AN: Hello everyone! I am particularly late because of intensive revising for exams (between 8 and 10 hours a day, arrrrgh!) and the exams themselves (arrrrrgh!).
This chapter is exceptionally long! And as the old proverb says, "Plus c'est long, plus c'est bon", the more it is long, the more it is good! (Hehe, after this, we wonder why the character of Francis fits so well with our country, *coughs*).
I can't believe I've written all this. And that I got 1476 hits! Thank you for the hits, reviews, favs, alerts and all, I love this!
Enjoy this extra long chapter!

London, England, June the 21st, 1887

What a strange feeling to write in this location, far, so far from my home.

London, the European town I've always dreamt for. With its rainy sky, the infinity of rows of red brick houses, plenty of beautiful places and well kept geometric gardens, and the noise of the horses' hoofs on the paved roads.
I was glad to arrive, three days ago. The journey by boat on the sea had been so long and exhausting.

The first thing that impressed me was the cold. Even if Arthur had told me it was summer in England, the weather is quite cold to me. After that, I've been shocked by something unthinkable here, in the leading heart of the most powerful Empire of the world: misery.
From my window in the fiacre I've seen all sooty men in rags, women badly made up and scantily dressed enticing richer men passing by, children crying for food and other sorts of distressing views.
There is also very poor people at home, but I believe this is not the same misery. Maybe because misery in the sun and by the sea must be a bit better than in the rain and cold? How is this possible in England? I wish that misery will disappear from the world someday.

Arthur's house is located in a quite better environment, at the 3-D York Street.
From the outside, his house just looks like all the others in the street, with a massive black door at the top of few steps, red bricks, a railing where pink roses are growing, three storeys and a basement. And most of all, it looks quite tiny when we know how the inside is!

The door opens on a little room only furnished with a large and simple wardrobe where we put away our jackets.
He showed me his home. The door on the right gives out onto a big living room, with a large brown leather sofa, two armchairs, an elaborate walnut round tea table and an incredible collection of objects from all over the World invading shelves and tables. Porcelain from China, African masks, Indian and Egyptian curios and other. After that, he showed me the kitchen, and an impressive library in a parlor with a view of the street. There are like thousands of books there, and many look very old.
On the second floor, there are three bedrooms, his and two others, and his office room, similar to the one he has in Mahé.
And on the third floor there is the attic. But Arthur told me not to go there because there are such odds and ends that I won't be able to open the door anyway.
This is why I spent my time reading and resting in one of the rooms when he was away for the event's preparations.

Then there came the D-day.
After dinner, I put on the dress that Arthur had ordered for me. A long pastel blue taffeta dress with short sleeves around my shoulders and draping pick up skirt embroidered with white pearly thread.
So, so, so pretty.
Then I arranged my hair into an updo held with some pins decorated with white peals, put some powder on my face to lighten my tan and some pearl jewelry, and went downstairs.
Arthur was very elegant as well but not really different than usual actually. He's always smart.

Once arrived at Buckingham Palace, the guards next to the entrance checked our invitation cards and whished us to enjoy our time and then we entered the ball room.
The ball room was really stunning, just like in my dreams, with a field of wonderful dresses waiting for dancing.

Arthur left our coats and his top hat to a servant and introduced me to a quite short man with long and strait black hair, dark and narrow eyes and no apparent age.

"Miss Victoria, this is Wang Yao from China, our new commercial partner. Sir, Miss Victoria Amirantes from Seychelles."

The Chinese man bowed and so did I.

"Nice to meet you, aru!" He replied.

After that, Arthur welcomed Mister Timon and Miss Emma Janssens.

He complimented Miss Emma for her beauty, shook Timon Janssens' hand and introduced me to them in turn.
The Dutchman simply nodded, definitively not talkative, unlike his sister.
This bubbly blond girl in a superb golden dress asked me about my home, and showed a lot of interest when I mentioned there was no winter where I lived.

"Oh my! Now I want to visit you so bad! Well, I'm sure you'll enjoy your time with all of us. You'll see that you'll be having so much fun with everyone!" She said before Arthur introduced a tall blond young man with transparent blue eyes to me.

"Miss Victoria, Ludwig Beilschmidt, I've told you about him."

Of course I remembered the photo and said hello.

As Ludwig Beilschmidt was about to reply, another, thinner man with white hair and red eyes appeared behind him and his albino eyes widened when saw me.

"Hey! You're new here, are you not? Gilbert Beilschmidt asked.
- Yes. Her name is Victoria Amirantes. From Seychelles." Arthur answered for me.

Gilbert Beilschmidt turned his head and shouted to a brown young man behind:

"Antoñio! Come on! Here is a new Nation girl! Awesome awesomness! Kessessessee!"

The Spanish man went towards us and his eyes widened in turn.

"I recognize you! You are Victoria, aren't you? We've heard about you!" He exclaimed.

"Oh, girl! Veee~" popped up Feliciano Vargas. "What is your name? Do you like pasta?"

And all this until a crowd of Nations made up all around me, with questions raining all over my head.

I turned towards Arthur, expecting some help but he apologized saying that he had to go and wished me a good time.

I was about to fall when an imperious voice came to rescue me.

"What is all that farce?"

It was Roderich Edelstein.

"Don't you see that you are disturbing her?" he bawled once he had managed to find his way through the crowd. But his angriness shut down when he heard his wife's sweet voice calling him.

"Drágám!"

Lady Elizabeta is even more gorgeous in the reality. Her pale pink satin and tulle dress was sprinkled with cloth flowers, gleaming under the lights.

"Do not get mad like this, you know it is not good for your nerves. She begged him with a voice full of concern.
- Ja." He replied while taking her hand.

Then she noticed me, smiled and told me:

"Miss Victoria, you are welcomed among us. I guess this might be a little frightening at the beginning but you'll see that everything will be okay, right? The ball will begin within few minutes. Where is your partner?"

A partner? I had not. Actually I thought that Arthur would be my partner.

"Moi, évidemment! said a voice I knew.
- Francis? Lady Elizabeta asked giving the Frenchman a skeptical look.
- Oui. Did you just thought, très chère Liza, that I would let any of those boors put their lecherous hands on ma douce et pure Maria- euh- Victoria?
- Bastardo! I can't believe he's the one who is saying that!" Muttered Lovino Vargas, followed by the other Nations.

Then Miss Mona Bonnefoy came and tried to reason her brother.

" Voyons, Francis. Ne vois-tu donc pas que cette demoiselle est bien trop jeune pour toi? Elle a l'air d'avoir treize ans, ne sois pas ridicule."

While they were all arguing about who would be my partner, an extended hand showed up in front of me.

"Miss, would you accept me as your partner for this first dance? I am Matthias Densen, nice to meet you."

I looked up to the Dane. He was tall, with spiky blond hair and blue eyes, beardless, smiling, and even handsome. I accepted and we stepped aside to leave the space for the opening ceremony of the ball.

Ladies and gentlemen! Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress!

This announcement was immediately followed by the song and ovations.

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen !
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us
God save the Queen !

The Queen, an old woman richly dressed, a glittering crown surrounding her silver grey hair, went up on the stage, helped by probably one of her sons, to wish us a good time and enjoy the dance.

After another ovation, the firsts notes started to rise from the orchestra, and a couple moved forward for the ball opening.

Of course it was Arthur, but with a woman I didn't know.

Arthur's left hand took her right hand, seized her waist with his other hand and leaded her into a waltz full of magic.

She was amazingly beautiful, yes. With her dark skin, her almond green eyes bordered with long eyelashes, her incredible knee length black thick braided hair decorated with jewels that could compete with the ones on the Queen's crown and her dress full of exotic colors, she was the Queen of the ball. And seeing Arthur dancing with her, I felt like a pang.

For one moment I dreamt that it would be me twirling around in his arms and being the one that everyone is watching and feeling jealousy about.

"Who is she? I asked Matthias Densen.
- Oh, don't you know Miss Âliya? Or Miss India if you prefer. Isn't she just stunning?"

Oh yes she was. But I didn't want to give any answer. Anyway the time for us to dance came and my Dane was a good dancer.

Then many partner changes happen. I danced with, among others, Feliciano Vargas who was so happy to dance with all those belle ragazze like he said and Ivan Braginski who crushed my hand and waist a little too hard but was a very good dancer however. Then Antoñio and Francis leaded me into a wild quadrille. I even saw a dispute because of a collision between Ludwig Beilschmidt and Lovino Vargas. This was very funny.

After all those dancing emotions, most of the men walked to the smoking room and the ladies to their seats to discuss about their dresses and other parties.
I had nothing special to talk about with them so I took the direction of the buffet.

This was when I met Alfred.

Tall, about sixteen, well-built, good looking, wearing one of those very new suits called "smoking", uncombed blond hair and sparkling blue eyes.

The servant served him a glass of whiskey, and he was taking a sip from it when his lively eyes met mines and he started walking towards me. There was something emanating from him that was appealing to me. Maybe his non-typical and casual look. Definitely, he was not like all the others.

"Good evening, young lady, I am Alfred Jones, America. And you must be…
- Victoria Amirantes.
- Seychelles of course! This is amazing to meet you!" He said spiritedly.

We talked about all and nothing. He talked a lot about his technological improvements with an explosion of enthusiasm.

"Do you know young lady what are those lights working with? He asked pointing at the impressive chandeliers.
- With gas?
- Exactly! Gas! But now, my dear Victoria, you must know that gas belongs to the past! Haha! We are in the modern world! Gas? What's with this old gas again? Electricity, my dear! Electricity will rule the world! No more gas! Welcome in the world of progress! And I swear that someday I'll build a machine that could bring us on the moon! Isn't it amazingly heroic?"

After having told me a bunch of other extraordinary stories, he told me that he had to look for something at Arthur's house.

"You're living at Arthur's, right? I just have to find something somewhat important. Do you have the keys?"

Arthur had given me duplicate keys in the case if I wanted to go back home before him. I wondered if letting Alfred enter in Arthur's house was a good idea, and I proposed to go to ask Arthur if he would agree with this. Alfred made faces while hearing this.

"Do you really want to ask him? Oh, well, if you want so. Let's go and ask him."

We opened the door of the smoking room and were immediately attacked by heavy blanket of odorant smoke that barely let us recognize the faces. There were a bunch of Scandinavians men slumped in a large sofa with glasses of whiskey and Miss Mona lasciviously lying on their knees with a cigarette between her lips, apparently allowing those gentlemen to do whatever they wanted with her, Ludwig Beilschmidt and Wang Yao discussing about the price of the potato on the World Market in a corner, Ivan Braginski having fun blowing his smoke in the three Baltic boys' faces, and then Gilbert, Antoñio, Francis, Timon Janssens and Feliks making fun of the Italian brothers and Arthur himself while they were all three totally drunk.

Alfred glanced at me.

"See, he is not even able to stand on his legs. Let's go. He won't remember anything anyway."

I nodded and we left Buckingham.

That was kind of exciting to let enter a boy in the house without Arthur's consent.

Alfred wanted to go in the attic. He frowned when I said that Arthur told me that the door was blocked.

"Really? I don't quite buy that. He has probably said this to make sure you wouldn't visit it."

The attic door was not even locked. Alfred gave me a glance that said "see, I was right".

It was full of mountains of old things everywhere. Some were quite new like hats from the beginning of the century, and others seemed to be a thousand years old like the superb collection of swords and shields, sometimes made in wood and sometimes in metal. There was also an incredible variety of coins of all ages.
But there was like something bizarre in the air. Something overwhelming and powerful that was making me want to run away. And most of all, that sound. A muffled, regular, distant sound, like if someone was regularly hitting something hard in another room.

"Alfred… I shuttered.
- Uh?
- Don't you think we should get out of this room?
- Why that? He shrugged. Isn't all that stuff amazing? Look! I've found an old picture of me!" He proudly said showing me a print from the seventeenth century representing a little boy holding the hand of a quite younger Arthur.

In the back of the room, there was a wall that was weirdly bare, next to an old and dusty armour.

I went to inspect it. Surprisingly there was no dust on it. I ran my hand on it until I found an unevenness part just behind the armour. It was a symbol engraved in the stone. Some weird and geometric sign. When I pushed on it, a click rang out followed by some mechanical noises and the wall opened with a strong din.

Alfred jumped and ran towards me. When he saw the way that appeared through the wall, his eyes filled up with wonder.

"T-terrific! H-how did you do that? He asked. Haha! How exciting! Let's go!
- N-no… I stopped him. Not a good idea. Not a good idea at all. I added as I could heard the mysterious sound beating stronger and new bizarre sounds.
- Why couldn't we? Come on! You have no reason to feel frightened, I am with you! I'll be your hero, alright?"

I didn't feel much reassured but I followed him however in this dark corridor that ended in a quite large room that had no window, enlightened with candles. Someone had come there recently. At least to light the candles.

Oh, my. It was really, really frightening. There were bunches of horrors in that room. Stuff like skulls, old bones aligned on shelves, jars containing organs like eyes, toes, fingers soaking into a sort of jelly. We even saw a whole brain in a larger one!

I wondered what were we doing there, why were we there, why couldn't I scream out loud.

"S-s-s-scary! I didn't know about such an odd collection! Good old Arthur!" Alfred gasped, sounding both feared and excited.

After that, we discovered some ingenious system on a long table all made with glass. Long, complicated system of pipes that brought clouds of colored vapors from a flask containing some boiling black and viscous liquid to a big column where drops of some golden clear liquid were falling into another flask.
And then we arrived next to shelves full of voodoo dolls.

Many were so much damaged and old that they were unrecognizable. But we recognize some about Antoñio and Gilbert, Ivan Braginski. But also a massive number of copies about Francis that were more or less destroyed. I wonder how the poor Francis could be alive nowadays.

"Hey look! He has made one of me!" Alfred exclaimed, holding a voodoo that seemed quite new. But instead of worrying he laughed as if he didn't know what voodoo was.

While he was commenting Arthur's work, I slowly walked forward to another round room, where the heavy sound was beating from.

It was from a gigantic closet made in an unknown metal, decorated with plenty of mysterious symbols. It was locked and enchained with three heavy locks and something or maybe someone was like trying to get out, hitting the massive doors so strong that doors were slightly opening, enough to hit the enormous chains before closing again.

Trying to keep up courage, I approached and heard a voice, a very weak voice. A whisper in a weird language that I didn't understand as it wasn't English neither French or any Creole language. A language that seemed ancient and forgotten.

But the most terrifying was what followed.

In front of the closet, I noticed chalk traces on the floor. Then I took a global look of the room and I saw that the traces drew a big circle on the floor filled with a complicated geometric complex. In the middle of this circle, there were two bodies lying as if they were dead.

Two men, quite young, maybe in their twenties. One was tall, muscular, with red hair, in old fashioned clothes, and the other was smaller, with wavy blond hair, in a long green tunic that seemed ages old.

I wanted to know some more about them but I was afraid about what would happen if I went in the circle and I definitely had good reasons to worry about it.

Alfred came to see what I was doing and that was when everything turned bad.

"Hey! I recognize him! He pointed the red haired man. "William! Long time no see! I've grown so much since the last time! Haha! Do you recognize the hero that is me? What are you doing here in such a crappy pose? Hey! W-Will! A-a-are you dead?"

I swear I wanted to stop him, but there was nothing to do to stop him running in the circle to shake the lifeless body.

Since the second Alfred entered in the circle, something in the air broke. Even the thing in the closet started to hit and whisper harder. And the body in Alfred arms was suddenly brought to life. The red man opened his eyes, eyes that were completely white, with no pupil. Surprised, Alfred dropped him and ran back next to me.

The other one woke up in the same state, with the same white frightening eyes and same face that showed no emotion. They rose up and stared at us. They had mechanic and slow motions like if they were puppets that could move on their own.

"Who's that? I asked, almost screaming.
- Will is Arthur's elder brother, Scotland. And the other one must be Morgan, Wales, another elder brother of Arthur. I've never saw Morgan in the flesh before but I remember Will as a great, strong and kind guy! What did happen to him?"

That was true that they looked like Arthur, with their bushy eyebrows. But if William was a good guy in the past, he has changed a lot.

Without even having any talk before, a massive sword appeared in William's hands and he started to raise it against us.

Alfred had kept an old gun from the first room of the attic, but it was useless. The bullets were miserably falling on the floor without even touching them. It was like if the bullets couldn't hit Arthur's brothers.

Alfred ran to the first room to pick up weapons and shields while I was trying to stop them by throwing voodoos, kilos of chalk, chemistry glass material, candles, even some jars containing organs, in their faces.

Then Alfred ran back, gave me a shield and a dagger and started to fight the strong William with bravery.

Morgan had apparently no weapon, that was why Alfred had left him to me but what we didn't expect at all happen when the Welsh showed us his powers.

Right in front of me, he stopped walking, inhaled intensely and red massive flames emerged from his throat.
Fortunately, my shield was in metal but after this attack, the metal had become so hot that I dropped it. We just couldn't stay in the attic.

Alfred grabbed my arm and we ran the fast as we could to the exit.

By pressing again the symbol in the wall, the wall closed and we ran to my bedroom, trying to recover from this terrifying experience. Fortunately, my dress didn't break, Alfred was not wounded, and I just had blisters on my hand and few traces of soot.

"Wow! We had a narrow escape there!" Alfred sighed with relief.

We laughed and, slowly, Alfred got closer and closer and I almost jumped when I felt his hand on my hips. His voice had become hoarser against my ear.

"My dear Miss Victoria, it appears that you're actually not the young and pretty perfect lady that everyone believes you to be, aren't you?"

His other hand came to undo my hair half undone already because of the battle in the attic. Each word he said induced strange sensations inside of me.

"Hmm… You are definitely not like Arthur wants you to be, is it not? Arthur has brought me up as well, I know what it is. Victoria, didn't anyone told you how lovely you are? Does that old Arthur have definitely coil in his eyes? I am impressed that he didn't even try anything with you yet. You look like you've never ever been kissed!
- Y-yes! I have been kissed once! On the mouth! I protested.
- Oh, really? He widened his eyes. So it mustn't have been a good kiss. Just let me show you what a good kiss is, you deserve this, right?"

He pressed softly his lips on mines and then inserted his tongue between my parted lips to meet mine. How can I describe it? That was… dribbling but hot and sweet.

After that, he held me tight into his arms, his wet lips caressing my bare shoulder and his hands playing with laces of my dress. I would lie if I said that I didn't like all those sensations running on my spine while he was kissing and touching me.

"Oh, Victoria, my Victoria, can't I ask you just one thing? He said, pulling away. Oh, I-I promise you to left you as pure and virgin than you are right now, do not freak out."

After another kiss, he pressed gently but firmly my shoulders down to make me kneel down in front of his crotch. His light blue eyes were like imploring, starring me.

"Oh, please, my sweet Victoria, don't be afraid of me! We're not doing evil, are we?"

I lowered my eyes to see what he was talking about.

I slowly undid his pants and let emerge his tight sex just in front of my face.

I had already seen a naked man, mostly Cody when we were bathing, but never so close like this.

"Please, go ahead. I know you want it, so do I. And besides, Arthur will never know anything about all this."

That was like the magic word. After another little hesitation, I approached my face closer and I pressed my lips on the tip of his sex.

He gasped, trying to thrust forward, tangling his fingers tightly into my locks. I obeyed and shyly let it slide, taking it fully into my mouth and I rapidly get on with the mechanism of sucking on it, just like if I had done it for all my life.

I heard him moaning, gasping each time my teeth hit him. It was even funny to do this and… exciting.

Then suddenly someone rang at the door downstairs. I pulled away quickly, causing Alfred to groan of dissatisfaction, and rose to my feet, my mind full of panic.

Alfred buttoned quickly his pants and opened the window. The window of my room gives out onto a courtyard behind the house.

"I can't take any risk. I have to leave. He said, straddling the window ledge. Dammit! I am sorry, Victoria, this was hot but well too short! But do not worry, I am pretty sure we will meet a lot of times. Goodnight, girl! See ya!"

I was afraid he would break his neck going that way through the window, but he reassured me:

"Hey, what are you thinking about? I'm a hero! Don't you remember? A hero never dies."

At those words, he dashed from the window to land perfectly on his feet in the empty courtyard. He gave me a wink and waved his hand before going.

I closed the window and rushed at the door.

I didn't realize at the moment that my hair was totally messy and that I was definitely unfit to be seen. But that was too late.
I opened the door to discover Feliks and Toris, both in such farcical outfits that I had difficulties refraining from laughing.

Toris wore a dark purple and extremely short dress with old fashioned trimming, fishnet stockings, grotesque heels and a big rose in his long light brown hair. Feliks in front of me was dressed the same way with a loud pink dress. They had put makeup on their faces, they looked both a bit fishy. But I must admit that being dressed like this fitted well on them.

"Miss Victoria. Feliks started. We got booted out from Buckingham because of the fault of Feliciano.
- A-actually, Francis undressed Feliciano, and that caused a fight with Lovino. Toris rectified.
- However, we got all booted out in result. Feliks continued. Well, then Francis said it didn't matter a lot since he has a special establishment not very far.
- It is where we've found these dresses! Toris added.
- That place is, like, super great! Feliks exclaimed, giving a glance at Toris. There's a lot of super cool lights and nice dancers!
- Feliks, what was the aim of our visit? Toris asked.
- Holy crap! Anglik! He facepalmed. Guys! Do you have him with you? He yelled to Eduard and Raivis holding a half conscious Arthur by the shoulders. Fortunately, Arthur was not wearing a dress.
- Yes! Where must we put this? Eduard asked.
- Upstairs. The first room on the left. I said while letting them coming in with Arthur.
- He got too drunk once again. Toris said.
- At the beginning that was cool, we were having fun making fun of him doing weird stuff but in the end it had become well less funny. Feliks explained. He was even about to dive in the Thames on Gilbert, Francis and Antonio's request. And then, this is why we decided to save him, because it was, like, against the rules, totally, yeah.
- Yeah. Toris confirmed.
- Hurry up! I won't wait until tomorrow morning! It would be a regrettable thing to be left down in the streets because of time abuse, da? Ivan Braginski yelled from his fiacre. Oh, Miss Victoria, I am sorry for all this mess. What a pity. I would have like to see this little Arthur struggling in the river.
- Ivan! Yekaterina protested with her high pitched voice next to him in the fiacre.
- But meeting you is much more distracting."

Ivan smiled as he noticed my cheeks had reddened a bit at his words.

Then Eduard and Raivis came back, telling that Arthur was now sleeping in his room, and the four boys jumped in the fiacre.

"We will meet again, da? Ivan smiled again.
- Good-bye!" Natalia bawled sharply and shut the door of the fiacre even before I could reply.

What a night! I wouldn't expect that other Nations would like me! Oh dear, I've written so much today. Hope I will meet them again and have more fun!

AN: Haha, ball, gorgeous dresses, adventure, magic, horror, sex, fun… There is everything in that chapter!
Mona is explaining to Francis in French that Victoria is well too young for him because she looks like thirteen.
I put Arthur's house in York Street in London, but if you go there you might look for the number 3-D forever because it simply doesn't exist! Totally fictional. Why there? I dunno, but once when I went to London I walked through this area and thought it was not a bad place at all.

And yes, you can beat me (oh oui, frappe moi! Lol).
Some of you might wonder what the hell is that fiction that is going totally out the main subject (UK/Seychelles) because Seychelles is flirting with all the guys except Arthur. Do not worry, the story between them will start very soon, and you won't be disappointed, right? Da? Oui? Ja? Tak? Si? Claro?

By the way, I've recently changed my pen name^^