Twisted Diamonds and the Hidden Spade

Chapter I

The King of Spades, Alfred, sits down at his desk with a frustrated sigh. Yao was blabbing his ear off about finding the spaidin queen, but with any and all searches that have been conducted there has been no such luck in finding the said queen.

    "I get it Yao. I need to find the queen and fast." Alfred starts, shutting his loyal jack up. "You know yourself, that even after searching everyone in the Spade Kingdom, not even a sign of her."

    Yao nods. "I know your highness, but without the Queen of Spades, our economy will fail in given time."

    "Yes yes, you've given me this lecture about a dozen of times, especially when I first became king." Alfred grumbles out, tired of hearing the same lecture, again.

    "Also, in referring to the unfound queen, did you call them a her?" Yao questions the king.

    "Well yeah, aren't queens supposed to be female?" Alfred looks to Yao questioningly. Yao lets out a sigh.

    "Ai-yah... The queen doesn't have to be a female your highness, you see the four kingdoms' don't discriminate between male and female gender roles. The king could very well be a female as the queen can be a male." Yao explains to the king. "It just depends on who bears the mark of the royal family."

    Alfred looks at Yao. "Really? I didn't think that was possible.But I guess that makes since why my birth parents were ecstatic about me being the king... I mean my parents were two women, I guess that should've explained it...Huh, I guess I should've thought about that a bit more." At this Yao facepalms, he remembered the day that Alfred was rushed into the presence of King Alice and Queen Amelia. Alfred's parents told the king and queen the good news and kindly let the two royals adopt their son, of course they still had visiting rights and were aloud to raise him for a few years. Alfred was around 8 years of age when he first started to live in the castle. After that King Alice and Queen Amelia raised him as their own son, and they loved him just as much.

    Yao lets out a sigh. "This means we have to search the kingdom again, doesn't it?"

    "Yeah, sorry I didn't know or ask in advance..." Alfred apologizes with a sheepish laugh and scratches the back of his neck.

    "No need to be sorry your highness, I shouldn't have assumed you knew that. I'm at as much fault as you are." Yao bows his head in apology.

    "You are forgiven." Alfred smiles a toothy smile. "Now, let's go find the queen!" He says standing up from his spot at the desk. "We shall have the Ace, Matthew, accompany us on our said trip."

    "Alright. I'll go get him and bring around the carriage." Yao nods and leaves the rooming gathering Matthew and the said carriage. With that, they started to travel the spaidian kingdom in search of the queen... again.

    In the Diamond Kingdom, everything was seemingly going well in the Kirkland household. Arthur was proud that his brother, Jett, had been officially selected to be the Ace of Diamonds. He had worked hard for this position, and with the last ace passing, Jett was more than qualified to become the new Ace of Diamonds.

    After a week or so of Jett being the ace, the King of Diamonds decided to give Jett's home a visit, mainly for the lad to be able to see his family after a week of training to be a proper ace. Accompanied by Jett, Francis knocks on the door of the Kirkland house.

    Arthur opens the door. "Yes-" He was shocked to see his brother and the king at his front door. "O-oh, uh, your highness, what brings you here?" He greets the king with a question.

    Francis was taken aback a bit by the brit who answered the door, finding him intriguing. "Well you see I came here to let a certain petit ace say bonjour to 'is family~."

Arthur nods. "Right, come in then." Arthur says stepping to the side to let Francis and Jett inside. Francis nods and walks into the house with Jett following close behind him. Arthur shuts the door behind the two. "Make yourself comfortable, your highness, would you like any beverages?" He offers.

"Non merci~, I'm good." Francis says as he takes a seat on the couch in the living area of the house.

"G'day Artie." Jett greets his brother teasingly. "Where are the others?" He questions.

"Don't call me that." Arthur replies calmly, but on the inside he was a bit ticked off. "They just left for the market, they won't be back for a while."

"Shame. I wanted to see them again... and introduce them to our highness Francis." Jett says a little disappointed that he couldn't see all his brothers.

"No need to be sad my petit ace, you will have other chances to say hello to the others." Francis reinsures Jett.

"Thank you, your highness." Jett says with a smile.
"Ow ya goin mate?" He asks Arthur.

"I've been doing fine, thank you for asking." Arthur responds.

Francis smiles at this, but looks at the time. "We should get going, petit ace. Basch is waiting for our return. Sorry to cut it short." The king says.

"Oh, alright. Cheerio Artie." Jett says, waiting for Francis to start heading to the door. Francis gets up and offers a flirtatious wink to Arthur, making him go red.

"Au revoir~ No need to see us out, and feel free to visit the castle anytime~ Just tell the guards that I invited you~" Francis says getting up and going to the front door, exiting the Kirkland household, being followed by Jett.

"Cheerio..." Arthur says when the door closes behind the two. He then proceeds to sit down on the couch with a sigh. He didn't much care for the King of Diamonds after meeting him in person. 'But I guess that's because I'm destined to be with the King of Spades... If I'm ever to leave this kingdom...' Arthur thinks to himself. He hasn't left the Diamond Kingdom because he wanted to be there for his brothers, even though they don't treat him the best, they're still his family. 'I guess I'll just stay for a bit longer, until the others are used to Jett being gone...'