Chapter 5
It felt wrong. It all just felt wrong.
Barely out of prison and back to running around the lanes with an enforcer in tow, now here she was standing at the centre of the plush bedroom of a councillors daughter who, oh yeah, was her fucking soulmate?! Hows that for a cruel fucking joke. Someone up there must have really had it out for her, could she blame them? She looked up at the gilded ceiling overhead, not caring to adjust the gormless expression on her face, and wondered who she’d have to punch in the great beyond to get some fucking answers about what the hell was going on-
The mention of her name being called brought her back in the room. Her eyes flickered to Caitlyn who was looking at her like… she was expecting something maybe? Like Vi was supposed to hop in, all charm and grins, and just start making happy with the in-laws. But how do you expect someone to swim when you throw them so far out of their depth, they can barely keep themselves afloat? She couldn’t do anything but just stare back, wishing that three sets of Kiramman eyes weren’t pining her down.
“Could we have a word, Caitlyn? In Private?” Her mother sounded dangerously calm and had a strong politician's pokerface on. Vi didn’t trust it. Was that her time to bolt? She glanced at Caitlyn, hoping for a signal but her fight or flight response freezing when she saw the grimace on her partner’s face. Something about Caitlyn in this moment, clutching to her father’s shoulder made her stay rooted in place. She wondered if she should offer to join the conversation, should they tell her parents about their… connection? She floundered.
You’re in trouble, Cupcake. She was aiming for humour but stumbled in the delivery. She wasn’t feeling so sure of herself, not surrounded by more wealth and opulence than could be found in even the most successful Chem Baron’s Undercity hovel.
Shut up. It felt like a sigh in her head. I’ll be right back. Make yourself comfortable.
And with that, Vi was on her own again, the silence echoing through her with an awful reverberation as the door slammed behind them. She waited a moment, letting the clicking of expensive boots get further down the hall before she could relax.
Exhaling hard, she slumped a little, reaching up to pull the hood from her weary head. She turned slowly, taking in the room around her. Everything she knew about Caitlyn seemed like barely a glimpse under the surface. She had a whole life here, in this room alone. Plants and dying flowers were shoved into every corner. She thumbed open a card attached to a particularly large and expensive looking bouquet. Well wishes from someone in the Ferros clan. Even she knew that name. Her eyes flitted to the others. Caitlyn was popular, or at least her family was, if she was receiving so many gifts like this.
She brushed her fingers over the surface of one of the lilies, the orange pollen dusting off in her hand, staining the tips of her fingers. She shoved her hands back in her pockets. Pinned to the ground was a map of the undercity, tags and pins tucked into several different pockets of the cavernous tunnels. She crouched, squinting at a couple of scrawled notes. The handwriting was messy, not at all what she expected from a high house scion, but then that was so fundamentally Caitlyn it almost hurt. She recognised the vague scribbling of certain names, Silco popping up more than others. A pin held a note tying the Last Drop to a smaller map of Piltover, a poorly drawn enforcer logo with the word “Leak?” underneath it.
Damn, Cupcake.
She stretched upwards. Scraping loose strands of hair out of her eyes, she pondered where to go next. Caitlyn did say to make herself comfortable. Did that mean sitting straight backed on the receiving chaise lounge near the entrance, or did that actually mean comfortable? There was the answer she expected from a high-house scion and then, well…
She rolled onto the bed, keeping her legs held high above the pillows. She wasn’t a complete animal, even after everything Stillwater did to her. From this angle, she got a much better glimpse of the map on the ground. It was funny how so much had changed and so much hadn't. In this new version, the marked slums stretched further, but so too did the areas of industry. Chugging factories had taken over the residential designations, it seemed, choking out more smog onto the city streets.. Another note, “Air vents here go where? And where does the grey smog go? Who controls the ventilation?” Fuck if she knew, but she bet Cupcake could probably figure it out eventually.
She leaned heavy on her arms, reaching out with one hand to flick the edge of a curling piece of paper back down. Another drawing, not one she recognised, more of a doodle than anything concrete. She’d ask Caitlyn about it later, maybe. Her eyes dragged back towards the plants.
She wondered what Caitlyn’s favourite flower was? There were a lot of lilies, white roses and colourful bird’s head-looking plants she couldn’t even name scattered through the grand bouquets. None of them seemed like Caitlyn, though. Most of the envelopes were still sealed, like she had barely glanced at who the senders were. The one she had picked up wished her a speedy recovery. From what, she wondered?
The door creaked open again and she was instantly on edge, her eyes darting up to the intruder. The sigh of relief that melted through her body whens he saw it was Caitlyn once more almost scared her. When did she get so complacent?
Sorry, you said to make yourself comfortable, but I can move… Vi’s thoughts rambled a bit. Caitlyn waved a hand before leaning back on the door, closing it behind her. She had a sort of bemused expression on her face. Vi began to tense up again.
“We’ll… present our case to the council. Tonight..”
“Oh.” Their eyes met, the two of them exchanging the exact same wordless expression. “Well, shit.” Vi settled back down, gesturing towards the maps. “Um, you do all this yourself? Without even going down there?” Caitlyn just nodded as she dragged herself over towards the bed. Vi found herself relieved to see she was barely limping with a newly bandaged knee. “And I thought Powder could get obsessed.”
She rolled over, leaving room for Caitlyn to sit on the bed. Nerves bubbled up in her chest. She felt that urge to bolt again. She blinked away the feeling of tears, inhaling sharply but refusing to give in. Her thumb found a loose part of her handwraps and she began picking and tucking. Caitlyn sank down beside her wordlessly.
“What happened to her…” She spoke so softly, “It’s not your fault.”
Vi’s breath caught in her chest. There was this sense of absolution, of being seen after so long- but there was also this dread, this ringing in her ears. They were the words she wanted so desperately to hear, she craved the forgiveness, she needed these soft words. But she was getting it from Caitlyn, not the person she wanted to hear them from.
Yeah, how would you know.
Before Caitlyn could even reply, she opened her mouth to speak, gaze still fixed firmly away, studying a grand oil painting on the wall just peeking out from the canopy.
“When… my parents were still alive.” Vi murmured, “Me and Powder used to share a bed like this. ‘Cept, maybe half the size.” She heard the bed sheets rustling beside her but Caitlyn stayed silent, letting her speak. She needed this. “We’d play a game where we would pretend to be bigger and bigger monsters. And she would say ‘Oh, I’m a slug monster with venom for ooze!’” She could see it in her mind’s eye. Powder, barely knee-high, toddling around on her knees on the cramped bed with her arms held high above her head, the two of them giggling furiously. If they were caught, their parents would chide and scold, but not without a twinkle in their eye. They knew they wouldn’t get into any real trouble. So they kept playing. She shook her head slightly, eyes focusing on the individual wrinkles of Caitlyn’s canopy.
“Um, And I would say ‘Well, I’m a slug eating crab with razor spikes.” She chuckled, turning over to face Caitlyn, folding in on herself. Her stomach felt hollow as she curled over. Caitlyn mirrored her, though Vi barely noticed, too wrapped up in memory. Her fingers thumbed at the soft threads of the duvet cover. “ Sometimes I’d- well, I’d get carried away and, um, she’d get scared.” She remembers that too. The tears in her sister’s eyes. The real fear widening those pale grey eyes as they darted around the dimly lit box room. She’d beg Vi to stop, to make the crab go away. That she didn’t want to be a slug anymore. How it would make Vi panic. Vi felt her face drop. “I didn’t want her to start crying and wake my parents up so, I’d chase my own monsters away. I’d say, ‘No monster’s gonna get you while I’m here.’ and… then a real monster showed up and I- just ran away.” The ache in her was overwhelming. Physical. The pang boiled over in her chest and she felt herself crumple. She’d never let herself admit to anyone out loud what she had done, how she had abandoned the only person living who had cared for her when she had needed Vi the most. She had played pretend those monsters years ago, but she had let herself become them on that day ten years ago. She had let herself destroy-
I left her!
You were only a child.
A hand brushed her cheek. The softness of it enough to calm her racing thoughts. Caitlyn reached out in more ways than just physical and, fuck, how she had needed that lifeline.
Without a second thought, she held on, squeezing the hand and bringing it close into her chest. Would Caitlyn feel the thumping of her heart? Her eyes found those brilliant blues, so open and sparkling in the dim glow of the setting sun filtering through the bedroom windows. She didn’t look disgusted, didn’t feel the horror that Vi felt. She looked at Vi like she was something worth protecting. How could that be?
“Vi, you…” Caitlyn’s voice was soft barely above a whisper when she spoke. As if still deciding whether to speak at all. “You deserve to have someone chase away the monsters for you too, you know.”
Vi made a noise between a scoff and a sob. She pressed her lips to Caitlyn’s hand, still clutched in her own. She looked up again, looked at that face filled with absolution. Vi couldn’t help it. Not when she was lost in the depths of blue eyes. Not when she was hopelessly drowning in the honey of that voice. The thought was simple, pure and she couldn’t have kept it out of her head if she tried.
I could fall in love with you, you know?
Caitlyn’s eyes widen, her mouth opened but where her words failed her, her thoughts sounded out as clear as if she had spoken them
I’d like you to, Vi.
Vi moved quickly but her touch was soft. With one hand reaching to cup Caitlyn’s face and the other winding securely around her waist, suddenly she was on top of her. With her dark hair splayed out like wisps of smoke on the bedspread behind her and her face flushed, Caitlyn looked more beautiful than ever. Vi leant down, her breath just warming the tip of her nose before ducking her head further, eyes locked on Caitlyn’s as the woman underneath her, pushed up towards her lips. Barely an inhale away and their lips were touching. It was like a circuit being completed, a light bursting through darkness as the two folded together. Caitlyn murmured and Vi groaned and the two of them opened their mouths in tandem to deepen the kiss, hands clasping-
And a knock from the door had them springing apart, feeling much more dishevelled than they looked. Caitlyn sat up, rolling off the mattress towards the door in one fluid but unsteady movement.
“Yes?” Caitlyn’s voice croaked out as she opened the door. Vi threw her head back onto the plush fabric behind her, catching her breath.
“Your mother wanted to let you know Miss Caitlyn that you and your friend should freshen up and ready yourself for the council meeting. She’d like to see you both downstairs in an hour for a quick debrief before you head out.”
“Okay, thank you.”
The housekeeper passed something into Caitlyn before the door was closed and the pair were alone once more. Vi rose up on her elbows, tucking her chin to her chest as she regarded Caitlyn’s lanky form leaning up against the door on the other side of this massive room. They may as well have been an entire city away.
“Um.” Caitlyn gulped, not quite meeting Vi’s eye. “That was, um. My mom-”
“I heard.” Vi cleared her throat, trying to keep her voice level. “If you want to go first… In the shower, I mean.”
“Yeah, yes. Sure. Okay.” Caitlyn smiled slightly, clutching the towels in her hand before walking swiftly towards the ensuite door. She paused suddenly in her tracks, exhaling loudly before turning around. “Vi can we talk about what just happened?”
“Later.” Vi’s voice was soft, her heart aching as she took in the flushed face of her soulmate, the one she never thought she’d find. The one she never thought she wanted. The one she never knew she really needed. We have all the time in the world, Cupcake. Right now, we can’t keep your mom waiting.
But-
I’ve already made a bad first impression on the future in-laws, Cupcake. Vi winked, delighting in how Caitlyn’s eyes widened and her cheeks turned bright red with the action. With a huff, she turned on her heels and into the bathroom beside her. Leaving Vi once more alone in her room, but not in her thoughts.