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TAKE MY LOVE WITH YOU“What?” Blue eyes stare up at Merlin in shock. “No.”“Elliott…”“NO.” Tiny hands ball into fists and beat at Merlin’s chest. “NO. You can’t. You CAN’T. NO.” A fist heads right for Merlin’s face and Eggsy grabs it at the last minute.“Elliott James McNair, you do NOT hit.” Eggsy glares at him, releasing his hand. “You apologize to your papa.”“No! No I won’t!” Elliott slides off the sofa. “Fine, go. I don’t care. I hate you and I hope you never come back!” He runs upstairs as fast as his five-year-old legs can carry him.“Well, that went well.” Merlin wipes at his face with his hand.“He don’t hate you, babe.” Eggsy kisses his husband’s cheek.“I know, lad.” But Merlin doesn’t look like he believes it. “I figured he might be sad, but nothing like this.”“I feel the same way whenever you go away, you know,” Eggsy says, putting his head on Merlin’s shoulder. “Just never try to punch you in the face.”“Ye go away all the time,” Merlin points out.“Yes, but that’s ME. You are home to me, and when I’m home and you're not? Fucking sucks.”“Aye, it does,” Merlin says, but he smiles. “I should talk to him.”“You're his home, too,” Eggsy reminds him. “Been with us since he was six months old…you being at home is all he knows. Probably don’t compute for him.”“Probably not.”“I’ll talk to him.” Eggsy stands up. “Maybe I can make him understand.”“Aye…he’s a bit angry with me right now.” Merlin gets up and wearily plods to the kitchen.Eggsy sighs and goes upstairs. He can hear sniffling coming from his son’s bedroom and he sighs again. He knocks on the door. “Can I come in?”“Yeah.”Elliott is face down on his bed, shoes carefully lined up under the bed. Eggsy has to smile at that; Merlin has drilled into him that shoes don’t go on the furniture. “Can we talk a bit?”“Yeah.” Elliott doesn’t sit up but he slides his legs away so Eggsy can sit down. “You don’t hit.”“I know.”“Hitting don’t solve anything.” Eggsy finds this totally ironic considering his line of work.“I know.” Elliott rolls over, his face red and eyes swollen. “But why does he have to go away? He doesn’t go away, YOU go away.”Eggsy winces. “I know, but I always come back.”“Yeah, but what if he doesn’t? Papa…Papa…Tracy at school, her grandpa went away on a trip and he never came back.”“Tracy’s grandpa was old, love. It was his time.”“But what if it’s Papa’s time? He’s old too, not as old as her grandpa, but old. What if he goes away and it’s his time?” Elliott begins to cry again. “He doesn’t go away…why is he going away? Did I do something? Did I make him so mad he doesn’t love us anymore and wants to go away? Like my first mum and dad?” Elliott knows he’s adopted, knows that he had parents before Eggsy and Merlin. He doesn’t know that they died of drug overdoses within hours of each other, but when he’d asked why he doesn’t have a mum and a dad like some of the other kids, they’d decided to give him most of the truth.“No, Elliott, no!” Eggsy pulls his son onto his lap. “No.” He rocks him a bit. “He has to go away for work. Uncle Harry needs him to go to a meeting with a lot of other people that are smart like Papa. They need to talk about computers and machines and things.”“Papa knows more about that stuff than anyone in the whole wide world.”“I know, and that’s why he has to go. He has to show the other people how to use all that stuff.” Eggsy kisses Elliott’s head. “I miss him when he goes away. My bed is so empty…feels cold and I get scared sometimes,” he admits.“Maybe…maybe I could sleep with you,” Elliott suggests. “Just this one time?”Eggsy smiles into Elliott’s hair. Elliott constantly asks to sleep with them, but they firmly send him back to his own bed, not wanting to start bad habits. “I think maybe once or twice,” he says. “But don’t tell Papa.”“I won’t!”“You hurt his feelings. You said ya hated him. That you don’t care if he comes back.”“I don’t hate him…and I care…I want him to come home…I want him to stay home.” Elliott buries his face in Eggsy’s jumper. “What if he forgets about me? What if he finds another little boy he wants to have forever, and not me?”“Elliott.” Eggsy turns so his son has to look at him. “Papa will never EVER find a little boy he wants more than you. We chose you, remember? You were there waiting for us…”“…waiting to make your family complete,” Elliott recites, having heard it many times before. “You promise he won’t?”“I promise he won’t,” Eggsy says. “And before he goes, you and I will do something to make sure he doesn’t forget you.”“Okay.” “Now let’s go downstairs and you can apologize to Papa.”“Okay.” Eggsy takes Elliott’s hand and leads him downstairs. Merlin is in the kitchen at the stove stirring spaghetti sauce. “Well, there are my two favorite men.” He turns around and wipes his hands on a towel.“Papa, I…” Elliott forgets his apology and tears across the room. Merlin squats down just in time to catch Elliott in his arms. “Papa, I’m sorry…I love you, don’t hate you…don’t want you to go but really want you to come back…please come back…”“I will, my son.” Merlin kisses him and holds him close. “I dinnae want to go…I want to stay here with ye and with Daddy. But I have to do this for Uncle Harry.”“Because you are the smartest computer guy on the planet and you need to teach the people,” Elliott says into Merlin’s shoulder.“Something like that.” Merlin makes a face at Eggsy, who winks. “It’s only to Paris, just right across the Channel, and I’ll only be gone four days. Four sleeps and then I will be home.”“We will miss you, me and Daddy.”“And I’ll miss ye. Four days without my favorite men is a long time.”“Can you give me my bath tonight?”“Aye.”“And tuck me in?”“Aye.”“And read me my story?”“Well…I see where I rate in this family.” Eggsy saunters over and kisses the top of Merlin’s head. He tickles Elliott, who snickers. Merlin looks up at him with love in his eyes and Eggsy touches his cheek. “I think I have everything…I’ll be leaving from the office, so everything else I might need is there. I have to put some things together before I go.” Merlin pulls on his coat. “Kiss him for me.”“I will.” Eggsy turns up his face and Merlin gives him a passionate kiss. “I love you. Be careful. Bring me a present.”“I love ye, I will, and maybe I will.”“Papa.” Tiny feet come rumbling across the upstairs heading for the steps. Elliott carefully makes his way down the steps since he’s only in his blue spaceship footie pajamas.“Elliott, it is not even half-five. Ye should nae be up!” Merlin says, but he looks pleased. He sweeps Elliott into his arms and kisses him. “I love ye.”“Love you, too. Have something so you ‘member to come home.” Elliott thrusts something into his face. It’s a paper heart, carefully cut but rudely scribbled in red. “See, on the back, that’s me, an’ that’s Daddy. This is our heart, an’ we’re giving it to you, and ya gotta make it back home safe cuz we would die without our hearts.”“I…” Merlin hugs him close while reaching out for Eggsy. “I will most certainly come back, and I will bring your hearts home safely.”He finally slides Elliott into Eggsy’s arms. “Call me when ya get there.”“I will.”“Bye, Papa. I love you.”“Love ye, too, my men.” He kisses them each and leaves.