Chapter Text
Klee was snoring in the background as Kaeya sat down on the thick, warm blanket at the outer edge of Albedo’s Dragonspine-laboratory. For once, the sky was clear, and the stars shone down at the two of them. Albedo and him. The alchemist looked up at Kaeya, then past him in Klee’s direction.
“Do you think she enjoyed today?”, he asked.
Kaeya smiled, “How could she not? You gave her a giant Dodoco and she practically inhaled that cup of hot chocolate you made for her earlier. She had a great day, don’t worry.”
Albedo let himself be pulled closer, so that now they were sitting side by side, their legs and arms touching. Kaeya sighed, still smiling, and let his head fall to the side where it came to rest on his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“And did you like it?”, Albedo continued, “You don’t regret coming here instead of going to that Christmas party you told me about?”.
Kaeya heard the half-hidden worry in Albedo’s voice, but this was a worry he knew how to get rid of, “I loved it. I could never regret spending time with you and Klee. You can’t believe how happy I was when you invited me, and I feel honoured to know you want me here with you and Klee.” He held Albedo’s hand, almost out of reflex from sitting together like that, and his fingers brushed over it in random patterns, “What about you, then? How did you enjoy the evening?”
It took a moment before he got an answer, “I don’t know for sure. It’s why I asked. I liked it but… This is the first time I’m celebrating with not only Klee. I didn’t celebrate it at all before I started taking care of her. It’s… a new experience to have a romantic partner here with me”.
He blushed when he said that and Kaeya simply had to kiss him for it, so he turned Albedo’s head a bit to the side and did exactly that. It earned him a surprised hum and a hand buried in his hair.
Their faces stayed close to each other, their foreheads touching, even as their lips parted.
“And is it a bad new experience?”, Kaeya put on his best emotionless face, trying to sound as unknowing as possible even when he could already guess the answer.
Albedo smiled and said: “No, not at all”.
“So you don’t regret inviting me, even if I stole all of Klee’s attention with my amazing gift? Even your giant Dodoco was no competition to my promise of helping her get out of solitary confinement a bit earlier than usually”, Kaeya really couldn’t stop himself from teasing his boyfriend some more, but his grin was quickly replaced by – and he really couldn’t call it anything else than that – a lovesick smile when Albedo answered in earnest:
“I don’t regret inviting you. In fact, I am very happy I did, and I’m sure Klee is, too. I love you, Kaeya. I would never regret sharing my life, my experiences with you. I was merely worried this day might not have lived up to your expectations… Christmas usually isn’t celebrated by throwing bombs into snow and drinking hot chocolate in an alchemy lab, yet that’s what we did. What Klee and I have been doing each Christmas together. And this year, it was the three of us doing all that, and I must admit that I hope we can do it this way the next year as well”.
Kaeya kissed him again, unable to think of another way in which to show him that it was alright, that he was happy and that he felt the same way about repeating this.
But then he did find a better way: “I love you, Albedo. Merry Christmas.”
And Albedo smiled at him, “Merry Christmas, my love”.