Merlin looked at the flash drive in his hand. That was probably the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for Merlin. He bounced around the house the rest of the day, getting dinner. Hunith sat down at the dining table that day, and they had a quiet, happy meal together.

Hunith still did not have the strength to spend the night awake, and so Merlin helped her into bed. He paused at the door of his mother's bedroom and smiled at the peaceful sight of her sleeping; looking much better than she had a week ago when he had arrived. He closed the door softly before bounding up to his room to watch Arthur's video.

It was exactly what Arthur had described it would be. Merlin had often heard about Arthur's wild all-night-parties and this was a visual reminder of what Merlin had missed. He couldn't stay disappointed for long though. Arthur's enthusiasm was infectious and Merlin soon found himself grinning at their antics as Gwaine tried to chat up a girl and got thoroughly rejected, or Percy taking a bet on how many beers mugs he could carry without spilling – seven – and Leon appeared to be asleep at some point while the other boys drew on his face while trying and failing to stop giggling.

The boys got more and more drunk, until there was a point where Arthur was very obviously unable to hold up the camera properly any longer, and they audibly decided to shut it off. All of them wished Merlin a happy new year before the camera focused only on Arthur's face, who said "Hope you like it," and winked, and the screen went dark.

Merlin sat back and sighed happily. Then he remembered Arthur asking him to call, so he turned around trying to locate his phone. He was just about to hit the call sign when he heard Arthur's voice again.

"Hey Merlin," it said, and Merlin turned, slightly alarmed, to see that the video wasn't over yet. Arthur was on the screen again, looking much cleaner and fresher than he had before. It was obviously shot on a different day.

"I just wanted to say that um, I've known you a long time, but I never really paid much attention to you in high school, which was stupid because you're brilliant," he smiled a little at that, "But you're one of my closest friends now, which is probably going to be over after this, and that is actually why I waited so long 'cause Gwaine told me to do this so long ago but I didn't want to—" he cut off abruptly, and Merlin frowned in confusion. Friendship is going to be over? Was Arthur friend-breaking up with him?

"I'm doing this all wrong, aren't I?" Arthur asked. "Okay, here's the thing." He looked straight at the camera, purpose in his eyes. "I like you, Merlin, okay? Like, a lot." Merlin's eyes grew round at that. Arthur seemed to relax a bit, now that the confession was out, and continued. "You're the best person I know and you're kind and sweet, not to mention fucking smart and really funny - and were you always this bloody cute in school?" He shook his head and continued. "So, so if you feel the same way, I would like it if we were a bit more than…just…friends. Um, I'll be waiting for you to call."

The video finally came to a stop. Merlin could hardly believe what had just gone down. As soon as he could coax his body to move again, he replayed the last bit of the video, and then replayed it again just to hear Arthur say "more than just friends" again. And then the last sentence hit him, and he dug out his phone and hit the call button before he could talk himself out of it.

"Merlin, thank god," Arthur said, answering after only the first ring.

"Arthur."

"So?" Arthur asked softly, sounding strangely out of breath.

"Yeah," Merlin said, unable to formulate any other forms of speech just then.

There was a few seconds of heavy breathing from the other side before Arthur spoke. "Wait. Yeah, yeah?" he asked, sounding ridiculously happy. Merlin laughed at the muted whooping coming from the other side.

"Hey Merlin," Arthur said eventually, now sounding more like the Arthur he was used to. "Open your front door."

Merlin sat up. "What, now?"

"Yeah hurry up, I'm fucking freezing!"

Merlin was moving before his brain could catch up with all the surprises. He opened the front door to find Arthur shivering on his doorstep.

"God! Arthur," Merlin said into the phone he was still holding to his ear. "You could have waited till the morning you know."

"Well I couldn't wait to do this," Arthur said into his own phone before putting it down and stepping closer to press his lips to Merlin's, icy fingers touching his face. When they parted, fireworks went off in the distant sky marking the start of a new year, and Merlin had a feeling that it was going to be a good year indeed.