Merthur minis-one shots

The shell of someone you love

Trigger warning⚠️

Merlin walked out.
Without a second glance.
As if all his selflessness were saving up for this one grand moment, to focus on himself.
Arthur came home to an almost completely empty unit 4 hours later at about midnight.
Despite the emptiness, the only thing it needed to fill it up was Merlin.
There was a note pinned to the bathroom door saying 'stole the blades incase your selfish arse actually cares enough.'

Arthur went upstairs to the lounge room where there lay a couch and widescreen telly.
No Merlin.
This is a joke.
Merlin isn't gone.
This is just one big fuc-
His fist collided with the wall, making one of the pictures of him and Merlin as kids smash into the ground.
Arthur let out a strangled cry of agony, tearing at his clothes and hair, whilst in his other hand holding the broken picture.
...
Arthur drank that night away, a bad enough reputation for someone as highly ranked as him, but he had just lost the three happiest years of his life.
His first instinct was to call Morgana, but he wasn't up for her blathering.
He drank until he forgot he ever met Merlin, and passed out.
***
Arthur woke in hospital with an oxygen mask on, a tube down his throat, and his stomach plugged.
He could barely see, and cracks of light seemed to pour in from all angles.
He woke 2 days later with a cannula.
The first thing he said was 'Mer'n'
He hazily turned his head to the right, to see an enraged Merlin sitting in a chair by his bedside.
"There I was thinking oh no! Arthur's had an accident! Not Arthur tried to drink to oblivion!
What the fu-jesus Christ what were you thinking you utter arsehole?!"
Arthur blinked back his tears.
"I know I was selfish-"
"Selfish? Selfish huh? Well I think that's a bit of an understatement. More like always making me pay, always telling me off for not doing your chores! Do you think I actually enjoyed being treated like a piece of sh-"
"NO! I was just scared of losing you!"
"Well. I'd say evidence shows you got exactly what you wanted."
"Merl-"
"NO YOU LISTEN HERE PENDRAGON. I don't want you. I have nothing to do with you. And tell the hospital to take my name off the emergency call list."
Arthur lay there in shock. The heart monitor going off like a machine gun.
He lay there for about 20 minutes before ripping his hospital equipment off, and darting out of the hospital.
Merlin didn't care and that was all that mattered.
He ran to a bridge, where the icy waters would welcome him with their
cool embrace and tears crawled down his face as he let them.
And he met the face of the water.
And if Merlin got a call from the hospital, and Morgana, and a colleague, saying they saw a body like Arthur's floating downriver one early morning, he knew he'd gone too far, that he'd finally screwed up an blown it, and nothing was left.
Not even the shell of someone he loved.