Chapter 34

They discovered over the next week that what was now dubbed 'the waterfall technique' was the only way of ensuring Merlin got any sleep at all around the time of year that marked the anniversary of Will's death. Something about the last few days in Ireland made him even worse and he was reluctant to leave his family to return home.

When they did get back, they went straight to Gwen's to pick up the dogs.

"We have tomorrow morning off," Arthur said when they got into their house, "We'll unpack then, I want to go to bed."

"So do I," Merlin fell onto the bed and wrapped his arms around the dogs happily, "They're going to hate us. Abandoning them for four weeks."

"You've abandoned them for longer."

"True. But not voluntarily." He hugged them tighter, "Who will they stay with?"

"There's plenty of time to figure that out."

Merlin sighed, "I'm tired."

"You're still fully dressed."

"I don't care," Merlin mumbled.

"You're wearing jeans, gorgeous. It's uncomfortable. If you don't take them off, I'll do it for you."

"You can try."

Arthur raised an eyebrow and rubbed his hands together. For a few minutes, an epic wrestling match ensued with the dogs wagging their tails and barking. By the end of it, Merlin was lying on the bed looking very disgruntled and wearing nothing but his underwear.

"You were saying?" Arthur asked, brandishing Merlin's jeans victoriously.

"Shut up," Merlin said, "Give me some pyjamas."

"What's the magic word?"

"Quickly."

Arthur gasped, dumped Merlin's clothes on the floor and jumped onto the bed. "I don't think I will."

"Arthur," Merlin moaned sadly.

"I'm not your servant, Merls. Get your own pyjamas."

"But I'm tired. And recovering from a really horrible ailment. If I tried to get changed myself, I could get hurt."

"Well," Arthur looked him up and down, "I am enjoying the view to be perfectly honest."

"A view which is probably ruined by goose-bumps the size of tennis balls."

"Don't be dramatic. It's not that cold."

Merlin clung onto Arthur's side like a koala and sighed happily. Arthur called Killi onto the bed and the dog draped himself over Merlin. Using only their legs, they buried their lower halves under the covers.

"Thank you, Arthur," Merlin said quietly, placing his ear on Arthur's chest so he could listen to his heartbeat, "I know you hate flying."

"I don't hate it," Arthur said, "It just makes me ill. I'm as excited as you are."

Merlin hugged him for a while and then asked, "Do I have physio tomorrow?"

"In the evening. You're getting your leg back hopefully."

"Thank god," Merlin said.

"You won't be using it properly again for a while, though. You'll still be on crutches for quite some time."

"I know. But it'll nice to be able to move around on my own and hold something at the same time. Again."

"I'll be surprised if they let you walk tomorrow. The last two times when you've first been given your prosthetic it's been half an hour of talking, ten minutes of making sure you know how to put it on, five minutes of standing and then two minutes of shuffling around with a walker."

"Yeah, true. But after that first one it didn't take long to get back on my feet, so to speak."

"Because you've already built all the strength you need up in previous sessions. You just need to get used to the feeling again."

"Is it going to be harder this time because it's been so long?"

"Maybe. We'll find out. Now, are we going to sleep? Busy day tomorrow."

Merlin nodded, "Waterfall?"

Arthur paused just to pick Aithusa up from the floor and put her on the bed too so all four of them could cuddle up together before burying his hand in Merlin's hair like he did every night and starting to whisper quietly. The technique was working brilliant for them. Merlin slept all through the night and while still would wake up in the morning like you would after a dream- a little confused and not exactly remembering what happened- but wasn't particularly tired.

Within a couple of weeks Merlin was using his prosthetic leg again and when they'd gone out to Morgana's for a meal, Belle had insisted she know everything about how it went on and came off and how it worked. Merlin didn't mind. He thought her fascination was sweet.

The dogs slept in the bed every single night. After the first night when they'd got back from Ireland and cuddled together, one or both of them would jump up and settle somewhere every evening. Sometimes it was a tad annoying to be woken up by a huge white ball of fluff pawing at your face but Merlin was so glad to be able to hug his dogs safely again that he didn't care.

"Sometimes," Arthur had grumbled one morning on a day they had off work when he woke up, "I wish you weren't a morning person."

Merlin had been up for quite some time sitting in bed and playing with Aithusa. His chuckling and Aithusa's jumping had eventually stirred Arthur who rolled over and glared. Before he'd been plagued with hundreds of medical conditions, Merlin had definitely been a stereotypical morning person. Waking up as the sun rose, enjoying the first few hours of daylight, the freshness the air had and the tranquillity of everything. He was still that same person. Just for a while he'd needed a lot more sleep.

So, in a way, Arthur was happy to see Merlin awake early in the morning and playing with the dogs so energetically. Or he would have been if he wasn't the complete polar opposite of a morning person and didn't appreciate being woken up by a small dog jumping on him. Killi seemed to share this view and was curled up at the foot of the bed, watching the others out of the corner of one eye.

"Good morning, grumpy," Merlin bent down to kiss Arthur, "Oh," he laughed, "Morning breath."

Arthur scowled and rolled onto his stomach, "Why are you so happy?"

"What do you mean?"

"I like it better when you're still fast asleep at this time, curled up in my arms and behaving."

"Well I was going to offer to make breakfast," Merlin said, "But if you're going to be like that, maybe I won't."

Arthur glared at him, "Your play partner wants attention."

Merlin looked at Aithusa and found her wagging her tail and holding the toy they'd been playing with between her teeth, right around the squeaker which she tactfully squeezed every few seconds.

"That noise is awful," Arthur grumbled, "Can't we remove the squeaker?"

"And make them sad? They love the squeaker."

Arthur huffed, "Have they been outside?"

"Not yet."

"You can do that while you're making breakfast then. I'll have a coffee this morning, I think."

"Of course, your highness." Merlin battled with his prosthetic leg for a while to get it on and then went downstairs. He opened the back door easily, taking a second to consider the progress he'd made, and then put the kettle on.

Arthur came stumbling into the kitchen wearing only pyjama bottoms a few minutes later and pressed some bread into the toaster. On his way to the fridge, he stopped to wrap his arm around Merlin's waist and kiss his cheek.

"I thought I was making breakfast," Merlin said.

Arthur shrugged, "I got bored of waiting for you."

Merlin hummed, "Patience never was your best quality."

Soon, they were sitting at the table, eating their breakfast together. "Two weeks until we leave," Arthur said, "Hasn't time gone so quickly?"

Merlin nodded, "It's been three months since you told me we were going. Feels like a few days."

Ever since they'd got back from Ireland, they'd felt nothing but complete happiness. Waking up to each other and the dogs every morning, Merlin being able to move around normally, working with their friends all day. They couldn't not be happy about that.

"Did you hear what Elyan was saying at work yesterday?"

"I thought we agreed that meals were one of the two places we're not meant to talk about work," Merlin said.

"Meal time and bed time, I know," Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Go on," Merlin sighed, "What was he saying?"

"Some other company wanted to buy Mercia. Offered loads for it."

"But work started there the other week," Merlin frowned, "Why would we put so much money towards building just to sell it."

"That's the great bit," Arthur said, "They said the building would continue. Because they want to open a centre exactly like ours."

Merlin frowned, "So they want to buy one of our ready-made properties and open it as their own?"

"Like buying a cake from the shop, squirting some icing on it and pretending you made it all," Arthur said.

"Why?"

"I think the intentions were good," Arthur said, "They like our company and everything we do and what we stand for and believe there should be more like it. But instead of coming up with their own idea, they want to buy ours."

"Laziness?"

"Not sure. Maybe they're just not sure how to go about doing it themselves and instead of learning then maybe making a few mistakes and risk making a bad name for themselves they want a guarantee of something going well."

"Not everyone gets a head-start with a rich, experienced father to guide them," Merlin said.

"Exactly. There might have been malicious intent or maybe they were just stupid but we're giving them the benefit of the doubt."

"It's a shame."

Arthur nodded, "There should be more like our company. What's seen as elite and special in our properties should be more of a normality. By declining did we stop that from happening just for the sake of our company?"

"No," Merlin said, "Whoever those people were that wanted this might have had even greater ideas than us. We were either allowing something better than us to develop or preventing a disaster. Isn't nothing better than something awful?"

"I guess. I just wonder where they got the money. They offered loads."

"Probably a loan. Look how much we made."

"Hardly feels like we made a penny at the minute. With Camelot, Nemeth and Mercia all opening within the space of a few years, we've barely got enough money to keep the restaurants stocked, let alone pay the staff."

"It'll get better. We thought we were stretched dry after Albion opened but it improved."

"Lancelot cut the payments for the nine of us a little," Arthur said, "So we didn't have to take the money out of the other members of staff."

"That doesn't upset you, does it?" Merlin asked.

"Of course not. It just makes me think that when other companies are in trouble financially they cut jobs or close branches. But we open branches and pay ourselves less."

"We're not in financial trouble," Merlin said, "And we won't be unless Mercia flops which it won't. It's just a temporary dip because we put so much into opening three properties so close together."

"Lance says that every morning," Arthur said, "He's keeping a closer eye on our finances than he is his child."

"He has to. If Mercia isn't a success, we can't expand more in the future. And is that not the goal? To give as many people the best quality of life possible?"

"If that phone call Elyan got proved anything it's that more people want to open businesses like ours now. Ad if that happens then people are going to get a better quality of life. Even if it's not through us directly."

"Unless people are only opening for the money and not because they actually care."

"They won't get the money unless people believe they're opening for honest reasons. No one would go. If they only open for the money it'll become obvious pretty quickly because the staff and customers will be treated badly and the owners will be living like kings."

"There aren't many companies like ours."

"Right," Arthur stood up and took their empty plates, "I need to go to the shops. Want to come?"

Merlin shook his head.

"I don't know why I bother asking," Arthur smiled, "I won't be long."

"Are you getting dressed first?"

"I thought I'd go like this, actually. What do you think?"

"I love it," Merlin said, "But the people in the shops might not be so keen."

"Maybe not. I'll go and get changed."

"Good idea."

"What are you going to do while I'm out?"

"Can I walk the dogs?"

"You don't need to ask my permission, Merlin," Arthur laughed as they walked upstairs, "Take them out if you want to."

"What if Killi pulls me over?" Merlin laughed.

"He wouldn't. Just bring your inhaler and your phone and you'll be fine."

Merlin nodded, "I'll just take them to the fields and let them run around."

"Then you only need to make sure you don't get hit by a tractor."

"Why would I get hit by a tractor?"

"You wouldn't. I'm just teasing you because you're worried about walking across the road, opening a gate and standing in a field for a while before coming back again."

"I've not been out by myself in months," Merlin said, "You can't blame me for being a little bit anxious."

"No, I guess not. But the pros of living in the countryside are that it takes minimal effort to walk your dogs. Finding a field to throw a ball in isn't difficult near where we live. But you can wait for me to get back if you want."

"No, I'll go."

They left at the same time but Arthur got into the car and drove towards the city while Merlin walked across the road and opened the gate to the public field on the other side. After making his way away from the track, he threw the ball he'd brought for the dogs a few times. He liked where he lived. There were rarely other people apart from a few odd hikers around. He liked the peace and beauty which was available just outside his front door. Merlin let Killi and Aithusa run around and chase each other for about half an hour while he wondered around the field aimlessly. He then led them back home, filled their water bowls and collapsed onto the sofa to read for a while until Arthur came home.

He hadn't meant to fall asleep but sure enough, the book slipped out of his hand and his head rolled to one side. So when Arthur got back and found him, sprawled across the sofa with the pages of his book crinkled and bent, he smiled a little before noticing some distress on Merlin's face. Arthur rescued the book, put it on the table and then sat beside Merlin and pulled him into his chest, recognising the signs of a nightmare.

He gently stirred Merlin and waited while he came to his senses which took quite a while. Merlin rubbed his eyes and groaned.

"Are you ok?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah," Merlin said carefully, blinking away some confusion.

"You looked like you were dreaming."

"I was."

"Want to tell me what it was about?"

"No," Merlin pursed his lips.

"Alright. I've got things that need putting in the fridge, I'll just be a minute."

Merlin was vaguely aware of the fact he was shaking as he sat up and thought over the dream he'd just had. Aithusa had leapt up beside him and was licking his hand. He could tell that Arthur was dying to know what had happened for the rest of the day but Merlin kept his mouth firmly shut.

"Who are you texting?" Arthur asked Merlin curiously that night as they lay side by side in bed.

"Jealous?"

"No, you idiot. Just trying to make conversations since you've been ignoring me all day."

"It's just Freya," Merlin said, gesturing vaguely at his phone.

"Is it her you dreamt about?"

"Arthur-"

"That's a yes."

"I don't want to talk about it! It wasn't nice, Arthur, I just want to forget about it. I know it wasn't real. I'll get over it."

But he didn't. Over the two weeks before they went on holiday, Merlin was quiet and reserved, always deep in thought. He texted or called his sister at least once a day, therefore using his phone more than ever before. Arthur told everyone it was just pre-holiday anxiety like he'd had before they went to Scotland together but he still suspected it was whatever dream he'd had that morning which was still bugging him.