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It had been a few weeks since the death of the head priest of the Grand Narukami Shrine.
A kind soul who Albedo had thought of as the closest thing that he had to a father.
These thoughts had only grown stronger and stronger over the last twenty years, ever since the day that the former head priest had found him abandoned near Chinju Forest at only four years of age.
The man's death was constantly in the back of Albedo's mind, even more so because of what was to happen on that very day.
A ceremony was to take place, one which would culminate in him being appointed to the position as the new head priest.
It made sense, Albedo supposed, something that he had learnt from his father figure was that a Kitsune was usually chosen for the position so him being appointed was inevitable, especially given the fact that he had been training to take over as head priest since he was sixteen.
Albedo let out a few shaky breaths, trying to ground himself as one of the shrine maidens entered his room, letting him know that it was time to head to the ceremony.
At first, everything was going well, he went through the necessary ritual and the title was bestowed upon him, but just as everything was winding down, someone unexpected made an appearance.
The Electro Archon himself.
The Electro Archon was a mystery to the blonde Kitsune, over the years that he had lived with his guardian he had never actually met him face to face.
Albedo only had rumours to go by and none of them painted the Archon in the best light.
They said that while the Archon had a love for his people, he was cold and distant. That he kept to himself most of the time, only ever interacting in any great capacity with his generals or the occasional business partner.
'Or more important to myself.' Albedo thought. 'This Shrine's head priest.'
The reason for Albedo thinking this had to do with what his guardian had told him over the years.
The Archon, from what he remembered being told, had an interest in the Shrine and the way that it was operating.
Because of this, he would usually make trips up to Narukami to discuss how everything was going with the head priest.
Given that previously, Albedo had never been allowed to go to the Shrine on days when the Archon was there, he had slowly concluded that his interest probably came from wanting to make sure that enough people were praying to him.
'I just don't see what other reason there could be, from what else I know he doesn't seem to have much of an interest in monetary gain.'
Coming out of his thoughts, Albedo watched, frozen in place as the Archon ascended towards the Sacred Sakura.
The Archon had an intimidating presence to him, not at all helped by multiple scars that could be seen peeking through parts of his clothing. He had a blank expression on his face as he approached. To Albedo, it seemed like he was completely disinterested in being there.
He soon came to a stop in front of the new head priest, allowing Albedo to notice that the Archon was a few inches taller than him, forcing him to look up.
The two locked eyes for a moment before the Archon lifted his right hand, holding out a small grey leather-bound book, the leather worn with age.
“Your schedule, it will let you know when our meetings are to take place.”
After Albedo had cautiously taken the book from the taller male, the Archon turned his back to him and started to walk away. After only walking a few steps though, the Archon stopped before turning his head slightly and speaking in a surprisingly soft tone.
“I am sorry for your loss, Tetsuya... he was a great man.”
Frozen in surprise from the words he had just heard, Albedo watched as the Archon quickly disappeared in a flash of purple lightning.
As the weeks went by, Albedo soon started to settle into his role as head priest, once the Kitsune had started to get into a rhythm everything just seemed to click into place, his training having paid off in making him familiar enough with his duties that this happened more easily than it otherwise could have.
Everything that is, except for where the Archon was concerned.
The man was... strange, he had shown at many points during their meetings that he was just like the rumours had said, but now and then, Albedo found himself noticing something that he found to be rather odd.
The Archon never really showed much emotion on his face, but during these moments, Albedo swore that he had seen something slip through.
Whether it be a small twinge in his lips or a fleeting look in his eyes, they all seemed to convey one thing to the Kitsune, something that he was all too familiar with.
The Archon was feeling some kind of great sadness.
As a few more weeks went by, Albedo spent time thinking of different ways in which he could try and bring the topic up with the other male, but none of the plans that he came up with felt like they would be right.
But then, just as Albedo was starting to worry that he wouldn't be able to come up with a plan he was confident enough in, an opportunity to bring it up came about from what felt like complete chance.
Having finished up with his weekly meeting with the Archon, the Kitsune made his way to the Sacred Sakura before sitting down across from it, the male having decided to spend some of his time relaxing and sketching the tree, a sketchpad and some charcoal in his hands.
But just as he was starting to draw, he heard a voice call out from behind him and to the right.
“What are you doing?”
Startled, Albedo turned his head to see the Archon approaching him, the Kitsune then taking a moment to calm himself before he started to explain to the other, tone formal.
“I was planning on taking some time to draw the Sacred Sakura, your excellency.”
After Albedo had finished speaking, the Archon went still for a moment before sighing, his gaze focused on the male sitting in front of him.
“You know that it's fine to call me Aether, right?” The male responded, tone neutral. “Given that we are going to be seeing each other a lot, I feel that it makes the most sense.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the Ar-Aether came over beside the Kitsune and sat down, the two males now in pretty close proximity with each other.
Albedo felt confusion wash over him because of this and he guessed that it must have shown on his face as Aether began to respond not long after he looked at him. “I find myself curious in seeing how well you can capture the tree's beauty.”
The two lapsed into a silence after that, one that Albedo found wasn't as uncomfortable as he had thought it would be.
As the Kitsune continued to draw, Aether decided to speak up.
“You've been doing a good job with your duties. Keep it up and one day you'll be as great or even better than Tetsuya was.”
Hearing his guardian being mentioned caused Albedo to stop drawing. The blonde just sat still for a moment, memories of the years he had spent with him coming to the forefront of his mind, leading to him lowering his head to the ground as he squeezed his eyes shut.
As an overwhelming pain began to fill Albedo's heart from the memories, he felt the gentle weight of a hand come to rest on his shoulder.
Lifting his head and looking over, the Kitsune saw that Aether was looking at him with a sympathetic expression on his face.
“I'm sorry for bringing him up, I promise you that I won't mention him again.”
Albedo thought over what the other had said for a moment before shaking his head. “No, I-I want to try and talk about him, even if it hurts.”
With a glint of determination in his eyes, Albedo continued. “He brought me so much happiness over the years, I want to try and focus on those memories.”
Albedo watched as Aether nodded his head at him before moving his hand in a gesture to let him know that he can continue.
Over the next two hours, Albedo told the Archon about some of his fondest memories of the years he spent with his guardian. Most of it was spent with Albedo having a smile on his face, even through the occasional tears.
The Archon even chimed in every now and then to share his own memories of the man as well.
During this time, any thought or desire to continue with the drawing had left Albedo's mind.
Throughout the entire conversation, the Kitsune felt that it was surprisingly sweet of the Archon to not only listen to him but also try to comfort him in his own way.
Aether didn't have to make sure that he was alright initially, he didn't have to listen to him for the past two hours, and he didn't even have to share his own stories of the Kitsune's guardian with him.
But he did, and this thought led to Albedo remembering what he had been wanting to ask the other for some time now.
Looking over at the other, Albedo noticed that his gaze was focused on the Sakura, his expression melancholy.
Plucking up the courage, the Kitsune opened his mouth.
“Why are you so sad? I've noticed it multiple times since we started to interact .”
As soon as he finished talking, Albedo saw the other's expression go blank once more before he went to stand up, turning to leave once he was on his feet.
Albedo cried out for the other to wait as he started to go after him. He needed to think of something to say, but what?
Albedo quickly tried to rack his brain, thinking of anything that he could before an idea finally hit him as he remembered what the Archon had been looking at.
'The Sakura... could it be related to his sadness?'
Not wanting to let the other get away by taking too long, Albedo blurted out.
“It's the Sakura, isn't it? That's the reason why you're so sad.”
The Archon went still for a moment before disappearing in a flash of purple lightning, leaving the Kitsune by himself.
Throughout the rest of the week, Albedo tried to think of what he would say to Aether the next time that they met, but once the day of their next meeting arrived the other never showed up.
This continued for the next month, every day that their meeting was to take place all Albedo could do was grow more and more disappointed at the Archon's absence.
But then, another week passed and something ended up going wrong.
Everything was going how it normally would, Albedo had been talking to a few of the Shrine maidens about how their duties have been going recently when out of nowhere, screams could be heard.
Turning towards the sound, Albedo saw that a group of bandits had arrived and were starting to attack the Shrine.
Having been taught how to fight as part of his training to become head priest, the blonde decided to help out, the idea of the people that he worked with as well as the citizens of Inazuma being in danger being something that he greatly disliked.
At first, things were going well, the Kitsune used a combination of his Geo vision that he kept attached to the choker around his neck as well as his catalyst to fend off the bandits.
But then, just as the number of bandits had thinned to a pretty manageable amount, indicating to the blonde that the fight would soon come to an end, a cloud of thick smoke began to fill the area, making it hard for Albedo to see anything around him, the male accidentally swallowing some of it.
Coughing, the Kitsune tried to fan the smoke out of the way only for something blunt to collide with the back of his head, the suddenness of the action as well as the pain he felt causing him to fall to the ground.
After taking a few seconds to try and recover, Albedo looked up and noticed that a Kairagi was now standing in front of him, they had their sword lifted close to their face, their gaze quickly observing its hilt before they turned their attention down to him.
If Albedo had to guess, he would likely say that the hilt was what he had just been hit by.
Looking behind the Kairagi, the Kitsune could see even more of them come into view as the smoke started to clear causing him to feel his nerves begin to rise.
The blonde tried to get up so that he could continue fighting but was caught off guard by a kick to the gut from the Kairagi in front of him.
Winded, the blonde gritted his teeth at the pain before trying again, except this time another kick never came.
Confused, Albedo lifted his head before looking in the direction of the Kairagi, the Kitsune shocked to see a sword pierced through their chest, the blade glowing from sparks of Electro that were running throughout it.
The sword soon started to come back out of the Kairagi, allowing them to fall to the ground, bringing the sword wielder into view, one of the other Kairagi shouting out who they were at that same moment.
“It's the Electro Archon!”
Looking at Aether's face, the Kitsune could have sworn that he saw Electro sparking in his pupils, but before he could try and get a better look, Aether turned around and brought his sword close to his chest.
Electro ran throughout the other's body before, in a flash, he disappeared.
Aether wasn't gone for long before he appeared again near one of the Kairagi, stabbing them in the chest and then disappearing before they even had a chance to hit the ground.
The Archon repeated this until all of them were dead, the Kairagi tried to run, but no matter how far they got Aether was able to catch up with them.
After the final one fell, Aether reappeared near the Kitsune, Albedo watching as the other held out his hand to him. The blonde quickly took the offered hand and was lifted to his feet effortlessly.
Turning away from Albedo once he had let go of his hand, Aether nodded in the direction of the civilians. Understanding what he meant, the Kitsune headed over to make sure that they were alright.
Once he had made sure that they were all fine, the shrine maidens included, Albedo turned to look for where the Archon was, relief washing over him as he realised that he hadn't left yet when he saw him.
Albedo started to make his way over to the other before he briefly stopped, his gaze raking over the small amounts of Electro that had started to pulse throughout Aether's frame as he began to turn away.
Realising that the other was about to leave, Albedo felt panic start to run through him. He was about to lose the first chance he's had to speak with him in so long.
Albedo quickly started to move again, breaking out into a sprint as he ran towards the other, the Kitsune just barely managing to get a grip on his arm as Aether started to teleport away.
For the next moment, the Kitsune felt weightless, like he was floating in the air, but this soon started to pass as he began to feel something solid underneath his feet once more.
Taking a moment to come to his senses, the Kitsune then started to look around where he was. From what he could see, it appeared that he was in some kind of cave, It was surprisingly well lit with some candles positioned on the tops of a couple of boxes scattered throughout the area.
The soft glow of the candlelight allowed the blonde to make out some kind of faint carving on a part of one of the walls as he continued his observations.
Feeling curiosity overtake him, Albedo made his way closer to the carving before kneeling to get a better look.
From what he could make out there were a pair of crudely drawn figures standing side by side, each having one arm outstretched towards the other.
In the middle of both arms were what looked to be scribbles in the shape of a ball. Lines were coming off of it in zig zagging patterns, leading Albedo to believe that it may have been an attempt to depict the two using Electro.
Leaning in to get a closer look at the figures, Albedo noted that the one on the right seemed to be in the shape of a male and was pretty crude looking.
The one on the left, however, was of a female, the quality of the drawing much higher in comparison.
Leaning back a little from the drawing, Albedo started to think about who their identities could be, the blonde having felt like he had gotten everything that he could from just examining it.
Given how he had ended up in the cave, Albedo could easily guess that the male was supposed to be Aether, but the inclusion of the female made him feel nothing but confusion as he took a moment to try and think of who it could be.
But despite his best efforts, Albedo only ended up drawing a blank on the female's identity, the blonde at a loss for ideas as he muttered to himself. “Who...”
“My sister.”
Before Albedo could continue, a voice from behind cut him off, causing him to startle and turn around.
Aether was standing behind him, a melancholy look on his face. His gaze was focused entirely on the carving as he continued in a tone that matched his expression.
“We carved this the day we promised each other that we’d become the best rulers possible for Inazuma.”
Turning his attention from the carving, Aether looked directly at the Kitsune. “Inazuma was going through a terrible famine at the time we made this promise, we had both dreamed of and wanted nothing more than finding a way to end it once we had grown up and become Archons.”
Albedo watched as the other let out a broken breath, the sadness in his eyes felt overwhelming to the Kitsune causing worry to begin rising in the pit of his stomach.
Wanting to try to help, Albedo got to his feet before walking over to one of the cave walls and sitting down before gesturing to the other to come closer, a comforting smile on his face.
The Archon was confused for a few moments but quickly gave in at the other's insistence.
Upon arriving next to the Kitsune, Albedo pulled him down until he was sitting as well then had Aether rest his head against his chest.
Albedo wrapped his arms around the other male in a gentle embrace before slowly starting to stroke the Archon's head. Once Aether began to relax, the Kitsune then began to speak in a soothing tone.
“You don't have to tell me if you're not ready, but you could try and talk about it with me if you want.”
Albedo heard the other let out a shaky sigh before going still for a moment, during this time the Kitsune continued to gently stroke his head.
Just as Albedo started to think that the other may have fallen asleep, he started to speak, voice strained.
“It happened during our fifth year as Archons.”
Aether went silent for a few seconds as he took in a deep breath before exhaling, the male continuing to speak not long after.
“I was the only one who Celestia allowed to be an Archon because I'm technically the oldest, Lumine... she wasn't very happy about that fact.” Aether let out a watery chuckle as he reminisced. “But we decided that we could still rule together if I kept her a secret from them.”
Albedo felt the other grip tightly onto his clothing as the other male tried huddling closer against his chest.
“Throughout the first few years of our rule, we met with a lot of different academics from all over Teyvat, yet none of them was able to come up with a solution to stop the famine.”
“But... but then we found one from Sumeru, they presented us with the idea to create and plant a special kind of seed, one whose roots would be able to grow throughout Inazuma and nourish the land.”
The Archon stopped talking once more for a moment, his body going tense. Feeling his worry for the other getting stronger, Albedo began to softly hum to try and keep him calm.
“The seed could only be made with an immense amount of energy, the likes of which being something that could only be achieved if Lumine and I combined our powers.”
“Everything was going well, we were able to start making the seed a few days later at the Shrine, but...”
Albedo started to feel a wet patch begin to appear against his clothing as the other stopped to take in another shaky breath.
“There were people who found out about our plans, they wanted to try and stop us, for years Inazuma had been on the brink of war because of the famine and certain people were looking to profit off of it.”
The rate of Aether's breathing began to pick up as he continued speaking. “They ambushed us as we were mainly focused on creating the seed, we both got stabbed, I could barely think straight from all of the blood that I was losing.”
Sensing the other's distress because of his breathing still getting faster, Albedo leaned down and placed a gentle and reassuring kiss on the top of Aether's head before he continued to hum.
“Lumine, she... she used the last of her energy to create the seed by herself, the entire area was engulfed in a bright light and when it cleared she was...”
Aether let out a choked sob, his entire body beginning to shake from the sadness he was feeling at that very moment.
“Gone.”
The Archon went silent, his body continuing to shake in the Kitsune's arms. The two stayed in this position for the next couple of minutes as Aether gradually started to calm down.
Once the shaking of the Archon's body had stopped, he soon began to speak up, his voice quiet.
“I've never told anyone about this before.”
The words rang through Albedo's mind for a moment before he responded in a soothing tone, the Kitsune wanting nothing more than to make sure that the other was doing at least a little alright after everything that he had learnt.
“Did it make you feel any better?”
Aether went still for a while before answering. “I don't know, I-I think I feel a tiny bit better, but it still hurts so much.”
After taking a moment to think about what to say, Albedo responded to the other.
“My guardian once told me that grief is one of the worst things that one can feel.”
Albedo put his hands on the other's cheeks and tilted his head up to look at him.
“He said the feeling will never truly go away, that it will always be there, no matter what.”
Albedo let a warm smile come onto his face before he continued, the sight of it lifting the Archon's spirits a little.
“But he also told me that you shouldn't let yourself become shackled by it, that the best thing you can do is to try to live your life in spite of the pain.”
Albedo moved one of his thumbs to brush away a stray tear off of Aether's cheek before the other choked out.
“I d-don't know if I can, I-I've tried for so long, but nothing has worked.”
Albedo brought the other's head close to his chest again, gently shushing him.
“My loss may not be as old as yours, but I do understand how you feel.”
Albedo began to gently stroke Aether's hair again. “If you ever just want to let all of your grief out then I will be there for you.”
With his head against Albedo's chest, Aether quickly replied, voice muffled against the fabric of his clothing.
“And... me for you too, that day you were drawing, I felt my heart clench from how sad you looked.”
Albedo found himself feeling surprised at the other's admission for a few moments before he finally responded, a small smile forming on his face and happiness swelling in his heart at the offer.
“It's a deal.”