Archive of Our Own ^beta

Caitlyn cheers whenever Violet gets the ball. In her head, of course. She is the Sheriff of Piltover and Vi is currently playing rugby with Zaun against Piltover. Caitlyn has spent her entire duration as sheriff attempting to bridge relations between the two cities. Heavens know most of the councillors would have her head if she were outwardly cheering for another team. 

Her mother would shoot them all down, of course. But Caitlyn does try to make her life easier when she can. So, she sits on her hands.

Then a woman stands on Violet's hand when she's already on the ground.

Caitlyn's on her feet, surrounded by children of the women playing but if they've never heard a profanity before. That's not her problem.

"Ref!" she screams. "That was clearly a fucking foul!"

The moment Vi enters the changing room, she is reaching for her phone. Zaun beat Piltover today. Fucking finally. And sure, Vi lives topside now, but she’s not playing for them if she can help it. She wipes her forehead with her forearm. It does little to stop the sweat seeping into her eyes. Who created sweat bands, anyway? It sits uselessly around her forehead as the sweat drips against her eyelashes.

But she can’t be mad. Not when the two notifications she was hoping to see are there on her screen. 

Sheriff Cupcake: Marvellous game, Violet!

ViLanesRugby (Fan Account) has tagged you in three posts.

Vi taps out a thank you to Caitlyn. It’s sweet as shit that she turns up even though she’s the Sheriff (the other team are mad at her, but Vi would knock them out if they said anything) and the fact that Caitlyn hates her. She’s still the first thing Vi looks for when she enters the field. Usually sitting a few rows from the front, eyepatch and black turtle neck in place. Severely straight posture, tight ponytail and Vi’s favourite little smile in the world. She's always surrounded by children who are enamoured by her and her inability to casually chat to anyone under thirty. Cait doesn’t always make it. But she tries. Something about building camaraderie with her subordinates. Vi is yet to ask her what she thinks of Steb’s cricket matches. Too nervous that if she asks, Caitlyn will tell her she needs to show her face too. Vi likes Steb. She likes most of her colleagues, to be fair. Not enough to go watch them play a boring game outside of work time though.

Unless it’s Cait’s shooting tournaments, and then she’ll skip rugby to watch her. Something about being hideously in love with her, according to Ekko. Powder says it’s because Caitlyn always wins.

It’s probably both, but Vi isn’t entertaining that conversation, outside of her own mind at two am, right now.

She opens her app and sees the photos she’s been tagged in. Her fan account, which was opened a few months ago, went semi viral once. A photo of her with her top pulled up to wipe sweat from her brow, rugby ball tucked under her arm, is what did it. Vi isn’t sure who runs the account, but she’s not mad. She’s getting sponsorship opportunities she never would have thought about before. She’s putting Powder through school and managed to get a slightly better bike for work.

There’s not enough money in it to move to a nicer area of Zaun. Somehow Piltie’s have managed to gentrify the area closest to the bridge because they’re fucking savages. Either way, it helps. Sure, Vi loves a gym selfie but the idea that a company would want her to showcase something they made wouldn’t have entered her mind in a million years. She was just posting them for nostalgic value, so when she's old and haggard she can look back and remind she was fit as fuck. 

And the serotonin of hungry butch lovers, naturally.

The photos are always flattering, and whoever it is gets all the details about the games perfect. Even if they lose, ViLanesRugby paints her in a positive light.

Fuck, she hopes it’s not a man.

“Good game ladies,” Grayson says. She’s terrifyingly hot and Vi can barely explain why. Maybe she just has something for scarily posh ladies who wear high waisted trousers and look like they could shoot her with their eyes closed.

She had a dirty dream with Grayson and Cait once and called out sick for a full week in case she blushed every time one of them looked at her. Caitlyn sent soup, and Vi felt like a terrible creep. As if she were at the park, hidden in the bushes, in a trench coat.

Grayson talks about what they need to improve for their match against Noxus next week. Vi needs to ask Caitlyn to swap her shift again. Caitlyn usually says yes, but it comes with stipulations. Those things often mean spending more time with Caitlyn though, so she’s never mad. Even if she does increase the amount of paperwork she has to do.

Sheriff Cupcake: You’re welcome.

Sheriff Cupcake: It’s always so thrilling to see you at your best.

Vi: awhhhhh thanks cait

Vi: u in this arvo?

Vi knows that she is. She has her schedule on her phone. But it’s nice to have confirmation. Sometimes, she swings in for her night shift and Caitlyn’s already left for her last meeting of the day, and then she’s gone until the morning. Vi has to last an entire twelve hour shift with no Caitlyn and her inability to tell Vi anything with less than a twenty thousand word monologue and a book recommendation.

She’s just finished reading a Shakespeare play. Vi doesn’t get it, but she’ll read another if it makes Caitlyn’s shoulders rise with her little haughty hmm. 

Sheriff Cupcake: I am. I foolishly told Steb you had a match against Noxus next week. All because you won! Yay. Anyway, he knew you’d need to swap with him and leveraged tonight off. A sneaky man, but the team will need you for next week.

Oh, no. Vi hates it when her life affects Caitlyn’s in a bad way. Sometimes, Powder drops by the station with a glitter bomb and Caitlyn laughs about it over a tea and Vi doesn’t feel all that bad. Cait makes Pow clean it up and she gets stuck with five hours of community service, because Caitlyn is sweet, but she’s fair too.

Vi: I don’t have to play

Vi: not if it makes it worse for u

Vi: im sorry cait

Sheriff Cupcake: Violet, did I say I was mad?

Vi: guess not

Sheriff Cupcake: Bring in some noodles and that fish soup thing you insist on eating, and I’ll forgive you.

Vi: thought u werent mad

Sheriff Cupcake: It comes and goes.

Sheriff Cupcake: Besides, you have that paperwork to finish from the break-in yesterday. If you do it in my office then you’re less likely to get distracted and might actually finish it.

Vi groans. Caitlyn thinks she has to babysit her. She wants to be annoyed. With anyone else she’d glare at them and tell them she’s twenty fucking six and can finish paperwork alone. Vi’s not thick, she just lacks concentration sometimes. There are people to fight, and colleagues to teach and Caitlyn Kiramman’s to watch.

But she can’t be. Not with the knowledge that she has twelve uninterrupted hours in a small office with a sleepy Caitlyn. Well, almost uninterrupted. Caitlyn is the most sought after person in all of Piltover, it seems. Vi might get lucky. Caitlyn might take her boots off, loosen her tie and curl up on the corner of her couch. 

Vi: fish slop times two on my way

Sheriff Cupcake: Need I remind you I have the ability to fire you.

Vi: stop flirting w me

Sheriff Cupcake: Violet.

Vi all but skips out of the building. God, Cait if Caitlyn had any idea what she did to her.

Caitlyn: Code Red.

Caitlyn waits a full three minutes before she dials her mothers number. She picks up in two rings. There's no way she didn't see her text.

"Mother, I called a code red!"

"Yes, dear, and I've warned you multiple times that a code red is for threats of war and attempted kidnapping. Not because Vi looked at you."

Caitlyn groans. "She's not even here."

Her mother hums, clearly putting her on speaker. She'll be sitting on the couch. Perhaps her father is also around. 

"I think Violet is flirting with me."

There's sudden movement, crackling against the receiver and a thump on the ground.

"Ouch."

"Toby, careful," her mother says, then, "Caitlyn. Tell us everything."

Caitlyn has her hair in a braid when Vi gets to the office and it throws her off balance.

She had her hair up in a ponytail just hours ago. Cait is only ever in a braid when she's at a stakeout. Once, she wore it to the office and Vi only knew the time was moving by how much of Caitlyn's hair fell over. By three pm, she looked like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards. Vi has simply never seen anything as beautiful.

"Hey, cupcake," she says as casually as she can. There's a high chance it sounded like a marriage proposal. 

"Hello, Violet."

Vi smiles. Fuck, she's the only one that gets away with calling her that. 

"I brought food."

Caitlyn beams, then spins on her heel and walks into her office. "Come."

And Vi could, she thinks. With that face, those tight trousers and that tone of voice. She really fucking could.

She eats her noodles instead. She decided against Jericho's because... well she missed her. Jericho's takes an extra thirty minutes when she can't be bothered with the bike drama on the bridge.

Her phone lights up with a thousand (five) notifications from the family group chat. Vi groans.

“What’s the matter?”

“Oh," Vi says, slurping some noodles into her mouth. "Pow passed her first year exams."

"That's excellent, Vi."

"Mm, and I'm proud, of course."

Caitlyn hums with a nod. The most active listener Vi has ever met. It threw her off at the start but it's far too endearing to not fall in love with. Vi fidgets because she doesn't know what else to do with her hands when she's the sole focus of Caitlyn's attention.

"There's a party at my dad's bar. I'm just..."

"Trying not to drink?"

Vi frowns. "How did you know?"

Caitlyn shrugs, runs her fingers over the back of Vi's hand. It calms her down like it does every time she does it.

"I wouldn't be a very good detective if I didn't realise when you stopped drinking, Violet." She links their fingertips together. Casually. Like Vi isn't relearning how to breathe.

"I guess," she mumbles. It took her family a while to stop asking her to do shots with her. Not until she specifically said she was going to AA. "It's just still early, y'know? I'm pretty confident with not giving into peer pressure but. It's a lot of heavy drinkers."

“I could come with you, if you like?”

Vi blinks. "What?"

"I drink lemonade most of the times we go out as a squad, and I can keep you in line better than most people," she says with a small giggle.

Caitlyn thinks she needs to babysit her outside of work. She thinks she's so pathetic she can't handle a single evening without her.

“Oh. It’s alright. I know you have a weekly schedule. Wouldn't wanna throw it out.”

Vi looks down. Misses the flash of hurt on Caitlyn's face.

"I uhm, finished Romeo and Juliet," she says instead of begging her to come. Having Caitlyn there would help. It wouldn't stop the desire to drink, but she always wants to be her best for Caitlyn. She rarely drank when she was around her away, always wanting to keep a fresh head in case something happened. There is no shortage of creeps wanting Caitlyn's attention.

Caitlyn hums. “I quite enjoyed it.”

“Eh, it’s not the romance people make it out to be.”

Caitlyn’s eyebrow raises. “No?”

“Nah. I’d die for you is cute and whatever, but I dunno, doesn’t work for me.”

“Mm, I’d much rather someone wanted to live for me.”

Vi wants to tell her she is. Every morning she wakes up and has oat milk in her latte because Caitlyn cried over a documentary on dairy farming and she cut it out of her life. She wants to tell her she bought a better helmet so she wouldn’t worry so much about her when she rides to work. She wants to tell her she reads for her, that she writes songs she enjoys on paper for her. She wants to tell her if Shakespeare could hear the way she thinks about her, he’d be shaking in his boots.

“That’s the goal.”

Caitlyn smiles, rubs her hands against her thighs as she shoves her trousers back to her ankles.

“Have a nice night, Violet.”

God, there's no way Caitlyn isn't thinking she's a fucking loser.

Caitlyn rests her forehead against the desk. Desperately trying not to replay the way Violet's tongue licked at the lips. The greasy sheen on her chin from the downright filthy way she ate her noodles.

It's unreasonable for her to moan around her fingers without thinking Caitlyn might spontaneously combust.

It's good, truly, that Vi turned down her offer to go with her this weekend.

It would have been too unprofessional. Too messy if something had gone awry.

Meeting Violet's entire family, her friends. Seeing her in her home.

It would have been... delightful.

Too fucking delightful.

Vi barely lasts twenty minutes before she realises she should have taken Caitlyn up on her offer. And that's after spending the rest of the week trying to figure out how to ask her to come. Even if she was only asking as a gesture. Even if she was asking because Vi is useless and she thought she needed to be watched. At least she’d be here. Straight as an arrow on uncomfortable bar stools. Polite sips of disgusting zauntie alcohol. Maybe she’d school Mylo in a game of darts. It’s possible she’d get behind the bar and start helping Vander with the regulars. 

She doesn’t care what they'd do. They could be silent for the entire evening, and it wouldn’t be a waste of time. Vi's glass becomes uninteresting after the third time she spins it around. So, she sends Caitlyn a quick message instead of overthinking it for twenty minutes.

It only asks if she’s free and sends her the address, but it feels like a herculean effort all the same. Yesterday, Caitlyn sent a delayed response to a joke. Simply ‘haha.’ and she thought about it all evening as she sat in her perched her desk looking at Caitlyn’s office window in the hopes she might see her walk past.

Sheriff Cupcake: I apologise, Violet. I am otherwse engaged.

Vi’s heart drops. A date. 

Caitlyn ‘my mother keeps trying to set me up with women but I’m not interested’ Kiramman is on a date.

Caitlyn's cries turn from soft to heaving the moment she manages to respond to Violet's text. She doesn't have the energy to reply to Jayce, or Mel or figure out who else she might be ignoring.

The lights are too bright, even though she shut the main ones off and it's only the street lamps outside. Her hands won't stop twitching against her duvet cover which no longer feels the same. 

She should have mentioned it to her mother when she left. Usually, her parents get it, but nothing happened tonight out of the ordinary. There were just one too many different sounds, and that annoying councillor kept touching her arm and her new jumpsuit scratched against her back the entire night.

Now her eye hurts for the first time in months and she can't do anything. 

There's nothing to do but attempt deep breaths and to let is pass, Janna she knows this but she hates it all the same. She puts her noise-cancelling headphones on and wishes Violet were here to stroke her head.

Vi’s fingers tap against her thigh as she strides into the precinct. She’s exhausted. As she always is when she’s on the early morning shift. But Caitlyn let her move her schedule around so she could go and play a match this afternoon. Vi can’t tell if her sour mood is because she’s walking towards Cait’s office now and knows she’s about to be written up, or because she knows Caitlyn won’t be coming to the match.

She hasn’t figured it out by the time she gets there. She sighs and knocks at the door. She doesn’t have time to waste. The match starts in forty-five minutes and she’s still in her uniform. But she’ll be too distracted on the pitch if she doesn’t apologise to Cait first.

“Enter.”

Vi takes a deep breath. Caitlyn isn't mad at her. That's how she always responds to the door. Vi's desk is right next to her office so she knows that's how Caitlyn answers people intruding on her work time.

For fuck sake, Vi got knocked down by Sevika at training yesterday and her body didn't shake as much as it does now. And Sevika did it on purpose, so she should rightfully have been, as Cait would say, incandescent with rage.

But she's not playing right now. There's no bragging rights to be had by tossing Sevika to the ground moments later.

She's just opening a door. Something she's requested, and been granted, permission to do. 

God, she's a loser. Powder would cackle or vomit at her inability to be chill around Caitlyn sometimes.

Vi barrelled into her office just yesterday unannounced! But now, she knows Cait is disappointed with her. Not mad, never mad. She's too professional for petty emotions. Vi has had the pleasure of learning enough about her to know there will be no slight scrunch of her nose when she calls her Cupcake. There will be no small smile when she does enter the room. There will be nothing at all.

The door swings open, because Caitlyn is a fabulous detective. The best in all of Runeterra. And perhaps, because even Vi’s cat could figure out a knock at the door means someone is there.

But Vi can't speak. Long gone are the jitters that Caitlyn will reprimand her for her reckless use of the gauntlets. Because Janna above, Caitlyn doesn't have her eye patch on.

And Caitlyn always has her eye patch on. But now her eye remains free. Open, thick jagged scar running through the eyelid and a pastel blue lens. The only colour Vi is ever going to dream in again. And she's wearing one of those pairs of glasses on her perfect fucking nose. Is it classed as a pair, seeing as there's only one of them? A minotaur? A meteor? Fuck, she'll have to slyly ask Cait under the guise of playing the crossword when she can figure out a single thing other than you are the hottest person I've ever seen and I don't know how to deal with it. 

The Sheriff frowns. “May I help you, Violet?”

Oh, holy shit.

Vi can’t tear her eyes away. Can’t figure out that staring and saying nothing at all doesn’t come across well. Even if she’s three seconds away from dropping to her knee to propose. Caitlyn’s frown becomes more pronounced and her hand touches her face. Where Vi is still staring. 

“Oh,” Caitlyn whispers. “I took it off.”

Vi sees the moments her eyes go wide, the way her face crumples, the way she steps back into the office and slams the door. 

It takes her sixteen seconds to realise she’s about to ruin her life. She knocks again.

There’s no enter. 

She goes in anyway. 

“I’m quite busy, detective.” Caitlyn has her eye patch back on and Vi’s heart shatters that last tiny bit.

“I haven’t seen you without your patch before.”

“Believe me, I am aware,” Caitlyn says. Her shoulders tense, her back straight as an arrow.

“Cait,” Vi says softly. She rests her bum on the edge of her desk. Caitlyn isn’t particularly efficient at showing more than one emotion at a time. So, she’s trying to be stone-faced and annoyed, but Vi can see the sadness all over her pretty face. 

“I have things to do, Violet.”

She wants Caitlyn to look at her again. She can be angry at her if she likes. Vi just wants her to look.

She takes the plunge, rests her fingers against her jaw and tilts Caitlyn’s face upwards. “I have dreamed about what you might look like beneath your patch, and I get that it’s traumatic and there are hundreds of reasons you must think you need to wear it all the time. I wasn’t - I was useless and standing there because I’ve never seen someone as beautiful as you and I lost the ability of speech.”

Caitlyn blinks, what looks like pure surprise covering her face. It’s as if no-one has ever said that to her before. Vi would be her life savings (barely enough for a car from the junk yard) on the fact that people must fall over their feet to talk to her. She hasn’t seen someone actually trip before, but she was there when a criminal walked into a pole instead of fleeing because he caught a glimpse of her. 

Her face is poetry, so she understands.

Then Cait frowns, her lips pouting and so clearly forcing herself to react in a way she thinks is suitable, and if she wasn’t a fucking gentleman, she would be leaning in already. Vi wonders if it’s possible to live in this moment - a moment where she doesn’t have complete control over her reaction - forever.

“What?”

Vi smiles. Greedily, she runs her thumb over the edge of her jaw. “I know it’s not appropriate to say to my boss that she is easily the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. But,” she says with a shrug. “I’m due a write up anyway and I can’t go another second with you thinking I would ever have a single negative thing to say about you.”

“Oh.”

“I need you to know that. It’s important to me that you know that.”

“Okay. Then I know that.”

Vi smiles bright. “Good, Sheriff.” Caitlyn rolls her eyes. If Vi lied, she might be able to convince herself Caitlyn leaned into her palm. “I’ll go do my paperwork.”

“Wait,” Caitlyn says, holding onto her hand. She doesn’t immediately drop it. “Why did you knock?”

Vi blinks. Tries to figure out what mattered to her before seeing Cait’s smiling face and the fact her thumb is running over her wrist. Maybe if she asked her to take her eye patch off again, she would. 

“I thought I was getting written up for the raid.”

Caitlyn frowns, dropping her hand to rub above her eyebrow. Her patch elastic is twisted. Pulling at the hair by her temple, clearly thrown on in a desperate attempt to hide. Vi reaches out slowly and untangles it. 

“Thank you.”

Vi leaves her fingers lingering against her face. “Do you want to keep it on?” Cait looks away. “You don’t have to. Not for me.”

“It was giving me a headache,” she says, softly. “But it’s better now.”

Vi shrugs. The movement sends her fingers along Caitlyn’s hairline. She vaguely remembers Caitlyn is her boss and unaware that Vi has been in love with her for years.

Her hand stays where it is anyway.

“Being in pain isn’t the only reason to take it off.”

“Is the other reason because you think I’m beautiful?” It’s supposed to be jokey. It’s so painfully obvious it’s supposed to come out with a laugh. But Cait. Her brilliant, stupidly beautiful, favourite thing in the world, Cait, is unintentionally hilarious. Being funny on purpose is not her strong suit. But this is too precious a topic for Vi’s brash need to get rid of emotions with humour.

“Yes.”

It’s worth the snakes in her stomach because Caitlyn smiles so wide her cheek pushes into Vi’s open palm. She takes her eye patch off slowly. Neatly folding it on top of her desk. She’s the cutest thing alive. 

“I trust you,” Caitlyn says, finally looking up at her. Bright blue and pastel looking at her. “I wasn’t planning on reprimanding you for your use of the gauntlets.”

“You weren’t?”

Caitlyn shakes her head, leaning back in her chair as she crosses both her legs and her arms. It’s a dangerous pose for her to be in when Vi can’t stop looking at her like she was made for her. 

“I need you to be able to go in there and do what you need to do to keep your colleagues and yourself safe. Sure, sometimes a wall gets taken down that requires me to fill out far too many forms.”

Vi winces.

“But I can’t have you second guessing every move because you think you’ll be told off.” Caitlyn scoffs as if she hasn’t given Vi more verbal warnings than everyone in the department put together. Though, every time it’s justified. Every time it’s more about keeping herself safe than damage to infrastructure. 

Huh. 

Caitlyn cares about her. She might even be her friend. Vi is going to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out how to get the vague possibility that Caitlyn might talk to her outside of the office, to her walking towards her in a white gown. 

“I want you to be safe,” Caitlyn says. She chews on her lip as she looks away. “Buildings and cars can be replaced. I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt.”

“I won’t.”

Caitlyn hums. “You can’t promise that.”

“No, I can’t, but I can promise I’ll try. I’ll be better. Stop blocking with my face and stuff.”

That gets Caitlyn to smile, leaning forwards with a conspiratory glint in her eye. “Good, I happen to like your face.”

There’s no way Caitlyn can’t see her blush. Vi can practically see the red glowing off the walls.

“Yeah?”

“Oh, yes. I think you’re spectacular.”

Caitlyn has never mastered the art of subtlety. It renders Vi speechless more often than not.

“Oh. Okay - I - alright.”

It took Vi a while to figure out the tone of everything she meant. She never tells a lie. So, it must be true. She thinks Vi is attractive. Should she start picking out a suit?

Caitlyn giggles. “Don’t you have a match?”

“Fuck!”

"Wait," Caitlyn says, blood rushing down her forehead. "I just need -"

"Sheriff, you are concussed, give me your fucking phone."

"Steb," she groans. Though, she's unsure if it's the blow to the head or the annoyance at Steb's refusal to do as she says. Her vision goes spotty. "Steb, I - delete the photo, please."

He takes her phone, rolls his eyes wildly as he nods.

"You two owe me a beer."

Caitlyn closes her eyes. The pain medication finally setting in. "No news to anyone, Steb. Not yet."

"Vi?"

Caitlyn can't answer, unconsciousness slipping in. It wouldn't matter what she said. Violet would find her anyway.

Another win is another win. Vi wishes her entire mood wasn’t based on whether or not Caitlyn was in the stands. 

There’s no text on her phone either. No tags from her fan account. Everyone just hates her today. Vi checks her phone anyway, clicking rapidly through stories in case she missed something. Her face lights up the screen and she frowns. On the official Sheriff account? Vi was tapping too quickly, and now has to scroll to find the account again. She clicks through the stories. Volunteering opportunities, grant application links. Nothing about her face. 

Huh.

Maybe she did take that hit heavier than she thought.

“Vi, did you get checked out?” Grayson asks. “Medic said you needed a follow up post match.”

Vi groans. She’s fine. No fainting, no sickness. 

“Wasn’t a question.”

“Alright,” she responds. “I’m going.” 

“No girlfriend today?” Sevika asks. Vi rolls her eyes. Wow, her brain feels like mush. She almost stumbles on her feet but she stays upright. Still, she wishes she didn’t need to be escorted. Vi grew up in the lanes for fuck sake. She can take a whack to the head. Sevika walks next to her anyway. Probably just to wind her up because Vi did the same to her a few weeks back. Vi sends a text to Steb to tell him she might be late. The text should go to Caitlyn, probably, but she’s still pouty that she’s not here.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Vi replies like a child.

“Yeah, you just like her like a girlfriend. You just talk about her like a girlfriend. You just-” Sevika’s voice filters out even though Vi knows she’s still talking, because the world has ended. It turns out the end of civilisation isn’t humanity, or nuclear war or the threat of alien invasion.

Stebbbby: Sheriff is hurt.

Stebbbby: Officers on shift aren’t meant to know until debrief tomorrow. 

Stebbbby: But I didn’t want you to stab me if I didn’t tell you.

It's not knowing if Caitlyn is okay.

“Fuck,” Vi says, stopping in the hallway. Her exhaustion and possible headache take a back seat as her heart drops to the floor. Everything turns blurry apart from the way she maps out a route to the hospital. “I gotta go.”

“Grayson is gunna have my arse if you don’t get checked out, so get the fuck in there.”

“Cait’s hurt.”

“I thought she wasn’t your girlfriend.”

“Sevika.” Vi should already be running, because Sevika doesn’t care about her like that and could easily force her into the medics office. But, Janna willing, she’s been seeing Mel long enough to know that when the person you love is hurt, you’ve just gotta fucking go.

She sighs. “Fucking fine, but I’m telling Grayson you pulled the lever on my arm and legged it out the bathroom window.”

Vi runs before she can change her mind, and she doesn’t stop until she’s a sweaty, dishevelled mess in the reception of a way too fancy hospital. Vi’s been here before, but she’s the one in the hospital bed so she didn’t get to take in the disgusting display of wealth that is the foyer. Fuck, she can’t believe she makes Caitlyn feel like this. The uncertainty of whether she's going to make it through the fucking night. She'll be better. Whatever Cait wants, she'll do it. She'll never go into an abandoned warehouse alone again if Caitlyn's alright.

“Caitlyn,” she heaves out, with her palms against the desk. A receptionist looks at her like she's the dirt on the bottom of her shoe. Vi doesn’t give a shit. “Kiramman. Caitlyn Kiramman. Where is she?”

“Are you… a friend?”

“Yes.”

“Only family allowed.”

Vi glares. “Is she alright?”

“I cannot give out classified information,” she replies. Vi might hit her. “I’m afraid you’ll need to wait outside.”

“Listen,” Vi says in her least threatening voice which isn’t all that un-threatening. But in her defence, Caitlyn could be - no, she can’t say it out loud. “I’m going to find her one way or another, and you really want to be helpful to me right now because I remember a face.”

“Violet.” She spins. Cassandra Kiramman looks right at her. Face pouty like Caitlyn’s when she’s annoyed with her. Vi’s met her a few times. Gala’s and things. She’s been invited to dinner at the Kiramman mansion before, but Vi’s never been good at networking with so few people. 

“Please do try your hardest not to threaten the hospital staff.” Cassandra’s not sobbing. There’s a wariness to her face like her child has been injured, but she’s - she’s standing. That’s a good thing, right?

“And you,” she says to the receptionist who is awful at context clues because even Vi can pick out the hostility in Cassandra’s tone. The receptionist just sits up taller, smug as anything as she awaits the councillors words. “If someone is awaiting word of whether their loved one is alive, you could find some basic human decency to give them information. Or are you not fit for this role?”

She shrinks behind her desk. Shame and humiliation evident on all her features but Vi doesn't care about her. Cassandra is cool and all, but she really wants to interrupt this display of power and ask her if Caitlyn is alright. 

“Yes, Councillor. My apologies. Miss Kiramman will make a full recovery.”

Vi lets out a deep, shuddering breath until it feels like she might pass out. Her eyes water, and her bottom lip pouts and she feels the rest of her chest fall to the ground. “Oh. That’s - thank you.”

“Let’s go,” Cassandra says, ushering down the hall. “She’s awake.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm. A nasty hit to the head. Tobias prescribed her with some main medication. So, she’s somewhat…”

Vi immediately panics. “Somewhat?”

“Well, she’s blunt.”

“Cait’s always blunt.”

“Yes, but now she’s high as a kite.”

Vi sobs. “I can’t even appreciate a high as fuck, Caitlyn? Not a single filter in that beautiful mind?”

Cassandra smiles. “She’ll be alright, Vi. Truthfully, she’s been worried about you this entire time.”

“Me?”

“Said you took a hit on the field. She’s been ordering nurses around to find out what happened. She was terribly sad to have to miss your match.”

“How is she - she’s the one in,” she replies, arms flying. “God, she’s stubborn as hell.”

Cassandra laughs, and opens a door that looks like it might house the president. Tobias is here doing something Vi should be worried about, but Caitlyn is sitting up, bandage wrapped around her temple, her fingers tapping her legs as if she’s thinking. Probably wants her father to stop hovering, but she’s too polite to say so.

She looks up at the intrusion. Frown on her pretty face which immediately morphs into something else entirely.

“Violet! Mother, you found her.”

Cassandra hums. “Threatening a receptionist and everything.”

“Cassie,” Vi groans.

Caitlyn giggles, holds her hands out in front of her with a grabbing motion. Vi doesn’t know what she wants, but it’s cute as fuck so she walks over. “Well, perhaps if that rude woman wasn’t greeting people like she was the queen and everyone else are peasants, she wouldn’t be threatened.”

“Quite,” Tobias replies. “Hello, Vi.”

Vi doesn’t take her eyes off Caitlyn. “Uh, hi.” Caitlyn’s entire family seems perfectly neutral about her being here. She sits on the chair next to her bed, and Caitlyn frowns. 

“Cait? Baby, what’s wrong?” She’ll let the slip up go. Somehow, she gets through daily briefings half asleep and doesn’t confess her love when Caitlyn gets all excited over new crime statistics. She can have this.

She pats the bed. “You have your arms out and I can’t appreciate them from there. Sit here.”

Oh.

Vi sits on the edge of the bed. Caitlyn’s hand wraps around her bicep, one holding her jaw. 

“How’s your head?”

“Haven’t had any complaints,” Vi replies.

“I wouldn’t know,” Caitlyn replies with a strong pout. Vi chokes.

“Oh, Janna,” Cassandra complains. Vi forgot she was here. Tobias clears his throat. 

“I think that’s our cue, dear. Caity, please call if you need anything. Vi, call for her if she starts showcasing any symptoms. I trust you know what a concussion looks like.”

“Yes, sir.”

There are far too many kisses on the forehead before they actually leave for Vi’s liking. She wants to kiss Cait on the forehead.

So she does.

“You’re not allowed to be hurt,” Vi whispers, lips brushing the bandage. “You’re never allowed to be hurt.”

Caitlyn rolls her eye. “I’m fine.”

“Someone struck you with a metal pole, Cait.”

She pouts again. Vi knew it was her favourite expression. “Yes, well. They’re in prison now and I got a cookie.”

Vi can’t get her heart to stop hammering away behind her ribcage. Caitlyn is mostly fine, but she should be perfectly fine. Vi should have been there. She’s the brawn that’s the whole point!

“Stop looking so sad, Violet. There’s nothing you could have done. You weren’t even there.”

“I should have been!” she cries. “I’m leaving the rugby team.”

“You most certainly are not,” Caitlyn responds. “You are not my bodyguard and I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself Vi. Besides, I like seeing you run around in tiny shorts.”

She wants to tell her that she’s clearly not, but it wouldn’t be fair. Caitlyn was hit over the side of the head, in a smoke filled room. Even with her gauntlets, there’s no way Vi would have caught him before he’d struck her. But, she could have taken the hit for her.

Caitlyn holds her hands against Vi’s face. “You do not live to get hurt just to protect others.”

“Keeping you safe is my job.”

“You know I wrote your job description?”

Vi shrugs. “You’ve changed it for me before.”

Caitlyn giggles. “Yes, but you asked when you had your rugby top on and you looked so pretty. So, I couldn’t say no. Your little puppy eyes get me every time.”

“They do?”

“Why do you think we get bagels every Wednesday morning?”

Vi frowns. “You like them?”

“Violet, I don’t even work until lunchtime on a Wednesday. You asked with a pout and it turns out I would do anything for you.”

Vi blinks. Then frowns. With a blinding hope that she resets something in her brain. 

“Are you flirting with me?”

Caitlyn laughs. A wind-chime sound that floats around until it settles in the folds of her heart. “For years, yes. Thank you for noticing.”

“I - what?”

“What did you think I was doing?”

“I - your job?”

“I don’t have breakfast with anyone else.”

“But,” Vi says, desperately trying to figure it out. “When we do paperwork… you’re not just correcting me because I’m wrong? You want to help me because you like me?”

Caitlyn frowns this time. “I don’t often correct you. I ask you to do paperwork with me because I like to be around you.”

“Oh.”

“I thought you knew that.” She chews on her lip, pulling her knees to her chest. Vi doesn’t enjoy the barrier between them, but she doesn’t know if she deserves to break it down. “You’re - do you just do the things I ask because I’m your boss?”

Her entire face drops.

“Caitlyn.”

“It’s alright,” she replies quickly, blinking tears away and that just won’t do. “We can just forget about it.”

“Cait, I was a goner the moment I met you.”

She looks right at her. Half a smile, half a frown. “You called me a stuck up Piltie Princess.”

She shrugs but she fears the smile is never going to go. She's just going to have to get rid of her bad-arse persona because it looks like there is a coat hanger stuck in her jaw. “It’s still true.”

Her face falls into a full frown. One of Vi’s favourite looks on her. “Violet,” she says quietly. “Did you really not know? I mean, I’m always at your matches.”

“I figured you liked rugby,” she mutters.

“I bring you coffee. I’ve asked you to dinner to meet my parents multiple times.”

“I thought it was for the precinct!”

“Violet, I often hold your hand.”

Vi grimaces. She’s stupid. “I just - I thought my fidgeting annoyed you.”

She holds her hand now. “Did you really not know?”

“I don’t think you know how impressive you are,” Vi whispers. “You are the Sheriff of Piltover, Cait. The heir to House Kiramman and I don’t even know what that means! You can shoot someone in the pinky from sixty feet away.”

“One of those things is not like the other,” Caitlyn says, then, “And I’m entirely aware of how impressive I can be, which is why I want you. You make me better Violet. Every day.”

“There is not a universe when someone like you, likes me,” she replies with a shrug. It used to hurt her feelings. Something like daily heartbreak with the cereal she’d eat in morning briefings. But she got used to it. Being around Cait is enough for her. 

“Pass me my phone,” Caitlyn says. 

It’s not the rabid rejection Vi was expecting, but the request does somewhat soften the blow. She sits closer to her when she’s back. The edge of her hip brushes Caitlyn’s thigh. 

Caitlyn taps away and then spins her phone. She nods, gesturing for Vi to take it.

“What the fuck?” Vi asks, when she does. She scrolls along the page of various photos of her face and her body. The other page shows edit buttons, notifications, messages. “You’re ViLanesRugby?”

“Yes.”

“Cupcake, I am going to need more than that.”

She sits straight, shoulders back like she hasn’t just shown herself as the admin behind her most popular page. Like she isn’t a Sheriff with a non paying part time job that a teenage girl might have.

“You get more opportunities like this,” she replies with a shrug. “You think I can’t see how much happier you are now that Powder is settled at college? That I don’t see you researching for supplies for Ekko when you’re supposed to be writing reports?”

“Stalker.”

Caitlyn laughs a little. “I think you’re very impressive, Violet. I just want everyone else to know that, too.”

“You think I'm hot.”

She blushes, finally. “Shh.”

“I'm just saying Cupcake, they're all topless photos.”

“They are not!”

Vi smiles, rests her chin against Caitlyn’s knee. “Would you want to get coffee with me?”

“We get coffee all the time,” Caitlyn responds, face all confused. She wants to tell her she truly does look like a mongoose sometimes, but she doesn't because she might stop and it's her favourite favourite thing.

Vi moves closer. She reaches for Caitlyn’s hand, presses her lips against her knuckles.

Caitlyn's jaw drops a little. “Oh.”

Vi drops a kiss there too.

“Violet.”

“Mmm.” Her cheek.

Caitlyn tilts her face until their noses brush. “Ask me again.”

Vi kisses her quickly. “Will you go out with me?”

“Yes.” Caitlyn’s hand wraps around the back of her neck as she pulls her closer again. “Always. Obviously. Of course.”

The kiss is truly the best thing that’s ever happened to her. Bested only by Caitlyn’s heart rate monitor beeping rapidly, to the point they have to stop before someone barges in.

“You'll have to tell HR,” Vi says smugly.

“Stop talking, please," Caitlyn says in her best Sheriff voice as if she's not blushing all over.

“You'll have to explain how the Sheriff of Piltover wants to date a trencher.”

“Don't call yourself that.”

Vi groans, resting her forehead against Cait’s thigh. “You're so hot when you're bossy.”

“I'm always bossy.”

“And you're always hot.”

Caitlyn laughs. “Violet, come here.” Vi lays down, squeezing herself between Caitlyn and the bars of her bed. Cait tucks herself into her side. All dangerous and rifle wielding and strong as fuck, and yet she curls around Vi like she's something delicate.

Vi runs her fingers down her back.

“HR is already aware of my feelings.”

“Oh?”

“It’s not a big secret, Vi. I think the entire office is aware. Besides, you know Debbie works in HR? And she’s dating Steb.”

“Steb is your favourite.”

“You are my favourite.”

Vi holds her closer. “Go on.”

Cait groans, but she does as she asks. Vi realises she always did. “Steb just… saw how I look at you. I suppose it was him who messaged you to tell you I was here. Even though the information was given to him in the strictest confidence.”

“You should thank him, Cupcake. I would have burnt the place to the ground if I found out a moment later. Someone should have run onto the pitch.”

“Dramatic.”

“For you, yes.”

“And when your favourite show gets cancelled.”

Vi huffs. “They make me fall in love with the lesbians and then cancel it in season two! It’s homophobic.”

“I know, darling.”

Something strange happens to Vi’s entire body with the word. She swallows. “But back to important things. How do you look at me?”

“Don't be cute.”

Vi laughs. “I’m so in love with you.”

Caitlyn’s head shoots up. Exactly like a mongoose. She’s doing herself zero favours. “Excuse me?”

Vi smiles, her hand lightly resting against Caitlyn’s cheek. “Hopelessly in love with you. Some may say pathetically. Embarrassingly. Irrecoverably."

“Did you read Pride and Prejudice?”

“Please, Austen ain’t got nothing on me.”

Caitlyn rolls her eye, kisses her once and then lays back down with a sigh. “You remain ridiculous.”

“Mhm.”

It’s quiet for a while. Nothing but the sound of the heart monitor and the thump of her own heart. 

“Cait? Baby? Caitlyn?”

“If you gave me a moment to answer, darling, I would.”

“Uhuh. When we go on our date can you wear your glass again?”

“It’s a monocle.”

“Yeah, that.”

She looks up at her with a soft smile.

“You like it?”

“Are you joking? It rearranged my brain chemistry, Cait. It might be an occupational hazard. I’ll have to tell HR too. Maybe we should have a joint meeting,” she says, wiggling her eyebrows in the hopes it makes her laugh. She feels like she can take on a bear when it works. 

“I had to redo my list of pretty things,” she continues. Cait runs her fingers down the side of her face. Like she’s trying to reset her just by making her combust. It really might do the trick. 

“You're at the top,” she says. She might be leaning in. It might be Cait. “But monocle Cait has just moved Cait with her hair in a bun to fourth place.”

Caitlyn laughs down her throat. “What’s second?”

Vi kisses her. Slow and sure and entirely what she wants to do for the rest of her life.

“Remember when we had that overnight mission and you didn’t bring a hoody?”

“They’re not on the approved uniform list,” she whispers against her lips. Vi moves them until she’s the one slightly on top. Cait can rest against the mattress because Vi’s a good girlfriend and Caitlyn did get hit today.

“Mhm, but then you got cold.”

“I did.”

“And I leant you mine and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever - wait,” she says, pulling back. “I never got that back!”

Caitlyn smiles. A little heart-stoppingly. A lot predatory.

“You had it on in your latest photo dump!”

Caitlyn presses her smile against Vi’s. It’s not quite a kiss but it makes her cheeks heat up all the same.

“How did you not know I was in love with you?”

She groans. “You’ll just have to tell me all the time.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Vi Lanes Rugby.”

“Do not call me that!”

Caitlyn: Violet kissed me!

Caitlyn: Don't come in, mother.

Caitlyn: Violet is asleep.

Caitlyn: Thank you for finding her for me. Please tell father I'm feeling better.

Caitlyn: She kissed me!!!!

Caitlyn: !!!!!!