Fanfiction: Strength
Title: Strength
Pairing: Arthur/Leon
Warnings/spoilers: Nada.
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Merlin.
Word count: 400 (4 drabbles, which can be read as one).
Summary: Side by side, Arthur and Leon will guard Camelot, and each other.
Notes: My first Merlin fic. I wrote this as a break from posting fic recs, and also to challenge myself to write in a new format (apparently I can write a drabble, but only by sticking a load of them together, so I remain unsure if that’s cheating or not…).
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Arthur carries much weight on his shoulders, and for all that his upbringing has been lesson upon lesson of how to bear that burden, there remain days that it feels remarkably heavy.
Arthur knows that this is how it should be, that to one day be a true king is to have no moment where he is unaware of the importance of his responsibilities. Nevertheless, there remain nights where he cannot sleep for the terror that he will stumble under the load entrusted to him, and prove unable to stand straight beneath it.
Arthur’s greatest nightmare is to be unworthy.
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Leon came to Camelot to be a knight. He has played his part in Arthur’s upbringing, training and teaching, but he takes equal pride in that Arthur has never needed be shown how to be a good man, or a good ruler; not deep in his core, where it counts.
Leon is Arthur’s right hand for some time before either of them realise. He takes the weight from his prince where he can, and where he cannot, he supports Arthur so that he himself can bear it more easily. Leon offers his strength to Arthur, and becomes stronger in return.
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Camelot, the responsibility of protecting her, is as heavy as the white stones from which she is built, and yet this is a feather to the weighty importance of her inhabitants. Arthur will be a mighty king because he knows this truth better than anything in his soul; a city is its people, not its structures. Only one can be rebuilt.
Camelot does not fear, because it knows the truth of its protection. It is not its walls or its gates, but the people that stand before them. Camelot’s knights, united and impenetrable, are its guards of flesh and metal.
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They would die for Camelot, Arthur and Leon. They would give their lives for each other too, but they also live, and sometimes that is harder.
They sneak touches and glances, secret moments amongst councils and battles, responsibilities and expectations.
They protect their entanglement, and for all that it must exist in shadows, do not allow it to be diminished for this.
They understand the weight of their actions, its cost but also its gain. It yields the strength that they take back into the light and which allows them to protect all they hold close; Camelot, and each other.
Pairing: Arthur/Leon
Warnings/spoilers: Nada.
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Merlin.
Word count: 400 (4 drabbles, which can be read as one).
Summary: Side by side, Arthur and Leon will guard Camelot, and each other.
Notes: My first Merlin fic. I wrote this as a break from posting fic recs, and also to challenge myself to write in a new format (apparently I can write a drabble, but only by sticking a load of them together, so I remain unsure if that’s cheating or not…).
-----
Arthur carries much weight on his shoulders, and for all that his upbringing has been lesson upon lesson of how to bear that burden, there remain days that it feels remarkably heavy.
Arthur knows that this is how it should be, that to one day be a true king is to have no moment where he is unaware of the importance of his responsibilities. Nevertheless, there remain nights where he cannot sleep for the terror that he will stumble under the load entrusted to him, and prove unable to stand straight beneath it.
Arthur’s greatest nightmare is to be unworthy.
-----
Leon came to Camelot to be a knight. He has played his part in Arthur’s upbringing, training and teaching, but he takes equal pride in that Arthur has never needed be shown how to be a good man, or a good ruler; not deep in his core, where it counts.
Leon is Arthur’s right hand for some time before either of them realise. He takes the weight from his prince where he can, and where he cannot, he supports Arthur so that he himself can bear it more easily. Leon offers his strength to Arthur, and becomes stronger in return.
-----
Camelot, the responsibility of protecting her, is as heavy as the white stones from which she is built, and yet this is a feather to the weighty importance of her inhabitants. Arthur will be a mighty king because he knows this truth better than anything in his soul; a city is its people, not its structures. Only one can be rebuilt.
Camelot does not fear, because it knows the truth of its protection. It is not its walls or its gates, but the people that stand before them. Camelot’s knights, united and impenetrable, are its guards of flesh and metal.
-----
They would die for Camelot, Arthur and Leon. They would give their lives for each other too, but they also live, and sometimes that is harder.
They sneak touches and glances, secret moments amongst councils and battles, responsibilities and expectations.
They protect their entanglement, and for all that it must exist in shadows, do not allow it to be diminished for this.
They understand the weight of their actions, its cost but also its gain. It yields the strength that they take back into the light and which allows them to protect all they hold close; Camelot, and each other.