Merlin Cheat Recs - Pining Arthur
OK gang, I'm going to try something a little different with recs. I call it Cheat Recs. Because I'm going to rec things, and I'm mostly not going to tell you why.
No wait, hear me out. Reccing is tough, especially if you don't have time/brain to articulate why you really enjoyed a fic. But there need to be more recs, am I right? Of course I am! So I'm going to try and do themed rec posts - the clue's in the title. I'll definitely include the summary, and I may or may not include a wee comment about why I liked it, or whether it's funny or angsty, or whatever. Basically, I have nearly 200 awesome Merlin things saved in my Delicious account, and I want to share them with you, but I just cannot do that many full on recs. That's just crazy talk.
And hey, let's make this interactive! Chip in with your favourites in the theme. I want the title and summary. Additional information awesome but entirely optional.
Think I'm nuts? Say so, I don't mind. Think this could be the next big thing? Link it, mention it, start your own, whatever! Think I could be on the verge of singlehandedly destroying fandom? Tell me why!
And here we go - nine stories I loved in which Arthur pines for Merlin:
• Mending Wall - Frantic - Summary: Arthur and Merlin have shared a living space for over six years and can hear each other very clearly through the wall between their rooms. (Modern AU)
• Natural Occurrences In Order Of Need To Live. - Writing2death - Summary: Arthur has a list in his head of Reasons Why He Loves Merlin. There are currently 327 reasons on that list and they include things like, “He looks slightly deranged when he smiles” and “He buys me little plastic knights to go with my collection” and “He once brought home a stray cat and tried to hide it in his room without me finding out”. (Modern AU)
• An Exercise in Holding One’s Breath - KinkMeme - Summary: Arthur Pendragon had been in love with Merlin Emrys since he was five years old. It was not a very well known fact. He’d closely guarded it as a secret since the day when they met, twenty three years ago, on the first day of school. (Modern AU)
• It’s All Right With Me and I’d Tried So Not To Give In - nonisland - Summary: Merlin has taken over Arthur’s thoughts since he came to Camelot. He’s stubborn and insubordinate and disrespectful and the worst manservant Arthur has ever had-and he’s a sorcerer and genuinely seems to think that Arthur hasn’t figured this out yet, which means he insults the royal intelligence every time he pretends that the latest thing he did was pure coincidence and not him risking his own life to save Arthur’s-and he’s stupidly brave and charming and kind and rather attractive in his own odd way. Arthur is thoroughly sick of the way that he thinks about Merlin all the time. Merlin is, after all, an entirely unsuitable person to be taking up so much of his attention. (Canon era.)
• No Fear of Drowning - i-claudia - Summary: Arthur has always been pretty happy with his family (discounting Morgana, whom he still thinks most days could have been replaced with a Rottweiler to very similar effect), and he knows he’s pretty lucky that way. (Modern AU. Pseudo-siblingcest. Uther and Hunith get married which ends up leading to much angsting. Note that 'pseudo' - Arthur and Merlin are step-brothers, not actualfax brothers.)
• A Hard-On For Violence - Kickflaw - Summary: This has been the worst day of Arthur’s life. (Modern AU. Violence, brief dub-con-ishness, but ultimately fluffy at the end. No, it really does work.)
• Shake Your Windows and Rattle Your Walls - RosemaryandRue - Summary: They're all at Oxford in the 1960s, and Arthur's infatuated. (1960s AU. Beautiful, beautiful angst. Has a wonderful vibrant happily ever after (eventually) sequel. Seriously one of my fandom favourites.)
• In Love With My Radio - lunchy_munchy - Summary: Merlin listens to the radio on his iPod, Arthur stalks Merlin, Morgana lives to create chaos in Arthur's life, and then everyone goes to McDonalds! (Modern AU. This is a ridiculous story, in which everyone is ridiculous. I laughed my arse off, and I love the multi-media, especially the 'screencaps' of the "blog twitter widget thing". The whole thing is really creative.)
• Rules for Roommates - pickitup - Summary: Arthur works in publishing and is ashamed to tell anyone he's secretly editing erotica, and being bullied by one of his authors - the arrogant 'Lake Anders'. He's also just taken in a new roommate, the adorable Merlin Emrys, who is definitely Not His Type. Or is he? (Modern AU)
No wait, hear me out. Reccing is tough, especially if you don't have time/brain to articulate why you really enjoyed a fic. But there need to be more recs, am I right? Of course I am! So I'm going to try and do themed rec posts - the clue's in the title. I'll definitely include the summary, and I may or may not include a wee comment about why I liked it, or whether it's funny or angsty, or whatever. Basically, I have nearly 200 awesome Merlin things saved in my Delicious account, and I want to share them with you, but I just cannot do that many full on recs. That's just crazy talk.
And hey, let's make this interactive! Chip in with your favourites in the theme. I want the title and summary. Additional information awesome but entirely optional.
Think I'm nuts? Say so, I don't mind. Think this could be the next big thing? Link it, mention it, start your own, whatever! Think I could be on the verge of singlehandedly destroying fandom? Tell me why!
And here we go - nine stories I loved in which Arthur pines for Merlin:
• Mending Wall - Frantic - Summary: Arthur and Merlin have shared a living space for over six years and can hear each other very clearly through the wall between their rooms. (Modern AU)
• Natural Occurrences In Order Of Need To Live. - Writing2death - Summary: Arthur has a list in his head of Reasons Why He Loves Merlin. There are currently 327 reasons on that list and they include things like, “He looks slightly deranged when he smiles” and “He buys me little plastic knights to go with my collection” and “He once brought home a stray cat and tried to hide it in his room without me finding out”. (Modern AU)
• An Exercise in Holding One’s Breath - KinkMeme - Summary: Arthur Pendragon had been in love with Merlin Emrys since he was five years old. It was not a very well known fact. He’d closely guarded it as a secret since the day when they met, twenty three years ago, on the first day of school. (Modern AU)
• It’s All Right With Me and I’d Tried So Not To Give In - nonisland - Summary: Merlin has taken over Arthur’s thoughts since he came to Camelot. He’s stubborn and insubordinate and disrespectful and the worst manservant Arthur has ever had-and he’s a sorcerer and genuinely seems to think that Arthur hasn’t figured this out yet, which means he insults the royal intelligence every time he pretends that the latest thing he did was pure coincidence and not him risking his own life to save Arthur’s-and he’s stupidly brave and charming and kind and rather attractive in his own odd way. Arthur is thoroughly sick of the way that he thinks about Merlin all the time. Merlin is, after all, an entirely unsuitable person to be taking up so much of his attention. (Canon era.)
• No Fear of Drowning - i-claudia - Summary: Arthur has always been pretty happy with his family (discounting Morgana, whom he still thinks most days could have been replaced with a Rottweiler to very similar effect), and he knows he’s pretty lucky that way. (Modern AU. Pseudo-siblingcest. Uther and Hunith get married which ends up leading to much angsting. Note that 'pseudo' - Arthur and Merlin are step-brothers, not actualfax brothers.)
• A Hard-On For Violence - Kickflaw - Summary: This has been the worst day of Arthur’s life. (Modern AU. Violence, brief dub-con-ishness, but ultimately fluffy at the end. No, it really does work.)
• Shake Your Windows and Rattle Your Walls - RosemaryandRue - Summary: They're all at Oxford in the 1960s, and Arthur's infatuated. (1960s AU. Beautiful, beautiful angst. Has a wonderful vibrant happily ever after (eventually) sequel. Seriously one of my fandom favourites.)
• In Love With My Radio - lunchy_munchy - Summary: Merlin listens to the radio on his iPod, Arthur stalks Merlin, Morgana lives to create chaos in Arthur's life, and then everyone goes to McDonalds! (Modern AU. This is a ridiculous story, in which everyone is ridiculous. I laughed my arse off, and I love the multi-media, especially the 'screencaps' of the "blog twitter widget thing". The whole thing is really creative.)
• Rules for Roommates - pickitup - Summary: Arthur works in publishing and is ashamed to tell anyone he's secretly editing erotica, and being bullied by one of his authors - the arrogant 'Lake Anders'. He's also just taken in a new roommate, the adorable Merlin Emrys, who is definitely Not His Type. Or is he? (Modern AU)