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“You know… If you were intimidated by my charms you could have just told me.”
Albedo looked up from his journal to see Kaeya standing a few feet behind him, leaning his shoulder against the tree.
“Kaeya.” He greeted the cavalry captain. “I’m amazed that you found me out here.”
Albedo had stationed himself in the fields of Windwail Highland, finding an interest in a mist flower. A sketch lay on the rock beside him while he was taking notes in his journal. He had been here for quite some time and it was a wonder how Kaeya managed to find him in such an obscure location. Then again, Kaeya did work in mysterious ways.
“Well, I had taken a detour on my way to visit you and just so happened to recognize your pretty head in the field.”
Albedo blinked in response. He should be used to Kaeya’s flirty nature by now but he still couldn’t help but feel a little flustered at the captain’s words. Choosing not to respond, he voiced his next question.
“You of all people should know that I’m not that easily intimidated by charms, especially yours.” Albedo referred to Kaeya’s greeting. “Were you looking for me?”
“Ah, so you admit that I do have some sort of charm.” Kaeya raised his eyebrows but when Albedo didn’t respond he continued. “Yes, actually. We had a meeting set this morning to-”
“Discuss the traveler’s ability to resonate with both geo and anemo. Yes, my apologies. It seemed to escape my mind.”
“Well, I’m sure you had a lot of other things on your mind. What are you doing here anyway?”
“I had come out here the other day and noticed this single mist flower right here. I thought it was odd considering that it’s flaming flowers that seem to populate the surrounding area. Yet this mist flower is thriving. I had originally thought that mist flowers and flaming flowers grew in different environmental locations… So what makes this one so special?”
Albedo had gestured to the patches of flaming flowers that peppered the rest of the field. Kaeya hummed, letting Albedo know he could continue.
“I also noticed that the mist flower’s cryo elements were different from the others.”
Kaeya nodded his head. “How do you mean?”
“Look at this.”
Albedo approached the flower, waiting a bit for it’s burst of cryo and reached his hand out just within its range. Kaeya watched as the alchemist made his way back to him and brought up his hand. Albedo’s ring finger and pinky finger had been frozen though the rest of his hand was not.
“See? The cryo elements of normal mist flowers are not usually this strong and only create a patch of ice on the ground. Yet, this flower’s burst freezes whatever it hits. It’s… curious.”
“Huh.” Kaeya crossed his arms. “And how did you figure this out?”
“As I was observing this morning I didn’t realize how close I was to the flower when it burst. It caught my leg and I didn’t realize the effect it would have until I saw that my leg was frozen to the ground.”
Kaeya chuckled and Albedo knew that the image of his leg frozen to the ground as he had to wait for the effects to wear off was amusing to the captain. “And this is what kept you too preoccupied to come to our meeting?”
“Yes… I apologize for that.”Albedo watched as the cryo effect began wearing off his two fingers and he began moving them again.
“Well, it certainly is a curious phenomenon you found. I guess I could forgive you if… You buy me lunch.”
Albedo rolled his eyes causing Kaeya to gasp in fake offense.
“You skip out on our meeting this morning and you can’t even buy me lunch to make up for it?”
As he said this, Kaeya had jabbed Albedo in his left side. Completely unprepared, Albedo had barely managed to control an involuntary jolt and suppress a gasp. He could feel Kaeya was now staring at him, the cogs in his brain turning…
“Doth mine eyes deceive me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Is the great Albedo-”
“No.”
”Ticklish?”
Albedo’s ears turned the slightest bit of pink when Kaeya drew out and emphasized the word like an excited child. Yet he still did his best to keep up his calm demeanor as he answered. “I am not.”
“You totally are.”
“No, I am n-not.”
Unfortunately for Albedo, his sentence ended with an undignified squeak as Kaeya snuck by to squeeze his side. He whipped around and was met with Kaeya’s predatory grin and instantly knew he was in trouble.
“Kaeya, do-”
Before he could finish his sentence, Kaeya had stuck his leg out behind him and gracefully led Albedo to the ground. Albedo could feel his calm demeanor steadily leaving him. As much as he wanted to stay in control, there was no way he was going to let this happen right now. He started squirming back away from Kaeya before the taller male decided to straddle his thighs, effectively keeping him from moving any further away from him.
“Kaeya- get off! This is ridiculous!”
“I thought you said you weren’t ticklish, pretty boy.”
“I’m not!”
“You’re certainly acting like it.”
Albedo couldn’t answer him because at that moment he felt Kaeya’s fingers gently poking at both of his sides and he had to press his lips together to avoid any undesired reactions. But Kaeya was persistent and Albedo tightly pressed his elbows into his sides.
“Oh? If you weren’t ticklish this shouldn’t be bothering you, right? Unless…”
Kaeya faked a gasp and changed his tactic to lightly wiggling his fingers at Albedo’s sides. This caused Albedo to let out the tiniest groan before squeezing his eyes shut and holding his breath. He could feel his face heating up slightly from trying to keep control of his reactions and also because Kaeya was just… really close to his face.
“Did you lie to me, Albedo?”
“N-no, I didn’t- Just- let me go- ehe!”
“Oh? Did I just hear a giggle?” Kaeya asked, grinning. Albedo shook his head though he could feel his resolve slipping away with every passing second. “I’m so close to cracking you and you want me to just let you go?”
“There’s- Kaeya, dohon’t!”
Kaeya let out a laugh of victory once giggles began pouring out of Albedo’s mouth. He had started pinching at Albedo’s sides and that was the breaking point for the blonde. The ticklish sensations became more intense and Albedo couldn’t keep it together any longer. He grabbed at Kaeya’s wrists but they just wouldn’t budge and all he managed to do was hold onto them.
“There it is! What cute laughter!” Kaeya complimented.
Albedo shook his head more and dug his heels into the ground to try to escape from his tormentor but Kaeya had him pinned. He could barely manage to get words out already but he knew Kaeya was far from being done with him. He squeaked when he felt Kaeya begin clawing at the middle of his stomach.
“Aw, are you ticklish here too?”
“Kyahaha! Nohoho!”
He felt Kaeya bring his other hand up and started clawing at the sides of his stomach. Since Kaeya was significantly taller than Albedo, his hands easily covered almost the entire surface of Albedo’s stomach. He squirmed as much as he could while glueing his elbows to his sides but Kaeya’s fingers stayed firmly planted onto his stomach.
“No?” Kaeya repeated. “You seem fairly sensitive here though. Are you, perhaps, lying to me again?”
With that, Albedo felt cool air against his bare skin as Kaeya quickly pulled his shirt up which had already bunched up from his squirming. Before he realized what was happening, he nearly shrieked when Kaeya’s fingers made contact with his stomach again.
“Nohoho, dohon’t!”
Slightly embarrassed at how loud his laughter got, Albedo brought one hand up to cover his mouth and used his other hand to desperately swat at the offending hands. Even though he spent a lot of time in Dragonspine, Kaeya’s fingers were extremely cold and Albedo’s struggling renewed. Kaeya was finding all the sensitive spots on his stomach that made him want to crawl out of his skin. By now, he could no longer keep his reactions under control as more laughter began pouring out of his mouth.
“Wow, you’re loving this right now, aren’t you? You’re laughing so much! Is this a good spot? How about right here?”
Albedo actually did let out a small shriek when he felt a finger dip into his belly button. A whole new wave of ticklishness rushed throughout his body from that one little spot. Albedo ripped his hand away from his mouth to grab at Kaeya as he threw his head back and laughed freely. He arched his back and wiggled his hips in a feeble attempt to dislodge Kaeya’s figure from that dreaded spot but Kaeya simply held his hip down.
“K-Kaeyahaha! G-get out of thehehere!”
“Here? This little spot? Is it too ticklish?” Kaeya continued swirling his finger around Albedo’s belly button and Albedo could only nod his head.
The tickling stopped and Albedo breathed heavily. He was a mess; his hair slightly undone, his clothes bunched up, and his face was flushed. He knew he must look ridiculous because Kaeya began chuckling.
“You look kind of cute like this.”
Albedo felt his face heat up again and brought his hands up to his face with a groan. No one has ever seen him undone like this before and he was even more embarrassed that it was Kaeya and he was complimenting him about it!
“So, are you buying me lunch?”
“Buy your own damn l- NoHOhoho!”
Albedo was subject to laughter once again as Kaeya dug into his ribs. He was caught completely off guard and his ribs just so happened to be a sweet spot for him that was never exploited until now. Pressing his elbows back into his sides, he tried to twist his torso to escape and when that did work he started kicking his legs.
“Ooh, so I was correct. I thought you’d be ticklish here. Let me at them, Albedo~”
Albedo felt Kaeya grab hold of his wrist and tried to keep his arm down. Though Kaeya was definitely stronger than him and managed to bring his arm up despite Albedo’s struggling. Desperation washed over him and Albedo started begging with nervous laughter.
“Kaeya! K-Kaeya, dohohon’t! Nohoho, please I-”
Albedo gasped when he felt ice engulf his hand all the way up to his wrist. Looking up, he saw that the mist flower that he had momentarily forgotten about had let out a cryo burst, effectively freezing his hand to the grass. Realizing how exposed this left him, Albedo turned his attention back to Kaeya who grinned in return. He planned this!
“Uh oh~”
With his arm stuck above his head, Albedo could do nothing to protect himself from the tickling. He felt even more sensitive now that his entire left side was exposed. Kaeya pinched and scribbled at his sensitive ribs drawing all sorts of laughter from the alchemist.
“See, you kept pressing your elbows towards your sides when I was tickling you earlier. I figured you must have been hiding a secret from me.”
Kaeya was holding onto Albedo’s free hand to keep the poor blonde at bay as he ran his other hand up and down his ribs. Albedo tugged as hard as he could but his hand was stuck above his head and all he could do was take the tickling. Once Kaeya decided he liked the sensitivity of Albedo’s highest set of ribs he began choking on his laughter, completely not used to being tickled for this long. All of his dignity was lost as he started begging again, not even sure if he was saying actual words.
Soon enough, the tickling did stop and Albedo spent a few moments afterwards still squirming a bit, still unable to bring his arm down to relieve the ticklish sensations that lingered. He opened his eyes and saw Kaeya smiling down at him and felt his heart race. But then he also noticed that Kaeya’s hand was still hovering above his ribs and he shook his head.
“Nohoho more, please. I’ll buhuy you lunch.”
Kaeya laughed and Albedo was grateful when he retracted his hand. However, he still slammed his arms down once the cryo effect from the mist flower wore off enough for him to move and curled into himself still trying to process what just happened.
“You good?”
Kaeya reached out a hand which Albedo gratefully accepted. He nodded, before glaring at the captain.
“Don’t do it again.”
Kaeya laughed and turned around, scooping up Albedo’s journals before walking off.
“No promises! Now, let’s go. I’m hungry.”
Albedo sighed knowing that this won’t be the last time Kaeya would reduce him to uncontrollable laughter. Glancing at the mist flower, he shook his head and smoothed out his clothes, following Kaeya back towards his camp. He made a mental note not to go anywhere near a mist flower with Kaeya again any time soon.