Work Text:
Neither of them had made great strides in their work all night. Layla had been asleep for quite some time, with a grand total of zero pen strokes total being made on the paper in front of her. Something about finishing a research paper, Kaveh could remember. Maybe she would come to in the middle of the night and write it all in one fell swoop. One could only hope, so that she would not be haunted by projects yet to be started in the near future.
Kaveh, on the other hand, was not encountering the same problem of being unable to put strokes down on paper. He was plenty capable of doing so. His problem lied within being unable to compose a design that was appealing enough to him. For what felt like endless hours throughout the night, he was stuck in the same dreadful cycle.
Think.
Sketch.
Discard.
Repeat.
He tried every so-called foolproof trick of his to try and come up with ideas for this stained-glass window project. Flowers, his usual source of inspiration, were doing him no good, and a nature scene simply wouldn’t fit the structure that he was designing it for. As for a pattern of geometric shapes, let’s just say that Kaveh has already tried that concept one too many times and remained completely dissatisfied with each attempt. At least half of the pile of papers at his desk was comprised of discarded geometric based designs. At first, they harbored some form of thoughtful composition, but his carefully planned concept sketches very quickly became chaotic scribbles of lines out of frustration.
There was always the option to just work on it tomorrow, but Kaveh had the urge to accomplish something and wanted to work while his motivation persisted. The same unfortunately could not be said for Layla, as he had noticed. He glanced over to her more often than he would like to admit to see if she ever awoke to speed through her writing. Nothing. Not even a single peep from her all night.
He wondered if he should perhaps nudge her awake, so that she may have a chance of at least starting her work. Though, every time the thought crossed his mind, he quickly dismissed it. Layla was not known for maintaining a healthy sleep schedule, and it would be counterproductive to disturb her now.
While she still lay with her face resting on the paper, Kaveh continued scribbling and failing to comprise a design that he could view as being as passable, at least. He needed to show his client that he was some strides forward, and having a hundred crumpled pieces of paper wasn’t going to cut it as progress. A few concepts to present to the client at the very least would be fine, but Kaveh found himself unable to be satisfied with any of his sketches.
They’re only concepts. Your client doesnt expect them to be perfect, he kept telling himself. If they don’t like what you present them with, then they will tell you what they like, and then you can build off of that.
But he felt as if his entire reputation was riding on being nearly spot on with a design that his client liked the first time. Therefore, Kaveh couldn’t bring himself to send in a design that he was ever so slightly dissatisfied with. He had exhausted all but a single plot to force himself to come up with a satisfactory design plan; taking his mind off of the paper before him and allowing his hand and his hand alone free reign of the design process. Normally, Kaveh preferred to go in with some kind of plan in order to better map out the unity between structures and patterns, but did he truly have a choice at this point in time? Forcing himself to think of a set plan wasn’t working very well, so ultimately, he had no choice but to completely freehand it and see where he ended up.
He glanced over at Layla yet again out of habit, and she was still blissfully asleep. In a way, Kaveh envied her, being able to simply rest even when the workload hung heavy over her. He wanted to let sleep finally overtake him, and perhaps show his client sketches a bit later than he originally planned, but he in good conscious could not do that. He gave his client an estimated timeframe of 2-5 days, and he was most certainly going to have them done in 2, no more, no less. Going to sleep now would be a waste of perfectly good time to work.
Refocusing himself and shaking his head, Kaveh finally peeled his eyes off of Layla and began sketching. He tried to not think too much about his piece, allowing his subconscious to take control of the design and hopefully present him with something that he would truly be satisfied with. Perhaps the most he had put the effort into thinking about during the entire process was the basic outline of the window, after which, he absentmindedly allowed the design to take shape.
On the paper, the outlines of twinkling stars were beginning to take shape. Four-pointed stars that appear to glow as white as ice from where he stood in Teyvat, yet burn with a fiery passion, illuminate the lonely night. With the moon at the center, it felt as if they were revolving around him.
Perhaps this artistic vision stemmed from his desire to get some rest at this ungodly hour at night, or maybe it was this time that filled his mind with thoughts of stargazing.
It wasn’t a particularly cold night, but Kaveh imagined his starry night sky window design shaded with a variety of icy blues, ranging from the darkest midnight sky to the softest of snow. He felt compelled to draw a snowflake for the briefest of moments, despite Sumeru being the homeland of Dendro.
At that moment, it dawned on him as to what he was doing. The color scheme looked awfully familiar to him. In fact, the entire composition of the sketch looked extremely familiar to him.
He blinked at it for a few moments, his hand frozen, thinking, Where have I seen this before?
He glanced to his side, looking at Layla, who had peacefully slept through his brief creative burst, then the realization finally hit him.
She was the one preoccupying his mind. His perception for design was clouded by his concern for Layla and her well-being. Though he didn’t quite understand why...why a mere friend of his was taking up so much of his thoughts, whether or not he was truly aware of it. Kaveh felt as if he should know the reasoning. He lectured Alhaitham on human emotion countless times, yet Kaveh couldn’t figure out a solid definition for what was transpiring within his own mind.
Maybe it wasn’t something meant to be put into words at this time.
At the very least, Kaveh had a feeling that his inspiration just now, and potentially moving forward, would come in the form of his rather sleepy study partner. As the realization had only just sunken in, even he knew that it was both far too early and the wrong timing in general to allude to anything.
He looked back at his drawing of the stained-glass window that “coincidentally” resembled Layla. Now, he was unsure if he liked this design because it was genuinely appealing, or it reflected the likeness of his friend his such a manner. He was even having second thoughts on whether or not it was worthy of being shared as a formal presentation of concept art.
Ultimately, Kaveh came to the conclusion that it was a design that he liked, so why not present it regardless? If it gets declined, he could always save it for another project, whether it be personal or contracted. It would be nonsensical to discard effort that he was genuinely happy with for once.
The only question that remained now was what to do with Layla. He didn’t want to leave her, but at the same time, he felt himself succumbing to sleep rather quickly.
He decided that his bed could do without him for a night, and he could pretend that falling asleep as his desk was a complete accident.
It would be much harder to pass off his cape being draped over Layla as an accident, however.