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Albedo wakes up with a thought.
It’s such a sudden, eye-opening thought that he is sitting up in bed before he even fully comprehends his surroundings. “Sakura blooms to dull the effects of the flaming flower nectar,” he murmurs into the darkness of the bedroom. “Water should be at sixty degrees, not eighty.”
There’s a stirring from beside him, background noise that he hardly registers as his mind whirls with sudden realizations about his latest research.
A groggy voice mumbles, “‘Bedo?"
“—sixty, not eighty. Therefore cooling would not be needed. Leave standing for fifteen to twenty minutes—”
Louder, now: “Albedo?”
“—should be enough to result in the desired effects.” Albedo moves the blankets off him and shuffles around to plant his feet on the floor, intent on locating his notebook to scribble down these new revelations before something else catches his attention.
Warm fingers curl around his wrist, stopping him before he can rise from the bed. He glances back to see Kaeya blinking up at him, navy hair falling over the eye that is usually hidden by his eyepatch, moonlight from the windows splashing across his skin.
“Albedo,” he sighs, “darling. What, pray tell, could possibly be so important that you have to leave the delightfully warm, delightfully comfortable bed that you share with your delightfully handsome boyfriend?”
“I had a realization about one of my experiments,” Albedo answers. A soft thumb rubs over his wrist and pulse point, lingering there as Kaeya rolls fully onto his side, propping an arm up on the pillow to rest his cheek on his palm. “I would like to write it down.”
Kaeya sighs again, the sound loud in the quiet room. “Can’t it wait until morning?” His hand curls fully around Albedo’s wrist and slides up to take his hand, bringing it down so that the back of Albedo’s fingers can be pressed against his mouth in an almost-kiss. Trying to tempt him to stay, and not even being subtle about it.
He is not swayed so easily. “I’d rather get it done now lest I become preoccupied with other things and forget.”
“Forgetting is not often something you do,” Kaeya murmurs. “Have a little faith in yourself and come back to sleep, love.”
He rolls his eyes and gently tugs his hand away. “I won’t be long,” he assures softly as a pout begins to form on Kaeya's face.
A moment passes as Kaeya scrutinizes him in the dark, then he sighs, pushing himself upright and reaching for the lantern on the bedside table. Albedo frowns.
“You don’t have to come,” he clarifies. “I can manage on my own.”
“At this point, I’m too awake to go back to sleep without you, love.” Kaeya gives him a lopsided smile as he lights the lantern, then rises from the bed and holds out a hand. “Shall we hunt down your notebook, then?”
Albedo smiles softly and takes it. “We shall.”
Kaeya’s hand, despite him being a Cryo Vision user, is warmer than it has any right to be. This is a fact that Albedo knows—and has known—but it still catches his attention every time, how soft his skin is despite the years of sword-wielding experience they’ve had, how warm he is, how their hands puzzle perfectly together as if Rhinedottir had crafted him with Kaeya specifically in mind.
Just as Albedo recalls, the notebook is still in his bag, hanging off one of the chairs in the kitchen. He fishes it out along with a pen and settles at the table as Kaeya places the lantern in the center and begins to drift around their kitchen.
“Do you think you’ll be up long enough to want tea?” he asks, features gentle in the soft light when he looks over his shoulder.
Albedo hums thoughtfully, turning his attention downwards as he flips through the pages. “I’m not sure. Will the noise wake up Klee?”
“She’s a heavy sleeper.” A pause. “Most of the time.”
He thinks about it for a moment. “Perhaps not.”
“Alright then.”
Kaeya wanders around the kitchen for a little longer—probably looking for something to eat—before eventually deciding that he can go without a midnight snack and comes to sit at the table too. Albedo, meanwhile, writes quickly into his notebook, jotting down notes for himself and underlining important parts of the procedure. After glancing back at his notes for the previous trial, he can see now why it did not turn out the way he wanted it to.
The weight of a gaze makes him look up, meeting eyes with Kaeya instantly, who has his arms folded on the table and his head resting on them, cheek squished against his arm and hair falling into his face. A sliver of golden-brown peeks out from beneath the hair that covers his right eye, the star pupil only barely visible but recognizable despite that.
Albedo isn’t sure exactly what he is looking for when he searches Kaeya’s face, but what he finds is warmth and love and the soft sort of sleepy affection that someone could only feel at this hour of the night, and it makes something in his chest stutter, heart pounding like rabbit’s feet against his ribs. Momentarily, he thinks he forgets how to breathe.
Kaeya smiles, the corners of his mouth lifting into something crooked and sly. His voice is something like a purr when he says, “See something you like?”
He blinks. And like that, everything seems to unfreeze; he feels the weight of his pencil in his hand, the slight warmth from the flickering lantern in the center of the table, hears a wolf howl outside and the low whistle of a passing breeze ruffling the curtains. He can feel his heart beating in his chest and feel exhaustion from his late (early?) awakening weighing in his bones, the desire to go to sleep catching up with the urge to write down his findings.
It is a sudden and startling reminder of the fact of what he is. Not the fact that he is an artificial being, but the fact that he is human despite that. All of this—all of these are signs that he is alive. He can hear and feel and think and see and want and learn and love, just like any other living thing. Just like any other person.
Albedo may not have come into this world the same way that most people do, but he is alive and he is something like a human. He may be molded from chalk and brought to life by alchemy and given the basis of what he is by Rhinedottir, and he may not be made purely of flesh and blood but…
(There’s more to being human than simply being born by one, Kaeya had mused to him once. Don’t you think, Kreideprinz? If I were to kick an injured puppy, isn’t that something that you would call cruel? Inhumane, even? Where do you think that term stems from? The belief that the ability to sympathize and care for something is a human-like trait? He cocked his head to the side, then. Doesn’t that mean that humanity extends far beyond physical and genetic properties?
That’s different, Albedo had said. That’s not the same as being human. With your explanation, the wolves in Wolvendom could be considered human for looking after Razor.
Then by your definition, Kaeya hummed and picked up Albedo’s hand, lacing their fingers together, pressing their palms against each other enough so that Albedo could feel the warmth of his hand seeping through his gloves. You have five fingers, like me. Two eyes, like me. His blue eye flickered downwards, mouth curling into a smile. A nose and mouth, like me. If I put my hand here, he raised his other hand and rested it on the left side of Albedo’s chest. I can feel a heartbeat, like mine, and feel you breathe, like me. All physical properties, no?
When Albedo said nothing, Kaeya’s gaze slid back up so their eyes could meet.
He was still smiling when he said, You feel human enough to me.)
… Albedo is human in all the ways that matter.
“So I’ll take that as a yes?” Kaeya’s teasing smile morphs into a grin.
He scoffs and turns his gaze back down to his notebook. “Unfortunately, all I see is a distraction.”
“Because of how good-looking I am?” He doesn’t need to look up to know that Kaeya is waggling his eyebrows.
“Because of how mouthy you are,” Albedo deadpans. Kaeya gasps.
“You enjoy my mouthiness.”
“Are you attempting to imply something with that statement?”
“I don’t know, am I?”
He sighs, shaking his head as he scans over his newly written notes. After concluding that he has written down everything important, he closes the book and sets his pencil down.
“Finished already?”
“I told you it wouldn’t be long.” He stands from his seat and Kaeya does too, reaching out to take the lantern with them. Wordlessly he slips their hands together and Kaeya lets him and it feels right. It's so easy to give himself the comfort of Kaeya’s touch.
Kaeya chuckles. “You did indeed.”
He hums absentmindedly to that and makes no response. In silence they stroll back towards the bedroom— their bedroom, Albedo likes to think, because although Kaeya has his own apartment, he stays the night so often that it is theirs in everything but name. There are traces of him everywhere, like the scarf hanging over the back of the couch, one of his romance novels laying on the coffee table, an entire drawer in Albedo's dresser dedicated simply to his clothes, a box of that Inazuman tea that he enjoys sitting in the pantry.
Kaeya sets the lantern back on the nightstand and does a dramatic flop into the bed that makes Albedo sigh with fond exasperation.
“Move. You can’t hog the entire thing.”
Kaeya pointedly spreads every one of his limbs wider to take up more space. “Make me.”
“Kaeya.”
“Albedo.”
“Kaeya.”
“... Albedo? What are you—hey—oof!” Kaeya wheezes as Albedo plops down directly on his stomach. He maneuvers around to settle his legs on either side of Kaeya—effectively straddling him—as two hands shoot up to grip his waist and keep him steady. “Archons, sweetheart, give a man a warning next time.”
Albedo crosses his arms, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. “You’re hogging the bed.”
Kaeya only grins his fox-like smile. “If I had known it was this easy to get you on top of me, perhaps I would’ve done it sooner.”
He wrinkles his nose. “Don’t be crude. May I have my side of the bed, now?”
“I don’t know,” Kaeya hums. “I think I like you better this way.”
Albedo uncrosses his arms and lowers them to trace a finger along Kaeya’s chest, noting the way his breath hitches slightly when he does. “Is that so?”
“My, you’re being so bold tonight. What’s gotten into you?”
He deigns not to answer. Instead, he trails his finger further down, past his sternum and lower, over every defined ab, down towards his navel and—
—suddenly runs his fingers along Kaeya’s sides, eliciting a loud shriek as Kaeya bursts into laughter, squirming under him.
“Move,” he repeats again, using both hands now to tickle the man beneath him. Kaeya yelps and squirms more.
“Stop it!” he gasps. “Albedo—stop—you can’t—stop—please—”
“Move.”
“Ugh, fine,” Kaeya groans. Satisfied, Albedo climbs off him and ushers him to scoot over. “I can’t believe you just took advantage of me like that,” he pouts.
“Who knew that the Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius was so ticklish?” Albedo drones, settling into bed. “I wonder what the people would say if that information happened to get out to the public.”
He gasps. “You wouldn’t.”
“Don’t make me have to consider it.”
“Hmph.” The bed shifts as Kaeya shuffles around before finally flopping back—on his proper side, this time. Albedo lays his head on the pillow, feeling content now that he has done everything he needed to do.
Before he can close his eyes, there is more movement. “Hm,” Kaeya says, and before Albedo can inquire as to what is wrong, a long arm slings itself around his waist and drags him into a firm chest. A warm breath is breathed into the back of his neck. “Much better. Goodnight, Albedo.”
Albedo laughs softly. “Goodnight, Kaeya.”