Chapter Text
He saw nothing but darkness until…
"Hey! Alhaitham! Wake up right now! I'm serious! Stop just loafing around and…"
Alhaitham opened one eye, disappointed that he didn't wear his ear deafeners to bed.
"... Stop fucking with me this isn't a joke! Tighnari and me-"
"Tighnari and I," he corrected.
"Fine! Tighnari and I decided that a nice trip to the beach was a splendid idea."
"And what does this have to do with me?"
"I'm forcing you to come along, of course. I'm not allowing you to stay huddled in the house for the 14th day in a row."
"I go to work don't I? Also the store when I have to…"
Kaveh rolled his eyes, "when's the last time you've had a vacation, huh?"
"I have a 'vacation' everyday when you shut up."
"Y-you!" He fummed, crossing his arms.
"So?"
"Fuck this, you're coming with me!" He grabbed Alhaitham by his shirt collar and dragged him to the kitchen.
"I'm giving you, and by extension me, 2 hours to get ready for this trip. Cyno and Tighnari said they'll pick us up around that time. I literally don't care what you bring, just don't bring everything and the kitchen sink alright!?"
Alhaitham chuckled, "I might do that just to spite you."
"That's not funny!" He shook his head, "this is a serious trip so don't ruin anyone's fun with your stupid-" He growled and decided instead of arguing to leave and pack up his stuff.
Alhaitham rolled his eyes and decided to actually get ready as well since if he didn't he would die in the sand.
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A few hours later
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"Why did you bring six towels!? You know we each packed our own stuff right!?"
"Just in case," he said simply, patting his bag.
"What do you need six towels for!? Building a fort!?"
"Just in case," he repeated, hoping Kaveh would get it through his thick skull.
Kaveh rolled his eyes, "whatever! Just don't complain about the weight!"
Alhaitham and Kaveh walked to the spot where they'd get picked up, eventually finding a rather strange sight of a carriage being driven by a sumpter beast.
"Hey!" They found the stranger duo waving at them. Seemed Tighnari was holding the reins.
"This is our ride," Kaveh elbowed his elbow as he forced Alhaitham inside the carriage with him.
"Question before we leave," Tighnari began to ask, "did you bring your swimsuits?"
"Swimsuits? I thought you said beach, Kaveh," Alhaitham looked over at the shorter.
"Are you serio-" He continued to stare, "of course you're serious, oh archons… just grab your swimsuit alright!?"
Alhaitham got off and went to grab his swimfit before coming back on and they started the ride.
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One ride later
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"Finally the sun! Archons I haven't seen that thing in forever!" Kaveh opened his arms, letting the sunlight slowly give him skin cancer.
Alhaitham and Cyno on the other hand, were prepared with sunglasses.
"Come on guys! Let's go set up before the sun sets," Tighnari grabbed Cyno's arm and dragged him to the beach.
"You know I can walk on my own, right."
"Of course but I know your habit of dilly-dallying."
"I hate how much you know about me."
Alhaitham on the other hand, was slowly taking all of his stuff out of the carriage, making sure not to get sand on any of it.
"Alhaitham you're taking forever! Come on! Let's go already!" Kaveh complained.
Alhaitham glanced at him for a second before going back to getting his luggage out.
"Answer me!" He continued to push for an answer.
"I don't want this to be like the last desert trip…" He got the last thing out of the carriage and was now ready to trudge through the sand. The very strange, sinkable sand.
"Why is sand like this," Alhaitham asked seemingly no one.
"It's because it's just sand! There's no dirt or anything below it!"
"I didn't ask you," he started to trudge faster so he wouldn't be able to respond.
"Hey!" He chased after him.
They eventually caught up to where the other two were, setting up their seats and umbrella.
Kaveh went to say hello to the other two meanwhile Alhaitham went to read a book like a nerd.
"Hey guys! I'm finally here, took us long enough… " He shook his head.
"That's just how Alhaitham is, no need to complain about something you can't change," Cyno shrugged.
"Agreed," Tighnari nodded, "but anyways me and Cyno were finding out ways to play with this beach ball, wanna join?" He asked, holding and pointing to said beach ball.
"Sure but, isn't the only way of playing with it… just throwing it?"
"Silly Kaveh," Cyno smirked, "you can do many things with the ball. You can throw it but you can also catch it."
"I…"
"He meant we can also kick it," Tighnari corrected him.
"Oh! That sounds like fun! Unless it goes into the ocean like my earring I lost exactly 2 years and 3 months ago…"
"That's oddly specific…"
"It's because it happened exactly 2 years and 3-"
"I want to play ball," Cyno interrupted him.
"We should play ball," Tighnari grabbed the ball from Cyno.
"It's my ball, why are you taking it from me."
"Don't you want to catch it? Someone will have to throw it to you, won't they?"
"I guess but…"
That's to say, Kaveh was bored. Honestly he wasn't very interested in the ball the other two were fighting over.
So he walked back to Alhaitham to see how long it'd take for him to realize that he was there.
It took all but 3 seconds, "what's up, sour face."
"They're fighting over a ball," he pouted, sitting down next to him.
"You're getting sand on my towel."
"And? Who cares!?"
"Obviously I do, get up."
"Wh-" Kaveh was flung off his seat as Alhaitham yanked the towel off the chair and started violently shaking the sand off.
"My god I'm so sorry there was a speck of sand on my ass," he crossed his arms.
After shaking the towel he threw it on Kaveh's head in an act of spite as he grabbed another towel from his collection.
"What the- hey!"
Alhaitham put the towel down and went back to reading.
"Don't pretend that I don't exist! I still have many things to say to you!" He grabbed the towel off his head and threw it on the ground.
He glanced up at the blonde before turning up the soundproof setting in his headphones and going back to reading.
"You!- ugh… whatever. You can't hear me anyways…" He turned back to the dumbasses fighting, sad and defeated.
However, they didn't seem to be fighting anymore…
He went and sat down next to Cyno who seemed to be making a sandcastle but there was something off about it.
"Why does your sandcastle… look like that ?" He pointed to the weirdly round castle.
" Ball. " He simply answered.
"What the hell are you talking abou-" He suddenly had a thought, "did you… seriously put the ball in your sandcastle."
Cyno smirked and continued the touch-ups on his castle.
He shook his head and went to look for Tighnari, who was searching for crabs.
"Why is Cyno making a sandcastle with his ball in it?" Kaveh asked very so desperately.
Tighnari simply shrugged, "it doesn't really matter what he does with it… as long as it doesn't go into the ocean like the earring you lost exactly 2 years and 3 months ago- "
Kaveh, in response, elbowed his shoulder, "don't joke about my very serious story!"
Tighnari chuckled, "mhm, sure. Anyways, if you find anything that could be useful for making ailments let me know, why not make this trip useful while I'm at it…"
Kaveh nodded, walking back over to Cyno and his sand-monstrosity, "Hey Cyno I'm bored, any suggestions?"
"You could always dump sand on me."
"Why would I do that."
"If you're really that bored."
"I'm not the type to randomly dump sand on people, are you that type of person?"
Cyno thought about this for longer than he should have, then nodded, "depends on the circumstance but I think it could be funny."
"Dump sand on Alhaitham."
"Okay."
He grabbed a bucket and filled it to the brim with sand, then went over to where Alhaitham was reading.
"Hey."
Alhaitham looked up from his book, "what's up."
"I was told to dump sand on you, do you consent to this."
"Wh-... why would I consent to that."
"Because funny."
"How is that remotely funny."
"Think about it."
"No."
As Alhaitham saw Cyno start to dump the sand he and his sharp reflexes swiftly got out of the way of any sand or bucket… he threw the bucket too.
Alhaitham quickly gets on his feet and sighed… another towel lost.
He grabbed the towel and shook all that sand out of it, shaking it specifically in Cyno's direction. Then throwing the towel on his head and getting out a new one.
"This was… less funny than I thought it'd be," he walked away, the towel still on his head.
Alhaitham took out his book again but was feeling rather tired… guess all this towel replacing was harder work than he expected…
Cyno waddled back to Kaveh in shame, "I failed my mission, I apologize."
Kaveh shook his head, pulling the towel off his head, "it's fine, don't worry about it. You tried your best."
Cyno sat back down with a smile on his face, "now back to finishing my castle…"
Kaveh rolled his eyes and went back to Tighnari, "helppppp, I'm boredddd." He whined, laying in the most dramatic pose possible.
Tighnari was sat in the ground, picking at the sand's texture, "what do you want me to tell you this time? "
Kaveh pouted, looking up at him, "Alhaitham is literally just reading the entire time! I brought him out so he'd like… actually do something and be happy but of course not! He's always reading and learning! Why can't he just relax like the rest of us!?"
"Maybe he's relaxing from reading? Have you ever thought of that? Also he's not reading anymore," Tighnari smirked slightly.
Kaveh turned to see Alhaitham very much asleep, "Oh? Honestly, kind of surprised."
"He looked tired on the way here, it's not that surprising."
"Yeah but he was sleeping all night! Archons I think he gets too much sleep…"
"In comparison to who? You, maybe ?"
Kaveh scoffed, "Excuse me, I have very important projects to work on by certain dates! "
"The only difference between you two is that he's not good at hiding that he's tired, meanwhile the only way I could tell you were tired is the makeup under your eyes," he found a small twig in the sand and poked it.
"Hey I- forget it. There's no use arguing about this."
"Good choice. But seriously I suggest going over to him and making sure he's okay. If not I'll have to…"
Kaveh nodded, "fine, but I swear to the archons if he complains about a speck of sand getting on him again I'm gonna-"
"Relax, this is our day off, isn't it?"
He shook his head, "you're right… again. I'll leave you now," he stood up and walked over to Alhaitham, noticing how he was seemingly out like a light.
Kaveh snapped his fingers to no use. "Hm, guess it isn't sorcery then…"
He tried to wake him up to no avail, he even accidentally ended up getting on top of him but he still hadn't even opened his eyes.
He frowned, clearly annoyed that touch, something that very much bothered him, wasn't waking him in the slightest.
"I guess I'll have to do the only choice left…" He shook his head as he softly moved his headphones off one of his ears, hoping the noise itself would wake him… but it didn't.
"Wh… fine. ALHAITHAM WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!" He shouted and Alhaitham was definitely up now.
His eyes wide and he himself shaken up, he immediately pushed Kaveh off of him and maybe just maybe started to go insane.
"I swear to god if you-"
He threw that towel on him. 2 for 2 baby.
He replaced it with a new one and sat back down, trying to pretend like he was not traumatized.
Kaveh groaned and went back to Tighnari, who was now with Cyno in the water.
"Guys… I think I traumatized him…"
"Obviously, would you like to be woken up with your roommate on top of you like that?" Tighnari quipped.
"Usually he wakes up straight away when I even get close to him! That isn't normal!!"
"I think your plan if that didn't work was to ki-" He was then splashed by Kaveh.
"Shut it! That was not on my plan anywhere! "
The other two chuckled as Kaveh got more and more annoyed.
"Mhm, sure. Anyways Cyno did you hear about…"
Kaveh was once again… very bored, and as someone that didn't like being bored, it annoyed him more than the kissing comment.
"Kaveh's looking around for something again, bet it's Alhaitham," Cyno chuckled to himself.
That snapped Kaveh out of his daze, "what? N-no!"
The two continued chuckling at his expense, "you wanna invite him to the water? Hm? So you're less bored?"
"Shut it! It's not like that'd work anyways! He says no to anything I ask of him!"
"Hm, well I have a feeling that if I asked him, he'd say no like… nicely. Cyno, how about you ask him."
Cyno nodded, "sure. As long as he forgives me for my unfunny joke I should be fine."
"And that unfunny joke was?" Tighnari raised an eyebrow.
"I poured sand on him."
"Apologize."
"Okay."
He walked out of the water and went to go apologize to Alhaitham.
"I'm sorry."
"Why are you apologizing."
"I poured sand on you."
"... thanks. I guess."
"Anyways the others want you to join us in the water do you consent to this."
Alhaitham put down his book, sitting up in his seat, "if I do will you promise to never let a grain of sand on me ever again?"
"Deal."
He nodded, standing up and putting on his shoes, "how deep is it, by the way."
"Kaveh's barely able to stand in it, you should be fine."
He nodded again, and they walked together to the water.
The two finally got over to the weirdos that were lightly chatting about whatever the fuck.
When Alhaitham was finally able to speak without interrupting anyone, he did, "by the way I have one rule about me being in the water don't-"
As he was in the middle of speaking, Cyno broke his rule.
"-splash water on me…"
His body now had no idea on what to do. He couldn't let this slide. He couldn't just stand there but what else would he do? He felt like he couldn't move.
Luckily for him, Tighnari noticed how he looked and suggested to the others that he take him to the showers just outside the beach's area. They agreed wholeheartedly.
He grabbed Alhaitham by the arm and walked him to the showers, glancing at him remorsefully.
He motioned Alhaitham to sit down and he did as he shut the curtain and started the water up, "how are you doing, on a scale of 1 to 10."
"What is 1 and what is 10."
"1 is bad, 10 is good."
He nodded, "zero point five."
Tighnari looked at him in a bit of shock, as he kinda fucked up the whole 1 to 10 thing.
"Y… you're really not doing good at all?" He asked worriedly.
"I don't like the beach, I don't know why Kaveh wanted me to go so bad other than just to torture me…" he pouted slightly.
Tighnari shook his head, "I know for a fact that isn't true."
"Pardon? Also you can start washing, don't let the conversation stop you."
Tighnari nodded as he grabbed his arm, washing off whatever sand was able to stick to his body, "earlier Kaveh was talking to me about how he was disappointed that he didn't think you were having any fun here. I stated that maybe reading is fun to you. I assume it is, what other reason would you do it so often? I think now I can understand why you brought so much stuff, to distract yourself from an unsavory experience."
Alhaitham nodded, looking at the blank tile wall, "of course he thinks like that, he can't understand what I think is enjoyable, it's all about his perspective of fun."
"While I agree with you, his complaining seemed to be out of compassion more than anything else. He just wants to see you happy without worries."
"Well then, tell him to leave me alone for the rest of eternity…"
"Alhaitham, even I know you don't really want that. You're just annoyed by what happened today, and I understand that, but there's no reason to lash at someone undeserving," he finished washing his body, then turning off the water.
Alhaitham stood up, crossing his arms, "whatever. I guess Kaveh is allowed to be unjustly angry at me but I can't be justly angry at him, I get it now," he said with sarcasm in his voice.
"You're not getting my point, are you?"
"Maybe I'm not but I don't care."
Tighnari took a large deep breath, "I tried to tell you that Kaveh does indeed care about you and you turned it into a you problem! I never said you can't be annoyed! I just think that you two should communicate better!"
Alhaitham inaudibly turned and went to go sit on the bench by the carriage.
Then Tighnari went back to the beach to help the others pack up and get ready for the ride home.
"So, Alhaitham didn't come back?" Kaveh asked naively.
Tighnari thought for a minute before responding, "he's more tired than I thought. I didn't think he deserved to have to come back here."
"You know what? Good, he took forever to get his luggage here anyways. It'd take us til nightfall just to get our luggage back!"
"Alhaitham thinks you hate him."
"Huh!?"
"With that reaction never mind, pretend I didn't say anything," Tighnari shook his head, gathering the last of the luggage.
"No, I'm completely serious, what the hell did I do to make him think that I hate him!? Yes, I might be annoyed by his words and actions but hate!? "
Kaveh sadly (for Tighnari) stayed by his side as he walked with the luggage, "well… that's not exactly what he said. He thought you brought him to the beach to torture him ."
"Wh-... wait… that wasn't him being sarcastic!? Oh archons I screwed up again!"
Cyno then popped up from nowhere, "You know you could always make out to make up wi-"
"Cyno this is not the time!" Kaveh pushed him away.
"I understand the sentiment but not right now," Tighnari pat him on the head.
Kaveh started running towards the carriage yelling, "I swear to the archons I have to apologize right now or-... he's asleep again," he quickly put his luggage on the carriage and just stared, feeling like shit for running.
Tighnari and Cyno eventually caught up to him, the latter chuckling like a mad man.
" Let's just go before nightfall, " Tighnari slightly jabbed at Kaveh wasting his time staring.
"Hey!... stop taking my serious issues and making them into jokes!" He complained as he was then pulled onto the carriage.
Tighnari got it going and they were on their way home.
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Later
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"So Kaveh what does the duck say to the chicken?" Cyno said his 45th joke of the night, leaning back in his seat.
Kaveh, dying inside, doesn't answer his riddle, "Cyno stop it already! There isn't even any alcohol in this carriage!"
Cyno chuckled as he continued his joke, however Kaveh couldn't stop staring at Alhaitham's sleeping figure.