[ a warm hand grabs his arm and then it's gone as quickly as it appeared as kaveh steadies himself, a strangely welcome contrast to the cold night. even though this entire ordeal had been extremely childish and frustrating, with kaveh it always managed to loop all the way back around to annoyingly charming. as he stands there, unsteady on his feet, it vexes alhaitham that he still looks as elegant as an oil painting.

- apart, that is, from the wine stain on his sodden sleeve. ]

Is Dori chasing your debts again? [ the scribe responds with a sigh, completely disregarding kaveh's protesting. ] I assume all this carry-on is about your financial situation.

[ after all, it was the touchiest subject that got broached in their household - frequently, loudly, and usually ending in the two of them not talking for days on end. aside from debt collectors breathing down that slim neck of his, alhaitham can't guess at anything else that might send kaveh into such an immature spiral.

career? couldn't be, because even though he was terrible with money, kaveh was objectively one of the best architectural minds perhaps in the world, even though he'd never admit as much out loud. friends? mm, alhaitham doesn't pay much attention to kaveh's personal life - quite the opposite, he tries to stay out of it - but he hadn't had his ear bent to any drama pertaining to tighnari or cyno in recent past.

so, this was the logical conclusion. ]

You do realise that, generally, the outcome of ignoring a problem is that the problem grows bigger?

[ he tries to put a sarcastic spin on the words, but much to alhaitham's disappointment, they come out rather genuine. ]

If she's causing you trouble, I can talk to the matra about it.