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Caitlyn had always been a rebel, despite her family’s placement in society and high reputation.
Back in her academy days, Caitlyn did everything in her power to break away from the Kiramman name; she wanted to make a name for herself , not hide in the comfort of her family’s, acting like she had done something to be proud of when in fact she would have been basking in the success of her ancestors. As such, the activities she involved herself in to divorce herself from being a Kiramman were extensive: sneaking out to meet her friends or dates, sneaking in friends or dates her parents didn’t approve of, going out to parties in lower districts, wearing what she wanted to wear instead of what her mother laid out for her, speaking out during formal events, lying about who she was to keep the stares away, etc.
But despite everything she had ever done, Caitlyn had never once hidden in a filthy alleyway that reeked of urine and heavens knew what else in the middle of the Undercity, and she had certainly never done so while hiding from people who wanted her head on a platter. No, Caitlyn was almost positive that this topped even her most scandalous of acts, like when she and her friends were caught skinny dipping during finals week of their last year of schooling.
“I think we lost them,” Vi huffed, her breathing slowing down from all the running they had just done. She leaned her head back against the wall behind her, and Caitlyn couldn’t help but let her eyes wander down her neck, if only for a brief moment. Sweat glistened there, and it moved erratically as Vi attempted to catch her breath. Shaking herself out of the distraction, Caitlyn peeked around Vi’s shoulder and immediately cursed. Making their way through the crowds of the Undercity were four of Silco’s—Sevika’s, now, technically—goons, hunting for the two of them.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Caitlyn remarked, inching deeper into the tight alleyway they had squeezed themselves into in order to keep any of them from catching sight of her. Vi shot her an exasperated look and poked her head around the corner. An expletive tumbled from her lips that would have made any Piltover aristocrat fan themselves. She ducked her head back into the alley and threw her hood up, as if that was going to do them any good.
Caitlyn racked her brain for ideas, her heart threatening to leap from her chest. They had seconds to come up with something; no doubt the goons were checking every nook and cranny for them, meaning they would look down this alleyway and catch them. It was a small space, and there was no way out but the way they came in, so they had nowhere to run if they were caught. Well, maybe Vi did, seeing as she was good at using the Undercity like a playground, but Caitlyn's experience was limited.
A crazy, stupid, nerve-wracking idea entered her mind. Caitlyn blinked in surprise and felt a blush creep onto her face from the sheer thought of it. It was outrageously bold, and perhaps way out of line, and the chances of it working were slim, but she didn’t see Vi offering up any options.
“Kiss me,” she said to Vi before she could lose the courage. Her partner’s eyes widened with bewilderment as though Caitlyn had just told her she had plans to leave Piltover and become a hermit in the mountains, or some other ridiculous thing.
“I’m sorry, what—”
“They’ll most likely ignore two people kissing,” Caitlyn pressed. She risked a quick around the wall behind Vi again and felt her blood go cold. Their chasers were close.
Vi’s mouth opened, probably to protest, but they didn’t have time to argue or discuss it. Rushing herself forward in the little space that existed between the two of them, Caitlyn used every ounce of courage in her body to tilt her head down and smush her lips to Vi’s, who let out a tiny noise that was muffled by Caitlyn’s mouth.
“Just go with it,” she hissed against Vi. Under any other circumstance, Caitlyn never would have forced herself onto someone, but they didn’t exactly have much of a choice here. It was that or risk being cornered by four goons who were twice their sizes.
Vi’s reaction was not what she had been expecting—she initiated the next kiss, immediately relaxing into Caitlyn and bringing her hands up to grip Caitlyn’s hips like a lifeline.
It was clumsy and uncoordinated. Caitlyn could hear her heartbeat roaring in her ears from her nerves. Embarrassingly, she was reminded of her very first kiss when she was fifteen years old. The situation had been entirely different (in her room with one of her friends from another well-known family, both of them hiding from the suffocating formal party going on downstairs) but the feeling was all the same; lips trying to find a rhythm, sweaty palms, and the overwhelming fear of messing up.
Caitlyn was attracted to Vi, had been since they first met. Well, not since the very first moment they exchanged conversation, but in the days following it. Nearly three months later, her attraction had only blossomed into something more. Affection, care, trust, feeling safe around her.
Desire.
As such, Caitlyn had envisioned kissing Vi on countless occasions. Being a perfectionist, she always pictured it somewhere beautiful, like under the stars, and they would be alone. Perhaps they would have a meaningful conversation that would become something intimate, and it would then lead to them sharing a kiss.
Never did she imagine their first kiss–if it were to ever occur, that was—happening in a sketchy alley in the middle of the Undercity, void of romance or anything that was remotely intimate. Out of the six people Caitlyn had kissed throughout her life, her first kiss with Vi easily won the award for Most Questionable .
After a few minutes, both as a measure of security and because Caitlyn’s brain had short-circuited from the softness of Vi’s lips and her hands that were still on her waist, Caitlyn pulled back and looked out of the alley.
“I think we’re in the clear.” Why was her voice so breathy? Caitlyn pushed down the thought and felt a laugh ready to burst from her throat. Turning to Vi with a small smile, she said, “It actually worked—”
But her words died quickly at the way Vi was looking at her, as if she hadn’t eaten in days and Caitlyn was the first real meal she had seen. Hunger, want. Caitlyn recognized it, had seen it reflected in the eyes of previous relationships long forgotten.
Caitlyn felt her mouth go dry. “Vi?” It came out cracked, wavering with nerves. Swallowing, she added, “I’m—I’m sorry for forcing that on you, but I panicked and we can’t afford to get caught up in trouble right now and–”
“Caitlyn.”
Caitlyn shut up immediately.
Vi searched her face, not saying a word. Distantly, Caitlyn registered that her hands were still at her waist, fingers splayed across the fabric of her clothing. She wondered what it would feel like to have those fingers, so calloused and rough and yet so gentle and kind, against her bare skin. It wouldn’t have been the first time the thought had crossed her mind, but usually, she didn’t get those kinds of thoughts in the middle of the day.
“They might come back,” Vi eventually said, voice low and almost raspy. “We should be careful, just in case.”
A small gasp escaped Caitlyn’s lips, and her face immediately flooded with warmth at what (she was pretty positive) Vi was suggesting. After all, Vi was never one to be known for being careful; recklessness was more befitting of her (and more attractive, but Caitlyn kept that part to herself).
Not trusting her words, Caitlyn nodded dumbly.
When Vi kissed her this time, it sent a shudder down Caitlyn’s spine. It was rough and needy and everything Caitlyn didn’t know she craved.
She melted against Vi, despite Vi being the one currently pressed against a wall, and caved beneath the weight of a thousand repressed feelings.
Growing up, she had been raised to be a poised and sophisticated individual, and that included putting the mind before the heart, rationality before desire. Even when her love life was brought to the table, her parents—primarily her mother, the figurehead of their household—encouraged her to choose her partners wisely, and not just based on emotion. Caitlyn had never been allowed to simply have anything for the sake of having it, or because she wanted it. No, she had to use her head and think clearly about everything.
It was safe to say that Caitlyn wasn’t using her head in the slightest as Vi broke the kiss to mouth at Caitlyn’s jaw and bite at her neck, pulling at her clothing to get to her skin as though the fabric were offensive.
And it was certainly safe to say that Caitlyn didn’t give a damn about the ridiculous rules she was forced to adhere to so that her parents were appeased. Not just in this moment, but ever since she had taken her first crying breath in this world.
She knew what she wanted, and she wanted to have Vi.
It seemed like Vi wanted the same thing.
Tugging at the locks on Vi’s head, Caitlyn brought her back up so that she could mold their lips together again. Gods, Caitlyn had never expected the taste of Vi’s lips, her mouth, her tongue, to be so addicting. She chased after it with every bruising kiss, every harsh pull of teeth on lips, every press of tongue against tongue. Yet, she still wasn’t satisfied; she craved more.
The building, familiar heat low in her belly and the growing warmth between her legs gave Caitlyn an idea of what exactly she wanted from Vi.
A shudder brought her back to what was happening, at least somewhat. It came from Vi, and only after a hazy moment did Caitlyn realize it was because she had unconsciously pressed her knee between the woman’s thighs.
Pulling back slightly, Caitlyn inspected Vi’s face. There was an expression there that she didn’t recognize—unguarded, maybe. Vulnerable. Though her lips were slack, her forehead was scrunched together, and her eyes were dark with what Caitlyn could only place as desire. Her cheeks were pink, making the freckles there stand out against her skin. It contrasted the woman Caitlyn was so used to seeing every day, a woman whose eyes carried secrets and pain and that were an effective wall to the warring emotions buried within, whose face, scarred and rough and resembling a stone, was a warning to anyone who dared to cross her, as well as a story of a past ridden with hardships. The Vi before her now was soft, open, and inviting.
Caitlyn decided she was beautiful like this.
She also decided that she never wanted anyone else to see this version of Vi, a possessiveness flooding every corner of her body.
“Is this okay?” Caitlyn murmured, her lips brushing against Vi’s and sending electricity down her back. She was referring to her knee, but she wasn’t sure if Vi understood. She nodded, however, and Caitlyn assumed she meant it in response to everything that was happening between them.
Capturing her lips again, Caitlyn let out a soft moan. Pressing closer, she brought her knee up a little, and Vi responded enthusiastically. After a couple minutes of rocking against one another, they were able to find a rhythm, and Caitlyn was sure there was an entire galaxy behind her eyes.
That heat in her belly was growing more and more, spreading to other parts of her body and making Caitlyn feel on edge, like when she had gone cliff diving with her friends back when she was seventeen and full of stupid tendencies. She had wanted to show off then, prove all of them wrong that she wasn’t just a stuck-up priss who was allergic to danger, and decided to jump from the highest ledge. There had been fear settled within her then, but there had also been excitement for the rush that she would experience from the jump, and that was how she felt now, like she was about to jump from a very high position into something potentially dangerous, but also perhaps worth the risk.
It was getting harder and harder to focus. A thought crossed Caitlyn’s mind about where this could go, and though she wasn’t opposed to having that with Vi, she was hesitant about it happening here, in a dark, smelly alley in the Undercity where they could be caught at any moment.
Reluctantly, Caitlyn pulled herself away from Vi with a sharp inhale, not realizing how deprived of air she had been from kissing the woman who made her knees go weak. Vi chased after her for a moment, and Caitlyn saw the second she came back to herself, blinking the haze from her eyes.
They were both breathing hard, staring at one another with wide gazes, not full of surprise but something more, something hopeful. Caitlyn let herself indulge in this for just a moment before speaking.
“We should head back home,” she whispered. Bringing a hand up to Vi’s face, she stroked her thumb over the tattoo on her cheekbone. She briefly wondered what led to Vi getting the ink, believing that there must have been a deeper meaning than just putting her name on her own face. Caitlyn knew that she had done most of the art on her skin herself, save f0r the harder to reach areas on her back, but she had yet to break down the wall of what they meant to the former prisoner.
Running her tongue over her lips, Caitlyn added for clarification, “It’s not safe for us here. I’d rather us continue this where we don’t have to worry.”
Vi leaned into her hand and gave a short nod. She still didn’t look like she was fully there just yet. Caitlyn’s heart fluttered. Did she cause that?
She could think about it on their way back to her house, as well as other things that would do nothing to alleviate the heat well beneath her skin.
Maybe her first kiss with Vi wasn’t the fairytale moment Caitlyn had envisioned, but that was okay, she decided. It was better.