Title: Caught Up
Fandom: Critical Role (campaign 1)
Rating: T
Length: 1399 words
Content notes: Percy/Vex, set early in the year break.
Author notes: Also for the "dangling" prompt of my bingo card.
Summary: Vex runs into a spot of bother with her broom, and Percy comes to the rescue.

There are a lot of things in Percy de Rolo’s life that could hold claim to being the weirdest, but being semi-regularly woken up by a bear licking his face is definitely on the list. Vex, he has discovered in this past couple of weeks, is an early riser even without dragons to worry about, while he’s quite enjoying being able to sleep in and not feel guilty about it. As a result, she’s often out and about long before he wakes up, and it’s not infrequently Trinket who eventually comes to nudge him out of bed (Percy is privately sure Vex sends him, though she denies it).

“Morning, Trinket,” he says, sleepily, reaching out to rub his ears.

To his surprise, Trinket dodges his hand and begins nudging him with his nose, clearly trying to make him get up.

“All right, all right, what is it?” Percy asks, sitting up and reaching for his glasses - you can’t very well argue with a giant bear. “Is it so late? Did your mother send you to kick me out of bed? Go and tell her I’m up, there’s a good bear.”

At the word ‘mother’, Trinket growls, but doesn’t leave; instead, he grabs Percy’s sleeve in his teeth and pulls - gently, but insistently.

By now, Percy’s beginning to wake up properly. “Trinket, is something wrong? Does Vex need help?”

The look of ‘finally’ Trinket gives him is unmistakable, even before he nods his head emphatically.

“Do I have time to get dressed - all right, no, just let me put on my boots and grab my things,” he offers as a compromise, as Trinket makes for his sleeve again.

The bear waits impatiently until Percy has his boots on, but as soon as he stands up, begins pushing him towards the door. Percy snatches up his guns and Cabal’s Ruin, as the things he’s most likely to need, then hurries forward. As soon as Trinket is satisfied he’s moving, he pushes past Percy to lead the way. Percy follows as quickly as he can, settling the cloak around his shoulders and buckling on his holsters. He wishes he could speak with Trinket… the bear doesn’t seem frantic, so probably Vex isn’t badly injured or anything, but he’d give a good deal to know what’s going on.

Trinket leads him out of the castle and towards the woods, which is… less than reassuring, when Percy thinks about everything that lives in these woods. Has Vex being trailing the Grey Render again? What’s happened to her? Without a great deal of hope that it’ll work, he tugs on his earring - the woods are huge, it’s unlikely she’s near enough, but it’s worth trying.

“Vex? Can you hear me?”

There’s no reply at first other than Trinket’s grunts and growls, but he perseveres as he follows the bear as fast as he can, and finally her familiar voice comes back.

“Darling, you took your time.” She sounds… odd.

“Is everything all right?” Percy asks. “Where are you?” She can’t be far now, but he can’t see her anywhere, so he keeps following Trinket.

“Oh yes, I just… need a hand,” Vex replies. “Oh, I can see you! Look up.”

He obeys, but at first can’t see anything other than treetops - then, suddenly, a flash of blue between the leaves catches his eye. He hurries forward until he can get a good look, then bursts out laughing.

“Charming,” Vex remarks - still touching her earring, so he gets the odd effect of her doubled voice.

“You look ridiculous,” he tells her frankly. “What happened?”

Vex grimaces at him, making him laugh again - the grotesque face is made even more absurd by the strange angle she’s at, bound to a tree branch by her broom’s tether. She must have somehow come off her broom, gone one side of the branch while it went the other, and now both are trapped in place. How on earth she managed to get the tether so tangled around her, though, he has no idea.

“I… may have been trying out some flying acrobatics that didn’t quite go to plan,” she admits. “I couldn’t get free on my own, so I sent Trinket to get you. Can you come up and help me?”

“Of course,” Percy says, grateful Trinket gave him enough time to get his boots on. Placing one foot against the rough bark, he wills the enchantment in them to activate, then runs up the tree.

“Show-off,” Vex says fondly.

“Not all of us can fly, dear,” he replies, slowing as he gets to her. This is a giant of a tree, and the branches seem solid enough, but he’d rather not send them both crashing to the ground.

He frowns as he examines the tether, which has somehow managed to wrap around both her and the branch, pinning her in place along its side with help from the dangling broom’s weight. How to get it loose without risking her falling is a tough question… She’s managed to wedge her feet into the base of smaller branches, probably making her position slightly less uncomfortable; but with the angle she’s at it won’t help to hold her if he loosens the rope, and her arms are trapped at her sides.

“What were you doing?” he asks again, taking a few steps back down to see if he can brace against lower branches and be ready to hold her up. He can’t quite see how to manage it and free the tether at the same time, though.

“Umm… a lot of things at once? I was trying a sort of twisting loop-the-loop around the branch, and I came off.”

“Why on earth - ”

“I don’t know, it seemed a good idea at the time!” Vex snaps, and he looks back up at her to notice - too late - the way the tips of her pointed ears have coloured, a sure sign of embarrassment. “Can you get me down first and ask questions later?”

“I don’t know, it’s frightfully convenient, having you tied up like this,” Percy teases.

He’d only meant that she couldn’t walk away from his questions, but her expression changes instantly from annoyed to intrigued. “Is it now, darling?” she breathes.

Well, never let it be said that Percy de Rolo would turn down a challenge - especially such an enticing one. “Oh, I think so, don’t you?” he drawls, smirking.

Vex winks at him, but replies, “Later, maybe. This is actually really uncomfortable, it feels like there’s about a hundred twigs poking into my back.”

“Right,” Percy agrees. Back to business, with even more motivation to solve this. “I think… ah, yes, if I hold the tether and unfasten the broom, I can pass it to you and then release you slowly enough that you can climb on it. Does that sound good?”

“Perfect,” Vex says, and he sets to work.

There’s a couple of hair-raising moments, punctuated by alarmed moans from Trinket who’s watching from below, but between them they manage to get Vex safely free from the tree and back on the broom. She flies down at once to comfort her bear, and praise him for his cleverness in bringing Percy, while he follows more slowly along the trunk, pausing to loop up the tether first. The last thing they need is for it to trip him on the way down! Obviously some design modifications are needed - maybe it should be shorter? Though he’d given it its current length at Vex’s request, so it wouldn’t interfere with her movement… He’s so caught up in plans for tinkering he barely notices when he reaches the ground, until Vex snaps him back to the moment by kissing him deeply.

“Thank you for rescuing me,” she says, pulling away with the tether now in her hands - he didn’t even notice her take it, but he’s sure design modifications are not what she’s thinking about (they’re not uppermost in his mind either any more).

He raises his eyebrows. “Is it later, dear?”

Vex winks at him again - then jumps on her broom and shoots off towards Whitestone, Trinket running after her. Percy laughs to himself and follows, anticipation thrumming in his veins. He’s not entirely sure what Vex is planning - they’re still learning how this relationship works when they’re not chasing monsters or running for their lives - but he can’t wait to find out.