We can meet in the middle
Body and souls collide
Dance in the moonlight
When all the stars align
For you and I, for you and I
"You and I" by PVRIS
All is quiet in Whitestone. A light flurry of snow falls upon the frozen ground and parapets of the de Rolo's castle. There is a gentle lull of activity in the town, still recuperating from the reign of the Briarwoods. For the townsfolk, it is rare they get a day of rest. For Vox Machina however, their day off is well deserved. Especially today now that they have returned home after their conflict with Vorugal, still tending to the wounds. Percy has been tinkering away since the sun rose, desperately trying to fix his damaged guns. Vex'ahlia is the only member of the group besides Percy to spend the majority of her day alone. She awakens beside Trinket, finding herself repeating the words that have been echoing through her mind for hours: We'll talk later.
She grows restless around evening and stands to try to find the white haired man who has been consuming her every thought. Shaking her head, she attempts to clear her mind of his voice and his touch. His touch that was gentle but assertive as he grabbed her cheek and her hip to hold her as he kissed her lips. She blushes as Trinket cocks his head at her, releasing a low growl as he shifts to lie flat. Unknowingly, her hands had drifted to the spots where his were just hours before. He sighs, putting his head on his crossed paws, reeling her out of her thoughts.
"Oh hush you," she replied to him, scratching between his ears as she leaves the room. Vex sets out to aimlessly wander the halls, wondering if Percy was anywhere in sight until she stops at the end of a long corridor not far from her room, leading to Percy's room. She exhales, unsure if he would even be out of his workshop, and knocks lightly on the door.
"Percival? Darling?"
There's a slight pause and she feels her heart sink slightly.
"Come in, its unlocked."
Hearing a satisfying click to the handle as she turns it, the door creaks open revealing his organized chaos of a room. Papers of design sketches and journals are strewn across parts of the floor, books are stacked haphazardly in random places throughout the bedchamber, tools and screws litter the tables illuminated by the flickering of candles and lit fireplace in the left corner. His curtains are drawn closed, keeping the heat in from the fleeting warmth of the setting sun on the snow covered windows. The occasional pops of the fire give the room a sense of serenity. Percy is sitting on his four-posted canopy bed across from the fire, reading a book with a title she can't quite make out, but stops once Vex's boots click over to him.
He looks at her with a soft smile and sets his reading down. "Vex'ahlia, just the woman I wanted to see."
She notices a twinkle in his eyes, his glasses reflecting the light from the candle on his bedside table which causes a slight blush to splash across her cheeks as he grabs her hand to kiss her knuckles. A single interaction and she is content. This is how it should be.
Percy motions for her to sit beside him on the side of the bed, their feet hovering above the floor as it is a bed fit for a ruler of Whitestone. He clears his throat. "So I've been doing a lot of thinking... about last night, about how I wanted to accurately tell you what has been going through my mind these past few months. As a dragon-slayer and baroness, I think you deserve to hear the honest truth."
Her heart throbs in her throat, trying to hide from him how tightly her clammy the hand that's gripping the covers is. Of course by now he knows how she feels about him. All of the quick kisses and winks. All of the times she has let him break through the heavy walls she had guarding her heart. All leading up to the moments that ensued after his body fell still and cold in her arms. Her world crumbled around her. She didn't know what to do without him. Now that he's alive and breathing, she just wants to spend all of the time that they have left with him. Every part of him fascinates her. His words enchant her and his eyes entrance her. His very nature leaves her wanting more.
"I can't tell you the exact moment when I knew," he begins. "But I started to have very strong emotions towards you, ones that I had not felt before, around the time we were tracking down the Briarwoods. I have grown quite fond of you and your company since then, as you helped me see who I truly am behind the mask. Out of everyone, not to discredit their feats by any means, you were the one that broke through Orthax's veil of smoke and was able to get through to me. I never realized how much you mean to me until much later, when we went to Purvan's tomb and you… you were..." his voice breaks and falters, thinking about the day that Vex laid still on a tomb floor.
She grips his hand tighter. "Percival..."
"I blame myself." His brows furrow, the horrifying shrieks in terror echoing through the cavern as the ranger's body was thrown to the ground with a thud sound far too real in his head. The vivid nightmares still jerk him awake in a cold sweat some mornings. The stiffness in his voice stops her from interjecting any further. "It is my fault after all. My foolish naivete was the cause of your death. As you were blown back from that trap and I saw you fall to the ground, my whole body felt cold. I hated myself for hurting you. I hated myself for it being you, not me. It should have been me…"
"Darling, I don't blame you for what happened. That all is in the past. All that matters to me is that the two of us are alive right now. As I said last night, you have to find it within yourself to forgive yourself. I have."
He nods and sighs. His hand that was nervously tapping against his knee moving to cup her, locking eyes with her. "I want to. You know I do. I think it can be a good thing that I've been forced to be introspective as of late. As a man that has been running across Tal'Dorei from his demons, finally getting the opportunity to confront them has been quite liberating. I have never quite been able to confess to myself nor to anyone else these insecurities. I used to think myself weak for admitting them. But as you and I have gotten closer, I have grown to trust you. I want to grow from my past as you have. I want to be a better man. All of these thoughts rushing through my head have helped me realize something that has never been more obvious as it is now."
Vex remains silent, watching his eyes flick down to gather his thoughts, never the one to rush through his words. She mentally runs through all of the gestures of kindness he showed her from making the seat for her broom to titling her a baroness. All of the gestures that made her willingly surrender her heart to him. As if it could possibly be anyone else's.
"Vex'ahlia, I love you." Percy's confession comes out not much louder than a whisper over the crackle of the fire and lets the words hang still like a cloud of smoke in the air. His cool eyes flicker with warmth and tenderness that she has never seen before. His hand falls to her neck where it meets her shoulder, holding her gently. "You have all of my heart. As bruised as it may be, it is yours."
" Oh Percy." Her hands slide up his chest to grab the collar of his button up, holding him to touch foreheads, relishing in the words he just uttered. "I love you. My heart is yours. I don't know if you heard what happened during your resurrection but, as I spoke I told you that I should have told you sooner, that my heart is yours. It was never some douche in a tree's to steal. It always belonged to you."
He shakily exhales against her lips, smiling in relief. His breath tickling her before he closes the gap between them with a passionate kiss, cutting off any hopes of more conversation. Percy's hand brushes her thigh on his way to hold her hip, bringing her body closer. He guides them to shift up towards his collection of pillows, his back resting against them, pulling her onto his lap. She instinctively straddles him, deepening the kiss while her fingers skim up his neck to his hair, tugging slightly. His mouth parts in a small sigh at her body being on top of him, giving her the opportunity to slip her tongue between his open lips. She feels his hand that was previously on her waist start to wander under her shirt along her slides, traveling across to scrape his nails gently along her toned stomach. A breathy sigh leaves her mouth as she slowly grinds her hips into him. Chills spread through her body, slowly pushing her tunic up as he caresses her skin. Vex pulls her mouth away to look at him, his hair that is normally tidy is all disheveled from her hands, his sore lips are pink from kissing her. A smirk creeps to the corners of her mouth as her eyes glaze over his body, slowly running her hand down his chest, fingering the buttons of his shirt. She stares at his body under hers, now illuminated by fire and candle light. His hair seems to glow white under the low light in the room. Percy's eyes open at her touch, his gaze hooded with lust. There's a silent conversation that occurs and almost in unison they strip the other of their shirts, hands going to feel the uncharted territory.
For Vex, this isn't the first time she's had a lover. However, this is the first time she was actually in love with her lover, feeling a spark deep within her that she never felt with a previous partner. She wants him to explore her. She craves his touch in places that would make her blush if she dared to speak them aloud. Her fingers trace along his collarbones and drag down his chest to his muscled stomach. He sighs as his abdominal muscles clench and twitch, bringing his mouth to her sternum to flick his tongue up to her neck, lightly sucking on the side where her braid sits and covers her neck. Very slowly, he starts to undo it, letting her once plaited hair fall past her shoulders. Percy runs his fingers through the long waves, before he grabs a fistful to tilt her head to grant him easy access to the other side of her neck. His nails glide up to the left side of her chest, beginning to palm her breast. Her hips grind down on his growing erection to make him buck into her, hissing "fuck", searing it into her skin.
Vex moves his hand to the other side of her chest, pushing his chin up to meet her eye to eye. Her lips crash into his for a moment to tease him as she kisses along his neck, letting her fingers dance along the waistline of his breeches. She takes his hip thrust up into her as the cue to remove them and pushes them to the floor, leaving him in his underwear. Using the leverage from her weight shifting on him, Percy shifts their position to pin Vex to the bed with her hands held over her head, his knee pushing her legs apart to spread them. He begins the downward journey of his lips at hers, letting them meet briefly to only pull away to move south, landing kisses along her neck down to her breasts. Low groans slip out her mouth as his mouth closes around a nipple, alternating between both sides to give them equal attention. Once he has her breathing heavily, thighs burning with arousal, he decides to drag his tongue further down her abdomen, nipping at the skin around her hips. Following his lead from earlier, she bucks her hips towards him for her pants to join his on the wood floor. Percival, always the perceptive one, takes her hint, pulling her boots and pants off of her. His hands stay low on her body, drifting up and down her thighs, his mouth gliding around her stomach. Her breath hitches in her throat, quietly moaning his name, feeling his fingers gently touch along her inner thighs. She feels his smirk into her skin before he runs a finger along the center of her wet underwear.
"Percy please," She looks down at him, holding his hair in a hand. The sound of her own begging is foreign to her ears. Vex'ahlia doesn't beg. She usually is the one who makes her partners beg. But not today while she's in the bedchamber of a De Rolo.
A quiet chuckle leaves his lips, fingers hooking around the sides of her underwear, he swiftly pulls the soaked fabric down her legs, discarding them to push her legs further apart with his body as he slides a finger along her lips. She feels her hips twitch in pleasure, gasping as his tongue licks up the apex of her thighs. He moves one of her legs over his shoulder, spreading her wider as he flicks in and around her. An adept finger caresses for her clit, hearing her low guttural moan as a response for rubbing it in just the right way. Vex loses all control, twining her fingers into his hair, back arching off of the mattress, breaths shortening with every lick and suck of his tongue. A string of curses laced with a breathy moan leave her mouth, acting as a precursor for her orgasm which hits her within seconds. Her hips thrust and grind into his tongue and he holds her still as she falls undone at his mouth, nails scratching up his back, whispering: "Percival…"
There is a short lull in their activities for her to catch her breath, wanting to regain her dominant position over him, still dizzy from what his tongue just did to her. Vex beckons with her finger for him to come up to her face, snaking her arms around his neck to flip them over on his back. She sits on his straining erection, letting him feel the heat generated from her body, long enough to send him over the edge, as she planned. She isn't surprised by his response of roughly grabbing her hips, yearning for more. She gives him what he wants, hovering over his waist now, fingers reaching behind her to yank down his underwear. Her hips lower onto him as she grips the bedpost for support, his finger coaxingly tracing along her spine, feeling his length fill and stretch her before she starts their movement. They relish in the languid rhythm, Vex holding Percy's gaze until he starts to quicken their speed. She places a hand on his chest, the other falling to his thigh, she swivels her hips at random strokes, eliciting the groans of pleasure she was waiting for. His hands squeeze her slightly bouncing chest, slipping his thumbs over her nipples. Vex throws her head back in a moan, hair dangling behind her. Pulling her close, he sits up with her in his lap, a hand gripping her butt to hold them steady. The heat pulsing and radiating from their intertwined bodies consumes her. She slides up and down on him, hearing cries of pleasure as encouragement from her partner. Her nails scrape along his tensing back muscles, panting against his neck when he quickens their pace further. The hand that was on her breast falls between them, fingering her clitoris in tempo to their thrusts. She grabs at something to help her maintain her speed, reaching out blindly to grasp onto the thin curtains draped across and around Percival's canopy bed.
"Vex…" He huffs into her ear. His voice now husky and teeming with lust. "I'm almost… I'm going to…"
She nods into the crook of his neck, unable to be as articulate as she normally is. Sighing in agreement as the speed of his fingers decrease, rubbing calmer and wider circles on her. The speed of their thrusts increase slightly, edging them closer and closer to climax. Vex's moans get caught in her throat, her hips twitch as her walls squeeze around him, whimpering: "Percival" as she orgasms, convulsing in pleasure in his arms. Percy's grip on her ass tightens, the feeling of her release pushing him over the edge, calling her full name into her ear, sending shivers across her sweat-slicked body.
They collapse onto one another, sending Percy's body to crash backwards into the pillows behind him. She struggles to catch her breath, her chest panting against his when the flickering of his candles catch her eye. Watching the wax slowing slide down into the holder focuses her attention, calming her, and notifying her of how long she was there. When she walked in, the candles were about half height they were now. She no longer sees any bits of sunlight streaking through the openings of the drapes in front of the large window closest to the bed.
In a daze and with her breathing pattern somewhat normal again, she slinks off of him to sit at the edge of the bed, looking back at his relaxed body. She reaches out for his hand, beckoning him next to her, mimicking their original sitting position. He stands to her surprise, lazily pulling her up next to him. He guides her, their feet quietly stepping against the cool floor towards the very same window she was staring at. A small smile spreads across her lips at the sight of the scratch lines she left on his back. There is a comforting silence between them as if speaking would ruin what is occurring. Percy opens the curtains, leading her in front of him to stare outside.
The view is breathtaking. Vex watches the steady snowfall float down to the stone walls and towers around them. As far as the eye can see, there is a heavenly coating of snow, beautifully undisturbed by the footprints of a creature. She can see the rolling hills of the Alabaster Sierras far off in the distance behind the small rooftops of the humble homes in town. She would do anything to have this to wake up to every morning.
He holds her body in front of his, his hands resting on her naked stomach, his cheek resting against the top of her head. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"It's absolutely lovely, Percy." She sighs, glancing at the faint reflection of their bodies in the glass. "What I would do to stay here every day. I don't want to leave."
"You don't have to," he starts, his mind whirring with a plan. "At least for tonight."
She makes eye contact with him in their reflection, puzzled. "But what about dinner? We would have to go-"
"Darling, I think you forgot who owns this city." He cuts her off with a twinkle in his eyes. "If you want to stay here, I can ask someone to bring our dinner up here for us. No questions asked from my servants. If you're afraid of them talking to your brother or anybody there's no need to worry. We can have our own private dinner at a table in my tea room connected to this bedroom."
She mulls it over for a bit, fearing the questions from everyone tonight if they quickly dressed and met up with them, very obviously look like two people who just did the deed. "I would like that very much, thank you. I would rather not go downstairs with your adorably scratched back and sex hair."
He chuckles, kisses the top of her head, and moves to start dressing in fresh clothes to make the proper arrangements for dinner. In the darkness, Vex grabs his loose undershirt he was wearing previously by mistake and buttons it all the way up only to realize it isn't hers. Far too lethargic to change again, she thinks "fuck it" and keeps it on, slipping under the covers to lean against the headboard to watch Percy ring a bell the help from a servant. He smiles at her, looking so genuinely happy she thought her heart would melt through her. Yes, this is how it should be.