Lady Vex'ahlia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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strangetrip2018-02-09 04:52 pm
st_ubby) wrote in strangetrip2018-02-09 04:52 pm
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[log] Percy & Vex: another Later Talk, but why has the Courage gone?
Vex gives Percy the good news about Zahra and Kash and baby makes three. Talking about hope is hard, especially when the Courage is long gone.
After Zahra's visit – Vex was so happy to have her here. She hadn't realized how much she'd craved Zahra's company when she didn't have it – Vex hung out with Trinket for awhile before setting him up with the teevee for company. He liked the show about the talking dog who went on adventures with his party and solved mysteries that usually ended up being old men in masks. Maybe Pike could make some Scooby snacks for the bakery. Vex would ask her later.
Once she was sure Trinket wouldn't be lonely, and confident he could come find her if something happened, she walked the short way around to Percy's workroom and let herself in. He was focused on some task, and she didn't want to interrupt when he was obviously in the middle of something, so after a, "hello, darling," she paused for a moment to watch him work, trailed her fingers across his deliciously broad shoulders as she passed, and picked up some arrows in progress she worked on when they were here together. She held a shaft up at arm's length to sight along its length checking for straightness.
Percy didn't stop working when Vex came in. It wasn't that he didn't notice, how could he not? Vex's presence was like the clever electrical systems that powered this place, the switch that completed the circuit and brought him light. But he had schooled himself to focus years before and so finished his work carefully drawing a heated piece of metal through ever finer tools to make the wire he needed. It was hot, slow work, but necessary. As he finished, he judged the metal too cooled for another pass and set it aside for the moment. Only then did he turn to Vex, studying her as she studied the arrows. He smiled. "Hello, Lady Vex'ahlia."
Yes, Vex loved having a title. She loved having a title that made her a part of Whitestone. She loved people calling her Lady Vex'ahlia. But there was something special in Percy calling her Lady Vex'ahlia, that went with the way he looked at her. Like she was precious, some kind of treasure. "I'm not interrupting terribly, am I?" she asked, genuinely wanting to know the answer, her attention having left the arrow shaft completely to focus on Percy.
Percy laid his tools in their place and shook his head, then went to where she was. "Not at all, you've come at a good time. Wire making is tedious." He slid a hand around her waist and leaned in to kiss her temple, affectionate in private as he could never be comfortable with in public. "Did you need something?"
Vex leaned into the circle of his arm, reaching up to curl a hand along his jaw, enjoying the feel of stubble under her gentle caress. "Not need, no." Although she hoarded these private affections and moments with Percy as eagerly as gold. "But I have news. Zahra has news. And Kash." News Kash probably wouldn't have shared with Percy yet, and this way they could talk about Zahra and Kash first, before focusing on each other.
"From home?" Percy raised an eyebrow. He knew Zahra and Vex were close. It wasn't surprising that she'd have shared something with Vex that she hadn't told the rest of them during their gathering. "Something from after you left?"
"Months. Or the news would have been very different." As bad as it had been, Kash being separated from Zahra all these months, if Zahra had arrived here without their child, there would have been no stopping them from finding a way back. Vex pulled herself back from such thoughts, and the paths they might lead down. "She is from even later than Pike, if I've understood correctly. From around the same time as Lillith. Who knew but didn't tell. Wisely. Kash needed to hear it from Zahra first."
Something about Kash and Zahra specifically, but not bad news, which would have had Vex in quite a different mood. "Did they elope?" he asked. That seemed unlikely. Kash was married, after all, to a probably quite jealous goddess with a habit of killing people. Percy occasionally wondered how often Kash plotted how to protect Zahra from Vesh, on the inevitable petty strike.
"I hope not. After months here, I'm not entirely sure we're up for facing a jealous death goddess wife in a fight." That they would fight Vesh if she came for Kash or Zahra, or anyone here, Vex had no doubts. That was what Vox Machina did. Doubly so for family.
"No, but it is good news. I think. Zahra seems happy. And she says Kashaw is as well, but she's finally here, she could tell him anything and he'd be thrilled, I think. Even when it's 'you're going to be a father'."
"Zahra's pregnant?" Percy straightened, surprise and interest lightening his face. "Why that's wonderful. Do they know...well, how could they, of course. Oh that's wonderful." Impulsively, maybe even instinctually, his arms tightened around Vex. It was difficult to fathom, that any one of them would have the time or space in their lives to raise a family. And yet here, well, this was the safest place they'd all been in years. "When is she due?"
"In the fall, eight months or so," Vex answered, a bit distracted, by Percy's reaction to the news. Or maybe to the feel of his arms around her, and how it blended with the thoughts and feelings that had been chasing each other since she heard the good news from Zahra. "She says she's as excited by the journey of becoming a mother as she is killing dragons. Almost. At least here, she's likely to get a chance at the former without having to do the latter."
"Strange to think of it. They've not been together that long." Although, for them, he supposed, it had been longer. A year and several months more than what he recalled. Stranger still was to think that he and Vex had been together almost the same amount of time. "Did they plan for it, did Zahra say? What made them choose now?"
"It's been over a year since Thordak. From Zahra's perspective." Longer than Vex and Percy have been together, although not by much. It was surprising how long they'd been together, and at the same time, Vex couldn't imagine not being with Percy any more than she could imagine not being the twins or Vax and Vex. "A happy surprise, she said. Something along the lines of 'you know how it is coming back from a fight you both barely survived'." A feeling Vex did know, and Percy. It was very different from the 'we may both die tomorrow' feeling, although just as likely to end with a surprise nine months later.
Percy coughed a bit. "Ah, yes." Such things were difficult to plan for and in Exandria, the prophylactics had not come in the neat little packets that they did here which made for somewhat more risk in spontaneous moments when one didn't have a sheath at hand. And yet, he was not at all surprised that they would choose to continue the pregnancy. Certainly in their position, he would... ah. Not that he was. Or would be. Or that Vex would necessarily want to... "Well, that ought to be very interesting, in several months. Explains all those beds in their room."
It was cute, the way he reacted when his lordly sensibilities of things we do not admit in civilized discourse ran into picturing those same things, and Vex almost said so, except she could see him distract himself following another line of thought, and she wondered if it matched the thoughts that had been teasing at her mind since she heard Zahra's news. "All the beds," she agreed. "And the size of the suite. Our room seems positively tiny by comparison." She wasn't sure when she'd started thinking of it that way, although it probably wasn't too long after she arrived. The room she'd been assigned was theirs – hers and Percy's and Trinket's. Percy's room was his workshop, with convenient shower and bed. It was theirs, but would they need a larger room in the future? Did she want that? Would Percy?
Their room. It didn't sound wrong until he considered that it should. But of course, it had been months since she'd arrived and certainly he had no objection to sharing a room with her. He spent much of his time down here, in this room, but it no longer was his alone. She even had a key, as he had a key to the room she'd been given. "They need the space. Though I admit, I do like the suites with multiple bedrooms. Trinket is adorable but he does snore. I wonder if we could ask for a room change." And that, also, didn't sound wrong until he'd finished saying it. Their room, not hers first or his, but a joined life.
"So do you, darling," Vex teased and leaned in for a quick kiss. " and I haven't kicked you out of the room." But he did make a good point. "Stephanie asked for and got a larger room. I don't see why we couldn't ask." The worst that could happen would be they didn't get moved into a suite. Frankly, if Daryl looked like he had the slightest interest in anyone, Vex was sure she could wink their way into a lovely suite.
He nodded to show he entirely agreed, but then paused and looked around his workshop. "I admit, I was counting on Zahra to help me design a forge. If she's pregnant, it may be premature to give this place up."
"She arrived falling from the ceiling, from in the midst of some major battle." And Zahra was Zahra. "I trust Zahra to decide what she is and isn't capable of in her condition. And she just happened to mention she wants to talk to you about a forge, so I wouldn't give up on the idea just yet." He'd been wanting a proper forge here, and Vex wanted him to have it. Not that she would put Zahra or any unborn children in danger to get it for him, of course. But there had to be ways it could be done safely, and she was sure he and Zahra would manage.
"I wouldn't dream of denying a woman in her condition anything she asked for." Percy wasn't actually sure that it was a wise idea to expose a pregnant woman to a forge, but then again, perhaps she could assist in the design phase and he could do the construction himself, keeping her well out of harm's way. "I think I'll still avoid mentioning it to Kash. He's rather like a dragon with its hoard with her."
"Wouldn't dream of it, hm? I'll have to remember that." The implications of what she'd said, and how it followed from what she'd been thinking, didn't hit Vex until after the words had left her mouth, and she tensed. Would Percy even want children? "Not that... I mean... If you..." She cleared her throat and tried again. "Yes. I'm sure Zahra will appreciate your indulgence."
Percy grew still, looking at Vex. His features were closed, almost wary. Percy was not the sort to let his face give away his thoughts, even with Vex. "Would you?" he said quietly.
"I always appreciate you indulging me, Percival." It was what Vex did, making light, breezing through things to hide her vulnerabilities. And she was vulnerable now, especially when she couldn't get a read on Percy.
On the other hand, this was Percy, and Vex could be the brave one. She cupped his cheek, meeting his gaze and holding it. "You and I would make beautiful, brilliant de Rolo babies. If you want to, when we're ready... Yes, I would. I want to."
It hit him in a flash. A vision of dark haired children, with just the faintest points on their small ears, arguing and playing the way he'd once... Hope was a disease, worse for being so seductive you wanted to embrace all its ills. Memory asserted itself, dark haired children, rather older than the first set. Their bodies bloodied and torn, hanging from the Sun Tree. He'd never seen it. He didn't have to for it to be seared into his mind.
He missed his family. He didn't know what to do about that. Like Vex, his first impulse was to make light. "I'm compelled to point out, they're not de Rolos unless you marry me, Lady Vex'ahlia."
She could see it, that hope in his eyes and how it faded, replaced with an old hurt. Vex wanted to kiss that haunted look from him, having some idea the direction of his thoughts. But they were well matched, she and Percy, so she answered as he had spoken. "Then you compel me to point out, you haven't asked, Percival Frederickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III." They hadn't talked about that either, although Pike wasn't the only one who'd spoken of it as though it was only a matter of when they wed, not if.
Percy quirked one white eyebrow upward. "I haven't." He'd only given her his home, his city. He'd give her anything she wanted. But he wouldn't tie her to the dead thing that was the de Rolos, down to two broken people. "You haven't asked me either. Unless you know something I don't about back home?" Had he asked her? After the dragons had fallen and everything seemed possible, had he sought forgiveness and a future with the half-elf woman he esteemed above all others?
When Pike had shown up at the inn, she hadn't known of Zahra's pregnancy. Lillith had known, but not said, believing, rightly, Kash should hear it from Zahra first, instead of while separated from his love and their unborn child. If any of the three had heard news of Percy and Vex and their relationship, they hadn't shared it with her. "I have heard no such news.
"We haven't talked about it, I haven't said it, not here," but how could she not now, when remembering the brief time between fighting Raishan – Percy's last memory from home – and the kraken – Vex's, and talking of a future too wonderful for hope. "But I know you heard. After Ripley," and Orthax, "during Pike's ritual to bring you back. It's yours. My heart is yours. Forever, darling. Whether you ever give me your name to go with your home, your city."
She echoed his thoughts so easily, his wise, ambitious Lady. He saw so much of himself in her, as terrible as that was. "I heard," he confirmed. "It's what brought me back. You're what brought me back. You always do." He rested his forehead against hers. "Let them have their time. What you mean to me, it isn't going to change from some ceremony."
After Zahra's visit – Vex was so happy to have her here. She hadn't realized how much she'd craved Zahra's company when she didn't have it – Vex hung out with Trinket for awhile before setting him up with the teevee for company. He liked the show about the talking dog who went on adventures with his party and solved mysteries that usually ended up being old men in masks. Maybe Pike could make some Scooby snacks for the bakery. Vex would ask her later.
Once she was sure Trinket wouldn't be lonely, and confident he could come find her if something happened, she walked the short way around to Percy's workroom and let herself in. He was focused on some task, and she didn't want to interrupt when he was obviously in the middle of something, so after a, "hello, darling," she paused for a moment to watch him work, trailed her fingers across his deliciously broad shoulders as she passed, and picked up some arrows in progress she worked on when they were here together. She held a shaft up at arm's length to sight along its length checking for straightness.
Percy didn't stop working when Vex came in. It wasn't that he didn't notice, how could he not? Vex's presence was like the clever electrical systems that powered this place, the switch that completed the circuit and brought him light. But he had schooled himself to focus years before and so finished his work carefully drawing a heated piece of metal through ever finer tools to make the wire he needed. It was hot, slow work, but necessary. As he finished, he judged the metal too cooled for another pass and set it aside for the moment. Only then did he turn to Vex, studying her as she studied the arrows. He smiled. "Hello, Lady Vex'ahlia."
Yes, Vex loved having a title. She loved having a title that made her a part of Whitestone. She loved people calling her Lady Vex'ahlia. But there was something special in Percy calling her Lady Vex'ahlia, that went with the way he looked at her. Like she was precious, some kind of treasure. "I'm not interrupting terribly, am I?" she asked, genuinely wanting to know the answer, her attention having left the arrow shaft completely to focus on Percy.
Percy laid his tools in their place and shook his head, then went to where she was. "Not at all, you've come at a good time. Wire making is tedious." He slid a hand around her waist and leaned in to kiss her temple, affectionate in private as he could never be comfortable with in public. "Did you need something?"
Vex leaned into the circle of his arm, reaching up to curl a hand along his jaw, enjoying the feel of stubble under her gentle caress. "Not need, no." Although she hoarded these private affections and moments with Percy as eagerly as gold. "But I have news. Zahra has news. And Kash." News Kash probably wouldn't have shared with Percy yet, and this way they could talk about Zahra and Kash first, before focusing on each other.
"From home?" Percy raised an eyebrow. He knew Zahra and Vex were close. It wasn't surprising that she'd have shared something with Vex that she hadn't told the rest of them during their gathering. "Something from after you left?"
"Months. Or the news would have been very different." As bad as it had been, Kash being separated from Zahra all these months, if Zahra had arrived here without their child, there would have been no stopping them from finding a way back. Vex pulled herself back from such thoughts, and the paths they might lead down. "She is from even later than Pike, if I've understood correctly. From around the same time as Lillith. Who knew but didn't tell. Wisely. Kash needed to hear it from Zahra first."
Something about Kash and Zahra specifically, but not bad news, which would have had Vex in quite a different mood. "Did they elope?" he asked. That seemed unlikely. Kash was married, after all, to a probably quite jealous goddess with a habit of killing people. Percy occasionally wondered how often Kash plotted how to protect Zahra from Vesh, on the inevitable petty strike.
"I hope not. After months here, I'm not entirely sure we're up for facing a jealous death goddess wife in a fight." That they would fight Vesh if she came for Kash or Zahra, or anyone here, Vex had no doubts. That was what Vox Machina did. Doubly so for family.
"No, but it is good news. I think. Zahra seems happy. And she says Kashaw is as well, but she's finally here, she could tell him anything and he'd be thrilled, I think. Even when it's 'you're going to be a father'."
"Zahra's pregnant?" Percy straightened, surprise and interest lightening his face. "Why that's wonderful. Do they know...well, how could they, of course. Oh that's wonderful." Impulsively, maybe even instinctually, his arms tightened around Vex. It was difficult to fathom, that any one of them would have the time or space in their lives to raise a family. And yet here, well, this was the safest place they'd all been in years. "When is she due?"
"In the fall, eight months or so," Vex answered, a bit distracted, by Percy's reaction to the news. Or maybe to the feel of his arms around her, and how it blended with the thoughts and feelings that had been chasing each other since she heard the good news from Zahra. "She says she's as excited by the journey of becoming a mother as she is killing dragons. Almost. At least here, she's likely to get a chance at the former without having to do the latter."
"Strange to think of it. They've not been together that long." Although, for them, he supposed, it had been longer. A year and several months more than what he recalled. Stranger still was to think that he and Vex had been together almost the same amount of time. "Did they plan for it, did Zahra say? What made them choose now?"
"It's been over a year since Thordak. From Zahra's perspective." Longer than Vex and Percy have been together, although not by much. It was surprising how long they'd been together, and at the same time, Vex couldn't imagine not being with Percy any more than she could imagine not being the twins or Vax and Vex. "A happy surprise, she said. Something along the lines of 'you know how it is coming back from a fight you both barely survived'." A feeling Vex did know, and Percy. It was very different from the 'we may both die tomorrow' feeling, although just as likely to end with a surprise nine months later.
Percy coughed a bit. "Ah, yes." Such things were difficult to plan for and in Exandria, the prophylactics had not come in the neat little packets that they did here which made for somewhat more risk in spontaneous moments when one didn't have a sheath at hand. And yet, he was not at all surprised that they would choose to continue the pregnancy. Certainly in their position, he would... ah. Not that he was. Or would be. Or that Vex would necessarily want to... "Well, that ought to be very interesting, in several months. Explains all those beds in their room."
It was cute, the way he reacted when his lordly sensibilities of things we do not admit in civilized discourse ran into picturing those same things, and Vex almost said so, except she could see him distract himself following another line of thought, and she wondered if it matched the thoughts that had been teasing at her mind since she heard Zahra's news. "All the beds," she agreed. "And the size of the suite. Our room seems positively tiny by comparison." She wasn't sure when she'd started thinking of it that way, although it probably wasn't too long after she arrived. The room she'd been assigned was theirs – hers and Percy's and Trinket's. Percy's room was his workshop, with convenient shower and bed. It was theirs, but would they need a larger room in the future? Did she want that? Would Percy?
Their room. It didn't sound wrong until he considered that it should. But of course, it had been months since she'd arrived and certainly he had no objection to sharing a room with her. He spent much of his time down here, in this room, but it no longer was his alone. She even had a key, as he had a key to the room she'd been given. "They need the space. Though I admit, I do like the suites with multiple bedrooms. Trinket is adorable but he does snore. I wonder if we could ask for a room change." And that, also, didn't sound wrong until he'd finished saying it. Their room, not hers first or his, but a joined life.
"So do you, darling," Vex teased and leaned in for a quick kiss. " and I haven't kicked you out of the room." But he did make a good point. "Stephanie asked for and got a larger room. I don't see why we couldn't ask." The worst that could happen would be they didn't get moved into a suite. Frankly, if Daryl looked like he had the slightest interest in anyone, Vex was sure she could wink their way into a lovely suite.
He nodded to show he entirely agreed, but then paused and looked around his workshop. "I admit, I was counting on Zahra to help me design a forge. If she's pregnant, it may be premature to give this place up."
"She arrived falling from the ceiling, from in the midst of some major battle." And Zahra was Zahra. "I trust Zahra to decide what she is and isn't capable of in her condition. And she just happened to mention she wants to talk to you about a forge, so I wouldn't give up on the idea just yet." He'd been wanting a proper forge here, and Vex wanted him to have it. Not that she would put Zahra or any unborn children in danger to get it for him, of course. But there had to be ways it could be done safely, and she was sure he and Zahra would manage.
"I wouldn't dream of denying a woman in her condition anything she asked for." Percy wasn't actually sure that it was a wise idea to expose a pregnant woman to a forge, but then again, perhaps she could assist in the design phase and he could do the construction himself, keeping her well out of harm's way. "I think I'll still avoid mentioning it to Kash. He's rather like a dragon with its hoard with her."
"Wouldn't dream of it, hm? I'll have to remember that." The implications of what she'd said, and how it followed from what she'd been thinking, didn't hit Vex until after the words had left her mouth, and she tensed. Would Percy even want children? "Not that... I mean... If you..." She cleared her throat and tried again. "Yes. I'm sure Zahra will appreciate your indulgence."
Percy grew still, looking at Vex. His features were closed, almost wary. Percy was not the sort to let his face give away his thoughts, even with Vex. "Would you?" he said quietly.
"I always appreciate you indulging me, Percival." It was what Vex did, making light, breezing through things to hide her vulnerabilities. And she was vulnerable now, especially when she couldn't get a read on Percy.
On the other hand, this was Percy, and Vex could be the brave one. She cupped his cheek, meeting his gaze and holding it. "You and I would make beautiful, brilliant de Rolo babies. If you want to, when we're ready... Yes, I would. I want to."
It hit him in a flash. A vision of dark haired children, with just the faintest points on their small ears, arguing and playing the way he'd once... Hope was a disease, worse for being so seductive you wanted to embrace all its ills. Memory asserted itself, dark haired children, rather older than the first set. Their bodies bloodied and torn, hanging from the Sun Tree. He'd never seen it. He didn't have to for it to be seared into his mind.
He missed his family. He didn't know what to do about that. Like Vex, his first impulse was to make light. "I'm compelled to point out, they're not de Rolos unless you marry me, Lady Vex'ahlia."
She could see it, that hope in his eyes and how it faded, replaced with an old hurt. Vex wanted to kiss that haunted look from him, having some idea the direction of his thoughts. But they were well matched, she and Percy, so she answered as he had spoken. "Then you compel me to point out, you haven't asked, Percival Frederickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III." They hadn't talked about that either, although Pike wasn't the only one who'd spoken of it as though it was only a matter of when they wed, not if.
Percy quirked one white eyebrow upward. "I haven't." He'd only given her his home, his city. He'd give her anything she wanted. But he wouldn't tie her to the dead thing that was the de Rolos, down to two broken people. "You haven't asked me either. Unless you know something I don't about back home?" Had he asked her? After the dragons had fallen and everything seemed possible, had he sought forgiveness and a future with the half-elf woman he esteemed above all others?
When Pike had shown up at the inn, she hadn't known of Zahra's pregnancy. Lillith had known, but not said, believing, rightly, Kash should hear it from Zahra first, instead of while separated from his love and their unborn child. If any of the three had heard news of Percy and Vex and their relationship, they hadn't shared it with her. "I have heard no such news.
"We haven't talked about it, I haven't said it, not here," but how could she not now, when remembering the brief time between fighting Raishan – Percy's last memory from home – and the kraken – Vex's, and talking of a future too wonderful for hope. "But I know you heard. After Ripley," and Orthax, "during Pike's ritual to bring you back. It's yours. My heart is yours. Forever, darling. Whether you ever give me your name to go with your home, your city."
She echoed his thoughts so easily, his wise, ambitious Lady. He saw so much of himself in her, as terrible as that was. "I heard," he confirmed. "It's what brought me back. You're what brought me back. You always do." He rested his forehead against hers. "Let them have their time. What you mean to me, it isn't going to change from some ceremony."