Arthur opened his eyes a minute later to the sight of seven magpies streaking across the top of the clearing, their shapes dark against the white clouds and the muted grey of the sky. He tried to remember what it was that seven magpies meant—he'd had a nurse who had sung the rhyme to him as a child—but couldn't.

Arthur wakes up somewhere he doesn't recognise, but where he clearly belongs.

Arthur opened his eyes a minute later to the sight of seven magpies streaking across the top of the clearing, their shapes dark against the white clouds and the muted grey of the sky. He tried to remember what it was that seven magpies meant—he'd had a nurse who had sung the rhyme to him as a child—but couldn't.

Arthur wakes up somewhere he doesn't recognise, but where he clearly belongs.

1. Build a moon base on the moon

Luke’s 29 now. He may not have built a moon base on the moon just yet, but he’s working on it, in his way. It was the first thing to go on the list when he was seven, and if someone asked, Luke would tell them he’s still chasing the dream.

If it turns out that little Luke’s dreams were a little too much for this world—if the moon base stays on the list forever, never to be crossed out—well, that’s all right too. It’s not a fucking bucket list if you’ve done it all, is it?

--I really loved the structure of this fic and Luke's pov was funny and full of friendship feels.

“Aww, come on, dude!” Shawn says. “Two puns on one card! A one-two pun! Vampire Valentine puns! You have to give this guy some credit.”

“You never complain,” Esca said. “When I ask anything of you.”

<p>By the time he had teamed up with the one that looked like a very young Tristan, and the one that looked like Bedevere, if Bedevere had been a changeling, or, at least, vaguely fey, he still had not found Merlin.</p>

<p>Harry is an exhibitionist. He gets up to shenanigans. This is a fill for <a href="http://1dkinkmeme.livejournal.com/648.html?thread=1157768#t1157768">this prompt</a> at the kink meme: <i>Harry really, really likes to be watched. When they're all lounging around watching TV he'll start kissing Louis and he'll take it as far as he can until Louis makes him stop because the other boys are in the room or drags him away to finish in private. He'll do it wherever - at home, on the bus, in the car, backstage in the dressing room. The boys maybe kind of secretly wish Louis would stop stopping Harry, and maybe one night when they're drunk he does.</i> Except. It got really, really out of control.</p>

<p>The problem isn&#x2019;t that Stiles is stubborn. The problem is that people keep hitting on him.</p>

<p>Scott frowns at his mom's favourite rosebush for a long time before he says, "I just have <i>feelings</i>."</p>

Arthur is the Royal Arbiter for Suitable Suitors' Disputes. He (and his trusty companion, the golden-dragon-tasselled hat) alone can determine who is fit to woo royal servants and other assorted courtiers in Uther's court. (In light of the preceding sentence, the following may not appear to be a truthful statement, but: not as cracky as that makes it sound. Really.)

“You never complain,” Esca said. “When I ask anything of you.”

Arthur is the Royal Arbiter for Suitable Suitors' Disputes. He (and his trusty companion, the golden-dragon-tasselled hat) alone can determine who is fit to woo royal servants and other assorted courtiers in Uther's court.
---
"A dispute is established when a suitor recognises a rival suitor within the royal court, and brings the matter before the king. The Arbiter--that is, of course, myself"--here Arthur gave an almost-imperceptible toss of his beplumed head for effect, a skill acquired only after long practice in front of a mirror--"then holds an audience with the person who is being courted, to establish whether a) there is indeed a problem--that is to say, whether he or she really does enjoy the company of each of the multiple suitors and is therefore endangering the very honour of the court by being an indecisive tart, and b) whether she or he then wishes to enter arbitration--and by 'wish' here I mean 'consent to under threat of banishment'--and submit to the ruling of the Arbiter upon the completion of the Arbiter's chosen tests."

Marcus and Esca making their farm work and being cuties

“You never complain,” Esca said. “When I ask anything of you.”

When Merlin first hears that Arthur has been betrothed, his ribs pull inwards with an odd little hitch, and he only allows himself a second—which he needs in order to coordinate spinning in place without falling on his face—before he’s running to Arthur’s chambers.

Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction.

Written for this prompt: "Eames is a knight, and Arthur is a stable boy. Eames brings him little tokens from his quests and Arthur reverently removes his armor and lets Eames press him down sweetly into the hay" at inception_kink.With thanks to H.

Notes: I love stable boy fic apparently. This one is just the right amount of sweet and understanding Eames, with cranky and reluctant Arthur.

Merlin had coxed for the first time when he'd arrived at Oriel as a first-year. He'd coxed a boat full of people who had never rowed before for Christ Church novice regatta, and the experience had been not unlike sitting in a very wobbly blender at low setting. Every rower in the boat seemed to think that his blade should enter the water whenever he saw fit, and people fidgeted on their seats and tilted the boat violently in either direction as Merlin clung valiantly to the sides, glad all coxes were forced to wear a lifejacket. The whole term had been a character-building experience; Merlin had been proud of his boys when they'd rowed the entire course during the novice regatta without their boat causing anyone major bodily harm.

The captain of coxes at Oriel had noticed that Merlin had a knack for it, though--he was good at improvising calls, and he had quick reflexes for the rudder strings and a good eye for where the stream was running. She'd moved Merlin quickly through the ranks, and that summer, Merlin had coxed Oriel's first men's eight, because the cox from the year before had graduated and they needed someone entirely new. When Gwen had suggested that Merlin do Blues training the following year, Merlin had agreed, a little tentatively--but that April, he'd found himself coxing for Oxford during the Boat Race.

Merlin hadn't known what had hit him, when he'd first arrived. A boat full of Blues was a streamlined machine, twenty times as fast and thirty-seven times as balanced as his first boat, and as soon as Merlin felt the smooth rush of the river beneath him, and heard Lancelot's pleased, satisfied, laughter coming from the stern for the first time, he was hooked.

Arthur figures if Eames just finally gets what he wants--Arthur's undivided attention--he'll get bored and go away. He's proven spectacularly wrong.

Written for this prompt: "Eames is a knight, and Arthur is a stable boy. Eames brings him little tokens from his quests and Arthur reverently removes his armor and lets Eames press him down sweetly into the hay" at inception_kink.

When Merlin first hears that Arthur has been betrothed, his ribs pull inwards with an odd little hitch, and he only allows himself a second—which he needs in order to coordinate spinning in place without falling on his face—before he’s running to Arthur’s chambers.