A/N: I've seen several Older Tianzi and Xingke fics based on bad dreams, but how does a grown man comfort a little girl when she's absolutely terrified? What's more, how does he do it without becoming the father figure in her life? This is three years before the whole ordeal with the marriage to Odysseus.

Empress Tianzi jolted in her bed. Flashes of the nightmare she'd just had burned against her eyes and she felt the hot sting of salty tears pushing their way down her cheeks. She glanced around her room, shadows crept menacingly up the walls and the darkness sat around her like a predator stalking its next victim. The fear was enveloping, Tianzi felt herself paralyzed, unwilling even to move an inch from where she was. Retreating under the covers wasn't an option, it never made the horrid feeling of terror subside so Tianzi took the only logical course and screamed. Her shrill ten-year-old voice pierced through the corridors and walls of the Jade palace startling many from their once peaceful slumber. A single name bubbled on the Empress's lips and swelled into the loudest scream she could manage.

"XINGKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Within seconds of his name being called Xingke burst in through the door with his sword drawn. He scanned the room, eyes resting on the sole inhabitant sobbing in the middle of her overly large bed.

"X-Xingkeeeee." The whimper startled Xingke out of his default behavior and brought him to her bedside.

"I-I'm s-s-so s-scared." Tianzi sobbed. Xingke sat on the edge of the bed and lit the lantern that had gone out.

"A big girl like you shouldn't be afraid of anything Empress." He said with a smile.

"B-but the shadows. There was something in them." Tianzi said after calming down a bit more.

"There was not. And I will prove it to you." Xingke took the lantern and walked the entire length of the room illuminating every corner so that Tianzi would understand she had nothing to fear. "I know that everything is scarier in the dark, but you should know your own room well enough that you can understand when something is out of place." Xingke chided as he sat back down on the bed. Tianzi sniffled and started to cry again.

B-but I h-h-had a bad dream and I was being chased by monsters and in my dream I screamed and screamed and you were there but you wouldn't save me and I was eaten." A fresh wave of tears rolled down Tianzi's cheeks. "And-and you laughed and turned into one of the monsters and told me that you lied about our pinky swear."

"But that was just a dream," Xingke started looking mildly upset. "I will never break my promise to you. I will never turn into a monster, and I will never let a monster eat you." Xingke frowned at the sound of hysteria in his own voice. "Now go back to sleep, I promise that nothing bad will happen to you." Xingke began to raise from the bed but the sudden weight of Tianzi grabbing him with all her strength kept him from getting very far.

"D-don't go Xingke! What if a monster really does come? If you're gone then it will eat me and I'll never get to go outside the Forbidden City!" Tianzi's already red and puffy eyes filled up with more tears as she clung tightly to Xingke's arm. "D-don't go, don't go…" The empresses soft sobs pulled strongly at Xingke's heart strings.

"Yes. I'll stay your majesty. Move over." Xingke tucked Tianzi back under the covers and stretched out on top of them. "I'll be here, so don't be afraid."

Tianzi giggled and squirmed under the covers. "You weigh too much Xingke. I'm pinned under the blankets."

"You're safer if you're tucked in tighter. Why aren't you going to sleep?"

Tianzi tried to smother a yawn, but failed. She wiggled an arm free and grabbed Xingke's hand. "You promised…to…sta-stay." She curled against him and her breathing steadied into that of a sleeping child. Xingke growled softly to himself. He was going to get in trouble for being in the Empress's bed. Again. He sighed and relaxed. Part of him hoped that the Empress would outgrow the night terrors she suffered from, and a tiny part of him hoped that she never would, just so he could always come to the rescue.