Chapter Text
Alhaitham awoke one morning to find a strange transformation taking place.
His back ached worse than it ever had before, even moving his shoulders so he could push himself out of bed became an almost impossible task. Not even his most strenuous workouts had caused such pain, and he frequently trained the muscles in his upper back and shoulders.
This pain was caused by something different.
Alhaitham made the difficult walk to the living room, hoping that Kaveh hasn’t left the house yet. Typically, Alhaitham’s noisy and reckless roommate woke up before the scribe did, whether it be because he had an early meeting or appointment, or because he didn’t sleep the previous night. Judging by the deep rings under his eyes as he cursed at the burning egg in the frying pan, Alhaitham guessed it was the latter.
“Surprised to see you awake at this hour,” Kaveh scoffed as he rubbed his eyes, frustrated, “Thought you didn’t have work today?”
“Something else woke me up.” Alhaitham replied sharply.
Kaveh whipped his head around, his eyebrows furrowed in anger and irritation. An expression that Alhaitham saw on his face regularly. “And just what is that supposed to mean?!” He shouted. Alhaitham never could understand how one person could produce so much noise.
“Calm down. I’m not talking about you.” He watched as Kaveh huffed before turning his attention back to breakfast, “There’s something wrong with my back,”
“Now you get why I’m so pissed when I wake up in the morning!” Kaveh said, “What, did you fall asleep sitting up again? I thought I told you to stop doing that, it will ruin your spine!”
“You’re one to talk about ruining your spine, how many times have I caught you hunched over your desk in an unnatural position?” Alhaitham crossed his arms, but the sudden movement made a wince escape his mouth. The sharp, stabbing pain grew in intensity by the minute, it seemed.
Kaveh turned to him just to scowl again, but then his face softened slightly when he saw the micro-expression of pain on Alhaitham’s face. “Let me finish cooking, then I’ll go get the pain medication I take for my back. It should help you.”
Alhaitham nodded at the plan, before slowly sitting down at the table. Kaveh had planned to cook for two anyway, since he was frequently the first to arise every morning he would always take the liberty of cooking and brewing coffee. The only times he didn’t were if he was really angry at Alhaitham, which happened on a near weekly basis, or if he was in such a rush that he didn’t cook at all. Another frequent occurrence in the shared house was Alhaitham practically throwing a meal at the architect, who would get so engrossed in his projects and problems that he’d go hours without eating at all.
Alhaitham doesn’t know how Kaveh survived living alone for so long.
Then again, Alhaitham doesn’t know how he managed to live alone for so many years. The idea of this house belonging to one person again filled his heart with dread. Since the Akasha Terminal’s shutdown allowed the adults of Sumeru to dream, Alhaitham has been having almost nightly dreams of waking up to find Kaveh gone for good. He hoped that out of all his dreams, that one would never come true.
Of course, he never told Kaveh this.
Kaveh sat the plate down and had Mehrak fetch the far-too familiar bottle of medication from the bathroom cabinet for Alhaitham, remembering to grab one of the blue pills for himself so he could take it with his coffee.
Breakfast went on without a further disturbance, Kaveh ranting and raving about his newest design schematic, which he managed to complete just before its deadline. Alhaitham listened in silence, only offering the occasional comment. Light from the stained glass windows shone down on Kaveh in gentle streams. Alhaitham has been fascinated of light and mirrors for as long as he can remember. Although his memories from before the Akademiya—before meeting Kaveh—were a blur, he can clearly remember his grandmother encouraging him to pursue his fascination and turn it into passion. Alhaitham was the moth drawn to Kaveh’s flame, and for the rest of the morning, couldn’t keep his eyes off Kaveh’s light. Alhaitham thought that if he ever got to see Celestia, it would shine in the same way Kaveh did.
If only he was brave enough to tell Kaveh that.
Kaveh sat on the opposite divan and continued his conversation, unaware of the fact that Alhaitham had stopped paying attention to the details a long time ago.
“…and that client really thought he could just take out the load-bearing wall! I advised him heavily against it, but he insisted on knowing better! Well, you’ll never guess what happened,” Kaveh’s voice was laced with heavy sarcasm, “So I’m getting commissioned to rebuild his entire kitchen and upstairs, and he’s even paying me extra! Ha! When this whole thing is finished I should have enough Mora to set aside a good amount in my savings, and some extra for a little shopping! I’ve been eyeing these new architectural design books from Inazuma…”
Alhaitham listened, albeit not intently, as he watched the way Kaveh lit up when he got passionate about his subject. Alhaitham carefully leaned forward to grab his mug of coffee, most of it already gone. Kaveh’s remained practically full. He only refocused himself when Kaveh called out his name.
“Alhaitham! Are you even listening to me?! Turn that damn music down!” Kaveh snapped with irritation, but his face looked more concerned than anything.
“I’m not even listening to music,” Alhaitham replied, “What is it?”
“There’s…blood on the divan.”
“What?”
“Turn around.”
Alhaitham turned his head, although the sudden movement caused a bolt of pain to sear down his back and up his neck. Right where he had rested his back against the divan were two decent sized red splotches, clearly fresh. When he turned, he could hear Kaveh comment that the back of his shirt was darkened with blood.
Back pain was a little unusual, but in his profession and with his habit of sleeping in strange spots, it wasn’t anything to concern himself over.
Blood and back pain was a cause for alarm, though.
Kaveh got Mehrak to fetch a few wet cloths while he assisted Alhaitham
in walking to the bathroom. When the scribe finally managed to pull his tight top off, he discovered two gashes deep in his shoulder blades. It almost looked like it had been made by a surgeon. They were clean cut and precise, and Alhaitham had no clue how they got there.
“That…wasn’t there when I got dressed this morning.” Alhaitham muttered as Kaveh took a step back, his eyes full of confusion and concern.
“W-What happened?” Kaveh exclaimed as he took the wet rag from Mehrak to clean the wounds.
“If I knew what happened we wouldn’t be sitting here, would we?” Alhaitham said, glaring at Kaveh through the mirror hung above the sink. Kaveh scowled deeply, and for a second Alhaitham saw something glitch in the mirror.
Alhaitham only saw it briefly, but there was no denying what he saw: a second set of eyes, a bloody crimson red, hovering near Kaveh’s head. As soon as he realized what they were, they were gone, and Kaveh continued with his speech about how much of a selfish, ungrateful man Alhaitham is.
Seemingly, he didn’t notice the extra eyes.
Alhaitham couldn’t tell if the horror was because there were eyes in the mirror, or because he recognized them. From where or from who, he didn’t know, but their gaze felt so deeply familiar it send a shiver down his spine.
Kaveh shook his head, reaching for gauze that Mehrak had carried from the first aid kit at Kaveh’s command.
“I’m going out and getting Tighnari to come and take a look!” Kaveh said, worry flashing over his face as he paced around the bathroom, “You go lay down, I don’t want anything to get worse while I’m gone.”
For once, Alhaitham chose not to argue as a dull ache crept across his back muscles. The aching felt like it went all the way down to his bones as he made his way back to the divan, which Kaveh mentioned he’ll clean later. The door shut behind the architect as he and Mehrak embarked for Ghandarva Ville, while Alhaitham laid face down and wished he had a book to keep his mind occupied.
Distracting oneself from something troubling was typically how Kaveh coped with his problems, however Alhaitham found himself borrowing some of Kaveh’s methods as he tried not to think about his predicament.
He most especially tried not to think about last night’s dream.
All morning, Alhaitham avoided thinking about it by focusing his mind on the pain, followed by allowing himself to be distracted by Kaveh.
Now he’s alone, with the pain coming in sharp piercing waves, and his mind can drift off to thinking about the dream.
Dream isn’t an accurate description of what he saw. Neither was nightmare or night terror. Alhaitham, ever the linguist, flipped through every variation and synonym for “dream” in his mind like he still had an Akasha Terminal to access.
The closest word was “memory.”
Adjusting to dreaming, after having lost the ability to when he grew up due to accepting the Akasha, was a rough transition for Alhaitham. He wasn’t used to having a mind controlled not by logic and language, but rather by emotion and the subconscious. Every new dream he experienced contained bits and pieces of his deepest desires, wants, and griefs. He wasn’t used to this confrontation of emotion, and thus grew to dread what pictures he would see when he closed his eyes at night. Kaveh, too, experienced awful dreams. Unlike Alhaitham, however, Kaveh experienced gripping night terrors, and frequently Alhaitham would be dragged from his awful dream to the sounds of Kaveh in the next room being awoken from his own. Kaveh shared many things with Alhaitham that no one else ever would get to know, but those night terrors were one thing Kaveh stayed silent on.
Alhaitham felt a bit lucky that he didn’t experience such vividly terrible nightmares, but last night seemingly saw his luck run dry.
This dream was more vivid than anything he’s experienced before, yet it was coated in a haze that prevented Alhaitham from really seeing what was going on.
As he lay motionless on the divan, he recalled as much of the dream as he could.
Alhaitham opened his eyes to a rainforest more vast and lush than anywhere he’s been before. He stared up at the sky, and took notice of a peculiarity.
Three moons hung far above his head.
But before he could think on this strange spectacle, a voice called out his name.
“Alhaitham!” The tone felt familiar, but the actual voice was distorted beyond recognition. The person it belonged to stepped into his line of sight, but they weren’t much clearer. Their face obscured by blinding light, no matter what angle Alhaitham tried to see them through, and any defining feature was washed out by the same thick haze that tinted the rest of the dream. They seemed young, younger than Alhaitham currently was.
Although, upon further inspection, in this dream Alhaitham seemed to have been younger, too.
“There you are! Your grandmother sent me looking for you, she wanted to know when you’ll be coming home.”
Home?
The word felt warm in his chest. Home. Home included his grandmother, his parents, and although he’d rather die than say it out loud, home included Kaveh now, too.
Alhaitham wanted to go home.
He stood up from his spot and followed the figure out of this garden. More details became clear to his eyes. Beautiful wings stuck out on their exposed back, feathers of rich blues and greens. Alhaitham felt like these feathers were familiar. He reached out, impulsively, and plucked one.
“Hey! If you wanted one of my feathers you could have asked!”
Alhaitham didn’t reply. His body felt like it wasn’t under his control, like he was watching as something else piloted his hand. The plucked feather got tucked behind a loose, thick strand of hair, causing the other person to stammer and become flustered. Alhaitham noticed a crown on their head, of glowing white fire.
Not a crown, he realized upon closer inspection.
A halo.
Suddenly, the figure leaned forward and kissed his cheek.
“I hope we stay together, forever.” That familiar, but distorted, voice whispered in his ear. Despite the inherent uncanniness of the distortion, warmth spread through Alhaitham’s chest at the thought.
Together forever.
Together forever. Alhaitham wanted desperately to reach out to that figure, wanted to ask them who they were. Alhaitham’s dreams of love weren’t all that uncommon, and every single one of those contained Kaveh. He’s never even thought of loving anyone else.
That figure couldn’t have been Kaveh.
So, who made this promise to him?