Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
-Albert Einstein
***Fallen Stars***
Alfred grumbled to himself incoherently, glaring at the stupid, thick, wooden door daring to stand in his way. Knowing it was useless, Alfred punched at the door, receiving a massive amount of pain to his fist as he did so.
"No need to be angry," Arthur teased behind him. "It should stand to reason that a King wouldn't meet with a few, insignificant people."
"Yeah, well, we need to talk to him somehow," Alfred turned around to glare at the wizard, who was currently laughing annoyingly. The rest of the group stood around them. "That way, we can get to be somebodies rather than nobodies."
"A king on our side would improve our odds with accomplishing anything," Francis sighed. "But there would be no way in."
"Unless we break in," Antonio offered. "We do have a handful of thieves, after all."
"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea," Alfred said sarcastically. "Let's break into a freaking castle and have to fight basically everyone in the vicinity!"
"Not like we can't handle it," Arthur smirked.
"Last time we took on a big group, one of us died," Alfred stated. "I would prefer that didn't happen again."
"He came back," Arthur scoffed.
"I would kinda prefer to not die again, personally," Gilbert chimed in, raising his hand. "Coming back doesn't mean it doesn't suck."
"Uh, what are you guys doing?" someone asked casually and everyone in the group looked over at him. He was leaning against the wall of the castle with a smirk on his face. He was dressed like any other person walking around in the town, which meant he was absolutely useless when it came to talking to the temporary king. He had bright blonde hair and dark blue eyes along with a smile that could make anyone cheery, just being around him.
"Trying to talk to the King," Alfred muttered, turning back to the door, arms crossed over his chest. "But looks like the dick isn't in the mood to talk to a couple of nobodies."
"Hey, Kings are busy guys," the man shrugged, standing up from the wall. "I haven't seen you guys around before, did you break in or something?"
"Long story," Alfred muttered.
"What's the point in hiding it?" Arthur groaned. "You know, you're attitude can get very annoying."
"Are you really so sure about what you talked about earlier, Alfred?" Gilbert muttered.
"Looks like you've got a little dissent in your team," the man smirked.
"That's what you get when you get so many people together," Antonio shrugged happily. "You should look at some thieves' guilds. Raiders aren't too much better."
"Well, I figure I should tell you, since you're new here," the man shrugged, still smiling. "The King doesn't get a lot of time to see anyone. He's busy with a ton of shit, pretty much all the time. Hardly anyone in town has seen him."
"So breaking in would be our best option," Francis shrugged.
"You guys may look like thieves, but there's no way anyone's breaking into that place," the man laughed. "By the way, if you guys are gonna go walking around and try to be sneaky, try not to make it obvious. I mean, the boots make it obvious, considering not everyone can get their hands on those kinds of things. So, what, is the blind kid a thief too? Along with your leader?"
"Never in a million years," Alfred growled. "We got the boots from a thief we robbed a while ago."
"How long ago?" Antonio asked and Gilbert's attention piqued, for some reason or another.
"A few years, I guess," Alfred muttered, glancing down at his weathered boots. Matthew's weren't much better, but they lasted a long time. Arthur, Vash, and Lili didn't have boots, but Alfred noticed that the man in front of them did have boots, something he was very relaxed about.
"Did you get them from a blonde guy?" Gilbert smirked. "Really muscular, not a lot of emotions unless he's pissed?"
"I think," Alfred muttered and Gilbert burst out laughing. "It was a long time ago, why is this so important?"
"Oh, Gott, just wait 'till I tell him that he lost those boots from a couple of kids!" Gilbert held onto his stomach, he was laughing so hard.
"Need I remind you that, if whoever you're talking about is a thief, at least one of you will be on the track of death when you see him?" Arthur asked with a smirk and Gilbert stopped, his eyes going wide, before he glared at Arthur.
"Don't make me hurt you," Gilbert growled. Alfred was a little curious about what made him so mad all of a sudden, but there was a more pressing matter at hand.
"If you're so knowledgeable," Alfred turned to the man, "do you know any way to talk to the King?"
"If anyone knew that, you would see a line here," the man shrugged. "Hey, how about I show you guys around town, to kill some time? It wouldn't hurt, right?"
"I see no point in wasting my time with anyone here," Arthur scoffed.
"Why, because there's no one here to molest?" Gilbert smirked. "Maybe you should just let the other one come out to play, at least he won't be bored."
"I would never voluntarily give him control, I'm no idiot," Arthur narrowed his eyes at him. "That's one difference between the two of us."
"Fuck it, I'll go with you," Alfred groaned, walking up to the man. "I think my team needs some time apart to cool off."
"Oi, Birdie, you wanna go with your brother?" Gilbert raised an eyebrow at Matthew, who thought for a moment. Alfred sighed slightly, noting his hesitation. He hated how close his brother was getting to a thief, of all people. When they disappeared the night before, Alfred had half a mind to follow them. Luckily, they came back and Matthew was smiling, otherwise, Gilbert wouldn't have survived the next day.
"I haven't been able to spend a lot of time with you," Matthew smiled innocently, unaware of the obvious glare Alfred was giving Gilbert, who smirked in return. It was like the thief was making fun of him. There was no way Alfred could trust him with his brother. Matthew walked towards the man and held out his hand. "My name is Matthew. Yours?"
"Micheal," the man responded, almost hesitantly as he shook Matthew's hand and Alfred immediately wondered why he would hesitate. If it was a fake name, what would he have to lie about?
"Alfred," Alfred sighed, not bothering with a handshake. He glanced behind himself to see the others split up. The trio of thieves ran off somewhere, Gilbert with a smirk on his face, while Vash and Lili calmly walked off. Arthur, looking very bored, swiftly turned around and towards the middle of the town. Alfred hoped he wouldn't cause any trouble.
"You could use some help with that team of yours," Micheal laughed, patting Alfred on the back before walking ahead of them. "Then again, it's really freaking hard to get that many people on board the same way. Why are you guys a team, anyway? It's obvious you don't have anything to give those thieves in return."
"It's a…long story," Alfred sighed.
"Lucky for you, we've got a lot of time," Micheal smiled back.
"It's pretty obvious to everyone that this world's shit," Alfred started. "I became painfully aware of that a little while ago. So I decided I was going to try to change it. I know I can't do it alone, so I've been getting people that seem to agree with me, some of which I'm not very proud of having on my team, like those thieves."
"Gilbert and the others-"
"Are thieves," Alfred finished for Matthew.
"Were," Matthew corrected him forcefully and Alfred was genuinely surprised. He'd never heard his brother so loud since what happened to him. And he was defending Gilbert, of all people.
"So," Micheal cleared his throat and gained Alfred's attention again. "You wanna see the King because you want a chance to have more power behind your ideal."
"Yeah," Alfred sighed, turning back to the blonde in front of him. "It's just too bad that we won't be able to talk to him."
"Yeah, that's too bad," Micheal mused.
***Fallen Stars***
Arthur was bored. He had been so used to the near constant fighting that their group had gotten into. And there was no one in this stupid town worth doing anything with. Francis was useless for as long as he was around Gilbert, the infuriating bastard that he was. Not only was he filled with enough energy to kill an average person and no way to use it, but it seemed as though he wished for the softer personality to gain control of the body they were both in. That only reminded Arthur of the painfully annoying fact that the little brat refused to give control to the obviously better choice.
"So you were that magic user I sensed," a voice sighed and Arthur groaned. Yet another thorn in his side, he had sensed him behind him for a while now. A magic user with the same ability as him, though it seemed that he did not have the dual personality problem. "Odd, I can't tell which personality is the original."
"Good," Arthur stated, turning around to the wizard. He had blonde hair clipped to the side and blue eyes that gazed at him boredly. Such an expression just succeeded in pissing off Arthur. He was dressed in clothing Arthur had never seen before, though it was obviously made of good quality and he even wore boots, though he was obviously not a thief. "What the hell do you even want? I was fine without you around."
"I'm looking for someone," the wizard stated. "It has nothing to do with you, though I am rather curious about your group. This meeting is just to ask questions. Not just about you, but about the others in your group. It seems as though you have quite a few interesting things in your travelling group."
"Well, I won't answer any questions you may have," Arthur said coldly. "You would have to find someone more eager to share than me."
"Then you leave me no choice," the wizard sighed before easily sliding his hand over. The switch was so sudden and Arthur gasped, staring at the wizard who did what he thought was impossible. He made the other personality give up control. "I trust you are more cooperative?"
"How did you do that?" Arthur muttered. He felt the anger in his other personality in the back of his head, but he couldn't take control.
"We may have the same amount of magic, though I seem to be better at the more technical side of it," the wizard said. "Are you more willing to answer my questions?"
"As long as you are willing to answer a few of my own," Arthur stated and the wizard nodded.
"There is a man with enough magic energy to seriously harm thousands of people if he is not careful," the wizard sighed. "Do you know anything about him or where that amount of magic came from?"
"Both of us have been trying to figure that out," Arthur muttered. "He's hardly aware of it and he seems to not have the ability to control it unless he's in danger. The magic has revived him more than once after death and has caused a severe reaction in him every time he sleeps. I sense the magic that comes out of him every night, but I can't make any sense of it. He's a mystery to everyone."
"What of that magic sword?" the wizard asked. "Considering I could sense it, it is very powerful."
"From what I can tell, it's old," Arthur said. "Whatever wizard crafted it, they did quite an amazing job. It protects the user and whoever he allows to touch it. Anyone who's not permitted to touch it could die, from what I gather."
The wizard nodded. "Ask your questions now, I'm in a hurry."
"Who are you?" Arthur asked. "Judging by your dress, you're important."
"I am close to King Mathias," the wizard sighed. "Any other questions?"
"What does the King look like?" Arthur asked with a small sigh. If someone close to the King was walking around, that could only mean that the King was as well and Arthur had a small suspicion that they had already seen him.
"Blonde," the wizard muttered. "blue eyes, doesn't have a care in the world."
"We've met someone like that that called himself Micheal," Arthur said.
"The fool doesn't even have the sense to come up with a good name," the wizard grumbled under his breath. "Do you know where he went?"
"I can take you to him and my own fool," Arthur sighed and turned around to begin walking towards where he had seen Alfred and "Micheal" go.
***Fallen Stars***
"Alfred can go fuck himself," Gilbert muttered darkly to himself.
"I noticed your little glare match," Antonio chuckled. "It's a good thing Matthew can't see, otherwise I can imagine he'd be pretty mad at the both of you."
"The only thing he's fucking worried about is that I was a thief," Gilbert grumbled. "He's gotta fucking realize that I'm not gonna hurt anyone on this team. I'm in it for a reason."
"Yes, Matthew," Francis smirked and Gilbert growled.
"Look, you just need to relax," Antonio suggested. "Let things run their course. I'm sure you did already confess to the boy and he apparently didn't mind it. Alfred will loosen up eventually, maybe once he finally figures out whatever he has with Arthur."
"Which one?" Gilbert smirked slightly. The only person that annoyed him more than Alfred was Arthur's second personality. The pressing questions he had about his dragon were concerning. That was the one secret he had that no one knew about, not even his brother. "That kid needs to figure out which personality he's gonna keep."
"That may take a while, considering their balance," Antonio shrugged. "Generally, wizard prostitutes have one personality because one is stronger than the other. We just have to wait until one wins the power struggle."
"If there was another guy in my head, I'd kick him out in two seconds," Gilbert smirked. "Then again, you'd kick my ass for taking that long, Toni."
"You could do it in one, my friend," Antonio laughed, patting Gilbert's back.
"Weird to think just yesterday, you killed me," Gilbert laughed with him. "How many times is it now, four?"
"I thought it was five," Francis laughed.
"All I know is, it's way too many times for comfort," Gilbert laughed. "Maybe next time, the fight'll turn out better."
"You never learn," Antonio chuckled. "You won't do any better next time."
"Then we just have to hope that there is no next time," Francis inputted happily. "Now, what should we do? I imagine we have quite some time until Alfred realizes that Micheal is really Mathias, so we should spend this time wisely!"
"What the hell is there to do in a town like this?" Gilbert asked.
"We could find a spare deck of cards," Antonio suggested. "You've always loved playing with cards, right, Gil?"
"If you could find some people willing to give up a deck, sure," Gilbert shrugged.
"Let's trade something," Francis shrugged, pulling out a small dagger. "Think they'd be willing to give a deck of cards for one of these?"
"Just find someone who won't stab you in response this time," Gilbert suggested, patting Francis' shoulder.
"That was one time!" Francis whined.
"Yeah, but you were in recovery for quite some time," Antonio laughed. "I remember taking nearly all of your jobs so no one figured out you couldn't move."
"Okay, fine," Francis sighed, looking around. "I am sure someone has a deck of cards…"
"Excuse me!" a blonde with brown eyes quickly ran up to them. Gilbert immediately noticed that he was dressed in incredibly fancy clothing, someone definitely from that castle. "I have a question for you three! Have you seen…wait, I don't know if I should tell you who I'm looking for, that might not be a good idea, since he's…Wait, I don't think I've ever seen you around before. You guys look a lot like thieves."
Gilbert glanced at Francis and Antonio, who shrugged simply.
"If you're looking for your King, I saw him go off with our team leader a little while ago, not too far that way," Gilbert pointed towards where he had seen them go. "Go fetch."
"Well, I don't know what you're talking about," the blonde rubbed the back of his head. "I heard that the King doesn't even leave the castle, let alone really talk to anyone outside it, unless they're really important. That leader of yours must be really important."
"You can drop the act," Gilbert said bluntly. "I can tell that you're faking."
"Well, I guess it can't be helped," the blonde scratched at his head. "Yeah, I'm looking for the King, as long as you thieves stay friendly, I don't mind getting your help. If you want, after you show me to him, I could give you that deck of cards you wanted."
"I don't mind this kid," Antonio laughed, walking ahead of them.
***Fallen Stars***
"So, what should we do, brother?" Lili asked Vash as they walked away from the castle. Vash had known that it was useless to go to a castle, but he said nothing, even as their group dissented into arguments. He was beginning to wonder if joining the group just because of their ideals was a good idea.
"Anything you want to do is fine," Vash stated simply. He looked around the town and didn't find anyone too untrustworthy, so he was fine allowing his gun to rest on his back.
"We always do what I want," Lili said. "What do you want to do?"
"There is not a lot to do," Vash sighed.
"Then we can go cloud watching!" Lili offered happily, walking quickly to a tree. Vash couldn't hide the small that crept onto his face at her happiness. She was so innocent, it was impossible to keep her saddened or scared for too long, despite what happened around her. Even with that spare bow slung over her shoulder along with the quiver, she still looked happy and incapable of hurting anyone.
"Whatever you want," Vash assented and followed her, sitting on the grass beside her as she looked into the sky. As usual, the sky was a murky blue, with dark gray clouds littering the sky. Lili spent her time picking out shapes such as rabbits and birds from the clouds with a smile on her face while Vash sat and watched. It was close to peaceful, for which he was grateful for.
"Don't you think that looks like a tree?" Lili asked excitedly, pointing at what appeared to be a blob.
"Yes," Vash said before noticing a person walk up to them. He had silver hair and violet eyes, which piqued Vash's interest. "Stay here," Vash advised before standing and walking up to the man that seemed intent on walking towards them. "What do you want?"
"We noticed you in front of the castle," the man said simply, stopping and crossing his arms over his chest. "And our King has gone missing."
"We didn't take your King," Vash stated.
"We know," the man nodded. "The others have gone to collect the other members of your team. I'm here to get you. The others will retrieve the King, we will meet at the castle."
"Why should I trust you?" Vash asked.
"You don't have to, I don't think you will," the man said. "Come with me. I am unarmed and you can get away if I am lying."
"Fine," Vash stated, looking back to Lili, who immediately stood up and walked over to them. The man silently turned around and walked towards the castle and Vash followed quietly. Lili stayed quiet, too, thankfully.
As they got close to the door, Vash noticed a large group of people, not only from their own team to people he did not know.
"You guys always ruin my fun, you know," the man that called himself "Micheal" muttered, arms crossed over his chest childishly.
"Shut up and get back inside," a blonde man sighed as they convened at the door. It opened on its own, revealing a very tall blonde with cold blue eyes, who seemed to glare at the large group in front of the door.
"Well, that counts for the King and all four of his buddies," Gilbert nodded happily.
"And you didn't think to give us this important information beforehand?" Alfred asked Gilbert.
"It never came up in conversation," Francis shrugged as the tall blonde nodded and stepped aside to let everyone through.
"Very impressive team," Vash sighed, walking in last, coming right after Lili as the tall blonde closed the door behind them.
***Fallen Stars***
So, I'm really curious here, and I might even take your guys' answers into consideration. Which Arthur do you think should win Arthur's body in the end? Obviously, one has to win in the end, so who do you think it should be? Then, of course, there's the question of what's going on with Gilbert, but I'm sure you guys are already wondering about that.
And then there's the actual competition, regarding the plot twist, which has been given many hints recently! Have fun, kiddos!
And please review!