#oneword2016

Snow fell from the sky in blankets, covering everything on the ground. The snow that didn’t stick to the ground was soon being whipped around in the air by the harsh lake wind. A blizzard had hit, which meant several things, but the most important thing was that people were stuck at home with “no” way out.

————————————————————————

“Max, did you put the cars in the shed yet?” Amelia asked, standing at the kitchen window, watching the snow blow by.

“Yea.” Max mumbled, hugging Amelia from behind. Amelia smiled, placing her arms over Max’s. They watched the blizzard rage on in silence, enjoying the warmth in the the house against the bitterly, cold winds.

“Ya know, ” Amelia turned her head in the general direction of Max. “This gives us time to start ahead on cleaning.”

Max rolls her eyes and scoffs. Amelia cleaning ahead of time? That rarely happens around here due to the fact that Amelia couldn’t focus for that long and Max had a habit of letting her get away with it.

Amelia turns around in Max’s loose hug, hand on her hip and a fire in her eyes.

“What? I can totally do it. We can even better on it if you want.”

“Okay.”

“If we can clean 75% of the house, I get to do whatever I want with you.” Amelia smirks, thinking about the trip to the spa she was planning on dragging Max to.

“But if you don’t?”

“If I don’t, then you’ll get to do anything you want with me.”

“Deal.” Both ladies were grinning as they sealed their deal. As soon as their hands dropped, Amelia was booking it for her iPod and speaker. If she was going to focus, she was going to do it her way. And with the music playing and the blizzard raging outside, the girls started to clean.

————————————————————————

Four hours later, they had only cleaned 3 rooms and had reached the depths of Amelia’s music. They were at her old dancing days, back when she lived and breathed dancing as she grew up.

The blends of jazz, ballet, and swing rang through the house, tempting Amelia to say screw the house work and the stupid bet and just go dance around. But she grew a spine and resisted the call of her tribal thoughts and  memories.

Except when that spine snapped into pieces and her will broke down with the opening stanza of the Potter Waltz.

“Oh my God, I love dancing to this song!” She grins, holding out a hand for Max, who was sitting on the ground, sorting bills.

“Come dance with me Max. It’ll be fun!”

Max shakes her head, never looking up from the bills. Amelia groans and drops her hand, glaring at the girl on the floor.

“Are you seriously denying a chance to dance with the ever famous Amelia Jones?”

Max looked up and locked eyes with Amelia, smirking.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Amelia rolled her eyes before resigning to dancing alone since her gentle giant was refusing to cooperate.

Max goes back to sorting through the bills, glancing up at Amelia every once in a while and every time, the sight took her breath away. The graceful sweeping movements preformed around the dining room made Amelia look regal, like a princess in a ballroom

Ad the song fades into the next, the dancing girl feels the eyes the eyes of the other in her. She smirks and then twirls over to her spot on the floor.

“May I have this dance, madame?” Amelia asked, bowing slightly and holding out a hand for Max to take.

“I don’t know how.”

“That’s alright, I’ll teach you.” Amelia smiled and Max reluctantly took her hand, pulling herself into a standing position.

Amelia took Max’s other hand and places it on her own shoulder, smiling back up at Max, encouraging. Max gave a small smile back before looking back down to her feet.

“Okay, so first move your left foot back and then move  your right foot back diagonally.”

“Like this?”

“Yeah! Then you slide your left foot to your right foot.”

Max did it, glancing back to Amelia for reassurance.

“You’re doing great babe! Now move your right foot up and your left foot diagonally up and slide the right to the left.”

Max followed the instruction, her tongue sticking out in concentration.

“Good! Now let’s try it all together. I’ll say the steps out loud.”

Max nods, eager to continue learning.

“Okay, left back, right back, together. Right up, left up, together. Left back, right back, toget-”

Their feet get tangled together and Max starts falling into Amelia. Amelia caught her by the shoulders, pushing her back into a standing position.

“It takes a while to learn, don’t worry!”

“Okay.” She looked back at Amelia, determined. “Can we try again now?”

Amelia grinned and nodded, holding their conjoined hands back to the side.

The pair practiced and practiced as song after song faded together and Max slowly got better, only occasionally stepping on Amelia’s feet. Max grinned at Amelia, not even caring about rigid structure or moves. She spins Amelia around as she laughs, both exuding happiness and content.

Max dipped Amelia, leaning in and kissing her on the lips. Amelia wrapped her arms around Max’s shoulders, linking her hands at the nape of her neck. She lifted Amelia back up, grinning like a madman when they broke apart.

Amelia spun away from Max, a teasing smile on her face. Max sauntered over, stopping when their bodies were right against each other.

Amelia snaked her arms around Max’s waist and then suddenly leaned her down, dipping her. Max’s hands jerk up to grip Amelia’s arms, her eyes wide. She grinned down at Max and started to dip her further, completely forgetting about the height difference. Max slipped right out of her grip.

“Oh crap, I’m so sorry, Max!!”

Max just started grinning and giggling uncontrollably. Amelia gradually joined in! catching the infectious happiness and laid down next to Max.

“That was fun.” Amelia said, looking over at Max.

Max turns and looks at her too. She smiles softly.   “Yeah, it was.”

Allen was just a normal guy, had a normal job, working at a pet shop in a small town. There wasn’t anything special in his life, work, home, work, home, work, home. The dark red head was very outgoing but the thing was that he was shy when going to new places, he didn’t like change. 

But boy did change really like to favor his persona.

The first thing to happen this year was the new guy coming into town, and with the population of 500, everyone noticed. Everyone had heard about the man one day having gotten drunk last month in the middle of the day and bought every kid that went to the ice cream shop in the middle of town ice cream. 

Later that week from the ice cream ‘problem’ everyone had called a town meeting and tried to talk to the man so he would leave the kids alone. He later put up a party for all the teenagers that wished to have a wild party in the quiet town. The entire population that went and trashed the guys house, it was all from sugar highs. 

Somehow there was another town meeting, but when the man went, everyone had gotten upset at him. Still, the man had listened to all of the older generations yelling at him. From what Allen had heard that the man was about his age, mid-20′s. Personally, he didn’t really care, but he did find it humorous.

There was nothing exciting going on in this small town in the middle of nowhere. So when Allen heard about all the strange things happening, it was amazing that the man didn’t just get arrested. Still, he never did anything illegal which was the only thing keeping him out of jail.

The kids were that were given the ice cream got it from the ice cream shop owner herself and she was the only one in the back the whole time. When the party was going on, the damages were only done to his house. Technically, the man should have sued the town but didn’t which was interesting.

“Smith! Keep an eye out for customers, I am going on my lunch break” the owner shouted, Allen nodded. 

“Yes sir, enjoy your break” he smiled before hearing the door close did he sigh.

Allen just got up and began to sweep, he had already done it today but the thing was that no one ever came to the shop for pets. And what people did have pets got their food here which was rare on its’ own. He just needed something to do. Something, anything honestly.

Allen jumped at the door opening, he turned. “Hello, welcome-” he paused, a brow raised. An unfamiliar man in the doorway, looking around confused. He had short blond hair that seemed to glow in the sun, light skin that almost hid bright blue eyes that scanned the store to land on Allen’s golden colored ones.

“Oh, hello” he smiled, Allen flushed when he realized he was staring.

“Welcome to the pet store” he whispered, walking over, broom still in hand. “Anything I can help you with?”

“Actually yes” the new man smiled, Allen felt the color drain from his face. He didn’t know the man, nor his intentions so he had to be careful. “Do this town have any bars or something like that?” Allen stared at his words before thinking.

“Well, besides the store that sells alcohol, we don’t have any bars” he stated, the man looked at him in sadness.

“Oh man, that kind of sucks. Some of the people here need to loosen up” the man sighed, Allen stared at him for a moment.

“We don’t have much, so we just live life as is” Allen stated, crossing his arms around his broom.

“That is the problem, you all live life as is, not going out looking for an adventure” the man smiled, a glint in his eyes that made Allen’s breath stop.

“An adventure you say, and you are supposed to give us that adventure?” he asked softly, the man’s smile began to grow.

“Yep, I personally think that everyone should have fun even after all of the youthful years are over” he smiled, his sea eyes scanning Allen’s body, making him feel both uncomfortable and yet calm at the same time.

“Youthful years?”

“Yes, youthful years, the years when you still have energy to do things, the ages of born until roughly your mid-20′s” he smiled, he pointed his index finger to the ceiling. “You look to be right about that zone” Allen felt his cheeks warm.

“Really? Why is that?” the man was about to answer but Allen held up a hand, “Actually, don’t answer, please don’t” he sighed before they both fell silent.

“What is your name?” Allen blinked at the other’s words. 


“Excuse me?” he asked, the man chuckled a bit which made Allen’s heart stop for a moment. 


“What is your name? You don’t have a nametag” the other asked, Allen flushed.

“Allen, Allen C. Smith” he whispered, his cheeks getting darker.

“Alfred, Alfred F. Jones” the other nodded, he walked over and extended a hand. “Nice to meet you Mr. Smith” he smiled, Allen looked between the hand and the blond’s eyes.

“You can call me Allen” he whispered, taking the hand and giving it a good shake. 


“Then you can call me Alfred, Allen” the shorter man smiled. Allen began to scan the other’s body, the large 50′s bomber jacket, the white tee shirt underneath, his jeans and knee high ‘cowboy’ boots. That’s what they were called right? “Hey, Allen?” Allen jumped at Alfred’s words, sure his ears were red now. 


“Y-yes?” he squeaked, how unprofessional! Alfred held his hands up, showing no harm done.

“You said this is a pet store, how can you still be in business if there is no one to buy the animals?” Alfred questioned softly, Allen thought for a moment.

“Honestly, I have no idea but would you like to look around for a pet?” Allen asked, attempting to keep his job in mind while looking at this foreign man.

“A pet?” Alfred hummed, grabbing his own chin in thought before looking to Allen’s eyes again. The taller man shifted uncomfortably foot to foot wondering why he was being watched like that.

“What kind of animals do you have?” Alfred finally asked after two minutes of pure silence.

“We have quite a few different times, from the normal cats and dogs, to birds and reptiles or anything you really need” Allen responded quickly, already having this memorized.

“A lot more than this store really needs you think?” Alfred hummed as he walked passed the store employee.

“It is but it works” Allen responded as he followed. “Is there anything you are looking for?” he asked, as Alfred stopped at the dogs section.

“Do you have pure breeds?”

“Pure breeds?”

“Oh yes, like just a pure Maltese or something like that?” Alfred asked as he looked through the glass. “Like a show dog”

“I personally don’t think we have any pure breeds” Allen whispered, wondering what the other was looking for.

“Well, that’s fine-OH! You have a Husky” Alfred’s eyes widened as he nearly smacked his face into the glass to get a closer look. “So pretty” he whispered.  

“Did you want to look at her?” Allen asked, Alfred snapped his gaze to the other, making the worker flinch.

“Yes” was all he said before looking back to the dog in question, Allen sighed before putting the broom to the side before going inside. The dogs began to bark and run around in their cages before Allen stopped at the Husky’s.

“Hey girl” he smiled as he opened the cage, Alfred took great notice that unlike the other dogs, the Huskie was just laying down with a lazy wag of the tail before raising her head when the door was opened.

“Come on” and with that, she finally got up and walked over to be carried. Allen came out with the black and white animal with patches of gray all around her blue eyes.

“Please follow me” Allen stated as he led Alfred to one of the play rooms filled with a bunch of toys. The red head put the dog down when Alfred entered the room.  

“How old is she?” Alfred asked as he sat near the Huskie, the animal just laying back down to the ground.

“Almost ten years old” Allen responded, Alfred stared at  him with wide eyes.

“What?”

“Yes, she is very old” Allen hummed as he got closer and petted the dog, who leaned into his touch. “She loves being petted though”

“How could you keep her for so long?” Alfred questioned, worried as he leaned over and petted her, Allen stopped.

“Well, she has been here as long as I have been working here” he smirked as he looked to the dog.

“But still, that is a long time to keep a dog in a store” Alfred whispered, the dog began to pant as he scratched behind her ears, which Allen laughed at.

“Yes it is, but we can’t do anything, I can’t adopt her, and I really like her” he whispered before looking at Alfred. “I think you would like her too”

“Really?” Alfred asked as he got a bit closer to the nameless dog. “Why is that?”

“She is very calm, low maintenance, not loud and she is very keen of sensing emotions” Allen hummed, smiling as Alfred petted the dog.

“Well, that does sound nice” the blond whispered, looking at the old dog under his finger tips. “How much?” He asked, Allen rose a finger before he got up, quickly leaving the room only to return later within two minutes.

“She is $100” he whispered, Alfred gave a small him.

“It’s because of how old she is, isn’t it?” The new man to town wondered, Allen gave a small nod.

“Yes, and how long she has been here” the worker added, Alfred nodded.

“I see” he whispered, a moment of thought before the dog looked at Alfred their see blue eyes connection for a few moments before he nodded. “I’ll get her”

“Alright, I’ll just need a few pieces of information” Allen smiled, happy that the dog was finally getting adopted or paid he guessed. Alfred got up with a hum, slowly following Allen to the register. “Name, number, Address. The name is needed but all other parts are optional” Alfred nodded as he quickly paid for the animal, a smile on his face.

“Alfred F. Jones” the blond responded as Allen typed it into the computer. “Anything else?”

“Nothing more if you’re not comfortable with it” Allen responded, a big smile on his face when he saw the Huskie walking over, staying near Alfred as it had no leash or collar. “She likes you” Alfred followed his gaze and smiled a bit.

“Yeah, the feeling is mutual” he chuckled.

“I do have to ask, why didn’t you get one of the puppies? As they are the most popular choice” Allen asked, Alfred laughed at his words causing the other to flush.

“I know, I guess I like dogs that mean well” he smiled, Allen raised a brow before seeing Alfred pull out a card from his jacket. Allen watched as the card was handed to him. “This is my number, for personal use” Alfred winked, Allen flushed as he hesitantly took the thick paper.

“Oh, thank you” he whispered, Alfred smiled.

“No problem, Allen. I’ll certainly see you another day” he smiled, looking to the dog. “Come, Snow” he whispered and the dog followed. Allen watched as a sun hit the door, almost making Allen’s breath hitch. When Alfred was our of sight, Allen looked at the card.

^*^*^*^

“It’s not my fault that no one wants to be the queen of a quickly falling kingdom!” The blue eyed blond growled towards his father, a tall man with a greying beard and once happy and caring dark blue eyes.

Now they were fiery. “You have no reason to say things like that about a kingdom that you will inherit- in no less than a week..!”

Alfred hated when they fought, but with all this pressure pressed onto him to find a queen at his young age of only 18, it was kind of hard not to anymore. He had no chance to do things that he wanted. He wanted to train with the soldiers, he wanted to find a suitable queen to rule by his side when he was ready, not now with the looming threat of their kingdom falling.

He could remember the simple times in which his mother would read him stories about valiant knights claiming the throne, saving the princess, saving the kingdom from despair. He would look at the Spadian marking on his wrist and he would smile and think that someone was out there that was his perfect match, and they would be his damsel and he would save them. Cause that’s what his tiny little imaginative mind thought about when he was a child.

It seemed that it just wouldn’t happen that way. Life wasn’t as simple as his 6 years old mind thought.

^*^*^

Days passed, and the search for the exact mark of the Prince’s was starting to wear thin on the multiple soldiers. It wasn’t until the very night before Alfred’s birthday that five soldiers bounded in with bright smiles and a boy with bright red hair and even brighter red eyes came into the throne room. They gently walked the teenager up, showing that he was nothing but a commoner, and that he had the same Spadian marking as the blondes just below his left ear, even though it wasn’t as noticable. It wouldn’t be until the two consummated, something of tradition.

^*^*^

Allen, he learned, was the same age, and they were both consequently born on the same day. Allen had lived his whole life in the kingdom, only just getting by on their own. Of course, when Alfred heard of this, he made sure the brother was found and that he would be given a place near the kingdom so he could come visit and live a better life.

And as much as they got along, they both decided that they would start as friends that night, even if they were scheduled to wed by the morning. They would be fine.

^*^*^

The wedding was beautiful, he was told, but all Alfred could see was Allen. Instead of the rags he came here in, he was dressed in white head to toe. The male was stunning.

Alfred was dressed in his fancy white dress wear: tights, trousers, a white dress shirt and an embroidered white and gold stitch vest, his gold crown, his glasses, and his gold cape with white fur trim.

But Allen… Gods.. Allen…

Since the queen was supposed to be seen as pure and untouched, despite the gender, they were to wear the whitest of dresses. The dress itself was made of layers of silk and lace and white feathers, to symbol the purity of the man, and the front was cut so that the layers would show and the feathers would fall behind him, leaving a trail as he walked. He suspected that it was also to show off the heels that led the eyes up those impossibly long and surprisingly hairless legs, once again symbolizing purity.

The top of the dress was a corset pulled a little looser for comfort instead of beauty, and mostly to keep the dress up without it fall off of him. Red hair was emphasized with a golden crown meant for the queen, and his eyelids were dusted with silver sparkles to bring shine to his features.

His own cape was considerably smaller, and was used to emphasize comfort instead of beauty, like most would believe. It was gold thread as well, but the sides were carefully connected to his wrists, almost like it was a veil to cover him.. Wings of an angel to protect him.

Alfred had heard from his mother that he would feel weak when he saw his queen in the outfit… But he honestly felt stronger. He could protect this pure angel.

^*^*^

Even the weeks, the months after they consummated their marriage that night, they still stayed friends. They laughed and joked around with each other, they even just sat and talked.

Neither one wanted to push anything, and Alfred certainly didn’t want to. But even after months, they both knew that things were changing. They hadn’t kissed each other since that night, nor had they slept in the same room.

Maybe it was all the gentle touches as they walked.

Maybe it was the way he began to notice just how Allen held himself, even after all this time in the kingdom: still a bit lowly, especially when he was near Alfred, but was slowly starting to be more confident.

Maybe it was the way that five months after they were married, Alfred gently took the others hand and led him to the highest tower in the Spadian castle in the middle of the night, and they forgot their duties for one night and looked up to the stars.

He had learned so much about Allen, the new Queen of Spades, these past few months, and he could say that now… Yes. He was in love with the man. Deeply. Powerfully. And just like he promised on their wedding day, he wanted to protect him from any and all dangers, keep him safe from any threat in their way.

Maybe it was the way that their lips pressed together as he pulled him close to him and kissed him lovingly, showing the man that he had fallen for him, that he had fallen for the pure angel. And maybe it was the way those three little words were spoken between their lips sounded just so perfect coming from the queens throat…

“I love you..~”