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With a low hiss as she breathed through her teeth, Vi tucked her gauntlet under her still-gloved arm with a slightly sway of balance. In her free hand she fumbled her keyring, flipping the clinking metal until she could grab the one she needed.
Grunting, she adjusted her weight best she could as she unlocked her apartment door but stumbled when she twisted the knob to push in. She cursed under her breath, leaving the keys in the keyhole so she could drop her loose gauntlet on its reinforced mat, which it hit with a loud, heavy thud. Going back first to get the keys and shut the door, Vi then shook off her second gauntlet to fall beside the first, the hextech metal hissing steam as it dropped to the floor, powering down as light dimmed in it’s hex gem.
Rubbing her face with one hand, Vi let her head fall back against the doorframe as she groaned in exhaustion. Flexing the knuckles of both hands she winced and began rubbing them together to try and ease out the soreness. She idly looked over to the gauntlets on the floor, surrounding metal frame of the gloves scratched with a few chunks of shrapnel and streaks of vibrant pink paint.
With another heavy sigh Vi pushed off the door to begin walking further into the apartment, heading for the side of her studio that made up the kitchen.
She grabbed a pack of ice from her freezer, lifting her arm to hold it against her side, hissing as the cold hit her bruised ribs. Breathing through the discomfort as the pain started to numb, Vi opened her fridge and held the door with her hip, scrutinizing the contents.
A couple old takeout boxes, that Vi knew better than to look inside, and a pack of beer cans stared back at her, as well as a very sad looking banana.
Snorting, Vi grabbed a beer and shut the door, promising to herself that she’d throw those boxes out in the trash later. As she balanced opening the can and holding the ice against her ribs at the same time, she headed to the living area of the small apartment. Successful at opening her beer, Vi sank into her couch with another groan and sore grimace.
She stayed there for a good ten minutes; holding the ice to her ribs, staring idly into space and thinking about nothing in particular while sipping the beer.
A growl snapped her out of the void, and she rubbed at her stomach that had sourced the noise. Frowning, she took a deeper swig from the can, drummed her fingers against her stomach and gave in; she stood up, leaving the can on the makeshift crate that functioned as her coffee table and shrugged off her jacket.
Pulling her tanktop up and over her head, she tossed it to the far corner of the space, where the laundry basket sat under her loft bed.
The tanktop missed, crumpling to the floor.
Scoffing, Vi unbuckled and undressed from the rest of her clothing and balled them up into a pile. She walked over to dump them all into the basket at once (and picking up the tank to do the same) and pulled the goggles off from where they sat on her head.
Those, she hung on the small hook designated just for them.
A minute later Vi was standing under the showerhead, letting the scalding water wash the remnants of the day away. Tendrils of blue and pink paint mixed with the shower stream, running over the purple and yellowing bruises on Vi’s skin in coloured patterns before thinning out in rivulets down her body.
Eyes closed, Vi splashed water up to her face and rubbed at her cheeks, pushed the water up through her hair. She exhaled hard, standing there and relaxing her body in the heat of the water until the heat started to fade and she had to shut the tap off, and step into the foggy haze of her small bathroom. She walked naked out into her main floor, white and pink scars cries-crossed under black tattoos and yellow-purple bruises, water dripping off her slightly as she toweled out her hair and then dried her body in the same motions as she pulled out new clothes.
It was a more casual outfit, a collared shirt and tan slacks that had clearly been picked out for her, and she shrugged a worn black leather jacket that suited her better overtop. Grabbing her house keys and wallet, Vi took another glance at the gauntlets, their damage and paint stains, before heading out the door.
It was barely evening, the city hilighted in sharp shadow and beams of orange light making everything glow. It was, admittedly, gorgeous. Vi had nostalgia for the smokey neon greens and purples of the underground, but after a third of her life in a dark stone box nothing did her soul better than daylight and endless sky. Sometimes she still liked to parkour up to a rooftop, and stare out to the horizon just in bask in all the space available to her now.
That thought settled her choice for dinner and, with a little whistling to keep her company, Vi headed down the street.
~
Not too long later Vi had a sandwich thicker than her hand was wide, fried fish and pickled veggies in a sour slaw stuffed between thick slabs of bread nestled in the wax paper wrapped skillfully around the bottom half so she could hold it easily in her bruised hands.
She had taken the sandwich to go, walking down from the little shop that specialized in them to the boardwalk path that spread out to look over the docks in the ocean. It was still a poorer part of the city - a part of what the city considered poorer - but popular with tourists and visitors for the very reason Vi was here now, wiping a bit of sauce away from the corner of her mouth with the knuckle of her thumb as she meandered through the sparse but busy crowd to reach the railing.
It was one hell of a view.
The glowing rose-indigo of the sky reflected in the wine-dark waves of the ocean below, both extending out for miles and miles until they vanished into each other with the faintest pale blur, the few clouds in the sky practically glowing with the golden-orange rays, the purple ish-blue shadows creeping in like night was impatient to happen. The birds lazily soaring in the breeze. The smell of the freshest air you’ll ever experience.
Stuffing another bite of sandwich into her mouth, Vi hooked an arm over the guardrail and breathed it all in.
Despite the crowd, she had more than enough space to herself. To the right of her, three young women cooed and gossiped over the left hand of one of them. To Vi’s left, what seemed like elderly grandparents taking their grandchild out for a walk in its stroller, pointing out the birds to the babbling infant. All around her were people, families, established histories and new beginnings and all gathered here with her to watch the horizon.
The sun had almost set by the time she was done the sandwich, her managed to have slowed her eating time down to a manageable pace, knowing it wasn’t going to get stolen, she wasn’t going to lose it. The refreshing breeze was a little chillier now that it wasn’t countering the warm sunlight and Vi tugged the jacket around her a little more, crumpling up what remained of the sandwich wrap and shoving it in her pocket, keeping her hand there. She turned from the rail, about to head home; the chill didn’t agree with her, her poorly healed bone fractures and prematurely-aged joints.
The crowd had thinned quite a bit by now, and she had left the boardwalk when a commotion caught her attention, like her instincts and profession were honed to do.
“No give it!”
“No it’s mine!”
“Is not!”
Two kids - a boy and a girl, no older than ten maybe - were scuffling by a bench, the taller girl trying to yank a plush poro out of the hands of the boy. She succeeded, but he jumped up and lunged for it, grabbing a curled horn to try and pull it back away. The girl yanked it hard enough for him to stumble back and fall onto his butt, where he immediately started to cry.
Vi looked around for a parent, or a nanny, or some other, but no other adult seemed to be paying attention. It wasn’t unusual for local kids to wander around by themselves even up here, but it did mean that moments like this meant stepping in was…
Well, Vi’s job.
“Hey, hey,” she stepped up to the kids, hands raised and voice lowered. “What’s going on here, guys?”
The girl glanced at her between trying to shush the boy, and she did a double-take with a gasp. That distracted the other kid for a second, and he blinked through his tears to look at Vi and his mouth dropped open before he hiccuped.
“You’re her,” the girl said.
Vi smiled weakly and nodded. Recognition was something she was used to - but usually she preferred the tears coming from the criminals.
“She took my toy and won’t let me have it back,” The boy said through wheezing sobs, grabbing again the stuffed toy the girl’s holding. She sneered loudly at him, yanking the toy away.
“No it’s mine!” She insisted with a loud scoff. “Mumma got it for me first!”
The boy just wailed.
Vi winced at the noise, seeing now that the boy was clearly the younger. She looked to girl, who was still glaring at the boy in exasperation.
“Is he your brother?” She asked.
“Yes,” the girl replied in obvious annoyance. Vi could almost feel nostalgic connection to that annoyed tone, the weight of having a tagger-on, of everything is yours but nothing is your own.
She nodded over the internal conflict. “Is it his toy?”
“No,” the girl said insistently. “It’s mine but he’s always taking it.”
Kids were the farthest thing from Vi’s comfort zone, but she’d seen others interacting with them enough that she felt like she could give it a shot. She remembered being a kid enough, how adults talked to her.
“Could you… share it?”
The girl looked to Vi like she’d asked to take the toy herself. “You can’t share it,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s too small.”
Vi couldn’t help chuckling before she tried again.
“Why don’t… you share the time holding it? Like, you let him carry it home and the you get it once you get inside?”
The girl frowned as she considered the idea, swaying slightly and looking over to her brother. He glanced between her and Vi and nodded enthusiastically.
“Just until home, and I’ll give it back,” he promised, heartfelt.
Scrunching up her nose, the girl sighed and shoved the doll towards her brother. “Fine. But as soon as we’re home you have to give it back.”
The boy took the poro with a delighted noise, nodded and hugging the toy in a tight squeeze. The girl looked annoyed but accepting and began to usher the boy to leave, clearly keen on making the trip as fast as possible so she’d get her toy back.
“Hey, one more thing,”
Vi called to the girl before the kids could scamper off, and motioned her to come closer. Vi crouched down until they were level, and she nodded over to the younger boy.
“Take care of each other, okay? For as long as you can. It’s the most important thing in your life.”
The girl just frowned up to Vi, confused by the serious tone of the message. Vi wondered if she should figure out how to rephrase it in a less preachy way, but the kid is already shrugging and walking away.
“Can you wear your gloves next time?” She suddenly asked, perked up with interest. Vi stood up and shoved her hands into her jacket pockets again, sighing and then laughing. She winked.
“As long as you’re nice to your brother,” she said.
The girl nodded enthusiastically and gave Vi a thumbs up. Then she ushered her brother forward and the two of them began to walk down out of the square to one of the side streets.
Vi watched them go for a moment, a pang of regret or sadness or some other unnamed emotion threatening to make her chest hurt more than it already was, so she turned back to look out over the guardrail of the boardwalk behind her. The sun had set completely now, night sinking in on the horizon in a symphony of dark blues that felt infinite, like it was cloaking itself around her. A light breeze brushed against her face and Vi closed her eyes, breathing the fresh air in.
A lance of pain shot through her shoulder to remind her of the fight earlier and she grimaced.
Rubbing at the sore spot, Vi turned away from the boardwalk and began to head back the way she came; thinking of her nice soft bed, her own small but roomy apartment, laundry that needed to be run, cleaning the paint off her gauntlets.
Vi rolled her shoulder again, took in another breath to clear her thoughts and whistled softly on the walk home, thinking about what to have for breakfast in the morning.