Chapter Text
“For fuck’s sake,” Kaveh grips onto the steering wheel. “Don’t tell me it’s my tires, god please- ”
He hastily grabs for the car door and breathes out a sigh of contempt for whatever archon gave him this horrible string of luck. The blonde settles on stepping out and almost yelling in actual physical pain upon seeing the smoke coming from the hood of his car. Weighing his head heavy on his palms he decides on calling for some sort of help, if he can even get it this far out. Kaveh reaches for his phone and sits back inside the last remaining cool of the AC.
Two weeks earlier, Kaveh got a call from his mother, asking him to help out back in Sumeru. Apparently, some great grandmother of his had passed recently and for some reason, he was to clean the house out so they could put it up for sale. Upon a few conversations of backs and forths, they finally settled on a deal; his mother would do the hard work of settling documents to sell the place, he’d clean it up and get 50 thousand Mora, plus commission. He agreed, after all, he could use the extra money for shop renovations.
And repairs for his now broken down car.
“No signal. Great. Amazing , even.”
He leans down just outside of the passenger seat and grovels at the absolute heat of the highway. As Kaveh is about five seconds away from giving it all up and dying in the middle of the road, a car slows to a stop in front of him, windows rolled down. He spares one glance at the whiff of white hair and dark skin and immediately grins.
“Never thought I’d see the Light of the Kshahrewar in this state of distress,” an all too familiar voice states quite bluntly. “Before I become your knight in shining armor, do you even remember who I am? It’s been, what, six years?”
“I’d never forget the kid who pushed me into the lake in first grade, Cyno,” Kaveh grins. “Damn, your face hasn’t changed at all.”
His old friend sports a baseball cap, tucking his long, white hair into a ponytail. He seems to have gotten buff (and maybe even taller?); tank top showing off tanned, muscled arms littered with small nicks and scars. Last he heard, Cyno was working a blue collar job back in high school. A tanned hand reaches out to him and they bump fists. It really has been too long. Hell, was Cyno almost as tall as him now?
“And you look like a punk. Tattoos and piercings? Next I know you’ll mug me for my money.” Cyno chuckles lightly, the car audibly clicking open along with it. “Get your stuff in and hop on before we catch up.”
After a few minutes of Kaveh hauling luggage into the trunk, he shuts the passenger door and heaves out a sigh of relief.
“Thanks Cyno, but uh, what about my car?”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll contact the towing company and have it repaired myself.” Cyno starts the engine, bringing the vehicle to life. “I work as a mechanic now, never left Sumeru.”
Kaveh makes a sound of acknowledgement. Ever since leaving Sumeru in high school, he hasn’t really thought of anyone who didn’t leave. Sure, he had followed all his old friends on social media, but he hasn’t reached out to them whatsoever. Sumeru is known for the Akademiya, but other than the mass amounts of dorms and restaurants littering the streets, locals are few and far in between. Their high school batch was, safe to say, the closest in terms of friendships, since a lot of them were homegrown Sumerians. It would be slightly awkward, but he would be open to meeting any of them for a quick catch-up.
Except one of them.
“So,” Kaveh starts. “You came from out of the city?”
“Had to pick up some supplies for the boss, but enough about me, how have you been Mr. Mondstadt?”
Kaveh talks about life after high school. He moved in with his mother in Fontaine, and after a less than savory argument had left to move to Mond to finish his arts degree. He only recently got his footing with opening a tattoo shop, and being the city of the free, foot traffic and business is going great. He went on to explain his reasons for returning, with Cyno listening intently. He wonders if Cyno had ever wanted to leave, or if anyone else ever wanted to as much as him.
“Everyone in our batch is still here, actually,” He answers, almost reading his mind. Cyno takes a turn, eyeing the huge ‘Welcome to Sumeru City!’ sign on Kaveh’s side. “You should hang around if there isn’t anyone waiting for you at home.”
“Nah, no one is. I’ll stay for a week or two since my apprentice might die without me,” he snickers.
“No lover?”
“Nope,” Kaveh takes in the sights of Sumeru. New buildings, bars, malls, yet it still has that old town nostalgia. It’s hard to admit, but he did miss it. “Just a few flings here and there. You?”
“Ah, poor soul. As for me, I’m eyeing on asking someone out right now– and you’re gonna laugh, trust me,” the white haired man’s lips are already upturned, and Kaveh can’t help but smile himself. He elbows Cyno’s shoulder jokingly.
“Who is this gorgeous maiden that has our dear Cyno blushing and stuttering like a fool?” Kaveh jokes. He wonders who in their batch it could have been. Dehya? Nilou? Or maybe even Tighnari? Cyno laughs and glances over him before looking back at the road. His voice is wistful as it answers.
“It’s Alhaitham.”
Kaveh stills to silence. He gives out a small, haphazard chuckle. He can’t help but feel the sinking feeling in his stomach. Alhaitham never left? Smart, hard-headed, asshole of a man, Alhaitham, never left? It couldn’t have been because he couldn’t find job opportunities outside of Sumeru, even Kaveh was aware of how smart Haitham was. Did he perhaps have a soft spot for Sumeru, then? Kaveh looks off into the window, car slowly closing the distance to his childhood village. His fingers tap on the windowsill, fidgeting upon being confronted by both concepts of Cyno liking Alhaitham and the silver haired man himself.
“Really? He’s still here?”
Cyno nods. “Mm. In his final year of masters. Apparently he’s planning on moving out after graduating. You guys didn’t stay connected after?”
“Yeah, uh,” Kaveh scrambles to find the words to say. “We kinda had a big fight before I left. But.. that doesn’t matter, what’s oh so great about the infamous Ice Prince of Sumeru?” He points the directions to the address he was given, patiently awaiting an answer. Cyno hums in thought. “Sorry to hear that, well, hey, maybe you can make amends while you’re here?”
“Oh, please. You know how we were. Fought every chance we could. I doubt he’d want to have a sensible conversation with me knowing that dumbass,” Kaveh trails off, looking to the distance and rapidly snapping back to raise a brow at him. “Hey, don’t avoid the question!"
The white haired man snickers as they pull into the driveway. “Ah, nothing. I find him cute . He’s handsome, smart, and genuinely thoughtful. He gets adorable when he’s annoyed. Why not?” Cyno pops the trunk open and hops down, stretching his sore limbs out. Kaveh does the same. “Well, hey, they turned Lambad’s into a resto-bar about a year ago. Drinks on me if you swing by later? I can grab Tighnari for a quick minute tonight. Professor Nari got promoted so this is the last weekend he’ll ever be free from the clutches of the education system.”
Kaveh grabs his bags from the trunk, lightly punching Cyno on the way to the front door. “Drinks on me. Can’t have you paying for me and driving.”
“How romantic. Gonna take me home after?”
“Ha-ha, die.”
They share some laughs and eventually, Cyno is gone. Kaveh is left to unpack both his luggage and his baggage in one go, with a single silver-haired man weighing in heavy on his mind. It’s not like Kaveh is afraid of confronting him, per se, he just doesn’t want to open that can of worms yet. Or, possibly, ever. His and Alhaitham's friendship took a nosedive when he left years ago.
Haitham is an enigma of his own; no social media presence save for a private Instagram account (in which he was promptly blocked on right after leaving), kept his circle so tight knit people had to talk to Kaveh to get to him, and, unfortunately, extremely good-looking, which added to his mystique that everyone was so gung-ho about. No doubt that they’d just start arguing out the gate, knowing their personalities.
Hopefully, he can manage to avoid Haitham entirely. A week or two of avoidance, he can handle it.
He can.
‘I must have killed a person in my past life,’ Kaveh ponders grimly, hand promptly pausing on the handle to the entrance of Lambad’s Tavern.
He has always prided himself on his 20/20 vision, though he was an artist that had to look at screens all day. It must have been an omen to save him from this very moment; seeing recognizable tufts of silver hair and broad shoulders seated beside Cyno and Tighnari. He was wearing a black turtleneck, form-fitting to all hell, eyes trained on the menu of drinks in front of him. Was he wearing glasse-
“Kaveh!” Tignari waves and walks over, crushing him in a hug. He hugs back, smiling at the shorter man. “You’ve gotten taller, and you do look like a punk, actually.”
“Told ya.”
“A few tattoos never hurt you, Cyno. You guys sound like old men.” Kaveh grumbles.
Tighnari has definitely grown in height. He’s a ways shorter than Cyno, hair trimmed significantly shorter compared to when they were in highschool. He’s wearing a casual flannel, some jeans, and a small pin on his shirt that says, ‘ Akademiya Colleges: Biology Faculty ’.
“The piercings are crazy though, do they hurt?” Tighnari points to his lips. “Aren’t they called snakes? Or whatever?” Kaveh glances over to the table and meets teal eyes for half a second before looking back.
“Snake bites. Pierced them myself,” He grins. “Wanted them one night after seeing someone with ‘em at a college party. Went to my bathroom that very night to do it.” The shorter curses a very impressed ‘ damn’ under his breath when he hears a nasally, deep tone that he’d been dreading to hear.
“Impulsive as always, Kaveh.”
“Wow, I can tell that you’ve really missed me.”
“I don’t recall missing a thorn in my side, but do remind me how it feels to be a pain in my ass, Light of Kshahrewar?” He raises a thick brow. He just arrived. It hasn’t been even five-fucking minutes talking to him, and here Kaveh was, half expecting him to have changed.
This fucking-
“ You-!”
Tighnari rushes to smack a hand onto Alhaitham’s mouth, “Hey! There’s no need to greet an old friend like that, right Haitham?” He forces a smile onto his face, almost like a strict mother forcing her child to behave. Alhaitham glares and succumbs, not seeing the point in further argument. Tighnari gives another warning look and allows his hand to drop from Alhaitham’s pressed lips. He crosses his arms and teal meets red.
“Welcome back to Sumeru, Kaveh .”
“Thanks, Alhaitham. ”
“See, that wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Tighnari gentle-parented both men before sitting down beside Cyno, who looked highly entertained at the exchange. Kaveh doesn’t let the lingering looks at the silver-haired asshole slip; it seems like Cyno really was serious about it. Haitham continues scanning the menu of drinks, calls over the waiter and states, “I’ll have a mocktail mary.”
“Three beers!” Tighnari cheerily adds.
“Haitham,” Kaveh begins to ask, genuinely curious. “You don’t drink?”
The waiter leaves with their orders and Alhaitham sets aside their menus. He looks over to Kaveh, and it must be the heat or something, since the blonde must have been hallucinating the lingered glances at his sleeve tattoo. Teal eyes flicker down and up in one swift movement. “I have Asian flush. It’s troublesome to have to deal with headaches when I actually want to enjoy my nights out, other than the biggest headache in my life being you, of course.”
“I can really feel the love, Hayi.”
Cyno chimes in, “I thought people grew out of the flush phase, right? When you get used to drinking?”
Tighnari snorts. “You can’t just grow out of that Cyno.” He silently thanks the waiter when their drinks arrive. “Anywho, gambler over here tells tall tales of your crumbling love life. What say you?”
“It isn’t crumbling , thank you very much!” Kaveh feels himself ease into the group’s energy. The banter is oddly comforting, he decides. The blonde leans back into his chair and takes a long swig of his beer. “Besides, all four of us are single bastards, aren’t we?”
“Cheers to that,” Tighnari quips, raising a bottle to his statement.
The night evolves into an endless conversation of catching up. Kaveh learns about Cyno’s relentless gambling habits (still TCG Invocation after all these years), Tighnari’s promotion, having to spill his guts about his own college flings and escapades, and.. Alhaitham’s interesting part-time job? Tighnari and Cyno immediately begin snickering at the former, who remains standoffish.
“I sing here at Lambad’s.”
Kaveh almost does a spit take. Him? Singing? In front of a crowd nonetheless? He tries to imagine it; Alhaitham’s soft, deep voice serenading a crowd of people. What types of songs would he sing, hell, don’t tell him it was love songs? A shiver runs up his spine, god, would that be a sight to haunt his dreams for the foreseeable future. A smirk creeps up his lips, already thinking of the millions of ways he can tease him with this newfound knowledge.
“Hey, make money how you can, but!” Kaveh grins as the object of his teasing’s expression sours by the minute. “You can’t just say that and not give me a sample!”
“Come by and pay me to sing then.”
“Ah, donations to the needy, gotcha.”
Haitham lets out a strained noise of frustration, “ You f-” In an instant, his mouth is stuffed with onion rings, courtesy of Cyno. “Haitham, try these. Good, aren’t they?”
The silver haired man sends a sharp glare to him, continuing to chew the food forcefully shoved into his mouth. His eyes are glazed over with the sort of anger that only the blonde would recognize, and Kaveh can only smirk at his admission of defeat— taking another long drag of his now second bottle of the night. “They’re great, Cyno.” Haitham goes to stand up, wiping a napkin near the corners of his mouth. Pale, slender fingers come up to card silver strands of hair in evident frustration, shoulders tensed and hackles raised. This is the first time Kaveh has seen him clearly today, after avoiding looking anywhere near a fraction of a radius near Alhaitham.
He has silver specs on, and it is admittedly great on him. On closer inspection, it clearly is a prescription lens, knowing his old study habits of reading in near darkness. His eyes remain their saturated tint of teal, red detailing in his pupils giving his visuals a sharp edge. His features grew into its designated chisel, making him look all the more handsome in an untouchable, cold way. He’s fitted well into his black turtleneck and dress pants. And he’s surprised enough to stand up at the last thing he notices about the man.
“Alhaitham,” Kaveh gawks. No fucking way.
“What.”
“Are you,” He can almost taste the annoyance from Haitham, already expecting what he’ll say five seconds earlier than he can get it out. “ Shorter than me?”
Alhaitham walks away from the table and retreats into the restroom, making sure Kaveh is still within earshot of hearing him hiss, “Fuck you.”
Tighnari sighs through Kaveh and Cyno’s giggles. “You both haven’t grown out of your personalities, huh? I faintly remember this happening from time to time in high school.” Kaveh hums in agreement, ember eyes lingering on the silver-haired man’s halfway empty bottle before looking back at him.
“We started with faint disagreements back then, just some childish fights started by differing opinions– a few months before I left, I think we started arguing a hell of a lot more,” Kaveh states. “I think it’s just been our dynamic ever since; cat and mouse.”
“More like a cockfight of egos. Both of you are abhorrent together,” Tighnari states, finger swirling in the air mimicking a tornado. “A storm that’s always waiting to happen, y’know? But I do remember you both being extremely close. You’re the only one that’s ever set foot in Alhaitham’s house, even up ‘till now.”
He stills at this. The first and last time he’d been to his house was when…
When he left.
“What? Not even you two?” Bewilderment is evident in Kaveh’s voice.
“I’ve only ever gotten close to his driveway when I drove him home, no invites, ever,” Cyno sighs. “It’s been mine and Tighnari’s life goal.”
Kaveh lets this fact marinate into the crevices of his mind, shaking it off to think over for another time. “Does he actually work here, though? I mean, singing ? It’s way too out of character for his bookish personality.”
“Trust me, it was like that when we first caught wind of it,” Tighnari takes two onion rings and shoves them in his mouth. He muffles, “Then, we heard him singing for the first time and I think I fell in love for a few minutes. He’s actually great!”
“Yeah, he definitely is,” Cyno mutters. He doesn’t miss the fondness in his tone but chooses not to comment on it.
The blonde sits back and watches the fizz of his beer settle in the corners of his bottle, allowing the bar’s lights to shine its hues of blues and purples within it. Alhaitham was and will remain a mystery to him and to everyone around him. Beautiful as he was, he’s a deplorable character to be around– condescending, far too logical, no such romantic or heartfelt notions to his behaviors. If only he were a bit kinder, a little more considerate, Kaveh would have considered him his closest friend had they not had their falling out. In the few times he and him had shared a laugh, worked out a good synergy on a project, or had even agreed to certain aspects of each other's life, there was no doubt they would have been the closest among any of their Sumeru friends. Hell, he might have even called him frequently if not for Haitham's unsentimental disposition.
I would have even visited more.
“I’ll be taking my leave.” Kaveh allows his train of thought to leave as fast as it came once Haitham had come into view, who was in the motions of grabbing his bag and taking leave.
“So soon?” Cyno says, slowly coming to stand.
“I’ve got midterms soon. Can’t slack.”
Tighnari muses, “Aiming for Valedictorian once again?”
Alhaitham slings a bag around a muscled shoulder, sighing. “Achieving the title of valedictorian is secondary to my goals as a scholar. The Akademiya values the pursuit of knowledge, and striving for titles rather than fully dedicating myself to learning wouldn't be ethically-“
“Alright! Alright, geez,” Nari puts his hands up in surrender. He chuckles slightly and taps him lightly on the shoulder. “Have a safe trip! You gonna jog, or?”
“I’ll drive him.” Says Cyno, already grabbing his wallet and keys from the table. He waves goodbye to the blonde and the raven haired man and runs after Haitham, who’s halfway out the door, leaving the two dumbfounded on their seats. Kaveh laughs astonishingly into his beer as his eyes meet the other’s, already expecting what to talk about right after the two had left.
“Ah, he’s so obvious, isn’t he?”
“Damn right,” Kaveh sighs and looks up into the ceiling, feeling the soft buzz of the alcohol be alleviated by the bump of the music. “I’m surprised scholar boy hasn’t noticed. How long has he been…? I mean, surely it hasn’t been long. Don’t tell me he's liked Alhaitham since high school, god. Alhaitham was at his most intolerable back then. ”
Tighnari raises a brow and sends a knowing look. “Just recently. Cyno called me a week ago to have a gay crisis over him, truly a defining moment for his sexuality.” Tighnari states matter-of-factly, calling over to the waiter for their tab. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous?”
Kaveh doesn’t know if it’s the music, or the three bottles he’s downed, but he feels a flush creeping from his neck to the sides of his face. He silently thanks the lights in the bar for masking this embarrassing, inexplicable reaction. Him? Jealous? He has to give a chuckle of exasperation before he answers and looks up to the ceiling, closing his eyes. He might be jealous of the fact that one of his friends were actually serious in looking for a partner. He considers the actuality of him not having fucked anyone in a long while, and he was perhaps, possibly, sexually frustrated. Maybe there was more to this, but it was definitely along those lines, right? He lets the alcohol do the talking for his heat-muddled mind;
“I just really, really need to get laid.”
That’s right. Something quick, easy, and casual; to get his mind off of an annoying silver-headed freak.
They part ways once the bill arrives, and once Kaveh is alone he sets on walking back to his temporary house for the next two weeks. He thinks of downloading some dating apps to get rid of whatever the weird twist in his gut means, when he gets a ping of a notification from his phone.
[10:30:03 PM] hayi_green started following you!