Love Bites (Alhaitham x Kaveh)

Chapter 11 - Maybe There's Hope (Probably)

"Kaveh." 

He caught my attention and the tone of his voice forced me to look at him. 

"I want you to know that everything I've said to you was from a place of genuine concern for your wellbeing. My words may have hurt you, but my only intention was to help keep you on the right track. I was worried that if I didn't try interfering in your matters and reminding you to remain realistic with your decisions, you'd end up in the same place as before- suffering more than you are now." The tone of his voice was soft and he was looking directly past my irises, into my soul. The morning sun's soft rays glowed through my window and fell on his face, highlighting his expressions. 

"I know this sounds desperate on my part, but since you are planning to leave, I don't want you to leave with bitter feelings that may bother you later on." He added. 

I put the book that I had in my hand down and slightly leaned towards him. 

"Are you feeling ill? This is highly unusual behaviour from you..." I pressed the back of my hand against his forehead to check his temperature, causing him to hold my wrist and put my hand down. 

"Kaveh. It may not seem like it, but as your friend, I care for you deeply, and I never meant to hurt you. I know me apologising now isn't going to reverse any of the damage, but it is the best I can do." He let go of my hand as he stood up. "Whether or not you accept my apology is solely up to you." 

And then he left my room, shutting the door with a click behind him. I heard his footsteps fade away into the distance as he went to the kitchen to cook breakfast. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't dreaming. It was highly likely I was imagining all of this, after how much I'd drunk last night. But after pinching myself, I was able to clarify that this, in fact, was not a dream. 

I couldn't help but smile. I felt like good luck was on my way. I wondered if I was being too hopeful, but considering that Alhaitham apologised to me, to my face? Means that there's still hope in the world.

I knew what he was like, since we've been friends for so long after all. I knew he wasn't good at expressing his feelings or emotions, since he thought they were completely irrelevant in the first place. He knows how to be nice, but chooses not to. Even if he means to do something nice, he won't sugarcoat anything to anybody, which was exactly what he would do with me. But that didn't mean I was going to put up with it. 

I chose not to ponder over those things and continued packing the rest of my belongings. Once I'd finished, I looked around my room. I knew I was going to miss it, but I was happy by the thought of finally moving out and having a house of my own. Even if it meant I was going to be lonely just like before, I wanted to start...a new chapter in my life, without being a burden on anyone's shoulders. 

And not only that, I wanted to achieve my father's dream of winning at the championships and gaining the diadem. I'll forever live with the guilt of persuading him to participate when I was a kid, because I'm sure he'd still be alive if I hadn't asked him to go...It was all my fault that he'd decided to participate, because that's what led to him getting lost in the desert and losing his life.

I felt tears filling my eyes but I quickly wiped them away and started getting dressed, as I had an appointment to look at the new property that I was planning to buy. 

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-About a week passes, and it's the first day of the Interdarshan Championships-

(For those who may not be aware, this is a canon event that took place in the game, so I'll be following the canon story line for this, and will also be adding dialogues from the characters. I'll only be summarising what happened through Kaveh's POV, so if you haven't played through the event, you may get a lil confused but you always have YouTube to recap the story. I think it's pretty obvious who the winner is, but there's a...twist 🤨)