Palette
Chapter 1: The World Without Blue
For aph-ameriko on Tumblr
A/N: AAAAHHHHH! Sorry if this is super late! I really want to post all three stories on your birthday but school prevents me from doing it. D: Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Today is the coronation of the Spadian Prince.
Arthur stood quietly with his family among the crowd. He can smell the delicious foods that they will feast on later and the sweet fragrance of the Spades Tree at the center of the Capital. He feels like he doesn't belong in this elegant and pristine place of his kingdom. He is only a lowly farm boy, nothing else. The suit he's wearing was borrowed from his mother's friend. The Kirkland's don't have enough money for such fancy thing.
He doesn't even want to go to events like this. Going to the Capital means seeing things and the life you'll never have. The nobles are everywhere in this place, each of them giving dirty looks to the commoners every two minutes.
The Capital also only has one palette of color, the color blue and Arthur hates it.
Arthur could see any color but blue for it is the eye color of his soulmate. Sometimes he'll see blue as grey, other times black, but usually only white. Unfortunately though, blue is the color of his kingdom. His soulmate will be the one to give him the ability to see the color when their eyes meet until the day his soulmate dies. Another unfortunately for Arthur, after 21 years of waiting, he still haven't met his soulmate.
There are guards and some knights coming out one by one from the castle to the side of the stage. The ceremony is about to start. People seem to be more attentive now, some even moving closer to the stage. Arthur cannot help it but also raise his head up to see what's going to happened.
There's a total of fifteen guards that came out. Moments after that, people wearing expensive looking suits and gowns came out and was assisted by couple guards to their seat which is right in front of the stage. Arthur realized by then that they are the royal family.
A band started playing and the crowd's eyes, including Arthur, went back to the castle's gates. The royals will now come out. He can recognize some of the instruments used as he watches in slight anticipation. All the instruments except the drum stopped playing, letting the drummers do a 30 seconds solo before going all out again.
When they did so, the Jack of Spades came out. He looks refined and dignified. He walks up to the stage with full confidence, like he have done this a million times.
The band started the beat again and another person came out. Matthew Williams-Jones, brother of the Prince and the Ace. He can see that the Ace have a shy demeanor but he still walks heads up like any royal would. When he got up to the stage, he made his way besides the Queen's chair and stood there stoically.
The crowds started making noise again as Spadian citizens started to murmur and some are cheering. Now, two people came out which are the King and Queen of Spades. They wore simple but elegant clothes that Arthur is sure it was made from the finest fabric the royal family could find. The Queen is waving and smiling to the citizens and the cheering went louder. Meanwhile, the King walked like the Jack but his features more stern. They have two knights behind them and Arthur is familiar with one of them. It was Antonio Carriedo, the knight who went to Arthur's town and announced about the coronation of the prince and that each Spadian citizens presence is required.
The two knights stayed at the bottom of the stage's stairs and when the King and Queen sat down, they walked beside the guards who came out earlier.
The band started the beat again and the cheering went even louder, even the rest of his family are clapping. Prince Alfred Jones finally made himself seen. He wears, Arthur assumed, an expensive looking blue suit with sapphire studs accompanied by a black belt and a violet coat that covers his shoulders, to his back until inches of it are on the floor and being dragged by him as he walked. There's a young girl behind him holding a crown and the Jack approached the stage stairs. She gave the crown to the Jack before walking away as the Prince walked up the stage and knelt in front of his parents.
Everything went quite and even the band stopped playing. The King stood up and it went even more silent. "My dear citizens of my kingdom of Spades. We are all here today for the reason of my son, Alfred Jones, would officially and legally be the Prince and soon to be king of Spades." He said with a booming voice, his eyes scanning the crowd. The citizens cheered but immediately died down when the King continued. "This day will also mark the start of my son's journey in finding his destined partner. Maybe one of you is my son's soulmate, that's also one of the reasons why all of us are here." Another cheer but it is obvious that it came more from women.
The King then started the ceremony and gave a short speech that Arthur didn't listen to. He just observed the people on the stage. The Prince kneels almost all the time except until the Jack told him to stand and started doing the 'I solemnly swears...'.
Wind blew and Arthur could smell the Spades Tree stronger. Arthur turned to look at it. He haven't paid attention to it the previous times that he was here but today it is almost like the tree wants him to look at it.
Arthur was not aware that the ceremony already ended. Prince Alfred finally faced the crowd, earning another set of cheering. He did notice what's already happening when people pushed him back as they made way for the Prince to get to the Spades Tree.
He feels some sort of anxiousness and he doesn't have any idea why. The neared the Prince to him and the tree, the faster his heartbeat is. He felt a hand on his shoulders and he hears Allistor's, one of his brothers, voice. Arthur knew that Allistor is asking him if he's alright but for some reason, he cannot reply his answer.
The Prince is only a few meters from him and he's breathing heavily. Another strong gust of wind blew, the scent of the Spadian Tree filled his senses again. Prince Alfred suddenly stopped his tracks and Arthur looked back at him. He was also looking at Arthur and the moment their eyes met, Arthur could only describe it as blue.
The sudden burst of colors around him made him dizzy. He heard the people in front of him shuffling and his mother gasping in his back. Everything is getting blurry and he could feel his body falling but somebody supported him. He couldn't see clearly but he knows that they look like the stranger dipped him in a dance. Arthur forced his eyes to open and focus. He can only see blue. The real blue.
He felt the stranger touch his face before lifting him up. They stared intently to Arthur's eyes but for him, it's getting really dark.
"You're my queen." He heard the stranger say before everything went black.