Alfred ran out of the room, tugging on his new fine clothes and trying to stop the hurt within his heart. I guess I'll go to Kiku's. . . He'll help me figure this out.
He ran down a hallway that probably shouldn't possibly exist and through the modern, chrome-coated section of their palace and reached the tram in a short time. To try to vent out his anger he punched the chrome walls, but instead of helping him calm down it only left dents in the shiny surface. Alfred approached the tram ticket master and said, "Hearts please, number two." "Right away sir." Out of the corner of his eye he looked at the older man's features, the graying old hair and his wrinkled skin, the smile lines and the faded scars. He oddly looked familiar, but Alfred couldn't place it. Alfred. Sebastian whispered. Watch out. We're not going where you think we are.
The train master's head whipped around like an owl's, with his head turning completely backwards. "Quite the smart one are you, Sebastian?" His eyes glowed yellow and he jumped at Alfred, driving him into the corner of the tram. Alfred quickly turned into Darius mode, fighting this stranger was harder than anyone expected. The tram was descending into the inner layers of the Earth and the windows were the only thing protecting them from the outside dirt from suffocating them. It seemed for every hit he landed on this stranger, the stranger landed two on him making him bleed from his chest, arms, and legs. A particularly strong blow knocked him over, leaving a gash on his forehead and staining his hair scarlet.
"I'm sorry, Al. I just have no control." All of a sudden Alfred realized who this stranger was. It was his uncle. His, and not Matthew's.
Another strong blow glanced of his ribs, the amount of blood he had lost was staggering and it was making him lose focus. U-ncle? Why are you doing this? He wasn't sure if he asked this, or if he just thought it but it was one of the few things he remembered. Darius? Why can't I win? "Alfred. I can't come out because you don't feel strong enough about this to let me come out. Only Sebastian is fighting right now." Then I want you to come out! "It doesn't work that way. I can't come out only for your needs, it has to be for someone else's."
Sebastian. I'm really sorry that I'm making you fight like this. It was so surreal, seeing his body fall and feeling it at the same time, Sebastian's gift giving him this opportunity. Then he blacked out, Sebastian's power maxing out and both of them fell, crashing to the ground as if they were almost dead.
xxx
I hope Alfred's not that mad at me. Arthur's subconscious whispered as he walked down the hallway to the meeting that they were all supposed to go to. Unsurprisingly he arrived at the same time as Kiku and he struck up a small conversation about gardening, which quickly came to a stop when that despicable being entered the room. It went like any usual meeting they had before this and it ended the same way, Francis with numerous injuries, Arthur with a damaged spirit, and Ludwig with a headache. Calmly the President entered the room and sat down, waiting for one of them to realize that he was there and that he had something to say.
"Er-hem." The President's first idea apparently wasn't a big success because after all no one heard him. Well, maybe the ghosts. Or Alfred.
"Excuse me." As if there was no longer a sound barrier between the President and everyone else, the latter group turned around like startled deer in headlights.
"Eh? How long were you there?" Feliciano happily asked, bobbing up and down on the German's arm. "We didn't even-" Ludwig cut him off, whispering, "Shh. . . Feli please." Ludwig slowly persuaded Feliciano into being quiet while the President spoke up once more. "Have you done a roll take?" "Er- Not yet, President-san." Kiku responded, the only one who was used to awkward situations like these because of his brother who was currently in China. "Well? Do it!" The hurried Japanese man quickly snapped to it and grabbed a blank piece of paper and a black fountain pen.
"Hearts. Ludwig-san." "Here." "Feliciano-san." "Here." "Diamonds. Bonnefoy-san." "Here mon petite." "Zwingli-sans?" "Here! Here." "Clubs. Braginski-san?" "Kol-kol-kol." "Er—Héderváry-san? Edelstein-san?" "Here and here." "Spades. Kirkland-san." "Here." Arthur glared at the President, annoyed. "Alfred-san?" No one spoke up, while Kiku looked around the room. Since when are you so close to Alfred, Kiku? "Not here. That's all."
"Alfred's not here? Well eh, who cares? Ludwig can you get that for me?" The President gestured to an old leather book on the top shelf of the mahogany bookshelf in the corner of the room. "Yes, sir." Ludwig detached Feliciano from himself and walked over to the bookshelf, and pulled the ladder towards him. Like a rabbit he dashed up the ladder and pulled the book down off it's shelf, almost dropping it when he felt how heavy it was. "What is this? It's so heavy!" Ludwig looked down towards the President. "I'll tell you in a second." Like a proper delivery man Ludwig gave the book to the President and bowed, turning towards his seat.
The President propped the book open on his legs and flipped the ancient thing open. Scanning the pages he finally came to the page he was looking for. "In the beginning. . ."
xxx
Alfred tried to turn his head, the only movable part of him. He managed to turn it a few centimeters before it stopped and he had to bite back a scream of pain. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the chains binding him to the wall and his uncle, who was reclining in a velvet chair. He could hear the turn of the page as his uncle read, the drop of water from the leaking fountain, and the rattling of his chains against the cold concrete below. Finally, he managed to gather enough strength to be able to stand and he did just that, shouting, "You! Why?" His uncle didn't even look up, his eyes glued to the dogeared copy of Poe's works while Alfred staggered with the weight of the chains and toppled over. Landing on his right arm, the abused and probably fractured right arm, he let out a shriek of pain and curled up in a ball like he wanted to protect his right side. Finally he heard his uncle shut the book he was reading and look over at Alfred's crumpled body.
"I didn't know you were this weak. Well, at least you detected that I let a demon possess me so that I could help train you."
". . . Train . . . Me?"
"Yes, Al. It's all for your good."
xxx
The President finished the story, or more like the history of the cards with a sigh. "And that's what happened." Everyone else stared with their eyes wide like it was Christmas all over again. Most of them were excited to be part of this legendary clan/cult thing, while others were overly suspicious about this. Acceptance would come in time, a really long time for a certain Briton.
"So we're supposed to believe that we were chosen to host these cards and that it was based on luck? So this is more of a faux government, no monarchy at all?"
"You're so British, Kirkland. A monarchy? Not at all. We're more like a Federation, if that makes sense." The President had on a smile that was warm and friendly, but it was nothing like Alfred's warm summer smile that melted away all of his troubles. Arthur mentally slapped himself for thinking such thoughts and turned his attention back to the other pleased members of the Royals. Ludwig quietly contemplated while he let Feliciano's words echo through his ears, Ivan was smirking with the thoughts of power and effectively scaring Yao with that grin. Lili and Vash were happy with anything, and Francis and Kiku were whispering about something under Japanese R rated magazines. It was a creepily normal sight, even with the news they had just received. Bored, he grabbed one of Shakespeare's works out of his book bag while he tried to forget about Alfred's mysterious disappearance. But, really it's all my fault. I shouldn't of snapped at him like that. All of the previous ideas of reading where interrupted by his nervous conscience which ran like that damn American energizer bunny. Suddenly his brain diverged on into another discourse. If you really love him, could you ever consider doing that with him? Letting him love you in every sense of the word? Staying up late into the night and worshiping each others bodies? On the outside, he was visibly reddening until Feliciano would of sworn he looked like his brother's prized tomatoes.
Feliciano, the only one who noticed, jumped off of Ludwig and pounced on Arthur. That was what he had needed, something to break his concentration for even the smallest fraction of a second.
Quietly, he muttered a thank you to Feliciano and tried to erase his previous thoughts.
"Sir?" The President looked at him, and sighed. "What, Kirkland?" Arthur looked away and managed to say, in a clear voice, "I think Alfred's gone missing."
LOL short chapter. And yes, I had some difficulty uploading it. Once again, thank you very much for reading.
