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It was supposed to be the perfect deterrent. A steel defense, a shield that would impress even the now late Liyue archon. It was supposed to save himself from embarrassment, protect his pride and reputation. A red signal to keep trouble out of his day to day life. What Kaveh didn’t account for, in all his genius, was his own forgetfulness.
“Alhaitham!” Kaveh shouted, storming into the house as soon as the door clicked open.
“Welcome back,” Alhaitham’s even tone did not do him any favors right now. Not when his very image was being tampered with.
Kaveh had made sure he wasn’t watched when he came in, since he wanted to get straight to his complaints the moment he made it home. The last thing he wanted was further damage. He checked behind him as he walked in, taking the door from Alhiatham’s lax grip and slamming it closed himself. Perfect, now Alhaitham had nowhere to scurry off to when Kaveh put him in his place!
“Why is everyone at Lambad’s congratulating me about our relationship, Alhaitham?” A rhetorical question— no! A trap. Kaveh knew what the answer was; his eyes gave it away as he searched Alhaitham for the evidence.
No one but Kaveh could’ve noticed the amused shine in the Scribe’s eyes. Alhaitham himself watched his intellectual equal fumble about, from his shifting red eyes to the soft tapping of his foot. “I would have thought you’d take the opportunity to have some fun.” Alhaitham said, crossing his arms over his chest to make Kaveh’s search much easier.
Kaveh scoffed at him. The nerve! The audacity of this man to continue with his childish antics. Were they suddenly students again? “You–!” Kaveh snapped back, but his insult fell short. No, insulting Alhaitham never got him what he wanted. He knew that better than anyone; Alhaitham is an unwavering man. The feeble scholar was as moveable as the Wall of Samiel.
Kaveh pulled himself back, closing his eyes and taking a moment to recall why he was confronting Alhaitham in the first place. It was those keys! The spare key that Kaveh had been gifted so he could freely move in and out of Alhaitham’s house, the golden key that was far too light to be real gold— just as Alhaitham’s key was far too light to be real silver.
Yet, having a key and owning a key are two different things. This was something Alhaitham would always point out during their fights about this topic. Kaveh’s days were always a cacophony of a routine. Something would go wrong somewhere and cause him to rush from thing to thing and place to place. Sometimes his roots were growing back in and he wouldn’t be caught dead without touching it up, sometimes he had forgotten to grab his wallet and would have to make due, but most of the time it was how Kaveh would return home only to find that he had not had his key the entire day.
“I placed it on my dresser!” Kaveh remembered shouting at Alhaitham, who had been sitting on a couch reading after having to let him in for the third time that week.
“What you do with your belongings shouldn’t be of concern to me, so how is this my fault?” Alhaitham had asked him, his eyes sweeping up to meet Kaveh’s.
“You–!” Kaveh had hissed, but looked down to see the keys intertwined on the table “These keys are stuck together! I didn’t have mine anywhere near your’s!”
“Obviously that happened when they were in my pocket.”
“Oh!” Kaveh pointed at him, as if catching Alhaitham in a lie. “You did take my key!”
“To return to you, yes.” Alhaitham admitted. “But our schedules don’t line up and I had no reason to leave the Akademiya building beyond giving you your key. I also get home before you, so really it doesn’t matter if you have your key or not.”
That’s what set Kaveh off. “You left the house before I did this morning, you took the key before I even needed it!” To add insult to injury, upon being caught for his crime The Scribe simply smirked and returned to his book.
The next day, it happened again. Kaveh had admittedly left early, having a meeting for one of his drafts quite early since the client was leaving for a vacation in Liyue the same day. Kaveh was to make the renovations while she was away. He had made sure he put his key in his pocket before leaving. When the end of the day came, however, Kaveh felt around his pockets in vain. For the whole walk home, he feared what he would say to Alhaitham.
It’s his key, first and foremost. Kaveh thought. And now I’ve lost his belongings! A very important belonging! What if some enemy of his finds it and recalls it from any time he took the key with his silver one? Surely, Alhaitham could handle a break in and would have me notify Cyno for an arrest but the mere presence of a stranger in his house would do nothing but confirm my irresponsibility!
Defeatedly, Kaveh had knocked on the door. Alhaitham let him inside, and the two went to the kitchen to finish making the dinner Alhaitham started to make. He prepared himself to tell Alhaitham of his mistake, and to offer to pay for a change of locks himself, when he spotted a familiar gold key on the dining table.
“Alhaitham, is that my key?” Kaveh asked him.
Alhaitham looked over his shoulder, and nodded once in confirmation. Kaveh could feel his morning crawl back into the forefront of his brain. As Kaveh prepared the morning coffee, already dressed to leave, Alhaitham had brushed up against him to make some food to go along with his coffee. He brushed up against him, and took the key once again.
Kaveh ate his dinner alone that night.
Nilou was the one who inspired the idea in Kaveh. She had invited the old resistance to see her perform a new dance she was debuting and Alhaitham had decided he had better things to do, like stay at home reading and refusing social interaction. When Nilou had finished her dance, Kaveh— in Alhaitham’s place— Dehya, Tighnari, Cyno, and Nilou herself all ended up at Lambad’s for some celebratory sweets. In the end, Dehya left first for some much needed rest required of a mercenary, Cyno and Tighnari left together once Kaveh started complaining about the keys, and that left poor, sweet Nilou to sit through the whole thing alone.
“That certainly sounds annoying,” Nilou yawned.
“It is!” Kaveh exclaimed, but caught himself rather quickly. “But you seem tired, I’m sorry to keep you so long.”
“Oh! No, you’re fine!” Nilou replied. “Alhaitham can be a lot sometimes, but he does seem to mean well.”
Kaveh scoffed, picking up his drink— non-alcoholic for tonight. “That’s the first I’ve heard from someone other than me. Most just call him names for the way he acts.”
Nilou nodded, picking up her own drink. “I haven’t gotten to know him much, but I like to think I’m a good judge of character.”
“That you are, Nilou!” Kaveh chuckled, but something shiny caught his eye as Nilou fidgeted with her belongings. “Nilou, may I ask what that is?”
Nilou followed Kaveh’s eyes and seemed to light up at her turn to chat about something she liked. She reached for her small purse and pulled out a key with a glittery flower charm on it. “I had this custom made, it’s a charm for my key! I’m going to get a key ring soon so it’s more meant for that, but for now I’m settling with the charm on the one key. It’s inspired by The Goddess of Flowers…”
Kaveh listened to her rant in full, just as she had for him. The charm stayed at the front of his mind, though, no matter how much he focused on Nilou’s excited and well informed speech about the Goddess of Flowers. It didn't take long for Kaveh to locate this custom, key charm seller Nilou had worked with and settled on a design that he was positive would repel Alhaitham from snatching up his keys once again.
It was an outlandish design, one that even made Kaveh cringe. It was a large, red heart locket. On one side was a place for Kaveh to place a picture in, while the other had calligraphy that red “My Beloved.” It was so ridiculous that Kaveh felt bad he had laughed in the seller’s face as soon as he saw it. He tipped well over what he was supposed to and victoriously went home. He, once again, didn’t have his key, but that didn’t even phase him. Alhaitham had eyed him suspiciously when he had scooped up his key with no complaints, but he seemed to enjoy the silence too much to question him.
That is where Kaveh’s biggest mistake came back to destroy the hope for his victory: his forgetfulness. Throwing himself back into the present argument, Kaveh remembered the one thing he forgot about Alhaitham: he doesn’t care what people think about him.
Kaveh looked down as Alhaitham reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys. Once again entangled, only now more flimsy with the weight of that ridiculous key charm attached to it. Kaveh had put it on a week ago, and had waited for Alhaitham to grow too embarrassed to continue taking his key in vain. Now everyone in Sumeru City has seen Alhaitham with that horrendous thing!
“Aren’t you going to take it back?” Alhaitham offered, and despite that even tone Kaveh knew he was genuine.
“Why should I? You’re just going to take it again in the morning.” Kaveh folded his arms. “What are you even trying to gain with this? It’s completely childish!”
Alhaitham seemed to be amused by Kaveh’s remark. “It’s simply a way of ensuring that everything in the house is secure.”
“What if you have my keys and you leave first?” Kaveh asked, a situation he knew happened before. He already knew he was losing, but he had to try something!
“You hardly leave the house anyways, unless it’s to meet with a customer or spend time at Lambad’s.”
“Untrue!” Kaveh retorted. “I leave this house far more frequently than you do! How dangerous is it if you're busy and I am home but need to leave! You cannot just keep taking my key!”
“Are you forgetting the extra spare I hid?” Alhaitham asked. Of course he had a backup for his backup. “Maybe you haven’t been paying attention.”
“Maybe I haven’t!” Kaveh snapped, defeated and embarrassed.
Alhaitham watched him, reading him just as easily as he read his stupid books. Kaveh could read him too, seeing in conflict behind his unwavering eyes. Kaveh turned, realizing this was the end of the argument, and headed for the kitchen. Kaveh had come home late, again, which normally meant he had his dinner at Lambad’s. Yet, the confrontation on ‘Alhaitham’s new boyfriend charm’ made the architect scurry off before he could get the food he had already paid for. Kaveh searched around the kitchen, preparing himself a small dinner before walking past Alhaitham again to eat and work simultaneously for a few more hours.
When Kaveh woke up, he was in his bed. He vaguely remembered waking up face down in his project before hobbling off to bed. It felt nice not waking up hungover, but he still had Alhaitham to deal with. Kaveh hadn’t changed from his usual clothes, which would’ve disgusted him had he not had the day off. So, Kaveh changed into his comfiest outfit, took a shower to clean off the horrible impression from yesterday, and once again holed himself up to work on other long term projects.
Kaveh barely noticed the hours gone by, not until he left a hand on his shoulder. Jolting up, Kaveh turned to see Alhaitham leaning over his shoulder and looking at his design.
“Alhaitham!” Kaveh snapped. “My god, you scared me to death!”
Alhaitham raised an eyebrow, indifferent to his complaint, and instead went straight to business. “I think that beam isn’t necessary there. You could do something else with that area without it.”
“What do you know?” Kaveh said, folding his arms. “But if you must know, that beam is supposed to support what I’m adding to the upper floor since it’s going to be a permanent and heavy feature. I just haven’t gotten there yet.”
“But you could still make a feature with this wall without it.” Alhaitham argued.
“You–!” Kaveh was shouting now, standing up from his chair to confront his equal yet again on the intellectual battlefield. “What do you want, Alhaitham?”
“You didn’t take your key,” Alhaitham stated.
Kaveh scoffed, “You had it.”
“It’s in your room.”
Kaveh frowned, but gently pushed Alhaitham aside so he could check. Surely enough, the key was resting where Kaveh always remembered putting it: on his dresser. Alhaitham had taken the cue to follow him, standing in the doorway as Kaveh glared at the horrible gold key and that mocking charm attached to it.
“Why is this here?” Kaveh asked accusingly.
“You wanted your key back but you didn’t take it from me last night,” Alhaitham explained. “I just put it back where I found it lazily tossed.”
“I don’t do anything lazily,” Kaveh replied. He gripped the key and considered tossed it onto the bed to make a point, but it would’ve been the wrong one. “I think the better question for you is why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why is it in my room, Alhaitham?” Kaveh’s patience was wearing thin.
“It’s your key.” Alhaitham shrugged.
And Kaveh lost it. “Oh! Oh, my key? My key?! Mine; this is my key? Here I thought it was your key, since you're so damn obsessed with it!” Kaveh threw the stupid key at Alhaitham’s feet, the charm chipping against the floor. “Is it actually my key? Have I earned my key privileges back? Hm? Why don’t you reward me with them, Alhaitham? Tell me how I’ve earned it!”
Alhaitham had bent down and picked up the key, carefully inspecting it in case of any damage. He even ran his thumb over the small chip in the charm. “Kaveh, what is it that you’re actually upset about?”
Kaveh exhaled loudly, reaching up and playing with his own hair to distract his hands from waving around the room. “At first it was just a stupid prank! But now my reputation is compromised! Everyone thinks that you and I are dating! They ask me if I’ll move in with you, how long we’ve been dating, and they tell me how they never would’ve expected such a sweet gesture from you!”
“So you’re just embarrassed?” Alhaitham asked, his voice also getting annoyed.
“I’m humiliated, Alhaitham!” Kaveh snapped. “I don’t care if you don’t care about your own reputation, but I would’ve thought you’d have the decency to care about mine! I care about my image, Alhaitham!”
Alhaitham seemed to shift uncomfortably. The movement was so subtle that Kaveh would’ve thought even the most skilled eye would miss it, but Kaveh could see it. Alhaitham could mask his personality from the world, but he couldn’t mask everything from him. “Your public image has only changed from being a single man to a taken one. I would have thought receiving excessive praise over getting a boyfriend would have been something you’d like.” Alhaitham explained, folded his arms over his chest.
“Of course I would like to be complimented on gaining a partner! I would like to congratulate my friends when they enter a relationship as well!” Kaveh said, pointing at the charm. Alhaitham’s eyes followed, but not his head. “But I would like to be complimented for getting a real partner. Rumors have spread and you haven’t done anything to prove they were wrong— in fact, you’ve confirmed them. Now, if either of us say anything about us not being a couple then I’ll permanently be seen as a liar or an attention seeker!”
“Then break up with me.” Alhaitham said, his even tone betraying him. Kaveh could hear the undertones of his own negativity. He just couldn’t quite place in what way he was upset. A rare moment of frustratingly strong masking.
“What?”
“If everyone thinks we’re dating, then if anyone asks you about it further say we broke up.” Alhaitham answered him again. “You won’t be labeled as a liar and they’ll drop the subject.”
That’s what Kaveh did. He took off the charm and hid it with Alhaitham, and when the next day was upon him he prepared himself to save himself from a lie with a lie. Kaveh desperately wanted to keep the argument going, to find some way where he didn’t have to lie, but he knew Alhaitham was right. Sometimes a lie is necessary to accomplish something.
The work day was normal. Kaveh had his usual cacophony and ended up at Lambad’s for lunch and to drink away the bitter taste of the argument he had with his client. Kaveh sat at his table alone for a bit until he heard a noise from across from him.
“Kaveh, you feeling okay?” Lambad himself pulled out his chair and sat across from Kaveh, taking notice of his regular’s foul mood. “Trouble in paradise?”
Kaveh rose an eyebrow, passing his drink to Lambad. He filled it up with no complaints. “What do you mean?” Kaveh asked.
“Did you and Alhaitham have a fight?” Lambad pressed further. “Word around the city is that you and him are together.”
Kaveh swallowed. He had prepared for this. All he had to say was that he and Alhaitham broke up. All he has to say is that they weren’t compatible the first time and they aren’t compatible now. That’s it, then this nightmare is over.
“We’re having a fight,” Kaveh agreed instead. “I think Alhaitham is acting like a child, but he finds this ridiculous joke he’s playing on me very amusing right now.” It was necessary to lie, yes; but Kaveh was never good at getting himself out of trouble.
“Oh, so it is true?” Lambad chuckled, focusing on the wrong detail.
“No, actually we’re considering breaking up.” Kaveh said.
“Huh? Over a silly prank?”
“It’s not silly!” Kaveh snapped. “It’s unsafe and unpractical! He keeps taking my key and he acts like it’s not a safety hazard, and then makes up dumb excuses for why it doesn’t matter if I have my key!”
“Key?” Lambad thought for a moment. “So you live together?”
“We gave each other spares,” Kaveh found that lie very quickly. It almost surprised him.
“Oh, I see.” Lambad smiled. “So he’s taken your spare, but also your house key?”
“Yes, that’s exactly it!” Kaveh decided.
Lambad started to laugh, “Then that should be an easy fix!”
“What do you mean? We’ve been feuding like this for days.”
“You know how Cyno always has to explain his terrible jokes when he makes them? Maybe you’re just not getting the punchline of this joke. You need to ask him what that punchline is.” Lambad suggested.
Kaveh took a long sip of his drink. “I think I’m the punchline.”
Lambad laughed heartily at that. “No! Boyfriends don’t treat each other like that, Kaveh, you should know! But… well…”
Kaveh rose an eyebrow as Lambad trailed off. “Oh no, do I want to ask what you’re thinking?”
“Well, we’re talking about Alhaitham, aren’t we? He isn’t exactly a personable guy. He doesn’t come in often, so I can’t comment on him like you can, but he just doesn’t seem like someone who would pull a prank. He’s more like a robot.”
“Hey!” Kaveh exclaimed. “Alhaitham isn’t like that at all! What do you know?! He definitely has it in him to pull a prank, and his personality is honestly bigger than mine! It’s actually obnoxious how much of a personality he has. He always has something to say, and he’s so opinionated it’s unbelievable that he doesn’t care about his reputation! He just doesn’t bother with many people because he knows how grating he can be.”
By the time Kaveh had finished, he noticed the rest of the tavern had turned to listen and watch. Lambad himself was grinning ear to ear. Kaveh’s face flushed in an instant, and he quickly left the money needed to pay before bolting out the door. Lucky for him, he didn’t have any other work other than drafting the projects for other clients. The bad news was that he didn’t have his key yet again. Kaveh considered just sitting outside, since no one would suspect him living there if they were only boyfriends, but he took one look at the rising pathways and decided a trip to the Akademiya was the only solution. He needed to see Alhaitham.
Kaveh chalked it up to his reputation and the rumors that he was let in so easily. Obviously the place accepted seeing their graduates but lectures were in session so most people walking out and about were students and officials. He found Alhaitham exactly where he figured he’d be, in the House of Daena. The Scribe was busing himself with his usual work and only looked up when he noticed the shadow looming over his work.
“Come to visit me at work?” Alhaitham asked.
“You have my key again.”
Without missing a beat, Alhaitham reached into his pocket and pulled out the key. “I also told all my co-workers that we’ve broken up.”
Kaveh groaned. “That’s good, but I told the tavern we were fighting.”
“Why?” Alhaitham leaned back in his chair.
“I don’t know!” Kaveh threw up his hands, grabbing the now barren key. “It just didn’t feel like the right thing to say.”
Alhaitham watched him, even though Kaveh was studying the key. “I still don’t understand how you can go completely off plan without thinking like this. You wanted the rumors gone. Now there’s going to be more of them.”
“Lambad accused you of being too boring and impersonable to pull this prank,” Kaveh continued. “But you took the key again. You already have said you don’t do things just to enjoy my suffering— just like how I can complain about you one moment and then praise you the next, even if I’m still mad at you.”
Alhaitham seemed to shift in his chair. Kaveh must’ve been getting closer to the truth with him. “So what are you trying to say, Kaveh?”
“I’m saying this isn’t a prank at all,” Kaveh decided. Finally, Kaveh met his eyes. “You don’t want me to have the key for a different reason, and seeing me get frustrated is just a bonus. So tell me why, Alhaitham.”
Alhaitham frowned at him. He didn’t dare look away from his senior’s eyes, even as Kaveh’s gaze bore into him with the silent determination for an answer. “I already told you.”
“What?”
“Usually, I get home sooner than you,” Alhaitham said. “If I’m home, you don’t need a key to be let in. I’m not surprised you didn’t know about the spare key, because I found a perfect hiding spot for it. I hardly think even Cyno could find it at this rate—”
“I’m starting to think there is no third key,” Kaveh sighed.
“It’s Merhak, actually.”
“What?!” Kaveh gasped.
“Will you let me continue if I circle back to Merhak?” Alhaitham frowned. When Kaveh nodded, Alhaitham continued. “Since I get home sooner, you don’t need a key to unlock the door to enter. And with Mehrak, if I leave first then Mehrak is the one to lock the door. The house is completely secure.”
Kaveh could hardly believe what he was hearing. “So, all my worry about your privacy and safety has been for nothing?”
“That’s what you’re worried about?” Alhaitham asked rhetorically.
Despite knowing this, Kaveh decided to answer him. “Yes! As a matter of fact, I do! Despite what everyone says you’re so quick to endanger yourself that I worry you just don’t think about it. I leave for the desert for a while and come back with you as the Acting Grand Sage for a short spell of time! I hate leaving the house thinking that someone will walk in and trash your belongings, or threaten you, or break something, or steal your grandmother’s books! I know these fears are all irrational, Haitham, but it scares me nonetheless. You and Cyno and I could handle something like that, and if any of us got into real danger then you’d be the first to act. I just don’t want to be the cause of something like that.”
Alhaitham nodded slowly. “Then, I’m sorry.”
“What?”
“That won’t work on me.”
“Damn,” Kaveh sighed. “You couldn’t have just pretended? After all the stress you've caused!”
“Am I forgiven?” Alhaitham asked, keeping it to the point.
“Yes! Yes, you are forgiven.” Kaveh answered, pocketing his key. “I’m not happy about any of this yet, but you are forgiven. But this doesn’t explain the motive.”
“What do you mean?” Alhaitham asked.
“You explained the logic behind why it’s safe to take my key, but you still haven’t actually said why you do it.” Kaveh pointed out. “Does my brat junior not want me to know something?”
“Perhaps my dense senior should take a hint.” Alhaitham sighed.
Kaveh scoffed, turning his head away. “All I ask is for a straightforward answer and you still can’t give me that! Do you delight in me needing you for something as simple as locking and unlocking the door?”
When Alhaitham didn’t answer him, Kaveh looked back towards his junior questioningly. Alhaitham was still staring at him, but he could see the whisper of pink on his cheeks. He could see the tensity in his knuckles, gripping the chair he was clinging to as if it would somehow save him from Kaveh’s genius.
“Oh,” Kaveh smirked. “You do want me to need you!”
“You’ve made your point, Kaveh,” Alhaitham said.
Despite Alhaitham’s embarrassment, Kaveh couldn’t help but laugh. “When did this start? Since when have you needed me to need you?”
When Alhaitham didn’t immediately answer, Kaveh quieted himself down and assured the scribe that he would listen to him without judging him. He just wanted the truth. “You’ve been staying out a lot recently. You’re in a good flow of clients and you stay out at Lambad’s more frequently. After the last intoxicated fumble you had, I decided I want to be there when you come home at night.”
Kaveh blinked. “So, this whole time, you’ve been concerned about my safety?”
“It’s the same reason Mehrak is now our third key to the house.” Alhaitham stated. “A month ago, you came home but forgot your key at home. I was asleep and had my soundproof earpieces on because there was a houseparty, so I didn’t hear you when you came home. But Mehrak did. She activated, went to the door, and let you in. Opening a door is basic enough instruction, but she couldn’t close the door, lock it, and safely get you to bed all with you drunkenly clinging to her and crying. Eventually, Mehrak deactivated and the both of you tumbled to the floor, and you hid your head on a table corner. I woke up in need of water approximately ten minutes later to find the door wide open, Mehrak dead on the floor, and you with a bleeding scalp.”
Kaveh blinked. Oh, he remembered that night. He got so caught up in a game of TCG that he didn’t realize how much he was drinking or how late it was. Cyno had set up a small friendly game night at Lambad’s when other TCG players found him and decided to challenge them all— they were just a couple of adventurers who found out Cyno played during the card game’s tournament. It was Cyno, Kaveh, and Tighnari against the new guys, and eventually the whole tavern was buzzing with excitement. He couldn’t remember much after that, but he did remember waking up in his bed with the worst hangover he could imagine and had found a doctor’s note from Tighnari on the table when he went to make his morning coffee. Alhaitham had been asleep on the couch with a book in hand.
“I see,” Kaveh frowned, the realization dawning on him. So Alhaitham had only been trying to protect him from himself. And Kaveh’s selfishness didn’t let him question what had happened.
Alhaitham nodded. “You didn’t remember, and the wound was far less severe than you’re imagining it. Even at the time I debated if calling a doctor for that light of a wound was necessary. I only reached out to see if you had a concussion.”
“That doesn’t matter!” Kaveh declared. “That’s horrible! Had I been in your place and I surely would have been scaring myself.”
“You don’t need to apologize for it, Kaveh.” Alhaitham sighed. “You have every right to be mad at me for taking your key without your permission, remember?”
“Of course! And I am still mad about it! But if you had told me this happened, I would have understood.”
“Most likely,” Alhaitham sighed.
Kaveh nodded, but reached over and grabbed Alhaitham’s hand, “I won’t do that to you again. I promise I’ll at least ask a friend to walk me home. I don’t really care if Cyno or Tighnari know I live with you, they know my situation and they aren’t ones for gossip.”
“Are we talking about the same people?” Alhaitham joked.
Kaveh smirked. “Shut up, I’m trying to reconcile.”
“Before you do, I also have a question,” Alhaitham decided. “Why didn’t you call off the rumors?”
Kaveh blushed a bit as he remembered why he was mad in the first place. The rumors. The charm. Right. “That! Uh… well…”
“Do you have something you want to say, senior?” Alhaitham pushed himself out of the chair, smirking as he linked their fingers together.
Kaveh’s blush became brighter, but his anger was coming back to him. Leave it to Alhaitham to be sweet one moment and terribly obnoxious the next. With a plan of attack, Kaveh pulled Alhaitham’s face down and kissed him. Alhaitham recoiled on instinct, surprised by the action. However, as soon as he realized what Kaveh did, he surrendered and remet Kaveh half way. Kaveh let Alhaitham pull him in closer, and Kaveh let go of Alhaitham’s hand so he could hold the Scribe’s face more tenderly.
Once they pulled away, Kaveh smiled up at Alhaitham. “I guess I didn’t have to lie after all.”