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Keyleth watched Vax over the top of her tankard of ale. So what if she'd had a little too much to drink tonight? They were celebrating. Besides, right now the happy buzz in her mind felt very worth it, even if her cheeks had gone all rosy.
She took another swig and set the tankard down on the table, slightly too heavily. A drop of it splashed over the edge and onto the weathered tavern table from the impact. Maybe she was just drunk, maybe she was losing it, but every time she looked at him she felt like she was flying, and knew what it was to fly: that exhilarating thrill as the air rushed past her, and the fearlessness that comes from knowing that, up here, in a world all her own, no one can touch her. She knew what flying felt like, and this was that same rush. But it was more than that too. There was nowhere where she felt safer or more at peace than soaring with him.
She smiled, giggled, and then said, “Y’know, I'm so glad, so glad, that we finally got through all that – All that unnecessary stuff and now we can be us, y’know? Together. We're together.” Vax smiled at her slurred words.
He'd been drinking too, although maybe not as much as Keyleth. Nevertheless, the happy little stupor had got to him too. He smiled at her. Maybe the company was contributing to the upbeat mood too. “And it took so long for us to get our shit together!”
“Right?” Keyleth agreed and whipped her head up and down, nodding a bit more deeply than her unintoxicated state would.
“Because there was always one world ending catastrophe after another… And for some reason they sent us in to deal with it!” He flung his arm out to the side, guiding Keyleth's gaze to where Grog was currently trying to balance Scanlan on the top of his head. Vax had a point there. Although they'd proven themselves all to be heroes, they weren't exactly what everyone had expected.
“The world ought to give us a break,” she said, sliding closer to Vax, taking his hand in her own and leaning her head against his shoulder. “So we can just… Be.”
Their breaks were few and far between, but Keyleth would cherish every moment like this that they got.
He gave her hand a squeeze. “I’d like that,” he murmured.
They both knew the peace they resided in right now wouldn't last forever. But, for however long it lasted, they would treasure every second with the person they loved.
*
“Urghh, I'm going to be sick,” Vex rolled her eyes and turned to Percy.
“Drank too much?” Percy was immediately attentive, with a steadying hand placed on her back. There were times when Vex could scarcely remember why she'd been so afraid to admit her love for this man.
“No, no. Nothing like that, darling.” She smiled as the tension left Percy's shoulders and he leant back in his chair again. Her gaze darkened and her voice dropped as she added, “No, it's something far, far worse.”
Percy played along, carefully constructing a look of concern on his face. “Oh?”
She set her jaw and huffed as she pointedly turned her body in the direction of Vax and Keyleth's table on the other side of the tavern. “It's my brother.” She rolled her eyes. “Look at him. He's so happy. It makes me sick.”
Percy barked out a laugh of surprise at her words. Vex had never exactly tried to hide the fact that she would go to the ends of the world for her brother (and he the same from her), so this was certainly a change of pace.
“Urgh” she huffed, turning her body away and placing her hand up to the left side of her face to shield her eyes. Percy looked up to see what had caused her such issue, and saw that Keyleth and Vax had snuggled closer to each other and were giggling like schoolchildren. It brought a slight smile to the corner of Percy's lips as he moved his warm gaze back to Vex.
“Is someone jealous of her dear brother?” He teased.
“Why would I be jealous of him?”
“Oh, because he's in love.” He sing-songed the final word, drawing a laugh out of Vex, try as she might to keep up her false disgust.
“I have no need to be jealous of that…” she smiled, a hand trailing over his shoulder now.
“And why's that?”
“Oh darling, I think you already know.” A smile curled her lips.
“Let's just make sure, shall we?” he smiled too as he wound an arm around her waist.
Vex smiled broadly at him. “I'm not jealous of my brother…” She said her following words with pride, for every time that she didn't because she was scared, because she didn't want to harm something so secretly priceless to her, because of all the excuses she made to herself. Now, she said it regularly, and without fear, and she knew Percy knew how she felt. Still, she said it anyway, because there wasn't a damn thing left to stop her. “Because I am happily, gloriously, all-consumingly in love with you.”
It was probably the hundredth time Percy had heard it now, but the smile that graced his lips upon hearing her words was possibly the most beautiful thing in the world.
*
Keyleth reached a hand forward, batting it through the air accidentally as her drunken senses failed her. Her hand eventually reached its intended target and she gently twisted her fingers through the end of Vax's hair. She started laughing softly to herself. “You're so… You're so…” She clambered around for the right word, falling deftly upon, “Cute.”
Vax laughed. Keyleth understood that maybe it wasn't the first thing most people said to him, but he needn't look so surprised. “Is that so?”
Keyleth hummed the affirmative. “It is.” She cupped a soft hand around his cheek. “It is.”
She leaned closer, kissing him on those damn pretty lips of his.
When they eventually pulled apart Vax's cheeks were slightly flushed as he said, “Cute, huh? I can work with that.”
She went to grab her tankard of ale, but found that it was no longer in the place she'd left it. Instead, it was suspiciously further away from her, almost out of arm's reach. She pointed an accusatory finger at the tankard and then pivoted it to where she fixed her gaze staunchly on Vax. At least Vax had the decency to smile sheepishly. “Did you think you wouldn't notice?”
Vax tried to swallow down his laugh. “Well, you hadn't noticed for a while…”
“I have not had too much to drink, before you say it,” she challenged, but the smile on her face never managed to slip.
“I never said that!” Vax put his hands up in mock surrender.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
He ducked her gaze and tapped a finger on the table. Quietly, he added, “I did think it though…”
“Ha, I knew it!” She pumped a fist in the air, and then took that fist and hit him (not too hard) in the shoulder.
Vax immediately clamped his hand over the impact spot. “You would wound me?” he pouted.
Keyleth rolled her eyes fondly and elected to ignore that remark. “See, I knew it. I have eagle eyes. Eagle eyes.” She whipped her index finger from her eyes to his. “I see everything. Because of my eagle eyes.”
Her brow furrowed and she amended, “Well I don't have my actual eagle eyes right now, but believe me, if I did. Well.” She huffed. “There wouldn't be a thing I didn't see.” She didn't think, however, that transforming into a giant eagle in the middle of a packed bar would be the best of ideas right now, even if it would prove her point excellently.
Vax moved the tankard back again.
Keyleth gave him a look. He'd wanted her to see, because they both knew he could be a lot more stealthy than that.
Vax tried desperately hard to stifle his laugh.
Keyleth scrunched up her nose and grinned. “That's not cute.” She lunged forward across the table and yanked his tankard away from him before he could catch it, grabbing it in her hand and taking a long gulp from it. She slammed her new, empty tankard back down on the table. Her grin slipped only for a moment when a flood of nausea hit her, but it was over quickly and the warm spark returned to her eyes. She was fairly sure Vax hadn't noticed, but even if he had there was an unspoken agreement that hangovers were tomorrow's problem, and for tonight there was yet more fun to be had.
She did make a mental note, however, to perhaps slow down a little on the drinks.
Vax knocked her tankard against the one that was formally his with a wink. “Cheers.” In return, he downed the rest of hers.
Both of their attentions are briefly dragged away from each other's eyes at the sound of Scanlan’s shouted “Excuse me”s and “coming through.” He was clearing a path through the especially crowded area of the tavern, when half-drunken patrons were swinging their limbs around in what could be described as dancing. A few people backed away at his words, and as they did Scanlan pulled gently with the hand that was trailing behind him, revealing to Vax and Keyleth that it was Pike that he had in tow. She smiled, a little self-consciously, with a hand over her mouth as he lifted his hand and spun her around.
Vax turned back to Keyleth then, and offered her his hand. She took it easily, and with a smile, as she knew she always would. Still, she had to ask, “Where are we going?”
Vax stood, pulling Keyleth to her feet. “Dancing,” he winked and twisted around the conglomeration of tables in their way with Keyleth behind him, until they got to a bit of a walkway and Keyleth migrated to being by his side.
From there, their journey really ought to have been easier. However, they quickly realised they were both quite drunk and their steps didn't fall in the graceful straight line they might've hoped for. Keyleth tripped on an overturned bar stool and would've hit the ground if it wasn't for Vax’s still quick reactions. Strong arms around her caught her before she could descend any further. She smiled up at Vax as he brought her back to her feet, and kept her hand on the supporting arm he had around her middle as he did so.
“Are you alright, Kiki?”
She took a second too long to respond, maybe, too lost in the moment. She knew he'd always catch her when she fell: both in the real, practical sense (which had come in handy more times than Keyleth might like to admit) and in the sense that was so much bigger than that. The world outside of them was big, and scary, and sometimes Keyleth didn't know she could survive it. But she knew now, and she knew he would always be there for her. So maybe, just maybe, at that moment she stared into his eyes for a second too long because all of that was floating through her head. Eventually she realised that even in her happy haze she still needed to reply. “I am now.”
The smile that he gave back was just another beautiful reminder that he knew her. She felt understood by him in a way that, at one point, she had worried that she'd never be. Now, that time felt long ago.
*
Vex had been chatting pleasantly with Percy when her brother and Keyleth had barrelled over. Vax was clearly drunk because he'd clipped her table with his hip, almost sending her drunk flying all over her. “Ooops, sorry Stubby,” he said as he righted himself.
Keyleth had a hand over her mouth and was giggling, although she seemed to be trying to hide it. “We're so bad at this,” she announced gleefully.
“At what? Walking?” Vex muttered, a smirk on her face as she settled back, tankard in hand.
Vax stuck his tongue out at her like they were five years old again.
Vex shot him the middle finger.
Vax did the same to her without even looking as he and Keyleth walked away.
Vex rolled her eyes fondly, her previous act easily abandoned. “I am happy for him. For both of them,” she said to Percy, although her eyes didn't leave the figures of Vax and Keyleth as they giggled and smiled and twirled through the crowds.
“We all know,” Percy assured.
“He's never been with anyone like this before. This… This is something different. Something special.” She'd seen him with plenty enough people in the past to know that much. No one lit up his world quite like Keyleth did. For all she might pretend to not care, and although she had her doubts at first, she couldn't be happier for him.
*
They eventually found the space that Scanlan had cleared out for himself and Pike, and they both happily accepted their arrival. They danced around, perhaps a little uncoordinated in their intoxicated state but they didn't care. They were happy.
Keyleth couldn't say how long it had been, but the music had died down into something slower and more melodic (if such a thing could be asked for in a tavern). It was less busy now, some of the patrons having decided it was time to go home.
Keyleth, however, was content to stay exactly where she was, the arms of the man she loved around her and her head against his chest as they slowdanced, rocking gently from side to side. No, Keyleth never wanted this moment to end.
They happily continued like this in the quiet night, and for Keyleth it felt like the rest of the world drifted away. It was just them and the soft music whirling its tune around them. Nothing else mattered. The idea of the future, the vast expanse of possibilities dangerous and frightening was a fear she knew they both held. But right now it was just this moment here, where responsibilities and dragons and world-ending events were out of sight. Here, it was just them.
“You know I'm in love with you, right?” She heard Vax whisper. Except, this time, it wasn't anything like the other time she'd heard it. Then, there'd been trepidation and anxiety to his tone. Now, all she could hear was the smile in his voice because she knew that he already knew what that answer was.
“Only because you tell me every day,” she grinned. She kissed him, then, in this quiet moment where it was just them, and all the shadows had been long expelled. She vowed then too, that they'd always tell each other that, every day, for as long as the fates would allow them.