Arthur was frozen in place. This couldn't be happening. This was insane… He couldn't be…
"Arthur!" his mother waved a hand in front of Arthur's face, snapping him out of it.
"No," Arthur muttered, and fell back, against the desk. "I-It couldn't have been me…Wh-what about Scott? Isn't he the oldest?!"
"Sweetie, calm down," his mother stroked his shoulder and Arthur was breathing heavily.
"But…there's no one else," Arthur muttered. "Not a single other royal. I-I'll be all alone."
"And I'm sure you can handle it, Arthur," his mother smiled softly.
"I can't," Arthur shook his head. "Oh, good Lord, I'm going to be sick…" Arthur started pacing, stroking his hand through his hair.
"If the clocks chose you, then I'm positive that you're perfect for the job," his mother said helpfully.
"Just like Uncle was, right?" Arthur snapped. He felt a little bad talking down on his uncle only a few days after his death, but it was agreed by everyone in the kingdom that he was the worst King in the history of Deck. "It's not right, Mum. Kirklands have always been a bad choice."
"You're uncle has done many great things for Deck," his mother reminded kindly. "You'll realize that when you're Queen of Spades."
"I can't be a bloody Queen!" Arthur snapped, slightly regretting cursing in front of his mother. "That's supposed to be a female's place."
"The clock is never picky," his mother sighed. "It's been mere coincidence that it hasn't chosen a man for Queen in so long. Queen Kiku is a male."
"That's in Hearts," Arthur sighed. "They play by different rules than Spades. What about the next King, then? Will that be a woman, then? I can't wed someone I don't know like the King and Queen are supposed to!"
"You're overthinking things," his mother said kindly. "The clocks chose people who fall in love, they have never failed in that. Whoever is your King will be your soul mate. You must relax. Your uncle had the same issue."
Arthur shook his head, rubbing it slightly. He couldn't talk about this anymore. So he just stormed out of the study they were in and barged down the hallway. He wasn't even looking where he was going, until he rammed right into someone he didn't see. Arthur started paying attention right when everything in that person's hands came crashing to the ground. He saw a silver platter with a horribly shattered tea set, the tea spilled all over the navy blue and black rug.
"Oh, God, I'm sorry," Arthur muttered, a hand on his forehead, as he watched the servant stoop down to pick up all the shattered pieces of the tea set onto the platter.
"It's fine, dude," the servant boy laughed. As Arthur stood there, watching him pick everything up, he noticed that he looked rather familiar. His sand-colored hair with that one bit that stuck straight up looked very familiar.
"I-I should have looked where I was going," Arthur muttered. Maybe this kid would be a nice distraction from his life. He stooped down to help him pick up the pieces.
"Uh…Arthur, right?" the servant asked. Arthur looked up at him, staring into his deep, sapphire eyes, and admiring his tanned skin. And Arthur just noticed that this was the first time he looked at a servant in the face.
"Yes," Arthur nodded. "And your name?"
"Alfred F. Jones," the man flashed an obnoxiously bright smile.
"Pleasure to meet you," Arthur smiled slightly. He looked back down at the ground, picking up the last few pieces. Arthur moved his hands to help Alfred pick the tray up, and their hands made contact. At that split second, Arthur got this weird vision. He couldn't quite understand it and it only lasted a second, but he was pretty sure he was kissing someone.
"You gonna stand up?" Alfred asked. Arthur looked around and noticed that Alfred had already stood up.
"Right," Arthur sighed and stood up quickly.
"So, I heard about that whole clock thing," Alfred smiled. So much for a distraction.
"Figures the news would spread fast," Arthur muttered.
"Hey, you got my support," Alfred shrugged. "You'll make a great King, I'm sure."
"King…" Arthur muttered. Yeah, that would be a good cover for now. Everyone could just think that he was King until the proper one was found. He was doing all the work himself, anyway. "Yes, I'm still trying to come to grips with it myself."
"I'm sure you'll do really good," Alfred smiled. "Just like your late uncle, right?"
"Sure," Arthur sighed. He didn't see what other people saw in his uncle, he was nothing great. "If you excuse me, I have to go do something."
"Sure," Alfred nodded. Then he gestured to the tray. "So do I."
"Very sorry about that, by the way," Arthur muttered quickly.
"Hey, I won't have to clean it," Alfred laughed, guesturing to the soaked rug. "And since it's not my fault, I won't get kicked out. So thanks."
"I don't quite follow your logic, but okay," Arthur chuckled and the two parted ways. Arthur sighed. He seemed like such a good lad…It was a shame he would probably never meet him again.
Arthur sat at the desk in his room, staring at the pile of papers laid on his desk. It seemed like they would reach his head if they were any taller.
"You're kidding me, right?" Arthur stared at it.
"This is why I'm happy I don't have this job," Scott snorted, taking a drag from the cigarette in his hand.
"Please don't smoke in here," Arthur waved the smoke away from his face and coughed.
"So, you have to do all of this?" Dillan blinked at the stack.
"By tomorrow," Arthur sighed, leaning back in the chair.
"Well, you're screwed," Callan laughed and Scott soon joined him.
"This is hopeless," Arthur muttered.
"It's only been a week since the last royals died," Dillan said. "How could there already be this much?"
"Probably because there's no one else," Arthur snapped. "This is the bloody paperwork for the three hardest working people in Spades and I have to do it alone."
"Aren't Jacks usually picked out first?" Callan asked through his laughing.
"Not this time," Arthur massaged his temples. "God, I hope he's found soon. I don't want to do this alone."
"You sure it's not going to be a woman?" Scott chuckled. "You being a Queen is the most hilarious thing I've heard in my life! And now you think you can pass off being King until the newest one is found!"
"Shut up," Arthur rolled his eyes. "Now, if you excuse me, I actually have work to do."
Eventually, his three brothers did file out of his room, leaving it silent. Arthur started on the papers. When he read through them, he noticed that a lot of them meant pretty much the same thing. There were a lot of bills to sign that the royal council came up with, which Arthur signed most of. And then there were permits for citizens building new homes. At about the time when he was reading things about his own coronation, he was getting drowsy. And, soon, he was face-first on his desk, sleeping.
He only woke up when he felt something poking his arm. Arthur slowly opened his eyes, revealing that he was, in fact, sleeping on his desk.
"Oh, bloody hell," Arthur muttered, sitting upright. He looked at the stack of papers he still had to do and groaned.
"You okay?" the servant who woke him up asked in a very familiar voice.
"Fine," Arthur shook his head.
"I was told it would be smart to bring you some tea," the servant said politely, placing a steaming cup of tea with a delightful aroma down in front of him.
"Thank you," Arthur nodded politely. Finally, he looked up at the servant, and found that young lad from earlier. "Um, sorry, but, what was your name again?"
"Alfred," the young man smiled happily.
"Right, thank you," Arthur smiled. It was strange, this was the first person who made him smile for real in years. Most of the time, he would just fake it to make his mother happy. But this Alfred made him genuinely smile. "Have I seen you somewhere before? Other than in the hallway yesterday?"
"So you really don't pay attention to us," Alfred rubbed the back of his head, grinning slightly. "For about a year, I've been the one who comes in here with all the random junk that you need. Guess you wouldn't know that, since you never look up at us."
"My apologies," Arthur muttered, staring at his tea. So Alfred was the one who brought in his tea every morning, blankets and firewood in the winter, and invitations to certain events…
"Oh, I also had something else to give you," Alfred dug into his back pocket and pulled out a letter. "Here."
"Thanks," Arthur nodded, taking the letter. He opened it up quickly and noticed that Alfred picked up one of the documents Arthur already signed. Arthur ignored it for now and read through the letter. It was an invitation. From Francis, King of Diamonds. Arthur rolled his eyes. Figured he would be throwing a party to celebrate Arthur becoming Royalty. Naturally, since Alfred gave him the idea of pretending to be King, news was spreading everywhere that Arthur was to be crowned King soon. Arthur just prayed that the coronation would happen after the new King was found. Or this would be very hard to explain.
"Do you even read these when you sign them?" Alfred asked randomly.
"What?" Arthur put the letter down, looking up at Alfred, who was staring at the document.
"This is a tax on stamps for no reason," Alfred handed the thing to him. "Sounds pretty stupid, if you ask me."
"Well, I was tired," Arthur shook his head and re-read the document. It actually was a tax on stamps… Arthur sighed and tore the thing in half. "I don't even know what the bloody hell I'm doing." Arthur rested his head on the table again, wrapping his arms around it.
"Hey, you're doing a lot better than I would be," Alfred said helpfully and a hand patted Arthur's back. Normally, Arthur would have told him off for touching him, a servant shouldn't touch royalty, but he wasn't in the mood. He was far too tired. Arthur sat up and picked up the clock that had chosen him, which was now keeping perfect time. It was nearly midnight and Arthur had yet to finish his work.
"I should get back to work," Arthur sighed. He picked up the cup of tea and took a sip before he took up a new document and tried to read through it.
"Good luck," Alfred chimed and Arthur heard the door close. Arthur grinned slightly and set the document down. How could he have not noticed Alfred before, he wondered. He was such a kind lad. And he apparently loved talking, how did he ignore him for so long?
Arthur took up a piece of parchment and started writing a letter back to Francis about that party. Arthur figured that it would be best to have it in Spades, because leaving would mean that he would get more work piled up for him.
After the letter was finished, Arthur spared a glance back at the papers, taking a deep sigh. They would wait a little bit, he decided as he took another sip of the tea. He couldn't help but wonder if Alfred made it himself or if someone in the kitchen staff did. He had never thought about the servants before…
Maybe he should pay attention to them a little more. If they were all as nice as Alfred, it might give Arthur a chance to improve on his social skills.
Arthur finished the tea and went over to his bed, easily falling asleep with a big pile of work lying on his desk right next to him.
He had a dream of fairies and unicorns.
Okay, so this is a story I came up with pretty recently. It's my first Cardverse!AU, and for some reason I couldn't stop myself from writing it. I said I was going to take a break from FanFiction, but apparently it's physically impossible for me to do that. It sucks... But, on the bright side, it means you get this. As this is the first chapter, not much is explained, but most does get explained later.
I've noticed from reading all of the other Cardverse fics that everyone has Yao doing everything alone until Arthur and Alfred come along, and so I thought about what it would be like to have someone else picked first. So I chose Arthur, since he's more capable than Alfred. I'm also going with the idea of the Royals being picked by magic clocks. Just because that makes more sense than anything else and it helps the story later on.
Also, if anyone notices a trend I'll be putting in each chapter by the end of the story, I'll give ya a special one-shot!
Anyway, now that that horrible speech is over, tell me what you think!
I do not and never will own Hetalia...sadly.