I do not own Merlin (Oh how I wish!) Anyone you recognize from the legends… aren't they public domain by now? Details on the kids after the credits!

Anyhoo…This is for Wryter501, prompted by some comments (prompted by medieval living situations) we exchanged on how nice it would be for Hunith and Balinor to just sit down and watch their grand-kids run around. It is set in a sort of AU of her Kingdom Games AU, as it has been written thus far. Which is to say, Chapter 18. Will contain spoilers up to that point, and some of my guesses as to the final result! It also has people I randomly added in for the heck of it.

Go read Wryter's stories. They are fantastic.


"Boys! No running indoors please. Take it outside."

Hunith smiled as Ygraine's gentle scolding rang through the small house. It seemed their grandchildren…

Actually, make that their children, she amended as Merlin and Arthur shuffled sheepishly past her towards the door.

Some days it seemed only yesterday that her son had volunteered for certain death, others it was more like a lifetime ago. Now, ten years and three, nightmarish Games from that horrible day, Arthur, the man that Merlin had sworn himself to, was high king of all Albion and her own, sweet little boy…

"Nain?"

Hunith glanced down. It was Amhar, one of Arthur and Gwen's eldest, six years old, his bright blue eyes peering seriously at her from the little face only a shade lighter than his mother's.

"Yes sweetheart?"

"Gran said to ask you if I could have this."

This proved to be one of the sweetbread rolls that Hunith had spent the morning baking. She smiled down at her as-good-as-grandchild, Crown Prince of Camelot.

"What about waiting until after dinner. Then everyone can have one for dessert."

Amhar considered this for a moment before nodding, albeit reluctantly. "Yes ma'am." He gravely handed her the roll.

"Mar! Come on! If we don't hurry, then Anna says she'll dump snow in our shoes."

Amhar made a face at the mention of his twin sister. "I'm coming Will." He scooted around Hunith and headed for the door, following the vanishing heels of her eldest blood grandchild.

Amhar and little Will were so much like their fathers. Not so much in personality (though Will had definitely inherited Merlin's mischievous streak.) as the way they interacted with each other. Amhar had been almost a year old when Will was born, and while Anna had shown a distinct lack of interest in her new little "cousin," Amhar had been fascinated. The toddler had spent hours playing with or just observing the dark-haired baby. It had been the proudest day of his life when his Uncle Merlin sat him down on the bed and let him hold Will in his lap.

The two had been inseparable ever since. Will's third word (After "Mam", "shiny" and right before "Da") had been "Mar." Something that he had called the young prince ever since.

The sudden barrage of squeals from outside shook Hunith out of her musings and she peered out the door to see what all the excitement was about.

It appeared that the boys had not gone out soon enough to satisfy Anna, and she and her allies, four year old Teleri and five year old Breaca, (Tristan and Isolde's daughter) had proceeded to shove considerable amounts of snow down the shirts of their brothers and "cousins", succeeding in all except three cases, Rory and Aidan, (Gareth and Gaheris' sons) even at the tender age of three, seemed to have learned the value of a strategic retreat, their little red heads could be seen where they were hiding behind the woodpile. The other to escape the girls was Amhar, and that was only because Will had shoved him aside with a quick burst of the magic that came nearly as instinctively to him as it did to his father, for his pains, the younger boy received the pelting that had been intended for the young prince and Hunith felt a brief ache in her heart that disappeared as Amhar swiftly regrouped, rallied his "knights" and led the charge to "rescue his Dragonlord from the evil princess and her minions". Will was very indignant at being rescued, but was soon distracted by the snowballs that Rory handed off to him.

Before long the tables had been turned and the girls were running, shrieking and laughing as the boys (who outnumbered them considerably) pursued them, only stopping to reload their stockpile of snowballs.

Hunith became aware of a familiar presence behind her as strong arms snuck around her waist and a bearded chin rested on her head. Somehow, limp or no limp, Balinor managed to be as silent as a cat when he so wished.

"Would you have ever thought," Ygraine said quietly from beside them as they watched the battle lines shift once more as the boys fought to defend the "fair ladies" from the "evil king and warlock". "That we should ever be so blessed?"

Hunith felt Balinor vibrate with silent laughter as Merlin tripped over his own feet and was swarmed by children and Arthur threw up his hands in despair. She knew that if she were to look she would see Gwen and Freya inside by the fire, discussing names for the baby that would be joining Merlin and Freya's family any day now, and bring the number of her blood grandchildren up to four. In the distance she could see the training fields where Sir Leon was running the Knights of Camelot through drills, and behind them, the white walls of the castle itself, with bright banners of red and gold flying from the ramparts.

"No," she said. "I had not."


A/N:

As you can see, Balinor is alive. I wanted him to get to see his grand kids too.

So the kids…

I didn't even put all of them, I'm sorry. Anyway,

Arthur and Gwen have four children, Anna and Amhar are twins, age 6, Llacheu is 4, and Gwydre is 3. They are all taken from the legends, so I don't exactly own them…

Merlin and Freya have three (another on the way) Will, age 5; Teleri, age 4; Cenn, age 2. (I think the origins of Will's name are obvious, and I found Teleri and Cenn's on a list of Welsh names by looking for names that had to do with water. Teleri is the name of a river, and Cenn means "clear water")

Breaca is 5, and the daughter of Tristan and Isolde. Her name is Cornish, based on possible origins for the Tristan of the legends.

Rory and Aidan are Gwaine's nephews, and are two adorable little red-headed cousins that look like twins. They are 3 at the time of the story.

I fell horrible. I left Leon's kids out of the story. He has two boys, ages 7 and 4. They were there, I just neglected to mention them.

Gwaine is married (I know, don't die of shock) but has no children. It's complicated. Go read "Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady". (Not a fic, one of the legends. You can probably find it online somewhere if you haven't read it before. The version I use as reference is a chapter in Rosemary Suttcliff's "Sword in the Circle".)

Oh yeah, "Nain", what Amhar calls Hunith, is Welsh for grandmother.

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I may or may not write more little one-shots in this 'verse so you can meet everyone. It depends.

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I hope you liked it!

Poor Bob (my pet dragon) is starving to death for the lack of reviews!

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