Chapter Text
"Forget me, okay?"
The trickle of shower water blended with the patter of rainfall that kept echoing around Cait's head as she replayed the conversation. Not that it was a conversation, really. More of a verbal knife through her heart. A heart that she didn't know had become helplessly bound to the idea that Vi was going to be a permanent addition to her life until that idea was brutally severed in the rain with the words, "forget me."
Salty tears mixed with hot shower water. She'd been crying for what felt like hours at this point. Her puffy red eyes burned and her head throbbed horribly. Her leg burned too.
Blood ran faintly over her knee from the wound in her thigh and hit the floor of the shower, quickly washed away like it was never there. Like Vi. Washed away in the Piltover rain. No trace left that any of it happened other than Cait's open wound. Soon enough it would heal and whatever scar would be left would inevitably fade into the pale skin around it. One less piece of evidence. Her traceless trip to the undercity. The ghost of a person she could never, in a million years, forget.
A streak of cold ran through the shower head above her. She shivered and her skin erupted in goosebumps. Her joints groaned as she reached the dial to cut off the water. Even a day of soaking in that heat wouldn't have been enough to ease the beating her body took over the past forty-eight hours.
Steam billowed around her as she limped out of the shower, grabbing a towel off the heated rail beside it. It should have felt comforting; the residual heat of the room, the cosy hug of the towel around her body.
Strong arms wrapped around her, holding her safe and close. The gentle tickle of Vi's breath on her collarbone as she pulled Cait in tighter, fingertips lightly playing with the small hairs at the nape of her neck. A soft, brief stroke of her cheek as she said goodbye.
The memory flashed in her mind without warning and she gasped, her nostrils flaring as she could practically smell the damp evening air of the bridge.
Comforting? How could anything else ever feel comforting again? Vi was gone. Vi had left .
Thump.
Cait froze. Swirls of steam continued to move silently through the air as she held her breath and strained to listen. Silence, cushioned by the mist. Maybe she had imagined it? Maybe it was the sound of her parents moving elsewhere in the house, or a vehicle barrelling down the street outside. Maybe it was just her imagination, another visceral memory clawing its way to the front of her senses in the here and now.
And then there it was. Another thump and a shuffle. Someone was in her room.
The heavy wooden door that connected her bedroom and bathroom had never felt so thin and unsafe before as she stood in naught but a towel, a matter of mere yards away from whoever was audibly moving around in the room beyond. Cait let out a low, shaky breath, ignoring the trembling in her limbs.
She was absolutely certain she had locked her bedroom door tight, having learned her lesson from her earlier return home and her mother's unexpectedly aggressive entrance. Nobody in the house would have gotten in the room. This had to be an intruder - climbed in through the window. She cursed silently knowing that it had almost certainly been left unlocked. Perhaps it was one of Silco's people, following her from the undercity until the moment she was alone, thinking she still had the gemstone. Not that it mattered. Whoever was out there was about to realize they had picked the wrong night. Caitlyn was tired, raw, and angry.
Fastening the towel securely around her body, she tip-toed silently to the door, reaching for the only wieldable object in sight that seemed heavy enough to do damage: a ceramic vase. One her mother picked out, she thought faintly, noticing the intricate paintwork on its surface. It wasn't functional, just positioned on the edge of the bathroom counter for decoration. No great loss then.
Turning the door handle was going to be the hard part. The creak under her hand as she turned was something she felt rather than heard, but every second of the glacially slow turn was agony, Cait silently praying it didn't make a sound. Her heart thumped in her chest and she let out another shaky breath as the handle reached the full extent of its turn. She held it there for a beat.
The air was still thick with steam. It would alert whoever was beyond that she had emerged very quickly once the bathroom door was open so she'd have to move fast. With any luck her injured leg wouldn't slow her down too much. Her heart thrashed against its cage in her chest and her head throbbed in time. One final deep breath. Ok. Time to do this.
She hefted the door open in one fast movement, using the momentum to propel herself out and into the dimly lit bedroom beyond. A figure was in the corner, beside the bed, wrapped in a heavy cloak and hunched over. Gotcha . Cait brought the vase down over the figure's head and shoulders with a terrific smash.
A heavy grunt of pain and the figure folded easily to the floor amidst the shower of ceramic shards. In the brief moment that her surprise attack had afforded her, Cait grabbed for another weapon, her hand closing around the handle of the iron poker beside the fireplace.
"Who the fuck sent you?" She shouted, poker raised, vision pulsing in time with her racing heartbeat.
The figure groaned again, rolling over as the cloak - no, the blanket - slid off them to reveal the vibrant pink hair beneath.
"I guess I deserved that..."
Cait's eyes bulged. Her heart somehow thumped impossibly harder. Frozen in place, poker still raised above her head, she simply gaped.
"Vi?"
Enchanting grey eyes looked up at her. Eyes she never thought she'd see again. Along with that crooked, captivating smile. Her breath hitched. Or maybe it quickened. Maybe she wasn't breathing at all.
"You gonna hit me again cupcake?"
The hard cold iron suddenly felt heavy in her hand and Cait practically threw the poker away, dropping to her knees beside Vi.
Vi. Who just a few hours ago had walked away into the rain forever. Who didn't want anything to do with her and thought that the whole thing had been a mistake. Who was here, now, in her room.
Cait wanted to hold her. She wanted to throw her arms around her and never let go, but it seemed that all she could manage to do was slowly reach out a trembling hand and trace a feather-light touch against Vi's cheek. Well, this wasn't a hallucination. Vi was really here. Vi simply stared back, her lips parted slightly as she attempted to control her own apparently ragged breathing. Was she shaking? Cait glanced around to take in the whole of her.
Vi was soaked, head to toe. Cait frowned slightly as she now noticed the trail of water from the window to where she now sat and the blanket beside her. She recognized the blanket as the throw from over the armchair in the corner. Vi watched the trail of her eye line and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
"Um, yeah sorry. I guess you have towels for drying off but that was all I could find."
"You came back," Cait murmured, so quietly she wasn't even sure herself if she'd said it outloud.
Bang!
Both of their heads whipped around to the bedroom door where, clearly, someone had just attempted to enter. Aggressively.
"Caitlyn?" Came her mother's alarmed voice. "Caitlyn we heard a crash, what's going on in there?"
"Shit," Cait cursed, scrambling to her feet and running to the door.
"Are you alright?" Her mother continued as Cait fumbled with the key in the lock, opening the door a few inches and attempting to control her racing heart and breathing.
Her mother raised a quizzical eyebrow.
"Everything's fine," Cait insisted. Her lungs strained against her control as she pretended not to be out of breath. God, it was like suffocating. She smiled brightly. "My stupid leg, I just… stumbled and knocked over a vase."
Her mother's eyes narrowed.
"I'll replace it," Cait added hurriedly.
Her mother sighed, continuing to scrutinize her daughter. "I'll send Gregory to come clean up the mess."
"No!"
Another eyebrow quirk upwards.
"I um, I'm really, very tired," Cait replied, forcing a yawn out of her mouth. It actually turned into a real one by the time it was done. "I can gather the pieces in the morning. Right now I think I just need to sleep."
The silence that followed was an eternity. Her mother looked her up and down and eventually huffed a short sigh. The stern expression softened a little. She reached out and cupped Cait's cheek with her palm.
"I am sorry, darling. I know today didn't go as you had hoped."
Cait sighed, the weight of the day still hanging around her heart. Although now obviously with a further… development. There was no sound in the room behind her, but she didn't expect there to be. Vi was more than capable of disappearing into shadows when needed. For a fleeting second Cait felt a stab of panic at the idea that she simply wouldn't be there when she turned around. That she would have disappeared into the night once again.
"I admit I was surprised that your… friend left. I know you were fond of each other." Cait clenched her jaw at this and prayed that the burning she felt behind her cheeks didn't rise to the surface. Maybe Vi wasn't listening. "Possibly for the best, but I understand it's painful. I'll leave you to your thoughts. Call Gregory if you need anything."
Cait nodded, tight-lipped and forced a final smile onto her tense face as her mother moved away from the door.
"Goodnight mother."
"Goodnight Caitlyn."
Resisting the urge to slam it shut, Caitlyn gently closed the door and turned the key in the lock. She let her forehead drop to the wood and took a deep breath. Her heart was still dancing an energetic jig in her chest. In all likelihood it would probably continue to do so for at least the next few minutes.
"Quick-thinking, cupcake."
Cait clenched her hands into fists against the wood of the door as she felt the weight around her heart lift. Rising up into her throat and her head. Ugh, her head. Still throbbing. Her eyes still stinging from the tears. Her body still aching from the bombs on the bridge.
She turned around, leaning her back against the door. Vi was standing off to the side of the bed still, evidently emerging from a hiding place behind Cait's modesty screen. She fidgeted uncharacteristically on her feet, picking at her fingernails as she looked cautiously up at Cait. Like Cait was one of Jinx's bombs and could go off at any second.
Perhaps she wasn't far off. Amongst the pain and the racing pulse and ragged breaths, Cait felt something else rising, burning. As seconds ticked by, the urgency of her desire to run to Vi was overtaken by searing red rage. Rage at the betrayal. Rage at the abandonment. Rage at the audacity.
"Cupcake?" She mimicked hollowly. "You left me standing in the rain. Told me to forget you… but you still think you can call me 'cupcake'?"
Vi's brow knitted with regret and she gulped heavily.
"Cait-"
"Perhaps 'Miss Kirramman' would be more appropriate for people who don't know each other," Caitlyn hissed, folding her arms tight across her toweled chest. "Or was I the only one expected to forget?"
"Please let me explain."
"Oh, I'd love to hear it."
Vi hesitated here, gulping heavily again and eyes darting frantically around as she tried to summon whatever words she was going to say next. Even as she waited, Cait felt her fury beginning to slip away, the edges of it smoothing over at the presence of the pink-haired woman in her room. Back again, like she never left. As if her leaving was the part that never really happened.
"Um-m…"
Cait's brow furrowed. Had she ever seen Vi like this? Unconfident. Unsure of what to say, fumbling with words as she stood awkwardly. Was Vi… scared? She was still shaking, Cait could even see it from across the room.
She didn't so much make the decision to move as her legs carried her forward without her notice. She reached Vi, minding not to stand on the broken vase pieces with her bare feet and reached up to press the backs of her fingers against the other woman's cheek. It was icy cold. Not shaking. Shivering .
"Oh my god, you're freezing."
Vi tried to shrug it off, her sideways smile emerging for a brief cameo in bravado.
"It's uh… it's a lot colder up here, I guess."
Cait was already limping away toward the closet where the towels were kept. She found a large, lavender coloured one and returned to Vi who hadn't moved an inch.
"Take your jacket off."
Vi nodded and peeled her sodden jacket from her trembling arms. Her incredibly strong arms, which glistened in the dim lamplight, water droplets running down different shades of toned, inked muscles. Cait's throat felt extra dry all of a sudden. She thought back to that first day they met, back in Stillwater - the first part of Vi she ever saw was those arms. She couldn't have imagined then how desperately she would want to be swept up by them now.
Pushing the thought aside she reached forwards and wrapped the towel around Vi's shoulders, pulling the sides tight together at her front as unblinking grey eyes lifted to meet hers again. She could faintly feel Vi's hands grip the insides of the towel too, but she still didn't let go. For a moment they just held each other's gaze like this, inches apart, Cait still clutching the towel at Vi's front. Was she holding it up for Vi, or was she holding it like a lifeline? She honestly didn't know.
And then Vi's gaze flickered down, for a split second. Cait's chest tightened. She saw the tips of Vi's ears start to redden.
"Thanks. For the towel," Vi said, her voice quiet and hoarse.
The towel. Cait was still just wearing a towel. Just one sheet between Vi and Cait's otherwise naked body. Oh God . Once the revelation had happened, Cait couldn't stop her own blush simply saturating her cheeks. She cleared her throat and took a hasty step back, turning her eyes away to look at the bed, the window, the wall - anywhere but Vi.
"I'm still waiting for that explanation," she said, willing her cheeks to stop burning, to apparently no avail.
"I was stupid."
She whirled around, eyes locking on Vi again. Not the explanation she had expected.
"I'm sorry. I don't want you to forget me."
There, hair still flat and dripping down her face, wrapped up in a towel like a burrito and standing in a puddle of water and broken vase, Vi had never looked so much like a sad puppy. What little rage was still burning in Cait at this point simply floated away.
"I was upset. I don't want to run away again. I don't want to lose… you. I… can't..."
Vi's words hung in the air for a moment as she trailed off. She held Cait's gaze still, barely blinking, like she was trying to say everything she couldn't find the words for with her eyes instead. Pleading. And Cait felt helpless to resist.
"I'm still here," Cait replied with a gentle shrug.
Another long silence filled the room.
"I'm sorry."
"It's ok," Cait said, finally relaxing her tense shoulders with the knowledge that it actually was ok. Vi actually came back. She was actually here. Because she didn't want to lose Cait.
Cait winced as she glanced down at the shards again. "I'm sorry for hitting you."
Vi blurted out an earnest laugh, dropping her gaze to the broken ceramics at her feet.
"Yeah you got me good there, Cupca-" her smile fell. Grey eyes looked up once more, uncertain again. "...Caitlyn."
At this Cait stepped wordlessly forward, wrapping her arms around the sodden Zaunite before her. Arms pinned down by the towel and Cait's embrace, Vi simply let her head drop to Cait's shoulder, heaving a deep, relieved sigh. Cait felt hot, uneven breath over her collar bone and prayed Vi couldn't hear her racing heartbeat.
Squeezing her tight, Cait pressed her cheek into Vi's wet hair and fought back the next round of tears that seemed ready to fall. God, she was so tired.
"I'm so glad you're here," she whispered.
Vi buried her face deeper into Cait's neck in response. Cait felt her body alight with goosebumps as she felt what she thought was the ghost of Vi's lips against her throat. So light that a second after it was over she couldn't be sure she hadn't imagined it. No trace other than the feeling of electricity shooting down her back at the sensation. Vi must be able to hear her thrashing heart now.
Before her already weak-feeling knees gave out, Cait pulled away, swallowing the lump in her throat.
"Uh, let's see about getting you dried off…"
Wait, she was still in just a towel. First things first. Get it together, Kirramman.
"One second. I'll be right back."
She lunged for her night shirt and shorts, folded on the end of her bed and speed-walked to the bathroom once again. She kept her eyes down the whole way, praying she didn't look as flustered as she felt. Or at least praying Vi hadn't noticed.
Both seemed unlikely. Oh well.
She pulled the bathroom door shut behind her and shrugged off the towel. No drying off was needed on her part at least because it seemed that the heat of her body had evaporated every spec of moisture she had. Almost.
She threw her sleep clothes on and attempted to tame her wild damp hair into something presentable before emerging into the bedroom once again.
Vi was standing exactly where she left her. Towel wrapped around her shoulders and pinched together at the front from inside the adorable cocoon. This was the woman who had punched a fellow inmate's jaw to pieces a few days ago. This was the woman who pinned Cait against a wall and set her body on fire with one look. This was the woman who ran towards bombs and gunfire to pull Cait from the danger of the bridge.
This woman was also a sad, soggy puppy. Vulnerable grey eyes glanced furtively around the room as she waited.
Heart melting a little, Cait went to the fireplace. It was set up ready to light with coals and resin firelighters - Gregory was diligent like that - so it wasn't long before the crackle of flames filled the silence. All the while, Vi stood where she'd been left, unmoving.
With the heat of the fire permeating through the room, Cait got to her feet and retrieved a selection of cushions and pillows from around the room, depositing them in a pile in front of the hearth. She then turned to Vi and offered her hand. Vi's breath hitched fleetingly, but she didn't hesitate to accept the invitation.
Cait gently pulled her over to the cushions, sitting down and basking in the heat as Vi did the same. Damp, wrapped hands emerged from the towel and reached out towards the warmth. Vi closed her eyes and sighed contentedly.
They sat in silence like that for a little while. Cait's eyes began absent mindedly wandering over Vi's arms and hands. The wrappings looked grubby and blood-stained. She wondered how long Vi had needed to wrap her hands like this. How many fights and how many punches. How many years of violence and defense. She wondered what the skin underneath looked like. What it felt like.
Well. She had a good excuse to find out.
She reached and took Vi's hand, turning it over in hers as the pink-haired woman looked up. Hooking her fingers into the knotted end of the wraps, Cait aimed for the most innocent expression she could muster.
"Your hands are going to stay cold and damp if we don't get these off." Grey, unconvinced eyes narrowed at her. "It's important for your circulation," Cait continued, feeling her confidence waning and fumbling to pull the wrappings free. "Gotta get that blood flow going."
The corner of Vi's mouth twitched and she silently assisted in removing the wraps, releasing her muscular, tattooed forearms and bruised knuckles into the open air. Cait frowned, pulling Vi's hand closer to examine the damage. Her knuckles were very pronounced, in shades of purple and yellow and some looking even faintly misshapen. Years of use, Cait gathered. Countless injuries; some old, some new. She barely even realised she had begun to softly trace her fingers over the bruises until she felt Vi shiver.
She dropped Vi's hand like it was molten. Which, coincidentally, is how her face felt a millisecond later. What was hotter, the fire or Cait's burning cheeks? A Piltover mystery. She stared intently at the fire, not daring to look around and see whatever expression of discomfort must surely be plastered on Vi's face. But then Vi's hand came back into her line of sight, reaching out for Cait's and intertwining their fingers. She finally looked round.
A faint smirk was painted on Vi's face. That gentle, smug, adorable, crooked smile. Cait knew it pretty well by now. She'd seen it flash at her in the Lanes enough times. At first it had made her want to shove Jericho's slimy Lanes slop into Vi's face. Now she simply wanted to capture those lips with her own. She'd be a liar if she said the thought of kissing Vi hadn't popped up a lot over the past day. At times she even began to believe that Vi might want her to. But then Vi walked away and told her to forget and suddenly the thought of that smile was like a knife in her heart.
Now here it was, back again as Vi traced her thumb back and forth over Cait's hand as she held it. The emotional whiplash from this day was almost more than Cait had energy for. The yawn came out before she could stop it. She felt Vi's eyes on her.
"Do you want to sleep?"
Cait turned her head so fast she might have been in danger of actual whiplash. Vi saw her expression and her confident, crooked grin grew.
"Not like that ," she said. "I mean really sleep. You must be exhausted."
"So must you," Cait retorted childishly, though all the fight was gone from her. She glanced at the fireplace and then back at Vi. "You're not dry yet."
The smirk grew wider. "Not likely to be any time soon, Caitlyn."
Cait blinked. Her head throbbed with the weight of the day. There was really nothing she could think to counter that.
"Here…" Vi began shuffling in place to rearrange the cushions a little, then unlaced and removed her boots and lay down in front of the fire. She gestured to the space beside her, which Cait dutifully filled with the remaining cushions before also laying down. She reached over and pulled the forgotten armchair throw from behind them, shaking any base pieces loose before draping it over her goosebump-covered body.
They lay now, facing each other, Vi with her back to the fireplace, her head silhouette by the warm light of the fire behind her. Her eyes shone brightly despite the shadows. She slid her hand under the blanket and found Cait's, locking their fingers together once again.
"Better?"
Cait nodded. Laying down was the final straw, it seemed. The exhaustion began to overcome her as she sank into the comfort of the cushions and Vi's persistent gaze. Her vision became a rhythm of glowing warm colours then slowly closed in blackness as her eyelids began to droop heavily. An impossibly gentle hand brushed her cheek, tucking a strand of stray hair behind her ear.
"Sleep well, Caitlyn."
"Cp-c-k…" she mumbled into the cushion.
"What?"
"...cupcake," she managed to say through her sleepy fog. "M' still your cupcake." Wait, that wasn't what she meant. Well, it was , but wasn't what she had meant to say exactly.
And then she felt those tortuously soft lips again grazing the backs of her fingers.
"Sleep well, cupcake."
Unconsciousness took her.
---
She dreamed of the bridge. Dreamed of glowing green insects that swirled around her on all sides. Beautiful swarms of light and colour surrounding her in the sky. And then the glint of metal and she realized they weren't insects at all but machines. Bombs .
The first explosions began on the edge of the swarm, setting off the neighbouring bombs like dominos, the chain of violence speeding towards her. But her feet were glued to the spot. She was trapped. She was going to die.
And then she heard the voice calling her name. Turned around to see Vi bolting down the bridge towards her, hand outstretched. Boom. Boom. Boom . She felt the shockwaves hit her and the burning heat on her back as Vi's bare hand closed around hers, pulling her free from the glue despite it being too late to run. She flung herself into Vi's arms and felt the strong muscles squeeze around her as they were consumed by green fire.
"Caitlyn!"
Her eyes snapped open. It took them a few seconds to focus, but in the dim of the room she saw those bright, grey eyes hovering above her. She glanced around, heart thumping. The fire had burned down and the room was lit by the wall lamps still left burning at their lowest ebb. Vi was still beside her, though now had propped herself up onto an elbow to lean over Cait's form, hand on her shoulder to gently wake her up.
Cait gasped as she felt her racing heart begin to calm.
"Bad dream," said Vi. It wasn't a question. There was knowing in her eyes as she ever so softly brushed Cait's cheek with her thumb. How many of her own nightmares must she have?
Cait looked up at her, reaching a hand up to cup Vi's face. She leaned into the touch, her eyelids fluttering briefly. Cait wasn't even sure she knew she was doing it.
"I'm sorry I woke you," Cait murmured vaguely, too distracted by the proximity of Vi's face to hers to really notice that she'd even spoken. Was her heart still racing from the dream, or because she could actually feel the warmth from the woman leaning over her?
Vi smiled softly, faintly and shook her head. "It's ok, I wasn't really asleep-"
Before she could get another word in, Cait slid her hand behind Vi's head and pulled her down as she lifted her own head up. They met in the middle, lips crashing together. The sleepy kiss was urgent and clumsy but Cait poured everything from the past days into it. She felt Vi do the same, leaning in and humming with happy surprise and smiling against her lips.
When Cait pulled back for breath Vi instinctively chased her mouth to steal another small kiss before pausing for air herself. Foreheads pressed together, breaths heavy and hearts beating hard, they stayed for a moment in each other's embrace. Vi couldn't seem to hide her grin.
"Yeah," she said breathlessly after a minute. "I was stupid. This is amazing. You're amazing."
Cait grabbed either side of Vi's collar and pulled her back in for more. The feeling of kissing this woman was like flying. Just another thing about her that Cait would categorically never forget.