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Kaveh sighs as he flicks the lamp off and puts his glasses down, blinking a few times to adjust to the blurred room. He puts them onto his desk and stretches his arms like that of a cat’s own stretch, and then he flicks the lights off and walks into the living room.
Smiling, he walks over to the couch and wraps his arms around his grey-haired boyfriend from behind, kissing his cheek. “Hi,” he grins, and Alhaitham just kisses his cheek back. It’s okay, though. He’s used to it, because Alhaitham doesn’t speak much on some days. He knows it’s just because he doesn’t want to, and not that he’s done anything wrong.
—
That night, when he curls up beneath the sheets and flicks the lamp off, he pulls one of the extra pillows into his arms, swinging his right leg overtop it and his left arm beneath his head. He feels cold skin press against his back, and he smiles. He smiles because it’s familiar, the cold press of Alhaitham’s skin against his own. It’s a coldness like that of ice, but ever so warm inside the comfort of their blanket. Kaveh drapes his arm over his pillow and feels the coldness of Alhaitham’s arm over his stomach and he sighs contently. The brush of fluffy hair tickling his back is ever so comforting.
Kaveh drifts off to sleep contently, the room filled with the quiet sound of the humidifier and Alhaitham’s quiet breathes in his ear.
But when he wakes up, the room is warm and the sheets are tousled instead of neat like it usually is. He doesn’t feel the cold press of skin against his own warm skin. He figures that Alhaitham is just working early at the Akademiya. That’s okay, he just works hard.
—
It’s a shock when Tighnari shows up unannounced, but Kaveh welcomes it. He greets him with a smile and invites him in, and Tighnari seems to brighten just a little more.
It’s only an hour later when he stands up a little too fast to get a plate, and his vision blurs and his head spins. It hits him that he hadn’t eaten in a few days, and Tighnari’s voice is muffled in his ringing ears.
He doesn’t register his knees giving out until he hits the floor and it goes black.
—
When he wakes up in the hospital, he sees Tighnari and Cyno in the seats beside his hospital bed. He doesn’t see Alhaitham, and it confuses him. Alhaitham is always there when he’s injured, so this was odd. He adjusts to the hospital light and sits up slowly before he speaks.
“Where’s Alhaitham?” He asks with a raised brow, and watches as the married couple shares a concerned look. Tighnari sighs before he speaks up. “Kaveh, Alhaitham died a few months ago.”
“Have you been taking your meds lately?”