Flashfic: Lightness and Ardour and Heat (Merlin/Arthur, wing!verse AU)

[b_hallward]

Summary: In the words of the divine David, He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire: and He has described their lightness and the ardour, and heat, and keenness and sharpness with which they hunger for God and serve Him. -- John of Damascus (AN: Same universe as Sublimity and By Means of Fire. For mossylawn. And honestly? This is all

Comments

[mossylawn]

But to be the focus of this vast staggering passion, something that is freely given, not owed to him as service: what would that call out of him?
I personally think that Arthur really needs that sort of love, love that is not out of duty or maybe even despite the duty. Arthur strikes me as a tragically lonely character, he's loved but unloved at the same time. Uther loves hims obviously, though he hardly ever shows it unless Arthur is in mortal peril and the whole business with Igraine and him being a 'magic baby'(I really ought to work on my terminology)taints it at every step, we know how the Gwen and Lance thing will go down, so that basically leaves Morgana who cares for him dearly but whom he will undoubtedly lose and well, Merlin.

I imagine Arthur being intimidated at first, by the fact that he's the sun of Merlin's world and then definitely frustrated by the fact that Merlin just won't stop trying to die for him, since even in the Poison Chalice we see that Arthur does not want or expect that sort of blind devotion, but once he comes to terms to it I think he's going to return it. At least to some extend.
Honestly, I have no idea which was the second season can go without becoming a straighforwardly homoerotic epic.

[b_hallward]

Oh, yes, Arthur is incredibly isolated, unlike Merlin who has a whole network of people who love and support him.

I think he must already realize that Merlin cares for him largely as a person and not as a prince; it's rather hard to miss considering that Merlin barely treats him like a prince and was never impressed. Merlin must be this giant puzzle, since so little of what he does makes sense (unless you know about the magic, how he's accepted his destiny and that he loves Arthur like the other half of himself). And yet even this, just knowing that Merlin in some way cares for him as a person, is enough that by the end of series one he takes Merlin almost everywhere, whether or not Merlin has any reason to be there (councils, questing)--even when Merlin is actually an inconvenience (hunting). He lasted about three hours before he followed Merlin to Ealdor. Arthur strikes me as someone who is just sort of starving, who has become used to living almost entirely without affection or support but in the way of a person used to hunger. And a collision between this hunger and Merlin's vast love would be fairly spectacular. It makes me think that they would go through a phase where Arthur could hardly keep his hands off Merlin, where they would have sex all the time; because Arthur is so hungry for so many things and sex is something he could accept and rationalize as being, you know, just sex--even if actually it was incredibly intense and with a lot of emotional contents.

Or even the not-sex route: where he's become so used to Merlin always being there without having really realized it that if Merlin ever wasn't there (for some reason) I think it would feel like suddenly losing a limb.

But there is always going to be an imbalance, even after Arthur matures into a better person: he can be the sun of Merlin's world and Merlin is going to have to share him with a great many other people and things. Which is perhaps why this religion metaphor of the wing!verse works so well; it has the same consuming quality as romantic love, but just functions differently.

I have no idea which was the second season can go without becoming a straighforwardly homoerotic epic

*crosses fingers for luck*

[mossylawn]

It makes me think that they would go through a phase where Arthur could hardly keep his hands off Merlin, where they would have sex all the time; because Arthur is so hungry for so many things and sex is something he could accept and rationalize as being, you know, just sex--even if actually it was incredibly intense and with a lot of emotional contents.

Oh yes. I imagine him just diving into all that depth of emotion, absolutely starved for it, but at the same time he could brush it off as just sex, pretending that his princely facade hasn't cracked, despite knowing that it is far more than that.
Oh goodness I wish they would just abandon the children show label and made it pure naightiness XD

Or even the not-sex route: where he's become so used to Merlin always being there without having really realized it that if Merlin ever wasn't there (for some reason) I think it would feel like suddenly losing a limb.

Yeah, I think there already are signs of this route, which is possibly why he follows Merlin to Ealdor almost immediately.

[mossylawn]

also I love how our comments turned into a mega-Merlin-meta

[b_hallward]

All roads lead to meta. *g*