Chapter Text
Whistling.
Hands with the barest hint of trembling reach out to lift the shrieking kettle off the stovetop, tanned and freckled from a long summer spent in and around the mountains of the Lucidian Coast with the sun at her back. Steam rolls off the surface of the poured water that saturates the teabag, chamomile and lavender seeping into the warmth and giving off an aroma that does little to calm Keyleth’s nervous jitters before she can cover her mug and let her tea steep.
The floor kitchen is empty at this hour. Much as she’d like to be in bed like her peers, resting up for her last first day of school, a knot of anxiety had settled in her gut earlier that afternoon after her father left on his flight back to Zephrah and has only grown tighter over the course of the day. She’s running out of ways to cope, and she knows she’s anxious over nothing, but really, is she?
The past three years spent at the Alabaster Academy for Gifted Youth have been… well, she thinks it’s a little dramatic to consider them torturous. She is consistently challenged by the material she’s learning, but her dad tells her that means she’s not becoming complacent with her mind and is instead fostering its growth, but that isn’t the problem. No, what the problem is is the kids.
Keyleth is not from Emon. Hells, she isn’t even from this side of Tal’dorei, and people know that about her. They know her as the tiny hippie girl from Zephrah, set to become the next leader of her people, with hands that were too big for her small body and ribs that poked out awkwardly from her torso and long, long hair that people seemed to think they could just reach out and touch after asking if, in her culture, it was taboo to ever cut your hair.
For the record, it’s not.
She removes the cover from her tea and takes a sip without thinking before having to turn and cough it out into the sink, her mouth stinging from the heat.
Often gets lost in thought during lessons, one teacher had put it on a progress report.
It was nicer than what the other students had to say about her, at least.
Do you even eat? the girls would ask, words dripping with faux concern as they circled her like sharks, plucking at her uniform blazer even when she shies away. You’re just so skinny.
You hardly need a mitt to catch this, her softball teammates would tell her as they played catch, smirking as they wiggled their own normally proportioned fingers while she fought to hide her hands under her armpits. Ever think you’ll grow into them?
Closer to the ground, closer to the hells, the taller ones would joke as she continued to shrink even smaller under their sneering. Got the hair for it and everything.
That particular one seemed to peter out after her first growth spurt between freshman and sophomore year. It got the guys who mocked her for being short off her back, but the girls were ruthless about her weight, about her awkward size and gait. Too long of legs and arms, too big of hands and feet, and no spatial awareness. A recipe for disaster
Her hands curl around the lip of the counter. Blunt nails scrape against the granite as she stares blankly ahead.
A lot changed over the summer, and it’s still a little jarring seeing herself in the mirror. She still finds herself knocking into walls or door frames, not that that was much different than the past year or so, but it’s only grown more pronounced. She’s unused to her new height — hopefully her final growth spurt, because being the tallest girl in her grade is only gonna put a larger target on her — and had bulked up from her summer activity. When she came back to Zephrah before her return to Emon for the school year some people had questioned who she was, and then were shocked to find out that it was her.
Many people congratulated her on the changes, and while she smiled and thanked them, she could only wonder how people would try and weaponize her new eccentricities and oddities against her.
Her tea is cooler when she sips it this next time.
It doesn’t take long for her to finish it. She’s already up far later than she wanted to be and she hoped the tea would help calm her nerves, but when she lays down to try and sleep again she still feels wide awake, a hot coil of nerves pulsing in her gut that only worsens when her eyes close and she’s left with only the darkness and her thoughts.
Fuck, she thinks, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
She wishes there was something she could do to just… reach up inside herself and untangle the knot herself. Dig her fingers into the gaps and pull it apart until the calm returned to her, until she could get some fucking sleep.
The mattress creaks noisily as she sits up, and then again when she stands. She steps over the slivers of moonlight that sneak through her blinds, pulling on a sports bra and some leggings. Her hands fumble with the laces of her running shoes in the dark.
If she can’t get inside herself to detangle the anxiety, she’ll do the next best thing and run until she’s so exhausted she can barely stay awake anymore.
***
She thinks that sprinting through the open and barren streets of the Erudite Quarter is the closest she may ever come to flying. It’s the most graceful she ever is, certainly, ducking under awnings and letting her momentum carry her wide around sharp corners. With her jacket open it feels almost like wings, and she lets that carry her, lets that melt away everything going on in her mind.
Her only objective is to keep running.
It’ll only be so empty for a little bit longer. Once the academic year begins for the Alabaster Lyceum’s university students the streets will come alive, the night life in an otherwise quiet district of Emon appearing overnight thanks to the return of the boarders and college students.
Her legs burn from the exertion. She should stop soon, walk the rest of the way back to cool off with her hands laced behind her head. The soreness will settle in by the next morning, but she feels so free right now she can’t even be mad about it.
It’ll be a worthwhile soreness. A deserved one.
She swings around a lamppost before slowing, and eventually coming to a normal walking pace. Her panting breathing fills the square she’s in as she looks around, takes stock of where she’s ended up, before she sets off in the direction of campus.
The wind tickles at her sweaty skin and the only thought in her head at this point is getting back, rinsing off in a cold shower, and knocking out in bed.
It’s not a long walk back. She’d mainly been circling the same area, wary to stray too far from safety, so she’ll just have to pass by the university’s outer residential campus to get back.
The closer she gets the more she starts hearing… music. Loud, soul shaking bass that almost drowns out any lyrics she’d be able to hear. She looks up the street she’s walking and sees multi-colored lights shining out the windows of one of the fraternity houses at the top of the hill.
Last hurrah, she thinks as she approaches. Her expression tightens into a wince the closer she gets, though, because the music is so terribly loud that she thinks if she were inside she’d be overwhelmed in seconds.
She pays it no mind, just turning back and focusing on getting up the hill the rest of the way.
Then, she hears crashing from the house, almost like a window breaking, and she whips her head in that direction as her knees bend defensively, instinctively.
Nothing broken, not that she can see. No one outside of the house smoking or drinking appears concerned, and she’s about to continue on her way when one of the people outside spots her, and Keyleth’s feet root themselves to the ground as she stares back from the sidewalk, lips parted around a sharp exhalation.
She’s beautiful. Keyleth’s always had good eyes, and when the lights flicker over her face she feels her breath drawn out of her. Long, dark hair and intense makeup that contrasts the olive of her skintone, but that is nothing compared to the presence she carries, and Keyleth feels her knees weaken when she realizes the girl is staring at her while one of her legs is between the thighs of another girl, her ring-laden hands wrapped up around her neck and in her hair as she stares across the street at… Keyleth.
The moment breaks as quickly as it began, the girl against the porch railing leaning in to kiss the corner of wine dark lips, dragging the attention back on her and re-engaging a makeout so heated Keyleth feels her cheeks burning as she quickly makes her way up and over the hill, and then back to campus, and then into her frigid shower.
Purely just to rinse off her sweat and cool her body down from running.
When she lays down in bed this time she feels the exhaustion of an entire day and night spent anxious and her run sinking deep into her bones. She barely has time to ruminate on what could happen on her last first day tomorrow…
Well, the last thing she thinks about before drifting off is just how bold of a person you have to be to resume making out in full view of a stranger.
But… Keyleth’s always been a prude. Parties just aren’t her scene.
***
Her alarm goes off for seventeen minutes before she wakes up, groggy and sore with no sense of what time or day it is and no sense of who she even is as a person.
That doesn’t last long when she stops her alarm and her screen clears to reveal the time, 7:17AM, and a reminder with three exclamation marks in all caps:
NEW KIDS CAMPUS TOUR !!! @ 7:45AM
For a brief second her eyes slip closed again, almost as though her body thinks she has a few more minutes of shut-eye she can catch, but then her sleep-addled mind catches up to the information presented and she feels her heart punch through her body and mattress to the core of the fucking planet as she jerks upright.
She’s so fucking late.
She scrambles to get out of bed and manages to get one foot caught up in the sheets that are wrapped around her torso and ends up flailing hard enough that she falls out of bed. It’d probably be among the most embarrassing moments in her life if her brain was working fast enough to even categorize it among the time she wet herself during a preschool choir performance and the time she burped in the middle of her final speech in her Public Speaking elective, but as it stands, she’s a little busy getting untangled, undressed, and onto her feet.
At the very least she doesn’t have to worry too much about picking an outfit given the Academy’s dress code, her fingertips skimming through her closet for a white button up, her tie, and… she pauses staring at her uniform skirts and slacks before grabbing a pair of the slacks.
If she’s gonna make it in time she’ll have to run and she’d rather run in slacks than a skirt.
She does her skincare in record time and preemptively rolls up the sleeves of her shirt after tying her tie and putting her hair back in a braid to keep it out of her face. With one last pass over her appearance to make sure it’s within the guidelines — and that she doesn’t look like she got dressed in forty five seconds flat — she resolves there isn’t much left to do but devour some eggs in a basket in the floor kitchen before hurrying out of the dormitories and quickly making her way to the headmaster’s office.
The AC is a welcome reprieve from the already humid warmth building outside, especially after running across campus to the admin building so she could still be early. She checks her phone and confirms she has a few minutes to catch her breath and takes a second to stretch in the main lobby after greeting the receptionist.
“You’ve grown quite a bit since we last spoke, Ms. Ashari,” she teases from behind the tall desk that mostly obscures her from the nose down, not that that’s much of a problem for Keyleth anymore.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” she pants out. “Guess it was finally my turn, y’know. I had that first growth spurt at fourteen and then this summer I just… fwip!” and makes a little arc with her hands. “Shot up.”
“I think you’re probably one of the tallest students here, now,” the receptionist continues. “The only people who really look over my desk at me are some of the male students and then the basketball players.”
Keyleth laughs lightly and sweeps the flyaway hairs from her forehead back against her hair. “No one was more surprised than me. I’m taller than both of my parents now.”
“That’s a feat, Ms. Ashari! You must’ve had some tall ancestors.”
“Height actually isn’t entirely determined by genetics!” She begins, taking a deep breath before launching into her explanation: “Well, probably about eighty percent-ish is, but there’s still a whole twenty percent left to things like diet and things you’re exposed to in your life like chemicals or disease, but then there’s also some things coming out now about how part of that 20% might actually be something beyond the typical nature vs. nurture which is honestly very cool but could also upend our current understanding of genetics as we know it, so—”
“Ahem.”
Keyleth stills her animated gesturing and looks up at the mezzanine above the main lobby, immediately straightening out when she makes eye contact with Headmaster Adlam who looks… less than impressed, to say the least.
Shit, she got distracted.
“Glad to have found you, Ms. Ashari,” he greets drolly, a wry grin on his leathery face. “We were expecting you in my office, but when you didn’t arrive and I heard an enthusiastic voice in the lobby I figured I knew who it belonged to, but had to investigate.”
“It’s me!” she replies with a nervous laugh and wave combination. “Do you want me to—” and she points up the stairs— “up there? Or are they ready for the tour? Do they wanna meet me down here?”
“I’ll send them down,” he chuckles. “Wait there.”
Keyleth stands dutifully in the lobby, leaning against the receptionist’s desk and fighting the urge to check her phone. She wants to appear attentive, but laid back; approachable and kind, but not a pushover; friendly, but not too friendly as to be weird, friendly like someone you just met is friendly for holding the restaurant door for you and you make small talk while you wait to be seated but then you never speak again because you’ll never see each other again and there’s no use dwelling on it because the universe is infinite and you are two small specks of dust in the grand cosmos—
“Ms. Ashari!” Headmaster Adlam calls from the top of the staircase, preceded by two individuals, both already in uniform by the looks, and Keyleth leans off of the desk and prepares to shake their hands (after making sure to wipe the sweat on her slacks) when they turn and the male student finally reveals the one beside him and it’s…
The party girl from last night’s eyes widen marginally at the sight of Keyleth who’s sure she looks just as if not more bewildered.
“Keyleth, may I introduce you to Mr. and Ms. Vessar,” the headmaster introduces, standing slightly behind the twins — remarkably similar in facial structure but worlds different in body type because wow, I think she might need a shirt size up, stop looking, stop looking at her chest, stop it, Keyleth.
“Vax’ildan,” the male student says gruffly, shaking her still slightly outstretched hand where it had frozen at the sight of his sister. He’s handsome, certainly, they’re both fucking gorgeous, but there’s a clear disdain in his eyes, and Keyleth can’t tell if it’s at her or his current situation.
“Vex’ahlia,” the party girl adds. Her expression has smoothed out, and where her brother isn’t doing anything to hide his dissatisfaction, Vex’ahlia is coolly unaffected. “Headmaster Adlam called you Keyleth?”
Keyleth opens her mouth to reply, to say anything to confirm, but her voice fizzles in her throat when she catches Vex’ahlia’s eyes dipping lower on her body, flicking down and then up as though analyzing her.
The receptionist clears her throat and Keyleth snaps back to attention.
“Keyleth! Yes, me Keyleth.” Her eyes widen and cheeks flush when she catches some amusement on the twins’ faces and some mild exasperation from Headmaster Adlam over their shoulders. “I’m— sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night and it’s showing, wow,” she laughs out, trying to play off her caveman-esque greeting as sleep deprivation. “Keyleth Ashari. Kaitiakè.” And she bows her head quickly, almost a nod.
Identical looks of curiosity spread on Vex’ahlia and Vax’ildan’s faces.
“Kaitiakè?” Vex’ahlia questions, an eyebrow quirked.
Fuck.
She swallows hard and shakes her head to clear her mind. “Sorry, habit. I’m… well, you know my name. I’m Ashari, that’s just how we greet each other. Guess I’m still getting back into the swing of things now that I’m not with them anymore,” she rambles.
“So Ashari are… people?” Vax’ildan asks. “Well, obviously you’re a person, but the Ashari are… a people, I suppose? A community? Do you all share a last name?”
“If you had paid attention in school you might remember this,” Vex’ahlia mumbles, elbowing him gently. She grunts almost immediately after and Keyleth glances down to see them battling with their feet side by side as though they’re trying to trip each other.
When she looks back up Vex’ahlia rolls her eyes and their little struggle stops.
“The Ashari are a people, yes,” Keyleth explains. “And we do only to the extent of— like… When we’re among other cultures that use last names, Ashari is the closest thing we have to one. We are Ashari, all of us.”
It looks like more questions have spawned from her little history lesson, but Headmaster Adlam raises his eyebrows in a meaningful look to Keyleth and she settles a little, giving him the time to speak, “We’re already running a little late on your campus tour, so I recommend you three be off. Ms. Ashari will show you everything you need to navigate your first few days here, Mr. and Ms. Vessar.”
Keyleth watches the way both of the twins twitch a little at the formality, and she wonders if they’re used to more casual schooling.
“Thank you for your help, Headmaster Adlam, we do so appreciate it,” Vex’ahlia replies, turning around to shake his hand again.
Vax’ildan follows her example, yet says nothing.
“Are you guys ready, then?” Keyleth asks as she steps to open the door for them, holding it (in as friendly a manner as possible).
“Yes. We’ll be on our way,” Vax’ildan says, walking past her and into the morning sunshine.
Vex’ahlia follows, but not before looking up at Keyleth as she passes through the held doorway.
She’s not sure when it happened, but Vex’ahlia’s shirt has one less button done up than it had just a few moments before.
***
With both of them ahead of her surveying the open campus ahead of them, Keyleth takes the time to actually look at them, which is probably a mistake because as soon as she looks at Vex and finally thinks about her uniform her first thoughts become her first unsupervised words spoken to the two of them:
“Your skirt is too short,” she says with a blink, and then claps her hand over her mouth.
Vex’ahlia’s shoulders raise and then roll back, a melodious chuckle escaping her after a few moments as they both turn to look at her, one of her hands on a cocked hip in that dangerously short skirt as she glances Keyleth up and down.
“I wasn’t aware I had to have a certain length of skirt, just that I had to wear the skirt.”
“It’s different on all people, of course,” Keyleth rushes out, hurrying to explain away her admittedly incredibly rude but decidedly unintentional comment. “My skirts are a little shorter just because I’m tall—”
“—that you are—” Vax’ildan observes.
“—and yeah, Vex’ahlia, you are taller than average but your skirt isn’t up to dress code and I just don’t want you to get in trouble for it because it’s supposed to hit a little bit above knee length and yours is…” and she gestures loosely around her mid-thighs, blushing furiously at how much she had just been staring at the other girl’s legs.
“You can call me Vex, dear. And call him Vax,” she says to start with a thumb toward her brother before taking a moment to readjust her top in such a way that Keyleth fights to not follow the movement with her eyes. “And I will unfortunately have to be riding a very dangerous line for a little while, at least, because the size guide I was given didn’t seem to take into account hips wider than yours.”
Keyleth swallows and looks down at her own hips and has to concede, yeah, Vex’s hips are… significantly wider.
“I do also believe the women’s uniform clothing options were not true to size,” Vex continues. “My shirts are all rather tight.”
“I can show you the bookstore on campus where you can put in an in-person order for your uniform?” Keyleth tries. “That might be helpful.”
Vax makes a grumbled comment under his breath that Keyleth can’t quite make out, but what she can definitely make out is Vex reaching over to pinch his— nipple?!
“Vex’ahlia!” he yelps, hopping away from her wild hand.
She makes a quick gesture at him accompanied with a glare that Keyleth thinks could silence a stronger person than she.
Vax sticks his tongue out at her before turning his attention back to Keyleth. “Sorry you had to see that. Vex never did learn how to behave in polite company.”
“Bastard,” she hisses back at him. “Come any closer and it won’t be just your nipple in danger next time.”
Keyleth purses her lips and stares at them both with wide eyes before stepping between them when it looks like things might escalate further. “How about I show you guys around since that’s what we’re all out here for!” she says as cheerily as she can manage. Then, she turns to Vex. “We’ll start at the student store and maybe see if they can get you some new stuff that fits, yeah?”
Vex sighs and fixes the strap of her bookbag. “If we must… though,” she puts on a look of contemplation before doing a twirl. “I do think these do suit me rather well, don’t you, Keyleth?”
Her face flames anew and she really hopes neither of them notice.
From behind, Vax grasps her shoulder and whispers in her ear. “I think it’d be best if we just start walking.”
Vex smirks, and Keyleth feels as though she’s staring down a predator that had stalked her deep into the woods, and she’s just a little fawn.
“Yes, brother. Let’s.”
***
Keyleth isn’t quite sure how she survived giving the tour. It seemed to fly by when she was giving it, striding around campus with Vex and Vax to one side as she led them through the senior dorms, the cafeteria where they snagged some of the more portable breakfast options, the bookstore, the student resource center, the main campus coffee cart and the cafe, the library, and finally the central academic buildings where Keyleth was anticipating they’d separate, but came to find out she shared multiple classes with either or both twins, but particularly Vex, as Vax appeared to be in a few less intensive courses than the two of them.
“Can’t be rid of us that easily,” Vex had joked as they compared schedules.
Vax made a comment under his breath to Vex whose expression tightened, but before Keyleth could question it the bell sounded and they were off to their homeroom.
During class they didn’t interact as much. They mostly kept to themselves while Keyleth studied her syllabi, though she did catch them seemingly tapping and signing messages to each other during the classes they shared. In the ones that they didn’t, Vex kept to herself generally, seeming more focused without her brother there to distract her, even if she did glance at Keyleth every now and then.
When lunch came around Keyleth’s exhaustion had finally caught up to her and she felt like she could fall asleep standing up, but she only had to get through a few more classes then she could go back to her dorm and take a nap.
“If you want to sit with me and my friends you can,” Keyleth offers as they walk through the crowds to the cafeteria, hiding a yawn behind her hand. “They won’t mind.”
Vex hums noncommittally, surveying the crowd for something. “I appreciate the offer.”
“Is that a yes or no?” Keyleth asks.
Vex snorts. “It’s a maybe next time. I’d like to spend some time with my brother.”
“Sick of me already?” Keyleth jokes.
“Darling, I make it very clear when I don’t like someone, and I’m sure you’d be perceptive enough to figure it out,” Vex drawls before she shakes her head and spots her brother in the crowd, sending Keyleth a final wave as she goes to the table Vax is hunched over a tray at.
Keyleth watches her go with her thumbs in the straps of her backpack before yawning again, grabbing a tray of food, and finally shuffling over to her usual table, grinning bashfully when Scanlan first whistles loudly at her, and then stands on his bench seat and gyrates his hips in her direction until Percy drags him down by his blazer.
“—first day and you’re already causing a scene,” Percy is chastising as she walks up, looking appropriately scandalized.
Scanlan puts his hands up with a chuckle. “Not my fault our little princess got hot over the summer. What did they have you doing in your little commune town that got you so built?”
“It’s not a commune, and you know it,” Keyleth corrects, even though he ignores her every time she does. “And for your information I was helping the construction efforts in the community. Building houses and community buildings and things.”
“Planning on expanding, finally?” Percy asks.
Keyleth scoffs and drops her chin into her hand. “Dad wants to, but the Ashari are… more reluctant.” Then, she laughs. “He says by the time I’m Headmaster maybe they’ll have made a few inches of ground.”
“A few inches is further than the Ashari have gotten in years.”
“I could give the Ashari a few inches, all they gotta do is ask,” Scanlan adds with an eyebrow wiggle that has Keyleth groaning.
Percy just raises an eyebrow as he regards Scanlan. “A few inches is all you have to offer? How disappointing.”
Scanlan’s face distorts into offense immediately and Keyleth watches as they devolve into a shoving match where she’s certain one of them is about to end up on the floor. It only stops when Scanlan tries to reach and mess up Percy’s perfectly coiffed hair and Percy snatches his wrist and says in a strong, sharp whisper, “If you’d like to keep those few inches of yours I’d suggest leaving the hair out of this, Shorthalt.”
“Get my inches out of your mouth and we have a deal,” Scanlan replies haughtily.
“You couldn’t pay me enough to let you put your inches in my mouth.”
“Can we please stop talking about Scanlan’s inches, I’m trying to eat,” Keyleth sighs.
“Gladly,” Percy grumbles.
She’s ready for time to pass uneventfully the rest of lunch and maybe catch a ten minute catnap pillowed in her arms right before her next period when their heads all snap in the direction of shouting elsewhere in the cafeteria.
People are standing up from their tables, but Keyleth and Percy are tall (and Scanlan stands on the table) so they all see as Vax is lifted off his bench seat by his shirt by another senior, Shenn. It seems everyone in the room is frozen as Vax squirms out of Shenn’s grip and lands a punch on his shoulder. Keyleth can barely hear Vex yelling at Shenn over the blood rushing in her ears.
Something about respecting people when they say no.
Security breaks up the fight at this point, restraining Vax and Shenn from each other. No one seems to think of Vex as a threat until she keeps advancing on Shenn, at which point someone gets between Shenn and Vex and she continues glaring intensely over their shoulder but eventually backs off to stalk out after where Vax was removed to.
Neither of the twins are in class for the rest of the day.
***
They do return to classes the next day, but Keyleth can sense the standoffishness. She figures she’ll leave them be, and if they never want to talk to her again, that’s neither here nor there. They aren’t obligated to become friends just because Keyleth showed them around and they had some funny conversations. Keyleth herself had only planned to be friend ly, to offer them whatever they might need, but took the message loud and clear when they decided to just stick to each other and leave Keyleth out of it.
She is shocked though when Headmaster Adlam reaches out to her a few weeks later and tells her (and Percy, by extension) that the very twins who were avoiding the nigh entire student population barring each other needed tutoring from the Academy’s best and brightest and would be meeting her and Percy in the library on Yulisen’s for some extra help.
Vax, to his credit, doesn’t look happy when he notices Keyleth and Percy approaching the table he and Vex are sharing in the library.
He hasn’t looked very happy since the first day, really.
(...did he even look happy then?)
“Oh, great,” he mumbles as Keyleth sets her backpack next to her claimed chair.
“Good to see you guys, again,” Keyleth greets kindly.
Vax grunts his reply and Vex takes a deep breath, her hand moving beneath the table.
He relaxes somewhat, but his lips are still pulled in a frown. Keyleth can’t tell if it’s direct at her and Percy or something else, but either way, it’s making her distinctly uncomfortable.
“You both know who I am, but this is my friend, Percy.” She looks to him to add on, knowing he can’t help himself.
Percy sticks his hand out. “Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo the Third, at your service.”
Vax’s frown only deepens, even as Vex turns her intent gaze — that had been leveled at Keyleth since she entered her field of view — onto Percy.
“A prince?” she questions with a raised eyebrow.
“A lordling,” Keyleth corrects.
Percy smirks and nudges Keyleth as he sits down. “Keyleth’s the princess here.”
“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not a princess,” she sighs.
“Until you give me a proper title to use for you I’m going to continue calling you a princess and an heiress, because those are the closest approximations we have for what you are,” he replies with a challenging look.
She rolls her eyes and turns back to the twins, muttering, “I’m not a princess,” under her breath.
“So, Not-A-Princess Keyleth and Lordling Percival, are you here for our mandated tutoring?” Vex asks loftily, sounding unbothered as she rests her chin in her hand and turns to look at Vax who’s glaring a hole into the empty notebook on the table.
“Yes, Headmaster Adlam appointed us,” Percy says.
“Have you guys been struggling with your classes?” Keyleth asks, glancing between them. She had gotten the impression that Vex at least was a good student judging by the classes she shared with Keyleth and the focus with which she took her notes.
“You could say that,” Vex mumbles with another look at her brother.
Vax just glares at her and continues to say nothing.
Keyleth purses her lips and glances at Percy who shrugs, so she lowers her voice and rubs her hands together on top of the table. “So, I’m sensing some… tension. Is it because you feel like you don’t need help?”
“I don’t need help,” Vex replies. “Vax’ildan on the other hand—”
“Vex’ahlia,” he warns lowly. “Don’t.”
Vex rolls her eyes. “You’re being an idiot, brother.”
“And licking father’s boots isn’t idiotic?” he snaps back. “Sister,” he adds, venom seeping out of his words.
Keyleth’s eyes widen and she sees Vex flinch slightly before smoothing her face out.
“I’m not doing that and you know it,” she whispers sharply. “I’m trying to get out from under him in a productive way.”
“You’re playing right into his hands. Why do you even listen to him!”
“I listen to him now so I never have to listen to him again once I have my education,” Vex hisses back. She clenches her fists on the table and glances at Keyleth and Percy, bewildered and sitting still across from them. “I am using my resources to set myself up for success and you—”
“To answer your question, Keyleth,” Vax says, his eyes finding hers across the table as he cuts Vex off. “I don’t need help. I don’t want either of your help. I want to not be here, I wish I had never come to this fucking city, and I wish— I wish I had…” Tears spring to his eyes as he makes a sharp gesture on the table that makes Vex gasp before he stands from the table. “But I can’t have any of that, can I?” he breathes, glaring at Vex. “So the least I can do is exert some of my fucking agency and say fuck this and go back to my room. I didn’t even want to come in the first place.”
Keyleth stares at him, jaw slack, and watches him almost dare anyone to speak before he turns on his heel with his things and storms out of the library.
They sit in silence for a moment, Vex staring at the table with her hands laced together and hiding her face from her eyes down. Her shoulders rise and fall slowly, intentionally, before she sniffs softly and sits back up.
“I’m sorry about him,” she says softly.
“Should you go after him?” Percy looks in the direction he’d left. “He seemed…”
“Upset,” Keyleth finishes when Percy can’t seem to find the words himself.
Vex shakes her head. “I’ll check on him in a bit.” Then, she laughs bitterly. “He loves me, but when he gets like this… about this… I’m the last person he wants to see, honestly.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Keyleth asks softly before realizing how that sounds. “I don’t mean to imply there is something wrong with him, like, in general, but I— I’ll say no one’s ever done that when they were assigned us as tutors. It seemed a little extreme and. Well, misplaced, I guess.”
Vex takes a deep breath. “We both have a lot going on,” she says. Every word is measured and carefully constructed to be informative enough but still vague and protective of their privacy. “He has been deeply unhappy for a very long time,” she finishes, the words barely audible across the table.
Keyleth pauses. She waits for Vex to say more, or for Percy to speak up, but when neither do, she leans a little forward and whispers, “And what about you, Vex?”
Vex looks up from inspecting a groove in the table and snorts quietly, glancing up at the skylights, then at the bookshelves behind them. “I don’t like to show it.”
It’s like she can see a lifetime of emotions pass through Vex’s eyes. She’s always been insightful, observant, perceptive, what have you, but she’s never seen such a raw grief and fury written plainly in someone’s eyes. It’s not just the tears she didn’t allow to shed, but something bone deep and harrowed.
Vex stares back, weary in a way that’s a complete contrast to the way she had seemed so vivacious upon first meeting.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Percy says, effectively drawing the attention back to him. “For both you and your brother. I don’t know what’s happened to either of you but it seems to have affected you both deeply.”
Vex nods, her lips thin. “Thank you, Percival.” She glances back at Keyleth, and then sniffs again. “Can we discuss something else?”
Keyleth nods slowly.
“Do you still want to have the session, or would you like to go as well?” Percy asks. “Because we can move on to actual academics or… simply converse.”
“I’m not struggling with the work,” Vex replies easily. “And the only reason Vax is is because he’s not doing it. He’s smarter than me when he bloody well wants to be, the bastard. His classes should be child’s play if he’d just apply himself.”
“So would you rather just hang out, or…”
Vex’s eyes flick between the two of them for a moment before she sighs. “Honestly, I should probably go. Bring something for Vax to eat as a peace offering, you know how it is with siblings.”
Percy replies in a weary affirmative while Keyleth just shakes her head, making Vex laugh.
“Well, you’re lucky, Keyleth,” she chuckles as she stands and gathers her things. “I love Vax, but when you grow up like we did you know exactly what to poke to set your sibling off, and Vax… Vax is a button pusher.”
“I hope whatever he… said?” Keyleth begins, thinking of how the siblings tend to communicate in gestures. “It seemed like it really upset you. I hope you’re okay, and he probably… I hope he didn’t mean it.”
Vex’s stony expression returns for a brief moment. “I hope so too,” she replies, before putting on a smile.
“Before you go,” Percy interjects. “Would you like my phone number? In case you do end up needing any tutoring, or just want a friendly face around campus that isn’t your button-pusher-brother.”
Vex looks a little surprised at the offer but nods, her smile only wavering for a second. She glances at Keyleth, then, and says, “Do I get hers too?”
Keyleth feels heat bloom in her cheeks at the attention. “Uh, if you want it? Percy’s better in more subjects than me, but I’m pretty good at most sciences besides physics, that’s Percy again, but life and earth sciences and such I’m pretty good at—”
Vex just keeps smiling and holds her phone out to Keyleth first, open to a new contact. “I’ll let you know, Keyleth,” she says, and Keyleth doesn’t know if she’s imagining it, but something about her accent or her tone only makes her face hotter. Maybe it’s the way their fingertips grazed each other gently as she passed the phone back.
Once Vex is gone and Keyleth and Percy are back outside on a bench drinking some coffee, Percy gives her a long, hard look.
Keyleth raises an eyebrow at him.
“What do you make of them?” he asks.
She shrugs. Swallows her sip.
“Nothing?” he continues, sounding skeptical.
“They’re just… damaged,” she replies softly. “That’s about all I can see. There’s a hurt in them that hasn’t even begun to heal.”
Percy nods. “Do you think she’ll reach out?”
Keyleth thinks about their fingers brushing as Vex took her phone back.
“I hope so,” she says. “They could use some support.”
“That’s the only reason?” he presses.
She glances at him, unamused. “Whatever you’re thinking right now I don’t want to hear it.”
“Okay,” he replies with a grin.
“And I don’t want to hear it from Scanlan either, so if he talks to me about it I’ll know you told him and then we’ll have a problem.”
“Okay,” he repeats.
She narrows her eyes at him and he narrows them back.
“Nyeh!” she exclaims as she shoves him off the bench, sending his coffee tumbling as they both burst into peals of laughter, startling a flock of pigeons who had been ambling around in front of them.