Forgive me for each halting line

Ⅴ

If Kaveh doesn't look like a mess, he sure feels like one.

The remnants of his particularly severe, off-schedule heat is making his skin itch, and his clothes—despite being made of the finest material—don't quite feel right, but despite it all, he is faring rather well. He is more than glad to be out and about once more.

He walks into the dining room that morning to find the breakfast table already set for the inhabitants of the mansion, but there is no one in sight. Perfect. Time to himself to eat to his heart's content, and gather himself so he'll be prepared for whatever the rest of the day has in store for him.

Kaveh quietly hums to himself as he pours himself tea, and helps himself to one of the breakfast cakes that have been graciously set out. He knows it's rude; digging in before waiting for either Alhaitham or his grandmother to arrive, but he's so so hungry and everything just looks so so good. He slices a bit of cake with the corner of his fork, and finally takes a bite, giving a sigh of relief.

Yes, all is well.

That is, until Alhaitham shows up.

He silently pulls up the seat next to the Omega, and sits down next to him. Kaveh stills, his face preemptively heating up with shame or embarrassment, maybe both, he isn't sure.

"Look who it is." The Alpha drawls with a teasing tone to his voice, "Finally decided to crawl out of your self-imposed solitary confinement?"

Alhaitham knows where Kaveh has been for the last three days, and it's precisely why he hasn't been around for that period of time. Kaveh would wager that it was him who had left the trays of food for him during his heat. So, naturally, he was surely just teasing Kaveh to be an ass, right?

"Seeing you again makes me want to go right back."

Alhaitham raises a brow, crossing his arms in front of his chest. His lips curl up into a smirk. "Is that so?"

"Alhaitham, I need to ask you something." Kaveh says sternly. The sudden serious tone in his voice wipes the smile straight off of Alhaitham's face, and he stares back into the Omega's scarlet eyes. "If you're about to ask if I saw or did anything during your heat, the answer is no, you can rest easy."

Kaveh tsk's. "I wanted to ask if you were the one who brought me food, but if you want to be like that—"

"Be like what?" Alhaitham sighs, as if Kaveh were being absolutely unreasonable to be upset in the first place, "It's a perfectly reasonable question to ask, given the vulnerable nature of—"

They're interrupted by the sound of the dining room doors opening, revealing the figure of Alhaitham's grandmother. Her teal eyes widen and her mouth forms a small 'o' as she lays eyes on the Omega, and she hurries over to Kaveh as fast as she can.

Short on breath, she plops down onto the free seat next to him, and reaches forward until she's got his head in her hands. Kaveh lets her turn his head this way and that, and tries not to smile at her comically serious expression as she inspects him for any visible ailments.

"Kaveh, darling, are you doing alright?" The Lady says with a concerned frown that makes his heart positively melt. "Where have you been?"

Kaveh opens his mouth to answer, only to close it a moment later.

The truth is a reasonable answer; he has been suffering through his heat for the last three days. But here was the thing—his heat would've been considerably shorter if he had an Alpha to help him through it. And in this grand act, Alhaitham is supposed to be said Alpha to help him through said heat.