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After the day they’d had, the day before that, and the day before that--
Well, Vex’ahlia was exhausted. And somehow, Percy had gotten them roped into planning with the goliaths in the morning. The afternoon? They’d all been a little hazy on the exact timeline by the time she’d finished drinking and celebrating and tried to go to bed. In the dark and quiet, she pulled out the arrowhead Percy had made her. It was still shiny despite having been driven into Saundor’s heart. Percival had the mind of a true craftsman, and while she wasn’t sure she understood all the moving parts of what he’d made her, she understood the damage it was capable of.
She rolled the arrowhead between her fingers and turned it over and over, watching the slivers of moonlight through the window glint off the metal. What had Percival said back in the Feywild?
“I’ve known many people with money and titles, and they’re definitely not worth you.”
Vex hated how her heart sped up thinking about it again. At the time, she’d thought it was one of the things that nobles just said to people who hadn’t been nobility their whole lives. Perhaps Percival had only said it to reassure her moment of slight panic. The title had been gracious and dramatic, but the arrowhead was different. It wasn’t something Percival could have crafted in five or ten minutes. Working out the intricacies of an arrowhead this complex had taken him time and effort. She knew he sketched out his designs in advance. That meant he’d likely spent hours drawing out the little pieces. It was something he’d made for her, specifically.
She’d been awful, judgmental, quick to anger when they’d first met. She’d been eager to shed the lot of them, and Percival almost most of all. How any of them had kept her around was sometimes a mystery. Well, that wasn’t all true. She knew much of it was due to Vax’ildan’s likability. She was charming when she chose, but her brother was more than that. His heart was so big. Hate it all she might, he trusted people, and they trusted him in return. He cared for people in a way that seemed so easy for him. She had always had a hard time with that.
When it came to Percival now, she wanted to think she understood him just a little more. They had grown up vastly different, but perhaps they hadn’t turned out so dissimilar. They could both be guarded, angry, and protective. And he could be charming too, sweet even, when he wasn’t also terrifying. He cared more than she’d given him credit for. And while Vax might not have forgiven him for what had happened in the tomb yet, it hadn’t been difficult for her. She understood it hadn’t been intentional. She also knew that had he been a moment or two slower, the tables would’ve been turned.
Had all his kindness been atonement? No. Even in the darkness of her own thoughts, she couldn’t believe that about Percival. And it hadn’t started after the tomb. Not if she was honest with herself. Saundor had wanted her to think she couldn’t be with anyone else and no one else could understand her pain. He had wanted her to feel broken and that she would never be good enough. Saundor had thought her brokenness could only be answered by darkness. He hadn’t just wanted her heart; he’d demanded it. Her chest ached to think of it now, but she had meant what she’d said to Saundor at the end, “My heart is someone else’s.” Gods, but it was.
She sat up since she wasn’t sleeping anyway. Perhaps she could find Percy before he fell asleep over his diagrams. That’s where he was, head bobbing slightly as his arm moved across a large parchment. There were rough sketches everywhere, some he’d begun drawing larger, in more detail.
“Still at it, I see?”
Percy’s head swiveled. The room had been quiet, and while Vex hadn’t tried to be stealthy about approaching him, it was clear his mind had been elsewhere. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been trying to sleep, but he’d been alone for some time, the manic planning keeping him fueled enough to continue into the wee hours. He also looked as tired as she felt, exhausted; the signs of it were clear around his eyes.
“Yes. I am trying to diagram something so we can explain my ideas easily tomorrow.” He huffed before amending his words, “I suppose that’s really later this morning. New day already.”
“You deserve a rest, darling,” she said and placed a hand on his forearm to keep him from continuing to sketch.
He looked up at her and gave her a tired, lop-sided smile. “So do you, Lady Vex’ahlia.” He didn’t immediately brush her away but shook his head. “I’ll be finished shortly.”
Vex slid onto the bench beside him and pressed her shoulder to his. He’d taken his coat off at some point in the evening with all the drinking and raucous celebrating amongst the goliaths. And she, having been ready for bed, had left her bracers in her room so her arms were bare. She leaned into his warmth.
“Somehow, I don’t believe that,” she whispered.
Percy chuckled and then gave in to a long yawn. It passed to Vex’ahlia a moment later, making them both laugh.
When the laugh faded, he asked, “And what keeps you awake? I thought you’d gone off to bed some time ago.”
“I had. Well, I tried.” She shrugged slightly and then set the arrowhead on the table between them with her free hand. “This was an incredibly thoughtful gift, Percival.”
He didn’t pull away but stiffened as though he’d gotten a jolt. He didn’t meet her gaze.
“Oh. I’ve been studying how you shoot, trying to figure out how I might help.”
“You’ve been watching me, have you,” she asked, lifting an eyebrow at him. “Did you think I needed your help?”
“Yes. No.” He sighed. “No. I mean, I only meant...”
She tapped his arm. “It’s all right, I’m only fucking with you.”
“Gods.” He put a hand to his chest.
Vex chuckled as she watched him recompose himself. “Seriously, though. I wanted to thank you, Percival. It was this little thing that helped me kill Saundor.”
“You do not need to thank me. Not for that. And certainly not for helping kill that twisted fey asshole tree.”
“I understand I don’t need to,” she said quietly. She slid her hand down from Percy’s forearm to the back of his hand. “I am saying it, though. Thank you, darling.”
She felt his hand shift. It wasn’t that he was pulling away, but more like-- He flipped his hand up and slid his fingers between hers.
“Percival,” she whispered.
He turned to look at her again and smiled. “I like that,” he whispered.
She glanced down at their clasped hands. “This?”
“No, my name. Though this is also quite nice.”
“What?” She pulled back to look him over. Was he joking with her now?
“Sorry. Let me rephrase that.”
Percy took a steadying breath and closed his eyes while he chose his words more carefully. When he opened them again, he met her gaze with a look that felt very dangerous. Intimate. It almost made her lean away or drop her hand from his. Vex felt her heart racing again under the weight of it. Oh, she understood him now.
He cleared his throat but didn’t elaborate. He just left his hand in hers. It was a simple moment, that touch, but Vex never allowed anyone other than Vax’ildan to be so close to her. She didn’t give in to something like this, not something that lingered in soft and quiet moments. Suddenly, it was difficult to catch her breath.
“I like the way you say my name,” Percy said. “You call me Percival more often than you call me Percy. ‘Darling’ or ‘dear,’ you use pet names with everyone. It’s distancing. Not like when you use my name. I like how Percival sounds when you say it.”
She couldn’t look away from him now. Not when his voice was soft like that, and not when he was holding her hand in his. She felt compelled to level the playing field.
“You like how I say, Percival?” she asked, deliberately accenting his name. Two could play at this game.
“I do.”
“I will remember that, Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Kowalski de Rolo the third.”
He laughed loudly, rocking his body almost gleefully. When he stopped, he held up his free hand to Vex. “Okay, the full name treatment is very different. Maybe it was a stupid thing for me to admit aloud. The full thing is definitely too much. Your voice is lovely, but that’s very unnecessary.”
“A lovely voice. A badass arrowhead. The way I say your name. Percival, a woman might get ideas if you keep telling me things like that.”
He shook his head. “I’ve done this to myself, I know.”
Percy wasn’t even trying to pretend to be contrite now, the ass. Vex had been trying to tell him a nice thing-- Hadn’t she? She wasn’t sure now.
Vex had planned to say thank you, to talk to Percy about Saundor, and to explain how Saundor had died, the exact reason. Vex wanted Percival to know what his support in Syngorn had meant to her. Few people had believed in her like that. She felt few people saw her like Vax’ildan did or as Percival did.
Her plan hadn’t been well-conceived, exactly. It was more akin to an idea, a loose gesture. Percy had disarmed her in moments. Very few charmed her as Percy had.
Percival looked back down to his work. Vex quickly swooped forward and kissed his cheek.
While still close, she whispered, “Thank you. For what you said before, when we were at my father’s. For being kind to me when I was a bit of a dick. I see you, I do. And I like what I see in you, Percival.”
She watched as he shivered. He looked back at her and it felt like everything went still, as though time had paused for everyone except the two of them. She watched in what felt like slow motion as Percy leaned forward.
He whispered, and she could feel the warmth of his words on her cheek. “And I see you, Lady Vex’ah--”
She kissed him and let the ridiculous title he’d given her go quiet. While it was a lovely gift, and she didn’t know what it meant, she cherished it. However, she thought perhaps she liked the man behind the gesture more. Way more.
The kiss felt easy, like breathing or sleeping or being embraced--
Oh. It was an embrace. Percival had slid a hand around her back, and another was placed on her cheek, holding her to him so gently. She let herself be comforted, be kissed, just be for a few lovely moments as he just as fervently returned all her kisses with his own.
It was only a moment.
A snore ripped through the room from some nearby sleeping Goliath. Maybe even Grog. Vex giggled, the heady moment passing. Percy chuckled silently with her, both of them trying to keep quiet. Not that she would care if a Goliath or two saw her kissing Percival, but--
Oh, but she knew if she kissed him again, it wouldn’t stop at a single kiss. It wasn’t wrong, exactly, but perhaps a bit mistimed.
In the nearly silent moments of the wee hours in an inn full of their friends and other rooms teaming with Goliaths, this wasn’t how this should go. Vex’ahlia wanted more than this. She wanted time, lots more time.
“Percy--” she started.
“I know.” He shook his head. “We should talk, maybe.”
Vex nodded. “When we’ve rested and aren’t in an inn full of Goliath’s.”
“That too.”
She huffed. She knew sitting there any longer would be dangerous. She knew it would be delicious but badly timed. She wanted it to be better than that. She didn’t want to go into something hot off the fight with Saundor or against Kevdak. Or any fight. She didn’t know if there would be a good time, but she had to hope there would be. They both deserved that.
“I’ll let you...” Vex stood slowly, trying not to look like she was running from anything, “finish your diagrams.” She grabbed the arrowhead and gestured with it at Percy. “Thank you for this.”
“You’re welcome, Vex.”
She leaned down and kissed his temple. “Another time.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “Another time.”