Morning Meet-ups
Vi left Mel's house fairly early despite not being a morning person. They decided this was best so people wouldn't notice Vi leaving her house late at night or when the city started bustling in the morning. Vi hated it. It felt like a walk of shame when nothing they were doing was shameful. Well, almost nothing. She loved Mel, but Vi still felt guilty about cheating on Caitlyn.
She didn't think she'd ever be in this situation. Vi was never the type to lie to her partner. If things weren't working out, she'd rather just end it than start something messy behind their back.
"Ugh, what the hell am I even doing," Vi sighed to herself as she walked up the steps to Caitlyn's house.
The sun was barely peaking over the horizon, so Vi made sure to be quiet sneaking back into the manor. She didn't want to wake Caitlyn or her father. It was too early to deal with their nonsense. She closed the door behind her softly and silently headed towards the stairs.
"Out drinking again, Violet," Caitlyn said in an accusing tone.
Vi spun around quickly, her eyes wide in surprise.
"Morning cupcake. Didn't think you'd be up this early," Vi replied.
"Didn't sleep well and went to see if you were up. Color me surprised when I realized my girlfriend still wasn't home at 5:30 in the morning," Caitlyn huffed.
Caitlyn looked at Vi expectedly waiting for a reason as to why she was out all night.
"I'm sorry I wasn't here for you, Cait. I lost track of time, and when I finally realized how late it was, I figured it would be better to stay out instead of waking everyone up in the middle of the night."
It wasn’t a complete lie. She had planned on coming back last night after she and Mel had their little spat. She wasn't out drinking, but if that's what Caitlyn assumed, she wasn't going to refute it. Though, it still didn't seem like the answer she wanted. Caitlyn clenched her jaw and shook her head.
"Is this what I should expect from you now, Violet? You getting drunk all the times of the night and ignoring the devastation your sister caused," Caitlyn snapped.
"Are we really doing this now," Vi said, exasperated.
"Why not? Who knows when I'll see you next since you like to spend so much time out at bars instead of doing anything productive," Caitlyn yelled.
"I told you I wanted to go look for her. You are the one who shot that idea down," Vi countered.
"Because you wanted to go running around Zaun alone AGAIN! The last time we did that, we got kidnapped by your psychotic sister," Caitlyn fired back.
"I don't know if you remember this cupcake, but I found my sister like I planned on doing when you sprung me from stillwater. I didn't need an enforcer following me around to find her then, and I don't need one now," Vi said matter of factly.
"If there were enforcers with you, she wouldn't get away because you clearly aren't smart enough to see your sister is a terrorist who needs to be taken down," Caitlyn scoffed.
"Oh right because the enforcers are sooo fucking just. It's not like they switch sides depending on who's paying them. Or did you forget your enforcer buddies tried to have you killed?" Vi sneered.
Caitlyn was silent at that admission.
"Ha, exactly what I thought. It's so easy for you to claim my sister is a monster while you ignore all of the shit your people do to us on the daily fucking basis,” Vi said pacing back and forth.
Vi was boiling with rage but she had to calm down before she said something she'd regret.
"I need to take a walk," Vi said, striding back out the front door.
She didn’t turn around and Caitlyn made no move to follow her.
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It was 6:45 when Mel finally made it to the academy to start her day. She liked to get there early in hopes of catching the other councilors alone. If she could get in their ear without her mother twisting the facts, they would be more pliable.
If she was lucky, Mel would run into Shoola this morning. Mel always thought she was the more reasonable one out of the bunch. Shoola has her own ambitions, but she wasn’t a hot head like the rest of the remaining councilors. The council used to be more balanced, but with 3 members dead from the attack and Jayce giving Heimerdinger the boot, it was more difficult to have civil meetings now.
"I certainly placed my bets on the wrong horse when I voted him off the council," Mel muttered to herself.
The walk to Shoola's office was quick since most of the classes hadn't started for the day, and there weren't any students vying for her attention. Her office door was slightly ajar, and Mel inwardly smiled, knowing she made the right choice to get up this early. Mel knocked on the door before letting herself in.
"Good morning councilor," Mel said with a smile.
Shoola was at her desk looking over paperwork. Slowly Shoola looked up and returned the greeting.
"It's rather early for you to be here, isn't Mel," Shoola inquired.
"I thought it best to start the day early. We have quite a few things on the docket to discuss," Mel answered, walking closer to her desk.
Shoola sighed and nodded. She glanced back down at the paperwork on her desk. Mel peaked at the forms that lay strewed about on the mahogany desk. It looked like she merchant invoices.
"Yes, that we do. Though I'm assuming you didn't come to my office just to wish me good morning," Shoola said.
Mel chuckled softly, "Afraid not. You do seem quite busy, so I won't take up much of your time, but I think this is a rather pertinent issue to discuss."
When Shoola didn't interject, Mel continued.
"We have been discussing plans on how to move forward with Zaun after the attacks and have gotten nowhere so far. We have an increased enforcer presence in the lanes, but that seems to be agitating the situation. I believe it's best to take a different approach for all our sakes," Mel explained.
"Let me guess. You have a better idea than what Salo and Jayce are proposing?" Shoola added.
"I do. We have met the attacks with force, but that is only encouraging more violence between our cities. I think it's best if we find a diplomatic answer instead," Mel answered.
"Are you still proposing we make peace with them after what they did to us?" Shoola said, unconsciously brushing her fingertips over her eye.
"The losses we faced that day were immeasurable however, I still see a way forward that can be beneficial for both piltover and zaun," Mel said.
"These people can't be reasoned with no matter how pretty your words may be. They attacked not only the academy but at our memorial. You can't truly believe we can settle this with words alone," Shoola replied indignantly.
"Fighting one another clearly isn't getting us anywhere. Both Jayce and Salo are too emotional to see the damage a full-scale invasion will cause. Although their abhorrent actions caused the death of multiple councilors it's clear casualties have been had on both sides. I've done my own investigation into Marcus and the enforcers. It isn’t pretty."
"So what are you suggesting? We give them what they want after they've killed our own people. Who's to say they won't see that as a weakness and simply choose violence anytime they want something we have," Shoola countered.
"No, I don't believe our original plan will be sufficient. The man who wanted their independence was a king pin who, to my knowledge, is no longer alive. Granting them independence would throw the Undercity into chaos as they fight over who should be in control, and it will inevitably end up dragging us back into it," Mel said.
"So what is it you are suggesting?" Shoola questioned.
"Our cities have been at odds for quite some time now. I believe the root of the issue is how we have governed them. If we want peace, we need to be on equal footing."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The longer Vi walked the anger she felt only increased. She needed an outlet to release it all, but she had nowhere to put it. Mel was at work, so she couldn't find her to help quell her frustrations. As much as she loved the idea of taking Mel right on her desk to turn her anger into passion, she knew it couldn't happen.
She was topside, so getting into a random fight would only get enforcers involved and likely add fuel to the fire about how "dangerous" zaunites are. There weren't any bars open at 7 in the morning in piltover, so the only choice she had was to go back home.
"Home," the word felt weird, rolling off her tongue.
She hadn't had a home since Vander was alive. Sure, she could go back to zaun, but that still wasn't enough. She couldn’t just walk back into the last drop. Surely, after Silco died, Sevika must have taken it over.
She couldn’t go to the firelights even if she wanted to. The last time they were there they were kidnapped and blindfolded. She had no idea how to get back there and the tunnels Ekko used to get them out that first time were too intricate for her to find her way back.
Thinking about Ekko made her mind wander back to a time when things made sense. When she, Powder, Mylo, and Clagger, were still young. When the worst thing they had to worry about was getting into scuffles after a mission or powder and Mylo bickering over losing meaningless games.
An idea popped into her head at the memory.
"Maybe it's not home but it's close enough," Vi said as pulled up her hood and started running through the piltover streets.
Vi always loved running. It made her feel free. She craved the rush of adrenaline it gave her when was trapped in stillwater. In there the only way to let loose was beating up silco's goons who periodically got caught by enforcers or trying to escape. But this feeling was everything. When she was running over rooftops and jumping to nearby buildings, she felt like she was flying. Like nothing could touch her.
Her excitement was short lived though since her destination was pretty quick to get to. Vi slid down a ladder and dropped to the street below in front of a broken window. She cautiously walked inside.
"At least it's good to know somethings don't change," Vi said as she looked around the arcade.
Everything was just how they left it. The gun range still had Powder's drawings on them and the toy guns lay on top of the counter. Vi picked one up and took aim at one of the motionless targets. She shot and missed.
She chuckled to herself, "Well this was always Powder's thing not mine"
Its funny really. She never really gave it much thought but Powder was an amazing shot even when they were kids. Makes sense that she's so good with a gun now. Vi placed the toy gun back on the counter and turned to her left.
This was why she was here. If she needed to get rid of her anger this baby was always her first place to go. Her favorite game was...dismantled?
"What the fuck! You have got to be kidding me. Who the fuck would do this to Blockbuster?" Vi yelled.
There was a loud thud behind her but before she could turn all the way around, Vi heard a voice she was yearning for.
"Sorry, sis, needed some parts," Jinx said nonchalantly.