Author's note:

It wasn't as if Alfred had any desire to plunge Gaia back into chaos again.
Matthew feared war would end them before they ended war.
The kingdom of Aralerien hadn't been at war in years. It has coexisted with the other tribes and kingdoms of the land in harmony. Alfred had a plan to go out into the world and make his mark.
But when a mysterious woman shows up with instructions from a higher power Alfred must make a vital descision to fight like his ancestors before him or do nothing. Faced with the demanding task of being king he will face new challenges, enemies and better yet prejudice of a nation. (This is the whole summary since I couldn't fit it in due to the character limit...)

So yeah I obviously don't own Hetalia because if I did there would be less fan service and more history. I'm fairly new to writing fan fiction but I tried my best...Also if your wondering who Mikkel is he's supposed to be Denmark. Anyway on with the story hope you enjoy.

Chapter One: The Twins

The clang of steel echoed throughout the ancient stone walls of the castle that were covered in grand tapestries of the royals, hero's and nobles of the land. Silver blades danced, twirling simultaneously throughout the air. Harsh pants filled the room as the younger of the two youths collapsed to the polished marble floor. His hands loosened their grip on his sword as he wiped beads of sweat from his forehead.

"Come on Jones I thought you were better than this! Put up a little fight will ya? If this is your best effort your old man might just have to give his crown over to that pansy brother of yours." The older boy taunted harshly.

In response to the younger boy shot a glare at his rival, filled with rage.

"Seriously, Alfred, you gonna just lie down and take it?"

Picking his blade back up, he charged... Crimson blood oozed from the newly made large gash in the older boy's now limp arm.

"Jones what the hell was that for? Just because you can't take a joke doesn't mean you have to go and try to cut off my arm!"

"Shit.. I didn't mean to hurt you that bad, but you should be able to handle it right? I mean, compared to your strength I'm nothing. Isn't that what you always say, Mikkel?" The younger mocked back, grinning in triumph. He was concerned for Mikkel's injury though he refused to show it.

Large wooden doors swung open and one of the servants entered looking sick with worry. Alfred immediately knew something was wrong; none of the servants would come to interrupt his training sessions unless something seriously important was going on within the kingdom.

"So sorry to bother you, Prince Alfred, Knight Mikkel but the King has requested—" the servant stopped, noticing Mikkel's injury. "Oh my Lord, what happened here? I'll go and get help!"

"Nah, don't worry about it, it's just a little scratch from training. I'll go see someone about it." Mikkel glanced towards Alfred and then at the servant still standing by door while getting up and quickly leaving.

"You said my farther wanted me?" Alfred asked.

"Oh yes of course if you would come with me then." The servant replied, gesturing towards the door.

The training rooms and the Jones' private quarters were quite far off from each other, both on different floors of the castle, none the less Alfred was so lost in thoughts about his father he seemed to there before he could even blink an eye.

"Hey Al...We shouldn't think the worst of this. I'm sure it's nothing to do with his health, I bet he has another quest he's going to assign to you or something," the almost identical boy spoke quietly with a weak smile on his face, a pointless facade he was worried, probably even more than Alfred was in the first place.

Alfred snapped back into reality as soon as these words were uttered to him. He normally wasn't this spacey and definitely not this quiet, most people constantly got annoyed with his bragging about previous quests he had been on or his ideas on how he felt the kingdom could be improved. Alfred knew how bad his fathers health had fallen, he knew he was dying and he knew that soon he or Matthew would be crowned as the new king. Even if it wasn't shown directly most people didn't like the idea of Alfred being future king. As for Matthew despite the fact he was a prince no one really seemed to notice his presence.

It wasn't that Matthew would be that bad of a ruler; he was nice, treated people well no matter what their status was with respect and was an intelligent boy but his shyness and quietness always seemed to get in the way, especially during formal gatherings where he was supposed to mingle with other royals and nobles. Most people wouldn't even notice him at all and when he was around Alfred it was almost as if he had become invisible. Also, even though he had the basic training skills required to be able to defend himself as part of the royal family he hated fighting or any combat of the sort unless it was completely necessary. The King would have to fight of course, attend executions and there was even a chance he would have to fight in war.

Alfred, on the other hand, was loud, idealistic and had pretty good combat skills for a boy of his age (as his farther always told him). He could be a great leader if he tried and enjoyed the rare times he was aloud to go out to fight. Still he never really thought his actions through and could let his emotions control him at times, especially in combat, which was dangerous. In short most of the kingdom's people saw him as reckless and irresponsible.

Alfred had always been the kings favorite, maybe because he was the first born or because the King saw a little bit of himself in his son. Whatever the reason people knew this and people talked and soon Alfred and Matthew finally found this out to. Alfred accepted it and Matthew ignored it, tried to brush it off as if he denied the truth. He was used to being second best, ignored, being in his brother's shadow.

"Al are you okay? You keep spacing out."

"Uh, yeah course bro! I'm fine."

"Well we should probably go in then, you know how farther hates to wait."

"Uh, yeah sure."

They both clung onto each other's arms with nervous, sweaty palms. They hadn't felt like this in a long time, not since their mother had been killed by a rouge spell-caster but that was another story and this was happening now, this was reality, Alfred and Matthew's reality.

Okay so that's it for now I know it was kinda short but I wanted it to end on a cliff hanger. Please, please, please review if you enjoyed as I would love some feedback from people also I would like to thank Kitty29 for being my Beta reader, she's also an awesome writer so go check her out. :D