Merlin rec 2
This is a canon-era Pining!Arthur story, very charming.
Forsaking All Others by Magog.
Here
Merlin goes to visit his mother for two weeks, and Arthur has trouble coping.
Excerpt:
By the following week Arthur was fairly certain his Knights were avoiding him. This was something of a puzzle to him because he'd rarely been as devoted to his duties as he had this past week. Not that he'd been neglecting his duties before of course, but now he had time to extend his usual morning training sessions by a few hours and fit a hunt into the afternoon as well. And really, it wasn't as if his Knights didn't need the practice - all the dark looks and muttering he'd had to put up with the past week was proof enough he'd let them get far too soft. Sir Owain had even had the effrontery to ask when Merlin was coming back. Arthur had reminded him, with what he hoped was a suitably freezing look, that if Merlin was here they would hardly be able to hunt as often or as successfully as they had been. When Sir Owain had seemed unable to respond to that at all, Arthur decided his point had been made.
And the hunting certainly was successful. He'd never realised just how much noise Merlin could make blundering through the undergrowth. The first hunt he had attempted without him, the day after he left, they'd brought back several deer, ten rabbits, three pheasants and four hares and the kitchen staff had all looked immensely pleased when he presented his spoils for that evening's dinner. The next time he brought back even more and, although the kitchen staff had looked a little surprised, they were still suitably impressed by his prowess. After the first six days however even Arthur had noticed that their smiles were beginning to look a little strained and then Morgana had announced that if she had to eat one more venison steak or rabbit pie she would likely stab Arthur with her fork. So Arthur had cut down the hunting to every other day and introduced tactical planning and drilling sessions in the intervening afternoons and evenings instead.