[Fic] The Love You Kept Inside (pt. 3) - for themadlurker

[solstice_mods]

Title: The Love You Kept Inside
Author: Anonymous
Recipient: themadlurker
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Hunith/Nimueh (other pairings mentioned), Merlin and Gaius
Warnings: Reference to character death (canon and OCs); grieving, miscarriage, one scene of a lesbian character having sex with a man.
Spoilers: Only through the end of series one. (Not fully compliant

Comments

[themadlurker]

Wow.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for writing this. I figured it was probably the prompt that was least likely to get picked up, but I have wanted so badly to have fic that dealt with Nimueh in just this way. I love the way you've complicated the moral issues and brought out the many perspectives on what happened and that you've made absolutely everyone human and flawed, that the arguments between Hunith and Nimueh felt difficult and real, that they both had good reasons, all along the way. I love the way that their different relationships with magic affects the way they relate to each other and I love the way Hunith's feelings for Nimueh are tangled up with the way she's drawn to magic, but sometimes as contradictory forces. I love how complex you've made everything, that there are no easy answers, not about Nimueh's feelings, or her fate, not even at the end, especially not at the end

[sophinisba]

So this was, like, it got posted late on the evening of the 27th and I had to leave for the airport early on the morning of the 28th to visit baranduin and others for a week and wasn't sure if I'd have any Internet access while I was there, and I pretty much didn't sleep that night, but then when I was at her house and this came in we were pretty amazed, and she was like, "Whoa, that's not an LJ comment, that's a Letter of Comment," an LoC out of the zine days of yore. This and then the post at your journal, after a lot of weeks of anxiety, just really thrilled me and made me feel like it was worth it (I mean it would have been anyway because it was so much fun to write, but made me feel like I'd accomplished what I set out to do) and that was so, so, great. So thank you so much for this

[netgirl_y2k]

Dude. Dude. This is unspeakably brilliant. I can't believe you made be believe Hunith/Nimueh, but it's just so, guh...

Of course Hunith went to Camelot to have Adventures when she was young, and of course she worked for Gaius and Nimueh, and the way you can see Nimueh slowly becoming the woman from series one, and Merlin's conception. Oh.

Absolutely smashing. Brilliant Work.

[sophinisba]

Hunith is so made of awesome and I got such a thrill out of giving her her own story and adventures. I was a little unsure about the pairing at first too, but if not Nimueh then where is Merlin's power supposed to come from, eh? (As you can imagine I had some anxiety while watching some season two episodes - I'd do a lot of fidgeting whenever they started to talk about Merlin's parentage.) Thank you thank you for reading and commenting, it was so great to know you liked it. ♥

[swatkat24]

Oh wow. Hunith/Nimueh is not a pairing that would've ever occurred to me, but this is *fantastic*. I love your young Hunith and her very Merlin-ish desire to find a place for herself somewhere outside her small world, and I lovelove how you deal with her story - how she reconciles with becoming a 'refuge', with a life in Ealdor and her dogged loyalty, until the very end. I love that she found a semblance of peace with Ellie. You do a fantastic job with younger!Gaius and his 'careful, plodding knowledge'. And your Nimueh! I don't have words for how much I love your Nimueh and her slow transformation from the arrogant but happy Lady Nimueh to the woman we met in S1, the irreconcilable difference between them:

"What if he ends up just like you, you mean?"

Hunith wondered what would be so bad about that.

<3333

[sophinisba]

Thank you so much! This pairing had never occurred to me either, but I've always loved Hunith a lot, and then I got this request, and the more I thought about it the more it made sense to me. I mean, we know she's got some kind of relationship with Gaius and we know Merlin's always had magic, and Hunith was the most powerful sorcerer we saw in season 1, so...OTP! Thank you for commenting on those themes of loyalty and choices and the differences between the characters. I really enjoyed exploring that with characters I hadn't written about or even read much about before this. :)

[sophinisba]

Thank you, dear, you know I wouldn't have been able to do this without you. I'm really especially grateful for what you said about the last quarter or so on the first draft. The changes I made aren't all that huge but I think a bunch of little things really helped, especially about making H. less passive in her role in the community in Ealdor. Thank you so much. *hugs*

[itachitachi]

WOW. This was incredible! I mean, like, I don't even have much of an interest in past- or older-gen-fic, but this was just so enchanting and strange and realistic and convincing and IDEK, just awesome. I saw the pairing and did the requisite o___O?? but now I'm just sitting here and LOVING it. This is my favorite Hunith ever, and the way you tackled Gaius and what Merlin's view on magic is was just YES YES YES. Right there.

[sophinisba]

I saw the pairing and did the requisite o___O??

I know, right? They never even meet on the show and yet Nimueh just about kills Hunith. And themadlurker also requested Merlin/Lancelot, which is a pairing I consider semi-canonical. :D And yet I couldn't pass up the chance to write a long fic about lesbian Hunith, and I had so much fun with this, working in those different perspectives on Merlin and Gaius and Nimueh and the choices they make in season 1. I'm so happy you enjoyed it. Thank you for commenting!