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The existence on Valentine’s Day was something about Albedo learnt quite recently; before he arrived and settled in Mondstadt, he never heard of something like that—which was understandable, considering that the chief alchemist was spending most of his time with his Master. Rhinedottir had never really bothered to tell Albedo about events like that, especially as trivial ones as Valentine’s Day—he heard about the most important celebrations related to Seven Archons, but that was about that. As a result, Albedo was pretty clueless about a lot of social gatherings, events or reasons behind that. His knowledge about the world was huge, but rather in alchemy’s understanding, than in general knowledge.
Few years passed since Albedo’s arrival to the city. He got used to his roles in Knights of Favonius, also managed to get to know some people well enough so he’d be able to consider some of them friends. Albedo was rather cautious with using words like friend—for him, relationships with people were rather troublesome and taking a lot of effort. On top of that, Albedo’s experience with social situations was quite low itself, so it all was just out of the alchemist’s comfort zone.
It felt natural that he grew the most attached to person most similar to him—fellow researcher in alchemy, Sucrose.
Sucrose was first one of his students, and she evinced great alchemy talent ever since he started to teach her—it was a matter of time that soon, Sucrose picked her own research field and started to be more independent in her studies. Although she then was working as Albedo’s assistant, who was the same age as her, she never really stopped talking to him formally and perceive him as her superior, no matter how many times Albedo asked her to treat him equally. Sucrose, just like her teacher, was spending most of the time in workshop. In fact, Albedo was more often forced to be outside as he often had to clean the mess Klee was creating.
As a result, it felt natural that after some time, Albedo started to feel more comfortable around Sucrose. Neither of them really liked social situations, preferring rather to focus on their work which was also affecting their language, so they were speaking in similar, academy-influenced manner. A lot of people were constantly asking Albedo to re-phrase what he was saying so he’d rather to avoid people when not necessary and just talk to someone who was understanding him quite fine.
The 14th of February was getting near and Albedo was somehow feeling uneasy about the whole thing. He got used to Sucrose, that was true, but they were spending so much time together only because of their job. He liked to be around the other alchemist, she seemed to feel comfortable around him as well, but they never really talked about feelings—not that Albedo could’ve known how to actually talk about emotions. But he’d lie if he’d have said he felt bothered with the idea of just ignoring the day whatsoever—just doing something didn’t feel exactly right as well.
Albedo assumed—basing on his observations—that every other person would just go to a friend and ask, but how would he do that, really? On top of that, the person he felt the most comfortable with was Sucrose herself and she wasn’t an option. Kaeya has been known for his flirty nature but he also loved to spread rumours and wasn’t exactly the best at keeping secrets (other than his own), so meanwhile he might give great advice… the price of it would be the whole Mondstat knowing the mysterious alchemist having a crush on someone in matter of hours. So he ruled Kaeya out as well. He could’ve go to Jean or Lisa maybe, but he wasn’t that close with neither of them to open up enough to them, so eventually, Albedo gave up the whole idea of asking for help.
The alchemist got the idea meanwhile he was reading through Timaeus’ report on a task Albedo assigned him to do as it was rather easy matter to handle. The chief alchemist randomly remembered how Sucrose has mentioned that she’d like to try at least one of Albedo’s favourite cakes—funny how they never actually had the chance to go to the cake shop together, usually just eating what one of them had cooked and brought to the workplace. In fact, it was convenient: him, Sucrose and Timaeus made a schedule on cooking and bringing food, that way the activity wasn’t that exhausting and overwhelming to any of them. Cooking more regularly only for about a week per month sounded better than cooking daily—especially when all of them preferred to spent that time rather on research than activity like cooking.
Sometimes, Sucrose and Timaeus were able to convince Albedo to get some take-out food, but only when Timaeus agreed to take part of his portion of food, as for the teacher it was always too much food—he was known for his small appetite, and really, he was always more willing to eat a cake than a dinner, especially when he didn’t like some of the ingredients. He wasn’t picky as well, eating something sweet was just a better experience.
As a result, Albedo came up with the entire plan what to get for Sucrose and how to get what he needed without anyone getting suspicious of what the Chalk Prince was doing. The alchemist decided to pay Diluc a visit, just to ask if the idea was even possible to achieve—other than selling potions or enhanced materials, the alchemist had no experience with business. To be fair, it wasn’t even him selling those items. Albedo just didn’t want to be a bother to other peoples’ business, so he wanted to hear Diluc opinion about that—he only decided to go ask the owner of the Winery because he was working on a field completely not related to what the chief alchemist needed, so the other man had no reason to feel pressured to agree and Albedo desired honest opinion.
“Hmm, honestly?” asked Diluc and the alchemist nodded, observing the other, “If it’s only for you, then you can give it a try, it doesn’t hurt to ask. If I understand correctly, it’s something they usually do, anyway, so doing something like this shouldn’t be much of an issue.”
“I see. Somehow in my head it seemed as some bigger problem to deal with,” he calmly stated.
“They might charge you a bit extra, but that’s mostly it, I believe. I’d be delighted if someone would be interested in personalised order like this.”
“I might be interested, if you’d start selling something sweet,” Albedo smiled softly.
“I will keep that in mind.”
*
Taking advantage of starting preparations early enough, Albedo noy only was promised to get what he wanted, but also got assured the whole thing would get packed safely so none of the items would get damaged on his way back to workshop with the order. Once he paid half of the promised price and got that thing sorted, a huge feeling of relief approached him, only to be replaced with happiness. The chalk prince was really looking forward upcoming days and somehow, he was really excited to the idea of seeing Sucrose’s reaction—he just hoped she’d like it as much as he imagined.
Even though he felt happy, anxiety didn’t disappear, instead, it was just existing alongside his positive emotions, stirring with the good experience a bit. The alchemist didn’t seem too bothered though, as he just came back to workshop and focused on his research as if nothing happened—in fact, when he was focusing on alchemy, nothing else was really matters that much to him, only from time to time he was remembering about the surprise he was preparing and was smiling a bit for the idea. He just hoped that it all wouldn’t turn into a disaster, make the relationship with Sucrose ruined or complicated… But he somehow wanted to show her that he genuinely cared for her, as she didn’t really seem to realize it.
The other day, Timaeus approached Albedo. Sucrose wasn’t around as she left to pick some flowers, and the other student had rather mysterious expression.
“Hey, do you think Sucrose can have a crush on someone?” he asked, out of blue. The chief alchemist stared at his student with unreadable expression, showing only a little bit of confusion.
“Why, of course she can. Why do you think so?” asked Albedo, for the first time glad he was able to speak calmly in almost every situation, no matter how bad or stressful it might have been. This one, in fact, made him feeling an increasing panic inside him, and various ideas rushed through his mind: was it Timaeus liking Sucrose? Or maybe Sucrose liked someone else? Or maybe they like each other and he never noticed… Which seemed impossible, as Albedo was a keen observer.
“Ah. Earlier today I saw her something heart-shaped and staring at herself in the mirror. She immediately ran away when I entered the room, but I’ve learnt from you to be a good observer, Master Albedo,” he… reported? Yes, that was the word that came to Albedo’s mind. Reporting observations—that how that felt like. The teacher stared at the student, observing him: he seemed quite happy of his achievement, noticing some details in matter of seconds… Albedo just sighed.
“Well… I’m happy your observing skills are improving indeed, Timaeus,” he said after a while with a bit colder tone, with maybe a bit of scolding undertone to it, “however I ask you to keep some observations to yourself, as that kind of comments are not part of what should be a matter of alchemic research.”
“Ah, right. My apologizes,” he muttered, but seemed a bit of frustered. Albedo put his sketchbook aside and placed his pencil on top of it.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, though he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear the answer.
“Nothing much. It’s just… You know Sucrose, Master Albedo. She’s all shy when talking to other people and I’m worried if she’d even be able to give the gift to the person? Maybe we should suggest some help?” Timaeus asked and the Chalk Prince didn’t even realize when he exhaled loudly.
So that was the matter. He was a good person, huh? He shook his head.
“I’m… Erm. I am surely the worst person to ask for advices like that,” the alchemist started carefully, “But doesn’t things like that feel a bit of personal? Leave it up to her, she trust us. If she’d need help, she’d simply ask, right?” That… wasn’t really true but what else could he say? Albedo felt a bit of uneasy because of the whole conversation—were people growing suspicious over his actions as well?
*
Finally, the Valentine’s Day was there in Mondstadt. Albedo’s stressing over the whole event reached his peak, especially when he showed up in the cake store to pick up his order. It was neatly backed in one, bigger box, which also was prettily decorated. The items attached to the packing was nowhere close to other items with Valentine-themed decorations, rather having general vibe of the store… If that simply meant no one thought Albedo might use that as a gift for anyone was somehow relieving—no one thought it was ordered because of Valentine’s Day. Especially because it just happened that their first available pick-up date was the day of the event anyway, so they must’ve assumed it just happened by accident. Gods kept their eyes on Albedo this time, didn’t they?
The chief alchemist returned with the box to the workshop and was taken by surprise, as he discovered Sucrose was already around—Albedo woke up really early to prepare this gift. Both of the alchemists panicked, not knowing what to do or say at first. They nervously were hiding something behind their back and the situation got really awkward.
“Good morning, Master Albedo,” said finally Sucrose after longer while, her voice quiet and with panic audible more than usual. The prince’s researcher habits were stronger than anything else so he was observing the girl carefully, even though his mind was registering so many thoughts and interpretations of her actions, somehow pushing aside the idea that maybe the gift could’ve been for him as well—somehow Albedo never acknowledged himself as someone who could be liked? Also just then he realized he never used words in his thoughts that were suggesting stronger affection, like was always his maximum. Loved? Crushing on him? That felt so unreal that he had to shook his head a bit.
“Good morning, Sucrose,” he said, his voice smooth and calm as ever. Albedo was feeling his own heartbeat very clearly and it was weirdly difficult to breathe for him, he never was in situation like this, what did all that could mean? The alchemist wasn’t really understanding his own body at the moment. “Why are you here so early? Stayed up late at work again?”
She hesitated.
“Well, yes, I stayed up late but…” Sucrose wanted to say something but she paused suddenly, a blush very visible on her cheeks, and her ears twitched a bit, visibly the levels of nervousness increasing, “why are you here so early, Master Albedo?”
“Oh,” this time it was the chief alchemist hesitating. Albedo has never been in situation like that before and he never attempted opening up to anyone like that. The blonde felt his cheeks burning a bit with warm sensation all over his face—was he blushing as well? “It’s… You’ve once told me how you wanted to try some of my favourite cakes, remember?” he started as casually as he could, “but it never happened, as somehow we never managed to go there together. So, instead, I’ve made a special order in the cake store. They’ve baked the cakes in smaller pieces and decorated, that way you can try everything I’ve wanted to show you…” he explained, then awkwardly placed the box on the table. “And… Happy Valentine’s Day, Sucrose,” Albedo added, taking advantage of all courage he had, and it disappeared seconds later—was it a good thing to do? Didn’t he just make a mistake? The alchemist stopped breathing as he was waiting for any reaction.
It took Sucrose a while to register her teacher’s words. Once she did, she looked up at him, visibly surprised, and blushing even more, but also… was Albedo noticing happiness in her honey-like eyes?
“M-Master Albedo,” she shuttered, “this… this is for you,” she quickly said and almost forced a heart-shaped card to the other alchemist’s hands, then covered her face, looking away. Albedo’s hands shivered a bit as he tensed up a bit from the surprise, this taking him off guard, as he really didn’t believe Sucrose might’ve prepared anything for him. Unsure what to do, he nervously examined the card, focusing on every detail of it. Sucrose’s calligraphy was as neat as ever and she even attached dried flowers inside, decorating it. It was very pretty and the alchemist was able to tell the fellow researcher had put a lot of effort into the card. Somehow, observing it, calmed Albedo down a bit.
“Thank you,” he said awkwardly after a while, his voice cracking, “Does that mean you’ll call me by my name from now on?” the prince asked as softly as he could, trying to make them both relax at least a little.
“Ah, yes…. Albedo,” Sucrose said, saying the chief alchemist’s name without the title feeling both weird and exciting, “Albedo,” she repeated. The other alchemist nodded his head slightly. Only after longer while of silence, a smile broke on both of their faces—neither of them were good at expressing themselves and their emotions with words, so they decided to show it instead, and somehow it felt sincere and genuine.
“Thank you, Sucrose,” he whispered, and looked down at the assistant’s hand, only to reach his own palm and grab it, both of them holding their hands for the very first time. Maybe a gesture like that wasn’t that special or intimate to other couples, but to people like Albedo and Sucrose, showing any affection that openly was something so new that the smallest gestures were making their heart racing.
“Thank you,” repeated Albedo after longer while as he looked up Sucrose in the eye, who looked away the same second, but returned the gaze after a while. She hesitated a bit and then leaned it, to place a gentle kiss on the other alchemist’s cheek.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she finally said, and smiled. Albedo smiled too and returned the small gesture, then gently guided her into a hug. They stayed like that for longer while, still shocked by the turn of event and overwhelmed by positive emotions—probably none of them was this happy before.