Chapter Text
Kaveh has been acting strange lately.
Alhaitham is more than well accustomed to the weird antics Kaveh is keen to have. Comes with the job, he supposes.
But as of lately, Kaveh has taken an unusual habit of standing in front of her full length mirror. He wouldn’t call her vain, per say, even if she takes good care of herself and goes to lengths to maintain her appearance. But she’s never the type to fuss about how she looks.
He’d stumble upon the sight on occasion, mostly in the morning, when Kaveh’s room door is slightly cracked open. He’d peek in as he passes to go to the kitchen, a habit he’s dangerously gotten into, and would see her in her night shirt looking at herself in the mirror. The thin material of the night shirt does a lousy job at hiding the silhouette of her body underneath when the sunlight shines on her, and the short cut of the shirt leaves most of her legs bare. Alhaitham ponders whether she’s purposely trying to catch a cold.
Kaveh would have her hands on her hips, eyes squinted as she studies her reflection, and Alhaitham wonders just what it is she’s looking for. Then she’d turn to the left, then to the right, study her reflection more intently, before her shoulders slumped as she let out a big sigh. Alhaitham is not one to be interested in the topic of someone’s appearances, though he’d be lying if he isn’t curious. It’s Kaveh, after all.
When she reaches down and begins pulling her shirt up, and the sight of her smooth thighs begins to greet him, Alhaitham walks away.
The habit isn’t just confined to the safety of her room, it seems. Kaveh tends to look at any reflective object that shows her appearance, though only when it at least shows half of her body. She doesn’t do it when they pass a mirror at the market that’s hung high on display so only their faces would be reflected, but she’d turn her head when they pass a dark window of a shop that stops just to their torso.
Kaveh always tries to hide this from Alhaitham, of course, only looking at reflections when she thinks he wouldn’t see. She does quiet a bad job at it.
Using all these observations, Alhaitham has made a couple crude hypotheses.
- Kaveh thinks she has gained weight.
In one of his leisure time, Alhaitham had picked up a book about behaviours, and learned that some people may do this as a form of self-reflection or self-examination, while others may do it as a way to check their appearance or to make sure that everything is in order. This serves as the base of the first hypotheses, as gaining weight could be one of the factors for why one would assess themselves repeatedly in the mirror.
- Kaveh is insecure about her body.
Another thing he had learned while reading the book is that additionally, some people may find themselves looking in the mirror as a way to cope with feelings of anxiety or low self-esteem. Kaveh is many things, and one of the things she is is that she has a rather terrible habit of putting herself down, no matter how bright she shines, and coping in an unhealthy way. It wouldn’t surprise him if the things she’d view negatively upon herself is her physical appearance.
These two hypotheses are intertwined, in a way, as gaining weight can result in insecurity, but they could be mutually exclusive. Perhaps Kaveh is just wondering whether the weight has affected her body, or perhaps Kaveh could be insecure about something else on her body.
With these hypotheses in hand, Alhaitham sought to see which one would prove to be true. And in a way, perhaps try to make her feel better about herself.
He comes home that day with a new sort of determination, a glint in his eyes of a scholar on the path of something. He’s greeted to the sight of Kaveh in front of one of their many bookshelves, on her tiptoes with one of her arms outstretched shakily as she tries to reach for a book. He takes this as a chance to study her for a moment.
He’s always been painfully aware of her, down to the little details of her eyelashes, and he sees nothing wrong. He doesn’t think she’s gained weight, nor does she have any sort of visible defect in her body— like a scar, or a bruise— that would make her anxious about her appearance. She looks just as she always does, imperfectly perfect.
Hm. Perhaps this could also be an opportunity to test his first hypothesis.
Without a word of greeting, he walks up behind her, an in a pretence of assistance, puts his hands on her waist. His fingers from both hands are meeting on her stomach, it doesn’t feel like she gained any weight. If anything, she’d always been particularly small compared to him.
Kaveh lets out a noise akin to a squawk, which she repeats louder when he starts to lift her up.
Hm. She’s light too. Has she been eating?
“Alhaitham! What are you doing?!”
Kaveh wriggles in his hold, feet kicking slightly in the air as she looks over her shoulder, face flushed.
“Helping,” he answers simply.
“You—“ Kaveh grits her teeth, looking as indignant and menacing as a rabbit, before huffing and turning his head back around to take the book she sought after. “I’m not a child, you know.” He then slowly puts her back down on the ground, but oddly enough his hands isn’t keen to let go just yet.
“? Are you waiting for a thank you?” she huffs, and even with her back facing him he can imagine the expression on her face. Mouth pulled to a pout and cheeks puffed. “ Oh thank you, great Scribe of the Akademiya, for doing a job that a chair could have also done.” She says dryly. And she’s quite correct, he didn’t really have to lift her up, he could’ve gotten her a chair, or she would’ve dragged one by herself had he not. But then he wouldn’t be able to test his theory.
He thought she would’ve panicked and insisted to be put down because she might be ‘too heavy’, but it seems like she’s just upset about how he picked her up like she’s a child. Hm. It seems this experiment failed.
His hands linger for another second, before he lets go of her, and starts to walk to his room with a finger around his chin, missing the look of confusion Kaveh throws at him.
This means he just has to wait for another opportunity, but he’s not sure when that time will come. He’s a patient man when it comes to his studies, but sometimes curiosity always gets the better of him.
He’d mulled over and weighed his options. He isn’t one to beat around the bush, he can always ask her if he wants. But Kaveh is more honest through her actions rather than words. He knows she won’t actually admit anything even if he asks.
A few days later, Alhaitham comes out of his room just in time to see Kaveh entering the house, steps uneven and cheeks flushed after a night out of drinking.
“Kaveh,” he starts, before Kaveh puts a hand up.
“Before you reprimand me again, am not drunk!” She insists, words slurring just a little, before stumbling further in and almost tripping, if not for Alhaitham catching her before she could. “Am juuuust a little tipsy.” She continues, voice muffled after her face planted itself on his chest. She’s slumping against him, and he puts one hand on the small of her back and the other one holding her wrist.
“A very likely story,” he says, watching her giggle against him. She might not be drunk drunk , but she’s a little far enough that her tongue might be much more loose. Has the opportunity really come stumbling upon him so easily?
It doesn’t look like she’s going to pull away soon, content to lean on him like this, so.
“Kaveh.”
“Mmm?”
She looks up at him, eyes wide and bright and cheeks red and full as her mouth stretched to a smile, and something in Alhaitham’s head weirdly screeches to a halt.
One of his fingers slips into the small back window of her shirt, and he can feel her inhale sharply against him.
“You’re very small.” He says. It’s almost a gamble, using this sentence. How would she react is something that could potentially help him with this little experiment. And in a way, he’s telling her that she did not gain weight. At least to him.
What he did not calculate at all is when her eyes widened, turning glassy from the tears that slowly filled it, and her face crumpling along with it.
Alhaitham stands there in shock as she pulls away from him and runs back to her room. The door slams shut, and a loud ‘WAAAHHHH’ could be heard from the inside.
Uh.
That didn’t go as expected.
And now he feels… guilty. He didn’t think her reaction would be that extreme. Maybe she’s much more drunk than he expected.
With an inhale and a sigh, he walks over to her room, not bothering to knock before opening the door. It’s thankfully not locked.
Kaveh’s laying on her bed on her stomach, face buried in her pillow as she sobs and wails dramatically, and Alhaitham wishes he brought his noise cancelling headphones.
He approaches her bed and sits on the edge, and when Kaveh doesn't seem to acknowledge him, he sighs once again and puts a hand on her back.
“Kaveh, I—” he calls, but she cuts him off.
“Stupid Alhaitham!” She sobs, voice muffled by the pillow. “You’re so heartless!”
Well. Perhaps he could’ve chosen a better sentence. But personally he doesn’t think the wording is that harsh. Then again, why is she upset that he called her small?
So, it’s not about gaining weight, he could scratch that hypothesis off the—
“I know they’re small already! No need to rub it in my face!!” She blubbers.
… huh?
Alhaitham blinks down at the back of Kaveh’s head.
What is she talking about?
“What are you on about?” He asks, eyebrows furrowed.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know!!” She pulls her face from the pillow, messy with tears and snot before sitting up and fully facing him. “You know—“ sniff, “— exactly what you’re talking about!”
Alhaitham blinks again, before his eyebrows raises up to his hairline when Kaveh cups both of her chest.
… oh.
Oooh.
So, hypothesis number two. Okay then.
“I know they’re nothing compared to some of the girls in the Akademiya,” she sulks as looks down on the bed, mouth pursed as she sniffles again. “I don’t even have to wear a bra most of the time and it would’ve been fine!”
He knows. There’s a handful of times where he catches a glimpse of her bare chest from the slip of her shirt or the little window of her low necked shirt, and sometimes the little protrusion of her nipples pressing against her shirt. It’s awfully distracting most of the time.
“There’s barely anything to see…” her voice grows quiet and almost defeated, and her eyes fill with tears again. “Let alone touch…”
Alhaitham’s eyes instinctively go down to her hand-covered chest. He can’t verbally say it, nor describe it, but what pops in his head is a single, prominent imagery of a ‘?’
He never really thought about the size of her chest. Just that she has it, and it’s there. He’d seen glimpses of it, yes, and he never really sees any problem from it. It suits her just fine, it’s the perfect size for her.
“Why is that a problem?”
“Of course it’s a problem!!” Kaveh immediately replies, looking up at him indignantly. “You wouldn’t understand! Even your chest is bigger than mine!”
“What.” Alhaitham says.
Kaveh sulks once more, hands dropping from her chest. He can see she’s not wearing a bra again.
“You don’t get it..” she mumbles with another sniff, words slurring once more. “You probably like bigger ones anyway.”
? “I never said that.”
“You don’t have to!” Kaveh points a finger at him, before poking him with it on the chest. “I saw you talking to those girls…”
? What girls?
Oh.
“The ones that came up to me outside the Akademiya?”
Kaveh’s bottom lip quivers, and he has the urge to stop it with his thumb.
Huh.
Alhaitham thinks back on it. Kaveh has started to act strange after that little exchange he had. He wouldn’t even call it a proper conversation, they just had questions that he could answer.
“They only came up to me to ask questions,” he continues.
“You were smiling at them!”
Did he? Well, there was a second he did, when they mentioned Kaveh.
Apparently Kaveh takes his silence as confirmation, and she picks up a pillow and starts whacking him with it.
“I knew it!! Stupid Alhaitham!” The hit she’s giving him didn’t even hurt or anything, it feels like gentle slaps with how soft the pillow is. Her swings are terrible, probably from the alcohol. “Shameless! Insensitive!”
Kaveh’s swing grows weaker and weaker by the second, and it’s easy for Alhaitham to grab the pillow and throw it elsewhere, before pushing Kaveh down the bed and pinned one of her hands to the bed, looming over her from between her legs.
She doesn’t really put up a fight, slumping against the bed while big fat tears drop down her cheeks. She doesn’t even look angry anymore, just… comically crying. It’s kind of funny, and adorable.
To think this all started because Alhaitham talked to some girls. He’s not aware this kind of chain reaction could have happened.
Well. At least hypothesis number 2 is proven to be correct, he just didn’t think he’s the incidental cause of it.
“Kaveh,” he rubs at her tears with a few swipes of his thumbs, “when I said you were small, I didn’t mean your chest.”
When Kaveh opens her mouth, he continues before she can say anything.
“I thought you were under the assumption that you gained weight. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you’re always checking your reflection?”
Kaveh closes her mouth, and Alhaitham counts it as a win, even if there’s no competition in the first place.
“I wanted to see whether that theory is true, so I made such a comment. I meant your body in general, and not just your chest.”
Kaveh frowns, bottom lip jutting forward to a pout. “So you do think they’re small.”
“Well, objectively, yes,” Kaveh makes an indignant sound, before Alhaitham stops her again. “Doesn’t mean I don’t like them.”
It takes a few seconds for her to react, before Kaveh’s eyes widen and her mouth falls agape as she stares at him, the flush on her cheeks spreading.
Alhaitham likes to think he’s a man above his impulses, but it doesn’t mean it’s not there. It would be a given, wouldn’t it, wanting to touch any part of someone he likes?
“You’re lying,” Kaveh finally says, though her accusation doesn’t come convincing even from her.
“Do you want me to show you?”
Kaveh clamps her mouth shut, and the legs thrown over his thighs tightens slightly against his hips.
Huh.
This isn’t really the outcome he thought he’d get from his little experiment, but he’s not complaining.
But she’s drunk, or just a little tipy. It feels wrong doing it this way. But he can’t help the urge to tease her a little.
He puts his hand on her stomach, slowly sliding them up to the centre of her chest, right over her sternum bone. He can feel her heartbeat quicken under his hand, and how she inhales when her hand stops there.
His thumb brushes against the exposed mound of her chest, the low cut of the shirt making it easy for the fabric to slip further and showing more of her skin. Feeling a little cheeky, he slips his thumb underneath the shirt.
She squeaks, body trembling, and Alhaitham lets himself smile.
He pulls his hand away before moving off of her and then the bed, walking towards the door.
“Tell me when you do.”
He doesn’t hear Kaveh move or say anything as he exits the door and shuts it with a soft ‘click’.