Chapter Text
Fresh snow crunched beneath his feet as he stepped out into the crisp afternoon air, letting out a relaxed sigh.
The neighborhood Kaeya lived in was a circle of houses that surrounded a decently-sized lake; about half a mile in both width and length. The neighbors frequently fished or swam in it during the warmer months, but at this time of year it was covered in adults and children alike who were looking for a nice day of ice skating.
Kaeya took a few more steps outside his home, pulling his winter coat up so that it covered his neck and protected him from the chilly winds.
He made his way over to the frozen lake, taking in the sounds of children laughing and feet sliding along the ice. He bore witness to the couples holding each other’s hands as they skated in their boots, and parents accompanying their children to make sure they didn’t fall over and hurt themselves.
Smiling, Kaeya joined them on the icy lake, nearly losing his balance the second he set foot onto the slippery surface.
His snow boots scraped against the ice beneath him as he looked around for a nice, open spot to skate by his lonesome. Most of the neighbors tended to avoid him and whisper incoherent things in their friend's ears. He could only guess that their whispers contained information regarding a hostile encounter with a certain red-head a few years prior.
However, near the center of a lake stood two people whom Kaeya did not recognize. He assumed that they had just moved in recently. The first was a little girl dressed in all-red clothing, bundled up tight due to the cold. She was adorned with clover-shaped accessories such as hair clips in her pigtails and pins on her coat. The person supervising her was a pretty blonde-haired man with the most beautiful teal eyes. He was wearing a fluffy blue coat and talking to the little girl as she skated around in gleeful circles, occasionally skating out further to show off her skills, much to her caretaker’s worry.
Kaeya couldn’t help but be intrigued by this stranger. He had an aura about him that caused Kaeya’s heart to falter momentarily. He seemed like an angel as his braided locks shimmered in the afternoon sunlight and his eyes glowed like the stars.
Slowly, in an attempt not to startle the man, Kaeya approached the stranger, hoping that he hadn't heard anything of Kaeya from the other neighbors. However, before he could speak a word, a shrill shriek rang through the air, high-pitched and terrified.
Kaeya’s blood ran cold as he noticed the little red girl standing over a thin layer of ice near the very center of the lake. The ice beneath her feet creaked like an opening door and lines started to form under the girl’s boots.
“Klee!” The blonde-haired man, who was only a couple of feet away from her, cried out, “Klee, hold still. It’s going to be alright. I’ll get you out of there, just don’t move, okay?”
The cracks beneath the girl’s feet became bigger as she let out another scream, alerting the attention of the nearby skaters who started gathering nearby.
Another crack, this time causing the girl to weep, tears rolling down her face as she called for her caretaker. That was the breaking point for the blonde and he lurched forward, but Kaeya was faster.
The blue-haired man darted forward as fast as he could, using the ice to increase his speed, before reaching the little girl and shoving her to the side. She fell onto her tailbone as she slid across the ice and made it into the arms of a few onlookers.
Kaeya was barely able to breathe a sigh of relief before the ice gave out under him, unable to bear his weight. He plunged down several feet into the freezing depths, and fucking hell he had not expected the water to be so horrifically cold. In a mere instant, he felt himself gasp for breath, but all that came into his lungs was icy water. A gag escaped his mouth along with air bubbles, which retreated to the surface above and out of his reach.
Frantically, he attempted to push up towards the water’s surface, but his limbs did not respond to him. He could not feel his arms or legs, and try as he might, he couldn’t seem to move even an inch closer to the air above.
No, no, no! Please, no!
He gasped for air, even though he knew none would dare enter his lungs in this icy abyss of a lake. He felt himself slipping into darkness, his vision becoming blurry and the last of his energy leaking out of his bones.
Dammit. I’m going to drown here…
He heard the whispers of the past echo through his mind as his consciousness left his body entirely, voices he wished he never remembered. The one that stuck out most was a deep voice belonging to a man he once called a brother.
I fucked up, Diluc. He silently whispered to the man who wasn’t even there, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
Perhaps if he had never spoken with the red-haired man regarding his origins as a spy and a tool made for destruction, he wouldn’t have to wake up in an empty house every morning. He wouldn’t find himself curled up in his sibling’s abandoned room and sobbing for hours on end, wishing he could turn back time and take back what he had said. He wouldn’t be drowning alone like this, reliving the past before the frigid waters consumed him entirely.
Diluc wouldn’t have left if he had just kept his mouth shut.
You’re my little brother, A young Diluc spoke over the ringing in Kaeya’s ears, I’ll always be here for you, promise.
But here Kaeya was in his last moments, alone, and with no one to blame but himself.
—
Albedo stared in shock for a moment as bubbles rose up from the surface of the water where the ice had broken and the stranger had fallen through.
I can’t just stand here and do nothing. Albedo told himself, taking a glance at his little sister who was being comforted by the bystanders, That man saved her life. I can’t just let him drown.
Taking a few steps back and bracing himself for the cold water below, Albedo sprinted forward, ignoring the screams and protests of Klee. Attempting not to break the ice further so that an escape from the water would be easier, Albedo let himself fall onto the slippery surface and slide into the depths.
The cold hit him like a speeding train and he struggled not to gasp as he sunk a few feet below the surface. He quickly opened his eyes and glanced around for any sign of the blue-haired man. To his horror, he spotted him below and almost out of sight in the darkness of the water, sinking further and further towards the bottom of the lake. Small air bubbles escaped his mouth and nostrils as he drifted downwards limply.
Pushing downwards with what little strength the frigid water allowed him, Albedo reached for the man. The cold threatened to shut his organs down, flush all the air from out his lungs, and render him paralyzed and dead, but he wouldn’t let it if it meant that the man before him could survive. He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he knew that he had let an innocent person die.
Finally, he caught a firm grip on the man’s wrist and tugged upwards as hard as he could, his chest becoming heavy from the lack of air and his fingers completely numb from the cold.
Albedo swam his way to the surface, pulling the stranger’s limp body up with him. He broke the surface with a loud gasp for air before holding the man up and beginning to push his unconscious body onto the ice.
At this point, a few of the onlookers rushed over to assist him, laying on their stomachs so as to not break the ice under them and pulling the blue-haired man onto solid ice. Then they helped a shivering Albedo up as well and he collapsed onto the ice, hacking and coughing.
Albedo glanced at the man next to him. He wasn’t shivering and he didn’t appear to be responding to the stimuli of the people around him. An eyepatch covered half his face, but his visible eye was closed as if he was sleeping.
Albedo reached out a shaking hand to feel the air in front of the man's slightly agape mouth. To his horror, not even a trace of a breath grazed his skin.
Shit!
Scrambling up with some difficulty, Albedo flipped the man onto his back and tilted his head up slightly, using both hands to press hard against his chest.
He’s not dying. Not if Albedo can help it. He’s not letting the man who saved his sister die right in front of him.
He could feel a faint, weakened heart pulse beneath his fingertips. A heart that still yearned to beat, no matter how difficult.
Albedo’s compressions became more desperate, quicker in pace and rougher in force as he begged the man to wake up. Ignoring the ache in his bones and the feeling of the freezing wind against his frame, Albedo pinched the man’s nose between his fingers and connected their mouths together, breathing life into him.
White spots appeared in Albedo’s vision from excessive exhalation, but he paid them no mind.
Take my oxygen! Take it all, I don’t care! Just please breathe again!
He sat up and continued chest compressions, cold tears forming in his eyes despite his best efforts to hold them back.
Albedo was about to scream for someone to call for emergency services when a choked gasp escaped the man’s mouth. Reacting quicker than his brain could process, Albedo turned him to the side and he threw up water, now on his hands and knees and shivering violently.
The coughing fits slowed and the man–panting with raspy breaths–turned to look at Albedo beside him, his singular, crystal-blue eye scanning the blonde up and down.
“…T–Thank you...” He said with a weak, blue-lipped smile.
—
Blankets covered his broad shoulders, settling his shivers. A turtle-neck sweater kept him warm and cozy, borrowed from the stranger who's couch he was currently sitting on. He had been kind enough to allow Kaeya to stay in his home until he regained his strength and was free from the clutches of hypothermia.
Beside him was the blonde man, snuggled up in a fluffy white sweater and staring into the glowing fireplace before them, the little girl Klee curled up beside him and fast asleep under several layers of blankets.
Warm cups of hot chocolate sat on the coffee table in front of them, gentle waves of steam floating up into the air, filling the room with a comfortingly sweet smell.
"Thank you…for all of..." Kaeya spoke, gesturing to the borrowed clothes he wore, the hot chocolate, and the fireplace, "... this. "
The blonde smiled softly, "It's nothing."
"I'd be dead if it wasn't for you." Kaeya said, shaking his head, "Dead at the bottom of a cold-ass lake. That's not nothing…ah–"
The man giggled at Kaeya's attempt to call him by a name he didn't know, "Albedo Kreideprinz."
Pretty name for a pretty man. Kaeya thought fondly.
He reached out for a handshake and Albedo accepted it, his hand tiny in comparison to Kaeya's.
"Kaeya Alberich. Pleasure to meet you."
Albedo's eyebrows raised in sudden interest, "Ah, so you're the infamous Kaeya everyone's been talking about. I've heard a lot about you from the neighbors."
"Good things, I hope." Kaeya responded, chuckling nervously.
Albedo shrugged, "I don't really care much for the gossip and rumors. I already know that you're a good person. A hero, even."
Kaeya blinked at him with a look of disbelief, replaying what Albedo had just said over and over in his mind in an attempt to comprehend it, "A… hero, huh?" He muttered, still flabbergasted, "Haven't heard that one before." He tried to make it sound like a joke or a method of teasing, but instead his tone came out rather solemn.
People called him a lot of things, but a "hero" was not one of them.
Albedo stared at him, head tilted to the side and mouth slightly open as if he were about to question Kaeya's response. He decided against it, pressing his lips firmly together and breaking eye-contact with the blue-haired.
Kaeya hadn't noticed until now, but he could feel a slight brush against his shoulder where Albedo's touched his. He hadn't realized that they were sitting so close together, the tension slowly dissipating as their proximity provided a sort of silent comfort.
Kaeya was overcome with a warm, fluttery feeling that he had never felt before. Albedo, despite his smaller frame, radiated a soothing heat that drained the fatigue from Kaeya's muscles and melted any cold still lingering on his skin, a kind of heat that the fireplace before them couldn't seem to replicate. It urged him to scoot ever so slightly closer to Albedo so that their shoulders were fully touching and their hands were dangerously close to each other.
He noticed a small smile appear on Albedo's face and a shade of pink dust his cheeks, eyes glittering with the light of the fireplace, causing Kaeya to go beat-red.
"So…Albedo," Kaeya began, trying to hide his flustered expression with his sleeve as Albedo turned to look at him. "Would you…like to hang out sometime?" He lowered his arm away from his face and smiled brightly when he saw surprise sparkle in the blonde's teal eyes, "I'd like to learn more about the man who saved my life."
Albedo beamed, and fuck was it far more deadly than the icy waters he had pulled Kaeya out of.
The blonde nodded, cheeks alight and that heart-stopping smile never leaving his face, "I'd like that."