A/N- This fanart is so beautiful! There are so many great fanart artists, I'm jealous of them!

ALBEDO LIVED IN constant fear of his powers going out of control. Since he was a creation of alchemy, the powers he had been endowed with were always in danger of overloading. He tried his best to keep them in check, not using any elemental attacks unless he had to, but even then, he felt the fire of his powers getting stronger and stronger in his heart. If he didn't stop it from going up, they would totally dominate him, take his body over, and make him attack the entire city of Mondstadt. And he would hate to attack the place he lived in and loved very much.

One day, you were doing your commissions like a normal adventurer would. They were easy for the most part, but the last one had you fighting a Ruin Guard. And those things were SCARY. They could crush an adult with a single smack of their hands. They were not to be underestimated. Even though you had pyro powers, and you should be able to melt their wood exterior relatively easily, for some reason, it still took you forever to fight Ruin Guards. Because of this, you tended to stay away from fighting them unless it was totally necessary.

You decided to go to the Knights of Favonius headquarters to ask Albedo if he would help you to fight the Ruin Guard. Albedo was a very strong and competent fighter, and sometimes you were jealous of his abilities. You knew that his powers were very dangerous, and that if he used them too much, they would overload, and he would go out of control and attack and probably kill everyone he loved. So he didn't fight much, just stayed inside his lab working on various potions and inventions that he wouldn't even go outside to test, but send his assistant Sucrose out to test. He was antisocial, and didn't enjoy forming friendships with people, calling them a waste of time and energy.

Somehow, you had managed to make his cold, distant heart warm. You didn't know how, but some part of you had made Albedo forever attracted to you. Because he didn't know how to express his attraction and love for you, you tended to stay away from him, so that he didn't feel forced to display his affection, which was something he was uncomfortable doing. It hurt you to stay away, and he knew it, but he didn't have the confidence- or didn't even have the words- to speak out against it. This made your relationship a little rocky, but you knew that he would help you to fight a Ruin Guard or any other more menacing enemy if you asked him.

You knocked at the door of his lab, and Sucrose answered. She had been his assistant since he had first started alchemy, and you knew that she had a great admiration for him. She was a very cute young woman, with mint-green hair and fluffy ears that would wiggle when she would walk. You got jealous when you thought of the things Albedo and her could do behind closed doors that you wouldn't see, even though you knew that the shy, modest assistant wouldn't dare to even touch Albedo without your permission. She knew that he was taken, and she wouldn't interfere with your relationship.

"Hello," she said in her usual quiet tone. "Master Albedo is busy doing tests on a new medicine today. Do you want me to deliver a message to him?"

"I wanted to ask him if he would help me fight a Ruin Guard. With his superior strength and power, it would help me out a lot, and it wouldn't take very long at all," you told the young woman.

She gave you a nod and said, "I'll go ask him if he's willing to go," then rushed off.

She returned five minutes later with Albedo by her side. His light brown hair (idk whether to call it light brown or blonde to be honest) was messy, and his blue eyes wouldn't meet yours, just flitted around looking at objects in the room. This was a sign that he was flustered by seeing you, and this happened often. You didn't mind it when he didn't make eye contact with you- you knew that it wasn't normal, but then again, your relationship with him was far from normal.

"Hey there, darling," you said, making his pale cheeks light up pink with a blush. "I just wanted to know if you would be able to help me fight a Ruin Guard. It would only take a few minutes, with your superior powers."

"Y/N, I-I don't think I can help you right now... s-sorry..."

Albedo stammered a lot when he spoke to you, which was only to be expected from an antisocial person who was facing the person they loved. He didn't stammer when he talked to anyone else, even the beautiful librarian Lisa. But when he faced you, he just melted. It was very cute.

"Why can't you help? It would only take a minute," you said.

"I-I have e-experiments to d-do," he said. But you could tell from the tone of his voice that he was lying.

"It's because you're afraid, isn't it?" you said, your voice unexpectedly harsh and rude. "You're afraid of powers that you've proved multiple times that you can control. You know, I don't think it's because you're afraid of your powers overloading and you destroying everything you love that you refuse to fight. I think you're just a coward! You're a coward, Albedo Kreideprinz, and I hate you!"

You ran off, not listening to Albedo calling your name and begging with you to come back. You didn't stop running until you reached the place that was marked on the map as having the Ruin Guard there. Sure enough, when you reached there, you heard the loud grinding sounds of a Ruin Guard walking, and the tall figure of one of them walked straight towards you. When it saw you with its one eye, it began to tremble in anticipation, and ran towards you with surprising speed.

You managed to dodge its spinning attacks and slaps, but you didn't notice that, while you were fighting the first one that had seen you, another one was behind you, coming towards you with its missiles primed. You didn't notice until you felt the searing pain of the missiles hitting your back that another Ruin Guard had come to attack you.

And because you didn't notice, you would be seriously injured.

You felt your consciousness fading as the Ruin Guards continued to strike you. There was blood running from the back of your head down your back in a thick, warm stream, and you couldn't move your body up from where it was lying on the ground. You looked up and all you saw were the four wooden legs of the two Ruin Guards that were hurting you.

But what was that in the distance? A flash of black, white, and brown... could it be?

"Albedo!" you cried out, with the last bit of strength you had in your weak body. Although your voice was weak and cracked, it carried perfectly over to the ears of the alchemist, who was charging the Ruin Guards with his loyal assistant Sucrose by his side.

Sucrose dropped her Anemo Hypostasis simulation on the ground, slowing down the pace of the two automatons so that they wouldn't be able to hit you as fast. But that was useless. You had already been hit far too much. As your consciousness faded, you could only hope that Albedo could avenge you by killing those two annoying Ruin Guards and cashing in your commissions for you.

That hope was the last thing in your mind as you completely lost consciousness.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------When you opened your eyes, you heard someone singing you a sweet tune, and your pain was almost totally gone. You looked up into two blue eyes and was filled with joy, thinking that Albedo was by your side, and you were being taken care of by him. But then you looked around at your surroundings, and noticed that you were in the basement of the cathedral, and the deaconess Barbara was the one who was singing and whose lovely eyes you were gazing into.

"Thank you for healing me, Barbara," you told her, and she gave you a big smile and said, "It's my job to help anyone in danger! I appreciate the thanks, though!"

With that, she danced off, and you were left alone, lying on an old, tattered mattress in the middle of a huge, mostly un-visited basement. A few sisters (nuns, not biological sisters) would walk in and out, but except for them, you were alone.

Although your pain was mostly gone, it still was hard to get up, so you stayed lying down on the mattress for most of the time, only visited and spoken to when a nun would bring you food, but left alone for the most part.

Three days passed like this, and during these three days, you began to seriously doubt the fact that anyone cared for you.

But then, on the fourth day of what you called your 'imprisonment' in the church basement, Sucrose came to visit you. The kind, faithful alchemist had come to bring you food that she called 'better than the stuff the nuns gave you' in a soft, fearful voice. If the nuns heard her insulting their food, she would be forced to kneel during all the prayers in church the coming Sunday, so she had to be quiet. With the food, she gave you news on Albedo. And what she told you hurt you to hear.

Albedo felt like it was his fault that you were hurt because he didn't go with you to fight the Ruin Guard. He had kicked Sucrose out of the lab and had been staying there for the past three days, not even going out to eat food. You were seriously concerned by the fact that he hadn't gone to buy food, but Sucrose reassured you by saying that there was a fire there that he could cook on, so he wouldn't starve unless he didn't feed himself, which was a distinct possibility.

"I've never seen my master so depressed," she said, sounding sad. "He wouldn't even talk to me when I tried to comfort him, and he refused all the food I brought for him. Even when Jean went to talk to him, he wouldn't talk to her, he would just cry about how much he hated himself for getting you hurt. You're the only person that can comfort him, it seems, and he thinks you're dead since he refuses to have anyone speak your name in his presence. Can you get up and walk over to the Knights of Favonius headquarters to comfort him, even just for a minute? He means a lot to me, you see-"

You cut her off by saying, "Even if I can't stand up without going through pain, I will run over to his side right now to comfort him!"

Sucrose smiled as tears ran down her cheeks.

"Thank you for caring about him so much," she said. "You show him the love I could only dream to show him. I must be satisfied with being his assistant, but I want something more."

Warned by your angry gaze, she quickly added, "But I know better than to interfere with your happy relationship."

You gave her a kind smile and got up to your feet to go to the Knights of Favonius headquarters. Ignoring the pain that was flashing up your back, you ran out of the basement, out of the church, and directly across the city to the headquarters building without even taking a breath. You collapsed onto the stairs of the building, gasping for breath from your long run. The two knights that were on duty helped you up, and after thanking them, you rushed upstairs and began to pound on Albedo's lab door.

"G-g-go a-away..." you heard his voice say. He sounded like he was about to cry, and he was stammering more than ever. Clearly, he wasn't doing too great.

"It's Y/N," you said. "I came to see you."

"Stop tricking me, Y/N is dead," he said firmly, without stammering at all.

"Open the door and you'll see that that's not true," you responded. "You just think I'm dead because you wouldn't have anyone say my name when they were with you, and because you want to continue blaming yourself for me getting hurt, even though it's obviously not your fault."

You heard the sounds of something being dragged towards the door, and then the sound of the door unlocking and opening. As soon as you stepped into the doorway, Albedo's body fell into your arms, and you just barely managed to catch him.

"Albedo, what happened?" you cried out, holding his upper body in your arms as his lower body and ultimately his entire body slid down to the ground. "Are you hurt? What's wrong?"

He looked up at you, his blue eyes filled with tears and shattered by so much sadness they hurt to see. The fact that he was making eye contact with you showed you how serious he was. He had never made eye contact with you for more than a few seconds in your relationship, but now he was looking straight into your eyes and shocking you.

He got up onto his feet and swayed, falling back down almost immediately. This concerned you, and you sat down in the middle of the hallway to reach out and touch his cheek. You were scared by how hot his skin felt. He had a very serious fever, and he could barely stand up because of how exhausted he was. He needed rest.

"You need to rest, love. I'll go get Barbara for you, and she can help you get back to your house," you said, not wanting to leave him but knowing that he needed healing.

You turned to go, but then you stopped and looked down at where he was lying down on the carpet that ran down the center of the hallway. He had grabbed your arm and was weakly pulling at it, trying to get you to stay with him. He didn't speak, but the meaning of his actions were clear. With a sigh, you told him, "I won't go. But let's go inside the lab, so we aren't sitting in the middle of the hallway in case anyone needs to come up here."

He nodded in response, and went back up to his feet. This time, with you holding onto his shoulders and holding him back from falling, he managed to get inside the lab before collapsing onto the hard marble floor with a loud SMACK! noise that made you wince. You closed the door and locked it so that nobody could come in without your permission, then knelt down at his side again.

His breathing was steady, but his body was shaking. It wasn't from tears, and most likely not from fear, so it was probably chills. You tried to pick him up and move him close to the stove that you noticed had been set up in a corner of the lab so that he would be warmer, but he shook his head and pulled against you, making you give up on that idea.

"You're sick, love," you told him, trying to make your tone as loving and caring as possible. "I know that you don't want to move, and you don't want me to leave you. But you should move over to the stove and let me get Barbara. The stove will keep you warm and make the chills less bad, and Barbara can hopefully heal this fever you have. You don't want to have this fever for longer than you need, right?"

"Yes," he said, his voice cracked and husky. "I want.... I-I w-want... I want you here... w-with me... p-please stay... I'm fine, I'm fine..."

"You're not fine, and you know it, Albedo. Now please let me bring you over to the stove, so you don't have to have as many chills," you begged.

"I'm fine," he responded angrily, but he let you help him over to the oven. You pulled a blanket out of one of the many cupboards he had in the lab. When he told you that it was a blanket in case of fire, you responded by saying that with the fever you had, it was as if your body was just one big fire. He laughed at that, and wrapped the blanket around himself, getting comfortable in it and rolling up in it like a hot dog in a bun. Before long, he was asleep, and you went out to get Barbara.

When you came back with Barbara, he was awake and panicking. When he saw you again, he threw his arms around you and began to sob.

"Y-you're n-not a d-dream.. I-I woke up a-and y-you weren't h-here so I thought y-you were just a d-dream... I-I'm s-sorry... I'm s-so a-a...afraid... I'm sorry..."

"You don't need to be sorry for your fear," you said, instantly knowing that he was talking about his fear of losing control. "It's natural that you would be afraid of great power. I don't blame you. I love you, Albedo, fear or no fear."

He kept on crying, but he let go of you and let Barbara sing for him. After she sang for him a few times, he said, "My chills are gone, and I'm not feeling as warm. Thank you, deaconess."

Barbara gave him a kind smile and responded with the same words she had used to respond to you, "It's my job to help anyone in danger! I appreciate the thanks, though!"

She gave both you and Albedo a curtsy then skipped out in her usual happy way, leaving you and a no longer sick Albedo alone.

"Do you know that my being hurt wasn't your fault? It was mine. I didn't stop to think, I just rushed into a fight. I also didn't listen for the footsteps of the other Ruin Guard, and I got blindsided by him. I hope you no longer feel as if my being injured is your fault, my love."

Albedo threw his arms around you and said clearly, without stammering, "I love you. I'll never leave you to fight alone ever again, my love. I love you."

"I love you too," you said, giving him a small kiss on the lips. "You are my reason for life, my reason for fighting. You are precious, Albedo Kreideprinz. I'm so glad that you're alive on this earth."

You held each other, loving each other, and enjoying the rest of your day.

A/N- This may be my longest chapter yet on Wattpad- I know that it's one of my longest ones if not the longest. 3,190 words! I'm kind of proud of myself for writing so much lmao... I hope you enjoy this chapter, I may not be able to update as much as my school starts in just a few days, but I'll try to update as frequently as I can. Love you guys!

-ASHA-