#almost forgot to post here woops

Genshin Impact | @albelumiweek 2021 Day 5 | Jealousy | AO3
Summary: Jealousy, in three parts. 
Notes: trying out some different characterization than my usual?? jealousy isn’t something i tend to go for, but it’s also for that reason that made me start thinking how it might work for these two?? O:

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Lumine feels his stare like a brand upon her back, and she itches to turn, to meet his stare with her own.

She does not, but is also not above maneuvering herself so that she can glance at him out of the corner of her eye. Albedo is unashamed in his scrutiny, and if he needed an excuse, there is a sketchpad in his hand, a stick of charcoal in the other. A familiar sight amongst the populace of Mondstadt.

Kaeya leans down to speak against her ear, closer than necessary.

“Like a hawk,” he says, with a mischievous smile, “There is no escaping a gaze like that.”

“How fortunate I’ve no intention of escaping,” she drawls, and Kaeya throws back his head and laughs.

“Am I about to incur our dear Chief Alchemist’s wrath?” he says, amused, and Lumine tilts her head, thinking.

“You look as though you want to see it. But no; I suspect he is figuring out how to balance his normally amiable feelings towards you, and the displeasure that he feels now. He would not act upon what he does not quite understand so hastily.”

Kaeya raises a brow.

“You know him well,” he says admiringly, then pauses as he considers her words. “Oh…so I’m not the only one who’d like to see him crack a little, is that it?”

Lumine smiles, stretching out her arms above her head, casual as can be.

“Who’s chasing who?” she asks, and Kaeya laughs again.

“Good luck,” he says anyway with a shrug, but Lumine’s returning smile is sharp.

“I won’t need it,” she says, her tone absent and airy, “He’s already mine.”

Kaeya gives her one last amused look and a pat on the shoulder before they part.

Albedo’s gaze is no less intense even when she speaks to him, but she pretends ignorance and goes about her business as usual. His eyes are drawn to her whenever they are in the same vicinity, and she feels their weight more and more frequently as the days go on. She says nothing, lets him look.

His gaze burns and burns and burns, and she soaks it up, as though the heat is hers to begin with.

T W O.

Her stare is like a breeze—ever-present, caressing, transient. She’s gone by the time he turns to look for her; at most he occasionally glimpses her hair or skirt. Her attention is not unwelcome, but it makes him…twitchy, the constant slight weight of her eyes, lifting the moment he addresses it.

It affects his mood, over time; even Sucrose notices when he scatters vials of powder over the alchemy bench one too many times. Kaeya finds his restlessness amusing, and Albedo—can’t look at him, for more reasons than one.

Lumine herself isn’t avoiding him, no matter how fleeting her stare. They speak at regular intervals—about work, about alchemy, about their daily lives. But there’s a strange—performativity to it, almost, or something like it. Her eyes are knowing, half-taunting, and when he parts with her he feels a sense of disappointment, as though he’s failed to grasp something.

Her gaze becomes soft pressure, and he feels a little like a mouse in a maze. It becomes a stronger sort of pressure when he meets Mona at the gates and invites her for dinner, when he sits down to listen to Barbara, when he sketches portrait after portrait of Huffman. Albedo is not afraid, but it does touch upon some sort of instinct.

It feels as though she is everywhere, like wind or light—intangibly present. It makes him frustrated, just a little, this consistent grabbing at smoke, the chasing for some end result only to have it flutter out of reach.

“It’s Big Sis Lumi!”

Klee’s voice and words cause him to jerk his head around perhaps a little too sharply to where she is pointing. His sister does not notice his haste, too busy jumping and waving at Lumine, who is a atop the plaza wall, overlooking the city.  

The Traveler gives a lazy wave, and even at this distance, she meets Albedo’s eyes. He does not think he mistakes the curl of her lips before she hoists her legs over the edge and disappears towards the cathedral.

“I wonder what she was looking at?” Klee muses.

“I wonder,” Albedo echoes absently.

They’re like lightning, sometimes, her eyes. Bright, flashing. Stirring. He feels the slight breeze of her beginning to storm, waiting and watching for him, and he—

He wants to pin her down, wants her solid between his hands. Wants the shock of her, the crackle, the violence of the strike not once, but twice.

T H R E E.

“I owe you an apology.”

He skims his fingers on her table outside Angel’s Share, and Lumine blinks up at him from her drink. She tilts her head to indicate he should sit, and he does so politely, folding his hands.

“You do?” Lumine asks curiously, and he inclines his head.

“I’ve been presumptuous,” he says, hesitating before he continues. “I will confess that since we have become closer, I find myself wanting to occupy more and more of your time.”

Her smile is catlike, her eyes bright.

“Is that so?”

“It is. I would never want to inconvenience you, and people are not meant to be…kept. And yet…”

He tilts his head, and she laughs.

“How novel,” she says, to his slight surprise.

“It does not bother you?”

She shrugs, then leans over a little and lays a hand against his collarbones, whether in an intimate gesture or to push him back against his seat, he’s not sure.

“Make no mistake, Albedo,” she says, voice low, “You are the only one to can handle me.”

It is in moments like these she makes herself known— a traveler from another world, and something other than human. There is a viciousness to her smile, even as there is trust—but with all of her focus on him at this moment, as if they are the only two in the world, all he feels is relief and gratification.    

His fingers encircle her wrist, not at all a light touch.

“Good,” he says, and his lip curls at her blink, “I look forward to seeing if you are the same for me.”

Shelaughs, delighted and unrestrained. For a second, she leans closer, her lips parting slightly as though she might kiss him—or bite—

But she pulls back, glancing to the side, and a slow clap sounds.

“What a shame. But either way, you two will be the talk of the town, now,” Kaeya says, amusement shining in his eye. “But carry on, carry on.”

“Won’t you join us?” Lumine asks innocently, gesturing to the empty seat at the table, but Kaeya laughs.

“Oh, no,” he says, pushing open the tavern’s door, “The weather seems far too dangerous out here. I’ll take my chances with the ever-so-dour Diluc.”

Lumine and Albedo turn to each other again when Kaeya goes inside, staring at one another across the table.

“Do you have some time currently?” Albedo asks, his voice polite again.

“I could spare some,” Lumine says, and Albedo smiles.

Overhead, as they leave the tavern behind, the clouds darken and the winds pick up, birds twittering their alarm. The merchants begin packing up their wares, anyone else outside hurrying home before the incoming storm breaks.  

In the slowly emptying city, Lumine and Albedo take their time as they stroll about the ramparts.