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Let it be known to the entirety of Mondstadt that Kaeya and Albedo weren’t alike. In fact, the two of them could be considered the polar opposites of each other. Kaeya aside from his genius being a schemer — was a puzzle on his own, and while Albedo didn’t dislike him, the Cavalry Captain’s enigmatic being clashed a lot with the methodological approach Albedo has with his life.
Clashed was an understatement. Sometimes, it’s more on a head-on collision when their divergent paths meet together.
Albedo didn’t have any qualms for other people teaching Klee. He’s busy as it is. But Klee learning from Kaeya was not something ideal in his opinion. His opinion becomes fact, the more Klee spent time with Kaeya. Their little Spark Knight became more mischievous with her new mentor.
Hence came Albedo’s decision to join Kaeya and Klee when they both went to picnics together to supervise. Albedo will not have Klee grow up to be a menace. Kaeya is enough as it is when he finds the Cavalry Captain hanging out in the library and hoarding the books Albedo needs.
The first time he joins their picnic goes a little like:
“Kaeya!” Klee points to the direction in front of them. They’re outside the walls of Mondstadt and somewhere near Starfell Lake. In the distance, a statue of the seven stood shining in the golden ray of the sun. “Carry me until we get there!”
“As you wish princess.” Kaeya laughs as he picks up Klee who protests with a short, “I’m a Spark Knight and not a princess!” as he places her on his shoulders. Albedo senses a heart attack coming up. This will be his end, having a heart attack because Kaeya is being a carefree guardian letting Klee sit on his shoulders one hand holding her up and the other holding their picnic basket as they continue to walk and not thinking of the accidents that might—
“Albedo! You’re off in your own world again!” Klee pouts, her ears drooping and doe eyes gleaming in mischief. “You promised we’re going to have fun with you.”
“Hmm, what’s this I hear? Albedo made a promise?” Kaeya joins the conversation, raising his eyebrow. Albedo doesn’t like where this is headed. The Cavalry Captains voice lowers into a teasing one. “You know what happens when adults don’t keep their promises right?”
“Kaeya told me when you break promises, you eat a thousand needles!” Klee replies smiling innocently, and Albedo shoots the blue-haired man a short glare. He raises the hand holding the basket in surrender.
“As Knights, we need to keep our promises,” Kaeya mumbles, his cheeks darkening.
Albedo wonders if he somehow can put Kaeya in solitary confinement too. He doesn’t dislike Kaeya, but the alchemist can’t help but be bitter that the Cavalry Captain was actually being a good teacher to Klee. Albedo considers his opinion of Kaeya as Klee’s role model with a slight miscalculation. However, it’s not Albedo’s fault. No, the variable for the miscalculation was Kaeya.
Stupidly annoyingly handsome Kaeya.
Wait.
No , his mind did not just supply that.
Before Albedo can lose himself further on his train of thoughts, Klee is already humming the song she sings before setting off her bombs and when he looks to Kaeya’s shoulder the little girl already has two bombs in her hands as they arrive at the lakeside.
“Ta-da!” Klee shows off her miniature bombs. “Klee’s going to have fun with both Kaeya and Albedo!”
“Klee! No bombing!” Albedo warns, horrified at his inattention. Albedo tries to catch the bomb falling into the lake but he accidentally grabs Kaeya’s cape and the three of them tumble down the water.
“Ack! Help!” Klee gasps as she flails her arms around the water, as she falls from Kaeya’s shoulder. Albedo swims over to them before he hears the miniature bomb ticking, seconds to explosion.
On instinct, he grabs Klee and Kaeya and tries to shield them with his body as soon as the bombs go off near them in the water, causing ripples of waves around them. He expects to be burnt but the Cavalry Captain in his arms has summoned icicles revolving around them as a shield.
Albedo notices he’s close enough to Kaeya that he sees the star-shaped pupil in the uncovered lilac-blue eye. The knight’s breath hitches as he meets Albedo’s stare, the latter reaching out his hands to brush Kaeya’s strands of wet blue hair covering half of his face but stopping when he remembered Klee between them.
“Are you alright Klee?” Albedo asks the little girl who’s clutching his clothes and Kaeya’s cape.
Klee nods, and to Albedo’s surprise, replies, “That was fun! Let’s do it again next time!”
Albedo casts a hesitant glance at Kaeya who just smiles and ruffles her hair.
“Whatever our Spark Knight wants.” He gives a small smile. “Although we have to be more careful next time alright?”
“I agree with what Sir Kaeya said.” Albedo shakes his head and gives Klee a fond smile, hugging her. “No more bombs next time alright?”
Klee nods, while the corners of Kaeya’s mouth widen a little more at the alchemist’s words. “So there’s a next time, huh, Sir Albedo?”
And like that, Albedo has a fact dawning on him. Perhaps he was wrong in thinking Kaeya’s influence would be bad for Klee. Even with their differences, they all had Klee’s happiness as one of their commonalities. Maybe even more if Albedo was willing to learn more about the Cavalry Captain.
As he looks at Klee smiling ear to ear and giggling, he thinks, a next time with them wouldn’t be so bad.
“Call me Albedo if there ought to be a next time, Sir Kaeya.” Albedo replies with a genuine smile of his own.
“Then you can also drop the formalities with me, Albedo.”
They continue the picnics as a weekly occurrence. Instead of just Klee waiting from outside his workshop, Kaeya became an addition to the routine of Klee’s vigils outside his workshop, leaning on the side of the doorframe to with a picnic basket in hand and letting Klee sit on his shoulders so the two tower over him, as he also becomes part of Albedo’s cycle of days.
(Sucrose doesn’t say anything about it when Kaeya slips in a piece of bread in his hand as he passes by when Albedo’s buried deep into their alchemy research.)
As much as Albedo doesn’t bring his work during his picnics with the Cavalry Captain and the Spark Knight to give them his full attention, their current picnic sets them in a huge red blanket from Lisa’s storage room with Albedo’s stack of alchemy research strewn deeply in the side as they lay near the shoreline of Cider Lake. The tall walls of Mondstadt and the abundance of trees around them provide a cool shade, as Klee kneels down and gather the flowers she picked from awhile ago on their blanket.
“What’s with all the flowers?” Albedo asks, opening the basket of food and setting them down in front of them. “Taking up alchemy too?”
“Maybe, maybe not. You never know when Klee is going to take your place.” Kaeya smirks as he picks up a hashbrown from one of the plate, Albedo swatting his hands.
“The clover-shaped are for Klee, put it back.” Albedo narrows his eyes at Kaeya who pouts before putting the clover-shaped hashbrown back and getting a regular circular one and shoving it gracefully into his mouth. “And if Klee wants to learn Alchemy then I’d be happy to teach her. Maybe she’ll be even better than me.”
“Klee will be the best Knight Alchemist in Mondstadt!” The little girl chirps, as she starts rummages through her backpack. “But I don’t want to use a sword. I want to be the Dandelion Bomb Knight!”
“I’m sure we can figure something out with that, Klee.” Kaeya laughs heartily, leaning onto the trunk of the tree near them, his hair let down from his usual ponytail. Even though Kaeya was carefree, he had never let his guard down. Albedo rarely sees the blue-haired man’s shoulders relax from tension except for their picnics, and he thinks secretly, he’s grateful that the man feels comfortable enough to both him and Klee. “But Albedo is good with a sword, don’t you want to be as cool as him?”
“Cool? But Kaeya’s with the ice power. . .” Klee looks at them confused. “And I have fire bombs. . . how can I be cool?”
Albedo shakes his head at the little girl’s question and pinches her cheeks. “What Kaeya means is that don’t you want to be like him? To be nice and talented?”
“Of course!” Klee nods vigorously. “But I want to be better than you two! Bombs are awesome.”
“That they are.” Kaeya concedes before holding out a flower. “Didn’t you want to learn how to make flower crowns, Klee?”
“I want to make pretty crowns!” Klee says excitedly as she gets the flower. “Teach me now, please.”
“Alright, alright, no need to rush my young apprentice. So. . .” Kaeya trails off, instructing how to make flower crowns with his soft voice directed at Klee’s excitement. The smile on his face never fades as his long fingers loop flowers together connecting a circular chain of light blue flowers. Klee starts humming as she struggles with the flower crown she’s trying to craft. Kaeya joins in with his own melody, and they both go into their own world of flower crown making as the wind lightly moves the long blue strands of Kaeya’s hair.
Albedo had to admit that the scene in front of him was something he would never trade anything for. Every second with them in Mondstadt made it worthwhile. But Albedo knows the law of this world. What starts from dust comes to dust. There will be a time where the three of them will grow older and cease to exist and when that time comes, he’s not sure if his memory’s still to be trusted.
Albedo scrambles to find an empty paper from his alchemy research and grab his pen, immediately getting to work. He starts with light strokes, each line gradually darkening as he watches the scene unfold in front of him with a smile on his face. He wants to keep it as detailed as possible, and he watches Kaeya intently, as his hands make the prominent features of the man’s face out of instinct.
“Hey,” Kaeya catches Albedo’s gaze, the greeting soft on his lips. He cranes his neck to take a closer look at the paper in the blonde man’s hand. “What are you up to, mhm ?”
“Nothing.” Albedo replies too quickly, and Kaeya’s lips quirk to a smile as his eyes twinkle.
“Please let me see?” Kaeya pouts, but Albedo shakes his head no. The Cavalry Captain scoots closer to him and places his head on Albedo’s shoulder as his quick reflexes pry the paper from the former’s pale hands. He studies the sketch done by Albedo and with his brows furrowed, but the soft expression never leaving his face.
“Kaeya,” He warns as he turns to face Kaeya, but is stunned at how close they are. The other man’s face was inches from him and Albedo can feel warm breath ghosting his lips.
“ Beautiful ,” Kaeya murmurs. Albedo’s not sure if Kaeya is referring to the sketch or himself, but nervousness pits his stomach when the other man leans in. “Albedo, can I?”
Albedo hesitates and casts a glance at Klee who didn’t pay them any mind and focused on what she’s doing. Looking back at Kaeya, he takes the paper from the Cavalry Captain’s gloved hand and raises it to the level of their heads as he nods. Kaeya tilts his chin with his thumb and forefinger as he cuts the small distance between them, soft lips on his.
Kaeya kisses him chastely, and pulls back immediately, a small blush on his cheek as he smiles like a triumphant man.
“Your smile is too loud.” Albedo comments, heat flushing to his face as he turns away from Kaeya.
“Ah but, you are the one that caused this loud smile.”
Albedo shakes his head with a smile at Kaeya’s words. “Stop flattering me with your words, Kaeya.”
“Then let me flatter you with this gift.” Kaeya replies, fondly. He places the blue flower crown he made on top of Albedo’s light hair, with the blue-haired man pressing a kiss onto his forehead.
“Kaeya.” Albedo feels his heart swell from the gesture. Before he could say anything further, Klee exclaims a short, “Ta-da!” interrupting their moment.
“What do you think?” Klee asks, innocently as she holds up the crown. Although some of the yellow flowers were crooked, Albedo appreciates the effort the little girl put in.
“It’s pretty Klee.” Albedo says sincerely as Kaeya nods in agreement.
“Truly we have a craftsman in our midst.”
Klee, pleased with the answer, places the flower crown on top of Kaeya’s head. “Now you match!”
“Shouldn’t you have a crown too, Klee?” Albedo asks.
“No!” Klee only giggles. “I don’t need a crown because I’m better than you two.”
And there, Albedo finally realizes their picnics were like alchemy. In alchemy, recipes come together to become something beautiful. In their picnics, they all come together to become something beautiful — a family.