Chapter Text
There are mere weeks until graduation.
So little time to actually come out and say it, and when she thinks about it, it’s insane she’s spent months bottling up her feelings and, within the next week, Keyleth Ashari will know that Vex is in love with her. Keyleth will be able to look at Vex and know why she’s blushing, why she stares at Keyleth like she hung the moon and the stars, and Keyleth will either cradle the offered heart in her hand and bring it to her lips or crush it to ash between her fingers.
Vex feels like she might puke.
It’s the night of the softball championships, of which Keyleth is playing in. Of which Vex was meant to attend in support of her best friend, but now will be skipping in lieu of preparing for the best apology-confession her, Vax, and Gilmore can muster.
Gilmore is rifling through her closet for the perfect outfit while Vax does her hair and she does her makeup, trying to kill as many birds with one stone as possible. Hype music is playing from the speaker on her nightstand and Gilmore’s dancing around jauntily as he grabs different clothing items and holds them out in the light before either shaking his head or adding them to the Pile of Possibility, as the boys dubbed it, that’s begun growing on her bedspread.
“Stay fucking still,” Vax snaps when she tries to lean forward to better do her eyeliner.
“How about you move with me. All you’re doing is curling my hair,” she retorts, doing her damndest to make her hands stop shaking so she can perfect the wing as though that’ll be the one singular thing that makes Keyleth instantly fall in love with her if she isn’t already. The last thing she wants to do is ruin the perfect gold glitter smokey eye she’s already spent far too long doing.
Vax grumbles something under his breath and she silently prays he burns himself on the curling iron.
“It’s nice and warm out. How do we feel about some sheer layers, Vex’ahlia?” Gilmore poses, holding a cropped, mesh long sleeve out with one eye closed as he inspects it.
“I can only focus on one thing at a time, Gilmore, and currently that’s my makeup. Pick for me,” she replies absently, in one smooth stroke swiping the eyeliner over her left eye. It looks great, thankfully, and she puts it away and fans herself before reaching for her mascara. “I trust your judgment as the gayest man I know.”
“What about me?!” Vax demands, heaps of indignance coloring his words.
Vex gives him a dry look in the mirror. “Lean in with me,” she commands, to start, and smiles primly when he does so she can start applying the mascara to her lashes. “And are you seriously asking me that? You may just as well have ‘cocksucker’ written across your forehead, sure, but Gilmore is the one who had to talk his way out of a detention for having sex in the boy’s locker rooms after the soccer playoffs.”
“And you know what,” Gilmore adds, pointing at Vax. “I was successful and I still got the guy’s number. Not that it matters now, of course—” and he leans in to kiss Vax on the cheek so the scowl on his face will smooth out— “now that I have you, little bird.”
If it wouldn’t fuck up her makeup application face, Vex would gag at the display, but as it stands, she just makes an annoyed huffing noise before capping her mascara and letting it roll back into the little organized drawer of mascara, eyeliner, and lipstick she has within her desk.
“Are you wearing falsies, Vex?” Vax asks as another ringlet comes loose and he combs his fingers through it to make it less intense.
“Not tonight,” she replies, glancing at the Pile of Possibility. “Gilmore, where do we stand on a color palette? I need to do my lipstick.”
“My current vision is something I like to call Vixen of the Night,” he says with a dramatic flourish of his hands. Vex can almost imagine golden sparkles in the wake of his brown palms parting, and it makes her snort. “So keep it darker. Maybe a purple or red. Nothing nude.”
“Vixen of the Night,” Vax repeats in a mumble. “It’d be much shorter to just call her a whor—”
“Finish your thought and die,” Vex interrupts as she grabs a few different tubes of dark lipstick and some lip liners. She glances at Gilmore and holds them all out to him. “Pick one that will go with my outfit and won’t clash with Keyleth’s skin tone and hair if we kiss tonight.”
Gilmore tuts as he takes them from her, stepping out of her periphery and further into the lamp light for his inspection. “I would’ve figured the daughter of a Syngornian ambassador could afford lipstick that was transfer proof.”
“It’s called being cautious, Shaun,” she snarks back at him.
“Me-yow, kitty has claws,” Vax teases.
“Kitty has claws and is about two more smart remarks from coming at you with them,” she snipes back. “How’s my hair?”
“Almost done, just got a few more strands then we can let it all go.”
Gilmore makes an approving noise where he’s been comparing the lipsticks to his clothing options, assembling his perfect outfit out of her sight before handing the rejects back first for her to put away before setting the rich, black cherry lipstick in her hands with a lip liner to match.
“And I’ve got your outfit all ready when Vax is done with your hair,” Gilmore informs before he begins putting the discarded possible choices back into her closet and dresser.
“Thank you,” she replies softly before honing her focus in on her lips.
Vax finishes her hair at almost the same time she does a final swipe of the lipstick, pressing her lips together before sitting back to admire how she looks with the makeup and hair all done. Her twin fluffs her hair out, pulling it forward and back to get it to settle nicely before grinning widely behind her.
“You look great, Stubby,” he whispers.
“Damn right I do,” she replies, finally spinning in her chair to face Gilmore who’s got her assembled outfit hung over his arms, and her eyes light up at the sight of what he’s put together. “Oh, Gilmore, you shouldn’t have,” she breathes as she grabs her well loved fishnets and a pair of light wash, distressed jeans. “Alright, give me all of this and both of you outside so I can change. I’ll only be a few minutes.”
Vax gives a little salute before pulling Gilmore from the room, leaving her just with the music as she removes her day clothes and begins assembling her perfect weapon— well, outfit.
First, the fishnets over her underwear, and she settles the band snugly around the trimmest part of her waist, emphasizing the wide curves of her hips. She pulls the jeans on next, careful not to catch her feet in any of the tears, and they button up below the waistband of the fishnets. Next comes the black lace bralette, and she shrugs it on from behind before coming back to the mirror to lace up the front eyelets, pulling the strings taut and tight to elevate her already damn near perfect breasts, in her opinion.
The final touch comes with a little purr in her throat, humming as her fingers skim across the smooth, dark purple-black velvet of the oversized men’s button up patterned with fading white-grey leaves and dark roses. She leaves it open over the rest of the ensemble, grinning in the mirror as she admires herself before she finds her black heeled combat boots and ties them up.
“Alright, come back in!” she calls as she’s finishing up the double knot on her left boot.
The door opens and Gilmore actually gasps as she stands at her full height, elevated a good five inches with the platform and heel of the boots, and she can’t help but widen her stance, put her hands on her hips, and grin at them.
“Vex’ ahlia,” he stresses the latter half of her name in a way that makes her laugh, her pose collapsing. “Look at you! This is absolutely giving Vixen of the Night. What do you think, dear?”
Vax is smirking back at her, arms crossed as he eyes her up and down. “I still think it’d be easier to just call her a whore, but—”
Vex just throws a stray makeup brush at him, even if she is still giggling, giddy with excitement and nerves.
In fifteen minutes, they’ll be getting in Gilmore’s car to go to the Cloudtop.
In forty five minutes, they will be outside Keyleth’s party.
(Well, it’s not Keyleth’s party, it’s someone on the softball team’s party, but Vex has good information that says Keyleth will be in attendance.)
In just under an hour, she may be confessing to Keyleth that she is in love with her.
Gods, and doesn’t that make her palms start sweating.
“Do you have everything you need?” Vax checks, doing a quick scan of the room.
Vex picks up her cross body and slings it over her shoulders, letting it settle on her hip. She sifts through it for a moment before giving a thumbs up.
“And you know what you’re going to say?” Gilmore asks.
“I’m just… I’m going to apologize and tell her my side of the story from the party. And then I’m going to… I’m going to tell her I love her,” she whispers, taking a deep breath and exhaling it heavily when she finishes her statement. “Fuck, it does not get less scary the more that I say it.”
“Good thing Keyleth’s awkward, too,” Vax says, flashing double ‘okay’ signs at her. “You’ll be with each other step for step.”
“Vax’ildan, I’m beginning to think you do have a death wish still. Do we need to see the counselor again?” Gilmore asks, making both twins dissolve into laughter as they make their way out of Vex’s dorm and onto the floor, then down the stairs, then to the parking lot.
Just under an hour.
In just under an hour Keyleth will know that Vex loves her.
And Vex can only hope that Keyleth will say it back.
***
Gilmore puts Vex’s music on full blast the entire ride there, both himself and Vax encouraging her to sing her fucking heart out like there’s no tomorrow, because if tomorrow comes and Keyleth still hasn’t forgiven her, hasn’t returned her feelings, there might as well not be a tomorrow. Not to Vex.
The closer they get to the party the more relaxed she becomes, shockingly. Her threshold for stressing has passed, and now there is only zen calm. She’s steady on her heels when she gets out of the car, when they walk up the steps, when Vax and Gilmore enter the doors ahead of her and the crowds part as Vex’ahlia herself strides into this party like she owns the damn place, already causing a ripple of shouts and talking through the crowds.
She has no spot in her mind for that, the rumors, the gossip. Her peace has been made, at least with herself, and all she needs is to find Keyleth so that she can understand, too.
Vax and Gilmore materialize beside her again, and she hadn’t realized she was standing in the entryway without them until they returned with drinks of their own, shoving one into Vex’s hands.
Gilmore raises his cup to her, a wild grin on his face. “To courage!”
“To courage!” Vax and Vex chorus before cheersing and taking a long drag from their cups.
And as she’s lowering the cup from her lips, swiping at the transferred gloss on her face, she sees her.
Keyleth stops midway down the steps, their eyes meeting across a mere dozen feet. Her hair is loosely waved, and she must’ve let Scanlan do her makeup for once because she’s about as made up as Vex, if a little bit less. Vex wonders if she’s been tanning as the summer months crest, because the golden brown that she remembers from their first semester is making a return, and it makes Vex’s heart clench to think that was almost a year ago that they met, a year ago that this was all set in motion, and now it either begins anew or ends.
Tonight.
From behind Keyleth, Percival steps out, and then steps ahead of her, glaring at Vex, Vax, and Gilmore.
“Percival,” Vex greets across the space, voice swept away with the music, but Percival is good at reading lips.
“Vex’ahlia,” he replies, unheard as well, but she knows too.
Keyleth’s hand slides over his shoulder and squeezes, and he turns to look up at his best friend, practically his sister.
“It’s okay,” Keyleth says to him. “Go have fun. I’ll be fine.”
Percival gives her a long look, and then glares back down at Vex and her troupe, before making his way slowly down the steps. He stops for a moment in front of the three of them, a sneer pulling at his lips as he regards her in particular.
They’re just about the same height now.
“Here to rub it in?” Percival asks her, leaning in until they’re nose to nose, breath mingling.
“Here to make it right,” Vex replies firmly.
She looks past him, then, at Keyleth. “Can we talk?”
Percy tenses a little but backs away, giving her space by walking out the front door, shutting it behind him.
Keyleth stares back at her, biting her lip.
Then, she nods, and comes the rest of the way down the steps.
Unlike Percy, Keyleth still has perhaps an extra inch on her in these boots.
“Outside,” Keyleth says, inclining her head toward the backyard. “Follow me.”
Vex turns back to Vax and Gilmore, giving them both a reassuring smile as Gilmore claps her on the back and Vax kisses her on the cheek, whispering affirmations into her ear until she pulls away.
Keyleth is waiting, and Vex wants so badly to reach for her hand, to hold it in her own, as Keyleth leads them out.
But that can wait.
It’s quieter outside, and Vex realizes this house doesn’t have a pool like the last party at Lyra’s had. Fewer people are out here, though some are smoking on the back porch.
Keyleth guides her down the porch steps and onto a concrete patio, and then onto a path of stepping stones around some hedges, and Vex has to hold back a gasp at the sight of a hidden garden, almost, enclosed by tall, thick hedges and complete with a small fountain, beautiful flowers, and two benches.
They both sit on the same bench, about a foot of space between them, even if their knees pulled inward closes that distance somewhat.
“It’s— it’s good to see you, Kiki,” Vex begins, smoothing her hands over her knees before folding them in her lap, trying not to hunch over herself as she prepares. “How have you been?”
Keyleth’s gaze skitters away, mouth opening as though to speak before it shuts again. A few moments pass before she sighs loudly and looks back at Vex.
“What are we doing here, Vex?” she whispers.
“You want me to just get right into it, then?” Vex tries to tease, but Keyleth’s expression doesn’t change, still just… melancholy. Almost wistful, in a way.
That’s what makes Vex’s heart kick up a quick tempo.
“Whatever you have to say, just say it,” Keyleth replies. “I’m trying to enjoy my night.”
Vex takes a deep breath, hoping it’ll calm the way Keyleth’s annoyances are only increasing the nervousness she hadn’t been feeling until now. She had expected a lot of things, but this defeated and irritated Keyleth wasn’t one of them that she had planned for.
“I wanted to apologize for what happened,” she starts slowly. “At Lyra’s house. I want to apologize for all of it. Letting Zahra get us to play that game with her knowing how she is, knowing how other kids are; stepping in when you clearly didn’t want me to; making you think what you did; the things I said when… when we were in the front yard.” She clenches her fists in her lap, and she swallows hard. “I’m sorry for. All of it.” Another deep breath. “And this time we’ve been apart has been some of my hardest since I came to the Academy. And it’s because I knew I’d hurt you and I… I understood what you were thinking in the moment, but I want to tell you what you thought isn’t— it’s not true.”
Keyleth gives her a strange look, brows pulled together and lips pursed small. Her voice is quiet, tired, when she speaks next. “What about it wasn’t true, Vex?”
“I didn’t find the thought of kissing you disgusting,” Vex whispers.
Next to her, Keyleth tenses up a little, but Vex knows she has to keep going or she won’t get anything else out.
“I— I was trying to protect you,” she continues. “I didn’t— I didn’t want our first kiss to be something you regretted during a game of truth or dare because some asshole manchild dared us to kiss for his amusement, because he knew it’d piss me off that it was him telling us what to do.”
Keyleth’s eyes widen, and she starts saying, “Vex, what do you mean about wanting our first ki—”
“May I speak?” Vex asks, interrupting. “I don’t— if we have to have a dialogue about this I won’t say what I need to say.”
“Okay,” Keyleth says softly. “Please.”
“It wasn’t that I found you disgusting or repulsive or what have you. I— quite the opposite, really,” she laughs out, feeling her throat begin to constrict as she smoothes her palms over her jeans again. “Keyleth, you have absolutely no idea how many months have gone by with me wanting to kiss you. No idea, because since the night of winter formal I’ve known, but I only admitted it to myself after I got sick, that I liked you, liked you as more than a friend, and fuck, Keyleth, I know this is probably a lot to hear right now and normally you’re the rambler in this partnership, but I don’t know how else to say that I wanted to kiss you so bad, but I wanted our first kiss to be perfect— you deserved a perfect first kiss with me, we both did— and over it all I still felt like you didn’t deserve to be with someone like me, but I was getting better, and then I fucked it up, I fucked it all up, and I’m so sorry, but Kiki you need to know that I’m in love with—”
Keyleth grabs her face and kisses her.
Vex almost doesn’t feel like it’s real at first. The warm pressure on her lips, the waxy, stickiness of both of their lipsticks mingling. Her hands are in her lap for far too long before she reaches up to cup Keyleth’s neck when she begins to pull away, bringing her back in to renew the kiss as they start to breathe heavily through their noses, lips meeting with furious passion. It’s a better kiss than she’s ever had, it’s so much better to kiss Keyleth, Kiki, to kiss someone you love, someone you’re in love with, someone in love with you, someone who will sigh it into the kiss, who will whisper it into your lips:
I’m in love with you.
Me too.
I’ve been in love with you.
So many months.
I’m in love with you.
I love you.
I love you
I love you.
There has never been a sweeter moment, a better moment, than when they pull away and meet each other’s eyes for the first time. Nothing between them but the string of saliva that breaks when Keyleth leans back far enough.
“Fuck,” Vex breathes out, giggling as she looks around, fanning herself. “Fuck, Kiki!”
“Yeah?” Keyleth asks, sounding somewhat winded. The only thing keeping her entire face from being beet red is probably the heavy amount of foundation she has on.
“You’re a good kisser,” Vex comments with a grin.
Keyleth ducks her head to hide her face in her hair. “That’s— I’m glad to hear that. I was worried since I’ve never really… y’know.”
“See! Even more reason for me to not want to kiss you on a stupid dare! Vindication!” Vex grabs her cup from where she set it down on a stone table beside her and chugs the rest of it. When she’s done, she crushes the cup and sets it back down, smiling sweetly at Keyleth.
“Impressive,” Keyleth chuckles, bumping their knees.
They settle in quietly, for a moment. Vex reaches for Keyleth’s hand for something to hold, to touch, to fiddle with.
Eventually, Keyleth takes a breath of her own, and Vex looks up at her.
“I’m sorry, too,” Keyleth whispers, not meeting Vex’s eyes. She stares at where Vex has her hand in hers. “For… a lot of the same stuff, just from my end. I took— I was drunk, and insecure, and I thought you— I thought wrong, obviously, but I thought you just couldn’t bear the thought of ever. Ever kissing me.” She sniffles a bit, and Vex squeezes her hand. “And it hit me too close after so long of knowing I’d had a crush on you. It was just too much, and I lashed out. And I’m sorry for everything I said.”
Vex swallows.
“Especially the— the text I sent you. That was… uncalled for,” she mumbles. “I had no right to be jealous. You weren’t… you weren’t even mine.”
“Am I yours, now?” Vex whispers into the scant space between them, hope ballooning in her chest alongside the quick drumbeat of her heart.
Keyleth inhales sharply. “Mine?”
“Mhm,” Vex hums. “Yours.”
“If— do you want to be? Mine?”
Vex’s eyes flick down to Keyleth’s lips again, smudged now with the mixing of their respective colors, and she grins. “I think I’d like that very much, darling.”
“So you’re… mine,” Keyleth tests, a burgeoning grin of her own on her face. “Am I… what does that make me?”
“Mine,” Vex purrs, leaning in to kiss her again. “Mine,” she breathes into the kiss, biting Keyleth’s lower lip.
“Yeah, I’m— I’m sooooo happy with that,” Keyleth mumbles as Vex takes her opportunity to straddle her lap. Bright, peridot eyes blink hard at being face to face with Vex’s chest, and then skitter up to her dangerous smirk, sharp and knowing. “And I am— incredibly happy with this too.”
“We won’t go further than kissing tonight,” Vex murmurs, cupping Keyleth’s jaw to keep her tilted up. “But, whenever you’d like, I’d be very happy to have my fill of you.”
Keyleth gapes at her.
Nods.
“Is now a good time to let you know that you’re my catalyst?” Vex asks softly, running her other hand into Keyleth’s hair, feeling the waves.
“Your wha—?” Keyleth asks, dumbfounded at the assaults on her senses. “Huh?”
“Forgotten my lesson already?” Vex chuckles. “My catalyst, dear. The thing I think about to, y’know. Wank.”
Keyleth’s eyes practically pop out of her head from how quickly they fly open, and Vex can’t hold back her laughter at the absolute shock and awe that has spread on Keyleth’s face, almost toppling out of her lap and backwards into the fountain.
“Vex, you cannot be doing this to me in public,” Keyleth whispers harshly.
“What? Is it turning you on to know I get off to the thought of you?”
“Yes, actually, and I’d appreciate not being so— that— when we go back inside! Percy’s in there!”
Vex hums to herself, nodding sagely. “True, this is true.”
Keyleth shakes her head, hands resting lightly on Vex’s thighs now. “You’re… ridiculous.”
“Says the one who took me defending her from a douchebag meathead as me not wanting to kiss her.”
“You literally said the word disgusting in reference to kissing me. What else was I supposed to think?”
Vex wrinkles her nose. “Fair enough. Could’ve had a better choice of words, there, yeah.”
Keyleth just sighs out a laugh and hugs Vex close to her, humming in delight when Vex wraps around her as well.
“Do we have to go inside any time soon?” Keyleth mumbles.
Vex strokes the back of her head with a soft smile. “We can stay outside all night, darling. As long as you want, and I’ll be with you the whole time.” Her next words escape her in a whisper of a breath, “Exactly like this.”
And Vex feels Keyleth smile against her skin.
And Vex, inside, feels her heart smile back.