Archive of Our Own ^beta

If Kaveh was being completely honest, dating Al-Haitham was a lot like rooming with him.

For one, they still bickered constantly about chores–Kaveh was still bad about taking out the trash and Al-Haitham still left his books everywhere. For another, they complained about the noise they made with their misaligned sleep schedules, what with Al-Haitham waking at the ass crack of dawn to go to the gym and Kaveh fumbling around in the kitchen at night like a jackass on the weekends when Al-Haitham was trying to sleep early. And of course, they were still studying together in the living room during the week until the ungodly hours of the morning because the new semester had not let up on them with assignments.

But, there was a new, pleasant development that whenever Kaveh got tired of working, he would stand and crawl onto the couch and makeout with Al-Haitham until Al-Haitham pushed him off and reminded him that they both had a lot of work to do. Kaveh would sigh loudly and crawl back to his spot on the floor and do work until enough time had passed to justify crawling back onto the couch. It became a great motivator for work because Al-Haitham would only indulge him if they both completed stuff. And, of course, it was a wonderful way to take breaks.

Another thing that was new was that they started going grocery shopping together. Before they started dating, Kaveh would walk to the grocery store near campus and buy an array of frozen foods because he didn’t have the brainpower to try cooking anything. Now, Al-Haitham would drag him into the car and force him to at least buy frozen broccoli so he’d be eating something green.

Al-Haitham didn’t stop at the tiny grocery store near campus. Since he had a car, he took them to a larger grocery store about twelve minutes away, and it had a nicer selection of things because it was in a relatively residential area. Kaveh was the type to clip a million coupons and compare different brands of the same food to get a better price because–and never forget this–he was broke, while Al-Haitham pushed the cart and grabbed the first thing he saw.

They were here now, Al-Haitham scrolling through his phone while Kaveh compared one can of diced tomatoes to another.

“Can you do some math for me?” asked Kaveh.

Al-Haitham looked up. “Sure.”

“Can you divide this price by the number of ounces so I can see which is cheaper per ounce?”

Al-Haitham leaned over and switched to the calculator app on his phone. “Sure.”

All in all, it was kind of sickeningly domestic, and it took every ounce of human decency in him not to just lean into Al-Haitham all the time while they were shopping. Kaveh–for all his overwhelming and bursting affections–had the manners (and the shame) not to engage in PDA.

“You should get this one,” said Al-Haitham, lifting the nominally more expensive can. “You get more tomatoes per Mora.”

“Thank you.” Kaveh grabbed the can and put it in the shopping cart while Al-Haitham returned the other to the shelf. Before he had a chance to turn around, Kaveh moved to kiss Al-Haitham.

Without looking over, Al-Haitham’s mouth shifted to the side to respond to the peck like it was a natural habit. So easy and automatic.

Kaveh leaned back, heart feeling a little warm and unsteady.

“Have everything on your list?” asked Al-Haitham.

“Uh-huh.” Kaveh nodded, not trusting himself to speak more than that.

“Alright, then let’s check out.”

And oh, it was so domestic it was almost disgusting–leaning into the warmth of Al-Haitham’s shoulder while they pushed a shopping cart up and down the aisles, picking out food to make meals together and put in their shared fridge in their shared apartment. 

So, yeah, all the new stuff they added to their relationship was pretty good.

That weekend, Cyno and Tighnari wanted to meet up at a cafe to study. It was extremely hipster—the kind of hipster cafe where all the guys that walked in had septum piercings and black nail polish. Cyno had neither of those things, but he liked to spend a lot of time there, and thus, by extension, so did Tighnari.

Kaveh met up with them first because Al-Haitham had to meet up with some people for a project and then go on an insane person multi-mile run. Which was fine, it gave him a chance to catch up with Cyno and Tighnari.

After ordering a coffee with some crazy literary name, he found Cyno and Tighnari in the side room at a little table in the corner. Kaveh set his coffee down, set up his work station, and caught up with them about the semester.

“How are you and Al-Haitham?” asked Cyno.

“Don’t—” interrupted Tighnari. “Do not. I don’t want to hear about their relationship.”

Kaveh made a face. “Please, you were so grateful when we finally got together and now you don’t want to hear anything—”

“Because I wanted you to shut up about it!” Tighnari sighed into his hands.

Cyno’s eyes darted to the side. He seemed to be trying to wait for Tighnari’s approval, but when he didn’t verbally get it, he pushed forward anyway. “So, you and Al-Haitham?”

Kaveh, despite himself, flushed. “We’re good.”

Tighnari made a face. “‘We’re good.’ That’s all? What are you–Al-Haitham?”

“I thought you wanted me to shut up about my relationship!”

“You should talk about it now so you don’t text me about it later.”

Kaveh flipped him off. “We’re doing fine. We’re doing great. We’re–” He thought of pushing a cart around a grocery store together with Al-Haitham while they pondered the fruits and the vegetables and inspected eggs for cracks, of the late nights of studying and the small grin Al-Haitham tried to hide when Kaveh started crawling onto the couch. He thought of the mornings where he rolled over to find the warmth of another body laying next to him, and when there was just an inch between them and Kaveh was allowed to look all he wanted and touch all he wanted and stare into Al-Haitham’s beautiful dumb eyes as long as he wanted and how he was allowed to press their mouths together until the dark of the room gave way to the sunlight.

It was fucking embarrassing.

“Why are you blushing?” Tighnari looked mildly disgusted. “Are you thinking about your wild and crazy sex?”

Kaveh’s face flamed. “No, what the fuck? I was thinking about wholesome things like–” Grocery shopping and cuddling and wholesome, disgusting, sappy things. “No, actually. You don’t get to know. But I wouldn’t be thinking about that in public. Besides, we haven’t even–”

He clamped his mouth shut.

Cyno’s eyebrows climbed all the way to the roof of his forehead. “Huh?”

“I didn’t say anything.” Kaveh lifted his cup and mumbled into it.

“Are you implying you haven’t slept together yet?” asked Tighnari.

“Why do you want to know? Weren’t you—fucking—complaining earlier about not wanting to hear about my relationship. I don’t ask about your sex lives.”

Tighnari furrowed his eyebrows. “Well, no, I don’t want to hear about it. But I just kinda thought…I dunno, like you’d jump his bones the moment you got the chance

“The fuck does that mean?”

Tighnari shrugged, though there was a sparkle of mischief in his eye as he glanced down at his coffee.

“Why would I jump his bones?” Kaveh, inexplicably, felt pissed off, agitation itching under his collar. “Listen, he had a crush on me since his freshman year. If anything, Al-Haitham should be the one wanting to jump my—”

“What do I want to jump?”

Kaveh startled. He whirled around to find Al-Haitham sliding into the chair next to him.

“Impeccable timing.” The corner of Cyno’s mouth quirked up.

“What?” Al-Haitham glanced at Kaveh. “What am I jumping?”

“Kaveh’s bones,” said Tighnari.

“ Shut the fuck up!” Kaveh scrambled forward, trying to cover Tighnari’s mouth across the table. “Shut the fuck up, why are you like this?”

Tighnari leaned back and laughed, clutching his stomach while Kaveh’s face burned hot enough to melt a hole through the table. He pointedly kept his eyes trained down, though the quieter, morbidly curious part wanted him to look at Al-Haitham’s face to see what he was thinking. A moment later, it won out and he glanced to the side to find Al-Haitham giving him a curious look.

“...what were you talking about before I got here?” he asked slowly.

“Age-appropriate things.”

“Like…me jumping your bones?”

“Shut the fuck up!” Kaveh buried his face in his hands. “Oh my gods, can we please just start studying?”

They didn’t talk in depth about that conversation after that scene at the cafe, other than a few sly remarks from Al-Haitham, which only ended in Kaveh smacking him and then kissing him into a wall until they both forgot about it. And thus, that line of conversation fizzled out.

But Kaveh kept thinking about it. How could he not?

They’d been dating for a month and hadn’t slept together yet–which was fine, of course, and it was a normal amount of time to be dating someone and not having slept with them yet. But now that Tighnari had brought it up–well…

But it was fine. It was fine. It was not taking up more of Kaveh’s headspace. Al-Haitham had never dated anyone before–this was his first relationship after all–and Kaveh certainly didn’t feel like he was missing anything, so they would go on Al-Haitham’s timeline.

One day after another late night in the studio, Kaveh came home to find Al-Haitham sitting at his usual spot on the couch. Except, instead of facing the coffee table, he sat cross legged in the middle of the couch, facing sideways as he peered down at his laptop.

“Hey,” said Kaveh.

Al-Haitham didn’t look up, which probably meant he had the noise-canceling on on his headphones.

Kaveh set his backpack on the ground and crept over. Al-Haitham still hadn’t noticed him. He traced his eyes up the curve of Al-Haitham’s back and stopped where the silver of his hair parted like curtains around the nape of his neck. Kaveh climbed behind Al-Haitham on the couch, letting his weight sink the cushion as the only warning he was there before Kaveh draped himself over Al-Haitham’s back, laying his sternum over the ridges of his spine. He hooked his chin over the shoulder.

Al-Haitham slid one headphone cup off his ear and tilted his head.

“What are you doing?” he murmured.

“Draping myself over you like a coat.”

“I can see that,” said Al-Haitham, but there was a warmth in his voice that Kaveh knew how to listen for now.

Kaveh smiled and pressed it into the skin of Al-Haitham’s neck. “What are you doing?”

“Working on a paper.” Al-Haitham’s voice rumbled against Kaveh’s chest. 

“Gross.” Kaveh stayed there for a moment longer, soaking in the feel of Al-Haitham’s skin before he reluctantly peeled himself off. He smiled when he noticed Al-Haitham leaning back a bit like he was chasing his warmth. 

Kaveh slid back to the floor, pulled his materials out of his backpack, and got to work.

They continued their usual routine of studying silently next to each other. The clock ticked in time with the steady throbbing of Kaveh’s headache like a resonant frequency until it felt like his head was going to break. Finally, when he couldn’t take it anymore, Kaveh stood.

“I’m going to bed,” he told Al-Haitham.

“Hm.” Al-Haitham hummed.

Kaveh stepped closer until he was hovering. “Goodnight.”

Al-Haitham grunted again.

Kaveh huffed a laugh before he flicked the underside of Al-Haitham’s chin, tilting his head up. “Hey,” he said, smiling as Al-Haitham’s eyes flicked up to meet his.

Kaveh leaned down and kissed Al-Haitham–soft and light. He lifted his head, about to pull away, when a hand hooked around the back of his neck and yanked him down.

“Mmh–!” Kaveh let out a muffled sound as he collapsed on top of Al-Haitham. 

He didn’t get a moment to breathe before Al-Haitham shoved his tongue into his mouth. He felt it forcefully press against his before pulling back, flicking up to the roof of his mouth to his teeth–Al-Haitham kept pulling and taking and shoving heat down his throat until Kaveh finally managed to pull off with a disgusting MWAH sound.

He stumbled back, dazed.

Al-Haitham looked up at him unblinkingly through his hair. He tilted his head.

The indignation finally caught up with him and outpaced the shock. “You–

Al-Haitham suddenly smiled, stopping him short. “Goodnight, Kaveh.”

“What–” He sputtered, the furnace in his stomach reigniting. “What was that for? Why did you do that?”

“Just kissing you goodnight.”

That was not a goodnight kiss. Kaveh watched him for a moment before he spat out, “That was so rude.”

The smile widened. “But you seemed to enjoy it.” 

Kaveh’s face burned. “Fuck–fuck off.”

Confused, and maybe a teeny-tiny bit horny, Kaveh turned around and marched into his room, leaving Al-Haitham to work on the couch alone.

It wasn’t that they’d never kissed like that before, it was that Al-Haitham had never taken initiative like that , and it caught Kaveh completely off guard. And honestly–the fucking nerve of him! It pissed Kaveh off more than anything (and made him a little hot under the collar, but Al-Haitham didn’t need to know that.)

Kaveh started plotting his revenge when he woke the next morning. If there was nothing else about him, Kaveh knew at least that he could hold a grudge–the case and point being the entire beginning of their relationship. He thought up ways to fluster Al-Haitham, to catch him off guard, something , then figured he would let the moment just guide him.

They cycled through a few days of their usual routine: going to class and studying and drinking water when they remembered, and sometimes crawling into each other’s beds if they happened to go to bed at the same time–which was, lately, not often.

Finally, the weekend rolled around again and they found themselves watching a shitty reality T.V. show. Kaveh sat next to Al-Haitham on the couch, arm to arm, thigh to thigh, like two magnets stuck together.

“Archons, I can’t believe he said that,” muttered Kaveh. “She literally said why she doesn’t want to be with him so many times, he just didn’t listen to her!”

Al-Haitham hummed.

The man said something on screen and Kaveh nearly threw his phone at the screen. “She just said why! Archons!” He flopped back onto the couch.

“He says it’s not a big deal as if it isn’t a fundamental core belief,” noted Al-Haitham. “He clearly lacks any ability to think beyond himself.”

Kaveh turned to him, eyes a little wide. This was definitely one of the most inappropriate times to have his stomach liquify, but there was something so funny and so inexplicably attractive about watching Al-Haitham so seriously responding to this terrible show that only Kaveh a Cyno liked. He felt a surge of affection so strong it would have knocked him off his feet if he wasn’t already sitting.

When Kaveh didn’t respond, Al-Haitham turned to him. “Right? Am I right?”

Kaveh responded by kissing him.

When he pulled back, Al-Haitham blinked at him. Al-Haitham didn’t smile, per se, but the corners of his eyes crinkled a bit. “What was that for?”

“I’m just glad you’re enjoying the show.”

Al-Haitham huffed a laugh. “Yeah?”

An idea sprouted in his mind. 

Kaveh leaned close until their noses nearly touched. “Yeah.”

Al-Haitham didn’t move back, but his eyes widened almost imperceptibly. “Kaveh?”

He tilted his chin up, aligning the axis between their lips. He could feel the puff of Al-Haitham’s breath against his skin, so close that entropy demanded he fall forward. But he held back. He waited for the air between them to charge.

Al-Haitham watched him for a long moment, neither moving nor shifting, not even the faintest blush coloring his face. A long moment passed and then his eyebrows dropped like he was unimpressed. “Are you going to do something?”

Kaveh sighed. “Gah, what the fuck!” He leaned back. “Why aren’t you flustered?”

Al-Haitham blinked at him. “What?”

“Why are you like this?” Kaveh reached over and brushed Al-Haitham’s bangs out of the way, revealing the smooth skin of his forehead. 

“Like what?” Al-Haitham gave him a flat look. “You just leaned into my space. I’m not sure what you were expecting from me.”

Irritation flashed down his spine, but Kaveh reached forward and gripped Al-Haitham’s hair by the roots before yanking him forward.

Kaveh swallowed the surprised noise Al-Haitham made. He thrust his tongue forward, prying apart the barrier of his lips. He nipped at his lower lip and dug his fingers into the muscles of his shoulder and clenched his fist in his hair tighter until Al-Haitham grunted. And because he was feeling a little bold, he sucked Al-Haitham’s tongue all the way into his mouth before finally shoving him back.

The tips of Al-Haitham’s ears had gone a little pink and his hair was ruffled from where Kaveh had grabbed. He somehow still looked mostly unaffected, but Kaveh latched onto the pink and still took it as a victory.

“Vengeance,” he said.

Al-Haitham gave him an incredulous look. “What?”

Kaveh rolled his eyes. “Nevermind. Just keep watching the show.”

He turned back to face the T.V. and pointedly did not look at Al-Haitham for the rest of the evening. But as they made it through another three hours of the show, he thought he could feel a pair of eyes burning into the side of his head.

It happened again on an early Tuesday morning when Al-Haitham stepped out of the shower after his six a.m. workout.

Kaveh slept in his own room the previous night because he didn’t want to get woken up by Al-Haitham. He’d planned to sleep in, but some combination of anxiety and forgotten open curtains woke him up to the sound of the shower shutting off.

He thought nothing of it as he rose from bed, pushing his greasy bangs out of his face. Archons, he really needed a shower. Kaveh padded into the hall right as the bathroom door opened.

Steam billowed into the hall like a fog machine at a concert. A silhouette stepped out, and there stood Al-Haitham in all his shirtless glory. There was a towel draped around his shoulder and a single drop of water sliding down his cheek, stopping at the just of his chin. He lifted the corner of the towel to wipe his face, and when he lowered it, he finally realized someone else was in the hall.

“Oh,” said Al-Haitham. “Do you need the shower?”

“I–” Kaveh couldn’t say what the color of anything was. All he could focus on was the mortifying thought that he wanted to drag his tongue across Al-Haitham’s chest.

“Kaveh?”

He suddenly felt irritated. Kaveh shoved a hand through his hair and grumbled, “This isn’t fair.”

“What?”

Stupid, oblivious Al-Haitham. Kaveh huffed. “Yes, I need the shower.” Probably a cold one. “Just–gotta. Uh. Get my towel.” He turned quickly to hide any embarrassing bodily reactions and retreated into his room, leaving Al-Haitham standing alone in the hall.

The shower incident did not pass without its consequences. The ease with which they’d hung around and off of each other suddenly turned a little more tense. Kaveh was normally a koala bear and Al-Haitham was his tree, but now all of a sudden, brushing elbows in the kitchen made his face flame like a wildfire. His own fucking boyfriend! What was he–a twelve-year-old?

Kaveh found himself pressing close and drawing back from Al-Haitham like the tides to the shore. Al-Haitham was an adult with his own mind, but Kaveh didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. He didn’t want to come on too strong or move too fast or fuck up Al-Haitham’s perception of dating. This was his first relationship, after all–which was becoming more and more baffling by the day considering how hot and mean he was. Though, Kaveh was secretly glad for it because the more selfish part of him loved the idea that he could be the one to teach Al-Haitahm everything.

They still spent most of their time together studying because the assignments did not pause for Kaveh’s sexual crisis. Everyday following the shower incident, Kaveh still crawled to his normal spot on the living room floor and tried not to think too hard about the guy sitting four feet away from him. But the routine of sitting and staring at work, then idling, then getting bored started up again, and Kaveh soon found himself rising onto the couch to do something about it.

Al-Haitham watched with a spark of amusement in his eye as Kaveh pulled the tablet out of his hands. “It’s only been twenty minutes, Kaveh.”

“Twenty–long, arduous, torturous–minutes.” He pushed down on Al-Haitham’s chest until he reclined backwards. 

Kaveh buried his face in Al-Haitham’s neck and breathed him in like he was drowning. He pushed further, nosing along the juncture that connected to the shoulder before he bit it lightly.

“You smell good,” said Kaveh.

“Thanks,” said Al-Haitham flatly. “It’s the same shampoo I’ve been using for years.”

Kaveh lifted his head and glared down at him. “Stop mouthing off.”

The corner of Al-Haitham’s mouth curled up. “Are you going to make me?”

The back of Kaveh’s neck burned. “Shut up. You’re so embarrassing.” Then, he leaned down and kissed him.

He could never get enough of Al-Haitham’s hair when they were like this–or his clothes or his skin or his hands or any of him. A warm pair of hands found their way around his waist and thumbed at the hem of his shirt. His fingers brushed lightly along the skin, leaving sparks in their wake. The thumbs pushed higher, higher, until they grabbed enough skin to pinch.

Kaveh darted his tongue out and swiped obnoxiously along the open seam of Al-Haitham’s lips. He grunted and shoved Kaveh off before wiping the saliva off with the back of his hand.

“Stop that.” Al-Haitham glared.

Kaveh grinned and leaned down again, kissing him again in the most insincere apology.

Al-Haitham wound an arm around his torso and tugged. Kaveh fell with an oof . When their chests touched, Al-Haitham inhaled sharply–the smallest of reactions, but enormous for Al-Haitham. Kaveh grinned and–well, Al-Haitham didn’t seem to like that, because a hand tugged at Kaveh’s neck, forcing out a small gasp.

Stupid, stupid, thought Kaveh.

Suddenly, something hard pressed against his leg, and it sent a dangerous thrill down his spine.It wasn’t that he’d never felt it before, just that they hadn’t been so close like this. Kaveh didn’t know how long they’d been horizontal on the couch, but his legs were going numb, which normally meant Al-Haitham would’ve pushed him off at this point to to get them back to work.

And yet, he hadn’t.

Kaveh grinned at the thought. To think that for all these years, Al-Haitham had been able to get under Kaveh’s skin so easily, but for all his caterwauling, Kaveh could never do the same back. But now, in this position, Al-Haitham was in his hands, at his mercy.

The hard thing stayed pressed against his leg and did not move. Neither of them moved to do anything about it. He felt content enough just being there on the couch, pressing Al-Haitham deeper and deeper into the cushions.

Eventually, when he got a little too dizzy from the lack of air, Kaveh pulled off with an embarrassing popping sound. He looked down, breathing heavily.

Al-Haitham lay sprawled beneath him, hair thrown in a million different directions across the arm of the couch. His pupils were blown wide, large enough to swallow the iris like the deep pit of the Abyss, and there was a lovely, lovely flush across his face, like he was a flower with veins in the petals, glowing and alive underneath the skin.

A long moment of silence stretched between them. Finally, Kaveh spoke.

“Um, oops.”

Al-Haitham looked to the side and swiped his phone off the coffee table. Kaveh watched the screen light up his eyes as it turned on.

“It’s eleven thirty,” said Al-Haitham.

“What?” They’d been making out for twenty minutes. Fucking embarrassing.

He knew he should probably get off the couch, but he didn’t want to detach himself from Al-Haitham’s warmth. Kaveh waited for his boyfriend to push him off, yet neither of them moved.

“Um–” started Kaveh.

“You–” said Al-Haitham.

He stopped. Kaveh sucked in a breath, feeling his pulse slow from a wild sprint to a steadier rhythm, and glanced at Al-Haitham. “Sorry, what were you going to say?”

Al-Haitham didn’t answer and, inexplicably, turned a little pinker. 

Kaveh sighed. “I, uh, I should get back to work. Floor plan due in a week.”

Al-Haitham nodded. Kaveh watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

“Sorry for keeping you,” he said stiffly before sliding off the couch, avoiding looking anywhere below Al-Haitham’s waist. He paused for a moment before dropping a kiss on Al-Haitham’s forehead. Then, he walked to the other side of the coffee table and got back to work.

For both of their sakes, neither of them spoke that much for the rest of the night.

After almost four years of studying at the Akademiya, Kaveh had only ever stepped onto the business campus three times: once as a freshman when he’d gotten lost, once on a drunk excursion on a Friday night when he and Cyno had procured their first illegal bottle of vodka, and once when he had to take brief shelter from the rain. Otherwise, he tried to avoid that part of campus as much as possible. Mostly because he wanted to avoid business majors and also because the sheer amount of funding the college of business got pissed him off, and it showed so vibrantly in their uniform red-brick buildings and their clean lecture halls with new desks and most up-to-date technology, almost like they were mocking him.

Unfortunately, his favorite business major, Dunyarzad, had texted him that morning, inviting him to study with her in the afternoon. And because he barely had time to see her otherwise, he said yes.

And so, he found himself wandering the halls of the basement of one of those buildings. Dunyarzad said that she was a bit farther away from the stairs, which left Kaveh digging through the maze of the basement.

When he caught a flash of a purple sweater out of the corner of his eye, he stopped abruptly and turned around, marching into the empty classroom.

“Dunyarzad!” He cried.

Dunyarzad lifted her head and smiled. “Kaveh! Hello!”

“Hello, lovely.” He took a seat across the table across from her. “How are you? How are classes and everything?”

“Good, good. They’re all fine.”

They caught up for a few minutes, getting each other up to date on the bad professors and the interesting classes and various inter-classroom drama. Studying with friends was always dangerous because they could end up talking for an hour before they got a minute of work done. Which, unfortunately, was happening right now. Kaveh caught a glimpse of the time and managed to snap out of it. 

Kaveh slammed his hands on the table. “Dunyarzad. I love you dearly, but I really need to get this floor plan done.”

“Right, yes, sorry, sorry.” Dunyarzad clasped her hands together. “Oh! Wait, do you want to come over on Friday? Dehya and I are having a party.”

“Yes! Of course!” Knowing them, they’d be serving drinks, and nothing tasted sweeter than free alcohol. “What for?”

Dunyarzad shrugged. “Candace was in a party mood and Dehya said it had been a while since people came over.”

“Hm.” Kaveh hummed. “Al-Haitham’s invited too, right?”

“Of course.” Dunyarzad smiled, and then frowned. “Well, on the condition that you don’t, ‘do anything gross with Al-Haitham.’ Dehya’s words, not mine.”

Kaveh scoffed, offended. “Like I would! I’m very respectful in public.” 

“I believe you.”

“That’s not something you need to believe in!”

“I mean, I believe you.”

Kaveh sighed. “Dunyarzad…”

She laughed lightly and patted his arm. “Let’s start doing some work, shall we?”

Friday rolled around and Kaveh dragged Al-Haitham over to Dehya and Dunyarzad’s apartment early to try and get some of the good alcohol in him before the party started. To his dismay, Al-Haitham waved off the sangria and drank water instead.

“You’re not drinking?” asked Kaveh.

“No.”

Kaveh pouted. “Why not?”

Al-Haitham raised an eyebrow. “Why do you sound disappointed?”

“I’m not, I’m just–” Kaveh was already three drinks in and probably a little too tipsy for this conversation. “Just thinking…you were really cute at Nilou’s party. You haven’t drank since–so like–” Words became too complicated in his mouth, so he held out his solo cup of sangria instead.

Al-Haitham waved it away. “No, thanks.”

Kaveh huffed. “Why not?”

“I don’t want to give you the satisfaction of embarrassing me.”

Kaveh scrunched his eyebrows as something clicked for him. “Wait, were you embarrassed at Nilou’s party?”

If Al-Haitham had alcohol in him, Kaveh was sure he’d be blushing. Since he did not, Al-Haitham just raised an eyebrow instead.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Al-Haitham. You were so cute. I just wanna hear about your big fat crush on me again. Or, or, or whatever else goes on in your big head. You’re cute when you talk about your feelings. Just–just–just–you should try the sangria, it’d be rude not to after Dunyarzad put so much work into–” Kaveh lifted his cup to Al-Haitham’s mouth.

Al-Haitham caught his wrist. “Are you trying to get me drunk because you want to drag embarrassing secrets out of me?”

“No, I would never!”

Al-Haitham pushed the cup back towards him. “Nice try.”

“Please, please, I am begging you two to get a room,” pleaded Dehya from the kitchen.

“We’re not even doing anything!” Kaveh cried.

Plot foiled, Kaveh lowered his cup and resorted to clinging to Al-Haitham instead. More people trickled into the apartment and the party became more lively. He spent a good portion of the evening latched onto Al-Haitham’s arm while he dragged them around to talk to people. When Kaveh found some unfortunate soul he recognized, Al-Haitham stood silently like a pillar while Kaveh leaned against him and chatted their ear off.

“Hey,” interrupted Al-Haitham. He tilted his chin up towards the door. “Look.”

Kaveh turned to the door and saw Cyno and Tighnari stepping in.

“Oh!” Kaveh detached himself from Al-Haitham’s arm and dashed toward the front. “Hi!”

Tighnari spotted him and his face immediately fell. “Dude, are you drunk already?”

Kaveh stopped in his tracks. “What the hell, Tighnari? Why aren’t you happy to see me?” He whined. 

“I am, I just don’t want to be near you while you’re drunk and flirting with Al-Haitham.”

“Rude!”

Beside him, Cyno nodded his head. “Hey, Kaveh.”

“Hi, Cyno. Thanks for greeting me like a normal person.” He looped an arm through Cyno’s. “Do you wanna play Pong with me?”

Cyno blinked, then nodded, a spark of competition in his eye.

“Tighnari, you, too!” Kaveh grabbed Tighnari with his other free arm and marched toward the kitchen. When they passed Al-Haitham, he jerked his head to indicate he should follow.

They played a sloppy haphazard game with Kaveh and Cyno against Tighnari and Al-Haitham. Kaveh and Cyno won because they both actually cared about Pong while their boyfriends were just humoring them. Al-Haitham pointed out it wasn’t quite fair that the two good players were on a team with each other, so Cyno and Al-Haitham swapped and they began a new game–couple vs. couple.

It only took a few minutes for Kaveh to grasp how truly bad Al-Haitham was at Pong. Either that, or he truly didn’t care to try. The game ended quickly and new people slotted in to replace Al-Haitham and Tighnari. Kaveh began his third game of Pong, and then he soon lost track of Al-Haitham after that.

Kaveh managed to break away from the Pong table after that game, significantly drunker. He flitted around the apartment trying to greet anyone and everyone. He recognized one of Nilou’s roommates as she walked in and he ran over to give her a hug before asking where Nilou was.

“She’s coming soon,” said the roommate. “She’s running a little late.”

“Oh, okay.” Kaveh thought for a moment. “Where’s Al-Haitham?”

She blinked. “Who?”

Ah, right, Al-Haitham didn’t really make himself known to people. Despite being friends with Nilou for years, he still somehow managed to avoid ever introducing himself to people he didn’t care to know.

“Boyfriend,” said Kaveh absentmindedly. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, I’m gonna go look for him.” 

She frowned. “Kaveh, have you had any water yet?”

He hummed and patted her on the shoulder before leaving.

The conversation had flipped a switch in his head, and Kaveh suddenly couldn’t focus on socializing anymore. Instead, he wandered around the apartment like a lost child searching for Al-Haitham. If he wasn’t so smashed and the apartment wasn’t so dark, this would have been way easier. But Kaveh had to hold the image of Al-Haitham’s face in his head like a beacon, and he kept walking.

Kaveh finally found Al-Haitham pressed into the corner of the couch while Nilou and Dehya were laughing about something with Dunyarzad. Kaveh grinned and dropped onto the arm of the couch.

“Hiii,” he sang. “Did you miss me?”

Al-Haitham glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow. He took a sip from his cup–still filled entirely with water– and looked back down. “No,” he said, sounding bored.

“Ugh, you’re so mean. ” Kaveh dropped his head on top of Al-Haitham’s knocking their skulls together. “Ow!”

“That was your own fault,” said Al-Haitham, but still, he reached up and lightly brushed his fingers against Kaveh’s head.

“I’m drunk,” said Kaveh.

“That doesn’t mean you don’t have consequences.”

“No, but it means you have to be nicer to me.” Kaveh stretched his legs out and let himself slide down the arm of the couch until he landed on the edge of Al-Haitham’s thigh.

“I don’t remember that ever being a rule.” 

“It’s one of those unwritten ones.” Kaveh waved his hand as he tried to get comfortable in Al-Haitham’s lap. “In the good boyfriend manual.”

Al-Haitham shifted, trying to move him off. “Get off of me, it’s hot in here.”

“Awww, why are you being so stone-faced now when you were so sweet to me last night?”

At that moment, Dehya pivoted toward them, face twisted in disgust. “Hey, what the fuck am I listening to?”

Al-Haitham, unfortunately, was not flustered. “He means when I made him tea last night when he was too lazy to get up.”

Kaveh tried not to pout. “You’re ruining my fun. What’s wrong with you? Get embarrassed or flustered or something!” He leaned back against the arm of the couch. “Sober Al-Haitham is so boring and–unflusterable.”

“That’s not a word.”

“Okay, Mr. Linguistics.”

“Linguistics doesn't have anything to do with that."

“I know that!”

“I think you should probably take Kaveh home,” interrupted Dehya. “Since he's drunk enough to start flirting with you again.” 

Kaveh cried indignantly. “That was barely flirting!”

“Up, up.” Al-Haitham gave him a light push on the back. 

Kaveh rose with a scowl, only half stumbling as he stepped away from the couch.

“Text us when you’re home!” Nilou called.

“We will.” Al-Haitham threw an arm around Kaveh to mollify him. “Come on,” he murmured.

“Why do you keep taking care of me?” Kaveh laughed. “You got a crush on me or something?”

Al-Haitham rolled his eyes and led them out the door.

Kaveh gave into the call of gravity and leaned into Al-Haitham’s side. His fingers buzzed in tune with the vibrating world around him, but he could still make out the feeling of Al-Haitham’s shoulders shifting beneath his arm as they walked. 

“You smell good,” Kaveh said into Al-Haitham’s hair.

“I showered this morning,” responded Al-Haitham.

“I know.” They stepped out into the cool night air. “I like your shampoo.”

“You’re not allowed to use it,” said Al-Haitham.

“As if I would!” Kaveh burst. “I have my own shampoo and conditioner that works fantastic for me. I wouldn’t use your dumb shampoo.”

“Didn’t you just say you liked it?”

“I like it on you. Not me.”

Kaveh meant for it to sound sharp, biting, but Al-Haitham, unfortunately, smiled at that. Kaveh watched in slow motion as the corner of Al-Haitham’s mouth quirked up so charmingly that his knees buckled.

Al-Haitham caught him. “Archons, how much did you drink?”

Kaveh felt a little hazy. “I–uh, like…five. Or six.” 

“Did you drink water?”

“I drank your water.”

Al-Haitham sighed because Kaveh had only taken three sips of Al-Haitham’s water, all sporadically throughout the night and certainly not enough.

“You’re going to learn the consequences of your actions one day.” 

“But you’re gonna be there to take care of me, right?”

“No.”

Kaveh grinned into the dark.

When they arrived at the apartment complex, it was another hassle and a half trying to get Kaveh up the stairs without tripping and getting his teeth knocked in. Al-Haitham held Kaveh’s hand with one hand while unlocking the door with the other, and when he shoved it open, Kaveh stumbled inside and kicked off his shoes.

They began the routine again of Kaveh trying to lay down and Al-Haitham trying his damndest to get Kaveh into proper sleeping clothes. They’d done this dance enough times that this time, it only took ten minutes to get Kaveh out of his party clothes and into one of Al-Haitham’s old T-shirts. Then, Al-Haitham released him.

Kaveh made a beeline for Al-Haitham’s bed. He threw off the covers and crawled to the right side of the bed. 

Al-Haitham raised an eyebrow. “Comfortable?”

Kaveh responded by making grabby hands.

Al-Haitham rolled his eyes. “Give me a second.”

Kaveh made a noise of dissent as he waited impatiently for Al-Haitham to get changed. 

They’d started spending more time in Al-Haitham’s bed than Kaveh’s since they started dating, mostly because Al-Haitham argued that he had the nicer mattress and nicer comforter even though Kaveh had the nicer pillows–and because Kaveh’s room was often cluttered from all the materials for his various architecture projects, but he missed his pillows and wanted to argue that a memory foam mattress was not superior by default.

“Al-Haitham!” called Kaveh.

“What?” Al-Haitham’s voice was muffled from the bathroom.

“Where are you?” His voice strained trying to speak at an audible volume, but he was already halfway asleep. “I miss you.”

A pause, and then a laugh.

Kaveh grumbled into one of the pillows. A few minutes later, Al-Haitham returned from the bathroom and crawled in next to him.

Kaveh lunged for him in an instant, pressing close until their skin lined up inch to inch. He’d always been a clingy sort of drunk, grabbing onto arms and shoulders wherever they were, but now he wanted to be glued to Al-Haitham–wanted to curl up into his chest and lace their ribcages together.

“You missed me?” Al-Haitham murmured, amused. “While I was in the bathroom? You’re gonna be embarrassed when I remind you in the morning.”

Kaveh snorted into Al-Haitham’s shoulder. “Whatever. At least it can’t be more embarrassing than you admitting you had a crush on me freshman year and didn’t do anything about it except ask me to move in with y–”

Al-Haitham cut him off by rolling over on top of him and shoving his tongue all the way into Kaveh’s mouth. He let out a muffled mmph sound before he managed to shove Al-Haitham off, wiping the saliva off with the back of his hand.

“Vile, ” he said.

Al-Haitham grinned–and Kaveh thought he looked so charming when he smiled like that, and that he should smile more, but only for Kaveh.

“You deserved it,” said Al-Haitham. “But I’ll apologize if you go to sleep.”

“Make it up to me.” Kaveh pouted.

Al-Haitham’s eyes darted down, then back up, before he leaned in again.

Kaveh grinned into Al-Haitham’s mouth. He wrapped his arms around Al-Haitham’s neck and pulled, trying to press their chests together, but Al-Haitham’s stupid strong, muscular arms kept him up and hovering. Kaveh grunted in disappointment before he gave up and focused back on the wet slide of Al-Haitham’s tongue.

Maybe it was something about the movement, the shuffling, and the tangling of the blankets between their legs, but Kaveh soon found it hard to breathe again. There was the sound of Al-Haitham’s mouth moving, the blankets rustling around them. He could barely hear it over the roar of blood rushing through his ears. Breathing hard, heart hammering in his chest, Kaveh yanked his head to the side and tore his mouth away to break contact.

It took him a moment to realize Al-Haitham was also breathing hard. Kaveh could feel his chest pressing into him with every exhale.

Kaveh turned back and tilted his head up. Al-Haitham stared at him.

“Hey. Al-Haitham.” Kaveh lifted his eyes.

“What?” He sounded so winded–so out of breath–it snapped the last thread of self-control he had.

“Why haven’t you fucked me yet?”

Al-Haitham’s eyes went wide. “What?”

Kaveh pushed himself up on his elbows, tilting his head up so their noses were nearly touching. “Why. Haven’t. You fucked me yet?”

Al-Haitham looked like a fish at that moment, open and closing his mouth as he searched for a response. 

“I don’t–” Al-Haitham hesitated, which was entirely out of character for him. “I’m not sure…what you mean.”

Didn’t know what he meant? Moron. Stupid fucking moron. What else could it mean except for the fact that he wanted Al-Haitham to fold him in half and fuck him into the headboard?

“Uh–” Al-Haitham’s eyes widened.

It took a moment for his brain to catch up. “Oops, did I say that out loud?”

Al-Haitham nodded mutely.

Kaveh narrowed his eyes. “And what do you think?”

Al-Haitham stared at him silently.

Kaveh gave him half a minute before he grew tired of waiting and pulled Al-Haitham down again. He lifted a knee, pressing it between Al-Haitham’s legs, and rolled them over until he was on top. Kaveh shifted on Al-Haitham and let gravity press him down, down, down.

Al-Haitham responded in kind, exhaling softly through his nose. He was so silent, so unmovable most of the time that Kaveh went a little insane at every reaction he drew out of him. Kaveh shifted his legs until he was straddling Al-Haitham’s waist. 

“Oh–” Al-Haitham startled. 

Maybe Kaveh was a little too drunk or a little too horny, but he felt that thrill running down his spine again like when they’d made out on the couch. And he so, so badly wanted to grind down onto that hard thing pressing between his legs, but a pair of hands reached up and gripped his hips, stopping him cold.

A whine hissed out of his throat. “What?” He peered down at Al-Haitham.

“Just–” He sounded so winded it made Kaveh want to devour him. “We’re not doing this now, not while you’re drunk.” Al-Haitham’s hands softened on his hips. “I’m not fucking you until you’re sober.”

Kaveh stared down at a moment before he huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of his face. “Boo, but I guess you’re right.” He slid sideways and flopped backwards onto the bed. His hand landed somewhere on Al-Haitham’s face. “You better follow through with it because I deserve it after the way you’ve been teasing me for weeks.”

Al-Haitham said nothing.

“Al-Haitham?” 

Kaveh turned over and peered at him.

Beneath Kaveh’s hand, one eye closed, there was a lovely shade of pink blooming over his skin.

Kaveh rolled onto his side and propped his head up in his hand. 

Al-Haitham’s open eye slid over to him before abruptly shifting back. “I wasn’t…” He inhaled. “I wasn’t teasing you.”

“Oh?” Kaveh leaned closer. “Then what were you doing?”

Al-Haitham didn’t respond to that.

Kaveh sighed. “Hm, not worthy of responses anymore?”

“I was just kissing you.” He said it simply, but he couldn’t meet Kaveh’s eyes.

Kaveh’s heart warmed. “Just kissing me?” He smiled.

Al-Haitham huffed. “Go to sleep, Kaveh.”

“Alrighty, as long as you promise to wake me up with your–”

Al-Haitham cut him off by smothering him with a pillow.

Kaveh woke the next morning slowly with the encroaching light from around the curtains they forgot to close. It took a moment to reorient himself–taking inventory of the feeling of the sheets, the far inferior pillows, and admittedly nicer comforter–and remembered that he was in Al-Haitham’s bed.

How had he gotten there again? Dehya and Dunyarzad had had a party. Al-Haitham had probably taken him home because Kaveh didn’t take care of himself again. The headache throbbing in his head felt a little too sensitive in the sun, which meant he probably hadn’t drunk much water either. He was wearing one of Al-Haitham’s shirts, probably shoved onto him by the owner himself. He’d probably made the whole going-to-bed ordeal incredibly difficult for Al-Haitham, flopping bonelessly in resistance against the removal of his hair clips and earrings and everything. What had happened next? Crawling into bed, whining and waiting for Al-Haitham to come back, curling into his side when he did, and–

Oh, wait.

The memories came rushing back in a tidal wave. Kaveh rolled over, shame crashing over him as he tried to crush the memories out of his head with the pillow. Against his will, echoes of last night flashed through his head–echoes of teeth and tongue and the sound of Al-Haitham gasping in his ear, puffing against his lips, and–

“Ahhh!” Kaveh hissed into his pillow.

To his great and eternal mortification, Al-Haitham groaned beside him. “What?”

Of course, of course. Since he was in Al-Haitham’s bed, why wouldn’t it mean that Al-Haitham wasn’t there, too? Kaveh tentatively lifted his head and peered over at him.

“Nothing, nothing.” Thank the Archons Al-Haitham wasn’t looking at him. He had an arm thrown over his eyes so all that was visible was the lower part of his face. 

“Then stop yelling,” muttered Al-Haitham.

“Okay,” he squeaked.

The sunlight pressed in sleepily through the window, pale in the morning. It crawled up the sheets of Al-Haitham’s comforter, over his chin, and into his now open eyes as they turned to look at Kaveh.

“Kaveh.”

Kaveh squeaked again. “What?”

“Do you remember what you said last night?”

Kaveh burned with the embarrassment of a thousand suns. “You know I remember a lot of things.”

“So, do we want to unpack it?”

“Not right now!” Kaveh threw a pillow at his face. “I just woke up, you have to–let me breathe. For a second.”

“You didn’t seem intent on letting me breathe last night.”

“Shut up shut up shut up!” Kaveh scrambled out of bed. “I’m–going to the studio!”

“What? Kaveh, no, it’s so early–”

He yanked Al-Haitham’s door shut and fled to his room. He shucked off Al-Haitham’s T-shirt, pulled on sweatpants and a Kshahrewar sweater, then grabbed his bag and ran out the apartment, preparing to escape his demons by working for eight hours straight.

Al-Haitham texted him around dinner time: Are you having another mental breakdown?

Kaveh flushed remembering that the last time he’d spent an excessive amount of time in the studio running away from his feelings, he’d had such an epic meltdown in front of Al-Haitham that he realized he could not go more than a day without talking to the man without disaster befalling him.

No, responded Kaveh. Be home soon. Then, he finished gluing the remaining walls of the maquette together before packing his things up and starting the trek home.

He made it back to the apartment without much trouble and when he kicked the door open, he found Al-Haitham eating leftovers while reading a book. The image pissed him off enough that he almost forgot why he’d run away from home in the first place.

“Did you eat without me?” Kaveh shut the door behind him. “Asshole!”

“I didn’t know how long you’d be out,” said Al-Haitham simply. 

“You could have asked!” Kaveh dropped his backpack on the ground and plopped down onto the couch. He dropped his head onto Al-Haitham’s shoulder before pouting into the fabric of his shirt. “What should I eat for dinner?”

“What do you want to eat?”

“I don’t know.”

He could feel Al-Haitham rolling his eyes above him. “Do you want me to make you something?”

“Aww, that’s uncharacteristically sweet of you.” Kaveh pressed his nose into the fabric. “What do you want.”

“To fuck you.”

“Huh?” Kaveh jerked his head up and shoved him away. “Oh my gods, you can’t just say that.” His face burned.

Al-Haitham didn’t fall far, catching himself with an arm. He raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Al-Haitham–”

“Last night, you said–”

“Don’t–”

“‘Fold me in half and–’”

Kaveh buried his face in his hands. “I know, I know, I know what I said, please don’t repeat it.”

“Why not?” He could hear the mirth sinking into Al-Haitham’s voice. “Unless you didn’t mean it.”

“I did.” And still, Kaveh fell for the trap anyway.

Kaveh looked up to find Al-Haitham smiling at him.

“I’m not repeating myself,” Kaveh said, face burning.

The corner of his mouth quirked up higher. “I wasn’t asking you to.” 

Kaveh kicked Al-Haitham’s leg and stood up abruptly. “I’m going to figure out something to eat.”

Al-Haitham’s hand caught his wrist and yanked him back down.

“Hey!” Kaveh fell backwards onto the couch. He blinked and suddenly Al-Haitham was hovering above him. 

“Hi,” said Al-Haitham.

“On the couch?” Kaveh shoved at Al-Haitham’s chest with his free hand. “You animal.”

Al-Haitham leaned down and kissed him.

Kaveh’s traitorous muscle went slack beneath him. Al-Haitham grabbed Kaveh’s other hand and pressed his wrists on top of each other, making it easy to hold him down with one hand. Al-Haitham’s other hand slide up, tracing along Kaveh’s jawline.

It was embarrassing, honestly, how easy it was to shut him up. Kaveh could talk Al-Haitham’s ear off for hours, and before they started dating, there was no easy way to make him stop. But perhaps Kaveh’s greatest mistake in starting this relationship was giving Al-Haitham an easy way to get the upper hand. Super unhelpful in arguments, by the way, but Kaveh couldn’t say it was a loss overall.

Kaveh’s head started to spin. He shifted backwards to tilt his head in a way that would stop the blood from rushing to the crown of his head while trying to stay attached to his boyfriend, but Al-Haitham pulled away.

“Come back!” Kaveh whined.

“Not on the couch,” said Al-Haitham. “I’m not an animal.”

He ground his teeth in irritation. “Finish what you started, coward.”

Al-Haitham raised an eyebrow, sending a shiver down his spine. “Who are you calling a coward?”

Kaveh swallowed, pushing through. “You.”

Al-Haitham watched him for a moment. Kaveh blinked and suddenly he was in the air, supported by an arm under his back and an arm under his legs, limbs jostling together as they walked down the hall.

“Whoa! Whoa!” Kaveh scrambled for purchase. “What the fuck?”

Al-Haitham nudged his bedroom door open with his foot and tossed Kaveh unceremoniously onto the bed.

He watched, heartbeat roaring in his ears, as Al-Haitham kicked the door shut before climbing over him.

“Is this what you wanted?” asked Al-Haitham.

Kaveh swallowed. “Not…necessarily.”

“What do you want then?”

“You know what I want.”

Al-Haitham had a look in his eye like he was on the prowl. He scanned Kaveh’s face slowly while the rest of his body remained motionless.

Then, he moved, caging his arms around Kaveh’s torso. The air between stilled as if suddenly sucked out by a vacuum. The frenzied storm around them had calmed down–or shifted, like they had fumbled their way into the eye of the storm.

Kaveh blew a strand of hair out of his face. “Are you gonna fuck me or not?”

Al-Haitham’s eyes flicked up to his. He could see something wary and uncertain swirling in them.

Every time Al-Haitham hesitated, it made Kaveh pause, because the man went through life so sure of his decision–not necessarily because he knew it was right or correct, but because he knew it aligned with his personal truths. If Al-Haitham was pausing now, what was he thinking about? What was Kaveh missing?

“Wait,” said Kaveh. “Are you a virgin?”

Al-Haitham exhaled. “Yes,” he bit out.

Oh. Well, that made a lot of sense. Kaveh knew that this was Al-Haitham’s first relationship, and while he could have slept with someone before, Al-Haitham didn’t seem to be the type to have sex with someone he wasn’t dating. Hell, Al-Haitham didn’t seem to be the type to date at all. But if he hadn’t–if he was a virgin, no wonder he’d paused.

“Are you…embarrassed?”

Al-Haitham scrunched his eyebrows. “No, of course not.”

“Well, good, because virginity is a social construct.” Kaveh propped himself up on his elbows and leaned forward until their noses were almost touching. “Do you…know what to do?”

Al-Haitham paused before he finally admitted, “No.”

Kaveh smiled. The ball was suddenly back in his court. He leaned back before wrapping his arms around Al-Haitham’s neck and pulling him down. “Don’t worry, I can teach you.”

Whatever initial bravado Al-Haitham had had earlier fled. A wonderful blush bloomed across the entirety of his face, so vibrant that Kaveh wanted to paint a wall that color. Al-Haitham watched him a little warily. Kaveh smiled before kissing him sweetly, then less sweetly. He licked into Al-Haitham’s mouth once before he leaned back.

“What do you want?” asked Kaveh.

Al-Haitham’s eyes opened slowly before his stare dropped down onto Kaveh’s face. There was a long stretch of silence where all he could hear was the sound of their breathing, his own pulse, could only watch the rise and fall of his own chest in his peripheral. He waited, blood thrumming in his veins as Al-Haitham’s eyes tracked his face.

“...I don’t know.” 

Kaveh smiled and reached a hand up to cup his face. “Let me do something then.”

Al-Haitham only had a moment to tilt his head questioningly before Kaeh hooked a leg over his hip and flipped them over. He sat on top of Al-Haitham’s thighs, just a few inches before his hips. 

He leaned forward, voice low. “Can you take your pants off for me?”

Al-Haitham didn’t nod, but he lifted his hips and slid his pants off. Kaveh tried not to be too obvious about his staring, but when he finally managed to peel his eyes away from Al-Haitham’s crotch, he saw Al-Haitham watching him with furrowed brows.

Kaveh flushed. Al-Haitham flushed. “What?”

“Are you just–” Al-Haitham’s voice sounded less annoyed than usual, more strangled. “Going to stare at me?”

Kaveh licked his lips. “No, I’m not.”

Al-Haitham shuddered. Kaveh tugged at his boxers and Al-Haitham lifted his hips to help, and suddenly there he was, laying in all his naked glory on the bed. Something feral reared its head inside of him. Kaveh felt like a neanderthal, reduced to something hungry and wild when looking at Al-Haitham just laying there like that–but gods had he been waiting for this, and how time had worn his self-control thin. He leaned down with little bravado and took Al-Haitham in his mouth.

“Kaveh–” Al-Haitham inhaled sharply.

Kaveh smiled and pulled off. Al-Haitham didn’t whine, per se, but he did let out the most displeased puff of air through his nose. 

Kaveh felt too smug, and maybe a little too reckless, but how often did he have a chance to make Al-Haitham fall apart so easily underneath him like that? 

“How are you doing?” Kaveh laughed.

Al-Haitham furrowed his eyebrows. “You–”

Kaveh bent down and licked a stripe up from base to tip, just to hear the sound of his voice cutting off in a hiss. Kaveh was technically older and wiser, but Al-Haitham had always been the sturdier out of the two of them, but Archons was it lovely seeing him crumble even just a little bit.

“Repeat that?”

Al-Haitham responded with a glare.

He laughed. If Al-Haitham liked something as simple as that, Kaveh wondered what other reactions he could pull out of him. Kaveh rested a hand on Al-Haitham’s inner thigh for support as he bent forward again and took Al-Haitham to the back of his mouth where he opened his throat. Al-Haitham hissed and Kaveh pulled back before going back down again, picking up a rhythm of bobbing his head up and down, trying to rip a voice from Al-Haitham’s throat, trying to fill the gasps with more sound.

Kaveh gripped Al-Haitham’s thigh for support. He brought his other hand up and spat in his palm before wrapping it around Al-Haitham. He began to stroke in tandem with the movement of his head, stopping only to wipe at the saliva dribbling out of the corners of his mouth. He endured it for another moment before he pulled off with a pop.

Al-Haitham let out a noise of displeasure, but Kaveh interrupted it by holding out his wrist–the one that was unoccupied.

“Can you tie my hair up?” asked Kaveh.

“What?” Al-Haitham sat up, looking a little dazed.

“My hand’s wet,” he explained simply. “Can you tie my hair up?”

Al-Haitham blinked, then nodded. He leaned forward and pulled the hair tie off Kaveh’s wrist. He gently gathered Kaveh’s hair from the sides of his face, palms shaking as they brushed against the skin of his face. He tried his utmost to pull it up in a proper ponytail when Kaveh wickedly jerked his hand, pulling a sharp gasp out of him.

“H-Hey…”

Al-Haitham finally managed to get most of Kaveh’s hair up in a ponytail with only a few strands slipping around his face. Kaveh leaned up and kissed him sweetly. “Thanks.”

Al-Haitham responded by flopping back onto the bed.

It was easier to keep going now that his hair was out of his face. He bent his neck and bit at the meat of Al-Haitham’s inner thigh before resuming.

Kaveh wasn’t moving long before Al-Haitham inhaled sharply. A hand landed at the back of his head and held him still. “Stop, Kaveh, stop, I’m gonna–”

Kaveh pulled back and grinned. “Sure. Whatever you need, minute man.”

Al-Haitham’s eyes flashed. “I’m not a minute man.”

“I don’t know, that seemed pretty fast–”

Al-Haitham lunged for him.

Kaveh fell back laughing and wrapped his arms around Al-Haitham’s neck again. He flashed him a grin before it was swallowed up by a kiss.

Al-Haitham pulled back suddenly. “Can–can I–?”

“Wait,” said Kaveh. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.” He slowly pushed himself off the bed. “Let me get some stuff from my room.”

Al-Haitham pressed down on his thigh.

Kaveh tilted his head. “What?”

“I have–” He jerked his head to the side. “In my nightstand–”

“Al-Haitham!” Kaveh nearly shrieked with delight. “Awww, did you prepare for this?”

Al-Haitham gave him a look that said something like, I’m going to destroy you. A little thrill ran from his spine all the way to his dick and he decided that perhaps that was enough teasing for now.

He changed directions and crawled toward the other side of the bed. He opened the drawer of Al-Haitham’s nightstand and pulled out an unopened box of condoms and a shiny new bottle of lube. Despite the context of the situation, despite the items themselves, Kaveh’s heart warmed.

He turned and grabbed the sides of Al-Haitham’s face. “You’re adorable. When did you get these? Were you excited? Were you thinking about this all day–”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up–”

Kaveh cut him off with a laugh. He pulled Al-Haitham close and pecked him lightly on the mouth before laying back on the bed.

“Help me take off my pants?”

Al-Haitham’s face was impassive, but his skin had gone entirely pink. His long, graceful fingers untied the strings of Kaveh’s sweatpants before tugging at the fabric below, leaving him in only his underwear. The cool air hit his legs, raising goosebumps all along his skin.

Kaveh watched as Al-Haitham tossed the sweatpants aside. He looked up and smiled. “One more layer.”

Al-Haitham’s eyes darkened. “You have hands. Do it yourself.”

Kaveh barked a laugh and obliged.

Once his lower half was bare, he focused his eyes on Al-Haitham and held his gaze.

“Watch,” said Kaveh.

And watch he did. He stared–wide-eyed–as Kaveh popped the cap off the lube. He squeezed some of the cold gel onto his fingers before pressing a finger to his entrance.

Al-Haitham inhaled sharply.

“Why are you gasping?” asked Kaveh. “I’m the one getting fingered.”

Al-Haitham looked too dazed to register the quip. “Can I–?”

“Next time.” Kaveh smiled sweetly. “I’ll let you do it next time. Let me show you how to do it first.”

Kaveh pressed the rest of his finger in. He paused, letting himself adjust, before he started moving, working to loosen the muscle. After a long moment, he inserted another finger and looked up.

Al-Haitham was still watching him, face flushed like he was the one getting fingered. But his eyes stayed glued below like there was a magnetic pull to Kaveh’s fingers.

He curled his fingers, and when he brushed a sensitive spot, he let out a low whine. Al-Haitham’s eyes shot up, pupils wide and dark like the mouth of a well.

Kaveh grinned, even as his breathing turned shallow. He opened his mouth to speak when Al-Haitham suddenly kissed him. Kaveh didn’t have a chance to breathe before Al-Haitham shoved his tongue all the way into his mouth, pressing against the roof and along his teeth and pushing against the muscle of Kaveh’s tongue. It took all of his concentration to keep his fingers moving, so all he could do was open his mouth and let Al-Haitham do whatever he wanted.

Kaveh pushed him off when he started to go light headed from lack of air. 

“Hey, you’re supposed to be watching,” Kaveh laughed.

Al-Haitham furrowed his eyebrows, looking a bit disconcerted like someone had just ripped a toy out of his hands. He looked so adorable and Kaveh was a weak man–how could he resist that? 

He leaned forward and kissed Al-Haitham slowly, sweetly, before leaning back again, moving his fingers all the while.

“One more finger,” he promised.

“Okay.” Al-Haitham’s voice was rough. 

Kaveh worked himself open as wide as he could before bracing himself for the third finger while Al-Haitham watched with rapt attention. He’d never heard Al-Haitham so quiet in front of him, and so without remark. Kaveh took note of it and tucked it away for later.

He pressed against the sensitive spot and let out an embarrassingly loud groan. He flicked his eyes up to gauge Al-Haitham’s reaction and flushed when he found Al-Haitham still staring at him with unwavering intensity. The full force of Al-Haitham’s attention was a little too much, so he closed his eyes and tried to focus on the sensations running through his body.

Kaveh thrust his fingers in and out, massaging and curling his fingers until his wrist started to cramp; but with his eyes closed, he couldn’t focus on anything except the mounting pressure in his in his abdomen that kept rising and rising until he sucked in a breath–

“Kaveh.” A hand stopped the movement of his arm. Kaveh looked up to find Al-Haitham watching him with an expression softer and more desperate than he’d ever seen. “Are you good? Are you done? Are you–prepared enough or–?” His eyes flicked down then back up at Kaveh’s face. “Can I…?” 

He sounded so sweet, so desperate that Kaveh nearly crumpled right there. But still, he couldn’t help himself when he said, “Are you gonna beg me for it?” 

The softness evaporated in an instant. Al-Haitham fixed him with a flat glare.

Kaveh wiggled his wrist out of Al-Haitham’s grasp and pulled out. “Okay, okay, fine. Fine.”

Al-Haitham leaned over unexpectedly and kissed him softly on the forehead before pulling back. Kaveh watched, a little flushed, as Al-Haitham reached for the box of condoms and meticulously peeled the tape off with his nails. Then, he pulled at the top, taking care not to rip the cardboard unnecessarily. Even in the heat of the moment, Al-Haitham was still slow–torturously slow–and deliberate as he tore a single condom packet off the strip. 

“Hurry up,” burst Kaveh. “Oh my gods, Al-Haitham, you’re taking forever–”

Al-Haitham–the cheeky bastard–shot Kaveh one of those rare grins that had his intestines melting. “Who’s begging who now?”

His face burned. “Shut up, shut up.” Kaveh pulled his knees up to his chest and watched as Al-Haitham tore the packet open. Then, he rolled the condom over himself and turned to Kaveh.

He swallowed.

“Are you okay?” asked Al-Haitham.

He didn’t trust himself to speak, so he nodded wordlessly.

Al-Haitham climbed over him. Kaveh reclined on the bed and the other man followed, keeping their faces parallel all the way to the pillow. 

“Get the–” he gasped. “Lube–over there–”

Al-Haitham’s eyes were burning as he grabbed the bottle and popped it open. He squeezed the gel onto his fingers and spread it at Kaveh’s entrance and the cold of it–the temperature shock felt heightened with every other nerve in his body on fire.

Kaveh keened. “Al-Haitham.”

His breathing turned shallow as Al-Haitham pushed a colder finger in, prodding around at the loosened muscle. Kaveh wanted to wiggle his hips down, to force more contact, but one look from Al-Haitham pinned him to the spot. 

The air rested at the surface of his chest, shifting and twisting wildly as Al-Haitham pulled his fingers out. He put more lube on himself before he lined their hips up. Al-Haitham’s breath fanned hot over Kaveh’s face as he pushed in.

“Hgn–” Kaveh sucked in a breath.

Al-Haitham froze. “Kaveh?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine, keep moving.” He pawed at Al-Haitham’s shoulders. “Keep going. It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt. Archons, Al-Haitham, keep—”

Al-Haitham fucked into him, cutting off his rapid stream of words. Kaveh threw his head back into the pillows, trying to catch his breath as Al-Haitham’s thrusts picked up speed.

“Yeah, like that, like that, that feels good, Al-Haitham–”

Above him, he heard Al-Haitham huff a laugh. “Are you enjoying it?”

Kaveh kicked at his calf. “What do you think, asshole?” 

Al-Haitham slammed their hips together, cutting Kaveh’s voice off in a whine. 

Through the haze of sensations, the thought that Al-Haitham was doing pretty well drifted through his mind. His technique was a little rough, but Kaveh hardly cared when Al-Haitham kept fucking into him like that. The world melted to a haze around him, everything foggy and blurry except for his nerves sparking at every movement.

“What are you thinking?” asked Al-Haitham.

“You–” Kaveh gasped. “You’re a fast learner.”

“You’re a great teacher.” And he swore he heard a smile laced through his voice. 

Kaveh’s heart warmed despite himself. He smiled as he said, “I didn’t do anything,” before he pulled Al-Haitham down and pressed their chests together. Kaveh mouthed at the skin of his neck while he kept moving above him. Al-Haitham’s skin was slightly damp from sweat and his hair was scattered all over Kaveh’s face, but all he wanted to do was tangle himself up more with him, to tie their limbs together until they couldn’t be pulled apart.

Al-Haitham panted open-mouthed into Kaveh’s shoulder. He was thrusting so earnestly, so focused on Kaveh that it made him feel a little wicked. He bit at the juncture between Al-Haitham’s shoulder and neck. Al-Haitham let out a little gasp–and gods if Al-Haitham grunting above him wasn’t the hottest thing he’d ever heard. Kaveh wondered how else he could force those sounds out of him–how he could make them louder.

Al-Haitham liked the bite, so Kaveh made an educated guess and wound a hand through his hair–right at the base of his skull–and tugged at his head. Al-Haitham lurched back and stared at Kaveh, wide-eyed and dazed.

“What?” Al-Haitham sounded so breathless, so punched-out, Kaveh felt himself fold like a paper crane.

He was about to say something embarrassing like, I adore you, but instead he pushed the hair off Al-Haitham’s forehead and smiled. “Your hair’s getting long.”

Al-Haitham scrunched his eyebrows, confused. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Just–”

Kaveh ran his fingers through Al-Haitham’s fringe. “You look stupid from this angle.”

Al-Haitham’s eyes darkened and he slammed in again, except this time, by some stars-aligning fate type shit, he had angled his hips just right.

“Fuck!” Kaveh hissed.

A wicked glint lit in Al-Haitham’s eye. “Was that a good spot?”

“Yes, obviously, oh my gods–”

Al-Haitham sped up, fucking into Kaveh at the same angle over and over and over again. Kaveh could barely breathe. He was drowning. He clawed at Al-Haitham’s back like a drowning man. He panted loudly, wildly, into the air of the bedroom and his head spiraled down into himself, going lightheaded and fuzzy.

“Archons, Al-Haitham—oh my gods—fuck—”

“Is this what you wanted?” murmured Al-Haitham. “When you were drunk and you wanted me to fuck you?” His voice was low and heavy, vibrating through his chest. “Is this what you imagined?”

Kaveh keened, throwing his forearm over his mouth so he wouldn’t scream.

“You have to answer me, Kaveh.”

“No,” gasped Kaveh. “No, I’m not answering that you asshole—”

Al-Haitham stopped suddenly and Kaveh whined.

“What the hell?” Kaveh scooted his hips down, trying to make friction, trying to get their hips to line up and make contact again. “What the fuck? Al-Haitham.”

“You have to tell me how you imagined it, then.” Al-Haitham’s skin was still flushed, but his eyes had changed. They were narrowed now in a hint of a challenge, pushing back against what Kaveh had brought. “If it wasn’t like that, then I’ll do something else.”

"Fucker.” Kaveh groaned, resorting to wrapping his legs around Al-Haitham’s waist to pull him closer. “You fucker. You’re a virgin, where the fuck did you learn to tease like that?”

Al-Haitham rocked his hips and Kaveh groaned. “I’m clearly not a virgin anymore.”

Kaveh swatted his chest. “You’re so—stupid.”

Al-Haitham leaned down until their noses were touching. “Stupid? Is that what you want to call me?”

“Yes.” Kaveh narrowed his eyes. “Stupid. Moron. Asshole. Dickhe—”

He cut off in another cry when Al-Haitham snapped his hips.

“You were saying?” Al-Haitham raised an eyebrow.

Kaveh grabbed the sides of Al-Haitham’s face and pulled his mouth the rest of the way down.

Their lips slid together and knocked apart with Al-Haitham moving above him. Kaveh missed a third of Al-Haitham’s mouth and a little bit of his lower lip, but it was so sweet he groaned into it anyway. He wound a hand through the silver of Al-Haitham’s hair again, tugging softer this time. A sweet pressure started building up, less brutally than before.

“Al-Haitham–” Kaveh panted into his mouth.

He suddenly slowed, thrusting shallower and shallower. Kaveh tilted his hips, trying to get Al-Haitham to hit the right angle again, but it only took a second of maneuvering to realize Al-Haitham seemed to be trying to avoid it.

“The fuck are you doing?” Kaveh glared.

“I thought you said that that wasn’t how you imagined it,” said Al-Haitham. “So I’m trying something new.”

“You—” Kaveh scrambled for a new insult, but he was too fucked out to think of anything but, “Fucker!”

“Hmm.” Al-Haitham hummed. “Tell me what to do then. Tell me what you imagined.”

Kaveh shook his head.

“I did it well the first time, didn’t I?”

Kaveh shot him a glare, even as Al-Haitham continued to move inside him.

“Admit it.”

“No.

Al-Haitham huffed a laugh. “Your choice.”

Then, he pulled out.

Kaveh let out a cry like he was shot. “ Al-Haitham , get your dick back in my ass or I’m going to eat all of your pasta and leave forks on the counter and–”

He cut off when he felt a hand skim below his waist. He looked down to find Al-Haitham looking at him through his eyelashes–when had he moved? His pink tongue poked out and licked the top experimentally. 

“A–Al-Haitham–”

Al-Haitham’s eyes darted down before he spat on the head and wrapped a hand around the shaft, stroking torturously slow. He smiled before dragging his face back up.

“What about this?” he asked, voice low in Kaveh’s ear.

Kaeh narrowed his eyes. “Fine. Whatever.” Al-Haitham’s wrist twisted and Kaveh clamped down on his lip to muffle the sound.

“Why are you trying to be so quiet, Kaveh?” Al-Haitham didn’t taunt, per se, but he did speak so flatly and seriously, it was hard to hear it any other way. “No one else lives here.”

“I don’t want to give you the satisfaction–” Kaveh grunted as a thumb brushed the ridge. “Of–hearing me.”

“That so?” Al-Haitham hummed. “Is that a challenge?”

“Archons, shut up.”

Al-Haitham smiled. “Make me.” Something pressed against his ass–larger than fingers–and then Al-Haitham was thrusting sharply into the sensitive spot again, no pause for searching, just brutal movement. 

Kaveh nearly cried on the spot; Al-Haitham had been torturing him long enough with the slow stroking of his dick that he was nowhere near coming now, but the fresh wave of stimulation punched the air out of his chest.

Al-Haitham reached down and wrapped a hand around Kaveh’s erection, palm still slick with spit as he began to stroke in tandem with the movement of his hips. Kaveh gasped, grasping for Al-Haitham’s shoulders.

“Oh my gods, oh my gods, Al-Haitham–”

“I want to hear you,” said Al-Haitham.

“I want to hear you first,” managed Kaveh through the haze of sensations.

“Hmm, we’ll see about that.” And Al-Haitham started stroking faster.

Kaveh panted, mind torn in two—one half focused on all the sensations of Al-Haitham, and the other half scrambling not to come and trying to figure out what he could do to make Al-Haitham come first.

“Admit it,” said Al-Haitham.

“No,” said Kaveh.

Al-Haitham fixed another heavy look at him, but Kaveh suddenly had an idea. He closed the hand in Al-Haitham’s hair into a fist until he was pulling tightly at the roots. Al-Haitham made another noise and narrowed his eyes.

“What are you doing?”

Kaveh smiled up at him–or did his best to while being thoroughly overstimulated. “You like getting your hair pulled, don’t you?”

Al-Haitham narrowed his eyes.

“If you don’t like it, just tell me to stop.”

Al-Haitham snapped his hips up, forcing the rest of the air out of his lungs. In retaliation, Kaveh tugged sharply on his hair, forcing him to crane his neck to brain their faces together.

“If you don’t like it, tell me to stop.”

Their lips were so close they almost brushed when he spoke. Still, Al-Haitham did not speak.

Kaveh smiled. “Thought so.”

“You’re a brat,” Al-Haitham finally said.

“So are you.”

“I am not.”

Kaveh released his hair. Then, he mustered up all the strength he could to prop himself up on an elbow to tilt his chin up defiantly.

“Yes, you are.”

Al-Haitham’s eyes flickered down to his mouth. When he leaned forward to kiss him, Kaveh dropped the elbow and used his other hand to hook Al-Haitham’s neck down with him. Al-Haitham growled low in his throat in frustration. He tried to rise, but unfortunately for him, Kaveh had both hands free. And when Al-Haitham lifted his head again, Kaveh him by the hair and yanked his head to the side, making way for his mouth as he bit down into the meat of Al-Haitham’s shoulder.

Al-Haitham groaned and it was the loveliest sound in the whole world. Kaveh wanted to hear it again, and louder.

“What can I do to get you to keep making those noises?” Kaveh murmured in his ear. “You’ve been the one that’s been quiet this whole time. Do you like me pulling your hair? Do you like me biting you? You have to tell me, Al-Haitham.”

He responded with a sharp snap of his hips.

“Brat,” Kaveh wheezed.

Al-Haitham pulled back suddenly. He gripped the undersides of Kaveh’s thighs and pushed them down onto his chest. “Call me that again,” he said, before slamming into him again.

His head thudded into the headboard. He winced before Al-Haitham pressed an unexpectedly gentle kiss to the top of his head before covering it with his palm. Al-Haitham only slowed for a moment, long enough for him to place a pillow between Kaveh and the headboard, before he resumed his brutal thrusts, wrenching groan after whimper out of cry out of Kaveh’s throat.

Last night’s words about being folded in half and fucked into the headboard came floating back at the cruelest time. Kaveh burned with mortification as he came to the horrifying and horny realization that he was about to come.

No fucking way he was coming before Al-Haitham.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, he thought before hooking a foot around Al-Haitham’s ankle. He swiped, knocking a surprised cry out of Al-Haitham as he lost his footing and his entire body weight came falling down on Kaveh.

“What are you doing?”

Kaveh answered him with a sloppy kiss as he wound a hand back into Al-Haitham’s hair again. This time, he tugged Al-Haitham to the side and off his body so Kaveh could make his move. And Al-Haitham–lovely, wonderful Al-Haitham–followed the movement of the hand with a little dazed look in his eye.

Kaveh pulled off and only briefly mourned the loss before he slammed both hands on Al-Haitham’s shoulders to force him flat on his back. 

“Kaveh–” Al-Haitham wheezed. He sounded entirely wrecked and it was the hottest thing he’d ever heard in his life. 

Kaveh didn’t give him a chance to recover. He climbed over Al-Haitham’s hips, lined them up, and then sank down.

Al-Haitham groaned.

Kaveh surged forward, pressing their lips together. Al-Haitham responded so enthusiastically at first–nipping at his lips and flicking his tongue in, but when Kaveh started moving his hips, Al-Haitham’s mouth went slack.

Kaveh wasn’t the best at riding, nor was he able to hit anything as deeply as Al-Haitham had on top, but it didn’t matter to him. Nothing could compare to the satisfaction of seeing Al-Haitham truly fall apart underneath him.

He climbed onto the soles of his feet for better leverage and started slamming his hips down harder, trying to rock another cry out of Al-Haitham.

“How does it feel?” Kaveh asked. “You have to tell me if I’m doing good. If you like what I’m doing. Al-Haitham, you have to tell me. Al-Haitham–”

Al-Haitham peeled his eyes open with what seemed like great difficulty. He focused his blissed out green gaze on Kaveh’s face, on his mouth, on his chest, down to the part where they were joined. He blinked rapidly for a moment before he reached out and wrapped his hand around Kaveh’s erection.

“Hgn–” Kaveh grunted. “Hey, that’s not fair.”

“You…you’re telling me that after the trick you pulled?” Al-Haitham huffed, lifted his other hand and tugged at the back of Kaveh’s neck, gentler than he anticipated. “You–you are so–”

His face landed somewhere near Al-Haitham’s ear. He inhaled, trying to breathe in the smell of him, while he kept rocking his hips.

The hand around his neck traveled down to grip his hip, while the other hand continued stroking, trying to wring the life out of him–the both of them fighting valiantly to see who could win the race of making the other finish first.

“It feels good, Kaveh,” groaned Al-Haitham. “It feels–it feels really–”

Kaveh panted in Al-Haitham’s ear because it was all he could do. The pressure started to build low in his gut again, but slowly enough that he knew he wouldn’t come just yet. He had to focus on Al-Haitham first, on ripping it out of him. He wanted to hear Al-Haitham scream the way he made Kaveh–

The hand on him jerked brutally upwards. Kaveh fell with a cry.

“I–I want to hear you,” Al-Haitham murmured into his ear.

Something reignited in him. Determination burned through his legs, giving him the strength to rise again.

“Yeah?” Kaveh huffed, lips pressing against the shell of his ear. “Well, I want to hear you first.”

He slammed his hips down, ripping out a long awaited choked moan from the man beneath him. Al-Haitham’s hand jerked up brutally as he bucked up underneath him, driving them together right into the bundle of nerves. Kaveh let out a cry, vision whiting-out as Al-Haitham thrust up once, twice, and then he went boneless underneath him. 

They both went still for a moment, all previous sounds wiped out except their labored breathing. Kaveh could still feel the shockwaves of his orgasm as Al-Haitham continued to pulse inside him. He kind of couldn’t feel his legs, or his face, or spare any cognizant thought as to what any of his limbs were doing. But there was one thing he was sure of:

Al-Haitham had definitely come first.

Kaveh waited a long moment, still sitting astride Al-Haitham’s hips. Their chests were heaving, the both of them sticky with sweat. Kaveh smiled as he brushed Al-Haitham’s sweaty bangs out of the way and kissed his forehead. His lips came away tasting faintly of salt.

“I won,” said Kaveh.

Al-Haitham made a face. “I wasn’t aware we were having a competition.”

He leaned down, giving his cheekiest grin. “Yeah, that’s why you lost.”

Al-Haitham shoved him.

Kaveh caught himself with his hands before laughing. Then, because he couldn’t stop, he clutched his stomach with one hand while holding himself up with the other. He fell forward and collapsed onto Al-Haitham’s chest.

“What’s so funny?” asked Al-Haitham. If Kaveh wasn’t just coming off the high of an orgasm, he could have sworn Al-Haitham sounded a little grumpy.

Kaveh lifted his face, his smile bright, and pressed a smattering of kisses across Al-Haitham’s face before looking at him again. “Just think you’re funny.”

“Why?”

“You tried to make me beg.”

Al-Haitham’s face flushed. “Because you tried to make me beg first.”

“What are you–five?” He smiled and pecked him on the mouth.

“No, because I don’t think five-year-olds should be doing these activities.”

“ ‘These activities,’ ” mocked Kaveh. “You somehow acted exactly like what I expected you would in bed.”

“Elaborate.”

Kaveh kissed him again. “No.”

Al-Haitham narrowed his eyes. “You’re even more annoying in bed.”

“No way,” Kaveh gasped mockingly. “You can’t say that to me after all those sweet things you just said.”

He gave him a flat look. “Get off me. I want to get this condom off.”

Kaveh laughed. “Sure, sure. Whatever you want.”

He paused for a moment before rising and quickly shuffling off the bed. He watched Al-Haitham take the condom off and tie it up with brutal efficiency before tossing it in the trash. Kaveh started making his way back toward the bed but Al-Haitham quickly stopped him.

“No, not yet, we have to shower.”

“Ugh, we have to?”

“Yes, because we’re both sweaty and the sheets are dirty.”

Kaveh rolled his eyes. “You know, aftercare is actually a really important part of sex because it gives the partners a chance to reconnect–”

“We can reconnect in the shower, Kaveh.”

And so, they spent their afterglow taking the quickest most nonsexual shower of their lives before they retreated to their separate rooms to procure clean underwear. Kaveh re-entered Al-Haitham’s room and found him halfway through clinically stripping off the sheets before replacing them with new ones.

“Need help?” asked Kaveh.

“No, I’m almost done.” Al-Haitham put the fitted sheet on all by himself before he tossed the comforter and pillows back onto the mattress. “Now you can get on the bed.”

Kaveh laughed and wiggled under the covers. He watched Al-Haitham climb in after him, rolling over so they faced each other. They tangled their legs together under the comforter as Al-Haitham threaded an arm under Kaveh’s head.

This was proper aftercare, he thought. Cuddling and lying next to each other and all that.

He stared silently into Al-Haitham’s chest for a long moment before he spoke. “So…was that a good first time?”

He couldn’t see Al-Haitham’s face from the way he was curled, but he could feel Al-Haitham’s chin poke the top of his head when he spoke. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know, I can’t assume.” Kaveh bit his lip. “I want to hear you say it.”

There was a long pause before he felt a kiss press against the stop of his head. “It was satisfactory.”

Kaveh laughed. “Bullshit.” He shoved at Al-Haitham’s chest. “Give me a real answer.”

A finger tilted his chin up, forcing him to meet the sparkle of amusement in Al-Haitham’s eye. “It was good. Thank you, Kaveh.”

He huffed a laugh. “Yeah, no problem, buddy.”

Al-Haitham glared at him. “Call me that again, I dare you.”

Kaveh grinned. “Sure, buddy. My friend, my pal–”

Al-Haitham cut him off with his mouth. He rolled over on top of Kaveh and pressed him into the mattress as he nipped at his lip, brushed a thumb along the base of his neck, licked along the seam of his mouth before Kaveh finally opened his mouth and he felt something hardening against his thigh and–

Well, whatever. He’d let Al-Haitham be annoyed about just changing the sheets later.