Vi didn’t think she’d been this drunk since the night after the war. Her vision was blurring by the second, and if she wasn’t sitting, she would have fallen over by now. The bartender was eyeing her, and she knew that she was two more away from getting her ass kicked onto the streets. She raised her hand and nodded at the bartender. Well, one now. She shouldn’t be here. She was 29 years old for fuck’s sake, and still coping like a child and blocking with her face.
She knew she should go back home to Cait and be there with her. She knew that she was hurting as much as Vi was. Hell, she was probably hurting more than Vi was, and Vi wasn’t even there to comfort her. This guilt, for a moment, overpowered her grief and depression, giving her the strength to stand. She finished the last drop of her drink and started towards the door. Each step felt heavier than normal, like she was wearing her gauntlets when she knew they were back at home. Lost in a drunken stupor, she stumbles out of the bar and starts the path back home, back to Cait. Janna, she thinks, why did she have to choose a bar so far? She knew why, but she still disagreed with past Vi's decision. Each step feels like she’s wading through water, her limbs fighting against a force that isn’t there. After a few more steps past the bar, she can’t take it anymore, and she stops to rest on a bench. She lays there, her body splayed out on the bench facing and admiring the stars for who knows how long. She can feel herself drifting in and out of consciousness.
Suddenly, she notices someone stopping near her. She doesn’t assume anything of it. This may not be Zaun, but people in Piltover minded their business nonetheless. She feels her eyes start to shut again, and her consciousness leaves her once again.
________
Powder had only landed in Piltover a few days ago. She’d come back a few times in the six years that had passed since the war, and only (strictly) for business. Scarlett, one of her closest co-workers (they were friends, but she didn’t like admitting that) had an apartment on the outside of Piltover proper that she was lending her for the week as she completed her assignment.
Sure, being a hired killer wasn’t the best gig but it sure as hell wasn’t the worst. Besides, she was good at it, it made a decent amount (well, more than decent) of money. Enough for her to be able to afford her own place in central Demacia. Speaking of her apartment, Janna she missed her bed.
She was walking down the back streets of Piltover, holding her high heels in her hands. The concrete was cold against her feet, but it was almost nice, in a way. This mission sucked, she thought to herself as she walked. She would rather think about how much this mission sucked then stare out at the city she’d left behind years ago. Rather than think about who was in that city. Great, now she was thinking about it.
She knew that leaving was the best choice for her. She couldn’t have faced the world after all that had happened. No, she amends herself, she couldn’t have faced Vi. Her thoughts drift to the aforementioned, and she found herself pondering what her older sister was doing at the moment. This was a dangerous road, she knew, but still she allowed herself to speculate. Maybe she was hanging out with her Piltie Wife, doing something fancy with some fancy people. It still surprised Powder that Vi, her older sister, the one who had planned a heist into a Piltie lab, was the one out of all of them to assimilate into their society. She let out a sigh, before remembering: People change. She knew that better than anyone.
She pulled herself out of her thoughts, only to realize that she had never seen this street before. Fuck. She really didn’t want to be lost, especially not her. She turned down another smaller alleyway, one that would hopefully lead her to a landscape she knew. A small bar came into view, and she sighed with relief. Good, she knew where she was now. A grunt from beside her shouldn’t have startled her, but being in Piltover had made her jumpy.
She turned to face the direction of this noise, spotting–
No.
It can’t be.
This wasn’t how this was supposed to go.
There, on that bench, lay her sister. Her heart started beating faster, and she almost made a run for it. That was before she realized that she was clearly out of it. She felt herself breathe again as her sister made no notice of her, only grumbling something about the stars. Shit.
Powder took a few hesitant steps around her sister’s sleeping figure, and yup. That was Vi. Same striking pink hair. Powder took a few seconds to take in her sister, examining all of the ways she had changed since they’d last crossed paths. The first thing she noticed was her face. It wasn’t different, per say – Vi still looked eerily similar to the way that she did when she was 15 – but instead, more mature. And, aside from her current state, Vi looked to be healthy for the most part. Her body hadn’t grown much since they’d parted ways, but she looked more fleshed out. Like someone who had been eating consistently. Then, there was Vi’s current state. She was obviously drunk, that much the younger girl could deduce. Her face was flushed and she obviously wasn’t lucid. Shit.
Now, Powder needed to make a decision. She could just leave Vi here, let her deal with the consequences of her own actions. Or she could call Caitlyn to come pick her up. No, scratch that idea. Facing Caitlyn again was the last thing she wanted to do. Or, she could bring Vi back to Scarlett’s apartment.
No, that was a stupid idea. One, it wasn’t even Powder’s apartment. Two, who’s to say Vi would recognize her? Three, Vi would wake up completely confused, and probably come out swinging and likely kill Powder under the assumption she’s been kidnapped. Four, Powder would be blowing her cover. The one she had worked so hard to maintain over the past six years. Five, Powder didn’t know if Vi even wanted to see her again. Maybe a part of her was glad that Jinx had died in that clocktower.
So, Powder spun on her heels, and started walking the other way, abandoning the older woman to lie in the bed she made. She got about 14 paces before something started to gnaw at her insides. What if Vi got hurt? Or like actually kidnapped by someone who wanted to get to Caitlyn? Or the council? Or.. even her? She couldn’t just leave her there.
Which is how Powder found herself pulling Vi’s weight onto her smaller frame, and stumbling down the roads of Piltover together.
Shit.
________
When Vi wakes up, the first thing she notices is that she’s in a bed. That shouldn’t be unordinary, but she knew this wasn’t her bed. Caitlyn and hers was softer, some luxury item that Caitlyn imported. Goddamn rich people. The second thing Vi notices is the sound of a cup being set down, and then footsteps, and then the close of a door. There’s someone else here, and it wasn’t Cait. That’s when it all came rushing back to her. Last night, the bar, the misery, the pain, falling asleep, drunk, and on a bench in the open night air. Vi sits up in a panic, before her head screams at her, hangover setting in like the bitch that it was. Vi brought her hand up to her head, cradling it for a few moments, before daring to open her eyes.
She wasn’t in some dingy basement, which was a plus. No, instead she was in a small, but cozy bedroom. The bed she was in was small, but not unpleasant. The rest of the room was rather plain, with the main color scheme being black and white, save for the occasional brown tone thrown in. There was a nightstand to her right, and she glanced over at it. She spotted the cup that she had heard earlier, and beside it were a few, small pills. A note was scratched out beside the pills that read: “for the hangover.” The handwriting was messy and barely legible, but Vi read it with no problem. It kind of resembles her own.
Damn, she thought, this isn’t the worst kidnapping I’ve been through. She thought back to when her sister had kidnapped her and sat her at a table with Cait and Silco. Janna, now she was thinking about Pow– Jinx. She felt the same wave of grief, guilt and shame wash over her that she’d been carrying for the last six years. Missing Jinx came in waves. Sometimes it felt like it was consuming her, and she ended up in cycles of blaming herself. For not having held on longer. For not having tried harder to reach her. For pushing her to Silco. For calling her a jinx. Caitlyn was usually the only one who could talk Vi out of these spirals, but they still came nonetheless. Sometimes missing Jinx felt like having a hole in her chest. Vi had felt that especially on hers and Cait’s wedding day. She kept expecting to look out at the small group of people and see Jinx there. Yet, she never was. Because she was dead, her mind whispered. That wasn’t–
Vi was pulled out of her thoughts by the faint smell of… was that bacon? That couldn’t be. She was being kidnapped for Janna’s sake. She then was caught off guard by the rattling of the door handle, and Vi prepared herself for a fight. She pushed the covers off of her legs, and raised her fists, ready to punch whoever this was into next week.
The door swung open with a swift movement, revealing to Vi a short figure, with black hair tied into a brain that ran down her kidnapper’s shoulder. She was standing in the doorway holding a tray of what seemed to be food close to her chest. That’s when Vi made eye contact with her, and she felt like air escape her lungs.
If Vi had a nickel for everytime she's recognized her baby sister despite six years having passed, she’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it’s happened twice, right?
Because there, standing right in front of her, was her baby sister. Jinx, Powder, whatever. That was her. Alive. Holding a tray of food. Staring at her.
Vi would have thought her mind was playing tricks on her, but despite being severely hungover, she knew what her sister looked like, smelt like, sounded like. She knew how she felt.
“Oh. You’re awake.”
Vi knew how her sister sounded.
“What the fuck?” The words slipped through Vi’s mouth before she could stop them.
“Damn sis, I thought you would have recognized me. I guess my hair is different…” She trails off, running a hand through her, now black, hair, and Vi took the opportunity to really look at her. She looked healthy, which was a relief. Her striking eyes were the same, haunting pink that they had been when she’d… well when Vi thought she’d fallen to her death.
“Jinx is dead.” Vi says, sounding more confident than she was. Sure, she knew her sister. But, she also knew that her sister had died six years ago. She’d grieved her, mourning her, missed her. Now, apparently she was standing right in front of her.
“Correct!” She says, sounding too chipper for the conversation they were having. “But then I kinda dug up Powder’s grave.”
Vi was too hungover for this. “You died.”
“Turns out it takes something a lot stronger to kill someone who’s 45% shimmer than just an explosion.” Powder says. This is not how this conversation was supposed to go.
“My head hurts too much for this,” Vi sighed, hanging her head. Since the initial threat of a kidnapping was gone, the adrenaline had worn off and she could feel her head throbbing once again. Suddenly, however, Jinx was handing her something. She looked up at the woman’s hand, which was holding out the pills she had seen on the nightstand before and the cup, which she now could see was filled with water.
“Here. This should help.” She says, pushing her hands towards Vi’s.
“How do I know you aren’t drugging me?”
“Because I would have already done it.” That was an acceptable answer. Vi took the pills and the cup and swallowed, only becoming aware of her state of dehydration as the water ran down her throat. She kept drinking, until the cup was empty, she realized.
“You got really shit faced, huh?” Her sister’s voice brought her back to the present.
“I’m not looking for a lecture.”
“I wasn’t going to give one. I know how it feels.” That was all it took for Vi to look back up at her, the ways that her face has changed suddenly becoming more apparent. There were a few faint scars on her neck and face that Vi knew she hadn’t had before, along with her face looking more grown up and adult than she had ever seen her. No duh, Vi thought, she’s grown. “Come on. I made breakfast.” And with that, Jinx grabs the tray she had set down on the bed, and walks out the door. It takes Vi a second to gain her balance after standing, but eventually she gets it, and she follows her out the door.
The first thing Vi notices when she walks out of the bedroom is the view. One of the walls of the living room/kitchen area was completely windowed, granting its occupant a gorgeous view of Piltover. The second is that it was definitely bacon that Vi was smelling earlier. Jinx was standing behind the kitchen bar, holding a plate of bacon that looked way too good for Vi’s current malnourished state. Her stomach seemed to agree, as it let out a grumble that corroborated her story.
This all seemed too easy. To normal, if she dared to say it. She took a seat at the kitchen bar, and Jinx slid her a plate of food. Vi wanted to take a bite first. To take the pressure off of herself to start the conversation, to ask the millions of questions that had been burning in her head. But yet, her she was, talking without thinking, once again.
“Where have you been?”
“Around. Mostly Demacia. That’s where I live now. I lived in Noxus for a year or so, and have spent a few months in Ionia throughout the years. Oh, I also lived in Bilgewater, but that was only for a few months.” Jinx (Powder?) says, almost too casually, like she was telling Vi what she had for breakfast two days ago, not how she’s been living a life completely away from her for years. “My turn. When’d you and Piltie get married?” She says, like she had an equal amount of questions for her as Vi did.
“Three years ago.” Vi says, the reminder of Cait burning a hole in her stomach. Cait was probably worried sick. Great, just another thing for Cait to worry about. This was quickly becoming too much for Vi. Between her hangover, seeing her dead sister, grieving and worrying about Cait, she was starting to get overwhelmed. “We looked for you, Jinx.”
“I know. Also, I’ve taken up Powder again– I know you always liked that name better.” Ji– Powder, says, her voice thick with emotion.
“Why didn’t you come back?” Vi said, softer this time. “We would have pardoned you– fuck what the council would have said–”
“It wasn’t about that, Vi.”
“Then what? What the fuck was it about?” She said, raising her voice despite not meaning too. “Because I grieved you. Mourned you. Prayed to Janna that you were safe in whatever heaven hell dimension that you ended up in, because you were DEAD.”
“It was about me. I needed to do something different, I needed to… find out who I was. Who Powder was. Not as Silco's daughter. Not as a terrorist. Not as someone who you needed to protect. I needed to live for myself. For the first time.”
“You could have let me know you were alive.” Vi says, the heartbreak in her voice stinging every word.
“But would you have let me go?” Powder says, and Vi’s quippy response suddenly falls short. “That’s why I couldn’t come back, why I couldn’t tell you.”
“I could have protected you.” Vi says, her voice softer now, all of the anger she held a few seconds ago now gone.’
“I needed to learn how to protect myself.” Powder says, eyes finally meeting Vi’s again.
Vi lets out a sigh, before starting. “Can I ask another question?”
“Nope,” Powder says, popping the P, “it’s my turn.” Vi takes another bite of bacon, hoping that she can swallow all of the feelings inside of her along with her food. “What made you get so shit faced you passed out on a bench?” There it was. Vi swallowed.
“Pass?” Vi asks, her voice wavering.
“Illegal.” Vi groans.
“You really wanna know?” Vi says, hoping Powder would pull out of this before Vi needed to explain herself.
“I wouldn’t have wasted my turn on it if I didn’t. Stop deflecting.” Powder says, obviously growing more irritated.
“So, I mentioned that Cait and I got married, right?”
“Yeah. Because I asked.”
“Right. Point being, Cait and I wanted to try and have a kid. Like the old fashioned way. I wasn’t completely opposed to adoption, but Cait wanted to actually do the thing. So, we did.” Vi heard the way Powder inhaled, but ignored it. “We did the whole artificial nonsense, and somehow, for reasons I don’t completely understand, it worked. Cait was pregnant. She was so excited. I mean I was too, but I just remember her face when we had gotten confirmation that it was a success. She turned to look at me with just the purest smile on her face. She was over the moon. Then, two nights ago we were coming back from dinner.” Vi swallowed, hard, saliva tasting like acid. “And Cait went to the bathroom straight after– I didn’t think anything of it. Until I heard her start screaming. And I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could, and Cait was just sitting there. Covered in blood, sobbing. I didn’t know what to do so I just sat there with her for a while. So yeah, that’s what’s been going on in–” Vi is cut off by the force of Powder’s hand against hers. “What the fuck, Pow?” Vi looks up at her, trying to understand why she was just slapped. And hard too.
“No what the fuck yourself.” Powder shoves her hands against Vi’s chest. ”You’re trying to tell me that instead of being there for your wife when she’s going though probably the most traumatic time of her life, you’re out here drinking yourself to death. Janna, Cait puts up with way too much of your bullshit.”
“Oh stop acting like you have any idea what I’m talking about.” Vi spits, harsher than she wanted them too, fueled by the pain inside.
“Excuse you.” Powder says.
“What?” Vi asks, confused. She gives Powder a blank stare, but Powder isn’t looking at her.
“Accusing me of not knowing what it feels like to lose a kid. That’s rich.” Powder says, but her voice lacks its usually accusatory bite. She’s staring past Vi now, out the window. “You found me after Isha died. You know what I tried to do, what I almost did. I know what you’re going through. Trust me.” Powder lets out a sigh. “First few months I was on my own, shit got really bad. No one IDs in Bilgewater, so bars rarely refused me a drink whenever I wanted it. My depression got better after leaving, for sure, but it wasn’t gone. I was a borderline alcoholic for a few months. Not to mention, I had quit shimmer cold turkey, so I needed something to fill the hole. The one shimmer left and the one Isha did. It took meeting some of my friends now to pull me out of that. Not to mention a stable job that required me to actually be lucid.” Vi could only stare. She knew that this was her sister, but she didn’t know this version of her. One that had grown. That's when Vi started to understand what she meant by saying she needed to live for herself. This was the version of her that had done so.
“So, yeah, Vi. I do know how you feel. And I know that it hurts. Like a bitch. But the only way that you’ll be able to move on is by accepting the people who want to help you.” Powder’s voice was almost unrecognizable. No way this was the same girl that Vi had let slip all those years ago. “Like Piltie Princess.” Oh, there she was.
“Go home, Vi.” Powder says, not a command, but a suggestion. Vi knew she needed too. But she can’t lose Powder again.
“If I leave, will you promise to not ghost me after this?” Vi says, unsure of where the two sisters stand.
“I don’t know. I’m busy.” Powder says, pulling away only slightly, but Vi noticed it nonetheless.
“No, you can’t do that. I won’t let you leave me again.” Vi says, her voice firm in her decision.
The room falls silent after that. One one hand, Powder didn’t want to sacrifice the freedom she had gained. Not to mention, if Vi and her kept in contact, there was always the chance that someone could track her down and throw her in Stillwater. On the other, the one controlled by her heart, Powder missed her sister.
“Fine. But if you rat me out to the enforcers I will kill you myself.” Powder says, the last part a joke. Mostly. Kind of. Not really.
“Fair enough.” Vi says, shrugging her shoulders. Powder could have added virtually anything to the end of the sentence and she would have agreed. With that, the two sisters stood in a silent agreement and the start of hopefully a new relationship. One between Vi and Powder. One that hasn’t existed since before Cait, before Stillwater.
“You gonna be okay getting home?” Powder says, teasing. “You were pretty drunk.” Vi rolls her eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine.” Vi makes a motion towards the door, but before she can leave, she spins around, pulling Powder into a hug. Powder, caught off guard by the sudden movement, took a second to respond. Powder slowly held Vi back, wrapping her hands around the taller woman's midsection. Vi held her there for a while, taking in everything about her that she could. Her hair, her skin, her smell, everything. So that when she thinks about her, despite being far away, Vi will be able to remember her. Then they pull away.
Neither says anything as Vi makes her way to the door. Powder expects to hear the click of the door, yet she doesn’t. Then, Vi’s voice: “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
“Okay.”
Click.