The title, Sarabande, is taken from Handel's masterpiece with the same name. It's the music piece that plays in various points in the story (I suggest you listen to it on youtube, uploaded by Classical Music Only).

SARABANDE

"Name?"

"Tachibana Makoto."

"Age?"

"Twenty-one."

"What have you been doing in Tokyo?"

"I've already narrated everything to the previous officer."

"I'm not the previous officer."

Officer Yamazaki Sousuke tapped his ballpoint pen against his notebook. His inquiring, sapphire gaze slid carefully over the solemn face of the young man seated across him. Everything, from the soot-covered bruises on his cheeks to the very ends of his tattered shirt, indicated he had been through a rather rough night. And the peak of the misfortune befallen upon him, could be found in between the strips of dirty bandages covering his fingers, shielding away from sight his tortured and burnt flesh.

"I've been studying calligraphy for the past two months. You can check with my uni for my records."

"Yes we did that. But is there anyone that can vouch for you?"

"My teachers perhaps."

Clever boy, Sousuke thought. In the dead of night, they would have to wait till morning before they could bring any civilian unrelated to the witness to guarantee on his behalf. Especially for a case like this, which seemed to be nothing urgent, but more of an unfortunate and macabre twist of Fate. Still there was something peculiar deep within that kid's moonlit eyes, that made Yamazaki's suspicions rekindle like old flames.

"What about a relative?"

"They all live in a small town called Iwatobi, far from Tokyo. I visit them only during holidays."

"The deceased was from the same town, wasn't he?"

"Yes, that's right, officer."

"What exactly was your relationship with him?"

"We had been good friends throughout our childhood."

"And you reunited again when you moved here for your studies?"

"Yes, sir. That's when I found him working as a chef in a low-key resto."

Sousuke skipped through his notes, his pupils scanning fast the evidence and the man's earlier testimony.

"So, what were you doing in Nanase's home this evening?"

"Visiting."

"Just visiting?"

"Is something wrong with visiting my friend, sir?"

"Considering how your friend ended up, Tachibana, there could always be."

The man didn't utter a word. He just continued to stare at the dark-haired officer with an emotionless expression spread all over his handsome face. There was something about his piercing gaze that made Sousuke shift uneasily in his chair.

"I was told that Haru died in the fire" he said eventually, his tone mellowing a bit at the mention of his partner's name.

"There seems to have been some sort of gas leaking in the victim's kitchen."

"A victim requires a perpetrator, sir."

Sousuke cocked up his thick eyebrow and the side of his mouth rose into a humourless grin.

"You have a problem with my choice of words, Tachibana?"

"It depends if I'm a witness or a suspect, officer. Cause if I'm somehow the latter, I'm afraid I'll need to speak first to a lawyer."

Sousuke rolled his eyes inwardly. They would always come up with the lawyer's excuse at this stage. It was the necessary evil in every meaty case he was assigned to.

"For someone who has just lost his best friend, you look rather smug, you know."

For the first time that night, the young man lowered his head. He kept his barren eyes fixated on an empty glass placed on the sleek surface of the interrogation desk, and when his voice escaped his thin lips, it resembled the dull and somber sound of old bells.

"Tonight, I've been forever deprived of the dearest person to me. I've also tried and failed to help him, scathing and burning my hands in the process. I've been seesawing between the local hospital and the police station for the past five hours. With all the respect, I don't know how you would look in my place, sir."

Sousuke cleared his throat and hastily raked his fingers through his raven mane.

"Let's get to the night's events. Please, recount what happened."

"As I said, earlier this evening, around 8 pm, I was visiting Haru in his apartment. He lives...well, he used to live in a rather secluded area without many neighbours. I usually pull down the fire escape ladder and get in through his window, rather than entering the front door of the building. This may sound odd, but we've been friends for quite long and there was a high level of trust between us. As I raised the window, I called his name and he answered me from his kitchen. I had taken only a couple of steps in, when there was a deafening explosion and the force of the blast shoved me onto a wall. I rushed towards the kitchen, but there was too much smoke to distinguish anything and I ended up burning my palms and fingertips in my attempt to push aside the damaged door. After that, I struggled to climb down the staircase and I was found there, almost breathless, about fifteen minutes later when police arrived."

"Did you notice a police car around the block when you first arrived at your friend's house?"

"No, sir, I didn't. But I was told later that another police officer happened to be in the neighbourhood around the time the fire broke out."

"Do you know that officer?"

"You mean officer Matsuoka? Yes I do, but we are merely acquaintances. I've only seen him two or three times in my life."

Sousuke rubbed his chin pensively, a dozen of different scenarios racing through his restless mind. Perhaps he was being paranoid, but he felt there was something vaguely bizarre in this , otherwise, straightforward story. Slowly, he snapped his neck from one side to the other. Maybe he just needed vacations, after all.

"Is there anything you'd like to add?"

The student locked his steady gaze with Sousuke's sea of teal and slid the empty glass across the table towards him.

"Yes, please. Can I have more water?"

One floor up and several rooms down the carpeted hallway, officer Matsuoka Rin had been sinking in an armchair inside the chief's office. His shoulders were hanging low and the ruby strands of his hair were tousled. Rivers of tears had dried up on his pale cheeks and his, once vibrant, eyes had been shattered into smithereens, like a scarlet mosaic.

Haruka was dead. Hours ago the wild fire had cut his string of life, taking him away from this world's vanity and his precious redhead. If this was just a horrid nightmare, someone should wake Rin up already, cause it wasn't funny anymore.

The wooden door creaked open, and heavy footsteps stirred the silence, as Mikoshiba Seijuurou entered his office. He placed a new cup of hot coffee before Rin and leaned back on his leather lounger.

"You were close with this kid, Matsuoka, weren't you?"

Rin swallowed the knot burdening his throat.

"We weren't really hanging out together, nor had I been to his place before. But we were friends, I often dine at the family resto he worked as a chef. That's where I first met him too, a few months ago. He was a quiet, secluded guy. We used to share a cigarette after work...I just can't believe he's gone."

If anyone else was in Rin's place, Seijuurou would undoubtedly question his dramatic reaction over the death of a man he hadn't been knowing for long. But this was the passionate Rin Matsuoka sitting in front of him, well known for his emotional outbursts in the cases he was directly involved.

"We'll be waiting a few days for the autopsy results, to match up with Nanase's dental records. You know, just for the typical procedure."

An image of the obsidian, carbonized body of his poor friend, a black mass that was once a living person now reduced to ashes, flashed before his eyes and Rin felt his insides twisting, ready to climb up his throat and pour out. Seijuurou flipped through a pack of papers with mild interest, before tossing them on his desk with a hollow thump.

"Here's your testimony, along with everything else. I'm gonna be honest, Matsuoka. I can't wait to close this sad case, it's been a pretty rough night for all of us. Still, I have to ask you, is there anything else you forgot to mention?"

Rin shook his head negatively.

"I don't know anything more. I was on a routine patrol around the district between the 5th and the 6th avenue. It's not a crowded area, the streets were rather dark and empty in the evening. I was driving around the block where Nanase's flat is when I heard a tremendous bang. At first I honestly thought there was a bomb or something. I braked the car in an alley and rushed to the building, that's when I noticed the flames, already swallowing everything up. I called for reinforcements...you know the rest..."

Seijuurou nodded with understanding; surely he was an intimidating man, but he had always been protective with his officers and considered them his family. Opening his top drawer, he pulled out a rather large envelop and placed it between him and Rin.

"This is your resignation. I already had it ready, just like you asked a few days ago. You know my thoughts on it. I won't accept it until I am sure you are making this choice with a clear mind rather than a troubled heart. Taking into account tonight's sudden twist of Fate, I'm suggesting you take your time over the next couple of days and rethink your decision. You can leave your badge and your gun here, if you like...Take even some time off, if it makes it easier for you. But this envelop shall remain with me until you give me your last verdict."

Rin agreed, a hint of mixed feelings colouring his face. He treasured captain Mikoshiba, both as a friend and as a leader, but if he wanted to be frank with himself, after tonight's events, he craved to get away from the Force more than ever. To put a huge tombstone on his past and bury it deep into the bowels of the earth.

"Oh, before you leave" Seijuurou's voice interrupted him, as the redhead was standing up "there's something else I have to tell you. We should have informed you earlier, but let's say you were not in the appropriate state of dealing with it and we'd need you to be calm and collected, like now."

Rin frowned at this new enigma expanding suddenly before him.

"There's a second witness of tonight's fire in Sakura street. He has been down in the interrogation room with officer Yamazaki for the past two hours or so. We're having an issue with his identity but he claims you two know each other, so if you could go down there and speed things up for us a bit, it would be great."

Instantly, a shivering gust of wind engulfed the fiery police officer. And the same, foreboding and chilling feeling followed his every step, as Rin descended the serpentine staircase and walked down the corridor that lead to the interrogation section. His hand trembled above the silver knob for a few moments, when suddenly the door flung open and Yamazaki Sousuke exited the cold room. His gloomy face brightened up the moment he laid eyes on Rin.

"I was starting to wonder if you were gonna show up. Everything alright with the chief?"

"Well, you know him, he still makes it hard for me to resign. But I'm knackered, tonight. I can't wait to go home and crash."

"Before you go, I need your input for a minute on this freaking case."

"Yeah, captain Mikoshiba rambled something about it. What's up?"

"I have inside a man that claims to be Tachibana Makoto, Nanase's childhood friend. He has no ID card or driving license with him, but we checked his records in the school he attends, and everything seems alright. However, we need to be sure about his identity, just for bureaucratic reasons. And guess what, his fingers have second degree burns all over them and we can't take any fingerprints."

"So you basically want me to identify him." Rin breathed out "Something easy for a change."

"Yes, just hassling you for three minutes, that's all. Oh, by the way, Rin..."

The redhead paused before entering the interrogation room and quirked an eyebrow at his longtime partner.

"I know the chief wants to close this case as soon as possible. And, really, perhaps there's nothing more into it, but...I was wondering...when you were patrolling around Sakura street, did you notice if the fire ladder in Nanase's block had been in use?"

Rin clenched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.

"I can't recall, mate. I don't think it was, but honestly, everything has been a blur ever since. You sure you're not stressing yourself too much over this?"

"Perhaps, I am." Sousuke chuckled and opened the door for his old pal.

The moment Rin faced the man sitting quietly behind the lonely interrogation table, the youthful blood coursing through his veins turned to ice. Their gazes met and a sudden jolt of electricity shuddered Rin's body, forcing him to take a step back. Sousuke sensed the change in his demeanor and pulled him by his arm further into a corner.

"That's definitely him." Rin choked out "That's Tachibana Makoto, Nanase's old classmate."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sun was setting in the horizon, embellishing the evening sky with amber and sanguine shades, spreading the last beacon of its warmth around the world before the eternal night marched in to cast its darkened veil. Feeble rays of light were sneaking through the semi-open window and gracefully tip-toed on the rumpled, aquamarine bed sheets. Everything was plunged in sweet, languid silence, apart the soft moans and erotic whispers flowing the space in between the sheets.

Suddenly, an old alarm went off and the bittersweet musical notes of Handel's Sarabande cascaded in the air like pellucid water drops. Rin popped his flushed face from underneath the covers and groped for the dolphin shaped clock in vain.

"Why this freaking thing goes off at 7 in the evening?"

"Because I normally start work in an hour. I took the day off but forgot to turn off the alarm."

A muffled voice came from Rin's muscular chest and the redhead felt a warm breath tickling his alabaster skin. He rose the sheets a bit and stared down with a smug grin on his face, as Haruka grazed a rosy nipple with his teeth.

"You really like this piece of music, don't you?"

"Liar...remember I caught you listening to it too while on patrol?"

Rin chuckled.

"I just have it on a cd for when I take you on a ride with me."

Trailing soft bites, Haruka nuzzled his way up to the smooth crook of Rin's neck.

"Mhm, what kind of a ride would that be?"

Haruka's azure shimmered as he teased, causing the redhead's manhood to throb for the umpteenth time that day. Rin lowered his head and captured Haruka's lips, slipping his wet tongue past them and sucking away the nectar in his velvet mouth. Their tongues fenced for a while in ecstasy, and following their inner fervor, their naked bodies rolled playfully around the creased sheets. Haruka sneaked his hand between Rin's thighs, and his fingers circled his length, stroking him with expertise. Rin's eyes set behind his lids, much like the twilight sun, while Haruka focused on easing the burgeoning ache on his penis. It didn't take him long to ejaculate in the brunet's hands and watched with awe as Haruka provocatively licked his fingers clean one by one. They continued laughing and kissing like two careless kids that had just fallen from Eden.

Eventually, Rin fell on his back, and as his laughter died out, he pulled Haruka securely in his embrace. The brunet rested his head on the top of Rin's broad chest and his hand traveled gently over the endless mounts of his triceps. Finding his scarlet hair at the base of his nape, his fingers interlaced with his soft locks and started toying with them.

"I have to leave soon. Supposedly I am on patrol, checking around the streets, and I have been here for the past two hours, checking your body instead."

"You should have taken the day off as well."

"The day off?" Rin snickered. "Heck, I'm leaving the force for good. I've already filed my resignation, I'm just waiting for Mikoshiba to accept it. Today is probably my last day as an officer."

"You think he will?"

"I know he doesn't want to, but I'll leave him with no choice. Anyway, he is the least of our problems." Rin bit his lower lip in doubt, checking his brunet lover for any unsettling emotion. "What about Makoto?"

Haruka sighed sharply.

"He's a big boy, he'll be alright."

"You think he'll ever understand?"

"I don't care."

Rin squeezed him lightly, before planting a tender kiss on that thin wrinkle in the middle of his forehead. It was the only imperceptible sign something was irritating Haruka, every time the young man sank in troubling thoughts.

"Come on now, Haru, don't be so heartless."

"I'm not heartless. I explained to him long ago we can't be together anymore, but he refuses to move on with his life. However the holidays are approaching, so he will have to return to Iwatobi and deal with his family."

"I thought they were close?"

"Not ever since they discovered he is gay. He only visits them during holidays now."

"Well, you won't be around for these holidays, either way..."

Haruka lifted his head and let those two pools of immense sky-blue pierce through Rin's grinning face.

"You got them?"

Rin reached out an arm and searched blindly in the pockets of his pants, draped over the bed's frame. Soon, he pulled out two plane tickets, and waved them triumphantly before Haruka's stunned face.

"Tomorrow morning, we're leaving Japan for good."

The corners of Haruka's lips curled up to a small smile and, immediately, his usually aloof expression gave its place to the warmest shine. It was a rare sight to witness Haruka smiling. He was a lonely, reserved person but within the comfort of Rin's arms, he would transform to a kind, beaming soul that basked in the redhead's light. Rin cherished those moments with Haruka, those little, rare gems he would willingly go to Hell and back just to treasure them.

"I love you"

Haruka whispered and, just like with swimming once upon a time he was a teenager, same now with love, Rin had to be the winner.

"But I love you more."

Their mouths melted into a ravenous kiss and Rin had to hush down his arousal and force himself up, before their romantic moment escalated to yet another marathon of sex.

"I'm gonna have a quick shower before I leave. I can't go back to the station smelling of sperm and mackerel."

He ducked his head the last moment to avoid a blue pillow flying his way and, sticking his tongue out to Haruka, he vanished in the bathroom. The steamy shower was a refreshing balm for his body and soul. Fully invigorated, he started whistling Sarabande's old tune while slipping his uniform on. He was nearly done buckling his leather belt, when he heard a loud thud coming from Haruka's bedroom.

"Haru? Don't tell me you fell off the..."

Rin froze. Makoto was standing in the middle of the room, his knuckles bleached as his hands tightly clenched Rin's revolver. He was supposed to stay in his uni till late tonight, but instead he had come to Haruka's apartment, using the fire ladder to get into through the window as usual, almost on time to catch the two love birds during their forbidden mating.

"Rin! Stay back!"

Standing by the end of the bed, face to face with the barrel of a gun and stark naked, Haruka motioned at Rin to remain at his place.

"So this is why you left me...this is the dull side of our relationship you were talking about, that we couldn't find a way to spark up..." Makoto sneered and shook his head in despair.

"Makoto, this is pointless...Please, drop the gun."

"You, shut the fuck up! You think you know, Haru? We've known each other since we were kids."

"Makoto, just hand me the gun and I promise we can talk about this."

Makoto let a borderline demented chuckle and switched his aim on Rin. Haruka used to describe him as a benevolent giant with a heart made of gold, but the man standing in front of them, brandishing a weapon before their faces and blurting out threats, was too far gone into the haze of his obsessive infatuation.

"What you and me could possibly have to talk about? You just barged into our lives and stole Haru away from me!"

"He couldn't steal anything you already ceased having."

Haruka's deadpan voice penetrated Makoto's heart like a blade. As his misery overwhelmed him, he moved his focus back on the brunet and Rin found the perfect chance to pounce on him like a lion, in an attempt to disarm him. And even though the redhead was trained for situations like this, Makoto was still a tall, robust male and was being a challenge to handle. They struggled for a while , pushing and kicking, fighting over the control of the gun, until, all of a sudden, something fragile was smashed on Makoto's head and he collapsed on the floor, among various fragments of iridescent glass.

One step away, Haruka was looming over his unconscious body in silence, a broken wine bottle hanging limply from his hand.

Rin blinked a few times, staring at his lover with mouth agape. He slowly removed the remaining glass from Haruka's grasp and hurled it away. Without wasting any time, he fell on his knees and checked Makoto's pulse, before exhaling in relief.

"He's alive. I have a med kit back in the police car. Stay here and I'll bring it in a few minutes, ok?"

Haruka nodded vehemently and Rin placed a quick peck on his lips.

"You just dazed him, he's gonna be fine."

He repeated again to Haruka, even though he was mainly reassuring his own anxiety, and jumped out of the window like a bolt. Haruka watched him climbing down the stairs leading to the back alley, before grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a plain T-shirt to put on. But as he turned back to where Makoto's body was lying on the floor, he found nothing but thin air.

Haruka gulped when he heard weird, screeching noises coming from his kitchen. Even though his heart was drumming within the folds of his chest, he approached the kitchen's door in a slow and careful pace. Makoto was standing by his old gas stove. He had opened the valve, allowing the dangerous gas to flood the narrow room, and was playing with a lighter in his hand.

"Makoto...this is insane..."

"Say, Haru...you had promised once we would be together forever..."

Haruka coughed, as the air was already turning dense and suffocating. He desperately searched inside Makoto's eyes for his beloved friend, but all he could peer into was a deranged emerald morass.

"Makoto..."

"There's only one way to forever now..."

For a fractured second, the lighter flame flickered in a shade of blue. And then, a blinding flash gushed upwards and an enormous explosion shook the whole building, shuttering the windows, while smoke and fire rushed out. Rin raised his head in shock, watching the searing flames licking Haruka's apartment like greedy tongues of dragons. For a short while, he was left alone howling in the empty streets.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sousuke massaged his nape, as the young man in front of him signed one by one the papers of his testimony and handed them to him. The dark-haired police officer glanced briefly at Tachibana's signature, before securing his statement into a grey folder. After hours of doing circles through the same incidents again and again, he was finally free to go and, possibly, return to the hospital for further treatment. They wouldn't let him leave without assigning an officer to escort him though and, to Sousuke's surprise, Rin offered to drive him there in the police car, since he was technically still a part of the Force. Captain Mikoshiba had agreed to the offer with relief, since he believed that keeping Rin involved with the station's affairs in one way or the other, would eventually make it hard for him to quit his old habits and his adrenaline pumping job.

Sousuke watched as the student walked away. He couldn't deviate from Mikoshiba's orders, the case had to close. And yet, an irresistible urge, straight out of his detective instinct, overrode his senses and made him say what he knew well held no truth.

"We might have to contact you again, Tachibana. I guess I'll see you soon."

As the elevator doors were closing, the student looked back at him with his cold, spiritless eyes and spoke in the same, unsympathetic voice.

"Wanna bet, officer?..."

In the early morning hours, the world that welcomed him outside was still pitch black. A gust of cold wind smacked his face, sending tiny shivers gliding over his skin. Passing by a few policemen standing outside the station, he spotted the car waiting for him right across the dim road. The emergency blue lights were turned off and Rin was sitting patiently at the driver's seat. The rear door closed and he made himself comfortable in the tattered back seat.

"I'm not a taxi driver you know, why don't you come to the front?"

"At least pretend for a while you're escorting a witness, will you?"

Rin reached out and fixed his rear view mirror. An endless ocean of that worshipped, immense sky-blue met his own crimson gaze through the glass. Tachibana Makoto had never escaped the wild flames after all.

"You do understand I spent nearly six hours crying and thinking you were a mound of ashes that met his maker, right?"

"I had no other choice. If I was the one alive instead of Makoto, they would start asking questions what the hell he wanted in my kitchen in the first place. And if we had told them the truth, they wouldn't have believed us. The whole thing would look more like an unlawful couple's trap to take the bitter third wheel out, wouldn't it? At least now they'll think I was just a careless chef..."

"Still, Haru, I almost died myself and went to Hell. You have no idea..."

"Then why didn't you tell them the truth yourself when they started the investigation?"

Rin blew the bangs blocking his sight slightly irritated and grumbled something incomprehensible.

"Exactly what I thought...anyway, this charade will buy us some time until the results of the autopsy come or Makoto's parents decide to contact him. Whichever happens first."

"I can't even fathom really...when the heck did you come up with this whole plan?"

"During those six hours you were out there crying, maybe?"

"OK, asshole, come to the passenger's seat now."

Haruka cast a quick glance back at the police station. When he was certain that having a smoke and telling crude jokes were much more important for the cops than paying attention to their nearby surroundings, he swiftly moved to the front seat. Their gazes entwined for a moment, scorching crimson engulfed by vast ultramarine and Rin let out a long sigh, finding back his old determination.

"Ok, we still have several hours till the flight. I've already handed them my gun and badge. The chief thinks it's just a phase I'm going through, but I'm gonna email him my final decision to quit the force in the morning. He already has my official resignation too."

Haruka listened to him without uttering a word, occasionally moving his head in agreement.

"I'll leave this vehicle outside my house and we'll catch the train to the airport. Let's hope that by the time they put two and two together, we'll be flying far away from the Pacific. After that...I suppose life might hold something better for us, right?"

Rin felt his eyes brimming with crystal tears.

"Cause I don't know what will happen out there, I do know though I love you..."

Haruka rested his hand over Rin's, as he held on the gear lever.

"But I love you more."

Ever since he was a young boy, Rin had been the loud, passionate one that led the flock and held no prisoners. And yet, there was a lurking darkness deep within Haruka, a driving force so blazing and strong, that whenever emerging from its somber depths, it both frightened and kept the redhead alive.

The engine started with a groan and Rin clicked on the cd player. And soon, Sarabande soared through the nightsky, as the car vanished in the darkened streets of the sleepy metropolis.

The End

Thanks for reading, reviews are appreciated.