Chapter Text
Sucrose and albedo slice of life maybe romance story about after Dragonspine events and sucrose trying to figure him out and them becoming friends Genshin but make it shoujo
“So you gave the sword to the traveler, Aether, to keep?” Sucrose and Albedo sat across from each other in their lab, cataloging notes on Albedo’s latest findings from Dragonspine. Papers piled high seemingly in an unorganized mess, but the reality of the situation was, each pile although haphazardly stacked, contained information Albedo had labeled as “important,” “curious,” or “something he would have to explore more again.”
“I did. They were most suited for the complex nature of the sword itself. Handing it over to anyone else could prove detrimental to their health and perhaps cause problems later down the line.” He spoke in his typical matter-of-fact tone, only looking up from his notes to glance at a bubbling flask a bit too close to a stack of papers. As he walked over to the bubbling bright green liquid, he didn’t notice Sucrose’s questioning gaze, only temporarily locked onto him before turning back to her own stack of notes in front of her. There were all sorts of alchemical symbols, chemical readings, measurements, and formulas scribbled about on paper, some a bit water-damaged from the snow.
I know there’s still something he’s not telling me, he hasn’t told Timaeus either and they were both out there working together. Does he not trust us? Or is it something else…
She let out a sigh only audible enough for her to hear, shuffling the stack of papers to the side so she would have room to go through another stack. Much of the information wasn’t particularly useful to her own studies of plant biology around the Dragonspine area, but as Albedo’s assistant at times she was tasked with making sure all information was properly cataloged for later, especially if a new discovery or experiment required the notes for later. If it was up to her, she would be in Dragonspine herself back at Albedo and Timaeus’ campsite, going on her own alchemy investigation of the flora and fauna in the area, studying how they all survived such harsh climates and recording data about their evolutionary differences to that of plants found around the city of Mondstadt.
“I know you want to go back out there, but for the time being, I nor Timaeus can go with you. It is too dangerous for you to go by yourself and the knights of Favonius have their hands tied with other matters as of late.” Sucrose jumped in surprise as Albedo peered over her shoulder, speaking right next to her face. Her animal-like ears betrayed her disappointed emotions, sloping down toward her neck in a display of sadness. Unfortunately, Albedo was right, going to Dragonspine alone was a dangerous affair even for the most experienced adventurers. The chill in the air alone was enough to make your bones feel like they had been in the freezer, not to mention the increased Fatui presence and the cold-hardened Hilichurls in the area ready to fight the second they see an intruder. Sucrose wasn’t big on fighting and she had practiced with Albedo on learning how to defend herself when necessary, but that didn’t change the fact that if she encountered an enemy that was too much for her out there and got injured by herself, it would be a while before help came. There were already stories of adventures gone missing on the treacherous mountains, and search parties were not available to go searching for them at the moment.
“Maybe we can plan a trip on the outskirts for you to conduct your research. I feel as though it would be valuable for one of us to go with you anyway, as more eyes on research may reveal unseen answers, do you not agree?” Albedo stepped back with a slight smile on his face and Sucrose couldn’t help but smile back. He was right again, but at the same time she knew it would be quite a while before that would happen. There was also the lingering question of his research with Aether and Paimon up on the mountain; she trusted him greatly but the doubt left behind from whatever his “true” secret may have caused her to acquire some new reservations about receiving his help.
“O-of course. You make a g-good point Mister Albedo.” She fiddled with her gloves in her lap while looking down at the floor. Albedo sighed and walked back to the flask on the other side of the room, no longer glowing green. It had turned into a clear liquid, slightly warm to the touch.
“Sucrose I told you, you do not have to call me Mister Albedo. Albedo is just fine.”
“B-but! You’re my senior. It would be r-rude to do otherwise!” she insisted on calling him “mister” even though they were around the same age. They had gone back and forth on the matter many times, but each time neither alchemist reached a mutual agreement they were both 100% happy with. Sucrose continued to call him “mister” and Albedo for a time continued to correct her, until he gave up and allowed her to use the name indefinitely. For him it wasn’t much of a discomfort and even though Sucrose acted as his assistant, he felt that she should understand that he did not feel “superior” to her as an alchemist. He was comfortable that they were colleagues and held no importance to the differences in titles between them. If it was up to him, they wouldn’t need such names but the knights had assigned them as such and it made documentation easier so he stuck with their protocol. Having a bit of authority to his name also meant he could get away with doing more than the average person might, especially under the watchful eye of people like sister Rosaria. The critical nun seemed to grow increasingly suspicious of him each day and he took note of this, though did not let it bother his research.
“In the meantime, Sucrose I think we’ve done enough cataloging for today. If you have other research you would like to get to, please feel free to do so.” Tinkering with the flask and test tubes on the other side of the room, Albedo briefly glanced at Sucrose before turning his full attention to his work. Earlier he told Sucrose he was analyzing some of the properties of Dragonspine’s snow against that of Cryo slimes, determining the differences in temperatures and melting points. Sucrose had asked him why he didn’t research such a question while he was still on the mountain itself, but he made the excuse that the research conditions were not optimal for his experiment up there and the conversation was left at that.
“R-right! Thank you Mister Albedo. I’ll get to it then.” Normally she would be excited to get back to her own work immediately, but with everything weighing on her mind she was more distracted than usual. Nonetheless, she gathered her own materials and left the labs, eventually making her way to the outskirts of the city to collect more mint for her next experiment. Albedo had told her there was an abundance of the plant in Dragonspine, which made her wonder about the properties the mountainous version of the plant contained compared to it’s counterpart in the lower regions of Mondstadt. Albedo knowingly collected Dragonspine samples for her during his expedition, but she would have liked to study the plant in its home at higher altitudes in the snow.
“So today I’ll experiment with cryo slimes and mint, seeing what temperature makes the leaves of the mint plant react…” She sat on a rock and held a notebook in her hand, scribbling down notes as she spoke to herself outloud. The only time she looked up was to briefly thank the knight tasked with delivering her cryo slime to her in its container. A better production of the hilichurl’s barrels they keep pyro slimes in, Sucrose constructed a temperature-controlled container for cryo slimes so she could use it’s elemental abilities in controlled environments without it trying to escape or wreak havoc outside or in the lab.
“Test 52, today we’re determining leaf reaction to controlled cryo temperature. Wind speed today is…” she mumbled calculation after calculation aloud, gently poking the contained cryo slime here and there to get it to blast cold air on the mint plant test subject of the day. With each blast, she recorded wind speed, temperature fluctuation, changes in the plant's appearance, any noticeable shifts of the roots in the dirt, and even the positioning of the sun for each reading. Any variable that seemed to affect her data was meticulously accounted for as Sucrose took pride her in research being accurate but also understandable for later analysis by herself or with the help of Timaeus and Albedo.
“Ah, I don’t think he’d find this too interesting though…” Sucrose went through the entire afternoon into the evening sunset testing multiple mint plants and wearing out a few more cryo slimes she had delivered to her. She was winding down her experimentation process when she started to think of the events at Dragonspine again. Albedo and Timaeus’ research, Aether and Paimon’s assistance, the revival of the regisvine. So many events happened on the mountain but she did not feel the most useful for any of them, not to mention she felt as though she had inconvenienced and troubled Albedo for being there unannounced. To some degree, she also felt like she betrayed him for secretly trying to get Aether to tell her what was going on, even though Albedo assured her that he held no ill will towards her.
“I wonder if he still thinks I’m good enough to be his assistant. Maybe that’s the real reason why he didn’t want me to go up there with him...” a sigh escaped her lips and she looked down at the mint plant. Her gaze was unfocused but her mind constantly raced about the possibilities of how true or untrue her thoughts were.
“Sucrose! Hey Sucrose! Albedo’s looking for you!” Not far off, Timaeus had come jogging through the field calling Sucrose’s name. She snapped out of her trance-like state and stood up quickly, trying to make herself appear all right.
“T-Timaeus! What are you doing here?”
Timaeus bent down to catch his breath. “Albedo’s looking for you. It’s almost dark out and he wanted to know why you hadn’t come back yet and why you hadn’t sent for anyone to deliver the cryo slimes back to the lab.”
“O-oh I see. S-sorry about that! I got a little caught up in fieldwork.” Sucrose anxiously packed away her materials and went to pick up a few of the cryo slime containers, but could barely lift two before her arms gave out.
“T-these are heavier than they look.”
“Tell me about it!” Timaeus laughed and picked up a few before a pair of knights jogged over to help them with the rest. The group went back into the city, Timaeus at the alchemy station to close up shop and Sucrose back to the lab to see what Albedo wanted.
Oh I hope I haven’t caused trouble for him again…
Ahhh ok there is chapter 1 of “Sweets with Albedo”
I tried to keep them as in-character as possible and I hope I’m doing their personalities justice! Let me know what you think if you want to, and I appreciate anyone who reads this very much!