[ It's a gibe ignored in its entirety until Kaveh gets back to the living area with the cream in his hands, moving to perch on the armrest closest to where Alhaitham is sitting, and ignored still further as he reaches up to take the scribe's head in his hands, pulling it to rest gently on his thigh and giving himself a better angle from which to apply it. Only then, in fact, is it answered, complete with a dramatic roll of his crimson eyes and a forceful sigh: ]

You talk as if I have any idea what they do in jail, Alhaitham. Last I remember, you're the only one of us to have actually been arrested. So why don't you tell me?

[ Overly dramatic he may have been, but it's a useful defense mechanism against the mid-sentence realization that he's just tugged the scribe's head practically into his lap. And perhaps it's all for the best that he knows not of the way the other man was left staring at him as he walked down the hall, because that would only serve to make this whole thing infinitely more uncomfortable. Mostly because his mind would be reeling and spinning with questions that he couldn't bring himself to ask aloud.

As it is, the situation is already weird at best, and it only gets weirder as Kaveh dips his fingers into the jar of cream and proceeds to start smoothing and dabbing it carefully over the bruise-marred skin of Alhaitham's jaw.

He finds himself talking as he works, the words quick and light and altogether far too nervous for his liking. ]

This stuff's pretty amazing, actually. It'll get rid of the pain mostly and make the bruise heal quicker, too.