AU where Arthur doesn't die at Camlann and doesn't find out about Merlin's magic.
It's a few years after Camlann. Gwen and Arthur have two kids, a prince and a princess. It's not quite a golden age, but damn is it close.
Merlin loves and cares for those kids like there his own. He finds himself even more protective of them than he is of Arthur, something Gwaine never fails to rag on him about.
Merlins noticed their nurse acting strange. He's suspicious by nature of course and decides she's definitely hiding something. Something to do with the princess.
So Merlin investigates, finds nothing. Until one day he enters the nursery unexpectedly. A toy unicorn hovers in the air, the princess eyes shining gold, and the nurses face floods with panic.
She begs Merlin not to say anything. "Please don't blame the princess she can't control it, if someone must be punished please Sir punish me she's just a girl she doesn't know"
The nurse babbles on, terrified by Merlins shocked expression.
"This must be what my mother felt like' Merlin thinks, 'Terrified for a babe who doesn't yet understand the world they were born into'
He glances at the princess, she looks shocked and scared. Her little hands clutch the unicorn like a lifeline. Merlin had carved it for her as a 3rd birthday gift.
And he loves her, oh he loves her. To see his own childhood confusion and terror reflected on her face breaks his heart.
He had been scared his whole life. It was normal to him now, to be terrified of the people he loves finding out his true self.
But he wasn't scared now, as the overwhelming clarity of what he had to do settled over him.
'I won't make the same mistakes again' he thinks 'This girl will not grow up in fear. I won't allow it'
Destiny it seems, has finally forced his hand.
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