Arghh last week was so busy, I didn't even have time to read or write... I haven't started writing chapter 14 yet... but I'll really try this week, I need to. I can't wait to write it, and I know you'll just love the next chapter ;) Anyway, this chapter starts one month after the hunting trip. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 13
The Key to My Heart

one month later

It has been a month since they returned from the hunting trip, since Arthur came back and since they went to the concert in Glastonbury. It has also been a month of endless explanations of how technology works (for Merlin at least).

If I were to write here everything they've texted each other over the last 30 days, this chapter would be way too long. But, I can show you an example of what I mean:

Arthur: Where are you?

Merlin: I went shopping, didn't want to wake you up.

Arthur: Will you buy more cocoa?

Merlin: We have enough home.

Arthur: I don't think so.

Merlin: …

Merlin: What have you done?

Arthur: Nothing.

Merlin: I'm going back.

…

Arthur: What is that sound? I'm in the bathroom, should I come down to save you?

Merlin: You took your phone with you into the bathroom?

Arthur: WHAT IS THAT SOUND

Merlin: Don't worry, it's a vacuum cleaner.

Arthur: what?

Merlin: It's a device that I'm using, it cleans the floor and carpet.

Arthur: Why don't you use the broom?

Merlin: Because this is better

Arthur: I don't like that sound. It sounds dangerous.

Merlin: It really isn't.

Arthur: I don't care, I'm not going downstairs.

…

Merlin: What are you doing? You're not reading my diaries or searching through my room while I'm away, are you?

Arthur: I'm reading.

Merlin: Oh, what are you reading?

Arthur: It's called Harry Potter.

Arthur: I'm confused.

Merlin: Why? It's a great series.

Arthur: This book says he's the greatest sorcerer ever to live. That's not true!

Merlin: It's a made up story, he's not real, Arthur.

Arthur: I think I'm gonna go read some of the books about me that are in your room.

Merlin: Wait until I'm home.

Arthur: Too late!

…

Arthur: Has fire become invisible while I was away?

Merlin: what are you talking about?

Arthur: This box just made my food hot again.

Merlin: It's a microwave, ask Agatha.

Arthur: She's in the bathroom.

Merlin: Then wait and ask her!

...

And for Arthur, it was also a month of a little feeling crisis. But, we'll get to that later.

At the moment, they were both sitting in the old Gaius' rooms, on the floor beside Merlin's old bed. They had already gone through the first two books aka Merlin's diaries, and Merlin noticed that since the first book, it was more and more often that he had to skip a paragraph or two because it was mostly about his feelings for Arthur. He always blushed when he had to skip those, and he had a feeling that Arthur noticed that too, although he remained silent.

Merlin was sitting cross-legged, leaning against his bed with the book open in his lap, and reading out loud.

"Dear Arthur, everything feels the same, every day, every hour and every minute of my life. Everyone I knew is long gone, but I can't stop thinking about them. Now it's just me and this new house that I had to build on my own. Dear Arthur, dear Arthur. What else should I tell you? That every day bores me to death? That I wish I could die and skip all those upcoming days only to see your face again?" Merlin paused, quickly examining the next few sentences to make sure there was nothing that would give away his secret love. When he was sure there was nothing of that sort, he resumed reading. "He will rise again, Kilgharrah told me. He will rise again, I keep telling myself. But where are you, Arthur?"

"I sure took a long time," Arthur mumbled as he took a bite of his apple and raised his eyebrows at Merlin to make him read again.

"This isn't helping," Merlin said instead. He still didn't remember anything from his past except for what he learned from his dreams, which were usually nightmares. "I can't recall writing any of this."

"But it's interesting." Arthur argued. "Keep reading, Merlin, don't make me order you."

"You can't order me to do anything." Merlin replied to that, but kept reading anyway, for which Arthur gave him a little smirk that Merlin didn't notice. "This paragraph is titled Christianity."

"Well, that will be interesting." Arthur mumbled and Merlin ignored him. He was genuinely interested in this paragraph, he knew the dark ages weren't very fond of magic.

"Dear Arthur, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but... after so many good years, magic is outlawed again. And I have a feeling this time it's for good. Luckily I don't live in the city anymore and no one knows my real name, nor where do I live. But I'll have to hide again. I'll probably use some aging spell for when I need to go and buy supplies, or I could go live with the druids and protect them. But... there aren't many druids left. The history is repeating, Arthur, the new king and queen had decided to get rid of magic in Camelot and I heard they burn everyone who appears to have these abilities. I hope this is what Kilgharrah was talking about, Albion's need is the greatest now Arthur, we need you, I need you, please come back!"

"I'm sorry I didn't." Arthur interrupted him.

"There's nothing you could have done about it." Merlin replied, not even looking up, probably trying hard not to get emotional. "Dear Arthur. It's been a few weeks since I last wrote into this book, but there was a good reason for it. I had to leave my house and the few friends I've made - sorry Julian and Tommy - because there is great battle in Camelot." Merlin frowned and leaned closer to the book. "I tried to help using magic, but people refused my help and wanted to kill me for my abilities. I had to run, and leave Camelot to its own fate. Out of a habit, I came to the lake of Albion. There is a small village near that lake, and I settled there, building a new house again. This time though, I won't make the same mistake, I won't make any friends because eventually, they would find out about my gift and they would want to hurt me for it, like so many had tried to before. I hope Camelot can survive this."

"I don't like where this is going." Arthur told him.

"Neither do I, but it seems that village is-"

"Glastonbury."

"Glastonbury." Merlin smiled when they said the name of the town in unison. "I'll keep reading, maybe we can find out what happened to Camelot."

"Yeah."

Merlin cleared his throat and began reading again. "Dear Arthur, the war seems to have no end. I heard that... I heard that Camelot had fallen. That the castle is gone now and everyone either ran away or is dead. At first I couldn't belive what I overheard at the market at the village, so I returned to Camelot to see on my own. And... Arthur, I can't describe what I'm feeling. The white walls and towers that once bore the proud name Camelot, are nothing but ruins now. There is no point in rebuilding the castle, and no one is trying to do that. Instead, they're building churches all over the kingdom, and they're building one in this village too. The king is dead, but the queen is alive and they started building a new castle for her, in a new town. Arthur, I fear that people will forget about Camelot, about you."

"They haven't." Arthur smiled at Merlin, who didn't seem all that happy.

"They got a lot of things wrong though. Like that Guinevere was a lady or that Mordred was your son or other nonsense." He said, and both Arthur and him laughed at that, trying to forget about what they just read. "I think that was enough of reading for the morning," Merlin said suddenly and stood up, putting the book back on his cupboard."

"What is that?" Arthur asked as he stood up as well and looked at a little box that was in front of Merlin's diaries. Merlin frowned as he followed Arthur's gaze and looked at the box, picking it up.

"I don't know actually," he said. "I remember I tried to open it once, but I couldn't figure out how."

"Would you try again?" Arthur suggested, taking the box from Merlin and examining it.

"Maybe, if you give it back and let my try." He rolled his eyes and waited with his palm in front of Arthur to place the box there. Arthur rolled his eyes as he returned the metal box and Merlin looked closer at it, finding nothing to open it with. Not even a keyhole.

"Well?"

"Well, if you shut up, maybe I'll be more successful." Merlin told him, not even looking up. Arthur shook his head and realized he was still holding the apple core in his hand. He sighed and shook with the apple core in front of Merlin's face.

"I'll be right back," he said and walked away. what he didn't realize though, was that Merlin kept watching him until he disappeared behind the door to his modern room with a smile on his face. When he realized what he was doing, he shook his head and focused back on the box. There had to be some spell to open this.

xoXÖXox

As Arthur was leaving, he couldn't stop thinking about what happened to Camelot. He couldn't stop thinking about anything that Merlin read from his diary. He loved to read Merlin's thoughts from the past. But Merlin didn't seem to feel the same, what was he hiding?

When Arthur returned to the room and Merlin told him the box was still closed and he didn't know how to open it yet, Arthur gave up and went to his room. Merlin already showed him his laptop and the tv and microwave and the lights and the fridge of course. He still wasn't sure how that all worked without magic, but he liked the technology.

For example, he loved what Merlin called movie nights, because they could sit on the couch together for hours, just looking at the screen of the tv and get lost in the movie that Merlin had picked. His eyes always started hurting a little when he was watching the screen for too long though, and that was usually when he said he would go to sleep. He always waited for the movie to end though, the longer he spent sitting next to Merlin, the better. Sometimes the warlock even fell asleep, and usually it was on Arthur's shoulder, which Arthur realized he was particularly fond of.

Ah, the feelings crisis I promised to explain... You see, Arthur became aware of certain feelings ha had. He didn't notice them at first, for example he wasn't really aware of them when they slept in the forest (which they didn't do again after that), but he was well aware of them now. They came from his heart - he was able to identify that. And he noticed that they were almost the same as the feelings he had for Gwen.

He missed her so much it hurt. But when he looked at Merlin and felt butterflies in his stomach (a term he learned when he was watching tv with Merlin), he realized that Gwen wasn't the only one he cared deeply for. In fact, he cared about Merlin so much that he was questioning whether he still saw him as his friend, let alone a brother.

A brother was so far away from what he saw in Merlin. What he would do with a brother was very far away from what he wanted to do with Merlin... what exactly did he want to do though? He didn't dare to name it, he just knew what he felt and what usually came along with it.

And he was scared. Usually he wouldn't admit it, but this time it was different. Arthur didn't know what to do, but according to what he saw on tv (and researched in his phone internet browser), feeling this way was okay these days. He was certain it wasn't allowed in the past, but it seemed the world was more accepting in the future.

And another thing he noticed was that this wasn't the first time that he felt like this. He felt almost the same ever since Merlin became his manservant. Merlin was his best friend, someone he confided in about things he wasn't sure he would tell anyone else, not even Gwen. He didn't think about giving it a name in the past (Merlin was his best friend after all) because Gwen was there and he knew he loved her. With all his heart. But Merlin's been there this entire time as well, and now that Gwen was... not here anymore...

He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, eventually reaching for his phone on the bedside table and opening the gallery. He found a few pictures of the nature (from the hunting trip and trips to the lake and from Merlin's garden - he should start thinking of it as their garden since this was his home now), and the rest of the pictures?

They were all of Merlin.

And most of them were taken secretly. There was the first one where they were both kind of smiling - it was when Merlin showed him what a phone camera was. Arthur smiled as he used his finger to get to the next photo.

It was Merlin, asleep on the couch, from the first movie night. Arthur didn't even think when he took the photo before waking Merlin up, and ever since then he kept taking pictures of Merlin whenever Merlin wasn't looking.

There was one of Merlin reading a book, another one where he was smiling, sitting at the table in the garden - Agatha took that one when she was messing with his phone, but luckily he stopped her before she could look into the gallery full of Merlin. Another photo was of Merlin working on the flowerbed in his garden and the next one was him sleeping again.

Arthur was smiling as he kept looking at the picture.

Then suddenly his door burst open and he quickly turned off the screen, turning to Merlin with wide eyes. Merlin's eyes were wide as well and happy and so was the grin on his face.

"I did it!" He exclaimed, pointing at the box in his hand. Arthur smiled and moved to the corner of the bed to make more room for Merlin so he could sit down beside him.

"Was it a spell?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah, and what is the best thing - I remembered the spell!" He was smiling at Arthur, looking so happy that he could explode and it was taking all of Arthur's will not to lean closer and... do something he would most likely regret the moment after.

"I didn't just find it somewhere," Merlin continued, "I was looking at the box, trying to think of any spell that would open it and then there it was! The spell that I needed, already in my head, and I used it and it worked and it's unlocked now and-"

"What's inside?" Arthur asked, cutting Merlin off because honestly that idiot would just keep talking until the evening.

"Right, sorry," Merlin chuckled as he took the box and placed it on the bed in front of them. "I don't really know, you open it." He nudged Arthur's arm with his elbow, looking down at the box excitedly.

Arthur carefully opened the box. It revealed a very old sigil, and Arthur's eyes almost watered when he held it in his hand, after so many years. Merlin was looking at him with a question written all over his face, so Arthur gave him the answer. "It's my mother's sigil."

"What's it doing there?" Merlin frowned.

"I gave it to you." Arthur told him and turned to look into his blue eyes. He swallowed. "It was the last thing I had left after her."

"Why would you give me such a thing?" Merlin frowned.

And wasn't the answer obvious?

Arthur swallowed again. "Because I trusted you." He smiled slightly. "Because you were the only real friend I had and in that moment... I just knew I should give it to you." He looked down. "We were facing an enemy that we weren't sure we could defeat, and you said... that we would defeat them together. You had faith in us, and I just felt like you should have it... in case something happened."

When he looked up again, Merlin was silent. He kept looking into Arthur's eyes and after a while, Arthur realized what he just did. He shared with Merlin something he never told him eye to eye, and frankly, it scared him a lot, but he realized he didn't care that much after all. Merlin still was his only true friend, and he still trusted him.

"Thank you." Merlin muttered with a tiny smile, and Arthur took that as an end to their staring session. He nodded and looked down, noticing another object in the box.

"There's a key too," he said, picking it up and giving Merlin his mother's sigil.

"What?" Merlin frowned. "What does it open?"

"Well, are there any rooms in this house that we can't open and need a key for?" Arthur asked the obvious question and they shared another look. They both knew what room they were talking about. After all, there was only one locked secret room left in the whole house, and that was the one downstairs, next to the kitchen.

"Finally," Merlin grinned.

They both stood up from the bed and ran downstairs, excited like little children that have just received a new toy they wanted so badly and kept asking their parents for. Merlin managed to put the sigil back in the box before they ran down the stairs of course, and now that they were finally standing in front of the mysterious door, he took the key from Arthur's hand (fingers slightly brushing) and finally connected it to the keyhole.

The door creaked open and they slowly walked through, holding their breaths. The room was dark because there were no windows. Merlin started looking for a light switch on the wall and Arthur started doing the same on the wall on the other side of the door.

When the light suddenly turned on, Arthur knew Merlin had to be successful in his hunt for the light switch. He turned to look at his friend, but he was already looking in front of them at the inside of the room. Arthur smiled and joined Merlin.

The room wasn't very big, but there was a lot of things. There was an old table and an open closet full of garden equipment. Then there was a glass box in the far corner of the room, and inside was... Arthur gasped. It was his crown! The same one his father wore and the one he had during the coronation!

As Arthur glanced back at Merlin, his friend wasn't looking at the crown though, he was looking at the rest of the things in the room - paintings. Arthur didn't think much about them before, but now that he looked at them, he realized one thing - they were all of him.

There were at least a hundred of small or big paintings, old and new, and all of them, every single one, was of Arthur's face. Arthur frowned and looked back at Merlin, only to see that he was already looking at Arthur. Merlin swallowed and his face was red and he cleared his throat, quickly looking back at the room to avoid Arthur's eyes.

And Arthur was speechless. Merlin kept drawing his face, over and over again, and either they didn't get to that part of his life in the diaries or he didn't write about it there. But Arthur didn't need a diary to know why Merlin kept drawing him over the years.

So that he wouldn't forget his face.

It was sad when you thought about it. Arthur has been gone for so long, and Merlin kept living and even though he was immortal and had magic, he still feared he would forget how Arthur looked like. That he would forget everything and not wait for him anymore.

"Well," Arthur cleared his throat as he finally broke the silence and walked over to the closest painting. "I didn't know you could draw like this." He said and picked up the painting, looking at it. It was as if he was looking at himself in the mirror, but not all of the paintings were like that.

Merlin wasn't always good like this, the older paintings didn't look like him at all, it was just a blonde head with blue eyes and red full lips, but they kept getting better. Merlin paid extra attention to his hair, the corners of his eyes and mouth, to his nose and even to his ears and cheeks. The painting he was holding was probably the more recent one because as Arthur was looking at it, he realized that the colours were probably new and the blue of his eyes looked somehow more real. As did his hair and the red cloak that Merlin painted around his shoulders.

"I didn't know either." Arthur heard Merlin say in a weak voice. He knew it was a lie, he saw Merlin drawing with a pencil when he was alone in his room and Arthur just walked in. Merlin always tried to hide what he was doing, but now it was obvious to Arthur what was he drawing all this time. Even when he didn't know he used to do that before the accident, he came back to the activity and started drawing again, in secret.

It looked so real as if it was one of the photographs in Arthur's phone.

Arthur sighed. "You're very talented," he said without realizing he was actually complimenting that idiot. But did he care? No, he didn't because Merlin really was talented. He perfected his talent over the years, but Arthur was pretty sure he was awful at drawing back in Camelot.

"Thanks," Merlin said and moved closer to Arthur to look at the other paintings. Arthur put the painting down and walked over to the table. There were brushes of various sizes there, together with used colourful sponges and other colours. When he opened one of the drawers, he gasped again.

After Merlin walked over to him to see what Arthur found, Arthur showed him. There were a few other, old paintings hidden in the drawer. One was of Camelot, but there were more. There was Gwen, Gaius, Gwaine and Leon, Lancelot, Percival and even Elyan. All the knights and their queen.

"I have a feeling I know who they are," Merlin mumbled as he took the one of Gaius and looked at it. Arthur waited, looking at Merlin and wishing that he would remember. It was taking too long already, the doctor said he would remember, and if this didn't help then Arthur didn't know what else would.

"Go on, tell me." Arthur encouraged him.

Merlin frowned as he was looking at the old man with long white hair on the painting. "Um... Ga... Gei... Goua...Gis?" Merlin tried, and Arthur had to roll his eyes.

"Come on, Merlin." He told him. "We already talked so many times about him, how the hell don't you remember his name? It's so obvious, you're so close!" To be honest, Arthur noticed that some of the things he told Merlin, were lost again. It was as if Merlin couldn't hold the information inside his brain, and it was scaring Arthur a lot. For now though, he didn't want to think about it. "Try again." He encouraged him.

Merlin sighed and closed his eyes, clearly concentrating. "It's uh... it's ... Gais? No... it's Gaius." He smiled up at Arthur and Arthur was smiling back at him, proud of Merlin that he was able to remember on his own.

"Yes! That's him." He took the picture and gave Merlin another one. "Now try this one, you know this, come on."

"That's Gwen." Merlin smiled. And Arthur couldn't stop grinning and handing Merlin the rest of the paintings, waiting for his responses that kept coming. "This is Gwaine, and Leon, and um... Percival? I know this one, that's Lancelot. And ... I don't remember this one, is that Gwen's brother?"

"Yes, that's-"

"Elyan." Merlin finished for him.

"Yes." Arthur couldn't be happier. He looked into Merlin's eyes, trying to find one last answer that he needed at that moment. "What else can you remember?" He asked him. "Do you... do you remember-"

"Only the faces and names." Merlin shrugged with a sad sigh. "Sorry, we'll just have to keep reading the diary and talking about it, I don't know why I can't remember." He looked down and his shoulders slumped and Arthur sighed, putting the paintings back into the drawer. They would need to put them somewhere into the house so they could look at them every day, they looked so real!

"It's alright." Arthur nodded, trying to hide his disappointment. "You'll remember. In time." He added. "Until then though," he grinned and waited for Merlin to look up at him. Arthur grabbed the colours and brushes and smiled. "Until then, we can paint!"

"Oh god, Arthur." Merlin closed his eyes in regret and laughed as he accepted the brushes Arthur handed him. "Let's see if you can be better than me, then."

"Oh you just wait," Arthur smirked.

"Shut up."

xoXÖXox

Agatha was just on her way to Glastonbury after she visited her sister who returned from Australia about two weeks ago. Her sister was happy to see that Agatha was alive and well, but that didn't mean they could ignore the situation in England and maybe even all over the world. They talked about it a lot, but Agatha couldn't say anything about Merlin and Arthur, her sister wouldn't believe her and she felt like she didn't have the right to tell anyone. So far it seemed no one needed to know because Arthur and Merlin were doing just fine on their own.

The situation I'm talking about is the one that the storm caused. The storm was only the beginning, and when Arthur finally came back, magic was unleashed back into the world, coming back to anyone whose ancestors once possessed the gift.

At first people thought it was only hallucination, but soon not even the news could keep lying. People didn't believe them and soon they found out that magic wasn't a hallucination and no one was truly ill.

A lot of people didn't want to believe what was happening - there was more suicides than in the last two years combined, but those who stayed and accepted their abilities divided into two major categories. One - they wanted to help or keep the gift to themselves, helping out only friends or in household. And two - they used their gift to steal and break the law.

It was all over the news again, warning people to report anyone who used magic in the wrong way. The law had to be adjusted and even the queen had something to say to all of that. Scientists started thinking of ways how to make thieves with magic stop using magic, but nothing was working so far.

The whole society was breaking apart, but Agatha believed that it would come together again, maybe in a few years.

Magic has spread through Europe, Asia and America so far, but Australia and Africa were soon to have magic too.

But Glastonbury? Glastonbury was still mostly the same, safe for a few people who discovered they had magical talents too. Agatha was glad for that because Bristol was different ever since magic returned, and she found out she most enjoyed her weekends spent with either Morgan or Merlin with Arthur.

She drove straight to the lake and parked in front of Merlin's house, getting out of the car and honking at anyone who was in the garden.

"Merlin?" She called. "Arthur? Guess who came to visit?"

The gate opened and both Merlin and Arthur appeared, grinning like two idiots that they were. Agatha had already learned that. She smiled when she saw them, and her smile got even bigger when she realized what they looked like.

Both dressed in white sheets, with colour splattered everywhere. Merlin's hair was red around his left ear and Arthur had green and blue on his cheeks and above his eyebrow. They were both holding used brushes and a palettes with almost every colour she knew existed on them.

"What oh earth have you two been doing?" She asked, laughing at their appearance.

"Painting," Arthur answered as he tried to attack Merlin with his purple brush, but Merlin didn't let him and made him paint himself with his magic. "Not fair!" Arthur laughed and Merlin just rolled his eyes.

"I don't want to see the rest of the house." Agatha mumbled, but she locked the car and let them lead her into the garden anyway.

"We found a key to the locked room downstairs," Merlin explained as Agatha nodded and opened her notepad, writing down a new prompt.

Two characters (who don't like each other?) start fighting and it turns into the most childish play ever - colours?

"Wait," she paused as she realized what Merlin actually said. She looked up at his colourful face and grinned. "You found a key?" She exclaimed in excitement. "When did this happen? Why didn't you call me?" She grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him, grinning like an idiot. Oh well, she fit well into the group.

Merlin laughed as he answered. "About two hours ago," he said. Arthur laughed too and returned his painting. "It's full of paintings that I'd made, although I still don't remember that."

Agatha ignored the last sentence because of the excitement she still felt and grabbed Merlin's hand, leading him inside. "You need to show me!" She laughed and turned around only to notice Arthur giving Merlin a smirk as they disappeared inside the house again.

Merlin opened the door to the room with the key he kept in his pocket under the not-so-white sheet and showed her around. Her mouth opened wide as she looked around at all those beautiful pictures and colours and the holy shi- "A crown!" She exclaimed.

"Yup," Merlin smiled. "It's Arthur's. I found out I kept it."

"You must have been very lonely, judging by the paintings," she smirked when she saw literally all of them were of Arthur. She turned to Merlin and saw the light blush on his cheeks. Wait a minute... "Merlin," she said his name, smiling and looking into his eyes that he tried to avoid.

"What? It's nothing, I just... drew and painted his face a lot... it's.. it's... nothing. I was bored." He stuttered, and she could almost feel the way his heart started beating so fast. Her smirk got bigger and she glanced behind the door to see if Arthur was still in the garden - he was, so she turned back to Merlin and narrowed her eyes.

"Is there something you're not telling me?" She asked. Merlin swallowed and opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, so he closed it again and looked around, not really knowing what to say or do.

"You know you can tell me whatever you want, right?" Her smirk turned into a gentle smile and she put her hand on his shoulder to maybe try and soothe him somehow. And it worked, judging by his slumped shoulders and the sigh. He closed his eyes and hung his head, slowly turning back to Agatha.

"Alright, alright..." he muttered. "I... I don't really know how to say this." he admitted as he looked into her eyes, looking for some help.

She smiled at him. "Are you... do you... I don't think you need to explain, I think I know what's going on." She told him and was glad when he finally smiled as well. "And don't worry, I won't tell him." She winked at him.

"Thank you." He smiled.

"No problem." She smiled at him reassuringly.

"I guess I didn't want to forget his face, too." He mumbled with a slightly sad smile on his face. Agatha looked at him and nodded, understanding what he meant. He must have had so many lonely nights over the thousand years that he spent only waiting.

"He's here now." She told him and squeezed his shoulder. He nodded slightly and smiled up at her.

When he turned around and went back to the garden, she pulled out her notepad and slowly followed him.

Two characters (who don't likelove each other?) start fighting and it turns into the most childish play ever - colours?

She smiled when she put her notepad back to her pocket and left the living room, finally joining her friends in the garden. "Well, show me what you're painting!" She smiled as she saw they were attacking each other with the brushes again.

Merlin was trying to paint the garden with Arthur in the background with donkey ears. At least that's what he told Agatha because all he had so far was one pretty good corner of the garden, but the rest of the painting was covered in splotches of Arthur's red brush with donkey ears that Merlin was trying to paint now, in peace.

Arthur on the other hand, was painting Merlin with gold eyes, and there were no splotches of Merlin's brushes there, the splotches were on Arthur's face instead as he had tried to protect his creation from Merlin's hands.

Agatha joined them and started painting a meadow with horses and neither Merlin nor Arthur dared to use their brushes on her painting.

xoXÖXox

"I'll be right there!" Merlin called at Agatha and Arthur about two hours later, running upstairs to fetch his old book of magic. They had cleaned everything up and left the paintings to dry on the table in the garden, and then they decided to go to the lake together.

And Merlin had a brilliant idea - to take his magic book with him so he could show them all the spells he had learned so far. All he needed to do was to find it under the loose parquet where he left it...

Once he ran back with the book in his hand and a warm coat in another, he left the house and saw that Ag and Arthur were already waiting for him behind the gate. He went to them and locked, following them up the hill.

"It's so cold here," Agatha said as they reached the first hill.

"I heard that it should get warmer again this week, almost twenty degrees." Merlin smiled. He couldn't wait for the last warm days before the real cold began. The winter was coming after all, and not just in the Game of Thrones series.

"Oh, really?" Agatha turned to him, walking backwards for a few seconds. "We should make a trip or something. Have some fun before we have to stay inside or leave only with a coat and a scarf."

"What do you suggest?" Arthur asked when they were almost by the shore. Merlin turned right so they could walk around the lake and hide in the tiny forest between the hills.

"I was thinking of... a sea, and a beach." She smiled. "Last time I was by the sea was when I was eight years old, that was with my parents and my sister, and I think our grandma was there too." She was smiling as she was saying this. "I thought we could all get into my car and just drive and drive and drive until we got there. We would book a room in a hotel and stay for a few days and then get back."

"That doesn't sound bad at all." Merlin smiled, stopping by a tree and sitting down into the yellow leaves and the dark green moss. He opened his book of magic and prepared a spell that was his favorite so far.

"So it's settled then?" Agatha sat down right next to him, smiling from ear to ear.

"It's settled." Merlin and Arthur said in unison, smiling at each other and at Agatha who was sitting between them. "We'll have to take some coats though, just to be sure." Merlin added and Agatha nodded.

"Well, show us your spells then," Arthur encouraged Merlin and the warlock happily started doing some magic. He clasped his hands together and whispered something into them, opening them again.

A blue glowing butterfly flew out of his hand, making both Agatha and Arthur gasp and stare at it with sparkling eyes as it flew away, towards the lake.

xoXÖXox

Agatha was brushing her hair, sitting at the corner of Morgan's bed and preparing for their movie night. They were supposed to watch Sherlock together, the whole season 3 again and the special too if they weren't asleep by that time yet. She was really looking forward to it, she wanted to watch Sherlock with Merlin and Arthur too, but Merlin argued that he hasn't watched all the Harry Potter movies with Arthur yet and that they had to wait.

She left them in the forest after Merlin showed them a few more spells. Morgan called her that she was ready and that if they were about to watch all four episodes that she should come over as soon as she could, so she said her goodbyes and left them there, driving to Morgan's flat in Glastonbury.

But where was she? Morgan said she would go for the cookies in the oven that had been baking there, but she wasn't back yet. Agatha frowned and left the room, slowly making her way to the kitchen.

"Damn it, not now." She heard Morgan's worried voice. She paused, contemplating whether she should go there or should rather return to the living room, but she couldn't help but be curious.

So she tiptoed to the door and peeked over the corner, looking at Morgan. She had a high ponytail and two oven mitts on her hands, looking at the cookies as if they were to blame for whatever happened.

There were three candles on the window, only one of which was burning. Morgan closed her eyes and frowned, holding her hand (that she must have burned with the cookies) and the two other candles started burning. Agatha's eyes widened and Morgan's gold eyes widened as well as she turned to the candles and quickly blew them out.

Then she took off one of the oven mitts (which looked like it had a hole in it) and looked at her finger, quickly washing it under a stream of cold water.

Agatha quickly hid behind the corner and tiptoed back to the room, sitting down on the bed.

Morgan had magic. That meant that someone from her ancestors must have had magic too. And now Morgan had magic. She had to call Merlin and tell him, but... Morgan was still there and she could hear her...

The door opened and Morgan walked in with two glasses of milk and the cookies on a plate in the middle of a blue tray. "Sorry it took so long," she apologized as she set the tray down on the table in front of them and in front of the tv. "I burnt my finger."

"No, it's okay." Agatha smiled and cleared her throat as Morgan sat down beside her. Then she turned the tv on. "Let's finally get our weekly dose of Benedict Cumberbatch."

"Here we come, Mr. Holmes."

TBC

Why do I always make the chapters so long?! I hope you liked it though, if I remember right, it took me long to write XD And I learned some new words too, like splotches or oven mitts. See mom? Writing fanfiction does help with school! :D