I Must Agree With Hamlet

by TapTapAlways

Or "The Tale of The Bored Writer"; This is a modern Merlin AU where Arthur is a Prince in one of the last places where that really means something politically. He is also an excellent painter. Merlin is the model Arthur's parents hire to get their son out of a bit of a creative low, but that is only the beginning...

1. Prologue

Here comes the prologue of "I must agree with Hamlet (being a prince is rough)". Also known as "The Tale of the Bored Writer" previously.

I claim no ownership of "Merlin", no copyright infringement is intended; this story is just for fun.

TapTap

Arthur was born a prince. Now this might not have been exactly what it had used to be in most kingdoms, or, indeed, anywhere, but in Albion, which still was only a partial democracy, where more than half of the power of govenment still rested with the king, it was less of a formality than it would have been anywhere else.

Having grown up in Camelot, the capital city, with his father King Uther (strangely affectionately nicknamed "the Stern", by their people) and his mother the Queen Igraine (even more affectionately called "the fair") Arthur had spent a large portion of his childhood isolated from both other children and the real world.

He had been taught, of course, all sorts of things. From languages to politics and everything in between, but until he had run headfirst into the son of one of the knights, a boy a few years older than he was, called Leon, he had only known of the concept of friendship from books. Well, that and his older halfsister, Princess Morgana, from Uther's first great love, a relationship which had never led to marriage.

Arthur's father had been fair but stern, his mother loving, Leon helpful and his sister mischiveous, and he had managed to grow up without being a spoiled monster, but he was nevertheless quite arrogant in his teens. Then Arthur went on to university, studying a variety of subjects in a variety of different countries, doing diplomatic work as needed on the side and finding friends who didn't always know who he was when they first befriended him.

Now, in his late twenties, he had grown into himself somewhat, and, having found some more friends while at university, he kept most of his teasing to the subject of Leon and Morgana's growing romance. And neither one of them could have cared less about a little brother's jesting, so it was all fine.