A/N: OMG thank you so much! I love all of you, you who fav and alert this story! I really wish you people would review, but still I'm so grateful! I feel like I'm shipping my OTPs a bit too much in this chapter, but hope you like it!
Chapter 4:
Ivan was strolling along the palace gardens, picking weeds from sunflower patches and replanting them in the royal family's beloved lily-of-the-valleys. Well, not really, but he was sending them dirty looks. He felt a tug on his scarf and looked down to find his excited little nephew.
"Hey, Uncle Ivan, guess what!" Ivan leaned down, smiling an innocent smile despite his aura of hatred.
"I despise guessing games…" His oblivious nephew continued on happily.
"I'm gonna be king of Throne Mountain!" The aura darkened as the man muttered,
"Oh goody…"
"My dad just showed me the whole kingdom, and I'm gonna rule it all." The prince laughed a high and mighty laugh, very smug with himself.
"Yes, well, forgive me for not leaping for joy, bad back you know." The Russian man slumped down into a chair.
"…Hey , Uncle Ivan? When I'm king, what does that make you?"
"A lady-in-waiting." That earned an instant laugh from Alfred.
"You're so weird."
"You have no idea. So, your father showed you the whole kingdom, da?"
"Everything."
"He didn't show you what beyond that far western border."
"Well….no." The child's shoulders slumped. "He said I'm not to go there."
"And he's absolutely right! Its far too dangerous, only the most heroic and courageous men go there."
"WELL, I'M A HERO! So, what's out there?" The Russian uncovered his ears after the royal's outburst, and began to set his trap.
"Now, now, Alfie I simply can't tell you."
"Why not?"
"Alfred, Alfred, I'm only looking out for the well being of my favorite nephew." he said, placing his hand on the prince's head, putting such pressure on it, which went unnoticed by the prince, strong as he was. A thousand curses began to ring in the Russian's head at such a gift. Alfred scoffed.
"Yeah, right, I'm your only nephew."
"All the more reason for me to be protective," Ivan said, letting go of his head.
"A country graveyard is no place for a young prince~….oops."
"A country what?" Alfred said, excited. "Woah…"
"Oh, dear,I've said to much. Well, I suppose you'd have found out, sooner or later, you being so heroic and all. Just do me one favor," Ivan said, bringing his nephew into a bone-crushing hug. "Promise me you'll never go to that dreadful place." Alfred's gaze turned surprisingly sly, his mouth turning into a mischievous smirk.
"No problem."
"That's good, da? You run along now and have fun. Leave me to tend these flowers. And remember: It is our little secret~." Alfred nodded and ran off, not seeing Ivan turn, a devious smirk on his face.
Alfred ran through the place, a few ladies-in-waiting casting a somewhat curious, somewhat indifferent gaze as they watched him pass on the way to his mother's chambers. He barged in and found his "mother" chatting with his friend Li Xiao as to what the man should get his lover for a birthday present, whilst Li Xiao washed his son's face, full of stains from playing in the dirt so much. Ignoring their chatter, Alfred immediately ran over to his friend and screamed "HEY ARTIE!"
Arthur sent his friend a disapproving glance and responded with his own, polite, "Hello Alfred".
"C'mon, I just heard about this great place!" Alfred whispered. Well, just about as close as the loud prince could get to whispering.
"Alfred, I'm busy at the moment." Arthur hissed. Alfred felt himself getting picked up by the collar as his mother spoke.
"And, now you will be too." Tino picked up his child and began to wash his face in the same manner as Arthur's.
"MOM!….Mom, you're messing up my hair!" Tino only smiled at his child while he began to work on that little cowlick. It simply refused to go down. Eventually, he let the child go, receiving a glare as he did so. Alfred began fixing his hair, which had been smoothed back.
"Okay, okay, I'm clean. Can we GO now?" He looked over to Arthur, who was still being fussed over, and began to watch.
"So where are we going? It better not be any place dumb!"
"NO WAY! It's a place only HEROES go to." Tino interrupted their little conversation, a smile not much different from Ivan's as he asked
"So, where is this 'heroic' place?" Alfred's eyes grew big, but he quickly lied :
"A-a-around the UNT," He looked up at his "mother" with innocent eyes.
"The UNT? What the bloody heck is so great about the United Nations Tower?" Alfred gave him a pointed glance and said,
"I'll show you when we get there." Arthur's eyes widened in understanding. He looked towards Li Xiao.
"Mother, may I go with Alfred?" he asked politely. Li Xiao decided now would be a good time to tease them. It was his favorite past-time to tease his son, right after teasing his "wife". Ooh, it was a lot of fun to tease that poor man!
"Hmm, I don't know. What would you say Tino?" The children turned to look at him stars in their eyes.
"Well….-"
"Please~!"
"-it's alright with me." This led to Alfred's loud cheering and Arthur's more quiet celebratory "Yes." Their celebrations continued until Tino interrupted them with the catch Li Xiao knew was coming. "As long as Emil goes with you."
"Oh, not Emil."
This earned Alfred a glare from Li Xiao and Arthur a pinch on the cheek and a scolding about being polite to his mother.
"Step lively, both of you. The sooner we get to the UNT, the sooner we can leave!" Emil said. He really hated babysitting. It helped that one of them was his own baby, but still. He really hated babysitting. While he was giving this piece of advice, his charges were whispering to one another.
"So, you git, where are we really going?" Arthur muttered.
"A country grave yard!" This earned him a look of approval and a firm "Very good," from Arthur.
"So, how shall we ditch him." Arthur queried, pointing to his mother.
They continued to whisper in this manner, when Emil finally noticed. It was adorable and he said so.
"Oh, just look at the two of you. Little colonies of romance, becoming countries in the world." They gave each other a skeptical look. "Your parents would be thrilled! Especially with you being föstnuð and all!"
"Fust-wha?"
"Föstnuð! Betrothed, sem stunda, engaged!" Seeing the clueless looks on the faces of the younger two, Emil tried again.
"It means one day you two are going to be married!" He was unfazed by the disgust in both of their eyes.
"We can't get married. We're both guys and friends!"
"Quite! It would be terribly odd!" Emil looked at the two and sighed.
"You two do realize that all four of your parents are male, right? Well, either way, sorry to bust your bubble but you have no choice! It's a tradition, spanning generations." Alfred, who had been mocking Emil behind his back muttered to Arthur.
"When I'm king, that'll be the first to go!"
"Not so long as I'm around," Emil challenged.
"Well in that case, you're fired." Alfred countered.
"Nice try," Emil retorted. "But only the king can do that!"
"Well, he's the future king," Arthur butted in.
"Yeah, so you have to do what I tell you…" Alfred butted in. He got really close to Emil while saying it, poking the man in the chest. This caused Emil to fall on his bottom, sending streaks of pain up through his spine. It still hurt from last night. Naturally Emil became very irritated.
"Not yet I don't, and with an attitude like that," The two children rolled their eyes and began to walk away. "you're turning out to be a very pathetic king indeed!"
This struck a nerve in Alfred. If it was a fight he wanted, it was fight he was getting. The prince turned and smirked. "'S not the way I see it." He ran up to the poor messenger and began. "I'm gonna be I mighty king, so enemies beware!" He ran up to Emil, causing him to trip over a branch.
"Well, I've never seen a king or beast with quite so unruly hair." He pulled on the prince's curl, angering him even more.
"I'm gonna be the main event like no one was before!" He ran to a boulder and climbed to the top. "I'm brushing up on looking down, I'm working on my LAWS!" He screamed this in Emil's face causing the pitiful man to fall into a puddle of mud.
"Thus far that's a rather uninspiring thing…" He reached for a towel and ended up wiping his face on Gupta's shirt. Naturally, Sadik came along and punched him in the gut for that. No one was allowed to mess with his flower's beauty. Alfred and Arthur ran through a crowd of fairly jumpy nations, causing them to scatter as Alfred screamed "I JUST CAN'T WAIT TO BE KING~!"
As Emil got up he spotted his charges once more. He immediately began "You have a long way, young master, if you think-"
Arthur and Alfred made faces at the back of Emil's head, as they listed the great things about being king. Alfred began.
"No one saying 'do this.'"
"No one saying 'be there.'" Arthur included.
"No one saying 'stop that.'" Alfred added.
"No one saying 'see here.'" They both grinned. The entire time, Emil was grunting dissatisfied comments and yelling at them. He ended with a face full of dust. The two children jumped on the backs of some racing nations.
"We could run around all day!" Arthur said excitedly.
"Well that's certainly out," Emil groaned.
"FREE TO DO IT ALL MY WAY!" Alfred screamed.
Emil ran to catch up with them. He finally got ahead, and turned so he was running backwards.
"I thinks it's time that you and I have had a heart-to-heart." He ended up slamming into a very large nation. Alfred grinned and noted that kings didn't need advice from little islands for a start. Emil was officially fed up.
"If this is where the monarchy is headed, count me out. Out of service, out of the world, I wouldn't hang about! This getting wildly out of wing." he muttered to himself. Many nations who had clustered together in a kind of mob, suddenly lined up in a neat, military style for the prince and his companion. Might as well humor him, was their thinking. Alfred began to think of how every day would be like this if he was king. He simply couldn't wait! Emil, on the other hand, was caught in the middle of the mob as they returned to their relaxed positions. Alfred and Arthur than decided to have fun with crowd weaving, jumping, skipping and dragging each other in between large nations, and their companions. Emil frantically weaved himself, trying to find them. He looked up, only to see they had gotten piggy-backs from older nations. Alfred decided to try his luck at commanding others.
"Everybody look left!" He called and everyone did, trampling Emil, to Arthur's great amusement.
"Everybody look right!" he ordered. To both of their bemusements, the pathetic messenger merely was trampled. Alfred was really getting caught up in the moment now, and did what he considered the most respectable thing to do. He crowd surfed. "Everywhere you look I'm, standing spotlight!" Alfred screamed once more, striking pose. He, along with everyone else, didn't notice Emil making his way through the crowd crying,
"NOT! YET!"
The prince suddenly got an idea. He whispered a chain message through a near by nation that Emil be entertained by a few of the more excitable nations. He along with Arthur were then thrown in the air repeatedly. They were having a blast!
He really simply couldn't wait to be king.