Work Text:
The door closes behind Vi with a small click. It’s the softest sound he's heard today, and Vi is hopeful that signals the end of the shittiest of shitty days.
Must everything be so fucking loud? He has hearing aids to help him in day to day life (he's not quite at a profound level yet, but the last time they went to the audiologist they highlighted severe more than once), and since he's had them, everything is just a little too much. As if he doesn't deserve to have these tools and he's meant to go through life sounding like he's underwater. As if he was never supposed to get out of the lanes at all. He shakes his head. Most of the time he can figure it out, do enough to make it alright. But fuck, Friday afternoon with a bunch of sugared up six year olds that he's supposed to teach boxing, can ask him seventeen questions a minute with ease. It's not often her regrets not taking up the work experience job with Cait at the station. But this afternoon, after a headache from hell and the walk home in the rain, he thinks about it. He'd be a great second in command and he'd get to see Caitlyn all the time.
He rolls his neck as he sits on the ridiculous bench by the front door that Cait bought for him. Just so he didn’t have to bend over after a long day at work. He takes his shoes off perched on material he's too terrified to get dirty because it's nicer than anything he ever had in childhood. When she first mentioned it, their relationship hadn’t progressed to dating. They were best friends who liked to walk around holding hands and rented a two bedroom apartment that they split into one bedroom and an office. It made sense at the time because Cait works from home when she gets a headache from her blindness, even if Vi begs her not too, and Vi never liked the idea of sleeping without her.
So, when she offered to buy him a bench he didn't need, but she thought would benefit him, he scoffed and rolled his eyes because he was raised on one meal a day and a decade old mattress he shared with more than one person at once. Buying a piece of furniture just so he can sit down and take his shoes off once a day (twice, because he’s started using it in the mornings too) was an obscene waste of money. Money Cait has in abundance. Vi knows this - has known it since the moment he laid eyes on Caitlyn in year seven. She screamed wealth in a way he never knew someone could.
Caitlyn stood her ground, of course, because she’s stubborn as fuck and Vi let her get away with it because he lets her get away with anything, and because he’d already sat down and shit. It really was soft.
It’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for them, and Vi is still unsure how to process it. Well, that and the fisherman’s hat Caitlyn bought when she realised Vi used to walk around in silence when it rained.
Vi knows the perils of wearing their hearing aids in the water, and they’d probably survive the rain if their hair was positioned in the right way. Maybe back when he had the large swooping fringe that Cait used to plait but now he's grown it into a mullet? Maybe. He asks for fluffy and messy on top and short sides when Caitlyn gets the trimmer out. But Vi is so used to making sure everything lasts, that he daren’t risk it. There isn't really a world where someone like him gets anything as good as these hearing aids. He knows that. He knows that if he wasn't lucky enough to stumble into Grayson and Vander in the bar that he wouldn't have been offered a space at the Academy. He knows that if he hadn't met Caitlyn, then, everything he has now, would be gone.
Anyway, Caitlyn figured it out, because of course she did. She is going to be the youngest Sheriff of Piltover and Vi wasn't all that sly. After a date, he was walking her home and he kept turning around. Vi will walk in the dark, head done and arms in his pockets when he's alone, with no issues. But he’s not risking anything happening. Not to her.
So, she brought him a fisherman's hat, because she remembered an offhand comment about how he doesn’t trust his hoody to keep them dry. When he complained that he’d look foolish (he already had it on, obviously, he’ll wear whatever she likes and doesn’t care if that makes him a loser), she pulled out her own. Bright red and shiny and so outrageously Caitlyn that he rarely leaves home without his blue version now.
Still, they’re in their final year at university, and Vi can’t help but avoid looking at a price tag when Caitlyn says a jumper would suit him. He still gets a little uncomfortable when Caitlyn comes home with a lunchbox because a kid he teaches at school accidentally broke it. He still glares as takes his boots off even if it is ridiculously nice to sit down after an entire day out the house, with dry hair and a jumper that skates right over his chest.
(It doesn't need to skirt over him now. A few months back he had top surgery and waking up after was one of the best moments of his life, even if it did take Caitlyn six months and a powerpoint presentation to convince him. He also found out how much money she actually had and promptly had to sit down.)
Either way, it's all nice.
Vi can’t let Caitlyn know that because then their little flat will be full of other useful things that Vi has lived their entire life thinking they didn’t need. Caitlyn will say just because Vi doesn’t need it, doesn’t mean they can’t want it. It's not something Vi has figured out for themselves yet.
He already got Caitlyn.
Asking for anything else is beyond greedy.
He smiles at the mere thought of her name, his bad day disappears with the blink of his eyes. Even with how quiet Vi is being - Caitlyn will know they’re home. Yet, there’s no movement. No soft padding of socked toes towards the hallway.
Sometimes, Caitlyn gets overwhelmed and turns her cochlear off. Vi has tried to tell her that being aware of your surroundings, even at home, is useful. That having a head start on an intruder would be beneficial. Cait just argues that they live on the twelfth floor and the only person who ever climbs through their window is Vi, which is true. And that Cait is an excellent shot, which is also true. Even with one working eye and currently, no functioning ears, Cait could hit a moving target with ease.
Really, Vi just likes it when Caitlyn comes to greet them at the front door. Like she’s so excited Vi’s finally home, that waiting forty seconds to see them, just isn’t something their body will allow. But he understands that people have different ways of expressing their love, so he doesn’t mind going to dig her out from under the blankets.
Especially because she cut her fringe the other day. It’s the cutest fucking thing Vi has ever seen in their life, but Caitlyn cried about it the entire next day. It’s not exactly straight, because she hadn’t thought about it for longer than a few seconds before the scissors took a trip straight across her forehead. Vi did manage to make her laugh after a while, asking her why on earth her fringe would be straight, when nothing in their place is. Still, Vi watched out of the corner of their eye as Caitlyn tried to get it to lie a little flatter before class.
“I’m in here, darling,” Caitlyn calls. Vi smiles because Cait calling them darling is one of their favourite things.
“Huh?”
Sometimes, he likes to hear it more than once.
“Darling,” Caitlyn repeats, then, “I’m in the living room.”
Sometimes, thrice.
“What’s that, baby?” Vi hears Caitlyn shuffle around on the couch because he has not turned his hearing aid off like Caitlyn has. It’s not the same one or anything. (Though matching aids would be cute as fuck.) But Vi doesn’t like to ever turn theirs off, going as far as having back up batteries in all their bags. Something about an attempted kidnapping when they ere fifteen that saw them in a Stillwater hold cell for two weeks until the Kiramman’s got him out.
Or whatever.
Whereas Cait will switch hers off in the middle of a conversation she wants to end. The moment something gets too much for her mind, she doesn’t entertain it, and the switch goes off and she puts on a placating nod.
“I know what you’re doing, Violet.”
She does, because Vi has done it daily even since she figured out that Caitlyn will repeat herself exactly how she said it the first time, if she thinks Vi can’t hear her. It’s earned him many compliments.
“Uhuh.” Vi waits patiently just behind the doorway. Caitlyn can’t quite see them from here because Vi is strategically placed in her blind spot, but she watches as Caitlyn puts her monocle back on with a pout.
“Darling.”
Vi doesn’t giggle, but it’s close, and finally, finally, finally, goes to her.
“Hey, Cupcake.”
Caitlyn faux groans but there's a smile all over her pretty face.
“Hello.” She doesn’t open her arms because there’s a ninety nine percent change Vi will jump on her and she has banned outdoor clothes from the furniture. But he only just got her back, so he’ll just stand here for a little while with a dopey look on his face.
Caitlyn’s gaze flicks to the coffee table, where there's a pile of comfy clothes. His sweats and another jumper that might be Caitlyn’s, or she’s trying to sneak in another new sweatshirt to his collection.
“Sorry I wasn’t there to greet you at the door,” she says quietly. Vi shrugs. She got clothes out for him. What else could he need?
“No biggie," he replies truthfully as he pulls his jacket off.
“It is,” Caitlyn replies even quieter. “I just -”
“You’re having a bad day?”
Caitlyn pouts something fierce and Vi tries not to beam at her, but it doesn’t work. She’s just the cutest thing around. “Well, yes, but I got the timing wrong and set my alarm too late. I thought if you were home around six thirty then I’d have a few moments to get a grip and get off the couch.”
Vi pulls his t-shirt off, mumbling that it's not a big deal, honestly. He frowns because he's expecting her to double down but there's silence. When his head is free of the confines of a slightly damp shirt, he sees the reason.
Her eyes are trained on his chest. Lip caught between her teeth.
Cait looks at him like she looks at a difficult scientific question. How she looks at a target she's sure she can hit even though people are doubting her. How she looks at the things she loves.
“See something you like?”
She hums, running her fingers over her own chest, mirroring the way his scars line his body. “I love them.”
Vi looks down. He’s still pretty ripped if he does say so himself, but he’s a little fluffier too. Cait feeds him like the idea of him ever being hungry for three seconds is going to be the thing that takes her out at the knees. He still works out, but it’s now for fun as opposed to thinking he’s going to die at any given moment.
Besides, top surgery wasn’t long ago so he’s only cleared for light workouts.
And sex, thank God.
“Pretty boy,” Caitlyn says, her voice soft. She finally holds her arms out when Vi is out of their outdoor clothes. He hasn’t managed to get any of the new clothes on, but Cait won’t let him get cold.
He leaps towards her, and gives her a moment before he asks her what's wrong. Often, she just needs something to hold onto and she'll offer up the information.
She sighs. What an insane privilege it is to know her well enough that he knows she's about to talk from the sound of her breathing alone
“My hair looks so bad.”
He gasps, but her arms wrap around him tighter when he tries to move. “It does not!”
“Alright, but it doesn’t suit me.”
Vi does move that time. Just a little, just enough to holds her face between his palms. Softly. Always softly because it’s Cait. “Baby, everything suits you. I’m not even saying that because you’re somehow my girlfriend and I’d never want to upset you. I don’t lie. Not to you.”
She looks so unsure. Her eye tracking Vi’s face. “Promise?”
“Cait, you're a fucking smoke show,” Vi says. “I cannot believe you exist. Cait, Cupcake, baby, it's wild that someone with a face as perfect as yours is allowed to just roam the streets. It’s borderline offensive that you’re just allowed to be here, looking like that, and I’m just supposed to function like a human being.”
“You’re being ridiculous.” She's smiling though, so who cares?
Vi shrugs. “Sometimes the truth is ridiculous. You know how crazy it is that ducks have three sixty vision? That their body temperature is something stupid like a hundred degrees.”
Caitlyn laughs lightly, and Vi wants to hear it properly, so he takes his hearing aid out. Just one side, because he’s safe here. He rests against her ribcage, just listening.
Lub, lub, lub. Even her heart is perfect.
"Want more duck facts?"
Caitlyn bends over, catching Vi in the folds of the blanket, but he doesn’t mind. She’ll find him again soon. She giggles, her fingers running frantically against the blanket like Vi might suffocate under a thrifted thin weave blanket.
He keeps his eyes closed, even when the lowlight of the living room lightens the inside of his eyelids - he keeps them closed. Because something’s coming and he can barely contain his excitement.
Caitlyn lifts his hearing aid away. She knows the other one is gone, but Vi trusts her.
And good thing, because a moment later there’s lips against her ear.
“I love you,” she says, though it sounds like a whisper. It’s Vi’s favourite sound because it’s only ever for him.
“I love you,” Vi replies, then, “Thank you for humouring me.”
“Hmm?”
Vi shuffles them around until Caitlyn leans back against the sofa, Vi on her chest with his chin against his forearms. They’re close, which is his favourite way to be. And necessary right now.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
Vi smiles. He’s always smiling with Cait.
She threads her fingers through his hair, scratching lightly behind his ears. “What did you mean?” His eyes close as her fingers press against his skull. His hearing aids don’t ache anymore - they’re too engrained into his everyday life, but it always feels nice when she does this. Sometimes, he gets down about how life is once again, just a little harder. How if technology lets him down, he won’t be able to hear and barely anyone knows sign language around here so he’ll have to go home and risk being kicked out of university or he’ll need to ask everyone to write down what they want to say and they’ll just hate him more than they already do and then -
“Darling?” Vi blinks. Cait’s here with one hand under his chin and one against his ear. “Back with me?”
He nods. There’s no way his eyes aren’t wide and hopeful. For what, he’s not entirely sure, but there’s a chance Caitlyn will figure it out before he does and turn up with it one day wrapped in outrageous paper and a ribbon.
“Why wouldn't I want to tell you how lovely you are?” Vi blushes, burying his face in Caitlyn’s stomach. They mess around with praise in bed because apparently Vi is a sucker for it and he can't help but shower Cait with it at any opportunity, and of course, because Vi can hide their blush behind exertion. But here, with no clothes on and a slight breeze, how is he going to play off his red face?
“The first time I called you darling, you frowned and ran away.”
“You were terrifying.”
“I still am.”
Vi wedges his arms underneath her. It pulls some of the blanket further away from his back, but Caitlyn will fix it.
“You’re not terrifying,” he mumbles. Then clears his throat and repeats himself. This time it makes Cait laugh. Cait couldn’t be terrifying if she tried, and God, does she try.
The stare and the straight back and the impressive height would work on anyone else, probably. It works on people at the precinct, because they don’t get to know this twenty two year old who is going to be the youngest Sheriff of Piltover lies on the couch with four fluffy purple blankets, matching pajamas and dinosaur plushies.
They don’t get to know that Vi was so scared of starting a new school at thirteen that he threw up for four straight days. That no-one spoke to him for two weeks, until Caitlyn came back to school after having the flu and walked up to him and started asking him questions about ducks for a full ten minutes because he had a duck pin on his second hand backpack. As if she didn’t care that her perfect uniform and straight posture was going to get messed up by a Zauntie with mismatching shoes and undone laces.
She smiled at him when he managed to tell her his favourite duck was a mallard and he saw her tooth gap for the first time. He was in love by lunchtime and ignored her until Winter.
Vi’s still not sure Caitlyn was aware of either of those things because she sat next to him at lunch the next day, and the day after that until she felt the need to come out to Vi a few years later.
“Maybe not,” she says, tucking another blanket over his back. “But I love you, and I know you like me calling you handsome so much you pretend you can’t hear me. Or, when you’re being a menace and I’m halfway to being nonverbal and you knock me out of it by saying your hearing aids are dead and I’m the sucker who can’t leave you alone.”
“You know that?”
“Vi, you have the most expressive eyes I've ever seen. You've never managed to lie to me. That's why I no longer hate my hair - you truly love it.”
He frowns, tilting his head up to see her. She's so pretty from every angle.
“Well yeah, but if you don't then we should grow it out.”
Caitlyn shrugs. “I like seeing myself through your eyes besides - remember when I said you'd look hot with short hair in passing and when I got out of the bath all your hair was on the floor.”
“God, we fucked so good that night.”
Her eyebrow raises. Monocle tight against her nose. Scar out in the open. She’s the hottest thing he’s ever seen and he wasn’t supposed to try anything on tonight because Cait is clearly halfway through a chapter (if her finger rubbing against the pages is anything to go by) and Caitlyn out of her routine is a menace.
Still, he smiles. “Most nights, baby, but that was something else.”
Cait hums, runs her fingers across his back until they’re in front of his face and she moves her fingers around. It’s a little difficult to see from this close, but they’ve been practicing sign language in case either of their aids give out or Vi’s hearing gets any worse. He never wants to be without the option to tell her he loves her.
He presses his lips to the tips of her fingers. “I love you back.” Caitlyn hums again, pleased this time and Vi might break his internal promise to let her finish her book.
Caitlyn’s hands move in signs once more, and he catches a few. Quiet and promise, perhaps. He pulls back, gets both of his eyes on the prize.
“Go again, Cupcake.”
She does - slower this time. Even when we’re quiet. I love you, darling I promise.
“You don't have to promise me that,” he says. “I know.”
Caitlyn kisses the top of his head, pushing him down with the tips of her fingers and the flutter of pages sends his eyes closed.
“I'll tell you anyway.”
Vi settles against her chest. The lub, lub and the movement of her fingers in his hair dragging him under. Just a quick power nap before dinner. It helps when Caitlyn is reading a thriller because the lub lub lub, turns into lublublublub which is his favourite ever white noise machine. One day, he'll figure out how to make it a recording so he can fall asleep when she's not here. He tried by just putting his phone against her chest, but the static fucked with his ears.
He moans lightly when her fingers tug at the roots of his hair. The longer bit by his nape. Her fingers still for just a moment, moving off him completely until he feels, more than hears, a click. Then her hand is back and heavier than before.
She turned her cochlear on. To hear him.
“You're a freak, Kiramman,” he mutters.
“I'll show you how freaky I am,” she replies with no intention of doing so. Not with the rapid way her fingers flip the pages and how delayed her responses are.
Vi pushes his luck. Just once, because he’s desperately missed her. He leans up again, and Caitlyn is stoically ignoring him. He nudges the book with his nose and she flicks her gaze to him just once.
Bingo.
“Oh yeah?” he asks, voice low.
“Violet.”
He moves closer. Lips against her jaw, her cheek, her nose. “Yeah, baby?”
She sighs, letting her book fall against the couch. He knows what this means. They can kiss until he inevitably feels her get a little hard, and then they have to stop until she’s finished with her chapter. Possibly two chapters depending on what’s happening in the book. She did tell him yesterday morning but at the moment her tongue brushes against the roof of his mouth so all thoughts have gone.
Vi hums into it, his hand against her thigh to pull himself closer. It’s not long until he feels her against his hip and he slows his lips down before he starts grinding.
“Down girl,” he mutters and she tugs his hair hard enough to know she means it as a punishment.
“You’re incorrigible.”
“You love me.”
“You’re a tease.”
“I’m your favourite.”
Caitlyn kisses him hard and firm and long enough that he knows his boxers are going to be wet for a long while. She pulls away first, and he chases after her lips because he's a fool who will always falls for her tricks. Her insatiable need to have the last word, and he’ll let her every time. As if there’s a world where he doesn’t do exactly what she wants.
“Lay down, darling.”
“Just nasty,” he says, lying against her. His arm wraps around the underside of her thigh and he buries himself in her stomach.
“Love you," he mumbles.
“I love you, too.”
“What?”
“I love you, as well.”
Vi smiles but it’s hidden in the blanket. “What was that?”
“I love - oh - I see what you’re doing.”
He counts in his head, because he will give her whatever she wants, but she's got him back just as firm.
He gets all the way to twelve before she repeats, “I love you, too.”