Chapter Text
During what was meant to be a quiet day at Kaveh and Alhaitham’s home rather tired Cyno burst into their home in a hurry, personally asking them in their office (or house really, they don’t have an office), Alhaitham and Kaveh were all too happy to remove the burden from their friend’s shoulders and take on what was probably a short investigation of an abandoned house in the farthest corners of the city.
When the pair stepped onto the porch and pushed the wooden creaking doors, it was clear that the home had been abandoned in a hurry. Kaveh could see papers strewn across the floor at every corner, the papers were smudged almost as though someone poured liquid over the black ink and decided to shred each paper. He could see a sofa at the side of the room, brown and scratched on all sides. Surely this couldn't be a pet, The scratches were too deep, too big.
His eyes roamed to the ornate shelf in the center of the living room, covered in carvings of flora on each side. The body was scratched just like the sofa near it. Perhaps whoever made those, the poor shelf was also caught in the crossfire of what happened here.
Kaveh crouched onto the tiles, squinting at the papers across the floor. The black ink on the papers started to spread into various colours on the white sheet. He let out a sigh and stood up, taking in the details of the living room once more.
“A magnifying glass would really be useful right now!”, Kaveh grumbled loudly, turning his head towards where Alhaitham stood, a sign for Alhaitham that it was Kaveh’s turn with the magnifying glass.
“Of course.”, Kaveh thought, he should’ve learnt by now that Alhaitham would be so stubborn.
He stood up from the floor and made his way to the kitchen on the other side of the room. The closer he was to the kitchen, the stench of rotting food became stronger. Kaveh covered his nose as he approached Alhaitham, who was hunched over the counter and peering through the magnifying glass with a neutral expression, almost as though he didn’t hear Kaveh’s complaining.
Kaveh approached closer to Alhaitham, much to his sense of smell’s dismay at the ever growing stench and stood across the kitchen island that the other was investigating.
“What?”Alhaitham asked, looking away from him and looking closely at the shards of glass spread like crystals reflecting a rainbow from the sunlight from the dusty windows above them.
“The magnifying glass, Alhaitham.”, Kaveh huffed, “I need that for those papers we saw in the living room.”, he added.
“I’m not done though?”, Alhaitham said, not looking up from the dusty glass shards he was currently crouched over, intently peering through the lens for any clue as to what happened to the unfortunate house they were in.
Kaveh let out a frustrated sigh. “You could do the same without the lenses,” He pointed, folding his arms and wearing a sour, frowning expression Alhaitham could only classify as Annoyance.
“You’re the one with the magnifying glass all the time Alhaitham!” Would it kill you to share for once in your life, heck, do you even care about us?” Kaveh exclaimed.
“If you mean that sharing is caring”, Alhaitham mused, swapping his magnifying glass to his gloved hand and tapped his chin with his ungloved hand. “I simply don’t feel like “caring” today, perhaps instead of the glasses, what if I treat you with vada at the puspa cafe?” He teased with a neutral tone only he could muster.
Kaveh could feel his ears spouting with steam like a character in a cartoon. He grumbled loud enough for Alhaitham (and anyone close enough to the house) to hear his irritation, a habit he developed over the years of living with him.
He knew that their argument was endless. If either of them wanted to get this over with, sitting in a room with rotting food, dusty cabinets and bugs, one of them had to do something to move their argument in another direction.
It was a shame both of them were stubborn.
Kaveh immediately lunged for the magnifying glass as quickly as his arms could. Alhaitham was (unfortunately) faster. He bought the glasses above his head, his arms extending far above Kaveh’s head. He even stood on his toes, Kaveh noticed.
Kaveh placed his hand on Alhaitham’s shoulder and stretched his feet further and further, as high as his toes could support him and stretched his free hand towards the magnifying glass. He was not going to let Alhaitham win this time.
Suddenly, the loud creak of the front door could be heard from each corner of the house, dampened by the squishy furniture in each corner of the room.
The pair froze in their positions like deers in headlights. Kaveh with one hand on Alhaitham’s chest for support, the other hand stretching to reach the glass above his head. Alhaitham had his hand pushing kaveh down by the shoulder, his other outstretched in an attempt to hold the glasses above his head.
The muffled footsteps became louder as the figure approached towards the kitchen. Kaveh could hear his mind flipping through every possibility, every scenario ending worse than the previous, his heart pumping faster and faster each second. His limbs clenching almost ready to bolt.
The figure finally arrived at the kitchen door, their eyes wide and their posture stiff.
The duo, with a blush creeping onto their faces, eyes wide as the other before them quickly scrambled away from each other.
“Was I…”, the figure said. They paused, "Interrupting something?”, they finished, their fingers lightly tapping their chin.
“Ah, Grand Mahamatra Cyno.”, Alhaitham noted, Kaveh noted his stoic, nonchalant expression was back, “Nice of you to oversee our investigation.”, Alhaitham added.
Cyno gave a simple nod of acknowledgement.
“I suppose when you mean investigation, do you mean your uhm…Moment with Kaveh, or was it what you were supposed to do?”, Cyno asked with a slight smirk on his face.
“We'll give a brief of what we found right Alhaitham?”, Kaveh interrupted. He knew this conversation could get worse if Cyno were to continue with his jokes- especially his puns.
Alhaitham seemed to understand what Kaveh said.
“Kaveh has a point.”, Alhaitham said, “We both split up, Kaveh studied the living room while I studied the kitchen”.
Alhaitham pointed to a window above, “I found that this window above the counter seemed to have been shattered, which could imply a break in.”, he walked around the kitchen tapping his chin in thought, “The items which may have originally been on the counter like the masala box”, he pointed to a metal box on the floor with its contents strewn across the floor.
Kaveh could see the fallen seeds of cumin, mustard, chili powders and lentils. Whoever lived here must've loved cooking traditional sumeru food.
“What a waste of spices! What I would do for spices like that… shame I can't just pick it up from the floor”, Kaveh thought.
Alhaitham opened a lower cabinet, with his gloved hand taking out an opaque, green bottle. “I found a medicine cabinet possibly, given the amount of first aid and medicine bottles.”
Cyno tapped his foot lightly on the dusty floors, dispersing some dust into the air before extracting a handkerchief from one of his pockets.
“Pass me that bottle will you?”, Cyno asked. Alhaitham placed the bottle in his covered hands.
Cyno seemed to intently look at the bottle, with a shake or two, probably to really confirm.
“I doubt I'd like to open any of those, given the circumstances of where we found those, I'm assuming they're pills. The package looks similar to my friend's medication.”, Cyno stated, he kneeled to place the green bottle in its place in the cabinet and peered into its shelf
“There seems to be multiple of these, I shall give a sample to Bimarstan to investigate, I have no clue as to what these are for.”, Cyno said.
“Very well, Cyno.”, Alhaitham replied.
Kaveh was deep in thought. The papers strewn across the floor, the empty files seemingly wet with water and crossed out ink. Perhaps it had to do with the medicines Alhaitham found in the cabinet. He had to be sure.
Kaveh suddenly snatched the magnifying glass from Alhaitham’s pocket and ran to the living room.
“Kaveh what-”, Alhaitham said.
Kaveh immediately crouched upon the floor and intently peered at the logo, silently hoping for something to come up, hoping that
The papers magnified under the lens became much clearer, Kaveh could see writing, both printed and written- A form perhaps? Thankfully the water had not gotten to the writing.
“Bimarstan…?”, Kaveh whispered loudly.
Kaveh read the papers closer and closer. The puzzle of torn papers coming together.
His eyes grew wide as his mind put every coincidence, every detail together.
The cabinet with medicines, the supposed break in, the forms on the floor… surely this couldn't be targeted right, Kaveh thought.
Kaveh got up from his squat on the floor and walked towards Alhaitham and Cyno, standing just outside the kitchen door.
“Kaveh what were you thinking running away like that? You could've tripped over something.”, Alhaitham said, his tone filled with quiet concern.
“I had a suspicion Haitham. I don't know but we'll have to look for more information but…”
“...these disappearances, these homes gone with only few who realize… I’m starting to think it's targeted.”, Kaveh said.