Always Maybe

Everybody Love Parfait

Hi, guys! I'm going to write more, but I also need to wrap this fic up. It's been a long run, and I want to give you guys a good ending. After I finish this, I'm going to write another one, but I'm going to try and make it more interesting, regular, and plotty. I feel like this book has been, for the most part, drama and fluff, and I would really love to play around with the characters in another AU. If you have any setting ideas or anything for the next story, let me know so I can write what you guys want!

Merlin waited for Arthur to get ready in the morning. Merlin woke up him up at seven and told him to quietly get ready for the day, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Hunith had come home late the previous night and hadn't been made aware of their special guest. Merlin didn't want to spring it on her, so he figured that if he and Arthur were quiet, they might manage to sneak out with her knowing of Arthur's presence. They could tell her later, when they needed to.

Merlin knocked on Arthur's door once more, wondering what the prat could be doing in there. It was already seven twenty, and Merlin wasn't sure why it was taking him so long to get ready. He wondered if he was primping.

"Arthur," he hissed through the door. He'd locked it, of course. Now Merlin had no way in.

There was a mangled "hmmph" from the other side of the door.

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Arthur Pendragon, if you're still sleeping--"

"I'm up, I'm up," he heard Arthur complain.

"You'd better be downstairs in five minutes or no breakfast," Merlin warned.

"Fine, mum."

Merlin chuckled to himself as he went downstairs to prepare a small breakfast for everyone. He decided to make Hunith something too, just to try and make up for all the times she had made things for him. He first started with the Kilgarrah, putting some food in his bowl and setting it by the door. He gave his ears a scratch and smiled when the dog smiled back at him.

Then he went over to the kitchen and looked in the fridge to see what challenge he could tackle. Eggs seemed complicated with the cracking and beating, and pancakes were out of the question. He saw yogurt and berries, so he settled for three fruit parfaits. He went into the pantry to grab the granola, and we he came back into the kitchen, Hunith was staring at the ingredients he'd left on the counter.

"Were you making breakfast?" she asked.

Merlin nodded and set the granola down next to the berries. "I wanted to do something nice," he said. It was half true, but she didn't need to know that. She also didn't need to know about a certain lazy boyfriend that was sure to come thumping down the stairs at any moment.

"Well, this is--"

"You're ruining the surprise, mum. I was going to serve it to you as breakfast in bed," Merlin said upon hearing Arthur's heavy feet clunk around.

Hunith smiled and slowly made her way out of the kitchen. "Oh, Merlin," she beamed. "I'll just pretend I didn't see a thing."

Her retreat was perfect timing, because once Merlin heard her make her way into her room, a blond prat made his way into the kitchen, yawning and rubbing his eyes like a cat. Merlin rolled his eyes, lovingly of course, and signaled for him to sit down at the table.

"Parfait?" He asked, looking at Merlin's concoction.

He nodded. "Yes, and you'd better like it. This almost got you discovered, meaning almost got me in quite an amount of trouble."

Arthur shrugged as Merlin placed the bowl in front of him. "I'm worth it, I'm sure."

Merlin retrieved his mothers bowl, and a glass of juice, and set them on a tray to take to her. "Now we'll be late, though. Which means we'll have to sign in at the office," Merlin explained. "When I get back, you'd better be ready to drive us to school."

When Merlin left, he left Arthur with his thoughts. He'd had a restless night and was unable to fall asleep until five, just to be woken up shortly after. He had spent the night on Google, searching for a variety of different things, all far from Albion.

He was worried about going to school and about seeing Uther. He knew his father wouldn't be able to hurt him in such a public place, but he also knew that he wouldn't try to make things easy. Arthur wondered about how he would ever go home again, or if he would have to drop out of school and move away.

He heard a laugh come from Hunith's room as her son "surprised" her with breakfast in bed, and he frowned.  He frowned not only because he knew he'd never have that with his own family, but because he knew he would soon be the one to take Merlin's smile off his face.

He stuffed his face with yogurt to try and stuff these thoughts back down where he could not retrieve them.