Waking up to find your beloved dead was worse than you could imagine; Alfred had a long, white pole jammed through his chest piercing the kind, heroic heart with in.

Arthur gulped; he couldn't rule their kingdom alone as they had always ruled it together. and Alfred had been his hero and his love.

Alfred was everyone's hero, and everybody loved him; it was impossible to hate someone so pure, so nice.

Arthur's heart was broke in a million places, and he just knew that it wouldn't recover as how could he love again when his soulmate's life had been taken away so soon?

He knew what he had to do, but he hated the thought of talking to those people that were still pretty much strangers to him after all these years; Alfred had always handled the meetings as he had known the kings of the kingdoms since he was a baby.

Arthur called the other kingdoms in for a meeting; a threat in one kingdom was a threat to them all if it managed to spread, so the kingdoms were rather close.

He had always been out of the loop as Alfred had always insisted that the Hero was the one to speak with them which left Arthur as the silent Queen of Spades.

Arthur was queen as he had married the only heir to the kingdom since the other heir had been killed by an attack on the castle years earlier when the princes had been infants.

Queens were required to show up at the meetings while the Jacks stayed home to rule the kingdom for however long the Queen and King were gone, but for this meeting one queen was left back at the castle as Francis had left his wife back at their castle; most assumed that he had done that, so that when he inviteably slept around, she wouldn't catch him.

King Francis Of The Diamond Kingdom had really left his queen behind, because she was pregnant; they did not want news of her pregnancy to be spread around as she was not pregnant with her husband's child.

"You should hide out in my kingdom until the murderor is found, Queen Arthur Jones." King Francis Bonnefoy suggested to the Queen Of The Spades Kingdom; the other kingdoms protected the other royals when one of the others needed that protection.

Arthur hate to be called Queen Arthur Jones as his name was Queen Arthur Kirkland-Jones after he had married King Alfred Jones of The Spades Kingdom.

"I don't trust you anywhere near me." Arthur growled out, nice and low.

"You need to hide before the murderor comes back to kill you." Queen Kiku Of The Hearts Kingdom timidly informed Queen Arthur.

Arthur frowned, but he didn't verbally respond to the other male queen.

That was how Arthur found himself being escorted in to the Diamond Castle by the King Of Diamonds, himself.

Arthur wasn't all that surprised by the extravagance of the castle, because he had been here numerous times before; all of those times he had been escorted by his king, Alfred, the love of his life.

Arthur refused to cry anywhere near Francis as the King Of Diamonds probably didn't even know what real love was.

He watched Francis move through the castle with the ease and grace of someone that had lived here his whole life.

"Vash, how is she?" Francis asked his Jack worriedly.

Arthur was startled by the genuine concern that graced the King's face as he had asked that question.

"Lilli's fine." Vash only looked slightly nervous at using his queen's name so informally once he spotted Arthur.

"I'm glad." Francis smiled, and knelt by the bed to kiss his wife on the forehead; there was a specific way that he had to treat her when surrounded by people that did not know how their relationship really was.

Francis cherished Lilli as a friend rather than a wife; he was kind to her, and did not mind the fact that she loved someone else as she had loved that person when she had married Francis, and he had known about it.

King Francis slept around, because his wife loved someone else waiting for the day that he would find true love, the kind that Lilli had already found.