Absolutely a Vaxleth prompt… specifically post-Kraken fight.
Because ooh boy… Kiki’s not going to forgive herself for a choice that got Vax killed, even if he got resurrected.
5. "You don't have anything to be sorry for."
Vax wakes up in the middle of the night, momentarily disoriented. It takes a few seconds for him to remember that they're in Vesrah, and a few more for him to realize that the bed beside him is empty. He sits up, rubbing his eyes. "Kiki?"
She's sitting on a little window seat, knees pulled up to her chest, staring out at the sparkling night waters of the Ozmit Sea. She is bathed in silvery-blue moonlight, and without her gear and her circlet and all the usual accoutrements of what they do, she looks ethereal, like a ghost come to haunt him.
He slips out of bed and pads over to her, sitting on the floor just below her. "Is something wrong?"
She huffs out a humorless laugh. "Is something wrong. Wow." She looks down at him, and the moonlight bounces off of the unshed tears in her eyes. "I get you killed, they throw a party for me to celebrate it, and you ask me if something is wrong."
"Keyleth..." He reaches up to pry one of her hands from around her knees, laces his fingers with hers. "You did not get me killed."
"How else you explain what happened down there today?" Her voice is cracking, and the tears are threatening to fall. "None of you would have been there if it wasn't for me. Gods, not only did I bring you down there to die, but I left Grog and Tary to die there, too. And they want to make me a leader? I'm a monster."
Vax pushes himself off of the floor and slides onto the window seat next to her, pulling her into his arms. He tucks her head under his chin. "I'd never let another soul talk about you that way, so don't think you're gonna get away with it."
"Vax—"
"I make my own decisions, Keyleth." He extends her away from him just enough to look her dead in the eyes. "Since my sister and I left Syngorn, I've gone where I wanted and done as I pleased. You didn't drag me into the Water Plane kicking and screaming; I went on my own because I choose to follow where wherever you go. Because I love you."
Keyleth reaches up to wipe the tears from her cheek. "But I could have done better. I'm sorry that it happened, I'm sorry I didn't stop it, I'm sorry—"
He kisses her, slow, soft, but insistent. He needs her to understand, needs her to get it. "You don't have anything to be sorry for," he murmurs against her lips, "because I would do everything over again. I will follow you into the Nine Hells, I will follow you into a volcano, I will follow you into the belly of a kraken, because I don't ever want you to go where I can't follow." He tucks her hair behind her ears. "Right now, I would very much like to follow you back to bed, because I did die today and I'm still kinda tired."
She frowns at that, but he smiles and kisses it away. He pulls her up and leads her back to bed, with her saying all the while, "Okay, but just promise me you won't die again, because I can't take it and Vex can't take it and I'm pretty sure we all fall apart without you—" He's pressing her back into the bed. "—and I know what we do is dangerous and yes we all choose to be here but still—" He slides back in beside her and tosses an arm over her torso to pull her in close. "—I feel terrible and I would very much like to not feel this way again so if you can just not die—"
"Keyleth?"
"Yeah?"
"If I promise not to die again will you let us go back to sleep?"
She curls up into him, warm and soft. "Yeah, okay."
He hums his thanks and closes his eyes, grateful to his matron for another night with her.
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