Work Text:
Some Worldbuilding notes for this AU:
- This current fic should be taking place around at least a decade before canon as with the Traveler’s appearance in Sumeru, but no need to trouble yourself about it since this fic does not go into canon material.
- Il Dottore is Zandik
- Omega Dottore = The Original Dottore = Zandik
- Zandik was a past student of Kshahrewar when he was in the Akademiya years (at least a decade, but the specific timeline is not described in this fic, could be >30 years as far as I’m concerned) ago. His records were mostly expunged from the Akademiya (i.e. to cover up his actions) but he’s an infamous urban legend.
- Given that Zandik’s then-interest during his Akademiya days were in ruin machines, the top contenders for his possible Darshans were Kshahrewar and Spantamad. I chose Kshahrewar since they’re supposed to be the school of technology, one famous late Kshahrewar researcher (Pir Kavikavus) studied Ruin Golems, and the one akademiya npc we meet during the Aranara Quest that studies Ruin Golems is also Kshahrewar. Then again, we currently do not know… so my final verdict is that he’s in Kshahrewar for plot convenience. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
- The Dottore segments follow the same naming convention as in my other fic, “Me, my sibling, my mother and I”, but they are not meant to be the same characters between fics. This Delta is not MMSMMAI’s Delta.
estuary
Zandik, or Il Dottore, or Delta, arrives back in Sumeru, application letters to the Akademiya clutched in a fist.
He hadn’t wanted to return. None of them had, but one of them had to, so they made him for this express purpose. Omega had smiled at him. “You go, or we’ll kill you.” Lovely.
None of their informants were good enough, apparently. The Fatui hopefuls in the Akademiya, hired solely to keep on top of the latest and relevant research, were useless at it. Too many worthless, time-wasting correspondences full of useless drivel or outdated information. Il Dottore needed someone who knew what they wanted.
The Akademiya. A totalitarian institution whose figurehead is a useless god, in a surveillance city.
Delta deliberates between the Darshans, but in the end chooses Kshahrewar, again. Not out of sentimentality, just convenience, as his interests and line of research back in Snezhnaya still aligned the most with technology and machinery.
He endeavours for an unremarkable career this time round. An ordinary student, simply existing in the background. There is nothing he needs to accomplish here that he will be unable to do in Snezhnaya, so he believes it will be fairly easy to keep his head down.
While he irks at the thought of once again confining himself to the Akademiya’s constraints once more, he has to admit the opportunity compels him to stay in line. There are many ideas and papers that cannot be circulated outside of the Akademiya, restricted content especially so, and he is once again in the same building that houses these materials.
The first thing Delta does is to modify his Akasha terminal. He is well aware of the invasive nature of such a device, and it takes a little tinkering to block any unwanted frequencies. He'd taken Zandik’s old notes on the Akasha with him. Not much has changed in the years he had been gone - it seems the Sages have grown complacent and no longer seek innovation. How disappointing.
It becomes apparent, three letter exchanges later, that Gamma is the one penning replies on behalf of Il Dottore. With Delta gone, it makes sense Gamma - the next youngest - is relegated to be a scribe. Delta only lets himself wonder briefly about how they are doing; then he shelves his curiosity away.
His first year in the Akademiya passes, just like that. He attends his classes, does the minimum assignments to pass, goes poking around for whatever Gamma writes at him to find, and does his own reading in his idle time. Not much happens of note. He does not bother making arrangements to go back to Snezhnaya for the semester break - they have not asked after him.
He first hears about Kaveh in passing. Delta does not care much for anyone else, much less the new batch of fresh-eyed juniors that have enrolled in Kshahrewar this new academic year. One of his classmates in the large group they're gathered in is chatting. "-and he figured it out, just like that. Bam!"
He had been describing a question to their worksheet, one he'd puzzled over in the cafeteria until a passing junior had glanced over his shoulder and scribbled out a solution on a spare piece of napkin. Frankly, it hadn't been a hard question. It had been extra credit, though, and Delta had been going for the bare minimum, so he had left it alone.
"A junior, you say?" Says the classmate next to him. "What's his name again?"
"Kaveh, from Sumeru." That's how students break the ice without much else that can be used as a conversation starter, not when the Akasha already reports your name and darshan to anyone who makes eye contact with you. Where are you from? Delta had almost said Sumeru, several times. Snezhnayan bites down on his tongue. He pretends he has an accent. One of the seniors had invited a group of them on a city tour, the first week of school. Delta had declined.
Another classmate says, "maybe he'll be the next Pir Kavikavus." One of the Kshahrewar inside jokes, one of the more optimistic ones. There's another that goes, hopefully he isn't the next Zandik. Hah! The student handbook of rules is hilarious, in its own way. Rule one: don't kill people.
He runs into Kaveh properly a week later. At that time he's in the library, minding his own business in the middle of the crowd. (It's easier to share a large study table with your classmates than reserve your own.) Two seats down, Leonard suddenly looks up and waves.
A blond approaches them. Kaveh, Kshahrewar, first year, reports the Akasha.
"Hello again, Senior," Kaveh says. "Did you solve your question?"
"You were a great help," Leonard says. Ah, that's right, the so-called first year prodigy they had been gossiping about. "Get bumped up to advanced classes yet?"
"You flatter me," Kaveh says, laughing. Delta purses his lips, and turns back to his book.
One by one, the table introduces themselves. There's a pause, and then Sara nudges him, making him look up. "Oof," Delta says. “I’m… Delta. Snezhnaya.”
“Delta?” Kaveh's eyes crinkle at the edges. It's not the first reaction he's gotten to the name. He gives the same response each time.
“My… parents weren’t creative.”
“Pfft.” Kaveh says. “I’m not laughing at you. I’m sorry.” But he's still laughing. "Are you… reading a book about Aranara?"
It's not the first time someone has pointed out his reading preferences, but it's a new series and contains updated literature on observations from Amurta. "Yes." He stares at Kaveh, daring him to say anything.
Wesley slaps him on the back. "Ah, he's always reading books about every subject outside of Kshahrewar. I've never even seen him study. It's a miracle he's passing all his classes."
Kaveh inclines his head. "Is that so?"
Delta shrugs. "Aranara are interesting."
Sara says, "have you studied for the quiz tomorrow?"
Delta makes a face at her. "We have a quiz tomorrow?"
The table erupts into laughter. They think he's joking. Or maybe they think he's serious. Either way, it must be good comedic timing. Kaveh is laughing, too, and he makes eye contact with Delta over everyone's head. His eyes are sharp, and red.
For some reason, Delta has to look away.
Like all those good coincidences that make people remark on them, they run into each other again. "Hi, Delta!" Then again, there are only so many people in Kshahrewar as one of the less popular Darshans. They're in a hallway, students walking around them to get to places. It's courtesy to give a passing greeting, and this should be a brief interaction given that they've come from opposite directions.
Delta nods at him. "Kaveh."
Kaveh beams at him, and waves, and picks up speed as he disappears down the corridor.
Leonard approaches him an afternoon later. "Want to head down to the cafe with a couple of us?"
"Why?" They're barely acquaintances.
Leonard nudges him. "We're friends!" Not really, but Delta doesn't refute it. Leonard leans in, and his words curl like they're sharing some conspiratorial secret. "Kaveh was asking after you."
What. "...Why?"
Leonard laughs. "Just come."
He gets dragged to Puspa, against his will. It's crowded for a Tuesday afternoon. A few people he recognizes, a few he doesn't, a few people who stand up and shuffle around as people come and go, and inexplicably Delta ends up next to Kaveh.
"Hey," Kaveh says, taking a sip of his coffee. "Learn anything new about the Aranara?"
"Not really," Delta says. The book had been a waste of time. "It's just all speculative garbage and rehashing of old articles. No new evidence."
Leonard leans over. "He's on leylines, now."
"Wow," Kaveh says. "Why not join Spantamad?"
Delta shrugs. "I can enjoy reading about other research topics, but my field of interest are Dahri's ancient machinery."
"I see," Kaveh says. "You're really something, huh?" He's smiling at him. Delta isn't sure if he's said anything to have warranted that endorsement, but - "thanks?"
Kaveh laughs, again. He says, "I'll buy you a drink."
Kaveh becomes a regular at the second years' study table. It's only unusual because seniority usually carries the most weight in the earlier years of study where students are likely to follow the same pace of study as their cohort, with the curriculum still largely standardized. It's only much later, in the upper terms of specializations and theses, do most paths veer in different directions.
Delta's classmates are asking a first year student for his perspective on their homework. How embarrassing.
"Hey.” Kaveh slides into the seat next to him. “What are you reading about?”
Delta tilts the cover of the book to show him. Kaveh laughs. He does that a lot. He's one of those painfully cheerful people, but at least he has the brains to back up his confidence. “Aranaras again? Where’s your homework?”
“I finished it.” Enough of it, at least, for a passing grade.
“Hm, really?” Kaveh rests a hand on his cheek. “I never see you do anything.”
Delta slowly flips a page. "What, you don't believe me?"
“I suppose I don’t not believe you,” Kaveh says slowly, voice trailing off.
He’s waiting for something. Conversations are reciprocal. Delta says, “where’s your homework?”
“I also finished it.” Kaveh’s eyes glimmer.
Delta narrows his. “Hm… really.”
Kaveh giggles. Delta doesn’t get what’s so funny.
Someone kicks him under the table. It’s Leonard, winking at him.
Another student calls for Kaveh’s attention. He floats over to them, pen twirling in his fingers.
Leonard kicks him again. Delta looks up to glare at him, but then spies a little slip of paper left in Kaveh’s vacated seat. It’s…
…a little drawing of an aranara.
Leonard kicks him a third time.
“What do you want?” Delta hisses at him.
“Shush,” Leonard says. “Kaveh likes Padisarahs.”
Padisarahs. They’re pretty much everywhere in Sumeru City. “...I don’t care,” Delta says, and goes back to his book.
“Is that third year work?”
“Woah!” Kaveh startles. “I didn't hear you come up.” It’s late in the House of Daena, and there’s only a handful of stragglers left. Half the students are asleep at their tables. Kaveh recovers from his surprise. “Here to borrow another book?”
“Yes.” Gamma had sent the parts for their prototype of an artificial vision - a delusion, they’re calling it now - in the mail for him to tinker with. Delta appreciates the effort at staving off his boredom, but he cannot work much with it within the Akademiya grounds in case of any abnormal elemental or leyline activity, nor can he - a mediocre passing student - gain favour of any professors for laboratory access. Not that he wants to deal with the paperwork of it all, or come up with a reasonable cover for such experiments, anyways. It’s been sitting in his room for now, subject to thought experimentation, and Delta had just thought of a Spantamad reference book he might check out.
And then he sees Kaveh here. “What are you doing?”
“Oh,” Kaveh says. “Professor Lihad gave me some extra problems to try. He said he might consider giving me a recommendation for one of his advanced classes. I thought since I was handling second year work well, I could give it a shot… but, er-”
Delta hums, scanning Kaveh’s workings. “You’re on the right track.”
Kaveh worries on his lips. “Am I?”
“Mhm,” Delta says. “I’m going to get my books.” Kaveh waves him along. Ten minutes later, he passes by the table again and Kaveh has disappeared, but his belongings - and half-completed worksheet are still there. Another five, and Kaveh returns with a textbook, looking pleasantly surprised to see him there.
Delta remembers that textbook. Funnily enough, since he - well, Zandik - had a hand in peer-reviewing it. He watches Kaveh puzzle over his problem for a while more.
“Ugh,” Kaveh says, hand messing up his hair.
Delta’s lips quirk upwards. “Chapter sixteen.”
“Huh?”
Delta nods to the book. Kaveh stares at him for another beat, and flips the pages. “Oh… it’s not really… wait a minute… oh!” The next few minutes are punctuated with Kaveh's frantic scribbling.
He finally puts his pen down, and turns to Delta with shining eyes. "You've read this book before?"
"Something like that."
Kaveh beams at him. "Maybe we can take this class together."
Delta considers it for a brief moment, then pauses and has to wonder why. It doesn't align with his goals at all. "No. I don't want the extra workload."
"...You're so weird," Kaveh laughs. "Are you one of those genius types who takes the bare minimum just to coast by because the material is too boring for you?"
"..." Delta stares at him. "...No." Great job, Delta. He should've just left Kaveh to struggle longer. He would have made it to chapter sixteen eventually.
Something must have changed about Kaveh’s routine, because Delta runs into him again in another late night library session. “I don’t usually see you at this time.”
“Oh, you’re about to see more of me,” Kaveh stifles a yawn behind his fingers. “You come here often?”
“Yes,” Delta says. There are not many people in the nighttime, which makes it more conducive for his reading, and also for sneaking into the restricted sections of the library.
Delta pauses, and considers Kaveh for a moment. He wonders if he’ll be up for it. He doesn't seem like one for breaking the law. But he seems like one for seeking knowledge.
Kaveh tilts his head when Delta stares at him for what must be a bit too long for social propriety. “What?”
“Do you want to sneak into the restricted section with me?”
“Woah,” Kaveh says, eyes widening. “That’s… not what I was expecting. Why, er, do you want to do that?”
“To access restricted books.”
“Yeah, I should have expected that answer.” Kaveh says. Delta thinks, he can still say that he is kidding. Desmon had told him once that he says everything with that deadpan nature of his, he could pass off anything a as a joke. But Kaveh leans forward, oddly attentive, not looking like he's going to run to the Matra. “Let me guess, it’s not your first time?”
“No.” Delta says. “I know how to do it. It’s best at night.”
Kaveh opens his mouth, then closes it, and nods with determination. “Show me.”
The restricted repository is guarded by… well, nobody. The real surveillance system is the Akasha terminal’s alert for unrestricted visitors, which is a simple fix - they take them off and simply leave them at the desks. From there, the only thing Delta really needs is lockpicking skills.
He softly shuts the door behind them. “This is soundproof. We can talk now.”
“Oh my archons,” Kaveh says. “You’re a regular delinquent, huh?” He’s bubbling up with laughter. “How often do you do this?”
Delta’s lost count. “Often enough.” He scans the shelves for the title that Gamma had requested of him, and pulls a book out.
“Analysis of the leyline elemental disturbance triggered by the collapse of Fontaine Dahri ruins,” Kaveh reads. “Huh. I wonder why this is restricted content.”
“You know why,” Delta says.
Kaveh hums his assent. “I don’t know how they expect us to learn anything like this. Don’t they say those who forget history are doomed to repeat it?”
“...So they do,” Delta agrees. “Do you want anything? I’m just here for this book.”
“Oh,” Kaveh says. “Er, no thanks. I don’t have anything in particular I’m looking for…”
“You should stay,” Delta says, because it’d be a hassle if Kaveh sneaks out poorly and gets them both caught. “I just need to transcribe the parts I need before we go.”
The terrible part about this whole arrangement - he obviously can’t send an entire restricted book over, he has to put it back, nor can he use the printing machines to make copies - he has to pen them by hand. The benefit of this is being able to transcribe it to code he shares with Il Dottore, so even if the mail is intercepted by the Mahamatra, it should pose no risk.
And even if the code is broken… well, he’s already gotten expelled once. Twice would be a record.
Kaveh settles down in a corner by him. “What do you even do with these?”
“To read for myself,” Delta says. “I’m just interested in these topics.” He looks at Kaveh, trying to gauge his reaction. Perhaps bringing him here was a mistake.
Kaveh says, “I mean, this is restricted content for a reason…but as long as you’re keeping safe… it should be alright.”
Delta relaxes a breath he did not know he was holding. “Thank you.”
They’re in the library, and Kaveh has a Padisarah in his hair. It’s unrelated to the flower that Delta had stepped on this morning. He’d already broken its stem - it might as well be useful instead of dying in a ditch somewhere.
Leonard waggles his eyebrows. For good measure, and since he clearly considers it appropriately cordial behavior, Delta kicks him in the shin.
“What’s the new fixation of the week?” Farah greets as she takes the empty seat next to Kaveh, bag slung over her shoulder
Kaveh laughs. “He’s reading about constellations.”
“They’re important for informing the cycles of fate,” Delta says to them.
“What do they tell me about my future?” Leonard asks.
“That you’ll fail your next test if you don’t study.”
“What about my next test?” Kaveh says, a grin playing at his lips.
Delta rolls his eyes. “You don’t need astrology to fish for compliments.”
“Hey, I’ll take what I can get,” Kaveh says.
They settle down to study. Well, the three of them do. Delta already knows more than he needs to know about their syllabus so he continues scouring his text for links between visions and the stars. The effect of certain constellations seem more prone to giving rise to vision users. He wonders if he’ll have to link delusions to any one to get them to access elemental energy.
Then, abruptly, Kaveh sucks in a breath, and plucks a piece of paper from Delta’s desk. On it, a little doodle of an aranara. “You kept this?”
“I’ve been using it as a bookmark,” says Delta. “Should I not have?”
“No, it’s,” Kaveh says. “It’s fine.”
“You can have it back.”
“No, no, keep it.” Kaveh says. He’s not looking at Delta. “I, er, have to go for a… seminar I just remembered I registered for. See you guys next time.”
The trio watch him leave, and Delta stares down at his bookmark, then at Farah and Leonard, who are staring back at him. Delta is not one who concerns himself with getting along with others, but… “Did I do something wrong?”
Farah laughs so hard that the librarian comes by to tell her off.
The year ends just as unremarkably as last year.
That’s a lie.
Delta’s in the library. Examinations have formally ended, so no one else is here. He had anticipated being alone.
Kaveh seemed like the type of person who would be out in a social event. Delta hadn’t expected to see him here, waving as he trapaises into the room.
He wobbles in his step, and leans against a table. Amused, Delta goes up to him. “Are you drunk?”
“Mhm,” Kaveh giggles. “There was- there was a party.”
“A party?”
“To celebrate the end of exams.” Kaveh leans into him. “I didn’t see you there.”
“I wasn’t invited.” Maybe he was. There were many people who said many things to him in the days leading up to now, but Delta has ignored all of them.
“Should’ve told me,” Kaveh says to him. “I would’ve invited you.”
“I didn’t want to go.”
“But I wanted you there.” Delta doesn’t have anything to say to that. Kaveh flings his arms around Delta. And then he slots his lips over his. He tastes like cheap beer, and warmth.
They make it to the dormitories, and Delta tosses Kaveh onto his bed. But when he returns from the bathroom, Kaveh’s already fast asleep, mouth parted as he breathes, hair messy, his collar in disarray.
Delta’s fingers twitch. There are many things he thinks of doing. That he could do, probably, and Kaveh, with how drunk he seemed to be, would remain fast asleep.
He cards his hands through Kaveh’s hair, and takes off his hair clips, and unravels his braids. Then tugs Kaveh’s shoes off. Then heads to the pantry and grabs a glass of water to put it on the bedside table, and tucks the blankets around him.
He's feeling awkward in his own bedroom. Ugh. Delta sits down on the carpet, and watches the slow rise and fall of Kaveh's chest, then turns away.
Delta wakes up to a foot on the ribs. “Oof!”
“Ah!” Kaveh yelps. “I - oh my archons - what are you doing on the floor?”
Delta rubs his midsection. “Would you rather I got into bed with you?”
“I…” Kaveh colors. Red is a very good look on him. “...Are we in your room?” He sounds parched. Delta motions to the water on the bedside.
“Where else would we be?” Delta mutters.
"Did we… er… do anything?”
“No. You fell asleep.”
Kaveh is silent for a moment. He says, slowly, “I kissed you.”
“You did,” Delta confirms.
Kaveh looks at him. Looks around his room. Delta has it meticulously organized for his own research needs. He wonders if this is what Kaveh was expecting, and then he wonders why he even thought about what Kaveh might have expected.
“I have a hangover,” Kaveh says. “I… am going to go find my room. And I’m going to attempt to sleep this off. And then we’ll talk.”
Sounds like a tedious process. “You can just sleep here if you want,” Delta offers.
“...Really?”
Delta shrugs. There is not much in his room that is genuinely incriminating. He sends things to Snezhnaya - they rarely send things back. Even so, it’s usually written in code, and Kaveh, as brilliant as he is in technology, is not a Haravatat or a Vahumana. “It’s fine.”
“Okay,” Kaveh says. He flops back down onto the bed. His hair spills around his face.
“You look like you have bunny ears,” Delta says.
Kaveh pulls the sheets up to his face. “Shut up.”
“It’s just an observation,” Delta says. “I… have to… go do something.” He doesn't, but he feels like he needs to leave the room. He'll wander the hallways for a bit.
“Okay,” Kaveh says, from under Delta’s blanket, but his eyes are bright. “See you when you get back.”
Kaveh’s fast asleep, when Delta returns later. He’s hugging Delta’s pillow to his chest.
“...” Delta hovers in the doorway. He… doesn’t really want to wake him up. Slowly, he shuts the door.
His neighbor is also opening the door at the moment, and nods in his direction. “What’s up, man?”
Delta deliberates asking for advice. He decides that the mortification of not knowing what to do is more daunting than his introversion. “Kaveh’s asleep. What do I do?”
“What?” Neighbor squints at him.
Delta gestures to his door.
“Oh,” says Neighbor. “First time?”
Delta stares blankly at him.
“Cool,” he says. “Well, it’s almost lunch time. You can buy him food.”
“...Okay,” Delta acknowledges. That’s a good idea. “Thanks.”
Neighbor nods at him, and enters his room, leaving Delta alone in the hallway again. What does Kaveh even like to eat?
He gets many things, in case. Kaveh’s awake when he returns, his arms pulled upwards in a stretch, shirt riding up to reveal a thin strip of skin. “Hey, you’re back…” His voice trails off as he tilts his head, hair falling in front of his eyes.
“I got lunch.”
“I see that.” Kaveh’s smiling. Good advice. Neighbor lives another day.
No, he shouldn’t kill anyone. That’s rule one of laying low, and of the Akademiya student rules handbook.
“Are you sure you want to eat here? We might get your bed dirty.”
“It’s already dirty,” Delta points out. “You’re in last night’s clothes.”
Kaveh looks sheepish. “Sorry about that.”
Delta shakes his head. “It’s fine.”
Kaveh stares at him for a moment. “Delta, I like you.”
Delta knows. He’d thought about it en route to the cafeteria. That, and he’d run into Sara in the hallway, who asked him if he’d known where Kaveh is, and then hi fived him really hard when he said, “my room, why?” And then he had to stand in silence in the queue, and pay, and think about it on the way back, and in that time he imagines a million different ways this scenario could go. He imagines picking up a Padisarah, but there are no convenient flowers he could step on on the way back to his room.
There are endless possibilities of normal, regular dialogue options Delta could go for. Instead he blurts out, “but why?”
Kaveh laughs so hard he spills food onto the bedsheets.
Delta deliberates over his monthly update to Gamma.
I have been doing well. No, they don't care.
I have enclosed the reports you asked for. Yes, that is relevant information.
I have a boyfriend. No, definitely not. He scratches it out.
He tears up the piece of paper, and retrieves a new one.
Il Dottore, I have enclosed the reports you asked for.
All Kshahrewar students in their third year are entitled to a workshop space. It's not explicitly acknowledged, but there is a certain amount of elitism and privilege in this assignment, so Delta - an average student with average grades and an average classroom presence - gets an averagely small room.
Kaveh is in his second year, but because he is Kaveh, he gets a workshop space reserved for him, too. And because Kaveh is Kaveh, it's one of the big ones. He had sounded bashful when he'd told Delta. Delta had rolled his eyes. "You deserve it."
Kaveh scratches his neck. "We can, er, share if you need."
"I'm not planning to build anything big." Or anything that would be Akademiya approved, really. But Kaveh doesn't need to know that.
"Well, you're still always welcome to drop by," Kaveh says.
It's on one such occasion - stopping by - that he finds Kaveh busy working away at his desk, bent over miscellaneous parts and tools. Delta watches him for a while, and Kaveh finally looks away to stretch. And jumps, when he sees Delta standing in the doorway.
“How long have you been here?”
“Just a while,” Delta says, and leans down to let Kaveh give him a peck on the lips. “What are you working on?”
“Ugh,” Kaveh says. “Hearing aids.”
How peculiar. Not his usual foray. “Something new?”
“Yeah,” Kaveh groans, tipping his head back. “It’s… well, it’s sort of my fault. I, er, ran into someone and knocked them into the pond.”
“You pushed someone into the pond.”
“It was an accident!” Kaveh says, and swings his leg out from his desk to jab Delta in the foot. “Luckily he had a replacement pair back in his room, but I offered to replace these ones that I’ve broken. And by replace I mean fix.”
“And by fix you mean upgrade,” Delta says, hand smoothing over the crumpled blueprints Kaveh has wedged into a corner.
“Well, it looked interesting,” Kaveh says. “I wanted to make ones that were waterproof, at least. And something that synergized with the Akasha Terminals.”
“Did it not do that previously?”
“Well, they were compatible,” Kaveh says, “but he had to wear both, one on top of the other. It looked really awkward.” He taps his pen against his cheek. “I’m missing something about this.”
“Let me see,” Delta says, and grabs a chair. He hooks his chin over Kaveh’s shoulder. “Can I make corrections?”
Kaveh leans back. “Go for it.”
Modifications for his own Akasha terminal comes in handy. He’s sure Kaveh is smart enough to eventually figure it out in his own time, but Delta suspects it might be a long way in. Even as Zandik, it’d taken him ages to come up with a working prototype.
“Huh,” Kaveh says, as he silently watches Delta make amendments to his notes. “What else are you hiding from me?”
Delta stiffens. His pen almost slips from his grip. “What?”
“You know,” Kaveh says. “You are brilliant. Definitely way too smart to be idling by. What are you here at the Akademiya for, really?” But Delta looks at him, and his eyes are curved into crescents. Delta slowly releases a breath. He’s just teasing.
“Just here to waste my time, apparently,” Delta tells him.
Kaveh squints at him. “You should be more ambitious. You can certainly afford to be.”
“Yeah?” Delta says. “Here’s my ambition. I’m going to master Dahri machinery until Celestia deems me a big enough threat to start another cataclysm.”
The cataclysm - one of those forbidden words that has turned into more of an inside joke, especially in Kshahrewar. Technology and Machines.
Kaveh lets out a bark of laughter. “I love my men a little academically insane,” he says, pulling Delta down to meet him. He must think he’s joking. For a moment, Delta wonders what it’d be like if Kaveh didn’t.
The day Delta first meets Al-Haitham is an unremarkable one, only memorable for the fact that it’s Al-Haitham, and he remains a thorn in his side for the rest of Delta’s Akademiya days, and Delta hates him. It’s one day when he enters the Kshahrewar cafeteria, and as usual looks around for Kaveh.
He spots him happily chatting away in the direction of a quiet man with hair in front of his eyes. Al-Haitham, Haravatat, first year, says the Akasha Terminal.
Kaveh spots him. “Hey! Delta!” He waves. Al-Haitham looks up at him, not smiling, so Delta doesn’t smile back.
Kaveh reaches out and wraps a hand around Delta’s wrist when he gets close. “Delta, this is Al-Haitham. He’s the junior I told you about.” Then, to Al-Haitham, “this is my boyfriend. He was the one that helped me fix your hearing aids.”
Ah, that one. Kaveh makes too many friends, it is hard to keep track of them.
“How have they been working?” Delta asks.
Al-Haitham gives him a jerky, stilted nod. “They have been good. Thank you, senior.”
“Be careful around ponds,” Kaveh teases. Al-Haitham narrows his eyes at Kaveh, but it looks more embarrassed than hostile.
Delta’s lips twitch. He sits down next to them, and Kaveh begins taking at the both of them about his latest project. He’s in most of Delta’s third year classes now. Al-Haitham has to take his leave ten minutes in - he has classes on the other side of the Akademiya building.
Kaveh entwines his fingers with Delta’s. “He reminds me of you.”
“That kid?” Delta says.
“He’s Haravatat, but he’s running around everywhere,” Kaveh says. “And he’s never with a book that’s always unrelated to his field of study.” He laughs, like he finds it amusing. “I think you two will get along.”
“Probably not,” Delta says.
Gamma usually does not tell him much, in his letters. Delta guesses it’s partly to avoid risk if the letters are ever intercepted, and partly because Gamma cannot be bothered to write much more than the necessary. Delta extrapolates on the progress of their research based on the materials Gamma tells him to collect.
But one day-
“Alright, you’ve been acting weird all day,” Kaveh says, arms looped around Delta’s neck. “What’s wrong?”
Delta wonders how to tell him, in a way that would be normal to understand. “I…” He considers carefully. “Have a new family member.”
“Oh!” Kaveh gasps. “Who is it?”
The closest equivalent would be… “A… brother, I suppose.”
“Ah!” Kaveh says. “Snezhnaya is really far away. Are you upset that you’re not home?”
Thing is… Delta isn’t sure why he’s upset. There’s no rationale where he should be. “What would be the point?” He says, lip curling. “They’re not missing me.”
The smile falls from Kaveh’s face, and Delta regrets saying anything at all. “That’s…” Kaveh frowns. “Well… I mean, maybe if they’re writing less, they could be busy with the baby-”
“Hah!” Delta says. The baby: Epsilon. He’s even older than Delta. “It doesn’t matter. I’m only useful to them when I'm in the Akademiya.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true-”
“No it’s not,” Kaveh says, and promptly slaps him.
Delta gapes at him. “Did you just-”
“Sorry,” Kaveh quickly kisses his cheek. “I just needed you to listen to me. You’re great, the way you are. Even if you get expelled, you’ll still be worth something.”
What an ironic choice of words. Delta cannot help but snort. “If I get expelled, I’ll be no different.”
Kaveh scowls, and looks like he’s going into another rant, but Delta stops him. “No, I mean, I'd literally be no different,” he pauses, deliberating on the appropriate way to describe Zandik. Omega. “My… father got expelled from the Akademiya.” At Kaveh’s aghast look, he adds, “for academic misconduct.” Which is technically not a lie.
“Oh my archons,” Kaveh says. “I - pfft - I shouldn’t be laughing, but oh my archons.”
“I can’t believe you hit me, and then you’re laughing at me,” Delta says.
"I’m - pfft - sorry,” Kaveh giggles. “I’ll kiss it better.”
Delta writes, Congratulations, by the candlelight. Greetings to Epsilon.
He looks over to his bed. Kaveh’s sprawled out asleep, snuffling into the sheets.
He turns back to the letter. Il Dottore, I have enclosed the reports you asked for.
Kaveh tells him, “I’m going to build a palace.”
Delta thinks of Zapolyarny. Towers of spiraling ice, chandeliers shooting light across crystal floors. Kaveh asks him, again, what he’d like to become. What legacy he’d want to leave.
He thinks of Il Dottore.
He thinks of Kaveh, in a coat. Flush on his cheeks, powder in his hair.
Gamma had sent him another letter the other day. Enclosed within it is also a note from Epsilon which reads: Hope you’re having fun at the Akademiya. That place sucks.
Delta didn’t know what it had been like for Zandik. Memories were some messy things, worse when warped with leylines and multiple identities. He was old enough to have already graduated from the Akademiya, and yet he was the right age most people would expect to have already enrolled in it, when he thinks of the Akademiya he thinks of today, and these days, more than those faint ever-overlapping days of Zandik’s time in the Akademiya - but every so often he sees Sohreh’s face, even if he can’t recall it the next moment.
Fortunately, memories didn’t work the other way around, because he’s made from Zandik but none of the others are made from Delta. That’s good, because Delta doesn’t think he’d want to share Kaveh with them.
It'd be a disaster, Delta thinks. There's only one of Kaveh. Omega and Beta bicker over things even if there are two of them. They never play nice with each other, or even the toys they say they'll share. Kaveh is a good size for only one person to hold.
Not that Delta and Kaveh made it a routine to spend every night together, but perhaps the frequency of it has increased enough so that Delta had found it strange when Kaveh didn’t drop by. And upon a few minutes of reflection he’d found himself not very tired at all, whether or not it had been affected by abnormal sleep conditions, and so he decided to take a walk.
In the House of Daena, he sees Al-Haitham… and Kaveh. Every so often Kaveh talks about him. Kaveh still insists they might be friends, Delta disagrees. He’s making a name for himself in Haravatat, he hears.
Delta watches from a distance. The slope of Kaveh’s shoulders, his head pillowed in his hands… and Al-Haitham, who looks up periodically from his book just to stare at Kaveh, fingers twitching in his direction.
Ah, so he has a crush. Delta’s not bothered. There are many people who have a crush on Kaveh. Still, he dislikes Al-Haitham, and always enjoys putting people in their place, so Delta strides forward, deliberately clicking his heels.
Al-Haitham notices him and straightens up. Delta smirks at him. Al-Haitham scowls.
Delta slides a hand into Kaveh’s hair and leans down to press his lips to the tip of his ear. “Dear… wake up…”
In his periphery, he sees Al-Haitham poorly trying to concentrate on his book.
Kaveh stirs. “Mm? Delta?”
“It’s me,” Delta confirms. “You fell asleep in the library again.”
“Wha- oh, oh! Al-Haitham! I’m so sorry, we were supposed to be studying.”
“...It’s fine,” Al-Haitham says, hiding his face behind his book. “Your snoring was white noise, it’s hardly distracting.”
“Wh-” Kaveh turns red. “I don’t snore.”
“I know,” Delta says, and makes eye contact with Al-Haitham, who looks away.
An expedition to Devantaka. "How exciting!" Kaveh says. "I've always wanted to explore that big Dahri golem."
"You're not going to explore in it, just around." Delta says, but he does wonder if Kaveh can figure out how to access the main chamber of the Golem. If there was anyone who could, it might be Kaveh - their generation's Pir Kavikavus.
But it'd be too much of a hassle to try to circumvent security. The restrictions around such research have increased a lot, ever since Zandik killed a woman and injured several others in the middle of a research expedition in this very area. Ah, how your actions have consequences. There's a reason Delta has not attempted to investigate it himself, this time round.
But apparently having the next prodigy in your class convinces the sages to loosen the leash. The foot of the Golem has been as far as Kshahrewar scholars have been allowed to go in the past decade. For the trip, they've hired Eremite bodyguards. Delta almost feels pity for them, having to run around a bunch of foolhardy students and keep them in line. His classmates are a weak bunch, but they're a curious one. They won't even be able to fight off a Rishboland tiger, but they'll try to study one.
Delta busies himself with wrangling Kaveh. He's touching too many things. "You're touching too many things." Not that Delta should care about anybody getting what they deserve because they put their hands in the wrong place. But Delta happens to like Kaveh's hands where they are - attached to his body.
Still, it doesn't seem to be a dangerous area. The Eremites have patrolled the location beforehand, and enough people have walked on these grounds before that their professor deems it safe. The deactivated ruin guard sitting nearby had briefly spooked the students, but a couple of cursory prods later and it did not glow and rattle, and now everyone is touching it.
Kaveh taps on his chin as he gazes over the golem. “I kind of want to climb up its arm.”
“You are absolutely not doing that,” Delta tells him. Kaveh rolls his eyes at him. A pair of their classmates approach them, gesturing to the shape of the golem, and Kaveh engages them happily. He’s scribbling on a notepad, chattering.
A scream in the distance. They spin southward.
One of their classmates - who must have wandered further than he should have - sprinting back to the main group, “it’s coming after me!”
An Eremite mercenary has to grab the poor student before he’s torn to shreds by laser blasts.
Delta grabs Kaveh - who grabs the two girls who are cowering behind him - and pulls him to the main group as they back way from the ruin machine. “Come on.”
“Shit, it’s flying,” one of the mercenaries say. “I think I can get it.” No she cannot, not with a claymore. Delta stares at her incredulously. Is there no one with a ranged weapon in the group?
“Woah,” Kaveh says, clinging onto Delta’s arm, fear evident in his voice. Then he says, “I wonder how the mechanics of its wings work. They don’t look like they should be able to support it at all.”
Delta has the strangest urge to kiss Kaveh for some reason.
"Everyone, back away!" Another Eremite yells. He's holding his spear, but he's not doing anything with it. Useless.
"Give me that," Delta snaps.
"Hey!-"
Delta throws it. It cuts through the air and spears the machine through its glowing energy core, making it whir and sputter before it collapses to the ground.
It won't quite stay down at this stage. Those things are self-repairing.
"Delta!" Kaveh yells, but he turns around to check that he's restrained by another student, before he goes forward and yanks the spear out. He has a short window of time to do this before it reactivates. He jams the spearhead into the eye of the machine and carves out its core, and tosses it - red hot and hissing - onto the smoldering grass.
There.
He turns around.
Everyone - everyone - is staring.
So much for staying low key. He should have just let the stupid machine kill someone-
"Delta!" Kaveh yells.
"..." Delta stares at him. He looks unharmed, but… "Your hair is messy."
Kaveh looks at him wordlessly for a beat, and then yanks him in by the collar.
"I should have known," Kaveh says later, to the gossiping menagerie that Delta hasn't managed to ditch for the better part of the week, "with how easily he picks me up-"
"Kaveh," Delta interjects, to Kaveh’s insane giggling.
He receives a commendation for it, but that’s the opposite of staying average. He doesn’t want a commendation, and he doesn’t know what to do with it. Kaveh suggests that he can send it back to Snezhnaya, but he’s not sure what Gamma would do with it, even. It’s not exactly any remarkable achievement next to what Zandik has done, nor is it any useful information.
He ends up stuffing it to the bottom of a stack of missed assignments so he doesn’t have to think about it.
Kaveh's third year keeps him busy, with his attention being sought more by people who wish to pick his brain. Delta suddenly has free time - more than usual - again. He dedicates it to reading more, just as a way to pass the time.
Kaveh invites him onto some more expeditions, some to Devantaka, some to as far as the desert. Delta is not in those classes, but he gets the permission to go along anyways, likely because of his prior… actions. How strange. There are upsides and downsides to this arrangement.
The upside is spending more time with Kaveh, and reviewing old sites that Zandik had once explored to see if new discoveries have been encountered.
The downside is despite the decades that have passed, frankly none of anything new is quite interesting or relevant.
That, and he realizes he’s misplaced Kaveh’s aranara bookmark, in between the shuffling of his belongings to take out on expeditions that leave the Akademiya, the rotating stack of books on his table that shuttles in and out of the library, and sending of letters and restricted documentation to Gamma that leave Sumeru entirely, Delta isn’t sure where to find it.
It’s disappointing. He wants to ask Kaveh for another one but it won't be the same.
Delta tries to consider Al-Haitham one of those pesky minor annoyances that can be ignored if he just pays selective attention to what Kaveh is saying. It’s less so avoidable when Al-Haitham is the one who seeks him out.
Delta tries to be polite. "Kaveh's not here."
"He said he was busy," Al-Haitham says. "He asked me to go to you." The hearing aids.
Delta has no inclination to want to fix them for Al-Haitham. But he supposes he'll do it for Kaveh. Al-Haitham follows him to his workshop and sits as he watches, claiming that he'll learn to make the repairs on his own.
"If you're smart, Senior," he says, insolent, "why are you content in mediocrity?"
Delta huffs. "You're very rude, you know."
Al-Haitham is not deterred. "It's one of the main things Kaveh complains about you."
Delta is irritated at him. "That I'm content with passing my classes?"
"He doesn't think you're content at all."
"You have a lot of nerve asking me for help and then questioning me," Delta snaps at him. He tosses the hearing aids back in Al-Haitham's face. Al-Haitham looks at them, then at Delta, eyes narrowed.
"Apologies for my presumptions," he says, not sounding apologetic at all.
"How's your family doing?" Kaveh asks one day apropos of nothing, when he's making a mess of Delta's sheets and shoving his toes under Delta's pillow. But Kaveh tends to get a bit sentimental at the strangest of times, whenever his thoughts run him into dreams and palaces and things of imagination, like family who loves you. Delta deliberates over his answer, pen poised over his monthly Gamma report letter.
"They're doing fine," Delta says.
"Why don't you ever go back for the semester break?" Kaveh asks, head pillowed in his arms.
"I… don't have a reason to."
"To visit your baby brother?"
Who? Oh, right. "What would be the point?" Delta says. What would be, indeed. "It's not like he'll remember me, at that age." Not like there would be a need to distinguish him specifically out of the rest of him. As far as Epsilon is concerned, Delta is the expendable one of them in the Akademiya. All of them are disposable. Zandik can - will - just make more.
Kaveh just looks sad. Delta wishes he's chosen another reply. But Kaveh pulls him closer wordlessly.
Delta doesn't know what he wants to head. "I'd rather stay here."
Kaveh smiles, his eyes bright. They're red, like fresh blood spilled on white snow, like the sun over Sumeru'a deserts. Not for the first time, Delta thinks of home as the sticky summer air and the shade of trees, and bugs over water. He introduces himself as Delta, Kshahrewar , not Delta, Snezhnaya. Sometimes in reply he hears, oh, Delta, Kaveh's? He says yes.
A long time ago, he used to live here.
Il Dottore, I have enclosed the reports you asked for.
A memory of the motherland crashes in. Delta supposes it was only a matter of time.
"..." Delta looks at Kaveh, who's not looking at him. He looks at Al-Haitham, who's glaring. "So you spied on me?"
Kaveh doesn't reply. Al-Haitham says, "I took one of your papers from your workshop."
"It was written in code."
Al-Haitham narrows his eyes. "I cracked it." Damn Haravatat. Delta doesn’t bother asking how, or when, or why. He thinks he knows.
“So,” Al-Haitham says. They’ve cornered him in his workshop. Delta thinks of Sohreh. He thinks, Al-Haitham is full of himself. He thinks, Al-Haitham is a fool if he thinks he can fight him. He thinks, oh, Kaveh. “Care to explain why you’re sending restricted material out of the Akademiya?”
“Not really,” Delta says. They should have gotten the Matra, if they wanted anything out of him. Then again, he doubts Matra involvement would mean much, at this stage. It’s not as if he can unsend the information.
“To the Doctor,” Al-Haitham reads. “I have attached the reports you requested.”
“No,” Delta says. “I have enclosed the reports you asked for.”
“Oh,” Al-Haitham says, and he makes a note in his notebook.
“Seriously?” Kaveh says to him. Then, to Delta, “I’m sorry.”
“You believe Al-Haitham over me,” Delta says, and Kaveh winces. He should not pull this card, given that they’re in the right.
Al-Haitham says, “I would have confronted you regardless. If it were up to me, it’d be the Matra. But Kaveh wanted to hear you out.”
“I mean, you’re sending these to a doctor?” Kaveh says. “Whatever it is - if it’s something about your family, we can help.” Kaveh looks like he believes these words, Al-Haitham less. “Who are you sending these to?”
Delta wonders what’s the answer that would get him into the least trouble. Then he wonders what’s the answer that would get him into the most.
He says, “Zandik.” Kaveh pales. Al-Haitham looks confused. "Who's that?"
"It's a, er, Kshahrewar urban legend." Kaveh says. "Not really. He was a trainee Dastur that got expelled ages ago."
Al-Haitham taps his hearing aid.
“You can’t find him in the Akasha,” Kaveh shakes his head. “He’s removed for a reason.”
"So?" Al-Haitham folds his arms. "He went to Snezhnaya, then sent you here… what for? Are you his student? His patient?"
"He's…” Delta pauses. “My father."
Kaveh laughs, a little incredulously. "You told me - academic misconduct."
"..." Delta's told Kaveh a lot of things. "Yes."
Kaveh’s not looking at him. Delta wants him to look at him.
"What kind of name is Delta, anyways!" Al-Haitham snaps. "Is he numbering you like science experiments?!"
"Yes," Delta says, and Al-Haitham draws back, surprised. "There's four of us. Beta, Gamma, me, and Epsilon."
"Oh my god," Kaveh says. "Oh my god."
Al-Haitham shakes his head. Kaveh says, "that's fucked up."
Delta doesn't get it. "Why?"
"Because!" Kaveh snaps. He looks upset. But he says nothing else.
Al-Haitham steps forward. “Tell us. What you have done here. Have you put Sumeru in danger?”
Delta scowls. “I’m a native Sumerun, you know.”
“Your father was,” Al-Haitham says. “And we don’t know where his loyalties lie, let alone yours.”
“...” Delta crosses his arms. “He’s not interested in Sumeru. Just the Akademiya’s research.”
“What type of research?” Al-Haitham demands.
“Everything.”
Al-Haitham looks at Kaveh, who nods. Bitterness unfurls in Delta’s gut.
“And what sort of work is he doing?” Al-Haitham says.
“A lot of things.” It’d be hard to even describe it. Delta catches Kaveh’s eyes. For a moment he’s tempted to say, he’s looking for a cure for Eleazar. That’s technically true. Inexplicably, the words die on his tongue. Instead what he says is, ‘I’ll leave and never come back.”
Kaveh flinches. “What?”
“I’ll go back to Snezhnaya and you’ll never have to see me again.”
Kaveh stares at him. Al-Haitham says, “we should have gotten the Matra.”
“Haitham, please,” Kaveh says. Haitham.
“My only crime is smuggling illegal Akademiya material,” Delta says. As far as they know. “That will lead to an expulsion. I can just save you the trouble.” There are many funny parts about this sentence.
Al-Haitham’s jaw clenches.
“I want to ask you a question,” Kaveh says. And Delta doesn’t say that Kaveh could have asked him anything, because that was a lie. That is a lie. That had always been a lie every time he’d told a variant of such a phrase to Kaveh.
"Why me?" Kaveh asks. And he looks hurt. Delta doesn't have an answer for him. There wasn't a why Kaveh.
"You weren't a part of my plans," Delta admits.
"What?" Kaveh shakes his head. "But-"
"I joined the Akademiya before you," Delta reminds him. "I never expected to meet you." But he's glad he did. "I'm glad I did."
Kaveh surges forward. Al-Haitham tries to stop him. But Kaveh throws his arms around Delta's neck.
"Please, please, please."
Delta doesn't know what answer Kaveh wants, or what answer he himself wants to give. "I'm sorry."
Kaveh sobs.
They’re on his bed, in his room. Delta had gone to pack, and Kaveh had come with him to retrieve some of his items, and then Kaveh had sat down on the edge of the bed and for a lack of knowing what else to do, Delta decided to sit down with him.
“I guess it’s silly to ask you if I ever meant anything to you,” Kaveh says, like Al-Haitham isn’t listening from the corridor.
Delta opens his mouth. “I-”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Kaveh says. “Or - at least - lie to me.”
Delta swallows. “I like you.” He pauses. Adds, “It’s… not a lie.”
Kaveh laughs. It’s not one of his nice laughs. It’s hollow. “Thanks.” Kaveh doesn’t believe him.
“Kaveh,” Delta says. Then he doesn’t ask something silly like, what can I do to make you believe me? Because what is the point? So he asks something sillier. “Can I kiss you?”
Kaveh looks at him. His fringe is in front of his face. Delta pulls it back. Kaveh says, “okay.”
Delta doesn’t particularly care that Al-Haitham is probably going to swoop in after that and remind Kaveh of Zandik every time Kaveh starts to miss him. Or maybe that’s a good thing, because Kaveh shouldn’t miss him. But for a little bit longer Kaveh is his.
Al-Haitham is seated cross-legged on the floor when Delta opens the door to let Kaveh out with his things. He looks between the both of them, lips pursed.
Kaveh hovers by the door. “Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“One last thing.” Kaveh’s fingers play with his sleeve. Delta lets him. He’ll remember it, he thinks. Kaveh continues, “you’re not Zandik.”
He is, Delta doesn’t say. Kaveh says, “even though you got essentially expelled, just like he was… you’re not him. And you don’t have to feel like you have to be him. I… just wanted to tell you that.” Kaveh drops his hand. Delta watches him leave.
Delta touches ground on Snezhnaya early morning. He’d sent a bird for an expedited message ahead of him. My purpose at the Akademiya was revealed. Then, it's half a day's trip to the capital. He’d pulled on his winter coat when the breath had begun to frost and ice floes began appearing in the sea.
"Welcome back!" Gamma greets him, not bothering to help him haul his luggage over the threshold. "How was Sumeru?"
"...It was fine," Delta says. He stops short, at a new member of Il Dottore. Delta nods at him. He who must be Epsilon nods back.
Beta emerges from a corner. "Oh, it's you. I'll get Omega."
"Safe trip?" Gamma says.
Delta nods. "I brought some Sumeru snacks back."
"Oh, good boy," says Gamma, and Omega emerges from his laboratory, Beta at his heels.
"You," he says, and looks Delta up and down. His lip curls. Unbiddenly, Delta thinks, father. He purges the thought immediately. "Are there witnesses?"
"They're taken care of," Delta says. Hoping to convey a subtle message. Hoping they can't tell he's lying. I killed them. No, I didn't.
Omega snorts. "Fine, then."
"You lasted longer than we thought you would," Beta says, which Delta is not sure is meant to be a compliment or not. But then he casts Omega a side-eye. "Given someone's inability to stay out of trouble."
Omega's frown dips. "We're the same person."
"Bitch," says Beta.
Gamma leans over in a faux whisper. "Bet you didn't miss them fighting."
Despite himself, Delta smiles a little. "No."
Omega and Beta have chased each other to the laboratory, and Epsilon has slunk away. Strangely, it feels like quite nothing has changed at all, even as Delta stands in the middle of Il Dottore's wing with more layers that he'd used to need because he's going to have to acclimatize to the cold again, and a suitcase that's filled with mostly snacks more than anything else. It's like he'd never left this place.
He wonders what it must be like at the Akademiya, now. If they'll fill the absence of his averagely-sized hole with another average student with an average classroom presence, and it'd be like he was never there.
"Can I talk to you?" Gamma says, and gestures to his office.
Delta nods at him.
"So," Gamma says, when he shuts the door. None of them are much for small talk. "What's their name?"
Delta stiffens, but forces himself to relax. "I don't follow."
"Oh?" Gamma says, and walks over to his desk. From it, he lifts up…
…an Aranara bookmark.
Shit. "Give me th-"
Gamma kicks a chair that collides into his gut. Delta stops in his tracks. "Well?" Gamma says, when Delta is silent for a bit too long. "Who?"
Delta swallows. "His name is Kaveh."
When he looks up, Gamma is smiling at him. "Cute. Kshahrewar too?"
Delta doesn't reply.
"Let me guess. He's the one that found you out." Gamma twirls the slip of paper in his hands, and makes eye contact with him. " Taken care of, huh?"
Delta doesn't know why, but he takes another step forward. "Please-"
"Relax," Gamma says. "I'm not going to say anything." He flicks his hand out, paper extended between his fingers. Delta quickly snatches it. Gamma smiles at him.
"As long as it won't pose any problems for you, or our future plans, of course."
Delta shuts his eyes. "It won't."
Notes
- Al-Haitham hates Delta as much as Delta hates him. He definitely stole some strange notes from his workshop out of spite, he certainly didn’t mean to stumble upon a gold mine of criminal activity. Also, he definitely used his sleight of hand trick to swipe some papers (you know the one).
- Yes, Delta accidentally mailed his favorite bookmark over to Gamma. Gamma was very bemused when he opened his monthly letter.
- Al-Haitham and Dottore are so alike. Kaveh has a type. That’s it send tweet
End Credits
("Good." Gamma folds his arms and leans forwards on the headrest of the chair. Delta wonders if this is a dismissal, but then Gamma says, "tell me about him."
"W-what?"
"Come on. Indulge me a little."
"...He's… blonde…"
Gamma raises his eyebrow. "A thing for blonds, huh?" Never mind that they're the same person. Then, delighted, "oh my god, are you blushing?"
"No!" Delta says. "I'm leaving!"
Gamma lets him run out, cackling maniacally as the door shuts between them. Beta is standing on the other side, hand on a steaming mug, squinting at him from across the hall through his glasses. "...Whatever Gamma did, do I have to intervene?"
Delta shakes his head. "No."
"Fine, then I don't care," Beta yawns, and plods off.)