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"Yes, for free."
Kaveh frowned, crossing his arms at the words.
"I can assure you, master Kaveh," Layla insisted.
They were in the corridors of the Akademiya, having stopped for a quick chat after coincidentally passing by each other. Layla was, assumingly, on her way to class, and Kaveh had just dropped by the Scribe's office to bring Alhaitham the lunchbox he had forgotten again. (He had loudly complained about his roommate's carelessness, of course, but it made him secretly giddy to have an excuse to come see Alhaitham in the middle of the day.)
Now, Layla was mentioning some 'great astrologist' who was studying at Rtawahist in some special summer program, and who was offering fate readings to any who were interested.
"And her work is, um," he coughed, "reliable?"
"Extremely reliable," Layla replied.
That was how Kaveh found himself knocking on a dingy door in the outskirts of Sumeru City, somewhat regretting this waste of his precious time. What if this was some sort of scam? Alhaitham would tease him to death if he came home muttering that he had been scammed again (even though it really hadn't happened that many times!), and he could have spent another full hour working on his blueprint due in less than a week. Still, the idea of learning his future… Well, of course it was enticing. Kaveh was only human.
His father had been a Rtawahist scholar. Kaveh had a perfectly clear memory of sitting with widened eyes on his lap, peeking at the detailed star charts that looked to him like elaborate illustrations his tiny hands were eager to trace over. They sky told me you would be brilliant, his father had said, pointing at a pretty bundle of white dots. You're going to do great things, my love.
Kaveh swallowed down the thickness of the memory lodging itself in his throat, wondering if it had ever been true or simply a father's enamoured words to his toddler. Fortune tellers had been popular among his peers back in the Akademiya, when all anyone ever worried about was their love life and whether they were going to pass all their classes, but he had always kept himself from consulting the terrifyingly unknown blueprints fate had drawn out for him. After all, with his omnipresent bad luck, he wouldn't be surprised if the skies decided a heavy scaffold would fall on him the very next morning.
And yet, things had been looking up recently, and perhaps Kaveh, too, should look up towards the stars. He wanted to know how quickly he'd finally manage to pay off the last digits of his debt, and this was for free. What harm could it do?
The door opened slowly, revealing a pair of sea-green eyes that seemed to be swallowing him whole all at once. The woman stepped aside and motioned for him to enter.
"Hello," he greeted, putting on a polite smile. "I'm Kaveh. I was told I could find a fortune teller here."
"An astrologist," she corrected him, raising her chin pointedly. "Astrologist Mona Megistus, which means 'The Great Astrologist Mona.' If you are interested in my divination, you must learn my name."
Kaveh blinked. "Mona Megistus, it is an honour. Thank you for welcoming me. The Rtawahist scholars speak every highly of your skills."
"Do they?" Her somber facade cracked slightly, but she cleared her throat before speaking grandiosely once more. "Come in, then. Sit down."
The room was evidently some sort of AnemoBnB she was staying in for the season, because Kaveh refused to believe anyone would permanently live in anything as stale and miserably naked as the blank walls surrounding them. A rich fabric was laid over a simple wooden table, and a beautifully ethereal swirl of purple and blue coloured an orb resting on top of a short stack of old tomes.
"How does payment work?" he asked respectfully, so as to not unknowingly rack up more debt.
"I would never use hydromancy for mora," she snapped. "That is not why I learned all of this. That is not why I work with this."
Though he wasn't sure what 'hydromancy' was, he knew for certain that Alhaitham would have called her foolish for such a philosophy. Kaveh, however, felt his eyes glitter. "I understand. I, too, didn't think of mora at all when following my passion."
Her eyes curiously explored his clothes. "What is your passion?"
"Architecture," he replied promptly.
"And you're here to learn about whether you'll gain fame and success?"
"Oh, no." He waved her off sheepishly. It was refreshing to meet someone who looked at his face and saw simply a random person, rather than the 'Light of Kshahrewar.' "I, um… Well, I'm not sure what I'm looking for exactly. I wanted to know how soon I'm going to pay off my… my debt."
It wasn't an easy word to let out of the privacy of his mouth. He kept telling himself this foreigner would have no reason to tattle on his troubles to anyone, unlike Sumeran scholars, but it wasn't as if he could be fully certain of that.
"Ah, trouble with money," Mona said sagely, as if she was perfectly familiar with the fact. "Let us see. Your date, time, and place of birth?"
Over the next few minutes, she elaborately constructed the projection of a night sky on her fascinating little orb. "Your constellation is the paradisaea, hm? Interesting. You are one of a kind."
He let his lips curve. "Oh."
"Born with a brilliant mind," she murmured, focusing on a particular star that seemed to burn especially brightly. "Stubborn. Passionate. Born at midday, when the sun was shining the brightest."
"That's…" Kaveh wasn't sure of what to say. He felt oddly warm upon hearing the words, unlike when they came from some dazzled Akademiya student's mouth. He always wondered whether the praise he received was genuine, but the stars didn't lie.
"Your family life was a great tragedy," she continued, more quietly now.
The warmth dissipated at once, like quicksand trickling down into the depths of the scalding desert. He shuffled on the uncomfortable chair.
"But you were lucky with love," she added, looking up at him. "In a happy, close relationship?"
Kaveh frowned at once. Alright, perhaps the stars did lie. "No, I'm… single. I've never been with anyone seriously."
His frown transferred over to Mona's face as she seemingly zoomed in on a section of the orb. "But…"
Oh, great. So the stars had foretold that he was going to be in a relationship by now, but his luck was so disastrously awful that fate had changed its mind. Loneliness was obsessed with him.
"You are in love, though," she said, as if there was no doubt.
The image of Alhaitham's softly-blinking eyes painted Kaveh's mind unprompted. "Yes," he admitted quietly.
"And why have you not confessed?"
Kaveh looked away while coughing. "I thought we were going to talk about my debt?"
"Someone is desperately in love with you," Mona announced, as if she hadn't heard him at all.
For once, all of Kaveh's brilliance instantly disappeared from the cluttered mess of his mind. Desperately in love? He knew more than one junior of his had some sort of celebrity crush on Kaveh, Sumeru's Great Architect (would that make him 'Architect Kaveh Mesgistus'?), but surely that sort of teenage admiration couldn't be called all that. Who? Who would hold such carefully concealed feelings for him while he was none the wiser?
"The love they feel for you is the once-in-a-lifetime kind," she said, pointing towards a constellation that looked a little like the roof of a house. "They admire you greatly. They want to take care of you."
Kaveh's heart sped up its pace a little more at every bit of information Mona added. Could she be talking about Alhaitham? Archons, please let it be Alhaitham. It would make up for all the bad luck he'd dealt with in the past two decades.
"Who is it?" he asked breathlessly.
"Oh, the sky doesn't know names. That's too mundane for the stars to bother with." She sipped calmly from a glass of water. "You'll have to find out on your own."
"But I…" He trailed off, unsure of how to express the jumble of excited yet fearful feelings squeezing his chest. "Do you know anything about them?"
"Well, their constellation is vultur volans, but I assume that doesn't help you much," she replied. "See here? How romantic, you both got birds. The wing on your constellation is intertwined with the head on theirs. You were always going to meet. It seems your lives are always going to be intertwined."
"Oh." Kaveh analysed the vaguely bird-shaped lines on the spherical surface of the orb. Forever intertwined? He and Alhaitham had met fifteen years ago, and they never seemed to be able to leave each other's paths. Could it be him?
"Wing and head…" Mona murmured, perhaps more so to herself than to him. "It could mean your desire for freedom clashes with their desire for reason. But this kind of analysis tends to not be precise."
Kaveh felt like he could barely breathe from how filled with hope his chest was. That really sounded like him and Alhaitham.
"Anyway, your debt," she continued casually. "I see financial stability in your near future, but it doesn't look like you'll ever be rich."
As if Kaveh could think about mora right now. He had a soulmate, damn it!
"Anything else?" he asked quickly. "About the… person who loves me."
Mona narrowed her eyes. "I can't read another person's future. It's against my code of conduct."
"Well, it's anonymous," he argued. "You don't have to tell me anything sensitive. Just… any small, harmless detail? Pretty please? I can pay you."
"You really can't, you're broke," she replied dryly. "And I don't take money."
"Please," he asked again, placing his hands on the table. "Any detail."
She sighed before zooming in on the orb. "They… hm. Their favourite popsicle flavour is lemon."
Kaveh blinked. Yes, he had said 'small, harmless detail,' but he hadn't expected one this… well, small and harmless. He also couldn't remember ever having seen Alhaitham with a popsicle.
"Anything else?" he asked politely.
"The session is over," Mona stated, covering the orb.
"Oh." He cleared his throat while standing up. "Thank you very much. This was wonderful."
She smiled proudly.
"Out of curiosity, can I ask…" He scratched the nape of his neck. "Why do you offer these? If you get nothing in exchange."
Now that his curiosity was — somewhat — satiated, the guilt finally caught up to him. He had really just taken up this poor woman's time with his concerns over his roommate.
"Learning about different people's fates and lives is an enriching experience," she replied wisely.
Kaveh suppressed a smile. Okay, so she was just nosy.
"A noble pursuit," he murmured, reaching into his bag. "I had some leftover baklava at home, freshly made. I thought I'd give you some as thanks."
Lie. He had baked it for her, because there was no way he was going to leave her house empty-handed.
"Oh, no need," Mona replied immediately, shaking her head, but Kaveh picked up on how her eyes had latched onto the pastry. "I have no need for these elaborate, exaggerated things. Simplicity is best."
Kaveh vehemently disagreed with that, but he wasn't going to get into it with someone who had just done him such a large favour. "Perhaps it would be… an 'enriching experience' to try a Sumeran specialty?"
She considered the words for a moment before speaking. "Well… You do have a point."
Smiling, Kaveh placed the pastry on the table. "Well then, thank you so much for your kindness. I'll take my leave."
As he hurried home, anxiety started to gnaw at the hope built-up in his chest. What if it wasn't Alhaitham? What if all this love he'd been hiding, all this fondness for the person who understood him like no other, all this intimacy that had grown between their opposite minds — was fated to result in nothing at all? What if he was going to move out of this home they had built and rebuilt?
The idea made him bite his bottom lip. No, that couldn't be his destiny. He didn't want it to be.
"Meeting ran late?" Alhaitham asked, bored, when Kaveh stepped into the house with his heart beating so loudly it almost muffled the words. "Or was it you who ran late, as usual?"
"I almost never run late!" he protested, throwing his shoes in an unspecified direction. Then, determined, he marched all the way to where Alhaitham was standing near the kitchen counter and pointed a finger at the pretty green gem encrusted on the sculpted skin of his chest. "You. Have you ever consulted an astrologist?"
Alhaitham looked at him with absolutely no emotion on his face, as usual. "No."
Kaveh groaned. "Do you happen to know what your constellation is?"
"Are you drunk?" Alhaitham crossed his arms, amused. "It's not even nighttime yet."
What an infuriating man Kaveh was — potentially — going to spend the rest of his life with. "Like, everyone has a constellation linked to them. It's something astrological, I don't know."
"I never took any Rtawahist electives."
Kaveh worried his bottom lip while roving over Alhaitham's face for any sign that he was 'desperately in love.' But only blank, beautiful eyes stared back at him.
"Let's go to the Grand Bazaar," he blurted out.
Alhaitham narrowed his eyes as if repeating the 'drunk' question. "For what?"
"Popsicles." Kaveh cleared his throat. "I feel like having a popsicle."
"Are you going to tell me what this is about?" Alhaitham asked flatly. "Dinner is ready, we just need to heat it up. This isn't an optimal time for popsicles."
"This is— a very optimal time for popsicles!" Kaveh insisted, trying to look for an excuse. "Yes, we're getting popsicles. What's wrong with having popislces right now?"
He could practically see the cogs whirring in Alhaitham's mind, trying to rationalise what the fuck Kaveh was trying to get to.
"Whether you come or not, I'll go get them," he added impatiently. "What flavour do you want?"
His heart finally paused its feverish beating as he held his breath, expecting the response which would bring him utter joy or destroy his understanding of his life, and—
"I don't want any," Alhaitham stated. "They get too messy, especially on hot days."
Throwing his head back, Kaveh wondered why the gods liked to torture him so. It was probably some sort of punishment for not having the guts to just say, I'm in love with you, and I hope you're my soulmate.
"I'm getting you one anyway," Kaveh said petulantly, willing Alhaitham to cooperate for once in his life. "I just want to know. Which one would you pick? What's your favourite flavour?"
"I don't—"
"What's your preferred flavour?" Kaveh interrupted, looking on almost desperately. "Under the premise that you have to pick one. Just tell me."
"Lemon," Alhaitham said, raising an eyebrow. "How is this relevant?"
Oh.
Kaveh laughed. His shoulders relaxed in delicious relief, and he felt the warmth from before fill his chest, his gut, his entire body. He was going to be with Alhaitham forever. His laughter was growing fonder by the second, and he crushed a confused Alhaitham with a fierce hug.
"You're…" he breathed. "You're desperately in love with me."
For the first time in his expressionless life, Alhaitham reacted so vigorously that Kaveh was taken aback before laughing even more, caressing Alhaitham's cheeks that had gone fully red and staring into those eyes he had painted so many times in secret. They were widened in surprise, but also so obviously dilated that Kaveh suddenly wondered why he'd never realised Alhaitham could return his feelings.
"Who told you?" Alhaitham murmured.
"The stars," Kaveh replied with a chuckle. The entire situation was completely insane, but Alhaitham was hesitantly wrapping his thick arms around him now, touch warm, and Kaveh's smile felt permanently carved onto his face. "An astrologist told me."
Alhaitham looked away shyly — an adverb usually completely inapplicable to him. "I told Layla that in strict confidence," he muttered.
Kaveh blinked at the admission. "It wasn't— Wait, who else did you tell?"
"Everyone except for you?" Alhaitham tentatively pressed his soft fingers to the gap in Kaveh's shirt, sending a crackling tingle up his spine. "May I take this physical touch and your good mood as a sign that my feelings are requited, or is this some strange form of rejection?"
"Rejection," Kaveh repeated in a huff. "As if. Alhaitham, we're soulmates. You've got me wrapped around your finger, and you have no idea."
Alhaitham opened his mouth to reply — probably with something quick-witted that would be simultaneously infuriating and oddly attractive — but Kaveh interrupted his response by pressing his lips to those ones he'd fantasised about so often. Alhaitham was kissing him back. They were at home. This was going to be home, forever. Alhaitham loved him back.
A soft hand cradled Kaveh's cheek, and Kaveh leaned into it instinctively. Archons, he was in Alhaitham's arms.
"I love you," Kaveh confessed quietly, and all that loud confidence had seemingly drained out of his voice now. Those three little words had been desperate to come out for years, and now they were right there for Alhaitham to inhale from the space between them.
And then — Alhaitham smiled. Soft, genuine, beautiful. It knocked Kaveh's breath away at once.
"And I you," he murmured, touching their foreheads together. "Now, pray tell, what do popsicles have to do with this?"