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Flakes of powder snow gracefully fall down, dying the whole of Dragonspine in white, froze the temperature down to a freezing subzero climate. There is something living in this mountain, buried deep inside layers of stone and snow, corrupting lives on the mountain slopes with poison. From the lowest foot to the highest peak, frosty fangs pierce through rock and snow, threatening outsiders dare not tread upon thin ice that may break at their feet at any given moment.
Dragonspine isolates itself from the rest of Mondstadt as if it is afraid of something…
“The birth of a new life, fascinating…” The alchemist mutters to himself, noting something down his sketchbook while carefully inspecting the new life that was blessed upon him.
The seed of miracle, from which emits a vibrant fragrance, the ambrosial scent lingers in the air, giving off a sense of purity. Otherworldly particles sparkle on its fragile sprout, shimmering in darkness.
Suddenly, a single ray of light shines through, radiating magically in front of his lifeless eyes. Couldn’t hold back his own curiosity, the lonely alchemist reaches his hand out to feel the emotions of the alienated life…
Huh?
“What in the world...?” So warm and dazzling, unlike anything he has experienced before. "Unconsciously gives off such beautiful bioluminescence, truly a life from another world…” Pulls his hand back, the man held his breath and write down a comment on chalk-white pages.
The strange phenomena remind him of a certain someone in a way it shouldn’t have…A single person, a favorite child of the archons. A traveler from another world whose hair was made of the finest type of cream chalk, and the sky is so much brighter whenever he’s around…the alchemist mistook him for an angel the moment their eyes met.
Shaking his head away from the unwanted thoughts, the alchemist returns to his experiment. He can’t put out a proper explanation for the anomalies for now. There was no stimulation whatsoever from the alchemist himself or the glacial environment in the facility. To catalyze such reactions without his permission, what could have been the catalyst?
And then, he realizes.
“What are you doing here, traveler?” Turning his face to look at the intruder, the alchemist put away the unfinished notes “It’s really late, shouldn’t you be staying in the main city?”
Returning to reality, the statuette traveler finally comes back to his senses. He has arrived at this isolated place for a good amount of time. There was something about this gentleman, that has captured his vision and mind, erasing the sense of time and space inside his head. Aether doesn’t know how long he has been looking at the man in front of him, it’s like his feet were frozen in place.
The air against his exposed skin feels cold, but Albedo’s voice was even colder. Watching the alchemist deeply involved in his own experiment, Aether feels like the man was buried in ice, and through the invisible icy wall between them, he was completely separated from the realm of the living. So beautiful, yet so lonely…
“I-I came to check on you.” The traveler opens his mouth, allowing white cloud to escape and perish. “Sucrose said you didn’t return to the camp for days…”
“Ah, that’s right. I completely forgot.” Smiles the man, without any feeling whatsoever, just a mechanical reply to fit the philosophy of common sense.
“Did you even eat?” The boy frowns, arms crossing together.
“...” Remembers his burning stomach, the alchemist stays silent, how annoying, he could stay awake for days on end, but it’s detrimental that the pure white vessel he’s wearing still rely on mortal nutriments. Albedo doesn’t know what to say, so instead, he made up a lie. “Don’t worry about me, I can take care of my--”
“Here.” But before the alchemist could finish his sentence, the young-looking traveler has stood in front of him with a serving of goulash still hot in his hands. “I didn’t know what you like so I made it in a hurry, I hope it fits your appetize.”
“...Thank you.” Receiving the boy’s care, Albedo wasn’t sure how to respond, being human has always been harder than he anticipated.
Sitting down next to the campfire they just lit up, the alchemist slowly savors the sweet and salt of food in his hands, his eyes would stop by the freezing traveler next to him once in a while. That blond hairs, radiate with liveliness, a completely different shade of blond compares to that cold and stale of his. The boy’s cheeks were dyed red by the heat of the fire, and his eyes, too…
It was hypnotizing him, enchanting him, and as much as Albedo wants to hold the boy near to his heart to feel that faraway warmth, he was afraid that once he did, the boy would disappear from his grasp forever…
“Were you the one who did that?” A question unconsciously slips past his throat as he reminds himself of that magical moment.
“Did what?” Aether tilts his head, not understanding what the alchemist means.
“Nevermind.” Putting down the empty bowl, Albedo shakes his head, turning to face the confused traveler, making eye contact which he shouldn’t have.
The warmth from those golden pupils put his heart to the point of breaking into a thousand shards of ice. There is no way he can bring himself to break the ice curtain overlaying himself and corrupt the boy with his poison, as if he’s going to be executed on the spot if he did. Life is so magical, but at the same time so difficult to live through…
“Please return before the roads get blocked by snow.” Please stay with me and never leave.
Aether blinks his round eyes at Albedo’s words. He doesn’t have telepathy or any mind-reading abilities, but…although Albedo tells him to leave, those abyssal blue pupils was hinting him something else, and the traveler could sense it ever so vividly.
“I can’t stand the cold.” Reaching his hand out to the lonely man, the boy lies. “Can you let me stay here for the night?”
“Aether…” Instinctively cling on to the stranger's touch, Albedo eagerly grabs at the hand that was extending towards him, letting the impurity eats away his pure white.
Against the hearth of the fire, Albedo shifts his body to give the boy a little more space to lie. Aether has used the alchemist’s hand to rest his head, even close like this, he feels so cold, like the man was so far away from him, and he was all alone again.
“Albedo…” He calls out.
“Yes?” Holding the boy with his half-rotten arm, the alchemist spoke.
“That last experiment…You were pretty involved in it.” Brushing his head against the man’s chest, Aether leans in close. “Can you tell me about it?”
“Oh, of course…”
The traveler sniffs in the mixed scent of frost and chalks from the man beside him, his hand pulls the wool blanket up to cover both of them better. Although he couldn’t understand a single word, Aether just loves listening to the alchemist. The eternal winter of Dragonspine must have sucked out the life in that voice, makes it unnaturally cold, frozen over like the glacier outside this ghostly cave. It makes the boy questions if there’s even life in it.
And yet, Aether wants to melt that icy voice, somehow, someway, because nobody deserves such a degree of loneliness, and it pains his heart to think about it.
“You have such a beautiful voice…” The traveler let words utter out from his mouth, words that he never really think of.
Only that was enough for the man to break into silence, his face blushes pink, not sure if it was from the heat, or from something different. Guilt start building up inside his heart, Albedo could never forgive himself for deceiving the innocent traveler with his fake vocal cords, something that doesn’t even belong to him.
But just those simple words alone have brought up a strange sensation inside him, frightening him and reassuring him at the same time.
“...If one day I no longer sound beautiful, will you still listen to me?” And answer my desperate screams for help?
“Of course I would.” Said the boy, who kindly smiles and hides his face in the hem of the alchemist’s snow-white coat. “Of course I would…”
Albedo stares into the ceiling of the stone cave with the traveler soundly sleeping next to him. He has been thinking about those words for a while now, the traveler’s soft voice keeps echoing inside his brain, triggering a surreal chemical reaction in his nervous system that he can’t explain. Truths are fine, lies are okay, he will trust this boy, even if it is false hope that he has lit up inside his heart.
Gently kissing the boy’s forehead, the alchemist closes his eyes.
…
Albedo could barely sleep before morning came. It doesn’t really bother someone like him, living the life of an alchemist, his circadian rhythm gradually becomes worthless, neither day nor night matters to him anymore, a small sacrifice that has to be made for greatness.
The alchemist tosses some more wood into the bonfire near his sleeping traveler, careful not to make any sound that would wake the boy up. After pulling the blanket up to the boy’s neck, Albedo stands up and resume his studies.
Silence completely plague over the atmosphere, this high up the mountain, there was almost no sign of life, aside from the seeds he keeps inside this camp, which Albedo has to use the magic of alchemy to preserve.
The seed won’t bloom this time under the effect of the fire, which he fully expected. But strangely, it doesn’t die from the heat either. Without using alchemy, Albedo couldn’t keep the seed alive long enough for observation, this vibrant burst of life keeping that is forcing it to live right now, must have been from that boy…
“Ngn...” From under the blanket, Aether stretches his body, accompanies by a loud yawn. “Al-Albedo…” The traveler sits up, brushing his sleepy eyes. “Mnm…You wake up so early…”
Albedo doesn’t know why, but his face feels like it’s burning a little bit.
“Go back to sleep.” Putting his coat and a fake smile back on, the man drained the cloth in his hands out of hot water before kneeling down in front of the slumbering boy. “Kids like you need a lot of sleeping, you know.”
“I’m not a kid!” Pouted the boy, his expression very much amuses the evil alchemist.
“Hey, it’s a good thing you wake up.” Albedo smiles, lovingly bring the warm fabric to the boy’s face. “I need your help in this experiment.”
“More experiments?” The traveler yawns again, eyes closing for the alchemist to clean the rest of his face. “Will it be dangerous?”
“Nothing dangerous, with…a grain of salt, of course.” Laughs Albedo. “But rest assure, your safety will remain my top priority.”
“I don’t know sir Albedo.” Enjoying someone taking care of him, Aether sweetly speaks, pretending to be a spoiled little lover. “Maybe if you could fetch me some breakfast and Mora~”
“Haha, I can’t take a second Sucrose.” Pinching the boy’s cheek, Albedo put one final kiss on his nose before standing up. “But I can take my first Aether, though.”
Not sure if it was intentional, but the flirtiness inside those words hit Aether like a meteorite, leaving him all flustered and speechless on the ground.
After all the waking-up fuzziness, Aether has to follow the alchemist every step onto the steep snowy mountain. Of course, agreeing was a bad idea, but the boy couldn’t bring himself to leave this man all alone here.
“It shouldn’t be far away from here.” The alchemist observes the environment closely, checking notes he has previously written in the large notebook. “Aether…?”
Not receiving any response from the boy, Albedo quickly turns around, a phantom pain triggers inside his chest to see the boy holding himself together in the midst of the snowstorm, having used to the climate of Dragonspine for so long, he forgot Aether’s cold resistance was much much lower than him.
Taking off his coat and wraps it around the boy’s shivering body, as much as Albedo wants to embrace him, he knows his cold body would only freeze the boy further.
“A-aren’t you cold?” Clutching onto the warm piece of clothes, Aether’s voice was still shaking from the subzero climate, only to receive the man’s calm reply.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m used to the climate here.” Truth to say, he can bear the cold much better than the traveler, from the years he spent this high up on the mountain. “Do you want my gloves too? Our destination is not far, but we still need to go higher.”
“...” Receiving the pair of gloves from the alchemist, Aether bit his lips in sheer guilt. “Can I hold your hand…?” At least this will keep both of them warm.
“Huh…?” Albedo blushes, lifeless pupils shake in the strange occurrence. “O-of course.”
The hand he’s holding is freezing through the glove, a product of a life contributing to experiments. Slim fingers, so tender and pretty, and Aether could feel each and every callus on those pale white fingers. But despite all the flaws, the boy couldn’t stop staring at the place they’re connected.
“Your fingers are so pretty.” Brushing his thumb over the soft and hard parts of Albedo’s hand, Aether utters out.
Albedo didn’t say anything, and he doesn’t stop walking or turn around either, the boy’s words got him thinking about it again. It was hard for him, but he has to know...
“...If I don’t have my fingers anymore,” And there’re only claws and scales that break the skin of your palm apart. “Would you still hold my hand like this?”
“Of course…?” The traveler tightens his grip on the icy hand, it’s too cold, even colder than the endless blizzards on the mountain peak. He wants to warm it up somehow, but his own hand would just end up getting frozen. “What a strange thing of you to say.”
“It just slips my mind, don’t think about it too much.” The alchemist silently laughs, letting go of the traveler. “We’ve arrived.”
“H-huh…?”
Releasing the cold hand with regret, the boy wraps his arms around himself, holding on to the chalk-white piece of clothes. They’ve entered the snowstorm area at the Eastern slope of Dragonspine, a place without a single proof of life. The snow was so heavy he couldn’t even see through it. Without Albedo’s coat and his gloves, Aether doubt he would be able to withstand the blade-like frost fangs that were just waiting to bite into his flesh right now.
But the alchemist just stands there, in the midst of the storm, does he even feel cold?
Aether could barely open his eyes without the snow hurting them, but there was some sort of warm light, coming from the direction of the man a few steps away from him.
The seed of miracle only grows more when soaked in the scent of death, and with the wonder of winter, it bursts out in a half bloom inside Albedo’s hands.
Something was missing, with winter’s magic and the energy emits from the traveler, only a half bloom was their furthest achievement. Something was definitely missing, maybe it isn’t cold enough? Or maybe there's not enough life energy here for it?
“Albedo…? Wh-what’s happening?!” The traveler gasps as he felt the ground below his feet began to shake violently.
“Aether! Stay back! Don't come near me!!” The alchemist yells a warning out to the boy, but his voice was swallowed by the sound of the howling snowstorm.
How far has he gotten? How far is the way back home? And how can he give up right now? The constellations above continue to move in harmony to nurture life, lives that were blessed upon him from another planet, even when they're just small and insignificant lives, they were lives that he wishes to nurture. Albedo will do everything it takes for this miracle to come to birth.
“Albedo!!” White snow has completely cloaked the underlying scent of chalk lingering in the air, along with a single silhouette of the alchemist. “Albedo answer me!!”
The boy bit his frozen lips, throwing himself into the frosty curtains, only to be knocked back by an unknown force. Aether feels like his mind was going crazy like the blizzard that is piercing through this entire section of the mountain right now.
“Albedo!!” The poor traveler screams out, but it was no use, he could only watch in horror as white rains down from above, dying the sky and the ground to the same color. He couldn’t tell if the coat he’s clinging on to is made of snow or something else anymore, snow was everywhere, eating at his feet, his skin, his soul, his mind…And he couldn’t see Albedo anymore.
...
After what feels like an ice age later, Aether woke up under a blanket of white snow, it was gentle like the touch of a lover, only difference is it was too cold, too cold for him to bear.
Like a mindless corpse, the boy basks in the snow-covered area. The avalanche has eradicated everything on this side of the mountain, there was no sign of Albedo anywhere.
Albedo! The boy opens this mouth, coughing out the snow that has yet to freeze his throat, his hands dug into pale white snow, desperately searching for something. Where does he go now? What does he even do now?
Paralyzed fingers keep on digging through the snow, looking for that unexistent heart buried deep under them. The subzero climate pokes into his skin like a thousand ice stalagmites, freezing his blood vessels from inside his veins, crystallizing droplets of tears that came out of his puffy eyes.
Aether could feel life slowly drains away from his body, and he doesn’t know which god he’s praying to anymore…
Suddenly, on the verge of dying, a warm sensation shoots out of white snow, and through the space between his fingers, the traveler saw a single star.
The smell of pure chalk breaks out of its frosty prison, showering the dying traveler with hopes and warmth. The light radiates from that little star was subtle, yet so brilliant, not even the glacier could drown it out.
When the snow melts away, the boy could finally see the alchemist lying cold on the bed of snow, his skin pales like a frozen carcass, so beautiful, yet, musked in death.
But then, those white-stained eyelashes lift open, and his eyes were met with a pair of lifeless pupils.
“...Aether.” The man softly spoke, raising his hand up to caress the traveler’s teary cheek. “Why…?”
“What were you thinking!?!” The boy silently cries out and tugs at his collar, but there was no voice coming out of him whatsoever.
Albedo closes his eyes, a seed of miracle appears in his hands, growing out in full bloom, its aura erases the icy field surrounding the two of them, restoring the landscape back to its former self, and then…it too, vanishes, just like little snowflakes falling from the sky.
A fruitful result this one is.
“I’m sorry.” Cupping Aether's face with both his hands, Albedo brings that freezing face closer to his, pressing his pale lips against those dry and bloody of the traveler.
Strings of syrupy sweet energy radiate inside the boy’s mouth, flowing down his throat, repairing his broken vocal, dispelling the frosty curse that has been trying to make him into a part of their whiteness moments ago.
The traveler wraps his arms around the chalk prince as soon as his muscles have relaxed, allowing himself to sink deeper into the addictive sensation.
“Hah…” Aether gasps as the man parts away, their lips still connected by a silver string of saliva. “W-why did you…?”
“Why did you save me?” A glimpse of light appears inside the alchemist's pale blue pupils, painted it with a new life.
“You were dying!!” Aether scolds, how could this guy talk in that kind of tone after he was literally buried alive? “I can’t just stand there and look!?”
Playfully smiles, the alchemist pulls the angry boy in for an embrace.
“You’re an odd one, Aether.” Albedo brushes his lips against the traveler’s golden locks, breathing in the scent of fresh snow “You barely know me, and yet you're making promises, and you even risk your life to save me.”
Aether’s heart was beating so fast against him, and the alchemist couldn’t forget the Aether who used his own hands to dig through layers and layers of snow, even when his life was being drained out by the snow and his senses started to freeze one by one.
And it was all for him, all to save him. But it scared him just as much as it gave him so much false hope in his heart.
“If one day…” he lost control, unleashing the terror inside his pure white vessel, “I’m no longer human…” and destroy lives that he nurtured, destroy everything, “Will you still save me…?”
“Of course I WOULD!!” The boy breaks away from his grip, holding the sides of the alchemist’s shoulders, golden pupils still shaken with anger and…another emotion that Albedo fails to disclose. “Why are you asking me such stupid questions!? Anyone would have done the same!!” Then, a pair of arms wrap around his cold body.
Anyone else would have done the same? They would, of course, but it would be a different story if they know the truth about the seemingly cold and lonesome alchemist.
…
It was getting dark the moment they got back to Albedo’s camp. The avalanche really did a number on Aether’s bottom half, so the alchemist has to piggyback the boy all the way back to the facility.
Albedo quickly lit up the bonfire and set up a comfy mattress for the traveler to rest his back, as a nurturer of life, Albedo must adorn himself with a decent amount of therapeutical knowledge, this simple injury shouldn’t be much of a problem to him.
“Take off your shoes, pants, and underwear.” The alchemist orders, tending to some sort of aromatic liquid by his brewing stand.
“W-what?” Aether blushes red, he never even takes off his top piece while being with Paimon, and this guy wants to-- “Isn’t-isn’t there some other ways…?”
“It's hard for me too, traveler.” Hearing that defiant tone, the alchemist turns and squats down next to the flustered boy. “But I'm afraid internal damages can’t be check visually, if you don’t cooperate with me, I’ll just have to strip you myself.”
“Fine!! Evil alchemist!” The blushing traveler turns away, thinking it was not a big deal at all, but when he reaches his hands to the hem of his pants, that is when he realizes what a real mess he’s in right now.
“What seems to be the matter?” Albedo pervertedly smirks, a dark shade deepens inside his lifeless pupils. "Go on, there's nothing to be shy about."
“I-I can’t…” Cold sweats run down the boy’s forehead as his body shivers by his own words, he feels like he could die of embarrassment right now, begging another man such for shameful actions.
“My little Aether…” Of course, the kind alchemist was more than happy to help his poor patient. “Don’t worry dear, I got you.”
Then, the man took off Aether’s shoes, his touch against the boy's skin was as light as feather treading on fresh snow, it sends goosebumps all over his body, makes him too scared to look down.
Done with the shoes, Albedo moves on to the boy’s pants and his underwear. Sexual tensions wasn’t something that is of huge interest to the alchemist, but with the boy’s sanctuary all naked inside his arms right now, he couldn’t help but feels a little tight in his own pants.
“H-hey!” A small moan escapes Aether’s lips as the man above him trace a hand down the length of his thigh. "D-don't look..."
“You’re lucky the injury wasn’t severe, hence your legs still have feelings.” Setting his legs apart, the man stands up and walks to his alchemy table, extracting out the newly brewed liquid.
“What is that?” For some reason, the traveler doesn’t trust this at all.
“Medicinal wine.” Putting a bowl full of it down next to the mattress, Albedo sits down between his legs, “Don’t worry, it's a muscle relaxant, and...there should be no side effect whatsoever.”
Aether can do nothing but nods, it’s not like he has a choice either.
Then, Albedo began to put the honey-like substance on icy chill skin, palm circling up and down to spread the medicine out in even layers, peppering the boy’s lower half with ambiguous caresses.
The medicine was igniting the traveler's bone and marrow from the inside as the alchemist use both his hands to massage the boy's ankles, his calves, then up to his knees and inner thighs, melting away the frosty sensation and soften the muscle mass. But for Aether, it was getting too hot to the point he was feeling cold again, and for some reason, all the heat was suddenly sucked into his nether region.
“You’re hard.” The man chuckles lightly when he sees the poor boy already hard with a few simple touches. “But we still need to check if it’s still responsive.”
“W-what do you mea--? Ahh!” Aether's face was as red as crimson agate when he feels a sudden chill wrap around his throbbing needs, the traveler could feel himself losing his mind from the cold of those fingers and the lukewarm liquid on the skin of his overly sensitive area.
“Relax, Aether. It’s a part of your responsiveness test.” The alchemist smirks against the soft patch of skin in the boy's inner thighs, blatantly lying. “We can’t let you have infertility, can we?”
“Al-Albedo…Aah~” Sweet mewls drop into Albedo’s ears as he pumps his hand up and down the traveler’s sharp. Tears of pleasure uncontrollably pour out of the boy’s eyes when the alchemist’s mildly sharp nails softly scratch against the head, one loud yelp later and it was all done for poor Aether.
Staring at the melted mess below him, Albedo couldn’t help but bring white-stained fingers to his mouth, tasting the delicacy with the flustered traveler watching in horror.
“T-that’s…that’s…” Going out of frequency from the alchemist's sexual expression, the boy instinctively closes his numb legs, only to be spread wide again by the alchemist.
“Now now, be a good boy, we still have testing to do.” Smiles the alchemist, placing two lubed fingers at the boy’s trembling hole. “Tell me if you feel something.”
“Ngn--ahh!” Golden eyes roll to the back of its owner skull when the forbidden place was plunged to the core with long elegant fingers, pushing the boy out of reality’s track as he throws away all his intelligence “M-more…more--Hyaah~”
“It feels that good?” The alchemist teases, using his free hand to lift the boy’s top up, exposing his perked up rosebuds to the frostbiting air, making the sensitive body spontaneously aches into him.
“Yes--Ahh...Yess~” Another honey-like moan drools out of the boy’s mouth along with his saliva, going wild and crazy when a teeth mark was engraved into his flesh. “A-Al-Albedo...”
“Yes?” The alchemist happily answers, lifting his mouth up from the traveler’s chest, knowing the mark won’t go away, a nice red tattoo in the shape of his lips.
“Hahh…Please--please--please” Cries the boy, hips pressing down to the alchemist’s fingers, shamelessly begs like an animal in heat. “I-I…I nee-need you--you…”
There’s no use keeping his darling waiting right now, Albedo thought to himself, locking his eyes into golden pupils that were filled with nothing but lust and his poison.
“As you wish.” Looking down at the pitiful boy, the alchemist finally decides to take mercy upon him. “Let’s see if you can bear birth to my children.”
Forcing himself past the tight walls, Albedo silences Aether’s scream with a gentle kiss to his lips. His soft skin brushes against that dry and cold of the traveler, one soft lick and the boy would open up wide for the scent of fresh chalk to flood in.
The poor traveler was only one leash away from becoming Albedo’s obedient little dog, obeying him like there’s no tomorrow. And the alchemist's tongue ravaging inside his mouth was sweeter than oranges and honey, paralyzing his senses as the man fasten his hips, pistoning in and out of the traveler's warm place like his life was depending on his.
After his second orgasm, Aether has been reduced to no less than a cum-filled sex doll as his body slowly succumbs to numbness. Broken vocal utters out in vain, begging the man above him to stop, but the crazy alchemist just kept going, pumping the boy's abused hole full of sticky white cum till the point where his stomach was bulging up like he was bearing birth to a new life.
“Ahh--Al-Albe--…Ngn!” A loud yelp echoes through the cave when that hard thing pressed into the boy’s painful core again. The heat, the pain, and the unmeasurable pleasure, it was all too much for little Aether to take in. “No-no more…ah---ahh”
“Mmhm…” Hums the man above, nails dug into the traveler’s peach-like hips with an iron grasp as he ventilates all his thirst that has been accumulating each day into the wasted boy.
With his own needs, there’s no way Albedo could stop now, not until one or two full days later, but knowing that would mean breaking his darling, the alchemist has no choice but to stop after pumping another patch of his pure white deep into Aether, blacking him out.
...
When the high's over, it was all pain and regrets that were left inside the alchemist's empty vessel.
It’s so silly.
They’re from different worlds, they’re made of different materials, and yet…Albedo has always thought that this outlander was his destined one, someone he could be with, someone to share his loneliness with…If only he were human, then he could stay by his side, confessing all his feelings without going through this heart-wrenching crisis inside his head right now.
The secret he's bearing was too great for the seed of love to sprout inside his heart, buried in eternal ice. And with impurity washing over, it has started to grow into poisonous vines... and will soon bear rotten fruits, pledging deaths upon the lives that he once cherished.
Albedo sighs, carefully placing a kiss on the boy’s temple as he covers him with another layer of blanket.
I love you.
But deep down he knows, for Aether, that one will never be him, so before they collide and shatter, the alchemist just wants to hold this tainted love one last time.