Epilogue
The jostling and rocking stirs him to consciousness, lacking the warmth from his cocoon of blankets, though it feels as if a suit jacket has been wrapped around him instead, barely covering his lower regions. Beneath the jacket he's naked, not having bothered with clothing the night before.
Sudden brightness wakes him fully, the light almost searing past his closed eyelids. He barely registers the new warmth, pressing his face into the chest of the person carrying him. The smell is familiar and so is the laboured breathing. Arthur had been over the night before, so why is he back?
Squinting his eyes open, he barely makes out his lover's features. "Arthur?" Merlin rasps.
When his eyes are half-way open, his eyes train onto the wheat gold strands of Arthur's hair, and his first thoughts is that he was right, the Avalon's fluorescent lights don't do it justice.
"Sir!" a voice Merlin recognizes calls. The heat of embarrassment flushes his face, seeing Gaius calling to them from beside a limousine, viewing his obvious lack of attire. As Gaius moves to open the door for them, he smiles kindly, giving Merlin a weird sense of deja-vu from the time when Gaius had first brought him here. The absurd thought that this is the same limousine comes to mind, before he readily dispels the notion.
He's gently placed onto the seats before Arthur clambers inside with him.
"What's going on?" he asks, still slightly tired, but more aware as he placidly watches Arthur fix the jacket more securely around his shoulders.
"I can no longer stay in the city."
Limousine pitches forward, and the force of the sudden movement gives Merlin the sudden epiphany that he's outside the Avalon.
"It seems the authorities have enough to convict my father." Arthur continues, looking out the tinted windows.
He's almost afraid to do the same, only to eventually give in. It's been a really long time and he doesn't recognize anything, expect for the few food stalls and stores that stayed in business the past years. At some point, he had forgotten that Arthur had ever given Tristan the information that jeopardized his own criminal inheritance a year ago.
Now, finally, the castle has fallen.
"And you?" he asks, wanting to know how much danger Arthur has put himself in.
"Nothing." Arthur smiles, almost smugly, and continues on nonchalantly, "At least nothing yet. Who knows what they'll dig up."
Merlin doesn't comment, unsure whether Arthur is hiding his pain, or if the Syndicate heir has something in the works. "So you're going into hiding." Arthur's fiddling with the buttons on the jacket Merlin's wearing. "And, you're taking me with you?"
The jacket is brought tighter around him, before Arthur drags a thumb across his cheekbones. "Don't be an idiot, Merlin."
He moves with instinct, drifting into Arthur's arms to place a strong, closed-mouthed kiss to Arthur's lips. When he pulls back he can feel giddiness bubbling up, his smile bright and carefree. Arthur gives him a friendly smirk, and Merlin would roll his eyes if Arthur wasn't pulling him in for another, deeper, kiss.
He looks out at the view, never tiring of the sight of trees, snow, and rocky slopes, or the smell of clean fresh air. They had ridden in an airplane to this mountain hideaway, and he uses every moment to stare out the window in wonder. He had never been outside of the city before, nor flown thousands of feet in the air, and enjoyed the sight of the buildings he knew turning into miniature toys, like an old child pastime for which he holds neither nostalgia nor hate. The plane flew through clouds, just swirls of mist that had always looked tangible from the ground.
Arthur had sat beside him, looking on, amused, watching a first time flyer fear the new feeling of his ears popping and the tremble of the plane, and the equal child-like excitement. Eventually he was able to pry Merlin from the window when it became too dark to see, and celebrate their escape. Merlin had kissed him over and over, nuzzled his nose to Arthur's, and laughed at the couple-like quality of it.
Even four days sitting beside this window, it's difficult to comprehend that he is no longer in the Avalon. Every morning he has the desire to change the sheets and put on a suit. Arthur had needed to find someone to bring him clothing that fit, other than the few pieces of Arthur's clothing kept at this place that he could wear.
That morning Arthur had gone away, saying that he had a surprise. Merlin busies himself with a book from the library, with a dictionary at his side so he can find out what some of the words are supposed to mean, even if he still doesn't know how to say them.
About halfway through the book, he notices that it's lightly snowing outside. There's a small black object in the distance moving up the mountain towards the house. Merlin watches as the car approaches along the private roadway, wondering how many of these places Arthur has around the world. He'd mentioned taking him to an island, and at the time Merlin hadn't even been able to fathom the airplane, let alone an island.
As the car gets nearer, Merlin can make out a figure in the passenger seat with Arthur, and wonders whether he should make himself scarce if Arthur's conducting business. Even though the Pendragon Syndicate's gone now, Arthur's going to resurrect it when the time is right.
The snow makes it difficult to see the man stepping out of the car, and Merlin slips away from the window, because he doesn't trust that they won't be able to see him. He waits silently in the middle of the room, listening to the door open and shut.
"Merlin," Arthur calls, moments later.
He doesn't call back, waiting for the password like Arthur instructed him to.
"Merlin, you cooking in the kitchen?"
One day, he'd like to know why Arthur chose that as the signal that everything is safe. Maybe his lover is being intentionally cruel over the story that Merlin had cooked a rat once to eat. He's tempted to do it again and slip it in Arthur's food one day. He's been getting the housekeeper to teach him how to cookâhe'll simply put it in when she's not looking. Maybe if any of Arthur's men, who were all told to go underground when the Syndicate was busted, find their way here, Gwen will be part of the group. He wants her in on the joke.
"I'm upstairs," Merlin calls back, peeking his head out the door. Arthur's looking at him a bit anxiously. "Is everything alright?"
"How was your day?"
"Good. You're looking nervous," he points out.
"Yeah," Arthur lays a comforting hand onto one of his shoulders, "I don't want you to be nervous."
"You're the one who's nervous."
"I have someone who wants to meet you," Arthur says to him cautiously, squeezing his shoulder. "It's okay to be nervous."
Realization dawns upon Merlin as he thinks about the figure in the car. He looks behind Arthur, despite knowing that he would have left the man in the parlour room downstairs.
"He's downstairs?" Merlin asks.
"I'll take you there if you want."
"I can go by myself," he says.
"If you want."
Merlin nods, eyes on the stairs. In no time he's in front of the parlour room doors with no memories of the trip down, only feeling anxious excitement as he opens the door and walks in.
The man in front of Merlin looks worn, the hair on his head and beard both beginning to grey. The clothes he's wearing look brand new, and Merlin's got an inkling that Arthur had bought it for him before they arrived here.
Neither of them are aware what they should do, and Merlin does his best to keep himself from shifting foot to foot, while across from him, the man works up the courage to speak.
"My name's Balinor."
"I know," Merlin quickly replies, with quiet excitement.
"You'll have the whole day to talk," Arthur interrupts, from the parlour entrance.
"Thank you," Balinor says politely enough, the trickle of distrust evident.
Merlin could only assume it to be due to Arthur's last name. His lover closes the door, before Merlin has a chance to acknowledge his own gratitude.
But his father is standing in front of him, and he finally has the chance to learn so much more about him and his mother. With the Avalon thousands of miles away, Merlin is free to show Arthur his thanks anytime he wishes.
Thank you for reviewing, alerts, adding the story as a favourite, and simply just reading the story. You also probably want to take it off story alerts because there's nothing to alert to anymore, the Ocean Blue verse is officially done.
I hoped you enjoyed reading Merlin's journey. I have my own thoughts of how this story went, but I don't mind hearing yours. Whether it be a simple smiley face or a long drawn review.