I don't know why all the trees change in the fall, but I know you're not scared of anything at all. Don't know if snow white's house is near or far away. But I know I had the best day, with you today
9th July 2021
While Merlin was putting Amhar to bed after their day at the beach, Morgana was in their room with Alfie as she begun to pack when she received a phone call from Hunith. It sounded rather urgent but Hunith was insistent that Morgana was to come alone, so she left Merlin with both children and drove over to their new house.
"Is everything okay?" Morgana asked with a frown as Hunith let her in.
"I suppose so" Hunith said enigmatically. "I'll just wait for Balinor". He ended up coming out of one of the other rooms, hands behind his back.
"What's going on?" Morgana asked.
"I managed to score three tickets to the Euro finals" Balinor grinned.
"Oh my god!" Morgana squealed.
"And we were thinking that you, Bal and Merlin could go see the match together. I'd stay back in a hotel and watch the children".
"Are you sure? I mean it's like the biggest event of the year. Maybe even the decade!".
"I'm sure" Hunith reassured her daughter-in-law. "It'd be good for me to spend some time alone with them, you know? Practice for September".
"Of course" Morgana nodded. "So the details? What's happening?".
"Obviously you and Merlin are off to Butlin's on Monday and the match is on Sunday. Given its Bognor Regis and is four hours away it sort of splits the journey so you have less to drive that way. You'll also need to do a lateral flow test that may negative and then we'll be going to the Edgware premier inn". Morgana nodded and squealed as she hugged her parent-in-laws before heading home and continuing to pack, keeping a facade up.
"Everything okay?" Merlin asked as he slid into bed.
"Of course" Morgana nodded. "We're heading off on Sunday, so need to get all the packing done tomorrow".
"Okay" Merlin said. "Any reason?".
"Managed to get a booking at a pub for the game" Morgana lied. "All the ones near here are fully booked".
11th July 2021
Merlin and Morgana prepared to leave for their holiday dressed in jeans and their England top's (Merlin had an official top while Morgana's was a white t-shirt with red stripes across the top and a Euro 2020 logo).
"What time are we leaving at?" Merlin asked.
"Ten o'clock" Morgana answered.
"So early" Merlin remarked.
"Well we do need to get there for six and have lunch too" Morgana smirked.
"But we've booked a table and the match isn't until eight?" Merlin frowned.
"Oh Merlin, could you get our itinerary please?" Morgana said as she chopped up a banana. "On the table".
"Sure" Merlin said, though was slightly confused as to why Morgana's phone was propped up and filming. He lifted the itinerary up and put it on the side, he had it on his phone so didn't need to see it. He noticed the Euro sign and two tickets on the side, picking it up and gasping with a hand on his mouth. He then screamed.
"You alright Merlin?" Morgana chuckled.
"Oh my god! Tickets to the finals!" Merlin squealed as he ran over and lifted up his wife.
"Surprise" Morgana grinned.
"We're actually going to the finals! What about the kids?".
"Your mother is going to watch them in a hotel room they managed to book for us. Your dad managed to get the tickets for us and surprised me on Friday".
"So that's why you were so suspicious and made me do a lateral flow test" Merlin grinned as he stopped Morgana's phone. "Oh my god".
"So get your packing done, we're going at ten" Morgana smiled as she put the sliced banana on the highchair tray. Merlin made sure the children were absolutely ready and clothed, changed and happy in the car with the suitcases as morgana did her makeup upstairs to allow them to leave on time. Morgana was very excited herself too and they left earlier than they were due to, going straight down to Edgware only needing to stop twice as Amhar needed the toilet then again for lunch. They both fortunately had hotel rooms next to each other (though not interconnecting), Merlin and Morgana's with a double bed, small bed and cot while Hunith and Balinor's had a double bed.
"Right there's milk for the baby in here, he needs his dummy and you'll probably need to lie down with him to sleep. He also may not sleep though he usually tends to go down at seven then wake up at nine or so, then again at half eleven but hopefully we should be back by then. He likes it warm and as it's breast milk it needs to be stirred not shaken, there's around three bottles and I'm bringing my pump in case I need it" Morgana listed on. "Amhar needs two stories if he behaves, if not he gets one or none, both boys can have a bath but you can only use the baby bubbles if you put Alfie in, I think it's easier without both children in personally. Both boys need their bunnies, Amhar is the dark one and Alfie's is the light one".
"Also Amhar needs his bat and Alfie needs his fawn, Alfie also needs his dummy too and lots of cuddles. You'll probably have to lie down with him to get him to sleep or put him in the carrier" Merlin added.
"I've got this" Hunith reassured the couple. "Now you three go and enjoy the game". Right before they left, Morgana took her lipstick and drew a line right down the middle of her face, then another one horizontally at the bottom of her nose, likewise with Merlin (Balinor declined the offer). They all agreed that the best option would be to take an Uber to Wembley stadium, get dropped off as close to their entrance as they could then head in. Morgana was the only one with a bag and fortunately she had bought a smaller one then her usual one (she wasn't planning to bring one but as she was going to be away from the baby for at least four hours she ended up bringing a silicone breast pump and some bottles to decant the milk into).
"And what exactly is this?" The security asked as they lifted the pump out of the bag.
"It's a breast pump" Morgana deadpanned. "And those are bottles. Not for the husband or for you, it's for the baby".
"I really need to get paid more" he muttered under his breath as he replaced the items back in the bag. "This one actually makes sense, unlike all the random shit I've had to confiscate today".
"Not every day England's in the finals" Merlin said cheerfully.
"Exactly" the security guy agreed. "So you need to head to Gate J level five, I think there's a baby change on that level so you should be alright".
"I checked the map so booked them there" Balinor said.
"Kickoff is at eight of course, enjoy the match".
"Thank you" the trio said in unison as they headed to the gates, a lot of full length turnstiles with metal bars horizontally across, slightly like a prison. The tickets were scanned and through they went into the crowds of people celebrating the furthest that the football team had been in a couple of years.
"Let's take the stairs" Morgana decided as she began walking up to level five. "We're going to be sat on our arses for the football game so ought to get those steps in". They ended up wearing face masks upstairs as it was rather crowded, getting some bottled drinks, crisps and chips to eat before heading out to the pitch and finding their seats. They sat there and ate as the stadium filled up, a black sheet of some sort covering the pitch as the closing ceremony begun.
"I'll be back soon" Morgana yelled over all the noise. "Gotta go pump". She quickly headed to the baby change room and took her top off, grabbing her breast pumps and phoning Hunith.
"HOW'S THE BABY!" Morgana practically shouted into the phone.
"He's fine" Hunith said. "He's had his bottle, now we're just watching the closing ceremony".
"How about Amhar?" Morgana checked.
"He is very excited for the football. You don't mind him staying up late?".
"Not at all" Morgana replied. "Hopefully that way he'll sleep in the car tomorrow. Can you put Alfie on the phone?".
"He's ten months old, but sure".
"Hi baby! It's mummy! You having fun with grandma and big brother?" Morgana cooed. Alfie babbled some random things along the lines of mama and dada and other things, Morgana put the milk into a bottle and got an ice pack from the food court before she headed out back to their seats.
"Took your time!" Merlin shouted over all the noise. "It's starting!".
"They're still doing the closing ceremony! With that weird black thing on the pitch".
"Just didn't want you to miss the event of the year! Okay I think they're stopping now I can see some camera guy coming out!". The dancers began to take the black covering away, pulling/pushing it to one side revealing the pristine green pitch with its white markings. Their seats were right opposite where the players came out of the stadium from onto the pitch so they had a lovely view of all of it, even though they all looked tiny.
"It's happening! Dad it's happening!" Merlin exclaimed as they took their places in the middle of the pitch. Balinor filmed the trio as they began singing 'God save the Queen' the national anthem in time with the team even though Merlin and Morgana kept singing the wrong words (thinking it was holy queen instead of noble queen).
"Oh my god look!" Merlin squealed as he saw a small rainbow car deliver the ball to the middle of the pitch. Morgana grinned and squealed with excitement as kickoff began. It only took two minutes before England scored their first goal.
"It's coming home! It's coming home, it's coming! Football's coming home!" The trio held hands and jumped up as they celebrated, the match had only just started and it was looking great so far. It ended up raining at around half eight, though they had an extra four minutes before half time during which morgana escaped to the baby room to facetime Hunith and relieve her engorgement.
"Mummy! We winning!" Amhar squealed over the phone.
"I know" Morgana agreed with a smile. "We're doing really well. You having fun?".
"Yeah" Amhar beamed. "Your face is red!"
"It is" Morgana chuckled. "How's the baby?"
"He's playing, not interested in the match" Hunith chuckled as she showed him to his mother. Morgana managed to get back in while the stadium was slightly emptier than before, the break having begun.
"Anything happened?" Morgana asked as she took her seat.
"Nothing yet" Merlin grimaced. "Italy haven't scored thank goodness".
"I really hope it comes home" Morgana sighed. "I guess we have the higher ground though so all the more chance". The rest of the match continued, one of the poor players had their t-shirt pulled by the neck to stop them getting the ball and all three of them agreed that the last half an hour of the match would be the most stressful and intense half an hour there was, especially since Italy scored within that time. It was decided that they would have an extra half an hour before going to penalty shoot outs, Morgana escaping to the pumping room and decided that she'd listen out for the shouts to see what the score was.
"Missed much?" Morgana asked as she came back, two full small baby bottles in hand.
"Not much" Merlin muttered as he put his hands behind his head. The half an hour was soon up and onto penalty shootouts they went. It was almost eleven when they realised that they were not going to win so Balinor ordered an uber and they began making their way out of the stadium.
"No!" Merlin made a sad face, looking like he was about to cry as did Balinor.
"Do you want a cuddle?" Morgana asked. Merlin pouted and slowly nodded, Morgana gave him a quick cuddle before making her way out of the stadium, wiping off the red cross on her fave. It was rather busy around the stadium, no space for an Uber to get there so they ended up walking down the road further up to get it. They arrived to the hotel at midnight in a rather solemn mood, fortunately both children asleep.
"They lost" Merlin sighed.
"Never mind" Hunith said. "You've got your holiday tomorrow and there's the World Cup next year".
"I suppose so" Balinor agreed.
"How were the boys?" Morgana asked.
"Good as gold" Hunith replied with a smile. "Breakfast is at nine o'clock with checkout at ten, we'll see you in the morning".
"See you tomorrow".
12th July 2021
They woke up at around eight to light rain and Amhar's delighted squeals at Merlin and Morgana returning, Alfie pleased to be back with his parents. Amhar insisted on jumping on their bed so they decided that it'd just be better to get out of bed and get changed slowly, they were all a bit sleep deprived from the match and Alfie waking up in the night. It was a bit of a mad-dash to get checked out by ten, having to pack up again when absolutely exhausted and ensure the kids were ready for the journey down to Bognor Regis. Alfie and Amhar slept for a lot of the journey down, waking up just as they arrived in the town and navigated the roads down to the seaside resort.
"Where we?" Amhar asked as he rubbed his eyes.
"We're almost at our holiday place" Merlin smiled as he turned around.
"Where that? Duggee house? Peppa house" Amhar still loved the big dog but had taken a likening to Peppa pig too.
"We might be seeing Peppa too" Morgana raised her eyebrows as she looked in the rear-view mirror.
"Today!" Amhar squealed excitedly.
"In a few days" Merlin replied as he checked their itinerary. "Today we're going to go to soft play, tomorrow we're seeing PJ Masks then Thomas the tank engine".
Amhar sighed loudly and facepalmed. "I don't like Thomas, but Alfie does so I'll be nice".
"Good boy" Merlin smiled. "We're here! Morgana this email says we need to drive to the shoreline hotel in the main entrance".
"On it" Morgana answered as she pulled up to the drive through then went to the hotel car park. They couldn't check in until four o'clock, but were allowed to use the facilities on site after twelve and they'd booked themselves somewhere to eat their lunch. The car was packed to the brim with suitcases, two buggies for each boy, toys, snacks and all the other crap that came with having two young children. Amhar happily ran ahead as Merlin and Morgana stayed behind pushing the buggy and looking around.
"Let's go!" Amhar squealed as he waved them over towards them.
"One minute baby" Morgana called. "Mummy and daddy need their masks on".
"I want a mask" Amhar pouted.
"You're a bit young dear" Merlin said as he ruffled his hair.
"When can I have one?" He asked.
"Once you're three" Morgana answered.
"Okay" Amhar sighed. "It's my birthday soon".
"It is, in two months" Morgana smiled. "First it's Alfie's birthday then your birthday when you go back to nursery".
"That's so far away" Amhar dramatically sighed.
"Let's go get lunch" Merlin said as he began to push the pushchair. The first day was rather tiring as expected, they had a puppet show followed by Amhar having a soft play session then they were able to check into their hotel room. There was a separate curtained off children's room with bunk beds, a bathroom further up and a large double bed in the main room with an octopus cushion type thing on the floor by the patio doors, leading out to the balcony.
"My room" Amhar grinned as he claimed the bunk beds.
"The bottom's for sleeping" Merlin reminded the tot.
"And top for playing" Amhar said. "If mummy or daddy are there".
"Well, we have a lovely view of the car park and the sea in the distance" Morgana sarcastically remarked as she and Merlin looked out the balcony.
"That we paid extra for" Merlin muttered. "Well we better unpack".
They spent some time relaxing before dinner and live music. Even though they had lost the Euro's, the holiday was off to a great start.
13th July 2021
"We're on holiday, we're on holiday" Amhar sang as he danced around the bedroom.
"Was it really necessary to wake up this early while we're on holiday?" Morgana murmured as she rubbed her eyes.
"Yes" Amhar said. "TV?" Usually they didn't have time to watch TV before the school run, so having it in the morning was a luxury for the toddler.
"Yes—fine!" Morgana shielded her eyes against the light with her arm and turned it on, putting channel 5 on.
"But it's Thomas and I don't like Thomas" Amhar whinged.
"Well you can have CBeebies then" Merlin sighed as he changed it.
"But that's not started yet" Amhar whined.
"Then in that case I'm afraid daddy's going to have to tickle you" Merlin grinned as he lifted him into the bed and began tickling the toddler. He squealed happily as Morgana rolled over with baby Alfie, laying happily with his family. Breakfast was followed by a live PJ Masks show, the whole family stayed together on socially distanced mats as they watched the show (Amhar was mesmerised, while Alfie had a rather shocked look on his face). Straight away after the show had finished, they put both kids in their own buggies and walked over to the swimming area, due to the restrictions they had to pre-book everything and it seemed to be a rather tight schedule, putting on some wristbands for their time slot. They'd locked the buggies together, Amhar walking and Alfie being carried as they all squeezed into a family changing room, bumping into one another and accidentally stepping on the toddler as they got ready for their swim.
"You ready Amhar?" Merlin smiled.
"Yeah" Amhar shrugged. They made him use the toilet before heading out, many of the other children there had life jackets or other buoyancies on though Merlin and Morgana decided that it would be better for him not to get used to them. While they hadn't started swimming lessons for Amhar yet, they were planning to start them for him in September and at Alfie's place it was encouraged to not use floaters for them. They found some chairs on the side to dump their towels and baby bag on, looking around at the busy bustling pool.
"Where do you want to go first, Amhar?" Morgana asked.
"Uhh" he looked around as he took it all in. He hadn't been swimming before except in the sea and his paddling pool at home, so having a gigantic resort waterpark with tonnes of different pools and slides was slightly overwhelming.
"Daddy choose" Amhar said as he raised his arms to be picked up.
"This pool has waves in, like the sea. Shall we go into that one?" Amhar nodded so Merlin and morgana went in, not too deep as they could stand but Amhar had to be held. The waves started soon and they floated as they were pushed, all happily giggling as they were rather gentle at first though did soon get faster. They headed towards the edge of the pool, it was beach style and they sat down as the waves came up to them. Amhar was slightly nervous though was happy to go on quite a few slides, even some of the bigger ones on merlin and Morgana's laps (though he was not a fan of being submerged underwater on some of them). The toddler area was a hit, it was a bit warmer than the rest of the pool, with smaller more gentle slides that Alfie went on too which he loved too as the water was rather shallow and he was held by his parents. At the end of the two hours the Emrys family was exhausted and starving, heading straight to lunch at the beachcomber inn and ordering right away. Usually mealtime in the Emrys family was a rather loud and hectic affair, though everybody simply ate their food in silence as they were all so hungry. Morgana applied her makeup before they went off to see a complimentary live show of 'the little mermaid'.
16th July 2021
The holiday was as relaxing and good as it could be with two young children. They spent lots of times watching shows—Thomas the Tank Engine, Peppa pig, going to toddler football sessions, swimming in the amazing water park, going to the beach spending time in the funfair on site (there was a bigger one outdoors but also a little one indoors where Amhar could go on all the rides by himself) and eating candy floss. It was lovely and warm the whole time, though slightly different to their usual dynamic as after Merlin and Morgana went on some of the bigger funfair rides while the children had fallen asleep, both of them felt as though they were going to throw up by the end of some of them. Alfie had also had some major developments, finally standing up with assistance and taking a couple of steps sideways, while not properly walking as of yet it was a big change that would soon be happening in the family.
A/N: The England v Italy match was so stressful in the end haha! I ended up listening to baby shark on repeat cause it took the edge off. I also ended up getting stuck in the turnstiles and had to climb through the gaps in it once at a football match. Also went to the beach wi th my cousins not that long ago and we almost threw up on the waltzers, never happened before!