i do not own the selection nor hetalia. they belong to kiera cass and himuraya hidekazu respectively.
"Your Highness, can I just ask why in Duchess' name are you-" Arthur began, but was cut off by the Joker ducking his head lower, thus revealing the tousled silver-white hair that everyone was most familiar with.
"You don't go spouting that title in front of literally everyone," Gilbert grumbled, but other than that did not seem too angry. "You think it's a good idea to have this gossip in here, or someone that's a little more secluded?"
"...first of all, what on Earth are you going to talk with me about? And second of all, how are you going to get us out of this packed place without someone suspecting or hearing? I'm only listening if it's anything meaningful, knowing your antics."
The younger Joker's reputation wasn't as nearly as sound as the elder-he had been suspected many a time for his pranks and his jokester antics that had caused mischief around all four Kingdoms.
"To answer your prissy questions," Gilbert replied with an irritated twitch of his famous feathered ears that he could now see, "The first one is about that cute Ace I was talking about. Second-well, watch and learn."
Before Arthur could even open his mouth to question and protest further, the hall around them fell completely still and silent, like a veil was completely covering it.
Arthur turned to face Gilbert, but his movements were slightly slowed, as if he were moving in water.
Gilbert mouthed…something, and Arthur started following him. Unless his command was don't follow me and keep your distance, following him seemed like the most rational thing to do. In such a place, such a weird surrounding, there really wasn't anything else to do, anyway.
Arthur felt that he was physically moving as fast as he could but the frame definitely didn't make it seem that way as even his movement was distorted. To his shock, the walls started to warp, bending slightly, and the people started to slowly bend over and twist as well. He tried to speak, but no words came out. Gilbert kept on moving, not making a single sound or a single movement other than moving as quickly as he could.
He must have started physically panicking and Gilbert must have sensed or seen this, because as soon as they both made their way into an isolated room, their surroundings started to resume normality.
"Yo," Gilbert panted, his ears dangling loosely and sounding exhausted, "You okay there, punk?"
"Of course I wasn't!" Arthur said quickly, but his voice shook all the same. "How on Earth did you do that?"
"Comes with being a Joker," he rasped, shuffling inside his jacket for a pair of thin nylon gloves. "But it's still at the courtesy of the awesome me."
"Are you all right?" Arthur asked. "You seem rather out of breath.
"Nah, it's nothing that difficult. Just takes the wind outta my sails, uh, occasionally." Gilbert said, sinking onto the floor and pulling his gloves on.
He waited until the Joker had regained his breath, and joined him on the floor, waiting for him to speak.
The room that they had both stumbled in was dimly lit but fitted with a porthole near the ceiling, allowing a small ray of light to beam into the room. The walls and floor were completely stripped clean, and the room was completely empty save for two aged chairs.
"Where is this place?"
"Think this is an examining room, but no matter," Gilbert said quickly, shoving his hands behind his back where they weren't visible. "Let's get down to talking. It's about Matthew. Has your little friend been keeping you updated?"
Assuming that his 'little friend' was Kiku, he nodded in response.
"So, uh, here's the thing," Gilbert said, and Arthur noted that it was one of the first times he had heard the usually confident sounding Joker-his appearances on television included-sound nervous.
"Our relationship isn't the easiest on the planet to manage, and I don't want to get into the good stuff, heh. But it has to be a secret-guessing you know why already?"
"Um…no," Arthur said quietly. "I was assuming that it was called an affair for a reason."
The Joker paused for a minute then shook his head quickly, resting his head against the wall.
"Then I gotta say that it's no problem. Just the fact that it's supposed to be secret should stick. Okay?" Gilbert said, to which Arthur nodded his agreement. He suspected that Gilbert had more reasons, but he thought it would be impolite to prod further.
"Did Mattie give you my letters?"
"Letters…?" Arthur trailed off before remembering the small pile of tiny yellow mail that had come in with the postage. "Um, no, my friend Kiku was the one that Matthew kept in touch with."
Gilbert did a double take, suddenly sitting up straight and giving him a long stare before he burst into loud laughter and ran a hand through his scruffy hair, his tufted ears twitching irritably in response.
"Oh, god, wrong kid!" he spluttered. "Sorry for wastin' your time, but if you don't have the mail, I can't really help you more than that."
"So what you're saying is that you basically froze time for nothing?" Arthur hissed, starting to feel a little irritated. He wasn't even bothering to keep his voice down!
"It's not as simple as just freezing time, but yeah. Tell you what-" Gilbert started to reply, sounding a little embarrassed, but they were interrupted by a sound at the end of the corridor.
His red eyes sharpened for just for a moment as he pulled his wrists up in a flowing motion, and before Arthur knew it they were being magically suspended in their room again.
He opened the door, Arthur following as quickly as the warp would allow him. They passed a person with a handful of papers, presumably the person who made the noise, and a mother and her daughter, both clutching bags and both looking very annoyed. There was no one else in the corridor, and Arthur only got to see the longer effects of the sensation when they made their ways back to their former seats and Gilbert shut his eyes and clenched and unclenched his fists. Only when he removed his gloves did their surroundings begin to shift back to normal. People stopped shaking and fading and continued on with their business, and the seconds hand on the clock began to chirpily tick away again.
"There, wasn't so bad, right?" Gilbert panted, his grip harder on the wood than it had been for a moment. "Should we just get to what you came for?"
"That sounds like a good idea," Arthur said breathlessly, the adrenaline from the warp starting to slow down.
Gilbert yanked down the blinds in the booth once more.
"You are back a little later than I expected," Kiku said as Arthur turned on the landing lights and locked the door, the bright light in stark contrast compared to the darkening sky.
"Sorry, there were…complications involved in the process, shall I say? I hope you saved me dinner." Arthur said, hurriedly removing off his waist pouch on top of their dresser.
"Of course," Kiku said, lifting a plastic wrapped bagel from the fridge. "I did a little bit of dusting while you were away."
"Thanks a lot, I'll do the vacuuming next week." This was where Arthur knew that Kiku had taken a lot less time for his application; his best friend was terribly precise with their home maintenance and if one checked their house after his spree they would easily pass the white glove test.
"If there will be one. Did you happen to meet Gilbert?"
Green eyes met brown as Arthur nodded, and Kiku's expression shifted into understanding as he shuffled in a cabinet and pulled out an unmarked envelope.
"I forgot to alert to you that he might be trying to seek out either of us," Kiku said sheepishly, "But he stopped by around twenty minutes ago and I gave him the post. I apologize, however, for not letting you know beforehand-"
"But you took care of him and that's more than enough for my satisfaction," Arthur chided, taking a bite of his bagel. "If you're fine with…this is a little tougher than usual," he cut off before he finished the sentence.
"Well, it is not my fault that you were so delayed whilst you were getting home." Kiku said amusedly. "Of course, if it had not gone stale I would have worried about the quality of the food."
"Mmph," Arthur mumbled through his mouthful, "Don'f be like that."
The two of them chatted lightly before they decided to retire to bed as the digital clock blipped to ten p.m.
Arthur turned off the lights as Kiku brushed his teeth in their small, squeaky clean bathroom, and the boys settled down for bed, the crickets chirping merrily as Kiku yanked down the blinds.
Arthur could hear the other's upbeat music as he reached for his headphones, wanting to push them into the tiny musical chip he-
"Kiku, where is my music chip?"
"Did you not leave it downstairs?" his best friend replied, already sounding sleepy. "You are the self dubbed king of losing things, right?"
"Don't remind me," Arthur sighed. "I'm going to open the lights, okay? In three-"
Kiku yelped as they were flicked on regardless, and he curled into his thick blanket, shivering as Arthur drowsily let his bare feet touch the cold tile and shuffled around for his bag.
He'd forgotten where it was until he stumbled onto the velvety object and got hold of it.
"We need an organizing system," Kiku hissed as Arthur turned off the lights again and plugged in his pods. "I do not want you blinding me with those lights again, please!"
"I'm doing my best!" Arthur said. "I'll figure out something, sorry."
He fell asleep to the first four bars of his classical music.
reviews are still appreciated :)