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“You’re supposed to talk me out of this.”
“I think you may have mistaken my role here.”
Percy glares over his shoulder. Well, he tries to, but hanging upside down and twisted up within the netting of this particular trap, he can’t quite crane his neck enough to see Athanasia. After a moment she steps into view, head tiled one way and then the other as she examines the trap, a talon scuffing across the ground in thought. His glasses start to slip off his face.
“You might have pointed it out at the very least.”
She ruffles her feathers and looks away. “You moved too quickly.”
“You didn’t even notice, did you,” Percy says to the mossy wall in front of him. She doesn’t dignify that with a response. Percy sighs and wiggles a little, but something about the netting makes it hard to get purchase enough to escape.
How did he end up here? He’s supposed to be the reasonable one.
“You know,” Athanasia says with an air of innocent consideration, and Percy’s heart starts to sink, already knowing where this is going, “Vex is nearby.”
“Oh, no. No, we can get out of this all on our own, thank you very much.”
“I don’t think I’ll be much help,” his daemon continues, as if she hasn’t heard him.
“Asia, no––”
“I’ll be right back,” she finishes, and Percy can hear the laugh in her voice. She takes off with a scratch of claws against stone and the flutter of wings, and then he is alone in the corridor with nothing but the slow drip of water somewhere nearby for company.
Well. Fuck.
He tugs uselessly at the netting again but it does no good. Given three minutes and access to his belt he could undoubtably jerry-rig a way out, but one arm is pinned behind him and the other pressed uncomfortably against his chest, wrist tucked in, and he cannot reach anything. To add insult to injury, every time he shifts the rope tightens, or gets more tangled up, or something of the like––he can’t see anything besides the mossy wall––and he can’t wait for Vex to arrive to see him dangling from the ceiling like some oversized, graceless bug in a cocoon.
He closes his eyes as his glasses slip a little further off his nose and sighs.
The rustle of cloth behind snaps him back to awareness, muscles tensing even though he cannot actually do anything. His eyes fly open and he comes face to face with––
Athanasia. Perched awkwardly on the back of a familiar cat, pitch-black and golden-eyed, who stares at him with blatant amusement. Oraman blinks lazily and Athanasia ruffles her feathers, and Percy knows that, if they could, both would be smirking.
He closes his eyes again and resigns himself to his fate.
“Why Percival,” he hears Vex drawl behind him. “When Athanasia said you were a little tied up I didn’t think she meant it literally.”
Percy snorts despite himself.
“I seem to have found myself in a bit of a situation,” he says, and hears Vex step forward, footfalls light agaisnt the stone. Her hand brushes against his calf, and then with a push he rotates slowly to stare at her knees. He feels blood rushing to his face. It’s because he’s upside down, he tells himself. Basic law of gravity. Nothing to do with his embarrassment. This is a situation any of them could find themselves in.
That doesn’t stop Vex from smirking down at him.
“I thought you were supposed to stay put.”
“Athanasia made a compelling point about keeping an eye out for potential dangerous situations.”
“How impressive. You’ve discovered one all by yourself.”
“Oh, well,” says Percy, voice bone dry. “I couldn’t have done it without help.”
“I am utterly blameless,” his daemon says from behind him, and Percy rolls his eyes. Above him, Vex’s smirk widens.
“Would you like some help, darling?”
“It would be much appreciated.”
She unsheathes a knife from her belt and slices into the twisting ropes connecting him to the ceiling, parting the fibers with a few swift strokes, and Percy tumbles gracelessly the last few inches to the ground. It takes a moment to untangle himself, and Vex kneels to help him escape the mess. Athanasia and Oraman watch from nearby, sitting side-by-side and making absolutely no move to help.
A minute later, finally freed, Percy pushes himself onto his feet and offers Vex a hand up as well. She accepts it and rises with casual grace, dusting gritty stone off her knees.
“Thank you,” he says, adjusting his coat. “I, ah, owe you one.”
“The amusement is enough, trust me,” Oraman mutters, and Athanasia croaks out a laugh. Percy pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Happy to help, darling,” Vex says with a kiss to his cheek, her own brand of casual affection that always throws him, always sets a spark flickering somewhere beneath his ribcage, and he pretends he doesn’t know what that means. He clears his throat.
“Next time maybe I’ll just stay put,” he suggests, resigned, and Vex laughs.
“For now, cover our six?” she suggests, and Percy feels himself flush again as she vanishes into the dark, Oraman loping along at her heels. He watches her go, heart fluttering in his chest, and drags his attention back to his surroundings. There are other things to worry about, things besides Vex’s safety.
That doesn’t stop him, of course.
“You know,” says Athanasia into the silence, staring at him with one beady, all-too-knowing eye, “I couldn’t talk you out of that one if I tried.”
But then, Percy wouldn’t want her to.