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[sour_idealist]

Title: From Either Side of a Closet Door
Author: sour_idealist
Fandoms: Merlin/The Traitor Game
Characters/Pairings: Merlin/Arthur, Michael/Francis
Rating/Warnings: PG-13, Swearing like sailors (not in Latin), discussions of sex, homophobia, stress of remaining closeted, lack of Britpicking, and me trying to be serious and meaningful while the characters (

Comments

[inktrap]

Oh, that was completely adorable! I love Michael and Francis being protective of the other two. Well, Michael a little less, but I'm glad to see he grew a little braver - even if it's to impress Francis, sort of. Francis and Michael really learned something from each other… It makes me believe there's hope for the two of them! If Francis could get through Michael's paranoia and fear and made Michael a little stronger (and if Michael *let him in*) there's certainly a future for them. Bonus points for the extra cute ending, too!

[sour_idealist]

:D I'm glad you liked it so much! And I'm glad the protectiveness made sense. I was a bit worried, because in canon Michael was sort of moving towards that point (the whole confrontation with Shitley) but he wasn't quite there yet. This is around a year of character development and realization later, though.

I actually was feeling that the ending was sort of sad in a way. I mean, everything's all right (and Michael and Francis have gotten a hint that being out does not equal the end of the world) but they're still so paranoid about everything. I didn't mean for it not to be cute, I'm just sort of interested that that was the part that struck you.

[inktrap]

It isn't that they aren't still looking very paranoid (it looks like Michael even made Francis a bit more aware of his surroundings and all the Shipleys around the world), but that they are getting through it. Even expecting some sort of attack they're holding hands. Michael isn't that brave in the book, so his character development is more striking for me than looking at Francis' mind and understanding that he's also afraid (which is also very interesting - I'd have loved to read the book also from Francis' perspective, because damn, is Michae unreliable).

[sour_idealist]

It's partly Michael's influence, but I also sort of imagined that things would be getting a fair bit rougher for him now he's been outed, and so maybe he'd pick up and start following a few of Michael's habits. I don't think either of them will ever end up that badly, however - the way I see it, patching things up after the whole Evgard mess left them with a lot more faith in each other. And that gave them something to hold on to. Let them hold hands in the parking lot, even if it did also mean they were terrified of being attacked for such a minor thing.

And oh hell yes we need some Francis POV around here, because Michael? He goes on about how Francis is self-assured, and maybe he seems that way, but rereading the Canterbury scenes I realized just how uncomfortable he has to be with himself. I mean, he's outright asking if he's been outed and he still can't actually say the words. Even after getting totally beat up for it, it's still hard for him to say it. And that's just one part of it, really; he's not more accurate about