#arwenlin

all this to say do you have any good starter recs for merwenthur 🙏✨

Hey :) I've only been in the fandom a few months and I mean it when I say I haven't read much Merlin fanfic (I've spent way more time here on tumblr than on AO3).

But since you asked me, personally my recommendation for a starter Merwenthur fic would be Choose and Choose and Choose by fleete.

I think it's the fic that got me actually interested in this ship in the first place, and also probably the only longish Merwenthur fic I've read (though it's only about 11k word).

You might have read it already, because it's the one Merwenthur fic I keep recommending – in which case you can skip the next few paragraphs (sorry). But I'll put another couple of links at the end if you want to check out more stuff.

fleete's fic is about the three of them getting together, and the "triggering event" is Gwen jokingly confessing to Arthur how she kissed Merlin after he almost died from drinking poison that one time. And Arthur has... an interesting reaction to that revelation.

You know when you read a fic and it just makes something click for you? This fic did so for me, and it just happens to tick many of my boxes in terms of tropes, too.

I love the characterisation; the three of them didn't feel too OOC even when they were doing things they never would in canon.

I liked the slight awkwardness around sex of Arthur and Gwen, because they're medieval 20-somethings who only recently lost their virginity to each other, and I found it realistic and also kind of endearing. I liked the tenderness and the vulnerability of it.

I liked the dynamic of the whole triad, but especially between Gwen and Merlin because in this fic it feels like their S1 friendship again and it's clear that they care about each other a lot, and in some Merwenthur I've read their relationship feels a bit like an afterthought at times, coming second to Merlin’s relationship with Arthur, or Arthur’s with Gwen.

I don't know, I guess The Vibe in this story just felt right to me, and I loved it to bits.

A lil excerpt:

Before this, Merlin was a comfortable presence at Arthur’s side. He was like Arthur’s right arm. Or maybe, more precisely, like one of Arthur’s old battle wounds: occasionally annoying, but a familiar part of his body. And now. Merlin seems to have acquired his own body. And a pair of lips. Lips that Gwen kissed. It’s absurd how little time it takes for his mind to spin Gwen’s original, innocent story into something more tawdry. He pictures Gwen sitting in Merlin’s lap, rubbing her thumb under his chin, pushing up until he consents to let his head fall back. Gwen would pull down Merlin’s stupid scarf, admire his Adam’s Apple, feel the beat of his pulse under her fingers, and stroke up and down his throat while Merlin breathed open-mouthed at the ceiling, probably aroused and nervous. Would Merlin be nervous? Arthur thinks so. 

@merlinemrys has also published some Merwenthur fics on AO3, as well as @flight-of-fantasy, who's recently updated their Merwenthur fic. They both might have more to rec.

If you've read or will read fleete's story, I've tried my hand at a sequel, because personally I needed more.

Summary:

It was something that crept up on him. Arthur had long suspected Merlin’s feelings for him were not entirely platonic. He didn’t think Merlin would ever act on it—let alone that his own feelings might change.

But when Arthur is the one to act, when he kisses Merlin--without thought or plan on either end--it feels as natural and inevitable as when Arthur had first kissed Gwen. It would have been a beautiful moment, if not for the fact that they were both immediately consumed by guilt and horror at the line Arthur has crossed.

It takes Arthur a whole day to work up the courage to tell Gwen, panicked by his attraction to more than just women. He expects her to be upset. To cry. Perhaps to throw things at him. He’d deserve it.

Instead, she just smiles. "Well," she says. "That was a long time coming, wasn't it?"

You and I were made for this I was made to taste your kiss We were made to never fall away