The supervisor studied Kavehs face for a moment before getting up and opening the door once he heard a knock.
You watched as a young scholar came in, nervously looking around.
"Hello Aarav, welcome to the Akademiya," the supervisor greeted him, giving him a brief handshake.
"Hello sir," Aarav said, quickly glancing at you and Kaveh before looking back at the supervisor.
"Kaveh, I'd like you to meet Aarav. For the next few days, I'm assigning him to you as an intern. Please give him an appropriate welcome and take good care of him," the supervisor said, turning to Kaveh.
"S-sorry sir, but did you say Kaveh?" Aarav asked, eagerly looking at him. "As in one of Sumeru's most famous architects who came up with the breathtaking architectural masterpiece called the Palace of Alcazarzaray??"
You glanced at Kaveh and sighed as you watched him practically tremble with excitement before regaining his composure and professionally greeting Aarav. "Yes, that's me, although it's not that much of a big deal," he said, trying to stay humble.
"Of course it's a huge deal!!" Aarav quipped, clutching his textbook. "Out of all the architectural wonders of Teyvat, your magnum opus impresses me every time. It takes a certain type of genius to design a building with both an incredible amount of functionality and aesthetics! One day I aspire to create something similar,"
You could practically see Kaveh's ego growing bigger by the second and shook your head.
"Sir!" Kaveh exclaimed, turning towards his supervisor. "You can trust me, I'll teach him everything he wants to know,"
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"So, welcome to my office!" Kaveh said, smiling with pride. "This is where I spend most of my days, coming up with multiple drafts and blueprints. It can be hard work, but it's all worth it in the end,"
You saw Aarav's eyes gleam with excitement as he took everything in and looked around Kaveh's office in awe. "That's amazing...can I see the latest blueprint you've been working on??" he asked, eagerly. "If it's alright with you..." he added, hesitantly.
"Of course!" Kaveh said, beckoning him over to his desk and you followed Aarav too. "Let's see, this is the last one I was working on," he said, spreading open a large sheet across his desk.
Kavehs eyes widened and you burst out laughing once you saw what his "latest design" was. The entire page was covered in random sketches of you. He froze and you saw his cheeks turn pink.
"Ahem," he said, clearing his throat before quickly crumpling up the paper and throwing it aside. "This is what I meant to show you," he said, pulling out another design.
"That's magnificent, sir!" Aarav explained and you quickly zoned out as Kaveh explained various architectural stuff to him. You couldn't help but let out a small chuckle after remembering his drawings of you.
"I had to make use of many hypars and ionics when designing the Palace of Alcarzarzaray..." Kaveh trailed off. "Oh, have you learned about those yet?? I believe they should be in your textbook....I think I should have my own copy around here somewhere," he said, rummaging through drawers and shelves trying to find it.
As Kaveh searched, you thought you might have hallucinated it, but you swore you could've seen a ghost of a smirk appear on Aarav's face as he watched Kaveh. You blinked and shook your head, dismissing your suspicions as overreacting.
"You can use mine, sir," he said, offering Kaveh his textbook.
"Ah thank you," he said, before opening the textbook and teaching Aarav more things that flew completely over your head.
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You were just about to doze off in your chair but were shaken out of it by Kaveh's voice.
"Oh would you look at that, it's already so late..." he said, looking at the clock. "I completely lost track of the time!"
"Me too, sir, I learned a lot from you!" Aarav said, attentively listening.
"Oh no...I have a meeting with a client in a few minutes but I was supposed to deliver some blueprints to the supervisor first...ahh they're both important," Kaveh said, frustratedly trying to figure out his dilemma.
"I can deliver the blueprints!" Aarav offered, eagerly.
Kaveh heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much! But be careful with them, they're very important,"
"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to them," Aarav said, receiving the blueprints from Kaveh before quickly heading out the door.
You got up and headed over to Kaveh who looked exhausted but satisfied. You spotted the crumpled up blueprint paper that Kaveh had thrown away earlier and picked it up to look through it again, a smile forming on your face as you saw the numerous sketches of you scattered all over it.
"I never knew you had such good art skills," you said, chuckling as Kaveh immediately rushed over and snatched the paper out of your hands, embarrassed.
"Just ignore that..." he mumbled, tearing the paper up before rushing out to meet his client and you followed close behind him.
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"What is the meaning of this?!," the supervisor angrily asked Kaveh, who faced him with his head hung low.
"I apologize sir," he said. You stood behind him, feeling bad about this sticky situation he was caught in. Once Kaveh finished the meeting with his client, he got an urgent call from his supervisor telling him to come up to his room at once, and he didn't sound happy about it.
"You knew how important those blueprints were. I entrusted them to your care but you failed to get them to me. Now I have to deal with the higher ups about this and they are not taking it well," he scolded Kaveh, shaking his head at him disappointedly.
"I'm very sorry sir, I'll make it up to you any way I can," he said, desperate to try and atone for the mistake.
"It's too late now. Just don't let anything like this happen ever again or the consequences will be much harsher and I won't be there to get you out of it," he warned, showing you and Kaveh out the door.
Unsure of how to comfort him, you just followed and watched as he left the room dejectedly.
"Sir...!" Aarav came up to you both with a guilty look on his face. "I'm so sorry for losing the blueprints, I feel horrible..."
Kaveh put on the best smile he could muster and turned towards Aarav. "It's alright, everyone makes mistakes now and then," he sighed, looking away. "As long as everyone is fine at the end of the day, that's all that matters,"
'But you aren't fine' you thought, looking at Kaveh.
"I'm going to take...a small break," he said, faltering in between his sentence. "You should go finish the assignment I gave you before,"
"Yes sir," Aarav said, making way for Kaveh.
Your eyes widened as you saw Aarav's apologetic expression immediately harden as he watched Kaveh leave. He shot you a quick glance before leaving himself.
Something felt off about this guy...but you couldn't quite put your finger on it. The only thing you had to rely on was a bad feeling in your gut. You quickly caught up to Kaveh, stopping him in the middle of the hallway.
"Kaveh wait!" you reached out to grab his shoulder. He gave you a puzzled look. "About that guy Aarav..." you trailed off, trying to figure out how to tell him this. "I think something is off about him,"
"What? What do you mean..?" he asked, confused.
"I don't know.." you replied, biting your lip with worry. "I just don't trust him, something seems suspicio-"
You were interrupted as you heard someone call Kavehs name and the two of you turned to see Aarav walking towards him eagerly.
"Aarav, what is it?" Kaveh asked.
"I forgot to tell you, I stayed up last night working on some designs of my own...they're inspired by the Palace of Alcazarzaray and I was wondering if you could look over them," he asked, shyly.
"Of course, show me everything!" Kaveh said, following Aarav after giving you a quick nod 'goodbye'. You raised your hand to wave back but he was already gone.
Now about this suspicious feeling...you had to do something to settle it once and for all. After quickly looking around to see if anyone was watching you, you turned and swiftly headed to Aarav's room.
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"There's nothing here," you murmured as you rummaged through the same drawer for the third time. You had been searching his room for an hour, determined to find something - anything that could confirm your suspicions. But no matter how much you looked, you couldn't find anything.
"What am I even doing," you sighed, realizing how much trouble you could get in for this. For the past few days you didn't even have a reason to stay in Sumeru city. You should have left after Kaveh admitted he hired the kidnapper but for some reason you stayed and followed him around. You shut your eyes in self-disappointment after remembering the way you ditched Azrul and left. How would Matriarch Babel even react....
Feeling ashamed of yourself, you slowly turned and left but stopped when something familiar caught your eye.
"Wait a minute..." you said, stepping back into the room. You walked over to a small stack of boxes in the back that fell over as soon as you touched it. Your eyes widened as you saw what was underneath them. You bent down and slowly picked up a large blueprint - the same one you saw Kaveh give Aarav earlier. To confirm your suspicions, you unraveled the sheet and gasped after realizing it was indeed the same one Aarav said he "lost"
"Son of a..."
- x -
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