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Panting and fanning himself desperately, Kaveh stumbled into his house, quickly slamming the door shut behind himself. He haphazardly threw his keys aside and suddenly let go of Mehrak— knowing it'd catch itself, of course— to collapse on the cool tiled floor beside a vent. He released a long, tired sigh of relief as the cooled air blew up into his face. The layer of sweat that had made itself home on Kaveh's skin over the past hours soon cooled, bringing a welcome chill to his burning skin.
Kaveh sat crumpled for minutes, letting the air and time flow past him. When he finally came to and looked around the living room he saw the tip of Alhaitham's tail flicking back and forth, gently tapping the floor. He couldn't help but think of just how expected it was for Alhaitham to be laying on the cool floor as he slipped his shoes off and grabbed Mehrak from where she settled.
Rounding the corner into their kitchen, Kaveh found his junior splayed out, staring at the ceiling in an uncharacteristically vacant manner. "Hm," Kaveh padded closer, staring down at Alhaitham inquisitively, "Are you, like, alive down there?" His question stirred something behind turquoise eyes, quickly coming to focus on him.
"Evidently." was all Alhaitham said, drained, before fixing his eyes back onto the ceiling. With a sigh, Kaveh set Mehrak down on the counter, gingerly stepping over the human-shaped lump in the middle of the floor. He quickly filled a glass with cold water, sneaking a short sip, before kneeling beside Alhaitham's messy head of hair.
Alhaitham glanced at the blond, noting his red cheeks. "You know, most people would likely get themselves some water on day like this before collapsing mere centimeters from a water source." Kaveh pressed the ice cold glass against Alhaitham's cheek. The younger winced, glaring harshly at him, tail thumping wildly against the floor— it did actually feel good, but Alhaitham didn't appreciate the suprise.
Alhaitham's body quickly went taut, pupils dilating, as Kaveh leaned down, bringing their faces closer and closer. The curtain of golden hair surrounding them set an air of peace as Kaveh softly pecked Alhaitham's dry nose. The blond's face crumpled immediately, angrily staring down at him. "You! Drink some water! Immediately!"
Kaveh forced Alhaitham up, pulling the significantly large man with ease— Alhaitham knew he need the water, so he opted to cooperate instead of going entirely slack. The cold glass was insistently pressed against his lips, Kaveh unintentionally trying to force him into immediately drinking. With grumble, Alhaitham batted Kaveh's hands from his face, taking the cup for himself and downing it in a single gulp.
The desperation he'd felt for some water came to the firefront of his mind, leaving Alhaitham almost scrambling to the sink. A hand to his shoulder stopped him, another preciously cold glass of water being presented to him; he grabbed it without thinking of much else, hardly registering that it was Kaveh aiding him. He drank the second in large gulps still, but savoured the chill that ran through his body.
Alhaitham's mind was freed of the urgent need for water, clearing it enough to realise Kaveh was already by his side again with another full cup. "You look like you're getting a heatstroke. Get yourself some water instead of worrying about me." Kaveh's pupils contracted into slits, lips pulling back to reveal the tips of his canines. The architect swiftly stood, swaying slightly as though he had no tail, and pointedly walked to the bathroom to fill his own cup.
Alhaitham had regretted his choice of words, cursing himself for letting the heat impact his mind. Kaveh knew that his junior didn't mean it, he cared about him and was agitated by the sweltering temperature. His storming off was also partially caused by the heat effecting him, but primarily the thirst he'd pushed down. The tiny sip of water from Alhaitham's drink wasn't nearly enough, only serving to seemingly make his tongue and nose drier.
Just finishing his glass— he much perferred not getting indigestion from water of all things, thank you very much— the bathroom door creaked open and Alhaitham slipped in beside Kaveh. Despite initially resolving to ignore the fluff ball with large and pleading eyes that had entered, Kaveh quickly turned when he spotted a cup of Zaytun Peach juice in the mirror.
Unlike water, Kaveh thought it to be more than acceptable to risk indigestion from juice. His hasty choice immediately came to be regretted; the large gulps went uneasily down his esophagus, feeling as though he'd swallowed a rock. Alhaitham's quick reaction, slowly rubbing his back, hardly made the slow and painful sensation more bearable.
Kaveh leaned against Alhaitham's large steady frame and clutched the counter. Eventually, after what seemed like ages, the pain ceased and only a dull and uncomfortable pressure remained. He eagerly pressed into Alhaitham, hardly minding the warmth of bodily contact, and wrapped his arms around the other's middle. Alhaitham huffed fondly, reaching up to smooth his messy mane; to see his hair in such a state would be too distracting for Kaveh, that he knew. Gentle purring bounced off the tile, putting both men at ease.
Reluctantly, they pulled away from eachother, sweat having begun accumulating between their bodies. Kaveh stretched, his arms reaching high and legs shaking, as Alhaitham turned to leave. Not having realised his junior snuck off, Kaveh popped his head out and peered around. The hustle and bustle outside their house drowned out any of the other's near silent foot steps; and intense heat had always, inexplicably, dulled Kaveh's nose.
Shrugging it off, he made his way back to Mehrak, opening it and unpacking the jumbled mess within. Frustratingly, everything had gotten completely mixed out of the meticulous order he'd set things into; all the blueprints for his clients, design proposals, calculations, and anything else unfortunate enough to end up there were all cluttered together. Only size and visible ink distinguished what any one item was, drawing a massive and dramatic groan from him.
Alhaitham entered the kitchen just minutes later, hardly suprised or confused at the sight of Kaveh on floor with a massive arrangement of papers surrounding him. He looked down at the damp towel he was holding, pondering whether to get Kaveh's attention before putting it on him or if he should just drop it onto his shoulders. Glancing back up, he spotted Kaveh swiftly braiding various areas of his hair while staring at the mess in front of him and muttering. He would do it as a surprise.
Carefully tip-toeing behind the blond, wary of his flickering tail, Alhaitham strategically positioned the towel to drop onto Kaveh's shoulders the next time he leaned down to make a note. Kaveh would describe the following events to have gone as such:
'He suddenly heard a splap, simultaneously having a wet chill go over him. He (obviously) shouted and tried desperately to get the cold wet thing off of his neck but was too panicked and could hardly maneuver his own body. The soft weight finally slipped off his neck, a shiver running through him. That was when he realised what had been on his neck. That was also when he realised what had been on his neck landed square in the middle of a pile of blueprints.
He stared at the pile of towel for a moment before desperately trying to save his work. The very wet towel had dripped through all of them. Hastily yet calm and collected, Kaveh had Mehrak suspend the papers in the air.'
As for Alhaitham's more unbiased observation of the events, he would say:
'Kaveh shouted and jumped, scrambling to paw the damp towel off, clearly not having realised what it was yet, only for it to slip off and land on the corner of a blueprint pile. He then stared at the towel and papers for about five seconds before he scrambled to seperate them and make Mehrak hold the few papers in the air. The top was the worst with a relatively large wet spot near the corner, and the other's paper had hardly warped beyond a few spots.'
Both men could, however, agree on the following events. Kaveh whipped his head towards Alhaitham who stood with his typical impassive expression. "I simply can't believe you! I worked for weeks on some of those!! What were you even thinking, Alhaitham!?" Kaveh's shouts made them both flinch, his own words being too loud even for his own ears.
Alhaitham let out a long, dreary sigh, and stepped towards where Mehrak held the papers with Kaveh's attempt to keep him away being nothing to the scribe— a suprising fact to him considering Kaveh seemed so incensed, Kaveh wasn't weak either instead having a leaner frame and build. He plucked one of the papers— the worst one, in fact, which was purely coincidental— and examined the damage.
Wordlessly, he wandered to their bathroom, grabbing Kaveh's hairdryer. Handing the paper back Alhaitham said, "Have it hold the paper somewhat taut, not enough to tear the wet paper but like if it were spread on a table." Kaveh didn't get a word out before Mehrak took the paper, shocking them both with it's recognition of Alhaitham's commandcoming from Alhaitham himself. Kaveh stood, clearly in deep thought, as Alhaitham gently blow-dried the paper.
The blueprint had looked as if nothing happened to it when he was done, quickly moving to do the same with the next. Absorbed in his job of meticulously drying the damp spots on each paper, Alhaitham didn't notice the soft calls of his name from Kaveh. He was so unresponsive that, reluctantly, Kaveh gently tugged on his tail. Such a trick worked for any cat, but as Alhaitham was especially sensitive to contact and his environment it was more effective for him than most.
The guarded expression Alhaitham wore when he turned to look softened as he met Kaveh's wide, red eyes peering up. "I di—"
"Tha—"
They cut themselves off, chuckling at how they spoke at precisely the same time. Alhaitham turned the hair dryer off, and sat beside Kaveh. Their tails unconsciously linked around eachother. "I'm speaking first. I already know what you were going to say to which my response is it isn't something to be thanked for, I solved a problem I created." Kaveh mockingly rolled his eyes at Alhaitham's words, shifting to lay his head on the other's shoulder.
"I didn't think that you may react in such a manner, which is my fault thoroughly, I know you better than that suggests and your reaction was very characteristic of you," Kaveh had to scrunch his face up and tightly squeeze Alhaitham's thigh to refrain from interrupting, "Nor did I realise there was a stack of papers so closely beside you. I only meant it to be a distraction from what you were doing since you were so engrossed. I'll go and get the ingredients to make soup tonight shortly."
The blond couldn't help snickering at the Alhaitham equivalent of a 'sorry' within that apology. "Haithoomi, it's far too hot out to have soup of all things!" he gently chided, "Thank you, though. I appreciate the sentiment."
They sat in silence as Kaveh pondered his next words, both as he desired to remain in their position for a little longer and he didn't really know how to say what he thought. "I know what you said, but thank you for drying the papers. My brain was too scrambled to think, and it was definitely an overreaction. None of that's to say I forgive that action, mind you! I forgot what was in that pile, it really scared me!" Kaveh's talking turned into impassioned whisper-yelling, a wholly endearing action to Alhaitham who simply hummed in response.
Rain began tapping against the windows, bringing their attention to how it'd gone from sweltering to warm rapidly. "Did you know it'd rain today?" Kaveh asked, admiring the even more unique look rain gave their stained glass windows.
"Yes. You came home as I was trying to will myself to go and find you. You never bring an umbrella with you and I prefer you dry— your complaints are far too frequent and go on much longer than necessary." Kaveh had to elbow his ribs for that last comment.
With a grunt, Kaveh stood up, staring at the mess on floor. "You go take a cold bath or something. I'll move all of this and then start on dinner; can I just do Fatteh since we have everything and it's quick?"
"I can make dinner after you've moved everything." Their eyes met— Kaveh's exceedingly skeptical gaze boring into Alhaitham's steady eyes. Wordlessly, Kaveh started pushing the other away towards the bathroom.
"You, Alhaitham, are a Snow Leopard, whereas I am a Rishboland Tiger." Kaveh spun the other around and pulled his face in, "I may be very dramatic about it, but this kind of heat is natural to me. Go take a cold bath, you're actually going to get heat stroke at this rate." Alhaitham opened his mouth to reply but Kaveh stopped him, "No 'buts'! Listen to your senior just this once, perhaps? I much prefer you healthy over you sun sick, silly."
With a soft kiss pressed to Alhaitham's forehead, Kaveh turned back to gather everything, leaving the former almost shell shocked. Blood rushed to his cheeks, turning his face burning, and he couldn't argue with Kaveh on the matter anymore; he was beginning to feel nauseous and became highly aware of how sweaty he'd become.
Fatteh was never Alhaitham's favourite dish, eto even close, but it was always nice to have in the middle of a heat wave— not that he'd tell Kaveh that. The cool yogurt was highly effective at lowering his temperature and never failed to ease the tension overwhelming heat brought to his body— again, not something we would tell Kaveh.
The otherwise silent dinner was accompanied by soft, broken hums from Kaveh as he carefully deconstructed the structure he made. It was peaceful between the two, their bodies seemingly gravitating towards eachother until they pressed against one another.
Just a few hours passed from when Kaveh returned, it was barely into the evening, and yet he felt exhausted. He couldn't even think to protest when Alhaitham had taken both of their plates away to be cleaned. The constant rush of water hypnotised Kaveh alongside the wooden grain of their table. His nail carefully dragged within a line, the sensations travelling through barely able to keep him awake.
"Kaveh, your back is going to hurt tomorrow if you stay like that" His junior's smooth voice distracted the blond, a soft grin coming to adorn his features when he looked at the other. It was clear to Alhaitham that he'd been too far gone to get up on his own. He quickly searched for something that would be effective enough to wake Kaveh up somewhat but not too much when it hit him.
"Ah, before it slips my mind, Kaveh, a vendor on Treasure Street asked me for some ideas today. I reccomended you, instead." A pout replaced the dopey smile on Kaveh's tired face, his body quickly straightening. "His store closes at noon tomorrow, so you'll wanna get there around that time."
Kaveh stormed off to brush his teeth, glaring at Alhaitham from the side of his eye; it was indescribably lazy of the scribe, but still, Kaveh felt inclined to help. The drag of sleep was heavy but he made quick work of getting ready for bed, not wanting to end up sleeping in the wrong spot only to have slept terribly.
His snowy counterpart sat on their bed, reading peacefully. "You, are incorrigible, Haitham. Now shoo so I can sleep, please and thank you." the admonishments fell flat with his weary voice and sluggish movements slipping into bed.
"I suppose I can grant you that request." the smug reply earned Alhaitham another glare lasting until he closed the door behind him. If he was fast enough, he might be able to get to Puspa Café before it closed and request they make a whole cake of Kaveh's favorite flavour despite selling only slices typically. They had a day to figure it out and he had the money they'd request, it only made sense that it'd work out; at least that was Alhaitham's primary train of thought, he'd get that cake one way or another