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The street in front of The Last Drop was usually one of the most populated streets down in Zaun. Less so when it was this late and the bar was closed for the night, but it still got a lot of foot traffic on account of being damn-near dead center in the Lanes. Everyone knew better than to just stand in the middle of the street obstructing people's paths.
Everyone except Vi, apparently.
If she wasn't so concerned with septuple-checking her jacket pocket to make sure a certain grainy, black-and-white picture was in there, she might already be inside the bar. Instead of blankly staring at the neon sign.
After a few minutes of standing around like a fucking chump and eventually getting shoulder-checked by an impatient passerby, Vi forced her feet to carry her forward. Just a smidge, it was better than nothing.
With tremendous effort and struggle, she managed to walk a whole ten steps closer to the bar. Good progress. Amazing, really. She should check her jacket again, make sure the evidence she planned on showing her family didn't fly out of her pocket with how fast she was going.
This was terrible. Now that she was closer, she could hear everyone- or, well, she could hear muffled voices being overshadowed by Mylo bragging about something. Sounded like most of them were here. Great.
Sweet Janna, she wished she had Caitlyn with her. But they agreed- Caitlyn would tell her parents, Jayce, Mel, and Vik about it tonight, and Vi...
... Vi was supposed to tell her own family. But if her legs still refused to fucking go forward, it seemed like she'd just stay frozen on the sidewalk until she pussied out.
Her abject dread was muted by the front door opening, revealing Silco slipping on his coat as he said his goodbyes to everyone inside. It took him a few steps before he picked up Vi's blurry form in the peripheral vision of his mangled eye.
"Ah, hello Vi."
Vi awkwardly nodded at him. "Busy day?"
Silco sighed as he slicked his hair back, dragging his palm down the back of his neck. "Busy day, indeed."
The man only visited The Last Drop early in the morning for breakfast- lunch as well, if it could be helped. For him to be here so late meant Vander and Powder needed help with the patrons- so they were probably tired and wanted to relax, not have Vi drop a fucking bomb straight on them.
She contemplated asking Silco if he wanted to stay, listen to the news she had to share, but she was stuck in her own head for so long that when she came to he was already out of sight.
Vi slapped herself in the face. Get it the fuck together.
She needed to tell them- they needed to know, and it had to happen tonight, because she didn't know when she'd get the nerve just to come down here again. And she didn't want them to find out months from now, when one look at Caitlyn would tell them all they needed to know. That would just make the situation worse.
Vi slipped through the door, trying to stay hidden because what nerve she'd just built up was rapidly draining away.
It was for naught. It's hard to blend into the shadows with neon red-pink hair.
When Vi entered The Last Drop, Vander immediately spotted her and gestured for her to come to the bartop.
"Take a seat, kiddo. Want me to get ya a drink?" Vander grabbed her favorite bottle of cinnamon whiskey from under the counter, grasping it by the neck and pointing his pinky at some shot glasses.
Vi shook her head in refusal. She thinks she shook her head in refusal- she's not quite sure, she was far too distracted by the fact that... well, nearly every person she cared about was right in front of her. Mylo sitting on the middle most stool, Ekko behind the bartop, the two of them arm wrestling and clearly a bit tipsy. Claggor standing behind Mylo, cheering his brother on. Powder behind Ekko, encouraging her boyfriend to break Mylo's arm. Benzo sitting on one end of the bartop, telling Ekko not to try and break Mylo's arm. Sevika on the other end of the bartop, watching them as she pulled a drag from her half-disintegrated cigarillo.
Which was good, now was the perfect time to break the news, get everyone caught up in one fell swoop. But she couldn't.
Powder, attention entirely on Ekko and Mylo's competition, finally caught sight of her sister hiding near the door. She excitedly waved her over.
"Hey, you forgot your dinner in the fridge last night- I stopped Mylo from eating it while you were out." Powder swatted her brother on the side of the head, the attack ignored as the two boys quickly turned to Vi to grunt out a greeting before going back to their arm wrestling.
"It should still be in there, if you want it." She smiled at Vi, the light bags under her eyes from a long day of serving patrons accentuated by the warm lighting of the bar.
She couldn't. Vi couldn't fucking do it.
Mylo, Claggor, Ekko, Dad... Powder. These were the people she was supposed to look after. For years, the thing that got her up in the morning- her one fucking purpose in life- was her promise to keep them all safe, no matter the cost. She was born to be there for them- hell, Powder even made sure her leftovers were untouched because Vi was supposed to be here. Home.
But for... almost half a decade by this point, it became more and more common for her to spend the night with Caitlyn. A few times a month, and then once a week, then twice a week- suddenly, she was spending more time with Caitlyn than she was with her family. And they were... they acted like that was okay for her to do.
Even Dad. His "You don't get to be selfish" was something she tried to remember for every day- every minute- of her life, to make sure that her loved ones could have the best lives they could. But it was just okay for her to ignore them because "Cait needs you too, kiddo".
As fucking if. Caitlyn's a badass. She's the goddamn Sheriff- if there was anyone who didn't need Vi, it was her. Vi just stuck around because Caitlyn wants her to stick around, and Vi was too fucking weak to stay away from her
But now... now Vi did have to be there for her. And for the precious, beautiful life her girlfriend was about to bring into the world.
Vi looked up at her family one more time. Ekko victoriously pinning Mylo's arm to the bar. Dad leaning over and ruffling Mylo's wild hair, telling him he'll do better next time. Claggor marching over to Sevika, placing his right elbow on the bar and offering up his hand. Sevika smirking, resting her cigarillo on her ashtray as she slapped her palm against Claggor's and the two launched into their own arm-wrestling battle.
The rest of them looked over to Vi, patiently waiting for her to come join the fun.
How was she supposed to tell them that she'd be abandoning them? Because soon, two other people were going to need her even more?
That might be a bit dramatic, she'd still see them, obviously- and they were welcome to visit whenever they wanted. But she was still moving out. For good. Packing up her shit and stuffing it in the bigass apartment Caitlyn was still in the process of buying. If Dad needed help with the bar- if her brothers needed a free lab assistant- if Ekko or Benzo needed someone to watch the pawn shop...
... if her sister needed her- they'd all have to make the trek to her and Cait's place in Upper Piltover. Or send a pneuma-tube and wait for Vi to trudge all the way down to the lanes. She wouldn't be in the basement, ready to help them at a moment's notice. She'd be less useful to them.
And that fucking scared her. Because what else was she supposed to be for them?
Begrudgingly, Vi walked over to the bar, approaching Claggor from behind to critique his form and give advice on how to beat that "old, ugly cow", who flipped Vi off at the utterance of the nickname.
Sevika's strength, conditioning, and technique eventually managed to overpower Claggor's raw size and heft and pin his hand to the wood- though the way she grimaced and rolled her shoulder after they pulled away proved it was a hard-fought victory. She brought her cigarillo back to her lips, and now that the competition was over, there was nothing to distract everyone from Vi's arrival.
They all immediately knew something was wrong. Vi's never had a good poker face.
Vi took a seat on a stool, grabbing the bottle of cinnamon whiskey still on the counter and taking a generous swig. Powder sat next to her, looking at her with concern- she shouldn't be making them so worried. It was her job to worry.
"Something up, Vi?" Powder asked, adjusting the bobby pin in one of her loosening hair buns.
She considered it, right then and there- just get the fuck out of dodge. After all, if you ignore a problem hard enough, then it's no longer a problem.
Except Powder had a hand on her forearm, tapping her fingers against her bandages. And Mylo and Claggor were behind her, she didn't want to barrel into them in her attempt to bravely cower from her family. And she couldn't move anyway, with the way her father's concerned gaze all but petrified her to her seat.
Vi forced her eyes shut and breathed deeply.
Well... fuck, guess I'm doing this.
Vi gently stuck her hand into her left jacket pocket, running the pads of her fingers against the sharp, thin edge of the three-by-four-inch rectangle.
Mylo impatiently poked at the fabric of her cropped jacket. "Whatcha got there?"
Vi tutted, lowering her head as she let go of the breath she inhaled a second ago.
"It's a... picture."
Mylo hummed in a way that expressed her answer wasn't satisfactory.
"Uh-huh. Uh-huh- of what? Caitlyn? Don't tell me you're getting all worked up because you took a picture of Caitlyn, I don't know, standing in front of a sunset, and are just dying to show us her unmitigated, unmatched beauty." Mylo dropped his voice into a dramatic, theatrical bass as he made exaggerated gestures with his whole body.
Vi huffed quietly, wholeheartedly agreeing with his apt description of Caitlyn, before summoning every ounce of willpower in her body to go through with this.
"Well, technically, it is a picture of Cupcake, yeah..." Vi turned the picture in her fingers a few more times, before finally pulling her hand out of her pocket and showing off the image.
It was nerve-wracking, and a little funny, the way everyone looked at the picture in confusion.
After the whole second it took for them to figure it out, their breaths all caught in their throats. That wasn't funny, that was just fucking terrifying.
Powder was the first to make a comment, disjointed and unintelligible as it was.
"You-... are-... is that-"
"You see that tiny little black circle?" Vi pointed at the dark splotch on the ultrasound and took another swig of whiskey, hoping the burn of it could scorch away the lump in her throat.
"She's uh... we, are about five weeks in."
Powder eyes were glossy and her voice warbly- "Are you fucking serious?" - and she had the biggest smile on her face Vi had ever seen. Powder wrapped her arms around Vi, leaning into her shoulder and rocking back and forth while she made choked, happy sobs and stared at the small picture.
Benzo had gotten up to take a closer look, loudly congratulating Vi when he finally got a proper look at the black mark on the picture. That and Powder's exclamations of excitement were the only noises being made. Mylo, Claggor, and Ekko just piled on top of Vi and patted her shoulders and back as they looked at the picture too.
And Vander-
Vander gently took a corner of the picture in between his thumb and index finger, slowly, carefully pulling it from Vi's hold as he held it closer to his face.
And it was just occurring to Vi that she'd only seen her dad cry once. Now twice.
Vi expected something like this. Happiness, pride, unbridled joy- but the reality would set in, and they'd realize what she needed to do soon. That she'd need to neglect them so she could take care of Caitlyn and the baby.
"Names?"
Vi looked at her sister, raising a brow.
Powder sniffled as she tried to will down her gigantic fucking smile. "You thinking of names yet?"
Vi pursed her lips, slowly taking the picture back from her dad, who was wiping away the few tears he shed.
"Um..." She's not sure what she expected. That's a pretty normal question to ask.
Whatever, this was delaying the inevitable, she'd take it.
"Cait talked about... uh-" Heat flooded her face. She didn't usually discuss what she and Caitlyn did in their own time with her whole family, and she definitely tried to prevent them from finding out how fucking sappy she was with her girlfriend. This was new.
"If it's a girl, Cait said she liked the idea of continuing the... the flower motif? Cause my name is a trendsetter, I guess." Vi took another swig, swishing the alcohol around in her mouth before gulping it down. "Lavender was one of her ideas, which I... I honestly really like."
She tried to ignore how fucking happy Powder's excited squeal made her.
Mylo leaned against the bar to better look at the ultrasound. "Yuh-huh, and if it's a boy, you're gonna name it Mylo. With a Y, with an I, with two L's- any variation works."
Vi hummed at him with sarcastic approval.
"Well, for one, you're gonna need to convince Cait to go along with that." Vi took one last drink from her bottle before handing it back to Vander. "And secondly, even harder than that, you need to convince me."
Mylo self-assuredly stretched his arms back and cracked his knuckles. "Eh- I still have eight months, right? I can work something out."
"Sure you can."
Sevika blew a dense cloud of smoke from her mouth and nostrils. "Guess this means I need to pump the breaks on the smoking?"
Vi gave her a sympathetic look as she nodded her head. "At least while you're around Cait or the baby. Or me. I don't want that shit on me."
"Aight." Sevika took a strong, prolonged drag, burning up as much of the paper as she could, before blowing the giant wad of smoke into the bar- away from Vi- and stubbed out her cigarillo in the ashtray.
Sevika grabbed her cloak and made her way to the door. "You have fun with your snot-eater, Pink."
They all waved her goodbye, after which Vi looked at Vander.
"That goes for you too, dad."
Vander nodded, taking his pipe out of his pocket and stowing away in a long-forgotten drawer under the bar.
"Aye, I know- especially if I'm gonna be babysitting." He raised a teasing- yet somewhat hopeful- brow at his daughter. "I am going to get plenty of chances to babysit, right?"
Vi laughed. She hoped- she really fucking hoped- that this could be how they all felt about it. Paranoid as she was, Vi almost allowed herself to believe it, but prepared for the other shoe to drop. For accusations of her wanting to leave them just so she could live her own life. Maybe a few comments and criticisms of her ability to raise her kid properly-
... oh. Her kid.
My kid.
She thought she'd fully registered that fact by now. When the doctor told them Cait was pregnant, when they got all those parenting books, when they took the ultrasound yesterday morning- Vi thought she'd understood it, accepted it, and took it in stride. Handled such a massive milestone without breaking a sweat or freaking out once.
Turns out- no. It apparently hadn't clicked for her yet until right. Fucking. Now.
Vi looked down at the picture again, face frozen in some blended miasma of awe, joy, and terror.
"That's-" She'd forgotten what she sounded like when she was tearing up. She didn't ever tear up, she wasn't allowed to cry- especially not in front of the people who were supposed to cry on her when they needed her.
Vi sniffled as she kept staring at that little black circle on the picture.
"That's my baby."
Claggor clapped her on the back. "Yeah- it is. That's your baby."
Vi made a helpless noise in the back of her throat while she continued looking at the picture.
"That... that's my baby."
Her siblings and Ekko looked at her with concern, but Vander and Benzo both knew what was happening.
Vander placed a reassuring hand on Vi's wrist. "Just now kicking in for you, isn't it?"
Vi's breathing quickened the longer she kept her eyes on the ultrasound.
"I'm gonna have a baby. I'm gonna be a mom- I'm... Cupcake- fuck, we're gonna have a baby-"
This was not the fucking time for her to have a breakdown about this. She needed to be alone- where her family wouldn't see her freak the hell out over probably the best thing that's ever happened to her.
Vander nodded down at her. He didn't say anything, didn't chide her for being weak in front of Powder- he just wrapped his massive arms around her and held her against her chest.
Powder slipped the picture from her hand, so she didn't crush it or stain it with tears.
Vi tried her hardest to get her happy, sad, terrified tears under control (fuck, that's such a confusing feeling) so she could talk like a normal person.
"I'm sorry." She sniffled against Vander's shirt. "I'm not-... I'm not gonna be around for you guys."
She could feel their confused gazes.
"I would try to convince Cait to- y'know, move down here, so I could still look after you, but I don't want to raise my-" Another choked sob. "- raise my baby in a city that's a few broken vents away from being filled with toxic air."
It wasn't an entirely rational fear to have. The Gray ventilation system had more fail-safes and redundancies than she could count. But Vi was nothing if not a worrier.
"We're moving into a place up in Northern Piltover. So I'm not gonna be here for you, anymore. I-"
Powder snorted as she nudged her sister's shoulder. "Uh, yeah. You should probably be more worried about your kid than us."
Vi didn't respond. She pulled out of Vander's embrace to look at her sister.
"I'm-" She gestured at herself and to the picture in Powder's hands. "- I'm pretty much leaving you, Pow-pow. I don't... I wish I didn't have to, I'm sorry-"
Powder's expression became deadly serious. She softly gestured for the guys to give the two of them space- none of them argued. They knew exactly what this was and what was going on in Vi's head, and they knew Powder had the best chance of making Vi see reason.
The best chance, but just a chance. It wasn't a guarantee that Powder would assuage her sister's all-encompassing and self-destructive protective nature. But she always tried.
"Vi, look at me."
She already was, so she cleared the tears out of her eyes and blinked back new ones so she could see more clearly.
"I get it-" Powder put both of her hands on Vi's shoulders. "I know that, in your eyes, I'm always going to be your baby sister- but... Vi, look at me." Powder pulled back her shoulders and tilted her head down at herself.
"I'm a grown woman. With a boyfriend and a job and- and a favorite liquor, and I'm not... I'm not a little kid anymore, Vi. I want you in my life, yeah- absolutely, but you don't have to constantly look out for me anymore."
Vi stared at her, totally befuddled. It was as though her brain was a computing machine and Powder's words were a handful of magnets tossed into its hardware. Powder sighed and dropped her head.
"... I promise I'll come visit you and Cait and my adorable little niece or nephew as often as I can, okay? Gives you plenty of opportunities to make sure I'm... y'know, not grievously injured and that I'm making good choices or whatever."
It seemed that was the correct route to take, as Vi smiled softly and pulled her sister into a rib-cracking hug.
Powder accepted the embrace gladly. She hoped that one day, the fact that she and everyone else Vi had worked so hard to take care of for so long were capable, independent people and that Vi could... enjoy her own life as she wanted to was something she'd figure out.
She knew it wouldn't be today, or anytime soon. But she hoped, that when that day came, it "clicked" for her sister the same way the fact she was going to be a mother "clicked" for her just a few moments ago: suddenly, clearly, and joyfully.
*****
Vi ignored the front door to the Kiramman mansion, as she always did, and slipped through Caitlyn's unlocked window to her bedroom. Her girlfriend was in bed, hugging Vi's pillow against her stomach- apparently, she'd grown very dependent on Vi to fall asleep over the last few years.
"Hey sis, if you need any help packing your stuff and moving it to the Uppercity, let us know, kay?" Claggor offered. Mylo nodded along, in an uncharacteristic bout of helpfulness.
She'd spent the last four days falling asleep with Caitlyn anyway, on account of the morning sickness- but as soon as Caitlyn secured the rights to their new place and Vi got all her shit moved in... that'd be a permanent thing. No more lumpy, cramped bunk bed in The Last Drop basement for half the week. Just going to bed with and waking up next to her girlfriend, for as long as Caitlyn wanted her.
That idea was usually nestled against the ever-present guilt of abandoning her other loved ones- but, they'd spent the better part of an hour insisting she had nothing to feel guilty about.
It didn't completely go away. She can't imagine it ever truly going away. But they did succeed in lessening the effect it had on her. It would undoubtedly return, likely with a vengeance, given that she'd see her family less than she had for her entire life- but right now, pretty much the only feeling Vi had was the anticipating yet peaceful bliss of falling into bed with her gorgeous girlfriend.
The addition of Vi's weight made the bed squeak and the mattress dip. Caitlyn slowly opened her eyes, contentedly humming as Vi took her pillow back, nestled against her, and held her gently.
"Who did you tell, darling?"
Vi hugged her tighter. "Everyone except Silco, but I just asked Dad to tell him."
"Hmm." Caitlyn relaxed into Vi's embrace and closed her eyes.
The pinkette smirked at her. "And I haven't told Jericho yet-"
Caitlyn scoffed at the mention of the chef. Vi softly laughed at the expected reaction.
"Is there a reason that practiced, professional health-code violator needs to know?"
"Well, if we order something from him and drop the news at the right time, he might be persuaded to give us a free meal-"
"Give you a free meal, Violet- I've told you how many times, neither me nor Lavender are ingesting that slop."
Vi smiled at her, eyes just now adjusting to the darkness of the bedroom and being able to appreciate her girlfriend's cute little scowl.
"You're real confident it's gonna be a girl."
Caitlyn nestled her face into the crook of Vi's neck, letting her hum reverberate against the shorter woman's skin.
"I can't quite explain it, but I just know she's going to be-"
"Well, I mean, what if they're like me? Born as one thing, realize they're the other thing later on?"
Caitlyn huffed, the gentle push of air tickling Vi's neck. "Then she'd still be a girl eventually-"
"Or he could be the opposite of me."
Caitlyn smiled against her girlfriend's throat. "Do you have any suggestions for what to name a boy?"
Vi thought up the question, bringing a finger to her chin in mock thought.
"I did hear a really good suggestion earlier."
"What?"
"We could name him 'Mylo'." Her grin was audible in her voice.
"Oh please do bugger off-"
Vi laughed as she stroked Caitlyn's rich-blue locks, gently weaving her fingers through the knots in her hair.
"How about you?" Vi asked. "Telling your parents go any well? Cassie, specifically?"
Caitlyn let out a deep breath. "Oh, Mel and Viktor were quite happy for us. Jayce, some-bloody-how, already figured it out- I sooner expected Mel to figure it out first, honestly-"
"Cait, I'm more worried about how the people who let me sleep under their roof reacted to the knowledge that I filled up their daughter like a water balloon-"
"Violet!"
Vi cackled at her, resuming petting her hair as she waited for the answer.
She didn't get one.
Vi pulled away to look at her girlfriend's guilty face.
"... you pussied out on telling them, didn't you, Cupcake?"
Caitlyn meekly nodded.
Vi leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. "It's alright, Cupcake- I get it. We'll tell them tomorrow, together, m'kay?"
Caitlyn gave her a quiet "okay" before relaxing back into Vi's hold, eyes rapidly closing and mind drifting into unconsciousness.
Vi's idea of taking care of the love of her life didn't include telling Cassie "hey, I've been raw-dogging your daughter for months, hope you're cool with being a grandma" but... well, that's where their journey was starting, apparently.
She'd still worry about... fuck, everyone, for as long as she lived, no matter how well they could take care of themselves.
But Caitlyn and her baby needed her. Every day. She'd need to look after and protect those two- maybe more than just the two of them, someday- for as long as she could. As devotedly as she could. In any way she could.
The idea of that made Vi happier than anything in the whole damn world.