Vi was definitely not gonna go back... Or at least that's what she told herself, over and over. Vander didn't want her wandering Piltover's streets, seeking possible treasures at every corner; she'd been warned about continuing stealing and risking herself and her siblings.
So... she went on her own, again. However, it had been a few weeks since the last time she'd been interested in stealing. She wasn't after a treasure, at least not one that regarded trinkets to sell. She just wanted to see her again.
Caitlyn.
She'd seen her for the first time two weeks ago at Benzo's. And after that, Vi had gone up to Piltover twice more.
She was a Piltie and Vi couldn't stop thinking about her.
*****
"Come on, Jayce. They don't have to find out!"
He was going to go down to the undercity again, to get some supplies, and Caitlyn wanted to go, she wanted to explore and see what it was like. She did not believe her mother and father when they told her that dangerous people lived there, she knew that had to be a lie; they just didn't want her to have that kind of freedom.
"If I take you down there and your parents find out, I'll be as good as dead."
"Mother adores you."
Jayce's laugh was a mix between nervous laugh and incredulous laugh. "If you're involved, she won't even hesitate; she'll murder me herself."
"Come on, I don't want to stay here, I want to see the undercity, I'm not afraid!"
Jayce fought. Being fair to him and his overprotective self, he truly fought... And lost.
The store they went to looked crowded; well kept, but with tons and tons of artefacts that seemed both valuable and cheap. Jayce was enthralled by everything he saw, and Caitlyn couldn't see why he made so much fuss about it, to her it seemed like these were things he could get back in Piltover.
She was about to tell Jayce that they should go and look in one of the usual shops when the entrance door opened and made the little bell on top chime.
A muscular, bear-like man entered the store, accompanied by a girl with pink hair. Caitlyn lost her words, she even seemed to lose all cognitive function.
"Hey, Benzo."
The big man started chatting with the store owner, even Jayce intervened in the conversation, something about components he was looking for and that the giant of a man could perhaps provide for him.
Caitlyn didn't pay attention to any of it, she was too stunned with the girl in front of her to actually absorb anything else.
"Hi," the pink-haired woman said, balancing back and forth over her heels. "I'm Vi "
"Caitlyn."
"You come from the upper city..." Vi said, pretty much a statement, not a question. "You're a Piltie."
"Yes, I'm from Piltover."
Caitlyn did not like how this girl said 'Piltie', like it was some sort of condition or disease she had to avoid.
Vi did not look one bit ashamed. She just placed her hands in her pockets and looked at her long and steady.
However, Caitlyn did not back down. She crossed her arms over her chest, changed her stance to one that screamed 'toughness' and defied Vi's frown with her own.
"What's it to you?" Caitlyn said, shrugging to appear much more at ease than she felt. "You have a problem with me?"
Vi seemed surprised by the jab. Her expression went from serious, to surprised, to... pleased? Well now, Caitlyn was confused, 'cause out of nowhere this Zaunite seemed to change gears and transformed into something else.
"I'm sorry, I— wasn't trying to be rude..."
Vi stumbled on her words a bit, but Caitlyn waited for her to recover and give her whatever excuse she had concocted.
"It's just obvious you're not from around here..." Vi continued, still looking straight into Caitlyn's eyes.
She had an intensity that the Kiramman heiress had never witnessed before, no kid from Piltover was like this girl; she looked like she could take care of herself, and like she took care of others as well, she looked liked the kind of girl who was tough and relentless.
"I'd never met anyone like you," Vi said in a whisper.
"Someone like me?"
Caitlyn was ready to strike again—verbally though, never physically, even though she could've done it... Grayson had seen to it—but Vi's next words made her pause and rethink her whole position regarding Vi's rough manners.
"You're just so pretty."
*****
So, naturally, Vi couldn't wait to see her again.
As she moved through the streets, being careful not to raise suspicions, avoiding patrons coming out of supply stores, restaurants, theatres and bars.
She promised she'd come up here to meet her again, this time at her family estate; Caitlyn had given her the instructions.
It was her birthday, and Vi wouldn't miss it, not for nothing.
As she thought of the special day, she felt the crystal necklace with the shape of a key moving around in her pocket. The whole way up, Vi had been terrified of leaning against a wall or bumping into someone in her haste to get to Cait, inadvertently crushing the gift; she had spent all her savings and she wasn't even one bit ashamed, so she had to protect it with her life.
Vi was wearing her best trousers, the only pair of boots she had, and the one white t-shirt that wasn't dirty, topping it with her old red sweatshirt.
Her palms were sweating, profusely.
Profusely. What is that? That’s the kind of word that her prissy, gorgeous Caitlyn would use.
The cringe moment disappeared as soon as she saw the property ahead of her. The gate would be easy to sort, really; the outer walls of the mansion. though… First, Vi would have to find the correct room, and if Caitlyn hadn’t lied, she had to worry about two big, black dogs guarding the house.
Vi was a serious troublemaker, she had escaped from bad—and worse—situations before, so a simple gate was not a match for her parkour abilities. However, as soon as she jumped over the fence—her left hand inside her left pocket, protecting the little cristal key—she felt exposed. The whole frontage of the property was a long and wide corridor with plants an gorgeous tiling; only one window showed the lights on at the first floor, and the window was far from Vi’s section, she only had to circle around in the opposite direction and her presence would be overlooked.
She was still berating herself for having taking so long. It was the middle of the night, and she was sneaking into one of the richest family’s estate, and to worsen it all, she had no idea if Caitlyn would still be awake.
She surely thought Vi had decided not go in the end.
Now Vi was really panicking.
It took her next to nothing to find the room Caitlyn had described. Vi didn’t think, though, that she had expected Vi to break and enter into her house. She should’ve knock like any other normal person, but Vander had asked her to do some errands for him and the day had slipped away and now that she was free the night had fallen over the city. She never stopped complaining the whole way up.
To worsen things, just as she was trying to make out a way to clip the wall, probably use the ledge with the flowers for support, Vi heard the panting and the scraping of nails against the floor.
The freaking dogs.
Without thinking much more, Vi jumped up, grabbed the ledge and accidentally kicked one of the flower pots resting on it. She hoisted herself right when the dogs ran past below her. Her hands barely keeping her in place, and her feet kicking aimlessly, trying to fit into a crevice or something; little problem, though, this creakingly prefect house had no crevices on the walls, not the kind caused by age and deterioration though.
There was a tiny light on inside the room, and she prayed with all her might that Caitlyn were in there, awake and decent.
Jeez. Don’t think about that, perv.
Still holding onto the ledge, Vi slid the window upwards, slowly, gently, trying not to arouse anyone. And having just a creak big enough to fit, she drag herself over the frame and fell onto her right side with a dull thud.
Even though her hip hurt, her instincts was to search inside her left pocket to make sure her birthday gift was intact.
She never got to see the crystal necklace. Not before being knocked on her back and threatened with a lamp.
However, the hit never came.
Vi could only stare wide-eyed to the girl straddling her hips while she clutched the necklace with both hands against her chest. She had decided to protect the little trinket and not care about possibly being whacked in the head with the improvised weapon.
“Violet?”
“Hi…”
“Jesus. You scared the shit out of me.”
Vi didn’t remember Caitlyn cursing before, so she guessed that she had indeed scared her shitless, especially if she had been willing to turn her into pulp with a lamp.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know how else to get in.”
During her trip from the lanes to the upper city, Vi never thought of coming up with a nice speech, an apology for being late, and now she was fucked.
Even before it started, she knew she was gonna ramble away. She only hoped that some words made sense to Caitlyn.
“I got stuck being the errand girl for Vander today, and the boys didn’t help, they actually hurt more than being helpful. In the end, it took me the whole day and part of the afternoon to finish. And when I realized the time… I don’t… I mean, I didn’t even have a gift, so I spent another two hours looking for the perfect thing. And when I finally found it, Powder said she needed me. And then it was night, and I imagined your family wouldn’t appreciate me coming in late, which now that I think about it… it’s much worse that I snuck in. But I told you I’d come, and I didn’t want for it to get to midnight and not wish you a happy birthday, and I juts…”
“Vi!”
Caitlyn’s whispered yell made her shut her trap. Then she felt her face go all red.
Yup, she had rambled alright.
“Sorry…”
“You came,” Caitlyn said with a smile illuminating her whole face. “You came and that’s all that matters.”
Then Vi smiled. Even her cheeks hurt.
It didn’t even crossed her mind the fact that Cait was still on top of her. She was just happy of having made it, of being with her, and being able to give her what she’d bought for her.
“What do you have there?” Caitlyn asked as if she had read her mind.
Vi hadn’t moved an inch. Her hands were still holding the little crystal pendant against her chest, only the golden chain escaped the concave shield of her hands.
“A gift,” Vi said simply, but a little smirk gave her away.
“For me?” Cait asked innocently, playing along.
Vi loved that about her. She loved that Caitlyn could run rings around anyone, intellectually or otherwise, and she still had this sweet and playful side to her that vi had the feeling not everyone got to see.
She was honoured to be witness.
“Yeah, of course, for you.” Then Vi got nervous. “I don’t know if you’re gonna like it, I just saw it and I thought it’d be perfect, in meaning and style… you know, just… if you don’t like it, I can get you something else and…”
“Vi, just let me see it!”
Then Caitlyn finally moved. Vi sat down, hands still clutched together, still sweating, still trembling.
“Come on,” Cait insisted, and Vi’s heart began to hammer even more rapidly. “Show me.”
Vi finally lowered her hands and opened them for Cait to see. There was no envelope or wrapping paper or any kind of protective wrapper. The small key simply sat on her hands, the chain hanging over her palms.
Caitlyn’s breath hitched, and Vi heard it loud and clear as if someone had yelled next to her ear. Then the blue-haired beauty moved her hands towards Vi’s, and suddenly stopped.
Misreading the reaction, Vi looked up, worried the girl she liked so much hated her gift. But what she found was a pair of watery eyes and hesitance.
“May I?” Caitlyn asked in a tiny voice that clutched Vi’s heart even harder, if that was possible.
“Of course.” Vi offered it to her much more obviously now, extending her hands in front of her and waiting for the Kiramman heiress to take the necklace.
“It’s a key. Like…”
“Your family crest,” Vi finished for her, a bit afraid of the other meaning she’d had in mind when she saw the pendant.
However, while Caitlyn took it and examined it, something in Vi told her that it was okay to tell her, that it was okay to be vulnerable, even when she had promised herself never to be weak and let other see her feelings.
With Caitlyn it was okay.
So, she said it, sort of. “Well, that and… something else too.”
When Cait looked up at her, Vi shrugged slightly and smiled sheepishly, hoping that the gesture was enough to convey what her insane brain had thought about when she saw the crystal key catching the light of the hiding sun and reflecting it outwards. Its beauty had inevitably reminded her of Caitlyn Kiramman and she hadn’t spared even a coin to buy it for her.
It was sappy, yes. It was corny, Vi knew. It was sweet, or so she hoped.
“If you don’t like it…”
“I love it,” Caitlyn said firmly, seriously. “Put it on me?”
Vi smiled when Cait offered the necklace to her, but she took it and immediately moved around to encircle Cait’s neck with it.
Caitlyn moved her hair aside and let Vi shut the clasp. Vi felt her skin erupt in goosebumps when her fingers grazed Caitlyn’s skin.
Then she was again on her back, holding Cait who had launched herself at her, driving them both towards the floor one more time, tangled in a tight and sweet hug.
“Thank you,” Cait whispered next to her ear. “It’s the best gift.”
Vi was gonna say something. She was. But then she forgot. Cait’s lips were on hers and her mind went blank, her brain solely focused on the sensation of Caitlyn’s soft lips against hers, the tenderness in them disarming her completely.
“Best birthday ever,” Caitlyn said when she leaned back a bit, still holding onto Vi’s neck, the pendant hanging from her neck and pointing at Violet’s heart—quite appropriate, huh?
Vi couldn’t agree more. It was the best (non) birthday she’d ever had.