Prince's Hand And Half of the Kingdom (4/?) [fanfiction]
Title: Prince's Hand And Half of the Kingdom
Author: marinoa
Characters/Pairings: England, France, Spain, Prussia, Romano. FrUK, hints of other(s?).
Rating: T
Summary: Having once refused to obey a frog, Prince Arthur is now forced to marry one. Both parties are unwilling, but even with the help of their friends, can they win against spells... and time? FrUK AU.
Author's note: Hello there, people! I'm here to inform you that I'm going abroad tomorrow for a couple of months, so I might not manage to update as neatly and frequently as I have till now. Anyway, stay with me (and wish me luck)! Now, on we go to the fourth chapter!
Prince's Hand And Half of the Kingdom
Chapter Four:
Brothers in Plots
“Prince Arthur! Sire!”
“I'm here, what is it?”
“Please do come with us, there is an issue you need to solve.”
“An issue?”
Arthur turned to close the door to his chambers that he had so hastily left on hearing the guards' calls and followed them towards the staircase. Another door in the same hallway, however, opened as they passed it, and no one else but Francis peeked out. “What's with the fuss?” he asked languidly, yet managing to sound as if he had just been bothered in a most rude manner.
“None of your-” Arthur started out of sheer habit, but one of the two guards leading the way stopped to bow his head shortly. “There seems to be rather a problematic situation going on there that only the Prince can solve, Milord. Of course, as his fiancé you are welcomed to join us.”
Arthur rolled his eyes but remembered that he was supposed to pretend starting to like Francis and shrugged. “Whatever, let's just go now, shall we?”
Arthur and Francis were led to a small hall, which was nearly empty save for some luxurious chairs. “This is where we accept visitors and those who wish to bring their disagreements to us to be solved,” the Englishman explained as Francis had looked around and raised his eyebrow questionably.
“So, what is it?” Arthur repeated his earlier question.
“I do not know, Sire, but that is to be corrected. They are brought here any minute.”
“They?”
As if to answer the Prince's question, distant voices coming from behind the closed oak doors reached the ears of the habitants of the hall. The voices approached rapidly, and the closer they got, the louder they became. Arthur frowned; there seemed to be a yelling contest being on, if the volume of the voices was anything to judge by.
Francis frowned, too, but for a different reason than the Prince. “Arthur, it's-” he started, but was abruptly cut off by the doors thrown wide open and a group of shouting men stumbling in; three prisoners and five guards. One of the captives was obediently following his guard, but four other guards were having a hard time with other two prisoners, who were constantly yelling alternately at each other and the guards holding them, wiggling to get free from their iron grips.
“Hands off me, I live in this fucking castle!”
“Hey, what, you live here? Then what's your problem with letting us in?”
“Shut the fuck up, you! Like hell I'm letting in any random strangers!”
“And I've told you a million times you daft that we are not some strangers and the fucking Prince and Francis are expe- Ouch, what the hell was that for, we are guests here!”
“Do not dare speak of our Prince in such cheap manner, you peasant!”
“Peasant! Is this called English hospitality, huh?”
“I told you to take your hands off me, you fucking retard! I live here!”
Arthur stared at the scene before him, totally dumbfounded. Curse him (as if he wasn't already) if it wasn't his stableman attempting to go and strangle one of his two new acquaintances who had recently helped him. Too speechless to react, Arthur just stared at squabbling Romano and Gilbert and smiling Antonio, who all seemed to ignore the Prince and his fiancé while the guards tried to calm them down. Shaking his head, Arthur caught a glimpse of Francis' face. The Frenchman was clearly attempting to hold back his laughter, with poor success. The Englishman watched as chuckles bubbled from that lean chest and mirth shined in the blue eyes as the Frenchman followed the scene before him. He is probably that happy to see them again, Arthur realised and instantly remembered that he was expected to say something.
“What is this, may I ask?” he asked matronly, raising his voice over the quarrel. It worked; Antonio moved his eyes from his fellow captives to Arthur and Francis, who were standing side by side, and let out a joyful cry.
“Hey, Francis, Arthur, good to see you!”
The Spaniard's voice made Gilbert notice other habitants in the hall as well, but his greeting wasn't as hearty as his friend's. “You two fuckers, what the hell is this your little stunt about?” he inquired, ignoring guards' angry exclamations. “And tell this little bastard over here that we told the truth and he's a real asshole!” he added, nodding towards angrily hissing Romano.
“What the hell is going on here?” Arthur asked sternly, but that was when Francis lost it and burst into laughter. And as laughter is the most contagious thing in the world, the Englishman couldn't help it and followed the Frenchman's example. All the stress and worry he had been enduing since he had been found by his knights was now releasing in form of laughter, and didn't it feel good! He felt Francis' hand landing on his shoulder for support, and unable to stop laughing, he leant against the Frenchman to prevent himself from collapsing.
Now it was guards' turn to be dumbfounded and they merely stared at their prince, waiting for orders about the captives. Being the carefree man he was, Antonio joined the laughter, but Gilbert and Romano weren't nearly as amused.
“Hey, you poor excuse of a prince, tell these shitheads to release me!” Romano shouted, Gilbert adding an angry “us”, and Arthur managed to pull himself together.
“Guards, release them,” he ordered, walking to one of the splendid chairs and sitting down. “Now, will you finally tell me what's going on? Romano, please start,” he added quickly as all three captives opened their mouths.
“I was going to the market but as soon as I opened the gate these two idiots marched in like fucking kings. I didn't allow them and that albino started a fight, which was when those useless guards came and captured us all despite my explanations.”
“We told you we are expected here but you put up a fight instead of letting us in,” Gilbert grumbled.
Arthur looked at one of the guards, who spoke. “When I arrived, those two were fighting and didn't obey the orders, but instead used unacceptable language and offered no appropriate explanations, so we brought them all here.”
“I see,” Arthur said seriously. “Well, Gilbert is right, he and Antonio were expected, for they... you see, they...” Suddenly the Prince's mind was out of believable excuses why the Prussian and the Spaniard would be truly expected; he couldn't just take random commoners in his castle without a reason. Yet he couldn't come up with any, not for the life of his. And he certainly couldn't just blurt out that actually the two had 'found' him just as much as Francis had - one fiancé to deal with was bloody enough for him!
Thankfully Francis chose that moment to prove himself useful. “Arthur, are those the two the new servants you told me about?”
Gilbert raised his pale eyebrow at the word 'servants' but fortunately realised it wasn't his place to complain. The Englishman's face, instead, brightened.
“Yes! Exactly, they are the awaited help in the castle.” And then Arthur fully realised how convenient it actually was; the two friends of Francis would be able to stay in the castle and help them with their plan, yet at the same time they could be useful and help with the work in the castle. Romano had long already complained how he had too much work for one person, and his brother totally needed someone to keep an eye on him so that he could complete his tasks without constantly getting in trouble due to his clumsiness.
“Gilbert, would you like to work at stables, or be the help of my groom?”
“Stables,” the Prussian said immediately, and Arthur was thankful he didn't start his 'I'm-too-awesome-for-this' sermon.
“Lovely,” he said, ignoring Romano's shocked face. “Antonio, is it okay for you to help my groom?”
“Sure!” the Spaniard replied happily. “Isn't it nice, Gilbert? I told you we'd make it.”
“Splendid,” Arthur said a bit dryly. “Now, go and make yourself at home. We'll meet you with Francis after dinner. For... further instructions. Now,” Arthur looked at one of the guards, “Would you escort Antonio to Veneziano and show him his chamber? Thank you. Romano, take Gilbert to stables.”
“Over my dead body,” the Italian answered through his gritted teeth. “I'm not letting him in my stables!”
“What?” Gilbert asked. “Is he a stableman, too?”
“Shut up, Romano,” Arthur said. “You are always complaining you can't manage alone. Here, you have your help. And Gilbert, either you help Romano or devastate waste - that place is always open.”
“Stop grumbling, Gil!” Antonio smiled. “Come on, this will be fun... And he's really cute, so you don't have a single reason to complain!”
Grumbling and gritting their teeth, Romano and Gilbert disappeared to one direction, while Antonio and his escort went to the other. The rest of the guards dissolved, too, of Arthur's request, and so the Englishman and the Frenchman were left alone. Francis moved to sit beside Arthur on another chair and grinned. “And here I was wondering how I could get in touch with them again,” he said heartily. “You can always trust for them to show up when you expect it the least.”
“Right,” Arthur responded. “They can help us with our plan. Now that Gilbert is a stableman, he can arrange us horses if we need them without others knowing, and Antonio, as my groom, can distract people or cover us up when needed.”
“Hmm,” Francis said as they heard a bell announcing the dinner to be served. “Speaking of which, I haven't yet seen this Veneziano. You say he is Romano's brother?”
“Yeah, why?”
Francis chuckled. “You expose these two brothers to a great danger, you know. If Veneziano is even half as cute as Romano, Antonio will be all over him.”
“In that case Romano will be kicking his ass. He is protective over his brother.”
Francis smirked. “Perhaps... if Gilbert will give him time. Didn't you see how sparks flew between them?”
“No,” Arthur answered nonchalantly. “How could I forget what a perverted trio you were..?” he muttered to himself and Francis winked. “We are called the Bad Touch Trio for a reason,” he said suggestively.
“Really, now. What a silly name. Did you come up with it yourselves?”
Francis raised his eyebrow. “Doesn't seem to me that you are starting to like me,” he pointed out teasingly.
“There's nobody watching.”
“You never know,” Francis said with a shrug. “During dinner, however, there will be. So get your ass off that chair and show me where the dining hall is.”
xXx
“So what the fuck is going on here?”
All four, Arthur, Francis, Antonio and Gilbert, had occupied Arthur's bedchamber and were sitting at a table, the two latter ones observing the Englishman - or so it seemed to him. Arthur shifted slightly uncomfortably; the situation was like a parody of Francis introducing him as his boyfriend to his family that eyed him critically from head to toe to see if he was suitable partner for their precious Frenchman. “Well, as you can probably see, we are, err...”
“Well yeah, we can totally see,” Gilbert uttered, crossing his arms over his chest with a hurt look on his face. “We see that you two dumped us on a road to run off to this freaking castle to live your rich and happy ending as if we,” The Prussian bored accusingly his eyes into Francis' and gestured between the Frenchman, Antonio and himself, “didn't even exist!”
“That's exaggerating,” Antonio commented, the sharp gleam in his eyes that Arthur had briefly noted on their first meeting now evident. “I think it's Arthur's fault for not telling the truth to us.”
“Stop dramatising, Gilbert,” Francis said calmly. “That's not how it is and you know it, though I, too, am a little discontented about Arthur hiding rather important secrets from us.”
Oh, fantastic, blame it all on him! Now there were three pairs of eyes instead of two glaring at the Englishman in rather an accusing way; the trio was clearly tightly knit and would not stand against one another. Arthur met the gazes proudly, lips tightly glued together; now it was his turn to be a little hurt. If those three men didn't understand that it wasn't safe for a royal to give himself away to complete strangers, he didn't have to explain anything to them. If they wanted to hate him so bad, he would make it easier for them and act like the proud prince he was.
“Fine, fine,” Francis, surprisingly, chuckled at the Englishman's expression (as if there was something funny about it!). “I suppose we cannot really blame you for that.”
Antonio shrugged and smiled again and Gilbert regained his own relaxed self. He leant back in his chair and stretched. “Yeah whatever. But you still haven't explained us what happened!”
And so Francis explained everything that had happened from the moment the knights had found them till their fabulous escape plan. The two newly arrived fellows listened more or less carefully, making inappropriate comments every now and then and laughing their heads off at Arthur's mortified and Francis' blasé expressions.
“Oh come on!” Arthur finally snapped at them after a particularly lewd comment. “We only have to fake a little affection once in a while and that's that!”
“Of course,” Antonio smiled innocently. “But that's not enough. You need somebody to spread the rumours.”
Francis just couldn't stop himself from laughing at his friend then, but Arthur was, due to the generally unusual circumstances, just a bit too slow to catch the meaning behind the Spaniard's words. “The?” he asked.
Gilbert grinned and leant with overly scandalised look to Antonio, whispering loud enough for everybody to hear, “Did you hear, Toni? Last night I saw the Prince sneaking into his Frenchman's chambers!”
“Enough joking!” Arthur started, furious and ears scarlet, but Francis interrupted. “No, that's actually a very good idea. One of us should definitely sneak into the other's room a couple of times. Rumours of that kind are truly way more effective than what we could ever show in public. Not yet though,” he added and smiled to Arthur, who sighed and rubbed his temples. “Hell, this is... troublesome.”
“So, what else are we to do in addition to working and gossiping?”
Arthur shrugged. “As a stableman, you can equip the horses when the time is right without Romano or anybody else knowing. As a groom, Antonio can mislead Veneziano and others if we have to meet secretly in private. Aside that... make yourself useful. But remember, even though this is not some pompous, ridiculously etiquette-filled Frenchie court,” Arthur was that close to sticking his tongue out at the Frenchman out of sheer malicious delight, “you are considered servants, thus we can't really meet or chat openly.”
“Nah, we are awesome enough to be sneaky without anyone noticing.” The Prussian grinned and lounged his hand to hang in the air between the four men. “We will get Francis and ourselves out of here successfully. For the awesome plotters!”
Francis and Antonio immediately clasped their hands onto the Prussian's and looked expectantly at bewildered Arthur. “Come on, join in!” Francis urged him, and rolling his eyes, Arthur placed his hand on top of Antonio's, but not before reminding, “Remember, not a soul must know.”
“Great,” Gilbert grinned. “Too bad we don't have anything to drink... this is a bit lame without it.”
This time even Arthur gave a laughter along with the others.
X
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Author: marinoa
Characters/Pairings: England, France, Spain, Prussia, Romano. FrUK, hints of other(s?).
Rating: T
Summary: Having once refused to obey a frog, Prince Arthur is now forced to marry one. Both parties are unwilling, but even with the help of their friends, can they win against spells... and time? FrUK AU.
Author's note: Hello there, people! I'm here to inform you that I'm going abroad tomorrow for a couple of months, so I might not manage to update as neatly and frequently as I have till now. Anyway, stay with me (and wish me luck)! Now, on we go to the fourth chapter!
Prince's Hand And Half of the Kingdom
Chapter Four:
Brothers in Plots
“Prince Arthur! Sire!”
“I'm here, what is it?”
“Please do come with us, there is an issue you need to solve.”
“An issue?”
Arthur turned to close the door to his chambers that he had so hastily left on hearing the guards' calls and followed them towards the staircase. Another door in the same hallway, however, opened as they passed it, and no one else but Francis peeked out. “What's with the fuss?” he asked languidly, yet managing to sound as if he had just been bothered in a most rude manner.
“None of your-” Arthur started out of sheer habit, but one of the two guards leading the way stopped to bow his head shortly. “There seems to be rather a problematic situation going on there that only the Prince can solve, Milord. Of course, as his fiancé you are welcomed to join us.”
Arthur rolled his eyes but remembered that he was supposed to pretend starting to like Francis and shrugged. “Whatever, let's just go now, shall we?”
Arthur and Francis were led to a small hall, which was nearly empty save for some luxurious chairs. “This is where we accept visitors and those who wish to bring their disagreements to us to be solved,” the Englishman explained as Francis had looked around and raised his eyebrow questionably.
“So, what is it?” Arthur repeated his earlier question.
“I do not know, Sire, but that is to be corrected. They are brought here any minute.”
“They?”
As if to answer the Prince's question, distant voices coming from behind the closed oak doors reached the ears of the habitants of the hall. The voices approached rapidly, and the closer they got, the louder they became. Arthur frowned; there seemed to be a yelling contest being on, if the volume of the voices was anything to judge by.
Francis frowned, too, but for a different reason than the Prince. “Arthur, it's-” he started, but was abruptly cut off by the doors thrown wide open and a group of shouting men stumbling in; three prisoners and five guards. One of the captives was obediently following his guard, but four other guards were having a hard time with other two prisoners, who were constantly yelling alternately at each other and the guards holding them, wiggling to get free from their iron grips.
“Hands off me, I live in this fucking castle!”
“Hey, what, you live here? Then what's your problem with letting us in?”
“Shut the fuck up, you! Like hell I'm letting in any random strangers!”
“And I've told you a million times you daft that we are not some strangers and the fucking Prince and Francis are expe- Ouch, what the hell was that for, we are guests here!”
“Do not dare speak of our Prince in such cheap manner, you peasant!”
“Peasant! Is this called English hospitality, huh?”
“I told you to take your hands off me, you fucking retard! I live here!”
Arthur stared at the scene before him, totally dumbfounded. Curse him (as if he wasn't already) if it wasn't his stableman attempting to go and strangle one of his two new acquaintances who had recently helped him. Too speechless to react, Arthur just stared at squabbling Romano and Gilbert and smiling Antonio, who all seemed to ignore the Prince and his fiancé while the guards tried to calm them down. Shaking his head, Arthur caught a glimpse of Francis' face. The Frenchman was clearly attempting to hold back his laughter, with poor success. The Englishman watched as chuckles bubbled from that lean chest and mirth shined in the blue eyes as the Frenchman followed the scene before him. He is probably that happy to see them again, Arthur realised and instantly remembered that he was expected to say something.
“What is this, may I ask?” he asked matronly, raising his voice over the quarrel. It worked; Antonio moved his eyes from his fellow captives to Arthur and Francis, who were standing side by side, and let out a joyful cry.
“Hey, Francis, Arthur, good to see you!”
The Spaniard's voice made Gilbert notice other habitants in the hall as well, but his greeting wasn't as hearty as his friend's. “You two fuckers, what the hell is this your little stunt about?” he inquired, ignoring guards' angry exclamations. “And tell this little bastard over here that we told the truth and he's a real asshole!” he added, nodding towards angrily hissing Romano.
“What the hell is going on here?” Arthur asked sternly, but that was when Francis lost it and burst into laughter. And as laughter is the most contagious thing in the world, the Englishman couldn't help it and followed the Frenchman's example. All the stress and worry he had been enduing since he had been found by his knights was now releasing in form of laughter, and didn't it feel good! He felt Francis' hand landing on his shoulder for support, and unable to stop laughing, he leant against the Frenchman to prevent himself from collapsing.
Now it was guards' turn to be dumbfounded and they merely stared at their prince, waiting for orders about the captives. Being the carefree man he was, Antonio joined the laughter, but Gilbert and Romano weren't nearly as amused.
“Hey, you poor excuse of a prince, tell these shitheads to release me!” Romano shouted, Gilbert adding an angry “us”, and Arthur managed to pull himself together.
“Guards, release them,” he ordered, walking to one of the splendid chairs and sitting down. “Now, will you finally tell me what's going on? Romano, please start,” he added quickly as all three captives opened their mouths.
“I was going to the market but as soon as I opened the gate these two idiots marched in like fucking kings. I didn't allow them and that albino started a fight, which was when those useless guards came and captured us all despite my explanations.”
“We told you we are expected here but you put up a fight instead of letting us in,” Gilbert grumbled.
Arthur looked at one of the guards, who spoke. “When I arrived, those two were fighting and didn't obey the orders, but instead used unacceptable language and offered no appropriate explanations, so we brought them all here.”
“I see,” Arthur said seriously. “Well, Gilbert is right, he and Antonio were expected, for they... you see, they...” Suddenly the Prince's mind was out of believable excuses why the Prussian and the Spaniard would be truly expected; he couldn't just take random commoners in his castle without a reason. Yet he couldn't come up with any, not for the life of his. And he certainly couldn't just blurt out that actually the two had 'found' him just as much as Francis had - one fiancé to deal with was bloody enough for him!
Thankfully Francis chose that moment to prove himself useful. “Arthur, are those the two the new servants you told me about?”
Gilbert raised his pale eyebrow at the word 'servants' but fortunately realised it wasn't his place to complain. The Englishman's face, instead, brightened.
“Yes! Exactly, they are the awaited help in the castle.” And then Arthur fully realised how convenient it actually was; the two friends of Francis would be able to stay in the castle and help them with their plan, yet at the same time they could be useful and help with the work in the castle. Romano had long already complained how he had too much work for one person, and his brother totally needed someone to keep an eye on him so that he could complete his tasks without constantly getting in trouble due to his clumsiness.
“Gilbert, would you like to work at stables, or be the help of my groom?”
“Stables,” the Prussian said immediately, and Arthur was thankful he didn't start his 'I'm-too-awesome-for-this' sermon.
“Lovely,” he said, ignoring Romano's shocked face. “Antonio, is it okay for you to help my groom?”
“Sure!” the Spaniard replied happily. “Isn't it nice, Gilbert? I told you we'd make it.”
“Splendid,” Arthur said a bit dryly. “Now, go and make yourself at home. We'll meet you with Francis after dinner. For... further instructions. Now,” Arthur looked at one of the guards, “Would you escort Antonio to Veneziano and show him his chamber? Thank you. Romano, take Gilbert to stables.”
“Over my dead body,” the Italian answered through his gritted teeth. “I'm not letting him in my stables!”
“What?” Gilbert asked. “Is he a stableman, too?”
“Shut up, Romano,” Arthur said. “You are always complaining you can't manage alone. Here, you have your help. And Gilbert, either you help Romano or devastate waste - that place is always open.”
“Stop grumbling, Gil!” Antonio smiled. “Come on, this will be fun... And he's really cute, so you don't have a single reason to complain!”
Grumbling and gritting their teeth, Romano and Gilbert disappeared to one direction, while Antonio and his escort went to the other. The rest of the guards dissolved, too, of Arthur's request, and so the Englishman and the Frenchman were left alone. Francis moved to sit beside Arthur on another chair and grinned. “And here I was wondering how I could get in touch with them again,” he said heartily. “You can always trust for them to show up when you expect it the least.”
“Right,” Arthur responded. “They can help us with our plan. Now that Gilbert is a stableman, he can arrange us horses if we need them without others knowing, and Antonio, as my groom, can distract people or cover us up when needed.”
“Hmm,” Francis said as they heard a bell announcing the dinner to be served. “Speaking of which, I haven't yet seen this Veneziano. You say he is Romano's brother?”
“Yeah, why?”
Francis chuckled. “You expose these two brothers to a great danger, you know. If Veneziano is even half as cute as Romano, Antonio will be all over him.”
“In that case Romano will be kicking his ass. He is protective over his brother.”
Francis smirked. “Perhaps... if Gilbert will give him time. Didn't you see how sparks flew between them?”
“No,” Arthur answered nonchalantly. “How could I forget what a perverted trio you were..?” he muttered to himself and Francis winked. “We are called the Bad Touch Trio for a reason,” he said suggestively.
“Really, now. What a silly name. Did you come up with it yourselves?”
Francis raised his eyebrow. “Doesn't seem to me that you are starting to like me,” he pointed out teasingly.
“There's nobody watching.”
“You never know,” Francis said with a shrug. “During dinner, however, there will be. So get your ass off that chair and show me where the dining hall is.”
xXx
“So what the fuck is going on here?”
All four, Arthur, Francis, Antonio and Gilbert, had occupied Arthur's bedchamber and were sitting at a table, the two latter ones observing the Englishman - or so it seemed to him. Arthur shifted slightly uncomfortably; the situation was like a parody of Francis introducing him as his boyfriend to his family that eyed him critically from head to toe to see if he was suitable partner for their precious Frenchman. “Well, as you can probably see, we are, err...”
“Well yeah, we can totally see,” Gilbert uttered, crossing his arms over his chest with a hurt look on his face. “We see that you two dumped us on a road to run off to this freaking castle to live your rich and happy ending as if we,” The Prussian bored accusingly his eyes into Francis' and gestured between the Frenchman, Antonio and himself, “didn't even exist!”
“That's exaggerating,” Antonio commented, the sharp gleam in his eyes that Arthur had briefly noted on their first meeting now evident. “I think it's Arthur's fault for not telling the truth to us.”
“Stop dramatising, Gilbert,” Francis said calmly. “That's not how it is and you know it, though I, too, am a little discontented about Arthur hiding rather important secrets from us.”
Oh, fantastic, blame it all on him! Now there were three pairs of eyes instead of two glaring at the Englishman in rather an accusing way; the trio was clearly tightly knit and would not stand against one another. Arthur met the gazes proudly, lips tightly glued together; now it was his turn to be a little hurt. If those three men didn't understand that it wasn't safe for a royal to give himself away to complete strangers, he didn't have to explain anything to them. If they wanted to hate him so bad, he would make it easier for them and act like the proud prince he was.
“Fine, fine,” Francis, surprisingly, chuckled at the Englishman's expression (as if there was something funny about it!). “I suppose we cannot really blame you for that.”
Antonio shrugged and smiled again and Gilbert regained his own relaxed self. He leant back in his chair and stretched. “Yeah whatever. But you still haven't explained us what happened!”
And so Francis explained everything that had happened from the moment the knights had found them till their fabulous escape plan. The two newly arrived fellows listened more or less carefully, making inappropriate comments every now and then and laughing their heads off at Arthur's mortified and Francis' blasé expressions.
“Oh come on!” Arthur finally snapped at them after a particularly lewd comment. “We only have to fake a little affection once in a while and that's that!”
“Of course,” Antonio smiled innocently. “But that's not enough. You need somebody to spread the rumours.”
Francis just couldn't stop himself from laughing at his friend then, but Arthur was, due to the generally unusual circumstances, just a bit too slow to catch the meaning behind the Spaniard's words. “The?” he asked.
Gilbert grinned and leant with overly scandalised look to Antonio, whispering loud enough for everybody to hear, “Did you hear, Toni? Last night I saw the Prince sneaking into his Frenchman's chambers!”
“Enough joking!” Arthur started, furious and ears scarlet, but Francis interrupted. “No, that's actually a very good idea. One of us should definitely sneak into the other's room a couple of times. Rumours of that kind are truly way more effective than what we could ever show in public. Not yet though,” he added and smiled to Arthur, who sighed and rubbed his temples. “Hell, this is... troublesome.”
“So, what else are we to do in addition to working and gossiping?”
Arthur shrugged. “As a stableman, you can equip the horses when the time is right without Romano or anybody else knowing. As a groom, Antonio can mislead Veneziano and others if we have to meet secretly in private. Aside that... make yourself useful. But remember, even though this is not some pompous, ridiculously etiquette-filled Frenchie court,” Arthur was that close to sticking his tongue out at the Frenchman out of sheer malicious delight, “you are considered servants, thus we can't really meet or chat openly.”
“Nah, we are awesome enough to be sneaky without anyone noticing.” The Prussian grinned and lounged his hand to hang in the air between the four men. “We will get Francis and ourselves out of here successfully. For the awesome plotters!”
Francis and Antonio immediately clasped their hands onto the Prussian's and looked expectantly at bewildered Arthur. “Come on, join in!” Francis urged him, and rolling his eyes, Arthur placed his hand on top of Antonio's, but not before reminding, “Remember, not a soul must know.”
“Great,” Gilbert grinned. “Too bad we don't have anything to drink... this is a bit lame without it.”
This time even Arthur gave a laughter along with the others.
X
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