Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“It’s open.” Keyleth said in response to the light knock at her door.

It swung in and she saw the familiar and always welcome figure of Vex’ahlia.

“Oh hey Vex. Sorry, what time is it?”

She looked out her window to see the sun outside the stained glass was indeed much higher up than when she had started her day.

“Don’t worry darling, I’m early.” She said earnestly with her light, beautiful smile. She casually leaned against the doorframe and Keyleth gave an appreciative nod, returning to her forms in front of her. Some treaties that needed fine reading and signing.

Bureaucracy was awfully dreadful sometimes. 1000 years of this sounded like a punishment.

“Actually, I had something I wanted to talk to you about…” She said in a nonchalant tone that was just a little forced so she knew she was trying to appear more casual than was necessary.

Keyleth set the papers aside. They were far from done, but would take more time than she had.

“Yeah, of course. What- is it something about the kids? Or Whitestone? Or-“

“I’ll tell you what it is Keyleth, you don’t have to guess.” She said with a twinkle of a smile. “It’s actually…”

She took a deep breath.

“It’s actually about us.”

Keyleth blinked, tilting her head.

“Us like… Vox Machina? Or about… you and me? Like that us?”

“The latter.” She said, still leaning against the door frame. She bit her lip as if in thought. “Keyleth, darling… what are your thoughts about romance?”

Okay, they must be topic jumping pretty wildly.

“Uh, I mean…” She shrugged, eyes drifting out the window the perch the raven would sit some days. “I think you’re pretty aware of my exploits. As a concept it’s beautiful… I think what I’ve seen you and Percy have…”

She paused over his name and glanced quickly at Vex. She always did when they spoke of him. Early on it had obviously wounded and she hadn’t been able to not flinch at the mention. She was doing better now it seemed. Time really did heal all wounds.

“What Pike and Scanlan had… messy as it was.” She chuckled and shook her head. “What my vassal Orym had… with his husband Will? It’s deep and gives purpose to existence. A hunt for your other half.”

She set the quill she was holding down, noticing it had started to drip.

“Is that… close to what you were getting at?”

Vex gave a nod, but was still studying her.

“Have you thought about... more recently, exploring it for yourself darling?”

Keyleth scoffed. She couldn’t help it. The sound forced its way out in a silly little laugh and she waved her hand, leaning back in her desk chair.

“No Vex, I uh… I’m all set on that.”

Vex hummed and nodded, looking out the same window toward the empty bird post. Of course she’d know where it was.

“I sort of thought I was too… thought I’d had my time in the sun. And now would reside to the shade. See the next stage of my life as a mother… grandmother… widow…”

She bit her lip again.

“But the thing is… I keep seeing these rays of light… and finding myself thinking that maybe I’m not done with that part of myself just yet.”

Keyleth tilted her head and smiled lightly at her. Happy for her. Vex was a being of great light, it made sense.

“That’s great Vex. You should pursue someone if you have the inkling to. You’re…” She paused, mind correcting before the thought ever started. “Anyone would be lucky to court you.”

“Flattered for you to say so.” Vex said with a sweet, sincere smile directed back at her. But something more. “Because this may actually… relate to you.”

And then Keyleth’s mind skipped a few beats.

Vex turned that deep loaded gaze on her. That one that radiated like an instant sunburn where you’d feel it on your skin the next day.

“I think… we’ve been alone long enough.” Vex said walking on gentle footsteps to the edge of Keyleth’s desk. It was odd to think she knew someone well enough to know the difference in how they stepped. Vex walked proud. Stomped with grace when she needed to. Never let herself appear as anything less than what she was.

Which was why the current shift… the soft… demure way she carried herself to Keyleth’s side was so… distracting. Odd to see her let someone in past that carefully controlled appearance. Even herself.

“Keyleth…” she said, pulling her from her mind. She tended to revert there often. Examine things. Overexamine things. She was doing it again.

But then her hand was on her cheek.

“Sometimes I think my power is a curse. And I’ll have to mourn you all.” Keyleth said, blurting what was at the root of her overthinking as of late. “So yeah… I’m alone. I mean, loneliness is expected. Who could love someone that’s so… stuck?”

“I could.” Vex said gently, carefully walking her fingers under Keyleth’s chin to tilt her face up to hers. “If you’d let me… I already do. Love you that is.”

Keyleth stared. Felt her lips part in awe as she took in the admission.

“You… you love me?”

“You don’t?” Vex countered with a playful eyebrow raise, which was unfair. 

“I asked you first.” Is what she comes back with, feeling a bit childish but seeing that playful expression morph into something laced in sincerity.

“I have gotten the privilege of knowing you from Keyleth, the girl who was never too scared to try but often too scared to succeed, to the Voice of the Tempest… who’s not scared of anything.”

Keyleth shook her head wryly, distracted as Vex walked her fingers along the edge of her desk and following their movement rather... diligently.

“I still get scared of things.“ Like right now. If that’s what you could call the thumping in her chest.

“As do I.” She said, taking Keyleth’s hand and guiding it up over her chest where she felt Vex’s pulse matching her own. “But mostly it’s the regrets, not the fears, that keep me up at night.”

Keyleth looked at where their hands met and thought how warm she felt… and that was coming from a fire Druid.

“You want to know one that’s been eating at me lately?” She continued, voice dropping an octave like it was a great secret or great sin. Keyleth nodded.

“I regret how long I let you be on your own. I should’ve come to you sooner.” She stepped even closer, putting her free hand around Keyleth’s wrist and gently drawing circles that sent shivers in its wake. “I’ve seen the world underestimate you… I’ve been part of the world that did. Now? Now I’ve never been so proud to be wrong about something. About someone. And I should’ve brought you in from the cold so long ago… forgive me for not seeing your heart… hidden under all those damn leaves and titles and responsibilities. You took on so much of the world, so easily, because there was no other choice. Because no one was there to see and stop you.”

She slid the edge of Keyleth’s sleeve and the curved edge of one of Otohan’s slashes still lived there. The medicine had healed it years ago, but those scars would be with her a long time.

“And that blindness almost cost me you.” She leaned her head down and kissed the scar, featherlight. Keyleth gasped lightly at the touch. Seeing tears blink away on those delicate lashes.

“You owe me nothing.” She insisted, shaking her head. “You had Percy, you have a family, you had titles of your own. I wasn’t your responsibility Vex.”

“Loving you has never been a responsibility, it has been a gift… and a choice. One I’ve put off making for decades.”

Keyleth shook her head. “It’s not meant for me…”

She felt the tree inside her. The roots she was. The nervous system of being the Tempest that pulsated within your blood even when you weren’t trying to feel it.

“Love, that is.”

Vex looked at her with sad eyes and Keyleth hated that expression.

She rose from her seat, kissing the back of Vex’s knuckles in apology, and took a step around the desk.

“I can’t… can’t love like that Vex.” She felt her own expression falling with the weight of her duty.

“Keyleth you are love.” Vex said, as if it were her name she’d forgotten. And she smiled a remorseful little thing.

“I do love Vex. Perhaps I’m not explaining it well, but I do. I think I am equal parts love and duty and anger these days…” she curled her fingers on her staff. Ran a thumb over a knot in the wood. “They are all the things that keep me going. Make me move. But love like how you’re talking… that love…”

She shook her head.

“I don’t think I’m meant to experience it.” She paused running her hand through her hair and catching the raven feather. “Again, at least.”

“Not if you hide from it, no.” Vex said gently, with a curve of challenge as she eased around the desk to be standing beside her again. Leaning into her line of sight.

“It’s not hiding Vex.” She shook her head. “It’s not. I know how it looks it’s just… I became this without knowing what it was but I am it now. And I think part of that… separation… that thing that will keep me here long after everyone I now know… is meant to do just that. Keep distance.”

She stepped further around the desk.

“You have to have love… you have to care about people… or else you could never live in service of them for this long.” She ran her finger across a flower petal from her vase. “But the love you’re talking about… would consume me.”

She gripped the petal and released it just as quick. To preserve before she could destroy it.

“I can’t be consumed Vex…”

Vex closed the distance, a sad understanding, and reaching a hand to her cheek. She ran a thumb along her skin, beneath her eye and Keyleth felt her body stiffen. Tried to stifle the need of a hand… the addiction of a gentle touch…

She felt her breath shudder out of her, eyes crease, saw Vex lean closer slowly and felt a spike of something deep in her heart.

Vex put their foreheads close together, making her eyes the only thing she could see. She ran the tip of her nose along her cheeks, sighed a slow deep breath that Keyleth could taste. Could feel echo down her throat. She traced the edge of her lips with the barest hint of her own, and Keyleth saw how her eyes became half lidded… loaded and wanting… restraining and offering.

“Keyleth…” she whispered. “Darling, take the mask off…”

She felt it like a gunshot, failed to hide her gasp. Shook her head and tilted her gaze away. Vex didn’t release her hold. Didn’t let her retreat.

“I think you’d be disappointed to find there’s no one behind it now Vex…”

She was like… an eggshell if she truly thought about it. Sound in the surface but the barest tremor and inside would be nothing. Neither sunny side up nor hard boiled nor poached.

She was a suit of armor that walked from place to place on its own and remembered to capture the little wonders of the world. The smell of dew in the morning. A perfect breeze. A sunset so beautiful it would never be reused.

She was not a person anymore… humanity was something she’d given up in order to protect it.

Now Keyleth was the mask, and the Tempest was the storm beneath.

“That’s why I want you to let me in.” She said with more surety. “You just need someone to remind you… someone who knew… who knows…”

She kissed her cheek and she felt the warmth there. Like the first rays of light in the morning, breaking through the mist.

“You’re wrong…” Keyleth said, voice stalling. “About me not being afraid. I’m afraid every day… that the mistakes I make will live with me for centuries to come. Will cost me things I will have infinite time to replay.” She reached up and took Vex’s hand, threading their fingers and holding to her tight.

“And I’m so sure that I will break your heart because I simply have forgotten how they feel.” Her voice came out a whisper, strained like a breeze through a forest. Could only reach so deep into the growth.

“Break it then.” Vex said, challenging and encouraging and lovely. Looking at her like she were the stars above and not the roots below. “Mangle it. Shatter it. It is yours darling, you may have it anyway you wish. In a perfect glass box away from the light, or fast and fierce and shredded to make confetti. I don’t care.”

Keyleth felt a crack in her shell… violently ripping through. A burst of air through a cavern, threatening to tear her in two.

“Do you truly… want me so badly?” She grit it out, because asking was real. Asking meant no more hiding. Asking was terrifying… but she had to.

And Vex’s expression said it all. Confirmed what she sought and offered and wanted both to give and take of her.

“You have no idea.” She all but whispered.

And Keyleth’s shell was broken.

“No idea… how I want the girl that changed so much of my heart… expanded it and rewrote it and cradled it… to finally have it.”

She pressed the last step closer.

“How I want to give her so much, even if it is only for a fraction of the life she will endure…”

She gripped tighter to the hand in hers, then with her free one trailed the line beneath her eye again.

“How I want to know her… in a way that few others have because she is a garden, and I am greedy for her beauty… I crave her dandelions, her vines, her seasons. As many as I can get.”

Keyleth felt a tear blossom from uncertainty and Vex caught it before it ever fully formed.

“I want and I want and I want, Keyleth. But I know not what for. Until I think about… you. And then it’s so clear, even if a bit unexpected.” She smiled at her again in a way that was like a total eclipse. Something you’d see once in a lifetime…

And then Keyleth stopped thinking and kissed her.

Her mind went blessedly blank and focused only on…

The sensations.

The everything.

If she were a river she imagined this was what it felt like, to flow and ripple and bubble and break. If one were a river, were they a part of the water stream that moved and lived in a present space… or were they all of it… all the time. The entire flow moving and wrapping and chasing, even as new beads and drops joined. Even as you hit damns and fish and spilled over the land.

If she were a river it would feel like this. She was sure. Even if she didn’t know how the river felt, she knew it had to be as bound and boundless as this moment.

Chest pressed to Vex’ahlia. Lips trading life. Cheek to cheek like a sun to a sunflower. And then she felt Vex lean back against the desk and pull her with her, bending her at the waist to lay all of her weight atop.

Now she was a mountain. Meant to shield and grow and encase. Rock on rock. Earth bent and secured and holding fast. Caverns created for security and allure and the dark to thrive.

Because the dark was where secrets could be shared. Light could form. Roots could grow and life could resolve.

She shifted a hand to hold herself up, staff abandoned to lean against the desk and other hand holding onto Vex’s side. Carding between her ribs like they were meant to live in the indents.

Vex kissed her like she was the air. Everywhere and fierce and giving and taking.

Gods she was beautiful.

It was beautiful.

It was so easy to forget.

To just feel.

They were just elements… spiraling and fueling and reforming around each other.

And what was the Tempest meant to be... if not the elements?

Chapter Text

Vex thought about how her second great love had started. It was odd because her heart truly had been Percy’s. As had her life. There wasn’t much that been hers and not theirs in their marriage. But there were parts. It was good to be an individual and not a fraction, they both knew this.

But a young heart and young mind would tell you that you could only have one great love. One favorite song. One best day.

After becoming a parent she found that was not the case, because she loved 5 amazing souls equally and would do absolutely anything for them. She loved her partner differently but she would not call it less. She still loved him even now, after mourning him as she had.

But Keyleth… was a different kind of love. Not a fast fall but a lazy morning haze, carrying a single feather gently on the breeze. Turning it this way and that, swaying it arrhythmically. But cradling it all the same.

She knew she’d have that light airy feeling surround her, whisk her this way and that, but at the end of the day she trusted its descent, enough to submit to the feeling.

Her second great love… had taught her to understand and appreciate chapters and growth and the changing of seasons. Even the dead of winter would yield to a spring if they were brave enough to greet it.

Zephrah had been a confirmation of what she thought they could be to each other. It had felt momentous saying all the things she’d only admitted to herself in the dead of night and long walks looking up.

Acting on it, putting the words out in the world and presenting them to Keyleth… it had been liberating. Exhilarating even. Like walking a tightrope and not knowing if you’d make it to the other side.

But she had.

They both had. Keyleth had laid bare the fears and pains that kept her a step away and Vex had pulled her inexplicably close anyway.

And then they’d been interrupted.

A knock at the door to Keyleth’s office that had pulled them apart. A voice calling and asking them to join the council room, as it was starting soon.

They’d blinked rapidly at each other, chests heaving and Vex had recovered first to call out they’d be just a moment.

Keyleth had straightened back up, slow and considering, and they’d readied themselves quickly, wiping clean faces and straightening their attire. But she’d seen it then, the retreating behind the walls. Her mind going 1000 miles an hour.

She reached out and brushed a thumb on her cheek to draw those green eyes back to her.

“Shall we?” She’d asked, and received a quick nod, and… that had been that.

They hadn’t gotten to talk since.

And Vex would say patience had never been one of her virtues.

She had been looking into any excuse to invite Keyleth to Whitestone, and was relieved when Keyleth invited herself, stating she needed assistance on a paper she was submitting for Zephrah’s fiscal year.

She’d eagerly accepted and had someone set to gather her at the appropriate time and felt a bit… well like a teenager again.

It was uncommon to be worrying if someone liked liked her again after all these years, but the little burst in her chest was so welcome. So new and enthralling and reminded her of making wishes on stars and picking berries right from the plant.

She arrived early on the day she was set to come. Vex had been in a meeting when the squire notified her and said she’d been shown to her study. Vex had to fight the little smile on her face and spark in her step. She tried not to rush through the rest of the discussions, but barely retained any of the plans made. She’d circle back. Right now her foot was tapping and her mind was wandering and she needed to be out of the room.

When they’d broken for the day she was gone much too fast, but couldn’t be bothered. She practically skipped to her own study, which was a silly thing admittedly, and knocked before entering to see Keyleth sitting at her desk, papers laid out in front of her and skimming through them with a squint.

“Hello darling, sorry to have kept you waiting.” She said when she saw her.

And damn… her beauty… really was something. She’d known it when she met her, she’d known it years after, she’d been reminded of it every time they stood before each other now since it hadn’t lessened in the slightest.

Keyleth smiled at seeing her, shaking her head.

“No need, I came early. I uh, finished my tasks for the day much ahead of schedule.” And I couldn’t wait to see you.

Vex wasn’t sure when she started filling in these lines of thought for Keyleth, but she knew the girl’s mind was always going and had gotten in the habit of believing she knew the things she kept to herself.

It might be wishful thinking, or it might be truer than she dared hope now that she was at the center of it.

Vex came closer looking at the table and saw the papers laid out.

“Now Keyleth, I must ask, did you truly call on me for help with forms?” She nodded toward the stack. “Because I was under the somewhat hopeful impression you might have visited me with more personal matters in mind.”

Keyleth paused like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Erm… I didn’t want to presume…” She sighed a long breath and set the quill she was holding down. Her hands fidgeted the moment she wasn’t holding onto something. “And I wanted to find something that I really could use your help on, you know. Incase…” You’d changed your mind.

“But I didn’t.” Vex said, coming closer and standing across from her, spreading both hands onto the desk. “Change my mind that is.”

She saw the shimmer in those green eyes and smiled.

“Keyleth have you thought about the last time we met-“

“Yes.” She answered, interrupting her but eager. The eagerness was endearing, and those green eyes did more than shimmer now. Her smile crooked even more.

“Have you thought about the last time we met and what we talked about?”

Keyleth paused for a moment then nodded, tilting her head, and Vex filled in the blanks.

It would never work. There are so many reasons it wouldn’t… our stations… her children… the politics of it all…

Yes, Vex had considered those all for moments each but not enough to stop herself from replaying the feel of those lips. Of that form pressed against her. Of the hope in her chest shaped like a little hummingbird.

“Vex… how are you so sure?” She said, drawing her back in.

“Sure of what darling?” She asked needing a little more direction, but following gladly.

“So sure about… me.” She said holding out her hands to the side as if for inspection. So sure I won’t be a mistake.

Vex hummed. This was an easy one.

“Truthfully, because I trust my body when it tells me it wants something…”

Those green eyes back on her like emeralds. She loved how they caught the light in all the different ways.

“And it wants, Keyleth. It wants to know you… more than it does.”

She watched the Voice of the Tempest fail to find her own, and it was charming. But she was merciful. This wasn’t about drawing something out of her she didn’t want, or forcing her hand. This was about them… and what kind of a them they could be.

“So the real question we need to solve is just, are you attracted to me?”

Keyleth swallowed, and Vex watched the line of her throat like a hawk.

Point in her favor.

“This will only work, I believe if you are, and I was quite hoping in our time apart you might have sorted if you were… or if you think you could be.”

Instead of giving her time to answer Vex stepped ever closer, sliding Keyleth’s chair out and sitting across her lap, arms around her neck. Keyleth held her on instinct, body stiff but warm. Vex could feel her little hummingbird heart beating so close to her own.

“If it doesn’t work, it’s alright you know? We’ll always have each other. That I am… confident in.”

Keyleth nodded immediately.

“Me too… it’s you.” She shrugged as if that said it all. And it truly did. I can’t see a world where I’d cut away from you. 

“And I kind of promised Percy to take care of you” She chuckled, shaking her head. “He asked a lot near the end there, though I often told him ‘I doubt she’ll need me for much.’ Never seemed to satisfy him… though I’m not sure he could have planned for this.”

Do you think I’m betraying my best friend?

“We could cast Speak With Dead. Ask him ourselves?” Vex offered and it had the intended effect of making Keyleth laugh, absolutely shocked.

“Could you imagine asking Pike to do that? And the questions are just, ‘How would you feel if I dated your wife? Are you sure? Are you really okay with it? I feel like you might not be, so one last time, you’re definitely okay?”

Vex was laughing into the back of her hand at the preposterousness of it.

“That’s only 4, what would be the fifth?” She asked.

And Keyleth paused, eyes changing in the low light.

“Is he there with you?”

Another somber tone on their dynamic.

“I know it’s not so cut and dry… our shared history.” Vex said. “But we are of a thread I could never have with anyone else.” A quilt sewn from their tragedies and victories and moments small and large that wound their past and future.

“Besides, where is a mother of five and Lady of Whitestone supposed to meet someone? A tavern?” She joked with a raised eyebrow. “Or maybe a political arrangement. Some diplomat wanting to latch themselves onto our city and its resources? No. I wouldn’t want…”

She paused and tilted her head away from her a moment, and Keyleth shifted the hand that held around her back.

“I wouldn’t want… someone for convenience. Just a body to fill the emptiness beside me and in me.”

“Vex.” Keyleth said softly, brushing her hair back from her face.

“I would only want someone who understands me. Cares about me. Knows all my children’s names and is as invested in their safety and happiness as I am. Someone who aides me as I attempt to carry on Percival’s legacy, not uses me to try and start their own.”

She sighed and shook her head. Grief clouding her eyes for a moment but passing.

“I would only want someone who I could trust… and love…” she leaned back in now, eyes glowing and landed but a hairs width away from Keyleth’s lips. “And I already have that darling. Here.”

Keyleth’s chest was straining to take in air, things changing behind the scenes that she could only guess at.

“So… you’re not worried about the world?” And what they’ll think if you arrive with me on your arm.

“It wouldn’t be easy, but we would make it work because we say so.” She nodded, confident. She’d be beyond proud to walk into any room or council or space with Keyleth as her partner. Her other half.

“And… the children? You don’t think… they’d be disgusted by me?” She said, eyes dipping away again. She’d thought this might be a point of concern of hers, because Keyleth truly had loved being their aunt and they all truly loved her.

And changing the dynamic they’d known their whole life would take some time, but… she knew love was love. What Keyleth felt for them and they felt in turn would grow, not sour.

Love was like that.

“I think they adore you, and they would understand that relationships evolve.”

Keyleth’s eyes dipped like she didn’t quite believe it, and Vex leaned in and kissed her cheek. That drew her eyes back, and Vex put a hand on her jaw to keep her there. Firm but mostly… an excuse to touch her again.

“I’m a mother who watched her children watch their father lose his brilliant mind.” She said gently, saw the dip in her eyes of understanding. “And whatever comes next will be a drastic change, but nothing will hurt them like that did. And you could never hurt them.”

Her eyes were glossy.

Then she closed them and let the tears run down her cheeks.

“Darling…” Vex kissed her nose and leaned her arm around her to hold her closer. Keyleth held her back.

“They’re wonderful… just like their parents.” She said earnestly and honestly and Vex smiled, nodding into her shoulder.

“They are.” She agreed, proud of them all beyond measure.

“I can’t hurt them Vex, I can’t hurt you by hurting them, I can’t cost you what you and Percy built-“

“Shhh, darling, none of that is happening. None of that will happen. Who could they ever love as a suitor for their mother more than their favorite aunt? Don’t tell Cassandra.”

That got an unexpected burst of laughter out of Keyleth and she shook her head, and then Vex was laughing too. The kind of laugh that shook your chest without any sound actually coming out and stung your eyes into tears.

“There’s no way that’s true.” Keyleth leaned back, wiping her tears as she recovered.

“I’ve heard from quite a few reliable sources.” She said with a smile as the energy settled again.

Second loves were funny like that… they had to try and fit around a life you’d already built. And Keyleth already fit… she was a perfect piece to their structure that they wouldn’t have survived without.

“No, Cassandra is lovely, and if you ever tell her I said any different-“ Vex held up a finger and Keyleth shook her head with a smile.

“As if I ever would. The threats aren’t needed.” She smiled again and Vex held it comfortably, then leaned their foreheads against each other. Just keeping each other close.

There would be steps.

Whatever this would be there would be steps.

That was fine. She could do steps. She’d take as many as needed. The proverb of 1000 steps said you had to start with one. So she was taking that today.

“I don’t need an answer right now of course.” Vex said, leaning back a breadth. Letting her have space again, as she’d claimed much of it during this conversation.

“So you sat in my lap passively?” Keyleth teased, and Vex laughed with a shake of her head.

“Can’t fault a girl for stacking the deck in her favor.”

“And you’re sure these are the cards you want to play?” You’re sure about this? About us?

“You’re really worried about me being sure.” She challenged lightly.

“Guess I just can’t believe it.” Wishful thinking…

“I wish you would.” Vex said, running a thumb along her cheek.

“I think I might just need some time…” Keyleth agreed, eyes dodging her, and that was fine. That was fair.

“Of course.” Vex said, rising gracefully and keeping Keyleth’s hand in hers. Eyes fiery but still. “I am but a message away.” Keyleth nodded, exhaling a slow breath to right herself as she walked with her to the door, then pausing as they reached for the knob and reaching for her instead.

She grasped around Vex’s wrist and slowly walked her until her back was against the wall, eyes now dilated as Vex gasped in surprise.

“I thought you needed time?” Vex said, entertained, and something more.

“The walk to the door was long.” She shrugged and Vex laughed, feeling that same swooping feeling… completely disarmed and Keyleth… wow, she really, really liked that look in her eyes.

“That 8 paces help you make a decision then?” She quirked as she settled in close again, pressing their bodies closer. Striking a match.

Keyleth shook her head.

“I knew… just wanted the chance to woo you a little as well.” She took a step closer. Eye to eye. Hand in hand. “You’re perfect Vex. It’d be intimidating if you weren’t so damn charming and thoughtful and loving to the people in your circle. And I’ve known for a long time how lucky I was to count myself in there.”

Vex’s smile shifted again, soft, and appreciative and under it that glimmer of undeserving. She thought that a quality that only people who had once had nothing and now had everything could understand. That deep down there was a fear that never quite left that you’d be found out, and it was indeed a trick, and all would be lost.

But Keyleth had lost already, and learned the rest was still there, and Vex knew her glimmer was buried much further down these days.

“I have been fortunate to be your friend… ally… and family… for many years. And I’ve been very careful to keep my gaze as just that. Appreciative.” 

Vex swallowed and saw Keyleth track the movement. Point her.

“And now all I think about… is letting my gaze linger…” Linger on you… and what we could make together.

Vex reached for the back of Keyleth’s neck, pulling her even closer, not feeling the subtle energy sparking any longer… but feeling it roil and caw and hiss.

“Then linger darling…”

Keyleth nodded, then blessedly, let Vex pull her in for a kiss.

It was as magical as she remembered. Like fireworks and cherry blossoms and a bout of inspiration. It was euphoria like she never thought she’d feel again.

Their lips got acquainted like the old friends they were, but started sharing and exploring like the new lovers they would become.

When kissing against the wall stopped being enough she’d seen the question there in Keyleth’s eyes of where they went next… and Vex had a very specific idea of where that would be.

She took her by the hand and dragged her out the door with a quick Pass Without A Trace for the staff. She didn’t need them to know, but if they did she felt no shame.

She walked her to her bedroom and quickly latched the door. This was where she’d wanted to bring her… to her safe haven. To her space. Let it become ‘their space.’ This wasn’t a pact sealed in shame, and she could be her second love without being secondary.

When she released her hands and turned to her she saw some of the nerves working their way back into those shoulders. Little ticks of her hands and eyes darting around.

“Vex… are you-“

“We don’t have to do anything you don’t wish, but if you’re going to ask if I’m sure I want to share myself with you in a physical way as well as an emotional and spiritual… then for the record it’s absolutely a yes darling.”

She tried to sound light and airy and not nearly as eager as she was.

Keyleth’s eyes did some combination of calculation and acceptance, and then slowly the light in them shifted. Turned to something… deep and wanting and arousing.

Shit.

“Shit.” She said out loud.

“If you’re sure…” Keyleth stepped closer, slowly setting down her staff against the wall, and reaching up for the clasps on her mantle.

“Wait. Let me.” She stepped closer, meeting her part of the way, and covering her hands with her own. “Let me…” She repeated softer.

Keyleth’s eyes widened and she nodded, as Vex carefully undid the hooks and removed the weight from her, placing it over the back of a chair with great care. She dusted some of the leaves near the bottom, knowing this was a large part of who her girl had become. She had taken the title, run with it, defined it herself, and worked hard. She was truly so proud of her.

But turning back and taking her in now with the title removed… goodness she was a spectacle.

There was a new fire there, a jitteriness, an energy begging to be released and oh… how she wanted to be the source.

She smiled, breathed out a hum of approval and they met in the middle. Arms and hands cupped around each other, and lips returning swiftly. If her lips were a season they’d be summer. Warm and drifting and burning.

But she didn’t want to look for the shade. She wanted to take on the heat, the color, the promise of the sun.

She pulled her closer and her fingers trailed up the side of her arm, around her shoulder, cupping the back of her neck, and fuck.

Her hands would be spring. Little flowers blossoming in their wake. Dragonflies following the haze.

They sent goosebumps down her spine, a feeling she hadn’t had since… gods, she would be embarrassed to say how long. She sucked on her bottom lip in response and Keyleth moaned…

She fucking moaned and Vex didn’t think, merely pushed her back onto the bed, watching her practically bounce at the force and laughing an airless breath at the smile on her face.

They held each other’s eye and then Keyleth propped herself up on an arm and pointed a finger at her ensemble, muttering an incantation. Evidently she’d cast banishment on her clothes, and Vex’alia was suddenly standing stark bare before her.

Vex blinked at her sudden change then laughed a breathy thing and crawled across the bed, grabbing her outstretched finger and kissing the knuckle.

“Clever move dear.”

She put the finger between her lips and swirled her tongue against it, and Keyleth gasped. The clothes reformed in the shape they’d been in a blink, then collapsed in a heap, no longer supported by Vex’s frame.

“Sorry… lost my concentration.” She chuckled airily, eyes roving over her form in a rush as if she couldn’t take it all in fast enough.

She put a hand to her chin to slow her gaze.

“Take your time darling.” She whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Keyleth’s eyes shone at the words and she nodded lightly, and her gaze slowed as she trailed across the planes and lines of Vex’s body.

Her eyes were winter… the way they sent goosebumps across her skin. Coating her in a seasonal frost, and pulling something from hibernation deep inside her.

She reached up with her thumb and dragged a small circle across the underside of her jaw, bringing her closer to replace her hand with her tongue, trailing a slow line across her pulse point.

Vex hummed, lulling her head to the side to give her a wider canvas to work.

That same pair of lips sucked over the spot they’d just touched and the air in her lungs was suddenly sharp and stimulating.

Her tongue moved back up from her collarbone to right beneath her ear and Vex melted.

This was autumn. The feeling of her breath was the breeze. The changing of the leaves was in every swipe of her soft flesh.

Her hands slid lower on her form and cradled her assets, and Vex gripped strongly over top of Keyleth’s palms to pull her closer.

“Gods Keyleth…” She muttered. Maybe her body was giving away its eagerness at their little rendezvous. She shifted closer and squeezed her hands again, feeling her thumbs slide over her nipples, pebbling the flesh.

“You seem… ready for more.” Keyleth said into her ear, shifting closer and Vex nodded.

“Also ready for you to be in much less clothing.”

“Let’s see what we can do about that.” Keyleth smiled, shyness evaporating.

Everything had been removed besides the feather behind both of their ears. Perhaps it was odd to keep such a symbol, but… it felt odder to set it aside. To pretend it wasn’t once something important to their bond, even though it was different now.

The sheets had already been tussled up as they’d moved around, removing garments, pressing into each others hands and forms and as loud as her body was being, Vex wanted to put Keyleth’s comfort first.

“Darling… there aren’t words…” She watched her flushed chest rise and fall, watched the eyes like emeralds with unbiased want washing over her.

“Vex… let me…”

“Anything you want darling, after.”

Keyleth swallowed.

“And don’t hold back… I want to hear that 'Voice' of the Tempest echo off the bloody walls.”

She gasped this time, eyes half-lidded, then smiled in bliss.

“Better give me a reason then.”

She liked the challenge. And was torn between taking her time and absolutely ravaging her. She’d play it by ear.

She started by laying her on her back against the pillows, and laying beside her, running her finger tips along the side of her neck, down her collarbone, tracing the from of her breast, down to the space between her ribs. She trailed as soft as she could, barely touching her at some points, and feeling how Keyleth stiffened and mewled at every point of contact. She smiled… slow and steady it was.

She did it again, tracing back up the center line of her body, pausing under her chin to tilt her jaw up for a slow luxuriating kiss.

But then Keyleth reached for her, pulled her close, and dug her fingers into the soft skin by her hips to squeeze her close. Vex’s hum turned into a moan, and she said fuck it to slow and steady so fast to bite her neck and slide her hand down between then, pressing the flat of her hand and cupping into Keyleth’s sex.

“Oh,” Keyleth moaned in surprise, and rocked her hips closer to the touch. Vex smiled and did it again, hearing her lips fall open into a fractured breath and feeling Keyleth reach down and grip onto her wrist, keeping her close and pushing even closer to her.

“Good?” She asked, already knowing the answer, and seeing her screw her eyes shut and nod. “Going to need you to use your words darling.”

“Good. Good. So good Vex.” She arched her neck back even further into the pillows. “It’s so much.”

“Oh we’re just getting started.” Vex muttered, sliding her fingers between her slick folds, seeing her mouth fall open in shock. Her wrist tightening.

Vex leaned down and took a nipple between her lips, sucking and swirling the sensitive bud and moaning at the flavor. She tasted like honeyed sap from the bark of a tree. Like how a dandelion looked when you puffed a breath and scattered it’s pieces.

Keyleth was gasping now. Muttering Vex’s name in between breaths and trying to rock to meet Vex’s hand.

She scooted down the bed, still kneeling beside her and paused her hand, drawing Keyleth’s eye to her with a desperate look. If she asked her to beg she knew she would. But she never had to. Not for this. This was the thing she wanted to give her.

“You’ve never looked so beautiful darling.” And then she turned to reach out and spread Keyleth’s legs, and in the same motion lean over and lick a broad line down her.

“Vex!”

She tasted like life. Like buds in bloom and pollen in the air. She licked deeper, ate of her like it was a pomegranate’s seed bursting against her lips.

She moaned against her, feeling it vibrate and feeling Keyleth match her pitch, one hand holding on around her hair, gently there as if she needed something to ground her.

Vex would have to ask her to be rougher next time.

She swirled her tongue and Keyleth gasped then reached over and grabbed her ankles.

“Come here.” She gasped, and lifted Vex’s lower half over her face. She moaned in surprise.

“Oh- Darling-“

And then Keyleth’s tongue was in her.

Trailing sloppy desperate lines through her folds and Vex was in heaven.

It was bliss, it was new, it was foretold and jazz and a prophecy and unexpected.

“Holy shit Keyleth.” She moaned, burying her face back into her skin and sucking over her clit. Doubling her efforts as they both rocked into each other.

She reached a finger in past her walls, tongue swirling circles from her front to the back, and reached into her other places to feel them flutter at the new arrival.

“Vex!” She yelled, muffled as her mouth was a bit preoccupied, but it was everything. It was the mountain they were both summiting. It was the first fall of snow. It was rain on a hot day. She was somehow burning up but freezing. It was everything.

It was everything.

They were everything.

And then-

She felt Keyleth go stiff, gasp, and the pause between that second in the next- she shattered.

And Vex followed her down.

——————————————————

“Maybe it’s not a curse…” Keyleth said, lying in bed that night. Her heart still racing from their activities. It was amazing what shaking off the rust of decades would do for her sex drive, and Vex had met her every step of the way.

The dark-haired beauty peeked open an eye from beside her, still wrapped in the sheets looking drunk off their love. Eyes endlessly patient and saturated and beautiful.

“The time I have. I’ve always thought it some great burden but… if Percy could’ve had more time… if Vax could’ve had more time… I have the gift they never did.” She didn’t know when her tears started falling but Vex was there to catch them. “I get to experience this… feeling again. And I never would have if… if I didn’t have this… power. Does that make any sense?”

Vex nodded, shifting her free hand to run it through her hair. Blessedly free of the crown and the weight and the titles. It was just her. Just them.

“I’ve had to keep reminding myself I didn’t lose Percy… he is still there. In my children’s faces and mannerisms… in my memories and dreams… in everything I am. And we didn’t just lose Vax. We carry him with us. You honor him every day by giving up that chunk of your heart for his essence to live in.” She still had the feather in her hair she realized which seemed absurd in the moment. Vex trailed her hand back down to where her neck and collarbone met and set it there. It was hotter than any flame she’d felt and sent goosebumps in its wake.

“But you are still here. Still alive… and this is part of what being alive is… You more than anyone deserve to feel it again.”

“I was meant to be a figurehead when I started down this path… to give up on frivolity and focus on my progress. My reach.”

“You’re not a tree darling, you’re a person.” She smiled, a knowing set to her eyes. “And a beguiling one at that.”

She felt a deep burn there, different than before. Smoke pouring from the spark. Her eyes trailed down to one of the obvious slash marks over her chest from Otohan’s blade. The worst of them all… the one Vex had just spent the better part of an hour tracing with her lips, and whispering sweet apologies.

“Part of why I think it’s easy to throw myself into my work…” She paused, feeling almost a shame mingling with the smoke. “Is that it may down me sooner. That I may be one of the early leaves to fall instead of the last...”

Vex frowned now, a sad mournful thing, and reached for her cheek.

“And the idea of giving myself more things to lose… was unbearable.” She kissed the palm beside her, nuzzling for a moment into the touch. “Was… being the key word.”

“You are the bravest person I know.” Vex nodded, smiling with tears in her eyes. “But I know it’s never easy to seek out more pain... and your current life course blurs the lines of an average life.”

“It does.” Keyleth agreed. “But that doesn’t mean… I can’t still want it.”

A pause as she looked over the woman before her… the one who told her she could have the purest possible thing she could ever tie herself to.

“Does it?” She added, and Vex leaned in to kiss her as an answer.