Chapter 5
Jinx dragged her sorry carcass out of her chair with a groan akin to a zombie, shuffling towards her door with the mien of a death row inmate.
'O Janna of the Winds, throw your divine gales upon the wretched head of Professor Talis and I shall devote the rest of my life unto your worship, I shall build a monument to your holiness, of gold and silver and pearls and rubies and whatever else is considered valuable in this world.’
Hopefully she would wake up tomorrow to the news of a freak hurricane having flattened the man’s house to the ground.
As she neared the door Jinx promised herself and her sister that if the person knocking on her door was Vi looking to bother or hover over her again she was going to break into her apartment and shave all the stupid hair off stupid head.
A curse was on the tip of her tongue as she threw it open but it died before passing her lips.
“Hello, Jinx.”
She stared dumbly for a second, brain tired from shitty sleep and dull after listening to Talis’ lectures for long enough that it should qualify as torture in the eyes of the law.
Then she laughed and threw herself at the visitor.
He barely managed to keep the both of them from tumbling onto the floor of the hallway as he caught her. Jinx could smell his cologne and the lack of smoke on him.
She pulled away slightly to grin up at him, after being gently lowered down onto her feet again.
“What’s the occasion, pops? You don’t usually swing by unannounced.” The corner of his good eye crinkled as he smiled and stepped inside when she stepped aside.
“Can I not simply want to check in on my daughter?” He raised a brow and Jinx didn’t bother hiding the rolling of her eyes.
“Yeah, you can but you always text or call or somethin’.” He toed his shoes off, hung his coat on the rack and followed her further in.
“Sooooo… spill it already, what’s up?” It's not that she didn’t want him here but Jinx could practically see the worry rolling off of him in waves under that ‘cold-hearted bastard’ facade he wore.
She turned and sat down on the armrest of the couch and fixed him with a demanding look.
“Violet called me last night.” How wonderful, now Vi was roping the rest of their family into her crusade to bother and ‘protect’ Jinx until she either went fully crazy or agreed to spend the rest of her life walking around wrapped in bubble wrap.
“Eugh!” Her body fell backwards down onto the couch, legs dangling over the armrest. “Don’t tell me you’re gonna start barging in here out of nowhere and harassing me like she does.”
Though she couldn’t see him anymore she heard him chuckle as he walked over to take a seat in the armchair by the couch. The one that he’d bought to replace her old one, the one he’d sat in exactly once while visiting before proclaiming it a crime against comfort and taken great satisfaction to see it incinerated.
The new one sorta stuck out like a sore thumb around her own stuff, expensive and fancy, but it's out-of-placeness kinda gave it a bit of charm in her eyes.
“I promise it is nothing like that, simply something she wished to talk about, something that happened last week.” He assured her and Jinx twisted around to sit up properly, still not convinced her sister hadn’t managed to convince him to help smother Jinx in their worry.
“Last week?” She couldn’t think of anything so severe it would make Vi reach out to Silco that might’ve happened that week.
“The only thing that happened back then was-”
No way this about the whole Caitlyn thing, right?
”She didn’t… try anything, did she?” Vi asked worriedly
It was.
Was Vi so goddamn protective she didn’t even trust her own former girlfriend of nine-damn-years and the most law-abiding person Jinx had ever met? As if Caitlyn ’Killjoy’ Kiramman was some rando or serial killer or something, the idea was laughable.
What? Was she worried Caity-Cat would try to murder her or something? Sure they hated each other, or y’know, disliked severely at least since Vi and her had broken up, but even Jinx had to admit that Caitlyn was an annoyingly helpful person. Or she might just have helped Jinx to try to buy some goodwill with Vi in an attempt to get back in her pants.
…wait.
Caitlyn hadn’t wanted Jinx to tell Vi, so it couldn’t be that. Now that she devoted a few more brain cells to it the whole thing made no sense. If it was an attempt at getting in good with Vi again she’d get it, it would make sense, but it clearly hadn’t been.
Or maybe she’d told Jinx not to tell Vi because she knew Jinx would tell her if Caitlyn wanted her not to and she’d been playing her the whole time. Or it was just what she’d originally thought and Caitlyn still hated her so much she didn’t want anyone to know she’d helped Jinx. Perhaps the whole thing was just Cupcake doing her good deed for the year? The gracious Piltie princess generously helping a poor dirty Zaunite, letting her feel like such a good person and brag about it to her rich pals, over wine and miniature shrimp-cows or a cut of meat from some endangered bird or whatever it was rich people ate.
Maybe the break up hadn’t been as amicable as Vi had said it was and she was worried Caitlyn would try to get back at her through Jinx? Still a ridiculous notion, Cupcake wouldn’t even jaywalk across an empty street, but it would explain why Vi might be so worried, as unfounded as it was.
For her to still be hung up on this a week later sure was weir-
“-inx?”
“Huh?” Jinx found Silco staring at her with a questioning eye.
“Oh, uh, about Caitlyn?” She must have spaced out.
“Yes, your sister sounded worked up, she ranted for quite a while about Miss Kiramman and her,” Silco paused, looking like he was searching for the appropriate word, “’intentions’ towards you.”
Jinx waved him off, setting her slippered feet on the coffee table.
“That’s just Vi being Vi. Caitlyn was probably just doing her good deed of the day, I mean come on, this is Cait. I don't get why Vi of all people would worry about her, she was just bein’ nice.”
“She wanted me to ask that you try to avoid meeting her again, she seemed to be under the impression you would be more likely to do so if it came from me instead of her.” Silco said, his tone making it clear he knew better than to think so too.
Of course Vi couldn’t help herself from trying to police what Jinx did with her own life. A ball of anger formed inside her. It’s not like she was gonna meet Caity-Cat ever again anyways but it was the principle of the thing, Vi had no fucking right to tell Jinx what she couldn’t or could do.
Her anger must have shown because Silco said nothing more on the matter, growing silent.
Silco regarded her for another moment.
“You’re sure there is no trouble?” Silco’s lips thinned as she looked at her.
“Yes.” She put some extra emphasis on her response. Honestly, this was getting silly. So Caitlyn decided to let Jinx sleep off a night out at her place out of pity or the goodness of her heart or to feel better about herself or whatever, so what?
“Good, I confess I think she’d been drinking for a while before calling me but I had to be sure, I hope you understand?” She did, he wanted to look out for her just like Vi, though he was nowhere near as dumb about doing it.
Knowing Vi had been drunk when she called him did sort of explain some things even if it didn’t make her any less mad at her.
“Violet seemed quite convinced Miss Kiramman’s intentions were cause for worry, to the point that she asked me to have a ’talk’ with her.” Oh Janna, Vi must have been having some sort of alcohol-induced paranoia spiral, and here Jinx thought she was the crazy sister.
“I didn’t. In case you’re wondering.” He leaned back and Jinx felt a bit of pride, this was progress after all. A few years ago he wouldn’t have hesitated to do something like this, especially since it was Vi asking.
“Aww, pops, you passed up the opportunity to threaten somebody for lil’ ol’ me?” He gave her an amused look, raising an eyebrow at her tone.
“You wanted me to go legit so to speak, threatening people with bodily harm is, sadly,” He smirked a bit at that, “not something I should be getting back in the habit of now that I’m a mostly legitimate businessman.”
’Why, it’s almost enough to bring a tear to my eye.’ She thought. ’They grow up so fast.’
Jinx stood up and walked over to put a hand on his shoulder, the grave look on her face threatening to break under her mirth.
“You've come such a long way.” She wiped an imaginary tear away.
“I’m so proud of ya, sport.” She couldn’t keep the act up and was fully snickering by the end.
Silco just shaked his head at her antics, standing up when her hand slipped off him. He embraced her and Jinx hugged back just a tightly.
“I assume this means Violet was overreacting and I will not be needing to muster up some suitably menacing thugs to have a word with Miss Kiramman?” She might not like Cait but even she didn’t deserve that happening just because Vi was acting like an idiot.
“Yeah, no need to relapse into your seedy life of crime, don’t worry, old man.” She chuckled slightly into his shirt before letting go.
“Hm, I’m not too old to ground you.” He teased right back.
Jinx cocked her head. “Don’t know if you noticed but I kinda live on my own now, what are you gonna do? Barricade my door when you leave?”
“I could buy the building.” His eye twinkled with humor but he said it so bluntly Jinx couldn’t help from doubling over in giggles.
“Yeah, real responsible use of your money.” Jinx answered when she recovered, following in tandem as he started to walk towards the door.
“I have enough to waste a bit on making sure my daughter behaves.” Jinx reached over and helped him put his coat back on.
“Yeah, yeah, now as much fun as this was, I unfortunately still have a few classes left.” Eugh, just thinking about them made her want to hit her head against a wall.
“Then I’ll leave you to it,” He smiled, warmly like he only ever did at family, “but do call if you ever actually find yourself troubled by anyone. I still have enough contacts to bury a few bodies.”
“Love you too, pops.” She pulled him into another quick hug, before giving him a playful shove. “Now scram, I got shit to do.”
He bid her goodbye and soon all Jinx had to do was get ready for the next class.
At least the next one was with Professor Reveck, it was always fun to hear him complain over the latest kind of ethical trouble he’d gotten into over one of his ‘theoretical’ experiments.
Maybe he’d even go on a rant about Heimerdinger’s mustache again?
That had been one fun hour.
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Jinx was finally done with the boring lectures and was all but finished with her projects and essays well before the deadline so didn’t feel any worry about abandoning them for the rest of the day.
Right now she was slumped on her couch mindlessly scrolling through the many streaming services Silco’s bank account paid for. There was still time left in the day and she really didn’t have a clue what she would like to do with it.
She could stay in, order some food and find a passable movie or show to occupy her but that didn’t sound very appealing at the moment. With a sigh she let the remote clatter onto the coffee table and she pulled out her phone, maybe someone was up for an impromptu night out.
Jinx sunk further down into the couch with each swipe of her finger. Apparently most people had shit to do in the middle of the week that wasn’t getting shit-faced with Jinx, which honestly so rude, could no one spare a thought to her poor brain rotting from boredom?
Not only was she bored but there was a knot of anger in the pit of her stomach that had been souring her already pretty shitty mood since pops came by.
’Fucking Vi. She’s always been a real pain in the ass but, Janna, she has somehow become even worse since her and Cupcake ended things.’
’Acting like I’m a kid, like I can’t handle myself. And now calling Silco? Vi had refused to see him unless absolutely unavoidable for years and now she calls just to try and sic him on Caitlyn of all people.’
Sure she wasn’t the woman’s biggest fan –fantastic tits aside– but what the hell was Vi huffing to think it was a reasonable thing to ask Silco to threaten her, because what? She gave Jinx a ride and let her crash at her place?
’Maybe it was Caitlyn that actually ended things after Vi became as annoying with her as she is with me?’
If that was the case then maybe Jinx owed her an apology for not warning her about what a goddamn guard dog Vi could be earlier in their relationship.
Whatever the case, Caitlyn left and Vi seemed to have something against her to the point of convincing herself that Caitlyn could hurt Jinx or something stupid like that. Maybe she should’ve accepted the offer of accommodations in Piltover when she started her studies, putting a city between them might have dampened Vi’s bullshit a bit.
In an even worse mood from letting her mind wander into thoughts of that Jinx felt the urge to throw her phone at the TV, to break something just for the sake of doing it.
Quelling her violent urges she was about to just say fuck it and find a bar or something on her own. Preferably one with somebody Jinx wouldn’t mind getting dragged into bed by, she hadn’t gotten any since before the night she’d spent at Caitlyn’s house and she was kinda itching for a good lay.
Honestly it didn’t even need to be ‘good’, she’d settle for ‘alright’ at this point, she just needed some good old-fashioned skin-on-skin, anything that might let her discharge some of the energy and frustration buzzing under her skin right now.
However, just as she was about to put her phone down, thoughts of last week led her mind down another rabbit hole and without realizing found her thumb hovering over the screen, her lip caught between her teeth.
’Who was Vi to tell me what to do?’
Besides she felt like fucking with her big sister after the shit she pulled and what better way to do it than doing the opposite of she wanted?
She would happily withstand Cupcake’s hatred if she could rub it in Vi’s face after. The only obstacle was somehow convincing Caitlyn to go along with her plan as well.
Now that she had a project that wasn’t Academy-related on her mind her boredom and the itch for a nice proper fucking were easily pushed to the back of her mind.
The rest of the day and part of the night she spent trying to think of a way to get Cupcake to help her, crafting a plan that would make Vi the maddest and that would also be fun for Jinx while she was doing it.