Work Text:
Sumeru Akademiya was a lively place, filled with students scribbling notes, trivial attempts of innovating something groundbreaking and too many due assignments for anyone's liking.
In one of the small houses, built specifically to accomodate the ever-so-hardworking youth, a blond architecture student sat comfortably at the living room table. He had just wrapped up one of the remaining, final semester projects. He put his lovely fountain pen away, flexing his fingers as he leaned back into the sofa with relief.
This charming man however, had a roommate. And said roommate just walked into the house, sighing deeply as he went into the kitchen area.
"Alhaitham? Hello to you too, I guess..." Kaveh begun, stretching after a long session of work.
"...Good afternoon."
"How are you? I finally finished that essay about methods of restoring ancient temples. It bored the absolute hell out of me."
At first, Kaveh failed to notice how unusually tense Alhaitham was. It's not like he was the most talkative person in the world anyway. Kaveh wasn't particularly surprised at the lack of response from his roommate.
"Are you gonna make some coffee?" He got up, walking towards Alhaitham. "Oh yeah, right, you probably have this big project of yours to finish. The one with uh, that other guy. Wait, weren't you meeting up with him today? How'd that go?"
It was at this moment that a jar of coffee had suddenly been knocked over. Fortunately, Kaveh quickly reached out to catch it.
"Oh archons, that would've costed us a bit more than I would've liked. You should be more caref— Wait, what's going on with you? You seem distracted."
"Sorry." Alhaitham said quietly, grabbing back the coffee and placing it on the countertop.
"I mean, it's no big deal. Nothing spilled. Thank my fantastic reflexes for that." Kaveh laughed.
"Yeah."
"Hold on, why are you agreeing with me? Where's the "get over yourself, Kaveh"? What happened?"
"It's trivial." The other man replied, stopping his actions for a moment.
"And yet, you seem upset. You know, we've had a conversation about this a few times. It's okay to be annoyed. Do you wanna talk about it?" Kaveh leaned against the countertop, propping himself up on his elbows.
"No... Okay, fine, maybe. If that will satisfy your curiosity."
"Who said anything about— You know what, whatever. Continue. Now I'm actually interested."
"The meeting with my project partner didn't go well."
"Oh. I see. Well, that happens sometimes. That's all?"
"We got into an argument." Alhaitham clenched his jawline, the pace of his breathing increasing.
"Really? Why?"
"I... simply pointed out a significant mistake in his approach. That's all I did." His voice was low, clearly held by much restraint.
"Okay... I'm assuming he didn't take that well?"
"No. Not quite."
"What happened?"
"I realised that he may have taken my input as a rude comment, rather than an attempt to improve the state of the project. So I decided to explain myself. I emphasised what I meant and stated that I do not have any particularly strong feelings about the way he views this project. It wasn't personal, after all. Simply research."
"Oh. Well, and then what happened after that?"
"He wasn't too pleased with my answer."
Kaveh watched as Alhaitham clenched his fists, leaning against the stove, breathing in and out deeply - an attempt to calm the storm inside.
"What did he say?"
A moment of silence.
"He raised his voice and said he feels deeply offended that I do not care about the project as much as I should."
"Anything else?"
"He also said that he fails to understand why anyone would ever willingly work with me because, according to him, I am incredibly selfish and I don't care about other people."
Kaveh paused at that, raising an eyebrow.
"Excuse me?"
"He mentioned how uncanny my lack of looking him directly in the eyes is as well. And then he walked out of the room, mumbling about wanting to switch partners."
"Well, that's one good thing at least. The trash took itself out." Kaveh snickered, crossing his arms on his chest.
"I suppose. It's just..." Alhaitham closed his eyes for a few seconds.
"An objectively distressing situation? Yeah, certainly."
Alhaitham smiled weakly, staring into one point blankly.
"You put it into words."
"Hey, um... I'm really sorry about this. I know how annoying it can get — working together with other people."
Alhaitham mumbled something under his nose.
"What did you say?"
"And yet you always manage. To work with others, I mean."
"Oh. Um, yeah, I guess. It's not always pleasant though."
"But you manage."
"It's out of necessity. I don't agree with everyone at all times, but if I constantly tried to get things to be the way I'd like them to be... Well, it wouldn't work out."
"How do you do it then? Finish with satisfactory results and not wind up in disagreements?"
"I persuade. I think about others' personalities and what they want to hear. I base my input on that. I don't voice out extremely strong opinions, unless it's something that genuinely matters at the moment."
"So you just... let others do their thing?"
"Not exactly. I mean, if they're up to no good and I can stop them without much arguing, I do that. But sometimes it's not that people necessarily aren't open to changing their mind — it's just that they want their ego to remain whole and annoyingly massive."
"But it's their ego. It's their problem to fix." Alhaitham replied instantly.
"Of course it is — at least it should be. But you know even more than I do that most people are lazy. And stupid. And, especially amongst scholars, have a fragile ego. They don't take it well when someone confident enough to shatter it to pieces appears. Even worse when that someone is much more brilliant than they are." Kaveh looked at Alhaitham fondly.
"Why should it be my job to care about their issues though?"
"It shouldn't, but the world is by no means perfect and you can't fix it. Not like that, at least."
"I'm aware of that, but it just... it bothers me. This dishonesty, this unnecessary performance."
"I don't like it either and I admire your sense of justice. But you don't always have to think of it as lying. It's mostly about finding a more convenient way to phrase certain words. It will make working with others easier."
"It feels as though some individuals make it their goal to be upset about completely trivial matters." Alhaitham sighed, brushing through his hair with his fingers.
"Precisely. I wouldn't phrase it better myself. They're just stupid. And you shouldn't throw yourself into an argument with them. Someday, someone with authority over them will do that for you." Kaveh smiled, turning around and opening a drawer with various kinds of herbs. "Best you can do in the meantime is have some tea, recharge and calm yourself down. Coffee will just make you more distracted. How does lemon balm sound?"
"It sounds like something I need right now." Alhaitham relaxed his shoulders, reaching out for two mugs off the shelf and placing them on the countertop.
"Bet. Seriously though, don't push yourself today. You need some time to rest." Kaveh replied, his voice suddenly softer. He put a spoon of lemon balm in each mug and turned towards his roommate. "Feeling any better?"
Alhaitham breathed out, looking the other in the eyes.
"Yes, actually. Thank you, Kaveh. I appreciate this."
"You're welcome. No use carrying such burdens in your heart."
—————
A few minutes later, two men were sitting in their living room together, chatting over some tea in a leisure atmosphere. After a moment of comfortable silence, one of them spoke up:
"It never happens with you though, Kaveh."
"What doesn't?"
"The need to constantly make my thoughts more convenient. I simply say what I mean. And somehow, you understand." Alhaitham said, lost in thought.
Kaveh smiled, looking down at his mug.
"Maybe I just don't have a massive ego."
"May I remind you of that one time someone left an anonymous, negative note under your essay about the use of ecologically-friendly materials in modern architecture, saying your ideas were "dumb and unrealistic"? You were about to rip that small piece of paper apart."
"Not true!"
"If I recall correctly, you drank five glasses of wine that same evening. And you started writing a complaint to the Akademiya about a student being "against innovative, environmental opportunities, while also suffering from a concerning amount of attitude". I found that paper with maybe three sentences at most, on your desk."
"Ouch. Careful, I'm starting to get offended."
"Apologies, did I not make my words convenient and persuasive enough to your liking?"
"Finish your damn tea before it gets cold."