Eb: New!

Rachele: This took for like EVER!

Iv: -nods-

Eb: Disclaimer: We don't own anything but the vague plot.

Rachele: Warning: Gender-Bender, human names used.

Iv: Pairings: Ivan (Russia) x Fem!Gilbert (Prussia)(Main), Alfred (US) x Fem!Arthur (UK)(Side), Ludwig (Germany) x Fem!Feliciano (N. Italy)(Side), Antonio (Spain) x Fem!Lovino (S. Italy)(Side), Yao (China) x Fem!Kiku (Japan)(Side), Roderich (Austria) x Fem!Vash (Switzerland)(Side), Francis (France) x Fem!Matthew (Canada)(Side), Odoacer (Germania) x Fem!Romulus (Roman Empire/Ancient Rome)(Side, Later)

All Three: Ready, Set, GO!

Despite what you think

The Rogue and The King

Are always

The main characters.

"Once there were two young kids by the name of Alfred Jones and Rosa Kirkland-"

They were the best of friends; they'd tell each other secrets, play pranks on old people, stay up all night talking, that sort of thing.

At a young age, Arthur showed great potential to be a mage, and Alfred proved to be better then any seasoned gunslinger that walked through their town gates.

But, two of the many mages and gunslingers that Arthur and Alfred had beaten, decided to team up and take revenge. That revenge was in the form of the murder of both the boys' parents, and the kid-napping of Alfred F. Jones, leaving Arthur and Marguerite, Alfred's younger sister, in the care of Roderich and Vasha Edelstein. Roderich, being the most skilled mage in the world at the time, taught Arthur everything he knew.

But Rosa still regretted never telling Alfred she loved him.

Rosa found herself, as she had many times before, crying in the forest behind the school. The boys of her school had teased her, for being a tom-boy again. So what if she liked to beat up boys, and wear the guy's uniform? None of the bastard teachers cared! But, this time, they'd gone too far. They'd cut her hair! Her long beautiful hair! It had been the only girlish aspect about her, and they'd cut it off!

"Hey, what's up?" someone asked her suddenly.

Rosa turned her tear-stained face towards the voice to see a young boy, most likely a year or two younger than her, looking at her curiously. "Those mean boys, they cut off my long, pretty hair!" she sobbed, latching onto his overly-large coat.

"Look at me," he demanded.

Rosa looked up into his blue eyes and he brushed a bit of her gray-ish brown hair out of her face and wiped away her tears. He smiled and hugged her reassuringly. "Just 'cause your hair is all short like a boys' now, doesn't mean you're not pretty! It'll grow back, and then it'll be prettier than before! I promise!"

"Really?" she demanded.

"Really, really!" he exclaimed happily.

He pulled away and smiled at her. "I'm Alfred Jones by the way, nice to meet ya!"

She smiled back "I'm Rosa Kirkland!"

Rosa chuckled at the memory, washing the dishes from their dinner. Then she sighed. Marguerite had left some time ago in search of Alfred. Rosa sniffled. Her little Meg might die!

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

Rosa looked up, startled. "Rosie, can you get that?" she heard Roderich call.

She rolled her eyes, but complied never-the-less. She was curious. Francis didn't get home for another hour. And when she opened the door, there stood Marguerite with an ecstatic look on her face.

"Marguerite!" she squealed, hugging her "my little Meg! You're back!"

"Come on, no 'Welcome Back' for the hero? I expected more of you Rose-anator." Another voice said.

Rosa looked over Meg's shoulder "Alfred?" she asked.

A much older Alfred stood there, with his trademark goofy grin and a thumbs-up. "In the flesh!" he beamed at her.

Slowly, she let go of Meg, and reached out tentatively, almost as if she wasn't sure he was real, before touching his face. Tears came to her eyes and she wrapped her arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder "Welcome back, Al!" she whispered.

"I'm back," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist.

After a few moments like this, Rosa pulled away, a sheepish smile on her face as she said "We should go inside, huh?"

Alfred nodded, and as he walked through the doorway he asked "Can I share a room with you, for old time's sake?"

"Of course," she said smiling "because if you didn't you'd either have to share a room with Francis and Meg, or Roderich and Vasha if you were really desperate."

"In that case, you'll have to put a second bed in your room!" he grinned.

"That'd probably be a good idea, because Roderich and Vasha would not want you to share a room with them, and you don't want to share a room with them, Hell, you don't even want a room near them. Paper thin walls this house has. You don't want to be with Meg and Francis either, they're even worse!" she smiled at him, sitting down on the couch as she did so.

"Uggh, that's gross, how do you put up with that?" he demanded, plopping down next to her.

She smiled wearily "I just think to myself, 'one day I'll be able to do that with the man I love.' If I'm lucky that is." She sighed "the person I like, I'm sure will never like me back."

"You're a strong, beautiful, and smart woman, what's not to like?" Alfred asked as though it were the most obvious thing ever.

"He's the free-spirited kind;" Rosa smiled "he's like to be free, not tied down to a woman. And I'm sure I'm not his kind of woman." Her smile faded "I'll probably love him forever, even after one of us is married, if either of us."

"I love someone too," Alfred sighed "she'll probably never love me though."

"I love you," Rosa said without thinking. Her eyes widened and she slapped her hands over her mouth. But it had already let slip.

"We stand corrected," Alfred grinned "we've been in love with each other the whole time, haven't we?"

"Apparently," she chuckled and he kissed her. She eagerly kissed back.

They were content.

The Vargas Sisters, with the elder Lovina (often called Lovi or Romana) and the younger Felicia (often called Feli or Veneziana), had always been close; they even shared a birthday (despite the fact that Lovina was two years older), and though Lovina often took to yelling at Felicia (and hitting her on the head) she really did care.

Lovina was skilled in lightning magic and bow and arrows, and Felicia exceeded in fire magic, and sword, they were novices at best, not sure what they wanted to do, but sure of their skills.

Lovina and Felicia had lived with their grandmother Roma and a young man named Antonio on a small farm just on the outskirts of town. They'd never known anything but the small Tomato farm, not even their own parents, so they were content to a fairly isolated life.

One day, that all changed.

Antonio and I were out in the fields picking tomatoes for their dinner that night (they were gonna make pasta) when a gun shot rang through the house, followed by a scream I recognized to be Felicia's.

"Feli," I gasped, dropping my basket of tomatoes and running for the house, followed by Antonio.

I rushed in to find my sister cowering on the floor with our grandmother's body in her arms. Towering over them were two soldiers of the king one with a blood covered sword, the other grinning like a mad-man. As far as I could tell, they weren't drunk.

"We're here to recruit Antonio Fernandez Carriedo for the royal army." The mad-man cackled.

Antonio's eyes widened. I slapped a hand over my mouth and whirled around, grabbing his shoulder and pulling us down to hide behind a table so they wouldn't find us. "Go," I whispered.

"No," he hissed back "not without you."

"Don't worry," I said, shaking my head "I'll get us out of this one, even if I lose my virginity."

"Please don't," he said, clearly distressed.

"Go, pack our bags, we're all going to leave, this I swear."

He stared at me, his eyes searching mine as if to find unsureness. ". . . Alright," he whispered after a moment, moving quietly up the stairs to our left as I stood up and cleared my throat at the searching soldiers.

They turned to me and grinned. "I'm sorry sirs," I said innocently "could you inform me what you are doing here?"

"We're here to recruit Antonio Fernandez Carriedo," he said again.

"I'm sorry, he doesn't live here anymore," I said smiling "he left without saying where he was going."

"I don't believe you," he grunted.

"Why ever would you not?" I asked, cocking my head in pretend puzzlement.

"W-well, uhh," the man looked side to side, not meeting my eyes as he tried and failed to come up with something.

"Now would you please leave good sirs?" I asked "you're disrupting our house life."

"O-of course," he stammered rushing out the still open front door, his friend in tow.

Antonio cautiously made his way down the stairs as I rushed to my sister's side.

"What should I do Sorella?" Feli asked me, panicked. Our unnaturally beautiful grandmother laid there on the floor gushing out blood.

"Don't worry," Antonio said, kneeling by her other side and placing his hand on her forehead. He closed his eyes and for a second, his hand glowed red. Grandma Roma stirred and blinked her eyes open as Antonio moved to the wound in her side. His hand glowed a few seconds and sweat rolled down his forehead.

My jaw dropped as the blood stopped and the wound healed itself. "Y-you're a- a-,"

"Healing Mage?" Antonio offered helpfully.

"Y-yeah, that," I said.

"Let's get moving," he said "our stuff is out back. Our little friends are liable to come back."

"Yeah," I said, helping Feli to stand leading her out back. Antonio followed, carrying Grandma Roma in his arms.

Later they'd parted ways with Antonio and found a nice home to stay in. Grandma Roma made friends with the woman of the house, Vasha, and Lovi and Feli made friends with the others who lived in the house: Rosa Kirkland, Alfred Jones, Marguerite 'Meg' Williams, and Francis Bonnefoy. The master of the house and the husband of Vasha, Roderich Edelstein was a famous mage and became Lovi and Feli's teacher.

That was the last they'd seen Antonio Fernandez Carriedo.

Or so they thought.

Lovi and Feli had been doing the groceries when they saw none other than Antonio dying on the side of the road. They took him home with them and healed him. He too stayed with them.

They were content.

Elsewhere, a man by the name of Wang Yao lived with only his beautiful servant Honda Sakura. She lived for him. He was her master, and she loved him. It was forbidden, and she knew he could never love her back. One day though, Yao was evicted. Sakura never found out why, but Yao and she had to leave their lax house and head for the country.

They wandered for days on end until they found the Edelstein residence. They were easily accepted into the strange household and the people there welcomed them with open arms.

They were content.

Then there were the Beilschmidt siblings. The older: a girl named Julchen, and the younger: a boy named Ludwig. The two were as close as any siblings could get, despite the fact that Ludwig dreamed full-heartedly of being a knight, and Julchen wanted nothing more than to be a rogue or thief of some sort.

But they had secrets from each other. Like how (despite his insistence that he hated it) Ludwig truly loved being called 'Luddy' by his schwester. Or how Julchen (no matter how many times she said it'd never happen) truly believed her little bruder could be a knight.

But the biggest secret was the fact that Julchen soul traveled at night. She would wander anywhere and everywhere wishing someone would see her, but they never did.

One day, she found herself in a room of stone. Where was she? She heard crying in the corner of the room, and saw a small boy sitting there, crying his eyes out into his knees. He had to have been at least 8 years old, just one year less than her 9 years.

She walked over to him and kneeled down. "Are you all right?" she asked.

The boy looked up, blinking back tears. "W-who are you?" he stammered.

"I'm anything you want me to be," she smiled.

"W-will you be my friend?" he asked tentatively.

She blinked. Then she smiled. "Alright," she said happily. She spread her arms open "Now who wants a hug?" she asked.

"I do!" he said, throwing himself into her arms. She let out a small 'oof' and patted his head "My name is Julchen Beilschmidt," she told him "what's yours?"

"Ivan Braginski," he smiles up at her.

The two stay like that for some time, until dawn is peaking overhead. "I must go," she whispered to the sleeping boy, picking him up and setting him on the bed, before whispering "I don't know if I'll ever see you again, but remember, I'll always be your friend Ivan,"

She never saw him again.

And soon, she grew up and left home, soon becoming a famous rogue known as 'Phantom Dieb Juli'.It was the language of her ancestors and it meant 'Phantom Thief Jul'. And her brother becomes a famous knight, who went by the name 'Justiz Kreuzfahrers Lud'. It meant 'Justice Crusader Lud'.

But, the king betrayed Ludwig. He'd never really trusted the man, so he attempted to kill him. His attempts were futile however, and he escaped. Julchen found Ludwig bleeding out on the side of the road and took him to the Edelstein residence where he was taken care of. In the end, they both decided to stay.

They were content.

Eventually, the king of their land died, and the king's only son, Ivan Braginski, took the throne. The people of their land expected Ivan to be kind as his father, Toris, had been. But he was not. He was a cruel hearted person, he had no friends but his two sisters Natalia and Yekaterina (or "Katyusha" as most preferred), and his ever faithful, but extremely annoying, and lewd personal servant: Winter.

Ivan was a surprisingly strong mage, despite his young age, and using his hatred for a vent, he froze the world, covering the land in ice and snow, just as his own heart was.

And so, a time by the name of the endless winter, began.

At the time, Julchen and Antonio were 22. Rosa was 21. Alfred, Ludwig, and Lovi were 20. Feli and Sakura were 19. And Yao, the youngest, was 18. Ivan himself was only 21.

No one, not even Ivan, was content.

Eb: -wipes brow- Phew! What do you think?

Rachele: How was it? How was it?

Iv: -wiped out-

Eb and Rachele: R and R!