A/N: "J" would like to thank all the readers who are still committed to this story. Sorry for the incest feels between FrancexJeanne.

We would love to thank Angel the Neko, detima1, ninjaco0kiXD, and Pennilee for reviewing and continuing to read this. Also, I would like to thank all of you readers for not giving up this story. Trust me, we will never discontinue this. Not when I'm currently writing the last four chapters in my laptop (You guys have, like, 9 more chapters before you get to where I am).

The Pursuit of Happiness 2

Arthur stood alone inside one of the many libraries inside Lapiz Castle. He had a cup of Earl Grey in his hand, and he was looking up at a painting which was hung high above the fireplace. Evidently, he was inspecting the oversized family portrait of the Royal Lapiz family. The grand painting, which was framed in a gorgeously decorated gold frame, encompassed a picture of his wife as a young girl. The more he looked at it, the more he shook his head in disbelief. It was strange to think that this adorable, angelic little girl would one day transform into the present eccentric, rough and uncute woman he sees today.

"You turned out to be quite different than expected. Didn't you, my dear." said Arthur in an indifferent tone. He then began to image what his wife was like when she was younger. Was she better-behaved? Was she a loving, dutiful daughter? Or was she always a rough-and-tumble girl on the inside, but presented herself as a sweet, delicate flower on the outside? Arthur could only imagine because he knew that he would never ask.

"Lisa", the true Lapiz Princess, stood just outside the library in a dark corridor, her omnipotent eyes focused on Arthur intently. She has mixed feelings. After all, this was the man she was supposed to marry. She scuffled to the side to leave Arthur by his lonesome, but the soles of her feet made too much noise. It wasn't long before Arthur sensed her presence and called out to her, "… I know you're there." He turned sharply to face her. "No need to stand beside the door. Show yourself."

Fiddlesticks! Marie mentally cursed herself for not being more careful. "Sorry your majesty. I didn't want to intrude on your pondering."

"No worries, miss..." Arthur knows he has seen this woman before. Surely she was at the ball and was next to Francis earlier. "I'm sorry but I don't believe we've properly meet before." he suavely brought up.

He examined the real Marie from head to toe. She overall stood with a demeanor which spoken seriousness and strength. She definitely wasn't someone who played games. "I think I've might have seen you with Francis at the ball at Emerald a few months ago. Am I correct?"

Marie's memories of that night flooded back to her and she blushed as she recalled her drunken outbursts. "Oh…ha ha! Umm…y-y-yes, I was there. My name is Lisa. I'm captain of the guard here at Lapiz palace…and the future wife of King Francis." she blushed at the last bit. She wore a brown cavalier hat, and a ridiculous one at that. It was rather large and had an obnoxious feather, which partly obscure her face, making it hard for Arthur to get a good look at her. She wore a guard's uniform: high knee boots, waist-high white trousers, a dark blue golden, button up coat with a scarlet, red sash and sharp sword at the side. She had medium-length golden hair which was pulled back in a low, lazy bun.

"Oh, I see."

Awkward Pause.

"Congratulations! It's nice to be finally able to meet you in person." he extended his hand and Marie shook it firmly. "Though of course…I can't really see your face."

There was a pause as Marie mentally weighted her options. If she showed her face, then Arthur would probably catch on. But then again, if she didn't, then it would look like she was purposefully defying proper hospitality and therefore disrespecting royalty. She can see it in the headlines now. "King Francis's wife is discourteous and ill-mannered! Bad blood between the two kingdoms arise!"

Thus, she would reveal her face completely and vulnerably. Lord, give me strength… Marie mentally said a prayer to God and hoped that Arthur would remain naïve. She took off her heinous hat and revealed herself.

Arthur jumped in surprise. Marie did the same. She is very antsy.

"S-sorry…it's just…it's just that you look very much like my wife." he motioned at the painting which had Marie's face on it. "Hehehe...ummm, yeah! I get that a lot!" Marie nervously scratched the back of her head before putting on her hat back.

"Hmph! What a coincidence!" said Arthur as he turned once more to look at the painting. He chuckled as he pointed back at the expansive canvas and asked whether the artist was actually paid to Photoshop the bulk of the painting. "I mean, it doesn't even look like her at all. Believe me, she's no sweet angel!"

Arthur didn't have time to excogitate in retrospect to Lisa's supernatural resemblance to that of his wife and the young girl in the picture, because right then Lisa told Arthur about the recent prison break. She prayed thanks thee to God for giving her this excuse to digress.

"W-what?! How did this happened?!" exclaimed Arthur. Marie, however, assured the king that Vash and Elizabeta are out mollifying the string of panic throughout the kingdoms and that there was no need to fret. "That way you can stay here and celebrate the princess's birthday with her. So please do not worry yourself, your majesty. It's all being taken care of."

Feeling assured that measures were being taken to handle the present situation, Arthur spoke back in order to spark some more conversation. What can he talk about? He just met the girl right now! There is one subject he can think of, but he will not like it.

"Are you happy Lisa?"

"Huh?"

"Are you happy to marry Francis?"

"Why, yes sir. I am. Pourquoi?"

Arthur answered, "Francis Pierrot Bonnefoy , in my opinion, isn't the most desirable of men. For one, he has a poor sense of character and dignity. Secondly, he quite frankly has a hard time keeping it in his pants. And I'm sure that you are well aware of his reputation among the womenfolk. As a result he will end up breaking your heart in more ways than one, I tell you. You seem like a sweet girl, Lisa. So why would you accept the marriage proposal of such a perverted man?" He bit his tongue. This is why he does not like talking about Francis. His voice has a mind of its own. Ranting about the bearded man is one of its favorite pastimes.

"Lisa" simply smiled a shy smile, understanding and thought it funny for a king to voice his complaints, and said, "Your majesty, it is an honor for me to be chosen by God to marry a loving man who could have loved his people than to love a woman such as myself. For even though he may be an adulterated man, I still love him nonetheless. I would even willingly go to the darkest depths of Hell if it meant he would be safe. Also, he is capable of change, King Arthur. That is one of his best qualities."

She blushed and sighed before the wise woman excused herself and left the man standing once again alone in the library. She paused for a second at the door before turning around and asking Arthur in a gentle, hushed voice, "What about you, King Arthur? Is your marriage an unhappy one?" And then she was gone.

Arthur stood there for a second stunned by "Lisa's" question. He then walked over to a cushioned chair facing the window and contemplated her question.

Is my marriage happy? No, not exactly… better than some I can think of… but then…What is happiness?

Arthur gazed past the glazed windows, and saw a sad figure walking slowly towards the castle. As the figure came closer, Arthur could see that it was his wife, the princess. She looked like a terrible mess. She was completely and utterly soaked to the bone. Mud was caked onto the bottom of her skirt and she had taken off her shoes which caused her feet to become just as dirty. Her hair, which had been nicely put up earlier, was now dripping wet and all over her face. Her back was hunched into an unhealthy slump.

Arthur glanced back at the charming portrait of her and her family from when she was younger. Now please explain how that, he turned back to the window, became that. God could not answer.

As the princess slowly continued her trek towards the front door, Arthur began to get a better look at her face. She looked grim and dejected, and her eyes were dark and empty.

Was she alright? Did something happen?

He doesn't know what to do in these situations. It was his instinct to seek out the girl and comfort her. Maybe even pat her back and wipe her tears with his handkerchief, but this is his wife he's talking about.

I better check up on her just in case…

The windows wouldn't slide sideways like the ones in Emerald Kingdom did, so Arthur decided to walk dutifully downstairs to the front of the castle to greet his wife. He wanted to question her about what was troubling her and what caused her eyebrows to crease so sadly.

Now, normally Arthur wasn't one to delve into other people's lives. Truth be told, he'd rather avoid the whole notion of being close to someone out of his mind (with the exception of a few which included Kiku and Ludwig). It's not that he's purposefully cruel; this is just the way he is. However, upon seeing the princess' distressed face something had unraveled something within him. Evidently, and even in later years, Arthur would never be able to honestly admit to himself what he was truly feeling at that moment for his dear wife. She is unreadable, a mystery woman clouded in secrets. Should he leave this woman be? But then… there would be no progress. He'll be stuck here, clueless and in the dark. He'll be married to a woman who knows more about him, but he'll have nothing to know about her. Also, he can't push away this desperate need to do something. It kept badgering him..

When he finally reached the front doors and was able to finally get a good look at her, there was an alarm beeping inside his head warning him that everything was utterly and completely wrong. Her eyes were puffy, her nose was running, and her glasses were skewed. The outfit, which she had proudly twirled in front of her husband earlier, had lost its luster. It looked mutilated. Smudges of mud and grass stains indicated that she was running through the fields just a few moments before. Her head bowed down in sadness, shame and confusion but most of all, hurt.

"What's wrong?" cooed Arthur with a gentle, soothing tone. He approached his princess, only to be smacked away by her backhand. "GET AWAY!" she snapped.

Alfred, who was just as stunned as Arthur at his own actions, started backing away slowly. Alfred's unstable, and he knows it. He needs to run somewhere…anywhere. Just as long as it's somewhere that isn't here, some other place where he wouldn't be able to harm anyone. Alfred then bolts himself out of there as he frantically hurries to seek solace. But then Arthur, who after a while was finally able to recover from the initial shock of his wife's attack, tenaciously followed his princess. "Wait up you bastard!" growled Arthur.

"Leave me alone you stalker!" Alfred yelled back.

By now, the couple had traveled farther than the church where Alfred was just moments ago and the sky was starting to darken. The sun began to set into its pools of oranges and reds and the shadows of the two idiots continued to run like a never-ending motion picture, exhausting their energy by running amok.

The chase had almost finished when Arthur's hand leapt for a flowing piece of fabric which was torn from his princess's dress, but sadly his face crashed downwards into the muddy grass because he had lost his footing after tripping over a random tree root.

Oh well, better luck next time Arthur! The authors of this fanfiction snickered with glee.

His dangerous fumble alarmed Alfred, who had promptly stopped and crept closer to the man. Damn, that was a hard fall. Is he okay? thought Alfred as he bent down to inspect the now motionless Arthur. He probed at Arthur's side and then laced his fingers under Arthur's jaw in search for a heartbeat. However, the motion proved useless because Arthur suddenly revived from the dead and swiftly hooked his arm around Alfred's neck and pulled him in like how a fisherman would reel in his newly caught bass.

"Aha! Caught you!"

Alfred squirmed and wiggled in the other man's squeezing grasp, but alas Arthur's muscle power constrained his every effort. Unable to free himself, Alfred limply let himself be wrapped in Arthur's powerful arms.

"Fuck, can't you just let me go?" whimpered Alfred. His knees buckled because of the couple's awkward position, but he was eventually able to lift himself partially due to Arthur's now loosening grip. But at that moment Arthur, sensing that Alfred was going to make another break for it, clasped the man into an even tighter embrace and stilled. Arthur's grasp was beginning to smother Alfred. He glared at Arthur before he flopped down on him once again. They laid there for a moment, still and unmoving. Then Arthur finally spoke. "Marie, I won't ask you what's wrong, but don't run away like that, especially when it's dark."

He spat out, "Why should you care?! Why should anybody care?! Dammit leave me the hell alone! I don't need you to hold me close as if we're actually a loving couple! GET THE FUCK OFF!"

With his last bit of strength, Alfred twisted his head and bit into Arthur's forearm with his canines and freed himself from his clutches. He scurried off again. Arthur stubbornly followed pursuit and raced forward, not willing to relent to the forces of nature even as the trees scratched his clothing and face, or when the roots which peeked out of the ground to purposely trick pitiful fools into falling to their demise.

As Alfred ran and ran as fast as he could, he couldn't help but wonder: What was the point of all of this? There was nothing to be gained by running, yet the burning sensation in his lungs, the soft bristles of the leaves which flapped his sweaty forehead all helped calm Alfred's nerves. His only comfort was to keep running blindly into the unknown. However, when one is running for long periods of time towards an unprecedented direction, there must be an end to this so-called journey, and so, by definition, this dead end was the edge of a bottomless cliff.

Arthur quickly caught sight of this doom and ran even faster towards his princess. He managed to grasp her hand and pull her towards him, but she only pushed him away. She back away slowly from him looking dead into his eyes, daring him to come near her again. Arthur had to reason with the distraught girl somehow. Arthur, out of breath, heaved out in raspy breaths, "Marie… (cough) come back…"

Alfred yelled back "No!" as he continued to back away.

Arthur followed her step by step, hoping to prevent the inevitable. Did she not see? Why is she still moving?

"And why the bloody hell not?!" retorted Arthur as he quicken his pace.

"I don't want to!" Alfred took another step and then another and then another.

She's trapped. There's no alternative. Stop, you foolish girl!

"Marie…listen to me, please…I don't think this is the right time to be childish!"

"Buzz off, will you?!" And then, just like that, Alfred dropped backwards to the edge of the cliff, falling to his doom.

"You idiot-!" Arthur raced and extended his fingers to seize a clot of fabric from the princess's shirt collar, but thanks to the law of gravity, when one heavy object is falling, the light object connected to the heavier one falls down along with it. He closed his eyes, expecting his beautifully sculpted face to crash against the spiky surface beneath them, but when seconds turned into minutes, he reopened them to see that they were both alive, not dead.

"You're so lame, you know that? It's obvious that's there's a ledge below."

Indeed, there was a solid, stable ledge where they now laid. This fact only made Arthur's nose flare up in frustration and anger. This silly girl nearly got us both killed! Good, grief, damsels in distress are so bothersome! Arthur internally continued his vent on how childish and selfish his wife's actions were and how she had so stupidly endangered both of their lives. It was during this time that Alfred realized just how close he now was to Arthur. He blushed a deep crimson as he hesitantly asked "Ummm…Arthur. C-Could you please let go of me now?"

It was now Arthur's turn to come to terms of just how intimate their bodies were intertwined. Though he did not outwardly blush like Alfred did, Arthur did get a warm, fleeting and yet bubbly feeling inside his stomach. Yet, despite being now aware of their closeness, Arthur didn't yet let go of his wife. Instead, he released one hand and pointed at the place where Alfred's glasses should have been and stated, "Your glasses…they're gone."

Alfred's hand touched the outline of his face and nodded blankly.

"They are." He looked down at the dark abyss below and squinted, relying on his blurry vision, but it was no use. Alfred gave out a deep sigh and gently freed himself from Arthur's grasp. He scooted away, and when he was at a good distance, he sat up and looked down at himself. Dirty, messy and sweaty…gross. He then collapsed onto the dirt floor and closed his eyes, massaging his temples. Today wasn't a good day.

Arthur moved over and laid himself next to Alfred, but they didn't say anything, they just quietly and helplessly observed the sun as it sank deeper into the hills. The silence was heavy and deafening.

It was a while before Alfred finally spoke first and gravely said, "There was this person…a very special, important person who I knew very well while I was living here." He paused in order to gather his emotions "…and that person…just got married today."

Arthur didn't want to press on a fresh wound, so he decided to keep his questions short, sweet and to the point. "I gather that you liked this person?"

Not sweet enough apparently.

"Yeah." Alfred choked out. He hugged his knees closer and laid his head back, re-experiencing the rambunctious turmoil coiling within his stomach and the dizzying short-lived denial in his head of what he had seen earlier at the church.

"Name?"

Alfred responded without hesitation and, therefore, without thinking, "Amelia."

It wasn't until after the name had slipped passed his lips that he began to process what he had just said.

Oh, stupid me! he banged his head an infinite amount of times on the hard dirt floor. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…

"Soooooo….you're a lesbian?" Arthur's face wasn't one of disgust but one of renewed interest. His wife's newly revealed sexual orientation was currently in the spotlight of topics within his head. This certainly opened up new possibilities. (But that's a conversation for another time, folks!) For the time being, all Arthur wanted was truthful answers to his curious questions.

Alfred has to improvise an answer, or this misconstrued knowledge could possibly lead to a myriad of complicated problems. He gritted his teeth. "NO, Arthur, I am not a lesbian. I am BI. Yeah." he said assuredly, "Just stick the rainbow flag on me now. Yup, I am the gayest and straightest person you will ever meet."

"I…I see. Well, ummm…"

Arthur gave a sympathetic expression and parted his lips to say something but couldn't, and instead, patted Alfred's hair softly, smoothing his hair out with each pat. "I'm very sorry about…Amelia."

Pat.

"It sounds pretty shitty." That was the correct terminology, right?

Pat. Pat. Pat.

"Huh?" Pat. Pat.

"But look on the bright side…" Pat. He gave off a cheeky grin in the hopes of comforting his wife. "…you have the most handsome man on earth as a husband, someone who can indulge you, feed you exquisite cuisine, shelter you under warm and exotic blankets, clothe you with the silkiest material, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. After all, who wouldn't want a hot shot like me, right? Idiots and Francis, that's what and- My apologies, I was trying to comfort you but failed epicly, didn't I?" He can admit that much. "I guess I'm good at talking about myself and the people I hate, after all. Remind me, Marie, that I should order a book about comforting others."

Alfred laughed at his silly request until wet tears at the corners of his eyes grew into giant orbs of water streaming down his face silently in the dark. He cried and cried, not because he was heartbroken but because of how normal this conversation is. He cried, too, because he has to accept that there really is no such thing as happiness in this world, not while he is disguised as Marie.

Then they laid there for a few more minutes laughing after the tears have dried, retelling funny moments and watching the stars peek out the night's sky.

"Happy Birthday Marie." Arthur said.

Then Alfred saw the first star of the day.