#if your hands need to break more than trinkets in your room you can lean on my arm as you break my heart | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

imsofreakingtired · 12 days ago

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being with you makes the flame burn good (angst)

"if you need to be mean, be mean to me i can take it and put it inside of me if your hands need to break more than trinkets in your room, you can lean on my arm as you break my heart"

~~~

content warnings: domestic violence 😭

~~~

Jinx was right.

It was all going to shit.

You stood in Silco’s office, staring at the empty chair. Trying to make sense of his scrawled notes, the maps of Zaun, the diagrams of fissures. No matter how hard you worked, on your feet day and night, running from one end of the Lanes to the other, there seemed to be no end to the messes his death left behind to clean up.

But you were aware that what you did was next to nothing compared to what Sevika had to do. It was so rare to see her these days that her existence felt more like a memory than anything concrete. She was up before you and asleep long after you—if she ever slept at all. With Silco dead, the Chem-Barons had jumped at the chance for his chair. Turf wars became a daily occurrence. Countless innocents caught in the crossfire. To top it all off, there were rumors of a crackdown from Piltover. Whispers of The Grey were all you heard these days.

The door banged open behind you, and you turned to see Sevika’s tall form in the doorway, bottle in hand. She barely seemed to notice you as she took a long drink and then threw the empty bottle into the corner of the room, where it fell with a hollow clatter. Her brows were drawn tight, her eyes stormy. You guessed the Chem-baron meeting didn’t go well.

She looked at you, but it seemed to take a moment to register in her mind who you were. With a thin nod of recognition she stormed past you, picking up the tools strewn all over the coffee table and tossing them onto Silco’s desk.

You knew she was in one of her moods, but today felt worse than usual. She paused in front of the desk, her shoulders sagging.

“Funny-looking rat,” she muttered. “Right.”

You had no idea what she was talking about, but the matters at hand were too pressing to worry about it. “Sevika,” you said. She didn’t turn around. “There was a scuffle near the abandoned warehouse. Someone’s kid was killed in the fight. They’re demanding compensation.”

Still no answer. You began to get impatient.

“Did you hear me?”

“Leave me alone,” Sevika said in a low voice.

“What?” You didn’t know if you had heard her right. “Did you hear what I said? A child was killed—”

“I said,” Sevika interrupted, and you saw her hand clench in a fist. “Leave me alone.”

Now you were angry. “You think you’re the only one cleaning this shit up?” You demanded. “You think I’m taking it easy? The city’s going to hell and you’re telling me to—”

It happened so suddenly you barely knew what was going on. Sevika turned around, grabbed you by the throat, and pushed you against the wall so hard your vision went momentarily blank. You stared up at her, gasping for breath, but she didn’t loosen her grip. Her gray eyes were clouded over with demons from horrors that happened long ago, so that you weren’t even sure if she was even seeing you.

Stars began to explode in your vision. Automatically, your hands reached up and grabbed at her iron-like forearm.

And as suddenly as she grabbed you, she let you go.

You fell to your knees, coughing violently. Before she could reach for you again you struggled to your feet, holding onto the wall. You looked at Sevika and saw her staring at you with a look of profound horror on her face.

She took a step toward you. Instinctively you flinched away.

“Baby,” she said hoarsely. “Oh god.”

You rasped out, “I get it.”

“Oh god,” she said again. “I didn’t—I wasn’t—”

You didn’t wait to hear her finish. All you could think of was getting out of that room.

When you were gone, Sevika stumbled over to the desk in a daze. She sank down in the chair and covered her face with her hand.

“Sheeesh,” Jinx said from the rafters. “And they say I’m crazy.”

~~~

You watched the street outside the grime-covered window of the bathroom. You’d been standing in front of the mirror in a blank shock for god knows how long, and you wanted a change of scene.

But between the bruises on your neck and the crime-ridden streets of the Undercity, there wasn’t much to look at.

You heard a knock on the bathroom door. You knew who it was, but didn’t move. The doorknob shook, then turned. Sevika came in.

You weren’t sure what you had intended to say, or do. You weren’t even sure if she would even bother to check up on you. But one look at her eyes, her heavy gaze so filled with remorse and self-loathing, was all it took for you to forgive her before she even asked for it.

Sevika reached for you hesitatingly, as if expecting you to push her away. When you didn’t, she touched the marks on your neck with a gentleness you didn’t even know she was capable of. Then a broken sob escaped her lips.

“I didn’t mean to, baby,” she said. “I swear I didn’t mean to.”

You felt tears tugging at your own eyes when you saw hers. You reached up and wrapped your arms around her neck.

“It’s okay,” you said. “I know, it’s okay.”

She buried her face in your hair, and you felt her tears soak hotly into your shirt.

“We’ll get through this together.”

thank you @demothers-empty-blog for the prompt!

#i've become an angst demon i fear #i wrote this in the 40 minutes between classes #sorry mom #sevika #sevika arcane #sevika x reader #sevika x you #sevika angst #arcane s2 #sevika fanfic #song: i don't smoke by mitski

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sunstone-smiles · 4 months ago

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The Legendary Vox Machina Tickle Fight

Original request (from 🦋 Anon): "LE GASP!!!! UR A FAN OF VOX MACHINA TOO 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 Omggggg can you PLEEEEEASE do day 18 tickle fight with the Vox Machina group? They're all so cute together and I'd love to see that!"

Author’s note: Omg, this turned into a huge fic, but I have no regrets, Lol. Here’s Day 18 of Tickletober: “Tickle fight” from August’s Prompt List! I hope you enjoy!

Series: The Legend of Vox Machina

Characters: Pike, Grog, Scanlan, Keyleth, Vex, Vax, Percy, and Trinket

Word count: 4,585

Summary: The Vox Machina crew is having a boring day, so Scanlan attempts to lighten the mood, but Grog’s misunderstanding of one of Scanlan’s words soon turns into a playful fight between the party. Enjoy!

---

It’s just that kind of day, where the Vox Machina crew gets to relax with one another, but they’re teetering on the edge of drab boredom. They don’t want to go out. Too much effort. So whatever is available in their current cozy sitting room is what keeps them occupied.

Pike, standing on a chair so she can see better over a wooden table, cups a pair of dice in her hands; the sound of the dice clicking can be heard as she shakes them. Grog sits across from her with the table height at his stomach due to his large size. The muffled collision of dice can be heard in his hands as well.

“Ready, Grog?” Pike asks her friend.

“Ready!”

At the same time, they throw their dice onto the table. Pike counts the two numbers on her dice quickly. “I got a six!”

“A three! I win!” Grog celebrates.

“I hate to break it to you, buddy, but six is higher than three,” Pike says sweetly, understanding that her friend has difficulty with numbers.

“Aww…” Grog deflates a little.

“It’s okay, buddy! We can try a different game.”

Grog leans back in his chair like all the muscles in his body have gone limp. “But we’ve already tried so many. I’m bored.”

“Heh,” Pike leans her elbow on the table, “Can’t blame you there, buddy.”

“Don’t worry, everyone! Your savior is here!” Scanlan walks into the room, making a performance out of his entrance. He runs up to the same wooden table Pike and Grog are at, hops up onto a chair and onto the table like it was a stage and he was a vendor. “I saw that it was a little dreary in here today, so I know just how to lighten the mood,” Scanlan moves his eyebrows up and down when he says “mood.”

“Oh goody, more mind numbing dirty jokes,” Vex says from her seat across the room. Trinket’s head is in her lap as she passes the time by brushing his fur. Vax sits in a separate chair next to her, polishing his daggers. Meanwhile, Percy draws in his sketchbook as he sits in a chair up against the front wall near the doorframe, while Keyleth sits next to him in another chair and touches up the leaves of a potted plant.

“No no, nothing dirty,” Scanlan replies. “I have tailored this joke to be pristine and appropriate. Ahem!” Scanlan clears his throat loudly.

“What do you call a cow that’s good at playing an instrument?” Scanlan asks his crowd of friends. He waits and looks around at each of them to keep them in suspense. Then, he answers. “A Moo-sician! Eh? Eh?” he winks and elbows the air.

All of his friends slowly look at each other before looking back up at Scanlan, unamused and in total silence. If crickets were in the room, they would be chirping.

Scanlan puts his hands on his hips. “What? Nothing? Tough crowd.”

“It sounds like you need to get better material, my friend,” Vax shows a brief smile.

“Yes, I would think you of all people would come up with better material than simple puns, Scanlan,” Percy teases.

“I don’t know. I thought it was a little funny,” Keyleth admits.

Scanlan gestures an appreciative hand to the Ashari. “Thank you, Keyleth! But as for the rest of you! How did you not find it funny?! That was one of my best rib-ticklers!”

Grog places a finger to his chin. “Oooh, wait! No wonder no one laughed, Scanlan!” Grog exclaims. The goliath stands from his seat and walks around the table to be behind Scanlan. “That wasn’t a rib-tickler! You got to use your hands. Like this!” Grog finishes his sentence by swiftly moving his hands under Scanlan’s arms and tickling his ribs. The smaller man jumps with a yelp in surprise and throws his elbows down to his sides.

“Grohohohog!” Scanlan already begins giggling, “I didn’t mehehehean it literally-hehehe! It’s a figure ohohohof speech!”

Grog tilts his head, genuinely confused, “You’ve lost me.”

Pike perks up, a grin brightening her features like the glow of her divine magic. “Oh, yeah! Now this is something exciting!” She stands up straight like she was preparing to charge into a battle.

“Tickle fight!!!” Pike calls out with the same ecstatic tone as if she was announcing a tavern brawl for everyone to see. She leaps onto the table and rushes over to Scanlan.

“Grog, hold him for me!” she exclaims.

“You’ve got it, buddy!” Grog keeps his hands under Scanlan’s arms, easily holding the bard in place as his fingers wiggle against his ribs.

“Nohoho, no, no! Pihihihikehehehe!” Scanlan’s laughter increases when Pike joins in and scribbles at his sides. Scanlan curls himself to the side and tucks his face in his shoulder as Pike and Grog successfully team attack him. Scanlan’s joke may have not lightened the dull mood of the room, but his own laughter certainly does.

“Heh,” Vax chuckles as he watches from the sidelines. “Too bad for you, Scanlan. Looks like you’ve waged a war with Pike and Grog.”

“Remember our scuffles that usually turned into tickle fights?” Vex smiles at her brother.

“Ah, yes. You mean the ones I always won?” Vax returns a smug grin.

“Excuse me?” Vex says, playfully offended. “If I recall, you are more ticklish than I. I’d have you begging for mercy in seconds.” Vex places Trinket’s brush on her seat, keeping her eyes trained on Vax.

Vax places his dagger on the table and leans forward, keeping his grin and his eyes on Vex. “I beg to differ, Stubby.”

“Well, I’ll show you, Scrawny!” Vex exclaims and lunges her hands at Vax, immediately getting a solid scribble to his ribs. Vax yelps as the pulse of ticklishness hits his form, momentarily paralyzing him before he clamps his arms down to his sides, then shifts tactics to try and shove his sister away.

“Vehehehehex!” the male twin leans himself off his chair, then crashes to the floor. Vex pounces down after him and tickles his ribs from behind, causing Vax to release a secondary burst of giggles before he curls up and rolls onto his back to attempt to grapple his sister’s wrists. He leans his head back and kicks his legs behind her.

“See, now what did I tell you, dear brother? You’re still the more ticklish one,” Vex teases and easily slips her hands from Vax’s grasp to continue tickling him. There’s no follow up response from Vax except a continuous stream of giggles and a loud snort. Knowing the sound he just made, he curls himself onto his side and tries to hide his face in his arm.

“Aww, and you still snort too. How adorable,” Vex lays the teases on thick.

“Shuhuhuhut up!” Vax finally responds.

“Hey, that’s not very nice. It seems I just have to tickle you more to change your attitude,” Vex smiles and scribbles a hand towards her brother’s belly, causing him to curl himself up tighter. As the twins scuffle, Trinket happily growls at them before trotting off towards the doorway to lie down.

“Hehe, looks like the twins have already roped themselves into the fight,” Keyleth chuckles from her seat.

“It’s inevitable that siblings will get themselves into little squabbles from time to time,” Percy says beside her, not even taking his eyes off his sketchbook.

Keyleth turns to him with a smile. “Did you usually get into tickle fights with your siblings, Percy?”

He glances up at her. “Me? Oh no, no. I don’t do tickle fights.” He returns to sketching.

Keyleth tilts her head. “Huh? But, it definitely sounded like you were speaking from experience…”

Before Keyleth can ask another question, there’s a Scanlan sized giggly scream from the other side of the room. Grog has grabbed Scanlan’s arms and pulled them to the side to allow Pike to scribble into his underarms.

“A lihihihittle hehehehelp here wohohohould be–hehehe nice!” Scanlan shouts out to whichever one of his party members is willing to listen.

“Hold on, Scanlan! I’m coming!” Keyleth answers the call. She places the plant on her chair, then runs over in the direction of Pike. The Ashari makes it to the edge of the table and tries to swipe at Pike, like she was attempting to catch a rabbit, but Pike jumps back.

“Whoa!” Pike says. “Oh no, Keyleth!” Pike already giggles as she turns to run. She hops off the table and Keyleth chases behind her.

“Oh no you don’t, Keyleth!” Grog immediately puts Scanlan down and rushes to Pike's aid. Before the chase has even begun, Grog snatches Keyleth off the ground in a hug as she passes by the corner of the table. He places Keyleth’s feet back to the floor and scribbles into her sides, earling a squeak from the Ashari.

“Eehehehek! Grohohohog!” Keyleth giggles and squeezes her arms down. “Thihihihis height difference mahahahakes it sohohoho unfair!” she says as she realizes the ticklish predicament Scanlan must have been in.

“Sorry, Keyleth! But if you mess with my best buddy, you mess with me!” Grog grins as he carefully wiggles his fingers to Keyleth’s ribs, keeping her in place as she sways like a leaf in the breeze.

Pike twists on her heels once she hears Keyleth’s laughter. She smiles at her buddy Grog as a thank you. Past Grog’s form, however, Pike sees the wooden table they were just at. The once giggling form of Scanlan is now missing.

“Huh?” Pike wonders. “Where did he–”

“Sneak attack!” Scanlan loudly announces his presence behind her as he digs his fingers into Pike’s sides.

“AHA!” Pike yelps from being taken off guard. “Hahaha! Scanlahahahan!” Pike darts her hands down in an attempt to pry the bard’s hands latched onto her sides.

“You thought you could just tickle me and get away with it? Oh no, no, no, Pike. You see, now it’s my turn to even the playing field,” Scanlan grins. “Who would have guessed that under all that armor that the mighty Pike is so ticklish?”

“Ohoho, yohohohou’re going to rehehehegret saying thahahahat!” Pike giggles.

“I regret saying a lot of things, but this is not one of them,” Scanlan replies.

Seeing six out of the seven party members get thrown into a tickle fight, Percy places his sketchbook on the side table next to his chair, then stands. “Well, if you all are going to continue fooling around with each other, then I think I should take my leave.”

Percy turns towards the doorway to exit. However, as the big brown bear sees Percy walking in that direction, Trinket trots in front of the doorway and blocks the exit. The bear growls at the white-haired man.

Percy takes a step back. “Wha– Trinket?”

“Good thinking, Trinket!” Vex says, seeing the exchange between her bear and the noble occur. “You’re not going anywhere without first joining the fight, Percy.” Vex glances to her bear, “Trinket, be a dear and get Percy, will you?”

Trinket happily growls at Percy. The noble takes another step back.

“Wait, Trinket!” Percy puts his hands up.

The bear growls again and charges at Percival. Trinket headbutts Percy square in the stomach, with enough force to push him, but not to hurt him. Percy hits the back wall as Trinket charges at him and, being the large bear that he is, Trinket easily traps Percy to the wall by having his head right up against his stomach. With another happy huff from the bear, Trinket begins nuzzling his snout into Percy’s stomach, finding a way under his dress shirt and vest for his snout to be most effective.

Percy flinches and his mouth twitches upwards; he tries to restrain his snickers while he attempts to shove Trinket’s big, playful head out of his shirt. “Trinket! Stand down, boy! I am not a toy for you to cuddle!”

“Good boy, Trinket!” Vex exclaims. She leaves her brother in a crumpled pile of giggles and runs over to help her bear.

“Let me lend you a hand, Trinket,” she says, now standing beside her furry companion. “Or perhaps, two hands?” she wiggles all of her fingers at Percy.

“V-Vex! Don’t you da–AHare!” Percy closes his mouth shut once Vex lunges her hands at his ribs. A few restrained snickers start to trickle from the man as he turns his face away into his shoulder.

“Percival, you’re holding out on me,” Vex teases. “You do know that it’s a tickle fight, right? So, laugh a little,” she moves her hands up his ribs and into his underarms. Rather quickly, his snickers sputter and turn into full blown giggles.

“Vehehehex!” Percy completely breaks into an outpouring of bubby joy. He bends his arms down for protection, but that doesn’t stop the loveable bear from nuzzling into his belly. He tries to wiggle his way out of his predicament.

“There we go! We got him, Trinket!” Vex glances at the bear before looking back at Percy. “See, Percy? You would have missed out on all this fun had you walked out.”

“I will nohohohot be subjugated to-hohoho thihihihis childish gahahame!” He wiggles to the side and successfully dislodges himself from Trinket and the wall, then wastes no time in sprinting across the room.

“This isn’t over yet, Percy!” Vex exclaims. Right before she takes off for the chase, a woosh of black cloth passes by her.

“I’ll deal with you later!” Vax glances over his shoulder to his sister as he runs by.

“Yeah, right. We’ll see about that,” Vex smiles before following suit and running back into the frey.

Percy, knowing he’s a target, skids behind Grog and Keyleth and takes cover.

“Grog! Let me use your body as a shield!” Percy peeks out from the side of the goliath.

Grog’s view turns towards Percy. “Uh, okay.”

“I’ve gotcha, Keyleth!” Vax says from Grog’s other side and leaps onto the table, then he jumps off towards Grog. He lands on Grog and wraps his arms around the goliath’s neck, piggy-back style.

“Hey!” Grog tries to snatch Vax from over his back, releasing Keyleth from his hold. “Get over here, pipsqueak!” Grog spins from side to side to toss Vax off of him, but Vax keeps his grip. Grog sidesteps one way and nearly crashes into Percy, sending the noble stumbling backwards and onto the floor; when Grog sidesteps to his other side, Vex also stumbles backwards and onto the floor when she tries to dodge.

Grog halts his movement to try and get a better grip on Vax, but the dagger wielder shows him a smirk and uses one hand to scribble at the goliath’s ribs while Vax’s other arm holds himself up by staying wrapped around Grog’s neck.

Grog jolts and a bigger smile grows on his already large features. “Hehehey! Vahahahax!” he tries to reach up at the half-elf again. “Nohoho fair!”

“No fair? We’re playing a tickle fight with a guy twice our size. Creative strategies have to be used, my friend,” Vax smiles at him.

“And don’t forget about a little bit of magic!” Keyleth recovers and faces her palm towards Grog. Her hand glows and vines sprout from the floor, wrapping themselves loosely around Grog and brushing up against the rest of his torso.

Grog stops going for Vax and pulls his arm down as deep laughter booms from his chest. “Ohohohokay! Mahahahaybe I earned thihihihis!” Grog says through his giggles.

Vex stands up and leans an arm on Trinket. She sees Percy still on the floor, but she’s quite amused with the sight of their tallest ally being overpowered by tickling. She’ll call off her chase, for now.

“Ohohoho no! Grohohog!” Pike says through her own laughter as she hears Grog being felled by giggles from across from her.

“Oooh. What a shame,” Scanlan says over Pike’s shoulder. “It seems like you and Grog have fallen to the same tragic fate of revenge—WHOA!”

Pike uses a burst of strength to yank one of Scanlan’s arms and fling him to the floor in front of them onto his back. As he lifts his head up to regain his bearings, Pike pounces at him like a wolf and knocks him back to the floor. She dives her hands towards his sides, earning a shriek of laughter from Scanlan.

“Pihihihihike! Yohohou already had yohohour turn tickling mehehehe! Hahahave mercy!”

“I’ll consider it, if you help me help Grog,” Pike negotiates with a smile.

“Nohoho way! Hehehe started it!”

Pike shrugs, “Suit yourself then.” She crawls her fingers back up to his underarms, causing Scanlan to kick his legs out behind her and his giggles to increase.

Pike glances beside her to Percy, who’s still leaning back on the floor as he watches Grog’s current fate. “Percy! Come help me with Scanlan!” she says to him.

The noble shakes his head. “No, thank you. I’ve had my fair share of this fight for one day.”

“Come on, Percy. You’re got to have some fun once in a while.” She puts on a smirk. “Or are you too much of a stick-in-the-mud noble to do so?”

Percy’s stunned. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Pike’s tone is one that’s begging to be challenged. Percy narrows her eyes at her, but Pike has already turned her attention back to the giggling bard.

“Now Scanlan, are you willing to help me assist Grog?”

“Yehehes! Yes!” Scanlan raises one arm above his head and purple magic begins to swirl around his hand. Pike pulls her hands away from him, allowing Scanlan—breathless and full of residual giggles—to summon his magical purple hand and glide it towards Grog. Scanlan rolls onto his stomach to see the world upright and controls the magic of “Scanlan’s hand” to tap Keyleth on the shoulder.

Falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book, Keyleth turns to look at the hand. “Huh? Hey!” She exclaims when the hand drifts down to tickle her side. When she twists to avoid it, the hand follows her and tickles the rest of her torso. Scanlan and Pike snicker from the sidelines.

As Keyleth giggles, her concentration on the magic vines falter and the vines retract back into the floor.

Now free, Grog swings his hand behind his back and grabs a hold of Vax’s ankle. He yanks the half-elf from his back and holds him upside down in front of him. A mischievous grin across the goliath’s features is what Vax is met with as he dangles from the ankle.

Vax releases a nervous chuckle. “Any chance that you’ll put me down, big guy?”

Grog shakes his head like a child who’s gotten their way. “Nope. None,” Grog says and plunges a hand into Vax’s belly. The half-elf barks out a surprised laugh and clasps both of his hands to Grog’s singular large one in any attempt to pry it from his giggling belly.

“Well it wahahas wohohorth a shohohohot!” Vax says.

“All right, Grog!” Pike cheers. Scanlan dissipates his magic hand, releasing Keyleth, then plops onto the floor to take a well deserved break.

“I’m coming to help!” Pike gets up to dash over to Grog.

“Hold on a minute, Pike!” Percy swoops in behind her and scoops her up into his arms, causing Pike to shriek as he lifts her in a hug off her feet. He has his arms wrapped under hers like he was holding a cat.

“Allow me to show you that a noble can indeed have fun,” Percy smirks. He tightens one arm around her while his other hand starts to scribble into her side. Pike jolts with another burst of giggles and attempts pushing on Percy’s arm to squeeze herself free.

“Pehehehercy, wahahait! I was just kihihihidding!” she kicks her feet in the air.

“Of course. I know that, Pike. But I have to protect the reputation of my good name. You understand,” he smiles. Pike’s squirming becomes strong enough to where Percy nearly drops her, but he catches himself and places Pike safely to the ground, though still with one arm wrapped around her and one tickling her to keep her in place. Percy chuckles as he kneels down, takes a seat on the floor, then pulls Pike into his lap to now have the ability to tickle her with both of his hands, sending her giggles even louder.

Keyleth eventually recovers, arms still wrapped around herself. She processes her surroundings, noticing Vax’s situation.

“Oh no, Vax. Not again,” Keyleth straightens herself out and prepares her hand to summon more vines.

“I’m going to stop you right there, Keyleth!” Vex rams into the Ashari with a giant hug.

“W-What?! Vex, what are you–dohohohoing?!” Keyleth squeaks at the end of her sentence when Vex takes her turn at tickling the Ashari.

“Well, you were about to help my brother out of his predicament, and I’m quite entertained by his situation. You wouldn’t want to cut that entertainment short, now would you?”

“Buhuhuhut Vax is in trohohohouble!” she giggles in response.

“Nooo, he’s fine. Look at him. He’s smiling, laughing. He doesn’t need our help,” Vex grins. Trinket happily huffs to himself. Seeing that his allies are enjoying themselves, Trinket trots away over to a spot behind a still resting Scanlan to lie down and watch the rest unfold, until his assistance is requested again.

Just then, a giggly scream from Pike catches Grog’s ears. The goliath turns his head to see that Percy is scribbling a hand at Pike’s belly while the gnome kicks and curls her arms around herself.

“Pike! Buddy!” Grog shouts. He drops Vax to the floor like a bag of gold and dashes over to Pike. Percy looks up just in time to see the massive goliath barreling towards him. His eyes go wide and immediately lets go of Pike. He crawls backwards on his arms and lifts himself to his feet as Grog approaches.

“Grog, wait! We can talk about this!” Percy turns to run, but Grog instantly snatches him off the floor and into his arms, holding him very similarly as Percy did to Pike. Grog spins to face his buddy, then wastes no time in digging a set of his fingers into Percy’s side. Percy lets out a startled chortle before his giggles find their way out again.

“Pick on someone, your own size!” Grog grins behind him.

“Thahahat’s rich cohohoming from yohohohou!” Percy responds. He wiggles and slips his nimble self from Grog’s arms, ducking under them before running.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Grog says before he and Pike take off after him.

Vex witnesses Percy is involved in another chase. She chuckles. “See, Percy! Told you it wasn’t over!”

As she finishes her sentence, Vax suddenly lunges at her and tackles her to the floor.

“And I told you that I would come back for you later,” Vax smirks above her as he darts his hands towards his sister’s sides. A minor shriek releases from Vex before she slaps a hand to cover her mouth, though Vax can see her smile twitching from under her fingers. Her other hand attempts to shove at Vax while the heels of her boots dig at the floor.

“Ah, ah, ah, sister. We will be having none of that. You saw me giggling my head off, it’s only fair that I see yours,” Vax crawls a hand up to her underarm connected to the hand blocking her smile. Vex yanks her hand down with a shriek that results in the joyful sound of laughter.

“Vahahahahax you a–ahahahaha!” The rest of Vex’s sentence is erased by her giggles.

“Language, sister,” he playfully scolds her, knowing exactly what she was about to say. He turns to the Ashari. “Keyleth, want to provide some assistance?”

Keyleth nods with a smile, “Okay!” The Ashari makes her way over. She sits on her knees on the floor next to Vex’s other side and joins in, scribbling at Vex’s stomach. The giggles of the female twin grow higher in pitch as she attempts to protect and slap away the two pairs of hands scribbling across her torso.

“Twohoho against ohohone? Well I cahahahan play thahahat gahahame too!” Vex exclaims. “Trinket! Hehehelp me!” she shouts across the room.

The bear growls and lifts himself to his feet. Trinket begins charging forward. Scanlan hears the loud pounding of paws behind him and turns his head to see Trinket running in his direction. Scanlan leaps to his feet and runs straight, keeping his eyes on the bear. Meanwhile, Percy turns the corner on the other side of the room and runs right towards Vex, Vax, and Keyleth, though his eyes are also on his pursuers.

Almost at the same time, Scanlan and Percy look forward, seeing not only are they going to crash into each other, but into Vex, Vax, and Keyleth as well. They try to slow their movement, but Pike and Grog crash into Percy, while Trinket crashes into Scanlan, sending everyone crashing into the twins and Keyleth—which creates a party-sized dogpile with all the Vox Machina members.

As the “dust” settles, Trinket, who was on the edge of the pile, lifts himself up and finds Scanlan lying on the edge next to Grog. The bear nuzzles Scanlan’s neck as an apology, which slowly pulls Scanlan out of his dazed state.

“Trinket,” Scanlan giggles as the bear gets in one final tickle at his neck. He shoves at the bear’s snout. “Come on, cut it out.”

The bear growls with glee. As Trinket steps back, everyone else begins to slowly emerge from the pile. Eventually, they untangle themselves and stand to stretch their previously squished bodies.

“Well, that was a fight that I bet none of us were expecting,” Vax says as he stretches out his back.

“To think we were taking a day off and ended up fighting each other instead,” Vex mentions. “But that does seem like something we would do, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know about you all,” Keyleth chimes in, “but I thought it was fun. I know I said something earlier with Scanlan’s joke and no one agreed, but I can’t be the only one who thought this was fun, right? I mean, it was enjoyable enough for Percy to join in.” She gestures a hand towards the white-haried man.

Percy crosses his arms. “My hand was forced into the fight, thank you. Under no other circumstances would I have joined.”

Pike shrugs. “Eh, all it takes is a few teases and poking fun at his royal title to get him to hop in,” she teases and smiles at Percy. Percy rolls his eyes, though he returns a warm smile to her as well.

“It was unexpected, but at least it brightened the mood,” Scanlan says. He turns to look up at the goliath. “You did good, Grog,” Scanlan compliments.

“Hehe, thank you,” Grog takes the compliment. He blinks a few times and puts a finger to his chin. “Um…what exactly did I do good again?”

Vax pats him on the arm. “You were just being yourself, big guy.”

“And we love ya for it,” Pike hugs his ankle.

“Aww, come here, you!” Grog picks her up in a gentle, but firm hug, then places her on his shoulder with a grin.

Some would say that they’re one odd bunch of adventures, but to them, they’re just one big happy family.

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