Rewritten version of the prologue, now with better format.
Once again, this was my second attempt at writing Half Prince.
The first one wasn't that good.

All characters belong to Yu Wo, CatMuto does not own 1/2 Prince

Lan adjusted the headband and lay down in bed, ready to enter Second Life and turned onto her side, hoping to fall asleep soon. Before she even finished that thought, she felt herself getting drowsy and her mind shutting down. But she flinched slightly when a horrible thought shot through her head for a second. She couldn't remember where she had last logged off. What if she was entering Second Life and appeared smack in the middle of a hoard of hungry fangirls, starving for some Prince meat. But before she could really calm herself down, she fell asleep and logged on...

Prince opened his eyes and realized with a relieved sigh that he appeared in his favorite café, alone. The place was actually closed, with the few players managing the store slowly preparing for opening times, straightening chairs and wiping down countertops. The elf quickly slipped out and entered Infinite City's streets. And he instantly earned looks from passing people, mesmerized by his good looks. Putting on his usual sophisticated smile, Prince held his head high and walked through the streets, never really paying any attention to the women staring after him with fascination and the men with a mixture of dislike and envy. Nobody talked to him, his aura was so intimidating that nobody dared to approach him, but several fangirls were beginning to follow him from a certain distance.
"Prince, you're on!" a voice greeted him over the PM channel and he recognized Lolidragon. "Come to the tower, we've got things to discuss!" Prince quickly replied that he was on his way, happy to finally have a goal and to not stroll aimlessly through the city anymore. Still ignoring his shadows, the elf hastened his steps towards the central tower and casually waved towards the guards next to the entrance. When he opened the door and was halfway through it, he stopped for a second and could hear several of the girls sighing with disappointment that he was going to a place they couldn't stalk him anymore.
"Later!" he winked at them and entered, but could hear them cooing dreamily. Perhaps he was imagining it, but he thought he heard some of them fainting to the ground. Thinking no more of it, Prince looked around the large entrance hall and wondered where his caller was.
"Over here!" the same voice called and the elf followed it down the right hall and into the big meeting hall. The redheaded thief cheered at his prompt appearance, mocking his tendency to get lost easily. The rest of the OddSquad were in the room, some shuffling the papers on the table that featured costume sketches, sheet music and blueprints for city expansions. They all waved when he entered and Prince heaved a big sigh, slumping down like a marionette whose strings had been cut. The relief was just too noticeable on him, he always did this after coming into contact with any of his more energetic fans and they knew why. In front of them, he had to be either the charming Prince who was too wonderful to get close to or the infamous Blood Elf who, as rumors said, was known to kill people who irked him a little too much. At least with the rest of the OddSquad in the privacy of the central tower, he could be his usual, scatterbrained self. No need to pretend the one or the other, although Yu Lian kept reprimanding him about 'image' and 'reputation' on the outside. Although neither of those things was it, that really kept the fangirls at bay. Just as he thought that, Prince felt a sudden weight on his back and two arms around his chest, hugging him so tightly he almost felt like his ribs were getting crushed.
"Your Highness," a cheerful voice cooed. "I've missed you!"
"Oh, Gui. It's only been since yesterday." the elf said and squirmed, getting his arms out of the embrace. He lifted his arms over his head and put his hands to either side of the bard's face, rubbing his thumb along his cheekline. As expected, Gui's face flushed slightly at the touch and he smiled down at him, earning a sweet smile back from the elf. And with a sudden movement, Prince threw Gui over his shoulder and onto the ground where he landed with a loud whomp. Prince leaned over the bard a bit to look him into the eye and smirked.
"By the way, Hi, Gui."
"Hi..." Gui said breathlessly, the air out of his lungs and his back smarting where it had made contact with the hard floor. Prince stepped passed him and sat down at the table, knowing that the bard would be up and about in no time. He stared at the papers in front of him for a bit and kept himself from sighing.
"What's on for today?" he asked, although he knew he could forget his hope of not having any duties for the day and could spend it hacking away at monsters to his heart's content. The papers were already numberous and if he peeked at the folders in front of Yu Lian, he knew that they were filled to the brim, too.
"Well, we have to work out a schedule for the next concerts - Gui's already been working on new songs." Yu Lian told him, thrusting her thumb towards the bard who was still on the floor, silently dealing with the pain. "Then there's Ice Phoenix. She's bursting with new costume ideas and wants to see you in every single one of them."
"More concerts?" Prince sighed, leaning against the back of his chair. He had hoped that he was finally done with those. He enjoyed singing, but the stuff to prepare for it was annoying and boring as anything. "Yu Lian, didn't you say we're finally out of debt? I mean, Infinite City is all repaired and even the other cities are, after the invasions, right? What do we need more money for now?"
"True, those are all covered." she admitted and pushed her reading glasses up. "But we just barely covered them. Thankfully, you managed to gain control over them all without causing too much damage, so that's all sorted out... but we lack a financial cushion. We need money we can fall back on if ever an emergency came up. Plus, if you really want to go through with your plan to turn the Sun, Moon and Star City into spectacles themselves..."
"I get it..." Prince and Yu Lian sighed in unison. Their behavior was so similar, although their problems were the complete opposite. She was worrying about the financial situation and how to manage it, while he was more concerned with the increase his fanbase was gonna get and how more bold they'd become with each of his appearances. And then Prince felt a hand suddenly grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the chair.
"And since visual appearances are oh so very important during concert promotion, you're coming with me to try on some clothes!" Lolidragon cheered and began dragging the elf towards a door. Tripping slightly, Prince tried weakly to get away from her, although he knew nobody could escape her iron grip.
"Hang on, Ice Phoenix merely had ideas, right?"
"She has a ton of costumes we haven't used yet." the thief grinned.
"Don't sound so happy about my misery~" Prince whined and resigned himself to his fate of having to undress again and again in the presence of two very energetic girls who generally ignored him when he said No to anymore trying on of clothes. Sometimes, he wondered why he even bothered to log on.

Several hours later, Prince returned to the meeting hall and slumped into his chair with a loud sigh. He had tried on so many clothes, he had gotten sick of them. It was all he could do to remind himself about the dangers of walking around in nothing but his boxers that got him to put his original clothes back on once he was done. Apparently, Ice Phoenix had been going through a phase of creating clothes that used a ton of mesh or animal prints. Leopard, tiger and zebra patterns, he had worn them all and it didn't feel any different to the much more conservative stuff he had worn during previous concerts, so he couldn't understand why Lolidragon kept insisting on him having to wear these costumes next time.
And after that disaster called a fashion show, he had been called to Yu Lian's office and had fought for about two hours about the matter of the other cities' renovations. It wasn't necessarily a fight... but Yu Lian had immediately put her foot down on exactly how much money she was going to spend on renovating them and upgrading them. And she was insistent that she wasn't going to start on them until the concerts were done. She refused to do any work on them until the concerts were over and she saw how much income they had made, then what could be used as the financial cushion she was so worried about and then see what was left for the renovations.
Feeling a headache coming on, Prince rubbed his forehead and wondered if he should ask Wolf for some medicine first or sneak off to a restaurant to grab a bite. He hadn't eaten since he had logged on and his stomach was complaining about that. When he finally sat up, he stopped and noticed the depressed bundle of clothes sitting huddled together in one of the corners. The treacherous earrings and long hair made it plainly obvious that it was Gui and Prince wondered if he had moved at all since he had been slammed onto the floor... but he quickly dismissed that thought, remembering how he had passed the bard several times in the halls during his many errands.
"What's with you?" Prince asked, leaning against one of the arms of his chair and studied the bard. He looked so depressed, he could almost see the black aura emitting from him and the ghostly fires hovering around his head. Gui flinched slightly and turned his head a bit so he could see Prince from the corner of his eye.
"You're ignoring me..."
"Hah?" the elf jumped out of his chair and approached him. "What makes you think that? If I was ignoring you, I wouldn't have reacted at all this morning. Besides, you seemed fine earlier. So why are you this depressed all of a sudden?"
"My PMs..." he mumbled. "You haven't reacted to any of them..."
Not knowing what he meant, Prince opened his inbox and felt his jaw drop slightly when he saw the long list of unopened PMs. They had been sent throughout the day and they were all from Gui. He somehow remembered hearing the alarm for an incoming PM sounding now and then, but he had been so busy that he ignored it or decided to look at it later, but completely forgot about it by now... coughing rather embarrassedly, Prince figured that it wouldn't hurt to check them now, so he opened each of them. The first was a message, telling him that he had something rather important to ask about. The rest were either little bumps to grab his attention or asking him to please contact him when he had a free minute. Somehow, reading them all at once made it possible for Prince to imagine how low Gui's mood had gone between the intervals of PMs.
"Anyway... now I'm free. What is it?" Prince asked.
"...I wanted to ask you for your address-" Gui sighed and immediately got Prince's fist punched against his cheekbone. Losing his balance, he fell to the floor and got tangled up in his long coat. Trying to fight himself out of it, he saw Prince looking down at him with anger in his eyes.
"Dammit, Gui, I said no meeting in real life!" he snapped. Annoyed, he turned away from the bard and was heading towards the door to leave. Gui, ending his fight with his cloak by simply untying it, got up and left the cloak on the floor, rushing after the elf and putting his hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"Prince, hang on-" he started but stopped when Prince punched him again. "What was that for?"
"For wanting my address!"
"You already punched me for that!" Gui snapped at him, holding his cheek.
"You deserved another one!" Prince yelled and wanted to walk away again, but Gui gripped his shoulders and forced him to face him, refusing to let him get away.
"Prince, I am not asking for a meeting."
"You're asking for information about me in real life, you're trying to find me out."
"No, I'm not. This has nothing to do with figuring out who you are in real life and I don't want a meeting." the bard told him and hesitated for a minute. He shook his head slightly and ran a hand through his hair. Prince noticed the rarely seen serious expression on Gui's face, not to mention the two bruises starting to shimmer through his skin. But those made him look only more intimidating, so he didn't dare to move and listened.
"Okay, it's a lie if I say that I don't want to meet you." Gui admitted. "But that's not what I was planning. It's... I've got a present for you. And I just don't know how to get it to you."
Prince looked at Gui in surprise.
"A present?" he asked. His head was buzzing with a list of all sorts of special occasions that might be happening. It wasn't his birthday, nor a festival coming up or anything that could somehow warrant a gift. He couldn't help but wonder why Gui was getting him a gift... or what it could be. Quickly, Prince brainstormed all possible options he could take to get his hands on that gift.
I can't give him my home address. He's probably got all his students' information memorized. He'd recognize it.
Maybe tell him to leave it somewhere and I pick it up? No... no, that's stupid. Somebody else might take it.
He could hand it over to Yang... yeah, that might work. It wouldn't be too awkward or strange... unless Gui suddenly becomes jealous, thinking that Yang and Prince know each other in a pretty personal matter... Oh, how I hate you for that mental image, brain...
Can't have him hand it over to my parents. They're barely at home. Plus, they'd blab.
Maybe... Zhuo-No! Those two absolutely hate each other, there's no way Zhuo-gégé would give me a gift that was from Gui. If this situation was reversed, I'm pretty sure Gui would never give me something that was a gift from Zhuo-gégé... dammit, I'm running out of options!
While Prince's brain was working in overdrive, Gui watched him quietly. The way Prince's facial expression changed fluidly was really amazing to watch. First, his eyebrows were furrowed together in concentration, little lines were appearing on his forehead. Then his eyes became slightly unfocused, the deeper he dipped into his thoughts, before a slight twitch in his cheek and a flush made him look like he was having indecent thoughts. And finally the corners of his mouth turned down as he became increasingly frustrated. But finally, Prince slapped his fist into his open palm and focused his eyes back onto Gui with a new sparkle in them.
"I know! Just give it to Jing or Yun." he told him. "They're friends, they won't mind playing delivery boy!"
"Ah... that's a good idea." Gui agreed and tried his best to hide his disappointment. But something must've shown on his face because Prince's expression suddenly darkened and his glared at the bard.
"Hey." he said. "You weren't really hoping I'd give you my address, were you?"
"Gh!" the bard flinched and laughed nonchalantly. "O-of course not!"
It didn't convince Prince, though, because he punched Gui for a third time.

All throughout the next day, Lan was incapable of focusing on any of her lessons. After her conversation with Gui yesterday, she had been too excited, thinking what the gift was. She had even managed to smile at Lolidragon when she appeared a bit later, grinning devilishly, and told Prince that there were still a lot of costumes to try on. And the prospect of the gift had helped her through those hours of more clothes changing. Even the advertising of the concerts had started, because Prince had been 'such a good boy' and hadn't made any fuss.
Now, Lan kept peeking glances at her watch, waiting for the minute hand to finally move that one little bit so the bell would ring. Any second now it would, and then Gui would call either Jing or Yun to stay behind, wait for everybody else to leave and hand them the gift. Lan wondered if he was going to give them any coverstory, like invent some special reason why he had a present for Prince. Anyway, very soon, that gift would be in her hand and then she'd know. She couldn't help but grin. Then, finally, the bell rang and the volume in the classroom lifted with chairs scraping the floor, students talking about meeting up later.
"Feng Lan, may I have a moment of your time?" Min asked, sending a polite smile her way. Flinching, Lan almost threw her notebook onto the floor, but managed to grab it and quickly put her stuff into her bag. Jing grinned slightly and waved, heading out with Yun, signalling that they'd wait for her and then the classroom slowly began to empty. Forcing her suddenly buttery legs to move, Lan walked towards the teacher's desk. Had she done something wrong? No, she had been perfectly quiet during class. He couldn't be thinking of scolding her. Okay, she hadn't really paid any attention, but that meant nothing! Several students didn't pay attention all the time! So why had he asked her over? Horrified, Lan worried that he might've figured out that she was Prince. But she quickly calmed herself about that fact, knowing that he would've asked for some time before class for a talk. Or, at least, sounded much more nervous than he did. Which he didn't sound at all.
"You seemed rather distracted today." Min said. "Is something the matter?"
"What? No, no, everything's fine." Lan answered and sighed in relief. He was only worried about her academics. No reason to panic, everything was okay. Except that he seemed to not think about the gift. "Um... well, they did mention that the Infinite Band is going to go on tour again soon, so I'm kinda excited about that."
"I see. Then I hope you'll enjoy the concerts." Min told her. "Be careful on your way home."
Lan nodded and waved quickly, heading for the door. Somehow, she was disappointed. Did this mean that he wasn't going to hand the gift over to anyone? Or did he simply forget to bring it today? Either way, she felt discouraged. No way could she wait another day, not knowing what the gift was or when she was going to get it. She couldn't use the concert excuse a second time.
"Oh, if Yun is still outside, could you ask him to step in for a minute?" Min asked.
"Sure!" Lan answered and stepped into the hall, grinning widely. She gestured Yun, waiting with Jing, to go into the classroom. Surprised, Yun did so and now it was Lan's turn to wait with Jing. Jing kept trying to get her friend to spill what was going on, because her wide grin was starting to irritate her sense of curiosity. But Lan remained quiet and then, after barely a minute passed, Yun came out of the door and waved something in his hand.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure he gets it. Bye, Professor!" he called and rushed down the hall with Jing and Lan, chuckling. They didn't stop until they were about two corridors away, then Yun almost bent over with laughter exploding out of him. Lan waited for a few seconds for him to collect himself, then nudged his ribs slightly.
"What, what's going on? Tell me!" Jing begged.
"It's a gift from the professor for Prince." Yun admitted and giggled, holding up the darkblue, rectangular box. Jing stared at it, while Lan grinned widely at him and extended her hand.
"Yup, for Prince. So hand it over."
"Mh... no." Yun said and stuck the gift into his pocket. "Not till you tell us about this."
Lan pouted and stemmed her hands into her hips. And trying to snap the gift out of the pocket was futile, because when she did, Jing was faster and grabbed it first, holding it up so Lan couldn't reach it. Sighing annoyed, she finally crossed her arms. She had secretly been worrying if this was a consequence of picking them as the couriers, but couldn't help it now. They had the gift and the only way to get it, was to spill the beans.
"Okay, Gui had a gift for Prince and he didn't know how to give it to him." she said shortly. "I couldn't think of a way to get it without him somehow finding me out, or worse, causing more rivalry. So, I finally told him to give it to one of you, cause you'll give it to me... won't you?" Her glare went from Yun to Jing and back. Both looked at each other for a while, wondering if that explanation was enough to fill their curiosity. Apparently it was, because Jing handed the box over. Excited, Lan looked at it for a second, noticing the fine gold rim around the edge and opened it. Inside was a silver necklace with a short chain made up out of tiny silver hoops and a crown-shaped pendant. They stared at it for a while and then Lan carefully picked it out of the box and held it up, closely inspecting the pendant. The little top of the crown was a tiny white pearl. It was simple, yet pretty.

Hours later, when Gui logged into Second Life after spending his evening hunched over papers to grade and notes to write, he was immediately greeted with a notification that he had an unread PM in his inbox. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Prince's name in the sender slot. He quickly opened it.
"Thanks for the necklace, I love it! I'm asking Lolidragon to code it into the game!"

And the prologue's rewrite is finished.
The necklace appears randomly in various chapters, so I wanted it to have some background.