Advent Challenge - modern era. (Day 1)
Fandom: Merlin (modern AU)
Day: #1
Pairing: past Uther/Ygraine
Title: H is for Heartbreaking
Author: shutupeccles
Rating: G
Disclaimer: characters based on BBC characters distorted from Arthurian Legend
Summary: Uther's responses to Arthur's first Christmas
Uther is woken in the morning by the muffled jingle of a soft, felt ball with a bell in it followed by the glorious sound of his infant son's laughter.
"He 's found his first Christmas gift and given me mine," Uther chuckles to the photograph of his deceased wife and wishes she was here to eavesdrop with him. The noise of that bell might soon drive him barmy but he will never tire of hearing that ridiculous laugh. He imagines Ygraine's laugh chiming in at every peal from their son.
He lounges in bed simply listening until a soft jingly thump is followed by an "ungh" of frustration and roughly shaken cot.
"Whoops," Uther says loud enough for the child to hear and Arthur responds "Wuh" as his father leaves the lonely bed.
Uther left the sliding doors joining parental suite to nursery open during the night and Arthur almost, almost pulls himself to a standing position using the bars of his cot as his father strides over to the errant ball and presents it with a jingling flourish to the child so longed for.
That delightful chortle bounces from the walls again and they sit playing 'jingle-chortle-jingle-drop-fetch-jingle-chortle' for almost an hour before Uther realises he has yet to change the boy's nappy.
Hmm, perhaps giving the nannies Christmas morning off was not the most brilliant idea.
"Now that - you truly are a disgusting creature, you know that don't you?" Uther scolds mildly. "How could you possibly fit that much mess inside your bottom since last night's effort? This is a conspiracy to wend extra bath privileges is it not?"
"Bah!" Five month old Arthur agrees, and promptly urinates on his father's pyjamas.
"Shower with Father it is then!"
After a slippery, sudsy, messy then finally cleansing shower father and son make their way downstairs to breakfast.
"This is going to mean another bath, isn't it?" Uther asks as he looks at the baby muesli made up as per Nanny Simone's instructions. "It's expensive, overhyped gruel with unidentifiable lumpy bits. When can you start eating human food?"
He let's Arthur have a go at feeding himself as per Nanny Cherrie's instructions and so gives him a bath in order to remove solidifying muesli from his hair, nostril, ear, knuckle wrinkles and how on earth did he get muesli there?
"Presents!"
Arthur likes the Lego Duplo - but not as much as the Lego Duplo packaging.
Arthur enjoys the sound the silver rattle his Godfather Gorlois gave him - until he bops himself most severely on the noggin with it. Uther does not enjoy the alternately whimpering and howling sounds his son makes as a result. Luckily the music box Ygraine bought for their baby's first Christmas soothes the worst of both their ills.
Uther winds it up over and over again, sitting in the rocking chair Ygriane refused to sit in while she was pregnant - "No, no, no Uther. That's my breastfeeding and sleepy Mummy - whingy Baby chair. My bottom is not touching that cushion until we bring our baby home." Uther chased her - slowly of course - around the family room and smacked her repeatedly on the bottom - gently of course - with that cushion until they were both laughing tears. Then Ygraine had biffed him over the head with that cushion and called him a silly goose. Then he'd kissed her and told her she was, and would always be the most beautiful woman in the world, no, the universe! They'd made love - slowly and gently of course - on that very patch of the floor currently supporting an enormous synthetic tree. Ygraine was allergic to pine. She never sat in her chair.
As they rock in the chair to the most beautiful music Uther has ever heard - apart from the laughter of his wife and child of course, but you cannot trap such joys as these in music boxes - Uther tells his son, their son, how he met the most beautiful woman ever created.
"It isn't just your mother's blue eyes, which she has given you; or her golden blond hair, which she has also given you; or her dimpled smile, you again; but her heart and her soul Arthur. Those are the aspects I cherish and miss most of all. My Christmas wish, as I cannot wish for your mother to return to life for you and expect it to come true, is that Ygraine's heart and soul also live on in you. Then perhaps, I can accept she is gone and that there is reason for her death."
They play.
They eat - well Uther eats, Arthur slurps and merrily gnaws on a chicken bone.
They play, they sleep, they get overwhelmed by visitors and more presents and Arthur proves he may have the angelic appearance of his mother but he also possesses the dragon temper of his father. Thankfully the guets show more respect for the son's comfort than the father's and all bugger off home so the child can be put to bed.
Uther places the jingly felt ball in the cot, plays the music box tune, kisses the sleepy baby's brow and kisses his wife's photograph goodnight.
"I hope I make you proud my love. I know our son certainly does."
Then he cries himself to sleep and dreads the next Christmas, and the next...