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« Mr. Albedo! I'm here! » Aether shouted as he walked inside Albedo's office, a couple of days ago he had received a letter from him where he was asking for some extra help with one of his latest experiments, so he needed Aether to do some research among the books together to save Albedo some time, at least that was he said « What do you need my help with? »
The path to Albedo's camp was longer than usual, perhaps it was because he was alone and wasn't listening to Paimon's high pitched voice talking non stop, now he began to think that it had been a bad idea not to ask her to accompany him, anyway, she was always going to be his fellow adventurer, and things without her became a bit boring.
« Mr. Albedo? Where are you? Helloooo... »
Aether wasn't really used to going to DragonSpine on his own, much less used to go on adventures without Paimon; however, since their adventure days had been kind of reduced a bit and they had chosen to stay in Mondstadt sometimes helping in the cathedral, and a few other times in the Knights' Guild, they didn't use to leave the city to go exploring Teyvat as often as before. Even so, after all, Aether's curiosity and desire to help hadn't been dulled at all, the fact of receiving that letter from Albedo asking for his help was something somehow refreshing, Aether hadn't heard from Albedo or his assistant Sucrose for a long time, he really missed them, that was always going to be one of his flaws; becoming attached to the people he had to help. Outside the tent the usual chill wind was blowing, taking with it occasional splinters of frost from the mountains high above his head, yet, inside the camp it felt warmer and more welcoming, maybe because they were near some growth of scarlet quartz, or maybe Albedo had done something to condense the warmth of the candles and lamps inside the tent and make it feel more cozy.
The whole place had a peculiar smell like something was burning, or even sulfur and something rotten, that suddenly invaded his nose, then he thought it was because Albedo was working on something new, maybe that was the new experiment, and so many chemicals and substances mixing in the test tubes resulted in that strange stench. Who was he to judge if he knew next to nothing about alchemy in the first place?
« Traveler, you're here! I didn't think you were actually coming. »
The sandy blond appeared behind a curtain that was behind the main desk, Aether got a little scared because hedidn't know there was a secret hiding place there and Albedo took him by surprise, however, Aether smiled wide and sincere when he saw his friend. Albedo smiled back, nevertheless, Aether found the way Albedo presented himselft a little strange; his hair was messy and unbrushed, he had noticeable dark circles under his eyes and he was paler than usual, in addition to that, he had a slightly lost look in his eyes, like that look that someone tries to maintain well knowing that they are dissociating. ''Maybe he's tired and that's why he asked me for help.'' the gold-eyed thought instinctively, so he tried to put those prejudiced thoughts aside.
« It would have been very rude of me not to give you my help, Mr. Albedo. » he replied smiling softly, Albedo made a strange gesture with his head as he nodded, he turned around to inspect a shelf full of bottles with some weird-looking liquids next to him, then later Aether heard the sound of glasses clinking, so he deduced that Albedo was preparing something to drink, but it didn't seem relevant to him at first. « Friends supports friends, right? »
« Right. » Albedo replied in a hissing voice « It's really cold outside and you came all the way up here with no coat on, do you want something to warm you up a little bit? I promise is not a strong shot. »
If Aether hadn't been off guard trusting that he was safe with a friend he might have been able to detect the malicious tone that Albedo's words emitted when he finished a sentence, but since Aether was there to supposedly help him, he never suspected a double intention of the request, so he nodded at the offer in a somewhat effusive way, he wasn't used to drink liquor, but he trusted Albedo when he told him that it wasn't a strong drink. The green-eyed one poured him a glass of a bubbly drinkwhich had a color between orange and reddish and smelled sugary, almost like bubble gum, so the blonde took the glass and thanked him by giving it a small sip, a sweet aftertaste immediately flooded his mouth, it tasted like sunsettias, the bubbles tickled his tongue.
« I wasn't expecting you to ask me for my help, I'm not complaining, that's obvious, but where's Sucrose? Isn't she supposed to be formally helping you since she's your assistant? I don't want her to think that I'm suddenly taking her job away. »
« Oh... » Albedo's face contracted for a few seconds to that question, his gesture was something subtle, almost imperceptible, but somehow he managed to relax his expression and smile again, it was a quiet smile, almost forced, for a moment it seemed that his lost gaze was accentuated even more « We parted ways a couple of days ago, I was too selfish to keep her and not let her attend her business with the rest of the alchemists just on a whim of mine, she helped me out for a few days, but her chores started piling up and I felt a little embarrassed for making her work for me instead of working on her usual chores. I didn't want her to get into trouble for a whim of mine. »
« I see...Well, then I'm glad to help you! Just tell me how I can help you. Research? Kick some Hilichurls' asses? What do you need? »
« I like your enthusiasm, make yourself at home, I'll go get my notebook so we can start everything from scratch, I'll be right back. »
And just as he had appeared like that he was gone. Aether took his seat and drank some more of the drink, his eyes scanned the place in search of something to entertain himself while Albedo returned, but everything seemed calm...Messy, but calm. It wasn't until among all the clutter a particular object caught his eye; Sucrose's backpack. That seemed entirely strange to him, Sucrose forgetting her things? Just thinking about it seemed odd, she was a very organized and cautious girl, she was clumsy, yes, but she didn't usually forget her things, much less the backpack where she carried important stuff with her; such as her notes, her project plans, and her bioalchemy books. Had she really gone off to the Alchemists Guild without taking that with her? Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her recently in a couple of months, what if she needed the things in the backpack for Guild business? She was probably going to get in trouble if she didn't have her notes handy, Aether knew how unsettled Sucrose could get when things didn't went her way.
Then he began to ponder: was what Albedo said about Sucrose true? Had they really parted ways? What if she was still there? Aether knew how much Sucrose loved (and idolized) Albedo, perhaps seeing that instead of her, Aether was the one who was going to help him in the most important project of his career as an alchemist would make her feel bad and even displaced, he didn't want her to feel that way, Sucrose was a very good friend and the least he wanted was to make her feel overshadowed by something she knew how to do by nature, not like him who barely knew how to use the Mondstadt crafting table. Or maybe Albedo couldn't do it just with Sucrose's help, and didn't want to admit it? Maybe he needed extra hands with some stuff, maybe that's why he called him and Sucrose was involved the whole time. Albedo didn't have to have lied to him about Sucrose's whereabouts, he would understand if Albedo needed extra help, he wasn't going to judge him for that.
Whatever the reason was, all the thinking piqued his curiosity so he got up, leaving the now empty glass aside and hesitated a little before going over to the curtain and peeking through it a bit. He looked around before opening it fully, then raised his eyebrows in surprise at what was displayed in front of him; some stone steps leading into a passage, he clearly hesitated a bit to enter, but in the end, he ended up quietly going down those stairs. The place was a little narrower than he thought, and while going down Aether realized that the atmosphere was getting warmer, maybe the place was close to some accumulation of scarlet quartz. But as time passed he felt a bit heavy in every step he took, he gave credence to the suggestion of feeling that he was doing something illegal, he didn't want to be discovered, he would just see what was going on down there and then he would go up again and act as if nothing happened, making Albedo angry wasn't the idea either.
The passageway was dark, for a moment he felt it longer than it seemed, he wondered if in all DragonSpine there were more secret tunnels that seemed insignificant but were actually stranger and deeper. He was startled again when he saw how the corridor ended, and before him, several rooms with their respective doors appeared closed except for one, Aether looked back again and realized that he realized he couldn't hear Albedo nearby, then again hesitated to enter. The whole place was brightened by the reddish tone of the quartz that grew in different protrusions that came out of the walls and even some corners, giving a slightly tenebrous appearance to the situation. Aether swallowed dry and then took two steps forward finally entering the only room that had the door open, at first at first he didn't catch anything interesting or out of place apart from empty boxes, papers, and a few shreds of cloth scattered around, it wasn't until his eyes adjusted to the darkness that he spotted a bundle lying in the middle of the room. It looked like a sack, suddenly he became aware that the stench of burning, rottenness, and sulfur was coming from there, it was very strong and it made him wrinkle his nose and almost gag.
He slowly approached the bundle to inspect it, at first he found no shape for it, but suddlenly his face twisted into a look of horror when he realized that it was nothing more and nothing less than Sucrose. There lay the green-haired girl, face up, naked and very pale, even paler than Albedo. She was dead, of course she was, but that wasn't what horrified Aether in the first place, much less the grayish hue that her body had already adopted, or that the little maggots already had began to gnaw her corneas to its pleasure, or the flies entering and coming out of her half-open mouth; what really made his blood freeze was the look of sadness and pain that she had on her inert face, and the fact that she had a long and deep horizontal cut in her stomach, the skin folds were open like a cardboard box, it gave the illusion that someone was rummaging through her guts seconds before she died, besides, her belly had a strange appearance, it was swollen, was Sucrose pregnant at the time of her death?
The blonde contained the urge to vomit, he accidentally stepped on a pool of his deceased friend's blood and then took a couple of steps back trying to make as little noise as possible in order to flee and warn the Cavalry, but he couldn't even reach the door because he felt a body collide against his, after that, a chin rested on his shoulder as some arms held him tightly by the abdomen.
« Sucrose couldn't keep the egg alive for more than 20 weeks, it came out by itself when she was taking a shower last week, and I couldn't risk the whole product just because she was faulty... » Albedo muttered in a hissing tone, Aether's heart was racing through the clouds as he tried to shake off his grip, what the hell was he talking about? What did he mean by ''egg''? Had he murdered Sucrose then? « I keep it in a jar with formaldehyde, do you want to see it? It's the proof that the world of alchemy is based on trial and error. »
« Mr. Albedo... » Aether rustled, he couldn't take his eyes off Sucrose's face, but at the same time he felt like everything was spinning and his vision was blurring, eventually the drink that Albedo had given him a while ago was beginning to take effect « Y-you... »
But he couldn't say anything else as he fainted into the arms of the green-eyed man who held him jealously against his body.
(...)
The light in the room blinded him a little, his vision was still cloudy and everything was still whirling, he didn't remember why he was there, or what that place was, the only thing he could conclude is that he was lying on some kind of a stretcher, as he woke up progressively he realized that he was immobilized by the wrists which were tied to the head of the bed, meanwhile his legs were separated and raised a little while he didn't have his lower garments. His breathing began to accelerate as he tried to move his legs which were also immobilized with ropes tied to small tripods that came out of the stretcher, he screamed and whimpered as he continued to squirm. Suddenly Albedo appeared out of nowhere in front of him, he was wearing latex gloves different from the usual ones and a surgical mask rested on his chin, he smiled at Aether when he noticed that he was awake, he scribbled a few things in his notebook and approached him.
« Good morning, darling, you're finally awake. »
« What's happening? W-what are you doing? Where am I?! »
« The idea of dying terrifies me, although it is a natural process, even for a homunculus like me, the simple thought of leaving this world without my unfinished ideas coming to nothing is simply horrifying. I still have a lot of things inside my head, and as much as I leave my projects immortalized somewhere, I know that no one apart from me will be able to carry them out the way I want. That is why I have carried out a new experiment since I don't want my legacy to end simply when my brain stops working. » The sandy blonde put the notebook aside as he sat on a rotating bench in front of him, Aether felt ashamed of his nakedness, of having his genitals exposed before Albedo who simply looked at him smiling, showing amusement of his confusion « You're my vessel now, and you're gonna bear my child, a child that it's going to be me; my exact DNA and my appearance, basically a clone of mine, with my ideas and my exact brain composition...Sucrose's body failed, that first attempt went wrong ... But I know that things will be different with you. My hypothesis was wrong, since the start I needed both male genetic loads so that the entire chromosome distribution was exact to mine, and what better candidate than you, traveler? »
« Y-you didn't have to murder her! You're sick! »
« Murder is a heavy word, Aether...Now, let's begin... » Aether sobbed as he refused and begged Albedo to let him go, he didn't understand what was happening, or what he was referring to specifically, was he going to have a baby? Did Albedo want to clone himself and use him to do his job? But as much as he begged and cried, Albedo ignored him, in fact, he got up and wrote a date on his belly with an indelible marker, immediately he turned around to go and prepare some things on a nearby table, within seconds he returned with a large thick syringe full of a soupy, whitish liquid, the syringe had no needle, instead, it was a kind of wide-mouth dropper, Albedo smiled warmly at him again, he put his fingers on his pelvis as if measuring something and then raised his eyebrows. « Nice hips, they're pretty. »
Without any further hesitation, Albedo leaned over to Aether's entrance, he inserted the syringe down there where Aether kept his secret and then pressed the valve down, allowing the previously extracted sperm to be distributed homogeneously and effectively in the blonde's uterus, he repeated this uncomfortable process about 4 more times with different syringes while Aether gulped and shifted uncomfortably, feeling a chill run up his back as he felt his hole fill with Albedo's semen, he wanted to make sure that Aether was effectively impregnated, and every time Aether sobbed trying to make Albedo give up with that, he only got an insult saying that he was going to ruin the process by being so spoiled.
« T-take it out! I don't want to do this...This is not going to work... » Aether screeched in a cracking voice, Albedo wiped the sperm residue that had overflowed from the blonde's entrance and then walked to sit next to him, he stroked his hair and then leaned in to place a kiss on his cheek.
« Don't cry, dear, it's okay, it's over for now...I'll take good care of you during this process, okay? That's why you're not allowed to leave this room, you need to be with me, I'll feed you four times a day, give you some vitamins and make sure everything's doing well inside you, it's okay, you're not alone, I'm here. »
« Please let me go, Albedo...I promise I won't tell anyone about this, you can choose anyone else to help you with this, I won't say a word... »
Albedo was right, Aether was special, he was an intersex extraterrestial being, he was going to play any role almost at its perfection no matter how gendered was it going to be.
« I don't think so, Aether, I only wanted you. Where else am I going to find another extra-dimensional being that has an uterus and at the same time a male genetic load? You have no idea how desired you are for science and alchemy, since you come from the stars you are not really a human, that is why you have no genetic load from absolutely anyone, you are one of a kind, a blank canvas that I must take advantage of, my perfect incubator. I have had to restrict myself the desire to fuck you raw in every possible way to inseminate you because I want to maintain professionalism and hygiene, but who knows in the future what will happen...Now get used to morning sickness and a heavy stomach, you're my most valuable and precious possession right now, you're carrying my whole life inside you. »
(...)
Contrary to what Aether had thought and desired with all his might, Albedo did keep his word to take care of him, he gave him his meals in order and at the appropriate times, he even let him sunbathe with the sun rays that came through one of the large windows that the house had, which as he could see, no longer it was in DragonSpine, but who knows where in the middle of a forest, not to mention the iron bars that the window had that prevented Aether from escaping. The blonde at first did not believe that the insemination would work either, but a couple of weeks later when the first discomfort appeared he felt the world fall on his shoulders, although he told himself that nothing was wrong, that it was just the suggestion because of the stress that being held captive gave him, and he never wanted to hear the reports from Albedo, who in wonder, every six days he came to the room and wrapped a tape measure around his waist told him in a euphoric tone that it was working.
Anyhow, he didn't really mentalize the whole situation until his stomach began to grow, it was a little more difficult for him to lie on his back because he felt his organs moving from their place, and whenever Albedo got to measure him Aether had an instinctive rejection and kept him from touching his belly in his daily check-ups. Not happy with all that odyssey, Aether also began felt ashamed every time he saw his reflection in the window, as he progressively lost his outlined figure and his beautiful hips, he didn't say a word when Albedo appeared to give him a shower in the tub, he simply sat on the white marble letting the water wet his long golden hair as the sandy blonde rubbed his back with soap. Nor did he complain when he came to feed him, or when he brought him clean clothes to put on, or when he sat to braid his hair, he had simply entered a state of complete denial no matter how much he saw his belly grow, and encompass a creature that sometimes moved and kicked, feeling that he was soon to explode.
« I can't believe how fast it's growing, and look at you, you're glowing, my dear... » Albedo expressed as he lifted Aether's nightgown to admire his heavy stomach, Aether shifted uncomfortably and pulled Albedo's hands away from his abdomen as he tried to move away.
« Let me go, this is stupid...I don't want to keep on playing the happy family, I want my life back... »
« You know I can't let you go at this point, you're soon to burst. »
“Will I ever be able to leave this place? ”
“Probably when you give me what it's mine you're gonna be free to return to your silly little city, for now, you belong to me, you're carrying my whole life inside of you.”
“This is insa- ouch!”
“What happened?!”
“It kicked me...”
“What? Really? ”
“Y-yes...It feels strange...”
“It means that it's working, dear, don't worry, trust me, it'll end soon.
(...)
« I'm coming, I'm coming! Stop being so loud, and for what? What now, Aether? Do you even know what time it is? I told you that you need to take extremely good care of yourself, I don't want my pilot ending up defective because you fucked up your sleeping schedule. » Albedo scolded him as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
It was almost midnight when he heard the little wails of Aether calling him from the upper floor, now that the whole project began the final cycle he had to be more careful if he wanted everything to turn out in order, he knew that the experiments were about trial and error, but getting rid of this result if it went wrong was going to cost him more expensive than usual, also he had hope in Aether's body. The golden-eyed had fallen silent when he heard Albedo enter the room abruptly, Aether was squatting on the side of the bed, trembling, his eyes closed, his arms crossed his stomach, and on the bed lay a stain of a semi-reddish liquid that was also grouped in his nightgown and down his legs.
« S-something's wrong, I-I think I peed... » Aether said, almost sobbing softly, his hands still holding his now swollen belly, he bent a little when another contraction attacked him without even know what was happening « It hurts...Please h-help me...» Aether begged.
Albedo took several seconds to react to the situation, and when he came back to himself, he rushed to the gold-eyed and helped him up, moments later he told him that lie down so that his back was suspended a little, Albedo ran to get a medicine cabinet with a couple of surgical things and hurried to wash his hands and put on some latex gloves, Aether kept panting and whimpering as he obeyed the alchemist, even with the confusion that overwhelmed him he tried to maintain his composure and not panic, but the stabbing pain was practically unbearable, he wanted to die. The sandy blonde then got rid of Aether's wet and bloody underwear and hastened to check him carefully down there, he had to struggle a bit with Aether to let him spread his legs a bit until he looked up to stare at the blonde and raised his eyebrows with a smile furrowing in his face.
« Is not piss, you broke water...It's time...It's the moment of birth! » Albedo blurted in obvious happiness and euphoria, Aether gave him a trembling look full of fear and bewilderment, the contractions increased and with each second that passed he felt that he was going to break inside, Aether wasn't prepared for anything that lay ahead, he couldn't even think because the stinging pain clouded his thoughts like a hurricane or a tsunami.
« Wh-What?! I'm not ready, I'm s-scared! » he cried, Albedo rolled his eyes in nuisance and then got up and went in search of some thick cotton blankets, Aether shifted uncomfortably on the mattress, feeling how his entire interior succumbed to that pain that burned and tore him as if he were grazing a plier in flames in through the guts, his body was beaded by a thin layer of sweat, his belly felt heavier and as the creature that he carried inside it also stirred restlessly eager to get out once and for all.
« Oh, come on, sweetie. Of course that you're ready, it's going to be okay, you just need to obey me. »
« It hurts so much, please help me... »
« I know, dear, that's the price to pay for helping me complete this important milestone in the entire history of my experiments, but you're going to be alright when it ends, I can assure you that. » Maybe that was what he also said to Sucrose.
Aether dropped his head on the pillow when the pain invaded him again, he squealed, cried, and screamed at the same time his back arched a little, Albedo meanwhile wrote down everything that happened in his damn notebook, he lingered for a few seconds until he returned to the blonde, Albedo stroked Aether's hair trying to calm him down and then helped him roll up his nightgown so that his lower torso was exposed, placed a couple of pillows on Aether's back to keep him in the starting position and then he took the little rotary stool and sat down in front of Aether again, forcing him to remain semi-seated because this was safer as much as for the baby and for Aether himself, although, certainly Albedo only cared about the brood, screw Aether if it was possible, he just needed his pregnant body, he only saw him as a walking incubator.
« I d-don't know if I can do this... »
« Oh, you need to, otherwise, you'll start to rot and the brood will kill you from inside out. » Albedo grinned as Aether looked at him with his eyes full of tears « Don't cry, you're just making things harder, you need to remain calm, okay? Now listen to me... » Albedo put his hand on the blonde's exposed belly trying to feel if his experiment was coming down in good position, he muttered something to himself and then spread his vessel's legs a bit more « On the count of three you're going to start to push. »
« I d-don't know how to do it... »
« Just do what your body tells you to do and push. »
« A-Albedo... »
« One... »
« P-please, I'm scared... »
« Two... »
« Mr. A-Albedo... »
« Three. Push now, we don't have enough time, don't ruin this. »
Aether stared at him with wide eyes, shivering and sweating as he groaned under his breath, seconds later he simply squeezed his eyes shut and began his work of pushing to deliver the brood that Albedo had insanely forced inside of him. He was bearing down with all his strength, crying and wondering to himself inside his head why he hadn't ignored that fucking letter, why had he come alone without even telling someone where he was going, why he was there giving birth to something he didn't even know if it was going to look like a human or something else. Had someone even been looking for him all this time that he had been missing? Why him? Why did it have to be him? He just wanted to find his sister and leave, he shouldn't have been so lucky to end up like that.
« A-aaha! It hurts! It hurts a lot! I can't! Make it stop, Albedo! I can't keep pushing! Y-you need to cut me up and take it out! Take it out! » Aether screeched in despair and pain, choking in tears, with one hand he was clinging to the bedding and with the other, he was holding in the position that Albedo had ordered him to be. However, the green-eyed man was fierce, he clenched his knees with a little force as he gave him a murderous look, told him to be silent, and told him that if he continued shouting the baby would kill him for a failure in the process of the delivery.
Aether swallowed hard, his throat ached from screaming, his whole body was shaking and he could hardly stay up since he was finding it difficult to breathe, he leaned back for a few seconds and unexpectedly took the strength to finish the job, inevitably screaming and cursing in the process, but who was anybody to judge? Giving birth itself was already difficult, now having the pressure of a cuckoo on top was three times as traumatic.
“I can see the head, darling. You're already crowning, you're doing great, that's it..." said Albedo. Aether pushed once again, now the brood slowly began to come with each painful effort, in addition to feeling how his insides were mashed and how he felt that with each push his organs were coming out along with the creature. Aether's face turned even redder as he squeezed harder, screaming and panting in sharp breaths. "Almost done, Aether, here comes the head, here it comes...” With one last push and a broken cry full of pain and affliction, a small baby slid onto the bed covered by that bloody amniotic sac. Aether paused for a moment as he caught his breath, still shaking he felt relieved after so much chaos, he knew the creature was already out and he didn't have to worry about the pain anymore. The place was completely silent for a few moments until a small cry came from the newborn's mouth; the gesture on Albedo's face was priceless, he had never shown so much joy in his fucking life “It's here...It's alive! ”
Albedo had quickly taken the baby in his arms, he cut the cord that joined it with Aether and wrapped the newborn in one of the blankets that he had previously prepared while cleaning the remains of the placenta from its little body. Aether leaned his head back against the pillow releasing a deep breath, he tried to look over his knees at what was happening, he heard the baby cry but Albedo had not even let him see it, with the little strength he had left, he got up again, his vision was clouded, he stretched his arms to the legitimate father of his baby and hiccupped out of inertia.
“It's a boy? ” he asked softly “Can I hold him? P-please, let me hold him...”
“Yes, obviously it's a male, and no, you can't hold it.” Albedo said inmediatly.
“A-Albedo...I just pushed him out of my own body, I'm his mother, I h-have the right to at least hold him...Please...”
“I said no, not now,...You're all sweaty, I don't want you to ruin it as Sucrose did with the first one.”
“He...It's a he...It's a baby, not a thing...”
“It's my experiment, Aether, It's my clone, a mini-me with a replica of my information and genetic traits, it finally worked, do you even realize how important is this for the bio-alchemy?! This is going to be my grant debut outside Mondstadt! ”
Aether didn't understand shit, now he was getting exasperated, the concern in his chest grew more and more as he listened to his baby cry in Albedo's arms, who lulled him into a victory smile, happy to have fulfilled his mission, of having forced to give birth to a being that would have his exact genetic load, not the similar but the same, it was practically him being a baby again.
“A-Albedo...Let me see him...” the honey-eyed asked again as he kept stretching his arms towards Albedo, the sandy blonde sighed annoyed as he ended up accepting, he delicately passed the baby to Aether who cradled him in his chest and the newborn cried out of inertia for food, he was hungry “He's so tiny...C-can I feed him? ”
“Just this time, hurry up.”
The blond rushed to uncover one of his swollen nipples from which a little milk was gushing out, then he fed the little baby who was staring at him with his beautiful green eyes, he was in fact just like Albedo, there was no doubt that the crazy motherfucker had that damn experiment done right. Breastfeeding hurt him, it took him a few seconds to get used to it, but immediately his child began to suck from his nipple all tribulation left his body, he felt at peace for a few eternal seconds until Albedo shook him out of his arms again.
“H-he wasn't done...”
“I didn't ask.” Albedo wrapped the baby in the blanket again and then started walking to the door, thousands of questions flooded Aether's head, what would happen now? Would Albedo let him see the baby again? Would he finally release him and let him return to Mondstadt partially unscathed? Where was he going? What was he going to do with the baby?
“W-wait! W-where are you taking him? ”
“Outside, there's no time to rest now that the last part has finally begun. The brood doesn't need to form a socio-affective bond with you, it will delay and ruin the whole process, and don't worry, Kreideprinz already has a room prepared from the beginning. ”
(...)
A bundle was lying in the middle of the forest near Springvale, it was the blond boy wrapped in a blanket stained with blood as well as the nightgown he was wearing, not to mention his face which had dry clots stuck to the skin of his chin. He seemed to be asleep or fainted, Amber was the first to find him, she warned the rest of the cavalry to go for him and help him, it had been surprising that since they had been looking for him for a long time, so much so that there were some who believed that Aether had perhaps died in some fight with the Abyss. It took him a while to wake up, not until a couple of days later in one of the medical rooms of the Knights' Headquarters in Mondstadt.
His head was spinning like he was on a carousel, he could feel the pain pounding in his lower back and genitals, as well as the soles of his feet when he had tried to run away from Albedo previously only to be hit in the head with a rock. The ash blonde's intention wasn't to kill him, of course not, Aether didn't knew for sure the reason, but the rock had impacted in a strategic place that would only make him lose consciousness for a while, Albedo wanted them to find him, his ego wasn't going to allow him to simply get rid of Aether without the rest of Mondstadt not seeing what he had done to him.
« What in the actual fuck, Jean?! What happened!? » Aether knew that voice, it was Venti's. « Stop looking at me like that and say something! Is he alright?! »
« I know less than you do, Venti, I'm still trying to understand all of this, when Amber called us we were surprised and grateful that he was found alive, but seeing Amber's face when they brought him in I knew it was much more serious than I imagined... » Jean tried to swallow her own words, preventing some misplaced sentence from escaping from her mouth, she scratched the back of her neck and then fixed her gaze on Diluc who was also there, trying to understand the urgency of why Venti had dragged him out of the tavern. « Aether had a very high fever and an open wound on his head, he even convulsed a couple of times but we managed to stabilize him, apparently someone had kept him somewhere far away all this time while we hung missing person posters everywhere, he also had marks from struggles all over his body, and...» she interrupted herself when she saw the face of one of the sisters who were helping with Aether's recovery, she had some papers in her hands and a frown on her face.
« Acting Grand Master... » she called « The tests...They came back positive, confirmed, Honorary Knight was carrying a fetus. » she handed Jean the papers « In fact, it was a complete pregnancy that was carried out from start to finish, there was no sign of any sudden interruption, no curettage, no nothing, the baby came out natural, he is clean. »
Everyone froze in place; Jean blanched while clinging to the wall next to her to keep from falling flat on the floor, Diluc dropped the small first aid kit he had been carrying all this time, and Venti felt the floor sink under his shoes.
« Holy Barbatos... » Diluc whispered, seconds later he was looking down at Venti, his ears were blood red and he was slightly shaking.
The first thing Aether saw when he opened his eyes was Kaeya sitting on the edge of the bed, the blue haired man had a worried frown on his face while he was muttering somethig to himsefl, then Aether saw his womb still swollen, knowing that there was nothing there anymore, he placed a hand on it and touched it nostalgically.
« Who did this to you? » Kaeya asked trying to swallow his rage, he knew about the situation long before the official document reached Jean's hands, Amber knew, she had inspected Aether before calling over the medical service so she told Kaeya everything while she had a panic attack, she described in great detail where and how she had found him dumped. Now Kaeya had gotten up quickly to rub Aether's face, relieved to see him again after thinking that he had lost him forever, however, the worry and anger of finding him in such a state didn't leave him « Where's the baby? You have to tell us who hurt you, so we can find and publicly execute that motherfucker, I swear I'll take care of him with my own hands...»
Aether opened his mouth to answer him, but from his lips only unintelligible noises came out, he knew it from Kaeya's horrified look and the strange sensation in his mouth that the matter was worse than it seemed, so Aether brought his hands to his own face and could not contain a desperate whimpering as his eyes began to fill with thick tears, Kaeya jumped out of the bed and ran to call a nurse only to find the rest of the group on one side of the door trying to assimilate what they had just been told.
Aether kept pressing his face in panic, touching his lips and inserting his fingers into his own mouth.
He no longer had a tonge.