[ Kaveh's hand lifts lightning-fast to that moving to tuck hair behind his ear, and for a moment he intends whole-heartedly to shove it away. But the other man's gentle action makes him falter, and that hand ends up hovering pointlessly as he blinks, a slow curtaining fall of his eyelashes over the tops of his cheeks, comprehension dawning slowly in the red of his eyes, chasing the consternation and confusion away from his expression. ]

Tighnari and Cyno— you sent them home?

[ He'll be ashamed later of how tentative the fall of his fingers to Alhaitham's wrist is, but once they're there, they slip naturally over the skin to find space between the younger man's fingers in turn, linking them together. He understands the meaning between the words the other speaks, and it leaves his feelings all the more confused— he's still recovering from the sudden abandonment, he wants to be mad—

but he is grateful.

Kaveh turns his head, presses his mouth into the pulse point of that captured wrist, and his eyes close, a sigh on his lips. ]

...Don't do that to me again, okay? Please. At least tell me where you're going. I thought—

[ What he thought was stupid. He knows that. But it didn't stop it from feeling real. ]