Albedo lifts his head from his desk when he hears a knock at his door. He rubs the tiredness out of his eyes and asks, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Mr. Albedo! I've come to ask you a question about some of my research concerning the tetratonic sweet flower—" In her excitement, she began to twist the doorknob

Albedo blinks twice and finally realizes what was happening. He stands up and tries to rush to the door. "Wait, Sucrose! Could you give me—"

By the time he had made it to the door, it was already too late. "—A minute…" he finished, feeling a bit defeated.

Sucrose, having her nose buried in her notes, nearly rams into him. She yelps, "Sorry sir, I didn't expect you to be there!" She looks up from her notes towards Albedo to apologize again, but Albedo can see her eyes shift to the mess behind him.

She glances around at Albedo's office, whose floor was covered in unfinished paintings and sketches. Although Albedo wasn't usually the messy type, the most concerning thing about the sketches was that they were either one of three subjects: Dvalin, Dragonspine… and Aether. A few moments of awkward silence go by before she finally asks, "S-Sir, did you make these all in one night?"

Albedo sighs, "Not exactly… some of these are from the expedition I had with Aether a few days ago."

"Did things go… badly?" She turned to him with a concerned expression.

"No, not at all," he grips a bit of his lab coat, "I'd even say it went the opposite of poorly."

Sucrose places a finger to her chin to think, "Then… are you on the verge of a new discovery?" Her eyes start sparkling with curiosity.

"Uh, y-yes, I guess you could say that," he stammers.

Sucrose quickly rearranges her notes and heads to the door. "Then don't let me bother you!" She clicks the door shut as she leaves.

Once Albedo can no longer hear the click of Sucrose's boots, he takes out the piece of paper that he had hidden in his lab coat. When he unfolds the piece of paper, a purple sword is scrawled onto it. It was the same sword, named Festering Desire, that he had given to Aether just days before to research.

He soon returns it to his lab coat pocket and begins to pace around the room to think.

Ever since he had heard of the famed traveler from another world, he was more than curious about finding out what exactly Aether was. Although the experiments concluded that Aether was most likely just like the humans from Teyvat, there was one thing that Albedo knew for certain.

And that was that Aether was definitely powerful enough to wield the sword Albedo had gifted him… powerful enough to defeat Albedo should he ever go berserk.

Albedo wasn't exactly the most truthful throughout the experiments (he wasn't truthful at all, who was he kidding). The sword that the two of them had spent their days on Dragonspine researching, Festering Desire, was indeed made from parts of Durin, the black dragon who was said to have rampaged across Teyvat until Dvalin defeated him. However, Albedo did fib a bit— or all of—the story as to how he found it.

He takes off his left glove to look down at his hand. When he originally went to go and sort through the items the Knights of Favonius had confiscated from a group of Treasure Hoarders, he felt a calling to an item in the corner of the room. His hand begins to slightly shake as he vividly remembers touching the sword and seeing cracks form in his arm, like he was a piece of stonework about to collapse in on itself. Luckily, when he retracted his hand from the heart, the cracks seemed to disappear, but the memory of it still made him queasy.

Naturally, he was curious to see what would elicit such a response… so he wrapped cloth around the sword and took it to Dragonspine to research, but if it wasn't for Aether's purifying abilities, Albedo wouldn't have even been able to extract any information from it.

He still couldn't help but wonder if the information he gathered was even worth the effort they had put in. All it did was leave him with more questions and make him discover that there was no other explanation for his unnatural response other than that he was somehow related to Durin… a powerful dragon that once terrorized Teyvat.

But more importantly… how many lies was he at now?

He counts down on his hand. One, I'm not what you think I am. Two, I'm not sure what you are. Three, I'm related to some odd dragon. Four, the sword was only dangerous for me to hold. Five—

Albedo stops his pacing and sighs out loud. There was no point in ruminating about what had happened at Dragonspine. He spends a few minutes rearranging the drawings that were scattered about his office and organize them neatly into a few folders.

One thing still bothered him though, something that he never thought would ever happen to him… but he can't bring himself to work on anything.

Ever since Aether and he had come from Dragonspine, he hasn't been able to do anything besides draw. He wasn't sure what exactly was bothering him about his pieces, but none of them felt… complete. All of them seemed to have something missing, so when he couldn't place his finger on it, he'd move on to the next one.

Who knew he'd end up filling an entire folder with incomplete drawings.

Once he finishes organizing his desk, Albedo grabs his sketchbook and pencils. This entire ordeal was getting ridiculous and he was going to complete a drawing if it was the last thing he did. He knew a completed drawing wouldn't completely bring his mind some peace from the situation, but at least he wouldn't feel compelled to try and "perfect" a drawing of Aether and the sword.

"Hm… now would I find Aether?" He wonders aloud.

"BENNETT, FOR THE LOVE OF THE ARCHONS ABOVE US—" Aether screeches from outside. When Albedo glances outside of his office's window, he can see Aether and his team on the training grounds below him.

"Ah, there they are."

…

Albedo finds a comfortable spot on the stairs overlooking the training grounds. He didn't care if he was spotted since he knew Aether didn't mind being drawn, but he always preferred natural-looking muses.

He glances down below to see Aether swinging away at a training dummy. Albedo would never admit it out loud, but he sincerely enjoyed watching Aether fight. He always knew that Aether was a renowned swordsman, yet it wasn't until Aether helped him research the sword's capabilities in Dragonspine that he started to become very fond of the way Aether fought. For what Aether lacked in firepowerhe made up for in speed and precision. Aether was also extremely light on his feet. One moment he'd be on one side of the battlefield and the next he could be behind you.

How admirable, Albedo thinks to himself. A small smile inches across Albedo's face as he picks up his pencil to scribble away in his sketchbook.

It doesn't take him too long to finish Aether's body, who he opted to draw mid-strike. Even though he was content with how the body was looking, he couldn't quite place why like so many of his other drawings he was just not satisfied with how Aether's face was coming along. The colors on Aether's outfit were just fine, so how were Aether's face and hair any different?

A loud crash resonates from the training grounds."Wah! Not again!" Bennett suddenly shouts. Albedo's pencil stops and he gazes over the staircase's stone handrail to see what the commotion was about.

Aether has his head in his hands as Razor, Bennett, and Barbara look down at a burnt training dummy in the center of them. The dummy was still steaming from the water that Barbara probably just hastily dumped onto it. Aether then looks up at Bennett, who's refusing to look anyone in the eye. "That's… that's the second one today Bennett," he says, completely baffled.

"..."

"You didn't even use your elemental skill."

"..."

"How?"

Bennett just rubs the back of his neck and shrugs. His eyes wander off toward the stairs, where his eyes lock onto where Albedo is sitting. "H-Hey, Albedo! What's up?" He happily waves over to the alchemist.

Albedo quickly shuts his sketchbook with one hand and calmly stands up. "I was just in the middle of drawing something," he smiles, "it's nice to see you all again."

Aether cooly turns around and places his arm on the training dummy next to him. Seemingly forgetting the entire situation that just transpired, he smirks, "What were you drawing?"

"...The sky," Albedo coldly replies, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sure it looks great."

"Nothing that you haven't seen before," Albedo leans slightly on the stone handrail in front of him, "I'm sure you're very well acquainted with my sketchbook."

Aether drops his arm from the training dummy. The red blush spreading across his face immediately shatters his 'cool guy' persona. "Paimon and I just took a little glance," he awkwardly laughs.

Albedo lets out a quiet laugh. He's about to open his mouth to say something else when he hears a scream from behind him. He whips his head around just in time for him to see a brunette girl fall into him, sending him flying over the edge of the stone handrail.

He tumbles forward, trying to steady himself in midair to use his gliders, he concludes that it's just not happening. He knows it isn't that far of a drop, but he shuts his eyes and braces for impact anyway.

The impact doesn't come though as Albedo feels himself land in someone else's arms. When he opens his eyes, he sees Aether looking down at him, completely out of breath.

Aether sighs in relief, "Thank the archons I actually got you, haha."

Now that he was up close, Albedo could finally get a better look at Aether's face. It was interesting to see how his bright hair reflected the sun's rays. His golden eyes were brighter than Albedo had originally thought, perhaps—

"Hey, Albedo, are you okay?"

Albedo snaps back into reality and nods his head. "Yes, you can set me down now… thank you," he says, progressively getting quieter.

Aether gently sets him down before turning his attention to the terrified girl looking over the ledge. He shouts up to her, "Are you okay?"

"S-Sorry, I tripped. Are you okay, Albedo?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine," he says, shyly looking to the side.

After making sure Albedo was completely okay, the girl runs off and Razor retrieves Albedo's sketchbook that had flown into some nearby bushes. Albedo wipes off some of the leaves that had gotten in-between the pages, but when he happens to flip to the page with his drawing of Aether, he suddenly feels his heart leap.

It completely takes him off guard at first. Being who he was, a homunculus, his heart rarely, if ever beat… so why was it beating now?

"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" Aether quietly asks him.

"Of course," he reassures him once more. "I'll be taking my leave now—" he turns to Razor, Bennett, and Barbara "—it was nice seeing you all again."

When he turns to walk off, he touches a shaky hand to the left of his chest. What an odd sensation.