My contribution to our first drabble challenge: "In the Beginning"
Share a childhood memory from the perspective of any character you choose.
Category: Gen (Canon)
Characters/Pairings: Merlin, Hunith
Rating/Warnings: K
Word Count: 300
There was a certain look that would come into his mother's eyes at times – distant, wistful, as if she'd just awoken from some blissful dream into the stark reality of a frigid winter morning. She didn't wear that expression often, certainly not when she was aware that her young son was watching her. Nonetheless, it was a look he came to know well over the years, one that he even began to understand as he grew from a small child into some sort of awkward facsimile of the man he was destined to become.
That was the look she wore when she thought of his father.
Sometimes her expression was peaceful, imbued with traces of quiet joy. On other occasions, her unspoken feelings would make themselves known in a sorrow she did her best to conceal from his notice, marked by a droop in her shoulders and the shimmer of unshed tears in her eyes. And sometimes... not often, but sometimes, she'd seem almost angry as she stared beyond him into a past that he'd never asked her about directly for fear of causing her further grief.
So many unanswered questions... why had his father left them? Perhaps he'd never know, and after all, did it really matter? For his mother's eyes were always there to answer the most important question of all. It was impossible to deny that his father had been a good man, if nothing more than a distant memory was enough to evoke an expression of tenderness on her face that was normally reserved for her son alone.
Yes, no matter what had happened to take his father away, it was abundantly clear that his mother had loved and been truly loved in return.
For Merlin, that was enough.