Curses, there's slime in my boots.

"Kaveh," Alhaitham called softly as he stepped through the front door of their shared home. He only spoke quietly, as usual, but knew that Kaveh would hear him and come running.

Barely 30 seconds later, Kaveh stepped into the corridor. He turned toward the front door, spotted Alhaitham and then sniffed and scrunched up his nose. "What happened? You smell...awful."

"Why do you think I'm only this far into the house?" Alhaitham countered. "Can you get me a towel or something, and then make yourself scarce?"

Kaveh looked him up and down for a moment and realised that everything from near the top of Alhaitham's thighs downwards was coated in a thin layer of rancid-smelling, green-brown slime. His eyes opened widely and he scampered off in the direction of the bathroom. With a big fluffy towel in hand, he then strode into his study and eventually returned to Alhaitham with two pages out of one of his huge blueprint books which he put on the floor in front of his housemate. "To protect the carpet," he explained. "Are you hurt or just…"

"Just filthy," Alhaitham replied as he unplugged his headphones and then unclipped his belt pouch and held it out towards Kaveh. "See if you can do something with that, would you? I think the boots and trousers are probably past saving, but I'd rather not lose that, or anything in it."

Kaveh handed the towel to Alhaitham and gingerly took hold of the belt pouch. He held it up and stared at it with an uncertain expression on his face. "It's mainly on the bottom bits. I'll…do my best. How about your cape? Has that…"

Alhaitham draped the towel across his shoulders, reached around, pulled the cape forwards and grimaced. "Possibly not. Curses."

"Let me have a go at this first," Kaveh held up the belt pouch again. "If it goes well then I might have a look at the cape. The trousers, yeah, I think you're probably right about them, shame about the boots though."

Kaveh wandered out of view and a moment later Alhaitham heard the tap in the kitchen start running. He took a step forward onto the paper that Kaveh had put down in front of him and unclipped his cape. He twirled it slightly to ensure the dirty bits at the bottom stayed together and then carefully lowered it onto the paper. As he looked back up, he caught sight of a small bulge just below his right shoulder and remembered that he'd brought something home for Kaveh which, knowing his empathic housemate, would more than make up for having to deal with the smelly clothes that Alhaitham had come home in.

"Kaveh," he called again. "Can you come back a moment?"

The water in the kitchen shut off and Alhaitham heard Kaveh's quiet footsteps approach but then stop just inside the sitting room. "I'm still clothed, if that's what you're worried about. Kaveh, come here. Please."

Kaveh stepped out into the corridor and stopped a couple of feet in front of Alhaitham. "You told me to make myself scarce," he said matter-of-factly. "So I did. And you still smell, by the way."

"Humour me." Alhaitham shrugged as he awkwardly reached into his shirt and carefully wrapped his hand around the bulge which was trying to wriggle its way into his armpit. "Hands," he said softly and then rolled his eyes when Kaveh failed to respond. "Hold out your hands."

Kaveh looked suspicious but did what he was told and cupped his hands out in front of himself. Alhaitham finally managed to extract his hand, and the wriggling lump, from his shirt and silently dropped a tiny, black kitten into Kaveh's hands.

"Oh," Kaveh immediately held the kitten up and stared at it. "Where did you come from?"

Alhaitham let out a quiet chuckle. "From just outside what turned out to be a partially wet, and very smelly, pyramid. He, or she, came running as soon as I got to the bottom of the steps and followed me inside. I took…it back outside and looked but couldn't see any others and I figured you'd only insist on dragging me back there if I mentioned it, so I thought I'd save myself the extra journey."

Kaveh tipped the kitten backwards briefly and then cuddled it against his chest. "She," he confirmed softly. "And, you know me too well. Now, we are going back into the kitchen while you get cleaned up. Leave everything on the paper and I'll deal with it later."

Kaveh disappeared back into the kitchen with the kitten. Alhaitham carefully toed off his boots and then stripped off his trousers and wrapped the towel around his waist. He wandered into the bathroom, stripped off the rest of his clothes and enjoyed a long, hot shower.

~#~

Once he was dressed in clean, dry clothes, Alhaitham made his way to the kitchen. Kaveh had pulled a shallow box out of the pantry and had put it in the middle of the table. Alhaitham peered inside and found the kitten curled up, fast asleep, on a folded towel in the corner nearest to him. Two small saucers sat along the edge nearest Kaveh, one held water and the other was mostly empty but had a few tiny shreds of fish stuck to it. "She seems comfortable enough."

Kaveh smiled at the kitten. "She's had a busy day," he replied softly. "And she's warm, dry and full of fish."

Alhaitham raised an eyebrow in his direction. "And…"

"Kayan," Kaveh replied quietly. "Her name's Kayan."