[ at the very least, the house had been quiet as of late.
kaveh had been true to his word and turned up for the meeting with his darshan, although alhaitham had seen very little of him since. the extent of his knowledge was that the meeting had gone well and the client had been thrilled to contract the kshahrewar's finest mind, but that was only because of reports and missives that passed over his desk in his role as a scribe, not because of any deep conversations they'd shared.
on the contrary, he'd been doing his best to stay out of kaveh's way since their encounter the previous week for reasons that he thought were very legitimate. despite the mixed signals he seemed to be receiving from the architect, anyone with any measure of an analytical mind could correlate the fact that his presence directly triggered upset in the other - tears, emotional outbursts, anger - and so, he'd made himself very scarce. not a fan of working overtime for any reason, he'd simply spent more time in the daena libraries or in his rooms at the house, sequestering himself with anthologies of books that had been on his 'to read' list for a long time, but he'd been putting off because of other commitments.
it turns out that keeping an eye on kaveh was most of those commitments, and now he was giving him space, he had a lot more time on his hands.
the architect was often out late these days, presumably working on the project. they rarely saw each other, and when they did, words were hardly exchanged, let alone pleasant ones. but knowing his general schedule, alhaitham's fairly confident that he'd still be out for some time even though it was nearing midnight - so he's lounging lengthways on one of the deep green couches in the living area, a candle burning lazily behind him as he remains nose deep in the fourth book of his current anthology about early phonology in teyvat.
it was better this way, surely. even though it felt like something was intrinsically missing from his existence when they didn't interact (even if it was all combative and no pleasantry); even though the house felt strangely off, strangely empty. this way, he could let kaveh focus on a project that could genuinely turn his life around without worrying about having to yell at him, and that's alhaitham's strange, obtuse way of helping. ]
desperate housewives of sumeru pt. 2: makeout boogaloo
kaveh had been true to his word and turned up for the meeting with his darshan, although alhaitham had seen very little of him since. the extent of his knowledge was that the meeting had gone well and the client had been thrilled to contract the kshahrewar's finest mind, but that was only because of reports and missives that passed over his desk in his role as a scribe, not because of any deep conversations they'd shared.
on the contrary, he'd been doing his best to stay out of kaveh's way since their encounter the previous week for reasons that he thought were very legitimate. despite the mixed signals he seemed to be receiving from the architect, anyone with any measure of an analytical mind could correlate the fact that his presence directly triggered upset in the other - tears, emotional outbursts, anger - and so, he'd made himself very scarce. not a fan of working overtime for any reason, he'd simply spent more time in the daena libraries or in his rooms at the house, sequestering himself with anthologies of books that had been on his 'to read' list for a long time, but he'd been putting off because of other commitments.
it turns out that keeping an eye on kaveh was most of those commitments, and now he was giving him space, he had a lot more time on his hands.
the architect was often out late these days, presumably working on the project. they rarely saw each other, and when they did, words were hardly exchanged, let alone pleasant ones. but knowing his general schedule, alhaitham's fairly confident that he'd still be out for some time even though it was nearing midnight - so he's lounging lengthways on one of the deep green couches in the living area, a candle burning lazily behind him as he remains nose deep in the fourth book of his current anthology about early phonology in teyvat.
it was better this way, surely. even though it felt like something was intrinsically missing from his existence when they didn't interact (even if it was all combative and no pleasantry); even though the house felt strangely off, strangely empty. this way, he could let kaveh focus on a project that could genuinely turn his life around without worrying about having to yell at him, and that's alhaitham's strange, obtuse way of helping. ]