Chapter Text
Arthur loved returning to his chambers to find Merlin and Ygraine playing on the floor or curled up in his bed for a nap. It’s happened many times over the past couple years and every time, Arthur felt warmth swell in his chest.
This time, Ygraine was sitting on the floor near Merlin as he put some clothes away. She was rambling on about nothing (Arthur always laughed about how she definitely got that from her ‘daddy’) while playing with the doll Morgana gave her for her last birthday.
Merlin nodded along seriously as he worked. He hummed to encourage her to continue, even adding in a few ‘really?’s and ‘then what?’s, even though he probably didn’t have any idea what the toddler was talking about either.
Though, with Merlin, Arthur wouldn’t be too surprised if he knew exactly what she was saying.
The prince stood at his bedroom door for a moment, taking in the scene with a smile.
When he finally announced his return, Ygraine beamed at him and jumped up yelling, “Papa!”
He obediently lifted the girl into his arms and hugged her tightly.
“Hello, baby,” He said, “What were you telling your daddy?”
Ygraine happily started right back off on her rambles. Arthur still had no idea what she was talking about, but he hummed along as Merlin had.
Merlin greeted him with a quick kiss as he laughed and reminded Ygraine to tell her papa something about sock loving fairies. Well, now he was even more confused. He had been thinking the story was about unicorns up until that point.
Ygraine finally finished her story and settled down on Arthur’s lap with her doll as they watched Merlin do his chores.
“My father just told me some interesting news,” Arthur started. “I’m not supposed to speak of it yet, but I figure you two would keep the secret for the time being.”
Merlin stopped his cleaning when he realized the seriousness in Arthur’s tone. It was normal for Merlin to take advantage of Arthur being in his chambers to get some cleaning done.
George had taken over some things, such as fetching food and things that took wondering around the castle, since Ygraine was born. But Merlin still liked looking after Arthur’s room on his own.
Merlin spent most of the day in the rooms anyhow. He felt like he was going to get cabin fever some days, but Ygraine had definitely gotten her father’s knack for magic. She was too young still to control her powers. Though, she seemed to now understand that she was only allowed to use magic around certain people, her magic would still lash out when she was surprised or upset. That meant keeping her in the rooms as much as possible for the time being.
Merlin hated it, of course. But until she had better control, there was nothing else to be done.
Merlin pulled a chair to sit in front of Arthur, figuring this was a full attention type of conversation. Well, at least as much as a pair could when they had a toddler.
“What was so interesting?” Merlin asked, watching his lover closely for his reaction.
“He’s stepping down,” Arthur said. He still looked a bit worried but he was smiling.
“Stepping down?” Merlin gasped, sitting up straight from being bent over to Ygraine.
“Yes,” Arthur said, “This wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I always assumed he would rule until he died.”
“I think that’s what most of the castle had been expecting as well.”
“He said this whole thing, explaining why he was doing so, but I admit that I don’t remember most of it,” Arthur said, his smile slowly growing as what he was saying finally started to sink in.
“Not even able to listen to his father give a speech,” Merlin teased, “Maybe he should rethink it.”
“You can’t blame me for my thoughts running off, Merlin,” Arthur said.
Before Merlin could argue that he could, in fact, do so, Arthur swept down to grab his lips in a kiss.
It didn’t last long, because Ygraine started cheering and asking for her own kisses. The two broke apart laughing and did as their daughter asked.
“You know what this means, don’t you, Merlin?” Arthur asked, looking down at Ygraine still.
“That we don’t have to hide her away in your rooms anymore?” Merlin asked, hopeful and relived.
“That,” Arthur agreed, “As soon as the crown is on my head. But also,” Arthur grabbed Merlin’s hand and kissed his knuckles, “I wish to marry you, Merlin.”
“Arthur…” Merlin breathed.
Anything beyond a master/servant has been kept secret for so long. Even before Ygraine, Uther already disagreed with how good of friends Arthur was with his manservant. And even among their friends, nothing farther than lingering touches seemed to happen.
That wasn’t to say they weren’t lovers now. A week after they had returned to Camelot with a new born Ygraine, Merlin gave in during a fit of rage and kissed Arthur silly.
That quickly led to not getting any sleep that night—even without the baby crying through the night. Between an infant and sex, they were dead on their feet the following day. Their friends didn’t help at all, just making fun at them all day. A couple times uncomfortably close to Uther.
“I have been waiting to make an honest man of you for too long,” Arthur said, bring Merlin back from his thoughts. “If you will have me, I want to start the preparations as soon as I can.”
“Prat,” Merlin said, pulling the hand Arthur never let go of towards him. He kissed Arthur’s fingers, one by one. “Of course I will have you.”
***
There ended up being a big to-do for Camelot switching hands. It was a rare thing for a king to step down, especially while still in good health. The shock was felt through out the five kingdoms—more so when the man was one such as Uther Pendragon.
Merlin wanted to question why Uther would do something so out of character, but it was hard to focus with the thought of Arthur soon being king. Not to mention all the running around in the castle.
The castle was hectic leading up to the crowning. There was much to prepare for the day and servants were constantly running around the castle.
The only moment of quiet was during the actual procession. Merlin’s cheeks hurt and his chest swelled as he watched, holding Ygraine, as Arthur was crowned.
Then it was chaotic again as the celebration feast started.
***
A couple weeks after Arthur became king, Uther insisted that they have a proper family dinner. Arthur had been too busy to barely even eat. Merlin kept having to remind Arthur to eat, sometimes forcing him to sit down to do so. He was thankful that things were finally slowing down.
Arthur had already knighted Lancelot, Percival, and Gwaine. Uther had become a bit red faced at that, but seemed to except that he had handed things over.
Merlin, Gwen, and Uther’s servant served the family over dinner. Merlin had to admit, it was a bit difficult to serve when he wanted to sit down next to his daughter. She kept looked up at him with a frown. She knew not to call Merlin daddy around Uther. But she seemed to get more annoyed by the rule as she got older.
Uther was a dotting grandfather, not really to anyone’s surprise. But Ygraine didn’t really enjoy having dinner with him. It meant Merlin couldn’t sit with them and she couldn’t use magic. That was two out of her three favorite things (the third being Arthur).
“Father, there is something I wanted to tell you,” Arthur suddenly said, “Before I announce it publicly.”
Merlin looked over in surprise and Arthur caught his eye.
“Oh?” Uther questioned, “And what is that?”
Merlin went stiff when Arthur answered, “I have decided whom I shall marry.”
Arthur had been planning on lifting the magic ban next week. He had been talking about it with Leon, Merlin, and Morgana often as they worked on figuring out the best way to go about it. He didn’t want to throw this on people the day he got crowned—though he had been considering it. Best to let the people get used to the change of leadership before announcing an alteration that large.
Merlin knew Arthur was going to publicly ask Merlin to marry him soon after. And that Arthur wanted to at least mention the magic ban being lifted to Uther before hand, in hopes of not creating a scene nor giving the past king a heart attack not even a month after he retired.
Merlin didn’t know, though, that Arthur apparently decided to start that conversation with their marriage plans.
Gwen and Morgana looked between Merlin and Arthur, surprised. Gwen squeezed his arm, realizing that he hadn’t known about this plan.
Uther sat back in his set, giving Arthur his attention. “Have you? I wasn’t aware you had been thinking about such things. You have always been so hard pressed to marry for love.”
“I intend to marry for love, Father,” Arthur answered. “I have known whom I intend to marry for some time, actually.”
Uther looked surprised at first, before worry seemed to grow.
“No, you can’t possibly…” Uther mumbled. “You can not be planning on actually marrying the boy.”
Everyone was surprised by that.
“What?” Arthur gasped, his eyes flashing towards Merlin. “You—You knew!”
“Oh, honestly, son,” Uther sighed. “Anyone can see there are feelings between you two. But that doesn’t mean you should marry him. You need to marry someone that can give you children and—“
“Actually, father,” Arthur cut off. He looked down to Ygraine, saying, “Baby, I think your daddy needs a kiss.”
Merlin snapped back to attention at that. He had been busy being in shock that his dollophead of a lover would start having this conversation with Uther without warning him.
Ygraine beamed in immediately and started claiming out of her chair. Uther seemed confused by that, apparently assuming that Arthur suddenly wanted a kiss or something. He didn’t realize that there was a great difference between ‘daddy’ and ‘papa’ for the girl.
Merlin handed Gwen the wine jug he had been holding and picked up Ygraine to let her give him his kisses.
“Arthur,” Uther warned. “Don’t you think having her refer to him as if he was a parent is a bit much?”
“Merlin is her parent,” Arthur explained. “He is the one that carried her for nine months.”
Merlin wasn’t really sure if Uther’s heart or his own would give out first.
“Arthur,” Merlin hissed in warning.
The new king held his hand out for his sorcerer, asking him to come over to him. Merlin just glared back.
“How did he…?” Uther asked.
“Magic,” Arthur replied simply.
Uther shock his head, “Not that. I know that.” That made everyone’s head snap to Uther, none more so than Merlin and Morgana’s. “Magic had to have been used—“
“You knew of that as well?” Arthur looked offended now as he gasped at his father.
“Oh, come now, Arthur,” Uther said. “You two stopped being able to keep your eyes off of each other since you brought Ygraine home. The boy more so, staring at you when he thinks no one can see. The entire castle knows you are in love. I started paying more attention to him after that and it didn’t take much to notice his magic.”
Merlin blushed couldn’t help blushing when Uther stated how obvious he was being about his feelings for Arthur.
Arthur seemed to not be able to grasp that his father noticed all this.
“How?” Uther asked again, facing Merlin this time. “How did you use magic to conceive without …?”
Uther couldn’t finish the question, but it was obvious what he was asking. It was the first thing Arthur thought of as well. How did he use magic to conceive without dying as Arthur’s mother did?
“It was a different type of spell than what Nimueh used,” Merlin explained breathlessly. “It’s more like I changed my own body and asked nicely… while having all the ingredients needed. I wasn’t trying to make something out of nothing.”
Uther took a moment to think this over, before adding, “So Ygraine—my Ygraine,” He corrected when his granddaughter looked up curiously, “she didn’t have to…?”
Merlin shook his head, “I don’t believe so. But I think Nimueh may have been trying to do it that way.”
“If you know about Merlin’s magic and Arthur’s feelings for him,” Morgana said, joining in for the first time since Arthur started his announcement. “You have had to realize Arthur would work to left the magic ban as soon as he was able.”
“Yes, my dear,” Uther said.
“Then why?” Morgana snapped. “Why would you step down when you hate magic and know Arthur would unban it?”
Merlin knew she was frustrated. It always was hard for her to know that the man that took her in would surely kill her if he found out about her magic.
“Because I knew he would,” Uther confessed. “I have hated magic, and I still do in many ways. But Merlin’s magic isn’t the only one I noticed during the last couple years.”
Morgana’s jaw dropped and Uther’s ability to shock everyone tonight was the reason he could continue without protest.
“I was about to order Merlin’s death when I found out,” Uther admitted easily (Merlin was a bit worried about that). “But then I saw you use yours and I would not allow you to die, even by my own laws. After all I have done against magic, people are sure to assume me mad to change my stance on it—even to protect you. But no one would think it too odd if Arthur has different views about the world than I do. More so when he… marries the boy.”
***
The realization that there was a possibility that the late Queen Ygraine didn’t have to die to have Arthur was a bit for Uther to handle. He seemed to fully take advantage of his retirement after that. He only spoke to Merlin once more about it, asking the sorcerer for details of how he conceived and what he knew of the magic Nimueh used.
Uther ended that conversation with a straight out order that Merlin best look after Arthur properly. Merlin had merely nodded and ran out of the room. He admitted that he was a bit terrified of his soon-to-be father-in-law; even if the man could no longer order his hanging.
Morgana hadn’t been eager to speak to Uther again at first, but in the end she ended up sitting in the retired king’s rooms often to talk to him. Uther’s favorite visitors were always Ygraine and Morgana.
Predictably, Arthur’s announcements the week after that shocking dinner created uproar. It was difficult to discern if it was in the positive or negative, in truth. Mostly it seemed out of bewilderment though.
Merlin forgot about all that, though, as he stood in front of Arthur the day they were wed. He tried to listen to Geoffrey—he was fairly certain he replied probably to all his cues. But he was sure he was only smiling stupidly at Arthur.
Arthur was staring back at him, looking beautiful, with love shining so brightly in his eyes that Merlin found it hard to breathe.
Merlin nearly sighed in relief when Geoffrey finished and Arthur could finally kiss him. They broke about laughing as Ygraine cheered ‘Kiss! Kiss!’ from her place in the crowd.