Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“What the fuck does that mean?” Kaveh snapped incredulously.

Apathetic as always, Alhaitham regarded Kaveh as though his suggestion was completely reasonable. “It means exactly what I said, Kaveh. We should get married. It’s only logical.”

Eyes widening in disbelief, Kaveh spluttered uselessly for several moments, fumbling for words. “Wh-what do - why - why would - what?”

“You owe it to me, really,” Alhaitham replied with an indifferent shrug. “I end up paying for most of your expenses given your inability to manage your finances, and this would be a significant tax benefit to me with the recent updates to the city code. It’s the least you could do.”

“You’re - no! No way. If I get married, it’s going to be for love, with a vibrant and beautiful ceremony. Besides, aren’t you in charge of the city code anywa-”

“Kaveh.” Alhaitham spoke his name like a command, brooking no argument... it only fanned the flames of Kaveh’s indignation higher.

“You insufferable, arrogant -” Kaveh began, ignoring the warmth he could feel creeping up his cheeks as his irritation mounted - but Alhaitham interrupted him yet again.

“Marriage is a contract, nothing more. It all comes down to benefits - social, financial - love has nothing to do with it. We’ll do it tomorrow morning. Good night.” Without another word, Alhaitham turned on his heel and strode down the hall toward his bedroom.

“You - you’re acting like I don’t even get a say in this! We don’t even have rings, what do you -”

“I’ll take care of it. Just meet me in my office at ten and I’ll arrange for a judge to perform a private ceremony.”

Alhaitham’s bedroom door clicked shut behind him, leaving Kaveh rooted to the spot. Involuntarily flustered, he stood alone in the hallway, mouth hanging open and heart pounding as anger, disbelief, and something deeper - insuppressible yet unallowable - rose within him.

Running a shaky hand through his hair, Kaveh eventually made his way down the hall to his room and collapsed onto the bed. As he slipped beneath the sheets and stared blankly at the ceiling, Kaveh struggled to quiet the storm of emotions whirling in his mind.

With an exasperated huff, he rolled onto his side and glared at the wall that separated his room from Alhaitham’s.

Marriage.

Marriage.

The word echoed relentlessly in his mind. He’d spent countless nights fantasizing about Alhaitham dropping to one knee, whispering tender words to Kaveh as he slid a golden ring onto his finger and pledged his devotion... but Kaveh would never want it like this - where he’d have Alhaitham in name but not in heart.

With a heavy sigh, Kaveh buried his face in his pillow. All of his romantic ideals, as usual, were quashed by the one man he actually yearned for such affections from - a marriage for the sake of fucking tax deductions.

Though it made sense in a cold, rational way, such a logical and disinterested proposal for Kaveh to willingly sacrifice his heart for nothing more than mora cut deep into his chest. And worst of all... Alhaitham was unaware that Kaveh’s heart could never even belong to anyone but him - that he was already the sole benefactor of Kaveh’s silent longing, having stolen Kaveh’s heart against his will long ago.

Kaveh curled around his pillow as if the soft cotton of his pillowcase could offer a reprieve from the turmoil churning deep in his stomach. He’d long since made peace with his unrequited love for Alhaitham, resigning himself to a lifetime of suppressed yearning - but this? This was torture, plain and simple, demanding mental gymnastics that Kaveh wasn’t confident he was flexible enough to contort himself into.

Silent tears spilled down Kaveh’s cheeks. Regardless of what happened, tomorrow was sure to bring destruction to the fragile guards surrounding his closed-off heart.

Kaveh eventually managed to drift in and out of a restless sleep, haunted by visions of an elegant wedding ceremony where he stood opposite Alhaitham - Alhaitham clad in resplendent green and Kaveh adorned with radiant gold - murmuring heartfelt, profound promises to the man he loved with unfathomable depth.

... The man who saw Kaveh as nothing more than a financial inconvenience.

It seemed like mere moments before Kaveh’s alarm rang, shrill and jarring amidst the tranquil light of dawn filtering through his window. Jerking awake from his troubled dreams, Kaveh glared at the warm sunshine that mocked him with a blissful ease he would surely not experience today.

With a deep groan, Kaveh clambered out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. If he was to be married today, he was at least going to look the part.

Flicking his wrist anxiously at his side, Kaveh approached Alhaitham’s office and glanced at the clock - 9:55 AM. With a shaky breath, he knocked on the door, smoothing down the golden embroidery of his sherwani and fiddling with the elegant bun he’d tied his hair into.

At Alhaitham’s answering grunt, Kaveh pushed the door open and stepped inside, heart pounding. Alhaitham, of course, looked unperturbed as ever, dressed in his usual attire without so much as a thread of change to his appearance.

“Good. You’re here,” Alhaitham droned, scribbling rapidly on a stack of forms on his desk without looking up. “The judge will be here soon. We can elect not to recite vows, but we need her to believe the marriage is real, so try not to look too sour.”

“Well if you wanted it to be more convincing, you should’ve put on something other than your stupid muscle shirt. At least I put a little effort into my appearance,” Kaveh snapped.

Alhaitham finally glanced up. Immediately, his piercing jewel-toned eyes caught on Kaveh’s strappy sandals, raking upward at an agonizingly glacial pace along every centimetre of Kaveh’s body.

The weight of Alhaitham’s eyes caressed his skin like a physical touch, liquid fire searing across Kaveh’s skin and igniting every inch of his body. Against his will, Kaveh’s cheeks flushed with a warmth he knew coloured his skin in a gentle blush - and for the millionth time, he cursed the effortless yet undeniable effect Alhaitham had on him without even trying.

“So you did,” Alhaitham eventually murmured; though his deep voice was no less detached than usual, there was something slightly darker lurking beneath. “My apologies that you’re not marrying someone with a fashion sense to match yours.”

Kaveh rolled his eyes and scoffed in an attempt to conceal how flustered he was, cursing his heart for the traitorous flutter of hope that blossomed in his chest. As he opened his mouth to retort, however, he was interrupted by a judge striding through the cracked door without knocking.

Prim and proper, she clutched a black folder in her arms and glanced between them appraisingly, clearly picking up on the strangely tense atmosphere. “Kaveh and Alhaitham... private marriage ceremony, yes? Did you pay the fee of 2,500 mora to the -”

Alhaitham lifted a stack of paperwork from his desk and handed it to her without a word.

She rifled through the pages, skimmed over a list in her folder as she checked each form off, then set the paperwork down on Alhaitham’s desk. Eyes narrowing, her gaze first paused on Kaveh, then shifted to Alhaitham.

Though part of him would’ve loved to let her figure out that this was all fake and watch Alhaitham get carted off by the Matra for tax fraud, Kaveh nevertheless stepped closer to him and slid his palm awkwardly around Alhaitham’s back in a stilted attempt to add some sort of intimacy to their façade.

Alhaitham stiffened at the touch but quickly relaxed, arm snaking around Kaveh’s waist as he pulled him closer. It both looked and felt far more natural than Kaveh would have imagined someone as robotic as Alhaitham to even be capable of.

Despite himself, Kaveh melted into Alhaitham’s side, savouring the gentle warmth of his broad palm against Kaveh’s hip.

The judge raised a skeptical brow as her eyes darted between them - but thankfully, she didn’t press further. “Have you elected to recite traditional marriage vows to each oth-”

“No,” Alhaitham cut her off bluntly.

Kaveh bristled and kicked him surreptitiously under the guise of shuffling closer, smiling politely at the judge. “He just means we’d like that part to be, um... private. Just the two of us.”

Kaveh’s anxiety that his flushed cheeks would betray the truth eased as the judge nodded in understanding. After all, Kaveh supposed, this would be the one situation in which it made sense for him to be flustered by Alhaitham; for once, he could simply pretend he was acting and allow his reactions to be displayed without inhibition.

As the judge cleared her throat and began reciting the legal proceedings for their marriage license - so bland and unromantic that Kaveh hardly recognized when it was time for him to say 'I do' - Kaveh’s attention strayed to the man beside him.

Kaveh was far too distracted by the strong hand on his waist, rubbing almost imperceptibly up and down, and the glint of the surprisingly beautiful rings in a delicate box on Alhaitham’s desk.

Trying valiantly to suppress a powerful swell of emotion that threatened to overtake him, Kaveh forced his trembling hand to remain steady as Alhaitham lifted the velvet box, drew Kaveh’s palm into his, and slowly slid a ring onto his finger.

It was a perfect fit.

The sharp bite of the cool gold against his skin nearly shattered Kaveh’s last shred of composure as he withdrew the matching ring from the box and mirrored Alhaitham. His desires were literally in the palm of his hand, held tantalizingly, torturously close... yet still taunting him, perpetually out of reach.

“... I now pronounce you married. You may kiss,” the judge finished, looking up at them expectantly with a small smile.

Kaveh froze, heart pounding so violently against his ribcage he was certain Alhaitham could hear it. Somehow, Kaveh hadn’t considered that this would be part of the ceremony - he’d assumed they would simply sign a few documents and be on their way.

Drawing in a shaky breath, he met Alhaitham’s gaze - his husband’s gaze - and tried to disregard the flutter in his stomach that accompanied the word as it burned itself into his mind’s eye. Alhaitham’s piercing azure eyes were watching him intently, pinning him in place, their usual apathy replaced with an intensity that Kaveh had never before seen Alhaitham display.

He waited for Alhaitham to deliver a disgusted peck to his lips, something quick and efficient to satisfy the judge... but his heart stuttered in his chest as Alhaitham turned to face him fully. The sturdy hand on Kaveh’s waist tightened as Alhaitham slowly lifted his palm to cradle Kaveh’s cheek, brushing his thumb against his cheekbone with a reverence that immediately felt far too intimate.

The space between them disappeared as Alhaitham leaned in, the warmth of his breath ghosting over Kaveh’s face and coaxing his skin to prickle with anticipation. Alhaitham’s gaze, filled with something that looked devastatingly close to an emotion Kaveh dared not name, flicked briefly to Kaveh’s lips before returning to his eyes.

“You look beautiful, Kaveh,” Alhaitham breathed huskily.

Heat lanced through Kaveh’s abdomen like pure electricity at the sultry, velvety rasp in Alhaitham’s voice - something Kaveh had only ever dreamed of hearing directed at him. Though he knew Alhaitham was only playing his part to appear more convincing to the judge, the unusual sincerity in his deep baritone made Kaveh dizzy.

Kaveh opened his mouth to reply - but the jumble of unformed words died in his throat as Alhaitham’s thumb traced a gentle line toward his ear, mouth drawing ever nearer as he tugged Kaveh forward.

Alhaitham’s lips were so close Kaveh could feel the heat radiating onto his own. Losing his ability to form coherent thoughts, every molecule of Kaveh’s body scattered then reformed to hone in on Alhaitham’s proximity as his warmth seeped through Kaveh’s clothes.

Kaveh inhaled shakily as Alhaitham’s palm curled around the nape of his neck, tilting his head with a slight yet electrifying tug.

Unable to hide his reactions as suspense settled into the ever-shrinking pocket of air separating them, Kaveh allowed himself to appear, for once, as fully affected as he truly was by Alhaitham’s presence.

Moving with a slowness that matched the sanctity of the moment, Kaveh lifted his palms to Alhaitham’s chest. He knew he would never again get a chance like this; and like hell was Kaveh going to relinquish his fragile, fleeting grasp on the intimacy he’d yearned for all these years.

The world around them vanished from Kaveh’s periphery as Alhaitham’s lips brushed against his - not quite a kiss, but enough to persuade the judge that they were simply shy of expressing intimacy in front of others.

Before Kaveh could sink too deep into the disappointment that the soft, chaste kiss would forever be his only experience of Alhaitham’s lips, Alhaitham exhaled a shaky breath and tugged Kaveh forward with unusually unsteady fingers.

Kaveh’s eyes widened as Alhaitham guided their lips together in another hesitant press... yet this time, it was anything but chaste.

In an instant, Kaveh’s veins burst into scorching flames. With a soft moan he was powerless to stifle as it was forcibly torn from the back of his throat, Kaveh tilted his head on instinct to slot his lips with Alhaitham’s.

Kaveh grasped for purchase on the defined muscles of Alhaitham’s chest as a long-stagnant fuse within his core ignited in a fiery blaze, immediately swirling far beyond his control. Heart leaping against the confines of his ribs in a frenzied rhythm, Kaveh surrendered to the intoxicating warmth of Alhaitham’s excruciatingly soft lips.

As Alhaitham’s tongue teased his lower lip with a featherlight brush, Kaveh barely managed to refrain from releasing a truly embarrassing whimper that threatened to spill from his throat. It was a touch so subtle and fleeting that Kaveh wondered if he’d simply imagined it... though before he could gather his thoughts, the gentle press disappeared at Kaveh’s lack of response.

Alhaitham began to draw back. Moving before his conscious mind caught up with his body, Kaveh leaned forward, chasing the intimacy of Alhaitham’s kiss - and for one horrifying moment, Alhaitham froze.

Berating himself internally for showing too much of his nonpermissible eagerness, Kaveh went still as well, breathing shamefully heavily against Alhaitham’s lips. He expected Alhaitham to withdraw, to regard Kaveh with unfettered contempt, to shove him away - anything other than how he actually responded.

Rather than reprimand Kaveh for his greed, Alhaitham suddenly wrapped a possessive hand around his jaw to hold Kaveh’s head in place and pressed their mouths together more forcefully.

Something fierce and unfamiliar swooped low in Kaveh’s abdomen as every muscle in his core simultaneously fluttered with a jolt of pleasure. This time, the gentle sweep of Alhaitham’s tongue against the seam of his lips was unmistakable - and, coupled with the breathless sigh that escaped Alhaitham’s throat - so sensual it nearly brought Kaveh to his knees.

With an insuppressible, guttural sound that reverberated through every shuddering nerve in his body, Kaveh yielded to Alhaitham’s silent command and parted his lips.

It was all far too much - the tender, almost reverent touch, the broad palm skimming the sensitive skin along the back of his neck and cradling Kaveh like he was the most priceless treasure in Sumeru, and the inexorable press of Alhaitham’s lips, somehow simultaneously gentle and ferocious.

In a distant, barely coherent corner of his mind, Kaveh registered that this kiss was far too long, far too passionate - even for a couple marrying for love rather than for tax purposes. Yet as Alhaitham deepened the kiss, all conscious thought disintegrated into the billowing inferno that was simply Alhaitham.

Unable to suppress it, Kaveh released a helpless moan at the slight increase in pressure; it wasn’t much, yet from Alhaitham it felt achingly tender... almost loving. Leaning into the kiss without reservation, Kaveh allowed Alhaitham to guide their movements and succumbed to the delusion - just for a moment - that this was real, that Alhaitham held even a fraction of the feelings for Kaveh that Kaveh had desperately harboured for so many years.

A low rumble of satisfaction vibrated through Alhaitham’s chest and sent heat sparking with a near-painful intensity through each individual nerve ending in Kaveh’s body. In an attempt to refrain from moaning lewdly with each increasingly sensual slide of their lips, Kaveh tangled his fingers in Alhaitham’s hair simply to have something to hold onto - though one single, gentle tug on Alhaitham’s soft strands instantly seemed to rouse something primal within Alhaitham.

Alhaitham drew Kaveh’s bottom lip between his teeth and tightened his grip with the steady pulse of his heartbeat. With an impatient exhale, he pressed his fingers into the side of Kaveh’s neck and the swell of his waist and pushed him backward, trapping Kaveh against the hard, cool wood of his desk until the edge bit so harshly into the backs of his thighs Kaveh had to fling a hand out behind him to steady himself on the mahogany surface.

The abrupt change in position alone sent Kaveh’s head spinning, but it was the sensation of Alhaitham’s firm, muscular frame engulfing him completely that truly left Kaveh breathless. Utterly consumed by the surging fire in Alhaitham’s touch, the razor-thin edge of control Kaveh had been clinging to slipped from his grasp as desperation to keep from moaning quickly morphed into desperation to never again allow an iota of distance to separate their bodies.

Clutching Alhaitham’s hair a little more fiercely with each heated kiss, Kaveh began to allow needy gasps to accompany his increasingly rapid exhales. In response, Alhaitham’s grip only grew tighter, looping his arm so securely around Kaveh’s waist that he no longer needed to support himself on the desk to remain upright.

As he sank into Alhaitham’s embrace, Kaveh lifted a hand to cup his jaw, toes curling beyond his control as Alhaitham’s powerful muscles flexed beneath his fingertips and a thick vein in his neck pulsed harshly against the pad of Kaveh’s pinky.

Finally as audibly affected as Kaveh was - or at least pretending to be - Alhaitham released a deep, sinful groan that thundered so powerfully between them Kaveh felt as though his world were being turned on its axis.

Kaveh was a drowning man gasping for breath... and Alhaitham was the air he couldn’t survive without.

This was the kiss Kaveh had always longed for. Alhaitham’s mouth moved against his with barely restrained abandon, a force of nature untethered. Every centimetre of Kaveh’s body exploded with sparks, each muscle in his core trembling with an earth-shattering storm of pleasure that built ever higher as his very being was scorched from the inside out.

Though he stopped just shy of where Kaveh was aching for his touch, Alhaitham slotted a thigh between Kaveh’s knees. His strong, sturdy palms snapped into place on either side of Kaveh’s hips, gripping so forcefully Kaveh was certain there would be permanent imprints of his fingertips on his skin - yet Kaveh was far too enraptured to care.

Truthfully, he welcomed the reminder that, even for a moment, he had been entirely Alhaitham’s.

Kaveh’s chest heaved each time Alhaitham’s lips drew away even for a millisecond; every time, without fail, Kaveh immediately pulled him back in to drown in the wet, intimate kiss, trying to press them even closer together as if Alhaitham’s body weren’t already plastered to his.

Though Kaveh knew he was beginning to tremble, he was powerless to stop it as he was utterly overcome by Alhaitham. One of his feet hovered off the ground as Alhaitham’s palm seared a relentless path down his abdomen, landing on the top of Kaveh’s thigh and tugging slightly; coupled with Alhaitham’s breathless groan, Kaveh could almost convince himself that Alhaitham was trying to urge Kaveh’s leg to wrap around his waist.

Alhaitham’s office was now entirely filled with the slick noise of their lips sliding against each other and the soft yet steadily growing sounds of pleasure they were both releasing, punctuated by ragged breaths through their noses and panting exhales between each kiss.

Fingers tensing on Kaveh’s thigh, Alhaitham once more took Kaveh’s bottom lip between his teeth and bit down, harsh and unyielding.

The line between illusion and reality crumbled entirely as Kaveh released the most debauched moan yet, careening quickly toward the edge of a blissful cliff of pleasure without so much as a single touch to the achingly slick pool of arousal between his thighs. It was an irrepressible, carnal invitation for Alhaitham to devour him as Kaveh grew bold enough - or perhaps simply deluded enough - to tilt his hips toward Alhaitham in a silent plea for friction.

Blistering heat curled in a tight coil deep in Kaveh’s core, threatening to swallow him whole as a line of arousal dripped like molasses down the inside of his thigh beneath his pant leg, no longer able to be contained by the confines of his clothes.

Just as he thought Alhaitham was finally going to push him down to lie flat against the desk - crawl on top of him and slot their hips together like Kaveh’s body so desperately begged for, muscles tense and primed for release - the sound of a throat being cleared abruptly snapped Kaveh out of his lustful delirium.

For a split second, Alhaitham’s fingers dug so roughly into Kaveh’s thigh it felt as though he would rather die than release him, each firm muscle in his body bundled with tension just as tightly wound as Kaveh’s... but Kaveh’s heart dropped with an ache for something that could never truly be his as Alhaitham released his thigh and pulled back.

Kaveh’s cheeks flooded with heat as the world slowly came back into focus. Alhaitham hadn’t yet released his hold on Kaveh’s waist, preventing him from toppling over onto the desk, though he dropped one hand down to the wooden surface beside Kaveh’s hips to steady himself.

Kaveh chanced a glance up at him - and archons, Alhaitham’s face nearly undid him more than the kiss.

Alhaitham didn’t look even remotely like his usual emotionless, stoic self - not in the slightest. His eyes were dark, pupils blown wide and gaze scorching, cheeks flushed and lips parted as he panted as though he’d just sprinted the entire length of the city.

Kaveh had never seen Alhaitham so much as blush before, but now... he looked utterly destroyed. The sight alone stole what little air remained in Kaveh’s body straight from his lungs.

Alhaitham’s fingers trembled ever so slightly as his palm glided to the small of Kaveh’s back, as if the force of what had just happened was too much for his body to contain.

It was as hypnotizing as it was disorienting.

Heart pounding, Kaveh opened his mouth to attempt a shaky apology to the judge, but Alhaitham released a soft, almost pained sound - nearly inaudible - and drew Kaveh in for one final, chaste kiss.

Though gentle and quick, this kiss somehow felt laced with even more desperation than the rest combined. The intimate brush of lips, while brief, ignited an entirely new sensation in Kaveh; it set him aflame not only with desire, but with a bittersweet, bone-deep sorrow he’d nearly forgotten to feel as Alhaitham’s lips reincarnated every atom in his body.

It was a sobering reminder that Kaveh would never again get to feel the warmth of Alhaitham’s lips on his - that none of this was real, no matter how desperately Kaveh wished it were.

“Ahem,” the judge cleared her throat, eyebrow raised in amusement. With supreme effort, Kaveh forced his gaze away from the man before him and glanced at the woman who’d just witnessed the most passionate kiss of his life. “Young love. Nothing like it. Your ceremony is complete - I hope you two have a long and happy life together.”

Clearing his throat gruffly, Alhaitham withdrew his arm from around Kaveh.

Immediately, Kaveh’s body screamed in protest, suddenly far too cold without the solid warmth of Alhaitham’s body against his... but, in a familiar, practiced denial of his deepest desires, Kaveh shoved the ache down and forced himself to appear at least somewhat composed.

“Thank you,” Alhaitham responded, his deep voice rougher than Kaveh had ever heard it.

Utterly drained, Kaveh attempted to steel himself as he stepped away from Alhaitham. He avoided the gaze he knew would tear him apart if he looked into those darkened teal eyes for another second - lest he be tempted by the idea that Alhaitham was doing anything more than putting on a show.

The judge chuckled softly and packed up her paperwork, waving genially as she turned to exit. “You two seem quite compatible. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of fun on the honeymoon. Congratulations again.”

Kaveh could only muster up an awkward smile and a strangled grunt in response - but Alhaitham remained quiet, his usual impassive mask firmly back in place despite the lingering redness on his cheeks.

The door clicked shut behind the judge, and the silence that fell in the office was almost as deafening as Kaveh’s pounding heart.

Staring blankly at the wood paneling of Alhaitham’s door, Kaveh drew upon every ounce of strength he possessed to remain upright rather than collapse in a boneless heap on the floor as his body was threatening to.

Every breath ached more than the last as Kaveh fiddled absentmindedly with the ring now adorning his left hand. He wondered, with near-hysterical desperation, if he’d ever recover from the devastation of being so freely given the most sensual experience of his life - let alone without removing so much as a single article of clothing - then forevermore denied the warmth of the only intimate touch he had ever truly desired.

The sting of tears behind his eyes should’ve surprised Kaveh... but it didn’t. The burn only grew stronger as Alhaitham turned away and sat down at his desk, rolling his chair immediately into place and picking up his pen.

“I have work to do. See you at home. Lock the door on your way out.” Though Alhaitham’s tone was dismissive, there was an odd, unreadable edge to his voice.

Kaveh nodded numbly, unable to form a single word through the roil of emotions suddenly clouding his throat. Of course Alhaitham would react like this - the world hadn’t just been set on fire for him as it had for Kaveh, no matter how deeply Kaveh wished he wasn’t alone in his desire.

It shouldn’t have hurt, really - after all, Kaveh knew that this was nothing but a financial agreement. Still, seeing Alhaitham return so quickly to his usual affect as though nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred felt like a brutal slap to the face.

“Okay,” Kaveh croaked, clearing his throat and trying to steady his expression. With one final lingering glance at Alhaitham - who refused to even look at Kaveh - he stepped out the door and locked it with a click as his vision blurred.

Chapter Text

As the door to his office closed behind Kaveh with a soft click, Alhaitham glanced up to make sure it was really locked... then, in an instant, his hands were fumbling with the fastening of his pants.

That damn kiss was supposed to have been a simple display - nothing more than a performance for the judge. But the moment Alhaitham’s lips brushed against Kaveh’s, it was as though a switch had flipped in his brain, powering down the unassailable logic that guided his every action and leaving only raw sensation, forcing him to do nothing more than simply feel.

He’d been so consumed by the unyielding warmth of Kaveh’s body that his lips had moved of their own volition, deepening the kiss to something far more intimate than he ever should’ve allowed himself. And now that Alhaitham knew the heaven it was to hold Kaveh in his arms, to have his long-suppressed desire responded to with equal measure - though he knew it had only been acting on Kaveh’s part - Alhaitham didn’t know how he was ever going to survive looking Kaveh in the eye again without fraying the seam of his pants.

By some miracle, Alhaitham had managed to feign enough composure to conceal the churning pit of desire his insides had been transformed into, but he knew he wouldn’t have been able to keep it up for very long. Nearing his breaking point, he’d needed to get Kaveh out the door before he could notice the glaringly obvious physical reaction Alhaitham’s body had to the supernova of paradise that was Kaveh’s lips.

Alhaitham hadn’t even been able to bring himself look at him as he left - Kaveh had shown up to his office as though outfitted by a deity, perfection from head to toe in a white sherwani with golden embroidery that traced every graceful curve of his body... the very curves that Alhaitham now knew from experience fit beneath his palm like Kaveh was made to be held by him.

Alhaitham’s heart had ached at the telltale warble in Kaveh’s voice just before he walked out the door that meant he was fighting back tears, but he hadn’t been able to summon the wherewithal to comfort Kaveh when he himself was struggling so desperately to suppress his emotions.

Their powerful emotions, however, sprung from very different causes - and that in and of itself was the problem. While Alhaitham’s despair was borne from an unrequited love that he knew would never be returned to him, no matter how ardently his heart attempted to convince him that Kaveh could ever love him too... Kaveh’s sadness was conceived from the fact that he was being forced to marry Alhaitham at all.

But Alhaitham hadn’t had a choice.

Only days earlier, Alhaitham had unearthed an illicit trail leading to several discontented former Akademiya scholars. They were plotting to conduct an experimental set of trials for knowledge implantation devices - an unregulated alternative to the now-defunct akasha terminals.

From what Alhaitham had managed to gather, it was clear that the trials would be inherently dangerous and lack any formal oversight; however, since it was funded by a private source outside the Akademiya, he had no authority to regulate it.

After calling in several favors, Alhaitham had managed to get his hands on the preliminary requirements for volunteering as a test subject - age range, gender, marital status, medical history... and Kaveh checked every box.

Unfortunately, given the suspiciously generous financial reward for participants, he knew Kaveh would risk everything to sign up - regardless of how hard Alhaitham tried to convince him otherwise - in his desperation to pay off his debt to Dori.

The only criterion that was changeable... was marital status.

The very next day, Alhaitham single-handedly rewrote the city code. Using his power as Grand Sage for something useful for once rather than placating whiny scholars complaining about rejected proposals, he’d made taxation in Sumeru far more favourable to married couples.

Truthfully, though his entire plan to protect Kaveh now hinged on a proposal he never expected to deliver, Alhaitham would’ve leapt at the chance to ask Kaveh to marry him the day they met in the Akademiya courtyard when they were just kids.

Or, more realistically... after they published their joint thesis exploring an obsolete, ancient language at eighteen. However, Kaveh had stormed away after ripping their final draft to shreds with a finality that made it painfully clear to Alhaitham in an instant that his dreams of a life shared were purely his own.

Alhaitham still recalled the keen sting he’d felt as Kaveh shouted those five heart-stopping words - I wish we’d never met - as though it were yesterday. The edges of the velvet box in his pocket had pressed sharply against his fingers as Kaveh’s braid swished angrily out of sight and extinguished any final remnants of Alhaitham’s hope, every romantic word he’d planned to utter instantly as dead as the language that nobody alive other than them understood as his future crumbled before his very eyes.

Alhaitham had never even gotten a chance to bring Kaveh to the courtyard and drop down on one knee as he’d planned to later that very same day.

A month before graduation, Alhaitham had spent a quarter of his grandmother’s considerable inheritance commissioning the creation of the very rings that now adorned his and Kaveh’s fingers. Now, he’d successfully kept the rings concealed in the drawer of his nightstand ever since their friendship fractured along with the tattered pages of their manuscript nearly a decade ago.

After all this time, the rings had now finally been removed from their box for a purpose other than Alhaitham’s bittersweet yearning as he stared at them each night, filled with a profound ache as he longed for a universe in which Kaveh loved him too.

Though their broken friendship had long since mended into something more amicable after they reconnected, each having made a conscious effort to not only see each other more clearly but accept their own flaws, reflected in the cracks of each other’s tattered psyches... Alhaitham knew without a doubt that Kaveh would never choose him as anything more than a friend.

He would never marry Alhaitham.

He would never love Alhaitham.

Alhaitham had known that for years now, long since having realized that the affection he’d once believed to be reciprocated in their youth was nothing more than wishful thinking. He’d simply read into the shared glances, the constant proximity, and the late nights spent poring over books side-by-side, filling Alhaitham with a warmth he’d never found with anyone other than Kaveh.

Kaveh was, undeniably, the love of his life. But to Kaveh, Alhaitham knew he was merely a harsh, pragmatic realist - nothing more than a convenient option to live with when Kaveh had needed shelter from the storm of repercussions from his realized ideals.

Given that Alhaitham knew he and Kaveh would never be anything more than friends - outside of Alhaitham’s dreams, that is - Alhaitham had grown adept at masking his desire. After all, he’d had to deal with living with Kaveh for years now.

There were only so many times a man could be presented with a soft, sweet, sleepy Kaveh padding out of his bedroom as gentle morning sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows, brewing two cups of perfectly made coffee and crafting one for Alhaitham with the exact blend of spices he liked - all while wearing the most sinfully small shorts in Teyvat that hugged his curves with agonizing perfection - before having to excuse himself to shower, lest Kaveh catch sight of the monster in his pants that sprung up to greet Kaveh every chance it got.

As such, Alhaitham had been forced to become exceptionally skilled at concealing his ardour... but never had he been confronted with longing this fierce.

Snapping out of his reverie with a heavy sigh, Alhaitham leaned back in his chair and freed his bulging erection from his pants as memories of their kiss lingered on his lips, replaying on a steady loop in his mind. He shot a glare up at the ceiling, cursed the archons for granting him just enough of a taste of heaven to become utterly addicted before ripping it out of his grasp, and wrapped a hand around his achingly hard length.

Running his fingers through his hair with a low groan, he palmed himself firmly and ground his hips upward into his fist. After one final, validating glance at the lock on the door, he allowed his eyes to fall shut and tightened his grip.

Kaveh.

Images flashed through his head - Kaveh’s swirling crimson-golden eyes, his gentle hands, his unbelievably plush lips, the warmth of his body, the blissful sounds of his sweet moans that were now burned into Alhaitham’s memory...

Though Alhaitham had memorized every contour of Kaveh’s body years ago from stolen glances alone, he never imagined that he would be lucky enough to know the sensation of Kaveh’s body pressed against his firsthand.

“Kaveh,” he whispered. Unable to repress his desire, he tugged at his own hair in the same place Kaveh’s fingers had just been buried as he’d clung to Alhaitham with a fervor that mirrored his own.

Alhaitham knew it was merely his desperate heart yearning to convince his mind of a love that could not be... but given how fiercely Kaveh had kissed him, Alhaitham could almost persuade himself that Kaveh had longed for the touch of his lips, too. Just before he’d pulled back from their passionate kiss, Alhaitham could’ve sworn Kaveh made an attempt to grind their hips together - though it was probably nothing more than his delusional imagination.

Regardless, Alhaitham thrust upward into his hand and imagined his hip bones meeting the smooth, warm skin of Kaveh’s body instead of the harsh muscle of his own forearm.

In truth, Alhaitham had entirely forgotten that they weren’t alone the instant their lips had met - that the judge stood witness on the other side of the room, privy to each second of the best few minutes of Alhaitham’s life - but Kaveh hadn’t. That must have been why he let Alhaitham get so carried away, kiss him with far more sensuality than Kaveh should ever have allowed... and, crucially, to act as though he desired more of Alhaitham’s touch rather than shove him away in disgust.

After all, the judge certainly wouldn’t question the validity of their marriage now. Though it had felt like driving daggers into his own chest as he resorted to crude manipulation of Kaveh’s sweet yet fragile heart, Alhaitham had been unyielding and harsh when insisting on the rushed ceremony the night before.

He knew he’d needed to be. Kaveh rarely heeded warnings regarding his own personal safety - his indifference to danger was, at times, disturbing. Guilt, however, was unfortunately an incredibly effective tactic when wielded against a tender spirit like Kaveh’s... and his wellbeing was far too important for Alhaitham not to do everything within his power to protect him.

His strategy had proven effective. Given Alhaitham’s insistence - and Kaveh’s lack of protest this morning - Alhaitham knew the guilt-trip had achieved what it needed to. Kaveh likely deemed it important to be convincing in front of the judge since he believed Alhaitham truly felt Kaveh owed him his hand in marriage for the sake of some measly mora.

Mind swirling with equal parts remorse and adoration, Alhaitham stroked himself more urgently. With each shaky echo of Kaveh’s name that spilled from his lips, another thread of the tapestry spun from years worth of carefully woven restraint unravelled within him.

Alhaitham felt as if he were being burned alive from the inside now that he’d tasted the divinity of Kaveh’s lips so intimately. Hips bucking upward as heat swelled embarrassingly quickly in his abdomen, he allowed his mind to conjure up a forbidden fantasy.

Behind closed eyelids, he saw Kaveh spread out beneath him, flushed and panting - and that damned judge nowhere in sight. He pictured himself parting the rich fabric of Kaveh’s sherwani as he lay sprawled across Alhaitham’s desk, writhing in pleasure and begging for more, fingers tangled with a blazing heat in Alhaitham’s hair as their bodies rocked together.

Alhaitham’s devotion was so profound that he could almost hear his own name being called in breathless gasps, could almost feel Kaveh’s nails raking along his back as Alhaitham pressed deep inside of him...

... could almost see the affection mirrored in Kaveh’s eyes as he whispered 'I love you', the cool metal of the wedding ring Alhaitham had always longed to give him pressed against Alhaitham’s back.

“Kaveh. Kaveh... Kaveh,” he groaned, tugging on his hair just as Kaveh had until the pressure in his muscles finally released. He came into his fist in hot, messy waves, imagining he was instead buried deep in the warmth of Kaveh’s body that somehow felt both closer and yet more distant than it had ever been.

He slumped back into his chair and panted shallowly as reality settled into his awareness. Glaring at the sticky white mess that now coated his fingers and painted the wood of his desk rather than Kaveh’s skin, Alhaitham released a weary, resigned sigh.

“Fuck.”

Kaveh stumbled out of the Akademiya in a daze. He barely managed to hold himself together long enough to force his feet to carry him home, the sound of his hurried footsteps and laboured breaths providing a weak yet much-needed distraction from the memory of Alhaitham’s touch.

Somehow, he reached their doorstep without collapsing. The silence that met him as he slammed the door shut behind him was nearly unbearable; though the quiet of their home was usually comfortable, it was as though the very air itself was now oppressive.

He sank onto the divan, head in his hands, and ripped the fastening of his sherwani open. Drawing in several deep breaths, he attempted to regain his bearings and shake off the lingering warmth of Alhaitham’s touch - but it was a futile effort. Every centimetre of his body was forevermore branded with Alhaitham’s presence, permanent and irrevocable.

The memory of their kiss hollowed Kaveh’s chest with the heavy weight of his suppressed yearning. Though Kaveh had experienced his fair share of passionate encounters before, the way Alhaitham’s lips had seared against his made it painfully clear to Kaveh that he’d never been truly kissed until then.

Alhaitham’s deep, sexy groans replayed in his mind, punctuated by the gentle growls that had underpinned each one as he’d pressed Kaveh against the desk - hungry and desperate, as though he desired Kaveh more than anything in Teyvat. Exhaling a graceless huff with equal parts lust and resignation, frustrated that Alhaitham was such a skilled actor he could make Kaveh feel the power of an emotion that he knew deep down didn’t exist, he flopped onto his back on the divan.

He was embarrassed by the pool of slick warmth that dripped down his inner thighs; but, though he could usually sideline the burning desire he felt for Alhaitham after years of practiced discipline... this was a fucking inferno.

Kaveh knew he wasn’t thinking clearly. It was far, far too tempting to get carried away with the fantasy of Alhaitham wanting him - yet he could no longer suppress the ache between his thighs as he ran a trembling hand down his abdomen.

A breathless moan escaped Kaveh’s lips as his eyes fluttered closed. He slipped his fingers beneath his waistband, lifted a hand to his neck in an attempt to recreate the sensation of Alhaitham’s fingers gripping his nape, then dipped his fingers between his folds and began rubbing in rapid, frantic circles.

Slick sounds filled the living room as his breathing grew ragged. It wasn’t enough.

No matter what he did, it would never be enough... because it wasn’t Alhaitham.

Kaveh’s entire being ached with the torturous, insatiable need for Alhaitham’s touch. Eyes squeezed shut, Kaveh allowed desperate whines to spill from his lips, rocking his hips against his hand as he tried valiantly to mimic the feeling of Alhaitham’s powerful body pressing against him, trapped beneath that burning yet icy gaze.

“Haitham,” Kaveh gasped as he slid two fingers deep inside the embarrassingly wet mess between his thighs. “H-Haitham... Haitham...”

Kaveh’s body yearned for release, crying out for even a whisper of Alhaitham’s warmth - but no matter how he touched himself, he couldn’t reproduce the feeling of Alhaitham’s strong hands holding Kaveh as if... as if he loved him.

Back arching off the cushion, Kaveh’s soft whines morphed into whimpers, each breathless exhale a plea to satiate something within him that he was unable to quell.

Kaveh bit his bottom lip harshly, teeth digging into his skin just as Alhaitham’s had with each sensual pulse of their kiss. The memory, in conjunction with a twinge of pain from the blooming bruises on either side of his hips where Alhaitham had clutched him with the force of a tempest, sent Kaveh careening over the edge without warning.

Alhaitham’s name - his husband’s name - spilled from Kaveh’s lips as his body convulsed.

Waves of release crashed through him as he lifted his hand from his neck to his lips in an attempt to preserve Alhaitham’s kiss. The simple motion was accompanied by a shockwave of pleasure - powerful yet utterly unsatisfying - as the elegant wedding ring on his finger pressed against his chin.

He collapsed back onto the couch with a final utterance of the only name Kaveh ever gasped out when he came, panting raggedly. His body trembled with residual aftershocks as his loud, uneven breaths filled the too-quiet air of their home.

As the final flickers of his pleasure were extinguished and the obscene wetness coating his fingers and inner thighs began to cool in the harsh, biting air of reality, only a bitter ache remained in its place.

“Fuck.”

When Alhaitham arrived home from work later that evening, Kaveh wasn’t in his usual spot on the divan.

Trying to suppress the ever-growing gnawing sensation that immediately deepened in his chest, Alhaitham tried to be understanding - he knew Kaveh would need time to process the fact that they were now husbands. If Kaveh had a list of potential marriage candidates, Alhaitham knew he would be at the very bottom.

He shoved down the yearning that swelled within him and reminded himself for the hundredth time that day that this was all for Kaveh’s protection. Even if Kaveh was miserable, even if he hated Alhaitham... at least he was safe.

Alhaitham would choose a thousand times over for Kaveh to view him as a heartless monster if it meant he’d be sheltered from harm.

Much to Alhaitham’s dismay, Kaveh didn’t leave the sanctuary of his bedroom for the remainder of the night. Though he could hear Kaveh shuffling around, the lights beneath his door remained off; he didn’t even emerge for dinner, upending the domestic, cherished ritual of their usual shared evening meal that Alhaitham had grown unhealthily attached to.

After hovering outside Kaveh’s door with a freshly made bowl of curry and deliberating for far too long, Alhaitham finally placed it beside the doorframe with a quiet, “I’m leaving dinner here for you. Please eat. You don’t have to talk to me.”

Keeping to his word, he retreated to his own room and slumped into bed. He stared at the wall that separated their bedrooms with such intensity he may as well be attempting to burn right through the wood paneling - but the wall remained solid as ever.

Much like the wall between his and Kaveh’s hearts.

Alhaitham lay awake for hours and stared unblinkingly into the darkness. Even when he closed his eyes, he was unable to stop the relentless replay of their kiss in his head - every touch, every moan, every shiver - regardless of how desperately he attempted to force it out of his mind.

Morning approached like a glacier. After several hours of restless tossing and turning, Alhaitham scrubbed a hand over his face and slid out of bed, resigning himself to a Saturday marred by exhaustion.

Though it was barely five o’clock, far too early for the sun to have even thought about rising, Alhaitham dragged himself down the hall like a zombie and set the coffee press to brew.

Smiling faintly at the bowl he’d left out for Kaveh that now sat empty in the sink, Alhaitham poured himself a sloppy, unsatisfying cup of coffee, then turned to shuffle back down the hallway toward his room - only for Kaveh’s door to swing open right in front of him.

Alhaitham stopped short, but Kaveh - clearly not expecting Alhaitham to be awake this early and therefore paying no attention to his surroundings - slammed directly into him.

Piping hot coffee splashed over both of their chests as it sloshed from his mug.

“Shit,” Kaveh hissed. Though he jumped back on instinct, Kaveh was in Alhaitham’s personal space again immediately, frantically tugging at the hem of Alhaitham’s shirt. “Shit, shit, I’m sorry, Haitham - gods, it’s all over you.”

Caught in a state of shock, Alhaitham barely even registered the burn of the scalding liquid. He didn’t resist as Kaveh plucked the mug from his hand, set it down on the bookshelf beside them, and stood on his tiptoes to yank Alhaitham’s shirt over his head.

Kaveh tugged his own off with a strangled grunt, then dabbed at Alhaitham’s bare chest with the cloth that still carried the heat of Kaveh’s skin to mop up the lingering droplets. “Are you okay? Did it burn you?” Kaveh asked urgently, dropping their shirts to the ground after hastily wiping himself off as well.

Much to Alhaitham’s surprise, instead of retreating, Kaveh stepped closer and pressed his palms directly against Alhaitham’s chest, checking methodically for damage with far more physical contact than necessary.

Instantly cured of all remaining sleepiness in his groggy mind, Alhaitham blinked down at Kaveh with wide eyes. He was powerless to conceal a sharp inhale as Kaveh slowly massaged Alhaitham’s skin with his thumbs - though the harsh breath seemed to snap Kaveh back to reality.

The gentle fingers on Alhaitham’s pecs froze. Kaveh drew in a shaky breath as he lifted his gaze to meet Alhaitham’s, then stepped back with his hands raised defensively - and, in his haste, nearly backed into the puddle of spilled coffee and discarded shirts behind him.

Reflexively, Alhaitham coiled his arms around Kaveh’s waist and tugged him forward, bringing Kaveh even closer than he had been before with miles of warm, bare skin pressed together as Kaveh steadied himself with his palms on Alhaitham’s shoulders.

A suspended silence stretched between them, broken only by the increasingly rapid thudding of their hearts against each other’s chests and their shaky, uneven breaths. The heat of Kaveh’s palms was more scorching than the coffee as the air in the hallway thickened; though their gazes remained locked, neither one seemed to be able to say a word.

Alhaitham loosened his grip on Kaveh but didn’t release him. Unthinkingly, he allowed his palms to drift along the soft skin of Kaveh’s back, tentative and aimless, as they stared at each other.

Finally, Kaveh whispered, “you, um... you never answered me. Are you okay?”

Chests sticking together with the remnants of the coffee drying on their skin, Alhaitham nodded. “I’m fine,” he breathed huskily. “Are you?”

Alhaitham skimmed his fingertips along the divots of Kaveh’s ribs, tracing from his back to his chest, and brought his hand to rest atop Kaveh’s heart under the guise of checking for damage as Kaveh had. As Alhaitham’s thumb brushed over his nipple, Kaveh’s eyes fluttered, his response dying mid-syllable in his throat as he released a quiet gasp.

Almost imperceptibly, he arched into Alhaitham’s caress.

Quickly clearing his throat, Kaveh tried again, this time managing to choke out a breathless, “m'fine.”

With so much of Kaveh’s bare skin against his, unfathomably intimate, Alhaitham could hardly think. Unable to stop his body from responding instinctively as a steadily growing tent protruded noticeably in the loose fabric of his sweatpants, however, Alhaitham reluctantly eased away.

For a moment, he could’ve sworn Kaveh chased his embrace with a soft whine - but it was nothing more than a harsh, sudden cough that Kaveh turned away to stifle into his arm.

“I’ll, um... I’ll clean this up,” Kaveh said blankly without turning around.

Though Alhaitham would have ordinarily offered to do so himself, he didn’t argue - after all, the ever-encouraged bulge in his pants made retreat more pressing than protest. It twitched interestedly as Kaveh bent over to pick up their shirts from the floor, the lean muscles of his small waist stretching in an elegant, tantalizing curve as Kaveh’s ass was presented directly to Alhaitham’s hungry gaze.

Fighting the urge to stare - and failing for several long moments as his eyes devoured Kaveh’s body - Alhaitham finally managed a low grunt of acceptance and turned on his heel without another word to relegate himself to the privacy of his shower.

Chapter Text

Kaveh trudged out of his room on Monday morning, hair tousled and eyes puffy. He’d gotten far too little sleep the past few nights, his ever-wakeful mind replaying that goddamn kiss over and over.

Though he’d managed a few hours of sleep from sheer exhaustion, the shallow rest had done little to soothe the deep ache in his chest that had been growing since Friday’s ceremony in Alhaitham’s office.

Padding into the kitchen and sleepily jabbing the coffee press until it began dripping into the carafe, Kaveh attempted to shake off the remnants of his most recent dream: Alhaitham making love to him on his desk, spreading Kaveh’s thighs like butterfly wings and burying himself deep inside with that addictively suggestive blush that had been present on his handsome face after he’d pulled back from their kiss.

Biting his lip, Kaveh toyed absently with the ring on his left hand.

He’d spent an inordinate amount of time staring at his fingers over the weekend, inspecting the ring so closely he could sketch every intricate detail from memory. Given his thorough examination, Kaveh had quickly noticed that the metal was slightly worn in a way that occurred only with time, though it appeared to have been recently polished.

For the briefest of moments, Kaveh had allowed himself to believe that Alhaitham had selected the ring with him in mind. It was precisely Kaveh’s taste after all - delicate golden filigree set with glittering ruby and emerald enshrined in the center - and the matching band suited Alhaitham so well it was as though the rings had been custom-made just for the two of them.

But Kaveh had quickly rid himself of the notion; it must merely be a coincidentally captivating family heirloom, nothing more than another layer of torture for Kaveh’s wishful heart.

With a tired sigh, he bent over and rested his head on his forearms atop the counter. Though he vaguely registered Alhaitham entering the kitchen, Kaveh didn’t possess the energy to look up, far too exhausted by the unyielding tension between them that had been present for the past few days.

“Morning,” Alhaitham murmured. As it was every morning, his voice was distractingly husky... though the low rasp was also now dangerously reminiscent of the way his tone had deepened after their kiss.

Kaveh flinched as the warm, broad palm that had featured an unhealthy amount in his recent dreams slid onto the small of his back, accompanied by Alhaitham’s subtle yet alluringly masculine scent invading his senses. Eyes flying open, Kaveh stared blankly at the countertop beneath his face - yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bring himself to pull away from Alhaitham’s uncharacteristic caress.

Much to Kaveh’s surprise, Alhaitham had become strangely tactile whenever their paths unavoidably crossed since Friday’s ceremony; he was suddenly touchy with Kaveh in a way he never had been before, almost always with his left hand. Though Kaveh had tried to avoid him all weekend, there was only so much he could do to isolate himself when they shared a bathroom and a kitchen.

“Um... morning.”

Alhaitham exhaled a thoughtful hum as his palm glided up Kaveh’s side to rub gentle circles beneath his shoulder blade. Kaveh’s skin crackled with embers of warmth; though he knew it meant nothing at all to Alhaitham, he couldn’t help but ignite like dry tinder as heat trailed behind Alhaitham’s fingertips.

Kaveh bit back a contented sigh. Though small, the affectionate gesture was tender in a way that was unsafe for Kaveh to know as anything other than foreign - it was far too tempting to allow himself to believe in a love that he knew would never be his.

If he did, he would surely fall prey to the delusion that this was something real. Something more.

“You didn’t sleep well again?” Alhaitham’s voice was even, yet each syllable was edged with a hint of concern.

Regrettably, even that fraction of intimacy - in combination with the uncommonly gentle touch - began to take its toll, and Kaveh found himself leaning into Alhaitham’s palm involuntarily in his sleep-deprived, vulnerable state.

“No,” Kaveh muttered, unable to suppress some of the bitterness that bled into his tone. “Why do you care?”

After a prolonged pause that lasted so long Kaveh wondered if he would respond at all, Alhaitham replied softly, “people care for their husbands, do they not?”

Kaveh’s traitorous heart leapt into his throat, but he forcefully repressed the fluttering blossoms of hope. “Yeah, well... you’re not like that, Haitham. We’re not like that.”

Though Alhaitham was usually quick and decisive with his every word, another weighted, long pause filled their kitchen.

“Perhaps not,” Alhaitham finally said. With a slow exhale, he brushed his thumb along the nape of Kaveh’s neck above his shirt collar, then traced a slow, achingly gentle line down his spine - but this time, he dipped his fingertips beneath the opening in the back of Kaveh’s shirt to slide directly along his bare skin. “Or perhaps marriage has changed me.”

Clenching his jaw tightly as his knuckles whitened with tension, Kaveh fought back a shiver. The amount of willpower required to suppress it only deepened as Alhaitham’s palm grew less tentative and flattened against his mid-back, rubbing in warm, addictively soothing circles.

Don’t do this to me, Kaveh pleaded silently, shoulders hunching inward as his hands curled into fists beneath his head. Don’t toy with my heart any more than you already have.

Forcing himself not to get lost in Alhaitham’s affection, Kaveh exhaled a harsh sigh. “Like that’s possible. You don’t care about me enough to -”

Before he could finish, strong, firm fingers abruptly wrapped around his chin and turned his head to face Alhaitham. Kaveh’s body followed suit, infuriatingly pliant without his permission as he surrendered to Alhaitham on instinct and stood rigid to meet his gaze.

Alhaitham’s chiseled features were drawn with an entirely unreadable expression as they held each other’s eyes for a beat too long. As Alhaitham’s grasp on Kaveh’s chin softened to something almost torturously tender, Kaveh couldn’t suppress a tremulous inhale, leaning into Alhaitham’s palm once again despite himself.

Punctuated by a heavy silence, the furrow in Alhaitham’s brow only deepened; instantly, dread surged through Kaveh’s stomach. Though he was usually skilled at keeping his feelings from seeping into his expression, sleep deprivation had stripped him of his usual control, and Kaveh was almost certain his longing was written across his weary features as clearly as an open book.

At last, without any indication of the true emotions that simmered beneath the stony mask on his face, Alhaitham slowly lifted a mug from the counter and pressed it into Kaveh’s hand.

“Drink your coffee, Kaveh.”

Utterly lost in the swirling pools of Alhaitham’s azure eyes, Kaveh barely registered the weight of the ceramic in his palm. He tried not to allow the intensity and laser focus in Alhaitham’s gaze to take root, but warmth - as well as something far deeper and entirely unmanageable - was already curling through Kaveh’s skin.

“And I do care about you,” Alhaitham murmured. “So fix whatever’s making you sleep so poorly. You look like shit.”

Though a keen, familiar sting should have accompanied such harsh words, all Kaveh could feel was serenity; regrettably, even one of Alhaitham’s biting insults was unable to extinguish the flames of desire that prickled along Kaveh’s skin as Alhaitham’s thumb traced a line beneath his baggy eye.

With aching domesticity, his fingertips glided along Kaveh’s skin in a way that was neither encouraging nor demanding, but carried a gentle sturdiness that soothed Kaveh down to his very bones.

Shaking his head to try and clear the daze, Kaveh poured his coffee with unsteady hands; though it was black and bitter, he couldn’t remain in the kitchen for another moment. Taking a large gulp of the sour, too-hot liquid, Kaveh pushed Alhaitham’s hands away and slinked off to his room without another word.

Even though he anticipated it, Kaveh’s heart still wilted when Alhaitham didn’t stop him.

He waited in his bedroom with the ghost of Alhaitham’s touch warming his cheek until he heard the front door open and close, signalling Alhaitham’s departure for work - right on time, as always. With a heavy sigh, Kaveh emerged from his room to make himself something to eat.

As soon as he entered the hallway, however, Kaveh stopped in his tracks. Alhaitham stood frozen in the foyer facing the door, one hand on the knob as the unseemly tense muscles in his back trembled with pent-up energy.

“Kaveh. Come here,” Alhaitham commanded without turning around, a heavy strain evident in his deep voice - quiet and far too controlled, as though he were resisting some unseen internal force with a monumental effort.

Hesitant and suspicious in equal measure, Kaveh slowly inched forward. Shifting restlessly, he stared at Alhaitham’s stiff back, coiled like a wild animal in its natural habitat poised to either pounce or flee in the blink of an eye.

Alhaitham was clenching his jaw so tightly Kaveh could see the muscles rippling in the side of his cheek as he glared at the door... though it was his hands that truly stole Kaveh’s attention. His ever-steady fingers quivered around the knob, his grip so rigid Kaveh was surprised the handle hadn’t snapped clean off.

Finally, voice as tense as his body, Alhaitham broke the silence. “I have to go to work.”

Kaveh blinked. “I, um... I’m aware? Is there some reason you’re -”

“Just come here.”

Before his mind could even register the order, Kaveh’s body had already obeyed. He came to a stop within an arm’s reach of Alhaitham, heart thumping in his chest as Alhaitham slowly turned to look at him.

Alhaitham’s piercing gaze travelled rapidly across Kaveh’s face, his expression inscrutable yet overwritten with powerful emotion. “It’s...” Alhaitham trailed off abruptly, snapping his mouth shut as though simultaneously fighting to speak and to remain silent.

Kaveh braced himself for the worst - for Alhaitham to demand an annulment after barely a few days of marriage. He waited for the inevitable declaration that, although it had been Alhaitham’s scheme in the first place, being wed to Kaveh was unbearable; even for nothing more than a clever ruse, it was too miserable to think of himself as Kaveh’s husband.

Deafening silence stretched between them. After a suffocatingly suspenseful pause that lasted far too long, Alhaitham finally exhaled a deep, heavy breath and stepped forward. “It’s... common practice to kiss your husband goodbye in the morning, is it not?”

The bottom dropped out from Kaveh’s stomach. In an attempt to override the instinctive reaction of his body to the mere implication that Alhaitham might be searching for a kiss rather than a divorce, Kaveh forced a scoff amidst the waves of warmth and trepidation flooding through him. “I... I suppose so. But it’s not like anybody’s going to know that you don’t -”

With a sudden burst of movement, Alhaitham swooped in closer and captured Kaveh’s chin in his palm. Gripping him tightly, he leaned in until their faces were so close Kaveh could count the vivid shades of the ocean swirling in Alhaitham’s eyes.

“That I don’t what, Kaveh? That I don’t treat my husband properly?”

Trying desperately to override the blaze creeping up his cheeks, Kaveh allowed the first words that his lips managed to form to spill forth without thinking. “Well it’s not like we consummated our marriage, and nobody knows about that, either.”

Alhaitham’s eyes darkened; instantaneously, the air thickened with tension. Each molecule between them crackled as he slowly dragged his fingers along Kaveh’s jaw, and - with agonizingly clear emotion in each movement - tangled his hand in the messy waves of Kaveh’s hair.

“You’re right. Nobody would know if I didn’t,” Alhaitham whispered, his voice underpinned by something dangerously electrifying. Kaveh’s heart pounded furiously in his chest as Alhaitham leaned in closer, the heat of his gaze trailing slowly down to Kaveh’s lips. “Nobody would know if I neglected you.”

Before Kaveh could form any sort of response other than an embarrassing splutter, Alhaitham swung the door open, tightened his fingers in Kaveh’s hair to hold his head securely in place, and surged forward. Though his grip was powerful and firm as he held Kaveh prisoner with his fingertips, his lips were unbearably gentle as they met Kaveh’s for the second time - a clear invitation, a lifeline to retreat if Kaveh wished to do so.

Overwhelmed with shock and, far more fiercely, desire, Kaveh’s eyes fluttered shut. Knees weakening, he succumbed to the soft urgency of Alhaitham’s lips and allowed himself to be led onto the threshold, melting into Alhaitham as his muscular frame engulfed Kaveh completely.

Kaveh clutched desperately at Alhaitham’s sculpted biceps as a soft sigh escaped him. His grip only tightened further as Alhaitham deepened the kiss with a hot, passionate sweep of his tongue and released a deep hum of approval at Kaveh’s acceptance of his kiss.

Powerless to prevent himself from falling further, he leaned into Alhaitham like an anchor in the storm of devoted yearning that threatened to sweep him away. Yet just as Kaveh rose onto his tiptoes and lifted his palms to wind his arms around Alhaitham’s neck, aching for more... Alhaitham pulled back and separated their lips with an obscene smooch.

“I like to keep to my commitments, Kaveh. And our marriage will seem more authentic if people see you sending me off to work as a spouse would.” Without allowing Kaveh so much as a moment to respond, Alhaitham pressed one last lingering kiss to his lips in the warm morning sunshine and disappeared down the street.

The fluttering, swooping warmth that had been building in Kaveh’s stomach hardened and sank like lead.

Of course this was just for appearances - though they’d convinced the judge, the remainder of the city now had to be convinced of the authenticity of their marriage as well. That’s all this was, nothing more.

“Bastard,” Kaveh whispered shakily as he leaned his forehead against the cool oak of their front door, fingertips ghosting over his tingling lips.

Cheeks burning and pants straining, Alhaitham forced himself not to look back as he hurried toward the Akademiya, reliving the warmth of Kaveh’s soft lips with each uneven breath. He scolded himself internally for his boldness; it was a wonder Kaveh hadn’t seen through his request immediately.

In truth, Alhaitham had simply been searching for an excuse to kiss Kaveh - no matter how flimsy the justification - since he wasn’t confident in his ability to refrain from doing so accidentally for much longer. He’d already come dangerously close countless times; the endearing pout of Kaveh’s lips had been silently begging Alhaitham for a reunion all weekend.

That morning had been his breaking point.

... Yet Kaveh hadn’t pushed him away. Instead, he had welcomed Alhaitham’s kiss with alluring ease.

Though the effort Alhaitham put in at work was usually dismal at best, exerting the bare minimum and nothing more, the remainder of his day was one of the least productive he’d ever had. Rubbing the head of his pen against his lips over and over again where Kaveh’s had met his without question earlier that morning, Alhaitham’s mouth remained curved into a faint yet insuppressible smile for the entire day.

If he could never truly have Kaveh’s love, could never call him his husband in the way he so deeply desired... Kaveh wearing Alhaitham’s ring on his finger and sending him off to work in the morning with gentle kisses would sustain Alhaitham well enough.

When Alhaitham returned home later that evening, Kaveh was no longer barricaded in his bedroom as he had been over the weekend; still, as his eyes snapped up from his sketchpad to meet Alhaitham’s gaze, something deep within them remained tightly guarded.

Even as withdrawn and clearly sleep-deprived as he was, though... Kaveh looked radiant as ever. Dressed in the loose, casual clothes that he always wore around the house when he was finished meeting clients for the day and curled into the corner of the divan with a blanket draped over him, he effortlessly captivated every ounce of Alhaitham’s otherwise notoriously selective attention.

Settled by Kaveh’s presence in their shared space that he’d been bereft of for the past few days, Alhaitham extended an olive branch and offered to make dinner. With a sigh of relief at Kaveh’s answering nod, he made his way into the kitchen and began cooking.

Their conversation began with unusually stilted, awkward small talk as they sat down to eat, but eventually, Alhaitham managed to ask the right set of questions about the blueprint Kaveh was sketching to capture Kaveh’s focus. Distracted enough that he forgot to be wary of the tension in the air, Kaveh launched into a rant about his frustrations with his client.

Alhaitham hid the small upward curve of his lips behind his spoon and allowed Kaveh’s voice to settle warmly in his chest as they ate.

After dinner, Alhaitham cleared the dishes away and sank onto the divan opposite Kaveh, same as he did each night. He surreptitiously lessened the noise-cancelling on his headphones to allow Kaveh’s soft murmurs to filter in through his ears as he resumed his sketching.

“Yeah, tune me out, asshole...” Kaveh muttered under his breath - assuming, as he always did for reasons beyond Alhaitham’s comprehension, that Alhaitham was trying to hear less of his hypnotic voice rather than more.

Alhaitham smiled to himself. Though he continued flipping vacantly through the pages of his book, his concentration was stolen by Kaveh’s endearing habit of grumbling petty insults and petulant curses when he thought nobody was listening.

Each muttered word only enhanced the deep affection that had taken root so long ago in the heart that Alhaitham had once foolishly thought to be impenetrable.

Though he wanted nothing more than to stay with Kaveh all night, to fall asleep with him on the divan and wrap him in his arms, Alhaitham merely nodded when Kaveh eventually sighed and rose from the uncomfortable position he’d shrimped himself into with a soft goodnight.

That night, Alhaitham slept more easily than he had in days, soothed by the return to their usual dynamic - albeit now accompanied by the eye-catching glint of the ring that had always been meant for Kaveh resting snugly on his delicate finger.

Though he’d feared Kaveh might discover the words Alhaitham had etched into the inside of the ring so many years ago, Kaveh - as far as Alhaitham could tell - hadn’t removed it once.

Part of him was relieved. After all, it would be near impossible to explain away the engraving on the innards of the golden bands if Kaveh looked closely enough... yet some small, daring part of him, deep in the recesses of his naively hopeful heart, was disappointed that Kaveh hadn’t noticed it.

The next morning, the lingering tension that had abated overnight snapped back into place in an instant as Alhaitham gathered his keys from the entryway table and locked eyes with Kaveh. He blinked owlishly at Alhaitham and shifted his weight awkwardly, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

Adorably shy and still slightly ruffled from sleep, Kaveh rubbed his eyes and asked, “do you, um... want me to send you off to work how I did yesterday?”

Some scholars in the Akademiya lived by the philosophy that there was no such thing as a stupid question.

Kaveh had just single-handedly proven them all wrong.

Forcing himself not to appear too eager for the gift of Kaveh’s lips that he may somehow be blessed with a third time, Alhaitham gripped his keys tightly and attempted a nonchalant nod.

“It would be prudent,” he said flatly.

Something in Kaveh’s eyes dimmed as his gaze dropped to the floor. Confused, Alhaitham opened his mouth to question his reaction - but before he could get a word out, Kaveh huffed determinedly, threw the door open, and pushed Alhaitham back against the doorframe.

Alhaitham’s stomach twisted with desire so powerful it was nearly painful as Kaveh lifted himself onto his tiptoes, cupped Alhaitham’s jaw, and tugged him down, fingers curling in the fabric of Alhaitham’s shirt to keep him in place as he drew their lips together.

Though he knew he should pull away quickly, Alhaitham was once again caught up in his desperation for every last morsel of Kaveh’s affection he could scavenge as their kiss quickly turned far hungrier than he should’ve allowed it to. Pressed flat against the archway by Kaveh’s insistent grip, Alhaitham slid his palms to either side of Kaveh’s waist and eagerly followed the curves of his body with his hands.

The slide of their lips quickly devolved into something messy and frenzied as Alhaitham nipped at his bottom lip; in response, Kaveh positively melted into him. Alhaitham tugged him impossibly closer as the kinetic energy in Kaveh’s grip reversed, shifting from pushing Alhaitham back against the doorframe to pulling him forward against him.

As was becoming an increasingly common occurrence, Alhaitham was interrupted by the harsh strain of his erection as it stirred behind the seam of his pants, extending in search of Kaveh’s body in a way he knew he’d have no chance to explain away as mere posturing like he’d somehow managed to do with their kiss.

Forcibly withdrawing against the desperate desire of every molecule in his body begging to be closer to Kaveh, Alhaitham tore their lips apart and rested his forehead against Kaveh’s. Panting harshly, he slowly opened his eyes.

It only made the monster in his pants strain more insistently to be set free. Kaveh gazed up at him through his lashes, cheeks flushed and lips swollen from the gentle drag of Alhaitham’s teeth, breathing equally as heavily as Alhaitham.

Unable to help himself, Alhaitham stole one final, soft kiss - an attempt to stamp his love onto Kaveh’s body with his lips if he never would be permitted to with his words - then squeezed Kaveh’s waist gently and drew back entirely.

“Good luck with your commissions today.” Alhaitham was unable to keep a rasp threaded with pure desire from his voice as he lifted his hand to brush Kaveh’s lower lip with his thumb, soothing the soft swell where Alhaitham’s teeth had dug into his skin. “And I hope your client listens to you about the pile foundation; you’re right, it’s a better idea than a shallow bearing.”

The beautiful flush staining Kaveh’s cheeks deepened. “You... you were listening?”

“I always listen to you, Kaveh,” he said far too honestly. “Your rambling is often reasonable, despite its lack of brevity.”

Exhaling a sound that was half-laugh half-scoff as he searched Alhaitham’s face intently for insincerity, a smile as radiant as the sun slowly began to spread across Kaveh’s face, laden with pleased disbelief.

It would’ve been easier to tear his eyes away if they’d been stuck to Kaveh with superglue. With a monumental effort, Alhaitham leaned back and shoved his hands into his pockets to keep them from reaching out for Kaveh’s body once more.

“Bye. I’ll be back toni-” Alhaitham began, though he was cut short by Kaveh’s lips yet again meeting his own, gentle and tender. Before he could savour it, Kaveh pulled back as though he’d been scalded by Alhaitham’s lips and stared at him with wide eyes.

Alhaitham examined his face, unable to identify the source of the ever-deepening blush of his cheeks this time. “What was that for?” Alhaitham asked gruffly.

“Um, sorry, I didn’t...” Kaveh bit his lip and gestured vaguely to the cobblestone street outside of their home. “There was - there was someone watching. Gotta sell it, right? Husbands? Okay, yep, have a good day at work, bye,” Kaveh babbled rapidly in an oddly squeaky voice. Without meeting his eye, he pushed Alhaitham down the steps of their porch and retreated into the house with a jerky wave.

Releasing a deep sigh, Alhaitham turned to see if the person Kaveh had apparently been trying to prove the authenticity of their marriage to was still watching.

The street was empty.

Chapter Text

Though neither of them addressed it directly, morning kisses in the hazy sunshine became habitual. Each day as Alhaitham slid his boots on and grabbed his keys, Kaveh followed him to the doorway to receive a passionate parting kiss - which only seemed to grow more heated with each passing day - in full view of the few commuters strolling past their home on their way to work.

Surprisingly, though, little else changed. Aside from the increased touchiness and morning kisses that were simultaneously the highlight of Kaveh’s day and sheer torture for his aching heart, they behaved much as a married couple did already.

... A fact that Kaveh had tried, and failed, to deny.

When Saturday arrived and Kaveh had no reason to kiss Alhaitham goodbye for the first time in days, he was far more distraught than he should’ve been. He tried to suppress the ache, but it only worsened on Sunday when he was deprived once more.

He’d gone his entire life without a single brush of Alhaitham’s lips - yet now, even 24 hours was too long for Kaveh’s body to accept the absence of his kisses. The entire weekend was filled with stolen glances and carefully restrained yearning.

By the time Monday came and Alhaitham was preparing to leave for work, Kaveh was practically vibrating out of his skin with anticipation.

To his shock, however, when Kaveh flung the door open to usher him out and fisted his hands in Alhaitham’s shirt to press him against the paneling, unable to fully contain his desire... Alhaitham was already a step ahead of him.

Before he could pin Alhaitham against the oak doorframe, Alhaitham seized him with a sudden force that bordered on desperation and slammed him against the wall. Harsh and abrupt, Alhaitham buried one hand in Kaveh’s hair and gripped his waist tightly with the other.

Kaveh barely had time to release a squeak of surprise before Alhaitham’s lips crashed onto his, fierce and hungry. As he drew Kaveh’s lower lip between his teeth with a deep groan, however, it no longer felt like mere hunger.

It felt like starvation.

All at once, Alhaitham was everywhere. Heated skin and powerful muscle surrounded Kaveh from every angle as the intoxicating blend of their laundry soap, mixed with the fresh, woodsy scent Alhaitham naturally exuded, filled his every breath.

Despite being overtaken so quickly, Kaveh matched Alhaitham’s eagerness instantly. He was usually unable to stop himself from releasing a soft gasp or two into their kisses each morning; but now, Kaveh’s vocal cords were betraying him entirely, releasing needy moans on a near-unstoppable loop.

His hands explored the sculpted muscles of Alhaitham’s torso without conscious thought. With each caress, Kaveh drowned in the illusion of Alhaitham’s steadfast affection - even if it was fake. He wanted more.

He always wanted more.

Lost in Alhaitham’s arms, Kaveh began to rock his hips forward ever so slightly with each kiss. The movement wasn’t enough to garner the friction he so desperately craved, but it allowed at least some part of his body to believe he was finally chasing the edge of a release he hadn’t been able to satisfactorily find for over a week now, no matter how deep he pressed his fingers inside of himself.

Sending Kaveh’s stomach plummeting ever deeper into the whirlpool of desire he was being sucked into, Alhaitham’s grip tightened. A jolt of electric pleasure seared through Kaveh as Alhaitham bit down harshly on his lip - far harder than he’d intended to, it seemed, judging by the soft, apologetic grunt that followed as he soothed the sting with a gentle sweep of his tongue.

He aborted the tender gesture partway through, however, halted by Kaveh’s response.

Body reacting without his permission, Kaveh released a loud, urgent moan as heat gathered low in his abdomen. He pressed his hips forward and closed the gap between their bodies, fingers tangling into the thick strands of Alhaitham’s hair and urging him closer as the world outside their doorstep slipped away from his consciousness.

As though something primal had awakened within him, Alhaitham moved with renewed determination, mirroring Kaveh without words. He panted heavily against Kaveh’s lips and shifted his stance, sliding his thigh between Kaveh’s legs.

Achingly slowly, Alhaitham began rocking forward to meet the increasingly desperate grind of Kaveh’s hips.

Kaveh released a moan that echoed far too loudly down the street as Alhaitham finally gave him the friction he was so desperate for. Worst of all, as Alhaitham undid him with nothing more than the press of a single thigh, Kaveh couldn’t even recall why it was a bad idea to chase such uncapturable pleasure in the first place.

But all too soon, the exquisite pressure vanished.

Before Kaveh could mourn its loss, Alhaitham shoved Kaveh to the side and pressed him up against the wall of their foyer, slamming the front door shut with such force it rattled every wall in the house.

Alhaitham’s thigh immediately returned to its rightful place between Kaveh’s, but this time, he paused the barrage of frenzied kisses. Through a haze of pleasure and confusion, Kaveh gazed up at him.

Trying not to drown in the blown pupils of Alhaitham’s darkened eyes, Kaveh managed a breathless, “wh-what are you doing?”

Alhaitham said nothing; he simply stared at Kaveh as though hoping to find an answer to an unsolvable puzzle in his eyes. Finally, he grasped Kaveh with slow, steady deliberation... and ground his thigh directly against Kaveh’s aching core.

Eyes fluttering instantaneously, Kaveh released an insuppressible groan as his head thunked back against the wall.

“I’ll stop if you want me to,” Alhaitham whispered unsteadily. “Just - just tell me no and I’ll stop, Kaveh.”

This had to be a dream. There was no way Alhaitham was truly offering what it sounded like. Nevertheless, Kaveh’s legs were already trembling in response to the pressure of Alhaitham’s muscular thigh as uncontrollable wetness cascaded into his shorts.

Kaveh was so far gone, so starved for any semblance of friction, that all he could focus on was not collapsing on the spot - or professing his love, neither of which he was very confident in his capability to stop from happening.

“Don’t,” was all Kaveh managed to gasp.

Misinterpreting it as a plea to stop rather than what it was - a plea for anything, for everything, for Alhaitham - he immediately began to withdraw from Kaveh. In an instant, Kaveh was stripped of the warmth of his lips, his strong hands, his broad frame, and his steady thigh.

With a desperation he was helpless to conceal, Kaveh released an embarrassingly loud sound of distress and tugged Alhaitham back against his body. “I - no, I meant don’t stop, Haitham.”

Fast as lightning, Kaveh was pinned back against the wall as Alhaitham melted against his body with what felt suspiciously like relief. This time, however, when Alhaitham leaned in, he bypassed Kaveh’s lips entirely and pressed his mouth to the shell of Kaveh’s ear.

“You can change your mind if you want to. You know you don’t owe me this, right?” Alhaitham’s voice was stripped bare, gravelly and deep; it only slickened the ocean of wetness already soaking through the thin material of Kaveh’s underwear.

“I know,” Kaveh whispered, urgent and breathless.

For the first time in many years, Kaveh allowed the fragile hope he kept caged in his heart to bloom uninhibited, cultivated by Alhaitham’s gentle touch.

Alhaitham stilled for a heartbeat. Then, in a surge of movement, he rocked his thigh against Kaveh in a quickened rhythm as he drew Kaveh in closer, wrapping his arm so tightly around Kaveh’s waist that his fingers curled around the circumference of his body all the way to the opposite side.

His lips found Kaveh’s neck, mouthing at his skin with heated kisses so sensual Kaveh was already unraveling at the seams.

Then came a whisper, low and commanding, as Alhaitham’s deep baritone rumbled directly against Kaveh’s eardrum. “Turn toward the door and say my name. I want anyone walking by to be able to hear you.”

The blossoming sprouts of sanguine yearning shriveled in Kaveh’s chest instantly.

Even now, away from prying eyes, Alhaitham still didn’t want him for anything more than believability. Though it filled Kaveh with a profound sense of loss that Alhaitham only wanted to draw out Kaveh’s pleasure to make their sham of a marriage seem convincing, he simply couldn’t contain the physical euphoria quickly bubbling up inside him.

Already overtaken by mind-numbing pleasure as the thick muscle of Alhaitham’s thigh provided devastating pressure against his clit, Kaveh’s gasps grew louder, jarring and harsh in the quiet of their home. Needy moans fell from his lips more rapidly with each breath as his body tensed beyond his control.

Alhaitham paused his burning trail of kisses for a moment, voice softening with concern - clearly skeptical of Kaveh’s sudden outburst of sound after barely a few moments of friction. “You don’t need to fake it. It’s okay if you can’t come from thi-”

“I’m n-not,” Kaveh interrupted urgently as pleasure coiled tightly in his core, too far gone to temper his need. “I’m not faking it, Haitham.”

Reacting as though possessed, Alhaitham’s fingers disappeared from his jaw to curl around Kaveh’s hip as he cursed under his breath. Insistent yet achingly tender, he guided Kaveh’s hips to rock against him in a heated rhythm, palm sliding backward to cup Kaveh’s ass - tentatively at first, then with a firm squeeze as Kaveh pressed eagerly into his grip.

Kaveh arched off of the wall, held steady in Alhaitham’s strong arms. He knew he shouldn’t, that he was sealing his own doomed fate by doing so... but, unable to help himself, Kaveh turned his head toward the door and exposed the column of his throat to Alhaitham’s searching lips as he cried out his name and crested the edge into oblivion.

Punctuating each steady thrust of his leg with soft groans that sounded dangerously close to genuine desire, Alhaitham bit mark after mark into the skin of Kaveh’s neck as powerful moans were torn from his lips.

“Louder,” Alhaitham demanded at a near-growl as his fingers dug sharply into Kaveh’s skin, palming his ass more urgently. “Say my name louder.”

“Haitham,” Kaveh choked out, head spinning from the sheer power of his orgasm as he came undone. “A-Alhaitham!”

He repeated it over and over, desperate for it to be his to cry out freely, for this moment to last forever - for Alhaitham to hold him with such unrepentant tenderness out of genuine care rather than obligatory deceit.

Trembling both from the aching loss of knowing his desperation meant nothing and with the force of the shockwaves of pleasure rippling through his body, Kaveh slumped against the wall as he was filled with something cold and needy. To keep himself from toppling over, Kaveh wrapped his arms around Alhaitham’s neck and leaned forward to press his forehead against his broad shoulder.

In that moment, it was clearer than ever that Kaveh was alone in his desire. Alhaitham’s hips, rather than pressing against him with a hardness Kaveh ached to feel present, were tilted as far from him as they possibly could be without letting Kaveh fall.

For several seconds, the only sounds were Kaveh’s laboured, gasping inhales and Alhaitham’s soft yet unsteady breaths as he rested his chin against the top of Kaveh’s head. Before Kaveh could even manage a single steady breath, however, Alhaitham’s grip began to loosen.

It wasn’t like it was a surprise; but even though Kaveh knew it was coming, something in his body revolted as Alhaitham withdrew. He clung even tighter, arms squeezing involuntarily around Alhaitham as his chest heaved with desperation.

“Don’t leave yet,” Kaveh begged before he could stop himself. “Please, Haitham, don’t leave yet.”

A surprised breath hitched in Alhaitham’s throat - but his hands nevertheless returned to Kaveh’s body, gripping his waist to keep him steady as Kaveh’s trembling legs refused to support him any longer.

“Okay,” Alhaitham murmured gently.

With a tenderness that shattered the already fractured shards of Kaveh’s heart, Alhaitham slipped his palm around Kaveh’s back and traced a soothing line down his spine, anchoring him with a strong, sturdy hand on his side.

“Are you alright?”

“It’s just, um...” Kaveh trailed off, attempting to conjure an excuse that didn’t reveal the truth he couldn’t bear to voice. “It’s bad etiquette. You’re supposed to stay for a few minutes after you make someone come. To make sure they don’t... don’t die or something. Just so you know.”

Though he knew Alhaitham was inexperienced, Kaveh still worried he would whip out some obscure reference manual and cite 'common post-coital protocol' at him, challenging his feeble justification. Instead, Alhaitham simply released a soft hum of understanding against Kaveh’s hair and held him more securely in his arms.

“Okay,” Alhaitham whispered again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I’m right here. I’ll stay however long you need me to.”

So gentle it sent bittersweet sparks shooting through Kaveh’s abdomen, still pulsating with aftershocks of pleasure, Alhaitham dipped his head and began pressing feather-light kisses to the blooming bruises he’d planted on Kaveh’s neck as his fingers soothed the tremors in Kaveh’s muscles.

Kaveh’s chest burned with emotion. He buried his face in Alhaitham’s shoulder and inhaled deeply, hoping his scent would cling to him for the remainder of the day - proof that, even for a moment, he’d been held close enough in Alhaitham’s arms to become infused with his essence.

Knees wobbling dangerously, Kaveh let his full weight rest against Alhaitham. He closed his eyes and basked in the fragile, wistful comfort of Alhaitham’s touch, relishing in the warmth left simmering in the wake of each soft kiss that only deepened the lingering ache in his stomach, long since having transcended mere sexual need.

Eventually, unable to hold off the sting of tears behind his eyes that built as the pleasure faded to a simple desire for intimacy, Kaveh lifted his head and pulled away.

“Sorry. I know you, um... you need to get to work. You can go now.” He gestured weakly toward the door, trying - and failing - to force levity rather than bitterness into his tone. “I’ll kiss you on the way out so people can see since I’m sure I look like a mess. Extra believability, since that’s all this is for.”

Alhaitham flinched as though he’d been struck across the face. He pulled away abruptly, retreating everywhere except for one gentle palm that remained against Kaveh’s cheek. And, though Kaveh’s heart scolded him for doing so, he leaned into his hand anyway with quiet, subconscious desperation.

“You’re... okay now, then?” Alhaitham asked cautiously.

His eyes had shuttered, instantly far more guarded... but Kaveh couldn’t dwell on that right now. His focus was fixed entirely on the amount of effort he was having to exert not to burst into tears as unbearable pressure built behind his eyes.

“I’m fine,” he said dismissively as he forced his shaky legs to carry him toward the door, swinging it open to urge Alhaitham out before he could see the shimmer building in Kaveh’s eyes. “I’ll see you tonight. Have a good day at work.”

Alhaitham’s hand dropped uselessly to his side, fingers curling into his palm as he shifted with uncharacteristic unease. “Kaveh, are you sure you’re -”

“I’m fine, Alhaitham,” Kaveh snapped more harshly than he meant to. With a huff of impatience as the tide of emotion crested within him, he grabbed Alhaitham and tugged him down for a kiss.

Though Kaveh meant to keep it short and controlled to protect what little sanity remained within him, Alhaitham must have seen someone watching them since he immediately deepened the kiss.

Though it was still undeniably heated... this time, the warmth of Alhaitham’s lips wasn’t a blazing flame that demanded more.

It was so much worse.

It was the steady warmth of a hearth, heating even the most frigid corners of Kaveh’s neglected heart that ached with longing.

Alhaitham lifted his palms to cradle his cheeks with such tenderness Kaveh couldn’t help but melt into his hands. For one fleeting moment, Kaveh allowed himself to be held by his husband like a man adored more than anything in the world.

He clenched his fist tightly to suppress the sob threatening to spill into Alhaitham’s mouth.

With a soft, lingering smooch, Alhaitham pulled away.

There was a silent yet undefinable question in Alhaitham’s eyes as he gazed at Kaveh. Lips tingling with dimming sparks of yearning, a lump formed in Kaveh’s throat - a desperate, cloying urge to whisper the three words he knew he could never allow himself to speak aloud.

After several charged moments, Alhaitham simply whispered, “okay.”

As he’d inexplicably done each morning, Alhaitham stole one last kiss from Kaveh’s lips before withdrawing. Then, without another word, he turned and walked away.

He never once looked back as Kaveh stood frozen in the doorway, watching the oddly tense line of Alhaitham’s retreating torso slowly disappear down the street.

At last, Kaveh could finally allow his tears to fall.

Overwhelmed yet hollow, crushed by equally deep satisfaction and utter despair, he locked the door and slid to the floor. Back pressed against the hard wood that he was growing increasingly unable to look at without imagining Alhaitham’s lips on his, Kaveh dropped his head into his hands, haunted by the ghost of Alhaitham’s love.

Once again, Kaveh spent a restless night plagued by dreams of the man who wore a ring matching his. He’d fallen asleep reluctantly, anticipating the dreams following his first orgasm coaxed from Alhaitham’s touch to be littered with impossibly heightened eroticism.

They were, somehow, far worse.

In his dreams that night, Alhaitham held him close, pressing gentle kisses to Kaveh’s ring finger and whispering words of pure adoration as he kneaded the tension from Kaveh’s shoulders. Painfully domestic, the vivid scenes featured nothing untoward - yet Kaveh awoke feeling more desolate than ever, surrounded by an empty bed and false tenderness coiled like a noose around his finger in the form of his wedding band.

Though his heart was being filled to the brim with a love destined to crumble into nothingness the moment it was touched, Kaveh couldn’t help but cradle it in his chest like something precious.

He brushed his teeth in a daze and sipped his coffee in silence, ignoring Alhaitham’s gentle questions about his obviously poor sleep. Then, as was now his routine, Kaveh made his way to the door to see Alhaitham off to work.

He ignored the lingering heat between his thighs as memories of Alhaitham grinding his thigh against Kaveh sprung into his mind unbidden. Even more ardently, he ignored the deep ache in his chest that was being carved deeper each day - readily handed shards of his dream life that sliced into his palms each time he tried to grasp for them, only to have them cruelly snatched from his wounded clutches again and again.

With a tired sigh, Kaveh placed his hand on the doorknob to pull it open as he usually did - but a broad palm slid up to cover his before he could disengage the lock.

Kaveh’s gaze followed the strong, muscled arm backward toward Alhaitham’s broad chest, climbing up his firm torso, sculpted collarbones, and the irresistibly chiseled sharp line of his jaw until he met the ever-impenetrable azure of his eyes.

“Do you not want to do it again?” Alhaitham asked - blunt yet uncommonly tender, edged with a rare glimmer of genuine vulnerability.

Heart thumping wildly, Kaveh tried to mask his surprise, raising an eyebrow in false detachment. “Do what?” he asked, praying to the archons that he already knew the answer.

“You don’t want me to... to make you come again? Did you not like it?”

The fire between Kaveh’s thighs that Alhaitham had unknowingly been stoking for years blazed with renewed urgency, longing to be tamed by the soothing waters of Alhaitham’s touch.

“If you want to, I guess we can,” Kaveh shrugged, trying to appear ambivalent rather than eager. “If you think we need more people to, um... to hear me. To make it believable.”

“Okay.”

Thus began the newest addition to their morning routine.

Each day, Alhaitham would press Kaveh up against the wall beside the door and add to the ever-growing sea of marks littering Kaveh’s neck, grind his thigh forward until Kaveh came with Alhaitham’s name on his lips, then open the door to kiss Kaveh in full sight of the street before leaving for work.

Each time, Kaveh fell even harder.

Each time, it only hurt that much worse when Alhaitham angled his hips away like Kaveh was a leper as soon as he was finished.

Each time, even though he’d been late to work several times already, Alhaitham stayed to hold Kaveh until his breathing steadied, always stealing one final kiss that was far too loving before leaving.

And each time... Kaveh was powerless to resist the intoxicating pull of Alhaitham’s body, even as it slowly poisoned his heart each time he was blessed with yet another mind-blowing orgasm that Alhaitham was, at best, indifferent to bestowing upon him.

Days passed in an increasingly unmanageable daze. Kaveh spent each morning relishing in Alhaitham’s lips, distracted himself during the daytime with work, and anguished in the evenings, fiddling with the ring on his finger as Alhaitham sat beside him in the living room or stood just a little too close as they cooked dinner together.

The expected deviance from their new routine that weekend, when Alhaitham had no need for Kaveh’s public send-off, was even more brutal than the last. Now, Kaveh was not only deprived of Alhaitham’s kisses for two days, but the devastatingly powerful morning orgasm his body had come to expect, too.

By Monday, more sleep-deprived and restless than ever after yet another night spent tossing and turning, Kaveh approached the doorway with measured steps so as not to appear too eager. But the moment he leaned against the wall beside their front door, Alhaitham was on him, pressing him forcefully against the hard wooden panelling and kissing him like his life depended on it.

Kaveh released a raw moan laced with uncontrollable desperation as he wrapped his arms around Alhaitham’s neck, legs already jittery from the sensation of Alhaitham’s firm, unyielding body pinning him in place between his broad chest and the wall.

With a harsh squeeze of Kaveh’s hip, Alhaitham nipped at his bottom lip - something Kaveh was quickly becoming addicted to, a wordless command for Kaveh to part his lips for him.

As the kiss deepened, Kaveh accepted Alhaitham’s thigh between his legs without hesitation. The very first grind, however, not only brought the surge of pleasure he was used to... but a sharp lance of pain as well.

A startled whine of discomfort slipped from Kaveh’s lips before he could suppress it.

Immediately alert, Alhaitham drew back and frowned at him. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”

“No, it’s just...” Kaveh sighed heavily. “It’s just my hips. The wall’s been pressing against this one spot - but it’s fine, really, I just wasn’t expecting it to be so bruised. We don’t have to stop, it’s -”

With a determined grunt, Alhaitham withdrew entirely before Kaveh could even finish his sentence. Kaveh chased the warmth of Alhaitham’s body unthinkingly, already regretting his honesty - but Alhaitham wasn’t to be deterred as he gently tugged Kaveh away from the wall and led him into the living room.

Forcing himself not to visibly pout that he’d once again be denied his ritualistic pleasure even though Alhaitham had been ready to deliver it only seconds ago, Kaveh dropped down to the cushion of the divan with a huff as Alhaitham guided him to lay on his back.

“Lift your hips.”

Too tired to protest, Kaveh obeyed. With deft, tender fingers, Alhaitham slipped a pillow beneath Kaveh’s body; instantly, the dull ache in his hips dimmed.

Exhaling a reluctant sigh of relief as he settled onto the cushion, Kaveh muttered, slightly sourly, “thanks.”

He expected Alhaitham to nod brusquely and retreat, to depart for work without their public morning kiss for the first workday since their marriage ceremony - but he didn’t. Instead, he dropped to his knees on the couch and tentatively climbed on top of Kaveh, hovering above his body with uncertainty flickering in his eyes.

“If... if you still want me to, I can just do it like this,” Alhaitham breathed as he pressed his thigh gently between Kaveh’s legs - which had already parted without his knowledge.

Despite his attempts to control his body’s reaction, Kaveh’s hips twitched toward Alhaitham, seeking the pleasure the presence of that godforsaken thigh promised.

Still, with a resolute clear of his throat, Kaveh made a valiant attempt to sound indifferent. “I - I guess, but I don’t know if I’ll be loud enough from here for anyone outside to hear.”

“You’ll just have to be extra loud, then,” Alhaitham whispered into his ear as he lowered himself down, slotting against Kaveh like a puzzle piece now that they were finally horizontal instead of vertical. “Just tell me if it hurts and I’ll stop, okay?”

At Kaveh’s answering nod, Alhaitham began rocking his thigh gently between Kaveh’s.

Immediately, it felt drastically different than usual. Though Kaveh normally had to engage all of his muscles to remain upright against the wall, he could now simply relax into Alhaitham’s embrace as he gathered Kaveh in his arms and pressed his addictively slow, methodical kisses to Kaveh’s throat.

Kaveh’s moans escaped easily. Though he was never able to suppress them when Alhaitham ground against him like this, he usually dampened them; now, however, his body felt far too electrified to keep quiet. Under the veil of raising his volume solely for the sake of being more audible, Kaveh rolled his hips with abandon against Alhaitham’s thigh and tangled his fingers in Alhaitham’s hair.

Then he felt it.

Alhaitham’s thigh pressed against him, hard and rhythmic... but this time, there was something else. As Alhaitham’s body was forced into a different angle than usual, an unmistakable bulge strained against Kaveh’s inner thigh.

Instantly, Kaveh’s hips stuttered to a halt.

Alhaitham was hard.

Kaveh’s heart crashed against the walls of his chest as Alhaitham froze, clearly sensing Kaveh’s discovery.

Mouth agape, Kaveh stared up at the ceiling over Alhaitham’s shoulder. Agonizingly slowly, Alhaitham lifted his head from Kaveh’s neck to gaze down at him, his expression infuriatingly unreadable.

“S-sorry,” Alhaitham stammered. It only made Kaveh’s heart thump harder; Alhaitham never stuttered.

Hoping his excuse sounded at least as reasonable as Alhaitham’s dubious logic for keeping their fake marriage believable through morning kisses and moans muffled through the walls of their home, Kaveh shook his head.

“It’s - it’s fine. I wouldn’t want people thinking I let my husband leave for work unsatisfied either, so why don’t we just...” Kaveh trailed off suggestively and tentatively slid his hands down to Alhaitham’s hips, nudging them inward until his thick, sinfully large erection was nestled directly between Kaveh’s thighs.

Alhaitham’s eyes deepened into pools of shadow as he gazed intently at Kaveh before slowly, glacially, grinding his hips forward in a single, experimental thrust. Kaveh inhaled sharply as the monstrous bulge concealed by Alhaitham’s pants pressed directly against his throbbing clit.

All at once, it felt - for the first time - undeniably real.

Alhaitham was actually hard against him, genuinely, unmistakably aroused, and not just for show. There was no faking a reaction like that. Even if this was still all for nothing more than maintaining appearances, Alhaitham was, at the very least, not so disgusted by Kaveh that he was entirely turned off by their intimacy.

With a strangled gasp, Kaveh fisted one hand in Alhaitham’s shirt as he resumed the steady rhythm of his hips once more, though the pleasure was amplified to a nearly unbearable degree now that Kaveh knew he wasn’t the only one affected.

As Alhaitham increased the pressure, it felt only natural to wind his legs around Alhaitham’s waist, pulling him closer with each steady, sinuous wave of movement that crashed against the waiting shores of Kaveh’s needy body.

His thighs closed around Alhaitham as he clutched at him with tense fists, muscles straining with an urgent need to keep him as close as physically possible. As if in response to Kaveh’s desperation, Alhaitham bit down harshly on Kaveh’s neck, then began pressing heated kisses up his throat.

Unable to find the presence of mind necessary to remember that he was supposed to be loud for the benefit of any passersby - that this wasn’t simply for the purpose of shared pleasure - Kaveh slid his palm up to Alhaitham’s broad shoulder and tugged him forward, slotting their lips together in a kiss that suppressed each shuddering moan that was dragged from his chest.

Kaveh savoured the weight of Alhaitham’s body pinning him to the soft cushion, consuming him more and more with each deep kiss. It only grew more intoxicating as Alhaitham reached down to grip Kaveh’s hip, cradling it protectively against the pillow beneath him and aligning each slow, sensual roll of their bodies with aching precision.

They had kissed before. Alhaitham had made him come on his thigh before. Kaveh had experienced truly astronomical amounts of pleasure in the weeks since they’d begun this charade. But nothing - nothing - felt as impossibly intimate as this.

He was drowning.

Trembling with frenzied desire, Kaveh greedily stole the oxygen from Alhaitham’s lungs to fuel the fire blazing within his own.

Each time Alhaitham rocked his hips, Kaveh’s back arched a little more. And, though he knew deep down that this was all still, somehow, just for maintaining the illusion of their marriage, he let himself imagine - just for a moment - that Alhaitham’s desire was true.

The belief only became rooted deeper as he imagined the barriers of their clothing disappearing, leaving only bare skin sliding together as Alhaitham made love to him as a husband would.

Grinding helplessly against Alhaitham’s straining erection, maddeningly restrained by the layers of fabric, Kaveh gasped into his mouth as his fingers trailed down lower to cup Kaveh’s ass.

Desperate need coiled in his stomach. Alhaitham had only recently begun touching him like this, palming his ass over his shorts - firm and purposeful - as he made Kaveh come on his thigh.

This time, however, his fingers didn’t stop. Instead, they slid around Kaveh’s thigh and up beneath the hem of his shorts; now, only the thin fabric of his underwear remained between Alhaitham’s palm and Kaveh’s overheated skin.

“Kaveh,” Alhaitham whispered. It was so quiet it was barely audible, yet it was underpinned by a deep, borderline animalistic rasp, trembling with both urgency and disbelief. “Does this feel good? Can you come like this?”

Kaveh swallowed a humourless laugh. Truthfully, he was barely holding back as it was - but he couldn’t bear this moment to end so soon. Not when tomorrow might mean a return to the wall. He knew full well this might be his only chance to feel Alhaitham fully pressed against him, to be bathed in the phantom warmth of his desire.

Forcing down every half-formed plea that swirled in his mind and fighting off his desperate need for more, Kaveh could only gasp, “y-yes.”

The responding moan that escaped Alhaitham’s lips sounded almost pained. He nudged Kaveh’s nose with his own and tightened his grip on Kaveh’s ass, fingers snaking just barely beneath the side hem of his underwear as he tensed his jaw.

Though Kaveh tried to pull him in for another kiss, he could no longer intake enough breath. Instead, he simply brushed his lips against Alhaitham’s and panted into his mouth, fisting his fingers in his hair as pressure built within him like an unstoppable tide.

“Can you?” Kaveh managed between breathless gasps. “Can you come like this too?”

Alhaitham’s hips faltered for a moment.

Immediately, anxiety began bubbling up within Kaveh - maybe he wasn’t supposed to want Alhaitham to come too. Perhaps only Alhaitham was allowed to play the part of a devoted husband, and the mere idea of the role belonging to Kaveh was utterly revolting. Maybe Alhaitham’s erection was a response to simple friction and nothing more. Maybe Alhaitham would be so disgusted with the thought of -

“Yes.”

The single word was a lifeline, a buoy cast into the overwhelmingly vast ocean Kaveh was drowning in. Every one of his frantic, swirling thoughts dissolved, leaving behind only devastating pleasure in their wake as Alhaitham resumed his thrusts - now deeper, harder - so fervent Kaveh could scarcely breathe.

Alhaitham gazed down at him, pupils blown to swirling black discs, and lowered his head once more to press a kiss to Kaveh’s lips - slow, sensual, and utterly devastating. Their mouths moved with increasing desperation, growing more frenzied with each breath as Alhaitham’s fingers tightened on Kaveh’s ass with near-punishing strength.

As Alhaitham’s teeth grazed his lip with a teasing, tantalizing nip, Kaveh lost all sense of reality; his entire existence collapsed into the man above him. With a lewd, helpless moan, Kaveh locked his thighs even tighter around Alhaitham’s hips.

“Do you like it when I bite your lip?” Alhaitham asked, his deep voice laced with an unfairly seductive lilt.

“Mhm,” Kaveh hummed through his nose as he urged Alhaitham closer, syncing the rhythmic rolls of his hips to match Alhaitham’s.

Fingers beginning to quake slightly in Alhaitham’s hair, Kaveh’s moans quickly escalated into something raw and uninhibited. Incredibly, Alhaitham responded in kind, exhaling low, guttural groans in answer to each gasp of pleasure offered from Kaveh’s eager lips, draining every ounce of resistance simmering in Kaveh’s chest with tender yet burning kisses.

Though he wanted nothing more than to kiss Alhaitham until he blacked out, Kaveh also wanted to remember this - wanted to sear the way Alhaitham’s chiseled features contorted with pleasure into his memory, to hold onto the image of him teetering on the verge of release.

Kaveh tilted his head back just enough to meet Alhaitham’s eyes. An urgent, needy whimper was torn from his lips at the depth reflected in Alhaitham’s gaze as the thick weight pressing between Kaveh’s thighs grew so unbearable he could hardly stave off his own impending orgasm for another second.

Kaveh arched upward as an unstoppable tremor shook his thighs in response to the increasingly rapid rhythm of their hips. He felt like a live wire, crackling with pleasure so electric it shocked his heart into beating solely for Alhaitham as he was consumed by his own devotion.

Reality fell away. Even if this was nothing more than immersive method acting to make their marriage believable... right now, with Alhaitham’s breath inflating his lungs and their bodies pressed flush together, it felt so, so real.

Just for now, Kaveh could imagine that the reason that Alhaitham’s lips felt like home was because the sea of Alhaitham’s love had carved deep, unshakable trenches within his body just as they were etched into Kaveh’s.

Alhaitham leaned in until he was speaking directly against Kaveh’s lips, the faint puff of each syllable caressing his skin as it prickled beneath Alhaitham’s touch.

“I love the look on your face just before you come,” Alhaitham whispered, voice thick with awe. “It’s more honest than I’ve ever seen you. You look like a fucking angel.”

Kaveh’s eyes blew wide. He wanted to beg for more - for soft, whispered praise to be bestowed upon his lips just so he could savour the sweetness of each word - but instead, he simply broke.

Alhaitham’s achingly tender words cracked something open deep inside of him. Pleasure spilled forth in waves as he clung to the thread of truth he could hear within Alhaitham’s gentle reassurances, the quiet devotion grounding him just as surely as it unmoored him.

Kaveh sacrificed himself without question as Alhaitham’s hips stuttered harshly, releasing loud, desperate cries of mind-numbing pleasure. Unravelling as one, Alhaitham too devolved into a litany of deep, rumbling groans, each one vibrating directly against Kaveh’s chest.

Helpless to do anything else, Kaveh allowed himself to fall apart in the strong hands encircling him. His body seized, muscles tightening violently before bursting into a storm of release as he surrendered entirely to the sea of sensation only Alhaitham could conjure.

He released a desperate cry of ecstasy and came with Alhaitham’s name on his lips. Toes curling with the sheer force of the release ripping through him, Kaveh’s world narrowed entirely to the man above him - he could hear nothing but Alhaitham’s voice, smell nothing but the scent of his skin, feel nothing but the warmth of his body.

It was always overwhelming when Alhaitham made him come. But this - hearing Alhaitham’s voice shake with pleasure as deep groans captivated Kaveh’s ears, unsteady and raw - dragged Kaveh so far beneath the surface he lost sight of the sunlight filtering through the waves of Alhaitham’s touch.

All he knew was that Alhaitham was his only way out - the only anchor amidst the untenable, churning waters of desire threatening to swallow him whole. With every remaining bit of strength he possessed, he clung to the powerful body above his and succumbed to the euphoria.

Time lost all meaning. When the world finally began to return to the edges of Kaveh’s vision, he became aware of how violently his fingers were trembling, still tightly wound into Alhaitham’s hair and fisted so harshly in his shirt the fabric had begun to fray.

Though Alhaitham usually remained calm and composed by his side for a few minutes after he made Kaveh come, holding him gently in his arms before retreating with a final, intimate kiss... now, he was anything but still.

Breath coming in short, ragged pants, Alhaitham’s arms were ensnared tightly around Kaveh’s body, clutching him against his chest. Their legs were wrapped together in an intimate tangle as Alhaitham caressed his spine beneath his shirt, whispering soft, soothing words of reassurance on a loop.

Dazed and reeling, Kaveh anchored himself to Alhaitham’s body with a ferociousness that would have mortified him under any other circumstance. He allowed Alhaitham to cradle his head tenderly against his chest, pressing his ear directly over the thunderous heartbeat pounding behind his ribs.

Broken syllables, snippets of his own name, wove their way through Kaveh’s buzzing ears, interspersed with what sounded like gentle commands to breathe.

And Kaveh did. Surrendering to the alluring sanctuary that his embrace offered, Kaveh began to align his breathing to the rhythm of Alhaitham’s heart.

Finally, Alhaitham’s voice rose above the haze that was clouding Kaveh’s mind. His low baritone rumbled softly against Kaveh’s forehead, voice stripped raw and quavering with a vulnerability Alhaitham had never before displayed.

“Please, Kaveh, I need to know you’re okay.”

The sincerity in his plea sent pinpricks throughout Kaveh’s oversensitized body. His shaky fingers finally slackened their tight hold on Alhaitham as he glanced up from his place against his chest, peering up at him with wide, unfocused eyes.

For the first time in his life, Alhaitham looked scared - genuinely, truly terrified, eyes wild and chest heaving against Kaveh’s cheek. Even more alarming than his expression, however, was the faint, wet sheen in his eyes as he gazed frantically down at Kaveh.

Kaveh’s breath caught in his throat. “M'okay,” he managed to mumble, words thick and slow, brows knitting together with worry. “Are you?”

Alhaitham exhaled a deep, shaky sigh. He loosened his arms around Kaveh just enough to glide his palm along Kaveh’s cheek, brushing away tears that Kaveh hadn’t even realized were streaming down his cheeks.

“I’m fine. Just... worried. You weren’t answering me, and then you started crying - did I push you too far?” Alhaitham drew in a deep breath, voice dropping to something unusually timid and fearful. “Did... did I hurt you?”

Kaveh shook his head quickly, hand flying up to press Alhaitham’s palm more firmly to his cheek. Every one of his defenses had been stripped away, melted by the force of the pleasure they had just shared. “No. Not at all. Just...”

“Overwhelming?” Alhaitham offered cautiously, guilt softening the edges of his voice.

“Yeah.”

Kaveh watched the muscles in Alhaitham’s jaw ripple with tension. Struggling to remain coherent through the floaty waves of pleasure drifting through his body, he added, “but good overwhelming.”

Relief poured across Alhaitham’s face. With a nod of affirmation, he leaned down against the cushions and pressed an achingly sweet kiss to Kaveh’s forehead, then pulled him in closer.

“Okay,” he whispered tenderly, lips brushing against Kaveh’s skin. “Just close your eyes, then. I’ve got you. You’re safe with me.”

Overcome by a powerful wave of exhaustion, Kaveh allowed his body to slacken. Though he went silent, Alhaitham’s voice - low and dangerously sincere - continued to echo in Kaveh’s ears, repeating whispers of his sweet, desire-filled words... praise that had already been carved immutably into Kaveh’s chest.

As the waves of sleep washed him away, Kaveh held onto one final thought.

If Alhaitham truly thought him an angel... then the steadfast man cradling him in his arms - this god of warmth, of reason, of inexplicable sanctuary - was the only one Kaveh would ever worship.

Chapter Text

Alhaitham was going to lose his mind.

The previous week, when Kaveh had pressed his hips forward in clear invitation as Alhaitham kissed him in the doorway, Alhaitham had been overjoyed to push him back into the house and slide his thigh between Kaveh’s legs. Having never expected Kaveh to allow his touch at all, his head had buzzed with sheer bliss as he made Kaveh come for the first time.

Afterward, he’d held Kaveh close, waiting patiently for him to come down from the obvious edge of overstimulation he was riding. Alhaitham had even carefully angled his raging erection away so that Kaveh wouldn’t feel pressured to reciprocate.

But then... it had all come crashing down.

Though Alhaitham had thought Kaveh simply wanted him, especially after the soft confirmation Alhaitham had whispered before doing anything - asking if Kaveh knew this wasn’t part of the charade, that he didn’t owe Alhaitham his body - Kaveh still thought that Alhaitham only made him come for believability.

And, although the justification was flimsy and transparent to begin with - almost unbelievably so, to the point he found it hard to fathom that Kaveh would buy it at all - Kaveh had accepted it without hesitation.

So Alhaitham had allowed himself the indulgence. If Kaveh was offering, no matter the reason, Alhaitham would take what he could get.

It was worth it to hear Kaveh cry out his name as his delicate features drew together with sheer bliss, eyes brimming with vulnerability that let Alhaitham slip past the defenses he so rarely lowered - even just for a moment.

The already tenuous excuse to touch him grew weaker by the day, however, as their connection only became more intimate with each passing morning. After Kaveh had miraculously urged Alhaitham to come with him as they rutted their bodies together on the divan on Monday morning, Alhaitham had fully expected it to be the end.

He’d assumed Kaveh would never want Alhaitham touching him again - not after the way he’d come undone, devolving into a shaky, unresponsive, whimpering mess as heartbreakingly thick tears streamed down his face in the aftermath of their first shared orgasm.

Kaveh had clung to Alhaitham so tightly he’d torn his shirt, whispering one word over and over in a dazed, unconscious plea. “Stay.”

Alhaitham had been powerless to do anything other than wrap Kaveh’s trembling frame in his arms. Whispering soft, soothing murmurs through his own rising anxiety, Alhaitham had tried to calm him... but Kaveh didn’t respond to a single word. He hadn’t even seemed to hear Alhaitham at all.

It had taken several long minutes for Kaveh to return to himself. By then, Alhaitham’s panic had taken such deep root he was on the verge of tears himself, terrified that he’d irreparably broken something within Kaveh.

But Kaveh had simply nuzzled into Alhaitham’s secure embrace as though he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else, gifted Alhaitham a hazy yet radiant smile and a few soft words of reassurance, and promptly fell asleep against his chest.

That day, Alhaitham was two hours late to work. He’d remained on the divan until Kaveh awoke, sticky mess drying in his pants, holding Kaveh’s sleeping form in his arms while gazing down at his beautiful face with equal parts concern and adoration.

His analytical mind had spun all the while, replaying each interaction since their marriage ceremony and trying to reconstruct Kaveh’s motives. But no matter how hard he tried to fit Kaveh’s actions into the narrative Alhaitham had convinced himself was true so many years ago - that Kaveh didn’t love him back - it no longer held water.

His conclusion was only further solidified when, even with the overly-emotional aftermath of that morning, Kaveh only grew more physical. That evening, he’d wrapped Alhaitham in a sudden hug before they parted ways for bed, and - face burning - pressed an awkward, frantic kiss to the back of Alhaitham’s hand in something of a panic before fleeing to his room.

Alhaitham had fallen asleep with that hand against his face and a rare smile on his lips.

Each small yet intimate display - let alone given how forcefully Kaveh had come at the revelation of Alhaitham’s arousal - fed the quiet, desperate hope that Alhaitham had spent so long trying to bury.

Though he was anxious that the fragile state Kaveh had been reduced to that day might set them back, Kaveh had been more eager than ever the following morning. He’d pulled Alhaitham on top of him and urged their hips into a sinuous grind on the divan until they both came yet again.

Overwhelmed as he was following his orgasm, Kaveh remained fully coherent this time - yet he still clung to Alhaitham for longer than usual as they caught their breath together.

When he bid Alhaitham goodbye at the door, instead of Alhaitham stealing one final soft kiss he could never help his greedy lips from capturing, Kaveh had been the one to tug Alhaitham back down for one last, lingering peck.

By Wednesday, Kaveh had grown even bolder with his body. As they’d arranged themselves on the cushions that morning, Kaveh slipped his fingers up the back of Alhaitham’s shirt for the first time and clung to his bare skin as they unravelled together.

Thursday, it was the front of his shirt. Kaveh came so quickly with his fingers on Alhaitham’s abs that he left angry red scratch marks on the sensitive skin of his stomach - marks Alhaitham had, shamefully, been unable to stop himself from tracing through his shirt for the remainder of the day.

Kaveh had been no less eager when he repeated it on Friday, too. But this time, Kaveh only held onto Alhaitham’s abdomen with one hand, using the other to press Alhaitham’s palm up the bottom of his shorts to cup his ass - territory he had not wandered to since Monday when he’d been overwhelmed by Kaveh’s acceptance of his desire.

As they fell apart together, Alhaitham could’ve sworn he heard Kaveh gasp something about his hands, but with a handful of Kaveh’s ass and his aching erection pressed between his thighs, even through the fabric of their clothes... he found it hard to focus on semantics. Though he’d been too preoccupied to understand, his heart had leapt into his throat regardless.

Each signal from Kaveh made it harder to deny that he was, at the very least, enjoying their intimacy. Every touch, every desperate kiss, every wordless plea pulled another brick from the steadfast levees Alhaitham had constructed around his heart to keep the ocean of Kaveh’s presence from flooding him entirely.

Saturday morning was, as expected, agonizing without the closeness of Kaveh’s body to start his day. With a low sigh, Alhaitham settled onto the divan with a mug of coffee and a book, resigning himself once more to nothing more than stolen glances over the next couple of days - just as he’d done the last two weekends.

Though he’d once believed that the tenderness in Kaveh’s gaze was nothing more than a cruel mirage - fleeting, deceptive, and tied to nothing more than a physical release - it felt undeniably like more now. The pleasure written in Kaveh’s features when he was touched by Alhaitham’s hands seemed too genuine, too unguarded, to be anything but real.

This marriage was meant to protect Kaveh, not to make Alhaitham happy... but even so, Alhaitham’s hopeful heart felt fuller than it ever had in his life.

The only shadow cast over that growing light was Kaveh’s worsening exhaustion. He looked more worn down with each passing day; and, though Alhaitham tried to get him to talk, Kaveh always dismissed him with the same obvious lie - I’m fine.

After spending a few moments staring at Kaveh’s closed bedroom door and hoping he was peacefully sleeping, Alhaitham flipped open his book and relegated himself to reading rather than rutting against Kaveh on the divan as they’d done for five consecutive mornings.

Though he already missed the warmth of Kaveh’s body, Alhaitham supposed he needed the reprieve. It still felt like a blessing straight from celestia that Kaveh allowed him to touch him at all - but lately, the friction of Alhaitham’s pants against his erection as he ground their hips together in the mornings had begun to eclipse some of the pleasure.

With a deep breath, Alhaitham relaxed against the pillows lining the edge of the divan and crossed his ankles as he sprawled out on the cushions. Only half an hour passed before Kaveh stumbled out of his room into the kitchen, reemerging a few minutes later with a fresh mug of coffee.

“Morning,” Kaveh mumbled as he collapsed in a sleepy heap on the opposite end of the divan.

“Morning. You sleep okay?”

Kaveh took a long sip from his mug then bit his lip thoughtfully, eyes roaming over Alhaitham in quiet appraisal. After a prolonged pause, he finally answered, “I... no. Not really. I have a lot on my mind.”

Arching his brow, Alhaitham lowered his book to his lap, given pause by the hesitance in Kaveh’s voice.

“Anything in particular?”

Kaveh merely shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. I’m just really fucking tired.”

Though he wanted to pry, Alhaitham knew Kaveh - and he was nothing if not determined. If he didn’t want to talk, no amount of prodding would make him.

“Just go back to sleep then,” Alhaitham replied.

“Wow.” Kaveh fixed him with a flat look, lips pursed. “Brilliant. Groundbreaking. Wish I’d thought of that.”

Alhaitham bit back a smile. “If it’s that bad, we can go see Tighnari today and get you some sleep aids.”

Kaveh’s only response was a noncommittal hum. Then, with one more large sip - so drawn out it was as if he were stalling for time - Kaveh set his mug on the coffee table.

When he met Alhaitham’s gaze again, his expression had softened into something more vulnerable, tinged with something hesitant and fearful.

“Are you just planning to read for a while?” Kaveh asked quietly, fiddling with his hands in his lap.

“I was, yes. Why? Do you want to go see Tighnari now?”

With a weighted frown, Kaveh shifted uneasily on the cushions. Then, with a spark of determination as something decidedly wracked by nerves glittered behind his scarlet eyes, he flipped onto his hands and knees and began advancing on Alhaitham.

Startled, Alhaitham shut his book and carefully set it aside as Kaveh crawled forward. He came to a stop beside Alhaitham’s torso and leaned against the backboard of the divan.

“I, um... if you’re still concerned with people thinking you’re a good husband, I don’t think it’s ideal for people to see me so tired,” Kaveh stammered, pointedly refusing to meet his eye as he glared at a frayed thread on the cushion behind Alhaitham’s head. “So if... if you want me to be well rested, I think a good husband would offer himself as a pillow.”

Kaveh wanted to... nap with him?

Scarcely able to believe his luck, Alhaitham carefully filed the moment away into his ever-thickening mental folder labelled 'Kaveh might actually love me back' and wordlessly lifted his arm in invitation.

Kaveh exhaled a heavy breath and slowly sank down against Alhaitham’s side, resting his head tentatively on Alhaitham’s chest. Wrapping his arm around Kaveh, Alhaitham adjusted their position so Kaveh’s neck wouldn’t be strained, then tugged a blanket from the back of the divan and draped it over them.

Grateful that Kaveh couldn’t see his undoubtedly lovesick expression as warmth spread across his cheeks, Alhaitham gazed down at the mess of blonde hair nestled against him. Kaveh slowly began to relax against him, though his hips shifted restlessly - the same way they always did when Kaveh was in pain.

“Sit up,” Alhaitham breathed softly.

Kaveh tensed immediately. Clearly misinterpreting Alhaitham’s command as a rejection, he lifted his head abruptly, face lighting up with panic as he attempted to scramble away.

“Right, yeah, I - sorry, I shouldn’t have - mmph!”

Before he could retreat, Alhaitham tugged him back down - more forcefully than he intended, heart pounding with the certainty that Kaveh wanted to be held in his arms.

Suppressing a smile, he kicked a pillow from the opposite end of the divan toward them and lifted Kaveh like a ragdoll to wedge the pillow beneath the soft curve of his waist for support.

“I just wanted you to be comfortable, Kaveh. That’s all. If I can help you sleep, I’m happy to. Always. You don’t need to ask.” He reached up and gently tucked a stray strand of Kaveh’s messy hair behind his ear. “I know my husband needs his beauty sleep.”

Kaveh blinked at him in a sort of stupor; then, slowly, he settled back down against Alhaitham’s side. This time, however, as his hesitance slowly ebbed, Kaveh’s entire body melted against his as he gingerly draped an arm over Alhaitham’s torso and tangled their legs together.

Gradually, Alhaitham began to relax as well. He brought his palm to rest on Kaveh’s waist and gently rubbed his side - just as he did after each morning of shared pleasure when his touch alone was the balm to Kaveh’s post-orgasm overwhelm.

Though Alhaitham had been lucky enough to hold Kaveh in his arms on the divan after they came each day that week, the gentle embraces never lasted long - save for the first morning, when Kaveh had fallen asleep immediately from sheer overstimulation.

Alhaitham would’ve stayed all day if he could. Unfortunately, he had to leave for work, and the tacky mess that he had to clean from his pants each time before leaving made it uncomfortable to stay stagnant for too long.

This, however... this was pure, simple heaven. It only grew more sacred as Kaveh mumbled something unintelligible against his shirt and fully slackened in his arms, completely dead to the world.

He was asleep in less than a minute.

With a contented sigh, Alhaitham slid his fingers into Kaveh’s hair. There was no sight in the world that could rival Kaveh’s face when he came, filled with pure emotion and contorted in ecstasy, allowing Alhaitham an unguarded glimpse of a little more of the resplendent soul that lay within each time he let go... though Kaveh sleeping peacefully on Alhaitham’s chest was a close second.

Pleasure was, undoubtedly, beautiful when written across Kaveh’s features.

But this tranquility? It was truly breathtaking.

When Kaveh awoke later that afternoon, curled warmly against Alhaitham’s side, Alhaitham couldn’t suppress the softness in his expression. He gently brushed Kaveh’s hair from his eyes and rubbed the back of Kaveh’s palm, thumb skirting back and forth across the ring that sang of Alhaitham’s love on his finger.

“Better?”

“Yeah, wow,” Kaveh mumbled groggily, yawning and rubbing at his eyes with an uncoordinated fist. “I haven’t slept that well in a long time. How, um... how long was I out?”

Alhaitham glanced at the clock. “Around six hours.”

Eyes narrowing into an adorably suspicious glare, Kaveh shifted onto his stomach to peer up at him from where he lay on Alhaitham’s chest. “Very funny. How long was I actually asleep?”

With a shrug, Alhaitham gestured again toward the clock.

As Kaveh blinked owlishly and confirmed that it really was now the afternoon, the easy, languid lines of his body began to tense again. “How? Gods, what - what about your stupid stretch-every-two-hours-for-your-giant-muscles rule? You just stayed with me the whole time?”

“Shh,” Alhaitham soothed gently, tightening his grip on Kaveh to keep him from sitting up. “You needed the rest. I’m glad I could help.”

Kaveh’s only answer was a disgruntled huff.

Lips tilted up into something ineffably fond, Alhaitham slowly stroked his fingers through Kaveh’s hair, not bothering to hide the reverence in his touch as Kaveh settled once more against his chest and relaxed beneath the gentle caress.

“You’re cute when you pout, you know.”

“Shut up.” Kaveh opened one eye to shoot him a half-hearted glare as he snuggled into Alhaitham’s side. “Don’t patronize me.”

Delighting in Kaveh’s easy acceptance of his affection - even through his grumpy veneer - Alhaitham began gently massaging Kaveh’s neck just below his hairline along the nape.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Kaveh released a huff that quickly transformed into a soft sigh as Alhaitham’s thumb dug into the tension coiled deep in his muscles, faux irritation giving way to serenity. They sat in silence for a long while, the only sound between them their quiet breaths as they simply held each other.

Alhaitham had never been happier.

Each slow, easy inhale that Kaveh drew in against his chest only strengthened the growing optimism within him as Kaveh’s carefully guarded vulnerability unfurled beneath his fingers like the petals of a delicate flower.

Encouraged, Alhaitham leaned down slowly and pressed his lips against Kaveh’s forehead.

A soft exhalation caressed Alhaitham’s collarbone, coupled with a sound so satisfied and warm it bordered on a purr. Something long-hidden in Alhaitham’s heart, tucked away and neglected for far too long, emerged one step closer to freedom in the light of Kaveh’s love.

“Come on,” Alhaitham murmured, squeezing Kaveh’s neck affectionately before pushing the blanket off of them. “We’ll miss the travelling merchants if we don’t head out soon - I know you wanted to pick up some of the Fontainian coffee blends.”

“Oh, is the Fontainian market today? I didn’t even remember... okay. Yeah.”

Kaveh made no move to get up.

After a beat, the crown of his golden hair nudged softly against Alhaitham’s chin - an endearingly transparent attempt to mask the covert request for affection. Face tilted into a lazy smile he was unfamiliar with wearing, Alhaitham leaned down and pressed another kiss to Kaveh’s forehead.

As he pulled back, Kaveh slowly peeled his body away from Alhaitham’s, rising with obvious reluctance. With a soft, shy smile, Kaveh bit his lip and padded off toward the bathroom without another word.

Alhaitham watched his unsteady form retreat down the hallway with a flutter of warmth in his chest. He stood slowly and stretched, rolling out the ache in his shoulders and back from the position he’d willingly pretzeled himself into beneath Kaveh’s angelic sleeping form.

After getting ready and making them a quick, late lunch, Alhaitham ushered Kaveh out the front door. Kaveh paused for a beat too long on the threshold as Alhaitham locked the door behind them.

So used to their stoop being used for loving kisses rather than mundane departures now, Alhaitham felt a sudden urge to lean down and press his lips to Kaveh’s. It seemed Alhaitham’s Pavlovian response was mutual; Kaveh jerked slightly toward him before quickly pulling back.

Endeared by Kaveh’s obvious internal battle, Alhaitham was just about to lean down to kiss him - but Kaveh beat him to it. With a burst of motion, he clapped his hands to Alhaitham’s cheeks and pressed a firm kiss to his lips.

When he pulled away, Kaveh’s cheeks were painted a soft rosy pink, his expression riddled with panic so harsh it was as though he’d just committed an unspeakable crime. “Just - just figured... would be good. For, you know. People. To, um - to see.”

Kaveh spun on his heel and started walking away briskly. “Cute...” Alhaitham murmured under his breath.

Catching up in only a few strides, Alhaitham fell into step beside him as Kaveh glanced at him nervously. Both to soothe Kaveh’s anxiety and for the simple pleasure of it, Alhaitham reached out and laced their fingers together.

Alhaitham smiled at the surprised glance he received in response. “Relax,” Alhaitham said softly. “You’re out with your husband. Try to enjoy it, mm?”

“This is for believability too, I assume?” Kaveh snipped defensively, though he didn’t withdraw his hand from Alhaitham’s.

“And if I say it’s not?”

“Right. Of course.” Kaveh turned his eyes forward again, glaring at the cobblestone as he tugged Alhaitham forward toward the coffee cart amidst the bustle of the travelling festival. “You know, you don’t have to be an ass about it, Haitham.”

Caught off-guard by the sudden shift in his tone, Alhaitham brushed his thumb along the back of Kaveh’s hand. “I’m not being an ass, Kave-”

Before he could finish, they were interrupted by a vivacious man in a garish patchwork of multicoloured robes with an overflowing bouquet of rainbow roses in his arms.

“Ah! Magnifique! We need one more couple for ze dance.” The man pushed a rose into Kaveh’s hand; then, without giving either of them time to protest, he grasped Kaveh’s wrist and began dragging him forward. “You two are perfect. Come come!”

Kaveh clung to Alhaitham’s hand and pulled him along, forming the middle of an odd sort of train as the man carted them toward an open area where several Fontainian musicians were setting up their instruments.

“Wait! We don’t even know the steps!” Kaveh protested.

“Ehh - zat is nonsense. You will learn.” He gestured importantly to himself and turned with a flourish, fanning the ugly hues of his coat behind him like a peacock’s plume. “I am ze great Maurice! And I will teach you. Stand here!”

So stunned by his theatrical boldness, neither of them managed another word before Maurice flitted off to murmur excitedly with the band. After confirming the song, he dragged forward a man who - though wearing matching robes to Maurice’s - looked far less enthused to be involved.

Nilou smiled warmly at them from across the clearing as she took the hand of a man Alhaitham vaguely recognized from the Zubayr theatre. Maurice beamed at the gathered couples - none of whom, aside from Nilou, seemed to have been given much more of a choice in their participation than he and Kaveh had been.

“Alright!” Maurice clapped his hands together with a dramatic flair. “For you to learn ze dance of ze icewinds, you must channel ze love story of Coppelia and Coppelius. Ze dance steps are simple, but ze true essence of ze dance is romance!”

He lifted a rose high above his head and struck a pose. When he was met only with tepid silence amidst a few scattered claps, Maurice huffed and gestured impatiently to his companion, who rolled his eyes fondly but took Maurice’s hand nonetheless. Together, they began demonstrating the basic steps of the dance.

Alhaitham offered his hand to Kaveh, softening as Kaveh’s cheeks puffed up with a barely-contained, excitable smile. If not for him, Alhaitham would’ve walked away already - ugly-coat-Maurice be damned - but Kaveh, ever the romantic, had often spoken wistfully of his desire to dance... and Alhaitham had never had an opportunity to reveal the skill his grandmother had given him.

He didn’t need to watch as Maurice walked through the steps - he already knew this dance by heart. Once Maurice flapped his hand expectantly at the waiting couples, Alhaitham drew Kaveh in close and leaned down to whisper in his ear, “just follow my lead.”

With that, he swept Kaveh into his arms and began moving through the dance seamlessly. Though Kaveh stiffened in surprise at first, he quickly relaxed into Alhaitham’s confident guidance.

Kaveh stumbled as he attempted to follow Alhaitham for the first few steps, but gradually picked up the rhythm, responding fluidly to Alhaitham’s subtle bodily cues. Light and easy to maneuver, Alhaitham led Kaveh with practiced grace, dipping him low before pulling him back into his arms.

Kaveh’s eyes flicked up from their feet to Alhaitham’s face as their chests brushed together, joyful yet stunned. “Since when do you know how to dance?”

“I’m a man of mystery.”

Kaveh raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

Smiling, alhaitham added, “my grandmother taught me. She loved to dance.”

“You - you never told me that.” Visibly swooning, Kaveh gasped as Alhaitham spun him in a circle before reeling him in with his back to Alhaitham’s chest as he coiled his arms around Kaveh’s waist.

“Well I’m telling you now, then.” Alhaitham twirled Kaveh in an unchoreographed flourish, heart warming as Kaveh burst into a sweet, unrestrained giggle. “Just enjoy it. Let me show you off.”

Kaveh’s laughter was more melodic than the music.

Eyes glittering and lips tilted into a radiant smile, Kaveh moved more freely now, every dip and twirl met with burgeoning joy. Each time Alhaitham brought him back into his arms, Kaveh’s grin only brightened.

“This is fun,” Kaveh said breathlessly as Alhaitham lifted him by the waist and set him down again. “I thought dancing with you would be like pulling teeth.”

Even though it was everything Alhaitham detested - loud music, drunk people, large crowds - he murmured, “I’ll take you dancing any time you want.”

“Sure you will,” Kaveh scoffed, though none of the warmth faded from his face. “You’d hate it, Haitham.”

“I know. But I’d go for you.”

If Kaveh had been taken aback by Alhaitham’s surprisingly nimble dancing, he was absolutely flabbergasted now as he stared up at him. As the music softened, Alhaitham brushed his fingers gently over Kaveh’s cheek and whispered, “you look beautiful like this. Happy. I like seeing you happy.”

Swaying slowly as the music tapered into applause, Alhaitham’s heart swelled to twice its size at the unmistakable love shimmering in Kaveh’s eyes.

Though he’d glimpsed it before, he’d always convinced himself that it was nothing more than an illusion. Now, though, with Kaveh’s defenses lowered and his body pliant and calm in Alhaitham’s arms, there was no denying it.

Without a doubt, Kaveh’s feelings mirrored his own.

Smiling triumphantly as he cradled the love of his life in his arms, Alhaitham bent down to press a soft kiss to Kaveh’s forehead, then lifted his left hand to brush his lips just below his wedding ring.

“Haitham...” Kaveh whispered shakily as he clutched at Alhaitham’s shirt, fingers trembling in his grasp.

He gazed up at him as though he were seeing Alhaitham for the very first time. Though his mouth hung open, Kaveh seemed to be lost for words.

“Magnifique! Magnifique! Ze passion! Ze feeling!” Maurice cried whimsically as he bounded toward them, his coat jingling obnoxiously and swishing so violently behind him it swiped several bystanders in the legs. “You have a very special love story, Maurice can tell. There is such passion between you it rivals even ze great Coppelia and Coppelius!”

Kaveh smiled, cheeks tinged pink, but Maurice tittered on before he could get in a word edgewise.

“Maurice knew you were ze perfect choice. How long have you been together?”

“We got married last month,” Alhaitham replied vaguely.

Maurice flapped his hand melodramatically and released a dismissive puff of air. “You jest! Maurice can see. This is ze love of a lifetime. Now, kiss kiss, little parakeets, and flutter away! Maurice cannot spend all day on you!”

They exchanged a surreptitious glance of mutual amusement, but Maurice was already bouncing away toward Nilou, throwing rose petals at her so forcefully they made an audible slap as they hit her in the cheeks.

Ignoring Maurice’s over-the-top, chaotic ramblings as he praised Nilou’s dancing, Alhaitham tugged Kaveh closer and tilted his chin up with two fingers. “Wouldn’t want to disappoint Maurice the fruity ornithologist, would we, little parakeet?” he murmured sardonically.

Kaveh’s answering laugh was so pure - bright and unburdened - that Alhaitham couldn’t resist. He leaned down and captured his lips in a gentle kiss, swallowing the addictive sound with a soft hum.

Kaveh melted into him instantly. Though the kiss was chaste, the love and intimacy threaded between their lips was unmistakable, no less potent for its brevity.

When Alhaitham drew back, Kaveh chased him with a hint of a whine. After a moment of blinking dazedly up at him, Kaveh’s eyes widened, clearly mortified as he tried to stuff the sound back into his mouth.

Unwilling to allow Kaveh to think, even for a second, that Alhaitham didn’t cherish the evidence of his affections, he drew Kaveh into a slightly deeper kiss, though it was no less gentle. This time, when he pulled back, he slid his palm down to curl his fingers around Kaveh’s.

“Let’s go get your coffee beans,” he whispered with a soft kiss to Kaveh’s cheek, “and go home.”

Chapter Text

When they returned home, Kaveh was winding down from a long-winded rant about flavour profiles they could test their newly purchased coffee blends alongside. Collapsing in a tired heap on the divan, he smiled brightly at Alhaitham.

Beautiful and joyful as he looked, Alhaitham didn’t hesitate to follow him down, slotting himself atop Kaveh’s body just as he had each morning the week before.

Though Kaveh looked surprised, he didn’t protest. For several long moments, Alhaitham held himself up on his elbows and simply gazed down at him.

“What - what are you doing?” Kaveh finally asked.

As Kaveh fidgeted anxiously beneath him, smile fading into something uncertain yet hopeful, Alhaitham’s heart fluttered in his chest. Still buzzing from their romantic dance - and the fact that Kaveh hadn’t dropped Alhaitham’s hand the entire time they’d been out - his lips tilted upward as he allowed himself the honesty of his desire, finally satisfied that he no longer had to conceal his feelings.

“Feels strange that I didn’t get to make you come this morning. I like going about my day knowing I made you feel good.”

Kaveh’s cheeks flushed a shade darker. “Y-you do?” he stammered softly, clearly taken aback.

“I do.” Alhaitham leaned down to press his lips to Kaveh’s throat, then began trailing gentle kisses up to his ear. “Would you let me make you feel good today too, little parakeet?”

With a shuddering exhale that was as much a laugh as it was a moan, Kaveh tilted his head back to bare the expanse of his throat in wordless offering. The flush on his cheeks turned deeper still as his body arched into Alhaitham’s, calves hooking around the backs of Alhaitham’s thighs as he wrapped his arms around him and aligned their hips.

Releasing a low hum of approval, Alhaitham rolled his hips forward in a slow, languid undulation.

Unfortunately for his raging erection, Alhaitham barely made it a few seconds into the sensual grind before he let out a sharp grunt of pain. Unwilling to allow his chafed skin to deny them both, he shifted to instead press his thigh between Kaveh’s.

Kaveh instantly pulled back from the kiss and withdrew his arms hesitantly. “Oh, do... do you not want to anymore? It’s okay if you don’t, I -”

“It’s not that. The fabric on my pants is hurting. It’s fine - I can just use my thigh. I like making you come like this too.”

“But then... you won’t get to come?”

Leaning down to guide their lips back together, Alhaitham murmured soft reassurances between kisses. “It’s fine.” It was, of course, preferable to come together, but Alhaitham was more than satisfied simply bringing Kaveh pleasure. “I don’t need to.”

Though he acquiesced to Alhaitham’s touch and the steady pressure of his thigh, Kaveh’s kisses were distracted, lacking their usual eagerness. Mourning the loss of Kaveh’s willingness to accept his touch - something he’d clearly been taking for granted - Alhaitham lifted his head to scan Kaveh’s expression.

“What’s wrong?”

Kaveh was silent for a moment, gaze boring into his. Finally, he whispered, “I want you to come too, Haitham.”

That kind of desire didn’t leave much room for misinterpretation; Alhaitham’s hope flared ever-brighter alongside the interested bulge in his pants as it twitched eagerly against his waistband.

“Yeah? You do?”

Kaveh nodded vacantly, clearly warring with something internal. He tensed his fingers on Alhaitham’s biceps, then pulled away, then brought them back, then removed his hands once more.

When he finally spoke, his words came out in a nervous, rushed tumble, far louder than his usual speaking voice.

“Can I just use my hand to get you off?”

Alhaitham’s hips answered for him, jolting forward to press his erection against Kaveh’s inner thigh. “Of course,” he breathed, tightening his hold on Kaveh as warmth surged through his veins - as if he could ever deny such a request. “But you don’t have to. I don’t want you to feel any pressure.”

“I know I don’t have to,” Kaveh replied immediately. “I just... I mean, I feel like it’s - it’s only fair, right?”

Raising an eyebrow in pleased disbelief, Alhaitham brought his lips to the shell of Kaveh’s ear. “Then I think it would be fair if you let me touch you, too.”

Kaveh didn’t answer. Frowning in the uncertain silence, Alhaitham leaned back once more to meet Kaveh’s eyes, running his thumb soothingly along his cheek. “Kaveh, if you don’t want me to, I -”

“You’re right. It’s fair.” Kaveh reached down and began fumbling nervously with Alhaitham’s pants. “Fair,” he repeated softly, though something distant and detached edged his tone.

“Hey. Kaveh. No. You don’t have to say yes. I don’t want anything you don’t w-”

“I want to, Haitham. I - oh gods... oh, o-oh gods...”

As Kaveh’s fingers snaked beneath Alhaitham’s loosened waistband and wrapped around him for the first time, Alhaitham could only echo the sentiment. Gasping shakily, Alhaitham gently rocked forward into his fist, eyes fluttering shut as sensation overwhelmed him.

“Fuck, Kaveh...”

“So big, holy shit, so - so big,” Kaveh mumbled weakly as his hips stuttered upward.

Fighting to stay focused despite the distracting warmth of Kaveh’s palm stroking slowly up and down his shaft - far more difficult than it should have been - Alhaitham dragged an uncoordinated hand to the hem of Kaveh’s pants and slipped his fingers just beneath the fabric.

Alhaitham was unable to suppress a low, needy noise as Kaveh’s thumb swiped over his tip. “Kaveh, if you don’t want me to touch you, it’s okay, just - mmh - just tell me. Be honest. I’ll never be mad at you for telling me no, but I will be upset if you force yourself into something you don’t want for my sake.”

“I want it, Haitham.” Kaveh replied immediately, arching upward to chase his hand and urge him lower as Alhaitham’s fingers teased the soft skin just below his waistband. “I’m being honest. I want you to touch me.”

Incapable of resisting, Alhaitham leaned in again to press a sloppy kiss to the corner of Kaveh’s mouth and slid two fingers down until they met slick, blazing wetness.

Kaveh was soaked.

Alhaitham’s hips jerked forward as he bit Kaveh’s bottom lip harshly, releasing a deep groan in response to the molten pleasure tearing through him. Though he’d imagined this countless times, nothing could’ve prepared him for the sheer bliss of touching Kaveh for the first time.

“Tell me what feels good then,” Alhaitham breathed, releasing Kaveh’s lip from between his teeth only long enough to whisper the words before he was crushing their lips together once more. He couldn’t help himself from biting down harder as the instinct to mark Kaveh’s body - to lay claim to the man that was finally his to touch - burned beneath his very skin.

But Kaveh was too focused on seeking out Alhaitham’s body - his fingers, his erection, his lips, his tongue - as he panted into his mouth, sliding his palm up and down in steady strokes.

Impatient and desperate to bring Kaveh every ounce of pleasure he possibly could, Alhaitham was just about to repeat the question when Kaveh’s legs tightened around his waist and drew their bodies closer together.

“Anything you do feels good,” Kaveh choked out weakly. “Anything, Haitham.”

Alhaitham huffed, ready to probe for more informative guidance - but then his fingers found their target. He brushed slowly over a soft, throbbing bud that had Kaveh’s back arching so violently he nearly unseated them both from the divan.

Kaveh’s moans multiplied instantly. He rutted up against Alhaitham’s hand, palm flying up to grip Alhaitham’s bicep tightly and digging his fingers into his muscles as his pleasure grew louder and more desperate with each breath.

“You usually come from pressure right here, yeah?” Alhaitham whispered as he circled his finger teasingly around Kaveh’s clit.

“Y-yeah, but I want your fingers inside me right now,” Kaveh gasped feverishly. “Please.”

Despite the breathless urgency in Kaveh’s voice, Alhaitham’s fingers only slowed, savouring each delicate moan that escaped Kaveh’s lips. He threaded a hand through Kaveh’s hair and gradually dipped his fingers lower until they were swirling around Kaveh’s entrance, breath catching each time Kaveh’s eager body jolted in response to his touch.

Groaning, Alhaitham eased his middle finger forward as Kaveh’s hips pressed insistently against his hand in an attempt to draw his fingers in. He pushed slowly past the tight, slick resistance and inched his finger deeper, dribbling precum onto Kaveh’s stomach as his body clamped around Alhaitham despite the lack of any real pressure.

“Fuck, Haitham,” Kaveh whined, grinding against his fingertip with a desperation that looked positively ethereal on him. “Fuck, please... please...”

Even though something filthy deep within Alhaitham wanted to draw it out until Kaveh was sobbing and begging for his touch, he knew this wasn’t the time. And, truthfully, he needed to make Kaveh feel just how badly Alhaitham wanted him - how deep his love ran.

“I’ve got you,” Alhaitham promised as he finally slid his finger all the way inside.

The choked, fractured sound that spilled from Kaveh’s lips as his eyes rolled back into his head was equally as arousing as Kaveh’s palm gliding up and down Alhaitham’s straining erection, though the combination of both nearly drove Alhaitham to his knees.

“Yeah. There you go, Kaveh,” he praised softly as he rocked into Kaveh’s shaky fist. “There you go. Let me feel how fucking wet you are for me.”

Kaveh released a sound devastatingly close to a whimper as he tightened around Alhaitham’s finger. Their living room was quickly filled with obscene, rhythmic, slick sounds as Kaveh’s wetness coated his hand.

Breathing heavily, Alhaitham added a second finger. He groaned as Kaveh cried out, urging Alhaitham’s legs forward until his erection slid along the soft skin of Kaveh’s stomach where his shirt had ridden up.

Though his eyes were clenched shut, Kaveh seemed close to tears already as he grasped Alhaitham’s bicep like a lifeline. Alhaitham leaned in to scatter kisses across his skin anywhere his lips could reach - Kaveh’s jaw, his neck, his cheek, his lips - between soft, broken murmurs of praise.

As Kaveh moaned and pleaded wordlessly for more, Alhaitham hoped that even a fraction of the love blazing in his chest was conveyed through the reverent kisses he whispered across Kaveh’s skin.

Each time Kaveh’s hips rocked downward to urge Alhaitham’s fingers deeper into the warmth of his body - as if they needed any such coaxing - he slid his fist down to the base of Alhaitham’s erection and pressed Alhaitham’s tip against the smooth, warm expanse of his stomach... as if he were imagining Alhaitham inside him, matching the rhythmic squeezes of his fist with the burning heat of his inner walls.

Whether Kaveh was imagining it or not, Alhaitham certainly was.

As if in answer to his unspoken thoughts, Kaveh nuzzled against him and tightened around Alhaitham’s fingers. “P-please, Haitham,” he gasped. “You’re so big, so thick... two’s not enough. Can - can I have another finger?”

Alhaitham had to fight hard not to come that instant. Growing bolder as his desire mounted, Alhaitham pushed a third finger inside of him before Kaveh had even finished speaking, cursing under his breath as Kaveh’s thighs began to tremble on either side of him.

Though he could already read Kaveh’s reactions fairly clearly after the past couple of weeks - could sense the moment he began building to a climax as his moans grew higher-pitched and increasingly breathless - Alhaitham could feel it now, too.

“Holy fuck, do you always get this tight when you’re about to come?” Alhaitham grunted brokenly as he rocked into Kaveh’s hand, mirroring the pace of his fingers.

Kaveh nodded distractedly and dug his fingertips even harder into Alhaitham’s bicep.

Lifting his head to meet Kaveh’s gaze, Alhaitham rocked his hips more harshly into Kaveh’s fist; but even though he was moments away from painting Kaveh’s skin white with his desire, his own release mattered very little to him in that moment.

“Don’t look away,” Alhaitham commanded desperately, though it came out as far more of a plea than an order as raw emotion threaded through the ragged husk of his voice. “Don’t look away from me, Kaveh. I need to see your face as you come on my fingers for the first time. I need to see every second.”

Kaveh released a heart stoppingly erotic moan and tightened obscenely around his fingers, muscles going taut. “Oh gods, oh g-gods, Haitham,” Kaveh whispered through the strain in his voice.

Dark and glittering with desperation, Kaveh’s eyes blew wide. The expression didn’t linger, eyelids growing heavy as his breathing became erratic - though they obediently stayed open, gaze locked on Alhaitham’s just as he’d asked.

“Yeah, there you go. There you go. Just like this. Please, Kaveh... please.”

Something within Kaveh simply snapped. Squeezing Alhaitham’s arm so tightly it made his skin burn in protest, Kaveh released a desperate, strangled whine that cut off mid-breath as the air became trapped in his chest. Then, all at once, his body convulsed.

Eyelashes fluttering wildly as a deep scarlet bloomed across his cheeks, Kaveh’s eyes burned into Alhaitham’s as his orgasm hit, lips falling open in a soundless cry.

Alhaitham cradled Kaveh’s head in his hand and watched with hungry eyes as he devolved into shallow, needy cries of pleasure, squeezing Alhaitham’s fingers so tightly it became difficult to move them amidst the firm clench of his muscles.

Expression melting into something almost painfully seductive, tears began to slip past Kaveh’s eyelashes, tracking glistening paths down his cheeks. Eyes never leaving Alhaitham’s, Kaveh choked out his name over and over, arching against him as the warmth of his release spilled like molten honey into Alhaitham’s palm.

It felt as though Alhaitham was bearing witness to something sacred. He barely even registered the warmth of his own climax shooting across Kaveh’s stomach in thick stripes, drawn out by the jerky, uncoordinated strokes of Kaveh’s fist.

He curled his fingers inside Kaveh a few more times, coaxing out every last shiver of pleasure as Kaveh clung to him with all his might.

Only when the warmth surrounding his trembling fingers began to loosen and Kaveh sank bonelessly onto the divan did Alhaitham finally break the sanctity of their eye contact. Leaning down, he began to kiss the tears from Kaveh’s cheeks.

Lips parted and slack, Kaveh pawed at Alhaitham’s bicep with shaky fingers where he’d carved white indents and deep red crescents into his skin. “Haitham,” Kaveh whispered, breathless and unsteady as the intensity of their orgasms faded to soft serenity.

“Perfect... you did perfect,” Alhaitham praised lovingly as he softened his grasp in Kaveh’s hair to something more tender. “You’re so loud when you come for me. Absolutely perfect.”

Caressing Kaveh’s cheekbone with unadulterated worship, Alhaitham kissed his way to Kaveh’s lips. Humming softly, he brushed his thumb along the crease between Kaveh’s hip and inner thigh beside where his fingers were still nestled deep inside him. “You okay?”

Though Kaveh didn’t answer immediately, Alhaitham wasn’t as worried as he had been the first time he’d made Kaveh come. Thankfully, he now knew to expect Kaveh’s unresponsiveness when his body was buzzing with overstimulation.

“No rush,” Alhaitham whispered. As Kaveh’s walls fluttered around his fingertips, Alhaitham pressed a gentle kiss to the tip of his nose. “I’m not going anywhere. We can stay just like this for as long as you need.”

Relieved to feel Kaveh relax in his arms at the reassurance, Alhaitham sighed contentedly and kept his fingers buried deep within the warmth of his body. After several heavenly minutes of gentle kisses, soft touches, and whispers of devotion, Kaveh finally managed a weak reply.

“I’m okay.”

Though Alhaitham’s erection was already straining at full mast again, he slowly eased out of Kaveh’s grasp; it was clear that intimacy with Kaveh needed to come in stages - measured, never rushed - so as not to overwhelm him entirely. And Alhaitham certainly wasn’t about to push when he was already reeling from the wonder that his love was requited at all.

He simply hummed contentedly and withdrew his fingers, pressing tender, slow kisses along Kaveh’s cheek as he sat up. Anticipating Kaveh’s protest, Alhaitham linked their clean hands together and kissed Kaveh’s knuckles.

“I’ll be right back. I’m just going to get something to clean you up, then we can stay on the couch together as long as you want. Okay?” Alhaitham paused to search Kaveh’s face for confirmation. With another reassuring kiss to his hand, he added, “do you want some water?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Kaveh swallowed dryly and nodded with a shy smile.

Despite his reluctance to extract himself, Alhaitham disentangled their fingers and rose to retrieve a warm washcloth from the bathroom. Unable to resist as he glanced down at his glistening, dripping fingers, he slowly lifted them to his lips and bit back a groan at the heavenly taste that exploded onto his tongue.

“Fuck,” he whispered as he licked every last drop from his hand.

Exhaling with bone-deep satisfaction, he rinsed his hand off then filled a glass of water for Kaveh before returning to him in the living room. He passed Kaveh the water and gently wiped away the streaks of his own release from Kaveh’s abdomen, absently steadying Kaveh’s shaky hand as his fingers trembled around the glass.

Once he was finished cleaning Kaveh off, he tossed the washcloth into the hamper and pressed a reverent kiss to Kaveh’s stomach. Setting Kaveh’s emptied glass aside, Alhaitham wordlessly slipped back down behind him and curled around his body.

Kaveh, endearingly clingy as he always was in the aftermath of an orgasm, immediately flipped around in his arms and pressed his face to Alhaitham’s chest as though magnetized.

After a few minutes, however, Kaveh’s grip still hadn’t eased as it usually did.

Frowning, Alhaitham gently lifted Kaveh’s chin and met his glassy, unfocused gaze. “Hey. I’m not going anywhere. Just relax.”

Kaveh searched his eyes for a long moment; then, without warning, he leaned in and pressed his lips to Alhaitham’s.

After only a second, Kaveh froze, then drew back as he licked his lips with wide eyes. “Why do you taste... like...”

Alhaitham hesitated, trying to decipher whether Kaveh was angry, shocked, or aroused. “Sorry,” he said cautiously, unease growing in his stomach as he considered whether he had been permitted to drink in the divinity that he’d coaxed from Kaveh’s body with his fingertips. “I wanted to taste you. Is that not okay?”

Kaveh’s eyes widened even more, though his expression grew no clearer. “And it didn’t... bother you?”

Brow furrowing in confusion, Alhaitham blinked at him. “Why would it bother me? You taste delicious.”

In an instant, Kaveh’s mouth was on his again, fierce and hungry. His tongue chased Alhaitham’s, fingers tangling harshly in his hair as he moaned lewdly against Alhaitham’s lips.

Still shaky from the intensity of his release, Kaveh had to pull away after only a few moments, but he fisted his hands in Alhaitham’s shirt and pressed his cheek firmly to Alhaitham’s chest, arms wound tightly around his back.

Smiling fondly, Alhaitham pressed a soft kiss to Kaveh’s forehead and gathered him into his arms. “I take it you’re not mad, then?”

Kaveh shook his head fervently and clung to him even tighter.

“Good. Then relax,” Alhaitham murmured. “I told you I’m not going anywhere. Just let me hold you.”

Though Kaveh stubbornly refused to ease his grip, he slackened in Alhaitham’s arms anyway after a few minutes - and before long, he was once again fast asleep.

“Sleep well, my love,” he whispered as he pressed a gentle kiss to Kaveh’s hair.

Alhaitham was in heaven.

Kaveh was in hell.

He awoke tucked against Alhaitham’s chest, cradled snugly in his arms as though Alhaitham cherished him... and as usual, Kaveh couldn’t bring himself to pull away. Instead, he basked in a comfort that wasn’t his to claim and feigned sleep for several long minutes.

When he finally shifted and revealed his wakefulness, Alhaitham was already smiling down at him with one eyebrow slightly raised - almost as if he knew Kaveh had been awake the whole time. Reluctantly withdrawing from Alhaitham’s warm embrace, Kaveh awkwardly rose onto his knees.

“Um... hi.”

“Hi,” Alhaitham murmured gently. He didn’t allow Kaveh to get far, fingers following him immediately and rubbing slow, soothing patterns along the outside of Kaveh’s thigh as he leaned back against the side of the divan. Alhaitham looked unfairly, infuriatingly attractive with his sleep-ruffled hair, shirt rumpled where Kaveh had slipped his hands beneath it in his sleep.

Alhaitham’s addictively warm smile - which was becoming far too familiar already - was the same one he’d worn at the market earlier as he’d spun Kaveh in circles and revealed an aptitude for dancing that rivalled Nilou’s, gazing at Kaveh like... like he loved him.

Every soft touch and whispered word made it harder to accept that none of this was real - that Alhaitham could simply pretend to be such a loving, doting husband merely for the sake of appearances.

Kaveh’s heart fractured a little more each time he considered who else Alhaitham might do all of this with someday - who he might choose to bear the blessing of his hand in marriage for love rather than mora.

It wouldn’t be Kaveh.

“Kaveh. Hey.” Alhaitham’s lips curved into a slight frown at Kaveh’s prolonged silence. “You okay? Did you sleep weird or something? I tried to make sure you were in a comfortable position.”

Of course he had. Alhaitham hadn’t stopped trying to make Kaveh comfortable, make him feel loved, and happy, and safe...

It was killing him.

“I slept fine,” Kaveh mumbled. “I should... I should go shower.”

Alhaitham studied him for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll start on dinner.”

With a grunt of acknowledgement, Kaveh stood and trudged toward the bathroom with his heart in his throat and a warm, aching soreness between his thighs that he hadn’t felt in a long time... but he didn’t make it more than a few steps before Alhaitham was behind him again, gently tugging on his wrist to turn him around.

“You look upset. Did you have a nightmare?” Alhaitham’s fingers were unbearably tender as they trailed inward to clasp Kaveh’s hand in his. Just as he had done after their dance, Alhaitham lifted Kaveh’s fingers to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles beneath his wedding ring.

“Yeah,” Kaveh lied. “Just a nightmare. I’m fine.”

Expecting the softness of the moment to shatter and allow him to skulk in solitude, Kaveh couldn’t contain a surprised gasp as Alhaitham’s lips formed something resembling a pout - an oddly sympathetic expression on his usually flat features - and pulled Kaveh into his arms.

Despite himself, Kaveh once again leaned into the embrace.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” Kaveh mumbled, voice muffled by the fabric of Alhaitham’s shirt.

Alhaitham’s only response was a soft hum of acceptance. He threaded his fingers through Kaveh’s hair in slow, soothing strokes, brushing Kaveh’s restraint away bit by bit with every gentle caress.

It was exactly how Kaveh liked his hair touched. Exactly the way he needed it when he was upset. From Alhaitham, it was too comforting, too intimate, too loving... and yet, Kaveh greedily drank it all in.

Eventually, he pulled away - only for Alhaitham to cradle his jaw and lean in for a kiss. Slow and sweet, innocuous as it was heart wrenching, the tender press of his lips threatened to crush the final remnants of Kaveh’s sanity then and there.

When Alhaitham finally withdrew, Kaveh bit down on his lip to keep it from trembling and fled toward the bathroom without another word.

After a long, introspective shower and an unusually quiet dinner accompanied by Alhaitham’s ankles curling peacefully around his beneath the table, Kaveh rose from his chair.

“I’m tired,” he lied once again. “I think I’m just going to go to bed early tonight.”

That same agonizingly believable look of concern flickered over Alhaitham’s face once more as he nodded and stood as well. “Okay. You can go lie down - I’ll be in after I clean up.”

“What?” Kaveh’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Why are you going to come to my room?”

Matching his confusion, Alhaitham paused with their empty bowls in his hands and fixed him with a puzzled look. “... I’m not. Are you not sleeping with me tonight? I thought it was obvious that you would after -” he gestured uselessly between them with one of the bowls, spoon clattering along the edges, “- after today.”

Heart pounding at the mere thought of sleeping for an entire night wrapped in Alhaitham’s embrace, in his bed, Kaveh braced himself to say no - reject Alhaitham’s kindness and end the fantasy.

But instead, his traitorous lips only allowed one word to escape.

“Okay.”

... Dammit.

Before Kaveh could even try to take it back, Alhaitham leaned forward to press a gentle, resolute kiss to his forehead. Then, with a nod, he turned to the sink and began scrubbing the dishes.

Another twist worked its way into the ever-tightening knot in Kaveh’s chest. With a heavy sigh, he spun on his heel and marched huffily toward the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Unable to stall any longer after washing his face, Kaveh crept down the hall. He felt like he was breaking and entering as he slipped into Alhaitham’s bedroom, staring blankly at the large bed covered with silky dark green sheets embroidered with hints of gold and sage green that loomed before him.

As the kitchen sink switched off and the clinking dishes went silent, Kaveh’s heart slammed against his ribs; but when Alhaitham entered behind him moments later and brushed his palm against the small of Kaveh’s back, he didn’t seem the least bit fazed by Kaveh’s visible anxiety.

Walking past Kaveh to open one of his dresser drawers, Alhaitham pulled out a light grey pair of sweatpants.

“Lay down,” he ordered flatly, as though commanding Kaveh to get into his bed was a perfectly normal request. “I’m going to go shower - I’ll be quick. Get comfortable.”

Without providing Kaveh ample time to panic in response - quite thoughtless, really, in Kaveh’s opinion - Alhaitham was gone once more.

Equal parts yearning and frustration simmered in Kaveh’s chest as he tentatively padded toward Alhaitham’s bed. He poked hesitantly at the sheets, half-expecting them to singe his fingertips in admonishment.

When he finally relented and slipped beneath the soft blankets, Alhaitham’s bed folded around him like a warm hug.

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered as he nuzzled into the pillow, drawing in a deep inhale of Alhaitham’s calming scent that lingered in each thread of the fabric.

Kaveh hadn’t slept well for weeks. But now, enveloped in Alhaitham’s presence, he was already beginning to drift off when the bathroom door clicked open again.

He didn’t open his eyes as Alhaitham made his way over to the bed, nor when the mattress dipped beneath his weight. Without his sight, however, Kaveh flinched violently as Alhaitham’s fingertips gently brushed his hair from his eyes.

Blinking his eyes open, Kaveh gazed up at him - only to find himself faced with the sea of muscle that was Alhaitham’s bare torso.

Apparently, he hadn’t bothered with a shirt.

The archons were truly testing Kaveh.

Though he said nothing, Alhaitham’s lips curved slightly upward as he tugged the blankets down and slid in beside Kaveh. With a disorientingly contented sigh, he drew Kaveh into his arms and settled them both into the pillows, bare skin pressed up against Kaveh’s back as his warmth began seeping through the fabric of Kaveh’s shirt.

Kaveh couldn’t resist. He softened into the embrace, allowing the gentle comfort in Alhaitham’s touch to wash over him.

Then, with a finality that Kaveh was helpless to deny, Alhaitham kissed the crown of his head tenderly and dropped his head onto the pillow behind him.

Kaveh tried to fend off the capsizing sleep drawing him in - both to soak in the moment he’d never imagined he could have, real or fake, and to keep himself from going insane - but Alhaitham’s secure embrace was too comforting to something deep in his soul.

Before he could even respond to Alhaitham’s soft, murmured goodnight, Kaveh was out like a light.

Chapter Text

It was the best sleep Kaveh had gotten in years.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, he awoke from a full night’s rest to a comfortable warmth instead of dreary exhaustion, bathed in the soothing weight of Alhaitham’s body draped over him like a blanket.

Alhaitham, it seemed, was already awake and simply allowing Kaveh the rest his body needed. With addictively gentle motions, his broad palm skimmed up and down Kaveh’s abdomen, arm curled securely beneath his shirt around his waist.

Blinking his eyes open, Kaveh’s gaze caught on Alhaitham’s forearm as it stretched out before him. He traced the veins running along the inside of Alhaitham’s arm with his eyes as he drank in the absurd intimacy of waking in Alhaitham’s embrace.

It was a luxury he should not be afforded - archons only knew he didn’t have the mora. Yet here he was, nestled in Alhaitham’s bed and held like he was something precious cherished beyond measure.

Kaveh released a sigh that was, apparently, a bit too wistful to pass unnoticed, revealing his wakefulness.

Alhaitham’s voice was low and devastatingly close to his ear as he murmured, “mm. Morning.”

Oh gods.

One simple word had never sounded so obscenely sexy. Squeezing his thighs together instinctively as the sticky mess that had pooled there overnight only grew wetter, Kaveh forced himself not to moan aloud at the rich huskiness rumbling against his eardrum.

“Um... morning, Haitham.”

“You sleep okay?”

A slow, burning heat trickled from Kaveh’s throat all the way down to the pit of his stomach as Alhaitham nuzzled his nape and pressed a gentle kiss just beneath his ear.

“Yeah,” Kaveh whispered unevenly, eyes fluttering shut as he arched against Alhaitham and tilted his head to allow him better access. “Did you?”

With a soft, amused hum, Alhaitham pressed his palm flat against Kaveh’s stomach and caressed his waist tenderly as he began kissing more firmly along his neck. His lips trailed up to Kaveh’s ear, sending a wave of goosebumps cascading down every one of Kaveh’s limbs as he kissed his lobe delicately.

“I slept incredibly well,” Alhaitham replied, voice warm and sultry. “I like having you in my bed.”

“Y-you do?” Kaveh’s tremulous voice came out far less steady than he’d intended - yet the waver only deepened as Alhaitham gently turned him onto his back and continued charting a path along Kaveh’s skin with his lips.

“I do.”

The moment their eyes met, Kaveh was done for.

If he thought Alhaitham sounded sexy like this, the sight of him undid Kaveh entirely - soft, drowsy, and unguarded in a way he so rarely was, pressing worshipful, easy affection to Kaveh’s body as though it were his life’s purpose.

Suddenly very self-conscious of his messy hair and disheveled state, Kaveh tilted his head away as Alhaitham leaned in to press their lips together.

“I - I haven’t brushed my teeth yet,” Kaveh protested weakly.

Kaveh expected Alhaitham to let him go so he could preserve a shred of his dignity - perhaps attempt to tame his hair for a few minutes before making out with the most infuriatingly seductive man in Teyvat in the glow of golden morning light filling the room. Instead, he was pressed deeper into the bed.

Alhaitham simply redirected his lips, kissing his way down the center of Kaveh’s throat. He paused to suck a mark just above his collarbone, dragging a soft, involuntary sigh from Kaveh’s lips as his hands migrated instinctively to Alhaitham’s bare shoulders.

“You have no idea how tempting you look right now, Kaveh.”

With a trembling inhale, Kaveh glanced down as Alhaitham dipped his fingers beneath the hem of Kaveh’s shirt and pushed the fabric upward. Heart pounding, he bit his lip as Alhaitham descended along his sternum... then slowly, tantalizingly, lower.

Though he knew such soft intimacy wasn’t his to accept, Kaveh’s foggy morning brain couldn’t find any reason not to arch against Alhaitham’s cascade of kisses. Unable to do anything other than drink in the tenderness, his body arched up into every kiss, starving for more.

Always far too desperate for Alhaitham’s touch, Kaveh’s body jerked uncontrollably as Alhaitham brushed the backs of his knuckles in a slow line up the inside of his thigh. Alhaitham looked entirely unfazed at Kaveh’s eagerness - he simply sank his teeth into the skin just beneath Kaveh’s navel and soothed the tremor in his muscles with a slow stroke of his palm.

“You don’t have to say yes, it’s okay if you’re not ready. I have no intention of rushing you with a single thing,” Alhaitham murmured as his teeth grazed the skin above Kaveh’s waistband. He slid lower and bit down on the fabric with a soft groan but left it in place, trailing kisses over Kaveh’s shorts instead - an unspoken promise of what was to come. “But I want to take these off and make you come on my tongue.”

Kaveh’s eyes blew wide.

Unable to refuse - he was only a man, after all - he nodded immediately and brought his hand up to his mouth to keep himself from saying something hopelessly idiotic. He bit down on his thumb as Alhaitham slowly dragged his waistband down, baring him to the bitingly cool air of his bedroom.

Suddenly, Kaveh didn’t know what to do with his hands, didn’t know where to look, didn’t know how to keep himself from breaking entirely. He felt far too vulnerable, only amplified as Alhaitham’s gaze locked in between his thighs with a laser focus.

But when Alhaitham’s lips met the dripping heat that had been screaming its longing for his tongue for so many years, every concern faded away into pure, blazing pleasure.

Kaveh threw his head to the side and tried to stifle the sounds already spilling from his lips into his arm as Alhaitham pressed slow, sensual kisses all along his folds - but Alhaitham reached up to grasp his wrist and pin it to the bed instead.

“Let me hear you,” Alhaitham murmured huskily. “I want to know if I’m making you feel good.”

Lowering his head back down, Alhaitham closed his lips around Kaveh’s clit - and all Kaveh could do was melt.

His only coherent thought was that Alhaitham was far too good at this. His head fell back against Alhaitham’s pillow, pressing into the silk of his bedsheets as humiliatingly raw moans of pleasure escaped him.

Obscene, wet sounds filled the room. As Alhaitham’s tongue circled his clit, hitting just the right angle, pleasure sparked all the way down to Kaveh’s toes. Feeling bold in his blissful state, Kaveh threaded his fingers through Alhaitham’s hair, guiding him gently and urging him to keep the unbearably perfect rhythm he was setting.

Suddenly very thankful that Alhaitham’s hand was holding his hips down as they twitched uncontrollably, he allowed Alhaitham’s tongue to carry him away as he devolved into a mess of increasingly needy moans.

Spreading his legs wider with a desperation he was unable to mask, Kaveh’s hand began to tremble in Alhaitham’s hair as pressure built embarrassingly quickly within him.

“Oh - oh f-fuck,” Kaveh whispered between breathless moans, fingers tightening in the sheets beside his head.

“Does this feel good? Am I - mph!”

Kaveh shoved Alhaitham’s face back against him and muffled the rest of his sentence, unwilling to part with the intimate warmth of Alhaitham’s lips even for a second.

“Yes,” Kaveh gasped. “Gods, please don’t stop. Feels so, so fucking good.”

Alhaitham’s eyes fluttered in a way Kaveh had never seen before. His eyes darkened as he sighed against Kaveh’s skin, seductive and slow, lids growing heavy with desire.

Kaveh stilled. Experimentally, emboldened by Alhaitham’s reaction and momentarily distracted from the raging fire building within his core, he tested his luck a little further. “You make me feel incredible.”

Just as he’d hoped, Alhaitham’s tongue stuttered against his wetness. Breathing heavier now, Kaveh tightened his grip in Alhaitham’s hair and tried to replicate the result once more.

“I - I love how you touch me, Haitham.”

Alhaitham released a deep, guttural groan that vibrated through Kaveh’s entire body. As though unable to help himself, Alhaitham brought a hand up beneath his lips and pressed his middle and ring finger softly against Kaveh’s entrance - teasing, but not yet pushing inside.

Growing increasingly and irredeemably unhinged at Alhaitham’s responsiveness to his every word, Kaveh pressed on, allowing his unspoken thoughts to finally find their way out of his throat. “I’ve never felt as good as I do when I’m with you. I’ve never - never come for anyone else the way I come for you.”

Alhaitham’s eyes locked onto his, and the emotion swimming within them was unmistakable - it was as if Alhaitham was starving for Kaveh’s praise. Achingly slowly, he began pushing his fingers into Kaveh in time with the languid laps of his tongue, sliding slightly deeper with each stroke as though trying to coax out the reward of Kaveh’s reassurance.

“I’ve never gotten this wet for anyone else, either,” Kaveh admitted breathlessly, trailing off with a choked gasp as Alhaitham’s fingers began to curl slightly upward with each pulse.

Alhaitham answered with another groan, this time laced with a soft sound that bordered on a whine.

Heart pounding wildly - from both the pleasure coursing through his body and Alhaitham’s sinfully sexy reaction to praise - Kaveh gazed helplessly down at him.

“I love how your fingers feel inside me. Fuck, it feels so good when you finger me...”

“Mph...” The intensity in Alhaitham’s gaze escalated, brow drawing together as he rocked his fingers in deeper.

“I love feeling your hands on me.”

Alhaitham’s fingers flexed on Kaveh’s thigh as if in demonstration.

“I - oh gods, yes, fuck, yes - I love the marks you leave on my neck every morning.”

Alhaitham was outright panting now as he struggled to maintain the steady suction around Kaveh’s clit, but his tongue grew sloppier as he gazed, transfixed, up at Kaveh.

Kaveh should stop. He knew that. But Alhaitham’s reactions were too captivating to keep his mouth shut, and Kaveh had been holding in far too many confessions to quell the stream of admissions flowing from his lips now.

“Fuck, I love h-how you look at me.”

Alhaitham’s face contorted with pleasure, gaze burning with unrestrained desire that filled Kaveh’s stomach with something dangerously hopeful and warm.

“I love being with you,” Kaveh gasped as he ground his hips against Alhaitham’s face. He attempted to fight the rising tide of ecstasy swirling within him, unwilling to let go of the moment that was quickly mounting into something emotional and profound.

“Nobody’s ever made me...” Kaveh trailed off with a ragged cry. He had to pause to draw in a few heaving breaths - both from the sheer pleasure and, embarrassingly, because the words spilling from his lips were leading him to the verge of tears.

“Nobody’s e-ever made me feel as safe as you do, Alhaitham,” he choked out.

Alhaitham’s answering groan was so deep Kaveh could hardly hear it, though it vibrated through his very bones as Alhaitham devoured him even more ravenously. With renewed urgency, he affixed his lips around Kaveh’s clit, breathing harshly through his nose as he increased the pressure against Kaveh’s front wall.

Pleasure jolted through Kaveh like a shockwave. Reflexively, he tugged on Alhaitham’s hair - not to push him away, but simply to have something to hold onto.

Alhaitham released a loud, deep grunt through his nose in response. Assuming the noise to have been borne from pain, Kaveh began to withdraw - but Alhaitham didn’t let him get more than a few millimetres away before he was impatiently pulling Kaveh’s hand right back down.

“I like when you pull my hair,” Alhaitham gasped quickly between strokes of his tongue.

Without waiting another second, captive to the rapturous pleasure racing through him, Kaveh surged forward with both hands to grip Alhaitham’s hair and hold him steady against his body.

Then he yanked.

Hard.

“Fuck, fuck, Haitham, gods, that feels so, so good - please don’t stop... I - I’m gonna come already, ah - fuck -”

As Kaveh’s sentence devolved into loud moans, too short of breath to continue speaking, several things happened at once.

Alhaitham’s cheeks flushed a stunning, vivid shade of red Kaveh had never even imagined his bronze skin could be coloured with, brilliant as it was breathtaking on his handsome face as his cheeks glistened with Kaveh’s arousal. The groan he released as he swirled his tongue around Kaveh’s clit in tight circles was so full of desire that it sent a tremor through every nerve ending in Kaveh’s body.

But it was his expression that really undid Kaveh.

Alhaitham’s features drew together as though he were a second away from coming himself as he intensified the suction and thrust his fingers more insistently, pulling relentlessly at the soft cleft they were curled into.

Kaveh came instantly.

His body arched so abruptly that Alhaitham had to bend one arm around the outside of his thigh and bracket the other like a seatbelt to keep him from flying off the mattress. The added pressure on his abdomen only made Kaveh’s body react more violently, trembling uncontrollably as he surrendered to Alhaitham.

Though his body flew over the edge into a maelstrom of pleasure, the tension in his muscles didn’t release as usual. Instead, they drew tighter, coiling in a way Kaveh had never before experienced - as though his orgasm was conserving power for something devastatingly explosive.

“Haitham,” Kaveh gasped as his walls squeezed impossibly tighter around Alhaitham’s fingers, struggling to even form words. “I d-don’t - Alhaitham, someth-thing - something’s h-happ-happening, I -”

“Let it,” Alhaitham commanded urgently, voice deeper than the trenches of the ocean and face painted with need as he stared unblinkingly at Kaveh with wide, desperate eyes.

Still, the tension only grew. Kaveh’s muscles stretched so taut he wondered if he was hurting Alhaitham’s knuckles as they became locked in place by sheer constriction, simply holding firm against his front wall with unrelenting, exquisite pressure.

“It - s-something’s - it’s too -” Kaveh stammered, broken and breathless.

Alhaitham merely hoisted Kaveh’s thighs higher with immense, startling strength - as though brute force was the only thing his body was capable of in that moment - and cut him off once more.

“I know. Fuck, Kaveh, I know - I feel it. Just let go. Make a mess for me. Please.” Alhaitham’s voice was shockingly close to a whimper as he gazed imploringly up at Kaveh, eyes swirling with want. His voice cracked as he repeated the plea once more. “Please.”

Oh.

Alhaitham so rarely said please. And hearing his voice fractured with what could only be genuine desire, Kaveh melted into his strong hands as he did what he was told... and let go.

For a split second, time stopped. And in that single, suspended moment, Kaveh finally understood what it meant to see stars.

Every molecule of air was sucked from his lungs as Alhaitham groaned against him. Something hot and unfamiliar, unrelentingly powerful, raced through Kaveh’s veins.

And then, unable to control a single muscle in his body as it surrendered to Alhaitham’s tongue... the tension snapped.

Like being tossed from the height of a monstrous wave to plunge into the depths of the ocean, his orgasm crashed over him all at once, detonating every nerve in his body with the heat of a supernova as sparks exploded into his vision.

He’d known it would be intense; after all, Alhaitham was bringing Kaveh more pleasure than he had ever experienced in his life. But nothing could have prepared him for the large, sudden, slick gush of wetness that splattered onto Alhaitham’s face as Kaveh convulsed.

“F-fuck! Wha-wh-what - mmh! Mmh! Haitham!”

Eyes widening, Kaveh tried to recoil as another splash hit Alhaitham’s cheeks, struggling against the swirling vortex of pleasure licking up his spine... but Alhaitham didn’t budge.

He held Kaveh’s hip so firmly it was painful - yet even that somehow felt good given the clear, carnal joy Alhaitham was displaying through Kaveh’s messy release. Growing more animalistic with each abrupt spurt of wetness, Alhaitham’s soft groans morphed into ravenous growls against Kaveh’s skin.

Unrestrained, he held Kaveh firmly against his face and devoured him alive.

Giving in to the thunderous roar of sensation pounding through his body, Kaveh ground forward against Alhaitham’s lips, rewarded with yet another deep hum of approval as Alhaitham’s eyes rolled back into his head. Another obscene gush was ripped from Kaveh’s body onto his tongue - but Alhaitham only looked more enraptured, releasing the same devastatingly erotic moans he always did when he and Kaveh climaxed together.

Vision swimming as tears spilled over onto his cheeks, Kaveh slammed his head back against the pillow and arched his back toward Alhaitham, eyes fluttering shut as fireworks shot off behind his eyelids. He fisted one hand harshly in Alhaitham’s hair and scrambled for another point of connection with the other, landing on Alhaitham’s fingers wrapped around his thigh and clinging to him for dear life.

Kaveh had never squirted before. And, though he’d always imagined it would be nothing more than a gentle, pleasant spurt, this was a deluge, a faucet wrenched free from its mooring and spraying wildly without a tether.

Alhaitham drank him in like a man dying of thirst.

Back arching so high he would’ve fallen off the bed if not for Alhaitham’s grounding embrace, Kaveh’s neck elongated backward as he clung to Alhaitham’s hand tightly. He was unable to even attempt to control the wild, desperate cries that were ripped from his lips in ragged bursts with each unrelenting wave of pleasure.

When the final splash was finally coaxed from Kaveh’s body after what felt like days of riding the high of his orgasm, he collapsed. Boneless and trembling, he melted into the silky sheets, devastated by the retreating tide of pleasure that had just washed his body clean.

He lay shivering in Alhaitham’s arms, goosebumps racing over his soaked skin as Alhaitham’s breath ghosted across his thighs in hot, uneven pants.

Pressing kiss after kiss to Kaveh’s body as he withdrew from the sensitive, throbbing bud beneath his lips, Alhaitham whispered soft curses under his breath - scarcely audible through the symphony of harsh breathing filling the room.

Though Kaveh could feel the steady, warm drips falling from Alhaitham’s chin onto his thighs as he pressed tender yet fervent kisses along Kaveh’s body, it wasn’t until he blinked his eyes back open and glanced down that he realized the extent of what Alhaitham had just wrought from his body.

Alhaitham wasn’t just wet. He was drenched.

And it wasn’t only his chin that was soaked - it was his entire face, his neck, his shoulders, and his chest, along with a wide swathe of the sheets beneath them. Even still... Alhaitham was practically glowing with pride, eyes alight with a reverence so magnificent Kaveh felt like he was ascending straight to celestia with each tender kiss.

Kaveh’s breath caught in his throat. “H-holy fuck, I -” he didn’t manage to finish the thought, silenced by Alhaitham’s hand.

“Open.” Alhaitham pressed his fingers, coated in slick, to Kaveh’s bottom lip.

Without hesitation, Kaveh obeyed, sucking the tips of Alhaitham’s fingers into his mouth. Alhaitham watched every movement with dark, unwavering focus, the azure of his eyes nearly entirely lost to his blown pupils.

“See how perfect you taste when you let go for me?”

Satisfied beyond belief and buzzing with something that was as unfamiliar and overwhelming as it was wonderful, Kaveh licked Alhaitham’s fingers clean.

As Alhaitham slid up the bed, he pressed his fingers into Kaveh’s mouth in a slow, easy rhythm a few more times; then, leaning in for the filthiest and most devastatingly tender kiss Kaveh had ever received, he replaced his fingers with his lips.

Wetness smeared onto Kaveh’s cheeks and dripped down his neck as Alhaitham kissed him - and, though it was undeniably passionate, it was laced with a gentle devotion that stole Kaveh’s breath more than any urgency could have.

Unwilling to let himself be the only one overwhelmed by pleasure, Kaveh’s shaky hands fumbled downward; but when he tried to slip his hand beneath Alhaitham’s waistband, he was stopped in his tracks by a soft hum.

“It’s okay,” Alhaitham whispered, gently teasing Kaveh’s lower lip with his teeth.

“N-no, I - I can - at least let me -”

“There’s no need.”

Frowning, Kaveh pushed on Alhaitham’s slick chest to force him to meet his eyes. Alhaitham lifted his head slowly and gazed down at him, mouth tilted in a warm smile that was somehow both the sexiest thing Kaveh had ever seen and the most blissful expression of peace he’d ever seen etched onto Alhaitham’s face.

“I - I know I’m shaky, b-but I...” Kaveh faltered, unable to muster enough breath to get through a sentence. Swallowing thickly, he tried again. “I can still -”

“There’s no need, Kaveh,” Alhaitham repeated. “I came when you did.”

It should have sounded crass. Or, at the very least, it shouldn’t have made Kaveh’s heart thump even harder. But coming untouched - while focusing all of his attention on Kaveh no less - tugged at something deep in Kaveh’s chest that he couldn’t control.

Grateful that his eyes were still misted over so he could blame the fresh sting of tears prickling behind them on the pleasure he’d just experienced, Kaveh simply stared, lost in the endless, rich turquoise of Alhaitham’s eyes.

“Come here,” Kaveh whispered, voice fracturing. Without waiting for a response, he yanked Alhaitham into a bruising embrace and buried his face in the crook of his neck.

Kaveh couldn’t stop shaking.

Alhaitham, both frustratingly and wonderfully, didn’t expect Kaveh to speak, accepting his overstimulation without question as he gathered Kaveh in his arms. As though able to read Kaveh like the worn, well-loved pages of an open book, Alhaitham murmured soft words of reassurance as he stroked his hair tenderly.

“I’m right here. Just breathe. You were perfect, Kaveh - always so perfect. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

For several long minutes, they laid there in the warmth of the sunlight pouring through Alhaitham’s window as their breathing evened out - yet each tremulous inhale only amplified Kaveh’s longing to cling to this softness for as long as he could.

Eventually, Alhaitham brushed a hand over Kaveh’s cheek and kissed his forehead. “Do you want to take a bath together?”

Though that felt impossibly more intimate than having Alhaitham buried between his thighs, wrenching such a powerful orgasm from him he gushed all over the bed... Kaveh was too weak for Alhaitham’s gentle affections.

“Um... yeah. But can we wait a little bit? I can’t - I’m still too shaky, I won’t be able to use my arms much for a while.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll wash you,” Alhaitham reassured him softly, already rising to his feet. In one fluid motion, he gathered Kaveh into his arms and scooped him off the bed before he could so much as protest. “You don’t have to do a thing.”

Cradled against Alhaitham’s chest, Kaveh twined his arms around his neck and allowed himself to be carried into the bathroom. Alhaitham gently deposited him on the edge of the tub, steadying him with an arm around his waist as he turned the taps on.

Unbothered by Kaveh’s trembling, Alhaitham’s arm merely curled around him more securely as he dropped in some of Kaveh’s bath oils - the very same ones he always complained were too fragrant - and turned the heat up to scalding, just the way Kaveh liked it.

Kaveh felt slightly ridiculous clinging to Alhaitham’s forearm to avoid toppling over and wearing nothing but his rumpled shirt, bunched up under one arm and stretched thin across the other, as his bare thighs sparkled in the dim light... but Alhaitham looked up at him like he was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Kneeling prone at Kaveh’s feet, Alhaitham pressed a lingering kiss to his thigh and coiled his arms around Kaveh’s lower back. Then, with a soft, intimate smile on his lips that melted Kaveh’s heart, Alhaitham closed his eyes and rested his head in Kaveh’s lap.

Kaveh blinked, stunned by the serenity painted on Alhaitham’s face as the steady stream of water began to fill the room with the scent of eucalyptus. This man - who had thrown entire fits over the mere concept of soup simply because it made too much of a mess - was now sitting on their bathroom floor, cheeks and chest glistening with Kaveh’s release... and he looked like he’d just been handed a gift from the archons themselves.

Alhaitham breathed in deeply then exhaled a slow, satisfied sigh as though he’d been waiting his whole life to draw in this exact blend of air.

Head full of affection yet unable to speak a single word of it, Kaveh slowly threaded his fingers through Alhaitham’s hair. Alhaitham’s smile only widened as he nuzzled into his palm like a cat seeking affection.

Kaveh marvelled at the visible relaxation in Alhaitham’s muscles. Trusting that he wouldn’t let Kaveh fall, he let go of the tub and slid his hand down the back of Alhaitham’s shoulder blade.

“You didn’t have to use the oils,” Kaveh murmured unsteadily. “I know you don’t like the smell.”

“Aside from the pink one that gives me a headache, I don’t mind them anymore. You always use them when you’re happy. I like that I can gauge your mental state just based on the scent of your evening bath.”

It was becoming dangerously normal for Alhaitham’s blunt statements to throw Kaveh so violently off balance. Lately, it felt like every word out of Alhaitham’s mouth was a confession more profound than the last, and Kaveh was losing track of what was real and what was just a part of the act.

As if to add more fuel to the fire, Alhaitham added in a soft murmur, “I like when you’re happy.”

“Are you?” Kaveh asked, though he was unsure if he wanted the answer.

“Mm? Am I what?”

“Happy.”

Alhaitham tilted his chin up and cracked an eye open, peering up at Kaveh for a moment before shutting his eyes again and snuggling back down into his lap.

“I woke up with you in my arms then made you come all over my face. I’ve never been happier.”

Though his cheeks warmed, Kaveh blew out a dismissive puff of air. “I’m being serious, Haitham.”

“So am I.”

Kaveh’s heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t like Alhaitham to misunderstand Kaveh’s point so drastically - not like this. Even when they fought, they always agreed on the same foundation of truth.

“S-stop lying to me, Alhaitham. I’m not kidding.”

Some of the easy tranquility drained from Alhaitham’s face as he lifted his head, replaced by a gravity that stole the very air from Kaveh’s lungs. He reached behind Kaveh to turn off the taps of the now-filled bath then slid his hands up Kaveh’s torso, hooked his thumbs beneath the hem of his shirt, and lifted it over his head.

Tossing Kaveh’s shirt aside, Alhaitham rose without ceremony and shed his pants as if it were nothing unusual to allow his dick to bounce freely right in front of Kaveh’s face. Unfazed by Kaveh’s wide-eyed stare, he stepped into the tub and gently guided Kaveh down into the water with him, settling him between his parted thighs.

With his back pressed against the sturdy muscles of Alhaitham’s chest, Kaveh allowed a long sigh to escape his lips as the blissful warmth of the water - and of Alhaitham’s arms - enveloped him all at once.

“The entire time you’ve known me,” Alhaitham murmured against his ear, each word slow and deliberate in his stern, even baritone, “has it not been my honesty that’s upset you more than anything else? What makes you think I’m lying to you now?”

Kaveh was rendered speechless. It had, in fact, been Alhaitham’s relentless candor - blunt and often devoid of tact - that had led to their friendship fracturing in the first place. But even then, he hadn’t been wrong, simply too honest for Kaveh to bear.

He looked down as Alhaitham wrapped his arms around his stomach and laced their left hands together beneath the water. Their wedding rings clicked together quietly before settling against one another, metal to metal, as Alhaitham pressed Kaveh’s palm against his abdomen.

Reading Kaveh’s hesitancy with infuriating ease, Alhaitham added, “I’m not going to rush you, Kaveh. I know you. And I know you need time to come to terms with things on your own. You get so overwhelmed you cry every time you let me make you come. I’m not stupid enough to take things any faster than you’re ready for. But I’m right here - and I promise, I’m not going anywhere.”

Archons... had Alhaitham always been capable of speaking like this?

Mind swirling, still unsteady from the intensity of his orgasm, the only response Kaveh could muster was a breathy huff. But, though he meant it to sound petulant, it escaped instead as a desperate exhale as he clung to Alhaitham’s hand.

“Hey,” Alhaitham breathed, squeezing Kaveh’s fingers reassuringly and pressing a gentle, lingering kiss to his shoulder. “You said you felt safe with me earlier.”

“... Yeah. Why?”

“So why are you acting like you’re not safe with me now? You trust me, right?”

Kaveh was quiet for several long moments. “Yeah, Haitham,” he eventually whispered, a confession far more vulnerable than he intended. “I... I trust you with my life.”

“Then trust me with your heart, too.”

Kaveh tried to swallow down his tears - but they were too powerful, flooding forward in an unstoppable surge. Squeezing his eyes shut, he curled backward into Alhaitham’s chest with a strangled gulp.

It was all too much. Even after everything they’d been through, all the times Alhaitham had hurt him and Kaveh had hurt him right back... Alhaitham, for all his walls and sharp edges, had earned Kaveh’s trust over and over again without fail.

But his heart? Whether he chose to give it to Alhaitham or not, it was already his. It had been for a very, very long time.

“Kaveh,” Alhaitham said softly in the wake of his prolonged silence. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re setting the pace because I want you to. I don’t want to move too fast. But you’re in control here, okay? Whatever you want, anything you want, I’m right here. All you have to do is tell me.”

Memories of the last time they’d spoken as students rushed into Kaveh’s mind - their falling out. He could still see Alhaitham’s face painted with what looked agonizingly like heartbreak as Kaveh had stormed off, nursing his cracked sense of self-worth that Alhaitham had been able to perceive clearly through Kaveh’s veil of composure, even then.

But that had always been Alhaitham, hadn’t it? He could simply see Kaveh, even when no one else could.

... Even when Kaveh didn’t want to be seen.

And if he could still see him now - see how desperately Kaveh needed this affection to be real, not just another obligation, not just for a box ticked on a tax certificate...

“Then don’t let me be wrong,” Kaveh whispered, barely able to speak past the lump in his throat as his tears began to fall onto Alhaitham’s bare chest. “I can’t be wrong, Alhaitham. Not about this.”

Alhaitham only held him tighter. “Haven’t I always told you when you’re wrong, senior?”

Kaveh had never been this afraid. Not when Alhaitham had shattered his fragile illusion of peace when they were students. Not when his mother had abandoned him for Fontaine. Not even when he’d lost his home after the disaster of Alcazarzaray.

Because this... this was different.

If Alhaitham told him now that his love meant nothing, that the delicate, breakable shards of hope in his chest were nothing more than delusions, Kaveh would never recover.

Money, he could earn again. Family, he could find and rebuild. Self-worth, he could reconstruct. None would be easy, but they were at least possible.

But this love? Kaveh had known for years that his heart could only ever belong to Alhaitham - that it would always cry out for him, wailing in the silence of Kaveh’s chest as it begged to be given freely to the only one it would ever recognize as home. And if it was denied with such ruthless finality, there would be no return.

The tears Kaveh tried so valiantly to suppress only fell faster, trailing steadily down his cheeks. Naked and vulnerable in Alhaitham’s arms, Kaveh attempted to still the tremors running up his spine - to find the will to resist the gravitational pull of the love that he so deeply wanted to be his.

But Alhaitham saw. Just as he always had.

He saw the depth of Kaveh’s pain. Saw every crack behind the beauty, every bruise beneath the pride. Saw how deep the wounds being opened in the warm waters of the bath swirling around them were carved into Kaveh’s very soul.

With a maddening calm, he tugged Kaveh closer so their bodies were pressed flush together. Though Alhaitham’s erection came to rest against the small of Kaveh’s back, it wasn’t demanding - it was simply present as it warmed Kaveh’s skin, nothing more than a quiet, patient promise of desire.

“I know you,” Alhaitham whispered again, rubbing their wedding rings together and brushing a thumb across Kaveh’s damp cheek to absorb his tears. “But you know me too, Kaveh. Better than anyone. So trust me, ya hayati.”

Dangerous optimism swelled in Kaveh’s chest. The soft endearment shattered what little composure he had left as his tears began spilling faster - raw, petrified, and heartbreakingly honest as he trembled in Alhaitham’s embrace.

Yet for once... Kaveh couldn’t bring himself to push the hope away. He couldn’t deny the longing that pulsed through every fiber of his being as it begged to surrender after so many exhausting years of internal battle.

And finally, after more than a decade of locking his heart away behind walls constructed from fear, he released it into the strong arms that had always been waiting to receive it with one shaky, terrifying word.

“Okay.”

Chapter Text

Kaveh blinked his eyes open hazily as something soft and fluffy enveloped his suddenly too-cold skin. Frowning, he glanced down to find Alhaitham kneeling before him, towelling Kaveh off as he sat slumped on the bathroom counter.

“You fell asleep,” Alhaitham said in answer to Kaveh’s unspoken question. “You’re very sensitive, you know.”

Though his tone was dry as ever, there was something irresistibly gentle in his eyes as he gazed up at Kaveh from the floor.

“Am not,” Kaveh scoffed sleepily, defensive by reflex. “It’s your fault. You made me come so hard I squirted for the first time, then said you lov-”

He clamped his mouth shut, instantly fully awake once more; Alhaitham had said no such thing, even if the implications of their conversation had lingered on the edge of it. But Alhaitham simply raised an eyebrow, smiled, and pressed a soft kiss to Kaveh’s knee.

“When you’re ready, Kaveh,” he murmured as he handed Kaveh a large, soft shirt that read Haravatat Alumnus on the back. “It’s okay if you’re not yet.”

When. Not if.

Kaveh’s heart fluttered in an uneven rhythm behind his ribs as he tugged on the shirt. It smelled like it had been buried in Alhaitham’s closet for a long time, saturated with the comforting scent of petrichor and parchment - a familiar, masculine aroma that Kaveh would never tire of.

Even though he knew exactly what Alhaitham meant, Kaveh couldn’t help but push - he wanted to hear the words spoken aloud. “Ready for what?”

Alhaitham rose to his feet, eyes sweeping over Kaveh’s body appreciatively as he swam in the loose fabric of Alhaitham’s shirt. “Ready to tell me you love me.”

Though Kaveh had expected it, the answer still rushed through him like a riptide. Words tangling in his throat, he spluttered uselessly, only growing more inarticulate as Alhaitham’s mouth curved upward in quiet amusement.

“And if - if I do say it? What then?” Kaveh asked with false bravado.

“I already know you love me.” Self-righteous asshole. “But I have no intention of taking such a confession by force. I want you to give it willingly, Kaveh.”

Thrown off balance by Alhaitham’s infuriating, brazen clarity, Kaveh struggled to find his usual mental footing that he normally maintained with ease when he and Alhaitham bickered.

“And h-how exactly do you know that?”

“I told you - when you’re letting me take you apart,” Alhaitham’s voice deepened slightly, rich and sultry, “you can’t hide a thing.”

Kaveh didn’t manage to speak for several moments, unable to settle on an emotion - he was hopelessly turned on, frustrated, embarrassed, optimistic, afraid, and utterly, stupidly in love all at once.

“Well, maybe I want you to say it first,” Kaveh eventually muttered, petulant and sulky.

But Alhaitham didn’t take the bait. He merely gazed down at Kaveh appraisingly, fingers tracing lazy, idle shapes on his hip.

“Oh.” As if coming to a conclusion, he lifted Kaveh off the counter and carried him into the living room, settling them both on the divan.

“'Oh'?” Kaveh echoed blankly. “What’s 'oh' supposed to mean?”

For the first time in days, Alhaitham hesitated. His expression grew uncharacteristically uncertain, as though he were sifting carefully through each word before forming a sentence - a rarity for a man typically so eloquent.

Eyes narrowed in thought, Alhaitham spoke carefully and deliberately. “I thought I should wait so you didn’t feel rushed... but you’re never going to think you’re ready, are you?”

“What does that even mean?” Kaveh snapped, prickling with offense. “Quit being so vague, I don’t know what to do with your amorphous babble -”

“I love you.”

Kaveh froze.

Breathing disproportionately heavy for exerting no effort at all, loud and unsteady in the quiet of their living room, he searched Alhaitham’s face for some sign of mockery or detachment... but all he found was calm, unflinching conviction in his eyes.

Once again, Alhaitham lifted Kaveh’s left hand to his lips and kissed his ring. “And I love seeing you with my ring on your finger, Kaveh.”

Kaveh didn’t even try to stop the tears this time, though he blinked rapidly to keep Alhaitham’s handsome face from blurring. He opened his mouth to respond... but nothing more than a strangled breath escaped his throat.

Patient as ever, Alhaitham simply leaned against the back of the divan and rested his chin on his hand as he waited for Kaveh to find his words.

“Well, I... I like seeing the ring on your hand too,” Kaveh managed to whisper eventually. “So... what happens when we have to take them off?”

Alhaitham frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean what happens when the city code changes? Do we just - ugh, we’re doing this all out of order. I know you’ll probably want a divorce, so -”

“That won’t happen.”

“City code changes all the time! You should know, you’re the one who writes the stupid -”

Alhaitham shook his head and cut Kaveh off once again with a fond sigh. “I don’t care about the city code. I meant I won’t want a divorce. Don’t you get it?” Alhaitham squeezed his hand earnestly, eyes boring into Kaveh’s. “There is no universe in which I don’t want to be your husband.”

With a graceless huff, Kaveh swiped at the tears falling down his cheeks to keep Alhaitham’s form clear; he didn’t want to miss a second of what was quickly becoming one of the most life-altering moments he’d ever experienced.

“So you’re saying...” Kaveh mumbled weakly. “You’re saying... you...”

“Yes.”

“But... that’s not... what - how...” Kaveh stammered. “Then you - you were lying? About just wanting to make me come every morning so people would hear me? You wanted to do it?”

“You know, one of the things I love most about you is your mind,” Alhaitham murmured, lifting a hand to caress Kaveh’s cheek. “But even with your brilliance, you’re very stupid sometimes, Kaveh.”

“Hey!” Kaveh protested indignantly, nerves temporarily forgotten.

But Alhaitham simply smiled at him once again with that disarmingly charming tilt to his lips. “You really thought I did all that on the off chance someone would walk by and hear you moaning my name through the door? That’s idiotic.”

“Well I thought it was a stupid plan too!” Kaveh huffed. “But you’re the one who came up with it!”

“That was never my plan,” Alhaitham replied with a shrug. “You came to that conclusion all on your own.”

“Well - well either way, for someone who prides himself on being so logical, you seem to have accepted it pretty damn easily too, you bastard.”

“No. All I wanted was you, and you were letting me touch you. I wasn’t going to question why.”

Kaveh frowned. Alhaitham had known all along that Kaveh thought he was only touching him for believability, and he hadn’t corrected him? Even though he surely must have seen at least some of the heartache Kaveh was unable to hide?

“So you - you just let me suffer?” he asked weakly, defensiveness fading into hurt. “All this time?”

Expression immediately turning serious, Alhaitham shook his head. “Of course not. I would never hurt you on purpose, Kaveh,” he said firmly. “I wasn’t certain about your feelings until this weekend.”

Slightly mollified, Kaveh nodded slowly. “Fine. But still, I’m just supposed to believe you fell in love with me after a few weeks of -” he gestured vaguely between them with a flap of his hand, then down to Alhaitham’s pants with a strangled grunt. “Maybe you’re just excited to be getting some action for the first time and it’s nothing more than hormones.”

But once again, Alhaitham shook his head, more certain than ever. “Always jumping to conclusions...”

“Well what else am I supposed to conclude, Alhaitham?!”

“Why would you assume my feelings for you are new?”

“... Are they not?”

“Not even close.” With a wistful warmth in his eyes, Alhaitham’s gaze dropped to Kaveh’s hand, thumb brushing reverently over the metal adorning his finger. “But since you seem hesitant to believe me, just look at the engraving on your ring, sweetheart.”

Stomach fluttering with something pleasant at the soft endearment, Kaveh’s answering scoff was nowhere near as affronted as he meant it to sound.

“There isn’t one,” Kaveh replied distractedly, glancing down at the breathtaking threads of gold intertwined amidst ruby and emerald that he’d glared at hour upon sleepless hour every night now for weeks. “I would’ve noticed. I’ve spent so much time staring at this stupid, infuriatingly beautiful ring that -”

“It’s on the inside, Kaveh,” Alhaitham muttered with a long-suffering sigh.

Kaveh blinked. For an almost comically long stretch of silence, he simply stared at Alhaitham.

Then, as though suddenly animated by a jolt of electricity, he yanked the ring off in a flurry of movement and tried to examine it - but his hands were shaking too much to read the text undeniably set onto the inner band.

Alhaitham reached up to steady him with gentle fingers. Clutching Alhaitham’s wrist like a lifeline, Kaveh squinted at the tidy scrawl of Alhaitham’s penmanship and finally managed to focus his eyes.

Written in the dead language only the two of them could read was a date engraved beside six simple words:

For the light within my soul.

Heart pounding, Kaveh tried to process the unbearable romance threaded into each letter... but he couldn’t get past the date.

With a slight frown, he glanced up at Alhaitham, confused as to why - of all days - he would want to remember that one. “It’s... the date of our big fight?”

“Yes,” Alhaitham said softly. “But that’s not why it’s engraved. That was also the day I planned to give this to you.”

Once again, Kaveh stared blankly at him for several long moments. Each word on its own made sense, but no matter how much he tried to shuffle them around in his mind, they refused to click into any sort of comprehensible order.

“Planned to... give it to me. Like... to be - for... giving t-to... huh?”

“Why else would I give you a ring with a personalized engraving?” Alhaitham sighed patiently, as though explaining something obvious to a child. “I was going to ask you to marry me that day, Kaveh.”

If Alhaitham hadn’t been sitting right beside him, keeping him steady, Kaveh might have worried that he’d somehow been attacked - because his body reacted as though he’d just been stabbed in the gut.

His stomach bowed inward, back rounding, as he slumped toward Alhaitham. His muscles, somehow both relaxed with trust and tight with panic all at once, quivered violently as realization bloomed in his chest.

“Oh. Oh - oh gods...” Kaveh’s voice broke into a shaky, hiccuping breath, heart splintering all over again just as it had so many years ago - but this time, the pain was for Alhaitham as much as it was for himself. “And then our fight...”

Alhaitham threaded their fingers together gently. “Yeah.”

They stared at each other in silence. They’d long since made up from the chaos of their youth, but the gravity of Alhaitham’s admission was weighing Kaveh down so forcefully he could hardly breathe.

They could have had years together, could have avoided so much needless, unspeakable pain.

Though he knew their fight had affected Alhaitham too, Kaveh had always assumed he was the only one still carrying the paralyzing fear of losing the friendship they’d painstakingly rebuilt. But if Alhaitham had really been planning to propose back then... it must have torn him apart just as brutally as it had Kaveh.

Yet truthfully, Kaveh had gained a deeper appreciation for Alhaitham in the aftermath of their falling out - for all his faults, Kaveh had never found his unyielding candor and sturdy trustworthiness in any other person.

Ever since that day, he’d seen Alhaitham in every shadow, heard him in every word. And, though he’d never have wished for the heartache - especially now that he knew Alhaitham must have endured it as well, holding onto a ring meant for a love he thought he’d lost - Kaveh wasn’t sure they’d be here now without it.

Bittersweet emotion flooded through Kaveh, but he had no ability to put any of it into words; all he could do was release a helpless, distressed exhale. Yet with a tacit understanding, Alhaitham cupped Kaveh’s cheek, eyes swirling with a mirrored comprehension that didn’t require a single word to be uttered.

“It’s okay,” Alhaitham murmured gently. “I know.”

Kaveh nodded and leaned into Alhaitham’s palm. For a long, quiet moment, they held each other’s gaze, hearts heavy - yet paradoxically lighter than they had ever been - as the confessions took root.

Alhaitham would have proposed to him. He’d planned to propose to him. No tax breaks, no ulterior motives.

Just love.

Pressing a gentle kiss to Alhaitham’s palm, Kaveh sat up straight and inhaled shakily, steeling himself to make absolutely sure that they were on the same page.

“So this is a real wedding ring? One you bought?”

There it was again - that warm, fond sigh laced with a hint of regret. With slow, deliberate movements, Alhaitham plucked the ring out of his grasp and tenderly slid it back onto Kaveh’s finger.

This time, it felt like so much more than when he’d initially given it to Kaveh in his office. Even though they were half-dressed, sleepy, dishevelled, and slightly pruny from the bath... Kaveh didn’t think he’d ever experienced anything more romantic.

His eyes slowly trailed up to meet Alhaitham’s as he held Kaveh’s palm, cradling it in both hands with a profound reverence that matched the emotion in his eyes.

“It is,” Alhaitham confirmed.

“And you’ve... had this ring for ten years?”

“I have.”

“You had this ring made for me.” This time, it was a statement rather than a question - albeit tinged with disbelief.

“I did.”

“You want to marry me.”

“I’m already married to you, Kaveh.”

“Yeah, but you want to be.”

Alhaitham hummed indulgently. “I do.”

With every exchange, Kaveh’s certainty grew more steadfast.

“You’ve wanted to marry me since we were kids.”

Alhaitham’s bittersweet wistfulness slowly began to morph into soft amusement. “Mhm.”

“You love me.”

“With all my heart.”

Kaveh felt like he was melting as Alhaitham ran his thumb slowly back and forth along Kaveh’s cheekbone. He leaned forward on the divan until he was half clambering into Alhaitham’s lap, palms sliding across his bare chest as if to confirm he wasn’t merely an illusion.

“You really, really love me.”

“I always have.”

Oh gods.

“You’re in love with me.”

Alhaitham’s lips quirked upward as he placed his fingers on Kaveh’s left hand and squeezed reassuringly. “Brilliant deductions as always, senior.”

“You, Alhaitham...” Kaveh tapped their joined hands against Alhaitham’s chest, then pressed them up to his own, “... are in love with me.”

“Yes. And I’m glad to see you recall the tediousness of Socratic reasoning so clearly. Perhaps you should try asking in other languages if Sumerian English isn’t enough for you to understand my responses.”

Ignoring Alhaitham’s jab, Kaveh continued on with mounting urgency, as if he could somehow solidify this reality by articulating it carefully enough. But still, he couldn’t keep a smile from blooming on his face through his steadily forming tears as the panic and fear gave way to something softer - a serene trust held securely within Alhaitham’s eyes.

“You’re my husband. You like being my husband.”

Alhaitham released a breath of quiet laughter that was unfairly captivating. “No matter how many different ways you word it, the answer is yes.”

This time, instead of teasing back as he usually did, Kaveh simply collapsed against Alhaitham’s chest with a soundless exhale. Alhaitham sifted his fingers gently through his hair - but Kaveh’s smile faded slightly as his mind snagged on an inconsistency.

“Wait... it can’t be from ten years ago,” he said slowly. “The engraving says I’m your light. But I wasn’t branded the Light of Kshahrewar until years after that.”

“No. But before Sumeru claimed you as its light... you were mine.”

“I - mnh... huh?”

Alhaitham tilted Kaveh’s chin up with a slow, even-tempered nod. “You’ve always been my light, Kaveh.”

Kaveh swallowed with a click, eyes flickering rapidly between Alhaitham’s. Though his entire world was tilting on its axis, Alhaitham’s gaze was solid and orienting in the new reality that was unfolding before him.

Kaveh’s lungs were suddenly too small. And, though the tears in his eyes stung... they weren’t borne from pain this time. Instead, each droplet was filled with overwhelming, unfathomably strong relief.

With an abrupt surge, Kaveh launched himself fully into Alhaitham’s lap and wrapped all four limbs around him. Though he landed so harshly that the impact audibly knocked the wind out of Alhaitham, he didn’t complain; he merely held Kaveh tighter, arms wrapping around his waist and running slowly along his trembling back in soothing circles.

Alhaitham said nothing. He didn’t attempt to hush Kaveh’s cries, didn’t offer any meaningless platitudes to fill the silence. Instead, he embraced Kaveh and allowed him to break apart in his arms as a lifetime of suppressed yearning finally found its place in the world, then gently pieced him back together with his steady hands.

“You’re such a bastard,” Kaveh muttered against his neck through his heaving breaths.

Alhaitham simply hummed in acknowledgement and brushed a few of Kaveh’s tears away with the backs of his knuckles.

Armed with clarity, Kaveh tightened his thighs on either side of Alhaitham’s hips. He slid his fingers into Alhaitham’s hair and tilted his head sideways so he could whisper directly into his ear - just to make sure Alhaitham heard every drop of conviction in the words Kaveh had buried for so many years.

“But my gods do I love you, Alhaitham.”

Kaveh felt Alhaitham’s reaction before he heard it. With a sudden, abrupt exhale, Alhaitham’s sternum caved in - like something long-held had physically been plucked from his body, a heavy weight released from his chest.

“I love you too, Kaveh,” Alhaitham whispered without hesitation, breath hitching with emotion. Cradling Kaveh’s face in his palms, he drew back just enough to look at him, eyes so warm and worshipful Kaveh suddenly felt like he was staring directly into the sun. “Glad it only took us a decade and a h-”

But Kaveh didn’t let him finish.

Too impatient to let Alhaitham reminisce about what they’d missed when he could now kiss him freely instead, Kaveh interrupted him mid-sentence by crashing their lips together.

For the first time, Kaveh allowed himself to be completely free - euphoric and uninhibited with his love as he’d always wished to be. Though it was wet with tears and shaky from emotion, it was the best kiss Kaveh had ever experienced, laced with trust and adoration as each thread of devotion he wove into the press of their lips was returned in kind.

Kaveh couldn’t possibly get any closer to Alhaitham - but he sure as hell tried, curling his feet beneath Alhaitham’s thighs and urging his strong arms to coil more tightly around Kaveh’s waist with an impatient huff.

Without hesitation, Alhaitham obliged. He wrapped Kaveh in the exact kind of embrace that he somehow knew soothed him, sighing happily into the kiss with a soft, contented sound Kaveh had never heard Alhaitham make before.

When Kaveh finally pulled back, he was startled to discover that the tears weren’t just his anymore. Alhaitham’s cheeks, while significantly drier, carried delicate streaks along his cheekbones, and the emotion swimming in his eyes was undeniable.

How had Kaveh ever believed a second of this was fake? Alhaitham, the most stoic, unflinching man he’d ever met, was crying. For him.

But if Kaveh truly thought about it, Alhaitham had been showing him that he loved him for years. Kaveh had simply been too afraid to recognize it.

Each shared meal.

Each quietly paid-off tab at the tavern.

Each timely, “coincidental” appearance whenever Kaveh simply needed Alhaitham to be there.

Each calm yet insistent question about his health or his workload when Kaveh’s wrists began to ache.

Each argument where Alhaitham took the time to understand Kaveh’s perspective - even if he still argued against it half the time.

Each perfectly brewed cup of coffee waiting in Kaveh’s favourite mug on the mornings Alhaitham left early, placed without fail beside a note confirming what time Alhaitham would be home that evening.

Each stolen glance as they said goodnight, and each gentle good morning spoken into sunlit silence through the stained glass window beside the kitchen.

Perhaps if Kaveh hadn’t been so intent on hiding his own feelings, he would’ve seen the gestures for what they really were all along.

“I love you,” Kaveh breathed again, just to watch the warmth blossom on Alhaitham’s face, tinting his cheeks with a tender blush that Kaveh could hardly believe he had the right to witness.

Kaveh sincerely hoped no one else had ever made Alhaitham blush like this - and that no one else ever would. He didn’t want to share this version of Alhaitham with anyone, unguarded and sweet with pure emotion etched into every line of his face.

“I love you too, Kaveh.”

Kaveh leaned in again, fingers curling into Alhaitham’s hair. “I love you,” he murmured between kisses.

He held Alhaitham tenderly, grounded by the certainty that his love was returned in full. Pressing the shattered shards of his heart against Alhaitham’s chest where he knew they were safe, he repeated it with every breath.

“I love you,” he whispered again and again as their lips brushed together. “I love you, Haitham. I love you. I love you. I love you.”

The colour in Alhaitham’s cheeks only deepened with each word.

Drunk on power and overwhelmed by his apparent ability to unravel such a stony man with nothing but a few sincere words, Kaveh paused his barrage of kisses to simply stare.

He knew he looked like a mess. He was a mess, flushed and crying and trembling like a leaf... yet Alhaitham’s eyes were fixated on Kaveh as though he were a masterpiece crafted by his own hands, cherished and irreplaceable.

“I’m still mad at you,” Kaveh murmured breathlessly as he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to Alhaitham’s.

“Of course you are.” Alhaitham let out an equally breathless huff of laughter. “What for now, senior?”

“We could’ve avoided so much heartache... you should’ve told me. Even if not all those years ago, you should’ve said something once I moved in. Or once our friendship healed. Or once we got married. Or once we kissed. Or -”

Alhaitham shook his head firmly. Jaw tensing, some of the ease in his expression dimmed into something deep and wounded.

“No,” Alhaitham said, voice suddenly stern. “You don’t react well to truths you’re not ready to hear, and the last time I was too honest with you, we didn’t speak for years. I need you to understand, I...”

Alhaitham swallowed hard, uncharacteristically choked up, and flexed his fingers on Kaveh’s hip. Then, softly, painfully, tugging on the already unravelling strings of Kaveh’s heart, he whispered, “I couldn’t make the same mistake this time. I couldn’t lose you again, Kaveh.”

For the first time since they were kids, it felt like they were looking at each other with absolute clarity. Kaveh had always felt too seen by Alhaitham... but Kaveh saw him, too.

He saw the same little junior he was so enamored with all those years ago - short, chubby-cheeked, and open-hearted... nothing like the Adonis before him. Yet still, Alhaitham held the same quiet conviction in his eyes.

As though his supply was endless, tears flooded down Kaveh’s cheeks and dripped onto the soft shirt covering his body. With tender fingers, he leaned in and swept Alhaitham’s tears away too, one by one, as though the soft brushes alone could be apology enough for his part in the heartbreak they’d apparently both endured for all these years.

Alhaitham closed his eyes and clasped his fingers around Kaveh’s wrists, holding his hands to his face as he released a slow, shaky sigh. “I’m sorry I hurt you, Kaveh.”

The apology was long overdue. Perhaps it was no longer even necessary. Even still, Kaveh mirrored it instantly. “I’m sorry too.”

Open and honest, stripped bare of any remaining guardrails between them, they simply held each other for several minutes.

Eventually, exhausted from the emotional weight of the weekend - not to mention the many ways Alhaitham had seen fit to exhaust his body with pleasure - Kaveh leaned against his shoulder and snuggled into his neck.

Alhaitham gently slid sideways so Kaveh was curled on top of him like the protective shell of a bug. He didn’t remove Kaveh’s arms from his neck or his feet glued around the backs of his thighs as he settled onto his back on the divan, simply holding Kaveh above him as though it were the most natural position in the world.

Fingers threading into Kaveh’s hair, Alhaitham tried to guide his head down to his bare chest - but Kaveh resisted, glancing up at him.

“You tired, Haitham?”

“No, but you are. Just rest.”

Frowning, Kaveh protested immediately. “I slept half the weekend already. I don’t need to be put down for naps like a child, I -”

“Like I said, you’re sensitive, sweetheart. It’s okay. You get drained easily from relinquishing control of your emotions, and you haven’t slept well for weeks.”

Kaveh’s protest died in his throat, silenced by the softness of Alhaitham’s voice - and the tender endearment that made his stomach swoop with each syllable all over again, even mid-insult.

“You need rest, and I love when you fall asleep on me,” Alhaitham continued softly, then allowed a slight smirk to creep into his expression. “Besides, you can’t scowl at me in your sleep.”

Kaveh scowled at him.

Lips curling up into a warm smile, Alhaitham pressed Kaveh’s head down to his chest again and kissed his forehead gently. This time, Kaveh didn’t fight it.

Though he began to swing his body to one side of Alhaitham to avoid smothering him, Alhaitham’s hands locked firmly onto his hips and held him down.

“I’m not trying to get up, I’m just moving so I don’t crush you,” Kaveh huffed.

“Maybe I want you to crush me.”

Kaveh rolled his eyes, lashes fluttering against Alhaitham’s bare skin. “I don’t want to listen to you complaining about me cracking your ribs when I wake up, so just let me -”

“Would you quit being stubborn for once? You’re not heavy. I want you to sleep like this,” Alhaitham muttered as he manhandled Kaveh’s body into a state of rest once more. “Please.”

It was as though Alhaitham already knew Kaveh couldn’t deny him when he pleaded sincerely with that deep, earnest voice. And, though Kaveh was tempted to argue out of sheer spite... he really was bone-tired.

With a melodramatic sigh, Kaveh let himself relax, sinking onto Alhaitham bit by bit until he was sprawled across him with his full weight. Alhaitham hummed in quiet approval and wrapped his arms protectively around Kaveh’s body.

It usually took him hours of tossing and turning to fall asleep. But, as was now becoming habitual, Kaveh was asleep in what felt like mere seconds - soothed into slumber by the rhythm of Alhaitham’s heart, steady and sure, as it promised its love with every beat against his ear.

Chapter Text

When Kaveh awoke again, it wasn’t to the same slow, calm heartbeat, but to a rapid cadence pounding against his cheek, a flushed, heaving chest beneath his ear, and harsh breaths ruffling his hair.

“Mm... mm?” Kaveh hummed sleepily as he lifted his head.

Alhaitham’s eyes had been abducted and replaced with something like molten honey, dripping with desire as he gazed down at Kaveh with blown pupils.

Kaveh shifted his weight to sit up, opening his mouth to ask why Alhaitham looked like he was on the verge of losing his mind as he panted harshly - only to answer his own question as the slickness between his thighs slid against the bare skin of Alhaitham’s abdomen.

Alhaitham was coated in Kaveh’s arousal.

As Kaveh instinctively tried to lift himself away, Alhaitham’s powerful hands flew to his hips, holding him firmly and pushing him right back down.

With an embarrassing gasp, Kaveh braced one palm against Alhaitham’s sternum and gazed down at the glistening sheen across Alhaitham’s abs. Wearing nothing but Alhaitham’s shirt, which had apparently ridden up in his sleep, there was no barrier between his slick folds and Alhaitham’s absurdly toned muscles.

“Hell of a way to wake me up,” Alhaitham grunted sarcastically with a loud, audible swallow.

“Oh. S-sorry. You fell asleep too?”

“I did. But don’t get me wrong... I’m definitely not complaining, Kaveh. You can wake me up like this any time you want.”

Heat seared through Kaveh’s body. He’d been so enraptured by the fact that his love was requited that sex hadn’t even crossed his mind throughout their emotion-filled confessions... but now, it hit him like a resounding clap of thunder - the thick bulge pressing against him was no longer restricted by the ticking clock of the hour during which they desperately touched each other every morning.

Reading Kaveh’s silence as hesitation, though, Alhaitham gently ran his thumbs over the front of his hipbones and eased his grip, giving Kaveh space to pull away.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be pushy - I’m not in any rush. It’s fine if it takes you a while to be ready for anything else. But when you are, if you are...” Alhaitham’s already deep voice lowered an octave, so gravelly it became almost inaudible. “... Gods do I want to be inside you.”

The insistent heat in Kaveh’s stomach flared - no longer pleasant and warm, but demanding. And, coupled with the love in Alhaitham’s gaze as he stared up at Kaveh with hazy eyes, so intense it made Kaveh feel naked already... it ignited every nerve in his body.

“You can be pushy,” Kaveh whispered.

Shyly, unaccustomed to being so forward, Kaveh bit his lip and experimentally ground his hips down. An obscene squelch filled the room as his clit slid along the ridges between Alhaitham’s abs; but archons, the sensation was explosive.

Kaveh’s eyes fluttered. “O-oh... fuck...”

Alhaitham’s answering groan was so harsh it ruffled the fabric of Kaveh’s shirt. His fingers tightened their grip as Kaveh repeated the motion with a soft, breathless moan, pleased by Alhaitham’s obvious desire.

“Impatient, huh?” Alhaitham muttered through ragged breaths - though his hands urged Kaveh’s hips to continue their slow, grinding rhythm, abs tensing to meet each glide.

With a tender, deliberate moment of eye contact to check Kaveh’s state of mind - which was somehow far sexier than any physical intimacy - Alhaitham slowly slid one hand inward and curled it beneath the hem of the shirt draped over Kaveh’s body. As he lifted it with his thumb, Alhaitham’s hips jerked upward, straining against the air as his mouth fell open and his eyes snapped between Kaveh’s thighs.

“Y-yeah.” Leaning back to support himself, palms planted on either side of Alhaitham’s hips, Kaveh bared himself more fully to Alhaitham’s hungry stare and reached back to grasp the thick bulge trapped behind the seam of his sweatpants.

“Yeah, I’m impatient, Haitham,” he said again. “Do you know how many times I’ve thought about this?”

Without missing a beat, Alhaitham grunted, eyes glued to the lewd slide of their bodies. “I promise I’ve thought about it a lot more than you.”

Kaveh moaned and pawed at Alhaitham’s waistband. It took him a few tries due to the awkward angle, but he eventually managed to shimmy them down far enough for Alhaitham to spring free, slapping hard and heavy against Kaveh’s hip.

Though Kaveh expected him to guide his hips back to align their bodies fully so they could finally be joined together for the first time, Alhaitham’s strong hands instead flexed and held him still.

A flicker of self-consciousness passed through Kaveh. Perhaps waking up drenched and immediately grinding against Alhaitham’s muscles wasn’t exactly polite... and he hadn’t even asked.

Hovering uncertainly, Kaveh bit his lip. “Um... sorry. If you don’t want to, we can wait.”

Alhaitham exhaled a humourless laugh. “That’s not the problem, sweetheart. I just don’t want to overwhelm you. I know it takes a lot for you to let your body open up to me.” Then, with a tenderness that struck Kaveh’s heart, he added, “and... I know it’s scary for you.”

Kaveh couldn’t exactly deny that. He had devolved into tears practically every time Alhaitham had made him come, usually before they were even finished, and typically was rendered unable to speak in the aftermath for at least a few minutes.

“Well... you make scary things feel safe,” Kaveh replied honestly. “Are we never going to have sex then? Just because it’ll probably make me cry?”

He meant it to sound petulant, but the words trailed off into something vulnerable and fearful, lined with the anxiety that maybe Alhaitham didn’t enjoy the fact that he turned into a trembling, teary-eyed mess every time he touched him.

But Alhaitham sensed his worry immediately. Without hesitation, he dropped the shirt from his hand and lifted his palm to Kaveh’s cheek. All of the focus he’d had trained on Kaveh’s arousal shifted, zeroing in on his face with sharp clarity.

“Hey. I’ll make love to you any way you want, any time you want, for the rest of our lives and be the happiest man in Teyvat,” Alhaitham promised earnestly. “I just want to make sure you enjoy our first time - I don’t want it to be a bad memory for you.”

Archons... Alhaitham had absolutely no business sounding that sexy.

“I’ll enjoy it, Haitham.”

Kaveh turned his head to kiss Alhaitham’s palm, lingering for a moment over the wedding band on his ring finger. Breathing heavily with anticipation, he slowly shifted backward, lifting his hips until Alhaitham’s erection slid forward like a snake gliding along silky, slick velvet.

Watching Alhaitham’s reaction carefully, Kaveh lowered himself back down until either side of his folds hugged Alhaitham, then slowly rocked his hips forward again. Though his breathing was already uneven, Kaveh choked on air as Alhaitham’s tip caught on his clit and caressed it with a slow drag.

“If you’re sure,” Alhaitham said huskily, expression softening as he stared up at Kaveh with sheer love in his eyes... and that gods-forsaken blush on his cheeks that turned Kaveh on far more than it should. “But I want you to tell me if it becomes too much, okay? Can you promise me?”

“You’re acting like you’re going to kill me. You’re big, but you’re not going to split me in half.”

Alhaitham raised an eyebrow and lifted an accusatory finger to point at Kaveh’s chest. “Did you miss the part where we established that you’re exceedingly sensitive?”

Kaveh huffed, ready to argue even as he slowly ground back and forth - but Alhaitham stopped him before he could begin, sincerity overtaking snark.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Kaveh. Just... indulge me.”

Of course Alhaitham would be as meticulous and considerate with making love as he had been with all other forms of intimacy thus far. But that deep-rooted care - the unflinching desire to protect him, both physically and emotionally - only made Kaveh want him more.

“Okay. I promise.”

As a silent thank you, Alhaitham slid down the divan so his head was no longer resting on the armrest and flattened himself on the cushions. Then, without a word, he tugged Kaveh’s hips forward and curled his hands around him - one on his leg and one on the meat of his ass - before biting gently into the tender skin of his inner thigh.

“Haitham? H-Haitha - ah... ah... oh - o-oh gods,” Kaveh gasped as Alhaitham spread his legs wider and dragged his tongue over his clit in a slow, circling tease.

“Fuck, I love how wet you get,” Alhaitham groaned raggedly between languid, tantalizing licks. Tightening his grip so forcefully that Kaveh could feel each fingerprint branding his skin, Alhaitham began to urge Kaveh’s hips into a steady grind against his mouth.

Kaveh couldn’t get out anything more than lewd, surprised moans, though he jerked away when Alhaitham released a muffled sound of struggle as his breathing was restricted.

“Sorry, I -”

Alhaitham shook his head immediately. “If I need air, I’ll lift you up. Just focus on letting it feel good.”

Without another word, Alhaitham pulled Kaveh back down onto his face... but this time, nothing about the way he touched Kaveh was teasing.

Lightning danced through Kaveh’s body with each wet flick of Alhaitham’s tongue. His fingers scrambled for balance as his vision went hazy, clutching at the side of the divan while he watched Alhaitham devour him.

Still, his one-handed grip wasn’t enough to keep him upright as his pleasure crested higher. But when Kaveh leaned forward to brace himself on the armrest, Alhaitham caught his wrist and instead shoved it down into his hair.

“O-oh...” Kaveh’s breath began to tremble as he grabbed a fistful of Alhaitham’s hair. Like this, though, it didn’t feel like stability... it was more like guidance.

Which, as it turned out, was exactly what Alhaitham wanted. Nudging into Kaveh’s palm, Alhaitham gazed up at him with a pleased hum.

Trying to maintain any semblance of focus as his arousal spiralled out of control, Kaveh began to slowly rock his hips against Alhaitham’s face, guiding his lips into a steady swirl over his clit that was far too perfect.

“Oh - mmh! - oh my gods,” Kaveh gasped.

Alhaitham’s hands slid down to grip either side of his ass, squeezing firmly as stilted, deep groans vibrated directly against Kaveh’s clit via his tongue.

There was no calming the storm building within him now. Kaveh tried to slow down, desperate to stave off his orgasm and avoid becoming overstimulated too soon - but that only made it worse. Alhaitham’s tongue adapted instantly, drawing slower, more sensual circles that made Kaveh’s nerves catch fire.

“Fuck, I can’t - I c-can’t...” Kaveh stammered, torn between riding Alhaitham’s face off into the sunset and holding out long enough to stay coherent as he took Alhaitham inside him for the first time. But the mere thought of what was waiting behind him to fill him up - thick, hard, and finally his - only made the tension coil faster.

Eyes fluttering shut, his head tipped backward. “Haitham, p-please, not yet,” Kaveh managed to cry out, thighs already tensing as the freight train of his orgasm barrelled toward him. “Please, I w-wanna come with you i-ins-side me...”

The growl Alhaitham let out against his clit buzzed so powerfully through him that Kaveh nearly tipped over the edge - but as he tensed his thighs in preparation for the imminent explosion of pleasure, Alhaitham pulled away, panting hard.

Thankfully, Kaveh took a few moments to try and catch his breath before looking down. If he hadn’t, he would’ve come untouched simply from the expression on Alhaitham’s face.

Coated in slick wetness that ran down the sides of his throat, Alhaitham smiled up at him, cheeks flushed with desire and an almost innocent glee - as though he were exceedingly grateful simply for the ability to bring Kaveh pleasure.

“Gods, your face...” Kaveh whispered unevenly, nodding sheepishly down at Alhaitham’s glistening cheeks as he shuffled his knees back along the divan.

Alhaitham surged upward impatiently and yanked Kaveh down the rest of the way, pressing their chests together. Then, spreading the taste of Kaveh to himself, Alhaitham sealed their mouths in a passionate kiss - though more scorching still was the thick head of Alhaitham’s erection as it caught between Kaveh’s thighs.

Kaveh braced one arm on the cushion beside Alhaitham’s face and leaned into the kiss, but flinched away when the side of his forearm became coated in his own arousal as it trickled down the side of Alhaitham’s throat.

“Lick it off for me,” Alhaitham growled as he delivered a sharp nip to Kaveh’s lip. With an excitable groan, Alhaitham tilted his head to the side and exposed the line of his neck where Kaveh’s wetness trailed along his skin.

Surprisingly eager to follow his command, Kaveh lowered his head and ran his tongue in a slow line from Alhaitham’s collarbone up to his ear, then bit down gently and sucked.

Alhaitham’s response was immediate. Hips jerking upward and nudging his erection forcefully against Kaveh’s entrance, he let out a broken, sinful whine, equal parts startled and aroused.

“H-holy fuck, sorry,” Alhaitham gasped, hips retreating slightly to allow Kaveh to set the pace.

Kaveh’s eyes widened as he glanced down at the reddened skin he’d just bitten down on. “Did - did that feel good?”

“Yeah. Just didn’t know I’d like it that much. Did I hurt you?”

Every time they’d been intimate so far, Alhaitham had focused entirely on Kaveh’s pleasure. And Kaveh, overwhelmed by the intensity of Alhaitham’s touch - and maintaining the mental fortitude of keeping himself from saying something stupid - hadn’t done nearly enough to discover what Alhaitham liked.

Well, that wouldn’t do.

Kaveh shook his head and slowly shifted backward to align Alhaitham with his entrance once more, pressing tantalizingly gently against where he ached to feel him most.

Determined to turn the tables and bring Alhaitham devastating pleasure this time instead of the other way around, he lowered his head to the other side of Alhaitham’s neck and mirrored the sensual kisses once again.

“I want you so deep inside me I can’t breathe, Haitham,” he whispered as his lips reached the shell of Alhaitham’s ear.

The words felt awkward on his tongue - Kaveh had always been far too embarrassed to even attempt any sort of dirty talk with anyone else - but with Alhaitham, they came surprisingly naturally. Biting his lip, he began to sink down, allowing Alhaitham’s tip to nudge ever so slightly inside of him.

But the moment he slipped past that tight ring of muscle, Kaveh had to pause, panting against Alhaitham’s throat. He didn’t know whether it was simply the emotional weight of being joined like this with the man he loved, with his husband, or simply the physical stretch... but he was verging on tears already.

Though Alhaitham’s breath sounded just as ragged as Kaveh’s, he didn’t make a single move to grind upward or force Kaveh down. He simply rubbed soothing, loving circles into Kaveh’s hips, squeezing with a gentle reassurance that only made Kaveh fall harder.

Kaveh pressed his forehead against Alhaitham’s jaw and sank down a little further.

He’d barely taken Alhaitham an inch of the way in when he mentally retracted his quip about Alhaitham not splitting him in half; he felt like he was being carved open straight down the middle already.

Tears clouding his vision, frustrating yet inevitable, Kaveh had no control over his own body as he took Alhaitham deeper. He bore down inch by inch until Alhaitham was buried so deep Kaveh swore he could feel him behind his ribcage.

Alhaitham whispered soft, endless reassurances on a steady loop - feel so good, sweetheart, so perfect, so wet, so tight, so warm, perfect, perfect - as he tensed beneath Kaveh with a restraint that bordered on sainthood. But still, he didn’t force a thing, allowing Kaveh to go at his own pace as he grew accustomed to the burn.

Finally, Kaveh lifted his hips to rock against him, but he didn’t even complete a single motion before the tears spilled over. A shaky, choked-off sob of pleasure escaped him as he clung to Alhaitham tightly.

As he sank back down, Alhaitham finally began to direct his movements. But instead of guiding him into motion, he held Kaveh in place, settling their hips flush together and stilling him.

“Just stay like this for a minute, Kaveh. Breathe for me.”

Kaveh wanted to argue. He wanted to tell Alhaitham he didn’t need to be coddled, that he was more than capable of riding him until he made them both see stars... but all Kaveh could do was try not to disintegrate.

Though Kaveh’s walls instinctively tensed and untensed around him, Alhaitham kept entirely, respectfully, infuriatingly still, simply holding him in his arms. In time, Kaveh’s strangled sobs softened into gasps - still shaky and ragged, but steadier than before.

“There we go. You okay? Remember your promise, Kaveh. Now’s not the time to be stubborn.”

“I’m - I’m okay,” Kaveh whispered, unable to manage more than a faint, breathy murmur. But when he lifted his head, Alhaitham didn’t look anywhere near as composed as he sounded.

Eyes painted with sheer reverence and burning, barely restrained need, Alhaitham’s arms tightened around him reassuringly even as his jaw flexed with tension so sharp it was visible.

“Um... are you okay?” Kaveh asked unsteadily.

“Yeah. You’re just so. Fucking. Tight.” Alhaitham drew in a deep breath, tugged Kaveh down for a quick, tender kiss, then settled his hands on his hips. “Can you sit up for me?”

Even though he immediately missed the grounding warmth of Alhaitham’s skin, Kaveh nodded and slowly sat back, bearing his weight on his knees. From this angle, it felt like Alhaitham had somehow been driven in even deeper.

“Just... is it okay if we go slow?” Kaveh slid one hand down to Alhaitham’s abdomen and grabbed the side of the divan with the other for support, preparing himself for the overload of sensation... but Alhaitham shook his head.

“No. All I want you to do is stay still.”

Alhaitham reached forward. His left hand landed on Kaveh’s thigh, stroking slowly back and forth as the cool metal of his wedding band soothed Kaveh’s overheated skin... but his other hand didn’t mirror the movement. Instead, it trailed up to where he was stretching Kaveh open so obscenely wide.

Though Alhaitham’s fingers grazed along either side of his folds, they continued higher, up past his navel. Then, with deliberate, torturous pressure, he dragged a single fingertip slowly back down the center of Kaveh’s abdomen as though tracing the exact path he was carving deep within him.

“Relax for me, Kaveh,” Alhaitham whispered.

Alhaitham hitched his legs up behind Kaveh and propped them behind Kaveh’s back, encouraging him to lean back. As Kaveh reclined, draping himself backward over the sturdy foundation of Alhaitham’s knees, Alhaitham dropped his thumb down to draw wide, tender circles around Kaveh’s clit.

Even with no movement, the fullness of Alhaitham nestled deep inside him made the pressure on his sensitive clit unbearably intense.

Kaveh jolted with pleasure and tried to rock against him, but Alhaitham’s hand on his thigh tensed in gentle reprimand.

“Ah ah. Stay still. I want you to come for me just like this first so you’ll be nice and relaxed.”

Kaveh didn’t have it in him to argue. He stayed still as instructed, eyes glued to Alhaitham, and bit down on his lip.

The slow, gentle touch was delicious as it was torturous, but at least Alhaitham looked equally as affected. His breath quickened along with Kaveh’s, muscles twitching beneath Kaveh’s fingertips as his hand clenched and unclenched on Alhaitham’s chiseled abdomen.

“I can feel every single reaction your body has to me like this,” Alhaitham murmured, his voice a rich blend of lust and worship. “You squeeze me even tighter when I touch you here...”

He pressed a little more firmly along the outside of Kaveh’s clit but avoided touching it directly.

“And tighter still when I do this...”

Thumb flicking inward, he slid the pad of his finger back and forth over Kaveh’s clit in a slow yet sensual rhythm.

Abdomen tightening, Kaveh tensed in Alhaitham’s lap - but Alhaitham only slowed his fingers even more, rubbing in agonizingly gentle circles that sent slow waves of warmth through every fiber of Kaveh’s being.

“Just breathe,” Alhaitham urged softly. “I want you to loosen up for me. Let your muscles find a little release.”

All Kaveh could do was moan weakly as he tried to resist the urge to bounce in a rapid rhythm as his body so deeply craved. But as his hips jerked forward to meet the steady press of Alhaitham’s thumb, Alhaitham lifted his hand from Kaveh’s thigh to his stomach.

“Relax,” he repeated - still gentle, but firmer. “You don’t have to chase me, sweetheart. I’m right here. Just let go. Unclench your muscles.”

With a helpless sound that bordered on a whimper, Kaveh focused simply on stillness - on keeping his body from rocking down against the thick, heavy weight of Alhaitham deep inside him. With a low moan, Kaveh relaxed his abdomen as pleasure bloomed hot and low in his stomach.

But as his eyes fluttered shut and his head tipped backward, Kaveh realized he’d already forgotten about his vow to focus on Alhaitham’s pleasure.

“I w-wanna make you feel good too, Haitham,” he managed, ashamed at how greedily he was stealing pleasure from Alhaitham’s fingers.

“You are.” Alhaitham’s voice was deep and genuine. He slid his palm up to Kaveh’s chin, tipping his head down until their eyes met.

“I love when you touch me, Kaveh. But there’s nothing in the world that feels better than knowing I’m making you feel good. So if you want to please me, that’s what I want. Let me see your pretty face when you come for me. Tell me what you like, what feels good. Give yourself to me completely.”

Such a brazen admission of desire - so selfless, yet so unabashedly possessive - only tightened the coil of desire within him.

“I’m yours,” Kaveh whispered through the haze of pleasure. “Anything you want, I’m yours. Mmh - H-Haitham, I’m g-gonna -”

“Gonna come? I know. Your body’s telling me everything, beautiful. Telling me just how much you like it. Go ahead.”

Tears prickled behind Kaveh’s eyes as he reached down and grasped for Alhaitham’s wrist. Holding it tightly, he arched into Alhaitham; and somehow, the deliberate, soft give of his purposefully loose muscles only deepened the already intense pleasure.

“Come for me.”

Supported by the safety of their connection, Kaveh let his eyes flutter shut, threw his head back in wordless surrender... and obeyed.

As Kaveh fell apart, Alhaitham released soft, needy sounds of desire beneath him. His hips stuttered subtly against Kaveh, seemingly unable to keep from adding an edge of friction as Kaveh’s body fluttered around him with each wave of his climax.

Alhaitham’s hands never once stilled. He stroked Kaveh’s skin with slow, tender caresses, touches meant to soothe as much as to arouse.

As Kaveh’s body finally slackened and the vice-like grip of his walls eased, Alhaitham slid his palms up to either side of his waist, supporting him against his legs until Kaveh’s eyes fluttered open again.

“There we go,” Alhaitham murmured reverently. “Gods you look so beautiful when you come.”

Kaveh tried to respond, but only a strangled string of syllables came out. Unable to verbalize his need, he tugged on Alhaitham’s arms, suddenly aching for the full-bodied pressure of being held tightly by him again.

“Still doing okay?” Alhaitham asked as he sat up. He adjusted Kaveh in his lap so he could hold him close, sensing what Kaveh was seeking without needing to be told.

Inhaling the safety of Alhaitham’s scent, Kaveh pressed his face into his neck and nodded.

After a long, steadying pause as his head slowly cleared, Kaveh finally felt composed enough to move again. With a shaky gasp, he lifted his hips and eased himself back down, savouring the firm drag of Alhaitham against every ridge of his clenching warmth.

Instead of stopping him this time, Alhaitham simply guided his movements, groaning low into his ear.

“Not too much?”

“Not too much,” Kaveh confirmed in a hushed whisper.

Tightening his arms around Alhaitham, Kaveh repeated the motion... but much to his annoyance, tears began to fall from his eyes again; even with his loosened muscles, which were actually helping ease some of the overstimulation, the pleasure still threatened to consume him.

“Sorry I’m crying so much,” Kaveh whispered self-consciously.

To his surprise, Alhaitham huffed a deep, unsteady laugh against his ear. “If anything, I’m sorry - for how much I like it.”

Confused, Kaveh lifted his head.

Alhaitham brushed his tears away with gentle fingers. “I don’t want you to think I like seeing you in pain. But like this, when you’re so open that you can’t help but be overwhelmed by your emotions, by your pleasure... you look so, so pretty.”

A flush of embarrassment washed through Kaveh at how wrecked he must look already... yet in Alhaitham’s arms, there wasn’t room for the self-consciousness to linger. Not when his eyes held that much clear adoration.

Kaveh stopped fighting it. He allowed the tears to fall freely down his cheeks as he began to find a slow, sensual rhythm - more of a rocking sway than a bounce, but Alhaitham didn’t seem to mind.

“Kaveh, you feel -” Alhaitham began, voice ragged with need. He trailed off with a helpless grunt, words falling away as he lifted his hips to meet each of Kaveh’s steady grinds.

But Kaveh didn’t need to hear the words of praise for them to warm him. He could feel the essence of each syllable in the press of Alhaitham’s fingertips, could hear them on every jagged edge of the harsh breaths fanning out over his face.

“Haitham,” Kaveh whispered. “Haitham. Haitham...”

As the warmth in his core built again, Kaveh tried to speed up his movements - but his muscles trembled with exertion, funnelling all of his body’s strength to his lungs as he devolved into breathless, desperate moans, each one louder than the last.

“I’ve got you,” Alhaitham promised. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. Just let me.”

With impossibly gentle hands, Alhaitham gathered Kaveh in his arms and lowered him down onto the cushions, now prone on his back beneath Alhaitham’s powerful frame. But instead of releasing Kaveh’s legs, Alhaitham hooked them into the crooks of his elbows and lifted them so they were practically sandwiching Kaveh’s head.

“Does this feel -”

“Yes, yes,” Kaveh interrupted, impatient and desperate to experience the steadier pace that he hadn’t managed to set himself. “Please, Haitham, it’s perfect, just - please, move.”

Kaveh was immediately grateful that Alhaitham had expressed his love for his tears - because the small trickles turned into rivers the moment Alhaitham eased himself out halfway... then thrust back in so deeply he filled Kaveh up to his throat.

Kaveh nearly screamed.

Alhaitham was inexplicably deeper in this position, sliding into his very soul with each steady, rolling thrust. But instead of the brutal pace Kaveh had been trying to set earlier, Alhaitham rocked into him with slow, deliberate, deep thrusts, each stroke accompanied by a low, guttural groan.

Suddenly more desperate than ever for Alhaitham’s steadying touch, Kaveh arched off the divan and smacked needily at the sides of Alhaitham’s forearms, urging them to slide beneath him.

Alhaitham did so immediately, cradling his small frame easily in his arms - and in doing so, he pulled Kaveh’s legs up even higher, practically folding him in half. The added stretch only amplified the pleasure as Alhaitham’s palms pressed against his back, holding him so perfectly that Kaveh’s moans quickly transformed into heaving gasps of insuppressible pleasure.

“Please, Haitham,” Kaveh begged instinctively, unable to convey how desperately he needed Alhaitham’s arms grounding him as he let himself fall apart completely. “P-please, don’t let me go.”

“Never.” Alhaitham’s deep voice immediately soothed his eardrums. “I’ve got you. I’m right here, Kaveh. I promise - I’m never letting you go.”

And he didn’t. Even as Kaveh clung to him like he would drown without Alhaitham deep inside of him, plastered to every inch of his body, Alhaitham didn’t flinch away once - instead, he only held Kaveh tighter, cradling him in his arms as though he were something sacred.

“Do you need both my arms around you, or can I use this hand to touch you?” Alhaitham breathed raggedly into his ear, squeezing Kaveh’s side with his left hand.

“Yes,” Kaveh gasped.

Though his answer was unclear, Alhaitham didn’t have to ask which one he meant. Without Kaveh having to request it, Alhaitham’s other hand tightened, wrapping all the way around his waist and curling around his opposite hip as he held Kaveh securely in his grasp like a rope coiled around his every limb.

Practically lifting Kaveh off the divan at this point, Alhaitham slid his fingers down and began rubbing his clit with his thumb in slow, maddeningly perfect circles.

Immediately, Alhaitham’s hips stuttered. “Oh - o-oh fuck,” Alhaitham groaned raggedly. “Fuck, you’re getting so tight.”

Kaveh tensed his thighs around Alhaitham. With one calf slung over his shoulder and the other wrapped around his back, Kaveh was no longer touching the cushions with any part of his body other than his shoulder blades as Alhaitham thrust deeper, each movement accompanied by the rhythmic symphony of the creaking divan beneath them.

“So - oh my gods - so good,” Kaveh whimpered as he clutched Alhaitham tightly, every atom within him screaming to be closer even though they were already fused together.

Panting into his ear, Alhaitham coiled his arm more securely around Kaveh, though his fingers didn’t speed up; if anything, they slowed, as though savouring each pounding slam of Kaveh’s pulse as his pleasure throbbed tangibly against Alhaitham’s fingertips.

“Can you squirt for me again?”

Truthfully, it was an inevitability - Kaveh couldn’t have helped it even if he’d wanted to. Just like earlier that morning when Alhaitham had buried his face between Kaveh’s thighs, tingling electricity was already zipping through Kaveh’s body in an ever-heightening current, only conducted higher by the waves of Alhaitham’s steady thrusts.

“Y-yes.”

Kaveh trembled so violently his vision went blank, yet his orgasm only continued building with agonizing pleasure deep within his core. Tears of rapture poured from his eyes, but not solely from the intensity of the physical sensation - they stemmed from being held with unrelenting tenderness, made love to with such deep emotion it was as though he were the only thing in Alhaitham’s universe.

“This feel good?” Alhaitham asked in a low rasp as he tapped his fingers on Kaveh’s clit. “You like when I touch you like this?”

“Yes.”

“Then tell me,” Alhaitham pleaded brokenly, hips growing ever unsteadier as he bit at random intervals into Kaveh’s neck. “I need to know I’m making you feel good. Please.”

Kaveh used every last ounce of power in his brain cells to whisper words of breathless praise that Alhaitham so clearly needed to hear. “It’s perfect. I’ve never felt this good. N-never. Not with anyone. I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you. Just you. I love you. I love you.”

Alhaitham’s hips stuttered more powerfully, each breath a harsh blade’s edge drawn across Kaveh’s ear - yet instead of slicing him open, it was filling Kaveh’s entire body with a nirvana like nothing he’d experienced before.

“Gods, Kaveh... please. My name, sweetheart. Say my name. Please.”

Kaveh’s body responded as though he’d been struck by lightning.

There was something so raw and captivating about hearing Alhaitham beg. And, coupled with the deep, warm utterance of the sweet nickname that Kaveh was already addicted to hearing from his lips - spoken like a prayer, not a demand - it made Kaveh unravel completely.

Back arching so high his head slammed backward into the cushion, Kaveh’s whimpers were reduced to a single word - Alhaitham’s name, uttered again and again.

“I’m gonna come,” Alhaitham grunted, hips pulsing in jerky, deep strokes as he ground into Kaveh with desperate force.

Kaveh could barely speak, but he tightened his legs around Alhaitham in clear request and nodded furiously, eyes wet and pleading.

Alhaitham’s thumb slipped on his clit, rhythm crumbling as his palm flexed in harsh spasms on Kaveh’s side. Pressing his forehead to Kaveh’s, Alhaitham kissed him sloppily and bit his bottom lip, then returned his mouth to Kaveh’s ear as his moans deepened into something primal.

“You want me to come inside you, Kaveh? You want to be full of me?” Alhaitham sounded fractured - as though he were mere seconds from collapsing into something irreversibly profound.

“Please, Haitham, yes - please, I love you, please,” Kaveh sobbed, chest heaving as he was drawn directly into the eye of the storm.

He experienced one split second of serene, breathtaking calm, lungs full and muscles pulled taut...

And then he was swept away.

The warmth of Alhaitham’s release flooded into him, deep and hot, accompanied by low, sexy groans in Kaveh’s ear that only grew more unrestrained as they mingled with his ragged gasps of I love you. And as Alhaitham cradled him with bruising, worshipful intensity... Kaveh’s body simply unlocked.

Erupting with emotion, he clung to Alhaitham through the violent, crashing tempest of their shared pleasure. His thighs burned from how tightly they were pulled around Alhaitham’s waist - but the tremors in his limbs, cramping muscles, and waves of overstimulation... none of it mattered.

He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t speak. Could hardly hold onto consciousness through the earth-shattering waves of euphoria blazing through him. All he could do was cling to Alhaitham with every last bit of strength until his body finally gave out.

But even as the intensity of his climax began to fade... his sobs didn’t.

They tore from his throat in hiccuping gasps, raw and aching, as he held onto the love that was finally, irrevocably his.

Heat seared through Kaveh - but not all of it was his own. As his senses slowly returned, the distant hum of deep, loving words murmured directly into his ear grounded him as he became aware of Alhaitham’s body again: the sweat on his skin, the warmth of his breath, and the pounding of his pulse, steady and strong against Kaveh’s chest.

Alhaitham loved him. Kaveh knew that now with absolute certainty.

But even though the truth had never felt clearer... Kaveh’s body could only respond with even more tears. As always, Alhaitham simply held him through it.

With soft, soothing shushes, Alhaitham kept him safe in his arms until his breathing began to steady and his whimpering sobs gave way to shaky gasps. Eventually, the gentle, loving murmurs in his ear began to sound like words again, too.

“Shh, Kaveh... it’s okay. I love you. I’m right here. You’re safe, angel. I’ve got you. You’re safe. I promise, you’re safe.”

Kaveh slowly began to relax the crab-like grip he’d unknowingly kept on Alhaitham as his body settled. But as he loosened his clenched fists, Alhaitham released a slow exhale against the shell of Kaveh’s ear and lifted his head.

Panic hit instantly. Anxious that Alhaitham was going to pull away, Kaveh instinctively tightened his legs around Alhaitham’s waist with a distressed, urgent sound that couldn’t be misunderstood - he couldn’t bear even a whisper of distance between them.

Instead of pulling away, Alhaitham released a deep, low chuckle - a sound Kaveh had never heard him make before - and beamed down at him.

“Ow,” Kaveh whispered stupidly. It was the only word that his short-circuiting brain could conjure to describe the ache in his chest at the sight of Alhaitham so radiant - so happy.

“Ow?”

Realizing he’d said it aloud, Kaveh shook his head quickly as Alhaitham’s grin began to fade to concern. He opened his mouth to try and explain - I’m fine, I didn’t mean to say that, you just look so handsome right now my heart might explode and I love you and I can’t believe you’re my husband.

But all that emerged from his lips was incoherent nonsense.

Still, Alhaitham must have been able to hear the reassurance in his tone.

“Oh,” Alhaitham said with a sigh of relief as he relaxed against him once more. “Words haven’t reloaded yet, hm?”

Kaveh tried to retort with a cutting insult - but all he managed was a vaguely offended grunt that sounded more hilichurlian than human.

Alhaitham laughed again, unfathomably warm and endearing, and gently rearranged them onto their sides. He tucked Kaveh safely between his body and the back of the couch, surrounding him on all sides with the sensory input his overwhelmed body so desperately craved.

“Don’t try and speak, ya habibi,” Alhaitham murmured, soothing and low. “It’s okay. You can just pass out on me like you always do. Don’t fight it. I love you - I promise I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

Once again, Kaveh’s mind offered him a dozen clever retorts as his eyes fell shut and his body melted into Alhaitham’s secure embrace.

... But all that came out was a snore.

It was truly astounding how peaceful Kaveh always managed to look as he fell asleep, no matter how intense and overbearing his emotions had been only moments ago. Grinning like an idiot, Alhaitham stared down at Kaveh’s beautiful face, tracing the utter bliss written into his delicate features as he lay wrapped in Alhaitham’s embrace.

For all his posturing about not needing any additional sleep, Kaveh didn’t wake up until late into the evening. Happier than he’d ever been, Alhaitham had once again carried him to the bath, washed them both off with reverent hands, and made them dinner before falling asleep with Kaveh in his arms.

He felt as though he were walking on clouds. Never having smiled so much in his life, Alhaitham soon had to take up the habit of massaging his jaw to soothe the tension in the muscles of his face that Kaveh had, apparently, permanently reshaped.

One quiet, serene morning as he stared down at Kaveh’s sleeping face, smiling at the line of drool spilling onto Alhaitham’s arm - something only Kaveh could find a way to make look endearing... Alhaitham had even sent a rare, whispered prayer to the archons, just to let his grandmother know that he’d finally found the peaceful life she’d always wanted for him.

They still kept to the routine they’d established over the last few weeks: morning orgasms, soft goodbyes at the door, and Alhaitham arriving late to the Akademiya with damp hair and a smug expression that no one dared question anymore. His coworkers had begun calling it the Grand Sage’s husband schedule - a title Alhaitham made no effort to correct.

Each time they made love, Kaveh’s body responded just as breathtakingly, dissolving into honest tears and sweet cries that echoed the first time they’d truly surrendered to one another.

But as Kaveh grew more secure in the knowledge that Alhaitham would always be there when he woke up from his inevitable post-coital naps, holding him with the love and care he’d stockpiled over so many long years... Kaveh began to be more vocal.

At first, it was simple, broken strings of praise that left Alhaitham undone. Then came the morning Kaveh stabilized himself enough to successfully ride him for the first time, babbling nonstop filth as he stared down at Alhaitham, thighs trembling but determined and a look of triumph in his beautiful, tear-filled eyes.

But Alhaitham’s favourite change by far was when Kaveh began to ask for what he wanted. He’d murmur soft requests, urging Alhaitham’s head down between his thighs or guiding his fingers onto his clit just before he came so he could squirt all over them both - something Alhaitham still couldn’t believe was a reality he got to experience.

Encouraged by Kaveh’s growing comfort, Alhaitham began to allow more of his own dark desires to spill forth as well. He learned just how much Kaveh liked being teased, stretched open around nothing but Alhaitham’s tip as he refused to push in any deeper until Kaveh was sobbing and begging with glassy, pleading eyes.

But a few weeks later, as Alhaitham poured their morning coffees in the kitchen, the sight that met him as he turned around made him nearly drop their mugs.

Kaveh, utterly bare, had spread himself out on the kitchen table, sleep shirt discarded on the floor and golden skin aglow in the soft morning light. He bit his lip and looked at Alhaitham with a shy yet expectant expression that lit Alhaitham’s body like a fuse.

He slammed the mugs onto the counter with unnecessary force, barely registering the hot splash that kissed his forearm, and crossed the kitchen as though magnetized by the threads of gravity.

“Fuck,” he mumbled mindlessly, sliding his palms along the insides of Kaveh’s smooth thighs to spread them further. Kneeling down like a man preparing to pray, Alhaitham leaned in to devour what would undoubtedly be the most divine breakfast he’d ever eaten.

But Kaveh sat up and shook his head.

Momentarily thrown, Alhaitham blinked up at him in confusion - aroused and slightly bereft.

“You always touch me like you love me,” Kaveh said slowly as he threaded his fingers into Alhaitham’s hair.

“Um... yeah?”

“I like it. And you always comfort me when I cry. But...”

“... But?” Alhaitham tilted his head.

Kaveh slid off the table, bare feet whispering against the tile. Hands migrating from Kaveh’s thighs to his hips, Alhaitham looked up at him patiently and raised an eyebrow in encouragement.

“But I like when you make me cry,” Kaveh whispered, voice soft and unfairly sultry.

Without waiting for Alhaitham to answer, he spun on his heel and bent over the table, bracing himself on his forearms and looking over his shoulder with a glimmer of trust in his eyes.

Alhaitham’s brain powered off.

“Oh. So you - oh.”

All it took was one inviting wiggle of Kaveh’s hips and Alhaitham was lost. He surged forward and spread Kaveh’s thighs open, grunting his approval as Kaveh’s head thunked down onto the table with a breathy moan as Alhaitham began to tease his clit with his tongue.

Each time Kaveh tried to chase his lips, Alhaitham pulled away. Within minutes, Kaveh was mewling and trembling, already on the verge of coming despite the mere teasing wisps of stimulation Alhaitham was providing.

Finally, Kaveh gave in to his desperation, reaching backward to tap Alhaitham’s hand. “Please, Haitham, let - let me come, please...”

With a satisfied smile, Alhaitham closed his lips around Kaveh’s clit and swirled his tongue in an asymmetrical half-circle that he’d learned drove Kaveh absolutely feral, bringing him just to the edge of his orgasm before pulling away entirely and rising to his feet.

Releasing a soft, needy whine, Kaveh looked back at him, face covered in tears.

“Go ahead,” Alhaitham said gruffly, pressing into Kaveh in one long, smooth stroke that had Kaveh crying out with a broken sound that made Alhaitham twitch within his clenching walls.

“H-Haitham, fuck...”

“That’s right,” Alhaitham growled, fisting his hand in Kaveh’s hair and tugging gently. “I want you to scream my name when you come, let the whole city know who it is that’s making you feel this good.”

Kaveh went completely still. For a moment, Alhaitham panicked that he’d gone too far... but then, walls clenching tightly, Kaveh pressed back against him with such force that it knocked the breath from Alhaitham’s lungs.

Holding onto Kaveh’s hips, he began to thrust, each stroke slow, controlled, and brutal, grinding in on each pass as he circled Kaveh’s clit with two slick fingers.

Kaveh was weeping by the time he came, sobbing into the crook of his arm as his entire body trembled. But Alhaitham didn’t let up, driving him through it and whispering gentle words of reassurance into his ear.

He came like that again and again, each orgasm raw and honest and filled with more beautiful tears than the last.

Later, when Kaveh began drifting off in the safety of his arms as he always did, Alhaitham stroked his hair lovingly and pressed a soft, tender kiss to his forehead.

Half-asleep already and utterly wrecked, Kaveh smiled and mumbled something entirely unintelligible.

But it didn’t matter. Alhaitham knew exactly what he meant.

Heart filled to the brim, Alhaitham threaded their left hands together and smiled down at the vibrant sight of their wedding rings side by side... right where they’d always belonged.

“I love you too, my light.”