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"Haitham, there's—there's five fucking beds."
"Your point being?"
The Akademiya had been gracious enough to bless them with a business trip, a lovely deviation from their usual mundane office work. However, the employees had to pay an extra fee if they wanted a single hotel room, which Kaveh was much too broke for. Sharing a room with Alhaitham would be a little—a lot—harder than sharing a house, but it'd be fine. It was only for four days, after all.
While Kaveh had been stressing about Alhaitham's living habits and future interactions, he'd never thought that the hotel room would be a problem.
"Alhaitham. Why are there five beds?"
Alhaitham, so unbothered that it made Kaveh want to rip his hair out, leisurely walked in the room and set his stuff down. "This was the only room available. Calm down, they won't kill you. It's not like there's only one bed."
Kaveh pointedly ignored the somersault his stomach did at the thought of that. "But—it's strange! There shouldn't be five beds in one room! It completely ruins the space! It's crowded and unbalanced and chaotic and the aesthetic is suffering—"
He was interrupted with a pillow to the face.
"My ears are ringing, shut up," Alhaitham said, then locked himself in the bathroom.
"Hey!" Kaveh screeched. "I was going to take a shower first, you asshole!"
It wasn't that bad. The space between their beds was welcome, even. Sleeping as far away from each other as they could get saved Kaveh's poor heart from going into overdrive.
It didn't make any sense why they had to sleep three beds apart from each other when two was just fine, though. So the second night, Kaveh slept in the next bed over. But wait, that wasn't so bad, so maybe the bed right next to Alhaitham's would be fine too? And it was, actually, when Kaveh slept in it the third night.
On the fourth night, while Kaveh was getting ready for bed, doing his ten step skincare routine after putting his hair up in an intricate, protective braid, Alhaitham unexpectedly asked, "Are you going to sleep in my bed now?"
Kaveh dropped his serum. "What?"
"Well, you've been moving one bed closer every night. If you continued the pattern tonight, you'd end up in my bed," Alhaitham responded, completely calm and collected, as if he were reciting his research—which he was, in a way.
That would make sense, wouldn't it? Except—it wasn't like Kaveh had been moving closer for the sake of being closer to Alhaitham. It just seemed practical. Why have all that space between them? It didn't make any sense. Right? Right?
He looked at Alhaitham, already snugly tucked into bed, skin glowing after doing nothing but washing his face. And then, his traitorous mouth spoke.
"Do—do you want me to?"
"Do I want you to what?" Alhaitham said, like the asshole he was.
"Sleep with you, dumbass!" Kaveh screeched, then mentally facepalmed.
"As in sexual activity? I'd prefer to take things slower, actually."
"Oh my fucking gods—"
Kaveh marched over to Alhaitham's bed, cheeks burning and serum forgotten. He yanked back the covers, climbed into Alhaitham's bed, and made himself at home.
Wait, what the fuck?
"Oh?" Alhaitham murmured smugly, then hooked an arm over Kaveh's waist.
"Hey!" Kaveh squawked, turning his head to look at Alhaitham—who, for all his bravado, had a wonderful flush on his face.
"Hush," whispered Alhaitham, and Kaveh listened for once.
And even though there were four other beds available, they chose one.