Genshin Impact One shots

A big task - Sucrose x Albedo 1

A sigh escaped Sucrose as she stared down pitifully at her latest experiment. She'd been trying to find a way to get snapdragon plants to yield a higher amount of blooms. Unfortunately, she'd had no luck. In fact, the plant before her looked hideous.

On the table in front of her sat two potted snapdragon plants, one that had been treated with a new special fertilizer and some alchemy she'd created and one that had not. Her control plant for her experiment looked fine since it was untouched by fertilizer and alchemy, but the other...

Sucrose grimaced and ran a finger down the stem of the snapdragon. It had a crisp ridge down the center of it like two snapdragon stems had been glued together. Leaves poured out of the stem but they were abnormally small and would in no way support the plant's life much longer. As for the flower itself, there were too many petals and they were in all the wrong places. It didn't even look like a snapdragon anymore! Sucrose felt incredibly horrible that her experiment had created a flower that looked like a pair of conjoined twins. For some reason, the combination of her potions and alchemy had triggered a severe genetic mutation of some kind.

She turned to her supplies and her stress level grew even higher. She was out of ink for her quills and snapdragon seeds! For a split second, she thought about going to harvest her own snapdragons and getting seeds from those but that would take too long. There were other things she wanted to try and - as always - she wanted to get it done quickly. Sucrose had always dove into her work that way. There were even a few more books she wouldn't mind getting her hands on for her research.

She got up and left the room to find her master and colleague, Albedo. He too was engrossed in his own work. He was working really hard to finish some illustrations for a client and there was a deadline approaching fast.

"Mister Albedo?" Sucrose asked to get his attention.

"Yeah?" Albedo leaned his head over so he could see her past his easel that he was painting on.

"Are you uhm... going to town sometime soon? I needed a few things and thought I would ask if you could pick them up on your way. It's really not that big of a deal, and I hate to ask..."

Albedo shook his head and turned back to his painting. "Sorry, I can't! I've got these illustrations to finish. Do you think you could go on your own?"

Sucrose tensed up and looked at her feet. She'd dreaded that he would say that. She and Albedo were reclusive, but she felt that she was even more introverted than he was.

Albedo glanced from around his easel and saw the state that she was in. "Sucrose..." He stood and came over to her, putting his hands on her arms as if to steady her.

"No, its fine, I can go."

"You sure? I know how you feel about these kinds of things..." Albedo gave her a studied look.

Sucrose nodded, still trying to convince herself that what she'd just said was true. "I'll just be in and out, quick as can be!" She faked a smile.

Albedo frowned. "You just be careful alright? When do you think you'll leave? If you wait any longer it'll be late by the time you get back."

"Oh! You're so right! I-I'll leave now then! Thanks Mister Albedo!"

"Pick up some more parchment while you're out if you can!"

He watched her go but felt a pit grow in his stomach. Sucrose had always been so self conscious of her ears and was never very good at conversing with people. She was also very easily intimidated. He wished in vain that he could go with her but he glanced back at his work and felt it suck him back in. It needed to be done.

Sucrose made her way to Mondstadt, avoiding as many of the main roads as she could. Her large fluffy ears twitched nervously as she got closer to the city and could start to hear peoples' voices. She passed through the main gates and could immediately feel peoples' stares rake over her. Sucrose fidgeted and played with her ears, trying to hide them in her hair.

"Just get the seeds and go, just get what you need and get out..." she told herself. Thankfully the flower stand wasn't too deep into Mondstadt.

"Oh! Sucrose! How have you been? Did those snapdragon seeds work out for you?" The shopkeeper greeted her.

Even though Sucrose had not visited the flower shop very frequently, she knew she wasn't an easy face to forget. She just wanted to blend in for once in her life!

"Uhh, thats uhm... Well, you see-"

The shopkeeper leaned forward, waiting for Sucrose to explain.

"What if she gets mad at me for ruining the plants? What if I've committed gardening crimes? Oh gods, what do I do?!" She thought. Sucrose's palms got sweaty and her mind raced.

"Well..." the shopkeeper continued awkwardly, "I've still got more if you need more! Accidents happen!"

"T-thanks!"

Sucrose handed some mora over for the seeds and went on her way hastily. She ducked her head down low and fast walked into an alleyway.

"As horrible as this is going, I've just gotten calm down..."

She took some deep breaths and then stepped out from the alley in an attempt to act like she knew what she was doing and act like she belonged there.