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"I know I said I wouldn't say that again," Vi mutters out from behind her thin muffler, "but you're sure we're not too old for this?"
Caitlyn shrugs. Her scarf flutters in the desert wind. "You said I'd go stir crazy sitting around at home."
"Or that you'd go back to work," Vi says, "which is even worse, because you're not supposed to be working anymore." She adjusts the bindings on her own feet. She squints out into the distance. "So I guess this is why we're trying to ski down a sand dune in Shurima. At least the sand will be soft when we trip over our feet."
"Speak for yourself."
Vi rolls her eyes. "Let me guess, you learnt to ski one winter in the depths of the Freljord on a family trip when you were…" she tilts her head "…five."
"Demacia," Caitlyn says. "And I was eight, which makes that a very, very long time ago."
Vi winks. "A whole half century."
"And then some."
"And then some," Vi echoes. "Alright, so how does this work?"
"Put the tips together and make your skis into a slice of pie." Caitlyn says. "Bend your knees and think about leaning your weight on the inside edges of the skis."
Vi rotates her ankles and tilts her feet to copy the stance. "This looks a lot less cool than in the brochure," she says.
"The wedge helps you control your speed."
She can tell from the twitch in Caitlyn's lips that Caitlyn knows what she is going to say next, so she says it anyway.
"And if I don't want to control my speed?"
"Skis are heavy," Caitlyn says. "The ocean is right there." That ocean eye stays levelled on her, glinting in the midday sun. Vi grins right back, arms akimbo. Two can play at this game. Two have played at this game for more than three decades. It's a very fun game, if she were to say so herself. Best game she's ever played. Wouldn't trade this for the world.
Caitlyn sighs but her stance shifts.
"Lean forward into the slope. Think about pressing your shin to the front of the boot. Don't put all of your weight on your toes or the balls of your feet. Keep your knees bent and your arms out in front of you."
"And then I swim?"
"And then we hope," Caitlyn says as she reaches out to tuck one of those flyaways that Vi can never tame out of the way, "that the people who have rented us this gear and driven us up this sand dune have done the calculations and that you will not, in fact, cannonball directly into the ocean even if you go straight down and don't know how to stop."
"Didn't you say stopping was easy as pie?"
"I didn't realize this" —Caitlyn holds her left hand up and lets the metal catch the sunlight— "came with terrible puns for the rest of my life."
"You take that back."
"I speak it like I hear it," she says, back straight, hair dancing in the breeze. Vi's not sure she's ever loved this woman more. (That's not true. She probably has. Maybe. It's quite unclear.)
Behind them a throat clears.
Caitlyn colors immediately. Vi grins and does a hop step jump shuffle to the crest of the dune. "Last one down's a loser!"
"Why in the name of Janna would that be the case?!"
"I'm going to be cleaning sand out of my butt crack for the next five days," Vi says as she flops down on the bench in the locker room after having rolled down the last bit of the sand dune. Turns out tumbling ass over tea kettle still knocks one around even if it's on sand. She doesn't think she's bruised or anything, but wow had the sky been very, very, very blue. Worth it though. She gets the concept and the appeal.
"I should hope you'd shower some time in the next day, let alone five," Caitlyn mutters from where she's knelt at Vi's feet helping her yank off these very stiff boots. This buckle system is strange and Vi can definitely take the boots off herself but a bored Caitlyn is a very dangerous Caitlyn and what can she say, sometimes the view is great from up here.
"Gotta say I didn't realize mine would come with a pedant," Vi says, winding her fingers through the loose midnight tresses.
"No," says Caitlyn with an audible smile, perfectly pedantic. "You did know that."
"Janna deliver me," Vi says. "I have to be around you all day from now on?"
"For the rest of our lives, if I'm not mistaken."
"So."
Caitlyn crowds her a little in the back of this motorcycle jeep thing back to their rather… charming hotel. Vi's not sure what they call this vehicle locally but it's extremely convenient, the wind is blowing in her face, and that's really all she needs to be a fan. (Wow that was a terrible pun.) Also, it's fun sometimes to be squished up to Caitlyn. It's been years and years since they'd been out in the field and had to be in such close quarters.
"So?"
Caitlyn's elbow narrowly dodges her jaw. A good thing, given how sharp and pointy those are. Vi has been their victim on many a long and dreary night. (Kidding, the nights are never long and dreary when they're together.)
"You said Demacia," Vi says.
Caitlyn's head tilts ever so slightly. The vehicle goes over a bump and her hand shoots out to grab onto Vi's wrist. That one eye studies her for a heartbeat because that one smile Vi loves the most peeks through.
"I would go anywhere with you," says Caitlyn. She pauses. "But I do have to warn you that skiing tends to be seasonal."
That eye twinkles. Vi knows Cait's about to be the most annoying little shit that she has ever met. She twines their fingers together and squeezes gently. Is it an attempt to stymie the words that she knows will emerge next? Perhaps. Is it going to work? There's not a snowball's chance in a furnace.
"You see, it does require snow."
The vehicle goes over another bump and their knees knock, which is quite the feat, considering their thighs are already pressed together.
"I thank you for enlightening me."
Vi does her best impression of the newest Councilor, what's-his-face, and the way he tilts his chin so high up you can almost look down his nostrils. Not that Vi ever has. She doesn't want to and she doesn't need to and no one expects it of her, which is great.
Caitlyn's face scrunches up at the reference before it smoothes back out into her snooty game face. "I am simply performing my duty."
"Your duty."
"Why yes," Caitlyn says. "I did promise to take care of you."
Vi raises her eyebrows. "And that is relevant to our discussion, how?"
Caitlyn simply snorts but she doesn't pry her hand from Vi's nor does she make any move to lean away from the kiss.
"No but seriously," Vi says as the door shuts behind them and she strips a sock from her foot, pouring a tiny shower of fine sand onto the carpet. "You'd be down for Demacia?"
Caitlyn hums as she leans around her, feet slipping out of sandals into room slippers. "I meant it when I said I would go anywhere with you."
"I know," says Vi. "But you might have opinions on logistics."
"I always have opinions on logistics," Caitlyn's voice floats out from the bathroom. "Though it's not that you're proposing we take a trip to the Shadow Isles. I don't foresee anything particularly complicated with travel to Demacia. We have healthy trade ties."
"We do?"
A pause. A splash of water. Vi follows her into the bathroom and takes her spot on Caitlyn's right as she has done for almost as long as she can remember.
"I suppose I meant that Piltover does," Caitlyn says. "But I do believe Barnabas used to obtain linen from Demacia. I'm sure there's more that we import as well. I'd have to ask."
"We could."
Caitlyn's head emerges from the face towel. "We could…?"
"Go home," Vi says. "And ask. But we could also just go home."
A blink. Then another. "Didn't you want to go to Demacia?"
"It's not ski season yet, is it?" Vi grins her biggest, cheekiest grin. "I've been told it requires snow."
Caitlyn rolls her eyes.
"'Sides," Vi says. "The pillows here make you snore and this old lady needs her beauty sleep."
Caitlyn's jaw drops. "You take that back."
"I speak it," Vi smirks as she dances out of Caitlyn's arm's reach and hears her knee make a popping sound which, unfortunately, is not new in the slightest, "like I hear it."