Prologue: Duty of a Prince

The skies over the Spade Kingdom were marbled with blue, white and purple, which merged together to form the first sunrise of winter. A few bluebirds departed from their nests and their wings fluttered as they began to fly over the land.

Spade Kingdom was one of the richest Kingdoms in the whole land; prospering in trade to the other Kingdoms.

Within the land of Hetalia, there resided four Kingdoms: Spades, Clubs, Diamonds and Hearts. The Spade Kingdom was prosperous in its fortune from trade with the other Kingdoms as well as producing many special luxuries: perfumes, clothes and jewellery. Club Kingdom was prosperous in agriculture, particularly in producing wheat and grain to be sold to each Kingdom. Diamond Kingdom earned her fortune from the creation of many different luxuries, she was known as the Kingdom of love and passion. Finally, the Heart Kingdom became prosperous as of their national efficiency; the Kingdom's employment rates were the highest in all the land and therefore brought in a lot of money to the Kingdom.

Each was led by a King, Queen and a Jack. The heir to the throne was born with a mark on either the back of their hand or along their chest, dependent on the role that they were to take in the monarchy. The King, usually born into the royal family, held the royal crest of the Kingdom along their chest; the child born to be King could only be male, as it was seen that women were weak in times of conflict or famine. The Queen, usually married into the royal family from aristocracy, held the crest on the back of their hand, they could be of either gender but were generally female. Finally, the Jack is born with the crest on their left shoulder; they could be of either gender as well, but the current Jacks of each Kingdom were all born male.

When the heir to the throne had been born; they needed to find a King or Queen, depending on which crest they were born with. Some born with the crest were not part of the monarchy or the upper classes, some were simply part of the working class, even the families who were below the poverty line.

On the fourth of July, four years previous, a young Prince was born to the King and Queen of Spade Kingdom. A sweet young boy with bright sapphire eyes and golden blond locks; a bubbly, hyperactive personality and a dedication to his parents. The Queen, Amelia, and her husband, King George, named their new born infant Alfred F Jones.

"Mama! Papa! Look, it's the sunrise," The youthful boy hopped onto his parents' bed, trying to wake them up as the sun rose. The small bundle of joy giggled with delight as his father stirred from his sleep.

"Alfred…your mother came back from business very late last night, try and not wake her alright?" The older male spoke, rubbing the sleep out of his deep blue eyes as he spoke to his young child.

"Ah okay…I'm sorry Papa…" Alfred frowned and got up on his hands and knees to sit on his father's stomach. "Hey, Papa, when could we possibly go out riding? I really want to learn how!"

"My boy, you're much too young to start learning to ride yet, you cannot until you are around seven or eight. I do apologise," George ruffled his son's hair playfully, "Though I am proud of your eagerness to learn to ride. You will become a bright and strong young man one day."

That first day of winter for the boy passed by quickly, he and his father simply spoke about the exciting new things Alfred would be able to do when he got older, until his mother woke up. They went to play together as a family unit. Although the King and Queen were delighted to have a male heir, that wasn't the most important thing to them. They had had a child together, a Prince who would soon control their Kingdom.

The main thing that the Prince's parents considered was that when their son came of age, he would simply have to fulfil the duty of a prince.

Author's Note:

Apologies that this prologue is pretty short. But it's basically just setting the scene for the story to come; introducing you to the background and characters. Arthur will be introduced in the next chapter all you USUK fans!

I've got a lot of different Hetalia stories going, each of them contain USUK (my OTP! 3), so I hope to upload those at some point too!

As for updates, I'll try and update this story weekly: every Monday at 10pm GMT. But if there are delays I do apologise!

Thank you!