Fill | part 1
anonymous
January 23 2012, 14:44:49 UTC
(A/N: Planning for Cardverse!AU, but finds it too difficult to settle on other things later, such as England as Queen or America as King. Even China as Jack. But because I’m not creative, I’ll try squeezing them suitably in. Hopefully not too disappointing. With the first part up, updates will be fairly distant, but rest assured I’m going to finish [and with a chance of de-anon] this fill. And I’ll think of a title later. Suggestions maybe?)
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Arthur panted harshly, his breath so heavy and his heart beat so fast he almost felt light-headed. Screams and curses were heard nearby, along with footsteps and orders barked around to search for the missing princess of Spades, who had been caught for the last few days to make the Kingdom of Spades surrender their most valuable Land of Heaven, the most fertile land in the entire world. There hadn’t been any news from the side of Spades, and by the dawn of the seventh day, if there weren’t any further news from them, the enemy had planned for force-marrying the princess and declare war to Spades.
Too bad their plans were now screwed up, Arthur thought as he smirked in victory when he heard the footsteps grew farther and farther, before peeking from behind the stone walls which provided him hiding place and went out to the flickering lights of fire lighting the dungeon. He hurried outside, looking left and right for eventual guards and when he found none, he ran out of his prison for the last few days as fast as he could.
The night was nearly out; the rays of sun had started to shine out behind the horizons, and it was just a matter of time until morning arrived. Arthur stopped running after a few hundreds of yards to catch his breath as he looked at the sun with known anticipation.
All of sudden, his entire body ached. He shuddered, feeling his torso caught in fire and his legs trembled as they lose their strength. He fell onto the ground and supported himself upon a nearby tree, waiting for his body to stop reacting.
It took a moment, but finally, he let out a shaky breath as he tried to lift himself from the ground; his messy, blonde-coloured hair fell softly on his now slenderer shoulder and slimmer torso. He looked up to see the sun finally got up from its hiding place, starting its job to brighten the world.
With a sigh, Arthur gathered his hair together and pulled them forward, tying them just above his shoulders in one neat tail. He shredded his skirt a bit to make it shorter and easier to walk with, and-after a bit consideration-used the shreds and tied it around his now enlarged chest for firmer support.
He started looking around. As a royalty member of Kingdom of Spades, he had visited the four main kingdoms in the world and explored even their deepest alleys and roads (he never liked being cooped inside for boring parties and match-making events), and he knew that the area surrounding him was not from the four kingdoms.
That left him with one possibility-he was held captive on the forbidden part of Hearts, which Ludwig, the King of Hearts himself said to be the place of the rebels, the once loyal men of Hearts with fire elemental so powerful they could destroy the entire world that now planning to tilt the balance on the other side for their own greed-the Land of Heavens which owned by Spades.
He sighed tiredly before standing up and tried to clear his mind before starting his journey home, which was separated more than five days of carriage trip-and that made it double because he travelled by feet.
Princess Alice Kirkland of Spades would just having the longest trip of her life home.
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(Note that not until the end of chapter I addressed UK as ‘she’ even though he had changed halfway, but this is only for the first part. On later, please pay attention to the time inquired so you won’t confuse ‘he’ and ‘she’ together as this fic heavily relies basically on timing and gender.)
Fourteen Days with You | part 2.1/?
anonymous
February 4 2012, 16:04:39 UTC
The people of Spades loved their princess.
As the only princess in Spades, Princess Alicia was one beauty. Of course, she wasn’t as beautiful as the young Queen of Diamonds, Lily Zwingli, or even the graceful but fierce-in-battlefield Queen of Clubs, Elizabeta, but the citizens could mind less.
She had the beauty of the heart.
Alice (she often scolded the villagers who titled her with ‘Princess’, ‘Your Majesty’; even she refused to be called as ‘Alicia’) always liked the fresh air of village and often got down to the outskirts of town herself, enjoying the company of her citizens and helping the housewives doing their jobs.
(Well, of course as a royalty she knew nothing about household jobs, and even she nearly burned down a house when she tried to cook, but the women didn’t really mind. Just trying to keep her stay away from the kitchen was enough.)
Princes and men from the four lands had come to get her hands on marriage, but still, she refused to take anyone’s offer. Alice even dared to slap the King of Diamonds, Francis Bonnefoy, when one day he came for annual Decks meeting and tried to flirt with her with the method which-to Alice herself-she found disgusting and very not honoured as a King. Since then, nobody really dared to mess with her. The people always respected her and they agreed to make her the next Queen, with or without King.
But behind those façades, there lied a bigger problem that the royal household of Spades never revealed to the public.
There was never any Princess Alicia Kirkland; there wasn’t even a princess in the beginning.There was a spell placed underneath every House in Cards, to which every of them must obey if they didn’t want the curse to fall upon their born child; a spell made by a contract between the fairies and the predecessors of Cards to control power inheritance and avoid war for the throne.
Each House of Cards, the pair of King and Queen, no matter their gender was, could only have three children as descendants and no more, so they could fit the three thrones at once; King, Queen, and Jack. It didn’t matter if they didn’t have the heir for the Queen or Jack chair, as long as they have the King, the Houses would run fine. If they ever had four, the youngest had to be given to the Jokers, who lived beneath the shadows of forests with the fairies and kept them away from public knowledge before they were revealed to the world after they reached the age of twelve, without knowing whom they really were.
And Alicia was the fourth child of the House of Spades.
He was born with the name Arthur Kirkland; with soft, sandy blonde hair adorning the top of his little head and emerald eyes as bright as his mother’s, he was truly the Queen’s favourite from the first time he breathed the free air, and she refused the King’s warning to give him to the Jokers.
Fourteen Days with You | part 2.2/?
anonymous
February 4 2012, 16:11:02 UTC
He was born with the name Arthur Kirkland; with soft, sandy blonde hair adorning the top of his little head and emerald eyes as bright as his mother’s, he was truly the Queen’s favourite from the first time he breathed the free air, and she refused the King’s warning to give him to the Jokers.
But that was when the curse started.
The Queen noticed that since the seventh day of Arthur’s birth, he became a girl when she first opened her eyes to feed him in the morning, and then turned back to her usual baby boy when the sunset had hide beneath. It was then when she realised that the curse was real, not just some bullshit fairytale that had long forgotten. Instead of worrying, she was overjoyed to discover such ability-and still refused to hear to the King, choosing to keep him the way he was.
But then came Arthur’s brother, Peter, and the King successfully spared him the same bitter fate his brother had, giving him away to the Jokers when the Queen didn’t notice. She cried and cried for days, but then realised that she still had Arthur (or Alicia), without knowing the agony she had inflicted to him.
His older brothers all hated him and they refused to call him both ‘Arthur’ or ‘Alicia’, instead choosing to mock-call him ‘A’ and never once acknowledged him as their brother, which Arthur really hated. The transformation when the dawn appeared and the dusk came always hurt him the most, and because that the Queen and King had announced him as ‘a baby girl’, she only had life as Princess Alicia Kirkland outside the castle.
That fact always tortured him the most. Why him, of all people? Why did he must suffer the bitter pain of the silly curse that was put to prevent the war, when he even didn’t take interest to take the throne?
He researched about the curse tirelessly-every second counted, browsing every book of magic he could found in every library he came across; the Spades, Clubs, Diamonds, and even Hearts, which was known for their powerful magic-to find a cure, anything to break the curse and found his effort worthless; there was no cases of the curses ever been recorded, thus until now, a cure was never to be found.
That was when the war against Spades for the Land of Heavens was declared, and a week later, Arthur found himself in the small, dirty cell, and he learnt the fact that he-as Alicia-had been kidnapped as a trade for the Lands of Heavens.
Fourteen Days with You | part 2.3/?
anonymous
February 4 2012, 16:12:59 UTC
But that was more than twelve hours ago, and now, as Arthur, he wandered on the streets of Hearts without the knowledge knowing where he was. He had dismantled all the jewelleries and the precious stones on his dress and traded them this morning for a bag of gold coins enough for at least until he reached the outskirts of Spades region, but he had doubted it. The skirt was proven to be a nuisance for walking, and he really wanted to change them, but he just couldn’t waste his money to just a simple matter like clothes.
So now he was, when the surroundings had dimmed their lights and the village alien to him had all gotten to sleep, he snatched a laundry hung on the cloth line and began stripping himself from the annoying dress before tossing it aside and quickly changed into the clothes he had just stolen.
Okay, royalties didn’t steal. They just borrowed them.
Unfortunately, he was caught in-the-act when he was just about to put the shirt above his head-a shout from distant that sent Arthur’s heart nearly leapt from his chest.
author!anon
anonymous
February 4 2012, 16:31:06 UTC
...this is why a!a shouldn't post in haste. Please forgive any double-posts and fail!paragraphs, or even typos even a!a checked the spellings before postings.. on side note, cookies for anon above who commented. thanks for it! Motivated me just fine to get lazy a!a here to continue. :) once again, thank you!
Fourteen Days with You | part 3.1/?
anonymous
February 8 2012, 10:21:27 UTC
“It’s been more than five days,” the Queen whined as she stomped around the Throne Room, pacing back and forth with her husband and children watching her doing so, with the Jack of Spades nearby. “My baby! My dear Alicia! You... You won’t abandon her, will you?” she threw a sharp glance at the King, hissing as she said so.
“Of course not,” the King had said, but his face remained flat and for once, everybody except the Queen looked at the tiredness in those eyes. “We have sent our notices to the Kingdoms and ask for their help to find... Alicia,” he hesitated before continuing. “Besides... Alicia had the Water with her. She will be fine as long as it remained in her.”
Scott, the oldest of the children finally spoke up. “... ‘had the Water’, huh?” he scoffed. “It doesn’t guarantee that... that abomination is safe,” he finished with a cruel sneer.
The Jack threw him a murderous glare. “Please do not address Arthur like that. He’s a fine young man,” he hissed in the defence for the youngest son.
“Oh please, Yao. Just because that child has the Water like you doesn’t mean that you have to defend... him like that,” Scott snapped back, glaring daggers at the Jack. The intensity seemed to wear off when the King sighed.
“Let’s just cut this off already. And please, I’m sure Alicia is safe wherever she is,” he said, reassuring his Queen once more. “All we have to do now is to prepare for the enemy to come.”
.
Bloody hell.
What the fuck, had he just being caught stealing clothes from the commoners? Arthur had just wanted to curse his own misfortune, with the stranger still eyeing him like he was sort of delicious prey.
With the help of the dim lights around, Arthur could at least see the stranger. He was tall and tan, very well built except the fact that his clothes were practically making him look larger than he should. He was wearing a pair of dark-rimmed spectacles, and Arthur could feel his blue eyes were piercing through him. His dirty blonde hair (probably because it was fairly dark) was wet with sweat with a cowlick stood in front, seemed undisturbed.
The stranger finally spoke, his voice calm but filled with curiosity. “Hey, what are you doing, dude? Stealing clothes? That’s so not cool!”
Arthur gave him a snarl. “Belt up, yank,” he said, irritated. Judging from the accent it seemed that the stranger was originated in the East of Spades. “I need those clothes to keep myself decent. Is it not good enough explanation?”
“Well you should just trade some with golds on the market like other people do,” he shrugged, before looking at Arthur once more and scrunched his eyebrows. “Hey, I think I have seen you before...” he said, stroking his chin absent-mindedly. “You’re not from here, aren’t you?”
Fourteen Days with You | part 3.2/?
anonymous
February 8 2012, 10:25:40 UTC
Arthur hesitated, thinking for a while. This stranger might be some sort of traveller, looking at those ragged clothes and dirty appearance-it seemed that he hadn’t bathed for several days at least-and a bag slumped on his broad shoulder. He could even be a travel company while Arthur searched the way back home to Spades. “I am from Spades,” he finally said, shaking his head slowly as he adjusted the clothing. “Some idiots kidnapped me several days ago but I managed to escape.”
“Oh? Well, I just heard that Princess Alicia from Spades is also kidnapped several days ago and is held somewhere in here,” the stranger inquired. “Well, I guess I’m mistaken. It turns out that they just kidnapped the wrong person, huh?” he laughed. “You’ve got a bit of her appearance.”
“I am not Princess Alicia,” Arthur spat bitterly, trying to mask the pang on his chest whenever someone addressed him as Alice. “But I really must find my way back home. Are you a traveller or some kind of that?”
“Huh, got it right. My name’s Alfred, by the way,” the stranger-Alfred nodded. “Gee, if you want some help, you can just ask for it. Is it so hard for you to say ‘please’?”
“Wanker,” Arthur hissed under his teeth. “Are you helping me or not?”
Alfred let out a chuckle. “Okay, okay! Don’t be so tense like that, dude, cheer up!” he assured. “I’m going to take you back to Spades, because I’m the hero! Remember that!”
Arthur couldn’t resist rolling his eyes in irritation.
“So! Should we be going now or wait until the sun rise? Also, it’s not good to travel on darkness like this!” Alfred finally said, adjusting the bundle on his shoulder before looking at Arthur.
The green-eyed man suddenly realised; he couldn’t let anyone know about his curse. It was one thing that his father-the King of Spades-always pressed the issue on him; to keep the dignity of the Spades royalties. Besides, Arthur didn’t want the other man to suffer from heart attack when he knew that Arthur could change gender so easily like that. “W-Wait!” he said, as Alfred began walking to search for an available inn for the night. “We should just...go now. I am sensitive to the... s-sun, so we can’t travel when the sun is up.” He finished off quite lamely, didn’t know how to make Alfred believed his story.
“Whoa, you mean, you’re like a vampire, or what?” Alfred scrunched his eyebrows again, but his eyes shone with pure humour when Arthur shot him a glare. “Got it, umm... So, what should I call you?”
“Arthur,” the other grunted softly. “Just call me Arthur.”
author!anon
anonymous
February 8 2012, 10:32:56 UTC
(Short and a bit choppy, I know. Anon is sorry for lateness and brings you a bit...bad news. Up until April, a!anon will be extremely busy so updates might vary between twice a week the fastest or once a fortnight the latest. I will manage at least once a week, though I can’t promise anything. :(
A bit explanation: the Cardverse AU I'm building is based on elemental magic depending on their emblem colour. For example, Hearts is red, so their magic focuses on Fire; Clubs is green, Earth; Diamonds is yellow; mainly Sky (sun, wind, etc); and Spades is blue, so Water.
Anon1: Haha, of course. I have to introduce Alfred as soon as the chance arrives. I hope this update will have appeared when you’re F5-ing! XD Anon2: Here’s the next update! :D Patience is golden, no? :3
Thank you for the comments! *a!a throws hearts at commenting/reading anons*)
Fourteen Days with You | part 4/?
anonymous
April 6 2012, 03:09:22 UTC
(Sorry for late + short update... OTL I've typed this for a while but the next part hasn't been finished yet, so I thought I should post a bit to tell that I'm not dead yet.)
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Alicia gripped her side as her other hand supported her against a dirty wall, the clothes she wore now slumped down a shoulder as she kneeled on the ground, watching the sky starting to brighten with orange-ish colour. She finally succeeded in convincing the man-Alfred, the handsome, charming traveler-to not ask her questions regarding her decision to walk during the night (which Alfred had never stopped making fun of). Now Alice bet that he was now snoring in the inn they managed to find before the sun rose, and she said that she would like to take a walk around, not caring at the strange look Alfred had given her.
She hugged herself, fingernails digging on her soft, pale skin to ease the pain of transformation. Even after years of living with the curse, she still hadn’t used to the pain that always invaded her entire system a few seconds after the transformation. She even didn’t know whether she was male or female-her life was a blur of those two.
When she had felt better, Alice stood up and began to adjust her now too-baggy clothes, folding her hands just under the breasts so they wouldn’t cause her more trouble before walking away from the place. Through the night, she and Alfred managed to walk several kilometres and discovered the Serion star, one of the Stars that always resided on the North-the Spades sky-that would help them determine the directions to Spades.
Alfred was obviously the most unprepared traveller Alice could ever think of. He barely had food supplies (just a few slices of mild-fragrant cheese Alice recognised as one of the Diamonds’ newest productions and several fire-grilled meats sandwiched between bread loafs; Alfred called them ‘burgers’. What kind of creation those abominations were? Alice even doubted that it was edible...), his compass didn’t work properly, and the worst, he didn’t have any map to help their journey. Alfred said that travellers always rely on their senses of direction and instinct, but like hell Alice would believe him.
And now, she just couldn’t walk during the day, while most people were most productive. There was no way someone couldn’t recognise her, even in other Kingdoms; she was always praised as the ‘young, beautiful, and brilliant princess’, and Alice was confident that even the commoners could recognise her in a blink of eye. But what could she do, anyway?
All now Alice could do was to wait until the sun set down before coming back to Alfred.
.
“Hey, dude? Where’re you going this whole day? I was searching for you on the town, you know!” Alfred complained when Arthur showed up at the evening, already making sure that the pain from the transformation had subsided before he went back. He really didn’t have the mood to walk through the night with cramped limbs and pained stomach, and he just clenched his teeth at Alfred.
“Oh, just shut up, will you?” Arthur waved him away and picked his belongings that Alfred had dropped on the ground. “Let’s go, we’re leaving now. Don’t waste more time.” He said simply, turning his back on Alfred and began walking towards the North. However, the other’s hand on his shoulder halted his movement. He turned around to see a sour-faced Alfred. “What is it now?”
“No... Wait, are you sure you’re not Princess Alicia?” Alfred furrowed his brows, as if thinking hard. “I just can’t shake the feeling that I’ve seen you somewhere before.”
Arthur swatted his hands away furiously. “How dare you?” he barked. “I will say this once again, and only once; I am not Princess Alicia, nor that is even your concern,” the sandy blonde turned away from Alfred, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to seep from the corner of his eyes. Why, why just couldn’t everyone address him as whom he was?This was the time when he regretted all things that had happened in his life.
Fourteen Days with You | part 4.2/?
anonymous
April 6 2012, 03:11:06 UTC
“Hey, hey, chill up. I’m just asking, that’s all,” Alfred panicked when he saw the shorter man’s eyes began to water. “I’m sorry. C-Come on, let’s just continue our journey. Spades is still far away,” Alfred picked Arthur’s belongings and offered to bring them. Arthur just shoved them without any more fusses and started walking several steps ahead of Alfred, refusing to face the bespectacled man and instead pointed his gaze towards the darkening sky, clear without the clouds and the Serion shining brightly, as if smiling to him and assured him that everything would be alright until he reached Spades.
Somehow, that did make Arthur a lot calmer.
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(Anon1: Yiiiiiiiiiipes. Forgive me for mistakes ;A; I didn’t recheck the chapters before I uploaded them here, and because I type it in such hurry... *bites fingers* I’ll make sure they’re all fixed if I decide to deanon this. :3 Thank you for the corrections and comment! Anon2: Thank you! :3 Oh, no, magic is like a ‘gift’ here. So only certain people own them, and very few could master it. Though I still have no idea how to make common people recognisable, oh... Let’s just leave it at your own explanation XD; Thanks for the comments (and thrown-back hearts, too! 8D)!)
With the first part up, updates will be fairly distant, but rest assured I’m going to finish [and with a chance of de-anon] this fill.
And I’ll think of a title later. Suggestions maybe?)
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Arthur panted harshly, his breath so heavy and his heart beat so fast he almost felt light-headed. Screams and curses were heard nearby, along with footsteps and orders barked around to search for the missing princess of Spades, who had been caught for the last few days to make the Kingdom of Spades surrender their most valuable Land of Heaven, the most fertile land in the entire world. There hadn’t been any news from the side of Spades, and by the dawn of the seventh day, if there weren’t any further news from them, the enemy had planned for force-marrying the princess and declare war to Spades.
Too bad their plans were now screwed up, Arthur thought as he smirked in victory when he heard the footsteps grew farther and farther, before peeking from behind the stone walls which provided him hiding place and went out to the flickering lights of fire lighting the dungeon. He hurried outside, looking left and right for eventual guards and when he found none, he ran out of his prison for the last few days as fast as he could.
The night was nearly out; the rays of sun had started to shine out behind the horizons, and it was just a matter of time until morning arrived. Arthur stopped running after a few hundreds of yards to catch his breath as he looked at the sun with known anticipation.
All of sudden, his entire body ached. He shuddered, feeling his torso caught in fire and his legs trembled as they lose their strength. He fell onto the ground and supported himself upon a nearby tree, waiting for his body to stop reacting.
It took a moment, but finally, he let out a shaky breath as he tried to lift himself from the ground; his messy, blonde-coloured hair fell softly on his now slenderer shoulder and slimmer torso. He looked up to see the sun finally got up from its hiding place, starting its job to brighten the world.
With a sigh, Arthur gathered his hair together and pulled them forward, tying them just above his shoulders in one neat tail. He shredded his skirt a bit to make it shorter and easier to walk with, and-after a bit consideration-used the shreds and tied it around his now enlarged chest for firmer support.
He started looking around. As a royalty member of Kingdom of Spades, he had visited the four main kingdoms in the world and explored even their deepest alleys and roads (he never liked being cooped inside for boring parties and match-making events), and he knew that the area surrounding him was not from the four kingdoms.
That left him with one possibility-he was held captive on the forbidden part of Hearts, which Ludwig, the King of Hearts himself said to be the place of the rebels, the once loyal men of Hearts with fire elemental so powerful they could destroy the entire world that now planning to tilt the balance on the other side for their own greed-the Land of Heavens which owned by Spades.
He sighed tiredly before standing up and tried to clear his mind before starting his journey home, which was separated more than five days of carriage trip-and that made it double because he travelled by feet.
Princess Alice Kirkland of Spades would just having the longest trip of her life home.
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(Note that not until the end of chapter I addressed UK as ‘she’ even though he had changed halfway, but this is only for the first part. On later, please pay attention to the time inquired so you won’t confuse ‘he’ and ‘she’ together as this fic heavily relies basically on timing and gender.)
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The people of Spades loved their princess.
As the only princess in Spades, Princess Alicia was one beauty. Of course, she wasn’t as beautiful as the young Queen of Diamonds, Lily Zwingli, or even the graceful but fierce-in-battlefield Queen of Clubs, Elizabeta, but the citizens could mind less.
She had the beauty of the heart.
Alice (she often scolded the villagers who titled her with ‘Princess’, ‘Your Majesty’; even she refused to be called as ‘Alicia’) always liked the fresh air of village and often got down to the outskirts of town herself, enjoying the company of her citizens and helping the housewives doing their jobs.
(Well, of course as a royalty she knew nothing about household jobs, and even she nearly burned down a house when she tried to cook, but the women didn’t really mind. Just trying to keep her stay away from the kitchen was enough.)
Princes and men from the four lands had come to get her hands on marriage, but still, she refused to take anyone’s offer. Alice even dared to slap the King of Diamonds, Francis Bonnefoy, when one day he came for annual Decks meeting and tried to flirt with her with the method which-to Alice herself-she found disgusting and very not honoured as a King. Since then, nobody really dared to mess with her. The people always respected her and they agreed to make her the next Queen, with or without King.
But behind those façades, there lied a bigger problem that the royal household of Spades never revealed to the public.
There was never any Princess Alicia Kirkland; there wasn’t even a princess in the beginning.There was a spell placed underneath every House in Cards, to which every of them must obey if they didn’t want the curse to fall upon their born child; a spell made by a contract between the fairies and the predecessors of Cards to control power inheritance and avoid war for the throne.
Each House of Cards, the pair of King and Queen, no matter their gender was, could only have three children as descendants and no more, so they could fit the three thrones at once; King, Queen, and Jack. It didn’t matter if they didn’t have the heir for the Queen or Jack chair, as long as they have the King, the Houses would run fine. If they ever had four, the youngest had to be given to the Jokers, who lived beneath the shadows of forests with the fairies and kept them away from public knowledge before they were revealed to the world after they reached the age of twelve, without knowing whom they really were.
And Alicia was the fourth child of the House of Spades.
He was born with the name Arthur Kirkland; with soft, sandy blonde hair adorning the top of his little head and emerald eyes as bright as his mother’s, he was truly the Queen’s favourite from the first time he breathed the free air, and she refused the King’s warning to give him to the Jokers.
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He was born with the name Arthur Kirkland; with soft, sandy blonde hair adorning the top of his little head and emerald eyes as bright as his mother’s, he was truly the Queen’s favourite from the first time he breathed the free air, and she refused the King’s warning to give him to the Jokers.
But that was when the curse started.
The Queen noticed that since the seventh day of Arthur’s birth, he became a girl when she first opened her eyes to feed him in the morning, and then turned back to her usual baby boy when the sunset had hide beneath. It was then when she realised that the curse was real, not just some bullshit fairytale that had long forgotten. Instead of worrying, she was overjoyed to discover such ability-and still refused to hear to the King, choosing to keep him the way he was.
But then came Arthur’s brother, Peter, and the King successfully spared him the same bitter fate his brother had, giving him away to the Jokers when the Queen didn’t notice. She cried and cried for days, but then realised that she still had Arthur (or Alicia), without knowing the agony she had inflicted to him.
His older brothers all hated him and they refused to call him both ‘Arthur’ or ‘Alicia’, instead choosing to mock-call him ‘A’ and never once acknowledged him as their brother, which Arthur really hated. The transformation when the dawn appeared and the dusk came always hurt him the most, and because that the Queen and King had announced him as ‘a baby girl’, she only had life as Princess Alicia Kirkland outside the castle.
That fact always tortured him the most. Why him, of all people? Why did he must suffer the bitter pain of the silly curse that was put to prevent the war, when he even didn’t take interest to take the throne?
He researched about the curse tirelessly-every second counted, browsing every book of magic he could found in every library he came across; the Spades, Clubs, Diamonds, and even Hearts, which was known for their powerful magic-to find a cure, anything to break the curse and found his effort worthless; there was no cases of the curses ever been recorded, thus until now, a cure was never to be found.
That was when the war against Spades for the Land of Heavens was declared, and a week later, Arthur found himself in the small, dirty cell, and he learnt the fact that he-as Alicia-had been kidnapped as a trade for the Lands of Heavens.
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But that was more than twelve hours ago, and now, as Arthur, he wandered on the streets of Hearts without the knowledge knowing where he was. He had dismantled all the jewelleries and the precious stones on his dress and traded them this morning for a bag of gold coins enough for at least until he reached the outskirts of Spades region, but he had doubted it. The skirt was proven to be a nuisance for walking, and he really wanted to change them, but he just couldn’t waste his money to just a simple matter like clothes.
So now he was, when the surroundings had dimmed their lights and the village alien to him had all gotten to sleep, he snatched a laundry hung on the cloth line and began stripping himself from the annoying dress before tossing it aside and quickly changed into the clothes he had just stolen.
Okay, royalties didn’t steal. They just borrowed them.
Unfortunately, he was caught in-the-act when he was just about to put the shirt above his head-a shout from distant that sent Arthur’s heart nearly leapt from his chest.
“Hey, what are you doing there?”
Oh, fuck.
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on side note, cookies for anon above who commented. thanks for it! Motivated me just fine to get lazy a!a here to continue. :)
once again, thank you!
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Poor Arthur; looks like his brothers would pester him even in any AUs :(
And, is that Alfred at the end ready to be his hero?
*F5s*
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“It’s been more than five days,” the Queen whined as she stomped around the Throne Room, pacing back and forth with her husband and children watching her doing so, with the Jack of Spades nearby. “My baby! My dear Alicia! You... You won’t abandon her, will you?” she threw a sharp glance at the King, hissing as she said so.
“Of course not,” the King had said, but his face remained flat and for once, everybody except the Queen looked at the tiredness in those eyes. “We have sent our notices to the Kingdoms and ask for their help to find... Alicia,” he hesitated before continuing. “Besides... Alicia had the Water with her. She will be fine as long as it remained in her.”
Scott, the oldest of the children finally spoke up. “... ‘had the Water’, huh?” he scoffed. “It doesn’t guarantee that... that abomination is safe,” he finished with a cruel sneer.
The Jack threw him a murderous glare. “Please do not address Arthur like that. He’s a fine young man,” he hissed in the defence for the youngest son.
“Oh please, Yao. Just because that child has the Water like you doesn’t mean that you have to defend... him like that,” Scott snapped back, glaring daggers at the Jack. The intensity seemed to wear off when the King sighed.
“Let’s just cut this off already. And please, I’m sure Alicia is safe wherever she is,” he said, reassuring his Queen once more. “All we have to do now is to prepare for the enemy to come.”
.
Bloody hell.
What the fuck, had he just being caught stealing clothes from the commoners? Arthur had just wanted to curse his own misfortune, with the stranger still eyeing him like he was sort of delicious prey.
With the help of the dim lights around, Arthur could at least see the stranger. He was tall and tan, very well built except the fact that his clothes were practically making him look larger than he should. He was wearing a pair of dark-rimmed spectacles, and Arthur could feel his blue eyes were piercing through him. His dirty blonde hair (probably because it was fairly dark) was wet with sweat with a cowlick stood in front, seemed undisturbed.
The stranger finally spoke, his voice calm but filled with curiosity. “Hey, what are you doing, dude? Stealing clothes? That’s so not cool!”
Arthur gave him a snarl. “Belt up, yank,” he said, irritated. Judging from the accent it seemed that the stranger was originated in the East of Spades. “I need those clothes to keep myself decent. Is it not good enough explanation?”
“Well you should just trade some with golds on the market like other people do,” he shrugged, before looking at Arthur once more and scrunched his eyebrows. “Hey, I think I have seen you before...” he said, stroking his chin absent-mindedly. “You’re not from here, aren’t you?”
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Arthur hesitated, thinking for a while. This stranger might be some sort of traveller, looking at those ragged clothes and dirty appearance-it seemed that he hadn’t bathed for several days at least-and a bag slumped on his broad shoulder. He could even be a travel company while Arthur searched the way back home to Spades. “I am from Spades,” he finally said, shaking his head slowly as he adjusted the clothing. “Some idiots kidnapped me several days ago but I managed to escape.”
“Oh? Well, I just heard that Princess Alicia from Spades is also kidnapped several days ago and is held somewhere in here,” the stranger inquired. “Well, I guess I’m mistaken. It turns out that they just kidnapped the wrong person, huh?” he laughed. “You’ve got a bit of her appearance.”
“I am not Princess Alicia,” Arthur spat bitterly, trying to mask the pang on his chest whenever someone addressed him as Alice. “But I really must find my way back home. Are you a traveller or some kind of that?”
“Huh, got it right. My name’s Alfred, by the way,” the stranger-Alfred nodded. “Gee, if you want some help, you can just ask for it. Is it so hard for you to say ‘please’?”
“Wanker,” Arthur hissed under his teeth. “Are you helping me or not?”
Alfred let out a chuckle. “Okay, okay! Don’t be so tense like that, dude, cheer up!” he assured. “I’m going to take you back to Spades, because I’m the hero! Remember that!”
Arthur couldn’t resist rolling his eyes in irritation.
“So! Should we be going now or wait until the sun rise? Also, it’s not good to travel on darkness like this!” Alfred finally said, adjusting the bundle on his shoulder before looking at Arthur.
The green-eyed man suddenly realised; he couldn’t let anyone know about his curse. It was one thing that his father-the King of Spades-always pressed the issue on him; to keep the dignity of the Spades royalties. Besides, Arthur didn’t want the other man to suffer from heart attack when he knew that Arthur could change gender so easily like that. “W-Wait!” he said, as Alfred began walking to search for an available inn for the night. “We should just...go now. I am sensitive to the... s-sun, so we can’t travel when the sun is up.” He finished off quite lamely, didn’t know how to make Alfred believed his story.
“Whoa, you mean, you’re like a vampire, or what?” Alfred scrunched his eyebrows again, but his eyes shone with pure humour when Arthur shot him a glare. “Got it, umm... So, what should I call you?”
“Arthur,” the other grunted softly. “Just call me Arthur.”
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A bit explanation: the Cardverse AU I'm building is based on elemental magic depending on their emblem colour. For example, Hearts is red, so their magic focuses on Fire; Clubs is green, Earth; Diamonds is yellow; mainly Sky (sun, wind, etc); and Spades is blue, so Water.
Anon1: Haha, of course. I have to introduce Alfred as soon as the chance arrives. I hope this update will have appeared when you’re F5-ing! XD
Anon2: Here’s the next update! :D Patience is golden, no? :3
Thank you for the comments! *a!a throws hearts at commenting/reading anons*)
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The rest is good, the use of elemental magic is interesting!
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I'm liking this so far! :D so Arthur has the 'Water' of Spades? And will it be specified which kingdom Alfred is from?
*catches hearts and throws back some at A!anon*
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(Sorry for late + short update... OTL I've typed this for a while but the next part hasn't been finished yet, so I thought I should post a bit to tell that I'm not dead yet.)
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Alicia gripped her side as her other hand supported her against a dirty wall, the clothes she wore now slumped down a shoulder as she kneeled on the ground, watching the sky starting to brighten with orange-ish colour. She finally succeeded in convincing the man-Alfred, the handsome, charming traveler-to not ask her questions regarding her decision to walk during the night (which Alfred had never stopped making fun of). Now Alice bet that he was now snoring in the inn they managed to find before the sun rose, and she said that she would like to take a walk around, not caring at the strange look Alfred had given her.
She hugged herself, fingernails digging on her soft, pale skin to ease the pain of transformation. Even after years of living with the curse, she still hadn’t used to the pain that always invaded her entire system a few seconds after the transformation. She even didn’t know whether she was male or female-her life was a blur of those two.
When she had felt better, Alice stood up and began to adjust her now too-baggy clothes, folding her hands just under the breasts so they wouldn’t cause her more trouble before walking away from the place. Through the night, she and Alfred managed to walk several kilometres and discovered the Serion star, one of the Stars that always resided on the North-the Spades sky-that would help them determine the directions to Spades.
Alfred was obviously the most unprepared traveller Alice could ever think of. He barely had food supplies (just a few slices of mild-fragrant cheese Alice recognised as one of the Diamonds’ newest productions and several fire-grilled meats sandwiched between bread loafs; Alfred called them ‘burgers’. What kind of creation those abominations were? Alice even doubted that it was edible...), his compass didn’t work properly, and the worst, he didn’t have any map to help their journey. Alfred said that travellers always rely on their senses of direction and instinct, but like hell Alice would believe him.
And now, she just couldn’t walk during the day, while most people were most productive. There was no way someone couldn’t recognise her, even in other Kingdoms; she was always praised as the ‘young, beautiful, and brilliant princess’, and Alice was confident that even the commoners could recognise her in a blink of eye. But what could she do, anyway?
All now Alice could do was to wait until the sun set down before coming back to Alfred.
.
“Hey, dude? Where’re you going this whole day? I was searching for you on the town, you know!” Alfred complained when Arthur showed up at the evening, already making sure that the pain from the transformation had subsided before he went back. He really didn’t have the mood to walk through the night with cramped limbs and pained stomach, and he just clenched his teeth at Alfred.
“Oh, just shut up, will you?” Arthur waved him away and picked his belongings that Alfred had dropped on the ground. “Let’s go, we’re leaving now. Don’t waste more time.” He said simply, turning his back on Alfred and began walking towards the North. However, the other’s hand on his shoulder halted his movement. He turned around to see a sour-faced Alfred. “What is it now?”
“No... Wait, are you sure you’re not Princess Alicia?” Alfred furrowed his brows, as if thinking hard. “I just can’t shake the feeling that I’ve seen you somewhere before.”
Arthur swatted his hands away furiously. “How dare you?” he barked. “I will say this once again, and only once; I am not Princess Alicia, nor that is even your concern,” the sandy blonde turned away from Alfred, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to seep from the corner of his eyes. Why, why just couldn’t everyone address him as whom he was?This was the time when he regretted all things that had happened in his life.
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“Hey, hey, chill up. I’m just asking, that’s all,” Alfred panicked when he saw the shorter man’s eyes began to water. “I’m sorry. C-Come on, let’s just continue our journey. Spades is still far away,” Alfred picked Arthur’s belongings and offered to bring them. Arthur just shoved them without any more fusses and started walking several steps ahead of Alfred, refusing to face the bespectacled man and instead pointed his gaze towards the darkening sky, clear without the clouds and the Serion shining brightly, as if smiling to him and assured him that everything would be alright until he reached Spades.
Somehow, that did make Arthur a lot calmer.
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(Anon1: Yiiiiiiiiiipes. Forgive me for mistakes ;A; I didn’t recheck the chapters before I uploaded them here, and because I type it in such hurry... *bites fingers* I’ll make sure they’re all fixed if I decide to deanon this. :3 Thank you for the corrections and comment!
Anon2: Thank you! :3 Oh, no, magic is like a ‘gift’ here. So only certain people own them, and very few could master it. Though I still have no idea how to make common people recognisable, oh... Let’s just leave it at your own explanation XD; Thanks for the comments (and thrown-back hearts, too! 8D)!)
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