It was a little after midnight that Yixing knocked on Yeonhee’s door.  Normally, she would have gone to sleep, but she was anxious to know the result of his and Sehun’s conversation in his office, since she hadn’t seen either of them since she and the queen had gone to eat, and she was also worried that the prince might have been upset at the way she’d spoken to him, or that he’d still be annoyed she’d brought Sehun along with her.

He hovered in the doorway, looking nervous and scuffing his toe childishly against the carpet.

“I’ve sent Sehun back to university for the night,” he told her.  “I hope you don’t mind.”

Yeonhee put aside the book she’d been reading and shifted to sit up straighter.  “It’s your home and your decision.”

Yixing was quiet for a few moments.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” he said quietly.  “Yesterday too.  I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

“It’s all right—” Yeonhee began, but he shook his head.

“It isn’t—”

“Yixing.  It’s all right.  You’ve had a rough few days and you’re under a lot of pressure.  I understand that and I’m not going to hold it against you.”

Still not meeting her gaze, he bit his lip.  “I still ought never to have spoken to you like that.”

With a soft sigh, Yeonhee patted the duvet beside her.  “Stop beating yourself up and come here.”

He hesitated at the invitation, but he did finally look up and she could see the conflict in his expression.  He seemed scared – what of, Yeonhee had no idea – and like he was still on the brink of tears.

“I’m at fault too,” she said.  “I knew you’d react badly to me bringing Sehun here and I shouldn’t have called you a brat.”

Yixing’s face relaxed marginally.  “I was being a brat, though.”

“You were,” Yeonhee agreed, “but that didn’t mean it was a good idea for me to yell it through the stairwell at you.”

He finally caved and came over to the bed, clambering on top of it and snuggling into her side.  Yeonhee put her arm around him.  His shoulders were extremely tense, and she absently started kneading a kink in the side of his neck.

Yixing exhaled softly.

“Sometimes you’re the only thing that keeps me sane,” he admitted, closing his eyes.  “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me all year.”

Yeonhee was about to tell him not to exaggerate, but she stopped herself.  Objectively speaking, from what she’d seen, the prince had not had a great time since she’d first met him, and she imagined it probably hadn’t been much better before that.

“I drew you something yesterday,” she said.  “I don’t know if you saw.”

He obviously hadn’t, because he perked up.  “You did?”

“Mm.  I put it on easyl, but I have the original here as well.”  Carefully retracting her arm, Yeonhee got out of bed to rummage through her backpack.  Yixing propped himself up against the headboard as she sat back beside him and handed him the pastel sketch of the phoenix.

He didn’t say anything for several long moments, his dark brown eyes moving a little as they absorbed the image, but his expression revealed exactly what was going through his head.  He swallowed, his eyes a little glassy, and then smiled, reaching for Yeonhee’s hand.

“Is the phoenix supposed to be me or you?” he asked eventually, setting the drawing down and tracing out the hints of the crown with his finger.  “Or is it supposed to be non-specific?”

“The original intent was it as a statement that you will be able to make things work,” Yeonhee said.

He squeezed her fingers appreciatively.

“There’s a crown,” he said, tracing it out again.

“Mm.”

“I think this is the most pro-monarchist thing you’ve ever drawn.”

He was completely right.  Yeonhee found herself blushing.

“It’s beautiful,” Yixing added.  “Can I keep it?”

Part of Yeonhee wanted to say no, because she knew it was one of her most impressive drawings, but she nodded.  After all, she had drawn it specifically for him, and if it was going to remind him that he had support when he was down, or if he needed encouragement to persevere, then it would be good for him to have it.

“So…” she said, her hand twitching nervously in his, “what exactly did you and Sehun do?”

“We talked,” the prince said.  “He’s got a brilliant brain.  I’m very glad he thinks we have common cause because if I ever came up against him in a political debate he’d absolutely destroy me.”

Yeonhee failed to suppress a chuckle.

“If I get the chance, I’m going to set him up with Jia,” Yixing said thoughtfully.  “I think they’d get on.”

Yeonhee didn’t know Jia well enough to comment on that, but from what she’d seen of the girl, Jia was obviously quick-witted as well and she had a mischievous streak to her that she could see Sehun pretending not to like but secretly digging.

“We spent a bit of time talking about you.”  Yixing splayed Yeonhee’s fingers out and then laced his through them.  “I did wonder if the reason he was so protective was because he had a crush, but he’s just really worried about you.  Apparently his aunt had a mental breakdown after being hounded by the media over something they’d misrepresented and it turned into a public witch hunt.  I think he’s just scared of something similar happening to you.”

“I didn’t know about his aunt,” Yeonhee said.  “He doesn’t really talk about his family much.”

“He also told me to have a discussion with you about going public.”  Yixing sighed.  “The obvious benefit is that we wouldn’t have to worry about getting caught and we’d be able to actually go out on proper dates again, but I share his concerns about public backlash against you and I want to keep you away from that for as long as possible.”

Yeonhee chewed the inside of her cheek.

“People will politicise our relationship – Sehun thinks this too,” Yixing said, “but we both agree that it would be much better for us to announce it instead of the media outing us, and Sehun said there’s a possibility of cultivating a positive response that might curb the backlash if we show a happy, positive image of unity in spite of ethnicities and well known differences in outlook.”

“The republicans will still think I’m a traitor,” Yeonhee pointed out.  “And the separationists will hate me.”

“But hopefully everyone else will like you.”  Yixing yawned hugely.  “I don’t want to push you into going public, but we do need to think about it.”

Yeonhee gulped.  Media scrutiny was not something she wanted, and she didn’t know if she’d be able to handle the inevitable hate. Yixing yawned again.

“Hey.”  Distracted, Yeonhee nudged him.  “What time to you need to be up in the morning?”

“Six, I think.  Why?”

“It’s nearly one.  You should go to bed.”

He whined in objection.

“I don’t mind if you stay here,” Yeonhee told him, but he let go of her hand and reluctantly started to heave himself up.

“No, we ought not to cross the line again,” he mumbled, carefully picking up the drawing of the phoenix.  “Mum would not be amused.”

Stifling another yawn, he wrinkled his nose and cast an annoyed glance at the door.

“Yixing,” Yeonhee said before he could turn and leave.  He blinked tiredly down at her.  Yeonhee pushed herself up to that their heads were level, and cupped his face in her hands.  “Sorry for causing you extra stress today.”  A little hesitant, she leant forward to press a kiss to his forehead, lingering longer than necessary.  He exhaled softly, and she could feel a faint frown relaxing on his brow.  His hands came up to cover hers.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you now,” he whispered.

Yeonhee pulled back.  “You’re going soft.”

He smiled tiredly.  “There aren’t many people I can trust the way I trust you.”  Sliding his hands down to her wrists, he gently removed her hands from his cheeks and let go of them.  “Sleep well.”

Yeonhee got a call from Chen on her way back to university the next morning.  He confirmed what she’d suspected about the gift – it was completely innocuous and likely from the secret admirer rather than Antiroyo, and he wanted to know if she wan