Work Text:
When Vi folded her hand over her own, Caitlyn could feel the roughness of her palm, the frayed edges of the tape around her arms and where her calluses pressed into her skin. Lines of black ink peeked out from where the sleeve of her jacket had been pulled back and she resisted the urge to push back the sleeve further and run her fingers along them. Dark smudges lay under dark lashes and she could see the tiredness etched into the skin under Vi’s eyes and at the corners of her mouth.
“Do you need anything?” she whispered and Vi slowly shook her head, cheek smushed against the bed. She sat up and settled back against the bedpost, letting go of Caitlyn’s hand in the process. Caitlyn did her best not to look too disappointed.
“Distract me,” she said, cocking her head to one side. “Tell me what life’s like topside.”
Vaguely, Caitlyn noticed Vi’s boots smearing mud into the bed sheets but she didn’t really seem to care.
“Well,” she began, “it’s probably a lot like what you imagined - privileged, wasteful, rich. But there’s beautiful parts too, like the sunrise and the winter market.” She sat up, cross legged. “I suppose you’d find the same people here that you’d find in the undercity, just that they’ve lived different lives.”
“Uh huh. And what about your life?”
“What about my life?”
Vi rolled her eyes. “What’s your life been like?”
Her life? Why would she want to know about her life? “Oh, I don’t think you’d be that interested.”
“Try me.”
“Alright, um. I had a pretty sheltered childhood: only child, only heir, and all that. Everyone knew who I was so it was pretty hard to go anywhere unrecognised. Pretty hard to go anywhere at all, actually - people never want to just be nice to you, they always want something from you. They left as soon as they realised I was a bit of a stuck-up. I stopped trusting people pretty easily.” She sighed. “I… I didn’t really have friends until my mother brought Jayce home for dinner one day, saying she was going to be his patron. And when I started coming of age, well… there’s not a lot of things people won’t do to have a chance with Caitlyn Kiramman.”
Vi scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Fucking hell, I can imagine.”
“I spent so much time in this house it’s no wonder I leapt at the chance to get out,” she continued. “I know you hate the enforcers and, believe me, I understand why, but it’s a way for me to help people. I can travel and see the world. Doesn’t mean my mother and the rest of them don’t give me hell for it.”
She sighed again and pulled the tie from her hair, dragging a hand over her face. “Still, it feels like nothing compared to what you’ve been through.”
“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t real, though.” Vi turned to look at her, eyes clear as they caught the afternoon light. “You’ve fought your battles, I’ve fought mine. Makes the both of us stronger for it.”
Caitlyn nodded, not truly believing her but grateful for the words. “I think you’re probably stronger than most,” she mumbled, doing her best not to look down at Vi’s arms.
Vi snickered. “Well, you’re an alright shot, cupcake.”
“You know very well that I’m an excellent shot,” Caitlyn scoffed and Vi laughed out loud.
She flexed her hands, a smile lingering on her face, and pulled at the edge of the tape by her elbow, pulling out the edge and unwinding it from around her arm, quickly and neatly. Caitlyn watched, throat suddenly dry, as she revealed solid muscle and scattered white scars. Shoving the two spools of tape into her pockets, Vi ran a hand over her skin. It was covered in tiny criss-crossing marks and some of her fingers were slightly crooked, she realised, most likely from it being broken and set wrong.
On an impulse, she reached out and grabbed Vi’s hand, flushing at the sound of surprise the gesture caused. Caitlyn bowed her head over it so that her blush would go unseen, tracing over the scars and the lines of her palm. She stroked her fingers over Vi’s knuckles, feeling the ridges where skin had split, healed, split again, and the quiet part of her wished that she could kiss them.
“How are your hands so pretty when you’re supposed to be an enforcer?” Vi murmured, lacing their fingers together.
Pretty? “Pretty?”
Vi laughed softly. “Don’t say it like you’re surprised. Still, they’re nothing compared to the rest of you.”
Caitlyn choked on her spit and very intelligently said, “What.”
Smirking, Vi yanked her forwards by their linked hands and tilted her face up, eyes half-lidded and lips so incredibly close.
“I wasn’t kidding when I said you were hot, cupcake.”
She leaned forwards and paused, breath misting over Caitlyn’s mouth for a moment. She was giving her the chance to back away, she realised, and the consideration made her smile. Vi’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.
“What’s so f-”
Caitlyn kissed her. It wasn’t much, just a press of her lips against Vi’s, but it sent sparks shooting under her skin. She pulled away and then surged forwards to crush their mouths together, hand reaching out to cradle Vi’s jaw. Vi kissed like she fought - honestly, pure force masking undeniably skill, in a way that made Caitlyn’s heart stop and her knees weak.
Strong arms wrapped around her waist and she found herself sprawling unceremoniously into Vi’s lap. Immediately, Vi’s lips found hers again, face tilting up to kiss her, and Caitlyn buried a hand in her hair. She gasped as hands squeezed her waist and Vi used the opportunity to shove her tongue into her mouth. Caitlyn moaned into her mouth and embarrassment shot through her until she felt Vi shudder beneath her as her grip tightened in her hair.
They broke apart for air, gasping with kiss-bitten lips. Vi looked utterly wrecked: hair disheveled and sticking up in all directions, lips pink and swollen, chest heaving. Caitlyn couldn’t imagine she looked much better.
“You ready to tell me what’s so funny now?” Vi rasped, hands settling in the curve of Caitlyn’s waist.
“What’s funny,” she murmured, brushing Vi’s hair out of her face, “is that you’re a lot sweeter than you want people to think.”
“Shut up,” she growled and Caitlyn laughed, kissing the blush that was blooming furiously over her cheeks. Her hair hung down from her face in a curtain, as if separating them both from the rest of the world, as if they had all the time they wanted for this moment to last.
“We don’t have that long,” Vi mumbled, as if reading her thoughts, glancing at the window. Caitlyn followed her gaze to see the sun’s rays turning warm and golden as the sky turned soft with evening light.
“No, we probably have to get going,” she agreed, reluctantly.
She kissed Vi again, slowly, chaste compared to everything before, and leaned forwards until their foreheads pressed against each other, eyes fluttering closed.
“C’mon, cupcake,” Vi said. “I don’t want you to get up any more than you do but I doubt they’re gonna like it if we’re late.”
Caitlyn sighed, hesitant to break the moment but she knew she had to. Her breath was stuck in her throat, wanting to say something but not sure what.
Just tell her what you want. “When this is over, take me on a date,” she blurted out. Well, shit. Now you’ve done it.
“A date?” Vi smirked, thumb rubbing against the curve of Caitlyn’s waist. “Anywhere you have in mind?”
“I don’t know! The park, the bridge, the winter markets if we make it till then! Just… I’d like to go on a date. With you.”
She could feel that her face was horribly red, heat burning through her cheeks, eyes looking everywhere but Vi. She was quiet, why was she being quiet, oh no she was going to reject her, she was going to laugh, why don’t I just fall through the floor and-
“Alright.”
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have- wait, what?”
“Alright,” Vi said again and she was smiling up at her. “I was kinda waiting for you to ask, actually.”
“T-too chicken to do it yourself?”
“The line doesn’t work when you’re blushing like that, cupcake.”
“Shut up!”
Caitlyn clambered ungracefully out of Vi’s lap and quickly smoothed down her hair and uniform, frantically willing her blush to go away. Vi snickered, landing on the floor with a thud and the grit on her boots scratched into the marble. Her mother was going to kill her if she wasn’t murderous already. Running a hand through her hair, she stretched out her shoulders and pulled a spool of tape from her pocket. Caitlyn stared longingly at the way her muscles flexed as she rewrapped her arms and Vi caught her eye and laughed.
“Another time, cupcake. Let’s go find your fucking council.”
Another time.