mythandmagic (mythandmagic) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-09-26 08:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, audrey, merlin |
Who: Merlin and Audrey
When: After the invasion plot (August)
Where: Their Place
What: Reconnecting
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Completed gdoc
Audrey had triple warded both Baxter Bakery locations during the crazy that was last week, and taking them down was a bit draining. Honestly, she wasn’t the best witch at the best of times, so when she had a lot of magic to do, it made her frazzled. When Merlin was available to help her with magic, she almost always turned to him, but tonight she’d thought to try and get it over with without bothering him.
So she came home exhausted. Not to mention, it was practically past her bedtime.
“Hey?” She whispered as she came in through the front door. The kids were probably bed already. Hopefully. “Anybody home?”
Merlin had given the kids their dinner, baths and put them to bed and was getting worried when Audrey finally got home. “Aud?” he said, moving to her quickly, “You okay?” he asked, he’d gotten her message that she’d be late but he hadn’t expected her to be this late.
He frowned as he looked at her, she looked shattered, “Tea?” he offered, after giving her a hug and a kiss.
Audrey wrapped her arms around him, giving him a quick, tight hug, and a warm kiss. “Yes. Sorry. Things took quite a bit longer than I’d expected.” With a sigh, she nodded. “Tea sounds amazing. Thank you.”
“What were you doing working so late? There shouldn’t have been that much clean up to do” Merlin said, moving to make tea, “The wards held up right?” He was hoping the ones he’d placed around Stark Tower hadn’t interfered with the ones he helped put up around Baxter’s locations.
“Yes, the wards were still up. But overkill for our day to day, so I took them down and put up the basic ones.” Audrey explained. “I know it’s normally the kind of thing that I ask you to do, but I didn’t want to bother you.” She cuddled up close against him for a moment to steal a kiss, then released him so he could make the tea. “Were things at Stark all right?”
“It’s never a bother love” Merlin assured her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before she pulled away, “Things were great, Tony was impressed. Everything held up like a charm” he winked at her.
Audrey gave him a grin at the wink. “Of course it did. Color me not surprised.” She leaned back against the counter, enjoying watching him make the tea. Then she pulled a couple of mugs down so he could fill them.
“And the kids went down all right?”
Merlin chuckled, “Such faith in me” he told her with a smile as he prepared the tea, choosing camomile as he knew that would help Audrey sleep.
“Yep, we had a little try from Ben to stay up and wait for you but he fell asleep listening to Bea’s story so they’ve both gone down”
That made Audrey chuckle, too. “That sounds like Ben. He wants to be so much bigger than he is.” She decided to take a seat at the kitchen table instead of leaning against the counter, flopping into the chair with a sigh. “What story did you read them tonight?”
“He definitely does. It’s sweet when it isn’t working against you” he grinned, as he finished pouring the water into the pot. “Horton hears a who tonight” being British Merlin had only really discovered these stories when Audrey had gotten the kids the books, he’d found he liked most of them.
“Ah, how are you liking the Dr. Seuss stuff?” Audrey asked. She knew that those books were relatively new to Merlin, so she’d gone out and purchased the whole lot of them. There were so many, they could read a different one every night. (She may have spent a little too much on them.)
“I really like some of them, other’s I’m less keen on but they’re all very creative” Merlin said, he didn’t mind them spending a little on good books for the kids. Ben was very good about keeping them clean and undamaged which made Merlin very proud. They were happily raising a pair of bookworms.
“It’s still so weird to me that you didn’t grow up with Dr. Seuss.” Audrey was still surprised by that--though it was completely logical. She knew that different writers, performers, etc., were popular in different countries. So why should this be such a surprise?
“Who did you grow up reading?” She asked. She’d probably asked before, but she’d forgotten the answer.
Merlin grinned, “Strange isn’t it? Considering there’s no language barrier or anything” It was just one of those things, the people Merlin had read as a child tended to be British writers.
“Mainly Roald Dahl with some Enid Blyton and Beatrix Potter thrown in” he replied, the kids had those books too but Seuss was very much the flavour of the month at the moment for Ben at least, Bea didn’t really mind what you read her.
Well, Audrey read those writers, too. To a lesser extent from Dr. Seuss, but she definitely grew up on Roald Dahl. In this world. In her Dream world she lived in the UK, too, so that was a strange thing. But she didn’t remember what she read in her Dreams. It felt like a lifetime ago.
“I’m sure they’ll get into the chapter books a bit more when they’re older,” Audrey added. Dr. Seuss was all about funny rhymes and colorful pictures--perfect for the little ones.
“They will” Merlin agreed, “And at least they’ll be well read by the time they get to school” In the UK he knew some teachers didn’t like kids to be able to read before they started school because of how they were supposed to be taught but Merlin’s mum had always said it was easier for kids to learn if they could read and write before they started school and Merlin tended to agree.
Audrey agreed, too. There wasn’t really a bad way of teaching a kid to learn to read, so long as they got there in the end, right? That was her opinion. And she was planning on working with Ben and Bea on both phonics and sight words, association and sounding things out… y’know… in her spare time, anyway. “They’re absolutely brilliant and will be at the top of their class.” She said with a grin, moving closer to him to wrap an arm around him.
“Of course they will” Merlin said, though he’d leave the phonics to Aud, since he was baffled by why they felt the need to change how kids were taught letters from when he was in school. “Look at their parents” he half joked, “Their mum especially is an actual genius” he added more sincerely.
Audrey laughed out loud at that. “Their mum is not an actual genius. They should be lucky that their father is so smart and talented, because their mother can be an actual mess.” She leaned over to steal a kiss from him.
Merlin returned the kiss, “Hopefully the kids get the smart parts of us and their cooking skills from you” Merlin wasn’t awful in the kitchen but he wasn’t as good as Audrey and he definitely didn’t enjoy it like she did.
That was a nice thought. Audrey grinned. “I hope they get all our best qualities and none of our worst ones.” She decided it was time to drag her husband to bed. She was exhausted and wanted to cuddle. She reached for his hand. “Is it bedtime?”
“It most definitely is bedtime” he told her with a smile, taking her hand and leading her to their bedroom. A quick wave of his free hand taking care of the tidying and lights, sometimes that was exactly what magic was for.