Sup, merry 25th of Dec, sorry it's so late, anyway, here we go last one of this little mini series ^_^ Oh and look at the bottom author's note for a surprise :)
They were a tangle of legs and arms. All on the sofa, sleeping in awkward positions that could, from an outside perspective look incredibly wrong. Merlin, Arthur and Leola slept atop each other, they looked content and comfortable. Obviously, it being the 25th of December, it was not to last.
"GUYS!"
There was a moan from the two older boys.
"MERLIN, ARTHUR! IT'S CHRISTMAS!"
Merlin opened his eyes to see a very excited Leola, she was hopping about saying, "He's been, he's been!"
Arthur barely opened his eyes before shutting them again. This was a mistake. Leola grabbed his arm and pulled him to the floor, bringing Merlin with him. They landed with a crash in front of the Christmas tree, which Leola had gone to the trouble of turning on the lights.
Underneath the tree was a whole host of presents, in many different colours and styles of wrapping paper, all of them had either 'M' 'A' or 'L' on them, in beautiful curly writing, unless it was a present from a friend or family member. Merlin stared at the wide grin on Leola's face and said, "Fine, youngest first. That means you Leo."
She turned her head and the expression on her face was a mixture of excitement and the utmost thanks. She shut her eyes and smiled gleefully, before diving into the swimming pool of presents.
O
After much chocolate and Santa presents later, Merlin held Leola's present to him in his hands. It was expertly wrapped, with no use of sticky tape or glue. He turned it over in his hands before gaining the courage to open it. What he saw, he was not expecting.
It was old. Extremely old. The cover was torn and the writing was hard to read, but what it was, was something someone who didn't have magic would never be able to comprehend. To Arthur it was a brand-spanking new book about some subject or another, but to a warlock's eyes it showed its true form.
'A warlock's guide to ancient magic.' The kind of magic that a select few could use, Merlin and Leola being two of them. It was notoriously difficult to learn, and ancient warlocks of old had spent years perfecting the craft. Now with only a handful left, most in Japan, there was no one to teach the remaining few from the lands of myths and magic.
The book was in Japanese, but over every sentence, in perfect writing was the translation, done by Leola herself. She had carefully gone over the fading Japanese characters, as well as touching up on her seven year old self's translations. It had been painstaking. She had spent many a night in the dark and the cold carefully and quietly refreshing the book, making sure that Merlin could use his magic like he deserved.
There was just a look between them that said everything about the emotions that the book carried and would carry throughout the rest of their lives.
O
Merlin's gift filled Leola's heart with joy, but he couldn't help but feel that a couple of quid on a Doctor Who book, was nowhere near enough the amount of effort Leola had spent on his gift. Arthur had sensed Merlin was down, and when Leola was setting the oven, he pulled him into the living room.
In a hushed voice Arthur started to question Merlin, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it doesn't matter."
"So something is wrong."
Merlin said nothing.
"Merlin, c'mon, don't ruin today. You know Leo is really good at spotting when people are upset, you don't want to make her feel down, do you?"
Merlin shook his head.
"Look, it's Christmas today, I think you should just relax and stop worrying about her opinion of you, and just calm down. She loved your present, just as you loved hers and mine. Please Merlin, this is the one day that she could break, so just, just, don't do anything that I wouldn't do."
"You want me to be a prat?"
Arthur just glared at Merlin's laughing face, when Leola entered.
"Arthur, can you cook?"
O
The Christmas dinner was spectacular. The three friends sat round a table, each one of them forgetting that Arthur was meant to have gone home already. They ate together, played charades together and read shitty cracker jokes together. All the while Arthur learnt new, very British traditions that his family had never practised before, leaving him with the best Christmas for 14 years. Leola smiled and constantly laughed and everything seemed perfect.
It was not to last.
O
"NO!"
There was an intense moment of silence.
"What Leo, what's wrong?"
"It's the TV, it's broken, and Doctor Who starts in... FIVE MINUTES! WE'RE GOING TO MISS IT!"
Arthur smiled, what a Leola thing to panic about.
"Don't worry, we can get the channel on my tablet, then plug it into the TV."
Leola's eyes peeped around the kitchen door, wide and teary.
"Thank-you."
Merlin and Arthur just started to grin.
O
"Thank-you so much Arthur."
There was silence.
"Arthur?"
Leola turned to look at the blonde boy sat next to her. There was a long silence before he finally spoke.
"How many seasons do you have?"
Nice little ending do you think? Anyway I bet you are only here to know what my surprise is, aren't you. Well... I'm doing a contest! Yay! To celebrate new year, I want some fan art of this story to use as its cover. I have been using online stuff, which is great and all, but I want to know what you guys see as the characters. ^_^
I want you to include at least one of the characters (preferably Leola, Merlin, Arthur, Morgana or Gwen) but feel free to add in more :) Please don't make them festive, because it will be the cover for THE REST OF TIME. I don't care if you don't think you can draw, because I assure you it's better than mine. Send your entries to my e-mail (to get it please PM me) and the closing date is the 1st January 2015. Good luck.
PS. I am not totally sure if this is allowed, if not, I will take this down, which will be sad. Let's just hope it's okay.