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Al-Haitham is a very lucky man.
Not many people get to fall in love as he has. Even fewer manage to successfully convince their romantic prospect to take a chance on them, and fewer still actually succeed in facilitating a healthy, loving long-term relationship. More often than not, such partnerships end in heartbreak and misery for both parties involved.
Once upon a time, Al-Haitham had worried he might join the ranks of those who had loved and lost. His days as a student in the Akademiya had ended with a monumental falling-out between himself and the object of his affections, and for the longest time, Al-Haitham had feared that their relationship would never be repaired. It would be a lie to claim that he had laid awake at night thinking about Kaveh, like many scorned lovers claim to do, but the rift between himself and Kaveh would have, undoubtedly, been one of his biggest regrets, had he never found the chance to repair it.
And now… now, Al-Haitham’s life is all but perfect. Aside from the fact that Nahida still refuses to accept his resignation, that is, but that’s a temporary setback, and beside the point. It may have taken longer than Al-Haitham would have liked to convince Kaveh that he was serious, that his feelings were genuine and not a show of pity or condescension, but eventually, Al-Haitham had done it. He had gotten Kaveh back into his life.
More than that, he had gotten Kaveh to accept his affections.
Though they don’t speak of such things often, largely due to Kaveh’s own aversion to overly vulnerable conversations, Al-Haitham has no doubt that Kaveh returns his feelings. After all, they’ve shared a home for a long while now, and within that space, it seems as though every aspect of their lives has enmeshed and bled together. The decor in the common spaces, the food in the pantry and icebox, the way Kaveh ends up in Al-Haitham’s room more often than not if he isn’t spending all night working on his designs – it’s exactly what Al-Haitham dreamed of in his youth. Every part of his life bears Kaveh’s fingerprints, and Al-Haitham knows it’s a mutual exchange. Though they still have their own private spaces within the home, for practicality purposes more than anything else (considering Kaveh’s aforementioned sleeping habits as well as Al-Haitham’s own particularity for the setup of his bedroom), the other’s presence can still be felt even in those areas.
Kaveh’s favoured throw blankets always manage to make their way to Al-Haitham’s bed, and Al-Haitham can’t count how many times he’s brought Kaveh plates of sliced fruit while he was working at his desk. Even in these areas of relative privacy, Al-Haitham takes pride in the fact that he can still find traces of both of them. Kaveh is no longer concerned about taking up space in his own home after so many years of cohabitating with Al-Haitham, something that will never cease to make Al-Haitham smile.
Even their friend groups have begun to blend together. Although they already had a few mutual companions, Al-Haitham has found himself enjoying Nilou’s company more over the years, and he’s certain that Kaveh has found new friends in Candace and Dehya.
Tonight is a fairly typical night for them – Kaveh had visited Lambad’s earlier in the evening before Al-Haitham had gotten home from work, but now he’s holed up in his room, working on his latest design and probably remaking the entire board multiple times over because he refuses to accept anything less than perfection. Al-Haitham has tried many times to get Kaveh to understand that there’s nothing wrong with his previous designs, but he always manages to find some miniscule fault or flaw that apparently requires the entire blueprint to be reworked. At this point, it’s simply become one of the many quirks of Al-Haitham’s beloved, although he wishes it wouldn’t bring Kaveh quite so much grief.
Still, it’s getting later and later, and Al-Haitham can only guess that Kaveh’s been working on this latest design for hours already. Just last night, he had said that his current client was only expecting a rough draft of the design by the end of next week – plenty of time for Kaveh to finish, even with his repetitive redraftings. There’s no need for him to lose sleep over this.
“Kaveh,” Al-Haitham greets, opening the door and leaning against the frame with a raised eyebrow. “Isn’t it a bit late for you to still be working?”
“Isn’t it a bit late for you to still be awake? You have the sleeping schedule of a geriatric librarian,” Kaveh snipes. He’s already hunching over his desk, putting far too much stress on his spine and neck. Al-Haitham’s tempted to go over there and pull him up straight, but that would inevitably result in shouting at this point in Kaveh’s mood. “Go to bed already. I’m busy.”
“You’ve been working for hours. You need to sleep as well, Kaveh.”
Kaveh waves him off, not even looking in his direction. His eyes have stayed focused on the paper before him this entire time – or rather, not focused, given that his gaze keeps wavering and his eyes nearly sliding shut. He’s clearly exhausted, even if he won’t admit it to himself. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ll go to bed when I’m done.”
“No, you’ll go to bed now.” Al-Haitham turns off the desk lamp and slides the pen out of Kaveh’s grip, easily dodging the sluggish movements to reclaim it. “Did you have dinner yet?”
“I had some stuff at the tavern,” Kaveh says absently. “Give that back.”
Al-Haitham eyes him dubiously, slipping the pen into his pocket. “Did you have snacks, or did you have real food?”
“You can’t steal my pen, I need that!”
“You can have it back in the morning. Come to the kitchen, I’m going to heat up the leftover samosas.”
Al-Haitham strides out of Kaveh’s room and into the kitchen, where he pulls the samosas out of the icebox and begins to preheat the oven. It’s far too late to be cooking anything new, but hopefully this will be fine. Kaveh usually doesn’t mind leftovers, unless the texture has become unpalatable – in which case, Al-Haitham can’t say he would be willing to eat it, either.
Thankfully, Kaveh is feeling cooperative tonight, and he follows Al-Haitham into the kitchen with minimal grumbling. He takes a seat at the counter while Al-Haitham heats up the samosas, and doesn’t make any irritated comments when the plate is set in front of him, simply averting his gaze with a pout as he picks one up and takes a bite. Typical Kaveh behaviours, especially when he’s been working for too long – Al-Haitham would be a liar if he said he didn’t find it a little endearing. Although he doesn’t like when Kaveh is unhappy, it’s undeniable that even his expressions of annoyance and irritation are rather cute.
Kaveh finishes off most of the samosas, pushing the plate towards Al-Haitham once there’s only two left. Al-Haitham eats them quickly, recognising Kaveh’s way of telling him he’s had enough, and rinses off the plate before heading back to his own bedroom, Kaveh close behind. He’s starting to look a lot sleepier now, so Al-Haitham doesn’t think twice about taking his arm and leading the way down the hall, past Kaveh’s room and into his own.
Al-Haitham had replaced his bed with a larger one shortly after Kaveh moved in, partly because Kaveh seems to view his own bed as a foe to be conquered – that is to say, he doesn’t like to use it unless he has no other choice. He much prefers staying up endlessly and then collapsing on the couch halfway through the next day, so Al-Haitham had gotten himself a larger bed and gradually begun ushering Kaveh into his own room when he became too exhausted. Kaveh had never complained or argued about this course of events, surprisingly enough, but if he goes to sleep in Al-Haitham’s bed, then he’s far more likely to sleep until morning instead of forcing himself awake in the middle of the night to continue working on his latest project.
Really, it’s for Kaveh’s own good that they share a bed. The fact that Al-Haitham gets to sleep beside Kaveh and hold him close when he’s too sleepy to get embarrassed, and will follow his instinct to snuggle into it rather than forcing himself to lean away, is simply an added bonus.
Sure enough, when Al-Haitham holds his door open, Kaveh stumbles through it without a second thought, taking a seat on the edge of the bed as he tries in vain to blink the exhaustion away. He doesn’t do anything more than let out a half-stifled yawn as Al-Haitham carefully eases him into laying down, pulling the covers around both of them and making sure that no part of Kaveh will be exposed to the cold air (something that would certainly result in early-morning complaints) before he turns off the lamp beside his bed and closes his eyes.
oOoOo
Kaveh is a very unlucky man.
Not because of his struggles with money, no – well, not just because of that. The biggest reason he’d consider himself unlucky is that he was stupid enough to fall in love with his roommate, a man who sees him at best as something to be pitied, and at worst as a nuisance taking up his space.
Well, perhaps that’s a bit harsh. Kaveh hopes that Al-Haitham at least sees him as a friend, but the fact of the matter is that friendship is as far as this could ever go. No matter how perfect of a boyfriend Al-Haitham would be, that’s not something Kaveh will ever be able to find out for certain himself. Sure, Al-Haitham sends some seriously mixed messages sometimes, especially when he does stuff like check up on Kaveh and bring him food and blankets when he’s working late, or make him stop working when it’s gotten too far into the evening, or… or lead him to Al-Haitham’s own bed when he’s too exhausted to make it back to his own room…
No. He knows better than to read into it. Al-Haitham has done similar things for their other friends, like offering Cyno their guest room when his own home was undergoing some repairs. Kaveh can’t make this out to be something special, something it’s clearly not, when Al-Haitham is only doing the nice thing and helping out his roommate. Kaveh is probably keeping Al-Haitham up with the lights under his door, that’s all.
Al-Haitham would never see Kaveh the way Kaveh sees Al-Haitham. He ruined that enough during their school days. If there ever was a chance for a romance to blossom between them, it would have been back then, before everything fell apart.
Now, Kaveh is nothing more than Al-Haitham’s roommate and maybe friend. He pays rent to him, for Kusanali’s sake, how could this relationship be anything but transactional?
However. Just because Kaveh knows it’s hopeless doesn’t mean he can get the idea out of his head (unfortunately), meaning that no matter how hard he tries, he doubts he’s ever going to dissuade his mind from the idea of one day convincing Al-Haitham to love him back. The only way that Kaveh is willing to deal with that little fact, since attempting to act on his feelings would be the worst act of self-sabotage he could possibly perform, is to find someone to complain to.
Tighnari is most definitely sick of him by now, but being the good friend that he is, he opts to sigh and push the tray of snacks closer instead of telling Kaveh to fuck off and go back to Sumeru City. Still, his twitching ears sliding further and further down make it quite clear that he’s had more than enough of this.
“Why don’t you just talk to him?” Tighnari sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Wouldn’t that solve the majority of your problems? How do you even know that all the assumptions you’ve made about this situation are correct?”
Kaveh scoffs. “I know Al-Haitham too well to be wrong. If he felt some other way, he’d have said something to me by now.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Well, we can’t all be you and Cyno, with your picture-perfect romance and your healthy communication,” Kaveh says waspishly. Sure, he might’ve left out a few details (like how exactly he came to be living in Al-Haitham’s house, although the fact that he is living there is something that Tighnari is undoubtedly aware of by now), but he knows Al-Haitham! He won’t sit here and be told that he’s wrong about the one man in all of Teyvat that he’s most familiar with!
Tighnari shakes his head, looking exasperated. Even the tip of his tail is twitching now. “You’ve been having the same problem for literal years. If you won’t get it together and ask him how he really feels, then that’s your problem.”
“You say that like it’s that easy. Al-Haitham doesn’t do emotional conversations.”
“Neither do you, and yet here we are.”
“That’s not the same at all!”
Before Tighnari can respond, the sound of his front door opening catches his attention, one ear flicking up in the direction of the sound.
“Nari, I’m back,” comes Cyno’s voice from the entryway. He pops his head around the corner, bare of the usual jackal hood, and an expression of surprise blossoms on his face as he sees Kaveh sitting in one of the armchairs. “Oh, I didn’t know we had company. Hello, Kaveh.”
“Hi, Cyno,” Kaveh replies morosely. “Your husband is being exceedingly rude to me.”
“You’re being a fucking idiot, is the real problem here,” Tighnari grumbles. He sets down his mug of tea to stand and greet Cyno, nose brushing the other man’s cheek as he lets himself be pulled into a tight hug. Kaveh would be jealous, but he’s known Cyno and Tighnari for far too long already, and besides, Al-Haitham would never pull him into a hug just to say hello. That would be wildly illogical.
Cyno takes a seat on the sofa beside his husband, leaning against Tighnari’s side as he reaches for the plate of snacks. “Are you complaining about Al-Haitham again? What did he do this time?”
“The same thing he does every time – exist in Kaveh’s general vicinity,” Tighnari replies for him.
Kaveh frowns. “Don’t make it sound so trivial! He goes out of his way to irritate me, I swear it!”
“Does he?” Cyno replies quizzically. “I hadn’t noticed. Nari, does he really?”
“No,” Tighnari sighs, “Kaveh’s being dramatic and stupid again. Don’t mind him. How was your week?”
Cyno grimaces, ignoring Kaveh’s look of offense completely. “Busy. I wish I’d had time to come home sooner, but some idiot got the bright idea to start selling counterfeit textbooks to the Akademiya students. Apparently, they’re turning quite a profit.”
“Ugh, that sounds like a nightmare. Collei hasn’t mentioned anything about that, though, do you think she hasn’t heard about it yet?”
“She knows better than to buy books from some shady back-alley dealer, but I’ll say something to her just in case. Was everything okay while I was gone?”
Kaveh lets out a long, dramatic groan as he flops back in his chair, nose to the sky and face twisting into a look of irritation. “You know I’m still here, right? I was in the middle of telling you some very important information!”
“Yes, the same very important information you tell me every time you visit without Al-Haitham,” Tighnari muses. “Bring him next time, will you? At least then you’ll be too preoccupied with whatever he’s doing to pull me aside and complain about your disastrous personal endeavours.”
Kaveh picks up a throw pillow and throws it at Tighnari, narrowly missing the edge of his ear, which twitches irritably in response. “Can’t you be a little bit helpful for once and give me some good advice?”
“I already did! I told you to go talk to him!”
“I said good advice!”
Cyno sighs, popping a berry in his mouth. “Nari’s advice is always good. You should listen to him.”
“You have no room to talk, you’re unfairly biased,” Kaveh points out. “Fine. Fine! I’ll go home and suffer, then.”
He moves to stand up and head for the door, only to freeze a moment later at Tighnari’s casual response. “Oh, so you didn’t want to stay for the dinner I specifically invited you over for, then? The soup I made and invited you over for the express purpose of sharing with you? You didn’t want any of that, hm?”
Kaveh slowly lowers himself back into his seat with an awkward look. “...I’ll suffer after dinner, then.”
oOoOo
Al-Haitham and Kaveh’s anniversary is quickly approaching, and this year, Al-Haitham has decided that he wants to do something a little different.
Though Kaveh acts like he isn’t one for anniversaries, he always looks so excited when Al-Haitham reveals whatever celebration he’s planned. It makes it quite difficult to refrain from planning anything, so Al-Haitham just doesn’t. If Kaveh ever wished for him to stop, he could simply say so, and given that he hasn’t done so yet, Al-Haitham will continue doing exactly what he’s been doing.
Last year, Al-Haitham had let Kaveh redesign the whole living room, furnishings and all. Kaveh had really enjoyed himself, especially since he’d been complaining only a few months prior about how much better the decor in their common spaces could be. Most of their anniversaries have been something like that – a private affair, mostly taking place in their own home. Kaveh is, after all, more of a private person than Al-Haitham ever would have guessed before they ended up sharing a home.
As Al-Haitham has discovered throughout the course of their relationship, Kaveh seems quite averse to things like emotional vulnerability and public displays of affection. Though he’s never said it aloud, the bafflement and discomfort whenever Al-Haitham had attempted to engage in either of those things had made his feelings on the matter clear enough. He also seems to be far more inclined to show his care in quiet, domestic ways than physical ones. Al-Haitham hasn’t gotten confirmation, nor is he sure that he ever will, but he suspects that Kaveh may be on the asexuality spectrum – he’s never shown any interest in that side of their romantic partnership before, nor had he been receptive to Al-Haitham’s early attempts to initiate.
Still, regardless of his interest in such things (or lack thereof), it doesn’t affect how Al-Haitham feels about Kaveh. They don’t ever need to engage in any type of sexual behaviour for Al-Haitham to love Kaveh, and he wouldn’t want to engage in behaviour like that if it wasn’t something Kaveh was interested in. And if Kaveh isn’t comfortable discussing it just yet, or even confirming his opinions, then that’s alright. Al-Haitham knows how to be patient, and they have all the time in the world.
What he does not have all the time in the world for is their upcoming anniversary. In fact, he only has about two weeks for that.
Although he isn’t sure if Kaveh is going to plan anything for their anniversary (he usually doesn’t, and Al-Haitham suspects it’s a combination of forgetfulness and an aversion to ‘sappy stuff’ on top of his already packed schedule), Al-Haitham knows exactly what he wants to do. Cyno and Tighnari had recommended an excellent high-end restaurant to him a while back, and when Al-Haitham had walked past to scope it out, the architecture had been absolutely stunning. Kaveh would surely enjoy a night out in a place like that, where he could admire the architecture and have a nice dinner date.
Kaveh likes pretty things, he likes elegance, and he especially likes overly complex architecture. This place ought to fulfill all three of those conditions.
Al-Haitham has yet to call and make a reservation, largely because he needs to check Kaveh’s calendar and make sure that it won’t coincide with any of his work. The last thing he wants to do is stress Kaveh out by making him choose between their anniversary dinner and a meeting with a client, and honestly, what kind of partner would Al-Haitham be if he double-booked Kaveh like that?
In fact, he’s just getting up from the sofa to go and take a look at the calendar over Kaveh’s desk when he hears a knock at his front door. Al-Haitham pauses, going over the afternoon in his head, but as far as he can remember, they aren’t expecting anyone. It can’t be Kaveh missing his keys, either, because he always knocks a lot louder than that. Besides, Al-Haitham had checked the hook by the door this morning, and Kaveh had actually remembered his house keys today before he had gone to meet with his newest prospective client.
Al-Haitham opens the front door to find Cyno waiting outside, a travel bag slung over his shoulder. He’s still in his work uniform, and although Al-Haitham shifts to the side to allow him in, he doesn’t enter.
“I’m not here for long, I’m only dropping by on my way to Gandharva Ville,” Cyno explains. “I wanted to ask if you and Kaveh would like to come over this weekend. Collei will be home from the Akademiya and Tighnari suggested we all get together.”
“This will be a small affair, I assume?” Al-Haitham asks, and Cyno nods.
“Of course. You know Collei isn’t one for much fuss. It would likely just be the five of us.”
“Very well. I’ll still have to double-check with Kaveh, but I can’t imagine he’d refuse. Count us in.”
Cyno nods briskly. “Good. I’ll be off, then. Enjoy your afternoon, Al-Haitham, and tell Kaveh I said hello.”
He turns on his heel and walks back down the street as Al-Haitham pulls the door shut, mentally updating his schedule. Though Tighnari probably won’t be framing it as such, Al-Haitham knows he had wanted to have some kind of small celebration for Collei because of how well she’d been doing at the Akademiya. Of course, Al-Haitham would never pass up a chance to support Collei and her education, nor would Kaveh.
Al-Haitham pops into Kaveh’s room to check the calendar before he forgets, noting that both Thursday and Friday of their anniversary week seem to be free. Friday would likely be a better bet, since neither of them would have to be up early the next day, so Al-Haitham takes a pen and blocks the space off, though he doesn’t write in an explanation. With any luck, Kaveh will see the coloured-in spot and won’t schedule anything else there, but also won’t look close enough to realise that there’s no actual reason (that he’s aware of) for the space to be filled in. It’s worked in the past, so hopefully that will hold true for this year, as well.
Now, all Al-Haitham needs to do is make the reservation, and their anniversary dinner will be all set.
oOoOo
Tighnari’s getting a little tired of whatever is wrong with Kaveh and Al-Haitham. Ever since they were students, something has obviously been going on between those two, but will they talk to each other about it? Of course not. No, they both want to come and complain to him about it.
Granted, Al-Haitham has been doing it far less in recent years, but now Kaveh complains enough for both of them. Tighnari can’t get a moment’s peace with those two idiots.
Luckily, they tend to direct their obnoxiousness at each other when they’re both in the same space, meaning that Tighnari does get somewhat of a break if he invites both of them to a get-together. Tonight’s event is about Collei, though, so they’ve thankfully toned it down a bit in favour of celebrating how well she’s doing in the Akademiya.
“If you ever need any help with studying, just ask, okay?” Kaveh tells her. “Or, well, Tighnari’s probably got that covered, but you know what I mean. We’ll all lend a hand if you need it.”
Collei nods, taking another sip of her drink. “I get it. I don’t wanna take advantage of everyone else’s knowledge, though… it feels unfair when not everyone has those kinds of resources.”
“We aren’t taking the classes for you,” Al-Haitham points out. “Refusing to utilise every asset at your disposal helps no one.”
“God, can’t you be at least a little tactful?” Kaveh sniffs. “What Al-Haitham means to say is–”
“That we all support you and we want to make sure your education goes smoothly,” Cyno interjects. “Right, you two?”
Kaveh and Al-Haitham nod, both making similar faces of displeasure (at each other and not Cyno, thankfully, or else Tighnari might have to intervene). Luckily, Collei seems more amused by their bickering than anything else, so at least they haven’t managed to upset her.
“Well,” Kaveh says, clearly looking to change the subject, “I’m going to get another drink. Anyone else want anything?”
“Um, could you bring me a few more of those Liyuen dumplings with the shrimp in them?” Collei asks, holding up her empty plate. “They were really good.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Kaveh takes her plate and disappears into the kitchen, leaving the other four in the living room to wait for his return.
Tighnari turns to Al-Haitham, waiting until he finishes taking a swig of his own drink to ask his question. “Are you doing anything next week, Al-Haitham? There are a few scholars returning from an expedition in the desert and they were hoping to hand off their research to someone from the Akademiya before they head back out. I’d just deliver it myself, but Cyno is insisting that I ‘stay as far away from the desert as possible’.”
“You don’t respond well to the desert’s climate,” Cyno says exasperatedly, just like he’s been doing for the past week and a half since Tighnari received that message from the travelling scholars.
But much to Tighnari’s disappointment, Al-Haitham shakes his head. “If it’s the end of the week, I’ll be occupied.”
“That’s unfortunate. Something to do with work?”
“No. Our anniversary is on Friday and I won’t interrupt that just to go pick up some research materials that could have been sent by delivery. Ask Sethos to do it.”
Tighnari opens his mouth to respond, then stops short as Al-Haitham’s words catch up with him. “I beg your pardon?”
“What?” Al-Haitham just looks at him with mild confusion, like he didn’t just say something completely incomprehensible for him as a person to be saying.
“Your anniversary?!”
“Ah. Yes, mine and Kaveh’s anniversary is next week. We have a dinner reservation.”
A loud thud sounds from the door to the kitchen, and Tighnari turns to see Kaveh standing in the doorway, still holding Collei’s plate but having lost his grip on the bottle of wine when he heard Al-Haitham’s proclamation. His expression is more shocked than Tighnari thinks he’s ever seen it, and that’s saying quite a lot, considering that this is Kaveh he’s talking about.
“Our what?” Kaveh says weakly.
Al-Haitham frowns. “That was meant to be a surprise.”
“Our what?!” Kaveh repeats, louder this time, stepping forward and giving Collei back her plate of dumplings so he has both hands free to jab at Al-Haitham’s chest. “Our anniversary of what?! How the fuck, when the fuck– since when were we dating?”
“Since you moved in?” Al-Haitham replies, brow furrowed. “Were we… not dating?”
“I pay you rent!”
“I didn’t think you really still thought that was what the money was for. I wouldn’t make my partner pay me rent.”
“You did! What the fuck were you doing with that money otherwise?!”
“It was for utilities, groceries, and our retirement fund.” Al-Haitham crosses his arms, starting to look quite put-out. “How did you not know we’ve been dating for years?”
“How did you– retirement fund?!” Kaveh splutters. “What the fuck, Al-Haitham, why didn’t you say something?!”
“I didn’t think I needed to!”
Tighnari feels like he’s watching one of Nilou’s drama performances. This is the most entertainment he’s had in years. Who would have thought that this was why Al-Haitham had stopped complaining about Kaveh not liking him back?
“Hey,” he mutters, leaning over to Cyno (who’s also been watching them bicker back and forth, head flicking between each one who’s speaking), “do you think they’ll finally stop coming to our house to complain?”
“Probably not,” Cyno murmurs back. Unfortunately, he’s probably right.