ax_main | Percy and Vax | Backdated to the Brotherhood Party

Vax and Percy flirt and dance, and come to a decision about their relationship.

Hands clasped behind his back, Percy surveyed the wall of graffiti. Names comprised most of it, scrawled and slapped on in bright pinks and blues and greens. Some had helpful additions tacked onto them, written in a tell-tale different hand or color. Whoever Mort was he, apparently, could be called for a good time. There were drawings too. The inevitable penis, of course, being one of them.. It was exactly the sort of thing you’d expect at a party full of teenagers and it was, despite everything, oddly beautiful.

Either that, or Percy was far more drunk than he’d realized. He’d like to think it was the former, but, either way, he was here and adding to the wall seemed like a good idea.. He looked at the paints, considering his choices carefully, before picking up a brush and dipping it into the pink paint. He took another moment’s consideration for what was the best part of wall before settling on an unoccupied space on the left where he wrote ‘VOX MACHINA’ in neat, broad strokes.

Vax slipped out of the shadows behind him, waiting until Percy was done with his artwork, then took one of the neon markers and reached over his roommate’s shoulder, scrawling ‘Vax <3 Percy’ in almost illegible script.

Percy squinted to decipher Vax's scrawl, then blushed, warmth blooming in his chest even though he knew it was just Vax messing around. “Well, it’s not a poorly drawn penis, but it does bring something to the artwork..”

"Please, Percival, if I were to draw a penis, it would be perfectly proportioned," Vax grinned at him.

“I’ve no doubt you have significant experience in that regard.” Percy set the paintbrush down and turned to face Vax.

Vax desperately wanted to kiss him right then, with Percy all dapper in that waistcoat. "Competitions with Scanlan worth, yes," he admitted.

Percy laughed. "I wasn't referring to the cube, but true.”

"So here's a question," Vax pointed out, glancing over his shoulder.. "Are we telling other people?”

Percy glanced over too. People milled about the party, familiar faces mixed in amongst the unfamiliar ones. He looked back to Vax as he tried to decide how to answer a question he’d never expected to be asked. He’d been under the impression Vax didn’t want to tell people. “I’m not against it.”

"That is, Vex is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak," Vax pointed out, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck a little self-consciously. He couldn't help but think of his conversation with Shaun.

Percy regarded Vax for a long moment. Despite what logic told him, he was starting to think.... He'd always thought Vax was sweet on Keyleth, but the graffiti on the wall, the way Vax looked at him sometimes, all the questions... "Vax, are we dating?"

Surprise flashed in Vax's eyes. He'd thought that question had been settled back on Percy's birthday, what with him asking if Percival wanted to do that kind of thing all the time. Then again, maybe that didn't actually constitute 'dating'? "Well...I haven't actually taken you out on a date yet," he considered, cagey and kind of quiet.

The surprise on Vax’s face, the way he withdraw into himself after in a way he had never seen before, made Percy wish he’d never asked the question. He started to reply, but then stopped as he suddenly realized, for the first time, that perhaps he wasn't the only one putting his heart on the line.

"Tonight's rather like a date." Percy hadn’t thought it was but he'd hoped and, while he did like to dress nicely, he'd be lying if he said he hadn't had Vax in mind when choosing his outfit. “Vax, I…” He reached out and caught Vax’s hands in his despite being somewhere where anyone, everyone, could see. “Would you go out with me?”

Vax blinked, and for a moment, couldn't help but just stare at Percy holding his hands like that, the way their fingers interlocked. "You don't do anything by half, do you?"

"Do I? You're the first to say so." Percy's siblings had teased him about his caution--A coward they'd called him and how right they'd been. From Vox Machina, he'd been called restrained, straight-laced (both true) and his father had always criticized his reluctancy to get involved. "I've always thought the same about you, actually. I admire it.”

Vax frowned, taking his hands out of Percy's and cupping his face instead. "Listen to me. You choose your battles where I fling myself at anything that crosses my path, it's true. But that's being smart. You, fuck, Percy, once you've chosen something to fight for, there's this unstoppable force inside you.”

Percy couldn’t help it, not even if he wanted to. He kissed Vax right then in the middle of the party, surrounded by people and fluorescent lights. “You’re wonderful.” How had he ever gotten so lucky?

His roommate only stiffened for a moment before melting into the kiss, reaching up to grasp the front of Percy's vest to pull him close as he deepened it for several breaths.

The enthusiasm in so public a place made Percy blush, but he didn’t pull away. He kissed back, pressing in a little, a hand on Vax’s jaw. He smiled when it ended, still pink in the cheeks, and rested their foreheads together. “Absolutely wonderful,” he said fondly.

"You might be overstating things a bit, but I won't hold it against you since I was just trying to point out how amazing you are," Vax grinned. Slowly, he raised his head. "The answer is yes, by the way."

Percy had gathered that answer was coming, but it made his heart feel like it was going to burst all the same. He smiled. "Excellent. And since this is now, officially, a date--" He offered Vax his hand. "Would you do me the honor of a dance?"

"You do know that you're dating a heathen, don't you?" Vax raised a brow. "I have no fucking clue how to dance."

Percy didn't take his hand away. "I'm aware. I like my heathen. We'll slow dance. Nothing complicated."

Vax still looked a little uncertain, but took the hand anyway. "You're likely going to regret this."

"That, I can say with absolutely certainty, is entirely untrue." Percy led Vax out into the dance floor, staying close to the edge of it just in case Vax changed his mind.. He drew him in and, after a moment's indecision, put his arms around his neck.

This was entirely new to Vax, so he hesitated for a moment, his hands uncertain. "Where do I…"

Percy hadn’t realized when Vax said he didn’t know how to dance that he meant he’d never danced at all. Everything about the twins seemed so worldly, so experience, that he’d just assumed… “Here.” He moved Vax’s arms to around his waist, then returned his own to Vax’s neck. “We can switch if you’d rather.”

"This is perfect," Vax grinned, snuggly wrapping his arms around Percy's waist.

The arms going around him tug Percy in closer and, though a flash warmed the back of his neck, he gladly went with it, settling his arms more comfortably around Vax. “Excellent.”

“Now, like this…” They moved gently to the music, not drifting far from the small space they occupied. It was not dancing so much as it was swaying in place, and even then there were still mis-steps at times, but… He had danced with countless girls at countless parties, balls, and fetes, all of them trained in various forms of formal dancing, and not a single one of them had been as nice as this.

“I didn’t mean your recklessness, you know,” Percy said after a few minutes.

"Hm?" Vax questioned, breaking himself out of an embarrassingly intense romantic reverie. He lifted his gaze to meet Percy's, warm and a little hazy. "What?"

Percy's heart tripped over itself at the look on Vax's face. "I..." he trailed off, staring at Vax, mesmerized. God, what was it exactly he'd wanted to say again? "You have a remarkable talent for leaving me speechless.”

Vax's lips ticked sideways in a little grin. "That could be good or bad. I like hearing your technobabble.”

“How fortunate for you then that it’s in those instances I’m most difficult to shut-up,” Percy replied.

"I'm a lucky fuck," Vax agreed with a brilliant grin.

There was that speechlessness again. Vax had a smile the world stopped for. "Quite," he replied. "You seem to have endless reserves."

“Do we do this all night?” Vax asked. “Because I’d be good with that.”

"Dance?" Percy asked. "Or flirt? Because you seem to have endless reserves of that as well.”

"Dance," Vax grinned. "I'm always flirting with you.”

Percy smirked. “Fair point.” His fingers toyed with the hair at the nap of Vax’s neck. “I had plans for stealing you away to some dark corner, but we can dance all night. I’m good with it as well.”

"Hm. Now you have me thinking about that dark corner," Vax hummed.

"There are quite a few of them..." Percy said, his smile a stark contrast to his innocent tone.

“I hate to bring this up with the proposition of snogging on the table, but maybe we should work the crowd for a bit first - see what these fucks are about,” Vax suggested.

Percy looked out at the party with a sigh. "It is why we came... Alright," his attention returned to Vax, "thirty minutes, then I'll meet you at the drink fountain?"

Vax nodded, though there was mischief in his gaze. “Then I’ll show you real darkness.”

"Don't test my resolve," Percy said. "Thirty minutes was generous as is."

Knowing the longer he stayed here the harder it would be to leave, Percy finally stepped away. He caught Vax's hand as he did to bring the back of it to his mouth for a kiss. "Thank you for the dance."

Vax blinked at the gallantry of the gesture, a shiver running down his spine. “Thirty minutes,” he insisted eagerly.