Work Text:
A Lullaby for a Princess
“I don’t think she’s going to settle,” Merlin said with a yawn as he sat on the end of the bed and watched Arthur pace up and down the room with Ygraine on his hip.
“We can’t have another night like this,” Arthur replied, bouncing his daughter gently and trying to soothe her as she continued to cry. “Oh, my love. Is there nothing we can do for you?”
“She’s teething, the poor thing’s miserable,” Merlin said, wincing in sympathy as Ygraine chewed on her little fingers, her mouth red and sore. “Where did we put that clove oil?”
“Over on the mantelpiece, I think,” Arthur said with a sigh, pressing a kiss to Ygraine’s temple and continuing to walk up and down with her. “I doubt it will do any good. We’ve tried everything and nothing seems to comfort her…Although…there is one thing,” he said with a raised eyebrow as Merlin brought the clove oil over.
He poured a little on his finger and tried to coax the baby to open her mouth so he could dab it on her swollen gums, saying, “Arthur, we couldn’t. It’s the middle of the night!”
Arthur shrugged and Merlin gave the clove oil up as a lost cause as his daughter continued to bat away his hand in frustration. “It’s the only thing that works and you know it.”
Arthur sighed and Merlin ran a hand through his hair as another yawn assaulted him. They hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in weeks and both of them were exhausted. Ygraine wasn’t an easy baby at the best of times, but she’d been suffering with her teeth terribly and the castle had been ringing out for weeks with her pained wailing.
“Adda, is Ygraine sad?”
Merlin turned his head to the little antechamber that served as Matthew’s bedroom and saw his son standing there with sleep-ruffled hair and a rumpled tunic. He smiled and went over to him, hauling him up onto his hip and saying, “Her teeth are sore, my love. Did she wake you?”
Matthew nodded and looked over to his sister. “Shall I tell her a story? That always makes me feel better.”
Merlin looked at Arthur, feeling his heart melt at how gentle and considerate their son was. Arthur smiled and said, “That’s a lovely thought, sweetheart. Perhaps you can think of a story while Adda goes and fetches something that might help.”
“Arthur, I can’t. It’s too much to ask.”
“Merlin,” Arthur said, looking as though any further argument would see Merlin propelled out of the window. “I haven’t slept in days. Our daughter is quite clearly feeling wretched. We are the rulers of this entire bloody kingdom and if we need to ask a favour of one of our subjects to soothe our little girl then that is exactly what we will do.”
Knowing a lost cause when he saw one, Merlin rolled his eyes and said, “Fine.” He placed Matthew on the edge of the bed and said, “Keep an eye on your pa and your sister for me, my love. I’ll be back soon.”
He pressed a kiss to his son’s head and reached out to stroke his daughter’s cheek gently before he grabbed Arthur’s coat from the back of the chair and shuffled into it. He left their chambers and walked swiftly through the castle’s corridors, knowing that this was probably their only solution but feeling utterly embarrassed at having to resort to it.
He made his way to the knights’ quarters and paused outside one of the rooms, bouncing on the balls of his feet for a moment before he raised his fist and knocked. There was a noise from inside, followed by the sound of something trampling around the room, accompanied by much colourful swearing. The door finally opened and Gwaine blinked blearily out at him.
“Merlin. What the hell? Is something wrong?”
Merlin paused, chewing his lip and trying to combat his own embarrassment, before he finally said, “Ygraine won’t stop crying. We wondered if you might…help.”
A grin spilt across Gwaine’s face and he said, “Ahh so the great kings of Camelot can’t settle their daughter, eh?”
“There’s no need to look so bloody smug. Will you help?” Merlin asked, beginning to feel less remorseful about waking the man at such an ungodly hour.
“As if I’d leave my best girl to suffer,” Gwaine replied, grabbing a shirt and shrugging himself into it. “Lead on.”
Merlin huffed and made his way back through the castle with Gwaine on his heels. He could practically feel the man grinning into the back of his head but he was too tired to indulge him. All he knew was that he hadn’t slept in what felt like years and he was ready to claw his own eyes out. If he had to put up with Gwaine being a smug bastard then he was more than willing to do so if it meant helping his daughter.
“Uncle Gwaine!” Matthew said with glee as they entered Merlin and Arthur’s quarters, the little boy sliding off the bed and running straight for Gwaine’s legs.
“Hello there, little man,” Gwaine said, hoisting Matthew up onto his hip and pressing a kiss to his forehead. “How’s my favourite boy then?”
“Sleepy,” Matthew said with a look in his sister’s direction.
Arthur was still walking up and down the room with his daughter, offering her a small wooden ring to chew on and looking just as frazzled as Merlin felt. “I’m sorry we had to call you up here in the middle of the night,” he said. “We’ve just exhausted all other options and, quite frankly, we’re at our wits’ end.”
“Sometimes a man just has to know when he’s beaten,” Gwaine said with a grin. “Matthew, my lad, can I hand you over to your father while I see if I can charm your sister?”
Matthew giggled and nodded, Gwaine handing him over to Merlin, who took the boy and nestled him into his hold. Gwaine moved over to Arthur and took Ygraine from his arms, the little girl still snuffling unhappily but looking at Gwaine with big, interested eyes.
“Oh, my love,” he cooed. “You look so unhappy. I don’t like to see my best girl suffering so.”
Arthur moved over to Merlin and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, all of them watching as Gwaine spoke to Ygraine gently. Matthew rested his head on Merlin’s shoulder and played with the bracelet on his father’s wrist, snuggling into his chest.
“Shall we see what we can do to make you feel better, mm?” Gwaine asked, and Merlin couldn’t help but smile at how beautifully gentle he was with her.
Gwaine had been a proud and attentive uncle to Matthew, and the little boy absolutely adored him. When it came to Ygraine, however, there was something more, and the whole castle had watched as a relationship bloomed between them that baffled most. Ygraine sought the man out in any crowd they were in and would fuss and struggle until she was placed in his arms.
Her moods were only ever able to be tempered by the man and there was one thing he did that soothed even her most volatile of tantrums. Merlin watched with a smile as Gwaine took Ygraine’s little hand in his and softly rocked her up and down as he began to sing softly.
“Hush, my dear one,
Sleep serenely,
Now, my lovely
Slumber deep.
Uncle rocks you,
Humming lowly,
Close your eyes now
Go to sleep.
Angels hover,
Ever nearer,
Looking on your
Smiling face.”
“Who would have believed it?” Merlin whispered to Arthur as they watched Gwaine singing to their daughter. Her cries began to ease and she sniffed and focused on Gwaine’s face as he sang softly.
He had a lovely voice, although he usually used it for singing raucous songs in the tavern. It was clear and melodious, and Merlin could understand how it could soothe a person. It never failed to amuse him that the only thing that could settle his daughter was one of Camelot’s finest knights singing lullabies to her.
They had discovered the remedy purely by accident one afternoon when Ygraine had been in a particularly black mood and nothing had calmed her. The entire castle was practically ringing out with her discontented wailing and Arthur and Merlin had been on the verge of a breakdown when Gwaine had stepped in and taken their daughter off them.
He’d begun to sing and, within minutes, the crying had started to abate, and Ygraine had looked at her uncle in fascination with wide eyes and a growing smile. Everyone had watched, thoroughly enchanted, while Gwaine had sung in the sweetest tones Merlin had ever heard and Ygraine’s tears had ceased completely. No one could quite believe it and Gwaine had simply looked at them all as though they were morons to be so surprised.
From that moment on, whenever Ygraine had a crying fit that no one, not even her parents, could soothe, Gwaine was sent for. He took great delight in being the only one who could coax a smile out of the little girl and he told anyone who would listen how the little princess of Camelot responded to no one but her Uncle Gwaine.
“I will hold you,
Close enfold you
Close your eyes now
Go to sleep.
Lovely darling,
I will guard you
Keep you from all
Woe and harm.
Slowly, gently,
I will rock you,
Resting sweetly,
On my arm.”
“I suppose it isn’t so bad having him around, after all,” Arthur said with a wry smile as he settled his hand on Merlin’s hip and they both watched their daughter listen intently to Gwaine’s gentle singing.
Merlin felt Matthew snuggle in closer and he pressed a kiss to his son’s head, feeling a little guilty that the boy’s sister had woken him so often recently. He didn’t seem to mind and hadn’t complained once. He was such a gentle-natured child and he had taken to being a big brother very well, although Ygraine’s wailing certainly affected his quiet little personality.
He had been used to a calm and laidback existence as an only child and Ygraine had come along and turned all that on its head. Apart from the odd look of consternation or a softly spoken enquiry as to when Ygraine might cease her crying, Matthew didn’t seem to resent his sister’s intrusion into his life.
“May you slumber,
E’er so softly,
Dream of visions
Wondrous fair.
I will hold you,
Close enfold you.
Close your eyes now
Go to sleep.
May you slumber,
E’er so softly,
Dream of visions
Wondrous fair.
I will hold you,
Close enfold you.
Close your eyes now,
Go to sleep.”
“There now, my love,” Gwaine said with a gently whisper. “Have our tears stopped? Did Uncle Gwaine make it all better?”
“I swear that he’s the one with magic,” Merlin said with a sigh.
“I suppose I’d better stay up here with her, eh? Or else you two won’t be getting any sleep.”
“Oh, Gwaine, we couldn’t ask you to do that,” Merlin said, although his protestation was only a token one. He was absolutely desperate for sleep, even if was only an hour, and he was more than willing to let his friend attend to his daughter if it meant he could get some rest.
“Ah get along with you. Sir Matthew, would you grant me the use of your room?”
Matthew giggled and said, “Yes, Uncle Gwaine. Can I sleep in with you, Adda?” he asked, tilting his head to look up at his father.
“No,” Merlin said, shaking his head solemnly. “We thought you could sleep out in the corridor.”
“Don’t listen to him, my precious,” Arthur said, leaning over and running a hand through the boy’s hair. “He’d sleep in the corridor before you would.”
He lifted Matthew from Merlin’s arms and took him over to the bed, pulling the covers back and helping the little boy to settle. Merlin moved over to Gwaine and reached out a hand to smooth his daughter wild hair down. “Are you sure you don’t mind?” he asked Gwaine, feeling guilty for imposing so much on his friend.
“Of course not. She’s the love of my life, I can’t begrudge her a couple of nights of broken sleep. Go on, Merls. Off you go and get some sleep. We’ll be fine.”
“You’re a bloody good friend,” Merlin said with a grin before he leant forward and pressed a kiss to his daughter’s forehead.
“You’re excused from training tomorrow,” Arthur said as he climbed into the bed beside Matthew.
Gwaine’s grin grew wider and he said, “You hear that, my princess? Your father isn’t such a brute, after all.”
He took the little girl into Matthew’s bedroom and Merlin sighed tiredly before walking back over to the bed. “I can’t believe we have to yank our friend out of bed in the middle of the night to attend to our crying daughter,” he said as he settled in beside his husband and his son.
“Merlin, quite honestly, I would entrust her care to a sidhe if it meant one night’s unbroken sleep,” Arthur said as he wrapped an arm around Merlin and Matthew and held them close.
Merlin snorted and said, “You don’t mean that.”
“Another week of non-stop crying and I bloody well would.”
“Thank God for Gwaine and his angelic singing voice,” Merlin said with a yawn as he snuggled into Arthur’s side and felt Matthew settle between them.
“It’s the only thing about him that is angelic,” Arthur replied, leaning over and kissing Merlin and Matthew in turn. “God night, my boys.”
“Night, Pa,” Matthew said sleepily. “Night, Adda.”
“Goodnight, love. Sleep tight,” Merlin said, holding him close.
As he began to drift off, Merlin heard a faint snuffling from the room next door, followed by Gwaine’s soft and gentle singing. He fell asleep with a smile on his face and the amusing thought that it really did take a village to raise a child.