Chapter Text
Tighnari had just settled Kaveh down when Cyno comes bursting into the hut.
There’s a mildly wild expression in his eyes that is already enough to cause concern, but it’s the way his eyes zone in on Kaveh the second he sees him as Cyno heads straight for him that has Kaveh reeling back in fright. Part of him had always found Cyno intimidating, but after everything, Kaveh finds himself naturally submitting and cowering when faced with anything his body and mind regarded as potential danger.
His reaction is violent — a yelp leaving his lips that is beyond his control, while he’s flinching to the back of the bed as he curls into himself.
Tighnari doesn’t waste any time.
“Cyno!”
His voice comes out sharp, something so unlike the Forest Ranger as he presses a hand to Cyno’s shoulders, halting him in his pursuit and pushing him back in a way only Tighnari ever could when in regards to the General Mahamatra. There’s a harsh glare on Tighnari’s face as he pulls Cyno to face him, grip pinching as Kaveh slowly glances up and watches the display.
Truthfully, he feels like a coward. He feels pathetic. He hasn’t felt like himself in so long now, but seeing the effects of just what Alhaitham had done to him is terrifying. Sure, Kaveh had never been a world-renowned hero and he knew when to take his licks, but never had he flinched at just someone walking towards him.
The realization sinks into him, making his shoulders feel heavy and Kaveh has the burning need to cry .
“You… You can’t just come up to him like that,” Tighnari is hissing at Cyno, trying to keep his voice low as he casts a nervous glance Kaveh’s way. Kaveh isn’t sure why he bothers – the hut they’re in is small and he can hear Tighnari clearly. Still, he figures this is Tighnari trying to be respectful. “He’s… frightened, Cyno.”
Something shifts in Cyno’s eyes and his gaze falls on Kaveh. It’s softer, somewhat guilty and albeit apprehensive; Kaveh still flinches at the attention, but it doesn’t have him scrambling away in fear.
“I’m… sorry,” Cyno offers awkwardly and unsurely. Kaveh just blinks back at him and then Cyno turns back to Tighnari. “ He’s coming. And I can’t arrest him without any evidence.”
Like Tighnari, he attempts to say it quietly, obviously so Kaveh doesn’t hear. He feels like a child, hidden around the corner while the parents discuss things that were too “scary” for him to hear. But, like before, Kaveh does – he hears it loud and clear and everything in his body turns cold and frigid with terror. He doesn’t have a single doubt on who Cyno means and the implications of his statement are clear.
Kaveh isn’t sure what he was really expecting. It was clear Alhaitham wasn’t just going to give him up. Someone doesn’t go to the lengths Alhaitham has with Kaveh if he doesn’t have every intention of keeping him.
But it still terrifies. Petrifies him.
“ What ?” He echoes, speaking up for the first time since Tighnari had pulled him out of the house. He’d been eerily silent the entire trip to Avidya Forest. Tighnari had tried to spark up a conversation, starting with asking him if he was alright all the way to trying to lighten the mood with distractions—none of it had worked. When Kaveh continued to remain silent, eventually Tighnari had given up and had settled on just making sure to hover close.
His voice is dry, cracked and shaky with unuse. Kaveh doesn’t really talk much at all these days and he hardly recognizes the days his friends would tell him he talked too much— Alhaitham included .
Cyno and Tighnari turn to him, the latter wide-eyed and the former frowning.
“Some of my men said they saw him heading in this direction,” Cyno explains, “I figured he’d head here regardless. He knows this is the first place we’d bring you.”
Tighnari shakes his head, “we can’t just arrest him? What he’s done… I mean…” His voice trails off as he glances at Kaveh.
Cyno sighs, crossing his arms over his chest. “He’s the Acting Grand Scribe… I can’t arrest him without at the very least a statement from Kaveh.”
Once again, both of their gazes fall on him.
Kaveh has never felt so small. So helpless. Everything from when he’d woken up in that cellar to now has made him feel like nothing but a victim, and now having Cyno and Tighnari here made him feel like a burden. A problem.
Especially when he knows that he won’t be able to give either of them what they want.
Stepping forward, cautiously, Cyno frowns down at Kaveh; “I need to know what he did. You’re a witness, and we need to know what happened before I can make him pay for ever hurting you.”
Kaveh knows deep in his heart that he could tell them. He could lay everything out on the table here and now and Cyno and Tighnari wouldn’t judge him for it. In fact, he knows they’d do everything to help him–they wouldn’t have done all of this if they didn’t have every last intention of doing so. He knows that.
He knows that he should tell them.
And yet, he also knows that he can’t .
His nails dig into the edge of the bed, knuckles white with strain as he glances at his own feet.
“It’s his word against mine,” he whispers.
Cyno and Tighnari glance at each other, hesitating, before the latter speaks up;
“It’s our word against his,” he corrects gently, setting a gentle hand on Kaveh’s shoulder. He flinches slightly at the touch, but Kaveh doesn’t pull away. Tighnari’s touch doesn’t scare him. “No matter what you’d have both of us on your side, Kaveh. I meant what I said, I won’t let him ever hurt you again.”
The shame that courses through him is debilitating. Every part of Kaveh feels as if it’s falling apart at the seams and he’s grasping at the edges to keep himself whole. It’s all just so cruel. He wants to tell them, he really does, but he can’t find the words and something unknown to him is holding him back.
“Kaveh—”
“ Kaveh !”
The voice is booming.
Everyone in the hut stills.
“Y-You can’t just—!”
“ Cyno , I know he’s in here!”
It takes one glance at Tighnari before Cyno is exciting the hut, his polearm appearing in his palm as the door slams shut behind him. His footsteps grow further and further away, but the following words are heard clearly.
“Alhaitham,” Cyno greets, voice muffled.
Tighnari steps towards Kaveh, hand still on his shoulder but Kaveh barely notices him.
“Gen-General Mahamatra!”
“Collei, step away from that man.”
Kaveh senses Tighnari’s apprehension at Collei’s name. His hand leaves his shoulders and there’s the ticking itch of him wanting to rush out there himself.
Kaveh just stares at his feet.
“Where is he?” Alhaitham’s voice echoes, still sharp and loud .
“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” Cyno replies, voice quieter, more levelled.
“He’s my roommate.”
“And yet, still his own person,” Cyno drawls.
Kaveh whimpers, Tighnari turns to him.
“And Tighnari?” Alhaitham hisses, “where’s he? I want to know just what exactly he said to convince Kaveh that leaving his home was the smartest thing for him.”
Tighnari tenses next to him and then a second later, he’s standing.
“Stay here,” Tighnari whispers to Kaveh, glancing down at him one last time but Kaveh doesn’t bother to meet his eyes. Tighnari hovers there for a second longer before the door shuts behind him and like Cyno, his footsteps grow fainter and fainter until Kaveh hears him call out;
“Kaveh left on his own, Alhaitham. Now I’d like to ask you to leave yourself.”
Slowly, Kaveh peels his hands from the bed, body shaking, fingers twitching and moves to hug himself, arms curling around his chest as he brings his knees up. He wants to just disappear. He doesn’t want to exist here anymore.
He’s scared and petrified and everything in between and yet his body is screaming at him to go to Alhaitham.
It’s horrific .
“Where is he?” Alhaitham repeats, voice thinning with lack of patience. “I should at least be allowed to see him.”
“That’s up to Kaveh,” Cyno replies.
“M-Master,” Collie’s nervous voice echoes. “What’s going on?”
“Just stay here, Collei,” Tighnari whispers back. It’s muffled but Kaveh can still hear it.
They must not be far outside of the hut.
Silence echoes and Kaveh finally glances up, body leaning forward apprehensively in fear of what’s happening. It was horrible hearing his voice but scarier hearing absolutely nothing.
Then, there’s a bang and Kaveh jumps.
“Surely you realize this will only get you arrested,” Cyno hisses, voice strained which makes it clearer to Kaveh that that loud bang was Alhaitham. “Attacking us unprovoked isn’t a good look, Alhaitham.”
“Maybe,” Alhaitham shrugs, “but it’ll bring him out.”
Another bang, followed by the distinctive sound of a sword clashing against metal; which meant Cyno’s polearm. Every hair on Kaveh’s body stands straight and he’s pushing to his feet before he can stop himself, barely even registering Alhaitham’s last words before the sounds of fighting continue to reverberate around the hut he’s hidden in constantly. He can feel the rumble under his feet, and Kaveh thinks of not only Cyno and Tighnari but Collei too.
She was a sweet girl and precious to Tighnari.
She didn’t deserve to be caught up in this mess.
That single thought spurs Kaveh on. For the first time it feels like he’s thinking clearly as he rushes out of the hut, following by sound purely until he stumbles to a stop right by Tighnari.
Alhaitham’s eyes zone on him immediately, pausing from where he stands in a battle of strength between Cyno. Their weapons are pressed against each other but it’s clear Cyno is on the defensive as his foot slides under him just faintly.
“Kaveh!” Tighnari calls, panicked.
A pleased smile curls onto Alhaitham’s lips and completely unphased by Cyno, he lets his sword dissipate as he turns towards Kaveh.
Swallowing thickly, Kaveh meets his gaze.
“Kaveh,” Alhaitham calls gently, “ there you are.”
“Kaveh,” Tighnari cuts in before Alhaitham can say more. He has the advantage of being closer to Kaveh, and momentarily stepping away from Collei who he’d been standing in front of protectively, Tighnari grabs Kaveh by his arms. “Go back inside. It’s fine.” He gestures loosely in front of him with his chin.
Kaveh just shakes his head, numb.
“There’s no need to be worried,” Tighnari presses, trying to direct Kaveh back the way he came. “Kaveh—”
“It’s clear Kaveh doesn’t want to,” Alhaitham cuts in sharply, narrowing his eyes at Tighnari. The sight sends terror through Kaveh's veins. “Now, I don’t know what lies they’ve been feeding you, Kaveh, but this whole thing seems pointless.” With apprehension only Kaveh would be able to notice, Alhaitham takes a small step towards him, extending his hand out to him. “Let’s go home.”
Kaveh stares at the extended hand, frowning.
“Kaveh,” Cyno calls after a echoed moment of silence, eyes focused on the taller man. He hesitates a moment, as if struggling to find the word, before; “I can make things right.”
His words hang in the air, the look in his eyes desperate.
Kaveh wants to believe in it. He wants to trust it. He wants to believe in Cyno and Tighnari.
He should .
But this pull deep in his chest tugs at him, like a string connected to the very man who betrayed him and ruined him. It tugs incessantly, a constant, straining pull that hurts and aches and twists uncomfortably and constantly.
Despite everything Alhaitham had done to him, Kaveh’s body still wants him. And it’s starting to feel like his mind does too.
Kaveh takes one look at Collei, and the terrified expression in her eyes, or at Tighnari who looks worried and terrified, eyes shifting from Alhaitham to Collei and then back to Kaveh. He takes a look at Cyno and sees the way his skin beats with sweat and his chest rises and falls rapidly, signs of strain and exhaustion from everything that has occurred since Kaveh stupidly thought he could actually escape.
And he looks at Alhaitham, the smile on his face, the manic look in his eyes and the way his fingers twitch as his patiences grows thin. The familiar shine of a promise of something terrible happening should he try and delay this any further twinkles in Alhaitham’s eyes as he glances back at Kaveh and it paralyzes him in a way unexplainable.
That’s all it takes.
Kaveh’s body moves before he realizes it, before the thought is properly thought .
Letting his hand fall in Alhaitham’s waiting one, Kaveh avoids everyone’s gazes, too ashamed to look, rather, he stares at his own feet as he lets himself be tugged. Alhaitham’s grip on him is tight, pinching and he holds back the wince that threatens to pull from his lips as Alhaitham pulls him into his chest. The arm that wraps around him in response feels like the rope Alhaitham has used to tie him up and restrain him so many times before — it leaves him entirely weak and vulnerable to him, but frighteningly enough, Kaveh isn’t sure that it ever wasn’t that way.
“Kaveh,” Tighnari whispers, frowning as his ears dip down slightly, his hands left hovering before him pathetically.
Cyno just sighs, shaking his head as he lets his polearm finally disappear before he stands up straight.
“Hopefully this ridiculous ordeal is considered over with,” Alhaitham turns to them both, face dark and lips thinned in annoyance. Kaveh turns his head away. “I would think that Kaveh’s choice made things clear.”
Tighnari slumps but Cyno continues to stand straight, dark eyes focused on Alhaitham.
“I’ll find proof,” Cyno says, voice casual but the threat clear. “And when I do, I’ll make sure you rot in hell for it.”
Alhaitham just scoffs, a short, cruel laugh leaving his lips as he turns, Kaveh’s wrists tightly grasped in his hand.
“Was it worth it?”
A cry pulls from Kaveh’s gagged lips, muffled behind the ball gag strapped around his face as his body lurches forward. The sting from his ass lingers, but Kaveh is helpless to pull away and move and instead is forced to remain trapped.
“Betraying me like that?”
Another sharp slap hits his ass, Kaveh’s face shoving further into the hard concrete floor as his body tenses, feeling the ache radiate through his entire body.
They’d been at it for an hour already.
The second Alhaitham had gotten him home, he’d wasted no time in shoving Kaveh into the cellar. Kaveh had fought and screamed at the sight, panic renewed, trying to pull away desperately with no hope. Alhaitham had always been stronger than him and that was even more present now. Alhaitham hadn’t even bothered letting him climb down the ladder on his own and instead he’d been tossed through the hole leading down and landed onto the concrete with a wheezed cry of pain.
He was sure his ribs were bruised from the impact and there was something wrong with his left shoulder, but Alhaitham didn’t seem to care.
After being stripped of his clothes, Kaveh had been forced onto his knees, a thread of rope connecting his calves to his knees and keeping them locked in place as Alhaitham bound his wrists behind his back. With his hands forced to his elbows, the strain was uncomfortable and it seemed like Alhaitham had every intention of making it as painfully tight as possible.
Then he’d been forced to bend over himself, chest to his knees as Alhaitham tied the rope around his upper arms to his thighs, keeping him locked that way.
A gag in his mouth and a blindfold around his eyes, effectively leaving him wholeheartedly vulnerable in a way he hadn’t experienced for a long time. Kaveh was cruelly reminded of those first few nights he’d spent locked in this cellar, when his determination and willpower to fight still had completely fizzled away. He’d spent most of those weeks tied up, tortured whether through pain or pleasure, all while Alhaitham slowly and meticulously beat every fight in him out hit by hit, orgasm by orgasm, second by second.
Kaveh had resigned himself to the position, knowing from experience that there was no escape.
After that, still scarily silent, Alhaitham had taken what felt to be some sort of flogger and had repeatedly been delivering hits to Kaveh’s ass. The first hit had shocked Kaveh to his core, having not felt the sensation in quite a while and the sting was something that had his whole body convulsing in pain. But now, after so many hits and such a stretch of time, the pain might not have lessened, but he’d accepted it.
The skin there may be hot and raw but it seemed like Alhaitham had no intention of stopping anytime soon.
“I thought we were making progress,” another hit, “and then you went and left me!”
Another .
Kaveh is drooling over himself, dribbling down his chin and choking on his own spit because of the gag. He could tell the blindfold over his eyes was soaked with his own tears and stuck to his skin uncomfortably.
And yet Kaveh didn’t dare try to even attempt to beg for it to stop.
Some twisted part of him felt he deserved it.
And that scared him more than Alhaitham’s anger ever could.
“And of course that fucking Cyno won’t give up.”
Another hit.
“He’ll keep harassing us.”
Another hit.
“And if you disappear again that’ll only give him more cause and suspicion.”
Another hit.
“...We’ll have to leave.”
That catches Kaveh’s attention. Through the pain, Alhaitham’s words sink in and his body jerks violently.
The hits stop then, Kaveh stills in anticipation but another hit never comes and he focuses all of his attention on listening to Alhaitham rather than the dull ache consuming his entire body..
“Yeah,” Alhaitham nods, as if in his own world. “That’s it. We’ll leave. Go somewhere else… maybe Liyue… It should be far enough away.”
A cry of panic leaves Kaveh’s lips, the first sound of fight and resistance that’s left his lips and of his own volition, rather than a reaction to being whipped. It’s loud and piercing despite being muffled, and yet, Alhaitham acts as if he doesn’t hear it.
“Then they’ll be forced to leave us alone then if we’re in a completely different city,” Alhaitham continues. “It’s unfortunate having to relocate and I’ll have to figure out what to do about work but… it’s clearly the best course of action.”
No , Kaveh thinks. No, he doesn’t want to leave.
He’d resigned himself to his fate, it’s true. He’d accepted that he was Alhaitham’s and that his life was irrevocably changed, even if it meant being Alhaitham’s pet or being used as some sort of bonafide sex slave. He’d accepted the fact that he might never get to see his friends again or live a life outside of the four walls of Alhaitham’s home. He’d accepted all of that, but Sumeru was his home.
He loved Sumeru and he didn’t want to leave it.
Everything he’d ever known was here. Even if trapped away from it, this was where he’d built his life. Through hardship and heartbreak, Kaveh had always persevered and made a career for himself; even if that career meant living in debt, Kaveh had made something of his own and it was all in Sumeru.
The thought of being taken away from that scared him more than anything else.
Jerking violently, Kaveh tries to pull from his restraints— it’s useless.
“You’ll have to stay here until then. I don’t trust you not to run off…”
Kaveh cries out again. That fight he hadn’t felt in so long is burning a fire in his belly, hot and enraged, and he’s rubbing himself raw in a desperate attempt to break free. His skin aches and burns and his throat hurts from his shrieked cries of panic and his mind is blanking in sheer terror as the realization of what might happen to him weighs him down.
“Don’t worry,” Alhaitham calls, finally acknowledging him and Kaveh flinches as his hand falls on his bare back. “It won’t be that long. We’ll have to move quickly after all.” Then, his footsteps echo, growing distant before stopping and then returning again. “I’ll leave you with this for now.”
Kaveh lets out a muffled grunt, trying to speak, but Alhaitham just carries on without a care.
A dildo is shoved in his ass in the next second, making Kaveh’s body arch the most it can in his restraints and his a choked moan leave his lips. He wasn’t prepped and the dildo wasn’t lubed so the stretch is painful and Kaveh’s whole body violently jerks in response.
In the next second it starts vibrating, strongly , and Kaveh flinches at the stimulation.
“I’ll start the preparations,” Alhaitham calls out, footsteps growing distant once more. “We can’t linger here much longer before Cyno comes snooping around again. Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Kaveh tries to cry out again, but Alhaitham’s footsteps continue to fade away and the distinct sound of the door to the cellar slamming shut echoes, effectively leaving Kaveh alone, tied up with a vibrating dildo in his ass and his mind running wild with hysteria.
He feels his cock harden despite himself, and the beginnings of an orgasm crawl up his body as he tries to break free from his restraints.
Kaveh never does.