Watching Merlin's Life

Chapter 5

I do not own Merlin

The screen showed Merlin holding a sack in his hand outside his house as Hunith stood there with Anna who was giggling as she looked at a butterfly.

"She's adorable," Gwen said immediately with a smile on her face.

"Well of course she is, if someone like you is her mother," Gwaine winked at Meilani and Merlin narrowed his eyes at him making him cough and say, "Sorry mate. Habit." The siblings both rolled their eyes in tandem and they saw the similarities between them despite not being related by blood.

"Do I have to go?" Merlin asked his mother a frown on his face.

"Go where?" Gwaine asked with furrowed brows.

"To Camelot, you idiot," Meilani said with a roll of her eyes. "Where else?"

"Oi! I am not an idiot," Gwaine said indignantly but there was a grin on his face.

"Could have fooled me," Meilani smirked at him.

"That smirk does not bode well for any man," Gwaine said with a roguish grin in place.

"Gwaine," Merlin said warningly and Gwaine just lifted his hands as a show of surrender but there was a smirk on his lips as he winked at Meilani who promptly rolled her eyes at him.

"It's for the best. You need to get away from here. Not only because of what you're thinking, but because it's killing you. You haven't smiled a real smile, not once, not since the f-funeral. She wouldn't want you withering away in memory of her and I can't lose you either," Hunith said.

The others frowned just realising as they thought about it. When was the last time Merlin had smiled a true real smile that reached his eyes? It hurt the lot of them to realise that they truly didn't know.

"I can't leave though. I promised to protect her, and you. I can't go back on that," Merlin said shaking his head.

"Oh my son. I promise you we will be safe. What I care about now, is you. You can visit when you want to but you need to make a life for yourself, away from here, away from the memories. You need to find yourself and you can't do that here," Hunith said as she affectionately cupped his cheek.

"But..." Merlin began.

"No buts," Hunith said with a smile and he sighed as he kissed her forehead and picked up Anna.

"So I guess this is goodbye then," Merlin said with sadness in his eyes as he looked at the giggling baby with affection in his eyes. He hugged her to him kissing her head as he said, "I'm going to miss you Anna."

He got a few words of gurgled gibberish in return but he smiled anyway and Hunith said, "I think that means I miss you too Uncle Merls, wasn't it darling?" She got a giggle in response.

"How old is she here?" Leon asked with a smile on his face.

"At this time, she was around 3 months," Merlin responded and they realised that his mother had just said that he hadn't smiled in all that time, and if he did, it wasn't truly real and they all frowned at that. It just didn't fit with the image of Merlin they all had in their head, but for how long had they lived with that image and completely looked past what seemed so obvious to them now?

"I'm going to miss you mother," Merlin said as he hugged her.

"I'll miss you too honey," Hunith said pressing a kiss to his forehead and then Merlin gave the two one last look before he turned and walked away as the scene shifted to show Merlin walking up a hill as a voice was heard speaking.