Work Text:
It had been another long day at the office, and despite his insistence on leaving the second his appointed hours were over, Nahida had managed to rope him into a meeting with the other Sages. Glancing at the clock, Alhaitham sighed. He was supposed to be home an hour ago, Kaveh was most likely starting to worry.
Just as he was finally getting fed up at the nonsense that was keeping him away from home, a frantic but firm knock interrupted the Ratawahist Sage who had been droning on. Before anyone could answer, the door to the meeting hall was flung open by a frantic member of the Mahamatra.
“Lesser Lord, Kusanali, Sages, I’m very sorry to interrupt your meeting.” He bowed deeply before rounding on Alhaitham. “Grand Sage, your presence is needed at your home immediately.”
Alhaitham was immediately on edge, not even bothering to correct the young man that he was only the ‘acting’ Grand Sage. Without sparing a glance at any of the Sages, he stood, quickly gathering his papers. “You’ll have to excuse my abrupt departure, Lord Kusanali.”
“There is nothing to excuse, we would be wrapping up soon anyways. Hurry home.” She stopped him, a small, gentle hand grasping his wrist. “Please, let me know if everything is alright once you are able.”
With a quick bow of his head, Alhaitham was rushing out of the meeting hall and through the halls of the Akademiya, speculations of what could be wrong flying through his mind. For less than a second, he allowed the irrational part of his mind to take over, to imagine that something horrible had happened and that Kaveh was dead or dying. But then he was quickly pushing that thought away, allowing his rational mind to take over once more. There could be a perfectly logical explanation for why someone would have had to send the Matra to get him to come home.
The illogical part of his brain crept forward once more. Alhaitham broke into a sprint down the street until he was in front of their home.
The second he opened the door, Alhaitham knew something was wrong. Their house was bathed in the scent of a distressed omega, and Kaveh was curled up into himself on one of the divans.
“Kaveh?” Alhaitham called out softly, doing his best not to startled his clearly distressed mate. The omega’s head snapped up as soon as he heard his voice, quickly pushing himself up onto his feet.
“Hayi?” Kaveh mumbled, stumbling forward into his mates outstretched arms.
The acting Grand Sage quickly lowered his head to scent the smaller man, doing his best to wash away the sour, anxious scent of rotting flowers. “Kaveh, what happened? Are you alright hayati?”
Nuzzling into his chest, Kaveh whimpered, the sweet smell of an oncoming heat mixing into the rotten mourning flowers.
Something was definitely wrong, Kaveh’s heat wasn’t due for another month and a half. Alhaitham wracked his brain, trying desperately to figure out what or who could have caused his omega to go into heat so early.
Separating from his omega was more difficult than it should have been, but his rational brain was only partially functioning now that he was fully submerged in Kaveh’s distressed scent.
Kneeling down in front of his lover, Alhaitham tenderly grasped his thighs, gazing up at Kaveh with all the reverence of a worshiper praying to their fallen god.
“Kaveh, habibi, I need you to focus on me, can you do that?”
Hesitant tear-filled eyes blinked open, latching onto Alhaitham. With a broken sob, Kaveh nodded, tangling his fingers into his alphas soft hair to ground himself.
“Such a good omega, so good for me.” Alhaitham lifted one of his hands to rest over Kaveh’s on his head. “What happened?”
A sniffle, and then Kaveh was breaking down again, the blond man leaning down to bury his face in his mates hair alongside his hands.
Pulling them both down, Alhaitham settled his poor mate into his lap, shushing him softly. He made quick work of wrapping Kaveh in his embrace, releasing a soothing scent to help calm the shaking blond.
Slowly but surely, the scent of ink and bergamot began to overpower the rotting mourning flowers, and Kaveh’s body began to relax into his hold.
“There you are, I have you. I have you Kaveh,” Alhaitham assured, leaning back slightly to brush Kaveh’s bangs away from his eyes. “How about we go get you settled in our room and you can make the nest nice and comfy, alright?”
Taking his mate into his arms, Alhaitham stood, carrying his precious cargo to their nest. He was surprised to find it just as it was when he left that morning, no extra blankets or clothes. Whatever had happened to trigger Kaveh’s heat, it had happened quickly and with little warning. A list of scenarios floated through Alhaitham’s mind, each one worse than the last.
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to regain his composure. Really Kaveh was the only one who could cause him to loose his level-headedness, and the longer he went without knowing what had happened to his mate, the closer he came to breaking.
By the time Alhaitham had finished tucking Kaveh into the warm blankets, his mate had already managed to cry himself to sleep. A soft smile overtook his face despite the anxiety nagging at his mind. Even with tear tracks staining his face and snot smeared around his nose, Kaveh was a picture of ethereal beauty. Making quick work of pulling the blankets up and making sure Kaveh was comfortable, Alhaitham silently slipped out of the room to wet a washcloth with warm water in their bathroom
The first thing Kaveh noticed when he woke up was the pounding in his head, but his annoyance at the headache was quickly overtaken by the rush of heat through his body, his heart rate spiking in seconds as a wave of anxiety overtook his body. Thrashing around, he quickly found himself trapped and tangled in layers of blankets. The blond felt a sob claw its way up his throat, a new wave of fear rushing through his body as he desperately tried to free himself to no avail. Every second he was trapped, the further he spiraled in his panic.
Alhaitham. Where was his Hayi? Hayi was gone and now he was all alone and he was trapped and he wasn’t safe. The heat under his skit itched and only served to fuel his mounting panic, his body pumping out distressed pheromones.
Where was his mate?
Before he could call out, there were footsteps rushing down the hallway, followed by the door slamming open and into their bedroom wall.
In his panicked haze, Kaveh realized he had no idea who was in their house, all he knew was that he was stuck, he was scared, Hayi was nowhere to be found, and there was a stranger in their room while he was in heat.
The omega squeezed his eyes shut as the stranger descended on him, and he began to thrash around even harder, desperate to escape from the tangle of blankets and the person who wasn’t his Hayi.
“No! No, leave me alone! Hayi help me, help me please!”
The stranger’s hands were on him, pulling at the blankets that trapped Kaveh in his own nest.
“Kaveh! Kaveh, it’s me, you have to calm down albi. Please baby, you’re safe, I promise,” the stranger called out. Through his haze, the omega was able to make out the scent of bergamot and ink, his alpha’s scent. Hayi was in the room. The architect began to sob even harder.
“Hayi please— please don’t let him touch me! I’m sorry— I’m sorry I’m a bad omega, I’ll be better, I promise! Please don’t let him touch me Hayi.”
The stranger froze at that, their hands stilling against the tangle of blankets. Kaveh found himself flinching away as a hand was brought up to rest again his cheek, whimpering as he tried to pull away.
“Kaveh, hayati, it’s me. It’s Hayi. You’re safe baby, I promise. I’m right here, I’m not going to hurt you. No one else is here, it’s just me, it’s just Hayi.”
Whimpering, Kaveh began to still his thrashing. It did sound like his Hayi.
“Shhh baby, there you go. Can you open your eyes from me?”
Feeling a gentle finger brush over his eyelids, Kaveh hesitantly complied, allowing his lashes to part slowly.
“There you go, there’s my Kaveh. See? It’s just me hayati, I’m right here.”
Gazing up into his mets eyes, Kaveh suddenly felt all of the fight drain out of him as he began to sob once more, desperately trying to pull his arms out form the blankets so that he could hold his mate—so he could feel that his alpha was real.
Alhaitham was moving again in an instant, gentle hands pulling the blankets away and allowing Kaveh his full range of movement once more. The second he was free, Kaveh was throwing himself into his alpha’s arms and burying his face into his neck to scent him.
“Alpha, Hayi,” he sobbed, dully noticing the headache from before returning as his panic subsided. He pushed that aside, brain fully focused on his mate and the heat coursing through his body.
“I’m here Kaveh, I’m here albi.”
With his alpha’s hand petting through his hair, Kaveh felt the remainder of his panic float away as a purr rose in his throat. Distantly, he realized that he wouldn’t have been soothed this easily if his hormones weren’t in control, which was truly the only upside to this hellish situation.
“Kaveh,” Alhaitham began, gently pulling back so he could look the omega over. “I know it’s difficult, but I need you to tell me what happened. I can’t keep you safe if I don’t know what I’m protecting you from.”
Kaveh felt a distressed wine craw up his throat again, but was quickly silenced by his mate pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“I know, I know you’d rather just lay here together and cuddle until your heat passes, but I need to know what happened habibi. I’m right here, I promise you I’ll keep you safe.” The alpha brushed a stray strand of hair out of his eyes, allowing his hand to trail down to caress the architects cheek.
“I—” Kaveh cut himself off with another sob threatening to break free. He could do this, he could do it for his alpha. “Do you remember the client I was telling you about?”
Something dark and monstrous fall over Alhaitham’s face, but Kaveh pushed forward, knowing that if his alpha got a word in he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to keep going.
“I was already so tired, he kept changing his mind about everything last minute and I was barely making the deadlines because of him.” Ducking his head in shame, Kaveh bit his lip. “I haven’t been sleeping. I’d go back to the office after you fell asleep to keep working on his blueprints and the zoning paperwork.”
Watching as Alhaitham pursed his lips, he flinched. He wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t needed to to meet his clients ridiculous requests!
“I know I shouldn’t, but I had to Hayi! I really needed the—”
“Kaveh, love, I’ve told you, you don’t need to take any clients who give you a hard time or make you work overtime. My salary is plenty for us to—
Frustration rising, Kaveh quickly cut him off, tears beginning to prick at the corners of his eyes again. “I found my fathers ring at an auction house.”
Silence fell over the nest, and Kaveh’s emotions threaten to overrun him. Finally, Alhaitham sighed and pulled him froward to rest their foreheads together.
“Albi, you could have asked me for the money.”
“No, you don’t understand, it was handmade by my mother. Do you know how much her work goes for Hayi?” His mate opened his mouth to respond, but Kaveh pushed on before he could get a word in. “Millions. She stoped forging after he died, so her work is in high demand. Everyone wants a one-of-a-kind Faranak piece, and the auction house doesn’t care that I’m her son.”
He felt a single tear fall down his cheek, his own body betraying his feelings once more.
“I couldn’t ask you for that much, Hayi. This was a high-paying project for the Fatui, I wouldn’t have taken it or kept working with him if I had another option. It doesn’t matter anymore anyways, not after what he did today.” He squeezed his eyes shut again.
Kaveh startled as he felt strong arms wrap around him, pulling him back into his mates warm chest. Alhaitham’s gentle hands caressed his back and he pressed loving kisses into the older man’s hair.
“Tell me what he did,” his alpha whispered, pulling Kaveh’s body that he was in his lap, wrapped completely in his junior’s embrace.
Kaveh hesitated, the itch of his heat temporarily held at bay by his mates embrace.
“He tried to touch me.”
He felt Alhaitham tense beneath him, bergamot almost completely overtaking the scent of ink. Kaveh was sure that his own scent was souring again as well.
“He threatened to hurt you so that he could have me to himself. Said that a pretty thing like me had no business going around with so much… with so much skin exposed and that I was practically begging another alpha to take me away from you.” His voice dropped to a whisper, burying his face deeper in Alhaitham’s chest. “He said that you clearly didn’t want me since you let me parade around looking like a whore.”
His mate tightened his arms around him as a fresh wave of tears overtook Kaveh.
“I think he put something in my drink. My heat— it came out of nowhere Hayi, and he tried to touch me and bring me somewhere but I pushed him away. I think— I think Lambad realized something was wrong when he smelled me. He kicked him out and helped me get home and said he’d send someone for you when he realized you weren’t home yet. I’m so sorry Hayi,” the omega sobbed.
Distantly, he realized that he was making a mess of Alhaitham’s shirt by hyperventilating, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. All he wanted was his mate to make everything go away.
Minutes, maybe hours later, his breathing began to even out as he succumbed to the soothing beats of his mate’s heart, his words of comfort, and his gentle hands running through his hair. He found himself unable to keep his eyes open, and the calming allure of Alhaitham’s scent wasn’t helping the drowsiness clouding his mind. This time, when he fell asleep, it was to soft words of comfort and gentle hands.
It took every fiber of Alhaitham’s being to calm himself enough to stay tucked in the nest with Kaveh. Normally, it would take the Mahamatra pounding at his door and dragging him away to get him to leave his mates side while he was in heat, but someone had hurt his omega. His Kaveh.
As much as he wanted to leave and make them pay, his mate needed him here than he needed him out hunting disgusting alphas who thought they could touch anyone who they deemed was ‘asking for it.’
Finally, the sour tinge to his mates scent was fading away, and Alhaitham allowed himself to take a moment to breath in the soothing scent of mourning flowers that was intertwined with the sweet-honey of Kaveh’s heat.
Staring down at the sleeping man in his arms, the alpha felt a smile stretch across his lips. They’d navigate the next few days of heat together, and they would inform the Matra of the drugging attempt tomorrow. But for now, they would stay right here in their nest, content in each others arms.