AnachronisticVerbage
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Summary
All Arthur really wanted was to get away from the citadel for a while. But humor can be taken too far, and there are limits to the abuse a man-- yes, even a servant-- should be forced to accept. When a joke gone sour threatened to destroy a friendship he hadn't realized he'd grown to depend on, Arthur knew it was up to him to make amends, and maybe grow up a little in the process.
Bookmarked by AnachronisticVerbage
25 Jun 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
8!!!
“Clearly not,” Arthur said. “I really am sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I swear I will.”
“Oh, well, then everything’s just fine and dandy, isn’t it? Arthur, I don’t care that they think I’m some kind of half-trained animal. I care that you aren’t lifting a finger to do anything about it. Why is that? Is it because deep down, you still think that servants are chew toys and commoners fair game for anything a noble wants to do to them?”
“That’s not fair,” Arthur said. “I’ve knighted commoners. I’ve married one of them. What more am I supposed to do to prove that I care about your kind?”
“Right, right; I’d forgotten. A peasant who can swing a sword can be forgiven his humble origins. The rest of ‘my kind’ ought to be grateful for the crumbs of decency that fall from your round tables. Actions speak louder than words, Arthur. And this patrol has said a hell of a lot.”
…
Oh, go ahead and laugh at me. Just like your new friends do; I’d hate to deprive you of the pleasure. But mark my words—these three have all the makings of piss-poor knights, no matter how much gold they’re sitting on, and they’ll only let you down when you need them.”And that was when Arthur’s anger—more at the three young knights than anyone else—ran away with his tongue. “Well, I should be used to that, now shouldn’t I, Merlin?”
Merlin’s eyes went wide and his jaw sagged, for all the world as though Arthur had hit him. And perhaps it would have been kinder if he had.
“I… have to go make dinner,” Merlin said, and all but ran back to camp.
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The war is over. Harry has his whole life ahead of him, only he isn't sure he knows how to live long-term. Teddy has Harry questioning his relationship with the Dursleys, Ron gets anxious whenever Harry is out of his sight, Harry is George's go-to grief counselor, Auror training is brutal, Death Eaters are still at large, and Harry finds himself getting unhealthily attached to a man who has hated him since he was born.
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Next time Merlin said he needed to be elsewhere, Arthur vowed to listen to him. If he had, maybe there wouldn't be a foreign king with a mutilated hand in the council chambers.
Series
- Part 2 of The Life and Times of Merlin Emrys
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- English
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- 4,390
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- 1/1
- Collections:
- 9
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Bookmarked by AnachronisticVerbage
24 Nov 2019
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Bookmarker's Notes
Oh my gosh
And saw Merlin.The king lunged to his feet, a violent motion which toppled his chair with a loud bang. His face had darkened with a frightening rage.
“You,” he spat.
Merlin flinched – not much, and he caught himself halfway through, but he still flinched. Arthur was on his feet just as quickly, the same thought he’d had at the start of this mess running through his head on loop. Merlin was many things, but he wasn’t a coward. Shouting lords didn’t faze him.
And yet here he was, pale faced and trembling.
The sight of Arthur’s manservant had apparently caused Vortigern to lose all sense of diplomacy. “You fucking bastard, you destroyed my castle and made me a laughing stock!” Vortigern hissed, crossing the space between them in three long strides.
Merlin clenched his jaw and said nothing.
Vortigern snarled, enraged at the lack of response, and lost all sense.
…
Someone gasped – it sounded like Leon, but Arthur wasn’t sure and he wasn’t going to check. He was too busy watching Merlin completely shut down.“Merlin,” he whispered. Though it was impossible for Merlin to hear him over Vortigern’s yelling, his eyes flickered over to Arthur anyway. Whatever he saw on his face seemed to bring life back to him.
Vortigern shook Merlin like a dog, trying to draw back his attention. “Do you know what I’m going to do to you?!”
Merlin didn’t bother to look at him. “You’re going to take your hands off me,” he told the king evenly, calm in a way that made Arthur’s knuckles whiten around the hilt of his sword. Vortigern gaped, as did the rest of the room. Merlin didn’t seem to notice, having finally taken his eyes off Arthur. “You’ve got five seconds.”
“Or what, boy?”
“Or I’ll make sure you won’t be able to use that hand for months.”
…
Then Merlin took a hold of the king’s fingers and paused. In that moment, it looked bizarrely like they were holding hands.“I don’t make empty threats,” Merlin said without inflection. His voice was barely above a murmur, but for its impact he might as well have shouted. “You, of all people, should know that.”
…
The knight who had his sword to Merlin’s throat looked affronted. “‘Is there a problem?’” he mimicked mockingly. “Why, yes, there is. You severely injured our king – which, for your tiny peasant mind, means that you insulted our kingdom as a whole. I should kill you where you stand!”Arthur began to rise again as it looked like the knight might actually take action, but Merlin apparently still had it handled. He laughed.
Arthur was truly starting to wonder if his manservant was actually insane.
“Don’t be absurd,” Merlin told the knight. “It was a perfectly polite little argument – nothing to get so worked up over.”
Well that answered that question. Who in their right mind referred to a confrontation which had begun with allusions to torture and an attempted choking and ended with broken bones and threats as a ‘perfectly polite argument’?
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Summary
Someone else is brought to the throne room instead of Gaius, as Agravaine tries to aid his nephew in finding the traitor hidden in his closest midst.
"The King’s belief is and always has been that magic is evil; where does your belief lie?”
Merlin had wanted to laugh. Before Uther’s death, his answer would have been the same, yet it could have had him hanged.
“With Arthur.”
The next day, Merlin is nowhere to be found.
OR
A rewrite of the episode S4E7: The Secret Sharer.
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can't change the way i feel (but you could put your arms around me) by Anonymous
Fandoms: Merlin (TV)
12 Jul 2026
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Summary
Merlin was never granted much luck. In anything.
It was for this reason that he already had a route out of the castle planned, a horse saddled and ready to go in the stables. If this backfired, it would be fine. He could do this alone, had always done these things alone. And yet, just this once—
When Merlin stopped to catch his breath, Gwaine gave a curt nod, and simply said, “Okay.”
Merlin’s leg paused in its nervous jumping under the table. “…Okay?”
“Okay. Let’s go after the bastard.”
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or: merlin says "ew agravaine's a creep" and gwaine believes him