Chicken-mushroom skewers

After a while of walking through grassy fields Kaeya had finally made it Dragonspine, which to his surprise, was cold. He tried following the path he usually went on while looking for hillichurls and other unwanted creatures but ran into a problem when the path split into two. He reached for the map he had, which didn't help him since he had forgotten to mark where albedo was.

Kaeya let out a loud sigh and stopped to think for a moment. He really didn't want to turn back since he was already in Dragonspine, so he chose to keep searching. He turned his head from side to side while he walked looking for any signs of Albedo or his lab.

Now that he was looking around he noticed that the mountain was far prettier than he remembered. Wind was swirling around the top carrying ice pellets and snow along with it, Kaeya hoped that was not where he needed to go. The air had an icy chill to it, which Kaeya found relaxing. Taking a small break from his usual work was something he needed.

During his search he ran into small problems like slimes but he quickly took care of them or simply kept walking past them. He continued to search but didn't know if he had gotten any closer or just further. Kaeya wasn't even entirely sure what he was looking for.

By now the cold had managed to pierce through his jacket to his skin and his scrapped hand was stinging a bit from how dry his skin had gotten. He'd have to talk to Klee about not bringing her bombs inside.

He ran into a destroyed wooden bridge blocking his path. Rather than turning around after all of that walking he decided to try climb the rocky mountain to cross it. The cold seemed to travel through his hand almost instantly. By the time he finished, which did not take long, the cuts on his hand had opened back up.

Luckily Kaeya saw a faint orangey glow coming from a cave. He turned around the corner to see the blonde boy he had been looking for crouched in his chair going between writing notes, and reading a book. The alchemist hadn't noticed someone else with him and continued his work.

"Why hello there"

"Ah- oh umm Sir Kaeya? Come in"

Albedo spoke in a startled tone at first but quickly switched to a polite tone once he recognized it was Kaeya. Almost instantly Albedo was zoned back in on his work. Kaeya hurried in and began warming his hands. He peeked over the alchemists shoulder to see what he was working on but failed to understand most of what was written aside from lists of what seemed like failed attempts.

"I've brought some chicken-mushroom skewers from the good hunter for us to share, I'm hoping they're at least a little warm but I could probably... Albedo? "

"Right, I apologize. Just one moment please..."

And just like that Albedo was completely zoned into his work yet again. Rather than continuing to bother him Kaeya began to snoop around while he waited. The first thing he laid his eyes on was a drawing of a hillichurl. He found drawings of other people scattered around too.

Kaeya spent some time admiring all of albedos art he saw before moving on to the potions. There were tons of colourful bottles which didn't have labels. He picked up some bottles, swirling them around in his hand to see if he could guess what was in them.

"Don't touch that one! Please sit down I just need to finish one thing"

Remembering what had happened last time he touched something he did not have permission to touch he sat down. Kaeya removed the skewers from his bag and began trying to warm them over the fire since they had cooled down quite a bit.

Once Albedo had finished mixing another potion he moved his seat to be at the fire with Kaeya. Rather than starting a conversation or telling the blonde boy why he was there he sat there in silence. He had forgotten how perfect Albedo's face seemed to be. Usually albedo's hair was up somewhat neatly when he saw him but now his hair was a mess. He probably hadn't fixed it in a while seeing how busy he was working.

He moved his hand a little too close to the fire which brought him back out of his thoughts. So he motioned the chicken-mushroom towards albedo.

"Here, you can have this one"

"Thank you"

Albedo took the skewer and began to eat it but stared at Kaeya who had also begun eating, waiting to hear why he was there. He'd only seen Kaeya a few times but couldn't remember anything that would give him a reason to suddenly show up to his lab. After Kaeya had finished his first skewer he remembered why he had come and realized he hadn't told Albedo.

"The Acting Grand Master sent me to check on you since you haven't been down in a while, she'd also like to ask you for help with something, I'm not quite sure what though."

"Ah, I've been somewhat busy trying to figure this one thing out, I found an old book and wanted to give it a try but the potion has never worked."

Kaeya wasn't exactly sure how to respond so he nodded along while he finished eating. The blonde boy tucked a loose strand of his hair behind his ear and continued to speak.

"I suppose a break from this would be nice and I could talk to Timaeus and sucrose about this once more...

I'll have to finish up this attempt first but I can go see Jean after"

Albedo stood up to return to his work leaving Kaeya at the fire alone again. Kaeya stood up and followed behind albedo.

"Maybe I'd be able to assist you?'

Albedo stopped and thought about before turning back around and nodding his head.

"Yes, I think you could."