Chapter Text
_____
Alhaitham had woken up with a groan. The air was too humid, it was FAR too hot, and the lack of birds chirping only made it all the more weird than usual. Glancing out the window of his room, he’s reminded of the current time due to the sun barely even peeking out of the horizon.
It was too early for him to be awake right now. Was it too late to cancel?
Feeling like a sumpter beast had run over him the day prior, he reluctantly got off the bed and grabbed his earpieces on the bedside drawer, leaving his room with a metaphorical raincloud over his head.
Kaveh had noticed this, seeing as he raised an eyebrow upon Alhaitham’s arrival. Alhaitham, desperately wanting to go back into the comfort of his bed, heavily sighed on what felt like the nth time upon waking up, all the while sitting in his usual spot at the dining table with a grumble.
Kaveh is the current Scribe of The Akademiya, previously also their librarian. Due to circumstances, he would have to be staying in Alhaitham’s home with the weight of almost being banished until things get better for Kaveh in the long run.
He won’t go into detail about why Kaveh had turned into a borderline criminal, but Azar hasn't been kind to him and doing anything risky against him would put Kaveh in danger again and Alhaitham wasn't too keen on that idea.
But alas, that's a story for another day.
“You're up early. What's the occasion?”
Kaveh, loud, often drunk, and far too self-deprecating for his own good, looked far too energized at this time of the morning.
“Work.”
“Uh-huh. Anything else? You're usually very strict about your schedules.”
Alhaitham is a well-known architect in his field and is known to be very precise to a T. You’d never see him arriving a minute earlier in their supposed meetup, would always be seen sending drafts on the exact deadline, being next to uncontactable outside of meetings, and usually having gotten a design approved within the first five tries, which— to be fair, was already a feat in itself, actually.
Because of these facts and word spreading around quite fast in Sumeru, he'd quickly earned the title ‘Master of Kshahrewar’ due to his uncanny abilities of being able to create a design exactly what a client wants and somehow make it better.
… Save for his other title, ‘Lunatic of Kshahrewar’ because he'd turned down many projects that would be more beneficial to him in exchange for building more homes and libraries in the desert when, really, how could you turn down millions of mora for a bunch of charities?
Alhaitham had remained radio silent towards every single word uttered towards him. After all, it was more beneficial for Sumeru to give to the ones the Akademiya forgotten rather than a few mansions for the rich, no?
There was also the fact that several people didn’t like his attitude because he’d “turned down their commission after invoicing” and feared him. He really couldn’t care any less about that, though.
Alhaitham groans and further digs his hands into his forehead, already feeling like going back into his bedroom and locking himself in there for the entire day. Everything around him was louder than usual and it only made his growing headache worse.
“The Akademiya assigned me a project that would improve relations between Liyue and Sumeru regarding trade and transportation. They’re making me design several bridges and hotels to further expand tourism and transit from both nations.” And every time he thinks about the amount of blueprints he needs to submit by the following month, he proceeds to think about how and why he got into this position… Let alone why he took this job in the first place.
Alhaitham takes a sip of his coffee.
It’s made exactly just how he likes it.
Kaveh, his admittedly wonderful and kindhearted roommate, looks at him with a worried glance. A feat that has been happening more frequently as of late. “Seriously, what’s with you getting all these large projects? You need to get a break eventually.”
Alhaitham could only sigh. “Trust me, I was about to.” and he was serious about it. He really had been planning on taking a week or maybe three off due to his wrist starting to tingle uncomfortably. Thankfully, he still had a lot of mora left on his person– enough that he wouldn’t have to think of taking on projects for the next month or so… Until the Akademiya approached him.
Now he's stuck with more projects than he can count on his fingers, and he's never felt so tired until now.
“... Well, it's just a few boxes and arcs you'll have to make. It couldn't be that hard, right?”
Now that’s when Alhaitham had finally looked up from his food just to raise an eyebrow at the man before him. He knew full well that the scribe was bluffing.
Kaveh, having never gone into Kshahrewar and knowing how painful architecture could be, wasn't really the type of person to go into the idea of having to go into the specifics of equations just to create a perfect door. He’d most likely rather read through 50 dictionaries of different languages and speak each word out loud with a perfect accent than so much as touch anywhere near the Pythagorean Theorem… Which makes him come to the conclusion that he said that to try and rile him up.
It’s not working.
And frankly, he’s too tired to be able to delve into this conversation any further.
Which is why he opts to continue staring at him with a deadpan expression.
“Maybe one day I'll steal your job and become an architect myself!” Kaveh ended off with a chuckle, picking up the used dishes and placing them in the sink.
Alhaitham stared at him in silence, gaze filled with scrutiny as he looked Kaveh up and down and then looked away. “Sure, I’d like to see you try.”
In another world, maybe.
“Anyways, I'm off.” Alhaitham moved up from his seat towards the bathroom, already having accepted the reality that he has actual work to do and how the more reasonable part of his brain tells him to not be late today.
He's still a bit annoyed, though.
“Don't forget to put your clothes in the hamper!” Was what he heard before he had closed the bathroom door.
___
Alhaitham wanted to go home.
His employer was severely under qualified for this sort of job.
“I’m just saying, Sumeru would highly appreciate it if you built this bridge right on top of the rooftop!! It would be a structural endeavor and tourists would be interested in seeing something outlandishly artistic like this!”
How has he managed to keep his job for so long? Better yet, who even hired this guy?
An hour attributed to listening to this random guy’s rambles and nonsensical ideas that would surely kill several people due to the lack of knowledge this man has, he’s been stuck in this specific area, forced to intake each piece of information and swallow it against his will.
It’s worse when their conversations have only been going in circles. Delavar, his employer, had been asking things an architect AND an engineer would scream in fear at the mere thought of.
So imagine what Alhaitham feels when he hears him ask for more doors than one needs, using the thin type of marble for the exterior that could easily crumble with too much weight, lesser girders to cut costs, too many reflective windows that would surely cook citizens alive, and more ideas he didn't even want to think about, lest his braincells take a hit to it.
Feeling like a headache was already about to come in at each word uttered by this man, he massaged the bridge of his nose, already regretting his life choices. “Delavar, If I may have a word, I don’t think that’s possible, we’re not building a museum over here. Besides, where would the bridge even lead to?”
Delavar looked like he was about to say something, but Alhaitham immediately cut him off. “Okay. Let’s say that it’s already implemented– the resources used would only be wasted, and seeing as we’re on a budget here, it'd be complicated to split the remaining materials we have at our disposal for the other projects. The Akademiya won't just willingly give us more mora just for a few decorations.”
Did he really have to explain everything in detail? If he spent one more minute talking to this idiot then he would surely drop the project all together, politics be damned.
But, despite his dumbed down explanations, Delavar still continues on. “Surely it’d fit the budget if you cut material costs, no? For example, removing a few support beams here…”
… He’s really trying to keep himself in check here, he is. But–
“Akim, what are you doing?!”
An elderly man, looking like he’d been teetering on to the age of 50, had run towards them with a terrified expression written all over his face.
“Dad?! But you were supposed to be asleep until later–!”
“I was, until my assistant woke me up and told me that my meeting was suddenly rescheduled without their knowledge!”
What.
Akim looked just about as guilty as a kid who’d been caught shoplifting. “Look, dad, I had to– there are barely any chances for me to be able to share my ideas!!!”
“I understand your ideals, son. But you can’t just do that by sabotaging my job!”
So he had to listen to all that nonsense and wake up earlier than needed because of this???
The old man heavily sighs and points towards the direction he came from, refusing to look at his son any longer. “Just- Just go back home. We’ll talk about this later.”
The guy, apparently named Akim and not Delavar, had glanced at both Alhaitham then Delavar before walking away with a resigned look on his face. The actual Delavar turns to Alhaitham with regret written all over his face, and bowed down so deep he’d almost think he would’ve fell down the floor, had he taken one more step.
“I’m so sorry for all the trouble he’s caused– I never would have thought he’d do something as drastic as this!” Delavar sputtered. “I’ve just returned from Inazuma yesterday and have been struggling with the boat fever so I hadn't gotten the chance to properly watch over him!”
That metaphorical rain cloud from earlier had returned again and it started thundering. Voices of lament and annoyance started swirling in his head at the sheer audacity of how much of his time had been wasted. He could’ve been using the hour he was awake to rest underneath his covers after a tiring week but no, it was spent on this.
And despite it all, he still continued on with a straight face.
“... It’s fine. Keep your kid in check next time.”
___
It went smoothly after that. Everything was settled in a timely manner which made them end their meeting early(Thank god), but not without profuse apologies from Delavar to which Alhaitham had merely nodded to.
He still had around three more meetings today, but they were all scheduled on the later part of the day which meant that he still had time to rest.
Alhaitham opened the door to his and Kaveh’s shared house and was not surprised by the lack of life. Kaveh was supposed to be working at the Akademiya right now, after all.
Which unfortunately means that he couldn’t bug him today.
Entering the barren home, he’d walk towards the nearby drawer to put his keys on their designated place until-
“Ah.”
Kaveh had left his keys again.
A small huff of amusement left his lips. This would be enough of an excuse to see him today, no? Better to return it now than having to wake up later at Kaveh banging on the front door and waking the entire neighborhood up.
The walk from home to the Akademiya was short, which was very convenient at times, seeing as he had been making far too many trips delivering his keys to Kaveh ever since he first moved in.
Right before Kaveh became the scribe of the Akademiya, he had almost never walked the path due to it being a private constitution filled with students. So, on the off times that he were to go there, it was usually for Akademiya related projects or awarding ceremonies that he’d been forced to participate in.
Which is why when the two large doors open before him, he’s greeted with the all-too-familiar fountain that has always been there ever since his younger days.
Back when he could still say that he had someone to call a friend and not feel the dull ache settling deep within his chest.
He always finds himself lamenting on past events on days like these, never failing to stare at that specific spot that their falling out had transpired.
But that was in the past and there is no logical reason for him to be upset now seeing as that had happened years ago and he has a key to deliver to someone. So with a practiced mindset, he pushes down those ugly thoughts and continues on to the office he’s grown to memorize the directions to over the past year.
___
Upon Alhaitham’s arrival in the office, Kaveh had let out a long sigh the moment he laid eyes on the architect. “... I left my keys at the house again, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did.” Alhaitham walked towards the desk, waving the key around in the air. “Having mastered more than twenty languages, one would think that you’d be able to remember to bring your keys with you everytime you leave the house.”
“Just– don’t start. We all know that there’s a difference between wanting to remember something and muscle memory..!” Kaveh had defended, not expecting the man’s sudden appearance and figuratively tripping all over himself.
“But for an entire year already? I’m starting to think you’re actually looking forward to me visiting you here in your office every now and then.” Alhaitham placed the keys on the desk and shot Kaveh a look.
“Wha- no, no I do not!” Kaveh crossed his arms. “Please, I’ve already had enough of your comments about my life and having this conversation here in what was supposed to be my alone time is already ruining my day!”
“This wouldn’t have happened if you’d just brought your key with you, but here we are.”
“You..! I know that! It’s just– I can’t help it sometimes, okay?? Archons know I got a bit sidetracked with the reading earlier and didn’t notice the time...”
Alhaitham stared at Kaveh with a deadpan expression. “You should stop reading those books of yours and focus more on the reality at hand, no? Staying in those fantasies of yours won’t do you any good. Might I remind you of your current situation about almost getting banished and that library of yours you’d have to rebuild?”
“I know that, okay?! You don’t have to remind me every time you get the chance to!” Kaveh uttered with tiredness written all over his face. Alhaitham had been VERY generous at reminding Kaveh's current situation and it's already gotten tiring hearing the same thing again.
“I’m just making sure that you know what you’re doing.” Alhaitham scoffed, taking a step back.
Had he gone too far again?
“Ugh! No respect for your seniors at all.” Kaveh seethed, looking as if he was about to lunge at Alhaitham in anger… Until he sagged on his chair and sighed, looking away.
Alhaitham, ever the pro at social cues, took that as a sign to leave and turned his noise cancelling headphones on, already having stepped away in turn to leave until he saw Kaveh’s lips moving out of the corner of his eye.
“-... busy schedule just to personally deliver these to me, though.” Kaveh was staring at the floor, looking quite bashful.
A shame that he didn't get to hear what he'd said, though.
“What? Could you repeat that again? I didn’t hear you.” Alhaitham pressed a few buttons on his headphones to reduce the noise cancelling. He hadn't catched the first part of the sentence Kaveh had said earlier.
“I said thank you because– hey. You’re doing this just on purpose, are you?!”
Alhaitham huffed, unable to suppress the smug grin on his face and pointed towards his headphones. “No, I just didn’t hear you because my noise-cancelling headphones were already at the max.” He'd already pieced the sentence together entirely anyways.
It was truly just a shame that he hadn’t properly heard his voice while saying that.
Whether it be in the middle of rush hour, or when it's gotten so dark that only the stars littered the sky above their quaint home, he'd gladly deliver Kaveh's keys to their designated owner at whatever time of the day.
… Except on some days, when he's feeling a bit bored and tired– seeing Kaveh standing like an overgrown puppy in front of the door was, admittedly, a very funny and endearing sight.
“You-! Just— nevermind.” Kaveh stared at Alhaitham, seeming to be in deep thought before standing up and walking around his desk.
“... My break will be in a few minutes. Want to go out and eat somewhere for a bit?”
Alhaitham hummed and pretended to think about it when he knew in his heart what the answer would always be towards the man before him.
“Sure.”
+++
They’d easily settled on Puspa cafe. On days where neither of them were feeling about getting drunk or cooking, they would go out and eat together in silence as neither of them had much to talk about.
Especially Alhaitham, as he wasn’t really the type to do small talk.
But today, Kaveh had been feeling more energetic than usual and had spent the entirety of his time stuck in his office, so he’d been really missing to have some human contact outside of work for once.
Plus, he forgot to bring the book he was reading with him so he was stuck with his endless thoughts.
There's another person in front of him so naturally, it'd be nice to get to talk to him! He'll try to spark up some sort of conversation while Alhaitham was reading because that’d be a good idea, totally!
“Hey, I just wanted to ask. Why are your…” Kaveh coughs into his hand and gestures towards Alhaitham's... Chest. “They're always out– could you at least wear a scarf or something?”
Kaveh did not know why he started with that as a conversation starter.
And frankly, he wanted to climb the Akademiya and jump off at the nearest ledge. But it was a very important thing to bring up, nonetheless!
Alhaitham slowly looked up from his book to stare at Kaveh for a moment. Dragging on the awkward silence(on Kaveh's opinion) before finally responding with his usual tone of condescension(Again, on Kaveh's opinion)
“You never had a problem with it before. Why speak up about it now?”
Kaveh sputtered, immediately recovering from his earlier meltdown. “It’s just– You’re in the Akademiya! There’s students here, you know!”
Alhaitham raised an eyebrow and closed the book he was reading. “What about it?”
“Wha- What do you mean ‘What about it’??? Your pectorals could literally be seen after a particularly strong wind! There are students here who do NOT want to see that!” Kaveh argued, growing more and more flustered at every word he spoke because the more they went into this conversation, the more he found himself taking small glances towards Alhaitham’s chest and was immediately met with his own horror at doing such a thing.
He swore to every archon ever since he'd first look at him properly after that day in the tavern that he would do everything he could to not accidentally look at Alhaitham’s chest because oh my god he would feel so filthy if he did.
Okay. Maybe he felt a tad bit irked when he saw people staring at Alhaitham’s chest with absolutely no shame from time to time but hey, that’s only normal to want to hide your roommate-totally-not-friend from everyone after that, right? Right???
But no, Alhaitham just HAD to continue talking.
“There are mahamatras out there who have their torsos out on full display and would be actively roaming these halls as we speak. By your logic, the students who share said thoughts as you would have already filed a complaint to the Akademiya’s matra and have fully abolished that freedom ages ago,”
Okay, fair.
He couldn’t even retaliate and it sucked ass.
But what sucked even more is that most of the people that he’d caught staring were always either grinning or looking at him with the bedroom eyes and he was starting to get tired! Sick! Annoyed, even!
Alhaitham, unknowing of Kaveh’s current state of mind, nonchalantly took a sip out of his water and continued. “Plus, I could care less about what these ‘children’ think of me. We live in a warm country and I’m just doing what it takes to survive this heat during the summer.”
“Okay, first of all, you wear that even DURING December when it’s the coldest time of the year– and they’re not children! They’re full grown adults-”
“-- Which just further proves my point. They’re grown up. They’ll be fine.”
… Kaveh was NOT jealous. He was not. Because that would admit that he had feelings towards this guy of all people.
Kaveh groans. Digging himself further into the chair he sat in. “You’re horrible to talk to, you know that?”
“You invited me.”
“Yeah, well I regret it!” Kaveh declared, leaning backwards into his seat with his arms crossed… Before leaning over the table and looking at the menu that Alhaitham had picked up during their banter. “What’re you ordering anyway?”
“Kofta. You?” Alhaitham then placed the menu down in favour of his book because of course the guy would be reading about trigonometry during his free time of all things.
“Fatteh and wine. I am not looking forward to the things I’ll have to do later.”
“Go change jobs, then.”
“You know full well that I can’t do that right now!”
Alhaitham had briefly looked up at his book just to look at Kaveh. “Sad.” Before continuing back to his book. That bastard.
“... Why do I even put up with you?”
Alhaitham had not said a word further, meaning that the conversation was over.
They sat there in silence… Which felt like a while, because Kaveh was already getting restless without doing anything, so he plays with his sleeves until the food arrived– to which he sighed in relief when it did.
They ate without uttering a word to each other as usual, simply basking in each other’s presence for the entirety of their meal until they were both fully satiated.
And it had been that. After eating, they’d stayed at their table for a few more moments, doing their own thing as an excuse to stay around the other more– but work cut it out for the both of them, and they only had so much until both of their breaks were over.
With the same sense of routine from the both of them, they'd finally left the cafe and went their separate ways with a brief “See you later.” from Kaveh and a “See ya” from Alhaitham, knowing full well that they'd see each other again by the end of the day.
And as usual, none of them had chosen to speak up on their domesticity.
+++
Kaveh sat back down at his desk with a sigh. After doing the same job stuck behind a desk doing the same thing over and over, he’d had to admit it had gotten boring pretty quickly.
But on the days when he had been personally asked by Azar to do some dirty work for him, he’d found himself wishing that he had been behind the desk instead.
If his mother were to look at him right now, he was certain that she would be looking at him with deep disappointment. Just imagining it already made Kaveh feel horrible– he wouldn’t know what he would do with himself if he saw that expression on her face.
She can’t know what he’s been doing.
Not anyone.
Not even Alhaitham.
With a deep sigh, Kaveh musters up the energy to finally start working– but upon looking at his desk, he finds a multi-paged note sitting silently staring back at him.
A pang of fear overtakes him for a short moment before coming across the first few words:
‘Dear Mister Scribe Kaveh!’
Azar wouldn’t usually address him with that much familiarity, so the fear had died down as quickly as it came, and he sighed in relief.
Picking up the letter with a newfound vigor, he’d read it carefully.
Kaveh had read through the entire thing with a dumb grin on his face.
He lifted the note up and saw all the different signatures of familiar names that littered the paper in a neat manner, and it’d been the same with every other page until the very end. It brought him happiness to know that he was still wanted despite his short presence there.
That was one of the things he’d missed during his time as a librarian. He’d usually be seen talking to students around the House of Daena and Jamal had been one of them. Given that he’s been talking to so many students he’d already forgotten what some of them looked like.
Although, there are times when he’d been strolling about outside when the students who had already graduated who still knew him would call out to him and strike up a conversation every now and then.
But of course, regarding the ones around campus, he still sees a few of them from time to time, usually when he’s either about to leave or go straight into his office, but they’d never gotten so far into their interactions for more than a few “Hello!” and “How have you been doing?”
He’d always feel guilty for always ending it on a shorter note though.
He should try to hang out with them again sometime.
+++
“Finally,”
Kaveh entered the house only to come across Alhaitham laying on the divan with his arm splayed over his eyes.
“Damn, did you get run over by a sumpter beast or something?” Kaveh had taken his shoes off and immediately walked over to Alhaitham in a barely concealed concern. Kaveh pressed the back of his palm over the Architect’s forehead and thankfully didn’t feel a fever on him.
He’d never seen Alhaitham laying on the divan that much. The man would always retreat back to his bedroom right after a particularly tiring day, as his bed was more comfier on the divan and it’d been a few steps away from the living room.
But whenever it happened, it usually never meant anything good.
“All of my clients today were being difficult. ” Alhaitham uttered, tiredness ringing heavily in his voice.
Kaveh had seen Alhaitham deal with difficult clients before.
Usually, when it came to projects he couldn’t have an agreement on– he’d drop it right on the spot and leave without another word. But due to his current project that’s directly related to the Akademiya, he’s practically shackled down and forced to bend down to their whims.
Kaveh sighed. “Yeesh, it must’ve been bad to make you react like this. Do you want a glass of water? I’ll bring in some aspirin for you as well.”
“Yes, please.”
It’d been bad enough to see him lying so deadly on the couch, but to see Alhaitham say ‘please’ of all things had scratched Kaveh in all of his uncomfortable places to even fully appreciate it for once. It did not feel right at all to hear Alhaitham utter that sense of respect towards him.
Last time he’d heard this was when they were still…
Kaveh snapped out of it.
Despite Kaveh’s previous crisis, he’d decided to forgo the teasing so as to not make Alhaitham’s headache worse and immediately walked into the kitchen to fetch what he’d needed without a word.
“Do you want something to snack on? We’ve still got some leftovers from the other day in the fridge.”
“... Yeah, sure.”
Kaveh hummed in acknowledgement, worry filling his whole body as he took the leftovers and heated them up, bringing the aforementioned items and placing them on the coffee table right beside Alhaitham who’d been watching Kaveh the entire time.
“Thank you.” He’d utter, looking up at Kaveh with an expression of far too much fondness that it had pressed multiple needles further into his already bleeding heart.
Alhaitham was too dreary to make proper sense of himself. Alhaitham hadn’t truly meant to do anything like that because he’s too weak to currently care about anything else and it would take more energy to outrightly express anger towards him, right?
Yeah, that would make more sense.
Kaveh wouldn’t deserve it.
“It was nothing,” He whispered, staring at Alhaitham who was nursing his drink– and Kaveh fearfully found himself longing with want. There were so many things he’d wished for, but whenever he did, it would always somehow end badly.
During their Akademiya days, migraines were nothing new to the both of them. But sure enough, they’d always spend the entirety of their episodes always close within the other’s presence due to the comfort it brought to them.
Now, however…
“You should go to your own bedroom and get some rest. You’re not going to get any better if you just stay here in the living room laying on the divan.” Kaveh had said, refusing to look at Alhaitham– the guilt starting to settle deep within himself.
Alhaitham had only looked up from his glass to briefly glance at Kaveh, at the room, then back at him, before letting out a sigh and begrudgingly standing up.
“I was already planning to.” Alhaitham said with a cold voice, before walking over to his room’s door and closing it quietly behind him.
Kaveh was left there in the living room, his chest feeling heavier than it ever has.
He couldn't burden Alhaitham more than he already has. Giving him the option to live in his house after his whole world had just burned down before him, what else could Alhaitham be feeling as he looked at him in that tavern other than pity?
Gone were the days of comfort and laughter, the time spent together solely just for the prospect of simply wanting to. How could he, when Kaveh had been the one to ruin it all?
There was no room for Kaveh and Alhaitham, not anymore.
One day, Kaveh will be gone from this world and Alhaitham won't even remember a single thing about him. They’re only two people who had the coincidence of having a past together, after all.
Because that’s what they are, and ever will be.