Written for USUK Summer Camp 2012

July 23: True Love's Kiss

Tre Love's Kiss

By HamburgerWithTea

/Summary/

The Clock has chosen Alfred as future King of Spades, and a certain Arthur Kirkland as the future Queen. But Arthur doesn't want to become the Queen; this way he'd never receive his True Love's Kiss. Mixed with some fine magic and creatures only he can see, this story sets off in the beginnings of the rule of the new King and Queen.

Arthur Kirkland grew up in the countryside. He was bored at times, but at least he knew he could expect a decent life as an average, lonesome farmer: growing his own crops in near the house, feeding the cows, pigs, horse and sheep livestock daily while the chickens would find their way around by picking out little worms from the. After all, there were plenty of those around.

Unlike most farms, though, his small, humble farm was located closer to the forest. He was near some fields where he could let vegetables and the likes grow, but his actual house was hidden between tall trees and small bushes.

Most people would stay away from the forest, mostly due to the scary tales travellers had told them, but for Arthur it was the perfect place to be.

He was special; he could see things others couldn't and could use powers no one else could. Or at least no one else near him. Most people would avoid him in the market, thinking he was out to steal children's souls or put a curse on the community.

Arthur didn't know where these stories came from; he'd never had any bad intentions, but ever since he was a kid it had been hard to make friends. For some reason people seemed to believe magic and 'the Sight' could only mean bad things.

Now you probably started to wonder what this 'Magic' and 'Sight' we speak of is, so let me explain it to you:

The 'Sight', as it was called, meant Arthur could see magical creatures. Normally, as people grew older, the human eye would look past them. Only few people were able to still see them after the age of six. Magical creatures included unicorns, fairies, pixies and many others.

They live in the forest, most of the time, and are shy to people. Most people could feel the creatures' magic presence, which makes them wary that they would be able to kill the poor creatures. So instead of getting near people, they decided to hide in the forest, showing themselves only to the ones they could trust - and Arthur was one of them.

Now there is also the 'Magic' we keep speaking of. Most of you will probably have some kind of idea of what magic is, but this is a different type than most. This magic could only be gained when one was happy; the happier the person is, the stronger the magic. Nobody really knew much about it, but it was commonly know that one's magic would become the strongest when they were given a True Love's Kiss.

Arthur had always heard stories about it from his mother, who was also disliked by most of the community and had died far too young. They were stories about how his mum had met his father and how they fell in love; how her magic had grown and how she had been able to save people's lives with it. But then all had gone down-stream when stories spread about misuse of magic in other kingdoms. People got wary of magic and it didn't take long for the good deeds to be forgotten, only to be filled by fear of this weird, unknown power.

And so that is how Arthur had lived, mostly hiding from the other people as he grew older and stronger. That is, until the new King was crowned.

You see, the new King of Spades was surprisingly young and naïve. Some would even go as far as to call him and idiot, but apparently the Clock had thought he would be the one to improve the kingdom.

First of all, I'll explain about the Clock, for it's something that only kingdoms possessed in order to elect their new royals if there weren't any heirs to the throne. It would stand still if nothing was there to be notified that was important enough to show through a bit of Fate, but if there were, it would begin ticking. At this point of time it hadn't been ticking for centuries and people had been excited about who would be their new King and Queen when it had started ticking.

It had first shown who would be their king. The Clock had shown nothing but a name; Alfred F. Jones. The moment the name was shown, the whole kingdom was looking for this Alfred and within a week the boy was found and brought to the castle to be crowned.

He turned out be the son of the rather well-known upper-class family Jones, and was properly educated so people had faith in him being a good King. But despite being intelligent, he was also an utter fool. He was naive, childish, and sometimes downright oblivious, yet he did have something that attracted people to him. It was as if he had a certain power that made people like him no matter what he did, and many had faith in his future rule - especially if he were to find a proper Queen to rule alongside him.

And at that point of time we are now. Rumour had it that the Clock had shown another name, the name of the Queen. The names differed with each rumour and no one really knew who it would be, yet almost every girl in the country, both upper and lower-class started to try and make themselves noticed.

They would dress themselves to appear more proper, they would try to get in contact with someone from the castle; they would do anything. It was kind of sad to see how desperate they were even though, no matter how hard they tried, they could not change fate and they would all end up disappointed.

It was quite sudden when, about a month after the notification of Alfred's name, that the name of the Queen was announced: Arthur Kirkland, the same with whom we started off in the story.

It'd taken quite a while, maybe around a month, for him to be found for barely anyone knew him by name; if they did, they tried to stay away from him as much as possible. But as the royal council became impatient, more and more people started to point towards to forest, trying not to grab attention in case they would be cursed by the man in question.

The Royal Guards, not aware of the scary reputation of the man in the forest, decided to send him a letter so he would be able to finish a few last jobs and make sure he took his important possessions with him before they would come collect him later that week.

Arthur was standing before his post box. It was barely ever used for post, mostly it would be used by the birds as a home, but this time there was a letter in there. Arthur thought he imagined it, but as he grabbed the envelope it felt surprisingly real.

A few of the forest animals and magical creatures – fairies mostly, the nosy little creatures - looked curiously over his shoulder. For a moment he just stood there, investigating the envelope, making sure it was really addressed to him. But the clear, curly and neat handwriting on front definitely stated his name, and made it clear it was an urgent matter he opened it.

With trembling hands Arthur broke the purple seal and opened the envelope. Emerald eyes scanned the words as his heart started to beat faster. This couldn't be! He couldn't be the new Queen!

He was awoken from his daze by the fairies' squealing. They seemed to chatter on and on about how wonderful they thought this was as they started to fly around his head, touching his hair and trying to make him stop frowning. But Arthur wasn't happy about it.

Never had he expected life to be different from what it was now; yes, he was lonely at times, but that didn't matter for he had good magical friends. He would probably die alone of old age, but if that's how life was then so be it. It wasn't as if he'd ever find someone to share a True Love's Kiss with anyways.

By now a few days had passed, and Arthur decided he'd not go to the castle; there was no way in hell! He was stubborn and none of the fairies' talk could keep him from his decision. He refused to be married off to some fool of a King who would probably hate him anyways. After all, everybody seemed to hate him.

He was sunk in deep thoughts as he suddenly heard a loud knocking on the door. Arthur decided to open it, knowing it would be the Royal Guards – who else could it be? - and shoo them off his lawn. With magic, if needed. It wasn't like he had a reputation he could ruin.

He furrowed his eyebrows so he could glare in the strongest way possible, hoping that would scare them off before they would even mutter a word. He grabbed the handle and swung open the door, only to meet with cerulean eyes behind slim, expensive glasses.

"Hello! I'm Alfred F. Jones, future King of Spades!" a happy voice greeted him, and without asking, the man made his way into Arthur's house, looking around at the few possessions Arthur owned. "I came to meet with my future Queen, Arthur Kirkland. That must be you!"

"I refuse." Arthur deadpanned, without even a missing a beat. The more stubborn he looked, the faster he'd give up.

"Sorry, but that's impossible. You see, the Clock chose you, so there's no way you can avoid it," the man said, who Arthur noted to be just a bit taller. "Or so this Jack-guy told me. I think Yao is his name…"

Arthur was unimpressed. This King seemed to barely even understand it himself, let alone be able to explain it to Arthur. Well, Arthur was clever enough so that he understood it, anyway, but he still refused. Even if it was a losing fight, he had too much pride to give up.

"I still refuse. I'm perfectly happy the way I live now, so please leave me alone before I make you leave." Arthur furrowed his eyebrows as much as he could, hoping it'd add to a dark aura. Still, the King was too oblivious to even pay mind to it; instead he bowed forward to whisper in Arthur's ear.

"Dude, I swear there's no choice. These guard guys here will probably kidnap you if you refuse, so I recommend just going along if you want to be able to walk without handcuffs." Arthur's eyes went wide with fear.

He didn't like being handcuffed. As a kid, some of his 'friends' had done so for fun, and with his inexperience with magic he wasn't able to free himself when they ran off. In total he'd spent about a day without anyone noticing until his mum had been able to find him. It wasn't something he'd like to remember that way.

"Okay," Arthur said after thinking for a bit, "I'll go along. Let me grab a few possessions and we can leave. If you'd be so kind, please make sure my animals are taken care of in my absence." And after he received an overenthusiastic nod from the King he left off to his bedroom to collect some of his favourite books and some cloths.

The travel back to the castle had taken about two days and over this time Arthur had come to figure Alfred had insisted on picking him up himself. Also, Alfred wasn't King just yet; he and Arthur would be crowned in half a year. Until then Yao, as the Jack was called, would take care of everything. They were given this time to get used to their new life as rulers and each other.

Arthur had been staying in the castle for a week now, but nothing pleased him. He missed the small house, he missed his magical friends, he missed the animals of the forest...

Slowly but surely his mind came up with a plan of escape. He would be able to get past the guards, telling them he was visiting an old relative of his. Of course at least one Royal Guard would have to come with him, but it wouldn't take much effort to get rid of them.

The next day the plan went into action. All went well, by now they were far from the castle and getting closer and closer to the forest. Arthur knew he'd have to leave now, or they would be able to trace him down.

Without a warning he set his horse in full gallop and he sprinted towards the forest. He was planning on getting off the horse once he was far enough in the woods, so he could force it to walk on while hiding in a tree himself. He thought it was a marvellous plan, and so he did.

The Guards had simply passed by him, as he sat in his tree being as silent as possible. But as the castle was informed, future King Alfred set out to look for Arthur himself. After Arthur had walked for two days, he was suddenly surrounded by Royal Guards with no way to escape.

"Wha... how?" Arthur demanded as he was being picked up by the strongest of the Guards and seated in front of Alfred on the horse, "How were you able to find me, how is this possible?"

Arthur could see Alfred smile sadly before he turned his head back to face forward. The horses started to trot their way back to the castle.

"Kings can feel the presence of their Queen. Even if we're not married yet, apparently," the familiar voice said, "Fate just really wants you to become my Queen."

Arthur had decided not to answer on it all. He still refused to acknowledge the truth of him being unable to change fate and the fact that no matter how hard he tried, he'd always end up in the castle grounds.

Even as months passed and the rumours of Arthur being evil reached the castle, the future Queen still hadn't been able to avoid fate. By now he'd given up, deciding to just go with it and hope it'd all pass soon - it'd all not be too difficult. He would just live unhappy then; it's not like he got a choice.

Though despite these depressing visions of future, he could still find a spark of light in his life: Alfred, the future King himself.

Arthur didn't know when it happened, but after the many long walks and talks and the long nights in the gardens looking at the stars right up in the sky, Arthur couldn't help but think the boy might not be as bad as he thought.

The taller blond seemed to show sympathy for Arthur's feelings and when he heard about the rumours; he'd promised Arthur he didn't believe any of it. At some point Arthur couldn't help but start to like the naivety of his King; as bothersome as it could be, it made the world a happier and lighter place. The childishness of the King, such as sneaking into the kitchen at night, his stubbornness and the positive thinking, actually made the castle a brighter and warmer place to live over the time.

People became happier, both the ones working in the castle and the citizens, as Alfred started to rule more and more of the country. Slowly but surely he had taken over the ruling of the Jack and together with Arthur's clever planning and strategies to improve the kingdom, it all started to transform into one of the best kingdoms around.

By now people were starting to see their future Queen wasn't as bad as they thought, and despite Arthur's expectations, it actually made him feel happy. It went on like this until just a week left before the six-months of 'training' were over, and the whole castle was busy preparing for the official coronation.

All the guestrooms would have to be clean and ready for when the royals of the other countries would arrive. The great hall, where the actual coronation ceremony would take place, had to be decorated with as many native colours - purple and blue - one could find.

Both Alfred and Arthur were measured so their suits could be made and they had little time to spend together, as they had very different schedules.

Tonight though, the day before the coronation, they stumbled into each other as they were on their way to their favourite spot in the garden. Neither of them had expected for the other to be here, but they had walked here to calm down from the busy castle.

The small bench, which only a few people knew of, had a wonderful view over the lake and it was one of the few places Arthur could meet up with his fairy friends outside his room. At one point, may it be due sleepiness of a long talk, Arthur had admitted to Alfred he could see the creatures. At first the boy had stated laughing, probably thinking the smaller blond was joking, but as he'd looked Alfred straight in the eye, the other stopped. It had taken some time for him to understand and accept, but he eventually trusted rather on his words.

The fairies had later been giggling all around his room as Arthur told them how relived he was that Alfred, of all people, believed him. He didn't know what was so funny about it, but the fairies had whispered small words like 'love' and 'romance' as they continued giggling.

Arthur had decided to wave it off, it couldn't be love. After all this was a forced marriage, there was no way this could ever be real, true love!

Without saying much else but a mumble as greeting they made their way to the bench. The moon reflected on the water and the night was clear enough to see all of the many stars. The big tree hanging over the bench was filled with leaves, which made it a perfectly hidden spot, whilst the easy summer breeze made a calm end to the day.

Both were nervous for the next day, but this kind of atmosphere could calm anyone down and it was all they needed at the moment. They hadn't been here recently due to all preparations, but today they were given free time later in the evening to make sure they had enough sleep, yet they couldn't help but go here instead. This was much more useful.

"So…" Alfred tried to start a conversation in order to break the awkward silence, "H-how was your week then?" He wished Arthur hadn't heard him stumbling over his words; it was really un-heroic and he didn't even know why it happened, since when had he been so nervous around Arthur?

In Arthur's case he was wondering what in Spades' name had happened to the boy next to him who could hardly be called a boy anymore; he was a real man now. Over the months he'd already become more mature, yet kept the sweet childishness of his, but for some reason this week had changed him completely. Arthur didn't know why, but he was even more attractive, even more handsome, even more wonderful, even though he was obviously still the Alfred he knew.

Suddenly he could feel a small tingle in his tummy and it took a lot of self restrain to keep himself from grabbing his stomach in surprise. Without reason his cheeks started to feel hot and he was sure they were bright red by now. He just wished the shadow of the tree hanging over him was able to cover it up.

"Fine," Arthur tried to say as casually as possible, though it did sound a bit too fast, "Rather busy, I dare say."

"Hahaha, yes! Same here!" Alfred said, throwing his head back as he laughed, showing his strong neck, the muscles moving and Arthur couldn't deny the feeling of wanting to touch these muscles, touch this skin. He shook his head quickly in order to make his brain stop from thinking weird thoughts like this! It was probably all the fairies' fault for telling him all those stories about love!

The silence fell again but instead of being awkward, it now felt more like a comfortable, content type of silence. Both gave an occasional sigh to let their body relax and Arthur was almost fully at ease, somewhat drifting off to sleep even, as he suddenly felt a hand on his own.

Arthur shot up, trying to look Alfred in the eyes, but the other turned away his cheeks a bit pinker than usual.

"Alfred?" Arthur asked, not sure what else to do, but the other didn't reply. Instead Arthur just stared forward again, letting it slide. He felt comfortable this way and as long as no one else saw just how content he was, there was no use hiding it from the man who knew him the best.

They'd already experienced that as they grew fonder of each other, their emotions and thoughts were starting to become much easier to share and pick up. Of course one could not read minds of the other, but if wanted they were almost able to give each other signs without talking or anything. All they needed was eye contact. They figured it was just because of they bond as King and Queen.

After a while neither of them knew how it happened, but eventually they sat there, watching over the lake, touching shoulders and whilst still holding hands. By now it was fully dark and the moon was being reflected even brighter by the lake, as the breeze moved the leaves above their head.

"You nervous?" Alfred's voice, almost too soft to be his, asked while both men still looked forward.

"Not any more nervous than you are." Arthur simply replied and he couldn't help but slowly letting his head fall down on Alfred's shoulder, which was just a bit higher than his own.

The silence fell again but this time it lasted only shortly, as Alfred once again spoke up. The guy really didn't know how to sit still or be silent.

"I like this." He said, making a half-hearted movement with his free hand.

"What 'this'," Arthur asked, eyes starting to close a bit as he felt how comfortable it was to sit like this.

"This. Just the view, the life in a castle, us…" The last word was almost mumbled, as if Alfred was ashamed to admit it, but Arthur had still clearly heard it.

"Yes," he said, "I like this too. Us." And as Arthur said that, he softly squished the hand in his own, and got a reply by a squeeze in his hand back. For a moment Arthur thought that was it and he was almost sad about it until he could feel a small pressure on his head and the sounds of a kiss being placed on the spot.

Neither spoke as Arthur lifted up his head only to kiss the other on his cheekbone. A small, sleek smirk formed on Arthur's lips as he could feel the warmth spread to his body again. For once he didn't mind.

The smirk disappeared as he was shocked by the sudden kiss right next to his mouth. He'd not expected that, but he'd not complain. He didn't even know what he was doing as he fully lifted his head up once again and turned toward Alfred, to face him. Green met with blue as both got closer together way sooner than either of them expected.

With a burst of passion and emotions their lips met. First softly and curious, but slowly it became more confident and Arthur could feel strong hands grab his back and shoulders as he himself made his hands hold onto Alfred's chest and hair.

A weird sensation of magic was felt on his lips, which made it all even more wonderful. Arthur didn't know where the magic was coming from, but it felt like a good type of magic and he never wanted it to end. Apparently Alfred noticed too as he quickly let go of Arthur to touch his lips with his fingers, looking surprised at Arthur.

"W-what was that?" He asked, looking with big, blue eyes. Arthur chuckled, as he reached out to touch Alfred's hair again. Even with his matured face he would still be the same childish Alfred he'd first met, months back when he'd even refused to go here. He was such a fool back then.

"It's magic," Arthur explained, "Ever heard of a 'True Love's Kiss'?" Arthur didn't know why he even said that but he felt like it was the right thing to say. Alfred's eyes, if possible, went even wider.

"But that only happens in girly fairytales!" He said, "That can't be it!"

Arthur wanted to respond by saying it was and convince the other of it, but he was distracted by light, giggling and girly sounds from behind a bush.

"What is it, Arthur?" Alfred asked, as he looked at the smaller blond who was glaring at a random bush, "Are it these, uh 'fairy' thingies you spoke of?"

Arthur just nodded as he could see three Fairies fly towards him. Before he knew it he was surrounded by girlish talk and giggling as they tried to tell him he was right. He was right about the True Love's Kiss.

The green eyed man's face went bright red at the realisation of the fairies having sent hem kiss, having seen him let his guard down, and he knew they would bother him with this until forever.

He swatted his hand around his head in order to make them stop but it didn't work. Instead, they tried to make him kiss with Alfred once again by pushing him closer.

Alfred, meanwhile, thought it was quite weird to see his Queen swat around his head with his hand to scare away seemingly nothing. Yet he was pretty sure they were Arthur's magical friends. When Arthur had told him about them he'd seemed so serious it was impossible for Alfred to deny their existence any longer.

He'd been staring at Arthur for a bit now before he suddenly felt lips on his again. He wasn't prepared for this and felt like wanting to push the other back, but didn't do so as the comforting feeling of magic on his lips started to spread over hips lips again, flowing through his body.

'True Love's Kiss' it was? Alfred didn't know if it was true - if it was love or magic or whatever. But he did know that Arthur would be his Queen forever, until the end of their days, and that he would die the happiest man on earth.

He couldn't wait for the coronation as they both waved goodbye later tonight, both leaving to sleep in separate bedrooms, so they would be officially bound for life. He couldn't wait for anything tomorrow.

After all, they would make great rulers; King Alfred and Queen Arthur of Spades.

Thank KNIGHT for beta-ing 3 Nutty and she are the BEST :D

/Author's Note/

Why is it that when I have a story which I haven't even fully planned out and figure would only be around 2k, it ends up around 4k? And when I have a story planning for 5k it ends up around 1.5k… life is weird, don't you think?

So yeah that was awkward but I was growing tired, been writing all day, and time is running out. Went to sleep as 6am yesterday and mum wasn't happy about it XD been doing so all holidays, but whatever. But yeah my sleeping schedule is just normal :U

Anyways here is day two, so far going strong? I hope I won't lose motivation half way through orz.

Always wanted to write spades AU and this song seemed so fairy-tale like…!

Uhm now I'm off; got to read the new chapter of American Dreams that was uploaded when I was still writing XD hardest moment to get myself to write EVER.

Lol I'm actually not even participating for the badges, just for fun and to contribute to my favourite pairing :D

Stay awesome and look forward to tomorrow's story!

I do not own Hetalia or the characters, those belong to their rightful (awesome) creator, Hidekaz Himaruya!

(07/23/12)