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Damaged Hearts, Soft Hands.

Summary:

Basically Percy, Vex and Keyleth are all useless bisexuals and have massive crushes on each other but none of them are game to do anything about it. Also non-binary Keyleth because why write fanfiction if you can't project onto your faves?

Chapter 1: Aborted Confession

Chapter Text

Long fingers scratched the crow's neck, they cooed under her breath to calm the bird, Keyleth had dealt with Orthax long enough that they knew he was always twitchy at first when he was in her room. Their eyes flicked up to Percy, and in the half a second that it took them to adjust their expression, Keyleth looked at him with fondness they reserved for the animals under their care, and Percy went into what felt like a small cardiac arrest.

"So, what seems to be the problem with Orthax?" Keyleth asked, blissfully unaware of Percy's frantic heartbeat.

"Uh.. Well…" Percy stuttered, his breath still catching in his throat, "Lately he's been making this really weird sound, completely different from his usual caw. I know that it's probably nothing, but I wanted to be sure."

Keyleth pulled their stethoscope up from around their neck and listened to the bird's breathing, "I can't hear anything too out of place, his breath is a little quick, but that's not unusual, considering he's probably scared of being poked and prodded." They straightened up to face Percy, "What is this weird sound-"

"-VVVVNNNNGGGNNNNCCCC!" Orthax screeched, making Keyleth jump out of their skin.

"That's the sound, in case you were wondering," Percy said, his tone casual despite the almost eldritch scream that had filled the room only a few seconds ago, he leant against the examination table and looked at Orthax with a fond smirk.

Keyleth chuckled, still shaken by the sudden noise, "Yeah, I kind of figured."

A few moments of silence followed as Keyleth examined the crow more thoroughly, they winced as they ran their hands over mutilated wings, it had healed much in the months since Percy had rescued the bird from its former owners, but Keyleth knew that despite their initial optimistic outlook on the bird's recovery, that Orthax would never fly more than a few feet ever again. Still, despite the obviously unique screech the bird was using, Keyleth couldn't find anything wrong with him, eventually they just looked back at Percy and shrugged.

"I guess he has a unique new call, I can't find anything wrong with him that we haven't taken care of already," they thought for a second before adding, "If you're worried about him keeping you or your neighbours up, you could probably train him out of using it, he's a smart bird and he likes you. You don't need anything more than that to get him to work with you." Keyleth grinned, "But it does speak well of you that you brought him back here just in case."

Percy found himself dazzled by their smile and could only mumble out a few half formed words in response, he gave Orthax a scratch on the nape just to have something to do with his hands. Their compliment wouldn't have been so upseting if he had actually come here today only because of Orthax, but his intentions were less than pure, he had come here today to confess his crush on them. He'd met Doctor Ashari about five months prior at a bar downtown, Vex and him were having drinks with her brother and his boyfriend, and although he never expected to meet them again, after Trinket swallowed a bottlecap, their paths crossed once more… and Percy fell a little bit harder.

Keyleth looked at Percy's face, and tried not to blush, they had also found themselves enamoured with the tall (it was rare for them to find people taller than them) white haired man, who always dressed in crumpled suits and coats, despite it being the middle of summer… but they saw the way Percy acted around his roommate, and there was no way they could compete with such a knockout of a woman. So Keyleth had done their best to quell their crush and focus on the job at hand, after all, there was absolutely no way that they could date a client, especially one that came in as often as he did.

"So… that should be all for today, I won't charge you since it was such a quick checkup and nothing was actually wrong with him so-" Keyleth stopped as it looked like Percy was about to say something else, "..Sorry I must have gotten ahead of myself, is there anything else you need or want?"

Percy's mouth still hung open as he pondered whether to take the chance at doing what he had come here today to do, which sounds like it should have been easy, but in reality his brain was going a hundred miles an hour as he thought of all the things that could go wrong. His gut clenched as he pictured some of the worse scenarios, which ranged from Keyleth laughing in his face to no one ever speaking to him again because he was such a pathetic loser… all of this worrying only took a matter of seconds, and when the anxiety was too much for him to deal with, he closed his mouth and shook his head, hoping that Keyleth wouldn't think he was too strange just for that.

After the failed attempt at a confession, they said their goodbyes (Percy's farewell was far more hurried and strained than Keyleth's) and Percy called a cab and made his way home with Orthax, who was looking decidedly unhappy with his owner, probably because of the trip to the vet, but Percy decided to project and assume that his bird hated his cowardice too. The car ride home was uneventful, the driver was far too chatty for Percy's tastes, but he somehow survived without bursting into tears, as soon as he got back to his apartment, he released Orthax, who clumsily flew to his favourite ceiling nook, and searched for something to do. He eventually found some salvation in Vex's rhinestone encrusted, turquoise phone, it had gotten damaged a couple of days ago and she had been meaning to take it to the shop, but Percy knew enough to fix whatever was wrong with it, and at this point doing something was better than sitting down and letting emotions overcome him.

He grabbed the (slightly ostentatious) phone and ran to his office to get to work.

 

***

 

Percy jumped as someone knocked on his office door, he silently chastised himself for having to fight the urge to reach for the revolver he kept in his top drawer. After all, there was only one person who had a key to his apartment, and no one who meant him harm would knock on an open door to get his attention, after a few seconds of shock and then shame, he turned to face his roommate… and then burst out laughing as he had no idea that he was living with a drowned rat.

"Oh my god. Vex what the fuck happened to you?" He said, only just able to speak through his fit of laughter.

Vex gave him a filthy look that stopped his joking mood immediately, "Ugh, work was… hectic today," Vex replied, her voice filled with disdain as she ran a hand through her hair. "We had a fire drill and everything just went wrong."

"How does a fire drill work on a wildlife reservation?"

Vex'ahlia rolled her eyes, "Well, in short, they don’t. If we ever have a bush fire around here, we're screwed. We have way too much land and too many animals to round them up." Vex stared into space for a moment, Percy assumed that she was probably spiralling into a massive string of thoughts about what would happen to the animals should there be a fire and they couldn't help them, until she snapped back to reality and her eyes flicked back to him with a speed that would have given him whiplash had he not known her as well as he did.

"So… how did things go with the Doctor McCutie?" Vex asked, still standing in the doorway as she untangled her muddy wet hair as best she could with her fingers, Percy blushed, and felt Vex's keen eyes scan his face and note his embarrassment.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Percy said firmly, adjusting his collar firmly and refusing to meet his friend's eyes.

"So… not great?" Vex said, hearing the hurt behind the coldness in her friend's voice.

"Yeah… you could say that. Hence all the work. I needed a distraction."

"Aw bud… I'm so sorry… I really wanted it to work out for you," Vex said, her voice carried a slight note of sadness behind the sympathy, and Percy felt a stab of pain enter his chest as he realised how much Vex wanted him to tell Keyleth. "…Although, if you're going to fix a whole bunch of my stuff, maybe people should break your heart more often!" Vex grinned and winked at Percy, the slow and awkward manner that she did so always managed to get a smile out of him, "Now if you were anyone else, I'd give you a hug, but I know you don't like touching at the best of times, and the mud would only make that worse… so I'll leave you to it." 

He gave her a half-hearted smile and faced his work again.

 

***

 

Vex sprinted off to the bathroom, she hoped Percy would just chalk it up to her wanting to clean the mud off of herself (which, while a factor to her haste, was not the main reason), by the time she bolted the door shut, her heart was in her throat and she thought she might just throw up. This was so typical for her. She not only had a crush on her roommate, but also on their vet, and she had hoped that if the two of them got together, that she could get over her feelings and go back to a more normal situation, but of course Percy had to chicken out and now both of them were available, and her best friend was probably going to be emotionally devastated over this whole thing, and Vex didn't know if her little heart could survive all of this.

She sighed, as her mind went round in circles and making her feel more miserable by the second, she scrubbed as thoroughly as possible, but in the end she could only hope for the best in regards to getting all of the mud, so she just threw on some clean clothes to go watch some mindless TV to take her mind off of this entirely ridiculous situation.

As Vex showered, Percy buried himself in the work that most people would consider a chore, but he adored, he didn't even realise how much time had passed until the sun dipped below the horizon, and he could barely see the phone in front of him. He sighed, heaving himself up out of his chair, despite the protest of his stiff joints, and flicked on the office light.

As soon as he lifted his foot to walk back to his desk, he heard a shout from the other room, "Percival Friedrick-bleh Von Blah-Blah De Rolo the Third, don’t you dare go back to that phone!"

He sighed, she always tried to stop him from doing his work just as it was getting good, "I haven't finished working on it yet!" He called back, taking a step towards his desk.

"Well you can finish it after dinner! You haven't come up for air for hours!" Vex called back, Percy had already given up, there was no point arguing with Vex, she always won, he stumbled out to the lounge room, where Vex was sitting, watching some reality TV show, her legs covered by her massive drooling Mastiff.

"Alright, I'm out." Percy collapsed onto the sofa, next to Vex and Trinket, "What are we having for dinner?"

Vex smirked, "Oh, an old family recipe of mine… My mother called it…" She pulled out a familiar white leaflet, "Calling the Chinese place." She chortled after she finished her little jest, even after the three years they'd lived together, her ability to make herself laugh at even her most unfunny jokes still amazed him.

He took the menu from her hands and began to skim, his eyes skipping over his usual choices, he wanted change today, the lounge room was entirely silent (aside from Trinket's snoring) and Percy felt Vex's eyes on him the entire time he was reading.

"So… what happened today?" Her voice was soft, he felt himself melt under the sheer kindness in her tone, he chuckled to cover a sudden sob that shook his chest, it would be funny how little affection it took to make him tear up if it wasn't so fucking sad.

"I was just… too chicken." He sighed, he prayed to every god there was or wasn't that he could make it through this conversation without bursting into tears. "And it's so fucking stupid because I wouldn't even be this sad if I told them how I felt and they rejected me! The only reason I'm so upset is because I was a fucking coward… again!" By the time he'd finished his last sentence he was shouting, Trinket was awake and had jumped off of Vex's lap to get away from the noise.

Vex ran her hand up and down his back, "Shh, shh… it's okay Perc…" She gently pulled him towards her, and he almost fell into her arms. He had no idea how long they stayed there, Vex had a way of making any time spent with her feel like only a moment or two. He could talk with her for hours or minutes and feel the same.

"You know what's going to make you feel better? We'll order the Chinese, then you and I can run down to the store and grab some really nice ice cream, and I guarantee you by the end of the night you'll have completely forgotten about Dr Ashari… okay?" she said, taking Percy's head in her hands and lifting it so they could look at each other.

"Sounds good. I'm lactose intolerant though." Percy replied, brushing his hair out of his face.

"Well… then we'll just have to hope that there's a good lactose-free ice cream out there," Vex said with a laugh that made his heart swell.

 

***

 

Percy still wasn't used to riding with Vex on her bike, it had come a long way from the total wreck they'd started with, for one thing, it could now keep up with traffic on the highway… on a good day, but it still had a few problems, it shuddered when she hit the brakes, it made weird noises when you started the ignition, and as it was the only vehicle the two of them had, it meant that anytime they had to go somewhere, he had to hold onto Vex. Not that that was necessarily unpleasant to Percy, it was just… more touching than he was used to, and when he had his arms wrapped around her, her hair flew in his face, and it smelled so good. The entire ride to the grocery store was a blissful form of agony for Percy, he didn't know when exactly he started liking his roommate but he absolutely did… he found himself wondering if his hell-brain only made him like people he had absolutely no chance with.

Vex pulled up to the curb with a practised grace, and removed her helmet swiftly, letting her hair, which was ridiculously voluminous at the best of times, and had only been worsened by the ride, spill down to her waist. She dismounted and watched with a wry smile as Percy struggled with his helmet, the band around his neck was easy enough to deal with, but he had knocked his glasses off his face when he removed it, and now had spectacles stabbing into his ear and eye. Vex could only watch her friend struggle for so long, before stepping forward and taking the helmet from his hands, and righting his glasses.

It was only when Vex realised how little space there was between their faces that she blushed, took a step back and ruffled his hair roughly. After all, in her mind, there was no chance of her and Percy getting together, so she turned away and walked into the grocery store, after she had reached the doors but still found herself alone, she span on her heels and waved the still shocked Percy forward.

The two of them had the artform that is quick shopping trips mastered, one of them covered one half of the store while the other handled their half, they met back at register five, which is almost always empty because it's manned by Lyra. Lyra being the clumsiest and chattiest human being either of them had ever encountered, but getting a few crushed items and mild boredom was worth not waiting in line to the pair of them, neither of them had the patience or the attention span for queues, plus their little game of speed was always more fun than just shopping like two normal people. Plus it was always worth a chance to convince her to give up on her manager Aldor and find someone who actually cared about her.

After their speed run shopping trip, the two of them picked up their Chinese food and headed home, luckily at this point the traffic had subsided and they managed to get back with their food still somewhere near hot and their ice cream as intact as they could hope after Lyra tripped and threw it into a wall.

That night was the most fun either of them had had in a long time, they talked about almost everything; how Vax and Gilmore were moving upstate in the winter and how much Vex would miss them, that Cassandra was moving up to Vasselheim for university, and how Vesper and Julius were already planning a surprise party for him and were being completely unsubtle about it. Vex asked him whether he was still taking his medication and he said yes, and felt a weird sort of satisfaction in that being the first time in years where someone had asked him that question and he had told the truth. Percy asked Vex what the letter she threw out the other day without opening was, and she just shrugged and told him that when the stamps are from Syngorn and it's not her little sister's handwriting on the front, she just throws it out without even opening it.

They finished their food and after about half an hour later, they got pulled out the ice cream and the vodka they bought and played one of their favourite drinking games while watching Exandria's Got Talent, this year's special guest judge was Dr.Dranzel's protégé, Scanlan Shorthalt, who always voted yes to even the worst acts because he was apparently a sadist who wanted the entire country to suffer. It was almost midnight when they both fell asleep, the pair of them filled to the brim with ice cream and alcohol, they were so drunk and so tired that they didn't even realise that they had fallen asleep in each other's arms until they woke up.