L

.

It was hot.

His mouth felt as if it were full of sand. His lids, glued together, hurt when he managed to part them, a hoarse noise scratching his throat.

He soon found out he should have kept his eyes shut: except for a single ray of clarity cutting through the darkness, he couldn't discern anything. Remembering they were alive, his fingers slid over what seemed a wooden floor, arms stretching with a groan until his left hand bumped into something undoubtedly vertical and made of wood too.

"H–– Haru…" Rin croaked out.

Remembering why that name had been the first one to come to his mind made his already unbearable headache increase until a wave of nausea rose up his dry throat, making him sit up to gag; the moment it stopped, though, Rin fell back down, head thumping against the wood.

A distressed whimper left his lips as a single thought hammered into his eardrums with every beat of his heart, until his consciousness dissolved into the darkness.

It wasn't Haru.

.

It was cold.

Even though the old, blue and yellow scarf he had grabbed from his wardrobe was around his neck.

Water was being poured into his mouth before he was fully aware of being awake again.

Rin coughed, tried to spit it despite how dry his insides felt; there was nothing he could do, though, to stop the firm hand holding his jaw in place. Slowly he let the liquid fill his mouth, swallowing as he tried not to wince from the pain the simple gesture caused. The part he didn't drink fell down his chin, soaking his lap; it was only then that he realised someone had sat him up, back leaning on what seemed the wooden wall he had sensed earlier.

"Do us a favour and behave yourself, Highness."

Already free from the vice-like grip on his jaw, Rin cringed at the voice. He opened his eyes, but he knew the person who had forcefully made him drink water wasn't the one who had talked. The place was still pitch black, lit up only by an oil lamp resting next to him, and he couldn't make out the figure standing where the voice had come from.

"What is this about?" he slurred. He felt sick by the way his words didn't seem to sound correctly, like there was something wrong with his tongue. "Where's Haru?"

"Haru… Oh, that boy!" A hollow laughter filled the dark room, making Rin shudder with an odd mixture between fear and a hint of suspicion. "I have no idea. Maybe eavesdropping another conversation he'll only talk about in a letter."

Rin froze. His aching head seemed to spin, so fast he needed to close his eyes for a second.

"I threw the letter away," he hissed.

"And I feel really lucky you didn't burn it instead. I would've never come up with such an easy bait had it not ended in my hands." Rin frowned. "Now be a good Sultan and eat your food while the adults take over this situation."

Rin glared for a second at the plate with bread and cheese someone had placed close to him.

"What do you want to do?" he asked again.

He wanted to run when he heard steps walking close to him.

"Isn't it obvious? Not ending the war. Or did you think your good will would be stronger than the majority of this country's noblemen's interests?"

Rin wanted to reply. Maybe throwing himself onto the man, biting his head off and getting out of that place, if he gathered enough strength and his head didn't melt before. But when the stranger stepped into the illuminated part of the room, only a tiny yelp left his lips.

He knew that face. He knew that nose– He knew that man.

"I'll make sure you don't see the sunlight until the day you die."

Napis laughed again. "You truly resemble your father!" His giggles sounded childish, almost like a child after telling a silly joke. Rin ground his teeth together. "He liked ordering around too much, even when he was in his deathbed– Oh– Watch out, Highnesss."

Rin bit his tongue as he fell, the metallic taste of blood flooding his mouth. He looked up; Napis hadn't even stepped back, hadn't reacted at all by his attempted attack. The Sultan then turned his head around, eyes widening at the sight of a shackle around his left foot that tied him to the wall with a heavy chain.

"As you former doctor, I wouldn't advise you to do that," Napis commented, amused. Rin's hands closed into fists, humiliation painting his cheeks red. "I don't think you remember drinking it, but what we gave you to make you behave is probably messing with you coordination too."

"Are you poisoning me too…?" Rin's voice trembled with helplessness and anger. His whole body did. "Again?"

How dare you, he wanted to scream. How dare you treat the Sultan like a dog.

"It's not poison." Napis crouched down, his smile never vanishing. "Like I said, we only want to make this easier for all of us."

He stood up at the same time the man who had given Rin water grabbed the oil lamp, turning around.

"So, unless you want to spend your kidnapping unconscious and miss the experience, you should consider not behaving like a five year-old."

For a long while after the door closed Rin laid there, with trembling limbs and and aching head and blood in his mouth, pursing his lips together as he tried not to let the stinging behind his eyelids beat him.

Then he crawled back to the wall, sat up and leant on the wooden surface, trying to take deep breaths; he woudn't give them that satisfaction, not after the way they were humiliating him. Trying to focus on something else, he bent his left leg, slipped his hands between skin and metal to rub at his sore ankle.

I need to get out.