Wanna Be My Queen?

Chapter Three

Magic, No Seriously Actual Magic, and that One Smile

Arthur lay back on his bed (no longer afraid), thinking about the insane man who ruled over the Kingdom of Spades. What the hell is up with him?

Is he sadistic or something?

'I honestly wouldn't be surprised,' Arthur thought to himself as he rolled onto his side and tucked his arms up to his chest. He sighed and closed his eyes. A nap sure would be nice right now.

But of course that won't be happening anytime soon.

"Heyyy Arthur!"

Great.

Arthur sat up and glared at the intruding king. The damn fool didn't knock or anything!

"We saw each other not ten minutes ago. What could you possibly want with me?" Arthur intensified his glare a bit as Alfred sat on the floor in front of the bed. What horrible manners this man has.

"Well, I told you last night that I would answer any questions you have, right? So, fire away! I'll give you my best answers!" Alfred's shit-eating grin grated Arthur's nerves, and he sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Do you not have anywhere else better to be right now?"

"What could be better than talking to you?"

Arthur sighed, yet again, and clenched his eyes for a moment.

"I still would like to know why you want me here, and not just because I am an 'interesting person' to you. There must be more. You can't just want someone to become a queen because they look 'interesting,'" Arthur said bitingly, taking his hand away from his face to watch the king's nonchalant, but still so optimistic, expression.

Alfred shrugged, than shifted to stretch his arms out behind them, locking his elbows as he stared up at Arthur. "I honestly don't have any other reason. Your posture is pretty regal, I guess, and you have an air of...formalness around you. I don't really know how to explain it, because not even the magic of Spades did some weird thing. It was just my instincts!"

"Instincts?!" Arthur spluttered, taken aback. "You went by your instincts? What if I was actually a trained assassin hired to kill you in your sleep? You can't just go by instincts. That's absolutely unheard of." Arthur sniffed disdainfully and crossed his arms, but before the king could say anything else, he continued. "And 'magic of Spades?'" How absurd!" The boy sitting on the bed shook his head, and Alfred watched in amusement.

"You don't believe in the magic of Spades?" he asked, his bright smile turning more and more into a mischievous one.

"Of course I don't! It's scientifically impossible!" Arthur was getting agitated, one of his worst traits. He always seemed to get annoyed way too quickly, even over small, trivial things.

Alfred was glowing.

Or, rather, the air around him was, and he was illuminated by it. A light blue hue surrounded the king as he held his hands out, palms facing upwards, a playful turn at the corners of his mouth.

"What the hell?!" Arthur scrambled away from Alfred, almost falling off the other side of the bed out of his haste. He stood up and backed away as the King of Spades rose to his feet and advanced. "What are you doing? What is that?"

Alfred, seeming to notice the frightened look in Arthur's eyes, stopped in the middle of the room. "It's the magic of Spades. You said you didn't believe, so I'm showing it to you!"

"Wha-No, this is crazy. You're insane, absolutely insane!" Arthur's chest heaved, and his heart hammered.

To someone who has been realistic and closed off to anything and everything that has too preposterous of an idea their entire life, well...imagine what seeing a glowing king might do.

"Hey, hey, calm down Arthur. Really, it's okay. It won't hurt you or anything. Here, watch this." Alfred lifted one of his hands a bit and curled in his index finger. Arthur flinched at the slight movement, and Alfred watched him with a mix of amusement and...was that worry? He slowly lifted his hand over to his left shoulder, looked at Arthur, mumbled a "please don't freak out," then slashed his hand down, in a diagonal line. Arthur gasped and tightly closed his eyes, not even curious enough to see what had happened.

"Arthur? Hey, open your eyes." Arthur didn't comply, and Alfred's voice shifted to a whiny one. "Arthur, pleeeaassee?"

"If it makes you stop using that horrifyingly annoying voice." Arthur, heart still beating like a loud drum inside his chest, slowly opened his eyes.

They were outside.

"Huh?!" Arthur whirled around to look at his surroundings. From what he gathered, he was by the stable he could see when he leaned over his balcony. A confused noise came from him as he lifted his eyes and saw said balcony.

"Wh-how did yo-what?!" Arthur looked to the king for some answers. His shoulders were shaking, and he had both his hands over his face.

Did he seriously have the gall to laugh at Arthur's distress?

Arthur angrily grabbed the king's wrists and yanked them away from his face. The action only made Alfred laugh harder.

"I-I'm sorry, but your face jus-" He was laughing so hard he couldn't even finish his damn sentence. Arthur stood impatiently with arms crossed and a foot tapping. He was done being scared. Now he was just plain annoyed.

When Alfred was finished, he wiped away the tears that had gathered, took a deep breath, and faced Arthur, prepared for the onslaught of questions...

...That never came.

Arthur glared Alfred down, despite being shorter, and Alfred shrunk away a bit. He opened his mouth to defend himself, but Arthur beat him to it.

"What. Was. That," Arthur practically growled, not missing the way the king's eyes widened by a fraction of an inch. Good. That's what he got for scaring Arthur.

King Alfred cleared his throat and looked away, an almost sheepish face. "It was the magic of Spades." Arthur narrowed his eyes, and Alfred held his hands up. "No, seriously, no strings attached. If you ask me to explain how it works I won't be able to tell you. All I know is that it's real, and I can use it now that I'm the king. I wasn't able to until they put the crown on my head. It felt really weird, like someone just shot a whole bunch of power into my bloodstream, and then bam. Magical abilities." Alfred shrugged, and Arthur scoffed.

"Do you really expect me to believe such a tall-tale?" Arthur shook his head, as if the idea of believing something like that was too much to comprehend (to him, it was, so I guess that makes sense).

"Well, yeah. You just saw what happened right? I teleported us outside! Isn't it cool? I won't be able to teleport us back inside though. Using that sort of magic is really tiring, and if I did it again, I don't think I'd be able to stand up for a while." He grinned, and Arthur turned his head away to avoid the brightness of it.

"You really are something," Arthur said quietly with a tiny shake of his head.

"What'd you say?" Alfred cocked his head to the side, a questioning look in his eyes. Arthur waved it off, and, deciding to ignore the whole "magic" thing for now, started to walk back towards the palace. Alfred fell into step beside him, and when he turned his head to glare at the younger king, he found that he couldn't.

Honestly, him and that smile of his.