#xiaoalbether

all of them are incomplete or abandoned projects.

until he meets aether and xiao.

suddenly he'll find himself spending hours in his lab, or at windrise—and the rare occasion he gets to leave to visit liyue—at dihua marsh, sketching aether and xiao, rolls of paper filled with their expressions, hands, faces, mouths, eyes—oh god, does albedo love their eyes, he carries around several kinds of gold or yellow tints and dyes just to get their eyes right.

THEY’RE HERE THE—

think of all the found family potential

think of the found family potential i now have in the cusp of my hands i am going insane

- xiao, albedo and aether sharing an apartment

- the three of them growing an immense addiction to plants and their entire living space dominated by every kind of plant they can find and albedo keep a sketchbook/log of each plant and he sketches it and in the sides he writes little notes of its family type, watering needs, little factoids, etc

(just the three of them going plant shopping, and roaming around in a greenhouse thanks)

- they all roughly look the same size so the three of them just share all their clothes with each other, and it happens so often that they don't even have separate wardrobes anymore, it's just one big wardrobe with all their clothes in it and no one can even tell which piece of clothing is whose anymore.

- when they first moved in together (yes all these headcanons are centred around them being roommates, it's brainrot from my wip fic, deal w it), before they started dating, albedo had a crush on his two pretty roommates and he'd spend hours drawing them, to the point where he'd unintentionally filled an entire sketchbook with doodles and sketches of xiao and aether doing random things in their apartment.

- all of them cook really really fucking well and some nights they have these little competitions where they cook meals and they try to see who's dish is the best

- when xiao first moved in and saw his two absolutely unnecessarily pretty roommates, he made sure zhongli and childe never visited because he knew if they ever stepped foot into his apartment they'd immediately realize xiaos crush (it was painfully obvious to everyone except the three of them)

- fashion design major aether, making albedo and xiao model his designs and clothes

- when zhongli and childe finally get to visit, they don't stop going on about how nice xiao is to his roommates because xiao is not usually this nice and it takes every inch of his patience not to throw them out

- aether speaks to the plants when he waters them and xiao and albedo adore the mornings when aether does it

- morning person aether who wakes up with the sun and goes for early morning walks and makes coffee for his 'not-morning-people' roommates because he knows them well enough to know they stay up late and wake up even later, so coffee is as good a reason as any to at least try and get them out of bed

He collected the time they spent together like butterflies in jars, keeping each memory alive behind his glass jar to keep safe and look at on other days. On slower days. On days where Aether had one too many commissions and Xiao had Adeptal duties he could not ignore.

On those days Albedo took out his collection of jars and went through each memory, sorting through the warm feelings as he let his heart thaw in the icy depths of Dragonspine.

And although the two men brought nothing but joy to Albedo’s white plain life, there had always been a nagging feeling that disrupted his warmth, a feeling that dared to break his glassware.

Aren’t you selfish, it would ask, keeping them all to yourself, aren’t you guilty?

Albedo didn’t think of himself as possessive but—well, there had been instances: times where he’d smile a little thinner or narrow his eyes a little longer when someone brushed their hands over Aethers, or when someone got too close to Xiao.

Moments where he felt an uneasiness in his stomach, a greed he could never fully quench where he sought hard to pull them in and hold them in his hands, dragons greed he called it.

Because Durin had obviously not corrupted him enough it meant a dragon's tendency to hoard and hide prized possessions had also bled into Albedo’s newest quirks.

It didn’t help that the two men had Albedo entirely wrapped around their fingers, more often than not he found himself willingly ready to drop anything to spend time with them.

In a way his desperation disgusted him, but it was never enough for him to care to stop leaving at their beck and call.

Sure, there are times he finds his behavior selfish, and others where he’s entirely repulsed by his decisions. But the smiles on their faces are enough to transcend his mortal insecurities, he has centuries to love them, there is no use spending those years feeling uneasy.

Love had always been an unfamiliar concept but it was an emotion that came easy with Aether and Xiao. It wasn’t as difficult anymore, not to him, not if it's them.

He thinks it over once more; not if it's them, in a way it’s the truth.