A/N: Arthur receives the letter Merlynn sent him in chapter 35. There is fluff, you are warned ;)

The letter

It had been a long day, and Arthur was exhausted by the time he reached his chambers. Training with his knights, a session with the council and a lecture from his father had drained him, and all he really wanted to do was sleep.

Morris was tidying up when he entered, but Arthur ignored him. He was about to just dismiss the man for the night when a suspiciously Merlynn-sounding voice reminded him that he should really be polite, even to his servant. "That's all for today, thanks, Morris," he said as he went behind his changing screen.

"Of course, sire," Morris said. "Oh, but there's a letter."

"Whatever it is, it can wait until morning," Arthur replied, a little testily. He quickly threw on his sleep shirt before he headed back out from behind the screen.

"It's from Princess Merlynn, sire," Morris insisted, holding out the letter.

Arthur hesitated. Ever since King Olaf had stopped all trade between Galdara and Camelot, letters were few and far between. The only other option was to send a messenger, but that was only done in emergencies. But the longer the lack of contact lasted, the more he was tempted to do it, just to see her handwriting, to hear her thoughts again. And probably to be reprimanded for scaring her by sending a messenger when there was no emergency.

He took the letter from Morris, who was obviously trying to suppress a smile. Arthur rolled his eyes. "Go annoy someone else, Morris."

"Will do, sire," the servant said, and promptly bowed and left the chambers.

Arthur looked down at the envelope. It was addressed to him alone, not Morgana, which made him happier than it should.

He missed her.

It shouldn't have surprised him, given that he was well aware of his feelings for her, but it did. He missed hearing her input, her thoughts on decisions he had to make, he missed being able to complain to her about his father and the council, and having her call him a baby. Or a prat, he thought fondly.

How had she gone from that girl who'd insulted him on the training grounds to someone he felt was an integral part of his life in such a small amount of time?

Sighing, he decided to open the letter. There was the customary letter itself on the envelope, but there was an additional folded piece of paper. She put that aside to read later.

Arthur smiled as he read; he could practically hear Merlynn reading it to him. She complained about the cold and that Camelot had spoiled her with its warmer weather, she complained about her sister keeping her distance for some reason – odd, Arthur thought, since normally the sisters were inseparable.

'My father and I have… come to an understanding. I feel like I can finally be myself after hiding for years. I can't properly explain it, I wish I could just show you. You'd probably make some prattish comment which would make me laugh, even though I wouldn't want to admit it.'

She went on to describe some of the more mundane things that had happened, but Arthur's eyes kept going back to that paragraph. Perhaps the Princess missed their companionship as much as he did?

Finally satisfied that he'd read (and re-read) the letter sufficiently, Arthur turned to the other sheet of paper. It was a sketch of two knights fighting. One had a dragon sigil, the other was an unidentified man with a lion on his shield. The knight with the dragon sigil had the upper hand, swinging his sword down towards the kneeling lion-knight, even as the latter raised his blade to counter.

The dragon sigil was clearly the Pendragon crest, and the thought made his chest swell. So she clearly thought of him as well. There were a few lines at the top of the paper. 'Dear Arthur, one of these days you'll have to enter into a Galdaran tournament. I'm sure you could beat some of them.' Arthur frowned.'Don't scowl, I was just joking.'

Arthur wiped the scowl from his face. That woman knew him far too well. 'You could give Rowan some competition, though Vivian and I would be at odds as to whom we want to have as a champion. I hope we'll meet again soon, it's been too long already. Yours, Merlynn.'

The words 'it's been too long already' were somewhat messily written, as though Merlynn had written them down quickly, before she changed her mind. And there was a slight smudge after that line, which made him think that she had thought about crossing it out.

So Merlynn missed him, too. It was a comforting thought.

His thoughts were interrupted when his candle sputtered a little. It had burned down to a stump and was threatening to go out at any moment. Perhaps it was time to go to sleep. He'd compose a reply tomorrow, when he was more awake and less likely to write something down he'd regret.

He left the letter on his desk, but took the drawing with him to bed, where he lay it on his nightstand. He didn't quite feel like parting with it just yet.

A/N: Let me know what you think!