kavetham angst; mentions and brief descriptions of torture; strays slightly from canon. barely proof read
Alhaitham's plan was perfect.. so how did Kaveh end up in Azar's office?
When Alhaitham had made his plan to overthrow the Sages and free Lesser Lord Kusenali, he had thought of everything. It was almost as if he predicted exactly how each event would played out.
Well, until he was in the Grand Sage’s office, and lying on the ground before him was his roommate, or more accurately the man he had fallen in love with, Kaveh.
The blond’s clothes were completely torn from head to toe, blood staining whatever was left of the shredded cloth. His once beautiful face was caked in dried blood, cuts and bruises. He looked almost unrecognizable. The damage didn’t stop there though, many of those same gashes and bruises were scattered on his body.
The boy was barely conscious, his eyes half-lidded as he stared thoughtlessly out at the office. His skin was much paler than usual, from blood loss one could only assume.
“Kaveh,” Alhaitham breathed out, staring at his roommate.
“Ahh I see you two are well acquainted,” Grand Sage Azar said in a mocking tone. “I knew I was right for plucking him up.”
“What does he have to do with this?” He glared at the Sage. “Why are you dragging innocent people into this problem?”
“Well, Alhaitham, since you decided to run away, to betray me, I decided I needed something as.. leverage.”
“I didn’t betray you. I brought the damn Traveler and her floating friend with me. I did exactly as you instructed, so what’s the point of bringing Kaveh into this?”
“Because I knew you had some ploy brewing up. You were going to ‘betray’ the Traveler here, right?” Azar crossed his arms, his eyes piercing into Alhaitham’s shaking gaze. “After all, I got eye witness reports of you and the Traverler in the Caravan Ribat. Instead of bringing her here, you escaped into the desert. If you were really working with me, you would have brought her immediately. I’m assuming you also met up with General Cyno, did you not? Anyone would assume you would have betrayed us with a little persuasion?”
Alhaitham, a man who could always quip back instantly was stuck.
His whole plan had fallen apart the moment he saw Kaveh’s disheveled body. He forced himself to regain his composure, “Regardless, this is always baseless guesses and not facts. I brought you the Traveler and gave you my report. Bringing Kaveh into this was nothing, but a way for you to vent out your frustrations.”
Azar laughed, “My my you are hopeless, Alhaitham. You are so upset over this, aren’t you?”
Alhaitham’s hands began to shake, the more Azar spoke the more he was ready to betray their plan. By the amount of blood leaking from Kaveh’s body, the man could die at any moment, “It doesn’t matter what I say, you’ll see me as a traitor regardless,” He scoffed.
“Whether you impugned me, it would have little affect on you. There was no need to go to such lengths to get me back.”
“Ahh, but you’re mistaken. See, losing our Scribe would be a big loss to us. It would effect the entirety of the way the Akademiya functions. Though.. compared to our current project, things like this are trivial at best.”
Alhaitham had enough of Azar’s rambling and his lack of care for human life, “You say I betrayed the Akademiya, but that was all you Azar! You betrayed Sumeru and its archon.”
“So fight has turned to flight at long last,” He glanced around at the men surrounding the area. “Guards! Seize Alhaitham!”
Alhaitham knew what he needed to do, what the next step was, but if he just let himself get arrested without helping Kaveh, he was going to die, “Wait!” He slowly stepped forward, guess it was time for him to improvise.
“What is it Alhaitham?”
“Take Kaveh to the infirmary and get him treatment, then I will go with you peacefully,” The plan would almost work perfectly, but he still needed to swap the knowledge capsules.
“Fine. It’ll make this quicker,” He snapped at two of the guards. “Carry the architect to the infirmary for treatment.”
The two guards swiftly picked the blond up, carrying him out of Azar’s office.
Alhaitham watched them intensely as the three disappeared. As long as Kaveh was safe… He reached for the Divine Knowledge Capsule and activated it, allowing the intense knowledge to flood his mind. It was all consuming, but luckily, he knew how to not let it affect it.
His breathing suddenly became erratic as his Akasha flickered between red and blue, eventually landing on the deep red color. He stared up at the Grand Sage, a great hatred flooding over him. Not just for what happened with Lesser Lord Kusenali, but for him having the courage to touch the man most precious to him.
He stumbled forward, his head throbbing and vision blurring. Still, he pressed forward, he had a job to do, "Azar…" The capsule fell to the ground below him.
Azar's eyes moved from the seething man before him and to the object that landed on the ground, "So you were the one that stole that Divine Knowledge Capsule…" He flicked his eyes back to Alhaitham, who was slowly inching closer. "I should have known you wouldn't go out so easily. All you cared about was saving that architect."
"Traitor… You traitor!" Alhaitham yelled at him, pushing past the terrified guards to charge the sage. A guard pushed Azar out of the way, a moment later and Alhaitham most certainly would have caught the man, and from there, who knows what would have happened.
Alhaitham collided with the desk on impact. Perfect. He carefully switched the Knowledge Capsules, his plan now finally coming together. He spun back around to chase Azar once more, but the guards finally acted. They blocked him from moving any further.
"He's gone completely insane," Azar scoffed as he adjusted his monocle.
A guard came up behind Alhaitham, using his spear to knock him out with a good whack to the back of his head.
The man fell to the ground, unable to focus on anything but the spinning feeling clouding his mind. "Take him to the matra and have him exiled to Aaru Village."
Everything was going perfectly to plan now. Alhaitham was tugged onto his feet and dragged out of Azar's office. However, he still couldn't help, but worry for Kaveh.
That idiot better be alive.
When Kaveh awoke, he didn't expect to find Cyno standing over him with a clear look of concern. If anything, he expected himself to be dead.
"Kaveh, you're awake," Cyno said, letting out a loud sigh of relief.
He sat up quickly. Bad idea. "C-Cyno?" As soon as the blond spoke, he began to cough violently and blood spewed from his lips. He wiped the liquid from his mouth, the red staining his bruised arm.
"Careful there. You look like shit," Cyno eased him.
Kaveh laid back down, staring up at the ceiling. How did any of this happen?
"Kaveh, what happened to you?" Cyno asked, though it was clear he already knew exactly what happened, just based on inference. He took a deep breath, a burn piercing his lungs as he did so. It was going to be almost impossible to speak in this condition. Cyno took note of it, "Alright new approach. I'll ask yes or no questions and you use your head. Sound good?"
"Perfect," Cyno adjusted himself, sitting on the chair he had placed beside the bed moments prior to Kaveh waking up. "I'll be blunt, you look like you were tortured. Was this Azar and or his men?"
"I figured as much. Did this have to do with Alhaitham?"
Kaveh nodded once more. He could recall everything that had happened, down to the pain he felt as they tore his skin apart each time he said something they didn't like.
"Can you do your best to tell me what happened? I'll need it for my investigation."
"I-I can try," His voice was still hoarse, but at the very least he was speaking well enough. "I guess I can start when I returned home from the desert…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kaveh had finally made it home a few days early after spending days stuck in the desert for a project. He wasn't complaining one bit, the project tired him out and he was ready to sleep in his own bed for once.
When he opened the door, it was noticably silent, though Kaveh wasn't complaining. He assumed Alhaitham was away from home, it was common for the Scribe to be incredibly busy.
Before he could even reach his room, there was a knock on the door. Immediately, his head went to the worst. Someone saw him come inside. The last thing he wanted was for someone to know he lived here. He groaned loudly, hesitantly making his way back towards the door.
As he opened it, he was ready to throw himself deeper into debt and beg this person not to tell a soul about this, but to his surprise it was the matra at his door, "Uhh, can I help you?"
"We need you to come with us, Kaveh."
"What? Why?" He asked, confused. He had only just returned, what could he have possibly done to set off the matra?
"Grand Sage Azar wishes to speak with you. He requires your presence right this instance."
Kaveh went from confused to anxious as soon as Azar's name left the man's mouth. He was definitely screwed, "Alright… Did he tell you why?"
"He will answer your questions," The matra guard shook his head. "I'm afraid this is all I can say."
Kaveh hesitated, but followed the matra out the door and to the Sage's office. His heart was racing, trying to figure out what he could have possible done to piss off the Grand Sage.
As they entered the room, there was a sudden shift in energy. All at once, Kaveh was terrified.
And terrified he should be. He didn't even get a chance to make it to the desk before he was pinned down and tied up. "What is going on!?" Kaveh cried out, trying to shake the guards off of him.
"Kaveh, wonderful to see you. I have a few questions regarding your.. roommate? Is that what I would call it, or should I address you two as something more?"
"What about Alhaitham?" He ignored the uncomfortable question regarding their status as "friends". "If you wanna know something why don't you ask him yourself?"
"You see I would," Azar stepped closer, each stepping becoming heavier than the last. "But I cannot seem to find him. He's gone completely off the radar. I was hoping maybe you knew?"
Kaveh shook his head, "I just got back from the desert. I don't know a damn thing about where Alhaitham could have crawled off to."
Clearly, the answer was unsatisfactory. A blade was pressed against Kaveh's throat. He gasped, staring at the sharp knife, "I-I swear I don't know where he is!" He was shaking, fear overwhelming him.
Azar let out a sigh, "How unfortunate I have to resort to this," He turned his back to the blond. "Torture the answer out of him. Don't stop until you get what we need."
That was exactly what those guards did. Every "no" Kaveh uttered resulted in a punch, a kick, a snap to one of his bones, and if he was incredibly unlucky, a blade tearing into his skin.
This torture lasted for what felt like hours. Constant paining coursing through his body and he almost wished they would just kill him. It was clear this went from a brutal questioning to the men getting some sick satisfaction from seeing the blond writhing in pain.
By the time they had concluded this torture, Kaveh was barely conscious and his body had gone entirely numb. The last thing he remembered was Alhaitham's voice uttering his name. After that, it was all blurry.
"Azar is a despicible man," Cyno growled and his fists trembled in anger.
"I genuienly didn't know," Tears filled Kaveh's eyes. "I don't understand why this happened."
"I can explain everything later, okay? You should get some rest," Cyno rose from his chair. "I will come check on you later, okay?"
Kaveh nodded in response. He didn't want Cyno to leave, however. All he wanted was context, reasoning. Why did he have to suffer like this? And where the hell did Alhaitham disappear to?
His eyes closed, his body having spent all of its remaining energy on the conversation with Cyno. As soon as they closed, he was fast asleep.
The wait in Aaru Village felt like an eternity to Alhaitham. He had no way to confirm Kaveh's condition, or if he was even still alive, and it was eating at him.
When he was finally able to head back to Sumeru City, he moved as fast as he could. The desert sand collected in his shoes as he ran, but the feeling barely affected him. His mind was focused on one thing and one thing only: Kaveh.
After hours of running, he made it to Sumeru City, and just as quickly he was at Kaveh's bedside.
The blond was breathing normally luckily, but he wasn't conscious. Alhaitham slumped down in the chair, pulling off his sand filled boots. He tried to catch his breath, his lungs burning and throat coarse. All of that running tired him out more than he wished.
He focused his attention back on Kaveh, tears forming in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away. He had no intentions of crying, not now. Alhaitham extended his hand out to carefully grasp onto Kaveh's hand. It was cold and pale, the skin damaged from whatever torture he had to undergo on Alhaitham's behalf.
As he caressed his thumb on the top of his hand, tears finally fell. This was his fault. It was a complete oversight, a miscalculation in his plan. Though, he couldn't have forseen the architect returning so soon, or that Azar knew anything about Alhaitham's feelings.
Kaveh began to stir, his eyes fluttering open. They quickly made contact with Alhaitham's and his eyes widened, "Haitham..?"
Kaveh's broken voice twisted Alhaitham's heart, and he continued to remind himself this was his fault, "Kaveh you're alive…" He spoke, trying to hide his emotions.
"Shockingly," The blond took notice of their hands. "What the hell happened..?"
"I can explain later. It's a lot of information to take in right now."
Kaveh let out a deep sigh, "I don't understand why this had to happen, Alhaitham." Guess the nickname wasn't staying long. "What did you do that made them torture me?"
"They were using you to get to me," Alhaitham tilted his head toward the floor. "They knew it would arise a reaction out of me."
"Why? What in Teyvat could they possibly get out of you from torturing me?"
"Because I…" Alhaitham hesitated. Now wasn't the right time, but it was the only way to explain why this happened. "I love you, Kaveh. Azar knew this somehow and he dragged you into this to provoke me."
"You love me?" Kaveh stared at him, letting out a hollow laugh. "Don't say that, Alhaitham. I can handle the physical torture, but I don't need this kind of mental pain."
Alhaitham leaned down, connecting his lips with Kaveh's. It wasn't the best kiss, not by a long shot, but the two yearned for this closeness, this warmth. Even with Kaveh's bruised and swollen lips, the kiss was perfect to them both.
When Alhaitham pulled away, he stared intently into Kaveh's eyes.
The blond's face was flushed red, his eyes glossed over, "Do you mean it, Haitham?"
The silver-haired man nodded, "I do."
Alhaitham squeezed Kaveh's hand gently, "I swear I'll protect you. This won't ever happen again."
Kaveh smiled slightly, "I trust you."
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