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Mona develops a habit of waking up at ungodly hours.
It wasn’t intentional, really; most of the time she would be impossible to wake up一not even a slam of the door would shake her off from her sleep一but ever since she started staying over at a place that’s larger and more lavish than her own, there are days when the slightest movement around her would wake her.
Albedo knows this, so he tries to make it a habit not to make too much noise whenever he comes back to the apartment at ungodly hours. It was hard to get used to, especially on days when the mission doesn’t go as planned and all he wants to do is carelessly throw himself on the bed and force himself to sleep because now he was sharing it with someone else.
Yet he didn’t mind at all.
It was something new to him, living with anyone. His apartment was more lively now compared to before, when all he had was the basic furniture that came along with the place when it was given to him. Now, there were plants lined up by the door, dog toys scattered around the floor, and a few trinkets displayed by the kitchen counter.
It’s nice. It feels peaceful.
And it’s not an exaggeration to say that he would not hesitate to kill whoever tries to take this away from him.
Albedo hisses as he shrugs off his jacket, the pain in his upper body still there despite the painkillers he took on his way to the apartment. He leaves his keys on the kitchen counter before he makes his way to the bedroom.
The door slightly creaks open and he’s greeted by a large ball of fur jumping off the bed, tail wagging as it approaches him. “Hey, Churros,” Albedo whispers as quietly as he can, crouching to properly greet the dog. He looks up and smiles at the sight of Mona slightly curled up on the bed, head nestled against the same pillow she was hugging. He lets out a grunt as he stands up, deciding there’s already enough saliva on his face.
Mona stirs awake, grunting as she shuffles on the bed to stretch her arms. Her eyes flutter open to squint in the dimly lit room, and she makes out Albedo’s figure leaning on the wall near the door, arms crossed in front of his chest. “You’re home.”
Home. The word puts a soft smile on Albedo’s face. He walks over to her, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I’m home,” he says and leans over to press a gentle kiss on top of Mona’s head. “You should go back to sleep, starlight.”
She sits up, reaches out to take his hand and lace their fingers together as she rests her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes as if to fall asleep again.
“...Mona?” Albedo calls for her after a short while. “Did you fall asleep again?”
He feels his hand being squeezed lightly. “Maybe.”
Mona raises her head to look at him with a smile, the moonlight coming in through the window somehow a little brighter, and she can finally see his face more clearly. Her smile immediately turns into a frown, mouth slightly falling open when she sees a fresh cut on his left cheek and another on his forehead.
“Albedo,” she lets go of his hand to gently hold and tilt his chin to see if he had any more cuts or bruises, and the tone of her voice gives him a hint of what was going to happen next.
There are days when Albedo has no other choice but to engage in physical fights and while most of those fights end in his favor, getting bruises and cuts is something inevitable in his line of work. Mona has seen them a few times already, some of those occurrences worse than the usual ones, and she would always nag him about being too reckless but it never fails to put a smile on his face.
Sleep escapes Mona entirely and she kicks the sheets off of her, standing up to tug him towards the bathroom.
“I’ll be back,” she tells him before she leaves and comes back carrying a stool in her hands, setting it down in front of the sink to look for the first aid kit in the cabinets. When she finds it, she walks back to Albedo, only to see him shirtless.
“Eyes are up here,” he quips when he notices where her eyes are looking, wearing a teasing smirk. Mona raises her eyebrows at him despite the smile beginning to form on her lips, as though she’s telling him you’re unbelievable.
“Oh, shut up,” were the words that left her mouth instead as she rolls her eyes playfully. She pushes him down on his shoulder to make him sit on the stool. “Stay still.”
Quietly, Mona starts to clean the wound on his forehead with a wet cloth, carefully dabbing it right and around where the cut is. Albedo looks up at her, watching as her eyebrows furrow and the corners of her lips curl downward as she treats him, worry etched on her features.
“How did you get them this time?” She asks as she applies ointment on the cut and covers it with a bandage, moving onto the cut on his cheek. “Last I remember, you told me you operate on a rooftop, away from all the ground action.”
“Kaeya needed back up and I got a little careless,” he says truthfully, eyes still on Mona as if he was waiting for a response, but she decides to stay silent as she continues to treat his wound.
Mona knows that he will always come back, she trusts that he will, but a part of her still worries. She worries every time he leaves the apartment and comes home late, and she worries when she wakes up to him having trouble sleeping or treating his own wounds. She doesn’t need to tell him because Albedo knows, and he does not pass up an opportunity to assure Mona that he’ll always come home to her.
When she finally covers the cut with another bandage, she brushes loose strands of his hair away from his face and tucks them behind his ear. One of her hands rests on the back of his neck where her fingers tangle with platinum blonde hair, while the other is gently holding his face as she leans down to kiss him. Albedo instinctively puts his hand on the small of her back to pull Mona closer to him as he returns the kiss, his mouth moving against hers.
For a moment, Albedo wonders if he deserves this, if he deserves her, even after all the things he’s done, but the way Mona holds and kisses him melts those thoughts away. Maybe he doesn’t, but he’ll try anyway. He’ll always try for Mona.
She breaks the kiss for air, but doesn’t move away enough to leave his space, and watches him watch her as he takes her hand that was cradling his face and brings it to his lips, pressing a kiss on her knuckles—a sign of his loyalty and devotion. To her and only her.
“I love you, starlight,” he murmurs against the back of her hand, gentle and soft, and it makes her heart flutter. It always will, Mona realizes, that no matter how many times he tells her those words, it will always feel like the first time.
She sighs softly as she leans her forehead against his, their noses touching, and for a moment, she basks in his presence in silence, reminding herself again that he’s here, he’s home. “I love you, too.”