Chapter Text
“Haitham, look at those rugs! Ooh, they’re made with silk flower silk! This one would look so pretty in the foyer!” Kaveh excitedly showed Al Haitham the jewel tones of the rug, blues and reds and greens melting together to create a cluster of colors in front of his eyes. He rubbed them, trying not to focus on the smell of grease and spice that hung in the air. He hated the smells and sounds of the bazaar, but Kaveh had insisted that he needed to get out more and thus had dragged him along on this shopping expedition. That was all he could really call it, grimacing as Tighnari began to haggle with the spice stand, voice rising in volume as Cyno began to drag him away.
He didn’t catch much as he began to wander away from Kaveh and the noise, but the last thing he heard before he turned on his noise-canceling headphones was Tighnari calling the owner a ‘cheating, lying snake’ and Cyno’s desperate plea of ‘please Nari I don’t want to have to arrest you.’
He sat on a bench in a forgotten corner of the bazaar, next to some parisarah flowers. The slight spice of the flower wasn’t overwhelming, and the fountain nearby cleaned the air of most of the remnants of grease and human bodies.
Why did I agree to come? Kaveh knows I hate coming here, and I always end up being miserable. Yet… Kaveh had looked so happy . He was laughing and smiling, more than he had for days, and Archons if he was going to take even that slight happiness from Kaveh by refusing to go out with him.
Al Haitham curled up on the bench, knees to his chest as he took out the small wooden box Kaveh had made him for their first anniversary of being together. It was a box of puzzles, with different puzzles on each side. He focused on the door puzzle, beginning to turn nobs and dials. It was a simple puzzle, a child could easily solve it, but even with how rudimentary it was… Al Haitham never tired of figuring it out. All he had to do was turn the nobs and dials to the correct sequence of shapes, and the door would open to reveal the carved wooden tiger.
It also helped that Kaveh regularly changed the sequence, and thus it was always at least slightly challenging for him.
“Oh, Hi Al Haitham! How’ve you been?” a sweet, gentle voice made him jump, dropping his puzzle box. He quickly scooped it up, inspecting it for any damage. He gave a fierce look to the offending intruder of his alone time, but softened his expression as he realized it was Nilou.
“...” He opened his mouth to speak, to tell her he was fine and that he was just waiting for Kaveh to be done shopping, but his tongue felt heavy as he did. What? Non-verbal- no no no now I can’t- he couldn’t tell her to leave him alone. He couldn’t tell Kaveh he was done and wanted to go home and curl up under his weighted blanket, and he certainly couldn’t go find Cyno and tell him that he wanted to leave and to go get the other two. He had been struggling to speak all day, all week if he was being honest, and now must have been the tipping point.
“Oh, not in a talking mood? That’s alright, um… are you waiting for someone?” Nilou pointed towards the lights and shouting of the bazaar. “I can go find them for you, if you’d like.”
Al Haitham shook his head. He didn’t want to make Kaveh leave when he wasn’t ready to go. He especially didn’t want to trouble Nilou in going to fetch him. Usually, he would just find Kaveh and tell him that he was heading home, waiting up for him until the blond grew bored and returned home. There was no use for it if he was nonverbal, Kaveh was good at sign, but he didn’t understand complicated sentences that were needing for explaining that Al Haitham wanted to leave and he was leaving now.
“Oh, okay then! Do you mind if I sit here with you? I just got done with a performance, and I usually sit here to rest,” Nilou didn’t wait for him to answer, sitting beside him and beginning to watch the fountain with glistening blue eyes.
“It’s so pretty right here, I feel as if all my worries just melt away with the fountain’s water. What brought you to the bazaar today?” Nilou turned her head, the ornament glittering. It was different than her usual ‘Goddess of Flowers’ costume, instead a simple golden circlet with a shimmery, floaty veil that laid brightly against her red hair. It made her look like a fairy, or a bride.
Kaveh. Wanted to shop. Costume nice. Pretty. He signed slowly, incase Nilou wasn’t as well-versed as his other friends.
“Um, I’m not very good with sign language, but Dehya is teaching me! You said… Shop? Costume. Party? Is Kaveh throwing a costume party?”
Al Haitham shook his head, huffing as he signed again. K-A-V-E-H. W-A-N-T. S-H-O-P.
“Oh! Kaveh wanted to shop! I get it now!” Nilou giggled, “sorry about that, I told you I wasn’t very good!”
He hadn’t finger-spelled since he was a child, but it seemed that he’d have to until Dehya taught Nilou other ways to sign.
“Oh, you were calling my costume pretty! Thank you, Al Haitham, that’s very sweet!” Nilou told him, going back to watching the fountain again. He picked up his puzzle box again, brow furrowing as he focused on discovering the sequence.
“Try circle, square, triangle, circle, square, triangle,” Nilou told him, her eyes wide as she watched him, “it’s what I would do.”
Al Haitham did, shaking his head as the door didn’t budge. Nilou sighed, curling up on the other end of the bench in order to watch him do his puzzle better.
Triangle, circle, square, triangle, circle, square- there! Al Haitham made a pleased hum as it opened, his hand clenching and unclenching as he took the tiger out of the box.
“You got it, did you get it?” Nilou clambered over his feet to see his prize, Al Haitham holding it away from her. She glared at him, and he gave her an equally harsh one, kicking her hand off the toe of his boot for good measure.
“I just want to see it; there’s no reason you can’t at least show me what it is!”
Tiger. Al Haitham held the wooden carving out for her to see, allowing her to run one hand over the wood. Kaveh had picked striped wood, mimicking how tigers actually looked.
“Did you know that tigers each have a different stripe pattern? No two tigers look the same,” Nilou told him as he put the carving back in its safe box.
Yes. I like tigers. He wanted to tell her how tigers were actually quite social, but she didn’t understand sign enough for him to convey that.
“Did you get overwhelmed at the bazaar? It’s alright, I do too, sometimes,” Nilou shrugged her shoulders, watching him work on his number puzzle. Mimicking the Inazuman sudoku puzzles he liked, he had to arrange the numbers in the correct order to open the box and retrieve his prize. The prize varied, usually a small piece of hard candy or a new wooden carving that Kaveh had done.
“That’s a really pretty puzzle box, did someone make it for you?” Nilou asked, the timber of her voice rising to show she genuinely wanted to know. Al Haitham eyed her, the way her eyes watched his face, not darting around as if trying to remove herself from his presence. She… wasn’t making fun of him, or trying to coddle him as some people tried to once they found out he was mentally different from them. She seemed… genuinely interested in what he was doing.
K-A-V-E-H. G-I-F-T. U-S. T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R.
“Kaveh, gift, us, together… oh! It was an anniversary gift? That’s so sweet of him, I’m sure you were so happy when he gave it to you,” Nilou clasped her hands excitedly. “How long have you been together?”
Al Haitham held up three fingers, Nilou gasping. “You’ve been together three years , and we haven’t thrown you a party yet?! I’m so sorry, it’s criminal that it’s been that long!”
Al Haitham shook his head firmly; their anniversary was their time. A nice, quiet dinner with both of their favorite foods, and then a quiet evening together at home where neither of them were anyone but Kaveh and Haitham. He didn’t want anyone disrupting that tranquility. Not even their closest friends were allowed to intrude.
“Oh, you’re not really a fan of parties? I get it, neither is Tighnari. It was like pulling teeth to get him to even show up to the surprise party Cyno helped me put on for him,” Nilou made a snorting laugh at the memory, and Al Haitham gave her a stiff smile. She… was nice, in a flowery, slightly ecstatic way that was both way too much, but also not overwhelming. You need to make more friends than just me, Cyno, and Tighnari. Kaveh kept telling him that. He respected Nilou, he enjoyed how passionate she was. If there’s no passion or purpose behind the actions, are they even worth doing? He enjoyed her company. Did that count as ‘making a friend’? Surely it did.
F-R-I-E-N-D-S? U-S?
“Friends… us? Oh?! You’re asking if we’re friends? Yes! Of course we are, Al Haitham, why wouldn’t we be?” Nilou asked, her expression shifting to one similar to hurt. “At least, if you want to be.”
Al Haitham nodded as he noticed Kaveh stalking towards him, a bundle of walking purchases that had Cyno’s legs between him and Tighnari.
“Great! We’re friends!”