A Joker, An Ace and The Queen

So finally things are coming together. Thank you everyone who has stuck around through the first two rather introductory chapters.


The meadow of pastel flowers had seemed to drag on forever, the ground rising before them just as fast as it fell into rolling hills. He'd tested that himself when the elder Joker had playfully given him a shove, sending him spinning down the landscape in a fit of giggles.

Mostly his intentions had been to calm his own racing mind, but the act had seemed to clear Peter's as well and the soft petals clung to his hair and in the hood of his charcoal sweatshirt.

"You're goin' to have to put some faith in me in a second here, squirt," the albino man stated, reaching out his arms to offer to carry the small blond. Peter declined it before he was forcibly lifted by the waist. "Close yer eyes, makes it less scary."

Listening to his instructions, the watch keeper did just that, the gold instrument pressed between their chests. His blond lashes touching, he wasn't sure what they were doing or why he needed to the close his eyes until the air around him seemed to constrict, forcing the breath out of his lungs as it had on the morning he arrived in the strange world.

The Cheshire Joker's hand tightened and it was over with before he could fall into a panic. "It's alright now, you can open them. Breathe a little bit, tyke."

The room was small, the ceiling slanted and grooved as if it was the space under the steps, and from the musty smell, it was most likely so. A lighted lantern on the desk illuminated the room and the book shelves beside it were filled with various items from a sword to a vase of violet flowers.

The elder Joker was leaning against the large oak door, displeased in the dim light.

"She'll notice eventually," he muttered, his gaze in the corner where only a spider was holding fort on it's thinly stringed home.

The boy nodded, picking up his watch to inspect that the traveling hadn't disturbed it. It was funny, sometimes if he watched it closely sometimes the hands would quiver as if fighting - a pull between time wanting to move forward and the other wanting in reverse. Soft blue gaze drawn down at the device, the hands rotating without trouble today, Peter almost missed the soft knock before the lady invited herself in.

She was nothing like the Grandmother he had pictured, instead young, elder than than Queen of Diamonds he had met at least, but unflawed by time. A large flower sat in her hair, the petals a soft green almost as if they were made of leaves, much like the rest of her outfit.

"Why are you here, Gilbert?" she hissed, closing the door behind her softly as if her voice hadn't drawn attention outside already, the small lantern flame flickering behind her like a wandering ghost. The Joker arched his brows and gestured over, settling into his usual smug tone.

Elizabeta's embrace was warm yet strong, and the small time keeper practically melted into it. It was motherly and comforting, reminding him dearly of home and how Papa would give the best of hugs. She clung to his elbows as she stood back to examine him, smiling faintly.

"You aren't going to force the same thing like you did on Ludwig, are you Gilbert?" she asked softly, still running her doe eyes over the small boy. The albino growled dismissively, and she nodded.

"This is wonderful, it means we have the upper hand, correct?" she stated, glancing back over at the other Joker. He simply nodded and Peter screwed up his nose. He wasn't sure what they were talking about - well, the small boy knew they were conversing about him at least. But he wasn't some sort of toy nor anything to be using like a weapon.

His clock tocked loudly with the hour, almost as if in agreement of his sentiment.

"Can you stay here...?" Elizabeta started, lifting the hem of her club patterned dress as dust danced around them.

"Peter," the silver haired man responded, moving over as he made way for the door. She nodded, smiling softly in recognition of the name sake.

"Never grow up," she told him with a wink, following behind Gilbert as they left.

He nodded softly, grinning at the little joke himself. He loved that story too - it was one of the only Father ever shared with him.

Left in the musty room, he pulled out the desk chair in sat on it, the old leather wheezing under his minimal weight. The lantern still glowed dimly, and with waning interest he watched it, waiting for the Queen and his guardian to return.

If only life was that simple.


He had long grown cold, the brick walls creating no warmth even with the soft heat the lamp emitted. It made a climate for emerald spiders, but none for a time bearing boy named Peter. His watch kept him company, repeating the same sounds for the good hour the two had left him alone.

The youngest Joker was nearly asleep when the deep voice unsettled him, causing him to flinch as

if in free fall in the old, brass knobbed chair.

"You are the Ace they were hiding from me, yeah? Oh, why they do that. Ivan is not as insane as they claim," the large man babbled almost to himself, the solid oak door wide open, the frame splinted with force.

Peter was unsure how that had gotten past him - normally such things were loud and caused noise. Frowning, the boy went ridged as one of his large hands grabbed onto his arm and falling with instinct this time, the watch keeper thrashed with no avail.

"I love a game of hide and seek, maybe we should play it. I'll make it easy and will make you weak as a baby duckling. Then I can win," he mused, and with those words the lost boy realized this man had to be of Clubs.

"I'm not an Ace, I-I'm a Joker!" Peter practically screeched, hoping silently someone would hear him as the pressure on his arm increased. To his bewilderment, the taller man released him with a whispered laugh and he wondered if he claimed the right thing too soon.

"Oh, so they lie to you too. It's alright, they lie to me too, yeah? Not telling me you were here. That's a pity, like the lie to me that my Elizabeta loves me and doesn't sleep around with mutts," he responded in his thick accent and the smaller boy cringed.

The lamp flicked out for a second before relighting, the oil having grown low in the passing time prior.

"Joker is a term for the illegal," Ivan continued, large frame blocking the only route the small trespasser had to escape from the cold, stair locked room. "Ace is what we call the next in line as you will murder a suit and take their place, yeah? Stained with blood already. I can use you well."

Peter trembled, terrified. No one had told him about that, and he certainly wasn't planning to let blood spill from any soul. As the large King reached for him again the small boy screamed, his watch thumping off his leg as he ducked and ran, his short legs trembling beneath him.

"It's funny that mutt brought you here, as he is one too, but you know that, yeah?" Ivan's voice followed him as he ran, booming and frightening as death and murder was promised at both their hands. The Väinämöinen boy was scared from his wit, and as he ran hastily through the stone cobbled hallways of dappled greys and whites, his time keeper only encouraged the pace with a solid tock tock tock.

The words dimmed as he ran, warm tears streaming down his cheeks. He was so sick of this, as if his life was on repeat, a toy to time and the past. The corridor was shining with light at the end, and legs still pulsing hard, Peter broke out into the garden that expanded into the very meadows he had been enjoying so much before.

Gilbert wasn't at his side, but he wasn't going back into the Club's large castle when such vile words were still hanging around in his head.

Nothing anymore could make this right in such a twisted world.

Except home.


To his dismay, a watch was never a compass, and it kept him caught in circles as he moved through the thick weave of flowers. They waltzed and kissed his bare skin, but Peter could hardly find comfort in them as he sat down, sighing into the breeze. He'd stopped being sad and had transitioned it into disappointment that made every inch of his body ache.

While he knew the statement about Jokers was correct, the young blond was unsure what the statement 'Ace' even meant and it tore at him like a raw wound. It made Elizabeta's words seem more darker, and to him, left Gilbert in the same dim light as the King of Clubs.

If anything had been made clearer, it was how much he simply didn't belong in the colorful, magic dominated world. His watch dragged beside him as he walked, scuffing with earth and stones so disheartedly. The lost boy had a final option left, but left without his guide, he was unsure how to find her.

Maybe, she knew how to find him.


"So we know now what suit he is to be a part of," the Jack stated with distaste, his thin legs crossed as he reclined in the wicker chair. The patio was alive with nature, a pair of butterflies hanging around as the King of Diamonds conversed with the Spades' messenger.

"So it seems," the blond whispered, seemingly saddened even though the life around him was nothing but. "Lili confirmed it, ze issue is do we prevent it or do we not. We are not ze only ones informed. Your King and 'ear Queen you serve may actually be ze only ones not in this loop, ze poor souls."

Yao blinked slowly, turning his gaze off onto the perfectly manicured lawn. His breath whistled before he spoke, coal hair cascading over his violet clad shoulder.

"We let them be, it is about time that the minute hand stopped playing with it's own fate," the shorter man responded, dark eyes closing with thought.

Francis sighed in thinly veiled disappointment.

"It will be a great loss."


Night had rolled over twice without encounter of another soul, and Peter was afraid he had gone and lost himself well back in the thick forest. While everyone else seemed threatening to him now, Gilbert still was the one that offered him shelter and answered every question that passed over his small lips. The blond boy knew this was where he liked to stay, and with any luck, he could find the Joker again and beg for him to bring him home.

Ivan's words still haunted him as his walked, checking under each black sole not even a small bug would be squashed by his carelessness. So young and fragile, he could never so willingly kill like he was informed he would.

His watch had paused for a long while earlier, and now he stared at it, guarding over it as if he could bring enough comfort to the device for it to never falter again. The gold plating had grown dull already, usually so polished by Father every Sunday after he finished through his paper. Like any home sick boy, he missed them dearly, but he couldn't linger on that much longer.

Turning his head as a bronze dragonfly pattered by, he pursed his lips and spoke softly to it.

"Can you help me, little dragonfly?" Peter asked it childishly, holding out his palm in attempts to coax it over. It spied on him from the flower it sat on for a long while and with a sigh, he gave in a clapped down his palm, scaring it away.

"That's what I thought," the small Joker replied to the empty sky pitifully, picking at the flake of gold on the rim of his watch. It had changed a lot from what he remembered it - it seemed to deteriorate more and more each time he looked at it.

The one thing he always wanted to remain the same was altering seemingly before his eyes.

Standing up again, he held it close as he made through the thick earthen forest, the sun light dappling in the familiar way. It was weird how copy and pasted the whole world always seemed - so little variation most of the time. He was surprised when a familiar figure came parting through the forest, but when wasn't everyone so surprising in this world.

"Lili said you were looking for her," the Jack replied, the sun lighting up his golden hair. The gun was so ever place on his back this time and instead of at hand this time, and after a moment of hesitation he held said palm out. "She said it might make you feel better."

Peter laughed and smiled dimly at how awkward Vash was before taking his hand, holding it close with his small fingers.

"She's right."


Vash wasn't as intimidating as he looked Peter learned quickly, watching the way he respected the trees and side stepped fallen birches and the insects that were making homes there. He treated him within the same bounds that Gilbert did, more so in his own way with soft touches and a protective gaze.

"Lili is your sister, right?" he asked after a while, trying to break way with the Jack of Diamonds. He glanced down, frowning as his gun bounced on his back.

"That's Queen to you, but yes," the elder blond responded, taking his gaze back up onto the forest. Peter could believe that, as he acted very much so like a protective older brother. Even if he sort of bit off responses to his wondering questions.

"How did you become her Jack then?" the young Joker asked honestly, and the other practically growled but allowed him the answer in time.

"When someone becomes King or Queen, they come from the real world over. No one born here can be in either of those positions. The common folk of the suits are all born here. Jokers come in illegally..." he trailed off, and Peter gave him a wide eyed look as they passed through a woven arch way. "King and Queen assign people to be their Jack, it's easy as that. They can bring them from the real world or take someone special from this world, nothing to it."

The young boy shrugged his shoulders, trying to get used to their stiff hand holding for a moment as the birds chirped and chorused above them.

"Do you hate her for that?" the watch keeper asked sincerely, fishing in the calm waters while they still had the moment of peace.

"... No, I would of hated her more if she hadn't."


The blond Jack had explained early on they were still a league away from where the Diamonds kept - a peaceful place as far from the other three suits as possible, Spades being the only who could visit unexpectedly on a dime. He'd accepted it, and in the dim of the moon's reflection, Peter was feeling silently guilty for taking up Vash's companionship over staying for Gilbert's when it was clearer which enjoyed his company more.

The multicolored birds weren't quite asleep in the canopy yet, playing a flighted version of leap frog, and the Joker watched them as the elder blond sat and polished his prized gun. He had offered to take care of his golden watch and clean the fragile gold plating, but he declined the offer.

It was far too dear even if he trusted the other, more silent man.

The conversation over his watch, albeit short and fueled mostly by the boy's tongue rather than the Jack's, had reminded him greatly of the conversation he had nights prior with the intimidating King of Clubs.

"Vash, what's an Ace? Someone was telling me about them."

Slowly, the blond stopped polishing his gun and looked up, his usually stiff exterior suddenly falling short. Peter wondered if he had stumped him, but he was the Jack of Diamonds - he had to have known. He had explained to him earlier that Lili, is the longest standing suit position of the current time. She knew a lot, and in turn the boy knew, so must he.

"... An Ace is what all this meaning less fighting has been about for a long time," he decided on after a while, testing the trigger of his gun over the wooded landscape. The birds squawked, lifting and fleeing into the dark encompassing night.

"They are meant to take over a suit role. High Ace, complete excellence. Each Ace has a suit and respectively, takes over a a King or Queen role of their suit. It means change, and not everyone wants that," Vash tried carefully, propping himself up with a arm as he sat cross legged. His sun kissed outfit made him stand out in the monochrome night, drawing Peter's attention fully to him as he spoke.

Cautiously, he glanced over at the Joker as if suddenly more unease than prior.

His watch gave a loud tock and stopped.

"... That other Joker is one of the Aces, but it took so long for anyone to figure that out that he was a lost cause to manipulate. He's totally avoiding his suit, and goes out of ways to do so. While he exists, the Hearts are safe from ever changing."

The Jack sounded so sincere and concerned, Peter himself almost stopped breathing with the intensity. While he was young, he was not quite all that naive, and he understood the weight of the words.

"So, is there another one?" he asked softly, shifting over so that their legs were touching, some comfort passed with the warmth between them in the cold night.

"... who knows."

Naivety at it's best.


They had intended to leave early before the azure frogs woke and the butterflies passed over the trail, but the morning wasn't ever the boy's friend, leaving him clinging on Vash's back much like the emerald spiders he had roomed with as they walked through the tall grasses and lilac arch ways.

He hadn't much to say anymore, the most important of his questions already answered the previous night before the dew had a chance to form his sleeping lips. They had discussed breakfast and a bathroom break amongst the tall pines, but that was far behind them and their day had lapsed into silence.

"Walk on your own, we're close now," the Jack informed him stiffly, straightening his outfit as he placed the boy down to move on his own devices. Peter had no trouble believing him as the path way ahead of them was more beautiful than the meadow surrounding the Club's horrid palace.

The dragonflies were playing before him and clutching his watch tight, the young Joker could only follow in amazement after Vash as they entered the soft, earth toned castle without any resistance. The tree oaks bent away from them with seeming recognition and at the top of the stairs sat Lili beside who he assumed was the King of Diamonds.

The gun man bowed, using his gun as a balance before stepping aside and ascending the rest of the steps to disappear into the vivid orange tapestries behind them.

"Welcome, Peter," the man greeted. winking at him as he propped his chin up with his palm, golden rings reflecting in the afternoon light. "Lili said zat you were coming."

The boy nodded, feeling exposed once more in their presence. A butterfly played past his cheek and he turned to watch it raise into the sky and move on, his watch clutched in his hands.

"What can we help you with, Peter?" the golden queen asked, her hands folded elegantly in her lap in respect, unlike the bemused pose her King held. "You got here without worries?"

"Vash helped me," the small blue eyed blond responded, nodding his head the slightest and she smiled, already knowing that. It was clear he was nervous, and the suits allowed them that as the flowers bounced around him.

"You said you could grant me any wish, no matter how big, right?" he implored, glancing down at the rotating hands behind the clear case.

"Of course, what do you want?" she responded gently, lifting her dress as she moved down the stairs. At the bottom the shrubbery bent and molded, a bench forming out of the dark green leaves. Lili sat, and patted the spot beside her like they had conversed before.

Peter swallowed hard, his focus still somewhere lost in the time presented in his palms. Papa told him it was rude to be impolite, but the words felt so raw thinking them over, he wasn't sure how to speak anymore.

"Can you help Gilbert meet his brother again? Like, make him an Ace no more so he can finally see him?"

Lili paused, parting her lips slightly. Glancing over her shoulder, her gaze touched Francis'. Slowly the King stood and descended the steps, taking them in twos with his taller stature. He stopped behind them and Peter craned his head backwards, his blond locks brushing against the King's front.

"Your wish is our command, mon cher."