Chapter Text
“YOU KNEW?!” Scanlan exclaims, practically leaping out of his seat and drawing the collective eye of the tables around them. He has a finger pointed accusingly across the table at Vax, who looks entirely unperturbed by the display, even as Scanlan continues: “You knew the whole time?!”
“Of course I knew. Vex told me after the wedding,” Vax replies with a blasé shrug and a sip of his beer.
Scanlan’s incredulity turns onto Gilmore, then, who has his arm slung over Vax’s shoulders, an implicit question in his eyes.
“They didn’t have to tell me,” Gilmore adds, pausing for Scanlan to make a disbelieving sound and gesture wildly in the brides’ direction. He chuckles and shakes his head. “I figured it out myself before our wedding, would you believe?”
“No, I wouldn’t believe!” Scanlan retorts, swinging his ireful eyes onto the women of the hour until he’s being gentled back into his chair.
“Alright, Scanlan, that’s enough excitement for you. Sit down,” she sighs with a twinkle of fondness in her eyes as she pats and rubs his back while he grumbles about being the last to know everything.
Keyleth frowns, a guilty pinch coming to her brows as she glances from Vex’s own amusement to how put out Scanlan is. “Would it help if we explained?”
“Yeah, go ahead and explain so Grog can understand,” Scanlan says, gesturing to Grog on his other side who’s squinting so hard his eyes are practically closed. “Because I obviously understand the entire situation now that you told us your entire relationship was a farce!”
Vex rolls her eyes at the drama and hysterics, exhaling softly as she leans into Keyleth’s side for the grounding support she can always count on from her wife — wife, they’re wives now — and says, “The whole relationship wasn’t a farce, Scanlan, just the beginning of it. Do you think I’d spend all this money on a wedding to a woman I’m not actually in love with?” She takes a sip from her champagne before setting it on the table with a dignified air about her, waving her hand dismissively. “We got together the night of the bonfire, so really we were only lying to your faces for two weeks.”
“I can’t believe Keyleth was able to lie for even a day, let alone two weeks,” Percy comments idly with a smirk, making a face at Keyleth when she flips him off, a rare sight they don’t see aimed at anyone other than him seemingly ever. After a few years, the shock of Keyleth and Percy’s strange bond has worn off, but sometimes Keyleth acts completely different with him.
It makes Vex happy that she was able to give Keyleth the friends and family she always longed for.
“There were some… hiccups,” Vex says, coming back to the conversation at hand with a sniff. “Especially in the beginning when Keyleth would just impulsively imply something that Vax especially didn’t want to hear.”
“Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, get to the explaining,” Scanlan demands, crossing his arms. He looks irate, but even his acting skills have their cracks, and after so many years of friendship Vex can see the genuine amusement and equal bafflement shining in his eyes as he looks between her and her wife. It makes sense, considering the bomb they’d dropped on everyone during their vows, at least judging by the ripple of gasps from both the bridal party and those in the crowd.
“Suppose I can begin, seeing as I was the one who started it all,” Vex says, looking up to Keyleth who nods and gives her a kiss on the head. She settles in more comfortably and smiles, turning back the clock a few years mentally and saying: “Well, it all started because my brother and his husband are a pair of misers—”
“HEY!”
***
“Thank you so much, Professor Valiente. This already helps so much.”
Vex laughs as she shuts her laptop and begins to properly pack up the supplies strewn about her lectern. It would have been rude to answer questions while busying herself with that, and it’s not like another class needed the hall so soon after hers, so she took her time. “It is, in fact, my job to help my students learn enough to pass my class,” she teases, tucking her laptop away into her bag. “Most of it, at least. Is there anything else you need Hunin?”
The young man flips his notebook open and skims through what must be the day’s lecture before shaking his head with surety. “I think you’ve answered everything I had questions about, but if anything else comes up can I send you a portal message?”
“You don’t even have to ask, dear,” she replies, zipping her bag. “Don’t linger here much longer, though. Kyor might leave campus without you.”
His eyes widen at the thought of being left behind by his twin, hurriedly stuffing his notebook away in his bag before giving her a short bow of his head and another ‘thank you’ on his way up the stairs, gone in seconds and a flash of blue wool.
Vex shakes her head fondly as she turns to make sure she’s not left anything, and she’s just slung her bag over her shoulder and is about to turn to leave when she feels eyes on her, and hears nigh imperceptible footsteps. Familiar in lightness and cadence, to the point that when she faces them all she can muster is a coolly raised eyebrow and a bemused, “I wasn’t aware you were still enrolled here, brother.”
Vax is already making himself comfortable in the second row when she finally sees him, shifting into place before kicking his booted feet onto the backs of the first row and reclining with a smug grin. He’s dressed like he just came from work, repping the FLY organization logo on his shirt and a pair of skinny jeans. “What? I can’t want to relive my old glory days and see my beloved sister at the same time?”
“I think we both wouldn’t consider college your glory days,” she retorts with an eyeroll, but there’s a measure of fondness to the action, shrugging her bag off as well and coming to lean against the bolted down table at the front of the hall. Honestly, she hasn’t seen her brother in more than a few days which, in their youth, was practically unheard of. Now that they’re adults with jobs and obligations and connections outside of the other it’s more common, but they still make a point to see each other as often as possible, so his absence was something that she noticed. “Can’t deny you wanting to see me. You’ve always been more attached.”
“Fuck you,” he shoots back, earning a laugh.
“What do you want, Vax’ildan?” She asks after she’s calmed from her giggling.
“I always have to want something. Not everyone seeks others out when they want something, Vex’ahlia. Perhaps this is something to unpack with that therapist of yours.”
Vex’s jaw flexes at the little jab, and her eyes narrow. The evasiveness is… not new, but it’s not a common tactic he takes when speaking with her, especially when he’s the one who comes to her in the first place. She peers at him from the few feet between them, giving him time to actually answer her question, but the longer the silence stretches the more she’s able to see him squirm about…
“Something’s bothering you. What is it?” She points out, only feeling validated in her questioning when his smugness finally twitches and falters a bit.
So there is something.
Lucky guess on her part.
“I actually do have something I want to talk to you about, but I figured I’d start with the usual pleasantries like a ‘how are you’ or a ‘what have you been up to?” Vax teases, though there’s an edge to his voice, and it almost seems like he’s nervous to tell her what’s going on.
Her pulse begins to pick up. What could he possibly be worried about telling her? The last time he’d been this nervous was to tell her he and Gilmore were dating the first time.
“I’m well and I’ve been doing what I’m always doing: teaching, researching, and writing,” Vex replies breezily, because it’s her answer whenever someone asks her those questions. That hasn’t changed in the about seven years she’s been a professor, and it probably won’t change until she retires. Not that she minds, she’s doing what she loves, even if research papers are the bane of her existence.
Vax nods slowly, pursing his lips, and Vex starts picking up more and more on his reluctant energy, her eyes narrowing again as she watches him closely. He’s shifting in the chair, and while she knows the seats in the hall aren’t the most comfortable by a mile, he’s never been one for restless movement. Both of them are masters at being still and silent, so seeing this side of him is especially disconcerting on top of everything else he’s presented her with.
“Are you gonna ask how I’m doing?” Vax asks instead of saying what he clearly wants to.
“Are you gonna ask me something I don’t want to answer afterward?” Vex counters, a little impatient now that she can truly see something’s bothering him.
They hold each other’s stare for a few moments before Vax finally breaks it and looks away for longer than a beat so he doesn’t have to see the victorious grin on his twin’s face.
“Out with it, brother,” she coaxes, drumming her nails against the underside of the table. “I have some stuff to finish up in my office before I leave, and currently you’re the one person between me, that, and getting dinner, so if you value your life…”
He looses a blustery sigh, finally, and she can tell he’s finally worked up the courage to speak.
What he says next is not what she had been expecting, however.
“We didn’t want to bring it up so soon after you and Saundor broke up—” he begins.
Vex groans and throws her head back, smoothing her thumb and forefinger over her brow bone before looking back at Vax, exasperated. “Can we not talk about Saundor? It’s been months, and I’m still as fine as the last time you asked. I’m sick of hearing his name at this point,” she says with a glare that she hopes conveys just how unwelcome her ex-boyfriend is in any of their conversations.
“That’s… not what I wanted to talk about,” Vax says carefully.
“Huh?” Vex raises her head, brow furrowing as she blinks in confusion, because all that’s ever come up when discussing him has been either teasing remarks about really knowing how to choose ‘em or genuinely concerned questions like but, really, are you alright? from well-meaning friends.
“It’s just—” Vax starts, and then pauses to collect his thoughts. “Saundor was supposed to be your plus one to the wedding.”
She gives him a strange look, confused about what that has to do with anything. “Yes, he was…” she says slowly. “But I think it’s safe to say he’s been officially uninvited and can be removed from the guest list?”
“It’s not quite that easy, Vex’ahlia,” Vax breathes, looking suddenly like he’d rather be anywhere but in this hall under her burning gaze, almost like a student caught cheating by their vigilant professor.
“Why not?” she asks, her tone probably sharper than she’s meaning it to be because she’s starting to get frustrated with all the roadblocks in this conversation.
“Shaun already paid for everything—” the color drains out of Vex’s face, a hand coming to cover her gaping mouth— “like the rooms and the reservations and shit, y’know? Just because Saundor can’t come doesn’t mean we magically get that money back.”
Her eyes slip shut, and the hand gripping the table tightens, nails digging in, and if she were any stronger she wonders if she would be gouging perfect crescents into the pliable and cheap wood. The realization of what he’s saying makes her stomach bottom out, and heat blooms up the back of her neck to tingle in the crown of her head.
She takes a deep breath to calm herself and then, in a manner that’s definitely not the calm understanding she wanted to put out, hisses at her brother, “And why didn’t you think to say anything sooner, Vax’ildan?”
Vax puts his hands in front of him defensively. “It felt tactless,” he defends, and he’s right, it would be tactless, but if he’s saying what she thinks he’s saying—
“Can Gilmore not just eat the cost?” she asks, a little desperate.
“He may not be as miserly as you—”
“—you best choose the next words out of your mouth wisely or Gilmore’s going to be very disappointed when he gets home and finds you sans cock—” Vex threatens.
“—Vex’ahlia, please just listen?” Vax pleads.
Vex narrows her eyes at him and leans more fully against the table, arms crossed. “Fine.”
“Shaun may not be as frugal as you. Is that better?” he continues with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “But it is an exorbitant sum of money that he’d be eating, and he’s already being very generous by covering everything for the trip…” he trails off, waiting for any response other than the stoic mask Vex is wearing.
“So what’re you saying, exactly?” Vex asks, curt.
“He’s willing to pay the cost of a plus one if there is a plus one, but seeing as you’re single again.” He makes a wishy-washy gesture with his hands that only serves to make Vex more irritated as she finally gets the full picture he’d been painting.
She flexes her jaw, and then her hands beneath her arms. Saundor may not be such a sore spot, but her hopelessness in love has been one since Vax and Gilmore finally started dating years ago. They were both loners growing up with only each other to depend on, and then suddenly Vax had someone else and Vex was alone… not for lack of trying, though, but she’d just gone through a breakup after she decided she couldn’t commit to long distance, and ever since then she’s been a bit tender about relationships and her often lack thereof.
“This is why I didn’t want to bring it up,” Vax sighs.
“I’m not,” Vex says, and when the words come out, she isn’t quite sure what she means herself, but then it’s Vax’s turn to give her a confused look and she’s suddenly forced to confront her impulsivity.
“Not what?”
“Single,” she finishes with a resolute nod, finally relaxing her arms as she makes her decision to dig her grave.
Vax looks bewildered, eyes wide and round. “You’re not?”
“Nope,” she says. “Not single anymore. I have a—” gods, pick a gender, quickly— “a girlfriend.”
“Oh…” Vax replies, sitting up a little straighter and taking his feet down, curiously blank until he breaks out into a grin, drumming his hands on the back of the first row chair, even if there is a touch of some other emotion in his eyes when he pulls back. “That’s wonderful, Stubby! I’m so happy for you!”
Vex hums, internally berating herself for giving in to her wounded pride and lying instead of just sacking up and agreeing. She just couldn’t stand to see her brother looking at her with all that pity.
She had to prove him wrong.
She also couldn’t stand to have to pay the astronomical difference of Saundor’s space on the trip, quite honestly. People who teach certainly aren’t in it for the money, even college professors, and much as she is frugal her savings are meant for emergencies, not luxurious vacations to Marquet.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks, then, a little more vulnerable, slouching.
Okay, so maybe she can’t stand seeing her brother like this a little more, but she can’t back out now, so she has to think fast.
“After everything that happened with Saundor I just…” She searches the aether for her answers, grasping at the air for a believable lie, finally landing on: “I just wanted to be a little more lowkey this time, at least to start.” She pauses again, sighing and smiling ruefully. “Then, if it blew up in my face like before I wouldn’t have to deal with everyone’s ribbing, or their pity.”
She’s nothing if not honest in her lies. If she was in a new relationship, that would be the route she takes, giving it time to breathe and settle before making the introductions.
“By everyone you mean Scanlan,” he replies with a light smirk, his mood on the upswing now that he seems to understand.
“Don’t act like you didn’t do your fair bit of teasing, brother,” Vex says with a roll of her eyes.
“I’m your brother!” he protests. “It doesn’t count when I do it.”
Vex gives him a deadpan look, subtly unrolling a spare hair tie from her wrist into her hand as she says faux sympathetically, “Ah yes, I forgot about that clause in the sibling contract.” She stretches the tie between her thumb and index finger. “So, as your sister, it doesn’t count when I do this—” and she raises her hands, expertly firing the tie at Vax’s forehead and grinning when it makes its mark.
His surprised yelp is worth every joke he ever made at her expense.
He looks like he wants to launch over her desk and wrestle her to the ground like when they were kids, so she puts her hands out placatingly as she checks the time. “Alright, you’ve eaten up enough of my time. I have to drop some stuff off at my office and send some emails, but then you can walk me to my car.”
“Alright, but back to the matter at hand,” Vax says, vaulting over the first row and sweeping her laptop bag into his arms to hold for her as they begin walking out of the lecture hall. “Would your girlfriend… I assume this is new, but I trust your judgement even when I shouldn’t sometimes, so would your girlfriend want to come to the wedding?”
Vex stalls a bit, almost tripping ever so gracefully on the first wide step up, because of course, yes, this was almost the entire point. It wasn’t just your pride, it was your bank account.
“I’m sure I can convince her,” she says, staring pointedly ahead so he won’t catch any hint of her lying tells — not that she has many after training herself to be better at it, but he’s always been perceptive when it comes to her. “I’m very persuasive, if you didn’t know.”
Vax makes a disgusted noise in the back of his throat as he holds the door for her to step out into the warm, spring air. “Really didn’t need that mental image, Stubby.”
Vex laughs, shoving his shoulder a little as they fall into step again. As they pass the dining hall on the way to her office building, she stops for a moment and then smiles, tucking some hair behind her ear when the wind whips at it. “Do you want to get dinner tonight, or do you have plans with your husband?” she teases.
“Fiancé, and no, we don’t have plans tonight,” Vax says. “He’s actually working more hours the next few weeks just to make sure everything that needs doing gets done before we’re off.”
“How do you feel about seafood and then Pie-roden as dessert?” she proposes.
“Now you’re speaking my language.”