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Alhaitham was always told that he was smart for his age, when he was younger. That he had the mind of a wise old man instead of a toddler, then a kid, then a teenager.
Of course, that was until people saw his utter lack of ambition and wrote him off as an ‘annoying dickface’- or so Kaveh calls him.
He wonders what they’d think of him if they knew.
—-
Kaveh was gone for a month to work on a project, and so Alhaitham had taken a week off from the office.
He strolls into the giant pyramid, doors opening for him as he approaches. The very same pyramid that took the traveler weeks to get into, and who hadn’t even explored the entire building.
Alhaitham didn’t want to come back here, not really, but there is an old document on ancient structures that he thinks Kaveh would like.
When he leaves, he carries a bundle of scrolls, and the doors close behind him.
——
Alhaitham thinks it’s funny, in an abject sort of way, when a group of people who worship King Deshret attack him on his way home, calling him a heretic, telling him he has no right to be the Grand Sage.
It’s not like he wants to be, anyway. He’d stayed just long enough for Lord Kusanali to get the lay of the land, and she was being inaugurated tomorrow.
“King Deshret will return, and you’ll be the first to die of his wrath!” yells a man as he’s being dragged away by Cyno.
“I’m sure I will,” says Alhaitham, and then he turns around and walks home.
———-
“Why do you act so high and mighty all the time?! You’re younger than me!” yells Kaveh, drunk, but not as much as usual.
“I don’t act high and mighty,” defends Alhaitham, straight-faced.
“See! You just did it there!” says Kaveh, pointing a drunken finger at him. “You act like you’re a god or something, untouchable! What’s wrong with you?!” he says, then passes out.
Alhaitham sighs, and picks up Kaveh to carry him to his room.
“If I were a god… you’d be the one that was untouchable,” says Alhaitham softly, pulling the blanket over the slumbering Kaveh.
——-
When Lumine comes by and introduces her girlfriend Jeht, Alhaitham smiles at the small robot when their backs are turned.
Benthon was one of his first creations- and one with the most personality.
Alhaitham is glad the small pyramid is with somebody Lumine trusts- and Alhaitham trusts Lumine.
——
“Sometimes I wonder, how gods can fall for mortals,” says Lumine, looking up at the sky. “Doesn’t it hurt, when the person they love withers away while they remain?”
Alhaitham hums. “I think it’s worth it. Love, that is.”
He loved Nabu, once upon a time. He didn’t regret the time spent with her, even though she died and he remained.
Now, he has Kaveh. And he’s content with the fact that they will die together. (He wouldn’t let it happen any other way)
——-
“Seriously, you’re so boring! You should be more like someone cool, like King Deshret!” says an Akademia student one day, one of the new transfers from the desert.
Alhaitham hums. “Ah, I’d never seek to emulate a god,” he says. If anything, he tries his best to be far from it.
——-
He remembers when he first saw the world around him, in this life. The abject horror that Rukkhadevata- or, a version of her- was imprisoned, never to be seen for nearly five hundred years.
Alhaitham wonders if that’s why he was back- to save Lord Kusanali.
He bides his time, and when Lumine comes and starts a revolution- well, of course he joins.
He’s not lying when he tells Cyno it’s because he wants a boring life- he’s just not telling him that he’s also been waiting for this moment for over a decade.
Lord Kusanali doesn’t recognize him. That’s fine by Alhaitham.
As long as he has Kaveh, he’s alright. No need to bring up old friendships.
——
Of course, peace doesn’t last forever.
It’s a disease, that comes back. One with an antidote, but it’s hidden away by King Deshret himself, so nobody could ever destroy it.
Lumine can’t find it. Neither can Lord Kusanali, or any of the other gods that Lumine is friends with.
Alhaitham sighs, and days later he returns with the cure, setting it upon Lord Kusanali’s desk.
“I see you decided to risk it, then,” says Lord Kusanali, and Alhaitham is surprised for the first time in a long time.
“You knew?” he asks her.
She nods. “Yes. I might not remember anything on my own, but Irminsul holds its memories close," she says.
“Why did you never say anything, then?” asks Alhaitham.
She looks at him, those wide eyes that seem to see into his soul. “It seemed like you were building a new life- I didn’t want to ruin that,” she explains.
Alhaitham nods, and that is that.
——-
He's not a god- not in the way Lord Kusanali is, or Morax or Barbatos- but he’s powerful in his own way.
So, when him and Kaveh are attacked on the way home by a group of high-up Fatui- they aren't strong enough on their own.
So, Alhaitham calls the sand that he complains about constantly, his eyes glowing almost red as his hair seems whiter.
Kaveh gasps from where he’s laying on the floor, covering a bleeding stab wound with his hands.
“Please- mercy! I was just doing my job,” pleads the last remaining Fatui, cowering on the ground.
Alhaitham looks at him like he’s nothing but a bug in the way. “You would think your Tsaritsa would know better than to attack a god. Shame that you will pay for her incompetence,” he says, and then the agent rolls away with a wave of sand.
Alhaitham blinks, and then he’s running to Kaveh’s side, the man staring at him with wide eyes.
“I know I should be asking a shit ton of questions, but all I can say right now is- holy hell that was hot,” says Kaveh.
Alhaitham snorts, smiles. “Never change, Kaveh.”
At least he still has this.
——-