For this Chapter:

Character(s): England(/America), France/Liechtenstein, Japan, Hungary(/Austria I guess), China

Rating: K+

Warning(s): a few instances of bad language

Summary: The Queen is crowned.

A/N: To people who skim-read; you're missing the important details yo. There are also a lot of letters in this chapter, and there's going to be a lot of letters in subsequent chapters, because a lot of the letters are important to the story. Enjoy, my lovelies~!

Chapter Four: Royal Cotillion

Royal Cotillion (n): a game played with two decks of 52 playing cards, in which the two pairs of King and Queen of each suit make up the cotillion. It is so named because if the game is won, each quadrille of royal cards is shown together.

Dearest Erzsébet,

I know we are both still in the Spades Palace, but I felt it high time I sent you another letter. There is something secretive and feminine about it all, sending letters whilst in the same building, don't you think? It would be nice if we could send letters like this all the time, but our kingdoms are too far apart, I suppose.

But there was a reason for this missive! I wished to ask you of your opinion of Arthur, if you would be willing to share your thoughts on him. He is a very handsome man – not as handsome as my Francis, of course! – and I wonder if he had someone before he came to his throne. The maids assigned to our quarters keep gossiping as they help me get ready in the morning (Francis doesn't like them much; he turns his nose up and calls them very rude things I don't think they understand, which is probably a good thing! I like Arthur and Alfred a lot, and I don't think they'd like hearing their staff was being insulted. I know I wouldn't like it very much if someone came to our palace and insulted my maids!) But anyway! They say that Arthur is having a hard time settling in. They don't think he wants to be here.

I don't think any of us really want to be the Cards we've been chosen to become, but he has been thrust into it and I think he's lost people that were very important to him. He had this look on his face when I spoke to him privately, as though he were about to cry, and it hurt to think that he is still grieving the loss of someone so important to him.

Do you think there is anything we can do for him? I'd like him to be happy and he seems so sad.

Oh! Francis is here to take me to breakfast, I'd best sign off!

All the best,

Lili

Arthur was late to breakfast, which wasn't entirely surprising, considering he had to return from the Lower Town and change into suitable attire. His maid had been going spare when he wasn't in his bed, and he tells her that he had simply gone for a walk down to the lake, honestly, you'd think he'd abdicated the way the palace was carrying on! She didn't believe him, but of course she didn't, and he persuaded her to go and run him a bath so he could hide the map where they'd never find it. For now, it was in a locked box with a pendant and ring, but he'd see about having a secret drawer installed for more permanent hiding.

By the time he was ready to go downstairs to breakfast, Alfred was just as mad as the rest of the house, pacing back and forth and waving a bread roll about as though it had personally offended him. Arthur stepped into his route and had to brace himself so when Alfred inevitably bumped into him, he wasn't knocked on his arse.

Rolling his eyes, he shoved Alfred – not as hard as he could have, admittedly – back to his seat and took his own between Alfred and the Jack of Hearts. They'd rearranged this morning, and it put him opposite Francis, who seemed to delight in making rude faces at him from across the table.

Kiku,

She sent me a letter this morning, though I am only telling you now as this is the first opportunity I have had to do so. I apologise for being rude throughout the course of the day, but I worried I might tell you and the wrong ears might hear. It is not anything particularly worrisome – she hasn't made any mention of her illnesses, which worries me as much as it calms my soul.

I worry she is going to be too far beyond our reach soon.

She may send you a letter soon, asking after your opinion of Arthur, though I have no idea how to respond. There is no opinion of the man to give, other than an account of his rudeness and cowardice, but I have seen the same sadness in him that Lili has. The letter said she wants to find a way to make him happy, and I doubt that it is possible to do that without giving him back what he lost.

I must admit, I am beginning to fear for the worst.

Erzsébet.

'Did I miss the plan for today?' Arthur asked, when breakfast was over.

Alfred looked at him.

'Yeah,' he said after a moment's silence. 'Yao started talking about the plans for the ball. We have to learn to dance.'

'Are you jokin'? What makes 'im think I know how t' dance?'

Alfred grinned and nudged him with an elbow. 'That's why we're having lessons, sailor.'

'Don't be rude.'

Kiku,

It's been a while since I sent you a letter and I apologise! I miss taking tea with you dreadfully, and I apologise for falling asleep in the sunroom when we finally had a chance to do so! It's just, this winter has been utterly dreadful and I haven't been able to do a single thing the entire time. My King and brother have had to do everything I should be doing as Queen and it is so unfair on them!

Oh, but enough about me!

I have a question for you, if you'll permit me to ask it.

What do you think of Arthur?

He is so very sad, and it hurts, in my heart, to think that one day, Francis could lose me as Arthur has lost his love, and I worry that maybe he might be in the place Francis will go to. Do you think it possible? That we might never know an Arthur not wracked by guilt?

Please, if you would, give me your opinion of him, as honest as you wish to be.

I would like to make him as happy as I can, but I can't think of a way to do so!

How do you make such a sad man happy?

I'd best sign off, I'm terribly sorry. There is so much to do!

All the best,

Lili.

The instructors had taught their predecessors, and it showed. Arthur was an insubordinate little shit by nature, but Alfred had known them for several years, and the differences in their attitudes were driving the doddering old fools insane.

'Arthur, you must take the role of the Queen!' the woman would snap, and Arthur would sneer at Alfred's tie as he stepped back to allow the King to lead.

'Why should I?' he grumbled as he went to the table where Yao had had a light lunch set up for them to eat as they danced. 'I'm not fit for it.'

Alfred nudged him with his elbow and told him it would be alright.

Erzsébet,

You have nothing to apologise for. I understand.

Lili has sent me a letter too, and it contains much of what yours did.

I will think on it and reply to her.

Kiku

'Alfred, you're steppin' on my feet!'

'Then get them out of the way! It's not hard, old-timer.'

Arthur glared, but otherwise ignored him, doing his best to follow the steps he'd been shown a dozen times over.

Kiku,

No you won't you little liar. You won't reply at all, because you never do.

Erzsébet

Neither Alfred nor Arthur was particularly good at dancing, but after they'd trodden on each other's toes a hundred times, they eventually became passable at the rudimentary version of the cotillion they were meant to dance with the other royals.

'Can you imagine Kiku dancin' that?' Arthur asked as they sat to one side to watch their tutors doing it again.

'Not really,' Alfred said, grinning a little. 'I wonder if Lili can do it. She's far too small to be able to do the steps, surely.'

'Aye,' Arthur sighed. 'She might know the steps, but I doubt she can do 'em.'

'That's sad.'

Erzsébet,

I might.

Kiku.

Alfred insisted they practice as often as they could. Well, it was Alfred that insisted it, but Arthur would be willing to bet that Yao had been on the King's back about it all, and nagged until Alfred turned to Arthur for help.

The Jack had a point in his nagging, he supposed. As the new King and Queen of Spades, there would be a thousand eyes on them when they went to dance their first dance following Arthur's coronation, the occasion for which the ball had been scheduled.

(Not that anyone had thought to tell Arthur this, and he wondered whether they'd been intending to keep it from him until he was sat on the throne with the crown atop his head.)

It wouldn't do for them to show the kingdom up by being bad at the courtly nuances. Dancing was such a frivolous pastime, Arthur would think to himself as he cupped his hand to slot against Alfred's and rested his other on the taller man's shoulder, one for the weak-minded and the physical cowards, but if needs must, then he would do as the Devil bid and dance.

Even if Alfred standing on his feet again did make him want to run the bastard through.

Lili,

I apologise for taking so long to reply to your letter. I wished to have the correct response for you, and making an opinion on a man I have not known for long is a difficult task to do. I hope you will forgive me.

It is my belief that Arthur is, as you said in your letter, haunted by his past. I cannot say what happened to him, for I do not know, and I do not believe that he would tell me, were I to ask now or in a decade when we tell each other all we might wish to know. Whatever tragedy befell him, or whatever ghost walks at his side, it is there to stay, and I do not believe that there is anything you can do for him, or if there is, it is something that will not work in an instant.

He is grieving, Queen Diamond. Let him do so. When he is ready to be forgiven for his crimes, he will seek out the one that can grant him the salvation he seeks.

If you continue being as you are, you may be able to convince him to open up to you. But do not try to force it; you will only force him into a solitude he has surely felt every day since his tragedy.

Kiku

Lili asked Arthur to attend her dressmaking sessions, along with the other Queens. Part of Arthur, as he watched the dressmaker huff and pin a fold of silk to closer fit Lili's frame, wondered why he was here; after all, it wasn't as though the dressmaker would be able to make Arthur's clothes any more than she'd be able to make Kiku's robes.

(They had to call in someone from Kiku's home especially for the new outfit, and Kiku was refusing to part with the nature of his costume, which Arthur could not decide to be either nervousness or a desire to keep the surprise. It was probably neither, and just severe privacy boundaries a mile wide. That seemed more Kiku's style.)

All it really did, though, was make the three Queens distinctly uncomfortable. Of course, they understood that Lili was trying to include them in the process simply to spend time with them, but all it did was remind them that she was one more skipped meal from a more permanent collapse than a simple case of shaky knees.

Arthur tried to explain his worries to Alfred as they sat on the steps late one night a few days after the first dressmaking session, but Alfred seemed to be under the impression that Lili's illness was temporary at best. Arthur decided to chalk it up to blind optimism.

His King would not be so foolish as to not realise the seriousness of her illness. He would make sure of that, even if he had to tutor him himself.

Kiku,

That wasn't very helpful. Meanie.

All the best,

Lili

When Kiku's kimono maker arrived, he disappeared from Lili's dressmaking sessions, and soon it was just Erzsébet, Yao having tracked Arthur down to drag him to a tailor for his own costume fittings.

The man was so highly strung; Arthur wondered how he hadn't ruptured something.

'I still 'ave my old coat,' he said, knowing full well it was in his wardrobe and not allowing anyone to get rid of it. 'Why can't I jus' wear that?'

'Because,' Yao said, circling his Queen as he stood there on the stool looking like an idiot. 'There will be people at that ball who have probably seen you in it before. Let's not have a fight break out the night you're coroneted because of your past. Can we do that?'

Arthur, standing there in unstitched breeches (and thank God he had no modesty to lose) just looked at him.

'Yao, please. Your worries should be on makin' sure the Queen o' Diamonds doesn't faint in that monstrosity of a dress she's got, not worryin' about whether I can look after myself.'

'Someone has to worry about you,' Yao snapped, and stomped off towards the doors. 'God knows you can't!'

Lili,

You asked for my opinion, and I gave you the situation as I saw it. That constitutes an opinion, I believe.

Kiku

Alfred couldn't sleep again, so Arthur, grumbling all the while, got out of bed to go and take the boy for a walk. He didn't particularly want to, but he supposed he should; after all, the boy had come and dragged him back to bed when he'd sat out in the rain, it was only fair that he help his King sleep.

As they walked around the gardens with a guard in front of them and a second behind, Alfred's hand swung a little closer than normal, the end of his index finger hooking around the crease of Arthur's smallest.

Their hands fell apart as quickly as they'd come together, and they didn't say anything when they parted in the corridor connecting their bedrooms.

Kiku,

I wanted to know if you liked him! And if we could make him happy, but mostly if you liked him. That was the thing I wanted an answer to!

You're such a mean Queen,

Lili

There was another storm brewing, and Arthur raised it at breakfast almost a week after the first one had come.

'There's nothing we can do,' Yao said. 'Even with all the magic of this world, we can't stop the weather any more than we can restart a Clock.'

Arthur's ribs ached and he had to excuse himself from the table for fresh air.

Erzsébet,

She seems in high spirits.

Kiku

Alfred commissioned a brooch to be made for Arthur's cravat.

'It's called a stickpin,' was all Arthur said in response to that particular announcement.

'Well, whatever,' Alfred replied, dismissing him with a wave of his hand. 'The point is; I got one of the jewellers in the market quarter to make a stickpin for your cravat. A nice one.'

'Thank you, but I already have one.'

It made Alfred laugh, and Arthur wrinkled his nose.

'Yeah,' he said, and clapped Arthur on the arm still bruised from when the one doing the clapping had grabbed it. 'But you stole that one. Like Yao said, let's not be starting any incidents.'

Arthur frowned some more, and Alfred just smiled at him, apparently very impressed with himself.

'Okay,' Arthur replied, and left the room.

Kiku,

It's the upcoming dance. She thinks she's going to be well enough to attend, and she might, but I doubt she'll be doing much dancing, unless Francis finds a way to hold her aloft.

Erzsébet

To be fair, the stickpin was very pretty, but also very feminine, and Arthur bit back a sigh before plastering a smile on his face and thanking the King for the gift. Alfred did have an eye for design, Arthur admitted, as he shoved the box it had come in beside his ring in the bottom drawer of his dresser, and it did suit the cut of his state robes, but all the same, it wasn't very masculine.

Then again, he hadn't seen a masculine stickpin in all the time he'd had to look at them.

'It's the thought that counts,' he told himself as he flopped into bed that night, waking before dawn with a nagging feeling in his gut.

Erzsébet,

Try not to tempt him into doing so.

Kiku

Alfred asked what flowers Arthur liked. Arthur replied that he'd always been fond of roses, and woke a few mornings later to find a blue rose on his bedside table.

He threw it in Alfred's breakfast and stomped off to the lake to bemoan his existence.

Yao made him apologise.

Kiku,

Assuming, of course, you did give Lili a reply, would you mind sharing your thoughts on Arthur with me as well? I'd like your opinion on him so I can better judge my own feelings.

I don't much like him, if I'm honest. He's rude, and uncouth, and he's not got much in the way of charisma, it must be said. And yes, I am perfectly aware that Roderich isn't an angel, don't worry too much about whether you should inform me. I just –

I don't know. I trust that Lili's feelings are right, that he's just missing something terribly, but I worry there might be something else about him.

He unsettles me. There's something in him that makes all the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I find myself looking for the closest door whenever he enters a room. It's as though he sucks every ounce of bravery I have out of me and swallows it into darkness.

I am the paramount knight of the House of Clubs; the very idea of being scared is laughable!

And yet.

I'm scared of him.

Erzsébet

In the boy's defence, Arthur knew exactly what Alfred was doing, and on some level, the childish attempts at courting were very sweet. They reminded him of the way he'd tried to court as a child, the silly trinkets he'd left for his sweetheart, but he knew, as he sat at the fountain with Kiku as the storm brewed over their heads, that Alfred would never win his heart as he had strived to win his sweetheart's.

'I missed that,' Kiku said. 'Would you care to repeat it?'

'I didn't say anythin'.'

Kiku hummed, and turned back to the samisen in his lap.

Erzsébet,

I understand your worries. He unsettles me at times, but it seems to be at its worst when we catch him out. As though he has to focus to remain with us. If that is so – if the guilt Lili has cast upon his shoulders is as present as she seems to think it is – I fear for the future of Spades.

A King cannot survive without his Queen, and Arthur will never be Alfred's the way Alfred needs him to be.

You are right to be scared. He is a threat to the Solitaire.

Do not tell Lili; I do not doubt that she will tell Francis, and that will start a war when Francis does his best to take Arthur from his throne before he's even sat upon it once.

Kiku

The closer the coronation came, the more Arthur began to find places to hide away from the preparations. The library was a safe haven for him, and Kiku took to spending time holed up in there with him. They sat and read books and talked in low tones about nothing of importance, and fell silent any time any other person entered the room.

Sometimes, Alfred would come and sit with them, reading over Arthur's shoulder and making a nuisance of himself.

Once, Kiku tried to teach Arthur how to play the samisen, but Arthur's fingers were too flat and rough to have the control needed for the instrument.

'You can fight with the best of them,' Kiku said, sounding very disappointed for such a monotone. 'Yet you cannot play an instrument.'

'Not that one,' Arthur replied, indignant. 'I can play the violin.'

Kiku rolled his eyes, apparently unimpressed.

'The samisen is better,' he said, and plucked the strings.

Kiku,

Should we make ready for war then? In the event Spades corrupts?

Erzsébet

Arthur went to the last fitting for his outfit for the ball, and as he paced around the room, settling boots and belts and coat, readjusting the plumed hat atop his head he passed the full length mirror several times.

'Blue doesn't suit me,' he huffed, and turned on a heel, coat fanning behind him, and how many pleats did they put in that stupid thing? 'I've always been a man for red.'

A man for blood, he thought to himself, scowling at his reflection as he passed.

The reflection scowled back, but it was such a different reflection he had to stop and look.

But the only face looking at him was his own.

Erzsébet,

No. Put it aside for now. Arthur is trying. That is all we can ask of him.

Kiku

When the storm hit, it came so suddenly Arthur, Kiku and Lili got caught out in it. They'd gone for a walk in the gardens, Lili clutching at Arthur's arm to support herself as they walked, and Kiku had wandered along behind them in his own little world, occasionally adding to the low and gentle conversation.

But it hit them whilst they're by the fountain. Lili screamed, and buried herself in Arthur's chest, the pirate turning to do his best to block the rain.

'Goodness!' she exclaimed, clutching at his shirt as he hurriedly peeled out of his coat to throw it over their heads. 'I wasn't expecting that!'

Kiku ducked under the vague protection of Arthur's coat, laughing a little.

'We're a little far from the palace,' he said, looking at the puddles already forming on the path.

Arthur stepped out from under it, gasping at the force of the rain. His shirt was soaked through already, translucent against his skin, and he started laughing.

'It's fine,' he said, and twirled on one heel. 'God, I've missed this rain! Come, I'll get y' back inside.'

'You look very happy,' Lili said, and he extended a hand for her to take.

She held onto it with as much of a vice grip as she could, holding Kiku's arm with the other, and Arthur backed up the path, still laughing, and led them both back up to the palace.

Their Kings were there to meet them, and Francis swaddled Lili in the thickest blanket Arthur had ever seen the moment she was through the doors. Shaking himself out not too unlike a wet dog, the Queen of Spades watched as she tried to assure her King that she was fine, that she was just a little wet, and Arthur's coat kept the worst of it off. Kiku assured him that Arthur had brought them back in fine time, and that no one was worse for wear having been out in the rain.

'The walk had been my idea,' Kiku said, placating as always, and Alfred appeared from nowhere with a heavy robe that he draped over Arthur's dripping shoulders. 'All blame should be levelled at me for it. We knew the storm was coming.'

Francis didn't look convinced, but he let the matter drop for now, sweeping Lili out of the room to go and get her dry and warm and stave off any illnesses that leapt on her fragile state to force her to her bed again.

Ludwig thanked Arthur for ignoring his own health for the sake of his fellow Queens, and the Spade blushed a little.

'Oh, thank y', I guess.'

'It's nice to know there's a gentleman in there somewhere,' Alfred teased, elbowing him, and Ludwig nodded.

'That's true enough,' he said. 'It is rare for Royals to look after each other outside of their own. Perhaps you can bring the Solitaire together.'

Arthur made a vague noise that could be an agreement, and then Ludwig was leaving the sunroom, heading back towards the Hearts quarters with Kiku in tow.

Lili,

I suggest, if you want Arthur to be happy, you just be yourself.

You are a likeable girl, and if he wants to find happiness in your company, he will do so. Forcing the issue will make it worse. Stop trying so hard.

Kiku

The storm brought with it a stillness that he had only ever felt in the emptiness of the oceans far to the south of the Solitaire. It was the sort of stillness that brought with it exhaustion, and the preparations for his coronation had left him with an ache in his muscles that he'd rarely felt outside of a raid.

It was incredibly rude to fall asleep whilst in the sunroom with Lili one afternoon as the rain hammered on the glass of the walls, but she was just as sleepy as he, and when he started awake, she was dozing herself. For a little while, he watched her dozing and then crossed to the chair to touch her fingers, whispering her name.

'Lili, wake up.'

'Hmm? Oh, Arthur, I'm sorry, did I doze off?'

'Aye, but don't worry 'bout it. So did I.'

'It wasn't very professional of either of us,' she said, and smudged her makeup by rubbing at her eyes.

'It can be our little secret,' he told her with a wink.

Kiku,

I'm scared that Arthur might try to abdicate. He dozed off in the sunroom earlier, when we were taking tea, and started mumbling about a great clock he found once. I pretended to be asleep when he woke up, but I'm worried. He seemed intent on finding it.

Lili

He dreamt of her sometimes, fleeting memories and empty wishes.

The sunlight in her hair, the curl of her lip as he did something ridiculous that made her have to force a laugh down.

The way her eyes darkened as her leg hooked over his hip and her hands tangled in his hair.

Sometimes, he dreamt of the way she whispered his name, so utterly reverential and perfect.

Erzsébet,

Do you think Arthur would abdicate, if he had the chance?

Lili

And he always woke in a cold sweat, panting hard and with his throat tight with tears.

Lili,

He knows his duty.

Erzsébet

Alfred kept leaving blue roses on Arthur's bedside table, and Arthur kept throwing them in the King's breakfast.

Lili,

I will speak with him.

Kiku.

The morning of the coronation, Arthur woke before dawn, and got up to drag a chair out onto the balcony to look out over the kingdom that would soon be his. Oh, he'd already signed a dozen treaties and supervised plans for the navy, but they were not documents that could be legalized until after his coronation. And even then, his official title would be Queen Consort.

He had no power of his own. No Queen did. They were trouble enough without holding the kingdom in their hands as their own personal plaything. No, it was best to keep them out of the way and out of trouble by giving them purely administrative duties.

The governess of the people, that was how Erzsébet had described it. Utter poppycock, Arthur had scoffed in reply. Not one of them acted as a governess. Even Lili, bound to her bed as she was, had more power than the state would like.

Queen Consort he would become, but Queen Regnant he would be.

His maid came to drag him to a bath at dawn proper, and he'd grown so used to her bursting in on him when he was in so many varying states of undress that he didn't even have it in him to be surprised by her appearance anymore.

'Where's your ring?'

'I lost it,' he said, and the maid clipped him around the ear before moving to rifle through his dresser.

'That is such a lie, My Lady,' she sing-songed, and he scowled at her before moving to drag his chair back inside and shut the doors onto the balcony.

'It is not. I threw it out.'

She unearthed it from under a pair of breeches, and he rolled his eyes, crossed the room to shrug into his robe.

'Arthur,' she said then, all seriousness now, and he frowned at her.

'What.'

'Sit.'

He did so, and scowled at his knees, which she crouched in front of, using them to support herself.

'You will be a good Queen. You are a good man, even if you are a bit of a ponce. I know you think it's going to be hard, and it probably will, but you need to trust in yourself. The kingdom is already yours; this is merely the formality of it. There is nothing that you can do now that you haven't already done.'

She smiled, and shucked his chin.

'I believe that you can do it, and all of the maids in the palace, every member of staff, they all believe you will be a good Queen. You might be a pirate, my Queen, but you've come from the commons. Queens from the commons are always better for the kingdom. They understand the people.'

'I haven't set food on land for years.'

She laughed, and shook her head.

'But you still understand the people, because you are one of the people.'

He frowned, and she got to her feet to finish getting his clothes.

'Chin up, my Queen. Alfred is terribly excited to see you and it wouldn't do to spoil the mood by moping.'

He continued to frown.

Arthur,

Congratulations on your ascension to the throne of the Spades kingdom! I am glad to have the Solitaire complete once again, and I look forward to all of the years we will spend serving our kingdoms together! I hope you enjoy your gifts from our kingdom, and don't make yourself too ill from it!

I must say, though, that I am terribly excited for the ball in your honour! I wonder what everyone's costumes will be, as I only know a few.

Congratulations, again, and I will have a dance from you, good sir!

All the best,

Lili

The coronation was full of pomp and he didn't have any patience for it, but Alfred was smiling at him during the parade looking at him like he'd never seen anything so interesting, and Arthur glanced at him before turning his attention back out to the public and waving as though he had any clue what he was doing.

It surprised him a little, to be brutally honest, because he hadn't thought that the people knew he'd existed, let alone that he was to be crowned Queen of Spades, but apparently a public appearance was all it took to satisfy them. Yao would tell him later that they'd started a campaign of rumour, spreading hearsay through the kingdom to let them prepare for their new Queen's arrival.

'Besides,' he would say as the clinked their glasses together. 'They all knew Alfred would have a Queen quickly anyway. It's not that much of a surprise. And everyone loves a party. Except for you.'

And Arthur would be just drunk enough to agree with a, 'Except for me.'

The coronation itself was ridiculously pompous, all ermine-trimmed cloaks and ornate crowns that weighed more than his leg, but he did it because he had to, and Alfred was still looking at him like he was fascinating, and he didn't really want to disappoint the boy.

Yao walked him up towards the trio of thrones, a procession and he murmured under his breath that he might as well be walking to the gallows. Yao told him to hush.

Arthur admitted that he didn't listen to the speech, just answered where he needed to, and remained silent the rest, and he recited a carefully-written speech about how he planned to aid the kingdom, serve it to the best of his capacity, and he even made a joke about providing an heir that made Alfred laugh. The older court members attending the coronation, who remembered their predecessors, laughed as well.

Then the crown was on his head, and he became the Queen of Spades.

Arthur,

Congratulations on your coronation. I am pleased to see it go off with no faults, and I am proud to call you a political and personal friend in the near and distant future both.

I look forward to working with you.

Kiku

Kiku, Arthur thought, was not too impressed with Arthur's existence right now, but the Queen of Spades, still with the ridiculous crown atop his head, couldn't think what it was that he was supposed to have done to annoy him. He resolved to talk to him later, but couldn't find the time between meet-and-greets and Alfred whispering in his ear to actually do that.

'The best part of marriage is consummation,' Alfred whispered.

'Well, then, y' already 'ave practice in that, don't y'?' Arthur replied, and smiled that vapid, poisonous smile so beloved of court. 'Since it'll be your hand y' consummate with.'

By rights, Alfred had the first dance, and they'd spent a week building up to this, to sweeping across the floor and hissing at each other through forced smiles that if they dared step on each other's feet. But it went off without a hitch, they waltzed their way across the floor and came to a rest in the position for a new dance, one that would bring in all four houses, and bowing, the orchestra struck up again.

Lili,

I think he'll be alright. He is beginning to bond with Alfred, and that will give him the stability he needs to be happy.

You don't need to worry so much about him.

Kiku

Since the coronation was also his marriage, Arthur was obliged to spend much of the evening hanging off his husband and King's arm. Which suited him just fine, because after one glass of rum too many, the marble flooring was looking a little too uneven for Arthur to navigate by himself, and the weight of the sapphire on his finger was pulling him down enough that he worried he might get dragged to that same uneven floor and find himself unable to pick himself back up again.

'I want t' go t' bed,' he grumbled during a quiet moment.

Alfred smoothed a hand over his hair and told him he could, but later. It was unseemly to leave so early.

'S'early?'

'Yes.'

'Oh.'

For a little while, Arthur mulled this over, and then draped himself over his King's arm, chin on the taller man's shoulder. It pressed them together in ways Alfred probably enjoyed, but Arthur was too busy trying to tug Alfred's head down to whisper in his ear.

'We just got married. They'll think we're goin' t' fuck. Won't mind.'

'As if I'd consummate our marriage when you don't know which way is up.'

Arthur waved a hand somewhere vaguely to his left. 'It's that way. C'mon. I need sleep.'

It took another ten minutes of needling, but eventually Arthur managed to get Alfred to acquiesce and take him to his bed.

'You're such a nuisance,' he said, as he helped Arthur out of the half-dozen layers of his outfit.

'I know,' Arthur replied, and fumbled with the buttons of his waistcoat. 'But y' love me anyway.'

Alfred frowned. 'Now I know you're too drunk. You don't even think I'm me, do you?'

'Ah,' Arthur sighed, 'You're all the same in the end.'

'Alright.'

Once he'd managed to strip the Queen to his undergarments, they started squabbling over Arthur's ring. Arthur, still weighed down by it, seemed determined to take it off, an idea that Alfred was not very keen on, and there was a lot of hand-slapping as they argued. Alfred won out, because he used a lot of big words that managed to shut Arthur up long enough that the King could manhandle his Queen into bed.

'Sleep,' he said, smoothing a hand over Arthur's hair again.

Arthur mumbled a name, sighed heavily and started snoring. Alfred stayed with him a while, just to make sure he wasn't going to be sick or start fitting or God-knows-what else, and then he returned to the party, a little more morose than before. When Yao asked him what the matter was, Alfred shrugged it off, said he was disappointed that Arthur couldn't hold his drink.

'I expected better from a pirate.'

'He's never been good at holding liquor,' Yao agreed, that sage note he always got when he'd had a little too much himself. Everyone apart from Alfred had had a little too much it seemed. 'Not in all the years I've known him.'

Francis,

Don't let Arthur drink that much again.

Alfred

The morning dawned grey and miserable, and Arthur didn't much want to surface from under the nest of blankets that he'd made himself. He was safely hidden away from the natural light filtering through the gauze curtains drawn across the balcony doors, and that was good; it helped abate the throbbing in his temples and loosened the tightness in his throat until he could plausibly believe he wasn't feeling like Death himself had come to reap his shrivelled little soul.

It was a feeling that didn't last long, admittedly.

Alfred came bursting in of his own accord after Arthur had been awake for perhaps ten minutes, looking entirely too fresh-faced and cheerful for so close to dawn.

'I'm afraid we don't get a honeymoon period!' he said, pulling the drapes open and flinging the doors outward to let in the cool breeze of approaching rain and speckled sunlight of dark clouds. 'We have to get to work bright and early today! There's so much to do! Good God, you look awful.'

'No shit,' Arthur grumbled, and stopped trying to prop himself up against the headboard, choosing instead to drag the sheets over his head and block everything out as best he could.

His ears were ringing, and continued to do so even after Alfred yanked the covers off him. He curled into a ball to try and preserve whatever warmth he could, but he was a cold man with a cold body, and it did nothing to help.

'Come on,' Alfred said, wriggling a hand into the gap of the ball to find Arthur's wrist and start dragging him out of bed. 'We've got things to do!'

'Where's my maid?' Arthur grumbled, and resigned himself to being dragged about.

'Everyone has the day off in celebration. I'm sure we can fend for ourselves for a day.'

'No,' Arthur replied, and went limp in Alfred's grip. 'I don't want to.'

'Spoil-sport. A bath, and then breakfast, and you'll be feeling much better. That's what you get for drinking so much!'

'I wasn't the only one drinkin',' Arthur groused, but got to his feet anyway. There seemed to be no use in fighting Alfred's insistence, so he simply stopped trying.

He was shoved into a bath and allowed to rest there for a while before being made to clean up and dress himself for breakfast.

Alfred,

Then perhaps your Queen should learn some control, hmm?

Best,

Francis

Lili wasn't at breakfast, which surprised a grand total of no one. Last night's pretty exertions had exhausted everyone, and though Francis had been the one firmly in control of how much Lili drank, the heavier wines of the Hearts had hit her hard, leaving her in a more fragile state than Arthur, who could, at least, handle his wines. Rum, not so much, but wine, yes. So she'd been bound to her bed to sleep off the worst of the headache before planning on joining them for lunch.

'How does it feel to be Queen?' Feliciano asked not five seconds after Arthur sat down.

'About the same as it did before,' Arthur replied with a shrug, helping himself to a spoonful of scrambled egg and some toast. 'Nothing's really changed yet.'

'It will,' Erzsébet assured him. Arthur had no idea how she was on her feet, let alone as fresh-faced as Alfred. 'It changed all of us. Governing is a hard job.'

'I'm sure I'll manage.'

'If you need help,' she said then, 'You can call on us at any time. The other Queens, I mean. We'll be glad to help you with anything you need.'

Arthur nodded, and thanked her, attention going firmly to his breakfast from thereon out.

Later, long after breakfast was done and lunch had been delayed so that Lili would eventually be able to join then, Kiku came to find him in the library. Arthur had been looking for a book to explain some geographical phenomenon to him, some naval thing that went straight over Kiku's head when he tried to explain it to the other Queen.

'I apologise,' Kiku said, as Arthur's mostly-ignorant explanation of windstorms petered out. 'For being so abrupt with you last night. It was unseemly to act so.'

'I just assumed you didn't really want to deal with me drunk,' Arthur said, shrugging. 'It's nothing you need to apologise for.'

'But I do,' Kiku said. 'I worry that you are perhaps unprepared for the role.'

Arthur frowned. 'Unprepared?'

'Yes.'

But no explanation seemed to be forthcoming, which stopped that conversation right there. The library was silent for a good ten minutes, as Arthur continued looking for his book, and Kiku followed him around as though there was nothing else for him to do.

'Lili worried you might try to abdicate.'

Arthur scoffed and slid a book back onto the shelf. 'How can I abdicate when I only got my throne yesterday?'

Kiku shrugged that little shrug of his, and didn't immediately reply. Weighing his words, Arthur supposed, because that was what Kiku did.

'There have been cases of those intended for the throne fleeing before their coronation. It is still technically an abdication, though there is no legal stature.'

Another shrug, and Arthur pulled down another book. 'Well, whatever it is,' he said, shoving the book back and heading off down the aisle with his coat flapping about his knees, 'She's being silly. Why would I abdicate? Alfred is my Pair. My future lies with him.'

Kiku opened his mouth to reply, but got interrupted by Alfred.

'Arthur?'

Arthur hummed and looked over to where Alfred was standing at the end of the aisle,

'I need you to come read over this treaty with Diamonds. I understand all the technical jargon, but you'll understand the naval trading more.'

'Alright, I'll be down in a second.' Arthur turned back to Kiku and said, 'We'll have to continue this later. Make sure you're free after dinner.'

But even as he walked away to follow his King down to the meeting room assigned them today, he knew Kiku would now do everything to avoid continuing the conversation.

Erzsébet,

Do not make ready for war. Simply be prepared. I have no doubt that if Arthur were presented with a suitable opportunity, he would destroy the entire world. Any man could, of course, but Arthur is not just any man. He is even more unsettling now that there is a ring on his finger.

Please remain on your guard.

Kiku

++End Chapter++

NOTES::

I found some extra time to write, be grateful.

By extra time I mean I'm procrastinating on an assignment due on Monday whoops, oh well. I may fail university but at least I write fanfiction at a consistently poor level!

The plot should now hopefully start kicking in, so stay tuned for that!

Regarding the use of samisen; I always thought it was shamisen, but Word threw a fit at me about it, and every time I told it to ignore it, it just red-lined it again, so I changed it. I don't know man, it kept changing language every ten words, I've given up with it.

It's going to be the end of March before I have another chapter ready for you guys, because I have a LOT of deadlines coming up that I've been putting off, so apologies in advance for that.

++Vince++