Another snippet from my Flipping the Coin au. Probably won’t make it into the actual fic, but I’ve been obsessed with these two and keep finding myself writing moments like this ^^
…
Mordred was sprawled over Arthur’s chest, with his thumb tucked in his mouth, and blue eyes serious as he listened to the story with the gravity of a judge. The two of them are slumped in their favorite armchair, the red velvet blotchy from numerous spilled drinks, sticky snacks, and misguided attempts at crafts. It was too warm for a fire, but in the dim evening, with the lone table lamp for light and the window cracked open for a breath of air, it took Arthur back to countless evenings spent in another room. One built of stone and lit only by candle flame.
Aloud, Arthur read, “Because he was the king…”
Personally, it wasn’t his favorite retelling, but Mordred had seen his name on the cover and insisted on hearing it, so he had conceded. Maybe he should’ve waited until Mordred was older before telling him that there were stories about characters who shared their names, but in these last few years, the events from long ago had been so close to mind Arthur had wanted to share it. He assumed Mordred would fixate on the sword fighting and tournaments. Instead, Mordred had picked a book that started with babies being sent out to sea.
“Two by two, he carried—“
Mordred pulled his thumb out of his mouth. “Did you really do that?”
“No.” Arthur marked his spot with a finger and ruffled the thick, black curls. Still damp from the bath, they were in need of a comb. And soon, if Arthur hoped to avoid dealing with tangles. “I never did that.” Dipping his fingers to tickle the back of Mordred’s neck, he smiled as Mordred giggled and tried to escape. “I could never.”
Sitting up, Mordred’s knobby limbs found all of Arthur’s soft spots as he settled knees first on top of Arthur’s chest. “If you had to, could you?”
“Would you,” Arthur automatically corrected.
“Would I?” Mordred’s pitch went comically high. “Nooooooo! Would you!”
Arthur gave him a look, one that Mordred immediately leaned in and mimicked with a giggle. “Would I, Arthur Penn, a man far removed from the ancient past, cast a boat full of babies into the ocean? Absolutely not.”
“What if Merlin told you to?”
He’d never had to. History hadn’t played out like that. But Arthur couldn’t tell his young son that he definitely knew it hadn’t happened because he couldn’t even explain his own past and all that entailed. All Mordred knew was that his father was named after King Arthur, so that meant he’d been named after Mordred. Because they were father and son and that was how it was supposed to be. He didn’t know that in another life they hadn’t been related and that the first time Merlin met Mordred he had helped save him.
“Nope.” Arthur popped the ‘p’. Out of Mordred’s sight, he set the book on the ground. It was time for a better story anyway. “Not even then.”
“What if Merlin did it?”
“Listen, let me tell you about the—“ He almost said ‘the Mordred I knew’ but luckily stopped. Instead, he says, “—the story I heard. It took place when Uther was still king. The first time Arthur met Mordred he was only a little boy…”
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on issue 6 and god i love the chaotix and ROUGE!!! god i love rouge. also i love how sonic swaps between taunting shadow AND trying to de-escalate the situation by talking him down AND stalling by leading him away and keeping him busy. and then giving a flimsy reason he KNOWS is flimsy, then smirking when he finds an angle that works and he knows he’s won the argument. god i love sonic. him still fairly distrustful of mr tinker and eggman land while keeping an affable smirk and shaking his hand is so good. SONIC!!!
shadow. i like him. i loved his and sonic’s fight. but if sonic can mention how eggman helped with the black arms incident and shadows past with opposing sonic MENTION THE SHADOW ANDROIDS AND MENTION HOW EGGMAN SPECIFICALLY MANIPULATED SHADOW IN THE PAST BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF HIS MISSING MEMORY. like please he has so many fair reasons to be immensely distrustful and stubborn about anything regarding eggman and especially eggman and missing memories but please say any of it. just say it!! give him a stated reason!!! make it personal!!!!!! i did really love “if he can’t be forgiven, can you?” that’s a really good line but i wish it had been referring to the context of shadow’s memory loss! i don’t know if i’m wording any of this well, i’m not sure i’m explaining what i mean!!! i just want shadow to have a stated, specific, and personal reason for coming after eggman and then being extremely distrustful of mr tinker. he has so many reasonable reasons that would work and i just want any of them stated. why is he coming after eggman in the first place? “to ensure he wasn’t planning a counter-attack” as if he proactively tries to save the world from eggman 90% of the time????? PLEASE JUST GIVE HIM GOOD REASONS AND EXPLAIN THEM—EVEN HINT AT THEM—THROUGH ANYTHING OTHER THAN 17 PANELS OF SHADOW THINKING AND NOT SAYING ANYTHING. i like his actions here! just please say some words and make them good. please touch on the memory thing outside of the shadow’s line “losing one’s memory doesn’t make them any less dangerous” which is a great if it had then been followed up on! there’s just so many great parallels here and i wish they’d been heavy handed with it honestly
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