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It wasn’t very often that the Cavalry Captain of the Knights got sick, but when he did, he had a terrible habit of trying to continue working despite his illness. Albedo learned of this habit early on in their relationship and when he found out Kaeya was sick again, he wasn’t about to let him push his limits and try to continue working on whatever he worked on during the day.
“I already told you, Kaeya, you’re resting today. Stop trying to argue your way out of this.” Albedo grumbled, glaring over his shoulder at his boyfriend. “Can’t you take one day off? Even I take a day off every now and then.”
“It’s just a cold, Albedo.” Kaeya sighed, frowning at the blond. “I can still work. I’ll go to my office and do paperwork. That way, there’s no risk of someone else getting sick.” He started to sit up, like he was going to climb out of bed. Albedo marched over to him and shoved him back down.
‘Like I’d believe you’d take care of any paperwork. You're probably too sick to think right now.’ “Rest. I’m not risking you passing out because you won’t take care of yourself properly. Now, let me finish this medicine and then you can take it and go to sleep.” Albedo turned back to the desk in Kaeya’s room. It wasn’t used very often, aside from when Kaeya decided to write in his own free time. That didn’t happen much, though. The Cavalry Captain rarely stayed home, favoring going to the tavern or anywhere else public to search for someone that might give him any valuable information he could take back to the Knights. How Kaeya found any of the information he found on certain cases was lost to Albedo, but he never bothered to try and figure it out. Kaeya was already a confusing case.
Albedo had brought some ingredients from his lab in the Knights headquarters, along with the recipe for this specific cold medicine. Albedo had originally made it for Sucrose, who got at least one cold every winter. To get her to rest, he created a medicine to help with her symptoms, but to also get her to sleep. He found it a bit frustrating that he now had to use this medicine on his boyfriend that didn’t know when to stop working.
It had been Jean informing him that Kaeya was sick that led Albedo to where he was standing now, hunched over Kaeya’s desk in his bedroom and creating the same medicine he usually made for his assistant. The first time this had ever been the case, Jean had turned to Albedo then because she thought he was the only alternative she could turn to in order to get Kaeya to actually rest this time and stop overworking himself. Albedo had instantly agreed, immediately rushing to Kaeya’s apartment to take care of him.
“Here. Take this.” Albedo walked over to Kaeya, who was still propped up against his pillows, his one eye on Albedo. “And take your eyepatch off. You’re not sleeping with that on.”
“Why are you worried about that? I sleep with my eyepatch on all the time.” Kaeya frowned, taking the small vial from Albedo and inspecting it. “You’re sure this is just cold medicine? You aren’t trying to feed me another potion that temporarily gives me animal ears and such again, are you?”
“That happened once, Kaeya. And I didn’t feed you that potion, I told you not to touch it and you didn’t listen to me. Now take the medicine.” Albedo crossed his arms, frowning at the blue-haired man. “And take your eyepatch off. You’ll sleep better without it.” He was beginning to understand why Kaeya was always complaining about being tired.
“I sleep just fine with it on.” Kaeya finally took the medicine and frowned at the taste before handing it back to Albedo. “You could have made that taste a bit better, couldn’t you?”
“No.” Albedo answered flatly before reaching over and tugging Kaeya’s eyepatch off and setting it on his nightstand. “Go to sleep now.” He turned around and walked back over to the desk to pack up the rest of the ingredients and the tools.
“You aren’t going to stay with me?” The amount of disappointment in Kaeya’s voice caught the alchemist off-guard. He figured Kaeya would be fine if he was left on his own. He usually was.
“Huh?” Albedo turned to look at the Cavalry Captain, somewhat unsure about whether he’d heard him right. Kaeya wasn’t usually insistent on Albedo staying over.
“You’re really just going to give me medicine that’s going to make me all groggy and leave me here alone?” Kaeya tilted his head, pouting. He looked like a sad puppy. Albedo felt his ears heat up with blush.
‘Why is that look on his face so cute?’ “I figured I’d get back to my work.” Albedo admitted slowly.
“Come lay down, Chief Alchemist. If I’m not working today, why should you?” Kaeya patted the bed next to him and scooted over to make more room. “And besides, we haven’t had the chance to properly spend time together in a couple of weeks now.” There was a hint of sadness in his tone as he pointed this fact out.
“Fine, just… let me finish packing this stuff up first.” Albedo turned and finished packing everything up neatly, setting it off to the side on the desk before walking over to Kaeya and slipping his coat off, hanging it on the end of the bed before crawling under the covers. Kaeya buried his face in the crook of Albedo’s neck and wrapped his arms around the alchemist’s waist. Albedo wrapped his arms around Kaeya as well, running his fingers through soft, blue hair.
“Thank you.” Kaeya mumbled against his skin. Albedo sighed, kissing the top of Kaeya’s head.
“Go to sleep now, Kaeya. You need to rest.” He whispered, still running his fingers through the Captain’s hair gently.
“Mm. Okay.” Kaeya nodded, and Albedo could already hear how tired he was. He was thankful for how fast-acting the medicine was. It wasn’t long before his breathing evened out and Albedo was sure that Kaeya was asleep. Even then, he didn’t move, though. He knew that if Kaeya woke up and he wasn’t there, he wouldn’t hear the end of it.~~~
Albedo must have fallen asleep at some point, and when he woke up, Kaeya was awake again. He locked eyes with Kaeya and realized that the Captain was tracing parts of his face gently. He felt a finger run along the shell of his ear gently, and Kaeya smiled when he noticed that Albedo was awake.
“Did you sleep well?” He asked, tilting his head.
“Yes. Did you?” Albedo noticed that Kaeya’s voice didn’t sound as rough as it had earlier. ‘The medicine worked. Good.’
“Hm. Yes. I’m glad you stayed, but I didn’t think you’d actually fall asleep. How long has it been since you last slept, Albedo?” Kaeya narrowed his eyes, and Albedo knew his answer would irritate the blue-haired man.
“At least two days…” Albedo answered, looking away.
Kaeya sighed. “Albedo…” He reached over and ran his fingers through the alchemist’s hair. “You need to sleep more often. You shouldn’t push yourself. Even I make sure to get at least a couple hours of sleep every night.”
“I’m fine, Kae. I promise.” Albedo looked at him again. “I know my limits.”
“I imagine that’s a result of some experiment you did on yourself?” Kaeya raised an eyebrow, an amused smirk on his face.
“Yes. I had to know what my limits were, so I did some experiments to figure it out.” Albedo answered instantly.
Kaeya chuckled. “You really are strange sometimes, ‘Bedo.” He kissed his forehead and smiled.
“That… doesn’t seem strange. It only seemed logical to figure out how long I could go without sleep or food in order to maximize how much time I could spend working.” Albedo gave a confused frown.
Kaeya chuckled in response. “Do you want to get up and help me make breakfast?” He asked. Albedo was somewhat thankful that the topic of conversation was no longer him. He was also a little surprised that he had slept until morning the next day.
“Are you feeling better today?” Albedo asked, tilting his head.
“Much better.” Kaeya nodded.
“Hm. Fine. We can go make some breakfast, but I’ll be monitoring your condition. If it still seems like you’re sick, you’re staying home tomorrow, too.” Albedo decided. He got out of bed and stretched before turning and watching Kaeya get out of bed and yawn, rubbing his face. Albedo was a bit surprised to see that he still had his eyepatch off.
“You’re staring pretty hard. Is there something wrong with my face, Chief Alchemist?” Kaeya raised an eyebrow at him playfully.
“I noticed that you don’t have your eyepatch on.” Albedo answered.
“It’s not like you haven’t seen me without it before.” Kaeya pointed out. “What’s got your interest now?”
“Why do you always wear it, even when you’re alone?” Albedo asked.
“I don’t like seeing the scar that it covers.” Kaeya said, shrugging. “The amount of reflective surfaces in my house makes it hard to go around my house without it.”
“Hm…” Albedo turned and tapped his chin in thought. “What if we started something similar to exposure therapy?”
“What do you mean?” Kaeya asked. He picked up his eyepatch off his nightstand, but didn’t put it on. Instead, he looked at Albedo curiously.
“We could start having you look in a mirror for small amounts of time every now and then. The more you’re exposed to seeing the scar on your face, the more you’ll grow used to it being there and it won’t be so uncomfortable anymore. You don’t have to, of course. It’s just an idea.” Albedo explained.
“I guess… It doesn't sound like a bad idea.” Kaeya said. “I’ll try.”
“I’ll set up a time later. We won’t bother with it today. Let’s go make some pancakes.” Albedo turned and headed for the bedroom door. Kaeya followed close behind him, and Albedo leaned into his side when Kaeya wrapped an arm around his waist. Despite the fact that he didn’t like seeing Kaeya sick, he secretly hoped Kaeya still had some symptoms. ‘I could keep him home today, too.’