A/N: "T" here. Dude, the world conspired against us. Seriously. When I said two weeks, we already got this long chapter, but no, suddenly we had to do presentations and two essays and a flipping Biology test. Because of that, expect another chapter. Soon. I mean it. The Asian girl is not lying to you.

I'm sorry about the upcoming flashbacks. I wanted a legitimate reason for Kiku to be like this in the chapter. Also it's to get ready for an upcoming story.

Disclaimer: We absolutely, positively, inevitably DO NOT OWN HETALIA or "There will Come Soft Rains" by Sara Teasdale.

There will Come Soft Rains

That's it. The show's over. The apocalypse is coming.

Alfred's brain was buzzing after Kiku ruthlessly banged his head to the ground to keep him still, but the job could have been handled well if he had prepared some ropes to bind him or something rather than sitting on his back and pressuring his spine. If he had the opportunity, which he doesn't have since Kiku is stretching his elbows in an angle that isn't the common 90 degree angle, he would have surrendered without any complications, but that's highly unlikely since Kiku is currently probing through his inappropriate parts to verify that's he a guy.

Kiku leaned down to Alfred's ear, his raven black hair brushing against it and grilled a question onto him, "Where is the true princess?"

Should he confess?

"She's safe! I swear!"

"…"

Kiku's silence was not a reassuring sign that the situation was going to have a happy ending.

My back is hurting like hell. Man, I screwed up badly. Now Marie is doomed and-

Then something registered into his brain.

"Hold on a second, how did you know I'm not the princess?"

Kiku still palmed Alfred's hands onto his back, but rummaged through his pockets to hold out a paper, and Alfred, who inclined his head up to see the scrawled, scratchy words of the letter; it presented the words To Amelia.

"I found this in your fireplace after snooping around. Ever since you visited our training grounds, I had my eye on you, suspicious of you ever since. No princess, not even the princess of the Lapiz Kingdom, would be so stupid to come to our training area and prance around it. Luckily you made my research earlier much easier. I can hardly believe in the credibility of the documents our library has of you."

Then the memory came back to Alfred.

"There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows circling with their shimmering sound"

It was a beautiful dream Alfred had while he was bedridden with the dreadful sickness. One night, near midnight, Alfred had awoken groggily to that beautiful dream. Homesick and heartbroken because of the dream that contained Amelia, Alfred sat down and wrote the heartfelt letter to his childhood love. That dream was a figment of his earliest memory of her when she was reciting a poem she had written as a homework assignment.

-Flashback

"Alfred, what do you think about it?" the cheery eight-year old girl said. The little girl had big, light-blue eyes and a tangle of wavy golden locks on her head. She was all bright smiles and giggles as she jumped excitedly up and down, looking up at her good friend, Alfred F. Jones, waiting for his opinion of her poem reciting.

Alfred, even though he was just a mere eight-year old poor boy, he was diagnosed with a severe case of puppy love for the blacksmith's daughter, Amelia.

With a big, bright smile, he clapped with all his might and gave a thumbs up. "Wow. I have no idea what the heck it meant, but your voice was, like, serenading to the poem or something. I love it! You are awesome, even more awesome than Gilbert!"

"Oh Alfred," laughed the young girl, "Still acquainted with that guy? One day he'll get your head chopped off if you're not careful."

"Oh don't worry so much Amelia. We're like bros! Maybe even more of a bro than Matthew."

"Did I hear my name?" a softer voice called out.

Matthew, Alfred's older twin brother, was not sick yet during this time period, so he was still able to do his side job of carrying logs to and fro, which, at the time, was an everyday occurrence to the childhood friends. Mathew was now on lunch break, and he decided to spend the last five minutes with his brother and Amelia before it ends where he would have to go back and haul away more wood.

He gave a heavy sigh and sat down next to his younger twin brother.

Alfred gave a worried look as he said, "You know Matthew, sometimes I worry about you. We're twins, but you're doing so much." whined the young boy.

"Don't worry about Alfred," said Matthew "After all, you have your job too ya' know, eh?"

Alfred's job was to help out Amelia's dad. The old man loved the boy's cheerfulness and his accompaniment to his daughter so much that he would often give him extended breaks to spend time with his daughter.

Before getting back to work, Alfred clapped once more and congratulated Amelia for reciting the poem.

"And frogs in the pools singing at night,

And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire"

…

Alfred cried and cried and cried as Gilbert laid out the coffins for the carcasses. His parents are dead, and the two now-orphan boys, who weren't even in their pre-teen years yet, were alone. Upon seeing their lifeless faces, which were white as a sheet of paper, they almost made Alfred want to vomit.

…

"And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done"

Why was Matthew the only one to get sick? Why was he the only one out of the twins to get infected with an incurable disease? Alfred was now twelve. He hiccupped little sobs as he poured some more soup for Matthew. When he saw Matthew smiling weakly at him, he felt blood in mouth. Evidently, he had bitten his tongue because it was in order to stop himself from crying anymore. He knew that it wasn't the war's fault that his parents had died or that it made Matthew sick- it was the people who fought in it.

"Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,

If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn

Would scarcely know that we were gone."

…

Alfred woke up with a start, jumping slightly from his bed. "W-wha-?"

Alfred looked around his room, still disorientated from his fever. He gave a sigh as he lowered himself back onto the bed, rubbing his temples as he went.

"Amelia…Amelia…Amelia." he whispered to himself.

I wonder what you're doing now…

With a finalized, deep sigh, Alfred limped to his desk in a half unconscious state of mind, dizzy by the fever. And so, with the lighting from the fireplace, Alfred prompted himself to write a heartwarming, sophisticated letter to Amelia, confessing his undying love for her, which was filled with his emotions that he had kept inside the storage of his heart for eleven years. It felt like an eternity for the boy as he sat down and wrote pleasurable sonnets and the ilk. However, he did not send it; instead, he glared angrily at the unsent letter because sending it would be futile. If someone intercepted the letter, then it would have blown his cover. He glared angrily at the letter some more before finally allowing the letter to be gobbled up by the flames of the fireplace and returned to his bed, unaware that Kiku had sneaked into the bedroom through the wide window and fetched the burning letter. It wasn't Kiku's hobby to stalk vulnerable princesses, but if it was for the sake of Arthur, Kiku was willing to keep a watchful eye on the "princess".

-End of Flashback

What Alfred had forgotten was that in the letter he didn't make it anonymous; the letter contained enough proof to both arrest Alfred for treason and to renew hostilities between the Lapiz and Emerald Kingdom once again. Moreover, Alfred didn't have to peruse the contents of the letter to find much credibility since his own name was scrawled onto the parchment in capital letters-ALFRED. His stupidity of his mistake and its miserable outcome smack dabbed him in the face.

For what felt like a century, he lay motionlessly on the floor. Alfred then cleared his throat, rumbling in satisfaction by releasing his true mature, low voice.

"You're Kiku right? Look, I bet you hate every fiber of my body like every other bastard in this residence, but if you wish to report to Arthur right now about my identity… I won't stop you. Not like I can anyway since my hands are useless, but…"

Alfred paused, remembering the happy faces of Francis and Marie. He took a deep breath before continuing.

"Would you -I mean… Can you not involve Marie or Francis in this? Can you just make up some story that I killed her or something and not cause chaos? I don't want them to suffer like I have been these past couple weeks."

His head dipped down, defeated and dejected.

Kiku was then hit with a memory of a young boy, dirty-faced and on the brim of tears.

"Please, believe me. I-" the young boy hiccupped "d-did nothing wrong."

Kiku then shook his head, in an attempt to throw the memory back into his head.

"Raise your head up." Alfred raised his head to Kiku's demand. "If you wish to rive, tell me your story, and don't even think about rying or conjuring up some kind of hogwash because I'm not going to buying it. This is your one ticket to my sealed rips."

Thus, Alfred began retelling his story starting from the moment he stepped foot into the palace of the Lapiz Kingdom. He explained the hardcore months of training his state of mind to match the high expectations of royalty, the thrill of entering the enemy's land, and of the loneliness manifested itself in his heart over the past couple of weeks. Kiku softened up to Alfred since he pitied the boy as one would pity an abandoned leaf on the river, flowing along wherever the river allows.

The memory that was once thrown away into the back of Kiku's head started to flood back.

-Flashback

Kiku was on the training grounds with his older half brother Yao.

"Okay little brother," said the enthusiastic high prince of the Jade Palace "are you ready, aru?"

A young Kiku of nine years nervously picked up a bamboo stick, which was used in substitute for real swords, being that the young prince was …well, a kid.

"Y-yes nii-san!"

"Okay, aru!"

The young high prince Yao, although a young man of fourteen, was very skilled as both a swordsman and combat fighter. He was actually planning to open his own martial arts school. His hair, which was at the time shoulder length, was pulled back in a low ponytail and flew rapidly in the air as he spun and kicked at his younger brother. Kiku, ready for the kick, pulled up his bamboo stick and blocked his older brother's powerful kick, but his brother was not yet about to give up; in fact, things were just starting.

Yao then dropped down and swerved his other leg in attempt to knock Kiku out of balance. Kiku jumped up high and then responded to Yao's kick by hammering down his bamboo stick. Yao jumped out of the way, though, and began to finally strike at Kiku with his bamboo stick. They then began to clash at each other, trying to hit and strike wherever they saw an opening.

"You are getting better little brother." said Yao, smiling at his adorable little brother.

"Arigato." Kiku was running out of breath as his movements began to slow down.

Yao picked up on this quickly and used it to his advantage. "True, you are getting better. But..."

There an opening!

"You are not good enough to defeat me yet!" Yao then quickly struck Kiku's stomach and with enough force to make his little brother drop onto his knees and throw up.

"Aiya!"

Yao ran to his brother, hold him up. "I'm sorry brother, aru! I did not mean to use such force!" You could hear the sincerity of Yao's voice as he helped his little brother walk back to the Jade Palace.

"We go see doctor yes?"

"No I am fine. But perhaps that's enough training for today?"

"Okay, aru." Yao finished walking Kiku to the nearby bench. "I'll go get you some water, little brother."

They sat in comfortable silence as Yao waited for his younger brother to finish his cup of water. "Well, what else would like to do today, little brother?"

Their day was pretty much a free day, since their father was out on a war conference with his generals; they had only planned on training for the whole day until their nurse came to get them for dinner.

"Ling-ling, won't come to get us until it's time for dinner."

"Well…"Kiku paused for a while, twiddling his fingers around each other as he nervously worked up the courage to ask his big brother his pressing question. "I… would rike to go into the village, to see how the peasants rive."

His little half-brother's request had, for lack of a better word, shocked Yao. "A-ARU?"

His surprise yell got the attention of a few soldiers and guards who were also on the training grounds. Yao gave a toothy smile as he waved off the concern of the surrounding people. He turned back to his younger brother and asked in a low whisper, "Are you sure little brother?"

Kiku thought about it for a moment before confidently looking up to his older half-brother and gave a firm nod in affirmation. "Hai!"

Yao had a worried look on his face as he said "Okay little brother," he rubbed the top of Kiku's head "Only for you…Kiku."

Kiku then smiled brightly at his big brother, which caused Yao to laugh happily, thus melting away his worry.

They were dressed in peasant's cloths and not of the elegant silk robes of their royal heritage. Evidently, the day they spent in the local village just outside the Jade Palace was actually quite pleasant; they had bought a few sweets, watched a few acrobats perform downtown, saw a local bar fight between a Kung Fu and Jujitsu Master (the Jujitsu Master won) and ate some lunch at a nice little noodle shop.

"Aru, little brother, we should get going back."

Kiku knew he had already asked his big brother a big favor when he asked to sneak outside the Palace walls and spend the day in the village, and he didn't want to force or impose anything onto his dear older brother. "As you wish, nii-san."

As they walked back to the palace, they came upon a curious sight.

"No, it not yours. It's Mei's!"

"Oh, you want it?"

"Ha, ha! Try and get it Mei!"

"No fair, Kang and Wu's arms are bigger than Mei's!"

Apparently the scene which they had come upon was one in which two young boys had taken away the doll of a young girl.

"No stop! It's Mei's!"

The young girl ran at the boys franticly, trying to reclaim her beloved doll. However the two boy's arms and legs were a lot longer and faster than the young girl's.

"Na Na Na Na Na!" The boys were now ruthlessly teasing the girl. "You can't get it!"

Yao had seen enough.

"Hey! You!" he yelled. The boys stopped in the tracks; the little girl stopped crying. "Give the girl back her doll!"

"Yeah, right!" replied one of the boys. "Not in your life!"

"Get out of here, this does not concern you!" said the other.

Kiku was beginning to worry, he did not want to get involve and cause trouble. This is getting too troublesome. Brother and I should go.

"Nii-san, come on…let's get out of here." Kiku pulled at his older brother's sleeve, trying to pull him away from the scene. "Nii-san, please." Kiku looked up at Yao, hoping that maybe if he gave him a cute puppy-eyed look, then he would walk away from the scene. Unfortunately, when young Kiku looked up at his brother, he saw on his face the most determined, pensive face he had ever seen; he clearly wanted to help, and he wasn't going to go away quickly.

"Nii-san?"

One of the boys began to laugh stupidly at the two brothers, while the other began to tease the little girl and she began to cry again.

"Whatcha gonna do about it then?" cackled the boys as they threw the doll back in forth, furthering the torture of the poor, little girl.

For the first time, the little girl looked up at Yao and pleaded.

"P-please…" she sobbed "Please help me."

That was all Yao needed. In a blink of an eye, Yao had punched both boys powerfully in the face and had broken the arm of one boy and dislocated the knee-cap of the other.

"Argh!"

"A-aa, ouch!"

The boys flopped to the ground, cradling their wounds tenderly; they had dropped the doll. Yao glared at the two whining boys before saying in the most hateful tone he could muster, "Get. Out."

The boys ran away in fear, not wanting to further anger the very dangerous boy.

"T-thank you…sir." said a quiet voice.

"No problem, aru."

Yao picked up the little girl's doll and handed it back to her. She smiled happily as she embraced it.

"Just be careful next ti-" but Yao was cut off as the little girl gave him a monstrous bear hug. "Thank you so much!"

After much thanking on the little girl's part, the little girl let go of Yao and cheerfully skipped along the pathway, disappearing into the streets.

"Whoa, I guess she really likes that doll, aru!" Yao laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

"N-nii-san, why did you do that?" ask Kiku. He had seen his brother's fighting abilities and he knew that he was strong, but what he did not understand was why Yao would go out of his way to help another person. When living a sheltered life within the palace walls, one does not really witness much human kindness. Their father was a hard, cold man after all; Being that both of their mothers were dead, the two half brothers never knew a mother's love. Kiku had never seen another person help someone in need.

Yao, who was up until this point had his back against Kiku, turned at looked at his little half brother seriously into his eyes.

"Because, Kiku…" he paused, trying to find the right words "When one is of royal blood, it is then decreed by the Gods themselves, that they are to rule and protect their people. When one of our people is in trouble, it is our duty to help them. One sees too much harshness in this life, we human beings ought to be more kind to one another." He walked closer to Kiku, his eyes still fixed on his brother's.

"Father is too cruel, and it is because of that, that we are in chaos and in war. If he would have listened to the cries of his people, then perhaps we wouldn't be in this war... and perhaps," Yao looked down, eyes filled with sadness "our mothers would still be alive."

"N-nii-san…"

There was a heavy silence as the two boys looked away from each other and stared motionlessly at the cold stone floor. Yao was the first to break the silence, and with a hearty laugh, said, "But don't worry Kiku!"

He wrapped his little brother in his arms and gave him a noogie. "H-hey! Big brother! Not fair!"

Kiku explained in protest. Yao laughed again as he released his little brother from his embrace.

"All that I am saying, aru," said Yao as he playfully ruffled Kiku's hair "is that sometimes you gotta be a man, do the right thing!"

"I see…"

A few weeks after the two brothers had sneaked of to the village…

Kiku was in a tight spot, no doubt about that. He didn't like confrontation or having to make decisions, on the account that he doesn't like to offend anybody. His current situation was making him uneasy and he wished he didn't have to say anything.

"What did you say, you cur?"

"No, I-I swear…" hiccup "It was not me!"

"Silence you infidel!"

Slap.

"E-Enough!" yelled Kiku, throwing his hands to his ears in an attempt to muffle the loud voices. The quarrelling couple stopped.

"Now…please explain what has happened. Start from the beginning."

The verbal argument, which had quickly turned physical, encompassed an older man and a young boy, probably about the same age as Kiku's older half brother, Yao. Apparently what had happened was that the older man, who was one of the many chefs working at the palace, suspected the young boy of thievery.

"Po has stolen an extra ration from the kitchens!" exclaimed the older man.

"I swear your highness I did no such thing." said the young boy, who was named Po. "Chef Lee is mistaken."

"Then if it was not you, then why did I find you sleeping under a tree with a bundle full of half eaten pork buns?" retorted Lee, the chef. He pulled on Po's hair to emphasize his reasoning.

"Ouch! I-I told you, don't know!" said Po "When I woke up, the pork buns were already there. I didn't steal them I promise you!"

The argument began to escalate once again. Kiku did not know what to do. How could he tell which one was telling the truth? Perhaps the boy really did steal the pork buns and then fell asleep under a tree after eating them. Or maybe he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe the chief was mistaken. He looked at the scared, miserable, wet face of the young Po. His eyes didn't look guilty.

I don't think he is lying.

"You insolent dog! But of course you are lying!"

"No, I am not!"

The loud voices where beginning to hurt his head, he closed his eyes and began to massage his temples. Kiku had to make a decision, even if it did make him uneasy.

Oh my, what should I do?

"…be a man, do the right thing!"

Kiku opened his eyes at the sudden realization as he remembered his brother's words of wisdom. He looked at the boy again, this time there was no hesitation.

"He is not insolent!" shouted the young prince.

"S-sire?" questioned the stunned Lee.

Kiku, with his eyes never leaving Po's, said, "I said he is not guilty. I believe him."

Po smiled warmly at Kiku, which made the boy uneasy. He looked away and turned his gaze to Lee.

"You must have been mistaken. Release him!"

The older man did as his prince requested.

"And do not ringer about this subject anymore," Kiku continued, "A new shipment of food is coming in today, so do not worry about not having enough food to feed everyone."

"Y-yes sir!" Chief Lee motioned to leave his prince's presence, but was stopped. "Oh, and one more thing. I do not want to see you tormenting this boy ever again…Is that clear?" His voice dropped a grade below.

The older man gave a shiver at his prince's last words. He might have been only nine years old, but he was capable of doing much harm, even to a grown man like Lee.

"Of course, your highness. Never again!" He then quickly moved away and disappeared from the scene.

Kiku let out a breath that he didn't even know he was holding.

I am glad that's over with.

"Thank you, your majesty!" exclaimed Po. "Even though I am merely a house servant, you treated me with such kindness that I can never hope to repay your generous act. And even though I am beneath you, you still helped me-perhaps even saved my life!" He fell on the ground and landed in a perfect bow, face down on the ground. "Thank you so much your highness!"

Needless to say, Kiku was flabbergasted. No one had ever done anything like that for him before. Never had anyone been eternally grateful to him. It had him feel…good, like he had done a good deed in the name of righteousness. He walked over to the boy and placed a hand on his head.

"No need to be so grateful." Then he began to playfully mess with Po's hair, just like how Yao played with his.

Kiku smiled as he said "I was just doing the right thing."

-End of Flashback

Kiku, for the second time that day, shook his head-trying to shake away those unwanted memories of his past. But it was no use. If there was anything that he had learned from his big brother, it was: "…be a man, do the right thing!"

Kiku sighed as he began to take in the story of this rather unusual man. For a man who was easily influenced by the raptures of the Emerald Kingdom, it didn't take long for him to be induced by the scintillating crossdresser's storytelling. Thankfully he knew the boundaries between exaggerations and the real material of the story, and he knew the boy didn't mean any harm because the innocuous Alfred was sparkling with joy as he spilled out all of his misgivings to a stranger who would not dare judge him. However, this is the time for Kiku to decide. Should he report everything to King Arthur, his best friend, or should he keep the secret?

"There will come soft rains."

Kiku eyed Alfred meticulously, perplexed by the random set of words.

"I had a dream… where this girl I liked back home recited that poem every day as homework for her school, and every day I would sit on the grassy fields to listen to that poem. I don't really understand it, even up to this day, but I remembered that she would always tell me that nature doesn't care about us humans. And I… can see that now. Matthew got sick… a-and hundreds and hundreds of people got killed in that stupid Twenty Years War… And now I'm stuck with the leftovers of that war, huddled up and reserved in fear in case someone finds out about my true identity. And-and…It's so… unfair..."

Alfred's knuckles turned white from gripping his torn nightgown in frustration, lost in explaining the insights of his dream, lost in the reminiscing of the old days. He knew it was sissy of him to whine, which deserves some good cheese, about his life when he's lucky enough to have three meals a day and a mattress to lay upon, but what does any of that matter when you are alone with no one to lean on? There is no pillar to support you; you have to crawl through the madness yourself, even if it means sweat and blood.

"I'm sick of it…"

Tears weren't at the brim of Alfred's eyes-his eyes were too dry to shed any sort of liquid though. He looks weary and a bit older, as if he was molting his skin but the skin still looks shabby and crusty.

"…"

The audible, lengthy silence was too weighty for Kiku's taste, despite all the comments people have said about he being the quietest person in the entire kingdom. Alfred was done with his story; there was nothing else to say. Kiku slowly let go of his arms and got off of his body. However, Alfred didn't move or talk; he just laid there for a while. Eventually the resigned Alfred rose up and smiled and extended one hand towards Kiku, letting him to decide his fate freely.

"I… I won't tell." Kiku whispered.

"Huh?"

Kiku quickly jumped back and headed for the door. "I promise to not tell, Alfred."

Before Kiku could abscond away into the darkness, Alfred embraced the slender man while wearing his ridiculously shredded nightgown and nuzzled his head into his chest. In a way, it was a comfortable picture in a third person point of view, and as one yaoi fangirl might have expected, Kiku's cheeks flushed pink at the sudden contact.

"W-wha- I don't understand!" He pushed the goofy boy away from his waist and reprimanded him like how a mother would to her son, saying that hugging boys out of nowhere was improper.

"Gee, I'm sorry Kiku. I'm just happy. I'm so sorry you're claustrophobic."

Alfred twiddled with his thumbs while looking down.

Kiku sighed. "I'm not claustrophobic. As long as you now know being this intimate is forbidden and just wrong and creepy, I shall fare you goodbye." One more step for Kiku, and he can finally escape…but then-

"Alfred."

"Yeah, Kiku?" Alfred expectantly waited for Kiku to disappear into the shadows, but was surprised to see the black-haired man still there.

"Your real voice sounds nicer than that chalkboard screeching you do everyday."

Exchanging smiles, Kiku's silhouette screened away to the rooftops to do his daily spying.

Knock. Knock.

"Princess Marie! Is everything all right over there? I heard some voices behind the door."

Alfred stumbled to his dresser, tearing his ripped dress into the waste basket and chose the first article of clothing before proceeding towards the doorknob, letting Roderich in to see the disheveled princess on the ground… until he tripped on his way. Roderich was given the front seat to see Alfred's failure to open a door.

"Princess! This is no time to be lollygagging! We have exactly two weeks to rehearse the dance steps. Oh how my head aches reviewing the dance steps."

Roderich brushed his hair back in pent up vexation.

"And I also have to teach you our Emerald Traditional Waltz dance by the end of our lessons!"

There are different types of waltzes?

Roderich fumed over the thousands of movements Marie had to learn over the short period of time as he tried to retract the steps from his mind. He inwardly cursed the king for choosing the date of the ball at such an inopportune time. He couldn't just simply rush through the whole dance process, which he believes was fully intentional on Arthur's part. Because of Arthur's hasty decision to pick such a close date for the ball, he would now have to force himself to teach the dances at a brisk pace. Roderich had the right mind to pull out his long strand of hair.

"How am I going to finish teaching you?"

This is the only moment he can hate Arthur.

"Why not drink coffee and wing it?" replied Alfred.

Whatever Alfred said, it had certainly caught the attention of the now extremely frustrated instructor. The aristocrat came forth and looked up at the princess's eyes,due to the variation of height, and was most definitely interested with this new thing called coffee.

"Coffee? What is that?"

Alfred gaped at the man, thinking that Roderich must have lived a defunct lifestyle if he never met the magical power of caffeine. However, Alfred will quickly rectify that problem.

"Hold on a sec."

He dropped down to the ground and patted the floor underneath his mattress and pulled out the Starbucks can in a triumphant pose.

"Huzzah! I have found it!"

"What is that?" inquired Roderich.

"You'll see."

For what seem like an hour for Roderich, one of the maids that Alfred had beckoned finally brought forth a mysterious contraption and commanded her to plug the cord to one of the outlets and began brewing the coffee. Roderich sniffed the aromatic smell inundating the entire room, placated by its metallic, bitter smell invading his nostrils, which flared at the inviting fragrance.

"That… smells alluring."

"Trust me. You'll get addicted after your first sip. This is like tea, but WAY better. We can stay up all night if we want to. Too bad 'Lisa' couldn't bring me some Red Bull though...or maybe a few Monsters…"

All it took was one sip of the dark liquid for the austere man to have an energy boost, where he then suddenly had the upright motivation to teach. It was a beautiful inception to Roderich's addiction to coffee, unfortunately.

For the remaining couple of weeks, Roderich harshly whipped Alfred into shape, introducing him to be the dancing princess he was never meant to be. At the same time, a gust of change took over the season as the rain of the palace disappeared temporarily, and the sun donated its shine onto the golden walls of the castle.

Two weeks, depending how productive you are can either be quick or steady, but to Alfred, time whisked away too quickly. Those two weeks would be known as the most infamous days of his princess career where if one maid innocently asks the princess how was her day, Alfred will turn pale and scurry away to raise his legs to a ballet position in order to not forget the form he would later on undertake.

Six hours before the actual ball begins, Antonio and Lovino stared dumbfounded at the red, sticky princess; stained with blotches of reddish juices- most of which was on her sleek hair. Her beautiful dress had unmistakable dark blemishes all over it. It was completely ruined.

"What the hell happened to you?" they exclaimed in unison.

Alfred sheepishly scratched his splotchy skin, indicating that he desperately requires immediate bathing, and responded in an abashed voice, "Well, you see… I wanted to volunteer at the orphanage at the village… buuuuut I wasn't welcomed… Then the locals pelted me with tomatoes…Tino tried to shield me as best as he could as we returned… And tada?"

He smiled, which did not help to his account.

"Those fucking pea brain assholes-! " Antonio muffled Lovino's potty mouth with his hand, smiling his charming, sexy smile to Alfred and shooed him away from the angry, hot-headed man crying out and flinging his arms in exasperation, gesticulating the tumultuous amount of hateful feelings he was currently experiencing.

"Damn them. Damn them all! All that hard work we put into that dress…Gone!"

Lovino was obviously upset as he approached the dirtied dress with a sorrowful gaze. Antonio spent the whole night designing the dress, stenciling the outlines and dotting the patterns, but those damn fools didn't take that to consideration, did they? Lovino flushed with explosive outrage, his pulse quickening rapidly at the damages the villagers and Arthur had caused to his swelling pride. Like a drama queen, he stormed out of the room vociferously, causing a loud, emotional scene, but soon returned like the royal dog he is because he's going to prove to those prissy rich people what a true, beautiful dress is...not only that, it's for sure gonna knock that no-good Arthur's socks off.

"Let's show those bastards what these hands are made out of." huffed Lovino as he cracked his fingers.

Fist pumping in the air and one whoop whoop from the tanned man, the two dress designers improvised and decorated the original dress that was meant for Alfred even more.

A/N :

J:

First off…Whoa that took me way longer than anticipated! SO SORRY YOU GUYS! DDDX

Secondly, I would like to thank "T" for all her support and joy she gives me. I love you girl! 8)

And finally, "thank you" to all of you readers and reviewers out there! You guys fill my life with happiness! XDDD