A/N: I like metaphors too much. Also I hope this is an okay ending and that I didn't leave too many loose ends.

Your enemies are my enemies. That's what Percival said to Arthur, before he grew to know him. Simple as that. Back when the world was simple.

Nowadays Camelot seems to be sitting beneath an ever-looming storm. Some moments, the clouds are dark above them and the air is heavy with the threat of rain. Some moments, they are drowning in it.

Merlin doesn't seem to mind the rain. Oh, he complains about the mud and the cleaning and the cold, but the rain runs off him. And in his countenance is a glimpse of bluer skies.

Your enemies are my enemies. Simple.

Merlin doesn't seem to have any enemies.

There is Morgana, certainly, but even with her you can tell that he doesn't see her as an enemy so much as a regret. A friend grown away. They used to be friends. It's in Gwen and Arthur too.

And it doesn't feel as though Morgana is Merlin's enemy so much as Arthur's enemy. Merlin just sort of shoved in between.

And that's it, isn't it? The glimpse of blue skies. Merlin shoves himself between you and the rain and then uses the runoff to water the crops. He's a strange man, Merlin. Shadowed but bright. Like all the dark clouds are drawn toward him, looming above him, and it's granting light to everyone nearby.

Your enemies are my enemies. Merlin has no enemies and yet somehow has far too many.

And Percival is standing in the market beside Gwen and Elyan with the sun glaring down, following with his eyes a man that he remembers Merlin cowering in front of back when the curse had yet to fall into knowledge, unsure if he is Merlin's enemy.

He is sure, however, that if this man is Merlin's enemy, he is Percival's also.

Percival doesn't realize he's glaring, hand on his sword hilt, until Gwen follows his gaze and frowns. "I know that man."

Percival's gaze doesn't move. "Hmm?"

"I've seen him before…in Ealdor."

Elyan looks at her. "That's where Merlin is from, isn't it?"

Gwen nods. "I wonder what he's doing here. Moved, maybe?"

"Picked a bad time for it."

Percival can't stop hoping that the man is an enemy, because that's all Percival knows how to do, really; take on enemies. The air is heavy with the feeling that this will not be that simple.

Gwen goes up to talk to him. The man.

The next thing she does is find Merlin, standing in the courtyard, and somehow he can tell that she knows.

Gwen gets the feeling that Merlin is standing on a shorefront, water tugging at his legs and threatening to pull him under.

Merlin doesn't turn. "I was just..." He's not talking about right now.

Salt water splashes at his eyes.

"It was so loud." His voice is a breeze crashing against cliff-faces. Merlin isn't looking at her. Isn't looking at anything, really. "I couldn't go." Ripples branch out around him but Merlin is unmoving. "He told me she was dead and I couldn't even..." His hand rises and then falls, and something else falls with it. "I couldn't even go say goodbye. Gather her things. And not because I had something more important or... but because I just couldn't. Everything was screaming at me."

Gwen stands on the shorefront with him and listens.

"And it got shoved to the back of my mind and buried. I didn't even remember until we got back to Camelot." The waves crash. "I didn't even remember."

Gwen sets a hand on his shoulder. An anchor.

"But we got back and it sunk in and it sunk in deep." Merlin sways back and forth and back and forth before he slips downward, frame like a rock; cold and hard and heavy and small. "She's dead, Gwen. My mother is dead."

Gwen slips down beside him. She sits just brushing his shoulder, fixing her gown and nudging his arm and the words break forward in a flood. "When my father died, it felt a little bit like drowning. There was this tightness in my chest, this wrongness. And I kept waiting for him to come back because there was so much I had to say and I didn't get the chance to say it. Because he tried to escape and they killed him. And it was my fault, Merlin, that he was working with that man. He wanted to make a better life for us. For me. And when I got the chance I sat in my house for two days wondering what I'd done to make everything turn out like that. Wondering how he ever could have doubted that I was happy there, with him. Elyan was off god knows where and my father was gone and I had to sit in that empty house and stop myself from opening the door when someone walked by because my mind kept telling me it was him.

"He was supposed to live to be an old man, sitting around the fire telling stories to my children and he never got the chance. And I couldn't breathe because the house still smelled of him, and I was waiting and waiting and I didn't know what for. I'm still waiting. But he's up there somewhere, Merlin, and he wants me to be happy. And I want to sit by the fire with my children and tell them everything about him. How kind he was, how strong. I want them to have every detail; the feel of calluses when his hand held mine, the feel of frustration when he laughed as he was teasing me. And I think they will know him. They will know him in Elyan, who has the very same hands. They will know him in me, because I make the same foolish mistakes. Merlin, just because your mother isn't here anymore, it doesn't mean you have to say goodbye. Let her live, and love her, and know how proud she was of you." Gwen nudges his arm. "And you can still get her things, you know, I spoke to Eadric. It's there. Waiting for you."

Arthur can't go with him. Wants to, means to, but can't. Camelot needs the king to stay. It needs Merlin too, but Merlin needs to go. Gaius goes. And Gwen and Gwaine and Arthur has to trust that they'll be enough to bring Merlin back. The Merlin that Arthur hasn't seen in far too long.

And they do come back, and Merlin comes in mid-meeting to take his place behind Arthur and Arthur sort of slams through to the end in less than a minute. The council trails out and Arthur shoves to his feet and turns around, looking Merlin over. "Alright, Merlin?"

"Yeah," Merlin nods, a smile finding his face and settling in to stay, one that promises of bluer skies and calmer seas. "Yeah, I'm alright."