Work Text:
Vax should have been having a good day. He was taking his daughter to visit with his sister and her daughter. No responsibilities. Nothing crazy happening. Just that fact it would be nice because he and his sister were free and the cousins should really see each other more often. Instead, Vax’s overall feeling was fury, dark as night. He tried to push it down, but it kept buoying to the surface, popping up as soon as he had forgotten about it. Vex noticed. Of course she did. Vax kept catching his sister observing him, as if trying to put the pieces together about his mood.
Vax figured it was only a matter of time before she cornered him. After Percy dismissed himself to finish some work and Vex suggested the two of them take their daughters onto the terrace to play, Vax knew it was over.
“Who pissed in your wine?” Vex asked as she sat down next to Vax. Vax just gave her a look. “Come on, you’ve been a sour-puss all day. Stop trying to hide it.”
He’d been dreading this all day, and even long before, in the weeks he knew he’d be coming to visit his sister. Vax sighed. “I’m just- I’ve been angry lately.”
“Angry? At what?” Vex asked.
Vax gestured out in front of him, where their daughters were playing. Vesper stacked a block on top of Elwyn’s. Elwyn pushed it over, and the blocks tumbled to the ground. The two shrieked with laughter.
“At the girls?!” Vex asked.
“No! Of course not!” Vax said. Their two little girls were oblivious to the conversation happening in the same room as them. They were too busy trying to figure out how to make a block tower again. Vax sighed. “I’m mad at father.”
Vex raised an eyebrow. “Father?”
Vax nodded.
“Our father?”
“Yeah.”
“Why? Did he do something? Did he contact you?” There was an edge to Vex’s voice. As if she was ready to go to Sigorn that very moment and give their old man a piece of her mind or the business end of an arrow.
“No. He didn’t do anything like that.” Said Vax.
Vex gave him a puzzled look. “Then what…?”
Vax sighed and rubbed at his temples. “This might sound stupid.” Vex said nothing; only waiting for him to continue. “Every time I look at Elwyn, I’m reminded how much I love her. Hell, even before she was born I loved her. I would do anything for her. I am happy and proud to be her father. Even when she keeps me up half the night, or nearly gives me a heart attack, or does something really gross, and- you get what I mean. I love her. And then I see Percy with your daughter. He’s one of the most uptight and serious people I know. And Vesper is his delight.”
Vex looked far off into the distance. Her fingers fidgeting. Vax blinked the tears out of his eyes. It wouldn’t do for the girls to see him upset. Even now I’m thinking of them.
“Fathers are supposed to love their children.” Vax continued, “I could never put her though what happened to us. And it just makes me angry. Why didn’t we have that? Why couldn’t we have that?”
Vex’s voice was tired when she spoke. “It’s not our fault.”
“I know it’s not.” said Vax. “I’ve known for years. We did everything right. Then we did everything wrong. And he still didn’t give a damn about us. It just makes me angry because he must have felt something when he found out about us. He must care for Vellora. And if it’s even a fraction of what I feel for my own child, then…” Vax laughed a little to himself. “I just don’t get it.”
Vex patted him on the shoulder. “Nor do you have to.” She said. “Come on, it’s getting late.”
Vex rose, and the moment Vesper saw her mother she stopped playing and reached up for her. Vex swept up her daughter and planted a kiss on her chubby cheek.
Vax picked up Elwyn. “Did you have fun with your cousin?” He asked her, even though answers were about a year or two in the future. “You ready to go home?”
“Vax,” Vex said, her gaze still so far away. “You are ten times the man and father ours ever was. There is no comparison.”