Chapter 15 - Jealousy, Friends And Love

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Kaveh angrily twitched his eyebrow since the other was ignoring him. Again. And few days ago he really thought they were finally getting closer to eachother. Kaveh stayed up whole nights working on all the commissions that appeared in his Akademiya workplace while he was away, cursing himself, Alhaitham, Nilou and basically everyone he could think of.
He still couldn't figure out what happened, why did Alhaitham become so distant again? Did he say something wrong that night? Is Alhaitham disgusted and doesn't want to speak to him never ever again? Was he angry he left the house for a week?

But when he actually got himself to try to confront the other about all of that one day the almost-Grand sage was nowhere to be found. He spent too much time away from home these days. He must be doing that on purpose. And Kaveh was spending more and more time at the tavern, just like before, making sure to come home late and sobered up or staying at Lambads overnight.

~•~

Kaveh just finished organising books in one of bigger libraries they had in the living room because it pissed him off to see all those books randomly laying everywhere in the said room but in places build for that purpose. As soon as he was finished and wanted to disappear to his room again, he heard the main door unlocking.
Excited but also kind of scared he prepared himself for a big talk they would have, feeling his heartbeat grow faster. But when the door finally opened he noticed Alhaitham is talking to someone who was standing right behind him. Kaveh didn't even try to hide the fact he was shocked.

"Oh, hi, Kaveh," Alhaitham said, visibly uninterested in further conversation.
"Wait, w-who are they?!," Kaveh didn't greet the other back, instead he asked, sounding much more hurt and jealous than he had anticipated.

"Friends of mine, the well-known Traveller and their dear companion Paimon. This is Kaveh, my roommate," Alhaitham replied, the word roommate being pronounced like it was the most shameful thing in the world to live under one roof with him.

Kaveh tried to hold in his tears for a moment, forcing a smile onto his own face. Alhaitham went to his office probably to look for something and in the meantime Kaveh seated his guests on one of the three sofas, asking them multiple times if they're hired actors, because he couldn't believe that grumpy and stubborn man actually managed to make some friends while he was away. His heart ached just from the thought. Get yourself together dumbass, you're barely friends, no need to be jealous, he told himself.
As soon as the scribe returned, Kaveh told him to entertain his own guests and fled to the office room, regretting that choice. He could literally go to his room and cry his eyes out but his brain just decided to stop working in that moment. He still sat down on the floor though, hugging his legs tightly as he would do in his own room, eyes itchy with tears that would soon appear.

After what felt like eternity Alhaitham finally said goodbye to his friends. Kaveh listened carefully the whole time. Later he heard steps approaching him, then stopping, hesitating and slowly getting closer and closer again. Was he nervous? Forming some questions or insults in his head?

"Hey," Alhaitham greeted him again, standing at the doorstep, his voice was much calmer this time. Kaveh was so confused by this behaviour. They haven't properly talked since he returned from the desert so this caught him off guard.

"Do you realise what you're doing? I happened to notice you act different when we're in public and private, not that I don't understand it, but... maybe I really don't."

"It has always been like this, Kaveh, don't take it too personally out of sudden," his voice turned monotone again, all bits of emotions fading away. Again. This happened so many times already.

"Well, we did argue everywhere we went at some point but it's all history, at least for me. I thought something changed, but I may be imagining things. I considered you my good friend. Maybe something more, I wrote about all of it, remember?"

Alhaitham paused.
"What? When?," he asked, his confused eyes searching for answer in Kavehs.

"When we slept over at Lambads, that one Friday. I got up earlier but I wrote you a letter, remember?," his cheeks had a pink tint, he clearly was still embarrassed about it.

"Letter?"

"Oh, well...yes, on the ... on the nightstand," Kavehs face turned red with the realisation that this was the first official confession in that case.

"I was in hurry so I probably didn't notice, I'm sorry," Alhaitham explained, blushing a little but not enough for Kaveh to notice. A confession. It wasn't like Kaveh hadn't drunkenly hinted it several times but it was right now when all those little things connected, making absolute sense.

"That explains a lot," the blonde laughed nervously, hiding his face behind his legs, desperately trying to reduce their eye contact to zero. "You know, I feel so bad it had to be you, you could save yourself from so much problems if you simply left me at Lambads when we met last year"

"Maybe, but that doesn't matter now, does it?"

After a while of awkward silence, Alhaitham walked over to Kaveh and sat on the ground next to him, resting his back against the wall behind them, just like blonde did a while ago.

"How do I say this... I have kind of confession for you too," he started, a bit of nervousness could be seen in his greenish eyes.

"Kaveh. I've been thinking about it a lot. However, I don't think somebody like me is capable of love, but even though I'm not showing you at all, you're bringing light into my, as you're often saying, monotone and boring life. Yes, we argue a lot, but I still like you and I would be sad if you got hurt or you disappeared again... Don't do that to me, Kav."

Alhaitham couldn't bring himself to look into Kavehs teary eyes, who was now staring at him, visibly shocked, so he anxiously hypnotised window on the other side of the room. He never planned to say it out loud but it surprisingly made him feel better. He could feel a weight being lifted from his shoulders and his heart.

The blonde sniffed loudly and tightly hugged the other, staining Alhaithams shirt with his tears and taking his breath away for a moment.

"Come on, what is it? I thought you should be happy if someone shares feelings with you."

"I am happy, in fact I'm so very very happy, you idiot."

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That's it, next chapter! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it! It must be nice to be them sometimes :')

(I might have gotten rejected recently (the person is not ready for a relationship just yet, it's kinda complicated but I'll wait as long as I have to for them) but we stayed as good friends as before so yay, live laugh be gay for your besties!)

Also yay, emotionally unreachable Alhaitham and emotionally unstable Kaveh!

As always, votes and comments are really appreciated, thank you ❤️

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