"Notable, up and coming artist Merlin was recorded physically attacking someone last night, and Extra is the only place where you can see the whole video in it's entirety."

That wasn't true, the video was all over the internet by now.

"The iphone video was recorded by a fan, and shows some shocking imagines of the new star yelling at someone before he strikes him in the face."

The scene was a little blurry and dark, as it was dark outside, but you can clearly see Merlin there and another dark haired man with him. You can clearly see Merlin punching him.

"It is really quite shocking. There has been no word from any sources or Merlin's team about if the other person will press charges or if the other man will be identified, but this video comes out just days after Merlin's first studio album went Gold. It is really a shame to see a new star starting to fall so quickly, hopefully he can recover from this media fire."

They moved on to something to do with Harry Styles' newest new movie and Merlin flicked off the telly, looking at it with spite.

"Are you going to punch that, too? Or are you saving all the hitting for me?"

Merlin turned in his chair and glared daggers at the door. "How did you get in here?"

There was a smirk and a look of utter arrogance , he shrugged. "Morgana let me in."

"She shouldn't have," Merlin retorted. "I don't want to see you."

He laughed, "Obviously you don't, but I don't care."

"Of course you don't, you never fucking change..."

He sighed, "Merlin, I just want-"

"NO!" yelled Merlin, standing up. "I don't care what you want to say, just leave..."

He huffed and brushed his dark hair from his eyes, "You have such a temper anymore. If it wasn't directed at me, I'd almost like it."

Merlin didn't look impressed and sat back down. He was giving up, slowly but surely, he might be dying inside all over again. He put his face in his hands and wanted to cry, but refused to. "Just leave me alone."

Merlin couldn't believe how his life had turned out in the last few months, before all this he had really thought he had everything under control. He was happy and successful, and well...it's been a long way down since then, down to this dreadful place he didn't want to be ever again, but yet...here he was. He wondered if he could pull himself out of it this time. To truly understand...just how bad Merlin's life had taken a turn, you would have to go back to the beginning, back to when the Pendragon's re-entered Merlin's life, that...that is the exact moment everything had gone to shit.

THREE MONTHS AGO...

Merlin stood in front of the door, nerves settled in his ribs, throbbing there. It hurt so much he wanted to buckle over, he felt like he might pass out from it. He felt dizzy and was that from the rib pain or something else? Was his blood pressure just so high that his body was rejecting living any longer? Merlin just stood there, not knocking, not moving. He didn't really know what he wanted to do, did he want to go inside? No. Did he want to run? Yes. But he didn't, because he couldn't move...

"We don' wan'non!" screamed a woman who had suddenly opened the door and then she went to slam the door in his face. Merlin knew this was the right house, so who was this? Was it one of Uther's old relatives? He did have a lot, was it a ghost? Merlin kind of just stood there and watched as the door was being slammed on his face and he wasn't really reacting to it. But then he heard a woman's voice. A younger woman, she was getting closer and closer and the woman shutting the door was suddenly talking again. Merlin could hear it through the crack still left in the door. "Oy...sorry, mum, didn't know ya'll had another son..."

Of course she didn't, Merlin huffed, but then the door was being yanked open and it was not Hunith standing there, but Morgana, and if Merlin said all the dread he felt washed away at the sight of her, he would be lying. But, what he could say is he was very happy that it had been her opening the door and not anyone else.

"Merlin!" she said like his name was a magic spell and rushed forward, throwing her arms around his shoulders and hugging him rather tightly. She looked differant, she felt differant...in some way or another. Her hair was shorter than it was when she was a teenager and her outlandish, black clothes were gone. She had grown up, just like he had, and suddenly Merlin felt sad he had missed that. And he understood now, just how badly he had missed her. When she pulled away from the hug she was crying and Merlin took a deep breath, because he refused to cry. "I've missed you so much!" she was saying now, through tears. Merlin had only ever seen her cry a few times, the last time he had seen her cry was the last time he had saw her, when he was leaving, and he didn't like that. He wanted his strong Morgana back, it was what she deserved to be. "You look so differant..."

Merlin shrugged, he supposed he did. His hair was a little longer and a little more curly, and he could actually grow facial hair now, which he was because he was too lazy and tired to shave with all that was going on in his life right now. He smiled at her and shrugged his shoulders, " So do you..."

Morgana moved aside suddenly then and Merlin walked in. He gulped as he walked into the foyer, he hated this room...he hated this house, so many memories were flooding him all at once. The first time he had walked into this hall, the first time he had met Arthur just off to the right in the dinning room, the many times after he had met him here...when he was coming home from uni, Uther screaming at Merlin here, the fights...the resentment, this foyer was where he told them he was leaving. He had never thought he would see it again after that night.

"Alice," Morgana was saying then, as they walked a little further into the room, Alice, the woman who had tried to shut the door on Merlin's face only scowled at them both. "This is Merlin, this is Hunith's son."

"Oh...the disappointment," she nodded. Merlin frowned at this and Morgana looked very irritated all of a sudden. "Master Pendragon mentioned him, thought he was dead the way he talked..."

"He used to make me wish I was dead..." Merlin muttered and Morgana hit him on the right forearm.

"No!" Morgana said pointedly, and that was the old Morgana coming back now. "He's not dead!" When she was done saying that, she turned to Merlin. "Don't take that personally, there is no changing my father."

"I couldn't care less, honestly."

Morgana sighed, clearly this was not going as she had planned, she took the arm she had just slapped and lead him into the kitchen now. As if he didn't know where it was. In the kitchen, Merlin was dealt another blow. This one much worse than finding out Uther let people think Merlin was dead, because by the stove stood Hunith, looking a little stressed. But when she turned around her greying eyes lit up. Merlin just sort of stared at her with no emotion. She looked pretty much the same, with maybe a few more wrinkles. It wasn't a dramatic change like Morgana.

"Merlin," she said, and her accent was much less than it used to be. Probably because she lived around a bunch of posh, asshole, Englishmen. To Merlin's surprise, she crossed the kitchen in seconds and hugged him tight, if not tighter than Morgana had. He had to wonder if this was all for show, didn't she hate him? Because how dare he choose his sexuality over Uther and his rescheme of bullshit? Merlin took a few seconds to hug back, but eventually patted her on the back a few times. She pulled away and took his face in her hands, he didn't really like this much either if he were being honest. "You look good, have you been well?"

"Yes..." he said slowly. By well did she mean not emotionally manipulated? He wasn't so sure what she was really asking.

"You're still too skinny, you need to eat more proteins," she told him. This whole conversation was strange, he didn't know what to make of it. "But you're back on the diet again, aren't you?"

"You mean being a vegetarian?" retorted Merlin with a cold tone. "Yes."

She huffed and let go of him, she looked to Morgana now, as if she needed her help. "Let's have tea!" announced Morgana loudly then. "It's all set up!"

They walked into the nook and on the table was an array of different vegetables and small finger foods. along with a kettle for tea. The Pendragon's always did try to be so extra. It wasn't charming, it was more so annoying. Merlin found himself to be irritated as he sat down, in the seat he always used to sit in before and looked around, wishing he were anywhere else but here.

Both woman sat down now, too and they both stared at Merlin as if he were about to explode or keel over and die. It was obvious they didn't know what to say and Merlin wasn't going to help them. None of this was his idea, he didn't want to be here. So, he just stared back. "We bought the album," said Hunith then, all of a sudden. "Ten of them...really, it was very lovely. I wish I had known how talented you were." Merlin bit his tongue at this, because if she had paid any attention to him at all, maybe she would have known this. He just nodded. Hunith waited for him to talk but when he didn't, she looked a little put upon, but continued talking then. "I really liked the main song...what was it again? The one about going around the city alone until you've met someone you love...?"

"Well...as that was one of the songs I wrote for you for your wedding and you rejected it because you hated it, I find that a tad hard to believe," snapped Merlin, almost without warning, and Hunith's eyes only got wide, Morgana suddenly leaned forward and grabbed the kettle.

"TEA?!" She yelled out and Merlin glared at her.

"No, I'm fine, thanks..."

"Speaking of wedding's," Morgana pressed on then, looking stressed once more. Merlin clamed down a bit then, he knew Morgana wanted him to be at her wedding, that's why this tea was even happening now. Though, it seemed as if no one was actually in the mood for tea. "I'm engaged as you know from the phone call we had..." Merlin nodded. "Leon wants to get married this year but I haven't planned anything yet."

That seemed unlike Morgana to Merlin, to not have things planned out. But also she was the one who had said she wasn't ever going to get married so he was sort of conflicted. He wasn't surprised she was marrying Leon though, they had been together even before Merlin had left. Leon was a good man, even if he did surround himself with bad company. Not including Morgana, of course.

"Leon wants a destination wedding," Huntih said then. Merlin bet she loved the idea of that.

"Yes, but my father will never allow it, he wants me to get married in a church..."

"Do what you want," said Merlin and both of the woman frowned at that. That was easier said than done in the Pnedragon household. "I'm not sure what this has to do with me though...no offense, I mean I am glad to know you're happy and I'll come to the wedding but if it's not even set-"

"Well...see, that's the thing," Morgana cut him off. "I sort of wanted you to be involved with the planning process"

"Why?" asked Merlin, confused at this idea. "I don't know anything about weddings...she can-" he pointed to his mother. "She knows a lot more than me."

"She is involved, we've been brainstorming for a few weeks," said Morgana. "But I don't want to do this without you, I know you're busy with your music and I respect that...but it won't feel right if you are not involved."

Merlin sat there and stared at her, it was a bit pointless to say he didn't feel interested at all, but he also didn't want to hurt her feelings. "I don't want to be rude or anything, but I'm not sure how I can be helpful, plus I'll be touring soon..."

"That's alright," Morgana answered. "We'll work around your schedule."

"I'm going to be very busy-" Merlin had started but Morgana cut him off, by leaning forward and covering his twitching hand with her sweating one.

"I know how hard this is for you...I know how you must be feeling right now, but I can't get married if you're not involved. I just won't. I know how much you hate some of this family, but to me you are my brother...even if you don't see us as family, even if you never will, I still loved you as a brother, I still love you like one now. If you're not here with me during this time, I'm going to be heart broken. Please, just think about it."

Merlin was struck by her words into silence, after all he had done, after all the work he had done to heal from this family and their trauma they put upon him, was he really going to allow himself to get sucked back in? Was he really going to give these people the chance to do it all again? The answer...unfortunately, was yes.


(A/N: I just randomly like five minutes ago decided why not?! And just posted this, I have been working on this off and on for EVER, I keep changing storylines and characters and whatever, but for the most part I have a solid base that I start off with, so I figured I'd post that and see what people think about it. I have also never pulled a Once Upon A Time before and wrote in the present and in the past before and you will be getting a bit of that here, too. Just because it is a challenge for me, I will however let y'all know what is in the past and what is present when that time comes. But anyway, I hope you all enjoy and also I don't own anything...except the idea of Falling, which I honestly enjoy so much, I mean what a wreck of a family and what crazy people! Anyway, let me know what you think of the start of this sequel!)