Chapter Text
This was an eventful year for Kaveh.
After years of pining, of push and pulls, of arguing and falling out and finding each other again-
He was finally getting married to Alhaitham.
For all it took for the both of them to keep on dodging their own feelings for each other, the confession happened so abruptly.
"You're driving me insane! What are you, so in love with me that you just can't let me go?" He had said ironically in the middle of another argument. As a stupid joke. Kaveh was so tired, he just needed to get out of the house (their home) already!
He knew it would be dangerous in the middle of a rare storm, but he had to make sure any possible civilians outside were safe. He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if someone like him with a Vision just stood by and let the worst happen.
"And what if I am?" Alhaitham said firmly, in the same tone he would say any other response to Kaveh's snark with. It sounded so natural that Kaveh almost missed it.
"Yeah right- wait," Kaveh says, his head snapping towards his junior. He looked as stoic as ever, his arms crossed as he stood his ground. Kaveh wonders if his longing had gone to such unmanageable levels that he was starting to hallucinate his fantasies in real life as well. "What?"
"I said," Alhaitham starts again, stepping closer to him. Kaveh gulps nervously as the scribe stretched his arm forward, his eyes following each tautness of the muscles on the man's arms as he... closed the door. Not pinned him against the wall, or any other crazy idea like that.
"Don't go," his junior finished as he let go of the door, his arm moving back to his side.
But just as soon as Kaveh was about to erase all the racing 'what-if's in his head and write off Alhaitham's response earlier as a misunderstanding, the scribe placed his forehead on Kaveh's shoulder, and exhaled very softly.
"Because you matter a lot to me… and I've decided that admitting my affections for you is the only way I can convince you to stay. Please."
So he stayed.
The light of his life, Lunatic of the Akademiya, had his own unique way of showing how he cared. Naturally, that meant he had a unique way of declaring his affections as well.
“Let’s take a bath together,” Kaveh had told him one morning, his hand resting on his partner’s ( his partner’s! ) arm.
“No. It’s too cramped in there for two people,” Alhaitham had replied firmly, taking a sip of his morning coffee like an unbothered fungus.
“Oh, come on. I’m trying to be romantic here!” Kaveh says as he pouts, letting go of his junior’s arm to stand up straight.
“I would argue that there’s nothing romantic about trying to get yourself clean while another person gets in your way. We can barely fit a tub in there, Kaveh, and the random assortments of products you have lined up along the racks aren’t helping free up space either,” Alhaitham replies as he finally looks at him to raise a challenging eyebrow. Kaveh feels a vein pop in his forehead, and he groans to dispel his frustration. He didn’t need the negativity this morning, especially when he woke up in a great mood.
“Ugh, you’re hopeless. Fine! I won’t ask again,” Kaveh says as he stomps away dramatically to take a bath by himself, leaving Alhaitham to sip his coffee in peace.
A few days later, Kaveh spots two tickets to a hot spring in Inazuma on the table.
“What’s this? Did you win in a lottery you accidentally stumbled into on the streets?” He asks the scribe, who was lounging on the couch as he read a new book he had recently acquired. It was just like his junior to get into things he didn’t really ask for, after all.
“I bought them,” he simply replies.
“For us?” It felt wrong to say, since it wasn’t like Alhaitham to impulsively buy something like this, much less for a… vacation, maybe? Did something change about him or was he always like this? Perhaps he always was, and Kaveh had just started to become hypervigilant about everything ever since…
“Yes, for us.” Kaveh was pleasantly surprised at the confirmation. “I’ll get it refunded if you don’t want it.”
“No! I just… yes, I’d love to go. I really have been aching to relax these days,” Kaveh blurts out. Alhaitham smiles, and Kaveh finds himself mirroring him. Still, there was that slight unease in him that told him this wasn’t a good thing. How could he relax anywhere, much less in a different region, when he still had debts to settle?
“Well, since you’re taking it, I’m gonna be deducting the mora I bought your ticket for from the mora I set aside to pay off your tab at Lambad’s. No drinking for at least a week.”
“What!?” Kaveh exclaims, his mouth hanging open. “Why, you- what do you even mean by mora you set aside to pay off my tab? That’s not a thing!”
“It might as well be, due to how often I end up doing it. I’ve been considering accounting for it in my monthly budget anyway, and this seems like a good time to start.” The look that the architect gave him must have been priceless to the scribe. “You can blame the ease at which I adjust my spending on my financial freedom.”
He gave Alhaitham one less piece of chicken than usual that night.
It was funny how easily they fell into a rhythm together. One moment Kaveh was homeless, and the next he was rooming with the man he swore he wouldn’t act the same with ever again. One minute they were purposefully avoiding the sumpter beast in the room that was the intimate tension between them, and the next his junior was unabashedly telling him “I love you” s and openly calling him his lover in front of their friends, much to his great embarrassment. At the end of the day, though, the mere thought made Kaveh so giddy.
"Have you thought about getting married?"
Alhaitham simply hummed at the question, turning to another page of his book as Kaveh laid on his lap.
"Of course I have. In fact, I've written down the possible pros and cons of doing so in the past. As it stands, we seem pretty comfortable with our current arrangement, but a slight disruption of it wouldn't be unwelcome."
Kaveh sits back up, looking at his junior with determination.
"I want to get married."
Alhaitham raises a brow at him, lowering the book down to return the eye contact.
"That's odd."
Kaveh furrows his brows now, frustration evident in his face.
"Odd? Odd how!? You know I would be inclined to tie the knot eventually! We've been living together anyways, and we've known each other for much longer. There is no doubt in my mind that we feel strongly for each other. It's the only logical course of action," Kaveh says with conviction. He's been turning this argument all around in his head, already created branching possibilities of all the ways his junior would refute it. He would not be deterred.
Alhaitham dares to laugh, a small huff of amused breath as he lowers the book in his hand completely.
"No, that's not what I meant by that. I just didn't expect you to bring it up in conversation so casually, since that would usually be my style."
Kaveh tilts his head, confusion evident on his face.
"I was in the middle of arranging a date where I could properly propose to you amidst a wonderful view, as Tighnari had suggested. You must have dreams of being engaged in a romantic atmosphere, after all. But sure, I suppose I'll thank you for saving me the effort and say yes to your proposal instead."
Kaveh blinks, the realization sinking in. Alhaitham looks even more amused. The senior grips the junior's arm, his movement almost robotic.
"Forget we had this conversation. I didn't ask, you didn't answer. Anyways, I’ve been feeling rather nostalgic about Razan Gardens recently..."
It was a month later after that when they finally found the time to start planning the wedding. Kaveh put himself in charge of most of it, and they would be talking to their closest companions soon to assist with things so the architect wouldn't work himself to death juggling so many things at once. Meanwhile, Alhaitham was tasked to deal with the annoying paperwork.
“You dont think it's going too fast? I mean, you've only been dating for, what - six months?” Cyno had asked, his arms crossed as they picked out which shade of pink would look best on the chairs.
“It's actually eight, and you agreed to help me with this wedding! Are you rooting for me or not?”
“I'm rooting for you. I'm just wondering if you've really thought this through. I suppose your fiance would have done so, if it weren't for the fact that he gets just as childish as you do when you're together.”
“Speak for yourself, Cyno. Don't get me started on how you act when you're off-duty to see me,” Tighnari chimes in, flipping through a stack of colored fabrics in his hand to choose from. “If you ask me, I'm glad they're going fast. Their whole... situationship has been going on for far too long, me and Collei were starting to get tired of it.”
Collei smiles beside him, receiving a piece of fabric that her master had picked out and adding it to the consideration pile.
“You could say you were getting... Tirednari.”
Cyno crossed his arms proudly as a stewing silence hung in the air.
“Case in point,” Tighnari sighs, shrugging.
“... Wait, you and Collei gossip about me and Alhaitham!?” Kaveh suddenly says, feeling utterly betrayed by his goddaughter, especially.
“How could we not? You were practically asking for it whenever you would barge in our house and start ranting about him,” the forest ranger responds before quietly giggling with Collei.
“At least things worked out for the better, Mr. Kaveh!” The girl says with a bright smile. The architect couldn’t be mad for too long.
Employing help from their friends turned out to be a smart decision, Kaveh begrudgingly admitted in his head as he imagined a smug little Alhaitham quirking his brows at him. They breezed through two-thirds of the wedding plans very easily and yet without any significant rush. Kaveh found the perfect venue for the wedding and the reception, the perfect flowers, fabric, furniture and types of materials that would suit the theme (Design is never only about the colors and the shape, but the textures as well). They were pretty much ready, and without any significant hitch. Kaveh could easily say that this was one of the least rocky major things he's ever been involved in, perhaps second only to his reconstruction of the Port Ormos bridge.
Absolutely nothing was going to get in the way at this point and hinder their plans further.
Alhaitham held the folder containing both of their needed documents in one hand and Kaveh's hand in the other as they walked side by side to the civil registrar. Marriage licenses lasted for 3 months in Sumeru, so the scribe had suggested they get one as soon as they could so they wouldn't have to worry about it down the line.
"You've got everything, right? I don't wanna have to go back for another document we might have missed after this," Kaveh says.
"I had to rush to obtain yours since the ones you had in your room were outdated, but I'm fairly sure they're all here. Don't you worry about it and stick to your strengths, renowned architect of the Ksharehwar," Alhaitham replies, not forgetting to have that teasing edge in his voice that got Kaveh heated.
"I swear, if our plans somehow get pushed back because of you-!"
"We're here," Alhaitham interrupts, releasing Kaveh's hand to open the door to the office.
The civil registrar looked just like any other local government office in Sumeru. There was a lot of green (which Alhaitham probably found nice, that green-obsessed freak) and there were the standard interior decor consisting of plant-inspired lamps, red vases and yellow-tinted lights. To Kaveh, this was a bit of a tragedy. He certainly saw the logic behind not having to overthink the design of offices that were necessary to the region's day-to-day operations, and it was cheaper to copy the same design over and over, but if he was given the opportunity he could keep their vision in mind while still adding slight flairs to each individual agency office. This way people wouldn't be so visually bored of them over time. After all, if they were going to arrange their documents and get in line, they were at least owed a good view.
There was barely anyone in the office right now, though. The clerk behind the desk smiled as they approached, putting down the pen in their hand. Kaveh smiles back.
"Good morning!" They greeted.
"Hi. We're here to get a marriage license," Alhaitham says back. Straight to the point as always.
"Oh, congratulations! Certainly, I just need your identification to start."
Alhaitham hands the requested documents first, and the clerk gets right to work with flipping through a large book beside them. If the Akasha was still in use, this process would probably have been faster. Kaveh inserts a thank you somewhere in the middle, not wanting to leave the congratulations hanging even if it was said out of politeness.
"Just a second, I need to check something in the back. It won't be long, just a formality," the clerk says, already out of their seat in a practiced motion.
Kaveh could only smile back again due to how fast they disappeared. At least that meant they'd get that license faster. He looks back at Alhaitham, who was busying himself with reading the documents that the clerk hadn't asked for yet. It reminded Kaveh of those times when Alhaitham would read the back of his scented lotion bottles whenever he took too long in front of a mirror, and there wasn't enough time to pull out a book.
It took the clerk longer than he anticipated to come back out. Kaveh stops inspecting the interior in relief, watching as the clerk emerges from the back door with an extra file in hand.
"Oh, finally. Do you need the rest of the documents?" Kaveh asks, before suddenly noticing the shift in atmosphere. The clerk looks back and forth at the file in their hand and then at him, as if trying to confirm something.
"Mr. Kaveh, right? Ksharehwar graduate?" They ask hesitantly, and Kaveh finally sees the glint of his own photo in the file that the clerk had. His civil status document, most likely.
"Um, yes. And this is Mr. Alhaitham, Haravatat graduate," He replies hesitantly. The clerk would know all this information already from their identification, so he couldn't tell why they sounded confused. Kaveh looks at Alhaitham as if to confirm his identity. The scribe was going over the architect's document now.
"Uh... Mr. Kaveh. Are you sure you... haven't done this before?"
Kaveh watches Alhaitham's mouth fall into a frown, evident only by the slight movement of his lips. He's looking at a spot on Kaveh's document that seems to be perplexing him, a similar look being mirrored by the clerk who asked the question.
"Kaveh," Alhaitham says, looking directly at him now, as if looking for an explanation in his eyes.
"What?" Kaveh looks lost as he says this, tilting his head at Alhaitham before looking at the person behind the desk. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you see... according to the records..."
Kaveh suddenly feels afraid. But for what, he couldn't figure out.
"... Mr. Kaveh is already legally married."
This was truly an eventful year for Kaveh.