He was staring.
You could feel it all the way from across the room. His gaze was fixated on you way too intensely.
You were trying to focus on your drawing, but you kept messing up the line art. The pressure from being watched was making your hand shaky.
"Can you not do that?" You finally broke with a frustrated sigh, turning to the man sat in one of your chairs.
"No." A curt answer from the forever grumpy, grey-haired man. Surprisingly, he wasn't actually staring at you, but it felt like it. Did he look away the moment you turned around?
Not like it mattered in the grand scheme of things, it still made you royally uncomfortable.
"Tch." You scoffed, returning to your attempts at ignoring him. As much as you wished it was at least a little successful, you were sorely disappointed.
The silence was tense and that tension could be cut with a damn dull sword if you tried hard enough, 'might as well cut him in half while I'm at it.'
After what felt like hours of just stewing in your own soup of nervous scribbling and frustrated erasing, you let out a frustrated growl, "when's Cyno gonna get here?"
While Cyno could be intense, at least he was reasonable enough to have a conversation with and sometimes even made jokes. They varied in quality, but for dad jokes they were pretty solid.
"Not happy with my services?" You could basically taste the snark in Alhaitham's words.
"What do you think?" You snapped, taking a deep breath to calm your mind at least a little.
"Then you shouldn't have gone out and almost gotten yourself killed or worse, kidnapped."
"Oh please, I would have gotten out even without your help." You believed it wasn't too much of a deal, even if the experience was unpleasant to say least. "Wait a minute. 'Or worse, kidnapped.' What in the Abyss is that suppose to mean?!"
He didn't elaborate, but his silence was an answer in itself. The bastard.
***
"So, the girl really is too much to handle, huh?" Dehya asked, amused. She had finally gotten a chance to have a chat with Cyno for the first time since the incident.
"She's difficult," Cyno nodded, a little hesitant to admit the two of them have been struggling in comparison to the others, "but we have it under control."
"Well, the lady of the house has been pretty chill. No rebelious tendencies and all, you know, cause she is an adult and not a brat." Dehya shrugged with a smirk, "it's almost boring at times."
"Seems like you're looking for more adventure. Maybe you'd like to switch out with him?" Tighnari remarked, entering the 'break room'. It was really just a room reserved for them to rest and converse in during the day.
"Oh, no way." The woman shook her head with a small laugh, "while I've had my fair share of rebellious. That girl takes it to the next level. Plus, I'd probably just solve all the problems and I kind of enjoy seeing Alhaitham struggle."
"Who doesn't?"
"Kaveh, what are you doing here?" Tighnari turned as he heard the man's voice, "thought you were busy at the headquarters."
"Filling out papers, yeah." Kaveh muttered dejectedly, but also with a hint of annoyance, "I'm taking a break. My eyes are tired of just reading words on a page. So I decided to check in with you guys, see how things are going with our highest paying customer."
"It's good to see you." Cyno noted.
"Mm-hm." Kaveh hummed in acknowledgement of Cyno's greeting, "now what's that about Alhaitham struggling?"
Just as Cyno was about to explain, there was a high-pitched scream which could only belong to one person.
Kaveh.
But he was with them, so it was most likely you.
This made the guards freeze as they tried to compute just what in the Abyss would make you screech like that.
"Alhaitham? What's going on?" Cyno quickly tried to check in with his partner who was supposed to be looking after you.
There was no response.
"Damn it." Cyno cursed as he hurriedly ran out of the break room and toward where the sound came from. Incidentally, it was the same place he had seen you last, your room. So you weren't being dragged out through the corridors, good to know.
Approaching the scene of the crime, he could clearly hear the sound of fighting. It was pretty intense, only adding to his urgency.
Bursting through the door and assessing the situation, Cyno was both relieved and annoyed by the sight in front of him, "what are you doing?"
You froze in your struggle like a deer in the headlights, giving the perfect opportunity for Alhaitham to finally succeed in cuffing you to the bedpost, much to your displeasure, "hey! Unlock it this instant!"
"Not happening." Alhaitham dead panned, getting up from the rather awkward position he had been forced into during your mutual struggle.
"I'll ask again. What is happening?" Cyno repeated his inquiry,
"Just taking precautions." Alhaitham shrugged, brushing off his clothes and fixing his hair.
"What kind of precautions-" Cyno sighed, deciding to rephrase his question, "we're supposed to protect her, make sure she's safe."
"She's safer like that."
Cyno was having trouble understanding his co-worker's reasoning, watching him incredulously as the taller man returned to his seat as if he hadn't just cuff you to your bed rather unceremoniously.
As he'd soon come to realize, you and your quick temper had decided it was a good idea to pick a fight with a trained bodyguard. Of course, you had failed spectacularly, ending up in your current predicament.
In your defence, Alhaitham was clearly asking for it with his sassy responses. He lived and breathed sarcasm which was a deadly combination with your easily provoked aggression.
"You can't just tie her up and think it'll solve all your problems." Cyno stated, trying to figure out how to dissolve the animosity between the two.
"Of course it doesn't," Alhaitham agreed, "but it does solve a majority of them."
Cyno gave him an unimpressed look, but decided not to push it further. He'd find a common ground, 'it'll just take time...'
You were still tugging on your restraints rather aggressively, muttering colourful curses under your breath. He'd be in so much trouble once you got out of them.
'A lot of time...'
You weren't going to complain to your father. No, that would be going too easy on him. You had to break him. You would make Alhaitham pay, personally.
***
"Sit still, damn it." You ordered, trying to get Alhaitham to cooperate.
It had been a couple of weeks since you almost got yourself kidnapped and your house arrest was still in place.
You and Alhaitham had some unresolved tension, but decided to play civil whenever Cyno was around. Mostly civil anyway.
"Get your hands off me, (Y/N)." He grunted, wrestling your hands away from his hair, "You're not using that colour on me."
"If you insist on keeping me locked up and always hanging around. You better keep me entertained in the meantime." You argued, a slight smirk appearing on your lips as you tilted your hand a little, the liquid splashing around in the bottle, " if you don't stop struggling, I'll drop it and you'll be rinsing it out of your clothes for weeks."
You still found time to annoy the Abyss out of him. It was your favourite pastime.
"Stop fighting it, Alhaitham. She won't give up until you're covered in paint one way or the other." Cyno nodded to himself, brushing out his already coloured hair. He wouldn't do it himself, but he didn't hate the idea of experimenting and you weren't half bad as a hairstylist.
"Come on. Let me put some colour into that depressing aesthetic."
"It's not depressing," he argued, "but that isn't important. Put the dye down."
"Nope! Come on! Haitham, please!" You grinned, putting a little more force into your attempts. A mistake on your part as you'd soon find out "... Uh-oh."
Cyno could barely contain his laughter when he looked up from what he was doing to see the colourful mess you've created.
You were messing with him about dropping it, but his insistent refusal and your mutual power-struggle made your hand, which was holding the container, unsteady.
"..." Alhaitham stayed silent as the colour slowly dripped down his arms and sleeves onto the rest of his and your clothing. Some of it, despite his best efforts, stuck to his hair as well.
His expression may have been unreadable to you, but Cyno recognized it immediately. "(Y/N), I'm sorry to say this, but... you're about to dye, paint-fully."
You waited with bated breath, your arms still caught in Alhaitham's grip since he hadn't let go despite the colourful disaster that had occurred. You had no way of escaping and it didn't look like Cyno was going to help you.
Sure, he was the mediator, but some things were better uninterrupted. Besides, his hair was still drying and he didn't want to mess it up, especially with the chance of getting smeared with the fresh dye dripping off the both of you.
You, of course, completely understood his reasoning and would take whatever Alhaitham could dish out head on if it meant Cyno's hair stayed intact. It was majestic and much more important than your safety.
Priorities, right?
A moment or two of your pondering later, you were still stuck in the same position. This was taking too long. You had been prepared to face your demise for a solid minute now, but... nothing?
Did you accidentally break him? That would have been easier that you thought. All it took was a little hair dye. 'Maybe he really was an advanced form of AI and the liquid made him short circuit.'
Just as you were about to write him off as a piece of scrap metal, you felt your face get smeared with a bunch of green dye, followed by some stifled snickering from Cyno as he watched it happen.
"Did you just..." You questioned, completely baffled as you stared at Alhaitham simply brushing his hand over his still wet sleeve and going for another swipe.
"Just adding more colour, right?"
"Wha-" You squealed, this time trying to dodge, his grip on you preventing you from running away. He was only holding you with one hand now. How the fuck was he still holding you in place with one hand?!
You swore you could see a little bit of satisfied glee in his expression when you tried and failed to wriggle out.
"Wait!" You protested, trying to catch his free hand and keep it out of your face, managing to halt his movement.
Once again, you were in a stalemate, but this time you were the one on the defensive, trying to keep him from staining your face more than it already was.
It took nearly all of your strength to fight back. Realizing you were slowly but surely losing, you made a last ditch effort to copy his tactic, managing to get some dye on your hand and swiping back at him.
This took him momentarily off-guard. As he tried to dodge your attempt, you suddenly pushed with all your weight, managing to completely topple him.
Unfortunately for you, he was still holding onto you so you got dragged along, catching yourself just inches above him.
Well... wasn't that wonderfully awkward.
You stared at each other for a moment with stunned expressions, not knowing what to make of this.
"Uh..."
"..."
You didn't think you'd ever been so close to him, like ever. It was almost surreal as well as oddly intimate. Weird thought considering what even got you here in the first place. The fact that you wanted to 'make him suffer' and all that.
He was, as always and much to your dismay, unreadable. But you did spy a slight warm tint to his cheeks, probably from the frustration you endlessly piled on him.
"You should probably wash it off before it stains." Cyno remarked, breaking whatever 'moment' you were having, "unless you plan on cosplaying as Shrek any time soon."
"Yeah!" You nodded, now embarrassed as you scrambled to get up, "I'll go- uh- do that right now."
"Yeah." Alhaitham agreed, not yet sure how to feel, but definitely trying to conceal any reaction he might have had.
Yeah.