Hello everyone. This is my first official fanfic and so I'm open to criticism. No flaming please! R&R please!

Hello Princess,

How are you sweet heart? I'm happy to hear your studies at the university are going well. There was a snow storm that knocked out the power in the cabin Frank and I were staying in and we nearly froze in there, lucky it died down enough that we could walk back to the hotel we've been passing to go to the excavation site. Frank wouldn't stop grumbling that we should have been here instead of the cabin that was assigned to us, which is what I've been saying this whole time; he'll get over it eventually, but I won't. Thankfully this hotel is running on a backup generator, so you don't have to worry; in fact I'm currently warming up next to the heater in our room, sipping a nice hot cup of cocoa, with a warm blanket around me. The only thing that would make this better is if you were here so I could cuddle you for warmth. I miss you princess and I can't wait to see you again after we're done here. Just two more weeks and I can be in your arms again…

Wait for me back at home Betty and be same out there.

- love Simon

Simon stared at the letter in a daze, with a look mixed with longing and affection, and a goofy grin on his face, cheek in hand and elbow on the desk, thinking about what he and Betty would do once they were together again. She said in her last letter that she had bought something special for him, she didn't say what it was or even give him a hint, only said that it was a surprise and he was sure to love it. Simon wasn't one to spoil a surprise, oh no, he loved surprises, especially Betty's…

"How long are you going to make that face? It's starting to weirding me out."

Simon sat up in surprise and hitting his back on the chair's lumbar support. With a soft groan he rubbed his back with his hand and looked at Frank who was sitting on the bed with his usual smirk. Simon could have sworn that he was taking a shower when he started writing, he couldn't have been daydreaming that long… could he?

"Yes! Your creepy grin is gone!" Frank swiped the remote of the desk where Simon was working and clicked on the TV with a triumphant grin. Obviously all hotel TVs were automatically set to the news, and it wasn't too surprising that it was talking about the Cold War. The US and Russia had a lot of tension with each other and neither had the most rational population when it came to conflict with a country that could be seen as a threat. The whole thing wouldn't have been such a big deal if one or (more preferably) neither had a nuclear and atomic bombs and leaders with a trigger finger.

Frank changed the channel, not caring about the war. He's always into what's going on with the government and knows that as long as nothing happens to either of our current leaders and the next in line don't step up right in the middle of all this tension everything will blow over eventually.

Simon sighed and neatly folded the letter before gently placing it into the envelope. He turned his attention back to Frank, "Are we just going to stay here until the snow storm stops?"

Frank turned off the TV, seeing that nothing good was on, and looked at Simon, "It stopped a while ago, but I'm going to stay in for a few more hours to give the market center in the next town over a chance to restock."

Simon raised his eyebrow questioningly, "Do you think they'd restock today, after a storm like that?"

Frank shrugged, "Probably. I can't see why not when that storm isn't the worse thing the people here normally deal with."

After a moment of thinking Simon figured he was right. Even if most travelers, like himself, weren't used to standing outside in weather like this, it's not as if the people who lived here wouldn't go out to the merchant streets to buy what they wanted, "I'll join you." 'I could find something nice for Betty out there!' He kept that little thought to himself knowing how Frank liked to tease him about how Betty had him wrapped around her little finger.

"And we might be able to find something together, Mr. Go off without your friends and find an ancient book by yourself." Frank joked as he dug through his traveling bag.

Simon tugged at his white shirt's collar remembering how he got separated from everyone and fell in an underground cave. He still couldn't believe that dusty old book is going to get him in the newspaper before it goes into the library back in his city.

Frank pulled out a deck of cards from its box, "Want to play Craps to pass the time?"

"I thought you were going to take a nap."

He shuffled the deck and shrugged, "I was… but then I realized I'm not tired."

Simon let out a soft sigh and sat cross legged on the floor, in the middle of where their beds stood, and watched Frank sit across from him and start dealing the cards between the two of them.

After a 3 hours of card games later and Simon put the cards in his hands down, then stood up while stretching the aching joints in his arm and back as he does so, "I lost again, I'm done."

Frank chuckled to himself as he gathered all the cards into a neat little pile in his hands and stood as Simon put on his fluffy, brown coat he had stretched out on his bed next to his matching ear muffs. Placing the cards on the desk, Frank walked to his bag and put on his own white coat. Simon stood patiently at the door, putting his brown gloves on while he waited for Frank to get his things on.

After clearing it with the travel guide Simon and Frank walked to the town, which thankfully wasn't that far from their present location. They looked around the market place for a bit, Frank teased Simon a bit about not being able to stand cold weather, and they bought nothing sense nothing caught their eye.

Simon sighed know that Betty wouldn't like a lot of these thing, and the stuff she would like were out of his price range, and he wasn't in a very good mood about being outside in this weather and not getting anything out of it, he looked at Frank a little disgruntled as they sat on a frozen over fountain's edge.

Frank sighed knowing that Simon was in a bad mood. The smallest things could tick this guy off he swears, it wasn't even that cold out here. Not really in the mood to go back to the hotel just to play card games with his crabby companion, he suggested "How about we go to the docks. Someone might have pulled something valuable out of the water and not even know it.

Simon grumbled to himself but followed Frank anyway as he walked to the docks. The walk there was uneventful and Simon was loosing more of his patients by the minute, "That's it! There's nothing here, I'm going back to the hotel!" He yelled after getting a fish thrown in his face. In his rush he accidently bumps into a dock worker and makes him drop one of the items in his hands, "Oh, sorry sir, I didn't see you there." He picked up the item and saw it was a golden crown topped with three spikes and three gems in the middle of each spike, "What's this?"

Frank leaned over his should and looked at it, " 'Tis be a crown, my cranky man."

Before Simon could reply the dock worker snatched the crown out of his hands, "Don't touch this! It's tainted with magic that's been corrupted! Very dangerous in mortal hands, understand!"

Frank put his hands up in defense, "Calm down, we didn't mean any harm." He said trying to calm the man as he eyed the other crown, a duller gold topped with spikes all over and a long and skinny spike in the middle of the front.

"How much for them?" The question shocked both the dock worker and Frank. Simon didn't believe what the man said about the crown, but it did peek his interest in it. He remembered reading something about both those crowns, the two in the man's hands were more than likely fakes, but they looked so authentic he had to get it.

The man growled, "These aren't for sale! They're dangerous!"

Simon pulled out 300 dollars from his wallet, "Is this enough?"

Frank elbowed his side, "What are you doing? That's your emergency money!" he hissed.

Simon ignored him, "457 dollars, that's all I have."

The man looked at the money in Simon's hands, then at the crowns

I hope you enjoyed! R&R please and thank you! The next preface will be up after the first review, after that I'll be updating once a week!