Work Text:
Albedo rolled his hand in its glove, hearing his wrist pop. Painting all these portraits was seriously taking a toll on him, but it wasn't like he had a choice. Painting was normally quite enjoyable, but not when he was painting person after person after person.
The current Knight he was painting was nearly done. As Albedo put on the final touches, he remembered Jean telling him to suck it up and smile through it. The only reason he was here, painting portraits of the Knights of Favonius, was for Jean anyway.
Jean had gotten him out of a mandatory meeting for the Knights of Favonius Captains all the way in Liyue, and now he owed her a favor. Albedo didn't think painting every single person in the Knights of Favonius measured up to getting him out of a meeting, though. He was only on the 37th person, and his hand was cramping up after weeks and weeks spent painting people.
"Could it be? Head Alchemist Albedo?" A charming voice asked, and Albedo spun around to see the most infuriating person in existence.
"Hello, Cavalry Captain Kaeya." Albedo greeted him coolly. He had never liked the Cavalry Captain that much, something about the way he talked and walked and smiled made Albedo's stomach feel like it was turning a windmill. Even now, the smile Kaeya gave Albedo made his cheeks heat in annoyance.
There was no way Jean actually believed that Albedo would paint Kaeya. She knew about his past annoyances and grievances about him, and how his mere presence irked him. Albedo didn't think he could stomach being in the same room as him for an hour, let alone being focused on him for a week.
Albedo dashed out of the room, leaving a bewildered Kaeya behind.
---
"Jean, you understand my past predicaments with Kaeya, don't you? I can't possibly work with him!" Albedo pleaded.
"What I can't believe is that you just walked out on him like that!" Jean cried, eyes flashing in annoyance. "You promised me you would paint a portrait of every single Knight of Favonius, and I expect you to hold up on that promise. Or, I could schedule another meeting for the captains in, say, Sumeru?"
"Please don't," Albedo said, sitting back down in a chair in Jean's office. Jean really could be frightening when she wanted to. There really was no other alternative, not if Albedo didn't want to travel all the way to some random nation for a meaningless meeting.
Sighing, he returned to the painting room, where Kaeya was still waiting, arm perched lazily on one side of the chair.
"Worked it all out, hm?" Kaeya asked, sitting up straight again. "Took you long enough,"
Albedo ignored him and set to work stretching the canvas, determined not to look at Kaeya. He may have been exerting a little too much pressure when nailing in the canvas, but it was therapeutic at the very least.
The moment he picked up his pencil to start the base sketch, Kaeya shifted. And stopped. Albedo snorted in annoyance, his pencil scratching against the canvas. Kaeya shifted again.
"Stop shifting, please." If Albedo was forced to work with Kaeya, he would at least do it courteously.
Kaeya wasn't saying anything, a rare moment, and Albedo looked up in surprise. His eyes caught Kaeya's, the glowing lamplight flickering down on them and lighting up the blue in Kaeya's eyes. Albedo's eyes dipped just a little bit, looking at Kaeya's mouth.
For the anatomy, of course. Albedo coughed and turned away. His gaze went out the window, and he noticed that it was already quite dark out.
"It's late. I've already started the base sketch, and I'll continue to work on it tomorrow. Please meet me here again in the morning," Albedo said, still staring out the window. He was afraid that if he turned around, Kaeya's eyes would capture his again.
"As you command."
---
This was wrong. All wrong.
Albedo had been sitting in front of the canvas for an hour now, looking back and forth between it and Kaeya. Impossible. How could Kaeya's proportions be this off? His current sketch looked nothing like the person before him.
Shaking his head, Albedo picked up the eraser and rubbed the sketch off. He tried again, sketching out the geometric shapes, then going in and defining each feature. His nose should be just a bit longer, cheekbones a tad higher, and his hair fell like that, in one swoop.
Albedo stepped back, and shook his head. It wasn't cohesive enough to represent Kaeya. The features were all precise, but they didn't fit together as well as the real thing.
"Impossible," Albedo muttered under his breath, his annoyance getting the best of him.
"I know, it's difficult to capture all my natural charm at once." Kaeya smirked, adjusting his cuff.
As much as Albedo hated to say it, he was right. The image was lacking a certain something, but for all his years of studying art Albedo couldn't place it. He decided to start on the painting anyway, for he could make any minor adjustments along the way.
The days went by, and Albedo soon forgot that this portrait was taking the longest. He spent his working hours tracing the line of Kaeya's jawline with his paintbrush, and his off-hours thinking about it. There were certain spots that irked him about Kaeya's face, like the tiny dimple that Albedo had only noticed after hours of studying Kaeya's face, or the curl of hair that never went perfectly one way.
It had gotten to the point where Albedo had started making absentminded sketches of Kaeya in his spare time, working on getting every detail right. He was never able to draw Kaeya perfectly, though, and soon his wastebasket was brimming with crumpled up drawings of Kaeya.
Lisa caught him working intently on a study of Kaeya in the library one time. The look on her face made Albedo twice as embarrassed as before, that he had to be doing things like this.
"Can't stop thinking about a certain someone?" Lisa teased, placing a stack of books on the desk.
Now that Albedo thought about it, Lisa and Kaeya really did have similar personalities. Although, he found Lisa much more tolerable than Kaeya. She never gave him that hot, twisting feeling in his stomach. Or maybe it was just because she was an intellectual, and Kaeya was a drunkard.
"I'm working on his portrait, but I can't get the cohesiveness of his facial features correct," Albedo explained. No one would ever assume that he was romantically attracted to Kaeya, of course.
"Whatever you say, Albedo." Lisa smiled, although it was more of a smirk. "Have you ever considered the fact that you've never gotten this hung up over painting anyone's portrait?"
Albedo paused. He had problems before, of course. Prior to painting Sucrose for the first time, he had never painted green hair before, so it took awhile to find the correct shade. And during that portrait he had done for Guy, the Knight of Favonius hadn't stopped combing his hair back.
"Yes, but those problems only took you a day or so to solve, right?" Lisa asked, after Albedo relayed those problems to her.
"That's true, but none were as much trouble as the one I'm having with Kaeya."
"And perhaps, why do you think that way?"
"Well, his face is extremely difficult to put together, for one. His eyes contrast so sharply with his skin, and the length of his eyelashes is hard to get right. Furthermore, Kaeya's nose is at a precise angle with his cheekbones, which are also at a certain spot. And his mouth?" Albedo took a breath. "Impossible to get right. I've tried every technique I know and I still can't capture the softness of his mouth."
Lisa smirked again. Albedo really wished she would stop doing that, but seeing as she was the one listening to his woes, he didn't think it would be a good idea to tell her.
"Albedo, have you ever considered that you might have a crush on Kaeya?"
"What?" Albedo turned to look at Lisa in disbelief. "You can't possibly believe that would ever happen."
"Alright, then answer this. How much of your waking time do you spend thinking about Kaeya?"
Silence echoed through the library.
"Every minute."
---
Archons, this room was burning hot. Albedo pulled at the collar of his shirt and went back to focusing on the painting of Kaeya, while ignoring the actual person.
Ever since realizing his true feelings, Albedo had been studiously avoiding Kaeya wherever he went, in hopes that the feelings would go away. What he found, however, was that being away from Kaeya just made him think about Kaeya more. What he was doing, who he was with, where he was at the moment. It was unstoppable.
Albedo couldn't focus at all. The cooling system the Knights of Favonius headquarters used had broken down the other day, leaving Cryo and Anemo vision holders to do their best to cool the building. But with Kaeya busy with Albedo, and the Honorary Knight out in another nation, there wasn't much that could be done.
"Do you want to go to Dragonspine to finish this?" Albedo blurted, lifting his hair off the back of his neck. It certainly wasn't overstepping boundaries, was it? Dragonspine was available to everyone, even if nobody ever went there.
"Anything for you, Albedo."
---
Once they were in the small laboratory Albedo used for research, he instantly felt much better. The air was cooler, and there was much less noise from the surrounding areas. He sat down on a stool, feeling much more confident than in a stuffy room.
Each time Albedo turned to Kaeya to look at him, he couldn't help but notice that Kaeya was staring intently at him, eyes set on capturing his heart. Albedo pretended not to notice, hiding his heated face behind the canvas.
Albedo looked again, but this time Kaeya had shifted out of the position he was in previously. Perhaps it was the change in scenery, but either way, Albedo set down his palette and walked closer to help Kaeya move back into position.
"You've shifted slightly, here, you were just about—" Albedo leaned over Kaeya's face and turned his head, trying to ignore the way his heart was about to stampede out of his chest. That face that he had been studying for hours each day was suddenly right in front of him, angular nose and high cheekbones and soft, soft mouth.
Kaeya's eyes flickered over Albedo's, and then dropped, barely an inch, but it felt like an immeasurable distance. They went down over his lips, and Albedo unconsciously touched the corner of his mouth with his tongue.
"Thanks for the help," Kaeya said, pulling himself away and out of Albedo's grip. Before Albedo turned away, his eyes scanned over Kaeya's face one last time.
"You have—" Albedo touched his cheek. "A smudge of paint. I'm sorry, it must have gotten there when I was—"
"When you were—"
"Right. Here, I'll take you to the washroom and I can clean you up. This paint is hard to get off." Albedo gestured awkwardly, hiding the shaking of his hands.
As soon as they entered the washroom, Albedo instantly knew that it was a mistake. The washroom was already cramped when it was only one person, and fitting two in there had Kaeya pressed against Albedo's back, in a most embarrassing position. It didn't help that Kaeya's hand had snaked its way around and was holding onto Albedo. Every place they were in contact felt like it was on fire.
"Here, if you get up on the counter," Albedo shifted slightly, and now Kaeya was on the counter, and Albedo between his legs. This was so much better than the other cramped position.
Albedo bent down to get a towel from the drawer, wetting it, and then lifting his hand to Kaeya's face.
"Here, you're a bit tall, if you just lean down and—" And suddenly, Kaeya's face was really, really close to Albedo's. Again.
Albedo took his time cleaning Kaeya's face, fingers gentle on the sides. This was probably the last time Albedo would ever be this close to Kaeya again, if he didn't say something. Luckily enough, Kaeya did it for him.
"Have you been avoiding me?" Kaeya blurted, his eyes still fixated on Albedo's.
Albedo drew back, stunned. "W-what?"
"You've been avoiding me whenever we end up in the same place together, don't deny it. I saw you at Good Hunter the other day and when I blinked, you had run away." Kaeya said, a hint of annoyance coming into his voice.
"Well, I have my reasons." Albedo started, turning away from Kaeya slightly.
"Like what? Hating me?" Kaeya asked, his eyes bright and burning and fixed on Albedo's. "That's not a legitimate reason, Albedo."
"I don't hate, you, Kaeya." Albedo had thought he did, but so close to Kaeya now, he could see that the opposite was really true.
"Prove it."
And Albedo's mouth was on Kaeya's. The towel was forgotten, everything was forgotten in the whirlwind of a kiss. Their hands intertwined, separated, one on Albedo's waist and another on Kaeya's shoulders, yet another hand tracing that jawline that he had dreamed of for so many nights.
Something warm and soft looped its way through Albedo's stomach when Kaeya trailed a hand across it, chains jingling lightly in the cold air. Their lips moved against each other at a feverish pace, never-ending, absolute.
Albedo never wanted to stop, he didn't feel like he could. Breathing had become less important than continuing to kiss Kaeya, to feel his soft hair under his hands and to touch the side of his neck.
Kaeya's mouth left his, and Albedo was immediately thrust back into harsh reality. His mouth and hands felt cold, now that there was no longer anyone touching them. Well, the only person who could really make Albedo feel warm was Kaeya.
"Have I given you enough evidence?" Albedo whispered, feeling too much like jelly to speak above more than that.
"I'll need to review it," Kaeya said, his lips forming a smile before being on Albedo's again.