Hello everyone! I've decided to do another one-shot. (See Updates Below: This is not a one-shot) Maybe. This might turn into a long story because I have no self control. But now it's a one-shot!

So this in the Cardverse AU, I've been obsessed with it lately. Like I've read 4 stories ranging from 12 chapters to 41 and a few one-shots. (If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to read some!) And its with USxFem!UK, because there aren't enough of those. And I love it. I tried to find some fanon for Cardverse, but I couldn't find any so I'll just go off of what I know/read.

I also decided in this story, Alfred was the one who was more experienced in the whole royalty thing, I don't see enough stories with that. The whole deal will be explained further in the story. I sort of used the social classes from the Selection series. I really like those books too. Enjoy!

Update: It's to 1300 words and I'm not even to plot yet!

Update: Yeah, this isn't going to be a one-shot. I'm accidentally adding too much detail. I don't know what it's going to end up being, but now it's up to 2200 words.

Update: I told you I don't have any self control, this ended up being like 17000 words when it was supposed to be a one-shot. And I haven't even edited a lot of stuff. I mostly wrote this to practice describing and writing filler and details. There isn't anything super huge or a great plot, I just like Cardverse, and I like USxFem!UK, so wrote this. In other stories I try to aim for about 1000 words per chapter, but all the chapters in this are going to be around 2000 words, to make the story less chapters and because I didn't mean for this to end up this long. It's going to end up being about 9 chapters, give or take, I haven't divided everything up yet, and updated every Sunday. That's it for now, enjoy!

Human Names:

America: Alfred F. Jones

China: Wang Yao

Fem!England: Alice Kirkland

Fem!Sweden: Beatrice Oxenstierna

Canada: Matthew Williams Jones

Hungary: Elizabeta Héderváry

Russia: Ivan Braginski

Japan: Honda Kiku

N. Italy: Feliciano Vargas

Lichtenstein: Lilli Zwingli

Switzerland: Vash Zwingli

Fem!Lithuania: Emilija Laurinaitis

Fem!Poland: Florentyna Łukasiewicz

Poland: Feliks Łukasiewicz

Fem!Latvia: Karina Galante

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

When Alice woke up and rolled over, the last thing she expected was on her right hand, the mark of the Queen of Spades. She screamed. Falling off of the lumpy mattress onto the cold floor of her quarters. Thankfully at this hour, no one else was still in the dormitory. Alice inspected the mark, it seemed genuine. Far too real for her liking.

It was tattooed on the top of her hand, not a line out of place. It was a navy blue spade, about 10 centimeters, with decorative swirls and a cursive "Q" in the center. She knew the symbol well, it was all over the castle and most clothes any important people wore, just minus the "Q".

"Alic'!" The maid jumped, looking up to the doorway and instantly hiding her hand in the tangled sheets. She was still on the floor. It was just the head maid for her group, an intimidating yet nice woman named Beatrice Oxenstierna. "Why 're you on the fl'r?" She asked, the accent had been a struggle to understand at first, but Alice had known the woman for a year by now and understood her easily. She had been hired right before the king's coronation, and had worked as a maid ever since.

"I er- fell. I'm getting up now!" Alice stood, still hiding her hand from view, the other maid shrugged and left her to get dressed.

While the maid dressed in the normal uniform of the castle maids, a dark blue dress and a white frilly apron, she internally panicked. There no way she could be queen! There must be some mistake, someone drew it on her during the night, or the clocks made a mistake. There was no way she, a low class maid, could ever be Queen of Spades. Not to mention marry King Alfred.

To hide the mark from view, Alice wrapped her hand with bandages, if anyone asked, she'd just say she hurt it in some way.

The blond left her quarters, fully dressed and ready for her work. In the main room, a room that connected all the sleeping quarters of the Spadian maids, Alice approached Beatrice to hear her own placement for the day. The duties of maids were often rotated, most maids had the same few places they were always scheduled, and some maids were forbidden to go to certain places. Alice wasn't allowed to work in the kitchen for certain reasons. She usually was stationed in a cleaning job, laundry, or to the king.

Being stationed to the king was her least favorite job. Mostly because she couldn't work well around him. Not because he was extremely handsome or anything! Alice thought it was because of his class. The king was born into the royal family, one of the Royals was always from the Jones family.

He has always been a one, the highest social class. Twos and threes were nobles, fours were rich merchants and factory CEOs. Fives usual got the nicer jobs, less hands on working, but sixes were the working class. Sevens got the lowest of the low and Eights were basically homeless. Alice was a six, pretty and hard working enough to be a castle maid. It was the nicest job she could probably get in her class, and it gave her a nice place to stay and enough food.

"Alic', you h've k'ng's duty." Beatrice called to her. A few other maids giggled around her, they loved that. They seemed to believe that if they could flirt enough with the king, they could get to be queen. Alice knew that the clocks chose the rulers, not the King.

Alice suppressed a sigh and left the lower quarters of the servants. She began to climb the stairs to the kitchen to pick up the King's breakfast.

The king's duty was to basically clean up his room and cater to his needs. That included reminding him to eat, he often forgot in his work load. It wasn't that it was a bad job, less stressful than most. King Alfred never asked for anything horrible, usually she just brought him food, cleaned his room, and delivered notes and papers to Jack Yao. Still for some reason, being there with the king was very nerve-wracking for the lower class maid.

Alice picked up the tray carrying the king's breakfast. It had coffee, she didn't understand how anyone could drink that bitter drink, and some pastries. She caught a glimpse of her bandaged hand, it had almost escaped her mind. She hoped it went away soon. The thought of being queen was horrifying to her. She'd have to a bunch of work all the time, help run Spades, and everything else that went with it. There were some upsides, she'd never have to worry about money or food or a having a home. But how could she be queen?

The clocks had to have made a mistake, there was no way Alice was the right choice. The most royal thing she'd ever done was when she worked the king's coronation and got to see all the other royals of Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs in person. But that was it. She was in no way royal and couldn't be queen.

Alice reached the king's study before she was ready to. The maid awkwardly knocked on the door while still balancing the tray. "Come in!" She heard him call from the inside. Alice opened the door to the study and was once again shocked by the stunning room. It was large, navy walls and long purple curtains that partly hid the outside world. There was an oak door that was slightly ajar on the other wall, she knew it led to the king's sleeping quarters. There were tall bookshelves with thick covers along most of the walls, breaking for windows. In the center was a beautifully crafted desk, wood that matched the bookshelves and the other wood accents. It was mostly covered with papers and books. King Alfred sat at it, writing on a paper in messy cursive.

He didn't really seem like a king to her. If you stripped him of his nice clothes and stuck him a crowd, you wouldn't be able to tell he was royalty. He was very handsome, she didn't like to dwell on that. His glasses partly hid his bright blue eyes and threatened to fall off the end of his nose. His golden hair was a mix between messy and neat, with one piece always standing up and flopping along with his movements.

King Alfred was the son of the previous king and queen, making him eligible to be one of the Royals just by birth. When his parents died in a shipwreak, King Alfred, then prince, woke up with the king's mark. The old Jack also retired, and a few months after that, Wang Yao showed his mark to the castle and was crowned Jack. It had been a year since the death of the previous Royals and the queen had still not been found, because Alice couldn't be the queen.

He peeked up at her, but when he saw her he dropped his pen and straightened up. "Hey, Alice!" He smiled warmly at her. He had asked her name a few time, but by now he knew it. She guessed he did this with a lot of maids, but it gave her comfort that he at least cared enough to learn it.

"Good morning, Your Majesty." Alice bowed, and set the tray down in one of the few empty spots on the cluttered desk.

"I've told you, you don't have to call me that." He huffed, looked like a frustrated child. Alice smiled at him and started removing the meal from the tray.

"What would you prefer then? Your Highness?" She suggested.

Alfred took a sip of the coffee, what an awful drink, and shook his head."No way! I heard enough of that when I was younger. Alfred would work." Alice almost dropped the plate. He wanted her to call him by his name!? Did he do this with all the maids?

"If that's what you'd like, I suppose." Alice set the plate down in front of him, not meeting his gaze.

"Cool! Thanks!" He grinned, then he started to follow her right hand. "What happened to your hand?"

"I hurt it." Alice said quickly, hoping he wouldn't press the matter. Alfred didn't get the chance to.

A guard suddenly opened the door and bowed to the king,"Your Majesty, you're needed in the clock room."

Alfred glanced at her. "What for?"

"A queen has been chosen." He answered and excused himself.

Alfred looked surprised, he glanced to Alice. "I'll be here cleaning." The maid bowed to him and the king left her alone.

Alice allowed the panic to return. The maid tried to distract herself with dusting the thick books, but it didn't help much. The mark alone didn't mean she was queen. It was the clocks that always sealed the choice. The hour hand on the clock would always follow its royal, like the king's clock's hour hand always was pointing to Alfred if he wasn't holding it. There had been situations in the past, people getting tattoos of the king, queen, or jack's marks then going to the castle and pretending that they were chosen by the clocks to be a ruler. When a clock was held by its respective Royal, it would tell time normally rather than the hour hand following it. That always showed who was pretending and who was actually chosen.

What if the clock chose her? She couldn't be queen. She didn't know the first thing about being royalty, how could the clocks choose her, out of every other single Spadian?

Alfred wasn't gone for long, but it felt like he was. Alice was dusting off a lower bookshelf when he returned, carrying a clock. "Oh, hey! You're still here." He said, setting the clock down on the desk. It was in the shape of a spade with intricate engravings, all the clocks looked liked that, but in different metals for each Royal. The king's was made of gold, the queen's silver, and the jack's bronze. The clock on the desk was silver, and the hour hand was pointed to her. But the king hadn't noticed.

Alice had two choices, run, or tell him. If she ran, she might be able to get away from the castle, but anyone could follow the hour hand to her, she could never hide. Or she told him, that'd be accepting the role as queen, although there was no doubt in Alice's mind that she would be a horrible queen. She decided she do the latter, running wouldn't change anything, and maybe it would turn out okay. Alice didn't want to be queen, she didn't think she could do it, she should do it, or in any way live up to the standards set by the queens before her, but she had to, for some ungodly reason.

"Alfred, may I show you something?" Alice started unraveling the bandages behind her.

The king looked at her in confusion,"Um, sure." Alice crumpled up the bandage in her left and offered her right to Alfred. He immediately took it, inspecting the mark. "You're the-" He stopped, looking back to her with wide eyes. The king dropped her hand, and returned to his desk. He picked up the silver clock and held it out to her. "It'll prove it, if you are or not." He seemed excited, but not trying to get his hopes up.

Alice hesitantly took the queen's clock. It's ticks filled the almost silent room, telling the time perfectly, 9:36. She watched the silver hands and numbers, not believing. She was the Queen of Spades. Oh bloody hell, she was the Queen of Spades.

"You're the queen!" Alfred exclaimed loudly, laughing. In a second, the king had embraced her tightly.

The queen stood there in his hug, not sure what to make of it. She was queen and her king was hugging her. Her king, it was odd to think of Alfred like that. He broke apart eventually, Alice didn't hug him back, too shocked to do anything. He looked down at her, they were really close, she had to notice.

"Alice? You okay?" The king asked her softly.

"Could this be a mistake?" Alice looked up to him, he was a lot taller than she was, she only came up to his jaw.

"The clocks aren't wrong. They chose me to be king." He frowned.

"But you're a great king! You were raised for this! I can't be a bloody queen!" Alice exclaimed, the anxiety was rising, she felt a little light headed.

"I thought that at first too. It gets better."

"I- I can't." Alice shook her head and tried to give the clock back to Alfred. He didn't take it. "Take it, wanker! I can't be queen!" She felt dizzy.

"Alice!" He held her shoulders, she was thankful for the support because she couldn't feel her legs anymore. Before either could say anything else, the queen passed out in his arms.

Also, for each chapter name, it'll be some blue metaphor, I like naming the chapters certain ways for stories. ("The" for When The Day Met The Night, "And" for Cursed, "Of" for another upcoming story, what ever I come up with next.)