Chapter Text
“Not even gonna tell me goodbye!?” Kaveh sighed in annoyance. He was going to be traveling to the Sumeru desert in order to study the architectural aspects of the ruins and temples and such. He offered for Alhaitham to come with him, as he knows how much he likes ancient runes, but for some reason Alhaitham declined. He had been acting strangely, but it wasn’t Kaveh’s place to question it since he knew the best answer he would get was ‘I don’t feel like it.’
“Of course. Good bye Kaveh,” Alhaitham said promptly, not looking up from his book. Kaveh groaned once more,” Whatever. Bye Haitham!” He took Mehrak and then walked out the door. ‘How stupid it is that he named his briefcase,’ Alhaitham thought.
There actually was a reason that he hadn’t accepted Kaveh’s proposal. On any other day he would be happy to explore and decode hidden ruins. But Alhaitham was stressed lately. He had just been promoted (against his will) to the Acting Grand Sage. On top of that, he got bit by a radioactive spider recently. Lucky him. Some Akademiya researcher was doing an experiment on a spider, and Alhaitham found it interesting and decided to oversee it.
Long story short, the spider had gotten out of its container. It jumped on him, and he eventually killed it, but not before it managed to bite him. After that day he started getting weird feelings, such as enhanced senses. He also learned he could stick to walls and such… he only entrusted this with one person he knew he could trust: Tighnari.
If he had told anyone else, they would’ve called it a blessing, or perhaps even a superpower. But Tighnari’s currently helping him try to find a cure, and for that, Alhaitham’s thankful. At least with Kaveh out of the house for a week, he’ll be able to rest up a bit in between working hours without having someone nagging him.
“Whew, maybe I underestimated how hot it would be out here…” Kaveh laughed nervously to himself. He was supposed to be staying with Candace in Aarau Village, but he got lost…
“Hello?” He called out into the desert. ‘What the hell am I doing there’s nobody here…’ Until Kaveh turned around. “Well well what have we here?” An eremite said,” You lost kid?” “I am not a kid! But.. Yes, I am a bit lost. But I’ll find the way myself!” Kaveh stammered out, the band of eremites were probably all double the size of him, he gulped.
“Tryna go to Aaru village?” The supposed leader asked. “Well… yes, actually…” Kaveh looked at the ground, this whole conversation put him on edge. “Hey well, we can help ya!” Another eremite piped up, and the rest nodded in agreement. Kaveh weighed his options for a moment, then decided he had no other way. “Fine…”
He followed the eremites, but they had been walking for a long way. They were heading the wrong way, Kaveh was sure of it.
“Well here we are!” An eremite said. “But this is a ruin of a mausoleum-“ Kaveh started, but he felt pressure on his back, he had gotten pushed. “Hey! Wait!!!” He heard the loud creaking of the stone door closing behind him, the room was incredibly dark. He pounded on the door as he heard footsteps walk away in the sand. “COME BACK!” He yelled. Oh god, how dumb could he have been..?
“Well, shit.”
It had been two weeks and Kaveh still hadn’t come back, no word of him either. This was weighing on Alhaitham’s mind a lot. “Hey, Tighnari.” He said, entering the fox’s house in Gandhara village. “Hm? Oh, if this is about the cure, I still don’t have it entirely figured out yet…” Tighnari said. “I er, wanted to try that idea out with the webs.” Tighnari’s ears perked up at this,” Really!? I was hoping you did! I uhm also sewed something up for you if you ever wanted to try out the hero thing…” Tighnari smiled, he’s such a nerd.
Alhaitham was about to decline, but then thought for a moment. This could be a way to keep his identity hidden from Kaveh (if he even managed to find him, but Kaveh didn’t want to think about it if there was a chance he didn’t.) “Fine, I’ll take all of it,” Alhaitham sighed. “Great! Put this on!” Tighnari ran over and handed him some clothes.
Alhaitham put the outfit on and a few minutes later started complaining,” Must it be so tight? I feel as though I’m showing off more than I want to.” Tighnari just shook his head,” It’s fine.” With that, Alhaitham simply just thanked him before he said anything else.
He tried to ‘swing’ from the buildings using the sticky web liquid or whatever it was Tighnari had designed. He fell once or twice (twenty times) but eventually got the hang of it.
Using the gut feeling he had started getting, (called ‘spidey senses’, curtesy of Tighnari) he had eventually figured out thay Kaveh was in the mausoleum straight ahead of him. If not, he could just check the other buildings near the area. Alhaitham climbed to the top of the ancient ruin, and found a perfectly placed hole in the top. How odd. He climbed through, and dropped down to the floor, it was incredibly dusty, and quite dark as expected.
He then heard a creaking noise. Shit, the hole he dropped through had closed up.
After that, Alhaitham heard the loudest blood curdling shriek he’d ever heard. Ah. Yes, Kaveh’s in here.
“Who in the name of all that is good are you!?” He backed away. “None of your business, I’m here to save you,” Alhaitham stepped forward. Now that there was a bit of light he could see Kaveh clearly, and vice versa. “… That hole up there was the only way I could think of getting out, and YOU sealed it up!” Kaveh spat, obviously judging the dumb getup that Alhaitham has on.
“Oh well I’ll think of something…” Alhaitham said, he in fact, could not think of anything at the moment. He walked over and sat next to Kaveh, he looked pretty beat up. “At least take off that dumb mask,” Kaveh said.
“No.”
“Listen, if I’m going to die, it’s not going to be as a virgin, I wanna know what the guy I want to do it with before I die looks like,” Kaveh said. “… Excuse me? I’ve been here for less than five minutes. And you aren’t going to die,” Alhaitham sighed. He had forgotten that Kaveh lost all rational thinking skills in survival situations. “Uh Huh, sure. I ran out of my food yesterday! I packed food for an emergency, and this is an emergency! Now there’s two of us that are going to starve to death!”
“Nobody’s starving to death,” Alhaitham groaned, starting to get annoyed. He stands up, and looks around, then shoots a web to launch him up to the ceiling, where the hole in the roof at closed. “What the fuck!?” Kaveh stands up frantically, looking flabbergasted.
Alhaitham ignores his shock, and investigates it for s bit, before dropping back down to the floor,” It won’t budge. And why are you surprised?” “I’ve never seen anything like that with a vision before… could I see?”
“No.”
“Wow, my so-called savior is being rude,” Kaveh scoffed.
Alhaitham sighed,” Listen, I just traveled all the way here from Sumeru city to look for you, now be a bit more appreciative.” Alhaitham continued tracing along the walls and ceiling, trying to find any way out.
“Well then. If I’m going to die, then I may as well recount my life!” Kaveh said. Alhaitham knew he couldn’t and wouldn’t stop Kaveh, even though he’s heard about his past a million times while they were going through rough patches.
“I started out as an orphan, my dad died, and my mom quickly moved to Fontaine after leaving me here alone, not that I blame her, love my mom. I started my studies in the Akademiya, well, since both my parents were there. I had a few close friends at the time, mainly Tighnari, Cyno, and Alhaitham.”
Alhaitham perked up a bit, he’s never been a part of what Kaveh told him before, it’d be good to know how Kaveh truly felt about him.
“Well, I would hardly call one of them a friend now… anyway, after I finished school and got my degree in architecture from Ksashrewar, I set out to make an ambitious building. But… I got scammed by that little rat Dori,” Kaveh sighed,” So now I’m millions of mora in debt. I would’ve been homeless for now if it weren’t for Alhaitham. He let me stay in his house, even though we aren’t on the best talking terms right now.”
“I need to get back to him.”
Alhaitham felt a pang of sadness in his heart. Was part of Kaveh’s motivation to leave here to see him? “Alright, well you’ll see him as soon as we can get out of here,” he said, trying to avoid looking at Kaveh.
“… Okay. I’ve always regretted arguing with him so much, you know? I really really do care, and he’s my best friend, and god I don’t know what I’d do without him. Random man who came to rescue me, can I confess something to you that I’ve never told anyone?”
“Erm, sure,” Alhaitham said quietly.
“I’m in love with my roommate,” Kaveh smiled solemnly at the ground.
“Ah, well all the more reason to get back to him,” Alhaitham tried to show no emotion towards this, Kaveh didn’t know this was actually him, but his confession made his heart beat rapidly. This was totally unexpected.
“Kaveh there’s a button right next to the door,” Alhaitham said after a few more minutes, then he pushed it, revealing the sun.
“Oh.”
Alhaitham walked over and picked Kaveh up, carrying him out into the desert. He was about to complain, but stopped. “Aren’t you going to get hot wearing that mask?” Kaveh asked. “No, you don’t get to see my face.” Alhaitham said, getting impatient.
“Oh but what if you’re really hot!” Kaveh smiles. “You just said you’re in love with your roommate, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Alhaitham sighed. “Well fine, be that way.” Kaveh scoffed and pouted.
A bit later, they finally reached Sumeru city. Alhaitham set Kaveh down and said,”This is as far as I’m taking you. I trust you know your way back.” “Wait! I didn’t get a chance to thank you!” Kaveh smiled. He turned around, but the masked guy was gone. How odd. Kaveh started on his way home.
“Alhaitham! I’m home!” He yelled, no response. He checked in Alhaitham’s room, nobody. The study? Empty again. He then sighed, maybe he wasn’t home from work yet. His work hours had been getting longer and longer because of his new job…
Kaveh walked into the bathroom sighing, only to find Alhaitham standing there
Wearing that suit.
“Alhaitham, what the FUCK?”