A/N: Hello, everyone who is reading this.

When I first thought up the concept for this fanfiction the first season of Free! was still on and I just loved the idea of the desert AU. I started this at a time when I was addicted to this Anime. Then life happened and I was clean for a while. But of course that didn't last, and here I am back on the Free! trip, which is why you are reading this.

What I will be attempting here is not some great desert adventure filled with magic and arabian mythology, rather I want to try and write a slice of life story set in a world where water is scarce, surviving is hard work and friendships form through and around the difficulties this poses.

I want to follow our characters from a young age to their adulthood, shine a light on their personal dramas, their friendships, how they live and love in a world where swimming is a luxury and having to earn what you eat starts early.

This starts with them as children, so for quite a bit of time there won't be any sexual relationships,however there is plenty of puppy love, pining and cuteness to be had. Why? because I love that stuff.

As our dear darlings get older, some of the world's darkness will look more and more into their lives. Prostitution will be a topic as will be minor character deaths, so steer clear if you can't stand that at all. References to underage but post-pubescent sex WILL be a thing down the line, so you have been warned of that as well.

With that I wish you happy reading and hope that you will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

1. Moonlight meeting

„Haru!", the voice of his best friend was quietly but insistently ringing through the garden holding the most beautiful pool of clear water Haru had ever laid eyes on. And that was really all that mattered the boy decided when he threw off his clothes and took a nosedive into the still pool.

He faintly heard the distressed but subdued gasp escaping Makoto, who was looking around frantically and obviously worried.

It wasn't that the black haired boy didn't understand why his best friend was fretting. After all, this garden did belong to the palace. The palace that was very much off limits for common people, for peasants and other poor folk, like them.

Haru knew this. He also knew that he didn't care, outside of these walls he had hardly ever seen enough water to sit in, never mind to move around in this freely. Now that he had felt the sensation of gliding through the water he was more than reluctant to ever give it up again.

He heard Makoto whisper again urgently and raised his head enough to throw an unimpressed look his friend's way. He was enjoying himself here and Makoto was being a killjoy. After looking into bright green eyes he realized his mistake, the large green eyes looked at him deeply worried and insecure and he could see his friend shake in the pale moonlight.

Now he felt guilty, as he without fail did, whenever he unintentionally scared or hurt Makoto. He moved back to the edge of the pool, took the shaking hand offered to him and let himself be pulled out of the cool water.

"Don't be afraid. There shouldn't be any guards coming this way for at least an hour." He flatly reassured the brunet. He hadn't spent forever climbing the wall up as far as he dared listening and watching and finding out when the guards were making their rounds around here to have Makoto freak out on him.

He had wanted to do this alone, initially, because he knew what a scaredy-cat his best friend was, but in the end he couldn't keep the secret from Makoto and Makoto, even on the pain of death would never, never let Haru go into danger alone. Haru actually wasn't sure if he liked that. Whenever it became really apparent his stomach would do a weird flip-flop and he would look away, embarrassed. Just like was happening in this moment.

Makoto was gripping his hand tight now and growing more agitated by the second. Just as Haru wanted to reassure him yet again he snapped his head around eyes slightly widened when he heard quiet sneaky footsteps coming their way. Makoto heard them too judging by the way he tried to hide behind Haru despite being slightly taller.

Haru's memory supplied that it was still too early for guards and the footsteps seemed too timid to belong to someone who was supposed to be here. Haru looked around for a hiding place, but the small hole in the wall he had found was too far away to get there unnoticed and the water separated them from bushes that could have shielded them. Feeling Makoto shake behind him he did the only thing he could do, stand up taller and face the threat head on.

Just seconds later his eyes connected with a pair of vibrant red ones, placed in a young face, maybe nine or ten years old, around their age really and framed by longish red strands.

The other boy blinked, then narrowed his eyes as Haru kept his defensive stance and defiantly looked at the intruder.

He could feel Makoto relax just slightly when a few seconds went past and the other boy didn't cry for the guards.

The redhead did however approach them, hopping other the stepping stones in the pool with the ease of practice and landed directly in front of them.

Haru took an instinctive step back and frowned as the red head got up into his personal space and measured him with his eyes.

"Who are you?", The kid asked, the tone was friendly enough, if somewhat imposing, or at least trying to be. 'Noble then, not servant' Haru thought, not without disdain.

"No one you need to know." he replied unfazed and felt more than heard Makoto make a noise behind his back that probably meant he should at least try to be polite, lest they get into trouble after all.

The boy leaned back a bit again, with an unhappy expression on his face "This is my garden, and you are tres.. tre... where you are not supposed to be. The least you can do is telling me your names."

Haru stared at him, doing his very best to look as uncooperative as possible, in the hopes that the boy just would tire of this and let them go.

"Oh come on, I'm not going to call the guards on you. Just tell me already!" The boy started again, this time slightly louder and with a whine to his voice, that could alarm someone if it went on.

Makoto pressed Haru's shoulder in worry. Haru understood the signal and sighed "I am Haru and this is Makoto." He complied in his usual emotionless tone but made sure that the red head felt his disdain at being forced to give their names through his icy glare.

The boy didn't seem to be perturbed however. His face spilt into a wide grin, exposing white teeth and slightly longer than normal fangs. The happiness radiating from the boy made Haru uneasy. "Hello Haru and Makoto, I'm Rin."

Haru felt Makoto's grip on his shoulder tighten again but didn't comment. He didn't show the shock he was feeling on his face, unlike Makoto who right now undoubtedly sported a visage of terror.

"You are the prince." Haru commented feeling stupid the second the words left his lips.

Rin laughed embarrassedly and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, that would be me. So what are you doing here?" he asked curiously and leaned forward a bit again.

Haru looked to the side choosing not to answer. Makoto seemed to have found his voice again however and piped up "We wanted to play in the water for a bit..." Haru could practically feel the blush burning on his friend's face and sighed.

Rin stifled a laugh against his hand and looked at them with mirth in his eyes "And so you broke into the palace garden. You two are quite brave."

Makoto was stuttering next to him, and when Haru shifted his eyes to the side just a bit he could see Makotos face take on ever more interesting shades of red.

He just wanted to offer a rebuttal to this so called prince and then take his leave, but Rin had finished chuckling before he could raise his voice. "Tell you what, you get me out of here sometime and I won't tell what you did."

Haru was about to protest at the attempted black mail, and was once again interrupted. "AND as a bonus, because I am nice, I'll help you get in here and swim."

The raven haired boy clamped his mouth shut and looked at the faintly sparkling water, feeling such longing that it was very, very difficult to even think the offer over, and not just impulsively say yes.

But he wasn't alone in this, he had Makoto to consider. Smuggling a prince out of his palace was dangerous, his grandma certainly wouldn't approve and there was Makoto's family that might get into trouble and...

"Yes." Haru heard the word and his mind screeched to a halt, he hadn't been the one who said it. Which only left… He looked at Makoto, eyes slightly widening at the conviction in his best friends face even if his hands, which were still grabbing on to Haru's shoulders, were shaking slightly.

"We will take the offer." Haru's gaze snapped back to the prince who was showing of his fangs again in a grin and nodded "Great. you get in through the hole in the wall right?."

Blue eyes sparkled at the prince in irritation. What did he need them for if he knew how to get out? Although it didn't even matter now,they already were in this mess so he just nodded his head in confirmation.

Rin seemed satisfied with that and continued. "Wait there around noon tomorrow. I'll give you a sign when it's save to come in. There will be other kids here, but they won't tell if I talk to them, and the caretaker Ama- chan never pays attention except when something really bad happens, we'll just pass you off as servant kids and no one will be the wiser. You can play with us until lessons begin late in the the afternoon."

At the end of his explanation Rin grinned again. "You should probably go now, the guards will make their rounds here soon.. and don't forget your clothes." He added before skipping off in the direction of the palace again.

Haru didn't look after him and instead slipped his clothes back on before crawling out to the dirty, dry street with Makoto. They hurried on their way home, knowing that it wasn't safe in the city at night, even close to the palace.

Neither of them spoke until they had almost reached their neighborhood. It wasn't outstandingly poor, but still far from rich, so a few of the houses looked worn down. When the first of those houses they knew so well came into sight Haru looked to the side, away from Makoto. "Why?", he simply asked.

He couldn't see Makoto smile, but he heard it in his voice. "Because I want Haru –chan to be happy." Makoto answered and when Haru's stomach did the flip-flop it was so good at, he was glad that he looked away, because Makoto really didn't need to see how red his cheeks were. In that moment he couldn't even tell Makoto to drop the '-chan'.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this little offering of a first chapter. If you did, nothing would make me happier than a review or pm telling me so. Constructive criticism would be very welcome. So would be the pointing out of mistakes, because I don't have a beta reader and I'm not a native English speaker. I like to believe that my English is decent enough for someone who never was abroad, but you never know where a typo or inconsistency might sneak in, or whether you are totally overestimating your own ability.

If you'd like me to continue this, I have a few more chapters which only need of a bit of editing and fine-tuning and a whole host of follow up chapters which are largely planned out but not brought to paper in detail yet. Depending on the demand updates could be coming quicker or slower, if there is no demand at all I might stop posting completely or reorientate to something different soon. So take the story as you will and be so good to let me know.