Work Text:
Plip plop, he’s lost in the rain, yet the rain guides, till the lost is found. Clink clang, the keys drop in the bowl, resembling the lost soul that has finally reached its home.
“I’m back,” Kaveh steps into the warmth of the doorway. He takes off his dripping-wet jacket, thankfully it’s at least somewhat waterproof. The architect surely has to thank his roommate for gifting him this jacket, since he forgets his umbrella so often. Upon not hearing his roommate’s response, Kaveh enters the living room. That’s when he spots the flower vase on the coffee table with two sunflowers, so brightly blooming, almost like sunshine. Next to the coffee table lies his roommate, sound asleep on the couch.
The architect softly gazes at his beloved’s sleeping face, gently brushing the silver hair aside. It seems like his roommate has dozed off while reading a book. The book, still in his hands, is resting on his chest as it rises and falls.
“How many times have I told you not to sleep on the sofa without a blanket, you’re gonna catch a cold like this,” Kaveh says, with a tone so endearing that it doesn’t sound like a scolding.
Suddenly, a hand brings him closer to the one seemingly asleep, and their lips touch, the kiss soft and sweet like cotton candy.
“I didn’t mean to sleep for too long anyways, since I knew you were coming home soon.” The silver-haired opens his eyes, fondly returning the gaze.
“Whatever you say, just don’t come to me all clingy when you get sick,” Kaveh rolls his eyes as he sits down on the couch, next to his still drowsy roommate, “Where did these sunflowers come from?”
“Bought them from Tighnari, they had a sale and he insisted on me buying something to help boost his business.”
“Hmmm… I see.”
A moment of silence passes before the Alhaitham continues: “And I wanted to get them cuz they remind me of you. And he insisted on me buying them mainly cuz, apparently, you’ll be happy to hear me say this.”
Kaveh turns his head from the sunflowers back to Alhaitham, his cheeks so flushed he could fry an egg on them. “What???”
“What, are you not happy?”
“No, no I very much am! I’m just surprised you’d be able to do something so romantic.”
“If you want to categorize it as romance, then do as you please, but I simply just liked these flowers and wanted to see you happy, that’s all.”
Kaveh sighs, but the smile on his face doesn’t fade, “Alright alright.” He turns back to the sunflowers, mesmerized by their beauty. “Say, there’s a myth that sunflowers face each other when there’s no Sun, I wonder if it's actually true,” Kaveh mumbles, his eyes not leaving the flowers, which are coincidentally facing each other.
“Of course it’s not, sunflowers only face the east once they’ve matured. Otherwise, in the long absence of the Sun, they face upward.”
“Okay Mr. Realist, thanks. Of course I know it’s not true, but it’d be a nice dream,” Kaveh pouts.
“Feel free to dream on, then.”
——
It’d be a nice dream indeed.
Alhaitham dislikes rainy days. He wouldn’t say that he hates them, since he’d waste no effort holding strong animosity against a natural phenomenon, but he undeniably doesn’t favour them.
The rain swallows the streets into a gloom, darkens the day and saddens the night.
Most importantly, the rain once took Kaveh from Alhaitham.
Perhaps the rain was a bit too powerful that day, pouring with so much force that even the tallest sunflower had snapped. Or perhaps, the sunflower was already withering, too fragile to stand the force of any words.
The myth that sunflowers face each other during the absence of the Sun is, unfortunately, not true. Because I focused on what was right when you focused your gaze on me. And when I turned around, you were long gone.
Alhaitham dislikes rainy days, because it once took Kaveh from him. But deep inside, he can’t find himself to hate them, because who else would have cried for him back then, when even the last of his loved ones had left?
——
The rain doesn’t seem to stop anytime soon. Alhaitham drops his keys in the bowl, with his nicely wrapped sunflowers in hand.
“One more hour till Kaveh gets home.” He looks up at the clock in the living room.
Dragging himself to the couch, the silver-haired man puts the flowers in the decorative vase on the coffee table.
The sunflowers glow the yellow of a mid-summer Sun. Alhaitham gently brushes the petals of his new treasures. He is no less of a knowledgeable man, hence recognizing that these flowers are bound to wither one day, no matter how beautifully they bloom at this moment. Yet he hopes for that day to never come, wishing for history to never repeat its course. And he prays, that the rain will never take the Sun from the flowers again.
“I guess it's a needless fear, for here inhabits someone much more dazzling than the Sun.”
——
“I gotta say these sunflowers are beautiful. Nari has good eyes,” Kaveh says, still fixating on the flowers, while Alhaitham returns to his book.
“He does indeed, for the seeds at least. I was the one who picked the flowers.”
“Pfft, okay okay my bad.” Kaveh smiles at the remark, before turning his attention to his lover.
“So where’s my ‘thank you’?” Alhaitham looks up from his book immediately, after noticing his beloved’s smile in his peripheral vision.
“Hmm. Well, I guess… Thank you,” Kaveh leans in for a warm embrace.
“And that’s the gratitude for one of the flowers. I bought two, just to remind you,” Allhaitham returns the embrace.
“Gosh, okay Haitham. Thank you thank you thank you. There!”
“Now don’t expect me to get two more.”
“Of course not, I didn’t even expect you to get any in the first place,” Kaveh grunts. “But thank you, for the flowers, and… for everything else,” he adds softly.
“You are very welcome,” Alhaitham returns a smile full of tenderness.
The two are lost in each other’s eyes, not noticing that the rain has long stopped and that they are engulfed, in the oh-so-ravishing afterglow of the Sun.
——
If I were the flower, you’d be my leaves, you’d be my stem. And with you, I can endure even the most torrential rain.