#and the ending...god the irony. the revenge of it all. tasty

[brothersonahotelbed]

wait y'all, spiral was kinda good though...

[ofsinnersandsaints]

where do you run

rating: E (this chapter is G) word count: 20351 chapter: 7/?

My favorite part of this chapter is that for the whole 'do we sleep or do we fight' conversation I didn't have to change or add any of the conversation. Change a little bit of context and Grog is suddenly the best boyfriend ever

Takes place during episode 81

AO3

Thordak was dead, but Raishan was still alive, and the thought was enough to drive Keyleth a little mad.

She was trying to stay calm and logical, but it was a hard thing to do when she was hyper aware that Raishan was free to hurt and destroy whomever she wanted. Keyleth wanted to scream, but instead she had to get downstairs because Vox Machina was planning out their next steps.

When she got to the dining room Grog was already at the large table, and deciding she needed the contact she sat on his lap, her legs dangling between his, instead taking a chair of her own. His hand immediately came up to rest on her hip. “How you doing?”

“I don’t know yet,” she admitted, picking up his glass and taking a long drink.

“You need to fight?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

She appreciated the offer, and while there was some appeal to a sparring match, she shook her head. “We’ve done enough fighting today, but thanks.”

“Just let me know.”

Keyleth nodded as Kerrek and Allura came down to join them and they went over everything they’d learned about Raishan’s potential location.

“I don’t think she’s going to reanimate Thordak,” Scanlan argued as they debated what Raishan could possibly want with the red dragon’s body. “I think she’s trying to probe him for knowledge of some sort.”

Behind her, Keyleth felt the vibration of Grog’s laugh before she heard it. “Probe.”

Scanlan grinned as everyone else shook their heads, clearly amused. “She’s trying to probe his dead body.”

The laughter around the table helped ease the tension and Keyleth poured ale into the cup she was now sharing with Grog. “Okay, I’m going to scry on this Island of Viscon and see if it’s the same place as the island I saw Raishan on. I don’t know if it’ll work, but I can try.”

Vex looked excited at the prospect, “You can certainly try.”

Keyleth was about to start the spell but Vex got the great idea of having Kerrek try the Sandkegh wine, the prospect of which excited Grog so much she nearly fell off his lap. Thankfully, he managed to grab her before she hit the ground, but the moment she was steady he reached into the bag of holding and pulled out the bottle.

“It’s really good,” Grog assured the paladin.

“It’s so tasty,” Keyleth agreed because they deserved this little bit of fun.

Gamely, Kerrek took a small sip and they all watched in anticipation to see how he’d react. After a few seconds he tried to talk, but all that came out was gibberish. Everyone laughed as Kerrek attempted to speak but obviously could no longer feel his lips.

Grog wrapped his arm around her middle to keep her place as they nearly cried with laughter at how immediately wasted Kerrek was. “That is good shit.”

Understanding what her friend was going through, and unable to let the irony pass, Keyleth reached out to touch Kerrek’s hand. “Now the fire has passed through you.”

The laughter was so loud Keyleth was certain it could be heard throughout the castle, and she wiped away tears as she tried to keep a straight face. “It’s going to go all the way through you, so be careful when it comes out the other end.”

Vax took the bottle from Kerrek to prevent him from drinking anymore and it was then Keyleth realized Allura had set up the scry spell on the table while Vox Machina joked around. Keyleth straightened and tried to look more mature, “Thanks for setting this us, Allura.”

“Oh, please, keep going.”

“We didn’t mean to be rude,” Grog added as he moved to put the bottle away in the bag.

Allura smiled and shook her head, putting up a hand to stop Grog’s apology. “This is the most fun I’ve had in days.”

Keyleth felt Grog still beneath her and she looked over her shoulder to see the spark of mischief in Grog’s eyes. “Do you want some?”

With a look around the group, Allura’s lips slowly curled into a grin. It was easy to think of her as the austere, powerful wizard, but Keyleth remembered the arcanist had once been part of an adventuring party of her own.

She knew how to stand up to a challenge.

“After!” Percy tried to cut in, but no one heard him over the roar of encouragement as Allura reached out a hand for the bottle.

“No,” Vax added, even as he laughed. “It’s a bad idea, don’t do it.”

“She needs to do the spell,” Scanlan reminded the group even as Grog chanted ‘do it.’

“It’s morning, we’re all alive. What’s the point if we’re not celebrating?” Allura asked no one in particular.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Grog encouraged.

Allura brought the wine to her lips and took slightly more than a sip. She tilted her head and then handed the bottle back. “Not my favorite flavor.”

As Grog reached forward to take it back, Keyleth could see the wonder and amazement etched all over his features. “Will you teach me your sorcerous ways?”

Keyleth had to admit she was amazing. She put her hand on Grog’s which rested against her stomach. “I have to stand up now.”

He moved his fingers, but instead of letting her go he pressed them against her ribs and tickled her. She squealed and wiggled away; she tried to glare at him but he just grinned at her, completely unaffected.

“Rude,” she muttered, but there wasn’t any heat behind the words as she reached for Allura’s hands. “Just like old times.”

��Simpler times,” Allura agreed.

Keyleth saw the image of an endless ocean dance in front of her eyes, small pillars of steam rising out of the center of the expanse, and beyond that an island covered in green. An island she recognized.

“It’s the same place,” Keyleth announced to everyone and immediately they began debating whether to go now or after they’d rested.

“I cannot die, Vax,” Scanlan insisted. “I’ve already died once today, I can’t do it again.”

“We don’t have any healing,” Vex reminded the group.

Pike nodded, her face severe. “If anyone dies, I can’t bring them back.”

A quiet fell over the group because Pike had been forced to bring more than one party member back from death during the fight.

“I’ve got two healing potions,” Grog offered helpfully and Keyleth moved to stand beside him, resting her hand on his shoulder.

“Allura, do you know of any way to restore ourselves faster?”

“I donf,” she started, then paused and seemed to consider something. “I don fink…”

“Oh no,” Pike giggled. “Allura’s drunk now.”

She opened her mouth as if to argue, then shook her head and started to braid her hair, her lips tightly pressed together.

“What’s the minimum amount we have to sleep?”

“Eight hours,” Scanlan answered. “There’s no way around it unfortunately.”

Keyleth let out a sound frustration but Grog didn’t sound as conflicted.

“Let’s do it, let’s sleep.” They debated some more and eventually Grog and Percy were agreeing, which was strange enough. “Let’s be honest, we’re not quite at our best, and it’s one diseased deceiver in a cave with another dead dragon that might or might not come back to life, and two baby little eggs. We rest, and then we give’em hell.”

After debating lairs and meteors and what Raishan might be able to do in the meantime, Grog tugged Keyleth’s hand and held it. When she looked at him his gaze was practically at her eye line even though he was still sitting. “Keyleth, are you worried if we wait, you’re going to lose your chance to kill Raishan?”

She thought about the question, couldn’t express how much it mattered to her that he’d thought to ask her that. Keyleth hated the idea of waiting, but she didn’t think if they waited they’d loose their chance forever. If they didn’t get her now, it was only a matter of time before they found her again. “I don’t think we’re going to lose the chance to kill Raishan, it’s just a matter of who’s killing who first.”

Percy leaned forward in his seat. “I say that we take eight hours of sleep, and we go there immediately.”

“She thinks she’s got cover, but she doesn’t.” Grog stood up and looked down at her, his hand covering the back of her neck in a way which was becoming familiar. “Don’t you wanna be some fucking wicked badass from the sky? Or do you want to limp in?”

“Right,” Vex agreed. “Plus, she’s got 100 books to go through, that’s going to take more than two hours. She might not get a full night’s rest.”

Grog turned Keyleth so they were facing each other. “I know it feels like an advantage to press, but we were five down at one point.”

She wasn’t sure how he understood how torn she was, but she was. In her head, she knew they needed to wait, to rest, there was no way they went forward without everyone dying. But heart? Her red and beating heart demanded revenge now.

“I can’t die again,” Vex said, echoing Scanlan’s statement earlier.

“You can,” Grog quipped with a smirk. “But it’s not advisable.”

“She has none of her resistances,” Keyleth insisted, looking up at him.

Grog was already shaking his head before she finished talking.

“I’m not worried about those.” His faith was rock solid; Grog didn’t care about what these monsters and gods could do. In his mind, none of it mattered when it came down to it because they were Vox Fucking Machine. “Keyleth, we know what we’re asking of you. We’re asking you to wait, again.”

She laughed slightly at that. They were asking her to wait, but only because they’d just killed Thordak, because they’d just saved a country from a tyrant. It wasn’t as if they were waiting because they needed to do some shopping first. “I think considering recent events, I can wait.”

Grog let out a breath, like he’d been holding it while waiting for her decision. He pressed his forehead to hers for a moment.

“Then at dusk…” Scanlan started.

“We plan,” Grog finished with a grin then turned back to Keyleth. “Make the call, Keyleth.”

“We’d better get sleeping, I guess.” It hurt her hear to say it, but she knew it was the right decision.

“So instead of fighting, we’re going to sleep.”

Keyleth let out an aggravated sound as she turned to look at Scanlan. “Well, what do you want Scanlan? You’ve been devil’s advocate this entire time ‘I don’t want to die, she could kill us.’ What do you want Scanlan?”

“I don’t wanna die.”

“Then we sleep,” Percy and Vex said at the same time.

“I don’t want to die either,” Keyleth agreed. “And I don’t want to watch any of you die again.”

Percy’s logic was cold, “If we go right now, you’re going to die.”

“Okay, okay. I’m going to bed then.”

As a group they said their goodnights and went to their bedrooms – mostly. Percy went to Vex’s room, and Keyleth went with Grog’s to his.

“Do you have a dagger and a mirror?” she asked as she began to undress.

“Probably in the bag of holding, let me look.” He reached into the bag and came up with a small dagger and a broken mirror. “This work?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“That for a spell or something?”

“Oh, no. For my hair,” she explained with a wave at the burned and ruined strands. After she’d fallen into the lava a good deal of her hair had been scorched. “I’m going to try and make it look less like I was mauled by an alley cat.”

He laughed and started taking off his boots. Keyleth set up the mirror on the table so she could see herself and began hacking away at the strands. It wasn’t exactly the best look, but at least all her hair was the same length now. “Did I get it all?”

Grog looked up from his axe which he’d been sharpening while she’d been cutting her hair. “Looks like.”

Keyleth turned in the chair to look at him. “Are you the right person to be asking this question?”

He snorted, “Probably not.”

“I’ll ask Vex in the morning,” she decided and ran her hand through her hair now chin length hair. “This is going to take some getting used to.”

When she turned to face him, Grog was sitting on the edge of the bed watching. “What?”

“Are you okay?” he asked gently. “About the decision we made downstairs.”

Keyleth walked across the room and settled on the bed next to him, tangling her fingers with his. His hand was so much bigger than hers, but he never made her feel small. Somehow this big goliath made her feel like his equal. “I’m okay with it. It’s not just the right decision, it’s the smart one; I couldn’t bare to lose someone because we made a rash decision. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Grog nodded his agreement. “How close were you to going down?”

“Pretty close,” she gestured to her hair. “Fucking lava. How about you?”

He sighed, “I wasn’t that close. But I sure was a hell a lot weaker than I’ve been in a while. Thanks for not dying.”

Keyleth laughed and rested her head on his shoulder. “That would have really sucked, death by lava.”

“If I wasn’t so worried about you dying, I would have died from laughing.”

She couldn’t blame him, that whole thing had been a farce, but she pretended to be mad as she shifted to throw one leg over his lap. Straddling him she glared into his laughing eyes. “Think it’s funny, do you?”

“Red, you belly-flopped into lava. It was fucking hilarious.” Her scold was cut off as he suddenly stood up with her, her legs instinctively wrapped around him as he turned to lay her back on the bed. “Don’t worry, my respect for you only went down a little.”

Keyleth laughed up at the big goliath whose body was now completely covering her own. “Geeze, thanks.”

“How about this, I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself.” Keyleth immediately understood what he meant, the glint in his eyes was hard to mistake for anything else. “Let’s see if you can still hold your own against me.”

“We have to go to sleep,” she reminded him and kicked herself because the last thing she wanted to do was rest.

“Don’t worry,” he assured her, all smooth confidence and male pride. “I can be quick, and still leave you more than satisfied.”

Keyleth tried to pretend as if she wasn’t already looking forward to it, and rolled her eyes. “Talk, talk, talk.”

Grog barked out a laugh, and made a playful growling noise in the back of his throat as he palmed her breast and kissed her. There was death waiting for them, there was revenge and danger and a million of things.

But that was all for tomorrow.

Tonight was for the laughter. And love.