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It started, as many things did in this new Sumeru, with the Traveler.
To be more accurate, with the Traveler’s map.
It had been an unrelated commission, or so the rumor went, except then the scholar that had issued the commission took one look at the Traveler’s desert map, pointed at a roughly outlined shape in the desert sand, and asked “what ruin is that?”
“The Mausoleum of King Deshret” was not the answer the scholar had been expecting.
(Alhaitham blamed his abrupt increase in workload entirely on this story.)
But the Akademiya had been struggling to provide research projects, and Alhaitham had made the decision to work toward fixing the issue after the Siraj incident. So when the application for funding reached his desk proposing a cross-Darshan expedition team be sent to the newly discovered ruins, well… Alhaitham approved it.
Nahida approved the proposed budget with a smile and a request.
“Given your familiarity with the language,” she said as she slipped the paper back across the desk for Alhaitham to file, “I would like to request that you go as one of the representatives of Haravatat.”
Alhaitham took the paper and tucked it away before passing Nahida another request.
“Request or demand?”
Nahida smiled, soft and beatific, and Alhaitham only sighed.
“I get to pick the other Haravatat representatives.”
“Deal.”
Alhaitham did not particularly like any of the other Haravatat researchers, but he did not have to like them for them to do their job. It seemed that the rumor of the ruins was enough to outweigh even Alhaitham’s reputation. Every researcher agreed to the project without hesitation. Some of them even thanked Alahitham.
Preparations continued throughout the week, and soon the traveling party was gathering at the edge of Sumeru City. From here, they would make the trek to Caravan Ribat, resupply, and leave for the desert. The Traveler was supposed to meet them in Aaru Village and accompany them for the last of the trip.
Alhaitham would later blame the rush of preparation for not thinking about the representatives of other Darshans. At least, not until—
“Alhaitham?”
—until he was face to face with Kaveh, whose face was already twisting into a sour expression not unlike someone who had bitten into a bitter fruit.
Right. Of course Kshahrewar would pick Kaveh. Of course Kshahrewar would send the only graduate they had with any passing familiarity with the language of Deshret’s civilization.
This was a terrible idea.
By the time they were entering the desert proper, Alhaitham was well past beginning to regret coming on this expedition. Researchers, for all their importance to the nation, were not always the smartest when it came to being on the road. They were loud and raucous and almost entirely unable to defend themselves in the face of even the smallest danger.
Kaveh wiped his face of sweat as Mehrak pulled his claymore from the sand.
“The Akademiya didn’t have an escort in the budget, huh?” he said. Alhaitham tilted his head back to check the position of the sun as it dipped lower in the sky. They would leave as a group as soon as the sun brushed the edge of the horizon.
“The Traveler is meeting us at the ruins. We simply have to make it there first.” His eyes flickered over, taking in the damp line of Kaveh’s spine as he bent over a scorpion’s remains. He had always been susceptible to the heat of the desert, despite his preference for the place.
Kaveh groaned and straightened his back with a popping sound.
“Fine.”
Minus a few more scorpions, they did manage to make it to the tomb’s open mouth by daybreak. They cleared a space near the entrance and set up camp. Alhaitham eyed a few of the less-secure structures as he walked through the camp to meet the Traveler, who was standing at the entrance having a conversation with Kaveh.
Kaveh’s eyes narrowed as Alhaitham approached. His arms crossed over his chest.
“What do you want?”
“Have you considered being less aggressive, perhaps? You’re setting quite the poor example of inter-Darshan cooperation, Senior. ”
“I— You— Ugh!”
Paimon eyed them for a moment, eyes wide, before attempting to change the subject.
“Anyway,” she said, dragging the “a” sound until it was almost its own word, “the Traveler was going to take Kaveh down to show him the main mechanism of the tomb! Would you like to come too, Alhaitham?”
Kaveh choked, which was enough for Alhaitham to make his decision.
“I suppose I could do that.”
Kaveh made a frustrated sound and tightened his grip on Mehrak.
“Alright, fine . Make sure you keep up, at least.”
The Traveler looked between them with a strange smile, as though one of them had said something funny, before turning toward the entrance and striding off without waiting for them.
“Hurry up, you two!” Paimon called. Kaveh glared at Alhaitham before jogging after the two retreating figures. Alhaitham followed at a more leisurely pace.
The Traveler led them through room after room, explaining various mechanisms that had been deactivated on an earlier visit. Kaveh asked questions, touched things, took notes. Alhaitham mostly just listened.
Once the Traveler had finished explaining, they took their leave for the evening. While they intended to stick around for the duration of the expedition, they mostly were here as bodyguard and insurance. That left him and Kaveh alone to explore. While technically, they were supposed to wait for the entire traveling party to gather before they went touching things, well… who was going to complain?
So they explored. Alhaitham made sure to leave travel markers at turns so they would be able to find their way out, but Kaveh seemed entirely focused on the art decorating the time-worn walls. Alhaitham was content to let Kaveh lead the way– mostly. Until they came across a room, tucked away at the end of the hall. From a distance, it seemed as though something in it had been glowing, though once they approached, the only source of light was a couple of torches that cast a dim glow through the room.
The room, like all of the ones before it, was full of sand and the remnants of once-opulent art. There was a chaise of some sort, cracked through in places, with a threadbare blanket thrown over it. The dry, arid desert had preserved a number of the materials that would have rotten quickly in the humid air of the rainforest, but time had still ravaged them nonetheless. Pottery stood in alcoves along the walls, and each alcove depicted a mural of some sort. The one nearest to Alhaitham showed a beautiful oasis, shimmering with pearlescent paint even after time had faded the colors.
Kaveh walked past Alhaitham, shoulder brushing his with a bit more force than necessary, to inspect a ruined mechanism lying in the corner of the room. In the center of the room, on a raised dais, sat an obelisk. Much like the ones Alhaitham had once studied when he was first learning the ancient language of the desert, this one had writing on all four sides. Unlike the surface ones, the text was pristine.
He bent until he was mere inches from the stone.
To know your touch is but the sweetest dream.
Huh.
The word dream featured prominently in a number of writings from the desert, especially earlier texts. This one, though… The word was similar enough that Alhaitham felt confident in using dream as its translation, and yet the form was different. As though it meant something else. He’d seen this before, when reading less formal writings that survived as incomplete records. It implied slang, or a word whose meaning had changed from its traditional denotation.
What was something like this doing in the Mausoleum? And what other meaning could the word have?
Alhaitham pressed his hand to the stone. Perhaps it meant dream as a reference to the Dendro Archon. She had represented dreams since she first ascended to godhood, and she had once been friends with King Deshret. But that didn’t make sense with the first part of the phrase. Combined with the imagery in the room, it seemed reasonable to assume that this was a reference to Nabu Malikata. But then, what was this room? A tomb? A memorial?
Beneath Alhaitham’s fingers, something shifted in the stele. He barely had time to make a noise of alarm before the entire stele lit up as though from within, letters glowing a white-purple that left afterimages sparkling in his sight.
From the corner of the room, he could hear the thud of Kaveh dropping whatever it was he was holding and the whirr of Mehrak activating. Alhaitham rubbed at his eyes, feeling warm and dizzy. It was as though he’d spent the last eight hours walking beneath the blazing desert sun, suddenly. His mouth was dry. His body ached.
“—Haitham!” Kaveh was calling. Hands on his shoulders. Kaveh was in front of him? Kaveh was in front of him, looking worried, red eyes wide as he shook Alhaitham.
“Kaveh?” Alhaitham mumbled. Even moving his jaw took a concentrated effort.
Kaveh sighed. Even through the thinness of his mouth and the frustration in his eyes, Alhaitham recognized the relief in the shift of his shoulders.
“What did you do?” Kaveh asked. Alhaitham swayed on his feet, grateful for Kaveh’s grip on his shoulders. “Nevermind, forget I asked. Sit down, Alhaitham, before you pass out. Mehrak, go alert the Traveler that we’ll need help.”
Mehrak beeped happily and floated out of the room through the open arch. Kaveh guided him to the floor, and Alhaitham sat without complaint. The coarse grind of sand against his palms was nothing compared to the way the world seemed to twist before his eyes.
“The… stele…” Alhaitham finally forced out. Kaveh went to it immediately, fingers splayed across the surface as he checked it for any activation mechanisms. Finally, his fingers found a spot and he froze.
“There’s a button of some sort. A pressure plate.” Kaveh skimmed it with the pads of his thumbs, careful not to activate it. “And what does it say about dreams?”
Right. Kaveh could read it too. Alhaitham ignored the sharp little twist of possessiveness in his chest. He was not a possessive person, and Kaveh certainly did not belong to him. But that knowledge did. A fragment of proof that they belonged to each other.
Kaveh did not wait for Alhaitham’s answer. He returned to Alhaitham and knelt before him. His fingers were cool and dry as they pressed against Alhaitham’s forehead.
Want bloomed so suddenly in Alhaitham’s stomach that he exhaled as though he had been punched. Kaveh loomed over him, carmine into foggy teal, softened with concern, and it was barely a moment before Alhaitham caught Kaveh’s collar in his fist and was yanking him down to force their mouths together.
Kaveh tasted of salt and the desert sand, but Alhaitham didn’t care, couldn’t care about anything more than the blooming, twisting ache in his gut. He shifted so they were both on their knees, grains of sand ground into the stone floor beneath them.
“Kaveh,” he moaned against his mouth, hand tightening against his throat, pulling him closer, keeping him there. “Kaveh, Kaveh, Kaveh. ”
Alhaitham kept pressing, kept pushing until Kaveh was spread out on the floor of the Mausoleum. Golden hair splayed on the sandy floor beneath him like a gloriole, like art of a saint, as Kaveh stares up at him with rapid hummingbird breath.
“Beautiful,” Alhaitham whispered. Reverent. His hands were moving, nimble as they unclasped the collar of Kaveh’s shirt and pulled it wide, exposing the line of his chest to hungry hands and eyes.
Kaveh was shaking beneath his fingers.
“Don’t be afraid,” Alhaitham said. He pressed a kiss to the hollow of his sternum, feeling his heartbeat beneath his lips. Imagined biting down until he could feel it beneath his teeth.
Kaveh whimpered. Alhaitham can feel it in his chest and nips at the delicate skin there in the hopes of feeling it again.
“I won’t hurt you.”
He said something. Alhaitham knew he said something— he could feel the vibrations, almost touch the words, but they twist before him like a sandstorm and vanish into nothing before Alhaitham can give them form.
The ache in him worsened. He’s hard and leaking, pressed against the heat of Kaveh’s thigh, and all Alhaitham could think of was his skin, his heat, Kaveh, Kaveh.
Alhaitham kissed him again as he fought with the closure of Kaveh’s pants, swallowing the moans and the words between them with his mouth. Kaveh thrashed beneath him.
“Shh.” Alhaitham shifted until Kaveh was pinned beneath him, legs caught beneath Alhaitham’s thighs as he worked the waistband of his pants down enough to free his cock. He’s still soft, but that’s okay. Alhaitham spit into his hand and took Kaveh in it, stroking him gently between them as he worked his cloak off with his other hand. It gets spread on the ground beside them.
Kaveh turned his head to look at the cloak. That won’t do.
Eyes on me.
Alhaitham grabbed his chin and forced him forward. Kaveh gasped, said something lost to the press of their lips. A roll of Kaveh’s hips pulled a moan from him, and he bit at Kaveh’s plush bottom lip in reply, trapping soft skin beneath his teeth and pulling until Kaveh whined into his mouth.
“Alhaitham, please,” he whimpered once Alhaitham released his hold. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, but he didn't look away. The weight of his gaze settled, low and aching, in Alhaitham’s stomach.
He pressed his still spit-damp fingers to the seam of Kaveh’s closed mouth. Beneath the sandy pads of his fingers, he was soft and warm. How would he look with his cock between those lips, shiny with spit in the torchlight? Would Kaveh make pretty sounds as he lathed his tongue against him? Would he swallow what Alhaitham was so desperate to give him, or spit it out to drip down his chin to the ground beneath them?
“Open your mouth.”
Kaveh stared at him, eyes wide with— arousal. With arousal, slick and deep as a still jungle pool, all heat and aching need. But his lips stayed stubbornly closed.
Alhaitham’s free hand gripped his jaw. He hoped it left a bruise, a claiming mark to prove that Kaveh belonged to him, to only him.
Mine. Mine.
Fingers dug into the joint of his jaw and Kaveh gasped. Alhaitham pressed two fingers inside, uncaring of the sand and dust coating them even as Kaveh grimaced in displeasure.
“That’s good,” Alhaitham whispered, all praise, all softness. Kaveh whimpered around his fingers, the same fingers that had been wrapped around Kaveh’s own cock moments before, and the thought sent a flash of heat ripping through Alhaitham, twisting and burning inside him.
Kaveh was shaking again, tears like shattered glass, like gemstones on his lashes as Alhaitham pressed his fingers forward until he found the gentle curve of the back of Kaveh’s mouth. Kaveh gagged. Eyes squeezed shut, breaths sharp and heavy as Alhaitham pressed down on the curve of his tongue.
“So good for me.”
Tears fell, then, dripping down his cheeks to his chin. When he pulled his fingers from his mouth, they were wet with spit.
It only took a moment for Alhaitham, even one-handed, to flip Kaveh over onto the cloak and settle himself above him. He worked at the waistband of his pants, still high enough to cover Kaveh’s ass, before tugging them and his underwear down in one movement. Kaveh made a choked sound.
“What are you–”
Alhaitham pressed a spit-slicked finger against his hole, pressing gently even as it clenched against him.
“Alhaitham!” Kaveh sobbed. He tried to move away, but Alhaitham easily wrapped his free arm around his thigh and yanked him back.
“Shh,” he crooned. His fingers stroked against Kaveh’s opening. “I need you to relax.”
Kaveh shuddered beneath his touch.
“Please, Alhaitham, please–”
“I know, shh.”
Even wet with Kaveh’s saliva, the first intrusion was still rough. Kaveh keened. His arms gave out, leaving him on his knees with his chest pressed to the softness of Alhaitham’s cape. He was beautiful , flushed and already begging for it as he bit down on the flesh of his wrist. Alhaitham’s head swam, twisted with heat and want and the sounds of Kaveh begging, pleading.
Alhaitham spat into his palm and shifted so the fluid would run down his fingers to slick the intrusion as he pressed a finger inside of him. Kaveh sobbed into the heat of his wrist.
And if Alhaitham thought he was beautiful earlier, spread beneath him like an angel fallen from grace, it was nothing in comparison to now, tight and hot around even the single finger inside of him.
Kaveh shifted, twisted, tried to crawl away only for Alhaitham to drag him back. His weight settled over Kaveh’s thighs to keep him from kicking out– not that he would. Why would he do that? Alhaitham tried to hold on to that thought, tried to consider why he was worried about Kaveh trying to hurt him, but the thought was slippery and uninteresting and he let it go soon enough, let it float away to vanish in the sea of pleasure and heat fogging his head.
“Stop…” Kaveh cried, voice half-gone. Alhaitham froze for a moment, staring down at the figure beneath him, at the bruise already forming on Kaveh’s thigh from his grip.
He said “don’t stop,” of course he did, and the sound had only been muffled. Alhaitham redoubled his movements in apology for hesitating. Kaveh whined when Alhaitham curled the finger inside him to press against his prostate.
“Good, so good for me,” he said. His cock was hard and aching, and he released Kaveh’s thigh to fumble with his own pants. Heat made it difficult for him to do much more than release his cock from the tightness of fabric before he was back to focusing on Kaveh, stretching him as he pushed a second finger inside to join the first. The spit had begun to dry, but it was fine, it would be fine.
Kaveh sobbed, words lost to the tears down his face and to shaking breaths as Alhaitham fucked him open on his fingers. How could Alhaitham be so foolish as to not bring oil into the desert? But Kaveh would take him. Kaveh, who was as desperate as he was, who was on his knees and pleading into the breath-warmed fabric of his cloak.
Kaveh would take him.
Alhaitham withdrew his fingers, and Kaveh shuddered beneath him, hole clenching at the loss. The heat in him was rising now. Thoughts were difficult. His head spun. And then Kaveh twisted to look at Alhaitham, carmine eyes wide and teary and lower lip trembling, and Alhaitham couldn’t hold back anymore.
“I’ll take care of you,” he murmured. Kaveh sobbed and closed his eyes.
It was going to hurt, there was no way around it, but Alhaitham still did his best. He spat into his hand and coated his cock as best as he could, hissing at the heat of his own palm. How hot, how tight would Kaveh be around him? It took everything in him to keep it together long enough to slick his cock with what they had.
He gripped Kaveh’s hips and flipped them. Kaveh’s face, he had to see Kaveh’s face, had to be able to kiss him. Kaveh’s hands came up to Alhaitham’s chest and he pushed, shoved with all his might, saying something Alhaitham couldn’t understand over the rush of blood in his ears and the pounding arousal in his chest. Bitten nails, rough and jagged, dug into Alhaitham’s skin, but it only fed the need in him. Like dumping kindling on a raging fire.
It took almost no effort to lift Kaveh by the hips, pressing his shoulders back down into the fabric beneath him. Even the press of his hole against the blunt head of Alhaitham’s cock made his head swim. He could hear Kaveh’s voice as he pleaded, as he begged, and how could Alhaitham not give him what he wanted? So he swallowed the apology and pressed his hips forward, grateful for the slide of saliva as he worked himself inch by inch into Kaveh.
Beneath him, Kaveh twisted, tight as a bowstring, bowed like a tree in the face of a monsoon, and screamed. It echoed off the empty stones around them.
Alhaitham groaned as he settled, finally fully inside of Kaveh. His cock was twitching, desperate to move. Half-dizzy with pleasure, Alhaitham hoped the precum he was leaking inside of Kaveh would be enough to ease the slide as he waited for Kaveh to settle.
With spit-damp fingers, he wiped the tears from Kaveh’s skin.
“I know,” he crooned, even as Kaveh was wracked by sobs. “I know, but I promise I’ll make you feel good.”
Kaveh shook his head, frantic. Alhaitham frowned.
“Don’t be selfless, I want to.”
A hiccupped sob. Had he hurt him?
A wave of arousal, of dizzying, aching need.
What a silly thought. Hadn’t Kaveh begged him?
Still, Alhaitham brought his hand between them to wrap around Kaveh’s cock. It was soft again, but it didn’t take long for Alhaitham to work him back to hardness, teasing thumb across the slit.
Once Kaveh’s sobs had been reduced to soft whimpers, Alhaitham began rocking his hips.
“You feel so good,” he moaned. His other hand gripped the sharpness of Kaveh’s hipbone, holding him close as he ground into him. Short, shallow thrusts. He didn’t want to hurt Kaveh.
Kaveh’s cock pulsed in his hands, even as Kaveh himself threw a hand over his face to hide his eyes.
“Kaveh,” Alhaitham said. “Kaveh, look at me.”
He shook his head, so Alhaitham had no choice but to wrap his arm around his waist and pull until Kaveh was in his lap. Kaveh cried out as gravity and the angle fucked Alhaitham deeper into him. His eyes were red-rimmed from crying, but Alhaitham had never thought he was more beautiful than in this moment.
Lips and teeth sucked a hungry bruise into the soft curve of Kaveh’s neck as Alhaitham rocked into him. It was perfect, warm and intimate, everything Alhaitham could have ever wanted from Kaveh. He tasted like sand and salt and sunshine. Alhaitham wanted to devour him whole, until he only tasted of Alhaitham.
He released Kaveh’s cock and used his newly free hand to grip Kaveh’s other hip. They rocked together, Kaveh boneless in his arms. It brought a soft smile to Alhaitham’s face, one he hid by ducking low to nibble at the line of Kaveh’s collarbone. Kaveh so rarely let Alhaitham do anything for him, not without a fight. It was blissful to be the one making him feel good like this.
The rising pulse of his arousal was unavoidable, even as Alhaitham cursed himself for being weak. He didn’t want to cum, didn’t want this to have to end, but his end was approaching quickly.
“I’m close,” he admitted against the sweat-slick line of Kaveh’s throat. Kaveh tensed in his arms.
“Please,” he whispered. The tears were back, now. Alhaitham could feel them fall and vanish into the crown of his hair.
Alhaitham laid him back on the cloak beneath them. No artist in all of Teyvat could ever hope to create anything as beautiful as this, as Kaveh laying fucked out on Alhaitham’s cloak, blond hair spread like a halo, his neck a patchwork of bruises left by Alhaitham’s lips, by his teeth. It was like a dream.
It only took a little encouragement by Alhaitham to press Kaveh’s legs up, and the new angle allowed Alhaitham to grind the head of his cock against Kaveh’s prostate with every thrust. Kaveh’s eyes were fixed on the ceiling, even as he whimpered, even as his cock twitched between them. It took Alhaitham biting down on the inside of his cheek almost hard enough to draw blood in order to not cum just from the sight of Kaveh spread open for Alhaitham and only Alhaitham.
Kaveh had stopped crying. He only stared up, unseeing, as Alhaitham gripped the backs of his thighs and fucked into him with ever-building need.
“Kaveh,” Alhaitham begged. “Kaveh, look at me.”
Kaveh shook his head. His hand was back over his mouth, muffling his sounds, swallowing his moans, and Alhaitham is on fire. He is on fire and he is burning alive and if Kaveh doesn’t look at him right now he might actually crumble away to dust and ash, like so much sand on a mausoleum floor.
“Kaveh, please. ”
Kaveh whimpered. Alhaitham was dizzy, shaking, crumbling like a ruin. Kaveh is so hot, so very hot and tight and beautiful and he needs– he needs–
“Kaveh!” Alhaitham cried out, and he was coming, all the heat and burn and need releasing suddenly as he fucked his release into Kaveh.
When the heat had finally passed, and he was able to release his grip on Kaveh’s thighs and collapse onto Kaveh’s chest, all he could do was breathe deeply of Kaveh’s floral-sunshine smell and sigh. Pleasure and warmth twisted in his chest, fond and comfortable.
“So good,” he whispered against Kaveh’s skin.
The last thing he remembered before passing out was a low sob and Kaveh’s shaking chest.
The first thing Alhaitham registered when he awoke was that the ceiling was made of fabric, not stone.
The second thing was that Kaveh was gone.
He tried to sit up, but exhaustion had settled bone-deep in his chest. Even tilting his head up felt like a chore.
Kaveh was lying on a mat beside him. For a moment, Alhaitham thought he might even be asleep. But then the telltale flutter of long eyelashes as Kaveh blinked gave him away.
“Kaveh?” Alhaitham called. His voice was rough with sleep and dryness.
Kaveh didn’t respond. He didn’t even blink or look over, simply kept staring at the ceiling above them as if it held the universe’s secrets.
Something was wrong.
“What… happened?”
Kaveh didn’t answer. The only sound Alhaitham received was a whimper. As Alhaitham watched, a single tear slipped from his eye and down his cheek before Kaveh rolled over, leaving Alhaitham looking only at his bare back. His shoulders shook. There were no more sounds.
Kaveh didn’t turn to look at Alhaitham again.