Chapter Text
Alhaitham turned the key to his file cabinet at precisely 4:55 PM. He finished exactly what was required of him that day, nothing less and nothing more, so he could leave at 5PM sharp.
Normally he wouldn’t even bother working in his office at the Akademiya, as that’s where people would go looking for him to waste his time. But unfortunately, now that the secretariat was busy with the month-end closing, they had asked him to be available at his office for once. Since he complied, nobody could complain. Not that that would stop them from doing so anyway…
Time crept closer to the end of office hours and Alhaitham decided it was time to gather his belongings. As long as nobody would barge in at the last possible second, he was–
Clack, clack, clack
The sounds of heels on marble flooring filled the hallway.
Sigh. Never underestimate the audacity of the Akademiya’s staff– is what he thought, but instead of a sage or a bookkeeper, it was you who stood in the door opening; a simple student. Alhaitham did not recognise you, which meant all the more that you had no business interrupting him.
Your wide eyes looked around the office before locking eyes with Alhaitham, who at this point had his bag slung around his shoulders, ready to leave.
“Are you the scribe?” you asked.
“Yes,” he answered flatly, wondering who else you were expecting to meet in the scribe’s office.
“Oh, good.” The tension in your shoulders dropped a little. “I need you to look something up for me.”
Alhaitham raised his brow. “And why would I do that?”
You were taken aback by his question, like you hadn’t been expecting it.
“Because– because,” you said, eyes flitting around the room, searching for a reason. “Because I asked?”
Alhaitham scoffed. “No. Good evening, miss.” He hiked his bag up his shoulder and walked towards the single exit, forcing you out in the process. Then, he locked the door behind him. You jogged after his long strides towards the stairs.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“Home,” Alhaitham said. “I don’t work outside of office hours.”
“O-oh,” you cleared your throat, hope remaining in your eyes. “Can I ask again tomorrow?”
Alhaitham gave you a proper once over. You seemed like a regular student, a second year at Vahumana judging from your uniform, not someone who was cleared to access the information he was dealing with.
“No,” he repeated, picking up the pace.
“W-why?” you asked, sounding more and more desperate. “You don’t even know what I need! It’ll take just a second, I swear.”
Alhaitham sighed and stopped a few steps short of the grand staircase leading to his freedom. He’d have to be firm with this one. “Listen. I don’t care what you’re looking for. If you need sources for your project, go to the house of Daena. I’m the scribe, not the grand conservator. You’re lucky I don’t report you to the Matra for sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
His threat seemed to hit you harder than he thought it would.
“I–” your voice came out soft and tears gathered in your eyes. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“That’s not my issue,” he said. “Good night.”
He left you behind at the top of the staircase, possibly crying, but Alhaitham didn’t feel any worse for it.
—---
When Alhaitham got to work the next morning, you were there again, right outside of his door. Perhaps he should desert his office after all, sages be damned.
You rushed to stand up properly. “Good morning!”
He didn’t reply, moving past you to unlock the door.
You held out the cup you were holding, a soft smile dawning your face. “I got you a coffee.”
He looked at you and the coffee sceptically.
“Ehm, this isn’t a bribe or anything,” you panicked, before adding in a whisper: “Unless it would convince you, then it totally is a bribe.”
He took the cup from your hands and took in the aroma. Pupsa cafe… nice. The hopeful expression on your face dimmed once he handed it back.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing yourself here again,” he said as he opened the door.
“Well, it’s like I said… I have nowhere else to go.” Your words had a tinge of frustration you clearly hadn’t intended to be there. You straightened your shoulders, going back on script. “I, ehm, feel we got off on the wrong foot yesterday. I was very rude, I realise that now. I’d like to make up for it.”
He sat down behind his desk and looked you in the eyes. They held an annoying sense of determination– the kind that was sure to cause problems in the future. You, meanwhile, seemed to have finally realised you weren’t getting anywhere with your “catching flies with honey” approach.
“What do you want then?” you asked.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Name your price. I don’t need anything important, I swear. No akademiya secrets or anything like it, it’s just a simple meeting log, it won’t mean anything and it won’t get back to you. Promise.”
Alhaitham grinned. So much for not bribing him. It’s not as if he never dealt with people pulling this stunt; it happened more than frequently enough. In turn, he would simply report them to Cyno, but this wasn't nearly severe enough for him to bother with. Alhaitham was simply amused by how bad you were at this.
You said you were desperate, but no desperate person would resort to such poor tactics if they weren’t also thoroughly naive.
“Right. What do you have to offer me then?”
You tense up; even you hadn't expected him to take you up on it.
“Well,” you started shuffling a bit awkwardly on your feet. “I don't have a lot of money, but I can work towards paying you off.”
You faltered when he scoffed at your weak proposal. You shyly looked him up and down, appraising him before biting down on your lip and balling your fists.
“I guess… with you I wouldn't mind paying you off by other means.”
Alhaitham’s face fell. What the hell. He moved his bag from the floor to his desk with a loud slam. You flinched.
“You have no sense of self preservation, do you?” He sighed, taking out his supplies for the day. “I'll say it one last time: I don't know what you want or why and I don't care to find out. Best you leave before I change my mind on that.”
Tears filled your eyes.
“Fine,” you said, forcefully slamming down the coffee on his desk. “Keep it, for your trouble.” The liquid spilled right on the documents he had just taken out of his bag.
Before he could scold you, you had already stormed off, slamming the door behind you. He scowled at the door, mourning the loss of a calm start to his workday. He rummaged through his bag for some tissues to clean up the mess.
What a wonderful lady, he thought.
To his annoyance, the door opened again straight away. Alhaitham looked up, expecting more trouble to walk through the door, but calmed once he saw who had come through.
“What was that all about?” asked Tighnari.
“Hello. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
A small smirk appeared on Tighnari’s face. “Oh no, you're not getting away with changing the topic. I want to know why I just ran into a crying girl fleeing your office– Unless you can't tell me for confidentiality reasons, of course.”
Alhaitham groaned. “Your guess is as good as mine. She wanted me to look something up; I refused. Now, why are you here?”
Tighnari’s eyebrow remained raised in curiosity, but he dropped the topic.
“I'm staying in Sumeru city for a week or two, so I came to invite you out for the night. Cyno is also there and I'm going to ask Kaveh once I'm done with my business at the Akademiya.”
Alhaitham nodded. “That'd be nice, I could use the distraction.”
Tighnari shot him a “;-bet-you-do’ type of expression and Alhaitham knew he couldn’t get away without telling his friends the story later.
“Good, see you tonight then.”