Locked In || Kavetham/Haikaveh

Faceless Figures

Days which felt like weeks passed, and Kaveh decided that a day lasted much longer now than it did before. He also realised how much he'd taken simple things such as being outside for granted, starting to wish that he had spent more time out of the house in the time where he was still able to.

He managed to entertain himself just enough so that he wouldn't go insane, though was slowly running out of things to do. In the past few days, he'd spent a lot of time drawing, sometimes making well thought-out designs that took hours to finish, sometimes mindlessly doodling, ending up with his paper filled with various faceless figures and cats. Of course, the cats did have faces. A cat without a face would just be weird.

Kaveh's boredom even went as far as to causing him to pick up a book from Alhaitham's side of the bookshelf, opening it in a random page somewhere in the middle. However, he only managed to read a sentence or two before he slammed the book shut as heat rushed to his face, trying not to think about how many other similar books his roommate owned.

More often than not, though, Kaveh would just lie in bed, staring up at the ceiling with nothing to distract him from his thoughts.

On the morning of the fourth day of being cooped up inside, Kaveh was doing just that; he'd gotten up, gotten dressed, only just to collapse back on his bed, finding that he had no motivation to do anything at all. For once in his life, he wanted to talk to Alhaitham, deciding that even an argument would be better than just lying there, completely isolated. Kaveh hadn't even seen his roommate since that first day, assuming that he was just locked in his room, doing the work that he'd been talking about before.

If you'd told Kaveh a week ago that he would be actively seeking out Alhaitham for nothing but company, he wouldn't have believed it, but here he was, walking out of his bedroom and into the living room. Upon seeing that it was empty, Kaveh wasn't surprised, but also wasn't happy, letting out a sigh as he scanned his eyes across the room.
Though he wanted company, that want wasn't going to stretch far enough to actually knock on Alhaitham's bedroom door, which would be nothing short of humiliating.

Kaveh was about to turn around and go back to his own room, when he noticed the front door was ajar. He took a small step forwards, staring at the crack of sunlight that he could see through the gap between door and doorframe. It was taunting him, and Kaveh felt like if the door had eyes, it would be staring back, silently challenging him.

Well, Kaveh wasn't one to lose a challenge, so after a few seconds of hesitation, he quickly walked forwards, then slipped his shoes on, before opening the door fully. In case Alhaitham had heard the door opening, Kaveh was quick to walk through, shutting it behind him. He was just going to have a short walk to have some fresh air, that was all...

Only now did Kaveh realise how stifling the air in the apartment had been, both metaphorically and physically. Now that he was out, he was glad that he took the opportunity, immediately starting to walk in a random direction. He had no idea where he was going, but it wasn't important; again, he was just going to have some fresh air, and then return home, being quick enough so that Alhaitham wouldn't notice his absence and confront him, and everything would be fine.

The streets of Sumeru City were eerily empty, Kaveh couldn't help but note to himself. Of course, there were a few people out, like him, but almost all were completely alone. It was a big change from the busy streets that he was used to, but it was peaceful in a way. Creepy, but peaceful.

The silence was broken by a loud burst of static in Kaveh's ear, causing him to instinctively bring a hand up to his head, startled. A second or so of silence passed, before a voice— the Grand Sage, Azar's voice— started speaking out of seemingly nowhere. "Greetings, people of Sumeru."