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It’s late when Fortune slips out of the Kirraman apartment, sliding her fine captain’s hat back atop her perfectly-coiffed head. Caitlyn is shortly behind her, still fussing over getting her still-damp hair pulled back into the comfort of a high ponytail but otherwise immaculately put-together. Vi, bringing up the rear, still looks well-fucked and insufferably smug about it with her sex-mussed hair and tank top selected specifically to show off the new hickey on her throat and scratches along her shoulders.
Caitlyn rolls her eyes. It’s a fond gesture.
“You two don’t have to escort me back,” Fortune murmurs with soft amusement. “I’m a big girl, I know my way around the cities.”
Vi looks briefly like she’s ready to make a joke before remembering Caitlyn would find it in poor taste. “Well, that’s just bad manners,” she drawls instead, eyes crinkling with the crook of her grin. “Imagine how bad we’d feel if something happened to our favorite ain’t-shit pirate captain on our watch.”
Fortune laughs at the tease. Caitlyn still shakes her head, but she’s smiling. “Zaun can be… volatile at night,” she tells Fortune with an air of apology. Her hand lands on the small of Fortune’s back, fond and assertive, guiding her down the warmly-lit streets of Piltover. “Vi’s right, I really wouldn’t feel right sending you down alone. But come on, I think we can still make one of the trolleys down before they close up.”
Vi jogs a few extra steps to catch up, busy as she was locking up behind them. “Nah, the trolleys run overnight these days, cupcake.” She slings her arm over Fortune’s shoulders from the opposite side, grinning up at her.
Caitlyn looks at her with some measure of surprise. “Do they?”
“Yes’m. I think you missed that town hall meeting because you were doing some kinda time and a half something or other. Married to her work, this one.” The last wry statement she aims at Fortune, tossing a thumb in Caitlyn’s direction. “I know that’s shocking to hear for you.”
Fortune chuckles, tipping her head innocently. “Caitlyn? A workaholic? That can’t possibly be right.”
Caitlyn pinches Fortune’s side and then Vi’s in short order, amused despite her put-upon frown.
Fortune giggles, listing slightly into Caitlyn’s side, gently elbowing her with playful familiarity. “And I bet you’re still planning on showing up at the office in a few hours, too.”
Vi pretends to sigh. “And she’s gonna be dragging my ass in right behind her, too.”
“Egh, gods. I told you you didn’t both have to walk me back.”
Caitlyn tuts. “Don’t be ridiculous, Captain.” Her hand slides up Fortune’s back to squeeze Vi’s arm, still draped about Fortune’s shoulders.
“She means she can’t sleep alone anyway,” Vi translates with an impish grin. “Might as well join me on our evening meander down.”
“Not what I said,” Caitlyn harrumphs, though she doesn’t argue with the gist, either.
Vi only laughs, letting her arm fall from around Fortune’s shoulders to slip her hand into Caitlyn’s. Fortune graciously recognizes the movement for what it is and drifts to the far side of their little group—and then behind, allowing the two lovebirds their space.
“And don’t forget you’ve a meeting with Zevi in the morning,” Caitlyn murmurs, already amused as they sidle up to the small waiting area outside the trolley down to the undercity. She takes a seat on one of the benches, Vi flopping into the space next to her. “I keep telling you it’s high time you have that blown coolant pump checked.”
Vi groans as Fortune delicately takes a seat on the bench behind them, content to bask in the glow of their own familiarity. It sounds like an old argument. “C’mon, Cait, they work fine,” she pretends to plead, wrapping her arm around Caitlyn’s shoulders. “It’s probably not even important.”
“Yet,” Caitlyn corrects, “it’s not important yet. They only work until they suddenly don’t, and I’ll not have you out in the field with faulty equipment.”
“Why do you gotta be right about things all the time?”
Caitlyn chuckles, and Fortune can hear the unmistakable contact of a soft kiss exchanged. “It’s my job, darling.”
“I mean yeah but that guy weirds me the fuck out.”
“Oh, gods, same, that’s why the meeting is with you and not me.” And she laughs, playful and adoring all at once.
It’s a comfortable camaraderie they share, Fortune decides, letting her eyes slide shut against the cool autumn evening. Even if she hadn’t known it already, it’s beyond clear that they’ve had years to work out the machinations of their own relationship, both at work and romantically. She can respect that. The comfort of knowing someone so intimately for so long isn’t one Fortune’s been blessed with so far in life, but their familiarity with one another is laced with an easygoing affection that radiates off them, and she basks comfortably in its warmth as long as she’s allowed.
“Oh, thank gods, the trolley,” Caitlyn breaks from their murmurings about whoever-whatever at work, aiming the observation at Fortune who dutifully stands again.
“There will be more trolleys,” Vi reminds her, laughing. “I told you they run overnight now.”
“Yes, but I’d prefer to get some sleep before I have to be up again, and I feel sure Sarah feels the same.” Fortune only laughs softly, tipping her hat in acquiescence. “Come on, then, the trip down isn’t very long.”
The trolley car is nearly empty at this hour but for the bleary-eyed operator in the far back corner. Caitlyn chooses her seat in the direct middle, and Vi curls comfortably into her side in short order.
“We should go to Matilda’s for dinner tomorrow,” she murmurs in suggestion as Fortune takes her seat at the far end of the row. Just close enough to indulge in their adoring warmth without interfering in it herself.
Caitlyn chuckles, running her fingers tenderly over the shorn side of Vi’s scalp. “They’ve really gotten to be a favorite of yours, haven’t they?”
“Any restaurant with complimentary garlic knots should be everybody’s favorite, Caitlyn.” She sounds like she really means that too, for all she laughs making the statement.
“Mm, those are good. Let’s see what the day brings us first, but I don’t see why we can’t make that happen.”
Fortune half-dozes in the rickety lull of the trolley car, illuminated only briefly by the passing glow of streetlamps that still don’t hold a candle to the affectionate glow of Caitlyn’s eyes as she murmurs something to Vi—nor indeed to the radiant adoration of Vi’s grin as she laughs softly in reply. Fortune’s happy for them, genuinely. It’s her understanding that a love like this is hard to come by and harder to work for, and they’ve clearly put in the time. They’re both sweet girls. They deserve the happiness they’ve built together.
It isn’t beyond Fortune’s notice that she’s very lucky to be granted a moment to share in it, and she’s content to relax into their mutual adoration as one sinks into a hot bath. She may not be graced with this kind of love for herself, but she can be content to allow it to wash over her now nonetheless.
The trolley shudders and grinds to a halt at its stop, and its three lone passengers dutifully file out in short order—Vi shouldering her way out first, then turning to graciously offer Caitlyn and then Fortune a hand for the steep step down.
“Chivalrous, this one,” Fortune murmurs to Caitlyn, teasing.
Caitlyn laughs, though she’s clearly less comfortable down here in the dark of Zaun at night. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”
Fortune leads the way now, unbothered as a native as she navigates the last two blocks to the inn she’s found herself for her stay. Caitlyn can’t quite stop herself from grimacing at the sight.
“We do have a lovely guest room, you know,” she sighs as Fortune fishes for her room key in her coat. “You can stay with us when you’re in town if lodging is an issue.”
Fortune laughs, finally drawing the heavy iron key from her coat. “Careful, sheriff, people might start to think you’re sweet on little old me,” she teases, smiling as she spins the key on one finger. “It’s too quiet up there, Cait. I’m from Bilgewater. I need the sounds of a stupid drunken brawl and someone puking their guts out going on outside to get to sleep.”
Vi cackles. Caitlyn rolls her eyes to mask her begrudging smirk.
“Gal after my own heart,” Vi teases, leaning up to kiss Sarah soft on the mouth. “Get some sleep. And don’t forget to come say bye before you ship out.”
Sarah’s always been more accustomed to slipping out silently at the end of the night, no noise and no fuss, and the unexpected pull into their mutual warmth for a final glittering moment makes her unsteady.
Caitlyn is more taciturn, sliding an affectionate hand under Sarah’s jaw, tilting her head up—tipping her hat back—to kiss her wordlessly, lingering for a long moment till all Sarah can taste was the citrus of Caitlyn’s chapstick.
“Stay safe,” is all she offers afterwards, and from Caitlyn it always sounds like an order. She’s still smiling, though. “And don’t be a stranger.”
Sarah can’t help her own smile, though it crooks instinctively into a smirk. “Whatever you say, sheriff.”
The rented room is dark when Sarah slips into it, and she doesn’t bother with either electrical or oil-powered lights at this hour as she eases her boots off and collapses onto the mothbitten covers of the bed. The warmth lingering on her skin, in her chest, between her ribs, spilling out into her hands, thrums with an unfamiliar incandescence a part of her feels sure a lighted lamp couldn’t match anyway.
Sarah lies there comfortably, eyes closed as if to lock the beauty of the sensation within, allowing a briefly-shared love to simmer through her veins and settle into her bones, kindness and adoration and breaths shared and kisses exchanged, and she feels comfortably full and heavy with the sheer weight of it.
Sarah breathes in the cold evening air, and exhales light.
She sleeps.