A/N: Thank you so much for all the lovely comments! The updates might slow down a little but I hope you'll keep reading! :)
It's just him and Elaine today. Ariane is spending a few days with Galahad, Lady Elaine and Lancelot in their little house by the lake, something Arthur only agreed to very reluctantly and only because he couldn't bear to see the utter disappointment on Ariane's face. Guinevere later suggests that he should take the opportunity to spend time with Elaine.
"She rarely gets time alone with you," Guinevere says gently after he mopes about how everything seems too quiet without Ariane running around underfoot. As usual, Guinevere is right and Arthur feels the unsettling weight of guilt in his chest.
Elaine decides that she wants to pick flowers when Arthur asks her the next day what she wants to do. Her small hand tightly holding on to his, they walk slowly out of Camelot to the nearby forest. Merlin had given him directions to the best place to pick flowers and they make their way there.
"Daddy," Elaine tugs on his hand, wide eyes looking at him. "I love you."
Her sudden declaration stops him and he kneels down to look at her. "I love you too Elaine."
"Good," Elaine smiles.
It's a beautiful spring day and Arthur is glad to see that the flowers are in bloom. Elaine looks every bit a golden fairy as she runs through the flowers, laughing and calling to Arthur to hurry up.
"Let's make a flower chain," says Elaine when she finally comes to a stop. "Tasha always makes one for us."
Slowly, Arthur lowers himself onto the slightly damp grass and settles Elaine on his lap. It is then he realises he has no clue how to make a flower chain and after some fumbling, he learns that despite Tasha's instructions, Elaine too has no idea how to make a flower chain.
"No! You're doing it wrong!"
Arthur looks at the squashed flowers in his hands and agrees. Sighing, he plucks more flowers and tries again, unsure of how one would attach flowers together. Knotting the stems together seemed right yet it is amazingly difficult to achieve without crushing the flowers.
Eventually, after a lot of attempts, mangled flowers strewn all around them, they manage something which, when squinted at, looks a little like a flower chain. And in the midst, there was laughter, tickles and Arthur's realisation that his tiny five year old daughter was impossibly determined and incredibly creative.
Three days later, the flower chain is falling apart yet Elaine still carries it around, telling everyone she sees how her daddy made it for her. One day, Arthur replaces it with a delicate gold chain of jewelled flowers. Elaine never takes it off.