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It takes Sucrose about a full day to come up with the perfect thank-you gift for Rosaria. She’d cycled through a number of different potions with effects that may have assisted in Rosaria’s nightly excursions before she finally settled on a bouquet of Cecilias instead.
After all, Venti had picked this year’s Windblume just yesterday, and Sucrose can’t totally trust her potions to have the intended effects. The last thing she wants is to give a faulty potion that could fail in a moment of need.
Sucrose sighs, shaking her head. Windblumes, the much safer option, will certainly express Sucrose’s gratitude. Her heart beats in her throat as she walks up to the flower stand, exceedingly thankful that after all her deliberation, the Cecilias aren’t sold out just yet. She buys a full bouquet of them, her hand shaking slightly as she hands over the Mora.
This causes the flower seller, Flora, to tilt her head curiously. “Is something the matter, Miss Sucrose?”
Sucrose quickly smiles. “No, not at all. I suppose it’s just leftover nerves from yesterday.”
The excuse seems to sate Flora, as she packages the flowers in a white wrapping before handing them over to Sucrose. “Don’t worry, Miss Sucrose. We have plenty of trustworthy people keeping us safe.”
Now, Sucrose smiles genuinely. “We really do,” she says, knowing that most of the residents of Mondstadt aren’t aware just how true that is.
Flora waves at Sucrose as she departs, heading towards the cathedral. She’s not certain Rosaria will be there, but it’s likely that someone there will know where she is, or at least which direction to point Sucrose in. The bouquet sits in the crook of her arm as she scales the stairs around Mondstadt, approaching the cathedral.
She’s a bit winded by the time she gets to the top of the steps, taking a moment to catch her breath. A knight stands guard near the doors of the cathedral, but before Sucrose can approach him, she hears a voice from beside her.
“Now, where are you headed with—”
Sucrose yelps, nearly dropping the bouquet as Rosaria approaches from one of the balconies overlooking the plaza. She scrambles to fasten the flowers in her arms again, but one lone Cecilia drifts to the ground.
Rosaria immediately bends down to retrieve the fallen flower. “Didn’t mean to scare you,” she says then, stepping even closer to Sucrose and slipping the flower into Sucrose's hair. “Who might these be for?”
Any and all words Sucrose could say die in her throat.
“Cat got your tongue, hmm?” Rosaria chuckles softly, “If they’re for Dahlia, I can take you—”
Sucrose shakes her head rapidly. “Um, they’re—they’re for you, actually.”
Rosaria raises an eyebrow.
“That’s not to say—um, that I’m not super thankful for Dahlia coming to check on me. But he said…” Sucrose trails off, clearing her throat. “He said you asked him to.”
Now, Rosaria squints her eyes a bit. “That brat.”
Sucrose lets out a surprised laugh at Rosaria’s insult. “Was he not meant to say?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rosaria says, lifting a hand to rub at her temple.
Sucrose’s mind runs wild. Why would Rosaria not want Dahlia to tell Sucrose that she sent him? Until yesterday, Sucrose hadn’t even been sure that Rosaria remembered her name. The fact she thought of Sucrose in a moment of danger, sent someone to look out for her… and didn’t want to be thanked for it?
Well, Sucrose supposes that is very Rosaria of her.
“If you don’t want the flowers—”
“No, it’s not— I want them.” Rosaria outstretches her hands, and Sucrose passes her the (slightly jostled) bouquet. She looks down at the flowers, the hint of a smile pulling at her mouth.
“I’m really thankful, Rosaria,” Sucrose says, clasping her hands together in front of her and looking down at them. “I— I’m not as brave as the Knights, and knowing you thought of me… To be honest, I didn’t think you even remembered me.”
Rosaria freezes in place, and when Sucrose looks up to meet her gaze, it sends a shiver down her spine. “Why would you think that?”
Sucrose’s mouth feels dry. “Um, well… I suppose I just assumed you were only interested in monitoring Mister Albedo, and wouldn’t pay me much mind…”
Rosaria tears her eyes away, looking down at the bouquet of Cecilias again. “Well, you were mistaken.”
“Oh?” Sucrose bites at the inside of her cheek. “I’m— I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“I’m not offended.” Rosaria’s tongue darts out to wet her lips, and Sucrose looks away. “Listen, Sucrose. I monitored Albedo because of the danger he could possibly pose to Mondstadt. I’ve learned since then that the last thing he would want is to hurt this city. I’ve monitored you because—”
“You’ve monitored me?!” Sucrose’s embarrassment shines through her voice and the bright red tint to her cheeks. “I swear, I’m not that interesting!”
“Ha,” Rosaria smiles. “I’d say you’re wrong. Collecting bones in the night, sneaking them back to your lab and working through the night on Archons know what. Sounds dangerous, does it not?” She pauses, watching Sucrose’s face. Sucrose tries and fails to hide her shocked expression. “Rest assured, I know that you, just like your mentor, would never hurt this city.”
Sucrose blinks at her.
“Anyway, Sucrose, thank you for the Windblumes. They’re beautiful,” Rosaria says, then she turns on her heel and begins to leave.
“Wait!” Sucrose calls out, before she’s as much as thought it through. “Um. Do you want to… get a drink together?”
Rosaria tilts her head curiously. “A drink?”
“I just thought, since, um…” Sucrose trails off, not sure how to proceed.
Luckily, Rosaria doesn’t seem to need more convincing. “Sure, we can. Just wait here while I put the flowers in my room.”
Sucrose nods, finding a seat on a nearby bench. Her thoughts race as she waits—the revelation that Rosaria had monitored her lights a fire in her lower stomach. She doesn’t know exactly how she should feel about something like that, but somehow she feels honored to have been worth Rosaria’s time.
She also wonders what Rosaria may have seen, and is filled again with embarrassment. She isn’t exactly the most suave when fighting monsters: she flings her potions at them and hopes for the best. Honestly, Sucrose thinks, she isn’t the most suave at anything, really. Maybe that’s why Rosaria thought to send Dahlia to her in the first place.
Well, any of that doesn’t change the fact that Rosaria thought of her and cared for her wellbeing, she notes with an air of finality. She reaches up to touch the flower Rosaria had slid into her hair, feeling the softness of its petals.
Rosaria approaches again soon thereafter, beckoning Sucrose to join her and start on their way to Angel’s Share.
“I didn’t know you drank,” Rosaria comments, hand trailing down the stair railing.
Sucrose lets out a breath. “I don’t, really. I mean, every once in a while.”
“Seems I still have some things to learn about you,” Rosaria states with a bit of humor in her tone.
“And me, you,” Sucrose replies, allowing herself a glance over at the taller woman, who meets her gaze.
“You want to know about me, do you?” Rosaria asks, slowing her pace slightly when she notices that Sucrose has begun to fall behind.
“If that’s—if that’s okay with you.”
“Well, let’s start with what you do know.”
Sucrose swallows thickly. “You’re a nun of the Church of Favonius, though… it seems in name only.”
“Oh? You don’t believe me to be devout?”
Sucrose begins to scramble for words, but they shrivel on her tongue as Rosaria laughs.
“No, you’re correct,” she says, “Go on.”
“Um, you care a lot for Mondstadt, though, and would do a lot to keep it safe.”
“But no overtime,” Rosaria comments with a grin.
“I know that you like to spend time at Angel’s Share, but often go out at night on patrols. Sometimes I see you sitting on the rooftops during the day, scribbling in a little book…”
Rosaria hums, “It seems you’ve taken an interest in me as much as I have in you.”
Sucrose blushes.
“Ah, here we are,” Rosaria says as they approach Angel’s Share, holding the door open for Sucrose.
She steps inside—she’s been here before, but only once or twice when purchasing gifts for others. She tends to spend nights in her lab and then promptly in her bed, leaving little time for bars or drinks. Not that she’d have it any other way, but being out with Rosaria sounds a little more appealing than poring over her notes, for just tonight.
“Oh my,” a familiar voice greets as soon as she’s walked inside, Rosaria close behind her. “What do we have here?”
“Hello, Captain Kaeya,” Sucrose greets, lifting her hand in a small wave.
“I never see you here! Decided you’ve had enough of your work for tonight? And what’s this? A Windblume in your hair?”
“Leave her alone, Kaeya,” Rosaria says with no bite.
Kaeya feigns offense, pressing a hand to his chest. “What? What did I do?”
“You know very well that it’s not what you’ve done, but what you might say,” Rosaria chuckles.
“Whatever could she mean?” Kaeya asks, lightly elbowing Sucrose in the side.
“Let’s not stick around to find out,” Rosaria says, and Sucrose notices the cheerful, easy lilt to her voice. She’s just messing with him, and he knows it. Sucrose looks quickly between them before Rosaria takes gentle hold of her wrist, guiding her to a table nearby.
“I’ll grab us some drinks. Know what you want?”
“Something sweet?” Sucrose asks, and Rosaria nods before heading to the bar.
She returns with a glass of red wine and a colorful cocktail, sliding the cocktail across the table to Sucrose. Sucrose takes a drink through the straw, delightfully surprised that the taste of alcohol is mostly smothered by sweetness.
“Thank you,” she says, “It’s good!”
Rosaria twirls her wine around in the glass. “I’m glad,” she replies, then taking the glass to her lips and drinking slowly.
Sucrose pulls her eyes away, feeling her mouth dry again. She quickly takes another drink to quench the feeling.
“So, what would you like to know, then?” Rosaria inquires, setting the glass back down on the table but tracing the rim with one of her fingertips.
Curiosities that Sucrose has had about Rosaria swirl around in her mind. There are plenty of questions she could ask, but she would hate to ask too much and have Rosaria close off right in front of her.
So, she starts simple. “What do you write in your book? When you’re sitting on the rooftops?”
“Oh, that old thing? Just gossip, really. Things I hear down in the plaza. Every so often I’ll get a lead, but… It’s mostly just an old habit,” Rosaria answers, then says, “My turn.”
Sucrose wishes for a moment that she wasn’t so prone to blushing.
“What do you do with the bones?”
She blinks once, twice. “Um, I just… collect them. After I’ve learned what I can from their makeup, I tend to put them together, display them. If you want, you could see them sometime…?”
“Sure, sounds interesting,” Rosaria responds, and Sucrose feels her nerves melt away, little by little. So, Rosaria doesn’t think she’s a freak of nature, or if she does, she doesn’t mind it.
This—and perhaps the alcohol she’s drinking—allows her next question to be more daring: “How did you become a nun?”
Rosaria lets out an amused huff. “It’s strange, isn’t it? Well, Grandmaster Varka brought me to Mondstadt. He thought—wrongly—that I could find myself in the Church. It took some time, but I found my own way to exist here.”
“I admire you for that,” Sucrose says honestly, surprising herself a little that she’s said it aloud. Certainly, she hasn’t had that much alcohol yet? She hasn’t even finished her drink.
Rosaria grins a little, and suddenly it feels worth it. Then, Rosaria asks, “What scares you?”
Sucrose blanches, the question catching her off-guard. “Um, I guess, a lot of things. But mostly…” she trails off, tracing the wood grain of the table with her fingertip. “Abandonment.”
Rosaria looks at her with a level gaze. “Sorry, that was—”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Sucrose interrupts, sipping the rest of her drink down through the straw. “I’m sure you expected me to say ghosts or something.”
“Ha,” Rosaria breathes out, then finishes her drink.
“What do you think of me, really?” Sucrose asks, ducking her head down slightly.
“Hmm,” Rosaria hums, and says, “I think you’re incredibly passionate, perhaps to a fault. You have a lot of care in your heart, and it shows. But you think too little of yourself. You have accomplished some amazing things, and are yet to accomplish many more.” She pauses, but then continues, “I’m glad to get to know you better.”
“I’m glad to get to know you better, too!” Sucrose chokes out, unable to say much more. High praise from Rosaria feels she’s just had a breakthrough on a multiple day-and-night experiment.
“Want another drink?” Rosaria inquires, though Sucrose shakes her head.
“One is probably enough for me,” she says, “But I can stick around, if you want…?”
“I won’t make you sit in a bar with me,” Rosaria chuckles, standing from the table and grabbing both empty glasses, setting them on the bar. Nearby, Kaeya’s distracted by what looks to be bickering with Diluc, and although it seems friendly enough, he doesn’t notice as the women slip out of the bar.
The moon sits high in the sky as they walk out into the brisk night air. Despite having already spent much of her time tonight with Rosaria, Sucrose finds herself scrambling for any reasons that they shouldn’t part just yet.
“You know,” Rosaria says, looking up at the sky, “I haven’t actually received a Windblume before. Let alone a whole bouquet of them.”
Sucrose just looks at her, at how the stars reflect in her eyes. “You’re beautiful,” she says. And she knows it’s not the alcohol talking, that it hasn’t been all night. Rosaria—whose usual icy demeanor had terrified Sucrose when they first talked—calms her to the point of simple honesty.
“Funny, I’ve been thinking that about you all night,” Rosaria responds, and Sucrose feels her heart soar out of her chest. “May I walk you home?”
She just nods, taking Rosaria’s hand when it’s offered. They take a leisurely pace, walking in peaceful quiet beneath the Windblume decorations, but even so, it still feels too soon when they arrive at Sucrose’s house.
“I don’t want this night to end,” Sucrose says, their hands still clasped together. “It feels like a dream.”
“How about this, then?” Rosaria lifts Sucrose’s hand to her lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. She lets Sucrose’s hand fall, then, and gently touches the Cecilia in Sucrose’s hair. “A promise to see you again tomorrow.”
Sucrose presses onto her tiptoes to press a kiss to Rosaria’s cheek. “It’s a promise.”