With Alfred being Alfred, the first thing he thought was that he'd screwed something up again. The room was completely empty, and he knew Matthew was taking a much needed early night in his bedroom whilst Yao and Katya had gone to the Inner Circle to finalise the vendor list with the merchants just after dinner and would be back around ten, meaning that they were completely alone. Even Hero had already retreated to his bedroom to sleep in his dog bed – or maybe even on his own.

Trying to not let it show in his voice, he opened the door with a nod. "Yeah, of course, Sir Leon. Wanna take a seat?"

"Yes, if you don't mind," Alfred caught Leon's knuckles trembling as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Thank you."

Alfred blinked encouragingly, pulling out a chair for him. "I hope everything's okay," he said.

"Well," Leon's head nudged to the side as he stood to sit down, waiting for Alfred to move first, "I wouldn't really say that, but I just wanted to like, talk with you in private. I'm thankful that you're letting me do this. I know you're a busy guy."

"I get a lot of help," Alfred smiled in spite of the tension as the two of them sat down at the same time. "So. What's up?"

Taking a deep breath, Leon spoke, his knuckles white as they gripped his armchair. "Your Highness…I wish to be eliminated."

There it was again. That same stupid, selfish self doubt that had weaselled into Alfred's chest returned tenfold at that declaration. The two of them could only stare at each other for a long moment, unsure of what to say.

Alfred, being the prince and all, had to break that silence. "Oh. Um," he coughed into his fist, "Uh, is it okay if I ask why?"

Leon nodded, a dull, sharp jerk of his head. "Your Highness…I think both of us know that it's totally not your fault. I didn't mean for things to, like, happen this way, but I guess we don't always get to choose what happens in this world."

"No, I don't think we do," Alfred's shoulders relaxed somewhat, but he was still on edge. "What do you mean, things?"

"Things, as in…I like you as nothing more than a friend," Leon confessed, a long sigh accompanying his truth, "I've been trying – you know I have – for the past four months, but, like, I can't make myself feel for you like I should."

"It doesn't have to do with your ranking on the popularity polls, right?" Alfred had no idea how to handle this conversation – the previous tapes he'd watched of his Deciding didn't say anything about them, and from what his parents had told them, his father hadn't experienced anything like that either. So instead, he had to grasp at straws. "Is there a lot of pressure?"

"Well, I'd say that the popularity polls are the least of my concern," Leon said. Though he still looked as stricken as he had when he'd first entered the room, the paleness of his face had receded somewhat, as if he had been liberated by it for telling his secret. "I was, like, the most concerned about you. You, and..."

Alfred's heart pounded in his ears. By the way he'd spoke, it was as if he was speaking about someone else. "yourself?"

Leon's gaze wavered for a moment. His fingernail picked at the fabric of the armchair before he met Alfred's eyes again. "No. no, not myself. I've already technically committed treason."

The word thundered around the room, interrupting the tranquil night that had fallen on Spades until now. Treason. A word used for soldiers that had sold kingdom secrets decades ago, for usurpers to the throne, to Kings, Queens, Jacks and Aces that had exploited their position of power for gain. It did not seem fitting on a member of the Chosen.

"Treason?" The word tasted like wisteria poison on Alfred's tongue.

"Treason," Leon repeated, pressing his lips into a thin line before he continued to speak. "The Chosen all belong to you. It's how it's always been in an Deciding. To stray away from that duty…" Alfred had never heard him sound so serious as Leon's voice cracked, forcing him to restate his words. "To stray away from that duty into the arms of another is treason. Isn't that right?"

"Into the arms of another?" Alfred was falling now, unable to grasp at the situation at all.

Leon's face closed off. "I won't want to implicate anyone else, but I won't hide the truth from you," he said. "I cannot feel for you more than a friend does, because I cannot when my heart is filled with another. I chose to love him because I wouldn't know myself if I lied to myself. I fully accept any punishment you want to enact on me for this."

Hearing this, Alfred placed his forehead in his right palm, rubbing his face as he slowly tried to process the barrage of information he had just been fed. One, Leon was asking to leave the competition, and it wasn't because of any sort of external pressure. Two, it somehow wasn't Alfred's fault. Three, Leon really thought that his actions were as bad to be labelled as treason. Fourth, he was in love with someone else.

"Okay," Alfred said, looking up, before realising his mouth was muffled as his hand was covering it up. "Okay. First of all, thanks for being honest with me. I imagine it was hard to confess something this important, so you coming to me without me asking you to is a bold move."

Leon simply nodded, not sure how to respond, his body still rigid in the chair.

"Moving on, uh – I don't think the part where you're not attracted to me romantically is treason," Alfred started with breaking down the problem, something he'd learned from Yao all those years ago. "That's way too harsh of a word. Treason is something that harms the entire kingdom, and it's not like we're about to get married or something, so…don't think of it that way, all right?"

"Erm, all right, then." At least the Chosen's tense knees relaxed slightly.

"Um, one more thing," Alfred tried to ask it as simply as possible, "Is there a possibility you could divulge who this person is? Do I know him? Is he back at home?"

It couldn't be helped – Leon instantly looked uncomfortable. "well, uh," he ran one hand through his impeccable hair as he spoke, "I'd prefer, like, not to tell you everything, but…I never went into this competition with someone in my heart already. I'm all right with you punishing me as you see fit, it's just that…"

Maybe Alfred should have reframed the problem for him, in his perspective, first. "I'm going to be honest, Sir Leon – I'm not really looking to punish you at all," he didn't miss how Leon's eyes widened in surprise, "Maybe if this competition was a lot closer than it is now, I might have been a lot more upset, but."

"That's what partially spurned me on to, like, tell you," Leon said, "I thought about it, and realised I totally couldn't bear taking someone's spot if they truly loved you."

"I appreciate that, too." Gingerly, Alfred reached out to touch his shaking knee. "But that's not what's happened here, I haven't had to make too many difficult decisions between people just yet, so I'm lucky. Before we move on to the next question, though, I just want to reassure you for a bit. I'm not going to punish you."

"What?" the other boy was so shocked he almost forgot his formalities. "I mean. Pardon, Your Highness?" he quickly tacked on.

"I don't want to, and seeing as it's the summer solstice party next week, it'll bring down the mood if something like this gets out," he admitted, "That ties in with the next part of my request, actually. But I'm not interested in punishing something that doesn't have much effect on what's actually happening. I guess you could say I don't wanna make a mountain outta a molehill."

"Oh. I sorta understand. Yet, Your Highness – I still feel like you're being, like, way too lenient on me," Leon leaned forward, his eyes filled with emotion and something he couldn't gauge, "I…If you have to punish someone, I'd much rather I take it than the other person."

Alfred couldn't help it; his curiosity got the better of him. "Can I ask why?"

"I can handle being punished," Leon said. In that moment, it seemed as if something had shifted in his fellow teenager – his shoulders squared, and his back straightened, as if he was finally regaining his resolve. "The other person can't. Working in the palace is all he wants to do. The two of us never expected to fall in love, but…it just happens." He scuffed at the carpet with his shoe. "I hope you can understand, Your Highness. He works extremely hard and is totally diligent in what he does, whilst I've, like, failed in my only duty when coming to the palace. So I completely deserve what's coming to me."

"Which is nothing, if you're able to keep this under wraps," Alfred gave his knee another pat, maintaining eye contact. "Sir Leon, I do understand that my predecessors might have faced this situation, but I don't wanna deal with it like they have. If something leads to more pain, more unnecessary suffering, I don't want to do it. Again, you came here to tell the truth of your own accord, and that takes a lot of effort. By being honest with me, you prevented a lot of damage that could have taken place. I want to acknowledge that. But on two requests."

"Y-Yes."

"First, well. As I said before," Alfred withdrew briefly, "I don't want to cause any ripples before the summer solstice celebration. At its core, we host it every year for the people, and with the Deciding going on, I want it to be for them still. Just be an exemplary member of the Chosen for another two weeks. Play the role of that, and the two of us can act like this conversation never happened. then I'll eliminate you without a hitch. With how popular you have been in the polls, I don't think you can struggle with that much."

"That's barely asking anything, Your Highness." Leon's head dithered slightly, breaking their eye contact, clearly overwhelmed. "Of course."

"Second…I want to know who is the other half in the relationship." Leon started to get up from his seat, but Alfred gave him a glance. "I'm sorry, Sir Leon, I can't budge on this. I just want to know, and you have my word that I won't punish him at all. It's just that some unscrupulous news sources may try to investigate each elimination when there's less news going around, which might cause trouble."

Settling back down, Leon tried to relax himself. "You mean the situation with the Inner Circle newspapers?"

Alfred exhaled, adjusting his glasses. "Yeah, exactly that." When he had eliminated the large group after the Meeting ball, he'd been besieged by questions from the press at one of the conferences after the Broadcast, not to mention a few of the camera people had been passed questions to ask through the mail. It hadn't been very fun for anyone involved, and he wanted to avoid something like that again.

"Yeah, that's what I meant. Don't want to make their job harder for them than it already has, following all of us around."

"Your Highness…" Leon looked as if he wanted to say something, but shook his head with a tiny gesture. "Never mind. I trust in your word wholeheartedly, but…don't blame him. Love's not something you can blame on someone. The choice to love someone isn't something you can control."

The speed in which a certain someone's name popped into Alfred's head shocked him, but he tried to hide it. That was something he still had time to tackle. The Leon situation was something he had to fix now, whilst he still had the space to breathe and think rationally. "I can imagine," he said.

Leon released a shuddering sigh. "It's Emil," he said under his breath, holding Alfred's gaze for another moment before losing his nerve and looking away.

Alfred didn't respond. What else could he say? What could he say to Matthias and Lukas, that Emil was in trouble? That Emil could have been in serious trouble had Leon not come clean about it before he found out the hard way? Of course he couldn't punish Emil; not when they had so much in common, and had gotten along so well.

Taking his silence for anger, Leon frantically spoke. "Please, Your Highness, don't – you know how hard he's worked for his position," Though his speaking speed was usually fast already, it sped up even more, "Everything he's had up to meeting Matthias and Lukas has been earned by him, he's come from nothing and I don't think he can handle being kicked to the curb again, he's told me that-"

"Sir Leon…since when?" Alfred knew Emil's circumstances better than the average person, but the last piece of information was new.

Leon hung his head, seemingly in shame. "Two weeks before the Meeting," he admitted, tucking his chin into his chest. "We had been friendly before as he took over the night shift, and I've never, like, been a good sleeper – I have a fear of the dark. Having someone out there with me made me feel totally comforted. Then when we got the announcement that there was to be a ball, Emil said he wanted to join in and feel less left out, but he was totally worried he didn't have time to learn inbetween his duties. So whilst he was standing guard outside the male Chosen's wing, I showed him a few moves, and, like, well. You know the rest."

Alfred's mind cast back to how Leon had greeted Emil so easily when they were coming back from the date in the palace gallery, how much at ease they had been even back then. So a strong friendship had been established, and they'd never meant to take it that far. Though he might not know Emil as well as Leon did now, from the sound of things, he still knew Emil well enough to know that the other teenager wouldn't ever do something on purpose like that to him.

"I see," Alfred said finally, scraping briefly at his fingers as he tried to fish for a response that was kingly yet kind at the same. "Sir Leon, thanks for telling me. I'll keep a close eye on Emil, to make sure that he doesn't get implicated in all of this."

"I know you will," Leon said boldly, looking straight at him. "I know it's totally not my place, but Emil always told me about how guilty he felt, how much you and Jack Yao helped out his family. That, like, was part of the guilt eating at me, that I started it, in a way. By falling in love. I hope you can forgive me one day."

"Sir Leon, I think the both of us understood it wasn't gonna work out," Alfred returned the gesture, "But this was the best outcome that could have happened, in this situation. For the both of you to not be caught. For you to have come clean about it by yourself, I deeply appreciate that. But please, I really need you two to pretend like it didn't happen. Just for two weeks. If I can't keep the people's morale high, bolster it for a while, then…"

"No, no – you doing this is a blessing from the Fates," Leon's fringe bobbed around as he shook his head, "Your kindness is irreplicable. I can't…I don't even, like, have words. You're letting me go, and you're keeping Emil safe. I totally can't ask for anything else. I'll do my utmost."

Alfred allowed himself a small smile. He thought he'd handled the situation more maturely than the kid he had been before the Deciding would have, and from the looks of things, Leon agreed. "Thanks."

"Your Highness, I know this might not mean much," Leon's arms relaxed as the two teenagers rose to move, "but when it comes to it, I will be more than happy to pledge my loyalty to supporting you and your queen's reign."

The smile on Alfred's face grew larger. "It means a lot more than you'd think."

Tuesday was a quiet day for Arthur.

Like usual, he woke up early at around seven in the morning. He even folded his clothes and tried to poke around his slightly messy wardrobe to clean up a bit before Anna came in for the day.

What wasn't usual, though, was that she came in with all smiles – all right, that was the par for the course, and was infectious, getting rid of Arthur's morning grumpiness – and a letter from his family.

Unable to put it down, seeing that it was a bulky envelope with letters and photos, he asked her if she could get his breakfast for him in his room that morning. As she obliged, he leafed through it, devouring the words.

"Dear Arthur,

It's been awhile, but we've finally had time to work through our schedules to write a letter to you.

How's palace life? Now it's been almost half a year, we hope you're settling in well. You seem to be doing so, From what we can see – a lot better now, since we've managed to buy an actual working television, there were a few sales to mark the beginning of the summer. Cormac and Allistor sees your suits and things and wishes they could wear something like that. Maybe mail a few of your extras? Just kidding, you look very dashing in them. Those two oafs wouldn't fit in them anyway.

Moving on, just a quick update from home. Allistor's doing well in his job as usual, he says he might be slated for a promotion next year if things go the way they do. That, and he says that his boss still doesn't know that his baby brother is in the palace becoming the queen, so he doesn't get any hassle for it in work. As for me," Erin was obviously referring to herself – who else but his only sister would write so cheerfully? "Well, engineering doesn't really leave much space for gossip. Which is fine and all, but it's a shame I don't get to boast about how well you're doing. Cormac's chugging along in his bartending, and Christian and Dylan are doing well in their studies. Christian's almost as bad as Dylan with his sleeping, your prat of a brother insists that now it's the summer that he go down to one of the nearby ports a bus ride away and get some swimming done. He comes back at six and eats dinner before passing out in front of his coursework…and of course, Dylan always clamours to see the news for you before he goes to bed. He made a lovely finger painting last week, I've taken a photo for you. Allistor was more than chuffed to buy the better camera, so I hope you can see the difference in quality than before!

Hope to hear back from you soon.

Lots of love.

Erin."

Pausing in reading his sister's words, Arthur sifted through the paper to pick up the numerous photos. She had been right – he could see sharper images and colours, From what little he'd picked up from Kiku, as his best friend was well versed in photography. Photos of his family life now lay strewn across his uncharacteristically neat desk from when he had cleaned it to make space for the breakfast to avoid giving Anna yet another chore. Erin holding Dylan's hand bringing him to school, Christian snoring with drool from the corner of his mouth on a new table with his swim trunks still on, Allistor and Cormac making dinner side by side.

Paradoxically, it made Arthur miss his family more than ever, yet reminded him vividly of home. A lot of the scenes made him think of the time before he'd had to go to the holding facilities – they didn't have much, but the atmosphere was always cheery, with the liveliness of having such a large family as they did.

He wasn't there, of course, but that was how things had to be. And yet, life went on. Arthur had never paid too much thought to the amount of money that had been going home; now that they were receiving a higher stipend, the effects were visible, causing Arthur's heart to swell. Though there had been trials and such in the palace, seeing his family flourish after having sacrificed and sacrificed made it all worth it.

A knock tugged him out from his thoughts, and he heard the jingling of a teacup and spoon before Anna came in, as fresh faced as usual. She noticed Arthur's gifts as she walked closer, and his following attempts to hide them.

"Oh, there's nothing to hide, don't worry about it," Anna said, placing down the platter. Freshly baked muffins and scones, a teapot and teacup with two lumps of sugar next to it, and an elegant cup of milk. Even touching the teapot felt heavy, making Arthur marvel at her hidden strength. "I got a letter today, too. One of my sisters, well, she wanted me to help with her homework," she paused to reached into her apron to show him, "But I wasn't taught so much about Hearts history that I could help her."

Arthur's ears perked up at Hearts history. "Wait, Anna," he said, holding out his hand, "Could I see it? I might be able to help."

"If you don't mind."

Putting away the photos and the letter carefully into his desk drawer (much messier than the rest of the desk), he gave the letter a quick look over. Apparently, her sister was looking to write an essay for school about another kingdom's previous alliance with Diamonds, where Anna had originated from. Perfect, that was also the topic of tomorrow's lesson with Jack Yao, meaning that it was right up his alley.

"Not at all, I'm glad I can help. All right, I can make a few notes," Arthur rifled around in his supplies, pulling out a piece of parchment and a pencil, "So, if she wants to start out on her essay, she can go over the Eight Years War, where…"

After lunch, right after saying goodbye to his friends whilst they went to the Drawing Room for some more socialising, Arthur decided to continue his brief revision from that morning in the gardens. Alfred seemed to be very busy today, so he didn't ask him to accompany him – not like he wanted to be in his company or anything.

Walking past all the empty rooms to fetch his notes – apparently, the maids were taking the time after lunch where the Chosen would almost always be outside of their rooms to clean, it struck Arthur really how many people had entered the palace, and how many had left. Trails of extravagance lay in the path of the sun streaming in from the windows, the smell of detergent and freshly washed linen filled his senses as he turned the corner to watch the maids do their work. The sound of the hustle and bustle was covered by the airy noise of sheets being changed, furniture being dusted down.

Arthur couldn't help but peek through one of the open doorways, reminding himself of the sheer luxury he was so fortunate to bear witness to. At the same time, it held an emptiness – what loud noise and hubbub he had gotten used to over the months had faded into a softer yet more serious tone now the competition had gotten so serious. There was still a loneliness that lingered in the room, dulling with the fresh sense of a new beginning with dashed hopes, as if the eliminated chosen were telling Arthur how fortunate he was to still be here. That sort of offhand reminder spurred him to move on faster, to go to the gardens to soak up as much knowledge as possible.

Turning the corner, he was expecting to see nothing but a bench, a table underneath a parasol, and a sea of blue roses. But instead, he saw Alfred, laid out on one of the benches on his back, left leg resting on his right knee, holding up a piece of paper amidst a pile of documents, squinting against the sunlight. His dog, Hero, was napping underneath the bench, tiny tail wagging as if soaking up the sunlight of the day.

Well, Hero didn't have to do that, Arthur thought as he watched the pair from behind a pillar, not sure how to approach the situation. His owner soaked up all the sun already, and was more than generous to share it all with everyone else.

Just then, Alfred's head turned sideways, away from where he was looking as if he had sensed someone coming, only for them to lock eyes behind the pillar. His handsome, serious expression shifted into one of mirth, and he sat right up, staring straight at Arthur. Annoyingly, Arthur couldn't help but blush, being caught.

With Alfred waving his arms and grinning, seemingly calling out to him, Arthur could do nothing but come away from the protection of the pillar, walking into the unknown, allowing himself to be warmed by the wonderful heat of his sunlight's affections.