Chapter Text
"Merlin, wake up honey!" Merlin's mother, Hunith, yells from the other room as Merlin slowly begins to wake up in his bedroom.
"Ugh." Merlin groans as he forces himself out of his bed, out of his bedroom, and towards the kitchen where he can smell the food that his mother is no doubtably cooking for his first day back at school.
Merlin, unlike most of the kids at his school, didn't fit in. He was too weird, or too authentically himself, and with only a few friends, well, two to be exact, a lovely girl named Gwen, and a handsome boy named Lancelot, not many people stuck up for him when the one and only Arthur Pendragon, and his friends, almost constantly bullied him, which included, but wasn't limited to; daily insults, being shoved into lockers, spreading rumors, violent confrontations in the bathroom, and many other things that made Merlin come close to tears even thinking about.
Not that he couldn't stand up for himself, because, if there was one thing that he was known for at his school, it was being the kid that got bullied that stood up for himself, even if it did result in him getting beat up by Arthur and the rest of the football team. Now, things hadn't always been that way, way back in elementary school Merlin and Arthur were friends, best friends to be exact, but when Arthur's mother died and he moved in with his father things changed, and their relationship was the first thing that ended the day that they started middle school, and the two had never been friends since, not even on friendly terms.
Because of all of the bullying, Merlin had fallen into a great, and unforgiving, depression, as he tried to figure out the reason why Arthur, and his 'goons', as Gwen and Lancelot called them, would hate him so much. And finally, after three and a half years of the torment, Merlin had had enough, and tried to take his own life, only for his mother to find him the majority of the way through the process so, he was stopped, and to the relief of his mother, his uncle Gaius, Gwen and Lancelot, he survived after he was brought to the hospital.
"How are you? Are you ready to go back?" Hunith asks as soon as Merlin walks into the kitchen/dining room. "If not we could go back to the doctors and have them tell the school that you're not ready." She adds, as she herself doesn't want her son going back to school, and without the needed amount of money, transferring schools wasn't an option either.
"I'm fine." Merlin says with a stiff nod of his head, not wanting to miss anymore school work than he already has. "I need to go back, I assume that my grades have plummeted from how long I've been out." He adds, as he's been out for nearly two and a half weeks.
"Alright, you tell me if anything happens and I'l have a word with Mr. Pendragon myself, do you understand?" Hunith says, pointing at Merlin with a scrambled egg covered spatula.
"I will, I promise." Merlin says as he sits down at the table before Hunith brings over plater after plate filled with things like bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and pancakes, all of his favorites. "You didn't have to do this mom, seriously." He says, though he begins to load up his plate with a couple slices of bacon, a few sausages, a good helping of scrambled eggs and two pancakes, as he does so.
"I wanted to." Hunith says with a small smile on her lips as she walks over to Merlin and kisses the top of his head before she moves to sit down in the chair opposite of the one that Merlin is currently occupying. "I can give you a ride to school today if you'd like." She offers before she begins cutting up the pancake that she previously slid onto her plate.
"Sure." Merlin says with a nod, mouth half-full with a mix of bacon and eggs.
~*~
"Do you have everything?" Hunith asks as her Merlin both slide into their individual seats in her car, both buckling almost in unison.
"I think so." Merlin says with a nod as Hunith starts the car and begins to pull out of the driveway.
"You don't have to do this you know, go back I mean, I could talk to the principle about having you finish school online." Hunith says sadly, as Merlin only has a year and half left until he will graduate.
"I need to do this, for myself, mom." Merlin says, knowing that going to actual school rather than doing it online will be the best for him.
"I know, and you're strong Merlin, I just fear that there will be a day where you aren't, or another one." Hunith says, which is the first time that she has referenced the 'accident' as the doctors called it, since Merlin got home from the hospital.
"I promise something like that won't happen again, it was stupid." Merlin says, not knowing what else he should say.
"I know." Hunith says and with a nod the conversation was over, the car now coated in a thick silence.
~*~
"Have a good day, and if anything happens please call me." Hunith says a she pulls up to the school, a sadness in her tone that Merlin tries to ignore, because if he were to comment on it he knew that the waterworks would come out in full display.
"I will, thanks mom, I love you." Merlin says with a smile as he opens the car door before hopping out, shutting and opening the left backseat door so that he can grab his bag.
"Don't push yourself too hard!" Hunith says as Merlin shuts the door, slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder.
In response Merlin simply smiles and waves for a couple seconds before he turns and starts walking towards the school, trying to swallow the lump in his throat and the fear spreading through his bones.