Chapter Text
Kaveh is running behind. It’s not his fault the deadlines just keep approaching, but now he has three days and twelve drawings to do for his life drawing class. And, of course, his model just had to cancel.
“Wait, it’s nude?” Tighnari had sounded incredulous.
“Ah, I guess I forgot to mention,” Kaveh cleared his throat nervously. “Is that still ok?”
“Um, sure, I guess,” he looked a bit torn.
Ever the empath, Kaveh knew Tighnari was at least slightly uncomfortable.
“Forget it,” he said, waving his hand with practised ease. “I’ll find someone else. Don’t want to weird you out or make you uncomfortable.”
“Are you sure?” Tighnari sounded hesitant. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”
“Don’t worry about it, Tighnari, it’ll be fine. Besides, it’s unfair to ask you to sit there for so long, right?” Kaveh forced a laugh, and Tighnari nodded, slightly disbelievingly.
“If you say so.”
It most certainly is not fine now, but Kaveh didn’t want to pressure Tighnari into that.
And, of course, who better to find him curled up on the kitchen floor, nearly tearing his hair out from the stress, than his roommate Alhaitham.
“Everything alright?” Alhaitham asks, casting a wary glance at Kaveh while he pours some water for himself.
“Never better, why do you ask?” Kaveh snarks.
“You don’t typically curl up on the floor in a heap in the kitchen, but maybe you’re just getting new hobbies. What do I know,” Alhaitham remarks. Kaveh groans in response, forcing himself to a sitting position.
“I have a really big project due in a few days and some problems just came and fucked me up,” he sighs. While Alhaitham is good at solving problems, Kaveh doesn’t reckon he’d have a ready solution for this one.
“What class is it for?”
“Life drawing,” Kaveh smooths his frazzled bangs and pushes himself to a standing position, gripping the countertop for balance. “Twelve sketches, she wants. And my model dropped out. Fuck me.” He mutters the last part.
Alhaitham hums in acknowledgement. “Hopefully you find a solution to that problem soon then.”
“Thanks,” Kaveh says weakly. He’s too tired and hungry now, so maybe if he eats something and goes to sleep, he’ll wake up tomorrow with a great solution. (He already knows it won’t work.)
It’s as Alhaitham is walking away that a solution comes into Kaveh’s head and, with inhibitions lowered by stress, he goes and says it immediately aloud, unthinkingly.
“Can I draw your penis?” Kaveh rushes out, cheeks terribly red. Alhaitham stills, turns and blinks.
“...Excuse me?”
“I-” Kaveh buries his head in his hands and takes a deep breath. “My model. Could you model for me?”
“What does my penis have to do with that?” Alhaitham tilts his head to the side slightly, eyebrows knitted in confusion.
“Nude model,” Kaveh clarifies.
“Ah,” Alhaitham says. Kaveh has already admitted defeat at a response as rousing as that.
“Forget it, it was stupid to ask, you’re probably busy reading a book on optimal bookshelf organisation,” Kaveh says, turning to walk to his room in defeat. Perhaps sleep would indeed offer him the solutions he needed.
“Kaveh?” Alhaitham calls out. He turns around, expecting a remark of some kind, or maybe even some words of encouragement, but he most certainly does not expect Alhaitham to agree.
“I’ll do it,” Alhaitham says simply.
Kaveh blinks.
“Huh?” He says, eloquent as ever. And then he actually processes it, and of course, he’s fucking elated. “Oh my god, thank you, thank you, thank you! Is it alright if we did it now? Or at least some of it.”
“Sure,” Alhaitham shrugs. “Optimal bookshelf organisation can wait for later.”
“Fuck you,” Kaveh grumbles. “Come on.”
“Ugh, why is your dick so large,” Kaveh mutters under his breath. It’s hour three of staring at Alhaitham’s naked body, illuminated by the harsh light of a floor lamp. He’s unfairly chiselled, despite Kaveh having never seen him work out ever, and the shadows his body casts drive Kaveh fairly crazy. He’s more than a bit frustrated at the way light works right now. It can’t be helped, he supposes. Probably a consequence of being incredibly tired and stressed, hence the, uh, rather large issue, namely Alhaitham’s rather large issue. Six of the twelve drawings lay finished next to him, haphazardly stacked, and it could’ve been seven on that pile, if not for Kaveh’s burgeoning hatred towards Alhaitham’s torturously perfect anatomy.
“Hm? What was that? You think my dick is big?” Alhaitham sounds amused.
“Oh, piss off, Alhaitham. It’s less easy to draw. Couldn’t you have done me a favour and had a slightly smaller dick? Then maybe you’d be sitting there naked for less time.”
“Alright, my bad,” Alhaitham rolls his eyes, a smirk playing across his unfairly plump lips. “Next time you need me to pose in the nude, I’ll cut my dick off.”
“How very kind of you,” Kaveh scoffs. “Shame your kindness doesn’t extend to today.”
“Ah well, can’t be too nice, can I? I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Of course, big dick Alhaitham and his terrible asshole personality, how could I forget,” Kaveh rolls his eyes. “However could I recognise you without it?”
“Are you saying you could recognise me by my dick?”
“Not what I said, Alhaitham,” Kaveh says through gritted teeth. He’s trying to focus on getting the shading in the sketch right (working with charcoals is a bitch) but that’s eternally fucking difficult with Alhaitham, of course. He’s a distraction without even trying.
“Mm, sure, Senior Kaveh,” Alhaitham nods with a sense of triumph.
“Piss off. You’re the one naked right now. How are you mocking me?”
“Well, you’re the one that’s significantly more embarrassed, that’s for sure,” Alhaitham nods in his direction, gesturing at his cheeks. Kaveh grumbles, shooing him back into the position he was in before.
“I just never imagined I’d see you naked this way,” Kaveh mutters to himself.
“So you’ve imagined me naked?”
Oh fuck. Kaveh stills slightly and hopes Alhaitham doesn’t notice.
“Countless times, Alhaitham. It’s all I can think about. Day in and day out. It’s rather distracting, honestly,” Kaveh says, hoping the sarcasm in his voice can hide the deepening red of his cheeks.
“Hm, maybe if you weren’t so preoccupied with thoughts of my naked body you might’ve had this project done sooner.”
“Are you trying to proposition me?”
“Whatever gave you that idea, Senior Kaveh?” Alhaitham says dryly.
“It sure sounded like you were saying I could’ve looked at your naked body sooner- ugh, just, well, ignore me. I’m so tired I’m probably just making up connections right now,” Kaveh laughs nervously to himself, blending part of the sketch with a trembling finger.
“Hm,” is all Alhaitham says.
Two hours later Kaveh is giving the last drawing the finishing touches. It’s late, far too late, and he’s far too tired, but thank the Archons he’s finally done with it.
“Oh my god, it’s finally over,” Kaveh sighs deeply, placing the last sketch on top of the pile. “I’m so fucking tired.”
His roommate gives him a strange sort of amused smile before standing, as if to approach.
“What are you doing?” Kaveh asks, voice tinged with a certain nervousness he hopes doesn’t show.
“Just thought I’d admire the artist’s work,” Alhaitham says simply, bending to pick up the sheet on top. He considers it for a moment before humming lightly, and Kaveh lets out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding. “The shading in this makes my abs look great.”
“Oh, piss off,” Kaveh rolls his eyes. “I wasn’t doing it to flatter you. It was to be true to my subject matter.”
“Mm, whatever you say, Senior,” Alhaitham says while flicking through the other sheets. He stops at one of the ones in the middle of the pile, looking carefully at it for longer than Kaveh really thought was necessary (really, was Alhaitham secretly that obsessed with his own appearance?)
“Seems you did my dick justice in the end then,” Alhaitham smirks, and Kaveh promptly burns.
“Fuck you,” he grumbles, gathering the other sheets. “And why are you still not wearing any clothes?”
“Thought I’d give you some more time to admire my body, seeing as you think about it so often. Might as well make your illicit fantasies more accurate.”
“They are not- Just give me that,” Kaveh holds a hand out expectantly and Alhaitham hands the last sheet over. “Thank you.”
“For the sheet? Or the modelling.”
“Both,” Kaveh starts packing his supplies away. “You helped me out when you really didn’t need to, so…thank you.”
“Well, Kaveh, you know what they say,” Alhaitham saunters back over to the sofa, pulling his underwear back on.
“What do they say then, Alhaitham?”
“Earnest thanks should be given thrice,” Alhaitham says. Kaveh can practically hear the shit-eating grin he’s certain is on Alhaitham’s face right now.
“You-” Kaveh huffs, gathering all of his things. “What do you expect me to do? Express my thanks by getting down on my knees and sucking your dick?”
“Well, if you’re offering,” Alhaitham shrugs, and Kaveh groans in frustration.
“You’re infuriating, go put on some more clothes, good night,” he says before heading to his room and closing his door with a less than dignified slam. He really hopes his face wasn’t as red as it felt when leaving. Fuck Alhaitham and his chiselled body and handsome face and big dick. Fuck Alhaitham for the less than decent images flying around Kaveh’s mind, which are most certainly because of Alhaitham and his stupid, stupid teasing, and fuck Alhaitham for saying yes, because if he didn’t then Kaveh wouldn’t be confronting the stupid realisation that he’s attracted to his roommate. Sure, he’d be more stressed, but he’d be stressed and in blissful unawareness of his own deeper feelings. Archons, he misses the person he was before he saw Alhaitham’s naked body and imagined it on top of him.
“Fuck you,” he grumbles, dropping his work on his desk, ready to tear his hair out. It’s late, far too late for any decision he makes to be sensible, and Kaveh is vaguely aware of this. But he’s at a certain concentration of sleeplessness that allows his emotions to reign over his body, and he finds himself at his bedroom door, turning the handle and entering the corridor.
“Oh, fuck you, really,” he scowls before walking down the hall to Alhaitham’s room and knocking twice.
Alhaitham’s slightly bemused face greets him when the door opens, and Kaveh cuts him off before he can begin to say anything smart.
“You’re a prick,” Kaveh snaps, pulling him in for a heated kiss.
Alhaitham lets out a squeak of surprise before melting into it, hands magnetising to Kaveh’s waist and pulling him into his body.
When they eventually separate, panting and reddened, neither can quite look at the other.
“I’m sorry, that was really stupid,” Kaveh begins to say, just as Alhaitham goes “Do you want to come in?”
Kaveh gulps and pauses.