Title: Left
Characters/Pairings: Merlin, Mordred
Rating/Warnings: K
Universe: Canon
Word Count: 381
Summary: Missing scene from 5x02. **CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS.**
Merlin could still feel the weight of the Euchdag's life as he trudged through the snow. It had shown him the way out of the tunnels — the proper way, not the way that he and Arthur had come in — and he had left it alone in the darkness again, the last of its kind, lonelier even than the dragon in its cave. He had left Morgana alone in the darkness as well, because he had tried saving her in the past and now she was beyond his help. And he had left Aithusa, though not for lack of trying; she would not come when he called, and he wondered again what had happened that would leave her so broken.
But what he could not understand was why he had been left.
It was typical, he supposed, that once again he had been overlooked. As much as they needed him during a crisis (even if they didn't realize it), no one ever had much use for him in the downtime, except as a dogsbody and a slave. But to realize that not one person had looked around for him in the caves, that no one had spared a thought for his whereabouts - it burned him in a way that the little flames he had conjured into his palm for warmth never would.
"Halt! Identify yourself!"
"It's Merlin," he replied through gritted teeth, letting his fire go out.
"Merlin!" the same voice said, and Percival's face loomed out over an embankment. "Where've you been?"
"I was in the cave, where you left me," Merlin spat, and for once he allowed his fury to overwhelm him as he slipped through the snow into the campsite. "I was right next to Arthur, like I always am, how could you've—"
And it was then that he saw Mordred, hunched by the campfire and laughing with Leon, and it all came back to him in a rush. The concussion had made his eyes blur, but he had seen Mordred haul Arthur up and take him away, take him back to his knights and to safety. But first he had stopped for a second, his body twisted toward Merlin before he faded into darkness.
Mordred had left him.
And across the flames, Mordred met his eyes and smiled.