For as Long as It Takes - Kavetham Angst/Fluff

Chapter 3 - Fine Wine

Alhaitham quickly walked through the taverns main entrance doors, holding his wine bottles tightly. He just wanted to buy some alcohol and go straight home.
What was he even thinking? But there didn't seem to be a way to take back his own offer. It didn't really make sense but once he asked his former friend he stated to himself it would be somehow rude to act like he didn't said anything at all. He was sure Kaveh would not forget about what he offered to him.
It wasn't that he felt sorry for him, at least that was what he thought. But it felt like something inside him was screaming something a bit different. But he didn't even try to understand, emotions weren't his thing.

•~•

Kaveh rose up on his bed. He didn't remember nearly anything about what happened last night. His vision was little blurry at first but he clearly saw a handsome man in a black shirt as he tried to remember at least something. Handsome?! He couldn't believe he couldn't come up with a different word when he tried to describe Alhaitham in his thoughts.
Yeah, he met Alhaitham. After all these years.
He must think I'm even dumber than before. Kaveh grabbed his hair in desperation and deeply sighed. Hopefully he won't return at least for a while, he thought but he didn't know who was about to knock on his door.

For a moment, Alhaitham hesitated if he really wanted to go inside. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door leading into Kavehs room.
On the other side Kaveh jumped off his bed and quickly opened the door thinking it was Lambad who needs some help. His eyes widened with shock as he saw familiar handsome man standing right in front of him, visible confused by blondes reaction. Kaveh quickly shut the door again. He was standing there in his underwear only so he quickly put something on. Slight blush appeared on his cheeks. He wouldn't really mind if Lambad saw him like this but it was somehow different in this case (maybe because he wasn't living with Alhaitham and haven't seen him in years and he wasn't even his friend). Kaveh opened the door again just to see nobody was standing there anymore.
What exactly did I expect? Kaveh asked himself as he turned back into his room to get hair and a light makeup done. Then he walked down the stairs to ask Lambad if he needs some help by any chance. He rolled his eyes when he saw taverns owner chatting with someone.
What does he want from me anyway?

Alhaitham saw that Kaveh just got from his bed so he decided to wait downstairs. Back of his mind was thinking about the sight of confused and almost naked Kaveh but he quickly shook his thoughts away.
In the meantime he consulted the offer he gave to the architect with Lambad. He must've been glad that Kaveh has someone who cares about him and assured silver haired scribe that if he refuses he's going to remind him until he finally agrees. Alhaitham just sighed, he decided he didn't want to ruin Lambads ideas.

It wasn't like Alhaitham was longing on the fact Kaveh must live with him from now on. But even though he enjoyed being alone he was slowly realising that he felt lonely sometimes. It was the reason he came to buy some wine from time to time. He was trying to chase the loneliness away. But as with his other feelings, he didn't want to understand nor admit that. It will last just for few months, before Kaveh gets out of his debts.
He heard steps so he turned towards the stairs just to make an eye contact with Kaveh. He must admit he looked quite pretty. Maybe because he looked so feminine when he didn't have messy hair and even put his eyeliner on. He knew Kaveh wasn't straight so he didn't find it strange at all. Alhaitham never thought about his sexuality, he never had an actual relationship as he was mainly focused on his work.
Kaveh broke the eye contact soon and went straight to Alhaitham.
"What do you need from me this early?"
"Just what is early for you? It's literally afternoon already," Alhaitham told him.
"WHAT?! Why didn't somebody wake me up earlier?," Kaveh panicked. Stupid alcohol, he thought.
"Don't worry, I didn't need any help anyway, almost nobody came today," Lambad told him.
Kaveh was so embarrassed he just stared at some random wall.

"To answer your question - I'm here to discuss something with you. You don't seem to remember thing from yesterday," Alhaitham said in a calm voice.
"I didn't do anything... weird, right?," Kaveh asked nervously.
"Not really. Anyways I want to ask again since you clearly forgot."
"What is it?"
"Yesterday I offered you to live with me. As my roommate. Not because I feel bad for you but because I know you want to get your ass out of this tavern already. So, what do you think? You would have to pay rent every month tho," Alhaitham finally finished his speech.
At this point he somehow knew he did a huge mistake.
"Let me think about it for a while. But how do you know I want to move out? I never told you!"
"You told me everything yesterday," Alhaitham said in a neutral tone.
"WHAT? WHY WOULD I DO THAT?! I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER, LIAR!"
"That's the funny thing, I don't know either."

Lambad just brought them a bottle of wine and smiled to himself. That's getting interesting.

•~•

After that day, Alhaitham came to the tavern almost every day. He and Kaveh always argued until the taverns owner gave them some leftover alcohol (on the house ofc). They would be happily chatting all evening after that and they would forget they hate each other. Alhaitham would ask Kaveh if he wants to live with him every day and the answer was always either I don't know or absolutely not. Such a funny relationship they had.

One day Alhaitham walked through the main door just to see Kaveh speaking with Lambad. Of course he was curious what had they talked about but he decided he won't ask. Kaveh welcomed him with a hardly noticeable smile and passed him a glass of blueish wine he haven't seen before.
He gave Kaveh a gaze of suspicion but the blonde explained Lambad wants them to test this special edition wine from master Dilucs Dawn Winery.
Alhaitham took a sip and realised this one is indeed quite strong. He wasn't any kind of lightweight but he could sense he'll get drunk in no time. But who would decline such an offer to try top tier wine for free?

It took only two glasses and about half an hour for the world to start spinning a little bit. He still had his rational thinking though. He didn't see how many glasses did Kaveh finish but he wasn't speaking as much as usual. One? Two? √9?
After a while Kaveh said he's going upstairs. Why would he do that? Is he sick or something? It was just around 7 at the evening.
Alhaitham didn't know why but he decided to follow him which made Kaveh nervous.

"Hey, Alhaitham, what do you think you're doing?," Kaveh asked, confused.
"Hm... Maybe I want to finally know your answer or I just want to tell you goodnight once more...," grey haired man mumbled, pressing himself against the closest wall.
"Oh my, you're terrible... I have decided, I'll tell you tomorrow," he replied and turned to open the door.
But he couldn't. Alhaitham wrapped his arms around blondes waist and gave him a tight hug. Kaveh shivered under an unexpected physical contact.

"Hey! What was that for?"
"I just wanted to say goodbye to my friend, dumbass," Alhaitham drunkenly whispered and then slowly walked down the stairs.
Kaveh was thankful that the highest floor in Lambads tavern was quite shadowy so Alhaitham couldn't see the slight blush on his cheeks. Friend?

_________________

So I pulled for Kaveh right after the banner got released and I got a C1 of him in 50 pulls (my luck lol)... Welcome home, Kaveh ^^

And yes, Lambad is no.1 Kavetham shipper 😆