Work Text:
Alhaitham woke up to the sounds of soft crying. He sat bolt upright to look around, glancing next to him to see Kaveh curled up. He was trying his best to muffle his sobs, a hand over his mouth and his arm over his head to protect himself.
Guilt pinged through the Grand Sage's heart as he pressed a kiss to the back of Kaveh's head, causing him to flinch before rolling over to cling onto Alhaitham.
"Shh. You're okay, honey. You're okay."
.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.
A month prior, Alhaitham had been captured. He, of course, didn't give any information to his captors when prompted. They tried everything. They broke his fingers, beat him, cut him, burned him, and always, ALWAYS threatened to torture his loved ones.
Nobody could blame Alhaitham when he called their bluff.
And nobody could blame Alhaitham when the group tossed a bloodied Kaveh into the cell with him.
The blonde was mad more than anything, not at Alhaitham, but at the captors. Obviously. He'd yell at them only to get shoved to the ground, but Kaveh was always too determined. Kaveh always was determined, no matter what happened to him.
"Kaveh, you can't keep arguing with them." Alhaitham sighed as he dabbed a bit of ripped cloth against Kaveh's cheek, which had a fresh cut across it.
"Well somebody has to!" He scoffed, "Besides. I won't let them think they've broken my spirit."
Kaveh said that
Kaveh's one pride in that hellhole was his spirit which hadn't been broken.
Until it was.
Alhaitham awoke at around midnight as he was dragged to a separate room, sat down in a chair, and got his hands tied to the chair. He was unsurprised, just glaring at the group who had captured him. They signaled to a curtain in front of Alhaitham, who was just sick of all of this. It was unnecessary.
"You seem to think you have some trump card, you have nothing."
Typically, behind the curtain were all of the tools they'd use on Alhaitham.
But when the curtain dropped, so did his heart.
There, on the chair, was Kaveh. His hands weren't even tied. They didn't have to be, his arms were cut up as if he'd been tossed in a rose bush.
"What.." Was all Alhaitham could muster. "What did you do?" His eyes were wide, slowly turning to look at a guard. They only spared a smile.
The next hours were a blur.
"-- STOP! HE'S HAD ENOUGH, HE'S NOT EVEN WHO YOU WANT!"
Alhaitham screamed. He begged- he screamed until his throat bled, he pulled against the restraints until his wrists were rubbed raw, Alhaitham cried. Stoic Alhaitham cried.
Kaveh was staying strong at first. He was mocking the guards.
Until he couldn't hold tears back.
Until he was screaming.
Until he was bloodied and bruised, bones cracked and broken, words carved into his skin.
Until he stopped reacting.
Until all Kaveh could do was weakly sob, unable to muster the strength to do anything else.
Eventually, Archon bless, eventually, they stopped.
Alhaitham felt so guilty, he pressed kisses to all of Kaveh's cuts and apologized. He profusely apologized, he felt horrible for Kaveh.
But Kaveh didn't respond. His dull red eyes had somehow become duller, he could barely get out of the dingy bed, and every single day he had to repeat the same thing. Alhaitham wanted to tell the truth, we wanted to tell the guards anything..
But this mission would save thousands of lives.
.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.
Alhaitham's plan failed.
That's when he felt true despair.
True despair was when Kaveh couldn't even wipe the tears pouring down his face because of how badly beaten he was.
And the only reason Alhaitham let him suffer like this was for a plan that ended up failing.
The
Plan
Failed.
And that's when Alhaitham lost his mind. One day, while comforting Kaveh (who was out cold), he just began soft chuckling.
And then giggling.
And then manic laughter.
The guards came to check on him, only to have their heads pulled through the bars. Smashed over and over until their skulls cracked and blood flung back onto his body.
He smiled and grabbed the keys, unlocking the door, and gently lifting Kaveh to get out of there.
By the time he exited the building, he was covered in blood.
Alhaitham, personally, made sure the plan he so deeply cared for came true.
He did it with his own.
Bear.
Hands.
Nobody recognized Alhaitham. He'd gone completely out of his mind. He'd have fits of anger, but never around Kaveh.
No, never Kaveh.
Alhaitham ripped people apart if they got angry at Kaveh. He'd do it with his bare hands if he needed to.
Kaveh was his light. His prince.
His everything.
.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.
Kaveh wasn't ever the same after the incident; nobody could blame him.
He flinched a lot more. He spoke a lot less, cowered at loud noises, and genuinely yelped whenever someone touched him.
He didn't often have to worry about being touched, though. Everybody, EVERYBODY knew what Alhaitham was capable of. He'd never let anybody touch him, ever. It didn't matter if it was an accident.
"Say 'aah!'" Alhaitham rose a spoonful of ice cream to Kaveh's mouth. It hurt to know that Kaveh was a shell of his former self, but Alhaitham found it a bit cute. Kaveh did as instructed, opening his mouth. Alhaitham smiled and put the spoon in his mouth, Kaveh pulling his head away to swallow it. "Good job, sweetheart! It's nice to see you eat more."
Kaveh softly hummed, glancing behind the counter at a cowering employee. "Mm.. Why is he afraid?" Kaveh tilted his head towards him.
"He's just afraid of your beauty."
A light giggle exited Kaveh's mouth, "No, I think they're just afraid of you."
Alhaitham rocked his head, eventually smiling. "Oh, why would you think that?" He asked, resting his head against his hand.
Kaveh raised an eyebrow and tilted his head towards a corpse on the ground by the two.
"Eh. He looked at me funny."
"I never knew you cared what people thought about you."
"I don't. But I care what people think about you, my prince."
"Pfft.. You're so cheesy."
Alhaitham smiled and pressed a kiss against Kaveh's lips. "Mm, well, you're my god."