True to the young Lord's word, Kaveh wakes up the following morning to two letters sitting neatly on his doorstep. One with the Lord Sangemah Bay's seal, and another, unfamiliar one with a falcon seal.
Kaveh opens up the first letter.
Dear Master Kaveh,
This morning I was rudely awakened by some errand boy. I was about to tell him off for interrupting a very lovely dream about drowning in Mora, but guess what I saw! Bags and bags of Mora stacked on top of each other. How could I possibly stay upset after seeing such a wonderful sight?
He told me it was from you, and all that Mora was to clear your debts. How could I turn that down!? Hehe, it was a wonderful way to start the day, wouldn't you agree?
Anyway, I'm just writing this letter to tell you that all your debts have been settled. Guess I'll have to call off the bounty I put on your head, haha!
Happily,
Lord Dori Sangemah Bay ;)
The second letter is considerably more concise.
To Kaveh,
The carriage arrives at five. Have your things gathered by then.
- A.
Kaveh puts down the letters, not quite certain how to feel.
It really doesn't take too long—packing his belongings that is. After hopping from one place to another for so long, he's used to fitting all his worldly belongings into a couple of bags.
It leaves him with nothing to do for the rest of the day, giving ample time to sketch out various scenes and variations that the Lord Alhaitham could be painted in. He wants to cut down the time needed to complete this disastrous commission. More than that, drawing serves as a wonderful method to keep his mind from wandering astray, to darker thoughts and suspicions about the arrangement.
A knock on his door snaps him out of his reverie.
He's somewhat surprised to find the Lord himself at his door rather than a servant or another, and he's caught off guard by how handsome the Alpha is. Up close, Kaveh could admire the soft, yet well defined features of his face.
Too bad his attitude is so damn horrible.
"Hello." Kaveh simply says. Alhaitham's eyes jump around until they settle on the couple of bags the Omega had packed for himself. "Good, you're already packed. Let's go."
The Lord glances behind him and makes a waving gesture with his hand. A moment later an errand boy brushes past the two of them and inside the blond's house fetching Kaveh's things. Kaveh opens his mouth to thank him, but the boy has left before he can manage a word, already fitting the Omega's bags into the carriage the Lord arrived with.
"Well?" Alhaitham prompts, stepping to the side in a silent gesture for Kaveh to get moving.
The carriage is comfortable yet stylish, well fitting of a noble family. Leather seats, silk curtains and ornate doors; it is clear that whoever the carriage belongs to is quite wealthy—not that Kaveh doesn't already know that. There are windows on both sides of the carriage, allowing those inside to peer at the world outside as they make their way through the streets of the city.
Kaveh would enjoy himself more if it wasn't for the uncomfortable silence hanging in the air between him and the nobleman sitting on the opposite side of the carriage. If Alhaitham senses any awkwardness, he doesn't show it, as he is too engrossed with yet another book he decided to bring with him.
"I didn't think you'd come pick me up yourself." Kaveh suddenly says, hoping it would ignite a conversation to kill the uncomfortable silence between them.
"Of course." Alhaitham says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. He doesn't bother looking up from his book. "You're supposed to be my mate for the next few weeks. It's best that we get to know each other and get our stories straight before we arrive, don't you agree?"
"Is there a rush?"
"We are to have dinner with my grandmother tonight." Alhaitham sounds less than thrilled at this. "She's excited to meet my new mate."
"What? Tonight?!" Kaveh knew that playing a role was a part of his job here, but he hadn't expected it to be so soon. "But...but I barely even know you."
Alhaitham finally sets his book aside onto the seat and crosses his arms in front of his chest. "Well then, as I said, we might as well get started on getting our stories straight."
During his last, relatively brief trip to the Lord's mansion, he hadn't really gotten a chance to study the interior of the mansion or explore the different rooms; he spent most of his time in the garden either waiting for the Alpha, painting him, or bickering with him.
One would assume with a garden as beautiful, the mansion's interior would be equally if not more amazing. Right? Wrong. Kaveh feels like he is about to break out in hives from how horrible the mansion is on the inside.
Mismatched decorations and clashing colors, the only semblance of coherence to be found was the combination for various shades of green and stacks upon stacks of books scattered around every nook and cranny of the building.
Well, no matter. That isn't his concern right now. What does concern him right now, is trying to convince the old lady sitting opposite to him across the dinner table that he is madly in love with her grandson.
"And he snaps his book shut while I was painting him and just..." Kaveh makes an airy gesture with a hand, "gets up! He ruined the whole scene. And just as I think he's about to walk away, when he just walks up to me instead and asks for a date. I obviously wanted to say no, but... I don't know..."
Kaveh does his best to shoot Alhaitham what could be considered a loving glance. He turns his attention back to the Lady of the house with a small smile. "Deep down, I suppose I knew he was the one. Anyway, I won't bore you any longer. The rest is history."
He's quite good at this, if he says so himself. The quasi-surprised, yet vaguely impressed look on Alhaitham's face seems to say the same.
"Well," The Lady of the house gives her grandson a warm smile before looking back at Kaveh, " I am incredibly happy my little Haitham has found someone to settle down with. He's quite difficult, that boy."
"Believe me, I know." Kaveh chuckles good-naturedly. It's the first bit of truth he's said this entire meal. "But I must thank you for raising such a wonderful grandson. He's everything I could've asked for in a mate. I don't know where I'd be without him."
'At home, with my sketchbook, doing what I pleased, rather than playing this stupid game of emotional charades.' He thinks to himself rather bitterly.
"Please, Kaveh," Alhaitham begins, the pleading undertone to his voice clear. The poor Alpha looked beyond uncomfortable—but hey, given what little Kaveh knew of him and how he seemed to have the emotional range of a mildly perturbed rock, that isn't a bad thing, right? "Your food is getting cold. You should eat."
'Shut up.' The message is clear. Kaveh fights the urge to roll his eyes. "Well excuse me for wanting to tell your lovely grandmother how much I appreciate you, especially after all you've done."
"Mm." Is the Alpha's only response before he goes back to his food. With a small smile of his own, Kaveh finally turns his attention back to the food on his plate that had been painstakingly prepared by the staff. He takes a bite and instantly fights the urge to moan at how utterly good it is—all this time drowning in debt has left him with very little opportunity to eat good food.
To Kaveh's surprise, Alhaitham's grandmother suddenly laughs, and for a moment he thinks he must've inadvertently made a faux pas of some sort to elicit such a reaction. But when he looks up, he finds her grinning at her grandson, a borderline mischievous look in her eyes. "Oh my! You must excuse me, but I just realized that this might be the first time I've seen Alhaitham at the dinner table without a book."
Alhaitham did that? Wait, of course he would. "Oh, he knows better than that." Kaveh gives a brisk chuckle of his own. "After the third date in a row he did that I told him off."
Kaveh pretends to ignore the weak glare Alhaitham was shooting from beside him. "It had nothing to do with what you said, Kaveh."
"I get it, you do what you want." The blond smiles back at him. He knows he's acting unconventionally for someone of his status—afterall, Omegas normally didn't tell their Alpha what they should or should not be doing—but despite this all being an elaborate play for Alhaitham's grandmother, he can't help but to poke fun.
If Alhaitham minds, he doesn't show it. He only sighs and leans back in his chair, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Kaveh is relieved to find the tiniest of smiles playing on the Alpha's lips. "I thought I'd made that clear already."
"Oh yes. Of course."
Alhaitham's grandmother gives another little laugh, clearly delighting in her grandson and his mate's playful bickering. The utter tenderness in the Lady's eyes as she studied her grandson, the love in the small smile that played on her lips—all this made Kaveh's heart squeeze. Painfully so.
Kaveh is here to trick her. He knew that from the very start. He is here to trick this kind, old woman who wants nothing but the best for her grandson. Yet here he is, helping her shitty grandson pull the wool over her eyes in the worst way possible.
Is he doing the right thing? As frightening as his debts are, should he have accepted Alhaitham's offer for any amount of Mora?
Kaveh swallows thickly. He's barely started eating, but somehow, he's had enough already.
"Excuse me," The chair beneath him makes an uncomfortable loud screeching sound as he suddenly rises to his feet. He forces a smile on his face, but he's quite certain both people at the table can see right through it. "I need some air."
He makes a quick escape out of the dining hall, and wanders around aimlessly, looking for someone—anyone—to direct him to his belongings.
He finally finds a maid in another wing of the mansion, busy dusting a painting of who he presumes is one of Alhaitham's ancestors. He peers at the painting, and many others lining the side of the room. If Kaveh had to claim there were any redeeming qualities to the horrendous interior of the mansion, it would have to be the magnificent paintings it held on its walls. Is his work truly worthy hanging between these masterpieces?
He shakes off the thought and takes a deep breath, donning a polite smile before walking up to the maid, hoping the sounds of his footsteps would've alerted her of his presence so as to not startle her.
"Excuse me?"
The maid whirls around, looking rather surprised that the blond would be talking to her. She seems nervous, like she's been caught red-handed in something she shouldn't have been doing. Her tense smile almost makes Kaveh more anxious than he already is. "Oh! Hello, Master Kaveh. M—may I help you?"
Kaveh nods lightly. "Would you happen to know where my belongings are? It's alright if you don't, I'll just—"
"Oh, of course." The maid gives what the blond could only guess is a sigh of relief, and her smile relaxes. "They're in the Lord's bedroom."
"Could you show me the way?"
Thanks to the brief period that Kaveh has known Alhaitham, he's able to guess what his bedroom might look like. It's probably filled with books, very few sentimental ornaments, if any, and most of his things are likely neatly tucked away in their proper spots. It would be a room devoid of personality, serving only as a place to sleep and sometimes read, and nothing more.
Well, he's partially right. Kind of. There's a lot of books, for sure, but they're not tucked away neatly, or stacked in an organized pile. No, they're scattered everywhere, giving the impression that a hurricane had swept through the Alpha's room, tossing Alhaitham's belongings everywhere in a bunch of unorganized heaps. There are no decorations either, save for a couple of ornamental pillows that were clearly put there by someone else, and a rather ugly wooden statue of a half-bird half-lion of some sort sitting in a far corner of the room.
It takes a moment for Kaveh to spot the bags he had brought with him placed on the ottoman at the foot of the Alpha's bed, next to yet another pile of books.
How much did Alhaitham read, exactly?
Kaveh has barely donned his coat again before the door to Alhaitham's bedroom swings open, with none other than the man himself standing at the door with a dark expression. The blond wrinkles his nose at the scent of an angry Alpha beginning to fill the air between them.
"What—" Alhaitham's eyes narrow at the sight of the bags in Kaveh's hands before he looks back at the blond, "Where are you going?"
The Omega inside of him is begging for him to drop onto his knees and beg for forgiveness, but Kaveh doesn't care. He isn't weak, he isn't one to bend to any Alpha's will.
He shakes his head. "I can't do this. I'm leaving."
"What do you mean you're leaving? You just got here." Alhaitham states firmly, taking a step forward. Kaveh fights the urge to take a step back, deciding to firmly stay put. "I can't live with myself, getting paid to trick some sweet old lady—who's your grandmother, by the way—into thinking something that isn't real."
"Really? You'd give this up just because you don't want to feel guilty over it?" It rubs Kaveh entirely the wrong way—the way Alhaitham drawls the word 'guilty'—as if feeling remorse over one's actions were beneath him. Perhaps that wasn't the intention, but he didn't really care right now.
"You might not get it," Kaveh snaps back harshly, "But I can't live with myself if I were to do something like this for a friend, but to get paid for it by some self-serving asshole? That's infinitely worse"
"What about your debts?"
"I'll figure something out."
"So you're just going to leave?!"
"Yes." Kaveh set down his bags long enough to defiantly plant his hands on his hips. "What? Are you going to trap me here?"
"Of course not!" Alhaitham exclaims, "What do you take me for? By all means, be my guest, the door is right there."
"'What do I take you for'?!" Kaveh echos a bit too loudly, "I take you for some asshole who's willing to pay someone far too much Mora to play with his grandmother's heart!"
Alhaitham's shoulders slump, and something about his expression makes Kaveh hesitate. Rather than pick up his bags again and make a beeline for the door as he ought to do, he watches the Alpha's adam's apple bob as he swallows thickly. When he speaks again, his voice has none of the anger in it that it had just moments ago; now it's soft and somber.
"My grandmother is dying." Alhaitham takes a deep breath, clenching and unclenching the fists at his sides. Even a blind man could see how distraught he was over the very mention of his grandmother's predicament—a sharp contrast with the Alpha's usual stoic demeanor that catches Kaveh completely off-guard. "All she's ever wanted was to see me settle down with someone. I'm just trying to fulfill her wish before she..."
He trails off. Kaveh doesn't ask him to finish his thoughts. Instead he shakes his head with a deep sigh. "Why? What's your issue? You're a wealthy, noble-born Alpha with good looks. If you were just a little more pleasant you'd have half of Sumeru at your feet."
Alhaitham simply stands there, his lips ticked down in displeasure. "You think I don't know that?"
"I'm sure you do." Kaveh mumbles with a bitter chuckle.
"There isn't enough time to find someone I truly care for." The admission was almost vulnerable, a side Kaveh hasn't seen of the Alpha yet.
"Kaveh, please—" Alhaitham takes another step forward. Kaveh hates how the pleading look in the Alpha's eyes tugged at his heart strings, "—just for while you finish the painting. When you're done, you can forget all about this."
"And when the painting is done? What will all this have been for?"
"You'll have bought me some time, I'll think of something."
Kaveh chews on his lower lip, tossing and turning Alhaitham's words over in his head. Really, for all he knew, the Alpha could be making this all up on the spot to toy with the Omega's heart, to lure him into a trap of some sort.
But maybe, just maybe he might be telling the truth.
After a moment's deliberation, Kaveh sighs loudly, theatrically ripping off his cloak and tossing it aside onto Alhaitham's bed. "Fine. But only because of your grandmother. I'm not doing this for you."
Alhaitham gives a soft sigh of relief and Kaveh almost feels bad for wanting to leave in the first place. He thinks the Alpha was about to thank him, when he says, "And here I was, thinking you were going to ask for more money."
"That's an option?!" Kaveh snaps.
The Alpha smirks. "No."
"But—"
"Now that you're here, let me show you to the bedroom where you'll be sleeping." Alhaitham says, moving over to Kaveh to pick up only one of the two bags Kaveh had brought with him before walking to the other side of his room, where another, less conspicuous door was. "Or would you rather sleep here, with me?" Alhaitham teases.
"Gods, no." The Omega sighs, picking up his other bag. "But won't someone suspect something if we're not staying in the same room?"
"I thought the idea of staying in my room was far too abhorrent to even consider." Alhaitham continues to tease. Kaveh shoots him a mirthless smile in response. The Alpha continues as he opens the door to the guest bedroom in question, "Just don't use the bedroom's main doors to come and go. You'll have to go through my room."
"...Fine."
The other bedroom is naturally smaller than Alhaitham's bedroom and similarly decorated in horrible taste like the rest of the mansion. But it's quaint and cozy nonetheless. And at the very least there weren't books everywhere.
"When you're ready, come back to the dinner table." Alhaitham says, setting down Kaveh's bag. He stares into the Omega's eyes with an unreadable expression. "I'll have come up with an excuse by the time you come back."
It's still going to be hard, looking into the old woman's eyes and forcing a smile, pretending to genuinely adore her grandson despite the overwhelming guilt threatening to claw its way up his throat and make him retch, but it's doable now.
'It's for a good cause.' Kaveh reminds himself. He will just have to finish that painting quickly.