Prologue: In which three Kirklands blow up a piece of public property
"Dad. Dad! DAD!"
Arthur Kirkland winced at the sound of the small fist banging on the door of his magic room *ahem* study. He didn't respond to the entreaties, hoping his daughter would give up and leave him alone until the encantation he was working on was done. It was very delicate and would spontaneously combust should his hand move even the slightest fraction during the process….
Thud, thud, thud.
"DAD! I know you're in there! There's weird purple smoke coming from under the door!"
Crash.
KA-BOOM!
Arthur blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the sparks dancing before his dazed eyes. What just happened? He wondered fuzzily as he peered owlishly up at the set of faces bending over him. Why am I lying on my back in the middle of the outer courtyard? He pondered the feeling of cobblestones digging into his spine with a feeling of trepidation.
"Hiya, Dad! Why'd you blow up the magic hut?" Arthur's daughter, Amelia (although she preferred the nickname Allie) stared down at him, blue eyes wide.
"Are you okay, Dad?" the other set of eyes staring down at him asked, concern coloring the soft voice.
"I'm fine, Matthew," Arthur grunted, allaying the concerns of his son, and Allie's twin.
"You don't look fine," Matthew pointed out.
"Yeah, your hair's on fire," Allie pointed out helpfully.
"What?!" Arthur squawked, surging into a sitting position, ignoring the black dots swimming in his vision at the sudden motion.
"That doesn't look like normal fire," Matthew said, trepidation creeping into his violet eyes.
"Huh," Allie wondered at the sight, "You're right, it's kinda greenish."
Arthur was not comforted by the thought that his hair was burning or that the fire in question was green. "It's GREEN?!" he demanded, leaping to his feet (almost falling over as dizziness threatened to overwhelm him, not that anyone needed to know that) and dashed over to the nearest horse trough to peer at the small green inferno that was attempting to consume his blond hair. Without hesitating, he dunked his head in the trough, only coming up for air when he was certain that the prickling, burning sensation on his scalp had faded into watery oblivion.
He jerked his head from the trough and scrubbed at his face with his hands, trying to clear his vision. Instead he simply got the soot that had covered his palms in his eyes, making them burn. It was through watery eyes that he observed the smoldering ruin of his 'magic hut' as Allie had called it.
"Mom's gonna be pissed." Allie whistled through her teeth.
Matthew nodded agreement, clutching his familiar tight to his chest. The miniature polar bear struggled against the rough treatment. "Who are you?" It demanded.
Matthew furrowed his brow and looked down at his furry friend, "I'm Prince Matthew Bonnefoy-Kirkland," he insisted, "We've been over this a million times, Kumajiro!"
Kumajiro did not seem convinced. Then again, in the year that he had been the Prince (and more importantly, wizard-in-training)'s familiar, Kumajiro had not appeared to be capable of saying anything other than 'Who are you?' and those few syllables he only bestowed upon Matthew.
Arthur sighed. Allie was right; Franciose was going to be pissed. For a moment he wondered if perhaps he could get away with covering up the fact that he had once again reduced a piece of palace property to a smoking crater. Perhaps some illusions would work? No, the smoke column alone would take massive amounts of energy to hide and there was little doubt that someone had already seen it and tattled on him to his wife. She would be here in a few minutes, royal fury and all.
That left the wizard (and royal personage-by-marriage), only one option. He eyed his children. Eight-year-old Allie and eleven-year-old Matthew eyed him back with varying levels of sympathy for his current position. "What did you want me to do?" Arthur asked, hoping it would be long, involved and hopefully keep him away from Franciose's wrath until she had calmed down.
Allie drew herself up with an attitude of incredible self-importance. She lifted her little chin in the air, blowing her wavy blonde hair out of her face, rather ruining any attempt at dignity. "You promised you'd tell us the story of how you met Mom. So, tell us."
Matthew was nodding, the strange corkscrew curl of blonde hair which sprang up from his bangs bobbing with him. "Please Dad," he asked sweetly.
"Come on, no one will tell us!" Allie's face was plastered with the pleading puppy-dog look Arthur had never been able to resist. When she saw him hesitate, she pressed the subject even harder, "I wanna know how you became Queen!"
Arthur winced. He hated that title. "You know how." He reminded his children. "The law of the land says that Hetaliaonia must always be ruled by a King with royal blood. I'm not technically of royal blood. Your mother was the Crown Princess and was therefore of royal blood. The King does not legally have to be male, so she became King and I became… well… not King," he finished lamely.
Allie made a face and even Matthew looked discontented with the summary. As usual, it was Matthew who sealed the deal for the begging children. "If you're telling us a long story, Mom will leave you alone until she's not mad about you blowing the castle up again."
Arthur grimaced, "I did not 'blow the castle up' I simply detonated a small, fairly important part of it. It's why she won't let me set up a permanent structure for my magic anyway, people keep interrupting me during delicate spells, and unfortunate accidents continue to occur."
Allie raised an eyebrow. "You keep telling yourself that, Dad." Her expression shifted to one of eager anticipation, "So, story now?"
Arthur sighed. He had known from the start that he wasn't going to win this argument. "Yes, story now."
"YAY!" the kids exclaimed, even mild-mannered Matthew getting swept up in his sister's enthusiasm. They each grabbed one of their father's sleeves and dragged him into the castle, eager to finally hear the tale of how he met their mother.
The trio settled in front of a roaring fire in the library. Arthur was seated in his favorite armchair, embroidery in hand. Yes, embroidery. Real men sew. Matthew and Allie were curled in the armchair opposite him. Matthew in the process of attempting to sit as far away from his over-excited sister's flailing limbs as possible. Allie was… well… flailing.
"Sit, Allie," Arthur ordered; a tone of command in his voice.
Allie sat. She knew her father had been a pirate once, and she could tell when he was using his 'captain' voice. But the temporary resurrection of Captain Kirkland was not enough to keep her excitement fully at bay. "So, are you gonna tell us?" she demanded.
Arthur raised his bushy eyebrows at her, peering over his embroidery hoop with green eyes that sparkled in the firelight. Sadly, the thick eyebrows had escaped the green fire unscathed, although his wild golden hair was a few inches shorter and rather singed around the edges.
He rested his sewing on his lap and looked each of the twins in the eyes, "Fine, I'll tell you. But, I'm changing all of the names, and some of the facts. Deal?"
"No deal!" Allie exclaimed, looking irate.
Matthew sighed, "Dad, we'll be able to guess who everyone is, anyway. Just stick to changing some of the facts."
"Mattie!" Allie protested, but the quieter sibling silenced her with a look. Her face soured slightly and she examined her toes as she mumbled, "Fine, just change the facts then."
Arthur smiled; glad to have won something at least. "All right, once upon a time there was a beautiful kingdom known as Hetaliaonia. It was a very happy place, ruled by a jolly and good king name Romulus. King Romulus had one daughter, the lovely Princess Franciose who every Prince from far and wide was madly in love with. Or at least in love with her rich kingdom and smoldering good looks. Her personality was something else all together…"
"Dad!" Allie protested, "Stop being snarky and get to the point!"
"All right, all right," Arthur laughed, and continued, "In fact, there was not a single man in all the land who would not have happily married the Princess in a heartbeat. Except for one. The solitary wizard, Arthur Kirkland. He wanted nothing more than to be left very much along, thank you. He had no need for friends, or kingdoms, or Princesses. He just wanted to live in his little cottage and be comfortably forgotten about by all. However, this was not to be for poor Arthur. No, very soon he would find himself dragging into a quest completely against his will and was soon to become very much entangled with both the Princess and the Kingdom…"
Author's Note: Here it is, one of my first attempts at a multi-chapter fic. I love this story, and believe me, there is a lot more in store for these characters in the future. And yes, there are Nyotalia characters mixed in with the Hetalia ones! I love the Nyotalias and think they can be really fun when blended with the Hetalias, so here they are! I hope you liked it, please REVIEW! I LOVE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM! Thanks, see you next time.