Chapter 6
There was something final about the way that Vi pulled her hood over her head, Something that sank straight to the depths of Caitlyn’s stomach as she watched her soulmate’s silhouette move through the haze of the streetlights. God, to admit that hurt more than she thought it ever would. Watching her storm down those steps into the pouring rain swiftly doused the fire of anger that had burst within her when they were dismissed from chambers. She had asked Vi in the corridors as they were being escorted what their next move would be, what they could do.
But Caitlyn was met with silence. Hunched shoulders. A hard line. She just kept walking.
Vi?
Vi, wait!
Caitlyn shrugged off the offer of an umbrella from the security guard at the entrance of the council building, noticing he didn’t extend the same courtesy to Vi. Instead it seemed like everybody around them, every prying eye was too busy breathing a sigh of relief to see the back of her. She never thought her soulmate would be treated with this level of vitriol, with this much opposition. But then, nobody knew it was Vi. Maybe that attitude would change if they knew. More likely it wouldn’t, knowing Piltover.
“Vi!” She shouted aloud this time, finding it hard to think through the rain plummeting down, soaking almost immediately into her clothing. “Wait!”
Vi barely slowed. Caitlyn half-sprinted, near slipping on the polished stone slick with heavy rain.
“Where are you going?”
“I dunno.” Vi’s voice was laced with emotion. “Back where I came from.” Back to minding my own fucking business, back to the fucking dregs of your society. “Seems that's what everyone around here wants.”
That’s not true.
She could make out the shrug of Vi’s shoulder as she scoffed. Caitlyn caught up, almost within touching distance, barely stopping herself from reaching out.
“I can fix this!”
“You can’t!” Vi whipped around. Hands firmly planted on her hips, barely disguised disgust clear on her face. It was like she was back in Stillwater, her defenses were up and her pretty face was twisted into a bitter scowl. Caitlyn was stopped in her tracks, her mind floundering.
“We’ll- We’ll make a new plan.” She tried, inching closer, swallowing back the panic threatening to bubble up from within her. “We have to try.”
“We tried, okay? It wasn’t enough.” Vi stepped forward, she still wouldn’t meet Caitlyn’s eyes. It was a new form of torture. “Topside and Bottom, oil and water. That’s all there is.” She turned away, she was going to leave again. Oh fuck, she was going to leave. Caitlyn took a deep, heaving breath.
“What about us?” She hated the desperation in her voice.
Vi paused. In a wonderful burst of optimism Caitlyn really felt like she was enough. That they were enough.
Vi, we can-
“Oil and water.” Vi spoke softly, barely audibly over the thrum of rain. “Wasn’t meant to be.”
“You’re just saying that.”
“Do yourself a favour, Cupcake. Go back to that big, shiny house of yours and just forget me. Okay?”
She was really walking out, wasn’t she? A panic rose up in Caitlyn. They had barely even met and she was walking out, yet there was this pit inside her filling rapidly with dread. How could one person have this effect on her? She’d feel foolish if she could feel anything beyond complete desolation right now. She stumbled a few more paces forward.
“Please, Vi, we can’t leave like this.” Caitlyn couldn’t tell if it were tears or rain running down her cheeks. “We’ve only just found each other…”
You’ll be fine by yourself, Cupcake. She just kept on walking, hood up. She didn’t look back.
“I don’t want to be by myself, Vi!” She cried out. That stopped Vi in her tracks and for a moment, she thought she might have won. But she didn’t turn around. She heard Vi’s voice, soft and gentle in her mind.
It was never gonna work between us, not in there not… Look, you’ll be okay. People live long, happy lives without their soulmates all the time. I can’t be who you want me to be-
“Vi, you don’t get to decide that for me!”
“I don’t belong here.”
“You belong with me!” Caitlyn’s voice broke. “Please.”
She could see Vi’s movedmovent stutter through the haze of the rain, heard her intake of breath. She didn’t turn around. She wouldn’t let Caitlyn in. She felt more closed off then the day Caitlyn had first met her.
Good luck, Cupcake. Thanks… For everything.
Vi don’t do this.
Cupcake, take care of yourself. Do that for me, okay?
She broke out into a jog, leaping upwards towards the next nearest building and dashed across the rooftops like it was nothing more strenuous than walking. There was no way Caitlyn could follow, certainly not in this rain. That, of course, was the point. Vi disappeared over the chimneys and into the eye of he raging storm above.
She broke down. She couldn’t remember the last time she properly sobbed like that, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking mind numbing wailing. Now she felt stupid, a fool to throw herself so fully into a relationship she had built up in her mind but could never have been in reality. It was naive to think, really, that there connection was enough. That she was enough. She had just assumed Vi wanted to stay, that the differences between them wasn’t so insurmountable. Obviously not.
She heard a familiar voice calling behind her. Without looking, she started backing up and turned. She sniffed and swiped a hand across her face, what good that did in the pouring rain. She trudged back towards the council chambers.
“Caitlyn, where on earth are you running off to?” Her mother sounded particularly irate. “And in this weather in that flimsy little uniform, did I flounder your education so much that you thought this was an appropriate place for a tantrum, hmm?”
She snorted a small laugh, shaking her head. Of course, it was appearances her mother was concerned about. She slammed her feet up the steps, sloshing through the pooling puddles, not caring what her ‘tantrum’ might look like. She steeled herself, waiting for the gloating, the chiding. But it didn’t come. She raised her head defiantly as she stepped through the building, finding only hesitation in her mother’s furrowed brows. Something about that soft expression made her crumple.
“Come now, dear.” Cassandra murmured, placing a hand on Caitlyn’s cheek and signalling with her hand for her own heavy coat to be draped around Caitlyn’s shoulders by the standing guard. “I think it’s time you went home and rested properly. I’ll call your father and ensure a hot bath is waiting for you at home.”
“I don’t want one.”
“Caitlyn, you’ll catch your death.” Cassandra’s hand lingered as she stroked back the sopping strands of hair from her daughter’s face. “I’ll- They’ll have the shower ready for you then, in your room.”
She didn’t have the energy to argue. Her mother had just called around their driver when a ringing bell called the council back into session. Cassandra ignored it, simply grabbing an umbrella and ushering her daughter towards the cart.
“Mum, you need to get back.”
“They can wait. They’ll hardly get anywhere without me anyway.”
Caitlyn snorted, allowing herself to be bustled into the back of the vehicle by gloved, caring hands tucking in the coat around her and fastening her belt.
“Caity,” She glanced up, familiar bright blue eyes reflecting a sort of sadness that must have been multiplied tenfold in her own. Cassandra held her hand tightly. “I’m sorry that outcome… wasn’t what you and your friend desired.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll try my best to…” She trailed off. Neither of them knew what to do next, it seemed. Cassandra squeezed her hand and let it slip away. “Anyway, dear. Don’t go running off before I get back home! And for god’s sake, rest!”
Caitlyn rolled her eyes but nodded anyway. She had no plans to leave her house, nowhere really to go. No one to follow. And she was exhausted.
“I love you, Mum.” She said just before the door closed. Cassandra paused, hand still on the handle.
“And you, dear.”
A sharp rap of knuckles on the roof was signal enough for the driver to get going. Tracing the familiar route back to the Kiramman manor. Through the blur of rain, Caitlyn wondered if she could make out the streaking figure of a woman jumping from rooftop to rooftop, though it more likely just wishful thinking.