Details: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, Merlin (Merlin), Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Morgana (Merlin), Gwen (Merlin), Percival (Merlin), Dwaine (Merlin), Uther Pendragon (Merlin), Fluff, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Romance, Humor a little bit of mpeg, Alternate universe - Canon Divergence.
Summary: Every year, right before mating season, Camelot holds a great tournament in which the alphas will compete with each other in order to show their strength to the omegas who’ll be looking to choose the perfect mate. After all, it’s not the alpha who chooses the omega, but the omega who chooses the alpha, and Arthur really, really wants Merlin to choose him.
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Summary: Five years ago, the king and queen of Camelot lost someone very close to them both. They have grieved the loss every year since, taking solace and strength in only each other. One Ostara, however, the spring brings something new and unexpected to them.
Warnings: Mpreg, pregnancy, polyamory, and mentions of trauma
Word Count: 6,295
Ship(s): Gwen/Merlin/Arthur Pendragon
Archive link!
A/N: I had to rewrite this entire fic because I opened up and then decided that I absolutely hated it. I hope that it turned out better than it was when I first opened it, but that's for all of you to decide! I'm still not happy with how I ended it but I literally couldn't figure anything else out. I really love this ship as a whole and I wish I was able to find more kidfics with them. I hope that you all enjoy it! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3
Traveling across the kingdom was always a grueling task, but to both the royals and servants alike, the current leg of their journey felt like it was remarkably harder than any of the others had been up to that point. This was something that Arthur and Gwen were planning on doing every two or three years; traveling through their kingdom so that they could personally talk to their people and figure out what they needed both from their rulers. It had been going very well up to this point. People were happy to see them and more than amiable to tell their rulers what kinds of things they wanted to see in the future and how their policies had been working for them so far.
It was wearing, of course, traveling this much. They would spend about a day on horseback between each town and then the next day was spent talking and conversing with their people. Gwen spent a good deal of her time with the children and the womenfolk since they were much more likely to tell her what they really thought when she was not with her noble-born husband. Arthur spent many of his days squirreled away with the leader of the town, whether that was a noblemen or an elected official that changed every few years varied from town-to-town. They had perfectly planned out the distances between each of their destinations so that they could make the trip around their kingdom and then be back in time for the next tournament that they were expected to put on. Of course, if something happened and their travels were delayed then their trusted knights and servants were going to be able to continue runnings things as normal, but Arthur preferred to be in there in person so that he could make sure nothing dangerous happened, as it often did when he was younger.
They were growing closer to the last leg of their journey. Each of the previous towns had brought something new to them, teaching them something about how they should be governing their lands. The border towns were the most complex as they had heard from their neighboring villages about how the other rulers were treating their citizens so there were many comparisons between ruling styles when they were there.
Needless to say, they were all tired and aching to be back home.
This time of year was also difficult for the king and queen on top of all of the exhaustion that came with traveling as much as they had been recently. Everyone around them had noticed it as it was not a hard thing to spot. When spring rolled around, especially as they got closer and closer to Ostara, the royal couples smiles became obviously painted on their faces. The joy stopped reaching their eyes and their pain was almost tangible.
It was well known amongst the knights and servants that they had brought with them on their journey that one such regression of light had happened to their rulers, but none of them were going to mention it. The first year that it happened, one of the younger knights had done such to their king and it had resulted in Arthur openly weeping. The memory was fresh in their minds and the scene had shaken them all enough the first time that they didn’t wish for it to happen again.
The sun was beginning to disappear behind the high, rolling hills of waist-high grass and wheat as they approached the second to last town that they would visit. They had planned to stay for Ostara as well as another day so that they could do their normal information gathering, giving their horses and servants some time to recover before they set about the last, final leg of their journey.
“This is lovely,” Gwen beamed as she got off of her horse, grasping the reigns in one hand so that she could lead the beast on foot. She was trying her best to stay positive despite the grief weighing heavy on her heart as it always did at this time of year.
“Yes, quite,” Arthur agreed as he mirrored his wife’s movements. The town that they had come across was very similar to the others, but it was decorated for the upcoming holiday.
There was a street that was paved with thick, heavy cobblestones constantly threatening to be devoured by the mud that seeped up from the wet ground in between them, leading through the town from the well-trodden dirt path that they had just come from. Either side of the road was lined with wooden houses and store fronts, obviously meant to service those that came to visit. They were all adorned with ribbons and fresh wildflowers that were growing in the fields surrounding the town. The lights in the storefront windows had all been put out, but the flickering of candle and firelight could be made out through the windows of the homes that were connected to them. Houses were littered a half mile from the town, obviously where the folk that resided there lived, each with their own little garden. Even further out were larger farm houses where two or three families and all of their farm hands would live so that they could work the fields. A few people were still milling about in the town center, children playing in the water of an enchanted fountain directly in the middle of the entire village while their parents finished up the day’s business.
It didn’t take long before someone had gone to fetch the leader of the town, who happened to be a mayor. He was a stout man with a salt-and-pepper beard with a scar that ranged down the side of his cheekbone and onto his neck. It must have been a newer wound, or this town had harbored a magic user for some time, as even the most skilled of physicians wouldn’t have been able to save him. “Your Majesties,” he bowed deeply as he approached them. Two other individuals followed behind him, though they stayed a few yards back from the royals and kept their heads bowed.
Gwen moved a bit closer to Arthur when she saw the way that they were behaving, leaning into the comfort of her husband. He was well aware that the way that people treated her now that she held the second most powerful title in the entire kingdom was off putting after being a servant herself.
“Thank you for coming to our little town. When I heard that you were going to be touring the kingdom and staying here for our little festival I almost couldn’t believe it,” he chuckled. “I must introduce myself. I am Silas, the mayor of this town. These are my associates, Audry and Henry. Audry is our blacksmith and has a well equipped stable that your horses can stay in for the night,” he explained as he gestured a hand out to his left.
The young woman took a step forward. She looked every bit like a smithy should, Gwen noted immediately upon seeing her. Audry had her black hair carefully pinned back in a bun so not a single curl could escape. Her face was sharp and angular, especially around the jawline. She was muscular underneath the white blouse and gray trousers that she was wearing, despite the flowing nature of the fabric most likely meant to hide that fact. When she reached out to motion for the servants and knights to follow her with their horses, her hands were still smeared with soot from the days work. It was clear that their arrival hadn’t been predicted as well as they could have hoped, or she had been lost in her work and hadn’t had the time to clean herself off.
“If you’ll follow me,” Audry said towards the servants and a few of the knights. Two of the aforementioned men stayed with the royalty to help them fight off an attacks that might take place while the others took the rest of the horses, including the ones that Gwen and Arthur had been leading through the town as they followed after the blacksmith.
“Henry runs the Black Rose Inn. We have a lot of visitors that come through on their way to visit other kingdoms or the capital city, so the rooms that he offers are rather comfortable and plentiful enough that each of your party should get a bed to themselves even if they have to share a room,” Silas explained.
“That’s fine by them,” Gwen quickly assured him. “Thank you for being so hospitable to us.”
“Of course!” he laughed. “Now, I hope that you don’t find this rude, but I am going to have to leave you until morning. We’re expecting a camp of the druids to arrive to help us with the festivities tomorrow,” the mayor explained.
“The druids?” Arthur questioned. Gwen carefully turned to her husband and watched him to try and make sure that he wasn’t being hostile towards the nomadic people like he had been before someone had finally gotten into his head that magic was a tool and not a mark of evil. When she noticed no malice in his face and instead just blatant curiosity, she turned back to their host so that she could listen as well.
“They have been visiting our town every Ostara for the last five years. I think that they’re happy to have a group of people willing to celebrate with magic,” he replied in explanation. “Now I’m afraid I really must go,” Silas glanced behind him like he expected all of the people to arrive suddenly and him to be swamped with work he was unprepared for.
“Of course. Thank you again for your wonderful hospitality,” Gwen said before her husband had a chance to ask any more questions. Of course, they were both curious about what he had said, even more so than they would be if he hadn’t given them a timeline that matched just a bit too closely with something that had happened to them five years ago.
The mayor gave them a polite bow before he rushed off to finish whatever it was he was doing when they arrived. The inn keeper, Henry, gave them a polite bow as well. “Would you like to wait until the rest of your party arrives with Audry or would you prefer that I show you to the rooms first, Your Majesties?” he asked politely.
“We can go with you and then some of the knights and servants can show the rest where everything is,” Arthur answered, glancing down at his wife to make sure that she was okay with the answer. She gave him an adoring smile, reminding herself that even though this time of year was hard for them both, it wasn’t as bad as it could be because she had him.
Henry nodded his head and then turned on his heel so that he could walk them to the inn. The building that they ended up in was three stories tall and very large, enough to accommodate their entire party like they had been promised. The rooms themselves were barren but they were very clean and well kept. The rooms each contained a differing number of beds, some had two that were smaller and some had one that was larger. Each of the beds had bleach-clean sheets and a woolen blanket folded neatly at the end of it. There was also an beautifully carved chest at the base of each bed for the storing of items. The doors had locks, which meant that Arthur was given the keys to them so that he could issue them out.
The next hour and a half was taken up by the task of making sure that each of their servants had the keys to their room and everything had been put away properly. Of course they dearly trusted everyone that they had been traveling with, which is why they had brought them along in the first place, but what with the holiday growing nearer, they were unable to put off the uneasiness that they had about the entire stay.
---
The sun was just barely beginning to peak through the window on the north wall of their room by the time that the royal couple was beginning to rouse. Gwen was the first that woke since she had made a habit of it back when she had to prepare meals for herself and her father all before getting to Morgana’s room with her lady’s breakfast.
She slipped from the bed and began to prepare the things that they would need for the day just as her husband began to slowly wake. “Good morning, beloved,” Arthur murmured. He sat up on the bed, pushing his mop of dirty blond hair from in front of those dazzling blue eyes.
Gwen walked around the bed, placing her hands on either side of his face so that she could lean down and kiss him. “Good morning, dear husband. Are you ready to get dressed for the day?”
“What’s the rush?” he queried as he looped his arms loosely around her waist and dragged her back down to the bed so that she was sitting beside him.
“I want to go for a walk before anyone else is awake,” she replied. “Some of the farmers will be up already but the majority of the townsfolk will not.”
Arthur darted in and gave her another quick kiss before he stood up from the bed. He removed his sleep clothes and dressed in the tunic and pants that she had laid out for him, just a simple red and white combo much like he would wear when they were back home. Gwen dressed herself as well, having chosen a gown that laced in the front so that she didn’t have to have anyone help her. She tried to avoid having her servants dress her as often as possible since she knew how awkward that was after having to do it herself. She had chosen a rather plain robin’s egg blue gown that would allow her to look as regal as a queen should while being able to move about as she wanted.
"Are you ready to go, my dear?" Arthur asked once Gwen had finished taming her curls back into a reasonable, manageable braid.
"I am," she nodded. She pulled a couple of apples that she had been given before leaving the last town out of her bag. She handed one to him and then linked their arms together so that they could walk side by side. They made their way out of the inn and onto the deserted street. There were rustles from inside the storefronts as people began to get ready for the festival, but no one was walking the streets, so they were blissfully alone.
The royal couple made their way through the quiet town until they had walked all the way to the other side. Gwen didn’t know how far she wanted to walk when she had made them leave the inn, but stopping at the edge of the town proper somehow didn’t feel quite right. She continued forward with her husband dutifully walking by her side.
She paused when they reached the house closest to the town. It was a massive two story building, smaller than the inn was while still being larger than a single family would need all to themselves. The house was white-washed over thick gray stones, flaking in a couple of spots like the owner of it hadn’t been able to come and touch it up in quite some time. The front door had a wreath full of what appeared to be live flowers but must have been made very recently since it would be impossible for anything to grow in that shape. There was a massive, towering pear tree out front that looked like it had been planted generations ago. Right next to the house there was a perfectly manicured garden that was growing herbs and other such plants instead of vegetables like either of them had been expecting. Around the house and a garden there was a wooden fence that was painted the same color white as the house itself.
The walk had been a rather somber affair until they had stopped here. Gwen kept her eye on the house, admiring all of the little details about it. Her husband, on the other hand, was turned towards the tree. A small smile had been resting on his face upon noticing the rope connected to a small plank of wood hanging off of one of the lower, sturdier branches, but his entire face lit up when he heard the tell-tale giggling of children.
It caught the attention of both of the adults as they turned to face the noise entirely. They were both small enough that they barely reached the swing and were certainly too small to get to the first branch of the tree without help from an adult, or apparently each other. One was a little girl and the other was a boy, both of them looking to be about five years old. The little girl was wearing a dress that was the same lovely blue color that Gwen had chosen for herself. The boy was wearing a green tunic and a brown pair of pants, which were already caked in mud. They looked remarkably similar to each other, which meant that they had to be twins since they were so close in age. They had the same straw-blond hair and shining crystalline-blue eyes. They were grasping at the rough bark on the trunk of the tree, the little girl perched on her brother’s shoulders.
“Do you need help there, small ones?” Arthur asked as he walked up to the edge of the fence.
"We're trying to get up into the three!" the girl said, pointing upwards to the lowest branch which was only a few inches above her little hand.
"Tree," the little boy beneath her corrected.
"Right, tree!" she giggled. She stretched desperately towards the branch with one little hand, moving so that her thighs were no longer resting on her brother’s shoulders and both of them were leaning dangerously far forward.
The king moved forward just in time to catch her as her brother threatened to topple forward. "Careful there," he chuckled as he gently sat her down securely on the ground. He looked over to her brother, "Are both of you alright? No one is hurt?"
"No, her feet just dug into my chest," he pouted as he rubbed the dirt spot on his tunic. "And I got dirty…"
Gwen walked over to them, picking up her skirt with one hand as she walked into the swaying grass. She carefully stepped over the fence so that she was standing in front of them without the barrier, as her husband had done to catch the little girl. "I'm sure that your mother will forgive you for getting a little dirty," she brushed her free hand over the body of his tunic to try and get some of the dirt off better than he could with his small, uncoordinated hands.
"I don't have a mother," he shook his head. "Neither of us do."
The little girl that Arthur had now righted to her feet beamed. She seemed a lot more chipper than her brother by nature. "We're twins," she explained.
The back door of the house that they were next to opened, releasing a very excited dog into the yard. "Lancelot, please watch him and bring him back inside before he tries to eat the mint again!" someone called from inside.
The dog rushed over to the kids, lapping at their faces before he rushed off into the yard to do his business. "Okay, Papa!" the boy said as he watched the dog from afar.
"Your name is Lancelot?" Gwen asked, tears welling up in her eyes. It had been at least two partners and years since she had lost her first love, but the pain was still very real. "Who is your father?"
"Uh," the little girl glanced towards her brother before she moved to stand behind him. For some reason, that question seemed to have startled them both.
Lancelot scowled and then looked back towards the house like he was trying to protect who was inside instead of asking them to defend him. "I don't think you need to know. Why are you here anyway?" he asked, scowl deepening and reminding them peculiarly of someone that they used to know.
The door swung open before either of them got a chance to answer. "Lance, you were supposed to keep him out of the mint! Get out of there, you big clotpole," the man from inside the house walked out so that he could grab the rope collar of the dog and drag him into the house. "Did either of you see if he actually did his business or did he just decide to be a-" as soon as the man turned around he stopped talking.
"Papa," the little girl whined as she moved away from her brother. She nearly launched herself at him while trying to get some comfort from him.
"Bee, Lance, go inside now," he said, making sure that his voice was firm but soothing for his children. He sat his daughter down and then she scrambled to go inside. Lancelot turned and rushed after backing up to the point where he hit his father's legs. As soon as the backdoor swung shut and latched, the man turned so that he was properly facing them. "What are you doing here?"
They both paused to get a good look at the man that they had lost half a decade ago. He looked almost completely like he had when they last saw him. His ears stuck just as far out of his head as they always did, but his hair seemed a little thicker so it hung over them more than it previously did. He had a small scar on the edge of his chin that he hadn't had the last time that they had seen him, but the long scar up his arm was still there. He was wearing a light blue tunic underneath a white, stained apron with a pair of brown slacks. His eyes, the same ones that the children had, seemed older but they still held just as much power and mysticism as the last time that they had gazed into them.
"Merlin?" Gwen asked, as if his identity finally registered in her head. She dropped her dress and then pressed both of her hands over her mouth.
Arthur scoffed at his best friend's words. "I think that's a question that we should be asking you."
"This is my home!" the former servant squawked as he gestured back to the house.
Gwen threw her hands away from her face. She was completely livid amongst her grief. She had missed him so much over the years and now she was unable to contain it. She knew that she couldn't surge forward and kiss him to make sure that he was real, so she settled on yelling at him. "No, your home is back in Camelot. The place that you left with no words or warnings to the people that you loved. The people that you didn't even have the decency to send a letter to so that we knew that you were okay! How could you do that to us? After all the we had done for you, after everything that we had been through together, after all of the people that we had already lost. Did you care nothing for us?"
"Of course I cared for you," he scoffed. "I loved you so much that I left to protect you."
"Left to protect us? Really, you?" Arthur asked, folding his arms over his chest in the way that he always did when he was upset. "You're the one that insisted on risking his life for years while my father was in power to protect me and be by my side. How could you protect me while playing house with someone else all the way out here?"
"I'm not playing house with anyone," Merlin said, looking hurt.
Gwen rubbed a hand over her face to try and calm herself down. "We heard from the- the children that they had no mother."
He took in a shaky breath as he looked towards the house where his children were hidden away. "They never did. I've always been the one raising them since they were born."
"What happened to their mother?" Gwen asked. She was trying to give her husband some time to cool down while also figuring out what happened to their shared lover.
He reached down and fidgeted with the edge of his apron. "How about we go inside and I can explain this to you? I have to prepare some things for the festival tonight," he explained.
Gwen glanced over to her husband, meeting the lovely blue of Arthur's eyes. They were able to silently agree that they needed to go in and figure out what was going on. They got closer to each other before they followed Merlin in through the back door into the house. The room that they immediately stood in upon entering the house was a kitchen, but they were able to see the front room as well. The kitchen had sprigs of drying flowers and herbs hung up by the large window that overlooked the back garden. There were several peeled and chopped apples that looked like they were going to be turned into something but had to be put on pause. The twins were peeking around the corner in on the adults, but as soon as they were noticed they quickly ran away.
"So what happened, Merlin?" Gwen asked. She walked into the room to look over everything that he had in his kitchen like she was a mother checking on how her child was doing during his first year living alone.
"It's complicated. I want the two of you to promise me that you won't interrupt or yell at me until the end. And you're not allowed to see my children unless I say so," Merlin said. He glanced back and forth between the two of them to make sure that they agreed. Once he had gotten the verbal, Gwen, and non-verbal, Arthur, confirmation he began. "Well, it started out when I began not feeling well. I was tired all the time and my joints hurt. I finally gave up and went to see Gaius when I started crying for no reason and my trousers stopped fitting. He thought that I was retaining water because I was eating too much sodium but I accidentally used one of the pregnancy diagnostic charms on myself during my time trying to treat the water retention. And I found out that I was pregnant. At first I thought that it was just an accident or a misdiagnosis, but the more research I did with the magic books I found hidden in the library the more I realized that it wasn't. Apparently Dragonlords have the ability to get pregnant as well as have a higher rate of impregnation in women partners. I was pregnant. And I was scared.
"So I ran away. I told Gaius what I was doing and he promised that he wouldn't let you two stay hung up on me or ruin the kingdom by trying to look for me. Once I was sure that he would really take care of the both of you in my absence, I left. I came here and then I settled because at that point I was so pregnant it was hard to keep traveling. I thought that I would find the Druids, but there was an old magic user that had taken it back up after the ban was repealed and that was as close as I was going to get." Merlin sighed, a faraway look on his face as he thought back to his journey five years ago. "The town accepted me immediately, especially since the old healer had heard of the Dragonlords before they were all hunted to extinction.
"The town helped me get the house set up out here so that I could live with my kids and raise them the way I wanted. I already knew a lot about medicine from working with Gaius for all those years, so the healer took me on and taught me some more. The twins were born in the middle of the winter, about a moon’s time after Yule. Then I took over her job. She passed about eighteen months ago, so now I'm the healer for the village," he finished. He cleared his throat and then shifted. At some point, when he had been talking, he moved around the table so that he was peeling the apples again.
"I still don't understand," Gwen shook her head. "Why did you leave when you found out that you were pregnant? We would have accepted you just fine, and we would have loved the twins had you given us the chance."
"I was scared. I wasn't sure how you were going to react to me being pregnant since it wasn't well known as something that Dragonlords could be. It was also frightening to think that I would be giving birth to the King's bastards," Merlin answered with a shrug. "I didn't want them to live like that."
"Well, according to Gaius," Arthur said as the two royals glanced at each other and then back towards their ex-lover, "It wasn't uncommon for the king and queen to be in a relationship with their court sorcerer because of the closeness that always develops. I didn't know why he told us that story until just now but it makes sense. He was trying to make sure that we would accept you if you were to ever come back."
The warlock glanced up from the apple he was mutilating. He was too emotionally distressed to really focus on what he was doing. "What are you saying?"
Arthur took the knife from Merlin's hand and set it down on the table. Gwen moved to the warlock's other side and then took the apple. "Love, we're saying that you could have stayed with us, if you wanted. If the reason that you left was only to protect the children then…"
She trailed off, so Arthur finished for her, "You could come back with us. You could come back to Camelot and we could be together again."
"I… I'm not sure. I mean, the kids are already so established here. They have friends and they're going to be starting at the school soon. I have a medical practice here! How would the people of this town recover if I suddenly wasn't here to take care of them like I had been?" Merlin asked. Both of them could tell that he was panicking like he used to. A small smile crept up on the queen's face as she realized that her friend and lover was still there, despite the half decade they had spent apart from each other.
"Merlin," Arthur scoffed. "How little do you really think of us? We'd find someone to come and take over. If you really don't think that it's a good idea for the heirs of Camelot to move back in then they can stay back here and have to come to Camelot when they inherit the throne without knowing."
"Arthur," Gwen smacked his chest. She turned back to her lover, "Merlin, you're the one that has raised the twins. As much as we desperately want you to come back and be in our lives, they're your main focus right now and that's okay. If you don't think that it would be good for them to move, then we'll understand. Just be prepared for us to visit more often. She smiled shyly as she reached her hand up and cupped the side of his face.
He leaned into the touch. "I never said that I didn't want to be with the two of you. I do, so badly," he brought his hand up so that he was holding hers against his cheek. He turned his head to the side and pressed a kiss to her palm. "That's part of the reason that I don't want to go back. I'm scared. Because I want it so badly."
"You're scared that if you start working towards what you want that it will be taken from you," Arthur murmured. He placed a hand on his ex-lover's hip to bring him just a little bit closer. "I understand the feeling all too well."
"I'm sorry," he whispered. He was unable to keep away from his lover any longer and he turned so that they were facing each other. Arthur kept his hands on Merlin's hips while their foreheads moved together so that they were gently pressing to each other. "I'm so sorry that I kept your children from you, Arthur."
"Just don't do it again, alright?" he joked as he brought their lips together in a soft kiss.
Gwen moved so that she had her arms wrapped around the back of their lover, pressing her forehead to his shoulder. As soon as her boys had finished kissing, Merlin turned enough that he was able to press their lips together as well. "Does this mean that you're coming back with us?"
"Give me a while to train my replacement and get him settled into the house and then yes. I have quite a bit that I need to pack up now that I live with two tiny humans and have to heal people," Merlin joked. He turned and brought his lips back to Arthur's again. While he had regretted leaving them both, his guilt over the last several years had been festering specifically over the fact that he had never told the king about his children.
Arthur beamed. He wrapped his arms around the other man's waist and dipped him back a little bit so that he was kissing him even harder. As soon as they had to be separated so that they could breathe, Gwen captured his lips in a dozen little kisses which drew giggles from them both. Merlin was so happy that he was wrapped up in the love of the two people that meant more to him than anything in the world. As much as he loved his kids, he had missed his lovers so much.
"Papa?" a little voice called out from the base of the stairs.
The warlock quickly pulled away from his lovers. "Hello my little knight, are you okay?" he asked as he picked up the little boy and easily situated him on his hip.
"Who are the people that you're talking to? Why are they kissing you?" he asked, nervously eyeing Arthur and Gwen in the kitchen. The little girl, who he had called Bee, walked down the last step so that she was hovering behind Merlin's legs and looking towards the adults as well.
"This is your Daddy and your Mama," Merlin explained. “Arthur, Gwen, this is Lancelot and Albion,” he proudly showed his children to both of them. He had to direct his attention back to answering their questions soon after, though, "I know that I told you it was just me, but they actually lived very far away so they weren't able to visit us. But now they're here, and soon we're going to stay with them. Is that okay?"
"What about the festival?" she asked curiously. She was cautiously beginning to make her way around her father so that she could inspect her other two parents.
"It's going to be further into the spring and maybe even into autumn before we go to live with them," Merlin soothed. "We're going to go to the festival today. Speaking of which, Papa has to make the pie. Do you two want to help?" he asked, glancing at the twins then back up towards his lovers.
There was an agreement between all four of Merlin's favorite people. The Merlin and Gwen began to get ready to actually do the hard work on making the pies while they helped Arthur and the twins figure out the small ways that they could help without really messing anything up. There were some odd looks when they finally emerged from the little house out into the street for the festival, but after a while the Druids and the townsfolk accepted it. They didn't really understand the relationship between their magic healer and the king and queen of their kingdom, but they seemed to love each other very much so nothing was questioned.
Eventually, Arthur and Gwen were able to get their lover moved back into the palace with the twins. They settled back into court life with their favorite sorcerer easily, but the twins had a little bit of a struggle adjusting. The knights were very surprised both by the existence of the twins and their names. The courtiers were mostly shocked, but there was less resistance from the older members of the court than they had expected. Due to the fact that they had three supportive parents meant that the kids were able to settle in their life. After a year of official adjusting, they even welcomed several more siblings into their lives. All in all, the king and queen of Camelot were happy now that their lives were once again full of love.
