Chapter Text
The coffee shop Vex and Percy decided to meet up at luckily wasn’t that crowded which meant the two of them plus Trinket were able to acquire one of the outside tables. Currently Vex was leaning back, relaxing and sipping from her coffee while Percy was checking his phone.
“Keyleth has successfully made it to you and your brother's apartment it seems.” He says putting his phone down, finally giving Trinket the pets he’s been begging for. Vex makes a hum of acknowledgment as she puts her drink down onto the table. She just watches him interact with Trinket for a while.
Today is quite the contrast to last night, instead of gloomy rain and drought with anxiety it’s sunny with a light breeze and a rather calming atmosphere. She’s rather glad they didn’t cancel this, not to mention it means she doesn’t have to deal with her brother moping about thinking he’s ruined things with Keyleth. Like he could even accomplish that, the girl is as sweet on him as he is for her. She’ll joke and gag but she does genuinely believe the two would be good for each other, if only they’d get their heads out of their asses that is.
“How long do you think it’s going to take them to realize that they both like each other?” Vex says aloud, Percy slows down his petting, much to Trinket’s chagrin, to look up and ponder her question with a hum.
“With those two? It’s hard to say, Keyleth is rather perceptive until it involves herself and knowing she has her own reservations. If she figured it out first I doubt she’d do anything about it and just continue to wallow.” His answer slightly surprises Vex, her eyebrows going up a bit, she tilts her head, resting it on her hand as she looks at him with a confused expression.
“Reservations?” Vex says watching Percy finally return to his own drink, Trinket the poor dog giving up and just laying down at their feet. He gives off an affirmative humm and he takes a sip from his drink.
“It’s not really my place to say but Keyleth’s views on family and romantic relations are a bit, for the lack of a better word, tainted.” With those few words Vex suddenly remembers one of the first conversations her and her brother had with Keyleth, they’d be in a bar, all of them a bit tipsy and just a smidge truth drunk when Keyleth revealed her mother had up and left her and her father when she was young. Well that would do it, I suppose. Vex nods in understanding as she takes another sip from her coffee.
“That’s going to be fun to deal with.” She grumbles, hearing Percy grunt in begrudging agreement. “But besides my brother and your best friend’s antics, how’ve you been?” At this he perks up.
And with that they spend the time chatting away, at some point getting their food and letting Trinket steal a few bites here and there. Afternoon leads to night, the long since abandoned the coffee shop and now taking a stroll when Percy gets a text.
“It appears Keyleth is staying at your guys’ place.” He says with slight surprise which Vex reflects.
“Mind then if I and Trinket crash at yours? Though I doubt they’d get up to anything, I’d rather not chance it.” Vex says with a shudder. Yeah she’d rather think of anything else other than her twin and Keyleth-Yup nope, she’s going to keep her thoughts on Percy and Trinket, thank you very much. Percy’s chuckles.
“Of course.” He says, now directing their walk towards his and Keyleth’s apartment building. It’s a comfortable and enjoyable silence as they make their way there and once inside Vex couldn’t help but chuckle a little.
Now no one in their group of friends is really all that tidy but there is something always bizarre yet endearing about how haphazard Percival and Keyleth’s apartment looks whenever she visits. Plant pots brimming with life and random tools and gears all strung about the place, an occasional book misplaced in a truly odd place, like the one on top of the fridge that she could only just barely make out was about some sort of train engine.
It’s strange, odd, bizarre and a whole other list of related words but yet it was also oddly homely. If you’d ask Vex who of her and her friends have truly made themselves at home in this city she’d be able to answer with Percy and Keyleth in a heartbeat.
They end up sitting on the sofa, watching some odd show that she’s never heard of but when one scene makes Percy full on belly laugh, she decides to keep the show in mind. It takes her a little while to notice she’s completely stopped watching the show and instead is watching Percival himself, she blushes a bit but doesn’t take her gaze off of him. It’s rare to see him so relaxed, in fact she could probably count the times he’s been this relaxed on one hand.
It takes her a minute to register Percy’s talking to her, causing the blush already on her face to darken which thankfully Percy doesn’t comment on other than a slight chuckle and a blush of his own.
“I believe it’s time for bed. If you want, I doubt Keyleth would mind you using her bed.” He says to which she nods. Percy helps Vex up and leads her over to Keyleth’s room which Vex realizes would be the first time she’s actually seen Keyleth’s room. The two tell each other goodnight before he walks over and enters his own room.
Vex takes a moment to stare at Keyleth’s bedroom door and couldn’t help but chuckle a little under her breath at the childlike glow up stars placed all over the door. Opening the door and looking into Keyleth’s bedroom though, she wasn’t prepared to be enamored by Keyleth’s decor. Tapestries of all sorts of wildlife strung upon the walls, plants in every odd corner, suncatchers, and all sorts of soft colors. It’s a pleasant mixture of maturity and childhood like nostalgia, the kind that you can’t place yet recognize. Walking through the room though, the thing that quickly caught her eye then left her mind blank and a slow crawling warmth started to take over her chest.
There on the wall right next to Keyleth’s desk and a photo of Keyleth and her dad is a picture of all of them, to be precise there are three pictures, one of the whole group but the other two were of Keyleth, Percy, Vax and herself.
She brings up her hand to lightly touch one of the pictures. Vex could guess from the very day she met Keyleth that the woman was very sentimental but Vex could have never guessed that a picture of her and her brother, two of them at that, would find its way onto someone's wall other than her and her brother’s late mother.
She lets her arm drop and softly smiles, her brother better start to step up to the plate and confess to this woman and if Keyleth needs help to make the jump? Well Vex is sure Percy would be willing to join Vex in helping her.