Perpetually tired

Title: Standing Right in Front of You
Author: momotastic
Artist: aarins_rou
Pairings/characters: Merlin Emrys/Arthur Pendragon, past Gwen Pendragon/Arthur Pendragon, past Merlin Emrys/Will Emrys, referenced Gwaine/Percy, Morgana, Leon, Elyan, Vivian, Freya, Mordred, Lancelot, and Winifred Parker, my new favourite OC :)
Rating: M
Word Count: ~78.500
Warnings: (past, canon) minor character death ; grief; depression; unhealthy eating habits bordering on eating disorder; mention of suicidal thoughts (major character); mention of attempted suicide (minor character); phyisical, non-sexual assault between major characters
Disclaimer: Merlin and Arthur are characters from legends of old and therefore free for anyone to play with. However, in this particular form, the characters (except for the OCs) resemble BBC's Merlin's cast. I make no money from this, I'm only using them to indulge my need for hurt/comfort and fluffy happy endings :)

Author's notes:

Wow. This has been a journey. This is the longest thing I've ever written by far, and damn, I'm proud of it. I've left more notes on the AO3 post to say thank you to everyone directly involved, but I quickly want to say that working with Rou as my artist was amazing (thank you for all your support! I still clutch my chest when I re-read your final review).
I'm incredibly happy to finally post this. I hope you'll enjoy this story as much as I (most of the time) enjoyed writing it.

Artist's notes:

First Biiiig Thank you goes to my wonderful author Momo, it's been amazing to see your fic come to life over the past few months and much fun to work for it. You're a true inspiration!!
To my Amazing Grace, who's also a master pic hunter, thank you for having my back once again and again, much of my stuff would never see the light if it wasn't for your support.
Our awesome ACBB mods, k_nightfox and kitty_fic, here's to you! Thank you for everything you do for our beloved fandom and this fanatstic fest ?

Summary:

The first time Arthur meets Merlin, the circumstances are far from ideal: Arthur is desperately trying to fix his marriage to Gwen, while Merlin is still coming to grips with the loss of his husband, Will. They get off to a more than rocky start, but soon Arthur finds out that there is more to romance than sending flowers and pretty verses - and that Merlin knows what these things are. As their friendship grows, Arthur learns not only the ways of courtship, but also that between the two of them, it might be Merlin who needs help more than Arthur does in order to overcome his grief and move on with his life. In the midst of all of this, Arthur realises that he doesn’t want Gwen back after all. He just wants Merlin.

Story link: AO3
Art link: AO3 || tumblr