bts-merlin7

Okay, post-magic reveal, Merlin and Arthur are married, they live and sleep in the same room now, all their stuff is there: personal items, clothes, etc. (except most of Merlin's magic things which is in the connected chambers that's now just his study/lab), and Merlin has a proper spot to Arthur's right at the roundtable

So! Imagine, some mornings Merlin still dresses Arthur (a chore/duty he refuses to fully give up) then dresses himself with whatever clean clothes are nearby-- and even if they're not clean, he'll just magic them clean-- not bothering to properly examine if the tunic he grabbed is his or Arthur's, has breakfast with his husband and goes off to do work

Most of the time, this isn't an issue, except the days they have council meetings and Merlin briefly forgot, and it's not until he gets to the meeting, has sat down and waits for Arthur to start/continue the discussion, that one of the knights (often times Gwaine) will go about announcing to the table at large, or just tap Merlin and inform him, that not a lot of work is gonna get done today because Merlin's wearing one of Arthur's shirts, he'll then turn to get a proper look at the king, only to discover a look in his face that has Merlin silently agreeing that not a lot of work will get done (although, Merlin will just take over and manage the meeting, and at some point, without him noticing, the two of them will be holding hands, with Arthur stroking the back of Merlin's hand)

If something important does need to be discussed, Merlin (if one of the knights haven't already upon the consort first walking in and noticing his attire) will signal one of the servants to hand him his court sorcerer robe/cloak/cape thing that they keep on hand now for whenever this happens, slip it on, then briefly tease/remind Arthur that they are in public and in a council meeting

I do agree that Merlin is a magical creature. I can also get behind Arthur knight = Merthur

i’m just like you 🎵

How it's going:

How it's going:

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha-hooligan!

Merlin groans.

“Archimedes,” he calls out, voice rough from sleep, “it’s just wind!”

The owl squawks from downstairs. Given that said squawk usually precedes the destruction of Merlin’s favourite pots, he double-times it out of bed.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming! I’ll ask them to wind it down, okay, no need to get your feathers in a twist…” Them being Zeus or Thor or whoever’s manning the storm tonight.

Merlin stumbles down the stairs.

“Honestly, Archie, the drama. No, it is dramatic! Here you are, safe and warm as any owl can reasonably be, and yet still squawking on like you’ve got a single drop of rainwater on your feathers. You’re absolutely spoiled, you know.”

Merlin puts the kettle on, figuring if he’s gonna have a chat with the gods he can at least offer them a cuppa, when Archimedes flies directly at his head.

“Oi!” Merlin ducks. “What is up your gizzard?!”

Archimedes pecks him none too gently and flies to the living room. Then back to Merlin. Peck. Back to the living room. Merlin. Peck. Living room. Merlin—

“I get it!” He cries, flinging up his arms to defend from another attack. “I’m going!”

Merlin pauses in the doorway. The living room is pitch black, filled with the sound of rain pounding the soil outside, and it smells faintly of the rosemary Merlin’s been drying for a spell.

Then, under the storm, Merlin hears it: a shift. A sigh.

Lightning flashes.

There’s a soaking wet man on his sofa.

He’s hunched over, elbows on his knees, and dressed in a bright teal shirt and matching trackies that obviously came from the museum shop on the corner. White T-Rex tracks crawl down his left leg.

Merlin gets that brief impression before the room falls into darkness once more.

“Okay,” he says. He hears a sharp intake of breath.

It’s not unusual for people to appear in his house. He runs an apothecary out of it, after all, and he’s gathered enough of a reputation that people burned by the NHS turn up on his doorstep morning, noon, and night.

The 3am of it all, though, is unusual. As is Archimedes presumably letting him in. That, combined with the museum clothes, conjures up an image of desperation.

“Alright, mate,” Merlin says, voice calm and low. “Let me grab the light, yeah?”

He listens for any change in breath, but hears nothing.

His fingers skim the wall, feeling along stone and mortar until he finally reaches smooth plastic.

Flick.

“Ugh.” Merlin blinks spots from his eyes. “Sorry. Usually I’d go for the lamps, but I couldn’t…”

The man peers out at him from under dripping dark hair. Droplets stream over his cheekbones and slip past the collar of his shirt. His hands are clenched in the fabric of the sofa, knuckles white and fingertips pruned.

A sword leans against the cushions.

Merlin recognises it before he recognises him.

But he does. Despite the thousand years between them, he does.

“Arthur?”

Arthur was always going to die — if it’s based on Le Morte De Arthur — I suppose. There were a million ways they may have improved the closure of the ending (I once saw a post saying that if they’d put just a two second clip of Merlin recognising Arthur in the lake in the modern day we would’ve had a lot more closure and now I can’t stop thinking about it) but they did decently, in my opinion.

This is *the* Arthur Pendragon — *the* King Arthur. And, forgive me for I have not read Le Morte De Arthur and don’t know how it’s portrayed there, his death is overall really… intimate? You’d expect the death of such an important mythological figure to be a great and honourable death in battle, surrounded by his people or his knights or even his wife. But the writers decided they were going to make his death just about Merlin and him. They decided they were going to make the majority of the FINAL episode of their show just about Merlin and Arthur and them talking it out; with the heroic and noble Arthur unable to support himself without Merlin.

This might just be an outcome of my tears over the end of Good Omens season two, but I’m SO grateful that they had Arthur forgive Merlin before he died. Sure, they could’ve revealed his magic earlier and it would’ve felt smoother — and there was a lot they could’ve done to improve Arthur’s character development in general — but I’m just glad he did forgive him.