#haidehya

Messy warm up sketch that I ended up liking! Mostly from memory (except I glanced at ref for parts of Dehya's fit).

Desert gang drawing? After playing desert gang co op with the number one desert gang polycule enjoyer ra @flowerhotpot ? It's more likely than you think.

A #haidehya drabble

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Alhaitham is many things, intelligent, observant, strong, dedicated. Traits of a scholar and a most reliable companion.

Alhaitham is not, however, a romantic. He doesn’t talk about his feelings, even though they are deep and sometimes overwhelming. He doesn’t do extravagant gifts, nor over the top displays of affection. That’s just not his thing.

Dehya knows that he loves her though.

It’s in the small things, the way his fingers tangle with hers underneath the table at a restaurant, the soft glances and tiny smiles when she points something out to him while on a walk, the single flower sitting on the table next to a freshly poured cup of coffee.

At first this upset her. Was it so wrong to want to be romanced like how they write about in the light novels? She never knew that this was something she wanted, living up to this point thinking that she was better off on her own, not having to deal with another person so close to her.

But when Alhaitham walked into her life, a book in his hand and a quiet smile on his face, she knew that she was gone. It was like a tsunami, how easily he consumed her.

Quiet and overpowering, he easily slipped into her heart and filled every crack and crevice her life had left on it to that point, and he did it so effortlessly.

Now it was virtually impossible to think of her life without him in it.

It took some time to fully learn what Alhaitham’s love language was, and her friends still don’t fully understand, but Dehya just smiles when they tease her about it.

She knows he loves her, just as she knows that she loves him in return. It’s quiet, but it’s strong, just like Alhaitham himself. When he gives his heart away, it’s his whole heart, with no strings left attached.

Sometimes that scares her, knowing that she holds it in her hands, but she loves him so much that it tempers the fear into something easier to handle.

The fact that Dehya, a wild mercenary from the desert, somehow managed to capture the heart of the handsome scribe of the Akademiya above all others is still something she can not quite believe.

When she gets the angry stares and poisonous words of jealousy from his many admirers, she quickly brushes them aside, and he chuckles when she tells him about them.

A quiet groan throws Dehya out of her thoughts, and the cool morning air chilling the skin of her exposed shoulder is replaced with the press of warm lips.

“You’re thinking so hard for this early in the morning,” Alhaitham whispers softly, his breath tickling her ear. His voice is rough with sleep, half an octave deeper than usual, and her toes curl at the sound of it, raw and exposed and gentle.

She turns her head to the side, meeting his bright teal eyes staring down at her, and she smiles at him.

“Good morning to you too,” she murmurs, lifting a hand to smooth out his unruly silver hair.

He ducks his head into her palm, nuzzling it affectionately before pressing a kiss against her wrist.

“Less thinking, more sleeping,” Alhaitham grumbles, laying back down and pulling her closer against his chest.

He buries his nose into her hair and squeezes his arms tighter for just a moment before sighing. With a chuckle, she pulls the blanket tighter over both of them and nestles deeper into his arms, closing her eyes and humming softly under her breath.