Numbers of his Life
Story by: VeNgEaNcEoFrAiN
Disclaimer: Hidekaz Himaruya owns every personified country as well as this Cardverse AU ideas, I merely exploit his ideas for my own personal uses muahahah! Everything else is purely fictional, any resemblance to other stories is purely coincidental – I don't really know if there's a similar story around but this idea just popped up in my head so I decided to write it (all I can say is great minds think alike). Some fundamental ideas like how the pocket watch chooses the royalty in Spades is kept in this story. I would like to credit the person coming up with the idea but I think it'd probably be hard to track who started it. If you think I violated copyright laws, erm, I can take it down if you send me a mail or review.
Summary: Time is what chooses the royalties of Spade and the same Time chose Arthur in the 21st century universe as Queen. Will this Prof survive in that universe? Cardverse!AU USUK and other possible pairings.
Author's note: Hello! I hope you've read through my Info 'chapter/prologue'? I know it's boring... But here's the first chapter. Hopefully it'd make you wana read more of my story/plot. I found this little note in the guidelines of stories in fanfiction, "Stories with non-historical and non-fictional characters: actors, musicians, and etc." Where does that leave Hetalia xD Oh well, on with it!
Chapter 1: Fate of One
"The Queen is dead, your Majesty." The raven-haired royalty adopted a serious tone before sighing softly as he looked at the grief-stricken King. "We've got to-" He was cut short of his sentence when the doors to the chamber burst open. "Your Majesty, your Highness this is terrible! The Kingdom of Hearts has sent a message saying if Spades does not agree to the proposed plans for trade enhancement, war will ensue!" The panicking man breathed heavily to catch his breath. The Jack of the Kingdom watched the tearing figure as he took a couple of long breaths. Eyebrows slid into a frown.
"Get out."
"But Sire-"
"I said get out."
The messenger scurried out of the room with fear. Throughout all that, the King's gaze never left the Queen. His hand gripped ever firmly on hers. The soft look on her face reflected the way she peacefully left this world. "Yao," The said man flashed him a look of worry. "Prepare for the death ceremony. She needs to be buried with pride." The King's lips drew into a thin line. His Jack could only do that much to help ease his pain now, but he knew, nothing can replace the lost of someone dear. With a bow, Yao excused himself from the room.
"Why did you do it? Why?" The usually cheerful and sunny blonde gritted his teeth as his tears blurred his vision. The teardrops rolled down the sides of his already tear-stricken face without a hassle. His body shook slightly from the negative emotions that were building up. "W-Wake up…" He choked in between cries. "Y-You promised me; you promised me you'd be there for me forever!" More tears flowed from his eyes. Quick and hasty breaths were drawn during the hiccups. It felt as if his heart was torn into millions of pieces. It felt as if his world came crumbling down. She was his world. She was the one who raised him. The Queen was the King's everything. "Why mother? Why did you go join father so soon? Why did you not wait for me to bring the Kingdom to greater heights? Why did you have to go? Why didn't you wait for me to marry the person of my affection and have grandchildren for you to nurture?" The strained voice whimpered as the emotions got stronger. The lifeless body can never reply to those questions. The King held his mother's hand even tighter, not wanting to let go, not wanting to let his beloved mother exit his world.
"Alfred?" A voice seemed to sound from a few steps away from the bed.
"Alfred?" This time, the King responded. He turned slowly his head to the direction of the whisper. His eyes widened when he saw the source of that voice. He gaped at the scene. "Alfred my dear, you have to be strong now." A pale translucent looking figure stood an arm's length away from the bed. She was clad in the exact same clothes as the body on the bed, beautiful azure dress with frills and laces decorating it – the symbolic dress of the Queen of Spades. She had long, beautiful wheat-coloured hair that was held neatly in place by her crown. Her violet eyes harbored a tint of sadness behind them. She gave her son a weak smile, "Honey, there are many things out there that are unexpected. That includes my death. You mustn't take it too hard. You have to let things go naturally."
"Mother…" Is the only word he could make out as more tears surged from deep within his heart. "Don't be stubborn and wipe your tears. Or else you'd meet someone as stubborn as you as your spouse next time." The ghostly figure chuckled as her son forcibly wiped his tears away when new ones kept forming. The Queen's spirit floated closer to her son. Her lucid hands came close to touching his face. "My dear child, you must not forget your position now. Grief is but an emotion to conquer if you want to be a successful ruler. The lost of someone will always be painful but this is a chance for you to meet other wonderful people and develop more positive feelings. A man who grieves is a man of heart and a man who can let go is a man of strength. Be strong, Alfred."
With a light contactless kiss on the forehead, the spiritual form vanished. All that was left was the cooling sensation on Alfred's face and the body which he has yet to let go. He stared vaguely into the space where his mother's spirit was standing, seemingly thinking over her words carefully. His eyes darted back to the body that was turning cold. He took a few deep breaths and said, "I'm sorry, mother. I'm a man of heart not strength. But I'd try to be after my heart stops grieving. Until then, I won't let go of your hand." He pressed his lips onto her hand with focused eyes, his little cow-lick near the parting of his hair stuck out with greater confidence. Outside this room, no one needs to know of the King's weakness. No one has to know about what happened. No one shall question the King's ability to rule alone.
It has then been decided that the Queen is to be buried in the brilliant rose gardens beside the late King where they first met. A plaque embedded in the monument tells the tale of how their romance ensued, how they built the strongest Kingdom of this world: The tale of the sixth King and Queen of Spades.
"What?" A bushy brow raised in question. "I beg your pardon; I don't think I've quite caught what you're saying." Emerald eyes stared straight at the person in front of him. The figure was well dressed, a red formal shirt, a properly tied black bowtie, a dashing black suit, a pair of well polished Ecco shoes and to top it all off a brilliant smile plastered on his face. "Come on Arthur! It'd be fun, trust me! Besides you need to get out a bit more, stop burying yourself in those books of history and wars." The figure leaned over Arthur's table with the smile still plastered on his face. "A professor doesn't just stay indoors all the time! You should experience the more modern stuff and relate them to what you wanna' teach your students, then they'd pay attention more, ya' know?"
Arthur's cheek muscles twitched in response at this jolly friend of his. The Dane was an Associate Professor of Public Administration, making him rather well-known across the region for his speech about a radical reform for governmental policies regarding public affairs like healthcare and college fees. With due respect for his fellow colleague, he calmly stated, "Professor Matthias Kohler, I'm sure that how I teach my students is not amongst one of your concerns. I would like to apologise that, no, I am not going." A firm and slightly frustrated look developed across his face as he reached out to an empty teapot.
The Danish professor frowned and explained, "To tell you the truth, we just want you to hang out with us. Man, camping here in your dusty room of books is gonna' make you rot if you don't at least move!" He dodged one of those heavy-looking books hurling his way and made his escape towards the door. "It's just Halloween and the dress-up! Nothing to be uffh-" The Dane stumbled back a few steps before the object which smacked right in his face slid down into his hands. "Ouch, Arthur you need some treatment on that violent tendency there!" He pinched the bridge of his nose in hopes of soothing the numbing muscles lining his face.
"Well I wouldn't need it if you didn't come barging into my room, disrupting my wonderful tea time and not to mention, demanding such ridiculous things from me." A brilliant smirk spread across the Briton's face as chin rested perfectly nestled on his interlaced fingers. Then, in a split second, the smirk turned into a scowl, "Now, I'd appreciate if you were to get out; and close the door as you leave, thank you."
"Yes, yes, your Majesty, as you wish." Matthias sighed as he pulled the door shut behind him. Two ladies swarmed over to him, "How was it? Did he agree?" The taller lady probed as her brilliant harlequin eyes sparkled in question. The lone guy squirmed a little under the sudden limelight-attention. Nervously, he laughed and scratched the nape of his neck, "Well, I already did my best but sorry, I couldn't convince him!" He earned himself glares and pouts from the two ladies.
"You said it'd totally work!" A younger girl exclaimed with detest, hands outstretched into a blaming gesture. Her russet-coloured hair was neatly tied into two ponytails with red ribbons. She was an exchange student from Seychelles working on a project for the conservation of endangered fish species.
"I'm disappointed in you Matty, you said 'Leave it to me!' and now you busted it all." A little Belgium twist in accent gave her nationality away. An overseas visiting professor was not rare to see in this academy, especially one from a neighbouring European country. Her works as a food scientist were truly outstanding. A recently published scientific paper about the chemistry of chocolate and its effects on females was utmost appealing. She turned away, crossed her arms and pouted. It was going to so interesting had Matthias gotten Arthur out for Halloween! She was going to dress him as an evil badass pirate while Mattias a wicked Viking, Sesel and herself would dress as a sexy vampire and a cute witch; then, together they can go roam the streets for trick-and-tricking – and very much be the Kings and Queens of that night! Now that this little fantasy isn't going to happen..
A loud sigh escaped her lips, "This is all your fault! As an apology, take me and Sesel out for dinner tonight! And no arguing! We get to choose the place!"
"But Bel!"
"No buts!" She stuck out her tongue at the wheat-haired man before pulling her tanned companion to the laboratories.
Inside the room, however, there was a much calmer ambience. Faint wafts of aroma from the freshly brewed Earl Grey filled the air. Arthur couldn't finally kick back and relax for the day, enjoying what he loves best. Mind you but, reading reference books, past war notes or letters aren't his only hobbies. Those hobbies are also part of enhancing his teachings during class. A good gentlemen always has his cup of tea, relaxes in a garden full of roses which he tends to and maybe some fine embroidery during his free time (probably one of the only things that remind him of his mother).
"Hmm, this is interesting. A telegram recovered from World War I. This telegram encodes of the message from the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann. How coincidental, his name is Arthur as well. Let's see if I can decode this." Arthur pulled out a book from within the third row of his shelves, eager to find out if he had the right information for a correct decoding and translation. However, the adjacent book fell from the shelves and landed on its spine on the ground. The force caused it to flip to one of the centre pages where some kind of card was stuck inside. The Briton reckoned it's a piece of bookmark that he had long forgotten. Out of whim, he picked the book and the 'bookmark' up.
"Queen of Spades..?" The first thing he noticed about the bookmark.
He thought as his brows knitted in the middle, retracing how this card got in this book. He wasn't a fan of poker, neither were any of his friends. None of his students ever touched his treasure hoard of books without permission; and even if they did, no one every borrowed this one. It was a book about different types of magic and some ancient spells that have known to work. Surely, Arthur has read this book a couple of times out of boredom but none can he remember slipping this card in. The intriguing thing is why the Queen of Spades? If he had to choose a card as a bookmark, it'd have been the Ace of Spades or any other card – not that it matters though. The Queen just doesn't seem to attract his attention, though he thinks the design for the Spades queen was a little unique. Compared to other cards, she was holding onto a flower similar to the Clubs queen except the centre was slight blue-ish and she held a scepter with a Spades shape decorated at the top. It seemed as if amongst the queens, she was a fighter and commanded respect from all others without letting go of her feminine charm.
He checked the card's front and back for any writings or notes to show its importance but found none. "It's just a bookmark. Silly me, how can I be thinking it's of any importance." He shrugged and placed the card on the table casually while putting the book back to the shelf. He remembered clearly there was no need for a bookmark for that book and besides, he already lost the page number the card was at when it fell.
"Now where was I..? Ahh! The encoding, yes, what have we here?" He recollected his thoughts while flipping through the book fervently, searching for the coding page. When he finally found it, he quickly grabbed a pen from his little stationery container. It was an antique-looking design with 3 compartments – namely for the stationery, the post-its and pieces of scrap paper that Arthur uses frequently. Without looking, he tried grabbing the post-it pad. The holder fell as Arthur made a small eager pull at the object which got partly stuck. Just like a chain reaction, the holder fell onto his teacup and made his precious relaxant spill over his work. "Oh goodness gracious!" He grabbed the wiping cloth from within his drawer and began cleaning his table. Thank god his documents and books aren't too wet. Then, something caught his eye. The card got soaked and strange words seem to be appearing on it. The sandy blonde lifted the dripping wet card up while attempting to drain the tea off of it. He barely made out the words written in a cursive style.
"Take me to Spades where the roses bloom,
Crown me a Queen in thy throne room,
Love me before troubles loom,
Leave me not or all is doomed."
Almost instantly, a light source shone onto Arthur's face and began drawing a circle encompassing a vague hexagram design. Ancient-looking writings began appearing around the circle and more complex shapes overlapped each other. The floor began to glow within that circle. He tried peering through his squinting eyes, "What in the world-?" The radiance soon engulfed the entire room and Arthur's entire being. Then, silence casted its net over the room. In place of where the Briton stood moments ago, was the cloth he was holding onto for the drying of his things. In other words, Arthur Kirkland has vanished from the world he was in.
'Mission accomplished.' Three figures nodded in agreement before softly clicking the door close.
Footnote: I hope you enjoyed my first chapter! Let me know if there's any mistakes. :)