Work Text:
“I need you to take this package to someone in Port Ormos.”
Not a please, a thanks, or even a half hearted fuck you . Not a request, more like a deadpan demand; but not quite, because Alhaitham simply didn’t say things with any authoritative tone. He gave it more like an instruction, a need being met that the person in question would either scoff at him and tell him to go do it himself; or simply take the damn item and move along, hoping for some positive response that would never follow. Because Alhaitham had the emotional range of a wet paper bag.
And that’s how Kaveh found himself in Port Ormos, sitting at a table outside with a sandwich paid for by Alhaitham’s bribe money. At least he made it worth Kaveh’s time, not that he had any other plans—but he definitely didn’t tell Alhaitham that. Going to the port gave him plenty of opportunity to engage with some familiar faces, and take a look around at whatever else popped up in the area while he waited for the jeweler to return the sealed envelope he turned over.
“What even is this?” He’d asked Alhaitham, who shrugged noncommittally and placed it in his hand with a note (also sealed) attached to the lip.
“Whatever you do, don’t open it,” the man answered cryptically—like he thought saying it like that wouldn’t entice him to peek inside as soon as he left their home. He didn’t. No, he knew better than to play Alhaitham’s game, but also, if he shouldn’t see it, then he wouldn’t see it. Simple as that. Not that it stopped him from occasionally shaking the envelope on the way to see if it made a recognizable sound. It didn’t—probably stuffed with something else. But clearly, some kind of piece of jewelry, since he ended up at a jewelry shop. Maybe a repair? Maybe an heirloom? Maybe the envelope had nothing in it at all and Alhaitham was just getting his kicks out of seeing Kaveh hike all the way over to Port Ormos on his request.
Even as petty as they were, Kaveh couldn’t see him going to such extremes to get a rise out of him. If he wanted that, he’d buy an ugly table to go with the ugly chair that appeared in the front room the week before. Living with a blind man (to anything beautiful at all apparently) could be so challenging.
He sighed, taking a big bite of sandwich. Watching people walk by—tourists and port workers alike—passed the time well enough. But the longer he stayed the more he wondered what it could be. Alhaitham wore some jewelry, but Kaveh didn’t see any of it missing when he left (and he looked! He always looked). He didn’t go out of his way to dig stuff out of storage to have to have it mended. Kaveh kept a pretty good lock on the house’s tidiness. The man didn’t have a jewelry box, to begin with; he laid all of his ornaments out on the table by where they slept.
By the time he finished his sandwich, the day had already passed well into the afternoon. He hadn’t been called back by the jeweler and he walked the majority of the port. If it took too much longer, he might have to find himself a room in an inn to spend the night (he had enough money for it, for once). But about the time he stood up to make leave, the jeweler’s apprentice came running out with the envelope and a polite bow. The letter had been detached, but the envelope had a fresh wax stamp to close it back up.
Since the apprentice didn’t ask for money (nor had the jeweler), Kaveh could only assume that payment either came with the sealed letter, or had been made in advance. Neither bothered him with the detail, so he didn’t stick around to wait.
He tucked the envelope under his belt, securing it where he knew it wouldn’t dislodge and made his way through the port to take a ferry back up to the city. About halfway down the docks, he paused, squinting to make sure the silhouette he thought he saw really belonged to who he thought. Sure enough, the telltale ears and tail (as well as the person beside him with his own identifiable outline) identified Tighnari—even at a distance. They seemed to be arriving, just as he planned to leave.
Without a doubt, their paths would cross, so he wandered toward them with no hurry—waving when they identified him as well.
“Kaveh,” Tighnari greeted when they met in the middle, “interesting to see you down here, I thought you were doing research in the House of Daena?”
“I took a short break to run an errand.”
“Errand?” Cyno asked, using as many words as Kaveh expected out of Alhaitham.
“Just a small thing,” he waved it off, “Alhaitham finds ways to be too lazy to do his own chores. He sent me to deliver, and apparently return with, some kind of trinket. I don’t know, I didn’t look.”
“You didn’t look?” Tighnari glanced toward Cyno, whose expression seemed to say something back to him (something that Kaveh couldn’t read, and thought better to not try).
“He asked me not to.”
Cyno found more than one word to respond: “All the more reason to look, honestly.”
“If I look, then he wins,” Kaveh pointed, knowing that Alhaitham would take his win and remind him for the rest of their natural lives (and then some). “Besides, it can’t be too important if he let me run off with it. Right?”
Somehow, Tignnari’s expression made him think he was already the loser of some big joke. But if true, Tighnari didn’t say; and Cyno definitely wouldn’t say, because he didn’t say much unprompted. In any case, he definitely didn’t plan to let them wiggle into the part of his brain that wanted to peek inside of the mystery envelope. He decided already, that he didn’t care!
“So what are you two in Ormos for? Strange to cross paths down here. If I’d known we’d be in the same place, I’d have invited you to lunch,” definitely willing to spend Alhaitham’s money.
“It was spur of the moment, I need an ingredient that I can get here easily,” Tightnari explained.
And Cyno offered: “I happened to be with him.”
“Ah, so you won’t be here long either, a real shame. We should get together sometime. Drink good wine and play a little cards, I heard there’s a few new cards that are shaking up the meta.”
Talk of cards always sparked something in Cyno that earned more of his precious scarce words. “I’ll look forward to it. Bring your best game.”
“Haha, I don’t have a choice playing against you,” Kaveh laughed, never having won a match against him, but still enjoying the experience (especially in the rare instances he could get Alhaitham’s nose out of a book to participate). “Well, have safe travels, I don’t want to miss my ferry,” he nodded to them both, exchanging both greetings and farewells within the same handful of minutes and parting with a pleasant feeling. Also sufficiently distracted for a few moments, before the curiosity around Alhaitham’s errand came back.
He boarded the ferry and found himself a nice place to watch the port get smaller in the distance as they made their way back to the city. By nightfall he’d be home. The trip up the river left him a few hours to contemplate, and he fiddled with the envelope a time or two before he convinced himself he wasn’t interested. Of course he was interested. Things having to do with Alhaitham subsequently made him nosy as hell.
But he refrained, considering instead, he could just ask him when he returned home. Worst case scenario is he discovered the envelope was empty all along so Alhaitham could get some peace and quiet. He chose not to believe that option. Because if Alhaitham wanted peace and quiet, he wouldn’t participate in their mutual bickering like he did. In a strange, slightly masochistic kind of way, Alhaitham enjoyed their seemingly hostile bantering. Only hostile to those who didn’t know them, of course.
When the ferry arrived, he departed and left the rest of the money Alhaitham gave him as a tip to the ferryman. Less money to give back and risk him buying ugly furniture with. Ugly furniture he’d be happy to see after a day being away. Opening the door to an annoying man he missed sharing space with for the daylight hours.
He unlocked the door and stepped inside, setting the keys on the table closest to the door. He then went through his ritual of removing whatever travel wear he took, while making his way into the house. “I’m home,” he called, receiving no immediate answer. Damn man must have his headphones blocking out the noise again. So he searched him out to a space by a window where he had his nose in a book like usual.
“Alhaitham! I am home !” He yelled, closer this time.
“I can hear you, no need to shout.”
“Eh—if you could hear me. Why didn’t you answer me the first time then?” Kaveh spared a glare in his direction, watching him put his book down and stand up to meet him. There Kaveh handed him the envelope directly.
“No reason. Just didn’t want to,” he offered, point blank. At least he’s honest . “How did your errand go?“
“Well enough. I ran into Tighnari and Cyno, who both told me I should have just opened it to see what nonsense you’re sending me off for. You’re lucky, I didn’t open it anyway.”
“I knew you wouldn’t.”
“Oh? And what makes you so confident?” Kaveh folded his arms, brow raised with his head tilted.
“Because I asked you not to. And I trusted you would take that into consideration.”
That pulled Kaveh’s expression back to one of: first surprise, then embarrassment, finally, exasperation. “You…like to watch me squirm too much. So are you going to tell me what you needed me to go all the way down to the port for?”
“No.”
He blanched at such a direct response, “Eh—?!” But Alhaitham then returned to him the resealed envelope—stamped in wax by the jeweler.
“You can look for yourself.”
Kaveh swore he saw the faintest edge of a smile on his impassive face (loathe to admit he adored seeing it). He took back the envelope before it really ever left his hand, prepared to be teased again in some way. At the very end of it all, at least his adventure didn’t come out of his own pocket (not that much did, his pockets weren’t too deep). He peeled back the wax stamp so he could pull up the flap, wiggling the adhesive loose. He worked his fingers in to fish out what he discovered to be cloth, then set the envelope down.
Holding the cloth in one hand, he unfolded the wrapping until all the edges of the square fabric draped down the sides of his hand. There in the center lay a glittering red gem inlaid into a gold band, with swirled accents etched into the metal and forged to look like grass blades hugging the jewel. Turning it over in his palm, he could see the engraved symbols of his own name. He almost dropped the damn thing on the spot—
“You… you really sent me on an errand to go get my own ring—you are the most unromantic man in the entire world—,” he raised a hand to cover his face (and to hide the red he felt peeking through.
“If I went myself, you would have suspected me of behaving in an uncharacteristic way more than if I just sent you with it.” He made a valid point, yet Kaveh still couldn’t believe this man’s level of audacity. But even so…
In a way, it had a weird sort of romance to it…in an Alhaitham, the man who goes through the nine circles of hell to avoid doing extra work, kind of way.
“You’re awfully confident I won’t pawn it, aren’t you,” Kaveh said, trying hard to mask the little wobble in his voice. He’d always been told he could be too expressive (and they weren’t wrong.)
“You won’t.”
“What makes you say that?”
At this, Alhaitham does give him a little smile (maybe more of a smirk, but a smile nonetheless). “Because you’re sentimental. And because I gave it to you.”
The audacity! The sheer gall to say this right to his face! Knowing…! Knowing he spoke the truth! That Kaveh would take the ring and cherish it silently until someone laid him in the ground with it. Certainly, Alhaitham was not wrong , but did he have to say it ? With that smile, acting like he could say one slightly romantic thing and make it work?
Because it did.
With his weakness struck, he closed his hand around the fabric (with the ring tucked inside) and then stepped forward to lean himself into the stoic, emotionally constipated man, that somehow filled a space in him he couldn’t explain. Opposites attract, some would argue; but they can also repel, he’d counter. Alhaitham did something , he could acknowledge, even if he couldn’t explain it in a logical way (and Alhaitham wouldn’t explain it at all, for risk of admitting he had one thought in his head that didn’t blend with the rest of his overbearing intellect).
“Would you like dinner? A friend in Mondstadt recommended an excellent wine to try with it.”
“Are you going to make me go get it?” He chuckled, pressing his face against his shoulder, in the crook of his neck. The single arm that slid around his waist said more than any of the words that would be wasted coming out of this man’s mouth.
“Would you?”
“Shut up—,” Kaveh exhaled, “why are you so insufferable…”
“Take your time and you’ll figure it out,” he answered, stepping to the side to lead him to their modest dining area.
Kaveh rolled his eyes, shaking his head lightly, and making brief eye contact with the menace that lived in the same house (as well as in his head). “That will take the rest of my life.”
Alhaitham said nothing in words, but the smirk spoke enough.