hollowlumen
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“Forget I said anything,” Merlin tried, failing to smother his snickering. He lowered his eyes to the ground, and bit down on his grin even as his shoulders shook with laughter. Neither of them was fooled. “Of course you’re not jealous. Why would you be? Just because Ser Erden is so very charming—”
“He is not—”
“And chivalrous—"
“I bet he beats his servants,” Arthur insisted, with no proof or reason. “And his dogs.”
“And handsome—”
“Handsome?!” Arthur shouted, so loud that it boomed in Merlin’s ears. He jerked his head up in surprise. Dark spots of red had bloomed across Arthur’s cheeks, flush and furious. “He is not! He’s—shut up, Merlin!”
Bookmarked by hollowlumen
04 May 2026
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Merlin hums, making Arthur look back at him and Gods—Arthur already knows what he’s going to say even before his plush lips can grace the shape of the syllables. And yet, it hits him all the same, the gut punch of words delivered by a man whose praise seems worth its weight in gold.
Merlin leans in closer, breath almost ghosting along Arthur’s skin as the binds come undone.
“Good boy.”
.
All the times Merlin calls Arthur a good boy and the times Arthur seeks it out, then what happens when the praise stops.
Bookmarked by hollowlumen
01 May 2026
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The man was beautiful. Hair as gold as dawn sunlight, eyes like the endless blue depths of a midsummer afternoon. His face was a marble angel’s, the lines of brow and cheek and jaw almost too mathematically perfect. Every good sculptor always knew to put in a flaw. His was in his front teeth, just a little too large, and it made Merlin dig his fingernails into his palms. He was lithe, muscular, dressed in black. Half-dressed - his jerkin was unbuttoned, his shirt open nearly to his navel, and he was missing a sock. His hair had the raked-through look of a man in crisis. His smile was dazzling and mad.
“This,” he said, spreading his hands, “is the magnificent - nay, the opulent court of the Crown Prince of Camelot!”
And then, very pleasantly - “Gaius, what the fuck is this?”
OR - When Merlin goes to find Gaius, he's told that he's left Camelot. Tracing his would-be mentor, Merlin finds himself at a tumbledown castle on the edge of a hill. There are chickens, radishes, a knight who'd much rather focus on his squash and a strange voice calling in the night. And a secret hidden in the heart of Castle Perilous. The secret behind the most important rule: don't bleed.
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Bookmarked by hollowlumen
01 May 2026