#with this oneshot bc quite frankly gilmore is ridiculously easy to nail down character voice wise and it's very fun

[your-turn-to-role]

An Interlude.

[Takes place just after the Thordak battle - in the campaign, Vax and Gilmore both arrive to search his lair about 20 minutes after the rest of the group, and I wanted to see what that time may have looked like]

If there's one thing Shaun Gilmore knows for certain, it's that he's never doing this again. Never. He's gained a new respect for the fact that Vox Machina throws themself into situations like this regularly.

Everything hurts.

He's been up against Thordak before, briefly, and while that wasn't exactly a walk in the park either, it was relatively quick. He got in, absolutely failed at doing any damage to the creature, and got the fuck back out again, nearly dying in the process.

And to think he'd just managed to heal from that time. Now he's thrown himself into it again.

One dragon's dead, at least. No matter what the future holds, they killed Thordak, and no one's permanently dead. They couldn't have asked for much better.

He would, however, like to not feel like half his body's on fire constantly from the sheer amount of burns that haven't healed yet. He's not in danger of dying, but magic only goes so far, and they've used most of theirs already. Even the great Vox Machina has their limits.

It's strange, almost, to see them like this. He's seen them swagger into his shop with all the confidence in the world, seen them drunk in a speakeasy celebrating his arrival. He thought he came close, that night with the assassins, to seeing them at their most vulnerable, but even then, by the time he arrived, the problem had mostly been dealt with, and the majority of them were back to joking, barely fazed by it.

No one's come out of this with that bravado intact. Sure, they survived, but they're shaken, exhausted. Tending to each other's wounds with a strange quiet he's not used to seeing from them.

They share bandages, and food, taking a moment to rest and process. Grog's run off somewhere, but Pike is going around treating minor injuries the old fashioned way. Vex is just leaning against the cavern wall with her eyes closed, Percy has his head rested on his knees, not looking at anyone. Keyleth is in the corner with the man Shaun hasn't met, but he seems to be comforting her. Even Scanlan seems to have more on his mind than usual.

Vax is asleep on his sister's shoulder, stirring only barely when Vex or Pike need him to move to check on his injuries. They don't seem worried, so he should be alright, but Shaun would be lying if there weren't a few moments in that fight where he'd assumed the worst. He'd heard the sickening crunch of bone when Vax was thrown to the ground, and between the poison gas, the lava, the cold spell... They're all lucky to be alive. As it is, there's still blood down Vax's face from a cut across his cheekbone, several scrapes and bite marks along his arms, and a particularly nasty looking claw mark on his side. The broken bones, at least, appear fixed, so that's something.

Despite himself, Shaun can't help but think that even like this, Vax is the most handsome man he's ever seen. Fate never had the two of them in the cards, it would seem, but he'll never stop appreciating this beautiful, reckless, dangerous half elf. Selfish and selfless in the same breath, the most painful deeds with only the best of intentions, his joy and grief wrapped up in one.

Vox Machina are his friends, all of them, he loves each and every one. But he'll never meet anyone else who can twist his heart in knots like this.

After they've gathered themselves, when all wounds seem to be healed to the best of their ability and they've had their breather, the group starts to wander in small clusters back to the treasure pile. Grog's been there for a while already, so it seems they're not wanting him to have all the fun.

Vex gently lays her brother down on the ground beside her as she gets up. It speaks to the really rough day they've all had that he doesn't even stir.

Shaun should probably go look with them. In all likelihood there's plenty of his own belongings somewhere in that treasure pile, things he put a lot of time and care into that he definitely wants back. Thordak's been sitting on all of Emon's goods for far too long.

Instead, he stays.

Without a word, he stays, and counts Vax's laboured breaths until they sync up with his own.

He can tell when Vax starts to wake up by the way those breaths get quicker and shallower, and, when Shaun opens his eyes, by the way Vax's face is twisting with pain.

Vax groans, carefully pressing a hand to the wound on his side, then withdrawing it and letting it hover slightly above. He still isn't fully awake yet, but he's getting there, twisting himself around on the dirt floor of the tunnel.

"...Shaun?" is the first thing Vax asks, as he blinks groggily, looking around the mostly empty space, eyes finally landing on where he's sitting.

"Sleep well?" Shaun asks wryly.

Vax just lets out another groan, rolling back onto his back. "Not really," he says, rubbing his eyes with his palm. "Everything hurts."

"Hah, tell me about it," Shaun replies, with genuine humor.

Another minute passes as Vax slowly drags himself to full consciousness, sitting up against the tunnel wall. After a moment, he looks around, seeming to just now realise they're alone.

"Where'd everyone go?"

"Oh, off to loot the dragon's treasure, I suspect. We may have let one dragon go, but the other is very, very dead, and therefore no longer sitting on all of Emon's belongings."

"You didn't go with them?" Vax asks, confused.

"I'll join them in a bit. For now I think I could do with the quiet, just for a moment. It's been one hell of a day," he says, stretching his arms out with a bit of a yawn.

"Did you want me to leave?"

"Oh, no, never, you're fine. Stay as long as you like. God knows you deserve the rest far more than I do."

"I wouldn't say that," Vax says quickly but surely, staring intently at the floor.

"You didn't, I did," Shaun counters. "But seriously, look at you! Killed a dragon, saved a city - you're living up to your hero name, and it just keeps getting more impressive."

"This isn't over yet."

"No, but it's four of five down. Take some credit for that! And considering how convinced you were Thordak was gonna kill you, I think you've done very well. I have complete faith in you, all of you, to see this through."

"You're not coming with us?" Vax asks, finally raising his head again.

"Oh nooo, no I don't think so," Shaun says immediately. "I have had, more than enough dragon to last a lifetime. How you lot do this every day is beyond me."

That gets a small laugh from Vax, and he looks down again, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand.

"Hah, yeah, you get used to it, I suppose. You know, you run your face into the wall enough times, you kinda stop flinching at it."

"That's, concerning, but I'll thank the gods every day Vox Machina's out there doing that so the rest of us don't have to," he replies with a smile.

There's another lull in the conversation for a while, as they collect their thoughts. The awkwardness and tension that's filled so many of their conversations since Vax broke up with him seems to have mostly dissipated, and Shaun couldn't be gladder for it. Even if they're not together, and probably never will be, they still know each other extremely well, and there's a trust there that takes more than a breakup, a pact with a mysterious god, and four ancient dragons to shake.

"How are you doing?" Vax asks, after a moment.

"I feel like I should be asking you that," Shaun says wryly. "I mean, could do with fewer burns, will not be jumping into any more fires in the near future, but I'll heal. And Thordak's dead, thank you again for that. So I think we've both got all the vengeance we needed to."

"It doesn't bring back what we lost."

"No, it doesn't," he agrees, simply. "But he won't be doing it to anyone else."

Vax sits in quiet agreement another moment, then gets a curious smile on his face.

"What are you thinking?" Shaun asks.

"It doesn't bring back all that we lost. But I seem to recall a lot of your shop making its way into Thordak's gold pile. Care to find out how much is left?"

Shaun had said no to the same question when he himself asked it, fifteen minutes ago. But he's feeling so much more renewed suddenly, now that they're all awake and alive.

"Before Grog or, gods forbid, your sister, get their hands all over it? By all means," he says with a grin.

"She's not that bad," Vax protests, but there's just laughter in his voice.

"Oh I adore her, don't get me wrong, but when it comes to my business dealings, I'll take a rematch with the dragon. She will come out of this with more of my belongings than me, just you watch."

Shaun's entire body rebels again when he tries to get up, reminding him just how many burns he sustained in that last fight - but eventually he manages it, with minimal embarrassment.

"Give yourself some credit," Vax says, leaning back against the wall and looking up at him. "I mean, not even I managed to seduce you into giving us stuff for free."

"Yes, because I run a fine boutique of magical items, not a charity for down on their luck adventurers." Shaun holds out a hand, and helps Vax to his feet. "No matter how good looking they may be."

"Hey, the way things are going, we might end up with more gold than you. Four dragon hoards and counting, it's no joke."

"Oh, really? And remind me, how much of that did you make yourself?"

"Hey, you get paid to make magical items, we get paid to fight dragons. It's not stealing if it was already stolen by a dragon and won't be missed."

"I will find the last remaining functional postal service on the continent and I will mail your sister a full inventory, don't test me."

"Yeah, funny thing, she tends to just rip those up."

"I am so very unsurprised by this."

And they walk away.