This story was written for HaruRinHaru Xmas 2016 exchange and follows the dark Arabian AU prompt: "Rin is a sultan/prince but is made prisoner by the Iwaboti Sultan who appears to be Haru's father". Scenes set in the past are in Italic.
The Desert's Blue Topaz
The woeful howl of an Arabian wolf pierces through twilight's silence. Somewhere outside, the sun is setting. He never imagined a day would come when he would miss that glorious bastard. That everlasting king who relentlessly paints the world in golden hues every newborn morning, and lets the dazzling ends of his royal coat reflect on the crystalline waters of the desert's oasis. The sun was his loyal companion, he realises it now. But in the misery of his confinement, he rests alone.
The cell is a damp, subterranean hole. Completely exposed to the merciless weather at the barrens, the large sandstones of its roof are sizzling during the day , making even Hell look tolerable. Whereas at night, the extremely low temperatures transform it to a lonely prison of frigid darkness. Its only furniture is wet straw, scantily strewed on the ground and, occasionally, drops of moisture distilling from above trickle on his crooked body.
In this solitude, the sole disturbance is the rattling sound of the rusty shackles around his scrawny limbs. But it wasn't always like this. There was a time the hot air of the desert was welcomed in his lungs and those rawboned arms of his, flexed shapely and robust. A time he was free.
"I know you're in there, show your damn face!"
Brandishing his sharp scimitar with the bone handle, Rin crouched at the bank of the beautiful spring, ready to attack whatever menace was about to emerge from its sapphire depths. But when an ethereal being with striking blue eyes, like a character straight out of One Thousand and One Nights, greeted his vision, he almost staggered on the soft grass. The boy breathed an inch away from the obsidian blade and stared adamantly at the fiery intruder. His raven hair was an incomparable contrast to his alabaster skin and iridescent rays cascaded the plains of his chest, as sunlight deflected on countless, pellucid droplets. He was stark naked.
Rin's heart pounded.
"What's your name? Speak!"
But the boy scowled at him in response.
"You have no place here."
"Is that so?" Rin felt challenged "Don't act like you own this lake. I'll stay here for as long as my boy back there needs it."
A tawny camel, saddled with various baggage, was indolently chewing on the tall cattails by the shore. The brunet snorted irritated, before averting those moonstones of eyes he was blessed with. He was quite amusing after all, Rin thought.
"Tough luck, I guess you're stuck here with me. You can thank the Sultan's men for that, they are overseeing all crossroads and meeting points throughout this wasteland, I had no place to catch my breath and water my boy. Until this remote little paradise showed up."
"Are you a fugitive?"
"A fugitive?" Rin snickered "They have to catch me first for me to become one."
His ruby eyes swayed towards a colourful pile adorning a slippery rock, as the boy's şalvar, vest and long turban were neatly folded there. He arched a playful, red eyebrow and a sly smile danced at the corners of his lips.
"What about you, then? Those clothes look quite expensive. I wonder who's the wealthy pig you stole them from."
"I'm not a thief."
"Sure, sure..." Rin chuckled, before finally lowering his sword. "Go on, get dressed."
But when the mysterious stranger didn't move, the redhead clicked his tongue with annoyance. The youth's scandalizing nudity, along with his intense, captivating gaze, were causing an unprecedented wave of anxiety rushing over his spine. In a rare showcase of awkwardness, Rin massaged his sensitive nape.
"Hey...quit staring, alright?"
"You look familiar."
Instantly, Rin's eyes widened and he quickly found back his momentarily lost insolence. He stood up, straightening his torso at full height and looked down at the brunet with a hint of contempt.
"Perhaps you've heard of my late father. This fertile land you're stepping on was once called Samezuka and he used to rule it, all the way to the borders of Tigris. Until Iwatobi's dogs threw him in jail, before hanging him from an old, gnarled tree."
His face hardened.
"My name's Rin. Rin Matsuoka."
And the boy remained motionless in the lake, completely enraptured by the dazzling sight before him, by that garland of flames crowning Rin's head. But those eyes, those clear blue eyes as if the oasis itself had poured inside them, were not intimidated. Instead, they steadily held Rin right then and there, as their bearer whispered:
"I'm Haruka."
He had met him in a dream, hadn't he? That radiance, that warmth. Like a firework, whose life is short but still blazes up the vault of night. It must have been a dream and he had been bestowed with its grace. For almost a month now, its remnants have been shedding their flickering light into this sunless burrow.
Heavy footsteps reverberate in the dismal cage and it almost feels like the earth is shaking under their weight. Through a gap on the door's rotten wood, a tin bowl lands on the hostile ground, its gooey broth spilling on the dirt.
"Here's your last supper, you filth!"
Sinister cackles scratch his ears as the cloaked guards walk away. It's the last night he hears them and, in an ironic way, this is a pleasant thought. Weary eyes stray towards the revolting soup, the kind of food that not even rats would condescend to mess with. If there were any rats or any other life with him down there. But there's no one else. He's alone.
His last supper, he ponders. No, he had his last supper a long time ago.
A purple grape flipped in the air before successfully landing in the trap of Rin's mouth. As the succulent fruit spread its sweetness on his taste buds, he cast a side glance at his quiet companion and grinned.
"Oi, Haru...aren't you fed up already, always eating this weird fish of yours?"
"It's called mackerel."
"Whatever, allow yourself some luxury in food from time to time. You're missing all the tasty delights."
Rin tossed a few more grapes in his mouth and lazily leaned back on his elbows. It was yet another beautiful afternoon at the shelter of the verdant oasis, with the sun fondling their skin and beads of water pooling on their navels, while their clothes were left aside to dry. Those invigorating escapes of theirs had turned more frequent. They relished each other's company, an unusual combination as they were. Without delving in their respective pasts, they had discovered a common language. Rin's overwhelming personality had stirred new horizons to life within Haru's heart, while the latter's reserved composure had infused the redhead's turbulent mind with a certain calmness. Those long hours by the spring's sparkling waters were the perfect breaks from the bandit fights and the crowded bazaars.
Haruka finished his plain dinner and stretched his legs, letting the light ripples of the lake caress his toes, before they died at the shore. He loved the water and its mysteries deeply, ever since he was a child hearing the courageous deeds of Sinbad.
"I mean really, if this mackerel is going to be all you'll ever eat, you'll give a headache to your future wife."
"A wife?"
Rin turned to his side, propping his head with his hand and playfully batted his long eyelashes.
"Mhm. Don't you want to get married? You're at the right age."
"I suppose my father will arrange a marriage for me. I've never thought about it. What about you?"
"Me..." a bittersweet sigh escaped Rin's lips "...you'd think that, since my father died long ago, I wouldn't have to worry about my family setting me up before I decide so, but, despite my big mouth, I guess I'm not leading my own destiny either. The truth is that I was never quite interested...in a woman that is..."
Their electrified gazes crossed briefly and a shade of burgundy crept fast on Rin's cheeks. He quickly averted his embarrassment, and a croaking sound climbed up his throat as he cleared it.
"...anyway, I still have a sister I need to wed with a noble man, before settling down myself. After that, I really want many children, so I guess I'll take many wives."
"I've never thought about children either. I'm not sure if I want any."
"How come?"
Haru shrugged.
"I think because of my own family. My father was always too busy to be around me, my mother had problems of her own. I spent a lot time by myself. I wouldn't want that for my children."
A soft hand engulfed his own, its gentle squeeze radiating warmth and security.
"You still have time to fix this if you want, Haru. A father strict and yet alive is better than a dead one. Mine was stolen from me. That demon , the Sultan of Iwatobi ,seized power and united all the caliphates under his ruthless command, wiping Samezuka off the map. And then a witch lured my father away from us. He wasn't perfect, but he was my father. I was forced to watch his execution while holding my sister's hand. I was so young, I can't even bring his face in my memory anymore. But I do remember one thing about him; how much he loved me."
Scarlet eyes welled up with tears, chin trembled like a small child. Once the first salty drop broke free, the rest followed in an unbroken stream. Like the waterfall bursting from a dam before turning the day into a whirlwind of grays and yellows. But then two hands suddenly cradled Rin's face in their kindness, and satin lips swept the moist trails away from his inflamed cheeks.
"Haru..."
"Don't. You're too beautiful to cry."
"Me beautiful?" Rin sniffled in between chuckles "Have you even seen yourself? You're like the desert's blue topaz.
The desert's blue topaz. In the abysmal darkness, that line awakens his smirk. It doesn't last long, his broken ribs always make him wince as the night marches on and the temperature sinks to lower degrees. But it's there.
Just like the memories of their shared time are always there, flooding him, drowning him in nostalgia. They had continued coming back to the oasis, day after day, and soon, that newfound desire could not be harbored in the recesses of their hearts any longer. His mind turns a bit foggy when he tries to remember who had made the first move. Not that it matters. A torrent of emotions had shattered all possible restraints, it had bounced off them like a fountain and beguiled them away, into a territory uncharted and dangerously enticing.
Because, in those lands, the love between two men is punishable by death. It is unlawful and abominable. It is a dirty sin that should not be named. How he can explain to anyone that he never felt a sinner?
"Haru...aah...slow down..."
Haruka's lips left his pulsating member. They were swollen and glistening with fluids and, oh dear Lord, Rin craved to devour them so badly. And that was exactly what he did, as he attacked them with the fervor of a lover too lost and gone in his teenager lust. As Rin kept swarming him with nibbles and kisses, the brunet pushed him down on their scattered undergarments. Creamy, toned legs wounded around his waist, inviting him into a game enthralling and forbidden, and Haru eased himself inside him, releasing his name like a sacred mantra.
"Rin...Rin...Rin..."
Each sound was a slam of sweaty pelvises, each thrust was a dive deeper into passion. Rin's eager bites were smoothed out by Haru's velvet tongue and that was a lethal union. A union they had to keep secret.
"Rin...I..."
"I know, Haru...me too..."
In the aftermath of their glow, they lay naked inside their beige tent. Rings of smoke floated above Rin, as a small, glass narghile etched with traditional patterns, rested on his left. On his right, Haru was already peacefully sleeping in his warm embrace, occasionally nuzzling the crook of his neck. The redhead had lost count on how many dawns had already found them like this, a tangle of limbs and feelings. Any given moment, they were risking their heads, but their outlawed bond was something Rin had sworn to protect at all costs.
That morning, the air seemed unusually chilling for a nest in the desert. Carefully, Rin slid away from Haruka's grasp and reached for the brunet's caftan. But as he wrapped his lover's exposed shoulders, shielding him away from the weather's whims, something shiny and metallic rolled on the ground. It was the pendant always hanging by Haruka's neck, a plain piece of jewelry that looked totally unimpressive to Rin but which, he had assumed, should have great sentimental value for the young boy to always keep it with him.
However, what Rin hadn't discovered, up until that moment, was that the pendant could actually open up like a shell. Curious by nature, the redhead didn't resist the temptation. His lips curled in awe as the most brilliant, blue topaz he had ever chanced upon greeted him with its unique gleam. And then, he noticed the symbol underneath and his world came tumbling down.
"The Imperial Iwatobi crest?"
His shocked eyes sought Haruka, and he found him awake, frozen before the storm that was about to erupt.
"Rin, let me explain..."
But Haruka never managed to. Armed men suddenly leaped out of the nearby thorny thicket, wielding torches and shredding their tent into pieces. Despite his state, Rin struggled to fight back, but the rude intruders were significantly more and seized the fiery youth with ease. As the love of his life was getting hauled on his knees, Haruka strove to grab his hand. In vain, as one of the guards enveloped him in a dark mantle and pushed him further away.
"Take the prince somewhere safe, and don't let a word slip about this to anyone! As for you, perverted freak, you'll never see the sun again."
"The prince?"
Those piercing crimson eyes staring back at him with an expression foreign and unfathomable would be forever engraved in Haruka's memory.
"No! I didn't know of this, Rin! They must have spied on me. Rin!"
"Traitor...Traitor!"
The hours tick sluggishly one by one. Once again, the chains that keep his bones together start weighing heavier than before. As blackness descends upon the desert, the winds become vengeful, spinning the sand into fierce tornadoes that ravage the barrens. By the early morning, new dunes will have been formed, yet the life in the wasteland will have remained unscathed. But for him, the journey ends soon.
In the dead of night, he cracks.
"Lord, give me strength."
He has never prayed to anyone before. He doesn't necessarily turn to a believer now. But, in moments like this, the pain is unbearable.
Big hoops on the wall keep his body suspended , as he angles forward. His flesh stretches and tears, new slices piling up on top of old, septic wounds. He breathes in, trying to collect his shattered mind.
He can do this. He will do this. He is a lucky man after all, in this brief life of his. A man fortunate enough to have experienced true love.
"Go away, you're wasting your time."
Haruka's azure eyes seemed clouded, as if a part of their precious stardust had long now perished. Fixed on the broken body before them, they registered Rin's bruises one by one, taking in the horror his lover was living through. There was a lump burdening his throat and it wouldn't dissolve until he saw Rin free of those rusty, iron restraints around his wrists and ankles.
It had been almost two months since that fateful dawn. Haruka had implored his father to grant him permission to visit Rin, but the orders of the Sultan had been clear; Rin would be left to rot in jail until the day of his execution. His trial had been a charade. He had been dragged before the elders, blood gushing from his lips, black blemishes hooding his eyes, where a death sentence had been simply announced to him. Not even his wailing mother and sister had been allowed anywhere near him. And the few times Haruka had tricked the guards, managing to sneak down at the prison cells unnoticed, it had been Rin himself who had stubbornly refused to see him.
This time, he had bribed an old warden with bronze skin and tattoos full of adventures, with the finest tobacco in the caliphate. So, there he was now, coming face to face once again with Rin's diehard pride.
"Rin..."
Eyes smudged with dark circles, bony cheeks hollowing in, the redhead was a ghost of his previous self. Haruka reached out a hand, but, with whatever strength he had left, Rin jerked away from the touch. Haruka's long fingers curled defeated into a fist.
"I told you I don't want you here."
"I have to get you out. I -"
"Are you that heartless, Haru? Haven't I disgraced my name enough? Tainting my body with the murderer of my own blood."
"I didn't kill anyone."
"No, but your parents did. Let me tell you a story, will you?" Rin's voice reeked of sarcasm, a menacing spark twinkling in his tired eyes. "Once upon a time there was a happy family of four. The father was an emir, governor of his own land, fair and just, loved by his people. Until the sultan selfishly decided that his sovereignty wasn't enough. So he started stripping the emirs of their rights, just to feed his own greed. And thus, the benevolent governor ended up being nothing but a common peasant. But he still had his family at least..Right?"
Haru stood there silent, that cancerous lump strangling his air-pipes.
"Answer the damn question! Right?!"
"Right..."
"Wrong! Because your whore of a mother made sure to ruin what was left. Who knows what ancient spells she used to bewitch him with her feminine curves. She took him away...Do you have any idea what this did to my mother and us? It wrecked our home, Haru!"
"Rin..."
"No, let me finish!" The redhead frothed at the mouth with rage. "That viper wanted a married man for herself. He was weak, you see, but he was my father. Everywhere across the land, the punishment for a woman caught committing adultery is death. Can you tell me then, why your mother is still strolling around the palace, while my father is rotting six feet under? Because the Sultan knew my father's weakness, and he wouldn't lose his wife to the enemy. So he brought a new law, allowing under special circumstances the swap of prisoners. It was the perfect plan to eliminate his rival. My father sensed he had been the target all along, but still he couldn't turn his back to your mother...Can you believe it? He just walked up there and handed himself in. So that harlot would keep on warming up the Sultan's bed!"
"Your father loved her, Rin."
"What? No..."
"Oh but he did...You see he used to call her the desert's blue topaz, because her eyes -"
"...shined in a striking, blue colour he had never seen before..." Rin finished the sentence, a lonely teardrop grooving its wet path on his cheek. "Oh my God...you knew...you always knew..."
"No, not until you used the same words. That was when I remembered I had overheard those words before, back when your father was secretly meeting my mother down the palace's dim corridors. I was too young to realise who exactly he was, but it made me happy knowing someone loved my mother so profoundly. And that someone wasn't my father."
Rin's eyes were carmine fragments, glued hastily together, as he lightly rocked back and forth , too lost for words in this medley of conflicting emotions.
"Then you showed up, Rin...and, remember, I told you you looked familiar...because that day, the day of your father's execution, I was there too. I was watching alone from the window in my mother's chambers, while she had locked herself away surrendered to insanity. I couldn't quite understand what was happening, no one was there to explain to me. But I knew I didn't like seeing that redhead boy crying."
A dusty memory flashed before Haruka's eyes, the image of two redhead cherubs grieving before a suspending body while another boy watched behind a shadowed glass. Daring two steps forward, he knelt before this young convict he so adored and swathed that throbbing head with the wet locks inside his arms. And this time, Rin let him.
"I will find a way to set you free."
As the first rays of dawn penetrate the ashen patches of clouds, he's being taken away. The sudden sunlight, no matter how feeble, still blinds him and as his knees bend, he nearly collapses in the arms of his captors. He's tossed on the back of a camel like a sack of rocks, rawhide ropes tightening his hands together.
In the nearby town, the reception awaiting him is that of a state criminal. People of all ages have gathered around an old, centenarian tree , thirsty to watch the infidel's purge. While he is led through the crowd , hateful curses like "traitor" and "sodomite" are raining down upon him. Someone spits at him. But he doesn't flinch. With his shoulders hunched, he stoically withstands those last moments of abuse.
There's a small platform built, a stage for his last, epic performance. The light breeze blends the rampant voices of the people below in a whirring sound, that buzzes around his head like an annoying moth. The executioner is an old commander of the Sultan's army, with a long white beard and wrinkles that narrate the dread of many wars. As he approaches, his voice sounds inexplicably strained.
"It shouldn't have been you up here, my boy."
Leaning down, the old man can see his own, creased reflection in those striking blue eyes. Those clear eyes made of blue topaz. He shouldn't be here, they say.
"Your persistence is absolutely ludicrous. That vermin will pay for his crimes no matter how many times you come crawling at my feet."
For the past hour, Haruka had been standing upright before the Sultan, silently swallowing the one insult after the other.
"Now show some dignity for a change, and get out of my sight."
"Father, I love him."
A loud smack echoed in the imperial hall, and the radial marks of thick fingers reddened the soft skin of Haruka's cheek.
"Don't you dare say this aloud again." the Sultan hissed through clenched teeth before his son's face. "You have no idea what you're saying, you're lucky your endeavors didn't turn into a scandal, so stop shaming your family's name."
His gold-threaded robe swished as he headed for his seat, rows of precious bracelets ringing on his wrist as he motioned at his son to leave.
"I never hated you, you know."
The Sultan turned around, surprised by the peculiar tranquility in Haruka's voice.
"Never. Neither you, nor my mother. Neither when I was playing alone in these vast rooms, nor when I was seeing both of you in other people's embraces. And for long I had accepted that you two just didn't love each other. Bad matches happen all the time. But then mom fell in love. And now I can finally say I understand how she was feeling. I wish you could experience the same."
"What's the meaning of this?"
"I just want you to know that I never hated you, father." For a moment stagnant in time, Haruka shut his eyes, breathing the world in. "I want to invoke the 100 th code under the Sultan's command."
The Sultan staggered backwards, his hand instinctively grabbing his chest at the level of his heart.
"No...no...guards..."
And thus, feeling a newfound energy dashing through his veins, Haruka spoke in a louder and steadier tone.
"These guards are my witnesses. I am using my right and invoking the 100th code under the Sultan's command. Myself in exchange for your prisoner."
In a cruel twist of Fate, the law the Sultan of Iwatobi had once upon a time cunningly invented to eradicate his enemy, ended up becoming his own demise, demanding the life of his only son. The throne that was set up to overview the gallows, rests empty. The Sultan couldn't bear to applaud today's play. But what is life after all, if not an irony?
Haruka is standing on a wooden stool above the platform. He doesn't hear the crowd anymore, the world below is a gray blur whose ink can't blot him. Because he's a blessed man, after all. A man in love. And that's something no soul can take away from him.
If there's one thing he actually misses, that's the water. To glide once more across the lake's glossy surface. To merge himself again with that omnipotent blue.
The coarse noose slips around his neck. Thin rays of light pave their way between the executioner's fingers, while he raises his open palm towards the sun.
If only it rained. If only.
Miles away, on the highest sand dune of the desert that oversees the fertile plains of Iwatobi, red hair like flames is flowing in the scorching southern wind. On his proud Arabic stallion, Matsuoka Rin watches silently the boisterous town spreading below. His mouth is an unyielding line, his ruby eyes are dry. He had screamed his lungs out almost a month ago, desperately calling Haruka's name, the day the guards snatched him away from his cell and rudely threw him back into his freedom.
His palm is hiding a sparkling topaz pendant. Almost ritually, he brings it to his lips and places a soft kiss. Haruka's sacrifice hasn't been for nothing. The time of tears has forever passed.
Pulling the leather reins, he turns around to his men; a long black line of cloaked fighters as far as the eye can see, all sons of the long now oppressed Samezuka. And then, his Stentorian voice scares away the vultures ominously circling a nearby carcass.
"My brothers! A new era is about to begin. The time has come to bring glory back to our fathers' land and freedom to our mothers and sisters. Fear not, because for the bravery you shall show today, a world of peace and beauty awaits you in the life of the heavens. Thus , hear me out and join your voices with mine: For Samezuka!"
The old tales say, that morning, a dark wave stormed down the amber hills of the desert and the golden, searing sand faded to black.
The End
Thanks for reading, reviews are appreciated.