The New Regular
Vi was somewhat surprised to see the Piltie – Caitlyn was her name, she remembered – back at The Last Drop. Claggor’s muffins were good, sure, but she was pretty sure they weren’t so good so as to justify the long haul all the way from Topside.
Viktor was the only regular that came all the way from up there, but he didn’t count, really—he was one of them, in the end. But he did come to sink himself into his books and papers, just as this one seemed to intend to, judging from the loaded book bag slung over her shoulder.
What a long way The Last Drop had come—from the dusty bar of her childhood to a café frequented by academics. At least two of them, if this Piltie kept it up. Four, once Powder and Little Man made up their minds and picked their studies back up, as they should.
Vi sighed, shaking herself out of her musings and slinging a towel over her shoulder. A mannerism copied from Vander—who was out running errands, so customer service was all up to her.
“Hey, Cupcake.” She leaned over the counter, forearms propped on the surface to support her. This one was her own mannerism. “Welcome back.”
Warwick, large and clumsy as he was, stepped out from behind the counter to greet the newcomer. His ears were thrown back in dog-joy. Huh. The dog had always been uncharacteristically friendly for a Lanes mutt, but this was unusually friendly behavior even for him. He must really like how Pilties smell or something.
“Good Morning—” Caitlyn replied, although Vi couldn’t really tell if it was really directed at her or at the dog. Caitlyn’s eyes were certainly on the dog and not on her. It might have been the light—she’d set it to be a little warmer than usual, to match the light drizzle outside—but the topsider might have been blushing.
The reason for Warwick’s attention towards the customer was soon revealed, for she reached into her pocket and pulled out a treat to offer the dog.
Vi bit down a cackle. “Careful, he might just take a liking to you.” She warned, lightly.
Service was slow at this hour, with just a couple of old ladies gossiping at one of the booth tables and a group of middle schoolers obviously skipping class to cram for an exam at the other. It was still weird to her, that many kids in Zaun, even down here, went to school now. She was almost nostalgic for the times when all kids had to do was collect scrap in the dumpsters and get into trouble—like she did.
Caitlyn gave the dog a scratch behind the ears, and he licked at her hands in response. She let out a chuckle, and it occurred to Vi that she was actually kind of cute.
“I’ve always wanted a big dog like this. My mother is allergic, though.” Her next words were directed at the creature, “You are such a silly-sweet boy, aren’t you?”
“He’s supposed to be a guard dog. As you can probably tell, he’s horrible at his job.” Vi feigned an irritated sigh, passed the towel on to her other shoulder. She rotated her wrists, pumping her arms somewhat. “I have to be the one to pick up the slack.”
The topsider laughed out loud at that, but there was something of an odd edge to it. “Yeah, I bet you are fiercer than him.”
Vi noticed then that Caitlyn’s gaze was trained on her arms, and she quickly dropped them, suddenly self-conscious. She felt a blush coming up her neck and cleared her throat.
“Hahah, yeah. You bet.” She brought the towel down, wiped down the counter. It didn’t need wiping.
“Um, anyways—what can I get you, Cupcake?”
It wasn’t a trick of the light before, the topsider clearly blushed at being called that again.
The nickname was most definitely going to stick.
--
This time around, Caitlyn ordered a latte instead of tea, which was all the better for the barista: she got to flex her mastery of the espresso machine. Not a single wasted movement, not a single stray drop of milk—perfect rosetta of foam, round and heart-shaped. Of course, this wasn’t special treatment or anything. Violet simply had it down to a science, and why let such knowledge go unused?
But she did have to refrain from looking over her shoulder as she pulled the shot of espresso, curious to see if Caitlyn was watching her as she worked. Vi might not be the smoothest flirt in the world (or so she thought), but she could certainly whip up a mean cup of coffee.
There was no backlog of orders, so she gave herself the luxury of delivering the cup to Caitlyn’s chosen table, the same as last time.
The Piltie was just starting to unpack stacks of papers on the table, obviously arranging them into some kind of premeditated order, as Vi set the cup down on the table. The girl’s eyebrows shot up for a second, as she looked first down at the cup, and then up at Vi. She smiled, and Vi noticed a gap between her front teeth. Cute.
“Thank you.”
Vi gave her her best charming smile. “Mind if I sit for a sec while you unpack? I’ve been on my feet all morning.”
Caitlyn rose an eyebrow, obviously seeing through the poor excuse and acknowledging the implied request for a chat. She nodded, a knowing smile playing at her lips.
“Sure, be my guest.”
And so Vi sat, somewhat self-conscious but feeling brave. If Powder was around to see her chat up a customer like this, she would never hear the end of it. But, she was off doing whatever genius shit she was always doing with Ekko, so Vi was safe.
It wasn’t like this was a common occurrence, anyways. Nor like she was intending to flirt with Caitlyn. She was simply curious about this returning customer, that’s all.
She propped her elbow on the table and propped her cheek on her hand, gave the Piltie a smile. She seemed comfortable with the interaction, having slowed down her unpacking, so Vi proceeded.
“I don’t think I got to introduce myself last time. I’m Vi, Vander’s kid. I help him out with this empire of his.” She gestured around, a slight sarcastic edge of grandeur on her tongue. “Nice to meet you.”
Caitlyn smiled, a definite grace to her manners as she pulled out an unbelievably thick tome and plonk set it down on the table.
Vi wondered just how heavy her book bag was, and how strong she must be to have carried it all the way here. The cream knit sweater she wore betrayed nothing. Vi’s hands felt a little sweaty.
“A pleasure to meet you, Vi. I’m–”
“Caitlyn, I know.” The girl raised an eyebrow, again, and Vi felt a surge of panic as she rushed to patch up her misstep. “—Vander told me. He keeps a policy of learning all of our customers’ names, and is intent I follow.” Yes, a quirk of The Last Drop’s culture, and definitely not because she’d left somewhat of an impression on Vi. “Call it Zaunite hospitality.”
Caitlyn chuckled, setting her now-empty bag down beside her. “I’m really enjoying this Zaunite hospitality so far.”
“What, no decent customer service Topside?”
Caitlyn’s chuckle turned into a laugh. “Not quite like this, no.” There was a certain warmth in her eyes. “You can count yourself lucky if they write down a recognizably similar name for your order.”
Vi huffed. “Sounds rough.”
“Yeah.”
A couple of seconds of silence stretched between them, neither quite looking at the other.
Caitlyn picked up the cup, took a sip. A contented smile settled on her features. “…Mmh, coffee’s better down here, too.”
“Heh,” Vi gave her a satisfied smirk. “Don’t even mention it, Cupcake. You’ll make me blush.”
--
The next time Caitlyn came around, Vi was off shift. She heard about it from Powder, after dinner, as they shared a joint at Powder’s hideout. It had been a long time since they got together to smoke, just the two of them. It had been a busy couple of years for her little sister, going to university up in Piltover, being an absolute genius together with Ekko. And before then, Vi had been in prison.
Vi sometimes felt a little left behind, like the world had sped up while she stagnated, unaware. Zaun’s revival had barely started gaining steam when she got thrown into Stillwater—her imprisonment happening on one of the last raids of the underground fighting pits—and it was well under-way when she was pardoned. The vines covering the wall of the old vent duct were a testament to this change, amongst many others, the small bio-lights that twinkled like firelights between them being amongst the first of Ekko’s forays into bio-engineering.
She feared that one day, she’d be left behind for good. Took a long drag of the joint, coughed lightly, passed it on to Powder. But she’d have The Last Drop, and everyone returned there, eventually. That comforted her.
“So,” Powder began, after they’d sat in comfortable silence for a moment, savoring the quiet night. “This Piltie popped around today, while I was covering your ass. Really cute, all smart and bookish. Vander says she’s becoming a regular.”
Vi nodded, leaning back. “Yeah, that’s Caitlyn.” She didn’t notice the hint of a coy smile that twitched on her own lips, but Powder did, eyebrows shooting up behind her bangs.
“She asked about you.” This time she did notice the smile that played at her lips. What she didn’t notice was how Powder’s own expression turned slightly mischievous. “Told her you were slacking off, like always.”
Vi’s head whipped around to face Powder, scandalized. And then her scandalization turned to a scoff when she realized she’d been had, snatched the joint out of Powder’s fingers.
Powder laughed, gave her shoulder a playful shove. “So, what’s going on there, sis? Hitting on a customer?”
“No—well, she’s cute. Maybe.” Vi shook her head as Powder snickered, tried to change the conversation. “She’s a graduate student up at Academy, like Viktor. Maybe you and Ekko should chat with her about it, about what it’s like.”
A huff. “Barely just wrapped up school, and you already want us gone again? Jeesh, sis, thought you’d missed me.” But her tone was light, “Maybe some other time. I want to take a break for now, help around here more directly for a bit.” She made a loose gesture around her, “Everything has been changing so quickly, I do not want to miss out on it all. As nice as it is to have the Academy’s fancy labs and resources to work with.”
Vi picked at a loose thread on her jacket. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” She was a little glad.
“Besides! We have our band to work on! Who knows, maybe we’ll make it big. Jinx and the Misfits, biggest rockstars in Runeterra.”
Vi groaned. “Have you really settled on that name?”
“Uh, du-uh. It’s great stage presence.” Powder grinned. “You should invite the Piltie to our next show. She seems sturdy enough to take on Zaunite nightlife, no?”
“Powder…” Vi warned, with no bite to it. It was more to save her own face.
“Besides, there’s nothing gayer than a butch manning the drums, huh? What do you say?”