Kyungsoo is sitting on his bed in the infirmary, twiddling his thumbs and squirming in boredom when Yi Fan unceremoniously throws open the door and saunters in, causing Kyungsoo to jerk his head up in surprise.

          “Follow me,” Yi Fan demands imperiously before turning around and walking out the same way he came in; arrogantly and full of superiority.

          “Hold the up!” Kyungsoo calls out as he lurches off the bed and struggles to catch up to Yi Fan. When he finally does, Kyungsoo finds that he has to take two strides for every one of the Crown Prince’s.

          “Why the hell are your legs so preposterously long?” Kyungsoo puffs out, practically jogging to keep pace with the intimidating giant.

          “Why are yours so preposterously short?” Yi Fan throws a passing glance in Kyungsoo’s direction, eyebrow raised sardonically.

          “Touché.  Now, care to tell me what’s going on?”

          “Not really.”

          “Well do so anyway.”

          “What is the magic word?”

          “ you.”

          “I guess that you do not actually care what it is I will be doing with you.”

          Kyungsoo flushes at the unintended innuendo in Yi Fan’s words, but manages to keep his voice calm as he responds anyway.  “Fine. Oh Mighty and Powerful, All-Knowing Yi Fan, will you please tell me where we are going?” Kyungsoo does his best to make his voice as ingratiating as physically possible as he bats his eye up at the much taller man.

          “Your irreverence astounds me, but as I do not particularly feel like fighting this battle at the moment, I will tell you.  You, Kyungsoo, are being given a new identity. Your true one will cause nothing but danger both to yourself, and to the kingdom. I am taking you to your new room.”

          “New identity, huh? What is it? Am I a nobleman? Maybe your mother’s sister’s daughter’s cousin three times removed?”

          “My mother’s what?” Yi Fan inquired, truly perplexed.

          “Your mother’s sister’s daughter’s cousin three times removed.”

          “Are all people from your world so strange?”

          “Nope, just me. But you haven’t answered my question yet. What’s my new identity?”

          “An uneducated son of a lesser country nobleman.  He was worried about your lack of decorum and social skills, so he sent you to the capital in the hopes that our genteel society would rub off on you and refine your very rough edges.”

          “Glamorous.”

          “Indeed.”

          “So why am I playing a country bumpkin?”

          “A number of reasons. Primarily, it provides a reason for members of the court to have never heard of you. Also, it is an excuse for your complete lack of social skills.”

          “Well you too, your highness,” Kyungsoo executes a deep and mocking bow.

          “My point exactly.”

          Kyungsoo merely rolls his eyes and proceeds to follow on in silence.

          Ten minutes of walking, or in Kyungsoo’s case, jogging, and it still does not seem as if they have reached their destination.

          “Are we there yet? Jesus ing Christ, just how big is the goddamned place?”

          “Patience, we are nearly there.”

          “I will literally never be able to find my way anywhere. Is there possibly a map I can have?”

          “I will see what I can do… Ah! Here we are!” Yi Fan exclaimed with the most excitement Kyungsoo has seen him muster yet as he pushes open a heavy wooden door set into the wall on the right side of the hallway they are in.

          “Are you that happy to get rid of me?”

          “Was it that obvious?”

          Kyungsoo simply flicks him off before walking into the dimly lit room.

          “I feel as if I am to be offended, but once again, I am unfamiliar with your gesture.”

          “It means ‘ you,’ or in your fancy-pants terms, it means ‘go screw yourself.’”

          “Thank you for enlightening me.  You are to stay in your room unless explicitly told otherwise.  Yixing will be here shortly with your new wardrobe and dinner.  Do not under any circumstances treat him as if he is your servant. If you are cruel to him in any way, I will castrate you.  Against my warnings, he is, for whatever reason, interested in getting to know you.”

          Before Kyungsoo is even given a chance to reply, Yi Fan has already made his dramatic exit through the door, leaving Kyungsoo alone once again.

          “If I keep ending up stuck in a room, I am either going to go stir crazy or start talking to myself,” Kyungsoo voices as he begins walking around the room and examining everything in it. “Oh yeah, I already am.”

          An hour later, Kyungsoo has finished looking through every last nook and cranny of the room, admiring all of the tapestries hanging on the walls, and is sprawled across the monstrous bed with nothing but his growling stomach to keep him company.

          “I could really do with some internet and fanfiction right about now. Or, at the very least, my ipod.”

          As Kyungsoo shifts on the bed to try a new position in which to commiserate with his boredom, the door opens and a familiar tuft of curly black hair peeks in through the door.

          “Yixing! Fabulous, I was bored out of my mind in here.”

          “Soo Soo, eat dinner with me!”

          Kyungsoo sits up, spluttering at his new nickname as Yixing pushes in a cart full of steaming food.

          “Please don’t call me that, Yixing.”

          “Just eat your food,” Yixing chuckles as he sets up their meals and sits across from Kyungsoo on the bed.

          “No need to tell me twice,” Kyungsoo says as he begins devouring his dinner.  The two of them eat in silence, and it is only after they have both eaten their fill that Yixing once again begins to fill the silence with his voice that inexplicably has the effect of lifting Kyungsoo’s spirits.

          Kyungsoo just sits, comfortably listening to Yixing’s melodious voice, though not really listening to the words.  That is until he hears the phrase, “let’s take a bath,” fall from his lips.

          “What!?”

          “I said, let’s get a bath. You must be tired and sore. Besides, when was the last time you had an opportunity to clean yourself?”

          “Yes, but together?”

          “Why not?” Yixing asks curiously.

          “Yixing, I am not sure if you know this or not, but I’m gay.”

          “You’re what?” He his head innocently, as if the motion is more likely to make him understand.

          “I’m gay. I’m not attracted to women, I’m attracted to men.”

          “Are you attracted to me?”

          “No, but-“

          “That settles it then, time for a bath!” And before he knows it, Kyungsoo is being drug out of his room, down the hall, and through another door where he is struck with the sight of a hot and steamy, wonderfully scented room equipped with a ‘bathtub’ approximately the size of an upper-middle class family’s above-ground Walmart pool; though this tub is nothing like anything he’s seen.  It is set into the ground, surrounded by smooth flagstones that are retaining the heat of the steaming water.

          Yixing takes the lead in shedding his clothes and wading into the water that comes up to his waist.  Kyungsoo dips a toe in to find the water is just a touch below scalding before he too enters the tub.  His skin immediately flushes where it is in contact with the hot, scented water, and he slowly lowers himself in until the warmth is lapping at the bottom of his chin.

          “Feel better?” Yixing inquires innocently as he too soaks in the heat of the water, feeling any tension melt off of him.

          “You have no idea,” Kyungsoo mutters out, the stress of the last two days and the repeated head injuries catching up to him and causing him to begin to drift off.

          “Don’t fall asleep yet,” Yixing admonishes, noticing Kyungsoo’s drooping eyelids, “Make sure you scrub yourself first.” Yixing hands Kyungsoo a soapy loofa with which to clean himself.

          Kyungsoo scrubs himself raw, willingly sloughing all the dirt and trauma off of his skin and out of his soul. He dunks his head under the water to rinse out the soap from his hair, and when he resurfaces, it is with a contented sigh.

          “All done?”

          Kyungsoo merely nods his head once in response, his eyes shut and his expression serene.

          Yixing leads the way in exiting from the tub, pulling a plush bathrobe off a hook on the wall and handing a similar one to Kyungsoo.

          “Thanks,” he mutters exhaustedly as he pulls it over his damp body.

          They make their way back to Kyungsoo’s room in this way, the hallways deserted and no one to see them.  Minutes later, when they’ve reached Kyungsoo’s doorway, Yixing bids him goodnight and informs him that his new wardrobe should have made its way into his closet while they were bathing.

          Kyungsoo barely registers his words, but nods his head in the affirmative anyway.  Once Yixing turns the corner in the hallway and is at last out of sight, Kyungsoo enters his room, plops down onto his bed, and is asleep faster than you can say ‘Quidditch.’

A/N:

Hello all! I'm so, so, so sorry that it has been such a long time since I've updated this story. Geez, it's been nearly two months.  School has started up again, and I am horrifically busy. So busy that I have been neglecting my precious readers, and instead filling my sparse amounts of free time with dramas and reading fanfiction instead of writing it like I should have been. Fortunately though, my routine is starting to work itself out, so hopefully I'll be able to find a little more time to squeeze in some writing, though I still don't expect to be able to update with a whole lot of frequency, and for that, I beseech you to forgive me. I will try my best to write more though. As long as I stay on top of my homework, I hope to be able to dedicate a fraction of my time at work study to writing, but don't hold your breath.

Anyway, I love you all, and I apologize once again for making you wait so long for this update.