Merlin's magic (Oneshots) 1

Coming out twice at once

A.N.:// WARNING: Homophobic slurs and internalized homophobia as well as past abuse will be mentioned in this one. If you don't like this or have trouble dealing with such content, do NOT read this OS. 

HURT/COMFORT/FLUFF (lol -_-)

It was like Merlin was a joke to the entire world. How come someone like him could be born so close to Camelot?
He was literally everything the kingdom despised.
He was a magic user. A sorcerer. A powerful one at that. He was a commoner non the less.
He was a bastard child. He never met his father and his parents weren't married.
And what made matters even worse – he was attracted to men.
Yeah.

The last part itself had induced a lot of pain on to him. By his children in his village who had resented him for it during the time he figured it out.
By his neighbors who blamed his mother for it. Like "the boy never had a real father. Now he is compensating."
Yeah, like that made any sense. They would have blamed his father too, if it had been his mom who left..
"A household only of men? No wonder he turned out like that." Not that it made any sense either way.

Merlin was marked as weird, as soon as he had opened his eyes. They were golden when he was a child. They turned normal when he grew older.
Normal. That Merlin even had to say that about his own eyes was sad in itself.
He should be proud of his golden eyes. He really wasn't. He used to love them, but that stopped with time.

Merlin had been bullied as soon as learned to walk. He was a sorcerer. That was not forbidden in Essetir, the kingdom he grew up in. But he was close enough to Camelot to know that people wished it was.
Then they learned of his family situation. Some of the kids even heard that he was being educated by his mother. Learned to read.
They had treated him like that was a bad thing.

When he grew older and figured out more things about himself, kissed the first guy he ever had a crush on – some bloke named Tim or something – things got even worse.
More often than not – Merlin came back with bruises on his body. Because somehow – these people thought calling him a 'faggot' wasn't punishment enough.
NO. They had to physically bruise him. Just not in places his mother could see.

Merlin just didn't fit in anymore. Not that he ever had.
Only Will – the only good soul in this entire village had accepted him for what – for who he was.
And treated him accordingly. It was him who had first suggested he'd leave Ealdor for good.

They've had a long discussion about it. It went on for more than a month in which they fought and cried and apologized and argued again. In the end, Merlin decided it was probably for the best.
Not for himself – not just himself - for Will as well. Whom they had also made a target. Simply because he hung out with Merlin.

His backstory sounds so simple. It is explained rather shortly. But all this stretched on for seventeen years. Day and night. Nightmares and fear his daily friend.
He had more scars to prove his pain than any knight he would later meet. But these were long not his last ones.

They were just the beginning. Of a journey he never knew would be his destiny.

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Merlin only once fell in love with a woman. And she died soon after. Neither of them were interested pursuing a sexual relationship. But maybe they hadn't known each other long enough.
Or – as Merlin rather believed – he just really wasn't attracted to women. Even if he liked one. A lot.
He had loved her as a person. Romantically.
Which was strange to him, because he'd only ever felt attraction (romantic and sexual) to men before.
She was the one person that would have made sense to him AND the rest of the world.
Well.... except that she was a basted. But since when does Merlin ever fall in love with uncomplicated people?