Finding The Real You - Kaebedo

Chapter XX - Switched Places

"Yes..... He.. Okay?"

"Mhm, we'll contact you once something happens, Sir Kaeya. You should get some rest now, it's unhealthy to be awake for so long."

"Please, just Kaeya is fine. You should also get some rest, don't forget that you've also been awake for a while. Sorry for including you in all of our business, we really didn't intend for you to heal us at all, Barbara."

"It's okay, if I can heal people I might as well put my abilities to use."

Albedo opened his eyes, everything was foggy and blurry. He blinked a couple of times, squinting once he could see again.

He tried to sit up, but was immediately launched into a coughing fit instead, causing him to fall down and making it even harder for him to breathe.

The noise sent Kaeya into a state of worry, immediately rushing through the door to Albedo's side. Barbara quickly followed after, making sure Kaeya didn't knock anything over

"Are you okay? Is there anything you need? Are you hungry? Do you want a glass of water? Are you cold?"

Kaeya softly touched Albedo's hand, slowly taking it in his own after. He was so engrossed in Albedo's wellbeing that he forgot to give him time to talk.

"Kaeya, I'm fine."

Albedo made eye contact with Kaeya while speaking, trying to figure out if his point would get across. There was still concern embedded into his expression, so Albedo didn't think he'd listen, but it was worth a try.

"Are you sure? You passed out in the snow and we had to wait a...regretful amount of time before we could get you medical help."

Kaeya looked down in shame, wondering if Albedo would forgive him for this.

"Kaeya, you know that I'm more immune to these types of things, I should be okay-"

Albedo's eyes flickered cautiously towards Barbara, who stared back with worry, before he was sent into another coughing fit. It was like the gods disagreed with his statement or something..

Kaeya registered the sentence, but the coughing fit made him unregister it and squeeze his hands tighter.

"Barbara, could you grab a glass of water for him? Thanks."

Kaeya looked towards Barbara while speaking, but only for a moment. She ran off looking for one, but also ran off to give them a little space.

"Uh, did you catch the "test subject" in the end?

Albedo nervously looked back at Kaeya. He expected the answer to be yes, he even knew it was going to be yes, but he still wanted confirmation.

"I'm sorry."

That gave Albedo his answer, but the wrong answer. He watched as Kaeya tried to edge away from Albedo, slowly letting go of his hands too. Albedo had gotten used to the warmth, and almost felt disappointed once it disappeared.

"Alright Kaeya, what happened?"

Albedo grabbed Kaeya's hands again, hoping to make eye contact with him. He hoped that he didn't come off as disappointed or angry, and that Kaeya wouldn't feel bad, but he knew that wasn't happening. He heard his mother in his voice, the tone he used was the same as what he heard when he failed an experiment. It brought him a twinge of grief, but he knew that the "twinge" was a tsunami in disguise.

".. sorry. He escaped using his cryo abilities, if we could then we would've stopped him, we tried I swear. I'm sure he won't cause us too much trouble, right?" Kaeya let almost endless apologies roll over his tongue before attempting a proper answer. While making his best attempt at an answer he looked at Albedo, despite everything in his body telling him not to. His eyes were met with a blank gaze, and his own eyes widened while witnessing it. "Albedo?"

It took a minute for him to answer. An excruciating period of time for Kaeya, he could feel the tears prodding at the corners of his eyes. He expected, and almost wanted Albedo to be angry with him. He didn't believe that he deserved anything else.

"It shouldn't cause us too much trouble for now, we must've at least weakened it, right?"

"Sorry for intruding but I have your water! I'm sorry for the wait, I didn't want to intrude in any of your personal business."

Barbara slowly walked to Albedo to hand him the water, slowly catching her breath while doing so.

Kaeya slowly stood up while she was handing the water to Albedo, ruffling her hair after she'd done so.

"Don't worry, no need to fret about privacy now. But is he okay?"

He lifted his hand off her head, going back to leaning down next to Albedo. He slightly examined his features, but barely noticed a scratch. The only marking he could think of was his knee, but that was hidden from view.

"He'll be okay, all of his cuts have healed, the only thing that may trouble him is walking, so try to avoid that." Barbara paused, looking down at Albedo to double check her statements, but everything seemed okay so she continued. "Apologies but I have other patients to tend to, are there any questions you have before I leave?"

She gave up halfway while attempting to look out the door, but she focused on Kaeya when he seemed to move to talk.

"I think we've got everything covered, right Albedo?"

"Yes."

"I just remembered one last thing, can he come home with me or will he have to stay in the cathedral?"

Barbara walked towards the door with her fingers laced in front of her waist, turning to face them to answer the question before she disappeared.

"He can leave, just be careful please."

She spoke with a smile, before excusing herself to tend to the other patients. She was another person who Kaeya wondered about the state of their sleep schedule.

"You hear that Albedo? C'mon, let's go."

Kaeya grabbed Albedo's original clothing off a chair, and then took the covers off of Albedo. Albedo shivered, and his eyes widened in surprise when he found himself being picked up and carried bridal-style. He clinged on to Kaeya's neck, afraid that he might fall. Sure he trusted Kaeya, and he'd get to that level of trust eventually, but not now.

"Are you sure we shouldn't try walking first? Barbara doesn't know about my condition, and probably evaluated me off of how a human would be."

Albedo tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but stopped once he felt himself being squeezed even tighter.

"We can do that at home, so how about we go there?"

It was only then that Kaeya realised he was talking about his house when they didn't even share a house.

A dusty pink softened his cheeks as he spoke a quiet correction, one that Albedo almost couldn't hear. Then they continued to walk out of the room, leaving the untouched glass of water on the chair.

:)

I got the Primordial Jade Winged-Spear while pulling for the Light of Foliar Incision for Ayato, so trying to farm primos was the source of my procrastination. But 1000 reads and either 2 hours or almost 2 hours already? I don't think my first book deserves this much love, but thank you so much for reading this anyway :) And sorry for the boring chapter, this is why you don't procrastinate

Word count - 1157