Chapter Text
He repeatedly tapped his pencil on his desktop. “For the love of Buer! Why isn’t the wall thickness matching!” Frustrated, he tossed his pencil onto the mess of sketched out floor plans sprawled across his desk. He pushed himself up out of his chair, a bit too violently as it threatened to tip over. Kaveh grabbed the head of the chair, and slammed the suspended legs of the chair to the ground. “Gods, why did I even choose to pursue architecture...” As he let go of the chair he brought his hand up to his forehead, a slight headache forming.
He grumbled and walked into the bathroom to wash his face. Kaveh turned on the water and let it run onto his hands, through his fingers. It made his hands tingle from the sharp cold. He looked up at himself in the mirror; he looked terrible. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was a ratted mess.
“I guess this is what I get for staying up so long…” Kaveh sighed, and he knew that Alhaitham’s absence from their apartment was the cause of his lack of care for himself. He had told Kaveh at the last minute that he was going on a study trip to Mondstadt; Alhaitham left the next morning without saying goodbye…
Kaveh hissed as the cold water that ran onto his hands brought him back from his thoughts. He sighed and bent over, and moved his face closer to his hands. Kaveh splashed the freezing water on his face. It didn't help much, but it was better than nothing.
“Kaveh, Kaveh? Where are you?” He jumped as he heard the voice of his roommate that came from the doorway of his bedroom. Was that Alhaitham? He’s not supposed to be back yet... Kaveh peeked around the corner of his bathroom’s door frame to see where Alhaitham stood. The man was breathing heavily and had his hand placed on the doorknob of Kaveh’s bedroom door.
“Alhaitham?! When did you get back?” Kaveh spoke, as he wiped off his wet face with one of his towels. As Kaveh locked eyes with Alhaitham, the blonde noticed that the man had a rare, panic-stricken look to his face. “Alhaitham..?”
“Kaveh. I came back as soon as Nilou told me. Are you alright?” Alhaitham walked over to Kaveh, and grabbed the sides of his arms. The concern shone bright in Alhaitham’s eyes; Kaveh was confused as to what Alhaitham was so worried about.
“Nilou? Alhaitham, nothing happened. I'm fine. What did Nilou tell-” Kaveh grabbed onto Alhaitham’s shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. It didn’t seem to work however, as Alhaitham cut Kaveh off mid sentence.
“Thank the Archons you’re alright.” The silver haired man pulled away from Kaveh as he turned around and walked towards the door frame. He sunk down to the floor slowly, back towards Kaveh. He placed his head on the wall, and Kaveh could see that his shoulders shook softly.
“Alhaitham please, tell me what happened.” Kaveh slowly walked up behind Alhaitham and once again put his hand on the man’s shoulder. He crouched down to the same level as Alhaitham, putting his chin on the other shoulder.
“Kaveh. Nilou told me you weren’t breathing.” Alhaitham turned to face Kaveh, and what the blonde saw struck his heart.
Alhaitham.. Is… crying? “Oh my Archons no. Nothing happened to me, Alhaitham. I promise I’m perfectly fine.” Kaveh grabbed the sides of Alhaitham’s face, and slowly wiped off the small streams of tears that flowed down the man’s cheeks. “Alhaitham…” Kaveh was heartbroken, never once had he seen Alhaitham break down like this. Looking at the man caused tears to strike Kaveh’s own eyes, so he pulled Alhaitham into a hug, and rested his chin on the top of the man’s head.
The two of them sat on the bathroom floor for a while. He softly sniffled into the fabric of Kaveh’s shoulder. Alhaitham pushed himself off of the floor, he wiped the wet streaks off his eyes with his sleeve. “I’m alright. Apologies for getting so…. worked up. I was just expecting to come back to something.. worse.”
“No, no Alhaitham, don't apologize, it's alright.” Kaveh smiled weakly and stood up as well, grabbing Alhaitham’s hands in his. “Now, can I see your phone for a second?” Kaveh asked making eye contact with Alhaitham.
“Yeah… for what?” Alhaitham dug in his pockets, searching for his phone before finally bringing it out and handing it to Kaveh.
“Oh… just asking Nilou something.” Kaveh took Alhaitham’s phone and swiped it open. He tapped the TeyvatChat app. The app had already been opened, left on the previous messages with Nilou.
2 Days Ago, 1:02pm
Nilou
@lotus_queen
alhaitham, i think you need to get back fast.
Read 1:17pm
Alhaitham
@dont_dm_me
Why? What happened?
Read 1:18pm
Nilou
@lotus_queen
it's kaveh.
something happened.
Read 1:20pm
Alhaitham
@dont_dm_me
Kaveh? What did he do now?
Read 1:21pm
Nilou
@lotus_queen
kaveh…
tighnari walked into his bedroom.
he wasn’t breathing.
Read 1:21pm
Alhaitham
@dont_dm_me
….
How is he now?
Read 1:22pm
Nilou
@lotus_queen
not good…
i’d go see him.
Read 1:45pm
Alhaitham
@dont_dm_me
Already on my way.
Read 1:46pm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Today, 10:54am
Alhaitham
@dont_dm_me
nilou.
what in the ever loving Buer’s name did you do?!
Read 10:56pm
Nilou
@lotus_queen
;P
Read 10:56pm
Alhaitham
@dont_dm_me
NILOU
Delivered
Kaveh sighed, and handed Alhaitham’s phone back to him. “Either Nilou just played a nasty joke on us, or she really wanted you to come back.” Kaveh turned around, to face away from Alhaitham. His hands reached up and grabbed handfuls of his blonde hair, tugging at it slightly. After a bit of a pause he felt two arms wrap around his stomach. Kaveh leaned back, comforted by the warm feeling of the other man’s embrace. “In the name of the Archons…. What was the point of her doing this?”
The man behind Kaveh rested his chin on the other’s head and sighed. “Kaveh… Let’s get out of the bathroom, alright?” Alhaitham backed up and lightly grabbed Kaveh’s hand and dragged him through the bathroom door, back to the architect’s room. “Why don’t you show me what you were working on? To get your mind off it.”
Kaveh’s face brightened as soon as Alhaitham mentioned his project. Switching their hands around he dragged the man over to his messy desk, quickly sorting out his papers. “So, I was just commissioned to make this commercial building for this big company! They need to include some kind of parking lot, but there's a large amount of space around the desired building area so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out once I get to it.”
Alhaitham smiled as he watched Kaveh ramble on about his commission, glad he was able to get the blonde’s mind of Nilou’s “ prank .” Alhaitham remembered something he had bought for Kaveh and him in Mondstadt. “Kaveh.” The man’s head whipped around, mouth still agape in speech.
“Yes?”
Alhaitham dug through his bag that he discarded in front of Kaveh’s bedroom door, pulling out a box. “I thought… We could make this together. It looked like something you would like to do.” He handed Kaveh the box.
“Brownies? Huh, I’ve heard of these before!” Kaveh flipped the box over to look at the back of it. He looked back up at his roommate, “are we making these now?”
“If you want.”
“Great!” Kaveh grinned and walked out the door completely forgetting his project rambles and not checking to see if Alhaitham was following behind.
Alhaitham smiled and followed suit behind Kaveh, chuckling softly. As he made it to the kitchen Kaveh was bent over as he dug through the cabinets to find all of the materials to bake with.
Kaveh pulled out a rectangular pan from the cabinet and raised it up, “found it!” He turned around as Alhaitham took the pan out of his hand, and set it on the counter.
“Was it so hard to find?”
“Yes, Alhaitham. It was.” Kaveh looked up to meet his eyes with Alhaitham’s. Kaveh huffed when Alhaitham chuckled at the blonde’s response, “how rude.” Kaveh stood up and walked over to the counter with all of his supplies he needed. “This doesn’t seem like a lot…”
“Most of it is in the box.” Alhaitham picked up the box and ripped open the top of the box, and pulled out a bag full of a brown powder mixture. “See?” He held it out to Kaveh, setting the empty box back down on the counter.
Kaveh nodded and grabbed the box. He backed up to the kitchen island and hopped up to sit on it, facing Alhaitham. “So, first it says to heat up the oven. To uhm, 550.” Kaveh looked up at Alhaitham as he watched the man raise an eyebrow at the blonde.
“550? That's really hot Kaveh.” Alhaitham crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter facing Kaveh.
“If it's hotter it will cook faster! Trust me!” Kaveh smiled and nodded.
“Sure…” Alhaitham walked over to the oven and clicked the buttons for 350. He looked back to Kaveh to make sure the blonde didn’t see that he put in the correct temperature. “Are you going to make me do all of this?”
“Yes. Now it says to mix together the powder, a ⅔rd cup of oil, ¼th cup of water and 4 eggs together.” Kaveh smirked as he read back the directions.
“4..? It wasn't like that when I read them earlier.” Alhaitham raised an eyebrow as he poured the powder, oil and water into the bowl.
“Yes, I’m sure it will taste so much better! Believe me!”
“Alright..” Alhaitham shook his head and sighed. He only put in 2 eggs, once again making sure Kaveh couldn’t see him doing the directions correctly . Alhaitham grabbed the spatula, as he stirred the mixture thoroughly he looked back once again at Kaveh. “Now what?”
“Spray the pan, put in the batter. Then put it in the oven!” Kaveh nodded and hopped off the counter and walked over to Alhaitham. “Then we just need to wait!” He put his hands on his hips, obviously proud of himself.
“Alright, done.” After Alhaitham had finished he turned around and placed his arms around Kaveh’s shoulders. He rested his weight on the blonde, sighing to himself.
“What’s wrong?” Kaveh pushed Alhaiham back to view his face. He displayed an adorable pout on his face as he put up both his hands onto Alhaitham’s cheeks. The architect pulled Alhaitham close to him once more, foreheads touching, he stared into Alhaitham’s eyes before he cracked up, a big smile on his face.
Alhaitham looked away from Kaveh, he allowed a small smile to break free.
The small smile grew larger, to Kaveh’s surprise the man started to laugh. It wasn’t like anything Kaveh had seen before. “Oh something’s definitely wrong. You never smile, let alone laugh!”
“Oh, nothing. It's nothing Kaveh, really.” Alhaitham pulled back and softly brought up one of his hands to meet his own lips, covering his smile from Kaveh. “Forget it.”
- - - - - - - - - - - -
They both decided to sit on their couch and wait until the brownies finish baking. That time mostly consisted of Kaveh ranting about his clients, with Alhaitham sitting quietly, listening to Kaveh’s words as he read a book. The two looked up when they heard a ding come from the kitchen. Kaveh grinned and stood up, running back to the kitchen with Alhaitham trailing slowly behind.
When Alhaitham made it to the kitchen he saw Kaveh opening the oven and reaching in to grab the pan with no oven mitts on. “Kaveh!” He rushed over and grabbed Kaveh’s wrists before the blonde could grab onto the glass pan.
“H-Hey?! What’s the big deal?” Kaveh ripped his hands back, standing back up from his crouched position and crossed his arms.
“Oven mitts?” Alhaitham raised an eyebrow, holding out the mitts.
Kaveh’s face turned red as he huffed and swiped the oven mitts from Alhaitham’s grasp. He slipped them on quickly and took the pan of brownies out from the oven, setting them on the stovetop. “Better?” Kaveh glared at Alhaitham from the corner of his gaze.
Alhaitham gave a small grin to the man and grabbed one of the knives from the drawer, as he cut the brownies into smaller squares he spoke, “better.”
The blonde held out his plate as Alhaitham placed one of the brown squares onto his plate. Kaveh picked it up, inspecting it for a second before taking a bite. His eyes widened as he turned around, not expecting the taste.
“So, were your changes to the instructions good?” Alhaitham smirked and looked over to Kaveh, who was still turned around.
What the hell? I was not expecting the brownies to turn out decent. Kaveh choked on a cough and turned to face Alhaitham, a large smile plastered on his face. “Of course! Did you doubt me Haitham? I knew they would turn out perfectly! Haha..”
Alhaitham smiled knowingly and sighed. “Since they’re so perfect, make sure not to eat them all at once. Alright?”
“Yeah, yeah I know. Don’t need the reminder.” The blonde rolled his eyes and walked back over to Alhaitham. He stretched out his arms, letting himself fall onto the man. Kaveh looked up at Kaveh and grinned. “Thanks for baking with me though, it was fun.”
Alhaitham wrapped his arms around Kaveh’s shoulders, and returned the other’s smile. “Mm. No problem.”