Favourite under-appreciated Merlin/Arthur fics?

[afortunatefew]

Hello! I'm looking for Merlin/Arthur fics that you love and think are brilliant but that aren't considered the 'fandom staples' or don't often get recced or suggested here because i think i've probably already read the majority of those. So, yeah, bascially just your favourite under-appreciated fics please

Comments

[1bacchanalian]

-Silent Night, They never meant for it to happen - it shouldn’t have happened, not ever, but especially not then, not like that.
http://community.livejournal.com/honeybee_fandom/5151.html
-Take Away the Stone and the Timber, I blame this on the boogie Granny Weatherwax and Watchmen combined. Merlin gets a pet owl, and soon finds it easier to fly away (literally) than face the rigours and problems of the real world. And then Arthur angsts.
http://ladytelemachus.livejournal.com/24130.html
-When All is Said and Done, Arthur is sent to observe the therioscopic department when a drug breakthrough seems imminent, only to find that one of his employees is hiding a startling number of secrets.
http://acetamide.livejournal.com/23262.html
-To Possess the Habitation of Your Soul, Cornelius gives it another try, in a Mephistophelean way. Sort of an episode coda.... )

[afortunatefew]

Wow!! Thank you SO much for all of these and for taking the time to respond with so many fics! Can't wait to start reading them :)

[abernaith]

Hi! I've been wanting to compose my own rec list since forever, but I never get around to completing one because I simply have no solid purpose for it. I figure that helping a fellow fan is reason enough, so thanks for the opportunity!

To start off, I personally like combing through people's master fic lists since that's how you really find the hidden gems. I've left three asterisks beside author's names who have more fics in their lj pages that are worth the effort of digging up. Okay, so here it goes:

1. One Shots

Users are Losers by sparky77***

I just love reading sly!Merlin. Some might find it too OOC, but it is my secret hope that when Merlin finally grows into his magic, he'd be this confident, sexy guy.

When was the last time you saw a penguin in England anyway? by miakun @ miafic***

In retrospect, I find it rather shocking how I have so easily accepted the fact that the Merlin fandom, and the Merlin/Arthur fandom in particular, is like, 90% PORN. (And deserving of the all-caps.) Looking at my fic collection, I realized that porn in the M/A

[abernaith]

A lot of the novelettes and series fics in my collection are thanks to communities like reel_merlin, camelotsolstice, and the Merlin Big Bang community at Box of Magic.

Some of the brilliant fic there don't get recced enough though, so I'm including them in my rec list:

2. Novelettes (Part I)

something more than this desperation by my_maverick via camelotsolstice

I have a bias for Merlin + modern technology. Partly because I'm attempting to write a fic in this genre, but also because Colin Morgan makes Merlin look like a geek. Whether deliberately or not, I guess this will remain a mystery.

Seven Magpies by syllic*** @ camelotsolstice

This is, I think, the latest of syllic's merlin fics, so it may not have made the rec list circuit yet. I doubt it will remain un-recced to the high heavens for long, though. Still, there are several more fics in camelotsolstice of this calibre, so I thought it best to give you a heads-up and leave no stone unturned in their master list of fics.

Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it by j_apollo

Merlin as Alice in a Sort-of-Wonderland. Sweet, and profound in unexpected ways.

Under the

[abernaith]

2. Novelettes (Part II)

The Weight of Words by waldorph

This fic was a delight to read in part because of its rich prose, and in part because of the intense way the characters were portrayed.

Reversal of Fortune by srin

I thoroughly enjoyed Arthur's character here. It's the best "Arthur-is-out-of-his-depth" kind of fic out there, imo. That it's in a totally AU setting is irrelevant, since personally I think writing Arthur as "out-of-his-depth" while still being essentially Arthur is damned hard.

Blank Canvas by rotrude***

There's a bunch of Merlin-as-a-starving-artist fics out there, but I like this one in particular because it's also a period!fic. The environs used in this fic are all richly described, which is a bonus treat.

Mental Note by social-retard86***

social-retard86's fics get recced often enough, but this one seems to have flown under the radar. I've got good memories from reading this fic at a bus stop. I may have traumatized at least one fellow commuter with my manic grin, which I could not, for the life of me, tone down for the whole time it took me to read the

[abernaith]

2. Novelettes: Part III

Character Motivation at lassiterfics***

I honestly never saw this coming. In my collection, it's got a personal label: wherein Bradley James experiences my secret childhood escapist fantasy.

When the Day is Over, It Gets Dark by rayslady

The overall ambiance of the fic is consistently sad and haunting, and this permeates even the happiest moments between the characters, especially between Merlin and Arthur. For some reason, I've got this impression that, prior to BBC's re-imagining of the Arthurian legends, this 'sad-and-haunting' ambiance has clung to the myth for so long, and that it has even affected other tales of the medieval era (i.e. Tristan and Isolde). This 'ambiance' or 'mood' has, perhaps unconsciously, lent gravity to the Arthurian myth.
Uhm, well, I'm no scholar, but I guess my point is that this particular fic is like an encapsulation of said gravity of the legends, that BBC's Merlin blithely ignores (for the better, this time around, imo).

Merlin's Arabian Nights by ravenflight21***

You can say this is shameless all-out PWP