Breaking His Concentration (Alhaitham x Kaveh)

Author's Note
This one hurts 😭

Kaveh's POV

I felt like I had been wandering through the desert for hours. Beads of sweat were streaming down my face and my hands were shaking, I had been walking for so long. I was finally stopped in front of a huge cliff, glancing at the piece of paper I had stuffed in my pocket. I was exhausted, I didn't even know if I was going to be able to make the trip back. And the entire time I was thinking about what happened. About how he lied to me. I kept trying to tell myself it was fine, he was trying to protect me. But was he? How much of him enjoyed doing what he did to her? I had watched his face when he killed those three people, he seemed like he had never felt more alive.

I kept trying to tell myself he was mine and he was calm when it came to me. But he went to any lengths necessary to protect me. And I couldn't tell if I loved or hated that. I knew he didn't see much value in human life and he never had an issue taking someone else's life if they deserved it. But I couldn't. I could fight, sure, but killing was something completely different. I believed every human being's life had meaning, no matter what. I knew killing could be the answer, but it was never something I wanted to do myself. So I couldn't wrap around what he did to Drea, subjecting her to a fate worse than death. All for me. And here I was, standing in front of the cave entrance ready to see the woman who had tried to make my life a living hell.

I glanced at the paper in my pocket and then the cave embedded in the large cliff in front of me, this had to be it. It was in the middle of nowhere, nestled in huge rock formations. No one was even out here except for her. I stuffed the piece of paper back in my pocket and tried to prepare myself for what I was going to see. One foot in front of the other. I started walking down into the cave, the rock was huge and brown and descended far into the ground. As I started walking into the cave entrance I noticed there was a torch hung on the wall, and a small fire burning in a steel tub. The cave was as dark as can be, I figured I would need it. I reached up and grabbed the stone torch, placing it down in the fire as the wood on top burned to life, light leading the way down.

I took a deep breath and started walking down, rock sliding under my feet and echoing off the walls. I haven't heard any screams, so that was a good sign..... right? I walked for probably ten minutes and was starting to wonder if this even led anywhere. And then I saw a light in the distance. It was faint, but the further I went underground the brighter the light became. Finally I could see someone sitting down, it looked like an eremite. He was huge and had protruding muscles, red scarves wrapped all along his body and a huge dagger in his pocket. The moment he saw me he stood up from where he was sitting, torch in his right hand and dagger in his left.

"Who the hell are you and what business do you have down here?"

As I started walking closer I could see he was sitting on a small stone slab in front of a large boulder, a boulder I only assumed to house Drea.

"My name is Kaveh. I'm Alhaitham's boyfriend. He told me it was okay for me to be down here. I just need to talk to her."

"And how do I know you're truly Kaveh?"

He hissed, taking a massive step towards me. He looked almost double my size, the dagger was inches away from my face. I swallowed and looked back up at him, trying to tell myself not to be afraid.

"Maybe this will help."

I placed my torch down in the large basin of fire, and reached my hand deep in my pocket. I reached around trying to find what I needed, my fingers finally closing around it. I pulled out my keychain, the one with the lion that I had matching with Alhaitham.

"Have you seen Alhaitham's keychain? He has one just like this. I got us matching. No one else in Sumeru has these because I bought them all."

He narrowed his green eyes at me, but nodded as he turned away from me.