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When Kaveh, with his fists clenched and his voice low, thanked Alhaitham for the first time in many years, he saw it in Alhaitham’s eyes - the momentary slip of his usual haughty expression, the surprise that gave way to, just for a moment, a hint of warmth (almost as if Kaveh’s gratitude meant something to him), before the usual aloof expression of his shuttered right back into place. And then, of course, with the usual ill grace that Kaveh had come to expect, Alhaitham had said: “They say that earnest thanks should be given thrice, so … once more, please.”
Which, predictably, quickly devolved into bickering (“Alhaitham, you are such a sore recipient of appreciation!” “So you won’t say it again. How stingy. Surprising, for someone who is so prone to spending on frivolous nonsense.” “I told you already, I bought those keychains for a good cause -”), which left Kaveh stewing and Alhaitham in such good spirits that he may as well have been jumping for glee, based on the stupid little smirk he was carrying around all evening. It was almost enough for Kaveh to swear off thanking Alhaitham ever again.
Almost, if not for Kaveh’s own traitorous brain.
Since then, for whatever reason, Kaveh started to notice little things. Like that one time when he was wondering out loud if it would be worthwhile to integrate non-Sumerian architectural styles and concepts into his projects. A couple days later, while he was dusting, he found a text on Liyuen architectural principles in Alhaitham’s bookshelves that he could’ve sworn he had never seen in the house before. Or when he had emerged from his room late one night, disheveled and starving after hours of work, to find a plate of candied Ajilenakh nuts on the coffee table. This, on top of giving Kaveh a place to stay, looking into Sachin’s case and helping grant Kaveh the closure he needed for his father’s death, listening intently to Kaveh’s misfortunes, all while Kaveh was drunk, miserable, and at the lowest point of his life -
It was enough to drive him mad.
The problem wasn’t that he was coming to realize, bit by bit, that Alhaitham apparently cared enough to listen to Kaveh, or leave food out for him on hard days (though truthfully, that was a difficult realization in and of itself). Rather, it was the fact that, looking back on it, Alhaitham had been doing things like this for as long as Kaveh had been living with him, and well … Kaveh hadn’t once thanked him.
(Though in Kaveh’s defense, it wasn’t like it didn’t occur to Kaveh to be grateful - rather, Alhaitham made it very difficult for Kaveh to choke out the words ‘thank you’. Once, Alhaitham had brought home minty bean soup - a favourite of Kaveh’s. Before Kaveh could even think about being appreciative for the food, Alhaitham had opened his big fat mouth and said, “Aether made soup, but I brought it home since I thought you might need it more than me. After all, judging by how late you are on your rent payments, you must be out of mora again.” Given Kaveh was only a day or two late on rent, he thought the slight on his dire financial situation was rather unjustified and that Alhaitham was just being a tyrant, and promptly told Alhaitham so.)
But all the same, no matter how hard it was for him to simply say the words, maybe Alhaitham deserved the ‘thank you’ sometimes. And no matter how much he tried to forget it, the one moment of softness he saw in Alhaitham’s eyes, when Kaveh thanked him sincerely for the first time since their falling out, the - if Kaveh could let himself believe it - fondness, for just that split second … well. Maybe he could try to express his gratitude, just a little bit, notwithstanding their acrimonious, not quite friendly, not quite definable relationship.
With no small amount of trepidation, Kaveh tucked his newfound resolve away. Next time, he promised to himself. Next time.
—-
“Drunk already?” came Alhaitham’s voice from behind Kaveh’s shoulder, drier than the Desert of Hadramaveth. “I thought you all met up a mere hour ago.”
Kaveh’s heart skipped several beats at the familiar voice. He spun around, meeting Alhaitham’s haughty look with his own indignant one. “I am not drunk!” Sure, his pale skin tended to catch colour quicker than the rest with the slightest drop of alcohol, and he had no doubt that his back was already tinged with unattractive blotches of red, but that hardly meant that he was a lightweight, no matter what everyone else said. “What do you take me for?”
Before Alhaitham could make whatever cutting remark he was no doubt beginning to formulate in his mind, Dehya jumped in, crowing, “Welcome to the party, Alhaitham, Nilou!” She slugged an arm across Candace’s shoulders in one sweeping movement, pointing with the other at the newcomers accusingly. “Fashionably late, I see!”
Nilou peeked around Alhaitham, beaming brightly at the table. “Hi all!” she greeted, ever cheerful. “Sorry we’re late - the wrap-up meeting for the Akademiya Extravaganza took a bit longer than we expected.”
Dehya waved them down, gesturing at the empty seats still available at the table. “All that matters is that you made it. Sit, get yourself a drink!”
“Hello, Dehya,” Alhaitham greeted good-humouredly, sliding into the open seat next to Kaveh and promptly helping himself to Kaveh’s beer, like it was his Archon-given right. “No need - I’ll just have Kaveh’s. It’s not like he needs any more alcohol, judging by how red he is.”
“Hey!” Kaveh said, indignant.
Tighnari shot him a pitying look. Kaveh appreciated the thought, until Tighnari turned to Alhaitham, smiling softly. “It’s good to have you here, Alhaitham. We missed you last time.” The traitor!
Cyno snickered under his breath. “Some of us more than others.”
“Oh?” Alhaitham raised an eyebrow, imperious as always. “Do tell.”
Emboldened by Alhaitham’s prompting, Cyno sat up, his expression solemn. “Well you see, Alhaitham,” he began seriously, lifting a hand to place it over his heart. “We all missed you that day. But truthfully, one could say that you were in fact present that other night, when we met for dinner. You were present, rent-free, in the heart of -”
Groans erupted from Tighnari and Collei’s corner of the table. “You’ve already made that joke!” Collei cried.
“Get new material,” Tighnari agreed, aggrieved, reaching up to flatten his ears against his skull.
Cyno harrumphed. “Fine. All that to say, Kaveh wouldn’t stop talking about you.”
“HEY,” Kaveh said, louder this time.
Alhaitham turned, predictably, to peer at Kaveh. The smugness rolling off his stupid muscle-y shoulders in waves was palpable, much to Kaveh’s great displeasure. “And why, exactly, would you be talking about me?”
Kaveh glared back. “It’s not like I was saying anything good about you, so you can wipe that look off your face!”
“What look?” Alhaitham said flatly, without making any effort to smooth the self-satisfied look off his face. In fact, the corners of his lips curled upwards oh-so-slightly instead. To the untrained eye, Alhaitham probably just looked as emotionally constipated as ever. But Kaveh knew better - that expression that Alhaitham was now sporting was absolutely Alhaitham at his smuggest. “It seems to me that you are once again projecting what you expect to see rather than actually observing the world around you,” Alhaitham continued, spouting absolute nonsense as usual. “I suggest you take a closer look next time, before jumping to conclusions and embarrassing yourself.”
“Here we go again,” Tighnari muttered under his breath.
“I can see perfectly fine!” Kaveh groused, pointedly ignoring Tighnari, who had now flattened his ears so snugly against his scalp that it would be a miracle if he could hear anything (though Kaveh suspected that was very much the point). “You might have everyone else fooled, but I know that look of yours. I’ve certainly seen it enough!”
“If you have that much experience with my expressions, then shouldn’t it be your responsibility to avoid finding yourself in situations that would cause me to carry such an expression? There’s no reason to blame other people for your own failings.”
“Ugh, you -”
“Goodness,” Candace said, leaning over to not-so-quietly whisper in Dehya’s ear. “Your stories don’t quite do their relationship justice, I’m afraid.”
Dehya laughed her hearty, full belly-laugh. “Aren’t they a riot?”
Nilou placed her hand on her cheek. “Is this how Mr. Kaveh and Alhaitham usually are?” she asked, looking thoughtful. “I must say, this is the first time I’ve seen you so energetic, Alhaitham!”
Kaveh froze. In the heat of the moment (and his rising blood pressure induced by one very infuriating roommate), he had completely forgotten that they were in the company of people who weren’t as familiar with their spats. How embarrassing. Though, when he glanced over at Alhaitham, Alhaitham merely raised an eyebrow back, looking wholly unbothered.
“Yes, me as well,” Candance continued pleasantly. “Alhaitham, I don’t believe you were even this excited about planning a revolution.”
“Well, it wasn’t a situation that called for excitement,” Alhaitham responded, matter-of-fact. “We were concocting an ambitious multi-step plan that would lead to everyone’s arrest if even one piece went awry. I merely lent it the level of gravity that the situation called for.”
As the rest of the group chimed in on their piece of the insurrection (which apparently everyone was in on except Collei, who was indisposed with Eleazar, and Kaveh, who was indisposed with absolutely nothing. Thanks for the invitation, friends), Kaveh leaned back, letting the welcome buzz of alcohol take over, as the jovial atmosphere washed pleasantly over him. He fiddled idly with his glass as he watched Alhaitham. He had his headphones slung around his neck for once, just shy of covering up the sharp line of his jaw, as he engaged in, surprisingly, what was actual, pleasant conversation in a measured tone.
Kaveh knew that most people saw Alhaitham as being a stoic, straightforward man who, if and when rude, did so only because he believed strongly in the truth. However, Kaveh had held fast to his belief that since Alhaitham tended to prefer his own company, everyone else simply hadn’t gotten to know Alhaitham’s real personality yet - after all, the Alhaitham he knew was far less stoic and cool, but rather, was purposefully contrarian and liked to engage in heated academic (and sometimes non-academic) arguments, and had a penchant for teasing and needling Kaveh just to get a rise out of him for who knows what reason. He’d certainly complained about it enough to anyone who would listen.
But then, ever since the Grand Sage had been overthrown, Alhaitham had welcomed his insurrectionist buddies into his life, even inviting friends home for the first time (Kaveh was still reeling from the revelation that Aether and Paimon were, in fact, not paid actors that Alhaitham had hired to prove a point). Though Alhaitham himself would no doubt deny it, Kaveh could tell - he had finally started to open up his time and life for others, just like Kaveh had been pestering him to do for years.
And yet, even these friends still haven’t faced the impassioned, taunting side of Alhaitham that Kaveh so frequently complained about. And based on what Nilou and Candace had said, it appeared that this side of Alhaitham hadn’t come out even when the rest of the group had been planning their revolution. So this Alhaitham remained reserved for Kaveh alone, then.
Part of Kaveh had to wonder. Was the nature of their relationship that unique?
(Perhaps, when Kaveh had declared, in a fit of rage so many years ago, that he regretted their friendship, he had irrevocably damaged their relationship to the point that Alhaitham would no longer be able to treat him like a friend, the same way he treated everyone else. If that was the case, then so be it - Kaveh had made his bed. Perhaps it was natural, then, that Alhaitham treated him with such acrimony, and Kaveh had no one to blame but himself.)
Kaveh, lost in thought, started when Alhaitham turned his head to peer back at Kaveh, a confused frown starting to form on his face. The ambient lighting of the tavern softened the sharp teal of Alhaitham’s irises with a light amber glow. Kaveh quickly looked away.
Later into the night, as the conversation lulled and the tavern began to empty slowly around them, Tighnari stretched. “We should turn in,” he suggested, glancing over at Collei, who looked like she was starting to nod off. “Collei and I have an early morning. We’re setting out early so we can arrive in Gandharva Ville by the afternoon.”
There was a chorus of general agreement around the table. As everyone slowly gathered their belongings, getting ready to shuffle downstairs to pay off their respective tabs, Kaveh pulled out his wallet, peering forlornly at its contents.
“Ugh,” Kaveh grumbled to himself. There was only so much left of the proceeds of Cyno’s generous purchase of the TCG card that Kaveh had won during the Interdarshan Championship. Still, it should be enough to cover his drinks for the night, even with Alhaitham helping himself to several rounds of drinks, that bastard -
“Put that thing away,” Alhaitham said, leaning over, his voice low enough to fall beneath the ambient din of the tavern. “It’s depressing, seeing how little mora you have in there.”
Kaveh jerked the wallet away, glaring at Alhaitham accusingly. “Who told you to look? Back off, alright? I have to pay -”
“No need,” Alhaitham interrupted unceremoniously, leaning an elbow on the armrest of his seat. “Lambad asked me on my way in how you were planning to pay, so I told him to put your bill on my tab. I could hardly let Lambad suffer for your poor financial decisions now, can I?”
Kaveh opened his mouth to let Alhaitham know, with all the indignation he could muster, that he had the mora to cover his bill, no thanks to you, and that he very much resented the insinuation that it was an absolute given that he would be unable to pay, but something stopped him.
This was just like Alhaitham, wasn’t it? It was hardly a surprise that he left Kaveh so confused. What with the non-stop teasing, pushing and pulling just to annoy Kaveh, and being so utterly disagreeable in a way that he just wasn’t with anyone else. And then, in the midst of all this purposeful antagonism, he would pay for Kaveh’s bill, or bring home one of Kaveh’s favourite snacks, but not before couching any sort of goodwill with some acerbic comment or another.
It just didn’t make any sense.
Let it go, Kaveh thought to himself, soothing his bristling nerves. Let it go.
He had to tell himself not to lose sight of his recent, newfound goal. All he had to do was thank Alhaitham for grabbing the tab tonight. After all, Kaveh had been prodding and needling Alhaitham to treat him to drinks, in exchange for his home-decorating expertise. He hadn’t really expected Alhaitham to capitulate, with Alhaitham being … Alhaitham, and all, but in the end he listened, didn’t he? Even if he made Kaveh pay for himself at Lambad’s, after their trip to the Grand Bazaar the other day for a new bookshelf for the living room.
Right, so. Thanking Alhaitham.
Kaveh opened his mouth … then immediately snapped it shut.
Alhaitham peered at him suspiciously. “Lost for words? That would be a first.”
“Being lost for words is certainly better than the insults and disrespect that you spew on a daily basis without any thought!” Kaveh immediately retorted, very much no longer lost for words. “Perhaps you should consider being ‘lost for words’ every now and then. It would certainly spare a great deal of trampled feelings.”
“On the contrary,” Alhaitham said, calm as ever. “My insults and disrespect are given very much thought. Did you ever think that I would insult you without thinking deeply about it first? Perish the thought.”
Which, of course, Kaveh took very poorly, and bit back with much vigour, much to their friends’ consternation. Alhaitham met his jabs with zest, as if he was never happier than when Kaveh was huffing and puffing from fury directly induced by Alhaitham himself. Then Dehya came flying across the table - almost quite literally - to break up the squabble, and then the table promptly exploded into mayhem.
It wasn’t until Kaveh returned home with Alhaitham and retired to his own room later that evening, that he realized that he hadn’t thanked Alhaitham in the end.
—
Kaveh’s next few attempts went very much the same. He would try to say the stupid words, struggle to get them past his throat, and then Alhaitham would say something rude. They’d then, predictably, devolve right back into familiar bickering, and Alhaitham would leave thankless and none the wiser as to Kaveh’s efforts.
(Though he was fairly certain Alhaitham had noticed that something was up. When Alhaitham thought Kaveh wasn’t looking, he’d shoot Kaveh a tense, worried look, as if he suspected Kaveh had finally gone off the deep end or something. And to be honest, Alhaitham would probably be right.)
Since drinks at Lambad’s with their circle of friends some couple of weeks previous, Kaveh had made several attempts to make good on his resolve to start expressing his gratitude to Alhaitham, only to be met with failure each time. Anyone would be feeling defeated in the circumstances, he tried to console himself, as he slouched over the coffee table, forehead pressed against one of the various papers that he had left scattered around him. I’m allowed to feel a bit bad about it.
“Are you even working?” Alhaitham’s voice broke through Kaveh’s thoughts. He could hear the soft sound of Alhaitham’s footsteps approaching, as he padded across the rug. “I can hardly imagine that you’re achieving any semblance of productivity in that position.”
“I’m a grown man, I’m allowed to wallow when I so choose,” Kaveh grumbled. The words came out muffled against the survey plans that he had chosen as his pillow.
Alhaitham grunted in what was probably agreement. His footsteps receded. No doubt he had decided to leave Kaveh in peace to continue to slave over his drawings. Off to do whatever the Scribe did when he wasn’t working his cushy nine-to-five job, like reading one of the thousands of books that lined the study.
Kaveh sighed, then rolled his face over to rest his cheek on the plans instead.
It must have only been a matter of minutes before the footsteps returned. Blearily, he blinked open his eyes, to see Alhaitham standing over him with one steaming mug in each hand.
“Coffee?” Kaveh asked coherently, lifting his head up to follow the familiar scent of caffeine.
“I made some for myself, but thought you might need it,” Alhaitham explained, setting one mug down in one of the few empty spots on the coffee table. “You’ve got dark circles so large you could see them from Celestia. Best not to leave the house today, in case you scare some children.”
“It’s not that bad!” Kaveh snapped, reaching out to grab the coffee. The heat of the mug was comfortably toasty against his hands. “At least I don’t scare them off with my personality, like you do.”
Alhaitham rolled his eyes. “Disparaging my personality doesn’t change the fact that you have dark circles the size of our plates. Finish what you have to and take a nap, before you keel over and I have to carry you to the doctor’s.” With a dismissive flap of his coat, he turned on his heel and made to leave.
Kaveh stared into his coffee, turning Alhaitham’s parting words over in his mind. Alhaitham, that infuriating bastard - he’d done it again. Here Kaveh was, with a fresh mug of coffee (on the milky side, just the way he liked it), that he had barely even registered receiving because he was too busy biting back at Alhaitham. There was hardly any room for him to even begin thinking about thanking Alhaitham for the coffee. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think that Alhaitham was doing this on purpose.
“Wait,” he called hurriedly, scrambling to his feet to catch Alhaitham before he could leave the room.
Alhaitham, who was already stepping into the study, turned back with an eyebrow raised. “What?”
Kaveh faltered. He did make the split-second decision to stop Alhaitham, but, as usual, actually saying the words ‘thank you’ was the hard part. Now that he was there, standing in front of Alhaitham …
He cleared his throat awkwardly. “I …”
Alhaitham charitably waited a few beats for Kaveh to gather his bearings. When, after a few moments of awkward silence passed, a proper explanation was clearly not forthcoming, he sighed. “Really, Kaveh, should I be concerned? This isn’t the first time in the last few weeks that you’ve just abruptly stopped talking in the middle of a conversation. What, are you having a stroke?”
“No, I am not having a stroke!” Kaveh snapped, wrinkling his nose. “Just give me a moment, alright?”
Alhaitham sighed even louder. “Weren’t you the one who called out to me to wait? Why would you do so, if you didn’t even know what you planned to say to me?” He shook his head. “Perhaps next time, you should think before you -”
“Stop - stop for one second, alright?” Kaveh begged, letting his face fall into his hands. The urge to take the bait and snap back was overwhelming and was altogether very distracting. “You can insult me however you want after, just - give me a moment.”
Kaveh almost expected Alhaitham to push back and continue harping on about Kaveh’s temporary inability to speak, but Alhaitham merely fell silent, watching Kaveh keenly, his eyes bright and intense. He folded his arms over his chest, and simply waited.
Kaveh was thrown a little off-kilter by Alhaitham’s easy acquiescence to his request, but he couldn’t dwell on that. First and foremost, he had to remember what he was there to do.
Right.
Deep breath. In, and out.
He made it this far. It was now or never - he might as well give up forever if he couldn’t manage it even now, when Alhaitham was giving him the space to say his piece.
Choosing to keep his gaze chained on the ceramic centerpiece behind Alhaitham (because the centerpiece was simply fascinating, and not because he found Alhaitham’s gaze too intense to bear, obviously), finally, finally, he managed to choke out, “... Thank you.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably, and raised his voice slightly. “For the coffee, I mean.”
Kaveh let out a small sigh of relief, dropping his gaze to the floor. Finally. It took several weeks, but he managed it - and nothing had burned down, and no one had died. Given the strain in their relationship, this was quite the victory.
Alhaitham stared at him. “Is that it?”
Offended, his gaze involuntarily snapped back up to meet Alhaitham’s. “Do you have any idea how hard this was for me?!” Kaveh griped, chagrined that Alhaitham hadn’t managed to grasp just how momentous an occasion this was for him. “Somehow, you manage to be disagreeable at all hours of the day. I’ve been trying for weeks to say thank you, but it’s impossible! With your disposition, it’s a miracle I even managed it today!”
“Just so I have this straight,” Alhaitham said, as if he hadn’t heard any of Kaveh’s criticism, “You’ve been trying to thank me for weeks? For what?”
Kaveh gestured vaguely at the air. “Just - anything! Like when you picked up my tab at Lambad’s, or when you woke me up the other day when I almost missed my client meeting, or when you let me have some of your Fatteh -”
“Hold on, is that what all the recent strange behaviour has been about?” Alhaitham asked, amusement lighting up his typically stoic, handsome face. “You’ve been trying to teach yourself to thank me for things in general?”
Well when he put it that way, it sounded absolutely stupid. “It’s not like you made it easy for me!” Kaveh complained, crossing his arms over his chest in a huff. “You always couched anything nice you did with rudeness and insults. What was I supposed to do, just ignore them? At that point I’d immediately forget you did anything nice at all, much less thank you for it!”
Alhaitham snorted. “Well, you see, Senior Kaveh,” he started in that annoyingly smug tone of his. Kaveh rolled his eyes. Alhaitham only ever acknowledged his seniority when he was being a smartass. “I do that because frankly, I don’t need your thanks.”
Wow. “Does my gratitude mean that little -”
Alhaitham held up a hand. “Don’t jump to conclusions. What I mean is that, I do these things for you because I want to, not to wrangle some sort of gratefulness out of you, or to leave you indebted to me.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “And knowing you anyways, if you thought I was doing favours for you, you’d start coming up with increasingly harebrained ways to repay me or something. Which I’m really not interested in, by the way, so don’t start.”
“But, you can’t just keep doing things for me for no reason!” Kaveh exclaimed. He suddenly felt a spike of anxiety accompany the thought - Alhaitham, offering little favours to Kaveh, just for Kaveh to reap the benefits and not offer something in return? “I can’t just … that’s not right!”
Alhaitham groaned with feeling. “This is what I mean. Your so-called empathy has led you to believe that you can’t simply just accept that sometimes, you can be selfish and just let people do things for you for nothing in return.”
Alhaitham was many things, but selfless, giving, and empathetic he was not, and Alhaitham was frequently the first to tell people so. “But I just … I don’t understand why you would do that!” Kaveh shook his head. “Listen. In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never known you to ever do anything for free.”
“Perhaps,” Alhaitham agreed. “But as you are aware, I also frequently do things simply because I feel like it.”
That made even less sense. “And … you pick up my tabs when I go drinking and leave food out for when I work late, just because you feel like it?”
“So you have been listening.”
Kaveh was ready to throttle him. “But why?”
Alhaitham watched Kaveh thoughtfully, eyes narrowed as he clearly mulled something over in his mind. Kaveh shifted from foot to foot impatiently. He scrutinized Alhaitham’s expression suspiciously, watching as a certain resolve settled into the set of his face.
Finally, Alhaitham seemed to come to a conclusion.
“Given you seem like you are struggling with the concept, let me set this out for you in a way that you can understand,” Alhaitham said, crossing his arms over his chest. Before Kaveh could bristle at the unnecessary jab, he continued, “In your own words, I am not the sort of person to do anything for free. And yet, I have been, freely, doing favours for you without asking, and without expecting anything in return. And, as you have so impressively grasped, I have been doing these things simply because I feel like it.”
Alhaitham tilted his chin up. He looked serious, suddenly, his expression set with a certain edge, his gaze intense. Kaveh had to convince himself not to look away. Alhaitham’s voice dropped, low and gravelly, his eyes trained on Kaveh’s. “So, Kaveh,” he said. “You tell me. Why do I do these things for you?”
Abruptly, the atmosphere had become heavy, so suddenly that Kaveh felt like he was careening off-balance. Though Alhaitham was always rather stony, this was different - his expression was grave, serious in a way that Kaveh wasn’t used to, like whatever Kaveh’s answer was going to be was a matter of utmost importance. Like nothing else in the world mattered. He felt his heart squeeze uncomfortably - subconsciously, he raised a hand to his chest.
“Well, Kaveh?” Alhaitham murmured. The arresting teal of his eyes glinted under the sunlight that filtered into their home.
There was one, obvious answer that cropped up, unbidden, in Kaveh’s mind, but he quickly pressed it down. Alhaitham wouldn’t - he couldn’t possibly - “Do you just feel bad for me, maybe?” he blurted out, desperately reaching for an answer that made more sense. “So you’re just being nice?”
“You know me better than that,” Alhaitham scoffed. “Try again, but seriously, this time.”
Kaveh’s throat was unbearably dry. He stared up at Alhaitham, wide-eyed. “Alhaitham, you …” he tried. It came out as a whisper. “Um, do you …”
Alhaitham strode forward. He grasped Kaveh’s arm, tugging Kaveh towards himself, threaded a hand firmly through Kaveh’s hair -
- and kissed him.
Kaveh’s hands instinctively flew up to grasp at the fabric of Alhaitham’s top, fingers twisting into the lapel of his coat. He tilted his chin up for a better angle and opened his mouth, pressing insistently back, letting out a light gasp as Alhaitham’s hand trailed its way slowly down Kaveh’s arm, leaving a tingling sensation in its wake. He could feel Alhaitham’s lips curl slightly against his own, and the rumble of Alhaitham’s chest as he chuckled into the kiss.
Kaveh barely registered that Alhaitham had nudged them gently towards the wall, until his back was pressed against the cool wood, with Alhaitham’s arms bracketing Kaveh in, who was still clinging onto Alhaitham like a lifeline. He shuddered as Alhaitham drew his tongue along Kaveh’s lip, slowly, deliberately, asking to be invited in. Hesitantly, Kaveh released his grasp on Alhaitham’s coat to stretch his arms over Alhaitham’s shoulders, sliding his fingers through Alhaitham’s soft, silvery strands of hair, and was rewarded with a pleased hum.
He was drowning - his senses completely overwhelmed with Alhaitham, Alhaitham, Alhaitham, who was holding him, kissing him, as if he was afraid that if he let go, Kaveh would slip through his fingers. For the caustic sort of person that Kaveh knew Alhaitham to be, Kaveh was surprised to find out that Alhaitham kissed gently, affectionately, as if handling something utterly precious. The hand that he had threaded in Kaveh’s hair slid down to caress Kaveh’s cheek, his thumb brushing lightly over Kaveh’s cheekbone. Kaveh couldn’t help but lean gently into the touch.
In the end, Alhaitham broke away first, leaning his forehead gently against Kaveh’s. “So,” he murmured, his words tinged with amusement, “do you have your answer, now?”
“Answer?” Kaveh responded dazedly, before their conversation slowly filtered its way back to his memory. “Oh, um … yes, I think so.”
“You think so?” Alhaitham repeated dryly. “I would hope that you’d have a surer answer than that.”
Kaveh thumped his fists half-heartedly against Alhaitham’s chest. “Ugh, you know what I mean.”
Alhaitham hummed. “Just in case you still have any doubts, let me be clear.” He pulled away slightly. “I love you, and have loved you for a long time. I don’t have any expectations, be it with respect to the little favours I do for you, or with respect to whether you reciprocate my feelings or not.” He smiled, apparently pleased with himself. “Though, I’m not too sure if I have much to worry about, but I leave that with you.”
“Confident, are we?” Kaveh retorted, albeit with little bite. He was right, after all.
“Hard not to be, given you seemed plenty enthusiastic just now.”
Kaveh glared at Alhaitham, who met the glare with a smirk. “Well,” Kaveh grumbled. “You’d be right, anyways.”
“What about?”
“I - ugh!” Kaveh groaned. “Are you playing obtuse again?”
“Who’s to say,” Alhaitham teased, clearly back to his old ways. “So be clear, please.”
“Fine! Fine,” Kaveh snapped. He took a deep breath to settle his nerves … then promptly clammed up.
Alhaitham was watching him expectantly, mirth dancing in his eyes, clearly deriving great enjoyment from watching Kaveh struggle with himself. And as for Kaveh … he had no idea how Alhaitham could just come out and express his feelings so matter-of-factly, without any sense of embarrassment. He bit his lip, worrying it, before unceremoniously dropping his forehead against Alhaitham’s shoulder.
“... I do reciprocate your feelings, okay?” he groused. He could feel his face and the tips of his ears heat up. No doubt his cheeks were beginning to colour scarlet. “So stop it with all the teasing, before I change my mind.”
Alhaitham chuckled. “How can you call yourself the senior in this relationship?” he teased, blatantly ignoring the request. However, his tone was soft, with none of the mocking sarcasm it usually carried. “I would expect a senior to carry himself with more confidence and less bashfulness, you know.”
Kaveh snapped his neck up, glaring up at Alhaitham. “That has nothing to do with seniority, and you know it!”
“Oh, look at that,” Alhaitham drawled. “Welcome back. Did you find your stay on my shoulder comfortable?”
“Absolutely not,” Kaveh grumbled, leaning back against the wall. He had to suppress a shiver when the cool surface met his exposed back. “It was too hard. Please invest in some shoulder pads.”
“Good to see that you’ve stopped feeling embarrassed long enough to be joking around,” Alhaitham noted dryly. “Anyways, your dark circles are even more noticeable up close. Go finish up your work so you can rest. There’s more coffee in the pot if you need it.”
Kaveh huffed at the soft jab at his dark circles. “Fine,” he acquiesced. “Thanks, Alhaitham.”
The corners of Alhaitham’s lips quirked up slightly into what was undeniably a smile, the look in Alhaitham’s eyes soft and fond.
Kaveh couldn’t help but smile back.