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Musky mornings were Alhaithams’s favourite. The warmth of the Sumeru desert blew over into the city, creating a warm cloud in the early hours of the morning. Businessmen hadn’t set up their stalls yet and no children ran down the windy paths screaming in joyful chorus. It was quiet. Still. Just the environment Alhaitham bloomed in, it gave him a sense of calmness and peace aside from his busy scribe life.
Though that peace was always short lived when Kaveh joined him, the blonde often slumping on the wooden steps of the porch beside him. Making a rather loud huff noise when sitting, he’d sprawl out and skin would graze upon skin in all sorts of uncomfortable ways. And that’s how their morning would go. Everyday. It was the unspoken rule of their household, that every morning starts the same in their awkward yet comforting silence on their house porch. Watching the sun rise between the dancing branches of nearby trees, noting each and every little life form that moved. That was until stalls began to go up and signal for their days to begin. Alhaitham silently leaving Kaveh alone on the wooden steps.
That’s how it had always been.
Until this morning. Alhaitham was always the first out on the porch, as always, bathing in the musk of the pre-sun rise sky. Usually still dark, small fireflies illuminating the bricks of the road before him. Yet Kaveh didn’t join him. Now of course he didn’t think much of it at first, Kaveh never really had a precise time like Alhaitham did. But as the minutes ticked by the silver haired man stood up, storming into Kaveh’s room with a slight huff.
“Kaveh” he muttered, his tone dripping with irritation as he glared at the man slumped on his desk. Quite the number of bottles beside his sleepy form. The blonde snapped awake, half-lidded eyes pierced through the man in the door way.
“…’m sleepin’. Whad’ya want” His words sluggish, eyes sunken and his pain disgustingly pasty. Or so Alhaitham thought.
“Get up? What are you doing” Alhaitham chided back, the annoyance certainly noticeable.
Though the blonde had no energy to snipe back another witty comment. Only shrug his shoulders in slight defeat and allow his face to slump against the cold wood of his desk once more. A limp hand grazing past a bottle, causing it to sway and tumble to the floor with a rather loud smash. Alhaitham stood in disbelief, huffing angrily and shaking his head*
“Fine. Whatever. Don’t damage my floors or I’ll make you pay them” with that he left, the out of routine morning clearly messing with his head. Kaveh didn’t blame him, he knew Alhaitham enjoyed his routine. The comfort of familiarity and understanding of how his day was going to go.
“See you later, Haitham” He called, his face lifting momentarily to listen for some form of reply. Yet instead he was met with only the slam of the front door, the floor shaking slightly in its wake.
“Pfft. Of course.” Kaveh scoffed quietly, his body heavy from the weight of the substance in his body. Or perhaps it was his mind that weighed him down, endless thoughts trailed his mind. It was like his brain was trapped beneath the sea, he’d never really see what’s above the surface.
Alhaitham’s day wasn’t too much better, his out of routine start hadn’t put him in a great place. His was irritable and short tempered, the sass and attitude he carried was unimaginable. So he did the only sensible thing, and spent his day cooped up in the library. Burying himself in knowledge and endless words was far better than having to worry about his irritable roommate anyway. Was he even a roommate?? He thought.
“Nah more of a freelancer” Alhaitham scoffed under his breath, dwelling far too hard on this subject.
Eventually he had to return home, no matter how much he dreaded the awkward interaction with the blonde. He needed rent money. Duh. And that would mean having to return to the house, so that’s where he trudged. Strolling the streets of sumeru to make his journey impossibly longer, pausing at each colourful stall that provided a sweet aroma. However, he did eventually make it home. Shutting the door behind him with his back slumped against the wooden door, it was ever so quiet. Too quiet. Though the silver haired man brushed it off, thinking the blonde was simply working on a project. So, he placed the bag of things he bought on the streets upon the kitchen counter and called out to him.
“Kaveh. Come eat something, I doubt you’ve left that god awful study all day.” His words held no bite but slight care, not enough to make Kaveh reply. Clearly. With a roll of his eyes his strode over to the study, budging the door open and peeping his head into the musky room.
But oh. How time froze in that very moment.
Nothing seemed to move. Alhaitham didn’t dare breathe. His eyes helplessly racked the lifeless body on the floor, the skin a more grey paste than this morning. He needed to be sick.
He didn’t know when Cyno and Tighnari had gotten there, they just..did. Tighnari’s useless coddles over the man didn’t break him free of the nightmare he was living. Escorted out of his own hom- house. Watching as the Mahamatra silenty took away the blonde, like silent angels of death they were gone as soon as they appeared. And so was Kaveh.
Days were sluggish, Alhaitham hadn’t dare return to the study that Kaveh had once called home. Cyno and Nari came to check up on him a few times, breaking the awful news that the death was indeed intentional. Though on the most recent visit Cyno handed him a white envelope that was tilted to him.
“This had to be taken in for evidence..but you can have it now. It was found..on the scene” Cyno had explained before leaving with Nari.
So now Alhaitham finds himself in the early hours of the morning. Musky heat lifting over Sumeru city as he prys open the paper envelope, pulling out the equally messy message written upon torn paper.
“My dearest Haitham,
Im sorry that you’ve actually had to read this. Though I must say I am surprised you are reading it. But whatever. I’m sorry that the burden I placed on your shoulders had lasted so long. And I’m sorry that you’ve had to put up with me for this long too..but thanks anyway. I guess?? Alas, that’s all gone now. I wish you the best with your new found freedom.
Thank you, Haitham.
Kaveh”
Short and sweet. Alhaitham thought, much like the time the two shared. Splotches appearing on the dishevelled paper in his trembling hands. The silence in the early air offered no comfort towards him. Not without the sprawled out figure beside him. And oh how he craved the uncomfortable touch of the other. How he longed for the sound of his loud sighs or his heavy footsteps upon the wooden porch.
He wouldn’t find that peace again, not in the morning. Not in the night. Not in the morning heat or the sunrise in which the tree branches danced. Musky mornings were Alhaithams demise.