4 Works by onwlim
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"That night, when I laid my head on your shoulder, pretending to be asleep… I was rehearsing in my head how to turn around and kiss you." His voice dropped an octave, growing slurred from the alcohol. "My heart was beating so hard I genuinely thought you could hear it."
Alhaitham blinked, then blinked again. "You're drunk…" he whispered, making a move to stand up. "I'll go get the check."
"I am drunk!" Kaveh grabbed his hand, pulling him back down. "But I'm serious. And it wasn't just that night." He leaned back in his chair, looking out at the street. "I was so into you it was unbearable."
"...No, you weren't." Alhaitham shook his head, his voice barely a breath.
"What do you mean 'I wasn't'? I'm telling you that-"
"No, you weren't." His voice rose, cracked. He stared at Kaveh, his breathing shallow, his mouth slightly open. "Don't do this. Don't make this up now."
In a particularly rainy spring, Kaveh accepts an offer abroad and, amid preparations for the move, crosses paths again with the one who could have been the love of his life. He has until summer to make the most of this last chance, as he failed to do in so many springs before.
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"Feofan…" he took a step closer until his boots touched the banker's knees, "what do you see?"
"Nothing."
Dottore clicked his tongue against his teeth in disapproval, passing both gloved hands roughly through Pantalone's hair. "Wrong," he hissed. Holding the dark locks tightly, he tilted the banker's head back so they would be forced to stare at each other more clearly.
Pantalone bit his lip hard, fighting to prevent either an insult or a moan from escaping his throat. He willed his voice to remain steady, filtering his answer through the glare penetrating his blindfold. "I see your silhouette, and nothing besides it."
"Now that's a good answer," Dottore's voice echoed from behind him, as two other hands reached out to lay claim to his body. They slid with familiarity from his hips to his stomach, from his ribs up to his chest, until one stopped over his collarbone, while the other wrapped around his neck.
"W-what is wrong with you…?" he managed to spit out between clenched teeth, gasping when the breath that had escaped him in his surprise finally returned — or at least, as much as the heavy hand pressing into his neck would allow.
Series
- Part 2 of The Kinetics of Rot and Renewal
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"How much, exactly, do you need?" the Regrator finally asked. The question carried the begrudging, quiet defeat of a man who knew he was about to break his own strictest financial rules for the sake of an obsession.
"Everything you could possibly invest here," Dottore replied, his voice an insatiable murmur. A bottomless pit of ambition, a hunger that no amount of Mora could ever truly satisfy. "I'll suck you dry if you choose to fund this experiment."
It was Pantalone's turn to let out a low, amused laugh. "My bank account, or my vitality?"
"Why would you ever assume it has to be one or the other?"
To a man who viewed the human body as nothing more than a highly complex biochemical system of resource inputs and energetic outputs, the distinction was entirely irrelevant.
"Interpret it however you wish, so long as the check clears..." Sliding the heavy parchment across the polished surface of the table with an effortless flick of his wrist, he left the document open to the page of interest, waiting for the banker to sign his portion. "But, my dear friend, you know perfectly well I meant neither."
"My, Doctor... I'm not sure I can afford it."
Series
- Part 1 of The Kinetics of Rot and Renewal
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Summary
Kaveh let out a long, satisfied sigh. "Also… you are now in the presence of the newest Kshahrewar professor!"
The couple's expressions slowly shifted from unbridled joy to something more complex. Cyno's face settled into a look of embarrassment, while Tighnari's was etched with clear worry. Kaveh found their change in demeanor deeply unsettling.
A silent exchange passed between his friends, entire paragraphs conveyed in a glance, before Tighnari finally broke the silence: "Kaveh, please, don't misunderstand. You asked us to act as if he didn't exist, so we never brought it up, but... you do know that Alhaitham never left the Akademiya, right?"
"...What?"
"More than that," Cyno continued, his tone uncharacteristically concerned, "you do know he's the current Rector, don't you?"
Six years after the divorce, Kaveh returns to Sumeru City, only to find his routine repeatedly disrupted by his ex-husband. With every encounter, it becomes harder to ignore the ten years of history they share — until the past stops feeling like something they can simply leave behind and begins to look more like something they might dare to try again.