Ship: Haikavehtham, Feat. Tighnonari (all unspecified roles)
Characters: Alhaitham, Kaveh
Summary: Kaveh is jealous of how much Cyno and Tighnari trust the other with their things while he and Alhaitham DEFINITELY don't do that.
After a fight with Alhaitham, Kaveh would often go to Tighnari's house to calm down and vent. One time, instead of Nari he finds Cyno (Nari's partner). As he explains, Tighnari had to go out for something urgent. Something about a bridge collapsing after that morning’s rain.
It's not the same as having his best friend hear him out, but Cyno is surprisingly good at listening, so Kaveh talks and talks, and before he knows it it's nighttime already. Feeling like he's overstaying, he quickly says goodbye, and Cyno accompanies him to the door.
It's cold. And his blouse doesn't cover much, so he immediately shivers upon feeling the cold wind. It's gonna be a long walk home. He may be sick tomorrow. Life absolutely sucks.
Cyno is quick to notice and offers him one of Tighnari's blankets. Colorful, fuzzy on the inside and looking so, so warm. It's like a blessing from Celestia. But it's Nari's, he couldn't take it. They're both busy, who knows when he'd find the time to give it back??
But Cyno tells him to take it anyway, and keep it for as long as he needs to.
Kaveh can't understand how Cyno could so easily give him something that's not even his to begin with, so he comments on it, to which Cyno just answers "It's ok, we've been together for years already. Whatever is mine, is Nari's too, and it goes both ways. Just take it."
He can't complain any further and can't afford to get sick in the cold either (life's too busy for getting sick), so Kaveh ends up taking it.
On the way back, he can't help but be jealous of the trust and closeness between his friends. Alhaitham and him had dated for years too but he couldn't imagine doing anything like that. If he ever gave out something that belonged to Alhaitham, even if justified, he would surely be scolded. And he too would berate Alhaitham to death if he did something like that. Knowing him, Alhaitham would surely give away something important too.
What was Kaveh's was Kaveh's and what was Alhaitham's was Alhaitham's. They could never have that sort of trust.
Knowing that only makes him feel like they were failing as a couple, and after all the effort he puts in every day, it’s infuriating. Besides, there’s something wrong with his shoes today and having to walk back like that only makes him angrier.
Frustrated, he remembers that it’s his turn to make dinner. But it's late, and he's tired, so instead he stops at Lambad's to buy a couple of warm dishes. He wouldn't usually overspend like that, but it's ok since he’s using the pocket money Alhaitham had lent him after being in red numbers post-rent. It was Alhaitham's money, and for Alhaitham's food. Whatever.
But it soon proves to be lost money because upon arriving, he notices Alhaitham isn't even home.
Exhausted, he yeets off his shoes and almost chokes when he realizes that they were not the problem at all, the shoes were just fine. He had just been wearing Alhaithams ginormous socks all day tucked inside his little shoes.
Definitely because that careless dumbass never knows what clothes are his and always ends mixing them up when doing laundry. It wouldn't be the first time Alhaitham ended up wearing Kaveh’s underwear either. He really should start embroidering Alhaitham's name in all his clothes as if he was a little kid.
Regardless, he goes to get water. But of course, Alhaitham had spent the whole day at work and he had been out talking to Cyno, so the pile of dishes was... memorable. And the only clean cups were Alhaitham's absurdly expensive and ugly ceramic glasses with hideous abstract aranaras on the sides and even the bottom of them. Ugh.
He hasn't had time to unpack his meal when someone calls to their door.
Luckily, it's just the Traveler asking for some documents Alhaitham asked them to bring (seems like he really is doing overtime). He welcomes them inside and lets them wander around to fetch those papers. As expected, Alhaitham’s desk is a mess. But at least it’s the exact same mess every time, so Kaveh has no problem browsing through them to find the reports the Traveler was asking for. They were of course under Kaveh’s sketchbooks.
Paimon’s comment on how fast he found them almost makes him laugh.
“This may be Alhaitham’s home, but I live here too. It would be troublesome if none of us two could find his things.”
Hours later, wrapped up in Alhaitham’s bed and blankets, wearing Alhaitham’s pajamas and paging through Alhaitham’s book in an attempt to convince himself that no, he doesn’t miss him nor is he waiting for his boyfriend to come back and reconcile. Only then, thinking about his day he realizes that well, although a little different, Haitham and he do trust each other a liiiiitle bit with their things. Their money, their clothes, their work, their gouse… It’s not as obvious as Cyno’s blatant ways to show it off, but… it was there, in the little things. Private. Intimate. Theirs. And that was enough.
This was meant to be a short HC that would fit on a Tweet, but oh well...