Almost didn't update, but here's the next chapter! I can't give anything away yet, I'll have to leave it to you guys to read and find out what happens. Hope you guys like it!

Chapter Nine

"We need to change into something less… eye-catching." Natalia said as she and Matthew roamed around the almost-empty village that surrounded the palace. "Now's our chance, since everyone's at the ball. We can steal something."

"S-Steal?!"

"Well, duh. Unless you brought your money, or you're some kind of millionaire." Natalia said rolling her eyes. Matthew sighed.

"Alright, I think I saw a place on my way of being dragged… I mean on my way here." Matthew caught himself, but Natalia smirked knowingly.

"We'll discuss our plans after we change. It's nice to see you finally getting some guts, kid." Natalia began to walk ahead of him.

Kid?

"Hey!"

After changing into white and light brown tunic, accompanied by black pants, and black boots, Matthew felt kind of… cool. He was dressed in neutral colors that guaranteed that he was giving no sort of indication of belonging to a certain kingdom.

Natalia had chosen to wear a grey tunic, one for girls, and a black pant, accompanied by dark brown boots, which took forever for her to choose. She grabbed a small dagger, before insisting Matthew grab one too.

Matthew took for what seemed forever to Natalia, to pick a weapon. He picked up a sword, and fastened it to his belt. He had learnt how to use a sword with Alfred at a young age, and though his skills were a bit rusty, the grip of the sword made him feel complete. It brought back memories, but after shaking those memories off, Matthew began to wonder why he'd even need a weapon.

As they left the store they guiltily ransacked, they grabbed two black cloaks and bags from a nearby stand. They stuffed the cloaks into their bags, and began to walk away from the store.

"Why do we even need this stuff?"

"Because we're going to Kingdom Hearts."

"...Why?!"

"I need to get to my sister. She's in danger, from Ivan and the Civil War. It must be horrible there. I have to protect her."

"Oh… but I'm sorry, I can't come. I have to get home." Matthew said softly, and stood back, while Natalia continued to walk before stopping after a few seconds. She faced him.

"What do you mean, "You have to return home"? Do you absolutely have to return? Where are you from anyway, Kingdom Spades? I know you're not from Kingdom Clubs, I've seen every face there. You don't have a personality of someone from Kingdom Diamonds. You have to be Kingdom Spades." Natalia paused. "There's nothing bad happening. I hear that Kingdom Diamonds and Kingdom Clubs have secretly sent spies there, looking for the Ace though. Like they'll ever find the Ace. I bet the Ace is locked is some high tower or something."

They've sent spies to Kingdom Spades?

"The spies are literally everywhere. I don't know what the Royals are so busy with, how could they miss that? Anyway, I'm pretty sure you're not in a rush to get home to a Kingdom with other Kingdom citizens crawling around. They'll probably come to you and annoy you. You don't have anything better to do than help me get to my sister, right? So come on. Why spend time there doing useless things when you can do something productive by coming with me?"

But… spies. How come Alice and Alfred haven't noticed? Yao should've noticed by now, right? …I want to tell them, but I can't go there. I'm not sure about Kingdom Clubs, but I know that when Papa wants something, he does everything he can do get it. It's too risky. I can't go home until the Kingdom's cleared out… I'm sure I can help out Natalia too. I don't want to go though, on some other adventure, but after everything's that happened to her, I know if I were her, I'd want company. Even if the company is useless.

Besides, it's not like I have anywhere else to go. I'm homeless for now.

"What's taking you so long to decide? You know what, fine. You can run back home, see if I care. Just go." Natalia huffed, and began to stomp away.

"Wait! I'm coming! But, I think you'll have to be clearer on the plan."

So basically, the plan was to get into Kingdom Hearts, grab Katyusha, and figure out where to go from there.

The plan sucked.

But there was no way Matthew was going to admit it out loud, it would probably result it Natalia killing him with glares.

He valued his life.

After stuffing a bunch of food into each of their bags, and grabbing a bit more clothes just in case, they scouted the area for transportation. They weren't lucky enough to find some carriage lying around, but they found the next best thing.

Two horses.

One of the mares were white, and beautiful. Natalia had called that one the moment they'd spotted the horses.

The other was a chestnut, and in Matthew's opinion, just as beautiful. When Natalia approached it, it recoiled, but luckily, it seemed to like Matthew. And luckily, Mathew remembered how to ride a horse from his time at the Palace of Spades. That would make his life easier.

Unluckily, Natalia didn't know how to ride a horse, so it took some time for Matthew to explain the basics, but that didn't help much. Natalia wasn't ready to swallow her pride and accept the help, and even if she was, nobody could learn to ride a horse within an hour, or less. Eventually, Matthew got Natalia on the horse, after she reluctantly accepted Matthew's help. After what seemed like hours, and probably was since the moon had changed its' position in the sky, Natalia was riding a horse, or at least successfully sitting on the top of one, trailing behind Matthew's horse.

While Matthew led the way after Natalia had told him the directions to the Heart Kingdom, he felt drowsy. It had been a long time since he slept, and the past two days felt like more than a month.

Everything had changed in those two days. His life went from shelving books and occasionally visiting his brother and sister-in-law to having a reunion with his Papa and running away from him, and everyone else who was on his tail. Matthew had no doubt that Francis had sent people into Kingdom Spades to find him. He also remembered hearing about the good relations between Kingdom Diamonds and Kingdom Clubs. It would be likely for them to be working together.

Matthew sighed.

He'd gone from a somewhat normal citizen of Spades to a fugitive of half of the Deck.