2 days before it broke
Merlin felt a bit dizzy as he unlocked the door. He shouldn't have allowed Will to drag him into that last drink; he knew well enough that Merlin couldn't hold his liquor. And Lance! What a false friend! He had only chuckled as he dropped Merlin in front of his house and left him completely alone to face his wife's (possible) anger.
The man tried not to make much noise as he walked inside, but even on his best days he was hopelessly clumsy. Tonight, the stairs seemed to be dancing polka in order to make sure that he'd never reach the second floor – but, maybe, this wasn't just an impression or a figure of speech; maybe Morgana had enchanted the stairs. He wouldn't put it past her to actually do it, especially if she was mad at him.
Merlin honestly hoped it wasn't the case.
He tried to take it one step at a time, climbing it slowly. It worked well enough for the first flight of stairs, but he tripped as soon as he reached the third step of the second flight, and landed painfully on his knees and elbows. It took just a few seconds for the first door on the right to open, showing his wife (at least she hadn't been asleep). Morgana was already in her nightgown and seemed to find his misfortune funny – well, she would.
"Good night, hem?"
"Shhh" complained Merlin, wincing as he tried to stand up. "You'll wake up the children."
"If they didn't wake with the amount of noise you just did, I doubt they'll wake with anything short of an atomic explosion."
"It wasn't that loud!" whined Merlin.
"It really was", said a new, younger, voice. "And it is still too loud. Can't you just talk in your own bedroom?"
Enmyria, Morgana's eldest daughter, was clearly showing some powerful temper (probably inherited from her mother). That, combined with the terrible teenager moods, made her suddenly unpleasant. Merlin knew it would pass soon enough, but Morgana's face darkened as she turned to the girl, whose golden hair was falling in front of her eyes and her nose was clearly turned up in disgust; an expression he knew the mother would be mirroring even though he couldn't see her face.
"You, young lady, should be sleeping."
"I was trying" answered the teenager, angrily. "But it is quite hard with all the bumping and you speaking in the corridor!"
"You weren't asleep" answered her mother, angrily. "Of all the children, you're the one that has the heaviest sleep; if you were sleeping, nothing would have woken you."
"If I had managed to get there before all the noise, yes, but I didn't, thanks to you!"
Enmyria walked back inside her room, shutting the door with some anger. Morgana moved towards her bedroom, but Merlin stopped her with a gesture.
"Just let it go."
"Have you heard…" she started, but he shook his head.
"I've seen a teenager acting like a teenager. It's not nice but… It's not worth the trouble."
"I have been there not ten minutes ago and she was still at her computer" Morgana said, frowning.
"Just leave her" advised Merlin, with a small smile. "Just… Go to bed".
There was an unmistakable promise in his tone, which always made Morgana smirk and tilt her head, flirty.
"Aren't you coming?"
"I am" he guaranteed, smiling. "I'm just going to check on the children first."
The woman pretended to be offended.
"Oh, of course. You go and check on them. I'm absolutely unable to put them to bed without you."
"You know you are" answered Merlin, grinning and walking to the first door on the left.
"I'll show you just how able I am in a few minutes" she said, walking back inside their bedroom and closing the door shut as he walked inside. Freya, their youngest, was fast asleep, her mouth slightly open and drooling a little as she clung to her toy bunny. Reassured that everything was ok, he closed the door and moved to the following door on the left side of the corridor, that led to Tristan's room. His middle son was active even in his sleep, his arms and legs spread wide and his covers kicked off. Merlin knew he's miss them later, so he took the trouble of covering him all over again.
His eldest son's bedroom was across the hallway. If Mordred had known he was there, he would have said he was too old for this kind of thing, but, of course, he didn't even stir. He was curled on his side, as he usually was, but still he managed to look relaxed – the only time in which he ever looked like that, for he was always under a rigorous control. He slept silently, and Merlin walked away.
The third door on the right was Enmyria's, and he knocked on the door before stepping inside his step-daughter's room. The girl was in her bed, her iPod next to her, but she took off the earplug to talk to him.
"I'm sorry that I woke you" he said, softly. "I didn't mean to. I just…"
Merlin shrugged and she shook her head.
"It's fine, dad".
Enmyria clearly knew her outburst had been unreasonable, for she only called him "dad" when she thought she was – or ought to be – in trouble. He smiled softly at her.
"Goodnight, then."
"Goodnight."
Before heading to his own bedroom, Merlin took the trouble to close up the bathroom's door across Enmyria's room. Morgana was already under the covers again as he walked in, but her bedside light was on.
"Did you at least have a good time?" she asked, looking at him.
"Yes" he said, sitting down to take off his shoes. "At least until Will managed to make me take that last pint!"
Morgana snorted, she was used to his best friend's antics.
"Kara called" she said then. "I asked her to drive the children to Gaius and Alice tomorrow, and she said it was ok."
"I'll never understand why you call them 'Gaius and Alice'" said Merlin, slurring a bit. "They're your parents!"
Morgana just looked at him, clearly amused.
"Yeah, except, they are not – not really. Anyway, she said she'll take them and she'll take Kay too."
Merlin stared at her for a second, trying to understand it all – his eldest daughter, Kara, was about to drive his other children to Morgana's parents' and take his grandchild with them – Kay was almost three now; but it still felt odd to think of himself as a grandfather – some of his mates didn't even have children yet, and he felt as if was already an old man before his forties.
"It's a good opportunity" his wife went on as he undressed. "Kara says he's been having some… magical outbursts. She actually called to get some advice from dad about it; since she doesn't trust her mother to know as much as you."
"Yeah… Mithian doesn't know… No magic in Mithian… And… Toddlers are…" he didn't even know what to say. "…difficult to control."
"I know" said Morgana. "I did have four at home, you know?"
Merlin snorted and got into bed, and Morgana turned off the light. He pulled her close, and she snuggled him promptly.
"That's the best part of coming back home" he said.
"What?" she asked, and he could feel her smiling against his skin.
"Lying next to you, of course" he said, and there was a tone of humor when she replied.
"Oh, really? It doesn't look like it – after all, you do steal my covers every night and make my feet cold!"
"I'm sorry!" said the man, laughing. "I can't even understand why you cover them."
"Because, Merlin, not all of us are human furnaces!" was her indignant reply.
Merlin laughed, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room, and his smile got a soft quality as he saw her – because Morgana was beautiful, even when he could hardly see her, and he could never believe how lucky he was to have all that in his life – this companionship, this understanding, such a woman…
"Come here, you" he said, pulling her even closer and kissing her passionately.
Soon, everything else had been forgotten but the urge of the moment that had never wavered; in all things he was clumsy, but not in this, not with her – he could think of nothing but the delight that seemed to spread through him as their bodies adjusted to each other and moved in synchrony – it was just perfect, in all its imperfections, and he didn't wish for anything else; not even better; just this.
Morgana made him happy.
Any moment after 6 am was a moment of activity in the Emrys household. Freya was an early riser, and she often found her way to her parents' bedroom shy of 7 AM, even on Saturdays. She would walk inside, and talk, and ask things, and completely ignore the fact that they were sleeping – or worse, she wouldn't come near them, but would try and make them breakfast and the loud bumps and eventual explosions in the kitchen were sure to wake Merlin and Morgana up. At six, Freya was still too young to be anywhere near efficient in such tasks and her still unpolished magic meant that she would often break things while trying to make them work.
Of course, once the buzz started, the rest of the kids would soon be up. Mordred often got to the kitchen before his parents and tried to solve as much of the problems as he could, chiding Freya and urging her to wake him up when she wanted to eat and let the grownups sleep a bit longer; Tristan was soon behind and the noise of the three talking children (and the arguments that never ceased to spring between the two boys) would raise a dead man from his eternal sleep. Often it all ended with Enmyria yelling at them that she would like to sleep and Morgana telling her daughter off for her behaviour towards the younger children.
Merlin had never been an early riser – Freya was the only of his children that found the early morning the perfect time to be up and about. He was always the one that suffered the most from getting up when the noise started, while Morgana was quick in getting dressed, fixing breakfast and walking around – she had always been a light sleeper.
Her husband almost always tried to hide under the pillows and moaned about being a true servant of His Majesty, The Children. Freya always giggled when she heard it, Morgana would smirk and he would slowly get out of bed, looking completely miserable as he walked to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
As he reached the kitchen on that Saturday, Merlin was greeted by the usual mayhem of flying cups and plates as Tristan and Mordred set the table for breakfast. Enmyria was preparing some pancakes while Freya tried to help her mother to set the milk and other beverages ready.
"Use your hands" said Merlin to the boys as if it were 'good morning'.
"No one is around" complained Tristan, but soon Morgana's voice was heard.
"Do as your father says!"
The boys went back for the rest of the china mumbling, and as they came back, Merlin held them under their arms – it was a never ending fight for balance between the sternness such matters demanded and the natural empathy of someone who knew too well how deeply frustrating it was to deny a part of who you were – and spoke.
"We can never truly know who is watching. Magic may not be forbidden, but it is certainly disliked by the authorities – no one trusts a warlock. You know this."
"You have said it all before" agreed Mordred, but he still looked sullen. He had an amazing amount of raw power, far more than his siblings, even though they were all particularly gifted.
"I know it is frustrating" continued Merlin as Enmyria came into the dining room with the pancakes and they finally were ready to eat. "Believe me, I feel it too, but we can never be too careful. You can do as much magic as you want once you arrive at your grandparents"
The boys nodded, it was a common conversation in the house. Morgana had been raised in a country house, retired from the views of other people and had enjoyed a liberty in trying herself and her powers in a way that wasn't common in the magical community. Her adoptive parents, Gaius and Alice, had planned it to be a safe haven for the children they took home. Merlin, on the other hand, had always lived in cramped cities, and knew too well the damage that even the suspicion of being magical could bring. She would often forget to ask them for discretion within the house, but he never did – he would never forget that he had believed himself quite alone and unwatched when his oldest friend, Will, had seen him levitating dishes towards the sink through the kitchen window. The shock and the suspicion had taken a long time to wear off.
Still, being told off didn't break the boys good spirits – Tristan started talking about his upcoming football match and Freya spoke of the beans they had planted that week at school while Enmyria checked Facebook on her smartphone under her mother's continuous complains that she should never have allowed her to have a cellphone and Enmyria's claims that she was no longer a child and, therefore, the rule to no-phones no longer applied.
As they started to take the dirty dishes to the kitchen, the bell rang and Mordred ran to answer it. Soon afterwards Freya was screaming in delight to find her young nephew in the house, alongside with Merlin's ex-wife.
"Kara asked me to drive them" announced Mithian with a smile. Morgana merely looked at her and nodded, ordering the boys to pick up their things. Merlin walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek.
"I had asked her to take them over" he complained, but if Mithian heard his tone, she ignored it completely.
"She had other things to do and I'm glad to take the children to Gaius and Alice's house."
"If she couldn't do it, she should have told me, we'd have asked Morgause to take them there; she had no business to bother you with it!"
Morgana gave Merlin a look that clearly meant that she was in no mood to hear an argument between the two of them and helped Freya with the pink boots she favoured while the girl prattled on about how she would show Kay the ducks. Tristan was the first to be back in the hallway, with his backpack in his hand, Mordred close on his heels.
"Are you ready?" asked Mithian, kindly.
Morgana took Freya and Gwyn by their hands and walked with them to the door.
"You don't need to bring them back, Morgause and Cendred are going over later and they'll drive the children back – I'll ask them to drop Gwyn too."
"As you wish" replied the woman, civilly. "Enmyria isn't coming?"
"She has plans" said Morgana, rolling her eyes.
"Teenagers" agreed Mithian, with a smile. "Kara was much the same when she was her age."
A moment of embarrassed silence followed this comment, Morgana's eyes were immediately drawn to Kay and although she tried to hide it, the same thing crossed all of their minds.
"Let's hope not too much alike" added the woman, with a small smile. "Hopefully she learned enough from seeing my daughter's mess to avoid the same mistakes."
Merlin gave a hollow laugh at this, and Mithian lost no time in taking the children to the car. Soon the house was completely silent – a very rare circumstance. Morgana picked up her material and started to work on the subjects she needed to know for the test she was scheduled to take on Monday; Enmrya was shut up in her own bedroom and after doing the dishes (with just a little bit of magic), Merlin went to the shed to work on the eggs he would need for the setting of his next photo shoot.
Merlin had finished with the egg-making and was now revising some of the pictures he had to deliver during the week when Morgana walked inside the shed, her face clearly nervous.
"Do you think Mithian has a point?" she asked, out of nowhere. "Do you think Em is much like Kara was... at her age?"
Merlin frowned at that.
"I think you should be studying" he replied, eventually, knowing too well his wife's ability to procrastinate.
"I'm serious!" said Morgana, twisting her right fingers with her left hand. "They have been together a lot lately... When Kara visits, they shut themselves up..."
He couldn't say anything to that, save the obvious.
"Yes, they are girls. They are close in age. Kara may be a bit older, but... They like the same things."
That didn't help Morgana to feel better, he could see it in her eyes.
"Kara is a grownup – Enmyria is just a girl! Kara... She's an adult, she's a mother, she'..."
"Still very silly" interrupted the man, smiling at his wife. "I wish it was not, and I love her, but she's still a girl in many ways."
"Do you think they've been talking about boys?" asked the woman, her voice filled with tension.
"What if they are?" was the answer, Merlin was truly amused. "You probably did at their age. And I think Em is smart enough to learn from Kara's mistakes. I think you're overreacting – just like you did when Kara got pregnant."
"You weren't any better!" accused Morgana, her hands in her hips. "You yelled at her and you don't ever yell! You called her irresponsible and you said..."
"...Ok, ok, I remember everything that I said" Merlin held his hands up, as if he was defending himself. "But you are her mother, I am not her father... If she doesn't feel she can talk to you..."
"You think she wouldn't want to talk to me about boys?" she questioned, outraged.
"You think my daughter is a bad influence to your daughter" he said, temporizing. "I mean... she is mine, and even if I love her, I know all her flaws. Sometimes she drives all of us crazy but... I think you don't have to worry – Em won't make the same mistakes Kara did; even because Kara did those first and Em likes to be the first in everything she does, for better or for worse."
"You do have a point" conceded Morgana with a smile. "She doesn't take it from me, I assure you."
"Let's agree to disagree" responded Merlin, coming close to her now and embracing his wife. "You are exactly like that."
"No I'm not!" said the woman, annoyed.
"Yes, you are" he continued, kissing her lightly. "You really should be studying."
"I can't concentrate."
"You can't concentrate?" he repeated, amused.
"After what Mithian said..."
"This wasn't what she meant" Merlin said, sighing. "And you know it."
"I don't know anything – and you always take up her side."
"I'm not taking sides" begged Merlin, too familiar with the argument. "It was just a throw away comment, it was nothing, it wasn't supposed to mean anything."
"I don't think it was that! She's always trying to best me!" complained the woman, and Merlin let go of her, already tired of hearing about it.
"Yes, Morgana, she's trying to best you" he agreed, clearly not meaning a single word of it. "I'm not going to argue that point anymore. She was trying to best you, ok."
"She was!" insisted Morgana, frowning. "She never gave up on you."
Merlin laughed.
"Yes, now I'm the object of dispute between you two" he said, smiling. "But I'm with you and I have been with you for ten years, so I don't think you have to worry..."
That softened Morgana somewhat, and she finally smiled at him.
"Now, go back to your studying so you can rock that exam and we all can celebrate your wonderfulness."
Morgana gave him a peck on the lips and left, clearly feeling much better than when she came.
The woman was impossible, but Merlin couldn't help but love her.
By the time the children arrived home, Morgana had already managed to revise all she needed to see of English as well as most of other subjects, except for Maths. Enmyria had left for a sleepover at a friend's house; and the younger ones were already exhausted after having spent all day long exercising their magic in the vast space that their grandparents' house provided. Supper was much more silent than usual, and although they had made a bit of a drama before showering, Merlin had them all in bed before 10 PM.
He found Morgana asleep in the middle of her endless notes and carefully took her to bed, trying not to wake her. When people thought of magic, they always thought of great deeds and daring feats, but to Merlin it was so much a part of his life that he felt the joy of it even more when he could used it for simple things like allowing his wife to sleep comfortably in their bed. He crawled beside her and, before long he was snoring lightly.
