Chapter Text
Before he can think, he burns. It’s agony in the rawest form, enraged and thrashing behind his ribs like a caged animal that wants out. He is so young, so fragile at that time. It almost hurts to admit that he braved through that unending pain for a millennia.
With this man by his side, though, there is nothing to fear. It may sound weak, or cliché, but loving this man has been all that he’s needed for the eternity that he has been at his beck and call.
Albedo is everything that he had dreamed of and more.
“For you, I would do anything,”
Xiao claims this with a quiet expression, leaning back against the wooden gate, beyond which lies an endless fall into the slopes of Jueyun Karst. His eyes close, imagining the clever little grin that Albedo wears whenever he deigns his proclamation with a response.
The cold presence behind him shifts, twisting its upper half so that Albedo could only barely stare at Xiao’s face by angling his eyes. His lips pull into a little grin, just as the one Xiao adores. Albedo leans his head on Xiao’s shoulder, soft hands finding their way into his own.
“As for you, so would I.”
Clouds drift below, and Xiao opens his eyes once more to attempt and remember that hollow, echoing feeling within his chest the last time he came up here.
The weight of a small metallic ring weighs heavily in his pocket, and he finds that he can no longer recall that emptiness.
Albedo’s breaths brush against his neck as he shifts into a more comfortable position, an arm draping over Xiao’s stomach. The mask that hangs from his waist clatters against the wooden railings.
Xiao can only barely remember a time when his mask was there only to bring suffering, an agony that he can no longer describe in vivid detail echoing with every second it touched his skin.
Now, it is the symbol that he is finished. His duties are over, and he is free to do as he pleases. It is the symbol of his love just as much as it was the symbol of his suffering.
Albedo came into his life, stole one look at the echoes of a painful time written into every line of his body and sketched over it with something more beautiful, he took his pencils and his paints and created something unspeakably mystical.
Xiao, if he did not love him simply for existing, would have easily loved him only for that.
Albedo’s breaths become deeper, ever so slightly. The warm mists and gentle sunrise must have coaxed him into relaxation.
That won’t do, not with the ring in his pocket still staying unveiled.
Xiao uses his unoccupied hand to grasp the ring, gently shaking his hand-holding hand away from Albedo’s grasp. He breathes out a sigh, a buzzing in his chest that he can no longer ignore.
Xiao brushes falling fringes away from Albedo’s face, and finds turquoise eyes staring back at him. Now, unlike a few-thousand years ago, he does not jerk away. He does not go bright red and vanish from his place.
He smiles, instead. Soft and sweet, honey-dipped, absolutely smitten.
Albedo is the one hiding his face, this time.
Then, Xiao is the one hiding his face in Albedo’s neck, almost easily whispering the words that he’s had prepared for over a hundred years.
“Will you marry me?”