Chapter Text
“Mom,” Cait sighs with barely constrained annoyment, “May I remind you that I’m not sixteen?”
Cassandra stands with her arms crossed, standing in the doorway as Caitlyn lays almost casually with a woman in her bed that her mother doesn’t recognize. Poor girl, caught with her shirt unbuttoned and her face as red as her strawberry locks.
“I don’t care how old you are! It’s broad daylight for hell's sake, and-”
“Mom.” Cait hisses and Cassandra takes a deep breath, pausing long enough for Caitlyn’s company to make her quick escape.
“...Caitlyn, I don’t care how you spent your freetime, but a warning would do.”
“I mean,” Cait sighs, grabbing a pen on her desk to pull her hair into a bun, “A knock is the typical way to warrant a warning.”
The glare she received was nothing less than what she expected. The letter tossed on her mattress was less expected. Cait curiously opens it, only to have her eyes go wide.
“Wait, I- got in?!”
“Of course you did.”
“And you promise you didn’t pull any strings? I got in, not our money, not your name?”
“All by yourself,” Cassandra gives a warm smile and a grin spreads across Caitlyn’s face like a child getting the gift she wanted.
Caitlyn laughs in disbelief, grabbing the letter and rushing out the room, presumably to show her father. She doesn’t catch her mothers usual tell, nor the way she looks down in guilt, lingering before exiting her daughter's room.
***
The academy was everything it stated to be and more. Students in every spot, rich history and modern buildings merged into a university so large she couldn’t spot the north end from the south. She couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that she was here. Sure, she was a Kiramman, it was almost expected, but… this was real, this wasn’t some news article header to her, this was her life.
She walks into class exactly ten minutes before it started, her ponytail now perfectly secured with a matching bow to her skirt and- Look. She knows it’s cliché and maybe a bit high-school, but she had an impression to make!
A woman she’s surely never seen before walks in exactly ten minutes late, rushing in and quickly finding the seat closest to the back. Cait has to crane her neck to make out the silhouette of her short, yet wide frame, her messy hair in a cut Cait is sure would be frowned upon. She doesn’t think much of it, turning back to the front. She had a class to focus on, she wasn't here to make childish drama.
When class ends, Cait finally gets a look at her. Her old jeans, her patched jacket, the tattoo’s peaking out from those sleeves. She wasn’t just an unordinary Piltovian… She was Zaun. Caityln stares for far too long as the woman quickly leaves without so much as a glance her way.
Caitlyn wouldn’t have thought more of it, Zaunite’s have been casually and slowly immigrating into Piltovian life after all, if it weren’t for what happened next. But when the woman approaches her less than two weeks of classes later, not really meeting her eyes.
“We need partners,” She hummed, hands in her jacket pockets, her tone casual. “For forensics. I’m not paired, if you… were also unpaired, I thought maybe you and I could tag team.”
Caitlyn simply stares for a moment before remembering she actually had to respond. “I, ah, yeah, yeah. Sure!” Oh look Cait, your first friend and you’re already blowing it. Jayce was right, I totally peaked in high school.
But the girl just gives her this smirk, nodding and walking off.
“I- I never got your name!” Cait calls out, but the other woman doesn’t stop, glancing over her shoulder to answer.
“I never got yours.”
Cait pauses, hesitating just long enough for her to get away.