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Closing and locking the back of the house door, Kaeya let out a deep sigh in exhaustion.
“Another night working overtime?” asked a familiar voice from behind, out in the crispy cold night.
“Like the past seven weeks, yes.” Kaeya confirmed, putting on his black leather jacket over his well-fitted shirt before he turned around, stepping further out to the quiet narrow alleyway.
The same voice spoke again, “Seven weeks already?” A tall woman with a choppy wine-colored haircut walked towards him under the blinking streetlight.
Resting himself up against the cold brick wall, Kaeya faced the cloudy night sky and replied, “I know, it's already been so long since he left without notice.” Letting out a weary snicker, he stole a glance at his best friend, stepping closer “would be more healthful if I were a bit more like you, Rosie. Always avoiding working overtime.”
Rosaria joined him by his side, resting her shoulder against his. Without asking, she handed him a cigarette. He took it with no questions. “You really should quit, you know,” the lighter cast a warm glow against ghostly skin and white pupils, staring at his exposed eye. “I can see your dark circles getting worse every week, Kaeya. Makeup can't even fix that, I would know.”
“Ha, and make the restaurant shut down while he's gone for who knows how long? Fuck, no. I would only be more of a disappointment to him than what I already am.”
Rosaria didn't try convincing him any further and instead lightly shrugged her shoulders, took a drag from her own lit cigarette and flicked ash to her side. She probably knew he wouldn't quit anytime soon, not until he was back in town at least. Regardless of how much of her protective side she'd show Kaeya, which he secretly did appreciate and admire about her, he would not quit the job. It was all about when Diluc would return, and if. Besides, Kaeya needed the money to help keep a roof over both his own head and his boyfriend’s.
Inhaling the rest of the cigarette Rosaria had offered him, he broke the peaceful silence between them. “I'm not quitting and you know that. Though if I could in other circumstances, I would. But now I got a lovely boyfriend to take care of and be taken care of at home.” The corners of his mouth curled up naturally at the mental image of a beautiful and handsome short guy. Messy blonde hair, sometimes braided, sometimes not. And deep teal eyes that spoke his every emotion. To Kaeya at least. But his voice, oh, his voice. It never failed to soothe Kaeya no matter the amount of exhaustion he'd be in.
“Speaking of Albedo, I gotta cut it short tonight. Sorry, Rosie.”
He suddenly felt an elbow hitting his side. “Don't apologize, you cheesy lovebird,” Rosaria teased.
Kaeya was quick to defend himself, jokingly raising his hands up in defense, “Hey, come on now, I barely said anything!”
“Right, but I could see you helplessly smiling into thin air just now,” she continued, “also, I wouldn't keep your man waiting just for a smoke break.”
“Alright, alright,” Kaeya weakly chuckled, dropping his cigarette to the ground and crushing out its last glowing embers under his shoe. Picking it up again and straightening his posture, he walked to one of the many trash containers lining up the wall behind the restaurant and threw it out. Sudden wet drops could be felt on his hand. Turning around to Rosaria again, who was gazing at the night sky as the rain dropped down quickly now, he smiled at her with genuine concern, “But do get home safe for me, okay?”
She held back her own growing smile and rolled her eyes at his concern instead. “Don't worry about me now,” she dragged him by his already wet leather jacket out to the open street, “and get going before the rain gets any heavier.”
Unfortunately the rain did get heavier shortly after they walked their separate ways home. Running through raising puddles, splashes to all sides at his each hurried step, resulted in his work pants and shoes being completely soaked through by the time he reached his apartment building.
Walking up the stairs he peered through one of the tall windows out to the rainy night. As he anticipated, he caught a glimpse of Rosaria walking down the street just a few meters away. “Always looking out for me in public, even at night. She really cannot help herself, can she?” Kaeya whispered to himself with a grin.
Unlocking and locking the front door to the apartment, he stepped into the dark and quiet entrance, as expected. It was already way past midnight and his Albedo should be sleeping by now.
As he bent down to untie his shoes, a rat-shaped shadow jumped right at his face. His heart stopped as he stifled a scream. He slipped across the wet floor, still successfully managing to avoid falling on his head, despite his bone-weary state.
Patting himself, desperately trying to find whatever had attacked him, Kaeya realized the rat had just been his ponytail. He sighed at the absurdity of the scene, letting his shoulders relax.
He took a moment to regain his senses before quietly walking further into the dark, knowing where each step took him, almost unconsciously by now, from the amount of late night shifts he had been taking for weeks on end.
Picking up a towel forgotten on a stool, he drained out the water in his hair and reached the living room. To his surprise, there was light creeping through the door of the office room rather than their bedroom. Kaeya shook his head in disappointment as he made his way towards the yellow light.
When he opened the door, he was immediately met with the intense smell of instant coffee. Looking around, he quickly spotted Albedo at his usual chair, a dim light brightening up the room from where he sat at his desk, newly empty mugs scattered around him, all his attention focused on something out of Kaeya's sight.
Stepping closer to his boyfriend who had yet to acknowledge him, Kaeya saw that the man was folding different colored strings of paper together. Kaeya couldn't quite make out what exactly it was supposed to be. Though it didn't look like actual important work related stuff to be losing sleep over.
“I thought I told you to fix ur sleep schedule, ‘bedo.”
Not a single reaction came from the blonde, only the sound of his continued crafting.
“I wanna make Klee happy.” Albedo simply stated after he drank from one of the many coffee mugs, his back still facing Kaeya.
An unfortunate event had occurred last month out of his and Albedo's control. Albedo's adoptive little sister, Klee, had found a wild rabbit in a forest close to her mother's house. The girl insisted on keeping it but her mother had to decline each time. She said she was far too busy with her travels to look after a wild animal, and a child at the same time. Something both he and Albedo deemed reasonable.
Yet Klee refused to accept the harsh truth. She went out of her way to visit the rabbit every day, in the same forest she found it. One time, she somehow even managed to bring the rabbit to their apartment, without her mother’s notice, when she was dropping her off. He remembered Albedo freaking out at first, seeing that the wild rabbit they had only heard from the intrepid girl's stories was now jumping around in their apartment. But Kaeya himself was impressed at Klee's clever scheming, and played along with her. Eventually, they were all laughing together despite the initial fright.
Though, the wild rabbit Klee had ended up naming Dodoco Junior, disappeared just about a month ago. Klee had been crying ever since, sniffling back tears when telling them how she and Dodoco, her favorite plushie, had lost their best friend forever. It hurt, it really hurt, to watch her cry as much as she did on her most recent visits. It was nearly impossible to comfort her.
“I know, Albedo, I do too but—”
“She loves these decorations,” Albedo cut him off abruptly as he held what he was working on up to Kaeya's vision. The folded paper now looked identical to Klee’s Dodoco plushie. The one she always brought along wherever she'd go, “and the sudden growing smile she wore, her eyes shining with something else than tears when we saw a whole garland of these at the market last week, I didn't have the money to purchase it, so I—”
“Albedo.” Kaeya interrupted this time.
Albedo turned around in his chair with furrowed brows, “What, Alberich?” he snapped, finally acknowledging him, an unusual annoyance in his tone.
Quite frankly frightened to be called by his last name in that tone of voice, by Albedo, of all people, Kaeya still felt his heart aching more at the sight in front of him right then.
Albedo looked utterly exhausted. His skin paler than usual and eyelids hanging, far worse than when Kaeya had left for work earlier. The braids in his hair had loosen up, messier than usual and greasy now, too.
They both worked an unhealthy amount of hours every week to keep everything together, to survive in this economy, together. Kaeya always worried about Albedo and his tendency to forget to take care of his own well-being when he wasn't around. As much as Kaeya understood him right now, he knew, no, he could see, that his Albedo was far too sleep deprived to be up preparing for Klee’s visit in the morning.
Kaeya took a step closer, resting his arm on the desk as he slowly leaned down, gaining all of Albedo's attention. “Listen,” he began, smiling softly into sleepy teal eyes, “your well-being is my top priority, okay?”
After gently taking Albedo's resting hand from the desk, raising it up to his lips, and planting a soft kiss against cold fingers, he continued, “I want you to rest for the night and start the day tomorrow with a hot bath. I can promise you that Klee will be so much happier seeing you healthy. So will I.”
Albedo averted his gaze, seemingly processing his words. Then his bottom lip trembled, as if he were about to break. He stopped himself and looked up into a singular eye with a weary smile. He's beautiful, Kaeya thought to himself, so beautiful even at his most fragile moment.
After the sound of a chair creaking, Albedo wrapped his arms around him. Kaeya didn't hesitate to hug back, tighter.
“‘m sorry,” came a mumbling down from his chest, hands gripping at the back of his shirt as if the other feared he would suddenly turn his back and walk away, “you must be so unbelievably tired yourself.”
“Don't mention it, my love. Let's get you to bed.”
After helping Albedo out of his clothes and into his nightwear, Kaeya began changing as well. When he took off his shirt, two damped spots on one of the rolled up sleeves, the size of teardrops, caught his attention. So he did break? Or was it from the rain earlier? Kaeya wasn't sure, yet his heart twisted. He wasted no time changing his clothes now.
“What's with the sudden haste?” Albedo questioned him from where he laid.
“Nothin’,” Kaeya crawled into their bed and quickly got himself comfortable under the covers, “Come here,” he whispered as he motioned Albedo to come closer.
The moonlight skimmed through the bedroom curtains, making snow white skin glow in the dark. Kaeya couldn't make out Albedo's face in this position, soft hair tickling under his chin, as he ran his slim fingers through greasy blonde strokes of hair. Shorter legs were wrapped around his, twitching slightly when he gently slid his hand up and down his back. Though he could feel him slowly drifting off to sleep in his grasp, until a sudden vibration against his chest.
“‘love you so much ‘aeya,” Albedo mumbled a second time that night, “so warm,” he continued as he nuzzled his head into his chest.
Kaeya tried his best to hold back a burst of laughter at the unexpected affection, but failed miserably, causing Albedo to push him back, putting some distance between them to meet his face, “what?”
“Oh no, sorry sorry, I just, ha, wasn't expecting that. Thought you had finally fallen asleep,”
Albedo gave him a look as he watched him trying to calm down, his pale cheeks a rosy tint now. Then fell back into his grasp.
It only took a few moments before Kaeya resumed his physical affection. “I love you too, Albedo, I always will.” He reminded him as he kissed the top of his head.
He let his own weary eye close, though still purposely tried to stay awake and wait until Albedo's breath evened out in his arms.
Albedo fought with all the remaining power he had left in himself to stay awake, wanting to make sure Kaeya fell asleep first. But that light scratching from fine fingertips at his scalp, moving to a new spot before one became too dull, and the consistent sound of a heartbeat right against his ear made it impossible to keep his eyes open any longer.
That indescribable feeling of warmth, comfort and complete ease, all at once, was that what he heard people say? Was that what they meant? That this was the feeling a child felt too, under their mother's love and care?
But, Kaeya. Kaeya is his boyfriend.
Not his.. Mother…
Everything went quiet as he lost his fight against sleep at last.
—
The singing of birds chirping and a lack of warmth by his side woke Albedo up from his slumber.
Blinking and rubbing the sleep out of his itchy eyes, he realised that the lack of warmth was Kaeya missing his spot in their bed. That's new, Albedo began pondering, he's usually the one who first wakes up and starts their day. If he can, that is. Kaeya and his mischievous ways always dragged him back into clingy arms under the rays of sunrise, no matter how late it was. But not today.
Getting his well rested body unfolded from layers of covers, he stepped out the room only to find the missing man flattened out on the couch, drooling in his sleep. Before Albedo began questioning the man's sudden decision to sleep in the living room, he noticed the garland hanging across the ceiling.
On one end, he could recognize the paper-folded Dodocos he had crafted last night. Though, looking further across the garland their folded shapes started getting more loose and wonky, especially at the other end, what's that? A dog of some sort? A bird? Or a whole third unknown thing? There certainly was a purpose, that much he was sure of.
Moving his gaze down again to his sleeping man, Albedo chuckled to himself and he walked towards the couch. When standing in front of Kaeya, he dragged a blanket over his resting body, and swiped away the drool gliding down his chin causing an ice crystal eye to stir.
“Hm, mornin’ ‘bedo,” Kaeya spoke, his voice deep from sleep.
“I should've known you'd stay awake once I fell asleep.”
Kaeya gazed up at him with a smirk before slotting his weary hands on his waist, “Heh, believe me, it was hard to leave you there,” he paused, then that damn smirk began growing even wider and dragged Albedo down into his lap, “Clinging to me like some animal.”
So stupid, Albedo thought to himself despite his growing smile, can't even follow his own advice to rest properly and now he tries to tease him?
Sitting on Kaeya's lap, Albedo dragged his fingers through navy blue hair. Kaeya’s eye followed his every movement, widening when Albedo tilted his face to the side and leaned in closer, “Thank you,” he simply whispered before pressing his lips against his.