Forgive me for each halting line

Ⅶ

Something is off that morning.

Actually, things have been off for a few days now—specifically with Alhaitham. He'd show up for breakfast, snatch something from the table and promptly leave again. He has even canceled their previously daily art sessions, excused by him having 'no time', only for Kaveh to find him a bit later, holed up in the library with a faint scowl.

But something is particularly off this morning.

By this time Alhaitham would've already been knocking on Kaveh's door, asking him what was taking him so long, and how they had to be at the breakfast table fifteen minutes ago. But now, when Kaveh was quite sure it was already terribly late, nothing but silence greets him from behind the door that separated the two of them. Kaveh never heard him leave—or do anything, for that matter. He must still be in his room.

Maybe he just slept in?

After getting changed and ready for the day, Kaveh walks up to the door joining their rooms together and raps his knuckles against the ornate wood. "Alhaitham?"

Silence.

After counting to ten in his head, Kaveh knocks again. Once more he is met with silence, but he thinks he hears something akin to what he guesses to rustling sheets, further backing up the hypothesis that Alhaitham was still in bed. But still, no answer.

Oh well. Kaveh figures he'll just wake Alhaitham up and make sure he's alright before he makes his way to the dining room. He's sure Alhaitham's grandmother is already waiting for the two of them.

"I still need to use your door to leave—" He's barely opened the door a crack and he can already smell it, thick and heavy in the air. The unmistakable scent of an Alpha in a rut.

Well, that explains the recent mood changes.

Something primal inside Kaveh stirs at the sweet scent of the Alpha, and he suppresses the shudder that creeps up on him. How could he have been so blind to this particular possibility?

"Alhaitham, are you alright?" It's only then that he dares peek through the slight crack of the door. Predictably, he finds the Alpha lying in bed, face-down, covered by nothing but a sheet that's half-haphazardly draped over his waist. Kaveh tries not to stare, and he tries not to breathe in too deeply through his nose.

Is this what Alhaitham had felt during his heat?

Alhaitham turned his head just far enough to groggily peer at the blond. There's a dangerous glint in his one visible eye that has the Omega's heart beating far faster than normal.

"Do you want me to get you water?" Kaveh asks, slipping inside the room and closing the door behind him. Logic would dictate that he should turn back around and use the main door of his bedroom but he can't just leave Alhaitham like this, can he?

"Kaveh," Alhaitham's voice is awfully raspy and low—from sleep or strain, Kaveh would never know. "You should go."

"Or what? I have a hard time believing you're one of those Alphas who are unable to control themselves." Kaveh sighs, planting a hand on his hip. "You're in a lot of pain. Let me..."

He takes a deep breath. "...Let me help you out."

"This isn't a part of your job."

Kaveh is about to bite back, tell him how not everything has to do with the stupid deal between them, how some things might be done out of just caring for someone else—like how he had helped out during the Omega's heat. But Alhaitham looks so out of it that he can't really bring himself to bicker. All he does is sigh and walk across the bedroom to the main door. "I'm going to get you some things. I'll be right back."