Collei sighed, brushing her hair back after she knocked over the inkwell. Dappled but fading sunlight filtered through the trees next to her hollow, catching on the dust in the air and bouncing off the spilled ink.

 It had been a while since she’d met Sucrose for the Windblume Festival, and for the first time, she was at a loss for what to write in her letter.

 From the moment they’d met, Sucrose had considered herself to be similar to Collei, too anxious and too quiet to hold a conversation, always tripping up and making faux-pas, but Collei had to disagree. There was one major difference between them, and Sucrose was too kind— naïve, whatever— to see it.

 Sucrose was improving, and Collei wasn’t. Sucrose had been trying to catch up to her superior her entire life, and had an inferiority complex to boot, but as it stood, her research in Bio-Alchemy was groundbreaking. Dozens of Amurta scholars had used her genetic works as basis for medicine, even if Sucrose only saw it as making new strains of plants. Hell, even the medicine Tighnari gave Collei for her muscle spasms made use of Sucrose’ theories.

 Collei, though? If the ink seeping through the paper and into the stump was anything to go by, she was barely past square one. Yes, with the curing of her Eleazar she had more energy these days, and was no longer at risk of paralysis and premature death, but she was far from equal to her peers. She still had bad days, days where she stayed in bed and days where she broke everything she touched, and her hands still quivered whenever she tried to write.

 She scrapped the piece of paper, set another two down so that her letter wouldn’t be ruined, and tried again. Her handwriting was shaky and she hadn’t understood a lot of what Sucrose had written, but that was fine— she had other things to update her about.

 …that was a lie.

 She considered telling Sucrose how she felt, how she missed her comforting presence and soft voice, how her gut coiled with jealousy for every accomplishment she witnessed.

 Collei shook her head, rested it in her hand, and wrote about a Sumeru fairytale one of the older Eleazar patients had told her before she’d escaped from Il Dottore. Sucrose’s passion had really been what drew her in, her passion for her work, her friends, and her purehearted love for stories.

 She smiled despite herself, imagining how Sucrose would react to the letter, and finished it up with a slightly lopsided signature.

 Just as she was about to fold the letter up, the wind blew through the clearing and through the sweet flowers, the movement of the golden petals catching her eye.

 Collei hesitated.

 Sucrose wouldn’t mind if the letter was a few days late, right?  

 She shook her head— of course she wouldn’t. She gently plucked one of the buds, careful not to get the ink from her fingers on it, and resolved to have Tighnari press it.

 It’d make a nice keepsake, since Collei hadn’t been able to make a Padisarah bookmark for Sucrose in time.

  In a final stroke of genius, something rare in her case, she added a small note on the back of the letter.

 P.S. The Sweet Flowers are growing great. Almost as sweet as you! :)  

 “Sucrose, a letter came in for you.”

 Sucrose chewed her lip and narrowed her eyes, determined to get the ratio of powdered crystal cores to regular soil correct.

 “One moment!” She called back to Albedo, and carefully, ever so slowly, sprinkled five milligrams onto the potted plant. If her hypothesis was correct— it often wasn’t— she’d be able to make glowing valberries—

 “It’s from Collei.”

 She whipped her head to stare at him, accidentally dumping the entire flask over the petals. The powder clouded and covered her glasses, and with a cough she waved her hand in front of her to disperse it.

 Ah, shoot. How much had she filled the flask with…? Maybe if she could calculate how much in grams she’d added, she’d be able to salvage it, make this specimen a test of a larger quantity…

 Right, the letter. She wiped her glasses, stood, and took the letter from her superior. She clutched it to her chest, apologized to Albedo for leaving early, then speedwalked back to her dormitory so she could read it.

 There was very, very little that could distract Sucrose from her research, and even less that could make her forget about it entirely. Collei's letters just happened to be among those few.

 She shut the door to her room and opened the curtains, letting the light fall onto her control Padisarah, the first specimen of many experiments that Collei’s windblume had allowed her to do. The slightest change in growing conditions had wild effects on Padisarahs, and more importantly, in the days Collei’s letter had been delayed it had served as a reminder that she wouldn’t aband— forget about Sucrose.

 She sat down, shuddering with excitement as she examined the letter. It was heavier than normal, the envelope closer to that of a package than a letter, but still sealed with the symbol of the Forest Rangers and made from slightly green-tinted paper.

 Sucrose slid a letter opener under the seal, careful not to damage it, and pulled out the letter first. It was scented with what Collei had said was Sumeru Rose perfume, a comforting smell that Sucrose had begun to associate with what she knew about the Avidya Forest, and more so associated with Collei.

 The letter brought a smile to her face— aside from the typical updates about her progress and questions about Sucrose’ research, it detailed a folk story that Collei had learned in her childhood about a rat who traded things until he’d obtained a bride, but was ultimately outplayed by the girl’s mother.

 The sheer thought put into the letter made her face go red— Collei had figured out Sucrose’s passion for fairy tales, and instead of making fun of her, or thinking it was weird, she’d responded in kind.

 Sucrose covered her mouth with a gloved hand to hide her grin, from whom she wasn’t sure, and opened the secret compartment in her desk where she stored keepsakes. Alongside Collei’s letters were a few knicknacks her childhood friends had given her, and a couple of her favorite bones.

 As she folded the letter, she noticed a little postscript on the back, written in cute but shaky handwriting. If she wasn’t already blushing, she sure as hell was now; she tucked the letter next to the others and turned to the mystery item in the envelope.

 It slid out like a sheet of paper, and her eyes widened when she processed what it was.

 A pressed sweet flower, not yet fruiting, and nearly as big as her extra-large strain— no wonder the envelope had been so large.

 She reached into a different compartment of her desk and pulled out a caliper, measuring its diameter with bated breath. Thirty centimeters, give or take.

 She was certain she’d given Collei the seeds for her sixteenth passing iteration of the extra-sweet strain, but this…

 Sucrose gingerly placed the pressed flower in a spare specimen bag, overjoyed at Collei’s gift, and all but sprinted back to the lab, nearly knocking into Noelle in the hall.

 Sumeru was the land of Dendro, after all— how had she failed to consider the effects the soil would have on plant growth?  

 “Mister Albedo!” She said, perhaps a bit unprofessionally, “How quickly can I get cleared for an alchemical expedition to Sumeru?”

 His lips twitched upwards in a small smile. “Find something interesting in that package? Hmm… let me think…”

 After a moment’s pause he checked his schedule, his smile turning to a smirk. “Considering that I have something to send to Master Tighnari anyways, and Captain Kaeya has just returned with good news of potential collaboration with Sumeru’s agriculture industry… I can easily arrange a trip for our resident Bio-Alchemy specialist within a few days.”

 Sucrose set the bag down and clenched her hands into fists, shaking them before her in the only way she knew how to express her excitement.

 “Oh, shoot! Is the traveler still in town? I need to let Collei know!”

 …

 Avidya Forest was breathtaking, teeming with life and filled with plants and animals that Sucrose had never even heard of before— leaves dripping with collected rainwater and tigers in the sun stretching languidly across roots bigger than Sucrose' childhood home.

 "Watch out, those guys are super territorial."

 Her guide was a woman from the desert that the traveler had recommended, and as far as strangers went she had been very understanding regarding Sucrose's... whims.

 That being said, upon seeing a tiger picking at the carcass of a large-beaked, multicolored bird, she had to restrain herself for fear of embarrassing herself trying to obtain the bones. Maybe she could just mark the location on the map and return with Collei, collect a few bone samples…

 She shook her head and increased her pace to keep up with the guide.

 According to her map, they were almost there— she adjusted her glasses against the glare and stared up at the Statue of the Seven, perched on top of a uniquely shaped rock.

 "Sucrose, hey!" A voice called, stirring her out of her thoughts. Her eyes caught on Collei in the distance, waving for her like her life depended on it. "Hey!"

 Her guide clapped her on the back, a grin on her face. "Go on, this is where I leave you anyway. I've got another gig in the city, so I best be on my way…"

 Thankful for the out, Sucrose gave an awkward wave to her guide and made haste over to her friend, nearly slipping on the wet soil several times in her eagerness.

 Collei grabbed Sucrose’s hand in hers, beaming like the sun. "I missed you!"