Hello! Sorry that there is no title and description, but someone submitted this book and now I'm waiting for further development of this whole situation!

Anyway... Enjoy this chapter!

Spinning around on his chair, Alfred came to a stop and stared at his whiteboard, drumming his fingers upon the arms as he stared at every single piece of information he had gathered regarding Arthur’s Garden. He had recorded his last two visits and everything he had been doing just before he went there.

“What’s the connection?” he asked himself. “There just has to be one.”

He looked back to his first visit. It happened in his sleep right after the tree ceremony. The second happened on his desk just before he closed his eyes to take a nap.

“At first I thought it was triggered by sleeping,” pondered Alfred aloud, tapping his finger upon the rim of his glasses, “but during all the last ones I was wide awake, so it’s not sleep.”

He made a note of that in case he came back to that conclusion. The third happened during an argument over flowers. Was it stress then? No, because he was stress free at the spa during his fourth visit. A whole day passed after that and his fifth visit happened right after he finished breakfast and he was feeling particularly foul that morning, then on the same day he went on his sixth visit during his boring lessons.

“Is it boredom then?” He scratched his head as he looked back and forth between the separate visits. “I was kinda bored during all of these events, but I wasn’t bored during breakfast I was just tired. Plus you can’t exactly be bored in your sleep.”

Alfred sighed as he found that there was still no solid connection between any of these events. He even thought he had a pattern, that it happened daily but recently that was proven to be false. With a huff he slumped back into his chair and spun himself around, all of his thoughts in a bit of a muddle.

There had to be something that triggered his visits, something he was missing. This couldn’t be random, his gut was telling him that he was doing something during these events that made him go to the garden, he just had to figure it out.

“Ok, next time I go I’m going to write down everything I did just before I get there,” proclaimed Alfred, grabbing a small notebook and pen and shoving them in his jacket pocket. “Now I just have to wait...”

He drummed his fingers along his desk. The clock continued to tick away. Alfred looked from one side of the room to the other.

“I guess I might as well do something whilst I wait,” he huffed.

So Alfred decided to go for a stroll around the palace, saying hello to his subjects and checking out rooms he had never gone into or never had a good look at. He went to the library, a few guest rooms, a trophy room of sorts, Yao’s office which was currently vacant, a large lounge and even the indoor pool he hadn’t used in a while.

The day was going by pretty fast but so far nothing had happened. He did chat with some of the maids, joke with the guards standing on patrol, and accidentally engaged in boring conversations with the scholars. After all that Alfred strolled down a hallway by himself and lost himself in his thoughts. This day seemed like it was going to be uneventful.

“Alfred!”

Spoke too soon.

Alfred looked up to see Yao dashing over. He seemed neither stressed or concerned so hopefully this wasn’t anything serious.

“S’up Yao,” greeted Alfred with a smile, “what have you got for me?”

Yao cleared his throat. “Ok, I’ve got some news that you’ll like and some news that’ll possibly upset you,” he stated.

“So... good news and bad news?” Alfred was a little worried now but as no news that Yao gave him was ever good, even if he said it was.

“Yes,” confirmed Yao, “So the good news first, the Nelson University has some caterer students currently in the middle of their course, and their teacher was hoping that you’d let them help take part in the dinner party to further their education. I think we could have them prepare the dessert so I talked with him and we arranged a little contest. The students prepare a dessert each and you taste test them and choose which one you want.”

Alfred’s blue eyes sparkled like stars and he drooled as thoughts of endless cakes, sweets and puddings were presented before him. It sounded like a fantasy of his had come true, not only did he get to choose the dessert for some fancy dinner party but he got to taste every single test dish! It sounded like fun and he got to get his tastebuds drowning in sugary treats. This was quite possibly the best news Yao had ever given him!

“Yes, yes, a hundreds times yes,” squealed Alfred, not realising his chin was almost soaked in saliva. “When is it? When is it?”

Yao smirked, amused with his King’s reaction. “It’ll take place next week so the students can prepare. There’s only five of them so don’t expect a huge variety. I’ll make the necessary arrangements.”

Alfred nodded and continued to loose himself in thoughts of cakes covered in sugary icing and pies filled with sweet fruit. This had to be the best part about being a King, eating mountains of desserts and didn’t have to feel guilty about it.

“Now, the bad news,” sighed Yao, dreading at how Alfred might take this and was hoping the good news he just gave him would keep him in his good mood. “It has been noticed by some that you are currently lacking a... significant other.”

Alfred’s sweet daydream vanished and he stared at Yao in confusion. “Come again?”

“Look, I know you’ve only been King for six months now,” mumbled Yao who appeared embarrassed, “but certain parties were hoping you’d be dating a potential consort by now.”

Alfred’s sweet inspired smile then twisted into a scowl and he started to storm off without uttering a word.

Yao chases after him. “Hey, I don’t really care if you have one or not but-...”

“Who?” snapped Alfred. “Who thinks I need a consort!?” This sort of thing put Alfred in a particularly foul mood.

“No one in particular, but there has been talk amongst the lower court members,” sighed Yao, who didn’t exactly seem keen to talk about such things. “Look, the daughter of Lady Hamilton from the southern Kingdom is visiting and they were hoping you’d invite her to tea or something. She’s a fair young lady from what I hear and quite popular with the public.”

Alfred groaned almost viscously and slammed a fist against a wall, forming a large dent in the stone, the chandelier above them shaking from the impact. “Dammit, I’m not interested!” he spat.

He hated this, he hated this more than anything. It wasn’t about the consorts themselves but at the same time it was.

Even before he became King he was constantly forced to meet with pretty young ladies, all who were carefully selected to become his potential bride. He turned them all away as he wasn’t interested in having a relationship, but the ministers and advisors from the lower court pleaded with him to take a bride. Since there was no Queen in their Kingdom the Kings took consorts instead, Alfred’s own mother being one. They lacked authority in the Kingdom and were only there to give their King some comfort, seen as nothing more than a pretty accessory and a face the public could see and fawn over.

Alfred didn’t want that. He didn’t want some woman to be nothing more than a pretty face who stood next to them. If he ever did take someone as a bride than he wanted to rule the Kingdom with them together, like the other Kings did with their Queens, but that was just a pipe dream. His consort would be treated like some lowly addition to his court and given no proper respect.

Now Alfred knew his father loved his mother and his mother loved his father back, but as Alfred grew up he noticed his father was solely focused on finding the Queen of Spades. He’d spent hours in his study researching over every single piece of information he had, sometimes spending days in there. It hurt Alfred to think that his father wanted to Queen instead of his mother, and he started resenting him a little whenever the subject was brought up.

When his mother passed away he actually got angry at his father during the funeral, claiming that he never loved her because she was not a Queen. He didn’t speak to him for a whole month and to his frustration his father continued to seek out the Queen.

Alfred did love his father and respected the man that he was, but he found that he hated him too and thinking that way about him hurt him even more. His emotional state about the whole thing was conflicted and he didn’t know how to handle it. Whenever someone brought anything related to the subject, he got really angry and lashed out at whoever had the gull to bring it up. He knew he shouldn’t act like this now that he was King so he just forced it deep down and tried to block it all out, but whenever something like this came up it caused this buried emotions to rise up.

It was why he resented the Queen of Spades, his father’s obsession.

Yao knew Alfred hated talking about it, but the pressure was on him to get the King into a relationship. “I have a list of other young maidens? Or young gentleman if you’re interested? Look, just try and sit with one of them? It’ll get them off both our backs.”

Alfred gritted his teeth and his face burned with rage. He knew this wasn’t Yao’s fault but it got him so mad that he couldn’t contain his rage. “I DON’T CARE!” he shouted.

“Don’t shout!”

Alfred gasped and looked up, finding himself in the familiar garden he was constantly jumping into. The birds tweeted their song and a gentle breeze made the flowers rustle gently. Alfred glanced to his right and there stood Arthur, looking a little concerned whilst holding a basket of leaves and twigs.

“What are you screaming about?” he asked, placing the basket down and approaching Alfred. “You aren’t throwing a tantrum, are you? You’re a grown man, you can’t just scream like a child. It’s ungentlemanly.”

Alfred was in no mood for Arthur’s criticism. “Oh leave me alone,” he spat, folding his arms, turning around and sitting down on the grass. He was in such a foul mood that he couldn’t even be bothered to think about Arthur’s Garden. If he just waited this out he’d be out of here.

However Arthur didn’t take the hint. “Oh stop sulking,” he scoffed, “it won’t do you any good.”

“I’m not in the mood,” hissed Alfred, trying to hide his face in his arms. “I don’t want to be here, so just get on with your gardening and leave me alone. I’ll probably go back in a little while anyway.”

Sighing whilst shaking his head in a disapproving manner, Arthur plopped down next to Alfred, his expression was still firm though it had softened a little, as did his voice. “What’s wrong then?”

Alfred wasn’t in the mood to talk.

“Look, something is clearly wrong and bottling it up isn’t going to help,” sighed Arthur, trying to get his voice to sound a little softer. “You don’t have to tell me the full story, you can just talk a little to get if off your mind.”

Alfred made a grunt as he fully buried his face into his arms, hoping Arthur would take the hint and leave him alone.

“Fine then,” huffed Arthur, standing back up and wiping the grass from his clothes. “You can sit there and sulk like a brat. I’m going to prune Matilda over here, so when you finally decide to act like an adult I’ll be over here.”

Peeping over his arms, Alfred watched as Arthur stomped over to a large shrubbery, pulled out shears from his pouch and snipped away at the loose twigs and leaves. Alfred’s cheeks inflated as he let out an agitated huff and stubbornly refused to say anything. He was just going to wait and let this blow over like he normally did.

A minute passed. And then another, and another. Alfred peeped up again to see Arthur was completely focused on his task, not even looking over to check on him. With a pout he buried his face back into his arms. More minutes passed and Alfred peeped again, not sure if he should feel annoyed that Arthur was continuing to ignore him.

He eventually heard a voice in the back of his head, telling him to just say something and get it over with but it conflicted with his stubbornness. Alfred wasn’t even certain what to say. He wasn’t even certain if talking to Arthur would help at all, it wasn’t his problem.

Still as minutes continued to pass, Alfred finally raised his head. “I-...”

Arthur glanced over the moment he heard Alfred’s voice. “Yes?”

Alfred twiddled his fingers as he tried to think of what to say. “I... um... I have a... my old man... er...”

“Yes?” repeated Arthur with a coaxing tone, putting his shears away and walking over to Alfred.

He had no idea how to put it into words. Alfred tried to think of what to say as he thought that telling Arthur that he resented his dad because of his research that made him think he didn’t care for his mother wouldn’t fly. Alfred tried to think as Arthur continued to stare at him and wait for his explanation, until at last Alfred recalled what Francis had told him almost a week ago.

“Ok, so... there are these ships, right?” began Alfred, “and all these ships have captains and navigators and quartermasters and a whole crew, so they can go to sea and explore the world, right?”

“Right,” replied Arthur as he sat down next to Alfred.

“Well for a long tine now my ship has never had a navigator, so it can’t go to see without getting lost, but it’s crew is still doing ok,” continued Alfred, hoping this was making sense to Arthur. “My dad was the captain before me and he got a... um... a person who wasn’t a navigator but still filled the role... sort of?”

Arthur looked a little confused. “Keep going,” he said, hoping with more information he’d be able to understand.

“Ok, so even though he’s got this person, he’s still trying to find a navigator and no matter how hard he tried he never found one, but he just kept going.” Alfred paused to rub his brow. “Even when my time was coming to become the captain he kept looking and looking, even though it had become impossible. Now I’m the captain, I still don’t have a navigator but I’m fine with it.”

“I see... I think,” mumbled Arthur, trying to process it all.

“It’s just...” Alfred sighed heavily. “He had someone to fill the role and he was happy with them, even though they weren’t really a navigator. That person was good and kind, but wasn’t shown any respect amongst the crew. They just saw some accessory that my dad flaunted about for the sake of it, I mean he did care for this fill-in but he hardly expressed it half the time.” Alfred began to think of his mother, wondering why she put up with her husband’s ongoing absence. “I don’t know why he kept looking for one. I don’t know why he wasn’t happy with her. Even as he was getting real sick and old, he kept looking.”

Arthur remained silent.

Alfred buried his head again. “He was a good man and I loved him but I got so mad whenever he disappeared to seek out the navigator. Now I’m the captain and my crew want me to get someone to fit the role of the navigator... but I don’t want to do that to someone else. I don’t want to do what all the other captains did.”

“You... don’t want to be like the last captain?” guessed Arthur, still processing everything he had been told.

“I don’t even care if we have a navigator or not,” huffed Alfred, “but then I think about the other ships, that they get to sail the seas and explore the world whilst I’m stuck in a harbour.”

“So you... do want a navigator?” asked Arthur cautiously.

“I don’t know,” groaned Alfred, all of his emotions starting to twist and swirl around him. “I’m just mad at my dad for his obsession with finding a navigator when he already had someone. I feel weird whenever the other captains show off their navigators. I get pissed off whenever my crew tells me to find someone to fit the role. I... I don’t even know anymore.” Alfred fell onto his back and crossed his arms over his face. “I don’t know.”

There was silence in the garden, apart from the singing birds and the light breeze. Alfred wasn’t even certain if Arthur had an answer for him, nor did he care if he did or not. He felt like nothing could calm the storm of emotions swirling within his heart.

“I think... your father was trying to find a navigator for you.”

Alfred peeped from under his arms and stared up at Arthur. “What?”

Arthur sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “You said he kept looking, even as his time as captain was coming to an end and your time to take the helm was coming. He was already happy with the person filling the role so I think he wasn’t looking for a navigator for himself, I think he was looking for yours.”

What Arthur had just said started to slowly sink in. Alfred slowly sat up as this thought began to take over, thinking back to his youth as his father was constantly researching whilst his mother supported him. Alfred just assumed she only did so because it was her duty, but was it because she wanted her son to have a Queen? She was always smiling whilst he complained and cried whenever his father was busy to play with him, insisting that he was doing important work and that they had to support him.

In fact when it became clear that Alfred was to be the next King, that was when his father began his research into the missing Queen. He didn’t show any particular interest up to that point. Even on his deathbed he apologised over and over to his son. Alfred just held his hand and told him not to worry about it, thinking he was talking about his constant absence in his childhood... but it wasn’t that at all. He was apologising for not finding the Queen for his son.

Was that truly the reason? “What makes you think that?” demanded Alfred, wanting to know for certain if it was the truth.

Arthur shrugged with a small smile. “Well if I had a son who was going to inherit a ship with no navigator, I’d want them to have a navigator so he could go to sea with the other ships and see the world. I think he’d be happy on a ship with someone to guide him.”

Upon hearing that Alfred realised that he too would’ve done the same thing. Was that why his father searched relentlessly for a Queen? Was that why his mother didn’t mind? They just wanted him to rule the Kingdom with someone by his side, wanting to know that when their time in this world was over he wouldn’t be alone.

He didn’t realise the tears were falling until he felt them splatter upon the hands on his lap.

“Why are you crying?” gasped Arthur, now flailing his arms around in a bit of a panic, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Alfred didn’t utter a sound but he did reach up to wipe them away, pulling his glasses off so he could rub his eyes. Arthur continued to freak out a little, unsure of what to do.

“I’ve got tissues but... you can’t hold them, oh bother,” wailed Arthur, standing up and walking in circles. He clearly never dealt with someone who was upset before, or rather someone who was upset and he was unable to touch them. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry. Um, do you have a handkerchief? Oh dear, what should I do?”

Alfred wiped his eyes a few more times before he was confident the tears had stopped. He didn’t like crying in front of others but he felt as if he had needed to do that for a long time. It was as if Arthur had unintentionally unlocked a door that had held all of his bottled up emotions, and now they were spilling out and freeing his heart from a sea of unchecked grief.

It wasn’t just the fact that his father had been seeking out a Queen for him, it was all the other things. All of those emotions he pushed aside, the accusations made against him by the others... it was true. He did feel jealous that the other Kings had their Queens. He did hate the fact he had to sit next to an empty throne. He resented that his people had just given up and accepted the fact there was no Queen and above all else, he truly did wish to have a Queen of his own... he just tried to hide it all away, bury it all under his smile and act like he didn’t care.

With a sniffle, he looked up and couldn’t help but smirk at the panicking man above him. “I’m fine Arthur,” he insisted as he rearranged his glasses, “I just think... that was something I needed to hear.”

Arthur ceases his flailing and stood before Alfred with an apologetic look. “Are you sure you’re feeling better? It wasn’t my intention to make you cry,” he said as he poked his index fingers together.

Alfred shook his head and smiled up at him. “Relax,” he chuckled, “don’t worry about it and besides, I got to see you run around like a headless chicken.”

That made Arthur blush and he pulled an angry and offended expression. “I-I was only concerned for your well being, you idiot!” he snapped, stamping the ground in rage. “That’s the last time I show you any pity. Next time you start crying I’m going to just sit back and laugh at you!” Arthur folded his arms and turned up his head in a huff.

Alfred couldn’t help but laugh as he stood up, always greatly amused with Arthur’s ever changing mood swings. “Well anyway...” Alfred blushed a little as he smiled at the offended man. “Thanks for that Arthur, I needed that.”

Arthur stared at him from the corner of his eyes. “You’re welcome,” he muttered, his cheeks still red. “Just make sure you don’t keep your emotions bottled up like that, it’s not healthy for you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” sighed Alfred as he rolled his eyes, “I promise.”

“I’m serious,” snapped Arthur as he suddenly began lecturing Alfred about proper mental health and dealing with ones emotion. All this coming from Arthur was kind of ironic, at least in Alfred’s eyes.

As Arthur continued yapping away, Alfred noticed out of the corner of his eye that one of Arthur’s special plants had grown quite a lot since his last visit. It was now taller and almost sturdier looking. In fact it looked like it was a-...

“I’m sorry Alfred, I know you hate talking about these kind of things but my hands are tied.”

Alfred glanced up to see Yao speaking in an apologetic voice.

“Oh... that was quick,” muttered Alfred.

“I beg your pardon?” queried Yao, a little surprised at Alfred’s calmer nature. Only a second ago he acted like he was ready to tear the whole palace down.

Alfred just smiled at Yao and patted him on the shoulder. “Relax Yao, I’m sorry I shouted at you,” apologised Alfred with a grin.

Yao stared up at him in bewilderment. “Huh?”

“I was just a little angry that’s all,” explained Alfred unaware that Yao was completely shocked over his sudden mood change, “but I’m better now, all cooled off so don’t fret. Tell you what, go ahead and arrange that tea party with that Lady... what’s her name? Whatever, just set it up and I promise I’ll be there. Anyway I gotta go, so later.” Alfred then turned to leave, giving Yao a wave before taking off with a refreshed smile.

The Jack just stood there completely confused, unsure if he had heard any of that right. “What just happened?”

Notes:
This chapter was just to help Alfred overcome his resentment towards the Queen of Spades, as I hinted over the past chapters that he wasn’t particularly happy that his dad was constantly looking for one and he that he didn’t feel like a true King without one.