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Snow drifted past the tall windows of Hasta la Vastyan, a small and quiet cafe, bustling with all kinds of folks, human and otherwise. The café glowed like a lantern in Piltover’s winter dusk with brass fixtures polished to a warm sheen, garlands of holly wound through hextech piping, and a little mechanical poro in the corner clinking a bell every time the door opened.
Caitlyn sat with her gloved hands wrapped around a porcelain mug, the steam fogging the area in front of her, hot cocoa, a delicacy in Piltoven holiday tradition. Across from her, Violet lounged in her chair, boots hooked around the rungs, fingers drumming against her own cup.
“Y'know,” Vi said, peering into her mug, the steam billowing directly into her face, but she doesn't flinch, “still don’t get how this stuff doesn’t knock you out. Smells like pure sugar.”
Caitlyn smiled. “It’s cocoa, Vi. Not moonshine.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” she says, then takes a careful sip. Her eyes softened despite herself. “Okay. Yeah. S'actually pretty damn good.”
Caitlyn laughed quietly, the sound swallowed by the low hum of conversation and the faint chime of small gramophone playing a gentle holiday melody for background noise, offering a mask of privacy to the conversations happening. She leaned back in her chair, an arm slung over the arch, studying Vi over the rim of her cup. Vi’s hair had been tamed, somewhat, for the season, tucked under a red cap that Caitlyn suspected had been chosen solely because it made her eyes look brighter.
“You’re staring,” Vi said, one brow lifting.
“I’m appreciating,” Caitlyn replied. “There’s a difference.”
Vi snorted. “Is that what they teach you at the Academy?”
“Only in the advanced courses.”
They fell into a comfortable quiet, broken only by the hiss of the espresso machine and the distant sound of bells outside.
Vi exhaled slowly. “Hard to believe it’s been a year.”
Caitlyn's smile gentled and her eyes softened, she couldn't help but look at Violet through a lense of affection. “I know. Sometimes it feels like longer. Sometimes like it all just… happened.”
“That first date was a disaster,” Vi said.
Caitlyn winced, she tried to forget it, Vi liked to bring it up as a ribbing. “In my defense, I did not expect the café to be raided.”
“You ordered tea while people were ducking for cover,” Vi added. “Thought you were either the bravest or the stupidest person alive.”
“Still undecided?” Caitlyn asked.
Vi grinned. “Nah. Figured it out.”
Caitlyn let her arm fall off the chair and stretch out to reach across the table, her fingers brushing Vi’s knuckles. Vi stilled, then turned her hand palm-up, lacing their fingers together.
“Didn’t think I’d get here,” Vi said quietly. “A year ago.” She gestured vaguely between them. “Didn’t think I’d want it, either. I mean we're so fundimentally different. But it, I dunno Cait, it feels like this is important. Like this is how it's supposed to be.”
Caitlyn squeezed her hand. “I didn’t think I’d survive the year without you.”
“Hey. That sounds dangerously like a confession.” Vi accuses.
After a long moment of silence, Caitlyn quietly speaks, her words coming out in a gentle tone, “you changed my life, Vi. So, I think it is a confession. You made me feel comfortable being messy, being uncomfortable and not shying away from that.”
“Cupcake....” Vi stares at her, momentarily stunned, then a smirk appears on her face. "Well, well, sounds like you've got feelings for me." Caitlyn rolls her eyes and pulled her hand away from Vi's, or tried to, Vi didn't let her. Instead, she squeezes their fingers together and looks at Caitlyn with a serious expression. “So, what do you want? Next year, I mean.”
Caitlyn considered the question seriously. “I want fewer secrets,” she said. “From both of us. I want mornings where we argue about whose turn it is to make breakfast. I want to keep choosing you, even when it’s hard.”
Vi swallowed. “That’s… a lot.”
“I know.”
Vi’s mouth curved into a crooked smile. “Good.” She glanced up, meeting Caitlyn’s eyes. “That includes Powder too, right? I know things are tense between you two, but she's my sister, Cupcake. And it's the holidays."
Caitlyn’s chest tightened. “Vi—”
“I won't force you to get along with her, I just... want you two to not hate each other any more.” Vi added quickly.
Caitlyn laughed, the tension breaking like ice in spring. “I think we can manage that.”
They raised their mugs in a mock toast, porcelain clinking softly.
“To surviving the year,” Vi said.
“To choosing each other,” Caitlyn replied. "And choosing family."
The snow was thinner in the Undercity, clinging stubbornly to railings and flickering neon signs instead of settling prettily. Vi walked a half-step ahead, hands shoved in her jacket pockets, like she was bracing for a punch that hadn’t been thrown yet.
Caitlyn noticed. She always did.
“You don’t have to rush,” Caitlyn said gently.
Vi glanced back, offering a crooked smile that didn’t quite stick. “Yeah. Just... y’know. Family.”
They stopped outside a converted warehouse strung with mismatched lights. A crude metal star had been welded to the door, one point bent at an alarming angle.
Before Vi could knock, the door flew open.
“Well, well, well,” Jinx proclaimed, shining eyes flicking between them. “If it isn’t Piltover’s favorite law-bringer and my favorite ex-con.”
“Hey, Powder,” Vi said softly.
Jinx froze—just for a heartbeat—then scoffed and turned away. “Don’t call me that." The voices that often pestered her whispered in her mind 'she wants to change you', 'she wants you to be small again', 'easy to control'. Jinx tenses up at these internal thoughts and puts a hand over her face, squeezing her eyes shut in frustration and fear for a moment. But as quickly as it comes, she bounces back. Violet and her had been working on suppressing these feeilngs when they showed up, addressing them instead of letting them fester. "You want in or are you just here to gloom up my doorway with your shitty memory?”
They stepped inside and the space smells like oil, sugar, and extensive amounts of fire and hot metal from welding. A half-assembled toy rocket lay on the table beside a lopsided little tree decorated with bullet casings and bits of colored glass gathered from around the Sumps and Lanes.
Jinx spun around, finally really looking at them. Her gaze narrowed at their hands, still loosely intertwined.
“…Oh,” she said.
Vi opened her mouth. Closed it. Then tried again. “So. Uh. Merry Christmas?”
Caitlyn smiled politely. “It’s lovely to see you, Jinx.”
Jinx stared at their hands again. Then at Vi. Then back at Caitlyn.
“No,” she said. “Nope. Nope, nope, nope.”
Vi winced. “Okay, hear me out—”
“You brought the cop as a lover,” Jinx interrupted, voice climbing, “to my place, holding hands, during the holidays?”
Vi rubbed the back of her neck. “When you put it like that…”
Jinx’s eye twitched. “I knew it. I knew something was weird the moment you showed up side by side not arguing.”
Vi brightened, pointing at her. “See? Jinxed it.”
There was a beat of silence.
Jinx’s face went completely blank.
Then her eyes went wide.
“…Did you...?"
Vi grinned. “Couldn’t resist.”
For half a second, Caitlyn thought Jinx might actually throw something.
Instead, Jinx let out a sharp laugh, something mirthful and unrestrained, almost startling herself at how loud it was.
“Oh my Janna,” she cackled, clutching her stomach. “That was terrible. Absolutely awful. You should be arrested for that.”
Caitlyn hid a smile behind her blue scarf.
Jinx straightened, wiping at her eyes, still grinning like she couldn’t quite believe it. “Wow. Guess miracles really do happen. My sister’s dating a Kiramman and learned how to be stupid.”
“Hey,” Vi said proudly. “Growth.”
Jinx looked at them again, really looked this time. “…So,” she said, quieter now, “you happy sis?”
Vi didn’t hesitate. She squeezed Caitlyn’s hand. “Yeah. I am.”
Caitlyn met Jinx’s eyes, feeling the weight of the moment, and the shift between them as the tension in the air eased slightly. “We both are.”
Jinx scoffed, turning away to fuss with the crooked tree. “Gross. Disgusting. Keep it up and I’ll start charging you rent for emotional damage.”
And when Vi reaches out, gently touching Jinx's shoulder, Jinx didn't tense up this time, she didn't jerk away or pull back, instead, she turned and looked at Vi, and smiles. A tight, small smile, but a smile. "Growth." Vi said again, and Jinx nods.
"Growth, sis."