Reunions

…

It was quiet in the first hour. Scanlan stayed a few feet behind his daughter.

"…I'm sorry you had to hear that."

"Shouldn't 'ave died then."

"I know… I'm sorry."

Kaylie sniffed, rubbed her wrist across her nose and kept walking.

They walked deeper into the woods, a few hours passed by with a few brief words exchanged. "Careful of the stream." "Take this." "Mountains or woods?" "Hold up." That sort of thing.

The sun had set, Scanlan summoned his mansion.

Kaylie laughed and shook her head, "What else have you got hidden up your sleeve?"

At that moment a soft, somber smile kept across Scanlan's face, "Lots more where that came from. Wait 'till you see the portrait."

Kaylie walked up and smacked her father on his back as she sauntered through the door, "Show me where the liquor is."

Their days repeated like this. Traveling, talking, eating, going to sleep and renewing it all again. Each day with a few more words, a few more smiles, a few more laughs.

And then one day after many, many days they sang.

Kaylie was next to the fire strumming her lute, humming quietly. And then she started singing. It was beautiful, and quiet and bursting, and then he sang too.

…After that they talked more. More about the past, more about the future, more about anything. Of course there were shouts and there were tears, but with each day they came closer. They smiled more until one day, they smiled the whole day without stopping.

Neither of them have ever done that before.

He told her stories of his adventures. She told him stories of her own.

All the best ones first, of bravery, and cunning, and victory, and wit, and skill, and splendor to win over any crowd.

…Then of bad ones, of mistakes, and stupidity, and regret, and fear, and death that would anyone to tears…

Then they told the quiet stories. The ones that had no meaning, the ones that meant the most, of quiet afternoons, of little things they treasured most, of things that no crowd would ever want to hear. And they smiled.

…

A long while past.

"You've been keepin' up with your sword lately, haven't ya?"

"You never know the next time you might need it."

Kaylie laughed, "Ohhh, like back with the owl bears when you got your ass handed to ya? What did you try to do again? Dimension door on top of it?"

"Well, it would have worked if it stayed in place."

"Yeah, I then I had to save your ass!"

Scanlan looked over his shoulder to her and smiled softly, "You're always saving me."

Kaylie pursed her lips in defiance and turned her head to hide a traitorous blush that was certainly, definitely, not pride. "Shat up!"

Then, there was a knock on the door. Scanlan looked up in surprise. Kaylie looked to him with an eyebrow raised. "You… gonna get that?"

After a brief moment Scanlan walked over to the misty purple door. He opened it.

"Scanlan?"

"Keyleth?"

Bursting into tears Keyleth wrapped her arms around Scanlan in a crushing hug, "Scanlan! It's b-been so l-l-long!" Sloppy tears fell down the druid's face as she cried and hiccupped into Scanlan's shoulder.

"Keyleth, w-what are you doing out here?"

"We w-w-were hunting a monster a-and I came out here to t-take a shit hahaha!" Keyleth, sobbing with tears of joy now began to laugh her airy high-pitched giggle. "Hahaha! A-and then - pffffff- after I took a, hahaha! S-shit in the w-woods I saw your mansion's door and…"

"Oh Keyleth…" Scanlan smiled and laughed, "It's good to see you."

Keyleth pulled back to look Scanlan in the face, and abruptly burst into another round of sobs, "Oh Scanlan! We thought you hated us! I'm so sorry!"

"Hey, hey, hey! It's okay. I don't hate you," Scanlan consoled, "I love you."

"Oi! Red-head! Quit your blubberin' will ya?"

Keyleth raised her head to see Kaylie's face and once again burst into tears, "KAYLIE!"

"OI, oi! Get yer hands off me!" Kaylie screeched as Keyleth tackled her into a crushing embrace.

Then a muffled voice came through the crack in the open door. "Keyleth darling? Are you still out here?"

Keyleth quickly released Kaylie and turned with a beaming grin on her face, "VEX COME HERE!"

"Keyleth?" Then a gasp, "SCANLAN!"

"Oooofff-" The wind was knocked out of Scanlan's lungs as Vex'ahlia hugged him so tight it hurt. "Vex…Vex, I'm in pain!"

"Oh! Sorry darling!" She released him from her grasp and kissed him on his forehead, "We've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too… wait. Are you still wearing the hat?!"

"Hmm?" Vex followed Scanlan's gaze to the top of her head where her tall, pointed black hat rested on her head, "Well of course darling, I promised you I would."

With that, Scanlan couldn't help but laugh. A few tears streamed down his face but he quickly wiped them away with ease. "Are the others here?"

"Oh! Yes! Keyleth could you go get them?"

"On it!" Keyleth leaped from her crushing hug and dashed through the door, a small gust of wind in her wake.

Then after many more tears, many more crushing hugs, many more happy reunions, Vox Machina once again stood at Scanlan's side.

Pike was wiping away tears with a smile that glowed, she was still so beautiful. Grog was laughing and grinning, as hulking and warm presence as ever. Percy was quiet but smiling. Vax was emotional and crying but grinning and happy. Even Trinket shared in the reunion, licking Scanlan's face and toppling him over in a bear hug.

The whole night they drank and sang and recalled stories, caught up, talked, cried, laughed, ate, and everything else they could think of. Then once things got quiet, and they were all together, Scanlan spoke quietly.

"I'm sorry I stormed off…"

Vax put his hand onto his shoulder, "No, it's what you needed."

"Plus we deserved it." Scanlan grinned, he missed Percy's quips.

"Are you happy?" Vex pipped up.

Scanlan smiled and laughed. "I am! Kaylie and I…" He looked over to Kaylie passed out figure, drunkenly cuddled up in Trinket thick fur. "It's been good… for both of us."

"Do you know what you'll be doing now? After this, I mean, are you going to keep traveling? Not that that's anything wrong! Or…" Keyleth asked in a sort of awkward caution.

Scanlan smiled, "Keep doing this, I suppose."

"I'm so glad you're happy Scanlan." Pike said, padding away the tears in her eyes.

"Me too. How are you guys? Are you all… happy?"

They all answered.

"Yes."

After a moment Vex'ahlia stepped forward. "Scanlan, we love you so, so much. You always have a home with us."

"And use that stone we gave you! I don't want to wait another year until we stumble upon you in the woods!" Keyleth scolded.

"Heh, I mean we're always fated to meet again aren't we?"

"Do you want to come along with us Scanlan? You and Kaylie?" Keyleth asked, this time with much more conviction in her voice. She had grown it seemed… they all had.

Scanlan looked at his friends… his family. It had been a long time since they'd last seen each other. Many things happened. They had all grown, matured, things were different, yet still the same in all the best ways…

And in the silence of Scanlan being lost in his mind, looking at his awaiting friends for his answer a loud, drunken shout came from behind them, "Yeah Pop! Let's fuckin' do it! Let's go adventurin' with the family!"

And they all laughed and smiled.

"Well, you heard her." He said, shrugging his shoulders with a grin on his face, "If it's one thing I've learnt, it's that she calls the shots."

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I DO!" Kaylie stumbled over to Grog, shit eatin' grin on her face and bottle in her hand, "OI, UNCLE BIG FUCKER! C'MERE I WANNA FIGHT YA!" Grog giggled with excitement as Kaylie tackled him to the ground.

That night they all slept together, as a family.

…

And once the dawn had broke, all was well.

Yeah okay, so this is an epilogue to episode 85 I wrote for my own mental health tbh and I did not plan for it to bee this long. lol. So here's what happens after words, because I need them to be happy.

Thank you for reading!