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Aether has lived a long, long time, longer than Albedo, or even Dainsleif have. They've spent many hundreds of millions of years navigating their own grief amongst the stars. With such great time comes experience, and with that experience comes an eye that recognizes.
It's in moments like these, where Aether sees the stiff slope of Klee's shoulders, flowers clutched tightly as she gazes over the lip of the waterfall, that they're reminded. It's in remembering hushed conversations with Albedo, in learning human rituals and customs, in overhearing condolences that have been politely hidden from pointed ears, that Aether is reminded.
Children navigate through grief, too.
They're reminded of when they were first faced with that burden, with that sickening realization that someone that they'd gotten attached to had passed. Of when they'd had to leave their first world. Of when they'd experienced their first war.
Children are not bogged down by the responsibilities of adulthood, but they are not clueless, either.
Aether moves from where they'd been standing, hand brushing over the boulder that blocked the clearing off from the rest of the world. They called out quietly as not to startle the child.
"Klee?"
Klee startles anyway, watching Aether with surprised, tear stained cheeks as they approach. Their suspicions confirmed, Aether smiles warmly. "Are you alright, Klee? I'd come to look for you when you'd taken long," Aether asks, softly putting a hand on her head. Aether was watching Klee on this flower picking trip, Paimon going off to hang out with Amber today. Albedo was too, but he'd momentarily left to wash his coat after an accident with dinner and one of Klee's bombs.
It was an annual trip they both made, an understandably private one that Aether had nearly declined being invited on, but... They could not ignore the look Albedo had in his eyes when he'd asked. Albedo had requested to work closer to home, recently. His flimsier and flimsier excuses to share in Aether's company did not slip by the alien's attention, either.
Aether understood feeling alone. They would not ignore calls for help, even the subtlest kinds.
"Yeah..! M' alright..! Just-Just thinkin'..." She mumbles quickly, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her sleeves. "Oh?" Aether hums curiously, knowingly, and squatting down beside her. "A mora for your thoughts, then?"
Klee fidgets with the flowers she'd collected. Snap Dragons, her mother's favorites. Aether then notices something change in Klee. It's something in how her posture changes the slightest bit, the tension in her expression shifting minutely. Maybe she decides something, or maybe she lets go of something? who knows... "I..." She trails off, looking off into the distance with an unreadable expression on her face. She'd done that a lot today. Actually, she'd been rather subdued all week, now that Aether thinks about it. They have a hunch as to what she's about to say.
"I know my mom died... I know that's why we gather flowers here every year," She says hesitantly. Her voice is quick, quiet, blunt in the way only children really are. Or maybe that's just what people who've been mulling on something for too long sound like.
A confession. Not of guilt, Aether knows, but a confession nonetheless.
Aether, sitting in a way that lets them see both Klee and the water fall's source (a large pond), sees the conversation's third party stiffen. Aether can sense Albedo staring, listening, but does not meet his gaze. Not yet. Klee's not done yet.
"You've known too, haven't you?" Klee asks, peeking up through her bangs at them with watery, red rimmed eyes. Aether's smile saddens. "Yeah..." They admit, equally as quiet as they glance at Klee's gathered flowers.
Aether thinks back to coming across Albedo in an alleyway near the teleport anchor, recoiling with magically induced nausea in his hurry to pick Klee up from Favonius headquarters. He'd been paler than usual when they'd all went to the Good Hunter for dinner, but he'd eaten every bite Klee shared with him.
Klee nods, sniffling. Aether immediately softens, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Klee-"
"No, no..! It's okay..!" She says, surprising them. "I gotta be strong for Big Brother, y'know?" She says, clearing struggling with that task. Intrigued, and familiar with that desire, Aether gently prompts. "Strong?"
Klee nods, swiping away stray tears again. "Yeah..!" She says, holding her flowers loosely as she folds her legs up to hug them. Aether thinks back to Albedo asking Aether to help him find sweet flowers to make into candies for Klee's birthday. Sucrose was delighted to watch over his experiments for the special day.
"I've-I've known for while, I figured it out while he was at work. And-And I was," She hesitates, looking like she didn't like what she was saying. "I was really, really mad at Big Brother at first. But, while he was gone... I realized he was just trying to be strong for me too, wasn't he..?"
Aether hums encouragingly in acknowledgment, watching out of the corner of their eyes as Albedo's coat fully sunk into the water with his loosened grasp. "Sometimes... Sometimes I try to put a face to the person that left all that for me at Golden Apple... For everyone..." She continues quietly.
Albedo is moving, coming closer. Aether thinks back to when Albedo had stopped Klee from playing on the beach in Golden Apple until he'd made sure she had enough sun lotion on. He'd offhandedly remarked on how the others always forgot to cover her long ears.
"But, I can barely remember anymore. Mom's been-Mom's been gone for so long I-My head keeps putting Big Brother's face there," Klee hiccups, tears free flowing again.
Crack
Aether doesn't turn as violently as Klee does, already well aware. Albedo looks just as surprised as Klee does, wide, wet eyes glancing down at the branch he'd stepped on, then back up to the pair. "klee... I..." He breathes, icy blue eyes honing in on Klee fully. The faint voice crack only serves to further solidify this new facet of Albedo that Aether's witnessing.
Or rather, because Aether knows better, a facet of the homunculus that's always been there, packed and isolated away like Albedo himself when up on Dragonspine. Aether acknowledges the empathetic pang that lances through them at that, before letting it go. It's almost novel seeing Albedo so at a loss for words, they usually come to him like moths to a flame.
"Al..!" Klee sobs, immediately scrambling up and dropping her flowers. Albedo meets her halfway, arms already open. "I'm sorry for lying to you, Klee..." Albedo apologizes, attempting to hide the emotional strain in his voice in a whisper. "You don't have to be strong for me, you shouldn't have to..! I-I just didn't want you to be sad, not yet, not until you'd had a happy childhood to-!"
"I'm happy with you! I'm happy-I'm happy I have my Big Brother! Please don't be sad alone, Al..!" Klee hiccups around her sobs.
The last of Albedo's composure goes with that, the homunculus slowly kneeling down to fully encircle his kid-sister in a shaky hug, his own muffled sobs joining hers. Aether thinks to allow them their privacy then, getting up to give them space, but obliges when Klee moves to drag them into the embrace.
Aether has lived a long, long time.
Albedo and Klee have been alive just long enough to learn that grief goes hand in hand with love and it's contexts.