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It’s a cold winter evening in Piltover, few weeks since New Years’ celebrations. It’s dark but the streets are lined with warm sparkly lights that twinkle in the snowy scenery. Some people are making their way home from work or other obligations but most are already inside at this point, drinking tea and relaxing for the remainder of the day.
Up on a hill near the outskirts of the city there rests a cozy-looking, two-story house. It has sturdy brick walls, dark maple color wooden door, big windows and a decently sized backyard. Smoke coming from the chimney and light coming from the windows indicate that its residents are home.
Inside the house, Caitlyn Kiramman sits by the fireplace on one the soft couches of the living room. By her feet lays a doberman, not quite asleep but dozing off a bit, its floppy ears pointed downwards to indicate a state of relaxation. Caitlyn has a small smile on her face as she watches her daughter, 3-year-old Lavender, play with the legos she got for Christmas, another doberman comfortably laying behind her and acting as a pillow for the child to lean on. Lavender loves creating tall buildings with legos and then run those buildings over with her dolls, it makes her giggle each time. Caitlyn doesn’t quite understand the infatuation with destruction but seeing her daughter happy makes her happy, regardless.
Caitlyn shifts a bit in her seat and groans. At seven months pregnant, finding a comfortable position to be in is quite a task.
“She giving you a hard time?”
Caitlyn looks up to see Vi has returned from the kitchen carrying a small tray with two cups of tea and a bright pink mug. She hands the mug to Lavender who is making grabby hand motions for it, the dog behind her lifting its head to take note of why the child’s movements are suddenly more erratic.
“Some apple juice for the lady”, Vi says with a smirk. “Be careful okay, we don’t want juice on the carpet or on Vex, right?”
“No we don’t!” Lavender answers excitedly and carefully uses two hands to grab the mug and drink some apple juice from it. The dog behind her, Vex, visibly relaxes and goes back to dozing off. Vi smiles at her daughter as she sits down next to Caitlyn, but not before giving a few pats to the other dog, Vax.
“And peppermint tea for my beautiful wife”, Vi says to Caitlyn and hands her a cup, which the latter takes with a smile.
“Thank you, darling”, she says to Vi, “and to answer your question, yes, your second daughter is giving me a hard time. She’s being very active and making it difficult for me to relax.”
“Oh, that’s not good”, a less-than-serious frown adorns Vi’s face as she looks to Caitlyn’s round belly, places a hand on it and rubs soothing circles on it. “Did you hear that, kiddo? You gotta take it easy on your mum. Save that boxing training for after you’re born.”
Caitlyn laughs at Vi’s words. “I will admit, I would appreciate not being used as a private boxing gym.”
Vi smiles as she looks up at her wife and gives her a small kiss. “You know how much I love and appreciate you for carrying our children, right?”
“I know, I love you too”, Caitlyn smiles and gives Vi another kiss.
In front of them, on the floor, Lavender has torn down yet another lego building and is giggling loudly. Her dark purple hair that Caitlyn made into a single braid in the morning is slowly coming apart and strands of unruly hair frame her happy face. Vi looks down at Lavender and laughs.
“Can’t wait till we have two of these little gremlins in our house destroying stuff”, she says with a loving smile as she watches Lavender, once again, begin to make another lego building. Caitlyn also smiles, puts her hand on top of Vi’s on her belly and watches Lavender in silence.
Some time passes as the small family spends a quiet evening in the living room. Before long it’s time for them to start getting ready for bed. Lavender, as usual, doesn’t think sleep is necessary for her (“I wanna stay up with Vex!”) but yields after some convincing from Vi (“If you go to sleep now, you’ll have enough energy to take her on a walk to grandpa’s tomorrow”).
So, after a little bickering that’s very common for a stubborn 3-year-old, Lavender is ready for sleep. Her room is on the second floor of the house, across the hall from Caitlyn and Vi’s bedroom. It’s bright and welcoming, with pastel blue carpet and whole shelf full of legos, dolls, little dinosaur toys and stuffed animals. Lavender’s favourite stuffed toy, a blue velociraptor that’s pretty much the same size as her, is waiting for her in her bed. On the floor next to her bed is a big fluffy dog bed that Vex gets in as Vi puts Lavender to bed.
“Goodnight sprout”, Vi says, kisses the top of Lavender’s head and holds her forehead against the child’s for a while. “Sleep tight.”
“Goodnight mama”, Lavender answers and yawns.
As Vi steps away from the bed, she crouches down next to Vex and gives the dog a scratch behind the ears. “Good girl, Vex, always guarding our little muffin.” The dog wags its tail a few times and sighs contently.
Vi leaves her daughters room, closes the door, turns off the hallway light and enters her and Caitlyn’s bedroom. Caitlyn is already laying in bed in her silk pajamas, petting Vax as it lays next to her on the edge of the bed happily wagging its tail. Vi takes a second to just watch her wife before changing into her pajamas, a tank top and boxers, and getting into bed behind Caitlyn.
“If we ever get a third dog, do you think we could get one that likes me as well?” Vi asks jokingly and Caitlyn chuckles.
“Our dogs like you!” Caitlyn replies. “They just happen to love me and Lavender.”
“Right”, Vi smiles and reaches a hand over Caitlyn to pet Vax. “Well, maybe if I get like, a hamster, it would love me.”
Caitlyn can’t help but chuckle at that. She pulls Vi’s arm tighter around herself. “I’d like to see you get a hamster and not lose it in this house.”
“Challenge accepted”, Vi answers, kisses Caitlyn’s neck and hugs her tight while making sure to not put extra weight on her pregnant belly.
They fall asleep like that, Vi hugging Caitlyn from behind, Vax sleeping next to Caitlyn. In the room across the hall Lavender sleeps soundly with Vex next to her on the bed on the floor. Some hours pass, everything is silent apart from slight snoring from the wives’ bedroom. Outside the world is quiet and quaint, it begins to lightly snow once more.
Until.
A sudden noise wakes Caitlyn up. It sounds like something solid hitting something hard - like steel pipe on concrete. No, steel pipe on tiles. Tiles? Kitchen tiles? Kitchen floor?
There’s someone in their kitchen.
Caitlyn looks at her alarm clock. 04:06. Next to her, Vax has clearly also heard the sound because he’s also awake. Vi, still asleep, has rolled on her back and is drooling a little.
“Vi”, Caitlyn starts to try and awaken her wife, “Vi! Wake up, please.”
Vax jumps down from the bed as Vi wakes up and groggily rubs her eyes. “What? Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine, but I think there’s someone in the house”, Caitlyn whispers anxiously. Just as she’s finished saying it, they both hear another sound that certainly doesn’t belong in their house in middle of the night - something hard, like iron, smacking a solid surface.
Vi is suddenly wide awake. She throws bedcovers from herself, goes to the bedroom door and cautiously, quietly, opens it a little. Vax follows after her, growling a little, hairs on the back of the dog’s neck standing up. Everyone in the room hears more erratic noises from downstairs, along with what sounds like some hushed arguing.
“There’s at least two people downstairs”, Vi whispers to Caitlyn who has also gotten up from the bed and is approaching the door, “but no one upstairs. Yet.” Vi pulls the door a bit more closed and looks at her wife with concern. “I’m gonna go down there and see who these fuckers are and what they want. Go to Lavender, stay with her and the dogs.”
“Vi-!” Caitlyn grabs Vi’s arm right as she’s about to leave the room. Vi turns around. “Don’t go, I-- I could call father, have him send someone--”
“I don’t think we should wait around for that”, Vi replies. “These could be some dangerous people looking for trouble or they could be idiots in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whichever it is, I’m gonna find out.” The look on Vi’s face is serious as she stares into Caitlyn’s eyes. Caitlyn inhales nervously and rubs her stomach.
“Then I’m finding out with you”, Caitlyn tries to take a step to the back of their room, towards the safe that stores her guns, but Vi stops her.
“No you’re not”, Vi says firmly. “I know you’re an excellent shot, cupcake, and I trust you, but I don’t trust fucking intruders in our home. You’re not going down there, not now.” She looks pointedly at Caitlyn’s pregnant belly. “I want you, Lavender and the little muffin safe so please, go to Lav’s room and stay there with the dogs.”
Caitlyn almost refuses but there’s another loud sound from downstairs. There’s no time for this. So she nods and grabs Vax’s collar to hold the dog next to her. Vi nods as well and opens the door.
They enter the hallway and see dim light coming from downstairs. Caitlyn makes her way to Lavender’s room and slips in quietly. Lavender is still fast asleep but Vex has awoken and is standing guard at the door, also growling slightly at the odd sounds. Vi waits until Caitlyn has closed the door to their daughter’s room almost fully, keeping it slightly ajar to be on alert for any unwanted developments, and then starts sneaking down the stairs.
The intruders are definitely in the kitchen, Vi confirms in her head midway through the stairs. One of the lights above the kitchen sink seems to be turned on and hushed conversation can be heard from the room. It sounds like only two people, which, to Vi, can mean two things - either these people are very dangerous or very stupid.
Every muscle in Vi’s body is tensing up and her nerves are on edge. She moves as quietly as she can down the stairs, avoiding that one step in the middle that’s kind of squeaky. She halts a couple of times to listen to the intruders - have they heard her coming? But it seems like they haven’t, at least they aren’t approaching her.
Once Vi reaches the bottom of the stairs, she moves to stand close to the wall and takes a breath to calm herself. She can only hear one persons footsteps in the kitchen right now. So she should act now.
Vi takes one more breath, this time to ready herself to fight and steps out of the shadows into the kitchen. “Who the FUCK do you thi--!” she starts to yell but is rendered speechless at the sight in front of her.
In her family’s kitchen, looking surprised, taken aback and a little embarrassed, stands Ekko. On top of his usual attire he’s wearing a navy blue apron that has some flour on it and is holding a plastic mixing bowl in his hands. His white locs are held up in a bun on top of his head and he laughs awkwardly at Vi.
“Little Man?”
“Hi, Vi”, Ekko says sheepishly.
Vi is thoroughly astounded and rubs her tired eyes. “What the fuck are you doing here? In the middle of the night? What the fuck?”
“I tried telling her we should wait till morning but she insisted you’d be happier if we got here early and”, gesturing to the bowl in his arms, “made you cupcakes.”
At that, Vi feels like she understands even less about what’s happening. She starts waving her hands around as her mind tries to catch up with what Ekko just said. “Cupcakes? We? What the fuck? What are you talking about?”
“Hi, sis.”
Another voice speaks from behind Vi and she tenses up. It’s not an unfamiliar voice, but one Vi hasn’t heard in seven years. One she never thought she’d hear again.
Vi turns around slowly, almost scared to look. Behind her Jinx smiles warily. She looks a bit different, of course she does, it’s been seven years, but it’s undoubtedly her. Her blue hair comes down to her shoulders and she has tied half of it back, her skin has a bit more colour to it than Vi remembers and the bags under her eyes aren’t as obvious. Her eyes - they have a violet hue in them but they don’t glow like last time Vi saw them.
Vi breathes shakily and stares at the woman. “Are you real?”
“Yeah, of course. It’s me, Jinx, your sister.”
Vi takes a tentative step forward to Jinx, who instinctively wraps her arms around herself, looking as nervous as Vi feels.
“You’re here”, Vi says so quietly it’s almost like she’s talking to herself, “you’re right here.”
With that, Vi takes the last few strides to Jinx and picks her up in a warm hug which Jinx returns. Vi’s eyes fill with tears that start to fall immediately as she has her sister in her arms.
“What are- what do you- how--??” Vi stammers as she tries to get all her thoughts out at once. Jinx sniffles and tries to answer, equally stammering with words.
“I’m sorry, sis, I’m sorry- I’m fine- I went away for a while, I needed some time…”
“How are you here?” Vi stands back from Jinx far enough to see her tear-filled eyes. Tear-filled but real and right here, right now.
“Vi?”
After hearing no noise of struggle Caitlyn has come downstairs and is now watching the scene unfold in their kitchen, equally as dumbfounded as Vi. Vax stands next to her, no longer growling but clearly not trusting the new person in their home. Ekko steps in, still holding the mixing bowl.
“So, there’s a lot to explain and talk through and all that”, Ekko starts while waving the mixing bowl so much its contents are getting dangerously close to its edges, “but I think the main thing right now is, Jinx is here, she’s safe and she wanted to see you guys. And surprise you with some cupcakes.”
Both Vi and Caitlyn snort a laugh at Ekko’s words.
“To be honest, even without the cupcakes we’d still have been fucking surprised”, Vi pinches the bridge of her nose and shuts her eyes for a moment, “they’re not exactly a requirement for when your sister returns from the fucking dead.”
Jinx laughs nervously and shrugs. “I don’t know, just figured I shouldn’t return empty handed.”
Vi shakes her head in disbelief and looks at Jinx. “Seriously, though? Cupcakes? In the middle of the night? Is that what that noise was?”
“Well, yeah”, Jinx says as if it’s obvious. “Not my fault your fancy kitchen has these fancy baking tools that make it impossible to be quiet.”
Caitlyn looks at their kitchen island that Ekko stands next to and sure enough, her and Vi’s stainless steel kitchenware has been spread all over it, waiting for use. Caitlyn also shakes her head and sighs.
Jinx looks at Caitlyn, her belly, the dog still standing next to her and back to Caitlyn’s belly. She gestures to it and says: “So, uh, a bun in the oven, huh?”
Vi snorts. “Yeah and another kid upstairs, still asleep, hopefully.”
“Oh, awesome”, Jinx smiles, “I’m an auntie!”
Caitlyn shifts a bit nervously which Vi immediately notices. Vax notices as well and stands in front of Caitlyn protectively, staring at Jinx. To prevent the conversation from escalating to something catastrophic, Vi holds her hands up once more and addresses both Jinx and Caitlyn.
“Okay, we still got hopefully a couple of hours before Lavender wakes up. Why don’t us three”, she gestures to herself, Jinx and Ekko, “finish making these cupcakes while Cait, you sit down and have some tea - you know you’re terrible at baking, sorry - and we talk about.. everything. Sound good?”
Ekko nods, Caitlyn still seems a bit nervous but she looks at Vi’s pleading face and nods as well. Jinx looks to Caitlyn once more before turning her attention to Vi, who’s anxiously awaiting for a response.
“Yeah, sounds good, sis.”