𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝓈𝑒 - an alberose fanfiction (albedo x sucrose)

𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝓌𝑜

art by @wolphfe on twitter !

exactly two days have now passed, since the last time albedo has seen sucrose and the conversation he had with bennett. this strange feeling in the back of his mind, that something is off, still lingers. something is still, so obviously bothering him.
sucrose is rarely away for that long. albedo assumes that it is something more serious, than he initially thought. he knows that barbara and lisa have been taking good care of sucrose, yet he still decides he wants to go over to her house later. he will check up on his assistant, make sure she's alright. that's what good mentors do, right?
albedo turns away from his desk and walks over to the big bookshelf, proceeding to put away two of the books he had used for his research today. that is when a strange looking, blue book catches his eye. albedo, who knows about every book there is by heart, could swear that he had never seen this one before, atleast not in their laboratory. he carefully takes it out, suprised that it isn't dusty.
"did sucrose deep clean this place again? oh celestia, she has to ask me for help next time." albedo inspects the cover of the blue book a little closer. it says "history of the sweet flower. volume one - everything there is to know." on it. he decides to sit back down and opens the book.
"this is seemingly a book where everything that is known so far about the sweet flower has been documented. very interesting indeed." the alchemist thinks to himself. as her further flips through the piece of literatur, he comes across a few pages that were ripped out.
"how strange..." he says quietly, while he strokes the leftover paper that sticks out from the spine. "who would rip something out of one of our books?" as albedo closes the it, a few papers fall right onto his lap. the missing pages, maybe? as he takes a closer look at them, he notices that the words on it were written by hand.
the paper looks quite old, while the handwriting seems oddly familliar. it is small, round and very neat. for now though, albedo decides to put the book back where it belongs and not get further involved in some research that is obviously not his.
a few hours pass and it is now afternoon. he decides to go outside for some fresh air and visit sucrose while he's at it. albedo walks over to the cuppboard and takes out a small mason jar. the small, handwritten label says "sweet flower candy". sucrose made them for him a couple weeks ago, when that awful rain had just started and he was feeling a bit under the weather.
albedo decided to put a few of them into a small bag and bring them along with him, just so he wouldn't visit sucrose empty handed. he takes out a little paper bag and proceeds to fill some of the sweet candy into it. while closing the jar back up, he notices something. sucrose's handwriting on the label.
it was very neat, just like everything about her and small... just like the writing he had seen in the book. albedo quickly takes the book back out from the shelf and compares the handwriting. indeed, he was right. It was sucrose, who had written these detailed and intricate research notes. the writing was only slightly different, the one on the book being only the tiniest bit messier... if you could even call it that.
"i knew it." albedo says, with a proud smile on his face. "who, if not sucrose, would be able to research a sweet flower with so much passion? she's true alchemist material indeed." with that thought, he wraps up his gift, after tucking sucrose's things away neatly and makes his way to her house, which is located right at the entrance of mondstadt.
as he walks through the city of winds, he subconsciously keeps an eye out for bennett. on the inside, albedo is dying to know if bennett already found the right time to tell fischl about what he really feels.
not long after leaving the lab, albedo arrives at sucrose's house. a weird, tingly feeling fills his chest, almost paralisng the poor boy, making him unable to knock. albedo brushes this off though, blaming it on the worry about her illness.
a few seconds pass, until albedo is ready. he takes a deep breath and knocks. after waiting a good amount of time, with nobody answering the door, he decides to knock again.
"sucrose, are you there? it's me, albedo." a few moments later the door swings open. to his surprise, it is not sucrose who is standing infront of him, it's mona.
"albedo? it's good to finally see you again. what are you doing here at this fine hour, if i may ask?" mona looks at him with an intense gaze, almost like she's sort  of angry at him or shocked to see him and he doesn't know why.
"hello, mona. sucrose has been missing from the laboratory and i've come here to make sure that my assistant is alright." that is when sucrose appears behind mona.
"oh! mr. albedo. if you could excuse me, m- mona." she gently pushes past mona, now standing in front of her. "please, mr. albedo, why don't you come in?" the three of them make their way into sucrose's small dining room. there, at the table, albedo sees lumine and three cups of tea.
"mr. albedo, would you l- like me t- too make you cup of fresh, herbal tea as well?" sucrose asks, her ears twitching in exitement.
"no thank you, sucrose." albedo smiles softly, shaking his head. he then looks over at lumine, waving at her. "hello, lumine. i haven't seen you in a long time as well, haven't i?" he asks.
"that's true! i just came back from inazuma, i've heard that sucrose is sick and i wanted to make sure that she's back to her full health again, before i head back" she says, smiling brightly at sucrose.
"how nice of you." albedo says, feeling warmth inside his chest. "well, now to my most important question and reason for my visit." he turns to his lab partner. "how are you feeling today, sucrose?"
"oh, much better, mr. albedo! i've been planning to return to the lab tomorrow. i can't wait t- to continue with m- my research!" sucrose blushes lightly and turns to her side, now looking at her other friends. lumine smiles and breaks the silence once again.
"sucrose has been dying to come back to the lab, we were the ones telling her to at least stay at home for another day, since her cough was still too sevear yesterday. luckily, barbara's healing and lisa's potions worked wonderfully on her." she says. mona nods. "i can only agree with the traveler."
"besides, albedo..." mona takes a few steps towards him. "i was meaning to talk to you about a certain matter. an important matter, if i do says so..." albedo stares at mona, before putting his hands to his temples.
"that is right, mona. i apologise. sucrose had told me a few days ago. i was so busy with my work, plus i was alone in the lab, so i completely forgot you were meaning to talk to me so urgently." he replies.
"oh, no worries. no worries at all." mona smiles and let's out a nervous giggle. "see, albedo? what would you do without your loyal assistant?" lumine says in a joking manner. "right, right. i agree with the traveler." mona quickly adds.
sucrose blushes at their words. "i- uhm- i suppose..." she mutters, being completely turned away from her teacher now, her face blushing continuesly. albedo walks a few steps towards her, putting his hand to her chin and turning her around to face him.
"but they are completely right, sucrose." he moves his hand to her sholder, touches her there, as he usually does, when he is about to praise her. "you're an incredible assistant, probably the best i've ever had. you're a great friend as well and- and i don't know what i would do without your assistance." sucrose is visibly shoked. her face is bright red and her eyes are as wide as the moon.

two beautiful amber colored moons, adorn her pretty face.

albedo's glance falls upon mona and lumine, who are visibly shaken up themselves, since they would've never expected the cold kreideprinz to ever show so much affection towards anyone.
"uh~ albedo~ what's that all about?" lumine asks him, with a smug expression on her face. (her literally being all of us rn hahaha)
"wha- what do you mean? traveler?" albedo turns as white as literal chalk in a matter of seconds. sucrose on the other hand, is still unable to move and as red as an apple.
"UGH! ENOUGH ALREADY!" mona yells annoyedly and stomps towards albedo, pulling him on his sleeve, into another room, leaving sucrose and lumine alone.

meanwhile, albedo's conversation with mona.

"so, chief alchemist, i need to ask you something." mona says, grinning. albedo just nods, unable to speak now as well. "you don't need to say anything. at least right now. just listen to me." the astrologist says in a strict tone.
"for as long as i have known you, albedo, i've always had trouble looking into your future. that was until about a month ago. i started seeing glimpses into your future, like i have never before with you. and-"albedo cuts her off, he looks scared now.
"tell me, wha- what d- did you see?" his voice is shaking. when it comes to his future, he only expects the worst. he is most afraid of maybe not being able to control himself and possibly destroying mondstadt, destroying everything and hurting everyone he cares about one day. it's his worst nightmare and he would do anything for it not to come true. his mind going corrupt, is something that will never stop haunting him... until the end.
"would you relax now?" mona snaps at him. "so, it correlates with what i've read in your diary and- uhm-" mona quickly realises that she has said something she shouldn't have. she takes a few steps back, nervously, since albedo is now walking towards her.
"you did what? when?" he says, face even redder than sucrose's. either with anger, embarrassment or possibly even both.
"nothing." mona replies quickly, still in shock. albedo looks at her, arms propped up on both his hips.
"you just said, you read my diary." his gaze intesifies on hers.
"well, not all of it be exact... and i didn't mean to!" the little witch says in order to defend herself, but the damage has already been done.
"ah, i see. i sometimes chatch myself reading peoples private diaries on accident. happens all the time." albedo is usually never sarcastic, but in this moment, he even makes himself laugh a bit.
"listen albedo. i was looking for you the other day, you weren't in your lab, so i went to your appartment. well, since the door was unlocked, i let myself in. there was this book on your tabel and i, very tired at that point, thought it was the book i had lend you and that i came to pick back up. well, uhm, it obviously wasn't, but when i realised that... it was already too late and i was back at my place."
"so you're telling me, you took my diary with you and read it." mona is hiding her face inside the palms of her hands now and albedo is massaging his temples once again.
"you could says so. not all of it... like i said, i promise you that." she tries to ensure him. albedo is now completely frozen in place, not wanting to look at mona anymore. he's not even interessted in what she has to say about his future.
his diary, especially in the past two years, has been one of the only outlets for his most secret emotions. there he wrote everything he felt, even if he himself was unsure about what was going on inside of him. he wrote things in there that he wasn't even fully able to admit to himself and now mona knew everything. the thought of her knowing so much about his inner workings now, made him very uncomfortable. but what could he do now? the damage has already been done.
since he now knows what mona is most likely hinting at regarding his future, he would prefer to continue on with this conversation in another place, at another time. not here, in sucrose's house, with her and lumine next door. not yet, he's not ready for what he knows is about to come. he expresses that to her and decides to leave for now, they even settle on another time to meet and discuss this matter further. albedo also wants his diary back. how did he not notice it was missing?!
"here." He reaches into the pocket of his coat and hands mona the bag with the sweet flower candy. "these were ment for sucrose. give them to her, you three can share them. i will be taking my leave now. see you around." he heads out the door with these words and leaves an embarrassed mona behind, with a bag of candy in her hands.