Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
-Abraham Lincoln-
Her head spun. Where was she? Who was she and what was she doing? It was morning. She was the Ace of Hearts and an assasinator. She was in a ship with another passenger. And she had been playing the Drinking Game, which could have spilled her identity. Ha Yeon groaned. What was I thinking? "Sleeping Beauty has finally risen." It was FalseKing Fred, who was munching on an apple. "You." She glared at him. "What about me?" "Tell me what happened. My mind is unclear." This was all his fault. If he hadn't had the stupid idea of Twenty Questions, then she wouldn't have come up with the idea of the game.
"Well-" Alfred pondered. "We ate lunch after one question." "I remember eating lunch, you idiot." Ha Yeon snapped. "Geez, don't go all mean on me!" His head was throbbing, as he had only woken up an hour ago. "Fine. Tell me about what happened after lunch." Okay, she was going easy on him. "After that, I asked you a lot of questions about your siblings, but you kept on telling me to drink." Yes, now she started to remember. She remembered how he had guessed she had no siblings, and how she had laughed at him for his stupidity.
"I mean, how can you have five siblings? I used up five guesses for that and got wasted!" So, he knew about her siblings. She hoped that she hadn't mentioned what their jobs were. "And really, how can you have no lovers?" Ha Yeon fell out of her hammock at these words. "Excuse me?" She gave him a piercing stare. "I mean, you have no sort of love life whatsoever!" Alfred-she couldn't call him Falseking Fred forever- laughed then stopped. "Anything else you got out of me?" "No. I guessed that you ran away from home and you laughed at me. I guessed that you had trouble with your fiance and you even snorted." Ha Yeon breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good. And what did I ask of you?" "My job." Alfred snickered at her. "You used up ten questions for that, and I told you. I don't have a job except King." So, he was still keeping up that nonsense. "How long are you going to keep up that lie?" "You seriously don't believe me?" The man looked sad, and unhappy. "Yes, who would, Alfred?" Ha Yeon picked at the laces of her shoes, sitting back in the hammock. "Well, you're at least calling me Alfred." Alfred stared out the window of the ship.
"Fine, what did you get out of me?" "Nothing much, I asked a lot, but you only laughed at me." He could clearly recall his every question, and how the girl had snickered at him.
"Your brother is a nobleman, and you ran away because he forced you to marry!" It was his best guess, he had even heard stories like this a lot. This was his sixth guess, and his voice was starting to slur. "No, idiot. My brother would not even consider me worthy of marriage." The answer, that had been between laughter, seemed to sting his new friend even as she spoke.
"Wrong guess again?" He groaned as he drank out of his glass. His head was starting to spin, and he seriously wished it was Arthur sitting here, not him with his low level of alcohol consumption. "Y-E-S!" "It's your turn, princess~" Ha Yeon's face suddenly paled, the color of parchment. "What did you say?" "It's your turn." "Oh." The girl softened visibly. Perhaps she didn't like royalty.
"You are a merchant's son, and you're pretending to be King because you have nothing better to do." "Wrong." Ha Yeon drank out of her glass, giving him a dirty look. "I don't believe your King talk for one bit." "Then you'll keep on drinking." That earned him the ultimate evil look to end all evil looks.
"Okay, my turn. You're leaving home because you've been sold to a guy you don't like?" "Drink." It was like an evil curse word to him, the never ending word. "Bollocks." Why did the girl leave anyway? "Why did you leave?" The drink was slowly taking effect, and his speech was slurring. "You might find out. If you're actually true to your word." She was talking in riddles, this one.
"You're a general." Ha Yeon looked proud of herself at this guess. "Sorry, but you're wrong." "How much do I have to drink?" "Perhaps you should stop asking me if I'm anything but King." "Never." And so it had continued.
Time passed, and the occupants of the cabin were very drunk. Oblivious to anything, even the setting sun. Now it wasn't even the Drinking Game, it was Drink Party Time minus the music, minus the flirting. "I-hic! hate-my life-hic!" Alfred laughed at nothing in particular, as he downed his twentieth glass. "You-haven't-got any blithering idea h-how w-worse it can get!" Ha Yeon giggled as she toyed with her cup, and the glass fell to the floor.
"Whoopsie." They both laughed. "So, why do you hate your life?" Alfred asked her casually, and the girl suddenly stopped smiling. They way the smile suddenly disappeared was even scary. "Oh, it's complicated." "C-come on, y-you can tell me!" "I'm not telling a liar!" The smile returned in lightning speed. "Oh, come on!" "No thanks."
And that was when his memory had cut. When he had awoken to the sight of drunken destruction, there had been bottles all over the floor, piling the table, his shoes on the floor, his glasses hanging on a peg, and a keg filled with someone's vomit. He had gotten rid of the vomit-it couldn't be his, throwing up was unheroic. His shirt was lying on the floor, stained with drink and something he didn't want to recall. At least his pants were still on.
"Oh, god." Ha Yeon looked horrified. "What, your memory returned?" "I threw up on you." That explained his shirt. "It's okay, we make accidents in life." The girl looked skeptical. "And you threw up in a bucket." So, he had been cleaning his own waste. "Well, we totally ruined it. The Captain's not going to be happy-" "The captain, if you really are important, will keep his mouth shut." She sounded irritated, just as the first day they had met, and yet, she was different in more ways than one, as Alfred could note.
Ha Yeon stood, picking up the bottles one by one. "Aren't you going to help me clean, Alfred?" Okay, they had begun something, and something was better than nothing. "Yes, don't fret." He stood as well, and took the bottles, loading them in a sack. "It's going to take a while." "It is." "At least I found a friend." He winked at her, but the girl frowned suddenly. "I'm not your friend." "But-" "I have no friends, and if you are who you claim to be, Alfred, so do you."
Did she have to make things so awkward? It seemed to be a Heart Kingdom trait, but who was Alfred to talk-he merely smiled, he still had two more days.
"Take this traitor out." Kiku glared at the man standing below his throne. "But brother-" "He's a traitor. He should die." Mei gulped as she fanned herself, and the man was dragged out. "What do you think little sister is doing?" It was a question thrown at him, so suddenly that he couldn't even prepare himself. "I do not know. She has already left for the Kingdom if I am right. Her brother has always been her weakness."
Mei frowned, then spoke out. "Blood ties, and love is not weakness, Kiku." "It is, dear Mei-chan." The twins were living proof of the weakness, as they despised him, they always did his dirty work to save each other. For what? Kiku could only wonder. He recalled a time when he too, belonged in a happy, large family. But ties were useless, and love was nothing.
Love was always useless. It was what had broken Yao, and it was what made Ludwig a weak King. His love of Feliciano made the man vulnerable, and that made Kiku the strongest man in the land, as he loved none. Kiku fiddled with his scepter, when a messanger came into the halls. "My Queen, we received alarming news from one of the spies." "What is it?" Kiku frowned at the messanger for stealing his precious time.
"King Alfred, or a man claiming to be the King of Spades boarded the Oriental Beauty two days ago."
"The Oriental Beauty-" "Isn't that the ship Yeon departed with?" Mei gave him a worried look. "Perhaps, little sister will return earlier than expected on the very next ship." Kiku mused, sitting cross-legged on the throne. "My Queen-" "You are to tell none about what was spoken of in this room." Kiku's voice rang out in the room, and the messanger quailed before he left.
"Joker." The Joker walked into the hall, looking bored. "What, Queen?" "Make sure the man is silenced." "Of course." Gilbert smiled as he left. Kiku gave his sister a warm glance. "It is for the good of the land." "Yes, the good of the land." Mei repeated, her face forlorn.
"Wow, I never knew-" "Be quiet, I'm trying to concentrate." Ha Yeon glared at the board of chess. She had asked the captain to lend them his chess board, and as a loyalist, the captain had given her the board. Now Alfred's knight was at the verge of killing her bishop, and she didn't like the situation. Not one bit. She hadn't played decent chess for a year and a half, and she couldn't believe the man's constant bugging had driven her to this.
"You're really good, Arthur's horrible at chess. But Matt's pretty good, and Yao's awesome." So, he was still playing at being King. Let him play his acting. He is not that bad. A voice in her head made her shiver. Not that bad? He was a liar, and an actor! She couldn't trust him at all, and yet she was playing chess with him. As if they were close. She pushed her bishop away from the knight, forcing the knight to retreat from her Queen.
"Cruel of you, to make me walk away." Alfred smirked as he moved something else-and Ha Yeon cursed. A Queen. So, he had been planning to kill her King, using his Queen. Her King was powerless. As she balled her hands into fists, something occured to her. The small pawn that hadn't moved in ages, ever since she had started this game. If the pawn died, the King would live, and her King could kill the Queen-thus allowing her to be closer to victory.
She couldn't move the pawn.
"What's wrong?" Alfred looked worried as she stared down at the board. "I...I can't." "You can't what?" 'I can't kill the pawn.' 'You are all pawns in the war of Kings.' And yet she forcefully moved her hand, dragging the pawn. Alfred grimaced, giving her a bitter look. "Sweet Lord, now I have to kill your little pawn." He moved predictably, and the little pawn died.
It disgusted her, how the game of chess showed the real scenes of battle. The footsoldiers, the archers died in the hands of the monarchy, so that the rich and the powerful could kill the enemies, defeat the evil kingdoms. And it made her sad to know that she was no royalty, but a pawn in reality. Ha Yeon killed the Queen without mercy, and Alfred groaned. "REALLY?" "Yes."
The game ended with her win. "Again!" Alfred looked determined. "No more." "Why-" "I don't want to see real battle reflected in a game of chess." Alfred laughed at her words. "Real battle?" "The pawns are the first to die, saving the monarchs and the knights. They are the ones who die, so that they may live. And yet, who remembers them?" Ha Yeon stared at the board, at the wooden men.
"I do." The blue pair of eyes met the chocolate. "There was Allen, and there was Edward, and there was James-James who was super nice-and-" She got his point. "I understand." Alfred nodded at her. "I don't know how things work in the Kingdom of Hearts, but I remember all of them who died for my sake." Ha Yeon stood from her chair, as she gathered the pieces back where they belonged.
"You know, you would make a good king if you really are one." The words shocked him. "Excuse me?" "You'd make a good King." Ha Yeon turned to him, and there was a smile on her mouth. But her eyes looked sad, and she angrily rubbed at them. "I hope you're not king though." Alfred ignored the rest of the words. "Thanks for the compliment. Come on, the Captain will be missing his chess board." As he left the room, Ha Yeon followed, looking at the floor the whole time.
She was a fool, an idiot. She had made a mistake. The basic rules of an assassinator. One, make no ties. Two, make no friends. Without knowing, the boy had made a friend in her, even if she didn't want to admit it. Please, god, if you exist, tell me he is no King, but an impersonator.
It's done, I finished Chapter Three! And since I finished Chapter Three, I can assure you proudly that Yao will be appearing in the next or next-next chapter! There's going to be Arthur as well-plus Matthew. But my dear people, I need your help, desperately. Since I'm writing about the King's court and his courtiers, I need some OCs that you have. You can write a short description in the Review thingy or you can PM me. I need courtiers desperately. Seychelles and Viet along with Macau will be used-so you need not write about them.
Thank you for reading this crappy story. As a student, examinations are taking their toll on me, and as a writer I enjoy writing too much. Too many ideas, too many fics. WOW. I would love your advice, as this is only my third story, and I really need feedback as I'm not the best writer here.
This is a short preview of what's going to come up on Chapter Four.
"So, we are going our seperate ways, are we not?" Alfred cracked a smile on his face, while Ha Yeon could do nothing. "Yes, we are." "Do you have any place to go?" "I am going to my brother." "Good." Alfred had thought of asking her to join him, in his miserable court where the men gave him stupid pieces of advice and where the ladies fawned over him. It was a lie when he said it was good, he'd have no one to rebut him excepting Matthew and Arthur, along with Yao.
"Good bye, Yeon." Ha Yeon nodded, as she walked to the east side of the boat-although she'd never admit it, she watched her 'friend' descend the boat, as his hair disappeared among a sea of heads. 'Good bye, Alfred.' Her heart hardened, for she had a job to do. A disgusting job. A worthless thing. 'May the gods be just, and may we never meet again.'
'For if we should ever meet, it would not be a meeting of smiles and chess, it would be a meeting of blood and tears, and you would be the victim while I the assassin.'
-The Kingdom of Spades-
