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In hindsight, perhaps becoming roommates with one of the smartest men in Sumeru was a bad idea.
Could anyone really blame Kaveh, though? He had been desperate at the time; a multitude of debts piling up non-stop, combined with a string of bad luck with certain employers…
Well, he didn’t have much of a choice. If he had, he never would have chosen Alhaitham as a roommate.
The man was far too cold and calculated. Any conversation they had turned into an argument, even when discussing the simplest of things. Kaveh remembers a time when they used to get along well, but that all seemed to be in the past, now.
To make matters worse, Kaveh was hiding a secret that, under no circumstances, could he let Alhaitham find out.
He was lucky that the man seemed wholly uninterested in his life. Still, Kaveh always wondered if Alahitham’s seeming disinterest was all a ploy to get him to drop his guard. If the people at the Akademiya found out what he was, he would surely be captured and forced to endure a number of strange experiments. Alhaitham would probably relish the chance to see that happen.
Kaveh shivered in the night air, and it wasn’t from the cold. Being a blood-sucking demon of the night had some advantages, he thought to himself, as cool temperatures had no effect on him. Not that it was a skill that came in handy very often; Sumeru wasn’t exactly known for its icy climate.
Shaking himself from his thoughts, he focused on the task ahead.
It had been a solid month since the last time he went looking for blood. Luckily, he didn’t need to feed that often, but he could feel himself getting hungrier. With the upcoming excursion to the desert, he wanted to make sure he was well fed in order to avoid any…incidents. Getting a meal was hard enough out there amongst the sands, but enduring the sun while also being malnourished? Perish the thought.
The bar was full, as per the usual. Many were already deep in their cups, some even passed out on the floor. Kaveh carefully stepped over them, weaving through the crowd and waving to a few people who recognized him. It was a bar he frequented often enough, but that made it simpler in some ways. No one here suspected he was a vampire, and they would probably be inclined not to, all things considered. He considered them friends, after all.
“The usual?” The barkeep asked.
Kaveh smiled and nodded. “Thanks,” he said, fishing around in his pockets. He barely had enough to pay for the one drink, but it would have to do.
Heading over to a table, Kaveh sat with some of his drinking buddies. They laughed raucously, already very drunk, catching Kaveh up on the latest gossip.
When it was his turn to speak he, of course, launched into a rant about Alhaitham. The man had recently made another purchase; the ugliest vase Kaveh had ever seen. He vividly described the awful design–from the shape to the colour palette–not even noticing as his friends continued to fetch him more drinks. He downed them all, only noticing hours later that he was now quite drunk.
His purpose there nearly forgotten, Kaveh continued to merrily drink away, telling himself he’d stop soon and find someone to follow home. He wasn’t fond of preying on people, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Drunk people tended not to remember a strange man biting into their neck, and any unusual marks could be explained away as some odd but probably harmless thing that had occurred under the influence. With this in mind, he casually watched a few people begin to stumble home, intending on eventually following them.
He got up to leave not long after, seeing a lone man stumble out of the door. The perfect target. Kaveh stumbled himself, but managed to remain upright, making a b-line for the exit.
He was stopped by a man at the door.
“You haven’t paid for your drinks yet, sir,” the brute told him, holding out a large arm and blocking Kaveh’s escape.
“Ah,” Kaveh said, desperately trying to recall if this was true or not. He faintly remembered handing the bartender cash when he first entered. “No, no, I already paid. Ask the man over there.”
The brute shook his head, looking over Kaveh’s shoulder. “No can do, sir. He says you got more after that, and you haven’t paid for them yet.”
Shit. His friends must have ordered more but didn’t pay. He glanced over at the table where they had been, but they had either already long gone or were passed out. Kaveh looked back at the man. “Could I possibly put it on my tab?”
The brute opened his mouth to answer, but then someone behind him put a hand on his shoulder. “Relax. I’ve already paid for it.”
Kaveh didn’t even have to turn around to know who that was. Alhaitham. Of course. But what was he doing here?
The brute glanced back at the bartender, who must have nodded his approval, because he moved aside a moment later. “Alright, you’re free to leave.”
Alhaitham nodded once to the man, and then pushed Kaveh towards the exit. “Let’s go.”
“I can walk on my own,” Kaveh snapped, and tried to play off his near-stumble a moment later.
Alhaitham rolled his eyes. “Sure you can.”
“I didn’t need you to rescue me,” he continued, irate. “What were you even doing there?”
“When it became clear that you weren’t going to pay for your drinks, someone from the bar came to get me. I’ve had to clean up your messes enough times now that they know I'm the one to go to when you cause trouble.”
Kaveh could feel himself flush, despite the sad lack of blood in his system. Speaking of which, his plan for the night had just been ruined by Alhaitham. What was he going to do now?
Kaveh groaned, running a shaky hand across his face.
“You’re not going to puke, are you?”
Kaveh snarled at him, careful to conceal any suspiciously pointed teeth. Alhaitham just scoffed at the display, turning away.
The next few days proved to be just as fruitless as the first.
Day two had Kaveh up all night finishing some designs he had been trying to perfect for the last few months. Day three was much the same, but with even more to do as one of the project managers had contacted him to let him know that they would need to alter something for the desert project due to an ‘unforeseen financial issue’. Day four and five was spent finishing that up, and by the time he emerged from his workroom, he was exhausted and absolutely starving.
Alhaitham was sitting on one of their couches, sipping his tea and reading. He looked up as Kaveh entered the room.
“You’ve been busy,” he said in that usual monotone.
Kaveh wiped some of the sweat from his forehead, fanning his shirt to help cool him down. Cold he could handle, but hot? Not a fan. “I had some designs to finish.”
Alhaitham set his tea down. “For the desert excursion?”
“Yes,” Kaveh answered, tone suspicious. Why was he asking? Was he just trying to make conversation, or did he have some kind of ulterior motive? Was he wondering how Kaveh had managed to stay hidden away for so many days without eating? Was he beginning to suspect something?
“Hm,” Alhaitham just hummed, and then went back to reading.
Okay, what was his deal? Why was he acting like this? Maybe he had figured something out. Were Kaveh’s fangs showing? When he was hungry he sometimes forgot to keep them retracted. Were his eyes redder than usual? He must have been paler, but that could be explained away as simply being because he had been shut away in his room for days now. Alhaitham was smart, but that didn’t mean he was observant. There was no way he knew, right?
“Are you going to stand there staring, or do you have something to say?” Alhaitham eventually remarked, still looking down at his book.
Shit, Kaveh needed to cover this up somehow. “I–no! I’m just thinking! It’s none of your business!” He yelled, turning around and retreating back to his room. Nice. Very smooth. Alhaitham wouldn’t suspect a thing.
Kaveh ended up hiding away for a whole other day, only leaving once he heard the front door open and close, indicating that Alhaitham had left for work. He still made sure to peak around the corner, terrified that the other man would pop up from the shadows like a vengeful spirit.
Luckily, nothing. Good. Maybe he could finally leave the house and go find some blood.
Kaveh had, at one point, kept some in the fridge in case he got desperate; but then he realized that Alhaitham could find out what it was with a simple sniff, so he stopped doing that. Besides, he probably would have just thrown it out regardless, as he tended to do with any of Kaveh’s things that he couldn’t immediately identify as useful.
Kaveh squinted into the morning light, the sun shining directly into his retinas. He was lucky, really, as a rare breed of vampire that could endure the sun with little to no side effects, but that didn’t mean he loved it. It tended to bother him more when he was hungry, such as he was now. Oh well, it could be worse, he supposed. He was just glad he could still go outside, regardless of the time of day.
He had a few minor things to take care of, all of which luckily kept him far away from the Akademiya. One of his fellow project managers wanted to meet up briefly to discuss a few final things before the expedition, and after that he had to drop off some of his designs to one of the local building suppliers for future projects he was planning on working on.
Finally, with the sun beginning to set, he could go find some blood.
Kaveh decided against going to the bar again, as that didn’t work last time and he couldn’t risk another failure. Instead, he wandered the streets, hoping someone would stumble their way past and he could drag them into an alley for a quick bite.
He found a nice spot to wait. It obscured his vision somewhat, but he could hear people coming. Sadly, no one seemed inclined to walk closely enough to the narrow opening between the two buildings he had wedged himself between, and so Kaveh was forced to stand there much longer than he would’ve liked.
Then he heard it; the footsteps were even, indicating that this person was most likely sober, but Kaveh was hungry and desperate enough that he didn’t care. Maybe he’d be able to charm them into forgetting? It was definitely a stupid idea, but then the person had barely made it into view before Kaveh was grabbing them and shoving them against the wall.
“Kaveh. There you are.” An annoyingly familiar voice said calmly.
Kaveh looked up to see Alhaitham again. Was he stalking him!? “Gah!” He yelled, stepping back as far as the narrow alley would allow him, which wasn’t far at all. “What- why are you here?”
Alhaitham raised a single eyebrow. “Me? Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re the one who dragged me into an alley, after all.”
Kaveh probably would’ve turned bright red if he could just get some damn blood already. “I- I was just- out for a walk!”
Alhaitham’s eyebrow rose even further. “Uh huh. Which is why you’ve been lurking here for hours, waiting for someone to pass by.”
“How- no I haven’t!” Kaveh scoffed, crossing his arms and ignoring how they brushed against Alhaitham’s chest with the movement. “I was just feeling ill, so I’ve been waiting here.”
“Waiting for what?”
“Uh, for, uh, to feel better! And now I do, so I’ll be going home!”
“Kaveh-” Alhaitham tried, but Kaveh was already squeezing past him.
“Goodnight, Alhaitham!” He declared haughtily, and then ran off.
When he finally got home, heart pounding, Kaveh firmly shut his door and launched himself into his bed, screaming into his pillow. How many times was that man going to thwart him? If Kaveh didn’t get some blood soon, he was going to die for sure. His stomach growled so hard he felt nauseous, and his head spun even as he laid down. He hoped he didn’t get blood sickness.
Naturally, the next morning, he had blood sickness.
Malnourished vampires would sometimes become ill if they took too long to feed. It made hunting more difficult, but would make it more likely for wandering humans to take sympathy on them and approach. Kaveh thought that it was just stupid, no matter the reason.
He didn’t cough or sneeze like with a regular cold, instead shivering and burning with a fever. His brain was foggy, his limbs heavy, but he was aware enough to know that he needed to do something before it got worse.
The house was silent, Alhaitham having long since gone off to work. They hadn’t spoken since the incident the night before.
Kaveh still had things to do before going to the desert, but the trip seemed so far away now that he barely cared. It sucked, as this project was something that he had been putting his whole soul into for months. He was so excited to see it realized, but now he wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to make the trip.
Kaveh pretended the water soaking his pillow was just sweat.
Morning turned into afternoon which turned into night, as it is wont to do. Kaveh still had his face firmly buried in his pillow, so he didn’t notice the front door opening and closing with Alhaitham’s return. The man must have silently creeped around the house, because it was only once he was knocking at Kaveh’s door that the latter realized he was home.
“Kaveh?” Alhaitham called.
“Go away!” Kaveh yelled, wincing at how watery his voice sounded.
There was a pause, and then. “Are you alright?”
“Perfectly fine, thank you!” He pressed his face back into his pillow.
A distant sigh, and then, “I’m coming in.”
Kaveh refused to lift his head, but he listened as Alhaitham slowly opened and closed his door. He heard the man approach his bed before feeling the mattress dip with his weight.
“Kaveh, what’s wrong?” Alhaitham asked, voice lacking its usual edge.
“Nothing,” Kaveh mumbled.
Another pause, and then he felt Alhaitham’s hand gently reach out for his hair. Kaveh froze, waiting to see if the touch would turn violent, but it stayed gentle. Alhaitham had never raised a hand to him before, but he was also absolutely not affectionate. What was he planning now?
“I’ve noticed you haven’t been feeling well,” Alhaitham continued. “Are you hungry?”
Kaveh’s muscles stiffened even further. Surely he meant regular food, right? Kaveh certainly hadn't eaten in days, and Alhaitham must have noticed. Even though he didn’t need human food for nourishment, he’d still partake sometimes, just to throw Alhaitham off his scent.
“No,” he mumbled stubbornly, but of course his stomach growled at that exact moment.
Alhaitham sighed, and Kaveh expected him to get up and leave, but instead he gently placed his hand over Kaveh’s shoulder. “Can you look at me?”
Kaveh frowned, but acquiesced. At least Alhaitham was being nice– he could reward that. He turned over slowly, quickly wiping the definitely-not-tears from his eyes. Alhaitham was looking at him with his usual blank expression, but his mouth was set in a much more serious line than usual.
Alhaitham raised his hand, wrapping his around Kaveh’s chin and squeezing his cheeks. “Why have you been so stubborn? If you need blood, you can just ask.”
Kaveh’s eyes widened. “What!?” He yelled, forcing his face out of Alhaitham’s grip.
The other man seemed confused, eyes also widening– an expression Kaveh normally would’ve relished seeing, but it was hard to enjoy it through the sheer panic coursing through his veins.
“How do you– what do you– argh, you!” Kaveh dug his hands into the front of Alhaitham’s far too tight shirt. “Who told you!? How did you figure it out!? Have you told the Akademiya!?”
“Whoa, Kaveh, settle down,” Alhaitham tried, hands covering Kaveh’s own. “I’ve known ever since you moved in.”
“What.” Kaveh said flatly.
Alhaitham’s expression was changing into one of near-amusement as he connected the dots. “Well, it wasn’t exactly hard to figure out. Most people don’t keep bottles of blood lying around, or have fangs, or stay out all night and then come home smelling like iron.”
Kaveh deflated, hands dropping back down onto the bed sheets. All this time…and he knew? Kaveh had tried so hard to keep it a secret, but it was all for nothing. The Akademiya would surely be at their door any minute.
Wait. Did he say he’s known since he moved in?
“You’ve known for months?” Kaveh sputtered.
Alhaitham sighed. “Yes. We aren’t all as unobservant as you.”
“What does that mean?” Kaveh snapped.
Alhaitham looked away. “Nevermind. Anyway, do you want my blood or not?”
Right, the matter at hand. Kaveh gulped, gaze shifting down to Alhaitham’s neck before snapping back up to his face. “I…wait, is this a trap? There’s no way you’d be offering without wanting something in return.”
Alhaitham sighed. “I want you to promise to stop wandering the streets late at night and getting in trouble. From now on, when you need blood, come to me. That’s all I ask.”
Kaveh’s gaze narrowed. “No, there’s no way. I refuse to believe that’s it.”
Alhaitham’s gaze sharpened before his hands darted out, cupping Kaveh’s cheeks. “Why are you being such a fool about this?”
“I’m not a-”
His voice was drowned out by Alhaitham kissing him.
His initial thoughts went something along the lines of ‘oh my god, he’s going to kill me, there’s no way he’s actually kissing me, why would he, he hates me’, but then Alhaitham turned his head to the side and oh, okay, maybe this wasn’t an evil plan. Kaveh relaxed, easing into it, his own hands coming up to knot themselves behind Alhaitham’s back.
Wait, whoa, okay, hold on.
Kaveh detached himself, albeit a little reluctantly, from Alhaitham, just moving away enough to speak. “Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.”
Alhaitham chuckled–an actual laugh!–before sliding his hands down to Kaveh’s neck. “You’re so annoying,” he said, but there was no real bite to his words.
Speaking of bite, Kaveh’s stomach growled yet again, another persistent reminder that he was starving. “Uh,” he said a little awkwardly. “Can I…?”
“Yes,” Alhaitham said with an eye roll, “as I’ve been telling you to.”
Kaveh ignored his attitude, instead leaning forward, one hand on the back of Alhaitham’s head and the other wrapped behind his back. Despite them passionately making out five seconds ago, it still felt awkward to just…dig right in.
“Hurry up,” Alhaitham said.
Kaveh huffed. Fine, then.
His fangs sunk in without issue, and the taste of Alhaitham’s blood filled his mouth. He never would’ve admitted it before, but he had wondered what it would taste like; blood would always be metallic, but everyone had a somewhat unique flavour, as if it was spiced a little differently each time. Alhaitham’s blood was surprisingly sweet, which Kaveh found cute, in a weird way. Oh no, was this what love felt like?
Kaveh tightened his fist in Alhaitham’s shirt, pushing him down onto the bed without realizing it. The other man grunted, but didn’t protest. Kaveh continued to suck the blood from his veins, feeling his fever and sluggishness retreat with every swallow.
Eventually, Alhaitham began to incessantly push on the side of Kaveh’s head. “Okay, that’s enough, get off.”
Kaveh reluctantly removed his mouth, leaning back and looking down at Alhaitham. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, licking the last bit of blood off of his skin. Alhaitham flushed, and Kaveh smirked, feeling a little euphoric.
Alhaitham grabbed him by the hips, and suddenly he was being flipped onto his back.
“Was that enough for you?” Alhaitham asked from his new position above him, eyes intense.
Kaveh’s smirk widened. “I suppose.”
Alhaitham rolled his eyes. “Insatiable,” he grumbled, and leaned down to kiss him again.
The next morning, Kaveh would need to leave for the desert. He had no idea how long he’d be gone, or what would happen between him and Alhaitham when he came back, but for now he brushed aside his anxieties and once again wrapped his arms around Alhaitham.
Yeah, he could worry about that later.