[Alhaitham's right; Kaveh would absolutely have bolted or hidden, had he caught sight of Alhaitham first. Alhaitham is, quite literally, the last person on the face of the earth Kaveh ever wants to see again.
(...Okay, that's a lie. But--he doesn't want Alhaitham to see him like this. He's always found it unbearable, to be looked at and seen for the broken mess he is, but it has always been exponentially worse around Alhaitham, for reasons Kaveh has never allowed himself to consider.)
Right now, however, Kaveh is so exhausted, so deeply caught up in the dark tangle of his thoughts that he's almost oblivious to Alhaitham's approach. He's dimly aware of the sound of approaching footsteps, but he doesn't budge, assuming it's someone passing by. The sound of the chair is what startles him into opening his eyes, and he barely has time to register what, who, he's looking at before Alhaitham's dropping into the chair across from him. On pure, reactive instinct, he bolts upright, yanking his hands back from the table and dropping them into his lap, as if changing his sitting position now could possibly erase the fact that Alhaitham caught him looking like that.]
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(...Okay, that's a lie. But--he doesn't want Alhaitham to see him like this. He's always found it unbearable, to be looked at and seen for the broken mess he is, but it has always been exponentially worse around Alhaitham, for reasons Kaveh has never allowed himself to consider.)
Right now, however, Kaveh is so exhausted, so deeply caught up in the dark tangle of his thoughts that he's almost oblivious to Alhaitham's approach. He's dimly aware of the sound of approaching footsteps, but he doesn't budge, assuming it's someone passing by. The sound of the chair is what startles him into opening his eyes, and he barely has time to register what, who, he's looking at before Alhaitham's dropping into the chair across from him. On pure, reactive instinct, he bolts upright, yanking his hands back from the table and dropping them into his lap, as if changing his sitting position now could possibly erase the fact that Alhaitham caught him looking like that.]
You--what are you doing here?!