Give Me My Body Back [albven] [venbedo]

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟸

DragonSpine.

After climbing up the unruly snow covered path layered with a thin sheet of ice, both the Bard and the Alchemist managed to make it up to Albedo's strange workplace hidden in the Mountain side.

"Cute lab." Venti commented sarcastically, shuddering as a chilly breeze swooped by. He held his shoulders together, not quite used to the cold air up here in DragonSpine, but he managed to adapt to it quickly.

"It's not a lab. It's my workplace." Albedo said, his monotone voice holding some sense of annoyance in it, but Venti paid no mind to his tone, and instead started to almost immediately explore around the place, tinkering with different objects.

Albedo reached to grab his arm to stop him from messing up the place, but Venti retreated his hand back, dodging Albedo's attempt.

"Aw, I'm sorry, did you want to hold my hand?" He taunted, chuckling, holding out his hand once more for Albedo to take. Albedo shot him a distasteful look, turning around and heading towards a table, clattering around the objects on the flat wooden surface to the side.

"I don't have time to entertain you this very moment. There's work to do." Albedo sighed, beckoning for Venti to come to where he was. "And you're a part of it."

"Oh? Is that why you brought me out to DragonSpine? This is what you needed me for?" Venti queried, stepping closer to him and leaning over his shoulder. "To be your little lab rat?"

"In short terms, yes." Albedo revealed it to him bluntly, not even trying to hide it at this point now that they had already stepped into DragonSpine, and the exit was far from here. "but don't say it in such a way such as that. I prefer to say that you're more like my—.. helper."

He rearranged his work papers, stacking them up in a tall pile while trying to shrug Venti off of his shoulders. In return to that, Venti wrapped his arms around Albedo's waist, resting his head on Albedo's shoulder, deciding not to let go.

Seeing as Venti was going to cling onto him for a while, Albedo sighed, continuing on with his work without paying much attention to Venti, knowing that he was unable to cause any trouble if he was basically attached to him.

"Venti, was it?" Albedo nudged him, turning his head to take a look at Venti's face, and was met with a smile barely an inch away from his own mouth. He flinched, but got used to Venti's touchy manner almost immediately. "Can you grab the purple bottle over there and add in just a slight drop of whopper flower nectar?"

Venti crooked his head around to look at the shelf behind them. Letting go of Albedo's slim waist, he wandered over to it, examining each bottle.

"Erm, which one?" Venti questioned, wavering his hand around each potion bottle, looking for the right one.

"The purple one." Albedo repeated, not bothering to turn around to see what the problem was.

"I know. Which one?" Venti asked again, feeling a bit annoyed now but he tried to make sure his attitude didn't slip out.

He stared at three purple bottles, each a slightly different color shade then the other.

"The one you think is purple—, unless that is, you're colorblind." Albedo sighed, frustrated with what he thought was Venti being a goofball, scribbling down a reminder in his notebook.

𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑆𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛．

Venti huffed, grabbing the one he thought looked the most 'purple' out of the three. He looked over to the side, seeing the whopper flower nectar. Setting the purple bottle down on another table near the shelf, he popped the lid off of the nectar container.