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A human life is a disposable thing.
Unlike a pot that is broken and can be fixed by glue and gold, humans are irreparable. Dying once means being dead forever. Albedo can only imagine how inconvenient that is.
Alice’s home is nothing like any of the places he’s been to before. Too many cushions, colours everywhere, pictures hung on the walls, trinkets on every surface. It makes him dizzy.
“My daughter’s name is Klee. She is still young but I expect you two will be good friends. Treat her as your sister.” Alice shows him the tiniest human he has ever seen.
He greets the small girl and is rewarded with a disgruntled wail. She only calms down when Alice picks her up.
At first Klee doesn’t speak. She doesn’t walk. Her days are spent either crying or sleeping.
“If you let me, I can fix her, I can make her grow. Khemia should work,” Albedo tells Alice. He’s never tried it before but it should be possible and easy enough.
There isn’t an instance in which Alice doesn’t smile. This one specific smile is full of patience, and something else that he cannot quite name.
Her voice is soft when she speaks.
“Albedo, dear. Seeds grow to be trees, babies grow to be amazing adults. Let’s enjoy the time we have with this little sapling before she outgrows our care. Let’s share those precious, fleeting, moments with her.”
Albedo doesn’t think he fully understands but he keeps his objections to himself.
//
Back then, he rarely did dare question his master’s decisions. It wasn’t like she ever encouraged his questioning anyway. Yet, for the sake of their research, she was willing to be more lenient.
At times, he wondered about the point of his own existence. Creating synthetic life comes with a toll. It leads to pain and desolation and a destroyed nation.
Wouldn’t it be simpler to birth a human child? Humans can create life in their own way, they have the organs for it.
His master’s forehead always creased when he asked something she considered more than stupid.
“You, listen to me. A child is an ache. Far too weak, far too temperamental. I’m not so wasteful with my time that I’d elect to raise a child.” The conversation ended there, and at the time he knew he wouldn’t be allowed to ask more on the subject.
//
Life with Alice is strange.
She prepares him an empty room to do his experiments. It’s not a lab. It’s enough.
They plant flowers together. A garden in full bloom.
Alice picks every clover she finds. She arranges them into a bouquet, and at night she cuts the stems and puts the clovers in between the pages of a book. Albedo watches the process every night, and doesn’t ask why she does it.
He hears her singing in the early morning when he’s still pretending to be asleep. He catches himself humming along, and decides it’s time to get out of bed.
There’s a man in the house sometimes. With blonde hair and an easy smile. He holds Klee for some time, kissing her round cheeks and muttering to her excitedly. He doesn’t stay more than a few days. When he leaves, Alice holds him close and makes him promise he’ll be careful. The man pats Albedo’s head before he heads out.
Klee cries the whole night after his departure. Alice hugs her and caresses her hair.
Every so often, she bakes cakes and cakes are good.
She teaches him how to hold a baby. Support the head with a hand on the neck and cradle the body.
She explains it’s normal for little ones to not speak immediately. It’s good to know Klee isn’t purposely shunning him.
“And breathe when you hold her,” she says. “I know you don’t need to but it calms her.”
It’s restful, overall. It feels wrong. The restfulness turns him restless.
//
Humans’ lives are feeble things. There is worthlessness in that weakness. Fragile things seldom matter.
Albedo is thankful for the way he was created. Most of the time at least. Other times, he wonders. How much would it have changed to have been a kid? To be held as he cries. To be cared for.
It’s a stupid thought to entertain.
It doesn’t change the fact that he feels a little more empty every time he sees Klee content in Alice’s arms.
Klee starts to walk less than a year after his arrival. She runs around freely now and it’s his job to go after her. Klee finds the ordeal very funny and laughs hard when Albedo chases her.
At least, with Klee it’s easy. She doesn’t speak and her desires are simple. She is good company.
//
Albedo tries not to think about his master too often. He doesn’t like that it hurts. He doesn’t understand why it does.
Alice told him to treat Klee as his sister. He doesn’t think his master would have ever given him a sister. Not a human one at least.
A child is an ache. Something frail and easily wilted.
As easy to break as the grass Klee rips from the ground. He runs to her side. Alice said he shouldn’t let her eat grass anymore.
She looks at him and giggles. She still doesn’t really talk, but now she’s able to say incomprehensible syllables.
“Klee. You shouldn’t.”
Klee giggles some more and brings the grass to her face.
“No, it can make you sick. Let’s go back to Alice.”
Her hand is so tiny. She wraps it around his pinky.
“Come on.” He picks her up. A hand behind her head and the other behind her knees.
What a wondrous thing it is, a child. A human.
/////
“Are you ready to go, Klee.”
“Uh-huh!”
Her hand is bigger than it was before when she holds his.
“Remember what Alice said: no bombs inside of the buildings. And listen to the Grandmaster. He may be your mother’s friend but he is also your boss now.”
Klee pouts at the ‘no bombs’ but still nods easily.
With her heavy backpack slung on his shoulder, Albedo leads them forward.
“Let’s go then.” To Mondstadt. To a new beginning.