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Percy wasn’t exactly one to take care of himself. Long nights tinkering and working easily resulted in not being prepared to fight when the time came or sometimes even worse. Even with the help of Keyleth, he never seemed to be done.
Keyleth would try to get him to sleep, but it rarely worked. He would tell her he’d be up in a minute, but never followed through. To Percy, there was always work to be done.
He would occasionally find himself asleep on his workbench after days of not sleeping, but it was rather rare.
Percy’s lack of sleep comes with other issues as well. Not taking care of himself and colds are the most common.
Keyleth always nurses him back to health, despite his arguments. He loved spending time with the druid, but her fussing over him got annoying.
This was one of those times.
Percy wandered around Grayskull keep, almost like he didn’t know where he was going. Black powder was smeared across some parts of his face and his nose was stuffed, causing him to sniffle. Nothing was said by the rest of Vox Machina until he started sneezing. Strings of sneezes could be heard throughout the long hallways in the keep.
Percy’s aimless wandering was soon stopped by Vex.
“Percival, are you feeling alright? You seem sick, darling. Why don’t you go relax?”
“‘m fine. I just haven’t slept in a bit.” Percy offered her a small smile, but quickly turned his head to sneeze into his elbow a few times.
Vex simply sighed and nodded, knowing it was useless to fight with him, and continued to where she was going.
Along the way, she ran into Keyleth. A smile slid onto her face and she made her way over to the half-elf.
“Keyleth, Percy hasn’t been feeling very well. I’m getting worried, this is the third time he’s been sick this month. Do you think you can help him? Maybe get him to sleep more?”
Keyleth let out a noise of annoyance and nodded.
“I’ve been trying to get him out of his workshop at night. I’ll try to find him and get him to lay down. Thank you, Vex,” Keyleth said with a smile and patted Vex on the shoulder quickly before walking in the direction that she came from.
It wasn’t hard to find a zombie-looking Percy walking around. His eyes wandered to the source of the oncoming footsteps and a weak smile spread across his lips.
“Percy, you need to go lay down. Vex told me you’re sick again. C’mon, let's go.” Keyleth grabbed his hand and tugged his arm slightly, leading him to his room.
“Keyleth, I can take care of myself. You don’t need to fuss over me every time I get a little cold,” Percy grumbled, his voice nasally.
“Clearly you can’t, Percival. I wouldn’t have to fuss over you if maybe you got some sleep for once and actually ate properly.” There was annoyance in her voice and Percy hung his head.
Nothing else was said after that as they made their way to Percy’s room. He felt bad for making Keyleth worry so much about him.
Keyleth sat Percy down on the bed and put her hand to his forehead with a sigh.
“You’re burning up, Percy. When was the last time you got a decent amount of sleep?” She brushed a piece of hair out of his face.
Percy responded with a small shrug and turned his head to let out a series of sneezes. “You really don’t have to do this. It’s a small cold, it’ll pass in a day or two. You have more things to do than take care of me.” He looked at her with a look of sorry.
Keyleth just rolled her eyes and gently pushed him back to lay down. “I do this because I care about you, Percy. Now you lay back and relax, I’m going to get you some food and water.” And with that she walked out of the room and down the hall, leaving Percy to his own vices.
He let out a sigh and turned onto his side, picking up his Pepperbox and examining it. There wasn’t much he could do while he waited for Keyleth so he put the Pepperbox down and went over to his desk. Papers were cluttered over the surface and he quickly went to work on cleaning up. The papers were organized into stacks quick enough, leaving him with a clean desk and footsteps approaching his room. He climbed back into his bed and layed down, as Keyleth had told him, and let out a stifled yawn.
The druid entered the room, a tray in her hands. “Laina made soup for dinner the other night and there was some left over so she gave me some of that and I got you water.” She set the tray down and Percy sat up, stretching his arms and cracking his knuckles.
Percy took the bowl of soup with a smile and quietly thanked Keyleth before eating. Keyleth sat patiently on the edge of his bed, telling him to slow down when he started to eat too fast.
“You know, Percival, you wouldn’t be eating like this if you actually joined us for breakfast in the morning. It’s weird not having you at the table,” she said with a small smile, but the smile was hiding something.
Percy’s face fell slightly as he put the empty bowl on the table. “I’m sorry. There’s just so much that I want to get done and so many-” He was cut off by Keyleth shushing him, a shush mixed with laughter.
“I know, I know. I’m just saying that it’s good to take a break sometimes. Now you need to sleep, you look absolutely exhausted.” She grabbed the tray, leaving the water, and turned towards the door.
“Wait, I have something to say to you before you go!” Percy’s words were hurried, like if he didn’t say it now he never would.
Keyleth turned to him, an eyebrow raised and a look of curiosity on her face. “Yes?”
He took in a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. “Thank you. For taking care of me when I can't take care of myself. I love you.”
She smiled, looking at Percy with fondness in her eyes. “You don’t need to thank me. I’m doing this because I care, remember? I love you too. Call for me if you need anything else.”
“Of course. Thank you, Keyleth.”
Two days passed and so did Percy’s cold. He avoided his workshop for a few days, taking Keyleth’s advice on taking a break.
His heart grew heavy every time he thought of the quick moment they shared in his bedroom. They expressed their love for each other all the time, but it was merely only friendship. This time felt different.
But of course, Percy kept quiet about his feelings. He knew it meant nothing. He wanted to get it out of his head, but it stuck like glue. He knew if he didn’t say something to her it would get out of hand and eat him alive. So he started working on a plan.
It was early into the night, only just after dinner, and Percy called Keyleth down into his workshop. He made up a cheap excuse that he needed her help to charge a new weapon he was working on.
His heart pounded quick and hard in his chest. It wasn’t long until he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
“Percy?” A voice called out. Two steps down the stairs. His heart sped up.
“In here,” he responded. Four more steps. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
Footsteps grew closer and fiery red hair could be seen through the small space in the door. The door opened and Keyleth stepped in, a smile on her face as she entered the workshop. Percy’s mind raced with a mix of nerves and excitement. Would his plan actually work? Would he be ruining his friendship with his best friend? The questions buzzed around his head, making him put a hand to his head and take a deep breath.
“Percy? Are you okay?” Keyleth rushed to his side and sat him down on a stool. “Did you even hear what I said? You’re not getting sick again, are you?”
Percy smiled at her. “I’m fine. Just a little headache. Can you repeat yourself? Sorry there’s just a lot on my mind…”
Keyleth giggled. “I asked what you needed me to do.”
“Right, right,” Percy nodded. “Well I more so wanted to talk to you in private but I didn’t want to make it suspicious.”
“What is it that you wanted to talk about? Now you’re making me worried.” Her face turned to nervousness and she fidgeted with the edge of her tunic.
“It’s nothing bad, I promise. It’s just… I think I love you.” The words fell from his mouth before he could stop them. A red tint came across his face and he looked away from the druid.
Keyleth stared at him for a minute, shocked by the sudden confession. “Percy I-”
“I understand if you don’t feel the same. You know what? Just forget I said anything,” the words continued to tumble out of his mouth. “I’m just making this worse for myself…”
Keyleth took his hand in hers and gave him a smile. “Percival let me talk. Remember when I said I care about you? Nothing is ever going to change that. I love you too.”
“No I mean… I’m in love with you! More than a friend, Keyleth. I’m in love with you.”
“I know what you mean, Percy, and I’m telling you that I love you too. I’m also in love with you,” Keyleth’s smile widened when she saw Percy smile slightly, his eyes slightly glazing over with tears.
“Can I kiss you?”
Keyleth nodded slightly and Percy stood up, pulling her close and kissing her gently. It was sweet and simple, just as Percy had planned. They broke apart, their foreheads resting together.
“I was afraid I was going to ruin our friendship,” Percy chuckled. “I’ve been planning this since I got better.”
Keyleth smiled and ruffled his hair. “You get yourself worked up a lot. The next thing we have to worry is telling the rest of the group about this.”
There was a snicker heard from the other side of the door. Both Keyleth and Percy’s eyes shot towards the source of the noise.
“Grog they heard us! Go! Back upstairs!” A familiar voice half-whispered. The whispering was followed by loud pounding of goliath footsteps running up the stairs. “I meant take me with you!”
Percy sighed and got up, opening the door and looking down at the gnome that stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Scanlan, may I ask what you’re doing?”
Scanlan’s head shot to Percy, eyes wide and a nervous smile on his face.
“Oh! Percy! I, uh, I didn’t know you were down here!” His eyes darted around, looking for a way out of the situation.
“How much did you see and how much did Grog see?” Impatiens filled Percy’s voice and he crossed his arms, leaning against the door frame.
“See? See what? We didn’t see anything!” Scanlan’s pitch kept getting higher as continued to dig a deeper hole for himself.
Seconds went by of just Percy staring at Scanlan, waiting for an answer, until the bard finally snapped.
“Alright, I’ll tell you just stop looking at me like that! You look like a disappointed father,” Scanlan babbled. “We saw most of it, Grog is probably telling everyone right now, so it’s him you should be busting, not me. It was my idea though.”
Percy sighed and looked back at Keyleth. “Looks like the spies are telling everyone for us, so that's one problem off of our chest.” He turned back to Scanlan and motioned to the stairs. “Go. If I catch you spying on me one more time I won't be as nice as I was today.”
Scanlan hurried up the stairs and Percy closed the door again, leaning against it for a second before walking over to Keyleth. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and smiled.
“Might as well go upstairs since everyone in the keep probably knows by now,” Keyleth giggled.
Percy nodded and offered his arm. With little-to-no hesitation Keyleth locked arms with him and they walked upstairs together, arm in arm and smiles on their faces.