Time and Being || Albedo

13 - Lasting

school can kiss my ass, don't need a degree to die.

--

Albedo pulled in a sharp breath, jolting awake as he realized the vacant spot of his arms where you had been. His eyes shot open, instantly looking around for you. Though instead of the relieving sight of seeing you up and walking, he catches the sight of a tan-skinned knight.

"Rise and shine, Master Albedo," he hums.

The alchemist opens his mouth in question but Kaeya is first to speak, "If you're wondering where your princess is, take another look."

Albedo turns his eyes away from Kaeya to notice you asleep, laying atop a long mat with your head propped up by Kaeya's faux fur jacket and covered by a blanket.

Kaeya speaks up once again, "It's funny, I'm fairly sure I had referenced Beauty and the Beast," he muses, "but this situation is very much like Sleeping Beauty. I'm afraid your story is going all sorts of wrong, Albedo. Have you done your research?"

The alchemist looked at himself and noticed a bandage neatly fashioned on his wrist and a gauze fixed onto his head, "Why are you up here?"

"Ignoring me? Huh," Kaeya leans back onto the table and turns his head down to look at you. He responds to Albedo with a solemn tone, "I had forgotten to give Y/n's vision back after our little escapade at the hilichurl camp the other day. So, naturally, I had been looking for her. It just so happened I ran into Timaeus and Y/n's father when they returned to Mondstadt, they said she was here with you."

Kaeya's blue eye flicked up to the alchemist's, "Unfortunately, it seems I was a second too late. How unlike me." The knight lends a hand to the blonde and helps him up, "Care to elaborate on what happened here?"

Albedo purses his lips, "I couldn't protect her..."

"That much is obvious," Kaeya says, ignoring the blonde's brooding, "Who did this?"

Albedo rolls his eyes, huffing as he looks at the ground, "It seems, only Barbatos knows why, that the fatui are looking for me. I was going to let them take me but Y/n intervened," a bitter feeling towards himself makes him knit his eyebrows together, "I told her to run."

A laugh comes from the blue-haired knight, "Well there's your first mistake," Kaeya sings, "Y/n isn't the type of person to run away. You have a better chance of her jumping off a cliff than telling her to run and leave someone alone. She's stubborn in that way, I find it quite charming."

Albedo only stares quietly as Kaeya talks, the knight gestures toward your body, "I patched you two up by the way, but it seems Y/n isn't injured all. If it's like you said, if you went up against fatui agents, I would assume she was knocked out, but there's no trauma present on her head."

"She wasn't knocked out," Albedo states.

Kaeya's lifts his hand to his chin, "Oh?" he taps a finger on his cheek, "That would make sense, suggesting you're still here. Then what was it? Asphyxiation? Or perhaps you put her out cold~"

"Neither," Albedo responds, walking over to your side and leaning beside you. His hand clutches the delusion strapped to your belt before tugging it off and handing it to Kaeya, "My job is to watch over her to see if her delusion is safe enough to have in her possession, is it not?"

Kaeya pauses, "I suppose that was the initial reason. Why? Did something happen?"

"She wieled a sword that caused her delusion to overload. I had suspected before that it would have done this, but not to this extent. The use of the delusion strained her energy." Albedo presses the red glass ball into Kaeya's hand, "It's just a speculation but it's the best I have. Given that, I don't want this in her possession for quite some time, if you allow. I find it's more of a danger to herself than to others."