#like yesterday I read someone's post about “Essetir” not being a canon name

[adhd-merlin]

She looks at Merlin from under heavy eyelids, drinking in the sight of him before he has to slip away and back to the quarters he shares with Gaius. He’s quiet, as if lost in thought — his cheek pillowed on his hand, while with the other he plays with a stray tendril of her hair, twirling it between his fingers. Gwen is looking right at him, and he is touching her, and yet it still feels so unreal to have him there, in bed with them, half-naked. She thinks of the night that started it all — an innocent conversation, a playful remark, Arthur’s shock at hearing about her kiss with Merlin turning into mortified arousal. “Do you remember the first time I kissed you?” she asks, out of the blue. Merlin’s hand stops and he glances worriedly at Arthur. It makes Gwen laugh because it’s unexpected, and ridiculous — that he should worry about this, after all they’ve done. As if they hadn’t coaxed him into it. “Oh, he knows,” Gwen reassures him. Arthur snorts softly into her neck. “You were just about conscious,” he drawls. “If anything, Guinevere is the one who should apologise to you.” Gwen pokes him in the side with her elbow. “I thought he had died!” “I didn’t mind,” Merlin interjects, and there’s a grin hidden in the curve of his mouth. “Clearly,” Arthur says, dryly.

from Call It Anything We Want on AO3