Chapter 4
Paints, brushes and other miscellaneous art supplies from her childhood lay scattered on the floor around since she’d abandoned the unpacking of the box Vi had brought the week before. Instead Jinx was quite busy scrolling through pictures posted by the one and only Caitlyn Kiramman.
Not in a creepy way. Just, y’know, checking on the woman that had dated her sister, like everyone does in the middle of the night.
And if she lingered just a bit too long on a picture of said woman wearing a dress with a plunging neckline that threatened to expose more than it actually covered then that’s no one’s business but her own.
“...Cupcake’s got some cupcakes on her…” She muttered to herself before scrolling down to a family picture of Caitlyn with her parents.
“...Missus and Mister Cupcake’s not too shabby lookin’ either…” Jinx remarked appreciatively, studying the elegant woman with her hand on Caitlyn’s shoulder and the bearded man with the warm eyes next to Caitlyn.
Shame the two were probably all proper and uptight, now that was a sandwich Jinx wouldn’t mind adding her own peanut butter and jelly to, wink-wink nudge-nudge.
And the ability to tell Caitlyn she’d fucked her parents would have been hilarious to have locked and loaded if they ever met again.
Ah, what could have been…
Her eyes traveled to the top of the screen as the clock hit midnight and she pulled herself up from the floor with a groan.
She had a few classes she’d need to drag herself in front of her computer for tomorrow so she should probably get her sorry ass to her bed soon, no need to miss any more and risk the Pilties in charge of the Academy rethinking their decision to let her do all her studies from home. The times she had to make her way there for tests were already about as much of that place as Jinx could stomach.
So with a deep sigh and great reluctance Jinx stuffed her phone in her sweatpants and stomped off to get ready for another night of fitful and shit quality sleep.
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’I might be developing a problem.’ Caitlyn mused to herself as she refilled her glass, dark red liquid pouring from the mouth of the bottle.
Becoming an alcoholic over a girl she’s had a single conversation with in the last few years must be some kind of new low for lesbians everywhere.
In spite of her potential alcoholism Caitlyn didn’t falter for a single second as she raised the glass to her lips again.
Her eyes never strayed from the laptop resting on her thighs, scrolling past images of artwork, graffiti and the occasional little contraption Jinx had created.
Though the art was good and her creations interesting none of it was what Caitlyn was looking for.
Like the pathetic mess she was, Caitlyn was spending her night alone while virtually stalking the woman she’d had in her home barely a week ago, who had slept in a bed Caitlyn owned, drank from a glass she owned and worn a shirt she owned-
Being weird again, Cait.
There was a burning need to see Jinx again and beside showing up at her apartment in the middle of the night like a creep, her other option was trying to find any photos Jinx herself might have posted.
Painting, a picture of a disturbingly well-made shiv, another painting, and another, a miniature trebuchet made from scrap metal…
Caitlyn was slouching deeper and deeper with every post devoid of Jinx’s face, the closest thing she’d seen being a pale hand reaching into frame to give her mini-siege weapon a thumbs up, and she dearly hoped no one ever found out she was doing this.
But just when she was about to give up her eyes lit up and she almost spilled wine all over the laptop screen.
There! On the screen was a photo taken in front of a mirror, a hand with chipped blue and pink nails holding a phone up to capture the reflection of its owner. The post was dated to last Halloween and appropriately Jinx was wearing a costume.
Caitlyn felt her insides tangle themselves into knots as she drank in the sight like a woman dying of thirst.
A white lab coat had been slipped off Jinx’s shoulders to hang from the crooks of her arms, a pair of mismatched goggles sat pushed up into blue hair, deliberately placed streaks of something meant to mimic soot were placed over her cheeks and then liberally applied on the rest of her body.
But what truly captivated her was what was under the lab coat, or rather what wasn’t.
The only thing keeping Jinx from baring her naked chest was a band of what looked like bandages, preserving a bit of modesty but showing off everything else. A skirt similar to what she’d worn when she had spent the night at Caitlyn’s was splattered with fake blood and stains to complete the look, pale legs on full display aside from another wrapping of bandages around one of her calves.
The look she was going for was either sexy doctor, slutty explosion victim or skimpy mad scientist, either way it had her heart hammering against her ribcage and her legs squeezing together as she followed blue clouds down to where they disappeared under the skirt.
Whatever Jinx’s costume was meant to be, it made Caitlyn’s mind flood with fantasies of running her hands over it and peeling it off of her. Of Jinx posed up in the costume on Caitlyn’s bed, crooking a finger in a silent invitation to join her. Letting Caitlyn push the skirt up and laying her eyes on–
Caitlyn hurriedly slammed the laptop shut, her face flushed and breathing heavily.
Oh, this is really bad, Kiramman.
She set both laptop and glass on the low table and let her head fall back on the couch to stare up at the ceiling.
What the hell was she doing?
Fantasizing about Jinx like she was a horny teenager again. She had drank more in the days since Jinx had slept in her house than she had in months. There was guilt and shame surrounding her attraction to Jinx due to the role it played in her and Vi splitting, guilt because this was a person Caitlyn had seen grow up and was the sister of the woman she had once thought she would spend her life with, shame over her inability to keep a lid on her feelings, anytime she’d thought she had a grip on them she would lay eyes on Jinx again and control would slip through her fingers.
She had thought she had managed to, if not rid herself of then at least push away, the things she felt for Jinx but their recent encounter had shattered that illusion and now Caitlyn was doing worse than ever.
The blue-haired beauty just refused to leave her thoughts.
Physical attraction was one thing but never in her life had Caitlyn ever felt so utterly mentally crippled as she did now. She knew, or had known, the girl Jinx had been extremely well due to their years of proximity, had watched her go from timid child to moody and troubled teenager and then forced herself to miss out on seeing her grow into the woman from last week due to her mind's shameful conduct.
It felt like every other thought that entered her head was about wondering and theorizing what Jinx was like now, in what ways had she changed? In what ways had she stayed the same?
Did she still chew on the ends of her braids like she did as a teen? Did she still order her food with an irresponsible amount of spices? Did she still have the old clothes Caitlyn had gifted a teenage Jinx, the ones from her own teen years? Or the ones she had bought just for Jinx, like the pretty dark red dress she had given her on her fifteenth birthday?
She would eat dinner and wonder if Jinx would like more of her cooking. She would look through new cases sent in and wonder if Jinx had ever gotten in enough trouble to need a lawyer. And if she had, if she had considered going to Caitlyn.
She would do her hair in the morning and wonder if Jinx’s hair still had that unfairly soft quality that Caitlyn envied. If she still sometimes braided her hair the way Caitlyn had shown her all that time ago.
She would lay awake at night, her hand working fruitlessly between her legs, release only within reach when she stopped fighting herself and let herself imagine what Jinx’s tattoos would look like when not partially hidden by clothes, what her eyes might look like when dark with desire, what she might sound like with Caitlyn’s mouth and hands on her body.
How cruel were the gods that she had it so bad for someone that had spent the last years being ignored by Caitlyn and mistaking that distance for hate that she then decided to return in kind.
If only it was hate instead of the embarrassing truth. If it was hate she might still be with Vi, they might still be as stupidly in love as they used to be, they might still have spent mornings and nights just basking in the other’s presence.
If it was hate or anything but what it really was then maybe the future a teenaged Caitlyn had envisioned with Vi might have come true. Instead of the chasm of stagnant water that had grown between them, souring memories and poisoning dreams.
It would have been so much easier if it was hate.
But no, of course it wasn’t anything so simple, nothing regarding Jinx ever was.
It was attraction, familiarity turned unfamiliar, a desperate desire to know her again, a quiet resentment over the loss of her relationship with Violet that made her curse herself in her loneliest moments. It was attraction and lust and longing all tangled up in her chest.
It was pathetic.
Yet despite thinking that she couldn’t help the way it felt like that tangle of feelings loosened just a bit from being able to see Jinx again, even if it was this way.
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Vi ran her fingers through her hair after she sat the last now-clean glass down and looked over the now empty bar.
Tonight had been uncommonly busy for a Tuesday and she had been serving drinks all night. She was tired and hungry and wanted nothing more than to lock up, leave the rest of the bar for Vander and the timid guy, Chuck or something, he’d hired recently to clean up in the morning.
But along her general tiredness was still a pool of anger left from finding out Powder had spent a night at Caitlyn’s.
What did she think she was doing? Picking up Vi’s drunk little sister and taking her to fucking Piltover instead of Vi or Vander Mylo or Claggor or even Silco, and she knew that Caitlyn knew their adresses.
She’d never been as close to Silco as Powder was even before he and Vander got divorced, the reveal of his less-than-legal and violence-prone side business souring most of the family’s relations with him, except for Powder of course. But Vi trusted him with Powder about as far as he could throw her, so not very far, but when the other option was Caitlyn he was practically Mary Poppins in comparison.
Besides, his work was mostly legitimate nowadays, at least according to her sister.
That Caitlyn hadn’t brought Powder to any of them just spoke of her real intentions. The way Cait had acted around a younger Powder still made Vi grind her teeth in anger at herself for not recognizing it sooner.
She had changed at some point, she must have, the Caitlyn Vi had first met would never have so openly stared at Vi’s sister with such blatant lust.
Gods, how could she have been so blind?
With that depressing thought Vi locked the bar behind her and made a beeline for her car. There was a bottle of good whiskey in her apartment calling her name and Vi had no intention of keeping it waiting.
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His fingers twitched toward his desk’s drawer, his brain pleading for him to have one just one more time.
But Silco hadn’t gotten to where he was by indulging every little desire his mind asked for, his hands remained where they were, his remaining eye never wandering from the paperwork that was holding him captive for the night.
He hadn’t even opened that drawer since Jinx had finally succeeded in pestering him to drop the habit, the cigars and lighter Vander had given him so many years ago now only sat collecting dust in his desk.
Part of not opening it was truly his own will but he’d be lying if he said the notion that his brilliant daughter might have –definitely had– rigged the drawer with something guaranteed to make a mess didn’t also play a part in keeping his hands away.
A fond smile, a rare sight anyone would tell you, took over his features as he thought of the young girl he and Vander had taken in so long ago, when his business was still a secret and they had been two clueless men flailing after having fatherhood thrust upon them.
It warmed his heart thinking of Jinx, not only because she was the only family he had left that enjoyed his company, but also because she had almost managed to turn him into a fully law-abiding citizen through sheer stubbornness.
Turning his various enterprises around and going ‘legit’ so to speak had been and continues to be an ordeal, one that, ironically, was actually quite illegal, but he preserved and never once had second thoughts, after all how could he when he had promised his daughter?
The fact that this turn around seemed to make the rest of their mismatched and patchwork family more open to his presence was also a nice effect, because despite what many would say he did, in fact, experience emotions other than satisfaction and anger.
As if summoned by his thoughts his phone suddenly lit up with a familiar name.
Now, why in the world would Violet be calling? And well past midnight as well.
Jinx’s older sister’s fury had almost matched Vander’s when his work became known to them and had made it clear in the few encounters they’d had since then she did not approve of his continued presence in her sister’s life. But Jinx had always been a little different and had adamantly refused to follow Vander’s, her sister’s and her brothers’ in cutting him out from their lives.
Not that he judged them for it, his work life had collided with his personal one with blood and violence that no one in their right mind would stick around for or tolerate around them afterwards.
He was lucky Jinx viewed the concept of a ‘right’ mind with the same derision one usually reserved for fools of the highest order.
Setting aside his work he cautiously picked it up and answered.
“Always a pleasant surprise to hear from you, Violet.” He greeted her warmly, he’d watched the girl grow up after all and as much as she might dislike it he did still consider her a daughter, albeit an estranged one.
“Yeah, yeah.” He raised an eyebrow at the slur in her voice. “It’s ‘bout Powder.”
His back straightened and his voice grew serious.
“What happened?”