sic semper tyrannis

sic parvis magna

In the morning, Kaveh acted as if nothing had happened. He smiled at him, said good morning, and then led him off to breakfast. They went through his usual day. Tutoring, numerous lessons in falsities, and sometimes he'd have spars, though they weren't fair in the slightest. Kaveh wasn't allowed the kindness of fighting someone even close to his age, instead being thrown against a Sage much older than him and being expected to do well.

He usually did not.

The way in which Kaveh learned anything was not fair. He was fed math and sciences as Alhaitham had and he could easily repeat concepts with the same understanding, but history was full of lies and half-truths. His spars were unfair at best and downright brutal torment at worst. It was as if they preferred to keep him knocked down a peg in every area and Alhaitham knew there would be consequences if he ever went against that wish.

Though, despite all of Kaveh's complaints about his teaching and of his parents, there were hardly any hiccups in the relationship they shared after that night. If Kaveh had ever told anyone there had been an actual attempt on his life, nothing was done about it. And there wasn't ever another one. Alhaitham's job was quickly turned into that of the servant Kaveh wanted so badly, but after a while, he couldn't find himself being angry by it.

Kaveh was passionate, innocent, and bright. He burned like a star and he wanted to know everything, needed to know everything. But tutors and parents alike refused and Alhaitham wasn't to break that no matter how much he wanted to. Even if Kaveh tried to goad him into disclosing things more times than he could count.

But, more than anything, Kaveh was soft whereas Alhaitham had been taught by a decade of Akademiya not to be. And maybe, in a way, that made them balance out. As malleable as Alhaitham had wanted Kaveh to be, there was no denying the impact he had back on him. Though he'd definitely try. It'd go out of sight, out of mind, for as long as he could keep it there.

They were both stubborn and their game of push and pull went noticed more often than it did not. Alhaitham was sure the tutors detested him and the king certainly did as well. There was something fearful in the way they spoke to each other, something an untrained ear would regard as disrespect, and to an extent, Alhaitham did not respect Kaveh, but there was a fine line written in their relationship between the chiding or sharp retorts and actual insults.

Besides, Alhaitham was sure the queen liked him. He'd eyed her turning away to laugh quietly into a glove more than once. Though, perhaps she just liked their antics.

It didn't matter in the slightest to him. He did his job and he was fed, clothed, and housed. It might as well have been the easiest year of his life and it slipped by quickly, melted down into lessons, spars, and the countless numbers of times Kaveh tried to pick meaningless fights with him.

And there, in the aftermath of that year, Alhaitham did not regret not killing him. Though who was to say whether or not it'd stay that way?

- - -

Alhaitham considered memory to be a very poor rendition of actual events, but it was all he had left. And so, on occasion, he would sit and think them over.

As he sat then, eyes lightly closed, he could remember the room around him, but he was quite certain he would not get it all accurate. A year of his life he'd spent there and he had no way of being sure he'd recall every detail, though there was one he was certain of.

Alhaitham could hear it in the way the prince shifted in the bed he knew sat in the center of the room, brushing limbs against the covers of silk blankets as he sleepily tried to get into a position that might be the most comfortable. If he wanted to recall Kaveh in all his depth, he was sure he could. There was no doubt in his mind that he could lay bare every detail, from the way pretty long blond lashes fluttered in the sun to the light dusting of freckles across his body, usually hidden behind long sleeves or caked-on makeup.