Work Text:
Recently, Albedo was commissioned by metal workers in Liyue to come up with a way to be able to tell, approximately, how pure their metals were. In doing this, they would be able to discern which alloys could be used and which alloys needed more work before they could be used. As he wasn’t up to any personal matters, he took the task to have something to do in the lab. He was making good progress. So far, the acid prototype would dissolve steel containing up to 1% carbon.
Recently, Albedo abandoned his commission in favor of staring at the man writhing on his floor.
Tighnari was curled up, his tail shoved between his legs, and shaking. It wasn’t because of the cold– Tighnari had been up in Dragonspine for a little over a week after Albedo invited him. He wouldn’t respond to anything Albedo said or asked him. From the way his ears flicked towards Albedo’s voice, it wasn’t because Tighnari couldn’t hear him. Usually when adventurers got sick in the cold climate, it was far less… aggressive than how Tighnari behaved.
Out of concern for his partner’s wellbeing ( as well as not being keen to explain a corpse found on his property ), Albedo helped Tighnari to the small bed in the corner of the room. He gave a quiet warning before starting to undress the hybrid, hoping the fireplace was enough to keep Tighnari warm. Albedo needed to check underneath the clothing; frostbite needed quick and efficient amputation lest it be allowed to spread through the body.
Clothing landed with a dull thud next to the bed. Soon enough, Tighnari was bare-chested and Albedo could give him a quick check. Nothing out of the ordinary. All the scars on Tighnari’s body were healed and aged, nothing that could have caused his current demeanor. Albedo pulled off Tighnari’s boots and was about to do the same to his pants when he saw the wound. A deep bite mark in Tighnari’s leg in the area where his pants ended too high and his boots were too short.
He stared at the wound for a moment. There was still frozen saliva stuck to Tighnari’s skin. He picked it off while ignoring Tighnari’s yelps of pain, how Tighnari’s fists gripped the sheets so hard his knuckles turned white. He ignored how hard Tighnari was working to breathe and how anxiously his tail moved. There was only one thing on Albedo’s mind.
Neither of them had much time.
Without a word, he moved to his workbench and picked up a pair of Dandelion Gladiator Shackles. After a brief second of thought, he obtained a second pair. When he came back, he said nothing and cuffed Tighnari’s hands together. He then attached the second pair to the chains of the first and the bedpost. In less than a minute, Tighnari was tied up without a way to escape.
His tail thrashed violently and his ears pressed back against his head. “Albedo, what’re you doing…?” Even speaking gave him some difficulty. His words were too clean-cut and his jaw was unwilling to move for him. If he wasn’t so focused, Albedo would have found humor in the way Tighnari looked scared. His eyes, pupils two different sizes, were wide and full of fear. Instead of answering, Albedo reached down and tore a strip of fabric from Tighnari’s shirt. He was barely able to gag Tighnari with the way Tighnari was panicking like he was.
“Ahbehdo!” He cried. He tried to sit up, but his chains prevented him. An animalistic growl, one that Tighnari rarely let slip out, rumbled from his throat. He winced. “Leh me go.”
“I’m afraid I cannot comply.” Albedo had his back to Tighnari. He was in the middle of retrieving materials from his desk. He pulled up a chair about half a foot away from Tighnari and sat, propping his leg up so he could rest his notepad against it.
“Tighnari.” The man tried to hiss but the fabric in his mouth pressing his tongue down didn’t let him. Albedo went on. “Approximately how long ago did you receive the wound on your leg?”
“Ah you sehriuhsly doingh ‘is righ’ now?”
“I only have so much time before you lose your mind.” Albedo tapped his pencil impatiently against the paper. “Answer the question.”
“Uhn ‘our aho. Why ah’n’t you hehpingh me?!”
“Hm. Pardon my excitement. It isn’t every day you catch a rabies victim still able to speak.”
Tighnari’s whole body tensed. “RABIES?”
“Which creature bit you? Was it an animal or a monster?”
The hybrid’s body seized and moved violently as if he were trying to run. Albedo rolled his eyes. He was already infected, there was nothing to run from. Tighnari’s eyes squeezed shut and he choked on his own spit.
“What bit you, please.”
“Weasuhl,” Tighnari said as if it were an insult. Albedo jotted it down.
“Were there any other symptoms before you returned?” If looks could kill, Albedo knew he would be dead long before Tighnari. The man glared at him with such hatred as if it were illogical for Albedo to be collecting data on a rare disease. The information he gathered from Tighnari could be used to help come up with a vaccine or similar cure for the affliction.
“Die.”
“Tighnari.”
“‘ever. Sohre t’roat.” Quietly, he added, “sohre bah’y…”
Albedo nodded and quickly wrote down what Tighnari told him. Within the first hour of infection, symptoms appeared as any other sickness. If Tighnari returned any earlier, Albedo probably would have brushed it off as a common cold. He tapped the eraser to his bottom lip. That was probably the reason many people waited until the only cure was fatal. If there was a way to–
Tighnari suddenly arched off of the bed. The spasms were getting worse, more violent, as time went on. Albedo quietly observed, fascinated. If he got up to stop the actions, it would get in the way of his authentic, first-hand viewing. There were hardly any resources about rabies anywhere, so every second he could spend watching the symptoms progress was as valuable as mora to him.
Saliva gathered at the dark fabric between Tighnari’s lips. It was so excessive that it began to leak forth. Since it came from between the gaps in his teeth, due to how hard Tighnari’s jaw was clenched shut, it emitted as a foam rather than a thick liquid. Tighnari bared his throat and Albedo distantly wondered if it would have gotten clawed to shreds had Tighnari not been restrained. Suddenly, he was hit with a connection.
Tighnari had difficulty breathing and swallowing. He also had an excess of saliva in his oral cavity, something most humans absolve by sending it down their throats. By observation, it seemed like the part of his neck covering his throat slightly bulged. Therefore, Albedo concluded, the disease made patients’ throats swell up so severely that it blocked it entirely. Furthermore, connecting this fact with the muscle spasms, body soreness, and clenched jaw, Albedo inferred that rabies affected the brain. Something that caused a full-body shut down like the one he was witnessing could only be the work of the control center of the body malfunctioning. Of course, he would need to test it before claiming his findings as fact.
Tighnari’s screams of agony were muffled by his makeshift gag.
“Can you please be quieter? You’re interrupting my thinking.” Ever the passive-aggressive man, Tighnari seemed to cry out even louder after Albedo asked him ( very politely, he might add ) to quiet down. “All that yelling isn’t good for your throat.”
“K- AGH- Kill me! P’ease, Behdo!” Tears streaked down Tighnari’s cheeks. “C- NGH- Can’ ‘ake it!”
“I still need to make observations. Please hang on for a bit longer.”
Time passed. Not much progression happened in terms of symptoms. Tighnari writhed and moaned in pain as if his life depended on it. As if, if he was pathetic and revolting enough, Albedo would release him. Foamy spit dripped onto his chest and then onto the sheets of the bed. Albedo made a note in his margins to wash them after he was done observing. He wasn’t exactly at risk of becoming rabid himself, it was just gross to him to sleep in someone else’s saliva. Tighnari continued to beg for mercy ( death ) and Albedo remained merciless ( observing ).
After only an hour, Tighnari let out a quiet gasp. It was the first quiet sound he made in almost the entire time he was under Albedo’s watch. His entire body went rigid, from the tufts of his ears to the tip of his tail. Stock still. Then… nothing. That, however, was something Albedo had seen before. Cardiac arrest, plain and simple. He jotted down the end result before setting his notebook aside.
He broke the chains of both pairs of shackles. He gently removed them from Tighnari’s wrists and tenderly rubbed the marks left behind from so much movement. He was careful when he unknotted the strip of fabric from behind. Careful to not pull Tighnari’s hair, careful to avoid getting spit on his own hands. With the wet strip of fabric pinched between two fingers, he swiftly moved to the fireplace and dropped it into the flames.
Tighnari’s lifeless eyes stared at him while he dressed to go outside. Before he left, he tucked his partner’s body into his bed so Tighnari could rest comfortably underneath the warm sheets. Tighnari’s forehead, when Albedo pressed the back of his hand against it, was no longer hot. It wasn’t even warm. Albedo dared to say that Tighnari was growing cold! Hopefully the bedding and the fire would help warm him up while Albedo was out.
He stuffed a few Omni-Ubiquity Nets into his coat pocket. The door to his home was shut softly as if he would wake Tighnari if he closed it too loudly. After that, he started off into the snowy terrain. He needed to run further tests, after all.
In order to do that, Albedo had a weasel to catch.