Mortal Chains (Albedo x Aether)

Ch. 9 Anger

(Aether POV)

Fuzzy.

Everything felt fuzzy at first. My head had a dull ache and dizziness I couldn't seem to get rid of. Even through closed eyes, I could see the light penetrating through the crack in my curtains.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. Narrowing them to let them slowly adjust to the morning light. The bedsheets felt warm and comfortable, I didn't want to get up but I had work to do. I made my way to the bedroom door after throwing on a pair of clean clothes. Then I walked down the hall, and heard quite sizzling coming from the kitchen. Albedo must be cooking something.

He was. As I turned the corner to walk into the kitchen, Albedo stood in front of the stove. Two pans laid out in front of him, one was filled with bacon, the other with eggs.

"'Mornin," I mumbled sleepily. Albedo turned to give me a small wave. We both weren't too talkative in the morning.

I moved to sit at the counter, then leaned against it, my head leaning on my arms. "Can't stay long. Gotta do commissions." I warned Albedo, not yet comfortable with him staying at my house if I wasn't there. Albedo turned from the half-cooked eggs to look at me with a worried expression.

"You sure?"

I nodded.

Albedo let out a small sigh and continued to cook eggs and bacon. The drool-worthy smell of bacon was making me hungry.

Soon enough, Albedo turned off the stove and gathered plates. He poured the scrambled eggs onto one first, then the bacon onto another. Just as he set the two plates down on the counter I reached in for a piece of bacon.

It was hot.

"Ow-," I let the bacon fall back onto the plate and Albedo gave me an amused look before he grabbed two smaller plates. He placed the plates down, one in front of me and the other in front of him. Then he began to scoop eggs onto his plate and I did the same but with bacon.

"Y'know-" I began, carelessly talking with food in my mouth. "-a lot of the commissions lately have been pretty easy." I pointed out, Albedo's only response was a curious mumble.

"Too bad they don't pay much for easy commissions." I shook my head, then shoveled eggs quickly into my mouth.

"You should get paid more either way. It's getting a bit sickening how much the people of Mondstadt use you." Albedo pointed out, his fork full of eggs which he hadn't eaten yet.

I thought for a moment. It wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't completely true either.

"I enjoy helping though." We had already had a similar argument a few days before. This time though, it seemed a bit more civilized. Albedo didn't respond, instead he began to eat the small amount of food on his plate.

We both finished rather quickly, and I placed the dishes in the sink. I didn't feel like cleaning them right away.

"So," I turned towards Albedo. "I gotta get going."

Albedo gave me a small nod and stood away from the counter. "I should check up on Sucrose." He explained as he walked towards the door, giving me an enthusiastic wave before he left. Just hearing her name gave me a small pang of jealousy. It's not like I could help it.

- - - - - -

I was off doing commissions. Two completed so far, I was on my way to the third commission when I was met with quiet snickering. I turned quickly, sword in hand. Floating a few feet above the ground was a hydro abyss mage. I didn't do well against them, the only elements I could use at the moment did almost nothing to their shields.

I used my sword to deflect a spray of hydro magic and set off a swirl of anemo. It just barely damaged the mage's shield, I could only see a slight difference from before. With a grumble, I backed up, and began to run.

Since when did I run? Well, the last time I was stuck with an abyss mage alone it didn't turn out so well.

Unfortunately, running didn't seem to help much. I kept hearing the abyss mage grumble and laugh as it kept up with me. Finally, I decided to face it again. This time I used more energy and set off a swirling tornado. The shield faltered for a moment but kept up before I could strike.

"Come on!" I grumbled as I hit the shield, but it didn't make a difference.

I saw the abyss mage ready itself to attack, so again I held out my sword to deflect. This time though, I felt myself raise off the ground. I couldn't breathe, I was in a bubble. Hydro abyss mage bubbles felt like you were suffocating. The harder you tried to pop the bubbles, the more you couldn't breathe. Moving around meant using up oxygen you couldn't afford to waste.

I calmly waited, glaring at the dancing abyss mage through the shimmering bubble. Then, I angled my sword slowly towards the bubble, and stabbed. The bubble held up for a moment before popping and releasing me. I gasped for air before sending another swirl of anemo towards the abyss mage.

Slowly but surely, the abyss mage's shield was deteriorating. With one more elemental burst, it was gone, and the abyss mage fell to the ground with a quiet thud. I stabbed it through the head, and it disappeared in a mess of materials I didn't need.

I pressed my hand gingerly against my side, I must've bruised or maybe cracked a rib. It hurt, but I had a commission to do. Money to make. Suddenly I got a call. The small device was similar to Earth phones but not quite the same.

"Yeah?" I picked up.

"Commission is off, I'll just get some meat myself. Honestly it's not that hard."

Beep.

I looked down at the device with a sigh. That happened pretty often, I would get caught up in a fight and someone would call off a commission because I wasted time.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to face an enemy. Instead, I saw Albedo and Sucrose walking together, focused on a conversation that seemed to extremely interest the both of them.

Albedo spotted me and began walking over. His expressioned turned from excitement to worry when he saw the bruise forming on my side. Which was revealed by the croptop I always wore.

"Aether? You alright?" He reached into his bag to pull out what I assumed was food. In this world, food seemed to allow their bodies to heal much quicker than normal. It was cool, but didn't work on me since I wasn't from this world.

"Yeah, I'm good. Remember that stuff doesn't work on me." I reminded him and he stopped rummaging around in his bag. Instead, his worried gaze focused on me. Sucrose also looked a bit worried, but her and I weren't very close.

"I was just headed to do a commission. Too bad it got called off. Took too long I guess." I shoved the communication device into my pocket and turned my full attention on the other two.

"Ah.. Me and Sucrose were just going for a small walk to discuss elemental reactions." Albedo gave his reasoning for being out as well. I gave them a small nod and awkwardly looked past them and towards Mondstadt's city.

"I suppose I should get going. I still have work to do."

Albedo gave me a nod, reminded me to be careful, and was gone again, walking down the grassy path with Sucrose beside him. My eyes watched her, I felt jealousy build up in the pit of my stomach before I turned as well and began walking back towards Mondstadt's city.

(Author's note: I have an idea for an ending but no idea what to do in between. Give me some ideas please, and maybe, just maybe updates will come out sooner ;))