A/N: Warning! Incest in this chapter. Also, implied Nagisa x Rei. If it ain't yo thang, go ahead and skip it if that is your preference.

The sun on the sand was unbearably hot, and the next city was miles away. Haruka pulled his scarf over his mouth to avoid breathing in the dust kicked up by the occasional desert wind, but it was barely more comfortable to inhale perspiration-soaked fabric than it was dry sand. He needed to find water soon.

He tried to get his mind off of his current predicament by thinking about his friends. He hadn't seen them in a long time-he wondered if they had changed at all. His friends Makoto, a merchant, and Nagisa, a dancer, had been disappointed over Haruka's departure two years ago, but suppotive enough of his decision to send him off with kind good-byes. But his enigmatic best friend Rin, who was the late sultan's son and firstborn heir, had been furious with Haruka. They had had a vicious falling-out before his departure, and Rin had not shown up to see him off. The last Haruka had heard of him, he was secluded within his enormous palace, allowing only the company of his advisors, his servants, his mother, and his beloved sister, Princess Gou.

Haruka didn't regret leaving. He'd gone to visit many different places, meet new people and experience a slice of what the world, in all of its grandeur, had to offer. He'd learned many things along the way; things about the nature of people, as well as himself. Having grown homesick for his birthplace, he'd concluded his travels and made preparations to return to the city that he was now only a few miles away from. His camel, whom he had named Mackerel in honor of a seafood dish he had become enamored with during his travels, was laden with souveneirs he intended to divy out to his friends-Rin, in all of his moodiness, included.

Rin was his regret. Haruka regretted leaving their friendship in such a tattered state. He knew now that he had made a grave mistake when he had left without repairing the rift that he now accepted the fault of creating. He hoped, upon arriving to the city, to mend their damaged bond.

But first, he thought as he clutched at his neck, he really needed to find water.

Bare feet slapped a glossy granite floor, golden anklets jingling, as the princess Gou hurried down a hall in the palace she and her brother shared. Her brother had summoned her to his rooms, where he preferred to spend his leisure time, and as always she delighted in sharing his company despite any foul mood he might be in. Her attendants were having a hard time keeping up with her, their skirts billowing as they jogged remain close behind.

She burst through the large double doors leading into his rooms, cheerfully exclaiming "Brother! " as she did so.

The man in question, who was reclining on enormous cushions that took up a section of the shining black floor, looked up from a yellowing scroll resting unfurled in his lap. "Gou. You don't need to shout." He looked handsome, as he always did, with his burgundy hair falling around the sides of his face. His feet were bare, like his sister's, and he was wearing a green tunic embroidered with blue thread low around his waist. He had a shawl thrown carelessly across his shoulders, but was otherwise barechested. The lines of his chiseled muscles were, at the moment, relaxed.

"I'm sorry, brother," Gou said, smiling shyly. "I'm just happy that you summoned me."

"As if you don't intrude uninvited anyway." Rin raised a hand and beckoned casually for her to approach him. She did, and he reached forward and grasped her wrist, pulling her down to recline beside him and draping his arm around her shoulders.

"What are you reading?" she asked, settling into his side.

"A letter from some foreign dignitary that I don't care about, " Rin said. He set the scroll aside, turning his full attention to her. With his free arm, he slid Gou's legs across his lap. Gou wound her arms around his neck, pressing her lips to the corner of his jaw.

"You've been so moody lately-I've been worried," Gou said with her lips against his skin. "Please, what can I do to make you happy?"

Rin, Gou thought, had been "moody" for two years running. She remembered his rage at his best friend's departure, how he'd accused Haruka of abandoning him when his grief for his father was still fresh. It had only been a few weeks after the funereal ceremonies that Haruka had packed up and left, and while Gou secretly didn't blame him for wanting to get out of their city, with its constricting walls and suffocating political blather, she knew that Rin's ire truly stemmed from being left, almost trapped, in the confines of his castle and his responsibilities as firstborn. He'd always wanted to travel the world and adventure beyond the borders of even the most recently drawn maps. Haru's departure to do just that, on the heels of losing the father that he practically worshipped, had been a particularly painful wound to his most dearly held dreams.

"What you're doing right now," Rin murmured, his hand coming rest on the back of her head. The other trailed along her arm, pulling one of her hands away from his neck and tangling his fingers with hers. Gou trailed her kisses to his collarbone, and then rested her head on his shoulder.

"There's going to be a festival in the city soon," she said, her voice low and containing a pleading note. "I was hoping...maybe..."

"I won't leave the palace, Gou. I can't." Rin's interruption was gentle, even though it was firm. "But you're free to go. Enjoy it for the both of us."

Gou sighed, nestling closer. "You need to get out once in a while," she lamented. "This palace, where our father lived and died...it's not good for you to stay in it. It's not healthy. You need to let yourself be happy, brother. That's what father would have wanted."

Rin looked away, saying nothing. Whenever there was a festival or a feast, Rin would bid her to go as she pleased, and perhaps would she bring him back a gift or souveneir? Wear a headscarf so you are not cold, return home before the streets become unsafe, and please, for the love of all that is good and holy, don't go along with whatever idiotic mischief Nagisa concocts. Gou frowned as she recalled the oft-repeated sentiments her brother not insincerely sent her out with.

Rin, noticing her expression, mirrored her frown and caught her face between his hands. Meeting her eyes, he said, "My happiness is your happiness, Gou. Would you deny me that?" And he brushed his mouth against hers. Gou met his kiss with a sigh that was half melancoly and half pleased.

Gou pulled away and dismissed her attendants, who filed out of the room almost silently after bowing respectfully. Once they were alone, they lay beside each other, kissing and caressing and speaking barely above a whisper.

"I'll be dancing at the festival..." Gou murmured breathlessly as Rin kissed his way across her shoulders.

Rin pulled away to meet her eyes, his expression one of genuine surprise. "You are?"

Gou nodded, her face flushed. "It's a performance we-Nagisa and his guild and I-have been working on for months."

Rin pressed his forehead to Gou's. His hair tickled her cheek, causing her to let a giggle slip out. Rin grinned, pressing a kiss to her lips once more, before saying, "I...I haven't watched you dance in a long time."

"It's a beautiful routine," Gou insisted. "The master chose Nagisa and I for the main roles. We'll have a duet."

Rin's expression was conflicted, but Gou persisted. "I was hoping, more than anything, that I could dance for you."

With visible effort, Rin came to a verbal decision. "I'll go."

Gou pulled back, brows raised high. "You will? You really will?"

"Just this once, Gou. Since you're dancing. But that's the only reason."

Gou kissed him fervently, moving from his lips to his chin to his neck, repeating the words, "thank you, thank you!" Rin affectionately drew circles with the tips of his fingers on her bare thigh, while his expression became thoughtful.

After weeks of preparation the city burst into celebration with the opening of the festival. Merchants, having sniffed out an oppurtunity to make a tidy profit, were hocking their wares on every corner and in every bare plot of street. Performers ran through crowds enticing sightseers to view whatever show was about to start, and tourists wandered about in a state of fanciful wonder.

The young princess was ensconced in a large tent in a market square, while the world outside was becoming bathed in the soft reds and oranges of dusk. Her fellow guild members were preparing for their upcoming performance.

"Gou, Gou," twittered a slim but toned blonde boy who, at that moment, wasn't wearing a shirt. "Gooouuu-"

"Nagi, shut up or spit it out!" Gou snipped, preoccupieded with her attempt to twist her hair into an elaborate latticework of braids.

"Don't be so mean, Gou, people will forget you're a princess," Nagisa responded, coming to stand behind her and gently nudging her hands away so that he could take up the work she only succeeding in making more difficult for herself. He dropped his tone to a whisper, magenta eyes gleaming with the anticipation of sharing valuable gossip. "Haru is home."

Gou stood up abruptly, not registering, in her surprise, the pain of having forcibly ripped her hair out of Nagisa's fingers. She spun to face him. "He's home? Are you absolutely sure, Nagisa?"

Nagisa was Gou's best friend. He'd been the one to introduce her to the world of dancing in the first place. She'd met him through her brother, and from then on had been involved in almost all shenanigans he managed to get into. Gou was surprised Rin hadn't put him in the stockade for a few hours out of sheer irritation. She suspected Rei, their friend from the royal guard, had implored Rin to restrain his annoyance and allow him to take care of it. Not infrequently Gou wondered if the guardsman carried a torch for Nagisa. Nevertheless, when Haru had left, Nagisa had been one of the ones to bid him farewell.

The boy winked. "I talked to him myself just yesterday. He's coming to see our performance tonight. I had to beg him to come, but Mako helped. Rei, too."

"What? They saw him too? Everyone has seen him but me? Well, me and my..." her words died in her throat. Her brother was going to be watching the performance in the same audience that Haruka, his estranged best friend, would be a part of. They would be only meters apart from each other for the first time in two years. Suddenly the heavens opened up within Gou's mind, and she could see a future in which her brother was finally, truly happy. Instantly Gou knew it would be painful getting to that future-maybe even downright heartbreaking. Rin might even become angry with her sometime within the near future. But Gou didn't care about that. If it meant suffering a little of Rin's ire, then she would weather through it for the sake of his emotional peace. Nothing meant more to her than her beloved brother's happiness, and she knew that that depended heavily on his turbulent friendship with Haruka.

"Nagi," she hissed in a fervent whisper, "my brother is going to be watching too!"

Nagisa's eyes widened as he heard Gou's words. "You mean...!" He knew all about both the prince and the traveler's stormy falling-out, and the prince's subsequent melancholy.

"Yes, Nagi, and if things go exactly right maybe this mess can get straightened out. But they have to go exactly right."

"Let's pray," Nagisa said insistently, his tone laden with seriousness. "The gods can handle this better than we can."

The dancers clasped one another's hands, bringing them close to their mouths. "Oh, great gods, mend the bond that has been severed," Gou whispered. "Bring my brother peace and happiness."

"Remember us, your servants, and how we've exemplified your glory," Nagisa recited. "Again we glorify your splendor tonight upon the stage." His words were a traditional prayer often intoned by members of the performing trade.

After they ended their prayer, Nagisa and Gou gazed at one another, both in thought. Nagisa finally broke the silence.

"I think those braids are a lost cause, Gou," he said, twisting an apple-red lock around his finger, "but for the better, I think. You hair looks so much prettier down."

Gou blushed modestly at the compliment, smacking Nagisa's bare chest with her fist.

Rin was hidden beneath the hood of a blue-and-indigo cloak in the middle of the excited crowd. The sun had sunk beneath the horizon, plunging the festival into a darkness that was full of colorful lanterns. Torches on wooden posts stood at the front corners of the stage. Rin had purchased the crimson drapes hanging from the edges of the stage himself, although only Gou knew it.

The musicians sat on both sides of the stage, two identical arrangements of lute, drums, and horn. Suddenly a beat from the drums reverberated in Rin's chest; the performance was starting.

The junior girls emerged from behind the curtains first, wearing flowing, nearly transparent silk around their hips that almost touched the ground. They performed their number: a slow, sensuous dance that entranced the audience, inviting it to join in with its suggestive languor. Then the junior boys had their turn, dashing out onto the stage. Bare-chested and wearing only bright orange pantaloons, they pounded out an acrobatic display that was dizzying to watch, jolting the observers from their trance and slowly building anticipation, a feeling of rising excitement. It was then that Gou (and Nagisa) burst from behind the curtains.

Rin drank in Gou's visage like a dying man. She was wrapped in blue silk lined with teardrop sappires, her hair flowing free from constraint. The fluid curves of her body in constant motion, as she danced, reminded Rin of flowing water; of baths taken together and drinks shared and rainy seasons spent in the warmth and comfort of each other's arms.

Rin hardly paid attention to the story that the performance was playing out-something about a goddess of water loving a god of fire-and let himself become hypnotized by Gou's dancing. Her hair was flowing freely, swaying hypnotically with the rhythm of her movements. Rin was finding it hard to breathe, and wondered vaguely if this was what drowning felt like.

It was when Nagisa threw his turban-secured with a ruby cabochon brooch that Rin had also bought, he noted with irritation-into the thunderously applauding crowd did he snap back into reality.

Rin looked around. The audience members were applauding violently, cheering and whistling and stomping as though they were being paid handsomely to do it. A few people were slightly more reserved. A group of three men were clapping with fervor, but were otherwise standing still. Rin recognized Makoto, whose smile was, as always, gentle and soothing, and Rei, who stood tensely erect even though he was off duty. The third, though-

Rin's eyes widened and his fists clenched. How dare he-just show up, out of nowhere, unannounced, when after two years of silence-

Rin stalked over to the group, choosing not to make a scene for the sake of both his dignity and Gou's shining happiness radiating from the stage. Rei was the first to spot him.

"Your Majesty!" he exclaimed. Rin ignored him-he would interrogate him later. The third man was already gazing at him in that unnervingly uninhibited way of his; that only served to feed the flames of his contained anger.

"Rin," the man greeted simply. He had no thought for formalities, Rin remembered. He replied in kind, uttering a name that his friends, his advisors, and even his sister had avoided mentioning over the past two years.

"Haruka."

A/N: I'm sorry I disappeared, guys! I'm currently working on a big project, the first chapter of which I plan to have out by Christmas. It isn't Free! related, sorry. This chapter was REALLY hard to write. I don't ship the Matsuokas romantically, but I wanted to explore the different possibilities of their relationship. I hope you enjoyed it, and holy frick, I'm so sorry for the late update.