Merlin sat next to Morgana, as she finished off her second cupcake, and that was saying a lot, as she never normally ate much at all. Merlin was just pleased she liked them, and they didn't turn out too ugly after Hunith nearly threw them across the room after shouting at him for forty-five minutes about dirtying the kitchen.

"These cupcakes though, Merlin," she said, after finishing eating. "Wow...who knew you could bake."

"Multi-talented, Merlin is," said Arthur, he had already ate four cupcakes of his own, and was the soul reason Merlin had gotten in such trouble the night before, so he probably should shut up. Merlin glared at him, he grinned back.

"I'm glad you liked them," said Hunith, all of a sudden. "You know...Merlin got the recipe from one of our old family cookbooks, I will give it to you, if you wanted."

"Yeah, Google, the oldest family cookbook," muttered Arthur, and the glare Merlin had been giving him faltered and he tried to hide a laugh in his cupcake.

"No thank you," said Morgana, obviously having heard Arthur, as she was closer to him than even Merlin was, but he didn't think Hunith or Uther had heard Arthur. Probably for the best. "I'm not a In The Kitchen woman, I'm a Blow People Up woman..."

"Oh, yeah?" retorted Arthur, apparently, without warning to Merlin, they were no longer on the same side anymore, Arthur had dirt. "Did you tell the boy you were with last night that?"

"What boy?" questioned Morgana, Merlin looked over at her, kind of surprised, but then over to Uther, who looked very alarmed. Was it for the boy or Morgana?

"I saw you get out of a car that a boy was driving last night," said Arthur, very pleased with himself.

"Oh..." she laughed. "I don't consider him a boy."

"What do you consider him, a horse?" asked Uther, finally speaking since they had sung Morgana happy birthday. Morgana glared at her father. "If he has a penis, he's a boy..."

"Get with the TIMES, Uther," she glared daggers at both Uther and Arthur. "He is a boy, just not to me...I don't have time to waste on love or relationships."

"Right..." Arthur nodded, rolling his eyes, but he sure did, still, look very amused indeed.

"I am a goddess, I deserve to be given whole worlds...entire planets to rule, I deserve to be worshiped, no little boy can give me what I want," Morgana spoke, as if she was the most sure she had ever been about anything in her life. Her words were very clear and direct, she really believed this to be true. "There is only one person who can give me exactly what I want..."

"Benedict Cumberbatch?" offered Arthur, and Morgana paused, and gave Arthur the dirtiest look Merlin had ever seen in his life. "Ralph Fiennes? I'm just naming off people I know you've have a crush on...Zayn Malik?"

"Shut up, Swine!" said Morgana, shrugging off Arthur's comments. "The only person who can give me what I want, is me."

"And this is why my only hope for this bloodline is Arthur..." sighed Uther.

After this dinner sort of broke up, Morgana stormed off mad, Hunith said nothing at all, and Uther and Arthur giggled to each other about Morgana's outlook on men. Merlin just helped clean up, not sure what else to do, and then headed up for bed. He felt bad for Morgana, and the fact that her brother and father teased her, whether or not she was there to see it. He didn't care about her thoughts on men, even if he sort of was one, not all the way yet, but he was working on it. He was happy she was confident enough in herself to know what she wanted in life, and at least she wasn't like Gwen...

In the morning, all thoughts of Morgana and men were out of Merlin's mind, he needed to get his mother to listen to the songs today, or else he would never be allowed to play anything. So, after breakfast, and very much argument from Hunith. 'I'm busy making sure all the arrangements are in order, not now...' she was only looking at Facebook on her phone, Merlin knew better, 'I am still not sure this is a good idea, even if I agree to listen, I still doubt I'll say yes,' and Merlin knew all of this, he knew she was going to try to back out of it, but if she just heard the songs...he had put so much work into them, gave all of himself into them, she would have to like at least one enough...

He forced her into the rec room, where he had already put his guitar and his folder of songs. He ushered her into the love seat in the room and sat at the piano. He took a deep breath, looking up at her glare, he felt very nervous. Kind of like he wanted to return to that shy boy who only hid in his room and didn't bother anyone, but no...he couldn't do that, he needed to prove he wasn't a waste of space, he wanted, finally, for his mother to see his worth.

"Don't start without me!" said Arthur, as he burst into the room, Merlin looked up, he had told Arthur he was going to be doing this, at breakfast, and he didn't mind Arthur being there, at least he would be encouragement rather than whatever his mother would give him. The look Hunith gave though, said she would have preferred if he wasn't there. Arthur ignored her, sat down next to her on the love seat and smiled up at Merlin. "Sorry... go on."

Merlin began to strum, the way the cords moved to the beat of his song. He closed his eyes, as the part where he would need to sing was coming and he was getting nervous again, he had never sung in front of his mother...and definitely not Arthur, he didn't want to see what the look on their faces were, disgust, shock...would they like it? He started to sing, letting the music move him and he blocked it out, he blocked out everything, he pretended he was only just in his room, singing the song to see what it would sound like. He wasn't on display right now, he was just doing this for fun. He got through most of the song with no mess ups, and sometimes that happens, you sing the wrong words or play the wrong cord, it was hard to do both perfectly, but he had practiced enough, he knew he could do it. He felt brave enough to open his eyes, as he sang the start of the end of the song.

"You...that's what I've been missin'...words...tangled up and twisted." His eyes flashed over to his mother, she was completely stone-faced, it was like she was a robot that was just simply turned off at this point. He looked over to Arthur, on the other hand, and he was sat forward, elbows on his knees and completely staring at Merlin, his mouth hung open a little bit. Merlin didn't know what that meant, and he didn't want to think about it now. "Now...all the clouds been lifted...lately my hearts been so empty...but it feels different when you're with me..."

He focused on the end guitar solo, banging his foot on the ground and hitting the strings with his hand and plucked at them to get the sound he wanted. The ending was his favorite part of the song, and he swayed back and forth as he finished, and when it was done...he froze, hands still in playing potion, he looked up...waiting.

"That was..." his mother trailed off, and he felt his heart swell a little, had she liked it? "Very inappropriate..."

Merlin's hopes and dreams fell in one single second, he frowned, he should have known. "What are you talking about?" said Arthur, Merlin's eyes traveled to him and he didn't look back, instead., he was glaring at Hunith. "That was fucking great!"

"Don't be so kind, Arthur...he needs the truth," said Hunith, shaking her head. "Talking about cloudy weather and bars and being alone? How is that a wedding song?"

"Wow...you just completely missed the point," said Arthur, before Merlin could say anything. "He's talking about how you feel around someone you love...how you felt lonely before, then they showed up and -"

"I'm sorry...I just don't think it's very good, I'm allowed to say that, it's my wedding," said Hunith. Arthur sighed, shaking his head and turning away from her. "Can I go now? I think I have more important things to be doing..."

"No, actually..." said Merlin, standing up and stopping her from walking away, she tried to get passed him once more, but he stopped her. "I have one more song...and I think you'll like this one."

"Oh for the love of the Lord..." she sat back down, crossing her lags with a huff and glared at Merlin. This song was written for the piano, and he had practiced this one much less, but even so, he set his guitar aside and turned toward the keys. He took a breath, he just hoped and prayed she would like this one, he was kind of banking on the other one, but he was glad he had a backup plan. He let those thoughts fade his mind, instead...he took a breath, to calm down, and started playing the song. Fingers moving against the keys on their own, because this song was much harder to sing, he had written it for a voice like Morgana's, which was much better than his. He closed his eyes.

"I can feel your heart inside of mine...I've been going out of my mind...Know that I'm just wasting time, and I...hope that you don't run from me. For your eyes only, I'll show you my heart, for when you're lonely and forget who you are...I'm missing half for me when we're apart. Now you know me, for your eyes only..."The music is meant to pick up at this point, and Merlin rocked back and forth as he slammed his fingers into the keys, he hadn't opened his eyes still, he didn't want to look at them again. The climax of the song was meant to be powerful, and Merlin poured himself into his voice, he wanted them to feel it, to understand what he was trying to say, the pain, but also the happiness, the love... His voice was loud and pure and raspy in the right moments, he allowed the song to over take him completely, bursting out of him like he just needed to get these thoughts off of his chest. When it was ending, and the close was soft and gentle he took a shaky breath...letting his eyes bat open, but he didn't look at them, instead he looked down at the keys, and all he could muster was a whisper, "For your eyes only..."

After, when he had stopped, it was silent, so quite you could hear a pin drop, Merlin was terrified to look over. But he had to, he had to know what his mother thought. He didn't look at her though, at first, his eyes had landed on Arthur, as they so typically did anymore, and he was surprised to see Arthur was crying...was he that bad? He got worried now, and turned to his mother. She showed no emotion at all...Well, no, she showed one emotion, anger.

"This isn't a funeral, Merlin...it's a wedding!" she said, she stood up, pulling her dress down passed her knees and glared at him. "You have wasted my time enough."

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" shouted Arthur, as he too, stood up. "It was...I don't even know, he needs his own fucking record or something, and you're going to sit there and tell him it was bad?"

"It was not good," said Hunith simply. "And I don't want it at my wedding!"

Arthur let out a breath, and shook his head, but instead of arguing, he just rubbed his eyes and sat back down. "It's bullshit, it's complete bullshit..."

"I'm sorry, but the song was awful..."

Merlin felt that one a little bit, maybe it wasn't as good as Merlin thought, but it couldn't have been awful, not after he had tried so hard. Maybe it was just his voice, he had ever claimed to be a good singer. "Maybe if Morgana sings it?"

"No," said Arthur, for Hunith, who looked as if she was about to say the same thing. "Morgana doesn't need to sing it, you do."

"No one is singing, and I'm not sitting here anymore," and with that, Hunith walked out of the room and slammed the door behind her. Merlin felt very defeated, and almost like crying, but at the same time he had expected this, he knew she was going to do this. Merlin, who had been staring at the door for several seconds, turned back toward Arthur and blinked away a few tears that were trying to come out. There was no sense in crying now. Arthur noticed he was upset, as if he wouldn't be, and stood up and walked closer to him.

"She's a dumb bitch," he told Merlin, and Merlin nodded, he couldn't disagree right now, but he still felt so sad. He was going to be the only one left out of the wedding, everyone else had a job to do. Despite his best efforts not to, he started crying, and there was no point in trying to hide it, because tears were already rolling down his cheeks before he could stop them or turn away, and it wasn't as if Arthur had never seen him cry before.

"I don't know why I'm like this...I knew she'd say no," he said, through heavy breaths, and Arthur didn't bother saying anything, just grabbed Merlin by the shoulders and pulled him into a hug. He cried into Arthur's shoulder for a moment or two and honestly he felt better. Maybe because he let himself have a good cry for a second, or because Arthur rubbed his back softly and told him 'she doesn't deserve him as a son.'

After a long few moments, Merlin pulled back from Arthur and turned back toward the piano, Arthur followed suit. He picked up the blue folder of songs Merlin normally liked to keep from him, but right now Merlin didn't feel like arguing about it, so he let him open it.

"It was a beautiful song, Merlin," said Arthur, as he was clearly reading over the lyrics now. He continued to look over other lyrics, to other songs, and Merlin just sat back down at the piano bench and sighed. "You're songs are really good, I'm actually really impressed...like not in a prat way, either. I'm actually blown away..."

Merlin's lips formed a sort of smile at this and he shrugged. "I just...I like writing songs, it's like an escape."

Arthur sat down next to him and smiled, almost proud looking, and then pulled out a paper from the folder. "Who is Olivia?" he asked, and Merlin, despite being sad, grinned.

"It was a joke...or at least some part of it was, because Mum said when you give her your sperm, she was going to name the baby Olivia. I live for you, I long for you, Olivia..." he explained, and took the paper from Arthur's hands. "I wrote that bit as a joke, bu this part is real," he pointed to the end of the song, and played a small tune on the piano with one hand. "When you go...and I'm alone...you live in my imagination...summer time and butterflies all belong to your creation...I love you...that's all I do...I love you...oh."

When he had stopped singing, he looked up at Arthur and he was staring back at him, biting his lip in a way that Merlin did a lot of the time, to hide from smiling. Merlin looked at him for a long moment, not sure what to say, because he was just staring.

"What?" he finally asked and Arthur shook his head, searching Merlin's face for another second, and then turned away.

"Nothing...I just..."

"What?" Merlin repeated, confused.

Arthur sighed and stood up. "Nothing..."

He then left, without another word, and Merlin didn't know why, but to him...whatever Arthur was going to say, didn't feel like it was nothing.

(A/N: Okay, I know once again...it's been awhile, please excuse that. I am focusing on another FF and I also am in school, so I am busy right now. But I do have an update to share with you all. I will not be making a sequel to this story, for the whole time I was saying how this one would end at 32 and I would start the second one, well...I hate the second one, I have rewritten it three times now, so what I have decided to do, is not end this one at all. I will post all of the 32 chapters that I have, and then it will go on a hiatus, until I can write it. I'm still not exactly sure what I want to happen, what I do know though, is that I want it to focus more on the family drama, even a bit more than this has so far. Anyway, just thought I would share, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I am going to be honest, pretty much every time I read this one, and it's been quite a few at this point, I cry...I don't know why, it was never meant to be THAT sad, but it just hurts me. Also, we, as in Me and Merlin, do not own those songs, but One Direction does, and they're really good songs, I'm just saying...)