Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"I'm leaving for the desert tomorrow."

Kaveh cut the silence at dinner by spitting out that announcement.

Not that silence really bothered him, at least when he was with Alhaitham... or so he would say until the night before.

Basically...

"Haitham~"

He was drunk, he had just returned home after Alhaitham brought him back and to his reality-unaware self it seemed like a good idea to stick to his partner like a limpet, trapping him against the wall by the door as best he could.

They were chest to chest, Kaveh had looked up and Alhaitham was so close that it would only take a few inches forward to reach his lips.

Alhaitham didn't seem bothered, so his stupid horniness thought maybe he had a chance.

"Haitham, it's hot."

Maybe...

His leg slipped between Alhaitham's, and he felt himself brushing against the man's crotch. Alhaitham flinched at the touch, and Kaveh brought his face just a little closer...

"Are you feverish?"

Kaveh: ...

He was brushed aside as if he was nothing and would have stumbled over his feet if not for Alhaitham holding him. His junior touched his forehead as if trying to see if he had a fever, but the way he did it, he also ended up covering his eyes.

Kaveh: ......

"If you took better care of yourself and didn't go out drinking until you get drunk...."

"I'm not drunk!" Kaveh pulled his hand away.

(He was, indeed, drunk).

After that they argued for a while and Kaveh went to bed cock blocked.

The embarrassment hadn't gone down one bit when he woke up and remembered what had happened. He wanted to hide for a while, but couldn't, so he signed up for the first project with travel he could find.

"I'm leaving in the wee hours of the morning, so I'll see you in a week," Kaveh finished saying, drumming his fingers nervously on the table.

Alhaitham frowned slightly, and the senior thought he looked a little... disappointed? He dismissed it right away because Alhaitham had no reason to be disappointed. He should be happy that he'd gotten a job.

"I hope you get paid well this time."

"Of course I will!" Kaveh jumped up.

He didn't feel like arguing with Alhaitham —he could still feel himself one step away from blushing like a fool every time he looked at his junior—, so he got up to leave.

Alhaitham's eyes followed him and he lowered his silverware, clearing his throat.

"Don't you have anything else to say?"

Why did he ask that? Kaveh remembered again how it felt to be inches away from Alhaitham, to imagine how his lips would feel. He shook his head vigorously and looked away as heat began to prickle through his body.

"What am I supposed to say?"

If he'd turned to look, he would have surely met that look again. As if he'd said something wrong.

"See you then."

Alhaitham continued eating and Kaveh went to his room to finish getting his things ready.

Had he known what his embarrassment would cost him, he would have preferred to open his heart to Alhaitham right then and there.

However, no one knows the future or can change the past. He didn't know, so he preferred to be a coward. That night he simply walked away, ignorant of his fate.

-

The job was fine. It was not difficult. Kaveh left his heart in it, as always, and used the job to distract himself from thinking about Alhaitham (though his companions would not believe he was accomplishing his goal, with how much he complained about that nameless man).

Then it was soon time to go home. The rest of the team still had work to do, so Kaveh had to make his way back alone. Nothing out of the ordinary, he was already used to it from his multiple jobs in the desert. He simply dismissed the concerns of his companions and set off.

He followed the road and took his breaks.

It was at one of these breaks when he sat in the shade that he saw in the distance something that looked like two little paws flailing desperately, trying to cling to the sand around them. His heart skipped and he hurried closer.

There, half buried in the sand, was a small desert fox squeaking and shaking to try to get out.

Kaveh couldn't help but feel sorry for the little animal.

"Poor thing, how did you get in there?"

He immediately knelt down beside it and gently grabbed it under its legs and tried to pull it out of the sand. Luckily, with his help, it came out without any problems. He then put it down and the fox made a thank you sound and then ran off. Kaveh stood up as he saw his work completed. Or tried to stand.

As soon as he stood up, he felt his heart skip a beat as the ground gave way beneath him. He couldn't even try to hold on to anything.

Darkness engulfed him, sand was everywhere, and he plummeted.

A breath later, he was crashing on his butt on a pile of sand as more sand poured down on his head like rain.

"What...?"

He tried to stand up, but a twinge of pain crawled up his back and sent him back to the ground with a groan.

Then he had no choice but to look up and found he was in a stone corridor, dimly lit by precarious torches. As he looked up, the sand was already ceasing to fall. Somehow, the hole had been covered by more sand, and the ceiling was too high to reach anyway.

Finding himself in that situation, he couldn't help but let out a nervous laugh.

Was he trapped? Alone?

He could feel emotions begin to swirl inside him, ready to attack him when he made the slightest move.

"Beep, beep!" Mehrak said from the side, where she had fallen after Kaveh's hand had come loose when he fell.

He ignored the pain to get up and go pick her up.

"I'm here, I'm here."

His heart warmed again as he found his companion, and he shook the sand off of her before doing the same to himself. Instead of sighing, he took it upon himself to regulate his breathing.

I am not alone.

"Let's find a way out of here. I'm from Kshahrewar for a reason, right?"

"Beep, beep!" Mehrak's little face broke into a smile.

Sure, it couldn't be that hard. People came across these kinds of structures under the sand all the time. Maybe this was one they had explored before and he would find the exit around the corner.

Then he could leave, go home and tell Alhaitham what had happened to him, only to have Alhaitham reprimand him for his carelessness. And maybe he would deserve it a little. But then his junior would ask him if he was all right and help him remedy the bruises that were sure to form, for that's what he loved about that idiot.

Yeah, he'd be out again in no time.

-

Of course, as Kaveh was always depressed to check, he wasn't so lucky.

Soon after, as he entered the first room he found, the door closed behind him.

There was no mechanism in sight, so he tried feeling the door and it wouldn't budge.

At the time, he still didn't want to worry. Looking around, he found some runes he recognized from his days of study with Alhaitham. He didn't quite remember the exact meaning, but he knew they were from King Deshret's civilization.

It wasn't until he had spent a day wandering around that his chest began to tighten again.

He had barely brought any food for the trip, so had to ration his food and go hungry. Besides, was it the ruins? He felt a little dizzy, which made it much harder for him to concentrate.

The second day he sat down to try to remember what the runes meant, and couldn't help but think how much easier it would be if Alhaitham was there.

He wasted a good bit of time wondering if Alhaitham would worry about him when he didn't get home that night. If he would look for him. If he would find him.

He didn't like the idea, so he hurried back to the runes to leave as quickly as possible.

On the third day he began to wonder if the runes meant "you're trapped forever, die" or something like that. He tried to reassure himself that there were no skeletons there. He couldn't be the first.

It wasn't much help. As much as he had to concentrate on finding a way out of there, he couldn't force himself to think for so long about something that had no apparent solution. Therefore, he was bored. Therefore, his mind activated its wonderful characteristic of turning boredom into physical pain. Therefore, it was a thousand times easier to be pessimistic.

And so, on the fourth day he really panicked. He started searching through the sand on the floor, groping all over the wall hoping to find some other clue.

When he collapsed from exhaustion, he could only think that at least Alhaitham was not with him. At least only he had to suffer.

On the fifth day Mehrak's light happened to hit one of the runes and, to his surprise, Kaveh discovered that, under the green light, between the runes, shone some new markings. He almost screamed with joy when he realized that he recognized these new runes. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to hide the recognizable runes?!

"'May the light of salvation shine on sinners'," it read.

...

Why was it so ominous?!

Then it occurred to him that this could be some kind of cell. And if it was a cell, he would have no way out from inside.

Was that it?

Was it his time to pay for all the suffering he had caused?

But if death was the end of suffering, could he afford that relief?

There were those times when the feelings began to overwhelm him too much and suddenly he found himself unable to feel anything. That was one of those times. He should feel frustrated, sad, angry, but inside him there was nothing.

All he had left was a piece of pie, and as he took a bite, for some reason, he remembered Alhaitham's marvelous 'specialty'. A stew profanely turned into a pie. And perhaps at that moment a few tears fell from his eyes.

Would it be so bad if he wanted to see him just one more time?

...If he wanted to see Alhaitham, his mom, his friends?

He wouldn't even complain about that attack to all the soups Alhaitham called food if he made it for him at that moment.

If Alhaitham were there.... He would surely be angry at him, as he did whenever he ended up hurt by his own ideals. He would have reprimanded him for giving up.

So he cried a little, but soon stopped himself: he didn't have enough water to waste on tears.

He got up and paced around with Mehrak, using his light to search the room again. It was then that he saw it. From between the cracks of the door opposite the one he had entered through, a bluish light was barely visible.

Perhaps it couldn't be opened from the inside, but....

"Mehrak, can you shine your light through this gap?" He asked in a whisper, feeling his heart jump violently in his chest.

"Beep beep!"

Mehrak floated to where the cracks were and her face made a "><" as she shone her light with all her might. Kaveh couldn't see well because the cracks were small. What he did see was when the door mechanisms began to move and, with the sound of the stone moving, the door opened.

And suddenly the pressure in his chest was released. He was once again facing a new corridor, but he could almost start crying again.

If it weren't for the cracked door, he would not have made it out, but he had made it. He was free.

He didn't even shed a tear to say goodbye to that empty room.

After that, the road was a thousand times easier. Well, he had to fight monsters while hungry and thirsty in the underground paths, but that was still less stressful than the dead end road he had just escaped from.

If he held on a little longer, he could get out.

If he could just hold on a little longer....

The dizziness intensified and he felt too weak, but he kept moving forward through the mental fog that overcame him. In the end, it was more Mehrak than him leading the way and protecting him.

He almost didn't notice when the sunlight fell on his face. Mehrak slowed down in front of him and stopped him.

"Beep, beep, beep!"

It was a way up. Rather than climbing, he was crawling across the sand to get out into the raw desert. The light burned his eyes, but he couldn't even tear up anymore. He barely had a few more drops of water and couldn't see well enough to know which direction to follow.

He didn't want to stop.

Who was going to find him if he stayed there?

His mind was barely functioning, but inside he knew he couldn't stop. He just had to take one more step.

His foot dragged on the ground and suddenly the world turned upside down. When he realized, he had fallen face first into the sand. Try as he might, his body refused to move again, and his eyesight began to waver.

Through his dry throat came then a name, the name, desperately, as if it were his first and last cry for help in years —and perhaps it was.

"Haitham."