[COMPLETE] May Dump 2024

spamalot | depression | herbert/lancelot

Mental Health Awareness Month 2024 prompt : Write a fic in which a character has Major Depressive Disorder (canon or not canon) or just generally a fic focused on a character's depression

There were a lot of things that Lancelot had to unlearn once he met Prince Herbert.

Internalized homophobia, the idea that a man was defined by what lie between his legs, a bunch of complicated and conflicting feelings regarding monarchies- It was a lot, but he loved Herbert so he promised to do better and think more critically about certain things.

When Herbert suffered his first depressive episode in their marriage, Lancelot's knee-jerk reaction (which he only narrowly avoided following through on) was to tell the prince that he was rich and happily married and, ergo, had no reason to be upset.

He knew it wasn't as simple as all that. Sure, terms like mental illness and Major Depressive Disorder weren't really around, but everyone had something.

Sir Robin being scared all the time had nothing to do with his class, Sir Bedevere's stomach issues had nothing to do with his diet (which was the same as the rest of the knights), and Sir Galahad's tendency to fall into long-winded spiels about autocracies had nothing to do with his upbringing.

Everyone had something, and Herbert had periods of random apathy and sadness.

Sir Lancelot did what he could to comfort the man, though Herbert warned him very quickly that this wasn't exactly something that had a fix. The most Lancelot could really do was just be there for his husband, which he was.

Herbert appreciated the effort more than Lancelot would probably ever realize.