Genshin Impact One shots

A big task - Sucrose x Albedo 2

Sucrose made a beeline for her next stop at a bookstore where they also sold ink and paper supplies. She walked in to find that she store was mostly empty. Silently thanking the gods, she rushed to the back to look for books on flower anatomy. She quickly became engrossed in several different books, all of which had detailed diagrams of flowers and their different parts. Time suddenly didn't seem to matter to her as the dug through the books trying to find just the right one. It could make or break her studies with the proper information.

An unfamiliar voice broke her train of deep thought.

"You must really like plants, huh?"

Flinching hard, Sucrose whirled around to see a dark haired man leaning against a bookshelf quite near to her. She had no idea when he got there or how long he had been there, which freaked her out immensely. He was staring at her with an overwhelmingly friendly smile.

She was speechless. Her ears flicked back in alarm as the man leaned in, expecting some sort of reply.

He glanced at her large ears and chuckled. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

Sucrose darted away from him, suddenly not caring which book she was going to buy of the six shed picked out. She bundled all of them up in her arms and bolted. Sucrose made a zig zagging path to the inks and grabbed one at random, then went straight to the storefront counter to purchase her items, snagging some of the parchment that Albedo needed on the way.

"You're certainly in a hurry," the storekeeper commented as Sucrose heaved her books and parchment onto the counter in a huff.

"Yes, I-I am..."

She quickly paid for her six books and other supplies, not bothering to take her change mora. The stranger had made his way to the front of the store too and was about to open his mouth to say something to her before she turned her back on him. She didn't even bag up her belongings. She just started running.

After about fifteen minutes, she finally stopped to sit on a bench. She plopped her books, ink, and parchment- now slightly crinkled - next to herself and tried to catch her breath. She couldn't believe that she'd just ran around like a rat stuck in a maze all because she was worried that the strange man would follow her. But she had to be sure he wasn't following her, just in case.

Sucrose looked up at the sky and held back tears. Today was the worst day she'd had in a while - everything seemed to be going wrong. Everything. Her vision blurred and the sky blended into one shade of brilliant orange...

"Orange?!" She gasped. It was already dusk!

She had to get back. Albedo would be worried by now. She hefted her stack of books back up and took one strong step to turn around only to face the strange man from before.

"Hey!" He said, "You were at the bookstore right? What's your name? I'm really sorry about the cat joke, I just couldn't help myself. You just don't see ears like that every day-"

His words faded away to Sucrose. He approached her quite close and leaned on a nearby wall, rattling off who knows what. Sucrose felt trapped. Her blood rushed to her face and her heart pounded in her throat. Finally, her fight or flight response kicked in and she felt that she could do nothing else but close her eyes and run away.

She hadn't taken more than one step when she tripped and fell. Her books somewhat broke her fall, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

"Ow ow ow..." she winced.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't think you'd try and run that fast so suddenly!" The stranger said. He had tried to grab ahold of her at the last second to stop her, but instead only tripped her.

"G-Get away from me!" She screamed.

By then, Sucrose was so afraid that no rational reasoning would break through to her. The man was taken aback and he almost looked as though he was the one who'd gotten his feelings hurt. However there was something else written on his face too.

The man looked horrified, but he wasn't staring at her face. He was looking at her body. She scooted away from him a couple of inches before looking down at herself. Her clothes were splattered with the deep red hue of blood.