Chapter Text
Imagine this: a toddler born on a foreign planet — a Descender if you will — fleeing gloriously from an explosion of a hundred suns in a fascinating technological gadget, dashing into the atmosphere of Teyvat surrounded by a halo of brightness and fluffy clouds. The metal capsule protecting him from the outside is of the kind you've never seen before, smooth and clean-cut. The colour of his eyes is mesmerising, making your hands itch to draw for the first time in your short life. He's coming down from the heavens directly in your direction, like perhaps the angel you pray to the Dendro Archon for late at night.
And then his little spaceship bonks on the roof of a random house and bounces away, never to be seen again.
Kaveh lived through that incredibly specific experience at the age of six, and the image would forever be etched into his memory no matter how many times someone else told him an "astronaut baby falling from the sky" had to have been a product of his inconveniently fertile imagination. Insisting that he had definitely seen that, he returned to his cell with a pout and a handful of crayons to sketch out two teal-amber baby irises.
Yes, cell. He lived in a prison. Not very conventional, but he didn't know that at the time.
Long story short, his father had died and his mother hadn't dealt with it very well, blah-blah-blah, a bunch of things happened, and he'd been adopted by a group of inmates who thought he was very cute. The warden, Wriothesley, had tried to send him to an orphanage a large number of times, but Kaveh always managed to sneak out and come back.
"Fine," Wriothesley had said, ruffling his hair with a sigh. "We'll raise you well. Don't break my rules, you hear me? The East side of the prison is totally off-limits for kids."
Kaveh didn't really understand why. A cool blue-haired guy lived on that side of the prison, and he always taught Kaveh interesting things about molecules and maths that his teacher never mentioned. His classes were always about three plus two and boring questions he could do with his eyes closed, while the blue-haired inmate taught him fun-looking graphs and interesting thought experiments.
"Kaveh," Wriothesley hissed, pulling him out of the solitary cell he'd managed to sneak into yet again. "You're grounded."
They ended up transferring the blue-haired guy to another facility at some point, but their time together wasn't for nothing— when Wriothesley saw Kaveh's drawings sprawled with what looked like calculus, he took him away from that boring teacher to a new place called "school."
School, in theory, was supposed to be fun. This one was for 'gifted kids,' which Kaveh didn't really understand, because he only got gifts once a year on his birthday, and didn't all kids get that? But whatever, school was essentially seven hours a day of learning cool number things (and also other less cool things), and he got to meet other children.
In practice, school was… not as fun as it had seemed.
Excited to make friends for the first time in his life, Kaveh had entered the classroom with the widest smile known to man and several drawings brought for a thing called "show and tell." While the teacher was impressed at the skill evident in his self-portrait — praise which had made him beam — she immediately changed her opinion when he took out his other drawings from the folder.
"And this is how I imagined Uncle Childe beating all of those guys up!" he added cheerily, pointing to a page half-covered in splotches of red ink. "It must have hurt, but he says it's super fun!"
Horrified, the teacher had snatched the pages away from his hands while a kid started crying. He cocked his head.
"Fun?" a child near the other wall had deadpanned, raising an eyebrow in a way that felt much too adult. "I don't see how sustaining so many bodily injuries could be fun."
"It is not fun," the teacher agreed pointedly, with a nervous smile. "Hurting other people is very mean. Doesn't it hurt when you scrape your knee? You can't hurt someone on purpose. Kaveh, go sit in the corner to think about this."
Shame dripped from every inch of Kaveh's skin as he made his way through the classroom with too many little eyes utterly fixed on him. He knew the corner was for kids who misbehaved — bad kids — and all he'd wanted was to make a single friend.
The child in the corner had eyes of a colour so vivid Kaveh would recognise them anywhere, but he was evidently not friend material. In fact, Kaveh seethed while burning holes into the boy's back from afar, crossing his arms.
Alhaitham was his name, and he could actually burn holes into things with his eyes. He could shoot laser beams out of his pupils, which was, as Kaveh was unfortunately forced to admit, extremely cool. He could also fly, and crush an apple with two fingers, and he remembered every line of everything he ever read, and everybody loved him.
Except for Kaveh, of course.
Whenever he showed off his skills, Kaveh scoffed, thinking it really wasn't all that impressive that the dude had just been born with cool powers. He hadn't done anything to deserve them! Meanwhile, Kaveh had been drawing every single day for years, yet he wasn't allowed to doodle in class and show off his skills.
School was lonely. Everyone hovered around Alhaitham as if he were a fucking beacon of light, even though his hair colour was dark and dull like metal scrap or whatever. No one ever hovered around Kaveh, because their parents told them they shouldn't get close to a kid who lived in prison.
"My dad said he killed someone," a classmate whispered not-very-quietly while pointing towards him. "And kicked a cat."
"I did not!" Kaveh exclaimed, interrupting the video playing on the board.
"Kaveh," the teacher called out sternly, shaking her head at him. He knew it meant disapproval, and it always made him want to hide under the desk while guilt lurched in his gut. "Leave the classroom for a few minutes to think about your behaviour."
As he dragged his feet towards the door, begging his lips not to quiver, he passed by the chubby grey-haired kid with that damn raised eyebrow once again. Kaveh had tried repeating the movement at home, but his face simply couldn't do it. He had snapped a crayon in half in frustration.
But whatever. He could still prove to the school that he was not a bad kid. If they loved Alhaitham so much, perhaps he could show them that he too could do amazing things. After checking out a couple of very heavy books in the library, he managed to build a device that shot laser beams exactly like a specific pair of eyes did, but when he brought it to show and tell with a glowing smile, a kid screamed. The teacher kicked the device he'd spent hours on, getting the beams to turn off, and someone started crying.
"That's mine!" he screeched, yanking the device off her hands.
"I'm confiscating this!" she yelled back. "Go to the headmaster's office now."
"Why can he do it?" Kaveh asked, fists shaking as he looked at Alhaitham. That perpetual raised eyebrow was taunting him again, and he hissed at it. "I hate you!"
"Don't say that to your friend," the teacher reprimanded.
"He's not my friend!" Kaveh screamed, stomping his foot. "No one is!"
"Kaveh. Headmaster's office. Now."
And he had sobbed for hours and it had been pretty awful and Wriothesley had to come pick him up and all, but whatever.
That stopped mattering, because it was all in the distant, distant past. Kaveh left that school and returned to his cold, dark, empty cell once again, glad that he could at least draw now. He kicked the device in a moment of fury before crying again and fixing it lovingly, then dedicated himself to study the textbooks Wriothesley had acquired for him.
The years passed. Alhaitham's stupid face left his mind as he busied himself with devices each time more intricate and complex, and maths was way more interesting than the silly songs they taught at school anyway. If he couldn't make a friend, he would create one.
Mehrak, little light: that was what Kaveh proudly named his adorable prototype with vivid green eyes. She lit up his cell after his curfew, and so he could keep working on his engineering books well into the night.
His teenage years came and went, and the boring newspapers older inmates liked to read started piquing his interest. Kaveh now devoured them voraciously during breakfast, quickly learning about evil corporate greed, corrupt politicians, fossil fuels, and little comics at the end that made no sense to him. It was through a newspaper that he learned about a new superhero in town.
Super Scribe, the defender of Sumeru. A long article went on to list all his impressive achievements, and Kaveh's eyes were glowing as he turned the page to read about more child-saving and tsunami-stopping and—
He blinked. Staring at him from the page was an unfortunately familiar pair of teal-amber eyes, distorted in a grimace that implied he really didn't want to be taking the photograph.
Scoffing in extreme displeasure, Kaveh threw the paper away in a fit of fury. Of course that weirdly handsome guy was getting full pages in the newspaper while he was still trapped in a prison. What a stupid name for a superhero, anyway!
You're being mean, a little voice in his head whispered. Alhaitham is saving the world out there, while you're doing what? Drawing your cell for the millionth time and building popcorn machines?
His subconscious was right, he realised. Instead of feeling jealous that Alhaitham was perfect, Kaveh should be perfect too. He could also go out there and save the world, making people happy and turning Sumeru into a better place. He could receive compliments instead of reprimands for once, and maybe even the newspaper would write about him! Imagining a sweet old granny smiling at him after he saved her precious cat, he sighed dreamily.
"Kaveh," Wriothesley called, sitting next to him. "Are you alright?"
Kaveh looked up at the ceiling with a loopy smile, practically hearing the crowds chanting his name and asking to be his friend. "I've never been better."
Wriothesley chuckled as he took in his heart eyes. "What are you thinking about?"
"Super Scribe."
"Ah," Wriothesley exclaimed as he ruffled his hair. "You have a crush?"
Brain screeching to a halt, Kaveh felt his cheeks burn with humiliation. "What? I— No! No!" He flailed his arms. "I'm just— inspired! How could you think that?"
"Right."
"I'm just— inspired!"
"Sure."
"Ugh!" Kaveh his his face in his hands as he stood up. "I'm going to my cell!"
"Don't you wanna take the photo of your super crush?"
"Shut it!"
And so, the preparations began. Even if he was born as a regular human just like any other scrawny kid from the region, Kaveh could get anywhere if he just put his mind to it — that was what Wriothesley always told him. All he had to do was build gadgets to make up for his lack of power and train to make up for his lack of strength.
Both were relatively easy; he'd been fiddling with trinkets practically ever since he came out of the womb, and Childe was ecstatic to verse him in the art of duels. He even taught him a few catchphrases that were bound to scare off a few more mediocre villains.
Because Kaveh was no slave to practicality, he chose a claymore out of his choices of weapons, then programmed Mehrak to help him wield it as smoothly as possible — this way, his attacks came out as much more fluid than before, especially considering the three-hundred-and-sixty range of motion it provided him.
"I'm ready," he announced to Wriothesley.
"For what?"
Whatever. Everyone would soon know, because he would purge Sumeru of all its wickedness, and perhaps the entire world after that. Finally, people would see that he was capable of good, and he would make a difference. A real, tangible difference.
As he followed a trail of disruption and smoke in the air towards where Super Scribe was flying in between buildings and blasting some villain's weapons, Kaveh thought to himself, maybe Alhaitham and I could even become friends. Nodding towards Mehrak and turning on his firefighting gun, he dashed into the fire with his mouth covered by a high-tech mask.
And it was glorious. Flames crackled around him in spurts of vivid orange, but he was protected by a suit of his own making. The heat surrounding him was nothing but warmth as he attacked the fire headfirst , marvelling at how it died in his capable hands. He was really doing it. He was saving people, buildings, he was making a difference, he was finally doing good, and it was so relieving he wanted to cry, and his lips were curling as he—
Kaveh was hoisted into the cold, biting air by a pair of upsettingly muscular arms, yanked away from his bright future.
"Hey!" he called, jutting his finger at the sculpted chest of who he assumed would be a villain. "You—!"
His mouth fell open as two teal-amber eyes blinked at him.
Though Alhaitham technically had a secret identity, never having given the public his name and with a mask covering everything except for his eyes, Kaveh could never be fooled by a flimsy piece of cloth. It was him alright, even if that infuriating grey eyebrow was hidden.
"You always ruin everything!" Kaveh groaned, relaxing into his arms as he pulled off the fire mask. He felt like a fucking damsel in distress being carried bridal-style through the air like that, which was very much not fit for a superhero.
"I'm saving you," Alhaitham stated. "You were in the middle of a fire."
"Can't you see my suit? I'm prepared. I was getting rid of the fire!"
Alhaitham glanced down at him, and Kaveh swore he could see the outline of his eyebrow. "Your costume, you mean."
"Says you!" Kaveh scoffed, feeling his cheeks burn. "Also, Super Scribe is a stupid name."
"I didn't pick it," Alhaitham replied, setting him down carefully on the rooftop of some random building. "The newspapers did. They asked me what I wanted to be called, and I picked Light of Foliar Incision. They ignored me."
"That's also a stupid name."
"Okay. Bye."
"Hey!" Kaveh screamed, causing Alhaitham to turn his head mid-air. "You can't just leave people on top of random buildings, Alhaitham!"
Blinking as he flew back, Alhaitham crossed his arms. "You recognise me."
Kaveh rolled his eyes. "It's not like your eye colour is exactly common."
"It's simply unexpected, since we haven't seen each other in years."
"You recognise me?"
"Of course I do, Kaveh." Alhaitham's posture became ever so slightly stiffer. "I have very good memory."
"Right." Looking down at the raging fire still consuming a devastatingly beautiful building on the street below, Kaveh winced. "Take me back."
"My job is saving people, not killing them."
"How many times do I have to tell you that—"
A deafening screech erupted below them, and Alhaitham flew away in a split second. To save lives and do other meaningful, admirable things.
While Kaveh remained on that ugly rooftop, his firefighting gun that he'd spent days building now lost somewhere between the flames while his ridiculous mask hung off his chin. The building had no elevator and he had to resign himself to climbing down ten flights of stairs, trying to keep in the tears threatening to spill out of his eyes until he could be in the privacy of his cell.
Nothing could stop someone with a true calling for heroism — so Kaveh was once again at the crime scene only two days later, fully equipped to deal with any threat that could possibly come his way. Mehrak beeped in excitement by his side.
A loud crash sounded behind them, and Kaveh turned his head just in time to see a brick wall in the back of a bank be demolished by a very cartoonish-looking villain. As a few minions pulled out an entire, comically stereotypical safe with thick rope, evil laughter rang through the air.
"Super Scribe will never catch me," the villain roared. "I will be the master of Sumeru City in a matter of—"
Face blank, Kaveh shot his paralysing gun at the guy's stupid face without a flinch, then repeated the movement for all of his minions. They froze like statues instantly, and sirens sounded in the distance.
"In a matter of?" he teased. "Go on, finish your sentence."
As he watched police cars dash into the street, a muscular figure descended from the skies in front of the villains.
"Relax, Alhaitham," Kaveh called, smirking. "I've already taken care of them. See? I'm not as useless as you seem to think."
Before Alhaitham could reply, a policeman approached them with a nod. "Thank you so much, Super Scribe."
Kaveh's jaw dropped. "It was actually—"
"Super Scribe!" a journalist yelled, running into the scene with a kamera. "Saving the day and saving civilians once again! Sumeru City is so lucky to have you!"
"I didn't actually—"
"No one compares to you," the policeman said, smiling.
The next day, the cover page of the newspaper was plastered with an image of Kaveh halfway through talking, face distorted by the print and hair messy next to Alhaitham's perfect posture with bulging muscles showing through his suit. The headline explained that Kaveh had been heroically saved by the city's swoonworthy vigilante.
"How dare they!" he screamed, throwing the paper at the wall. Mehrak beeped in sympathy. "Sometimes I wonder why I should save these people at all when they don't give a fuck about me!"
Blinking, he inhaled sharply to ward away the tears. Perhaps he should give up on this dream of being recognised for his effort and skill, if no one could see his brilliance even when he saved the city in plain daylight.
In reality, Kaveh thought bitterly as he took the newspaper into his hands once more and crushed it with a trembling fist, he did not need their approval at all. What did it matter if they looked down at him when he knew his own worth? Even if everyone fell for the allure of perfect, cinema-star-level good-looking, jacked, saviour Alhaitham, he knew the man wasn't that perfect— just lucky to be born beloved by all. Even if everyone thought Kaveh would forever live in Alhaitham's shadow, they were sorely mistaken. He could make the world a better place by himself, even if no one ever showed him a drop of gratitude.
"I don't have to worry about anyone's opinion of me," he told Mehrak, lighting a match and letting the glorious flames swallow the flimsy newspaper page. "In fact, let them despise me. It makes no difference at all."
Sumeru City was large enough for two superheroes. And so, Kaveh reasoned, he had no need to seek out the little emergencies Stupid Scribe was going after with his chiseled muscles and his laser beams. This meant Kaveh could focus on the less time-sensitive threats, the ones most vigilantes were too cowardly to tackle.
"This is an oil drilling rig," he told Mehrak, as she floated by his side amid the clouds. He was wearing an eco-friendly jet pack he built himself. "And we are going to break down their structures."
It was nighttime and his jetpack was silent, so no one noticed as he flew around the massive machines and toyed with their mechanics until he knew the cost of repair would be extremely inconvenient while also making sure they wouldn't collapse and hurt anyone.
They sneaked away once the job was done, the tools once more concealed within Mehrak's interior, and zipped through the night sky towards the next oil rig. By the time they had fiddled with enough structures that Kaveh's hands looked (and smelled) like they would forever be imbued in grease, the sun was rising beautifully over the horizon as if welcoming Kaveh's efforts with its celestial brightness, cradling his face like a mother would.
You make a difference, it seemed to be telling him while warming up his skin as if in a hug. No matter what anyone says.
The newspapers printed his dilligent work on the front page, and he could not be prouder. Sipping on warm coffee with a smile, he hummed a jolly tune while reading through the article.
"Weird, huh?" Wriothesley asked, peeking over the paper. "Nobody knows what happened."
Kaveh nodded. "Not even Super Scribe."
That had just been the first step of his plan, naturally. Kaveh didn't do things by half; he carried them out to the best of his ability. And so, the following night, he crept into the same bank he'd saved the previous week clad in his invisibility suit, and took all the piles upon piles of mora coins stashed away in the largest oil company's account. Of course, all their money wasn't kept in just one place, but Kaveh still managed to steal several millions away.
He exploded a shitty convicted felon of a billionaire's house next (when no one was inside). He grinned at the flames licking the frankly awful modern design of the seaside mansion, glad that he'd removed one more atrocity from the world. Whoever had designed that thing clearly an appalling sense of aesthetics.
And then, a sense of déjà vu overtook him as he was swept off his feet into a bridal carry, his face resting on a familiar set of muscles as he was hoisted into the skies.
"Oh, hey, Soup Scribe," he greeted half-heartedly. Not even that idiot could ruin his good mood today.
"I don't like soup."
"Sorry, what was it, Light of Follicular Incision?"
"Your jab doesn't even make sense," Alhaitham replied, setting him down somewhere far away from the fire. "Did you come deal with the destruction again? There's no one inside, so it would be stupid to risk yourself trying to save anyone."
"For the billionth time, I have a fireproof suit."
"A DIY fireproof suit," Alhaitham amended, crossing his arms. His forearms were ridiculously toned. "I'd rather you not die because of amateur homemade technology."
"Amateur?" Kaveh exlaimed, scoffing. "How dare you! I test all my inventions meticulously. It works perfectly well. You saw my paralysing gun at the bank!"
"Yes, but what if your suit malfunctioned and you were burned to death because you decided to play hero?" Alhaitham asked. "I can do the saving, you don't have to put yourself at risk."
Kaveh stepped towards him with gritted teeth, jabbing a finger at the ugly chest gem encrusted between Alhaitham's pecs. "Why am I playing hero while you're doing the saving? You're self-absorbed as shit to think you're the only one capable of helping out."
"I'm not saying you are incapable, simply that it's a unnecessary risk. I'm literally an alien with superpowers."
Kaveh huffed. "It's not a risk. My inventions work incredibly well."
"My job is saving any civilians at risk, so I'm not sure why you're insulted at me saving you," Alhaitham retorted, stepping towards him as well. His eyes were latched onto Kaveh’s with an otherworldly intensity that made him feel a little too hot. "You might think—"
"You just don't believe anyone could be capable of matching your skill," Kaveh interrupted, returning his gaze. "You've always looked at me with that air of superiority. You don't believe I, too, could do great things."
"Now, it seems like your insecurities are affecting how you see the world," Alhaitham murmured. He leaned his face forwards just slightly, and Kaveh could feel the warmth of his exhale now. "When did I ever say I thought lowly of you?"
Stupidly, nonsensically, embarrassingly, Kaveh's breath hitched. His cheeks started to feel warmer than usual, and he cleared his throat to dissipate the sensation. But he did not rip his eyes off Alhaitham's, because that would be equivalent to admitting defeat.
"It seems like your insecurities are affecting how you see the world," Kaveh replied, voice low as he, too, leaned forwards. He pressed a palm to Alhaitham's chest and pushed him, causing him to blink dumbly as he let himself be caged against a wall. "Scared someone might take your place, hm, hero boy?"
"I don't—"
"I've shown nothing but competence, yet you whisk me away from danger like you're trying to paint me as a damsel in distress," Kaveh continued, red eyes fiery as he refused to look away from Alhaitham's face. "Is it for your ego? Do you like saving me? Is it because you know I despise you, and you're trying to make me admire you just like everyone else does?"
It felt like unrestrained electricity was cackling between their irises, a heavily charged current connecting their eyes like a tether. It felt like rage.
Alhaitham's gaze finally surrendered from their eye-lock, but it was to subtly glance down at Kaveh's lips.
"Or are you trying to impress me?" Kaveh murmured, circling a finger over the green jewel on Alhaitham's skin. His mouth parted without a sound as a reaction. "You like whisking people away like a hero, carrying them bridal style and showing off your muscles so you can seduce them? Bet you think you can pull anyone."
Alhaitham frowned, looking almost pathetic from the little distance between their faces. "I've never been with… I don't even…"
Clearing his throat, Kaveh pulled back, then turned away to hide his reddening cheeks. What was that? A mix of bitter anger and something that felt like crackling fire in his gut seemed to have gotten the best of him, forcing his hands to press Alhaitham back and his lips to spit discontent at that sculpted face.
"Anyway," he continued, coughing. His voice was thinner now, having lost its confident edge. "What I'm saying is, I don't need saving. And I can make my own decisions, so don't patronise me."
He crossed his arms, refusing to meet Alhaitham's eyes again. "Now, don't you have somewhere to be? Didn't a building explode, something like that?"
"Right." Alhaitham's voice, too, sounded different, a little rougher and lower than usual. "I'll go."
And with that, he soared into the clouds, leaving Kaveh sweating under his fireproof suit.
Kaveh continued to carry out his work in the dead of the night, and the oil industry was already in crisis as judging by what the newspapers wrote every single day. He'd anonymously donated almost all of the stolen money to companies working on sustainable energy sources, and kept some of it to repair his inventions.
Tonight, he was silently approaching the headquarters of an oil driller when his hands were suddenly yanked to the back.
"So it's you," Alhaitham whispered, voice deadly cold as he pushed Kaveh's face onto the ground. His grip was iron-firm around Kaveh's wrists, holding him down as if with handcuffs.
"Took you long enough," Kaveh replied through gritted teeth, trying to mask the terrified spasms of his heart. "A whole two months. I thought you were better at this hero thing."
Alhaitham snorted mirthlessly, and Kaveh could feel the warm breath on his ear. "And I thought you wanted to save people, not hurt them. It seems like we don't know each other at all."
"Are you surprised?" Kaveh grunted, then sighed, letting his forehead rest on the floor. "Listen, Alhaitham, I'm trying to do good. I'm not a villain."
"You're exploding houses and sabotaging people's livelihoods."
"I'm fighting against the fossil fuel industry!"
"By exploding houses and sabotaging people's livelihoods."
"It's effective," Kaveh grumbled. "Are you really gonna stop me?"
"Obviously."
Kaveh huffed as he was pulled up to his feet, acutely aware of the dirt stuck to his face that he could not brush away since his hands were still being held down by Alhaitham's own.
"Come on, Alhaitham. I'm not even hurting people. I'm trying to help the climate."
"You could do so in more legal ways," Alhaitham retorted.
"If legal ways were effective, I wouldn't even need to do this!"
Alhaitham sighed, bringing a gentle hand up to dust the dirt off Kaveh's cheeks. He was glad it was night time in a dark corner, because his skin was probably flushed red.
"Your actions are raising prices and causing unemployment."
Kaveh swallowed down a bout of guilt. "Yes, there are benefits and consequences. The energy market has to adapt eventually."
"Right. And you think you can single-handedly make Sumeru go through a clean energy transition by… setting fire to houses and screwing up oil drills."
"I think I'm making a positive impact, yes," he replied, raising his chin pointedly. "Can you really blame me?"
"Yes, I can blame you for all the crimes you've committed, given that you quite literally carried them out."
"You know what I meant," Kaveh grumbled. "Are you really gonna arrest me for fighting against these asshole lobbyists?"
Alhaitham's grip eased just slightly. "I can't arrest you, I'm not a policeman."
"Well, are you gonna escort me to the station?" he asked, cocking his head. "Throw me in jail for all I care. I already live there, anyway. Everyone's always looked at me like I'm a criminal regardless."
"Then change their minds."
"Easy for you to say," Kaveh spat. "I've been trying all my life."
"Kaveh, I am not going to arrest you. I'm giving you a second chance because I do believe you're not a bad person," Alhaitham stated, letting go of his wrists.
Blinking, Kaveh stared dumbly at him. What? Even though he'd been asking for mercy, at no point did he actually believe Alhaitham was going to let him off the hook. That wasn't what a superhero was supposed to do.
"If you can build paralysing guns and fireproof suits and Kusanali know what else you managed to create to go this long without being caught, then you're a genius," Alhaitham added plainly. "Go work for the energy industry or whatever, help build alternatives and fight for them legally. You can't go around destroying the city and fucking up the economy or you'll be charged eventually."
"Right," Kaveh replied, half-listening. "I— Um. Thanks?"
"If you do it again, I will take you to the police," Alhaitham warned. "Now come, I'll take you home. I don't trust that you won't blow up the place if I leave."
Scoffing, Kaveh hugged Mehrak in his arms and let himself be hoisted to the sky in Alhaitham's infuriatingly strong arms.
"What's your address?"
"Kshahrewar Prison."
"You never moved?"
Kaveh turned his head away. "I'm not up for small talk."
Needless to say, Kaveh did not give up on his plans just because of Alhaitham's little show of charity — probably fabricated anyway, as a strategy to get Kaveh to drop the topic forever. But he did feel a little guilty following the conversation, and hacked into private systems to get his hands on designs for sustainable energy sources. He optimised and improved them to the best of his ability, then downloaded the new version into the companies’ systems. There, now Alhaitham couldn't say he wasn't collaborating with the industry.
"You ignored me."
Kaveh kept moving normally as Alhaitham came up behind him, walking away from an explosion.
"Blowing things up is bad for the environment."
"My bombs are eco friendly," Kaveh quipped back. "Designed them myself."
"Seems to me like you should be in the Akademiya, not in jail."
"The Akademiya has nothing to teach me."
Alhaitham moved forwards to catch him, but Kaveh was not going to fall for the same trick twice. He leapt several meters into the air with his newly-designed boots, then turned on the invisibility feature of his suit.
It was amusing to watch Alhaitham look around with a frown, arms outstretched towards nothing. Kaveh approached him just for the laughs, leaning in close to his ear before whispering 'boo.'
Alhaitham was swift in his reflexes, but Kaveh was invisible, and that gave him the kind of advantage he wasn't going to lose. He laughed giddily as Alhaitham tried to grab him by guessing the direction his voice was coming from, to no avail.
"Better luck next time," he cooed.
It was neither the first nor the last time they met for battle. In fact, his little matches with Alhaitham became almost daily (or nightly, really) as neither stepped down from their targets. Mehrak would fight Alhaitham with the claymore Kaveh had infused with all sorts of technology, and Kaveh would dodge the superhero's attacks with whatever new tricks he had created recently.
"Well, well," he laughed, watching Alhaitham step towards him on the rooftop of a large corporate building. "If it isn't the Light of Foliar Incel-sion."
"You know nothing about my love life."
Kaveh tried to copy the raised eyebrow Alhaitham used to employ all the time as a kid. "No bitches? You were the one who told me you'd never been with anyone."
"I don't see how that's relevant," Alhaitham replied.
They fought, as they usually did. Kaveh relished the adrenaline and the wind cutting against his face as he dodged an attack, the sensation of Alhaitham's sword almost grazing his heel, and the sight of Alhaitham's chest heaving with effort. It was delicious to scratch Alhaitham's back as he passed behind him unnoticed — not enough to really hurt him, but just enough to taunt. It was the most fun Kaveh ever had.
Quickly enough, their debacles started to catch the public eye. They would sometimes clash in the city center, and onlookers with curious eyes would follow their fights as if they weren't risking their lives by standing so close to the action. The newspapers started to write about Kaveh himself, publishing his face, and it made him secretly giddy. They called him the 'Light of Kshahrewar."
"They picked a cool name for me," he yelled, catching Alhaitham's attention. "How do you feel about that, Stupid Scribe?"
"They call me a hero and you a villain," Alhaitham replied, grabbing him by the hair in a movement too fast for Kaveh to have avoided. It made him part his lips in a gasp. "How do you feel about that, Light of Kshahrewar?"
Gritting his teeth, Kaveh stomped down on his foot.
"Did you really think that was going to do anything?" Alhaitham asked. "You know I'm supernaturally strong."
"I've been wanting to stomp on your foot since I was a kid."
"Pleasure to have granted you your lifelong dream."
With a snort, Kaveh beckoned Mehrak over with a secret tap of his fingers, and she dashed towards his hair with a pair of scissors before Alhaitham could react. His lovely curls fell to the floor and he escaped Alhaitham's grasp, instantly leaping away.
"I'd been growing my hair out for months, I'll have you know," he spat. "And now you made me cut it. I'm mad at you."
And with that, he jumped off into the sky.
"I suppose this is all my fault," Wriothesley said bitterly as he accompanied Kaveh to his cell. "I should never have agreed to raise you in a place like this."
"I'm fighting against evil," Kaveh retorted, silently picking the lock on his handcuffs.
They had the same conversation almost everyday now. Sometimes, Super Scribe managed to take him to the police, but when he didn't, Kaveh came home to prison anyway. They'd tried locking him in the most escape-proof facilities in the nation, but he always managed to flee from every one.
"You're such a brilliant kid. You could have gotten out of here and done great things."
"But I didn't."
Wriothesley sighed. "There's a column on the newspaper defending you today."
"Really? Where is it?"
"I'll only give it to you if you promise to not commit any crimes tomorrow."
Kaveh's lips twitched. "Sure thing."
The next evening, Kaveh waited for Super Scribe at the top of a tree, humming in anticipation. Half an hour passed, then another. But Alhaitham never came.
Odd, he thought. Was my explosion too subtle? Does he not know where I am?
Yet, the next night, Alhaitham was not there either, and this continued for a week.
The newspapers noticed, too. Where is Super Scribe? the front page read, and Kaveh frowned as he read through it. Was this an unconventional strategy to catch him by surprise once he got used to not having a superhero after him at all times? Or was Alhaitham… sick?
The thought made Kaveh's gut fill with nausea. What if something had happened to Alhaitham? What if he never returned? What if he— No, he couldn't have died. Could he? But he was so strong and resistant. But why had he disappeared? Where was he?
Kaveh's nights became emptier as he simply got his work done and then walked home, with no interesting banter to challenge his wits and no adrenaline pulsing through his veins as just a few police units ever chased after him. Things were too easy. And though he was glad to be approaching his goal with less obstacles, it surprisingly just wasn't as— fun.
A month passed as such, then two, and three. He found himself sketching a muscular frame in his cell, but threw it away with an embarrassed mutter.
Where are you? he thought, lying in bed and trying to figure out what had gone wrong. I just want to know if you're alright.