Through Thick and Thin- Diluc x (female) Reader

Chapter 9: Mist Flower Experiment 001

The next morning, I managed to wake up at a good time on my own. Brushing my hair, my ears perked when I looked out my window to see decorations for the festival.
Overnight, flower garlands stretched over the streets and dandelion seeds filled the air. I felt my eyes light up with wonder when I saw the view, and I quickly rushed out of my door to get down to the lab.
Halfway as down the hall, I stopped when I remembered the pies. I went back to grab some for Albedo and Sucrose, but then stopped when I remembered that Kaeya wanted to give Albedo the pie himself. It would look suspicious to give Sucrose the pie in front of Albedo, so I turned around again and headed for the lab.
I walked down the stairs to see Kaeya conversing with Jean. As I approached, Jean walked into her office, giving Kaeya and I a little wave as she went.
"Ah, you're up," Kaeya said, crossing his arms. "I thought I was going to have to get you myself again."
I laughed. "I'm surprised I woke up too. Maybe it's the festive atmosphere."
"Maybe," he said. "Venti is doing a poetry class."
"Oh?" I said, tilting my head. "Are you going to take it?"
"Actually, I might." He chuckled. "Maybe I'll write one for him."
"That's a good idea, you know." I said, putting a finger to my chin. "I would, but I couldn't share art with anyone even if I wanted to, I get embarrassed about it. The only exception was the mist flower I had to sketch for Albedo."
"Well, it is starting soon so I'm going to head that way," Kaeya said, turning to walk away. "How about we gift the pies at noon?"
I nodded. "Okay, sounds good!"
I tried to sound calm, but inside my heart was racing. Just thinking about gifting something I worked so hard on to Diluc made my heart flutter.
As Kaeya walked out the door, I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Ah!" I shrieked, flinching. "Sucrose! You scared me! Again!"
She gave me a look of concern, holding out a cup of hot coffee for me. "I'm not that scary, am I?" She pushed her glasses up, her ears slightly twitching in surprise at me being so startled.
My ears slowly relaxed as I took the cup of coffee. "It's not that you're scary, I'm sorry," I took a sip and began to walk to the lab door. "You just sneak up on me."
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, opening the door for me. "Should... should I stomp next time?"
"You don't have to do that!" I laughed. "Good morning Albe- whaaaaat is going on?"
I nearly dropped my coffee as I stared at the large table in the center of the room. There was a pot that contained a mist flower, although it was larger than the one we had contained here.
There were vines growing out from underneath the pot, gripping at the table.
I shivered at the immediate drop in temperature. "Is that— a... achoo!" I sneezed. "Is that the same one from before?" I pointed to the flower, my breath visible from my mouth because of the cold air.
He seemed preoccupied for a moment. "Mist flower Experiment Number 001..." he said under his breath as he scribbled in his notebook. "Yup," He answered me. For once, he was out of his chair, recording notes on the specimen.
"The roots broke through the pot?" Sucrose said meekly, going to grab some paper to record notes as well.
"I... was it like this yesterday?" I said, utterly astounded.
"Nope," Albedo said simply, scratching down more notes. "Well, we had planted it yesterday. It was growing too big for the jar. The roots didn't do that, though."
"So..." I said, holding the cup of coffee tightly, enjoying the warmth it gave my hands. "What do we do with it? Should we dispose of it? Is it really a good idea to keep it here?"
"One question at a time, y/n." Sucrose gently reminded me.
"We should keep it here for now." Albedo said, turning a page. "I believe that if this escalates we have the resources to take care of it."
"I mean... shouldn't we at least move it somewhere? What about the roots?"
"Hm. You bring up a good point," Albedo shut his notebook. "We will have to see."
"Does Jean or anyone else know?" I said, still frozen in shock. "I mean, someone has to."
"Yes, Jean knows. Worst case, I'll call Klee to blow it up." He said calmly.
Bombs? In the lab?
I sighed. "Okay... so what now?"
"You've seen sucrose use the slides, yes?" I nodded, seeing where this was going. "Slice a petal and watch it under the slides. If I'm right, it should regenerate much faster than the other day."
I recalled how the petal was growing ice, although not as quickly as the corolla did. "Sure."
I got the slides ready and placed the petal under the alchemical instrument. Putting my eye to the microscope, I felt my ears immediately raise in slight alarm.
"Yeah, it's going alright," I said. "Faster than the corolla did, even.
I watched as the ice began to cloud the slide, and I was quickly unable to see more. "That was fast. I can't see it anymore, I think it fogged the slide or something."
I went to switch the slide out, but flinched when I touched it. "Ow, that's really cold,"
Shaking my hand, I gasped in surprise when ice crystals flew off of it. "What happened?" Sucrose said as she rushed over.
I rubbed my fingers together, and small flecks of ice fell off. "What's going on?" Albedo walked over.
"I-I only touched it for a second," I rubbed my hands together, trying to warm my fingers up. "My fingers were covered in a layer of ice."
"Are you alright?" Albedo asked, turning to grab my coffee. "Hold this, it's warm."
"Yeah I'm okay. My finger is bleeding a little, though." I looked them over. "It seems that the ice crystals broke the skin. That's going to leave a blister for sure."
"Is the ice completely off?" I nodded, and turned to Sucrose to see that she was grabbing bandages.
"Here, let me see your hand." She said quietly. She wrapped the thin bandage around each of my fingers, covering the blister while still allowing for movement. "That is definitely not what I expected..."
"No kidding." I flexed my fingers, which now felt slightly numb.
"This is of higher scale than I expected..." Albedo said, eyeing the slide that was now completely ice. "We are going to need to keep an open flame handy. I'm concerned this might get out of hand if we don't."
I nodded, gripping the coffee. I drank some, but it was slightly less warm due to the air. "At least I have some good coffee." I laughed.