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"I don't want to be alone tonight... Do you...?"
"I haven't wanted to be alone most nights."
The door opens wider with a long creek. Vax, moving with all the speed and grace Keyleth has come to expect from the half-elf rogue, slides through the narrow gap. He moves fast, darting past Keyleth even before she's finished pushing the door open for him. Like a man who expects that door to close all too quickly, or to not open at all.
The door clicks shut once more and Keyleth doesn't move. She continues to stare down at her hand on the simple metal handle. Her heart should be racing, and she expects that once her body catches up with her mind, it will. But now, as she stands there, numb to the moment and looking dumbly down at her own hand, she's absolutely calm.
Exhausted, but calm.
"...Kiki."
Vax's muscled arms wrap around her waist, pulling her a step backwards into her friend's solid chest. Hot breath wisps across her neck and then, after a hesitant pause, soft lips brush delicately across her right shoulder.
Her breath hitches, her heart accelerates and too suddenly time snaps back into full focus. Keyleth screws her eyes shut, one hand laying limp at her side while the other clutches the cold metal of the doorknob, grounding her while moments flash by her at the speed of light. Where he was careful before, calculated, withholding and distant before, Vax now acts like a desperate man.
His breathing quickens, she can feel the rise and falls of his chest against her back and hear the heated gasps in and out against her pointed ear. He plants longer and longer kisses against the exposed freckled skin of her right shoulder, working from the curve of her upper arm to the base of her neck. Her long hair falls away from its former place on her shoulder as Vax moves them forwards effortlessly, pressing her body against the door she'd opened for him seconds before, and his body firmly against hers. His mouth returns to the base of her neck, and then he's sucking, licking and biting his way up the side of her throat and Keyleth can't handle it.
Flesh burning red with a deep blush, Keyleth manages to gasp out a strangled, "Vax!" She's shaking. Her whole body is trembling, from the ends of her toes to the tip of her nose. Soft clicks of chattering teeth are the only noise left in the room as Vax becomes deathly still against her back. And then he's gone, and she's left with her forehead pressed against the wooden door, knees bent and still quaking. Her fingers ball into tight fists against the door and she silently curses at herself, at her own damn innocence and fear and reservations.
Salty tears burn her eyes as she allows herself to turn and face the man who stands at the opposite end of the room. Vax mirrors her sorry pose, his own back pressed against the stone wall, eyes clouded and face unreadable. No- not totally unreadable. For half a second, Keyleth swears she sees fear in the eyes of Vax'ildan. Fear in those beautiful dark eyes of his, fear that cuts her deeper than one of his daggers ever could.
She opens her mouth, then closes it, then opens it once more, trying to speak the words to fix the situation before she knows what those words would be.
Vax's eyes dart away from her, focussing on the ground to her left as that impenetrable facade once again settles over his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean... I'm sorry. I'll go." He makes a panicked move for the door, pauses upon registering her shaky stance in front of the entryway, and then turns towards the only other way out of the room; the window.
"Wait!" Keyleth launches herself forwards, grasping Vax's hand and tugging him back towards her and away from the drawn curtains. "Wait. Please." She whispers, voice betraying her lack of confidence, as she pulls him closer to herself and cautiously plants a soft, slow kiss on his parted mouth. He doesn't return it at first, and Keyleth finds what little confidence she had been able to muster begin to drain away. But then, when she'd just begun to pull away in embarrassment, one hand tentatively snakes it's way around her waist while another tangles itself into the hair on the back of her head. Vax pulls Keyleth back in for a second, much deeper kiss.
***
Keyleth lays in bed, hair tousled and skin flushed hot as small beads of sweat form and roll down her burning skin. Vax's sure fingers intertwine themselves with Keyleth's slender ones, steadying her as small tremors still wrack her body.
"I love you." Vax whispers those three words over and over and over again, planting a sweet kiss against her lips for every spoken sentiment.
Keyleth grips at his back with her free hand. Her fingertips brush across freshly raised, scarred skin and she vaguely hears Vax gasp as her sweaty palm comes to rest against it's perfect match replicated in knotted, damaged flesh. Pressing down softly against the brand, Keyleth wills the words she can't bring herself to say out loud into the place that marks this man as hers.
"I love you too."