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31_days2009-02-22 08:49 am
praiseofshadows.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2009-02-22 08:49 am
[Feb 22nd] [Merlin (BBC)] Quite Contrary
Title: Quite Contrary
Day/Theme: Feb 22 - when happiness falls
Series: Merlin (BBC 2008 series)
Character/Pairing: Arthur
Rating: PG-ish
Everyone’s always made so much of Arthur except the one person who mattered, and so – from a very young age – Arthur decided he would want no-one. And so he cried and threw tantrums and was deliberately unpleasant.
(“It’s because he looks so much like the late queen,” his gossip of a nurse had explained to the newest under-footman, not realizing that Arthur was still lying awake in his bed. “That’s why his father can scarcely bear to look upon him.”)
When he got older, he was offered sex instead of sweets, political favours instead of toys, but instead of wailing out his dismay he now just curled his lips in a sneer and laughed.
And then – then came Merlin, who was fascinating and stupidly clever or cleverly stupid and altogether wonderful, and Arthur realized he had no idea what to do about it. He couldn’t make himself likeable; he didn’t know how.
Day/Theme: Feb 22 - when happiness falls
Series: Merlin (BBC 2008 series)
Character/Pairing: Arthur
Rating: PG-ish
Everyone’s always made so much of Arthur except the one person who mattered, and so – from a very young age – Arthur decided he would want no-one. And so he cried and threw tantrums and was deliberately unpleasant.
(“It’s because he looks so much like the late queen,” his gossip of a nurse had explained to the newest under-footman, not realizing that Arthur was still lying awake in his bed. “That’s why his father can scarcely bear to look upon him.”)
When he got older, he was offered sex instead of sweets, political favours instead of toys, but instead of wailing out his dismay he now just curled his lips in a sneer and laughed.
And then – then came Merlin, who was fascinating and stupidly clever or cleverly stupid and altogether wonderful, and Arthur realized he had no idea what to do about it. He couldn’t make himself likeable; he didn’t know how.