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The sweltering heat of the Scalding Sands brushed against the elegant tapestries of the Scarabia dorm, landing blows on the inhabitants only with light gusts of warm air in the breeze. Kalim Al-Asim sat upon beautifully crafted carpets, silks of every color draped with strings of gold above his head. He was accompanied by none other than Jade Leech, his fellow yearmate.
Sipping fine tea and stabbing a fork at anything delectable, Kalim was rather animated about a certain something. Jade would be dishonest to say he knew exactly what. In between the ‘oh, did you hear’s and ‘you missed this’s, Jade found himself quite fond of the vermillion in the boy’s eyes.
“—and then he—Jade?” Kalim’s retelling of his most recent story was cut short as he noticed the moray had stopped nodding along. He’d barely touched his tea! Jade’s face flickered with effort, and he knitted his brows.
“Yes?”
“Did you hear me?”
“Of course.”
“So you remember when I told you about the Savannaclaw student that cheated Trein Sensei?” Kalim asked, doubtful.
“Ah, yes, I recall that,” Jade nodded, feigning understanding. Much to his dismay, the housewarden had other ideas:
“See, I knew you weren’t listening! It was an Ignihyde kid that got all the answers for the history of magic midterms!”
“I see.” Jade frowned lightly. He finally acknowledged his tea, taking a proper sip from it. “Please do recount it. I was distracted.”
Kalim went back to his tellings of the dramatics, his crisp smile as he talked reminding Jade of polished pearls, set perfectly behind his generous lips, and, oh, how distracting the sultan’s son was. It wasn’t long before Kalim paused in his speech to rouse Jade from his mind again.
“Jaaaadee!” he pouted, halfway through a pastry. Jade blinked back to himself, bracing to apologise. He didn’t mean to be so far away.
“I’m terribly sorry, my dear,” he started, sitting forward. One gloved hand reached for Kalim’s chin, and the other battled the crumbs on the boy’s cheek with a lilac handkerchief. “I can’t seem to keep focus. The sun just makes you ever-radiant in my eyes, especially on a day like this.”
“Aww~” Kalim twinkled, his face still seized by white fabric. “Are you calling me pretty, perchance?” he teased, mocking Jade’s formalities.
“Do I lie?”
“I guess not.”
“Good.” Jade’s smile was ever-pleasing, but his mismatched eyes held a glint of triumph. Love was new, but he didn’t mind it. Jade supposed it was strange, a moray fraternizing with the sultan’s son, but his honest priority was Kalim’s joy. The way his jewelry chimed with each step, the way his lashes fluttered when someone threw down the punchline, the way he called Jade’s name from across a classroom, it was all Jade’s.
“You truly are the treasure of the sea,” Jade said, releasing Kalim’s chin and tucking away his hanky. “I’m more fortunate every day for your presence, you know. Every creature of the sea needs its jewels.”
Kalim gazed up at Jade, the same fondness reflected from his eyes. The yearning that stretched between them was enough to make Jamil get up and walk out of the room, but they didn’t care. Jade was too enraptured in the jewels of his riches, unable to look away long enough to pay anyone else any mind.
“You’re just buttering me up,” Kalim said, though he was beaming. He moved to stand, taking up the now empty teapot. “I’ll go get more tea if you want. Jamil can make more.”
Jade nodded, and supposed more tea wasn’t unfavourable. He watched Kalim as he bounced off, calling out to people with cheerful regards as he went into the kitchen. He allowed himself to relax a bit more, his hand coming up and fixing his fedora, a practiced movement of habit rather than force. With Kalim’s absence went the warmth that prodded at his chest. The breeze brushed past him, and he silently thanked the sands for meeting the sea.
His fondness was criticised as ‘out-of-place,’ mostly by Azul, who was only claiming this out of confusion, but it never mattered to Jade. Nothing anyone said would change the way he felt when Kalim got rowdy, the way he fell into step when Kalim wanted to dance, the way his heart wrenched when Kalim Al-Asim walked away from him with an empty teapot nestled between the hands Jade wished to hold.
Like a pirate wishing to loot a chest of rubies, Jade wished to steal the rouge from jasper and let it settle in the cheeks of his beloved as they found where the sea met the sand.
Where the sea met the sand was the love of the shore; Aphrodite was born from the very seafoam of the waves hugging the sun-warmed earth of the desert, and, Sevens, had She found Jade.