Alhaitham/Kaveh fake marriage fic concept:
Alhaitham doesn't get along with his parents. They have expectations for him that he doesn't care about, and he is exhausted by them. They're the stereo typical "our son is successful" type of parents and take credit for his accomplishments. They are also desperate to see Alhaitham settle down with a partner.
When they show up unannounced at his house with a list of "perfect" matches (men and women bc no homophobia in my fics), Alhaitham weighs the pros and cons of arguing with them and decides to introduce Kaveh as his husband because it takes less effort. Kaveh being Kaveh thinks this is hilarious and rolls with it. When Alhaitham's parents leave, they both assume it's the end of it.
It isn't.
Alhaitham's parents are devastated to have missed the wedding ("we eloped") and, upon figuring out Kaveh is famous, start bragging about their son-in-law. Things start spiralling but maintaining the lie is still less effort than telling the truth because if they find out Alhaitham lied, they will be even more intolerable. So Alhaitham dives head first into the most logically twisted scheme he can think of and drags Kaveh along for the ride-- all the avoid his parents' awkward matchmaking.
They're stuck doing stuff like forging a backdated marriage certificate that Alhaitham has to sneak into the archives to file. Kaveh has to convince Cyno to sign off on paperwork for something (Akademiya protocol for married couples?). Figuring out their meeting and first date stories, practicing holding hands and kissing because they can't look like they've never done it before. Staging photos of their relationship to show his parents.
Kaveh, in his third outfit swap for taking pictures: "Is this really less effort than just being honest?"
Alhaitham, halfway through setting up the Kamera: "Yes."
And, well, if you do something enough, it eventually becomes the truth. Kaveh catches feelings, unknowing that Alhaitham has been ignoring his own sentiments the entire time.
















