Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia. I just own the story idea.
"How are things coming along?" Lukas asks as he comes up to the Dane's house. He eyes the squatting man watching over the last portal that has yet to close. "They should almost all be here, right?"
"Yep," Mat answers as he leans back with his arms. He grins at the Norwegian Jack. "Just one more person to get into the tunnel, then it can work your magic into separating them and guiding them to their rightful places."
The pale blond nods with a hum, standing beside the other man. He glances down into the circular portal, watching as a frightening man with beige hair speaks with two women. "Is that man the last to enter?"
"Ivan?" Mat glances back at the portal before him. "Yeah. He's the last of 'em to come through before going to his kingdom."
"Do you know who will go where?"
"Actually, yeah." The Dane grips the pole of his axe and brings it over for Lukas to gaze at the blade. He points up at the silver end where scratches of each kingdom symbol resides with tally marks underneath. "So, for Spades they will be getting three guys, Diamond is only getting one, Hearts three, Clubs two, and us Jokers will get one."
"Who," Lukas sighs as he has to repeat his question, "will go," he glares at Matthias's grin, "where?"
"If you had let me finish, I would have listed them off for you." The blond laughs obnoxiously before doing as he says. "So, for Spades they'll be getting their king, queen, and ace." He hits the stone ground with his axe pole and brings up three still images of each person. "The golden blond with glasses is Alfred. He'll be the king. He's going to be an interesting mofo as he has abilities like no other. His queen is Arthur, the pale blond with very thick eyebrows, who also has some skills. Kind of like you, with magic and all. Their ace will be Lovino, the only one of the three that is different in this group externally and talent wise.
"Diamond will get their king, Francis." The previous three images disappear and are replaced by one single image of the Frenchman. "He's the only one coming from another world for that kingdom. It's interesting that majority of the others are more than one. Then again, we're only getting one, too." He hums as he waves his axe through the image so it can ripple before fixing itself. "It's odd, though. They're still missing their ace. If they're not from another world, that means their ace is somewhere in this world. Hidden and not aware of their position."
Lukas glances from the image down at the other blond. "Why does that concern you?"
Matthias shrugs. "It doesn't, but it's just strange. Every other position that's missing their rightful owner is being filled up. The Ace of Diamonds is the only one empty. And when I try to search for them," he brings up his axe and has the blade create a circle next to Francis's image. He presses his hand against it as if it were firm and it turns white only to become static gray, "it does that. As if they're nonexistent."
"Or they're out of your range."
"You kidding? I'm the head Joker of the Joker Squad here for each kingdom. I have full range of every kingdom."
"Then maybe they can't be found by your magic." Lukas huffs, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Or," Mat pauses in thought, frowning with deep concern, "they're completely cut off from everyone's magic by someone else's magic and are held against their will, not knowing anything about their role."
The Norwegian rolls his eyes. "Quit living in your fantasies and list the rest of them off."
With the small order, Mat's seriousness ebbs away and he nods. "For the Heart Kingdom," he starts, waving away the two images of Francis and static so three more can appear, "their king, jack, and ace will be coming. Ludwig, the stoic blond, is the king. I feel he'll be a great ruler alongside Kiku. Then there's Feliciano for their Jack. I'm not sure about him. He seems skittish and emotional, but there could be something he's hiding behind his cowardice." He hums, glancing at the other image. "Their ace, Antonio, will be interesting. From what I've gathered on him, he has quite the interesting skills with an axe like I do. He also is rumored to be slightly two-faced, like Ivan." He points down to the fifth portal with said Russian still speaking with the two women. "Just, he's more positive and hates resorting to violence if he can work something through words."
"Hn." Lukas gazes at all three images, impressed how so many different people will have to deal with each other. He finds a small interest in what kind of show they'll all get to see if a lot of the personalities clash.
"I've already given you a glimpse of Ivan." Mat swipes away the images and points to the portal again. "He's supposed to be the king of clubs, and I have a feeling he might be a ruthless king. See that smile?" He urges Lukas to look and doesn't continue until he sees a nod from the other. "It's completely fake. That's why I say he has to be two-faced."
"Who isn't two-faced?" The Norwegian sighs. "And the last two?"
Matthias grins wide. "Gilbert is my kind of guy," he states as he summons an image of the self-proclaimed Prussian up. "He's slightly impatient and full of himself, thinks is so awesome, but cares an awful lot about his little brother, Ludwig. He can be very serious when he wants to be, but would rather be the light of a party." He glances up at Lukas with a mischievous glint in his eye. "He'll be the Hearts Joker since we have no one else for that position. It works out in the long run for everyone."
When the Dane turns back to the portal, the image of Gilbert disappears and he stands. "What about the other one?" Lukas asks. He waves his hand to have an image of Matthew appear with a lime-green hue as his magic is a different color to Matthias's white Joker magic. "You forgot about this one."
"Oh, shit, right!" Mat rakes a hand through his hair as he laughs guiltily. "That's Matthew. He'll be the Club's ace. Can't believe I forgot about him. He has these neat powers like his brother, Alfred, but they're completely different from Al's." He shivers a little. "I hope he can handle his king…"
With the list finally finished, Lukas nods and pivots on his foot. "I'll go inform the king and queen of this news. Be sure that Ivan makes it to the tunnel."
"Yes, sir!" Mat mock salutes the other's retreating figure before glancing down at Ivan's portal. "Well big guy, hope you can handle the dramatic changes about to happen." He leans over with his axe, dipping the pole into the portal. Strips of maroon curve off the pole around the image of the three still chatting, covering the whole portal until it turns from white to maroon. "With a little dark Joker touch, things will finally get into motion." He laughs, witnessing as the one of the two women jumps from her chair in anger, throwing her cup down. It shatters and Mat's eyes glisten as he watches the argument commence. "Good luck, Ivan."
The Tunnel
Ivan sits alone in a hotel room paid for him by his sisters. He sighs, hand rubbing his face as he stares at the broken teacup his little sister threw to the floor earlier. He refuses to scoop it up and clean for fear of cutting himself, so he leaves it for the cleaning lady to do it when she's on her rounds. He thinks as he stares at it, remembering Natalia's rage and Irunya's disappointment. They were to leave together for home but his sister's went on ahead of him. It was his decision to come along and he decided to stay.
There wasn't a moment in his life where he regretted anything until today. Another sigh escapes him as he leans back into the chair, staring at the ceiling. It was blown way out of proportion. Their argument was petty but it still bothered him. Maybe taking a shower will relax his mind, so he gets up and goes to his bathroom.
After showering, he changes for the night and sleeps in his bed. He's in and out of consciousness most of the night until he finally finds himself dreaming. The only problem is that it's more of a nightmare than a dream. His sisters both turn their backs on him in the dream and he isn't able to move to chase them. He yells their names, beckoning them over, begging for them to come back. His surroundings are dark and the stillness of the air saps his lungs dry. It's hard to breathe as all he can hear is a ringing in his ears. The ringing increases its pitch until he cannot handle it and covers his ears. It's futile as it continues changing into a scream which wakes him up.
A thud reverberates through the wall against his headboard. He glares, catching his breath as he unclenches his hands from the sheets. Another thud hits his wall and his glare intensifies. Getting up, he changes into his regular clothes – long tan trench coat covering a light t-shirt, dark pants, army boots that go up to his mid-calf, the scarf his sister made for him – and goes out to the neighboring room.
When a third deep thud echoes behind the door, Ivan raises an eyebrow. He knocks on the wood lightly, waiting for a response. "Hello?" He speaks up. "Is anyone in there?" When there's no reply, he knocks again a little harder. The door sweeps open slowly from his knock, and he suddenly feels on edge. Stepping in as quietly as he can, he peers around in the dark room, hand sliding across the wall until he feels the switch. "I am turning light on," he states to whoever is there. He flips the switch and his eyes widen.
Before him lays a beaten woman covered in blood. Her face is smashed in, unrecognizable, as her arms are cuffed to each post on the headboard. Her wrists are chaffed from constant movement, most likely fighting to free them all in vain. His purple irises gaze over the bloody scene and find the murder weapon, a long lead kitchen pipe. Furrowing his brows in confusion, he walks over to it, making sure not to mess up the crime scene. He bends down over the item, about to reach for it and examine it further, when a scream comes from the hall. His head snaps over and he sees a cleaning lady with her hands to her face, trembling. She continues to scream and he gets up to try and console her. When she backs up from him, he realizes how it looks.
"I'm not the one who did this," he tells her, but it seems she doesn't believe him. He forces a smile. "Trust me, if I did this, I'd be covered in blood."
It doesn't look like she's listening to him even if he does have a point. She shakes her head and runs down the hall. He exits the room, about to go after her and straighten things out, but other people are witnessing the scene. Everything is going to be taken the wrong way. He rushes towards his room, ignoring the eyes of fear and whispers of concern. When he hears people behind him look into his neighboring room, he tries to quickly get in his own room
"Stop him!" Someone shouts. He jams his card into the reader, panicking just a little bit. "Call the police! He's murdered someone!"
Everyone goes crazy at that claim. He pushes his door open and closes it, pulling the door stop over the hook so it'll be hard for people to come in. Rushing by his bag, Ivan packs up as much as he can, stripping his bed of the sheets and tying them together as a rope. Curse his stupid curiosity. Now he has to jump out of the third story window and run for it. Doing this makes him look guilty but who would listen to him? He knows how he looks when he smiles. He knows that people are generally terrified of him. This world just hates him.
It's time for Ivan to move out of this world if at all possible.
With his bag zipped, he goes to the balcony and ties the makeshift rope around the banister before sending the other end down. It barely makes halfway through the second story window but he can drop with little damage. He throws his bag out the window to land on the bush below and steps over, using the sheets to help him shimmy down the side of the building. Once he reaches the window where the end dangles, he braces himself and lets go.
Falling wasn't as bad until he hit the bush, realizing all too late that it was a rose bush. Thorns prick at him through his clothes as he moves around, his skin being slit as he grabs his bag and starts running. Ivan runs into the woods out behind the hotel, knowing he'll be able to escape everyone easily in the darkness. He willfully ignores the dark of night as he rushes through, finding any possible place to hide. His ears soon pick up the sounds of barking and he curses. They shouldn't have gotten his sent that quickly. Who had dogs? No one checked in with a dog that he remembers.
As he's running, Ivan feels the chill in the air turn as rain falls from above. He growls in annoyance, pushing forwards through the rain. His eyes are bleary from the mist that's rising from the ground, nature's own doing, so he misses the root that's stuck up from the ground. It catches his foot and he falls forward into a mud puddle.
Rage boils in him as he picks his head up. There's no time to waste if people were chasing him. He gets up and continues on until he finds a cavern behind some trees. He throws his bag into it and pulls at some small boulders around it to cover most of the entrance. He struggles a little as he's not inhumane enough to have freakish strength but he gets the boulders close enough to hide the cavern. He squeezes through the only visible crack of the entrance and grabs his bag up from the ground. Catching his breath, he waits for a bit, siting in the shadow of the boulders and listening to the rain outside.
The barks comes closer. He tenses a little as he mentally panics. Muffled voices converse as the slosh through the mud outside, passing by his little hideaway. When they get further and further away, Ivan releases a sigh of relief. He relaxes some, ready to let sleep take him again, but decides that he should press on further into the cavern. Maybe there's an exit at the other end, one that will send him to a place where he won't need to hide.
Ivan pulls up his bag as he stands up. He takes one step forward and proceeds to step with his other foot. The pattern continues on and he goes deeper into the cavern. He never notices the faint white light behind him absorbing the entrance as it zips up, blocking his only exit out of the tunnel. For all anyone would know, he wouldn't care.
As the last portal seals itself up, Matthias sighs, eyes turning towards his two guests. "Good show, Nat," he praises the younger woman. "I'm glad the two of you received the message clearly."
"You promised he won't be hurt," Natalia crosses her arms as she glares at the Danish man, "but he is hurt in more ways than physical."
"Yes, but he is on his way home." Irunya pats her sister's back before smiling at Matthias. "We will wait for him in our kingdom. Please make sure that he gets home safe."
"He will, don't worry." He smiles kindly at the sweet woman. "I swear on my status of a Joker that he'll find his way home easily."
Natalia snorts, turning on her foot before heading through a portal the Dane creates for them to get home easily. The Ukrainian woman bows her head with a wave before following her Belarusian little sister. When they go through, the portal shuts and Matthias is left alone at his little cottage. He hums, leaning on his axe as he thinks of reporting to his Jack instead of the king and queen. Smirking devilishly, he picks his axe up and slices the air, summoning another portal that brings him to the Norwegian's home.
"Hey Norge! I got some updates for ya!"
"Get out of my house you imbecile!"
The Dane laughs and his portal closes once he's all the way through. His cottage, left alone once more, sits at the center of the forest outside of the Kingdom of Jokers. The sun beams down at his stone pathway before his door, causing the stones to glitter. Birds tweet and sing happily as the fly around his home. Everything is peaceful. Everything is bright.
No one realizes the changes in the future yet to come.
Note: This is not beta-ed so there might be mistakes.
Ciao: I hope you enjoyed the update, lovelies! Thanks for reading! R&R.