Mercelot Week will run from May 25th -31st l 2025. header: @camelotsheart [Image ID: Header: gif of Lancelot lowering Merlin to the ground with the words "Lancelot needed you and you needed Lancelot. Your destinies were entwined" to the the right. Icon: Merlin and Lancelot smiling on an orange and yellow gradient background. End ID]
Day 1: “it took you almost 4 years to fully trust me, and it took you all of one minute to stop.” + Lancelot Du Lac episode AU
Day 2: “do you not get it? we don't ever get a happy ending, we don't ever go home!” + hurt/comfort
Day 3: “whether you like it or not, i’m not giving up on you” + pre-season 4 AU
Day 4: “i will be the greatest loss of your life” + humor
Day 5: “what about me?” + the darkest hour AU
Day 6: bamf!lancelot + angst
Day 7: free day + au of your choice
there is an ao3 collection under the name which can be found here “mercelot week 2025” - if you wish to add your fics
please put the day and prompt in your summary if posting to ao3.
reminder: merlin/lancelot do not need to be the one to say the line or be the things exactly! and the + means and/or. these are mostly for inspiration alone. if you would like to just write the quote for day one, for example, and not use the au, then that's perfectly fine.
FOR GIFS/ VIDEO/ ART CREATORS - quotes and/or themes:
Day 1: “somewhere between the night we met and the day you left, there was love, so much love.” + red
Day 2: parallels + orange
Day 3: au + yellow
Day 4: “it’s strange. i felt less lonely when i didn’t know you.” + green
Day 5: song lyrics + blue
Day 6: favorite poem + purple
Day 7: free day + rainbow
rules:
must be posted on tumblr so i can reblog!
please tag your posts as #mercelotweek2025 and/or tag this account directly.
NSFW is allowed, just please tag appropriately.
have fun and enjoy yourself! this week is all about supporting each other and sharing your work!
questions, concerns, or just wanna talk? you can dm or send asks at this account or my main @bellamyblakru
Merwaincelot Week is returning between 15 and 22 September 2025! We have eight new prompts for all creators, all (loosely) inspired by Malory's Le Morte Darthur...
DAY 1: Secret Relationship/Hands/Green
DAY 2: Prophecy/Sword/Gold
DAY 3: Rescue Mission Gone Wrong/Window/Yellow
DAY 4: Trapped/Greyhound/Black
DAY 5: Awkward Injury/Shield/Red
DAY 6: Knight Errant/Ship/Purple
DAY 7: Mistaken Identity/Lake/Blue
Day 8: Free Day
For further info, head over to our FAQs and tagging guidelines posts, and if the answer to your question isn't there, send us an ask!
Merwaincelot Week is returning between 15 and 22 September 2025! We have eight new prompts for all creators, all (loosely) inspired by Malory's Le Morte Darthur...
DAY 1: Secret Relationship/Hands/Green
DAY 2: Prophecy/Sword/Gold
DAY 3: Rescue Mission Gone Wrong/Window/Yellow
DAY 4: Trapped/Greyhound/Black
DAY 5: Awkward Injury/Shield/Red
DAY 6: Knight Errant/Ship/Purple
DAY 7: Mistaken Identity/Lake/Blue
Day 8: Free Day
For further info, head over to our FAQs and tagging guidelines posts, and if the answer to your question isn't there, send us an ask!
Hi! I realise I'm quite late to the party and this blog is unlikely to even still be active, but.. have there been any follow-up weeks or events since this one? Are there likely to be? It's something I would absolutely love to participate in!
Hope the mod(s) are having a good day/night :)
Hi! I am also late to this message, apologies anon! At the start of the year, there was no plan for a Merwaincelot Week 2025, but there might be a more low-maintenance version running in September if prompt inspiration hits...
In terms of similar events, @mercelotweek and @merwainefest are still very much active! The former ran in May, I believe, but definitely check out their blog for all of the entries! And the latter is scheduled to begin at the start of August, so if you're looking to participate in an event and are a fan of that ship then that's absolutely the place to be.
However, it was always the idea that if one person wanted Merwaincelot then there would be a space for them that they could drag others into, so keep an eye on this blog in August, and have a good day/night, too!
day 2: “what are you going to do? arrest me?” + angst
day 3: “now it’s time for some fun” + body swap au
day 4: “come on, i got you.” + canon divergent au
day 5: “darling, what’s wrong?” + humor
day 6: losing sleep + angst
day 7: free day
there is an ao3 collection under the name which can be found here “merwaine week” - if you wish to add your fics
please put the day and prompt in your summary if posting to ao3.
reminder: merlin/gwaine do not need to be the one to say the line or be the things exactly! and the + means and/or. these are mostly for inspiration alone. if you would like to just write the au for day one, for example, and not use the h/c, then that's perfectly fine.
FOR GIFS/ VIDEO/ ART CREATORS - quotes and/or themes:
day 1: “what if you find your soulmate at the wrong time?” + red
day 2: parallels + orange
day 3: humor + your favorite color combo with yellow
day 4: “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” + green
day 5: song lyrics + blue
day 6: poem + purple
day 7: free day + rainbow
rules:
must be posted on tumblr so i can reblog!
please tag your posts as #merwainefest2025 and/or tag this account directly.
NSFW is allowed, just please tag appropriately.
have fun and enjoy yourself! this week is all about supporting each other and sharing your work!
questions, concerns, or just wanna talk? you can dm or send asks at this account or my main @bellamyblakru
I went through a couple different versions before settling on incorporating the rainbow into the background. I'm surprised I finished in time but they grabbed me by the inspiration and forced my hand! I love them!!! 🫶
A fannish take on the betrayal-arc of Arthurian myth.
Summary: Merlin and Lancelot escape Camelot in the wake of a disastrous magic reveal, and must contend with the difficult aftermath. // Written for Day 6 of @mercelotweek 2025, for the prompts, 'Angst' + 'BAMF!Lancelot'.
---
A wind picked up that night, tearing over the tall wild grasses of the Northern Plains. A storm; it had teeth to rip plants out by their roots. Inside the walls of a ruined castle, Lancelot and Merlin sheltered, and heard it howling: picking at the crumbling mortar, scraping against the dilapidated battlements. But here would have to do, for now; it was too dark to ride any farther.
In one of the towers, Merlin cleaned blood off of Lancelot’s face with a wet rag. Lancelot didn’t feel the cold on his skin, but stared straight ahead, treading through his own mind like man clawing his way out of a house fire. The cloth stung Lancelot’s cut lip, and he flinched.
“Are you back with me?” Merlin said. Lancelot heard him from far away.
The storm—forced through arrow slits and windows built for sieges—whistled in alarm. They felt the gust, too, in Camelot, where Arthur looked out over the lower town, and watched one by one as lights were snuffed and shutters closed. And meanwhile, in the ruined tower, Lancelot saw Merlin as if for he first time: the cloth, Merlin’s hand, his raw-red wrists. He reached up to touch him: quickly, but un-harsh—in no way other than as a lover.
“…Lancelot?” Merlin said.
“Merlin.” He startled. Shook himself. “I’m… I’m sorry, I don’t know what…” The fog over Lancelot started to lift. Merlin’s hand was in his, and he examined the shackle-marks on Merlin’s skin, and winced, then released him.
The glooming tower was indifferent to its guests. It had seen battles and refugees and bandits. Had sheltered travelling innocents and fleeing murderers alike, and it cared little about the two men huddled in it now: on its rotting benches, lit by the bleak cast of a miniature glowing moon. Merlin’s doing.
“I’m sorry,” Lancelot said, shaking his head. “Something was over me. It’s… it’s clearing.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. I’m… I’m alright, now.”
“…Yeah,” Merlin said. “You were a bit… I don’t know. You weren’t yourself.”
“I… I know. But I’m fine now.”
Merlin wasn’t convinced. His brow was furrowed, examining Lancelot’s face. He wiped away one last smudge below Lancelot’s ear, then called that finished and lowered the cloth.
“I found somewhere for the horse,” Merlin said. “On the lower levels. And… and here seemed best for us to spend the night. So.”
Lancelot looked around, evaluating the turret room. He did his best to seem discerning, but Merlin knew him too well. He saw walls, and dust, and heavy curtains on tarnished rods, and felt distinctly swallowed by something bigger than himself.
“Are you hurt?” Merlin said.
“No.”
“Let me look.”
He let him, willingly. They didn’t speak as Merlin undressed him; he was practiced at disrobing a knight, especially Lancelot. Removing his belt with sword and scabbard, mail, gambeson. He peeled up Lancelot’s shirt, and found an ink-spill of bruises, so dark he could’ve wet his fingertips. Merlin frowned, prodding at Lancelot’s ribs.
“Can’t you feel any of this?”
“No.”
“You’re not in pain?”
“No.”
“…Shock,” Merlin decided, and pulled the shirt back down to cover him. He got up to fetch Lancelot’s cloak, and drape it around his shoulders. “You need to rest. You’ll feel it soon.”
Lancelot watched him go across the room, and return with the knight’s cloak. He felt like that man again: choking in the dirt of his yard after escaping the burning house. Parched, and begging for a drink.
When Merlin leaned down to adjust the cloak on his shoulders, he couldn’t help surging up to kiss him. Merlin startled, but surrendered as much as he could, and kissed him back.
They clutched at each other with shaking hands, breathing the same air. Finally, they broke apart—staying close, touching foreheads, shuddering. Merlin was taut as a bowstring, and Lancelot traced his shoulders, his chin, his arms. Got soot on his fingers.
“I didn’t sleep all last night,” Lancelot confessed. “I feared I’d fail. That you’d be—”
Merlin shushed him. “No. No, it’s alright.”
“That I’d have to watch…”
“I’m alive.” He held Lancelot’s face and made him see him. “Because of you. I’m still here.”
“Thank God,” Lancelot said, even though he’d given up praying years ago. “Oh, God.”
They embraced. Sometimes, he still offered praise upwards, for lack of any alternative direction, and imagined bits of his faith disappearing across a vast, empty sky.
Clouds moved fast above the castle, silent, and Merlin and Lancelot held each other; Lancelot pressed his face to Merlin’s chest, and Merlin bent over and clutched him. Like a bird on a branch, engineered by nature to hold tightest to its perch while exhausted.
“They won’t come after us,” Merlin said. “Not until Arthur can… can work through what’s happened.”
He knew, because Lancelot had left utter carnage in his wake, and Arthur would be reeling. In Camelot’s courtyard, over a dozen corpses waited for burial under furiously rippling white sheets. Men were already talking of hunting, of justice, of revenge.
“This is wrong,” Merlin said. “It’s all—this wasn’t supposed to happen…”
“Merlin…”
Merlin inhaled sharply, and held his breath to stop tears from coming, but it was a lost cause. He shook, and swallowed hard. Lancelot tried to soothe him, and leaned upwards. Kissed his cheeks, tasted salt.
“This’s my fault,” Merlin said. “I was stupid. I was…”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I should have seen—And Agravaine is back there, still. Arthur doesn’t realize the danger. What if he—what if now that Camelot is vulnerable…? And now I’m… we’re…”
“Arthur will be alright,” Lancelot said, forcing steadiness. “He’s smart and capable, and as soon as we can come up with a plan, we’ll put this right. We will, my love. I swear.”
“You can’t promise that,” Merlin said, miserably.
Lancelot had no response.
“It’s all ruined,” Merlin said. “All of it.”
He put his forehead on Lancelot’s shoulder, and shook and shook. The angle was wrong and his neck ached, but Merlin didn’t care. Lancelot’s hand went to the nape of his neck, stroking carefully. He smelled of steel-polish, and sweat, and rust; Merlin breathed him in in gulps.
“Tell me what happened,” Lancelot said. “No one would speak with me long.”
Instead of answering, Merlin tangled their fingers at the base of his skull. Four days ago—which could well have been a different life—the two of them were close just like this, and Lancelot had made Merlin promise not to get into trouble while he was away. Merlin thought how he was exposed as a solemn liar twice in one wretched week.
“When did you get back?” he said, in a small voice.
“Yesterday.”
“How was your hunt?”
Lancelot laughed, mirthlessly. “I don’t think that matters now.”
“Tell me, anyway.”
Lancelot paused, then indulged him.
“Sir Gareth shot three hares,” he said. “I shot five.”
“Hm. Braggart.” Even though Lancelot was many things—arrogant, dead last.
Lancelot should’ve had some quip to serve in return; at least, he should’ve laughed. When he did neither of these things, Merlin pulled away, bracing himself. He didn’t want to be the one to start.
“They said you’d attacked Gwen,” Lancelot said. He’d known it wasn’t true—and Merlin knew he knew. Still, Merlin’s face crumpled. He sat on the bench next to Lancelot, and gripped it so hard that his fingertips hurt on the peeling wood. Their shoulders touched.
“It was Agravaine,” Merlin said. “I’m sure of it. He—poisoned her. I practically saw him administer the cursed nightshade.”
“Cursed nightshade?” Lancelot was grave. “When was this?”
“The day you left, she collapsed in the corridor. Elyan found her. I saw Agravaine the day after that, by her bed. Arthur had had her moved to Morgana’s tower, and he had no reason to be in there.”
“He was poisoning her?”
“When I caught him, he left in a hurry. A vial fell from his pocket, and I took it to Gaius. The poison—it was this… this enchanted tincture of nightshade. Could only be cured by magic.”
Lancelot nodded, slowly. “So… you did what you had to.”
“I… I thought I was.”
In the hours after this conversation between lovers—once the sky turned black, Agravaine would sneak from the castle, and take a horse galloping out to the thick of the woods. And Morgana would wait, pensive and unsleeping, for news to celebrate to. She would hear of what had happened, and laugh.
“I snuck past the guards after sunset,” Merlin said. “I should’ve realized that there weren’t enough in the corridor—not while Gwen was sick. Arthur cares too much about her. But I was stupid. And I got in there, and everything was so still. I couldn’t even see her breathing, Lancelot. I just—I should’ve checked. I should’ve been more careful. But I didn’t. I went to her bed, and tried to cure her. With—with sage, and…”
“Like you did with Uther?” Lancelot said.
“Yes,” Merlin said, very quietly. “It was like that.”
And while Morgana was laughing, Arthur would bolt awake to the sound of a windstorm, seized with terror and pain, and climb the stairs to where Guinevere waned with grey pallor. He would sit at her bedside all night, until the morning came and nothing wrong in the world was yet different.
Merlin went on, “The sage was smoking in my hands. It was working. And then I felt this—this hand, on my wrist. And somehow, I knew it was Arthur, before I’d turned around. I didn’t want to face him, but there was nothing else I could do. And when I looked around, it was—it was Arthur. The room was so dark. For a moment, I thought he was doing some spell, because the magic in my eyes was so bright it reflected in his. I didn’t realize they were like fires.”
“They are,” Lancelot said. “Every time.”
Merlin curled over, shaking. Undone by the tenderness in Lancelot’s voice.
“It wasn’t just Arthur. Agravaine was behind him. And Leon, and a dozen other men. They’d been hidden behind the damn curtains. The same place I hid the Druid boy, once. I hadn’t even checked—I was such a fool.
“I should’ve fought, but I didn’t. I let—I just let Arthur arrest me. Held out my hands when he told me to. I felt—felt numb. He wouldn’t even look at me. Mostly it was Leon, giving all the commands. And Agravaine, he said something like, there you have it, sire. We’ve found the traitor. And I couldn’t even say anything. I just stood there like a coward. Or—or like a traitor. I suppose. I suppose Arthur thought that’s what I was.”
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Lancelot struggled to take it in, and Merlin hung his head. It hurt that, even now, Lancelot stayed with him like he was natural to love. It felt like another way he was forced to lie about who he was and what he was worth.
“It was a trap,” Lancelot said, finally.
“Yeah,” Merlin replied. “I only saw that after.”
“You can’t be blamed, Merlin…”
“They were ready—even had special irons. The cuffs, they stopped my magic. I was powerless.” And he’d been terrified, but he didn’t say that part. Lancelot heard it, anyway.
“Agravaine was clever,” Lancelot said, at length. “He must have forced Arthur to assign all those men, so he would have no choice but to arrest you with them watching.” Merlin shifted uncomfortably.
“He arrested me because he saw that I have magic.”
“I know,” Lancelot said, “but if he had been alone. If it had just been up to him, he wouldn’t have—”
“You don’t know that,” Merlin said. Lancelot started to protest. “You don’t know. In case you forgot, I’ve been lying to him for years, for all the time I’ve known him. Every time I’ve told him to trust me; I’ve been betraying him. Men or no—he had plenty of reasons to put me in chains.”
“Merlin—”
“Just stop! There’s no point saying it could’ve been different!”
Then there was silence, and in one of the lower rooms, something fell over and crashed—succumbing to the wind. Lancelot received Merlin’s shouting, and his expression turned stony.
They didn’t get angry with one another—they’d never practiced and didn’t know how.
He stood up—perhaps to go somewhere else until he was wanted. Merlin broke.
“Wait—” He reached for him. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry—please.”
In Camelot, Elyan and Percival shouted at each other, perhaps would’ve come to blows if the day hadn’t already seen such violence.
“You’ve been… you’ve been nothing but good to me,” Merlin said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout.”
It was easy to stop Lancelot from going. He sighed, and sat back down, near-imperceptibly shaking. Fatigue was setting in; shock was wearing off.
Merlin put his face in his hands. “I’ve been so stupid,” he whispered.
Lancelot bloomed with hurt: the bruises, and Merlin’s despair. It was wrong that Merlin should cry and Lancelot could do nothing for him. He tried anyway, and embraced him.
“I’m with you,” he said. “My love. My lord.”
“My knight,” Merlin answered, hollowly.
Maybe he thought Lancelot was right, but it was too painful to admit: things could have been different, another way. In another life, his magic was presented in a planned, private audience. In another, it spilled out on a whim while Merlin did his chores. In another, he saved Arthur’s life in a frightening show of power, and left bodies on display. In yet another, he confessed weeping over a war-wound he couldn’t prevent or heal.
In this life, none of that.
“What… what was it for you?” Merlin said. “Tell me what happened when you got back.”
Lancelot took a deep breath.
“I heard from Leon that you’d been arrested, for sorcery, and that there would be no trial because it was witnessed. But he wouldn’t say any more. And Arthur wouldn’t speak to any of us. I heard he was shut in his chambers.”
In another life, Lancelot stood behind him while he told Arthur, and his secret was accepted quietly, peacefully, while Arthur mulled over what concessions he could make in the law. In another, they argued and argued until it became clear that no matter how they raged against each other, they were bound like binary stars. In another, Arthur became terrified of him, and in another, the whole ordeal ended at a lake.
In this life, “I was allowed to visit Gwen, but the guards were ordered not to let me see you,” Lancelot said. “Even after I tried to pull rank. Apparently, they had been instructed specifically to keep me out.”
“I was missing you.” Merlin swallowed. “I wondered where you were. If you’d heard.”
“I had,” Lancelot said, grim. “And then, last night, Agravaine came to my chambers. He said he knew that I’d tried to see you. And he threatened me.”
“He threatened you?”
“He said it would be a shame if Arthur had to discover you hadn’t acted alone. I was angry. I wanted to strike him. It was a near thing.”
It scared Merlin, Lancelot’s anger. It was a new shade to him, and made him foreign.
“And…” Merlin said, “what happened this morning?”
“I remember looking into the courtyard, and seeing the pyre,” Lancelot said. “And… I remember thinking to take a horse, and supplies. Thinking… thinking I had to prevent it all. And then… I don’t know. It’s like something possessed me—I don’t remember. I know I fought for you. That’s all I know.”
He reached for those hours in his memory, and it was like staggering through mist towards the edge of an unseen cliff. Shuffling his feet and listening for any signs: scattering pebbles, rocks breaking down bluffs. Anticipating the drop.
“The guards came to fetch me at dawn,” Merlin started. “When they brought me out into the square, I looked for you. But I wasn’t sure you’d come back at all, so… so. I kept imagining you’d return after it was done, and someone would have to tell you what had happened. I’d been thinking that all night.
“I looked for Arthur, and saw him high up, on the king’s balcony. Everyone else was there. Leon, and Elyan, and Percival. But they weren’t right up against the pyre. More… more outside the crowd. I don’t know who stationed them there, or why. And maybe they tried to look at me, but I don’t know. I couldn’t look at them. I didn’t want them to see… to see…”
“See what?”
“That I’d been crying.”
Hours behind them, in the aftermath, Arthur collapsed to his knees in the courtyard, burning his eyes on smoke and staining the knees of his trousers in blood. He almost wept openly, but was aware of his audience of injured knights, and didn’t.
Merlin shuddered. “My ears were ringing. I couldn’t hear anything as the man tied me to the pole. And then, just as he lit the pyre, there was a sort of—commotion. I couldn’t see what. The air was thick from the heat, and it was starting to smoke around me. A horse came bolting into the courtyard.
“People tried to get out of the way, but I think it trampled many of them. The rider was going so fast. And then… then I realized it was you. When you drew your sword, and the fire reflected in it, you looked like an angel in wrath.
“The townsfolk scattered, but the knights—Arthur’s men—they drew their swords to stop you. There was chaos. I thought something was wrong when one of them knocked your helmet off, and you barely flinched at the blow. I’d never seen you fight like that. You must have killed nearly two dozen men, all on your own. Leon led the finest against you.”
“Even Percival?” Lancelot said.
Merlin heard him, and hesitated, then nodded.
“You fought him. And Leon, and Elyan. And—Gwaine. You wounded Gwaine. Badly, I think. Very badly. It was as if you didn’t recognize them. I saw Arthur rush inside, off the balcony, once he realized what was happening. He had his sword drawn, but… I didn’t see him in the courtyard.”
Here was the precipice. Lancelot went over it, plummeting blind.
“I remember pulling you onto my horse,” Lancelot said, stricken. “Your hand, your weight. I remembering thinking, I can’t let him fall off the horse. All I remember is you. Everything else is… is…” He trailed off. Merlin touched his shaking hand.
“Sometimes,” Merlin said, “men go to war, and don’t remember the things they do on the battlefield. I’ve seen it, once or twice.”
Lancelot went quiet. “It’s like when I was a boy,” he said. “I don’t remember seeing my parents cut down. I remember seeing one of the raiders approach them with his axe. And then, nothing. I only remember the bodies.”
There was no proper response to that, and Merlin let the words be, holding Lancelot’s hands, which were white in his lap. Neither of them spoke; the wind redoubled, and the massive structure around them heaved in cold breaths.
In Camelot, several knights gathered in the council chambers without Arthur knowing. They were furious, and wanted Lancelot punished. In the morning, they would band together, and pressure the King to declare Sir Lancelot and his sorcerer consort prime enemies of the kingdom, whose capture was the highest priority.
“Gwaine wasn’t with the rest of them,” Merlin said, after a long moment.
Lancelot looked at him, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“Before you arrived,” Merlin said, “I saw him standing aside. He seemed angry, but not at me. I s’ppose I’m being stupid—but when the wood was lit, I saw him reaching for his sword. I think he wanted to do something. Help me, I mean.”
Understanding dawned on Lancelot.
“It was only when you went at Percival, that Gwaine…” Merlin went quiet. “Only to defend him, I think.” Lancelot waited for more, but there wasn’t any.
“…I harmed him,” he said. “And I shouldn’t have. You think I shouldn’t have. That’s what you’re saying.”
Merlin blinked. “That’s—not what I meant.”
“I see how you’re looking at me.”
“I—what? How am I looking at—”
“I don’t know, Merlin. How are you looking at me? After seeing what you say—seeing what I did. What do you think of it? Of me?”
His tone was sharp, and Merlin was taken aback. If Lancelot was angry at him, he couldn’t stand it. He was all Merlin had.
“I… I don’t…”
“I didn’t see—” Lancelot said, “I mean, I didn’t know. If I’d known—”
He needed to move, and stood up from the bench. Every muscle in his body protested, but he forced himself to stand. And he paced like a caged creature. His eyes landed on his sword, sheathed and carefully set on the floor, and it occurred to him that if he’d done everything Merlin had said, the sword would have blood on it. Blood he hadn’t had the presence of mind to wash off. Blood belonging to his friends.
In a burst of panic or anger or fear—he couldn’t say which—Lancelot picked up his sword and threw it across the room, scabbard and all. It hit the wall and clattered loudly. Merlin flinched; his eyes were wide. Lancelot was a dangerous man, and somehow, he was just now realizing it.
“You were tied there!” Lancelot said. His voice broke. “You looked afraid. You looked—looked vulnerable! And—and—and—I remember putting my sword so hard through something, that the blood got on my knuckles. The tip of it broke bone. And someone screamed. Someone… someone… oh, God. Someone—”
“Stop—” Merlin said. He didn’t want to hear this, and he didn’t want to fight. “Just—stop, alright? I wasn’t saying anything. I wasn’t—I didn’t mean anything.”
“I didn’t mean… I didn’t mean…”
All at once, his body gave out, and Lancelot collapsed to his knees, wracked and unsteady. At the same time, leagues away, Camelot’s court physician rinsed out another blood-soaked cloth, and tended his patient. All the while, he prayed to any Old gods who would forgive him: begging them to keep Merlin safe.
“How badly was he wounded?” Lancelot said.
Merlin was silent. “Gaius is a good physician,” he said, hushed.
“Merlin.”
“He’ll save him. I know he—”
“Merlin, please.”
When they met eyes—Lancelot on his knees, Merlin standing at the bench—Merlin’s eyes were wide and manic. He choked on his words:
“Your sword went through him.”
Lancelot blinked as that hit him. He floated for a moment in a cushioned, distanced calm. Then the blow found its mark, and he lurched, clutching his middle because something had gone wrong inside him—it must have, to feel like this. Lancelot folded over, unable to get enough air.
He stayed there for a long time, shaking badly.
Merlin went to him, and knelt, and wrapped his arms around him, desperate to dosomething, anything useful. He cast around.
“Are you cold?” he said. “I’ll find wood somewhere… start a fire.”
“I love you,” Lancelot rasped, but it didn’t sound sweet. It wasn’t affection, but an excuse: pleading not-guilty because he wasn’t in his right mind. He was in love: an affliction as dangerous as any curse.
Merlin felt so, so lost. “I love you, too.”
“I couldn’t stand any harm coming to you.”
“I know.”
“My life would have been worth nothing if—”
“Don’t talk like this.”
“—if you’d burned. If I’d done nothing.”
“Stop, please.”
“I swore I’d be yours. What kind of man would I be?”
Merlin was frustrated. He didn’t care about Lancelot martyring his honour for him. Maybe Lancelot thought it was romantic, or hoped it was. Needed it to be. But for Merlin, it was simply more guilt he didn’t want on him.
“Your life wouldn’t have been worth nothing,” Merlin said. “Don’t say that.”
At last, Lancelot went silent. Crouched on the ground, any heat either of them had bled out to feed the aging stones. Perhaps Merlin should’ve started a fire after all. It was freezing in here.
Lancelot waited for Merlin to give up, and let him go. He thought, eventually, Merlin would see his actions for the horrors they were. He would become disgusted: in an hour, a week, a month. Abandon Lancelot somewhere and flee. When it came to that, Lancelot resolved to leave first and save Merlin the trouble.
The little moon hanging above them began to dim, and Merlin looked up at it: stared until his eyes glowed like kindling. Reluctantly, it grew brighter in another long quiet.
Lancelot breathed raggedly, then too-fast, and finally he settled.
“Do you… remember the Isle of the Blessed?” Lancelot said, soft. He drew himself up better, to sit on his knees, and Merlin frowned. “When you fought the Cailleach, and forced her to close the Veil. And no one had to die? It was a miracle.”
Merlin remembered. “Afterwards, that’s when you kissed me.”
“I did. I realized I’d wanted to, for a long time.”
Lancelot kissed him, tenderly and sweet, to show him what he thought of that. When he pulled away, he smiled the way only dead loved ones do, in memories.
“I was going to die for you,” he admitted. “If you couldn’t prevail… if a sacrifice had to be made. I was going to make sure it was I.”
What could Merlin say to that? He shook his head, lips pressed tight.
“I’d never considered dying for someone before,” Lancelot said, “until you talked about finding something more important than anything. Merlin, you were everything I wanted to be. I was enamoured by it. I knew then, I would die for it.”
“Don’t,” Merlin said.
“I love you.”
Merlin didn’t want to talk about death and dying and sacrifice. He shook his head again, firmer. Touched Lancelot’s chest. He closed his eyes tight, because he couldn’t cry again; he was too exhausted to do this.
“Go back to talking about afterwards. Please,” Merlin said, voice thin. “About why you kissed me.”
Lancelot heard him, and paused. He couldn’t deny him, and sighed—long and deep and worshipful.
“After you vanquished the Cailleach,” he said, obliging, “you seemed like a god. There was a storm above your head, like a black crown. I though how my mother told me once that the Devil would come in disguise, like something beautiful. And I understood, just then. You seduced me with the dark specks on your cheeks, standing tall like something wild.”
“Poet,” Merlin whispered.
“But later, at the feast, you seemed a different sort of deity. The kind that blesses harvests and puts life in flowers.”
“…Yeah?”
“Setting up for the feast where I was honoured for your deed, I saw you drop a spool of ribbon, and you got this… this look on your face. You watched it roll like it was made of gold, and you were resigned to a fate of ruin: having to ravel it all back up. It was only ribbon, but you looked so grave that I laughed aloud. I don’t think you noticed, but I’d never felt anything so pure for anyone in my life.”
“Because I dropped a spool of ribbon?” Merlin couldn’t feel charmed, or indignant, or incredulous; he couldn’t feel anything but cold.
“I wanted to go over and wrap both our hands in it,” Lancelot said. “I wanted to kiss you right there.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I should have.”
Lancelot fell silent again. Merlin’s chest ached so hard he lost his breath, and he reached for Lancelot. They locked together, like if they could strain fiercely enough, their edges would disappear. The wind wailed.
In Camelot, Arthur and Percival sat around the bed in Merlin’s abandoned room, where Gwaine lay slack-faced and white-skinned, breathing shallow and shallower.
“Do you think he’ll be alright?” Lancelot said. “Yes.” Merlin sounded faint. “I think he’ll be alright.”
“Are you ready?” Merlin asked, ignoring Lancelot’s perfectly good chairs and sitting on his table.
“Yes, ready to set my chambers on fire again.” Merlin rolled his eyes. That had been a long time ago, and Merlin had placed enchantments on the curtains to keep them from burning. They hadn’t tried them out yet, though. “What do I do?”
Merlin opened the book on the marked page, as if he hadn’t dedicated the past few nights to memorising this chapter.
“Come here,” Merlin said. Lancelot stepped in front of him, way closer than necessary. Merlin’s mind went blank at the sight of Lancelot between his thighs. He swallowed before continuing. "Hold your hands like you’re holding water, like this. Yes, keep them like that.”
Merlin took the Amulet of the Dragon from where it lay on the table and placed it in the middle of Lancelot’s hands. He then made the same gesture with his own and held them over Lancelot’s. His skin tingled where it touched Lancelot’s, and he couldn’t blame the ritual yet.
“Repeat after me,” Merlin said. He started chanting in the language of the old religion: “The power harnessed in the Dragonlord’s soul, channel it to he who holds the shield.”
Lancelot repeated it perfectly. Merlin lit a fire in his palms. It made Lancelot’s eyes glow with its flickering light.
“Let the fire run in both veins.” Merlin watched Lancelot’s lips move, forming the words of old as if it were his native tongue. “Let the blaze be born from both hands.”
Merlin’s fire glowed the colour of wine, and he opened his palms, letting it fall to the coin in Lancelot’s.
“Let the channel be created.”
It absorbed the flame, glowing bright with harmless heat until it faded. Merlin stared at it, sitting innocuously in Lancelot’s hands. He didn’t dare breathe. His only thought was, ‘Come on, work.’ But nothing kept happening.
He sighed, resigned to spend more sleepless nights translating the stupid book they stole from the stupid vaults that wasn’t even in stupid English. And then his head exploded in pain.
He screamed— or he thought he did, because even though he could feel it in his throat, he couldn’t hear anything. Only a ringing in his ears. He tried to open his eyes and— no, they weren’t closed. He couldn’t see. Distantly, he felt Lancelot’s hands on him, keeping him upright. An eternity passed until he could hear again, but he didn’t lift his face from where it was buried in the crook of Lancelot’s neck.
“Lancelot?” Merlin breathed when the pain became bearable.
“Merlin?” Lancelot leaned back, grabbing Merlin’s face with one hand to look at him. “What happened? Are you well? Do you want me to—”
“Just…” The movement made him dizzy, and he dropped his head on Lancelot’s shoulder. “Just hold me. For now.”
Lancelot wrapped his arm tighter around him and ran his fingers through his hair. That was great. Once he began feeling normal again (or as close to normal as he was going to get; his body felt… weird), he noticed Lancelot was shivering. Merlin pulled back to look at him.
“Are you okay?”
“I think so.” Lancelot didn’t let Merlin go, even though he didn’t look much better than Merlin himself. “It doesn’t hurt. I… I think it’s your power. Coursing through me. It’s so much.”
Merlin’s cheeks burned, and he was both desperate to push Lancelot away and get him to hold him for the rest of the night.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said with a frown. His hand was on Merlin’s neck now, stroking lightly. Then his face lit up with a smile that could put the sun to shame.
…And now he was waxing poetic about Lancelot in his mind, which meant he must be back to normal.
Lancelot whispered through his smile, all excited: “I can do magic now.”
Very specific and potentially dangerous to his well-being magic, yes. But Merlin didn’t try to go over that again. It was Lancelot who had pressed until Merlin had accepted. Granted, it hadn’t taken much pressing because he couldn’t resist Lancelot’s brown, pleading eyes. But he firmly believed this was either going to be one of their best ideas yet or one of the very worst.
Merlin smiled back, unable to be unaffected by Lancelot’s glee. “Try it out.”
Lancelot stepped away from him. He had been very warm, and Merlin was left cold sitting there on the table. Lancelot stared at his hands for a good while before saying:
“I don’t know what to do.”
Merlin looked around the room until he found a candle, which he summoned to his hand.
“Let’s start small,” he said.
“I remember you telling me the first fire you lit was as tall as your house.” He raised an eyebrow at him.
“The more reason to do as I say, not as I do.”
Lancelot snorted and took the candle. He looked at the wick intently, even narrowing his eyes until they were almost closed, but it remained unlit.
“Try to, um…” Merlin started, but he wasn’t sure how to explain it. How do you teach a man to breathe? “Try to imagine the candle burning. And push the magic towards it.”
“Push it… how?” Lancelot didn’t take his eyes off it. Merlin wanted to answer, ‘Just push it,’ but he was aware that would not be helpful at all.
“What about we try with a spell first?” he said instead. Lancelot looked at him and nodded. “Forbearnahn.” The candle lit up instantly, and just as quickly, he extinguished it.
“Forbearnahn,” Lancelot repeated.
Merlin felt it a fraction of a second before it happened: His magic being pulled, as minuscule a spell as it was. And then the candle was lit between them. Lancelot laughed, his eyes seeking Merlin, full of exhilaration. Merlin laughed with him, giddy.
It worked. He almost couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t allowed himself to believe it, to let it sink in until he saw the gold fading from Lancelot’s eyes. Lancelot had magic. His magic.
Lancelot moved to stand in front of the fireplace, he raised his hands and said the spell out loud. It came to life with a roar and a flame so tall that Merlin worried for a moment. Lancelot laughed again and started lighting every single candle in his chambers, one by one.
Merlin stayed at the table, keeping an eye on the fires, but mostly watching Lancelot. With each new candle lit, he felt the pull of magic inside him, deep in his belly and crawling down his body like a shiver.
“When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” Merlin said when Lancelot started looking around the room for more things to light up. “And I guess when you have fire magic, everything looks like kindling.”
Lancelot laughed again and went back to stand in front of Merlin. Not between his legs this time, which he was grateful for since he would like to keep his remaining sanity for today.
“What else can I do?” Lancelot asked. Merlin honestly didn’t know. He wasn’t certain what the binding counted as ‘Dragonlord’ powers and what as Merlin’s own.
“Try making something with the smoke.” He gestured with his head to the fireplace. “Like an animal.”
Lancelot stared at the hearth, his eyes narrowed. When nothing happened for too long, Lancelot raised his hands towards it. Merlin felt his magic shape something amidst the smoke, but it didn’t leave yet. It was terribly intimate, in a way he hadn’t known to prepare for. The feeling of Lancelot using his magic, coaxing it from him. As if Lancelot were inside him. It was as addictive as it was terrifying.
A bird made of smoke flew from the fireplace. At first, the flap of its wings was too slow for its speed, making it look uncanny. Then it was too fast. As Lancelot made it circle the room, his hand guiding it or following it or both, it began to gain a better form. The flaps aligned with the speed, it oscillated up and down rhythmically, and it even got a more defined shape.
“You’re a natural,” Merlin congratulated him, unable to take his eyes off it. “It took me days to get mine to look that good.”
“I think it’s you.” Lancelot dropped his hand and looked at Merlin. The bird dissolved not long after. “I can feel it, I think. How the magic is all yours.” He shifted closer to Merlin and —oh, Goddess— took his hand between his. “I would remain tethered to you for the rest of my life, if you’d let me.”
And Merlin— how was he supposed to answer to that? He swallowed, and as he gripped Lancelot’s hand with his and pulled him closer, he scorned himself for ever doubting this.
Lancelot’s face was rough where his stubble grazed Merlin’s skin, but his lips were soft. As soft as the first time they kissed, but this actually felt real. This was real, not a lie, not an excuse. This wouldn’t go away in the morning.
Merlin wrapped his arms around his neck and drew them closer to each other, trying to get as much of Lancelot’s body on him as physically possible. Lancelot found again his place between Merlin’s legs and dragged Merlin closer to the edge of the table, hips pressing flush. Lancelot swallowed the sound that escaped Merlin’s lips, attacking his mouth as he was.
Merlin unfastened Lancelot’s belt and started tugging at his tunic, and on the third tug, Lancelot got the message and pulled it off.
“Why haven’t we been doing this before?” Merlin asked. He ran a hand down Lancelot’s chest, touch feather light, relishing in the way he shuddered.
“Right now, I cannot think of a single valid reason,” Lancelot answered, which was a prettied-up way of saying, ‘because we’re both stupid and cowardly,’ probably. Merlin dug his fingers into Lancelot’s pectoral, feeling the muscle under them.
Lancelot kissed him again. Then his cheek and his neck, his hands sneaking under Merlin’s tunic. Merlin helped him pull it off. And though Lancelot’s skin was hot against his, it washed him with the same relief of cold water in summer.
Merlin ran his hands through Lancelot’s hair and stressed his bottom lip with his teeth. He wanted to say something, something kind of sappy and romantic like, ‘I don’t want to ever let you go.’ He was going to say it. Really. He pulled away and took a deep breath—
And the door to Lancelot’s chambers banged open.
“Lancelot, do you know where Merlin i— oh. Oh.” Gwen stood right there at the door, gaping at them.
“Gwen.” Lancelot cleared his throat and retrieved Merlin’s tunic from the floor. Merlin hastily put it on, trying to will away the burning of his cheeks. And of the rest of his body.
“I can’t believe it.” Gwen put her hands on her hips and scowled at Merlin. “Everyone kept saying you two were courting, but I insisted that couldn’t be true, since that would be something my best friend would bother to tell me, isn’t it?”
“Um,” Merlin said. Grandiloquently.
“I can’t believe I had to catch you making out to find out you were finally together!”
“Witchcraft,” Gwen deadpanned. Lancelot pinched Merlin’s leg. When Merlin glanced at him, his eyes were wide on him.
“Yes. Sorcery. Magic. We actually lit all these candles with spells. And such.”
“Aha.”
“I’m so, so serious.”
“I’m sure.”
“Because you’re my best friend and I’d tell you if we were, you know. Courting.”
Maybe it was the way the word left his mouth, maybe it was the way he couldn’t keep himself from looking at Lancelot when he said it, but Gwen seemed to understand. He had, after all, talked her ear off about his feelings for Lancelot, time and time again. Keeping some compromising details out, of course. Honestly, if she and Arthur had started courting and either of them hadn’t told him, he would have reacted the same.
“Alright,” she said, offering him a smile. He smiled back. Courting.
“Why were you looking for Merlin?” Lancelot asked after an appropriate amount of silence.
“Oh! Yes, sorry. Gaius needs you, Merlin. People are dying.”
Merlin cursed under his breath and jumped off the table. Before he could get too far, Lancelot grabbed his hand.
“Witchcraft, really?” he whispered. Merlin shrugged with one shoulder. “I’m starting to regret a few things,” he said, but he had trouble hiding the smile from his voice.
“I’ll see you later?” Merlin asked.
“I’ll be waiting for you.”
With that, they had a last (for now!) chaste kiss, and Lancelot let him go. He no longer felt cold where they stopped touching. Lancelot’s warmth remained all the way across the castle, and until he returned to his arms late at night.
It was entirely too early for someone to be knocking at Merlin’s door. ‘Go away,’ he mumbled against his pillow. Or maybe he dreamed he did. Either way, the knocking did not go away.
When he heard Arthur’s voice on the other side of the door he did startle, completely awake.
He sat up, and only then did he notice the arms wrapped around his middle. They tightened their grip in protest at his movements. Right. Lancelot. Right.
Right.
He tried not to freak out at the thought of Lancelot in his bed, sleeping next to him. Sleeping with him. In the literal sense. They had been exhausted last night, and it had been very cold, and clearly, Merlin wasn't thinking straight when he had asked him to stay.
So they stayed in Merlin’s room, and they both refused to let the other sleep on the floor and, well. Here Merlin was, crawling over Lancelot to get out of bed and trying his best not to wake him up.
Also trying his best not to stand there and stare at him like a creep. Because obviously, obviously, Lancelot slept without a shirt on.
He slipped out of his room, gently closing the door, and he had to close his eyes and rub them at the sudden onslaught of sunlight. When he opened them, it was to the cheery view of Arthur standing there, arms crossed and a scowl on his face. Merlin glanced at the window. It was well past breakfast time.
“Do you want me to fetch your breakfast, sire?”
Arthur rolled his eyes. Merlin didn’t understand why he was there at all, dressed up and ready to scold Merlin. He knew for a fact Arthur had gotten quite drunk at last night’s Yule feast, since he had even released Merlin early from his duties. The last he saw of him, Arthur had been deep enough in his cups to flirt with Gwen in public— right at the royal table, in fact. Quite awfully, if Merlin was being honest, but it somehow charmed Gwen nonetheless.
“Oh! Do you need hangover medicine?” Merlin asked, already moving to the bench. If he made Arthur’s hangover go away, there was a chance he’d forget about the breakfast thing, and Merlin wouldn’t have to muck the stables or be a practice dummy or—
“That’s not why I’m here,” Arthur said. When he saw Merlin stop mid-way with the vial in his hand, he gestured at him to hurry. “I didn’t say I didn’t want it. I’m going to need it to deal with this.”
Arthur drank it all quickly, with his whole face scrunched up at the taste. Merlin was certain they didn’t need to taste that horrendously; Gaius just enjoyed their suffering. Arthur sighed, suddenly looking as tired as Merlin felt. Then he straightened up and called to the door:
“Come in.”
Two guards entered the physician’s chambers, which made Merlin think, ‘Oh no.’ Then Agravaine stepped in, with the vicious smirk of the cat that got the cream, the canary and the whole feast, which made Merlin think, ‘Oh, shit.’
“Lord Agravaine claims last night you entered his chambers while he attended the feast and stole his jewellery,” Arthur said. Which… was not what he was expecting at all.
Out of the things he did last night— most of them illegal or at least frowned upon, and out of all the things he had stolen from the castle, Agravaine had managed to accuse him of the one thing he hadn’t done.
Arthur must have seen it in his face, because he continued: “I already told him you have been at my service for many years, and the only things you dare steal from the crown are my sausages.” Arthur sounded more offended about the sausages than about the Agravaine thing. Merlin opened his mouth to protest, but then thought about it and closed it.
“I know it was you.” Agravaine pointed a finger at him. “My manservant and these two guards saw you enter my chambers late at night. And when I woke up this morning, I noticed many of my things were gone.” Agravaine smiled and then extended his hands as if he were offering Merlin a blessing. “Give them back now, and I’ll only ask for your banishment instead of your execution.”
Arthur rolled his eyes. It warmed Merlin’s heart, a little. Knowing he trusted Merlin more than he believed his uncle. He probably thought someone else was blaming Merlin, and after they searched Merlin’s rooms and found nothing, they’d go and find the real thief.
“I didn’t steal them. I was nowhere near your chambers. My lord.”
And they probably hadn’t been stolen at all, had they? He tried to eye the guards. They must have the jewellery hidden beneath their armour. It wasn’t the first time something like this happened to him, but he’d very much like it for it to be the last. It was already getting tiring.
“Where were you, then?” Agravaine asked, his smile broadening.
It hit Merlin, then. Like a bucket of ice-cold water. He knew. He knew where he had been last night. Not only that— he knew what he was, who he was. Of course he did, it was no coincidence that he was desperately trying to rid of him right now.
“I didn’t see you before the feast,” Agravaine goaded.
Merlin had left to hunt down the sorceress that Morgana had sent to poison the food. Merlin had gotten to the kitchens just in time to find her with a vial in her hand, hovering over a barrel of wine.
It had been a very dramatic fight, but thankfully very quick. As they threw magic at each other, she made as much of a mess as possible. Merlin, well, he tried not to, but did it anyway. He had managed to hold her down with magic, and that’s when she realised who he was. Surprisingly, she gave up instead of doubling down. Merlin appreciated it, it would have been a whole mess to kill her.
Now that he thought about it, he didn’t know how she had managed to get the kitchen to empty the moment it usually was at its busiest. He hoped she had done something nasty to Cook. Boils in her hands, or something.
“I was helping in the kitchens,” Merlin answered.
“Instead of dressing me?” Arthur questioned with a raised eyebrow. He leaned against the table and grabbed an apple from it.
“Did you enjoy the venison or not?” Merlin shot back, and Arthur just shrugged and bit the apple. It would be funny how much he wasn’t taking this seriously if Merlin weren’t so nervous.
“You left the feast early,” Agravaine said. “I saw you. Where did you go?”
The sorceress had told him to meet outside the northern wall, that she needed to show him something. Lancelot had caught him on his way out and called him rude names for walking willingly into a trap. So instead, they both went and walked willingly into a trap.
And it turned out not to be a trap! She showed them that underneath the snow, right before the forest, she had planted a small army of evil tree-creatures, and they were making their way towards the castle. She had said Morgana had given her the seeds, and she didn’t know how to stop them. She had said, ‘I believe in you, Emrys,’ and promptly left him to deal with it by himself.
Which he did. Setting them on fire had been hard, cold and soaked with snow as they had been. But with Lancelot cutting them in half with his hastily enchanted sword and him throwing balls of fire at them, they had managed.
“I was here.”
“Here,” Agravaine raised an eyebrow. Merlin nodded. Agravaine scoffed.
He must have seen them. The royal wing’s windows oversaw the northern forest. He must have been waiting for the creatures to take over while everyone was incapacitated by the poisoned wine. Morgana made the most awful plans. He was sure if she really wanted to kill them all, she could just summon lightning and zap them all to death. She didn’t only because she loved the theatrics.
“It is your word against three.” To the guards, he said, “search his rooms.”
Merlin hurried to stand in front of his door. “This is ridiculous. I didn’t steal anything.”
If they entered his room, the first thing they’d see, lying right in the middle of his desk, would be the clearly magical tome he stole from the vaults months ago.
“Where’s Gaius?” Arthur asked, looking around as if just noticing the physician’s absence from the physician’s chambers.
“He spent Yule with his girlfriend.”
“He has a girlfriend?” Arthur almost choked on the apple.
“Alice!” Merlin said, exasperated. “I told you about her. Multiple times!” Honestly.
“Ohh.” Arthur’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know they were serious.”
“They’re getting serious, he can’t stop talking about her—”
“Enough,” Agravaine said. Right. He had forgotten. “So you’re saying there is no one who can vouch you weren’t in my chambers?”
“Um,” Merlin said. Before he could become any more eloquent, the door behind him opened.
“What about me?” Lancelot’s soft footsteps stopped right next to Merlin. “Am I witness enough?” His tone was tinted with laughter, and when Merlin looked at him, he saw he was wearing one of Merlin’s tunics. Goddess save him.
Arthur’s eyebrows were at his hairline, but he didn’t seem surprised at all. Merlin would appreciate he at least pretended to be as shocked as Merlin was.
“You’re trying to tell me you were with him here last night?” Agravaine scowled.
Lancelot pressed closer to Merlin and wrapped an arm around him. He pulled Merlin flush to his side and gave his waist a quick squeeze. Merlin struggled to breathe.
“All night,” Lancelot said, putting an emphasis on all. Agravaine caught on and turned a hilarious shade of red.
“I don’t believe you.” He pointed a finger at Lancelot. “The both of you stole from me, then—”
“Uncle, enough,” Arthur said. He pushed off the table and tossed his half-chewed apple there. “Merlin has my trust in these matters, and Lancelot is the most honourable of my knights. Your sources must be mistaken.” Arthur glanced at the guards behind Agravaine, who suddenly looked very interested in the wall decorations.
“But, my Lord—”
Arthur raised a hand, silencing him. “I will have my best men looking for the culprit, day and night if necessary.”
And that was it. Agravaine sent Merlin a last glare, to which Merlin answered with a shallow bow. Arthur left last. With a hand on the door’s pommel, he looked back at them and said:
“Don’t let this between you make you slack on your duties.”
Merlin said, “Don’t worry” at the same time Lancelot said, “Of course not, my Lord.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Merlin. You’re already terrible at your job.”
“Hey!” Merlin shouted, but he was already gone. He felt more than heard Lancelot’s chuckle, and that was when he realised they were alone, and Lancelot still had them pressed against each other.
Merlin didn’t move away, but didn’t dare to pull him even closer, either. And wasn’t that the essence of how he had been dealing with his feelings for Lancelot for months now? Their one kiss outside the vaults notwithstanding. They hadn’t talked about it, after all. Hadn’t even mentioned it. Maybe for Lancelot, it had just been like what he had done now, a fun little lie to throw others off their scent.
With a last squeeze to his waist, Lancelot let him go. Merlin felt the loss immediately.
“Did you see his face?” Lancelot laughed. Merlin forced himself to smile. He went to Merlin’s room, and as he stepped up the stairs, he looked back at him. “Are you going back to sleep?”
Merlin considered it for a moment. He should be getting ready to leave to tidy Arthur’s rooms, get his clothes for the laundress, fetch his lunch… But Arthur did just say he was terrible at his job. So he might as well.
They lay back in bed. He rested his head on Lancelot’s shoulder and threw an arm over his stomach. Lancelot pressed his face to Merlin’s hair. He could feel his heart in his throat.
Lying in bed, Lancelot’s breathing soothing him, his scent surrounding him… he could get used to this. He really, really wanted to get used to this.
Maybe for Lancelot, it was only a fun little lie to throw them off their scent. But right now, Lancelot pressed closer to him, and breathed deeply into his hair, and his fingers traced patterns on his skin. And maybe— maybe not. Maybe he was not so wrong for thinking it was something more for Lancelot, too.
Heyyy I just wanted to thank you for running this fest. I love love love this ship but can never find an excuse to write for them. Thank you so so so much 🩵
this is so cute😭💖thank you all so so so much for participating!!! i love merlance with my entire heart too and im so glad other people love them just as much💖💖
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Merlin (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Lancelot/Merlin (Merlin)
Characters: Lancelot (Merlin), Merlin (Merlin)
Additional Tags: Banished Merlin (Merlin), Hurt Merlin (Merlin), Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Arthur Pendragon Finds Out About Merlin’s Magic (Merlin), And he’s not happy about it, Supportive Lancelot (Merlin), Lancelot Loves Merlin (Merlin), Gwaine is mentioned doing Gwaine things, I.E protecting Merlin, Suicidal Ideation, be careful if that bothers you, Dark Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Kind Of, He does try to kill Merlin, sooo, But he’s only really mentioned
Summary:
T.W Passive Suicidal Ideation
The tears had dried. Still staining Merlin’s lovely face, framing it in pain and agony, but no longer creating rivers with their treacherous path. Not for a lack of trying, but for a lack of energy. Clear as day in the empty look in his eyes, the sniffles still persisting on each breath.
Written for Day 2 of @mercelotweek 2025, for the prompt “do you not get it? we don’t ever get a happy ending, we don’t ever go home!” + hurt/comfort
Merlin needed to steal something from the vaults. Again.
It wasn’t as bad as it sounded, really. It was only a book. A very powerful and very magical in nature book, but still a book nonetheless. It wasn’t like he was stealing ingots of gold or anything, so really, the King should be thanking him for ridding his beautiful vault of such a not-vault-worthy thing.
That’s how he justified it to Lancelot when he asked for his help to get in. Not that Lancelot needed any justification— he heard the words ‘steal’ and ‘magic’ and didn’t even hesitate to agree. Like a dog wagging its tail upon hearing the word ‘walk.’
Merlin needed to stop thinking such things about Lancelot.
Back to the thievery: Merlin had even planned this one out. See, a part of a knight’s duties was standing guard at the most critical locations inside the castle, such as the royal chambers, armoury, or the vault. The day it was Lancelot’s turn to take the post, Merlin handed him an enchanted waterskin. Whoever drank from it would develop a cold immediately. A mild one. Hopefully. He was pretty certain it would be mild.
That night, he stood by the stairs leading down to the vaults, waiting silently. When he heard steps climbing up, he started walking away as if he were passing through. Even though it was too late for servants to be wandering these parts of the castle.
“Oh, Merlin, thank God.” Merlin turned at the voice, feigning surprise. Sir Galahad looked sweaty and feverish, his eyes glazed, and Merlin became a little less certain it would be a mild cold. “Please inform Prince Arthur I must leave my post, I need to go to see the physician. I fear whatever curse is afflicting me is contagious.”
Merlin grimaced at the word ‘curse.’ He hoped Sir Galahad wouldn’t remember it come morning. He also hoped Gaius didn’t suspect he had a hand in this. He hoped for many things.
Merlin told him he’d do it immediately and wished him a swift recovery. As soon as Galahad turned to leave, Merlin went in the opposite direction of the royal chambers.
Lancelot was waiting for him downstairs. He greeted Merlin with a smile that almost made him trip and fall down the last steps. They didn’t say a word. With a murmured spell, Merlin unlocked the heavy doors and slipped in.
It felt like he spent hours in there. Not only was it a big room, it had endless shelves and crates filled with trinkets over trinkets over even more trinkets. Many of them were humming with magic, begging Merlin to take them with him.
He only took what he had come for, though. When he finally found it. An old tome bound in leather. A gilded dragon on the front looked at him with eyes made of emeralds.
Just then, Lancelot half-stepped into the vault, standing in the space left by the ajar door. With a panicked expression and hurried hand motions, he mouthed at Merlin, ‘hurry up.’
Merlin got out as silently and quickly as he could. There was no one else there, but he could hear footsteps slowly descending the stairs. A guard or a knight, by the clinking of armour.
He closed the door and, with another spell, locked it. It made a sound. Just an itty, tiny bit, way too loud sound. The footsteps above stopped, and Merlin heard a sword slowly being drawn. Great.
He looked at Lancelot with wide eyes. He was a hair’s breadth away from him, so close Merlin was touching Lancelot’s armour with the back of his hands, which held the book to his chest. Lancelot hadn’t backed away when Merlin exited the vault.
Lancelot mouthed something, but Merlin couldn’t decipher it. He was distracted by the movement of Lancelot’s lips so close to him.
And that’s when the terrible idea popped into his mind.
‘Kiss me,’ he mouthed. Lancelot stared at his lips, a confused frown on his face. Not good at reading lips either. Merlin heard the knight’s heavy footsteps quicken their approach. He grabbed Lancelot’s neck and almost— almost cut the distance between them completely. A single twitch and their lips would be touching.
Lancelot was too close for him to be able to read his expression. He could only tell his eyes widened and his lips parted. Merlin had stopped breathing, and Lancelot too, because he didn’t feel his breath on his face.
They didn’t need to kiss, not really. There were already rumours about them, spread through the castle like wildfire. Started by them, more or less on purpose— though truthfully less. It was convenient for when they were found in odd places at odd times, or in… curious situations. Arthur would ask, ‘Where were you last night?’ and Merlin would answer, ‘With Lancelot,’ and they’d leave it at that. They didn’t confirm anything, they didn’t deny anything.
It wasn’t real, though. As much as he wished it was, it was only a cover. An excuse better than the tavern, a lie he wanted to become truth.
Lancelot’s lips brushing his, though… that felt real. It felt all much too real, when the feather-light touch became more of a pressure. And then Lancelot’s lips were unquestionably on his. Slightly parted, wet with saliva, breath hot on his face. It was so real and so much better than what Merlin had imagined.
Lancelot pressed closer, making Merlin’s back hit the doors. His whole body was against Merlin’s now; his legs, his mailed chest, and his hands scorching hot where they grabbed Merlin’s hips. Lancelot tilted his head, deepening the kiss, pressing to Merlin even more. As if he wanted to fuse their bodies together. Merlin was unable to do anything but hold onto him with his free hand and kiss back with the hunger of a man who had never known sustenance.
He wasn’t even able to hear anything over the sound of his own heartbeat. Until the whirring of a sword being sheathed startled them both enough to jump from each other, hitting their noses in the process.
Leaning against the wall in front of them was a very smug-looking Gwaine.
Merlin didn’t know how to feel about that. Because on one hand, even if they straight up told Gwaine he had just stolen from the vaults, he would not rat them out, so they were safe. On the other hand, he had just interrupted his first —and probably only— kiss with Lancelot. So he kind of wanted to throw the stupid book at his face.
“Gwaine.” Lancelot cleared his throat, stepping back from Merlin, but not completely facing away from him.
“No, no. Don’t stop on my behalf.” He smirked, placing his arms behind his head and making himself comfortable.
“I should go,” Merlin murmured. He clutched the book to his chest and slowly stepped around Lancelot. Reluctant to get out of there, but unable to look at him in the eye.
He wanted Lancelot to stop him. To ask him to stay. To kiss him again. Merlin kept walking, no fingers around his wrist or a wait stopping him.
Sometimes, Merlin got the feeling Lancelot, too, liked him like that. Wanted him like that. He had kissed him just now, hadn't he? He thought sometimes Lancelot’s eyes lingered a bit too long on him, or touched him when there was no need, or sought his company out over that of others. But it may just be that they were close friends and people are, you know, friendlier with their close friends.
Goddess, he should never have kissed him. It was going to drive him insane.
“I’ll, um, see you later,” Lancelot called after him.
Merlin nodded and hurried without looking back. He also ignored Gwaine’s cheerful goodbye, and later felt kind of bad about it. It wasn’t his fault Merlin was physically unable to think before doing things. To be fair, it was extremely hard to think when Lancelot was as close as he had been right then and there.
As he rushed up the stairs, he heard Gwaine say: “I heard a noise down here, like a door closing. I was worried.”
Lancelot answered: “You should have worried somewhere else.”
Gwaine laughed at that, but Merlin— it made his heart beat a little bit faster. It may have been his wishful imagination, but Lancelot had sounded as upset as Merlin felt.
