ModernRoyal!AU is one of the fabulous things about Merlin/Arthur fanfics -- which means there are so many stories with this theme available for me to choose (Royal Character and His Beloved Commoner? How can my heart resist? :p). This one is one of the most popular -- based on the number of kudos that it gets by the time I write this opinion (it has gained more than 1000). I found it pretty charming and fit with my kind of romance involving royal family...I think what I enjoyed most about this one was Arthur was the first one who came out in his first speech as a King of Britain. While bisexual Merlin was still in the closet. Which made it interesting, since in other modernroyal!AU, it was usually the other way around. They still had to deal with the relationship though ... because Arthur was the King, and it definitely had consequences. PS: Arthur dating straight!Lance, just brilliant!I thought the characters were pretty well done, and I was glad that Merlin maintained his honesty and didn't let the idea of being part of the Royal Family went into his head. See, Merlin, before meeting Arthur also maintained an anti-monarchy website, and without him knowing, it sort of became Arthur's unofficial advisor (the posting that Merlin wrote at the day of King Uther's death was wonderful, though). It wasn't perfect ... Merlin's reluctance to be with Arthur when he needed him the most -- since Merlin wasn't exactly out -- kinda frustrated me a bit. I also didn't "get" Morgana very well. This story seemed to rather sticking to the idea of canon!Morgana (as seen on the TV show), and I always prefer Morgana not portrayed canonically. But other characters were great - including Gwaine and Mithian.The coronation scene at the end was beautiful ... and I had to highlight this comment by Merlin because it was quite naughty :)"Merlin couldn't stop grinning even when the shouting stopped and the homage began. After all, it was pretty awesome to see the Archbishop of Canterbury kneeling in front of Arthur, pledging his fealty to his gay King. Who knew a coronation could be so subversive... but of course, it was that final scene of this story, in which I desperately hope can be magically transferred into real photograph *sigh*. So verdict? For around 56K, it was an easy read. I loved it ... and stories like this, that made it such an easy decision to stay with this fandom for a little bit more.
