They're paired by their music teacher for their final assessment, a Battle of the Bands-style playoff. Unfortunately, she doesn't know that a bit of high school drama went down at term-break. She doesn't know what this one song she's making them play might mean to both of them.

Merlin was looking for something uncomplicated. Arthur was just looking to get paid. Neither of them expected to find the other.

Arthur needs a date for Gwen's wedding. The rest is history.

This time, Arthur has a secret.

Morgause teaches Arthur about himself.

The reason SAS Captain Arthur Pendragon can't keep a communications specialist in Team Excalibur because none of them are good enough. And then Lieutenant Merlin Emrys gets assigned to his squad, and Arthur does everything he can to prove that Merlin isn't good enough, either. Except he is.

It might be difficult to seduce someone when you want to climb their boyfriend like a tree. Merlin learns this the hard way when Uther mistakes him for someone who knows how to seduce anyone at all.

It's one week before the wedding and Arthur isn't nervous at all. But that's just the beginning.

In which an argument about Dickens leads to a Twitter scandal, broken bones, midnight conversations, and transatlantic longing.

(Or, an AU with Arthur and Merlin as moderately famous authors.)

Erik runs a kosher bakery. Charles comes in for baked goods. They play chess, eat meringues, people drop other people's keys down the toilet, and there's mutant performance art.

In which Erik is the son of servants, Charles is the son of aristocrats, and hedgehogs make repeated appearances. -- Modern AU that is clearly inspired by Atonement (minus most of the angst, that is).

A modern day AU that delivers three well-worn tropes (university, strippers, businessmen) for the price of one. Consider this your warning.

>> When Merlin finished his A-levels, financing university by taking his clothes off didn't exactly occur to him. <<

Being fuckbuddies goes well for an entire semester. Until it doesn't.

NATO intelligence says there’s an omega-class telepath who sleeps under Westminster. Major Erik Lehnsherr is about to find out the truth for himself.

Arthur absolutely cannot stand anything about the housekeeper's son. Especially when Gwaine starts to take notice.

This was originally posted at the kink meme here for this prompt:

Arthur/Merlin, Arthur/Other

Arthur and Other are in a long distance, unhappy relationship. For whatever reason, Arthur is expect to stay with Other. He meets Merlin and they strike up a fast, emotionally deep, friendship. They often flirt, and have some romantic feelings towards each other. But Arthur and Other have discussed "The Line" which would define cheating on each other: Kissing on the mouth, any touching of private parts and sex.

Merlin goes to visit Arthur for the weekend, at night the end up having a light make out session, but never cross The Line. (kissing/biting necks, playful wrestling, frottage, whatever) On the last night together after an intense session they end up with their mouths barely touching, whispering to each other, but still maintaining The Line. They both want it so badly but they know how guilty they would feel if they crossed The Line.

Basically, Charles Xavier needs a date to his tenth high school reunion. Enter Erik Lehnsherr, Raven’s best friend, who happens to be a model and the new face of Calvin Klein.

The cardinal rule of being a wedding planner is not falling in love with the bride or groom. Arthur's never had trouble with that rule.

In which there is pining, Merlin bakes, Arthur borrows batteries he doesn't actually need, and did I mention the pining?

Merlin's addicted to Craigslist, Arthur's looking for love in all the wrong places, and with a little help from their friends, they manage to get it together.

Arthur sees a vision of himself and Merlin married and happy, but they can barely stand each other. They both start doing everything they can to avoid it happening.

Arthur doesn't care much about the popular radio program Dragon's Lonely Hearts until his ex-girlfriend calls in to slag him off and get advice. When he calls in and has an on-air argument with the host, it starts off more than he expected, including meddling friends, overinvolved fans, and maybe love.

Erik Lehnsherr, world renowned wilderness survivalist, alongside his husband, Charles Xavier, survive the perils of the wild in order to bring you, Two Men, One Knife, an award winning reality survival series, available only on the Discovery Channel. Follow Erik and Charles as they travel to the world's most remote locations with only the most basic of supplies. Pitted against nature, this husband-husband team struggle to survive in some of the world's harshest climates while battling the planet's fiercest predators. Can they survive the Canadian North? Find out next season, on Two Men, One Knife.

After pining for longer than he'd care to admit, Arthur asks Merlin out and gets more than he expected.

When Police Sergeant Lance Dulac begins to investigate a crime in the small Welsh village of Camelot, it stirs up decades of secrets.

The new Muggle Prime Minister meets the Minister for Magic.

Parody endings to An Ideal Grace (aka how Erik could have found out, but didn't).

Erik Lehnsherr is a visiting professor at Columbia University, as well as an acclaimed and award winning poet. Charles Xavier is a lead researcher with the Genetics Department who is well on his way to tenure. But what happens when Charles has to cancel a class because half his students abandon him in favour of a mysterious new English Lit professor? Naturally he ends up sitting in in the class, where Professor Lehnsherr mistakes him for a student. It's really too bad Erik has such a strict policy against dating students. It's also too bad Erik doesn't seem to know how to use Google.

‘Hey,’ the man purred, ‘you looking for a date?’

‘No,’ Charles said firmly, trying to keep his thoughts on his predicament. ‘I’m looking for my hotel. It’s called the Regent. Can you help me?’ He hadn’t met a whole lot of prostitutes before, but perhaps they knew about these things.

Apparently they did. They also charged unreasonable prices for directions.

What he actually walks in on is his sister, stark naked, blowing his boyfriend, who is wearing white lacy knickers.

"What I'm thinking," Arthur says, dodging the crochet question with a small pinch to Merlin's side, "is that you need to let him catch you the way you caught him. See how he feels watching you shag some other man. Then when he confronts you, call him a hypocrite, tell him you'd never have done it if he hadn't first, and finish it off with a well-deserved fuck-you."

When Alex Summers broke out of supermax to rescue his stupid kid brother, he had no idea it was going to be so fucking complicated.

"My name is Nick Fury," he tells Raven. "And I'm here to talk to you about Cain Marko."

XMFC/Inception fusion AU. Erik is an extractor, Alex is his point man. They're assembling a team to go after the most dangerous mind in dreamsharing: Sebastian Shaw. But unless Alex and the team can keep him in check, Erik's desire for vengeance might just rip the whole job apart around them -- and then there's the shade that haunts his dreams...

He'll have to feed again and keep himself calm. Today he had been caught off guard, as embarrassing as it was for one of the oldest of the Lilim, but tomorrow, Charles would be prepared. Besides, it had been a very, very long time since he'd had to exert an effort to keep himself under control, and this could be decent practice.

Of course Charles has heard the music. He has heard it on the radio, in Walgreen's, in the background of TV ads for expensive perfume and in the clubs (at least on the rare occasion that Raven manages to drag him away from work.) At some point, he has heard almost every bloody song in the man's entire sodding catalogue, and there was a point in 2010 where you literally couldn't go anywhere without hearing the summer smash hit 'Quicksilver'.

“Oh, look! It’s Charles, and he’s been transformed into a cat by a malevolent government program! I wonder how I can change him back and thereby secure his love forever and ever, amen?”

Jim Kirk, a man of long drives and large personality, stumbles into a career in the PGA Tour. Fame, fortune and notoriety await him as Jim collects national media attention, groupies, a new best friend, the ire of the first lady of pro golf, and also, maybe, the love of his life.

Arthur is Merlin's tech support at work.

Tony Stark is interested in Charles. Erik is not amused.

"I should hit on a man who comes in every morning at seven a.m. in a five thousand dollar suit, says the exact same eleven words - and I've memorised them, by the way: the usual please, yes that'll be all, thank you very much. Looks directly at the person manning the checkout when he does it and does not manage to smile a single time, even when it's Angel. Rushes out as soon as he gets his drink. That's the person you want me to ask out."

Charles meets Erik Lehnsherr, his favorite novelist of all time at a coffee shop, but doesn't know it's him, and Erik just criticizes his own writing in front of his biggest fan.

An alternate universe (they're all not mutants, just human) where Charles is a social worker who fosters troubled kids, and one day he meets Erik, an ex-druggie/ex-convict (or whatever else, I leave it to anon to figure out which demons are chasing him) who reluctantly agrees to stay for only a while, but ends up staying for good and helping Charles to raise the kids. Awkward parenting ensues.

"Wow." Alex sat back in his seat, a little dazed. "So do you think your dad is...like..."

"...your dad's ex boyfriend?" Lorna finished with a wince.

Charles is basically the bride whisperer. It’s like he can read their minds.

The original plan had been, in fact, to honeymoon in Spain.

The throw-in begins play at the start of the game, after each goal, and after the ball goes out of bounds.

Merlin meets Morgana Le Fay at a support group for People With Freaky Unnatural Powers. Alright, it’s not technically called that, but it might as well be.

In which Prince Arthur meets Merlin and all hell breaks lose.

In which Merlin is the most harangued PA in Westminister, Arthur is on the back of the backbench, Uther harasses Merlin (though the Queen never does), Morgana is very clever, and the datebook will take its revenge.

"To my great-nephew Arthur I bequeath Tintagel Distribution, wholly and without reserve, save for one condition. You must marry, and stay married, for a period of no less than six months."

Arthur, Merlin, frat brothers, the Dragon, Arthur's BlackBerry, script writing, shitty hip-hop music, Dogma, FATE & DESTINY - oh God I wish I were joking.

Merlin joined Facebook. 2:47am

Arthur's yowl of pain was followed rapidly by an attempt to peel the soiled, Armani shirt away from his chest before it burned itself into his skin. "You…You idiot!" he roared, frantically checking his Excalibur to make sure it had miraculously survived the moron's bumbling thoughtlessness.

Merlin was best known for being "that guy with the sticky-out ears who lurks in the back of photos," if he even got that much recognition. He too had graced the cover of many trashy tabloids (most of which pictures were stuck on his mother’s wall, to his mortification) but no one really seemed to care about that. In fact, all people ever asked him about was Arthur.

Arthur is an Oxford Blue. Merlin is an Oxford cox. Lancelot is Merlin's romantic-dalliance-loving friend. Morgana is horribly clever; Gwen is cleverly waiting for Lancelot to grow up. Merlin and Arthur rub each other the wrong way, at first, but it soon becomes clear that Arthur is a university-class rower with a world-class heart (yes, I typed that). Clichés ensue.

As an up and coming rock star, Arthur Pendragon is used to having people fall at his feet - and Merlin, a thoroughly unimpressed technician, is the only one willing to put him back in his place.

Arthur is a rich business man - Merlin is the down-on-his-luck hooker he picks up almost by accident one night. Things Happen Between Them - and not just the things Arthur paid for.

"Uther Pendragon is an elitist old fool," Her Highness said sharply, sighing in anger. "But he has a point. So long as the law stands, you are required to comply, or the crown will be forfeit."

Merlin picks him up from the airport, sees him outside, sunglasses and custom-made Armani jacket. He's standing beside his luggage, hair rumpled, smoking. Even from the front seat, far away, Merlin can see the tension in his shoulders, the pull in his forehead.

"They take care of the chickens at the farm, don’t you know?" the fox said. "Oh, I see. You must be new." It tilted its head. "Yes. I don’t recall ever meeting a human here who can talk to me before."

The next year in the Pendragon household, in which Merlin is no longer a nanny, Arthur is still a prat but a loveable one, Gaius saves the day and Uther does nothing.

Speculation is ripe about hot new band Slash Dragon, after sharp-eyed fans spotted the two lead singers, Merlin Emrys and Arthur Pendragon sharing significant looks and touching more often than is required by bandmates.

Both the curiosity and the concern spike when he sees the reason for Arthur holding his hand under the water. There's blood on his index and middle finger, the beginning of scabs knotting over where the skin has split across the knuckles.

Magic users are dangerous. They’re unstable. The magic rots their brains, causing them to become criminally insane. There were pictures of it in all of Arthur’s school books. This is your brain. This is your brain on magic.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a young son must be in want of a nanny.

"Smile and act as though I just shagged your brains out."

In which Arthur tries to be romantic for Valentine's Day but everyone, including Merlin, thwarts him.

Arthur would probably have forgotten about him, looked away and maybe had one more drink before heading home because he rather desperately wanted to be curled up in bed with his cat, Sasha, watching Lost and drinking hot chocolate (absolutely no one knew of this ritual except, of course, Sasha, who had promised never to tell). But suddenly the guy opened his eyes and looked directly at Arthur, and something in Arthur felt total, final recognition. Whatever was in this skinny, awkward kid's eyes was exactly what was inside Arthur-- a deep-seated, unending loneliness, the knowledge that there could never be anybody who understood or wanted him.

Arthur, prince of the gay porn industry is forced to work with newbie Merlin on Director John Draco's new movie based on the Arthurian legends... with a twist. Arthur's not very happy about it, and neither is Merlin.

AU set in Los Angeles, California during the 1990s. Arthur is a movie star. Merlin is a waiter. The word "prat" is used.

The first time Lt Arthur Pendragon properly met A1C Merlin Emrys, he was doing push-ups on the floor of the Fort Campbell weather station.

Arthur and Lancelot own an amateur porn site.

The problem with being the son of Uther Pendragon, legend of stage and screen, winner of Emmys (twice), Tonys (once), Oliviers (multiple), BAFTAs (twice), Oscars (once) and People's Sexiest Man (twice) was that nobody was ever going to take Arthur seriously as an actor in his own right. If Arthur stayed in London, his success was always going to be down to nepotism, name recognition or latent star fucking. At least this was the excuse Arthur gave Merlin when he packed his bags three weeks before he was to finish his Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts course and moved to Los Angeles.

Morgana sends Arthur on some blind dates that don’t go quite according to plan.

For someone who carries on so much about how much it damages his reputation to rent office space across the hall from a psychic, Arthur sure comes over to bother Merlin a lot.

There is a small lake near Camelot which will one day become quite a famous park, and the ducks living there will grow fat and canny off of the bread tossed to them by undercover operatives and ex-KGB agents during secret meetings.

(containing a travel diary, the story of a heist, and two point five romances)

Their first attempt at having sex lasts exactly ninety seconds, which is the precise amount of time needed for Merlin to reach behind Arthur's back to try to unhook his nonexistent bra, and for Arthur to smooth his hands over Merlin's chest to palm his nonexistent breasts. The moment of utter confusion is followed immediately by a supremely awkward silence.

There’s a photograph of Arthur throwing his copy of Superman onto the bonfire; headlines screaming 'Ten Thousand Comic Books Burned,' news cuttings pasted into albums his father won’t look at but is proud of nonetheless.