Chapter Text
It started with an explosion.
“Sucrose, are you okay?” Albedo put down his notes and checked on his assistant.
“Y-yes, I’m okay.” She stuttered. “Just a little stunned by it.”
“Maybe you should sit down and rest for a moment.” He said while guiding her toward the couch.
“No need mister Albedo, I will just try again.” She argued, but right after that she lost her balance for a moment.
“No way I’m letting you work like that.”
“B-but mister Albedo-”
“Lay here.”
“Myyy~~ What’s happening here lovebirds?” Lisa cut in their argument. She was standing in the doorway to the lab.
Both alchemists looked at her in silence. One of them was visibly embarrassed by the witch’s comment and the other one seemed a little annoyed by it. However you could still see a small blush covering his cheeks. Like… ‘lovebirds’? What gave her that idea?
“What are you doing here Lisa?” Albedo asked.
“I just heard an explosion and decided to check on you both.” She smiled, “You know, you could use some help from someone older, but I see that you already have it under control.”
“Yes, we have it under control.” Albedo said with a serious expression. “You can leave.”
“Yes, yes, I will leave you both cuties… Alone.” She winked as she closed the door.
The chief alchemist sighed while rubbing the bridge of his nose and then went back to his research about a weird hilichurl he saw in Windrise. He tried to sketch said creature from memory, but he couldn’t keep focus. He was glancing over at Sucrose, making sure that she’s resting. She has a terrible habit of overworking herself, so any normal coworker would make sure that it doesn’t happen, right? Her health was very important to him… But so was Timaeus’, Klee’s or even Kaeya’s. Albedo might not show it, but he cares about others’ well being.
An hour had passed and the sketch was finished. It wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, but it was close. The hardest thing to copy was his mask. It had strange letters on it, different from the marks on other hilichurls. This will need more research. Soon after that, Sucrose woke up from her nap and came over to her mentor’s desk.
“Is that some kind of a hilichurl?” She asked, pointing at the drawing.
“Yes, I saw it in Windrise recently and wanted to research it.” Albedo looked at her, “The drawing isn’t exactly accurate because I just drew it from memory, but maybe you saw this hilichurl somewhere?”
Sucrose thought for a moment, “N-no I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.”
“I guess, I will have to ask other knights then.”
“Oh… Okay.”
“I will do it now, and meanwhile try to finish what you’ve been doing.” Albedo said while still standing in the doorway, “Jean lectured me about keeping constant working hours and since you like staying overtime, I’m gonna be more strict with you.”
“B-but-”
“No buts.” He closed the door.
Albedo walked around the headquarters asking various knights about the unusual hilichurl. Unfortunately, nobody recognized it, even Lisa or Eula. Time to ask the last person the chief alchemist would even think of asking about stuff concerning his research. He knocked on the door to the solitary confinement room.
“Hey Klee.” He smiled warmly as he entered.
“Big bro Albedo!” She shouted while running over to hug him, “Did you come to tell Klee that I’m not grounded anymore? I swear I didn’t blow up this hilichurl, the wind just blew in that direction.”
“What hilichurl?” He asked while taking out his drawing. “Did it look like this?”
“Yes! This one!” She yelled again. “Does it mean that Klee’s not grounded anymore?”
“I d-don’t know.” He stuttered a little. He hated destroying her hope. “Can you tell me more about it?”
“So I was at Stormterror’s Lair…”
“... Where?”
“Stormterror’s Lair, You know, there’s that strong wind and a dragon living in ruins!” She exclaimed, “The same one that flew us to the Archipelago!”
“I see…” Albedo muttered. “Go on… I won’t tell Jean about anything.”
“You promise?” She reached her pinky finger.
He grabbed it with his pinky finger, “Promise.”
It wouldn’t be the first time he covered up for her, like that one time he saw her sitting on Kaeya’s horse and when Albedo tried to take her down, the horse kicked him, breaking his ribs. He told Jean that he just wanted to borrow one of the horses and didn’t expect it to kick him. Fortunately, Jean didn’t have a reason to be angry at anyone and thanks to his homuncular nature, he healed much faster than a regular person would.
“I was near the statue of the seven and I saw this weird hilichurl. I wanted to see it closely and it didn’t even attack me. I wanted to play with it and gave it one of my bombs. Unfortunately it blew up causing him to hide in his suitcase and it left three cabbages.” She said while taking out said cabbages from under her bed. They were already rotten…
“When was that?” Albedo took his notes.
“Maybe… Two weeks ago?”
“Hmm… Interesting…”
The hilichurl he saw was in Windrise three days ago. That would mean that he’s either unkillable or there’s more of them.
“I will talk to Jean about letting you go.” Albedo smiled again. “You helped me a lot with my research.”
“Yay!” The little girl hugged him. “You’re the best!”
Albedo left the room and went to Jean’s office. He explained the issue to her and asked about letting Klee out early. In the end, blowing up a hilichurl isn’t a big issue and she provided a lot of data for his research.
“You’re always defending her.” She sighed, “But I guess if you think that she should go then I will let her out.”
“Thank you master Jean.” He said. “I have to go now and close the lab. Goodnight”
“Goodnight.”
Albedo returned to the lab. Sucrose was repeating her previous experiment, but still without any success. He kinda felt bad that he had to make her go to sleep. He himself didn’t feel sleepy either.
“Go to sleep.” He said fiercely.
“W-what? But it’s so early.” Sucrose might be shy, but she will argue every time anyone tells her to rest.
“It’s after eleven p.m.” He sighed, “Until you take a shower et cetera, another hour will pass. You need to sleep.”
“I don’t need to. I’m still functioning well.”
Albedo saw that there’s no point in this form of arguing. He pretended to yawn, which made sucrose yawn as well. It always worked on Klee, so why not on Sucrose?
“See? You’re tired.”
“I’m not a child, mister Albedo.” Her words made him think of a different tactic.
“How about a little experiment about the importance of sleep, because you still seem to not get it.” He had a brilliant idea.
“A little experiment you say…” She seemed intrigued.
Albedo wrote something in his sketchbook. “Here, solve this equation. I will measure time.”
Sucrose started solving it without saying anything. She wanted to prove to him that she’s doing well without sleep. After six minutes, she gave him back his sketchbook.
“Hmm…” He analyzed the problem, “Interesting…”
“And how is it?” She asked impatiently.
“I’ll tell you later. Now go to sleep.”
“But mister Albedo-”
“Sleep. It’s crucial to our experiment.”
She nodded and left the lab. Albedo felt a little bad about it, but he already abused Jean’s kindness today. If she checked on them in the middle of the night and saw them both still doing experiments, it wouldn’t end well. He left the lab as well and locked the doors. After that he headed back to his dorm.
Yes, he was still living in the dorms. Since he arrived in Mondstadt, he couldn’t afford his own place to live. He always had his cave in Dragonspine, but it wasn’t suitable for living every day. Fortunately he wasn’t the only one of the captains to still live in the dorms. It’s mostly occupied by younger knights and to be honest he still could be included in this category. Sucrose, despite having her parents live in Springvale, which isn’t too far away, decided to live on her own in the dorms. Eula on the other hand was disowned by her family and has to use the dorms as well. Even Kaeya had his dorm for a while until he found his own place to stay after him parting ways with Diluc.
After Albedo entered his dorm, he wasn’t tired yet. He stood in front of his easel and decided to continue his painting, which he started a few days ago. Lisa’s birthday was approaching, so he decided to give her her portrait. Of course, he made her look much younger than she does. He knows well that she hates looking much older than she actually is. She’s just twenty six, but she already looks thirty five. Albedo wondered if this might be some kind of a curse, but after his questions were dismissed, he decided to not ask again and mind his own business. That’s a pity, because she would make a great subject for his research on whatever was causing it.
It was almost two a.m. and just now, Albedo started to feel sleepy. His painting was half-finished. He only needed to add some shadows and highlights, but it was a job for another day. He changed into his pajamas and went to his bed. He had to wake at six, so it was still early for him to go to bed. Being a ‘perfect’ human meant that he doesn’t have as strong needs as others. However he still has them. If not Jean, he would still be researching, and then painting until four a.m. Two hours of sleep was still fine for him, but he would be a little tired. Just like a regular human who sleeps for five hours instead of eight.
He laid down for a moment thinking about other locations, where the unusual hilichurl could appear. If only the Traveler or Alice were in Mondstadt… He was sure that they would know more about it. However now, he could only depend on Klee’s intel. After a while he fell asleep.