I have to say, that I am just a bit in awe of this. Between your references to a few WWII era-based movies and the adaptation of the murky history behind Nazi Antarctic military bases, along with the portrait of Merlin & Arthur's relationship both in the past and present...I am floored. I love how you handled their relationship as it might have been in Camelot..sharing each other with others was pretty much required by that whole situation, but deep down it was still just the two of them. And in terms of making their relationship work back then, perhaps that's the way it needed to be.

But you make it quite clear here that for Arthur there's nobody else, and never really has been, but Merlin. It's heartbreaking to see secondhand how Merlin just sort of fell apart in the Camelot-era, before PTSD was really understood. And if I were to diagnose Merlin with anything, that would definitely be it. I thought you showed that in a very realistic way. It seems like Arthur felt as though he lost "his" Merlin back then, but in this life I don't think either of them will let go again <3

Anyway, sorry to go on for so long, but I just wanted to say that I absolutely loved this on so many levels and wanted to start a second read even before I'd finished my first 'round <33