Writing Sophia's paper took less than an hour under Rhett's tutelage. They sat in the family "quiet room" with full bookshelves lining peacock blue walls and silver flowering lamps scattered throughout to give light. Yuki shifted on her embroidered pillow, her elbow resting on the low table between her and Rhett. 

He scribbled a few more notes onto a sheet of music before stretching. "I think I've had enough for the night. You?"

Yuki nodded with a wide yawn. Hot tea and sweet pancakes weighed her stomach with a comfortable warmth. Despite her tendency to pull late-nighters, at half-past nine her eyes already wanted to shut. 

Rhett gathered his papers and got up to set them on the grand piano in one corner of the room. "Minji's been learning a new song. Maybe she'll have a mini concert for you when she's finished."

"That would be nice," Yuki agreed, watching him brush the glossed top of the instrument with his long fingers. Music had always run in the Tudor family. Beautiful voices too. Mrs. Tudor had once explained how environment and genetics influenced the singing voice, allowing family members to achieve a cohesion in their singing that others couldn't due to natural shared inflections in their tone.

"Do you still play violin?" Rhett asked.

Not since the accident. She'd had trouble holding the bow properly and quit after several tries where she ended up crying in frustration. Hugging her knees to her chest, she replied, "No, it's been awhile since I lost interest in it."

Settling down on his pillow again, Rhett poured another round of tea. Unlike Era, he spilled a little onto the saucer. "You were a good violinist. Maybe you'll pick it up again in the future."

Maybe it was the late hour or years of friendship that couldn't simply be erased, but Yuki couldn't help betraying her secrets around Rhett. "Maybe. I can't help but think I'm not good at anything though." Before, she'd swam and played tennis because she thought she loved it. Now she wasn't so sure, that maybe she'd mistaken talent for love and now that she wasn't skilled at those things anymore, she no longer enjoyed them.

If she couldn't be great, why try?

"Anything worthwhile takes time and effort," Rhett mused. "But a person has to find what's worthwhile first. Do you like being called Hime?"

Yuki sipped her tea, feeling a strange sense of deja vu. "I don't hate it."

Rhett shook his head. "If you don't figure out what you want, Era's going to chew you up and spit you out. You must know that."

Warmth. That was the difference between Rhett and Era. Rhett could be the gentle komorebi—sunlight filtering through the trees—but he could also be the sun and if she flew too close her wings would burn. Era was the ruthless edge of ice—cold and cutting to the core—but she was also fair and Yuki understood her to some extent in a way that she didn't understand Rhett.

"If that's the case," Yuki asked, watching Rhett for any tell she could decipher, "then why are you playing her game?"

His cheeks flushed with the slightest tint of pink. "Why are you? Yuki, you've changed and I don't know why. Is it something I did? Did you get into trouble and have to transfer schools? You can tell me."

Yuki propped her chin in the palm of her hand. Somehow, even though Rhett had matured in looks, had followed her example in the art of witty, scathing remarks, he wasn't quite sure of himself. He broke rule five, giving up control of the conversation and putting all the power in her hands. But she owed him something.

"You didn't do anything wrong," she said softly. But then the time for kindness ended. "Yes, I got into trouble but my parents don't want me to talk about it. I'm starting with a clean slate here." Her gut clenched at the falsehood, at this lie out of all lies because it was to the person she cared about most still left in the world.

"I see." Rhett's eyes shuttered, like dark clouds covering the sky. "I'm not good enough for you. Is that it?"

She hadn't prepared for this. Didn't understand how he'd formed that connection, that truth out of all the untruths. Yuki blanched and her lungs contracted with a sharp intake of breath as if unseen hands wrung them out like wet towels. 

And he saw it all. Once again, that intense sunlight burned right through her translucent form, illuminating more than she wanted to show. Rhett's eyes scorched her as he declared war. "Well, I'm going to prove you wrong, Hime. You can kiss that presidency goodbye."

Don't do this. Please. Still reeling from the board being flipped on her, Yuki held out her hand. "May the best player win."

He wanted the presidency. That should tell her something, but she'd already underestimated him once in this conversation; she couldn't do it again. Even worse, he shook her hand with a smile, the sincere kind that still turned her heart to jelly. 

Somehow this was the nerdy kid she'd taken under her wing, now a polite, brilliant, and dangerous rival to the empire she wished to inherit. Her hand still in his, Rhett leaned over the table. His chin brushed her cheek and she thought he was about to press his lips to it too. 

Instead he whispered in her ear, "I know that history essay isn't yours."

Yuki recoiled, but he'd already withdrawn. With a knowing glance, he tapped the papers he'd helped finish writing before putting his forefinger to his mouth. She froze in helpless dread as he gulped down his tea and rose from the cross-legged position. 

"Goodnight," he said at the door, then disappeared around the corner.

Rhett had pulled the rug out from under her feet; Yuki had to give him props for that. Whipping out her phone, she bit her lip and decided to use precious text messages for this emergency. She typed out "Did you give Rhett my number?" and sent it to Era.

It only took to the count of ten for a reply to come. 

"Yes. He asked me for it. Should I not have?"

Yuki closed her eyes and hissed out a breath between her teeth. "It's fine," she slammed out with angry jabs of her fingers before shutting her phone.

It was not fine.

It took Minji careening into the room with blanket-laden arms for Yuki to shake herself out of the overthinking zone.

"Unnie!" Minji cried out, using the Korean word for older sister. "Do you want the pink fluffy blanket or the blue one?" She held them up by turns.

Yuki examined the blankets carefully, asking Minji to bring them closer so she could compare their respective qualities with her undivided attention. Finally, because Minji wore pink pajamas with hearts, Yuki opted for the blue blanket while Rhett's little sister happily claimed the pink one. 

"I built a pillow fort for us to sleep in!" Minji tugged Yuki to her bedroom where, true to her word, a giant pillow fort with blanket beds took up about half the floor space. Pink fairy lights dangled on the walls and a fish tank glowed neon magenta in one corner. Yuki remembered Minji's full-size Totoro plushie from previous visits, but she hadn't expected a sudden boom in axolotls. 

Stickers, pictures, plushies, sculptures. Minji owned enough pink and pale purple axolotls to make up five generations of an extensive family tree.

"This is George," Minji said, handing one of the plushies to Yuki. "It's his turn to sleep on the bed tonight because Felix jumped off the dresser and broke his tailbone, so he's grounded now."

Yuki nodded gravely.

After brushing their teeth, Yuki and Minji crawled under the covers. Mrs. Tudor knocked on the door and tucked her daughter in with a kiss on the forehead. 

Even though Minji was old enough to go to bed on her own, Yuki found herself envying the simple comfort of having a mother to send her to bed on time. Even when her family had been alive, she hadn't been tucked in by her mother, but by a nanny, and that only until she turned seven.

Maybe the longing showed on her face, because Minji's mother placed a gentle hand on her cheek with that same pleasant smile as Rhett's, single dimple and all. "Goodnight, Yuki. I'm glad you and Rhett are friends again."

Yuki swallowed down the lump in her throat. "Me too."

"Sleep tight, girls. Don't let the bed bugs bite." She clicked off the light and Yuki listened to her footsteps walk down the hall toward Rhett's room. 

Yuki stared at the swirling stars on the ceiling from Minji's nightlight, an old ache creeping up on her heart. She'd never given attention to her feelings as a child, thinking them to be a betrayal of the family she had. But this, what Minji and Rhett had, this was what a family should be.

What did a trip to Disney World matter when your parents were occupied with business calls the whole time? What was a Shetland pony worth compared to hearing that your parents were proud of you? Her parents had given her so much that it felt ungrateful to compare, yet...

If Yuki were honest, this is what she wanted, what she'd always wanted. 

But Yuki wasn't honest, not even with herself.

Chapter Word Count: 1552