One Remarkable Mistake [USUK]

Chapter 9

'My Dearest, 

For better lack of terms, and deciding it best to keep my tongue held on subject matter that may or may not reveal exactly who we are, you shall be referred to as dearest. If there are any objections to this, well that's too bad as I'm sure you have realized, this is paper, and we are rather distanced from one another. 

I apologize that my absence caused such a ruckus for you indefinitely, never had that been the objective; although, there had never been one for starters, as you know. I hope you are doing well and that there aren't any issues that have arose.

With the formalities and obligations out of the way, here is the reason why this was made in such a hasty manner, I, for better lack of words, have missed your presence significantly. Never would it have been possible to remain together, as saddening as this is we know the reasons more than others. Nevertheless, that does not mean that your physical lack had weakened how I feel for you, I truly do blame that pesky mark on my neck for it sometimes.-'

As always, Arthur's humour was tasteless.  

'You would be rather surprised, shocked, to know that I have not in-fact stowed myself away into a cave, rather out and as lively as ever. Perhaps you don't. What you thought my plan's would be, I don't know. My crew, after pondering thought, has been disregarded for the occurrence they caused, for I am rather bored of their stunts, and age is beginning to waver my tolerance for their nonsense. Afterall, only the shell remains, the bullet and primer are lost once the trigger is pulled back. 

But enough of myself, for this is becoming rather tiring, after all the enthusiastic conversations we had only two year's prior, I truly did enjoy hearing about your paperwork, thank you for that entertainment.'

Smile slipping across he didn't stop as they pressed together, turning into a smirk as he shook his head, eyes rolling before he could stop them. He truly had married the personification of sarcasm, what a miracle that was to even find someone that existed in only the way that Arthur could. Unblinking to the actions he did, and how he made it through another month. It was far more than impressive, and Alfred could confirm that this certainly was no place for the other who made it clear that he enjoyed having free reign to walk where he pleased, and not run by rules and regulations. 

And, as though this was more than mere paper and pen, Alfred had begun to settle into this newfound sense of comfort, an agreement settled between them that the letters had no reason to be lengthy as these were no research papers and rather a conversation between two people who had married after only mere months of knowing each other - admittedly foolish - who hadn't had a proper meet-up in four years. There was no reason to try and lengthen anything, which made slipping in jokes rather easy and quick, along with forming pseudo names for their correspondent. Arthur quick to deem him as the 'stowaway', which only prompted for the other to lean away from the rather favourable nicknames, often starting his letters with referring to Arthur as 'consort'. Of-course, if they had truly wished to, they could have founded completely different names for once another, that would not have taken any time from either of them, but it was better left ambiguous outside of the wax seals that were swapped out for folded paper after a few days of their correspondence going back and forth.

That was how life had gone, and a light was found in the shattering darkness that had, at one point, consumed his days through never being able to find anything other than one hand offering more papers that needed to be reviewed, signed, and what-else-not. The other held no other promise outside of meetings and visitations, and with that there felt like nothing more than that singular hour he got to himself every morning and night. Watching as the sun rose, but never getting to see it set. However, with Arthur's frequent letters, it didn't seem to matter that he only saw one beauty of the world, it didn't matter that he was holed up in his office and isolated from every other person for twelve hours a day, it didn't matter that he was constantly being berated for something he had little to no control over and was reminded that at each moment of the day, Spades could fall without a Queen present.