From Where I Stand You're In My Sky by paperclipbitch (NC-17)

[sajee.livejournal.com]

Hullo crack_van! Welcome to another month of Merlin goodness. The show is about to kick of in Australia so check it out if you're an Aussie and you haven't already had a look, watch it! It is the lol-est of shows.
I've never driven the van before so let me know if I'm doing things wrong.

Fandom: MERLIN
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur (past Merlin/Will, slight Arthur/Superman)
Length: 17, 250
Author on LJ: paperclipbitch
Author Website: merlin bbc tag
Why this must be read:

Two words: Superhero. AU.
More words: This Camelot is part Watchmen, part The Incredibles, all parts awesome. Superheroes are outlawed by power-mad Mayor Uther Pendragon and Arthur is his disaffected, tabloid fodder son who has a Superman comic hidden under his floorboards.

Arthur starts becoming a target for all sorts of nutty supervillians and a masked hero keeps turning up in the nick of time to save him and Arthur begins to develop a serious crush on him. Unfortunately, he's also falling in lust with Merlin, the kitchen boy.

Everyone knows that there are two types of so-called ‘Hero’; they learned about them at school (Owain, who sat next to Arthur in biology when he was fourteen, said he didn’t think it counted as actual science and had several words to say about the Nazis. Arthur hasn’t seen him since; apparently Owain’s family moved away from Camelot).

The first kind are ordinary people; ordinary people like Arthur and his father and apparently the sadly misguided Lance Du Lacque. People who are completely normal, except that there is something horribly broken in their heads. Arthur has no idea what would possess a sane person to dress up in a frankly ludicrous outfit and then go out onto the streets with nothing to defend themselves but a strong right hook. This kind of Hero is dangerous because they are quite plainly mad, masochistic, deluded; but they can be (and often are) stopped.

The second kind are the kind you really have to watch out for; they’re much more frightening. The second kind are born with unnatural, almost magical powers; they can pick up cars or fly or conjure fire with a click of their fingers. The second kind are not mad, just plain dangerous. The second kind of Superheroes are the ones who tend to end up locked in solitary confinement for their entire lives.

It’s been at least five years since a Type Two has been sighted. Arthur is on the point of giving them up as a myth, whipped up as negative propaganda by his father.

From Where I Stand You're In My Sky