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The long coat fits a bit more snug than she anticipated. She shouldn’t be surprised, really. They have similar upper-body builds. Archery… gunslinging… both require a fair amount of shoulder strength, strong biceps and triceps, the whole works.
She steps around the divider and twirls around, “How do I look, darling?” She flicks her braid over her shoulder in emphasis. “Noble enough for you?”
“Vex…” he sighs, flustered. “It’s not exactly tailored for you.”
“Why’s that matter?” she pouts. “I didn’t ask if it was tailored for me, I asked how I look.”
Standing from the armchair, Percy crosses the small space between them and rests his hands on her shoulders. “Dear, you look like you’re wearing a coat that doesn’t belong to you.”
Vex’ahlia hrumphs and turns away from him to look at her appearance in the elongated mirror next to her.
He leans in, whispering over the shell of her slightly-pointed ear, “But if you want my honesty, you look … exquisite.”
The blush creeps from her neck, past the lapels of the blue garment and up to her cheeks. Casting her eyes away from her reflection with a smirk, “...was that so hard?”
Percy doesn’t answer, instead focusing his attention to the open mouth kisses he trails down her ear, her jaw, the crook of her neck. The coat is nudged aside, giving him more room to pepper feather-light kisses on her skin as he navigates a path to Vex’s collarbone. One hand falls from her shoulder, skating down her side and landing on her hip, which he uses as leverage to bring her closer to him.
“Hard is relative.”
She’d usually swat at him for such a bad pun, but his mouth has taken hostage her entire attention, short-circuiting her brain effortlessly. Vex tilts her head to the side, allowing him more access, more skin, more skin, more skin...
“If you’re agreeable,” he breathes into her neck, “I can have one commissioned for you,” a small pause and warm lips find her pulsepoint, “one just like this but more you …” He nibbles precisely, biting so, so gently.
Vex turns her head by a fraction of an inch, more out of habit than the actual desire to look at him. She’d hate to distract him from his ventures… so she looks in the mirror instead. She sees herself flushed and breathing faster than usual, standing tall in nothing but her boyfriend’s battle-worn coat, looking fucking amazing if she does say so herself.
She sighs and smiles softly when the edges of his white hair tickle her face. “I could just,” a breath, “...take this one.” She closes her eyes. “It’s not like you don’t have others.”
Percy nips and nuzzles at her neck, humming low. “Dearest, this one is mine and…” he shifts his hips slightly against her rump. “Just knowing that you’ve worn it, and only it…” he dips his voice lower, almost growling. Rubbing his fingers along the edge of the lapel, he tugs at the fabric for a soft emphasis, “I’m not letting this one out of my sight ever again.”
Her lips purse when she turns her head away, suddenly more bashful than she’s been in ages. “If that’s what you want, darling.” She turns to face him again and brings her body flush with him. “Had I only known I needed to wear your things to get a reaction like this out of you, dear, I would have nicked your clothing long, long ago.” She lifts his head up gently by the chin, and sweetly presses her lips to his. “In fact, I’m certain that if the roles were reversed, my reaction would be nearly identical.”
His pupils dilate just so and the blush darkens his cheeks in exactly the right way. He’s absolutely crimson and it’s his tell and she knows she’s got him busted.
“You have, haven’t you?” Vex leans back to scrutinize him carefully. “What did you take? Show me.”
“I… it was… it’s…” he can’t form the right words. He looks to where he hangs his holsters, Cabal’s Ruin, where the bag that holds most of his critical possessions is and averts his eyes quickly.
She follows his eyes and strides over to the sack. “It’s in here?”
“Vex…” he tries to reason with her. “It was a long time ago.”
Pausing thoughtfully, “Darling, I’m not here to judge. I’m just curious.” She uncinches the container and peeks her head in. “Nothing’s going to explode on me, right?”
Percy scrubs his face with his hands. They tremble, mostly from nervousness. “No, dear,” he mumbles from behind his hand. “You’re… looking for a scarf.”
She whips her head around to face him, shocked. “You’re the one who took it?!” Her hand shoves down into the sack, feeling around for the soft fabric. “I totally had that pinned on Vax.” Her finger tips find the familiar cloth and she carefully tugs it out from underneath the majority of Percy’s knick knacks. Cerulean blue with sky blue swirls, it was at one point in time her favorite indulgence. She still remembers the day she purchased it in Ank'Harel. "Percy... why this?"
He closes the distance between them again and reverently holds her hand holding the scarf. “That day in Ank’Harel… you rarely made purchases for yourself. It looked stunning on you, Vex.” Soft kisses find their way onto her knuckles. “So when we returned to Emon, I… had a moment of weakness.”
Vex'ahlia wants to be cross with him. She wants to tease him, just a tiny bit. Afterall, she confidently accused her brother of pilfering the item months ago and has been bulldogging him ever since, almost to the point of it becoming a running joke between the two of them. Walking back her accusations doesn’t sound like a fun time at all.
Percy whispers to her hand, “We weren’t intimate yet, of course. Far from it, in fact.” He smiles against her hand. “I didn’t care. I was completely taken by you, Vex’ahlia, and too much of a coward to act on it yet. I needed to have something of yours… something I could keep close.”
She nods silently, completely enraptured by his confession. “So it’s been in your bag ever since?”
“Hardly.”
Peering at Percy, she takes the bait. “What do you mean?”
“I…” he swallows and clears his throat. “I would… I used to, ah… wear it. Under my own clothing.” His eyes meet hers, searching for acceptance. “I kept it tied to my arm… at all times.”
“And here I thought you were taking a page out of Scanlan’s guide to bulking up, darling…” she says somewhat teasingly. She had noticed the way his arm appeared thicker at times, but just the one side. Not wanting to pay that notion too much thought, she instead casually attributed it to the completely normal private behaviors that any man, single or not, would spend doing during their downtime. And the thought of Percy doing that… well now she blushes furiously, too.
It’s his turn to tease. “I see you weren’t joking about having the same effect, dearest,” he smirks, pursing his lips slightly.
She ducks her head to rest against his shoulder. Turning her head to his neck, she tries to stifle the laughter that wells up from within. Giving into the giggling, she asks, “Well… may I have it back? It was my favorite, you know.”
Percy brushes his lips against her ear. “What’s mine is yours, dear.”
“That means I can keep the coat,” she tests.
“Absolutely not,” he whispers. “In fact, I need you to take it off, Vex’ahlia. Right now.”
She leans back and levels her gaze at her love. The smile that crosses her face is downright salacious . “As you wish, darling.” Backing up, she carefully shrugs out of the coat and dangles it on her fingers before him, grinning innocently. “Here you are, then. Anything else?”
He quickly grabs the coat and rests it over a nearby chair, never taking his eyes off Vex. Percy nods in the direction of the bed, “If you will be so kind…?”
Leaning up flush against Percy, and annoyed that he’s still fully clothed, “Right to it, I see.” She giggles again, and slips the scarf into his empty hand. Craning her neck and rolling onto the balls of her feet, she whispers into his ear, “...Only if you wear the scarf. And only the scarf.”
He grins, now courageous and bold. “As you wish, dearest.”
Vex playfully smacks Percy’s ass and moves around him. Calling back over her shoulder, “That’s what I like to hear, darling!”
She doesn’t see how positively wrecked he is as she brushes by him. She doesn’t need to.
She’ll gladly see it in a few moments.
She can be patient.
And she knows she won't have to wait long.