Chapter Text
Arthur wakes from slumber several mornings later with the worst stomachache known to man. Merlin must sense him curl in onto himself, or perhaps hear the pitiful little groan he makes when he does so, because suddenly, he’s curled up around Arthur’s back in bed, resting his head against his neck and rubbing soothing circles on his shoulder. From the other side of Merlin, Arthur can hear Wrenkalrenth yawn throatily in a very dragonlike manner, but with a very cute squeak at the end before settling back down amongst her blankets.
“Are you alright, Arthur?” Merlin’s voice is sleepy. So he must have just woken up then. Arthur hopes it wasn’t him to do so.
“Mm,” Arthur grunts in confirmation. Is he dying? Surely not. He’s been stabbed and survived. Surely this gut pain can’t be any worse than when- but then a tightness in his abdomen rolls around again and his muscles tense. Merlin reaches around to probe Arthur’s stomach, which doesn’t cause any change in the pain. If anything, the pressure is welcome. Arthur grabs Merlin’s wrist when he moves to leave, pressing his hand flat against his abs.
Merlin presses his hand flat against Arthur’s middle. Hmm. Has he gotten a bit softer in recent weeks? Merlin supposes his training regiment has had to take a bit of a backburner lately with all their planning for their wedding at the end of the month. And then their multi day horse trek to Lord Leon’s home. Merlin can’t help but appreciate his softness, even if he is usually fond of Arthur’s fit physique. And to an extent, his abdomen not feeling hard to his probing is a good thing. Arthur’s not randomly had his spleen explode in the night. Something he’s never actively worried about, but with Arthur’s luck it would just be like him to do something so stupid. Still, Merlin can’t help but worry what could be causing his presumed cramping, if his curled position is anything to go by. He spoons his fiance until his body un-tenses, the worst of the rolling cramps seeming to have passed.
“That’s better. How do you feel?”
“Mm. Fine,” Arthur shoos Merlin’s hand from his stomach, shifting to the edge of the bed to rise. He pulls a robe around his shoulders and ties it around himself. Hmm. He usually doesn’t bother with such a thing.
“My King. You wouldn’t happen to be self conscious about your glorious middle, would you?” Arthur’s cheeks and ears pinken beautifully in embarrassment.
“No….” He trails off, while tying the robe a bit tighter around his waist. A cheeky grin splits across Merlin’s face.
“Oh you are, aren’t you? That’s beautifully rich coming from you. You teased me endlessly when I was pregnant with Wrenkalrenth!” At the sound of her name, the Wyvern cracks her eyes open and pads across the bed, over Merlin’s body, and plops down against Merlin’s chest, looking up at him with sleepy hungry eyes.
“Ah, just a minute love,” Merlin agrees, turning and sitting up much to Wren’s dismay to situate himself for a morning feeding. Arthur crosses their guest quarters, popping a head outside momentarily to request to break their fast in their quarters. A guard trots off to retrieve them a tray, presumably of dates and cheeses.
“Request an extra meat tart or two?”
Arthur blushes again before admitting: “Perhaps. But they’re for you and Wrenkalrenth. Not for me.”
“Seeing as Wren won’t eat anything but milk and raw meat, I very much doubt either is for her.”
“Ah but you need extra fuel to feed her, so it’s for her indeed.” Merlin nods with a roll of his eyes, unlatching his shirt to enable Wrenkalrenth to situate herself. Her winged arms flap a little lazily as she balances herself on Merlin’s lap at his breast before Merlin scoops up underneath her rear, allowing her to curl into his arms. She folds her winged arms between her body and Merlin’s chest.
“Come here, prat,” Merlin beckons. Arthur returns to bed, still robed, and settles an arm around the back of Merlin’s shoulders. He rests his head against Arthur’s shoulders as they watch their daughter in bliss.
“Do you truly feel alright? It isn’t like you to wake up with stomach pain. And for you to admit to any type of pain, it must have been quite fierce.”
“I’m fine, Melin. Don’t be such a worrywart.”
“I’m not a worrywart. I’m a physician. It’s my job.”
“You’re a sorcerer, that’s your job.”
“I’m allowed to be a man of many talents,” Merlin shrugs. They laze about for a bit that morning, Merlin allowing his mind to drift a bit.
“What do you feel of Milanoui? Of bringing her back with us to the castle this week?”
“I will feel relieved to get her home with us. You’ve seen the way some of Leon’s men watch her when they think no one is looking.” And it was true. In their several days of visiting since Leon and Milanoui told them their tale, Arthur and Merlin had been paying attention to the men on Leon’s retainer. Many, while very subtle about it, shared looks with one another over or directed towards Milanoui, especially when she wasn’t looking. Merlin suspected they were more obvious about such manners in the absence of their presence. They’d tried to move about the castle quietly so as not to announce their approaching to catch them in the act and help Leon hone his suspicions on whom amongst his men were complicit in the past crimes of this estate. The plan was that after the wedding, Arthur would send an extra company of men back with Leon to ‘help protect against a particularly bad season of bandits in the forests’ as they travel. Trusted men who would be able to support Leon as he ferreted out the rats amongst him in his new estate and establish order that nothing like that would ever happen again in his territories. By then, Merlin and Arthur would be wed and Merlin would have helped Milanoui with her curse and cure and it will have been happy endings all around. Merlin finds himself smiling a bit like an idiot at the thought.
“You have that stupid look on your face,” Arthur points out.
“Hope is not stupid,” Merlin combats, flicking Arthur in his corded neck with a finger. He doesn’t flinch.
“Blind optimism can be. How do we know we can trust her?”
“Trust her with what? She is hardly in a state to betray us. She has no power or sway over any of Leon’s men. If anything, she’s particularly vulnerable in this situation. And besides, she has no motivation to harm us.”
“But what if she is magic?”
“The thought had crossed my mind. But I doubt it. I feel I’d be able to sense it. And Leon seems far from enchanted. He’s merely being the charitable and righteous person we know him to be. He’s simply doing what’s right and helping someone in need. Is that not the Camelot we know? Not the Albion we strive for?”
“You are right. But still, were you not wary of how dodgy she was when we were asking about her curse and its origin?”
Merlin pauses, considering that thought. It hadn’t slipped by him- her hesitation and vagueness when bringing it up. But he’d attributed that to trauma. Perhaps shyness around a stranger, especially one of Merlin’s caliber. She seemed rather flustered by his reputation as a powerful sorcerer and healer. He elaborates as much to Arthur.
“Don’t allow her flattery to butter you up too much.”
“Me? Buttered up? You only wish it were so. But alas, you would not be able to handle my ego if my head were so inflated. But I can leave that to you, you arrogant prat,” Merlin succeeds in teasing a smile out of Arthur’s worried features. He leans over and bends to Kiss Merlin a bit more soundly as he reclasps his shirt, Wrenkalrenth having finished and curling up on his lap, a small plume of smoke huffing out her nostrils in sleepy content. Arthur’s gaze drifts down to her and he winds a hand through her black mane, ruffling her hair affectionately with the motion. She leans into it and emits a small purring noise before following the pressure of the hand and stumbling over their legs into Arthur’s own lap instead.
“Do you ever think of more?”
“Children?” Merlin startles at the question.
“Mm. Yes.”
“Admittedly, often. That’s what that whole ‘dead puppies’ thing was about the other day, remember? While I would not be upset to discover we were expecting another, I’m not quite sure I’m ready for that yet.”
“Fair,” Arthur admits. They’d been toying around with the idea. More children. The light Wrenkalrenth has been in their life has already been so light, so beautiful. And the idea of her running and flapping about with another sibling? The imagining could bring tears to Arthur’s eyes; it would be so beautiful. Though they’d also been playing around with the idea of fully human children.
When they’d first gotten together and then through their engagement, they’d been operating under the assumption that Arthur would likely have to have children with another. With a woman. The thought left both of them uncomfortable, as Arthur didn’t want to be with anyone but Merlin, and Merlin felt the same, but it was the unfortunate duty of a King to produce princes. Heirs.
But following the surprise that was Wrenkalrenth and the physical changes that had brought to Merlin’s anatomy, they’d been wondering if human children would be a possibility between the two of them. To which Merlin had suggested they ‘fuck around and find out’, which they’d been doing. Lots of. But they had also been partaking in measures to protect against pregnancy, so it was mostly just flirtatious teasing on the manner. Merlin wasn’t ready to put his body through something like that again, and Arthur didn’t blame him in the slightest. They’d both decided to put Incmaia’s prophecy in the back of their brains and forget about it. If anything, she could have just been messing with them the same way she had when she’d told them they were expecting a male child. Just a prophet trying to keep them on their toes and guessing rather than clued in on the real future. And if they had four children as prophecy foretold? They’d love them all dearly. And if they didn’t? Then they had Wrenkalrenth and she would be their heir, no matter how Arthur’s council may abhor the idea. They had time to come around to the idea and no one had to go announcing that plan any time soon. It was lovely to just live as is.
There had been a particularly silly evening though they’d had together a month or so ago though that Arthur’s mind keeps drifting to….
He’d been teasing Merlin about his breasts and belly. Lovingly so, of course. Merlin could look as ugly as the troll his father had once been spelled under and Arthur would love him all the same. Not that he was ugly with his delectable curves. If anything, he was made all the more beautiful by them. Still, it was fun to tease, as is the nature of their love.
“You are particularly curvaceous this morning. Practically a woman entirely,” Arthur’d teased. Such musings were often welcomed by Merlin, but he’d decided to be contrite that morning, though the mood contrasted with the smile upon his face at the jesting.
“I’ll not have you forgetting my manhood, my King, which you rather tend to enjoy yourself.” Merlin had flirted back, pressing against Arthur in such a way to accentuate that manhood exactly. Arthur’d practically purred in delight, kissing him back deeply and wrapping his hands around Merlin’s rather feminine figure.
“I don’t know, are you not the one of us who fell pregnant? Such things could be easy to forget if I only focus on other areas of your…. Anatomy…” he teased, sliding a hand down between Merlin’s thighs and bypassing his hardened cock to a growing wetness there. Arthur smirked, smug, as he kissed a jokingly offended Merlin.
“Yes, but that wasn’t even of your own doing. You had virtually nothing to do with it!” Merlin laughed, kissing him in return, guiding his hand between his thighs, encouraging him to increase his speed. Arthur laughed in response as he continued, a glorious ringing noise to Merlin’s ears.
“I think I had some large part to play in the happiness and safety that led to Wrenkalrenth in the first place, no? And I rather like to think she has my eyes. It counts,” He kisses again. They’d long been teasing that while Arthur hadn’t mechanically had a part to play in Wrenkalrenth’s conception, that she must get those blue eyes from him, as Merlin’s were a deep brown. Though they knew it wasn’t how that worked, it was fun to jest. And they were nothing if not jesters with one another.
“Mm, if you’d like a larger part in the conception of the next one, that could be arranged.” And the words had barely registered with Arthur before he realized Merlin had pulled back and muttered something, his eyes glowing golden in the dim candled light of their chambers. Arthur had felt his body shift like a tide of warm water lapping up his skin, but continuing up his entire body and not ending at his ankles. In shock, he looked down and realized Merlin had shapeshifted him into the body of a woman.
“Merlin,” he shouted in surprise. Merlin laughed, embodying the mischief of a trickster god.
“What? If you like to claim my first child so much, I’d not be able to deny your claim to my second if you were the one to carry them,” Merlin licked and kissed up Arthur’s neck. The skin beneath his touch shuddered, the feel of his touch so different in Arthur’s changed form. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, but such a foreign one. And it was so bizarre for Merlin to be the largest of the two of them. Arthur was used to hulking over him and now he was slightly shorter it seems, though at this angle in their bed it would be hard to tell explicitly.
“I don’t think you could. I thought you were attracted to men,” Arthur argued just for the sake of arguing at this point as Merlin’s kisses started to trail lower on his body. Arthur gasped as his touch hooked on one of his nipples, a familiar feeling in a foreign body.
“Mm, but I love you first and foremost. And you are still a man, as am I, no?” but Arthur wasn’t able to respond as his mind started to get hazy with need as Merlin trailed lower and lower until his face was buried between Arthur’s thighs. Arthur arched, the warmth of Merlin’s tongue inside him entirely foreign a sensation and captivating all at once. He enjoyed it for a while until it was suddenly not enough.
“ Merlin, ” he cried, arching when the depress of his tongue was no longer enough for him.
“ Arthur ,” Merlin teased back with a low chuckle, “You have to use your words.” Arthur only mewled at him in frustration in return, but Merlin was cruel and wouldn’t cave so easely.
“Words. I know you learned them, however pigheaded and stubbornhearted you are.”
“More, my love,” Arthur whined as Merlin licked inside him again.
“That’ll suffice. But do tell me if you need me to stop, I don’t want to-” But Arthur cut Merlin off, hand grasped tightly on his wrist.
“For the love of the gods Merlin, do as you’re told for once!” Arthur decreed and Merlin smiled obligingly.
“As you wish…” The sensation of Melin plunging deep into him had been different in that body than their usual lovemaking. Not better per say, but different and that variety made it all the richer. They’d spent that night passionately and longly, but at the end of it, Merlin had shifted Arthur’s body back to his proper self. It’d been fun to play for a while, but it wasn’t how he wanted to stay. And besides, he was a man. He couldn’t get pregnant if he shifted back right after. Could he?
The memory of that night came back to Arthur now and he grew quiet in thought as he lay in bed with his love and their daughter. He thought of his cramping just now not that long ago. He couldn’t…. No, that thought was preposterous. That body had been fun while it had lasted and they may one day revisit it, but he wasn’t a woman now. He had no womb to foster life within. But still they’d thought that of Merlin before Wrenkalrenth as well…
Arthur banished the thought from his mind. That wasn’t possible…. Was it?