Chapter Text
The banging of the front door interrupted Alhaitham’s late night reading.
A curse in a familiar voice assured him he had no reason to fear intruders, and every right to be annoyed. Had Kaveh gone drinking right after returning from the desert? It wasn’t entirely unusual for him to return home in various states of inebriation, but usually he at least made a modicum of an effort to remain quiet. Alhaitham’s brow twitched, but he turned his page and vowed to chide Kaveh in the morning.
“I’m sorry,” Kaveh whispered in the hallway, the words sharp and tight. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, don’t cry. Please, don’t let him know we’re here.”
Alhaitham slowly lowered the book into his lap. Should not have been so loud, then. Who was Kaveh talking to? Last Alhaitham checked, Mehrak was not suddenly able to imitate human sadness, and why Kaveh should have considered such a function was beyond Alhaitham, so Mehrak certainly did not need to be told such a thing. And if it was just another stray animal Kaveh was trying to sneak into his room, would he use this specific choice of words?
Alhaitham had the nagging feeling there was another human being in his abode right now, and if they were some kind of lover, Kaveh would hopefully not sound this stressed and tense. What, then, was going on? It seemed he would have to get to the bottom of this matter after all.
“It’ll be okay,” Kaveh whispered, still frantic. He sounded out of breath, pushed to his limits. “I promise, I promise -”
When Alhaitham stepped into the hallway, Kaveh twisted around like a man caught burgling the place, his glassy eyes wide and wild. “Alhaitham!” In his arms he clutched a small bundle - the fabric unmistakably his own shawl. So another animal picked up, after all. Still, Kaveh’s behaviour …
“You are bleeding,” Alhaitham realised, stepping closer. Kaveh clutched the bundle closer to his chest, like he wanted to shield whatever creature he had picked up with his entire being. Alhaitham felt offended to be taken as a threat. They’d long come to the tentative truce that any such animal could be harbored in Kaveh’s rooms as long as it would be adopted out or released back into the wild posthaste. “Put the cat aside and let me have a look at you.”
“She’s mine,” Kaveh choked out. His hair hung wild and unkempt around his face, and the splotches on his skin were not dirt, but bruises. Kaveh stumbled back as Alhaitham approached, his back hitting the door. “I won’t give her up, no matter what -”
That was when Alhaitham saw the tiny hand lift from the bundle.
Five perfect little fingers grasped at the air, and found it wanting. Because then the wailing began.
“Shh, it’s okay,” Kaveh promised the squalling infant in his arms, who did not seem swayed by such promises. “It’s alright, Parvaneh, it’s okay -” Kaveh’s features softened, his stance easing as he looked down at the screaming little thing in his arms. “We’re safe now, we’re safe. Shh, my love, shh.”
She’s mine. Alhaitham found that doubtful, considering everything he knew about Kaveh. This child was certainly not his in any blood-related manner, as his frantic words wanted to impress on Alhaitham. In every other regard, however, for the first crying infant to grace Kaveh’s arms to immediately become ‘his’ … made perfect sense. Alhaitham had the sinking feeling that his life from here on out would be alarmingly different.
Mercifully, the infant calmed reluctantly, wiggling and squirming now. Alhaitham beheld the bundle with some trepidation. “Kaveh, you -”
“No!” Kaveh clutched his wiggling infant to his chest more protectively again, his eyes back to being wild. They really were quite glassy, due to blood-loss, no doubt. Judging by the dark circles beneath his eyes, llack of sleep and exhaustion as well. “Don’t ask anything. She’s mine. She’s my daughter. That’s all you need to know, that’s all there is to it, that’s -”
“Fine.” This matter would not be resolved by keeping the infant contained in Kaveh’s room and releasing her back into the wild. But right now, Alhaitham did not much care about anything but immediate care for Kaveh.
“And she - !” Kaveh barrelled on, and faltered. “Huh, what?”
“Fine. You’ve not gone deaf from her wailing yet, have you? Come in.” Alhaitham backed off, hoping it would get through Kaveh’s thick skull that way. “You are filthy and bleeding, and I don’t know what state that little thing is in. Let me have a look at you both.”
Kaveh looked at him, guarded and distrusting. But his posture eased, just a little bit. The bundle in his arms made noises that were best described as … gurgling. “We are … we will be out of your hair soon. Just, tonight, right now -”
“Come in, ” Alhaitham said impatiently. “Neither of you are getting any better from standing there. You are wasting time.”
“Right,” Kaveh repeated, sounding dazed. “Right …”
Alhaitham led the way into the kitchen and turned on the lights. It seemed the best choice for a room, as the kitchen provided both running water and places to sit. The tiles were easy to clean as well.
Kaveh followed slowly, squinting into the brightness, and then just stood on the threshold, still lost. He had the distinct look of a man who had been single-mindedly surviving for too long, and now had no idea how to unwind enough to even sit.
“I gathered I cannot ask what happened,” Alhaitham began, busying himself heating water. “Calm down,” he added, when Kaveh was about to protest. “I am not going to. But tell me your injuries and whatever state the infant might be in.”
“Her name is Parvaneh,” Kaveh shot back, offering the least relevant information for the current situation. It was a relief, to see him slightly himself even in this state. “I think she’s hungry … I’ve done what I could, but she needs formula … do people even sell it here? Sumeru is so big, they must … ”
That was an actionable item. Acquiring formula for the infant. “Any injuries?”
“Not on her,” Kaveh said warmly, proudly. Like him being hurt instead of this small human was everything. How Alhaitham loathed his self-sacrificial nature. “But I’d still rather she be looked at soon. I think she’s too thin - I don’t know what else I’ve done wrong -”
“Judging by the infant’s vocal chords, she cannot be too weak,” Alhaitham offered as assurance. A small child close to death surely could not cause such a ruckus. Kaveh, meanwhile, was actively bleeding. “You will do her little good if you faint, though. Let me look at you.”
Alhaitham fetched their first aid box and put it on the table. Kaveh looked at it, then him. He still cradled the infant in his arms. Her eyes were very big and blue as she looked at Alhaitham. A small trickle of drool was running from her open mouth. Charming.
“I cannot work around her,” Alhaitham reminded Kaveh.
“I can’t put her down,” Kaveh said, almost hysterical. “I have to protect her.”
“And protect her you have. You’re home now.”
“There’s nowhere safe for her to be,” Kaveh said, frantic. His eyes were wet, all of a sudden. Tears of despair. “Don’t ask me to put her down, I -”
Alhaitham closed the lid of the first aid box. “Wait here.”
He found Mehrak hovering awkwardly at the door. Alhaitham gently nudged the top of it. “Help me out. Can you open up and empty yourself of the tools and such? Make a little bed for that squalling infant.” Mehrak’s face shifted to mild confusion. Alhaitham amended: “It would help Kaveh if the baby could be held by you.”
Mehrak beeped, and booped, and promptly opened up to upend a variety of tools onto the floor. Alhaitham would deal with that later, once he couldn’t hear Kaveh frantically attempt soothing a calm child, while he was bleeding and fraying at the seams.
He went to fetch a blanket and when he found Mehrak flipped open and waiting, he made a makeshift bed inside the open lid. It seemed inviting enough, and Mehrak made a heroic effort of staying afloat sideways. A hand towel seemed the right size to cover the infant, so Alhaitham added that, for Kaveh to tuck her in.
Mehrak dutifully floated behind him into the kitchen. “Mehrak will hold her. He is like an extension of you, so surely you can allow him.”
Mehrak beeped and booped some more. A complex array of emotions played across Kaveh’s face, but in the end, he very, very carefully put the small thing inside Mehrak and made an art of tucking the towel around her little body.
Alhaitham catalogued the ways he moved, which side he favoured and which movements he avoided. Something seemed wrong with his right shoulder or upper arm.
At last Kaveh seemed satisfied, and looked at the makeshift bed with some grief. “She deserves so much better,” he managed, voice wet with tears.
“She is alive. Judging by your state, she might not otherwise be, and if anything, not in happy circumstances. She is also currently drooling. She can’t be that unhappy.” Alhaitham opened the box again and touched Kaveh. “What happened to your right shoulder and or arm, and where else are you hurt? I cannot do much for the bruising, but I need to know of any old and fresh wounds.”
Kaveh’s gaze was still on the bundle resting inside Mehrak’s trusty embrace. He seemed entirely lost, like holding the child had been everything holding him together. Clearly in shock. Kaveh had been in the desert, last Alhaitham had known. How long had he been travelling, fleeing, keeping alive a little human and disregarding himself?
Alhaitham warned: “I am going to touch you,” and then reached to begin petting down Kaveh’s arms until he hissed.
“Be a bit more gentle!” There he was.
Alhaitham clicked his tongue. “Then work with me.”
It was ugly. Both the process and the wounds. There were several cuts that had been stitched haphazardly together, a terrible job obviously done by Kaveh himself, two of which were obviously inflamed, one of which had ripped right back open. Kaveh hissed and flinched through Alhaitham’s ministrations. Tears ran down his cheeks that he did not seem to notice. The only thing he offered was: “She’s mine, no matter what happens.” and “She is so smart, Haitham, really, she is.” and “Parvaneh is the perfect name for a baby so beautiful, don’t you think?”
Alhaitham had spent his life strategically avoiding children of this age and thus, lacked examples to compare this particular infant to. Certainly he could not make any judgments concerning her possible intelligence or beauty. He simply hummed a noncommittal sound to appease Kaveh, and took breaks from the terrible work of cleaning and bandaging the cuts to force him to stop tiredly mumbling and drink water instead. Have a few bites of flatbread.
“You are a fool, you know,” Alhaitham informed Kaveh as he tilted his chin up to better access a gash on his temple.
“And you’re a terrible nurse,” Kaveh breathed, his eyes falling shut. He barely even flinched, and grew quiet beneath Alhaitham’s final ministrations.
It was strange and unnerving to see him so quiet, so … small. Alhaitham almost wished he would keep insisting his infant was a genius among drooling infants.
He took a moment, his hand still beneath Kaveh’s chin, to behold him. Tired, bruised, and all for his bleeding heart. Too stubborn, too honest, and too ready to put others before himself. “Tomorrow, I am having a specialist over to look at you.”
“Not here,” Kaveh mumbled. “Can’t let them know I live here -”
“That’s a little besides the point now, don’t you think?” Alhaitham pulled away and Kaveh’s eyes fluttered open, his nose wrinkling a little, as if he had enjoyed the extra support for his head. Shivering, he instead wrapped his arms gingerly around himself, hunched over as if to protect himself. His usual loud, bright presence had diminished and left only a man who looked terribly vulnerable.
Alhaitham found the sight so hard to bear he shrugged off his coat and draped it around Kaveh’s shoulders to cover him, provide a little warmth, at least. “Come on, up you go. Let’s get you to bed.”
“Parvaneh -” Kaveh protested weakly. “She needs -”
“I don’t have much experience, but I reckon I can keep her unharmed and content for a single night. Entrust her to me.”
Kaveh’s gaze cut to him, then. His eyes searching - searching - and whatever he found in Alhaitham’s face made his gaze soften “Okay,” he breathed. “Yes.”
And he fainted.
—
“Your father is trouble,” Alhaitham informed the infant. She did not reply. Only lay in Mehrak’s open lid and wiggled a little.
Alhaitham cleaned away the dirtied supplies. He tried not to think of Kaveh, and how thin he had felt in his arms as Alhaitham carried him to bed.
What ordeal had he put himself through for this little worm of a human?
“I would bathe you,” Alhaitham informed the small thing. “But I’m afraid you would be cross with me for it, and I do not need you to wake that incorrigible fool up again.” He pointed his finger at the infant. “Behave. Can you do that?”
The infant reached her hand up and wonderingly put her tiny palm against Alhaitham’s finger. Slowly, she curled each of her little fingers around his, until she was gently holding onto him. Alhaitham stared at her tiny, round fingernails and then looked down at her face. She smiled at him, her mouth wide open with it, showing her toothless gums.
“Maybe you are less trouble than your father is,” Alhaitham breathed. “Parvaneh.”