Hidden Royalty Chapter Nine
Just ten minutes before midnight Hunith heard a soft tapping at her front door, she hoped it would be JJ. It was already some hours that she was expecting him and it became later and later and she started to get worried that something might've happened.
When she walked tiptoed to her door to not wake Merlin up, she heard some grunting coming from just outside. Frowning, she quickened her pace but still tried to be as quite as possible, and opened the front door, only to see her brother grabbed by one man in a black suit who looked quite young. He held JJ arm's twisted behind his back.
She was about to scream but then the man in the suit lifted his head and said, "My lady, I caught this man trying to break in."
That was when Hunith knew that Balinor wasn't joking about having her under surveillance. She shook her head and stepped outside. Hunith closed her thin robe tightly at her throat with one hand to shield off the cold and laid her other hand gently on the guard's arm before she addressed the man. "You may let him go, he's my brother. Didn't the King informed you about him coming?"
Hunith saw the young man's eyes widen and immediately released his tight grip on JJ, head bowed in shame and stammering he said, "My Lady! I didn't know, I will–"
"It's alright." Hunith said softly, cutting the nervous man off. "No harm's done, you were just doing your job. What's your name if I may ask?"
"J-Jonathan, miss."
"Well, Jonathan. You can tell the King that my brother has arrived then."
The guard glanced between Hunith and JJ and gave a small nod with his head and mumbled, "Sorry, sir." towards JJ, who just waved it off.
"Don't mind it. Like Hunith said, no harm's done." JJ looked at Hunith and was already sensing what might've happened when Balinor was there this afternoon, but he'd wait for Hunith's explanation. He'd be finding out soon what exactly had happened between his sister and the King of Mercia.
Jonathan gave one small nod before he walked away. Hunith could hear him talking -probably in some mic, but didn't stand around for too long to hear what he was saying. Instead she ushered JJ inside into the warmth of her house and took the suitcase from him and placed it under the coatrack while JJ made his way into the sitting room.
She soon followed into the sitting room and saw her brother already sitting on the sofa. She sat next to him and asked, voice low, "Are you really alright? You're not hurt?"
JJ stood up and whispered back, "Hunith, I'm fine. I just wish I could've come sooner. First I was held at customs for some reason, but they soon released me, but when I was finally let go my airplane had left already and I needed to wait for the next one and then I found out that the battery of my phone died." JJ took a deep breath. "And when I finally was in the UK, the luggage claim was delayed and then I had trouble getting a taxi… basically everything that could've gone wrong went wrong."
"JJ, relax. Everything is alright." Hunith waited a moment before she continued. "Balinor and I… we've, decided… that… that we're going to tell Merlin. Soon."
"Hunith, are you sure that's a good idea?"
"JJ!" Hunith hissed, still trying to keep her voice as low as possible. "I want nothing more in my life. To be with Balinor and to be a family with him and Merlin, you know that. Why are you being like this?"
"He has hurt you before and I don't want you to go through that again."
"No JJ, he didn't hurt me. His family did, I can't hold Balinor responsible for that. You know the reason why I've never told Balinor about Merlin."
JJ held his hands up in defence. "Alright. Alright. You know that I will fully support you whatever your decision may be. Even when I think differently. It's your life, not mine."
Hunith stood up and hugged her brother. "Thank you." She whispered in his ear.
~oOoOo~
The next morning when Merlin came downstairs he heard voices from the kitchen, he recognized both voices, but one of them couldn't be the one who he was thinking. Right?
His curiosity took the better of him and he opened the door to the kitchen and found out that his assumption was true. "Uncle JJ!" He not yet yelled with the biggest smile plastered on his face. He quickly walked to his uncle and drew him in a tight hug. When he stepped back, he asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Ouch little bugger. Do I really need to have a reason to come and visit my favourite nephew?"
Merlin punched his uncle playfully on the arm. "Of course not uncle JJ,. It's just that you hardly visit because you live in the States, you usually only come when it is our birthdays. I'm just surprised that's all. Is Lyndsey here too?"
JJ shook his head. "No, she isn't permitted to fly at this stage of the pregnancy. She wanted me to give you her love though and when your little niece is there she'll hope you'll come and visit us soon."
Merlin sighed deeply. "Yeah, if I'll win the lottery or something. I can't even buy a new laptop and I'm in desperate need for a new one." Merlin replaced the scowl on his forehead to a smile on his face and said, "But hey we can at least Skype when she's finally born, I can't wait to see her!" He drummed his fingers on the counter for a moment. "Are you finally going to tell me which name you picked?" He smiled exaggeratedly and batted his eyelashes in the hope it would work.
His uncle, however, shook his head. A small smirk playing in the corner of his mouth. "That's for us to know and for you to dot, dot, dot."
Merlin's shoulder sagged. "You're not playing fair." He suddenly turned to his mother. "So. I guess this is the surprise you told me about."
Hunith tilted her head slightly sideward. "One of the two." She then jerked her head towards the kitchen table in the far corner of the room. "And that one."
Merlin followed her line of sight and on the table stood a box with a brand new laptop. He turned his head slowly back, mouth slightly ajar and eyes widened. "Really?" He almost whispered.
"Really." His mother told him. "I heard you moaning and complaining that your laptop was, and I quote 'a piece of crap and a rock connects faster than this thing does.'- so I decided to buy you a new one. I was going to give it for your birthday, but I think you'll have more use for it now."
Merlin walked around the counter where his mother stood and hugged her tightly. It was quite the sight, such a tall boy and the smaller woman in a fierce embrace.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you." Merlin repeated excitingly.
Hunith placed a small kiss on his temple. "So, check it out and install it and all those other technical stuff I don't get."
Hunith didn't had to wait long before her son broke the embrace and not yet ran towards the table to unpack the new present. A smile danced on her face. It felt so good that she could do something for her son that would make him happy. She waited a moment more until she was sure that Merlin was engrossed with the laptop before she walker around the counter and stood beside her brother.
"Are you sure you still want to come with me to Balinor?" Hunith whispered, keeping an eye to Merlin to see if he heard anything, but he was too busy with the laptop that he didn't even look up.
JJ nodded. "If it concerns you and Merlin, I want to be there."
Hunith placed a hand on JJ's arm. "We're expected around half eleven. So we should go soon." Hunith lifted her head. "Merlin." She waited a few seconds to see if her son would react.
"Hmm-mh?" Merlin said in response, not taking his eyes of the screen.
"JJ and I are going somewhere for a few hours, will you be alright?"
Merlin waved a hand up and down behind his back, still not looking up. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Have fun you two."
"There's still some curry in the freezer if you want. Or you can order something for lunch, I'll leave a tenner on the counter." She couldn't help herself and walked towards her son to kiss him on his hair and it made Merlin stop a moment from his activity to turn in his chair and look up to his mother. Hunith continued, "We'll be back around three."
Merlin smiled up to her and said, "Alright mum. And… thanks for…" He gestured with a flick of his hand towards the laptop.
"You're welcome sweetheart."
~oOoOo~
After about forty-five minutes of mucking about and installing programs on his new laptop, and transferring some files from his old laptop to his new one, he thought about what to do next. He looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearly twelve o'clock now, and even though it was lunch time, he didn't feel hungry. Yet.
He decided to spend his time wisely and went online to his school account to see what he had to do for school this week. His schedule was not all too busy for the upcoming week, except the damn History assignment that was due on Thursday. He would rather have it finished as soon as possible, hopefully Arthur would be able to come today.
He decided to try it and fished his phone out of his pocket.
To: Arthur
11:03
Mum's not home for hours. Want to come over here so we can work on History assign. that's due on Thursday?
From: Arthur
11:09
Fine by me, you sure you want me there?
To: Arthur
11:10
Def.
Don't forget to bring your notes.
From: Arthur
11:10
I'll be there in 20.
Good, now he would be able to work at the assignment and fingers crossed it would be finished today. Now he just needed to fill in those twenty minutes waiting for Arthur. First he texted Will that he wouldn't be able to do something today because of said assignment.
And instead of something useful, Merlin spent his time lying in front of the TV. Unfortunately there was balls on the TV and ended up flipping channels for twenty minutes. As soon he heard the doorbell ring, he bolted off the sofa and opened the door to see Arthur standing there, alone.
Merlin acted surprised. "Hm! All alone, no security?" He saw Arthur's face twist and quickly reassured his… boyfriend? He beckoned Arthur. "I'm just messing with you. Come in, come in."
Arthur swept his feet politely at the doormat again and placed his shoes neatly next to each other and hung his coat on the rack. He saw Merlin's shoes scattered in the small hallway. One trainer close to the front door, while the other was almost in the sitting room. He picked the two shoes up and placed them neatly next to each other. He needs to give Merlin a few tips on how to be tidy.
Merlin had quirked an eyebrow to the action, but chose to ignore it and grabbed Arthur's wrist instead and almost dragged him into the kitchen. When he stood next to the kitchen table he held both hands out and a bright smile plastered on his face. "Look! Now I don't need to borrow yours anymore."
Arthur bent over to closely inspect the new laptop. "Nice one. Although I'm going to miss sharing with you." He winked quickly and sat down on a free chair. He pulled out his own laptop from his bag and started it up, Merlin took the seat in front of his new laptop. While Arthur waited he asked, "So I guess you finally saved enough money to buy it?"
Merlin shook his head. "Nope. Mum bought it. Although it was actually for my birthday, but she gave it now because of that piece of crap won't do shit anymore."
"Your… mother? So everything is going okay with the two of you again?"
Merlin shrugged. "Sort of, we're trying at least. She still hasn't told me anything, but I'll give her some space for now."
"Oh and before I forget." Merlin said after a beat of silence. "Arthur Philip Henry Pendragon. Yeah searched that on Wikipedia. I thought I explicitly told you that I didn't need any security guards. So why do you still having me followed?"
Arthur cringes at hearing his full name –hated it with a passion- but there was still one name that Merlin forgot and he's thinking about correcting him or not. First he wanted to know what Merlin was talking about.
"What do you mean 'still have me followed'? When you send Elyan away I got the message, you didn't want this. So I stopped letting you followed."
"But why was there a big black car following me then?"
Arthur shrugged. "Maybe you're imagining things. Couldn't it be just a car heading the same direction as you?"
"Driving at walking speed? I don't think so."
"Well look out the window and see if you still see the car." Arthur suggested.
Merlin stood up from the chair and walked to the sitting room to look out of the window. He didn't saw the car now, nor anything else that seemed suspicious. With a frown on his face he walked back to the kitchen and sat back down with his arms crossed in front of him. "You're right, nothing's there, yours just drove away by the way. But the one I saw was a different model anyways. I'm sure it was just coincidence then."
Arthur nodded and now that Merlin seemed to be more relaxed, he decided to tell Merlin the missing name. "By the way… you forgot Nicholas."
"What?" Merlin replied with one eyebrow raising.
"I said you forgot Nicholas. See, I told you that Wikipedia isn't trustworthy. My full name is; Arthur Nicholas Philip Henry Pendragon. Ugh I seriously hate all those names, why in the hell does a person need that many anyways?"
Merlin scrunched his nose. "Well, you're not the only one bearing that burden to be honest. I got four as well. And one of them doesn't even make sense to me!"
"Really, four?" Arthur said with both eyebrows raised. "So what is your full name?"
Merlin replied by repeatedly shaking his head. "I don't wanna. It's stupid."
"Oh c'mon tell me yours. You know mine, it's only fair."
Merlin breathed in and sighed deeply out. "Fine. But don't laugh!"
Arthur made a cross sign on his chest where his heart is with his index finger and then brought his hand up to figuratively lock his lips.
Merlin sighed again. "Alright. It's Merlin Linor Edward James Browne. There I said it, now you know. Can we focus on History now?"
Arthur furrowed his brows. "Linor?" He looked positively confused. "Never heard that name before."
"Told you it didn't made sense." Merlin remarked, while searching for the right page on his computer that explained the assignment. He heard Arthur typing next to him and he assumed that he was doing the same. At least he thought Arthur was until he heard soft snorting next to him. Merlin turned his head to see what was so funny and his eye caught the page Arthur was staring at.
In big bold letters was the name Linor, beneath it was the gender and the meaning of the name. Merlin groaned when he read it and knew exactly why Arthur laughed. "Oh god no. It's a… a girl's name!" Merlin threw his hands up. "Well of course it's a girl's name, it's me we're talking about!" He placed his head into his hands and mumbled, "Life cannot give me a break."
"Yeah, but look at the bright side." Arthur laughed out loud now.
"Ha ha, very funny. You're just saying that because it means 'Bright One'. Oh Arthur you're, hilarious."
"Alright, alright I'll stop… and if it's any consolation, my parents almost gave me a girl's name."
"Really? What was it?"
Arthur scrunched his nose. "M'not sure if I should tell."
"Oh come on, just to me!"
Arthur bit his lower lip and then heaved a sigh. "Okay, but swear on your life you won't tell further." When Arthur saw Merlin put two fingers up, he said it. "It was… Andrea. There I said it. Thank god that the Prince of Monaco was already named that way and my parents settled on Arthur."
Merlin bumped his elbow against Arthur's upper arm and squeezed his lips tightly together in an effort to keep his laughter in. "Well in my opinion you would be a great Andrea… no, Andy." That was the last drop for Merlin to double over in a fit of laughter and Arthur just rolled his eyes, waiting for Merlin to finish. It took almost a full minute for Merlin to regain some control again, but was still lightly wheezing from laughing too hard and long.
Arthur looked at Merlin with a cocked eyebrow. "Are you quite done?" He asked.
Merlin swiped a hand across his forehead and wiped the tears away that fell during his laughter. "Wuh. Can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. And yes, I'm quite done… for now."
Arthur pointed one finger at him and in a low warning tone he said, "You promised."
Merlin batted the hand away. "Yeah, yeah. I won't tell a soul." He rubbed his hands together. "So, History shall we?"
"Fine… Linor."
Merlin just glared back.
~oOoOo~
The clock just changed to 1:04 pm and Merlin sat back in his chair with a sigh. "I call for a break." He said with his arm thrown over his eyes. "Never have I seen such a stupid assignment. I mean come one, what is the point in exploring and researching the motives to almost every war in four Western European countries of choice, that happened between the eighteen hundreds till now. Excluding Great-Britain, because apparently Alined didn't think it was fair with you being the bla bla bla."
Arthur clapped Merlin softly on his back. "N'aww, we're almost there. Just two more countries, Spain and Mercia."
Merlin sat up straight again. "Well can't you just ask that King of Mercia to write that part of our essay, seeing that he's coming Tuesday, best take advantage of that. I mean all he does is sitting at a desk with his fat belly and grey hairs and golden crown on top of his head." Merlin crossed his hands in front of his chest and looked up to Arthur who looked back to him with a crooked eyebrow.
"Is that what you think we do?" He said, snickering. "And do you even know what the King of Mercia looks like?"
Merlin shrugged in response. "No, and quite frankly I don't care. I could care less that he's coming at all, what is the point."
Arthur held up his shoulders. "Beats me. Anyways, I'm hungry, shall we order something?"
"Now that's a great idea. See you're good for something after all. "Merlin teased and received a light shove against his arm from Arthur. He snickered and stood up. "I'll just have to get this leaflet from my room. You stay here, I'll be back in a tick."
Merlin bolted out the kitchen and up the stairs. He ruffled through some stuff on his desk and mumbled to himself. "I could've sworn it was here last time I needed it." His head shoot up and he turned around when he heard a voice.
Arthur.
Arthur casually leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed in front of his chest. "So this is Merlin Linor something something's room."
"Arthur! You were supposed to stay downstairs."
Arthur decided to ignore the reprimand made towards him and pushed himself off the doorframe to walk further into the room, his finger brushing against some books on a bookshelf and then bent down to pick up one of the many t-shirts lying around. "Could do with some cleaning up though."
"Hey!" Merlin yanked the shirt out of Arthur's hand. "My room, my rules, my mess." He turned around again to sift through the papers on his desk. When he heard rummaging behind him he turned around again. Arthur was busy trying to clear some stuff up.
"Hey!" Merlin said again. "Are you… are you, cleaning?"
"I'm sorry!" Arthur exclaimed. "I have this OCD thing, I just like some tidiness alright. How can you even live in this mess!"
Merlin scoffed. "I prefer it to be called organized chaos."
"That is not any better though." Arthur shook his head. "You and I will clear up this mess. I can't watch this any longer or I'll go crazy."
"Well…" Merlin started with his hands on his hips. "Just look away then."
Arthur stared back with narrowed eyes.
Merlin did the same.
It didn't took long though because within fifteen seconds both of them started to laugh and giggle.
"Okay, fine. I'll clean this up… later. That alright with you?"
Arthur scrunched his nose up for a moment before shrugging. "I… guess. It's better than nothing, just make sure it's tidier when I come over again."
Merlin's eyebrows rose and he slowly stepped forward until he stood closely to Arthur. One of his hands travelled lightly up at Arthur's side until it rested up his chest. With a low voice he asked, "Oh? You're planning in coming over more often?"
Before Arthur could respond back, both his and Merlin's eyes widened when they heard the door opening and seconds later Hunith's voice, yelling, "Merlin, we're home!"
~oOoOo~
JJ and Hunith walked up the little path leading up to Hunith's house. Before Hunith drew her key in the lock her brother gently grabbed her hand and stopping her for a moment. "Okay sis, you know Arthur's in there, so be calm and make him feel welcome."
Hunith sighed. When they were at Balinor's flat that he had in London for the times he just wanted to be away from everything, a guard came in and informed Balinor that Arthur was at Hunith's house. Since Hunith was sitting in the same room as Balinor, she heard it as well and she willed herself to calm down. Balinor also showed her the pictures that he had gathered over the weeks and Hunith had seen with her own eyes how Merlin and Arthur looked at each other on the pictures, especially the pictures how one is looking at the other when the other has his head turned away.
She had guessed it already, but just didn't want to believe it. She had seen the signs. Merlin grinning at his phone when he got a message, the slight blush appearing.
But everything would be alright now, there was no need to afraid that Merlin would end up just like her. Balinor had convinced her about that.
JJ continued when his sister didn't reply. "The question is simple. Do you want to see Merlin happy or miserable?"
"Of course I want him to be happy. But I had this habit at having a grudge against everything that was regal for nineteen years, I can't just drop it overnight." Hunith breathed deeply in through her nose. "But you're right. I'll try, I'll have to."
JJ jerked his head down in a small nod. "Now remember, we'll be telling Merlin about his heritage at the start of his school's Winter break, not sooner. That way he has about two weeks without any other distractions to thoroughly think about the fact that he's a Prince." JJ watched how his sister slowly nodded. "Now, we know that he has caught the sight of the SUV yesterday, but Balinor told the security to keep even more distant now. Hopefully Merlin will just forget that he has even seen it."
Hunith nodded once more and turned the key around and opened the door and yelled. "Merlin, we're home!"
~oOoOo~
"Oh no, mum's early. What do we do!" Merlin ran to his window and opened it. "Here climb out of… oh fuck no, your stuff's downstairs." Merlin started to pace up and down in his small room, a hand on his forehead.
Arthur took a few steps forward and grabbed Merlin at the shoulders, making him stop his pacing and making him look into his eyes. "Merlin, calm down and breathe. We'll just go downstairs."
Merlin eyes widened even more and wanted to object but Arthur silenced him by continuing.
"We'll go downstairs and I'll just introduce myself and then we'll see how it goes. Alright?" Arthur grabbed Merlin's hand and squeezed it tightly. "Don't be so scared, it'll be fine." Arthur whispered, pulling up the hand and pecking a quick kiss on his knuckles.
"Okay?" Arthur asked to be sure.
Merlin shook his head. "No, but let's get this over with."
Merlin slowly descended the stairs and kept his hand tightly in Arthur's. He heard voices coming out of the kitchen and he breathed deeply in one last time before opening the door and stepping inside, pulling Arthur with him. The talking between his mother and uncle stopped and they both seemed not too surprised in seeing Arthur there.
Merlin swallowed into his dry throat. "Mum, uncle JJ. This is Arthur."
As the polite Prince he was raised to be, Arthur stepped forward and put his hand out. "Nice to finally meet you Miss Browne. I've heard a lot about you." Arthur didn't say that most of what he heard about Hunith was negative, and he didn't let it hear in his tone of voice either.
After a small nudge against her arm from JJ, Hunith stretched her hand out as well and gripped Arthur's. "I've… heard some things about you as well." Hunith managed to mumble and let go of Arthur's hand.
The silence that fell started to become somewhat uncomfortable and so Arthur said, "Maybe… I should go."
"No, stay." Hunith said, almost immediately and it made Merlin almost having to take a double look at his mother. Hunith ignored her son's surprised expression. "Tea everyone?" She asked instead, with a slightly strained smile and already started to put water in the kettle.
