Merlin walked steadily over the dunes. He heard the soft sound of the sea and the strong waves that were fighting against the rocks in the water. The smell of the endless ocean made him feel calm and brought a smile on his face. He was home.
He crossed the last dune before he saw his house. It was made from wood, but they'd painted it white by using Magic. He saw smoke coming out of the chimney, which was the sign he could expect a very nice, warm meal this evening. She could cook much better than him, he didn't even manage to make a decent soup.
"Dad! Dad!" Merlin heard the well-known voice, it was music in his ears, and he saw a little child running towards the hill he was descending. Her long, black hair waved in the wind.
She stretched her arms to him, and he pulled her from the ground and hugged her tightly.
"Dad, mum has learned me how to make flowers out of nothing", she spoke, proud.
"She did?" Merlin asked surprised, though he most certainly wasn't. In fact, he hadn't expect less.
"Yes," his daughter said, "look." She jumped on the ground and spoke, with a strong voice "Blost'me". Her green eyes turned gold and a beautiful, red rose appeared in her small hands.
"That's very nice", Merlin said, impressed. He looked up to the house and smiled when he saw her, his lovely wife and the person he would love forever, standing in the doorway, smiling brightly.
Morgana...
Merlin opened his eyes, shocked by the image he had seen. It had only been a dream.
He sighed and couldn't help but feeling kind of sad. He didn't know what his future contained, but it most certainly wasn't him and Morgana living on the seaside, having a child and being free to use Magic whenever they wanted. Although he never had a dream like this before, he sometimes remembered Morgana before she turned against Camelot. She was a frank and stubborn teenager, but she had a good heart and Merlin knew it was a privilege that he was able to call her a friend. He especially reminded one particular night, already four years back, when he went to her room in the evening after she returned from her short but tensive trip to the Druids. She had been reassured, or so he had believed. She told him maybe one day people would come to see Magic as a force for good. He had smiled and she had smiled back. He felt she knew he understood her and he was going to keep her secret. He had never been closer to Morgana than in those few seconds when they just smiled at each other in the cold night.
It was then Merlin, for the first time in his life, really considered to tell someone he had Magic. He'd got used to keep his secret, but it just felt so right to tell her. He didn't.
There were days it felt like the biggest mistake of his life, and if Merlin didn't know it was Morgana's destiny to become his worst enemy, he would most likely have been knocking himself until he started bleeding, because he had been so utterly stupid not to tell her.
Merlin stood up with a strange feeling in his stomach. He didn't presume it would be easy to forget about his dream.
Merlin left his small room and walked down the five stairs to go to Gaius' chambers. It looked like it always had been: as a complete chaos with only one person who knew perfectly where he had to look.
The old man glanced out of the window. Even with his cane it was hard for him to stand straight.
Merlin saw Gaius becoming weaker each day, and nothing could hurt more than that. Gaius told Merlin it was only a normal aspect of life. His days were over and he was silently waiting for the moment he would close his eyes and never wake up again. It was time for him to go.
"Good morning, Gaius", Merlin said with a sad tone in his voice.
"Good morning, Merlin", Gaius answered. He turned his head and smiled at the boy. "Why do you look so depressed?" His voice sounded old and fragile, but still as kind as always.
"I'm just tired." Merlin scratched in his dishevelled hair. He didn't want to tell Gaius about his dream. It had been too private and he didn't want to bother his oldest friend with something as strange as he and Morgana being together.
"Before you go to the King, would you like to get me some rosemary? Then I can show you this afternoon how you make Uther's medicine", Gaius said. Now Gaius knew his end was near, Merlin would step in his place as the new court physician, but he still needed to learn a lot, and they didn't have much time left.
Merlin nodded and left Gaius' chambers. At the market he bought some rosemary, put it in his pocket and went to the castle, to see if Arthur needed anything.
"Merlin, finally", Arthur said, when Merlin entered the King's room.
"Good morning, Sire."
"Merlin, clean my chain mail, will you? I want it to be as good as new", Arthur ordered. Merlin nodded automatically while he started to make the bed. "Oh, and pick some flowers for Gwen."
"Why can't you do that yourself? She is your wife", Merlin said before he realised he had to keep his bad temper for himself.
"I am the King, Merlin. I've got something better to do than picking flowers", Arthur reacted annoyed.
If he only knew how many times I've saved his life...
Merlin thought it so often he wondered why he still hadn't yearned it to Arthur. It was true he was the King and most of the time Merlin was pretty proud of him and found he was doing a good job, but on other days, he could just shout at Arthur he had to keep his big mouth shut because he -Merlin- was a powerful sorcerer.
On those days, Merlin wished his destiny had been to be happy, and not to protect King Asshole.