...What?

.

The violent impact of the message he had just been delivered with makes Haru almost lose his balance. The piece of fabric he was holding falls on the floor before he has time to arrange his hair with it. Nagisa is gasping in utter surprise as well; it's not just him who finds the news a difficult one to swallow - Haru feels relieved for a short moment, it's more likely to be a bad joke then.

"It can't be. You must have mistaken me for someone else." Haru says harshly to the man standing in his apartment; and he picks up his favorite blue shawl from the floor before turning his back to the royal messenger.

"I'm afraid I'm not." The guard said, impassibly; and his attitude annoys Haru even more, "The Prince himself gave me this order. He told me to give this message to no one but his Favorite."

Haru freezes again. He spins so fast on his heels to face the guard again that in the process he almost sprains his ankle. "What?" His breath is short, and his eyes widened; this silly joke is getting more ridiculous as the man in his armor spits out some more words.

"As I already said, you were assigned to escort our Prince's guest this evening, and to spend the night with him in order to offer him your service;" The venomous words make Haru's hackles rise. "The Prince added that you should be honored to have such privilege, and that his honorable friend had even asked for your company personally on his own recommendation-"

"Rin would have never done that..." Haru whispers, mostly to himself; but the words ring out too loud in the circular room nevertheless. Before he had time to realize he had voiced his thoughts aloud to a stranger, the damage is already done. No one is allowed to speak the Prince's name; not even mere guards like the one in front of him know - it because it's a well-kept secret, it's a gift only revealed to the ones who truly deserve it. The messenger stands there bemused, probably because of the sudden burst of rage and the rudeness of a courtesan's speech. Haru is glad that Nagisa still is in his right mind, and drags the man out of his room before the situation goes downhill from here.

"What are you going to do?" the blonde asks when the tension has fallen down. He looks really concerned, and as the last thing Haru wants to do is to make him even sadder, he lies – in a rather terribly manner.

"I'll go talk to him." He says, his voice calm and steady, "I'll go talk to the Prince and make him change his mind. Don't worry, it's going to be okay." He makes a short pause, takes a look at Nagisa's features to see how he reacts about the news - he still looks upset. Haru pats his head gently "If the Prince had recommended me to one of his friends, I should really feel proud after all. At worst it's just for one night... it's nothing I can't handle; I've seen worse."

Eventually Nagisa gives him a timid smile; it's visibly not enough to reassure him entirely but at least he won't think about it too much for the rest of the day.

It had never occurred to Haru that Rin could go this far with him; not even in his most dreadful dreams. He had been ignoring him for a whole week, for God's sake he even had forced him to watch his ridiculous hanky-panky the other night. And after all this humiliation Rin really thinks that Haru will accept to give himself to someone else, and all of the people, to a good friend of Rin's? He couldn't be serious, that couldn't be happening because it would mean Rin has gone mad over the past week – and it would only be a fair backlash for having put this much distance between them, Haru thinks bitterly.

It's no longer a game for Haru when his ass is involved. But for Rin, for his owner, it seems that this little detail had become insignificant over the week. Haru is enraged; honestly enraged. He wants to hit the nearest wall with his fist; he wants to break his hand just to show Rin how furious he had made him.

"Next time I won't just cut your pretty flower." He mutters as he walks by the gardens, in his way to Rin's room.

The Favorite - Chapter Two.

The gardens are teeming with servants and young ladies from good families, chatting under the rare scattered shadows the trees' leaves give them. Haru looks briefly for Rin, his eyes dawdling on the white petals he sees here and there while trying not to pay attention as for why the paltry murmurs had hushed down as soon as he had come into view. He doesn't find him here.

Instead, the Prince is parading through the Palace's covered alleys, a charming young lady walking arm in arm at his left side and on his right, there is another man with very large shoulders and dressed like a Prince. He must be Rin's so called friend, the one Haru has to spend the night with.

He spots them on the bridge which overhangs the gardens, chatting. The Prince lifts his head, and their eyes lock. Rin stops altogether, and his joyful cortege behind him mimics his halt on the spot. All of those people, with noble blood running in their veins, those obnoxious people who only love Rin for his power and not for what he truly is inside - for his heart and soul - are standing here so close to him, laughing and listening to him talking when Haru can't even approach him without all his guards tensing up and checking that he is not carrying any deadly weapon on him. As if no one upon the elite has attempted to take the Prince's life…Haru despises them all. The system is hypocritical and unfair; it's a corrupted one, Haru has known it since the day he was born but still, it adds to his current frustration and makes his fists curl into balls.

Rin just has time to witness Haru's rage in his eyes and then, he resumes walking as if it had not been important and the whole group follows. They are all dressed with fancy and expensive robes, ruby and emerald incrusted in their belts and decorating their ears and chest. As Haru stares helplessly at the back of Rin's neck disappearing slowly from where he stands, he fails to see the blue lagoon eyes scrutinizing him playfully -they're owned by the man standing next to Rin. Haru catches the insistent glance but it's already too late. He frowns, and resolves himself never to be in the man's presence again.

And so when the time comes, Haru sends Nagisa away for the night and locks himself into the small bathroom he has just for himself, on the apartment Rin had given him.

.

o0o0o

.

"Haru-chan!" Nagisa cries behind the door. "Haru-chan, please, open the door!"

There is a loud 'bump' after Nagisa speaks, followed by many others that can't have been made by his blond friend's small fist. Rin's men must already be there, looking for him. What time is it already? Haru has no idea, for the room he's in has no window to check the color of the sky, or the ones the sun paints on the numerous clouds roaming in the distance. It's a place Rin would probably like a lot, he thinks; the floor is made with a mosaic of different shades of red. In the very center there is a small fountain where the clean water comes from. It's small, it's just enough for Haru to wash his face and his hands before he leaves his room but Haru never asked for more. In fact he has never asked for anything from Rin since the very first day they've met.

Maybe he should start now. Maybe he should ask for the rumbles behind his door to cease. They are giving him a headache and are probably frightening the poor Nagisa to death. He had told him to leave, though; so why is he still there?

"Nanase!" A loud and pretentious voice yells; Haru rolls his eyes in annoyance, "The Prince has called you to the main room more than an hour ago!"

Haru just sits on the floor next to the locked door, waiting, his mouth closed.

"Nanase! Open the damn door or we'll-"

"No we can't do that," another guard hisses, "The Prince would definitely kill us all if we were to break this door."

Haru smirks; he had thought so. He stretches his arms in the air above his head and sighs contently. Now there is one and only, extreme solution left for them to resolve their problem. They need to get the Prince, they need Rin to get here. Haru smiles; savoring his small victory.

.

o0o0o

.

It's been almost twenty minutes since the noise had stopped. Haru knows it because he had time to sing that song in his head, the lullaby his mother used to sing, about five times now. It always calms his nerves to listen to his mother tongue, to imagine his mother's voice as he thinks the words and the melody over again and again. These days it's almost as if he can't remember her face anymore. He wonders if she is safe, if everyone back in the village is safe but he'll probably never know.

His footsteps echo in the silence of the night.

Haru can hear the crickets again; their cries are in perfect sync with Rin's stride, and Haru can almost picture his pissed-off face as he quickly closes the distance separating them. Haru opens the door before Rin has the chance to knock, and leans on the fountain behind him, waiting with his eyes on him.

The Prince is wearing one of his prettiest tunics tonight. There are refined gold laces falling from his neck and covering his chest. The white robe he wears under his long dark cape is tightened to his waist by a deep red belt made of silk, revealing the Prince's toned body and muscular torso. His hair is hidden behind a luxurious headdress. It's such a waste, Haru thinks, for Rin doesn't need all these sickening embellishments to be the most beautiful creature Haru has ever set his gaze on. Rin is a pieve of jewelry just by himself.

Haru shivers as soon as Rin closes the door behind him. He does is in a smooth way, a fake attempt to make his favorite believe that his revolt didn't make him mad; to make him believe he doesn't care anymore. But Haru won't buy that. He knows it can't be true.

Very quickly the room is filled with Rin; with his scent and his magnetism, with his burning rage - or passion, that's the way Haru chose to interpret it long ago. The room is small really; too small to contain Rin's aura and it ends up crushing on Haru. It's the kind of strength that weakens his knees and makes his hands wet and trembling; it's speeding up his heartbeat and reddening the top of his cheeks, and Haru feels dizzy before Rin had the opportunity to touch him. It's the kind of power Rin has on him. It has nothing to do with being the Prince or owning him, no; it's something much more powerful than that.

As Rin approached him, his steps rough and muscles tensed; Haru leans against the fountain more, his butt almost sitting on it. Is he scared of him now? Does he fear Rin's wrath, knowing that he might have gone a little bit too far this time?

He knows the fate of those who dared to disobey a Prince's order once. They have never being given the chance to do it twice.

Rin's arms cage Haru's slender waist. "Why?" He asks simply, as if Haru could read his mind and guess all the unspoken questions that run through his mind.

"You know why," he answers Rin, a frown appearing on his face. "I am not playing your game anymore. This is enough, Rin-"

"'My Prince'." Rin corrects him, and it's a blow that goes straight to Haru's heart - and makes him bleed inside. "Who are you to think you can disregard my orders so bluntly? What do you think people will say about me if I can't even handle my own whores-"

"But I am not one of your whores, am I?"

Rin is looking so harshly at him, it's like they're back five years in the past, when they were both strangers to each other and when they were nothing more but the master-slave relationship binding them together.

"Am I, Rin?" Haru repeats, his eyes wounded, and scared of what they have become. When he sees how much his words had hurt him, Rin drops his gaze on the mosaic floor, not daring, not wanting to witness the despair running inside those blue eyes again.

Haru had known many things. He was born in a happy family, poor but loving; he'd had friends who were caring and always there for him. He had known war and death, sand and blood mixing, sticking on his skin. He had known the jail, the thirst the starvation; and then he had known Rin. He had discovered the bliss, the warm baths, the luxury, the soft bed; he had lived surrounded by Rin's words of love and his caress. He had known nothing but these delightful moments for five long years; and that's probably why Haru feels like right now, what Rin is doing to him is a pure act of cruelty - even more than all the war crimes he had seen. Because before Rin, before his life here at the Palace he had never been in such a state of bliss and happiness; and now Rin was taking that away from him. He had given him everything he could have asked for and never told him it wasn't forever.

When did he start to take Rin's love for granted?

"I own you." Rin hisses, "Unless you have a better reason than wanting to humiliate me in front of my guests by disobeying me you'll do what I ask you to do. You'll be exactly what I ask you to be. I thought that was clear from the very beginning."

"It was, at first it was..." Haru says, his hands coming closer to the Prince, not touching him but asking permission to do so. "I thought things have changed between us. No, I didn't - things have changed; you're different, we are different-"

"Haru, it's not because I favor you that it gives you a different status. You're still a slave." His fingertips run on Haru's bare arm. "And I'm still your master."

His hand wanders to his shoulder, caresses his collarbone delicately as if it was fragile and treasured; then Rin takes Haru's chin in his hand and lifts it so that their eyes would meet. Haru can't repress a shudder. Rin's touches make him melt; every time their skin are in contact it transports him to another world, a world where his limbs are made of jelly and where not even the freshest water could sooth the heat raging inside him. When Rin touches him nothing no longer exists anymore but the two of them; everything turns dark, for Rin's light dazzles his sight and dazes his mind into oblivion.

Rin isn't blind nor a fool – far from it. He sees the way Haru's skin answers to his delicate touch. "Haru," He murmurs then, his voice so soft and caring again, "Haru do you want me?"

The absurdity of the question almost makes Haru laugh. "Yes I do," he answers honestly; because he cannot lie to his Prince and the Prince knows that too well. Rin leaves his chin to cup his face; Haru leans into the touch, his cheek fully pressed in his palm. Rin strokes the skin under his eye with his thumb. The tip of his painted nails brushes his sensitive points and sends shivers down his spine. Haru sighs, his eyes closed.

And then, Rin takes him in his arms unexpectedly - and so Haru does the same without an ounce of hesitation and he holds him tight against him, their chest pressed into each other letting no air pass by them. He hums the scent of Rin's hair. It's intoxicating, almost toxic. It could make him go crazy and lose his resolve not to beg for Rin and yet, he can't help but inhale with his nose stuck on those flaming red hair, deeply, as if it was the last time they would be in each other's arms.

Rin's hands end on the small of his back, his nose nuzzling Haru's, their lips so close and yet so far. Haru is starving for those. He had been dreaming of them for eight long nights and now they are so close and yet unreachable. Couldn't they stop the game already, and enjoy themselves in sin like they used to? Is that too much to ask, for Rin to become carefree again?

His eyes are still stuck on his lips when Rin speaks again, his tone much more serious than before. "Haru…" the sound of his voice makes him alert, and Haru lifts his eyes to meet Rin's and he has a bad, bad feeling about this. "Haru, do you love me?"

Just as expected the question comes out of Rin's mouth, lands on Haru's skin and slides through his body like a drop of water, soon to be forgotten on the ground. Haru's gaze falls on the floor, as if by lowering his eyes Rin would magically forget about him, about the answer he wants and yearns so dearly. It brings him back years - two years, exactly - in the past.

The first time Rin had asked him this question Haru had been caught off guard. Even if he had told him they were just the same, even if Rin had taken Haru's dagger and had cut on both of their fingers to show him that their blood was the same, Rin was a Prince and Haru a slave. He could not believe a second that the Prince would want to be loved by him in such a romantic and sincere way. So instead of speaking his mind Haru took the ask as a mere megalomaniac demand, a way for the Prince to feel even more powerful and loved. Since no one could ever lie to him or wanted to make him upset, for he was the Prince, people must always answer him 'yes'; that was what Haru thought with his naïve and young mind.

"Just as any other person here, I guess," he told him, rather mindlessly. Rin's face stilled for a second or so, and then he laughed, sadly.

They were naked in his bed, their bodies tired and contented; Haru was lying on his stomach while Rin was eating dates sitting on the edge of the bed. He had just turned 18. He looked very lonely.

Seconds, minutes had passed; minutes where Haru watched, hypnotized, Rin eating and then sucking on his fingers when the dates had disappeared into his mouth. Yet, it didn't make him aroused again. Instead there was this warm, aching and heavy pain inside his chest that grew more intense by each second, after Rin asked him that question.

Haru crawled on Rin's leg, his head securely set on his hip and he dropped tons and tons of little kisses on the creamy, salty skin. His kisses traveled up to Rin lips quickly and then, after he broke the kiss Rin fed him and made Haru lick on his fingers.

Haru rested his head on the Prince's shoulder. It was comfortable here; everything about Rin was.

"I really hope you don't." Rin said, and Haru only understood his words much later, the moment he realized that the nobles in the Palace were just self-interested greedy men, only thirsty for more power and glory.

"I'm scared people fake their interest in me," Rin had told him another day, months after that. "I'm scared that they love me for what I am and not for who I am." He had looked at Haru expectantly that day, asking him silently, begging him to love him for the person he was and not because he was a Prince and his Master, and even if Haru understood the turmoil of his heart perfectly he couldn't resign to say the words that would have appeased the pain of his heart.

Because Rin already owned him head to toes; and Haru wouldn't let him have it all.

That's why his answers have always been the same, during all those years when Rin had asked. And even now Haru refuses to say those words that die on his lips every time he looks at Rin.

"Don't make me lie to you." He says; it's not a lie and it doesn't tell anything about what Haru truly feels but still, as usual Rin takes it as a firm 'no' and loses his mind.

His back is being firmly crushed against the wall. Rin's grip was so strong that it had made Haru fly across the room, his feet leaving the ground for a short moment. It feels like Rin wants to tear him apart, wants to cut himto pieces and takes every single one of his limbs back with him so that they will always stay by his side.

"What does it fucking mean?!" He shouts. His eyes are crying his rage and anger. "Why all this if you don't love me?! Is it just really because you are arrogant that you think you can overstep me?!"

"Rin, calm down-"

"Don't call me by my name!" Rin is at the verve of punching him, his fist freezes mid-way. "Don't...ever call me Rin again!"

Haru calmly takes Rin's hand in his and makes it fall on his side; he hears him choke back tears. Of course the Prince would never show any sign of weakness in front of anybody of a lower rank than him, but Haru is different. With Haru, everything has always been different; that's probably why Rin hates him so much at this very moment.

"Fuck," he breathes, as he places his forehead against Haru's, looking for solace, "Fuck Haru I gave you everything I could. I gave you everything no one would ever dare to ask for. I love you Haru. I love you so much, so why? Why are you doing this to me?"

Rin leans even more closely so that their lips are now only separated by a space thinner than a hair. Haru's mouth opens – a reflex he has each time Rin's lips are so close to his - and his tongue almost commits the forbidden act to taste Rin first. "I know you must love me. Haru...Haru..."He repeats with a cracked voice. "Why won't you say it to me..."

Rin has never been a slave. He has never been owned. He can't possibly understand.

"Don't make me lie to you."

These are his final words; and he won't change them even if his life depends on it.

He would rather die as a free man.

Rin closes his eyes; his breath is caught in his throat for a moment but eventually he relaxes. He looks like he was thinking about an important thing and has finally found the answer he was looking for. When his lids open, the rage is gone, as well as the passion. In fact Rin's eyes are blank and unemotional, empty of everything Haru loves to see in them.

"Will you do the assignment I gave you for tonight?"

Haru doesn't say anything. He knows Rin will understand.

"Fine. I thought so."

And with that last statement, he leaves the cramped and suffocating room; he leaves Haru alone with the streaming sounds of water coming from the fountain as his only company.

"Have a good night, rest well. Enjoy the softness of your sheets and the refreshing feeling of air entering your lungs. Enjoy the small pleasures of life, for this night will be your last."

...What?

"Rin," Haru asks, thunderstruck, "What are you talking about?"

"I told you to call me 'My Prince'. You know no one by the name of Rin, not anymore." As realization hits him like the eye of a cyclone would, Haru feels his mind and soul leaving his own body. He feels his self levitating in a trance; and looks at Rin's silhouette from above, horrified. "You have obstinately refused to obey my orders; therefore you will receive the punishment you deserve, tomorrow at sunrise."

Rin turns his heels and faces Haru, who had come out of the bathroom as well, his hand still holding on the door to keep his balance steady. His head is spinning, but not in a pleasant way; it has nothing to do with the way Rin usually makes his world turn upside down. He could barely hear Rin's voice now, hidden by his own loud and fast heartbeat and the buzzing in his ears. It feels like being at the war again, with the strong smell of iron and fresh blood and the sun rays burning on the back of his head. The scene in front of him becomes fuzzy, Haru no longer recognizes the wall of his own room; there is just Rin, his body shape barely neat and his lips, moving, saying words that take some time to find their way to Haru's brain.

"Tomorrow at sunrise Royal guards will come to you. They will give you a cup of water, some bread and a plate of fresh fruits. After you'll have finished your last meal you will be asked for a last wish, that I shall grant or not. And then, you'll be beheaded in the center of the throne room on my watch."

His eyes were cold as the desert's nights when he spoke those baneful words. He turns his back to Haru, and as he watches every piece of his life being shattered and falling in the depth of Rin's sudden madness, Haru had one and only, last silly thought.

Is this the end of them? Does Rin really want them to part that way?

Suddenly the idea of not being able to see Rin is more painful than the concept of his own death.

"Rin…"

He calls him out, but the Prince never turns around, for Rin doesn't exist anymore; not for Haru in any case - but it's a something Haru will never be able to master, because Haru has never been a Prince, he had never been feared and deceived the way Rin had and thus, he cannot understand; just as Rin will never be able to understand why Haru acts this way.

There is still, one only and indestructible link between them, a universal language they can both understand, a fundamental strength that all of the men know and yearn for - the ultimate goal, the unreachable dream.

"Rin!" Haru lets out a cry of despair; this, this couldn't be the end, it was just a very bad nightmare, all of this was happening too fast, how could he be a dead man when he had seen love in Rin's eyes just a week ago, when Rin has just told him he loved him, no this couldn't be happening, this couldn't Rin has to understand, he needs time to make him understand - and what if all of this was happening because of the Bride?

"The Rin I knew would have never done this to me if he really loved me."

The Prince's figure stills at the entrance. Time freezes. And then, just as quickly as he had come, the Prince disappears out of the view, his long and dark cape tickling the white marble tiles as he flounces out the room.

Comments are gladly welcomed :)