8:12 am. It was the next day after Albedo and Sucrose had officially dated. They had some business to do and they were still quite shy about each other now that they have noticed each other's feelings. Sucrose was exploring Liyue for new items to test and bring back when she saw some island between Mingyun Village and Guyun Stone forest. She was able to spot it from afar, standing near the Rex Lapis Statue of the Seven in Mingyun Village. Far as it is, she already knew she wasn't going to make it from the Statue to the Island because of how short her stamina was.
"There must be some other way to cross... Maybe I'll try going to Guyun Stone Forest? Yeah, that sounds good."
She then teleported to the nearest teleporter, she took the domain waypoint. Once she teleported, she saw a bunch of crystal flies, slowly flying in the air. Sucrose tried to catch one, she did catch many as the others flew away in haste.
"Aww, if only I grabbed them all at once... pfft, how silly of me to think that you can grab all crystal flies. That'd be quite impossible. But I do need them for my next experiment..."
Although upset was she, she still was prioritizing the small mysterious Island. But hey, one is better than none, right?
Sucrose exited the area where she teleported and went in the direction of where she spotted the small island. Sucrose was just roaming around peacefully in the Stone forest and then suddenly, the Hilichurls decided it was a good idea to attack the curious sweetie.
"Do you mind if we attack you?"
The Hilichurl and Mitachurl asked in Hilichurlian dashing to the wandering Alchemist, calmly.
Sucrose heard heavy and light footsteps coming towards her, she didn't even notice the company she had on her back, she turned around and it was a bunch of Hilichurls wanting combat. She heard what the Hilichurls said but couldn't understand them. And instead of wasting her time trying to figure out what a Mitachurl and swarm of Hilichurls said to her, Sucrose booked it and ditched the fight the Mitachurl and Hilichurls were waiting for. Luckily, Sucrose ran out of their sight and the monsters eventually went back to their camps to do their daily thing. But what Sucrose almost stepped into one's territory was the Geo Hypostasis, it was just resting there, hovering above the ground, menacingly. Sucrose noticed the Hypostasis peacefully resting, she didn't want to disturb its slumber nor get into trouble, so she just walked by the arena.
Sucrose dragged her feet across the yellow sparkling sand, being greeted by the calming ocean breeze. She stopped for a moment to admire the beauty in Liyue and to inhale the scent of the ocean, she then continued forward till she saw an arched stone, but in a straight form. It was just like those tall stones she saw above when she looked up. Sucrose moved forward to the strange-looking stone when she saw something. It was a clover. On a stick. A clover... stick. Huh. The curious alchemist went to take a closer look, observing the simple structures side by side.
"Hmm.. what does this do?.. Wait.. what if I just..."
Sucrose unsheathed her catalyst and used her Anemo powers to hit the clover. The clover spun around and summoned a strong wind current because of how fast it spun. Sucrose was surprised because she was so clueless about how to activate it but she just randomly thought it was a good idea to use her powers to operate it.
"Huh, so it only works with Anemo."
Sucrose rode the wind current and hovered up until she reached the maximum height of the wind current. She saw a heart shape on the small island and was curious to go there. The wind current didn't stay for long, and Sucrose noticed she was hovering down slowly. The wind current was gone too. So, to make things easier for her, she plunged down instead of letting go of her wind glider.
"Why was there a random Heart on a small island? Surely it wasn't made by the Geo Archon? But this clover wind current looked like a human would make... Perhaps somebody made these?"
Sucrose asked herself with theories and questions circling her head.
"Maybe I should tell Albedo about this..."
Sucrose checked her watch, it was already 9:46. She gasped and teleported back to Mondstadt because she promised Albedo that she wouldn't take long.
Back in Mondstadt...
Sucrose rushed back to the Knights of Favonius Headquarters and the first room she went to was, of course, Albedo's office. She slammed the door open, and she was huffing and puffing from adrenaline. Albedo got startled like a cat and looked at his side, he was just drawing peacefully when Sucrose burst into the room. Albedo opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, he got cut off by Sucrose.
"I'm so sorry! I'm really, really sorry Mr. Albedo! Forgive me, when I said I'll be back later but I got back after 30 minutes! Please forgive me!"
Sucrose begged for forgiveness.
The door was slowly moving behind Sucrose, allowing it to shut itself without anyone touching the knob. It didn't make a loud noise when it closed itself but it was just a—
CLICK
"No wonder it took you too long."
Albedo sighed, moving his sketchbook and pen aside, as he stood up from the couch.
Albedo approached the bowing Sucrose before him. She felt his intimidating presence looming over her. Her wavering lips began to tremble as well as her knees. Before Albedo could talk to Sucrose, he went behind the begging alchemist and closed the door properly. Sucrose was slightly confused as to why he didn't talk to her at first but mostly terrified of what was gonna happen. Albedo went back and faced Sucrose, he couldn't stand her bowing in front of him, as it was bad posture for her. So he cupped her chin and slowly made her face Albedo, to Sucrose's surprise, he wasn't mad nor upset at all. Sucrose was now standing up straight, facing Albedo.
"I-I'm so sorry I didn't mean to take so long, I swear—"
Sucrose got cut off when she felt arms wrapping around her waist, and pulling her in a bit, Sucrose was definitely surprised because she thought she was getting... I guess you can say scolded for taking too long outside.
"I know, I'm not quite the patient person. But I didn't feel impatient, at all. In fact, I was distracted from my work that I wasn't thinking about you for a moment. But now that you're here within my grasp, I am quite impatient because my lips aren't touching yours..."
Albedo leaned in closer to the stunned, confused, and shocked mint-haired girl alchemist. Her eyes widened as she felt her lips lock onto Albedos. She slowly closed her eyes and placed her hands on his chest, a smooth yet sensational kiss. Both of them let go and before Sucrose could say another word, Albedo kissed her again. This time, it was a passionate one. Something Albedo has been wanting to do ever since they became a couple. Albedo made Sucrose walk backward until they reached his desk. Sucrose's hands were holding onto the desk, keeping her balance while one of Albedo's hands was on Sucrose's cheek and one was around her waist. They continued kissing until they ran out of breath. They looked at each other with a smile and Albedo proceeded to give Sucrose a little peck.
"I,"
Kiss.
"Love,"
Kiss.
"You."
"I... love you too..."
Silence resonated for a second until Sucrose spoke.
"Hmph, I didn't know you just wanted to kiss me.."
Sucrose pouted, standing up straight.
She wrapped her arms around Albedo as her face was heating up. She looked away from Albedo. Albedo found this too adorable.
"Of course, I missed you a lot."
"I'm sorry I made you wait. If came back sooner rather than later, you wouldn't have missed me a lot."
Albedo tightened his grip on Sucrose's slim waist but softened it as he didn't want his grip to be too tight.
"Darling, the moment you left the room I already missed you."
Albedo replied, quickly doing a small kiss on her lips.
Sucrose's ears intensely jolted upwards before shakily hovering down. She felt her heart flutter and melt all at once. Those words made Sucrose heat up on the face. So much for saying "shy" to each other, I clearly underestimated those 2 love birds. My apologies.
Darling...! Omigod, omigod, omigod! Eeek!!
She squealed internally.
"Um.. besides bursting into your room in such a rush, my apologies. Uh... I just discovered a mysterious island in Liyue. I wanted to show you so we can investigate it together if you don't mind that..."
"I don't mind it at all, it's always fun to go on adventures with you."
Albedo said with a warm smile, releasing his arms from Sucrose's waist.
Sucrose's eyes lit up.
"Let's not waste any more time, shall we?"
Sucrose nodded in agreement.
"Let's go!"
Sucrose and Albedo teleported to the location Sucrose mentioned. Once they were there, Sucrose saw that the crystal flies were back, this time, she caught two. She let out a silent victory "yes!". Albedo giggled because Sucrose somehow reminded him that she's like a cat.
"Why do you need the crystal cores?"
"Oh, um.. for my lastest testing experiment I'm going to do it later."
"Okay. Well, now that we're here, lead the way."
Sucrose nodded. She then led the way to the designated place where she once found the path to cross the island while Albedo followed her. They saw the Hilichurl camp and decided not to bother with them and they stayed very far away from them. Luckily, they didn't start any trouble, though they spotted the sleeping Hypostasis in its arena.
"It's best if we stay out of its view..."
Sucrose warned, beginning to hold Albedo's hand. Albedo didn't mind that at all.
Sucrose saw the stone arch she once saw, and so did Albedo.
"There it is!"
Sucrose exclaimed, sounding excited.
They went to the top and they stopped when they saw the clover.
"How peculiar. This stone we're standing on really looks strange."
"That's what I thought about earlier. I am quite interested in what's the history behind this Stone Forest... But let's not learn the history behind this location for now. It's for another day."
Sucrose said.
Albedo nodded back, he noticed the clover behind Sucrose.
"What's this?"
Albedo asked, approaching the clover-like structure.
"It's some sort of wind current summoner. I guess it was made by humans."
Sucrose replied.
Sucrose unsheathed her catalyst once more and hit the clover with her Anemo powers. The clover spun around so fast that it once again summoned the strong wind current. Sucrose rode the wind current and so did Albedo, they reached the maximum height of the wind current and when Albedo reached Sucrose's hovering height, she went on ahead gliding to the small Island and Albedo followed. It was only a few minutes till they reached the island. Sucrose landed gracefully on the sand, following Albedo next.
"Interesting. There's a random heart on a small island."
"It is very strange and interesting indeed. Though it doesn't look like it was the work of the Geo Archon..."
Sucrose mentioned.
Both of them approached the heart. Sucrose observed it side by side, angle by angle. While Albedo was just standing inside of the heart, observing it in general.
"This seems humanly made."
Albedo said, crouching down as he grabbed a handful of sand and let the sand fall from his hands to the ground.
"What happens if we stand inside the heart?"
Sucrose theorized as she pushed her glasses up while she stood behind Albedo.
"Hmm.. sure, you take the other half."
Sucrose nodded, she walked over to the other half and Albedo stood up and moved a bit forward from his position. Both were standing in the other halves and somehow, somewhat, a chest just appeared out of nowhere. Sucrose got startled to the point she jumped a bit, but Albedo didn't.
"What the— how did a chest appear out of nowhere?"
Sucrose was slightly startled in her tone of speaking.
Albedo investigated the chest from the outside before opening it
"This world really is full of so many mysteries..."
Sucrose mentioned.
Albedo opened the chest and mora and artifacts were shining inside. Albedo was disappointed because he isn't swayed by the mora. Sucrose was just interested in why there were artifacts in there.
"Whoever put a random chest on this small island is quite naive."
Albedo sighed in disappointment.
"Because you really aren't interested in these kinds of rewards, huh?"
"Exactly."
"But isn't it really strange for it to pop up like that? Must've been a puzzle or something. It must have a meaning behind it.. right?"
Sucrose said as she got one artifact and observed it.
"Mmm.. probably."
Sucrose was done observing the artifact. She didn't want to be greedy so she decided to put it back where it belongs, and the chest disappeared, knowing they didn't want the contents the chest offered them.
"Well, I guess that solves about it for this... although.. maybe there was some sort of mechanism underground that..."
Sucrose was blabbering on and on about her theories for this island, she kept on waving her finger like a wand and it looked like she was connecting dots midair. Albedo found it cute to see her think deeply about this.
"...and maybe that's why the chest popped out of nowhere!"
Sucrose realized she was blabbering the whole time and she had forgotten of Albedo for a moment.
"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, please forgive me! I-I didn't know you were still here! I didn't mean to ramble that much about my theories—"
Sucrose apologized and waved her hands constantly in a stammering apology.
Albedo just let out a hearty laugh, Sucrose was mixed with confusion and surprise.
"W-why are you laughing at me? Did I do something wrong? I'll fix it immediately!"
"No, no, no, no, you didn't do anything wrong. It's just that you're so adorable when you think deeply about this, you know that?"
"Oh.. uh, no I didn't know that.."
"Well, now you know."
The ocean breeze flew by and so did the silence, though it was only for a little while.
"But I still don't get it."
Sucrose mentioned this even though her theories were quite reasonable.
"What is?"
"My theories could be correct but it doesn't sound very reasonable.."
"Maybe it's because..."
Albedo added, grabbing Sucrose's arm and pulling her in. Albedo held Sucrose's waist, she was stunned because it was quite sudden of him to do that.
"...whoever stands on this island, shall be greeted with a chest filled with love and be together as a couple."
"But it was just a chest filled with riches and we are already together—"
The sudden realization to Sucrose of what Albedo meant.
"Heh, you mean it's a sort of matchmaking island?"
"Exactly."
"That makes a very good point. You are quite flirty with your words, you know that?"
Sucrose replied with a lovey-dovey tone, wrapping her arms once again around Albedo's neck.
"I know."
Both of their faces were leaning close to each other's until their lips touched in a soft, chaste kiss. When Albedo pulled away, Sucrose would never admit it but it looked like she wanted more.
"Do you... want me to continue?"
Albedo hesitated to ask.
Sucrose nodded. She didn't really have a choice because her heart had already decided. Albedo didn't hesitate to kiss her once again. Their eyes started to close again. Albedo's hands moved to Sucrose's cheeks as he bit her lip, asking for entrance. Sucrose complied and she opened her mouth to let Albedo in. Albedo used his tongue to roam around her mouth, getting every taste of her. They needed a moment to catch their breaths so they pulled away and panted. As much as Albedo wanted to continue, they needed to head back to the headquarters as they have lots of work and experimenting to do, but they felt tired so it was best for them to put work aside for today.
"Did you like my little gift?"
Albedo asked with a smug and bold smirk.
"I... did. But that wasn't nearly what you call 'little.'"
Sucrose paused.
She was still surprised about what she and Albedo had just done. Her face was heating up, and she was blushing all over the place. She still needed a moment to process what was happening. She wouldn't lie though, she liked it. The way they just poured out all of their emotions into the kiss, not to mention how Albedo acted all needy. Yup, I have underestimated them greatly. I guess they've been wanting to express these emotions to each other for a long time now..
(Credits to -scqra who made these kissing scenes, I needed her help because I'm so trash describing kissing scenes. Hello, present Sylvaine here — apparently, she changed her user as she is no longer acquaintanced as -dazchu. To those who read this fic before it was rewritten and edited, I'm guessing you know who she is. Yo, Sofi, if you see this cause I tagged you: hello my love <33)
"Phew, I'm so tired—"
Sucrose was about to comment about going back to Mondstadt when she felt and heard her stomach grumble. A long silence occurred when her stomach was done complaining and demanding Sucrose for food. She looked back at Albedo after looking at her stomach. And then she started to feel the heat on her face, for her it was really weird and embarrassing for her tummy to grumble rudely like that.
"Let's go to Good Hunter in Mondstadt, then?"
Albedo suggested.
"S-sure..."
Stuttered Sucrose in embarrassment.
They went back to Mondstadt to eat lunch. They ordered food and discussed some matters and decided if they should even continue work, Sucrose suggested yes, but Albedo declined.
"But.. why not? We have lots of work to do, we can't put it aside like that."
"I just want to be with you rather than work."
Albedo crossed his arms.
"But you have to control yourself when it comes to me! It's not like I'm some magnet to you, am I?"
Sucrose replied.
Albedo sounded bold, but Sucrose pulled the Uno Reverse card, sorry Albedo, better luck next time. Raise the white flag, cute and mad girls are too much to handle.
"S-sorry.."
Albedo sounded remorseful.
"Sometimes I wonder how you changed because of me being in your life..."
Sucrose sighed.
Albedo felt like a puppy being scolded by its owner. Sarah accidentally eavesdropped on their conversation while she was cooking another order.
"Love birds."
Sarah sighed and just laughed it off continuing to mind her own business.
The two alchemists then left the table and thanked Sarah for the meal, Sarah smiled back at them. Sucrose and Albedo went back to the headquarters to go back to their experiments, research, and investigation. A long day it was indeed, and so is this chapter—
Oh my! My apologies, I didn't mean to break my narrative state. Well, I might as well do so as this bonus chapter has come to an end.
I hope you enjoyed it!
End of the Bonus chapter
Rewritten and edited May 12, 2022, 5:17 pm