Chapter Text
As much as having a roof over his head again was sort of nice- okay, truthfully, it was a really huge burden off his shoulders- Kaveh would rather DIE than let anyone find out that he was living with Alhaitham. He would just perish. Everyone knew they were sworn enemies, it was practically common knowledge by now. The whole Akademiya was witness to their very loud and public falling out all those years ago, and it was so legendary that probably the whole of Sumeru City knew all about it too. For God's sake, his classmates still gleefully brought it up whenever they caught up over meals, especially when talk about their careers had worn thin. If they ever learned of his new living arrangements, it would only be a matter of time before his true predicament emerged- For why else would he be living with his nemesis unless he had hit rock bottom? Kaveh closed his eyes in consternation, shuddering at the consequences. Image was everything in this industry. A bankrupt designer could only mean so many things, and none of them good. A dreamer who overspent on impracticalities, an embezzler who siphoned off funds... or, horror of all horrors, a shitty architect. Kaveh might as well kiss all his years of hard work goodbye and swan dive off the top of the Divine Tree right now.
It was completely imperative that no one should even so much as suspect he live with Alhaitham. So Kaveh was careful about it, almost to the point of paranoia. He'd wake extremely early to sneak out of Alhaitham's house at the crack of dawn, linger in a public space somewhere before going to work at the appropriate hour. After work, he would be equally as careful to skip out on dinner meetings or client engagements (he did't have much money for those any more), then creep back to Alhaitham's house in the dead of night.
It was exhausting.
Alhaitham thought his behaviour was completely ridiculous, of course. He didn't say it outright, but Kaveh could tell. Unlike Kaveh, who required a healthy eight to ten hours of sleep a day in order to function, Alhaitham was very unfairly both an early bird and a night owl, so of course he had spotted Kaveh slinking in and out of the house at odd hours. His eye rolls were so epic that Kaveh was amazed he hadn't pulled anything executing them.
"Stop doing that," Kaveh snapped as he shut the door behind him, irritated about being judged one time too many. "It's not like I like doing this."
"Did I speak?" was Alhaitham's cool reply. It was punctuated with a wordless and completely maddening head tilt that somehow managed to imply that Kaveh was an absolute nincompoop.
"Stop that! Yes, that! That thing you're doing right now! God, you're infuriating! This is why I can't let anyone know I live with you!" Kaveh raged, sick and tired of skulking around cafés and shops instead of resting at home. "Everyone knows we don't get along. I can't let them know how far I've fallen-"
"I don't understand why you persist in caring about what other people think about you," Alhaitham cut him off calmly, sounding reasonable and superior and also completely psychopathic. "It hasn't brought you anything but trouble."
With that neatly dropped onto Kaveh's lap like so much unwanted baggage, Alhaitham left for his room to turn in for the night, leaving Kaveh locked in a soundless scream of fury. Of all the things to say! Not care about what other people think?! The utter arrogance of that man. He had to find a way to solve this situation- if he lived like this any longer, he was going to have an aneurysm.
***
Kaveh's determination to keep his living arrangements a secret also extended to abstaining from receiving parcels and deliveries. Or rather, he couldn't order them to Alhaitham's house because that would mean associating his name with the address, so he had to get them sent to a rented mailbox at the post office, which wasn't near Alhaitham's place at all. It rather defeated the purpose of delivery, which was a shame, because Sumeru City had an excellent delivery ecosystem now that Komaniya had come to their shores. He didn't dare complain to Alhaitham about this inconvenience mostly because Kaveh knew what he would say. But he could bemoan it to Tighnari and Cyno, two of a select group of friends he had trusted with his current situation.
"You can't take deliveries?" Cyno frowned as he pulled apart flatbread to dip in curry. "That's unfortunate. We were going to ship something over for you."
"No, don't do it- wait. What is it?" Kaveh asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
"You remember that we'll be heading to Fontaine for a diplomatic trip, right?" Tighnari said. "We're going to take some time out to explore the local TCG scene. They've just released a new line of-"
"These amazing mechanically enhanced Casket of Tomes," Cyno interrupted. "They're semi-intelligent, sync them with your deck and they'll be able to produce different sounds and effects as you play the matching cards..." He put the flatbread in his mouth and chewed dreamily, so lost in rapture that he forgot to make a bad joke.
"Fontaine is the place for such things, after all," Tighnari said, picking up where Cyno had left off. "We thought you would especially appreciate the engineering and artistry of them, so we were thinking of getting you one."
Kaveh smiled, touched at their kindness. It did sound incredible and he couldn't wait to take it apart and find out all its secrets. "Thanks, you two. Couldn't I just collect it from one of you when you both return to Sumeru?"
Tighnari shook his head, then sipped his drink thoughtfully. "They're made to order. We can't get them on the spot either. We'll have to make payment in-person at the shop at Fontaine, then have it delivered at a later date. Our Caskets will be delivered to our addresses in Sumeru as well."
"Well, there's always the rented mailbox-" Kaveh tried, but Cyno was already shaking his head.
"It's too expensive for that. Something that pricey has to be accepted in person. You'll have to sign off on the delivery receipt personally."
"We could always put it in Alhaitham's name," Tighnari suggested.
"No! I mean, I'd rather not," Kaveh said quickly. He could already picture Alhaitham's response to such a roundabout orchestration. It would be scathing. There was nothing for it, really. Since Tighnari and Cyno were nice enough to get him a gift this thoughtful, the least he could do was accept the damn delivery.
"I'll just... make an exception for it this time. Let me know the estimated delivery dates, and I'll work my schedule around it," Kaveh said. It couldn't be that hard, surely? It was just opening the door and signing off on a parcel. A quick interaction that wouldn't last more than a minute, and it wasn't like it was going to be a regular thing, so no one would notice, probably. He would just... buy more provisions and stay in on those few days, receive the Casket and then go back to his regular life.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.