Chapter Text
"Collei, sweetie, would you mind fetching your uncle please?" Kaveh asks as he places deep blue plates on the table. "Lunch is almost done."
"OK," Collei agrees with a sigh of relief.
She carefully places her favorite bookmark - the one with the dried dandelion- so she can resume her reading later and moves the heavy tome away as Kaveh can set the table.
Her reading assignment is much more complicated than what she anticipated from a fairy tale compilation, so she has to take a breather every page or so, trying to comprehend the convoluted sentence structures and guess the meaning of the old words she encountered. It makes her brain burn, even if she loves the tales themselves, so lunch break comes like a salvation. Despite how little she progressed, Kaveh never berates her for how slow she is and Alhaitham comforts her, in his no-nonsense way of his, she will become faster the more she reads.
Considering most of Collei's education had been done outside the system, she was due to validate her progress in an exam at the Academyia in a few weeks. The letter came two days after Tighnari had accepted to take part in an important Health Summit in Liyue, one he was really looking forward to, and Cyno had just been assigned a mission in the desert that he expected to last for a while. In other circumstances, Collei could stay alone with the other Forest rangers but Tighnari was afraid his absence would delay her current academic progress. She didn't understand how a month's difference would change anything about her results on the test, especially when Tighnari kept telling her she was doing well. Tighnari had fretted about this until Cyno suggested letting another scholar tutor Collei during his absence.
Alhaitham.
Collei only agreed to the proposal because Tighnari seemed ready to cancel his trip otherwise. The mere idea to spend a full month in Sumery, with Alhaitham of all people, made her uncomfortable.
But Cyno had been to one to put her under Tighnari's care before.
And if he trusted Alhaitham, then Collei would trust his judgment.
It appeared quickly that she had been afraid for nothing.
Now she's learned that Kaveh's patience is infinite when it comes to teaching. The architect never minds repeating himself over and over when she doesn't understand something. He really tried to make her feel at home too, making sure she has everything she needs in her room and always being careful to give her some space when she feels the need to be alone.
But Alhaitham had been the one to surprise her the most.
She had expected the Scribe to be a very strict teacher, one that would scold her if she messed up during his lectures, and assumed he would ignore her existence the rest of the time. However, out of her two hosts, he had been the most eager to introduce her to his personal library and encouraged her to read something she fancied, like fairy tales and light novels, instead of choosing a book for its educational value.
It was both baffling and heart-warming to have two of the most brilliant minds of all of Sumeru teaching her and caring for her without any judgment about her current lack of knowledge. Kaveh and Alhaitham, she realized, shared the same opinion as Cyno and Tighnari when it came to education.
"How is the book?" Alhaitham asks when she peeks through the door frame. He stands, quickly putting his work aside before he starts walking. Kaveh has been sending her to fetch the Scribe for meals since she arrived so now it's a habit and Alhaitham follows her without Collei needing to say anything. "Did you encounter any difficulties during your reading?"
"A little", she admits. "The vocabulary is a little bit complicated. It's hard to keep track of the meaning of the sentence and of the old words when the text uses old syntax."
It was Alhaitham who sat her down and gave her the proper words to express what makes her struggle. Tignari taught her to read and write so he's so familiar with her now that he can pinpoint exactly what makes her stumble before she can comprehend it. It's not something Collei pondered before, but now she's starting to realize having a different person to teach her also has benefits, even if Tighnari remains the best of all in her eyes.
"Do you want to switch to another book?" Alhaitham asks.
Collei shakes her head. She's challenged, yes, but she doesn't want to give up yet. Besides, she truly enjoys the stories.
"Perhaps we can make a list of words you're likely to encounter and write their modern translation in an adjacent column, so you can refer to this list while you read."
"You mean...like a dictionary?"
"Of a sort, yes. If you don't have to remember the vocabulary, it will take less energy to make sense of unfamiliar syntax."
"But isn't that cheating?"
"Of course not. It's very common to have support material while you study a text for the first time." Before Collei can argue that probably applies to scholars reading ancient texts and not to teenagers working through a book of fairy tales that should have been too old to enjoy, he adds: "I will write a list of the most common vocabulary for this kind of text for you, and if you encounter some others you can add them as you go. If you don't understand one, Kaveh can explain it to you."
"Kaveh will what?" Kaveh protests from the kitchen. He barges into the living room only a moment after, bringing a heavy-looking pot to the table in quick steps. He uses the towels to chase away the vapor when he opens the lid and carefully sets it on a protective towel to prevent the heat from damaging the wooden surface.
"Careful you two, it's hot. And don't you volunteer me for work without consulting me first! Unless it's to help you, of course, sweetheart," he adds to Collei, voice much softer. "You know you can ask for anything."
The way Kaveh is doting on her still makes Collei feel shy but she's handling it much better after a few days of adaptation.
"What's this?" Alhaitham asks, frowning.
"It's a seven-hour stew. My mother sent me the recipe a few months ago, it's a Fontaine specialty. I thought it was high time I gave it a try. Give me your plate, sweetie. And, Alhaitham, no books at the table! You have plenty of leisure time during the day, no reading during mealtime! How many times must I say this?" he complains.
The Scribe only sighs as he places the book next to his plate. Collei is so distracted from their banter she takes a long time to realize how much Kaveh is piling up on her own plate. She snatches it back from Kaveh's hands before Kaveh empties the whole pot.
"Even the Archon allows me to read during my lunch break," Alhaitham protests, not for the first time. It's a daily argument and Collei is starting to suspect Al-Haithem engages in the debate only to annoy Kaveh, because he never tries to read while at breakfast when it's only Collei and Alhaitham in the room.
"Good for you," Kaveh snaps, letting the ladder drop into the pot. Now eat ."
The stew tastes amazing and Kaveh preens under Collei's compliments. His cooking is wildly different from Tighnari's or Cyno, who appreciate good food but who tend to cook more simple dishes to feed themselves than take an interest in gastronomy itself. Cooking is one of Kaveh's many hobbies and he's more invested in cooking complicated dishes than anyone Collei knows.
[Except Paimont and the traveler, of course.]
After lunch Alhaitham scribbles the list and swiftly leaves to do his 'office hours' at the Academyia. He will probably be back at half-past five sharp, fresh fruits from a street stall in his hands for their afternoon snack. Kaveh yells at him from the door to grab some coffee as well and grumbles about geniuses that never listen to their seniors under his breath when he receives no reply.
"Do you feel like reading on your own?" Kaveh asks after they washed the dishes. "I was thinking about doing some...ah, project outside this afternoon."
"It's alright," Collei cuts in before Kaveh can say more. He's likely to find excuses to stay indoors for her sake otherwise.
Alhaithaml's vocabulary list is helpful and Collei manages another two chapters before it feels like her brain is going to explode. She tries to relocate to the garden where Kaveh is working on painting shelves but the fresh air doesn't boost her focus like she hoped it would and she ends up being roped into helping Kaveh.
"Come here, darling. Everyone needs to stretch their legs every once and a while, that's how we keep the brain working. Here, let's do some applied mathematics, shall we?"
That's how Kaveh manages to have her doing maths of all things, by calculating the length of the plank of wood for the new bookcase he's building for Alhaitham's study.
"If the books are twenty-five centimeters high and we want five shelves, then it should be a hundred and twenty-five centimeters high", Collei says with furrowed brows when Kaveh first asks the question. "Does that not make any sense?"
"Well, if the case is the same height as the books, don't you think it will be difficult to place the book on and out of the shelves? We should consider extra room to move them easily. And don't forget, we have to consider the thickness of the shelves."
And as soon as she finishes the math and gives the proper answer:
"Ok then, now we have our bookcase with six rows. A bookcase like this can tip over if you bump into it, especially in old houses like this where the floor is not always even, which means we will have to consider fixing it on the wall for safety. Let's say... three aligned fixations per 50 kilograms when the total weight is above 150 kilograms..."
"Is...that something you want me to answer?" Collei asks fearfully.
Kaveh only shoves a quill and a piece of parchment in her hands.
"Take note, dear. It's not difficult, you'll see. So, where was I? Ah, yes, three aligned fixations per 50 kilograms when the total weight is above 150 kilograms. Now let's consider Alhaitham has around 80 books to tidy up in this particular bookshelf, which weighs around 80 grams each..."
In the end, she doesn't manage to find the correct answer before Alhaitham comes home. The Scribe takes a curious peek at Kaveh's plans and the drying racks while Collei finishes the last of her math. It seemed the bookcase was supposed to be a surprise. Collei feels a little bad. If she hadn't taken so long, Kaveh would have had time to pack up his things before his roommate came home.
"Don't fret," he tells her softly when she apologizes. "He probably would have noticed, anyway. Just look at him now. He won't say anything, but you can definitely tell he's happy about the whole thing!"
"Can we add a rack?" Alhaitham asks and, indeed, as per Kaveh's predictions, the Scribe's eyes look delighted even if no smile stretches his face. He has a hand on Collei's paper, reviewing her calculus.
"Well, technically we can. But Collei will have to redo the math."
Collei only groans.