CC101- Hey guys! I know its been a long time since I updated this story. I am sooo sorry. School is hard as I am talking two honors and a AP class. Honors English is making me write a term paper. So yeah. LadySkarlettofSkaro and myself have written more chapters. I should have the next out in two days!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

The elder male called out to the figure behind the door. "Yes? You may enter."

The smell of food filled the air as Toris entered the room. He had a tray with several different types of food. A salad, some shrimp, dressings, crackers, cheeses, bread, meat, and a pitcher of wine with two glasses.

"Ah, thank you, Toris!" Arthur helped the servant place the plate down on the table cautiously. He didn't want a mess.

Alfred nodded and searched his pockets. Giving a small cry of victory, he handed his Lithuanian friend a silver coin. "Go rest, I heard you coughing earlier."

The Queen was pouring the wine into two glasses nearby, but he stopped when he heard Alfred mention coughing. "Toris? Are you alright, lad?"

"Just a cough," Toris stated softly. It sounded as if he was losing his voice.

"Do be careful around here. The weather is getting chillier. I could make you something, if you would like, to keep you warm." Arthur offered kindly.

Toris waved his hands, his face flushed. "No need my Queen. I am fine!"

Alfred looked over his loyal servant. He looked like he hadn't slept in a while, bags under his eyes. Also, he looked pale. "Still take today off. It's an order."

Arthur frowned. Toris was completely loyal and trustworthy to them, but his biggest habit was always working too hard. "You go back to your quarters and rest for today and tomorrow. I'll bring you some blankets or quilts, and I'll make some new clothes for you too."

The brunette's face went pure red. "There is no need for that my Queen! I have blankets and clothes in my room!"

"I'm not suggesting it, Toris; I'm telling you I am going to do so. Go rest, please. I can speak for both of us when I say you worry us."

Toris sighed knowing he was beaten. "Very well." He bowed and walked off.

Arthur smirked up at Alfred with a shake of his head. "That kid is so loyal and so hardworking, I feel so bad to have to tell him he can't work anymore."

The King was stuffing his face with food. "Mefff tuuu."

The Queen, used to the habit of the younger being a sloppy eater, chuckled. "How are you able to eat so much, yet stay so fit?" He wondered, smiling softly. Since last year, Alfred had definitely become trimmer and more muscular in certain places, while Arthur only gained a few more barely seen ones.

Alfred smiled and swallowed. "I work out with the guards," he answered simply. Every other day, Alfred would get up early for dawn training with the guards. It built up his muscles and reduced his fat.

"Well it's certainly paying off. Your maids must enjoy that, I bet."

The taller smiled. "They like to watch me fight. Maybe you should come!"

"If you want me to." He returned the smile. "Alright. Before you leave, if you could wake me up, that would be wonderful. You know how deep of a sleeper I can be sometimes."

"Like a rock Arthur. I swear you could be in the middle of a stormy sea and still sleep like a baby!"

The Queen laughed, taking a sip of his wine before speaking again. "At least I'm not making the walls shake with my snores!"

"And?"

"Oh, don't act so oblivious, Alfred, you snore so loud sometimes at night, I can hear you from my chambers!"

"You are an entire wing away from me!"

He laughed. "Exactly!"

"You're clearly crazy!" Alfred complained with a pout on his face and arms crossed. He looked like a child who just got scolded.

"No, no, not crazy. Just right."

Alfred huffed. "Let's just finish the paperwork. It's giving me a headache just looking at it."

"Alright, only if you're not so mopey. I can't work with you in that attitude."

The King rolled his eyes. "Alright then, while we are on the subject of economy, how much is this Deck Meeting costing us?"

Arthur scowled at the eye roll, and crossed his arms over his stomach. "I'll answer when you get rid of the attitude." They had had this problem multiple times in the past; Alfred would get upset about something his Queen would say on accident, and the Brit would have to inform him of his behavior. Thankfully, it worked, and helped the King change back to his usual self.

Alfred's face at first was a frown but slowly it turned into a grin. "You always know what to say." He took the wine goblet for a sip then set it down on the tray.

Arthur smiled. "There we are. Now, whot was your question?"

Alfred smirked. "Are you going to eat? I left some food for you but you haven't taken a single bite."

The Queen took some of the food, putting it on his plate. "I was going to let you have practically the entire meal, but if you want me to eat, I shall."

The King shook his head. "Eat. Sometimes I think you are too skinny."

"Alright, if you say so." Arthur started eating the food quietly, finishing chewing before he spoke. "So, about this," a thin finger tapped on the paperwork stack.

"Yea?"

"Before, you mentioned the Deck Meeting costing us money. How much?"

"That's what I asked you."

"Alright, just making sure. Since Yao deals with finances, I don't know the exact amount, but I don't expect to be too low or too high that it wouldn't be a problem."

Alfred got extra parchment and made notes. "Okay, each have a room to sleep in right? And each Kingdom has a different wing in Despoint right?" Despoint was the city where the meeting was being held. It was an ocean city to the east so most royals came by sea.

"Mhm, some of them room together, like the Queen and Jack of Diamonds, and the Jack and Ace of Hearts." The Jack of Diamonds, Vash, and the Ace of Hearts, Lovino, were overprotective of their younger siblings.

"But it's all been settled? Everything?"

"I haven't heard anything from the other Kingdoms, so I don't think so. That's where they usually say, though, so they might be. But I haven't heard from the other Queens yet."

Alfred nodded. "That's good. So why don't we conclude this meeting? We are finished here."

"Sounds good," the smaller nodded and smiled.

The younger got up and called in a servant. The servant started to clean up, but Arthur -as usual when they had lunch- took the golden wine pitcher with him when he left.

"Going to drink again?" Alfred asked as they walked to the library.

He chuckled, taking a small sip from the bottle. "I might drink a bit of it. I'll save it for another night."

Alfred shook his head. "Just make sure Rachel or I am there when you do..."

"You always make it sound like I'm an irresponsible drinker." He took another small sip. "I always make sure you two are nearby."

The King shook his head again. "You don't know when to stop." Memories of previous drinking occurrences came to mind; Alfred shivered.

"Oi! I'm not that bad!"

"You tried to give Toris a lap dance..."

The Queen sputtered in embarrassment, cheeks burning. "That one time! And he said he forgave me!"

Alfred was laughing down the hall as he remembered that exact night. Poor Toris! "Well, that I know of." After that fiasco, Alfred only went hard drinking with Arthur twice. Each time he had complete control of the alcohol.

"There was this one time, a year before I was Queen, when I went drinking with Gilbert and Mathias..." He blushed at the memory; he remembered actually enjoying the treatment of being in the middle of both the Joker and the knight, the latter whom he had saved from execution along with his friend Lukas just last year.

Alfred made a face. "Oh no, what happened?!"

"Well let's just say it was one of the only times another man has touched me below the waist." He took a small sip from the bottle of wine. "At least had enough sense to keep their dicks away from my arse."

The King suddenly felt angry and threatened. "What?!"

The older jumped in shock at his tone of voice. "Whot the hell is wrong?!"

Alfred turned to him. His normal sky blue eyes now a dark sapphire in color. "What's wrong is that they even thought about touching you. Especially, the Joker, he knew you were the future Queen of Spades!"

"Alfred, it is fine! It was practically six years ago, they apologized several times, and we were drunk! We all got over it! Gilbert doesn't really bother me anymore, and Mathias and I are still good friends!"

The taller stared into the other's green eyes for any hint of a lie. Finding none, Alfred sighed. "Keep it that way," he commanded and with that he left his Queen standing in the middle of the now empty hallway.

Arthur gripped the bottle of wine tightly, running his fingers along the neck of the bottle. What had gotten Alfred so worked up and protective? When he walked back to his room, he closed and stored his drink, and started on replying and writing his next letter to America. He hoped that the King would be alright in a bit, and that everything would go back to normal before dinner.

Sadly the distance between him and America were becoming longer in time. The Chesslands were nearly a year away and Freedom could only take about a third of that time down. So, Arthur had begun to use magic to send the letters. In their last exchange, America told the Brit he was a day away from home. Hopefully, the King would confess to his Queen.

Arthur was very proud of his own relationship with America. Even though they were too far apart and he hadn't seen him in a little over a year, he wished he would be able to see him soon. The King of the Black Chess Kingdom, by what it sounded like, was slowly making progress in his relationship with his own Queen due to letters during America's sea journey. Much of what Arthur and America were doing was all thanks to the advice the other had given. The King seemed just as in love as Arthur had been with Alfred.

Each of them also started to teach each other about their homelands. America explained to Arthur about some of their magic myths. In return, Arthur sent some pages to America, each with a style of fighting. It was like an alliance but not really official. They were still working on that. However Alfred made the subject hard to approach. Alfred didn't like talking about the bad side of their relationship. He liked to focus on the happier parts.

It had taken about three months, approximately, for Alfred to realize just how important Arthur was as a friend. His hope had been diminished that the King of Spades would ever fall in love with him, but there was still a small amount of moments that Arthur believed he fell for the handsome blond every now and again. Then he reminded himself of the heartbreak his suffered and the feeling vanished. He hadn't felt those longings for over four months now.

No matter; they were closer than white on rice and good friends to each other at that. They knew how the other functioned and his habits or ways of thinking. And now, they worked quite well together.

Alone now, Arthur started to walk toward the library again. He needed to talk to Yao. Hopefully, and there was no doubt about it, the Jack could help him out to comprehend not only the aforementioned situation with Alfred, but of course, the Deck Meeting and finances concerning it

Then he would send his letter to America. After he would spend some time with Rachel. Finally, he would get the book for Alfred.

Damn.

He had a looooonnnngggg day ahead of him. Taking another sip of wine, Arthur strode forward, ready to face the day.

Meanwhile, Alfred had snuck back into his thankfully abandoned chambers and sighed, leaning against the door and dragging a hand through his hair. What had come over him back there? A sudden surge of anger had erupted at Arthur's statement about Mathias and Gilbert. Yes, they had been intoxicated with alcohol, but it was, for some reason, hurtful and a bit disturbing to hear.

Was it normal? After all Arthur was his best friend now. The King wanted to protect his Queen from anything that could go wrong. Like the one time Alfred took one of the Joker's pranks meant for Arthur.

Yeah! He was just protective of his friend. It was completely normal for him to feel this way. Gilbert and Matthias did something wrong. He was being a hero, that's all! Nothing too major! He was just performing his usual heroic activities, like a proper and real hero should. And he was a real one. He smiled at the thought; just a hero protecting his Queen. His handsome Queen. His breathtaking, smart, funny, stubborn...

His male Queen. His best friend, Queen of Spades.

Hastily, to shoo away the thoughts, Alfred opened the door, tugged in the maid knocking- Stella, a beautiful and kind blond- and smashed their lips together, moaning into her. She squeaked in shock but didn't pull away, raising her leg to hook around his hips as he started to undress her thin form.

He had been a hero today. He had protected Arthur. He didn't care how, but he had, and he was where he belonged, with a beautiful maid to please. Everything was well.

*Two Days Later*

Alfred sighed as woke up. Unusually his bed was empty, as today was the Spades Blades. Yesterday, he ran around making sure everything was right and proper. Arthur was doing the same. For once in a long time, they didn't play twenty questions. The King sighed and slowly got up. He needed to dress right today.

His proper military wear would be too fancy for the event, so he decided on a simple brown vest-like shirt and light fabric pants, slipping into his running boots. He gazed at himself in the mirror, rubbing his chin and examining his body. To see him like this- like a poor boy, the working class members, a pauper he was surprised that he didn't look as different as he remembered. He had gained some muscle on his upper body, but that was the major change. His memories flipped back to when he was just a farm boy, and he sighed. Things seemed so much simpler then.

A knock on the door interrupted his train of thought. "Come in!"

Toris came in with Arthur following along. This surprised Alfred as Arthur never came to his room early in the morning. Ever since he walked in on Alfred and Stella having a morning sex marathon, the Brit avoided coming to his room early in the morning at all costs.

"Arthur?"

Arthur smiled brightly, but there were a few dark circles under his eyes. "Hi, Al," he greeted him, chuckling quietly. "Surprised to see me?"

Alfred nodded mutely. His blue eyes stared at Arthur. Maybe it was just him but something was different about his Queen. Physically, he didn't look like he had changed but Alfred could tell something was up. Something was different.

"Very," he managed to say after a while.

"I just wanted to, well...wish you luck and make sure I'm still allowed to be your, well...you know...your Lady."

Alfred gave a huge smile. "Of course you're my Lady!" He bounded over, bowed, and kissed the smaller blonde's hand. "You always will be!" It was then the King noticed something wrong with him. His stomach felt...tingly for lack of a better word. Maybe it was an early sign of a cold? Well he wouldn't let it affect his battles!

Arthur's cheeks bloomed a bright red. That was definitely unusual. Alfred never did that to him, in private or in front of someone. He cleared his throat, "Aha, yes, you're right, it's a bit earlier than whot my mind is used to."

Alfred laughed. "Well, shall I escort you to breakfast, my Lady?" He turned to Toris, who was cleaning the room. "I will see you later. Thank you."

The older grinned. "Why not?" He nodded to Toris and said a thank you before the two left.

Alfred took Arthur's arm and walked off to breakfast. "Did you sleep last night?"

"Yes and no," he laughed sheepishly, and kneaded the soul of his palm into his eye. "I was up for the majority of the night working and fell asleep at my desk. Worked myself to exhaustion, I suppose."

The King sighed. "Don't do that, I worry about you. What if you faint again?" This was a reference from when they came back from retrieving Arthur from the other King. Alfred was annoyed at that. 'The other King' was what he was forced to call this mysterious figure, as Arthur refused to give him information. Not even what this 'other King' looked like...

"There's nothing to worry about, Alfred, Rachel was resting in my room and is a light sleeper. Illumi woke her up a few times, so she checked up on me every now and then."

"How long did you sleep?"

Arthur sheepishly looked off to the side. "W-well, approximately, ah...three to four hours."

Alfred sighed. "Arthur, go back to bed. I will wake you after breakfast, ok? You can eat at the tournament."

The blond Queen laughed, shaking his head. "I'm fine, Alfred. Maybe you can give me one of your coffee drinks, or whotever it's called to get me energized! I've gone on four hours of sleep before, you know."

The taller sighed even deeper. "Why do always have to fight me Arthur?" This called for drastic actions. He picked up Arthur and put the other on his shoulder. Then he started to walk towards the other's room. "You're stubborn."

"No, no, no, bloody hell put me down!" Arthur shouted, his legs kicking and his mouth spewing off words that would make a sailor cringe. "Get me the fuck down, I am not sleeping, you fucking git! Put me down! I'm not kidding, Alfred, place me on the ground!"

For all of his struggling, the Queen couldn't make his King drop him. Alfred laughed as he walked down the halls. "Arthur, if you don't stop struggling, I will strip you naked and throw you into the fountain in the garden." He threatened as he made the last turn until Arthur's room.

The Brit slumped in the hold, frowning and remaining silent. Alfred knew just what to do to get him to obey him.

Smirking, Alfred went into Arthur's room. Setting the Brit down, the American carefully rearranged the bed. "If I learn you even attempt to move from this bed, I will not only go through with my threat; I will also spank you!"

There, Arthur wouldn't dare move now!

Arthur looked at Alfred with a raised eyebrow, legs crossed neatly in front of him, and nearly laughed aloud. He couldn't be serious! "I highly doubt that you would even touch my behind, Alfred. A hero would never hurt his Queen, or an innocent, would he?"

Smirking even wider, Alfred pushed Arthur on the bed leaning over the other he spoke. "If it's for their own good, yes." Leaning down more, Alfred kissed his forehead. "Now go to bed and sleep. You need it."

Arthur touched his forehead in surprise, hands lingering where his lips had connected with his forehead. At first he had believed that America was just a bit bewildered, but now he knew that he must be a bit sick or something to be kissing him twice on his body in one day. He sat up to lean on his elbows and pressed the back of his hand to Alfred's forehead. "Are you sick or something, Alfred?"

Alfred frowned. "Sick? I don't feel sick at all!" He pushed Arthur back on the bed. "Now sleep! Your King demands it!"

"Alright, alright, fine!" Arthur lay down on the bed, turning so that he was comfortable. "But if I'm not woken up for the tournament, there will be hell to pay."

Alfred laughed. "Just sleep my Queen. You'll thank me later."

The Queen shook his head, but closed his eyes nonetheless, and was instantly asleep. Smiling, the American tucked his Queen in. "Night, Artie." For the third time that day, Alfred kissed the older, this time on the cheek. "Sleep tight." Blushing, the King quickly fled the room. Why was it so hot in here?

When Arthur next woke up, a groggy look at the Queen's clock that he owned. The golden time-telling showed him that it was nearly ten o' clock, the time in which the Spades Blades tournament was going to be held. He relaxed into the covers, letting the realization flow over him until he shot up with a loud cry; "Fuck!" His feet flew to the floor and he stepped into his shoes before running out of his room and down the hall.

Alfred nearly fell over from Arthur running into him. "Arthur!" He grabbed the smaller's shoulders. "Are you hurt?"

"No, you git, someone...didn't come to wake me up!" He panted, trying to control his breathing. "I just saw what time it was and...I ran all the way here."

Alfred looked amused. "Arthur, you only ran down two hallways and I was just coming to get you."

He blushed. "Oh, shush you! I feel like an idiot now."

"Why?"

"Just because! I don't have to have a reason!"

Alfred grabbed Arthur hand and started to walk toward the arena just outside of Spades. "You're blushing."

"S-stop looking at me, git!" The smaller male looked away, trying to will away his embarrassment.

"No~!"

The Queen huffed; "You're ridiculous. Will you be staring at me the whole tournament?"

Alfred smiled. "Perhaps!" It really didn't seem like a bad option.

Arthur stopped, pulling Alfred down close to his eye level and examining him. "Are you positive you're alright? You're acting more affectionate than usual."

The King smiled. "Yup! Lately I have been really happy! I am just spreadin' the love!"

"No, I don't mean it like that. Whot I meant was...you're acting more affectionate than usual...to me."

Alfred thought about it for a bit. It was true but he didn't mind. When ever he 'spread the love' with Arthur it just made him happier than he already was. Was it bothering Arthur? He didn't want to annoy his Queen after all he did to make sure they got to being friends. "I am sorry, do you not like it?"

"No, I do! Of course I like it! I mean, I'm used to us being friendly and affectionate with one another, but...not like this." He bet that Alfred was in love with someone; perhaps one of his maids? He was being extra loving today; Arthur wasn't expecting it.

"Do you want me to ?"

"No, don't, it's..." He smiled small. "It's quite nice, actually."

Alfred gave a bigger smile. They had managed to walk to the front gates of the castle. "Great! So quit complaining!"

Arthur grinned and playfully shoved Alfred. "Oh hush up, you. Would I be Arthur Kirkland, Queen of Spades, if I wasn't complaining?"

The King of Spades smiled. "True... Well let's hurry! I don't want to miss the first battle!"

The smaller jolted a bit when his arm was tugged but kept in perfect time with his step. "Be careful, Al, you almost tugged my arms out of their sockets!"

Alfred pouted but didn't stop the sprint. "Sorry but I want to hurry!"

"It's fine, just...please be a bit careful next time, yeah?"

Within five minutes, they reached the Great Gate. The large door was opened by some guards and the two high royals walked into the sunlight. It was a great summer day, yet Arthur could fell autumn's cool breeze in the air. Night Runner and Flora were saddled and awaiting them on the nearest patch of grass. Toris was holding both reins. "Have a fun trip," he said, his voice now much better than before.

Arthur, with Alfred's traditional help, climbed onto Flora without a problem. "Don't overwork yourself while we're gone, understood?"

Toris bowed. "Of course my Queen."

Alfred smiled as he mounted his stallion. "Okay, let's go!"