Title: Lancelot du Lac
Author: Harlequin
Universe: Merlin
Characters featured: Lancelot, Freya, Merlin
Category, Word count: Short story; 990 words
Rating: PG
Summary: Lancelot finds peace.
Notes: Set after episode 409.
For Melody, who also deserves every happiness.
With thanks to archaeologist_d for the translation of Merlin’s spell (though I anglicised it further).
Title: A Family Christmas
Author: Harlequin
Universe: Merlin
Characters featured: Merlin/Arthur with Mordred and Morgana
Category, Word count: PWP; 890 words
Rating: PG13
Summary: Arthur discovers there will be an unexpected addition to the Pendragon family Christmas.
Notes: For my darling BabyD, for her birthday…
Title: The Warlock and the King
Author: Harlequin
Universe: Merlin
Characters featured: Merlin/Uther
Category, Word count: Short story; 2058 words
Rating: NC17
Summary: Uther may be broken, but he’s not quite done with life yet.
Notes: For yue_ix, cos she is made of the awesome.
Title: Seven Steps
Author: Harlequin
Artists: The awesome tindu for the art, and the wonderful gealach_ros for the graphics.
Betas: The amazing asifidletyou, with admirable support from altocello and cinnatart on technical matters; Thank you, all! Remaining infelicities and misguided choices are alas my own.
Pairings/characters: Merlin/Gaius, with a full supporting cast of Alice, Arthur, Erika (OFC), Freya, Gwen, Hunith, Lance, Leon, Morgana, Teague (OMC), and sundry others
Rating: NC17
Word Count: 36,400
Warnings: Includes a secondary character death, as per canon. Also involves, as will be obvious, a significant age difference between the two lovers.
Summary: Merlin is an art student, working as an orderly at a Pendragon Care care home during the summer break; he falls in love with Gaius, one of the (temporary) residents. The feeling is mutual, but such an unexpected relationship is never going to be easy to establish when both men feel so diffident about their claims on each other. And that’s before taking into account the mutual antipathy between Merlin and Gaius’s beloved godson Arthur, not to mention a surprising addition to Merlin’s family, and Merlin’s grief over his best friend Freya being institutionalised…
Author’s notes: This all grew out of a Gaius/Merlin prompt on kinkme_merlin: ‘When Merlin signs up to be a summer volunteer at the local old age home, he never once expected to meet the great love of his life there.’ My first thought was, ‘Ooh! I could do that.’ Then I dreamt up Pendragon Care, and Gaius’s relationship with Uther and Arthur. And then… Well. All this happened!
♦ I would very much like to thank everyone who encouraged me along the way, and I’m especially grateful to my artists and betas. It’s just wonderful that so many of you feel kindly towards this rare pair! And really, as a writer, I feel I have an embarrassment of riches in collaborators here…
♦ A special thank you is also due to the_muppet for organising yet another brilliant paperlegends challenge!
Artist’s notes: Coming soon!
Story link: Read it here, at our Seven Steps website, or on AO3
Art link: art by tindu
Graphics link: graphics by gealach_ros
Disclaimer: We do not own these characters, and are only taking the liberty of playing with them for a time…
Title: where you once belonged
Author: Harlequin
Universe: Merlin
Characters featured: Merlin/Arthur
Category, Word count: Short story; 1380 words
Rating: NC17
Summary: In the showers after a game, Arthur’s footy mates notice something a bit odd about him…
Notes: Written for yorkshirewench in return for a favour… She suggested I might find this prompt at kinkme_merlin inspirational.
Title: … with careful fingers and benign
Author: Harlequin
Beta: the awesome ravenflight21 ♥
Universe: Merlin
Characters featured: Merlin/Arthur
Category, Word count: Short story; 1493 words
Rating: mild R
Summary: Arthur falls in love on his first day of high school… with Merlin’s fingers.
Notes: The title was borrowed from ‘Sonnet to Sleep’ by John Keats. ♥
This was written for LiveJournal’s glompfest.
Recipient: for lambbaby, with love and thanks for being part of this awesome fandom!
Title: To You Everything I Bestow
Author: Julien
Universe: Romeo and Juliet
Characters featured: Romeo/Mercutio
Category, Word count: Story; 12150 words
Rating: NC17
Summary: Mercutio is furiously frustrated by Romeo frittering away his life and his love, when he could be and do anything. Romeo challenges Mercutio to teach him, then, about the real thing.
Notes: As a teenager I loved the play Romeo and Juliet, and often speculated about Romeo and Mercutio’s relationship (while I always admired Juliet, and wish to take nothing away from her). This Romeo/Mercutio story was specifically inspired by the wonderful 1996 film by Baz Luhrmann. I found plenty of additional inspiration in the soundtrack (from which I drew the title), especially from the song Talk Show Host (I’ve no idea why it’s called that) by Radiohead.
Warnings: The fic covers both Mercutio’s death and Romeo’s.
First published: 10 October 1997 in Espresso for Two
Title: Smitten
Author: Harlequin
Universe: Merlin
Characters featured: Merlin/Arthur
Category, Word count: Short story; 1931 words
Rating: mild R
Summary: Arthur walks into a coffee shop on a quest for a triple latte. He doesn’t expect to fall in love.
Notes: This is a birthday pressie for my dear friend the_muppet. ♥ Hon, this is almost but not quite entirely unlike your prompt… except that at least it’s a modern AU! (I will try to do better next time.)
Title: Awakening
Author: Harlequin
Universe: Merlin
Characters featured: Merlin/Arthur/Gaius/Gwaine
Category, Word count: Short story; 2657 words
Rating: NC17
Summary: Merlin’s sexual awakening was bound to be magical; it draws together all those who truly love him.
Notes: Pure self-indulgence. My new OT4…? XD
Title: Sage
Author: Harlequin
Universe: Merlin
Characters featured: Merlin/Gaius
Category, Word count: Short story; 2262 words
Rating: mild PG13
Summary: With Merlin’s help, Gaius rediscovers Camelot’s overgrown old physic garden.
Notes: Set after Love in the Time of Dragons, an episode which clearly demonstrated why there is and will always be the need for fan fic (and indeed slash).
Warnings: If you don’t enjoy a significant age difference in your fictional romances, then you’ve probably already realised this fic isn’t going to be your thing!
