"If I'll have you." [ he repeats, his voice simply tired incredulity as if this was the stupidest hypothetical he'd ever heard. ] This house always was half your home, even if it wasn't in title. You can move back in when you desire.

[ because it had become that, hadn't it? a home, rather than a chattel. not that alhaitham was a particularly sentimental person when it came to things, but there'd perhaps been more than one reason he'd kept the house all these years even though kaveh had signed himself out of it. it had been born from their collaborative work, and to that end, had become a reminder of them.

alhaitham will put that two and two together eventually, when his head didn't feel like caving in. ]

If it's not starting over, then what does that look like? I'm unfamiliar.

[ the scribe sighs, not at the prospect of work, but at the prospect of not knowing. he deals in facts and certainties (which is an irony considering the highly strung emotional capacity of the blonde sitting in front of him) - and while he's willing to learn, alhaitham's still raw. ]

As for Dori - forget it. I wouldn't have paid it off if doing so would've put me in financial jeopardy, so you don't have to worry about it.

[ a pause, as he arches an eyebrow underneath a mess of silver hair. ]

After all, that was essentially the point of the whole endeavour.