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She's strong, Albedo thinks, even when her face has been buried in his chest; his shirt wet from the lingering tear stains she had left behind.
Incredibly strong, he corrects himself, his fingers brushing lightly over stray locks of hair clinging to her damp cheeks. She looks peaceful in her sleep, the fact that she'd been crying only moments before only an afterthought as he watches her.
He, for one, had had a hard time adapting to the world around him the morning after his master's disappearance; had been relatively unhinged even despite his calm pretenses, in fact. It'd only been because of Klee and Miss Alice that the alchemist had managed to fall into some sense of normalcy, fabricated as it was.
But Lumine, she….she's been all alone this entire time, save for the constant presence lingering around her in the form of Paimon. And not only that, she'd been forcefully separated from her brother, too, whereas Albedo had just been left behind for his final assignment. Lumine, on the other hand, couldn't even say or guess whether her twin was safe or not.
She'd come to him that night, visiting him in his room on the rare night he'd opted to stay in the city of Mondstadt rather than the cold mountains of Dragonspine- a request from his little sister Albedo simply didn't have the heart to deny, sure, but a request that had seemed to work out in each of their favors in the end.
He'd opened the door to find her fighting back her tears, alone, an apology already on her lips and he'd let her in wordlessly. The following hours had been spent with her telling him stories of her brother, of what they'd seen and how much she missed him and him lending her a supportive ear and a place to vent her sorrows.
That's how she had fallen asleep; in a rare show of soft vulnerability but even then, as Albedo leans down to press the barest hint of a kiss against the crown of her head, he sincerely doubts anyone he'd ever met before was stronger than his dear traveler could ever be.
"You really like to draw, don't you?" She asks him one evening, her back pressed contently against his front as she sits in the space between his legs. It's intimate, the moment; a sort of intimacy Albedo finds he could only share with her.
He looks up from his sketchbook, the beautiful scenery she'd created in her very own teapot dimension reflected perfectly onto the pages. Liyue's adepti, he found, really piqued his curiosity. "I suppose you could say that. It was to help with my research at first but eventually...it just became a hobby of mine."
Lumine hums thoughtfully, the gold of her eyes almost glowing in the perfectly placed lighting of the sun. She really had thought each and every design of this place out, hadn't she? "You don't often talk about your hobbies."
"I don't."
"Is there anything else you're interested in, then?"
The possible answers he could give to that are near endless. Alchemy and experimenting are the obvious choices; his thirst for knowledge another drive of his that kept him going. Watching over Klee, as surprising as it may sound, was another favorite pastime of his, her sheer unpredictability and, quite frankly, chaotic tendencies never failing to keep him on his toes.
Still, none of those options seem to be quite fitting for what she was asking, Albedo decides.
Instead, he chooses to put his pencil and sketchbook aside, his arms coming up to circle around her waist as he pulls her closer. His chin settles on her shoulder, the way her breath stutters and her body freezes only bringing a teasing smile to his lips. "Probably you," he whispers, and even if his intent was to tease; there is no lie in his statement.
"I'm sure you say that to all your test subjects," Lumine shoots back, her hands coming up to fold over his. Her cheeks, however, are flushed with just the barest dash of pink that the alchemist finds he'd like to see more of.
Albedo laughs. "That would be quite tasteless of me, wouldn't it?"
She turns in his grip, a glimmer of mirth and amusement in both her smile and her eyes as she faces him and the feeling of pure warmth that settles into him at that look is something that requires further research of itself. The effect she had on him was simply... unexpectedly strong.
An unique anomaly, he'd once said, I likely know the reason why, he'd followed up with.
Back then, it had still been nothing but mere speculation; an educated guess, even. But looking at her now, taking into account the way she made him feel….Albedo had no reason to doubt his previous theories about her at all.
It'd been established from the very start that Lumine is a woman of many talents. He's known from the moment he laid eyes on her, in fact, the radiance with which she shone one that was quite hard to ignore for anyone that had had the pleasure of meeting her.
Still, Klee had the unique ability to overthrow each and everything that was headed her way. Be it good or bad, his little sister would find a way to break even the best of them. A skill that Albedo should really try to rid her of, but was also secretly intrigued and even amused by.
(He'd never say that to the Acting Grand Master, of course.)
Regardless, it still surprises the Chief Alchemist when he returns to Mondstadt once again to find...little to no destruction to the city as was usual whenever Klee was left unsupervised. The most he'd found was a single explosive-caused crater that had most certainly put a dent in Mondstadt's fish population on his way to the city, but that was the last of it, too.
Which was worrying of itself; Klee left marks wherever she went no matter what, so to find that it had just...stopped had an unfamiliar - not to mention, illogical - feeling of dread settling into Albedo's stomach.
His pace as he walks quickens just a bit, although his outside composure is as calm and collected as ever- you really wouldn't notice his distress just by looking at him. The only exceptions to that rule were, of course, the Traveler and sometimes Klee.
Albedo greets the two Knights stationed at the front of the city gates as usual, and then Timaeus at his table as he passes him. His student doesn't so much as blink when Albedo doesn't stop to have a talk about his current progress and whatever else he's been working on during his absence, having quietly adapted himself to the indifferent and sometimes even cold manner in which the Kreideprinz dismisses anything that doesn't immediately catch his interest. Still, his main focus right now is to find the chaotic bundle of red Albedo calls his little sister; Timaeus was free to show up at his lab should he need help or wish to discuss anything after that.
He stops just in front of the fountain at the center of the city, Klee's joyful giggles followed by Paimon's playful yet indignant screeches causing him to pause. Albedo feels his usual calm settling back into him; if she was with Paimon, then she was with Lumine and there was likely no one else that she'd be safer with. Not even him.
The voices redirect him to the Knights' Headquarters, finding them in the grass field near the gates. They're settled in between the grass, Klee on Lumine's lap and her signature red hat discarded to the side as the traveler weaves little braids into her hair with steady, practiced hands.
He's content just watching the sight; might even go as far as to sketch it if he really had the time. It's rare to see his sister sitting still in one place for longer than a set period of time, her curious and adventure-seeking nature one she'd inherited straight from her mother and also the cause of many of the Acting Grand Master's headaches.
Still, she seems happy settled on the Honorary Knight's lap. Pleased, even, and Albedo has got to wonder if this isn't one of his beloved's otherworldly skills too, because getting Klee to sit this quietly was initially thought to be an impossible task.
He doesn't get to watch the scene for too long though. Klee coincidentally looks up just a minute after he arrives and spots him easily, face breaking out into a full blown smile as she calls his name as loud as she possibly could without inconveniencing the nearby Knights.
"Klee, Traveler," he greets easily as he walks closer, laughing and acknowledging Paimon too upon the annoyed huff she gives him.
While Klee waves energetically back at him, Lumine's only response is a brief pause of her fingers as she looks up at him, brow raised at the call of her title rather than simply her name and Albedo has to stifle his smile into a faked cough. Teasing her, it seems, was such a favorite activity of his that he couldn't help himself even at the best of times.
She seems to catch on though, lips curling into a playful pout as she rolls her eyes and continues to wrap the little braids she'd created around Klee's signature pigtails. "There," she says, reaching over to place her little red hat back to where it belonged. "All done."
Klee doesn't even bother to look into her reflection, her trust in Lumine and her skills so high she's already satisfied without even looking. She thanks the traveler politely as she gets up, Lumine's returning smile only slightly dazzling, before the young girl rushes to meet Albedo where he stands, her arms coming up to wrap around his waist as she collides with him.
"Big brother Albedo!" She says, the excitement laced heavy in her voice as she jumps on the spot. "Look! Look! Now we match!"
She gestures almost violently to the newly created braids in her hair, and upon closer inspection, the alchemist finds that they've been done similarly to the one single braid he put in his own hair every morning. His eyes briefly flicker up to Lumine; her avoidance of his gaze and coy little smile tell him enough.
"It looks lovely on you, Klee," he says, summoning one of his flowers to tuck behind her ear and he really can't help the smile that appears on his lips at the delighted squeal she gives him at that. The people of Mondstadt often called him detached and sometimes even emotionless, largely because of the fact he hardly showed anything other than indifference and almost never smiled. For Klee, however, he would make the exception as many times as she wished.
"Have you been good while I was gone?" He asks, and where normally he'd expect to find a look of slightly guilty mischief on the young girl's face, Albedo finds himself pleasantly surprised upon the honest and absolutely beaming smile she gives him instead.
"The best!" Klee declares proudly, hands balled into determined little fists.
"She's not lying," Lumine vouches before her companion could interject, brushing off stray leaves of green from her dress as she stands.
Paimon's look of mischief falls into annoyance, having obviously been up to no good once again, and shoots a glare at Lumine. "Can you never let Paimon have her fun?"
"Not when you're going to be bullying Klee, no."
"It's true!" Klee insists, already set to defend herself. "Klee really has been good today! I only used one Jumpty Dumpty!"
"Really?" Albedo muses, eyes trained on Lumine quietly strolling up to them. The soft smile on her lips left quite a story to be told. "You've been with Miss Lumine the entire time then?"
"Yes! Big sis Lumine showed me lots of fun things!"
Big sis Lumine, the alchemist silently notes, expression neutral even in his surprise. Well, isn't that just interesting.
"Are you done being busy?" His sister asks, tugging at the ends of his coat as she shoots him a hopeful look. "Can you come play with Klee and Big sis Lumine now?"
There was a reason why all of Mondstadt seemed to placate Klee and her daily destruction, Albedo decides as he looks down at her, it was simply too difficult to refuse her anything if she looked up at you like that.
He wasn't planning on refusing her either way, but he still shoots a look at the traveler and her companion, both of whom give him encouraging smiles and nods in return and once again, his chest warms at seeing just how well Lumine gets along with his little sister.
"Of course I will," Albedo agrees, the sheer look of pure and utter delight on Klee's face worth all the extra paperwork he'd probably have to fill out later.
At his green light, Paimon flies over, her grin equally as excited as Klee's own and he really has to wonder about the fairy's true age, considering her mysterious species. Paimon's reluctance to be experimented on, however, leaves Albedo's curiosities as something he may or may not find out in the future.
The two of them go on ahead in a whirlwind of joy and laughter, leaving Lumine to stand next to him on her own.
His hand reaches for hers, lifting it up to press a light kiss to the back of it as he stares at her. "I trust she hasn't given you too much trouble?"
Lumine flushes at his actions, a look Albedo finds he can't ever get enough of, but returns the affection. She leans into him, head on his shoulder as his arms wrap around her waist in return; humming her answer into his skin. "She's been as lovely as ever."
"She's only like that with you, I believe." Albedo informs, trying not to shiver as she places a discreet, yet teasing kiss at the mark on his neck. "Grand Master Jean always has a lot more property damage to inform me of whenever I get back."
Lumine laughs, the sound ringing beautifully in his ears as she leans back, away from his touch. The feeling is cold even as she returns her hand into his. "I'm just special, then."
The look he gives her at that is charged and full of something soft, lips curling into one of his rare smiles. His grip on her hand tightens just a little; fingers interlacing together. The sudden urge to kiss her is exceptionally large, but he still has the sense of mind to realize that wouldn't be very proper considering their current location and company. It will have to be postponed for later, then.
"Always," he breathes instead, and it's nothing but the truth.