The Blue Rain
Chapter 4
"Hey, I don't have to marry the Queen now, do I?" Alfred asked as they walked through the white hallways of the castle. He wasn't paying attention to his surroundings any more. Instead, he had started to worry. His companion looked a bit too serious.
"No, Your Ma- no." No. 9 said as he led Alfred through a blue door after which light blue stairs appeared. "Sometimes kings and queens marry, but only if they really do love each other. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. Mostly."
In the meantime, they had reached the top of the stairs.
"About the marrying thing, the Queen and Jack of Clubs are married. Or were married, I'm not sure. There are a lot of rumours. Uhm, the King and Jack of Hearts seem to like each other, though they're not married yet... I have a sister who lives in the Hearts Kingdom, she loves that kind of gossip."
"Why are we taking a different route this time? Alfred asked when No. 9 didn't continue his story and didn't walk any further either.
"Eh? Oh." The latter seemed to have been lost in thought for a moment. "This door leads to a sort of living room which directly leads to the Chess Hall. We could've taken this route on the way to the Mirror Room too, but usually there are people here. There shouldn't be any right now, seeing as how the garden is full of people to take care of... but I didn't want to take any chances."
No. 9 opened the door and revealed a rather cosy looking room full of paintings and sofas and other little ornaments. Blue was the dominant colour, which came as no surprise. A boy who had been looking out of the window turned his head and said, "Oh, Knight Number 9. You're back! Why aren't yo- Who is that?" He stared at Alfred.
He wore a dark purple top hat, a long purple coat, a purple suit decorated by a white bow and brown trousers. He held a glass with a brownish drink. He had short, blonde hair, dark and thick eyebrows and vivid, green eyes. Actually, he rather reminded Alfred of the English boy he'd met earlier.
No. 9 went slightly pale.
"Good day, Your Majesty." He said as he bowed. Alfred couldn't help but notice he bowed less deep for the Queen. "This i-" He was interrupted.
"You?" The Queen suddenly said. "Alfred Jones! What the bloody hell are you doing here?" He left the window and walked towards Alfred, putting his drink down on the table as he passed it, and furrowing his outstanding brows. "I do not want to deal with you in this world as well. Leave!"
It was the English boy he'd met earlier.
Alfred waved his finger in front of the Queen's face and said, "No way. I don't have to listen to you."
"Your Majesty?" No. 9 said hesitantly, looking from Alfred to the Queen. "I have found our new King."
The Queen went pale as Alfred laughed and said, "The title 'Queen' really fits you."
He grabbed Alfred's hand and pulled on his sleeve, revealing the spade and the K as No. 9 had done before. As he was looking at Alfred's wrist, the tip of the spade on his own wrist was visible, along with what seemed to be the top of the letter 'O'. Alfred used his free right hand to remove the Queen's sleeve so he could take a better look at his tattoo. Surprisingly, the Queen didn't pull back. In fact, Alfred wondered if he'd even noticed his sleeve had been pushed away. Alfred's 'O' turned out to be a 'Q', which was rather logical on second thoughts. They were actually kind of cool, Alfred admitted to himself.
Suddenly, the Queen let go of Alfred's hand and stepped back. "Please excuse me, Y-your Highness." He mumbled before he turned around and walked towards the door.
"Hey!" Alfred shouted after him. "You can't leave just yet! I'm the King so he should listen to me, right?" He asked No. 9 who still stood beside him. The answer was an almost unnoticeable small nod. On the other side of the room the Queen had stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned around to face Alfred.
"Don't let it get to your head, idiot." The Queen said. "A king doesn't just order people around. He, or she, also has other important things to do such as remembering people's names. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to leave."
Instead of turning around and walking to the door, he just vanished. Nothing spectacular, like what the villains and heroes in Alfred's favourite comics could do, although that guy didn't count as a hero... He just became transparent and disappeared.
"Wha- what did he do?" Alfred asked the room, still staring at the spot where the Queen had been standing a moment ago.
"He woke up." No. 9 said. "He woke up in your world. I told you the current Queen also came from your world, right? Pardon me for asking, but do you guys know each other?"
Alfred nodded, still staring at the room. "He moved to my town. I met him just yesterday. Hell of a boring guy."
What time would it be in his own world right now?
"Soooooo," Alfred began once again. "The Jack, right? We were going to the Jack? And how did he even know he was going to wake up? Can you control that stuff?"
"I can't believe you're the new King." No. 9 said as he started walking through the room. "You still have so many questions about this world. Yes, the Jack. His name is Yao Wang, but we mostly just call him Yao." They stepped through the door and into the hall with the chessboard-like floor. On the other side, the door was still open, with Yao in the middle, wildly gesturing and shouting at the crowd in front of him. In the meantime it seemed to have become twilight once again.
"Since I'm from here I'm not sure, but I've been told you just know when you 'wake up'. I guess that other reality starts seeping into your head."
There stood two people in front of Yao- the boy and girl from before. They both held out their wrists. The boy looked terrified, whilst the girl had a determined expression on her face. She surely didn't mind being given a male title. Oh, wait, the titles were genderless here.
Yao seemed to look intensely at their wrists before he rubbed the base of his neck and shook his head. The boy and girl slowly turned around and disappeared into the crowd. By now, Alfred and No. 9 had reached Yao. Alfred poked Yao, and when he turned around Alfred showed his wrist. Yao's eyes grew big as he grabbed Alfred's wrist to examine it closer.
"Oh my god." The Jack of Spades said as he looked at Alfred's wrist. He suddenly glared at No. 9, who, again, stood next to Alfred. "Toilets, huh?"
No. 9 shrugged. "Little tour 'round the castle."
Alfred? Oh my god, Alfred, you should really clean your room. Wake up, Honey.
"Hey dude," Alfred said as he turned his head to look at No. 9. "I think I get what you mean when you told me about that other reality."
Alfred, if you make an appointment with people, you should wake up on time. It's not nice to keep people waiting.
Alfred grumbled into his blanket.
"What did you say, dear?"
"Hmpff... five more minutes, Mom."
"To get ready, I hope." His mother said right before the sound of a closing door reached Alfred's ears. It was Saturday, right? The kind of day on which Alfred usually woke up... Alfred pushed himself off his mattress to look at the alarm clock next to his bed... two hours later than 9 AM. All his friends knew this, so what idiot went through the trouble of even coming over.
He lazily left his bed and walked over to the desk across the room. He grabbed his cellphone and opened it. No new messages. He yawned, stretched, and made his way over to the bathroom. Even if that person was the Queen of England, he, she, or even it could wait.
About ten minutes later, when Alfred lazily strolled down the stairs, it turned out his aforementioned thought wasn't all that far from the truth. On the couch sat, much like yesterday, a boy. But now Alfred knew he was English, and apparently the queen of some dream world as well. Alfred leaned against the frame of the doorway and waited for the Queen to notice him, which took about two seconds. He stood up.
"Hello...Alfred." He said hesitantly. "I hope I'm not interrupting your plans."
'Yes. Yes you are. Me and my bed have important matters to discuss.'
"No, not really." Alfred said. He decided to once again just wait and see what would happen. He could always run off somewhere. He slowly shuffled towards the couch. The couch that guy wasn't sitting on.
"I hope you've done your homework." The Queen said as he sat down again. Homework?
"Oh, hello!" Upon turning his head Alfred noticed his brother had taken over his place in the doorway. Matthew smiled sweetly, and got a glare in return. At least, from Alfred. "I see you guys have become friends?"
"Sort of." Alfred said as he sat down.
"I'm sorry, eh." Matthew said as a guilty look spread across his face. "I forgot your name."
Before Alfred's 'friend' could answer, Alfred said: "It's Arthur. Ke...Ki.. Kirkland. Kirkland."
"I see, eh. Well, it was nice to meet you Arthur!" Matthew smiled. "I'm leaving, Al. Hockey practice."
"Mind sitting in the kitchen?" Alfred asked as soon as Mattie was out of sight. "I haven't eaten yet."
"Oh, okay. If it's not bothersome." Came the hesitant reply. Alfred beckoned Arthur to follow him. They crossed the hall and Alfred instantly strolled towards the refrigerator. He vaguely pointed backwards whilst raiding the refrigerator, not really caring whether he pointed in the right direction or not.
"You can sit down if ya want to." He said before turning around to look at Arthur, who still stood in the doorway. "Or just stand there. Want something to drink?"
A muffled melody and male voice suddenly filled the silence. Alfred turned his head just in time to see Arthur, who stood in the middle of the kitchen, reach for one of the pockets in his trousers and take out his cellphone, making his ringtone clearer.
"-ones. I'm an English gentleman, and you're my secr-"
"Arthur Kirkland." Arthur said to his phone as he pressed it to his ear. Meanwhile, Alfred continued raiding the refrigerator. "Oh, hello. Ye- I don't have to- No, you do-" Arthur's brows furrowed once again and his cheeks became slightly red. "No, just listen to me, you scu- I don't have to- half past 5, okay? Now fuck off."
He took his phone off his ear and pressed a button. He kept staring at his phone as he grumbled something and kept pushing buttons. Alfred didn't even want to know what he was saying. After Arthur had sighed loudly and put his phone back into his pocket, Alfred cautiously looked over the door of the refrigerator and said, "Girlfriend?"
Arthur looked up.
"Oh, no. No, not really my area."
Oh. Alfred had to refrain from smiling to hide his happiness upon finding common ground. He had never actually met somebody who also... Who was also gay. Perhaps if he had shouted from the highest hill that he was gay he would've, but he hadn't done that and wasn't planning on doing so either.
"Boyfriend then?"
Arthur, who in the meantime had sat down on a chair, shifted a bit. A blush spread across his cheeks.
"No, I don't... I don't have one." He looked straight into Alfred's eyes.
"Cool." Alfred tried to sound natural, and for a moment he thought he'd failed.
"Y-you don't find that to be a problem?" Arthur's cheeks became a slightly darker shade of red. Alfred shook his head softly. "Nope. Surprised?"
"Well, yes." He stared at his knees. "Up until now practically everybody has found it to be troubleso- You're not planning on actually eating that, right?"
"...Yes?" Alfred looked at the sandwich on the plate he held in his hands. "Something wrong with it?"
"It's a bloody mountain of food!"
"So what are you here for any way?" Alfred said, looking over his food to Arthur, who sat on the other side of the table behind a cup of tea.
"I thought it would be appropriate to inform you of the events that will soon occ-" Arthur caught Alfred's blank gaze. "Basics?"
"Basics."
"I want to tell you about your coronation and the current situation in our kingdom."
"Just two questions." Alfred said between swallowing and taking another bite of his sandwich. "How long is that going to take, and is it boring?"
Arthur frowned. "Well, the Kingdom of Spades has a long and eventful history but I suppose if I were to tell you the very basics it wouldn't take long. And it would not be boring, Alfred."
"Shouldn't you call me something fancy like 'Your Majesty'?"
"That would be appropriate in the other world. But you're not a king on this one so I'm not going to call you one. Besides, it would sound rather weird." He took a sip from his tea. "This actually tastes rather good." He said approvingly.
Actually?
"Your coronation will take place in two days, which would be Sunday night. I presume preparations have already started. You'll have to practice a lot."
"Practice for what?"
"The dance." Another sip. "You'll be required to dance with the person who occupies toe position slightly lower than yours. Don't worry, it's just a Viennese Waltz."
"...A what?" Alfred felt the blood drain from his face. He had never danced before.
"A Viennese Waltz. It doesn't last for long and you won't be dancing alone so don't worry."
"Is that one of those fancy dances? Do I have to dance with a girl? I really can't dance, can't I skip it?"
Arthur shook his head. "It's tradition. And yes, I suppose you could call it a fancy dance. In this world it is usually danced by a man and woman but in that world it's quite commonly danced by two females or males."
"So who will I be dancing with? Not Yao, I hope. He didn't seem nice."
"He can be quite old-fashioned." Arthur said. "He's not a bad dancer though. I had to dance with him. As for you, a king will have to dance with his, or her, queen so that would be..."
Arthur paused. It seemed like realisation had hit them both at the same time.
"W-well, look at it from the bright side." He tried to smile but failed. "I've never danced or even practised the female part."
A/N: ...Things like these apparently take me about 10 days to update... :L My pace is slow. The pace of the story is slow as well, but I'll try to speed it up a bit in the next chapter. Arthur's ringtone is a song called "007" by Toy-Box... :'D because I can. And if you get the chance look up a Viennese Waltz :3