a king & his lionheart

i reread and may love find you by the dear @lauradonnelly because I didn’t realize my drawing had reached 1.4k notes!! ahhh!! thank you.

ugh it’s so soft and they love each other so much.

are these the guard boyfriends that adopted the statue that merlin turned into a dog in valiant? where is their fic? what is their ship name? what did they name the dog?

Dagonet used to think being a castle guard would be exciting. Adventurous. The closest his wax wings could climb towards that glorious sun called knighthood.

He did not, however, expect it to mostly consist of sitting around playing dice games for hours on end.

At this point, he was almost hoping someone would try to kill the king. Was that a treasonous thought? Yes. But Dagonet was too bored to care.

At least he has Pelleas though - Sir Pelleas of Monmouth, that is, grandson to Geoffrey of Monmouth. And despite having the intellect expected of such a relation, he was also one hell of a scamp.

The thing about Pelleas is that he wasn't a guard. Not even close. He had a fancy cape and a title and his own special knightly quarters. And yet, when he wasn't on patrol or at the training pitch, Pelleas was playing dress-up with spare guard armour and pretending to be one of them.

At first it annoyed the hell out of Dagonet. "Let's play dice, Dag", "watch how many pickled eggs i can fit in my mouth, Dag", "what do you suppose is down in the cave you're always guarding, Dag?" Goodness, it never seemed to end with Pelleas.

That's the other thing about Pelleas. He was very, very, very talkative. How no one had caught onto his little costume swap game, Dagonet would never know.

Well, that's not entirely true. All the guards had figured out about Sir Pelleas the Knight Who Likes To Pretend He's A Guard So He Can Pester Dagonet All Day. And since he's a rather welcome distraction from the montony of guardhood, no one has dared rat him out.

And Dagonet could only be grateful for that. While he despised Pelleas in the very beginning, he slowly grew to value his boredom-curing presence.

Of course, Pelleas was no longer the only interesting person in Camelot. Now there was Merlin.

"I'll wager fifteen," said Bruenor with that toothy grin or his, leaning casually on his spear.

"You're insane," Dagonet retorted with a scoff. "You really think Gaius of all people will sell him out to Uther? Gaius?"

A familiar voice cut in from his left. "I wager thirty that he confesses to Arthur right when the prince is on his deathbed."

Dagonet didn't bother turning to face the person who had just spoken, for he knew exactly what he'd see: guard armour surreptiously slipped onto a tall, muscular body, a pair of brown knee-high boots, and the cockiest grin from here to Gedref.

Bruenor guffawed. "Confess? But he'd be insane to do such a thing!"

"And we know he certainly is," Dagonet quipped. "He's a sorcerer in Camelot, serving the prince, and hasn't once sought his blood. I know if I were in his place I'd either kill Arthur or kill myself. And yet here we are, four months later, and neither of them are dead. If Merlin is anything, he's bloody mental. While it makes me nauseous to agree with Pelleas, he might be right."

Bruenor and Pelleas both laughed.

"Oh, speaking of," said Pelleas. "Did you see the tournament?"

Bruenor whistled. "I thought the prince was a goner for sure. Innic wagers twelve silver saying Merlin's the one who saved him."

Dagonet snorted and rolled his eyes.

"And Innic is always right," Pelleas said with a smirk. But before Bruenor could add anything else, Pelleas clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Now - before I forget, I came here to relieve you. I'm taking over the next half of your shift today."

Bruenor chuckled, glanced knowingly between Pelleas and Dagonet, and passed his spear off to the disguised knight without complaint. "About time you showed up."

"Too soon, i say," Dagonet teased, to which Pelleas playfully punched his arm.

As Bruenor ambled away Pelleas cleverly shot back, "Oh please. If you had your way I'd never leave."

"Never leave your room, perhaps. Then I wouldn't have to see your ugly face again."

Pelleas took up post on the other side of the closed doorway. They were guarding the throne room today, even though it was empty.

"Ah," he said with a wink. "Then perhaps you would like to see my ugly arse instead?"

Dagonet's lips curled into a grin. "Are you finally admitting your arse is ugly, Sir Pelleas?"

From the look in his eyes, Pelleas had an especially saucy retort queued up - but unfortunately, Dagonet would never get the chance to hear it. Because just as Pelleas opened that large, chapped mouth of his, the prince's manservant came running up to them. Speak of the devil and he shall appear, as they say.

"Hi Dagonet," Merlin chirped, a bit winded. "Hi Pelleas." Aside from the guards and the chamberlain, Merlin was the only other person who had pieced together Pelleas's guard-related hobbies.

"What's going on, Merlin?" asked Dagonet.

It took a few moments for Merlin to catch his breath well enough to respond. Good grief, someone really ought to give this poor lad some strength and endurance training. From the twinkle in his hazel eyes, Dagonet could tell Pelleas was considering it.

"I...I need a favour," he said. "A possibly very big and very -"

"Well, get on with it then," Pelleas prompted. "I might have all day, but Dag doesn't."

"Right. Dagonet...you like dogs, right?"

Dagonet would later regret saying yes. Because it is that exact answer that led to him and Pelleas spending the next four hours sitting at the outskirt of the training pitch and feeding little cubes of meat to a moody yet affectionate hound.

"He's probably conjured by magic somehow, isn't he?" Pelleas guessed.

"Almost definitely."

"Come to think of it, he looks a bit like that one dog statue that used to be in the courtyard."

"The one that went missing yesterday?"

Pelleas smirked. "The very same. So i take it we're keeping him, aren't we?"

"I am, yes," Dagonet said. "You need not concern yourself, Pelleas. You have too many responsibilities as it is without throwing a dog into the mix."

"You won't be able to support yourself and a dog on just a guard's salary," said Pelleas. His usually cocky tone had neutralized into something far more sincere than Dagonet was used to. "Meanwhile i have more money than i know what to do with. Please, Dag. Let me help."

There was a newfound softness in Pelleas's deep, intelligent, mirthful eyes. The sort of softness you find yourself sinking into after a long day. The kind of softness that sings of compassion, concern, and affection. The kind of softness Pelleas only let Dagonet see.

Dagonet groaned. He hated receiving handouts. But since it was Pelleas... "Fine. But we have to name him first."

Without missing a beat, Pelleas said, "Bagdemagus."

Also without missing a bit, Dagonet hissed, "Absolutely not."

y'all it’s been a minute how are you😭

I love Arthur Pendragon because he has the perfect set up to be a bad guy. You’ve got a dead mom, an absent father, high expectations from said father, tons of money and resources, a toxic household, an emotionally abusive parent, yadda yadda yadda. 

Arthur grew up with Uther for a role model; he grew up under a parent who was selfish and vengeful, who sought his version of justice through fear and violence. 

Arthur has the ultimate lineup to choose villainy. It would be so easy for him to blindly follow Uther’s path because he doesn’t really know any other path to follow. And because Uther forces his beliefs (especially regarding magic) onto Arthur (and Morgana), it seems that the natural thing for Arthur to do would be to become just as fearful and authoritative as Uther.

But Arthur doesn’t.

Arthur thinks for himself and sees the flaws in Uther’s ideas. He wants to build a better Camelot. He grows into a hero, not a villain. And yeah, he’s a bit of a douche at times, BUT HES A LOVEABLE DOUCHE. In the beginning of the series, he was that kind that arrogant jock stereotype but he still cared for Merlin and the others around him. (Poisoned Chalice, POISONED CHALICE) 

He’s not heartless like Uther– he’s the exact opposite.

It was similar with Morgana, but she did become evil. Personally, I think this could be attributed to the fact that her savior figure was Morgause (who leaned towards the evil end of the spectrum) and Arthur’s savior figure was Merlin (who is anything but). (And that’s another tangent for another time)

i have this theory that merlin and arthur can physically feel each other’s existence, like a part of them is always aware of the other.

like, maybe when arthur was a newborn, he was like literally inconsolable and used to be a very restless & sad baby but then a year or two later, merlin was born in ealdor and baby arthur suddenly became agreeable & normal, acting like children are supposed to act.

maybe that’s why when arthur first met merlin he said, “there’s something about you, merlin”. something instinctual tugged at him and he was drawn to merlin but didn’t understand why.

and then after arthur died, merlin could still feel a thread of arthur’s life-force that was binding him to the world and that’s what gave merlin hope to go on for so long. that as long as he felt that thread, he had reason to keep going, no matter how long it was.

merlin: because i still feel him

 (sticky weed)

There's a fuckin WAR over who gets to walk at the back and they're all constantly shoving each other and trying to stick it on each other without them noticing

For once Arthur's high and mightiness is not above this, Lancelot's attempts to mask his own chaos do not stretch this far. Everyone goes all out on this most juvenile of pranks. The exception, of course, is Leon. The others take great delight in comfortingly putting a hand on his shoulder like you're right it's stupid we'll stop and he'll be like you just fucking put some on my back didnt you

But heres the thing my friends. Leon is a fucking sleeper agent. He grew up with the Smith sibs and Arthur, he is not immune. He plays up the exasperated high ground but that makes the others let their guard down, and only Gwen Elyan and Artbur know the truth thanks to a years old alliance. That he is the most prolific prankster of them all.

I couldn’t bear to lose you.

Firstly, thanks for all the lovely comments and tags on my recent posts - it’s been a warm welcome back after my long hiatus from tumblr! ❤ Secondly, I hope many of you enjoy this drawing of a more “fighting fit” Merlin, lol! AU in which he’s decided it would be best to secretly train himself to fight… non-magically.