Chapter Text
I gently open my eyes, the world still hazy in a dream. I catch a hint of blonde “Klee… get out of my stuff…”
“Come again?”
My breath catches. What is he doing here? “Get over here.”
“Huh?” He turns around, walking over. “Youre tired - I don't think anythings coming out right.”
He comes close enough, and I wrap my arm around him and bring him to my bed. It all feels so real. I’m still in my clothes. Why am I still in my clothes? I don't think I care.
“Oh.” He says, flushing immediately.
Just for a little while, I can savor this.
—-
Fuck. Ow. Fuck. Ow, fuck that bard in the ass.
What's Albedo doing here? Fuck. Ow.
“Good afternoon.” He leans on the edge of my bed. “I left a note, but when I went to check back in on you, you dragged me into your bed.”
I squint. Must’ve been half awake.
“And you stayed?”
“I had nothing better to do,” He leans out of bed, “it was a… what is it you say, a ‘fuck around and find out’ sort of thing.”
I chuckle, stifling back the mash of consonants in my brain. “I just hope youre wearing socks,” its a lighthearted attempt at establishing the “bromance” between us. Why, I’d be surprised if he even knew what that was - hes so logical after all “Of course. You fell asleep in your clothes. Vision and all. With my boots, I don't understand how I couldn’t.”
… Classic Albedo.
“No wonder I cant feel my leg”’ I smirk. “Some people sleep with visions under their pillows, I’ll never understand them.”
“Sounds insanely impractical.”
“If you ask me, a Geo vision would be the most useful to apply this with. You could throw rocks at any unsuspecting intruder.” Pyro likely worked well too, but was easy to regret, if Adelinde’s face was enough to gather how many times there had been a hair singed at a footstep too loud.
“Perhaps not the best usage of a Geo vision,”Albedo muses, gently looking at his hand.
I squint, slowly watching the edge of his hand crystalize, imperceptibly tiny triangles coming down to create a small plate of armor around his glove.
I grab his wrist, beckoning Cryo to crystalize, the amber turning a cool blue and a faint cold to emanate from the construct.
Yet beneath my fingers, the heat beneath his hand remains.
“Noelle showed me how she made that breastplate just before Windblume. Right after you left, actually.”
“Ah, yes. Right before Cyno showed up…” I grumble. As much as I respect Cyno, Albedo found his jokes funny enough to try and make some of his own. It has caused me to consider another trip to Sumeru to throttle him for it.
Not too many people were suspicious after Lisa’s trip just before mine, but what happened was… not worth focusing on. Sumeru was pretty for what I saw of it, though.
“Oh! That reminds me. First drawer on my nightstand,” He was closer to it and I wasn't going to just lean over him.
Albedo raised an eyebrow.
“There’s something in there, the Traveler helped me pick it out while I was away.”
He opened the drawer, quickly finding the flower. He examined it. It almost looked like somebody had taken an indigo and yellow ribbon and glued parts of it to the stalk, a small blue flower with a delicate yellow — stamen? —sticking out of the tiny blossom.
“I ran into him and asked him to help me find a Windblume. He called it a ‘Viparyas’ and, according to him and Paimon, it’s associated with the Aranara.”
“Oh! Those little forest fairies in Sumeru?” Albedo twirls the delicate flower between his fingers, “Thank you,” Albedo brings the flower to his eye, examining it. “Did they mention anything about its seeds? I should've asked them when they were here for the festival….”
I decide now is not the time to ask how the Traveler managed to attend both the festival and meet me during my trip to Sumeru, but, considering those ancient “teleport waypoints” in Sumeru had taken on the blue the ones in Mondstat had, it didn't take much thinking.
“Funny, he did. He told me about how they are seedless,”
“So its possible they're not flowers at all then? More akin to a fern.”
“It may not be a flower, but its a Windblume.” Pfft. Classic Albedo. Always being an alchemist first about a silly little Windblume. To be honest, when the Traveler told me of Collei’s Padisarah, I had a momentous heart attack. I didn’t know where he got the Viparyas from, other than in his bag next to a flower garland, but it sufficed.
“A flower not by the laws of this world….” He twirled it once more, the purple stem fluttering, “Thank you again,” he stood up, “The tea’s cold, but Lisa stopped by to tell us that Jean was on a trip to the Dawn Winery of great importance and that, and I quote ‘you cuties should probably try and help where you can,’ ”
“Dawn Winery, eh?” I push myself up with my hands, leg long asleep from Albedo’s weight and the cold of my Vision. “What could Jean need to go to Dawn Winery for?”
Albedo shrugs, “Last time I checked, thats your sort of thing to know.”
“If she’s attempting to establish some sort of a connection with Diluc, I think I'm the last person who should handle it. I’ll go ask Lisa, though,”
“Uhm, Master Albedo?”
Albedo looks to Sucrose peeking over the doorway.
“Yes, Sucrose?”
“You…know Klee has her vision back, right?” she squeaks, averting her eyes from the scene at hand.
“No,” Albedo says, his brows furrowing out of the bliss of the moment. Or the new thing to study. “Let's meet in about an hour, shall we?”
I groan, “And when is that?”
“3:30,” Sucrose volunteers.
“Sure.” I say, masking surprise. Albedo said it was the afternoon, but something in me either did not process or believe it. Perhaps it was the fact that I can't get up after 10 no matter how tired I am. Even after returning from my trip, I couldn't take that nap I wanted to… Such is why I turned to other activities. I wobble up, knee buckling. Fuck. Never falling asleep with my Vision again. I see why Lisa is always concerned about Jean doing it…
“I’ll see you then, Albedo.”
“Of course,” He agrees, walking a bit closer. “Anything you need?”
You. “A minute to stand up.” I'm half-standing, half-leaning out of my bed, but its still odd to see him lean down as short as he is compared to me.
“Of course, “ He leans in closer. “I could use something when we meet up again if you don't want to see what’s happening at the winery.”
“What is it?”
He leans in and kisses me on the cheek. It takes all I can to stop my leg from giving out as I practically break in half. What is he doing? Is this a game?
“You told me you’d show what do to for a, in your words, ‘romantic pursuit’. Although you werent in the-“
“I’ll do it,” I gasp.
He blinks, “Very well. I’ll see you in an hour,” he says, walking out to accompany Sucrose. She stammers something about how Klee hasn’t actually caused anything yet and if there were more pressing matters, she could -but her voice fades out as feeling returns to my leg.
By the scoundrels of the Abyss, Kaeya. What have you signed yourself up for?