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They have one night before they make a move towards Emon. One night before they engage Thordak, for better or worse. Percy has spent much of the day locked in his workshop, feverishly planning and constructing anything and everything he thinks might give Vox Machina the edge they need. As evening begins fading into night, however, he breaks from his work and returns to his bedroom - it won't do if they fight Thordak and he is dead on his feet from lack of sleep.
And yet as he stands before his bed, cleaned from the day's workshop activity and wearing only the loose shirt and pants he prefers to sleep in these days (no more long-johns if he could help it), he realises: there is somewhere else for him to be, tonight.
That is why he slips his glasses back on and pads down the hall, skipping over several closed doors to one that still has the glow of lamp-light coming from underneath. Percy stands awkwardly before it for a moment, hand raised to knock but stalled before his knuckles ever touch the surface.
After what feels like an age, he knocks. A sleepy voice calls from within: "Hello?"
Percy breathes deep, squares his shoulders. "Vex'ahlia," he begins uncertainly, licking his suddenly-dry lips. Before he can ask to come inside he hears the soft shuffle-scuff of fabric from the other side of the door and the gentle click of a lock being unlatched. The door swings open to reveal Vex, clad in a soft white sleeping gown, her eyes ringed with the tell-tale redness of recent tears. Her hair is loose from its usual braid and lacks even the feathers behind her ear, spilling in soft waves between her shoulders.
"Percy?" Her brows furrow, briefly, more so than they already had been; Percy aches with the sudden desire to take his thumb and smooth out those creases. There is no place for them here, no reason they should mark Vex's face as they do. "Did you need something?"
He takes a deep breath and folds his arms, fingers worrying at the outside of his rolled-up sleeve. "May we talk?" he asks uncertainly. Wordlessly, Vex steps back, sweeping one arm out to invite him in, and he follows.
As always, their rooms within the mansion hold nothing in the way of personal effects; if it weren't for Vex's gear spread over the desk, the chairs, the floor, it would appear identical to each of the other bedrooms. Fenthras lies unstrung upon her desk, the word carved near its grip catching the lamplight and a full quiver of arrows tucked alongside it. Her armour and clothing sits in a neat stack upon one of the chairs, folded and carefully cleaned.
He is stalling. Percy is all too aware of Vex's eyes upon him, of the intimacy of their meeting like this, but when she sits on the edge of her bed and pats the blanket beside her, he cannot say no. He switches from fidgeting with his sleeve to a crease of fabric on the inner side of his knee, pinching it between his fingers.
"We fight Thordak tomorrow," he says, eyes still fixed upon the floor. Lilac-coloured carpet, the pile thick enough to sink his toes into. Vex makes a small aborted noise beside him. "I know I said we would talk later, but--"
"We might not live long enough to see a 'later'," Vex supplies. With both hands folded in her lap she runs one thumb along the knuckles of the other hand - fidgeting, like him. Percy laughs, and it comes out bitter and raw.
"There will be a later," he says firmly, "and both of us will live to see it. I swear it, Vex." He looks at her, tipping his head sideways to peer at her from the corner of his eye. "I just... I wondered if, perhaps..."
Vex sits back, turning fully to face him. Her expression is one of fond amusement. "If you're about to suggest that you don't want to die a virgin, Percy, I'm going to throw you out." Percy feels his cheeks heat at her words, thinking for a split second of every single fantasy that's ever filled his mind in idle hours - and then forcefully pushing them all down. That's not what he came here for.
Not tonight.
His lips curve upwards. "So you find the idea of sleeping with me so distasteful? My dear lady, you wound me," he says, teasing and playful, and Vex laughs and nudges him in the side, her eyes crinkling at the corners. "No, I simply - I thought both of us might want some comfort."
Vex considers him for a moment, the levity fading from her face before she sighs. It comes out as a slight snuffle and she wipes delicately at her face, still splotchy with the evidence of crying. She opens her mouth, like she's about to speak - and then she simply sighs again, deeper this time to the point that her shoulders slump, practically collapsing in on herself.
"I keep thinking of everything that could go wrong tomorrow," Vex admits. Her voice is a small, lonely thing. "I'm terrified."
Percy nods. "I... I'm scared, too," he says. He thinks of the things that have scared him before - returning to Whitestone, the Briarwoods, Orthax, her - and finds Thordak perhaps overshadows the lot of them. At one time in his life he'd thought she was the worst of everything he'd ever have to face. Funny how things can change. It isn't until Vex nods at him that Percy realises he'd spoken aloud.
"We have all the Vestiges, at least," she says, though even as the words leave her lips they feel like a cold comfort. "I just wish it didn't feel like we were missing something."
"We are," he says quietly, and both of them think of Draconia, of a body interred beneath snow and ice and a mountain of books and a tiny beast reluctant to leave his master's side even in death. "But we persevere regardless, so that his sacrifice means something."
Vex looks at Percy, her eyes - a deep, dark brown, catching luminous, cat-like gold where the lamp's light reflects - searching his face like she's looking for something. He wonders what she finds there, in his eyes; he wonders if she finds something agreeable. He holds still under her scrutiny until, at last, she looks away and speaks.
"Percy, would you - I don't mean to impose, darling, but..." She wraps both arms around herself, running her fingers over the creased fabric of her sleeves. "Would you stay? Here, tonight, with me. I need to know that you're - that you --"
"That I'm alive," he finishes for her, and Vex nods. Her face seems to crumple at that, eyes welling up once more, and Percy reaches out to wrap his arms around her and pull her in close. She goes easily, letting herself be cradled close, one arm around her body and the other gently cupping the back of her head. "I'm here," he whispers into the top of her hair.
She shudders in his arms and for a moment Percy relaxes his grip, wondering if she's changed her mind - and then a muffled sob escapes her. Another. A third, until suddenly she's weeping against his chest, face buried into his shirt, and if there are words said between the tears then they're not any words that Percy understands.
He can feel the heat of her fingers through his shirt, splayed across his chest, and he lets go of her briefly to guide one shaking hand to his chest, pressing her palm to the steady pulse of his heart. For a moment Percy keeps his hand like that, their fingers intertwined. "I don't intend on dying again," he murmurs, running his fingers softly through her hair. "I'm right here."
When Vex's tears begin to trail off, Percy unlaces his fingers from hers and shifts them both backwards on the bed. Vex uncurls and lets herself be pulled, both of them lying down upon the sheets. It's warm enough, here in each other's arms, that Percy makes no move to pull the heavy blankets over the top of them, settling instead for finding a comfortable way to keep his arms around Vex.
Eventually they do both settle, curled up against one another, and Percy gives out a sigh that ruffles the wisps of hair atop Vex's head. "Dear," he begins uncertainly, and feels Vex stir at the endearment and make a quiet, snuffling noise of acknowledgement. "I know I said there would be a later, but I--"
Vex shakes her head. She squirms, pushing Percy onto his back and leaning up over him to look him in the eye, peering down at him through dark lashes. "Tomorrow," she says. "After the fight is won. That's long enough to be later, right?" A smile touches her lips, shaky and uncertain but still there. "We need something to fight for, after all."
That they'll be fighting for the fate of Tal'dorei - for all Exandria - hangs heavy and unspoken in the air between them. Easier to ignore it, to pretend that they fight for something so simple and easy as a tomorrow in which they can lay all their feelings bare.
"Tomorrow," he says in return, smiling gently. "I'll tell you tomorrow, then." Vex hums, satisfied, smiling herself, and Percy fixes that image of her in his mind - watery-eyed, ruddy-nosed Vex'ahlia, looking down at him with a tender expression and her hair spilling over her shoulders in loose, dark waves. She lies back down, pillowing her head against his chest, her ear pressed over his pulse like she's reassuring herself it's still there.
Onwards to tomorrow, then, Percy thinks, and lets his dreams take him.