♠️ Exceptis Centrum ♠️ ✔︎

Chapter 29

The dream was starting to fade. He couldn’t quite remember the dream he had that night and as his conscious was slowly starting to awaken, all he could do was cling onto that dream as best he could, even the memories of it were starting to slip through his fingers. It was hard to make out but he felt like he was doing something with someone he cherished, something enjoyable, something wonderful. Alfred groaned as the sound of knocking was almost bringing him out of his slumber. He chose to ignore it as continuing his blissful sleep felt far more appealing, to reach out to that dream that brought him peace. He then heard the sound of a door opening, sharp and frantic footsteps and someone suddenly screaming his name directly in his ear.

“Alfred!”

Jerking upwards, Alfred finally opened his eyes and looked around. The daylight was illuminating his bedroom, birds outside were singing, and Yao was standing over him appearing flustered, as if he had been running a marathon.

“Alfred, do you realise what time it is? And did you seriously fall asleep in your clothes!?”

Looking at himself he cringed when he realised that he did indeed fall asleep in his clothes, and his fine clothing had ended up looking creased and untidy, his tie out of shape and his white shirt looking like something that just came out of dirty laundry basket. Even his hair was in a mess for he could feel it was out of shape and some of it was in his eyes and mouth. He rearranged his glasses and gasped when he spotted the clock on the wall and the time it displayed.

“I’m late,” he shrieked as he pushed himself off his bed, only to end up falling on the floor. He jumped back up and tried to run to his washroom. “I gotta change, I gotta wash, I gotta-...”

“There is no time,” snapped Yao, dragging him towards the door that lead out of his room. “You were supposed to be there ten minutes ago!”

Without even thinking about it, Alfred warped himself out of Yao’s hand and ended up in front of the door that lead to the Gathering hall and thankfully no one was around to see him in such a state. He checked himself out in a nearby mirror, cringing at himself and the mess he was in. He did his best to make himself look presentable but by the time he had finished, Yao had already made his way down.

“I told them you were taking care of a last minute proposal,” stated Yao, aiding Alfred in straightening up his loose tie, “just go in, apologise for being late, and get on with it.” Yao then pulled what looked like a juice box out of his pocket, snapped the straw in place and shoved it in Alfred’s mouth before he could even ask. “The Heart Queen is still resting, the Club Jack is currently absent, and the Joker is still in there but the Heart King is keeping him under control.”

As Alfred drank the contents of the juice box he realised it was actually some sort of energy drink as he was getting some sort of buzz from it. It was actually waking up his work out mind.

“Just relax and go in there like nothing is wrong, and don’t forget to apologise,” commanded Yao, pulling the empty juice box away and quickly dusting Alfred’s coat. “Hopefully no one will notice the state of your uniform, as long as they don’t look at you for too long.”

Although he had literally just woken up, and was dreading for showing up late for the continuation of the Gathering, Alfred couldn’t help but smile at how keen and hardworking Yao was. Even after going through so much, Yao was always there to pick up the slack.

“Yao... I-...”

“Talk later, get in there now!” Yao then began shoving him towards the door.

Alfred realised Yao was right, there was no time more mindless chatter. He was already running late for an important meeting and had to quickly get everything back on track. Taking a deep breath, and checking himself over one last time, Alfred opened the door. Inside all the other courts were already seated and looked like they were in a deep discussion, but the moment they noticed Alfred’s presence they ceased in their chatter and looked over at him. Gilbert who was still laying atop the table looked up and waved at him with a cheeky grin plastered upon his smug face. As Alfred walked in he noticed that the Club Jack was indeed missing along with the Heart Queen. He knew why Kiku was absent but where on Earth could Roderich be? Alfred could only assume that Ivan sent him off to do some work. Hearing a noticeable cough from Yao, who was walking behind him, he realised he had to quickly offer his apologies for his absence.