelt on the floor in front of you as he began to help you fold your clothes.

“some muggle bookstore. ‘s close to the house,” your murmurs could barely be heard over the loud thumping of both of your hearts. however, george picked up on every word. he grasped your hands in his, effectively stopping your progress. “george please,” you whispered.

“look at me, butterfly,” he demanded softly.

“george,” you repeated a little bit louder.

“look at me. and tell me this will make you happy. and i will let you walk out that door.” you didn’t. you couldn’t. you knew that this isn’t what you wanted as well as he did. “you can’t, right? because it won’t,” he pointed out.

“i can’t be here, george. i don’t want to be,” you told him, still refusing to meet his gaze.

“why? because of me? because i will leave. yn, if that’s what it takes to make you happy, then i will walk out of that door and go back to live with mum. you only ever have to see me in a professional setting. and i’ll communicate with you through fred at work,” he spoke seriously.

“i don’t want that, george. and neither do you,” you told him.

“i don’t, but if it makes you happy then that’s what you’ll get,” he told you.

“no george!” you shouted.

“then what do you want?!” he shouted back.

“you george!” you yelled, finally meeting his gaze. “i want you! i’ve only ever wanted you but you’re too fucking stupid to see what’s right in front of you! i mean merlin’s beard george i’ve been in bloody love with you since fifth fucking year but you’re never seen it!” you finally released all the emotions you’ve been holding in for years. “i just wanted you,” you whispered softly, your voice cracking as tears fell.

you pushed yourself to stand from the floor and waved your wand, packing the rest of your stuff as you grabbed your suitcase. “butterfly, i-“ you quickly cut him off.

“don’t, george.” there was acrimony written all over your tone. “i don’t want your pity.” you sniffled and hastily wiped your eyes. you passed fred on your way out.

“yn?” he asked softly.

“bye fred,” you murmured softly. “i changed my mind. my resignation is effective immediately. i won’t be in tomorrow.”

“yn wait,” fred called.

“please don’t,” you shook your head. “d-don’t try and get me to stay. please just… just leave me alone,” you sniffled.

“i’m sorry…” he spoke softly. you just shook your head and wiped your tears away as you flicked your wand to apparate back home. when you landed on the road a few miles away from your house, you let out a wail of agony. your arm had splinched during the apparition process. you took a deep breath and pushed yourself through it. you knew this was a bad idea. every wizarding book in history advised against it. even a muggle would know not to. but you pushed past the thoughts to apparate into your living room.

“yn!” your older brother shouted as he saw you, blood pouring from your splinched right arm. you were only able to take two steps before you fell to the floor of your living room. you let out a soft groan and a whine of agony before closing your eyes, letting the feelings consume you. the pain in your arm cancelled out the pain in your chest as you let darkness overcome you, falling into the void, listening to the frantic screaming voices of your siblings.

stupid feelings. stupid boys. stupid george weasley. stupid twin flame.

twin flame. it’s almost laughable now. what a lie.

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pencildragons · 3 years

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some assorted merlin headcanons:

word has it around camelot that merlin's favourite food is blueberries. this is incorrect. his favourite food is blackberries. he is deathly allergic to blueberries.

arthur found this out the hard way

that bracelet he wears in season 1?? gwen gave it to him. i don’t CARE that they’d known each for like 2 days gwen immediately saw this man and though he Will Be My Friend and then made him a friendship bracelet and nobody stopped her (i love u dork)

in ealdor the Thing He Is Known For is falling into ponds. that’s it. ‘oh who’s that?’ ‘that? that’s merlin. he falls into ponds.’

he almost set Will on fire as a child and will teased him mercilessly to his death about it. off-scene moments before death bitch literally made a joke abt at least he wasn’t set on fire and merlin strangled him then and there.

he can freaking shape shift. like man, how cool is that?? his shape of choice is an EAGLE rather than a merlin, but. the thing is. the way he figured out he could shapeshift was he sneezed one day and suddenly he was a goldfish

GODDAMN my man loves lancelot. he’s the og lancelot fan. he started the lancelot appreciation club and literally the entire round table, gwen, and a couple of randoms off the street are part of it. it’s a great hit. ironically, lancelot doesn’t know it exists.

he made gwaine a Bag of Holding but it’s just for apples. all that’s in the bag is apples, all the way down. gwaine proposed to him on the spot when he got it

he’s left handed BUT arthur taught him to use a sword with his right hand which is why he’s not,,,, fantastic (also because my man just Isn’t Good With Swords) BUT elyan sees him cutting some stuff up one day, yknow. with his left hand. and Realises and as a fellow leftie decides to train him and confuse the HELL out of everyone the next time merlin’s part of training

it works

oh! he was born on samhain, which does play into the fact that he’s immortal, because usually babies born on samhain die,,,, but he didn’t

this did lead to a lot of people being suspicious of he and his mother as he grew up

he didn’t do a lot to help this, admittedly

so y’know how babies can’t really control their limbs when their young?? yeah well merlin couldn’t control his magic

kid would just start spinning and shit right out of his cradle while hunith was having people over for dinner which was. interesting

his entire eyeball was completely golden until he was about 8. it used to freak ppl out so he just. stopped making eye contact

when he’s REALLY angry his eyes just start changing colour,,,,,

there is a Reason why he doesn’t get angry very much

lancelot saw it once and he was Shook forever

gwaine saw it and Immediately decided that it was the coolest thing

he is waiting for the day that merlin cracks because that will be the day that Shit Goes Down

in the 15th century merlin will discover coffee. a caffeinated merlin is a merlin that the world is not ready for

you know how he can speak to dragons? well that extends to all reptiles now. one day a snake starts talking to him and he just shrugs and rolls with it. whatever. this is normal

this is Not Normal

poor arthur walks in on him one day to find him fucking hissing at a twenty-foot python

he and gwen are at the very top of camelot’s rumour mill. they see everything. they hear everything. they know everything. they can also control it >:)

one day merlin’s had enough of arthur and goes to complain in the kitchens

arthur the next day: merlin WHY did i just get called in front of my father on allegations of being in love with a statue??

merlin, pouring a potion of itching into his bath: .....i really couldn’t say, sire

this continues for a while until arthur catches on

in retaliation he writes a letter to hunith detailing all the dumb things her son has gotten up to over the years

the effect is devestating

(as in: merlin doesn’t speak to him for a week)

my man can SEW. his mother was a seamstress and taught him how to make clothes to sell at market the next village over

he loves embroidery, and he also helps gwen out sometimes and they gossip

his magic acts up a lot when he’s sick or tired

this includes turning the sky green and wine into soup

at the same time

while at a banquet

arthur just wants to know why there’s soup in his goblet

he’s,,,,,, really uncomfortable with the druids’ worship of him, bc they see him as akin to a god and their savour and post-camlann they’re going ‘oh mighty emrys the rule of the pendragons has passed onto the once and future queen finally magic can be freed’ and he just loses it

too bad gwaine didn’t get to see it

or anything else, ever

he and morgana pretended to court for a while just so they could absolute SCANADALISE uther, and also to make arthur jealous. they fake-eloped at one point and uther charged merlin with high treason

he got charged with high treason a lot actually, and not just in camelot. he is now a wanted criminal in four different kingdoms

losing morgana (the first time after the poisoning) absolutely DESTROYED him and he became rlly recluse until she came back, which started the descent into who he becomes in s4/5

he is Small and Angry and he will throw hands with Literally Everyone

merlin is no longer allowed swords in public

he’s also tone-deaf but thinks he’s not, and it drives arthur, who’s very musical, absolutely INSANE

he gets his hands on the medieval equivalent of a kazoo and has stopped two bandit attacks and three assassination attempts to date with the ~Power Of Annoyance~

one of those assassination attempts took place during a council meeting and merlin just whips out his kazoo and starts playing

he gets charged with high treason again for that

he is TERRIBLE with plants and kills every single of one of them

he once woke arthur up by climbing through the window on the 9th floor of the castle or whatever and rattling the window pane until arthur woke up and nearly tried to kill him because he thought he was an intruder

he has tried to consume rocks but elyan stopped him

idk i just love him, i’ll probably do some more of others later ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#bbc merlin #bbcm #merlin #mine #merlin headcanons #the taming of the queue

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a-small-batch-of-dragons · 3 years

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Not Bad

Prompts: Hihi, i have a Merlin prompt if you're interested. Merlin thinks he's a bad person bec he was taught that magic is bad, but also Bec of all the stuff he did/does to keep Arthur safe and ig throw in some touch starved!Merlin too for fun. But the knights compliment/hug/etc all the time and Merlin just doesn't understand what he's supposed to do with this, so the solution is to breakdown crying and try to convince the knights he's the bad person he sees himself as and the knights are just like "but you're wrong and he's 25 reasons why you're wrong" Plz, thx, love your writing - anon

im a fuckin sucker for soft knights & arthur w merlin so, if ur still takings reqs, i would love to see when the knights realize merlin still views himself as a "monster" like is hinted in first ep (? i thinkk, im rusty on my merlin trivia)- is it a passing comment he makes and they realize all together? knight cuddle pile? just give the poor boy some love - anon

if you'd want to write it i'd love to see the collective moment that the knights realize that merlin is self-harming in some way (in my brain this is probably in like a denial-of-things type thing that he probably doesn't even see as self-harm bc he's an idiot, could even be something like healing everyone else w magic but refusing to heal himself... idk feel free to do whatever you see fit!). i can only imagine they'd be frustrated with him and themselves but theyre just loving large idiots (': - anon

ahh yes all the prompts

Read on Ao3 Part 2

Warnings: implied/referenced self-harm in the form of intentionally depriving oneself of physical contact because THAT COUNTS

Pairings: merthur, can be platonic or romantic I don't care

Word Count: 3462

Arthur is confused, very upset, and nothing is alright anymore, thank you very much.

Because you see, despite the image that he tries to present—emphasis on the word ‘try’, there, according to his knights—he does care an awful lot about his people, especially his one particular person that happens to be able to say an awful lot without saying anything.

Merlin. He’s talking about Merlin, in case you hadn’t noticed.

The problem is that for all the man can ramble on about seemingly anything, at any time, he’s remarkably good at saying absolutely nothing about himself. He claims he’s an open book, but he’s certainly in a language that Arthur doesn’t know how to read.

He does know how to read, just to clarify. That isn’t the issue here.

No, no, the issue is that after months, years, almost a decade of Merlin by his side, watching his back, taking care of him, he’s discovered that there’s a secret that Merlin’s keeping from him. One he never intended to tell Arthur.

And before you panic, no, he’s not talking about Merlin’s magic.

Come on, it’s not like it’s not obvious, the man isn’t exactly good at hiding it. Does he seriously believe Arthur can’t see the tree branches that miraculously pick themselves up and fly at the nearest bandit or the spears that fling themselves at the foe about to behind Gwaine? Or the chores that mysteriously get done too fast for Merlin and far too efficiently? Or the way certain magical ailments seem to vanish mysteriously along with his idiot of a servant only to be greeted with a soft shrug when he pokes?

Merlin’s eyes also turn gold, that’s pretty neat.

So Merlin has magic.

Yes, we know, we had a small tantrum over the fact that he told Lancelot first, but it’s fine. Quite frankly, a lot of things make more sense now.

Except for this. Not this.

Merlin is hiding the secret that he believes he’s a bad person.

Now, Arthur’s not sure if you’ve met Merlin, but the man isn’t exactly the image of the evildoer that springs to mind when someone says ‘bad person.’

The Witch Finder, now there’s a bad person. Storming into Camelot, preying on the fear of the people, bribing and threatening and drugging people, torturing them, and condemning them to death just for the sake of a few coins.

Merlin did storm into Camelot, that is true, but he decided to pick a fight with the crown prince and then save his life. He’s not here for coin—if he were, they wouldn’t have had that small, er, issue about the steward not paying him anything for his work for the past eight years, honestly—and he’s certainly not preying on anyone’s fears. Except perhaps Arthur’s fear of losing his dignity.

The look on his father’s face when Merlin dodged the pillow…

Speaking of his father…there’s another one.

His father did not prey as openly on the people’s fear—or as obviously as Aredian, but prey on them he did. He was a strong king, sometimes too strong. He was a blind king, saw the people as nothing more than subjects, not the living breathing humans they are. He remembers Morgana’s voice, saying that authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force.

He always wanted to see Uther’s face when his ward—when his daughter said that to him.

And what he’s done to Morgana…

Arthur grimaces and shakes his head. Perhaps the very truth that he resents the idea of thinking about what Uther did to Morgana, to him…perhaps that is enough.

Those are bad people. At least to Arthur.

Merlin, on the other hand…

Merlin came into Camelot, knowing that if it was discovered that he has magic, he would be burnt at the stake. He came, not with any aspirations of glory, simply because he trusted his mother when she told him to come to Gaius. He came and he was given a job he never asked for, one he had no idea how to do, and stayed.

Merlin learned. Slowly, perhaps, but he learned. Now he has enough knowledge on what a servant should do to break the rules in the most spectacular fashion. Arthur smiles, biting back the chuckle at seeing George dressed up like Merlin and acting perfectly proper and the urge Arthur had to throw him out of the room.

And that’s not even mentioning what he does when he’s not following Arthur around.

Merlin learned. Merlin stayed.

Not just for Gaius, but for Arthur.

Arthur leans onto his desk, staring out into the courtyard where Merlin is tending to the knights’ horses as they mount up for patrol. He watches Leon step a little closer, lowering his head to mutter something to him, watching Gwaine clap Merlin on the shoulder.

Watches Merlin flinch a little too hard.

Watches Leon’s brow furrow and Gwaine take a step back.

This. This is the problem.

Merlin believes he’s a bad person. Which is wrong, but for some reason, he does.

And because Merlin believes he’s a bad person, he believes that anytime one of the knights touches him—or anyone touches him—it will be to hurt him.

How did they come to this conclusion, you may ask?

Arthur bites back a snarl as he turns away from the window.

It had started with the complements.

Gwaine, to no one’s surprise, was quite fond of flirting with anyone and everyone that would let him, Merlin no exception. Talking about Merlin’s looks, his personality, his work ethic, anything, and everything. Merlin would flush, bright red, ears and all, mumbling to himself.

But then Percival had said something and Merlin pushed him away—well, prodded his arm, no one really moves Percival without Percival letting them—and shook his head. Percival had shrugged but the rest of them had noticed the tension in Merlin’s shoulders.

Then Elyan complemented Merlin’s tracking abilities and Merlin hadn’t even acknowledged it, instead insisting that they keep moving before it got too dark to see and they’d be forced to make camp in the woods. They’d agreed, pressing on, but noting the way that Merlin refused to say so much as thank you.

Leon’s perceptiveness should be considered magical. Seriously, Arthur’s not entirely convinced the man can’t see into people’s heads, what with the information he’s able to produce out of nothing more than the twitch of a finger or the slightest huff of breath. But he sees the way Merlin shies away from any display of affection, even as he gently repeats it, watching Merlin turn his back and get back to work.

Arthur never saw what happened with Lancelot. All he knows is that one night, out in the woods, the two of them had gone off to collect firewood and Merlin had been hiding red-rimmed eyes when he returned, a few paces ahead of Lancelot, not ten minutes later. Arthur had glared but the forlorn confusion on Lancelot’s face had given him pause.

Then it was the touching.

One would expect Merlin to be a quite tactile person, and he is. He’s all shoulder nudges and pokes and prods and gentle shoves to get people to move where he wants them to go. And it’s not like the man has much concept of personal space.

No, some of that is not Arthur’s fault, how dare you?

But when someone else tries it, Merlin tenses reflexively, already moving before their hands make contact. He gives everyone he can a wide berth, scuttling around the outside of rooms until one of them breaks and tells him to come here, Merlin, it’s alright, we won’t hurt you. His face never quite believes them.

The strangest thing is how much of it Merlin makes small adjustments for.

He always wears those god-awful tunics, that he won’t let Arthur replace with fabric that doesn’t feel like it’s a burlap sack, with the sleeves pulled all the way down and those kerchiefs tied around his neck. Arthur’s seen his sleeves rolled up before, but only when Merlin’s working and he hasn’t realized Arthur’s there yet. It’s not like Arthur doesn’t know Merlin has forearms, but Merlin will always jump and guiltily roll his sleeves down.

He doesn’t notice why until he accidentally brushes Merlin’s bare skin once and Merlin all but tears away like he’s been burned.

He doesn’t know why.

Merlin has a secret. The secret is that he believes he’s a bad person. That means he can’t accept compliments and he can’t let them touch him.

This is a problem, because Arthur would very much like for Merlin to believe that he isn’t a bad person.

This is also a problem because Arthur has no idea how to do that.

He looks up when there’s a knock on the door.

“Enter.”

“Sire?” Leon steps through. “May we come in?”

Arthur nods, his eyebrows raising as all of his knights spill into the room.

“Shall I assume you’re on the warpath again?”

“Nah,” Gwaine grumbles, throwing himself into a chair, “know this isn’t your fault.”

Leon shakes his head. “It’s Merlin, sire, we’re…concerned.”

Arthur just sighs and tells them what’s been buzzing around his head for the past…however long it’s been. The knights nod.

“He doesn’t like to be touched when he doesn’t expect it,” Lancelot offers, “but when I ask…he doesn’t seem to want to agree either.”

“But he does,” Gwaine argues, “you’ve seen the way he stares at us when we hug each other, he looks like a poor child that’s never had a hug in his life!”

“Which isn’t true.” Elyan folds his arms. “Gwen’s hugged him.”

“We’ve all hugged him.”

“But he still thinks we’re going to hurt him.”

“Well,” Arthur mutters, “we can’t exactly blame him for being paranoid, can we?”

“If you lot are going to talk about me behind my back like it’s a war council, then yeah, I reserve the right to be paranoid.”

“Merlin!”

“Thank god, where’ve you been?”

“I thought we were meeting by the stables.”

“Did you get hurt?”

Merlin raises his hands and takes a step back. “Whoa, can I get through the door first before the interrogation starts?”

“This isn’t an interrogation,” Arthur says, glaring at the knights, “we’re concerned.”

“Uh-huh,” Merlin mutters, weaving through them to the table so he can set down the thing hooked over his arm, “yes, I’m all too familiar with your concern.”

Arthur frowns. “What does that mean?”

Merlin waves a hand. “Oh, just that it’s a prelude to more chores and things to do.”

Is that…true?

“Yes.”

Did he say that out loud?

“Also yes.”

Arthur shakes his head. “Merlin, we’re not coming up with lists and lists for chores for you to do.”

“Really? With how many you all constantly give me, here I finally thought I’d cracked the code as to why.”

Leon steps forward. “We’re not coming up with things to give you, Merlin, nor are we intending to gossip behind your back.”

“So what are you doing?”

“We’re worried,” Lancelot repeats, “about you.”

“Well, I’m right as rain, no need to worry.”

“Lie.”

Merlin’s eyes go wide and he stares at Leon. The knight smiles ruefully and takes another little step forward.

“Lie,” he repeats gently, “you don’t have to lie to us, Merlin.”

Merlin’s mouth thins. “Maybe I don’t want to tell you, then.”

“Why not—“

“No,” Arthur breaks in, causing Merlin to swing his head around again, “no, if Merlin doesn’t want to tell us he doesn’t have to.”

Gwaine looks on the verge of protest, but another look from Lancelot is enough to quell him. He sinks into the chair and tosses an apple to Merlin.

“At least eat something,” he says by way of explanation, “you’ve not eaten anything since lunch.”

Merlin looks very confused—good, now he’s just like the rest of them—but bites into the apple nonetheless. His gaze travels around the room before coming to rest on Leon.

“Why are you all concerned?”

“Because you won’t let us complement you, Merlin,” Leon says softly, “you believe that every time we touch you we intend to hurt you, and you believe that this is deserved because you are a bad person.”

The flabbergasted look on Merlin’s face is almost enough to make Arthur laugh. Almost.

“How…”

“We notice things, Merlin,” Leon says patiently, “we notice you.”

Lancelot snorts. “Good going, mate, you’ll freak him out.”

“Um—there’s nothing worth noticing about me—“

“Not we all know that’s not true,” Gwaine says, and if it had been any other time it would’ve sounded like the next pick-up line at the tavern, “you’re worth noticing, Merlin.”

Merlin’s gaze darts back and forth, finding no disagreement in any faces.

“What—what were you concerned about?”

“Aside from what we just told you?”

“But I don’t—why is that a problem?”

Arthur swallows a curse. “Are you asking why we’re upset that you believe you’re a bad person and you deserve to be treated badly?”

“…yes?”

“Because you’re not a bad person,” Elyan says, “and you don’t deserve to feel like everyone’s about to hurt you.”

Gods, the look of disbelief on Merlin’s face hurts.

“You don’t know that,” he says lowly, setting the apple down, “you don’t know that.”

“Sure we do.” Elyan uncrosses his arms. “We know you, Merlin.”

“I don’t think you do.”

A look passes around the group of knights. Elyan smiles.

“I know that Gwen came home and told me she’d made a friend the first week you arrived in Camelot. I know that you’ve reminded us what family means. I know that you care, Merlin, about your friends, because they’re important to you.”

Merlin blinks in confusion.

“I know you’re a strong man,” Percival says, “and not just because you can lift the packs for the horses without complaining. But you work hard, because you know you can, and so that people don’t have to. You provide what you can because you know what it’s like to have nothing.”

“I—I—“

“I know you’re brave,” Lancelot says softly, standing, “I know you feel the same fear that we all do and you stare it straight in the face.”

He pauses, takes one step closer.

“I know you don’t chase the glory of being brave, but the feeling of being brave and using it.”

“Guys, I—“

“I know what you’ve done.”

Merlin’s face goes pale at Leon’s words.

The knight tilts his head to the side and smiles.

“I’ve been around the longest,” he says in a near whisper, “and I have seen the changes from when you arrived in Camelot until now. I’ve seen the differences, not just in the other men in this room but in Camelot.”

He lays a hand on his chest.

“I know that you’ve made me prouder to serve this kingdom than many others that have tried.”

Poor Merlin is shaking right now, his fingers trembling on the edge of the table. He looks around in confusion, terribly frightened, sending more aches through Arthur’s chest.

“You wouldn’t say that—“ he gasps— “you wouldn’t say that if you knew the truth.”

“And what truth is that?”

“That—that I—“ Merlin’s breaths start to ring in the chamber— “I—I—“

“That you have magic?”

Merlin’s head jerks around to stare at Arthur. Arthur raises his hands and takes a step closer. Merlin flinches.

“It’s alright, Merlin,” Arthur says softly, “I’m not angry. I’m not going to hurt you. You have magic, though, right?”

“Yes—yes, I—but I’ve only ever used it for—for you Arthur, I—“

“Easy,” he soothes, fighting the urge to reach out and pull him close, “I know. It’s alright.”

“No, it’s not,” Merlin all but whimpers, “it’s not okay, it’s bad, it’s bad and I’m bad, I’m bad—“

“You’re not.”

“I am!”

Merlin yanks his arms to his sides, curling them tightly around himself, much to the protest of the knights. His fingers whiten as he clutches the sides of his tunic.

“I’m bad, bad people get hurt, you don’t—you don’t touch bad people.”

“Merlin,” Arthur breaks in softly, “Merlin, sweetheart, I’m going to come over to you.”

He can hear the quickly stifled gasps and Gwaine’s ‘oh shit’ as he inches towards Merlin. The poor man doesn’t move, but the tremors get worse and worse the closer Arthur gets.

“I’m right here,” he murmurs, “I won’t hurt you, sweetheart, do you believe me? That I won’t hurt you?”

“I—I—“

“Because I won’t,” he promises, still fighting the urge to swoop the poor thing into a hug, “I’ll never hurt you, sweetheart.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not bad, Merlin, and you certainly don’t deserve to be hurt.”

“You don’t know that,” comes the strangled whisper, “you don’t know what I’ve done.”

“But I know you, Merlin,” Arthur murmurs, “and that’s enough.”

He can’t stop the concerned noise at Merlin’s huff of disbelief.

“It’s enough, sweetheart, it’s—hey! Easy, easy,” he soothes as Merlin’s knees buckle and he catches him before he can hit the ground, “I’ve got you, shh, shh, you’re alright.”

“Oh,” Lancelot murmurs as Merlin starts to shiver terribly, “oh, Merlin, you’re touch starved.”

“Touch starved?”

“He’s not been touched for a very long time,” Lancelot murmurs, hustling to join them on the floor, scooping Merlin’s legs into his lap, “and so he’s not used to it, but he needs it.”

“We all need touch?”

“Yes, otherwise our bodies get…unhappy.” Lancelot shakes his head. “I’m sure Gaius could explain it more. The short version is humans aren’t built to hold each other at arm’s length.”

Arthur tightens his grip on the lapful of shaking Merlin he has. There’s a cold nose buried in the crook of his neck, arms looping awkwardly around his shoulders. Distantly, he hears the scufflings of the other knights as they move closer.

“We’ve got you, sweetheart,” he fins himself whispering, “we’ve got you, we won’t hurt you, you’re safe, you’re good, we have you, it’s alright, now…”

Poor Merlin is still shuddering terribly.

“Shh, shh, easy, just try and relax, we have you…”

Since when has Merlin been this cold?

“Oh, I’m definitely hugging you every day,” Gwaine mutters, helping to prop Merlin up away from the table.

“Why—“ Merlin swallows— “why are you all so warm?”

“You’re cold,” Arthur says, “we’re helping.”

“I’m—I’m—what is it? Touch—touch—“

“Touch starved,” Lancelot offers gently, “yes, Merlin.”

“You’re helping?”

Gwaine shifts behind him. “We’re helping.”

“You’re not…mad?”

“No, Merlin, we’re not mad.”

“I’m not bad?”

Arthur tightens his grip. “Never, Merlin.”

“You—I can—I can stay?”

“Yes, Merlin,” comes the chorus of knights, “for as long as you like.”

Arthur is still upset, very confused, and more than a little overprotective right now.

But so is Merlin.

And they’re…they’re starting to figure it out.

One thing’s for sure: Arthur’s definitely pulling Merlin into bed to cuddle with him instead of getting up in the morning.

#merlin #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #arthur pendragon #merthur fic #merthur #fic #dragonbabbles

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nextstopparis · 3 years

Note

Now that we’ve talked about Merlin dressing Arthur, what do we think about the bathing situation? I do not believe that Merlin actually kneels by the tub with a sponge, though I know there’s a lot of fic where he does just that. I have to assume that the man who refuses to hug Merlin wouldn’t let him scrub him down. But we have seen Merlin prep a bath for him on at least one occasion. We all remember when Merlin magically heated the water and burned him lol. And I know that Merlin kind of does a lot of jobs that a single manservant wouldn’t realistically do but my biggest question here is: how does Merlin get rid of the bath water? It’s one thing to imagine poor Merlin hauling buckets of clean water all the way to Arthur’s room, but does that mean that he then has to fill buckets up with gray water and then haul them back down? Or throw them out the window? Or is there a team that he calls for that bustles up and drags the tub out lol? Or is there a special drainage system I’m unaware of? Any history experts out there willing to answer this very specific, niche question?

it's surprisingly very difficult to search up "how did medieval peasants get rid of bathwater" and get a straight answer. anyway, here's what i found.

oh and before i continue, yeah, i dont think he really "helped" arthur either. although perhaps it's worth mentioning that this site says:

If people could afford to have a private bath - and not many could - they would use a wooden tub that could also have a tent-like cloth on top of it.

which i found a lil interesting bc arthur didnt have the tent-like cloth thing. im just reading into it though bc 1)i doubt the writers really.. looked into it? and 2) he like. walks around shirtless all the time. and had no qualms walking in front of merlin naked, so. i dont think he'd be too concerned about having it? except like, i do think arthur was a lot more private when it came to other people (esp. other servants) in the castle so... maybe merlin did stay with him during his baths? if not actually scrub him down or anything, then at least to like. keep him company and make sure no one walked in? also to like, quickly get rid of the water, i suppose slkfjslfj idk. it should be noted that the site does say that servants did usually help their lords rinse and do all that fun stuff. they include this excerpt in John Russell's Book of Nature (idk what its about or why it has instructions for servants on how to bathe their lords but. idc enough to find out):

Have a basin full of hot fresh herbs and wash his body with a soft sponge, rinse him with fair warm rose-water, and throw it over him.

so. take that as you will. it should be noted that this was written in the fifteenth century and arthurian legend took place in the 6th-7th century though, i think. however, imo, thats not THAT big of a deal bc 1) the writers said they wanted the show to be "timeless" anyway, therefore meaning it could take place at any time and 2) i feel like maybe lords would be more reliant on servants the farther back you go?? idk though dont take my word for it on that last one.

maybe merlin just helped him sometimes when he was seriously hurt or something? idk. maybe it was a sentimental thing, like they make it in some fics...?

now, during the medieval times, specifically in paris (thats the place ive learned about, anyway, im not exactly sure about other places but... id assume they did this too), the streets were full of shit. now, you're thinking, what the fuck does that have to do with bathwater, but its sort of the same thing, isnt it? back then, people would empty their chamber pots (where all the shit was, in case u needed to know) by throwing the contents (the shit) out the window. i remember learning this in high school and wanting to puke. ANYWAY. according to this site, they even said a thoughtful "garde loo" to help people avoid getting shit on their head<3 how lovely.

anyway, that makes me think that like... maybe they did the same thing with the bathwater? i dont really see why not. i mean ok. the peasants weren't exactly able to have private baths (as stated above. they had to take PUBLIC BATHS JSKJSLKJ AND SHARE BATH WATER UGH YUCK IM GONNA VOMIT) (or bathe in the river but. anyway) so they werent the ones throwing bathwater out the window. but i meant it more conceptually. like in what if, generally, those who could have private baths did the same thing with their bathwater that they did with their shit. im not exactly sure on castle etiquette, so idk if throwing bathwater out the window is frowned upon or not but... technically ur theory on chucking it out the window could be plausible? (i mean. merlin more or less defenestrated aredian so i dont see why not, but anyway).

HOWEVER. in the same site, they also say this:

The plumbing system of Medieval castles was designed so that waste products would flow straight into the moat that surrounded the castle. These “Garderobes” extended outside of the walls of the castle and had a opening at the bottom that would empty into the moat.

so, perhaps bathwater disposal in medieval castles paralleled that of waste disposal in medieval castles, rather than paralleling the peasants' waste disposal? although, the above is assuming that there was a moat around the castle which... er... i dont think there was?? or at least... we never saw any moats??

although, this:

the first time i saw it made me think of a bridge over a moat so. OH MY GOD I THINK I WAS RIGHT. on this website, where you can read about all the very interesting history of the pierrefonds castle that absolutely did NOT make me want to die, if you scroll down until "Visit of Pierrefonds" it says that:

The entrance to the castle is located in the weakest part of the rampart, protected by several juxtaposed defences: a portcullis, a drawbridge, moats and chatelets added by Viollet-le-Duc.

(...Copyright © French Moments Ltd unless otherwise stated. Read more at https://frenchmoments.eu/pierrefonds/.) (THEY ADDED THE LAST PART THEMSELVES DONT KILL ME OK I DONT WANT TO GET SUED SO IM KEEPING IT IN)

so?? there is a moat??? i think??? (btw, in case you're curious, it was "added" by viollet-le-duc (which i keep reading as du lac skfjslkj) bc the castle was actually destroyed and then rebuilt. however, seeing that this isnt actually pierrefonds in MERLIN (pierrefonds wasnt even built at that point) thats not technically important). which means that it's perfectly plausible that merlin could have just. emptied the dirty bathwater with the chamber pot contents into the garderobes which in turn dumped them into the moat. (or maybe he did just haul all the water back downstairs and dump it into the grass i dunno).

as for if he had like, help or something? i dont know? the first website talks about how it's a bunch of servants readying the bath, but as you said... merlin did seem to do a lot of things on his own.

maybe he just used magic though, lol. what you said abt him burning arthur made me think of like. what if he just evaporated all the water while no one was looking? this is probably not the case bc in 1.11 gaius talks about how merlin specifically EMPTIES his own bathwater (which is why they had tea to drink during the whole unicorn fiasco) so im guessing he'd do so as well with arthurs. especially considering it would be more dangerous to use magic on arthurs. although, if he did have to lug a lot of water throughout the castle... perhaps his laziness would've won over his survival instincts like mine probably would. i guess we'll never know?

unless there ARE history nerds that would like to set me straight and put me in my place???

(also i should say: i have absolutely no clue how credible these resources are, so. yeah)

#this is such a specific thing to wonder about anon i simultaneously love and hate you #i cannot believe i had to remember the street shit again #UGH AND THE PUBLC BATHS SLKJFSLKJFLSKJF I HATE IT HERE #bbc merlin #what the fuck do i even tag this #merlin #baths????#ask #merlin meta #I THINK???????????????//

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onlyfreds · 3 years

Text

Chapter 2 - Hard to Hide | TRP

Summary: As the stress of the coronation increases with every passing day, the secret itself becomes hard to hide.

Warning/s: Mentions of food, mentions of eloping

Series Masterlist

I sighed, leaning by the porch of the Burrow, reading the paper my sister sent me under the rising sun.

The press never seem to miss anything, the headlines read: Coronation of First-Born Princess to be Held Soon.

And that was the last thing I needed.

To add to my annoyance, the article kept on stating how excited and happy I am to be crowned when they didn’t even interview me and got my thoughts about the matter.

As if mum and dad would let them interview me anyway.

I threw the paper to the side in disgust, but as I heard footsteps approaching the spot where I sat, I hid it away from view as best as I can.

“What’cha doing here darling?” Fred asked, pressing a kiss to my temple as he sat down beside me.

I gave him a small smile, “Just watching the sunrise.”

He dramatically gasped, feigning offense as he said, “You’re watching the sunrise without me? How could you do such a thing Y/N?”

I laughed at his theatrics, “You’re always so overdramatic, aren’t you?”

He smiled, putting an arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him, “But, honestly sweetheart, you seem stressed about something for the past few days. Is there something wrong? Is there anything I could do to help?”

I chuckled, “Don’t need to worry Freddie. Everything’s absolutely fine, like I said, nothing to worry about.”

He raised a brow, “Are you sure sweetheart? You know you can tell me anything.”

I nodded, resting a hand on his chest, “Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know when I have a problem.”

“Oi Lovebirds!” George’s head poked out from the window, “It’s time for breakfast! The cuddling can wait later!”

Fred groaned, muttering something about wrong timing as we headed back into the Burrow hand in hand.

Snapping my book closed in frustration, not being able to keep the article from occupying my thoughts.

I stood up, walking over to the desk in Ginny’s room and writing a letter in response to my sister’s.

Someone knocked tentatively on the door. “Come in!” I said, sealing up the letter and tying it to Hedwig’s leg as he flew off to the palace.

“Hey Y/N!” Hermione greeted as she entered the room, “Ginny and I were going out for some ice cream, do you wanna come?”

I smiled, “I thought you’d never ask.”

We walked through the alleys of the muggle town near the Burrow, chatting happily with our ice cream in hand, looking around a bit at the stores.

That was until, Hermione and I dragged Ginny to the bookstore.

“Why do I need to supervise the two of you?” She asked, “Y/N is practically of age and Hermione, you’re the most mature and most level-headed person in your year.”

Hermione and I exchanged a look, “Well Ginny,” I started to explain, “we’re in a bookstore.”

“And if you leave us unsupervised in a bookstore, chances are, Y/N and I would be going back carrying stacks upon stacks of books. So, unless you want that to happen, you have to supervise us.” Hermione finished.

Ginny playfully rolled her eyes at us, sporting a small grin, “Fine. Fine. Now, run along before I regret my decision.”

So, thanks to the redhead supervising us, we only came home with four books each.

Dinner had just finished, most of us were gathered around in the living room while Molly had started knitting and Arthur was tinkering with a muggle radio in their shed.

I leaned against my boyfriend’s chest as he threaded his fingers through my hair. George was busy writing a letter to Angelina, the trio and Ginny were settled near the fireplace, talking about Merlin knows what.

I inhaled the familiar firework powder and cinnamon scent of my boyfriend as he had me wrapped in the warmth of his embrace.

I felt like I was being lulled into a state of comfort and peace as I traced random patterns along his arm.

“Freddie?” I asked quietly, looking up at him.

His eyes softened by the light of the fireplace, even though he was looking down at me with worry and concern, I couldn’t help but adore the man looking down at me as the soft glow of the fire seemed to compliment his features.

“Darling?” Fred’s voice quietly rang through the air, snapping me out of my daze, “Are you alright?”

I licked my lips, “I can tell you anything, right?”

He nodded, furrowing his brows a bit, “Of course, and if it’s something that’s bothering you, then I’ll do what I can to help.”

I gave him a grateful smile, “Can we talk somewhere private? I don’t want anyone else to hear about it.”

He nodded before standing up, pulling me up with him as he wrapped an arm around my waist.

“The missus and I will be retreating upstairs.” He said with a cheeky smile, ducking when Molly threw the dish towel at him when he said the name missus. “So, do not disturb and good night everyone!” He added as we retreated upstairs.

“Use protection!” George called after having Molly smack him at the back of the head.

As soon as we entered his room, Fred shut the door behind him and sat down on the edge of the bed, patting his lap.

I sat down in his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck as I was engulfed back into the warmth of his embrace.

“What did you want to tell me?” He asked.

“Well, remember me being the first-born princess and someday I have to be crowned as Queen?” I said.

He nodded, staying silent.

“That day, might be coming sooner than I thought.” I said.

He gave me a confused look, “What do you mean?”

I got off his lap, walking over to my trunk as I took out the paper my sister had sent to me earlier and handed it to Fred.

His eyes scanned over the headlines, then to the article underneath it. Even if he stayed silent, by the way his jaw clenched, I knew he was furious.

“How could they say this rubbish about you?” He said in frustration, throwing the paper behind him, “They talk about your happiness as if they know you. Then they say about whether or not you’re fit to be Queen.”

He then harshly grabbed the paper, “And get a load of this, ‘in an interview with the chief of staff of the palace, he states that, “The Princess has been trained to manage Montenaro ever since she was five. She may not be present at the moment, but we assure you that she will not turn her back on her responsibilities to the kingdom. Though she may have made some friends at the boarding school she attends, she will not let their influences get in the way of what she’s truly destined for.’”

He stood up, running his hand through his hair in frustration, “How could he speak like that about you? Like he knows what you want?”

I stepped forward wrapping my arms around his torso as he held onto me tightly, “And your coronation is happening in three weeks?! You just turned seventeen and they’re already expecting you to rule over a kingdom!”

I bit my lip, “According to the law of Montenaro, seventeen is legally an adult. I don’t know why my parents want to get crowned this early, but I’m actually having some doubts about it.”

“What do you mean by doubts?” Fred asked, resting his chin on the top of my head.

I hummed, breathing in his scent to calm myself down, “My parents have drilled into my head that being Queen is always what I was meant to be. But, deep down in my heart, I know that, it’s not what I want.”

“Then why don’t you tell them?”

I sighed, “If only it was that easy Freddie. Unlike your parents, mine never listen to me or what I have to say.”

“And if I, by any chance, I go against their wishes, the worst-case scenario is I would be disowned. I’m already a disappointment to them, so, why make it worse.”

“Hey.” Fred said gently, placing a finger under my chin and lifting my head up, “You’re not a disappointment, any parent would be lucky to have you as their daughter. If your family is too daft to realize that, then it’s their loss.”

He pressed a brief kiss on my lips, “I’ll support you in whatever path you choose. And if your parents don’t approve of our relationship, then, we’ll run off, elope and then shove our marriage certificate in front of their faces if they even try to put you in an arranged marriage. Nothing’s stopping us.”

I laughed, “You always know what to say to make me feel better.”

He smiled, “No matter what you choose, I’ll always be here for you.”

𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚕 𝚃𝚊𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝:

@lumosandnoxwriting @wand3ringr0s3 @famdomhideout @nova-darling @gaycatlord-stuff @pandaxnienke @escapingrealitybyreading @catching-the-train-to-hogwarts @lunylovelovegood @thefallengodesse (Send in a Message/Ask if you want to be added)

𝚂𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚃𝚊𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝:

@dobbys-leftsock @freddiemylovelg @georgeweasleyswhre @gostupid-godumb @robinisfreddieshoe @potters-heart @evieevergreen @fandomscombine @messagesinthesky @the-romanian-is-bae @thefallengodesse

#fredweasley #fred weasley fanfiction #fredweasleyimagines #fred weasley fluff #fredweasleyfanfic #fredweasleysmut #fred weasley angst #fredweasleyoneshots #fred weasley x reader #fred weasley x y/n #fred weasley x you #fred weasley series #royal!au

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fuckthisshitimoutyall · 2 years

Note

hello! could i hear about your merthur fic? your favourite parts, the difficulties, how long you've been doing it... whatever you want to talk about!

of course! i would love to!

My favourite parts would be two bits from the first chapter so far and the title:

the title is "Love, I Think We're Falling." Out of context it could be funny, but it's has a double meaning; Arthur and Merlin falling in love (which gives me cozy vibes, for some reason). And their mental descension (is that a word, idk) as it's gets a bit darker later on (it has a happy ending, I promise)

the two bits from the first chapter would be this paragraph:

"Two pints and two bowls of soup with some bread were put in front of their noses. They were sitting at a table near a window, where rain was now pleasantly drip-dropping down the side. At the other side of the tavern, near the warm hearth, a group of minstrels were setting up their instruments."

There is something about using the word drip-dropping instead of trickling that fills me with absolute happiness. I can't explain it, it just does. I also like how it sorta zooms in and out on the scene? it starts with the bowls, focuses on the window, brings the attention back to the room, goes to the hearth, only shortly, to proceed to something that will have an impact on the rest of the part of the chapter.

the second bit I love is the final love confession, also in the first chapter (i be speedrunning the slowburn), it's only a draft, but it's rather funny

M: "What are you so afraid of?"

A: "You! Because I can't think straight around you! Because- because I love you!"

*Rain starts pourin’ down*

A: "Is this you?"

*Le speechless merlin*

A: "Because this is really pour timing"

M: "I swear-"

A: "You know I hate rain"

M: "You unbelievable prat"

A: "I'm just saying!"

M: "I know" (as a response to the "i hate rain")

*Does the magic thing to stop rain above Arthur's head*

A: "You do?"

M: "Of course I do, I know you"

A: "Why don't you use that?"

M: "I like the rain"

A: "Why"

M: "Is this really your idea of a love confession?"

Les Diffuculities:

Boy oh boy, i got a numbered list for you

1. Morgana: the fact that i fear I will make her as a villain rather two-dimensional, it takes place around season two, and here, she leaves Camelot during the first half of it. I might write a scene to describe her intentions, but I worry it won't be good enough and thus make her a villain purely/only to get on with the plot

2. Gwen/Lancelot: They're in the background, and there is some slice of life combined with some favourite headcanons (artist!Lancelot, them running the smith together and trying out the weapons) I worry people will say that purely put them there to get Merlin and Arthur together, which is honestly only partly true (they will bet on when they get together, but won't interfere, cause they got better stuff to do) and another number of reasons, that exist in my head, but i don't know how to phrase them, we love a brain that doesn't work along.

3. not being able to write, it's either writer's block, a lack of motivation or school getting in the way.

How long I've been doing it

ehehehe,

this was originally a combo of prompts for merthur week back in.. april? (help) which was about 8/7 months ago?.. I'm still on that first chapter, there are meant to be seven. Y'know those ao3 writers that manage to publish every week/month despite what life throws at them? yeah im the opposite. I got ADD, am since september in my final year of highschool (i do plan on taking a leap year, if i manage to graduate) and I'm really fucking bad at doing my homework. also got anxiety, like a lot. I have a huge deadline soon and i'm already quite slow-paced when it comes to writing. I love it, i just can't ever seem to divide my time in a way that works. Sorry for the vent, you didn't ask for that. I do know, I'm gonna be so fucking relieved when im finished holy fuckkk

#tw vent #oops #thanks for the ask!

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candicewright · 4 years

Note

Hola it is I, here to request the costume design thoughts. I love costuming and dress history and all that, so would love to know your thoughts!! 😊

Hello, my friend, you're once again going to get one of my super long rant posts because I have thoughts. This is also for @marshmallowmcgonagall who asked me about my thoughts on this too. Thank you both for indulging me💜

Disclaimer here: I am not a costumer nor a fashion historian and I barely have any idea of what I'm talking about here, so just bear with me.

So the first thing you want to know when watching a period drama is if the costumes are historically accurate. Note that there can never be 100% accuracy because that is just not how costumes work, there are a lot of things to keep in mind besides accuracy (mainly budget, artistic vision and practicality among other things).

The short answer to this question in Merlin's case is no, they are not accurate. The Arthurian Legend is meant to be set during the sixth century and most of these silhouettes are something that is more common in the latter part of the Middle Ages and even then they are not exact. Anglo-Saxon fashion in the 6th century was way less delicate, using fabrics such as linen or wool much more than the silks, chiffons, satins, and velvets we see in Merlin. The garments were way less structured, using a belt or girdle instead of corsets or stays, sometimes using veils or head coverings. The dresses would have been ankle-length and worn over an undergown. So, not at all like the ones we see in the show.

The thing with the Arthurian Legend though is that historical accuracy isn't a thing that exists in it. It's a story that mixes elements from multiple periods as well as with straight-up fantasy so you can literally throw any pretense of being historical out the window. Which leaves us with a mostly blank slate and a lot of room for artistic liberty.

Which brings us to the costumes in Merlin. It's obvious from watching the show that they did do some sort of research into medieval fashion, though they only took inspiration from it instead of straight-up reconstruction, which would have been pretty useless.

Let's take the example of a fan favorite: Gwen's red dress from Season 5.

This dress is gorgeous and it obviously seems to take inspiration from actual 15th century tunics. I know this because I watched a reconstruction of a 15th century gown and I immediately started drawing parallels to this particular look. I'm going to go ahead and venture that this has about 6-7 panels since the dress doesn't seem to have a waist seam (which an actual garment from the period might have had). The sleeves seem to be lined with some sort of silk or satin which I believe is something you could find in very upper class clothing like this. Also, the belt and general shape of the gown seem to look accurate as well. The neckline is, though very flattering, not at all historical and probably the embroidery isn't either but I don't really care because embroidery you know? The dress would have probably been worn over some sort of chemise and would have opened with buttons or a variant of them at the front instead of lacing at the back.

The lacing is also pretty inaccurate. Corsets or stays (which I believe didn't really exist at this point anyway) would have been laced with one single strip looping instead of the double strip crossing that we see in these. Do I really care? No, it looks very pretty and if we're already going so off, might as well make it look good.

You know what I'm also a sucker for besides embroidery and historical patterns? Undergarments and structure, which all of Gwen's dresses seem to have. I mean:

Very structured looking for just being a satin gown with nothing underneath. I will venture to say she has some built-in corset or something similar, though I may be completely wrong.

I may not be, however, because we sometimes get to see these structural garments:

And however inaccurate this is I. Love. It.

Another thing that I appreciate a lot is that they didn't seem to cut corners with the fabrics. Yes they used some synthetic ones but there are a lot of actual silks in there, as well as other pretty costly fabrics. And they used a lot of them which is probably why the costumes look so good in the first place.

Also, have I mentioned I love embroidery?

Those two dresses are probably my favorites because look at them! They are purple and pretty and shiny! My gay heart can't take it!

The male costumes in the show are way less impressive to be honest, though I really appreciate Arthur's pretty armor and sexy tunics. My favorite male wardrobe is probably Uther's, to my utter dismay. But to be honest, it's much better than that of any other character, which makes sense since he cares about conveying status more than any other character in the show. No, but for real, look at this:

So good! Very royal! I would have loved to see Arthur in something like this in the later seasons, especially next to Gwen looking as gorgeous as she does in all those fancy dresses. They are also probably wildly inaccurate but I couldn't find any male 6th century dress reconstructions so I don't really know for sure.

If I can make two complaints about the costumes in the show, they would be the following:

I would have pushed Merlin's costumes a lot more as the show progressed. I feel like with him being the protagonist we were left with very little in terms of his wardrobe which frankly, having such a gorgeous man like Colin Morgan, is an absolute sin.

I would have loved to see the fantasy aspect of the show being reflected way more in the costumes. Maybe accentuating the magical aspects of certain characters by going father away from historical fashion and more into complete fantasy territory. They did this a little bit, but not enough to be very noticeable and I think it would have kicked the entire thing up a notch.

If I'm being completely honest though, I love the costume design in this show and I would love to recreate so many of these dresses because they are simply gorgeous. When you have a source material that allows such artistic liberty, you might as well make the most of it and they certainly did.

I may have gotten a lot of this stuff wrong. Again I have no idea what I'm talking about, so please feel free to correct me or add onto whatever you want!

#did i do any research for this? barely‚ so this could be very very wrong #anyways thank you for indulging me like this😂💜#ask response #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #merlin meta

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itsclownhours · 3 years

Text

i watched 5x03 finally but in no way do i want to write out like a hundred posts rn so i’m just gonna put it all here

i’m back bitches (i have no idea where i put the 5x02 stuff but i think i accidentally posted them and tagged them as 5x01 so oops but it was like a month ago so who knows)

i made my brother watch this show and now he’s obsessed lol

and now for the actual tea:

fjdakflahdgjkadh

fuck you

it was a scream idiot

lol

who’s dis

good

one of the few good things he’s done

bruh

oh well those aren’t things he can do

the theme music is such a fucking bop

stop giving him ideas bad things happen when he tries to use his brain

good

why did they make him a tomb just throw his corpse out the window as the people cheer

idiot

lol

fuck you

lol

fdjkaghlakjdfladjkghlakf

you mean...stonehenge

that’s literally stonehenge what the fuck

i would if i were you

oh so magic is good when it does something for him now is it?

well his father wasn’t a fuckhead asshat

ope

yes go into the light

fuck

you’re dead bitch

oh now you realize

this is why i hate him

like any normal people

yeah UTHER

fuck this bitch

this is why i blame uther for 90% of arthur’s problems

like y’know *tumblr voice* let’s give him some AcCoUnTaBiLiTy FoR tHe ChOiCeS hE’s MaDe WiTh HiS lIfE *end tumblr voice* (i always see posts like that about morgana but none about arthur ?? smh y’all are turning into merlin with your unhealthy obsession with arthur) but honestly if uther hadn’t raised him like and the way he’s written wasn’t so shitty then he would probably be a much more tolerable person

never thought i’d be siding with arthur but here we are

yes stay

oh really

you mean the people’s kingdom

you idiot

i know i don’t

you mean like me

lol

oop

well there’s certainly a limit to yours

there’s also a limit to daily tumblr posts which is a stupid addition to any app ever but especially the one i use to escape my problems

fjdhagjkdhlfkajsdlkgha

if there’s a jumpscare im gonna lose it

there always is

no you didn’t

that was a chandelier a candelabra is that one character from beauty and the beast

why

yes

yes he would

this bitch never listens to anyone

but of course for plot reasons no one hears any of this

oh NOW someone shows up

YES bitch he WOULD

oh NOW you believe him

then just...bow the horn

lol that’s where the meme came from

no the worst thin merlin’s ever tasted though he had to try the troll stuff back in season 2

bitch

IT’S THE SCENE

fkdjgkahdljkgahdlkjgshlkgjhsdflgkjaldkjghafghldfkjsdahlkjghadkjghdsf

bitch

oh is it though

well your father isn’t all-knowing

do they though

that’s a big-ass storeroom

birb

you’s think a ghost could just walk through anything but nO we need some pLoT cOnVeNiEnCe

you still do though

manipulative bitch

yeah but he’s not good

:| oh how convenient

idiot

fucking hypocritical bitch

arthur: *gets some character development* the bbc: haha unless 👀

#in which i watch merlin #merlin 5x03

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ai-katsuu · 4 years

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Jack and Frost (2/3)

1 2 3

previous next

---

“What am I doing here? Let’s hang out, Auds.” he chuckled. Jack frowned at this but before he could do anything Audrey raised her arm and water splashed on his face, letting go of Audrey as she fell to her feet. “I thought I told you to never carry me like that.” she said sharply

“Charming,” he chuckled, “Audrey, are you okay? What is he doing here?” Jack moved towards her. “Oh, you made it past the barrier.” the snow haired boy remarked “Wasn’t that hard,” Kio mumbled.

“Ah the Fearless 7, long time no see!” he winked, “You guys know him?” Audrey turned to the group. “Uh yeah. This guy messed with several of our missions by altering the weather.” Arthur drew his sword. “You made me lose several of my spells during that storm!” Merlin accused.

“Haha, fun times yes.” he stood up dusting himself off “Now if you excuse me I need to take my dear friend on an outing for just the two of us.” “Haha um, Jack,” the two boys looked at her. Startled Audrey looked back and forth at them, “Oh, that’s awkward.” she rubbed her head. Merlin snarked in the background only to be hit by Snow.

“Frost,” she looked directly at him “You may have not heard the news since you’re all over the place but-” “She’s engaged,” Jack stated flatly. He walked beside her and threw his arm around her shoulder. His other hand took a hold of her wrist and showed off a beautifully forged ring on her finger. He proceeded to raise his up as well.

Frost looked taken aback for a bit. Audrey looked carefully and saw that his grip on his staff had tightened. She was about to ask before he laughed, “Of course I knew!” Jack squinted his eyes, “It’s just that I don’t know if you knew but we happen to be childhood friends. I simply wanted to treat her as a congratulatory present!” he smiled.

To Jack, it was a sinister, evil, taunting smile and he only frowned back. Through all the cold, the group could still feel the tension.

“Hey! Why don’t we all go inside and we can all calm down in there!” Snow said looking directly at Audrey. She was trying to bail her out which Audrey understood and thanked her with her eyes.

“Yes! Great idea, Snow.” she approached her and linked her arm with hers “Could you come with me to my room?” “Of course!” she said quickly and the two trotted off to the doors “Merlin, could you give Frost a room to rest in? Thanks, we’ll meet for dinner!” and they left, leaving the princes outside.

It was quite for a bit, “Alright, Frost. What is your game?” Jack marched up to him “Woah Woah wait!” Merlin got in between them, “Frost, let’s get you to room first, ladies orders.” he nervously chuckled. “Triplets come with me.” they nodded “Yeah Jack, come with us!” Hans grabbed his arm and walked to the other pair of doors, albeit it was difficult due to his resisting and remaining eye contact with Frost. Merlin ushered Frost to the right side of the hallway while the others went the opposite way.

“Well, well, looks like you’ve got some competition.” Arthur teased. “A competition which I won far before it even began,” Jack responded with a frown on his face. “A childhood friend huh, that’s tough,” Hans pondered. “Did Audrey ever mention him before?” “A couple of times I think,” he wondered, “She said they used to travel together but then they stopped around a couple of years ago.” “Traveled together? So they must’ve spent a lot of time together, late nights and all,”

Jack stopped and he and Hans gave him a look which took Arthur a bit of time to notice “Oh, sorry.” Hans whacked him on the head.

---

“Snow! What am I going to do?!” Audrey paced around the shared room of Merlin and Snow. The former sat on her bed. “Well, how long have you known Frost?” she asked, “Childhood. We met around ten years ago when I was just learning about my powers. He fooled around with my powers with his ice.” she told her

“He always made these pick up lines, but honestly I don’t think he was ever serious about them. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not all he does.” she held her hands up “He has a good heart and is a good friend. He just likes to mess around a lot.” Snow White chuckled, “Well someone seemed to be jealous.” Audrey turned around and put one of her hands on her mouth and cheek, “Oh Jack..” she mumbled, “I should talk to him, shouldn’t I?” Snow nodded,

“He might be feeling angry or insecure, it’s best to go settle those as soon as possible before any ideas get into his head.” At that moment Merlin had entered the room, “Well someone’s become the belle of the ball.” he joked. Audrey sighed, “How is he?” Merlin’s puffed out a breath of air “He’s in your room now. As for Frost, I gave him a spare room, he seemed fine and aloof, but Jack was oddly quiet.” Audrey moved her hair back, “I’ll go talk to him now. Thanks, guys.” she looked at them.

“It’s no problem, Audrey.” Snow waved as did Merlin. She closed the doors and quickly made her way to her shared room. Running through the large halls was always one of her favorite things do to when she was exploring the large castle. She would enjoy it more had the situation been different. She didn’t stop as she approached her door, opening it to see Jack on the vanity combing his hair. She slowed down as she closed the door. Audrey didn’t say anything as she walked behind him. He had a frown on his face as he refused to make eye contact with her.

“Jack..” she began, “Why is he here?” he asked sharply. She sighed, “I don’t know. I don’t even know where he's been for the past few years but-” she looked at the mirror to see that he was now looking at her reflection. She took the comb from his hand, placed it on the table, and instead placed her hand with his and he willingly held it, “I promise you there was never anything between Frost and I.” his grip tightened at the mention of his name,

“We were childhood friends and he pulled this all the time. Constantly.” she rolled her eyes, “I like him as a friend because he is a good one, but that’s it. It was never anything more.” she assured him. Jack sighed and turned around from his chair, “I’m sorry. It’s not that I’m mad at you. I know you love me, I never doubted that.” he looked at her sympathetically and she smiled a bit “It just made me uncomfortable and insecure.” he mumbled.

Audrey’s laugh filled his ears, the one that made him weak every time. She gracefully sat on his lap and put her arms around his neck. “Just forget about it, darling.” Jack scoffed and rolled his eyes “Remember when Arthur heard me call you that for the first time?” he laughed “He was mortified!” she giggled.

Jack sighed dreamily. “I love you, Jack. No matter what.” a light pink made its way to his cheeks as he smiled. “I love you too…” he mumbled as he closed his lips on hers. A meaningful kiss, just like the one they gave each other the day Jack’s curse was broken.

The following evening Jack had eaten dinner in their room as did the others. While he was in the shower Audrey decided to go and visit Frost. “Frost?” she entered the room. “Yes, Frost is here.” she looked up and saw Frost hanging from the ceiling with his staff. He was making little snowflakes and blowing them to the window. Her gaze went to the hot soup and rice that was sitting on the table.

“I know you don’t need to eat but if you just leave the food untouched it’ll send the wrong message to the cook,” she told him. “Depends who cooked it. Was it that ginger-haired member? Or the cute little bear children?” “I think you know who,” she sat on his bed. “Then no, I won’t eat it.” he smiled and sat upon the ledge.

Audrey sighed and ignored that comment, “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in months.” “Same as you, just around the world. Well, maybe not like you anymore.” he eyed her finger. Audrey looked at him sympathetically.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He eyed her “You know you could’ve just sent me a message through any body of water.” Audrey shook her head “It wasn’t something I wanted to tell you through message. This is important, I wanted to tell you in person.” “Well you could’ve called me about meeting up!” he raised his hand up. “You’re right! You’re right, I have no excuse,” she gave in looking at him, “This was a new life and I just got caught up in it.” she stared at the room then snapped her fingers all of a sudden.

“Let’s go on an adventure,” Frost lifted his head up, “What?” “Like before! Let’s go from town to town, cause some trouble, make more memories. Three days.” she offered. Jack jumped down from his staff and couldn’t hide his grin, “You’re serious? Really?” Audrey nodded “Yeah! Think of it as one more hurrah before I’m married.” Frost paused and raised his eyebrow, Audrey saw through his question and agreed “Yes, we’ll still have these adventures after I’m married.” he had a contentful smile and nodded his head.

He finally went to the food that was prepared and took a sip of the champagne “So you’ve talked to blondie about it?” “Ah,” she raised her shoulders “No I just thought of it now. But we’re going that’s for sure,” she pointed. “Afterwards it’s back to wedding planning and all that fancy stuff.”

Frost put the glass down and took a bite of the rice and soup “Wow, this is actually really good.” he slurped it loudly. “Alright,” she stood up. “I’ll go talk to Jack, we can leave tomorrow morning, and you should get some rest right after you finish making love to your soup,” she stated, eyeing him out the door.

When she entered her room she saw Jack with a bathrobe on, dabbing his fingers on a face mask he had put on. “Jack, hey! I need to talk to you about something.” “Oh no,” his eyes went wide and turned to face her, “Okay I had to throw away those creams of yours, they were a scam and they do nothing for your skin.”

“No I meant- you threw away my creams?” she took a double look at him. Jack looked to the side, “Oh that’s not what this is about?” “Yeah no,” she glared at him while he nervously laughed, “I need to ask you something,” she took his hand “Of course, is everything alright?”

#red shoes and the 7 dwarfs #red shoes and the seven dwarfs #red shoes movie #red shoes jack #jack frost #rise of the guardians

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wordsablaze · 5 years

Text

7~ Isolation

Magic and Misery Merlin might use magic to help Arthur but he rarely uses it to help himself, which leads to an awful lot of misery… written for whumptober, enjoy!

A/N: sorry if this reads strangely, i’ve failed to avoid the cold season so i’m generally a bit hazy, you know?

Arthur was not known to be unjust.

Most people that knew him could comfortably say he played fairly and was never unnecessarily harsh.

Even Merlin, who complained daily to any Knights willing to lend an ear, would never go as far as calling Arthur unjust. It just wouldn’t be right.

But unfortunately, Arthur was an apple that had, with a little help, rolled very far away from the tree.

So when a guard finally catches Merlin sneaking around the vaults at night with next to no explanation and brings him to the king as dawn breaks, Uther doesn't hesitate to punish him.

By throwing him in the dungeons.

Merlin doesn’t even try to explain himself, knowing that, without revealing his magic, he’d only be able to make the situation worse for himself. He glances over to Arthur as the guard behind him drags him to his feet and flinches at the disappointment he sees.

Of course Arthur would be disappointed in him, he’d only gone and ruined the trust between them and possibly doomed all of Camelot, not to mention Albion.

So Merlin keeps his head lowered as he’s lead to the dungeons, a route that’s become alarmingly familiar to him over time. He only looks up when his familiar route turns into a new path that he doesn’t recognise.

“Wait, where are we going?” he asks.

“Shut up. The King has decided he doesn’t want you taking up space in the regular dungeons,” one of the two guards answers, pushing him along when he pauses to think on that.

“But-”

“No talking,” the other guard interjects, leading him through corridors he hasn’t yet explored until they get to a row of small cells, cells even smaller than his chambers.

“Wait, I-”

The guards only glare at him, one of them pushing him roughly into the cell so he goes sprawling, landing awkwardly on his wrists.

“We’ll see you when the king deems fit. Try not to die.”

Merlin scrambles to his feet as they start to leave. “Wait!”

They don’t.

Their footsteps echo for far too long before some kind of gate is closed and silence surrounds Merlin like some sort of malicious hug.

He takes a few minutes to look around but the cell seems perfectly ordinary, with stone walls and bars at the front. There’s no sort of bed though, so Merlin will have to settle with the cold floor, although that’s not incredibly difficult.

The only that really stands out is the distinct lack of light. There are no windows, the corridor seems to go on forever, and there seems to only be a few fixed fires along this mysterious passage, none of which are outside his cell. It seems that darkness is part of his punishment.

Merlin sighs and slumps to the floor, wondering if Arthur or the other Knights will be able to come and visit him like they usually do. It doesn’t seem likely.

There’s no light so he has no concept of time, at least not after he dozes off the first time because that means he loses count of the minutes and has to give up on keeping track. He tries pacing but it just tires him out and they don’t seem to be bothered about food so he discards that idea immediately.

He ends up falling asleep without meaning to, unaware that Arthur is furiously talking with his knights above him to try and figure out where Merlin is being kept.

Merlin stirs as metal hits metal.

By the time his eyes have opened, there’s a plate of food - quite a lot of food that’s probably meant to last the whole day - at the entrance of his cell and the sound of receding footsteps in the air.

“Wait, hang on!” Merlin jumps to his feet but he can’t see anyone, which implies that they’d been told to avoid talking to him.

He just sights and mentally calculates how much he needs to ration throughout the day - not that he has any way of working out what time of day it is - before taking a bread roll and slowly eating it, making sure to savour every bite.

It’s dull.

Not the bread, the bread is lovely. Slightly stale but soft and enough to satiate his hunger. No, the bread isn’t dull.

The cell is dull.

Merlin groans for what must be the hundredth time as he heard someone’s footsteps again, only to realise nobody is coming towards him. He’s done so plenty of times already and should probably know better than to still hope, but he can’t help it.

He assumes it’s the fourth day - because he’s been given three plates of food, plus the first day where he got none - when something finally happens.

He must have dozed off because he’s awoken by something being thrown at him.

“Ow!” Merlin winces at the sound of his own voice; it sounds obnoxiously loud in the silence and he’d taken to staying so quiet that even his own footsteps made him jump at this point.

And it’s not even that it had hurt, it’d just been a blanket.

There’s a guard staring at him in confusion but, when he catches Merlin’s eye, he straightens and clears his throat. “It’s going to be a cold night,” he warns, nodding his head to the blanket.

“Uh, thanks?” Merlin replies, pulling the blanket towards himself.

“Yeah,” the guard agrees, clearly not knowing what he’s doing, and briskly turns to leave before Merlin can ask anything else.

Sighing, Merlin just slumps back down the wall and wraps the blanket around him, grabbing another piece to bread to nibble on.

By the time his eyes are dropping again, he’s counted every crack in the bricks, twice over. There’s far too many for the walls to be structurally stable, and yet here he is, confined to the company of a blanket.

His head hits the floor with a dull thud and he groans, sleep vanishing from his mind as pain fills his thoughts. Cursing at himself for not preventing such a thing, Merlin just rolls his shoulders back and yawns.

“Another great probably-morning to me,” he mumbles, shivering.

The guard was right: It had been a cold night. And his blanket hadn’t helped in the slightest. The little Gaius in his head tells him that the minimal food and lack of hydration haven’t helped either, but he ignores that thought because there’s nothing he can do about it.

He decides to just keep his eyes shut.

There’s a slight risk of going insane if he keeps them open so he doesn’t. He just lets himself stay propped up by the corner, waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting for what?

Anything.

It’s definitely one of the worst punishments he’s been given, Merlin decides.

He can’t wait for something to happen. He’d even take someone trying to kill him. Or someone trying to use him to kill Arthur. Or someone using Arthur to kill him, at least that’d be more entertaining.

So he keeps waiting, desperately waiting.

And, finally, his wait is over.

“Merlin, you idiot, why’d you have to go and get yourself thrown into dungeons I didn’t even know existed?” An exasperated voice inquires.

An exasperated but beautiful, mercifully loud, voice.

“Arthur?”

“I didn’t know you could see with your eyes closed.”

Merlin’s eyes fly open so fast, it takes him a moment to blink the bright daze away from them. And then he smiles, brightly, genuinely.

“Arthur!”

He’s up on his feet in an instant, but then he stops, remembering the disappointment he’d seen in Arthur’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.

Arthur just scoffs. “I’m sure you are, Merlin. But you’ll be sorrier when you see the state of my chambers!”

Merlin frowns, finally looking at Arthur, relishing in the ability to see another human being, a sign that he’s not going mad.

“You’re not… mad?” he asks tentatively, wanting to test the waters he’d so dearly missed before diving back in.

Arthur raises an eyebrow. “I’m not mad you were sneaking around, Merlin, I know that’s part of your so-called charm. But I am mad that you got caught. I mean, surely you’ve learned something by now?”

Merlin opens his mouth to reply but nothing comes out. He’d expected a lot of things and had been given plenty of time to imagine all sorts of outcomes, but this was something he couldn’t have predicted in a thousand years.

“Thank you,” Merlin manages to say, beaming once more.

“I’m sorry,” Arthur replies sincerely, surprising Merlin even more. “I’d forgotten such isolation was even an option and… and I promise, I won’t let you be punished like this again.”

For a second, silence fills the room again.

Then Arthur clears his throat awkwardly. “I mean, surely my father knows it’s ridiculous to expect me to go a week without my manservant. It’s barbaric and none of the other servants know how to tidy my things away properly...”

Merlin smiles.

After a pause, Arthur smiles back.

And somehow, Merlin thinks, it’s worth the wait.

Again, sorry for mistakes and stuff... not that people really read my stuff on tumblr anyway...

like/reblog but please don’t repost, thanks! masterlist

#whumptober2019 #no.7 #isolation #merthur #bbc merlin #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #merlin whump #protective arthur #merlin x arthur #whumptober #fanfiction #merlin fanfic #fanfic #hurt comfort #idiots in love #my writing #mam #whump

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cartooness · 5 years

Text

Bby Lav AU

OKAY SO

ME AND MY LOVE @thefearanddespair CAME UP WITH THIS AU LIKE 2 WEEKS AGO AND I JUST REALIZED I NEVER TRULY POSTED IT SO HERE IT IS. WARNING IT’S HELLA LONG.

PINK HOLY SHIT

WHAT IF EVERYONE FOUND LAV AS A TODDLER

INSTEAD OF BEING 14, SHE'S 4

EVERYTHING IS THE SAME EXCEPT SHE'S 10 YEARS YOUNGER

AS WELL AS ALL THE FRIENDS

DECAN SINGS LULLABIES

SHE IS ALWAYS HOLDING SOMEONE'S HAND

PIGTAILS

“The moon sings me to sleep every night”

“The MOON?”

“Yeah! He’s very nice, I love Moon uncle”

Lav to a friend as a 4yr old bby

And she makes friends with mason when they're 7!!

Super childhood friends to lovers

Y E S

And she's always sleeping in someone's room. She doesn't like being alone

There is always a child's blankey in all the rooms for whenever she wants to sleep with someone

Someone- Oh can I schedule an appointment on this day?

Hadley- Oh I'm so sorry but that day is taken. I can put you for... a week from now?

Someone- Alright.

Hadley was actually just rocking lav to sleep.

SO CUUUTE

UMBRELLA DAD. THEY'RE TRUE DADS NOW. ALL OF THEM.

LAV IS STILL POWERFUL AF

Father’s Day is a BITCH for her lmao

Ok so she's at like Vivi's house or apartment whatever, and she drops her off at HQ, and there's a giant roll of easel paper, taller than bby lav, with all her dad's on there

AND THEY'RE TRYING NOT TO CRY

Or failing in Decan’s case.

Bby Lav gets a hold of Hadley’s umbrella wand.

Hijinks ensue.

>:)))))))))

ÒwÓ

Otto has to literally YEET Hadley into the fucking sky to grab her, grab the wand, and float safely to the ground again.

LMAOOOO

Hadders- Othello. Throw me.

Otto- Um??

Hadders- JUST DO IT

And then they’re floating down, and Hadley’s cradling the Bby in one arm, holding his umbrella up with the other.

Like Eclipsa with Meteora lmao

Y E S. I M LOVE

If Lav can ever teleport, she and Decan could do the thing Glimmer and Angella do in that last episode of season 3.

You know, the teleport and catch thing.

SHE CAN. SHE CAN TELEPORT

Decan flying after her and catching her and all that in his winged form. Or even Otto doing that!

Y E S

Hadley is subsequently freaking the fuck out on the ground.

PLAYTIME WITH FUN PAPAS

WITH WORRIED MOM

“PUT HER DOOOOOWWWWWN!”

Otto proceeds to blow him a rather Loud raspberry lmao

AND LAV GIGGLING LIKE CRAZY, "AGAIN, AGAIN!!!"

Otto- you heard the little lady!! Again!

Hadley: “ARE YOU ACTUALLY JOKING ME???”

And Otto blows another raspberry. And makes a rather crude joke.

And Hadley is jusT O F F E ND

LAV IS A VERY ACTIVE BABY

THEY'RE ALWAYS CHASING HER THROUGH THE HOUSE OR AT PARKS AND STUFF.

HER KITTY EYES ARE MORE IRRESISTIBLE THAN BEFORE.

SHE STILL HAS BEANS AND PURRING

Hadley: *Bitching at Otto*

Otto: “PBBPPBRBTBRBRPT!! Jeeez, Hadley, all that hot air you’re blowin’ is contagious, crack a window wont’cha?”

Hadley: *Pterodactyl screeching*

LMAOOOOO

Hadders- BUT MY BABY DOWN BEFORE I BEAT YOUR BUTT!!

Decan- MAKE US.

Otto- SHE'S OUR BABY TOO, YA KNOW!

Meanwhile Lav is enjoying the silly stuff her papas are fighting over and is thrilled of being tossed around. XD

Decan’s just laughing and twirling and stuff. He’s all just “It’s fiiiiiine!”

:OOOOOO

LAV IN KINDERGARTEN SHOWING ALL THE KIDS HER BIG ASS EXTENDED FAMILY.

Lav’s presence just screams ‘Gay Rights’ to all the other little kids.

Even if not all of the parents agree.....

They get told off

Lav- And this is all my papas!! They all love each other very much.

The teacher- Lavender, sweetie, did you say that your "papas" all.... love each other?

Lav- Yeah!! Daniel and Cecil love each other. Decan and Otto love each other. Lewis, Vivi, and Arthur love each other. Merlin and Quentin love each other. And Percy and Hadley don't have love yet.

The teacher- *grimace*

Some kid- You're dad's are all *insert slur here*!!!

Lav- Stop, that's mean!!

Some kid- No it's not, it's true!!

And he gets shoved out if his desk.

And poor bby lav comes crying when they pick her up, explaining how all the kids made fun of her and her family.

Hadley then calls in to the office when he picks her up from school that day.

He has a few words XD

A few.....very polite, very CHOICE words.

And then he’s like to Lavender.

“Now, I’m not one to spoil children, but I do believe that an ice cream....or two....is warranted at a time like this.”

And that means a lot when HADLEY’S the one doing the treating. The responsible, rule-driven and sometimes strict parent.

YES BIG LOVE.

“Just....don’t tell anyone else. They’ll have me strung upon a wall, or....thrown in the stocks.”

Very old fashioned boi lmao

Lav, a good girl, - Okay Papa Hadley!

And she proceeds to eat two scoops of peaches and cream ice cream.

Adorable.

I know!!

AND COULD YOU IMAGINE? BABY MASON?

They're in the same first grade class and they're table buddies!!!

They probably have play dates all the time!!

AND SHE MAKES HIM THINGS OUT OF MAGIC SOMETIMES

7 year old Lav- Mason, Mason!!! Look what I can do!! *makes a pinecone out of magic*

7 year old Mason- :OOO THAT'S SO COOL LAV!!!!

This is way too fucking cute, I can’t.

Mason, showing his pinecone to Kyle, then Nicole, - NICKY, LOOK WHAT LAV MADE ME!!!!

Pre Transition Kyle- Woah! That's so cool!!!

Mason - I'm gonna keep it in my box of special things, where it'll be safe!!!

BBY LAV PLAYING WITH OTTO AND DECAN’S NON-HUMAN PARTS?

Pointy ears, Tails, Wings, Dec’s Horns, Otto’s Fangs

YES YES YES SHE WOULD

“Woooow! You’ve got weally big teeth, Papa Otto!”

“You have vewwy pwetty wings Papa Decan!”

And they’re just....melting.

I'M LOVE I'M LOVE

OR PLAYING WITH DANIEL AND CECIL HAIR. OR ANYONE'S HAIR IN GENERAL

Hadley’s super long and thicc hair lmao

Y E S

One day, Hadley's hair is just. Covered in hair accessories.

And lav says to keep them in all day. And so he does.

And it takes like half an hour to take all of them out lmaooo

WHEN OTTO COMES HOME FROM LIKE TRAINING OR SOMETHING AND HE'S ALL BEAT UP, LAV AND DECAN CLEAN UP HIS WOUNDS, BUT LAV PUTS LIKE PRINCESS BAND AIDS ON ALL THE SCRATCHES AND STUFF.

Someone- Why do you have... girly band aids all over you?

Otto- the doctor said I had to keep these on and if I take them off I will die.

He’s sitting in a chair, like, grumbling as Cecil and Daniel have to take them out.

ALSO ABSOLUTELY HE WOULD DO THAT!

Big Masculine Buff Man.

Princess Bandaids. And they’re, like, his pride and joy.

Awwww!!

Best part of getting beat up. Lav gives him the Princess bandaids. He says they make him look badass.

Proud Papa.

Cecil’s a fashion designer.

Bby fashion.

:OOOOOOOOOOOO

I D E A S

YOU KNOW HOW LAV LIKES TO BE COMFY? SHE PROBABLY HAS A BUNCH OF CUTE SWEATERS THAT SHE WEARS ALL THE TIME

ALL HER DADS LOVE HER TO BITS AND YOU WILL DIE IF YOU MESS WITH THEIR SHARED BABY GIRL

OMG. PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCE THINGS.

GASP. LAV LEARNING ABOUT THE LGBT COMMUNITY. SHE'S 4 INSTEAD OF 14 WHEN SHE LEARNS.

Also YES all of that is über wholesome

Otto goes and when people are, like, homophobic or whatever, he sorta lounges back, feet on the table, and does his sorta ‘Blow-Raspberry-Fart-Jokes’ routine that he loves so much at all the other people and they’d be like ‘Honestly this is an grown-up affair, why don’t you act your age you disgusting slob of a man’ and he’s just like ‘Really? Then why don’t y’all stop acting like a bunch of whiny children, whining about the 21st century? Then maybe I’ll treat y’all like adults and this meeting like something important. (Otto is the king of Fart Jokes lmao. He’s a big old child.

And terribly dad-like like that. It’s just one of the truths about him.)

OMG IMAGINE MASONDER

Okay so, they're both like, 12 I guess, and it's Lavender's birthday, and Mason gives her like, a really cute stuffed animal, and she Instantly Loves, and she gives him a big hug and a peck on the face.

Cue awkward silence

Everyone sees.YES EXACTLY

Big old moment.

Baby’s First Kiss

Mason, not knowing what to do, just returns the favor.

And Lav is almost about to DIE FROM HER MASSIVE BLUSHING. Mason's fucking. Avoiding all eye contact with everyone, and it's a very uncomfortable silence.

And finally Lav breaks the silence by grabbing his face and kissing him.

EVERYONE IS LOSING THEIR SHIT

Hadley, in the back of the room,

"IS THIS ALLOWED!?!?!? IS THIS ALLOWED!?!?!?

Emotional Moment.

And the supposedly steel-hearted Hadley finally breaks down crying. All that internal emotion becomes external emotion.

(And his makeup gets smudged, and it’s all crazy and emotional.)

Otto fucking SCOOPS Lavender up into his big, hairy arms and hugs her. All “HELL YEAH GIRL! How’d it feel!? What was it like?! I know he’s not as good a kisser as D-EEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAKKKK-an, but STILL!” He had that emotional bat-screech moment.

And Decan’s just a blubbering mess. All proud Daddy style. They grow up so fast and all that.

Mason- ARE YOU ALL OKAY?!?! AM I IN TROUBLE?!?!

Vivi just cheers. Mama Bear style.

And Lewis is all

"I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU HURT HER IN ANYWAY I WILL BREAK YOU: Mason, scared,- Y-yes sir. I'll um, I'll be good, I promise.

Hadley’s like that too. But a lot less overt.

And a lot more shadow-over-the-face serious.

He pulls Mason aside for Tea, and has a full on discussion with him over it. Making for DAMN sure he knows what he’s getting into, and making damn sure that Mason has no intention of in any way fucking around and breaking her heart.

Mason, at the end of it all,- Yes, sir, I understand. Am I free to go?

Hadley - Yes. But remember, I'm always watching. *does that I've got my eyes on you tea sip thing*

And he IS!

The following week, Hadley pulls aside Lav and asks all about her and Mason. Plot twist is that he KNOWS. And is testing to see whether or not she reproduces what he’s already seen. To test wether or not she’s lying. And if she IS, Mason told her to lie and he’s bricked.

He’s terribly cunning like that.

The following week, Hadley pulls aside Lav and asks all about her and Mason.

Lav- Aw, I'm glad you asked! He's so cute, that Button. Anyway, we've been eating lunch together and we shared a cookie, um, we held hands a lot, what else, um, please don't be um, mad, but, um, we kinda..... fell asleep together while you were at work.

Hadders- Oh I know.

Lav- What?

Hadley: Lavender, Darling, you should know by now. I make it my business to know everything. The surname ‘Trivia’ doesn’t come for free.

He could easily pull an Eclipsa and cast some sort of All-Seeing-Eye.

Hadley doesn’t see limits when he’s protecting someone. He’s willing to go as far as it takes.

Lav- Are you mad at me? I mean, we weren't doing anything, like, BAD, but still, if you don't want us to do that we'll stop.

H: On the contrary! I’m very happy with you. You passed the test.

I was watching you both. The whole time. And I wanted to be sure that he hadn’t convinced you to lie to me if you were asked. Or, heaven forbid, you lie on your own will. And you didn’t lie at all!

Lav- Oh. Uh, cool! I guess! Also, he is a very good cuddle partner. Just thought I'd say that. Also his hair is really soft and it's fun to play with. And- *proceeds to ramble on about Mason lol*

Hadley then just sorta sits down and conjures some coffee for himself.

She's in love, Hadley!!!! Yep lol

And Ashley, on the other hand, is listening to a very happy mason go on about Lavender and it's adorable. He announced to Kyle (he had just transitioned) over the house phone about his new relationship with Lav and Kyle's so happy for him and, of course, teases a bit, but asks for all the details.

They're Those (tm) friends who love info dumping about things they're passionate about.

Omg, imagine Lav going on and on about Mason to Decan and Otto. They’re just sorta babbling with her. Otto TRIES to give relationship advice but he’s just.... Terrible, it’s terrible advice lmao. He’s just trying.

And Decan’s laughing his li’l head off.

Decan, fanboying,- Oh my goodness, Peaches!! You guys are so CUTE!!!!! When's the wedding~~~

Lav- DECAN!!!!!! Ò//////Ó

Decan - I'M JOKING. *mostly anyway, they still get married after college graduation*

O: “K, you gotta try and outsmart him into letting you kill him! But you’ll find as you go that you’re actually falling for him and he’s falling for you too and it goes from there! And you can win him over with pick-up lines or fart jokes or by rapping for him as he sings along and I got notebooks for that sorta stuff if ya-“

D: *While laughing* “Otto, darling, c’mmoooooonnn! That advice sucks, not everybody falls for that crude humour and personality like I did, you know!”

O: “Psh! Oh yeah! Watch her try it and watch it work like a charm!”

D: “Oh yes, a charm, indeed.~ If your ‘embrace your inner animal’ way works then naturally my way would happen next, wouldn’t it? Soften you to mush and then claim that mush as mine.”

O: “Oh, ya li’l SCAMP! GET IN HERE!”

*Otto then proceeds to pull Decan in and noogie him between his horns as he laughs and kicks.*

OMG THAT'S SO CUTE

Lav- Uhhhhh. I think I'll just. Go with the flow and maybe I'll try and kiss him again on Friday. Might bring a flavored lip gloss with me that day....

Decan- OOOH, SOMEONE HAS PLANS!!!!

Lav- DECAN, PLEASE!!!! ÒÒ///////ÓÓ

~~Otto got REALLY lucky finding someone as naturalist and oblivious to human sociality as Decan, let’s be honest, if ‘inner-beast’ crudeness and rude-fraternity-boy charm is his play style lmao~~

O: “Decan, we’re gonna be there and we’re gonna bring the MP3.”

D: “Love-songs, Yes? Can do.”

O: “Warm up those vocal chords!”

D: “Only if you warm up yours.”

O: “We’re gonna give them the best ambience EVER!”

D: “Historical. It shall be written down and carried down till the end of time!”

O: “HELL YEAH! VÁMONOS!”

Lav- uh, you don't have to do that, it'll be like. Maybe after school? In the courtyard?

They’re, like, playfully pouty like ‘Fiiiiiiiiiiiine.’ But really they’re just happy for her.

God, Otto and Percy are, like, the disaster parents for Lav. Especially for Bby lav.

Otto, especially, would absolutely ADORE Lav. I can’t speak entirely for Percy but I feel like they’d love her a whole bunch, but god, Otto absolutely adores Lavender.

AWWWWW

Big, buff, tuff, ill-mannered-gentleman Vamp Dad and his li’l goddess.

OMG HOLY FUCK NUGGETS YOU KNOW THAT THING? WHERE IT'S TWO ADULTS AND ONE BBY IN THE MIDDLE? DECAN, LAV, AND OTTO. Y E S. OR WITH ANY COUPLE ACTUALLY. AND THEN THEY SWING BBY LAV OVER LIKE CURBS AND STUFF AND AHHHH I'M SOMFT. SO CUUUTE!!!! OOH IN THIS AU, MASON AND LAV ARE STILL HELLA CUDDLY AND SNUGGLY. Gonna stop doing all caps lol. Anyway, masonder happens a bit earlier, but they've been friends for like 5 years at the time they are a Thing, so yeah haha. They are THE cutest thing ever. Always holding hands, face holding, sharing food, small pecks on the face, all that cute stuff uwu. They're in 7th grade btw. Both 12. They're relationship is steady and lasts all throughout middle school and high school. (Yes. They are the DEFINITION of an "Endgame Ship.") And then after they do the whole college thing, they tie the knot, have a baby, and live happily ever after uwu. :P

( This next bit is from a comic I did lol)

QUENTIN GAVE HER THE KNIFE

Otto: “LAV, YOU CAN’T HAVE A KNIFE!!!

Have a crossbow, it’s much more powerful.” “Just don’t go staking papa Otto through the chest, now! It’s bad for me!”

Lav- Oh cool! What about a sword! I'll be careful, I promise! And Hadley’s losing his mind lol Decan: *Does the moon butterfly magic sword thing*

“Here you are!” Bby Lav-

>:OOOOOOOO I'M GONNA KILL HOMOPHOBIC PEOPLE!!!

Hadley- Lav, honey, that's illegal.

Lav- But Mx. Percy does illegal stuff all the time!! Hadley: *Scoops Lavender up and Mary-Poppins flies the fuck out* YES

And that's what we came up with lmao

#mystery skulls #mystery skulls animated #bby!lav au #lavender grey

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sorceress-coffee · 5 years

Text

Trollhunters Episode 3 Pt. 2

This is the fourth installment of my DraalxOC (River) fanfic. I will link Episode 1, the previous episode, and the next episode (once it’s submitted), to each chapter. I will begin to post this on AO3 soon. Thank you all for reading!

Episode 1

Episode 3 Pt. 1

Episode 4 Pt1

[Episode 3 pt. 1]

I wince at the thought of having to deal with an irritated Draal all the way home. I grab the satchel and start heading out, nodding to Blinky and Aaarrrgghh, pausing in the doorway, “I’ll see you tomorrow for training Master Vendel!” I then took off running to catch up with Draal.

[Episode 3 pt. 2]

Once outside of Trollmarket I slouch to the ground groaning. “What the hell did I get myself into?”

Draal snorts, noticing that I stopped, “You threw yourself into countless hours of studying and training with the old goat.” He lifted me by the hood of my jacket to sniff the gashes in the back. “So, you fought Bular and lived, with no training. I’d say impressive, but it appears to be shit luck.” He dropped me and continued walking.

I growl at getting troll handled, “Oh really? Why should I care if you’re impressed?” I smirk watching him walk, “By the way, that path leads to school, home is that direction.” I state, jabbing my thumb behind me.

Draal growls, turning around and stalking by. “I wouldn’t go the wrong way if you knew how to lead.” He was definitely irritated. I quickly fell in step beside him, heading up along the trail.

We walked in silence for a while until a sigh escaped me, “I’m sorry, for your father and the amulet. I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose both in one day.”

“I don’t need a fleshbag’s pity.” He growled out.

“I’m not pitying you Draal, I’m empathizing. Big difference.” I state. Even though I could understand his reaction, I didn’t have to like it. I paused as we got close to the house. “It sucks okay? I get losing a parent, I understand that pain. But losing a parent and what you believe to be your destiny in one go? I can understand your anger towards Jim and not the ‘he’s a fleshbag’ anger, but the ‘he took everything from me’ anger.” I explained, copying Draal’s arm movements as I talk about him hating Jim.

Draal watches me carefully, calculating how to react. “You are strange.” He finally says looking to the house. “You empathize… you’ve experienced the pain; you don’t just know of it.” He states, watching the windows of the house.

“Why do you think I live with my aunt and cousin?” I ask, shrugging slightly. “I don’t expect you to trust or like me Draal, but I have a feeling we will be seeing each other a lot, and I hope we can be on better terms than today.”

Draal only hummed in acknowledgment.

I nod then turn to the house, “Thank you for walking me home, even if Vendel asked you to. Be careful getting back home!” I called out, heading to the house with a wave.

Draal lifts his hand in a slight wave before heading back into the trees, back to Trollmarket.

I greeted mom quickly, shoving my hands in the pockets of my jacket to hide them. “Hey mom, sorry I’m home late, I was at the library!”

Barbara smiled and waved it off. “No worries sweetie, how are your hands though? Jim said you burned them during your science class.” She held out her hands expectantly. I wince slightly and pull my hands out so she can inspect the bandages.

“They’re okay, the uh, nurse had stuff for burning, I’m supposed to keep them wrapped up though,” I explained.

She turns my hands over and nods, “The nurse did an excellent job. No painting tonight though. You’ll need to rest them.” She kissed my forehead letting my hands go. “Jim took your dinner upstairs, should be in your room.”

I grinned running up, “Thanks, mom!” I quickly run to Jim’s door, knocking carefully before entering and flopping on his bed.

Jim chuckles, “It’s been a day.” He pulls at the black satchel. “What’s this?”

I groan as I roll over, “My new magic homework. Apparently, I’m a sorceress, and have to train or ‘risk becoming a threat.’” I mock in Vendel’s voice sitting up, pulling out the books to show him. “So, while you’re stuck in the forge, I’m stuck in the Heartstone.” I tease, acting like it’s the worst.

Jim rolls his eyes, “Oh yeah, because learning magic is oh so boring,” he teased back, picking up the books and looking them over. “How are you supposed to read these? They’re in another language.”

I shrugged, “Vendel checked, apparently being able to read it has something to do with magic.” Points to the smaller book. “That one is about keeping King Arthur in line.”

He laughs, picking it up and flipping through it. “How’d you get home?”

I snorted, “Vendel had Draal, of all trolls, walk me home.”

Jim groans at the name throwing himself back on his pillow, “He wants to kill me, I swear he does.”

I smile slightly, “He’s had a rough few days, give him time, I think you might end up getting along.”

Jim and I stayed up for a while. I read him most of the book on ‘How to keep King Arthur in Line.’ I’d love to meet Merlin if he was this hilarious in person. We decided to try and sleep, training was going to be ruthless after all, we needed as much rest as we could get.

After school, as promised, Jim, Toby, and I headed straight for Trollmarket, excited to start training. We met with Blinky and Aaarrrgghh at the entrance and were quickly escorted inside. I broke off from the group as we reached the cavern with a glowing Daylight sign above it, waving as I head to the Heartstone to meet with Vendel.

“Hello, Master Vendel!” I greet him once I entered the cave.

He chuckled, “River, are you ready? We will be starting with the basics of identifying and sorting spell materials.”

I nod, “Actually, as I was reading, I realized a lot of the basics for magic dealt with ingredient distinction, especially minerals. I’ve been taking geology and I collect stones with Toby.” I pulled out a large black case, opening it to show Vendel the stones inside. “These are from my collection at home. I followed the classification guides and separated them accordingly. Toby let me practice with his collection as well.”

Vendel took the black case and studied the stones and ingredients closely. “I’m surprised you haven’t cut these.” He hummed and nodded. “Well done, you have sorted them properly.” He paused thinking, “Why don’t we check on the Trollhunter’s progress? It will give you a chance to assess how trolls fight.”

I nod quickly and follow him as we took a different route to the forge. We came to a large opening and I could hear Blinky and Jim talking. I walk over and look down and see that Vendel and I are in the stands of the Hero’s Forge. I pulled myself up to sit on the stone wall, legs hanging over the side as Vendel stood next to me, watching Jim get pelted with rocks by Blinky and a stray rock by Aaarrrgghh.

As Blinky was explaining the third rule of being a Trollhunter, hitting your opponents in the crotch, I caught a flash of blue from the cavern entrance, looking over to see Draal walking into the forge. “Ah! So, the Trollhunter’s training begins.” He states in an overly friendly tone, stalking towards Jim and Blinky, both growing nervous at Draal’s entrance. “I thought the great Trollhunter might accept my services as a sparring partner.” He bowed his head before hitting a fist against his open palm. “Part of your training regiment, isn’t it?” He asks, looking to Blinky.

“In due time, perhaps,” Blinky states quickly.

Vendel chuckles beside me, “Why wait?” He calls out, drawing everyone’s attention to us. I wave to Jim, Blinky, and Draal. “I am eager to see your charge demonstrate his mettle.” He states, leaning over the stone wall to peer down at Blinky.

Jim lifts his sword looking over it, “Actually, the sword is really made of, like, daylight.” He tells Vendel. I facepalm as he says this, shaking my head. Jim looks confused at my reaction, Draal smirked.

Blinky leans over to Jim, “He means your ‘mettle’: your ability to cope in the face of adversity.”

“Oh,” Jim said, realization dawning his features. “Yeah, I’m still working on the whole ‘mettle’ part.” He chuckled, “Plus, you know, SAT words.”

I smile as Jim jokes about his misunderstanding. Vendel chuckles, standing at full height again, “Let them spar,” he announces.

“No harm in it.” Draal states, his smirk growing as he heads to the opposite side of the forge while Blinky glares at him. He takes the side opposite of where Vendel and I are observing, grinning up at us.

I lean over to Vendel, “Are you two messing with Jim? I can’t tell if this is a joke or your way of getting him killed.” I frown, worried.

Vendel shakes his head, “Draal will not kill him now, we must wait for the Soothscryer’s judgment, he knows this.” I nod at his answer, relieved but nervous. “Though I cannot say he’ll walk away without injury.”

I huff, “This is not going to end well, Jim’s never been in a fight, let alone having actually punched someone.”

Vendel chuckles. “Begin.”

I watch as Draal charges for Jim. Jim was barely able to move out of the way as Draal curls into a ball, hitting the ground hard where Jim was a moment ago before rolling up the side of the wall near Vendel and I. As he lands, dust and debris are kicked up, obscuring the fight. Next thing I can see is Jim getting thrown out of the dust cloud, Draal stalking over to him. He punches Jim three times, knocking him back towards the ledge. Draal picks Jim up and holds him over the ledge, threatening to drop him.

My blood runs cold, I look to Vendel in shock, gripping the ledge tightly, my hands began to heat and the bandages around my palms burn away, the ledge I was sitting on shattered. Screaming as I felt the ledge disappear from underneath me, falling towards the forge floor quickly. I closed my eyes tight waiting for the impact.

Something hard hits me, but it’s from the side as if a boulder was lobbed at me. Suddenly I could feel all movements cease. I chance opening my eyes and all I can see is blue.

“River!” I hear Jim yell, the sound of metal boots running on stone.

I look up and see the boulder that caught me was actually Draal. He growled before setting me down. “Are you an idiot?!” He roared. “I knew you were untrained, but blasting yourself off a ledge?” He growls storming out of the forge.

I sit there in shock looking to Jim as he reaches me. “What happened River?” He knelt next to me, worried.

“I…” trailing off, looking over to ledge Draal was threatening to drop Jim over. “I thought he was going to drop you…” I looked back up at Jim. “I was scared.”

Jim frowned, “Well he wasn’t going to, said he could wait till I fell in battle… When you screamed, he dropped me on the floor as he took off after you.” He sighed hugging me. “Are you okay?”

I nod slowly, standing with his help I let out a groan. “I’m fine, other than getting hit with a living boulder.” I gave him a small smile.

Vendel came down from the viewing area, shaking his head as he approached us. “Maybe we should focus on controlling and channeling your magic instead. We don’t want a repeat of today during an actual battle.” He turns, waving for me to follow. “Trollhunter, you have much training to do.”

Jim frowns, hanging his head at his lack of skill. I pat his shoulder before following Vendel out. It was going to be a long night.

Once in his study, Vendel assessed the new damage done to my palms and rewrapped them while lecturing me on the improper use of magic. The rest of my night at Trollmarket Vendel and I researched ways to get my magic under control. I was growing weary of reading about the great sorcerers of legend. Groaning I flopped back next to a pile of books. “The only thing these people have in common in some sort of staff or weapon. Even the magic they use is different.”

Vendel tilts his head at my outburst and hums in thought. “Interesting.” He begins looking over the pictures and journals I had been reading for hours. “Each sorcerer quite literally forged their own means of channeling their magic.” He hands me a sketch of Merlin holding a staff with a giant emerald at the top. “All of which are accompanied by a stone, cut for power.”

I take the picture, looking it over. “So, I need to make a weapon or staff with a giant stone somewhere in there. Just any stone?” I asked.

Vendel shook his head. “These stones were made by the sorcerer, channeling their magic into a condensed form, similar to how water flows and turns to ice. This will take a bit of thought and preparation.”

I nod slowly. “I have to figure out how to control my magic enough to channel it into a crystalline state. The type of weapon will be important too, that could determine how I fight later on.”

Vendel gives a small smile and nods. “Yes, but for now, you need rest. It is late after all, and with your magic awakening not long ago your body hasn’t had enough time to adjust from your human habits, like sleeping.”

I nod, yawning before I could stop myself. “Also have to keep appearances up with mom. She’d lose it if she knew what was going on.” I grab all my books and pack up. “I’ll be heading out then. Goodnight Master Vendel.” I called, heading to the entrance of Trollmarket.

As I reach the top of the crystal steps, I spot Draal leaning against the wall that led to the canal, waiting. Waving to him, I smile. “Hey Draal, um… thanks for earlier… you know, catching me and all.”

He huffs, looking over my freshly bandaged hands. “Let’s go.” He shakes his head walking out into the canal.

I step out, looking at Draal confused. “Vendel didn’t ask you to walk me.” I fall in step next to him as we headed for my house.

Draal smirks, glancing over at me, “Would you rather I leave you defenseless at night with Bular running around?” he asked. “You shouldn’t use your magic after Vendel wrapped your hands.”

I huff crossing my arms over my chest stubbornly, “I can fight without magic just fine,” I stated, standing tall before mimicking basic lance techniques I had seen in an anime. “though, I would need a staff or something to do actual damage.”

Draal tilts his head at my demonstration, “Have you thought of training with a lance?” he asks.

I hummed as we continued, “Actually, I’m supposed to start focusing on forging a weapon to lace with magic, do you think a lance is a good option?”

Draal nods, “the motions you just used are lance techniques.” Draal explained different types of weapons, and how one would fight with each type until we made it to the house.

I look up at him, giving a toothy grin “Thanks Draal, your insight helped a lot, I think I know what I want to forge now.” He nods, a small smirk on his face as he turns to leave. “Draal,” I call out quickly, he turned his head back slightly to look at me, “I really am grateful for your help today, with the weapons and for saving me in the forge.”

Draal was silent for a moment before nodding, the smirk turning into a small smile. “Try not to launch yourself off any ledges for a while, I don’t think I’ll be allowed near the Trollhunter’s training after today.”

I shook my head laughing, “Yeah, probably not. Night Draal.” I called out before heading inside, going straight to bed after a stressful night.

Jim and I got up early, Saturday morning was busy for both of us. He had his first rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet today and I was going to go over my designs and ideas for my new weapon with Vendel. We headed out together and split up in the canals wishing each other luck.

I quickly ran down to Vendel’s study, waving to Draal as I passed him, excited to show Vendel what I came up with. “Master Vendel!” I grinned seeing him. “I know what I want to do!” I laid out drawings of a lance for him to see.

Vendel picked up the drawings and studied them, “A lance?” he hummed. “What are these scribbled in the shaft?” He pointed to the marking I drew in the staff.

“Crystalline veining,” I told him quickly. “that’s what I want to do with the magic I crystallize, grind it into a powder and lace it through the entire lance. No other sorcerer has tried it before!”

Vendel chuckle, “It would be very flawed, though I don’t see why it couldn’t work, you would be using a large amount of magic to do this though.” He continued to study the drawings before setting them down, a small smile on his face. “A flawed weapon, for a flawed sorceress, it’s almost poetic.” He states before nodding. “We will begin working on harnessing your magic in order to channel it into crystals.” He walked further into the Heartstone, waving me along.

We entered the core of the Heartstone and he motioned me to the center. “Sit there, now explain to me how you pulled your magic to the surface, you’ve done it three times now.”

I sat with my legs crossed thinking, “two times I was frightened, believing Jim was about to die, the third time I was defensive, when Draal met Jim and tried to pull the amulet out of the armor. Well… it was more of an overwhelming desire.”

“A desire?” Vendel question, “What for?”

I opened my mouth and paused, thinking for a moment. “To protect… I wanted to protect Jim, even if it meant getting involved in the fight.” I answered.

Vendel nods at my answer, “Try focusing on the desire to protect, shape that desire slowly, harden it, close your eyes and let it take form in your mind,” he instructed.

I nod and sit up straight, closing my eyes quickly. I recalled the moments I used magic in my mind, I focused on the feelings, the desire to protect. As I focused, I felt my flesh begin to warm. I slowly took a deep breath, keeping the feeling of fear from the events in the back of my mind, focusing solely on protecting. An image of a blue glowing stream weaving through my mind appeared, like water flowing from many pools to create a single flow. As I followed the stream it slowly led me to a large jagged rock, forming from the water of the stream. Instead of reshaping it, I let it stay jagged and messy. I focused on the stream, willing it to flow faster. The longer I concentrated, the faster the flow became, until the jagged stone was complete and overflowing, branching into more stones. I continued, allowing the overflow, pushing as far as I could go.

I snapped my eyes open as I felt a shove. Looking up I see Vendel towering over me. “Did…” I frowned seeing a look of concern flash across his face. “Did I do it wrong?”

Vendel chuckled and stepped back. “You did everything properly,” he states. “Though you’ve been in a trance for most of the day now. I began to worry when yelling wasn’t enough to pull you out of it.”

My brow knit in confusion, “Most of the day? It only felt like an hour, if that.” I looked down hoping to see the crystal in my hand after all that, but I held nothing.

Vendel studied my expression for a moment, glancing behind me. “River, as you adjust to using your magic, everything around you will begin to feel as if it’s racing by. You no longer exist in the humans’ concept of time. Your aging will be that of a Trolls’, Merlin is centuries old and still considered young.” Vendel explained my time lapse, causing me to frown. “Though I can’t remedy time, I can tell you to turn around.”

I looked up at him in question but decided to do as told. Turning, my eyes widened as they met the sapphire crystal I had seen in my mind, it ended up taller than my standing height. I looked around to see eleven smaller crystals as well, just as jagged and messy as the giant formation in front of me. “It was large in my mind but… I didn’t know it would be the same when formed.” I walked around it slowly, studying it. “Is it too much?”

Vendel laughed shaking his head, “One of the smaller crystals you made will be enough,” he chuckles coming to stand next to me, “this just shows how much magic you’ve been storing. We can keep these here. We may find a use for them as your studies advance. Choose a crystal and we can begin work on your weapon.”

I grin quickly looking over all the crystals, as I walk through them, I chuckled seeing one that has a similar formation to the crystals on Draal’s back. “I’m taking this one home,” I state before grabbing two more of similar sizes. “I’ll use one of these.”

Vendel nods as I pack the crystals in the black satchel, he had given me. “Come, we should choose a metal for the lance.”

“How about steel?” I asked, walking with Vendel to a weapons forge. “It’s the strongest metal after all.”

Vendel hummed in thought, “I don’t see why not, you’ll have to build your strength to wield it.”

I nod quickly in response. We began setting up the weapons forge, selecting the iron to create the steel, grinding the crystal I made into a fine powder. As we worked on the shaft hours went by. I texted mom to let her know I was staying with a friend to help with a school project, not a total lie, Vendel was friendly enough, this was an important project, and I was learning a lot.

Adding the crystal powder as Vendel instructed into the liquid metal took a lot of patience on my part. Working into the early hours of the morning we finally finished the shaft of the lance, cooling it off.

I slumped down near the table we used to hold the powdered crystal, exhausted. It was nearly nine in the morning. Vendel extracted the cooled shaft and began to polish it, chuckling as I was nodding off in my corner.

I awoke later in the afternoon, a long rod-like object sitting next to me, wrapped in cloth.

“I started working on the blade, you have an eye for weaponry River,” Vendel said as he was carving glyphs into a large crystal war hammer.

I groaned grabbing the wrapped weapon next to me, slowly stretching as I stood. “Thank you, Master Vendel.” I approached where he was working and saw several freshly made and sharpened blades on the table near the cooling vat. Each blade was slightly different, slightly flawed, and to me they were perfect. I grinned and hugged Vendel, excited about the weapon. Realizing what I did I pulled back quickly, looking down. “Um, sorry… I’m just… I’m really excited.”

I heard a chuckle, then a large hand was patting my head. “It is good to be excited about your accomplishments. Why don’t you try adding the blade to the shaft?” He nudged me to the blades before he continued to work.

I nod quickly, going to the table and looking over each blade carefully before choosing one. I unwrapped the staff, pausing to stare at it, seeing it fully polished, veins of glowing sapphire ran through it, similar to the pools of magic I saw in my mind. Smiling I slid the blade into place and secured it with a black leather strap.

“I added the enchantments to the blades so the lance will collapse when not in use,” Vendel spoke. “Go test it on the Trollhunter, he should be here soon.”

I nod, thanking him again before running off to find Jim. I found Jim and Toby heading into one of the Troll bars a determined look on Jim’s face. As I walked in after them, I saw him challenging Draal to a rematch. I sighed shaking my head. Something told me this wasn’t going to end well.

#DraalxOC #Trollhunters #Draal #OC #original character #River Marie Lake #River Lake #Blinky #Aaarrrgghh #TobyDomzalski #JamesLakeJr #Fanfiction #vendel

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mischiefandspirits · 5 years

Text

From the Start: Valiant

It was supposed to be a one time thing. Arthur let the sorcerer run off with his life in return for him saving Arthur’s. He had never expected to see the boy again, especially not only two days later in Gaius’s chambers.

“Seems you're a hero.”

Merlin glanced up to see Gaius coming into his room. “Hard to believe, isn't it?”

“No. I knew there was something special about you from the moment I met you.” The warlock flinched, though it went unnoticed by the physician, who was unwrapping a book. “Here, I borrowed this from the royal library for you. Be careful with it. There's no telling what Geoffrey would do to you for damaging one of his books.”

“This is a book on armor and tournaments,” Merlin said, flicking through the book once it was handed to him.

“Quite. Arthur will want your help with his armor, especially with the tournament coming up. And you’ll need to know about tournament etiquette before then. I’m sure you haven’t learned much of that in Ealdor.”

“Thanks,” Merlin said, setting the book aside before sighing. “How am I going to get through this? I don’t know the first thing about being a manservant or dealing with nobility, let alone royal prats.” Especially royal prats who want me dead.

“My first tip, don’t call the prince a prat,” Gaius deadpanned before his face softened and he set his hand on Merlin’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, things will work out.”

“You think so?”

“Arthur was the first person you met in Camelot, was he not?” Merlin nodded. “And now this? Something is definitely pushing you two together.”

“My destiny,” Merlin muttered, remembering the dragon.

“Indeed.”

A knock sounded from the door to the physician’s chambers. “Merlin, Prince Arthur wants you right away.”

“Your destiny's calling. You'd better find out what he wants,” Gaius chuckled, tilting his head towards the door.

“Prince Ar-” the guard cut off as Arthur threw open the door.

The prince glared at his new manservant and said, “About time.” He grabbed the boy and dragged him into his chambers. He waved off the guard and shut the door before turning to Merlin.

The warlock flinched and backed away. “So… Did you want to -”

“You really are a complete idiot, aren’t you Merlin. I tell you not to let me catch you using m-m-that and what do you do? You use it in front of not only me, but the rest of the court, including my father. You know, when I asked you if you wanted to be executed, I didn’t actually think you were actually suicidal.”

“Hey, I told you next time I’d just let you get impaled,” Merlin said, raising his hands in surrender.

“This isn’t a joke!”

“Who says I was joking?” Merlin muttered.

“If my father knew what you did -”

“Then why didn’t you tell him? I broke your rule, it would have been the perfect opportunity.” Merlin questioned. It had been bothering him since the events of the night before. He had been sure Arthur was going to turn him over the moment he could get a word in edgewise, even as Gaius had sent him away from the glaring prince. He had been up past midnight pretending to sleep until he finally realized the guards weren’t about to burst in to drag him away.

Arthur groaned and pushed passed Merlin to stand in front of a window. “I can’t accuse you without proof or else I’ll look ungrateful.”

“But… you saw me using magic.”

“Everyone in court saw what you did and none of them figured out you used it. Bloody hell, I know you used it and I can’t figure out how.”

“Well, I just -”

“Don’t.”

“Um, right. As you said, you know I used magic. You’ve seen me before. Isn’t that your proof?”

“And have to explain to my father that I knew you were a sorcerer and let you go?”

“You’re worried about making your father mad?” Merlin joked, moving towards the table.

“Even simply harboring a sorcerer is a crime punishable by death.”

The warlock froze. “Your father wouldn't have you executed, would he?”

“My father has made vows to uphold the laws of this kingdom, as have I,” he added the second part quietly, more to himself.

“But you're the prince! His heir and son! Surely he wouldn't -”

“If my father did nothing, it would make him look weak. He would sentence me to banishment. Temporary, of course, because I am heir, but still. If he's extremely lenient, I might only get time in the dungeons, but… well… my father's never been known to be lenient. Especially concerning that. And he did make a spectacle of making you my manservant. That would surely cause him embarrassment if you're discovered and that won't make either of our cases better. So no, he probably wouldn't execute me, but…” Arthur trailed off, back stiff.

“I-I don't know what to say. I didn't realize that -- When you let me go -”

“It was supposed to be one time. A repaid debt. We weren't ever supposed to see one another again. This wasn't supposed to happen, not unless I was taking you down for attacking Camelot.”

“I-I'm sorry.”

The prince snorted. “Everything's gone mad.”

Merlin shifted nervously, not knowing what to say.

Merlin was reading through his armor book in Arthur’s servant’s quarters when the door leading to Arthur’s room slammed open alongside the prince’s shout of, “Merlin!”

Merlin flinched, snapping the book shut as Arthur’s laundry, armor, shield, and sword clattered to the ground.

Arthur glared at him. “Were you using that again?”

“No.”

“What's all this, then?”

Merlin glanced at the fallen items and shrugged.

“I should hand you over to my father.”

“Maybe if you didn’t give me so much stuff to do, I wouldn’t need my magic’s help,” Merlin huffed.

“Maybe if you were doing your job instead of lying around then it wouldn’t be a problem,” Arthur shot back.

“I’m not just lying around. I’m studying.” Merlin gave the book a shake, letting it fall open to show the armor diagram.

“No amount of studying could make you any less of an idiot,” Arthur scoffed, earning himself a glare from the warlock. “Now come on, I need to leave for the reception. Help me with my cape.”

“Of course, sire,” Merlin snorted, tossing aside the book.

“And no more using… that.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Merlin.”

“That was much better. Not that it could have got any worse.”

“See, my studying paid off. So next time -”

“Next time, you’ll do the work the normal way or I’ll throw you in the stocks.”

Taking a bite of sausage, Arthur narrowed his eyes at the warlock nervously fidgeting with his clothes.

“What did you do?” he asked when he couldn’t stand it anymore.

Merlin jumped and turned to him. “What? Me? I didn’t do anything.”

Arthur stared at him until he started to squirm.

“I’m telling the truth. I didn’t do anything.”

“Then who did?”

Merlin glanced away.

“Merlin.”

“Valiantisusingmagic!”

Arthur blinked. “Was that supposed to make sense?”

Merlin flinched, then repeated himself, slower.

Arthur scoffed. “Valiant may be obnoxious -”

The warlock snorted.

“- but he’s a knight. He wouldn’t lower himself to that.”

“I saw him, Arthur,” Merlin started, before going into how he’d felt something was weird with the shield on the first day when he’d fetched Arthur’s armor, but had put it down to imagination until he and Gaius had been looking over Sir Ewan and realized he’d been bitten by a snake. Then he described what he’d seen in Valiant’s room when he’d went to investigate.

“And you didn’t feel the need to tell me this?” Arthur growled. Someone was putting his people in danger and this warlock was just going to keep quiet.

“Of course I did, but…”

“But?”

“Gaius said not to say anything,” he answered, shoulders up near his ears.

“You told Gaius?”

“About Valiant, not me. I thought it might help him heal Sir Ewan but he said he would need the venom from the snake.”

Arthur frowned and stood up. “Why would Gaius want to hide it from us?”

As he slipped behind the changing screen, he heard Merlin begin to clean up his mostly empty breakfast dishes and reply with, “He said it would be my word against Valiant’s and your father would never take the word of a servant over a knight. That I’d only get myself in trouble.”

Arthur’s eyes narrowed, but he conceded the point. He considered the problem as he changed. When he stepped out, he waved off Merlin’s attempt to help him with his armor and grabbed his sword. “Where was Ewan bitten?”

“On the neck.”

Arthur nodded and strode out of the room. “Bring my armor.”

“Hey, wait!” Merlin shouted, but Arthur continued on. A moment later the warlock appeared at his side, arms laden with armor and an affronted look on his face. “Where are you going?”

“I want to get some light practice in while the other knights are breaking fast with my father. You can dress me down at the field after.”

Merlin grumbled under his breath, but Arthur ignored him. They walked like this for a few moments before Merlin said, “This isn’t the way to the fields.”

“I’m aware, Merlin. We need to go to the armory. You forgot one of my gauntlets.”

“What? No I didn’t! I didn’t even take your armor to the armory last night!”

“I think I know more than you, Merlin.”

The warlock opened his mouth to object, but Arthur sent him a look that told him to shut up so he instead chose to glare at the floor with a pout and mutter traitorous things under his breath.

When they reached the knights quarters, Arthur kept an eye and ear out and was assured that the area was predictably empty. As such, Arthur didn’t break his stride at Valiant’s door, pushing through it with a hissed, “Keep watch.”

The boy gave a quiet yelp, but quickly hushed himself and didn’t follow Arthur.

Glancing around, Arthur spotted the shield leaning against a chair. He raised his sword and approached.

Nothing happened.

He got close enough to tap his sword against the intertwined serpents and still nothing. He glared at the shield for a moment before huffing and turning to confront his servant.

He made it two steps before a shadow rose up behind him. He spun around, his sword coming up on instinct.

The snake fell to the floor in two pieces.

Releasing a shaky breath and keeping the shield in his line of sight, he grabbed a used towel from next to the wash basin and wrapped the snake in it. He gave the shield one last look then slipped out the door, sheathing his sword as he went.

He dropped the towel onto Merlin’s load and gave him a glare. “Did you bring that salve I told you to get from Gaius?”

The warlock looked at him with bemusement.

Idiot.

“No, of course you didn’t,” Arthur said before he could respond. “We’ll have to go fetch it before we head down.”

He heard Merlin gasp as he started towards Gaius’s chambers.

“Shut up, Merlin.”

He glanced over his shoulder to see Merlin giving him a vapid smile that was just a little too proud and… something else to be genuine.

The towel had disappeared into the pile of armor.

Arthur led the way to Gaius’s, then pushed through the door without knocking.

He, unlike certain servants, was a prince and was allowed such privileges.

“Your Highness,” the court physician called, turning away from his patient. “How can I help you?”

“Merlin forgot to ask you for more muscle relaxing salve.”

Gaius gave the boy a look, but he was too busy glaring at Arthur to notice. “I’ll get it right away.”

“Before that,” Arthur started, holding his hand out to Merlin.

The warlock stared at it with a touch of annoyance, but no other recognition.

“The towel, Merlin.”

He frowned before giving Arthur another vapid smile, this one cloaking a smirk.

He then proceeded to dump the armor he was carrying to the floor.

“Merlin!” Arthur and Gaius shouted as one.

“Here you are, sire,” he said, blinking innocently as he passed Arthur the towel.

The prince gave him a look that promised punishment before turning back to Gaius. “Merlin said Sir Ewan ran afoul of a snake. I happened across this one in the knights quarters and thought to bring it along in case it was the same one and could help with his treatment.”

The physician looked between the two and sighed. “What trouble are you two up to?”

Merlin’s shoulders crept up to his ears, but Arthur puffed up. “I have no idea what you mean.”

Gaius hummed and took the towel from him.

He set it carefully on a table and pulled the head out. He looked it over with a curious eye before shuffling over to the cot and leaning over to hold it up to Ewan’s neck.

“The bite’s the right size,” he confirmed, straightening. “I’ll need to make the antivenom.”

“I’ll leave you to it, then. Merlin can pick up the salve later.” Arthur threw his arm around Merlin’s shoulders. “I think he’ll likely need some as well. I believe I’ll do a bit of shield practice before the tournament.” The prince laughed at the warlock’s scowl and turned to leave. “Grab my armor, Merlin. Hurry up, now.”

Arthur didn’t hear his response, but he did hear Gaius scoldingly call out Merlin’s name.

“Prince Arthur!”

Arthur looked up from watching Merlin adjust his chain mail to see a guard run up to him and drop into a bow. “What is it?”

“The court physician sent me. He said he went to check on Sir Ewan during the break and he has awoken. He is requesting your immediate presence.”

Prince and servant shared a look and Arthur nodded at the guard. “Thank you. Return to your post.” Once the guard had bowed and left, he turned to Merlin. “Inform my father that I had to see to something and that I will return in time for my match then meet me at Gaius’s.”

The warlock sent the king’s box a nervous glance, but nodded.

As Merlin ran off, Arthur turned to head to the castle, only to catch sight of Valiant glancing away. He narrowed his eyes at the knight, but continued on.

Merlin caught up with him when he was halfway to the court physician’s chambers. “Your father said to hurry back. He didn’t look happy,” he panted.

“Neither did Valiant.”

“You think he’s onto us?”

“He at least knows something’s going on. Keep an eye on Ewan. He’s our only witness so we can’t risk Valiant silencing him.”

Merlin nodded then fell silent, staring at the ground. He broke the quiet a few moments later to mumble, “Thank you.”

“What?”

“For believing me, thank you. I know I’m not exactly your favorite person and you don’t really trust me.”

Arthur waved it off. “I would hope even you are not fool enough to lie about that given your circumstances.”

“Still, thank you.”

Arthur rolled his eyes. “Quit being a girl, Merlin, and get the door.”

“Prat,” the warlock muttered before jogging forwards to open the door. He gave an exaggerated bow. “Sire.”

The prince ignored his antics. “You wanted me?”

It wasn’t Gaius that answered, but Ewan.

“Arthur, it’s Valiant,” he said, attempting to sit up, only to be stopped by the physician.

“What about Valiant?”

“The snake on his shield, it came alive.”

Arthur frowned and straightened up, pushing down the victorious feeling. “You’re sure?”

“Aye. It was magic, no mistaking it. It was like the snake peeled right off the shield. And it struck me at his command.”

Arthur turned to Gaius. “Do you still have the head?”

The physician nodded and grabbed the snake’s head off a nearby table.

“Was this the snake that bit you?”

Ewan stiffened when Gaius held up the head for him to see. “Yes, sire.”

Arthur nodded. “I was near Valiant’s chambers when I found it. My father needs to be told.” Arthur turned to Gaius. “Will he be well enough to appear? My father will want to hear his account.”

“He should be fine for a short visit if he has help getting down, but he’ll need to rest right after.”

“I’ll be sure a guard is waiting to help him down.” He turned back to Ewan. “Rest up until you’re summoned. I won’t have you dying to Valiant’s treachery. I’ll leave Merlin here to help you clean up so you can appear in court with the dignity you deserve.”

“Thank you, sire.”

“Where is this witness?”

“On his way.”

“My Lord, this is -”

Valiant cut off as the doors opened to allow Ewan to enter, the guard Arthur had sent to help him and Gaius following just behind. Merlin trailed after, a dopey grin on his face and a basket in his arms.

Arthur sent the basket a look and Merlin shrugged. He rolled his eyes at the boy and turned back to his father and Valiant. The latter’s face was pinched as he stared at Ewan.

“Sir Ewan, my son claims Sir Valiant is using magic. What do you know of this?”

“I was the one to alert him, My Lord. During our bout, Sir Valiant called forth one of the snakes from his shield and ordered it to attack me. I have been in a haze since and would have died if it were not for your physician.”

“A haze?” Valiant said before Uther could speak. “Could your haze not have been the cause of such an idea? Perhaps your mind could not handle your loss.”

“Unlike some, I can handle a loss with honor,” Ewan said.

Valiant took a step forward, but paused when Gaius cleared his throat. “If I may, Your Majesty?” he asked Uther.

“Speak.”

“The reason we were delayed was because another serpent like the one Prince Arthur faced found its way into my chambers,” the old man said, gesturing Merlin forwards.

Arthur stiffened as he realized the boy’s basket was hissing softly.

“An infestation?” Valiant offered.

“I might have believed so, if the creature had not bypassed myself, Merlin, and Rodric here in a desperate attempt to attack Sir Ewan.” He nodded towards the guard. “Rodric saw most of it.”

The guard bowed when the king turned to him. “It is as Gaius said, Your Majesty. The serpent passed me without my realizing it, but I spotted it just as it passed where Gaius and his ward were working. I drew my sword and called out a warning, but the boy must have spotted it as well because he was already darting over to grab a basket to trap the thing in.”

“Thankfully it only just made it onto Sir Ewan’s bed before Merlin grabbed it,” Gaius continued. “He likely would not have survived another bite, antivenom or not.”

“Which would have been beneficial to Valiant, no doubt,” Arthur said.

“Sire -”

Valiant cut off as Uther raised his hand and approached Merlin. “Let me see the snake.”

Merlin bowed his head and shifted the basket in his arms so he could hold it in one and open it with the other. He carefully opened it just a crack so the king could peek inside.

Uther glared inside before pulling back and waving Merlin off.

The boy quickly shut it and backed away.

“I have to agree with my son. It is quite the coincidence,” the king said, turning to Valiant. “So given the evidence provided, I sentence you guilty of using magic.”

“My Lord -”

“Get him out of my sight.”

Valiant scowled and drew his blade as Arthur and the guards approached.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Arthur said, holding out his own blade.

Valiant met his eyes, then turned to the shield. “Kill -”

Arthur darted forwards before he could finish the command. Valiant swiped at him, but he dodged the blow and sunk his blade into the former knight’s gut.

“It’s good to see you actually doing your job for once.”

Merlin looked up from polishing Arthur’s gorget to see the prince in question closing the door to his room. “I figured I’d done enough illegal magic for the day and didn’t want to push you.”

Arthur frowned. “When did you use that?”

“How do you think I caught the snake?”

“Merlin! Both a guard and Gaius were right there! The guard was watching you! How could you!?”

Merlin shrugged and turned his gaze to the gorget, shoulders creeping up. “I guess when you freeze time, it makes more sense to people that you just have quick reflexes.”

“You-you can freeze time?”

“Sort of. I guess it’s more like slowing it. Everything just slows down around me, but I’m the only one who notices. It’s how I saved you from the dagger.”

“That…” Arthur couldn’t think of what that was. It certainly didn’t sound like something any old sorcerer could do. He couldn’t believe his father ever could have won against sorcerers if it was. Maybe it was a warlock thing?

Or maybe Merlin was just that powerful?

Arthur shook that thought away. Merlin was too much of an idiot to be powerful.

He tossed the book he was carrying onto Merlin’s lap, making the warlock jump. “Here.”

“What is it?” he asked, setting aside Arthur’s armor and pulling off the cloth Arthur had wrapped around it to keep it hidden from prying eyes.

“A book of spells, I think. At least that’s what the label said. Most of the books on that were burned during the purge, but my father stored a few deep in the vaults. No one will notice it missing. Only problem is it’s written in some weird language I don’t recognize. We’ll need to figure out some way to translate it.”

Merlin’s eyes had widened, flipping through the pages and clearly not listening. “You… This… Why… This is amazing!” He slowed down his flipping to read a few of the pages. “Fire spells, wind spells, unlocking spells, and it was just sitting down there?”

Arthur frowned and leaned over to see the book, but it still only showed the unknown runes. “You can read that?”

“Yes,” Merlin answered without a thought, still flipping through the book. Then he paused and tilted his head. “Yes,” he repeated slowly. “I don’t know. I don’t recognize it; it’s obviously not Brythonic or Latin. I can’t really read it, I just… know what it says. I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Is it because of that maybe?” Arthur asked, frowning at the book. Did it have some sort of magic so that only people with it could read it? Hold on. “Wait, you can read? And you know Latin?”

Merlin hummed, squinting at the book. “Maybe. And yes, to both. My mother taught me.”

“You mother? I thought you were some farm boy from an outlying village. How would she know Latin or how to read?”

He finally looked up from the book to scowl at the prince. “For your information, we can also write and do math. Just because we’re not nobility doesn’t mean we can’t be learned. My grandfather was a scholar. He taught Gaius and Gaius taught my mother.”

“So that’s how Gaius and your mother know each other. He was her father’s student?” Arthur said.

“No. Well, yes, technically. But Gaius is actually my mother’s half-brother. They didn’t grow up together -- they’ve got quite a few years between them -- but after my grandparents died she lived with him for a short time and he taught her to read and write and some basic herbalism.”

“Gaius is your uncle! He hadn’t told me that.”

Merlin shrugged and turned back to the book. “My mother moved to Ealdor a few years before I was born and Gaius is too busy here to visit, so I’d never even met him until I came here. And as I said, he and my mother didn’t exactly grow up as siblings. It’s probably just easier not to explain.”

He supposed that made sense, though Arthur still felt like he was missing something.

“Well, I suppose that makes this easier than. I hadn’t known how we were going to translate the book.”

Merlin nodded, then looked back up to Arthur. “Why… Why are you giving me this? Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing, but you aren’t exactly thrilled about my magic.”

Arthur frowned and turned to head over to his desk. “Don’t misunderstand, I still would rather you not do any of that, ever. But I also know telling you not to do anything isn’t going to work. So the least I can do is make sure you know enough about what you’re doing that you don’t accidentally burn the castle to the ground.”

“I’ll have you know that in fourteen years I’ve never set fire to anything accidentally so I doubt I’ll start now!”

Arthur paused and looked back at the warlock. “You’re fourteen?”

Merlin blushed and ducked his head. “Um, no. sixteen. But what two-year-old doesn’t cause trouble while in a tantrum.”

“Most two-year-olds can’t start fires with their minds.”

Merlin grew redder. “It was just a little fire that my mother was able to put out in a second. Everything was fine.”

“What did you set on fire in the first place?”

Merlin buried his face in the book and muttered something.

“What was that?”

“Oh look, I found a spell to -”

“Merlin!”

“I set my vegetables on fire because I didn’t want to eat them.”

Arthur stared at the tips of Merlin’s red ears for a moment after the warlock’s snapped comment before ducking over in laughter.

#bbc merlin #merlin emrys #Arthur Pendragon #arthur knows #valiant #fts story

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