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i.
It’s the sound of light scratching at the door to the alchemy lab that snaps Albedo out of his trance.
He looks up from the notebook he had been writing in. The process for his latest experiment isn’t particularly arduous, but simply tedious, with many steps and precise calculations to make to ensure its success.
Lounging next to the bookshelves, Azoth raises his head off his paws, red eyes cracking open and blinking lazily at the door. The dragon has been sleeping in the back of the room for the majority of the day, occasionally getting up to help Albedo with his experiments whenever geo power was needed. For the most part, though, the day has been rather tame.
Earlier, Albedo had taken him out to Starsnatch Cliff in order to collect samples of the electro crystals that are formed there, and it seems he is relatively content with that sole adventure for the day. Thankfully, Azoth has never been a particularly energetic dragon. Klee and her Dodoco are already exuberant enough for the both of them.
After a quick glance over his notes, he sets his pencil down and heads towards the door. Opening it, there is no one standing in the hallway. Albedo frowns at the empty air, peeking his head outside and glancing around. Still, he sees nobody, and is about to become only more perplexed when he feels a light weight on his boots and the subtle prick of claws pressing through the leather.
He looks down. Standing at his feet, with a feathered tail swishing from side to side happily, is a rather small, icy blue and white dragon. He recognizes it as the one he often sees wrapped around Kaeya’s shoulder like a second scarf. In her mouth is a roll of papers, wrapped up and secured in red ribbon.
A delivery, then.
Albedo blinks down at the dragon. She’s small; around the size of an average adult cat, albeit much longer than one. He estimates that she’s a little less than a meter long from nose to tail, though a good portion of this is a result of her long, feathered tail. Nothing like Azoth’s size, who is slightly bigger than the average large dog.
Then again, dragons bestowed by Celestia can grow to a variety of sizes. Albedo has seen many that range from less than the length of his forearm, to serpent-like ones bigger than wagons even when coiled, to imposing, fierce dragons almost as tall as Mondstadt’s houses.
Unlike Azoth, Kaeya’s little dragon is more bird-like in appearance, resembling a griffin of sorts, particularly ones you might find in children’s stories. Instead of a snout, the papers are clutched in a curved beak. Though her body is mostly covered in ice blue scales, white and navy blue feathers cover her head and neck, spiking out from the crown of her head and even running all the way down the ridge of her spine to fan out into a feathery tail.
Albedo observes her curiously. He’s seen her from afar many times, usually curled around Kaeya’s shoulders or occasionally—when he sits—winding around at his feet and sitting on his boots. Thus, meeting her this close is a surprise, though it isn’t an unpleasant one.
She tilts her head at him and chirps, the sound muffled around the bundle of papers in her mouth. Albedo, effectively drawn out of his observations, takes a step back.
“Ah—” he starts, wracking his mind for her name. He has heard it, here and there from both Klee’s stories about her adventures with Kaeya and the Cavalry Captain’s own mouth. “—Skadi, was it?”
Kaeya’s dragon chirps again, tail swishing. An affirmation, he assumes, and he watches as she paws at his legs some more. Another chirp, this one more insistent, and after a brief pause he lowers himself into a crouch and holds a hand out for her to drop the bundle of papers into. Miraculously, they do not have a drop of saliva on them.
“Thank you,” he says. Skadi clicks, the sound sharp and approving, then proceeds to skitter up his arm and curl around his shoulders much like she does to Kaeya.
Albedo blinks in surprise but doesn’t chide her. She’s lighter than he’d have expected, which means that she’s not heavy enough to be a bother. A beak nuzzles through his hair curiously. It tickles.
He doesn’t quite know what to do here.
So instead, he busies himself with shutting the door. When he turns around, Azoth is peering at them curiously, eyes locked onto Skadi as she does a good job of messing up Albedo’s hair. Overall, he doesn’t seem bothered. If anything, he looks a bit perplexed by whatever Kaeya’s playful little dragon is doing.
In the end, the papers that Skadi had delivered are mostly mundane things. Professional documents that need to be looked over and signed. Letters from other knights. Notable shifts in Abyss Order activity in Dragonspine that Kaeya always takes care to update him on, so he can make sure that his laboratory there isn’t in danger.
When he’s looked through it all, he places the stack to the side and returns to looking over his notes from his most recent experiment. Skadi slinks off his arm and onto the table, wisely taking care to not trample too close to his equipment and instead planting herself down on a rare, barren corner of the desk. Her tail wags, wings shifting on her back.
Albedo looks at her, unsure of her motives. “If that’s all,” he tries, “you may return to your captain now.”
Skadi, though he knows that she understands, tilts her head. She makes no move to do anything of the sort.
It’s oddly reminiscent of Kaeya when he invades Albedo’s laboratory during the late hours of the night to force him away from work, claiming that his experiments can wait until he’s gotten proper rest. Not in the sense that he believes she’s trying to force him to take a break—no, rather the fact that she’s… persistent. Intent on staying.
“... Alright.” He lets her stay.
As he’s running through another trial of the experiment, he glances over to her. She seems content to sit there and watch him work, no intention of leaving shown in her body language. He wonders if Kaeya is searching for her.
Eventually, he reaches for his storage of mist flower corollas. The next step of the process is to freeze the substance and leave it standing for ten hours, but when he pulls open the drawer where they should be stored, he finds—
Nothing.
He must’ve run out. Albedo frowns to himself, thinking. Going out to get more would take too long; the substance can’t be left as it is for that long. Azoth, although smart, doesn’t have the means to go about gathering any. A heat source is required for harvesting the corollas, and Azoth is no fire-breather.
A flash of blue in his peripherals draws him out of his deep thoughts. Albedo looks to the side and sees Skadi, sitting back on her haunches as she observes.
Right. Skadi is a cryo dragon. Albedo holds the beaker out to her and she stands, as if already understanding what he wants her to do. “Would you freeze this? Just the liquid inside, please.”
Skadi’s purple eyes brighten and she stands, trotting over. When she opens her beak, white mist pours out from her mouth, spilling around the beaker and solidifying the liquid.
Albedo pulls it away once it’s been fully frozen, observing her work. It’s certainly faster than using mist flower corollas, he muses as he sets the glass down.
He smiles at her. “Thank you.”
This earns him a happy little chirp in response.
Once the rest of his experiment has come to an end, he decides to return Skadi to her master. As it turns out, Kaeya had been just across the hall in his office the entire evening. Albedo discovers this once he puts away his things for the night and heads over with Skadi in his arms in order to return her to his care.
“Little troublemaker,” Kaeya tuts disapprovingly as they stride into the room. He holds out his hand and Albedo takes the hint, stretching out his arm for the small dragon to use as a bridge to travel back to her usual spot around Kaeya’s shoulders. “I send you out for one errand, and you somehow turn it into an hour-long adventure. How did that happen, hm?”
She responds with a little trill, unbothered, and rests her head down to sleep.
Kaeya sighs, though it lacks any real anger and is just full of mild, exasperated amusement. To Albedo, he says, “I hope she didn’t cause you trouble.”
“Quite the contrary,” Albedo answers. “She was very helpful.”
A dark eyebrow arches curiously. “Oh? How so?”
“I unexpectedly ran out of mist flower corollas for my experiment,” he explains. “She froze it for me.”
“I see,” Kaeya laughs, the corner of his eye crinkling when he smiles. “Then I suppose I may have judged her a little too harshly. My apologies.”
The dragon in question doesn’t open her eyes, but the tip of her tail raises up to flick against Kaeya’s chin. A sign of forgiveness, Albedo assumes, and the sight makes him smile.
“She’s welcome to come in any time,” he ends up saying. “Her cryo is quite a useful ability.”
Kaeya hums noncommittally. “That it is. Though if she plans to do this regularly, I might have to begin bringing over these papers on my own.”
“I’m sure the Cavalry Captain has better things to do than play messenger.”
This draws out a surprised laugh from the man.
“Maybe so,” he agrees, grin turning sly. His eye twinkles with mischief. "But still, I cannot possibly let the Chief Alchemist begin to like my dragon better than me. That’s just plain embarrassing, no?”
Albedo shrugs. “Dragons are often more tolerable than humans,” he says.
Kaeya goes quiet at that. His expression becomes thoughtful, distant. After a moment, he says, “Mm. You’re not wrong there.”
Inwardly, Albedo winces. Without thinking, he quickly adds on, “Though you’re welcome into my lab at any time.” A pause. “Provided I am not in the middle of an important experiment.”
Kaeya’s eye widens. He chuckles, stifling the sound into the back of his hand, and looks away for a brief moment before dropping his arm back down to his side and giving a little sigh, as if the laughter had stolen all the breath out of his lungs.
His cheeks, Albedo notices, are hued with pink. So maybe it had.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he says warmly, tilting his head. “Thank you, Albedo.”
ii.
Albedo wakes up with a weight by his feet.
This, unsurprisingly, is not a normal occurrence.
He blinks sleep away from his eyes and sits up, pushing hair out of his face and staring at the lump of blue curled up into a ball at the end of his bed. It breathes with slow, deep breaths that indicate a deep sleep.
Albedo squints, familiarity tingling the back of his mind. Where has he seen this before?
As if sensing the weight of his gaze or hearing his thoughts, the being shifts. Slowly, it begins to wake, wings twitching and feathers on the crown of its head fluffing up. It finally lifts its head out from beneath two taloned feet and blinks at him with wide purple eyes that quickly fill with delight.
“... Skadi,” Albedo says, carefully. He has many questions. One of them most importantly being: “Why are you here?”
Skadi, who had bounced onto four paws and quickly crossed the expanse of his bed to rub her face into Albedo’s chest, does not seem very interested in answering. (Not that he had really expected one in the first place.)
“How did you get in?” he asks next. Yet another rhetorical question, though this time Skadi does grace him with somewhat of an answer in the form of another happy little trill—one that still does little to explain anything at all.
Albedo sighs, sliding out of bed. One glance outside tells him that it’s still early in the morning. The sun is just barely out of the horizon, rays of light orange spilling through the cracks in the curtains. Klee shouldn’t be awake for another hour or so, so he quickly pulls on his uniform and combs his fingers through his hair a few times, deciding that doing it properly can wait until after he’s returned this wayward dragon to her proper master.
He’ll return to make Klee breakfast and take her to her designated caretaker for the day—a very excited Amber that claims she’ll take her along on her patrol through the Whispering Woods for the day along with her average sized, fire-breathing dragon named Bren—but for now, Skadi’s return to Kaeya comes first.
After stretching, Azoth gets up silently to follow. He looks at Skadi—who has once again perched herself on Albedo’s shoulders, seeming particularly interested with snuffling through his untied hair today—with scrutinizing red eyes, then snorts lightly and adjusts his wings on his back, spiked tail waving lazily as he trails after.
Albedo stops in the kitchen. On the off chance that Klee wakes up early, or his search for Kaeya takes longer than expected, he scribbles a quick note to leave on the kitchen table. Despite all her mischievousness, Klee is perfectly good at following clearly stated directions, and he trusts her to not burn down their house in the short time he’ll be gone. Sort of.
For good measure, though, he asks Azoth to stay. If anything, he trusts his dragon to be able to put a stop to any trouble Klee may inadvertently get herself into. Azoth grunts, puffing out air through his nostrils in an affirmation, then yawns and slides down to resume sleeping underneath the table.
The air outside is cool. Summer is fast approaching, so mornings have gradually started to become warmer and warmer due to the rising temperatures. Soon he’ll have to start shedding layers, he muses as he scans through the thin crowds of morning passersby. As always, Klee will soon want to go to the beach to swim and collect seashells.
(As always, Albedo will put aside his work for the day and take her, no matter if there are other knights available to do so or not.
Saying no to her is truly an impossible feat, sometimes. That sweetly hopeful smile is powerful enough to bring even Archons to their knees.)
Kaeya’s apartment lies on the other side of Mondstadt, not far off from the market plaza. It should not take too long to get there, and Skadi is thankfully too preoccupied with nesting herself in Albedo’s hair, the tip of her tail brushing against the back of his neck.
People give him odd looks as he passes by. He pays them no mind; it’s a given that they’d stare or find the sight peculiar. A freshly woken Chief Alchemist with the Cavalry Captain’s tiny dragon curled up atop his head as they make their way across town is not a normal sight, after all.
As he expected, reaching the apartment doesn’t take longer than ten minutes. Kaeya opens the door a few moments after he knocks. He looks as if he was in the middle of getting ready for the day, hair still loose around his shoulders, wearing only his usual trousers and the collared white shirt that is typically hidden beneath all of his blue accessories.
The sight causes an odd twisting sensation in Albedo’s stomach. It is made very clear here that Kaeya is—even when not fully put together—undeniably good-looking.
But Albedo knows this; it’s a fact that he’s never had any issue accepting. Everyone in Mondstadt can agree that Kaeya is pretty, if his status as Mondstadt’s top candidate for grandson-in-law is anything to go by. So he doesn’t know why his mouth dries when he opens it to speak, nor why there’s a warm tingle in the pit of his stomach.
Thankfully, he’s saved from having to speak first. His hair rustles when Skadi shifts, chirping in greeting to her master and eliciting a raised dark eyebrow in response.
“So that’s where you ran off to,” Kaeya says to his dragon, tone betraying only dry amusement. “And to think that I was beginning to worry. Tsk.” His eye moves down to Albedo, an apologetic smile curling the corners of his mouth. “She seems to have grown attached to you. I’m sorry for any trouble she caused.”
“It’s…” He clears his throat. “It’s quite alright. Though I’m not too sure about how she got in; I simply woke up and she was in my room.”
“She’s sneaky that way,” Kaeya snorts. He props the door open with one foot, taking a step forward to lean over and grab the tiny dragon by the scruff, pulling her off Albedo’s head. Albedo quickly averts his gaze from the smooth, dark skin of Kaeya’s exposed chest that suddenly fills most of his vision, visible only due to that cursed chest window in his shirt.
Fortunately, Kaeya withdraws quickly, this time with Skadi dangling in his hold limply. She doesn’t seem very bothered by it, chirping and flapping her wings excitedly as she is scolded. Kaeya sighs, releasing her scruff so she can settle into his arms, raising a hand to idly stroke the top of her head.
“She likes you too much,” he tells Albedo. “Admittedly, I can’t blame her.”
The compliment takes a bit to process. Albedo stares for a bit before the realization hits and his cheeks warm, ducking his head a bit. It’s too early in the morning for this, he thinks. He’s not yet properly prepared for Kaeya’s playfully flirtatious remarks.
“I thought that I should return her before you worried too much,” he manages to say.
Kaeya shrugs, hair falling over his eyepatch. “You didn’t have to come all this way just to do that,” he says. “I have faith in her to take care of herself and I’m sure she would’ve returned before noon, though I do appreciate the thoughtfulness. Sorry to drag you out so early in the day.”
“It’s no problem,” Albedo says. He offers a small smile.
Kaeya smiles warmly in return. “Would you like to come in for tea? I can do your hair for you if you’d like, since it was my little companion here who messed it up in the first place.”
Truthfully, Albedo had almost completely forgotten about his messy hair. He considers the offer for a bit, then figures that there’s no harm in it. “If you don’t mind.”
“Of course not,” Kaeya replies easily. He retreats back into his apartment and widens the door for Albedo to come in. Skadi seems content to stay nestled in Kaeya’s arms as he shuts the door then heads over to the small kitchen to rifle for the kettle. “Make yourself comfortable.”
After looking around for a bit, he eventually decides to take a seat at the dining table. Kaeya’s apartment is fairly normal looking, lacking any kind of defining features. If he had walked in without knowing who it belonged to, he would just assume it was owned by a normal citizen of Mond. It’s very… impersonal. As if Kaeya does his best to spend his days everywhere but here.
“Preferences?” Kaeya asks, opening a cupboard and pulling out varying canisters of tea.
“Anything is fine,” Albedo says. Kaeya hums quietly in acknowledgment, setting Skadi down on the counter to free up his other hand. She quickly opens her wings to fly over to the table, landing with the click of claws against wood and scampering over to Albedo with a trill, tail swishing side to side happily.
He pats her gently. She pushes her head up into his palm as a response, arching her back so that his hand smoothes over the entire length of her body.
“Where’s your companion?” Kaeya asks idly. He’s finished setting out the cups and is leaning against the counter with crossed arms as he waits for the water to boil, cocking his head to the side curiously.
“Making sure that Klee and Dodoco don’t accidentally set the house on fire,” Albedo says dryly. Kaeya laughs, head tilting back as he does so, and Albedo carefully does not think about the way his Adam’s apple bobs in his throat.
“Fair enough,” he concedes. “They do tend to get up to a lot of trouble.”
“I’m sure you’d know that just as well as I.”
Kaeya is, after all, the one who most frequently takes on the duty of accompanying her on her daytime adventures.
A coy smile curls his lips upwards. “I certainly do.”
He hums a little thoughtfully to himself before pushing off the counter and stepping towards the small living room, casting a passing glance at Skadi as she leans into Albedo’s pets, clicking happily. “I wonder what you did to charm her so easily. She doesn’t typically warm up to people so quickly, even if she is relatively friendly.”
Albedo shrugs. “I don’t quite know myself,” he admits. “But I don’t mind. She’s cute.”
“I get that a lot,” Kaeya agrees, grabbing something off the back of the couch.
A corset, Albedo realizes, watching as he begins to put it on. A few beats of silence pass as Kaeya ties it with practiced ease. It defines his waist nicely, Albedo thinks.
When Kaeya glances up, he meets Albedo’s eyes and smiles. “Sorry. You caught me while I was in the middle of getting ready for the day,” he chuckles, tilting his chin up and raising a hand to clasp together the metal buckle at his neck. The movement reveals more of his flawless, sunkissed skin.
Distantly, Albedo wonders how it would feel under his fingers.
Then his cheeks go warm, and he promptly buries the thought into the furthest corner of his mind, averting his gaze to fix it on Skadi instead as she rolls onto her stomach and bats at his hand with her paws. “It’s fine.”
When the water begins to boil, Kaeya ties his hair up into its usual low ponytail as he makes his way over. Shortly after, a bare hand comes down to nudge the small dragon away gently to make room for a cup to be set down in front of Albedo.
Kaeya’s hands are scarred, Albedo notices. Calloused and rough from long hours spent with a sword, though that doesn’t make his hands any less elegant. Various small scars decorate his dark skin, probably from being nicked with a blade on occasion.
He realizes suddenly that this is the first time he’s ever seen Kaeya's hands without the fingerless gloves they're usually covered by. That feels odd to think about.
“—how’s he supposed to drink his tea when you’re here taking up all the space in front of him, hm?” Kaeya is saying to Skadi when Albedo finally draws himself out of his thoughts. He has a hand on his hip and his own cup of tea clutched in the other, eyebrows raised. “If all you do is prevent me from being a good host, he probably won’t come back.”
Skadi responds with a series of clicks, rattling her wings in obvious displeasure. She looks to Albedo, then back to her master, then clicks again, sitting back on her haunches.
Kaeya rolls his eye. “Hush, you. Albedo doesn’t need you clinging to him every hour of the day. He has his own dragon for company. Aren’t I supposed to be your favorite, anyway? What happened to your loyalty?”
Albedo smiles into his cup as he watches the exchange. Kaeya’s tone is light even as he scolds his dragon, eye bright with amusement as she clicks and chirps and trills at him. The tea is warm and sweet, settling in his stomach pleasantly.
Eventually Kaeya sighs, setting his cup on the table. “I did offer to help you with your hair, didn't I?” he hums thoughtfully. “My apologies. I’ll follow up on that now, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t,” Albedo answers, setting down his cup and watching as Kaeya produces a hair tie and moves behind him. “But does the Cavalry Captain typically make a habit out of apologizing?”
He gets a light laugh in response as gentle fingers begin to comb through his hair, straightening it carefully. “Well, typically my little companion here—” Skadi chirps, looking particularly proud of herself. “—doesn’t cause so much trouble. So I don’t often need to. Alas, things happen, and I am nothing if not a gentleman.”
Albedo raises his cup to his mouth again and hides an amused smile in it, thinking of all of Kaeya's rather shady methods of completing his work. “Is that so?”
“But of course!” Kaeya exclaims, putting on an air of dramatic indignation even as he begins to braid his hair. “Why, the fact that you’d think otherwise is quite hurtful. I’ll have you know that the elders of Mondstadt adore me, thank you very much.”
“Oh?” Albedo asks, playing along, “My apologies; I did not intend to offend you.”
Kaeya’s smile is audible. “I suppose I’ll accept your heartfelt apology just this once, seeing as you did come all this way to return my dragon to me.”
“How kind.”
“Mm. Hold this for me?” A hand appears in the corner of his vision, pinching one blond braid between two fingers. Albedo takes it, keeping it from unraveling as Kaeya starts on the other side of his head.
“Where’d you learn to braid hair?” he asks in the meanwhile, filling the silence with his curiosity.
Kaeya hums. “When I was younger. Jean used to ask me to do it for her. Sometimes she'd insist on braiding mine too.”
“That must’ve been an endearing sight.”
“Oh, I bet,” he snorts. “Adelinde used to coo over us for hours. Diluc would often end up with braided hair too, by the end of the day. Master Crepus found it quite funny.”
The mention of the renowned winery owner takes Albedo by surprise. To his knowledge, Kaeya typically does his best to avoid mentioning anything from his and Diluc's shared childhood. But now, there is no bitter lilt to his tone, only a wistful kind of nostalgia.
“I’d imagine it was,” is all he ends up saying.
They fall into silence. Albedo observes the rising and falling of Skadi’s chest as she naps beside his still-warm cup, and Kaeya soon reaches for the first braid he'd done. Albedo places it in his hand and their fingers brush as he does. Kaeya’s skin is warm.
The hands finally leave his hair quickly after that. “There,” Kaeya says cheerfully, stepping back into his line of sight. “All done.”
Albedo pats around his head gently. Nothing feels out of place—a remarkable feat considering this must be the first time that Kaeya had ever tried this hairstyle, even if it isn’t anything particularly elaborate.
“Thank you,” he says. “I appreciate it.”
“Happy to help,” Kaeya grins back. He reaches for the pair of gloves that had been sitting on the table the entire time, sliding them on swiftly. “Give me a few more minutes to get ready and I'll walk you out.”
“Alright.”
Thankfully, Kaeya disappears into his bedroom to do that. In the meantime, Albedo busies himself with finishing the rest of his tea, and Kaeya returns shortly after looking the exact same as he does every day, elaborate accessories and all.
Skadi wakes up with impressive timing, stretching languidly before launching herself off the table and onto the air to make a beeline for her human. Kaeya holds up an arm for her to land on and she curls around his shoulders naturally, feathers and scales intermixing with the white fur of his cape.
The Cavalry Captain opens the door wide for him with a smile. “Shall we?” he asks, a smirk playing on his lips.
They walk together to only the market plaza. It's a little later in the morning now and people wave as they pass by, getting ready for the day's business. Albedo returns their greetings with polite nods while Kaeya offers charming smiles. For the most part, the stroll together is quiet, the silence comfortable. Kaeya points out a bird that flies by and Albedo only needs a single glance at it to name it, and the way that his blue eye lights up when he does makes a warm feeling settle deep in his chest.
“I suppose this is where we part,” Albedo says once they reach the fountain and come to a stop, intent on heading back home while Kaeya is probably going to veer towards the Ordo Favonius’ headquarters. “Thank you for the tea.”
“Thank you for your company,” Kaeya returns with a soft smile. “You’re welcome to come over anytime. Klee, too. I mean it.”
Albedo meets his gaze before ducking his head in a nod. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he says quietly. He carefully chooses to call the warmth blooming in his chest a result of being flattered by the statement. “Goodbye for now, Captain.”
“I think we’re close enough now that you can stop being so formal all the time,” Kaeya says airily, eye twinkling. “Use my name more. I like the way you make it sound.”
He blinks in surprise, lips parting but no response coming out. Kaeya watches him for a minute before laughing lightly, raising a hand in a small wave. “I’ll see you later, Chief Alchemist,” he says, and turns to stroll away with his hands in his pockets.
Albedo is left standing alone at the fountain, staring at his retreating back. Once again, his mouth feels dry.
It’s ironic, Albedo thinks, for Kaeya to use his title like that directly after telling him there’s no need to use his own. What’s even more baffling is the way that the two simple words, Chief Alchemist, had slunk into his chest and squeezed it tight.
He wonders if this is similar to what having a heart attack feels like.
iii.
“Seems a little late to be conducting experiments, don’t you think?”
The familiar voice coming from the doorway isn’t enough to turn Albedo away from the notes he is scribbling down furiously, the scratch of quill against paper noisy in the near-empty room. He doesn’t even cast them a glance. “I’d have thought that you'd have left the headquarters already, Captain.”
A disapproving click of the tongue snaps through the air, followed by the quiet sounds of heeled boots on the tile floors. “Again with those titles, Kreideprinz?”
Albedo purses his lips to keep a small smile from emerging. “Again with your incessant interrupting of my work, Sir Kaeya?”
Kaeya hums. “Mm. Not quite the name that I’d prefer, but I’ll settle. We’ll have to work on dropping the honorifics later.”
“If that’s all, you may leave. Good night.”
“Who said anything about leaving? Unless you're coming with me, of course.”
“I have an experiment to complete.”
“Then I suppose that neither of us are getting sleep until it’s done,” Kaeya sighs, dramatically. Albedo pauses and finally stops his writing to lift his head and watch as the lanky knight strolls towards the couch at the back of the room. He flops onto the end opposite from Azoth, the geo dragon hardly sparing him a glance, though he does lean forward to sniff the knuckles Kaeya offers out to him and his red eyes shut into content little crescents when a gloved hand pats his head gratefully.
Skadi takes that as a queue to launch herself off Kaeya’s shoulders, zipping through the air and quickly landing lightly on Albedo’s head. Soft feathers brush against his cheek as she circles once, leans down far enough for them to meet eyes, and chirps.
“Good evening to you too,” Albedo greets. She cocks her head, feathers rustling in a silent question. “No, I am not planning to leave until I finish my experiment.”
She clicks, the sound almost disapproving, but lifts her head out of Albedo’s face and resumes nestling on top of his head. The movements aren’t terribly distracting, so Albedo focuses on running through the rest of the steps for his trial.
He glances back at Kaeya as he does so. The knight has taken to reading a book that he must've grabbed off the small bookcase. Slimes: Connection to the Natural World is printed neatly on the cover. Although his attention seems fixed on the words within the pages, there’s an almost imperceptible slump of tiredness to the set of his shoulders. It's subtle even to Albedo’s sharp eyes.
Breathing out and bending over carefully so as not to dislodge the tiny dragon nestled atop his head, he grabs a beaker of bubbling liquid and moves it to another portion of the desk, beginning to measure a sample of slime condensate in a separate test tube. “You don’t need to stay here. Go home.”
“Only if you’ll close out for the night too,” comes Kaeya’s stubborn response. “Overworking is not healthy for the body or soul, Kreideprinz.”
He breathes out a sigh. It’s not as if he actually really needs sleep, per se. As long as he sustains himself with an energy source like food or drink he’ll be fine, even if sleep certainly is helpful. Besides, his stamina is far better compared to normal humans.
But of course he’s not going to outright say this. So he makes no response, continuing on with his work.
The rest of the experiment doesn’t take too long, thankfully. After jotting down a few quick notes and changes to the resulting concoction, Albedo shuts his notebook and places it into his bag.
When he looks back at the couch, Kaeya’s eye is shut and the book in his lap is still open. Albedo is about to assume that he's asleep and debate on whether waking him up is the best choice before Kaeya shifts, eye blinking open slowly.
“Finished already?” he asks, then brings a hand up to his mouth as a yawn overtakes him.
Albedo leans back and slings his bag over his shoulder, watching him stretch. Skadi, as if knowing that they’re preparing to leave, waits until he's comfortably adjusted the leather strap before slipping down to settle around his shoulders instead.
“‘Already’?” he echoes dryly. “I was under the impression that you were sleeping.”
“Of course not. Just resting my eyes.” Kaeya stands, running a hand through his bangs. Albedo watches the way his dark hair falls over his right eye again, momentarily transfixed by the way it curls slightly at the ends as it settles back into place, softer than silk. He jolts when Kaeya catches his stare, the side of his mouth curling up into a smirk. “Why, would you have carried me home if I was?”
Albedo’s cheeks flare up red. He turns away quickly. “A cold glass of water would’ve worked just as well,” he deadpans, holding a hand up to his shoulder and prompting Skadi to slink down into his arms. She nestles her face into the inside of his elbow, trilling softly with joy, and he runs a hand along her back.
“So heartless, Chief Alchemist,” Kaeya pouts. He pats Azoth on the head when the dragon jumps off the couch to trot up to Albedo’s side.
If he minds that Skadi has chosen to be held by Albedo instead of him, he says nothing.
Albedo opens the door to the alchemy lab and slips out into the quiet hallways of the Ordo Favonius’ headquarters. By this time of night all the lights have dimmed into a quiet orange glow.
They step outside, beneath a sky of countless glimmering stars. Cool air brushes past his cheeks. Albedo breathes in the fresh air and turns around as the grand doors to the headquarters shut.
Kaeya is walking down the steps, hands in his pockets and head tilted up to the sky. Pale moonlight splashes onto his hair and face, giving him an otherworldly glow. It reflects off the blue of his earring and for a moment, Albedo is struck with a sense of awe. I want to draw this, he thinks suddenly. Because Kaeya’s pretty. He knows this already, has known it, but somehow the fact never ceases to amaze him.
The urge to draw twitches through his fingers. Albedo resists it, thinking, it’s late. Too late. His sketchbook is in his bag and Skadi in his arms, and it’d probably be odd for him to ask so suddenly, at such a random hour.
(Besides, a part of him doesn’t think he could even properly capture Kaeya’s elegance with just his hand and paints.)
He dismisses the thought and clears his oddly tight throat. “Captain?”
“Hm?” Kaeya looks down, seeming to have been lost in his thoughts just the same as Albedo had been up until a few moments ago. He blinks, bemused, then seems to start back into action. “Oh, sorry. Daydreaming, haha.”
Albedo hums quietly and waits for him to catch up before setting off again. Kaeya matches his pace and they stride side by side down the steps. Although Albedo is sure that he could walk much faster, considering the vast difference in height between them, he makes no effort to do anything of the sort.
“You’re thinking awfully hard over there,” Kaeya notes, a song-like lilt to his words.
He shrugs. “Just observing.”
“Are you ever not using that alchemist’s brain of yours?”
Albedo huffs softly. “Attention to detail is hardly an alchemy specific skill.”
“Touché.”
They fall into a comfortable silence after that. Albedo mulls over lots of things. Like wondering what Klee did today (she’ll be sure to tell him tomorrow morning), or thinking about his experiment, or contemplating what to make for breakfast tomorrow. There’s still some leftover fish that Klee had gotten from Cider Lake a few days ago. Fisherman’s Toast would be the easiest answer, then. It’s a good thing that she hardly gets tired of it. He really hopes that she hasn’t brought home more from her adventures today.
A sudden thought hits him. Albedo stops in his tracks, realization washing over him like the frigid air of Dragonspine.
Kaeya is already a few steps ahead by the time he notices his abrupt pause. He stops and turns half around, a dark eyebrow arching curiously. “Something the matter?”
Albedo looks from him, then to the gates of Mondstadt, then Kaeya again. “You were the one who was accompanying Klee today, weren’t you?”
Kaeya smiles, head cocking. “I was indeed. Why?”
He frowns, gaze dropping down to the floor as he thinks. “If that’s the case, what were you doing at headquarters? You typically head straight home or to the tavern after putting her to bed.”
Kaeya’s expression slackens with surprise. He blinks in bemusement a couple of times before laughing, the amused sound rising above the quiet night time noises. “I hadn’t thought that you would have taken note of my habits, Chief Alchemist. That’s quite flattering.”
His smile is warm and genuine when they meet eyes, but the frown still doesn’t leave Albedo’s face. He raises both eyebrows, waiting for an answer.
Kaeya eventually sighs, pulling his hands out of his pockets to hold them in the air in a gesture of surrender. “Alright, alright, you caught me. I ran into Sucrose on my way to the Angel’s Share and she informed me that you were still holed up in the lab doing work. So I came to check on you. To be fair, it’s not like my dragon was very opposed to the idea.”
Albedo lowers his frown to direct it towards Skadi, who has hidden her face away in his arm rather suspiciously as she pretends (rather horribly) to be asleep. “You were in on this too?” he asks in disbelief.
A guilty chirp is the response he receives. Albedo pinches the bridge of his nose and shuts his eyes, sighing deeply. The work he could’ve gotten done—! The experiments he could’ve conducted—!
All down the drain because a certain Cavalry Captain is far too persistent for his own good.
As if reading his mind, Kaeya comes up to him and settles a hand on the top of his head. “Your work won’t run away all because you decided to take a break for the night,” he tells Albedo lightly, ruffling his hair.
Chirping in agreement, Skadi uses the close proximity to skitter out of his arms, climbing up onto his head, then shoulders, and using Kaeya's arm as a bridge between their bodies. She ends up on top of her master’s head, curling into a ball there in much the same fashion as she does when it’s Albedo’s hair she chooses to nest in.
Hiding her head between her paws, she peers at him through tufts of navy blue hair. Albedo glares at her in betrayal, then Kaeya, who only smiles cheerfully back and ruffles his hair once more before withdrawing his hand.
“... I see,” is all he mutters in the end, flattening his expression into careful monotony, then walking briskly past, Azoth trotting after him.
Kaeya’s light laughter can be heard from behind, accompanied by the sounds of his boots on stone as he jogs to catch up. “Don’t tell me that you’re angry, Albedo. Really, you needed it. It's not healthy to work for so long, you know.”
Albedo ignores him. It’s childish, but he feels that it’s only fair seeing as Kaeya prevented him from getting any more work done for the night.
A nudge against his hand and a soft, warm puff of air is blown into it. Albedo glances down and sees Azoth looking up at him insistently.
“Don’t tell me you’re on his side too,” he grumbles.
The geo dragon snorts noncommittally.
Kaeya seems to have realized that Albedo really is annoyed, and has devolved into pouting and making distressed noises.
“Come on, Albedo,” he insists, “it’s good for you. Trust me! I would’ve come to check on you regardless—there were some papers I needed to pick up anyway. Are you seriously going to give me the cold shoulder? Albedo. Albedo. ‘Bedooo.”
He stops in disbelief. “What did you just call me?”
Kaeya grins, proud of finally coaxing a response out of him. “You don’t like it? Should I revert back to using your titles again?” he asks, bumping their shoulders together lightly. “Hm? What do you prefer, darling alchemist?”
Albedo freezes.
Darling alchemist.
His cheeks burn. Adjusting the strap of his bag and ignoring the fluttery way the words make his gut feel, he retains a neutral, impassive expression. “Just my name works fine.”
“So I can call you by just your name but you still refuse to use just mine?” Kaeya laughs. “That doesn’t seem very fair.”
“Fine then.” Albedo stops, pivots on one heel sharply. “I’d like it if you stopped interrupting my work regardless of how late it is, Kaeya.”
What he doesn’t anticipate is the way he comes face to face with a broad chest and white collar. Batting away any traitorous thoughts that threaten to come to mind, he yanks his head up to meet Kaeya’s eye. The knight is staring down at him with a twinkling blue eye, eyebrows lifted in amusement.
He’s entertained by this whole ordeal, Albedo realizes lamely. Briefly, he debates the pros and cons of simply running home now to avoid having to face any more of his antics.
“There you go!” Kaeya grins. “That wasn’t that hard, was it?”
At the moment, Albedo really wishes that Rhinedottir had made him taller. At least then he wouldn’t have to look up at Kaeya like this. It would solve a lot of his current problems.
He thinks of a number of possible responses to this. Like no or whatever or you’re infuriating, but in the end he says nothing, only huffs out a sharp breath and continues on his way. More laughter floats through the air from behind him.
Insufferable, Albedo thinks with exasperation.
He stops and waits for Kaeya to catch up anyway.
iv.
In terms of physics, attraction is defined as a force under the influence of which objects tend to move toward each other.
In terms of human feelings and society, attraction is categorized as “the action or power of evoking interest, pleasure, or liking someone or something.”
Albedo is quite familiar with the former definition of the word, as it becomes a very useful concept in the world of experiments and alchemy.
The latter? Not so much.
Attraction—in the latter definition—is far more complicated. Synonyms include a myriad of words, such as: love, fondness, attachment, affection, adoration, and infatuation. On the other hand, antonyms include but are not limited to: disgust, hate, dislike, revulsion.
So many terms, and they’re all to describe one bundle of feelings invoked by a person. There’s a reason Albedo enjoys sticking to his research, and it’s because science is not nearly as extravagant and convoluted as this.
Attraction, love, affection…
Whatever the exact word may be, this is the only logical way to describe how Albedo feels towards Kaeya.
Aether raises an eyebrow. “That’s an… interesting way to put it,” he laughs, flipping through the stack of books sitting on one of the stools near the campfire. The fire crackles softly, orange light fanning out along the walls of the cave. “So you figured this out recently?”
“Fairly recently.” Albedo picks up a test tube and examines it before setting it off to the side.
Paimon zips in circles around her traveling companion excitedly. “This is so exciting! Have you told him how you feel? What did he say? Are you two dating now?”
Dating. The word makes a funny feeling settle in his chest. Albedo, silent for only a moment, clears his throat and shakes his head. “No. As I said before, I only came to this conclusion recently. I decided eventually that some time spent in Dragonspine would be beneficial, so we haven’t conversed properly in a few weeks.”
Aether’s eyebrows raise impossibly higher. He looks amused and sympathetic at the same time, crossing his arms as Paimon stops to hover mid-air with a baffled expression on her face. “Let me get this straight,” the Traveler says. “You figured out you are in love with Kaeya. And you. Ran away?”
Albedo frowns. “I didn’t run away,” he clarifies. “I came to Dragonspine to conduct research, while also taking advantage of the solitude to process the meaning of what I’m feeling.”
“Uhuh.” Aether sounds unconvinced, but lets it go. “So that’s what all these books are for?"
“Indeed.”
If Lisa had been confused or suspicious of his sudden frequent visits to the library, she hadn’t said anything. She had only smiled at him with a twinkle in her eyes and offered assistance in finding what he was searching for, and Albedo had politely declined. He waited until she was out of sight in order to begin searching for the research books written on love and human emotions—though a part of him suspects that she had an idea of why he was there despite his efforts.
Altogether, he doesn’t end up seeing much of Kaeya in the days prior to his departure to Dragonspine. They had exchanged nods and waves (and smiles, in Kaeya’s case) in passing, but other than that they hadn’t sustained any real conversation. Albedo hadn’t even told him that he was leaving—though he didn’t think he needed to, seeing as Jean took the liberty of informing everyone at the bimonthly captain's meeting.
It was a relief. Not because Albedo dislikes these newly named feelings, not at all. They are certainly distracting, but no more so than any others, like hunger or exhaustion or curiosity.
It’s more because Kaeya is flirtatious and kind and funny, and if Albedo had to face another one of his sly grins or warm laughs or flirty remarks so soon after coming to terms with everything, he'll undoubtedly become overwhelmed by it all.
“Did they help?” Aether looks skeptical as he picks up one book titled The Science of Love, turning it over in his hands.
Albedo shrugs. “They offered useful information. That was all I was looking for.”
A slight pause. “Alright,” he says eventually. “You’ve been up here a while now, haven’t you? Maybe you should go down to Mondstadt, and, um… talk to him? Kaeya, I mean.”
There’s a slight lull in the conversation as a figure appears at the mouth of the cave. Azoth lands quietly, folding his wings against his back as he steps inside with a great huff.
Albedo sets down his quill and turns as his dragon trots up, blue-silver ore clutched between his jaws. “Do you have the starsilver samples I asked for?”
Azoth drops the ore into his palm, rumbling affirmatively. Albedo utters thanks and sets the samples onto the table, but not before noticing a thin sheen of frost beginning to coat his golden scales and directing him towards the fire to warm up with a gentle pat on the head. The dragon rumbles again, pleased, and follows the directions happily, flopping down near Aether’s feet. In return, Aether smiles and pats the dragon on the neck a few times, earning a content purr.
Albedo smiles slightly at the sight, then turns back to his work and continues the conversation. “Return to Mondstadt? Now?”
“When you’re ready,” Aether says. “I think you should talk to him. Instead of just keeping your feelings to yourself. I’m sure he’d like to know.”
“Paimon thinks that Kaeya really likes you!” Paimon adds on. “Don’t think Paimon doesn’t hear the way he talks to you!”
The words cause a light squeeze in his chest that makes him falter for a minute. He hums noncommittally and changes the subject. “Perhaps. What brings you to Mondstadt this time?”
“Need Mora,” Aether responds without skipping a beat. Albedo chuckles softly at the answer. “I’m heading to the nation of the Dendro Archon soon, so I thought we’d get a few days of rest here and see what everyone’s been up to. We’ll stop by Liyue on the way, too, since it shares a border with Sumeru.”
“I see.” Finally, he sets down a beaker of suspicious purple liquid to cool, having come to a conclusion. “You’re welcome to stay here for the night. I’ll escort you to Mondstadt tomorrow, if you’d like.”
“So you already made up your mind?” Aether raises a golden eyebrow. “That was quick.”
He shrugs. “I’m not one to leave things unattended to. I’d like to get it out of the way before it ends up becoming too distracting for me to properly focus on my work.”
“That’s… not really how it works,” Aether laughs. “Love doesn’t just disappear after you confess, Albedo. You know that, right?”
“I’m aware. It… would make things easier, that’s all.”
Aether looks at him thoughtfully, nodding. “Yeah, that makes sense. But I think you’ll be fine.”
“Thank you. I appreciate the sentiment.” He dusts off his gloves and smiles slightly. “Now, what would you like for dinner?”
“Dinner!” Paimon shouts excitedly, clapping her hands. “Yay! Food!”
From there, the rest of the visit is spent talking about less serious topics. Aether tells him of his adventures in Inazuma and Liyue in great detail as they eat, and Albedo listens intently. Time passes quickly in Aether’s company, and morning comes before they know it.
Paimon snoozes in Aether’s arms as they descend from the mountain, Aether rubbing sleep from his eyes and Albedo keeping watch for any potential threats. For the most part, the mountain is thankfully quiet this morning. Even the Fatui have yet to wake.
In a stroke of luck, they manage to catch a supply cart that had just been preparing to leave from the small outpost located just outside of Dragonspine. Riding in the back of the cart shortens the time it takes to get there.
They reach Mondstadt by late afternoon, and grab a late lunch at Good Hunter before parting ways. Aether departs to talk to Katheryne at the Adventurer’s Guild, while Albedo veers towards the Ordo Favonius’ headquarters to drop off some reports to Jean and hopefully locate Kaeya’s whereabouts.
“Kaeya’s out on patrol right now,” Jean tells him when he asks. She takes the papers, scans them over quickly, then sets them off to the side of her desk for later. “He should be back by evening.”
“Thank you,” Albedo says. She smiles, something knowing in her eyes, as he turns around to leave.
In the end, he decides to go to the lab. Sucrose is in there when he enters, looking surprised but happy at the same time when he opens the door.
“Mr. Albedo! I didn’t know you’d be back today,” she stammers. Her small anemo dragon is curled on top of her head, snoozing. “Was everything alright in Dragonspine? Nothing happened, did it?”
“Everything’s fine,” Albedo answers with a small smile. “I decided to return on a whim. The Traveler stopped by.”
“Oh, did he?” Her ears twitch with mild interest. “If he’s still in Mondstadt, I’ll be sure to say hello to him!”
“Yes, that’s a good idea. How have things been while I was gone?”
Sucrose proceeds to launch into a detailed recounting of her latest trials during an attempt to create a kind of spray that allows for any harvested vegetable or fruit to be kept fresh long after picking, using her successful Sunsettia spray as a base. With nothing else to do, Albedo offers his own input, and they quickly launch into brainstorming and executing new ideas.
Before he knows it, afternoon drifts into evening, and evening into night. The moon is a silver crescent in the sky by the time they set things away for the night, Sucrose thanking him for his assistance and Albedo waving goodbye to her as they part ways.
The Angel’s Share isn’t far from the Ordo Favonius, thankfully. The walk takes hardly more than fifteen minutes. Albedo passes by Fischl and Bennett sharing a meal by Good Hunter, waves politely to Katheryne who is perched, as always, behind the counter of the Adventurer’s Guild. He notices as he passes by that even Marjorie has gone home for the night.
On the flip side, the tavern is fairly busy when he walks in. Not any more than usual, but still filled with various people. Albedo spots Kaeya and Rosaria at the bar almost immediately, Diluc’s expression flat and bored as he mixes drinks behind the counter.
Kaeya’s head is buried in his arms, a half-empty glass sitting in front of him. Skadi sits on the bar, batting at her own tail idly. When she spots him, she visibly brightens and immediately flies over to curl around him, cooing joyfully. Still, Kaeya doesn’t look up.
Remnants of their conversation float through the air. Albedo nods at Diluc as the owner of the tavern finally notices him, about to take a step forward until Rosaria sets down her glass with a loud clink! sound.
“So when are you two going to date?” she asks Kaeya flatly, sounding like she’s repeated the question many times before. Albedo stops.
Diluc’s face does an odd pinching thing at that. His expression tightens, eyes darting from Albedo to Kaeya quickly, mouth opening as if he wants to intervene, then shutting as if he isn’t sure what to say.
Kaeya lifts his head out of his arms and grabs his glass, lifting it to his mouth and downing the last of the dark liquid inside. He laughs—a sharp, disbelieving sound.
“Albedo and I getting together? When the sun falls out of the sky, perhaps.”
Albedo blinks.
Oh.
“Kaeya,” Diluc says sharply.
Oh.
Kaeya snorts. “So now you’re interested? I had been under the impression that you were trying your best not to listen.”
“Shut up,” Diluc snaps. He jerks his head in Albedo's direction sharply, mouth pressing into a thin line. Albedo watches as Kaeya turns around, expression twisting into one of confusion.
“Albedo?” he asks. “I thought you were in Dragonspine.”
Albedo thinks about what to say. The books he read had never mentioned anything like this, only concerning themselves with the logistics behind romantic feelings. He finds that he doesn’t have a proper response. Words won’t form the way he wants to, and all he ends up doing is staring blankly, a sour taste on his tongue that will not go away no matter how much he swallows.
Something in his stomach twists. It’s cold and heavy and unpleasant; nothing like the fluttery warmth he had felt before.
He wonders if this is what rejection feels like.
Kaeya looks further confused, though he quickly seems to come to a realization. A blue eye widens in panic as he blanches, scrambling off the stool to reach a hand out. “Wait, Albedo—did you—I didn’t—”
Albedo is out the door and slamming it shut before Kaeya reaches him.
He presses his back against the wood and doesn’t budge even as there’s a small thud against it. He hears the insistent jiggle of the knob as it is twisted, feels the force trying to nudge it open from inside. He still doesn’t move. There’s a lump in his throat that won’t go down no matter how much he swallows, yet he remains rooted in place.
It takes another moment or two for him to realize that he should probably leave. There’s no use standing here and clogging the entrance for other people, so he beckons Azoth along and strides briskly away.
Skadi nudges her face against his cheek as soon as he takes a few steps, trilling softly with worry. Her feathers are soft against his skin as she prods him insistently, attempting to lift his spirits. It is thoughtful, and Albedo is grateful for her even though all she serves to be is a reminder of the person he doesn’t want to think about right now.
So he lifts up two hands for her to step on to. She takes the hint, smart girl, long tail draping over his fingertips and dangling in the air as she meets his eyes and chirps questioningly, worry written in her bright eyes.
“The windows of the top floor are open,” Albedo tells her. “Return. I’ll be alright.”
Skadi adjusts her wings in doubt, tail flicking. She chirps, insistent, and attempts to reach out to nuzzle his face. He holds her further away to prevent it, and motions towards the Angel’s Share’s windows.
It takes a bit more of insisting and reassurance, but a heavy chuff from Azoth and a few seconds of eye contact between the two dragons is eventually what coaxes her into leaving. She spreads her wings and lifts into the air, flying quickly, though she pauses just outside to look back at him. She looks sad.
Albedo averts his gaze. He watches through his peripherals as she finally disappears into the Angel’s Share’s warm yellow glow.
Just then, the door begins to creak open. Albedo catches a glimpse of tan skin and familiar fingerless gloves, and panics.
“Azoth,” he says quickly. His dragon understands immediately. Small spikes of geo burst forth from the ground in front of the door, pushing it shut again with a surprised splutter from Kaeya as he is abruptly stopped from going outside.
This time when the doorknob jiggles, it doesn’t even so much as move.
Albedo breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
Azoth grunts. He waves one wing in the air carelessly as if to say don’t worry about it. Albedo lays a hand on the top of his head in thanks, breathing out slowly, and takes a moment before setting off towards home.
He isn’t sure how far he makes it before there’s a call of his name—far away now, coming from the direction of the Angel’s Share. Diluc must’ve allowed him out through the back or some other exit, which wouldn’t be surprising.
So to Azoth, he says, “Disperse,” and the tips of Azoth's spikes glow a gentle gold as he obeys, crumbling down the geo that had blocked the door back into dust.
If Kaeya has already found a way around, there’s no point blocking off anyone else. Albedo had intended to crumble it once he returned home, anyway. Surely Master Diluc wouldn’t have minded.
He ignores it and moves on.
In hindsight, he should have known better. It’s easy to fall for Kaeya's flirtatiousness; that’s just how he is. With anyone. That silver tongue of his comes as naturally to him as curiosity does to Albedo. After all, for Kaeya, his charm is a means to an end. A tool used in his work to squeeze information out of tipsy Treasure Hoarders in the dark corners of the Angel's Share during late nights.
He had been a fool to think that he was special in some way. He had been a fool to think that it could have meant something, had been a fool to let these feelings develop in the first place.
Foolish, Albedo thinks as he unlocks the door and is welcomed with a dark house. Foolish, foolish, foolish. The heavy feeling in his gut has yet to leave.
Sleep does not come to him that night.
v.
Days later, Kaeya is in Jean’s office when he strolls in.
Albedo freezes for a split second, momentarily caught off guard, before kicking himself back into action and stepping further inside. Although the hesitation had hardly lasted longer than half a second, the slight falter in Kaeya’s greeting smile proves that he’d noticed anyway.
Skadi, on the other hand, greets him with a chirp and a wave of her tail. Albedo responds with a polite nod in their direction, not daring to look at them a second longer and focusing his attention on shutting the door behind him, then turning towards the Acting Grand Master. Her anemo dragon sits tall at her side, feathered and regal, regarding him with cool golden eyes.
“You requested me?”
Jean smiles at him warmly. “I did.”
She stands and beckons him forward. Albedo goes, taking note of the large map of Mondstadt splayed out along the expanse of her desk.
“I’m sure that you two have been aware of the increased Abyss Order activity lately,” Jean starts. “Lately, there have been a worrying amount of hilichurl training camps found near Starsnatch Cliff.” She gestures towards the map, where various locations have been marked with black X’s. “I had Amber do some scouting earlier, and she managed to spot one of their mages heading into a small cove hidden along the side of the mountain.”
A gloved finger lands on a circled spot just a little ways off from Falcon Coast, a rather discreet stretch of beach hardly ventured to.
“I see,” Albedo says. “You’d like—” He glances in Kaeya’s direction briefly, hesitating over the word for a split second. “—us to investigate?”
Jean nods. “You and Kaeya, yes. I hate to pull you away from your other work, but we don’t have anyone else that’s readily available. The two of you also might have a better time handling it with your dragons.”
“It’s no issue,” he says. As much as he currently would not like to go on an expedition with Kaeya, it’s unavoidable, and he won’t allow something as silly as feelings or rejection get in the way of Mondstadt's safety. “When would you like us to set off?”
“Tomorrow. The sooner we get rid of these camps, the more manpower we’ll have to send to other places.”
For the first time since Albedo has walked into the room, Kaeya speaks up. “What about sending the Honorary Knight to take care of some? He’s in the city last time I checked, and he’s the only one in Teyvat who can control the elements while not being or having a dragon of his own.”
She shakes her head. “He’s already taken various commissions from the Adventurer’s Guild to clear out hilichurl camps nearby. I’d hate to ask more of him.”
“We can handle this,” Albedo interjects. “No need to bother the Traveler any more than necessary.”
Jean nods her agreement. “Alright. Then with that out of the way, I have nothing more to say to you two. You’re free to go. Be safe tomorrow.”
He dips his head in thanks, and turns to leave with Azoth at his heels. He just makes it out of the door and a few steps into the hallway before Kaeya's voice trails after him. “Albedo, wait.”
Albedo stills. He turns his head halfway, and out of the corner of his eye sees the Cavalry Captain standing a few feet away, a hand half-raised as if to reach out for him. There’s a conflicted expression on his face, one that he’s never seen before.
“Albedo,” Kaeya says again, brows knitting together. “About what happened—”
“Tomorrow morning is fine,” Albedo says abruptly, cutting him off mid-sentence. “I’ll meet you outside the gates. Have a good evening, Captain.”
Without another word, he whips his head back around and heads off towards his laboratory. As soon as Azoth trots inside, he shuts the door quickly, listening to the quiet click it makes and letting out a breath that had gotten stuck in his throat.
For a long few minutes, there is no noise from outside. Then, a sigh and the quietest of sympathetic coos, and the fading click of boots on the tiled floor as Kaeya walks away.
Albedo doesn’t dare to linger there any longer, striding instead towards his desk. On the way there, a scaled muzzle nudges against his thigh, and Azoth blinks up at him with worry written in his red eyes.
He rumbles, a wordless question, and rubs his coarse cheek against the hand Albedo offers out.
“It’s nothing,” Albedo tells him, then points towards the couch. “Get some rest for tomorrow. It will be a long day.”
Azoth looks unconvinced, but he follows the directions anyway.
The evening comes and goes and so does the night. Albedo hardly sleeps in favor of conducting last minute experiments, and is grateful when the first rays of dawn finally begin to peek out over the horizon.
From there, very little preparations need to be made. He makes breakfast for himself and Azoth, leaves plates of food on the table for Klee and Mona, who had promised to stop by in the morning and take the girl out to Windrise for the day, accompanied of course by her lithe, elegant hydro dragon.
The sun has risen up a decent amount by the time he finally sets out towards Mondstadt’s gates, the sky a bright blue that’s lost any hints of orange. White clouds drift past, and Albedo categorizes them in his head as he walks, if only to keep his mind off of everything else. Cumulus, mammatus, cumulus congestus, cumulus mediocris, mammatus.
Kaeya is waiting for them when he shows up, arms crossed as he chats idly with Swan and Lawrence. When he spots Albedo, he tries for a greeting smile that ends up coming out forced, while Skadi rushes off his shoulders to zip around Albedo’s head, chirping happily, only returning to her master once Albedo acknowledges her with a soft greeting.
They set off for Falcon Coast without any preamble aside from a parting wave to Swan and Lawrence, who wish them luck. The walk is mostly silent. Albedo is grateful for that, choosing to examine the scenery around him and studiously not thinking about the tall, familiar, warm presence at his side who is buzzing with restless energy.
Mondstadt is thankfully a rather small nation. They reach Falcon Coast by noon, the sun round and bright above them. Searching for the cave takes no less than ten minutes; the entrance is small, hidden, and hard to spot from a distance. Kaeya sends Skadi ahead to scout and she flies a short distance inside before returning with little to report. So they head in, Skadi returning to her place on Kaeya’s shoulders, Azoth stuck closely to Albedo’s side.
Thankfully, the cave is fairly straightforward. There are remnants of the Abyss Mage’s elemental powers that Albedo takes note of. A pyro mage from the looks of things, so it shouldn’t end up being too difficult with Skadi’s cryo.
What he doesn’t like, though, is the dead silence. It’s so quiet that he is acutely aware of his own breathing, of Skadi’s feathers rustling when she shifts and Azoth’s quiet pawsteps, of the soft jingle of Kaeya’s chains.
There are lanterns hung on the walls as they progress, glowing with dim blue light. Occasionally, they will come across what looks like a small camp, furs and bedding placed down around some boxes and barrels. Snuffed out fires with empty pots hanging over them. Old training dummies. There are no inhabitants to be found.
“I don’t like this,” he murmurs. “If this is truly a base for Abyss Order soldiers, why is it so…”
“Desolate?” Kaeya finishes. His eye flicks quickly from corner to corner as he scans their surroundings. “I don’t know.”
Albedo summons his sword into his hand. Kaeya does the same. They continue onwards, side by side.
It takes a few more minutes of walking for them to reach the end of the cave. There, they find a larger number of beds and barrels. Multiple fires and training dummies have been set up. Kaeya lets out an unimpressed huff before storing his sword away in a small puff of golden particles.
“Could they have known that we found them?” he mutters, a hand on his chin. Albedo leaves him to ponder, stepping forward to observe the camp. He opens the crates and barrels, finding that there are still storages of food and weapons inside, though scarce and nearly depleted. One barrel is filled halfway with water. When he dips a finger in it to taste, it’s fairly fresh. Probably hasn’t been more than a day or two since it was collected.
Next, he turns to the rest of the camp. The bedding is fairly worn, tufts of shedded Hilichurl fur visible on the fur blankets. The campfire is put out and there’s nothing in the pot that hangs above it, but…
When Albedo reaches out to poke at the remnants of the burned wood, he sees a spark of orange. Embers. The smell of smoke is faint, but present.
Something was just here.
Albedo looks up. “Kaeya—”
“Look out!”
A hand fists into his hood and yanks him to the side just as a fireball comes flying through the air. Albedo curses sharply, righting himself and grasping for his weapon as Kaeya summons his sword just in time to block an arrow that comes flying at his chest.
Ahead of them stand a rather large group of hilichurls, backed by an axe-wielding Mitachurl and pyro Abyss Mage. The Abyss Mage crows something to its comrades, pointing its staff toward them and crying out loudly. Instantly, two hilichurls carrying shields and clubs split from the group, rushing toward them.
As Albedo adjusts his grip on his weapon, Kaeya clicks his tongue sharply in annoyance.
“Go,” he says. It’s not directed to Albedo.
Instead, Skadi trills her acknowledgment and launches off his shoulder, wings flaring out to carry her through the air. Between one blink and the next, she has gone from a tiny dragon not even longer than a meter to a hissing beast larger than even the biggest of horses. One hydro samachurl is snapped up in her beak and thrown into the wall, while a powerful feathered tail whips out to bat the Mitachurl away before it can even swing its axe. It stumbles back and grunts in surprise, almost dropping the giant weapon.
Albedo hardly has time to marvel at the revelation that Skadi has multiple sizes she can utilize—an ability that isn’t exactly unheard of, but one that’s uncommon nonetheless—as another fireball comes flying towards him. He ducks under it as Azoth launches himself into the fray, snapping and clawing and raising spikes of geo to spear through enemies.
Blood splatters the walls.
Luckily, with two dragons on their side and both of their fighting skills, the battle does not last long. The pyro Abyss Mage’s shield shatters with one icicle, and even the Mitachurl proves to be no match for Kaeya and Albedo's combined swordsmanship.
Albedo flicks blood off his sword as he checks over Azoth. He’s unscathed, no doubt due to his hard scales and various spikes that kept any hilichurls from making even the slightest dent.
A few paces away, Skadi sits back on her haunches and begins to preen, attempting to clean off blood and straighten her feathers. Soon enough, Azoth trots over to help.
“Looks like that’s all of them,” Kaeya says, surveying the cave. A glossy apple rolls at his feet, which he picks up and examines before tossing away with a shrug and sigh. “I suppose they knew we were coming after all.”
“The fire was fresh,” Albedo says. “The Abyss Mage being spotted by Outrider Amber was more than likely intentional. It was intended to be an ambush.”
“Any other team of knights probably wouldn’t have made it out.” Kaeya smiles at him. “I suppose it’s good that Jean sent us, hm?”
Albedo looks away, unsure of what to say. A vaguely uncomfortable feeling twists in his stomach. It had been easy to forget about everything in the heat of battle, but now that it’s over…
A faint glow of gold catches his eye, hidden amongst the bodies of the hilichurls. Albedo stares at it, thinking that it must be Azoth using his geo abilities. But that’s impossible, because Azoth is on the other side of the cave with Skadi. Which only means…
The tip of a staff pokes out from the bodies. The geo samachurl’s hilichurlian chants grow louder. It struggles to its feet, crimson blood pouring from a wound in its shoulder, yet raises its glowing staff anyway. Geo power builds up in its core.
Albedo pales, launching himself towards it in panic and shouting, “Azoth!”
Immediately, Azoth whips around and streaks towards the samachurl, striking it down before Albedo even makes it halfway. The chanting is cut off by a cry of pain and the thud of a body hitting the ground.
It’s half a second too late.
As the staff falls out of the samachurl’s hands, the built up geo power does not fade away. With no wielder left to complete the spell, the energy bursts forth from the staff in a beam of uncompressed, uncontrolled geo power. It hits the roof and sinks into the stone, gold fading into the gray.
Something rumbles. There is an ominous cracking sound.
Albedo realizes that the cave is going to come down an entire second before Kaeya does. He watches as cracks begin to split open the roof above him, spreading far too quickly for them to have any chance of escaping.
Kaeya’s eye is wide when they lock gazes. Albedo reaches out towards him. He’s not going to make it in time.
A few paces away, Skadi cries out shrilly. Her long tail whips out and hits Albedo in the back, propelling him forward and straight into Kaeya. The first chunk of large stone comes down where he had just been, and she's forced to scramble back to avoid being crushed.
Kaeya’s arms reach out to catch him. Albedo feels them collide and just manages to fist his hands into the soft part of his scarf.
A split second later, everything comes crashing down.
(bonus)
Albedo wakes up to darkness.
A sharp, burning pain spanning across the lower part of his right leg is what hits him first. His head throbs dully, throat scratchy and chest tight when he inhales and chokes on the smell of sea salt and dust.
On his back is a light weight. Underneath his head lies something firm, rising and falling with soft breaths. A steady heartbeat thrums beneath his cheek. Thump, thump, thump. He makes a noise and shifts.
“Don’t move.”
Kaeya’s voice is sharp when he speaks. A hand on Albedo’s back applies gentle pressure, forcing him down when he tries to get a hand on the rocky floor and rise. The pain in his leg increases in a sudden jolt that shoots through him like lightning.
Kaeya says again, “Don’t move. Your leg got caught in the collapse.”
Albedo wheezes and reluctantly complies, trying to catch his breath. Kaeya, at least, has the privilege of being able to sit up. On the other hand, Albedo is stationed between his legs with no choice but to lean into Kaeya’s chest or attempt to support himself on one hand, since one of his legs is stuck under a mountain of rock.
Seeing as there's exhaustion weighing down his muscles and soreness in every part of his body, he reluctantly opts for the former.
“How—” When he tries to speak, he’s cut off again by another bout of coughing. Immediately, Kaeya’s hand begins to rub soothing circles on his back. Albedo inhales shakily and licks his dry lips, grimacing. “How long was I un—unconscious?”
“Ten minutes or so,” Kaeya says quietly. “The samachurl’s staff caused the cave in.”
“Mm.” Albedo shuts his eyes. It’s dark, not like he’ll be able to see anything with them open anyway. He wiggles the toes on his right leg experimentally, finding that they work just fine, and deduces that damage is most likely minimal. He’s lucky that the limb wasn’t entirely shattered.
Testing his luck, he tries to draw it towards himself, only to be answered with another shock of agony.
“Stop doing that.”
“It’s fine,” he argues, gritting his teeth. “I can—my leg. I think there’s enough space for me to be able to—”
Only when a heavy weight across his shoulders shifts inwards does Albedo notice that Kaeya has his other arm curled loosely along his back. The position they’re in is an almost hug—even Albedo’s hands have been forced to settle on either side of the Cavalry Captain’s waist. It’s mildly mortifying.
Luckily, he doesn’t get much time to dwell on that as Kaeya’s forearm presses gently into his neck. “Stop. Moving.”
He sighs but complies.
“Azoth has the power of geo,” Kaeya continues. “Just wait for our dragons to come. They know what to do.”
His voice is warm and deep and soft, the vibrations of his words traveling through Albedo’s throat and into his chest. It brings an untimely flush to his cheeks, makes him want to yank his leg out from beneath the rocks anyway and crawl into the furthest corner of the small space they’ve been buried in.
I don’t want to be here, Albedo thinks about saying. With you. Like this.
In the end, he says nothing. Instead, he tries not to think about the hand on his back, or the arm around his neck, or the steady chest he’s been pressed into, or the way that Kaeya’s heartbeat thrums in his ear in a steady, calm rhythm.
Thump, thump, thump.
It does not work.
They sit in silence. Albedo breathes in slow, measured breaths, and tries to steer his mind towards anything else. Like Klee, and his master, and all the unfinished experiments he had left behind in his laboratories. He had told Timaeus that he’d collect some more electro crystal samples for him during his expedition today. What a shame.
“Don’t fall asleep,” Kaeya says after a while. The dead silence must have made him worried.
“I’m awake.”
“Good.”
Silence, again.
Eventually, Kaeya’s hand goes back to rubbing circles on his back. It’s an absentminded thing, Albedo’s sure, probably not even something he’s actively aware of. Yet it doesn’t change the way that it makes his breath catch, or the way it makes his heart hammer loud against his chest like a hummingbird’s wings. Hard; quick. Thump thump thump, thump thump thump. He wonders if Kaeya can hear it.
Beneath him, Kaeya shifts slightly. Albedo determinedly doesn’t think about how he smells of Calla Lilies. Calla Lilies and moonlight.
The silence is once again shattered by the sound of a throat being cleared. Kaeya is preparing to speak, and Albedo can make a guess as to what it’ll be about.
Just as he predicted, it starts with: “Albedo.”
A short pause. Albedo says nothing.
“About… the tavern. What happened at the tavern, I—”
“I’d rather not discuss this right now,” he interrupts. His throat threatens to close up, but he swallows heavily and refuses to let it.
From above him comes a snort. “It doesn’t seem as if you ever want to discuss it,” Kaeya says wryly. “You’ll hardly look me in the eye.”
Inhaling sharply, “Captain—”
“Back to titles, now?”
He pauses for a long, tension-filled moment. “I’ve been busy,” Albedo says eventually. It’s a weak excuse and he knows it. So does Kaeya.
“Alright, well since we don’t seem to be doing anything right now, it’s the perfect opportunity to work things out. No?”
“... Captain,” Albedo mutters, “There really is no need to discuss such things. I understand perfectly. I misconstrued your intentions, and ended up developing… feelings that are less than professional. I apologize. I won’t allow it to impede our work relationship, trust me.”
“No, you’re wrong.” Kaeya sounds strained. “Albedo, what you heard… that wasn’t—it wasn’t meant to be taken that way.”
“I… don’t understand what you’re trying to say,” he says helplessly, chest curling up tight.
Kaeya gives a little sigh that he feels ghosting over the top of his head. “At the tavern, I said that because… I thought—I didn’t know that you thought of me that way. You didn’t misunderstand my intentions at all, I’ve been…” A moment of hesitation, before Kaeya discards that sentence for another. “What I’m trying to say is that I do like you, Albedo. The same way that you like me. I wasn’t just teasing you all this time. I don’t do that. Not to you.”
Albedo frowns, searching for a lie hidden in his words and coming up empty. What’s worse is that he doesn’t even think Kaeya is lying in the first place. His heartbeat beats fast against Albedo’s ear. Hummingbird’s wings. Thump thump thump.
“Then why…” he starts, and Kaeya cringes, a breathy laugh leaving his lips.
“I thought that you wouldn’t like me the way I wanted you to,” he admits. “After that night a couple of weeks ago, you left for Dragonspine with hardly a goodbye.” Fingers curl into Albedo’s hood. Kaeya presses a cheek onto the top of his head, chuckling soundlessly. “But I know now that you do.”
Albedo grimaces. “I didn’t leave because I didn’t like you,” he mumbles, burying his face into Kaeya’s chest and breathing in slowly. “I left because there were a lot of feelings I needed to… sort out. Alone.”
Kaeya’s smile is audible. “About me?”
He squeezes his eyes further shut, cheeks burning. “Mmrgh,” is all the affirmation he can manage, and it garners another breathy chuckle.
Kaeya hums softly, playing idly with a lock of Albedo's hair. “So what I’m understanding here,” he says, “is that you like me. And I like you back.”
“... It seems that way.”
Quiet laughter. “Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Albedo grunts to avoid giving a proper answer. Kaeya’s chest rises and falls as he sighs fondly, patting his back. He sounds as if he is preparing to say something more, when he is stopped by soft scratching sounds and ominous cracking.
Beneath him, Kaeya visibly relaxes, breathing out another sigh—this one relieved. He calls, quietly, “I hope you’re being careful out there.”
The response that comes is not one in the form of human words. It’s a heavy chuff and excited chirp that mixes into one noise, louder now, less muffled by the rock. Albedo recognizes it immediately.
From there, things move quickly. The first crack paves a way through the rock, bathing the enclosed space in dim light. A scaled snout snuffles at the entrance, then Albedo spots the bright golden glow of Azoth’s geo abilities. The rocks around them shift and shudder, parting like the sea, the air quickly turning cold as a thick layer of ice quickly freezes over the stone to keep it in place.
It takes a bit more work, but soon Azoth manages to create a hole wide enough for Kaeya and Albedo to crawl through. From what Albedo can see, the walls of the tunnel are made entirely of ice in a form of reinforcement to keep the pathway from collapsing altogether.
Azoth chuffs happily, stepping into the small space, the tips of his spikes glowing golden with his power. He snuffles at Albedo’s face worriedly, warm breaths puffing over his skin, then turns towards his trapped leg. With a flick of an ear, the stone trembles and shudders as it begins to shift.
Albedo pulls his leg out as soon as there’s enough space, breathing out a sigh of relief. Azoth immediately stops and returns to sniffing him, making sure he’s alright, before turning around to retreat through the ice tunnel and flicking his spiked tail sharply in a gesture to follow.
Kaeya laughs as it happens, helping Albedo maneuver into a crawling position. His leg burns with every step, but he presses forward despite it.
The tunnel, thankfully, doesn’t end up being terribly long. He’s out fairly soon, and is immediately grabbed by the hood and dragged up into the air by a fully sized Skadi, who sets him down on his feet and lowers her neck for him to use as support as she clicks in worry, beak nudging against his chest and stomach lightly.
“I’m alright,” he soothes, patting her soft feathers as Kaeya pulls himself out of the tunnel. He stands, brushing dust off his clothes, and looks around the empty cave, still littered with various hilichurl bodies.
“Well,” he says, the beginnings of a grin playing on his lips. “I suppose that it's safe to say we've effectively cleared out the hilichurls, no?”
“It seems that way, yes.” Albedo looks back at the mountain of rubble blocking off the rest of the cave. “They won’t have access to the rest of the cavern anymore either. That’s good.”
“Thinking ahead as always, Chief Alchemist.” Kaeya steps forward, patting Skadi on the neck gratefully, then stoops down to scoop Albedo up into his arms without warning.
Albedo makes a noise of surprise, both hands instantly going to grip at Kaeya’s shoulders. “What are you doing?”
“Taking us home,” Kaeya answers cheerfully. To his dragon, he says, “If you please.”
Skadi trills softly and kneels on her two front legs. Albedo is then carefully deposited upon her back, Kaeya lifting him as if he weighs nothing more than a feather. He places Albedo’s hands on her mane of feathers. “Hold here.”
“You don’t have a harness?” Albedo asks in alarm as Kaeya hoists himself up behind him. It’s standard for those with dragons big enough to mount to use some sort of saddle or harness to keep themselves from falling off.
But Kaeya only shrugs, wrapping his arms around Albedo’s waist lightly. “Harnesses and saddles are far too stifling. Besides, she’s never dropped me before.”
“She’s never had two people riding on her before either, has she?” Albedo asks dryly.
“No,” Kaeya answers honestly, laughing at the way Albedo’s grip on her neck tightens at the word. A warm breath flutters along the back of his neck as Kaeya holds his waist tighter, soft lips ghosting along the shell of his ear. “There’s no need to worry. I’d never let you fall.”
Albedo’s face grows hot. He nods stiffly in acknowledgement and refuses to look back as Kaeya snorts, shoulders shaking in silent laughter against him even as Skadi stands and begins trotting towards the mouth of the cave.
It doesn’t take long for them to near the city. Skadi flies carefully, at a moderate pace though he’s certain she could go much faster, which he is grateful for. Kaeya’s hold on his waist is warm and grounding, loosening for only a moment as he waves down to a wide-eyed Swan and Lawrence.
Oddly enough, Skadi does not fly all the way to the headquarters. Rather, she lands at the gates, bending down to allow Kaeya to slip off first so he can help Albedo down.
“Why did we not simply go to the headquarters?” Albedo asks. “Surely she could’ve made it there.”
“She could’ve,” Kaeya agrees. “But if everyone suddenly saw her and came to the realization that my tiny dragon is, in fact, not tiny at all… well—that’d make things a lot less fun, no?”
“I see.” So he keeps Skadi’s real size a secret to have an upper hand over his enemies—a trump card of sorts. That makes sense.
He lets Kaeya guide him a step further away from his giant dragon, watches as he lifts up an arm expectantly. In a blink, Skadi has shrunk back to her tiny form, landing on Kaeya’s hand with a chirp and scuttling up his arm to curl around his shoulders.
Albedo looks down at his own dragon, who had flown beside them on the way here. Azoth looks very off put by the entire revelation.
“If it makes you feel any better,” he says comfortingly, “your abilities are much more useful to me.”
Azoth huffs.
Kaeya insists on carrying him, saying that he shouldn’t be walking on the leg he had injured. Since he won’t take no for an answer, Albedo relents and allows him to scoop him up with an arm under his knees and the other supporting his back. He sighs, suddenly feeling exhausted by the day’s—no, the past week’s events.
Kaeya is aggravatingly cheerful on their way through the city, nodding and smiling at citizens who stop to stare at the sight. Albedo ends up closing his eyes to avoid the embarrassment of being seen this way, only opening them once they reach the church and Barbara comes out to greet them.
She leads them into a side room, where Kaeya sets Albedo down on the bed as the dragon in her arms hops onto the mattress. The hydro dragon clutched in her arms is small, barely more than a hatchling, though Albedo doubts it’ll grow to be any longer than her arm anyway. It opens its jaws and breathes warm mist onto Albedo’s leg that settles into his skin and soothes the pain.
Though it mostly feels fine after that, Barbara ends up wrapping the injury anyway, and instructs him not to overexert himself for the next few days. Expeditions and long experiments are a no-go. Albedo sighs but nods.
They stay a little longer after that—Barbara insists on doing checkups for both Kaeya and Albedo in addition to healing his leg, because apparently Kaeya has a habit of playing off injuries—a statement that makes Albedo frown in disapproval and Kaeya smile sheepishly.
In the end, there is little to be found other than a few scrapes and bruises, and a small cut above Kaeya’s brow that is easily healed with another breath from her dragon. They thank her as they leave.
However, before Albedo can even take a step outside of the church, Kaeya is swooping down and scooping him up again with a sly grin. “Not so fast. She said not to exert yourself, didn’t she?”
“What? Kaeya, put me down, it’s fine.” Albedo squirms in an attempt to get down, though Kaeya's hold only tightens.
He hums. “No, I don’t think so. Doctor’s orders.”
“I’m fine, there’s no reason to—you already carried me up all those steps. I can walk just fine. You can’t possibly carry me to the headquarters too.”
His sly smile is audible. “Oh? And why not?”
Albedo huffs. He cranes his neck to look down at Azoth, who is trotting along at Kaeya’s side. “Help me.”
Azoth, the traitor, refuses to look his way. His ears press flat against his head, tail waving in the air innocently as if he’s not paying attention. Albedo frowns.
“See?” Kaeya beams. “Even your companion agrees that this is the best course of action.”
He sighs deeply. “Kaeya.”
“Albedo.”
“Kaeya.”
“Albedo.”
“Kaeya.”
“Don’t wear it out,” he chuckles. Without warning, soft lips are pressed briefly against Albedo’s temple, and Kaeya pulls back to look down at him, bright-eyed and smiling. “Just let me do this for you, alright, my darling alchemist?”
Darling.
Something in him short-circuits. Albedo’s cheeks instantly go pink. He opens his mouth to respond, but words refuse to form on his tongue and all that comes out is another puff of air.
“Mmrgh,” he ends up spluttering, shutting his eyes to avoid having to see his face. Kaeya laughs, light and happy and free.
Defeated, Albedo ends up sinking into Kaeya’s hold, leaning into his chest with red cheeks and a pounding heart.
He smells like Calla Lilies and moonlight.