XXXV

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Haruka took the twins home when Ren started complaining about his burns hurting.

In insight, he shouldn't have gone out yet. He was still disoriented and usually escaped the pain with the beverages his mother made him. The only reason Mrs. Tachibana had allowed it was her children's joy when Haruka had come back; but she had made him promise he wouldn't take his eyes off the twins.

As he walked out the palace, Ren in his arms and Ran trailing close behind, he noticed a procession of a carriage and at least twelve people riding camels around it, approaching the Sultan's home. When they got close he made sure Ran grabbed the end of his scarf and stepped aside as they got inside the wall.

"Who are they?" Ran asked, raising her voice to make sure Haruka heard her as her brother muffled a groan in Haruka's shoulder, complaining about the noise.

"Some noblemen, probably," he muttered, trying to remember if Rin had told him about it. He didn't think so; but truth was he hadn't paid much attention to anything the Sultan said since the fire. Maybe they had come to testify what they knew about the arrested traitors. "Let's go."

For some reason, Haruka found himself reluctant to walk home, a foreboding uneasiness coiling at the pit of his stomach as he walked into his parents' house. It was empty; neither Makoto nor his parents had come back yet. Haruka left Ren on his bed –it was ironic, in a way that twisted Haruka's guts, how the twins' room was the one he had spent every night until his parents died– and helped him change into his nightwear as Ran fetched her brother's medicine.

According to Makoto, Ren had refused to take it the first days, complaining about how bad it tasted. However, it must be a potent analgesic, since he drank it all in two large gulps the moment Haruka put it on his hands.

"Are you going to be here tonight, too?" Ren asked after stating he wasn't hungry. He had had a large portion of cake, so Haruka wasn't overly worried about it.

"Probably." Haruka helped Ren lay down, covered him to the shoulders as Ran put her nightwear on and curled up on her bed. "Anyway, your parents and brother must be about to arrive."

He stayed with the twins until they fell asleep nevertheless.

Makoto got home when Haruka was closing his old bedroom's door. He smiled when Haruka summarised his day with the twins in the palace as they were having dinner and waited for Mr. And Mrs. Tachibana to arrive.

"I wasn't expecting you to come back so soon, though," he added.

"Ren was tired," Haruka muttered, biting into his pear.

"Oh." Makoto's smile died down. "It's a pity. Apparently the troupe's entrance in the palace was amazing."

So that's who those people were. Haruka wondered what they were doing in the palace. He knew artists from the whole country were invited to perform before the Sultan on members of the royal family's birthdays, but he was fairly sure there wasn't any important date soon.

Or maybe there was, and Rin hadn't told him. Maybe the Sultan had actually told him, and Haruka had been too distracted by the fear and the shame he hadn't heard it.

Anyway, he'd ask Rin about it in the morning.

.

The murmurs amongst the servants in the palace, already increased when half the Council had been arrested, were impossible to ignore when Haruka walked in.

He didn't understand them at first, though; they talked about Rin, about some nobles' daughter, about reunions and celebrations; but the words were spoken in a tone that disconcerted Haruka. He even pondered, when he saw Sousuke, the option of asking him; but Rin's best friend was faster: he approached Haruka in long strides.

"What do you want?"

Cooperating for Rin's sake was one thing; but there was little Haruka liked about Sousuke. He supposed the tall man wanted to tell him to get out of Rin's way once again; if that was the case, Haruka had no intention to stay quiet this time.

A vein twitched between Sousuke's eyebrows.

"You wouldn't be so insolent if you didn't have Rin's favour," he muttered. "Which is related to what I came to say." Haruka bit his tongue; he wanted to talk to the Sultan, to know what he had missed; but he had the feeling Sousuke would make him waste more time if he was interrupted. "Don't you dare interfere between him and the girl."

Haruka frowned. "The girl? You mean–"

"I mean Aki," Sousuke cut him off. "The Yazakis' daughter."

Why should I care about her?, was Haruka's most primal instinct, followed by a knot closing off his stomach as a suspicion settled in his heart.

"Get into that thick head of yours that there's no way for you, or anyone, to–"

But then he trailed off, looking down as if all of a sudden he weren't able to meet Haruka's gaze. Haruka opened his mouth, not sure if he wanted to ask Sousuke to explain himself or to shut up, but the reason behind the man's silence was made clear when they both heard steps approaching them.

"Haru!" Rin smiled when Haruka turned around. "I thought you'd stay with the Tachibanas."

Haruka shrugged; his shoulders felt inexplicably stiff. He didn't pay attention to what Sousuke told Rin, but it was clearly not something that made the Sultan change his mind.

"Come with me for a bit; I need to talk to you."

Haruka could tell Sousuke wasn't happy, but Rin grabbed his wrist and dragged him down the hallway before the Sultan's best friend could protest.

Don't you dare interfere.

Interfere? Between Rin and someone whose existence he hadn't known before that day?

"Why is a troupe here?" he heard himself say. He refused to give that unsettling feeling anything to help it grow.

By then, Rin had successfully pushed him inside a little living room and closed the door behind him. He leant on the wood, staring at the floor.

Seconds passed between them, pulling at the knot in Haruka's stomach until he couldn't breathe and a single, exasperated word escaped his mouth:

"Rin."

Rin's sharp inhale sounded painful. Slowly, he raised his head and fixed his gaze on Haruka's eyes.

"We have to talk."