[Locked to MacCready] On the Having of Nice Things

[st_abby]

Though the sun had only sunk for the day by the time that Vax'ildan got it in his head to have supper, there was still lingering heat that proved the summer months had begun. Vex had been making eyes at Percy earlier, so her brother let them be and saw to his own feeding. The buildings here had cooling devices (no, really, cooled air), but it was pleasant enough yet, even in full black leather armor, to eat outdoors once the worst glare of the day had passed. Or if you were a rogue with a whole bird motif going on, you could take your meal up onto the rooftops.

That's how it was that Vax had come to be sitting perched at the edge of the rooftop on the main building, dangling a leg off the side with another tucked under him, working his way thoughtfully through half of a sandwich Ignis had put out of the kitchen for the usual hopeless scavengers. He washed down his first bites with a swallow of cold bottled ale, watching as the daylight waned, the shine visibly coming off of the brightness of the world stretched out around him. The blue and purple and first blacks of the evening began to fold widely around the Inn and its people, gathering them gently into its cloak, and Vax found himself sighing quietly. Not at anything. It was just... This was nice.

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[st_abby]

He couldn't help but laugh. "Makes you feel like a kitten? Oh, that's fucking adorable," Vax insisted, with nothing but warmth.

"Honestly, that's... Good for you," he sobered enough to say with a straight face, thinking of how resigned Mac had looked only moments ago. He reached to give Mac's shoulder a soft squeeze. "That's good, if 'there's a guy.' Yes? Can we agree on that?"

[st_rontium]

"Only thing I could think of without wings that still goes up," Mac defended. He wanted desperately to light up. Not yet. The situation didn't call for it yet and he needed to ration things in hopes of someone else's fuckin' room opening up.

"Is it? Fuck, man, I don't know." He barely knew Piotr. His gut said the guy was decent. His gut didn't say that about a lot of people. "For now, I guess. I like him, but I sure as shit don't deserve him, and he's gonna figure that out eventually."

[st_abby]

"Not that I know him so very well," Vax said slowly - admittedly, he'd only vaguely remembered his name as something like 'Pete' until MacCready had confirmed what the right name was - thank you, alcohol. "But I get the sense that maybe being so big and buff taught him a thing or two about being careful not to break things out of hand. And if he... Makes you feel like a kitten," he repeated, but more earnestly now, "then yeah, that's a beautiful thing to have."

Vax shifted his bottle-hand to wipe off some of the leftover crumbs of his sandwich caught in his feather ruff, but then he looked back up at Mac with a serious expression. "If you could do... Just one thing for me. A favor. Do it for yourself, really. But the one thing would be: Don't tell him what he wants or doesn't want. You decide for yourself, and then let him decide for himself. Trust him to listen to the beat of his own heart."

[st_rontium]

"Not gonna tell him what he should or shouldn't do about anything unless he asks me to." He picked a little at the label on his bottle. "I'm not good at doing things for myself. Doesn't matter, I guess. How've you been?"

[st_abby]

"It matters," Vax pushed back quietly, but only that far. He swallowed from his beer, took a long breath, and smiled wide as he exhaled.

"If you have to ask, you haven't met her yet," he suggested more brightly, clearly enjoying being a touch cryptic.

[st_rontium]

"What, Steph?" Mac asked, arching a brow. "You know me, man. I don't talk to people that much. I keep an eye on things and keep my mouth shut."

[st_abby]

"Steph?" The mysterious sort of look he'd had on his face vanished, replaced with a slightly self-conscious sort of humor. "No, I didn't mean - Not that she isn't..."

"I wasn't talking about her," Vax started all over again. "I meant my sister. She's here."

[st_rontium]

Completely unselfconscious for once in his time here, Mac grinned brightly at him and nudged his friend's shoulder with his own. "Yeah? That's great news, man!"

[st_abby]

"I don't know that it's great news for her, but for me..." Vax'ildan smiled gently, eyes softening. "It's everything."

[st_rontium]

Mac made a mental note to get Darryl to tell him where Vex's room was so he could make sure she got a welcome gift. "I'm glad," he said again. "You've earned some happiness."

[st_abby]

"I've lived my entire life up to now with Vex beside me," he tried to explain. "I didn't know what to do with myself, without her."

But that was bordering maudlin, maybe, and it wasn't the case now anyway. "You should accept all of her stories about how awesome I am as completely true, and anything embarrassing... Also true," he quipped. "And if you want to make a good impression, start with telling her how wonderful Trinket is."