Chapter 2: Headache

There was something wrong this morning. Kaveh had not seen or heard Alhaitham at all. Usually, they'd see each other at some point during their morning routine. He wondered if Alhaitham had risen early – it wasn't unheard of for him to decide to start early and finish early if he had plans for the evening – however, there was a distinct lack of a warm kettle and teaspoon which was always left in the same position next to the sink. He could believe in Alhaitham leaving early, but he could not believe Alhaitham would go anywhere without his morning coffee.

Something was wrong. Kaveh approached Alhaitham's door, gently knocking on the wood.

"Alhaitham?"

There was no reply, so he slowly opened the door to peer in.

Alhaitham was lying in bed, shirtless, eyes closed, with an arm resting on his forehead. If Kaveh wasn't so concerned about the fact Alhaitham was still in bed at this hour, he might have stopped to consider that this was a rather attractive sight.

"Alhaitham, it's half-eight already."

The scribe grunted, registering that Kaveh was telling him something, but not really taking it in.

When Alhaitham didn't jump up as expected, Kaveh invited himself in and gingerly approached. After a moment of indecision, he tapped the arm that was draped over Alhaitham's forehead.

"You're going to be late."

Alhaitham cracked open his eyes to shoot Kaveh an annoyed look before rolling onto his side and pulling the covers higher.

"Not going," he explained. "Headache."

Kaveh was stunned. "You're ill?"

Alhaitham was the kind of guy who never took a sick day, even though he would tell all the other employees about their rights to sick days. He simply suffered from good health most of the time, and when he was ill, it was never bad enough to warrant a day off. He would not allow himself to get a day behind if all he was suffering from was a cold that required him to blow his nose every once in a while.

So, if Alhaitham was taking a day off and sleeping in, it must be bad, Kaveh thought.

Alhaitham grunted again and tapped his ear. "Already let them know," he said, meaning he'd used the Akasha to call in sick.

"Do you want me to get you anything?" Kaveh asked.

"No." He just wanted peace and quiet, and to get over this ridiculous headache which hurt every time he moved. Staying still did not solve the issue, but it helped.

Kaveh disappeared, but only for a few minutes. He set a glass of water on the bedside table, along with a few fruits that Alhaitham would usually choose for breakfast. Then he opened the window a crack to let some fresh air in.

"Lay on your back again," Kaveh said.

Alhaitham did as he was told, mainly because he hoped it meant Kaveh would leave him alone sooner.

Kaveh pressed the back of his fingers against Alhaitham's forehead, gauging whether he had a fever – he felt a little warm, but that could just be because he was in bed in a stuffy room. Still, Kaveh laid a cool flannel on his head in the hope it would provide some sort of relief.

Alhaitham was shocked at the care he was receiving, but…hadn't he always done the same for Kaveh? He'd always got his drunk ass home and thrust a glass of water in his hand before allowing him to sleep. And the following morning, he would always make extra breakfast so Kaveh could have some when he got up.

"Kaveh…" he called, and he hated how pathetic he sounded. "Thank you."

"Get well soon!" Kaveh said as he left.

It was an utterly shit day. He couldn't focus on reading, and listening to music was out of the question; he didn't want anything in his ears apart from silence. As he'd established that lying down, unmoving, was the optimal position, he couldn't think of much else to do while he waited for the headache to abate. He would simply have to amuse himself with his own thoughts until he dozed off again.

He sipped the water Kaveh had left, and chose an orange to munch on – staying fed and hydrated was advisable in this situation. His thoughts lingered on the fact Kaveh had thought about these things before leaving. The fact that Kaveh had checked to make sure he was okay in the first place… It had been a long time since someone had done that for him. It made him feel warm inside.

And then the panic kicked in. The thought of hugging Kaveh to say thank you – a show of gratitude that couldn't be mistaken; he knew his words and his voice did not always sound as sincere as he would like. The thought of Kaveh maybe hugging him back. It would be nice, wouldn't it? A simple thought, a truckload of anxiety behind it. That was not the person he was! That was not something he would do! It would probably freak Kaveh out more than it did himself.

Alhaitham was always advocating for people to educate themselves and thus change the way they thought about things. Change their opinions. Why did he find it so hard to follow his own advice? Because this was not an academic matter? Why shouldn't this advice be applied to all aspects of life and lines of thought? It was an extreme comparison, but to him it felt like asking someone to change the laws of physics. Being romantically unattached and avoiding physical contact were some of the fundamental principles that made him who he was.

Alhaitham struggled with these thoughts until he drifted off.

Kaveh came home to find Alhaitham had made it as far as the sofa. One of Kaveh's trashy romance novels was resting on his chest, but he had clearly given up reading it.

"What are you doing home?" Alhaitham asked, disappointed to find that the clock showed it was still only the early afternoon, not the evening.

"I brought lunch." Kaveh held up a bag. "The perks of living so close to where you work, right?" He disappeared into the kitchen to sort out what he'd bought.

Alhaitham pushed himself upright, rubbing his eyes. He was being utterly spoiled today, and he wished his head wasn't pounding so he could enjoy it a bit more.

Kaveh handed him a bowl and spoon – a bed of rice topped with salad and grilled chicken. "How are you?"

Alhaitham shrugged. "Not much better than earlier."

"Have you taken anything for it?"

"No." He dug into the rice.

"I can pick up something if you'd like." Kaveh had noticed that Alhaitham had a distinct lack of medicine for anything that wasn't an external wound.

"No, I'll be fine." He was stubborn, and he believed in struggling through things in order to train his body.

Kaveh wasn't going to argue with him now; he would pick something up later and hope Alhaitham changed his mind. They ate in silence because Kaveh had to focus on eating before his lunchbreak was over, and he figured Alhaitham might not want to listen to him nattering away. The scribe's earpieces weren't in sight, and that was a rare occurrence. Alhaitham often wore them around the house, and Kaveh suspected that he simply forgot he was wearing them. It seemed that once they were on in the morning, they wouldn't be taken off until bedtime. The only time Kaveh saw him without them for any length of time was on a weekend morning when everything was a bit slower.

"Thank you," Alhaitham said, setting the bowl down. It was the perfect choice for lunch today – carbs to get his energy up, but with a healthy topping that made him feel refreshed. Kaveh had clearly put some thought into his choice.

"You're welcome." Kaveh grabbed his bowl and took it through to the kitchen. "I've got to head back."

"See you later."

Alhaitham sighed as he looked at Kaveh's keys sitting on the table. This guy was organised enough to care for him and bring lunch home, but he forgot his keys on a regular basis.

After food, several jugs of water, and a while sitting by the window, Alhaitham felt a lot better. He felt oddly fatigued considering he'd not done much, but his head had finally stopped pounding. At last, he could actually focus on reading. Kaveh's romance novel he had started reading earlier had not caught his attention, but it was easy reading and didn't require much thought to consume. He picked it up where he had left off, turning the pages much faster than before – he really was functioning again!

It was about a princess who hadn't known she was royalty until she was a teenager, and she wanted to marry the boy she'd had a crush on since she was little, but that wasn't good enough for her grandparents who had come to reclaim her. Alhaitham found it tedious and hated stories with these sorts of tropes. As predicted, the princess was able to prove to her grandparents that her original boyfriend was the better choice and they lived happily ever after. Did Kaveh really enjoy this sort of thing?

Alhaitham picked another book off the shelf that Kaveh kept his books on – easily the most colourful and mis-matched shelf in the house, which was odd considering he was the one that cared about aesthetics, but his taste in literature did not sell as well when bound in plain covers. This time, Alhaitham checked the blurb before starting to read. The book he held was about a student falling in love with his teacher. Alhaitham returned the book to the shelf – he heard enough about that sort of thing in real life as he walked through the Akademiya's halls. The next book he picked up promised an adventure in some ruins and uncovering the secrets within – this was more up his street.

The author clearly had an interest in ruins, but their knowledge was not as deep as Alhaitham had hoped it would be. There were a lot of things that were overlooked, and one of the biggest sins was that no one was consulting a book to read the inscriptions they were discovering. He considered himself to be well-versed in several ancient scripts, but there were always words that he did not know, or could not make out. The female lead in this story seemed to be able to read everything that the male lead couldn't without thinking too hard about it. It was rather infuriating as Alhaitham had, on more than one occasion, had to meticulously copy runes and then spend hours in the House of Daena cross-referencing multiple books to ensure an accurate translation.

These people also seemed to have every necessary item and bit of intel they needed to navigate the ruins, which ruined the immersion for Alhaitham. Where was the problem they needed to overcome to progress? If someone handed him a report as clean as this novel, he would say they'd stolen someone else's work.

Except, it transpired that the novel was far from 'clean.' Alhaitham finally encountered a chapter where the main duo became trapped and couldn't just flick a switch to open the door, and then he understood what this was all about. The whole start of this novel had just been a set-up to show how well-matched the two lead characters were, and to get them somewhere away from the other side characters, who were now conveniently carrying their bags of never-ending useful plot devices. This was just a raunchy novel about two people getting off in some ruins.

Alhaitham sighed; he could definitely see why Kaveh might read something like this. How many more lewd novels were sitting on that shelf in plain sight? He flicked to look at the cover – he never could have guessed what lay within from the front. He shrugged and continued to read, but all he could think about was how much sand was going to get everywhere.

Kaveh arrived home earlier than expected, gently knocking on the door.

"Thank you," he said as he looked sheepishly at the keys laying on the table where he'd left them. "How are you?"

"Good."

Kaveh reached up to feel his head; no warmer than earlier. "I'll make dinner tonight. I left early today, so I'll be late tomorrow."

Alhaitham wanted to say that he didn't have to do that, but to be truthful, he appreciated the gesture. He didn't really know how to respond, but luckily Kaveh didn't think much about his lack of words, believing Alhaitham was still out-of-sorts. The blond disappeared into the kitchen with the bags he'd returned home with, the sound of utensils and chopping soon filling the air.

Alhaitham returned to the book – he'd come this far, so it was only right that he find out what the promised secret the blurb referred to was. He groaned when the secret was that the female lead was a descendent of the people buried here and that's why she could read everything with such ease. On second thought, he'd rather that had remained a massive plot hole.

"Enjoying my books?" Kaveh asked.

"Do you enjoy your books?"

"Of course. I take it you don't?"

Alhaitham frowned. "Your taste in fiction is shocking given how refined some of your other tastes are."

Kaveh laughed at what he accepted as a back-handed compliment. "I'm no longer worried that you're ill if you're able to roast me like that. Speaking of roasts –" Kaveh disappeared back into the kitchen.

So, Kaveh really had been worried about him? Alhaitham shoved a cushion onto his face. He could not resolve how he felt about that; it made him feel warm and loved, but he hated that as a natural reaction. For a long time now, he had always been deflecting these sorts of feelings – they weren't for him, and he had convinced himself he had no need of them. He especially didn't need to feel these sorts of things when Kaveh was involved; it made everything so much more complicated. It made those questions rise to the surface again – did he feel something more for Kaveh? Was he actually capable of loving someone?

Alhaitham returned the book to Kaveh's shelf. Next time, he'd just power through one of his abstruse books.