Chapter Text
“Which nation do you think is a good place to raise a child?" Alhaitham frowned slightly, turning to look at his roommate's face.
Why would he ask something like that in the middle of a random night?
Kaveh, who had been acting strange for days, was very quiet, almost taciturn. It had been a change that should have spooked Alhaitham, but he just thought maybe Kaveh was going through something he didn't feel ready to share.
He was lost most of the time in his thoughts, with an absent expression adorning his face.
“Sumeru is not a good place. " Kaveh continued with a soft tone, fiddling with one of the seams of the divan, without observing his roommate expression.
“Why do you think that? We were both raised here, and we turned out fine." The blond just hummed at his words, without moving from his position.
“Just simple curiosity. Sumeru is still in a difficult position, not to mention that the possible options to succeed are down to only one: Graduating from the akademiya."
“What are you trying to get at, Kaveh?” Alhaitham put the book aside, staring directly at his roommate's face.
“That anywhere else is a good place to raise a child.”
“And you're bringing this up because...?" Kaveh straightened up, letting out a strange chuckle. “Are you pregnant, Kaveh?”
“Of course not!" He exclaimed quickly, laughing as he shook his head. “It was just a question. Besides, why would I be? Since that time, I haven't been with anyone else. And I assure you, it would take more than once for a pregnancy to happen. You told me to forget that it happened, which I have done, so it doesn't count.”
“...”
“Where was I?" Kaveh leaned back on the couch, grimacing. “Ah, yes, Inazuma has just opened its borders, so we don't know much about their situation. The two remaining options are Mondstadt and Liyue. I'm not mentioning Fontaine because I don't like their people very much, I don't see it as a candidate either."
The blond kept mentioning the pros and cons, and Alhaitham simply listened, the book in his lap forgotten. That had to be an indication that something was going on with the blond, who was spending more time at home and more time in silence. The scribe assumed it was stress, but Kaveh, who religiously attended Lambad's to de-stress on weekends, was simply not going.
He chose to stay home.
By the archons, he hadn't even heard him hammering in the middle of the night, his home was plunged into a sepulchral silence, as if he lived alone.
That, instead of keeping him calm and content, was simply having the opposite effect.
Wasn't he the one who had always longed for peaceful silence?
Why was it now causing him so much discomfort?
“I brought you something from Lambad's. Tighnari and Cyno asked for you.”
“Ah..." Kaveh, who was drawing something on his desk table, straightened up when he saw him coming, "I already ate, I came early from my meeting with the client and prepared something, in fact, I also saved you a portion. I'm sorry, I got wet from the rain yesterday and didn't feel very well, so I stayed home, I'll apologize to them later.”
“I see. “Alhaitham made a gesture to close the door, only to be stopped by Kaveh himself.
“Wait.”
“... Is something wrong?" The blond rose from his chair, stopping in front of him, his gaze lowered. "Kaveh."
“I'm going to my mother's for a while.”
“To Fontaine?" The younger man's eyebrows arched, as the blond nodded once. “Your debt-”
“Actually, I wanted to ask you a favor. I talked to Dori about it, but I need someone to deliver the amount on a monthly basis, it's okay if you can't-“
“Are you planning to go away for so long?" Alhaitham asked, the hand that held that bag tightening its grip.
Something was going on, however, he made no pretense of asking about it.
“I'm not sure, it's a..." Kaveh tilted his face, not looking him in the eye. There was something different about him, but he couldn't really put his finger on what it was. Kaveh wasn't even bickering with himself like he always would do, why didn't he just ask? “…Sore subject. I'll be okay.”
“All right. I'll do it.”
“Thank you.” Before he could help himself, Kaveh's hands took that bag, a strange smile appearing on his lips. “I- ah, changed my mind. You brought my favorite, didn't you? I'll take it!”
And even though he knew it was strange, he just let him do it.
Kaveh seemed really devastated to say goodbye to him days later, because yes, he had personally gone to see him off. Fontaine was a couple of days away by ship, why was he acting as if that was the last time he would see him?
Maybe because that was the last time he would actually see him face to face, and it would take almost nine years before he would hear from him again.