#this is so sweet <3 Vex trusting Percy to take care of Velora and Vex telling Velora how much she trusts him???? i love it so much

[romeoandjulietyouwish]

(submitted by @demisexualemmaswan )

okay so I lied and wrote about Velora and Percy in the ballet AU first. I played with the timeline from your HCs, so Vex hasn’t admitted her feelings for Percy to him yet even though he’s had the accident–

Running late from Trinket’s vet appointment. Can I meet you and Velora at the diner?

Percy looked at his phone, smiling down at his text from Vex in spite of himself.

Of course you can. You told the instructors we’d both be picking her up, yes?

Yes. Oh thank you, darling! You’re the best!

Percy had never really bonded with Velora one on one before, but because she was Vex’s little sister, he was damn well going to try. After transferring over to Allura’s company, he’d become very good friends with Vex'ahlia and she in turn had pulled him in to a circle of love and protection he’d not been privy to his since his childhood.

He had a family again, they’d even taken his sister under their wing and it was something he marveled at to himself nearly every day. Ballet, once again, had become a source of joy in his life rather than a source of fear and anxiety. He never had to worry about his missteps, never worried about hiding his injuries…

(His first day back from the car accident Allura, Pike, Vex, Vax, Keyleth and apparently Gilmore had all watched him like a hawk to ensure he was not straining himself. When he started to hide it, it was Gilmore who sat him down, Pike who checked him over, all with the utmost love and care, while the twins hovered anxiously to make sure that nothing had been broken…Vex’s anguished face from that night still haunted him sometimes.)

And it was clear that the culture of Allura’s company permeated the beliefs of all the dancers, his new friends included. Vex and Vax had a younger sister, Velora, who also did ballet. She was roughly fifteen years their junior, and they did their absolute best to take care of her.

Velora’s dance school had recently put on the Nutcracker–a performance which Percy and Cassandra were all but dragged to–and Velora by far had the largest and most raucous cheering section when it came time for bows. And Percy had to admit, the shine in Velora’s eyes when she saw how many famous dancers came to see her, was heartwarming.

Not nearly as heartwarming as Vex and Vax cradling their baby sister close, telling her how proud they were. But still heartwarming enough. 

And although Percy had admittedly been far too anxious during the performance–he knew the Briarwoods knew of Vex’s family and he was filled with the absolute dread that one of them (or even worse, his old teacher Anna Ripley) would be there–to been very sociable in his eyes, Velora seemed to like him enough for she asked her sister if Percy could accompany them the next time they went to lunch.

He couldn’t very well say no. He couldn’t say no to Vex, not when nearly everything she did was of sound judgement and only seemed to be out of the goal of his best interests.

Besides, there was talk of Keyleth wanting to do more work in public schools–an admittedly brilliant idea in Percy’s eyes–and so he had to get better at talking to children.

Velora came out of the studio, her bag slung over her shoulder. Her lips pursed into a frown for a moment, her eyes scanning for Vex.

Percy forced himself to take a deep breath, smile and wave at Velora. She perked up almost immediately and waved back, rushing toward him. “Hiya, Percy!” she said. “Is Vex in the bathroom or something?”

“No,” Percy said, squatting down so he could be beneath Velora’s eye level. He was still a stranger and he wanted Velora to be comfortable with him. “Vex is running late from Trinket’s vet appointment. She asked if I could escort you to the diner and she’d meet us there.” Velora’s hands tightened on her bag a little bit and he continued hurriedly, “You don’t have to if you don’t feel safe with me. If you like, we can wait for Vex right here.”

Velora bit her lip. “Can I call Vex?” she asked in a small voice.

Percy immediately handed the little girl his phone. “Of course you can.”

It was about fourteen seconds after this that Percy realized he’d handed his phone to a nine year old where his contact photo for Vex was her kissing his cheek, there was a heart next to her name that she’d put in herself, and his background photo on his phone was her giving him bunny ears while he laughed at Vax and Keyleth.

There was nothing lewd or inappropriate about anything on his phone, however, he realized what it might look like.

He and Vex were not a couple in the romantic sense. Percy was nearly positive that Vex would never feel about him that way. He was a broken disaster of a dancer and of a man that didn’t deserve her affection. He still had to stop himself from flinching on some days when she got to close, for something that wasn’t even her fault. She hadn’t seen the scars left behind by Anna Ripley, and Percy was sure she’d be repulsed by them just as he was.

Besides, she had kissed Keyleth’s cheek and Gilmore’s cheek, and the cheeks of most people in the company. It was just how she showed affection. 

But he knew what it might look like to a nine year old, no less Vex'ahlia’s little sister. 

But if the girl saw anything, it didn’t show on her face as she spoke on the phone to her sister. Whatever Vex must’ve said cheered Velora up immensely, for the little girl slipped her hand in Percy’s and squeezed before handing back his phone. “Vex says after Vax and Trinket that nobody keeps her safer than you so you’ll keep me safe too.”

Percy tried not to blush at Vex’s unflappable faith in him. “Indeed,” he responded, offering Velora his arm. “Shall we?”

Velora giggled and looped her arm through his. Some of the girls in her class were clumped together, whispering so enviously back and forth between each other. So Percy kept his chin up high and if he elongated his stride a little bit as he walked off, well…

The two walked to the diner near Velora’s dance school and Percy made sure to pull out Velora’s chair for her and pushed her in. 

“Something to drink while you wait for the third member of your party?” the waiter asked once Percy was seated. 

“Yes, a Sprite for me, thank you,” Percy said. He had a massive sweet tooth, something Vax teased him endlessly for given his stoic disposition. It was something he had not been able to indulge in for the last few years, but he and Allura made sure to discuss moderation and not to overdo it since he’d been denied for so long. “Velora?”

“Umm…water’s fine.”

That caught Percy’s attention. She wasn’t looking at the waiter much, picking idly at the napkin. Still, he smiled at the waiter, as the man walked off as if nothing were wrong.

Thinking about his own struggles with opening up, he decided the best tactic was to divert the conversation and see if he could try getting the little girl to open up. “I’ve never eaten here before, I don’t know what to get. What are you getting, Velora?”

“’m not hungry,” the little girl said, followed immediately by the growl of her stomach.

Percy raised an eyebrow at her and she gave him a sheepish look. Schooling his features, he asked gently, “Velora, has someone been encouraging you not to eat?”

Velora bit her lip–a nervous tell she shared with Vex, he realized–before looking down. “It’s no one at school or ballet class,” she finally told him. “Marcy fainted last week during class and our teacher got so scared when Marcy said she hadn’t eaten. So our teacher said that we had to make sure we ate enough to keep our bodies growing. But my…someone said that I couldn’t be a ballerina anymore if I got too big.”

Percy absolutely did not need anymore context on who told Velora that, if any of Vex’s previous remarks about her “bastard of a sperm donor father” were anything to go by. Still, showing profound irritation toward Syldor Vessar was not going to be the way to win Velora over, since Velora clearly still sought her father’s opinion and respected it. 

“Well, your teacher is absolutely right,” Percy said, leaning back in his chair. “Vex always makes sure I eat.” Learning in conspiratorially, he added, “Why do you think she made sure I came to lunch today?”

Velora let out a reluctant giggle, before her eyes lost their happiness. “But I don’t want to do something wrong and then stop dancing…”

“Well, if you’re not sure about what kind of things you should be eating, you can have your father bring you to a doctor and a doctor will tell you. Or you can ask Vex when she gets here. Vex has impeccable judgement, and I think anything she had to say would be worth listening to, don’t you agree?”

Unable to help himself because he was a little shit sometimes, he added, “After all. Vex is a real ballet dancer. Wouldn’t she know best?”

Velora leaned back in her chair and regarded him for a moment, before a knowing glint entered her eyes. “Percy,” the nine year old sing-songed. “Do you like like my sister?”

Percy’s jaw slid open and he could only thank the heavens above that Vex wasn’t here to witness this moment. Because his brain stopped working–clearly–for he admitted softly, “Yes. I…I like like her very much.”

“Does she like like you?” Velora asked immediately, almost moving the table with how fast she moved forward.

“I…don’t know,” Percy said quietly, trying not to feel openly humiliated. “We haven’t discussed it. I…I…it doesn’t matter if she cares for me like that or not.” He smiled at Velora, trying not to let his self-loathing sour the conversation. “She is still my very good friend and always will be even if she doesn’t like like me.”

Velora suddenly grew very serious and extended her pinky toward Percy. “I won’t tell,” she said somberly. “I am the best secret keeper in my dance class, everyone says so. So if Vex doesn’t know you like like her, then I won’t tell her. I pinky promise!“ 

Percy grinned and linked his pinky around Velora’s. "Now you don’t have to tell your sister about what you told me,” he said gently, once their pinkies were unlinked. “But I think it might make you feel better if you tell her.”

“Tell me what?” Vex asked, swooping in to kiss Percy’s cheek and sit between him and Velora. She pulled her little sister close, for a hug. Percy excused himself to the bathroom, letting the two sisters have a moment to discuss in private what had happened.

As he walked away, he heard Vex tell her sister, “Oh, darling…you simply must eat to make sure your body grows to be nice and strong. Otherwise you won’t be able to do the jumps if you don’t have any energy. And your brain can’t focus on learning routines if you’re hungry!”

When he returned to the table, Velora was clearly in much better spirits, talking animatedly about ballet camps for the summer. Percy said beside Vex and looked at her, quirking his eyebrow at her to silently ask if she was all right. Underneath the table, Vex squeezed his hand tightly and he gently squeezed back to try and show that he was there for her.

The smile she gave him in return was not unnoticed by Velora, whose eyebrows shot up as she sipped on her water, going even higher when Vex kissed his cheek.

“Now,” Percy said. “You both simply must tell me what I need to eat here.”

A few weeks later, when he and Vex started dating for real after a combined matchmaking effort by nearly the entire ballet company, Velora had merely snorted, “Of course she like liked you the whole time. I just wasn’t allowed to tell you.”