The car was waiting for them in the dorm parking lot on Saturday morning, a rather conspicuous time to have someone else picking you up. But then, Tex and Rachel, they didn't get a lot of say in who was driving. Her father had sent a car to fetch her for the holiday and it was assumed that everything would be alright.

Which it mostly was. There were a few onlookers as Tex and Rachel passed their bags to the driver who then put them in the back of the trunk perfectly snug, even though Tex and Rachel could have done it themselves. And then there was the opening of the door for Rachel, who scooted in, with a natural blush on her face. If people didn't know who she was and she was keeping a low profile before, she was quickly erasing all of that.

Tex opened his door and scooted in on his own. The car was spacious, but he had decided to sit on the same side as Rachel, because well, they could. Rachel had a small bag that she hadn't given to the driver to put in the back and she opened it up and grabbed a book. Of course, she was going to read the whole way to DC. That made sense. He couldn't fathom the idea of doing extra reading on top of what they already had to do, but she looked like she loved a book or two.

In fact, he knew that she loved books. Her whole collection seemed to be in their dorm suite. And it was a diverse set, from classics to contemporary. He was sure that he could go through those books and find something that she wished other people didn't know that she read, but some things are best kept secrets. Besides, he wasn't actively looking to ruin her life in anyway or get some sort of blackmail, so there was no need.

"Whatcha reading?" He asked.

She shook her head. "You'll think it's silly,"

"No doubt," He said with a full smile, "What are you reading?"

She relented and gave him the book, it had a drawing of a woman in sunglasses on the cover. That seemed rather fine. He looked up and there was actually a tiara on her head, okay. And then he looked at the title, "American Royals" and he tried to keep his laughing to himself, but she was actually reading a book about what it could be to actually be a princess.

"So princess, huh?" He asked as he gave her back the book.

She rolled her eyes and snatched it back, "Something of the sort," She said as she furrowed her nose into the book as they kept moving.

He felt bad for the laughter. "It's nice, princess." He said. "You deserve some free time. And what you do with that free time is not mine to judge,"

She took her nose out of her book and looked at him. She didn't say anything for a moment just looked at him, mulling his statement over. This was a holiday. She was going to be with her dad. "Why don't you take any time off?" She asked. "There are going to be a ton of secret service. You didn't have to come to this. You could have gone home."

"Are you saying you don't want me there, princess? Because it's a little late for that," He said, trying to get some more time to think of an answer, because she had brought up some pretty good points and he didn't exactly think about them.

She waved that away. "Of course, I want you there," She said as she looked at him. "But you deserve some free time too. You spend all of your time, in classes, in the gym, or with me, when do you ever get any free time?" She asked him, looking at him again with that laser like focus which he'd seen before but rarely been the target of.

"Well, you just said it, I use my free time to go to the gym," He said. Smooth one.

She shook her head though. "That's not actually free time. And sometimes I'm at the gym with you, so what do you really do for free time?" She asked him.

He shrugged. "Haven't needed it so far. You're not an incredibly stressful job usually." He said, bumping her with his shoulder.

"You'll actually use some free time, right?" She asked him.

He nodded. "I will actually use some free time. I just, well, I don't really have a home to go home to for Thanksgiving or Christmas." He said as he looked down. "My parents, they're gone, and sure I've got their house, but I was an only child and anyways, I hate my hometown."

"I'm glad you're coming," She said in a small voice. And then she went back to reading her book.

It took a couple of hours to get to the White House, DC traffic and all, and somewhere in that time she had fallen asleep on his arm. He didn't dare move because the sight of her asleep, unaware of the world was beautiful. She was beautiful. When did he start thinking she was beautiful? Well, he acknowledged to himself that he always thought she was beautiful. But when did he start actively thinking that she was beautiful? He went on to other questions. He didn't dare answer that one to himself.

Soon enough, she would be awoken by people opening doors and the back of the car, taking their stuff, trying to ask her questions and making small talk. Let her have the time she needed to to sleep. He wasn't going to deprive her.

As soon as they got to the residence part of the White House, a very different part than he was used to seeing, there were people. The president and Tom were there to greet them, along with several other people that he didn't know. Probably staff people like she had said would make her feel like an object more than a human. He tried to go easy. And in this case, people opened his door and he was allowed out without much more than a lift of the finger.

"Princess, time to get up," He said gently as he rocked her. "We're here at the castle,"

She woke up and smiled. "What a good knight," She said, gently kissing him on the cheek before getting out of the open door and going to her father. He blushed and sat there for a moment, letting it linger, before he too got out and went to his friend.