Work Text:
Alhaitham groaned as he crossed the threshold into their shared home. Every one of his senses were betraying him and sounds felt like grating sandpaper against every inch of his body, in and out.
Alphas being stupid, block-headed idiots wasn't a new concept to the Acting Grand Sage. Yet every time he was pressed into a meeting with them, he was surprised with how dense they could be. The man had been requesting funding for his thesis, he was young and very under prepared, so naturally Alhaitham dismissed him.
Apparently, being dismissed wasn't part of the alpha’s supposed 'Grand Plan' as he called it. So he decided to blow his scent out into the room to attempt to strong arm him into changing his mind.
The Corps of Thirty escorted him out.
At Alhaitham’s age, an unmated omega was nearly unheard of. So naturally, nearly every alpha took it as a sign that they should be the one to 'fix' him. It was hell on Teyvat.
The smell of his own home though, was soothing; Kaveh kept his scent neatly masked, so the whole area smelled nearly solely of Alhaitham, besides for the slight tinge of cooking spices that penetrated the air that led him into the kitchen. Upon poking his head in, he found his roommate whipping something up, assumptively for them both.
His arrival was not unnoticed, the elder scrunching his nose up with an overdramatic cough and pointed glare. Alhaitham had no issue taking the hint, retreating to the bathroom to shower off the pheromones that clung to his skin. Briefly, he considered burning the clothes he was wearing just to never have to smell the alpha’s stench again, but then again, handling laundry wasn't his duty. Therefore he wouldn't have to deal with smelling them again until they'd been given a thorough clean.
They were tossed into his hamper.
–
Once the stench was finally scrubbed from his body, he allowed himself to step out of the burning spray. His skin was hot and reddened, and annoyance flared in his heart as he realized he'd rubbed it completely raw. The bed clothes he'd set aside already were thankfully loose enough to prevent further irritation.
Steam dissipated into the hall as he made his way into the dining room. A heavenly scent filled his nose, leading him to his seat. Tomates Narbonnaises, a Fontainian dish if he recalled correctly; the salts, meats, and vegetables came together to bless his fried senses.
Kaveh gave a smile as he walked in from the kitchen. His sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, darkened with water and hands shining in the light.
"Feeling better?" The elder offered, sliding into the chair adjacent to him.
The words felt tangled in his throat, like something weighed them down. He had things to say, he wanted to talk, to reassure the overly anxious alpha next to him that things were fine now. But his tongue stayed tied, all he could manage was a meek nod.
Somehow though, the elder seemed to get the message, simply offering another smile. "Good. I made Tomates Narbonnaises if you couldn't tell. My mother sent me the recipe months ago and we finally had all the ingredients in the house tonight.”the sound of his laughter filled the air, a familiar giggle that could only have come from a place of uncertainty.
Alhaitham gave a nod once more, taking a stab at the stuffed tomato. Dinner passed mostly in a silence that sheltered them like a blanket, only broken by Kaveh's nervous ramblings every few minutes. The dishes were mostly done as well, despite that usually it would have been his turn to do them since Kaveh had cooked. Yet he didn't have to that night.
These small things were always comforting in a way he couldn't quite place, carrying with them a warmth that spread throughout him and cradled his heart with an utmost tenderness.
–
Alhaitham curled himself up on the divan with his nose in a book, sheltered by swathes of blankets that he didn't recall fetching. It was midafternoon during the weekend, and he'd taken the day off for reasons he couldn't quite explain. Just an odd feeling that led him to allow himself to rest.
The book was interesting, drawing him in over and over again as his eyes absorbed each paragraph. But, his focus was shattered at the sound of the front door. He glanced up as Kaveh came in, who was seemingly unaware of his roommate’s presence, muttering and mumbling to himself as his shoes thumped dully against the hardwood. There were blueprints shoved under his armpits and Mehrak floated idly behind him, beeping in response to whatever he was saying.
Without warning, a sudden and loud hiss slipped from Kaveh’s teeth as a scent blocker pulled at his skin as he yanked it free.
For the first time in many years he was able to smell Kaveh properly. The alpha was adamant about keeping his scent from 'bothering' other people as he put it. Alhaitham thought the only time he took the things off was in his bedroom, which he’d only ever been in a handful of times. His room had always smelt faintly of him, but he would even go as far as using room spray just to keep it masked.
So here he was, now able to smell Kaveh normally, without anything altering it, and it was divine. A soft purr began to rumble in his chest as the smell of ink stained mourning flowers filled his nose, complimented with an undertone of chalk dust and parchment.
His hind-brain kicked into high gear, the part of him he normally kept so under control thundering against his insides. It was screaming, yowling, at him to rub his face against Kaveh's neck until their scents mingled; to roll in his things so he smelled like him. It was always a feeling that he hated, when instinct was able to hold any power over him.
It felt like everything froze, as his head filled with a million thoughts, the world went black, and when he regained himself Kaveh’s scent was stronger. Alhaitham pushed himself back, shaking his head that felt heavy with fog and like it was being stung by bees inside out. Kaveh was saying something but his words were lost on Alhaitham as the world swam around him, the fine lines a blurry mess.
Kaveh fiddled with the door handle, trying to get it open without losing the blueprints he kept tightly pressed to his side. The client meeting had gone phenomenally. For once they didn't question every idea and decision he made and actually made an effort to work with him.
The door gave way as he stepped into their house, Alhaitham's scent washing over him and holding him in its comfort as it always did. It had taken him a long while to realize that he associated his roommate with the concept of home and safety, but once he did the connection was permanently etched in his mind.
Everytime he walked inside he felt the ever growing stress ease a fraction.
Roughly he shoved his fingers into the heel of his shoe, flinging one off and onto the floor after another. Alhaitham usually didn't arrive home until late now with his duties as the new 'Acting Grand Sage.' It was equal parts annoying as it was a blessing.
In this case, it was a blessing; he could simply clean his things later when he tidied before the younger got home. A part of his usual routine, then he'd make dinner afterwards. It was also a blessing as it allowed him to remove the scent blockers that he refused to leave his room without.
It wasn't healthy as he'd been told oh so many times by Tighnari. Something about it clogging his scent glands, messing with rut cycles, all things that were nothing but hassles to him. If anything, not having a scent would really just be preferable. Then he wouldn't have to spend a quarter of his savings on the bedamned things.
The scent blocker pulled at his skin roughly as he peeled it off in one go, rather than slowly like the instructions said, crumbling it up and shoving it in his pocket. Mehrak was beeping behind him in an almost scolding way. As he turned to defend himself to the metal suitcase, a large body crashed against his own.
Kaveh stumbled but managed to catch Alhaitham as he collapsed against him, his nose burying into the crook of his neck. Right against his scent gland. For a moment he froze, watching as his junior rubbed against him, scenting him.
The younger’s skin was flushed and warm to the touch, his body shaky and unsteady. Unhelpfully, his brain supplied the fairly obvious answer to the behavior, heat.
Heats were usually times of companionship for most omegas, to be spent together or with a mate. The omega's body would essentially shut down most functions as a way of resting and resetting itself. Because of this, spending heats with another was an intimate affair, built on trust and safety.
So as Alhaitham cuddled against him, fever ravaging his body, Kaveh didn't know what to do. He couldn't just abandon him and make him spend it alone, even if that was what he normally chose to do on his own. But would he be okay with sharing a nest? Was that an okay thing to do?
They were friends, and had been closer than close years ago, but they weren't like that anymore. Back then he would have spent a heat with him in a heartbeat if they'd been presented then. Now things were different.
Sure, they lived together, Kaveh constantly got comments about how he smelled of omega and always was asked if he had a mate, and they did allow each other into their spaces. But they weren't close by any sense of the word, at least in his mind.
Yet in this moment a strong sense of guilt overwhelmed him. The way Alhaitham curled into him, purring so contentedly, how desperately he'd pressed to his body. Could he really just shove him into his room and lock him away?
Who was he kidding, he'd never.
–
It took awhile to haul the deadweight that was Alhaitham to the bed but eventually they made it. He settled for using the younger’s room to allow him to nest in a space that was his own. The bedsheets had already been tussled and messed up to the rough beginnings of one already. Kaveh grabbed some of his own clothes that weren't coated in sand or overly dirty to let the omega use them as well, seeing how he’d clearly enjoyed his scent earlier. It also satisfied some odd itch in his own brain that he couldn’t quite scratch otherwise.
Within half an hour, Alhaitham was purring louder than a Rishbold Tiger, curled into a thick tangle of soft sheets, blankets and clothes. The architect didn't dare intrude into the nest without being invited, so he lingered in the room a short distance away, feeling nothing but affection as he watched his junior.
Forever he'd kick himself for how they'd drifted apart. Their fight was a product of Kaveh’s shortcomings; he'd lost the best friendship he'd ever had because he couldn't get off his high horse. Yet he kept pushing Alhaitham’s buttons for reasons he'd never fully understand.
He sighed and rested his hands in his lap, watching as the light hit the metal band that wound around his finger, twisting it about, lost in thought. Dinner crossed his mind suddenly as his stomach gave a rumble, he glanced up at his sleeping roommate. Cycles took a lot out of people, food would probably be the first thing on his mind when he woke up.
With a plan in mind, Kaveh stood, arching his back in a little stretch. His body gave cricks and cracks of protest, a result of too many years hunched over a flat table before Alhaitham got him his drawing desk.
Running over a list of what they had in the pantry, he decided on something simple that would be easy to get down with the other’s lethargic state. Pita Pockets. They were easy enough to make and not too messy as to get Alhaitham's nest dirty with crumbs.
He began to pull ingredients out from cabinets, working as swiftly as possible. He was just barely starting when he heard the noise. A loud caterwaul echoing from the back of the house. At first nothing but confusion swirled in his head, the very first thing he could think of being the source of the sound being Mehrak which he quickly eliminated from the list. Then it hit him.
Alhaitham.
As he spun on his heel to check on the, most likely, confused and very clearly distressed omega, he nearly smacked straight into him. The other was like a brick wall, unbeknownest to him in his current state. Kaveh hissed quietly as pain blossomed from his nose, until he felt the warmth that spread through the rest of him.
He wrapped his arms around the other, gently hushing him as he felt the bumps of his spine pass underneath his palm as it moved up and down his back.
"I'm here… shhh." Kaveh gently mumbled into his ear, yet the words fell flat as the other dug his trimmed nails into the soft flesh of his arms, like trying to tear into his being.
Once more he let out a soft hiss of pain, but instinct seemingly had a better control of the situation than he did, a low rumble rippling from his chest. Alhaitham's hindbrain immediately understood, and the deathgrip he'd been holding Kaveh captive in loosened.
Really Kaveh didn't know how the hell he was going to be getting by. The next few days of having to tend to the omega that seemed to panic whenever he was farther than 10 feet away would no doubt be stressful. They were used to having plenty of space between them, so it was a drastic change from what he’d always considered ‘normal’.
That was what he thought at least, until he'd been allowed into Alhaitham’s nest after dinner.
It was like Celestia. Soft, warm, the feeling of safety that he always felt when he got him amplified by a thousand. It was as if every worry and anxious thought he'd ever had melted away. Especially as Alhaitham pulled him close, their hindbrains seemed to be communicating without him.
Everything felt fine for once, and sleep captivated him before he could even make any kind of attempt to fight it.
–
The next few days were nothing but bliss. Usually Kaveh was one to curse his bedamned instincts, but now he praised them like a higher being. The room was filled with the harmony of the purring that rumbled low in both of their chests. Kaveh dragged his calloused hands through the soft silver that was Alhaitham’s hair, the roughened edges of his nails scratching against his scalp. Each pass brought a soft sound from the omega curled into him, a trill or a chirp of pure contentment.
Their scents mingled into something that no bottle of perfume or roomspray could ever replicate the delicacy of. Noses pressed to each other’s scent glands, bringing out the sweetness that Kaveh found himself so addicted to without ever realizing.
Everything they did seemed so natural, like it was something they'd been doing for years. Every gentle touch, every smile, movement, twist, turn. They fit together like puzzle pieces, as cliche as it was.
As a pup, Kaveh had believed in fated mates, especially after the death of his father and seeing how it destroyed his mother. In his little mind, they were so intertwined that without each other, shutting down was perfectly reasonable. At least, untill she moved to Fontaine and married another man and started a new life without him. That was when he realized that fated mates weren't real, and they never could be because everything had to come to an end eventually.
But in this moment, nothing made more sense to him than being fated to Alhaitham. He'd denied it since they'd grown close oh so many years ago. He'd denied it after tearing up their thesis and realizing how he was always on his mind, and when he'd been taken by the other less than a handful of years ago. He realized that his heart finally felt full, fuller than it had been when he finally completed his dream project, fuller than it felt when he'd gotten his Vision, when he'd graduated, than any other achievement in his life.
None of them measured up to the immense amount of joy and utter 'complete-ness' that he felt at Alhaitham’s side.
He loved Alhaitham, and for the first time he let himself acknowledge it, and accept it.
When Alhaitham came to, he found himself wound up in a nest, his nest. He groaned. Usually he planned his heats out well, tracking his cycle to make sure he was prepared. This one had been early though; mentally he kicked himself for not noticing the signs.
The world around him was still fuzzy as he blinked his bleary eyes. Sunlight poured in through the cracks of the blinds, a golden glow bathing his room. He was in a set of comfortable pajamas and his headphones were neatly set atop a book on the nightstand. Everything felt, good. Usually he pulled himself from the daze of a heat achy, grumpy and not feeling any better than before.
This time was different though, the stress had drained from every crevice of his body, he was relaxed. It was a feeling that could be compared to Celestia itself.
Begrudgingly, he arched his back in a stretch, climbing out of the softness of his nest. His hand snagged on a shawl as he did, for a moment his hind-brain attempted to move for him and tuck it back in, but as the haze of heat lifted more and more he began to take back control of his limbs.
It was Kaveh's shawl.
He blinked for a moment, attempting to process what was happening. Alhaitham had Kaveh's things in his own nest. There was no logical reason to him that he should have anyone else's clothes but his own here. Nest's were made of things owned by people important to the omega crafting them sure, but usually an omega would have the clothes of family, close friends, or fellow 'pack' members as they were sometimes called, but roommates usually didn't make that list.
It wasn't as if he and Kaveh weren't friends. They were, just not the type to share nesting materials. Until now, he supposed.
He took a moment to look over the rest of the nest’s walls, and sure enough it was an even blend of his own clothes, blankets and pillows, as expected, but Kaveh's were also sprinkled throughout.
It was confusing, but his heart thundered in his chest and every bit of him hummed with excitement in a way he hadn't felt before. It was uncomfortable but like falling into the softest sheets all at the same time.
Alhaitham finally dragged himself out of his room, trying to stop the torrent of thoughts that pounded inside his skull. It felt like his head was shoved full of wet cotton, but as he moved about the memories began to slowly flood back in, fuzzy and more akin to watching a flilm from Fontaine that committing the actions himself.
There was a note on the coffee table in the front room containing an apology from Kaveh, saying he'd be back soon. When soon was, he wasn't sure, all he knew was that he'd probably completely embarrassed himself.
Alhaitham wasn't one to feel much shame; others opinions of him were inconsequential to his own self image. They had no control over his life, his thoughts, his feelings. Others did not have to live in his body every day, so their opinions were null and void.
Except that he'd acted in a way he never would normally.
Alhaitham prided himself with his patience and level-headedness. He knew how he acted during his heats was the polar opposite of that, and, as memories began to emerge from the fog of his head, his worst fears were nothing but confirmed. A low groan came from his lips as he pressed his palm to his forehead.
Logically, he knew there was nothing to do about it anymore, the past was the past. That thought became the center of his mind as he turned to clean up in the bathroom. His skin was sticky with sweat from the past few days of being cooped up in bed, and his hair was stiff and dark with what felt like a layer of grease.
The shower he took was one of the most glorious ones he'd taken in a while, even more so than the ones he took to wash other’s scents from his skin. Part of his heart twitched with pain at the realization that Kaveh's scent would no longer cling to him afterwards as well. As he exited the bathroom, finally dry and clean, he realized just how much comfort he'd felt basking in their mixed scents.
Immediately his head went to the various books he'd read on mates and bonds between 2 people. How even without ever completing a mating bond the traditional way – with a bite to each other’s scent glands – bonds could form just as strongly. Often as a result of close contact, providing for each other, things that the hindbrain would take as courting.
It was a realization that hit him harder than a train, he'd bonded with Kaveh. Even though he'd never really smelt it from the alpha, he had been in his room before where the scent was muted, and with his last heat where he had been exposed to it, it must have in some way completed the bond. It made sense. Alhaitham gave him a safe home, they cooked for each other every other night. Kaveh brought home decorations for the house, Alhaitham gave Kaveh new supplies.
The omega had to take a moment, stumbling to one of the divans on shaky legs.
He was bonded with Kaveh. With his roommate. With the man he'd been in love with since they first met.
With Kaveh.
—
The next few weeks were an odd dance between them to say the very least. Both parties were simultaneously trying to avoid each other as well as trying to get closer. Some nights Kaveh would join Alhaitham on the divans, sitting close as they both did their own things separately.
Other nights Kaveh avoided getting close, going out to Lambads to drink or going to spend the night in Gandarva Ville with Tighnari. It wasn't healthy for either of them mentally— or for Kaveh's liver for that matter.
He knew they needed to talk, and badly. At the very least about the bonding situation if he couldn't manage to spit out his feelings. He'd loved Kaveh for years. There was so much regret that boiled low in his heart because of their fight, he was stupid. While he couldn't do anything about it anymore, he'd made himself a promise to be better so it would never happen again.
This felt like it all over again, if they didn't talk then what? If they did talk then would Kaveh leave? It was a terrifying unknown, it loomed over him. He wasn't anxious, but when it came to the alpha it felt like all bets were off, as if his instincts were tuned to want nothing more than to be at his side. It was sickening but also Celestial. He hated it.
So Alhaitham paced, and paced, and paced, up and down, over and over again. Trying to figure out what to do, how to bring this to him. How to say the words "I love you".
–
That night, they cooked together. Kaveh gently hip-checked him, and Alhaitham smeared a bit of sauce on his nose. Laughter filled the air along with flour. The fine white dust coated their clothes as they attempted to finish the meal, landing all through their hair.
"You look like even more of an old man than you did before," Kaveh teased, giggles interrupted by the shrillest and tiniest sneeze he'd ever heard.
Alhaitham let himself smile and laugh, a rare emotion for him to show. He couldn't count on all his fingers and toes the amount of times he'd been asked if he felt anything. But contrary to popular belief, he did, he felt so much, so strongly. It was just rarely something he let others see.
Kaveh's hair slipped loose from one of the numerous clips that held it, and without a second thought Alhaitham pushed it back behind his ear. And like one of Inazuma's cliche Light Novels, time felt as if it stood still. His hand cupped the elders face. They were closer than they had been before, or at least he hadn't realized how small the distance between them was.
Alhaitham gently rubbed a thumb along his cheek, the deep rich color of his skin revealed from under the coat of flour. Before he could do anything a pair of lips crashed into his own. It took a moment for his brain to catch up with his senses and he didn't kiss the other back for a beat. As Kaveh tried to pull away, an apology on the tip of his tongue, he tugged him back, kissing it away.
The two melted into each other, lips gently pressing together over and over again. The archietect’s arms coiled around his neck, Alhaitham’s own arms hugging his waist. A tiny purr rumbled in his chest, a sound so tender and rarely made that it made the other giggle.
Parting for air they met each other’s eyes, and for the first time he could understand Kaveh so clearly without a single word.