Free! doesn't belong to me. Neither does High Speed!

Prompt: "I'm alive... I can tell because of the pain."

I

.

It took centuries for Rin's mind to breach, for him to stop breathing that muddy water and taste air again. It was cooler than he remembered; so cold that the oxygen burnt his throat on its way to his lungs, and once there it felt so strange his own cells seemed to repel it, sending him in a fit of coughs that almost made his head explode three, four, five times as his body shook violently on its own.

Strong hands pushing him down to lay on his back distracted him from opening his eyes. Rin tried to fight them, but it was as if the whole palace was holding him down. He tried to turn the incoherent noises falling from his lips into words, but someone spoke first:

"It's alright… Everything is fine now– Rin, breathe."

You.

A hand landed on his cheek. It was subtle, almost shy, as if its owner didn't want to be noticed; but it was cool and it didn't have those sharp knives that scratched the inside of Rin's throat, so the Sultan leant into the touch, seeking it.

Ah… I'm alive.

Or at least he hoped so. If death was this painful he had a serious problem.

He made an effort to open his eyes.

He recognised his ridiculously big bed, the canopy separating him from the rest of the world. Him and the person that kneeled on the at least three quilts (besides the silky blanket) covering Rin. The Sultan stared into the stranger's eyes, recognising them faster than he'd recognised his own bedroom.

"Ha…ru?" Rin felt his tongue dry and heavy.

Haruka winced, as if his own name had burnt him. He crawled towards the edge of the bed and peeked his head and an arm out the canopy, crawled back next to Rin and showed him a glass of water. Rin immediately tried to sit up, to reach for the water, but he had barely lifted his head a few centimetres when he fell back on the pillow, exhausted.

What's wrong with me?

"It's water," Haruka muttered. Rin frowned. "Really," he insisted. "I can drink from it so you're sure."

Not understanding anything, Rin watched as Haruka took a sip from the glass before sliding a hand under the Sultan's neck and raising his head so he could drink himself.

Rin drank as much as he could, taking water in big gulps; he hadn't realised how thirsty he was. Haruka took the glass away, though.

"Slowly," he scolded before putting it on Rin's lips again. Rin obeyed and forced himself to keep calm as he emptied the glass. Haruka crawled away once more before returning with empty hands. "How do you feel?"

The water had helped Rin clear his mind, had made his headache subside to a bearable level. He looked at Haruka; let his gaze wander from his slightly trembling fingers, intertwined on his lap, up to his tense shoulders and his sore lower lip, to the bags under his eyes.

"And you?" Rin countered. "And why did you drInk water before me?" It wasn't as if he cared about his status when Haruka was around, but to his eyes it had seemed unnecessarily rude.

Haruka's eyes widened. "I thought it would soothe you, after what–" But he trailed off. "Don't you remember?"

Rin tried to think. He felt like he had spent the last eternity wandering in his own personal hell, but as he kept thinking memories from before came back. The visit of the other kingdom's King, the gathering with merchants' representatives to discuss the safest trade routes, laughing at Haruka's unwillingness to drink anything but water–

"I…" he started slowly. His memory started to fade after the second glass of wine, but there was something he tried to wrap his mind around, something that didn't quite fit.

"You were poisoned."

Haruka's voice brought Rin back to the time being. The Sultan let out a shaky sigh, finally piecing everything together.

"What was–?"

"The wine." Haruka wasn't looking at him. "Apparently they thought dealing with your sister would be easier. Sousuke doesn't want to wait for the trial before executing them."

"And when–?"

"Four days ago."

Rin fell silent. He had been aware of people trying to kill him since he was born, but he had never actually thought one day he would be almost killed.

He stared at Haruka. He wasn't the best at understanding his friend, but sometimes it was ridiculously easy. Rin reached for his hand, and he could tell the only reason Haruka didn't pull back was that he didn't want to hurt his pride by getting out of his reach.

"I'm glad you didn't get poisoned too." Haruka didn't move. "You couldn't have known. And seriously, one attempted murder is bad enough for a night."

Haruka ventured to look at Rin. There was the tiniest of the smiles on his lips, and for some reason the first thought that came to Rin was that he had just drunk from the same glass as his friend. The Sultan felt his cheeks heat up in what was probably a healthy blush.

"I'm glad you didn't die."