Love Bites (Alhaitham x Kaveh)

Chapter 3 - Observe

- Kaveh's POV - 

My eyelids felt sore and heavy as I tried to open them while a bright light coming from my side blinded me. A feeling of my head being hit with a hammer warned me of an incoming headache, making me grasp onto my forehead. Using my other hand to cover the light, I looked to my other side to see Haitham standing by the edge of the bed, staring at me. I blinked several times to normalize my vision before sitting up. 

"What? Not even a 'Good morning'? Why are you just gawking at me like that?" I inquired, frustration lining my tone.  

"I'll let you figure that out." 

I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh of vexation, I really wasn't ready to deal with his stupid little riddles and games this early in the morning. 

I propped myself up with my arms and helped myself out of my bed. Wait. My bed? I looked once again at the bed and noticed how the bedsheets were different, even though I hadn't changed them. I looked up at Haitham, then around him and the truth dawned on me. 

I was in his room. I'd fallen asleep in his bed.  

"Figured it out yet?" He asked me, doing a hand gesture. 

"Look- I was drunk and...you know." I wasn't bothered to explain myself. I didn't owe him an apology for this, he could've just woken me up but he didn't, so it was pretty much his fault. 

"Anyways, it's our off day today, which means it's our only chance to clean the house once and for all." I changed the topic before he could argue back. 

"No, I have other work to do."

"It's been weeks, for fuck's sake, Haitham." I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. 

"You can do your work after we're done cleaning, it'll help you, I promise." I added. 

"How will that help?" 

"Research has shown that doing work in a clean environment improves your concentration." 

"And where did you read that, may I ask?" 

"...It's from my own research and personal experience." I laughed before walking past him and out of the room. 

And after eating breakfast and doing a bit more persuasion, he finally agreed to help me. 

- Alhaitham's POV - 

I removed all the books on each shelf of the bookshelves in my office one by one and piled them on the ground before using a cloth to wipe off the dust sitting upon the surface of the shelves. I covered my mouth so as to not breathe in the dust that was bombarding the area. I heard Kaveh walk in with a broom in his hand, and he began sweeping the floor. 

Meanwhile, I sorted through all the books and began placing them all back onto the shelves. I made sure to wipe down the covers of some of the books that I hadn't read in a while, as dust had also settled on them. As I reached the lowest shelf, I sat down on the ground and began picking out the last books from the pile. At the very bottom it, I noticed an unfamiliar book with a plain black cover and it was larger than the rest of my books. It wasn't dusty, suggesting it had been taken out recently. 

Without any hesitation, I flicked through the pages and was immediately able to realise that the book belonged to Kaveh, as each and every page was filled with doodles of buildings and blueprints. I was about to close it and put it back when I landed on a page that had something other than just drawings of structures. In the corner, there was a rather detailed drawing of a person and upon further inspection, I was able to recognise the person. 

It was me. 

He'd drawn me sitting and reading a book, and he'd gone as far as to draw every feature of me except my face. I supposed it was because he either didn't want to remember my face or didn't want to look at me. I turned to the next page. More drawings of me, but in different poses. Me drinking tea, laying on the sofa...All the things I'd do in the living room in my free time.

Kaveh would always sit there with me and even if it was silent, we had each other's company. The silence was peaceful.

 My memories began flooding back as I remembered that he'd have this book with him occasionally, and I'd hear him scribbling through the pages and humming to himself. So he must've drawn me during that time. I'd catch him staring sometimes but I never took much note of it. Many questions raced through my head, none of which I had the answer to, which felt atypical to me. 

Why had he done this? I decided that asking him this question would help me understand better. 

"I would've never thought you'd be interested in drawing people." I couldn't help but smirk a little as I got up from the ground, still with the book in my hand. Kaveh hummed in confusion before looking at me then at the book in my hand. It took him a second to realise but once he'd done so, he gasped and his cheeks flushed bright red. 

"Th-that's just...! I was bored..." He stuttered, clearly making up a lie. He walked to me and tried taking the book away from me, but I snatched it out of his reach and held it above me. 

"Hey...! Just give it back!" He grumbled, getting on the tip of his toes and trying to reach for the book. Although he was only slightly shorter than me, he wasn't able to reach it. 

"Tell me the truth first." 

"I already told you the truth! There's nothing more to it!" 

All of a sudden, he lost his balance so he used his other hand to grab onto my shoulder before he could fall forward, resulting in him pinning me against the bookshelf. His head almost bumped into mine and once again, like last night, we'd gotten really close to each other. He stared at me in surprise for a second before he snatched the book out of my hand and backed off. I watched as he breathed really hard, clearly more red than before. He slammed the book down on the desk. 

"If you're so bothered by it, then I'll get rid of it." He hissed before ripping out each and every page that he'd drawn me on. I simply watched in silence. 

He crumpled up the papers and threw them into the bin nearby. 

"There, happy?" He sneered, before shutting the book. I just stared at him. 

He grabbed the broom from the floor and was about to storm off before my words caught him. 

"I liked the drawings." 

- Kaveh's POV - 

I turned around and looked at him. I couldn't tell if he was complimenting me seriously or just being sarcastic, but knowing him, he was probably being sarcastic. 

"Well too bad, they're gone now, so forget about them." I remarked before leaving the office. 

I was finally able to let out a sigh. 

The amount of shame I felt at that moment was indescribable with words. I'd forgotten I left the book there yesterday and because of that, he now knew that I drew him. The real reason I drew him was because...I wanted a break from just drawing blueprints. I'd occasionally draw still-life but I wanted to try something new, and I don't know why but the first thing my mind landed on was him. And so my hands did their thing. 

Haitham probably didn't believe me and thought I drew him for who knows what reason...And I didn't know what I had to do to change his mind.