Chapter 31
"We're taking mum out for lunch," Freya marched into the room Merlin and Arthur were staying in on New Year's Day, "Get up."
Merlin opened his eyes and looked at her blearily.
"Up," she repeated.
"What time is it?"
"Nine."
"Freya!"
"It's not my fault you stayed up late."
"You literally told us to stay out."
"What time did you get in?"
"Half two."
"Six and a half hours sleep is plenty."
"Four hours, however is not," Arthur groaned, waking up too.
"Four hours! What were you- oh. Merlin, you dirty thing, you grew up in this room, if only your four-year-old self knew."
"Shut up, you do it too."
"For two and a half hours?"
"I said shut up. And get out."
"You're washing the sheets."
Freya and Matt had taken the last two days of December and the first day of January off work instead of time around Christmas so they could spend it with Merlin and Arthur. That meant that for the next few days, Arthur and Merlin were left with the twins. It was nice to look after them but strange and weirdly stressful for it to be in a different house.
When the day came for them to be going back home, Arthur's phone was alight all day with notifications. People telling him they were keeping track of the weather in England and Ireland and everywhere the plane would fly in between. Lance assuring them he'd be there waiting at the airport checking the flight updates regularly. Everyone wishing them a safe flight.
Even they were waiting to board, Arthur was finding himself becoming anxious. "The star, remember?" Merlin said, "It's going to be fine."
"You've put far too much faith in a combusting ball of gas," Arthur said.
It seemed that Merlin's faith wasn't misplaced, however. Aside from a slight bit of turbulence that had Arthur's face whiter than it had ever been before, the flight was seamless. No delays, no horrible weather, no near crashes. Arthur barely even felt nauseous.
Lancelot wrapped them in a hug the second he saw them, something which took them by surprise. Had it been Gwen or Morgana or even Gwaine, it wouldn't have been quite so shocking. But a hug from Lancelot was considerably rarer for some reason.
"Don't ever do that again!" he said into Merlin's shoulder, "We were terrified!"
Gwen was waiting at their house with the dogs and Will. She had a similar but more tearful reaction to seeing them both.
"They said not a single person was conscious when they arrived at the scene," Gwen fussed while they were talking over cups of tea, "And we knew with your lungs, Merlin, and your travel sickness, Arthur, it could have been really serious for you. We tried calling, texting, you must have seen the group chat."
Arthur hummed, "I like how you still all seem to think that typing our names in capital letters when we're in a potentially dangerous situation will make us reply faster."
"We had to get our concern out somehow," Lancelot said as he got a biscuit out for Will.
"Why were you concerned?" Will asked.
"Uncle Arthur and Uncle Merlin got in a bit of trouble while they were on holiday," Lancelot said gently, "We didn't know if they were ok."
"Is that why you kept watching the news about that plane?"
"Yes, honey."
Will went quiet and sipped on his milk.
"When did you wake up, then?" Lancelot asked curiously.
"About five hours after the crash for me," Merlin said, "A bit longer for Arthur."
"We're glad you're alright, that's for sure."
"Yeah, so are we. Thanks for taking the dogs, by the way. Were they ok?"
"Good as gold," Gwen said.
"Maybe we should start sending the dogs to Ireland and we'll stay here for Gwen to look after," Merlin said to Arthur, "They'd have more luck than us."
"Percy's happy to cover for you if you want a few more days off, by the way," Lancelot said.
"We're fine, we'll be back tomorrow. We don't need extra time off to recover from a crash that didn't happen."
"It very nearly happened. You were lucky."
"That's us. We have both the worst and best luck in the world."
Gwen and Lance didn't stay long. They had to be back at work in the afternoon so left to take will out for lunch quickly before heading to the office.
As time passed, Arthur started to feel like perhaps Merlin hadn't been entirely stupid in his belief in 'Will's star'. Neither of them even got so much as a cold for months, Hunith seemed to getting a bit better and there were no near disasters. In the eight-ish years since Camelot perished, they'd never felt such a perfect sense of peace.
"Stars get brighter when they're about to die, you know," Arthur said one summer night as he came outside into the garden where Merlin was sitting and staring up at the sky. "You don't think that means we're going to have a wonderful year this year and then explode, do you?"
"Stars burn for millions of years before they die. Just because it's old, doesn't mean it's about to go out."
"Still. That star's end is nigh."
Merlin rolled his eyes, "Maybe it's Will's final blessing before he moves on."
"Like he's been watching over us all this time and now he doesn't need to anymore."
"You have to admit these past six months have been the most-"
"Boring? Mundane?"
"Normal," Merlin said, "Peaceful. Think of what's happened. All those people who attacked me are in prison, my book's being released in a few weeks, the business is better than ever, Mary's pregnant, we're opening a branch abroad. We haven't been anywhere near a hospital in months. It's great, Arthur!"
"Mary's baby and the new hotel won't come until next year."
"So? We got the news this year, didn't we?"
"And it's going to be difficult to control what happens in a branch on the other side of the world."
"Why are you so reluctant to accept things will be ok?"
"Because then if something does go wrong, it'll only be harder to deal with."
"Enjoy the peace," Merlin advised, "If there's no reason to be worried about something, then don't be worried."
"Do you really think the difference between December 31st and January 1st is more significant that the transition from any other day to the one after?"
Merlin thought about it, "In many ways, no. But you could say the same about the night before your birthday as a child or Christmas Eve. It means something to people, it's the belief that's important. I mean, on your birthday, you're really only a few hours older than you were the day before when you fell asleep. You don't age the entire year overnight. But it feels significant, it holds importance. So many people make resolutions for the New Year because they want a positive change in their life. Really you could pick any old day to light fireworks and pick up a new hobby or ditch an old habit or start going to the gym. But there's nothing wrong with choosing something to celebrate, no matter how small, and celebrating it. If it's special to someone and makes them feel happy, there's no reason to be cynical."
Arthur considered that for a second, "So without the star, would you have still had the same attitude about this year?"
Merlin shrugged, "Maybe not. But it just felt right, felt safe to believe in something good."
"It's starting to look like you might have been right to," Arthur smiled at him, "This year has been pretty good."
At work the next day, there were a lot of discussions. Their new hotel was going to open in America, and they had to figure out how to do everything from the other side of the world.
"I think we should send someone over to watch over everything," Gwaine said.
"One of us?"
"No, someone from one of the branches. Advertise the job for manager and who ever we choose, we send over early to check up on everything."
"So the manager would be from the UK not America?"
"We always choose the managers as someone we trust. The OMs for Nemeth, Camelot and Mercia came from Albion first. They already worked for us before they became managers. Why should this be different? It's going to be difficult enough hiring the rest of the staff over online interviews. But if we have one of our own out there too, we can be more sure of who we're hiring."
"It makes sense. It's a huge gamble opening a place so far away."
"Alright," Gwen took a few notes down, "So we need to advertise a job for the American OM. What's next?"
"Who's going to be RM?" Morgana brought up.
"Surely it has to be Percy," Arthur said, "He's the only one without an assigned role."
"But I have plenty to do," Percival said, "You or Merlin could do it, you do the same job."
"We don't do well with travel, though," Arthur said.
"Merlin's fine with flying," Leon pointed out, "If he was RM, he could go. You're the only ones without kids."
"What does that matter?"
"You're not leaving anyone behind to travel."
"Can I make an amendment to my original statement?" Arthur requested, "We don't do well with travel or being apart."
"So Percival, then," Morgana said, "Looks like it falls to you."
"Can we talk about it?" Percival asked Gwaine who nodded.
"Ok, we'll come back to that one," Gwen said, scribbling down a few things, "Morgana?"
They sat in the meeting room for hours, making plans for everything. Staff training, interviews, building, opening, everything they could think of. The hotel was going to be in a little city in Wyoming. It was a beautiful area from what they'd seen of photos and Morgana and Leon were going to go over to check everything out in a couple of weeks. It was very exciting and also very stressful. While all the stress of setting up the new hotel had occupied most of the time of the owners in the office, more responsibilities had been pushed onto the OMs to keep things running.
"Leon," Merlin called across the room to his colleague later that day, "What do you think of putting Alistair up for the new OM for the American branch?"
Leon looked up thoughtfully, "I think he'd be good. A fresh start for him, away from everything."
"Is he the guy that started the fights with the ex-Druids?" Elyan asked.
"Yeah. He's been trying really hard ever since to sort it all out and make up for it."
"If he started fights with colleagues is it really a good idea to send him out to manage a branch?" Gwaine asked.
"He's a good guy," Leon said, "Rough history."
"Most of the people in this room have rough histories but when was the last time we started a fight with someone?"
Merlin recounted the story of Alistair's past encounters with the Druids and the results for his brother and father.
"Merlin, mate, you went without a father for years because of them and then the tried to kill you which resulted in you not being able to use your arm for probably close to a year. But instead of fighting them, you gave them a job."
"The circumstances were completely different."
"Yeah, I know," Gwaine said, "The difference being that you're a better man than him."
Merlin rolled his eyes and turned back to his desk.
In the end, after talking to lots of people, it was decided that Alistair was the best man for the job. He was absolutely delighted to have the position and was due to travel with Morgana and Leon to help.
It was getting to the point where it was nearly impossible for Merlin to keep his book secret. It was starting to be advertised by book shops and the publisher and they didn't want anyone finding out second hand. So, one morning, Merlin and Arthur got to work early and placed a copy of the book on each of their friend's desks. It was still a month before it was going to be released but he'd been allowed a select number to send to loved ones. He'd sent two to Ireland, taken four to work and had one in the house.
"Is this a good idea?" Merlin asked as he put his book on Morgana's desk.
"You don't want them to have it?"
"What if they don't like it? I mean, they're all mentioned, what if-"
"Stop worrying. They'll love it."
"What if they tease me for it? I'm no celebrity, I-"
"Merlin. You wanted to do this. It's a brilliant idea."
"Maybe we should have posted it instead. This is going to distract people from work, there's stuff we need to do today."
"Merlin, shut up, go make a cup of tea, and calm down."
"Should we have brought some for Eoghan and Ari?"
"Merlin!"
Merlin sighed sadly and went into the kitchen to put the kettle on. He took a purposefully long time to make the drinks and bring them back out. By that point, Gwaine and Percival had arrived and were looking at their copy of the book together. Arthur was grinning and had a proud glint in his eyes.
"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Gwaine asked when he saw Merlin come in, "It looks brilliant!"
Merlin shrugged, "I didn't know what you'd think."
"Tell you what I think," Gwaine hugged him, "I think it's a brilliant idea."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah! I'll be reading it as soon as we get back."
"You'll have to fight me for it," Percival challenged, "I want it first."
"Absolutely not," Gwaine said sternly.
"That's not fair!"
"We could just nick someone else's," Gwaine suggested, his eyes falling on Morgana's desk.
"Nick someone else's what?" Lancelot as he came in alone.
"There's a present on your desk," Arthur told him.
"Hang on, I'll put my stuff away."
"Where's Gwen?"
"She dropped me off here and went to take the kids to school. I've got lots to get through," Lancelot shouted through from the cupboard where they kept their coats and stuff through the day.
"We could have given you a lift when we dropped Eira off," Percival called.
"Don't worry," Lance came back in smiling, "What's this about a present, then?" He went over to his desk.
"Our little Merlin's written a book," Gwaine said.
"An autobiography?" Lance studied it, impressed, "That's amazing!"
Merlin smiled modestly, "Thanks."
"When's it being released?"
"Next month. We couldn't keep it secret anymore."
"You know," Gwaine mused. He was leaning against his desk and flicking through the book, "You make Arthur seem a lot better than he actually is. You better have written about me in an overly-good way too."
"Can't have the world knowing what an idiot you are, eh?"
"Exactly. Wait, no!"
Everyone laughed and sat down at their desks. Every time someone else arrived, there was much fuss over Merlin. Gwen's eyes kept flicking back to it throughout the day as if she was dying to pick it up and read it.
Before Merlin knew it, there were posters in all the branches promoting the book. He had protested that it wasn't necessary and they really shouldn't but no one had listened. And then, local radios and news teams were asking him to speak to him about it.
"You said you'd get back to the radio by today," Arthur reminded him.
"I don't know what to say to them."
"Do you want to do it?"
"I don't know."
"You did the one for the papers."
"That's different. It wasn't live, there was less pressure. But with this, anything could happen and everyone would be able to hear it."
"They said they'd give you a list of questions they'd be asking you so you're prepared. No one's going to take you by surprise. Merlin, gorgeous, it'll be such good promotion."
Merlin thought about it, "Ok, I'll do it."
Arthur smiled, "I'm proud of you."
Merlin glanced at the copy of his book which was on their coffee table. The cover was simple, only a simple, deep red and across the top was written the title in burning gold. 'Albion: Once and Future.'
