Arthur held the door open for Merlin, who was crying to his sleeve, a smile on his face.
"What happened?" Gwaine asked looking worried, getting up from the armchair, so Merlin could sit.
"Nothing bad, I promise" He smiled, looking up at the two boys.
"Okay" Arthur said, worry still in his eyes.
Merlin walked through the park, his hands burried in his pockets, he was trying to stop them from shaking with the expectation and nervousness. His phone started ringing in his pants' back pocket, but he ignored it knowing it was his mother asking if he had arrived well and if he had liked his first day in a different town, he couldn't wait t otell her about his dad, but he was planning to call her when he got to Killy's.
He tripped twice in a row, almost smashing his face against a tree as he struggled to regain his balance. In his defense it was getting dark and there were thousands of tiny rocks scattered around the path. That and he was so nervous he wasn't paying much attention to his path but was thinking about what he was going to share with his father.
He finally reached the restaurant, tripping one last time on the welcome mat, before pulling the door open letting it close once he was inside.
Balinor looked up when he heard someone come in, from where he was setting a table, with a small smile and a few tears in the corner of his eyes.
"Hi" Merlin smiled brightly at the man, who quickly moved to hug his son again.
"Hey there, boy" He said in a weak voice, sounding like he was about to cry "Come on let's sit" the man said, guiding his son with an arm around his shoulders to one of the tables in the back, so they would have more privacy.
The two sat down in front of each other, Balinor explaining that he had left one of the new waiters in charge so wouldn't have to work that night.
"Can I ask you something?" Balinor asked looking nervous, a few seconds after one waitress took their order. "And please, if you don't tell anyone about it, this is something Uther can never find out." He said leaning foward so no one would listen.
"Yeah, of course" Merlin confirmed nodding his head.
"Do you have...do you have magic?" He finally got out looking around to check no one had heard, before looking back at Merlin expectantly.
Merlin didn't answer, he simply smiled whispering something his eyes turning gold. He opened his hand to show the man a picture of Merlin and his mother, the boy looked serious but Hunith had a soft smile in the background.
"Never do that again" the man warned "but thank you" he picked up the picture, softly caressing Hunith's face with his thumb "being able to do that here, in Camelot, isn't
A gift, son. Only older people know it exists, and if they see you using it they'll kill you. The younger ones think magic only belongs to stories, honestly I don't know how they would react if they found out it's real." He explained still looking at the photo "Uther had a bad experience with magic and instead of blaming the sorcerer, he blamed everyone involved in magic. Anyone he suspects to be magical is killed unless they manage to escape" he looked up at Merlin smiling with sad eyes.
"Why are you here then?" Merlin asked confused, it was probably safer in Ealdor, away from Uther.
"Uther saw me using magic in Ealdor, innocent playing with it. But Uther didn't see it like innocent. He tried to kill me but luckily I managed to get away without him seeing my face. Unfortunately it meant I could never go back to Ealdor because he could find me"
"But Camelot?" Merlin asked.
"It's the place he would never think I'd go" Balinor explained "I tried going to other places but they always found me so I decided to simply stop using magic and move here, and it has worked so far" he concluded, once again smiling with his lips but not with his eyes.
Merlin stared at him in silence not knowing what to say. He was sorry that his father had had such rough years, only to end up not being able to be himself.
"Can we call your mom now?" Balinor changed the subject, looking both nervous and excited.
"Okay, do you want me to talk first or do you want to answer?" Merlin asked eeaching down to his pants' back pocket and grabbing his phone. He looked for his mother's contact on the list and squealed a bit when he found it.
"You talk first" the man said quickly shaking from how nervous he was.
"Ready?" Merlin asked smiling at Balinor.
"Just do it" his dad sighed as if inhaling all the courage in the air.
Merlin tapped the little green phone on the screen and put it on speaker, only loud enough for both of them to hear. It beeped twice before she picked.
"Hello, sweetie. How's Camelot?" Hunith said softly, you could hear the smile on her voice at finally being able to talk to her son.
"Hey, mom. It's awesome, I've met some really nice and interesting people" He smiled at Balinor who was covering his mouth with his hands trying to be silent as he cried. He missed Hunith so much, now that he was finally listening to her he realized how much, the guilt of not having helped her raise their son and the sorry for having left without much warning only a quick kiss and a "I'm sorry but I have to go, I don't know when I'll be back or if I ever will be" and then leaving her 23 years without any kind of sign he was alive.
"Sounds nice" she said, happy her son was making friends besides Will. "Have you met Gaius? How's that old man?" She asked giggling at the memory of the man. Making Balinor laugh between loud sobs. Gaius had raised her as his daughter since she was 1 and able to stand.
"Yeah I went there before lunch to leave my things and rest a bit he looked nice, kind of crazy but Arthur told me he just didn't get enough sleep" Merlin explained looking at Balinor as if asking if he was ready to which Balinor nodded nervously.
"Yeah he was like that sometimes. Once he tried to..." she laughed.
"Mum" he interrupted her
"Is something wrong, sweetie?" She asked concerned.
"No, don't worry. I just found someone who wants to talk to you" Merlin said nervously not sure how his mother would react.
"What do you mean? Is Gaius there with you?" She asked excitedly.
"No, not Gaius" Merlin shook his head even though his mum couldn't see him "Bye, mum, something tells me you won't want talk to me after knowing who it is" He chuckled quietly.
"Is it someone famous or something? Is it Clooney? Merlin, answer me." She said using her most autoritary voice.
"Hi, Hunith" Balinor said sounding way more confident than he actually was.
"Balinor?" She whispered sounding hopeful, yet scared that her mind was playing tricks on her.
"Yes" the man murmured before breaking down. All he could do was cry and apologise for all the years he had disappeared and for not having helped with Merlin, even if it wasn't his fault he still felt guilty.
Merlin smiled as he saw that his parents had moved on from crying and whispering sorry's to catching up. He laughed along with Balinor. The man cried happy tears as Hunith told him about some of the most funny demonstrations of Merlin's clumsiness. Merlin felt like he couldn't be happier, but still dreamt of the day they would all actually be together.