Hihi all~ Suboi Airi here~

Hmmm... All of you! Please re-read the first chapter again ^^ I got a few tips on how to improve it so I tried it out. Tell me what you all think please! Anyway, I haven't gotten any tips yet for the rest of the chapters since the person who is helping me is kinda busy, but I will when she does ^^

To tell the truth, I haven't written much lately due to school and such. . But I still managed enough, I hope ^^;

In the mean time, here is chapter four! I hope you all like it ^^

The four royals sat around one round table in one of the private rooms of the palace. The King of Diamonds, the King of Clubs, the Queen of Spades, and finally, the newly appointed King of Hearts. They were here to discuss the foreign policy towards each other and to hopefully foster good international affairs with the Kingdom Hearts and it's King. For reasons of privacy, even the Jack was sent away, partly due to the rest of the Kingdom representatives not having their Jacks, but also because this Jack was... not very suited for important and serious other delegates were quite frankly amused when the King was just crowned and they had made their introductions when the Jack made his very amusing appearance.

~0w0~

"Veee~~ Germania~! You're finally King~!" Cried a very happy Jack as he bounced up the steps of the podium to where the Throne was and launched himself at the new King. Well, attempted to. He tripped on the carpet and was sent falling up the few short stairs. "VE! HELP ME!"

"Italien!" The horrified King near screamed as he was forced to get up to catch the falling Jack. The Jack was very delicate and would probably be screaming for a while before he realised that his fall had ended and that he was relatively uninjured, and he did NOT want such a thing to be the second impression of the foreign Royals who were definitely watching intently. He managed to catch the Jack before he fell, and quickly righted him before they stayed in an uncomfortable position and speculations started to rise about him and the Jack. His quick movements and sharp precise actions of course was displayed right before the crowd and they began to clap very loudly for a King who would get off his throne to save a falling card from just a few flights of stairs. He looked up, surprised when it happened, expecting frowns of doubt and resentment for letting such an unsightly thing happen instead of the warm applause. He schooled his face so that he would not show how very flattered he was and merely nodded to the crowd, apologising for the sudden unexpected circumstance.

Looking to the delegates, he noticed that they were looking at him thoughtfully and making very disapproving faces at the Jack. Well, except the King of Clubs who's smile became quite wider and creepier at the Jack. They had their thoughts on the Jack and him now. He could only hope that they were good ones.

~0w0~

"Well then." started the Queen of Spades as he sat up straight in his chair, nursing a cup of freshly brewed tea. "Shall we start the first diplomatic relations meeting between the four Suits, now that we finally have a player for the Hearts?"

The Queen of Spades practically ruled the entire Kingdom of Spades. He ruled it because he did not trust the King of Spades to fully control the Kingdom. Or rather, the King of Spades had not fully matured. Like the Hearts, the Spades also had a young royal but he was mostly hidden, though everybody in the Spades Kingdom knew he was. The King of Diamonds also knew who was the King but did not tell anyone, preferring to let the Queen steam on the fact that he knew and was doing nothing bad with the information. It was well known that the Queen of Spades and the King of Diamond's relations were quite rocky, but smooth at the same time.

It has been announced just recently that the King of Spades was already crowned, but it was a silent affair and all the other Kingdoms knew about it only after the ceremony. Still, they had not yet done anything due to two very important missing players from the Hearts. Even though the King had been crowned, the Queen still controlled as usual, practically all the happenings in the Kingdom. There have been questions on whether it would soon be changed to Queendom, but those were just speculations. The Kingdom of Spades, just as it had always been, was the strongest and most fully functional Kingdom out of the four, most likely because of the Queen's maturity and for the simple fact that even before the Queen, there was the Jack.

Everyone else nodded. They all had been waiting for the King of Hearts to come into the picture so that the Game could finally be played. It was not going to happen unless there was a full deck after all.

"Do correct me if I am wrong, but I would like to assume that all of us have come here with the thought of peace and harmony between all out Kingdoms?" he continued.

"Da~ I want to be friends with all of you, and have all the Kingdoms to be so close, they are practically one." said the King of Clubs in his usual happy manner. The rest of the cast glanced at each other. They were all quite uncomfortable with what was just said. On one had it was very good, on another hand... practically one? Does that mean under one general rule..? It was an ambiguous statement from an ambiguous King.

The Clubs has always been a relatively harsh Kingdom. The King had been a King since childhood and was brought up by very sketchy figures, of which he would never say who they were, only tremble slightly, mumbling about being cold. Still, he pushed on with his might and the sheer number of people in his Kingdom. Many have speculated that being a child when he was forced to make decisions for his Kingdom, he made many errors that led to the Kingdom not being as strong as it could be. Still, the Cards did their best, and the king did his best to try and create a working system for his Kingdom, and finally with his mind stretched to his limit, managed to make a system. It was not the best system, and it had many flaws, but it was the best he could do as a young mind and the people still followed him for that. After all, a Kingdom could see the effort and love that theur ruler gave them, and even if that may not be the best that they could have gotten, it was generally much preffered then having an effecient but heartless ruler on the throne.

On the throne, he ruled for a long and lonely while before meeting his Queen and the Jack. It was highly rumoured that there was little to no love on each other's part, besides getting married. It was also rumoured that the Queen already found love in the Jack, way before she had met the King and the reason why they were away for so long, hidden from the world, was due to them trying to escape their destinies. But these are just mere speculations. The relationship between the King, the Queen and the Jack seemed to be functional, at the very least.

"I agree with Angleterre on the peace and harmony part, though I think it would be hard considering that it is Angleterre that is doing the proposing." The King of Diamonds said with an elegant flick of his hands.

The Diamonds was probably as old as the Spades, and the King was said to be slightly older than the Queen of Spades and that they had a long history with each other. In the scrolls, it was stated that once upon a time, when the new Cards were born and growing, the King of Diamonds and the Queen of Spades used to fight a lot. Due to the constant fighting, they both became very used to each other and a sort of friendship grew between them. After a while they stopped fighting as their destinies started to preoccupy them. The King was very much into fashion and beauty, focusing more on the aesthetic aspect of his Kingdom rather than strength and because of that was said to be the most beautiful Kingdom, but also known to be the weakest. There was speculations that in some times, the Queen of Spades would also help out the King of Diamonds should he need help with any fighting, and in return, the King would give the Queen good food and aesthetics. This made the relations both sooth and rocky, as they both would be sneering and leering at each other though the exchanges, but never stopped the trades.

The Queen was neither a recent figure, nor was she always there in the Kingdom of the Diamonds. She was brought up by the strict Jack who protected her with an obsession. Her role in ruling the Kingdom was never really defined, but the Queen was the one who proposed many policies were taken into place. It was widely speculated that the true role of the Queen was to encourage the King, who listened to pretty, cute and gentle ladies, to put up practices that were proposed by the gruff and serious Jack. The Jack, having had to protect the Queen had a keen eye for economics and military strategies after all, and with the new strategies, the Diamonds were slowly but surely rising.

The two Royals started to squabble between each other while the King of Clubs smiled on, amused at their antics. The new King, however, was horrified. He was prepared for a serious meeting and one that would be with focused people, and having everything be productive. What was this squabbling, insulting, creepy-smiling mess all about? He was not prepared for such chaos as well. It went against his very nature. He wanted calm orderliness. Not this mess. He wanted straight forward peace talks. Not squabbling. He wanted calm and like mindedness, not all this...

"Everyone Quiet!" He shouted standing up. All the rest looked at him surprised. "We are here to have a peace meeting, but with the current attitude between everything I have absolutely no faith that it would go anywhere unless you all focus on the problem!" He stared at every one of them disapprovingly and the fighting royals straightened themselves while the King of Clubs only smiled at him sweetly. "My proposal is that we all become serious and focus on this without getting distracted, or make another time, where we all send in who they want to represent the country and ensure that the representative would not have any problems with each other."

"Fine then!" Said the Diamonds. "We will have this meeting another time when this particular Royal is not around!"

"Excuse me!" Replied the Spades hotly. "As if anyone would want to go to a meeting with you! You don't do anything except whine and complain"

"I don't mind watching these two fight, it's amusing, da?" The Clubs turned to him with that smile firmly on his face.

Diamonds and Spades continued to squabble until the Diamonds swept out of the room in a huff. Sensing something, the Clubs went off to chase the Diamonds, leaving the Spades and the Hearts in the room. There was silence for a long while before the Queen looked up at the King looked away before starting a conversation.

"So... How is the Queen...?"

The king looked at the Queen confused. Why would he bring up the Queen of all things? Didn't he know how the Hearts worked?

"I do not know, I have met my Queen."

Green eyes looked at him in surprise.

"Really...? Oh... I see... But I thought..." He trailed off for a while before sighing. "Never mind. I hope your Queen is doing fine."

The King's blue eyes narrowed slightly. "I am sure that my Queen would be fine."

The Queen nodded and shifted around slightly. Then he spoke up once again.

"So when is your Queen going to appear?" He asked in a casual disinterested way.

"When the time is right I suppose. I cannot say."

"But you can at least tell us when your Queen would step up right? I mean, through a rough estimate, or if it's really unknown now you can just give us card stating that the Queen would appear when you do find out. If it's a really private affair, then so be it, but you can tell us straight after that the Queen has appeared, right?"

The King frowned. "I suppose I can tell you when the Queen has appeared."

"You will tell us immediately after right? In the event that you cannot tell us the date or the place of ceremony or anything like that, you will tell us immediately after, yes?"

The King looked at him suspiciously. "Why are you so interested in my Queen?"

The Queen looked up at him and blushed slightly looking away. "Nothing much. We all have to prepare ourselves for when all the players come on board and your Queen is the last one after all. It's not wrong to be excited about it."

The king nodded slightly. Seemed reasonable... He supposed... Suspicious, but reasonable. Still, it wouldn't be good to make promises on the Queen's behalf without the Queen's acknowledgement. What if the Queen liked to be hidden? The Queen has been in isolation for quite a while after all. He decided not to make any real answer.

"I would have to discuss these matters with the Queen. It is about the Queen, and it would not be good if I simply assumed that the Queen would like me decision." He said with an air of finality. He looked at the Queen to check his response and was surprised to see sadness in the green orbs.

"I see..." The Queen of Spades said softly. "Yes... that may be a good choice. We wouldn't want the Queen to be found out if the Queen doesn't want to." He cleared his throat. "Well then. If you would excuse me, I would need to go and... Finalise some matters. I would assume that your Kingdom would take care of the plans for the next delegated meeting, since you have proposed it, and look forward to having a proper discussion." He went to the door. "Of course, sometimes diplomatic relations can be done bilaterally as well. I await your decision." Then he left.

Germany walked out as well, after cleaning the mess that was in the room due to the fighting. Nothing was really accomplished today at all, besides the crowning. A failed peace meeting just after his crowning. He sighed in disappointment. He was also now held in charge of the next meeting, and had to plan everything. His workload just started to pile up and it was only the first day. He hoped that something good would happen soon. Something of interest and hopefully intrigue. Like maybe meeting the dark haired Card from before, or finding out more about his Queen.

Passing through the hallways of his palace, he happened to hear the hushed voice of the Queen of Spades. He would not have heard it if they had chosen to talk in a slightly noisier place, but the hallways were empty except for a few servants here and there and they did not speak at all. The fact that he could hear them made him wonder if they knew that they could be heard. It would not be good if someone listened in on their conversations, and he started to walk to the general direction to warn them when his ears registered what they were talking about.

"Now, now, we both know that the Queen is intelligent-"

"I know, of course I know, but now is the best time to reveal the person beneath the title and it's not being done!"

"Well maybe the Queen has thought if something?"

"I would hope so."

"I do wish the Queen would appear soon. It's been so long and I would really like to talk.."

"You think you would like to talk to the Queen? The Queen is very important to me aru! I just wonder why the Queen disappeared..."

"I really hope nothing bad happened.. Even though I know that I..."

"Enough. Don't bring that up here and now. If there's something I would know is that the Queen is able to watch you without you knowing aru. How do you think the Hearts was managed so well, even before the King arrived and when the old King died?"

"I suppose... but is it really just the Queen?"

"The Queen's destiny is very big. You forget that this is the Hearts aru. If people are speculating about calling the Spades a Queendom, imagine what the Hearts would be like."

"Surely you exaggerate."

"You'll see, aru. You'll see."

Germany walked away quickly. It was probably not meant for his ears to hear, but it really brought him more questions about his Queen. Best time? Intelligent and important to the Spades, perhaps personally? Managing the Kingdom without him? The Hearts being a Queendom...? It seemed that the Spades knew more about his Queen than he did. A fact that made him surprisingly angry and disheartened. Ever since he was a child he was trying to get to know more about the Queen and being turned away. And now he realised that people outside his Kingdom knew about the Queen much more than he did. He put in so much effort and energy into finding out anything about the Queen and now this...

When would he find out about his Queen?

He gave a small groan of frustration and then felt a pair of eye on him. He turned around swiftly sceptre at the ready just in case it was a dangerous figure. In front of him, stood the Card. The dark haired, brown eyed Card. He put down his sceptre nervously. "Ja..?" He asked, trying to feel as regal as he by all rights should be especially now that he was the King. Why was he feeling this way? Feeling more... self-conscious...

The Card looked at him and made a polite smile and a half bow. "This is for you." He said, holding out a tiny scroll.

The King took it curiously and checked around it. It was a simple plain white scroll that was thin with and odd texture about it... softer perhaps...? Around it was a thin piece of string tying it together. On the string, hung a small crest. The crest was in the shape of a heart and if he looked closely, it was decorated with the pattern of a chrysanthemum and some odd flower that he did not recognise in the middle and in the background was what a sun three quarter way hidden by the sea and a few birds flying towards it on top of the flowers. He peered at it closely. The detail was very intricate and thoughtfully done. He could make out that the birds quite well, but he could not recognise them.. Altogether, the décor was made in a big Q that was made to be the sun, rising from the sea. A very recognisable Q, though now it was more intricate.

A crest of the Hearts, and a big Q as the main letter, with very thoughtful and intricate carvings of the decoration. He had a good idea who it was from but he did not dare hope. What were the chances after all? He blinked. But then again, when he had once before received a scroll much like this one, with a ribbon the colour much like this one, and it was from the very unlikely source. But it had happened before. Could he hope then...? Did he dare to hope..?

He turned to the Card, wanting to ask who this was from but the Card had disappeared. Inwardly he cursed. He shouldn't have spent so much time looking at the crest. He should have just made a nice glance at it to acknowledge its existence and then turn back to the Card to acknowledge the effort he took to bring this to him. Then maybe he would be able to ask where this scroll was from and from there have a conversation..? He sighed. It was hopeless. He just was not cut out for these odd social matters...

He continued on and went to his chambers. It was relatively bare, with him not really knowing what to shelf up except for a few odd scrolls that he was very interested in, and placing few things around. The sprig still stood at his dresser facing the sun, right beside his bed. So engrossed in his thoughts, he did not notice an opened scroll, revealing beautiful, carefully written words in an unknown language, hung near the cabinet of scrolls. It was not there yesterday.

Well that's it for now ^^ I'll update chapter five when I can.

Please review if you liked it, or you think that you have points where I can improve. I am all eager for your lovely comments.

Suboi Airi