rgihruhgrugh i have been lifting people for three straight days and my arms ache and it's a bitch to write LOL
as always,i do not own the selection nor hetalia. these belong to kieracass and himaruya hidekaz respectively. disclaimer for the trials! i'm surprised as well! wowee! stop! using! exclamation! marks! myself!
also. what. 30,000 reads. you all deserve a crown or something
As soon as all the attendees had filed in and the cameras had set up in their proper places, the Jack alighted from the viewing stand to come face the three of them.
"Welcome to all those witnessing this year's Trials. Today, we are here with our last few Elite – Sir Alfonso, Lady Emma and Sir Arthur." he said, gesturing to each of them in turn with a flourish that was missing from his usual, calm demeanour. "They will be assessed today on their magical abilities that might, in the future, impact the motion of Spades and even Cards as a whole. There will be two sections – one where all three candidates have to conduct themselves utilizing a series of simple and complex spells to demonstrate their ability and talent, and one where the prince himself personally will assist with them to help them discover their true potential. And with that, we will begin!"
Cheers came from the viewing deck, and Alfonso nudged Arthur's side as he noticed that the camera crew was clapping, even as one tilted one in their direction.
"What do we do?" Emma whispered. "Do we just wave or something?"
"This isn't like the last time we were…presented to the public," Alfonso replied awkwardly. "We know what's going to happen, right?"
"I'm not sure about that. They could be considering throwing us into cold water and making us use our basic knowledge to levitate ourselves out and warm ourselves all within twenty seconds."
"You pessimist," Emma said, smiling a little. "I don't think anyone, especially not Alfred, would do that."
"Are you ready, then?" Yao said, coming to approach the three. "Sir Alfonso, if you don't mind, may you go first?"
"Yes, Your Highness," he said obediently, flashing Emma and Arthur a glance before he followed the Jack outside of the small marquee. From a small television set, both of them could watch the other boy go through his trial.
"All right then, Sir Alfonso, first we'll do what we started off with in our first lesson." Yao gestured to a small, white crate, sitting on top of some wooden boxes. "Try and see if you can knock it over."
"Can't I do that with my hands?" Alfonso muttered under his breath, which garnered a few laughs. "Yes, Your Highness."
"Remember, use your dominant hand for best control!" he called, stepping back as Alfonso smoothed back his jacket and thrust his palm in the general direction of the plinth.
The whole area was completely silent as he shut his eyes and started to concentrate, taut with tension.
Then with a spark, a flash of pale, uncoloured light sprung forth from his outstretched fingertips, shuttling straight for the block. Unfortunately, the little thing didn't make it from the sudden blast of power and tilted before falling off completely, landing in the snow where the paleness of the block matched the colour of it.
Alfonso had been successful.
The whole marquee burst into applause, Alfonso pausing to straighten his jacket and hold out his hand towards the Jack, who gestured towards him. Yao generated a very pale shade of blue magic, simmering at his fingertip, and brought it in a tiny arc over the palm he used before applauding him and leading him back into where Emma and Arthur were sitting, gesturing for him next.
"Sir Arthur? You're next," Yao chided, watching him get up before ushering him back into the cold.
"Um, Alfonso, can you look after my gloves?" he asked, to which the boy nodded and took them with his hands.
"Jack Yao…will I have to do anything in particular to prove my worth?" Arthur asked, half to himself as they walked outside.
"Well, we can't prove it all in one go," he said. "But if you use your magic wisely and carefully, you'll know that you've put it to good use. All right," he continued. "You may begin as soon as our attendants prop up the box again."
The box, slightly cracked, was moved back up to the platform.
Arthur simply slid his eyes shut and focused, waiting for that din of light as he gingerly raised his hand.
It was a lot dimmer than last time with the rose, probably because it was a lot farther and wasn't exactly bursting with life. But after a bit of prodding that required him to bring up his other hand to clamp around his wrist to support his shaky sense of direction, the faint, blue glow appeared in his mind.
He edged closer towards the flickering ball as it danced around his vision. For one, frightening moment, it flitted dangerously close to the edge of his sight, but he managed to seize hold of it as soon as it inched very close to the center. He kept it there as it swirled around restlessly, now starting to feel a little conscious of the time.
It wasn't until he had really honed and started to control the energy that he carefully opened his eyes and fixed them straight on the plinth, the silhouette of the ball of light burned into his vision.
To his great relief, a blast of light sprung from his palm as well, lingering on his fingertips for a moment that felt too long before it moved sharply, crashing into the block, sending it flying backwards into the snow.
Arthur lowered his hand, panting, feeling a little bit of a headache as claps came from the marquee again, and crossing over to Jack Yao.
"Good job, Sir Arthur," he said warmly, closing his eyes for a moment before the thrum of the blue magic was resting on his fingertip once more. "We're just doing this so that we can remove any lingering magic from your skin, for safety purposes."
"Thank you," he said, standing as a strange, cooling sensation floated over his palm.
"Although…" the Jack said, pausing. "Were you charging up your magic in there? It wasn't exactly necessary to use the circular motion to make sure it landed, charging it in a circular motion takes a little longer, and it's a very secure spell."
"Well…" Arthur said, feeling a little embarrassed. "It seemed to move around in my vision and I was afraid that I would lose it, so I wanted it to stay as in the center of my vision and as still as it could be when I launched it."
"Hm. All right, then," Yao said, patting him on the back. "That's a good call when we get onto later stages where the crown prince will help with you, but it's a good trial run. Take a break, then."
Emma was already at the door as they arrived, and Alfonso signaled to Arthur to sit down with him as they left.
"How was it?" he asked cheerfully, handing Arthur back his gloves. "Fun?"
"I'm not sure how I really did, actually," Arthur admitted, slipping them back on. More like – how did I keep it in control? Maybe it was because I wasn't around someone else… "It felt pretty long."
"Yeah, it was," Alfonso laughed. "I thought you were posing for a little while!"
"Did I, um, muck up?"
"Huh? Oh no, of course you didn't! Even though you were posing, you looked kind of cool. And in the resulting spell, the thing went flying! I couldn't even do that, and I really wanted to impress him."
"Well," Arthur said, assuming that he meant Alfred and not anyone else, really, "I don't think he's really out for the best magical user. He just wants to get this over with, since we're all pretty competent in magic. Maybe the cameras will note your faster time but more of my power?"
"Hey, makes sense – wait, there's Emma!"
Favouring her left hand instead of her right, unlike the other boys, Emma stood, her figure stiffened as she lifted her arm to face the plinth – now looking five steps away from being shattered, to both Arthur and Alfonso's surprise.
Nothing happened for a good ten seconds before she too managed to produce a light, but she enclosed it within her hand before almost throwing it out, her hand flicking upwards as it landed squarely in the center of the plinth, smashing it into a mess of marble as the marquee burst into claps, now accompanied with some cheers.
"You know, I thought you wanted to steal the honour of destroying it before she could," Alfonso said. "Gives that shazam. But that precision is something else – how did she manage to trap it in her hand?"
"I don't know, but yes," Arthur said, watching as she walked in, waving at the audience before dropping in the seat next to them. "Indeed it does."
The larger half of the morning passed without much of a fanfare as the first task. Their attributes – speed for Alfonso, precision for Emma and power for Arthur – seemed to manifest stronger in each of them as the day went on.
During a test in which they had to alter the colour of a plastic block, Alfonso managed to turn half of the block from blue to a very pale red, almost pink, in record time. Arthur, on the other hand, managed to turn almost all of it in a slightly more vivid shade, like a sort of watery red. Emma, however, managed to coax it to turn a slight bit redder than her companions, but she had barely managed to cover a quarter of the block.
Arthur's right hand was starting to feel a little cold despite Alfred's gloves from being glossed over by Yao's neutralizing magic, and it seemed that Emma and Alfonso did as well, judging by the repeated warming of hands in the small, separate marquee they sat in as Trial after Trial.
The headache, the little mental twinges that Arthur – and the others, by the looks of things – only seemed to grow more and more intense. After the three of them managed to move a haphazard, jerky tennis ball from one place to the other while being airborne – Emma managed to keep it as still during the movement for the longest, Alfonso did it faster than the two of them and Arthur nearly overshot it – they were feeling a lot more drained than they had previously.
"Wait, that's the sixth, right?" Emma panted, rubbing over her distressed forehead. "That's got to be."
"No, uh, it's the fifth," Alfonso mumbled, leafing over a small pamphlet that Yao had slipped them after they completed the third task – one of hitting a target that Emma had shone in. "Says here that the next one should be the last."
"What do you think it is?"
"Water," Arthur affirmed, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "Always water."
"Then I'll say fire."
"The slow decimation of our hopes and dreams straight in front of our faces. What?" Alfonso asked, spluttering with barely restrained laughter at the two's horrified looks. "I'm being honest."
"So, the future, then."
"Huh, I certainly hope not," Emma sighed, crossing her legs under her chair.
"Knowing you, it would probably involve Alfred."
"Did someone say my name?"
The three of them whipped around to see the prince, cheeks and ears red from the cold, but still valiantly wearing a smile on his face. Emma let out an excited call of his name and ran as fast as she could in her heels, Alfonso following close behind her, waving cheerfully.
Arthur simply sat there, looking at his general direction, smiling a little as their eyes met.
"I'm sorry to not have come sooner," he said, clasping a hand over Emma's arm and sharing a glance with Alfonso as they all sat back down. "Was too busy feeling the three of you amaze me and the rest of the audience."
"My head's getting sore," Emma sighed. "Any help with that?"
"Hey, I was just looking to help with that," Alfred laughed. "I've got a spot of help, but that's going to require more magic."
"More?!" Alfonso said in mock disbelief, narrowing his eyes affectionately as Alfred pulled out his hand from under his sleeve. "We're only halfway through the day. Can you burst from using too much magic?"
"Not where we are," Alfred said, his smile fading for a moment before composing himself. "So, uh, I'm technically not allowed to use any magic on you just in case I give anyone an edge or something, but Jack Yao said it's okay. And really, that's all that matters to me."
Laughter was exchanged, and Emma curled up against him, removing her headband before raising her head to meet his hand as he gently laid it on her forehead and closed his eyes. A moment past, before a deep blue light started glowing from where their skin met. It was almost like a firefly's glow, faint and pulsing, lingering before dissolving as Alfred removed his hand.
"Oh my goodness, that did work!" Emma said cheerfully, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. "Thank you so much, Alfie!"
"No problem," Alfred said with a grin. "Alfonso, you okay with this?"
"More than happy." he said, beaming, quickly slicking back his messy fringe. "Just checking, this won't erase my memories or anything?"
"I wouldn't do that!" Alfred said, taking up the same position and pressing his hand to his forehead and performing the same spell, but for him it glowed a little brighter before Alfonso stepped back with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Thanks," Alfonso said, nervously squeezing Alfred's hand for a moment. "You…you sure you'll be warm enough?"
"I'll be great, Alfonso," Alfred said reassuringly, returning the squeeze. "Stay warm, all right?"
"…I will!" he said, blushing madly before returning to his seat. "Guess it's you now, Arthur."
He took his place in the chair opposite the prince, holding his gaze for a moment before leaning over. He felt the sensation of Alfred's callous fingers against his forehead; brush away his fringe before he felt the buzz of magic against his forehead.
He had imagined that it would be a tiny pleasant, cooling feeling, but instead of that he got a rush of balmy heat that made him inhale sharply and look up at Alfred's closed eyelids before looking back down. A wave of heat, almost identical to that, washed over his whole body and made him feel almost lethargic.
That had certainly warmed up more than just his forehead.
"Are you okay?" Alfred said in a hushed tone, his fingertips lingering on his forehead, slowly letting his hair droop back into his eyes. "I wasn't expecting the heat."
"No, well – it was quite pleasant, really," Arthur stammered, his heart thudding in his chest. "Thank you."
"I'm glad," he said haltingly, as if he wanted to say more. But he lifted his clock to his gaze, scanned it, and quickly looked panicked.
"Uh, I'm really sorry, everyone, but they're expecting me back in the viewing deck in two minutes. Good luck with the last test, okay? I'll be with you in the second half."
Those words stayed with Arthur all through the last test, almost more than the magic.
But the magic was searing in his veins, especially when Alfonso burst apart the clay pot so quickly that he got a standing ovation, Emma managing to contain the little burst of clay shards perfectly to loud clamours.
Arthur, when it was his turn, blew it into little pieces with a sharp blue light, a rush of power that left everyone gaping in shock, including Yao.
If he was watching to the side, however, he could have seen Alfred's wide blue eyes, not leaving his lithe figure for even a moment.
I'll be with you, too.
Any way I can.
replies
mi-chan - ahah i don't want to spoil anything, but knowing me there will be :V thank you for continuing to support me!
russia says hello - he probably was wondering how exactly arthur knew how to tease him already, knowing those dorks
pastaaddict - i actually did it this time lmao
hearthorse11 - what innocent child? his inner horny teenager is coming out soon ;) pew pew
- i think my aching libertea blood will always be here. i had to include some fluff as they were both demanding lol. i think it's kind of a shame that i didn't get to put katya in as much as i'd liked to? if there is a sequel (rather large if) i'll definitely put a point in for her. don't worry, i feel like the two of them are slowly, slowly starting to break free of their restraints. hopefully, fingers crossed!
chuuchan2317 - i'm very honoured ;v; please continue to read this fic, i'll do my very best to keep it going!
gatita-yaoi - your review has landed you in the top five of the best emails i've ever recieved LMAO. and no, they haven't had sex (yet? i don't know), they've just started to explore themselves more...i guess, physically. make out as in kissing but kind of less restrained - at least, that's what i've got from my friend who's actually tried it, so i don't really know lol.
reviews, favourites and follows are what will keep me writing, so please go ahead and leave them!