All she could do in response was leave her mouth open. That was the last thing she would have ever expected to hear. The atmosphere felt suffocating to (Y/N) as she couldn't bring herself to respond as Alhaitham continued to stare back at her.
This has to be some kind of joke, right? He's drunk. Or sick! That's the only logical thing right now. The girl nodded to herself to break the frozen state she was in, her eyes still glued onto the grey-haired male in front of her.
Slowly she leaned over the bathtub, Alhaitham watching as her hand placed itself on his forehead. He flinched at her touch as that was the last thing he was expecting, though his eyes dropped upon hearing her response.
"Your forehead isn't hot at all. Are you getting sick?" It was a way to change the conversation, but Alhaitham had contradictory plans.
He swiftly grabbed her wrist, tearing her hand off his forehead as he detained her arm. (Y/N) tried flailing her arm in response to break free of his grip, but it was obvious he wasn't going to let go.
"There you go again, trying to change the subject." He sighed, lifting his head off of his knees as he lowered them down. She's trying to deny this right now, isn't she? Maybe this wasn't a good idea.
"Heh?! What do you mean, trying to change the subject? You said something ridiculous so I was just making sure you weren't sick. And you're not drunk either. Are you going crazy?" Alhaitham listened to the girl as she began to ramble on, his eyes veering over to the knobs on the bathtub once more.
He let go of her hand as he moved over to the other end of the bed. He extended his hand out to the knobs, snatching his hand back as (Y/N) tried to capture his hands before he could turn the cold water on. "What are you doing?! Are you crazy?"
Alhaitham rolled his head to the left, lazily looking at her. "You just said I must be going crazy about a minute ago, did you not?" Surely this takes the icing. Now she can't deny it anymore.
(Y/N) sighed, balling her hands into fists, squeezing them, and releasing them in sequences. Yes, (Y/N) was trying to trick herself and believe what he had just done was a mere coincidence. Though it was most certainly not, as she had already come to the understanding behind what he had said. She was just trying to block it all out and move on so she can go to sleep.
Besides, the fact that after she had revealed to someone through text messages where she was hiding, here he came along and forced his way inside. What a headache. Wait, is that his goal tonight?!
"Let's play twenty-one questions." He suggested, returning to his warm spot and returning his gaze to the girl in front of him.
"What's the catch?" She asked, raising her eyebrow as she laid one arm across the edge of the bathtub once more.
"There is no catch. It's the traditional game, asking questions back and forth. Nothing more to it." There was an underlying tone behind Alhaitham's response, (Y/N) eyeing him suspiciously. He clasped his hands together as he waited on her response.
"Fine," she agreed, propping her head on her palm.
Alhaitham smirked, his eyes glinting. "What's the worse thing that has happened to you this year?"
It felt like cold water had just poured over the girl, biting her tongue from saying anything smart. "Being stuck in here with you." That would be the second worst thing that has happened to (Y/N) this year. The first thing, which would probably always be on the top of her list, would be almost being framed by her psycho ex-roommate.
"Why's that?" He hummed afterward, leaning forward slightly.
"Hold on, this is supposed to be a back and forth kinda thing. You had your turn-"
"Answer the question. I'm curious. There were no rules specifying how many questions could be asked at once." Alhaitham cut off the girl, the smirk remaining on his face. At this point, he was just messing with her once again. It was certainly keeping him amused, knowing that this would be messing with her more.
Smartass. All she could do was clench her jaw, swallowing back some choice words. "Because you keep pestering me."
"I would never do that."
Her head nearly slipped out of the palm of her hand at hearing him respond, feeling the side of her head throb in frustration. Alhaitham observed her actions as she pulled herself together. Why hasn't she said tried confirming anything yet? Surely she isn't oblivious to everything that's going on.
"What do you do in your free time?" She moved on from his prideful response, trying to completely take hold of this game.
He put a finger under his bottom lip, thinking of an answer to pull together. (Y/N) already knew what he was going to say, something along the lines of studying, keeping to himself and-
"Before, I used to indulge myself in my studies and keep to myself. Though these days I find myself rather attracted to my phone as if a curse has been placed on me. Isn't that quite intriguing?" Everything about what he said was screaming sarcasm with teasing mixed in. (Y/N) took a sharp breath in as she let it out slowly. If I just play dumb and act like I don't understand what he's going on about, surely he won't keep pressing these obvious questions onto me.
She probably thought I was going to give such a basic answer from everything she must've heard about me. "What about you? What do you do in your free time?"
(Y/N) just wanted to smack that smirk off of his face from how much it was starting to annoy her. "Once I get back to the dorms, I do my homework, study, and relax. Sometimes I'll go see Mona or Layla, or Nilou." She left out one big part on purpose, trying to throw Alhaitham a run for his money. Maybe he would take this as a hint and not continue out with questions about what he said earlier.
Hopefully, he will think she isn't the one he's been texting. (Y/N) isn't sure how she would handle the situation if he called her out as he was already trying to pry open the identity can.
"Ah, you left out something." She froze as Alhaitham pulled out his phone, her eyes widening as she leaned over the bathtub, trying to snatch it out of his hands. He easily dodged her attempted grabs, chuckling at her panicked actions. "Why are you flailing your arms around like that? I was just checking my phone." The grey-haired male kept looking up at her occasionally as he opened his messages and went to their conversation. For someone trying to convince me otherwise, you're doing a terrible job.
Oh, he's so messing with me. (Y/N) felt her cheeks heat up at what she just did, realizing she answered his question in full as she intended not to. She watched as he was moving his finger down on the screen multiple times, biting the inside of her cheek.
He cleared his throat, looking up at her. "And I'm trying to get my daily dosage of my main entertainment. Does that ring a bell to you?" He kept a straight expression as he watched (Y/N) avert her eyes from him, tapping her fingers nervously on the edge of the bathtub. Alhaitham was enjoying this, watching her facade of trying to deny everything unfolding in front of her. He was most certainly getting his daily dosage of entertainment. Probably way more than he was imagining.
You're such a horrible liar.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She said, looking at the bathroom door. Maybe I'll just escape and accept whatever fate awaits me on the other side of the door.
"Oh? What about this ... Well according to you, we aren't going to ever meet." He turned his phone around, (Y/N) still refusing to look at it. He drew his phone back, locking it as he placed the cellular device on the mattress beside him.
Her heart was beating a thousand miles per hour inside her chest at being called out like that, her fingertips feeling slightly cold. There was no way she could look at him in the state she was in. Especially with how hot her face felt. "This was not what I was expecting at all," was all she could mutter out, Alhaitham tilting his slightly.
"Sorry, I couldn't hear you. What was that?" Though he perfectly heard her the first time, smiling at her childish actions.
"I said, this wasn't what I was expecting at all!" She raised her voice a bit louder, turning her head away from the grey-haired male in front of her. (Y/N) grabbed the blanket and brought it to her face, trying to mentally calm herself down. Running out of the bathroom and downstairs in this state, I don't think that would be good. Damn it.
This was not the meetup she had imagined at all in her head. The meetup in her mind was more or less once she got his name out of him to suggest the two meet up in Sumeru City officially. Perhaps even if it would just be for a little bit, even just talking to one another and actually becoming friends.
Though she wasn't expecting it to be Alhaitham. Why?
Maybe because having a good-looking guy as the mysterious number she had been texting all along didn't seem like the fate she would have.
Why couldn't the mysterious number just be some normal person?
A meet-up in a bathroom she had locked herself away in and Alhaitham forcing his way in was not even a scenario she imagined. But when did he find out? She was a bit upset the grey-haired male figured it out before her, but since the one behind the number was Alhaitham, it couldn't be helped. Damn smart people and their smart people things.
"So you're finally admitting it?" He asked, getting closer to the edge of the bathtub while (Y/N) was turned away.
She let out a tiny hmph, Alhaitham keeping the smile on his face. There was a weird feeling in his hands, though he ignored it as he kept waiting for her to turn around.
"Look, I don't even know how you figured it out!" She took a hand out from under the blanket and went to go point at Alhaitham, but became stiff when her finger touched his nose. She blinked a few times as she realized he had been staring at her for a while now, then forcefully pressed his nose.
Alhaitham clicked his tongue, leaning back as (Y/N) kept trying to poke at his nose. He eventually grabbed his wrist, pulling her forward as she was once again leaning over the bathtub edge. "Would you stop that? It's quite annoying." He could feel her heartbeat rapidly beating against his hand, letting go immediately.
"Are you nervous by any chance?" He asked. The silent nod she gave made him sigh, realizing that he probably took it a bit too far by waiting for her to turn back around.
"When did you figure it out?" She asked quietly as if she felt vulnerable right now.
Alhaitham pondered on his answer for a moment, feeling conflicted about how he should respond. She's going to lose it when I tell her this. He sighed deeply, looking everywhere except at her.
"You called me by accident when Piper and the cops were in the room." He scratched the side of his neck, looking over at (Y/N) who had pulled out her phone. Alhaitham felt bad about keeping the first phone call a secret, but if he had told her back then that he listened in on the conversation, it probably would have been way worse then rather than now.
"Wait, so you were listening in on the conversation?" She whipped her head towards him, Alhaitham's hand freezing in place.
"Not on purpose obviously." He narrowed his eyes slightly, realizing how weird she was probably finding him for that. "Honestly, I mean it. I was going to end the phone call but when Piper and that man spoke, I thought you were in trouble." It was his turn now to feel a bit embarrassed, (Y/N) gawking in response.
"Wait, wait, wait. What?"
"I'm not repeating myself." He quickly responded, (Y/N) stifling back a laugh. Ah, this isn't good at all. He coughed a few times, gaining his composure back as he turned back to look at the girl.
There was a smile on her face as her chin rested in her hand with a slight tilt. There was a slight tug at the two's chests the moment their eyes met, but neither dug any deeper into what the meaning behind it was. "Well, you met me."
"Unfortunately." Alhaitham faked sounded disappointed, (Y/N) letting out a huff.
"Whatever. Say what you wanna say. It's fate after all." She stuck her tongue out at him. "I should be mad at you for knowing for that long."
"Stop it with that fate thing. Besides, it wasn't that long, it was almost two weeks." The grey-haired male defended himself, crossing his arms against his chest.
"Two weeks that I didn't know about." She pointed a finger at herself as if she was the only one conflicted by this. "But the fact you stayed on the phone because you thought I was in trouble is quite sweet. The opposite of you." She changed the expression to that of a deadpan one, Alhaitham scoffing.
"It would've been a shame if you got framed for something you had no involvement in. Nothing more than that."
Then something dawned on her. "Wait, how did you know that it was Piper? It could've been one of her friends."
Busted.
Alhaitham let out a burst of coughs, trying to stall time. When he looked back up at (Y/N), she was glaring down at him as she waited on his answer.
"Fine, because I was technically at the party that night."
She gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "You?! At a party?! I thought you said you weren't going to anymore, hmm?" (Y/N) put her hand down, feeling like she was dangling something just out of his reach.
"I'm not that inhumane. My friends went to a party, meaning alcohol would be involved. I'm not letting them drive back home drunk and put others at risk."
"Again, that was sweet of you. Quite the opposite of-"
"Me. Yeah, yeah." Alhaitham interrupted as he bobbed his head side to side. "You're just saying that to say that. I'm not a horrible person." Which was quite ironic, as he was the one who was going to sell out her location to Mona if (Y/N) kicked him out of the bathroom.
"Wait, so when we met unofficially for the first time, you knew who I was. Why did you ask for my name?!"
Busted, once again. "The moment Cyno refused to tell me your name, it was quite obvious. Besides, he doesn't just hang around anyone. Meaning the two of you met before, and probably for when Nilou called us in groups at a time."
He continued on. "So it was just the matter of connecting the dots really. Besides, when you thought you were harmlessly telling a random guy about the saran wrap prank, you were actually telling it to the one who got pranked." (Y/N) let out a small laugh as she recalled it, remembering how much her stomach hurt after that night.
"That was your own fault for having your nose in a book."
"Next time Kaveh uses you as a shield, you're going down with him."
"Pfft," she waved your hand in denial. "He wouldn't do that again. I don't think he's that stupid to pull another stunt like that."
"You're forgetting this is Kaveh we are talking about. That idiot does as he pleases."
"Oh, so like you?" (Y/N) added on, Alhaitham raising his lip.
Though, there was still a big problem that would lie ahead for the two. So I've told her who she's been texting all along, but is she going to avoid me now? Her actions now say she won't, but she did avoid texting for almost a week after the Piper incident. "You're not going to run and hide now that you know I'm the rude snarky man, right?" (Y/N) was expecting him to ask the question boldly, as he already did the big bold question for the night.
Maybe he knew her thoughts a bit too well. A part of her wanted to avoid him for a while after this, not knowing how she should be around him. The other part wanted to take this as an advantage and annoy the shit out of him for the rest of the trip. If she was considered Headache 2.0 in his phone, she wanted to live up to the name and make him regret exposing himself like that during the trip.
Alhaitham became a bit worried as the girl in front of him stayed quiet, tilting his head in confusion. "You know, you're going to regret telling me who you really were."
"Why's that?"
"Because that means I can annoy you even more now." There was a deeper meaning behind her words. Alhaitham wouldn't realize until the morning what she had meant. "Though, now that I know you who really are, I can't just act all casual and friendly with you. Everyone might find it a bit, you know, suspicious?" (Y/N) fidgeted with her fingers a bit as she removed her chin from her palm as the thought of Mona knowing how the two met crossing her mind.
Alhaitham nodded as he had already taken that into thought. "That'll be easy for me to do."
"Acting and pretending that I don't know people isn't that easy to do, you know." The girl displayed a frustrated look on her face, secretly cursing Alhaitham in her head. Why did he tell her now? Why couldn't he have waited until after the trip was over?
"Well, hopefully, I won't have to stay at this house much longer. The last of the snow should be done with today and the weather should start clearing up tomorrow." Though why did Alhaitham feel a bit sad when he said that?
(Y/N) sighed in relief. "Thank archons. I don't know if I can keep up with Mona and Layla being detectives. Wait, wait! No, this isn't good! There is no way I can act normal around you now! Do you realize what you just did to me?"
Alhaitham shrugged his shoulders, watching as (Y/N) raise her fist at him. "Just keep acting like you were around me. It's not like we're secret lovers or anything. Your friends have weird thoughts." (Y/N) felt her cheeks heat up at the mention of secret lovers, pulling the blanket back closer to her face once more.
"Why do you keep hiding your face? I can't hold a conversation with you if you do that." Alhaitham said bluntly, raising his eyebrow. He really didn't understand why she was doing that, perhaps maybe being put in the spotlight so suddenly Or maybe she didn't want to keep talking to him anymore.
Well, he could understand if she didn't want to talk to him anymore. That was his original thought the first week he was texting her, after each time they parted ways. Before he knew it, he started to tolerate her texting him. Something tugged at his heart again, but he ignored it once more.
She couldn't exactly tell him oh, maybe because you're making me feel some kind of way! Alhaitham would definitely hold that against her, and probably tease her more than he was.
The sound of her phone buzzing made her pick it up. It was a text message from Mona, making her purse her lips together. Maybe her best friend sent her something funny? Or maybe a concerning message hoping she was okay.
Wrong.
"Hm, what's wrong?" Alhaitham asked, noticing her sudden change. Her eyes were still glued to the screen as if she was observing something. He watched as her mouth opened slightly like it was something she couldn't believe. He got closer to the edge of the bathtub, placing his hands on the edge as he leaned over into her bubble.
His eyes went onto the picture (Y/N) was staring at. He went silent just like (Y/N) upon seeing a picture of the two sleeping in the living room on different couches, sighing. "When did she take this?!" This is quite troublesome. She really does think there is something going on between us.
"When you fell asleep downstairs two nights ago."
"What?! She exclaimed, turning to look at Alhaitham. Realization struck her when she got a face full of his hair as it tickled her nose with his scent lingering across it. "You're too close."
"Hm?" He turned to face her but stopped midway when he felt a hand placed on the top of his head, specifically on his ahoge.
"I said, you're too close." (Y/N) replied in a stricter voice, grabbing the ahoge that had caught her attention earlier in the night. Alhaitham's eyes squeezed shut in pain, fearing that she was going to rip off a chunk of his hair.
"Let go."
"No."
"It hurts."
"Beg for mercy then."
Alhaitham took a sharp breath in, embracing the oncoming pain. Quickly, he leaned over to his right and wrapped his hand around the cold water knob. "Let my hair go, or I'm turning on the water."
He felt her hand unlatch from his ahoge, feeling the spot on his head throb moments later. Though, he still turned on the water regardless.
(Y/N) stood up in the tub at hearing the knob turn, grabbing the pillows before they could get wet as she raised the blanket. There was a smug smirk on Alhaitham's face as she threw the pillows at him, Alhaitham fell back as if there was a force behind them.
She turned off the water she stepped out of the tub, groaning as she ripped a towel from the towel bar. "I hate you. I let go of your hair as you asked!"
"It took you too long." (Y/N) watched in horror as her pillows were now being confiscated, mentally crying as Alhaitham hugged both of them to his body.
"Are you wishing you were the pillows right now?"
"Shut up." (Y/N) retorted back, slamming the towel down in the bathtub as she began to dry up the water. Alhaitham snickered, letting go of both the pillows with a content smile displayed.
Maybe he was enjoying this just a bit too much. "Don't forget to turn off the lights so you can get your beauty sleep."
"Says the one who dragged a mattress in here!"
"You weren't going to let me share the bathtub with you."
"We aren't lovers, why would we?" She mocked his earlier statement, dumping the wet towel in the hamper. She grabbed another towel, throwing it in the tub to make sure there weren't any hidden water droplets that would stain her clothes.
Alhaitham got up, grabbed his phone, and walked over to the light switch. The moment he did, (Y/N) grabbed both her pillows and brought them into the bathtub with her. As she put them behind her back, the familiar scent of his felt like it was snaking around her nose once more. She realized that she had grabbed the wrong pillows, and as she was getting ready to exchange them for hers, Alhaitham had turned off the lights.
"Hey!"
"It's time for bed. Goodnight (Y/N)." He turned the flashlight on his phone and walked over to the mattress on the floor. (Y/N) cursed to herself slightly as she had no choice but to keep the pillows, not wanting Alhaitham to get the wrong idea.
As he laid down on the mattress, the scent of something sweet tickled his nose. It caught him by surprise as he propped himself up slightly, trying to figure out where it was coming from. He leaned down once more, the scent hitting him a bit clearer this time.
Oh, her pillows. She must've grabbed the wrong ones. Hm, oh well. As he got more comfortable on the bed, (Y/N) was internally screaming as she watched him bring on her pillows closer to her.
Is it not bothering him at all?! He's the equivalent of a brick wall! I'm washing that tomorrow. (Y/N) gave up the staring and shifted around in the bathtub, trying to find the comfortable position she had earlier before Alhaitham barged in. "Goodnight Alhaitham." She muttered before drifting off to sleep.
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surprise, see you next wednesday or thursday ^^