Chapter Text
It’s been a great evening. Molly has drank and danced with many pretty people, he can’t wait to tell his loves all about it. And he has a couple of cocktail umbrellas in his hair, partly to make Caleb shake his head fondly. He has a bunch more stored in his coat, so that he can hide them in Essek’s pockets to make the drow smile when all that science is making him frown too much. He might tuck them behind Caleb’s ears too, when he’s next kissing their human.
Thinking about kissing Caleb is always a lovely thought, as is thinking about kissing Essek, and thinking about how they’ll both be all sleepy and adorable in his bed when he gets back home. He’s mentally cycling through which pyjamas Essek might treat him to tonight, while also enjoying the anticipation of naked Caleb because the Zemnian always sleeps naked, when he almost trips over someone lying out in the apartment building hallway.
It takes him a moment to realise the person isn’t passed out, and another to recognise them as Percival, the waspish human that Vax is literally insane about. He’s not dressed for a night out, Percival strikes him as the sort of person who spends his evenings out all buttoned-up and put-together flawlessly in a very understated but high quality because he’s super rich kind of way, which is absolutely better than the rubbing-it-in-your-face kind of way. Tonight, Percival’s shirt sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, which works very well on him, his slacks look somewhat crumpled and his coat is dumped beside him. And something is clearly wrong because he’s not slung a suspicious look or a hard dry insult at Molly yet.
Molly tilts his head at the picture Percival is currently making, his tail corkscrewing questioningly, “Did Vax lock you out, darling boy?”
That would usually get him a tightening of expression and a pointed look with a sharp rejoinder about Molly’s powers of observation. Now it gets him Percival’s head lolling to one side and his eyes swimming with what looks like helplessness and oh, heartbreak?
“Vax is gone…gone, gone. Kissing Molly,” the slightly slurred reply comes.
Molly blinks and bends to peer closer. It takes a while for Percival to focus on him and then there’s not even a glint of recognition behind his glasses. Now that Molly is closer, the smell of alcohol from Percival tells a clear story.
“And because of this kissing with Molly, you’ve been drowning your sorrows?” the tiefling guesses.
Percival nods with singular emphatic force, “He’s always touching.”
“Molly?”
“Vax,” hisses out Percival, before adding. “And Molly. Touching each other. And Vax touches me, all the time. People don’t touch me like that.”
His words drift off there, like he’s just conjured himself some memories that aren’t exactly happy ones. So clearly he’s a maudlin drunk. Vax hasn’t mentioned that, or maybe he hasn’t seen Percival at this level of drunkenness before. Molly continues to watch, fascinated.
“I like the touching,” Percival laments, like someone imparting a huge secret. “I like Vax.”
He sounds forlorn. Molly finds himself making a comforting noise, who knew that under that previously impenetrable shell of precise verbal volleys and stony expressions, Percival could be such an affecting little drunk, “Oh darling, I am absolutely sure that Vax likes you too.”
Molly has heard Vax’s entertaining rants about his frustrating stubborn uptight control freak roommate, as well as the ones about how Percy shouldn’t be able to look that good when up to his elbows in grease and cogs. He hasn’t ever heard Vax this obsessed over someone before, he usually fucks them out of his system and moves on. This is very different. Something Molly knows from very personal experience, twice. He grins to himself, one hand slipping into a coat pocket to finger a set of cocktail umbrellas.
Percival is talking again, “...and his hair gets everywhere! There’s so much of it.”
Molly is no stranger to waking up to a mouthful of Vax’s hair, the amount the half-elf has does seem to multiply overnight, “He does have a lot of hair.”
Percival sighs mournfully, “Molly has a lot of hair too. They have a lot of hair together.”
He thunks his head back unevenly against the carpet and looks both pathetic and entirely devastated, not words that Molly would have thought to apply to the engineer before now.
When Percival doesn’t make any effort to leave, Molly asks curiously, “Are you going to sleep here tonight?”
Percival shrugs a shoulder, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, “Can’t go back to the room, it’s full of hair.”
“Ah.”
Honestly, Molly could listen to this all night. It’s turning out to be a very entertaining part of an already very entertaining evening.
Percival is looking maudlin again, “I don’t have enough hair.”
Molly doesn’t hide his laugh, “That’s not true, I’ve heard Vax talk more than once about your hair. He’s fascinated by it, especially that striking colour.”
Percival glares at him, not quite straight on, “My hair is private.”
Molly cackles, declaring, “Then you should probably go back to your flat where there’s a lock on the door for you and your private hair.”
“No, it’s too full of-.”
“The only hair in that room, darling, is yours and Vax’s. Molly’s has been the life of the party somewhere much more public tonight.”
Molly shakes out his hair, the movement sending a wave of metallic tinkles through the air. Percival scowls though, “Molly’s hair is too loud.”
“Ah, so there’s too much of it and it’s too loud?”
“Yes,” Percival is emphatic.
So emphatic in fact that it seems to take all his effort, because he falls into silence afterwards, his eyes starting to close, his whole body going lax. Well, that won’t do. Molly pushes a leather-clad foot against Percy’s arm, which gets him a grumble and a fuzzy glare. Molly grins at the adorable picture, it’s like being confronted by a baby owl.
“Come on, there’s a couch at my place that’s got your name on it,” he declares. “It’s much more comfortable than out here, and there’s very good coffee.”
There’s also far less chance of needing to call campus police tomorrow morning. Percival proves Molly’s point by allowing himself to be helped up to his feet as his expression brightens and he asks, “Coffee?”
Molly grins triumphantly, only last week Vax had mentioned that Percival seemed to live on coffee. Mentioned, ranted out, was in awe of, all of the above, obviously. Molly tucks an arm around Percival and helps him to stagger along the hallway at a decent pace. Thank the gods for the elevator, soon enough they’re outside Molly’s apartment. One quick propping up of a sleepy baby owl engineer against the wall, Molly has his key out and they’re inside. No lights are on in the lounge or kitchen, as expected. Molly looks longingly towards his bedroom, where a light is showing beneath the closed door.
But he has a baby owl to see to first. He could do this whole routine with his eyes shut, such is life on the road, in the theatre, and on campus. So he helps Percival lie down on the couch and peels his dress shoes off in two rapid movements. There’s a throw pillow or two for Percival’s head and a blanket thrown on the back of the couch that gets draped over him. Molly finishes by getting a glass of water for the side table near Percival’s head and a puke bucket for the bit of floor nearest his head.
Percival, clearly already halfway into the sleep of the dead drunk, does stir when Molly remembers to carefully remove his glasses and put them beside the water glass. He blinks very blearily up at Molly.
“You’ve very sparkly,” he slurs out, sleep as well as booze soaking his words.
He sounds irritated at the very idea and promptly closes his eyes, pulled under into the relief of sleep that he’s clearly been seeking all night. Grinning, Molly snaps a few photos with his phone and heads very quickly to his bedroom.
There’s a single bedside light on, and two gorgeous men waiting in his bed. Caleb is reading of course, with Essek curled up against his chest, reading his own book. Caleb’s hair is already braided back and Essek’s pointed ears are completely bare, though they flick when Molly enters the room.
“Darlings,” he sighs, his eyes roving over them appreciatively. “You are a sight for sore fucking eyes.”
He kicks off his shoes and sheds his clothes as quickly as possible, not bothering to put a stitch on before sprawling half over his loves, kissing Caleb and then Essek. One of Molly’s hands runs over the silk strap of Essek’s slip nightdress, the drow showing off an amount of bare skin that he never shows off anywhere else. Molly has to kiss him again, sliding a cocktail umbrella out of his own hair to blindly offer to Caleb who laughs softly.
He has that adoring soft look on his face that used to make Molly squirm, back when he wasn’t used to his heart being involved while gazing at any previous bedmates. Now, Molly’s greedy for every fucking look, in every sense. Essek starts to carefully remove Molly’s horn and hair adornments, his clever fingers not hesitating as he places each piece carefully onto the wide dish on the bedside table, set there for this exact purpose. Molly has misplaced way less jewellery since meeting his sharp magic men. He’s been told their efforts are entirely selfish, they both like him highly adorned and sparkling. Speaking of which…
“Vax’s engineer obsession is asleep on our couch,” he informs them. “Not puking the last I saw, I left a bucket with him though. Found him lying out on the carpet downstairs in the hall, nowhere near his floor. Apparently I’ve been kissing Vax in their apartment tonight.”
Caleb twirls the cocktail umbrella between his fingers, “That’s impressive, considering you and Vax have spent the evening outside of this building.”
“Yep, I have perfected the art of being in two places at once, without any effort on my part and without any use of Kingsley,” Molly makes a grand gesture with his hands and then scrambles off the bed to grab his phone from the pool of fabric he’d left on the floor. “I need to send him this actually.”
He shows them the photos of Percival. Essek tuts, removing the last hair ornaments from Molly’s, “He will have a crick in his legs tomorrow. Do you want me to comb this?”
He sounds so hopeful, Molly kisses him with a nip of fangs and a flick of tongue. It gets a slight moan from the drow and a hand on his thigh from Caleb.
He smiles at Essek, basking in the offer that he knows means something specifically intimate between drow. It’s why Essek braids Caleb’s hair and why he likes to see to Molly’s, “Of course, love, whenever you like, I’m not gonna complain. Pamper away.”
Essek gets out of bed, giving Molly a fabulous view of how good the dark teal silk of his slip nightdress looks on him. Honestly, Molly is spoiled being surrounded by his two beautiful men every day and night and he loves it. Caleb is looking at Essek just as appreciatively, so Molly finally worms his way under the duvet, his tail curling around Caleb’s waist and his mouth exploring Caleb’s neck until Essek settles back close to his other side and starts to comb out Molly’s hair. Ah, this is the perfect end to a fantastic night out.
“I wonder who Vax was kissing in the apartment,” he muses out loud. “Percival was certainly drowning his sorrows, maybe Vax was drowning his.”
“Maybe Percival heard voices and assumed there was kissing and that you were the one with Vax,” suggests Essek, the comb moving soothingly through Molly’s hair. “Was Percival out tonight with Vax at any point?”
“No, according to Vax, he was gonna be arse deep in work. But he probably heard that Vax was meeting me tonight. Honestly, he always gets so delightfully snippy about me and Vax, he’s probably imagined before that we were fucking at his and Vax’s place. He was so drunk tonight, he probably turned it into a memory.”
Caleb nods, Molly’s tail squeezing Caleb. He remembers the times that Caleb used to drown his sorrows too, though he rarely drowned them in drink. Caleb smiles at Molly, “And yet, you brought him home with you.”
“Well, he did call me sparkly, and say that my hair is too much and too loud,” grins Molly. “How could I resist that? And the state he was in, he wouldn’t have put up a fight if anyone found him and decided to have some fun.”
Essek squeezes Molly’s shoulder as he finishes his combing, “That was very kind of you.”
Molly shrugs a shoulder, it’s a low baseline of decency really. He grins wickedly, “Oh, and when he realises he’s safe and cosy because of me, he’s going to hate it. Especially when I tell him about the Vax pining he did out loud.”
Essek sticks the comb somewhere away from the bed and settles down under the covers, “It will be…intriguing to meet him.”
Ah, Molly winces, feeling very bad suddenly, “I’m so sorry, love, I didn’t warn you I was bringing a stranger back. Fuck.”
Essek has gotten better at talking to people he doesn’t know, though Molly knows that the drow finds it far from easy or natural. Molly and Caleb are both proud of how far he’s come, living in a different city, in a different country, and having to learn cultural norms when he’d already felt so out of place where he’d grown up. He’s very relaxed around his boyfriends though and around their glorious friends, but strangers are still a difficulty for him. And Molly, even with very good reason, has brought one home unannounced when he’d sworn he’d send a warning if he was bringing anyone back to sleep off a night out.
“I will cope,” Essek tells him, not sounding like he’s lying, thankfully. “He is familiar to me through your stories at least.”
“If he wakes in the night and thinks he’s been kidnapped or if he vomits everywhere, you will have to deal with him, Mollymauk, as a little penance.” Caleb tells him. “I don’t have to get up early tomorrow.”
Molly smirks, that’s what he likes to hear, and runs a hand over Caleb’s thigh, “What I’m hearing is you’ve got the time to see to our drunken guest if needed, and that we can keep you up for a bit now, if Essek’s into it?”
He glances back at Essek who nods with a smile and leans in to kiss Molly, giving the tiefling a little fanged nip of his own that makes Molly gasp and grin, “Oh, I’ve been a wonderful influence on you, hot boi.”
“I agree,” states Caleb.
“You can both take the blame,” Essek points out, leaning past Molly to kiss Caleb. “With my grateful thanks.”
Molly watches them kiss for a long moment, running his hands over them both, making sure to touch the spots that make them both gasp and moan. He can’t wait to see what the morning’ll bring, how will strictly put-together Percival handle a dragon of a hangover? Molly’s tail finds a smiling Essek and Molly wriggles down to start mouthing at Caleb’s thighs. He’s thinking about what marks to leave as Essek’s hand weaves through the tiefling’s hair. The morning can definitely fucking wait.