"Arthur!" a small voice broke into Arthur's dreams. "Arthur, wake up!"
Arthur blearily opened his eyes and saw the familiar face of Ella, one of the fairies that lived in the castle. She had dark brown hair that cascaded down to the middle of her back, and a bright pink oufit with pink wings to match. She was one of Arthur's best (and only) friends.
"You slept in," Ella giggled.
"Thank you," Arthur nodded towards her and sat upright. The fairies always woke him up if he slept in past normal.
"You didn't finish your paperwork last night," Ella tsked, flying over to the table.
"I know that," Arthur rolled his eyes. "I did that on purpose."
"That Alfred guy is nice, isn't he?" Ella smiled dreamily, lying on her back on the pile of finished work. "I follow him around a lot when you aren't here. You know he has a twin?"
Arthur stopped listening part of the way through when he noticed that Ella was lying down next to a fresh cup of tea, his previous one gone without a trace. Arthur let a smile ghost across his lips as he sat down at his desk.
"So, where were you guys for the past couple days?" Arthur asked and started on the papers again, sipping the tea. He let himself believe that it was Alfred making the tea. "I really needed you when the clocks chose me."
"No way! You're the next Royal?" Ella sat upright. "Laila owes me then! Sweet!"
"Where were you?" Arthur deadpanned, signing the paper in his hands and taking a sip of the tea.
"Important fairy meeting," Ella sighed. "Like usual, it was about the lack of belief and blah, blah, blah…"
"Sounds pretty important," Arthur chuckled.
"Yeah, but I wanna hear about you!" Ella flew next to Arthur's face. "So, tell me, which Royal are you? Judging by all the work, you're probably Jack, right? Please tell me you're Jack, you're totally smart enough."
"No," Arthur shook his head.
"King?" Ella frowned slightly and landed on the table. "I dunno, you're not really the kingly type. I guess if you tried you could muster up some authority…"
"Hey," Arthur glared at her slightly and signed another paper. He sipped some more tea.
"Well, is it King?" Ella tilted her head.
Arthur sighed, taking a long sip of tea. "No," he muttered quietly.
"No way," her wings fluttered excitedly and she grew a large smile. "You're totally Queen! That's awesome! I always heard rumors that the Queen of Spades can do magic and stuff, but most of them just ignore me. I mean, I know they can see me because they at least acknowledge that I'm there, but they never talk to me! But you do! That's so cool!"
"Has anyone told you that you talk too much?" Arthur chuckled slightly, signing off another paper.
"Well, I don't know," Ella sighed, not really meaning her sadness. "Hardly anyone in the world can see or hear me anymore…"
"So I have to hear everything you want to say," Arthur shook his head and tossed the next piece of paper over his shoulder.
"What'd that one say?" Ella asked curiously.
"Every class wearing a number to match," Arthur rolled his eyes. "I want to know where they come up with these stupid ideas."
"It's just 'cause they don't have an awesome fairy like me to look after them," Ella winked, fluttering up to the pile of work yet to do, which was now growing smaller. "Or a hot servant to serve them tea."
"What?" Arthur nearly choked as he was drinking tea while she said that.
"You heard me," Ella winked. "Dude, Alfred's totally cute."
"I'm not interested in men," Arthur shook his head. "That's just wrong."
"Just because the Bible says something, it doesn't mean you have to follow it," Ella let out an exasperated sigh.
"I don't like guys," Arthur stared at her. "End of story."
"Whatever," Ella rolled her eyes. "Just don't yell at me when your King winds up being a guy."
"Since you're a fairy, doesn't that mean that you would know who the clocks will choose next?" Arthur asked.
"It doesn't work that way, sorry," Ella shrugged. "The clocks have got their own magic, we don't supply it. If it was like you, with your magic, then we would know, but…"
"Wait, does that mean you know when I cast a spell?" Arthur raised an eyebrow at the fairy.
"Every time," Ella smiled brightly.
"Lovely," Arthur rolled his eyes.
"Well, now that you know about that, I gotta say it was hilarious when you tried turning Francis into a frog!" Ella burst out laughing. "You should try things like that more often!"
"That was a while ago," Arthur sighed, signing a paper. "And it backfired, hitting me instead."
"I helped you turn back," Ella smiled.
"Not the best way to meet your best friend," Arthur chuckled.
"It's good to see you in a good mood again," Ella flew up to his shoulder and leaned against his cheek.
"What do you mean by that?" Arthur signed another paper.
"You've been in a bad mood for years, grumpy pants," Ella poked his cheek and Arthur rolled his eyes. "But, now, you're all smiles and laughs. I've been trying to get this Arthur back for years. I wanna know what happened in the time I was gone."
"Nothing other than my getting chosen," Arthur sighed and tossed a paper behind himself.
"Well, you met Alfred," Ella teased.
"Shut it," Arthur rolled his eyes. "He's good at conversation, is all."
"Good at conversation," Ella scoffed. "I'm surprised you haven't corrected his sentences for grammar mistakes."
"I figured I would try that when we started talking more," Arthur sighed, signing yet another paper. The stack just seemed like it would never end…
That was when Arthur heard a knock at the door. And then a very familiar, annoying voice coming from the other side saying, "Mon cher, are you talking to your fairies again?"
"Oh, please no," Arthur sunk in his chair as Francis, King of Diamonds, entered his room. Ella flew away from Arthur, knowing full well what came next. Arthur didn't even try to fight as he was picked up from the chair and brought into a hug by the man.
"I have missed you," Francis smiled down at him. Why did he have to be taller than Arthur? "It has been a while, mon cher."
"What are you doing here, Francis?" Arthur sighed. "Didn't you just send me an invitation to that party of yours?"
"Yes, but I just had to see my favorite, petit Spadien," Francis messed up his hair. "I am very proud of you for becoming King, too!"
"Right," Arthur sighed as he shooed Francis' hand way from. These two had known each other since they were little. It was when his uncle was throwing a massive party, inviting the royals from all of the suits. Francis wasn't crowned King yet, and he met Arthur when his mother forced him to start dancing with others. Arthur thought Francis was a girl, which was the only reason Arthur asked him to dance. He knew much better than that now. "Since you're here already, I was going to send you a letter that a party like that would best be spent here. I have far too much work to do by myself and the other royals have yet to be found, meaning I'm a prime target for Clubs."
"That makes sense," Francis nodded, but Arthur could tell by looking at his eyes that he didn't really care. A party was a party, no matter where it was. "As long as you let me cater."
"It's still your party," Arthur shook his head and turned back to the desk, sitting down again. He took one last sip of the tea and set the cup aside. That was when he saw Ella make her way towards Francis and try punching his nose, which he just swatted her away like a bug. But Ella came back, hitting his ear. It was easy to say that Ella despised Francis.
"Do you have bugs in here?" Francis asked. "Every time I come in here, I seem to be attacked by bugs."
"They don't bother me," Arthur muttered and signed a document.
"So, you have to do all of that on your own until they find the Queen and Jack?" Francis asked curiously, eyeing the papers.
"Pretty much," Arthur sighed.
"I had no idea it was so hard on your own," Francis muttered. "I was the last Royal of Diamonds to be found, so my workload was rather light."
"That's wonderful for you, frog," Arthur sighed and tossed a paper behind his back.
"Je suis désolé," Francis sighed. He swatted again at Ella as she tried pulling his hair. "I guess now we will be talking a lot more now, right?"
"Yeah," Arthur said simply. He knew as well as everyone else that Kings mainly talked to Kings, Queens mainly talked to Queens, and Jacks mainly talked to Jacks. This was all becoming too much for him, though. He wished he could go back to sleep and this would all have been a dream. He signed yet another piece of paper.
"Hey, Arthur," Alfred's voice called out through the hall and both of the blondes in the room turned towards him, who was standing in the doorway. "Guess I was a little too late. I was coming to tell ya that you had a guest."
"Well, that's a bit obvious now," Arthur sighed, but a small smile tugged at his lips.
"So, who is this?" Francis asked, leaning on the table with one hand.
"This is Alfred," Arthur sighed, reading another piece of paper. "Alfred, this is Francis…the King of Diamonds."
"Whoa, so you're, like, friends with the King of Diamonds?" Alfred's eyes widened.
"You shouldn't use the world like as a comma," Arthur blurted out before he could stop himself. He heard Ella burst out laughing. "We've been friends for a while."
"Before I was the fabulous King of Diamonds," Francis flipped his hair over his shoulder.
"Right," Arthur snorted. "Fabulous is the word."
"So, what are you, Alfred?" Francis asked and Arthur glanced up at him. "Lord, Knight, Duke?"
"Nah, man," Alfred shook his head. "I'm from Five. Me and my brother work here to help Mom and Dad with their money problems."
"It's my brother and I," Arthur corrected and then sighed, leaning his head back.
"Oh, so you're a servant, non?" Francis asked.
"Yeah," Alfred said proudly.
"You shouldn't exactly be proud of being poor," Arthur stated, turning his attention back to the pile of papers.
"You signing any more stupid taxes?" Alfred asked and Arthur finally resisted the urge to correct him.
"No," Arthur stated, signing another paper. "And I saved you from having to wear a five on your chest."
"Thanks, bro," Alfred laughed and Arthur smiled slightly. "Well, I was just here to tell you about Francis, so I can go."
The door closed and then Francis started snickering. Arthur looked up at him with a concerned look.
"You two are trés adorable," Francis sighed dreamily and Ella did the same, lying on Arthur's shoulder. He fought the urge to shove her off.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Arthur shook his head and tossed a paper behind his back.
"Oh, I can tell when l'amour is in the air, and it definitely is for you two," Francis said happily.
"I'm going to pretend that I don't understand your accent," Arthur sighed, "and ask you if you're bloody insane."
"You like that servant," Francis leaned towards Arthur.
"You smell like wine and cheese," Arthur commented, waving him away.
"Admit you love Alfred," Francis laughed.
"I do not," Arthur rolled his eyes.
"You do," Ella giggled in his ear and Arthur huffed. He tossed another paper behind himself.
"I honestly don't think I can get any work done with you around," Arthur sighed. "I was moving so much faster before you came in."
"Are you kicking me out?" Francis pouted.
"I will see you during that party of yours, Francis," Arthur nodded towards the door.
"And I will see you there, too," Francis winked and made his way out the door.
"I still don't like him," Ella muttered.
"Nor do I," Arthur sighed. "But, he is my only friend."
And here is chapter 2! I may not have gotten a lot of reivews last chapter, but I got a ton of alerts, so I think that's a good thing. Fo anyone who hasn't read my stories before, I usually update once a day, unless I'm out camping or something. So, I will be doing that here for this story. Anyway, we just got inroduced to Ella, the fairy OC that I created to basically be Arthur's concience. She's basically Arthur's thoughts without his pride sensor. Which has gotta be fun, eh?
Anyway, please review! It really means a lot to know what you guys think!
I don't own Hetalia, nor will I ever.