Title: Mango
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Categories: Modern AU, outsider POV, fluff, pining, romance, established relationship
Length: Medium (13,667 words)
Warnings: A brief, non-explicit description of a medical emergency is given

Author on LJ: rotrude
Author Website: rotrude

Author's Summary:
Written for this prompt: Secret relationship: they've been together for years without telling anyone, and something gives them away. Mordred, the new quantitative modelling researcher at Albion Ratings, developes a crush on Merlin. So he starts nosing around to find out whether Merlin's free to date.

Review:
You can't help but feel just a little bit sorry for poor, hapless Mordred here. He's rather adorably clueless with his not-so-secret crush on Merlin, and who can blame him? Merlin is warm, friendly, and entirely crush-worthy. To the reader, it is clear that there is something going on between Arthur and Merlin, but the details are just opaque enough to save Mordred from coming across as completely oblivious. This ambiguity creates a delightful tension, building up to the moment of reveal when at last Mordred realizes just how unavailable Merlin is. That the event which precipitates this revelation was unwittingly orchestrated by Mordred, and results in Arthur showing the depth of his feelings for Merlin in a rather heroic, entirely Arthur-ish fashion is just the icing on the cake.

Lovingly detailed writing is a hallmark of this author's excellent work, and in the case of this story it lends realism to the plot. I'm always left with the impression that rotrude fully grasps every element down to the most minute detail. This makes it easy to lose oneself in the story, without having those jarring moments of being thrown out of the narrative as you question this or that.

Mango exemplifies the secret relationship trope in all the best ways, and is a perfectly delightful read.

Mango