Work Text:
Being a demigod, Kaveh always knew that he wouldn’t live for long.
For years, he was trained for this. He was a demigod. Part human, part god. And everyone who had experienced life as a demigod told him this: "Demigods are doomed to have a short life, so live your life to the fullest while you can." So naturally, he never expected to live a long life.
What they failed to tell him was that demigods were also doomed to… well, not have a happy life.
Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.*
Meanwhile for Kaveh—
When Kaveh volunteered for the quest, Alhaitham looked upset.
"I don't think you should go," said the son of Zeus, who was the first person to volunteer to join the team, "Ajax would be the better choice for this."
"Who put you in charge?" Kaveh snapped.
"Oh, what are you going to do to help, hm? Gonna doodle your way out?"
"You—"
It was no secret to anyone in the camp that Kaveh and Alhaitham fought a lot. A normal occurrence, even. Of all people in the camp, Kaveh managed to make an enemy with the son of Zeus himself. Someone nobody dared to mess with, and Kaveh just casually shouted at him every time he believed Alhaitham wasn't making any sense.
Which, from Alhaitham's perspective, it was Kaveh who didn't make any sense and defied all logic for his sentimental opinions.
It was easy to assume that they hated each other.
Though, it wasn't always like this.
The two used to be inseparable. One day, about ten years ago, Kaveh came back to Camp Half-Blood with a boy who was wounded from being attacked by monsters. According to the Son of Athena, he had never seen that many monsters in a place. That was when he knew that something was wrong, so he sneaked into the crowd to find out what was happening and figured out that the monsters were there because they just caught a kid.
A demigod kid, most definitely.
And the kid was Alhaitham.
Scared and aloof, tried his best to make sense of what was happening. But making any sense wasn't something that could be applied in this life. Kaveh never left his side, and Alhaitham never left his; clinging to the person he was at least a bit familiar with in the middle of not only strangers, but also the life he never knew.
The noticeable change was seen when Alhaitham was claimed,
by the King of the Gods himself.
Everyone was surprised. There was a pact of the Big Three—Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades—to no longer have demigod children. People who started to warm up to Alhaitham just abruptly stopped because of the fear of what his existence meant.
That was when Kaveh stood up to Alhaitham's defense.
"Is it really his fault that he exists? He didn't ask for this life—none of us asked, but here we are."
Kaveh spent all night arguing with everyone who dared to say in front of his face that Alhaitham was an ill omen.
"You are an ill omen," he snapped back, "I am an ill omen. Why do you think we're here instead of living a normal life with our families?! That's right, because the gods decided they wanted to fuck our parents and we are the consequences!"
Nobody knew what happened to them after that night, though.
While people were starting to accept the fact that Alhaitham was indeed just the same as them, suddenly they were just… not together anymore.
And whenever they saw each other, mostly they'd fight.
Being the son of Zeus, Alhaitham was involved in a lot of important decision making. What he had in mind were, though, the exact opposite of what Kaveh had in his. Alhaitham claimed that his opinions were based on fact and rationality, while Kaveh just found them lacking morals.
"Rejecting the most logical solution for this, I see," Alhaitham said, "Did Athena perhaps claim you by accident?"
It took three people to stop Kaveh from lunging at Alhaitham.
But even with all those, people still noticed one thing: in a fight where it mattered, they seeked for each other. They barely said anything, but their eyes were scanning the crowd to find one another, and unconsciously—maybe consciously, who knew—moved closer to each other.
As if knowing the other was near made them feel safe.
There was a prophecy that triggered them into doing this quest: seven shall sail to the sea to steal the golden fleece, before it was taken by those who desire the gods to cease. But be careful of the oath that was broken, the oath that everyone knew despite being unspoken.
There was an irony in how people who desired the gods to cease wanted a golden fleece; something with, they said, really powerful healing abilities that could restore almost anything.
So the seven sailed the sea: one child of Zeus, one child of Athena, two children of Ares, one child of Hypnos, and two children of Apollo. Everything went well, really. Kaveh and Alhaitham fought here and there, but their teamwork was undeniably perfect.
By tricking the cyclops Polyphemus, the golden fleece was acquired.
Kaveh was holding the fleece, and he told the others to quickly get on the ship before Polyphemus realized that the fleece was gone. So everyone was getting ready to take off, and Kaveh was about to get on the ship too when Alhaitham called for him from behind him.
"I need to tell you something,"
"Does it have to be right now?" Kaveh raised a brow, "Polyphemus could be on our asses anytime."
"It has to be right now," he said, "...please,"
Now the thing was: Alhaitham never begged. His pride was too over the sky to even say the word. So hearing that made Kaveh stop; he told the crew to get the sail ready before turning around at Alhaitham, "Okay, what is it?"
Alhaitham held Kaveh's hand and walked away from the ship, and albeit confused, the son of Athena let himself be led by the younger man in silence. He could feel something stinging in his chest, reminded of the past when they used to be close.
Where Alhaitham would hold his hand everywhere.
They were far enough from the ship for it to be private when Alhaitham stopped walking, but still close enough to see the ship. The son of Zeus was silent, and Kaveh was impatient. It wasn't the time to stay silent like this.
"What is it?" He urged—meant to sound like it, at least, to let Alhaitham know that they didn't have too much time.
But his voice came out soft and gentle, as if the man who was in front of him was still the boy who used to cling to him all the time.
Alhaitham was still silent, but then he pulled Kaveh closer. Closing the space between them. Arms wrapped around the son of Athena—
—pulling him into a hug.
"Alhaitham?" Kaveh asked, "Hey. Are you okay..?"
The younger man's chin rested on Kaveh's shoulder as he pulled him tighter. After a moment, Kaveh wrapped his arms around Alhaitham's body too; hugging him back, with one hand still holding the fleece and the other was patting Alhaitham's back.
"I'm sorry," Alhaitham finally said, "...for everything."
"Hey. Ssh. It's my fault too," Kaveh replied, "We can talk about it once we get back, okay? You big baby. We need to leave now."
But all Alhaitham said was, "No."
Kaveh blinked.
"What—?"
Then he felt it.
The sharp pain on his back.
His eyes widened, the fleece fell from his hold as he gripped Alhaitham's shirt for a moment as a response to the pain. When he realized what was happening, he tried to push the other away, but Alhaitham wouldn't budge.
"Alhaitham—" Kaveh breathed out, "What's… the meaning of this—"
Again, he was only replied with silence.
Then he heard the waves behind him, followed by the screams of his crew. Kaveh pushed Alhaitham away, stronger this time, but Alhaitham's hold on him was even stronger. Tighter.
"Alhaitham… Alhaitham! What's happening?!"
"Don't look," Alhaitham replied, "You don't have to see it."
The screams were louder as the waves got wilder. Kaveh gritted his teeth, holding back the pain as he kept pushing Alhaitham, "Get away from me—"
When Alhaitham's hold was broken, Kaveh immediately turned around and was greeted by the sight of the ship being destroyed by the waves. It was as if the waves were alive. And it wasn't only the ship the waves were destroying.
It was targeting the people on it, preventing them from escaping.
"NO!" Kaveh shouted, "STOP—"
He tried to run back to the ship, ignoring the blade planted on his back. But then he felt another sharp pain on the back of his head, that made him fall to the ground. It was Alhaitham, hitting him with the handle of his sword.
Kaveh could only watch in horror the way the waves were destroying the ship. Jazari, one of the crew members, was able to jump back to the land, although looking wounded and possibly unable to move.
"Alhaitham," he said, voice shaking, "Alhaitham, help them. Please. Please— "
He saw Alhaitham walking past him toward Jazari, and he tried to crawl at them himself. But the next thing he saw was Alhaitham raising his sword—
"ALHAITHAM!" Kaveh shouted, "ALHAITHAM, NO! STOP! PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU—"
—and the blade of his sword pierced through Jazari's chest.
Kaveh couldn't hear anything.
All he heard was a loud ringing in his ears.
But he felt his cheeks were wet, and his throat sore.
Had he been screaming?
Or had he been just silent the whole time?
He couldn't tell.
The waves stopped, and the ship was completely destroyed. Gone. It was just him and Alhaitham now. His mind tried to make sense of what just happened: how did the waves move like that? Was it Poseidon? Did Poseidon curse him?
"That wasn't Poseidon,"
Alhaitham's voice was the first thing that he heard, when the son of Zeus came back to his side.
"That was… Oceanus, the titan of the sea."
…titan?
Why?
Then he remembered the prophecy.
Those who desire the gods to cease—
The titans?
Dread crept in him—as if it hadn't before—when he finally realized what was happening. But Alhaitham was already moving. He took the fleece that he dropped on the ground, and then kneeled beside the son of Athena.
"This is why I didn't want you to come," Alhaitham said, "You didn't have to see all of these."
Then he felt the blade on his back was being pulled; a hiss escaped his lips, as he felt blood escaping from the open wound.
This is it, Kaveh thought. Alhaitham's going to let me bleed out. I'm going to die.
But once again, Alhaitham pulled him—
—and something was draped on his back.
The golden fleece.
Tears were still falling from his eyes, but Kaveh wanted to laugh. He just made Kaveh witness his entire crew die, and now he was healing him?
"Why," Kaveh said, voice hoarse.
"Remember when you said that we are the consequences of the gods' actions?" Alhaitham replied, kneeling beside him, "I will make them feel the consequences."
"Not… that," Kaveh gritted his teeth, slowly feeling the pain was fading away, "Why letting me live?"
There was silence for a moment.
He expected various answers, and the most possible one was probably that Alhaitham needed to see if the fleece worked as intended.
But what Alhaitham said was,
"I was supposed to not leave any witnesses," he spoke slowly, "...but I guess… I'll have to deal with the titan's wrath later."
Then Kaveh felt a hand touching his hair, gently stroking it, "You are not an ill omen, Kaveh. I can't forgive the world that makes you believe that you are one. With the help of the titans, we're going to reset this world,"
Alhaitham moved closer, and pressed his lips lightly against Kaveh's temple, "And there will come the world where you don't have to apologize for existing ever again."
That was the last thing he heard,
then everything went dark.
p>