Chapter Text
“Dear friend across the river, my hands are cold and bare.”
Blood.
All she could smell was blood.
Blood and … tears.
Her own tears.
Tears falling down her face.
Was she crying, why was she crying?
Oh yeah.
They was an attack on the bridge, their attack. It was going to be the day they showed Piltover just how ignorable they were.
“I’ll take what you can spare.”
They certainly made an impression. Smoke and blood mixed into a suffocating concoction as the stumbling woman limped forward, injured arm held tightly to her chest.
but at what cost?
“I ask of you a penny.”
Caz stood in a haze, the choking red fog and metallic tests poisoning the air was desensitising, she could barely see where she was going but maybe that was for the best.
Her back ached as she griped the cast iron with her good arm, the blood of enforcers and her own stained the ground as she kept moving forward. She let the cast iron fall to the ground as her knees gave out, they were battered and dented she’d have to apologise to her friend later.
“My fortune it will be.”
Caz was no miner, she was a fisher, a trader. Her home was the smell of salt and the fresh ocean breeze but she had come to find comfort within the smoke filled streets of the lanes. She wasn’t from Zaun or Piltover but nonetheless found herself tangled within the messy divisions of the two unequal city’s.
“Caz?” Her head spins towards the familiar voice, her brother, well, her brother in every way but blood. Silco stood there, hunched over something, his disheveled appearance was nothing out of the ordinary for the situation they were in however his eyes kept glancing to the ground, to what her brother was hovering over. The woman’s eyes filled with tears as she recognised the bodies, her knees buckled as it felt like the air had been yanked out of her lungs. She landed beside her dear friend with a thud. Felicia laid there, unmoving, the bright life drained from her eyes leaving a husk of what was once there. A husk who had two little girls waiting at home.
A sob ripped itself from Caz’s throat. Gently, with shaky hands, she took her friend into her arms and pulled back the purple coloured hair that covered her face. The image of her dead friend brought back memories of Caz finding her own parents in this exact position, motionless, discarded on the ground like trash but her parents bodies look oddly peaceful, their suffering had ended.
Felicia still had so much to fight for.
Silco placed a hand on her shoulder, a tear trailing down his face in memory of their dear friend, “She was right in front of me Sil, right there. How … How could this have happened? She was right there, three feet away. Oh gods the girls. This can’t be happening.” Silco didn’t say anything, mouth to dry to spill words of comfort, he just watched with wide eyes as his sister held their friend.
A loud, earth shaking boom rattled the ground and before Caz even knew what was happening her body was being flung to the side crashing agains something hard. It gently wrapped its large arms around her and lifted her to her feet. Caz’s eyes peaked open although they burned from specks of dust and rubble.
Vander.
Her husband, she visibly relaxed in his arms reaching out an hand to hold the side of his face, “Thank the gods your alive, I thought I lost you.” He looked down at her a tugging smile pulling into his face, “You couldn’t lose me if you tried love.” He set her down gently on the ground, “Wait there, I’ll be back in a minute.”
Caz watched as he walked away the blood of enforcers dripping from his cast iron fists, so much blood that it pooled under him but this is what he had to do. For the under-city. For Her. For Violet, Powder and Viktor. So he took his strength, the strength they gave him to make sure they had better, that there would be more for them than there ever had been for him.
The violence has calmed after a while or maybe Caz was just drowning it out from the sidelines. It was as her world had gone still images of her dead friend kept circling in her head over and over until her stomach felt like it was tying itself into noughts. That was until she saw the two girls hesitantly making their way through the smoke, Caz paid them no attention at first but then she hears it, Powders little voice, then she notices Vis pink hair.
Oh no. They can see this. They shouldn’t be here.
Every fiber in her body screamed as she stood, hobbling her way towards the girls but she was too slow. Vi sunk to the ground a type of grief drowning her that no child should ever have to face, Powder was too young to understand what was happening, she wrapped her little arms around her sister as she cried looking to Caz with confused, wide eyes.
Caz finally managed to reach them, pulling the girls to her. Immediately Powder hid her face into the crook of Caz’s neck, her little body trembling, Caz pulled Vi in closer as her body shook with sobs. A little hand grabbed her shoulder, her head darted to the side, Viktor, leaning on his little crutch eyes wide and panicked. No words were spoken but Caz knew what he was asking, she didn’t know what to tell him. One moment her brother was their right beside her, the next she was blown ten feet away. She had no idea where he was or if he was even alive.
She pulled the young boy close so that she had all three in her arms, her injured one screamed but in that moment it just felt numb. Everything felt numb.
That’s how Vander found them, huddled together, ignorant to chaos surrounding them. Vander droped the cast iron to the ground, picking up both Vi and Viktor in his arms while Caz stumbled to her feet taking Powders tiny body in her own. They walk away from the bridge, away from the violence, the fight, the pain and the loss. They walked away.
They went home.
When they finally reached the last drop Caz set Powder onto the counter of the bar before her legs could give out, falling to the ground the adrenaline finally wearing off, her arm felt like it was on fire. She screamed when trying to flex her fingers as her shoulders sticks out in a weird angle. Vander sets the kids in his arms down gently before going over to tend to his wife, in a quick motion he sets her arm, a sickening snap echoing in the otherwise empty room. One make shift sling later and she was as good as new.
It had been a few hours since they got home, Vi and Powder had passed out on Caz and Vander bed, holding tightly onto one another. The older of the two twitched in her sleep unsettle and … scared, Caz stroked the side of her face and it helped to sooth the sleeping girl if only for a moment. Back up the stairs Vander sat with Viktor the little boy still hopeful that his father would walk through those doors any minute.
Viktor had spent so much time in this bar, almost everyday since he was three years old. That’s when Silco had found him, discarded in the mines with only the clothes on his back and a cracker in his pocket. Vander never imagined how much his friend would change after taking in the little tyke, he no longer wanted to fight for just Zauns independence but to fight for a better Zaun for his son to live in.
The man ruffles the boys hair, he smiles weakly before turning back to the door waiting, the large man sits beside him, if they were going to wait, they could wait together. Caz had joined them after a little while of sitting with the sleeping girls downstairs, at this point Viktor was wavering head lulling with sleep every few minutes. He was so tired you could see his little body fighting sleep, but his determination fought stronger.
Meanwhile Caz and Vander had all but given up hope, they wanted to believe so Danny that their friend was alive but the odds were not in their favour. Just as Viktors little body went lax lying agains his uncle the door to the last drop swung open and in limped Silco covered in dirt and grime, “Silly!” Caz cheered tears welling in her eyes as she hobbled towards him wrapping him tight in her arm, he winced lightly but enjoyed the warmth of his sister’s arms, even if she was crushing his only remaining intact ribs. Vander smiled, a big bright smile that hurt his face. He gently shook the sleeping boy who was laying on his arm, Viktors eyes pealed open hesitantly his sleepy dazed self not quite focusing until Silco moved mortars and wrapped his boy up in his arms. Like a switch Viktor was wide awake, clinging tightly to his father as he hiccuped and cried, “I … I thought you left me.” He sobbed burying his face into Silcos chest.
Silco gently tucked a hand under the boys face, lifting it so they were looking at each other, “I would never leave you my boy, I promise.” A fresh wave of tears filled the little boys eyes as he went back to trying to buffet himself in his dad’s chest. Vander rested a hand on Silcos shoulder a heartbroken but happy smile taking over his features. Silco didn’t share the same sentiment, there was something behind his eyes a kind of grief? Regret? … Guilt.
That was for later however, right now they could only focus on what was in front of them.
…
Silco slept silently on the couch, its ratted fabrics more comfy than one would think, his ribs were bandaged and shirt discarded, probably beyond saving. Viktor, the very tired boy nuzzled into his father’s side snoring softly, his cane discarded on the floor in a childish carelessness.
Vander sat in the armchair across from them as Caz dabbed an alcohol dipped rag onto his bleeding fists, he winced slightly and Caz chuckled, “You big baby.” She kissed his fist gently before wrapping them in a layer of bandages, “There, all better.” Vander smirked, pulling her onto his lap by her good arm. She leaned into him turning to look at the sleeping girls through the open door, “We’re all they have left Van.” A lump formed in her throat, Vander kissed her neck softly, smiling into her skin as she relaxed. “Eh, some sorry excuse of replacements we are huh?” Caz nods, “I didn’t think this was how we’d end up with a kid.” Her eyes grow heavy as she nuzzles into her husband, “We can’t keep doing this Vander.”
He knew what she meant, “Your right.” He nestled the side of his check on her face, “I’m not willing to risk anyone, never again.” Caz looked over to the sleeping girls cuddled into one another, “Never.”