Wayfare

Chapter 21

"So, how are you liking the night so far?" Alfred asked, taking a sip of his wine while sitting beside Arthur. "Oh, it has been splendid! Ignoring the fact that you ditched me earlier!" Arthur answered sarcastically, huffing.

"Look, I'm sorry alright? I had to talk to some monarchs and totally forgot you. But hey, atleast I still found you!" Alfred reasoned, putting down his glass of wine. Arthur just rolled his eyes and went back to his drink.

They chatted for half an hour, ignoring some of the looks and whispers about the two. They could care less about it, all they knew was that their meaningless talk was more important than them. It even seemed like Alfred forgot the purpose of the ball as he was too busy talking to Arthur.

"What a handsome boy you picked, Alfred!" A woman's voice from behind suddenly interrupted their talk. The two turned their heads at the source of the voice and saw Elizabeta smiling down at them and offered a handshake. Arthur stood up from his seat, shaking it.

"What are you talking about, miss...?" Arthur decided to ask, confused as they finished handshaking. Elizabeta beamed at him, "Elizabeta. My name is Elizabeta Hedevary, the Queen of Clubs! I hope we can be good friends in the future! We can talk about our Kings and how troublesome they are!" She answered and Arthur was even more confused than ever.

"Our...?" He uttered slowly.

"Well, you're the future Queen of Spades, are you not? I mean, I'm sure that he's going to pick you, with how you and Alfred looked earlier, the both of you looked so romantic earlier while dancing, like love was in the air!" She said happily like it was no big deal.

Arthur spat his wine.

Coughing almost violently, he widened his eyes at the woman, a blush evident on his face.

"W-what...?!"

"Yes, love was in the air earlier! It made me want to puke~!" Ivan butted in happily from behind her, followed by a small, childish giggle that didn't seem to fit the man.

Alfred seemed to understood their topic and blushed as well, though his face wasn't as red as Arthur's.

"N-NO! You got it all wrong! Alfred, say something you twat!" Arthur said angrily, facing him. But Alfred was still shocked by the assumption. He and... Arthur?

"ALFRED!" Arthur shouted infront of him, Alfred finally broke off from his thoughts and stood up as well. "What? O-oh yeah! He's not my... you know." He explained, slightly disappointed as he uttered the words, though he didn't know why. It seemed that he wasn't the only one disappointed though, since Elizabeta's face clearly gave away what she was feeling.

"Oh... Is that so? Well, I apologise for making the wrong assumption. I just thought that you already picked him, you two don't know how perfect you both looked like earlier! Almost everyone were whispering about it, and I think they still are!" Elizabeta said and Alfred looked around and saw that some people were indeed whispering to their peers. He just laughed awkwardly.

"You two looked so perfect, too  perfect that I even considered leaving this occasion as it worried me that I might vomit hearts and rainbows!" Ivan chided in again and giggled.

"Shut up Ivan, no one cares." Elizabeta shushed him, rolling her eyes. Ivan's smile didn't falter, though it now seemed forced. Elizabeta payed it no mind, already used to it, and turned back to Alfred and Arthur.

"Don't mind him, even though he's the King of Clubs, he still acts like some naive, immature child." Elizabeta said while sighing.

"But really though, I thought that you were the one Alfred will choose. Your clothes' fabric looked like it was from the Four Kingdom's designers, Feliks and Tolys! Did Alfred ask them to make those clothes for you?" She asked, interested as she examined his outfit.