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It's after dark when Arthur finally manages to slip away from the crowds. Merlin looks up from where he's twirling Gwen around the great hall, both of them flushed and grinning with excitement, and catches Arthur's eye. Arthur shakes his head once, grateful that after all the years between them, Merlin knows what he means without a word spoken. Merlin nods and doesn't follow.
He's not sure where he's headed, but when he ends up at the door to Gaius' chambers, he finds that it makes perfect sense. Arthur remembers sneaking through the door countless times, tiptoeing past the bed where Gaius slept, and quietly making his way into Merlin's bed, pressing against a warm, sleepy body. It had all been so very new then, and they had touched and discovered one another in the dark with whispered laughs and muffled groans. In the mornings, they would make up a series of excuses, each more ridiculous than the next, to explain Arthur's presence, and Gaius' eyebrow would tell him that Arthur's rumpled hair and Merlin's goofy smile were fooling exactly no one.
In the narrow bed tucked close together, Merlin would trace his fingers over Arthur's chest and ask him what it felt like to be the man who would someday be king. In the safety of the night aided by the overconfidence of youth, Arthur would talk of duty and honour, powerful armies feared by enemies, a brave and noble king loved by all the people. It had seemed so simple then, so very different than how he feels now as he gazes out over the kingdom that now rests in his care, so much more fragile than he had ever realised.
A sound at the door startles Arthur and he turns in surprise as Hunith walks in. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't —" she says, dropping to one knee. "Your highness."
"Hunith," he says with a weary sigh. "Please don't."
She looks up, her brow furrowed in confusion, but then her face softens and she stands and walks toward him. "I'm sorry if I interrupted you. This is where I've been staying since I arrived in Camelot."
"Of course," Arthur says. "I should have known."
She laughs softly. "Oh Arthur, I wouldn't expect you to know such trivial details like that."
When Hunith smiles at him, her whole face lights up, and it's so familiar, so reminiscent of another face that smiles just like that, looking at him as if he's already done something great.
Hunith has shown him such kindness over the years and Arthur suddenly wants to return it somehow. "I want you to know that Merlin — well, he's safe now. Here in Camelot, he won't have to keep his secret any longer."
"Arthur," she says, her voice gentle. "Merlin has been safe since the moment you first loved him. I've never doubted what you would do for my son."
The celebration outside carries on, the cries and chants expressing loyalty and devotion to King Arthur coming through the window.
Hunith is looking at him with such open kindness that Arthur feels all of it — the grief he hasn't yet acknowledged, the fear of what's to come, the overwhelming weight of responsibility — threatening to spill over and for just a moment, he wants to sit beside her and tell her everything, all the secrets that he's kept even from Merlin, and how he's not sure he's ready for any of this. He wants to let Hunith stroke his forehead and tell him that he'll be okay — that they'll all be okay in the end.
Instead he swallows hard and says, "Merlin says that someday I will be a great king."
Hunith smiles again and brings her hand up to cup his cheek. "But you are already a great man."
Arthur has been loved his whole life. Despite all of their differences, Arthur knows his father always loved him as best as he could. Morgana and Gwen love him, both in their own unique way. And Merlin loves him — Merlin who has given himself to Arthur in more ways than Arthur ever knew possible, and who would give him everything, if he should ever ask. But this — this is different, and it fills up a place inside of him he didn't know was empty, and it's so warm and so pure, that he'll never tell anyone, not even Merlin, how it makes him feel when she looks at him like that.
Hunith stands beside Arthur by the window and they listen to the sounds of the crowd, welcoming the dawn of a new era, joyful and so full of hope for their king and their future, and Arthur thinks that maybe he really does have everything he needs.