Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lately Vi's been opting to sleep on the right side of her cell instead of the left.

It doesn't really make a difference either way. Both sides are the same. Neither is warmer, or more comfortable. Neither is darker than the other or more hidden from the guards walking by. 

She really only changes it up for something to do. 

The lights go off for the night and Vi makes herself comfortable. Well, as comfortable as she can get. She's long since determined that the most comfortable way to sleep in a Stillwater cell is to lie on her back in the corner with her feet against the back wall. She keeps one foot propped up against the wall just in case she needs to use it as leverage to move quickly. Her arms stay firmly crossed even though it would be easier to just let them fall to the side. She has to keep her vital organs protected, after all. 

She's just drifting off when an obnoxiously loud siren starts blaring. 

Vi kicks off the wall and rolls backward to her feet, over her shoulder. She's lurching for the bars of her cell before her mind even fully wakes up. 

She's been in Stillwater for ten years and not once has she heard this particular klaxon. She's familiar with the different tones for fires, floods, riots, or when a particularly violent inmate requires a full team to subdue.

They really only use those four. Those are usually the only things that ever happen. 

She grabs onto the cold metal and presses the side of her head to the bars, listening. The other inmates are up too. Some of them are shouting to each other, asking what's going on, but Vi ignores them and listens for the distinctive sounds of the prison that she's heard every day for so, so long. 

The blaring klaxon is loud, but the elevators are silent.

Interesting.

When the elevators are in operation, which is nearly all the time barring a major riot or basic maintenance, they make a tinny hum that echoes quietly through the prison day and night. Stillwater is a massive building, and the elevators are in near constant use as guards move between floors. 

The floor light that runs along the outside of the cells emits a very faint crackling noise. Vi's spent a lot of time over the years wondering if it sounds like that on all the floors or just her's.

Some of the guards like to drag their batons along the cell bars as they patrol. A few of the nasty ones like to do it at night specifically to keep the inmates from getting any proper sleep. Vi's used to that sound and can usually sleep through it, but she doesn't hear it now. 

The guards aren't patrolling at all right now, now that she thinks about it. She can hear them muttering to each other, clustered at one end of the hall.  

The inmates are getting louder. Shouting at the guards. Shouting at each other. Some of them are screaming for the sirens to stop blaring. 

Vi starts deliberately slowing her breathing. Something's happening. This is different. She needs to be ready. 

It's probably nothing.

But it won't hurt to be ready.

For the past ten years of Vi's life, nearly every day has been the same. It's variations on a theme, of course. Sometimes there are fights. Sometimes inmates attack her. Sometimes guards attack her. Sometimes she attacks inmates. Sometimes she attacks guards. Occasionally an inmate dies in front of her, whether by their own hand or from untreated medical issues. Sometimes there are the smaller scale riots, which are fun and exciting but ultimately just lead to worse consequences in the end. Very rarely, she gets taken out to fight in the ring. 

She takes a deep breath in. Lets it out. Deep breath in. Out. 

She steps back from the bars and adjusts her clothes, just in case she needs to run. Inmates aren't allowed to keep anything in their cells with no exceptions, so Vi is wearing everything she owns. Literally the only item in her cell apart from what's on her body is the toilet bolted into the wall.

A pair of Stillwater-issued loose canvas pants. A tank top that's really too tight at this point, but she hasn't had the opportunity to steal another shirt from someone else lately.

Inmates aren't given shoes in Stillwater, because that would be too humane, but sometimes when the guards take the inmates out of the cell block to fight in the ring, they throw in a few pairs of boots or shoes into the ring and laugh as the inmates beat each other to death to grab a pair. 

Vi's been wearing her current shoes for a few years now. They're old and ratty and ripped in places, but they fit and she can move quickly in them. 

She tightens the laces of her shoes and then re-ties the cloth belt on her too-loose pants. They aren't allowed belts either, for obvious strangulation-related reasons, but when Vi's old sweater had literally fallen apart after four years of constant wear, she'd managed to save enough of the cloth to put together a belt for the ugly standard-issue pants she's wearing right now.

If whatever's going on turns out to be another riot, she'll probably try and get her hands on a new pair of pants. Maybe another sweater? That would be nice. The cells in Stillwater don't have beds, or mattresses, or anything in the cells at all so at night her bare arms are exposed to the cold floor of her cell. What a treat it would be, to have a new sweater for warmth. 

She calms herself again. Breathes in. Breathes out. 

A different noise draws her attention. It's coming from... the stairwell? Interesting. The stairwell is only used by guards in emergencies, so it's rare to hear anything coming from that part of the hall. The blaring sirens are so loud that it's hard to hear exactly what - 

The line of light on the floor outside the cells goes out just as the heavy lock on Vi's cell door clicks open. 

Vi doesn't hesitate. She doesn't waste a single split-second on shock or confusion. 

She shoves the heavy door of her cell to the side and throws herself out into the hallway. Without the line of light outside the cells, the entire cellblock is pitch black. That's fine. Vi knows her way around. 

She's one of the first out of the cells but the chaos is right behind her. Vi goes straight for the elevators but from the sounds around her, a lot of the inmates are making a beeline for where the group of guards have huddled in the corner. Already the guards are screaming for help, which really is very funny. They know better than anyone that sound doesn't travel well between the floors. 

The elevator doors are towards the end of the hall, just before the stairwell. Vi is almost there when the stairway doors burst open and a flare of light illuminates the cellblock. 

Vi nearly stumbles as she reflexively closes her eyes against the light, but she catches herself at the last moment and keeps going. She immediately slams into another inmate who is running for the stairs. The inmate doesn't stand a chance; she bowls him over like he's made of paper and then steps right over him when he hits the ground and doesn't get up again. 

She's probably doing him a favour, honestly. The now-open doors show that this is a beautifully full-fledged riot. Hundreds of inmates are swarming the stairs, so many that Vi can't even see the concrete steps themselves. Just people, shoving and pushing and stabbing to get by. In a few more minutes, it'll be thousands, all trying to get up or down depending on what their goal is. 

Vi's tried that before, in previous riots. When she was younger and didn't know better. The stairs are useless at best and deadly at the worst in a riot. 

Vi reaches the elevator doors at the same moment another inmate does. He looks at her, his eyes huge in the dim light from the stairwell.

"Grab that one," she snaps as she gets her fingers around the edge of the left door and pulls. The man grabs the other one and does his best, and together they manage to slide the heavy metal doors open. Vi, however, leans her weight back as she pulls at her door. The man leans forward, pushing at his, and when the door slides open more easily than he clearly thought it would, he tips forward and falls right into the empty elevator shaft. 

Vi ignores this and focuses on lining up her shot. The elevators in Stillwater shut down in the event of a riot, to prevent inmates from getting up to the higher levels too easily. The elevator shaft is dimly illuminated by emergency lighting, and Vi can see the emergency ladder against the opposite wall of the shaft. It's too far to jump, even for her, but there are six heavy cables that hang down through the shaft that aren't. 

It's still a big jump, even just to the cables, but Vi just backs up a few steps and then runs. 

She makes the first cable easily, but the cable doesn't have nearly the give that she expected. She has way too much momentum and barely hangs on; she ends up swinging her body around completely before launching herself at the next cable. This one is easier, and from there it's an easy swing onto the ladder. 

Vi grins as she grabs onto the cold metal. Frankly, this is going better than any of her other escape attempts over the last ten years. It's a good start.

She starts to climb. 

The size and scale of this riot is helping with her success today, she thinks idly as she climbs. Usually Stillwater riots stay contained to just a few floors before the guards shut it down, but the higher Vi climbs, the louder the noise of the riot becomes. 

Vi's cellblock is sublevel 40, meaning she has 40 levels to climb before she even gets to the surface of the water. After that, she's not actually sure how many levels are between her and the main floor, but if she's lucky enough to get up there, she supposes she'll find out. 

She climbs, and climbs, and climbs.

And climbs. 

And climbs. 

Ladders are usually easy for her. She grew up scaling ropes, drainpipes, poles, walls, so a ladder should be easy work. But the metal of this ladder is not only ice-cold but also rusted. Shards of rusty metal bite into her hands as she climbs, despite the tight wrappings she has around her palms and fingers. Vi's been in Stillwater for ten years and is used to the cold, but the relentless nature of this climb means that she can't pull her hands away to warm them up.

She also can't afford to take a moment to recoup; this is a big riot sure, maybe the biggest Vi's ever seen, but the guards could regain control at any time. 

Vi runs into a few other inmates as she goes. A few others have made it to the ladder as well, and she can feel the ladder shudder slightly as others jump onto it from up above.

More inmates plummet by her than reach the ladder, though. She ignores their screams as they fall; there's absolutely nothing she can do for them. 

Eventually Vi starts catching up to a few inmates on the ladder. First, it's a woman who looks down and sees Vi coming up beneath her. The woman looks at her for a moment, and then steps to the side of the ladder and leans out to the side so that Vi can squeeze by. 

"Thanks," Vi says as she goes past, because that's really an unexpectedly kind thing to do. The woman doesn't say anything in return, but Vi hears her resume her own climb after Vi's moved on. Vi hopes she'll make it out. 

The next inmate Vi encounters is another woman. She's young, younger even than Vi, and Vi can tell just from the look the woman gives her that this one isn't going to be as easy. 

"Back off, bitch," the woman snarls, and she kicks at Vi when Vi catches up. 

Vi grabs the woman's foot and yanks. 

She doesn't even have to pull that hard and the woman tumbles, screeching. She grabs for Vi as she falls. Vi just tucks herself closer to the ladder and then keeps going.

More climbing. 

Vi has no idea where she is in Stillwater by now. She's making really good progress, she knows that, and the sounds of the riot echoing through the elevator shaft are only intensifying. That's great for Vi. The bigger the riot, the longer it'll take to subdue, and the more time she has. 

Vi doesn't think she's ever gotten this far before. 

She then immediately regrets that thought when someone slams into her back, hard. She's knocked right against the ladder and her head hits the rung hard enough to send reverberations through the metal. The inmate that must have jumped right into her is screaming in Vi's fucking ear and scrabbling for something to hang onto, which turns out to be Vi's hair. 

Vi elbows the inmate hard enough to knock them off her and it works. The inmate falls, still screaming, and Vi readjusts her hold on the ladder, but the damage is done. Her head is throbbing and the pause from the pace she's been keeping up makes the pain in her hands and arms flare. She's panting, and she can feel her strength starting to flag. 

Well, that's too bad. She's going to keep going. 

Vi starts climbing again and it feels endless. She's going to be climbing forever. This is purgatory. This is punishment. This is - 

There's something above her. 

Vi looks up and her heart sinks. It's the goddamn elevator. 

She'd been hoping it would be higher up, maybe on one of the upper floors, not the sublevels, but here it is. 

Vi wraps her arm around the side of the ladder and gasps for breath as she looks up. There's not enough space between the ladder and the side of the elevator for her to keep climbing. She eyes the base of the elevator instead. It's going to be tough - there are no real handholds, so she's going to have to hang on to the narrow metal beams on the side of the elevator once she swings up - 

Vi jumps, grabs on, and scrambles up the side of the elevator until she can throw herself over the top. 

She resolutely does not think about the drop below her as she does so. 

Once she's over the elevator, she gets back on the ladder and up she goes. The riot is loud enough on these floors that the sound is transferring through the walls and into the elevator shaft. For Vi, who has spent the past ten years of her life in a dark and cold cell, it's a sensory nightmare. Nothing to be done about it though, so she keeps climbing until - 

Vi's hand meets air instead of another ladder rung and she freezes. 

There's a brief, tiny moment of hope where she thinks maybe, just maybe, that she's at the top. But like every other tiny moment of hope she's had in the last ten years, it's gone right away. 

The ladder's broken. There's an entire section missing, and the gap is way too large for Vi to jump.

She assumes this was done on purpose. It's likely that some of the guards had blasted it to pieces when the riot had started to prevent inmates from doing exactly what she's trying to do right now. 

Vi cranes her neck and looks up for the first time. 

She's almost there. 

A few of the elevator doors above her are open and she can hear the sounds of fighting from all of them. But there, just four floors up, is an open elevator door with so much light spilling through it that Vi can barely look at it. 

That's the main level. There's other floors above it, as Stillwater towers over the ocean, but that main level is the first one above sea level. 

Vi takes a deep breath, grits her teeth, and kicks off from the ladder. She grabs onto the nearest cable easily enough and gets her legs wrapped around it. But right away her hands start slipping; blood is seeping through the wraps around her hands and forearms from the rusted metal of the ladder. 

Vi tightens her hold on the cable with her legs and carefully wipes her hands on her shirt, one at a time. She's so close. She's so close. She's never been this close before. She can do this.

She puts her hands back on the cable and starts climbing. 

It's unbelievably hard. She's already exhausted from climbing up this far and the cable she's hanging onto has no give, no sway like a rope would. Her arms and shoulders burn as she works her way up and before long her legs and hips are aching too. 

Blood is now running down her hands and arms at an increasing rate and she can't stop it. At first she thinks it's still just from the cuts she got from the ladder, but then her forearms start stinging too. On the next movement, when she tightens her thighs around the cable and then drags her arms up to grip a little higher, she sees that there's dozens of long cuts now peppering her forearms. She hadn't noticed before but now she sees that the cable she's climbing is frayed. Not a lot, but just enough that tiny pieces of metal are scraping against her arms every time she moves. 

Her legs are alright at least. The thick canvas pants she's wearing are protecting her skin well enough for now. But the more her hands and arms start to bleed, the more slippery the cable becomes. 

She's almost there. 

Not too much further. 

It takes her nearly as long to climb four floors on the cable as it did for her to go up nearly forty on the ladder. When she's finally, finally parallel with the main floor, she's gasping for breath and her entire body is shaking. 

She takes one tiny moment to rest her head against the cable as she turns to look through the open elevator door. 

As she expected, it's chaos. The mass of inmates and guards fill the hallway, to the point where she can't see anything that's going on past the doors. The floor of the hall is red with blood. 

There's far more inmates than guards, which is a good sign for her. 

Vi pulls on the last reserves of her strength, grips the cable with her hands, and unwinds her legs. She swings her body back, forth, back, forth, until she has just enough momentum, and then leaps for the cable closer to the doors. 

She makes it but immediately starts sliding down again. She has to claw her way back up this new cable, which takes another minute, but then she's back. 

No time to waste. She swings again and then she's through the elevator door and on the main floor. 

Her feet slip in the blood on the concrete floor and it's only through a bit of luck and a lot of lifelong training that she's able to throw her weight forward, not back, and fall further into the hall instead of back out into the elevator shaft. She lands on her hands and knees and then immediately gets a nasty kick in the ribs when a guard trips over her in an attempt to get away from another inmate chasing him. 

Vi laughs as she gets to her feet. It's a giggle, almost. She feels delirious. She can't believe this is really happening. Ten years and this is the best she's ever done. She knows more than pretty much anyone here how many obstacles there still are between her and freedom but the high of being so close is intoxicating.

She fights her way down the hallway. She doesn't waste time going after the guards; she just stays low and keeps moving. It's so bright up here, even though she doesn't think it's all natural light quite yet - just the ceiling and wall lights are stronger up here than on the sublevels. 

Vi doesn't have a plan at this point. She just keeps moving. 

The hallway she's in opens up to a larger space and she has to shield her eyes for a moment before they adjust. When the dark spots recede from her vision, she sees that a massive portion of the wall is blown out, and outside of it is the ocean. 

Outside, the sun is setting but even the dim light is blinding. Vi has to squeeze her eyes shut again as she stumbles through the throng of inmates and she's nearly to the open wall when she's able to open them again. 

What now? It's not like she'll be able to swim to shore. She's not a good swimmer to begin with, and Stillwater is so far out that it's a fairly long trip by boat or tram car, let alone by swimming. Plus, she's weak. Her arms and legs and lungs are exhausted from that climb and she's pulling on every bit of energy she has left just to keep moving. She's had, at most, one meal a day for the past ten years of her life. It's been just enough to keep her alive, barely, but she has no energy reserves stored up in her body. 

She'll figure it out. She's not going back now. 

Vi makes it through the opening in the wall and nearly falls right into the dark, churning ocean. She stumbles, catching herself on a piece of rubble, and has to work to keep her eyes open against the light. 

There are boats, right in front of her. Dozens of them. Everything from bigger metal boats with motors to smaller wooden rowboats. 

This was a planned prison break, apparently. Whoever had done this clearly hadn't planned on the scale of riot they'd caused though, because the boats are being swarmed by inmates. 

There are dozens of inmates pouring out of the broken wall behind and around Vi. Some jump or are pushed right into the ocean and others are making desperate leaps for the boats. Vi watches as one smaller boat, covered by dozens of desperate inmates, starts to list and then capsize under the weight. 

There's shouting and the sound of motors starting up. These boats are going to start moving in a minute. Vi's out of time. 

She jumps into the ocean. 

It's her nightmare. Literally. She's had nightmares about drowning at least once a week since they first brought her to Stillwater. 

Vi kicks back above the surface and does her best to swim to the nearest boat. Around her are inmates that are faster and stronger in the water than she is, moving with sure strokes. Vi never had the chance to master the art of keeping her head above the surface and moving forward at the same time, and now she's paying for that. 

The advantage she does have, though, is that she's particularly good at getting someone else's hands off of her. So when the other inmates try and push her under or to the side to get by her, she makes quick work of kicking them away from her or hitting them hard enough that they let go. 

Vi finally reaches one of the larger metal boats and scrabbles at the side. There's nothing to grab onto, no handholds. 

She kicks again and tries to reach for the lip of the boat. It's just out of reach, and she starts to sink back down when a hand closes around her wrist. 

Vi gasps as her head clears the water again as she's pulled up. Someone has hauled her up high enough that she can grab onto the side, and she manages to get her other hand over too just as the boat starts moving. 

Vi grits her teeth, gets her feet against the side of the boat, and hauls herself the rest of the way up. 

The inmate who'd pulled her up helps yank her over, but there's no room. The deck of the boat is packed with inmates. People are literally standing on top of each other. Others are trying to push the inmates clinging to the sides off in an attempt to save room for themselves. 

"Just hang on," the woman who'd pulled her up shouts. Vi recognizes her - she's an inmate from sublevel 39 and Vi's known her for about three years. They'd always gotten along fairly well, which for Vi means that neither of them had ever tried to actively murder each other. "Stay on the edge, I've got you!" 

The woman is grinning, her eyes alight with the thrill of this escape. Vi can't smile back. 

The boat takes off and Vi hangs on with everything she has. She's not even really in the boat itself - she's sitting on the edge, with one of her legs still over the side and the other inside the boat. There's nothing for her to grab onto to steady herself as the boat bounces over the waves, but her new best friend is still holding onto Vi's forearm with an iron grip. Vi manages to get her other hand latched onto some guy's jacket who's more firmly in the boat, and it steadies her enough. 

Vi puts her head down and closes her eyes. She wants to scream or cry or laugh or do something to celebrate this. Ten years and now finally, finally, this is happening, but she doesn't feel much of anything except the cold now seeping into her bones from the water and the pain and weakness in her body. 

There's a disassociation starting to set in. Her mind can't take this. It feels like just a few minutes have passed since she was asleep in her cell and now she's here? It doesn't make sense. She'd dreamed of this so many times but now that's it happening... 

She loses track of time. She has no idea how long the trip across the water takes. It feels like it only takes a minute but it must be much longer, because that doesn't make sense. But when she hears more shouting and the inmates around her start moving again, she looks up to see that they're almost at the shore. 

Enforcers are waiting for them. 

It's not a surprise. Riots are common, but a prison break at Stillwater is unheard of. The Enforcers will pull out all the stops to get this under control. They also would have had a heads up about the escapees from Stillwater itself, given how long the riot had been going on for before these boats took off. 

What does surprise Vi is how many of them there are. There are hundreds of Enforcers all lined up along the docks, rifles at the ready. There are probably even more coming behind them, but Vi can't see through the gloom from the rapidly approaching sunset. 

"Oh, fuck," says the woman who's still holding Vi's arm. "Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck - " 

"Hey," Vi shouts over the roar of the motor. Her voice is impossibly rusty and her throat is sore, for some reason. "I know a way under the docks." 

The woman glances at the Enforcers, then back at Vi. Her grin from before is gone, but she nods. 

Vi swings her other leg over so that she's nearly hanging off the side of the boat. They're close, almost there. She's going to jump in three, two, one... 

Vi pulls her arm out of the woman's grip and kicks off the side of the boat. She swims for her fucking life. 

Vi inhales way too much disgusting ocean water as she clumsily kicks her way through the churning waves. The Enforcers are shooting now and Vi can hear the bullets hitting both the water and some of the escaping inmates. She thinks the woman who'd helped her is swimming behind Vi, following her, and maybe a few others too, but she can't look back. 

Somehow she makes it under the docks. Everything is dark and she's so tired and the Enforcers are shooting through the wood of the docks, now, trying to hit Vi and the others around her, but if Vi's right, if she's remembering this correctly, she's almost there. 

There's a moment of doubt as Vi slams into the rocks under the dock. She hasn't been here in ten years and even when she'd been a teenager, she'd only taken this route to the undercity once. She'd been with Mylo and Claggor at the time, Powder left behind with Vander, and when they'd gotten home they'd all sworn never to take that route again.

It might not even be here anymore, or Vi could be in the wrong place. She's always had a good visual and spatial memory; she's had most of the undercity mapped out in her mind since childhood.

But it's been a really, really long time. 

Vi pulls herself free of the ocean and scrambles over the damp rocks. This route is dependent on the tides too and she can't remember how that works, it's been - 

Her hands close on a metal hatch and she pulls as hard as she can. 

The rusty hatch opens with a painfully loud noise and Vi throws herself through.

She's falling, tumbling, and then she hits the hard ground badly. Her shoulder and hip take the brunt of her weight and the impact punches the air out of her lungs. But there's no time to stop and so she's up and moving again, fumbling through the narrow space. 

The hatch under the docks doesn't lead to one of the chutes down to the undercity. It just drops into a damp, awful tunnel that will eventually connect to one of those chutes. The tunnel is low enough that Vi has to crawl instead of run, the damp mud squelching unpleasantly against her bloody and sore hands. 

Others have followed her, and Vi can distantly hear the sound of Enforcers shouting and more gunfire. It won't be long before Enforcers come behind them. 

Vi crawls out into the larger tunnel and launches herself right into a group of Enforcers. They're all looking up at a different tunnel above them, clearly expecting the escapees to start dropping through there, and Vi takes a few of them out at the knees as she goes by. There's more screaming and shooting and Vi can't even see anymore. Her vision is covered in expanding dark spots and her ears have started ringing. She doesn't know if she's been shot or if it's the fatigue or her other injuries but she's dangerously, dangerously close to passing out. 

The chute used to be - there it is. Vi somehow gets that hatch open and then she's falling through that chute too. She used to know how to slide down these so well that she wouldn't get a single scrape or bruise but now she just tumbles. When the chute dumps her out in another part of the upper levels of the undercity, she lands hard again, this time on her back. 

There's Enforcers down here too. A group of them see her land but Vi's back up and running again. She's too close, she's just too close for her body to fail now. She can keep going. She has to keep going. 

It feels like the more analytical parts of her mind are shutting down. No power left. Her body and her instincts and her deeply rooted spatial memory are taking over. She's running and then she's jumping and then she's rolling and then she's swinging and then she's running again and falling falling falling - 

She tumbles down a metal awning and lands in a market square. She sits up and looks at the man standing behind the stall she'd landed in front of, which has a wide variety of bread on offer. 

"Well, shit!" the man says. "Look who it is. Welcome back, Vi." 

Vi stares. She doesn't - no, wait she does. She remembers this kid. He'd been around her age and they used to hang out together sometimes when they were around ten years old.

The man looks away from Vi and frowns. He reaches back behind his stall, pulls out one of the biggest handguns Vi's ever seen, and aims. He shoots. 

Vi turns to see that Enforcers are flooding the narrow street market. The one in front has his eyes fixed on Vi. 

Vi rolls to her feet but she stumbles and goes down again.

She gets back up.

Her right hip flares with hot pain and she goes down again as that whole leg gives out.

She pushes herself back up with her arms and winces as they tremble. But on the next try, her legs hold and she can stumble forward, but even then she's slow. Too slow. 

Her only advantage now is that every vendor and patron and passerby in this street market are putting themselves between her and the Enforcers. The Enforcers are barking orders but they're drowned out by the jeers and shouts and taunts. People are shooting with whatever weapons they've been hiding in their stalls. They're also throwing rocks. Vi glances over her shoulder and sees a group of kids use a piece of rope to trip the Enforcers closest to her. 

Vi gets away again.

She runs. Drops. Slides. Crawls. Jumps again but doesn't stick the landing and falls. Lays there for a minute and gets back up. 

The Enforcers catch up again. She's almost impressed at how well they're keeping up with her but it's a numbers game, really. There must have been at least fifty of them that had chased her from the surface and now they're down to maybe a dozen. 

She gets an advantage when she stumbles her way to one of the big elevators and jumps on the top of it, riding it for as long as she can before another group of Enforcers spots her. She loses that advantage when she jumps off, landing hard on someone's balcony above a narrow street, and then she can't get back up when she tips off that balcony and hits the street below.

She tries. She tries so hard but her arms won't lift her up and she can barely see through the spots in her vision and when she tries to pull her legs underneath her she can't even get the right one to move and her left leg is shaking - 

Someone grabs the back of her thin shirt and hauls her upright. Vi thinks it's an Enforcer, at first, but when she lifts her head up she sees that the now five Enforcers left are still trying to make their way down towards her. It's someone else holding her; a tall, elderly woman who frowns down at her. Vi doesn't recognize her. 

"Keep going, girlie," the woman says, and pushes Vi forward once Vi has her feet underneath her. 

Vi stumbles forward. She's barely moving faster than a walk and she's limping, and trembling, but how much further can it be? She's in the Lanes now, she knows that, but she can't think anymore. Everything's fuzzy. 

She looks back when she turns down a narrow alley and there's only three Enforcers now. She doesn't know what happened to the other two but as the three charge after her, she sees the last one get garroted by a teenager who launches himself from the doorway at the Enforcer and takes him down easily, laughing. 

Alley, alley, another alley, across what used to be a bridge when Vi was last here but is now just a wooden plank between two streets, bigger street, alley, jump the gap, alley, through another market, alley, around the back of this building, out onto the main street - 

It might not even be there anymore, Vi thinks absently. It's been ten years. Maybe they're all dead. Maybe the bar's been gone this entire time. Maybe they all moved somewhere else. But she doesn't know where else to go and - 

There. 

It's right in front of her. It looks the same. It's even got the same sign out front. The lights are on inside and as Vi stumbles forward she sees people going in and out of the front doors, laughing and talking and arguing. It's still open.

Vi looks over her shoulder and the two remaining Enforcers are right behind her. The surge of adrenaline it causes gives her the strength to run the last part of the street and she reaches the front doors of The Last Drop just as one of the Enforcers tackles her from behind, sending them both tumbling through the doors. 

Vi lands hard on her back and when the Enforcer scrambles to pin her down, she doesn't fight it. She can't move. She's got nothing left. 

He looks down at her, clearly ecstatic to have finally caught her, and then there's the sound of a gunshot and at the same time, half of the Enforcer's head blows clean off. His body slumps to the side and Vi somehow finds the energy to roll out from under him. She pushes herself up from the floor but she can't get her knees underneath her. She looks up and sees that it's Vander behind the bar, a shotgun in his hands, staring at her. 

He clearly doesn't recognize her at first. There's a pause, and his brow furrows, and then he says, "Vi?" 

Chapter Text

The doors slam open behind Vi and Vander looks up and fires another shot. There's a thud of a body falling behind Vi. Must've been the second Enforcer. 

The bar is busy. People are standing around in clusters and people are sitting at the tables and they're all looking at Vi now. There's a beat of silence, and then Vander shouts, "everyone out!" 

Vi stays where she is as the patrons scramble by her. It only takes a minute and then the last person is running out the door and it's quiet. 

Vander doesn't put the shotgun down but he starts coming around the bar. Vi watches him. Her arms are shaking and she's still slumped on the floor because her damn legs won't move. 

There's a thump of footsteps on the stairs and then a man runs into the bar. "Vander? What was - " 

The man stops. He's staring at Vi too. 

It's Claggor. Vi can't - she didn't - she wouldn't have recognized him, if he'd just walked by her. He's a grown man now, of course he is, she'd known he would be, but she can't make this fit in her mind. 

Her arms are really shaking. 

Vander is in front of her now, only a few steps away. How has he gotten so close? Did she black out for a second? 

Vander starts to crouch down and he extends an arm towards her - 

Vi rolls onto her back and starts to scramble backward. Her heart is pounding again. She hits a table and then some chairs and she's still crawling backward on her elbows - 

"Vi, it's alright," Vander says softly. "You're safe." 

She knows this is Vander. She knows he isn't going to hurt her. She knows that but she's still dragging her worn-out body over the wooden floor until her back hits the wall and she slumps. 

"Claggor, the door," Vander says over his shoulder. Claggor goes to the main door and kicks one of the Enforcer bodies out of the way without taking his eyes off Vi.

Vi watches him lock up the door from her spot against the wall. She's not even sitting against it, really. Most of her body is sprawled on the ground and really only her upper back and shoulders are propped up against the wall. 

Vander doesn't try to get close to her again, but he crouches down further so he's not towering above her. "Vi. Are there any more coming?" 

He means the Enforcers. Vi shrugs. She really doesn't know. She thinks those were the last two who'd been able to follow her this far but she doesn't know that for sure. 

Vander nods and looks over his shoulder. "Clagg - " 

"I've got it," Claggor says, and opens some sort of window in the door. He looks out, frowns, and then starts unlocking the door again. 

Vi tenses as Claggor pulls it open and yanks someone through before slamming the door closed again. 

"What's going on?" the new arrival asks. "I saw -" 

His eyes fix on Vi. Vi stares at back him. It's Mylo, and once again Vi's head pounds as her mind tries to reconcile the kid she knew with this man.

"Is that Vi?" Mylo asks, turning to Claggor. Claggor nods.  

Vander starts to speak again but then Claggor is turning back to the door and pulling two more people in. 

"Vander!" the woman shouts as Claggor shuts the door again. "We just heard - " 

The two new additions stop too, just a few steps into the bar. It's silent again. 

Even through Vi's woozy vision, she knows that this is Powder.

She looks different, of course, she's an adult woman now, not the scrawny kid she'd been the last time that Vi had seen her, but Vi would've known it was her even if they weren't in The Last Drop. 

"Vi?" Powder says, so quietly that Vi can barely hear it. 

The man who'd come in with Powder steps up behind her and puts his hand on her back. 

This one takes Vi the longest. Rationally, she realizes that it's Ekko, but he's changed the most to her. He'd been such a tiny kid, and this adult version of him looks so different. 

Powder starts moving towards Vi, stepping over the dead Enforcers without looking at them. She's wearing a bright pink dress with patterned leggings underneath and some sort of sweater made out of what could be men's belts. Her hair is tied up in two buns on top of her head and Vi just can't believe how tall she is. She's got to be almost as tall as Vi, if not the same height. 

Powder takes another step and Vi flinches. She can't get any further away but she presses her back into the wall in an effort to push herself upright. 

Vander holds up a hand, and Powder pauses and looks at him. "Give her space," Vander warns. 

Powder frowns and keeps coming closer, but she does slow down a little. Behind her now, Vander gets up and passes the shotgun he's holding to Mylo. Vi watches as Vander has a quick, quiet discussion with Mylo and then ushers him out the door, locking it up behind him again. 

Powder kneels down a few steps away from Vi. Her eyes are wide and she keeps glancing back at Ekko, as if for reassurance or comfort, but she's moving with a confidence that she didn't have as a kid. 

"Vi, it's me," Powder says gently. "Powder. I'm - " 

"I know," Vi says, and everyone jumps. Vi doesn't know if it's because it's the first time she's spoken or because of how hoarse her voice is. 

Powder holds her hands up. "Okay! Sorry. Just making sure. You're looking at me like I'm a ghost or something." 

Vi can't move. She just lies there, slumped against the wall, with her hands pressed against her side. Actually, now that she thinks about it, Vi doesn't know why she's pressing her hands to her ribs. She doesn't remember starting to do that. Maybe her ribs are hurting? She can't tell. 

Powder takes a deep, visible breath and then tries again. "How much of this blood is yours?" 

Vi looks down at herself. "I... don't know? I think... a lot?" 

There really is a lot of it. Vi didn't realize until now. It's pooled on the floor around her and her clothes and skin are covered in it. Maybe some of it is from the Enforcer that had been on top of her? There'd also been a lot of blood everywhere in Stillwater but she's been in the ocean since then, so at least some of it should've been washed off. 

Powder's eyes widen a little. "Okay. Well. In that case, I think, uh, our first course of action here is to get you patched up." She looks over her shoulder. "Did anyone restock the med kit after last weekend?" 

Everyone shakes their head.

Powder rolls her eyes. "Someone go get the spare then." She turns back to Vi. "Change of plans. Let's get you cleaned up first and then we'll patch you up." 

That sounds... fine. Vi has nothing left in her head for anything else other than mute agreement. She gives the barest hint of a nod, which feels like all she can manage, and Powder smiles and stands up. She reaches forward like she's going to help Vi up and Vi can't help but flinch again. She knows this is Powder and she knows no one here is going to hurt her but her body flinches anyway. 

Powder's face falls and she steps back. 

Vi takes her hands away from her ribs and very, very slowly manages to push herself up and get her feet underneath her. Now that she's had a few minutes of rest, all the pain she'd been ignoring is pushing itself to the surface. She tries to use the wall behind her for support as she shakily gets up but she can't help the sharp gasp she lets out.

It feels like she's broken every damn bone in her body. 

She almost goes down again once she's upright. Vi has to stop for a minute and try and breathe the black spots out of her vision, but she doesn't pass out. When she opens them again, everyone is staring at her with what might be concern. Or alarm. She's too dizzy to tell. 

Powder takes a few steps and Vi tries to follow. Her first step puts all her weight on her fucked-up hip and she stumbles to the side, grabbing onto a table for balance. 

"Vi," Vander says carefully, "can we help? One of us can carry you - " 

Vi shakes her head and takes another step. Then another. She made it this far, she can make it just a little further. 

She follows Powder to the stairs. Powder pauses, clearly waiting for Vi to go ahead, but that would mean that Powder will be behind her on the stairs. Vi hasn't let anyone walk that closely behind her since she got a shiv in her back during her fourth year in Stillwater. 

Powder won't do that, she knows, but - Vi just can't do it. 

Vi shakes her head again and waves a trembling hand at the stairs. Powder looks at her hesitantly but turns and leads the way.

Vi might black out a little on the walk to the washroom. She lifts her foot to step onto the stair and then abruptly she's stumbling behind Powder into the washroom with no memory of how she got there. 

"Woah," Powder says when Vi sways on her feet. "Here, sit down - " 

Vi sits down hard on the edge of the bathtub. Even that still leaves too much weight on her legs, so she lets herself crumple onto the cool tile floor instead. 

"Oh, don't - actually, that's fine. That's fine," Powder says quickly. "Just stay there for a minute." 

Vi isn't going anywhere. She might never move again. 

Powder opens a cabinet in the corner and starts pulling things out; a towel, what looks like a bar of soap. Vi leans back against the bathtub and frowns at the shower stall in another corner of the large washroom. 

"Was that always there?" Vi asks. Her voice is nearly gone by now so it comes out as a quiet rasp. 

"What?" Powder asks, following her gaze. "Oh! No, good memory, it wasn't." She sets the towels and soap down on the edge of the counter and goes over to the shower. She turns the handle and holds her hand under the water. "We put it in a few years ago. We only had the bathtub, which sucked because everyone took so long every time they wanted to bathe, and then one day I decided it couldn't be that hard to install some new plumbing. So Ekko and I whipped up some designs and got to work and here we are! Brand new shower. Works great, too." 

Vi stares. 

Powder keeps talking. "Admittedly there was one small teeny tiny incident - a pipe may or may not have exploded when we turned the water on for the first time. But trial and error, ya know? Leads to a better end product." She winces. "Sorry. I'm babbling. I'm nervous." 

When Vi doesn't say anything, Powder turns back to the shower and runs her hand under the water again. "Water's nice and warm now." 

The concept of a shower with hot water is comical. Vi doesn't even think she can imagine what hot water feels like at this point. 

Powder picks up the towel and soap she'd set down and then puts them down again in the same spot. "I'll just - leave these here. There's shampoo and conditioner in the shower that you can use." 

Vi looks over at the shower. She doesn't think she's going to be able to stand up for long enough to actually get clean. 

Powder seems to read her mind. "I know a bath would be easier, but the shower is going to get those wounds cleaned out. People don't talk about this enough but if you need to just sit down in the shower, you can! There aren't any rules about that." 

Steam is starting to fill the washroom from the shower. Vi had been cold, chilled to the bone, but now it's almost too warm in here for her. She's spent the last ten years of her life in a state of constant damp cold and this warm heat feels suffocating. 

"Do you..." Powder continues, "do you want me to help you?" 

Vi shakes her head. 

"Okay. Well, I'll leave you to it then, but just yell if you need anything. Or, uh, cough, or something. Your voice does not sound good. I'm going to grab you some things to wear and I'll leave them on the sink if that's okay." 

Vi shrugs. Even that motion hurts.

"I can bring you some of your old stuff but most of it's not going to fit anymore," Powder says. She's still standing uncomfortably by the door. 

That makes Vi try and focus. "My old clothes?" 

Powder winces. "Yeah. We, uh, kept everything. All your things. Mylo tried to throw them all out once but that was because he was drunk and in a bad mood but we stopped him - anyway. Yes. We have your old things. But now that feels, uh, weird. So I'm going to go just... find you some other things." 

It does feel weird. The concept of having to put on her clothes from when she was fifteen years old is just too much. Vi doesn't have the brainpower right now to think about why it feels so wrong, but maybe it's at least in part because she's spent years literally fighting to the death to get a sweater. Or a pair of socks. While all that time her old clothes were just sitting in a drawer. Here. 

Powder backs out of the room and closes the door behind her. 

There is no possible way Vi can stand up to shower.

She has to crawl to the other side of the washroom and even that exhausts her. 

Pulling off her filthy clothes is a chore on its own. Once they're off, Vi reaches over to the sink and tugs at the edge of the towel Powder had left there. She pulls the towel and the bar of soap closer and then clumsily shoves the shower curtain aside. 

Vi drags herself into the shower. She just stays there for a while, slumped against the walls of the shower stall. When she can finally move a little, she doesn't bother reaching up to the small shelf built into the shower to get the shampoo. She just uses the bar of soap on her hair and her body because it's been years since she had any soap at all, let alone a whole bar to herself. 

Vi can't even properly appreciate how nice the warm water feels because everything just feels too hot. The room is too hot. The shower is too hot, even though Powder had set the water to be pleasantly warm. The steam filling the room is too hot. 

She's actually pretty proud of how much dirt and blood and grime she manages to wash off until she goes to run the bar of soap over one of her arms and it catches on something. There's a tugging deep in her arm and it barely hurts but it feels disgusting. She flinches and stops trying to scrub at her arms, opting to just let the water run over the open wounds instead. 

Before long, Vi's just slumped in the shower again, letting the water run over her.

It's too hot. She's so tired. 

There's a knock on the door. "Vi? I'm just going to bring some clothes in, okay?" 

Vi doesn't actually want to pass out here. It's too hot. It feels like she's going to roast to death. But her eyes are so heavy and she's just so tired. 

She faintly hears the door open.

"Vi? It's just me. You okay in there?" 

Vi does her best to make some kind of affirmative sound. 

"Do you need anything?" 

She needs the damn water shut off. 

"Vi?"

If she could move her arms she could shut off the water herself. But she can't.

"I'm going to move the shower curtain, okay?" 

Vi doesn't care. 

She hears the shower curtain move and then the hot water is finally, blissfully off. It does nothing for how hot the room is now, though. Vi wonders if it's too late to go back up topside and get back into the ocean. The ocean sucks but at least it's cold. 

Powder is silent for a long moment. Vi wonders vaguely if she's looking at the scars or the new wounds. 

Probably the scars. The one on Vi's hip is particularly nasty, where that one guard had carved - 

Anyway. That's probably what Powder's looking at. 

There's a towel being wrapped around Vi. Now this is nice. This, she likes. They don't have towels in Stillwater. After they showered all the inmates just had to put their dirty clothes back on. 

"I'm just going to get your hair," Powder says quietly. 

Vi stays slumped against the wall of the shower and lets Powder dry her off.

Maybe she'll let Vi just rest right here, in the shower. Now that the water's off it's not too bad in here. There's three walls around her so no one can sneak up behind her or beside her, and there's just a curtain instead of a shower door so she can get out if she needs to.

Yeah, this is good. They can leave her here. 

To Vi's mild annoyance, Powder starts trying to get Vi out of the shower stall. Vi relents after a moment and lets Powder haul her out onto the bathmat. 

Powder kneels on the tiles and starts unfolding a small stack of clothes. "We can get you new things soon. I just grabbed these for now. We don't have anything that'll fit you perfectly - " 

Vi does not care. She hasn't had clothes that fit properly in ten years. She reaches for what looks like a shirt on top of the pile that Powder brought, but then her arm just... falls. It slumps uselessly back to her side. 

Vi tries with her other arm. That one doesn't have the strength either. 

Vi frowns down at her own useless body and then abruptly she's tilting backward. Apparently her core muscles that she was using to sit upright have given up too. 

Powder gasps and grabs at Vi's towel covered-shoulders. She keeps Vi upright, but Vi's head lolls anyway. 

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Powder's chanting. Vi's about to tell her she's not allowed to swear but Powder's an adult now, she supposes. She can swear if she wants. 

Vi doesn't pass out completely, but she does fall into a pleasant fuzzy state. Her body doesn't hurt anymore.

She's still too hot, though.

Vi lets Powder wrangle her into a pair of warm pajama pants and a soft short-sleeve shirt. 

"I brought you a sweater, too," Powder says as she adjusts the sleeves of the shirt on Vi's shoulders. "In case you get cold. But we've gotta get your arms bandaged first." 

Right. The cuts on Vi's arms and hands are still bleeding. There's already blood dripping onto the tiles again, now that she notices. 

"I'm getting blood on everything," Vi mumbles. Her face feels numb and her tongue feels too big for her mouth. 

"Oh, that's fine," Powder says. "It's Mylo's week for cleaning the bathrooms so that'll be his problem to deal with." She grabs Vi's shoulders again and angles her back against the wall next to the shower so that Vi is propped upright. "Here, give me your foot." 

Vi can't move, but Powder just gently lifts Vi's ankle anyway and starts pulling a thick fuzzy sock over her foot. Vi's body is going so numb that she can't even really feel it, but watching Powder gently set Vi's foot back down and reach for the other one - 

Well, fuck. Now she's crying. 

Powder's head jerks up. "Vi?" 

Vi can't stop staring at the stupid socks Powder's now finished putting on Vi's feet.

Vi hasn't had socks in ten years. It was a small thing that she'd fixated on during all of the ten years she'd spent in Stillwater. Every time she managed to get herself a pair of shoes she'd think about how much she wished she had socks to go with them. To stop the blisters and the cold and it was just... the missing comfort that she'd wanted so badly. 

"Vi?" Powder says again, and she says it so quietly and with so much worry that she sounds just like she did when she was a kid. 

Vi cries harder, but that's fine. It's whatever. There aren't any guards here to laugh at her for it.

Powder's saying something but the sounds of her voice have become muddled in Vi's ears. Her vision blurs again, and then it's like the lights have turned out. Vi's vision blacks out completely, her hearing goes, and then she feels her mostly numb body slump to the side. 

Powder must grab her again before Vi hits the ground because Vi doesn't feel her head hit the tile. 

Unfortunately, Vi's only out for what must be a few seconds. It's really too bad because Vi likes the feeling of being unconscious. Sometimes the beatings the guards gave her at Stillwater were so bad that when they finally knocked her out, the darkness and quiet and nothingness felt so good. 

No one has knocked her out here, though, and so she's tuning in and out. 

Powder's voice, louder now. Calling for someone? Calling for help? Then - nothing. 

A man's arms are around her. Vi starts to tense, because that never leads to anything good, but then she's being lifted up and her head is falling onto a warm shoulder and she knows this is Vander. Vander's not going to hurt her. She's so much bigger now than she was when she was a kid but Vander still carries her just like he did when she was little. So she doesn't fight it and then - nothing, again. 

She's on a bed. It's too soft. Way too soft. Too warm. 

Now there's a blanket over her and that's also too warm. And if she has to move, if she has to get up, get out, it's going to slow her down. She tries to kick it off and succeeds, but then someone pulls it back up. She wants it off but she can't open her mouth to say so - 

A tugging, in her arm. Deep in her arm. She hates it. She hates it enough that she's able to open her eyes and the room swims into view. 

Vi doesn't recognize this bedroom. It's small and has no windows, but the walls are painted a cheery yellow. Vi is lying on a bed pushed into a corner of the tiny room, and the only other furniture is a small dresser and a lamp in the corner. 

Where did this room come from? Was it always here and Vi just forgot? Did they add it while she was gone?

Powder is sitting next to Vi on the bed. She's bent over Vi's left arm with something in her hand. Tweezers? Scissors? 

There's another gross tug in Vi's arm and Vi reflexively tries to pull it out of Powder's hands. 

Powder glances up, and jolts when she sees Vi staring at her. 

"Sorry!" she says. "Sorry. Sorry. I know this hurts. I'm almost done. Your other arm was easier, this one is just being a real bitch." 

Vi looks at her right arm. Sure enough, that arm is wrapped tightly in bandages all the way down to Vi's fingers. 

"I don't even know what this is," Powder mutters, seemingly more to herself than to Vi. "Some kind of metal sliver? But it's flexible..." 

Oh. That's what she's pulling out of Vi's skin. The frayed elevator cable that Vi had felt cutting into her arms as she'd climbed must have left splinters in her skin. Or under it, she guesses, from how deep the tugging in her arm feels. 

"A cable," Vi says. It comes out just as raspy as when she'd tried to speak before. 

Powder frowns. "A... cable. Okay." 

She clearly has no idea what Vi is referring to. Right. Powder has no idea how Vi got here today. What she had to do to get here.

Powder looks back down at Vi's arm, which is still bleeding. There's a towel folded under it now though, so at least she's not getting blood all over the nice clean flannel blanket. Powder looks thoughtful for a moment, and then lights up. 

"Wait, I've got something that'll work for this. It wasn't designed for - but I could modify it," she says, and then turns and shouts over her shoulder. "Ekko!" 

"What?" Ekko's voice comes from just outside the slightly open door. "I'm right here." 

"Can you grab the - " 

Vi passes out again. 

More tugging in her arm.

This time it hurts more, and Vi drags her heavy eyelids open again to see what's happening. She doesn't like things being done to her body while she's unconscious, even though she knows Powder's just trying to stop Vi from bleeding all over this nice room. 

When she blinks the haziness from her eyes, Vi sees that Powder now has some kind of device in her hand and is moving it slowly over Vi's arm, holding it just above the skin. Ekko is looking over her shoulder, his arms crossed. He's standing very close to Powder. Too close. If Vi had any control over her face right now she'd narrow her eyes at him. 

There's a sharp pain and Vi flinches, but then Powder is lifting the device away from Vi's arm with a triumphant look and flipping it over to show Ekko. 

"It worked! I think it got all the tiny pieces too, the ones that I couldn't get with the tweezers." 

Ekko is nodding. "I think you should redo her other arm with this. I know that one didn't look as bad but if there were pieces this small in there - " 

"Then I might have missed them," Powder finishes. "I need to finish disinfecting and stitching this first though." 

This time Vi drops back into unconsciousness happily. She'll skip the pain of having an open wound disinfected if she can. 

She's out for longer this time. When she's dragged back to wakefulness it's because someone's arm is around her back, lifting her upright - 

She tries to jerk out of their hold, reflexively. 

"It's just me," Ekko says evenly from behind her, but she can't relax. She forces her eyes open and tries to tip herself forward, away from him, but then Powder is helping to prop her up too. 

"It's okay," Powder says urgently. "We're just trying to get some water in you - " 

Vi immediately disregards any efforts she was going to make to get out of the hold that Ekko and Powder have on her when she sees that Vander is standing beside the bed with a tray, and on that tray is a glass of the cleanest water Vi has seen in ten years. There's food, too, but she goes for the water first.

She can go for a lot longer without food than she can water. She knows this because it's happened a lot. 

"Oh, careful - " Powder says as Vi grabs the glass with one of her bandaged hands. The bandages are way too thick over Vi's palm. Vi should teach her the better way to do it when she has a chance. 

Vi throws back the water in one go. Her core muscles are apparently still fucked, because she tips back into Ekko's hands as she does so, but whatever. She doesn't care about anything in this world except this glass of water. Nothing has ever tasted this good. 

She shakes the glass to get the last drops of water and nearly drops it on her face when her bandaged hand can't keep a grasp on it. Powder very carefully takes it from her. 

With the water gone, Vi's attention moves to the food. It's just two pieces of toast with... butter? Some kind of jam? Who knows. Vi doesn't care. 

She glances at Vander, because it's always important to gauge the look someone has before you take food from them, but he just sets the tray gently on the bed next to her and very carefully hands her the plate.

Vi fights the temptation to snatch it from him and devour the food like a feral animal. The only thing that holds her back is that Powder and Ekko are right here and she doesn't want them to ever see her like that. So she settles for taking the offered plate and setting it in her lap. She can't help but cover the other slice with her hand as she picks up the first though. Just in case they try to take it from her. 

"Slowly," Vander urges. 

Vi folds the small slice in half and shoves the entire piece of toast into her mouth. 

The room is silent as she chews. Maybe she'll be embarrassed about this later. Right now she doesn't care. 

She does the same thing with the other slice, but then Vander takes the plate back before she can scrape up the crumbs.

Vi frowns up at him. 

"You can have more later," Vander says. "Just gotta let that settle first." 

"We could give her more water," Powder suggests. "That won't hurt. She's lost a lot of blood." 

Vi completely agrees. They should give her as much water as they have, actually. She would do anything for more of that water. She would - 

She's passing out again. This time, she's annoyed. She needs to stay awake to get more water - 

The room is dim and quiet. The door to the hallway is still cracked open and a soft light shines through it, but the lights in the room are off now. It must be later in the night.

Vi's tucked back under the blanket, which means that she's still too hot. 

In the dim light, she can see that Powder and Ekko are sitting on the floor with their backs against Vi's bed. Ekko has his arm around Powder's shoulders. Powder is... crying? 

She's being quiet about it, but Vi can tell from the way her shoulders are shaking. 

Vi slowly moves her bandaged arm across the bed until her weak hand hits Powder's shoulder. Powder turns around, and all Vi can do is tap her shoulder in what hopefully comes across as an act of comfort. 

Then she's unconscious again. 

Chapter Text

Vi's first few days home are blurry. 

She sleeps most of the time, only waking up to throw the blanket off because someone keeps putting it back on even though she tries telling them that she's too warm.

Occasionally she's woken up by Powder re-bandaging or re-stitching up her wounds. 

Other than that, Vi only wakes up when she's brought food and water. After she consumes it as fast as possible, she's out again. 

At one point, she wakes up to find herself slumped against the sink in the washroom with no memory of how she got there. 

Vi thinks its been about three days when she finally wakes up and is able to stay awake for more than a few minutes. She's alone in the room, which is both strange and kind of nice. 

She tries to take stock of her injuries, and to her surprise, she doesn't feel as bad as she expected. Her entire body is sore, sure, and she can tell just from taking a slightly deep breath that at least a few of her ribs are cracked. Her leg that had taken the brunt of her falls on her way here is aching, but even that doesn't hurt as much as she thought it would. 

Mildly curious, she unwraps the bandages around one of her hands. She expects the cuts she'd sustained to start bleeding again as soon as she gets the last layer of bandage off, but when she turns her hand over she sees that all of the wounds have fully closed and are well on their way to healing. 

Powder comes into the room and sighs when she sees Vi's unwrapped hand. "Vi, stop," she complains, coming over to sit next to Vi on the bed. "You're going to tear everything open again." 

Vi can't stop looking at her hand, even as Powder tries to wrap it again. "Why is it healing like this?" 

Powder frowns and gently turns Vi's palm towards her. "Like what? It's a little slower than I'd usually like to see, but nothing's infected - " 

"It's fast," Vi insists. "It's too fast." 

Powder shakes her head and starts re-bandaging Vi's hand. "It's really not. If this seems fast to you, I think it's probably just from you getting actual rest and actual food. Actual water. Actual warmth." 

"Too much warmth," Vi mutters. 

Powder rolls her eyes and looks meaningfully at the blanket Vi's discarded again. "It's cold in here, Vi. You've been shivering while you've been sleeping." 

"It's not. It's too hot." 

To Vi's confusion, Powder smiles at her. "You're a little grumpy today," she says delightedly. "Don't worry. I've got a surprise for you that'll cheer you up." 

Vi narrows her eyes at her. 

Powder laughs. "I mean it!" 

"Uh huh," Vi says, doubtful. 

Powder gets up from the bed and gestures for Vi to sit up. "Here, I'll help - " 

"I've got it," Vi mutters, and manages to get herself sitting up for the first time. 

Powder doesn't say anything. Vi looks up to see that the smile has dropped off Powder's face. 

"What?" Vi asks. Powder's staring at her, but Vi has no idea what's she's specifically looking at. 

"What's that in your collarbone?" 

Vi doesn't know what she's talking about. "What do you - " 

Powder steps closer. "I didn't see it until you moved like that." She reaches out and very gently brushes her fingers over the part of Vi's collarbone that the short-sleeved shirt she's still wearing exposes. 

Vi frowns and runs her own hand over that spot, feeling the small piece of metal under her skin. When the original injury had happened, it had been stuck in her collarbone so firmly that Vi hadn't been able to pull it out herself and the skin had eventually just healed over it. Vi doesn't really think about it anymore; it's barely noticeable, in her opinion, unless Vi moves in the specific way that she just had.  "Oh. It's just from a lunch tray." 

"It's - what?" 

"From a lunch tray." 

Powder has gone very still. "Why. Do you have. A piece of a lunch tray. In your collarbone." 

Vi briefly deliberates with herself on how much to say. She goes for the short version. "Someone broke the tray in half and then, uh, hit me with it. A piece just got stuck, I guess." 

It's mostly the truth. The inmate had snapped a metal lunch tray, which Vi had been kind of impressed by considering how tough those were to break, and tried to cut Vi's throat with the jagged edge. He'd failed, obviously, but he'd still managed to jam the tray into her pretty good.

"Does it hurt," Powder says flatly. 

Vi thinks about it. "No?"

It doesn't, not really. Other things hurt more. 

"Does it bother you that it's there?" 

"Not really. It doesn't fuck up my tattoos, so." 

Powder's stare is somehow getting more intense. "Is that the qualification for something to bother you?" 

Vi shrugs. "Well. Yeah." 

Powder stares at her for a moment longer and then takes a deep breath. "I am. Just going to step out. For a minute. And then I will be back." 

"Are you okay?"

Powder is already turning to leave. "Me!" she says, sounding like she's potentially on the verge of tears. "Am I okay?"

Powder doesn't come back for a while. She must send reinforcements though, because Ekko shows up not too long after with more food for Vi. 

It's another day later when it suddenly clicks in Vi's mind that she can just... leave. She's lying in the bed, daydreaming about Jericho's, and then it hits her. 

She's not trapped here. 

She's not locked in. 

She can just go where she wants. She can go anywhere she wants. 

Vi has been dozing again for most of the day, and no one seems to be around right now. So Vi gets out of bed and quietly finds her way out onto the street. 

It's surprisingly easy to do. The bar is open again, which makes sense; if there are any Enforcers still actively looking for Vi, a typically-busy bar that suddenly closes down would be a glaring sign. But that means that Vander's busy and so are Mylo and Claggor, and Powder and Ekko don't seem to be around either. 

No one notices Vi slip out. Once she's out, she sets off for Jericho's. 

It doesn't take her all that long to get there even though she's still limping slightly. It does occur to her as she walks that she doesn't have any shoes and is still wearing the poorly fitting pajamas that Powder had given her, but whatever. She's in the Lanes. Everyone is wearing something weird. 

When Vi finally gets to Jericho's, she kind of appreciates that he recognizes her but has no real emotional reaction to her return. She really appreciates that he serves her anyway when she realizes that she has no money with her.

Vi is sitting happily at the counter, working her way through her third full serving when she hears footsteps run up beside her. 

"What the fuck, Vi," Mylo pants. He braces his hands on his knees, catching his breath. 

"What?" Vi asks, her mouth full of food. 

"Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going?" 

Oh. 

Vi shrugs. "Didn't really think about it." 

Mylo straightens up and rolls his eyes. "Everyone's out looking for you. I told them you'd be fine but no one ever listens to me, do they."

Aw. Now Vi does feel bad. 

She gestures to the bowl. It's her third. She can share. "Want some?" 

Mylo stares at her for a long moment, and then he starts to smile. Then he starts laughing. 

Vi frowns. "What?" 

Mylo laughs harder. "Look, Vi, the others wouldn't tell you this, but I will. You look ridiculous." 

Vi looks down at herself. Yes, she's in the Lanes, but admittedly the pajama pants and oversized shirt do look a little absurd compared to what everyone else around her is wearing. Plus, the socks. It also occurs to her that her hair, which is already longer than she likes, is probably sticking up around her head. 

She laughs.

Mylo grins and takes the seat next to her. "Finish that and then I'll walk you back." He watches her finish off her food for a moment. "Please tell me that was your first bowl." 

"Nope," Vi says triumphantly. Her stomach does not feel... great, if she's honest, and yet she still feels hungry somehow. 

"Yeah, you're fucked," Mylo says happily. "Come on, let's get home before you're in too much pain to walk. I'm not carrying you back." 

Vi walks all the way back to the bar of her own free will. Mylo narrates the colour her face is turning the entire way with far too much glee. 

"I'm fine," Vi says through gritted teeth as they go. 

"I don't think I've ever actually seen someone turn green before," Mylo cackles. "Thought that was just in books." 

"Thought you couldn't read." 

Mylo shoves her, gently enough that he's clearly trying to be careful. She threatens to puke on him in response and he carefully stays a few steps away from her for the rest of the walk. 

Vi gets quite the lecture when she and Mylo get back. From everyone. She thinks it would have actually gone on longer, except that Powder does get genuinely concerned that Vi is about to throw up all over the bar and takes her upstairs to her bed. 

"This is your punishment for scaring me like that," Powder informs her as Vi curls into a tiny ball on her bed and groans. Her stomach hurts so badly. 

"I'm sorry," Vi says pitifully. 

Powder sighs. "Well, I can't blame you for wanting Jericho's. But just tell one of us next time! Any of us would have gone with you." 

"You would've stopped me from eating that much." 

"Well, yeah! And then we would have prevented your current suffering." 

Vi cracks one eye open to glare at her. Powder laughs. 

"You promised me a surprise," Vi mumbles into the pillow. 

"Oh yeah!" Powder jumps up. "I forgot about that. Hang on, hang on, I'll go get it." 

The surprise turns out to be a stack of clothing that Powder had gone out and found for her. 

"I didn't want to get you too many things," Powder explains as she shows Vi everything she got. "I'm sure you'll go get your own stuff when you can, and you're so thin right now that a lot of this won't fit as soon as you gain a bit of weight again. But at least you'll have actual clothes for now." 

It's nice stuff, too. As soon as Vi sleeps off her food-hangover, she tries everything on the next day and the feeling of wearing real clothes that fit her well makes her feel more like a real person than she has since she first went to Stillwater. The clothing isn't fancy, just jeans and comfortable shirts and a new jacket and boots, but Vi feels less vulnerable wearing real clothing. 

The next week of Vi's life is blissful. Maybe one of the best weeks she's ever had. 

Vi is still sleeping a lot and they still won't let her eat as much as she wants, but when she's up there's lots to do. She follows around whoever is the least busy and just hangs out. She watches Ekko and Powder work on their various projects. She sits by the bar and lets Mylo teach her about the different drinks he makes for customers. Claggor's been running a lot of the operations for the bar, apparently; ordering supplies, planning shipments, that sort of thing, and he shows her all of that.

At mealtimes, after Vi's finished up her small portion and has successfully convinced herself not to try and steal everyone else's plates, she gets to curl up in a chair and listen to everyone tell her about their lives since she's been gone. 

It's nice. It's so nice. She's so happy and content (except for the food thing) that she keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something's going to go wrong. It always does, there's no exceptions. 

Sure enough, something goes wrong. 

Vi doesn't actually know what it is that tips the "hunger" signal in her brain into overdrive. It feels instinctive. It feels impossible to reason with. 

She's been food-obsessed since she got here but for the most part she's been able to think through it. She's been able to listen when everyone tells her that she has to take it slow, that she can't jump from near starvation to gorging herself on whatever she can get her hands on. 

What they're saying makes sense. She gets it. But she wakes up one morning and eating is all she can think about. She tries to be rational about it for a few hours until she can't be anymore, and then before she knows it, she's sitting in front of the open fridge surrounded by open food packages and containers and wrappers that she's torn her way through like an animal. 

It's a stroke of good luck that Powder's around for this. Vi snaps out of her haze of obsession when Powder slowly kneels down beside her and stares into the fridge. 

"Wow," she says. "You really managed to get some of everything, huh." 

Vi winces when she looks at the damage she's done. It really is like she's a damn animal. A goddamn feral animal. It's embarrassing. "I can pay Vander back for all of this." 

"You quite literally cannot," Powder says easily. "You have no money, remember? But it's fine. He won't care about the money. Hey, you missed the fancy cheddar. Try some of this, it's really good." 

Powder takes a few more things out of the fridge and gives them to Vi to try, while subtly putting everything else Vi had taken out back in. Anything that Vi took too much of for it to go back, Powder starts setting aside, presumably to clean up later.

Vi miserably eats the fancy cheddar cheese and feels like a young kid who got caught stealing. 

"Alright," Powder says when she's finished cleaning up. "Come here, slide back. You're letting all the cold air out." 

Vi obediently crawls backward until she's sitting on the floor against the counter so that Powder can shut the fridge. Vi pulls her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. 

She hates that Powder's having to take care of her like this. Having to manage her like this. Like she's a wild animal who found her way home but can't be domesticated again. 

Powder sits down next to her and nudges their shoulders together. "Hey. Vi. It's okay." 

Vi drops her face into her knees. "It's not." 

"It's really not a big deal." 

Vi doesn't say anything. Her stupid stomach is starting to hurt already again from how much she ate. 

Powder is quiet for a minute before she speaks again. "Look, I'm not an expert, but this makes sense to me. You've been eating... what, maybe the equivalent of one full meal a day for the past ten years? That's not nearly enough - " 

"A scoop." 

"What?" 

Vi lifts her head. "One scoop. That's how much we got a day." 

Powder's face starts to take on the carefully blank look she's been using whenever Vi mentions anything about Stillwater. "What do you mean, when you say one scoop." 

Vi holds her hands up to demonstrate. "Like, one ladle." 

"And what were they serving that could always be served via ladle?" 

Vi shrugs. "I don't know. Fucking... slop, or something." 

Powder is silent. 

"They said it was fortified with nutrients," Vi says. As if that helps. 

"To be clear," Powder continues. "When you say this is how much you were served per day. Are you referring to a scoop of this at each meal or - " 

"No. There's only one meal time. So one a day." 

Powder is quiet for a very long time. Vi drops her head back onto her knees. 

"Okay," Powder says eventually. "Well." It sounds like she's trying very hard to keep her voice even. "That just really backs up what I was thinking. You've been on the verge of starvation for ten years. Now that you've started eating properly again, your body is starting to function better, and you're just trying to get as many nutrients and as much fuel as possible to keep that function going." 

"I feel... out of control," Vi admits. 

Powder leans her head on Vi's shoulder. "I think it'll get better. I finished a book last night on the effects of long-term food restriction that I stole from - " she pauses when Vi starts to lift her head to ask where exactly she stole that from. "Anyway. The short version is that you'll even out eventually." 

Later, Vi decides that she really wants to know when exactly "eventually" will happen, because the exact same thing happens the next evening.

One minute she's getting ready for bed, and the next she's standing in the kitchen, working her way through everything she can find in the cabinets. 

It's the same thing as before. A mindless, all-consuming need to keep eating. Vi's not even really enjoying the food as she goes.

She could take the time to put together a sandwich or something like that, but that feels like it would take too long. So instead she eats the bread and then when she finishes that she eats the fillings that she would have put in a sandwich, and then when she finishes that she moves on to the boxes of crackers and cookies and whatever the next thing lined up in the cabinet is. 

Powder isn't here to stop her this time.

Vi is kneeling on the kitchen floor, digging through one of the lower cabinets, when she senses someone standing beside her. She doesn't know or care how long they've been there as long as they don't stop her.

"Oh man," Mylo says. "Vi, I think you should stop." 

Oh, this is a good find - there's a new box of crackers behind the empty one she'd just thrown aside. She pulls it out and starts ripping the top open. 

"Vi! Hey, come on. You really need to - " 

She finally gets the box open and then starts ripping into the packaging inside. 

"Vi - " 

Ekko must have come in at some point, because Vi hears him say "Mylo, don't - "

A hand closes around Vi's wrist. 

She drops the box and in the same motion, twists her wrist and pulls down. Her other hand comes up to grab his forearm and from there it's so, so easy to swing him down onto his back on the floor. As he's falling, she's rising to her feet and throwing her weight forward. He's still landing on the floor when her knee comes down into his stomach, right between his ribs. Her other hand goes around his throat and - 

Someone's arms wrap around her waist to pull her off but whoever it is clearly didn't notice that she always leaves her other arm free for this exact situation. A sharp move with her elbow and then those arms aren't holding her anymore.

She moves her weight forward again but now someone else is grabbing her and this time her arms are being pinned to her sides and she's being lifted right off her feet. She throws her head back but her captor must have anticipated that and kept their face out of the way. She kicks but that doesn't work either and then she's pushed up against the wall and someone's keeping her there with her arms pulled behind her back so that she can't drop to the ground or twist away. 

Vi tries anyway and when she can't get free she screams instead. She screams and screams and tries to get free again - 

"Vi, it's alright, just take a breath - " 

"Sweetheart, you have to try and - " 

"Vi. Violet. Vi, please - " 

"You're hurting yourself - " 

When she runs out of breath and can't scream her rage anymore, it turns to sobbing. 

She realizes, eventually, that it's Vander holding her. He's still pinning her against the wall but she can tell that he's trying not to hurt her. She can tell that he's desperately trying to stop her from hurting herself. 

Her ears are ringing. Her body is numb. She can't stop sobbing. 

"I'm going to let go," Vander says softly. She nods with her face still pressed into the wall. She's crying so hard that the gasping breath she tries to take shudders in her chest. 

Vander slowly releases his hold on her and steps back. Vi slides down the wall and curls up with her arms wrapped around her head. 

Sometimes the guards would come back and kick her just when she thought they'd finally left. She always needs to keep her head protected. 

No one touches her again. Eventually she can't cry anymore and everything just fades out to numbness. She's not unconscious; she can feel the floor beneath her and the pain in her shoulders from how Vander had pinned her and her throat is raw from screaming. She can hear faint sounds, like there's people nearby, but everything's muffled. 

Vi has never been so detached from reality. Even in Stillwater she'd stayed so present, no matter what was happening to her. Well, except for - 

Her mind stops her there and she floats off again. 

Someone is putting a blanket over her. 

Vi hates blankets. 

"I know you're always saying it's too hot here," Powder says, "but I can't handle seeing you shiver and this is all I can do to help." 

Powder tucks the blanket over Vi's body but leaves her head free. Vi kind of wishes she would do the opposite. Her head is throbbing and the darkness might be nice. 

Vi's still on the floor. Her back is aching now from being curled up this long but she doesn't feel like she can move even if she wanted to.

"Do you want some water?" Powder asks. 

Vi does, but answering that would require her to reconnect to her body and she'd rather stay floating. 

"Can I help you up, or do you want to stay here for a bit?" 

Vi doesn't answer. 

"We'll stay here, then."

Time passes. Vi slowly starts regaining feeling in her body even though she doesn't want to. 

"Mylo's totally fine, by the way." 

If Vi could scoff, she would. There's no way he's totally fine after what she did. 

"Alright, he's a little banged up," Powder concedes even though Vi hasn't said anything. "But it's not bad at all. Really." 

Yeah, right. 

"When we all went out for his birthday last year, he got so drunk that he fell all the way down those stairs by the old bakery. Let me tell you, that fucked him up. He was one big bruise for weeks. This is nothing in comparison. Ekko's fine, too. You got him with your elbow a little but I think that's a good learning lesson for him actually. Ekko, come here for a sec." 

Footsteps. Someone sits down. Ekko, Vi supposes. 

"Can you tell Vi that you're fine, please?" Powder asks. 

"I'm good, Vi," Ekko says. "I've had worse. I'm sorry I couldn't stop Mylo in time." 

What is he talking about. Mylo hadn't done anything wrong. 

"He shouldn't have grabbed you like that," Ekko continues. "He was trying to help, but he doesn't always think things through." 

Maybe. He still didn't deserve Vi taking him down like that. 

"He feels really bad about it," Ekko adds. "He wanted to come apologize to you but we all told him he has to wait until tomorrow." 

Mylo wants to apologize to her? That doesn't even make sense. He should come put a bullet in her skull instead. 

Powder and Ekko talk at her for a while longer. It does help a little, and eventually Vi lets them haul her up and take her to her room. She lays on her bed for a while and keeps dissociating until she falls asleep. 

When Vi wakes up the next morning, she decides that she's never getting out of this bed again and she'll just die here. That's the better and safer option for everyone. 

Her plan lasts for about five minutes until Mylo barges in and starts apologizing. When she finally gets up the courage to look at the damage she did to him, Vi does have to admit that it's actually not that bad. She must have pulled back her strength, at least, even if she hadn't realized what she was doing. 

"Hell of a toss, though," Mylo says. "Can you teach me how to do that?" 

Vi stares at him incredulously, but he's serious enough about it that he bugs her until she finally gets out of bed and eats something and goes for a walk with Powder and then has a nice long shower and before she knows it, the days are normal again. 

It happens two more times in as many weeks.

Both times she loses her damn mind over something small. Something minor. She throws things, hits things, breaks things. 

It's embarrassing. It's shameful. Vi doesn't know how to stop it from happening. 

She tries to explain it as Powder picks shards of glass out of Vi's knuckles. 

"I had to fight for everything," Vi rasps. "Every day. To... defend myself, and get enough food, and if I didn't..." 

"Everyone understands, Vi," Powder says, but that doesn't make Vi feel better about it. 

She does level out with the food thing eventually. The ravenous hunger dies off and she can eat like a normal person again. Three square meals a day and snacks whenever she wants them. 

Her bruises and cuts and fractures and breaks heal at what to Vi is an incredible rate. A few of the bad ones, like her ribs and hip, still hang around and bite at her throughout each day but those are improving too. 

She finds that making herself a nice glass of whiskey after she freaks out about something helps. Calms her down. Levels her out again. 

After a while Vander starts threatening to cut her off if she does it too much, but she thinks those are empty words. Everyone's calm if she's calm, so no one complains when she starts pouring herself an extra glass or two to have with dinner as kind of a preemptive measure. 

She's - 

There's - 

Glass is everywhere, or are those pieces of ceramic? Porcelain, maybe? What do they even have in the living room that's made of porcelain - 

She's trying to get to the... stairs. Is that where she's going? They're trying to stop her. 

The rage and the panic or both are all-consuming. There's so much adrenaline in her body that it almost hurts to try and stop moving, stop fighting. No, she can't stop, she needs to get away - she needs to - 

They've got her down on the floor but she's getting back up again. There's two of them, or three of them? More than one. She lunges towards the stairs again - 

She thinks this is the worst one yet. 

She's back down on the floor and she's about to get up again but then someone is on top of her. He's using his entire body weight to push her down, keeping her pinned face-down on the floor. She fights harder but this must be Claggor on top of her. Vi is strong, strong, strong but Claggor is twice her size and twice her body weight and he's using all that weight to keep her down. He's pinning her body with his and holding one of her arms, too. Someone else has the other. Her legs are still free so she kicks, and then kicks again. 

"Vi, please," Claggor says into her ear. 

She kicks again but they've really got her this time because that doesn't work either.

"Ekko! Grab her legs!" Claggor shouts, and Ekko does, and - 

And - 

It's the way they're holding her down. Claggor on top of her, his body pressed up against hers. Mylo holding her other arm. Ekko grabbing her legs. 

What Claggor had told Ekko to do. 

How Claggor's weight is grinding her face against the wood floor. How when she gasps for her next breath, she can't expand her lungs completely because he's too heavy on top of her. 

What it feels like when Ekko adjusts his grip on her ankles. 

Vi stops fighting. 

All of her muscles relax at once and all the tension leaves her. 

She'd already been on the floor but now she slumps into it. Even her hands unclench from their fists. 

Her head is turned to the side, just enough for her to see, and her eyes stay open. She's looking at the base of a side table in the corner of the room. 

She starts tracing the lines of the table with her eyes. She idly thinks that she should get the broom out at some point and sweep under all the furniture in here. Everywhere in the undercity is a little grimy from how bad the air and water are but it can't be good to have that much dust on the floor. 

"Vi?" Claggor says. 

"Uh," Mylo says. "What happened?" 

"Is she okay?" Ekko asks.

"Vi?" Claggor repeats.

Vi could probably repaint that side table, actually. It's looking pretty worn. Powder must have painted it at some point but it could use some sprucing up. 

"Clagg, get off," Ekko says urgently. "Let her go." He's released his own hold on her ankles. 

"What if she jumps up again?" Mylo asks. 

"Clagg!" Ekko shouts. 

Claggor gets off of her like Vi is on fire. His weight is gone in an instant, a split second. She can hear his heavy footsteps stumbling backward. 

"Mylo - " Ekko starts. But Mylo has already let go of Vi's arm too.

Vi can see under the couch, too, and there's just as much dust under there. Maybe tomorrow she'll push all the furniture to the middle of the room and sweep the whole thing. 

"Vi?" Claggor says for a third time, but now it's from the other side of the room. Her name is short but she can hear the tremble in his voice anyway. 

This isn't like what happened before, when Powder had to put a blanket on Vi and talk to her until Vi came back to her body. When Vi's in this state she can hear everything. See everything. Feel everything. But the nice thing is that it feels like nothing matters and she can just look at what's in front of her and think about that instead. 

Like the floor. This stupid, dusty, dirty floor. Why hasn't anyone mopped this? They have a mop in the bar. It would be so easy to bring it in here and do this room too. 

"Out, out, come on," Ekko snaps. More footsteps. The door creaks open and then closes again. 

Mylo and Claggor are gone. Vi thinks Ekko left too but then she hears him over by the door. 

"I'm just going to stay right here, Vi," he says. "Just until Vander and Powder get here." 

The base of the couch looks almost as dirty as the floor beneath it. Should she clean the couch? Can a couch be cleaned?

Vi thinks about that for a while. 

Eventually Vander comes in. He and Ekko whisper to each other for a minute and then Vander drops to his knees in her line of sight. 

"Hey, kid," he says softly. He reaches out a hand towards her but then hesitates. She doesn't know why; she didn't tense up or anything. She hasn't even looked at him, really, he just happens to be in her line of sight now. She wants to get back to planning her cleaning session. 

Vander starts to say something a few times and then stops each time. 

"Do you want to get up?" he asks finally. "Move to the couch?" 

No. She doesn't.

"Are you disappointed?" Vi mumbles into the floor. 

Silence. 

"Sorry," Vander says, "I don't know what you mean - " 

"Are you disappointed," Vi repeats. It hurts a little to speak, because her jaw is against the floor, but whatever. 

"Why would I be disappointed?" 

Vi thought it was obvious. 

When she doesn't say anything else, Vander speaks again. "Vi. I don't know what - " 

"Because sometimes it was faster if I stopped fighting." 

Vander is very quiet. He's too tall; even kneeling on the floor, he's mostly out of her line of sight. So she doesn't know what his face is doing either. 

When he doesn't say anything, Vi continues. "Sometimes they liked that I fought. So if I didn't... but you always - you were always telling me to get back up, don't give in - " 

"No," Vander says harshly, enough so that Vi flinches slightly. He softens his voice. "Vi, no, no, I - I would never think - I could never - " 

He stops. 

Vi hears Powder burst through the door a moment later. 

"What happened?" she's demanding. "What fucking happened? I step out for ten goddamn minutes - Vander?" 

Silence. 

"What - " Powder starts. "Okay. I've got this, okay? Go with the boys." 

Vander gets up. Vi stays on the floor. 

Vander and Powder speak very quietly to each other on the other side of the room. Vander leaves. 

Vi looks at the side table again until Powder lies down on her side on the floor, facing Vi. She tucks one arm under her head. 

She looks really, really sad. 

"I should go," Vi whispers. Her throat hurts. 

"What do you mean? Go where?" 

Vi shrugs a little. The movement is awkward because she's still on the floor. "I don't know. Somewhere else." 

Powder's face is pale. "Why? Is it because of... Vi, they didn't mean to, um, scare you like that, I promise. You were hurting yourself, and I know they were trying to keep you safe, they just didn't think..."

Vi closes her eyes, finally. "I wasn't scared." 

How does she explain this to Powder? Vi isn't scared now. She wasn't scared when they were holding her. She was just waiting for it to be over. 

Actually. 

Now that she thinks about it...

Vi opens her eyes again. "Maybe I was." 

Powder's face crumples and she quickly sits up. She covers her face with her hands and twists away from Vi, her legs curled beneath her. 

This, more than anything else so far, finally reconnects Vi's mind to her body and she can move again. She sits up too. "Pow?" 

"Sorry," Powder says thickly. She's crying. "Sorry. I'm sorry. Ignore this. It'll stop." 

Vi crawls over to Powder and pulls her into her arms, turning them both so that Vi's shoulders are against the couch.

Powder's crying turns to sobbing as she turns her face into Vi's shoulder. "I'm sorry. This isn't about me, I shouldn't be crying like this." 

"It's okay."

All that does is make Powder sob even harder. "It's not. It's not okay and none of this is and I can't fix it." 

Vi tightens her arms around her. "You've already done so much - " 

"Not enough!" Powder nearly shouts. "I want to go back in time and fix everything so that none of this ever happened to you. But I can't and I don't know how to make things better for you now. And I want to get my hands on all of those people who hurt you like this and I want to rip them to fucking pieces." 

Vi brushes some of Powder's hair away from her face, just like she used to when they were kids. "If it helps, I already killed a lot of them." 

This gets a hiccupping laugh from Powder before she sniffs again. "I should be the one comforting you." 

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Vi says into Powder's hair. She's not, but she doesn't want to talk about this anymore. "I'll be fine." 

She lets Powder cry it out for a while longer before they both get up. Vi doesn't even know what time of day it is but she goes straight to bed, regardless, and only gets up when she feels like a human again. 

Vi had kind of assumed that everything would go back to normal, but when she's up and showered and in the bar again, she finds that Claggor isn't there. 

"He's fine," Powder assures her. "He just feels really bad about what happened. You know how he is. He's a real sweetheart. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, let alone you." 

Vi tries to go find him, but Powder assures her that he's out with Mylo and that they'll come back later. But even Powder's acting off too, still pale and just not herself. Vi convinces her to go out for a while and leave Vi behind. Powder tries to protest, but Vi assures her that she can get through a single night without a catastrophic breakdown. 

There isn't a lot of evidence to support that statement, but Powder goes anyway. She takes Ekko with her, which leaves Vi helping Vander in the bar. 

Vander is being the strangest out of all of them. He's normally so warm, so outgoing with affection, so quick to smooth things over. 

Now he won't even look at her. 

He talks to the customers, serves them their drinks, joins in for a few card games while Vi mans the bar. He's normal with everyone else, except her. If he needs to interact with Vi, to tell her about a drink order or that they're running low on a specific beer, he does it quickly and without looking her in the eyes. 

So he is ashamed, then. So he is disappointed. 

It makes Vi pretty fucking miserable. Running the bar for the night keeps her going, at least. She likes chatting with the customers, making jokes, bantering back and forth. It feels normal. It makes her feel more like herself. 

She also likes that she can pour herself a shot every time Vander's not looking. 

She's probably going to put the bar out of business at this rate. She likes the pricy stuff. 

They close down for the night and the last straggler finally wanders out. Vander locks up while Vi cleans. 

She's wiping down the bar when she abruptly can't take the silence any more. "Guess I shouldn't have said anything, huh?" 

Vander looks up from where he's pushing back a table that had been moved. "Pardon?" 

"About Stillwater," Vi clarifies. She stares right at him and scowls when he turns away. "You're not even going to look at me?" 

Vander shakes his head and keeps his back to her. He starts flipping the chairs upside down onto the tables so they can mop the floor later. "No, Vi. That's not - it's just hard for me - " 

Vi laughs. "Oh, it's hard for you? Is it?"

She's just finished cleaning the bar but she pours the remaining dregs from the whiskey bottle she's been serving from into her shotglass and throws it back. 

"That's not what I meant," Vander says tightly. "I'm trying - " 

"Trying!" Vi says, and laughs again. She's very drunk. 

Vander finally turns around. He's holding one of the chairs in his hands like it weighs nothing. "Vi, listen to me. You're already going through enough, and it's not - I don't want you to have to deal with my emotions about this on top of everything else." 

"Oh, okay," Vi giggles. She tosses the empty whiskey bottle into the tray they keep under the sink for recycling. "No emotions. Got it." 

"Violet." 

"You can say it!" Vi tosses her shotglass into the sink. "You can say that you're ashamed of me, or embarrassed, or disappointed or whatever - " 

"Why would I be ashamed of you?!"

"Because I let them rape me?" 

Vander visibly flinches and turns away. 

Vi starts collecting the remaining empty glasses tucked behind the bar. She doesn't think all of them were used but she'll wash them anyway, to be careful. 

"You didn't let them," Vander says finally, after a minute of ragged breathing. He's bracing himself on a table, still facing away from her. 

"But I did," Vi says easily. She feels kind of darkly cheerful right now.

"That's not how - that's not how that - Vi, no - " 

"You still haven't answered the question," Vi reminds him helpfully. 

She doesn't actually know why she's pushing him like this. Maybe it's just because he's the one who happens to be here right now. Maybe it's because she asked herself this question over and over and over, not thinking she'd ever actually get an answer, but now she's home and Vander's standing right there. 

Maybe it's because she's drunk and really enjoying the feeling of letting all of this out.

"Of course I'm not ashamed!" Vander shouts. He turns back around. "Why would you think that I would be?" 

Vi rolls her eyes and then starts putting the liquor bottles back in their rightful places. "We already went over that." 

"Vi, I'm sorry if I haven't been - if I haven't been clear with my thoughts about - about everything that happened. And about - this specifically - " 

"You can say it," Vi offers. 

Vander clearly can't, because he looks like he's either going to pass out or throw a table across the room. "Vi, we only learned about - this - the other day - " 

Vi can't help but raise her eyebrows. "Really? What did you think they do to prisoners in Stillwater?"

Vander stumbles over to a chair and sits down heavily. He puts his head in his hands.

Vi finishes with the liquor bottles and then looks around with her hands on her hips. She's done a great job with cleaning up this part of the bar, in her opinion. She starts moving around the room, flipping the remaining chairs onto tables. If Vander's not going to finish cleaning up, she will. "I can keep going," Vi offers. "Don't know what you thought was happening to me in there, but I've got news for you, it was a lot! So we've gone over the rape, sexual assault, beatings - " 

"Vi." 

"Torture, stabbings, humiliation, deliberate starvation, deliberate - I was going to say dehydration, but deliberate dehydration sounds weird."

"Violet." 

Vi is making excellent progress with the chairs. She's having fun. Being drunk is great. "Oh, I missed waterboarding. Actually, scratch that, that falls under torture. I guess solitary confinement does too. Oh, one guard carved his initials into every inmate on the cellblock, including me. Maybe that's under torture too, though. And - " 

"Vi!" Vander bellows, loudly enough that Vi is shocked into silence for a moment. When she looks over at him, he still has his head in his hands. He's breathing hard. "Stop. Please." 

Vi drops the chair she's holding and he finally looks up. 

"Hard to hear?" she mocks. "That must be tough for you." 

Vander sags back into the chair. "Violet." 

"Hm?" Vi picks up her fallen chair and flips it onto the table. 

"Vi, can you stop for a minute - " 

She turns around, staggering a little, because the amount she's had to drink is really starting to catch up with her. "No." 

"Just sit. Please." 

"Why didn't you come for me?!" Vi shouts instead.

Vander sighs and runs a hand over his face. "Oh, Vi. We tried - " 

"You didn't fucking try hard enough, did you," Vi snaps, and she's about to cry, or scream, she can feel it building in her chest but she promised Powder that she could go one goddamn night without having a breakdown. So she leaves the bar as it is and goes to her room and shuts the door behind her. 

Her bedroom door doesn't have a lock, for some reason, so she pushes the dresser against the door instead. When she stands back, she realizes that she has essentially trapped herself in this room. She's made herself her own little cell here, just by pushing the dresser against the door. 

Well, she's not going to move that dresser again tonight. So she falls onto her bed and then immediately drops into a very spinny, drunken sleep. 

Vander does come try and talk to her, at some point in the night, but when she doesn't respond, he goes away.

No one else bothers her until the morning, when Powder tries to come in and then starts to panic when she realizes the door is blocked. Vi gets up and pushes the dresser back to it's original spot, and then assures Powder that everything's fine. 

Vi and Vander don't talk about it over the next few days. It's Vi's turn to mostly avoid his attempts to talk to her. It had felt good to get things out in the open but maybe it's better that everything smooths over and they all pretend like Vi was never gone and was never in Stillwater. 

This lasts for four days. After that, Vi kills a man in the bar.

Chapter Text

It's a real shame that it happens on the day that it does, because the afternoon starts off nicely.

Claggor and Mylo had come back to the bar eventually, and while Mylo was back to normal pretty much right away, Claggor was so down that it hurt Vi's heart. She had pulled him aside and talked to him for a while, and once he was mostly back to his normal self, she had hugged him tightly until he had started laughing and let her pour him a drink. 

She's been making it a point to stay close to him when she can since then, to assure him that she's not scared of him. And she's not! It was just when he - 

Anyway. 

She's moving on. 

Everyone stays in the bar that afternoon and evening as customers start to trickle in. Ekko and Powder are at their favourite table near the bar, bent over a bunch of notebooks and designs.

Vi's been creating a fun game for herself where every time Ekko leans too close to Powder or puts his arm around her or rests his hand on her back, Vi narrows her eyes at him. He always pulls away from Powder as soon as he notices Vi's glare, and Vi has to hold back her smile each time. 

She doesn't actually mind at all that Ekko and Powder are clearly dating. Powder's an adult, and she's more than capable of making her own decisions. Besides, Vi loves Ekko. She can't think of anyone better for Powder. 

Vi does find it strange that Powder hasn't said anything about it to her. Maybe it's because she thinks Vi would be angry? Or that she'd be jealous that their lives had all gone on while Vi was trapped in a prison cell? 

Regardless, Vi makes a mental note to talk to Powder about it. In the meantime, she keeps glaring at Ekko until eventually he looks defiantly back at her and wraps his arm around Powder's shoulders, tugging her into his side. Powder, who is writing something in a notebook, just leans into him and doesn't seem to notice. 

Vi bursts out laughing. She's had a few drinks by this point, but even without those, this would have made her laugh. Ekko smiles in return and Vi makes him his own drink and brings it over to him. 

Vander's around, but Vi's staying out of his way. She's behind the bar for the night and can run it mostly on her own now, although Mylo and Claggor help out when it gets busy.

Vi doesn't mind the mild chaos. Having her hands busy with making drinks and her mind busy with talking to customers and her family keeps her from thinking about anything else. 

It's later in the night when a new group comes in to The Last Drop. There's six of them, three men and three women, all closer to Vander's age than Vi's. They're loud and rowdy even as they come through the door, which is fine; it's a bar, after all. 

A few of them take one of the tables near the bar and the others come over to Vi to get their drinks started. Vi chats with the group at the bar as she gets their round of drinks ready. She glances up, and over the shoulder of the woman in front of her she sees the rest of the group at the table.

Specifically, she sees one man that she would recognize anywhere. 

He's facing away from her, leaning back in his chair and laughing. As Vi hands the drinks over to the rest of the group at the bar, she realizes she doesn't even know his name. 

She'd only known him by his inmate number. 

1653. 

1653 had arrived in Stillwater three years after Vi had. 

He'd been on her cellblock and he'd hated her since the day he got there. 

Vi never knew why. She typically ignored new arrivals, and until or unless they came at her, she left them alone. 

She hadn't bothered this guy at all or even looked twice at him, but he loved to yell taunts and insults at her whenever he could. She ignored those too until he grabbed her hair on her way to back to her cell and tried to throw her against the wall. 

He didn't succeed. Even though she'd been younger then, she'd already been fast and he hadn't stood a chance. 

The others on the cellblock had laughed uproariously as she took him down, and it only fueled his hatred from there. 

Vi wasn't concerned about this. There were plenty of grudges and ongoing feuds in every cellblock and there were other inmates and guards that worried her far more than this guy. 

Two months after 1653 arrived, another inmate was brought in and put in the cell across from Vi's. 

Vi had planned on ignoring this new arrival too, but the woman was so friendly and talkative that she'd won even Vi over within her first week. 

Her name was Amretta and she was about ten years older than Vi. She told Vi all about her partner, how he'd died the year before and she'd turned to stealing to feed their young kids. After a theft gone wrong, she'd been arrested and sentenced to three years in Stillwater. 

Vi was already jaded from the time she'd spent in Stillwater and didn't trust easily, but before long Amretta had Vi talking about her life, her family, her sister. She offered Vi advice and encouragement and friendship and mentorship. Amretta's kindness was the best thing that had happened to Vi since she'd been put in Stillwater. 

Three weeks after Amretta's arrival, she and Vi were eating their daily disgusting slop meal. Vi was telling Amretta about the time that she and Powder tried to cook Vander dinner for his birthday and how it had gone horribly wrong. Amretta had been laughing and telling Vi how she hoped her daughters would be close like Vi and Powder were. 

1653 walked behind Amretta on his way his own table and before Vi could react, before she could even make a sound, he pulled a shiv from his pocket and slit Amretta's throat.

Vi launched herself over her table but he'd had the element of surprise. She only got one hit in before the guards got between them and then when she wrenched herself out of their grasp and crawled over to Amretta, she made it just in time to watch Amretta's terrified eyes fix on Vi's face and then go vacant as she died.

As Vi was being dragged back to her cell later, covered in Amretta's blood, she'd screamed at 1653. Demanded to know why he'd done it. 

He'd laughed from inside his cell and said, "I didn't like seeing you happy." 

As they tossed her back in her own cell, she'd yelled down the hall at him to count his fucking days and that she'd get him eventually. 

They transferred him to another cellblock soon after, once they got tired of Vi's ceaseless attempts at retribution. She hadn't seen him after that, but she'd heard he'd been released when his sentence ended two years later. 

And now here he was. 

Well. She had warned him. 

Vi is patient.

She waits until his group is all seated at their table. She waits while they finish their drinks. 

She politely serves the other customers. She smiles at Claggor when he comes over to take the tray of dirty glasses from under the bar. 

"You alright?" he asks, pausing when he sees her face. 

She smiles at him again. "Yeah! Nice night." 

He gives her an assessing look, but drops it and takes the glasses away. Vi turns back to the bar. 

She waits until one of the women at the table waves her hand at Vi and signals for another round. 

Vi motions to her that she'll bring the tray over and the woman turns back around. Vi fills up the glasses with beer and loads up the tray, unhurried. 

She takes the tray and steps out from behind the bar. As she gets to the table, she doesn't make an effort to stay behind 1653 or hide her face from him. 

She doubts he'll recognize her. Maybe if they were both still in Stillwater, sure, but he's not going to be expecting her to be here. 

Vi serves everyone else at the table their drinks first, making her way around in a circle as the group laughs uproariously at a joke one of the women is telling. 

She gets to 1653. 

"Hey!" she says cheerfully as she sets his drink down. "Did you count your days?" 

He barely acknowledges her presence. "Huh?" 

"Did you count your fucking days?" Vi repeats. 

1653 freezes with his hand outstretched, reaching for his beer. The rest of his group notices and their laughter dies away. 

Vi gently sets her tray down on the table. 

1653 turns to look up at her. 

Vi smiles at him. 

"No!" he shouts, and tries to scramble out of his chair. His foot catches on the leg of the chair and he falls. 

Vi follows him as he tries to get up. 

She doesn't let him get far. She's not interested in dragging it out, or making it complicated. She's not looking to make a spectacle. 

Vi grabs 1653 by the collar of his shirt and hits him. She doesn't hold back.

She hits him again, and again, and again, and the one more time for good measure even though she knows he's dead. A moment later Vander grabs her around the waist and pulls her away, dragging her back around the bar.

He's holding her tightly enough that he clearly thinks she's losing it again, but she's not. She's fine. "Hey, it's okay," she tells him, and pats the arm he has wrapped around her waist. "You can let me go."

Vander does loosen his hold on her, but only to swing her around so she's behind him. He keeps moving her backward towards the stairs, shouting instructions at Mylo and Claggor. 

The bar is in chaos. Vi's not really surprised by that; after all, she did just beat a man to death in front of a group of his friends and other customers, but come on. She knows this isn't Stillwater but they're still in the Lanes. Not a single person in this bar would be any stranger to violence. 

But people are screaming and others are rushing out the door, and the real problem starts when the group of people 1653 had brought in with him stop clustering around his dead body. They'd been making a big scene of wailing and now that they're done with that they're coming after Vi.

This wouldn't normally concern her. She can take these five people easily. 

But what does make her heart start to pound is her family throwing themselves in the middle. 

Vander is still trying to wrestle Vi towards the stairs, so Vi doesn't see exactly what happens. She knows there's more shouting and the sound of things being thrown and furniture breaking. She tries to get back around Vander but he blocks her again. 

"You have to let us handle this," he shouts. "It'll only get worse if you're here." 

Vi doesn't necessarily agree with that, but Vander keeps looking over his shoulder at what's happening in the bar. Vi knows that he's not going to let her go back out there and she also knows that every moment she holds him up is another that the rest of her family is dealing with her actions alone. 

"Okay!" Vi says, and backs up. "Go, go, I'll stay." 

Vander gives her a doubtful look, but lets her go. He goes back out into the bar and Vi paces back and forth, waiting. 

It's a mess. 

They'd managed to kick 1653's group out of the bar, but only after one of them got a good hit on Claggor and another caused a pretty significant amount of damage.

"I'll get rid of the body," Vi offers once everyone's cleared out and the doors are locked and Vi's allowed back into the bar. 

Everyone is standing around the dead man. Claggor is holding a towel filled with ice against the side of his head. 

"Vi, please," Vander says. He sounds exhausted. "Just - go to bed. Please. We'll handle this." 

Vi crosses her arms. "No, it's my problem to deal with. I can - " 

"It's not," Mylo mutters. "You made it all our problem." 

Okay. Well. He's not wrong. "Sorry," Vi says. "I should've taken him outside." 

Everyone turns to stare at her. 

"Or maybe don't kill someone in front of his apparently very loyal friends?" Mylo suggests. "At all?" 

Vi frowns. "He could've gotten away if I'd waited. Look, it's not - I know him, he deserved this, I didn't just do this randomly - " 

Powder comes over and takes Vi's arm. "We'll get this cleaned up, alright? We can talk about what happened later." 

"Sure," Vi says, "but I'll help." 

They don't let her help. Not really. 

It's a long night. 

The boys take care of the body. Vi doesn't see what they do with it; Powder made her go shower and put on clothes that weren't covered in blood. She'd then made Vi sit on the counter while Powder disinfected and bandaged the cuts on Vi's knuckles.

When Powder's done, Vi tries to go back into the bar to help, but most of the work is wrapped up. The floor is mopped and all the furniture has been righted. Vander is repairing a few of the gouges in the floor. The boys are still gone. 

Vi hovers near the bar. When she can't take the tension anymore she tries to duck behind the bar and make herself a drink. 

"Vi," Vander says tiredly. "Don't. Please." 

Vi tries to pour the whiskey more quietly. 

"Vi." 

She rolls her eyes and caps the bottle. 

She still throws back the shot, though. 

The tension stays. 

Vi tries to explain, once everything's cleaned up and everyone's back home. She tells them about 1653 and what he did, and they all seem to get it, but there's still something off. 

She thinks it might be the way she did it. He'd been dead since the first hit, realistically, because in Stillwater she couldn't afford to swing and miss. She'd gotten really good at making her hits land. 

She wonders if they're scared of her. 

She asks Powder later. 

"Scared of you? No," Powder says. She's sitting on the floor of Vi's room. "Worried about you? Yes." 

Vi's on her bed. She leans back against the wall and lets her head thunk back against it. "It won't happen again." 

"It's not just that." 

Vi frowns. "What?"

Powder avoid her eyes and scratches at the wood floor with a fingernail. "I guess part of it is how... casual you were. About it. About how you killed that guy. And the drinking." 

Vi ignores the first part. "The drinking?"

Powder looks up. "Vi, come on. You know what I'm talking about."

"I don't." 

"You're drinking non-stop!" 

Vi crosses her arms. "I am not." 

"You are," Powder insists. "I saw you pour something into your coffee at breakfast and you haven't stopped since." 

Vi thought no one saw that. "So?"

Powder groans and sprawls out on her back on the floor. "It's not good, Vi! That should be obvious!" 

"You all live in a bar!" 

"Yeah, and none of us drink like that!" 

"Pow, it's fine," Vi tries to reassure her. "Really. It's okay. What happened today, it won't happen again." She doesn't want to lie to Powder, but she does anyway. "I get what you're saying about the drinking. I'll tone it down." 

Powder lets an arm flop over her face. "I don't believe you." 

Vi sighs. "I'll prove it, okay? Starting tomorrow." 

"Uh huh." 

Vi rolls her eyes and it's quiet for a minute. 

"Can I show you what we were working on before you broke out of Stillwater?" Powder asks softly. "The plans that we had?" 

"What plans?" 

"For getting you out," Powder explains. "You know. Our own prison break." 

Vi shakes her head. "No thanks." 

"Why not? I really think it would have worked this time - " 

"Because it - " Vi shifts uncomfortably. She doesn't like thinking about this. "It doesn't matter anymore, Pow. I'm here now." 

Powder sits up. "It does matter! I need you to know that we weren't just... living our lives all happy and content while you were in there. We tried, Vi, we tried so many things - " 

"I believe you! I never said I didn't." 

"But I don't think you do! I know you think we should have tried harder." 

Vi shakes her head. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. Can we just - " 

"The chembaron who caused the prison break that you used to escape just had so many more resources than us," Powder tries to explain. "I looked into it, and from what I can find it was just brute force, really, getting all that firepower in one place and then taking that wall out - " 

"Stop," Vi hisses. 

"I don't even know how they - " 

"I'm going to bed," Vi says, and starts unlacing her boots. 

Powder tries to keep talking, but Vi just keeps getting ready for bed and eventually Powder leaves. 

Vi thinks about it a little as she's falling asleep, even though she tries not to. She doesn't want to think about how after all those years, all her own escape attempts, the only reason she got out is because one of the chembarons decided to break out a bunch of his people who'd been arrested in a raid. 

If she thinks about it too much it makes her feel sick. So she goes to sleep instead.

Vi doesn't start toning down the drinking the next day. Or the day after. Or the day after that. 

After that, Vander cuts her off from the bar. 

They argue about it. 

"Come on," Vi groans, leaning over the bar to try and get Vander's attention. "Just give me the cheap stuff then, I'll stop with the nice stuff - " 

"It's not about that," Vander says, wiping down a glass, "and you know it." 

Vi glares at him. "I'm not a kid. I can decide for myself - " 

"Not in my bar you can't," Vander says, and then immediately winces. 

"Vander!" Powder hisses from her table. Vi looks over to see Powder glaring at Vander but it's too late. The damage is done. 

The damage being that Vi had sort of forgotten again that she's not trapped here. There's absolutely no reason she has to sit around here waiting to either freak out and hurt her family or wait for an opportunity to steal a shot of whiskey while no one's looking. 

Her only obstacle is that she has no cash. 

She asks Powder, who refuses to give her anything unless Vi agrees to take Powder with her. 

She asks Ekko, who takes one look at Powder's expression and says no. 

She asks Mylo, who tells her to make her own damn money. 

She asks Claggor, who hesitates for a moment before telling her that he doesn't want to give her money that she could use to hurt herself because he really cares about her. 

(Vi does have to give him as tight of a hug as she can after that.)

She'll just have to either get a job or brush up on her thievery skills. 

Vi goes out and finds that it's shockingly easy to get herself a job. 

She goes deeper into the rougher parts of the Lanes and finds a bar that's packed but clearly understaffed. The bartenders are run off their feet and the crowd is angry. 

It's nothing like The Last Drop, where while it's still a bar, it's a warm and friendly and social atmosphere. This place is one wrong move away from a full-out brawl. 

That could be fun, she thinks to herself. Been a while now since she's been in a good brawl. 

Vi leans over the bar and shouts at one of the bartenders. "Hey! How much would you give me if I jumped in and helped you out tonight?" 

The bartender glares at her for a moment but then looks back at the crowd. "Ask the owner," he calls, and nods his head to an older woman on the other side of the bar. 

Vi pushes her way through the crowd and finds the owner. She asks the same question and the woman looks at her for a moment, appraising.

"You any good?" she asks. 

Vi shrugs. "Does it matter? I'm here and I gotta make some money." 

The woman rolls her eyes but waves for Vi to get behind the bar. Vi grins at her and hops over. 

To Vi's surprise, it works out really well. 

Vi's good at the job. She'd barely started learning the ropes in The Last Drop, but this bar is divey enough that she doesn't really have to be any good at making specific drinks or serving them nicely. She just has to be fast at the bartending and tough enough to deal with this crowd, and she's both. 

By the end of the night, she's served hundreds of drinks, broken up one nasty fight, and snapped one guy's wrist when he'd grabbed her arm to get her attention. The crowd had loved it though, laughing and jeering, and the guy had slunk away. 

The owner hands her a stack of cash and tells her to come back tomorrow. 

Vi likes her new job and she really likes having money.

She also likes being able to use that money to go pretty much anywhere she wants and do anything she wants.

She'd wandered into a few of the clubs nearby the first week she got her bartending job, because she was drunk and just wanted to see what they were like. 

It was too much for her at first. People packed together, dancing, grinding, hooking up. The lights flashing, music pounding. The sensory overload had given her an immediate crushing headache and she'd stumbled right back outside.

But she tries again, and she starts to like it. 

It's not long until she's totally hooked on it and has a brand new routine. She goes to work in the evening, stays until the bar closes down for the night, and then she takes her newly earned cash and goes to a club down the street that she likes the most. 

It's not the cheapest place, and she usually ends up spending almost as much as she made bartending, but she does not care at all. 

It's fun. The things that she'd found overwhelming at first, like the loud music and flashing lights and packed dance floor, soon start to feel good instead of painful. It's like another switch has flipped in her brain, like it had when she'd started binge eating, except this time she's just trying to get as much stimulation and excitement as she possibly can after ten years of darkness and cold and loneliness. 

At first Vi makes an effort to still go back home every night so that her family doesn't worry too much. 

It has the opposite effect. All that it does is give them the opportunity to get angry with her. 

"Violet," Vander says with more exasperation than should be possible. "Enough of this. Please." 

He's mad because he happened to still be cleaning up for the night when Vi stumbled in. Even Vi can admit that she's not in great shape; she's sweaty from the dance floor at the club and hammered from how many drinks she had both at her bartending job and at the club. 

She also got into a little argument with a customer earlier in the night and her knuckles might be bleeding again.

"Why?" Violet asks, indignant, and then trips over a chair that she could've sworn wasn't right in front of her and falls hard onto the floor. 

"That's why," Vander says from above her. "You can't carry on like this, Vi." 

"Whatever," Vi mumbles. She gets up and immediately overbalances, stumbling into a table and going down again. 

"Leave it until the morning, Vander," Powder says from somewhere in the bar. Vi didn't even know she was here. "She's not going to be able to listen to you in this state." 

"I can't leave it until the morning," Vander says. "She'll be too hungover until the afternoon to talk and then she goes right back out again." 

"I know, but lecturing at her now isn't going to help - " 

Vi leaves them to their discussion and heads for the stairs. After she slams into another wall on the way to her bedroom, she gives up on walking and crawls her way to bed instead. 

It's the same thing, nearly every night, for weeks on end. Vi's only reprieve from it is when she gets home late enough that everyone else is asleep and no one sees her pathetic and embarrassing walk/crawl/stumble to her room. 

Eventually Vi gets so tired of it that she just stops going home every night. 

The first time she stays out all night is when she's making out with a woman she met two minutes ago on the dance floor at the club and the woman pulls back and asks if Vi wants to go back to her place. 

Vi says yes, because... well, why not? 

They go to the woman's apartment and it's Vi's first real non-prison hookup. It's great. Vi lucks out in that the woman is sweet and patient with her, and only says once, "girl, why are you rushing? It's not a race. Here, I'll show you." 

The woman lets Vi stay at her place until the next morning, and by the time Vi leaves and gets something to eat, it's just about time to start work again so she goes over to the bar early to help set up for the night. 

When Vi finally gets back home, the reception is even worse. More yelling. More arguing. 

The worst part is when her family all starts arguing with each other about Vi. 

She's just making everything worse. For all of them.

Vi starts staying away from The Last Drop at least a few nights a week. 

It's easy to do. Between her work and the club, she usually gets at least a few offers to go home with someone. 

Vi does not stop drinking, no matter how many times her family lectures her about it. 

Vi does not stop getting into fights, no matter how many times her family lectures her about it. 

Vi does not stop her bartending job. Vi does not stop clubbing. And the fights do not stop getting worse. 

Things really explode a few months later when an argument between a frustrated Vander and a drunk Vi leads to Vander telling Vi in a low voice, "your mother would be horrified by this - " 

"Yeah, well, she's not here to tell me that herself," Vi says, "because you got her killed." 

That really causes a scene. Powder loses it, worse than Vi has ever seen. Ekko ends up carrying her out of the bar while she's still shouting and sobbing. Mylo and Claggor take Vander somewhere else and Vi doesn't look at him as they leave, so she doesn't know what state he's in. 

Vi herself is so intensely miserable that she skips work and goes straight to the club and drinks so much that she passes out in the alley behind the building. 

She does try to tone down the drinking and the clubbing after that but it doesn't work. 

She doesn't want to stop, or she can't, and either way everything just gets worse. Nothing Vi does is right when she's at home and it gets to the point where it feels like every minute she's there is another screaming match or an argument that ends up in somebody crying or something breaking. 

Vi has never hated herself more because all she's doing is fucking everything up. She tries but it's not working. She's not the person they knew before and the person she is now doesn't fit with them anymore. All she wants is to be with her family and all she's doing is hurting them. 

They were happier before she came back, she thinks. 

Six months after Vi got home, she walks out the doors of The Last Drop and doesn't go back.

Chapter Text

TWO YEARS LATER

Caitlyn puts down her pencil and crosses her arms. She looks out the window to her right, overlooking one of the university courtyards below. 

"That's what I'm saying, though," Kristella Brecken whispers from around the corner where her own desk is. "It doesn't matter how good my work is. Doesn't matter how many hours I put in! Just because I'm not a Kiramman, no one's going to care!" 

Caitlyn rolls her eyes. Kristella does maybe five hours of research a week, if that. 

"No, exactly," Brie Greydon whispers back. "Like, we can do our best but they're always going to put her first. Sorry we can't all be that rich and that tall or whatever! Some of us are just normal people, trying our best!" 

Caitlyn tips her head back and muffles a sigh. Both Kristella and Brie are from two of the wealthiest families in Piltover. They both live in mansions in Piltover's wealthiest neighbourhood and neither have worked a day in their lives. The only reason they're both doing graduate programs is that they didn't want to work an actual job when they finished school and their families refused to let them just be socialites. 

"And really, at the end of the day," Kristella murmurs, "I just have to be there for Ava. After what happened with her and Caitlyn, it's just so important that we keep in mind what Caitlyn's really like." 

Caitlyn briefly considers the consequences of just starting to scream. She and Ava McKinley had dated for four months when they were both sixteen years old. It had been Caitlyn's first heartbreak and Ava had been the one to dump her! Besides, she and Ava had reconnected as adults and they're now friends! Ava is a married mother of twins now! Caitlyn was invited to both the wedding and the baby shower! 

"So true," says Brie. "Make sure Ava know where our allegiances lie, you know? Anyway, can we go get lunch? I'm bored." 

"Yes! I can't look at these papers for another moment. Let's go." 

Caitlyn sighs silently again. Kristella has not spent one full minute today actually working. 

Kristella and Brie come around the corner and freeze. Caitlyn looks up from her desk and gives them both her best polite Kiramman smile. 

"Oh!" Kristella squeaks. "Caitlyn! I - we didn't know you were here today!"

"Kristella, Brie, hello," Caitlyn says pleasantly.

"How long... when did you get to your desk?" Brie asks, nudging Kristella in the side with her elbow. 

Caitlyn smiles blandly. "Two hours ago. So if you're wondering if I heard your entire conversation about me, the answer is yes." 

Brie and Kristella could not look more stressed if they tried. 

"Oh, we didn't - we weren't - " Kristella says weakly.

"We were talking about another Caitlyn," Brie interrupts.

Even Kristella gives Brie a wince at that one. 

"Oh, Brie," Caitlyn says, pitying. "Why don't you just head to lunch." 

Brie and Kristella make their escape. Caitlyn sighs and gets back to work, now that this part of the graduate research library is quieter.

Caitlyn wraps up her own work soon after and is able to leave for the day before Kristella and Brie get back. Unlike the two of them, who are in their first year of their graduate programs, Caitlyn is well into her doctorate degree. The two of them are resentful about that, as if Caitlyn had been given special treatment to get ahead of them. In reality, she'd just worked significantly harder than them to finish her various levels of schooling at an accelerated pace. They're also resentful of Caitlyn for graduating at the top of their class. Kristella in particular is resentful of Caitlyn because Caitlyn won the school-wide footrace when they were all nine years old. 

So, Caitlyn doesn't spare them any further thought. She has work to do before dinner with her parents and Jayce tonight. 

Caitlyn has known since she was a child that at some point she would be on the council. 

It was always portrayed as an inevitability. There has always been a Kiramman seat on the council. Caitlyn is the only Kiramman heir. Ergo: Caitlyn will, at some point, be on the council. 

But she has other plans, first. She (and her parents) had planned that Caitlyn would finish her education (at the top of her class, of course), attend either law school or medical school (she'd chosen law), begin working once she'd graduated, and eventually take over the Kiramman council seat when her mother retired. 

Instead, things so far had gone like this:

Finish her education (at the top of her class)? Check.

Start law school? Check. 

That was as far as she got with the original plan.

Things derailed after that. Her life path instead became: 

Experience a traumatizing and worldview-changing life event? Check.

Decide to abandon law school and join the Enforcers instead as a result of the traumatizing event? Check.

Experience several more worldview-changing life events and subsequently decide to leave the Enforcers and both return to law school and complete a doctorate program focusing on the historical, sociological, and cultural factors leading to variations in the social determinants of health between Piltover and the undercity? Check.

Drop law school again? Check. 

So. Now she's here, announcing to her parents and Jayce over dinner than she'll be going to the undercity for a minimum of six months as part of her research. 

It goes exactly as she expects.

"You will not," shouts her mother. 

"Oh, Caitlyn," her father murmurs. "Sweetheart, there are other ways - " 

"I think you should think this through," Jayce says in an irritatingly patronizing tone.

Caitlyn lets them all rant for a few minutes as she finishes her salad. "I've already decided. I'll be leaving a week from today." 

Her father puts his head in his hands. Jayce gestures wildly at nothing. 

Caitlyn's mother takes an aggravated sip of her wine. "And just where do you expect to get the funds you'll need for this little endeavour? It certainly won't come from us." 

"I have plenty of funding through the university." 

"We'll pull the university's funding," Cassandra says immediately. 

Caitlyn sets her fork down. "Mother!" 

Even Tobias looks taken aback. "Cassandra, let's not be hasty." 

"Hasty!" Cassandra says. "I'll be as hasty as necessary. Caitlyn, what has gotten into you?" 

Caitlyn sighs and takes a long drink of her own wine. 

The argument spans several hours. At one point Tobias leaves to go sit in the gardens for a while. Jayce has to walk around the dining room gesticulating wildly to get his point across. Cassandra and Caitlyn glare at each other from their respective sides of the table. 

By the end of the evening, they've all reached an impasse, much to everyone's frustration except for Caitlyn. 

Caitlyn is an adult. She is of sound mind (although this is also hotly debated). They will not be able to stop her from going legally, physically (unless they try and lock her in the house, but even then she's perfectly capable of escaping), or financially. 

They do try for the financial aspect. Cassandra does retract her statement about pulling all of their funding for the university, but she does insist that she will give Caitlyn no financial assistance for her journey or her living expenses while she's there. 

Caitlyn, however, had planned for that and she's spent the last six months quietly selling off a significant amount of her wardrobe that she never wears anyway. The amount that she sold her old winter coat for, as an example, is more than enough to cover over a year of her expenses in the undercity. 

Despite preparing for this conversation, Caitlyn is still exhausted by the end of it. The final blow is her mother threatening to have Caitlyn re-committed to the psychiatric institution that Caitlyn had briefly stayed in during some... difficulties in her youth. That threat had at least ended the conversation and freed Caitlyn from the dinner table, with both her father and Jayce telling Cassandra that that last part had gone too far. 

Caitlyn goes to her bedroom and waits for Jayce to come find her. 

He comes in five minutes later and closes her door behind him. "So," he says, coming over to lean against the desk she's working at. "I'm guessing you already spoke with Grayson about this?" 

"Of course," Caitlyn says, finishing up the last of her notes. "She's already helped me with a significant amount of my planning." 

"And she's fine with just... dropping you off in the undercity? On your own?" 

Caitlyn snaps her notebook shut. "I wouldn't say that. But she understands my reasoning for this decision. She supports my research, too." 

"As do I," Jayce says irritably. "I just don't see why you have to endanger your life to do it." 

"I don't consider it endangering my life. If you remember, the most danger I've encountered was right here in my own home." 

Jayce's face tightens. "I remember." 

Caitlyn stacks her notebook on top of the others neatly arranged on her desk and turns to him. "Would you help me with something?" 

"Depends on what it is." 

Caitlyn goes over to her bed and pulls out one of the several large leather bags she's been storing underneath it. Digging through it, she pulls out one of the air quality testing devices she's been loaned through the university. She turns to Jayce and holds it out to him, putting on her most hopeful expression. 

Jayce looks at the device and then back to her. Then back to the device. Then he sighs and holds out his hand. 

"Thank you," Caitlyn says, relieved. "So this one just does air quality but if it could also do water, soil, chemical exposure - " 

Jayce turns it over in his hands. "And you need it by... next week." 

"Yes." 

Jayce shakes his head but Caitlyn can tell that there are already ideas forming in his mind. 

Five days later, he arrives at her front door with several boxes of new Hextech-branded handheld air/water/soil quality testing devices, as well as several others for detecting various chemical exposures. 

Two days after that, Grayson arrives to take Caitlyn to the undercity. 

Caitlyn doesn't bring much with her. She's well aware that most of her current clothes will stand out like a sore thumb in the undercity, so she's packed only a few plain outfits. Most of what she carries in her few bags are the templates for her reports that she'll be compiling, graphs and charts for her data, and her testing devices. She has brought her rifle, of course, neatly tucked away in her backpack.

Grayson has arranged for Caitlyn to meet with a personal contact of hers. She's assured Caitlyn that as long as there is substantial renumeration provided, the contact should be willing to assist Caitlyn with getting settled for her stay and assisting her with gathering information for the cultural components of her study. 

So, they go to the undercity. 

They take the bathysphere down as far as it goes, but then they just keep descending.

Caitlyn has only been down into the undercity twice in her entire life. The first was a class trip; they had stayed for five minutes at the lowest bathysphere station and then went straight back up. The second was with her mother on a well-intentioned but poorly thought-out day excursion from Caitlyn's psychiatric hospital when she was a teenager. 

Now, Grayson leads her down further than Caitlyn thought even possible.

"Is it what you expected?" Grayson asks as they walk. 

"Yes," Caitlyn says truthfully. The air is thick and cloying and despite only having been here for a few minutes, Caitlyn's throat and eyes and nose are burning slightly. The undercity is dim but the streets are almost unbearably bright, with neon lights and colourful signs everywhere. It's both noisy from the chaos of a busy, too-dense city, but the sound is also strangely muffled and echoing from the way the city is built into the deep fissures. 

Caitlyn has to keep reminding herself not to gawk like a tourist. They're supposed to be blending in, but she can't help trying to crane her neck to look at everything. 

On several occasions, Caitlyn's so busy staring that Grayson has to take her arm and lead her in the right direction. 

The trip takes a while, but it feels like mere minutes when Caitlyn follows Grayson through the doors of a bar, deep, deep in the undercity. 

"We're clo - " an older man calls from behind the bar, and then pauses when Grayson takes her hood off. 

"Hello, Vander," Grayson says pleasantly. 

There's only two other people in the bar, a younger man and a woman. They're both sitting at a table in the corner, and they're now watching Grayson and Caitlyn very intently. 

"Grayson," the older man, Vander, acknowledges. He looks at Caitlyn, but Grayson doesn't move to introduce her so Caitlyn remains quiet. 

"It's nice to see you again," Grayson continues, still in the same bland tone. "Could I have a word with you?" 

Vander's eyes flit between her and Caitlyn for a moment, and then he nods. "This way." 

They vanish into what must be a back room or an office. Grayson points Caitlyn towards one of the empty tables as she goes, so Caitlyn takes a seat and folds one leg over the other.

The bar is painfully silent after the door closes behind Vander and Grayson. 

The man and woman at the other table continue to stare at Caitlyn. The man is twisted in his chair to look at her. 

Caitlyn gives them a polite nod and then lets her eyes roam the rest of the bar while she waits. 

Time ticks by. Caitlyn doesn't move a muscle. She's quite good at waiting patiently. 

The couple at the table start whispering to each other. Caitlyn doesn't try to eavesdrop. 

Time continues to pass. 

Caitlyn continues to sit. 

Eventually, the woman at the table gets up and goes into the back room that Vander and Grayson had vanished into. She glares at Caitlyn as she goes by and doesn't knock before entering the room. 

The man gets up as well, but leans against the bar instead and just stares at Caitlyn. He's clearly keeping an eye on her. 

A key turns in the heavy door and two more men come in. They stop when they see Caitlyn. 

She turns her head to look at them and has to hide her wince. She's getting stiff from sitting here for so long. 

"Uh," one of them says. "Who are..." 

The man at the bar waves them over. The three of them cluster together, whispering, and then all three of them disappear into the back room.

It must be getting crowded in there. They could have just put Caitlyn in that room and taken the bar for themselves, if it was going to take this long. 

After what feels like an eternity, they all come back out. Grayson looks tired but not upset.

Caitlyn hasn't moved a muscle. She's been waiting for so long that it even feels strange to track their movement with her eyes. 

"Creepy," she hears one of the men mutter. There's some muffled laughter. 

"Thank you for your patience," Grayson says to Caitlyn. "There was an... additional clause added, I suppose you could say, which took some time to work out the details of. They've asked for a personal favour in addition to the monetary compensation. I've agreed to it, contingent upon your safe return in six months." 

Interesting. "Was there a... concern about my safe return?" 

"On my end, yes," Grayson admits. "I'll sleep better at night until you're home with this, ah, clause in place." 

Caitlyn looks at the group. "I don't suppose I'll find out what this... 'personal favour' is?" 

"No," one of them says. 

"Not your business," says another. 

Caitlyn thinks it's very much her business, considering that this favour is apparently contingent upon Caitlyn's survival, but fine. She'll pick her battles. "Alright."

"Well then," Grayson says. "I'll be off. Caitlyn, Vander and his family here will find you a place to stay as part of the agreement and help get you settled." 

Caitlyn nods and stands up. Grayson doesn't hug her before she leaves, but she does clap Caitlyn on the shoulder on her way out the door. 

Silence falls. 

"Well," Vander says finally. "Guess I should do some introductions." 

He introduces the group with him; his family, apparently. Caitlyn commits their names to memory. They won't be hard to remember; what kind of a name is Powder? 

"There's an open room in a boarding house a few doors down," Vander continues once he's finished the introductions. "Mylo's going to run over and talk to the landlord, see if we can get you in there." 

Mylo, who is leaning against the bar, doesn't move. 

"Mylo," Vander says warningly. Mylo sighs and drags himself out the door, slowly and dramatically. 

"In the meantime, Powder will take you to get some things to wear," Vander adds. He looks down at the woman standing next to him with her arms crossed. 

"I forgot to mention," she says, with an aura of faux innocence, "but I'll charge extra for that service. It'll take a lot of work, you know. Getting her," she nods to Caitlyn, "to look... not like that." 

One of the other men, Ekko, turns around in his chair quickly to face away. Caitlyn presumes he's laughing.

Vander sighs.

Fighting words, Caitlyn thinks to herself. She has to grit her teeth to not respond the way she wants to. "That's fine," Caitlyn says tightly. 

Powder smiles thinly. It doesn't reach her eyes. "Great! Let's go. I've got other things to do today." 

She steps out from behind the bar and walks purposefully out the door. Caitlyn goes to follow, but glances at her other bags next to her. 

"We'll move them to the back room," Vander says. 

Caitlyn isn't sure if she can trust him, but she doesn't really have another choice. She can't carry all her things around with her all the time. Besides, there's nothing in those bags apart from some clothes and the blank reports and testing devices she'll be using. 

She nods and follows Powder out the door. 

Powder walks like she's on a mission. 

Caitlyn is taller than her by a fair amount, but she still has to scramble to keep up. Powder doesn't look back to see if Caitlyn's following as she darts through the narrow streets. 

It surprises Caitlyn how quickly she starts to lose her breath. She's in good shape, and pretty much always has been, and it usually takes much longer than this for her to tire. But the thick chemical-tasting air burns her lungs and makes her breathing far more constricted than she's used to.

Powder clearly has no such problem, and she also clearly does not care that Caitlyn does. The only thing she says as they walk is, "put your hood back up." 

Caitlyn hadn't even noticed that she'd let it slide back onto her shoulders, but she obediently tugs it back up over her hair and face. 

The first shop they go into is not... the type of shop that Caitlyn's used to. 

It's tiny, sandwiched in between a club and some kind of restaurant, and pounding music from the club echoes through the shop even though it's still fairly early in the evening. The store is filled with clothing hanging on overfilled racks and piled on tables. There doesn't seem to be any kind of organization; jeans are piled on top of shirts, jackets on the same rack as what might be pajamas. 

The shop isn't too crowded, but Caitlyn sticks close to Powder anyway. A woman who must be the shop owner is glaring daggers at Caitlyn from behind a counter in the far back of the shop.

Powder immediately starts sorting through the stacks of clothing. Caitlyn hovers awkwardly nearby until Powder looks up at her. 

"Take that jacket off," Powder says, and turns back to digging through the piles on the table in front of her. 

Caitlyn frowns. She thought the whole point was for her to look anonymous. "Why?" 

"Uh, so I can see what size you are?" Powder says, rolling her eyes. Like that was supposed to be obvious. "You look like a shapeless blob." 

Caitlyn grits her teeth and takes her jacket off. She's wearing a simple fitted long-sleeve shirt underneath, but she feels unusually exposed as Powder stares at her. 

"Hmm," is all Powder says, and then turns back to her searching. 

"Can I put my jacket back on now?" 

"No." 

Caitlyn rolls her eyes and starts looking through the clothes herself. 

"Don't bother," Powder snaps. "Just... stand there." 

Caitlyn has never in her life met anyone this rude. But she bites her tongue and stands there holding her jacket while Powder aggressively sorts through items. 

Eventually Powder points to a corner of the store sectioned off by a curtain and shoves a pile of clothes into Caitlyn's arms. "Go change into these while I keep looking." 

Caitlyn can't help griping a little as she walks away. "Doesn't it matter if I like the clothes that I'm buying?" 

"No," Powder says without turning around. 

The experience of trying on the clothes is also... different from what Caitlyn's used to, but that's fine. She can adjust. 

The curtain doesn't close completely, leaving Caitlyn partially exposed to the store as she changes. It's not a busy store, but she's still wildly uncomfortable. 

To her surprise, the clothes Powder chose actually fit quite well. They're not all that different from what Caitlyn had been wearing before, actually. A few pairs of jeans and leggings, some fitted shirts and tank tops. Nothing as wild as the outfits Caitlyn had seen others wear on the way here. The quality is far different than Caitlyn's usual attire, of course, but that's fine. She'd expected that. The only real difference is how fitted some of the shirts are, along with the lower necklines. 

Caitlyn is carefully folding the remaining clothes back up when Powder shoves aside the curtain and tosses a few sweaters and jackets at her. Caitlyn scrambles to catch them as Powder jerks the curtain shut again and walks away. 

Caitlyn makes a face at her from behind the curtain and tugs one of the jackets on. It also fits well but again does nothing to conceal the low neckline of the shirt she's now wearing. Even when she tries to do the jacket up, she finds the zipper has only been designed to go halfway up the jacket. 

Fine. Fashion over function, clearly. 

Caitlyn unzips the jacket again and gets back to folding. Powder opens the curtain again a moment later. She narrows her eyes and looks over Caitlyn appraisingly. 

"This'll do for now," she says, and gestures to the pile of clothes. "Give me your old stuff." 

"Why?" 

Powder just holds her hand out again. Caitlyn sighs and hands her the neatly folded pile of her old clothing. 

Powder takes it and goes to the counter in the back. Caitlyn trails behind, holding the stack of new clothes and once again feeling completely uncomfortable. Shouldn't she have paid for all the new things before she started walking around in them? 

Powder puts Caitlyn's old clothes on the counter and launches into what feels like an intense argument with the shop owner. Caitlyn's briefly taken aback by the ferocity of the argument, but she quickly figures out that Powder is exchanging Caitlyn's old clothes for the large pile of new ones and this apparently requires a rapid-fire exchange of insults.

The two of them go back and forth for a few minutes like they're about to go to war while Caitlyn awkwardly stands there. At one point Powder holds up Caitlyn's old jacket and starts pointing at each of the gold buttons while threatening to rip them right off if the shop owner doesn't offer a fair price. 

Caitlyn tunes it out after a while, but Powder must win the argument because the shop owner finally sighs and reaches behind the counter to pull out some cash. She hands it to Powder, who pockets the cash despite it being Caitlyn's old clothes that earned that money, and then the woman smiles at Powder and says, "you have a great day, honey! Give Vander my love." 

They go to two more shops before they head back to the bar. Caitlyn ends up trading in her boots (which were one of her favourite pairs) for a new pair that are, quite frankly, very ugly but that nonetheless fit fine, and a new backpack and larger bag. 

Caitlyn uses the new bag to carry all her purchases, and despite the trip not taking long at all, she's starting to flag by the time Powder stops at another shop.

"Last one," Powder says, and so Caitlyn obediently follows her in. It's another strange shop; the wares consist of mostly belts, chains, locks, and other assorted similar items. Powder wanders around for a few minutes and then comes back with what looks like a thin fabric belt. 

She holds it out to Caitlyn. "Wear this under your shirt. You can tie it to your bra." 

Caitlyn stares at her. "Why would I - " 

Powder rolls her eyes and flips the fabric of the belt inside out, displaying a small zipper along the inside of the belt. "You put your cash inside so it's harder to steal. You've been pickpocketed three times already. It's getting embarrassing." 

"What," Caitlyn says, flabbergasted, and frantically goes through her pockets where she knows she transferred over some of the cash she'd been carrying when she changed clothes and - it's gone. All of it. 

"Mhm," Powder says. "Like I said. Embarrassing." 

Caitlyn buys the belt. 

They go back to the bar, Powder leading the way again. The streets are noticeably busier now that it's later in the evening, but Powder makes her way through the crowd easily and Caitlyn follows. 

Caitlyn doesn't dislike the convivial atmosphere of this part of the undercity, but she's still a little relieved when they get back to the bar. It's open for business now, which makes sense, but even the crowd inside the bar is less chaotic than the streets outside. 

"Perfect timing," Vander calls as they come in. "Mylo just got back. He got you the room." 

Mylo's at a table with the other two, Claggor and Ekko. Powder makes her way over to them and leans against Ekko's chair. He wraps his arm around her waist.

So they must be together, then, Caitlyn thinks. Unless casual intimacy in the undercity works differently than in Piltover. 

"Go on," Vander says to the group. "Go get her settled. And take her with you when you go for dinner, too." 

The resulting groans and dramatics would better suit a bunch of teenagers than this assortment of fully-grown adults that Caitlyn are paying to help her with this. They do, at least, all get up and head back out the doors with Caitlyn following behind with all of her bags. 

The room isn't far from the bar at all, which is nice. It's less than a minute away, just down the street. The building itself is innocuous and Caitlyn's new room is on the third floor. 

Mylo unlocks the door and leads her inside the room. From the looks Vander's group are all giving each other, they clearly expect her to throw some kind of spoiled tantrum about the state of it. 

But to Caitlyn's mild surprise, the room is... quite fine, actually. 

It's tiny, of course, but she'd expected that. It would fit in her shower at home, but she's just one person and doesn't need much space. 

A narrow bed is tucked into one corner of the room, opposite a small table that will have to also serve as her desk and a single chair. A window that looks down over the street below sits between the table and the bed. There's a closet in the other corner, and just a small kitchenette along the remaining wall. 

"Most places like this don't have kitchens," Claggor, the one who hasn't spoken much yet, explains from the hall as Caitlyn looks around. "Ingredients are expensive so it doesn't make sense to cook for yourself. People usually just buy most of their meals at the food stalls." 

It makes sense. Caitlyn will have to note that in her report from today. It also explains why the kitchenette is really just a cupboard and a small counter. 

The room does have its own washroom, which is nice. The shower is tiny and the sink is the smallest sink she's ever seen in her life, but once again, that's fine. Everything in the room is quite tidy and even the sheets and blanket on the tidy bed look clean and cared for. 

"This is quite nice," Caitlyn says as she sets her bags down. "Thank you for finding this for me." 

They all look disappointed. Well, too bad for them. She may be spoiled and privileged but she knew what she was getting into when she came here. 

"Landlord wants one month up front," Mylo says. 

Caitlyn nods and digs into one of her bags. "Of course. How much?" 

Mylo pauses. "Uh. Seven hundred." 

There's a cough from the doorway. When she looks over, Ekko has once again turned around and his shoulders are shaking. 

Caitlyn narrows her eyes at Mylo. "Seven hundred. Really." 

"Yep," Mylo says confidently. 

Caitlyn tries to stare him down. Mylo holds her gaze, visibly trying not to smirk. 

It's particularly annoying because he's got her. She could try and point out his obvious scheme, but if she pushes too hard and he calls it a day, she has nowhere else to go and no idea how to find a place of her own here. 

She grits her teeth for what feels like the hundredth time that day and takes out the cash. "Fine." 

Mylo's smile is gleeful. 

They do take Caitlyn with them to dinner, at least. 

Well, sort of. They go for dinner and Caitlyn follows behind. 

The streets are even more packed than before. The music from all the clubs spills out into the cloying air and even the restaurants and food stalls have their own music playing. 

People are everywhere. Laughing, chatting, running, fighting. 

Caitlyn doesn't... dislike it, to her surprise. It feels invigorating. But it will probably feel more invigorating tomorrow when she's not exhausted and hungry and a little overwhelmed. 

She also keeps losing the others in the crowd. If Claggor weren't as tall as he is, she'd have lost them completely, but she uses him as a landmark as she struggles to keep up. 

They end up at a restaurant, of sorts. The kitchen and front counter are tucked into a building, but the tables spill out onto the street and to Caitlyn's brief confusion, it works more like a coffee shop than a sit-down restaurant. She stands with the others as they order and collect their dishes, but staring at the menu makes her stomach turn. 

Alright. Despite her earlier haughty thoughts about not being that spoiled and being able to handle all this, this might be where she draws the line. 

Caitlyn suspects that they took her here specifically to make fun of her because the food options are, to put it nicely, atrocious, but she has no energy left to hold her ground. Every dish on the menu contains some sort of... creature, many of which Caitlyn has never heard of, and some of which she suspects are barely disguised rodent meat. 

Caitlyn cannot stand being ill at the best of times, and getting food poisoning here, of all places, is not something she can handle right now. So she just mutely sits down at a table without ordering and tries to remember if she put any snacks in her bag when she'd left home this morning. 

"You're not going to eat?" Claggor asks as they all sit down with their food. 

"No, thank you," Caitlyn says politely. She tries to breathe through her nose and not look at the contents of the bowls they all have in front of them. "I'm not hungry." 

Mylo holds up a fork with an unidentifiable piece of meat on it. "You sure?" 

Caitlyn takes another deep breath. "Mhm." 

They all chat with each other as they eat. Caitlyn struggles to follow the conversation; it's all about people she doesn't know or highly specific projects they're all working on. 

It feels a little like when she was a teenager and would go to the lunchroom at school. There were quite a few years where she had no friends at school to sit with, so if she couldn't find an empty table she'd have to sit at whichever table had an open seat and then endure forty minutes of awkwardness until she could escape back to class. 

When they're done eating, the group takes Caitlyn back to the bar. 

Well, they go back to the bar, and Caitlyn follows behind. She probably gets pickpocketed on the way back again but she's too tired to care at this point. 

The rest of the group goes straight back into The Last Drop. Caitlyn's plan is to walk right back to her new room, but she realizes that Mylo never actually gave her the key. She sighs and walks into the bustling bar. 

The other four have disappeared, but Vander is behind the bar and waves her over. 

"Here's your key," Vander says. He slides it over the bar. "Looks like Mylo forgot to hand it over." 

Caitlyn takes it, turning it over in her hands. "Thank you." 

Vander looks at her for a long moment. "Did you get anything to eat?" 

"No, but that's alright," Caitlyn says awkwardly. "I wasn't hungry."

Vander sighs and then waves his hand towards the back of the bar. Claggor appears from somewhere and takes over for him, shooting Caitlyn a slightly guilty look.

"Come on," Vander says to Caitlyn. "I'll make you something." 

"Oh, you don't have to - " Caitlyn tries, but Vander's already leading her through the bar. 

He takes her into a warm apartment that must be where he and at least some of his family live, if not all of them. It's quiet now, and he leads her to a comfortable and homey kitchen and indicates for her to sit at the counter. 

"You really don't have to do this," Caitlyn says as she sits. 

Vander just shakes his head and starts pulling ingredients out. "Where'd they take you?" 

Caitlyn hesitates. "I'm... not sure of the name of the, ah. Establishment." 

Vander snorts. "I did tell them not to do that, you know." 

"I'm sure," Caitlyn says politely. 

"They don't care much for topsiders," Vander says idly as he works. "Not many here do." 

Caitlyn nods and folds her hands on the counter and then unfolds them again. She's tired. "I understand." 

She's a little anxious about what Vander's making for her. He's gone out of his way to do it, so she'll make herself eat it regardless of what it is.

To her relief, it's just a normal sandwich. Not much different than the one her chef at home would make for her if she asked. 

"Thank you," she breathes as he pushes the plate over. "You didn't have to do this." 

He shrugs. "If the situation were reversed and one of my kids was topside, I'd want someone to make sure they had something to eat." 

It's good. The ingredients taste a little different than what she's used to; it's hard to pinpoint at first, but they have an almost bitter or acrid aftertaste. Caitlyn makes another mental note to look into how food items are grown or harvested or transported in the undercity as well. 

Vander busies himself with tidying the kitchen as Caitlyn eats. She welcomes the respite from the chaos of the day, and she can already feel herself starting to steady now that she's had something to eat. 

Eventually he leans on the other side of the counter, bracing his forearms on the surface. "So. A Kiramman, eh?" 

Caitlyn freezes, just for a moment. She hadn't realized Grayson had told him who she is. 

Vander must read the concern on her face. "I won't mention it to any of the kids. Or anyone else." 

Caitlyn nods slowly. "Thank you."

"Cassandra and Tobias' daughter, then?"

"Yes." She pauses, intrigued by the odd look on his face. "Have you met them?" 

"Mhm," Vander says, but doesn't elaborate. She wants to ask more, but he takes the empty plate from her and continues cleaning up. 

Caitlyn searches for another conversation topic. "The kids, are they yours?" She doesn't think so; each of the group looks completely different from each other, but one or two of them could be Vander's biological children.

Vander shakes his head. "No, none of them. They've all been with me since they were young, though. They're not kids anymore, either, I suppose. It's hard to get out of the habit of calling them that." He leans against the counter again and looks her right in the eyes. "I wanted to speak with you directly. Grayson filled me in on everything, but I want to hear it from you. What you're doing here, with this project... I need to know that it won't come back on them." 

"It won't," Caitlyn says firmly. 

"They've been through enough," Vander continues. "The last thing we need is more involvement with topsiders." 

Caitlyn looks him in the eyes. "I understand. Please trust me when I say that I've already taken and will continue to take lengths to ensure that everything they do for me here will be kept completely anonymous." 

She goes on to explain her process for anonymizing data and the security measures she's taken. He listens patiently, and then nods when she's finished. 

She doesn't know if he totally believes her, but he also doesn't throw her out on the street, either. 

Caitlyn goes back to her little room.

It's a strange feeling when she locks the door behind her and stands there, alone. She's never had this experience before, of being entirely on her own. Even when she'd been attending university, she'd lived at home rather than in the dorms. 

But now she's alone. 

She can go wherever she wants. She can do whatever she wants. 

Interesting. 

Caitlyn establishes a routine over the next week.

She can't help it. She needs something to do. She's never slept in, ever. In her entire life. The expectation from when she was a child was that she would arise early in the morning, get fully dressed and ready for the day, and then go right to school or to work from there. Even on weekends, she had lessons with private tutors in everything from music to history to public speaking. 

So she can't just lounge around. Caitlyn gets up early every day and kills a few hours by wandering around the Lanes, making notes of things to put in her reports and looking for places to eat that serve food that's more to her tastes. 

By then, usually someone's at The Last Drop and can let her in. If not, she stands next to the door and waits patiently. 

After the first few days, they give her a key and tell her to stop looking weird just standing there. 

Caitlyn then spends a few hours in the bar essentially being tutored again. This time, it's on how to lessen her decorum. 

"Stop standing like that," Mylo tells her. 

"I'm standing wrong?" Caitlyn says, affronted. 

Mylo imitates her stance. Powder and Ekko, both at their favourite table, burst out laughing. Caitlyn rolls her eyes but allows the corrections.

They spend the most time on the way she speaks. Caitlyn had already known that her accent would be a challenge; the way she speaks is highly localized even in Piltover. But she practices intensely, both in her lessons with the group from the bar and in her own room and she thinks she's doing fairly well with it. 

Caitlyn's hair is Powder's next target. 

"Can I cut it?" Powder asks, standing on front of Caitlyn with her hands on her hips. 

Caitlyn is sitting at a table in the bar across from Claggor, who was helping her note down details about the cost of renting commercial spaces versus residential spaces. "My hair?" 

"Yeah," Powder says. She's staring at Caitlyn's long hair, which she meticulously brushed this morning and is now hanging neatly over one shoulder. 

Ekko, Claggor, and Mylo all take on slightly panicked expressions. Standing behind Powder, Mylo makes a "no" motion with his hands. 

"I... would rather you not?" Caitlyn says cautiously. 

Powder frowns. "Why not? You need to do something with it. No one here has their hair cut like that." 

Caitlyn doesn't think that's strictly true; she's seen every possible variation of hairstyle in the undercity. But she's never quite sure when Powder is being genuine or not. She's a hard one to read. "What do you have in mind?" 

"Powder, don't," Claggor says tiredly. "You know you're not good at cutting hair. That's why no one lets you do it." 

Powder's mouth drops open and she turns to Ekko for support. He winces and she looks even more offended. 

"That's not true," she protests. "Vi let me cut her hair!" 

"Once," Ekko says carefully, "and then she never let you do it again." 

Mylo and Claggor laugh. Caitlyn wonders who Vi is; she hasn't heard her mentioned before. The only other person she's seen come around the bar frequently is Claggor's girlfriend, but Caitlyn is pretty sure that woman is named something like Sara or Sally. 

Powder scowls. "She said she liked it!"

"Pow, she was being nice," Ekko says, also clearly trying not to laugh now.

Powder crosses her arms. "Well, I can't get better at it if no one lets me practice." 

"I would prefer not to be practiced upon," Caitlyn says firmly. Powder looks disappointed, and so Caitlyn relents. "You could style it for me, if you'd like." 

That perks Powder up, and she spends the next hour or so standing behind Caitlyn's chair tugging at her hair and contorting it into what seems to be an increasingly complex hairstyle. Caitlyn also suspects that she may be subtly cutting it, too, even if Caitlyn hadn't seen her pull out a pair of scissors. 

When she's finished, the end product isn't bad, but Powder has somehow used some kind of spike strip to tie Caitlyn's hair up. 

It's a... new look, but Caitlyn does actually feel that she fits in a little better now. It adds a bit of an edge to her current outfits that she almost likes. 

The four of them do also help Caitlyn with the metrics and data she's trying to collect. The whole group isn't always all there at the same time, but usually one or two of them are in the bar in the afternoons helping to set up, and they don't mind answering Caitlyn's questions as they do so. 

Well, they might mind, but the money that Caitlyn's paying them wins them over. 

By the end of the first week, Caitlyn has accomplished a lot data-wise. She has some excellent starting points for her reports. She hasn't wandered too far outside of the Lanes, though, and even then she's been sticking to the streets she knows. It's easy to get lost here, and Caitlyn doesn't have a frame of reference for which areas are safer than others. 

She's thinking to herself that she'll need to start roaming out further when she lets herself into the bar. She's even earlier than she usually is, so she's not expecting anyone to be here for at least another hour or so, if not a few more hours. The table in her room is small and wobbly, so she prefers to set up in the bar to write her reports when she can. 

Caitlyn unlocks the door and goes inside, locking it up behind her. She turns around, and nearly yelps in surprise when she sees a stranger staring back at her from behind the bar. 

"Who the fuck are you?" the stranger says.

Chapter Text

"I'm - " Caitlyn starts, before realizing that she's not the one who needs to identify herself here. "Who are you?" 

The woman is standing just behind the bar counter. She has a few flasks and bottles on the counter in front of her, and she's holding a larger bottle that Caitlyn thinks contains some of the more expensive vodka the bar stocks. 

She's not quite as tall as Caitlyn, but she's not tiny, either. She's also one of the strongest-looking women that Caitlyn has ever seen. She's wearing a cropped tank top and high-waisted dark jeans, and her exposed arms are corded with muscle. Caitlyn can see tattoos winding up the woman's arms, all the way onto her neck. 

The woman is also, without a doubt, the most attractive person that Caitlyn has ever seen in her entire life. 

Caitlyn genuinely cannot remember a time when she saw someone across a room and felt a physical attraction like this. It's distracting. She needs to focus. The bar is closed at this time of day; there shouldn't be anyone in here, let alone someone who appears to be stealing liquor. 

The woman narrows her eyes. "I'm going to give you one more chance to answer." 

"Or what?" Caitlyn says, indignant. "You should - " 

The woman interrupts. "Or I'll kill you." 

Caitlyn frowns. "That seems unnecessary." 

The woman shifts her weight. Just slightly, but it's enough that Caitlyn also reflexively moves her shoulders so she'll be able to pull her rifle out from her backpack more easily, if it comes to that. 

"I'm not bantering with you," the woman snaps. "Last chance." 

Caitlyn gives in, mostly because she's not willing to die over what looks like a theft-in-progress of a few bottles of alcohol. "I'm... a friend of the family." 

"You're not." 

"How do you know?" 

"No one who lives here would be friends with a topsider," the woman says. She adjusts her grip on the bottle slightly, and Caitlyn notices that she has her hands and forearms wrapped like a boxer. 

She also may be preparing to throw that bottle directly at Caitlyn's head. 

"I'm not a topsider," Caitlyn lies. 

The woman rolls her eyes. "I'm done with this." 

She starts to move and Caitlyn holds her hands up. She really doesn't want to shoot someone in Vander's bar. "Wait. Just - alright, wait, I'm a topsider, yes, but I'm allowed to be in here. I have a key." 

The woman pauses, her assessing gaze roving over Caitlyn. 

Caitlyn hadn't pocketed the key to the bar yet, so she holds it out for the woman to see.

The woman doesn't seem convinced. "So? It's easy enough to copy a key." 

Caitlyn is starting to tire of this. She doesn't want to fight this woman and she definitely does not want to shoot her, but Caitlyn also doesn't have to grovel to this woman. Caitlyn isn't the one stealing.

"Why should I have to justify my presence to you?" Caitlyn asks, annoyed. "I'm allowed to be here. You're not." 

Something flashes in the woman's eyes. Caitlyn reaches for her rifle just as the woman goes to vault the counter. 

The woman's fast, but Caitlyn's got a long-range weapon and she doesn't. Caitlyn has her rifle out and the safety off just as the woman lands on the other side of the bar counter. 

The woman freezes. She looks absolutely furious. 

"So," she says, her piercing eyes fixed on Caitlyn's rifle. "Vander's sheltering Enforcers now, huh?"

It's not what Caitlyn expected. Her rifle is Hextech-built, not Enforcer-issued; what about Caitlyn could be signaling 'Enforcer' right now? "I'm not an Enforcer." 

"Lying again," the woman muses. 

"I'm not lying," Caitlyn says sharply, and then mentally reprimands herself for falling back into a defensive state again. "You still haven't answered my question about why you're here and who you are." 

The woman nods her head back towards the bar counter. "Thought that was pretty obvious." 

Caitlyn frowns. "Are you really here to just steal liquor?" 

The woman shrugs. "Yeah. You gonna shoot me over it?" 

Caitlyn's not, but she's not going to say that. "Why would you spend time pouring it into flasks? Why not just take the bottle?" 

"Because then they'll notice that it's missing." 

"So you were going to... what. Refill the bottle with water?" 

"Well, yeah." 

That's the kind of thing Caitlyn would've done as a teenager. "Isn't that a little... juvenile?" 

"Yeah," the woman agrees easily. Her voice is relaxed, but every muscle in her body is tense. "So we agree it's not worth you shooting me over, right?" 

Caitlyn nods her head to her rifle. "This is for my protection. I don't care about the liquor." 

There's a long, tense silence as they watch each other. Caitlyn forces herself to ignore the arousal pulsing through her body because it's just absurd that that's happening. 

"Well," the woman says finally, "are we going to stand here all day?" 

"I'd rather not," Caitlyn replies. "You're welcome to leave. I'll be staying." 

"You're between me and the door." 

Caitlyn takes a few slow and careful steps to the side. She leaves enough room that the woman will be able to walk by without getting close enough to grab Caitlyn's rifle. 

The woman watches her for a moment, and then turns back to the bar. She starts gathering her flasks and putting them in a leather satchel, leaving just one out. 

Caitlyn's jaw drops. "Are you still going to take the liquor?" 

The woman puts the bag over her shoulder (which is very muscular and very tattooed and - and Caitlyn needs to focus) and winks at Caitlyn. She picks up the last flask and takes a swig as she walks toward the door. "Yeah. If you shoot me, at least I'll die doing what I love."

"Drinking?" 

"Mhm," the woman says pleasantly as she walks by Caitlyn to the door. She flips open the unique interior lock, which Caitlyn hasn't seen anyone but Vander and his family be able to manage yet, and opens the door. 

Then she's gone. The door swings shut behind her, leaving Caitlyn in the dark bar alone. 

Caitlyn keeps her rifle trained on the door, just to be safe, but the woman doesn't come back. After a few minutes, Caitlyn inches closer to the door and locks it back up again. 

She doubts having the door locked will help; from what Caitlyn can see, there's no sign of forced entry in the bar. The woman must have either had a key herself or picked the lock to get in. 

After another few minutes, Caitlyn turns the lights on in the bar so she's not just standing in the dark. She doesn't put her rifle away, though, and she can't just sit down at a table and start her work. What if the woman comes back? Who was she? 

To Caitlyn's relief, it's only a few minutes later that she hears voices approaching the bar. A moment later, the door unlocks and Claggor comes in first. He holds the door open for Powder and Ekko, who follow him in carrying some sort of large mechanical device between them. Mylo follows behind, eating some sort of repulsive meat product. 

"Oh, hey," Claggor says when he sees Caitlyn standing off to the side. "What are you - oh, shit. Uh, guys?" 

The other three also turn and look at Caitlyn. 

"Why are you holding a rifle?" Mylo asks. 

Fair question. "There was someone in here," Caitlyn explains. She quickly breaks her rifle down and flips it into her backpack. "Sorry, I shouldn't have still had this out." 

"Who was it?" Powder asks sharply. 

Caitlyn thinks of how to answer without using the word 'attractive'. "Uh, it was a woman. She was stealing alcohol, as far as I can tell?" 

They all immediately relax, which is not the response Caitlyn expected. 

"About this tall?" Mylo asks, holding his hand up to show the height he means. "Kind of pinky-reddish hair? Scary?" 

"Uh," Caitlyn says. "Yes?" 

They all relax further. 

"That's just Vi," Ekko explains. He motions to Powder and they pick up the large chunk of metal again and start carrying it over to their favourite table. "She does that sometimes." 

"Did you pull that gun on her?" Powder asks Caitlyn. Her tone is annoyingly accusing, given the context.

Caitlyn frowns. "Yes? She was threatening me." 

Mylo has walked over to the bar and picked up the bottle that Vi left there. "Aw, man! Clagg, she took the good stuff again." 

"Oh, come on," Claggor complains. "We just got that in. How does she always know when that shipment arrives?" 

Caitlyn looks between them all, baffled. "Who... is she?" 

"My sister," Powder says, waspish. "So don't shoot her." 

Oh. That isn't what Caitlyn had expected, but it does make the whole situation make a little more sense.

"I wasn't going to," Caitlyn protests. "I was defending myself!" 

"You must be pretty fast with that rifle," Mylo says. He tosses the empty bottle in the recycling. "Most people don't stand a chance against her even if they're armed and she's not." 

"I am, thank you," Caitlyn says primly. 

Ekko and Powder drop the chunk of metal onto the table. Ekko wipes his hands on his jacket and sighs. "Guys. Are we telling Vander?" 

They all look at each other for a long moment. 

"Yes," Powder says finally. 

"You sure?" Claggor asks. "He's going to be..." 

Powder nods. "He'd rather know. Even if..." 

They all fall silent. There's clearly a lot they're not saying, maybe because Caitlyn's standing here. 

"Would you like me to go?" Caitlyn offers. 

Powder shakes her head. "No, it's fine. Just - Caitlyn. If you run into her again, don't shoot her. Please." 

It makes Caitlyn's heart twinge a little. "I won't." 

Powder looks at the ground for a long moment and then claps her hands. "Okay. Back to work." 

All four of them get back into their daily tasks, which include Powder and Ekko doing... something to the chunk of metal now taking up the entire table and Mylo and Claggor getting the bar ready. 

Caitlyn is completely distracted from the work she had been planning on doing today. She wanders over to the bar instead and starts helping Claggor. 

They all idly chat until later on in the afternoon when the bar opens. It's not until customers have started trickling in and the noise level is rising in the bar that Claggor leans over. 

"Hey, Caitlyn," he murmurs as he starts making a customer's drink. "About Vi. If you run into her again... I mean, Powder's right, please don't shoot her or anything, but don't underestimate her." 

Caitlyn nods. "I won't." 

"I mean it," Claggor continues. "If you see her, just... I don't know. Go the other way. Leave her alone." 

Caitlyn nods, and assumes that this will be the end of it. 

It's not. 

Two days later, Caitlyn sets out on her first data-gathering excursion outside of the Lanes. 

She's collected most of the information she can from the Lanes at this point. Air quality, water quality, etc. But the Lanes is just one part of the undercity, and Caitlyn needs significantly more wide-reaching data for her research. So she packs her backpack with a water bottle, snacks, all her equipment, and of course her rifle. 

She also has a rudimentary map that Vander helped her put together. He had warned her thoroughly that even with a map, the undercity can be difficult to navigate.

Caitlyn goes anyway. She plans out a tentative route and then sets out on her little journey. 

She doesn't plan to be gone for all that long. Probably just a few hours, at the most. As she sets off, she carefully uses her map to guide her and marks off important landmarks and notes as she goes, to help her keep her bearings.

A few hours later, Caitlyn is deep in the undercity and more lost than she's ever been in her life.

She's so stressed that she can't even find it within herself to be amused at how ridiculous it is that this happened even after all her careful planning.

She'd followed all the directions, she'd paid attention to her surroundings, and yet here she is. Wandering around a completely unfamiliar and really quite scary part of the undercity with no idea of how to get back to The Last Drop. 

This part of the undercity has a very different energy than the Lanes. While the Lanes certainly has some areas that are more dangerous than others, it's nothing like this. 

Everything down here is shadowy and gloomy. The bars and clubs that line the streets look more like strongholds for gangs than places for people to visit for fun. The citizens down here keep their heads down as they walk and avoid making eye contact with each other. 

People are also taking more notice of Caitlyn than they did in the Lanes. Groups of men watch her as she goes by, even though she's pulled her hood over her face. It makes her skin crawl.

She really is truly lost. She doesn't know how she got so turned around but she cannot find her way back.

Every street she tries branches off into three others, all winding and dark. She also is somehow still descending. Every time she tries to walk back uphill, she'll end up at another dead end or a street that leads back down deeper into the fissures again. 

Caitlyn keeps walking and focuses on taking deep breaths of the cloying, acrid air. She can figure this out. Panicking or getting upset won't help anything. She can just use logic and reason to - 

Someone drops down directly in front of her from somewhere up above. Caitlyn pulls her rifle out the instant she clocks the movement but the person is too close and it's yanked out of Caitlyn's hands before she can even get it completely unfolded - 

"Funny meeting you here," Vi says, clicking Caitlyn's rifle together.

Caitlyn glares. "Give that back." 

Vi looks down at the rifle and rolls it over in her hands. She's just examining it, not pointing it at Caitlyn, but that almost feels worse. "Nah."

"Please," Caitlyn pleads, fully aware that she sounds desperate. She is. 

"You know, I haven't seen anything like this before," Vi muses. "I'm not really a gun person, but still." 

Despite Claggor's warnings about Vi, Caitlyn does not attempt to run. Not just because Vi has her rifle, but because Caitlyn's almost relieved to see her. 

Sure, Vi had threatened her life the last time they met, but Caitlyn is less afraid of her than she is of the groups of people she can see lurking in the shadows down the alleys off this street. 

Vi looks about the same as she had at the bar. She's still wearing a tank top and dark jeans, but she has a leather jacket on now. Her hair is a little more styled; it had been a little messy and spikey before. It's still a little messy and spikey, but it's now styled to fall down over her shoulder a little.

"What are you doing here?" Caitlyn asks. She clenches her hands, resisting the urge to try and grab her gun back. 

"Me?" Vi says, finally looking up from the gun. "What are you doing here." 

"None of your business," Caitlyn says. "Are you following me?" 

Vi grins at her. It doesn't look friendly. "Yeah." 

Oh. Not quite the answer Caitlyn had been expecting. "Why?" 

"You never answered my question. Why were you at The Last Drop?" 

Caitlyn scowls. "You followed me all the way here to ask me that?" 

Vi flips the rifle in her hands again. "Mhm." 

"Like I said. None of your business." 

Vi meets her eyes. Caitlyn tries to ignore the unbelievable pull of attraction that yanks at her again. 

"It is my business," Vi says. "Last chance." 

Caitlyn wants to resist again, but she also is aware of what a bad situation she's in. "If I tell you," she says, "could you help me get back up to the Lanes?" 

Vi huffs a laugh. "No. But I will let you live, depending on what your answer is." 

Caitlyn tries again. "It's a long story. I can explain if we're somewhere that's not... here." 

That doesn't work either.

"Start talking," Vi says flatly.

Caitlyn glances over her shoulder. She feels almost unbearably exposed, standing here in the middle of this dark street, but Vi shows no signs of moving. 

She lowers her voice and launches into it. "It really is a long story. The short version is that I'm here gathering data for a research project." 

"And your research is about The Last Drop?" 

"No," Caitlyn says, impatient. "Let me finish. I'm conducting a study on the variations in the social determinants of health between Piltover and the undercity, with a focus on long-term health outcomes and mortality rates for children and youth." 

"Uh huh." Vi sounds deeply unimpressed. "So back to The Last - " 

"I was getting to that! I was connected with Vander through... a personal contact of mine. He and his family have helped me get set up to conduct my research, in exchange for significant financial compensation." 

A shadow appears in Vi's facial expression, just a tiny narrowing of her eyes and the slightest scowl. Caitlyn wonders if she shouldn't have mentioned Vander's family. Clearly something has happened with this group regarding Vi, somewhere along the way.

From what Caitlyn's seen so far, Vander clearly considers Powder to be his daughter, despite having no biological connection with her. Powder had clearly stated that Vi is her sister. It would make sense for Vi to also be a part of the family, as a result. But Vi clearly has some sort of strained relationship with the rest of the family and now is probably not the best time to ask about it. 

"Why is an Enforcer doing research on health outcomes?" Vi asks. She unlocks the rifle again.

Caitlyn has to once again resist the urge to try and get it back. "As I said, I'm not an Enforcer. I'm completing a doctorate program." 

"Maybe the doctorate part is true. That Enforcer part isn't." 

Caitlyn goes to deny it again and then gives up. "It's mostly true. I'm not an Enforcer now. I... was, at one point." 

Vi smirks. "Knew it." 

She clicks the rifle together in one smooth motion and points it directly at Caitlyn's head. 

Caitlyn stays very, very still. 

After a long moment, Vi lowers the rifle. "I'm kidding. I wouldn't waste a bullet on you." 

Caitlyn takes a very careful breath in. She needs to get this situation de-escalated. Quickly. 

"I can prove the part about my research," she says slowly. "I have my testing devices and my reports in my backpack." 

Vi thinks about it for a moment and then waves a hand at Caitlyn's backpack. 

Caitlyn very carefully and very slowly takes it off her shoulders and hands it over. Vi tucks the rifle under her arm with disturbing carelessness and digs through it. 

"Bet these would go for a lot," Vi mutters, taking one of the Hextech testing devices out. 

Caitlyn doesn't answer. Vi can take all of those if she wants, if it means Caitlyn gets out of this situation in one piece. 

After a long minute, Vi puts everything back into the backpack and tosses it back to Caitlyn. "So. If I kill you, will my f- will Vander and the others not get the money you owe them?" 

It's the first time Caitlyn notices Vi stumble on her words. She tries not to react to it and focuses on carefully putting her backpack on again. "Yes. That's correct." 

"Damn. There goes my idea of a fun afternoon, I guess." 

"Sorry to disappoint."  

"Could be worse," Vi muses. She breaks down the rifle again. "I'm keeping this." 

Caitlyn's heart starts to pound. "Oh, please don't - " 

Vi turns and starts walking away. "Don't tell them about this, by the way," she calls over her shoulder, presumably referencing her family.

Caitlyn's body starts to thrum with adrenaline. She's now completely unarmed, alone, lost, and the shadows lurking in the darkness that had backed off in Vi's presence are now starting to creep out of the alleys again. 

Caitlyn looks around and then runs after Vi. 

"Stop following me," Vi says the instant Caitlyn catches up with her. 

"Could you please just point me in the right direction?" Caitlyn pleads. "I can pay you." 

"No." 

"Why not?" 

"Because I don't care about you." 

"Surely you care about money." 

"I've got money," Vi says. She's moving fast, making her way through the dark streets with what seems to be complete confidence. "Even if I didn't, I wouldn't want your shitty Enforcer money." 

"It's not Enf - " Caitlyn drops it. "Couldn't you just... don't you have, I don't know. Basic... morals?" 

Vi laughs. "No. I don't, actually. And even if I did have any morals left, they wouldn't apply to Enforcers." 

"Former!" Caitlyn nearly shouts. "Former Enfo - " 

Vi turns and slaps her wrapped hand over Caitlyn's mouth, shoving her backward into a nearby wall. 

"Shut up," she hisses, her face inches from Caitlyn's. "Don't shout that." 

That... makes sense. But all Caitlyn can focus on is how close Vi's body is to hers. How Vi's hand over her mouth has sent heat flooding all the way from Caitlyn's jaw in to her chest. 

After a moment, Vi takes her hand away and backs up. 

"Fuck off and stop following me," she snaps. 

Caitlyn watches as Vi vanishes into the darkness. With Caitlyn's rifle. 

Caitlyn has no other option than to start walking again. 

She adjusts her hood over her face and is once again annoyed at how well this jacket fits. It's unfortunately a very flattering look, in her opinion, and not what she wants to be wearing right now. She misses the jacket that she'd been wearing when Powder had called her a shapeless blob. This one is going to draw too much attention.

Caitlyn trudges on. The streets get darker and the air gets thicker and even harder to breathe. Caitlyn's throat starts burning and she keeps having to cough quietly as she walks. 

She thinks she's finally making progress when she turns the corner onto a street that's a little brighter and maybe a little wider.

She takes another step and someone grabs her arm. 

Caitlyn yelps and reflexively tries to pull her arm out of the person's grasp until she looks down and recognizes the wraps around the hand holding onto her.

"Quiet," Vi hisses, and yanks on Caitlyn's arm again. "This way." 

Caitlyn glances behind her and follows. Yes, admittedly Vi has threatened her life several times now, but there's clearly a reason why Vi came back for her. 

"Why are you - " Caitlyn tries to say quietly, but Vi just looks back and makes a shushing motion with her hand. 

Caitlyn shuts up and follows her. 

They walk for a while through the dark streets. Caitlyn sticks as close to Vi as she can get without actually touching her. 

They turn onto another street that looks pretty much the same as all the others, but Vi visibly relaxes and rolls her shoulders, as if to loosen them. 

"Can I talk now?" Caitlyn asks quietly. Vi shrugs, so Caitlyn continues. "Why did you come back and get me?" 

Vi glances at her and then looks away, scowling. She's still moving quickly through the streets, and despite being taller Caitlyn almost has to jog to keep up. 

"Turns out I have a few morals left," Vi mutters. "I couldn't... you were about to walk into someone's territory. It's not... it wouldn't have ended well for you." 

Caitlyn's instinct is to ask what would have happened, but she's getting a pretty clear idea. "Oh. Well. Thank you." 

Vi shrugs again. She still has Caitlyn's rifle tucked under her arm, but Caitlyn doesn't try to ask for it back. 

Vi leads Caitlyn all the way back up to the Lanes. Caitlyn has never been more grateful for anything in her entire life. 

It's a long way. They walk in silence for a while, until Caitlyn can't take the quiet anymore.

"Would you like the long version of the story?" 

Vi glances at her. "What?" 

"Of why I'm no longer an Enforcer."

Vi scowls. "Not really. Doesn't change anything." 

"I think it does." 

"Whatever," Vi mutters.

Caitlyn takes that as permission. "I originally went to law school," she starts, "but I was still in my first year when I was..." 

It's important context, and she should be practiced at telling this part by now, but to her surprise her throat tightens and she coughs a little. "I was - " She coughs again. 

Vi glances at her, an unreadable expression on her face. 

Caitlyn takes a steadying breath and tries again. "Something awful happened. To me. After - after that, I wanted to make sure no one else had to go through something like what I went through. So I dropped out of law school and became an Enforcer instead. I wanted to focus specifically on violent crime prevention and that sort of thing. So I worked quite hard at it and moved up quite quickly. But it wasn't... it didn't end up being what I thought it would be." 

"Let me guess," Vi says flatly. "It was less catching violent criminals and more arresting of, I don't know, hungry undercity kids stealing food or something?" 

Caitlyn takes a deep breath. It doesn't help much; the air down here is even more acrid than in the Lanes. "Yes. Pretty much. Nearly all of our arrests were people from the undercity who were coming up into Piltover to steal. Almost none of it was violent crime, first of all, and even those incidents were mostly robberies gone wrong. Nearly every attempted theft had been someone looking for food or medicine. Medical supplies was another big one. It seemed obvious to me right away that there were more systemic issues here leading to undercity citizens needing to steal from Piltover to survive. I was still considered quite junior at the time, so when I put together a report that listed our recent arrests and the noted motivations for each theft, it... did not go over well."

Vi snorts. "Yeah. Topsiders don't love it when someone points that out to them." 

"Yes, well. My... insistence that we were focusing on the wrong issues was not well received. I, ah, continued to escalate it, which was... also not well received. I'll spare you the rest of it but I ended up leaving that profession and went back to law school instead while pursing another degree on the side. I eventually left law school again to focus on my doctorate degree, which is what brought me here." 

"Do you regret it?"

"Working as an Enforcer?" Caitlyn thinks about it for a moment. Nobody has asked her that before. "You may not like this answer, but no. I don't. There are so many deeply corrupt elements there that I would never have known about, had I not. It's also one thing to know, objectively, that of course someone would steal food if they're starving; but in Piltover there's so many... justifications, as to why stealing is never acceptable. You know, 'they should get a job', 'they should work harder', that sort of thing. So I don't think I would've had the understanding I need to do my current work if I hadn't seen the other side of things firsthand." 

Vi is quiet for a long moment. She takes Caitlyn up yet another flight of stairs and then onto another winding path through dim streets before she speaks again. 

"If you're expecting me to be all warm and fuzzy to you now because you have a sad sob story," she says eventually, "don't hold your breath. It shouldn't take something bad happening to you and talking to a few people from the undercity to, like, develop empathy." 

Caitlyn shakes her head. "I don't. I'm not trying to make you feel a specific way about me. You just asked for the full story, and there it is." 

Another winding street. Another staircase. Then they go up a very wobbly metal ramp to another narrow street, which is definitely not the route Caitlyn took on her way down. 

"I wanted to help," Caitlyn says quietly, surprising herself. She doesn't know where the thought came from. "I thought I was helping, at the time."

Another few moments of long silence. Caitlyn is starting to lag behind Vi's quick strides and she has to hurry to keep up. 

"You ever do any work in Stillwater?" Vi asks. Her tone is casual, but it has a sharper edge to it. 

Caitlyn frowns. "No. Never. Why?" 

Vi just shakes her head and speeds up again. 

The rest of the walk is silent. Caitlyn tries a few times to make conversation but Vi seems a little... checked-out, maybe. Her expression is vacant, and when they finally turn onto a street Caitlyn recognizes, Vi's eyes are so unfocused that Caitlyn is the one who stops. 

"I'm going this way," Caitlyn says. It feels awkward. "I can't thank you enough for - " 

Vi looks at her blankly for a moment, like she forgot that Caitlyn was there. Then she blinks and seems to come back to herself.

"Like I said before," she says, "don't tell them about this." 

Then she walks away and doesn't look back.

Caitlyn doesn't venture out that far again on her own. She also doesn't tell Vander or his family about what happened. Yes, Vi had taken her rifle, but she had also helped Caitlyn despite her obvious hatred for topsiders (and particularly Enforcers). So Caitlyn says nothing about it. 

She doesn't expect to see Vi (or that rifle) again.

For a few weeks, she doesn't. She pays the assorted members of Vander's family extra cash to accompany her on her data-collecting trips until she gets a little more familiar with the city. 

In the evenings, Caitlyn works on cleaning up her data and compiling drafts of her reports alone in her little room. 

It's... fine. 

She's doing the work she came here to do. 

The fact that she spends a significant portion of her evenings watching the street below through her window and wistfully admiring how much fun everyone seems to be having is irrelevant. 

Caitlyn does go into The Last Drop sometimes in the evenings, but she doesn't feel right about taking up more of everyone's time than she already does during the day. Vander's family is already spending enough time with Caitlyn for her work; she doesn't want them to feel like they have to entertain her in the evenings.

Eventually Caitlyn reminds herself that she's an adult. She can go wherever she wants and do whatever she wants, even if that means going to a restaurant or bar or club on her own in the evenings. 

She also finds a strange and unfamiliar sense of freedom here in the Lanes. Caitlyn is fairly well known in Piltover, and anywhere she goes there she will inevitably run into at least a few people that know her well and more that know of her.

Here, no one looks twice at her. She's completely anonymous. She could go into the most bizarre sex club in the city and no one would notice or care. 

Not that she would do that.

But she could.

If she wanted to. 

So, Caitlyn starts going out on her own in the evenings. 

She doesn't do anything too wild. She starts off small, just by visiting some of the nearby bars and having a drink or two. 

After that, she visits a few clubs and decides very quickly that it's not for her. 

She's uncomfortable the entire time she's there. Maybe if she had a group of friends it would be enjoyable, but she just feels awkward and out of place. After a few tries, Caitlyn gives up and goes back to just visiting bars. 

It also turns out to be a good way to explore new parts of the undercity. Sometimes she walks into a bar or restaurant and immediately knows just from the type of crowds or the energy that it's not the best place to walk around on her own. 

She tries to explore a new area each night, which is how she finds herself wandering into a bar on a lively and crowded street about a thirty minute walk from her room. 

It's packed. It takes Caitlyn a few minutes to make her way through the crowd to the bar and then even longer for her drink to arrive. 

This bar isn't the best place to people-watch or just hang out. There's no specific dance floor but the music is upbeat and some people are dancing anyway. All of the tables and stools are occupied, so Caitlyn ends up just leaning against the bar counter in an open spot.

She's already decided that she'll head out once she finishes her drink when someone speaks directly into her ear from behind her. 

"Are you that desperate to get your rifle back?" 

Caitlyn jumps and nearly throws her drink all over the people around her as she turns around. 

Vi is standing next to her, leaning back against the bar with her elbows resting on the surface. She doesn't have a jacket on tonight, just a cropped leather tank top and the same dark jeans she's usually wearing. Her hair is even wilder than it's been the other times that Caitlyn's seen her. 

"You scared me," Caitlyn snaps, trying to steady the whiskey in her glass. 

"Your situational awareness is terrible," Vi remarks. She's far more relaxed than the other times Caitlyn's seen her. 

Caitlyn scowls, her heart still racing. "I wasn't expecting anyone to sneak up on me like that."

"Sneak up on you?" Vi says, amused. "I just came to get another drink. Not my fault if you aren't paying attention to your surroundings." 

She's not entirely wrong, but Caitlyn won't admit that. "Why are you still following me?" 

Vi laughs, which nearly kills Caitlyn right there on the spot. Her attraction to Vi has not dimmed.

"I'm not following you," Vi says. "Not right now, at least. I live nearby. I come here all the time." 

Caitlyn tries to resurrect herself after the otherworldly experience of seeing her laugh. "Why should I believe you?" 

Vi shrugs and turns just enough to grab a drink the bartender pushes to her. "I don't care either way." 

"You're so rude," Caitlyn mutters. She doesn't think Vi will hear over the pounding music, but Vi smirks at her again. "Do I need to be concerned about you trying to kill me again while I'm here?"

"Nah," Vi says, throwing back half her drink in one swig. "I have better things to do." 

Caitlyn should just let her leave. This woman has threatened Caitlyn's life multiple times now. Vi's own family warned Caitlyn to steer clear of her. 

But... Caitlyn's decision-making skills and her judgement are slightly affected by the almost-unbearable magnetic pull Caitlyn feels towards Vi.

"Could I get my rifle back, at least?" Caitlyn asks. She leans against the bar facing Vi, the slightly sticky counter tugging on the side of her shirt. 

"It's long gone," Vi says, "so no." 

Caitlyn sighs. "How much did you get for it?" 

"A lot," Vi says. She throws back the remainder of her drink but keeps the glass dangling from her fingers. "Enough for all my drinks tonight." 

The attraction Caitlyn's experiencing feels like it's eating away at Caitlyn's mind. She can't think properly. The rational part of her brain that's usually in control has been pushed away to the far recesses of her mind. Maybe it's the combination of being somewhere where no one knows her and having Vi this close, but Caitlyn feels both more bold and more reckless than she's ever felt. 

"Buy me one, then," Caitlyn says. "If it's my money that paid for it." 

Vi rolls her empty glass around by her fingers for a long moment as she looks at Caitlyn. Then, very slowly, she drags her gaze up Caitlyn's body. 

Normally this would make Caitlyn feel a little self-conscious. Instead, Vi's gaze is so intense that it almost feels like she's touching Caitlyn's skin. 

"Yeah, okay," Vi says finally. "That's fair." 

She turns again to wave down the bartender. The bartender clearly knows her, because unlike Caitlyn, Vi doesn't have to wait several minutes to get her drink. Vi holds up her empty glass and then two fingers on her other hand, and the bartender goes out of his way to immediately pour her two new drinks and pass them over. 

Vi holds one out to Caitlyn and their fingers brush as Caitlyn takes it. It's so electric that Caitlyn briefly wonders if she's ever going to experience this level of attraction with anyone else in her entire life. 

Caitlyn takes a sip of the drink and makes a face. Vi laughs again. 

"What is this?" Caitlyn asks. It's potentially the worst drink she's ever tasted. 

"It gets the job done." 

Caitlyn tries the drink again and can't help another wince. "At what cost?" 

That earns her another grin.

Caitlyn could do this all day. Caitlyn could do this the rest of her damn life. 

"Not all of us are rich Pilties," Vi says. 

Caitlyn scoffs. "Please. Pawning that rifle should have made you enough to afford something better than this." 

Vi shrugs and drinks from her own glass. Caitlyn watches her and tries not to. She fails miserably; she can't tear her eyes away. 

"You here by yourself?" Vi asks. 

"Yes." Caitlyn has no friends here, of course, but she doesn't need to say that. "You?"

Vi shakes her head and waves a hand towards a group of people clustered around a table in the back corner. "Nah, I'm with them. They're shitty company though." 

Caitlyn can't help but laugh. "What if they heard you say that?" 

"Whatever," Vi says, dismissive. "I'll say it to their face, too." 

Caitlyn shakes her head and does her absolute best to finish the drink. 

When she finally puts the glass down, she glances over to see Vi watching her. There's a heat to her gaze, and she doesn't look away when Caitlyn catches her staring. 

The thought of possibly, maybe, potentially having something happen here nearly makes Caitlyn collapse to the floor. But she can do this! She knows how to do this! 

Caitlyn tries to pull together the confidence she has when she's in Piltover, in her element. 

"So," Caitlyn says, "why are you over here with me, then? Even if your... friends... aren't good company?" 

Vi hasn't taken her eyes off of Caitlyn. "I'm seeing if I really do have any morals left." 

Caitlyn pushes her empty glass across the bar, as if to signal to the bartender that she wants another one. It also, conveniently, lets her move a little forward.

They're standing very close together now. 

"And?" Caitlyn asks. "Have you come to a conclusion?" 

"You know," Vi muses, "I think I have. I still hate Enforcers." 

"Good thing I'm not one." 

Vi nods slowly. "I also hate past-Enforcers. I'm still pretty morally opposed to them." 

Caitlyn's heart is pounding. "And here I thought you said had no morals." 

Vi tilts her head, considering. "I'm thinking it's not that I don't have them. It's that I can make, you know. A few exceptions. Every once in a while." 

"Could I be one of them?" 

A long beat of silence. 

They look at each other. 

"For tonight, yeah," Vi says, and then reaches forward and pulls Caitlyn into a kiss. 

The thing is, it's not Caitlyn's first kiss. 

Not by a long shot. 

Caitlyn has had one-night stands. She has had short-term relationships. She has had long-term relationships. She has had friends-with-benefits situations. So she considers herself pretty experienced, all things considered. 

She has never had anything like this. 

Everything melts away around her. The noise of the crowded bar, the uncomfortable heat of the too-warm room, the bar counter pressing into her side. 

Her entire body comes alive and pleasure surges through her. It's potentially the first time in her life that all thoughts truly go out of Caitlyn's head and she is just - reacting. Just existing in her body.

Caitlyn is usually the one to initiate a first kiss and typically she'll start things off slow. But this - 

One of her hands is in Vi's hair and the other is on Vi's lower back, pulling her in to Caitlyn's front. Caitlyn distantly realizes that she's already started running her hand up under the back of Vi's cropped shirt even though they're in public surrounded by other people. But Vi's hands are on her too, gripping Caitlyn's waist with the kind of strength that she's not used to. Even that touch sends sparks skittering through Caitlyn's skin and she doesn't even have her shirt off yet. 

Vi moves again and pushes Caitlyn back against the bar. The rough edge of the bar digs into Caitlyn's back and somehow even that feels good, everything feels good - 

"Vi!" the bartender calls. "Take it outside." 

Caitlyn feels like she's been underwater and is now being pulled above the surface when Vi groans and pulls away. Caitlyn blinks as the world swims back into view but then Vi's grabbing her wrist and towing her through the crowd. 

Vi leads her straight through a side door of the bar and out into a dim, quiet alley. It's not a large space, just a fairly narrow path between two buildings with a dead-end on side and the bustling, chaotic street on the other. 

Caitlyn has, once again, never done anything like this in her life. But she's not really even thinking at all right now and she loves it. She loves it. 

The heavy metal door has just swung shut behind them when Caitlyn pushes Vi back against the rough wall of the opposite building and kisses her again. 

Time blurs again. Caitlyn's mind is quiet, and her body is the opposite. Every nerve ending is on fire. Her heart is pounding. Every movement feels instinctual, feels right - 

Vi is almost panting into Caitlyn's mouth. One of her arms is wrapped around Caitlyn's back, keeping her close, and the other is sliding under the hem of her shirt again. Caitlyn must be nearly crushing Vi against the wall but Vi doesn't seem to mind, especially when Caitlyn uses her own knee to push Vi's apart and press in even closer.

Caitlyn has never been revved up this quickly before. Usually it takes her a while to ease into it but she already feels like she could tip over the edge and it's only been... how long has it been? 

Vi's breathing is speeding up and her hand on Caitlyn's ribs starts to tighten as her fingers brush the lace of Caitlyn's bra. 

Caitlyn pulls back just enough to get her hand between them. She doesn't even have to try and unbutton the jeans Vi's wearing; she just presses the heel of her hand into Vi's lower stomach and starts running her fingers down the seam of her jeans. Vi gasps and her entire body tenses, her fingers digging into Caitlyn's skin, and then she doesn't breathe for so long that Caitlyn starts to get briefly concerned. But when Caitlyn starts to pull back, Vi turns them both around so Caitlyn's back is against the wall instead. 

Vi does take the time to open the zipper of Caitlyn's jeans, but Caitlyn comes approximately two seconds after Vi gets her fingers inside of her. Caitlyn has to drop her forehead onto Vi's shoulder and when she comes back to herself, she realizes she fisted her hand so tightly in Vi's hair that she's lucky she didn't pull some of it out. 

Caitlyn does not feel any less crazed when she lifts her forehead from Vi's shoulder. 

"You said you live nearby, right?" Caitlyn says as she tries to catch her breath. 

Vi is staring at her with wide eyes, still pressing Caitlyn up against the wall. "Yeah. Do you want to - " 

"Yes." 

During all of the other one-night stands Caitlyn has had, once the decision was mutually made to leave the initial location and go home together, Caitlyn and her partner for the night would make their way there while making polite small talk. If Caitlyn was hosting, she'd usually offer a snack or water before they got started. Sometimes she would shower first if it had been a long day or night and wanted to feel refreshed a bit. 

This is. 

Not that. 

Vi does live very close by, as it turns out. The walk to her apartment should take less than five minutes, at the most, but they make out the entire way there which makes the walk longer. Caitlyn can't keep her hands off of Vi and she's just fine with walking backwards the entire way if that's what it takes. 

Even when Vi pulls back just enough to say, "watch out for the stairs," but it takes too long for Caitlyn's mind to process the concept and she's abruptly falling backwards. 

She has her arm wrapped tightly enough around Vi's shoulders again that she pulls Vi down with her. Vi somehow gets one of her arms out in time to brace herself against one of the stairs, and keeps Caitlyn from landing on the rusty metal at the same time. 

"Careful," Vi says, but she's laughing. "Don't concuss yourself, or the rest of tonight isn't going to be any fun - " 

Caitlyn's already pulling herself up again and then dragging Vi with her up the stairs. It's a few more flights and then they're finally at the door to Vi's place. 

Caitlyn leans against Vi's back and wraps her arms around her waist as Vi struggles to unlock the door. 

"I'm warning you," Vi says as she finally gets the door unlocked. "My place sucks." 

"That's alright," Caitlyn says, not even listening, and then they stumble inside and Vi kicks the door shut behind them. 

It is the most insane night of Caitlyn's life. She doesn't notice anything about Vi's apartment because the moment the door shuts, Vi is pushing Caitlyn back onto a bed and climbing on top of her. She gives Caitlyn another orgasm before they even get each other's clothes off and then Caitlyn loses all track of time and space because Vi starts eating her out and it is like nothing Caitlyn has ever experienced in her life thus far. 

Caitlyn genuinely doesn't know how long they go for before she passes out. She's never been this insatiable before and Vi seems to feel the same way because she doesn't stop either. 

Eventually they both must wind down, but Caitlyn drops so heavily into sleep that she doesn't even really note the transition. 

The next thing she knows, she's waking up feeling more rested than she has in quite literally years.

Caitlyn blinks slowly, trying to bring herself back to reality. She's sprawled out in Vi's bed on her stomach, the sheets and blankets tucked over her shoulders. Normally Caitlyn will get up after sex and shower, put on fresh pajamas, brush her teeth, her hair, all of that. She must not have done any of that last night, because she's completely naked and has no memory of where she put her clothes, now that she thinks about it. 

Caitlyn slowly pushes herself up onto her elbows and finally gets her eyes fully open against the light. 

Caitlyn hadn't noticed the apartment at all the night before. It's a bigger place than Caitlyn's small room in the boarding house, but it's still a very small apartment. The bed that Caitlyn is lying on is against one wall, next to what looks to be the only window. The grimy window does have light coming through it, but it's the garish neon light from the signs and street outside and not natural light. They're so deep in the fissures here that Caitlyn doubts any sunlight reaches this part of the undercity through the smog. 

There's not much to the rest of the apartment. A wardrobe in one corner with clothes spilling out, a punching bag in another, and then the rest of the apartment is the kitchen. 

Vi's place has an actual kitchen at least, unlike Caitlyn's, with a refrigerator and a stovetop. It also has a small kitchen island between the cupboards and the rest of the apartment.

Caitlyn has a vague memory of Vi warning her about the state of her apartment, and, well. It was certainly an accurate descriptor. 

Everything in the apartment is dirty. It looks like Vi's made an effort to keep the kitchen surfaces fairly clean, but everything else is covered in a thick layer of grime. Half of the kitchen cupboards are visibly broken and the walls are covered in dents and scratches. 

There's no decor or personalization or anything of the sort anywhere in the apartment. No paintings, no personal items.

There are, however, so many empty bottles of alcohol that perhaps that's Vi's choice of decor. Every available surface is covered with them and there's even messy piles of bottles in the corners of the apartment. 

Vi, however, looks like a dream. 

She must have been awake for a while. She's showered, and her damp hair is pushed back from her face. She's been wearing makeup every time Caitlyn has seen her before now, dark eyeshadow and dark eyeliner, but now her face is scrubbed clean. Vi's already dressed too, in a sleeveless cropped shirt and a pair of fitted canvas pants. 

She's leaning on her kitchen island, bracing herself on one forearm and holding a cup of coffee with another. She's looking at Caitlyn almost... hesitantly? Nervously? 

"Morning," she says.

"Hi," Caitlyn croaks, and then winces a little at the sound of her own voice. Yes, she definitely did not have any water last night before she fell asleep. 

"I got breakfast," Vi says, gesturing to the multitude of boxes on her counter. "Do you want coffee?" 

"Oh," Caitlyn says. She'd honestly been expecting Vi to kick her out the second she woke up so this is all a little surprising. "Yes. Thank you, that would be wonderful. Could I - could I shower first?" 

Vi waves her hand, already wrapped up to her elbow, to a small door near the bed. "Yeah, of course. Use whatever you want in there, and there's a clean towel under the sink. I'm warning you though, the shower's just as bad as the rest of this place." 

"Oh, it's not bad - " Caitlyn tries. 

Vi smiles and shakes her head. "It's okay. You won't hurt my feelings. This place is the worst. You can say it."

Caitlyn's combination of Piltovian and Kiramman manners will not allow her to do that, so she gets up instead and goes to shower. 

The washroom is tiny and just as grody as the rest of the apartment, but there is a clean spare towel under the sink like Vi had said. When Caitlyn gets the water in the shower started, she's pleased to find that the water actually gets fairly hot.

Caitlyn does run into a problem with the showerhead. It's at a weird angle and she has to crane her neck to get her hair wet. If she's going to try and wash her hair properly she'll have a hard time rinsing the shampoo out. So she examines the showerhead and determines that it's clearly designed to be angled differently. 

When Caitlyn tries to very gently and very carefully angle it towards her instead of towards the wall, of course it snaps off in her hand and the remaining metal pipe sends water blasting straight into the other side of the shower like a firehose. 

Caitlyn yelps, and it must be loud enough for Vi to come investigate. 

"I'm so sorry," Caitlyn starts, awkwardly pressing herself against the other side of the shower as Vi comes into the washroom. "I'm sorry, I was just - " 

Vi starts laughing, and then she doesn't stop laughing even as she turns the water off, takes the broken showerhead from Caitlyn's hand, and starts fixing it. 

"What happened?" Vi asks, still smiling. "I've lived here for months and I've never managed to do this." 

"I'm sorry," Caitlyn says desperately. 

"What were you trying to do with this?" Vi asks as she re-attaches the showerhead. "What, did I not get you off enough times last night - " 

"Stop it," Caitlyn hisses, and Vi laughs again.

Vi gets the shower fixed and then smiles at Caitlyn before she leaves the washroom. "I'll bring your clothes in," she calls as she leaves, which Caitlyn hadn't even thought about. 

Caitlyn gets through the rest of her shower without incident and then has to get dressed in the clothes she wore here last night, which isn't... her favourite thing to do, but it's not like she'd planned on any of this happening so she certainly hadn't packed a bag. 

Caitlyn goes back out into the main room and stares at the spread of food Vi is unpacking from the boxes. 

"Where did you get all this from?" Caitlyn asks as she walks up to the kitchen island, her eyes wide. 

The food looks incredible. Bagels, pastries, muffins, and there's even fresh fruit. Caitlyn hasn't seen anything quite like this yet in the undercity. 

Vi looks up from the bagel that she's spreading some kind of butter onto. "There's a few good places near here. I did a circuit to get everything." 

"Vi, thank you," Caitlyn says, hoping her genuine gratitude comes across. It's only her Kiramman manners that keep her from just digging in; instead she takes the plate that Vi hands her and starts loading it up. 

Vi shrugs, looking a little embarrassed. "Ah, it's nothing. You still want coffee?" 

"If you don't mind." 

It's one of the nicest breakfasts that Caitlyn has had. The food is delicious. The coffee is delicious. And Vi is - 

Well. 

Caitlyn might - 

Caitlyn might be in trouble because Vi is lovely. 

It's like she's dropped the hard exterior and the sharp edges now that she's decided Caitlyn's not a threat to her and her family. She's warm and friendly and she chats with Caitlyn idly as they both eat. She asks Caitlyn questions about her research and then gives her advice on where to go to get her various air quality samples for the day. 

She's funny and kind and Caitlyn can't stop staring at her.

Caitlyn hasn't even left this apartment yet and she's already desperately wondering if Vi will want to see her again. 

Caitlyn leaves soon after, not wanting to take up too much of Vi's morning. She goes back to her own place and then spends the rest of her day trying to focus on her work and failing. 

Caitlyn reminds herself throughout the day that it's far too soon to try to see Vi again. Of course it is. That would be too much! She would seem desperate. Maybe Vi doesn't even feel the same way about last night as Caitlyn does. 

She goes for dinner with Mylo and Claggor and then chats with Vander for a bit before heading back to her own room. Where she plans on finishing her reports and then going to sleep early to prepare for another day of researching. Because that is what she's here to do. 

But then, through no fault of her own, surely, she finds herself doing her hair and getting dressed. Somehow the lowest-cut shirt that Powder had forced her to buy ends up in Caitlyn's hands and then she's putting it on. 

And then Caitlyn goes out for a walk. Just a pleasant nighttime walk. 

A walk that just happens to take her back to the bar she'd been at the night before. 

The bar that Vi had just happened to mention is one that she visits frequently. 

And so it's random, certainly, that Caitlyn walks into the crowded bar and sees Vi with a group of people off to the side. She's also dressed for the evening, with her hair styled and makeup back on. She's wearing a halter-style tank top tonight that shows off her tattoos and her usual jeans, and she's the most beautiful woman that Caitlyn has ever seen.

Caitlyn waits until Vi goes to the bar on her own to get a drink before she makes her way there. 

"I've got a question for you," Caitlyn says as she leans against the bar next to Vi. 

Vi turns and smiles at Caitlyn when she sees her. 

Oh, Caitlyn is fucked. 

"Yeah?" 

"Where are you with your morals today?" Caitlyn asks. "Any exceptions on the table currently?" 

Vi makes a big show of considering it. "That's a tough one, but after a lot of thought I think I can probably make one exception tonight. But you'll have to make it worth my while." 

"Of course," Caitlyn says seriously, and Vi laughs. 

They go back to Vi's apartment again.

Chapter Text

Oh, Caitlyn is in so much trouble.

She goes back to the bar a third night, too, and this time she doesn't even come prepared with a fun opening line. She just walks in, Vi smiles at her and says hello, and then they go back to her apartment. 

They've spent a grand total of three nights together, which Caitlyn is pretty sure is less than the total number of times Vi has threatened to kill her, but Caitlyn's addicted. She's hooked. She cannot get enough. 

So when they're having breakfast on the third morning and Vi says, "by the way, I'm busy tonight so I won't be around," Caitlyn feels far more disappointed than she should. 

"Oh," Caitlyn says. "Of course. I mean. I'm also busy. So." 

Vi smiles into her cup of coffee. "Yeah? What are you doing tonight?" 

"I... have work to do," Caitlyn says, which isn't a lie. She's falling badly behind on her reports. "What are you doing?" 

Vi shrugs. "I guess you could say I'm working too." 

She changes the subject after that, and Caitlyn doesn't press further. They're not dating; it's not Caitlyn's business where Vi is every night and what she's up to. 

(Caitlyn wants it to be her business though.) 

As she's leaving Vi's place, Caitlyn tries to think of a way to casually ask Vi if she'd want to, uh, spend time together again. She can't think of anything that doesn't sound pathetically desperate, and she's about to give up when Vi surprises her. 

"Hey," Vi says as Caitlyn's walking out the door. She comes to lean in her doorway, her arms crossed. "I'm free again tomorrow night, if you are." 

Caitlyn almost laughs out loud at how easy Vi made that sound. She might have overthought it a little. "I'd like that."

Caitlyn spends her night away from Vi catching up on all her work. When the next evening rolls around, Caitlyn would skip all the way to Vi's place if her mother hadn't drilled it into her as a child that Kirammans walk everywhere with careful strides and deliberate motions. They do not skip, prance, hop, or anything of the sort. 

So Caitlyn walks sedately over to Vi's apartment. Vi had told her to just come straight to her place, rather than meeting at the bar down the street. 

When Vi opens the door wearing an oversized sweater and sweatpants, the warmth in Caitlyn's chest and the smile on her face is another sign that Caitlyn is, in fact, completely and totally fucked. 

They don't jump right back into sex, this time; Caitlyn settles in for a bit first. Vi asks her about her day, they chat for a bit... and then about five minutes after Caitlyn arrives, Vi is pulling Caitlyn's shirt over her head. 

It's just as fast and electric as the other times; the only difference is that when Vi pushes Caitlyn onto the bed and climbs on top of Caitlyn's hips to straddle her, she pauses. "Oh, hang on a sec." 

Caitlyn props herself up on her elbows as Vi gets back up again, fully dressed still, and goes to turn off the lights. 

She comes back just as eagerly as before, climbing right back on top of Caitlyn, but now it's Caitlyn's turn to pause. 

"Is everything alright?" Caitlyn asks. Something about the way that Vi had gone out of her way to turn the lights off is raising a red flag for Caitlyn; they'd had the lights on in the apartment the last two times they'd hooked up and Vi hadn't shown any signs of self-consciousness or shyness. Vi seems totally at ease, but now that Caitlyn thinks about it, she's also never seen Vi wear clothes as baggy as the ones she's wearing now.

"Yeah," Vi says, sitting back a little on Caitlyn's hips. "It's no big deal. I just have a nasty bruise that you don't need to see." 

Vi leans down and kisses her, grinding her body into Caitlyn's a little as she does so, and Caitlyn can't help but arch into her. But she tries to keep her mind on this; this is important. 

"Where is it?" Caitlyn asks, pulling back just a little. "I don't want to hurt you." 

"You won't," Vi assures her, but when Caitlyn doesn't move again, Vi sighs and taps the side of her abdomen, just above her hip. "Right here." 

Well, that explains the oversized sweater. "Let me see," Caitlyn says. She gets her hands behind her and pushes herself up so she's sitting, Vi still straddling her thighs. 

Vi hesitates, but Caitlyn holds firm. She raises an eyebrow at Vi; even with the lights off, the neon light coming through the window is enough to illuminate the room slightly. 

"Fine," Vi grumbles, "but don't make a big deal about it." She pulls her sweater over her head, leaving her in just her sweatpants and a thin cotton sports bra. 

Caitlyn gasps; she can't help it. "Vi!" 

It's the worst bruise that Caitlyn has ever seen. It spreads from just above Vi's hipbone nearly to the base of her ribs, and even in the dim light Caitlyn can see that the colour of the bruising is a deep black. 

Vi groans. "I told you not to make a big deal!" 

Caitlyn's hand hovers over the bruise on Vi's hip, afraid to touch. "How did this happen?!"

"It's fine. Don't worry about it, it doesn't even hurt." 

"There's no way it doesn't hurt," Caitlyn says, her eyes glued to the injury. She wraps one of her arms around Vi's back to steady her, her other hand hovering Vi's hip. "I don't even think this is a bruise. This looks like a hematoma." 

Vi makes a face. "What the fuck is that? And since when are you a doctor?" She leans back. "Or you did you leave that part out of your little backstory as well? You got a medical degree too?" 

Caitlyn swats at her gently with her free hand. "Don't get bratty. I'm not a doctor, and I don't have a medical degree. My father is a doctor, so I spent a lot of time in medical settings growing up." 

Vi watches her suspiciously for a moment, but allows it. "Fine." 

Caitlyn taps Vi's ribs with her free hand, careful to stay clear of the injury. "Come on, off. You need to ice this." 

Vi groans and tips herself to the side, off of Caitlyn's thighs. She collapses onto the bed dramatically. "This is exactly what I was trying to avoid." 

Caitlyn gets up and goes to the battered refrigerator in the kitchen. "Does this have a freezer?" 

"No," Vi mutters. "There's a stall down the street that sells ice and stuff. That's where I usually buy it from." 

Caitlyn starts looking around for her discarded shirt. "I'm going to go get some. I'll be back soon." 

"Aw, come on," Vi whines. "It's fine!" 

Caitlyn finds her shirt. "How far is this stall?" 

"It's - I'll just come with you," Vi grumbles, fumbling for her sweater. 

The stall isn't far. It is also sells ice cream, as well as regular ice. 

Caitlyn is buying a bag of ice, despite Vi's protests that she can pay for it, when she catches Vi eyeing the tubs of ice cream as well. 

"Do you want some?" Caitlyn asks. 

"It's expensive." 

"I'll buy." 

Vi scowls. "I'm not a charity case." 

"I didn't say you were," Caitlyn says. "I'm the one who made you get up and come down here to get the ice. We can call this a date that I initiated, and therefore I'll buy." 

This earns Caitlyn the smallest hint of a smile. "A date, huh? I bet you Pilties have some fancy name for dating. Courting? Are you courting me?" 

Caitlyn winces. "Just - just pick which flavour you want." 

Vi laughs, her scowl disappearing completely. "Wait, am I right? Do you call it courting?" 

"Not everyone does," Caitlyn says. She waves down the stall owner and orders herself a small cone of vanilla ice cream. "What are you getting?" 

Vi orders the chocolate, and Caitlyn pays. 

"Is it just the super rich Pilties that call it courting, then?" Vi asks as they walk back to her apartment. She's already consumed a remarkable amount of her ice cream. "All topsiders are rich compared to us, but are you one of the really rich?" 

Caitlyn wonders if she should lie, but she doesn't want to be dishonest. "Yes." 

"Really?" 

"Yes." 

"Like, how rich?" 

"Very." 

"Give me numbers." 

"I don't have specific numbers." 

"What does that even mean?" Vi asks, taking a bite of her ice cream. 

Caitlyn's briefly distracted. "Are you biting your ice cream? What's wrong with you?" 

"A lot," Vi says through her mouthful of ice cream. 

Caitlyn laughs. They're already almost back to Vi's apartment, and Caitlyn can't help but think about how much this does feel like an actual date. If she wasn't holding a bag of ice in one hand and her ice cream cone in the other, she might even try and hold Vi's hand. 

Oh, she's getting sappy already. Oh dear.

Vi clearly has not been distracted from the topic of money. 

"How do you not know how much money you have?" Vi asks as they start up the stairs to her apartment. "Number too big to count?" 

Caitlyn sighs. "Of course not. It's - it's not just money sitting in one bank account with a specific number. There are investments, estates, land, businesses - " 

"Estates?" Vi says. "Plural?" 

Caitlyn sighs again. "Yes." 

"Well, fuck me, I guess," Vi mutters. "Guess you can afford to buy me some ice cream." 

"And some ice," Caitlyn reminds her as they reach the door. She holds up the bag. "We're putting this on that hematoma as soon as we get inside." 

"You still haven't said what a hematoma is," Vi says as she unlocks the door. "Hey, do you think there's any sex things you can do with ice?" 

"That is not why I bought it. But I don't know. I don't see why not." 

"Can we try?" 

Caitlyn thinks about it as she follows Vi inside. "Yes. But only if there's ice left over." 

Caitlyn finds a semi-clean towel and wraps up a bunch of the ice with it. It does leave a significant amount of ice left over, which is going to melt anyway. So she makes Vi lie down and ice the injury, and then they do experiment to see what can be done with the rest of the ice. 

It's not a great success. It ends with Vi laughing uncontrollably and saying "okay, no, I don't like this, forget about this, that's too fucking cold, holy shit - " 

So they stick to the more tried and true methods. That lasts several more hours, and then Caitlyn's sound sleep, and then Vi distracts her the next morning again, and so it's not until later that day when Caitlyn's finally sitting down to plan out her data collection for the next week that she realizes Vi never said where she got the injury from. 

Caitlyn gets a new routine. She goes to Vi's apartment two nights in a row, and then spends the next night at her own because Vi is busy. Then after that, Caitlyn spends the next three nights at Vi's. Then, the same thing - a night apart, and then a few nights together again. 

Vi starts going with Caitlyn on her data-collection excursions. Vi will take her to places in the undercity that Caitlyn would never have found on her own, and then she just hangs around while Caitlyn tests the water and the soil and the air quality. Vi doesn't seem to mind how long it takes for Caitlyn to finish up; she seems content to wander around nearby. 

The long walks they take to get to the different sites also let Caitlyn get some more information for her sociological research, and more of what she has termed 'Vi-research'.

"Slightly specific question," Caitlyn warns as she flips through the papers on her clipboard. She's following Vi along a narrow path built into the dense rock, overlooking a small stream that winds through a cavern. "There aren't any formal schools or formal childcare centres, correct?" 

"Depends on how much money you have. Not everyone here is quite as poor as we are. The richer fissure folk can pay for someone to watch their kids while they work. Most people here can't, though." 

"What do parents do with their young children, then? If both parents need to work, or if you're a single parent?" 

Vi turns around and starts walking backward. She points a finger at Caitlyn. "I'll tell you, but only if you don't do the Piltie Princess face." 

Caitlyn's mouth drops open. "The what?" 

"It's the face you do when I say something that offends your Piltie sensibilities." 

Caitlyn is indignant. "I do not have a - a specific face for that!" 

"You do. Now are you going to listen?" 

Caitlyn scowls. "Go ahead." 

Vi spins back around just in time to walk over a beam that serves as a bridge over the stream. "Usually parents just leave their kids at home when they go to work. If they're too young to look after themselves and don't have any older siblings, the older kids in the neighbourhood will watch the younger ones if the parents throw them a few coins at the end of the day." 

Caitlyn keeps her face carefully still. "What if there are older siblings, but the older siblings are still too young themselves to properly care for other children?" 

"Sometimes other parents in the neighbourhood will watch someone else's kids if they have their own at home, in exchange for a little bit of cash or food or something. But I mean, I was still pretty young when Pow was born and I took care of her when my mom went back to work." 

Caitlyn had figured that Powder was younger than Vi, but she's pretty sure Powder isn't more than maybe four to six years younger at the most. "That's... quite young to look after an infant." 

Vi shrugs and hops off the beam. "Watch your step, it's slippery. And yeah, maybe, but Pow's alive, isn't she? So I didn't do too bad a job." 

Caitlyn makes her own way across the beam, tucking her clipboard under her arm. She's much slower than Vi at this still, but she's improving. She hasn't fallen off one of these things in days. "What did your mother do for work? Was she nearby if anything went wrong?" 

"Oh, definitely not," Vi says, holding a hand out to help Caitlyn down. Caitlyn doesn't need the help but she takes Vi's hand anyway because she's sappy. "She worked in the mines, same as my dad." 

Caitlyn keeps Vi's hand in hers as they walk. She's pretty sure of the answer to her next question, but she asks anyway, to be sure. "And your parents are..." 

"Dead," Vi supplies. Her face and tone are even, but Caitlyn squeezes her hand anyway. "Long time ago. Vander took us in after that. Me and Pow, I mean. Mylo and Clagg came along later." 

"Not Ekko?" 

Vi shakes her head. "He didn't live with us when I was a kid. His parents died when he was really young but another guy we knew took him in. Benzo. Real nice guy." 

The path they're on turns into a real street and they enter a bustling market. 

"Oh, hey," Vi says, brightening. "Can we get popcorn?" 

"If you let me pay for it." 

"Twist my arm, why don't you," Vi says, and lets Caitlyn buy them both some popcorn. She has really lightened up on letting Caitlyn spend money on her, which is nice. Caitlyn likes being able to get things like this for her. 

They make their way back up towards Vi's apartment. Vi is happily throwing pieces of popcorn in the air and catching them with her tongue as they walk when a horrifically large rat scampers across the street in front of them. 

Caitlyn makes a face, but then stares in shock when Vi yelps and jumps back. 

"Are you scared of them?" Caitlyn asks. "I would've thought you'd be used to them, down here." There's really an overabundance of rats in the undercity. 

Vi makes a face, but bravely digs into her popcorn again. "I hate them. There's not much that I hate more than fucking rats." 

"Except Enforcers?" 

Vi points at Caitlyn and nods, then throws another piece of popcorn in the air. "Except Enforcers. Did I ever tell you my funny rat story?" 

Caitlyn puts her clipboard back in her backpack and starts on her own popcorn as they walk. "No. Do I want to hear this?" 

"Yeah, it's hilarious. Well, I think it is. Honestly, Mylo's the only one who ever laughed at it. Everyone else said it wasn't funny. Vander told me to stop telling it to customers in the bar. Something about ruining their appetites." 

Caitlyn sighs. "Great." She remembers Vi's earlier comment about her Piltie sensibilities and decides she feels a need to prove that she has a strong constitution. "Go ahead." 

Vi grins. "Okay, so my first year in Stillwater, I'm going completely crazy, right, and - " 

Caitlyn stops walking. "Your what?" 

"My first year in Stillwater," Vi repeats. "I - " She stops walking too and looks back at Caitlyn. "What?" 

"You were in Stillwater?" 

"Uh, yeah," Vi says. "Wait, you didn't know that?" 

There's a ringing starting in Caitlyn's ears. "No." 

Vi stares at her for a moment and then bursts out laughing. "Did you really not know? Are you fucking with me?" 

"No," Caitlyn says tightly. "How would I have known that." 

Vi is still laughing. "I thought my family would've told you or something!" 

"No. They don't really share information about you like that." 

Vi seems to think this is even funnier. "You really didn't know! Wait, why did you think I'm so fucked up then?"

Caitlyn wishes they were having this conversation somewhere where she could sit down. "I don't think you're fucked up. I've never said that." 

"You're sweet," Vi says, still smiling. She reaches for Caitlyn's arm with the hand that's not holding her popcorn and gently tugs her forward so they can both start walking again.

"How long were you in Stillwater for?" Caitlyn asks. Her entire body feels numb. She can't see the humour in this like Vi clearly does. Nothing about this feels funny. 

Vi eats another piece of popcorn. "Ten years." 

Caitlyn stops walking again. "Ten?" 

"Mhm." 

When Caitlyn doesn't continue, Vi reaches back for her again. This time, Caitlyn can't move. 

"Vi," Caitlyn says, "the average life expectancy for an inmate in Stillwater is 2.7 years from the time of sentencing." 

Vi shrugs. "You and your facts. I don't think that's right, by the way. It's definitely less than that. You've just got people like me messing with your data." 

When Caitlyn doesn't move, Vi wraps her arm around Caitlyn's waist and starts tugging her along. 

"What do you mean, people like you?" Caitlyn asks. 

"You know, the outliers or whatever. Most people don't make it through their first year, but there's a few like me that last way longer." She squeezes Caitlyn's waist reassuringly. "We're pulling up your average. There was this one guy on my cellblock who'd been there thirty-eight years. If you think I'm fucked up from ten years, you should see him. Real piece of work." 

Caitlyn is trying to do math in her head, but it's not adding up. "But you're - when did you - " She could have sworn that she and Vi are around the same age, but for Vi to have been in Stillwater for ten years... 

"When did I go in?" Vi prompts. Caitlyn nods weakly. "When I was fifteen." 

Caitlyn stops walking again. Vi sighs and tugs her forward. 

"Stillwater is an adult prison," Caitlyn says numbly, hearing how ridiculous it sounds as she says it. 

"Well, yeah. But when they did the paperwork they just said I was eighteen." 

"But - " Caitlyn starts, "how would they even sentence you, there would have been so many steps in place to prevent that - " 

"Didn't get sentenced." 

"What."

"They didn't give me a sentence. No formal arrest, no trial, no sentencing, no real paperwork."

Caitlyn turns to her, nearly tripping over her own feet when Vi keeps walking. She starts to speak and then stops. 

Vi sighs again and tugs Caitlyn to the side of the street so they're out of the flow of foot traffic. "Okay, look. Here's everything I know you're about to ask. I'll save you some time. No, I didn't do the crime they took me in for. Something did happen, but I didn't do it and the blame fell on me because I was the oldest one there. The Enforcer who brought me in had a quota to meet, apparently, and just forged the paperwork on his own and took me in. No end date on the sentence, so it would've been for life. I was in for ten years and got out in the prison break that happened about... oh, hey, almost three years ago now."

Caitlyn stares at her. From the look on Vi's face, she thinks that Vi can probably see the horror in Caitlyn's eyes. 

Then Vi's face changes slightly. "Okay, maybe I shouldn't have said that I broke out. I never technically got released, so - you're not going to tell them that I'm here, are you?" 

It shakes Caitlyn out of her stupor. "Vi, no." She drops the stupid bag of popcorn that she was still holding so she can grab Vi's shoulders. "No, no, I would never - and if I wanted to, I don't have that kind of power, but I would never - " 

Vi looks away, avoiding Caitlyn's eye contact. "I figured."

Caitlyn doesn't let go of her shoulders. "Even if - there's no way they could ever take you back. If anyone looked at your file and saw that there had been no sentencing, no trial, that there was forged paperwork, that would open a complete investigation. Any re-arrest would never go through." 

"Well. They took me in before without any of that, so. Stands to reason it could happen again." 

Caitlyn starts to deny it, but stops herself. Vi has a point with that logic. 

"Ten years?" is all Caitlyn can say.

"Yeah," Vi says. "Can we go? I don't want to just stand here anymore." 

Caitlyn nods, letting go of Vi's shoulders. "Yes. Of course. I'm sorry." 

They go back to Vi's apartment, but Caitlyn can't shake it. Vi keeps trying to start new conversations, and Caitlyn does her best to keep up, but she's horror-stricken to her bones by this. 

It does not help when Vi perks up as they're eating dinner at her kitchen island. "Oh, hey, I never got to tell my rat story." 

Caitlyn looks up from her food with a grimace. 

Vi laughs. "It's not that bad! It's short, too. So it was my first year in Stillwater, like I said before, and I'm losing it. Went completely crazy. Started thinking that the mice and rats and spiders in my cell were kind of like my friends. I gave them names and everything." 

Caitlyn's appetite disappears. 

"But then one night, I'm running my mouth again to this group of guards that I hated and they beat the fuck out of me. It was the first time I actually got fully knocked out. So then I wake up in my cell later, when the lights are out and it's dark, and the fucking rats, that I'd named, are eating me." 

Vi holds up one of her arms and starts taking some of the wraps off, revealing a patch of tiny scars on her pale skin. "See? Those little fuckers thought I was dead and were nibbling away at me." Vi looks at Caitlyn like she's supposed to laugh. 

Caitlyn does not laugh. 

Caitlyn puts her fork down. "I'm just... going to lie down for a minute." 

Vi sighs as Caitlyn walks to the bed and lies down very carefully. "Well, I guess Mylo still holds the title for being the only one to laugh at that." 

Caitlyn covers her face with her hands and takes careful deep breaths. 

Later that night, Vi turns the lights off and gets into bed next to Caitlyn. "Hey. I'm sorry. I guess I shouldn't have told you. I really thought you already knew." 

"No, no, don't apologize," Caitlyn says into the darkness. She sits up to lean against the wall, pulling Vi closer so Vi can curl up against her. "Please don't apologize. You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one that's sorry - you shouldn't have to be worrying about my feelings about this." 

Vi leans her head on Caitlyn's collarbone. "It's fine." 

"It's not," Caitlyn says, and then swallows hard when a lump threatens to form in her throat. It catches her off guard; she doesn't cry easily. Or ever, really. "It's not fine. None of this - that should never have happened to you, and now you can't - you can't get that time back - " 

"I know," Vi says tersely. "I know. I don't want to do all of that, okay?" 

"All of what?" 

Vi is tense against Caitlyn. "Just don't start... I don't know, moping around. Feeling sorry for me. Or tiptoeing around me. Everyone else does that except for Loris and I hate it." 

"Who's Loris?" 

"My friend," Vi says impatiently. "Not the point."

Caitlyn pulls on all of her Kiramman training and keeps herself from crying. "Alright. I understand. I won't do that." 

"And don't do the 'you're so brave' thing."

Caitlyn winces because that's exactly what she probably would've said next. 

"I hate that the most," Vi says into Caitlyn's shoulder. Despite how bitter her words are, she's curled further and further into Caitlyn, her forehead pressing into Caitlyn's neck and her arms around Caitlyn's waist. "When people tell me I'm so brave or so strong or so tough for surviving ten years there. It wasn't - I wasn't brave, it's not bravery that - if they knew what I had to do to survive in there they wouldn't be calling me brave - " 

Caitlyn runs her hand down Vi's arm when she stops talking and goes quiet. Caitlyn doesn't know what else to say, what else she can say to this, that won't make Vi feel the need to comfort Caitlyn instead. Because Caitlyn's heart feels like it's cracking open. The thought of Vi being fifteen in Stillwater is... inconceivable. The thought of the adult Vi that she knows now, not far off from thirty years old, being in Stillwater would be horrific enough, but for Vi to have been that young... 

Caitlyn has never been to Stillwater herself, but as part of one of her previous research projects, she worked with a group investigating the conditions in that specific prison. She saw the reports and the images and the stories from what it's like in there. 

Ten years. 

"That must have been so terrifying," Caitlyn says quietly, and then immediately regrets it. That might be too close to what Vi had just asked her not to say. 

But Vi goes very still in Caitlyn's arms. Her breathing is even, ghosting over Caitlyn's collarbones, but it's almost like her body is frozen. 

"I guess so," Vi says after a few long moments. "I don't really - I don't think about it like that anymore so - can we talk about something else, please." 

Caitlyn starts running her fingers over Vi's arm again. "Yes. Of course." She changes the subject, talking about anything else she can think of, and eventually Vi drifts off. 

Caitlyn stays awake, staring into the dim neon-lit gloom. 

Caitlyn doesn't bring it up again, and Vi seems relieved that it's not going to be a constant discussion topic. But Caitlyn is certainly glad she knows now, because having this knowledge has made a lot of things fall into place. 

It certainly explains some things about Vi's life that were a bit of a mystery before. Her impulsiveness, for example. 

Vi is probably the most impulsive person that Caitlyn has ever met. Anything she decides she wants to do, she'll immediately go and do, regardless of the consequences. 

Most of the time, at least from what Caitlyn has seen, those consequences are minor. If Vi gets an idle craving for some specific kind of food, she'll wander away to go find it, even if that means getting up in the middle of the night and walking right out of her apartment in the clothes she fell asleep in. If she's in the middle of something, like eating dinner, and thinks of something more interesting to do, she'll just walk away to do the thing that appeals to her more.

"I'm really bad at keeping jobs," Vi had admitted to Caitlyn soon after they'd started sleeping together. "Really bad. I'm great at getting a job. Just can't keep 'em."

Caitlyn thinks that that particular issue is directly related to the impulsiveness. Vi's perfectly capable of getting a job, going to a shift, and working hard, but if she sees something more interesting or fun, she'll just leave. If something else had her attention before her shift, she just won't show up. 

Caitlyn understands it. To be locked in a cell for that long, having no free will to do anything at all, she understands Vi's inability to regulate her impulses. 

She just wishes, maybe a little, that it didn't take the form of Vi also doing as many shots per day as she wants, but that's not up to Caitlyn. 

Knowing about Vi's time in Stillwater also makes some smaller things make sense. 

Caitlyn's sitting in Vi's bed with her back against the wall, the lone pillow that Vi owns between Caitlyn's lower back and the cold wall. Caitlyn is working away on her data analysis, her notepad in her lap and her papers in a neat pile beside her. Vi is on her other side, curled up under the blankets with her head against Caitlyn's hip. 

Vi is sound asleep, as Caitlyn should be, but Caitlyn is determined to get through her work for the day. So she plugs away at it while listening to the background noise of the people in the apartment next door moving out. 

They've been carrying furniture past the door of Vi's apartment for about an hour when Caitlyn hears them arguing about how best to balance the table they're carrying. A moment later, she hears one of the men swear and then what must be the table leg thudding loudly against Vi's door. 

Vi sits up with a speed that makes Caitlyn nearly jump out of her skin. In the same movement, Vi throws herself backward so she's against the wall with her feet underneath her, crouching. Her eyes are huge and fixed on the door. 

"Easy," Caitlyn says with as much calm as she can muster. "It's alright. It's just your neighbours moving out." 

Vi doesn't make a sound and doesn't look at her. 

"Vi?" Caitlyn tries. When Vi doesn't respond, Caitlyn reaches out to gently touch her arm. 

Vi twitches away from Caitlyn's outstretched hand and doesn't look away from the door. Caitlyn yanks her hand back like she's been burned. "Sorry." 

Vi doesn't respond. She doesn't seem bothered by Caitlyn's presence, necessarily, but she also very clearly does not want to be touched right now. 

Caitlyn is rarely completely stumped, but she simply does not know what to do in this situation. Vi's a very physical person by nature; when Caitlyn is at Vi's apartment, it's rare that a moment goes by without Vi touching her somehow. It's also been Caitlyn's go-to strategy for providing Vi with any sort of comfort. 

Caitlyn tries more verbal reassurance, which Vi also ignores. 

"Can I get you anything?" Caitlyn says finally. 

Vi still doesn't look away from the door. "No." 

Well, it's a response, at least. "Is there anything I can do?" 

Vi ignores that too, so Caitlyn takes it as a no. 

Caitlyn is by no means an expert in mental health, or trauma, apart from her own. But during her short stay in Piltover's finest psychiatric hospital when she was younger, she had read her way through various textbooks and research papers due to her boredom. So she has what she considers to be a higher than average familiarity with trauma responses, but she still can't quite quantify exactly what's going on here. 

"Do you know where you are?" Caitlyn asks after minutes go by and Vi still doesn't move a muscle. 

"Yeah," Vi says, sounding mildly irritated. She flicks her gaze to Caitlyn, just for a second, and then looks back at the door. 

Eventually Caitlyn goes back to her work, while keeping an eye on Vi out of the corner of her eye. 

It seems to take forever before Vi starts to relax. It happens gradually, but slowly Vi sinks back down onto the bed and then just... lies back down. She curls up the same way she'd been before and goes back to sleep like nothing happened. 

Caitlyn tries to ask her about it the next day, only to receive a shrug and a change of subject. 

When Caitlyn tugs Vi's shirt over her head and discovers yet another horrible bruise spreading across her lower back, she puts her foot down on this particular issue.

"Where are you getting these from," Caitlyn snaps, tossing Vi's shirt onto the bed. 

Vi sighs and sits down on the edge of her bed, just in her sweatpants. "If I tell you, you're going to get all upset again." 

"I'm not." 

"You are." 

"Try me." 

Vi rolls her eyes and leans back on her bed, propping herself up with her elbows. "Fine. But don't get all huffy about it. You ever heard of pitfighting?" 

Caitlyn stares.

Vi stares back at her, amused. 

Caitlyn covers her face for a moment with her hands, leaning back against the kitchen island, and then makes her best attempt at keeping her face neutral. It clearly doesn't work because Vi laughs. 

"Go on," Caitlyn says tersely. 

"I mean, that's really it. That's what I'm doing twice a week when I'm not here." 

"Why would you do such a thing. Willingly." 

"I make a lot of money doing it."

"Sure," Caitlyn says, "but there are other jobs where you can make a lot of money." 

"Not really. Not this much, unless you work for a chembaron. And I only have to fight twice a week."

"But you're getting hurt."

"Whatever," Vi says, dismissive. "I'm used to it."

"Vi. That doesn't make it okay."

"I have rent to pay," Vi snaps. She grabs her shirt from the bed beside her and pulls it back on. "I know you won't understand, but I'd rather fight twice a week and have somewhere to live and food to eat than starve on the streets."

Caitlyn's slightly taken aback by how quickly Vi's anger has flared. "Of course I understand that."

"Do you?" Vi starts storming around, kicking at the messy piles of clothes she has on the floor. "I bet you've never paid rent in your life."

"I'm paying it right now."

Vi finds the leather jacket that she must have been looking for and shrugs it on. "That's not the same, and you know it. If you run out of money you can go topside and go back to what I'm guessing is some kind of mansion." 

"Well, yes," Caitlyn says impatiently. "But this isn't the point, Vi. I understand that you need to make money, but surely there are other ways to do so than pitfighting."

Vi grabs her boots. "I already told you that I can't keep other jobs. I tried. You can spare me the fucking lecture, I've heard it all before." She starts yanking her boots on, turning her back to Caitlyn. 

"Vi," Caitlyn tries. Vi ignores her and starts lacing up her boots. Caitlyn goes to stand in front of her, so when Vi straightens up they're face to face. "Can you wait a minute, please? Instead of storming out and going to hit something?" 

Vi glares at her for a moment, but then folds her arms and waits. 

"Thank you," Caitlyn says. "I wasn't trying to lecture you." 

"Well, you didn't do a very good job of that." 

"I just don't like seeing you get hurt," Caitlyn says. "I care about you." 

Vi's glare fades slightly. "It's not that bad. It's usually just some bruises." 

"But it could be worse. People die in fights like that." 

"Not me," Vi says. "I'm still alive, aren't I? And I've been doing it for a while now. I've got a 100% survival rate." 

Caitlyn doesn't smile, even though Vi's stopped glaring. "I'd like it to stay that way." 

"It will. Besides, it'll probably be the alcohol that kills me first." 

Caitlyn does not find that funny.

Vi sighs and starts unlacing her boots again. She kicks them off and takes Caitlyn by the shoulders, pushing her back until her knees hit the edge of the bed and she sits down. 

"Sorry I got mad," she says. "Bad temper." 

Caitlyn looks over her, at where she knows the bruises are lining Vi's body under her clothes. "Why don't you want me to come over on the nights that you fight? Are you coming home in that bad of shape?" 

Vi winces. "I mean... sometimes. But usually it's just because I don't get home until late on those nights. We usually go out after. If I won that night, we're celebrating, and if not then at least I can forget about it." 

Caitlyn narrows her eyes. "Who's we?" 

Vi grins. "Me and all my fans. I've got lots of them." 

Caitlyn is a viciously jealous person by nature, despite her best efforts to change that aspect of herself, and she can't help but narrow her eyes further. 

"They're pretty much all beautiful women," Vi continues loftily. "Most nights there's so many of them, it's kind of overwhelming - " 

"Vi." 

Vi bursts out laughing, her earlier anger gone. "Calm down, I'm kidding. You really do get jealous, huh?" 

"You didn't answer who 'we' is," Caitlyn reminds her, ignoring the second part. 

"Oh, just me and Loris and the usual group we go out with. It's mostly other fighters and their friends and partners and managers." 

"You mentioned Loris before. He's a friend?" 

Vi shrugs her jacket off and tosses it to the side. "Yeah. He's also kind of my manager, I guess." 

Caitlyn narrows her eyes again, but this time for a different reason. "How so?" 

"He arranges my fights and things like that. I'm not good at setting all that up and keeping track of it, so he does it for me. And he makes sure I get paid." 

"Does he take any of your money?" 

"A percentage, yeah. But he also makes sure I eat properly before my fights and that I show up on time and everything. And if I get too hurt or pass out drunk later he usually drags me home so I'm not in the street somewhere." Vi looks at Caitlyn and winces. "Okay, from your face, I'm thinking I shouldn't have said that last part. Scratch all that." 

"Vi." 

Vi abruptly gets up from the bed, so quickly that Caitlyn jumps a little. "I'm done talking about this. Let's go do something."

"Vi," Caitlyn tries again, but Vi's already getting her boots and jacket on again. 

Vi drags Caitlyn out to a restaurant for dinner, and refuses to let the subject of her... employment be brought up again. So Caitlyn lets it go, because she's well aware she's not going to be able to change Vi's mind on this, but she certainly doesn't like it.

Caitlyn is tired of the nicknames. 

Vi's always using nicknames with her. The most common one is 'cupcake' but she'll cycle through others when she feels like it. And Caitlyn is tired of it, especially during sex.

"Use my name," she tells Vi as she kneels down on the hard floor beside Vi's bed and wraps her hands around the back of Vi's thighs, yanking her closer. "No more nicknames." 

Vi, who had been panting a moment before, freezes. "Uh." 

Caitlyn frowns and looks up at the unusual hesitance. "Are you alright?" 

Vi is wincing. "Yeah, it's just..." 

It then clicks for Caitlyn that she's never actually heard Vi say her name. 

Wait. 

Caitlyn lets go of Vi's legs. "Vi." 

"Mhm." 

"Do you - do you not - do you not know my name?" 

Vi groans and covers her face with her hands, still lying back on the bed. 

Caitlyn is not typically prone to excessive laughter. Or giggling. But this has sent her over the edge.

She's laughing so hard that she's rolling around on the floor. "Vi!"

"You never told me it!" Vi shouts, and Caitlyn laughs harder. "And then it was too late to ask!" 

Caitlyn has tears in her eyes. 

"You don't know my real name," Vi tries. "Vi is a nickname." 

"I assume it's Violet!" 

Vi sighs, defeated, and that just sets Caitlyn off again. 

"Okay, okay," Vi says, "enough, stop rolling around on the floor, it's so dirty." 

Caitlyn lets Vi haul her bodily off the floor and onto the bed, still laughing. Vi tips backward so Caitlyn falls on top of her.

Caitlyn props her elbows on either side of Vi's face and gazes down at her, still smiling. "At what point were you going to ask?" 

"I don't know," Vi says mournfully, but she's smiling too. "I tried looking through your stupid notebook the other day while you were in the shower to see if you wrote your name on the inside or something." 

This makes Caitlyn crack up again. "Like I'm in school? Writing my name on each page?" 

"Well, I don't know. I was out of ideas." Vi starts laughing too when Caitlyn can't stop. "Are you going to tell me?" 

Caitlyn pretends to hem and haw. "Maybe. Maybe I'll make you work for it." Vi gives her an irritated look and Caitlyn breaks. "Fine, alright. It's Caitlyn." 

"Caitlyn," Vi says reverently. "You know what? I'm glad we got that out of the way. That was stressing me out." 

Caitlyn bursts out laughing again. 

Caitlyn is sitting at the bar in The Last Drop when Powder appears next to her. 

"Caitlyn," she says, "what are you doing tonight?" 

Vi has a fight tonight, and therefore Caitlyn has no plans outside of her work. "I'm going to be completing my data analysis for the week."

"Wrong. You're coming with me. I need your help." 

"Where are we going?" 

"Shopping," Powder says, and then raises a hand when Caitlyn starts to protest. "Not for clothes, don't freak out. Although you could use some more outfits." 

"What for, then?"

"I'll show you." Powder's already impatient, despite what Caitlyn considers to be a very reasonable line of questioning. "Come on, let's go, I don't have all night." 

Caitlyn sighs and finishes the last remnants of her tea before getting up. "If you'd given me some warning - " 

Powder's already leading the way out the door. 

"Why me?" Caitlyn asks as she follows Powder down the bustling street. 

"Because you were there," Powder says. "And Vander and Mylo are working the bar tonight, and Claggor's going on a date with Serena."

"Where's Ekko?" 

"Not here."

"What about your other friends?" 

"They're obviously busy," Powder says. "They have jobs and friends and things to do." 

"And I don't?" 

Powder gives her a look. Caitlyn sighs. 

They go to a busy neighbourhood not too far from the Last Drop. The main street is lined with shops, bars, clubs; all the usual undercity businesses. They also run into Claggor and his girlfriend, Serena, who are going for dinner at a restaurant down the street. They chat for a minute, and then Powder drags Caitlyn along to start the shopping.

"Okay," Powder says as they walk into the first shop. "We're looking for this." She pulls a notebook out of the tote over her shoulder and turns to a specific page, showing it to Caitlyn. 

It's a carefully detailed sketch of what looks to be some kind of gear, or piece of machinery. 

"Is that to scale?" Caitlyn asks. 

Powder looks offended. "Yes. Of course it is." 

"Well, I don't know," Caitlyn mutters. She looks around the shop, briefly taken aback. The shop is filled with large boxes of what look like broken pieces of machinery. Caitlyn even spots some old Hextech protoypes thrown in there. "Is there anywhere we should start from, or - " 

"Nope," Powder says, and wanders over to the first bin. "That's why I needed another set of eyes. I'll take this side, you take that side." 

Caitlyn gets to work. It's actually enjoyable, digging through the boxes to see what she can find. The street outside the shop is busy and live music echoes from one of the bars nearby. The shop itself is mostly open to the street, and searching through the scraps of metal turns out to be quite calming. 

Occasionally Caitlyn will hold up what she thinks is the matching item to Powder's diagram. Each time, Powder gives her a disappointed look and goes back to her own search. 

Caitlyn's gone through most of the boxes on her side of the store when she notices that Powder's stopped moving. 

When Caitlyn looks up, she sees that Powder is standing with her hand in one of the boxes, but her eyes on the street. She's holding very still, as if listening for something. 

Unease starts to gather in Caitlyn's body when she looks over at the shop owner, who had been sitting on a chair in the back reading a book. He's also watching the street just like Powder. 

Caitlyn doesn't really see what they're noticing, at first. The street still seems busy enough. The live music has stopped, sure, but that could be nothing. 

What she does start to realize, after a minute, is that the jovial and convivial energy of the crowd outside is gone. There's no laughter, no cheerful shouting, no raucous. Just low murmurs and people moving quickly. 

"Think I'm going to close up for the night," the shop owner says abruptly. "You girls get home safe now." 

Powder nods to him and motions for Caitlyn to come with her as she leaves the store. The moment they step out onto the street, the shop owner pulls down a rolling metal shutter to completely close off the front of the shop.

"Is everything alright?" Caitlyn asks Powder quietly as they walk. Powder is moving quickly, heading back up the street that they came down. 

"How fast can you run?" Powder says instead of answering. 

Well, that doesn't bode well. "Quite fast." 

"Listen," Powder's voice is low. "If we get separated, go straight back to the bar. As fast as you can, no stopping. If no one's there, use your key to get inside and lock it back up behind you. Keep the lights off." 

The street is emptying out. People are hurrying into alleys, storefronts, wherever they can go. Everyone is keeping their heads down and their voices quiet. 

"What's going on?" Caitlyn tries again.

"Just keep - " 

Gunshots sound from both sides of the street and chaos erupts. 

People are flooding into the street from both sides and there is violence everywhere. People are fighting each other with their fists. They're fighting with handheld weapons; batons, clubs, knives. Caitlyn sees one guy with a sword. On top of that, at least a quarter of the crowd are holding guns and they are very actively using them. 

Powder grabs Caitlyn's wrist and yanks her forward through the crowd. She's also now holding a handgun that she must have been carrying in her tote bag. It's the most brightly coloured weapon that Caitlyn has ever seen and she can only assume that Powder designed and built it herself. 

Caitlyn doesn't even understand what's going on. What is this, what's happening - 

But there's no time to think it through. Caitlyn lets the adrenaline flooding her system take over and keeps up with Powder, who is shockingly fast despite being several inches shorter than Caitlyn. 

Powder pulls Caitlyn into an alley and then stops abruptly. Caitlyn has to scramble to not bowl Powder over, and then she sees what Powder's seeing. 

This alley is just as chaotic as the street. People are fistfighting and stabbing each other and it's too narrow to get by. 

"Back, go back," Powder orders, and Caitlyn runs back out onto the street with Powder right behind her. They try another alley, and then another side street, and those are just as bad. 

It's not like a mob, or like a riot, it's more like... a battle. And Caitlyn's beginning to realize that that's exactly what this is. From the way the two groups are dressed, she's guessing it's two chembarons and their people going at each other, and everyone else who is in this area is caught in the literal crossfire. 

"Other side," Powder shouts at Caitlyn, and then drags her by the wrist right back through the chaos of the crowd.

They push their way together to the other side of the street, where Powder tries another way out. That route is just as chaotic and Powder pushes Caitlyn back down the street.

Caitlyn lets Powder keep hold of her wrist, because she does not want to lose Powder in this crowd, but Caitlyn lets her own mind take over the next steps here. Powder knows this place like the back of her hand but all of the routes out of this area are blocked, either by accident or on purpose. They need to regroup and - 

A bullet embeds itself in the brick next to Caitlyn's face, missing her by centimeters. 

Scratch regrouping. They have to get out of this street. 

Caitlyn keeps the buildings to her side and makes her way down the street, Powder right behind her. Up ahead might be - 

There's a hard yank on Caitlyn's arm and she yelps as she's pulled bodily through an open door. Powder tumbles in after her and Caitlyn's eyes quickly adjust to the dimmer light inside the shop.

It's a small shop, and the glass window on the front wall has already been shattered. The shop is empty except for Vi, who is the one who pulled both of them in. 

She's in her jeans and leather jacket, her hair just as wild as always, but now she also has a significant amount of blood covering the wraps around her hands and forearms. Caitlyn's heart seizes for a moment before she realizes that it's likely someone else's blood. Or multiple other people's blood. How did Vi even get here? Wasn't she supposed to be pitfighting tonight? 

Vi slams the door shut behind them and they all duck as more gunfire hits the building.

When Caitlyn looks up, Vi's already pushing Powder towards the back of the store with one hand and reaching back for Caitlyn with the other. 

"Back door," Vi shouts. "Go right and the next left and then up and over - " 

Powder is trying to squirm out of the grip that Vi has on her arm. "Clagg and Selena are down by the old textile store that that nasty old woman used to run - " 

"The one with no hair?" Vi asks. She reaches for Caitlyn again and Caitlyn gives her a look. She's already following, she's right behind. Both of these sisters need to stop pulling Caitlyn everywhere, they're going to dislocate her arms.

Powder makes another attempt at wiggling away. "No, the other one, the one that hit you with a broom." 

"Oh, right," Vi says. "Okay, I'll get him. Now go, come on - " 

Caitlyn can't pinpoint exactly what it is. Movement in the corner of her eye, maybe, or the sixth sense she developed from her time as an Enforcer. She doesn't waste time analyzing it and reaches instead for the handgun that Powder's still holding in the hand that Vi's not pulling on. Caitlyn snatches it from her and turns, focuses, and fires in one movement. 

She's not as good with a handgun as she is with a rifle, but it's not that difficult of a shot. The man is across the street, through the writhing crowd, and his eyes and his gun are fixed on the three of them for some reason. Caitlyn sees his hand start to tense and she pulls the trigger first, and she's fast enough that he drops dead before he gets the shot off. 

Caitlyn turns back around and nearly laughs out loud, despite the seriousness of this situation, because both Vi and Powder are staring at her with identical looks of complete bafflement. 

It's rude, really. They still have no faith in her abilities. 

Vi shakes her head and recovers. She resumes pushing Powder towards the back door, Caitlyn following. 

"Send her out," Powder tells Vi, pointing to Caitlyn, "and I'll go with you - " 

Vi kicks the back door open and shoves Powder out into the alley. "Go, Pow, I've got it." 

"Vi - " Powder tries, but Vi pushes Caitlyn out the door behind her in the same moment and slams the door shut behind them. 

Caitlyn does get one quick glare in at Vi before the door shuts, and she could swear she sees Vi smirk a little. 

"Fuck!" Powder shouts, and then takes off down the tiny alley. 

Caitlyn and Powder follow Vi's instructions. It gets them clear of the chaos and they run all the way back to the bar. 

The normally lively streets are quiet. Businesses are locked and shuttered and apartment windows have curtains drawn. Even though most of the fighting was fairly localized, it looks like everywhere else has locked up just in case. 

The Last Drop is empty as well, locked up tight with only Mylo inside. He's pacing back and forth when they get there, and he keeps pacing when Powder explains what's happened. 

Caitlyn makes some nice glasses of ice water for each of them and then they all sit and wait. 

And wait. 

And wait. 

Claggor and Serena, his girlfriend, don't come back. Vi doesn't make an appearance. Vander's gone too, although Mylo tells them he's off making sure that the conflict doesn't spread to their part of the Lanes. Ekko is also apparently out with another group of friends, in another part of the city. 

When the waiting stretches on too long, Powder and Mylo start murmuring about going back to look for Claggor and Serena. Vi is apparently a wild card; it sounds like it's 50/50 if she'll swing by after something like this. 

Mylo gets up from his chair. "We'll leave Caitlyn to watch the bar."

"You will not," Caitlyn says, offended. 

Mylo's already by the door. "Someone's gotta stay. Looters usually make the rounds after something like this. Can't have the place empty." 

Caitlyn gets up and puts her hands on her hips. She's not going to stay here while Vi could be hurt out there somewhere. "And what if someone needs medical attention? How are your medical skills? Because mine are excellent." 

Mylo scowls. Caitlyn wins the argument. 

Powder and Caitlyn set off again. Even as they're heading back the way they came, businesses are starting to open again and people are emerging from their homes. It seems that the main conflict is over and now it's time to clean up. 

They run into Vander, who was apparently on his way back to check on them, and he turns around to join them. They make good time, even though the streets are dim and gloomy. The neon signs and garish streetlights that illuminate this part of the undercity have been broken and damaged in the chaos, likely from stray bullets, and it has cast an already dark area into deeper gloom. 

The scene that greets them when they arrive back at the original street is about what Caitlyn had expected. The chembarons' people are gone, leaving behind dead bodies, smashed glass, bullet casings, and debris. Caitlyn's no stranger to violence, but the amount of innocent people who were caught in what was essentially a gang war startles her. All over the street, people are picking up their loved ones, bandaging their wounds, and already starting to repair the damage to their businesses. 

It's Caitlyn who first spots Serena through the darkness. Serena is standing at the far end of the street, waving to them. 

"Good eye," Vander murmurs when Caitlyn points her out. 

When they reach Serena, she's visibly sobbing. Caitlyn's heart sinks until she hears Vi's voice from nearby. 

"He's alright," Vi calls as they approach. "We're in here." 

Serena, still crying, leads them into an even darker alleyway off the main street. It's narrow and quiet, and Claggor is sitting on the ground with his back against the wall. Vi is standing next to him, one hand on his forehead holding him steady and the other doing something to his hair. 

He's awake and seems alert as they get closer, but Caitlyn winces at the blood streaming down his face. 

"Yikes," Powder says, which makes Claggor laugh a little. 

"He's okay," Vi says, not taking her eyes off whatever it is that she's doing. "A little concussed and a little cut up, but he'll be fine." 

Vander leans over Vi's shoulder, trying to see the wound through Claggor's hair. "That's going to need stitches." 

"Yeah, I just - one sec," Vi mutters. "Pow, you got a light?" 

Powder pulls a flashlight out of the tote bag she's still carrying, which apparently has a bizarre amount of useful items in it. She flicks it on and holds it above Vi's hands. 

"Great, hold that still," Vi says. "I've almost got - stop moving, Clagg." 

Claggor is leaning against Vi's leg now, wincing. "Stop doing that then." 

Serena, who is still crying softly, shuffles up next to Caitlyn. Caitlyn is not known for her warmth or comfort skills, to say the least, but it's easy enough to put an arm around the girl. 

"There," Vi says triumphantly. She holds up a shard of what might be a part of a glass bottle. Fresh blood pours down Claggor's face, but he already looks more relaxed. "Now we can actually put something on it without making it worse." She looks around, her eyes landing on Serena before turning back to Claggor. "Clagg. What's your girlfriend's name?" 

"Serena," Claggor mumbles. 

Vi glances back at Caitlyn and Serena. "Serena, can I use that sweater?" 

Caitlyn helps Serena out of her neat blue cardigan and passes it to Vi. Their hands brush for a split second and Caitlyn could swear Vi winks at her before turning back around. 

Vi uses the sweater to stem the flow of blood, which starts to work nearly right away. 

"Let's get him back to the bar," Vander suggests. "We can get him stitched up there. Claggor, you alright to walk?" 

"Yes," Claggor says, but he sways when he gets to his feet. Vander and Vi both sling one of his arms over their shoulders, steadying him immediately like they've practiced this. 

They all set off back to The Last Drop. It's a slow procession. 

"I'm fine," Claggor insists. "I can walk by myself." 

"Suit yourself," Vi says, and ducks out from under his arm. Claggor immediately lists to the side. 

"Violet," Vander warns. Vi shakes her head and moves to support Claggor again. 

It's strange seeing Vi with her family like this. Caitlyn had expected there to be more... animosity, or outright anger, considering Vi's insistence that her family have little to no contact with her. On the other hand, she's seen how desperate Vi's family is to have her around and in their lives. 

So Caitlyn had expected arguing or steadfast silence, but Vi chatters away as they walk back, keeping Claggor awake and talking. Claggor keeps beaming at Vi as they walk, clearly overjoyed to have her around. Even Vander is talking with them, the low rumble of his voice echoing through the still quiet streets. 

Powder's a little subdued, trailing behind with her arms crossed, her eyes fixed on Vi. 

They make it back to the bar and Vi and Vander set Claggor down at a table near the bar counter. Powder goes to get the medical supplies and Caitlyn starts filling up a jug of water and gathering some cloths. 

"Oh, shit," Mylo comments when he sees the blood covering Claggor's face. "What was it? Someone get you with a bottle?" 

"Yeah," Claggor grumbles. Serena starts sniffling again.

Next to Claggor, Vi rolls out her shoulders. "Ugh, you're heavy now, Clagg. I used to be able to drag you back here all on my own." 

"That's not Clagg's fault, Vi," Mylo says cheerfully. "You're just getting old. Washed up." 

The look of indignation on Vi's face nearly makes Caitlyn laugh out loud as she brings the water over to where Claggor's sitting. 

"Old?" Vi says. "Washed up? You wanna back that statement up, Mylo?" 

Mylo grins, clearly getting the reaction he wanted. "Yeah." He goes over to an empty table and leans forward on it, resting his elbow on the surface. He props his hand up and waggles his fingers at Vi tauntingly. 

Vi narrows her eyes and takes up the challenge, going over to lean on the table across from him, mimicking his posture. 

"Vi, don't break his arm," Vander says as Caitlyn hands him a damp towel. He starts cleaning some of the blood away from the nasty cut in Claggor's hair. "We're already patching up one of them tonight." 

Mylo's mouth drops open. "That's how little faith you have in me?" 

"Are we betting?" Claggor asks, trying to twist around in the chair to see the action. "Because my money's on Vi." 

"Thank you, Clagg," Vi says. She clasps Mylo's hand in hers just as Powder comes back in with the medical supplies. 

"Don't break his arm," Powder snaps. 

"Oh, come on," Mylo says, but Claggor's smiling now and Serena's stopped sniffling. Vander just shakes his head, but there's a hint of a smile on his face too. 

"Ready?" Vi says. "Three, two, one - " 

The arm-wrestle is over so quickly that Caitlyn doesn't even really see it happen. An instant after Vi counts down, Mylo is twisted on the table, yelping. Vi's already forced his arm flat onto the table. 

"Too easy," Vi says, disappointed. She stands up as Mylo dramatically rolls off the table onto the floor. She glances over at Caitlyn, who is helping Vander clean Claggor up, and Caitlyn has to look away as their eyes meet. If Vi really wants Caitlyn to keep this a secret, she has to stop looking at her like that. 

"Pow, are you going to stitch him up?" Vi asks. 

"Caitlyn can do it," Powder says, frowning down at the blood matting Claggor's hair. "She's better at it." 

Caitlyn can't help but beam. She's only shown off her medical skills a few times, on just some minor injuries Mylo and Ekko came back with one night, but Powder has never given Caitlyn a direct compliment like that before.

"Go shower first," Vander orders Claggor. "We're not going to be able to get this cleaned out like this. You okay to stand?" 

"Yes," Claggor says, but once again sways a little. Serena grabs his arm and helps lead him toward the stairs. 

"Mylo, go with them in case he needs help," Vander says.

Mylo sighs but gets up off the floor, where he'd been dramatically holding the arm he'd tried to wrestle Vi with. "Fine. But Vi, this isn't over. I'm just having an off day. Next time you won't stand a chance." 

"Uh huh," Vi says flatly, but she smiles at Mylo as he heads for the stairs. 

"Can you show me what you have?" Caitlyn asks Powder, motioning to their medical kit. Powder had restocked it since its last use. Powder opens it and starts taking out the supplies so Caitlyn can look through them. 

Vi is leaning against the table next to them, watching them work, when Vander speaks up. 

"Vi," he says, with a careful tone of voice that Caitlyn's not familiar with. "Don't you have to get going?" 

Vi frowns. "No." 

"Are you sure?" Vander says. "You're not going to be late?" 

Vi's frown turns into a full scowl. She crosses her arms over her chest. "No. I want to make sure Clagg's okay before I leave." 

Powder doesn't look up from the medical supplies she's sorting through. "That's not going to be for at least an hour, probably longer." 

Vi shrugs without uncrossing her arms. "I'll wait." 

Powder and Vander exchange a look. It's obvious enough that Caitlyn notices, despite not being entirely sure of what's going on here, and Vi clearly does too because her glare deepens. 

"I just don't want you to get into trouble," Vander says. His tone is low and soft and he's very clearly trying not to raise the tension in the room. 

It doesn't work. 

"Trouble?" Vi snaps. "Am I a child? I'm not going to get into trouble." 

"That's not what we've heard," Powder mutters. 

Vi's glare snaps to her. "Pow, stay out of this." 

Caitlyn wonders if she can very quietly walk backwards until she's out of the bar and out of... whatever this argument is. 

"It'll take you a while to get there," Vander tries. 

"I know," Vi snaps. "I know what I'm doing." 

Powder slams a bottle of antiseptic against the table. "You definitely don't." 

Vi glares at her. "Watch it, Pow." 

Caitlyn debates crawling under the table and then continuing to crawl out the bar doors. The temptation to speak up and try to shut this argument down is strong, but it's not Caitlyn's place. This isn't her family, this isn't her home, and frankly it feels like she's missing a ton of context here.

"Vi," Vander says warningly. 

She scoffs. "If you want me to go, you can just say that."

"We don't want that," Vander says. "Don't twist my words." 

Vi glares at him and pushes away from the table, heading to the door. The three of them watch her go, the heavy door slamming behind her. 

Vander sighs, turning away for a moment. Powder has the supplies completely organized by now but she keeps shuffling things around, keeping her head down. 

"I can do this," Caitlyn offers carefully, "if you want to sit down for a minute." 

Powder stops, still not looking up, and then walks away without another word, keeping her face turned away from Caitlyn as she goes for the stairs. 

Silence falls once she's gone. Caitlyn carefully starts opening some of the supplies to get ready for when Claggor comes back in. 

Vander speaks up after a moment. "Sorry about that." 

Caitlyn glances up at him. "Oh. No need to apologize." 

Vander is leaning on one of the tables, staring at nothing. He looks so devastated that Caitlyn has to look away. 

"She will get in trouble," Vander says quietly. "She's going to be late for her fight tonight. If she's late, they won't give her the money she earns. If she's really late, they'll beat her before they throw her in the ring." 

Caitlyn freezes, and then makes herself start quietly working again. 

"I can't stop her from going," Vander continues. "If I could, I would have. But at least now..." 

"I understand," Caitlyn says. She's spared from saying anything else by noise on the stairs. Claggor, Serena, and Mylo all return, Claggor looking much better now that he's cleaned up. Powder doesn't come back. 

Caitlyn stitches Claggor up and heads back to her own place. She should be exhausted, after a night like that, but her mind spins and spins and it's not until the early hours of the morning when she drifts off. 

Chapter Text

There are four ways to win a pitfight.

The first, and the most common way, is to injure your opponent badly enough that they tap out. 

The second is to get your opponent pinned down and keep them there until the ref calls the match. 

The third is to knock your opponent out.

The fourth is to kill your opponent. 

What pisses Vi off the most is that Vander was right. 

She's running through Zaun, taking every shortcut she knows (including the more dangerous ones that she'd usually avoid), and she's still going to be late. And she is going to get into trouble. 

Vi throws caution to the wind and cuts through a particularly nasty chembaron's territory. She usually wouldn't risk it, but at this point anything the chembaron does to her is going to be better than what's going to happen if she misses her fight. 

She lucks out. No one bothers her, and she saves a ton of time. They must be all tuckered out from their little skirmish earlier, because the streets are pretty quiet still. 

When she finally arrives, Loris is standing outside the side entrance waiting for her. 

"You're late," he bellows at her as she runs up. 

"I know!" she yells back, and charges right past him through the door. 

He follows her in, jogging after her as she runs down deeper into the building. "Where were you?" 

"Didn't you see what was happening out there?" Vi shouts over her shoulder, her voice echoing off of the damp concrete walls. "I was trying to not get killed." 

"That ended hours ago." 

"My brother got hurt," Vi snaps as she runs down another flight of stairs. "I had to make sure he was okay." 

"Where's your concern for yourself?" Loris grumbles as he keeps pace with her. "You know what happens when you're late." 

Vi nearly bodychecks someone into a wall as she runs by them. "Well, I'm here now." 

"I'll tell them. Go get ready." 

Vi careens around another corner, nearly missing another group of people, and then shoulders her way into the grody locker room.

She trips on a guy lying on the tile just inside the door and nearly knocks her teeth out. She catches herself at the last second and launches upright again. 

"Asshole," she yells at the guy. She doesn't recognize him, so he must be new. "Why are you right behind the door?" 

"Fuck off," he groans. He's sprawled out in a pool of blood. 

Vi gets to her locker and starts working on the lock. "That's a lot of blood, man. You're gonna die if you don't get fixed up." 

"I'll be fine." 

Vi shrugs. Not her problem. "Whatever." She gets her locker open and starts yanking her stuff out. Sitting down on one of the grimy benches, she starts switching her boots from the pair she wore today to the pair she prefers for fighting.

This locker room is one of the most disgusting rooms in this entire building, which is saying something considering she's pretty sure this is one of the most derelict buildings in all of Zaun. This room is deep in the basement of the building and therefore has no windows, and it's only lit by flickering fluorescent lights on the ceiling. There's a row of filthy sinks along one wall with a few mirrors, some of them broken, and then around the corner there's a shower stall that Vi has only used once because it's so unbelievably gross.

And she was in Stillwater for ten years. So she knows what gross is. 

The guy on the floor groans again.

Vi finishes with her boots and yanks her jacket and tank top off, throwing them both into her locker. Her hands and arms are already wrapped, thankfully, but she doesn't think she's going to have enough time to do both her breasts and her ribs today, which sucks. She fucked up some of her ribs a few months back and now if she doesn't wrap them too they'll start aching even if she doesn't get hit. She starts with her breasts, because there's no fucking way she's going out there without that done, but she's only just got the material over the top of her ribs when Loris comes back in. 

"Told them you're here," Loris says. "You've got ten minutes."

"Ten?! Tell them I need twenty." 

"I tried. There's no way. Crowd's already worked up enough." 

Vi groans and gives up on finishing wrapping her ribs. She digs through her locker to see if she has any other jeans here, and then she groans again when it turns out that she doesn't. Fine, she's wearing her good jeans to fight tonight then. 

Vi grabs the small bag that holds her makeup and goes over to the slimy sink with the broken mirror above it. 

"Did you eat?" Loris asks. 

"Ah, fuck," Vi mutters. "No. I forgot." 

"Vi, come on." 

"I was going to," Vi snaps as she starts on her face, dragging the dark makeup over the tattoo on her cheekbone and then down her neck. "I got a little distracted because, like I told you, my brother got hurt." 

Loris sighs. "Did you eat lunch at least?" 

"Yeah." 

"How much?" 

"Like half a sandwich." 

"Vi." 

"I forgot." 

It's not that Vi doesn't like eating. She loves food. She loves not being hungry. But if there isn't any food in her apartment, which there usually never is because she always forgets to pick up groceries from the market, she'll just go get whatever sounds best to her at the time. Which, unfortunately, is usually some kind of dessert or snack and not a real meal.

So she relies on Loris to come get her on the days that she fights, and he usually takes her to get a real meal with actual protein. But with everything that had gone on today, she'd completely missed it and now she doesn't have time. 

Vi finishes with her makeup and starts on her hair. She usually tries to cover up as much of her natural colour as possible, and so she grabs the temporary dye she uses and starts smearing it into her hair. It's not pretty and it feels disgusting, but it gets the job done. Her hair has grown out so much now that this step takes way too long on a good day, and she's probably not going to have time to finish it.

"You've had water today, right?" 

Vi has to think about that too. "I don't know." 

Loris sighs again and hands her his water bottle. She takes it and chugs it down, ignoring his grimace when she hands it back to him with hair dye smeared all over it. 

"Five minutes," one of the coordinators shouts through the door. Despite being an illegal pitfighting arena, this place runs like clockwork. 

Vi groans and rushes to finish her hair. When she's done as much as she can, she tries to clean her hands up without messing up her wraps. 

"Your hands," Loris says. Vi looks down and sees that her stupid fucking hands have started to tremble. 

It's probably not that noticeable to anyone other than her and Loris, but her heart sinks. She was with Caitlyn all morning, and then after Caitlyn left Vi fell back asleep, and then when she'd left her apartment she'd been caught up in all the stupid chembaron chaos, and then the stuff with Claggor, and then she came right here - 

And so without even noticing, she hasn't had anything to drink today. 

"Here," Loris says gently, handing her his own flask. She scowls, even though this fucking mess she's in is completely her own fault and not his, but she takes it. She gets down the equivalent of probably only two shots before he takes it back and says, "enough." 

"It's not," she snaps. It's also probably not going to hit her system in time to get her hands to stop shaking, but at least she won't go any further into withdrawal now. 

"You just said you haven't eaten anything," Loris reminds her. "It'll be enough." 

Vi grabs all her things and throws them back into her locker. She's just turning back around when the coordinator comes back and yells at her to get moving. 

Loris goes with her to the gate. 

"I'm gonna lose," she mutters to him as the crowd screams. Someone must have just won. 

"Maybe with that attitude," Loris says. 

She glares at him, because she's not wrong about this. She's in bad shape today. She hasn't eaten, she ran all the way here so she's already tired and sweaty, and she already used a ton of her strength today fighting her way through that mob earlier and then getting Claggor back to the bar. 

She's also not... well, brimming with rage like she usually is. 

That's usually what gets her the win. Her opponents might be good fighters, but most of them aren't filled with burning, all-consuming rage like she is and so they don't stand a chance against her. 

But today, it's just not there. She's tired. She wants to go home. 

For the first time since she started fighting, Vi thinks, "I don't want to do this."

Vi remembers at the last second that she left her piercings in. She frantically yanks her earcuffs and her other earrings out and her nose piercing and shoves them at Loris, who makes a face but takes them as the gate rises and then spotlight swings to her. Time's up, she has to go. 

Vi steps out and the crowd screams. 

The first few years that Vi was in Stillwater, she had a very specific fantasy that she would think about every night when she fell asleep. 

It was the only way that she could sleep. Otherwise she'd lie awake, sobbing silently in the darkness, scared and cold and in pain and so, so lonely. 

So instead she'd close her eyes and pretend that she was at the bar. In the fantasy, she was sitting at her favourite table in the corner. Vander was behind the bar, serving drinks, and Powder and Ekko were running around underfoot. Mylo and Claggor were playing cards at one of the other tables. It was warm and cozy and she felt safe. 

About three or four years in, she'd dropped that fantasy. Didn't need it anymore. By then she could fall asleep just by closing her eyes, because being in the dark (still scared and cold and in pain and so, so lonely) was just her life and she was used to it. It also seemed irrational to still hang on to that concept of her family; they would all be so much older, and maybe some of them were dead or they didn't have the bar anymore. So she made herself stop imagining it. 

Sometimes it still drifted back in though. Usually when she was in solitary, where she went so completely insane that an irrational fantasy about being safe at home was one of the more normal thoughts she would have. 

Now sometimes she puts Caitlyn in the fantasy, which is even more ridiculous because it's not like that would ever happen. Caitlyn's leaving in a few months anyway, and Vi will probably never see her again. Plus, Vi would never just be sitting in the bar because her family hates her. So it would never, ever happen. 

But sometimes she imagines being in the bar, and Vander is still behind the counter serving drinks, but this time Mylo and Claggor are their grown-up selves and they're helping him. Powder and Ekko are at their own favourite table, working on their projects, and Vi is at hers and Caitlyn is beside her sharing a drink with her. 

She knows it's ridiculous. 

But it's a fantasy, so whatever. 

Vi loses. 

Badly. 

She really does try her best. The woman she's fighting is massive, at least a head taller than Vi and easily a hundred pounds heavier, but Vi still gets a couple of good hits in despite being off her game. 

The fight drags on for almost five minutes, which is good because the crowd likes a longer fight, but when it ends, it ends fast. 

The woman gets Vi's feet out from under her and Vi goes down hard, barely catching herself before her face hits the ground. Then Vi makes the stupid mistake of pushing herself up with her arms first, instead of getting her legs underneath her at the same time. So for a brief second, Vi's kneeling on the ground as she goes to get up, and that's all it takes. 

The woman kicks Vi in the stomach. It's a bad, bad hit. 

Vi goes down and the woman gets on top of her, pinning her down. Vi tries to struggle free but not only is the pain drowning her, that kick knocked the wind right out of her lungs and she can't fucking breathe. Her diaphragm spasms hard enough that she can't even wheeze a breath. 

Over the roar of the crowd, Vi can faintly hear the ref counting down. Vi's opponent is yelling at her to tap out, which Vi has never done and will never do, so Vi keeps struggling and struggling even though she can't breathe and her stomach hurts so badly that she can't think, until the ref calls it and Vi's opponent gets up. 

They have to drag Vi out. She tries to get up when they grab her arms and start hauling her out, but she still can't breathe and her vision is blurring in and out. 

They throw her into the locker room and leave. Vi curls up on the slimy tile floor and wraps her arms around her throbbing stomach. She tucks her head against her knees and tries to get some air in but it still doesn't work. 

The fluorescent lights flicker above her. The tile is cold against her bare arms and shoulders. She's hungry and tired and she's pretty sure the guy lying on the floor is dead now, surrounded by blood. 

If she were in a better mood, she might think it's almost funny how much this place is like Stillwater. 

A hand on her arm.

Vi knocks it away, hard. 

"Stop that," Loris says. "I'm trying to help you." 

He takes her by the shoulders, even as she tries to push him away again, and sits her up against the wall. She pulls her knees in to her chest again and keeps her arms wrapped tightly around her stomach. 

Vi squeezes her eyes shut and tries to get a deeper breath in. She's got a little more air now, but it's not more than a rasping wheeze. 

"Anything broken?" Loris asks. 

Vi shakes her head. 

"You sure? Your ribs alright?" 

She nods, not opening her eyes. 

"Okay. Slow your breathing. You're trying too hard." 

She does open her eyes then, to give the full effect of her glare without having to try and speak. But she does try and gasp for air a little more slowly, and after a few minutes she starts to get some real breaths back in. 

"Want some water?" 

Vi shakes her head. 

Loris huffs a laugh. "Want something else to drink?" 

She nods and takes one of her arms away from her stomach to take the flask he gives her. She's trembling so badly that she nearly spills it before taking a good swig. 

"Feeling better?" Loris asks her after a minute, once her breathing has steadied further. 

"Yeah," Vi croaks. Her voice sounds terrible. 

"Are you sure you didn't break anything? That looked... pretty bad." 

Vi slowly stretches her legs out and tugs at the wraps around the top of her ribs, pulling them up until they're just under her breasts. 

Loris winces. Vi doesn't blame him. Her stomach is covered in dirt and mud from the woman's boot, but underneath that her skin is bright red from the kick. It's right between her ribs, directly over her stomach and then down most of her abdomen. While her skin is red now, it'll change to bruising soon enough. 

Or a hematoma, or whatever the fuck Caitlyn called it. 

Fuck. Caitlyn. She's going to be so mad about this one. 

"Well," Loris says eventually. "There's always next time." 

Vi takes another swig from his flask. 

"Hey," he protests, and takes it back from her shaking hand. "Enough, that's mine. Come on, get cleaned up. We'll go get you your own whiskey." 

Vi takes his hand and lets him pull her to her feet. He leaves to go talk to the coordinators and Vi stumbles around the locker room, trying to get herself together. 

Her stomach hurts so badly that she can't straighten up. She manages to get the wraps off her ribs and breasts, which helps a bit, and clumsily pulls her tank top and jacket back on. 

She still refuses to use that shower, so her hair dye and makeup will stay on, but she tries to clean her bloody hands off in the sink as best she can. 

The guy on the floor is definitely dead. Hasn't made a sound since she came back in here. 

That's what happens when a fighter doesn't have a Loris, she thinks as she throws her stuff back in her locker. That guy had no one making sure he wasn't bleeding out after his fight. 

The first bar is crowded, but Vi still can't stand up properly so she takes a table from some people who try to throw a fit about it and then see the group Vi came in with. They take off pretty quickly after that and Vi curls up in her chair and shoves money at Loris to go get her drinks so she doesn't have to stand up. 

After a while, she's nice and drunk and therefore her body doesn't hurt as much. She still can't really use her core muscles but now she's drunk enough not to care.

Loris gives her back her piercings and her ear cuffs, which she'd already forgotten about. 

"Oh, shit," she says, taking them from his outstretched hand. "How'd I forget?" 

"Here, I'll put 'em in," Carlie slurs from the chair next to Vi's. Carlie is the girlfriend of another fighter, Yuri, so she's always around. Vi doesn't mind her but she hates Yuri. "Here. Here. I'll do it." 

Vi closes her hands around the jewelry. "No. I'll just do it later." But her hands are so dirty, even though she'd tried to clean them. "No, actually I'll get Cait to do it. She'll put them back in for me." 

"Who's Cait?" Carlie asks, draining the last of her beer. "Is that your new girlfriend? 

Vi groans and slumps down in her chair. "I want her to be but she's not. 'Cause, she's gonna leave. So I haven't asked." 

"Where's she going?" 

Vi waves a hand vaguely. "Away." She tries to sit back up, because she's about to slide right off her chair, but her core muscles are still fucked and so she does slide halfway onto the floor. "Ow, fuck." 

Carlie starts giggling. "Yuri! Can you come help Vi?" 

"No," Vi says from the floor. "I don't want his help. Fuck him. Carlie. He sucks. He sucks so bad." 

"He doesn't!" 

"Carlie," Vi says with as much seriousness as she can muster in her current state. She's now completely on the floor, so she pats Carlie's knee instead of her shoulder. "Carlie. There are so many men. So many. You can pick. Another one." 

"I don't want another one!" 

Vi gives up and then uses her arms to haul herself back into her chair. Her core muscles may have failed her but her arms will never. 

She clumsily shoves her piercings into her jacket pocket. 

Carlie's off somewhere with Yuri. Vi's still at the table because she can't get up. But it's fine, because she's been throwing coins at Loris whenever she wants another drink and if she hits him with enough coins to buy one for himself too, he'll go and get her one. 

There's a new guy at Vi's table, talking to her all starry-eyed. He's young, younger than Vi, and she's never met him directly but she's heard some of the others talk about him. He's brand new but he's already got the betting pools in a frenzy, apparently. 

Vi personally wouldn't bet on this guy winning anything. She's been doing this a while and she can tell that he just doesn't have it. Sure, he's big and tall and all muscled-up but he doesn't have the viciousness or the anger to make it. 

That's how Vi's made it this far. She's smaller than nearly all of her opponents, usually by a lot. She's fast and strong but so are a lot of the other fighters. But Vi's also burning with rage. She has so much of it that when she lets it out during a fight, she wins nearly every time. 

"What's your name again?" she asks him, slouching down in her chair when her stomach starts flashing with pain. "Actually, never mind. I'm not gonna remember." 

"I just want to say that it's a real honour," the guy says. 

"What is?" 

"Uh," he says, "getting to talk to you. You're like, the best of the best, you know?"

Vi makes a face and tries to reach for her whiskey without moving her abdomen. "Thanks, I guess." 

"Do you maybe - do you have any advice for me?" he asks, looking at her with adoration. 

Which is insane. 

"No," Vi snorts. "Wait, you know what? I do. I actually do. Get the fuck out of this while you can." 

His face falls. 

"No, I mean it," Vi insists. "Don't do this, man. Do literally anything else instead." 

The guy looks crushed. "I need the money." 

Vi tries to shake her head, but she's drunk enough that the back of her head just thunks against her chair. "There's other ways. Look. Here. I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you out, okay?" She clunks her whiskey back down on the table and then uses her hands to sit up, tilting forward until she's slumped over the table. "You know Sevika?" 

He looks alarmed. "Uh, I've heard of her, but I don't know her." 

"Great," Vi says. "If you're willing to do this shit," she waves a hand vaguely toward the various fighters filling the bar, "then you're probably okay with getting your hands dirty. So go find Sevika and tell her that. And then tell her that I sent you. But also you have to tell her that she fucking sucks." 

Now he really looks alarmed. "You want me to... find Sevika and tell her that she sucks?" 

Vi cracks up and then has to grab her stomach when her aching muscles spasm. "No! Fuck no. No, go find Sevika and tell her that you need to make a lot of money fast and you're good with dirty work, and then tell her that I sent you. And then tell her that Vi said that she fucking sucks. Got it?" 

He still looks concerned. "She's not going to be mad that you said that?" 

Vi laughs again. "No, she is. Actually, tell her to go fuck herself instead. That'll be even better." 

"Okay," he says slowly. "Uh, thanks for your time." 

"I'm trying to help you!" Vi yells after him as he leaves, and then finishes the rest of her whiskey and slumps back in her chair. 

She wants to go home. 

They got kicked out of that bar and now they're in line for another one, which Vi would usually hate. Waiting in line is so boring, especially when she doesn't really want to go into this bar in the first place. But it's working in her favour tonight because since they got in line, Vi's already had to stumble off into an alley twice so she can throw up. If she does that inside the bar she's going to get kicked out for sure, and then she'll be on her own. So better that it happens now before she goes inside. 

Vi also still can't straighten up properly, even though it's been hours now since she got hurt, so she's slumped against Loris. 

"Just lemme sit down," she tells him. "We're not even moving. So why can't I sit down." 

"You're going to get stepped on," he says, annoyed. They're only at the second bar of the night and he's already annoyed with her, so it's not a great start. 

"I don't care," Vi nearly whines. 

Yuri groans. "Shut up." 

"You shut up," Vi snaps. "You shut the fuck up." 

"Guys, don't," Carlie pleads. "Come on, we'll be inside in a few minutes, okay? Everyone just needs to keep it together until then." 

Carlie pulls Yuri a few steps away. Vi tries to sit down again and Loris yanks her back up. 

"Let's just go," Vi protests. "I don't want to go in there, I want to go home. I don't feel well." 

"Then go." 

"I don't know where I am!" 

"You'll find your way." 

Vi groans. 

"Vi," Carlie calls. "There's some guy over there staring at you." 

"Uh oh," Vi says. "That sentence usually doesn't lead to anything good." She turns around and overbalances, stumbling until Loris grabs her arm and pulls her back. "Oh, it's just Ekko!" 

He's across the street with a group of people she doesn't recognize. He's watching her, but he looks wary. 

"Ekko!" she shouts, and pulls her arm out of Loris' grasp even though he tries to hang onto her. "Hey!" 

Vi stumbles across the street and clumsily pulls him into a hug. 

"Hey, Vi," Ekko says into her ear. He hugs her back, which is good because she's not doing great at standing on her own right now. "Are you okay?" 

"Sure," she says. "What're you doing here? Is Pow with you?" 

"No, she's at home." He doesn't say anything else, so Vi pulls back with a frown. 

"Are you two okay?" 

"Uh," he says, too hesitant. "Yeah. I guess." 

"Ekko! Did you two break up?" 

"No!" he insists. "No. We didn't. Just - we just had a fight. A small one. No big deal." 

Vi relaxes a little. "Man, don't scare me like that. What happened?" 

"It's not a big deal," Ekko repeats.

Fine, fine. He doesn't have to tell her if he doesn't want to. "Okay," she says. "Keep your secrets." He huffs a laugh, and Vi looks at him for a minute. "Hey. Ekko." 

"Yeah?" 

She pulls him back into a hug. "I'm really proud of you." 

He scoffs. "For what?" 

"For everything," she mumbles into his shoulder. It's so weird that they're the same height now. "I mean it. You got dealt such a shitty hand and you did such good things with it. You are doing such good things. Most people just end up like me. All fucked up. And that could have been you but you didn't let it. You're doing all this stuff for everyone who lives here and it's gonna make things better for so many people." 

Ekko is quiet for a long moment before he speaks. "Vi..." 

"I'm serious," she insists, pulling back. She keeps her hands on his shoulders, both to make her point and also to keep herself upright. She's still got another bar to go to after this one and she's already getting the damn spins. "I know you and Pow have been working on all your projects for a long time but the ones you've done... people see it but I don't think you get enough credit for it. Fixing that part of the vents that broke in the cave-in? Ekko, that's amazing. So many kids are gonna grow up with better air than we did now." 

Ekko looks like he might cry. 

"Shit," Vi says. "Sorry. Was that too much? I meant it though." 

"No," Ekko says. "No, just - " 

Pain flashes in her abdomen again and she groans, doubling over. She staggers over to the wall of the club that Ekko had been standing outside with his friends and slumps again it, wincing as nausea surges in her aching stomach. 

"Vi?" Ekko sounds alarmed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she manages, and then slides down the wall so she's sitting on the ground. Loris is probably glaring at her from across the street but whatever. "Nothing, I'm good." 

"You don't look good," Ekko says, crouching down in front of her. "You look like shit, actually." 

Vi laughs and then winces. "Thanks." 

"What happened? You had a fight tonight, did you lose?" 

"Big time," Vi says, and then squeezes her eyes shut as nausea floods her again. She hates this. 

"How hurt are you?" Ekko asks. When she ignores him, he tries again. "Vi. Come on. Talk to me." 

"No," she mumbles, pulling her knees into her chest. It's the only thing that feels comfortable right now. "You should... go back to your friends." 

"Let me take you home. You shouldn't be out here like this." 

Vi looks up from her knees, scowling. "You don't know where I live." 

"No, but you do, I hope. You can tell me where. Or I can take you back to the bar." 

Vi rolls her head back and forth on the wall behind her. "No way." 

"Come on. Your room is still there. You can stay just for tonight. We won't bother you if you don't want us to. We'll just know that you're safe." 

"No," Vi says again. It's not that she doesn't want to. She does. She does. She does. But she can't. Especially not like this, not tonight, not when she's such a mess. But she's a mess every night, or at least she was until Caitlyn showed up. But she'll be a mess again when Caitlyn leaves, so. 

"Everyone's there tonight. Powder will still be awake, you can hang out with her." 

Vi scowls. "She's still pissed at me. She doesn't want me there." 

"Oh, for - " Ekko starts, and then cuts himself off. "Vi. She's not. That fight was ages ago, she got over it right away." 

"Well, I didn't." Vi's not lying. She'd cried about what she'd shouted at Powder in anger a few months ago nearly every night for weeks. 

"Then come talk to her about it. She - " 

"Vi!" Carlie shouts from across the street. "Vi, we're going in!" 

"That's my cue," Vi tells Ekko. "Gotta go." She uses the wall for support as she gets up. 

"You owe us all another round!" Yuri calls from across the street.

"Fuck you," Vi yells back at him. "I don't owe you shit!" 

"Vi, just wait," Ekko says. He reaches for her but she stumbles out of the way.

"I'll talk to you later," she tells him. "Bye, Ekko, I love you." 

He tries to catch her again, but Vi's already halfway across the street. She knows Ekko is following her, but Loris grabs her when she catches up with the group and gets her through the door. She doesn't think he says anything to Ekko, which is for the best because Ekko and the rest of Vi's family hate Loris. Which isn't fair because they don't even know him really. So it's best that they just don't interact. 

They shouldn't have waited in line for that bar because it's not even fun. The drinks are overpriced and the music is bad and Vi really wishes she'd just gone with Ekko. 

The tables are all full and so Vi has to stand for what feels like hours, which hurts, and then they go to another club after that, which is even worse. 

The club has couches, at least, so Vi finds an empty one and curls up with yet another overpriced drink. People come and go and try to talk to her, but she's so out of it by then that she's not doing a great job of holding a conversation. 

She tunes in and out. Finishes a drink and then pays someone else in the group to bring her another one when Loris isn't around. 

"Should someone take her home?" the guy Vi had spoken to earlier in the night, the newbie, says at one point. "She doesn't look very good." 

"Nobody will risk it except Loris," Yuri tells him. "She gets real mean when she's drunk. She's such a bitch, man, you don't even know - " 

"Fuck you," Vi says, and throws her drink at him. It must have been a cheap glass because it breaks when it hits Yuri's face, which is honestly even more satisfying than she intended. 

Yuri throws a big fit about it and Vi gets kicked out. Which is fine, because she wants to go home anyway. They've been out for what feels like forever; it's hard to tell time in this part of Zaun because it's always dark, no matter the time of day, but it's been a really long time. She and Loris once accidentally went on a four day bender because they lost track of time so badly. 

Loris is pissed though, because he has to leave the club too so he can drag her home even though he's not the one who got kicked out. They argue all the way back to Vi's neighbourhood.

"You're being really fucking rude," Vi slurs, "for someone who drank all night on my money." She trips on her own feet and Loris pulls her back up with an unusual harshness. He's really mad. 

"It was not your money. And really, you owe me for how many people I had to pay off so they wouldn't beat the shit out of you over how much they lost on you tonight." 

"Oh, fuck off," Vi complains, stumbling again. Loris' arm is painfully tight around her waist. "Not my problem if they bet the wrong way tonight." 

"It is your problem. You should have won tonight easy, that's what everyone expected, but then you showed up in that state - " 

"My brother got bottled! Should I have just left him there?" 

"Yeah. You need to worry about yourself." 

Vi tries to shove him away as they get to the bottom of her stairs. He lets her go and she stumbles to the side, landing hard on the street. "Ow! Fuck you, man."

Loris is so mad. So, so, mad. He tries to pull her back up and she kicks at him. "I can't stand you sometimes," he tells her, and grabs her by the shoulders and hauls her up. 

"Then don't," she yells as he drags her up the first few stairs. She's barely even walking; the angle he's dragging her at means that she'd have to use her abs to get her feet back under her properly and those muscles are completely out of commission right now. "Fuck off, go find yourself someone else to make money off of. Or better yet, get a real job - " 

He drops her and she slams face-first onto the metal stairs. "Can you shut up for two fucking minutes until I get you home and then I don't have to deal with you for a few damn hours?" 

"No," she snarls. He reaches for her anyway, but when she refuses to move and goes limp on the stairs, he grabs the collar of her jacket and yanks her back up. 

"Almost there," he grumbles as she struggles, "and then I'm done with this bullshit." 

Vi tries to get his hand off her collar but she's so drunk that her arms feel like lead. "Let go, stop, fuck, Loris, I hate that, stop - "

"Vi?" 

Loris stops. Vi tries to look up but he's still holding her up by her jacket like someone would grab a dog by its scruff, so she can't. But then he abruptly lets go and Vi stumbles forward onto the stairs, landing hard for about the seventeenth time that night. 

Now she can look up. Caitlyn is standing at the top of the stairs with her arms folded, looking down at them like some kind of queen in the children's books Vi and Powder had stolen when they were little. 

"Cait!" Vi says, delighted even through her drunken haze. "What're you doing here?" She tries to push herself up but that makes her head spin, so she drops back down and just rolls her head to the side so she can look up at Caitlyn.

"That's Cait?" Loris hisses to Vi as Caitlyn comes down the stairs towards them. 

"Yeah," Vi says. "I told you she's pretty." 

Caitlyn kneels down next to where Vi is sprawled on the stairs. "Are you alright?" 

Vi ignores the question, because the answer is no, and clumsily tries to grab Caitlyn's hand with her own. "You're not supposed to be here yet. You're early?" 

"No. This is the same time I always arrive." 

"Oh, shit," Vi says, and rolls onto her back to look up at Loris. "We miss the morning or something?" 

"Looks like," he says. 

"Have you been out all night?" Caitlyn asks. 

Vi shrugs. "Apparently." She tries to sit up, because it's making her head spin even more trying to look up at both of them like this, and then groans and tips to the side when the motion pulls on her stomach. 

Caitlyn catches her before Vi can hit her head on the stairs again and gently props her upright. So gently. No one is gentle with Vi like she is. So careful. 

"Can you stand up?" Caitlyn asks her softly. When Vi nods, Caitlyn loops her arm around Vi's waist and tries to help pull her up. 

Vi does her best to stand, because it's Caitlyn asking nicely and not Loris yanking her around, but as soon as she's upright her head spins again and she stumbles backward into the railing. Loris helps Caitlyn steady her against it. 

"Sorry," Vi says. "Sorry." 

"It's alright," Caitlyn says. She gives Loris a look that has him letting go of Vi's shoulder like he's touched a hot stove. It's so funny; Vi has never seen Caitlyn act quite like this. "You must be Loris." 

Loris looks wildly uncomfortable, which is also hilarious. "Yeah. Guessing you're Caitlyn. Heard a lot about you." 

Loris is taller than Caitlyn, but he's standing beneath her on the stairs and so when she looks down at him and goes, "Mhm," in the snootiest possible tone, it makes Vi laugh again. Which makes her sway and then stumble, and Caitlyn quickly adjusts her own stance to keep Vi upright. 

"Do you always bring her back in this condition," Caitlyn asks him flatly. She's completely dropped the fake Zaunite accent she uses when she's talking to anyone except Vi, but the voice she's using isn't even the one she does use with Vi.

Caitlyn's normal accent screams rich Piltie. It's the bougiest accent that Vi's ever heard. But the way she's speaking now is somehow even haughtier than that. It's all lilting and cold with an impressively irritated undertone. 

Loris scowls. "She's an adult. She gets herself into this state. I'm just making sure she gets home and doesn't pass out in the street." 

Caitlyn is looking at him like she's going to order his head be cut off or something. "And is there no way to make sure she gets home other than dragging her by her jacket?" 

"You try getting her back from the bars sometime," Loris growls. "It's not as easy as it looks." 

"I'm sure," Caitlyn says, and it sounds like she's just said 'fuck you'. It's so funny, and Vi laughs and then stumbles again. Man, she really does not feel good. Caitlyn turns to look at her and holds her palm against Vi's jaw for a moment, frowning. "Vi, let's get you inside." 

Vi groans and tips forward so she's leaning against Caitlyn, her face pressed into Caitlyn's shoulder. She keeps her arms wrapped around her aching abdomen. "No, we gotta - first we gotta - Cait, you're gonna be mad. You're gonna be mad at me." 

"I'm not." 

"No, you are," Vi insists. She lifts her head again, which tips her backward and Caitlyn steadies her. "We gotta go to the... ice place. The ice store. We gotta go get ice first. 'Cause you're gonna make us go get some. So we should go now." 

Caitlyn keeps one of her arms firm around Vi's back, but she uses her other hand to brush Vi's disgusting hair out of her face. "I can go later. Did you get hurt?" 

"Yeah," Vi admits, and then abruptly feels tears prick at her eyes. Well, that's a sign that it's time for her to pass out if anything is.

Caitlyn's face creases with concern. "Let's get you lying down." 

Below them, Loris shifts on the stairs. "I'm heading out. Vi, I'll come by tomorrow to pick you up. You can't be late again." 

Vi turns to him, horrified. "Tomorrow?!" 

"You knew the schedule," Loris says, and starts off down the stairs. 

"Loris. I can't. Loris!" 

He keeps going down the stairs, ignoring her. 

"Vi, it's alright," Caitlyn says soothingly. 

Vi shrugs her off. "Loris! I can't do it tomorrow, I can't - tell them I'm not doing it." 

"Doesn't work like that!" he calls back. 

"Then make it work!" Vi yells. "What the fuck am I paying you for then?" 

He keeps ignoring her and she's about to charge after him, but Caitlyn steadies her again. "Vi, let's go. We can deal with that later. Come on, I'll help you." 

Vi forces herself to hold back her tears as Caitlyn helps her up the stairs and to her apartment. But the way Caitlyn's being so sweet and gentle about it is just making her want to cry more. 

"Do you have your key?" Caitlyn asks when they reach the door. 

Vi clumsily pats at her jacket pockets. "Somewhere, yeah. Were you - waiting? How long? I should... give you a key. You should have a key. I don't have another key. I can get another key made?"

"We can talk about that later," Caitlyn says as she rifles through Vi's pockets. Vi leans against the wall and closes her eyes. "Violet. Don't nod off yet." 

"Hm." 

"Vi. Just a few more minutes." 

Vi groans but makes herself stay semi-upright until Caitlyn finds the key and unlocks the door. When Caitlyn helps her through the doorway, Vi immediately goes to lie down. 

"Vi, your bed is right there." 

Vi's fine where she is. "And. The floor's right here." 

Caitlyn sighs and very gently helps her back up. "Three more steps. Come on - there we go." 

Alright, maybe Caitlyn has a point. The bed is much more comfortable. Vi pretty much never makes it this far when she's this drunk. Half the time she doesn't make it home at all unless Loris is with her, and even if he is, he considers it a job well done as long as Vi's through her front door. So she usually wakes up on the floor after nights like this. 

Or mornings? Afternoons? What time is it. 

"Where did you get hurt?" 

Vi's already drifting off. 

Caitlyn's trying to wake her back up. "Violet, please just show me, and then you can rest." 

Alright. Fine. Vi rolls onto her back and finds the hem of her tank top, even though her arms feel like lead weights. She tugs it up high enough to show off what is probably already turning into a massive bruise stretching over her abdomen. 

From Caitlyn's sharp intake of breath, it's definitely already bruising. 

There. Vi's job is done. Her hand drops back against her hip and she's finally going to get to sleep - 

"You can't sleep on your back like this, Vi. It's not safe. Here, roll over again." 

Vi groans as Caitlyn pulls her over onto her side and rearranges Vi's legs so that her knees are curled up, keeping her from rolling back over. "No, Cait, it's - it's fine, I already threw up a bunch of times. Not going to again." 

"Vi, that's not..." 

Caitlyn probably says more, but Vi doesn't hear it. She drops down into sleep and it is such a relief. Nothing hurts when she's unconscious. 

She's out for a long time. She thinks Caitlyn tries to wake her up a few times, but, well, good luck to her with that. 

It must be night again when Vi finally does resurface. The lights are off in the apartment and Caitlyn is asleep next to her. 

Vi carefully extricates herself from the blankets without waking Caitlyn up and stumbles to the washroom. She doesn't bother showering or even getting changed; if Loris is coming back to pick her up to fight again in less than six hours, then what's the point. She does make an effort to brush her teeth, which initially fails when she dry heaves violently over the sink before she even gets the toothbrush to her mouth. But she tries again, because she's not a quitter, and having her teeth clean does help her feel a little better. 

She accidentally looks in the mirror when she tries to straighten up after she's rinsed the toothpaste out of her mouth. The damage to her abdomen from her last fight feels even worse now than it did before she'd passed out, and she has to brace her hands on either side of the sink in order to even stand up properly. 

It makes absolutely no sense to Vi why Caitlyn is still here, because Vi looks like shit.

She definitely has looked worse than she does right now, but this is still pretty fucking bad. Her hair is disgusting, the dye she'd put in it mixing with the sweat and oil she'd worked up from the fight and a subsequent night of hard drinking. Her makeup is smeared all over her face in a way that honestly might be kind of a cool look if she didn't look half-dead underneath it, but she does. Dark circles under her eyes, her cheeks puffy from the alcohol. Broken blood vessels in her eyes; when had that happened? Must have been from when she was throwing up in the alley for a while. A bruise on her jaw that she doesn't remember getting and a scrape on her forehead. 

Vi shakes her head at herself and then regrets it when the headache she's been ignoring blooms. She flicks the lights back off and goes to the kitchen to get some water, still moving as quietly as she can so she doesn't wake Caitlyn up. 

Vi downs the first glass of water, waits to see if it'll make her throw up, and then when it doesn't she pours another. This one she sips at more slowly while she stares at Caitlyn, sound asleep in Vi's bed with the neon glow through the window illuminating her perfect face. 

It just doesn't make sense. It's not that Vi thinks that Caitlyn came to Zaun specifically looking for a trencher trash girlfriend to pick up and fuck for a few months before going back to Piltover and getting married or something; it's not underheard of for topsiders to do that, but Caitlyn's not the type. Vi also has to give her credit for actually doing the work she said she was doing. Vi had initially thought that Caitlyn's research project was really just an excuse for her to get away from her life for a bit, but Vi will fully admit that Caitlyn works really hard at it. 

But still. If Caitlyn wanted a temporary girlfriend to keep her company while she works and lives down here, she could have gone home with anyone else other than Vi. She doesn't have to be here, in Vi's grody apartment, sleeping on Vi's uncomfortable mattress in her worn-out sheets. She could be sleeping next to someone normal, not someone with a life like Vi's. 

Vi's also given her every opportunity to walk away, but she still keeps showing back up. So, whatever. That's fine. Vi will take it for as long as Caitlyn's willing to give it. Vi is completely aware that she's going to be heartbroken in a few months when Caitlyn finishes her work and goes home. That's what Vi's life is, really. If something good comes her way, it'll vanish again soon after. But that's fine too, she's really just a hedonist now and so she'll enjoy this while it lasts. 

Vi finishes her water and then crawls back into bed to sleep off the worst of this hangover. 

When she wakes up, it must be daytime again because the lights are on. Caitlyn's fully showered and dressed, sitting next to Vi on the bed and staring down at her with worry. 

"Hi," Caitlyn says quietly when Vi looks up at her. "How are you feeling?" 

Vi goes to sit up and then thinks better of it when her stomach cramps. "Fine." Caitlyn gives her a doubtful look. "Really. I'm fine. Sorry about last night. Or - yesterday afternoon?" 

Caitlyn frowns. "What are you sorry for?" 

"Showing up here like that. Making you wait outside for me, I guess." 

"I wasn't waiting for long. Ten minutes, maybe." 

Vi runs her hands over her own face, trying to wake herself up, and then winces when more of her makeup and hair dye comes off on her hands. "Still. If you want a key, I can get one made for you." 

"Are you sure?" Caitlyn asks, looking oddly anxious. "I don't want to - is that too much?" 

Vi squints up at her, the lights in the room making her head pound. "Is what too much?" 

"You giving me a key. I know you got this apartment specifically so you could have your own place. Somewhere that felt safe because only you had access to it." 

Vi narrows her eyes. "I didn't say that." The statement is completely true, but she definitely never said it.

"Maybe I inferred." 

"Don't psychoanalyze me." 

Caitlyn smiles a little. "Fine. But to answer your question: yes, it would be wonderful to have a key to your place, and I would consider it an honour. But only if you're comfortable with it." 

"An honour," Vi teases, ignoring the way it makes her stupid heart feel warm. 

Caitlyn rolls her eyes, but she's fully smiling now. She goes to run her fingers through Vi's hair but draws her hand back at the last second. 

Vi laughs. "Too gross, even for you?" 

"No. It's just that you're getting that dye everywhere." 

Vi blearily looks around the bed and sees that she has, in fact, managed to get black hair dye all over the sheets. "Oh. Yeah, that happens." 

"Do you want to go shower? Wash it out?" Caitlyn asks. "I can get you something to eat while you do." 

Vi shakes her head and buries her face back into the bed. "No point. I'll just have to put it back on again soon." Her heart sinks. She doesn't want to go back and fight. Her entire body is aching, her stomach is still rippling with flashes of pain, and this hangover is brutal. She wants to just stay here with Caitlyn. 

"Vi, you don't have to go." 

"Yeah, I do." 

"You don't," Caitlyn insists. When Vi looks up at her, Caitlyn's face is all pinched again. "You absolutely do not have to. You can tell that man - " 

"Loris." 

"I know his name, I just don't want to give him the privilege of me using it. You can tell that man that you simply are not going to fight today." 

Vi sighs. "Doesn't work like that. And don't blame him for everything, I knew what I was getting into when I started this." 

"Did you?" Caitlyn says sharply. "Because from what your sister has told me, you weren't exactly in a great state of mind when you signed up." 

"Thought you said my family doesn't talk about me," Vi mutters. She tries to sit up and has to awkwardly shuffle backward so she can sit against the wall. 

"They do talk about you, but they don't usually talk about your past to me. This just - came up in conversation." 

"Uh huh," Vi says doubtfully. "Well, don't ask them about Loris, because they're biased. They hate him." 

"I gathered that." 

Vi rolls her eyes and then winces when that hurts her head. "See, there you go. You already had a bias against him before you even met him." 

Caitlyn's still sitting on the edge of Vi's bed with her ridiculous Piltie posture, her back ramrod straight and her head held high. "I would've felt the same anyway. He facilitates your participation in the most dangerous possible sport, plies you with alcohol so you keep going, and takes part of your money even though he's essentially done nothing." 

"Hey," Vi snaps, anger starting to burn through the haze that the alcohol left in her body. "He's not plying me with alcohol. Give me some credit, I can drink myself to death on my own." 

Caitlyn very clearly does not like that response. 

"Besides," Vi adds, trying to soften it, "he really does get me home most of the time." 

"Oh, 'most of the time'," Caitlyn mimics. "Good. Wonderful. What does he do the other times? Leave you to pass out in the streets?" 

"If I do pass out in the street, that's my own damn problem. Caitlyn, stop with this. Seriously. You're doing the same thing my family does. I'm not a kid, I'm an adult, and I can fuck up my own life on my own. No one else is doing it for me." 

Caitlyn scoffs. "That's not entirely true, though, is it. You just aren't seeing it. You're pushing away the people who love you and want to help you, and you're keeping around the people who only want to use you for their own gain." 

Now Vi's mad. She pushes the blankets off her legs and tries to stand up, only to drop right back down onto the bed again when the pain is too intense. "You don't know what you're talking about." 

Caitlyn crosses her arms, all Piltie-snobbery. "You just don't like hearing the truth, I think." 

"Stop," Vi snaps, and tries to get up again. This time she manages to stumble over to the kitchen island to brace herself on. "You keep - " 

There's a hammering knock on the door and it's loud enough that even Caitlyn jumps. Vi, who was focused on the argument, is completely caught by surprise. She's throwing herself backward against the cabinets before her mind even catches up to what's happening, her body scrambling back into the corner of the kitchen. 

"It's just the door," Caitlyn says quickly, soothingly. She stands up, holding a hand out to Vi to indicate that she can stay where she is. "I'll get it. It's alright. It's probably just... that man." 

She's probably right, but now Vi's heart is hammering and her body's flooding with adrenaline. On the plus side, it's dampening her hangover. 

It is Loris. 

"Oh," he says when he sees Caitlyn. "Hi." 

She nods in lieu of greeting him with words, and yet it still somehow gives off "fuck you" vibes. 

Loris glances past the door and sees Vi in the corner of the kitchen, her back still against the cupboards. "Hey. Are you okay?" 

"I've told you not to knock like that," Vi snaps out between her gritted teeth. 

He shrugs. "Sorry. You ready to go?" 

Caitlyn gives her a look that Vi ignores. "Yeah. Just let me get my stuff together." 

"Vi!" Caitlyn says. "You can barely walk, you can't - " she turns to Loris. "She absolutely cannot do this today." 

Loris just looks at her. "What do you want me to do about it?" 

Vi looks around for her boots. She doesn't remember taking them off last night but she's not wearing them now. Did Caitlyn take them off her? Where would she have put them?

"Tell the - I don't know what they're called, the organizers or ringleaders or whoever - that she's not fighting tonight." 

"They don't take kindly to that." 

"I don't care!" 

Loris scoffs. "Vi will care, when they send their people after her to make her fight." 

Caitlyn probably put them under the bed, Vi thinks. She's been making an attempt to clean Vi's place up, which is kind of nice. 

Sure enough, Vi finds them tucked neatly under there and then has to sit down on the bed to get them on. 

"That's barbaric," Caitlyn hisses. 

"Yeah," Loris agrees. "But like I just told you, I don't know what you want me to do about it. Vi, did you eat yet?" 

Vi pulls her other boot on. "No." 

"Okay, we'll get something on the way there." Loris turns back to Caitlyn. "Besides, she's got rent to pay." 

"Fuck her rent," Caitlyn says, with enough venom that Vi, who was doing her best to ignore this stupid argument, looks up with surprise. "Vi, I'll pay your damn rent if it means you don't go do this." 

Vi gets up, her boots now on, and pauses to run her hand over Caitlyn's arm before she starts looking for her jacket. "Cait, it's okay. It'll be fine. Do you want to stay here or are you going back to your place tonight?" 

"Could I stay here?" Caitlyn asks. Now that she's said that, Vi realizes that they haven't really done that before, where Caitlyn stays in Vi's place even when Vi isn't there. 

Vi shrugs. "Yeah, of course." She finds her jacket placed neatly on a hanger. "You've still got my key, right? Just hang onto it in case you want to leave and come back again." 

"Oh," Caitlyn says. "Thank you." 

Vi skirts around her to get to the door, but then goes back to give her a kiss. When she steps back again, Caitlyn is looking at her with an expression that Vi's too hungover to decipher. 

"See you later," Vi says, and pushes Loris out the door. 

"Don't think I like that one very much," Loris muses as he and Vi walk to the restaurant where they usually eat before Vi's fights. 

"Didn't ask your opinion of her," Vi mutters. "Not your business." 

"Well, it kind of is. If she doesn't want you to fight - " 

"Not your business," Vi repeats. "Stop talking about it. Stop talking about her."

Loris sighs but he does drop it. Small mercies. 

Vi is fully expecting to lose again tonight. The food helped, and Loris got her there early enough to give Vi plenty of time to warm up and get ready, but she's still slow and in pain. Caitlyn was right about Vi barely being able to walk - she still can't use her abdominal muscles properly. Loris gives her a few shots worth of some really nice whiskey, and that helps with the pain. But her reaction times are still fucked. 

When the spotlights turn on her and Vi walks out, she sees that her opponent is the young guy she was talking to at the bar the other night. The newbie, the rising star. The one who'd been really starstruck by her and who had asked someone to take her home when she was too drunk to stand. 

So, it turns out to be the second night of Vi's pitfighting career where she thinks, "I don't want to do this." 

The guy is all keyed up. Vi can tell he's so excited to be fighting her. He's all show, too; no wonder the crowd loves him. Bouncing around, taking his eyes off Vi to wave at the stands and get them all riled up. 

He's smiling when he turns back to her. 

She'd warned him. She told him he didn't have it. She'd tried. 

"Should've gone to Sevika," Vi calls to him over the roar of the crowd. She's not bouncing around. She's not riling up the crowd. She's waiting.

His face falls a little, and Vi moves. 

It doesn't last two minutes. 

She has him on the ground. He's screaming in pain. She gives him a chance. 

"Tap out," she says. "Do it." 

He's much bigger than her, so she's got him pinned down with his arm behind his back, twisted at an angle that'll ensure it'll break if he keeps moving. She's close enough that he could throw his head back, headbutt her right in the face. Break her nose, shatter her cheekbones. But he won't, and she knows it. 

He doesn't tap out. He just keeps writhing. 

"Hey," she says, and he stills a little. "You'll thank me for this later. Maybe in a few years. But if not, then I'm sorry." 

She dislocates his shoulder and while he's still flinching from that pain, she goes for his legs and shatters both his knees. 

The crowd screams, loudly enough to drown out the sound he's making. 

Vi doesn't bother celebrating this win. She walks out and goes back to the locker room. 

She sits on one of the benches and rests her elbows on her knees. The lights flicker above her. The tile is cold and damp and slimy beneath her boots. There's still blood smeared all over the floor over by the door where that guy had died the other day. 

Vi toys with the wraps around one of her fists and stares at the floor. She wonders if the same people who designed Stillwater designed this place. Really similar work. 

Loris comes in. 

He stands in front of her. She doesn't look up. 

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she says. Hollow. "I'm fine." 

He drops a bag with the money she earned into her lap. "They paid you quickly for this one. Lotta money in there. They're really happy; people are going wild out there." 

Vi takes the bag and turns it over in her hand. 

"Guess your girlfriend won't have to pay your rent this month," Loris says. He's trying for levity, she thinks. 

"Yeah," Vi says again. 

"There's a big group going out tonight," Loris says after the silence stretches out. "We can meet them at the side door, or if you need some time, we could meet them there - " 

Vi shakes her head, not looking up. "You go. I'm just going to go home." 

Loris is silent. Vi never just goes home after a fight. She doesn't think she's ever actually done it. 

"Are you sure?" he says finally. 

"Yeah." 

"Are you really okay?" 

To his credit, he does sound genuinely worried. 

Vi nods and gets up. She tucks her winnings into her jacket. "I'm fine. Go have fun. I'll see you later." 

Vi goes home. She takes the long way, wandering through the streets for a while. She's been out of Stillwater for almost three years now and the novelty of this hasn't worn off. Being able to just walk around, go wherever she wants, do whatever she wants. 

She meanders her way back to her apartment. When she gets to her door, she reaches for her key before remembering she left it with Caitlyn. 

She turns out not to need it. Caitlyn opens the door a moment later, looking surprised. 

"You're back early!" she says. "I thought you'd be out until much later." 

Vi shrugs, staring at her. Caitlyn is so beautiful, standing there in Vi's apartment. Vi could come home to her every day for the rest of her probably short life and die happy. "Didn't go out after the fight." 

Caitlyn ushers her inside. "Are you alright? Did you win?" 

"Yes. To both." 

Vi goes to shower first before she does anything else. She turns the water on as hot as it can go, which isn't as hot as she wants, but it's warmer than the Stillwater showers certainly ever got. Plus, no one is going to stab her in this shower. The only person who could is Caitlyn, and she's not going to. 

Vi does her best to scrub all the dye out of her hair and the makeup off her face, and then she scrubs the rest of her body until her skin is all bright pink. Then she stands for a while with her forehead against the wall of the shower and the water beating down on her back. 

Then she gets out, because Caitlyn is here and Vi wants to spend time with her. 

When she's toweled off and dressed in her sweatpants and most comfortable shirt, Vi goes back out into the main room. Caitlyn is standing at the kitchen island, looking uncharacteristically anxious. 

"Hey," Vi says, going to her and putting her hands on Caitlyn's waist. "I'm sorry about earlier. I don't want to argue with you." 

"I am too," Caitlyn says, "but, ah - something happened while you were out." 

Vi frowns. "What?" 

Caitlyn winces, and then gestures to Vi's bed. Vi looks over at it and then does a double take. 

"Did you buy new sheets?" Vi asks. "And a new blanket? Are those new pillows?" 

"It's a duvet, not a blanket. And a duvet cover." 

"Uh, okay. But... why? I mean, I know mine sucked but - " 

Caitlyn groans. "Please don't tell me you had an emotional attachment to your old bedding. I already feel awful about this." 

Vi is trying really hard not to start smiling. "Cait. What happened." 

Caitlyn couldn't look more distressed if she tried. "Well, that terrible dye you keep putting in your hair was all over your sheets. And your pillow, but you should have had two of those to begin with so - " 

"Cait." 

"Right. So I thought I would just wash all the bedding, to get the dye out and then you would come home to a nice clean bed. So I went to the laundromat down the street." 

"Okay," Vi says slowly, still fighting a smile. "Sounds good so far." 

Caitlyn is in visible despair. "But - so it turns out that I - " 

Vi can't help it. She starts laughing, and then laughs harder when Caitlyn groans again. 

"Caitlyn," Vi says, "have you ever done laundry before?" 

"No," Caitlyn moans. Vi cracks up. 

"What did you do?" Vi asks. "How did you fuck up all the sheets that badly?" 

"I don't know! I don't know what I did wrong. But also it broke the machine, so." 

Vi wheezes. Her abs are still fucked and so she has to lean against the kitchen counter. "Please tell me you paid them for the broken machine." 

"Of course I did," Caitlyn says primly, "and I tipped them for their trouble. But the bedding was unsalvageable, so I went and got you a new set. The sheets are very nice, they're the highest thread count I could find. The duvet is very warm and the pillows are perfect. But I'm also very sorry for ruining your apartment. You trusted me with your key and I immediately destroyed some of your things." 

Vi straightens up with a wince, even though she's still laughing, and takes Caitlyn's despairing face in her hands. "You're so cute. It's fine, I don't care. Thanks for buying me new stuff." 

"Go try them out," Caitlyn orders. "Make sure you like them. I can always exchange them if you don't." 

Vi throws herself onto the bed and rolls around as much as her injuries will allow. "Don't you dare take these back. This is great. This is the nicest bed I've ever had now." 

Caitlyn sighs, standing beside the bed and looking hilariously mournful. "Good. I'm glad you like it." 

Vi freezes. "Wait. Caitlyn. Cait." 

"Yes?" 

Vi claps a hand over her mouth when laughter threatens to bubble out of her again. "Caitlyn. You've been down here for a while." 

Caitlyn throws herself onto the bed next to Vi and tries to crawl under the new duvet. 

Vi wrestles her out of the absurdly fluffy bedding. "Cait. Your clothes are always clean, but now it turns out you don't know how to do laundry?" 

Caitlyn makes an admirable attempt at wiggling behind Vi's back so Vi can't see her face. Vi ignores the pain in her abs and easily yanks her back around. "Caitlyn, who has been washing your clothes? Please don't tell me - " 

"I've been paying someone to do it!" Caitlyn shouts, and then grabs one of the new pillows and covers her face with it. Vi cracks up again. 

"Cait, how much," Vi begs. "Tell me how much. How much are you paying some random person to do your laundry for you." 

"Too much!" Caitlyn shouts from under the pillow. "I know it's too much! It's a woman who lives on my floor and I pay her an egregious amount of money each week to do my laundry for me!" 

"I'm going to crack a rib," Vi wheezes. "Tell me how much exactly, I have to know how much you're paying her. She's going to be the richest woman in the Lanes." 

Caitlyn pulls the pillow away from her face. "Violet, you've already broken too many ribs, you can't lose another!" This just sends Vi into another wave of laughter. 

Vi tries and tries but she can't get Caitlyn to confess how much she's paying for her laundry service. Even the threat of going to get her hair dye and ruining all the new bedding doesn't help. 

Eventually Vi goes to get them both some water and then she takes Caitlyn out for a late dinner, because she can. 

It's nice, it's so nice, and for just a little while Vi lets herself live in the idea that maybe this can continue and this can just be how she lives from now on. Maybe she can make her little fantasy of having all her family and Caitlyn in the bar with her come true. 

But that's a fantasy. It's not real. It won't be.

Chapter Text

Vi is so comfortable. 

She's never been this comfortable in her life, probably. No one has ever been as comfortable as she is now. 

She's lying in her bed, all wrapped up in the new fancy blankets and sheets that Caitlyn bought for her, with her head on a real pillow with an actual pillowcase on it. The fabric is the softest Vi's ever felt, and she doesn't even know how Caitlyn found something like this in Zaun. 

It's also the middle of the afternoon, but Vi has just woken up from a nice long nap that she took because she can. So she's all warm and sleepy and she can just lie here and look at Caitlyn, who is in bed next to her. 

Unlike Vi, Caitlyn doesn't take naps because she's 'busy' and has 'work to do'. So even though she's lying on the bed too, she's propped up against the wall with her pillow behind her head and her notebook held up in front of her face. She's frowning at it, completely focused, with her pen discarded on her chest where she always leaves it. She's wearing one of Vi's ratty oversized shirts, her pen resting between the collar of the shirt and her shoulder.

She's also only wearing the lacy underwear that Vi likes the most, which Caitlyn must have brought with her from Piltover because there's no way they sell things that nice in Zaun. Not that Vi would know, because she's never had nearly enough money to even go into stores that sell that kind of stuff. But she doubts it. 

Vi's comfy, but she's bored. And Caitlyn is a fucking vision, her hair loose around her shoulders and her knees loosely pulled up so her feet are tucked just under the blankets that she must have kicked down the bed at some point. 

So Vi very slowly frees her arm from the blankets wrapped around her and starts gently running her fingers over Caitlyn's stomach and down between her hips. 

She's rewarded when Caitlyn jolts a little, her legs twitching. Vi smiles, and then smiles wider when Caitlyn deliberately moves her notebook closer to her face, trying to ignore what Vi's doing. 

Fine then. Vi likes a challenge. She keeps moving her fingers as gently as she can, just brushing Caitlyn's skin. She keeps her hand away from Caitlyn's underwear deliberately, keeping to the strip of skin between her shirt and the lacy hem of the underwear. 

Caitlyn's breathing is slowing, deepening, but she picks up her pen and starts aggressively making notes in the notebook, still obscuring her face with it. 

With Caitlyn lying on her back like this, her hipbones are prominent enough for the lace of her underwear to follow their lines just slightly. Vi deviates from her current pattern to start running her fingers gently over Caitlyn's hips and down her thighs, before going back up again and then down her other leg. 

Caitlyn has started moving now. She's alternating between moving her body away from Vi's hand or pushing up into it, just slightly. And yet she's still writing her notes, although the scratching of her pen has become a little more staggered and uneven. 

Vi starts moving her fingers onto the inside of Caitlyn's thighs, slowing down even more. She keeps up the looping pattern, enjoying how she can see Caitlyn gritting her teeth behind her notebook. 

Vi takes her time. She doesn't do this kind of thing all that often; she's gotten better at slowing down during sex, since she got out of Stillwater, but she still instinctively tries to rush and speed things up. But she's learned that putting this kind of time in at the start pays off in the end, so Vi uses all of her admittedly limited patience and just keeps moving her hand around and around the patterns she's making. 

Eventually Caitlyn starts visibly trying to hold herself still. She's also still pretending to write even though Vi's pretty sure she's been writing over the sentence she's already written for the last few minutes.

Vi untangles herself from the blankets. She quietly moves around the bed until she's settled at the edge of it, between Caitlyn's legs, and then very slowly starts pulling Caitlyn's lacy underwear off. 

"Violet," Caitlyn says sternly without looking up from her notebook. "I'm working." She makes absolutely no effort to stop Vi from doing what she's doing, and Vi can't help but grin again at how uneven Caitlyn's voice is. 

Vi very gently gets Caitlyn's underwear off and then pulls herself further up onto the bed, smiling at Caitlyn's suppressed gasp when Vi resumes running her fingers over the inside of Caitlyn's thighs. Using both of her hands now, she bides her time, practicing being patient, and then when Caitlyn is finally audibly panting and yet still holding her damn notebook, Vi runs her fingers under Caitlyn's thighs to loop her arms around them, yanks her forward, and then gets her tongue right on Caitlyn's clit in the same movement. 

Caitlyn very audibly gasps this time, and then she finally drops her the notebook and uses that hand to grab Vi's hair instead. From there it only takes a few minutes of Vi's best work until Caitlyn's back arches and her legs seize around Vi as she comes. 

When she comes back down, gasping for breath, Vi makes a show of sitting back a little and propping her head on her hand, like she has all the time in the world. "Now will you stop working?"

Caitlyn stares at her, her face flushed and her breath still slowing down, and then smirks and reaches for the notebook and pen she'd dropped. 

Vi dives for the notebook and grabs it before Caitlyn can. She throws the notebook as hard as she can at the wall while Caitlyn shrieks and tries to grab it back from her, even as she's laughing.  

"Those are my notes - " Caitlyn shouts, just as there's a tremendous bang on the wall that Vi had thrown the notebook against. 

"Shut the fuck up!" Vi's neighbour yells through the wall. Vi cracks up, and Caitlyn pulls her into a heated kiss and then rolls on top of her, notebook forgotten on the floor. 

Later, when Caitlyn's in the shower, Vi gets out of bed and pulls a bottle of vodka out of one of the cupboards. Vodka's not her favourite, but if she goes for whiskey then Caitlyn will be able to smell it on her. She takes a long drink from the bottle and then caps it and puts it back right where she found it. Then she picks up Caitlyn's notebook and flops back down on the bed with it, flipping through the pages. 

Caitlyn's given her blanket permission to go through all her notes and charts and graphs and things like that, so Vi's not doing anything wrong. Caitlyn hasn't necessarily given Vi permission to make her own edits, but Vi doesn't think it's a big deal to pick up Caitlyn's discarded pen and start going page by page. She finds every mention of 'the undercity' and crosses it out with one firm line, then writes 'Zaun' next to each instance instead. 

She's still working on it when Caitlyn comes back out, dressed to go out for dinner and using one of Vi's threadbare towels to carefully dry off her hair. She sits down next to Vi on the bed and watches over her shoulder. 

"Oh," she says. "But isn't it - I've heard people here use the term 'undercity'. I think I've heard you use it." 

"I do, sometimes," Vi agrees as she crosses out another word. "Habit, mostly. But most people here prefer Zaun now, so. I'm fixing it for you."

"Could you go through my other notebooks?" Caitlyn asks. "Not right now. I'm hungry, we need to go get dinner. But I could start bringing my other notebooks over, if you wouldn't mind... proofreading them, I suppose. For accuracy, and to catch other things like this." 

"Sure. If you don't mind my shitty handwriting." Vi finishes the page and flips the notebook shut, passing it back to Caitlyn. She gets up to get ready for dinner. 

"I could pay you for your time," Caitlyn offers.

Vi sighs. "Cait, we've talked about this. You're already paying for too many things for me." 

Caitlyn sits on the edge of the bed as Vi wanders around, finding the shirt she's going to wear tonight. "Is this a bad time, then, to ask that you let me pay your rent for this month?"

"Yeah, and there won't be a good time for that request, either." 

"Even though I've prepared an excellent argument as to why you should let me?" 

Vi pulls her shirt on, tugging her hair out from the shirt's collar. "Caitlyn." 

"I'll write it down," Caitlyn decides, reaching for her notebook again. "My reasoning. Then you can read it and think about it and get back to me." 

Vi rolls her eyes, but she's also getting hungry. So she drops it so they can go for dinner. 

She does read over the page Caitlyn left for her when Caitlyn's gone the next afternoon, and she has to admit that it's a pretty convincing argument. Caitlyn's tallied up the time she's spent in Vi's apartment, how much of the utilities she's used up, all to justify that she's essentially been living there just as much as Vi has and therefore should be allowed to pay the rent. 

Vi does end up giving in and letting Caitlyn pay the rent for that month. This delights Caitlyn and makes Vi feel skeevy, but Vi can't deny the relief of putting the money she was trying to scrounge together for rent into her savings instead.

She's really getting into some trouble with the whole money thing again.

Vi's been losing her fights occasionally. When she was pitfighting all the time, four or five days a week, it didn't matter much when she lost because she could make up the difference with her wins. But now that she's only in the pit twice a week, if she loses one or two of her fights, that's a pretty bad blow to her already pitiful savings. Even though Caitlyn's also been buying a lot of Vi's meals and snacks and things like that, it's not enough to counteract how little money Vi actually has.

Vi thinks that both Caitlyn and her family don't actually fully get how desperate Vi is for money. She'd been in Stillwater since she was a teenager, so when she'd gotten out she'd had nothing saved up. Her family had helped her at first by giving her a place to stay and money when she needed it, until she'd burned through that goodwill by using all the cash they gave her to buy alcohol. Then she'd tried to work a bunch of normal jobs, like bartending, which she'd also completely fucked up, and so until she'd started pitfighting, she'd only survived by stealing. 

Even when the pitfighting started to literally pay off, it still wasn't all that much. She burned through money like nothing else. The apartments and rooms she'd lived in were cheap, but her inconsistent income still made it tough to make rent each month. The alcohol and partying burned through the rest, leaving her to scrounge for enough to buy food and clothes and anything else she needed. 

So it's nice, having Caitlyn's help, but Vi can't let herself get used to it. It's dangerous if she gets used to it. She's going to be completely fucked when Caitlyn leaves, if she falls too much into the habit of depending on her. So she can't let that happen. 

But for now she'll take it. Just this month. Just this one time. Just to make things a little bit easier. 

Caitlyn is taking a long time. 

It's not unusual. They're far from Vi's apartment today, in one of the deepest parts of Zaun so Caitlyn can do some more water and air quality testing. When she's working, she'll sometimes spend hours walking around, making sure all the data she's gathered is accurate, checking to see if she's noted everything down. She's meticulous. She's thorough. It's probably very good for the validity of her research. 

Usually Vi isn't bothered by it. She can always find something to do to entertain herself, and given that she spent ten years in the same cell with absolutely nothing to do, even having things to look at or space to wander around still feels novel. 

She feels like shit today though. 

Vi had slept in and then she and Caitlyn had gone to a nearby cafe for breakfast, and then they'd started the trip down here. Vi hadn't even thought about having a drink; she'd been calm, she'd been happy. The craving for it hadn't pulled at her. It's an unusually hot and muggy day for this time of year, so Vi hadn't brought a jacket. Which means she doesn't have the flask she always keeps tucked in her jacket pocket, and therefore she hasn't had a drink all day. 

Now that she thinks about it, she didn't last night either. She'd just had dinner and then fallen asleep early, which wasn't her fault given that Caitlyn had been running her hand through Vi's hair which always knocks her right out. 

So now she's sitting here, waiting for Caitlyn to finish, feeling progressively worse as the minutes go by.

If Vi is being honest with herself, she never feels good anymore. She has a headache every day. She always feels sluggish and tired and irritable, and she's pretty sure she's really fucked up her stomach. No matter what she eats, or doesn't eat, there's a dull ache in her stomach all the damn time. It definitely gets worse when she drinks, so she's pretty sure it's an ulcer. She actually hopes it's an ulcer, because lately she's started throwing up blood occasionally and that seems like a plausible reason for that to be happening. 

She knows it's the drinking. Vi knows what she's been doing to herself. But at this point, the alternative to drinking is what gets her here, where she's trembling and sweating and pretending not to be, because she doesn't want Caitlyn to know. 

Vi shifts again, uncomfortable. She's sitting on the crumbled remains of someone's house, watching Caitlyn walk around testing the air quality and frowning. 

Vi tries re-doing the wraps on her hands. It helps make the shaking a little less noticeable. Maybe. She hopes it does. 

Shit. Another problem with not having her jacket is that she can't put her hands in her pockets. She's only wearing a cropped tank top and jeans, and the pockets of her jeans are too tight for her to comfortably walk with her hands in them. 

"Hey," Vi calls, trying for casual. "You almost done?" 

"Ten more minutes," Caitlyn calls back, turning some more dials on her device. 

Great. Vi shifts again, crossing her arms over her chest. Her entire body is starting to ache and she's going to start feeling nauseous in probably the next two minutes. 

She can't get annoyed with Caitlyn. It's not Caitlyn's fault, at all. Vi was the one who offered to take her all the way down here today, anyway. This is completely Vi's own fault, and now she's dealing with the consequences of her own stupid actions. 

What's really frustrating is that she doesn't know how to fix this. At this point it doesn't feel like something she can fix. She's tried, before. She's tried it a few times. Each time she gave it her best shot and each time she didn't make it more than a few days at the longest. 

It's so hard. It feels so impossibly hard. She gets so sick, so fast, and she can't handle it. The physical stuff is bad enough but the withdrawal makes her mind feel like it's burning and it's too much. Each time she tried, she cratered and gave in as soon as the insidious thought crept in that she could make it stop so easily. She could make the pain and the awful, awful nausea and the violent shaking and the sweating all just go away. 

It's too easy to make it stop. A few shots, a couple of beers, and she felt so much better. 

It's also one thing to think objectively about this when she's having a good day. Which she been, lately, but sometimes she has her really bad days and then all she wants to do is drink. All she wants to do is forget and feel good and feel the liquor burn down her throat and take all the pain she's feeling with it. And on those days it feels pointless, really, to imagine ever living without having that.

So, here she is. Humiliated and angry at herself and starting to feel really, really sick in a gross and decrepit part of Zaun. 

Vi uncrosses her arms to push her sweaty hair out of her face. Sometimes if she's feeling like this and doesn't have her flask with her, she can just go into a nearby bar or club and down a beer or something, but there's nothing like that nearby. This neighbourhood is nearly entirely abandoned, and the only residents are too busy working for the local chembaron to run any sort of legitimate businesses. 

Yep, now she's getting nauseous. Great. And it's nearly a two hour walk and climb back up to Vi's place, so they've got to go now. She tries to think of an excuse that Caitlyn will believe, which is tough to do. Caitlyn catches pretty much everything, including lies by omission. 

Vi gives up. Caitlyn's always telling her to communicate better, anyway. 

"Hey," Vi says. "Cait, I'm sorry, but can we head out soon?" 

Caitlyn looks up, frowning. "Is everything alright?" 

"Yeah. I'm just - not feeling great. And we've got a long way to go to get back." 

Caitlyn starts packing up immediately, which makes Vi's heart twist. She doesn't even pack up her backpack all neatly like she normally does; she just throws all her equipment and notebooks in and tosses it over her shoulder before coming over to Vi. 

"What's wrong?" Caitlyn asks. She stops in front of Vi, her absurdly-intense stare roaming all over. 

"Nothing," Vi says, which is stupid considering she literally just said she doesn't feel well, but her mind always gets foggy when this happens. "I'm - I'll be fine. It's just a long walk, so." 

Caitlyn steps closer and puts her hand on Vi's forehead. Vi tries to pull back, and Caitlyn just follows her movement without removing her hand. "You're pale. You do feel a little warm, too." 

"I'm okay. Can we just go? Please." 

Caitlyn steps back, and Vi can't handle the concern on her face. Vi gets up and starts for the path that leads back up the way they came. She folds her arms across her chest as she walks, tucking her hands under her biceps as tightly as she can. 

Caitlyn is quiet as they walk, which Vi appreciates. It lets her focus on putting one foot in front of the other. 

The quiet lasts until they're in a particularly convoluted part of the neighbourhood, facing a fork in the road. Vi always leads the way when she and Caitlyn are exploring somewhere, because navigating in Zaun is tough even for people who've spent their lives here. This is also definitely the way they came, so Vi should absolutely know which way they're supposed to go now. 

But she doesn't, because her mind feels like sludge, and thinking logically feels like it's going to take more energy than she has. 

"Left," Caitlyn supplies from behind her, even though Vi hasn't said anything. "That's the way we came from, at least. Unless the other way is a shortcut." 

"Uh," Vi says, trying to take a steadying breath. "No. I don't know. It's not. Let's go left." 

"Do you want to take a break? Sit for a minute?" 

That's just going to prolong this. "No. Thanks. Let's just go." 

Vi makes it almost another hour, and then she has to stop. 

She's soaked in sweat. It feels disgusting, and it probably looks even worse. It's a miracle that she hasn't thrown up yet, considering how nauseous she feels. She still has her hands tucked under her arms, but there's no way Caitlyn hasn't noticed that. 

"Sorry," Vi says thickly, "but can we take that break now?" 

Caitlyn must have been waiting for her to say that, because her hand is on Vi's elbow immediately, guiding her over to sit down on a nearby doorstep of a closed store. "Of course. Don't apologize." 

Vi sits heavily on the stone step and puts her head in her hands. 

"I have my water bottle with me," Caitlyn says. "Do you want some?" 

Vi doesn't know if that'll help or hurt right now. "Uh. Maybe." 

She hears Caitlyn rustling in her backpack and then the clunk of the water bottle on the step beside her. 

Caitlyn puts her hand back on Vi's forehead again. Vi doesn't pull away this time, because Caitlyn's cold hand feels so nice. If she leans into it a little, well, who's going to know. 

"Vi," Caitlyn says quietly, "have you had anything to drink today? Alcohol, I mean." 

Ah, fuck. 

"No," Vi manages to say. Her throat feels tight. 

"You had a beer with lunch yesterday," Caitlyn says. Her tone is calm, conversational, not angry at all, but Vi still cringes. "I didn't see you have anything after that." 

Vi presses the heel of her hands into her eyes. "I did. While you were in the shower." 

Caitlyn is quiet for a moment. "Oh. How much?" 

Tears are pricking at Vi's closed eyes. Not because she's sad, or angry, but because she's so embarrassed. "I don't know. Few shots worth, maybe." When Caitlyn doesn't say anything, Vi grits out, "I'm sorry." 

"I'll be back in a minute," Caitlyn says. "Have some water." 

Vi nods, keeping her head in her hands, and Caitlyn walks away. 

Caitlyn's not gone long, but Vi feels even fuzzier by the time she gets back. 

"Here," Caitlyn says, and when Vi looks up she sees that Caitlyn's holding a brand-new bottle of whiskey. 

Vi blinks in surprise, staring up at her. 

When Vi doesn't immediately take it, Caitlyn sits down next to her on the stoop and puts the bottle into one of Vi's hands. "You're in withdrawal." 

Vi grimaces and tries to get the cap off the bottle, and then her humiliation only deepens when she has to hand it back to Caitlyn because her hands are too shaky to get it open. "I know." 

Caitlyn unscrews it and passes it back. "Withdrawal is dangerous. Really dangerous. You could die from it." 

"I know," Vi says, and tips the bottle back. 

It's not good whiskey, and Vi doesn't even want it, but she drinks it down like it's water because she can't stand feeling like this for another fucking second. 

"Vi, that's enough." Caitlyn tenses beside her. "Vi, stop, that's plenty." 

Caitlyn snatches the bottle back. Vi lets her, taking a deep breath. She runs her hands over her knees and then wraps her arms around her stomach again. She'll feel better soon now, but in the meantime the crippling anxiety is sinking in. 

Caitlyn puts the whiskey in her backpack. They sit in silence for a while, until Caitlyn finally says, "I didn't know it was this bad." 

Vi closes her eyes again. "Well. Now you do." 

Caitlyn still doesn't sound angry, necessarily. More contemplative, maybe. "How many drinks do you usually have? In a day?" 

Vi shrugs. She opens her eyes again, but she looks away down the street instead of at Caitlyn. "Depends." 

"An average, then?" 

Ah, man. Vi had been doing so well at not crying, but now her eyes are welling up again. She puts her head back in her hands, bracing her elbows on her knees. 

When she doesn't respond, Caitlyn tries again. "I know you drink more when you go out after your fights, but apart from those days, I've only seen you have three, maybe four at the very most." 

Vi swallows hard, willing her voice not to shake. "It's more than that." 

"Clearly," Caitlyn says drily, "if this is how severely you're going through withdrawal." 

Vi doesn't even have it in her to make a joke or lighten the mood or try and bluster her way through this. She hasn't talked about this with anyone. Her family knows, of course, because they haven't seen her sober since those first few days when she got home, but she's never let them get through a conversation with her about it. Loris knows, but he's just as bad as she is so it's not like he'll stop her.

She keeps her face turned away from Caitlyn and takes a few more shaky breaths. 

"When are you drinking this much, then?" Caitlyn asks. "We've had a lot of days now where we've been together every hour of the day." 

Vi roughly brushes away the tears that are starting to run down her face. "I put a shot in my coffee. Then when you're in the washroom or showering I'll drink straight from the bottle and put it back. If we're out somewhere, I have my flask with me so I can have more when you're not looking. Then the rest are, you know. With dinner. Or at the bars." 

"Oh."

"Yeah," Vi says, her throat hoarse. "So. It's a lot." She tries to pull herself together. "But, uh, it's been less. A little. Since you've been here." 

Caitlyn sighs. "Well, better than the opposite, I suppose. Can I touch you?" 

Vi must really look tense if she's asking that. "If you want to." 

Caitlyn shuffles closer to her on the step and puts her arm around Vi's shoulders, tugging her in. Vi forces a shuddering breath in and out. 

"Do you want to stop?" Caitlyn asks, her tone still conversational. "The drinking, I mean." 

"I've tried," Vi says, but then her stupid voice breaks, because crying over her own fucked-up decisions is exactly what she needs to feel even more embarrassed than she already does. "I've tried and I can't do it." And then she very abruptly hits her limit, because she still feels like shit and now she's crying and humiliated and she's not good at talking about this when she's at her best, let alone now. "Can we talk about this later? Please, I can't be - I don't - " 

Caitlyn pulls her in even closer, so Vi's face is pressed into the collar of her shirt. "Yes. Sorry." 

Caitlyn lets Vi pull herself together for a few minutes. But despite Vi being the one who asked to stop talking, she finds herself saying, "that's why I was stealing from the bar that day." 

"Which - oh, when we met?" 

"Yeah. I'd lost a bunch of fights in a row and I was out of money. Literally nothing left. I don't like stealing from them, I feel shitty about it, but I know they're not going to hunt me down for it. They usually just let me take it if they catch me." 

"And you go through withdrawal without it," Caitlyn surmises. "Why don't you just talk to them about it? They're your family. They love you." 

"Because I'm embarrassed." 

"Of what?" 

"What do you mean, 'of what," Vi snaps. "I did this to myself. I let it get this bad, and it's humiliating."

"That feels reductive." 

"It's not. I made a bunch of shitty decisions and now here I am." 

"And the significant trauma you experienced for many years prior had nothing do with that?" 

Vi sighs. "Cait - " She cuts herself off, because she catches movement at the far end of the street. "Never mind. Let's go. We can't just sit here all day, we're going to get stabbed." 

Caitlyn gets up and helps Vi to her feet, and getting out of this neighbourhood is enough of a distraction that Vi thinks Caitlyn will let it go. 

She doesn't, of course. 

"There are places in Piltover that can help with this," Caitlyn says when they're almost at Vi's apartment. "They're excellent facilities - " 

Vi's sharp laugh cuts her off. "No." 

"But - " 

"No." 

"Violet." 

"No." 

"I don't know how to help you," Caitlyn says, more desperately than Vi expected. "I don't know what to do." 

"I'm not asking you to help me," Vi snaps as they reach the bottom of the stairs. "I'll figure it out."

"But you aren't," Caitlyn says. She stops with her hand on the stair railing as Vi keeps going up the first set of stairs. "You aren't figuring it out, Vi, you're just getting worse. I don't even know what you could do to 'figure it out', because going straight into withdrawal could kill you. Especially if you're trying to do it alone. And if you don't get help from a legitimate medical professional, of which there are none in Zaun, apparently, then I don't know what you're going to do." 

"I'll... just cut down on it," Vi says stubbornly. She looks down at Caitlyn, who is staring up at her from the street. 

"That's not going to work and you know it." 

Vi grits her teeth in frustration. "Are you coming up? Or are you going to stand there all night?" 

"I - " Caitlyn starts, and then she pauses. "No. I'm going to go back to my place, actually." 

"Fine," Vi says curtly. "Have a good night." She turns and goes up the stairs without looking back. 

When she goes into her apartment, Vi's so keyed up and drowning in her own misery that she goes right for her whiskey and then her punching bag, which frankly proves Caitlyn's exact point. So that just makes Vi feel worse, but she can't stop even though she knows that she should. So she drinks until she passes out, arms and wrists and hands aching from too many sloppy hits on the punching bag. 

She runs the stairs outside her apartment the next morning. 

She's been slacking on her cardio lately. She's been slacking on everything, actually, and Loris points it out to her every time Vi shows up for her fights. So she runs up and down the stairs, over and over and over, until she's covered in sweat and the pounding of her heart is beating out the brutal hangover. 

Vi nearly jumps out of her skin when she reaches the top of the stairs again and turns around to go back down, immediately coming face to face with Caitlyn. 

"What the fuck," Vi gasps out, "how'd you sneak up on me like that?" 

"It wasn't hard. You seemed a little zoned out." 

Vi leans back against the railing of the stairs as she catches her breath. Caitlyn leans against the opposite rail, her arms crossed over her chest. She looks perfectly put together this morning, of course. Not a hair out of place and her outfit all clean and wrinkle-free. 

"I didn't know if you were going to come back," Vi admits once she has her breath back. 

Caitlyn frowns. "Of course I was going to come back." 

"I wouldn't blame you if you didn't." 

"Don't be ridiculous." 

Vi shrugs. "You were trying to help and I bitched at you for it." 

"Yes. But I also shouldn't have pushed so hard." Caitlyn looks... nervous, maybe? It's hard to tell with her sometimes. "I'm... a problem-solver, to a fault. I respond to stress by trying to solve the problem, and this... isn't as simple as that." 

Vi looks down and starts tugging at the wraps around her hands. "Am I the problem in this situation?" 

"No," Caitlyn insists. "I didn't mean it like that. You're not the problem. I meant your addiction." 

Vi flinches. She knows, objectively, that that's what it is, but the clinical term still sounds stark. "Well. That's still me." 

"Not really. It's something you're dealing with, not who you are." 

Vi can't look at her. "But it's stressing you out?" 

Caitlyn sighs and then Vi hears her footsteps on the metal stairs. Caitlyn comes to stand in front of Vi, her arms still crossed. "Only because it's hurting you. It's dangerous. I'm scared for you, and I'm stressed and frustrated because I can't help and I can't fix it." 

Vi has now completely unwrapped one of her hands. She starts re-wrapping it so she doesn't have to look up. "You don't have to be. You don't have to be here, Caitlyn. You can walk away. Go back topside. Or stay here and find someone else with fewer problems. I don't know. But you don't have to stay with me if I make you stressed and frustrated and scared." 

"No! That's not - oh, I'm not good at this," Caitlyn says, sounding exasperated. She puts one of her hands on Vi's waist and the other under her chin, tilting Vi's head up until she has to meet Caitlyn's eyes. "I don't want that, Violet. That's the opposite of what I want. I'm not scared of you, I'm scared for you, because I care so much about you that I don't want anything to happen to you, and I don't like seeing you suffer." She runs her thumb under Vi's eye. Maybe Vi's crying again. "You don't make me frustrated or stressed, either. I shouldn't have said it like that. You've made me the happiest I've ever been in my life." 

Vi slumps back against the rail. "Cait..." 

"I mean it," Caitlyn says, and she's so earnest that Vi's definitely crying a little. "And I can keep my mouth shut about the drinking, Vi, I can, I'll just - I know I can't make you do something you don't want to do - " 

"I do, though," Vi admits quietly. Caitlyn stops. "Sometimes. Maybe. I told you, I've tried, and it's hard." 

Caitlyn sighs. "Can I help a little bit? Or try to?" 

Vi laughs, even though it's watery. "I guess. But Cait, I don't want to be, like, just another project for you. Something for you to fix. I want you to be with me because you want to be." 

"I do. I would never think of you like that, Vi, I promise." 

Vi reaches out and brushes some of Caitlyn's hair away from her face. "Okay. I'm still sorry about yesterday though." 

"I am too. Maybe we can - " 

One of Vi's neighbours, whose apartment window is directly above them on the stairs, throws the window open and leans out. "If the two of you don't stop yapping and crying outside my damn window while I'm trying to get some sleep, I'm going to - " 

"You're going to what?" Vi shouts back. "What are you going to do, Bernard? What are you - " 

"We're sorry," Caitlyn intervenes, but she's laughing. She tugs Vi up the stairs. "Enjoy your rest." 

"I'm not sorry," Vi grumbles as Caitlyn uses the key Vi had gotten for her to unlock Vi's apartment. "Fuck that guy." 

Caitlyn laughs. "I'm surprised us talking is what woke him up, not you running up and down the stairs." 

"I think the sound of me exercising is just part of the neighbourhood noise to most of them by now." 

Caitlyn gets the door unlocked, and Vi goes to shower, and by the time she gets out Caitlyn's hungry for lunch, so they go to get something to eat. So the conversation ends where they left it, but Vi keeps it in her mind, turning it around and around and around. 

"Your sister," Caitlyn announces as she walks up, "is trying to kill me." 

Vi, who is sitting on a low wall watching the busy street, turns to look at her and nearly falls backward over the ledge. Behind her is a steep drop into a narrow canyon that would absolutely lead to her immediate death. 

But what a way to go. She'll die doing what she loves the most; looking at Caitlyn.

"What," is all Vi can say, staring at Caitlyn as she comes to a stop in front of Vi. 

"Don't look at me like that," Caitlyn says, shifting uncomfortably. "I'm already self-conscious enough. People were staring at me the whole way here." 

She's wearing a very Zaunite outfit. Up until now, she's been wearing clothes that have let her blend in well enough, but most of the outfits were just jeans and neutral-coloured shirts. 

Today she's in some kind of leather matching set that is going to make Vi pass away right here and now. The top is a sleeveless shirt held together with laces instead of stitches. It's low-cut. It fits Caitlyn perfectly. The fitted leather pants have straps that loop into the base of the cropped top. Vi may die.

Forget the alcoholism and pitfighting. This is what's going to kill her. 

"I can't help it." Vi's eyes might fall out of her head. "If people were staring at you, it's because you're the hottest thing they've ever seen."

"Oh, stop," Caitlyn says impatiently, sitting down on the wall next to Vi. "It's too much. I don't look like I belong here. I feel like I'm wearing a costume." 

Vi cannot tear her eyes away. "No, you do. No one will think you're a topsider when you're dressed like this." She reaches over to turn Caitlyn's face towards her. "Your face is still too perfect though. We gotta rough you up a little." 

Caitlyn rolls her eyes and pulls her face away, smiling a little. "Don't you dare. I've told you before, the only thing you can do to my face is - " 

"Sit on it." 

"Violet!" Caitlyn shrieks, clapping her hand over Vi's mouth as Vi cackles. "No! I was going to say kiss!" 

Vi bites at the hand over her mouth and Caitlyn yanks her hand away, smiling. "You're feral." 

"Yeah," Vi agrees. She swings her leg over the low wall they're sitting on so she's facing Caitlyn. "I could be more feral if we were at home." 

Caitlyn laughs. "You're something else today. Later, I promise. I have work to do first." 

Vi sighs and falls backward so she's sprawled out on the narrow ledge.

Caitlyn makes a distressed noise and grabs Vi's knee. "Careful, you could fall - " 

"I'm not going to fall. I have great balance. You know when else I can show off my great balance? When I'm sitting on your - " 

"Violet." 

Vi cackles again but she does get up and take Caitlyn's hand, pulling her to her feet. Then she uses the straps on the side of Caitlyn's new outfit to pull her in and keep her there while Vi kisses her. "Alright. Let's go do your stupid work." 

"It's not stupid," Caitlyn protests, but she lets Vi lead the way down the street. 

Vi's taking Caitlyn to a new part of Zaun today. It's a fairly long walk from Vi's neighbourhood, but Caitlyn's really getting the hang of travelling around the fissues now, and Vi can take her on most of the shortcuts and bridges and pathways without worrying too much about her falling off. 

"So Powder took you shopping again?" Vi asks as they walk over a bridge leading to another part of the canyon they're moving through. 

"Yes," Caitlyn says. She's holding Vi's hand as they walk, mostly so she can look around the canyon without walking right off the edge of the path. "I certainly didn't choose this outfit on my own."

"Isn't that the second time she's taken you shopping this week? I thought you said you hate shopping." 

"Yes, and I do," Caitlyn says. "I don't mind it here though. I like how unique each shop is. It's shopping in Piltover that I find boring. It's just a waste of time. I could be doing more important things." 

"So how do you get all your fancy clothes then?" 

"I - " Caitlyn starts, and then cuts herself off. 

Vi starts to smile as she realizes she is going to get to partake in her favourite hobby: teasing Caitlyn about her absurd Piltie lifestyle. "Let me guess. They bring all the clothes to your house and you just pick what you want." 

Caitlyn sighs. "Not quite." 

Vi's smile broadens. "Oh, it's a tailor situation, isn't it. You've got your own tailor. They come to your house and make you whatever you want." 

"Only for specific occasions. A gala, or a ball." 

"A gala! Or a ball!" Vi shouts. It reverberates off the canyon and Caitlyn sighs again. 

"For my everyday wardrobe, I have a personal shopper who purchases items for me." 

Vi is trying so, so hard not to laugh. "Of course. Yeah, can't believe I didn't think of that." 

"Anyway," Cailyn says loudly, "yes, I spent a lovely morning shopping with your sister. I think she's bored because Ekko's not around as much, so she's inviting me to everything instead." 

Vi frowns. "Ekko's still not coming over? When I ran into him, he said that they didn't break up." 

"I don't think they broke up. He's still coming over to see Powder, just not as often. And when he does it's a little... tense. I think they're still arguing." 

"Still? What was the original fight about?" 

"I don't know," Caitlyn says. "Powder certainly wouldn't tell me, even if I asked directly." 

"Shit," Vi mutters. "Can you try asking her directly? I'm worried about her. I don't think she and Ekko have ever had problems like this before." She drops Caitlyn's hand so she can climb up into a narrow gulley in the canyon wall before turning around to help her up. 

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Caitlyn asks as she clambers up, only a little awkwardly. She really is getting a lot better. "Where are we going?" 

"You wanted to test some water and air quality, I'm getting you some fucked-up water to test," Vi says. "Back to what I was saying. Can you ask her?" 

"No," Caitlyn says. "You should ask her. She misses you, she wants to talk to you about it. Not me." 

"Did she say that?" 

"Not directly." 

"Well, then." 

"Vi," Caitlyn says, exasperated. "If you're worried about her, just go and talk to her." 

"Can't." 

"Why not?" 

Vi ignores the question and takes another turn through the narrow, winding gulley. 

"Vi. Whatever scenario you've made up in your head as to why you can't just go talk to your sister - " 

"Hey," Vi snaps, turning around. "That's not what I'm doing."

Caitlyn stops. She has one hand against the rock beside her and the other holding onto the strap of her backpack, and unfortunately for Vi's annoyance, she looks really cute. "Sorry. That was a little much." 

Vi crosses her arms and waits.

"Violet, can we talk about this when we're not standing in the middle of a very claustrophobia-inducing canyon?" 

"No. You're the one that said it." 

Caitlyn sighs. "Fine. We've talked about this before, but I'll say it again. You have a tendency to assume that people are angrier than they really are, or that they have negative intentions or feelings towards you when that's also not true. I think it's because that mindset kept you safe when you were in Stillwater; being prepared for people to be angry or to hurt you was what protected you. But now, this situation with your sister is the case in point. I know you had an argument with her a few months ago - "  

"Yeah. A bad one. Also, enough with the psychoanalysis." 

"I'm sure it was. But you've got it in your head that she's still angry, and that she doesn't want to see you, despite all evidence to the contrary." 

Vi changes her mind about standing here and turns around. She starts walking through the winding gulley again as Caitlyn hurries to keep up. "No, she's definitely angry. Maybe she's over that fight, but she's definitely mad about something else." 

"Then go talk to her about it!" 

"I'll just make it worse." 

"Worse than it is now? The two of you are barely speaking."

"Cait, there's a bunch of context you don't know," Vi says over her shoulder. "It's not that simple." 

"Then tell me the context." 

Vi stops again and turns around. "Fine. The crucial thing, that I doubt my family told you, is that Powder's the reason I got arrested." 

Caitlyn's face falls, and she stops too. "What?" 

"It wasn't her fault," Vi says. "She was just a kid. It was - the details don't matter much, anymore. Long story short, she was too smart for her own good when she was young and she kept making a bunch of contraptions that were really dangerous. I kept telling her to stop, and she didn't listen because she was a kid and didn't understand the consequences. So she made a mistake and, well, there was an explosion. It was on our side of the river, not Piltover's, but it was big enough that the Enforcers came and lost their fucking minds. Vander wasn't there, only the kids and I, so they arrested me for it. You know the rest." 

Caitlyn's eyes are wide. "Oh." 

"Yeah. So she blames herself for all the shit that happened to me in Stillwater because she thinks it's her fault. So anytime I piss her off now, she tries not to get mad at me because she still feels too guilty about everything. But that just means that now she's kind of always upset with me, because she never actually gets her anger out or talks about it." 

Caitlyn winces. "Okay. Well. That does... explain some things, but I still think that you should just go talk to her about it. Because I truly cannot go on another shopping trip this week with her, Vi. She needs you." 

"It's going to be bad, if I do. I think she's really upset and she's just telling you all that she's not." 

Caitlyn shrugs. "Then let it be bad. Get it over with." 

Vi narrows her eyes, and Caitlyn gives her a winning smile that means she knows she's won. 

Vi goes over to the bar in the afternoon, a few hours before it'll open. 

She goes through the alley on the side, hesitating when she sees the back door propped open and Vander ferrying large cases of liquor back and forth from the alley into the bar. She instinctively wants to just... leave. Just walk away and not deal with any of this. 

But. She's trying. 

So she walks up to the open door after Vander's gone inside with another case and waits for him to come back out, so she doesn't make him jump if he turns around and she's just standing in the door. 

Even then, he's clearly surprised when he comes back out and sees her standing in the alley.

"Oh," Vander says. "Hey, kiddo. You alright?" 

"Yeah. Uh, is Powder here?" 

"She's in the kitchen." 

"Thanks." Vi nods her head to the remaining boxes in the alley. "Do you need help?" 

Vander looks at her, and Vi wants to shrink away under his gaze, but then he nods. "Sure. If you don't mind." 

So Vi helps him carry in the rest of the cases and put them behind the bar for someone to unpack. Then before it can get even more awkward, she escapes to the apartment to find Powder. 

Powder's sitting at the kitchen table, a sandwich on the table in front of her and a large book open next to it. She's reading intently when Vi comes in, the sandwich clearly forgotten, but her eyes flick up from the book when Vi awkwardly clears her throat and says, "hey." 

"Hi," Powder says flatly. "What are you doing here?" 

Vi comes a little further into the apartment. She doesn't know what to do with her hands, so she just stuffs them into her jacket pockets. "I wanted to see you." 

Powder narrows her eyes. "Uh huh. Why?" 

"Can't I just want to spend some time with my sister?" 

"Sure. But you don't. What do you want?" 

Vi wishes that she had brought Caitlyn along, if only to see what seems to be very clear evidence that Powder is, in fact, mad at Vi, because this is... cold. 

"I mean it," Vi tries. "I just want to talk to you." 

Powder doesn't move. Or blink. "Do you need money?" 

"No." 

"Are you in trouble with someone? Did you piss off Sevika again?" 

Alright. Vi's had enough of this. 

She grabs the chair across the table from Powder's and pulls it out. She sits down and crosses her arms, staring right back at Powder. "Powder, I don't need anything from you. I just wanted to talk to you." 

Powder's flat stare turns into a glower. "About what." 

"I ran into Ekko. He said that you two had an... argument." 

Powder rolls her eyes. "Great. So glad he told you that." 

Vi waits. 

"So what if we did," Powder snaps. "Why's it any of your business?" 

This is all fucked up. This is exactly what she told Caitlyn would happen. "Pow, I'm not trying to pry or anything. I was just worried about you." 

"Oh, come on," Powder sneers. "As if you came all the way here from wherever the fuck you're living now to ask me about a stupid argument I had with Ekko." 

"That's exactly what I did." 

That earns her a full scoff. "Wow. Okay. Man, if I'd known that all it takes to get you to care is to have a fight with Ekko, I could've done that years ago and saved us all some time." 

"Powder!" Vi nearly shouts, and then makes herself take a harsh breath. She's about to lose it, she can feel it, and that's exactly what she's trying to avoid. She's an adult, she can keep a handle on her damn temper. "I'm trying, here, okay - " 

"Maybe it's too late." 

Vi's jaw drops. "Powder." 

Powder slams her book shut. "You're ruining my lunch." She leaves her book on the table but grabs her plate, standing up. 

The urge to leave, or yell, or fight, has Vi in a vice grip; it's instinctual, it feels like all she knows how to do, but - she has to do something else. Leaving or getting angry whenever anything hard happens is how she got into this mess in the first place and it's not going to fix it now. 

So she tries. Again. 

"Pow, can you please come back?" Vi calls as Powder stalks into the kitchen with her food. "Can we talk about this?" 

"No." 

"Please?"

"No, Vi!" 

Vi goes to stand up, but then makes herself sit back down. De-escalate. De-escalate. Don't re-escalate. "Pow, I'm sorry about what I said the last time we fought. I was drunk and - " 

Powder storms back out from behind the kitchen counter. "It's not about that! I don't care about that!" 

"Then what is it?" Vi asks, desperate. 

"You didn't even come to my fucking birthday!" Powder shouts, and then she bursts into tears. 

Oh. 

Vi's heart sinks. "Pow - " she starts, but Powder cuts her off. 

"I spent so many years hating my stupid birthday parties," Powder shouts. "All of them, for ten years. Go ask Vander or the boys, they'll tell you. I cried so hard all day during each one that eventually they stopped trying to make me celebrate. Because the whole day I would think about how you should be there with me and you weren't, and we knew where you were but we couldn't get to you, even though we tried so hard, and so instead of making a birthday cake with me or helping me decorate the bar or some shit, you were in a Stillwater cell and it was my fault." 

"Pow, it wasn't - " 

"That's! Not! The! Point!" Powder shouts, banging her hand on the table between each word for emphasis. "The point is that we finally get you back, and then you just leave me again. You leave us again, and this time we know where you are but we can't get you back, still, and we kept trying so hard, for so long, and you just told us all to fuck off. But then for some reason I still kept getting my hopes up that maybe it would be okay, that if we could just - if we could just get through to you, just let us help you, then I could fix this. But that didn't work." 

So much for Vi's plan of not crying today. 

Powder's not done. "But everyone still keeps hoping, Vi, and I know you don't see it or maybe you just genuinely don't care, but we do. Every time you show up, even if it's to yell at us or steal from us, everyone is so relieved and happy because at least then we know that you're not dead and that means that there's still a chance. And we keep inviting you to things even though we know you won't come, because you missed so many things for so long. And that's not your fault but you know what is your fault? That you're missing things now. You didn't even know what Claggor's girlfriend's name is until he got hurt that one day, even though he's been with her forever and they practically live together. You never showed up for Vander's celebration thing that pretty much everyone from the Lanes came to. And even though everyone was there, literally everyone we know, pretty much, do you know who he looked for the whole night? You. And you never showed up." 

"Powder." 

"Let me finish!" she yells, even though she's crying too. "I don't know why I'm so fixated on the birthday thing, because I don't even care about stupid parties, but I am. I asked you to come to my birthday, I told you it was important to me, and you said you'd be there. You swore you'd be there. You promised me you'd be there. I told you that you didn't have to bring a present or food or anything, I just wanted you to show up, and you told me you would." 

Vi wants to sink into the floor.

"Ekko warned me," Powder continues. "Vander warned me. Even Mylo and Clagg tried to be really nice to me about it. They all told me that you probably wouldn't come. But I kept telling them that you promised me that you would." She has to stop to take a shuddering breath in. "And then of course you didn't come. Never even dropped by. But that's not the worst part, Vi. Because I got really upset, right. Really upset. And so Ekko and I go for a walk so I can calm down. We go over to my favourite bookstore, because Ekko knows that I always like that, but you know where that bookstore is, Vi?" 

Vi potentially has never felt this acutely miserable before. 

She knows where that bookstore is. It's next door to the bar that she and Loris and their group from the pitfighting ring often go to. 

Powder must see it in her face, because she laughs bitterly. "Yeah. So we're walking up, and I'm already thinking about which book I'm going to get to make my shitty day a little better, and there you are. Standing outside a bar with a group of your friends. And you know what? You didn't even look that drunk. You were telling a story or something. All your horrible friends - and they are fucking horrible, by the way - are standing there laughing while you're talking and you're smiling and laughing with them. So that's what upset me, Vi. That's what it was." 

When Vi doesn't say anything, Powder sits back down in the chair she'd vacated. She sits sideways, leaning her shoulder against the back of the chair and staring at the ground instead of at Vi. After at least a few minutes of silence, Powder sighs. "Nothing to say to that, huh?" 

Vi's throat is painfully tight. "I, uh. If it - it's not going to help, I know but... I don't remember that conversation. I don't remember you asking me to come." 

Powder gives her a scathing look. "Uh huh. Sure." 

Vi looks down at her hands. "I wasn't, uh, in a good place. For a few months there." It had been right around Powder's birthday, when she'd really hit her low point. "I don't remember much of it at all." Now that she thinks about it, thank goodness that had been before Caitlyn showed up and not during. It had been months and months of non-stop drinking and partying and then she'd been fighting five days a week on top of that. The combination of those things had really been what put her in this hole for good, she thinks, with her body falling apart and every relationship she has in tatters. 

"Well, you clearly were doing well enough to keep doing your stupid pitfighting and partying with your garbage friends." 

"Don't need to be doing well to do that," Vi mumbles. 

"You looked just fine when we saw you." 

"Well. I wasn't." 

Powder gets up again abruptly. "Whatever. Whatever. It's whatever." 

"I'm sorry," Vi says quietly before Powder can walk out. "Powder, I'm so sorry." 

"You always say that. It doesn't fix anything." 

"I know. But I am. I never want to hurt you, hurt any of you. That's why I've tried so hard to stay away because I can't stop fucking things up - " 

Powder groans, tipping her head back to look at the ceiling. "Nobody asked you to do that! Nobody wants you to do that! That's what's hurting us, Vi." 

Vi scoffs, even though she's still crying and so it doesn't have the derisive effect she's going for. "Are you just forgetting everything I did when I was living here? All the shit I broke? How many arguments I got into with all of you? And remember when I nearly broke Mylo's arm - " 

"That was different. That wasn't your fault." 

"It was," Vi insists, "and there was so much more shit that happened. I don't know why you think it's going to be any different now. I'm even more screwed up now than I was then." 

"You're not. And even if you are, we don't care. And we would help you if you let us." 

Vi shakes her head, crossing her arms over her chest. She stares down at the table, tears still blurring her vision. "I don't - there's nothing you can help with." 

"Yeah, there is. I don't know why you're acting like you've screwed up your whole life to the point where it's not fixable."

"Doesn't feel fixable." Vi tries to scrub the tears away from her face, but they just keep coming and now her breathing is hitching too. She's about one step away from full-blown sobbing if she doesn't get herself under control. 

It's way easier to just go hit things than it is to feel like this. 

"Vi. I - " Powder's tone has changed a little, and she sits back down. She's calming herself down, unlike Vi. "I'm - this is a little harsh. I shouldn't have thrown this all at you like this. I was keeping it bottled up for too long." 

"It's fine."

Powder sighs. "It's not fine. And Vi, I know you went through ten years of complete hell. So it's not - no one is, like, blaming you for having a hard time. I'm not trying to do that either. I just want you to - I don't know. I just want you to be around. I know you're struggling but it's gotta be worse doing it on your own." She's quiet for a moment. "I want you to try to - not get better, maybe, those aren't the right words. Maybe they are. I want you to just try." 

Vi drops her hands back into her lap and stares at the table. "Pow, I am trying. It's hard." 

"I know." Powder finally turns in her chair so they're facing each other. "But it doesn't have to be as hard as you're making it." 

Vi tries to steady her breathing and kind of fails at it. 

"We heard that you aren't fighting as many nights as you were," Powder comments. "So that's good." 

"I guess," Vi mumbles. "I'm only doing two nights a week now." 

"The ideal number would be zero, but I guess that's better than every night." 

"I need the money," Vi says, resentment creeping back into her tone just a little. 

"We can help you with money, if that's what the main problem is. We're rich now, didn't you hear? Our resident Piltie just keeps paying us." 

That does get a choked laugh out of Vi. She'll have to tell Caitlyn that that's what Powder's calling her.

"And hey," Powder offers, "at least you're not drunk right now, eh? That's a start." 

Vi's smile drops. 

So does Powder's. "Wait. Seriously? It's lunchtime." 

Vi shrugs, embarrassed. Caitlyn has been trying to very gently convince her to drink just a little bit less every day, and so Vi's been giving it her best shot because Vi is trying, but so far she's only managed to go down by maybe a drink or two a day, if that. So she still had her shot in her morning coffee, because that one is like clockwork for her now and she can't go without it, and then she took a few swigs from her flask on the way down here because she was nervous. 

"Okay," Powder says slowly. "Well. Uh." 

"I'm sorry about your birthday," Vi interrupts. "I'll make it up to you somehow." 

Powder shakes her head. "Just - come to the next one, or something."

Vi is about to apologize again when Mylo appears on the stairs, looking at them with trepidation. To be fair to him, Powder is no longer crying but still has makeup and tearstains all over her face, and Vi still is actively crying and therefore likely looks the same. 

"Out," both Vi and Powder order at the same time. 

"I live here!" Mylo protests. 

Vi and Powder both point to the stairs he just came from. Mylo groans and turns around. "Vander!" he yells. "Vi and Powder are kicking me out of my own home!" 

"Stop tattling," Vi calls after him. "You're a grown man!" 

When he's gone, they sit in silence for a moment as Vi tries to think of what to say. 

"What can I do?" Vi asks, her voice still hoarse. "I want to - I really am trying but I'm..." she trails off, trying to get her sluggish thoughts together. "I don't know where to start with a lot of things, Pow. Give me something... I don't know, specific. Something I can do to make this up to you." 

"Come for dinner with us next week." 

Vi frowns. "That's it?" 

"Yeah. That's it. We'll go to Jericho's, you love Jericho's." Powder's face softens. "You don't even have to stay long, or come back to the bar with us after. Just come have dinner with us."

It's a tiny request. Miniscule, really. Vi's buried the bar so low under the ground that going to dinner with her family is a big deal. But even this is giving her a bit of anxiety. "Okay. Can you - this is going to sound stupid but can you write it down for me? Like, the date. And the time." 

Powder shrugs. "Sure." She gets up and grabs a notebook, scribbling down the information. She rips the page out and hands it to Vi. 

"Thanks," Vi mumbles, tucking it in her pocket. 

Powder looks thoughtful. "Why do you need me to do that? Are you genuinely going to forget if I don't?" 

"No," Vi says, defensive even though she shouldn't be because she has a distinct track record of this, as Powder just pointed out a few minutes ago. "I won't forget this time. I'm not on a bender right now or anything. I remember things. But I lose track of time really easily. And, ah, forget what day it is. So I don't want to miss it." 

Vi almost prefers Powder's anger from before to the concern she's emanating now, but thankfully Powder drops it. 

"Okay," Powder says slowly. "Well. See you then, I guess." 

Vi makes her escape and goes back to her apartment. She's a wreck the whole way home, and the guilt and frustration and sadness builds up and up until she finds herself walking right into a random bar, getting a drink, tossing it back, and then continuing on back to her place.

Maybe tomorrow she'll make another attempt at the whole sobriety thing. 

When Caitlyn comes over that night, Vi shoves the paper from Powder's notebook at her without even saying hello. 

"I need your help," Vi says before Caitlyn has even taken her backpack off. "You're always telling me to ask for help instead of spiraling and so here. I'm asking." 

Caitlyn takes the paper, frowning. "What's this?" 

Vi explains the whole situation, and Caitlyn's so sweet about it and doesn't even make fun of Vi for being an adult who can't manage her own damn life. So Vi takes her out to Caitlyn's favourite restaurant for dinner, which in Vi's opinion is the most boring place to eat in all of Zaun but Caitlyn likes food that tastes like nothing, apparently, and then they go to a concert at a bar nearby after. 

The concert is a bit of a toss-up on if Caitlyn will like it or not. Caitlyn likes most of the events and shows that Vi takes her too, but she doesn't like crowds all that much. So when they go in and Vi sees how packed this bar is, Vi scopes out a nice bar-height table in the back corner and secures it for them. 

She does so by kicking out the couple that had already taken it, but whatever. 

"Vi," Caitlyn chides, "they were here first." 

"And we were here second," Vi says, planting her elbows on the sticky surface of the table and glaring at another guy who wanders by looking like he might challenge her for it. "We're stuck here now though. Can't abandon it." 

"Alright," Caitlyn says, amused. "You go get us the drinks, then. I'll guard the table." 

Vi pushes her way to the bar and orders their drinks, and then orders herself an extra shot and throws it back before going back over to Caitlyn with the drinks without even thinking twice about it. 

Then she does think twice about it, when she remembers that she's supposed to be cutting back, but there's nothing she can do about it now. 

She tries to make up for it by sipping at her whiskey, rather than just downing it like she usually would. She stretches the drink out throughout most of the band's performance, which is easy enough to do because the show is actually pretty fun and Caitlyn smiles throughout the whole thing, so Vi gets to just look at her and admire her and listen to the music in the background. 

They stay for a while after the band wraps up, people-watching and leaning against their table. 

"Can I ask you something?" Vi says. It's been on her mind for a while now.

"Of course." Caitlyn finishes off the last of her drink. "I'm always asking you questions. You can ask me anything you like." 

"Aren't people missing you in Piltover?" 

Caitlyn frowns. "What do you mean? I made it clear where I was going when I left. My work - "  

"No, not like that. I mean, like, your family and friends. Aren't they missing you? Don't they want you to come back?"

Caitlyn looks thoughtful. "No. I don't think so." 

It's Vi's turn to frown. "Really?" 

"Well," Caitlyn muses, "I don't really have a lot of close friends. Just Jayce, really, and I consider him more part of my family than just a friend."

That's baffling to Vi. "What? Why not?" 

"Well, Jayce has been with my family since I was a teenager, and - " 

"No, not him," Vi says impatiently. She doesn't care about that guy. "Why don't you have any friends?" 

"I didn't say that I don't have any friends," Caitlyn corrects. "Just... not close ones. I have friends from university, from work. And I know quite a few people who grew up in the same circles that I did. We all attend the same events, that sort of thing. But I see them maybe a few times a year for dinners and such. We're not... close." 

"Oh." Well, now Vi feels kind of bad for asking so directly. "Is that a Piltie thing? Or a you thing?" 

Caitlyn laughs. "What, not having close friends? That's a me thing, I'm afraid. I've never exactly had a ton of people desperate to befriend me." She considers. "Well, that's not true, actually. I've had a lot of people who want to be my friend only to get the benefit of having an association with me and my family. Not to genuinely get to know me. Or want to spend time with me." 

Vi's frown deepens. "Why not? I would." 

Caitlyn's look is so fond that it makes Vi's heart twist. "Well, that's been clear enough. You've been pretty open with your affections. Apart from the times you threatened to kill me." 

Vi shrugs, unbothered. "Well, good thing you talked me out of that. Anyway, I would've thought you'd be super popular with all your fellow Pilties." 

"Why?" 

Vi leans forward, resting her elbows on the table again. "You're smart, you work hard, you're sweet, you're super dedicated to the things you care about, you're articulate, you're stunning - " 

Caitlyn waves a hand at her. "Alright, enough, please - I wasn't fishing for compliments." 

Vi grins at her. "But I like giving them to you. I can keep going."

Caitlyn shakes her head, but she's smiling. "Well, you'll be surprised to hear then that the most common descriptors used for me in Piltover are 'cold' and 'aloof'." 

"You're neither of those things." 

"With you, I'm not," Caitlyn says. "I'm well aware that I can be, though. I also can't put the blame solely on others. I can get very focused on my work, and then I have quite a lot of obligations on top of that. It doesn't leave a lot of time for other things." She smiles. "I once went an entire three weeks without speaking to another soul, when I was working on my thesis." 

Vi watches her, that twisting feeling in her chest getting worse. Caitlyn does work hard, Vi's seen her do that, but Caitlyn also so clearly loves being with people. When she's with Vi, they're essentially attached at the hip. Caitlyn's always talking, always reaching for Vi, and even when she's reading or writing or doing her notes, she doesn't let Vi stray more than an arms-length away. Vi also hasn't seen Caitlyn when she's with Vi's family, but from what Caitlyn has said, Caitlyn seems to love being a part of their little group. She lights up whenever she mentions Powder inviting her shopping, as much as she complains about it, or when the boys let Caitlyn join in on a card game at the bar. 

So the thought of Caitlyn being so alone up in Piltover that she didn't speak to anyone for weeks at a time makes Vi's heart hurt. 

"What about your family?" Vi asks. She reaches for Caitlyn's hand across the table and entwines their fingers when Caitlyn lets her take it. 

"It's just my parents and I. There are some distant relatives, but I don't know them well and they don't live nearby." Caitlyn smiles at Vi's hand wrapped around hers and squeezes their palms together. "I love my parents, to be clear, but we don't really have the kind of relationship where they would... miss me, when I'm not there." 

Vi stares at her. 

"They're wonderful," Caitlyn defends, even though Vi hasn't said anything. "Well, usually. My mother sometimes - well, both my mother and father want the best for me. And they do care about me. But we don't really... spend time together, like your family does. When I was a child I sometimes wouldn't see them for days or weeks at a time." 

"So who - " 

"I had nannies who cared for me. They were also wonderful." 

Caitlyn really doesn't seem bothered by all this, but Vi squeezes her hand anyway. The fact that it earns her another beaming smile is just more evidence that Caitlyn really does love affection and has just gotten used to pretending not to. 

"Your house must really be huge," Vi says, "if you've gone weeks without seeing the people you live with."

"It is," Caitlyn says, so matter-of-fact about it. "You could just come see it, you know. It's not like it's all that far away, especially if we took the bathysphere - " 

Vi shuts down so hard that it's probably visible on her face. "No. I don't go topside." 

"Vi - " 

But Vi's already disentangling their hands, which feels like more of a metaphor than she'd meant it to. "I'm going to go get us another round." She motions to Caitlyn's drink. "You want the same thing?" 

"Sure," Caitlyn says warily, and Vi takes off through the crowd back to the bar. 

Caitlyn drops the subject when Vi gets back, to Vi's relief, and the rest of the night is easy and fun until Vi goes to the washroom and leaves Caitlyn to guard their table. When she comes back through the bar, Vi runs into an old friend.

"Vi!" Blair calls, waving her over. "Oh, it's so good to see you!" 

"Hey," Vi says, letting Blair pull her into a hug. "You too. How've you been?" 

"Oh, good," Blair says, pulling back and giving Vi a look. "Vi, you look great." 

Vi raises an eyebrow. "Really? Usually people only tell me that I look like I'm about to die." 

Blair laughs. "No, you do really look good." 

Blair would know, Vi supposes. Vi had met her at a club a while back, probably over a year ago now. Maybe almost two years? That stretch of time is so fuzzy for her. So Vi had not been in a great place mentally when she'd hooked up with Blair the first time, but Blair had stuck around for a grand total of four, maybe five nights together. Then Blair had determined that Vi was not a good influence on Blair's own life decisions, which was completely fair given that way that Vi was living at the time, and then she'd very politely ended things. 

Now Blair looks very interested again. She tugs Vi into a second hug, despite having just let go of her the first time. "I'm just so happy to see you," Blair says into Vi's ear. "I've been thinking about you a lot." 

Vi's instinct is to pull back, because she's here with Caitlyn and she's with Caitlyn, even though they still haven't actually formally labelled what they are or anything, but still. But then she remembers that from where Caitlyn is standing at their table, Caitlyn will have a pretty clear view over to where Blair and Vi are standing. 

Which is probably why Vi can feel Caitlyn's stare boring into the back of her head. 

It's hilarious. It's so funny. Vi can't help but push it a little further. 

She does pull out of the hug, because that feels like too much, and steps back. But she keeps talking to Blair, letting Blair chat about her life and her job and all that, all the while feeling Caitlyn essentially astral projecting her soul across the bar to get between Blair and Vi. 

It's barely even a minute later when Caitlyn really does appear next to them. She slides her arm around Vi's waist, and then takes it one step further by tightening that arm and turning Vi into Caitlyn's body, so they're standing together in a way that is unmistakably romantic. Then, because that's not enough, she kisses Vi's cheek and then leans the side of her head against Vi's. 

"Hello," Caitlyn says politely to Blair, in her strongest bougie Piltie accent. 

Vi is trying so, so hard not to laugh that her voice comes out slightly strangled. "Blair, this is Caitlyn. Caitlyn, Blair." 

"Oh, hi," Blair says, looking visibly disappointed. "Nice to meet you." 

"You as well," Caitlyn says blandly. 

Blair gestures to the empty stage where the band had been playing. "So, uh, did you enjoy the show?" 

"We did," Caitlyn says. 

There's another beat of silence where Vi thinks she's probably turning purple from how hard she's suppressing laughter. 

"Well, it was great to see you, Vi," Blair says. 

"You too," Vi wheezes. 

Then, Blair actually looks at Caitlyn, holds her hands up in surrender, and walks away. 

Vi laughs the whole way home from the bar, much to Caitlyn's exasperation. 

"Violet, it is not that funny," she says for the tenth time. "You don't need to keep laughing." 

"I do," Vi wheezes as they walk. "It's so funny, I can't - you're the most jealous person I've ever met - " 

"I know," Caitlyn says morosely. "I can't help it." 

Vi nearly keels over and Caitlyn sighs loudly, which just makes Vi laugh harder. 

They walk past the stall that sells Vi's favourite popcorn just then, and Caitlyn points to it. "If I buy you some popcorn, will you agree to stop laughing?" 

"No," Vi says, "but at least you'll have popcorn to sustain you while you put up with it." 

Caitlyn sighs again, but she does buy them both popcorn to eat while they walk back home. 

It's a good night. Vi's glad she didn't die in Stillwater.

Chapter Text

It's absurd how quickly Caitlyn has become dependent on social contact. She used to be able to work alone for days, sometimes weeks at a time. But now, sitting in this small room, watching the lively street down below through her window, feels awful. 

Vi was pitfighting last night and then had some things to do with Loris and their group this morning, apparently, so Caitlyn hasn't seen her in almost a full twenty-four hours. Caitlyn had gone to The Last Drop last night and played cards with Vander and Mylo, so that had been fine, and then she'd been determined to get a lot of work done this morning with all her free time. 

But her room is so quiet. She misses Vi. She feels... lonely, which is a strange realization. 

Caitlyn puts her work away in the neat folders she's laid out over her desk and gets dressed. The bar won't be open for a few more hours, but it's late enough in the day now that at least a few members of Violet's family should be there.

She makes the short trip over to the bar and lets herself in with the key they gave her a while back. To her surprise, the whole group is there standing around the bar counter.

Powder is sitting on the bar counter with Ekko in front of her. Her arms are loosely wrapped around his shoulders and her legs loosely around his waist, so they must have made up. Mylo is behind the bar with Vander, and Claggor and his girlfriend are at one of the tables. They all turn and give her identical intense looks when she walks in.

Caitlyn stops just inside the door. "Uh. Hello. Am I interrupting something?"

"No," Mylo says. "Perfect timing. We were just about to go look for you." 

That's... foreboding. Caitlyn's concerned.

"Caitlyn," Powder says, "we have something very important we need you to do for us." 

Caitlyn stares at her, wary. "Do I get to know what it is, or - " 

Powder tilts forward onto Ekko's back and then drops down onto the floor. She comes toward Caitlyn. "I'm the one who put you forward for this, so my reputation depends on it. My livelihood depends on it. My self-worth as a person depends on it - " 

"Powder," Vander says mildly from behind the counter, where he's ignoring them all and restocking liquor bottles. 

Powder sighs, her monologue interrupted. "Fine. But really, we do need you to do something for us. I'm putting a lot of faith in you here." 

"And there's money on the line," Mylo calls. "Not for you, to be clear. For us." 

Caitlyn is absolutely baffled. She has no idea what they could possibly need her to do, but she is a little intrigued. "Tell me what it is." 

"It's easier if we show you," Ekko says, and disappears into the apartment. He comes back a moment later with some rolled-up blueprints and spreads them out on one of the tables. 

Caitlyn leans over the blueprints, intrigued. "Did you do these?" 

"Powder and I did," Ekko says. 

Caitlyn had known that Powder and Ekko have numerous projects they spend time on, but she hadn't realized the scope and she'd certainly underestimated their skill. "These are excellent." 

The blueprints and diagrams look professionally done; they're the kind of quality that Caitlyn would have expected from highly-paid and highly-educated engineers in Piltover. They show what seems to be part of the ventilation system in what she assumes is a specific part of Zaun, with massive fans and vents moving air through the city. 

Ekko glances at Powder, who is just looking down at their work and completely unimpressed by Caitlyn's opinion. "Thanks," Ekko says. "This is something we've been working on for a long time." 

"Years," Powder supplies.

"Years," Ekko agrees. "We've been making improvements to a lot of the ventilation systems throughout Zaun. We've gotten a lot done so far, but this one we're stuck on." He points to a specific part of one of the fan blades. "The motor for this was broken. We got that fixed up and went to turn everything on, but there's a piece of metal debris jammed right in here." 

"We think it's what broke the motor for this entire system in the first place," Powder adds. "That piece of junk is stuck so tightly against the blade that it's preventing the fan from rotating, and it likely burned out the motor as well when it got jammed." 

Ekko taps the fan blade again. "All we need is to destroy this piece of debris. Once it's gone, we can get everything running again."

Powder leans over the table and points to one of the diagrams. "And once it's running, this entire part of Zaun will have better airflow." 

That sounds wonderful, but Caitlyn has no idea how she fits into this equation.

"Here's what we need you for," Ekko says. "Nobody can get up to this piece of debris. The fan's too big, the metal is too slippery, there's nothing to throw ropes onto to help with climbing. We've tried everything." 

"Can't use anything too explosive, because that'll destroy the fan and defeat the whole purpose," Powder adds, looking disappointed that she doesn't have that option. 

"So we've been shooting at it from the ground," Ekko says. 

Oh. That's what they need her for. Oh, how fun. 

"Powder said you're a good shot," Ekko continues. 

Caitlyn nods. "I'm an excellent shot." 

"I've only seen you shoot once," Powder says, "so you can imagine my trepidation here."

"Tell her about the gambling," Mylo calls from the bar. 

Caitlyn frowns. "The gambling?" 

Ekko winces. "So, this has kind of turned into a bit of an..." 

"Event," Powder says. "Competition. Race." 

"It's not a secret that we've been working on this," Ekko explains. "We've had a lot of help, especially from people who live in this area. And well, now it's a bit of a target competition. A couple times a week, people have been getting together to try to be the one to shoot this thing." He taps the fan blade again. "So, now there's some bets going." 

"A lot of bets," Mylo shouts, despite the bar not being big enough to justify yelling like that. 

"So there'll be a lot of eyes on this," Powder says, "and therefore, if we take you down there, you cannot disappoint us. Do not make us look bad." 

Caitlyn's already sold on this. There's nothing they could have asked her to do that would be more fun than this, but she's missing something key. "I don't have my rifle anymore." 

"That's fine," Ekko says. 

"We've got lots," Powder adds, "and there's a bunch more down there too so anyone can give it a try." 

"Have you all already tried?" Caitlyn asks. "Am I your last attempt?" 

That earns her a lot of sour faces. So that's a yes, then.  

"I got the closest," Powder mutters. 

"She's not kidding about our reputation being on the line," Claggor adds from his table. 

"So it's a two-fold thing you'd be helping with," Ekko says, like it's a concluding statement to a political speech. "You'd get to help bring clean air to a part of Zaun that hasn't seen it in decades. You'd also be restoring our reputation as people not to mess with." 

"Right," Caitlyn says. "So when will we be going?" 

Everyone looks at her. 

"We didn't expect you to agree that quickly," Ekko says, "but we can go this afternoon." 

"Let's go now," Mylo suggests. "Let her take a look at it first." 

Caitlyn looks around at the assorted group. "Don't you have to open the bar at some point?"

They all turn to Vander. 

Vander looks up. "Well... I was going to tell you all to just get going. But I think I'd actually like to see this. We can open late today." 

They all cheer, even Claggor's girlfriend Serena, and then Caitlyn's being towed out of the bar. 

Caitlyn has vastly underestimated the scale of this. 

Vi's taken her to many different parts of Zaun by now, but Caitlyn hasn't been to this area before. She likes the neighbourhood, actually. It's a pleasant mix of quiet restaurants and cafes underneath large but fairly well-kept apartment blocks. The streets are busy with people working and shopping, and the children running around seem to be more invested in their games than pickpocketing. 

Although, Caitlyn's not a good judge of that. She's still somehow being pickpocketed an average of three times per week, despite never once seeing it happen. 

She's escorted down through the streets until the neighbourhood opens up into an absolutely massive cavern. The dark rock walls stretch up high enough that Caitlyn can't even see the ceiling of the cavern through the smog. The street turns into a footpath, which leads up to a rocky outcrop overlooking a stunningly beautiful pool of turquoise water. 

There's no one in the water; no children playing on the shore, no one washing clothes or filling buckets or swimming around, which leads Caitlyn to believe that the beautiful colour likely comes from the toxic runoff from a nearby factory. 

Above the pool of water is the fan for the ventilation duct. Despite the blueprints showing the scale of it, Caitlyn is still taken aback by the size of it. No wonder they haven't been able to get up to the top of the fan to get to the stuck blade; the fan towers over the neighbourhood, the dark ventilation duct behind it looming ominously.

Caitlyn accompanies Vander and his family as they walk down the path to the outcrop. She finds it quite endearing to watch them all walk together; despite all of the group being adults now, they tend to cluster around Vander like they must have done since they were kids. Powder bounces back and forth between chatting with Vander and jumping on Ekko's back to make him carry her. Claggor and Serena walk at the back, holding hands, and Mylo makes a big show at the front of leading the way despite everyone knowing where they're going. 

She also finds it endearing when they keep looking back at Caitlyn to make sure she's still with them and hasn't gotten lost or robbed. Although, now that she thinks about it, that could be less of a sign of affection from them and more of a protecting their investment sort of thing. 

Ah, well. She likes it either way. 

There's a lot of people clustered on the outcrop and on the shore below, all looking up at the fan. There's a few people taking shots at what must be the metal debris they'd asked Caitlyn to target, but from the disappointed groans and complaints after each shot, there's been no luck yet. 

"More people will still start showing up soon," Claggor tells Caitlyn as they all join the crowd, Serena holding his hand. Ekko and Powder have gone off to talk with a group of people they must know, and Vander's doing the same with another group. Mylo's drifted off somewhere. "Is it going to throw you off your game? Having spectators?" 

"No, not at all," Caitlyn says. "I'm used to that." 

In the rifle competitions she grew up competing in, there were often plenty of spectators and she'd been trained since she was young to function the same whether there were people watching or not. Admittedly, Piltovian crowds differ a little from this one, but she can adapt. The most noise that she would hear from the Piltovian spectators would be some polite clapping and murmurs of approval, but she can block out the rambunctious noise of a Zaun crowd easily enough. 

Powder materializes beside Caitlyn again. Despite Powder having bright blue hair and usually very distinctive clothes, she sure can move through a crowd unnoticed when she wants to. "This way." 

Powder grabs Caitlyn's wrist and tugs her through the throng of people to the edge of the outcrop. As promised, there is a significant amount of long-range weapons laid out for what seems to be anyone to try. 

"You can take your pick," Powder says. Caitlyn looks up at the fan again, focusing on the section that Ekko had pointed to on the diagram. 

Ah, there. She sees it. She also sees why they've been having such trouble successfully hitting that target. 

It's not an impossible shot, in Caitlyn's expert opinion, but it's certainly a difficult one. The metal debris that had caused the fan to jam is small and inconspicuous. A small piece of broken machinery, maybe. The fan blade in question is turned upwards, towards the roof of the cavern, meaning that any shot taken will be at an awkward angle. 

Caitlyn looks down at the available weapons, all neatly lined up on a blanket someone must have brought. "Who do these all belong to?" 

"Bunch of different people," Powder explains. "People bring what they have when they come down to watch, if they're not going to give it a try on their own." 

Caitlyn picks out a rifle that looks like it would suit her and takes it. She's itching to just get started and take the shot, but she can tell the crowd's looking for some excitement. "Do I have to wait?" 

"Preferably, yeah," Powder says. "Just like, twenty minutes. Mylo's gotta get all the bets going and everything." 

That's fine. Caitlyn ignores the crowd and looks at the shot she's going to take instead. 

It's closer to an hour before Claggor shows up to take Caitlyn over to where he and the rest of his family have gathered in the crowd, near the edge of the outcrop. During that time, a fairly significant crowd has gathered to watch.

"Should I go first?" Caitlyn asks. "I can, if need be." 

"Nah, that's fine, we've got all day," Ekko says. He's watching the first people line up with their rifles down at the edge of the outcrop. "Although if someone gets it before you, we'll lose our money." 

Mylo shakes his head. "No one's done it yet. I don't think the next ten minutes are going to make a difference." 

Sure enough, Caitlyn watches the first attempts go terribly. Most of the shots don't even get close, and the ones that do are still significantly far off from the tiny target. 

"You'll have to keep in mind the air in here," Ekko tries to explain to Caitlyn.

"The pressure's weird down here, it's not like topside." Powder adds. "You - " 

Caitlyn frowns at both of them. It must be disapproving enough to get her point across, because they both scowl at her. That's just fine with Caitlyn; she's confident in a lot of her abilities, sure, but this is what she knows she's the best at. 

They watch a few more people try and fail. Every time someone misses their shot, the crowd groans in disappointment and money is exchanged. 

"Oh, hey," Claggor says quietly to Vander. "Vi's here." 

Caitlyn's heart skips a beat. They all glance at where Claggor's looking. Sure enough, Vi's standing on the edge of a narrow footpath leading up above the water, leaning on the rickety metal rail. She's with a group of people that she's talking with, but she must feel their eyes on her because she looks over. 

Caitlyn's heart warms right up when she sees her. It's absurd, considering she just saw Vi yesterday; it hasn't even been a full day yet that they've been apart. But Caitlyn has to hold herself back from smiling right at Vi and going over to her. If Vi wasn't still enforcing her rule about keeping their relationship a secret, that's exactly what Caitlyn would do. 

Caitlyn actually expects Vi to just take off and disappear into the crowd, now that all of her family are looking straight at her, but to Caitlyn's surprise, Vi gives them a small wave. 

They all wave back, thrilled, and Caitlyn has to pretend to be testing the weight of the rifle in her hands again to hide her face. 

Now she's nervous though, only because Vi's watching. If she wasn't standing here with Vi's family she'd probably frantically wave at Vi to go away. She'll be so embarrassed if she messes this up while Vi's watching. 

It's Caitlyn's turn. From what she's gathered from waiting in the crowd for this long, nearly everyone has bet against her except for Vi's family, which explains why they're so eager for her to get this right. That and the promise of better air for this part of Zaun, too. 

She suspects that Mylo is predominantly motivated by the financial aspect.

Caitlyn takes her borrowed rifle and goes down to the part of the rocky outcrop that stretches out over the water. She can shoot standing up, like most of the people so far have done, but of course she'll be more accurate if she can brace the rifle. 

She sets up a little further back than where most of the others have started from so she can use part of the rock as her stand. It'll put her at a slightly awkward angle; she's not quite lying flat, she's not quite on her knee, but that's fine. She's adaptable. 

Caitlyn takes a deep breath. She looks at her target. She takes another breath, slower this time. She clears her mind of the crowd behind her. She clears her mind of everything. Then she has to do it again because she starts thinking about Vi. Then another slow, steady breath. Steady. Steady. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. 

She pulls the trigger. 

She not only hits the debris, she hits it exactly where she meant to. The twisted hunk of metal trapped against the fan blade explodes into tiny pieces, ripped apart by the force of the bullet. The massive fan instantly groans and moves just slightly with the jam gone. 

It's extremely satisfying. Caitlyn's quite pleased with herself. A rifle she's never used before, air pressure she's not familiar with, the bizarre and unpredictable air flow in the fissures - 

Caitlyn takes herself out of the quiet, calm mental space she goes into when she shoots and is immediately hit by a wall of noise. 

Then, a second later, she's also literally hit by Powder jumping on top of her just as Caitlyn stands up. 

Powder is screaming into Caitlyn's ear and also nearly toppling her over, but then Ekko hits Caitlyn from the other side and somehow keeps her upright. 

The crowd is cheering and shouting, which is, well, certainly a new experience. It's nothing like the polite clapping she would receive at her rifle competitions. 

"Fuck yes!" Mylo shouts from beside them, and then he jumps on both Caitlyn and Powder. While Caitlyn considers herself a fairly strong individual, she cannot support the weight of multiple grown adults on top of her and so she falls right over. 

They all end up in a heap on the hard ground until Claggor and Vander come over and pick them all up. 

"Hell of a shot, kid," Vander says to Caitlyn as Ekko and Powder take off into the crowd. Caitlyn presumes they're going to get the ventilation system started, now that the jam is fixed, but then she's distracted by the amount of excited people coming over to congratulate her. 

It's not long until a nearly-unbearably loud clanking noise starts reverberating through the cavern. Caitlyn doesn't have the best hearing as a result of her years of shooting, but even she has to cover both her ears. 

The initial sound passes, thankfully, and then Caitlyn gasps as the massive fan slowly starts to move. Within a minute it's picked up speed, and Caitlyn cannot believe the difference. 

The air when she'd come down into this neighbourhood had been even worse than up in the Lanes. Thick, smoggy, dense with chemicals to the point where she felt like she could taste it on her tongue. 

But the air being moved through the ventilation system now has already started to clear it. Caitlyn isn't prone to crying, but she does feel a lump in her throat form just a little at the excitement in the residents' faces. 

By the time Caitlyn's dragged back to the bar by the group, the air feels nearly as clean as up in Piltover.

They throw a party in the bar. It's the busiest Caitlyn's ever seen it. Everyone buys Caitlyn a drink. 

There's a lot of people in the bar. It's a lot of drinks. 

She ends up distributing most of them around the bar to willing takers but it seems rude to give all of them away. 

"This is great," she tells Vander, leaning over the bar and holding up her glass with the unidentifiable liquid. "What is this?" 

"Best you don't know," he says. 

Caitlyn smiles at him. "Alright!" Then she takes another long drink of it and Claggor very gently takes the glass from her. 

"Hey," she protests, but then someone else comes to congratulate her on the shot she'd taken and she's distracted. 

She's pleased to see how many people have come to talk to Powder and Ekko about their work. All Caitlyn did was fire a single shot; it was all Powder and Ekko's planning and dedication and genius that had fixed the problem. 

She tries telling Powder that. Powder raises an eyebrow and then takes Caitlyn's new drink away from her too. 

"Everyone is stealing from me," Caitlyn complains to Mylo. 

"Oh no," Mylo says flatly. "If only you could buy more. If only you had money. If only you were a Piltie. If only you were a rich Piltie - " 

Caitlyn spins around on her bar stool to ignore him. 

This is wonderful. Caitlyn is having the time of her life. She wishes Vi were here, but she understands that this would probably be too much for her right now. 

Vander and Powder are behind the bar, but Caitlyn doesn't see the boys anywhere. She doesn't want to bother Vander and Powder, they're both busy with customers, but she's pleasantly fuzzy from the alcohol and she doesn't want to sit here alone. 

She goes out the back door into the alley and finds Ekko, Claggor, and Mylo all standing away from the door, smoking. 

"Oh, hello," she says. "Those aren't cigarettes." 

They all freeze like they're children who've just been caught doing something illegal. "Uh," Ekko says. "No. They aren't." 

Caitlyn wanders over. "Can I have one?" 

They all look at each other. 

"I can pay for it," Caitlyn says, and reaches into her pocket. She pulls out a handful of coins and shoves them at Mylo. 

"How are you not out of money?" he grouses. "You haven't been back up topside since you got here." 

"I brought a lot with me," Caitlyn explains. "Although I have lost quite a bit to the pickpockets." 

All three of them look at each other again. Ekko shrugs, and Mylo reaches into his pocket. 

Fifteen minutes later, Caitlyn is even fuzzier and more relaxed than she was before. She's leaning against Claggor, who is taller than her and therefore quite nice to lean against. "This is fun," she says. "I'm having so much fun. Are you all laughing at me?" 

"Yes," Ekko says. 

"This isn't your first time getting high, right?" Mylo asks. "Because we're going to be in really big trouble with Powder and Vander if - " 

Caitlyn rolls her eyes. "Of course not. We're not that uptight in Piltover." 

Vi has to be nearby. Caitlyn wants to go and find her. 

She just needs to stand upright to do that. She's leaning further and further against Claggor. 

They're all definitely laughing at her again. 

"How much did she drink before she came out here?" Claggor asks. 

"From the looks of her, a lot," Ekko says.

Vi's probably right around the corner. Caitlyn's going to go find her. "Thank you for the drugs," she says, and starts off down the alley. 

"Uh, Caitlyn?" Ekko calls after her. "Where are you going?" 

She turns around. "It's a secret," she stage-whispers. Because it is! Vi keeps telling her no one is supposed to know. 

"Should we stop her?" Mylo says, but it's too late, because Caitlyn's already gone. 

Caitlyn was right. Vi's only two streets away. 

Caitlyn turns the corner and there she is, walking towards her with her hands in her pockets. 

"Hey, hotshot," Vi calls when she sees her, smiling, and Caitlyn can't help but launch herself forward. 

Vi grunts as Caitlyn leaps on her and staggers backward. "Are you trying to kill me? What did I do?" 

Caitlyn wraps her legs around Vi's waist and her arms around her shoulders. "You're strong. You can hold me up." 

"Sure, if I have warning," Vi complains. She doesn't drop Caitlyn though. "Wait. Cait, are you drunk?" 

"No."

"If I put you down, are you going to be able to stand up?" 

"Of course." 

Vi puts her down, Caitlyn untangling herself to let her. Caitlyn beams at her and keeps her arms wrapped around Vi's neck. 

"Oh, you are drunk," Vi says.

"You don't have the monopoly on drinking, Violet," Caitlyn says. Then she can't help but kiss Vi, because she's so pretty and she's right there and - 

Vi pulls back and gently grabs Caitlyn's jaw, tilting her head up. She stares right into Caitlyn's eyes for a moment. "Caitlyn. Are you high?" 

"Yes," Caitlyn says gleefully, and then laughs. 

Vi sighs. "Let me guess. Everybody bought you a round?" 

Caitlyn tightens her arms around Vi and pulls her in closer, so their faces are nearly touching. "Yes. It was so much fun. But I wanted you to be there, and you weren't, so I came looking for you." 

"I'm not too happy that they let you walk out like this," Vi grumbles. "Who got you high? Mylo?"

"I'm very fast. They couldn't have stopped me if they tried." 

Vi laughs. "Fine. Guess I'll just have to have a talk with them later. Are you okay, though? It's not too much?" She leans back again, studying Caitlyn's face. 

"No," Caitlyn insists. "I'm wonderful. Can we get noodles?" 

The noodles are the best food Caitlyn's ever had. She tells Vi this with great enthusiasm. 

"Good, because you're paying," Vi says. 

They're sitting at one of Caitlyn's favourite places in Zaun. It's a small restaurant in one of the most brightly lit parts of the city, neon lights all clashing to make one vibrant glow. The street is busy and this particular restaurant is one where the tables spill out onto the street. Vi and Caitlyn are sitting at a small table along the wall of the restaurant, nicely tucked away from the hustle and bustle. 

"I don't have any more money," Caitlyn says. "I gave it all to Mylo. For the drugs." 

Vi nearly chokes on a noodle. "How much did you give him?" 

Caitlyn shrugs. "I don't know." 

"Cait." 

Caitlyn eats another noodle with delight. "I'm supporting the local economy." 

Vi laughs. "Is Mylo the local economy?" 

"Seems to be. He did seem to be responsible for quite a bit of the gambling." Caitlyn finishes her last noodle and frowns at her empty bowl. 

"Aw, don't do that face," Vi says. "You want ice cream or something?" 

Caitlyn thinks about it. Something cold doesn't sound good. "No. Maybe something with chocolate, though." 

"You don't like Zaun chocolate." 

Caitlyn sighs and slumps back in her chair. "It's bitter." 

"Yeah, that's all the chemicals. It's good for you. Toughens you up."

"I don't want chemicals," Caitlyn says sadly. "Are you laughing at me? Everyone is laughing at me today." 

"Yeah," Vi says, "but lucky for you, I also can't stand to see you do that sad face. Let's go find you some non-chemical chocolate." 

Caitlyn brightens up. 

"I think," Caitlyn says as she finishes her mouthful of chocolate, "that this is the best day I've ever had." 

Vi had found a shop that sold chocolate that Caitlyn considered acceptable, and now they're sitting on a bench that overlooks one of the widest parts of the fissures. Zaun sprawls out before them, flashing lights and bright colours and noise and music echoing everywhere. The bench is right up against the metal railing preventing citizens from stumbling right off the edge of this street and down the cliff; the street is busy behind them, but this bench makes it feel like they're in their own little world. 

Caitlyn is sitting sideways on the bench, her legs thrown over Vi's lap. She's curled into Vi's side, her head resting on Vi's shoulder as Caitlyn breaks off another piece of chocolate. 

"Ever, huh?" Vi says, amused. "That's a pretty big statement." 

"It's true," Caitlyn says. "Would you like another piece of chocolate?" 

"Sure." 

Caitlyn breaks off a piece and gives it to her. "You can't do this in Piltover, you know." 

"Do what? Eat chocolate?" 

"No, of course you can eat chocolate. Good chocolate. No, I meant sit like this." Caitlyn waves a hand to how they're curled up together. "We'd have to sit apart." 

Vi laughs. "Yeah, all proper, I get it. Do you, uh, do you know yet when you're going to go back?" 

Caitlyn frowns, pausing in her attempt to cleanly break off more chocolate. "Go back where?" 

Vi brushes some of Caitlyn's hair out of her face that's fallen out of her ponytail. "Topside. Piltover." 

"Oh." Caitlyn relaxes and breaks off a nice new square of chocolate. "Never, I think." 

"Cait. Come on." 

Caitlyn pops her new square of chocolate into her mouth. "Never," she says with more emphasis, because it must not have been clear enough the first time. 

Vi sighs. "I shouldn't have asked you when you're drunk. And high." 

"Answer will be the same," Caitlyn says through her mouthful of chocolate, and then slaps her hand over her mouth because even though she's highly intoxicated, the manners drilled into her as a child are making her ashamed of herself. 

Vi's too tense. Caitlyn leans back a little and slides her free hand over the back of Vi's neck, leaving her thumb on the edge of her jaw. Vi's skin is so soft under her fingers. "What's wrong?" 

"Nothing," Vi says, but her face is all tight the way it gets when she's upset about something. Caitlyn tries to stroke her thumb along Vi's jaw reassuringly but maybe just gets some chocolate on her face. "I'll ask you later." 

"Why? Ask me now." 

That gets Vi to smile a little. "Because you're not going to give me a real answer right now." 

Caitlyn's offended. "Of course I will." She shoves her bar of chocolate at Vi. "Here. Take this. As proof." 

"Proof of what?" Vi asks. 

"Proof." 

Vi gives up. She turns on the bench so they're facing each other, one of Caitlyn's legs now thrown over Vi's hip slightly. It's probably too intimate of a way to sit for how public this bench is, but that's just fine with Caitlyn. 

"I just want to know when you're leaving," Vi says. "That's all. But I'll ask you later." 

She looks so sad. Caitlyn therefore abruptly feels crushingly sad in return. "I told you. Never." 

Vi groans. "Cait, I know you're high as a kite right now but you gotta stop saying that." 

Caitlyn eyes the chocolate bar Vi's now holding. Caitlyn kind of wants it back. "Why? It's true." 

"Cait. You have to go home at some point." 

"I do not," Caitlyn says, trying to subtly reach for the chocolate. 

"You do. That's your home. I know you said that your friends and family don't really miss you but they, will at some point. Your family's going to miss you, your friends are going to miss you - " 

Caitlyn laughs. "They are not!" She reaches a little further for the chocolate bar. She's doing it so slowly that surely Vi will not notice she's trying to take the proof back. "Vi. They didn't even notice when I got abducted." Caitlyn starts giggling. "So they're not going to care if I just stay here!" 

Vi moves the chocolate so far out of Caitlyn's reach that it feels criminal. Vi's staring at her, her eyes wide. "What? What are you talking about?" 

Caitlyn doesn't think she can move her legs, so she just keeps stretching with her upper body to reach the chocolate bar that Vi's now holding over the other side of the bench. "When I got abducted. They didn't even notice that I was gone, not until they got the ransom note!" She's now bent nearly in half with her arm outstretched. "You'd notice, right? You'd notice if I disappeared." She tries tugging on Vi's arm, which may as well have been made of stone. "Can we arm-wrestle? I want to see how quickly I lose." She tugs on Vi's arm again. 

"Caitlyn, what are you talking about?" Vi asks, rudely ignoring Caitlyn's arm-wrestle request. "You've never told me anything about this. When did this happen? What - oh, wait. Is this what you were talking about when we first met? The thing that made you want to join the Enforcers?" 

Caitlyn frowns and slumps forward onto Vi's shoulder again. "You don't like talking about Enforcers. Can I have my chocolate?" 

Vi gives her back the chocolate bar, which brightens her up again. Good thing! She wasn't interested in feeling sad today. 

"Do you not want to talk about this?" Vi asks. 

Caitlyn breaks off another square of chocolate. "Talk about what?" 

Vi sighs. "Never mind. I feel bad, I shouldn't have - we can talk about this tomorrow." 

"Alright," Caitlyn agrees, smiling at her. She doesn't remember or care what Vi's talking about. She holds up her chocolate bar. "Do they make this in a hot chocolate version?" 

Vi sighs again and scrubs her hands over her face. "No. But if you really like that stuff, we could melt it. Mix it with some milk." 

That's the greatest idea that Caitlyn's ever heard. She gets up from the bench so quickly that she topples right over because she never un-entangled her legs from Vi before she moved. 

"Oh, fuck me," Vi complains as she grabs Caitlyn just in time to stop her from landing flat on her back on the ground. She pulls Caitlyn upright, getting them both on their feet. "I guess I'm really getting a taste of my own medicine today, huh?"

Caitlyn wraps her arms around Vi's waist. "What do you mean?" 

Vi gently starts walking Caitlyn backward around the bench. "I'm trying to keep you from cracking your head open by accident. Don't you get tired of doing this with me when I'm hammered? Don't you get tired of me?" 

Caitlyn smiles at her. "No. I could never get tired of you. I love you."

Vi freezes. 

"Oops," Caitlyn says. 

"Oops?" Vi's voice sounds like she's being strangled. 

Caitlyn shrugs. "Hmm, yes. I wasn't supposed to say that." 

Vi is still completely frozen in place. Caitlyn, who is really relying on Vi to get them both back to her apartment at this point, waits patiently. 

"So," Caitlyn says eventually when Vi doesn't move. "Hot chocolate?" 

"Okay," Vi wheezes, "yeah. Hot chocolate. Okay. Let's - yeah." 

Even though Caitlyn's hazy mind, she knows she probably did something she wasn't quite supposed to do. But that's quickly forgotten when they run into such an obstacle on the way home that even Vi stops staring blankly into space with huge eyes and refocuses. 

"Oh, come on," Vi says as they both look up at the massive piece of metal serving as an interim ramp for the stairs that apparently crumbled into the ravine below yesterday. "Why is this happening today?"

"Infrastructure maintenance is crucial for the long-term longevity of heavy foot-traffic spaces," Caitlyn says helpfully. She's not sure why her brain supplied her with what is clearly a quote she read in a book at some point, but that's simply not her problem. She smiles at Vi, who is looking at her like she's lost her mind. 

Caitlyn watches a group of people scramble up to the top of the sheet of metal and onto the street above. "This looks fun." 

"It's too steep," Vi says, despairing. 

"There are railings," Caitlyn tells her cheerfully. Someone had taken the time to weld two other large chunks of metal to the ramp, ensuring no one would slide right off into the ravine below. This particular set of stairs was the main thoroughfare between two different neighbourhoods, so there's also not really another way around without adding a significant time delay.

Vi pushes her hair back from her face, staring up at the ramp. Her hair's getting so long now, spilling down her back in bright layered waves. In a few months it'll be at her elbows. 

Caitlyn can't help but reach out and tug very gently on the ends of it. It's so soft. How does Vi keep it this soft when she didn't even own shampoo before she met Caitlyn. 

"Cait."

It's the most beautiful colour. It's the most beautiful colour that Caitlyn's ever seen. 

"Caitlyn." 

"Yes?" Caitlyn asks, looking up from where she's been standing holding a bunch of Vi's hair in her palm, staring at it. 

Vi looks as if she's praying for strength. 

Caitlyn has never laughed this hard before. 

Her ribs are hurting. Her abdominal muscles are twinging. She has tears streaming down her face and her face is aching from smiling too much. 

She's technically at the top of the ramp. She has her hands over the metal edge. All she needs to do is successfully pull herself up and over and she'll be on solid ground. But she cannot stop laughing and her arms are exhausted from how many times they've tried this. 

"Caitlyn, do not let go," Vi threatens from below her, where she's kneeling on the ramp with her feet braced. "Just pull yourself up, you're almost there - " 

Caitlyn does her best. She pulls as hard as she can with her arms, but her body doesn't move. 

"Cait, don't you dare - " 

She's sliding down again. She takes one of Vi's legs out too as she goes and takes them both down.

Caitlyn crumbles into a pile at the button of the ramp, Vi half on top of her and laughs so hard that it's soundless. 

This time she's halfway up. Vi is beside her, once again somehow perfectly balanced, with her hand around Caitlyn's bicep. 

"Little further," Vi says. 

"This is only halfway," Caitlyn points out. She tries to crawl further up the ramp and both her knees slide out from under her. Caitlyn slowly stretches out on the ramp and starts to slide backward, giggling again. 

"Don't - for fuck's sake - " Vi pulls her back up by just her arm to where she was before. 

"Halfway again," Caitlyn tells her pleasantly. 

Vi is sitting at the top of the ramp, her hands on the ground behind her and her legs resting on the ramp. She stares off into the distance as Caitlyn giggles from her spot a quarter of the way up the ramp. 

"I guess we live here now," Vi muses. "There are worse places to end up, I guess." 

"Have you had a tetanus shot?" Caitlyn asks. The metal ramp is really quite rusty.

"What the fuck is tetanus and how would it shoot me," Vi says flatly, and Caitlyn shrieks so loudly with laughter it echoes off of the ravine above them. 

Caitlyn's lying on her back on the ramp, staring up at the dark smog above her. There's a woman trying to climb by her, who is having about the same amount of success that Caitlyn's had so far. 

"We could try going the long way around," the woman's partner says. He and Vi are sitting at the top of the ramp, chatting as if they're old friends. 

"That's going to take what, two hours?" Vi says. 

"Sure, but how long have you been here?" 

"I lost track. It feels like forever." 

The woman successfully makes it to the top on her next attempt, leaving Caitlyn happily sprawled out halfway up. 

Caitlyn is on Vi's back, her face in Vi's beautiful hair and her arms wrapped around Vi's neck. Vi is on her hands and knees, crawling up the ramp. 

"I escaped," Vi says, and pauses to pant for breath, "from Stillwater." She takes another breath. "And that - was easier - than this." 

"But you didn't have a Caitlyn to keep you company," Caitlyn says into her hair. 

Vi laughs out loud this time and it distracts her enough that they lose some of Vi's hard-earned ground and slide backward again. 

"Okay," Vi says, as she tips Caitlyn over the top of the ramp and onto the hard ground. "Don't move. Do not. Move." 

Caitlyn smiles up at her. Vi's ended up over top of Caitlyn, nearly straddling her on the ground. 

Caitlyn can't help but surge up for a kiss. She grabs Vi's pretty hair and pulls her down to meet Caitlyn halfway. 

Despite Vi getting all huffy about how long it took them to get up here, she sure leans into the kiss quite a bit. Caitlyn's smiling too much to kiss her properly, and - 

Vi goes to move up a little, and her knee must go over the edge of the ramp again because she immediately slips to the side and rolls back down the ramp. 

Caitlyn scream-laughs, still on her back on the dirty ground.

"Vi," Caitlyn says, "I really do mean it. I think this has been the best day of my life." 

"That's great," Vi pants. She's slightly out of breath because she's been carrying Caitlyn on her back all the way up to her apartment. "I'm warning you now, though, I think you're going to have the worst morning of your life tomorrow." 

Caitlyn's eyes are closed, and she's drifting happily. Her face is smushed into Vi's shoulder. "Future problem."

She must doze off, because they're suddenly at Vi's front door and Vi is saying Caitlyn's name. 

"If I put you down, am I going to be able to get you up again?" Vi asks. 

Caitlyn thinks about it sleepily. "Probably not." 

"Okay. Can you get my key out of my pocket? Or yours?" 

Caitlyn makes a clumsy and frankly slightly lazy attempt to do so. 

"Caitlyn." 

Caitlyn starts giggling into Vi's shoulder. 

"Oh, for - " Vi grumbles. She adjusts Caitlyn's weight on her back and somehow manages to get her own key out of her pocket. 

Caitlyn closes her eyes again and then she's being dropped lightly onto the bed. She's being forced to drink water against her will, but then she's being all wrapped up in the soft blankets and clean sheets, so that's alright. Then she's closing her eyes again and - 

"Violet, I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm going to pass away." 

Vi's voice comes from outside of the protective layer of blankets that Caitlyn's covered her head with. "You are not. I gotta say, I didn't expect you to be this dramatic about a little hangover." 

"It's not little. I'm going to die." Caitlyn pauses. "Actually, death would be a mercy. I'll welcome it." 

Vi snorts. The sound hurts Caitlyn's head. "Do you want some water?" 

"No. I only wish for death." 

Vi laughs again. Caitlyn loves the sound of Vi's laughter but right now she would perhaps prefer it if Vi would laugh just a little more quietly. 

Caitlyn did manage to get up this morning at one point, just long enough to stumble into the shower and then stand under the hot water and groan quietly in agony for a while. She'd even gotten dressed again and drank the glass of water that Vi had forced into her hand. But now Caitlyn is back in bed with only the blankets between her and the agonizing sensory experience of existence. 

"I hate to do this," Vi says, "but I sort of need to kick you out." 

"No," Caitlyn moans. 

The bed moves, so Vi must have sat down next to her. "You can stay if you really want to, but Loris is going to be here soon." 

Caitlyn groans. "This is a fate worse than death. Violet, I don't know how you do this to yourself every day. I simply do not understand." 

"Well, I usually don't get crossfaded, so that helps." 

Caitlyn miserably crawls out from the blankets, wincing at the light. "It's too bright." 

"There's literally no sun down here." 

"I think the neon is worse," Caitlyn says, getting to her feet unsteadily. "Do you have sunglasses? A hat?" 

"Why would I own sunglasses or a hat when I live somewhere without sun." 

Caitlyn abandons her attempts to stand and instead slumps miserably over Vi's lap on the bed. "Help me." 

Vi takes pity on her. She gets up and digs one of her jackets out from the messy cupboard. She helps Caitlyn into it, pulling the overly large hood over Caitlyn's head to shield her face. "There. Is that better?" 

"Yes," Caitlyn says pitifully. "Thank you." She's still sitting on the edge of the bed, looking up at Vi. "Ah, before I go, I do just need to, well, clarify something. I did tell you I love you yesterday, right?" 

Vi blanches. "Uh. Yeah. But - you were really out of it, so - " 

"I meant it," Caitlyn says quickly, not wanting to be misunderstood. "So we're clear." 

"Cait..." Vi nearly whines. 

"You don't have to say it back," Caitlyn reassures her. "That's not what I - " 

Vi groans. "No, it's not - it's not that, I - " 

Caitlyn watches from the bed as Vi starts pacing around her tiny kitchen. Vi clearly tries to start a sentence several times and then stops herself. 

Finally, Vi stops her pacing and turns to face Caitlyn. "I want you to come to my fights." 

It's the last thing that Caitlyn had expected her to say. "What? But - you said before that you didn't want that." 

"Changed my mind," Vi says brusquely. "I want you to come to all of them. And come out with us after."

Caitlyn wishes her mind were a little more clear for this conversation. "Vi... how are these two things related?" 

"It's - " Vi says, and then stops herself and starts pacing again. 

Shit. She's really worked up about this. 

"You've only seen me like this," Vi says finally, without stopping her pacing. 

Caitlyn frowns. "Like what?" 

"Like, I don't know. Relatively... normal, I guess." She somehow speeds up the pacing. "You don't know - you haven't seen me - 

Ah. That's what this is.

"Vi," Caitlyn interrupts. "It's alright. I'll come to your fights."

That stops the pacing, thankfully. Vi sighs and comes to stand in front of Caitlyn. "Okay. Then - then after you come to a few, you can, I don't know. Decide." 

"Decide?" Caitlyn says, incredulous. "Decide what? If I love you? Vi, it doesn't work like that." 

Vi gives her a look that very clearly says she's at her limit with this conversation. 

"Alright," Caitlyn says firmly, and stands up. Then she whimpers and pulls the hood down further over her face when her head pounds. 

Vi's concern must outweigh her current anxiety, because she puts her hands on Caitlyn's shoulders to steady her. "Are you okay to walk back on your own? I can go with you. Loris can wait." 

Caitlyn tries to nod her head and then whimpers again. "I'll be fine."

Vi huffs a small laugh. "Go over to the bar before you go back to your place. If you look sad enough, Vander will give you his hangover cure." 

Caitlyn peeks out from the jacket. "Does it really help?" 

"Yeah. He only makes it for you once though. After that, he says you should know your limits." 

Caitlyn drags her pathetic body all the way to The Last Drop and then slumps her way through the doors. The bar isn't open yet, but Vander's behind the bar and Mylo and Claggor are helping to set up. Powder and Ekko are at their table. 

"Oh, thank fuck," Mylo says as Caitlyn makes her slow way inside. "We were a little worried you went off and died somewhere." 

"I did," Caitlyn rasps. "I've perished. This is my corpse." She sits down on one of the barstools and slumps over the bar. 

"Did you have a good evening, at least?" Vander asks, seemingly amused at Caitlyn's pathetic state.

"Yes," Caitlyn mumbles, "but at what cost?" 

Powder appears next to Caitlyn. She leans against the bar, staring. "Hey, Caitlyn," she says. "Question for you. Why are you wearing my sister's jacket?" 

Caitlyn freezes in place. 

So does everyone else. 

How does Powder know that? This isn't one of Vi's more distinctive jackets. It's not even really a jacket; it's more of a sweater, just plain black with a zip and a hood. 

The bar is silent. 

"It's - it's my jacket," Caitlyn says, cringing. 

"It's not," Powder says pleasantly. "That's Vi's." 

Maybe if Caitlyn were at her best, she'd be able to think of a convincing lie. But right now, she cannot think of a single plausible explanation she can provide as to how she ended up wearing Vi's jacket, other than the truth. 

The bar is still silent. Everyone is staring at her. 

Caitlyn stares back at them and then slides off the barstool. "I'm - I'll just - " she says, and then she just leaves. 

Well. The cat's out of the bag on that one, she supposes. 

Chapter Text

Caitlyn bursts through the door of Vi's apartment like a herald proclaiming war. "Your family knows." 

"Huh?" Vi says from where she's making coffee at the kitchen counter. 

Caitlyn rests her hands on her knees, panting for breath. She's still not entirely recovered from her hangover, despite spending the rest of the day yesterday and all of last night asleep in bed in her apartment. "Your family knows," she repeats. "About us." 

"Oh. How?" 

Caitlyn straightens up, trying to steady her breathing. "Powder recognized the jacket I was wearing." 

Vi takes a sip of her coffee and makes a face. "I swear I've never worn that jacket around her." 

Caitlyn shakes her head. "Well, she recognized it, and I couldn't think of a good lie in time. So they know." 

Vi shrugs. "Ah, well. No big deal." She goes to sit on the bed with her coffee, her back against the wall. 

"No big deal?" Caitlyn says, indignant. "Vi! Do you know how hard I've been working to keep this a secret?" 

Vi looks like she's trying not to laugh. "I'm sorry? I didn't think it was all that big of a thing. I just didn't want them to bug you about it, mostly. It was more for you than for me." 

"Violet!" 

Vi does outwardly laugh this time. 

Caitlyn groans and flops onto the bed. "So you're not upset?" 

"No," Vi says. "They are going to interrogate you about it, though." 

"They'll have to catch me first," Caitlyn says, rolling onto her side and pushing her forehead against Vi's knee. "I'll just stay here. Forever." 

"We're going for dinner with them tomorrow, so that's not going to last very long." 

Caitlyn groans again.

"I'm nervous." 

"Why?" Caitlyn asks. She's leaning against the kitchen island, waiting for Vi to redo her eye makeup for what might be the thousandth time. "There's nothing to be nervous about. We're just going for dinner with your family." 

"That's exactly why I should be nervous." Vi leans through the open washroom door to look at Caitlyn. "Are you sure we aren't going to be late?" 

"Yes. We're going to be so early that even if we crawl all the way there, we'll have time to spare." 

Vi gives her a doubtful look and then goes back into the washroom to keep doing her makeup. 

"Vi," Caitlyn says, "have you always had this problem with time?" 

"What problem?" 

"Your problem with keeping track of time." 

Vi reappears in the doorway, frowning. "I don't have a problem with that." 

Caitlyn raises an eyebrow. "You asked me to make sure you didn't miss tonight's dinner. You then also told me that you've apparently missed quite a few important things in the past that you meant to attend, but you lost track of time." 

Vi glances to the side and tosses the eyeshadow brush she was holding towards the washroom sink. She was probably intending for it to land in the small container she keeps her makeup in, but given the clattering sound, it's likely that she misses. Vi ignores this and turns back to Caitlyn. "That's not a problem. I have lots of problems, but that's not one of them. Where'd I put my jacket?" 

"On the bed," Caitlyn says. "Have you always had this problem?" 

Vi finds her jacket under the duvet on the bed and yanks it on roughly, only pausing to pull her hair out from under the collar. "Cait, I just said it's not a problem." 

Caitlyn tilts her head. "Fine. Have you always experienced time blindness to the point that it affects your ability to manage your own schedule and attend events?" 

"I'm uninviting you from this dinner," Vi says, and heads to the door. 

"You never technically invited me in the first place," Caitlyn says as she follows. She pauses to lock the door and then has to jog to catch up with Vi at the stairs. "You just asked me to remind you about it, which brings me back to my point." 

Vi groans as they start down the stairs. "You're not going to let this go, are you." 

"Not until you answer me." 

Vi glares at Caitlyn over her shoulder. "It's not a simple answer." 

"That's fine. We have a long walk." 

They reach the bottom of the stairs, and Vi sighs. "No, I don't remember losing track of time as easily as I do now, when I was a kid. But that could also just be that it didn't come up as much." She shrugs as they start off down the street together. "You could ask Vander, maybe, if you really care this much. He'd remember. But we didn't have school or anything like you did when you were a kid. We just kind of ran around doing whatever we wanted. I didn't usually have to be in specific places at certain times, and if I did, then Vander would remind me. Or my mom and dad, when I was younger." 

Caitlyn nods, thoughtful. "So when did it start?" 

"It didn't - " Vi sighs. "Nothing started. I've been like this since I got out of Stillwater. It's one of the main reasons why I haven't been able to keep a real job for more than a few weeks." Her voice hardens. "Cait, if you're trying to subtly work out if this is brain damage from getting hit in the head too often or drinking too much, please just say that." 

"I'm not," Caitlyn says reflexively, and then winces because that's an outright lie. "Well. I - it sounds rude to ask something that directly." 

"Piltie manners," Vi mutters. "In Zaun, it's ruder to ask something indirectly."

Caitlyn makes a face and steels herself. "Fine. Do you think your time blindness is from brain damage caused by multiple concussions from pitfighting or from excessive and chronic binge drinking?" 

Vi bursts out laughing. "See! That wasn't so bad, was it?" 

"No, it was awful," Caitlyn says. "I hate honesty. I feel uncomfortable." 

Vi laughs again. "Well, get used to it. And no, I don't think that's what it's from." The humour disappears from her face. "In Stillwater, I didn't have any... agency, I guess, about when I could do something or where I could go. Like, I never got to choose when to go do something. I was always in my cell, except for when they took us all out for meals and things like that. And even then, it's not like we could choose when to go back to our cells after eating. They'd take us there, then take us back. So I never had to think about when to be somewhere." She shrugs. "And I was in there from fifteen to twenty-five, so, you know. Some critical brain-development years were in there." 

That makes sense, although Caitlyn does think the multiple concussions and binge drinking probably don't help. 

"Plus," Vi adds thoughtfully, "solitary probably fucked it up more. It's one thing to not have to pay attention to time when you're in the normal cellblocks, but solitary will really make you lose it." 

Caitlyn read an article, years ago, on the effects of solitary confinement on the brain. It was not an enjoyable read. "How often were you in solitary confinement?" 

"Oh, a lot," Vi says easily. "It really fucks with your sense of time. Once I thought I was only in there for a day, and it turned out that it had been almost a week. Another time it was the opposite, I thought I'd been in there for months and it was three days."

Caitlyn doesn't know what to say other than, "that's awful." 

Vi shrugs. "I think they thought it would be the thing to break me down. Maybe finally get me to shut up and stop causing trouble. It definitely didn't work, though, I always came out of solitary crazier and louder than I went in." 

Caitlyn gives Vi a hesitant smile. "Did they just give up after a while?"

But Vi doesn't make a joke, or smile back, or laugh. Her eyes just go blank, unfocused, even though her steps don't falter on the uneven street. "Nah," she says. "They got me eventually." 

She doesn't say anything else, and her eyes don't re-focus, and Caitlyn's heart starts to sink. "Vi?" Caitlyn says quietly. 

Vi blinks, and then blinks again, and then her eyes clear. "Hmm?"

"Are you alright?" Caitlyn asks gently. She feels terrible - she shouldn't have brought this up when they're on their way to something Vi was already nervous about. But she hadn't expected the conversation to go this way. 

"Yeah, of course," Vi says, and she does look fine now. But then she reaches into her unzipped jacket and takes her flask out of the interior pocket that Caitlyn's pretty sure Vi sewed in for this specific purpose. 

"Oh, Vi, don't - " Caitlyn says, reaching out for the flask. Vi pulls it away from her, but Caitlyn tries again anyway. "Vi, your family will know. They'll smell it on you. What do you have in that, whiskey?" 

"So?" Vi snaps. "They know how much I drink. They haven't seen me sober in years, they're not going to be expecting me to show up sober tonight." 

"They're going to be disappointed if you show up visibly drunk and smelling like whiskey," Caitlyn says, holding her ground. 

Vi scowls, but shoves the flask back into her jacket without uncapping it. "Fine. I'll drink on the way home instead." 

Caitlyn decides that this isn't the hill to die on and lets it go. Vi's clearly off-kilter, stressed about seeing her family and also now thinking about whatever Stillwater memory Caitlyn had accidentally triggered for her, and so now's not the time for another conversation about her drinking. It won't go anywhere good, at this point. 

The Last Drop is busy, even though it's still fairly early in the evening. Vander's behind the bar, and he looks up when they come in. His eyes dart between Caitlyn and Vi, clearly surprised to see them actually come in together. 

Caitlyn sits down on one of the barstools, but Vi just leans on the counter next to her. "Hey," she says, avoiding Vander's eyes. She's already started unwrapping one of her hands, a telltale sign that she's nervous. 

"Hello, Vander," Caitlyn says politely. 

He looks between them again and starts to say something, but just then the voices of Vi's siblings start resonating through the bar. 

Caitlyn has only actually seen Powder and Vi interact directly on the night that Claggor was injured, and so she's been expecting more of the same antagonism. But when all of Vi's siblings wander into the bar from the apartment, Powder's eyes light up when she sees Vi and then she comes racing through the bar. She slams into Vi hard enough to knock her to the side, throwing her arms around her. 

"Ow," Vi complains, but she steadies herself and wraps her arm around Powder's shoulders. "Hey, Pow." 

"I told you she'd be here," Powder calls to the boys. She beams at Vi. "And you're early!"

"Wouldn't be late for Jericho's," Vi says. "We are going to Jericho's, right?" 

"Yep," Powder says, just as Mylo walks by and smacks Vi on the side of her head. She swings at him and he ducks, yelping. 

Claggor comes up and wraps Vi in a hug, therefore enveloping Powder as well, who is still clinging to her. "Hey, Vi." 

"Hey, Clagg," Vi says, somewhat muffled. "Pow, is Ekko coming?" 

"He'll meet us there," Powder says, and then shoots a dark glare towards Caitlyn. 

Caitlyn looks back at her evenly, and then notices Mylo and Claggor also staring at her. "Yes?" she says. 

"So are you two, like, here together?" Mylo asks, pointing between Vi and Caitlyn. 

"Yes," Caitlyn and Vi say at the same time. Powder's glare intensifies, and so Caitlyn feels it's best to change the subject. 

Caitlyn looks at Vander, who is smiling at them all with so much fondness that it makes Caitlyn's heart twist. "Will you be joining us, Vander?" 

He shakes his head. "Someone's got to keep the bar open. You all go." 

"We'll bring you back something," Powder says. Claggor lets her and Vi go, and Powder starts ushering everyone out of the bar. She shoots Caitlyn another seething glare as she does so, which Caitlyn ignores. 

Vi glances back to make sure Caitlyn's following, and Caitlyn gives her a small smile. Vi smiles back at her and then they're all through the doors and out onto the street. 

It's a pleasant night. The streets are busy and lively but not chaotic, and the air is warm but not too smoggy. 

They all walk as a group, Vi and Powder in the front. Powder has linked her arm with Vi's and is chattering away at her as they walk. Claggor and Mylo seem used to this and hang back with Caitlyn as they go.

"Caitlyn," Mylo says, "we're so confused." 

Caitlyn feigns ignorance. "Confused? About what?" 

Mylo and Claggor both give her unimpressed looks. 

"Obviously about you and Vi," Mylo says. "We didn't even think you two knew each other. Didn't you meet, like, just once or twice? And she threatened to kill you and you almost shot her?" 

"I did not almost shoot her. I simply used my rifle to deter any potential violence." 

"Yeah, whatever," Mylo says. "But then how did this happen?" He points to Vi up ahead and back to Caitlyn. 

Ekko appears in the distance and therefore Caitlyn is saved. "Oh, look," she says, "there's Ekko!"

She ignores the irritated sound Mylo makes and hurries to catch up to Vi and Powder as they greet Ekko. Caitlyn is then saved a second time by the fact that Jericho's is right around the corner. 

They secure one of the biggest tables and everyone goes to order, except for Caitlyn. She sits down and waits patiently at the table, looking around the establishment. 

"Aren't you getting anything?" Vi asks.

Caitlyn jumps, not realizing Vi had appeared beside her. "Oh, no. I'll just have something later."

Vi's eyes narrow. "Why?" 

Caitlyn glances up at the counter where everyone else is clustered together, yelling over each other and arguing about the validity of each other's orders. "I'm not too hungry."

"Liar." Vi glances up at where Jericho is now serving up bowls of the most atrocious looking food Caitlyn's ever seen. "It's delicious stuff, Cait. You'll like it." 

Caitlyn gives her a look. "I will not." 

"I'm just going to order for you," Vi decides, turning around. 

"Violet," Caitlyn hisses. "Do not do that, that's even worse - then I'll feel like I have to eat it, so as not to be rude." 

"You'll like it," Vi repeats over her shoulder as she goes back to the counter.

Caitlyn scowls and crosses her arms. 

Everyone else sits down at the table with their steaming bowls. They all look at Caitlyn with barely restrained glee. It doesn't matter how long Caitlyn's lived here now, they still all find great amusement in her refusal to eat food that would not pass the most basic of safety inspections. 

"Not a fan of slugs?" Mylo asks, reaching into his bowl with his bare hands to pick up something that Caitlyn cannot even look at. 

"I'm not hungry," Caitlyn says flatly. 

"Is Vi still ordering?" Claggor asks, looking over to where Vi is still chatting with Jericho. "She's not getting her usual?" 

"She's getting something for Caitlyn," Ekko explains, already digging into his own bowl with gusto. "Special order." 

"Jericho doesn't do special orders," Claggor says. 

Ekko nods his head to where Jericho is now serving up two separate bowls of food. "He will for Vi. He's always liked her the best." 

Caitlyn looks at the two bowls with despair as Vi turns around, one in each hand and a smug grin on her face. She comes over to the table, looking far too pleased with herself. 

"Here," she says, setting one down in front of Caitlyn. "No slugs, no seafood, no unidentifiable meat." She sits down between Caitlyn and Powder and digs into her own bowl. 

Caitlyn looks at the steaming bowl in front of her. "What's in it, then?" 

"Try it and find out," Vi says, her mouth full of what Caitlyn can only hope is not slug. 

Caitlyn gives her a desperate look. "With my hands?" 

Vi grins and whips a spoon out, setting it gently into Caitlyn's bowl. "Nah, I knew that would be too much for you." 

There's a chorus of boos and jeers as Caitlyn picks up the spoon, which she ignores. She glances up before she takes a spoonful to see the entire table watching her. 

She realizes they probably placed bets on this. 

Caitlyn steels herself and eats the first spoonful. "Oh," she says with surprise. "Just vegetables?" 

"Yep," Vi says, slurping down another horrific piece of anonymous seafood. 

"I love vegetables," Caitlyn murmurs to herself, and eats some more. It's actually not that bad. The broth is still far too slimy for her liking, but it's perfectly palatable. 

Everyone except Vi looks crestfallen. Caitlyn stares back at them flatly and serves herself another spoonful. 

"Is the bet off if Vi got her something different?" Ekko asks Mylo. "We didn't account for that." 

"Stop betting on Caitlyn," Vi says. "Mylo, you didn't get rat, did you?" 

"So what if I did?" Mylo asks. "It's a great source of protein." 

"I hate rats," Vi mutters. 

"No rat talk," Claggor, Powder, and Ekko all say at the same time. Caitlyn has to agree. 

Mylo ignores this. He holds up a piece of meat and points it at Vi. "You shouldn't be so opposed to eating them, Vi. You've got to think about it like revenge. Yeah, they ate you that one time, but now you can eat them." 

Vi points back at him with what Caitlyn fears truly is a slug. "You know what? You're right. Here, trade with me. Give me the rat bowl." 

They switch bowls. Caitlyn, Powder, Ekko, and Claggor are then forced to withstand a debate on the virtues of slugs vs rats, which lasts for what feels like far too long. 

"Enough with the rats!" Powder shouts eventually, which thankfully turns them on to other topics. 

When dinner is done, Vi and Ekko lead the way to what they call a 'Piltie tourist spot'. 

"How many tourists actually come all the way down here from Piltover?" Caitlyn asks as they walk. 

"Not all that many," Claggor says, "but places like this upcharge them so hard that they can make enough of a profit to stay afloat." 

The 'Piltie tourist spot' turns out to be an ice cream stall that only serves ice cream in self-described 'Zaun flavours'. 

Caitlyn eyes the stall warily as they approach. "What is a Zaun flavour?"

Mylo sighs. "You'll see. Man, this is such a good idea for a business. I can't believe I didn't think of it." 

He and Ekko and Claggor crowd around the stall with Vi, all of them arguing about what to order. Caitlyn hangs back, content to let Vi have this time with her siblings. 

"Cait!" Vi calls. "Do you want rust or smog?" 

Caitlyn genuinely doesn't know if she misheard. "Do I want what?" 

"Rust flavour or smog flavour?" Vi looks back at the stall. "Or coal?" 

Ah. Right. Zaun flavour. "Rust, I suppose," Caitlyn calls back. 

She's waiting patiently off to the side when Powder materializes next to her, her face cold and her eyes boring intensely into Caitlyn. "Caitlyn, I need to speak with you." 

Caitlyn frowns, unsure of what she's done to cause this ire. "What's wrong?" 

"You," Powder snaps. There's a vicious tone to her voice that Caitlyn hasn't heard before. Powder glances over her shoulder at Vi and the boys, clearly checking to make sure they're not paying attention. She turns back to Caitlyn. "I don't know what the fuck you're doing with Vi but when you fuck this up - " 

Oh. A shovel talk. Caitlyn isn't angry about it, because she understands how protective Vi's family is of her, but she also isn't going to allow Powder to talk down to her. "There's no 'when', Powder. I don't plan on fucking anything up." 

"You're a Piltie," Powder snarls. "When you leave, Vi's going to be totally messed up over this, I can already tell." She gestures to where Vi's now shoving Mylo out of the way so she and Claggor can look at another flavour. "She's doing really good right now. Really good. Like, the best we've seen her in years. You can't - don't fuck her up, Caitlyn, please - " 

Caitlyn can't even snap at her. Powder might appear furious, but she's doing exactly the same face Vi does when she looks angry but is actually terrified.

Powder's scared. 

"Powder, I would never want to hurt her," Caitlyn says softly. 

"I don't care what you 'want' to do," Powder hisses. "I care about what you'll actually do, which - " 

"Powder," Vi calls warningly. Caitlyn and Powder glance up to see Vi watching them. 

"Yeah?" Powder calls back, the picture of innocence. 

Vi narrows her eyes and comes over. "What are you doing?" she asks Powder. 

"Nothing," Powder says. 

Vi looks at Caitlyn. Caitlyn smiles at her. "Everything's fine." 

"Uh huh," Vi says doubtfully. She points Caitlyn over to where the boys are now collecting their selected ice cream from the vendor. "Go get your rust ice cream." 

Caitlyn obeys. By the time all the ice cream has been dispersed, Powder and Vi are still off to the side, arguing quietly. 

"Should we..." Caitlyn tries, gesturing to Powder and Vi with the ice cream she's holding for Vi. 

Ekko, who is holding both his and Powder's ice cream selections, shakes his head. "No, just give them a minute. They'll work it out." 

None of the boys seem bothered by this, content to try out their bizarre ice cream and rate it. 

Caitlyn is still trying to decide if her ice cream is actually made with rust or just some sort of rust-flavoured ingredient when Powder and Vi come back over. They must have sorted it out, because even though Powder's eyes are slightly red, neither of them seem upset. 

"How is it?" Vi asks, taking the ice cream Caitlyn holds out for her. 

Caitlyn makes a face. "Well. It does taste rusty." 

Powder ignores Caitlyn for the rest of the evening. Even when Caitlyn and Vi say goodnight to the group, Powder hugs Vi and then grabs Ekko and starts walking away. He shoots Caitlyn an apologetic look over his shoulder. 

Vi's quite cheerful as she and Caitlyn start the walk back to Vi's apartment. 

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Caitlyn asks. 

"Nope," Vi says. "I didn't fuck anything up, so that's good." 

Caitlyn smiles at her and wraps her arm around Vi's waist as they walk. "You're minimizing it. They loved having you there." 

Vi shrugs, but she does look happy. "Powder wasn't too nasty to you, right?" 

Caitlyn shakes her head. "No, not at all. She just cares about you." 

"I guess," Vi says, and then she glances at Caitlyn. "So, change of subject, but, uh - " 

"What is it?" 

Vi winces. "This is going to sound like it's coming out of nowhere, but I've been trying to find a good time to ask. The other day, you said something about, uh, you getting abducted?" 

It's the absolute last thing Caitlyn had expected her to stay. She stumbles over her own feet and Vi has to keep her upright. "I said that? When?" 

"When you were high," Vi says, sounding guilty. "Sorry. You don't have to explain it. I just wondered." 

"No, it's alright," Caitlyn says. "You've told me so much about your own life. I owe you this." 

Vi stops walking and turns Caitlyn to face her. "Cait, you don't owe me anything. If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to." 

Caitlyn shakes her head. "It's really not a big deal." 

Vi looks doubtful. "It's not a big deal to talk about it, or it's not a big deal that you were abducted at some point?" 

"Both." 

"Caitlyn." 

Caitlyn starts walking again. She holds her hand out for Vi to take. "It's really not. I don't want it to sound more dramatic than it is." 

Vi takes her hand and lets Caitlyn tug her along the street. "Getting abducted sounds pretty dramatic." 

"Well, there's no other way to put it, really. It's honestly nothing major. You'll be underwhelmed. It's nothing." 

"You're doing a lot of overexplaining for something you claim is nothing," Vi points out. 

Caitlyn frowns at her. 

Vi smiles and squeezes Caitlyn's hand. "It's not fun being psychoanalyzed, is it?" 

Caitlyn rolls her eyes fondly. "Violet, it's really nothing. Far worse things happen to people. Far worse things have happened to you." 

"Are we competing? Are we competing in a 'shitty things happened to me' contest? Are we - " 

"Alright, fine," Caitlyn says. "It happened when I was younger, when I was in my first year of law school. I've told you before that my family is wealthy, even by Piltover standards. We're also quite well known; everyone knows which estate is ours, who I am, that sort of thing."

She has to think about how to describe the next part. She hasn't had to verbalize this before, really. Everyone in Piltover had heard about what had happened through the new reports and the gossip; she'd never had to actually explain it. 

Vi waits patiently, rubbing her thumb over the side of Caitlyn's hand clasped in hers. 

"A group of men from Zaun broke into my home in the middle of the night," Caitlyn says finally. "They came into my room while I was sleeping and abducted me from there. They took me to a basement nearby and then sent ransom demands to my family in exchange for my safe return." Caitlyn shakes her head. "Unfortunately for me, it took quite a while to resolve. They'd covered their steps when they broke in quite well, so the maids didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when they came into my room the next morning, apparently. And, well, my family and friends didn't notice I was gone, so." 

"Cait..." 

Caitlyn looks straight ahead. "It's fine. Nothing actually happened to me. Eventually they sent the ransom note, the butler received it, and he notified my parents. They paid the ransom immediately and the men then let me go. Not a scratch on me." 

"Of course something happened to you! They kept you for days?" 

"Well, yes," Caitlyn says. "It was quite embarrassing, really. I'd had a rather heightened confidence in my own capabilities up until that point. Turns out I was relying a little too heavily on my shooting ability for self protection, and considering I didn't wake up until they were already pulling me off the bed, I didn't have time to reach for my rifle." 

Vi stops walking. Caitlyn tries to continue, but Vi's hand locks around Caitlyn's and Vi really is impossible to move when she doesn't want to. 

"Cait, hang on," Vi says. Caitlyn reluctantly turns around to face her. "That's not embarrassing. They came into your room while you were asleep?" 

"Yes." 

"If you were asleep, how would you have been able to do anything to protect yourself? And how many of them were there?" 

"Eight."

Vi is staring at her with wide eyes. "Cait, that's terrible. This is a nightmare of a situation. How long did they have you for?"

"Only five days," Caitlyn says. "Not long at all." But even as she says it, Caitlyn feels a bizarre tingling wave wash over her body, leaving a fuzzy, unsettled feeling in its wake. 

"Caitlyn, that's a long time," Vi says. She grabs Caitlyn's other hand, so she's holding both. 

"Not in the grand scheme of things. Violet, you were in prison for ten years. This isn't anything." 

"Yes, it is." Vi's eyes sharpen. "Where were you that whole time? You said a basement, but did they just put you in a room somewhere in there?" 

There's a very strange crackling sensation happening in Caitlyn's chest and spine. "At first it was just a room, yes, but I escaped that after only a few hours. They caught me before I even made it out of the basement they were keeping me in though, so after that they tied me up and put me in a closet." 

"That's horrific." 

The feeling in Caitlyn's spine is now sending tiny pinpricks all over her body. "Not really. It could have been much worse. I wasn't injured at all." She swallows. "I will admit that it was a little hurtful when it turned out that my captors only sent the ransom note on the fourth day. The original plan had apparently been to wait for people to come looking for me. They were going to do a whole hostage-negotiation thing."

"No offense to your family," Vi says, "but I hate them." 

It makes Caitlyn laugh. "Oh, you don't need to. When they received the note, they were reportedly quite distressed. And Jayce said that he would have noticed I was missing if we'd had something scheduled for that week, which we didn't. He was quite busy at the time, so I only saw him every few weeks." She hesitates. "You can hate my classmates and professors, if you'd like. I missed quite a few classes and apparently the running joke was that now finally someone else would have a chance to be top of the class." 

"Sure," Vi says tightly. "I can do that. I can hate them. I'm full of hate, I love having new sources to direct it to." 

Caitlyn laughs again, and then swallows as the uncomfortable tingly feeling sweeps through her again. "Could we keep walking?" 

Vi drops one of her hands but keeps the other as they start off toward Vi's apartment again. "What happened to the guys who took you? You said they were from Zaun?" 

"Yes," Caitlyn says. She has to pull herself back to the conversation, distracted by the way the tingling has moved into her ribcage now. "They're dead. When my parents received the ransom note, they did pay but they also contacted the authorities. The men didn't even make it back to Zaun before they were caught by Enforcers. There was a shoot-out. None of the men escaped and several Enforcers also died in the conflict." 

"Oh." Vi sounds disappointed. "I was all fired up. I was going to go kill them." 

Caitlyn smiles. "Sorry to disappoint." 

"That's alright. I've got a fight tomorrow, I'll go work it out then." 

Caitlyn had somehow forgotten that. A surge of nerves rushes through her, which does not mix well with the pinpricks and tingles. 

It's strange. This happened years ago, now, and Caitlyn truly had emerged from the situation without a scratch on her. She hadn't even cried at the time, although she hasn't cried at all since she was nine, so that isn't unusual. 

But now that it comes back to her, it's - it's - it doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel right, in her body. She thinks about the absolute terror she'd felt when she'd been pulled out of a deep sleep to a man's hand over her mouth, another man's hands wrapped around her forearms as she tried to squirm away. The way she'd tried to scream and fight as they'd pulled her off her bed but how useless it had been. There'd been too many of them and she'd been asleep moments before. 

Then the days in the darkness, tied up so tightly that she'd lost feeling in her hands and feet.

The threats the men had shouted at her. What they would do to her if her parents didn't pay. 

The desperation she'd felt to feel safe again once she was home. They were all dead, she was told, but that didn't help. It could never happen again. No one should go through that again. 

"Cait? Are you okay?"

Caitlyn nods and drags herself back to reality. She's fine. "Yes. I'd like to keep walking." 

Vi looks hesitant, but she doesn't push. They walk back to Vi's place in silence, Caitlyn unable to bring herself out of the strange headspace she's fallen into. She can't get rid of the sensations in her body, which she objectively knows is likely the result of shoving all of this so deep within herself for so many years, but she's never felt it come to the surface like this. 

Caitlyn can't shake it. She lies awake that night, staring up at the water spots on the ceiling above the bed in Vi's apartment. The room is lit by the neon outside just enough to illuminate the small space with its usual dim green glow, and Caitlyn traces the lines of the water spots with her eyes. She listens to the sounds of people down on the street below and Vi's neighbours arguing faintly through the wall. The near-silent scritching of what Vi insists are mice, not rats, is a slight irritant that Caitlyn can't stop focusing on. 

It's really an awful apartment. Caitlyn has to work out a plan to get Vi to agree to move into a nicer one. 

Vi deserves to live in a nice apartment. Caitlyn can make that happen for her. Maybe one with a view, or a small balcony, or both. A separate bedroom from the rest of the apartment, certainly. Oh, a bathtub would be perfect. 

Caitlyn tries to work on that in her mind instead to lull her to sleep, but it doesn't really help. She's not usually prone to insomnia down here in Zaun, but she was when she lived in Piltover. 

Oh. Probably because she was afraid of men coming into her room in the middle of the night and dragging her from her bed. 

So she's back to that, then. 

It's strange that she's not afraid of it here, considering Zaun's astronomical crime rate, but she's anonymous here. The Kiramman name is distant to Zaunites - the name of a councilor, the name of a rich family with a large estate, but she doubts many here know the specifics of Caitlyn's family. They certainly don't know that the Caitlyn that wanders around the Lanes is Caitlyn Kiramman. Even if someone did come for her, she's nearly always with Vi. And while Caitlyn isn't with Vi because of her fighting skills (and quite frankly she would prefer that Vi did not have that specific skillset so she wouldn't be into this whole pitfighting thing), it does ease her mind that nobody would get to Caitlyn with Vi between her and the door. 

"Can't sleep?" 

Caitlyn turns her head. Vi's lying on her stomach, her arms tucked beneath her pillow and her face smushed into it. Her eyes are open though, fixed sharply on Caitlyn. 

"I suppose," Caitlyn says distantly. 

"You're thinking really loudly." 

"Sorry that my thoughts are keeping you awake." 

"Yeah. If you could keep it down, that would be great." 

Caitlyn smiles. "I'll try and think more quietly. Go back to sleep." 

Vi sits up a little, propping herself up on her forearms. Her messy hair spills over her face. "Not until you do. You're not normally awake this late." 

"How do you know?" As far as Caitlyn's aware, Vi usually falls sleep around the same time that Caitlyn does and stays asleep until the morning. 

Vi ignores the question. "What are you thinking about?" 

"A bathtub," Caitlyn says. It's only somewhat a lie.

Vi smiles at her. "A bathtub?" 

"Yes. I think it would be nice for you to have one. With enough hot water to fill it, of course." 

"A bathtub," Vi muses. "Waste of space, in my opinion. And water. We had one when I was a kid and it took up like half the washroom."

"Not at all. It's relaxing. Good for the muscles." 

"Meh. Baths are boring." 

"I'll get you a bathtub," Caitlyn decides out loud. "You'll like it. You'll see." 

"Yeah, okay," Vi says doubtfully. "Cait, what are you really thinking about? Something's keeping you up." 

"It's nothing." Caitlyn turns on her side, facing towards the wall. "Get some sleep, Vi." 

Vi sighs behind her, but Caitlyn hears her settle back down again. 

The non-rat mice keep scritching. Down on the street, a fight's broken out - people are shouting, jeering. Someone must win, because there's a round of cheers and then it quiets down. Music is playing from somewhere, a surprisingly classical and lilting tune. The neon glow in the room is the same but Vi's neighbours must have gone to bed, because there's no longer the sound of arguing through the wall.

"Vi?" Caitlyn says quietly into the dim room, not turning around. 

"Yeah?" 

Caitlyn swallows hard. "You'd notice if I went missing, right?" She's asked this before, she thinks, but she doesn't remember what Vi had said. 

"Course I would. I'd do more than notice, Cait. I'd come get you." 

It makes Caitlyn's eyes burn. She wishes she were capable of crying properly. It would probably feel good. It might help. 

"What if they hid me really well?" Caitlyn whispers.

"Not a problem," Vi says. "I'd just start taking down each building systematically until I found you." 

"What if I were being kept in the last building you looked? In all of Piltover. Or Zaun." 

"Sorry to Piltover and Zaun, then," Vi says. "Guess they've gotta rebuild the whole thing." 

Caitlyn laughs out loud and rolls over, tucking herself into Vi. She presses her forehead into Vi's neck and closes her eyes, letting Vi wrap her arms around Caitlyn's shoulders and back until they're completely intertwined. 

They don't talk again that night, but Caitlyn drifts off only a few minutes later. 

When she wakes up the next morning, she has a few minutes of blissful, dreamy ignorance until she remembers that she's going with Vi to her fight that night. 

It's not at all what Caitlyn had expected. 

The first thing she'd underestimated is the size and scale of this operation. 

When she'd first heard about the pitfighting, she'd pictured it maybe taking place in someone's basement. Perhaps a back room of a decrepit bar, somewhere in the darkest and grimiest part of Zaun. 

She'd certainly not expected... this. 

It's in one of the worst parts of Zaun, so she'd been right about that. One of the nasty, dark neighbourhoods made up of tight streets and gloomy corners. But the building itself is large, taking up nearly a full block. The windowless building rises multiple storeys above ground but also has more levels built underground, deep into the rock. It's a gross, grimy, and dilapidated building, sure, but it's also huge. 

Caitlyn had also underestimated the size of the crowds. She'd thought it would be a small group clustered around the pit where the fights take place, but this is the type of crowd she'd see in Piltover for a popular sporting event. People pack the streets outside, waiting to get in, and the crowds inside the building are even worse. This event is apparently so popular that people fight for tickets to even get admittance. 

Caitlyn gets to skip those lines, at least, by going in the heavily guarded side door with Vi and Loris. Loris doesn't allow Caitlyn to go with him and Vi down to the locker rooms, claiming that Caitlyn will be a distraction for Vi. 

Caitlyn crosses her arms and stares at him, because she will not take orders from this man, until Vi gets in between them and sends Caitlyn away with the explanation that she really does have to get ready. 

Caitlyn had really underestimated the extent of the gambling.

She'd assumed that the crowds bet on just who would win each fight and who would lose. That turns out to be only partially correct. 

That main bet is the biggest one, the one that everyone bets on, and it's simple enough. But there are other bets that run concurrently that are far more detailed. There are bets on if each fighter will tap out, and when. There are bets on if specific fighters will get knocked out, or killed. There are even bets on which specific moves the different fighters will use as part of their strategy. 

Caitlyn really thought that all the fighters just got into the pit and did their best.

But what Caitlyn had underestimated the most is how much Vi is the star of this show.

No wonder the people who run this barbaric operation don't want to let Vi go. No wonder they insist on her coming back, week after week. She's their moneymaker. She's the centre of their event. 

Vi's fight isn't until later in the night, so Caitlyn has plenty of time to wander around the venue. She hadn't thought anything of that schedule when Vi had mentioned it, but now she sees that Vi's usually scheduled to fight late because a significant portion of the crowd just leaves after she's done. 

From what Caitlyn overhears as she walks through the crowds, Vi's the perfect fighter for the crowds to gamble on. 

She's consistent, apparently, but not in the sense that she consistently wins. She's consistent in that she never taps out, ever, and quite rarely gets knocked out. But to Caitlyn's growing discomfort, Vi apparently only wins about 3/4 of her fights. She wins frequently enough to keep people coming and rooting for her, and to get most of the gambling leaning in her favour, but still loses enough to keep it interesting. 

The crowd loves her, or rather, they love to watch her fight. Caitlyn gets the sickening sense that a great number of the people here have come to see Vi lose. 

Caitlyn has to walk away from several groups that are avidly describing in great detail what they want to happen to Vi when she's in the pit tonight, because Caitlyn's about to rip them apart with her bare hands. 

Caitlyn makes her way up to the stands above the pit itself, which also surprises her. It's much bigger than she'd expected. There are spotlights. There are loudspeakers. It's a whole production. 

She finds a good spot to watch. Vi had warned her that the crowds here would be rough, and that she'd send Loris up to stand with Caitlyn once Vi was ready to go, but nobody actually comes to bother Caitlyn all that much. A few men try to sidle by her at times, but she just gives them her patented glare and they scurry off. 

The first fights that Caitlyn watches are just as horrific as she'd expected. 

Caitlyn is no stranger to violence. She's killed people herself. She's hurt people herself. But never in such a senseless way. Never in such a brutal, vicious manner. 

The fighters in the pit rip each other apart. In the first few rounds alone, Caitlyn witnesses a young woman get knocked unconscious so hard that Caitlyn doubts she'll wake up again. It makes Caitlyn feel physically sick, which only worsens when the next fight begins and she watches an older man desperately tap out within the first few minutes, covered in his own blood and sobbing. 

By the time Vi's fight is nearing, Caitlyn regrets ever coming here to watch. She should've told Vi that she can't do this. She can barely stand to watch these strangers go through this; how is she supposed to watch this happen to someone she loves so dearly? 

But it's too late now, and so she stays. 

Loris comes to join her before it starts. 

She gives him the same look she's given the other men who came near her. He looks back at her with just as much repulsion and says nothing, turning his attention to the pit below.

The crowd is much bigger now, the stands packed tightly. The large space smells like alcohol and smoke and blood. The noise swells, people shouting and arguing and taunting. 

The previous fight finishes with little fanfare. One fighter taps out, both leave, and then the room darkens. 

Caitlyn's heart starts to speed up, pounding hard in her chest. She crosses her arms, her face just as even as she's kept it all night, but inside she wants to scream and rip this entire place to pieces. 

They make a big show of announcing her. Flashing lights, and then a spotlight trained right on Vi as she comes out. They announce the other fighter too, but no one seems to care. They cheer for Vi, or taunt her, or just yell insults at her, disregarding the other fighter entirely. 

Caitlyn had seen Vi when she'd come home after her fights, so Caitlyn had known that Vi does a whole look for this. The awful black hair dye, the dramatic makeup. But it's one thing to see it on her up close, where Caitlyn can see her eyes and know that it's still her. 

It's another thing entirely to watch her down there, the spotlight trained on her and the crowd roaring. 

Vi does look like a different person. The Vi that Caitlyn knows is always moving, always restless, always talking or smiling or joking around. But down in the pit, Vi's almost entirely still. Composed. Focused. Caitlyn can only assume that Vi's holding back the frenetic energy that's always inside her, waiting to let it loose on her opponent. 

Vi's fighting a man nearly twice her size tonight. He's massive, towering over Vi and making a big scene about trying to intimidate her. Vi ignores him completely as the announcer counts down the time until the fight begins. 

The size difference makes Caitlyn grit her teeth. Vi's not a particularly small woman, but she's also not nearly as big as people seem to think she is. She's a strong personality, certainly, and she draws attention wherever she goes, both from her striking look and her frankly frequently brash and caustic attitude. But she's of average height for a woman, shorter than Caitlyn herself is, and she's not even all that stocky. She's packed a truly impressive amount of muscle onto her frame, but she's certainly not the biggest woman Caitlyn's ever seen. 

Vi's opponent must have easily a hundred pounds on Vi. Likely more. One of his arms is about the size of Vi's waist. 

Caitlyn briefly puts a hiatus on her policy of ignoring Loris and turns to him without taking her eyes off of Vi. "Does she always fight men twice her size?" 

Loris doesn't look away from the pit either. "Usually, yeah. She'll win too quickly against anyone else. Doesn't make for a good show." 

Great. That's just wonderful. 

Caitlyn turns her attention back down to the pit just as the referee signals that the fight can start. 

She doesn't think she takes another breath until it's over. 

The fight feels like it lasts an eternity. Realistically, Caitlyn knows it's closer to about ten minutes, which still feels about ten minutes too long. 

It's so messy. It's so brutal. The crowd loves it and Caitlyn wants to shoot each and every one of them. 

Vi and her opponent are constantly at each other. There are no breaks, no times when they back off from each other to take a breather. Vi is a nonstop blur of movement. She's unbelievably fast, using her superior speed and agility and energy to her advantage. 

The man she's fighting is predictably slow and lumbering, but when he lands a hit, it lands hard. Caitlyn feels like her own ribs are crunching when the man punches Vi in the side to send her sprawling onto the unforgiving ground. But then she's back up again, almost faster than Caitlyn can track. 

It feels like time is stretching out, every moment lasting far too long, and how did Vi become covered in that much blood, is that all hers? Caitlyn can't take this, she can't watch this, and then - it's over. It happens so fast that Caitlyn nearly misses it. The man stumbles forward - Vi must have tripped him somehow. He's falling forward and Vi's on top of him, her knee into the side of his head, and then he's down and not moving and Vi's getting up. 

Caitlyn's fairly sure the man's not dead. She thinks she can see his chest rising and falling. But he's out cold, that's clear, and the referee must agree because he calls it and it's finally over. 

The crowd roars. Down below, Vi's celebrating, but Caitlyn doesn't wait to see more because Loris is already moving back through the crowd, going to meet Vi. Caitlyn follows him, ignoring the glare he throws over his shoulder. 

She does lose him in the crowd briefly, which she is a little impressed by. She's pretty good at tailing people. But she keeps going in the general direction he'd been heading, and she goes down flight of stairs after flight of stairs after flight of stairs until she hears the distant sound of Vi's voice, muffled like she's in a room somewhere. 

Caitlyn finds her in a grody locker room down an equally grody hall. 

There's another fighter in a corner of the room, warming up. Vi's off to one side, pacing back and forth and grinning broadly. She has what appears to be a water bottle in each hand, but Caitlyn can only assume that one of them has alcohol in it. Hopefully not both.

Loris is standing between Vi and the door as Caitlyn comes in. "Are you sure it's not broken?" he's saying. "Take a breath, let me see." 

Vi rolls her eyes at him, not slowing her pacing. Caitlyn isn't sure if it's just leftover adrenaline that's giving her this much frenetic energy or if Loris gave her something before the fight. 

Vi holds her hands out to the side, still keeping the bottles in each hand held tightly, and takes a deep, dramatic breath. "See? All good." 

He must have been asking her about her ribs, Caitlyn realizes. A fair question, honestly, considering that hit she'd taken. 

"Just bruised, then?" Loris says, just as Vi spots Caitlyn. 

"Cait!" Vi shouts, looking delighted. "Hey!"

Caitlyn ignores the look Loris gives her and goes around him. "Are you alright?" she asks Vi, trying to look her over for injuries. 

"I'm great!" Vi says. She tries to reach for Caitlyn and then seems to remember that she's already holding something in each hand. She pauses, looks between the two bottles, and then tips her head back and drains the one that Caitlyn can only hope held water. 

"Give me those," Caitlyn orders, and Vi does. Caitlyn sets them down on one of the benches and turns back to Vi, who is trying to reach for Caitlyn again. 

Typically Caitlyn would never mind Vi trying to touch her, but right now she's covered in what might be either her or a stranger's blood. Caitlyn holds Vi at arms length instead, trying to ignore the hazy, delighted look Vi's giving her. "Vi, where are you hurt?" 

"I'm not."

"Violet, where's this blood coming from." 

Vi groans and looks down at herself. She twists one of her arms around and holds it out, showing Caitlyn the wound stretching down from her elbow over most of her forearm. "I think this is it." 

"Violet," Caitlyn says, despairing. 

Vi looks baffled. "What? Nothing's broken, it's fine." She holds her arm up, sending more blood streaming down over her elbow. "And it didn't fuck up my tattoos." 

"She'll be fine," Loris says gruffly. 

Vi points at him. "See? He gets it." 

Caitlyn hadn't brought much with her today, given her history with getting pickpocketed, but she had brought her small medical kit in her backpack. She swings it off her shoulder and points Vi over to the sink. "Go wash that out. That's going to get infected." 

"It's not," Vi complains, but she goes obediently enough over to one of the sinks. Caitlyn follows her, eyeing the filthy sink with trepidation. 

Vi starts taking off the shredded and torn wrappings over her injured arm, bracing her elbow on the sink and turning the tap on. Caitlyn frowns as the tap hisses and then starts spitting out water that looks dirtier than water Caitlyn has seen in literal sewers. 

"On second thought," Caitlyn says, "maybe we should just do this at home." 

"At home," Vi murmurs. "You know you've been saying that lately? At home. At our home. At our place." 

Caitlyn hadn't noticed that actually, but it's probably true. "Yes, well, I do spend a lot of time there." She takes over the clumsy job Vi's doing of taking the wrappings off and then gently tilts Vi's forearm under the water. "I'm going to have to really disinfect this." 

"At least let me drink a little more first," Vi says. She's not even paying attention to what Caitlyn's doing with her arm. She's just looking up at Caitlyn, smiling. 

Her eyes are already so glassy, her expression too animated. Caitlyn doesn't even know when Vi had had the chance to drink this much to get her into this state. Caitlyn had been with her up until Vi had gone to get ready for the fight, and Vi hadn't looked like this at all. Caitlyn knows that Vi drinks fairly steadily throughout the day, although she somehow does it when Caitlyn's not looking, for the most part, but she must have either drank considerably just before the fight or directly after before Caitlyn got down here. 

Caitlyn does her best to get more of the grit and dirt out of the wound, but it's a difficult task considering the sink is so filthy and small. 

"Good enough?" Vi asks. 

"No." Caitlyn moves Vi's arm back under the stream of water. "Hold this here." 

Caitlyn lets go of her arm and takes out the small vial of antiseptic she brought out of her medical kit.

Vi waves her free hand at Loris. "Loris! Can you toss me that?"

Caitlyn looks over to see that Vi's gesturing to the bottle left on the bench. 

"No," Loris says, looking bored. 

Vi rolls her eyes and then jolts as Caitlyn pours the antiseptic all over her arm. "Ah, fuck, Cait! I hate that."

"Do you know what you'll hate more?" Caitlyn says, taking Vi's wrist again and tilting her arm to make sure the antiseptic covered the whole wound. "Losing an arm to gangrene." 

"True," Vi says. "Can't be down an arm. Sevika's got the monopoly on that, she'll get pissed if I try and steal her thunder. Are you done?" 

"No. I want to bandage this before you go anywhere." 

Vi narrows her eyes. "Are you going to redo this when we get home?" 

"Yes." 

"Then why do it all now?" 

"To stave off any potential infection from settling in." 

Loris huffs dramatically from the other side of the room. "Vi, I warned you she'd be annoying." 

Caitlyn turns to glare at him, but Vi beats her to it. "I told you to keep your mouth shut about her," Vi snarls at him. "How about you go do something useful? Go get my damn money." 

He rolls his eyes, but he does turn and leave. 

Caitlyn's quite touched by Vi's defense of her. "You didn't have to do that." 

"Do what?" Vi asks. "Yell at Loris? I do that all the time. He's used to it. Ow, Cait, stop." 

"I didn't do anything!" Caitlyn defends herself. She'd just taken out the roll of clean bandages from her backpack and started trying to do her best to cover the wound on Vi's arm. 

"You did, you pulled something - " Vi says, and tries to get the bandage off that Caitlyn had started winding around her forearm. "Ow, fuck me, that felt so gross - " 

Caitlyn jolts back as Vi tugs the bandage off to reveal a thin sliver of something stuck between the bandage and the wound on her arm. "Vi! What is that?" 

"Oh, hey," Vi says, sounding far too amused by this. "I take it back, that wasn't your fault. Sorry for snapping at you." She hands the unraveled bandage back to Caitlyn and holds her arm up to the light, then pinches the metal sliver and pulls it directly out of her arm. "It's another souvenir from Stillwater! I thought Powder got all these. I'll have to show her. She'll be pissed."

Loris comes back with Vi's money just as Caitlyn's finishing cleaning her up as best she can. Vi takes it from him, grinning. 

It's a lot of money. Caitlyn had underestimated that too. Vi had mentioned that she makes more in a night here than she would at a normal job in a week or even two, but Caitlyn hadn't realized it's quite this much. 

Not that it matters, really, because Caitlyn then watches Vi burn through nearly all of it in the next few hours. 

Caitlyn goes with Vi and Loris as they go out with the group of other fighters and their assorted friends and partners and managers.

Vi's the star of this show too, apparently.

Everyone clusters around her, everyone tries to get a chance to talk to her. Everyone buys her drinks for how well she did tonight, but then Vi buys everyone drinks in return. At one point, Vi buys a round for everyone in the entire bar, which earns her a chorus of cheers. 

Caitlyn gets a single beer and sips on it as the night progresses and everyone around her gets progressively more intoxicated. She tries not to be too outwardly dour; she knows she already stands out from this group like a sore thumb, so she tries to smile and laugh when the group does, but she doubts she's really all that successful at it. 

She stays next to Vi the whole night, completely uninterested in speaking with anyone else from this group or getting to know them. Vi seems pleased with this too - even if she wanders away to talk to someone else, she comes back to Caitlyn within a few minutes and drops back into the chair next to her, or sits on the arm of Caitlyn's chair and wraps her arm around Caitlyn's shoulders, leaning against her. 

Caitlyn recalls Powder describing Vi's friends as 'horrible', and in Caitlyn's assessment, she certainly wasn't wrong. These people are horrible. They're rude, they're crass, they're aggressive, and they're downright nasty. They yell at each other, they fight each other, they throw things at each other, and Caitlyn finds this entire group dynamic completely baffling. These people don't even like each other.

Vi orders drink after drink after drink. Then it's another round for the whole group. Then she gets hungry, so she orders plates of bar food to be brought over to the tables, which everyone digs into but of course Vi pays for. 

"Don't you want anything?" Vi asks Caitlyn, holding up some sort of unidentifiable potato creation the bar has brought over. She's sitting on the arm of Caitlyn's chair again, smiling down at her. Her eyes are hazy and her face and hair are still smeared with that awful makeup. 

Caitlyn sees an opening to get them both out of here. "Not from here. I'd rather get something on the way home. Maybe from that stall that sells those sandwiches with the vegetables and melted cheese?" 

Vi shoves the piece of potentially-potato in her mouth but stands up. "That sounds so good. Do you wanna go now?" 

"Yes," Caitlyn says, hoping she doesn't sound too eager, and gets up as well. 

"Aw, are you leaving?" one of the girls asks pitifully, slumped over the table. "Vi, don't go!"

"I'm gonna go get a sandwich," Vi tells her, her words slurring together. 

"Can I come?" the girl asks. "Me and Yuri?" 

"Fuck no," Vi says. "I don't want Yuri to come anywhere ever. I don't want him here right now." 

Caitlyn has no idea which one is Yuri, until the man in question braces himself on the table and stands up, swaying. 

"Vi thinks she's all high and mighty now," he slurs, waving a hand at Vi. "Now that she's got her bitchy Piltie girlfriend here with her - " 

Caitlyn could not care less about this awful man's opinion of her, but Vi's across the table before Caitlyn can even reach for her. 

It's not a surprise that the whole group gets kicked out of the bar. There had been quite a few glasses broken in the ensuing fight as well as a chair, somehow. Vi had also hit Yuri hard enough across the face to break his nose, sending a tremendous amount of blood everywhere. 

Vi seems unperturbed by this. She laughs as Loris hauls her out the door of the bar, Caitlyn right behind them and the rest of the group following behind.  

"That's the third time you've broken his nose," Loris grumbles as he dumps Vi onto the street outside. She stumbles forward, catching herself on the ground with one hand before swaying upright again. Caitlyn gets around Loris and grab's Vi's arm, steadying her. 

"Only three times?" Vi says. "Thought it was more. Cait, let's go get a sandwich." 

"You're really just going home?" Loris asks, looking skeptical. 

"Why wouldn't I?" Vi slurs at him as Caitlyn tries to get her arm around her waist. "Why would I stay here with them?" She points in the general direction of their group, and then grabs Caitlyn by her shoulders and turns her towards Loris. "I'm going to get a sandwich with Cait. Look at her, Loris." 

Loris gives Caitlyn a look of absolute disdain. 

Caitlyn ignores him and turns back to Vi, finally succeeding in getting her arm around Vi's waist. "Can we go?" 

"Yeah," Vi says happily, and they go to get the sandwiches. 

Vi tries to talk to Caitlyn about it that night as Caitlyn is wrangling her into the shower to get that dye out of her hair before they go to bed. 

"Cait, are you - did you have fun?" Vi asks. She's so drunk at this point that she can't even keep her eyes focused on Caitlyn, despite Caitlyn being right beside her trying to wash the dye out and getting soaked by the shower herself in the process. 

"Would you like my honest answer?" Caitlyn asks, batting Vi's hands away gently as Vi tries to shampoo her own hair. 

"'Course I do." 

"Then no," Caitlyn says, "I didn't. Tilt your head into the water, please." 

"Oh," Vi mumbles, but she does put her head back under the water so Caitlyn can rinse out this round of shampoo. 

"Don't pout like that," Caitlyn says. She scrubs harder at Vi's hair. What is this dye made of? "Surely you didn't expect me to. That's not why you invited me." 

Vi leans against the wall of the shower, her eyes slipping closed. Her good mood is clearly dropping fast. "No. It wasn't." She turns her forehead against the shower wall, rolling her head against it. 

Caitlyn decides that this will have to be good enough and shuts the water off. "Come on, out." 

Vi does get out of the shower, but she pushes Caitlyn away when Caitlyn tries to help her get dried off and ready for bed. "Stop babying me," she complains when Caitlyn tries to towel Vi's hair off once she's dressed. 

"I'm not. I just don't want you to get makeup and hair dye all over the bed again." 

"Then I'll sleep on the floor," Vi mumbles, and then tries to do just that. 

"Vi, stop," Caitlyn orders, grabbing her arm and hauling her back upright. "I don't want you to sleep on the floor. Just get in bed and I'll bring you some water." 

"I told you, stop babying me," Vi insists, but she does let Caitlyn pour her into bed. "I'm fine. I do this. All the time. And I'm fine." 

"Sleeping on the floor isn't fine." 

"It's fine," Vi repeats into her pillow, her eyes already mostly closed. "It's not cold and... that's what's. Important. It's wood, not stone. So it's not cold." 

Caitlyn estimates she has about 45 seconds to get Vi some water before she passes out, so she hurries to fill up a glass. "The bed is warmer." 

"Yeah," Vi agrees sleepily. 

"Don't fall asleep yet," Caitlyn says, bringing the water over. "Can you sit up for just a moment and drink this, please?" 

Vi groans but she does prop herself up on her elbow, taking the glass of water. She drinks it down in one go and Caitlyn takes the glass back. 

"Cait?" Vi says as she lies back down, burrowing under the blankets. "Are you gonna be here? In the morning?" 

Caitlyn frowns as she sets the glass back on the kitchen counter. "Yes. Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" 

"Okay," Vi says quietly. She doesn't answer Caitlyn's question, even though Caitlyn's pretty sure she hasn't passed out yet. 

They get breakfast the next morning at the cafe down the street that sells Caitlyn's favourite pastries. 

As they pay and wait for the vendor to hand them their order, Caitlyn looks at Vi and is once again baffled as to how she does it.

Vi looks great. She doesn't look at all like someone who had fought for her life the night before and then drank herself to sleep. She'd gotten up before Caitlyn, showered, done her hair and makeup, and now she's smiling and chatting with the vendor with clear eyes and apparently boundless energy. 

Caitlyn herself feels like a drained corpse. 

They sit down at a small, rickety table nearby. Caitlyn eats her strudel and hopes it'll re-energize her at least a little bit. 

"So," Vi says, picking at the croissant she'd ordered. "What did you think?" 

"Of?" 

"Of last night."

Caitlyn sighs. "Well, I didn't find it fun. You asked me that last night." 

Vi frowns. "I asked you if you had fun?" 

"Yes." 

"Huh. I don't know why I would've asked that. I didn't expect you to have fun." She pauses. "Oh, wait, I do remember. I think it was because I had so much fun because you were there. I wanted to know if you had fun with me too." 

Caitlyn narrows her eyes. "I'm feeling very morose right now and so you can't be cute and sweet like that." 

Vi shrugs and rips off another piece of croissant.

Caitlyn puts her pastry down and looks at her. "Would you like me to be truthful?" 

"Always."

"I didn't have fun, I didn't enjoy it, and I thought it was awful." 

Vi laughs. "That's more of what I expected you to say." 

"To be clear," Caitlyn says, "I don't think you're awful for partaking in it. Nor do I think you're a monster or a bad person or whatever else you had implied I'd think about you." 

Vi shrugs again, looking away. 

"I'm sure it's not a surprise that I don't like seeing you get hurt," Caitlyn continues. "I hated that." 

"I barely got hurt!" Vi protests, holding up the arm that Caitlyn had cleaned up again and properly bandaged after her shower this morning. 

"And that was bad enough. I can't imagine seeing you get a worse injury." 

Vi puts her arm back down. "So do you not want to come to the next one? You don't have to." 

Caitlyn sighs. "Well now I..." she trails off. "Now I feel - I think I'll be more nervous if I'm not there." 

Vi looks away again, her face twisting. "I don't want to stress you out." 

"Vi, we've had this conversation before," Caitlyn reminds her. "Let's not re-hash it. I'll come to the next one, if only to patch you up after." 

"Okay," Vi says quietly. "But - Cait, if you change your mind, or if it gets to be too much - " 

"Vi." 

"No, let me finish," Vi says. "Please. Cait,  if it gets to be too much - please walk away. I don't want to drag you down with me." 

It makes Caitlyn's throat hurt and her heart ache and her eyes burn but she nods, and Vi seems happy with that. 

The really difficult thing is that these awful times watching Vi drink and pitfight are sandwiched in with the most joy Caitlyn's ever had in her life. 

It's not even anything big. Nothing dramatic. Just Vi coming up behind Caitlyn outside of the cafe they're meeting at for lunch and wrapping her arms around Caitlyn's waist. 

Caitlyn smiles as she leans back into her. It doesn't make sense how she still feels like this every time Vi touches her. How her whole body lights up, how the magnetic pull of attraction Caitlyn feels for her had told her it was Vi approaching before Caitlyn had even seen or heard her. 

"Why are you sneaking up on me?" Caitlyn asks as Vi buries her face in the back of Caitlyn's shoulder. 

Vi says something into Caitlyn's shoulder and therefore it's unintelligible. 

Caitlyn laughs and reaches back to tug on Vi's hair. "You'll have to say that again." 

Vi lifts her head and props her chin on Caitlyn's shoulder instead. "I said I got you something." 

Caitlyn smiles, delighted. "What is it?" 

Vi groans. "It's sappy."

"That's perfect."

"I have a reputation to uphold," Vi grumbles, "and I'm ruining it all on my own by being the sappiest fucker in all of Zaun." 

Caitlyn laughs and turns around in Vi's arms. "Now you have to give it to me."

Vi groans again. "No, I'm embarrassed. You probably have an entire room or something up in Piltover filled with super expensive jewelry."

"I do, and I never wear any of it," Caitlyn says. "It's all ugly and gaudy and heavy. What did you get me?" 

Vi reaches into her pocket, still looking reluctant. "You don't have to wear it." 

"Let me see it." 

"Okay, but you really don't have to wear it or pretend to like it or - " 

"Violet." 

Vi pulls something out of her pocket, hiding it in her hand as she holds it out to Caitlyn. "I'm going to hand this to you, tell you why I got it, and then go get our lunch before you can tell me how sappy I am."

Caitlyn can't stop smiling at her. She holds her own hand out expectantly. 

Vi holds her hand above Caitlyn's, drops something into Caitlyn's palm, and then says in one breath, "I saw it at the market and it's the same colour as your eyes," and then she takes off into the cafe. 

It's a necklace, and if Caitlyn were capable of crying she probably would be right now. 

It's so beautiful. It's the prettiest piece of jewelry Caitlyn's ever seen. It's nothing like the hideous necklaces Caitlyn has in Piltover.

This necklace has a single gem on a thin, delicate chain. The chain is a subtle dark silver, almost grey, and the gem itself is tiny and beautiful. Something about the way it's designed sends light refracting through it even as Caitlyn's just holding it in her hand, not even holding it up to the light.

It is, in fact, exactly the same colour as Caitlyn's eyes. 

Caitlyn's still staring at it when Vi comes back out with their lunch order in cardboard boxes. 

"I warned you it was sappy," Vi says as she shoulders her way through the door. 

Caitlyn looks up at her. "Vi." 

"You don't have to wear it," Vi says again. 

"Violet," Caitlyn says, "this is the best gift I've ever received." 

Vi still looks hesitant. "Really?" 

"Yes." Caitlyn gestures to the boxes Vi's holding. "Give me those and then help me put this on." 

"Are you sure?" Vi asks as she does as instructed. "I can't afford to get you the kind of things you're used to but - " 

Caitlyn turns around when Vi finishes clasping the necklace around Caitlyn's throat and kisses her, slightly crushing the cardboard boxes between them as she does so. An acceptable casualty. 

"Violet," Caitlyn says again. "I am never taking this off. I love it. It's beautiful." 

Vi relaxes. "Okay. Well, that's good." 

The chain on the necklace is the perfect length. The gem rests just below Caitlyn's collarbones; short enough that it won't bother her when she's moving around, and long enough that it's not constricting her throat. 

Caitlyn isn't kidding about never taking this off. She's going to wear this necklace until the day she dies. 

So it's little things like that. It's the fun that they have on a normal day, when Vi's not out there fighting and Caitlyn's not trailing behind her hoping that today's not the day Vi dies in front of her. 

Caitlyn's been slacking a little with her data gathering, so she's trying to make up for it when she can. Vi takes her to a nice little pond, for once, with water that looks like it could be normal and not filled with toxic chemicals. Caitlyn does her testing and confirms that. 

"Look at this," she says, showing Vi the numbers. "This water is perfect. This is what all the water in Zaun should be like." 

"Great," Vi says, sounding bored. "So it's okay for swimming?" 

Caitlyn nods, distracted by the task of writing down the numbers in her notebook. "Oh, yes. Swimming, drinking, bathing. All safe." 

"Cool. You got anything in your pockets?"

"Hm? Just some coins," Caitlyn says. Then her head snaps up. "Vi, do not - " 

Vi takes the notebook from Caitlyn's hands and shoves her into the water in the same movement. 

Caitlyn shrieks in indignation as she lands in the water. It's cold, although not painfully so, and she surfaces immediately and tries to kick as much water at Vi as she can.

Vi darts away, laughing. 

"Violet!" Caitlyn shouts, treading water. "How dare you?" 

Vi's laughter is echoing off the canyon walls around them. "I saved your notes! Here, I'm putting them back in your backpack." 

"What if I couldn't swim?" Caitlyn shouts. 

Vi grins at her from the shore. "Of course you can swim, you're from Piltover. I bet you have your own pool or something." 

Caitlyn scowls at her, because she does have her own pool and she did learn to swim from a private instructor who came to her home to teach her every week for two years until she was the best swimmer in her class at school. 

Vi laughs harder without Caitlyn having to even verbally confirm it. "I knew it." 

"You get in here, then," Caitlyn demands. "You can't push someone in and stay on shore." 

Vi shakes her head, still staying safely back on the shore. "No way. I really can't swim." 

Caitlyn glares at her, but, well, the water is actually quite pleasant. She's already adjusting to the cold and she's now finding it quite refreshing. 

Caitlyn starts swimming around. It's not a large pool of water, but it's fairly deep and it's big enough for her to get some nice laps in. 

"Are you having fun?" Vi asks from the shore. 

"Yes, actually," Caitlyn says. "You should have thought of this before you pushed me in. Now I'm having fun without you." 

Vi looks quite put out by this. Caitlyn smiles at her and swims on by. 

"Cait. Seriously. I'm bored." 

"I'm not," Caitlyn says. She's swimming around the edge of the pond in a perfect breaststroke. "This is lovely." 

Vi sits down on a rock and sighs. 

"Aren't you getting cold?" 

"Not really. The water is quite nice." 

"I'm going to go get a fishing pole and fish you out of there." 

"You could try," Caitlyn muses. "I'm quite agile in the water." 

"Caitlyn," Vi shouts from the shore. "I'm going to die of boredom." 

"Would you like me to teach you to swim?" Caitlyn offers. 

"No," Vi says flatly. "I had to swim to get out of Stillwater. I'm traumatized from it." 

Caitlyn shoots her a look as she swims by. "I can't tell if you're joking about that or not." 

"I'll tell you if you get out of the damn water." 

"I suppose it will remain a mystery," Caitlyn says, and swims off.

"This is my final threat," Vi says. "Caitlyn, if you don't get out of the water, I'm going to go find some chemicals and dump them in there." 

Caitlyn laughs and nearly inhales some water. "You'd ruin this perfect pond just to get me out of here?" 

"Yes," Vi says flatly. "That's how bored I am." 

Caitlyn sighs and gives in, swimming back to shore. "Fine, but you can take this as a learning lesson, Violet. Actions have consequences. Your action in this case was rudely pushing me into the water. The consequence was sitting here for two hours while I enjoyed a lovely afternoon swim." 

"Never mind," Vi says, and turns around to leave. "I'm leaving you here. You can turn into some weird aquatic fish creature for all I care." 

Caitlyn gets out of the water and trudges after her. "I wouldn't mind being an aquatic creature, I think." 

She starts shivering as they walk home, and Vi sighs and gives Caitlyn her jacket. 

It's jarring. Most days are so good, so fun, so wonderful, and then there are the days where Caitlyn's new routine of accompanying Vi to her fights hangs over both of them like a dark cloud. 

Vi goes to fight, Caitlyn goes with her. Vi gets injured, Caitlyn cleans her up. They go out with Vi's friends and Caitlyn counts down the minutes until she can convince Vi to leave. Vi wins a ton of money and then spends most of it the same night.

Caitlyn lucks out at first, though, because Vi keeps winning, and therefore her injuries are mild. Scrapes, bruises, a few minor cuts. 

The first time Caitlyn sees her lose isn't as easy. 

It's a bad night from the start. Vi has been cranky all day. Restless, snappy, impatient. Caitlyn has no idea what had set it off, other than that sometimes bad days just happen. 

When Vi goes into the pit and Caitlyn watches from the stands above, she can see how eager Vi is to let it loose. Unfortunately, the woman Vi's fighting looks just as pissed off. 

They must know each other, Caitlyn realizes, because Vi and the other woman are trading insults across the pit before the match even starts. Caitlyn can't hear what they're saying, but from Vi's body language and the way she's shouting, Caitlyn can't imagine it's kind things. 

"Have they fought each other before?" she asks Loris. 

"Yeah," he says. "A few times. Vi usually loses."

The fight starts, and it's far and away the most vicious one that Caitlyn has seen. 

Vi and the woman fight dirty. It's not that the other fights have been particularly clean or low-key, but this one is hard to watch. Vi and her opponent aren't really throwing punches or kicks; they're just scrabbling at each other like they want to rip the other woman apart. 

Vi pulls a handful of the woman's hair right out of her head. The woman rakes her nails over the side of Vi's jaw, leaving nasty scores in her skin that Caitlyn can see even from up in the stands. 

Vi gets a hard hit into the woman's stomach, but the woman also lands a punch on Vi's browbone that sends her reeling. 

It's one thing after another. The crowd loves it, of course. Caitlyn stands with her arms crossed, gritting her teeth. 

Vi's opponent moves quickly, so fast that Caitlyn can't even tell what happens. Vi's abruptly down on the ground, her face pressed into the dirt with the woman on top of her. 

Beside Caitlyn, Loris mutters, "shit," and starts moving down through the stands. 

"What?" Caitlyn asks, alarmed, because the fight's not even over yet. 

"That's her shoulder," Loris says as Caitlyn hurries after him. 

Sure enough, the referee calls it before Caitlyn and Loris even get out of the stands. Vi's been pinned down long enough for her opponent to be declared the winner. 

Vi's back in the locker room by the time Caitlyn gets there. Loris beats Caitlyn there, as he always does. He uses his height and bulk to push through the crowds more easily than Caitlyn can and therefore he always gets there first. 

Caitlyn comes in to the sound of Vi swearing and Loris saying, "just hold on, I'll do it, calm the fuck down - " 

He's holding Vi's arm, one hand on her back. 

"Loris, do not - " Caitlyn starts, just as Loris roughly shoves Vi's badly dislocated shoulder back into place.

Vi screams and then Caitlyn catches her just as her eyes roll back in her head and she passes out.

She's heavy, far too heavy for Caitlyn to easily hold up her deadweight, and it takes all of Caitlyn's strength to just keep her from hitting the floor. 

"Ah, shit," Loris says mildly. 

Caitlyn ends up kneeling on the disgusting tile floor, leaning against one of the benches with Vi slumped against her, forehead again Caitlyn's shoulder. 

Vi starts waking up just a moment later, her limbs twitching as her body tries to wake back up. 

"Easy," Caitlyn says quietly, holding her tightly. "Just take a minute." 

Vi groans, starting to sluggishly move again. Caitlyn keeps murmuring to her until Vi's able to raise her head, eyes glassy. 

"What happened?" Vi mumbles, trying to focus her eyes. 

"Loris reset your shoulder and you passed out." Caitlyn shoots him a glare over her shoulder. "He was far too rough with it."

"Oh," Vi says slowly, her eyes still moving unsteadily. "That's... embarrassing. Is it - is it back in?" 

Caitlyn helps her sit up a little. "You tell me."

Vi rolls her shoulder and winces, her breath catching. "Yeah. It's okay." 

"Doesn't look like it," Caitlyn comments, looking at how Vi's face is still tight with pain. 

"It'll be fine," Vi says, and then pulls herself up to sit on the bench with her good arm. "Sorry for the drama." 

Caitlyn gets to her feet as well, shooting another glare at Loris. 

"What?" he protests. "It had to be done." 

"You could have waited until her heart rate was down," Caitlyn snaps. 

"It was hurting her!" 

"I'm not saying it didn't have to be done, I'm saying you don't always have to use brute force for everything - " 

"Guys, stop," Vi mumbles. She's still sitting on the bench, one hand bracing her newly injured shoulder. 

Caitlyn softens. "Vi, can you move that arm?" 

Vi stretches her arm out, but it's slow and Vi's face screws up with pain again. 

Caitlyn sighs and gently takes Vi's forearm in her hand. She carefully moves Vi's arm as much as she dares, and then sighs again when Vi starts shaking just a little. "Vi, I think you tore something too. Maybe multiple things." 

"Yeah," Vi agrees, sounding defeated. It's unlike her, and it makes Caitlyn uneasy. 

"Let's go home, alright?" Caitlyn suggests. "We can put some ice on it and you can rest." 

"Yeah," Vi says again. "Okay."

Loris starts to protest. "But - " 

Caitlyn glares at him, already helping Vi to her feet and steadying her when she sways. "You don't get a say in this." 

Loris glowers as Caitlyn and Vi leave. 

Vi's quiet the whole way home, and then she's still quiet as Caitlyn helps her get cleaned up and then into bed with ice from the stall down the street against her shoulder. 

"What's wrong?" Caitlyn asks as she fills up a glass of water from the sink. "Apart from the pain."

"I'm fucked if my shoulder's fucked," Vi mumbles. 

Caitlyn should probably be sympathetic, but while she certainly doesn't want Vi to be in pain, Vi being unable to fight is the best possible thing that could have happened. "It'll heal, and not fighting for a while is the best thing you can do for yourself right now." 

Vi tucks her face into the pillow. "Still have to fight." 

"Violet. You can't possibly fight with an injury like this for weeks, at least, if not months." 

"I have to." 

Caitlyn puts the glass of water down on the counter a little harder than she means to. "You don't. Vi, if you fight in this state, you're going to risk permanent damage. An injury like this would require months of rehabilitation and rest if you were in Piltover being treated by doctors and professionals, let alone here with none of that." 

"Good thing I'm not in Piltover, then," Vi mutters, rolling away to face the wall. 

Caitlyn briefly debates whether screaming at the top of her lungs or throwing the water glass against the wall would make her feel less frustrated. She decides on neither, and so the frustration just simmers and simmers and simmers under her skin. 

Vi fights again two days later. 

Caitlyn's so angry about it that she feels like she's disassociating from pure rage.

Vi can barely move the side of her body that she'd injured. She can't raise her arm above her shoulder and her muscles and tendons and everything on that side of her body has pulled so tight that she can barely even twist her torso around. 

They argue about it all morning, the day of the fight. On the way there, Caitlyn walks in stony silence as Loris and Vi bicker at each other. 

As Caitlyn goes to find her place in the stands, she thinks that if they threw her into the pit right now she'd probably win. She's never been into hand-to-hand combat all that much, but maybe it would feel good to get some of this anger and frustration out. 

Then she watches the fight before Vi's end in a man choking on his own blood and reminds herself that this is not a good outlet. 

Caitlyn feels physically sick as Vi's fight starts. 

Vi's moving better than she was earlier today. Caitlyn doesn't know if it's just the alcohol that Loris gives her or if he gave her some sort of painkillers, but she's got more mobility in her arm and shoulder, at least. 

But she's sluggish. She's moving slowly, she's not reacting quickly, and there's an uncharacteristic lack of energy in her movements. Caitlyn can tell that easily from up in the stands, and surely Vi's opponent will be able to as well. 

It's over quickly. The man that Vi's fighting takes advantage of her slow reactions and stumbling and overall lack of aggression. He gets her pushed back against the wall of the pit and then gets in a hard hit to the side of Vi's head. 

In a sickening crack that feels like it reverberates through Caitlyn's own skull, the hit slams Vi's head against the concrete wall of the pit and she drops like a stone. 

Vi's on the floor of the locker room when Caitlyn gets in there. Loris is bent over her, shaking her uninjured shoulder. Vi's crumpled on the injured one.

"Stop that," Caitlyn snaps, and shoves him. She's never even stepped physically close to him before, let alone put her hands on him, and it must be the surprise that gets him because it sends him sprawling. 

Caitlyn drops to her knees next to Vi, who's curled up with her arms around her head. 

"I'm okay," Vi mumbles, but Caitlyn can't see her face. "Sorry, Cait. Sorry."

"Can you sit up?" Caitlyn asks. Her heart is pounding. 

"Just - give me a minute," Vi whispers. 

When she finally starts moving, Caitlyn carefully helps her sit up. Loris, who must have gotten back up at some point, hovers behind them like a giant annoying shadow. 

"It's not bleeding, so," Vi mumbles. 

"Can I see your eyes?" Caitlyn asks. Vi slowly takes her arms away from her face and squints at Caitlyn. Her pupils are even, which is good, but Caitlyn doesn't like the way she's clearly avoiding the light. "Are you nauseous?" 

"No," Vi says, but the pallor of her face says otherwise. 

"Violet, this is serious. Don't lie to me." 

"I'm not."

Caitlyn bites back the frustration and runs her fingers through Vi's hair, being as gentle as she can. Vi has swelling already starting on both sides of her head, from where the man had hit her and from where her head had subsequently hit the wall. She's absolutely at least a little concussed, if not more. 

Caitlyn sits back on her heels as Vi puts her head back in her hands.

The fluorescent lights flicker above them, their high-pitched drone buzzing through the room. The disgusting shower against the wall drips water onto the tile floor. Outside of the room, people shout and laugh and cheer. The room smells like blood and mildew. 

Caitlyn's heart pounds away inside her chest and she asks herself what she's doing here.

Why is she doing this? Why is she allowing this to happen? Why is she watching this happen?

Why is she here watching the woman she loves so much kill herself slowly?

Caitlyn's tried to stop it and she's tried to help and it's not working.

She can't force Vi to stop drinking.

She could take all the alcohol in Vi's apartment and dump it out, but Vi will just buy more.

She could stop giving Vi money for rent to get her to prioritize those costs over buying liquor, but Vi will just go back to stealing alcohol when she runs out of her own money.

Caitlyn's tried asking Vi to stop, and that didn't work either. 

Caitlyn's also asked her to stop pitfighting. That didn't work. If Caitlyn stops coming with Vi to the fights and patching her up after, Vi will just go back to her old routine of passing out in the streets or falling into bed covered in scrapes and cuts and hair dye. 

She's tried logic and reason and emotion and she's even tried guilting Vi into stopping and nothing has worked.

Caitlyn doesn't know what else to do. 

After a few more minutes of sitting in silence while Caitlyn goes through her personal crisis and Vi gets herself together, Vi slowly starts to get up. She's still wincing against the light, but she's fairly steady on her feet, at least. 

Loris hands her a bottle of water. Well, it looks like a bottle of water. Maybe it's vodka. 

Caitlyn's still on the floor. 

"Cait?" Vi says. "Are you okay?" 

Caitlyn cannot answer. She gets up and starts towards the door. 

"Cait?" Vi calls after her. "Where are you going?" 

"I'll wait for you outside," Caitlyn says. She can't be in here a minute longer. 

She stands outside on the street for a while before Vi comes out. The crowds mill around her as Caitlyn folds her arms and stares off at nothing. 

"Hey," Vi says quietly as she comes up beside Caitlyn.

Caitlyn looks over at her. Vi's still too pale and her eyes are unfocused. She's definitely concussed. Caitlyn can't believe Vi's still on her feet and is this coherent right now. 

"What's going on?" Vi asks. She puts her hand on Caitlyn's elbow. 

Caitlyn can only shake her head and start walking. 

It's a silent walk back to Vi's apartment. Vi starts to say something a few times and then stops. Caitlyn doesn't try at all. 

Vi keeps up as they walk but she slows down on the stairs, leaning heavily on the railing. Caitlyn slows down with her, because no matter how upset she is, she's not going to let Vi fall on the stairs and hurt herself even more. 

They get to the apartment and Caitlyn unlocks the door. Vi stumbles inside and sits down heavily on the bed, putting her head back in her hands. 

Caitlyn stands in the middle of the apartment, her arms crossed. "I know you don't want Powder to know where you live," she says finally, "but you have a concussion and you can't be alone, and I can't be here right now. So I can either go get her and send her here, or I'll go with you to the bar and you can stay there tonight." 

Vi sits up, her hands falling away from her face. "What?" 

"You heard me," Caitlyn says. "Am I sending Powder here or are you coming to the bar?" 

"What - neither," Vi says. She looks completely shocked. "Cait, what's - what did I do?" 

"There's no 'neither'. Make a decision or I'll make it for you." 

Vi scowls. "Nobody makes decisions for me." 

"I'll send her here, then," Caitlyn decides, and turns to leave. 

"Caitlyn!" Vi shouts after her, but Caitlyn's already at the stairs. 

She finds Powder in the bar and immediately feels awful about what she's doing. 

Powder is leaning against the bar counter, Ekko next to her with his arm around her shoulders. She's smiling at something Vander's saying from the other side of the bar. She looks peaceful, happy, at ease. 

And now Caitlyn's come in to ruin her night. 

It occurs to Caitlyn as she walks up that she has no plan of what to say, but her facial expression must be enough because Vander sees her and the smile drops off his face. 

Powder and Ekko turn around, and both of them stop smiling too. 

"Hello," Caitlyn says stiffly. "Powder, could I speak with you for a moment?" 

Powder shrugs off Ekko's arm and follows Caitlyn to a corner of the bar. Caitlyn thinks Powder already knows what she's here for. 

Caitlyn takes her backpack off and gets a notebook and pen out. She rips out a page and quickly jots down Vi's address before putting everything but that page back in her bag. 

"Here," she says, holding the paper out to Powder. "This is Vi's address. It's a little hard to find; you have to take the stairs all the way up and then go right. It's the second door down." 

Powder's face is hard as she takes it. "What happened?" 

"She has a concussion," Caitlyn says. "I don't think it's major, but she shouldn't be alone." 

"Has she been drinking tonight?" 

Caitlyn stares at her. Doesn't Powder know this already? "She's always drinking. She's never not drinking." As far as Caitlyn knows, there hasn't been a time in years when Vi didn't have at least some alcohol in her blood.

Powder scowls, and it's exactly the same expression that Vi had just given Caitlyn when Caitlyn had left tonight. "I know, I just meant - " 

"You should go now," Caitlyn says. "It took me about thirty minutes to get here, so she's already been alone for that long." 

"Caitlyn, what happened," Powder says flatly. 

Caitlyn can't explain. She can't even function. She's so done, she's hit her limit, she didn't know she had a limit but she does and she's found it now. So she turns and walks out of the bar and goes back to her own apartment down the street. 

She showers and gets into her pajamas and then lays down in her bed and pulls the blankets over her head. Then she barely leaves her bed for the next two days at all.

Chapter Text

The knock on the door comes during Caitlyn's second day of hibernation. 

Caitlyn blearily sticks her head out of the blanket nest she's wrapped in and then decides she doesn't care who's at the door. She tucks herself back in and closes her eyes. 

Another knock, harder this time. 

"Cait?" Vi calls from the other side. 

Ugh. Now Caitlyn has to get up, because Vi doesn't have a key to Caitlyn's room. 

Caitlyn drags herself out of bed but keeps one of the blankets wrapped around her. She yanks the door open. 

Vi's standing there with her hand in the air, clearly about to knock again. "Oh," she says. "Hi." 

She looks - fine. Her eyes are clear again, there's no visible bruising or cuts or scrapes on her, and her hair and makeup are both done. Caitlyn notices that she's styled her hair a little differently today though, so it's covering more of her face. Probably to hide the bruising from the hits she'd taken to her head that might have spread down towards her temples. 

"How did you know where my room is?" Caitlyn asks, which feels like a reasonable question given Vi has never been here before. 

Vi shifts her weight from foot to foot. She's anxious, then. "Got the address and room number from Powder." Vi shrugs. "You gave her mine, so I thought it was fair." 

Caitlyn scowls. "Sorry that I didn't want you to die from a brain bleed or a seizure or something. Sorry for caring about you."

"Cait, I know, I was just kidding - " 

"Always with the jokes," Caitlyn mutters, and then goes back to bed. She doesn't bother trying to shut the door - if Vi wants to come in, she will. Caitlyn can't stop her. Caitlyn can't stop Vi from doing anything. 

Sure enough, she hears Vi follow her in. Caitlyn ignores her and settles back down in her bed, pulling the blankets up to her ears. She's well aware she's acting like a petulant child and she doesn't care. 

"Uh," Vi says, "Caitlyn. Did you have anything to eat today?" 

"No," Caitlyn mutters into her blankets. She isn't hungry and hasn't been. 

"Okay," Vi says. "I'm going to be back in ten minutes, and then we're going to try this again." 

As promised, Vi returns ten minutes later. Caitlyn hasn't moved from her blankets. 

"I brought dinner," Vi announces. She sits down next to Caitlyn on the bed. "Come on, sit up." 

Caitlyn does sit up, but she glares at Vi as she does so. She'd been almost asleep again. 

"Here," Vi says, holding out an open takeout container. It's filled with stir fry and rice from one of the food stalls down the street. 

Caitlyn glares harder, but... the food does smell quite good. It's from one of Caitlyn's favourite places to get a quick bite to eat. She may also be a little hungry, now that she thinks about it. 

Caitlyn takes the container and the utensils Vi holds out and digs in. 

Alright. She's quite hungry. 

Caitlyn devours the food as Vi hands her a glass of water. Caitlyn drinks that down too and then goes back to eating. 

Vi wanders around the small room as Caitlyn eats. Caitlyn watches her sullenly. 

"Nice place," Vi says eventually. "Way nicer than mine. Why don't we ever sleep here instead?"

"The bed is small," Caitlyn says, and eats a piece of broccoli, "and your family is right next door." 

Vi looks over at the bed, where Caitlyn's sitting cross-legged as she eats her food. "It's not that small. We could both fit. Couldn't get up to much, maybe, but I can be creative." 

Caitlyn just looks at her and stabs a piece of carrot with her fork. 

Vi's smile fades and she goes back to looking out the window. 

Caitlyn finishes her food in record time. She should get up and properly sort the takeout container and utensils into the proper garbage and recycling bins for disposal, but then she decides she doesn't care and just puts the container on the floor beside her bed.

She wants to lie down again, but Vi's clearly here to stay and Caitlyn will feel strange if Vi's standing and Caitlyn's lying down in bed. So she shuffles over to the corner of her bed tucked into the wall and sits back, pulling the blankets over her legs again. 

"Feeling better?" Vi asks. 

Caitlyn scowls, but she is. "Yes." Then she adds, "thank you," because it feels too impolite not to. 

Vi leans against the wall, looking down at Caitlyn. "Can we talk, then?" 

"You can sit down," Caitlyn mutters. 

Vi looks around and then pulls out the chair from the single table. 

"Not there," Caitlyn instructs, because Vi sitting across the room in the chair feels too... clinical. Too cold. They never sit apart like this. She points to the end of her bed. "But take those boots off." 

Vi rolls her eyes and says something under her breath about Caitlyn being bossy, which Caitlyn ignores. Vi does take her boots off before she sits down though.

They sit in silence for a minute. Caitlyn's waiting for Vi to say something, but Vi seems abruptly at a loss for words. 

"How is your head?" Caitlyn asks eventually. 

"Fine." 

"Stop lying," Caitlyn snaps, because that's one of the things that's pissing her off the most right now. 

"I'm not!" Vi says defensively. "It's fine." 

"You got a concussion two days ago. There's no way it's fine." 

Vi sighs. "If I move my head too suddenly I get a little headache that goes away after a minute. That's it."

Caitlyn shakes her own head and looks down at the blankets. She wants to lie back down. 

"Cait," Vi says gently, "what happened the other night? I don't know what I did to make you this angry at me." 

"I'm not angry at you." 

"Caitlyn, come on." 

"I'm not," Caitlyn insists. "Well, mostly. I'm maybe... ten percent upset with you. The other ninety percent is directed elsewhere." 

"Uh huh," Vi says. "Sure. Okay. What did I do to cause you to be ten percent upset with me, then?" 

Caitlyn abruptly feels another wave of exhaustion wash over her. She doesn't have the energy to go into all of this again. They can argue about this all night and it'll just end up back at the same place it always does. Vi won't stop what she's doing and Caitlyn can't stop watching her do it. 

"You shouldn't have gone to fight that night," Caitlyn says tiredly, knowing exactly what Vi's going to say next. It'll be something about how she didn't have the option not to fight. 

"I didn't have a choice," Vi says. 

Caitlyn can't help but laugh bitterly. 

"Why is that funny," Vi snaps. 

"It's not," Caitlyn says. "Nothing about this is funny. I just knew that you would say that." 

"Because it's true. I don't know how many times I have to explain this to you." 

Caitlyn closes her eyes and slumps back against the wall, folding her arms over her chest. "What's your plan, Vi?" 

A pause. "What do you mean?" 

Caitlyn keeps her eyes closed. "Where do you think this is going to go for you? What's the outcome here?" 

"Cait, I don't know what you're talking about." 

"The pitfighting," Caitlyn explains. "The drinking. The partying, if you can call it that. What outcome do you foresee for yourself with this?" 

The next pause is so long that Caitlyn does open her eyes. Vi's staring at her. 

"I'm not one of your research studies," Vi says finally. "Why the fuck do I need to have an 'outcome'? Can't I just, I don't know, live?" 

"Live!" Caitlyn giggles. "That's funny. That's funny that you mention living. How long do you foresee yourself living for, Violet?" 

Vi says nothing. 

"I'll tell you how long I think you'll live for," Caitlyn says. "I think you'll be dead within the next three months. Maybe six, at the most." 

Silence. 

Vi is completely frozen, staring at Caitlyn without blinking. 

Caitlyn feels - strange. She's relieved, in some bizarre way. It's out there, now. She can't take it back. 

"What the fuck," Vi says. "Caitlyn, what the fuck?" 

"Do you think I'm wrong?" 

"Uh, yes," Vi says. "Caitlyn, that was such a fucked up thing to say - " 

"I don't think I'm wrong," Caitlyn continues, interrupting her. "Would you like to know my reasoning?" 

"No," Vi snaps, and gets off the bed. She grabs her boots and starts roughly shoving them on. 

"Running away again," Caitlyn comments. "Your go-to strategy. How has that been working for you so far?" 

Vi spins to face her, her jaw dropping. "Caitlyn, what is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?" 

Caitlyn laughs again and then bursts into tears. 

Caitlyn thinks that both her and Vi are equally shocked by this. 

Caitlyn actually has to scrub her own hands against her eyes to feel the tears, even though she rationally knows what's happening. It's not even just crying; she's sobbing, shaking, each gasp for air trembling in her chest. 

"Cait?" Vi says, sounding so quiet and small and so scared and so unlike Caitlyn's ever heard her. 

Caitlyn can't respond. She can't do anything of her own free will right now, it seems, because she's trying to will this to stop and it's not happening. This feels awful, no wonder she hasn't done this in so long; she can't catch her breath and tears are streaming down her face and she's sobbing so loudly. 

How humiliating. Hopefully none of her neighbours can hear her. 

Vi sits down on the bed in front of Caitlyn. Her own eyes are huge, scared. She reaches towards Caitlyn but then pulls her hand back. 

Caitlyn makes a sound that is embarrassingly close to a whimper and crawls forward, reaching for Vi. 

Vi grabs Caitlyn's hand and then pulls Caitlyn into her. Vi ends up on her side on the bed, one of her arms wrapped around Caitlyn's back and the other around Caitlyn's shoulders as Caitlyn sobs into her jacket. 

Maybe Caitlyn cried like this when she was a child, but if she did, it happened when she was too young to remember. Even the last few times she can remember starting to cry when she was a child only led to a few tears; nothing like this, nothing like this awful gasping and shaking and the pounding headache that's already forming in her temples. 

Vi is holding her so tightly and Caitlyn is grateful for it. It feels like if Vi lets her go right now, Caitlyn will shake herself right apart and fall to complete pieces. 

It doesn't stop. Every time it feels like she's finally calming down, her breathing starting to even out and the tears slowing, the overwhelming crush of everything she's been keeping inside hits her again and she starts crying anew. 

Vi hasn't let go, hasn't even loosened her grip on Caitlyn, but she does move the arm she has around Caitlyn's back to slide her hand up the back of Caitlyn's shirt. She starts running her hand slowly up and down Caitlyn's spine, and it helps. 

The tidal wave of emotion starts to recede, slowly. Caitlyn slumps into Vi and lets Vi hold her together while Caitlyn's body wrings itself out. 

When the worst of it passes, Caitlyn doesn't know how long it's been. 

The room is quiet, except for Caitlyn's ragged breathing and sniffling. Caitlyn's head hurts and her eyes are so swollen that she doesn't think she could open them, even if her face weren't buried in Vi's jacket still. 

"Vi," Caitlyn rasps, "I'm scared." 

Vi doesn't say anything. 

"I don't want you to die in front of me," Caitlyn whispers. Her voice is nearly gone. "I don't want you to die at all." 

"Cait, I'm not going to," Vi says. "I'm fine, I'll be fine." 

Fresh tears somehow well up in Caitlyn's eyes. "No, you aren't. I don't know if it'll be the drinking first or the fighting but - " she has to swallow, her throat aching, "but one of them is going to kill you soon." 

Vi says nothing. Her breathing is steady, but she's tense. 

"That hit to your head could've killed you," Caitlyn whispers. "If that man had hit you just a little harder, or if he'd hit another part of your head against the wall."

"Well, it didn't."  

Tears are running down Caitlyn's face again. "The next one could. The next one probably will." 

"I just fucked up and he got a lucky hit. That's all. It won't happen again." 

Caitlyn genuinely isn't sure if Vi's just trying to reassure her or if Vi actually believes this. "It will, Vi." 

Vi doesn't say anything to that, which is fine. There's nothing she can say apart from another denial, which Caitlyn will just deny in turn. 

Caitlyn's still crying. She's not sobbing anymore, but the tears are still coming. She's just so - sad. Vi is her favourite person in the whole world. She's so loving, so sweet, so kind and warm and funny and she's in so much pain and she's burying it in fighting and drinking and Caitlyn can't help her. 

To make Caitlyn's point, Vi says quietly, "I'm just going to get you some water, okay? You're going to have a headache." 

"No," Caitlyn croaks. "Don't move, please." 

"Okay," Vi says. "Okay." She stays where she is, wrapped around Caitlyn. 

Caitlyn tries to stop crying. 

After a few minutes, Vi says, "if I were a better person, I'd break up with you." 

Caitlyn struggles in Vi's arms until Vi lets her go. Caitlyn sits up, her head pounding and her eyes so swollen she can barely see, and grabs her pillow. 

She smacks Vi with it as hard as she can. 

"Hey!" Vi protests. 

"Why would you say that," Caitlyn says miserably, and smacks her again. 

Vi's still lying on her back on the bed, but she holds up her forearms defensively to ward off the pillow attack. "It's true. Cait, put the pillow down." 

Caitlyn thumps her with it again. Vi grabs the pillow this time and pulls it out of Caitlyn's hands. 

"Don't say that," Caitlyn repeats, just as miserably. 

Vi reaches for her and pulls her back in. Caitlyn lets her, allowing Vi to wind her strong arms around her again. 

"Cait, I'm - " Vi starts, and then pauses for a moment. "I'm dragging you down with me."

"That's not true." 

"You just cried for like an hour and you're always saying you never cry. And you're crying about me. You're spending so much time dealing with me and my bullshit - " 

"Vi, no," Caitlyn says, propping herself up on her elbow so she can see Vi's face. Vi looks up at her, pale and sad. "I'm not 'dealing' with you. I love you. I care about you. I'm - I'm just with you."

Vi reaches up with her uninjured arm and gently brushes away some of the tears that are running down Caitlyn's face. "Oh, Cait," she says quietly. "I don't know what I did to deserve you." 

Caitlyn shakes her head, because she hates it when Vi says that, and then slumps back down onto the bed, resting her aching forehead on Vi's shoulder again. "You were right about my head hurting." 

"Can I get you some water now?" 

"No."

"Are you going to let me get up at any point to get you some water?" 

"No."

Vi sighs. 

Caitlyn does let her get up eventually, and then Caitlyn gets up as well, only to look in the mirror in her washroom and gasp at her appearance. "I look awful! I didn't know I was going to be an ugly crier." 

Vi laughs. "You're not." 

"I am! I'm all splotchy and puffy." She looks accusingly at Vi, who comes to lean in the washroom door. "You don't look like this when you cry." 

"It's all the practice," Vi says. "It'll help if you take a shower. Keep the water cold at first, you'll feel a lot better." 

Caitlyn sighs. "Alright." She turns the shower on and pulls her satin camisole over her head. 

"I could join you," Vi offers. Caitlyn can see her watching from the doorway. 

Caitlyn can't help but smile at her. "This shower is too small, Vi. I barely fit on my own." 

"I already told you, I can be creative." 

Caitlyn rolls her eyes and then winces when the movement makes the throbbing in her temples worse. She finishes undressing, gets into the shower, and lets the cool water run over her puffy face. Vi was right; it does help. She feels like she's coming back to herself, putting herself back together. 

Until Vi does try to get in with her. 

"Ow, can you just - here, move over a little - " 

"Move over where?"

"One sec, I'll just - " 

"Violet." 

"I can figure this out, just give me a second." 

"Vi, don't take offense to this, but this is the least sexy thing you've ever attempted with me." 

Vi starts laughing. "No, no, hold on, this is just a logistical challenge. I can work this out." 

"You're ruining my shower experience." 

"I'm trying to improve it!" 

"You're failing." 

Vi laughs harder and then clunks her head on the side of the shower. 

"Vi! Don't give yourself a second concussion, please." 

"When we go back to my apartment," Vi says, "can we try this in my shower? It's bigger." 

"Yes," Caitlyn says. "Can you pass me my shampoo, please?"

"No."

"Vi." 

"I'm not trying to be difficult. I really can't. It's behind me and with my shoulder being fucked - " 

"Oh, for - Violet, get out of my shower." 

Vi does, giggling to herself. It's a rare sound, and Caitlyn can't help but smile. 

"You know," Caitlyn says as she finishes shampooing her hair, "my shower in Piltover is big enough for ten people, if not more." 

Vi tugs the shower curtain back to stare at Caitlyn. She's scrubbed her hair dry and it's now sticking up all around her head. "Ten people? How often were you showering with ten people?" 

"It's more of a hypothetical." 

"Yeah, sure." 

Caitlyn has to hold back a smile. "I cap the orgies at eight." 

Vi cackles and shoves the shower curtain closed again. 

They spend the night together at Caitlyn's, and Caitlyn is relieved to find that she and Vi settle back into their familiar ease with each other right away, despite the two days apart and Caitlyn's little breakdown. 

But despite that, something's off. 

It's nothing to do with the relationship between Caitlyn and Vi; at least, Caitlyn thinks so. It's Vi specifically. 

Days pass, and Vi's just not quite herself. They're back to spending most of their nights together in Vi's apartment, but Vi's not back to being herself. Caitlyn doesn't know if it's the physical pain that she's in, from the healing concussion and the injured shoulder and whatever else she's got going on, or if it's something else. She's less energetic, less quick to make a joke or smile or even say something snarky. She's spending more time sitting quietly, more time curled up in bed with her head resting on Caitlyn's thigh. 

Caitlyn tries to ask Vi about it, and she gets the same answer every time - nothing's wrong, Caitlyn doesn't have to worry. 

As if.

Caitlyn wakes up only because her throat is dry. The Zaun air has felt smoggier and more caustic than usual the last few days, and despite drinking as much tea as she can throughout the day, it's still bothering Caitlyn's throat and lungs. So she forces her sleepy eyes open and steels herself to get out from under the warm blankets to get a glass of water. 

She's about to get up when she realizes that something feels strange, and then it takes her another moment to place what it is. 

Vi's not touching her. 

Vi usually sleeps curled around Caitlyn. Even if it's a warmer night, Vi still usually has her hand or elbow or knee or some part of her body touching Caitlyn in some way. But right now she's not, even though Caitlyn knows she's still in bed. 

Caitlyn rolls over, and sure enough, Vi's lying in bed beside Caitlyn like she usually is. But she's not sleeping. 

Vi's eyes are open and she's looking up at the ceiling. She's on her back, her hair tangled around her face, and she has one hand pressed into her chest. Her other hand is pressed over her mouth and nose, hard enough that her fingers are leaving red marks on her skin. 

Vi's chest is rising and falling far too rapidly. She's breathing like she's just sprinted for an hour straight. 

There's sweat beading on her forehead and in the hollow of her throat, and she's flushed all the way from her chest up into her face. 

"Vi?" Caitlyn rasps, hurtling out of the sleepy state she'd been in seconds before. She sits up, but Vi doesn't even look her way. 

No wonder Vi's turning bright red - she must not even be getting any air in, she has her hand cutting off her airway completely. Caitlyn reaches for Vi's wrist instinctively, about to pull her hand away from her face, but then Vi's eyes flick to her and the look of absolute terror on Vi's face stops Caitlyn in her tracks. She freezes, her hand outstretched. 

Vi isn't making any sound. Nothing. No wonder it hadn't woken Caitlyn up - the sound of Vi's normal breathing when she's asleep is louder than this. 

"Vi?" Caitlyn repeats. Vi's eyes are fixed on her now, wide and unblinking, and her hand is still covering her nose and mouth. Underneath her other hand, her chest shudders and shudders as her lungs try to pull in air. 

A nightmare, maybe? Or a panic attack? A nightmare that caused a panic attack? But then why is she - 

Oh, of course. Caitlyn curses herself for being so oblivious. Of course Vi would've had to stay silent when she was in Stillwater, if she had a nightmare. Of course she couldn't scream or cry or gasp for air loudly like most people did. 

Caitlyn slowly pulls her hand back and then gets out of bed just as slowly. Vi watches every movement with just her eyes - she doesn't move her head at all. Caitlyn has no idea if Vi even knows who Caitlyn is. She's not sure if Vi's locked in a flashback and is seeing Stillwater around her, not the dim room of her apartment, or if she's fully aware of where she is but is still just in the grips of terror from a nightmare. 

Caitlyn turns the light on. The abrupt flare of light hurts her eyes, and she has to blink rapidly as her vision adjusts, but Vi doesn't. She just keeps tracking Caitlyn's movement. Caitlyn doesn't think she's blinked once. 

Caitlyn goes back over to the bed but she kneels down next to it this time, so she's not looming over Vi. 

"Vi?" she tries. "Everything's alright. You can let yourself breathe. You can make noise, it's alright. It's just us here. We're in your apartment." 

It doesn't seem to help. Vi's still nearly smothering herself, and while Caitlyn understands why she's doing it now, it doesn't make it any easier to watch. 

"I'm just going to take your hand," Caitlyn says softly, "so that you can breathe. You're safe. I promise." 

Caitlyn reaches for Vi's wrist again as slowly as she possibly can. She keeps her palm turned upwards, as nonthreatening as possible. Vi watches her do it, but nothing else in her body language changes.

Caitlyn very gently touches her fingers to Vi's forearm. Vi doesn't react to that either, which Caitlyn supposes isn't the worst outcome - she hadn't flinched, at least. So Caitlyn slowly runs her fingers up Vi's arm until she's touching Vi's wrist. She doesn't try to encircle her fingers around Vi's wrist at all, but instead just slides her own hand to the base of Vi's palm and carefully lifts her hand away from her face. 

Vi immediately gasps for air, but she still barely makes a sound even as her lungs drag in desperate breath after desperate breath. She's still looking at Caitlyn with huge eyes, and Caitlyn still has no idea if Vi is actually seeing her. 

Caitlyn doesn't let go of Vi's arm. She carefully takes Vi's wrist in both her hands and lays her arm down across the bed. Caitlyn starts running her fingers up and down the inside of Vi's wrist, nearly to her elbow and then back down again. Vi usually likes it when Caitlyn does this, and it's the most gentle thing Caitlyn can think to do right now. 

Caitlyn keeps murmuring to Vi as the minutes tick by. She doesn't even know what she's saying, really - just soothing words, calm reassurances. 

It feels like it's never going to stop, and Caitlyn has to keep reminding herself that it will. Vi's body can't sustain this level of panicked exertion for long. It'll stop soon. Vi will come back to herself. It'll be alright. 

Slowly, it does start to stop. 

Vi's breathing starts to even out and the tension in her body starts to ebb. Caitlyn keeps up what she's been doing, and some awareness starts to come back to Vi's face and eyes.

After a few more minutes, the rigid way Vi was holding herself fades away. Vi slumps back into the mattress, the hand she had pressed to her chest falling away. But she doesn't speak, doesn't move to sit up. 

"Would you like some water?" Caitlyn asks softly. "Or some tea?" 

Normally Vi would make a joke about the tea that Caitlyn makes, but she doesn't say anything. She doesn't respond at all - there's no shake or nod of her head, no shrug of her shoulders. 

Caitlyn decides to make the tea anyway. It's not Vi's favourite, but Caitlyn certainly isn't going to make her a coffee right now. The last thing she needs is to get her heart rate up again. 

She carefully sets Vi's arm back down on the mattress and gets up. Her knees protest the movement - she'd been kneeling on the floor for longer than she'd thought. 

Caitlyn tries to be quiet as she moves around the kitchen. She doesn't want to knock something over by accident and startle Vi, so she takes her time with each step. Caitlyn makes herself a cup as well, both because she doesn't want to just hand Vi a cup and then stare at her, and because Caitlyn is also feeling very rattled by this. 

Caitlyn takes the cup she made for Vi over to the bed. Vi's still lying there in exactly the same spot she's been this entire time. 

"You don't have to drink this," Caitlyn says quietly, "but just holding it might help." 

Vi looks at her for another long moment and then sits up. 

It looks like it hurts. She's moving slowly, clumsily, using her uninjured arm to push herself up. Vi normally sits back against the wall if she's sitting in bed, but she just crosses her legs in front of her and hunches her shoulders forward. 

Caitlyn hands her the cup of tea. Vi takes it and just rests the cup in her hands, bracing her forearms on her knees. She stares down at it, though, which is the first time she's looked away from Caitlyn since this began. 

Caitlyn gets her own cup and sits down on the bed next to her. She drinks her tea in silence - she wants to speak, she wants to ask questions, she feels like she needs verbal confirmation that Vi's okay, but Caitlyn knows she has to be patient. 

Vi does take a couple slow sips of her own tea, to Caitlyn's surprise. It seems to help, at least a little. The last ragged edge to Vi's breathing fades away and the flush of colour in her face starts to ebb.

The silence stretches on. Vi is just loosely holding the cup again, and to Caitlyn's surprise, she looks like she's falling asleep. 

Caitlyn personally feels like she's stepped on a live wire, and she'd only been a witness to this. How could Vi possibly be tired? But then again, she had used up a tremendous amount of energy in a short amount of time.

Caitlyn is also realizing that she really has no idea how well Vi's been sleeping in general. Vi had made a comment previously that had implied she knew when Caitlyn was awake and when she wasn't, but Caitlyn hadn't thought much of it. Vi is a light sleeper, and so it had made sense that Vi would pick up on when Caitlyn would usually fall asleep. 

But has this been happening every night? Has Caitlyn been lying peacefully asleep next to Vi while she goes through something like this all the time?

Vi's eyes start to droop again and her head tilts forward. Caitlyn takes the cup of tea from Vi's hands before she can spill it all over herself. 

"Do you want to lie back down?" Caitlyn asks, but Vi is already tipping to the side. Her eyes are closed before she even hits the pillow. 

Caitlyn is left staring at her. Eventually she puts the cups of tea back on the counter to wash in the morning. She leaves the light on in the apartment, just in case it happens again - maybe it'll help? 

Caitlyn has never gotten back into bed more carefully than she does now. Vi doesn't stir, but Caitlyn still lays down as gingerly as possible. 

Vi sleeps in late the night morning. That's uncharacteristic for her too; she's usually up before Caitlyn is, already bouncing around ready to go get breakfast. But she doesn't get up at her normal time and then she doesn't get up when Caitlyn does either. 

Caitlyn tries not to disturb her. She showers, gets dressed, does her hair, and Vi's still not awake. 

Caitlyn goes to get pastries from the cafe down the street and comes back. Vi's still sleeping, so Caitlyn makes coffee and sets the pastries out. 

It's the smell of the coffee that finally rouses her. Vi lifts her head and blinks blearily at Caitlyn. Her hair is a mess, tangled all around her face and hanging over her eyes. 

"Good morning," Caitlyn says softly. "Do you want to get up first or do you want your coffee in bed?" 

Vi blinks at her again and then stretches her hand out. 

Caitlyn hands her the cup of coffee and then gets the box of pastries as Vi slowly sits up and leans back against the wall. 

Caitlyn sits down with her and sets the open box on the bed. She picks out Vi's favourite pastry and hands that to her too, and then slides over herself to sit next to Vi against the wall. 

"Thanks," Vi says quietly. 

They sit in silence for a few minutes as Vi eats and drinks her coffee. When Vi's finished her pastry, she tucks her coffee into her chest and then slumps over to rest her head on Caitlyn's shoulder. 

"Are you alright?" Caitlyn asks. 

"Yeah." 

"What happened last night?" Caitlyn murmurs. "Was it a nightmare?" 

"Mhm." 

"What was it about?" 

Vi takes a slow sip of her coffee. "Doesn't matter." 

"It does matter," Caitlyn says quietly. "How often does this happen?" 

Vi just shrugs. 

"Vi, please talk to me," Caitlyn nearly begs. "Is this every night? A few times a week?" 

"A few times a week, maybe," Vi says reluctantly. "It's not always... it's not always that bad." 

"Is there anything I can do?" 

"No," Vi says, and then she pauses and reaches for another pastry. "Thanks for getting breakfast though." 

"You're welcome," Caitlyn says, and desperately wishes there was something else she could do. 

Caitlyn makes the mistake of thinking that a bad night doesn't necessarily mean a bad morning or a bad day. 

In this case, it does. 

Vi does get out of bed eventually, and she wanders around the apartment for a while. Caitlyn's particularly hopeful when Vi starts to get dressed - she changes out of the sweatpants and tank top she'd worn to sleep.

But then the clothes she puts on are just new sweatpants and a new tank top.

It's not what Vi usually wears when she's planning to leave the apartment. 

"What would you like to do today?" Caitlyn says. "The air quality feels quite poor, I'd like to do some testing on it if we're out anyway." Her lungs are bothering her again today - she's been fighting the urge to cough all morning. 

"Air's fine," Vi says shortly, picking up her coffee cup from earlier and pouring in a little more from the coffee pot. "I think you're getting sick." 

Caitlyn frowns at her. "I am not. I'm sure if I collect some data - Vi." 

Vi has taken her coffee cup, pulled out a bottle of whiskey from the cabinet, and is now pouring an unbelievable amount of it into her coffee. 

"Vi, that's too much!" Any amount of whiskey with breakfast is too much in Caitlyn's opinion, and she knows Vi usually has a splash of it in her coffee most days, but this is - not that. Vi's filled that coffee cup half full of whiskey. 

Vi shrugs and caps the whiskey. She doesn't look at Caitlyn as she picks up the cup and takes a long drink of it. 

"You're supposed to fight tonight," Caitlyn reminds her. 

"That's later," Vi says. 

"It's really not. You slept in." 

Vi just shrugs again and comes back over to the bed. She curls up with the cup of whiskey and leans against the wall again, closing her eyes. 

By the afternoon, Vi's hammered. 

She's already finished the open bottle of whiskey she'd taken out this morning and is a fair way into another one. Caitlyn doesn't know how she's still alive, let alone still awake. 

Caitlyn has given up on trying to convince her to stop or slow down. She tried all morning and nothing worked. Vi's so deep in her head that half the time she hasn't even been responding to what Caitlyn's saying. 

Caitlyn is just sitting on the bed, feeling numb. Vi is stumbling around the apartment - she seems to be trying to clean, or tidy up, or something, but she's so drunk that she just keeps crashing into things. 

"You know," Vi slurs, "I used to think - I thought, I guess I - " she leans on the counter and reaches for the bottle of whiskey again. She clumsily picks it up and points it at Caitlyn. "I thought I wanted you to. To see me like this." 

"Like what?"

Vi tilts the bottle back towards herself and opens it again. She takes another long swig straight from the bottle, throwing her head back, and then stumbles backward as she does so. When she stands up again, she looks muzzily at Caitlyn. "Like - on a bad day." 

"This certainly is a bad day," Caitlyn says quietly. She's at a complete loss. 

Vi nods aggressively and sways again. She comes around the counter, the bottle held loosely in her hand. She didn't put the cap back on; she's going to spill it. 

"But you don't..." she continues, "it's not - this used to be every day. I used to be - like this. Every day." 

"When?" 

Vi shrugs and drinks more. "Before you... got here. But after - after my family started. Not liking me anymore." 

"They've always liked you and they've always loved you," Caitlyn says. 

Vi's face crumples. "Don't say that." 

"It's true." 

"But - " Vi says, swaying again. She looks at the bottle in her hand. "I - " 

"Vi, just give that to me," Caitlyn says. "Please." She's tired. 

Vi stares at her, looking so crushingly miserable that it feels like Caitlyn's heart is shattering. But then she stumbles over to where Caitlyn's sitting on the bed and holds out the bottle. 

"Thank you," Caitlyn says, taking it from her. She tucks it under the bed, making a note to pour it out later even though she knows it won't make a difference. 

Vi looks down at Caitlyn. She's running the heel of her hand over her chest like something's hurting her. Caitlyn's pretty sure it's not physical. 

"Cait - " she says, her voice breaking. "I can't - it's so bad sometimes. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just - " 

"Vi." Caitlyn pushes herself up onto her knees on the bed and reaches for Vi's good shoulder. Caitlyn pulls her in and then tips them both back down on the bed, so Caitlyn's propped up on the pillows against the wall and Vi's sprawled on top of her. 

"It's not fair," Vi mumbles. "It shouldn't be - I shouldn't still be... like this." 

"I know. It's not." 

"They shouldn't - I shouldn't..." Vi continues. "I don't want them to still be - to still be fucking me up." 

"I know." 

"I don't want to - be fucked up like this. Anymore." 

"I know."

Caitlyn starts running her hand through Vi's tangled hair. She has so many things she wants to say; namely, that the drinking's not helping. That it's making Vi feel better in the moment and so much worse long term. But Vi's half-unconscious already, slumped heavily over Caitlyn. It's not going to get through to her right now. 

Eventually Vi's breathing evens out, which leads Caitlyn to the next problem. Vi's supposed to go fight tonight. Loris will be here soon to get her.

There's no way. There's simply no way she can go tonight. Caitlyn is positive that even if Loris can somehow get Vi there, Vi won't survive a fight against the weakest of opponents, let alone the ones they usually put her up against. 

Caitlyn can't let this happen.

She thinks, or at least she hopes, that Vi's almost there. That she's almost at the point where she might let Caitlyn help. Or let her family help.

Caitlyn just needs a little more time. Just a little more. 

So she waits until she's sure that Vi's deeply asleep and then carefully slides out from under her. 

She doesn't like leaving Vi like this, but she doesn't know what other option she has. She doesn't have time to go get Powder or someone else to stay with her.

So she does her best. Caitlyn carefully turns Vi onto her side, on her uninjured shoulder. She adjusts Vi's legs and arms so Vi can't roll forward and then takes the pillows and blankets and tucks them against Vi's back and head, so she can't roll onto her back either.

Confident that she's done what she can to stop Vi from turning over in her sleep and subsequently choking on her own vomit and suffocating in her drunken state, Caitlyn gets ready to go and puts her backpack on. She locks the door as she leaves. 

Caitlyn runs into Loris on the way there. 

"Where's Vi?" he asks, stopping in front of Caitlyn and therefore blocking her way on the crowded street.

"Not coming," Caitlyn says, and walks around him.

He turns to follow her. "Doesn't work like that. How many times do I have to tell you?" 

"It will today." 

"She has to fight. They don't make it optional. They promote these fights beforehand, they'll lose money - " 

"I'm going to replace their lost money for tonight." 

He scoffs as he keeps pace with her. "You can't do that." 

"I'm not asking for your permission." 

"Do you have any idea how much money that would take?" 

"Yes," Caitlyn says, and briefly debates telling him that she owns 95% of Hextech just to shut him up. But he's not worth her time. 

"I'm going to go get her," Loris says. 

Caitlyn starts down the stairs that lead to the next neighbourhood over. "You could try. I've locked the door and Vi is passed out cold - you're not going to be able to wake her up. So unless you're planning to kick her door down, you should save yourself some time." 

Even if Loris were to break into Vi's apartment, Caitlyn's pretty sure she would still have plenty of time to get this sorted out before Loris got Vi halfway to the pitfighting arena. Vi's had so much to drink today; Loris will likely have to carry her. Caitlyn doubts he's even capable of doing that, no matter how large he is; Vi is very, very heavy. 

When Caitlyn arrives, it's fairly easy to find who she needs to speak with. She walks around the pitfighting arena and pays a few people to tell her the name of the person who decides the schedule. 

Once she has the name, Caitlyn pays two more people to direct her to the woman's office. 

Then, Caitlyn walks right in and has a conversation with that woman. 

It takes quite a long time. 

Caitlyn has never had a particular interest in business and negotiation, mostly because she's never had to. She's been trained in it since she was a child, of course, but for the most part negotiating feels like a waste of time for her. Caitlyn is so wealthy that spending time haggling over miniscule amounts of money feels absurd. 

So she's not interested in a tough negotiation here. Caitlyn goes back and forth with the woman, who really is horrible, and finally settles on a number. The agreement is simple; Caitlyn will give the woman a significant amount of money as a bribe. In return, the woman will remove Vi from the schedule for tonight with no further ramifications. 

Caitlyn hands over the money. The woman removes Vi from the schedule and starts notifying her colleagues that Vi isn't fighting tonight. 

Caitlyn hangs around until she's sure that it's all settled and done with, and then she goes home.

Caitlyn is now very sure that Vi's wrong about the air. Caitlyn's lungs and throat burn and ache as she walks back, and she uses the brief time to herself to cough as much as she wants. The coughing does help her feel better, although the relief of knowing Vi won't die in the pit tonight feels even better than that. 

Loris isn't around when Caitlyn gets back to the apartment. The door hasn't been kicked down, at least, so Caitlyn can only presume that he got bored of knocking and left. 

Caitlyn lets herself in and locks the door up behind her again. She experiences a brief moment of terror when she sees that Vi's not on the bed, before she notices that the washroom door is shut. 

"Cait?" Vi croaks through the closed door. She sounds awful. 

"Yes, it's me," Caitlyn says. "Can I open the door?" 

"Yeah." 

Caitlyn opens the washroom door. Vi is slumped against the wall next to the toilet, her arms curled around her stomach. When she looked up at Caitlyn, her eyes are red from burst blood vessels and the pallor of her skin is deathly pale. She looks just as bad as she sounds.

"Why did you ask if it was me who came in?" Caitlyn asks, keeping her tone light. "Are you frequently giving a copy of your key to others?" 

Vi shrugs weakly. "You could've been a really skilled burglar." 

"I do think I could be quite good at theft if I put my mind to it," Caitlyn says. "Would you like some water?" 

"Uh," Vi says, "yeah. Thanks." 

Caitlyn gets her a glass from the kitchen and comes back, sitting down next to her on the floor and holding it out. 

Vi takes the cup with a trembling hand and then just props it on her knee, staring at it. "Where did you go? What time is it?" 

"It's late," Caitlyn says, starting with the second question, "and before you get angry, please remember that earlier today you were so drunk that you couldn't walk." 

Vi looks at her blearily, her head resting against the wall. 

"I bribed the woman who handles the fight schedule to take you off for tonight," Caitlyn admits. 

Vi groans. 

Caitlyn, who has no regrets, just waits. 

"How much," Vi says hoarsely. 

"Quite a bit." 

"Cait..." Vi looks even paler than she had a moment before. "Tell me the number." 

"It's irrelevant." 

"It's not if I'm going to pay you back for it." 

There is no way Vi could realistically get enough money together to pay Caitlyn back for the amount she spent tonight, and Caitlyn couldn't care less about the money. She's spent more than that on a dress for a gala before. It is such an infinitesimally small amount to Caitlyn, and to pay it in exchange for Vi's life? Caitlyn would pay it a thousand times over. 

Caitlyn changes the subject instead. "You should have some water." 

Vi looks down at the glass she's still holding and winces. She takes a tentative, tiny sip and then puts it back down, taking a deep breath. 

"How long have you been up?" Caitlyn asks. Caitlyn can only assume it's been a while - Vi's speech is much clearer and yet she looks much physically worse, so she must have spent at least the last hour or two being sick. 

Vi shrugs again. She puts her head back against the wall and closes her eyes. "Don't know. I think Loris was here at some point? He was knocking for a while. It woke me up." 

"Did you talk to him?" 

"Nah. I think I passed out again and he left after a while." 

"Ah," Caitlyn says, trying to sound neutral about that. 

Vi cracks her eyes open again. "You should go to bed." 

"You should too." 

Vi makes a face and then tries another tiny sip of water. "Can't yet." 

"Still not feeling well?" 

Vi nods and then winces. "Yeah. My own fault, though." 

"I can stay here," Caitlyn offers. 

Vi shakes her head. "Go get some sleep. You're coming down with something, you need to sleep so you can fight it off." 

"I am not. The air's just been bad the last few days, that's all. I'm more sensitive to it than you are." 

"Uh huh," Vi mutters. "Seriously, Cait. I'll be fine. No use us both just sitting here." 

If Caitlyn were to admit it, she is actually quite tired. So she does go to bed, and falls asleep to the unpleasant sound of Vi retching quietly in the washroom. 

Caitlyn isn't asleep for all that long.

She thinks it's nearly morning. It's hard to tell in this part of Zaun, but from how quiet it is outside, she's pretty sure she's correct. This is the only time when Zaun actually gets even close to quieting down. 

Vi's place in the bed next to her is empty, even though Caitlyn remembers Vi coming to bed at some point after Caitlyn had fallen asleep. The only other room in the tiny apartment is the washroom, and that door is ajar with the room dark behind it. Vi's not in there either. 

Caitlyn gets up, tugging on her sweater over her thin camisole and leggings. She coughs a bit as she glances around the apartment, and her nerves ease a bit when she sees that Vi's boots are still by the door and her jacket is still on the counter. She probably hasn't gone far. 

Caitlyn goes outside into the cool night. She heads for the stairs that lead down to the street, and relief floods her when she sees Vi sitting on the top step, her arms loosely wrapped around her knees. 

Vi's hair is a mess, hanging down her back in tangles. She's also wearing only the same tank top and sweatpants, along with the ugly socks Caitlyn had bought her weeks ago at the market. 

Before going to her, Caitlyn goes back into the apartment and grabs the warm knitted blanket that Vi likes so much. 

Vi doesn't look up as Caitlyn approaches. She's staring off into the distance, her eyes vacant. 

Caitlyn gently settles the blanket over Vi's shoulders before sitting down next to her. Her instinct is to wrap herself around Vi too, just like the blanket, but Vi will reach for Caitlyn or lean into her if she wants that. So Caitlyn just mimics her posture, resting her feet on the stairs below and looking out at the night. 

"Did you have another nightmare?" Caitlyn asks eventually. She's not sure if Vi will even respond, if Vi can even hear her right now, but Vi shakes her head without moving her eyes. 

"No," she says. "No, I was just... thinking, I guess." 

"Would you like to talk about it?" Caitlyn asks. She expects Vi to say no, because that's what she usually does. 

"I was - " Vi starts slowly. Her voice is unusually soft. She sounds... defeated. "I was thinking about how this used to be easier." 

Caitlyn glances at her. The empty look on Vi's face makes Caitlyn feel like her heart's collapsing inside her. "What was easier?" 

"When no one was watching this." 

Caitlyn makes herself keep breathing evenly. "What do you mean? 

Vi shrugs. "Living like this. When no one was watching me live like this. It - I didn't mean for things to go this way. When I got out of Stillwater, it wasn't - everything was so bad, I was so fucked up all the time. It was all I'd thought about, all that time. Getting out. All the things I would do. But then I did get out and all I did was think about what happened to me in there."

She's still staring so vacantly off into the distance. Caitlyn wants so badly to hug her, but she makes herself hold still. 

"I couldn't get it together," Vi continues, still in the same empty voice. "Then I started drinking and it was the only thing that made me feel better. The only thing. I knew it was making things worse overall, everyone kept telling me that as if I didn't know. I did know, but I didn't care. I just wanted to not feel like that anymore." 

She moves, finally, only to run her hands through her hair, pushing it out of her face. Caitlyn stays quiet. 

"Then I really wrecked everything and then I was out on my own and I thought 'good, now nobody has to deal with this'," Vi says. "I got into pitfighting and at first that was good too. It was fun and I was good at it and I could be as feral and angry as I wanted, and it made me a fuck-ton of money. And it - do you remember what you said to me when I came to your place? About the pitfighting?" 

Caitlyn blinks, not expecting the question, and then her heart sinks even further. "I asked what outcome you expected. From the fighting, and the drinking." 

"Yeah. I know the outcome," Vi says, and finally tears her eyes away from staring at nothing to looking down at her hands. "I knew when I started pitfighting that it would kill me. I didn't think that at first with the drinking, I guess - I knew it wasn't healthy but it didn't seem as serious, at the time. But probably the third time I tried to get sober I realized it would probably be the thing that would get me if the fighting didn't." 

"Vi..." 

Vi shakes her head and keeps going. "I didn't care. There wasn't - it didn't seem like there was any other alternative. I just kind of thought, 'okay, I'll do these things that feel good and then I'll die, and at least I'll die outside of Stillwater'. That seemed like a pretty good outcome, I guess. And I thought that I'd done enough that I wouldn't drag anyone else down with me. That my family wouldn't miss me." 

Caitlyn slowly folds her arms so that her fingers are pressed into her skin, and then she holds herself very tightly. 

"So that's what was easier," Vi explains, still in the same defeated tone. "But then you showed up, and you're still here even though you've had every chance to not be. I've given you every reason to not be." 

Caitlyn shakes her head but she can't speak. 

"I don't know what else - " Vi says, and then her voice breaks. "I've - you've seen how bad things are now and you're still here. And my family - they never - "

Tears start to run down Vi's face. Caitlyn can't even breathe. 

"I kept trying to get them to stay away," Vi whispers. "Over and over. I said the worst things, did the worst things I could think of, and they just kept coming back. Never stopped. And now I - you're here and they're - I don't know what to do now. I don't - I don't want to die like this anymore but I can't get out of it. I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do. It doesn't feel like there's a way out." She stops. "Are you crying?" 

"I think so," Caitlyn whispers.

Vi groans. "Cait, I'm so sorry. Twice in one week."

Caitlyn shakes her head and pulls the sleeves of her sweater over her hands, scrubbing at her face with them. "No, don't be, I - " 

She looks at Vi, who has one hand stretched out towards her and her eyes wide, her own face tearstreaked. "Can I - " Caitlyn says, reaching out for her, and Vi nods, so Caitlyn throws herself at her. She wraps one of her arms around Vi's shoulders and the other around her waist, burying her face in the blanket Vi's still wrapped in.

Vi gets an arm around her too and starts running the other through Caitlyn's hair. "I'm so sorry," she says again. 

"No, don't," Caitlyn says thickly. "Don't apologize. You're... I love you so much and it just hurts me to think about you feeling like this for so long. You didn't deserve any of this." 

Vi doesn't say anything, but she doesn't stop stroking Caitlyn's hair. 

"Will you let me help?" Caitlyn asks. "Please? Please, Vi, please - " 

"I don't know what you can do," Vi says quietly. 

"I have a detailed plan with diagrams and a flow chart," Caitlyn says, and then realizes how silly that sounds, especially because she's crying quite a lot now.

But Vi laughs, even though it's watery. "Of course you do. Can I see it?" 

"Yes. Later, it's in my notebook in my backpack. But I can give you the overview now."

"Okay. Give me the first point, then."

"You have to stop the fighting," Caitlyn whispers. "I know it makes you money. I know it's fun for you sometimes. But it's hurting you. It's going to kill you. It's not helping. It's making everything so much worse and you can't move forward if you keep doing this." 

Vi's quiet for a moment. "I know," she says finally. "I know. You're right. But I need the money - " 

"I'll give you the money." 

"Cait..." 

"Vi, I have so much of it," Caitlyn says. "You don't understand how much money I have. It's - it's morally unjustifiable for me to watch you struggle like this, if the problem is money. I can fix that. I can give you money for rent for this place. I can give you money for food and clothes and anything else. I can give you the money for a new apartment in a better neighbourhood that you can get better in." 

Vi's quiet. Caitlyn keeps her forehead pressed into Vi's shoulder, warm tears running down her face. 

"Please," Caitlyn begs. "I know you don't want to be dependent on me. I understand that. You can get another job, one that's not hurting you, when you can, and make your own money again. But I can help you through this part." 

There's another long pause, and then Vi says, "okay." 

"Really?" Caitlyn says, and starts crying harder. 

"Yeah," Vi whispers. "It won't be - I can't make it happen right away. They won't let me just walk away. They'll come for me if I do, Cait, I swear, I'm not just saying that. They'll fuck me up. But if I give them warning, a heads-up, I think it'll work. They can make a big show of me leaving, make their money that way." 

It's not perfect. It scares Caitlyn to think about Vi ever going back there again, but she's also met these people now and she knows that Vi's not exaggerating about this. "I understand." 

"And the drinking - " Vi starts. "Cait, I can't do both at the same time. I mean it. Not until I'm done fighting. I'll get sick, it'll be really bad, really bad, and I can't be like that if I still have to fight. I won't stand a chance." 

Caitlyn has to swallow around the lump in her throat. "I know. Vi, there's nothing I want more than for you to get sober, but you've got to let me help you with that. Let your family help you with that." Caitlyn's throat hurts. "I have nightmares about you dying from it. From withdrawal, from you trying to do it on your own." 

Vi's arms tighten around her. "That won't happen." 

"It could," Caitlyn whispers. "So you have to let us help. Please. It's okay if it's not right away. I understand that you have to stop the pitfighting first. But when you're ready, please let us help." 

"Okay," Vi whispers back. "Okay. Okay." 

She's quiet for a minute. Caitlyn is too, trying to get herself under control. It's so difficult to stop crying once it's started. 

"Are there other phases in your detailed plan?" Vi asks eventually, some of her usual lightness and humour returning to her voice. 

"Of course," Caitlyn rasps back, "but you have to get through the other phases first. There's a flow chart, remember." 

Vi laughs then and somehow squeezes Caitlyn even more tightly. "Right, how could I forget that." 

Caitlyn's still crying. How does she make this stop. 

"Cait," Vi whispers. "Don't panic, but I've got some bad news." 

Caitlyn lifts her head a little to look at Vi. Her face is just as covered in tears and blotchy as Caitlyn's must be, but she's smiling a little. "What?" 

"We're crying under Bernard's window again," Vi whispers, and Caitlyn bursts out into tearful laughter. 

She's still doing a bizarre combination of laughing and crying when Vi hauls her back to the apartment and drops them both down onto the bed. Caitlyn burrows under the covers and then wraps her arms around Vi's waist again. 

She must drift off to sleep quickly, and Vi must too, because it's late in the day when Caitlyn wakes up again to find Vi still curled up against her, deeply asleep. 

Caitlyn herself has slept better in those few hours than she has in months, and she thinks Vi has too. 

Chapter Text

"I'm having a really bad week, and do you know what the worst part of it is? You." 

"You're really ungrateful, you know that?" Loris says. "After everything I've done for you, this is the kind of treatment I get." 

"What have you done for me?" Vi asks. She's sitting on the bench in the locker room, carefully pulling her boot off. "Apart from robbing me blind and using me to avoid getting a real job." 

"Do you realize you never officially hired me? I don't have to be doing any of this shit." 

Vi shrugs. "That doesn't mean anything. I never officially asked Caitlyn to be my girlfriend either. Sometimes things just happen." 

"Where is that wonderful ray of sunshine today?" Loris asks. "She break up with you?" 

Vi gets her boot off and folds her leg over her other knee so she can work on her ankle. "Why do you assume she broke up with me? Maybe I broke up with her." 

"Ha," says Loris flatly. 

Vi really does laugh. "Yeah, fair. As if I'd ever break up with her." She flexes her foot, frowning at the restricted movement. "I made her stay home. She's sick." 

"Too bad. I miss her warm presence. Her friendly, kind soul. Her delightful personality." 

"She hates you in particular," Vi says cheerfully. She starts trying to wrap up her ankle like she does with her wrists. In theory it should be similar, but it's not in practicality. 

"Feeling's mutual." 

"I think you're just jealous," Vi muses. She tries rolling her ankle around - this wrap isn't helping at all. "You're jealous that I get to go home to my beautiful girlfriend who is so nice to me and pays my rent. What are you going home to, Loris." 

"The sweet embrace of death, hopefully." 

Vi takes the wrap off and starts again. "You can't even escape me in death. I'd haunt you there too." 

Loris sighs. "I believe it. When did you fuck up your ankle?" 

"I have no idea." Vi's not lying. She has no memory of when she hurt her ankle or what she did; it just started twinging about two weeks ago and hasn't stopped since. She probably either twisted it while drunk, or it happened when she was fighting in the pit all hyped up on adrenaline and therefore she didn't feel it.

"Is it broken?" 

Vi frowns and rolls her foot experimentally again. "I don't think so. It doesn't hurt that much and it's moving pretty well. It just feels sore. And weak." 

"Just tie your boot up tighter." 

"That's what I've been doing. It's not enough." She pulls the wrap as tightly as she can around her foot and ankle and then starts tying it off. "It's fine. I only need it for a few more fights." 

Now that she had that conversation with Caitlyn and agreed to stop pitfighting, Vi's actually getting a little excited. It'll be the first time in years that she'll be able to actually rest. Heal some of these injuries that are bothering her.

"I don't know when you became delusional," Loris mutters. "Maybe that last time you got knocked into the wall?"

Vi pulls her sock back on. She gingerly slides her foot back into her boot and starts tying up the laces again. "I'm so serious about this, Loris." 

"I don't care how serious you are. It's not going to matter." 

"I already talked to Dayna and Cris," Vi says. "Told them I'd do one more and then I'm out." 

Loris pushes himself away from the lockers. "Vi - tell me you didn't do that." 

"Sure did," Vi says. She stands up and leans on her bad ankle, testing out how it holds her weight. "It didn't go over great, but you know me. Queen of negotiation." She mimes finger guns at Loris. 

He glares at her. "What did they say?" 

Vi starts warming up, rolling her shoulders around and then wincing when her bad shoulder twinges. "They said fifteen more. I said two. They said fourteen. I said two. They said thirteen, I said okay, three. They said twelve, then eleven, then ten, then nine - " 

"I get it." 

"So we settled on four more," Vi finishes, "including today. So three after this." 

Loris sighs. "They're just telling you that. You'll get to the last one and they'll make up some reason to keep you longer." 

"I'm aware," Vi says. "I'm not actually totally naïve, even though you seem to think I am. They can make up whatever excuse they want - I'm doing three more after today and that's it." 

"I think you're naïve because you're acting like it. You're pretending there's going to be no consequences to this." 

"I'm not," Vi says sharply. "I'm just saying, the consequences for telling them I'm done aren't as bad as the consequences for me if I keep going." 

At that moment, Vi gets called to go to the gate to enter the pit. 

"Finally," she says, and leaves the locker room with Loris trailing behind her and grumbling. "This'll be fast tonight." 

Vi needs it to be fast. She wants to get back to Caitlyn - it's stressing Vi out enough that she left Caitlyn at home at all, even though Caitlyn is still belligerently insisting that she's fine. 

She goes into the pit when it's time and then waits patiently while the announcer rambles on. The woman that Vi's fighting tonight is clearly nervous, which will work out great for Vi. Vi's also a little bigger than this woman, a little stockier, and definitely stronger. 

If this woman has any sense, she'll tap out the second the match starts and avoid Vi coming at her at all. 

She doesn't. 

The match starts. Vi rushes her opponent and slams into her in a move that used to win Vi most of her fights in Stillwater. 

The woman goes down hard with Vi on top of her and Vi just starts whaling on the woman's head with her fists. She breaks the woman's nose immediately, and then the woman taps out.

Easy, easy, easy. Vi gets up and the woman runs away back to her own locker room, weeping and holding her face. 

Could've saved herself that nose if she'd just tapped out sooner. 

Ah, well. Now Vi gets her money and gets to go home early. Nice.

Vi gets bitched at some more by Loris and then again by some of the other fighters when she heads out. They're just mad that she's not going out with them and therefore they won't get a bunch of free drinks off her when she gets so drunk that she stops caring about the consequences of spending money.

Vi ignores them all and goes right home. She tries to pick up some soup for Caitlyn on the way, but the one place that sells the kind of soup Caitlyn will eat is closed until tomorrow. 

Jericho's will be open, but Caitlyn won't appreciate Vi bringing her a bowl from there. 

The apartment is dark when Vi gets in. In the dim green glow, Vi can see Caitlyn in bed with the blankets pulled all the way up to her chin. She doesn't stir as Vi sets her things down and quietly takes her jacket and boots off, which is honestly pretty concerning. 

Vi washes her hands carefully before she goes to check on Caitlyn, taking her wraps off and scrubbing the blood off her knuckles with the too-expensive soap Caitlyn keeps buying. Vi doesn't want to touch her with her filthy pitfighting hands. Gotta clean them up first. 

When she's satisfied that she's done enough, Vi goes over to the bed and sits down on the edge. Caitlyn is turned towards her and she looks peaceful enough, but Vi doesn't like how raspy her breathing is. She's working a little too hard for each breath. 

Vi gently puts the back of her hand against Caitlyn's forehead. She's a little warm - it's not a bad fever yet, but she definitely has one.

Vi had tried to be quiet, but Caitlyn shifts slightly and opens her eyes anyway. 

"Oh," she says roughly. Too roughly - she normally doesn't sound like that when she wakes up. "Oh, Vi, I'm sorry, I must have fallen asleep."

"No worries," Vi says. "I wanted you to get some sleep." 

Caitlyn sits up and then visibly tries to hold in a cough. "Are you hurt?" 

"Not at all. But you're going to be if you keep trying to avoid coughing like that. You're gonna tear something." 

"I'm not doing that," Caitlyn says, and then her shoulders jerk as she clearly tries to do it again. "I don't believe that you're completed uninjured. Show me." 

"Aw, if you want me to strip, you can just say so," Vi says, but she gets up and spins around slowly, tugging her shirt up so Caitlyn can see that she doesn't have any new bruises or cuts on her ribs either. 

"And your legs?" 

Vi tugs her jeans off and tries to kick them into the pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the room. They catch on an empty whiskey bottle Vi had left on the counter and knock it off, sending both the bottle and jeans to the floor. The bottle smashes everywhere. 

There's silence for a moment. 

"Well," Caitlyn says, "that couldn't have gone worse." 

Vi winces. "I'll clean that up." Now standing in only her socks, underwear, and tank top, she turns back to Caitlyn. "Anyway, see? I'm totally fine." 

Caitlyn looks her over. "Alright. Did you win?" 

"Yep," Vi says cheerfully. "Took less than a minute. I'm going to shower though - do you want me to make you some tea before I do?" 

"No, no, I'm fine," Caitlyn says dismissively. "Please go shower. I can't wait until you never have to put that dye back in your hair again." 

Vi pouts, overexaggerated. "I thought you loved this look on me." 

Caitlyn rolls her eyes. "Go shower, Violet. Use the shampoo I bought you." 

"But I like yours better." 

"My shampoo is designed for cleansing normal hair. Not hair that's been caked in grease." 

"I'll use both," Vi decides, and goes to shower. 

Vi turns the shower on and lets it run for a minute to lull Caitlyn into a false sense of complacency. Then Vi yanks the washroom door back open just in time to catch Caitlyn muffling coughs into her pillow. 

Caitlyn looks up and visibly suppresses another cough. "It's just the air," she says. 

Vi narrows her eyes and slowly shuts the washroom door again. 

Vi's even more worried the next morning when Caitlyn can't hide the coughing anymore.

"Vi, it really is just the air quality," Caitlyn insists as they go to get breakfast, starting down the stairs together. 

"Is the air quality giving you a fever, too?" 

"I don't have a fever." 

"You do." 

Caitlyn clears her throat for probably the fifteenth time this morning. "You can't prove that." 

"I don't need to." Vi puts her hand on Caitlyn's forehead and starts going down the stairs backward so she can keep it there. "I can feel it." 

Caitlyn bats her hand away. "Stop that. And stop walking backward, you're going to fall." 

Vi starts running backward down the stairs instead. Caitlyn rolls her eyes again. 

They get breakfast at a cafe, and Vi keeps worrying as Caitlyn eats her food with little enthusiasm. 

"I'm going to go pick up a few things this morning," Vi says. "I should be back by lunch."

Caitlyn spears a piece of fruit with her fork and then just stares at it. "I'll go with you." 

"Cait, you need to go back to bed." 

Caitlyn gives Vi a look that says that she's getting genuinely irritated. "Vi, I'm fine. I can't just lie all around all day, I've never done that in my life." 

Vi leans forward and props her arms on the table between them. "Cait, I'm going to be really serious for a minute." 

"Just one minute?" Caitlyn asks. 

"Yeah. I can only do a joke hiatus of about a minute, max."

"Well, get started then. Clock's ticking." 

Vi scowls because she just said she wanted to be serious and now they're bantering again. Which is partially her own fault, but whatever. "Caitlyn."

Caitlyn sits back in her chair and gestures at Vi to go ahead. Then she coughs.

Vi leans forward again. "You're too dismissive about being sick. You're thinking about it like a Piltie." 

Caitlyn frowns, clearly about to interrupt. 

"Just wait a second," Vi says impatiently. "I mean it, Cait. You're doing all this research into health outcomes in Zaun and you still don't get it. There's no safety net here. We don't have doctors, we don't have hospitals, we don't have medical clinics. We don't have any medical supplies. None. Nothing. Zero." 

"I know that." 

"But you're not getting it," Vi insists. "When people here get sick, you either get better on your own or you die. Those are the only two options." 

"I understand, but - " 

"But nothing. We don't fuck around with this here. If you get sick, you rest until you're better unless you have to work. And you don't have to work, Cait."

"Vi! It's just a small cold, at the worst," Caitlyn says, as if that should reassure her. "I never get ill!" 

"In Piltover you don't! With your sunshine and your fresh air and your good food and doctors and warm houses." 

Caitlyn sighs and then coughs again. This time it's worse, and she has to reach for her glass of water before it stops. 

"Then I should go to my place tonight," Caitlyn says hoarsely. "If you really feel that this is quite serious, then I shouldn't be staying with you. If I'm contagious, you could catch it as well." 

"First of all, it's way too late for that," Vi says. "You've had this for like a week already and I've been with you that whole time. I've already been exposed. Plus, I'm pretty much immune to everything here." 

"Violet." 

"It's true. I grew up here, which was bad enough, and then I was in Stillwater, which was even worse for catching every virus that's ever existed." She decides her brief joke hiatus is probably up. "Also, my blood is pretty much entirely alcohol at this point. Germs can't survive in my body anymore." 

Caitlyn gives her a look that says she does not find that funny. "That's not how it works." 

"Well, one of us is sick and the other isn't," Vi reminds her. "Cait, you really have to take this seriously. You know how I told you I was usually the oldest kid around when I was growing up, which is why I was always taking care of Powder and the other younger kids? There was a reason I was one of the only older kids. All the others died." 

Caitlyn stares at her. "What?" 

"I'm not joking," Vi says. "When I was really little, before Powder was born, a flu went around and took out a good chunk of Zaun. I was one of like, three kids in our neighbourhood that survived. My mom always said that if Powder had been born a year earlier she would've died." 

"That's awful." 

"Yeah. So are you going to go back to bed?" 

Caitlyn sighs, which gets her coughing again. "Yes, fine. But as long as I can do some work while I'm in bed." 

It's a compromise, but Vi allows it. 

When they're done breakfast, Vi sends Caitlyn back to the apartment and then goes to do her errands. 

The first thing on her agenda is to find a damn thermometer, and that's a total bust. 

She'd been hoping to get her hands on one to prove to Caitlyn that she does actually have a fever, because Caitlyn's all about "facts" and "evidence-based decisions". But just like every other kind of medical item in Zaun, there are absolutely none to be found. 

There used to be places where you could buy that kind of thing. Vi remembers it from when she was a kid. Pharmacies on the corners that you could walk over to and pick up whatever you needed. Medicine, thermometers, inhalers for kids who had trouble breathing, things like that. But then the chembarons realized that there is nobody more desperate than a person trying to save a sick loved one, and now they hoard every single medical item that makes its way down from Piltover. 

Vi tries a few different places and gives up on the thermometer. She does pick up some of Zaun's famous cough syrup, which Caitlyn will not like but Vi will make her take anyway, some tea that Caitlyn will also not like but is supposed to help with fevers and coughs, and then she also picks up some crackers and other little snacks that'll be easier for Caitlyn to eat if she gets worse. 

On the way back, Vi walks by one of her favourite bars. There's nothing different about this bar that sets it apart from the others in the neighbourhood, except that this one is open in the mornings and therefore enjoys a loyal clientele and a busy customer base. All of their customers are exactly like Vi; people who can't wait until the late afternoon to start drinking. 

Vi's a regular here and has been for a long time. She could just stop in and get a quick drink. Just a shot or two. Just quickly. She'd feel better. 

But that's not on the fancy plan Caitlyn drew up for her, so. Vi can't. 

She can't. 

She told Caitlyn she wouldn't. 

Caitlyn created a whole detailed little schedule for Vi. She made a list and a timetable of how much Vi needs to drink each day to prevent going into withdrawal, but without tipping over into binge drinking. 

She wasn't kidding about having flow charts and diagrams, it turns out. 

It's a pretty reasonable schedule. Vi had to correct her on a few things, which was embarrassing; namely, she needed Caitlyn to essentially double the amount of alcohol that Caitlyn thought Vi would need. But they'd worked it out, and now Vi has a schedule taped to the fridge. 

It's... okay. Vi's getting through the day without going into withdrawal, which is good. And she's not getting drunk, really, at least by her definition. By anyone else's definition she would be; she drinks a lot. But she barely feels it.

Vi is pretty sure that Caitlyn's harbouring a secret fantasy that Vi will be able to slowly taper off instead of going cold turkey. She'd included a few flow charts in the plan showing the benefits of Vi cutting down by just half a drink a day, until she's all the way down to zero. 

Vi hadn't had the heart to tell Cait that she can't do that. 

It sounds great, in theory. No withdrawal. Steady progress. Freedom at the end of it. 

It's just that it's never going to work.

Vi can't do it. She can barely do what she's doing right now, which is just holding steady at a specific amount. She's holding onto this by the skin of her fucking teeth. 

It's too hard, this way. There's too much temptation. She puts some whiskey in her coffee in the morning, which the schedule allows - but it's so easy to add just a tiny bit more. She has a beer with lunch, as per the schedule - but if she has just a tiny swig from her flask, how much of a difference could that make? 

It's like that all day. Vi has to drink so much that this is a full-day struggle.

The evenings are the worst time for her. For nearly the past three years, that's been the time of day when Vi starts really drinking. She starts around dinner and then doesn't stop until she passes out for the night.

On the schedule on the fridge it says that Vi can have two drinks with or after dinner, and it makes her feel insane.

She'd been honest with Caitlyn about the drinks with dinner. Vi had told her that she doesn't think she can manage just pouring two for herself and not going back for more, so for now Caitlyn is pouring those for her.

It feels like there's a rabid animal inside of her when she watches Caitlyn carefully pour two drinks for Vi and then put the bottle away.  She wants more, it feels like she needs more - two drinks does nothing for her. She doesn't even feel it. It goes down like water. The pull of it is so strong, it feels like an itching under her skin. A burning. A magnet dragging her every thought back to that bottle that Caitlyn puts back in the cabinet every night. 

She's already fucked up twice and snuck in a few more swigs when Caitlyn wasn't looking. And they just started this.

So as much as Vi wishes she could just taper down and then be done, that she could do that for Caitlyn, she knows she can't. It's going to have to be all or nothing. But until then, she'll do her best to hold steady.

Vi ends up standing outside the bar she'd walked by, resting her forehead against the window and staring through it. 

She stands there long enough that Martha, the bar owner, comes to talk to her. 

"Vi, love, you're scaring our customers," Martha says. "You either have to come in or leave." 

"Can't come in," Vi says flatly, still resting her forehead on the glass. "Martha, can you do me a favour? The next time I come in, can you kick me out? Don't serve me." 

"And turn away our best-paying customer?" 

Vi flicks her a glare without moving her head. 

Martha sighs. "Fine. I can do that, but I can't promise that my bartenders will. You might not realize it, sweetheart, but you're quite intimidating with those arms of yours. They'll be too scared to cut you off." 

"Aw, thanks," Vi says into the glass. "I try." 

"Drying out?" Martha asks. 

Vi shrugs and finally steps back from the window. "Maybe. Not right now. Kind of. Long story." 

"Well, standing there looking through my window probably isn't going to help." 

"Yeah, you're right," Vi says. "Hey, do you know where I could get a thermometer?" 

The answer is no, and so Vi walks on.  

It's the worst of both worlds, really. Vi thinks about that as she walks.

She's still drinking enough to keep her feeling marginally shitty all the time. She still wakes up with a pounding headache. The dull ache in her stomach that has her puking blood sometimes is still there and really just feels like it's getting worse. She's started getting inflammation in the rest of her body too, which at first she'd contributed to just a combination of pitfighting and getting older, but it's happening too quickly for that. Her entire body is starting to reject what she's doing to it. Sometimes she does a double take when she sees her own body now in the mirror, compared to what she used to look like.

Her mind is foggy so much of the time too. Vi used to be sharp. She used to be smart like Powder is. Maybe Vi still is, actually - she supposes she shouldn't discount her own intelligence like that. But she's just in a fog. It's hard to think clearly and it's really fucking hard to make good decisions. 

And on the other hand, she's not getting any of what she considers to be the best parts of drinking. She's not drinking enough to feel drunk. She's not getting into the blissful state where she's just warm and untroubled and everything's fun and she feels wonderful. 

Admittedly that state lasts for like, twenty-five minutes at the most before she starts getting all maudlin and depressed and sloppy, but, whatever. 

She reminds herself that it's temporary. She's just doing this until she's done pitfighting and then she'll have the time to actually get sober and be done with all this bullshit. 

Vi passes another storefront with a reflective front window and stops to stare at herself. 

It's weird to think that Caitlyn doesn't actually know what Vi really looks like. Caitlyn's only ever known this version of Vi, with her puffy face and near-constant red dots in and around her eyes, the result of the broken blood vessels from puking so much. The random bruises and cuts that aren't even from pitfighting - just from falling and smashing into things when she's too drunk to walk straight.

Vi groans out loud and then walks away. 

She stops by one more store on her way and then has to make herself keep walking past another one of her favourite bars. How does she have so many? It's ridiculous. Vi pisses herself off sometimes with all of this. 

She needs to work out. She needs to box or run or at least do some bodyweight exercises. She's got a punching bag in her apartment but using that will defeat the whole purpose of making Caitlyn stay there to rest. 

Vi needs, like, a third location that isn't her apartment or a bar. She needs to find a good gym, maybe. One with real equipment and a nice space that isn't too small. One with good people, too - she doesn't want to deal with any creeps while she's trying to work out. 

She's not far from the nearest market, actually. Maybe she can ask around, see if anyone knows of a good place. 

Vi wanders over there and chats for a while with a few of the vendors she knows. They give her some recommendations and then the names of some other people to talk to, so she wanders around for a while longer finding those people until she remembers what she's actually supposed to be doing and turns around to go home. 

She'll check out those places when she has a chance. Or maybe she should start her own gym? That could be fun. She'd be good at that. She'd pick a nice spot with lots of windows. She'd have Powder and Ekko work on the ventilation for the building so the air wouldn't ruin people's lungs when they came to work out. She could choose really good equipment for it too, with a wide range of options for people who are just starting out and people who are experienced, like her. Maybe she'd keep it open around the clock for those who, like her, sometimes need to go hit something in the middle of the night when they have a really bad nightmare and subsequent really bad panic attack that wakes their girlfriend up who'd been sleeping peacefully and then that girlfriend has to spend like two hours calming the original person down - 

Anyway. She'd keep her gym open all the time. 

Vi would make her gym feel totally safe. She wouldn't let anyone just walk in off the street - no creeps, nobody who would leer at anyone else. She'd have everyone sign up first before they could come in and she would just kick them out and ban them forever if they tried anything. She could be the bouncer for her own gym. Or she could hire someone for that. Hey, she could have a whole little team of employees. She'd make sure to pay them well. Good hours. Safe working conditions. 

The whole thing is a complete fantasy - Vi has so little money at this point that she literally couldn't afford the rent on her apartment if Caitlyn weren't helping her with it, and she's never going to be able to save up enough money to rent a space for something like this. But that's fine - Vi likes her little daydreams sometimes. They keep her going.

Or - is it even a fantasy if it could technically happen? Because it could. Caitlyn would give Vi the money for it if she asked. Vi never would, and that's why she probably shouldn't even mention this idea to Caitlyn. Caitlyn probably has enough money on her right now to pay for the whole thing. Vi has no idea where she's still getting all this cash from - there's no way she walked down into Zaun from Piltover carrying that much money on her. 

Or maybe she did. That might be why the pickpockets target her so hard. The first one who robbed her probably spread the word to the others. 

Vi's had some words with a few of the leaders of the pickpocket street gangs, which has helped a little. There's a lot of them though, and it's taking her a while to track them all down. 

Vi is still thinking about this when she gets to the stairs that lead up to her apartment building. Then she remembers that she was supposed to pick up lunch and has to turn around to go get that. 

"Hello," Caitlyn says when Vi comes in. She's in bed, at least, even if she is sitting up with a whole bunch of papers strewn around her. "You were gone for much longer than I expected. Did you get distracted?" 

"Yeah," Vi admits. She holds up one of the bags she's carrying. "I brought sandwiches, though." 

"What else have you got?" Caitlyn asks, motioning to the other bag Vi's carrying. 

"Some great stuff," Vi says, dropping both bags onto the counter. She fishes out the cough syrup she'd bought and grabs a spoon, turning to Caitlyn with a wide grin. 

Caitlyn eyes her warily. "What is that?" 

Vi tucks both the spoon and cough syrup behind her back and waits. 

"Violet," Caitlyn says sternly, and then she starts coughing again. 

Vi holds up the cough syrup triumphantly and jumps onto the bed. She walks over to Caitlyn on her knees and then throws her leg over Caitlyn's, straddling her thighs. 

Caitlyn looks more afraid than Vi's ever seen her look. "Violet, please tell me what that is." 

Vi grins down at her. "It'll help." 

"Why is there no label on that bottle."

"Don't worry about it." 

Caitlyn presses back into the pillows. "I'm actually feeling much better. So much better. I feel wonderful, in fact. So there's no need to - " 

Vi drops the spoon onto the bed beside them and uses her now-free hand to feel Caitlyn's forehead again. "Liar. Fever's worse." Vi waves the bottle of cough syrup in front of Caitlyn's face. "You need to take some of this and then you need to take a nap." 

"It's the middle of the day." 

"That's the perfect time for a nap." 

"Violet, I do not trust that bottle, I do not trust what is inside that bottle - "  

"What's inside this bottle is a delicious and home-grown cough remedy." 

This turns out to be perfectly timed, because Caitlyn starts coughing again. 

Then she doesn't stop coughing. 

Vi quickly gets off of her, kneeling beside Caitlyn instead and helping her sit upright. "You're okay," Vi says soothingly, brushing Caitlyn's hair away from her face as she hunches over and keeps coughing and coughing. Vi tries to keep the anxiety she's feeling out of her voice, because the sound Caitlyn's making now is not good. It's not a slight cough from an irritated throat or a mild cold - it's a deep, wet, rattling cough that has Caitlyn's entire chest contracting and expanding. 

Caitlyn tries to start talking again when the coughing fit finally dies off, but Vi shushes her and goes to get her some water. 

Caitlyn's hand trembles slightly on the glass when she drinks down the cool water that Vi brings her. 

Vi pats around in the blankets until she finds the bottle of cough syrup that she'd dropped. "Cait, really, you need to take some of this. You need to sleep." 

"What's in that?" Caitlyn rasps. "Why will it help me sleep?" 

"It's a mystery." Vi finds the spoon again and pours in a healthy amount. "Here." 

Caitlyn sighs, but she takes it this time. She hands the spoon back to Vi when she's swallowed the cough syrup and makes a face. "That is... absolutely vile." 

"Yep," Vi says, "and it'll help. I got you some new tea, too." 

"What's wrong with my tea?" 

"Everything." Vi goes to get the water boiling. "Plus, the kind I got helps with fevers." 

"It most likely does not." 

"Well, it's all we've got here," Vi says, a little testily. She's getting a tiny bit fed up with Caitlyn's attitude towards this. Just a tiny bit. "If you're still getting worse tomorrow, I'm sending you back to Piltover anyway, so you can go get your real medicine there." 

"Are you being serious?" 

"Yes," Vi says, and finds the tea in one of the bags she'd left on the counter. "Do you want your sandwich now?" 

"No, but thank you." Caitlyn starts sorting through the papers strewn around her on the bed, organizing them back into her little file folder thing. "I'm not going back to Piltover over this."

"Then get better by tomorrow." 

Caitlyn goes quiet. That's fine. She can sulk all she wants, Vi will drag her back up (almost) to Piltover if she has to. 

Almost. 

She'll drag her to the lowest bathysphere station, maybe. 

Vi doesn't go topside. 

Vi makes Caitlyn a cup of the new tea and ignores the face she makes when she takes a sip. Vi eats her own lunch and by the time she's done, Caitlyn's falling asleep against the pillows. 

"I think..." Caitlyn says slowly, "that the cough syrup... does have some kind of... medicinal ingredient." 

"I told you it would help you sleep." 

"Just... for a few minutes," Caitlyn mumbles. She tugs the pillows out from behind her back and lays down, her eyes already closing. 

Vi watches her pass out and finally lets herself visibly worry. 

Caitlyn sleeps for most of the afternoon and it doesn't really help. 

By the time the evening rolls around, Caitlyn's coughing again. She tries to blearily reach for her file folder to keep working, but Vi takes it away from her and Caitlyn just frowns and lies down again. 

So that's bad. 

Caitlyn not having the energy to boss Vi around is really, really not a good sign. 

"I can heat up some soup," Vi offers. "What kind do you want?" 

"Thank you, but I'm not that hungry," Caitlyn rasps, and then coughs for a minute or two. She's buried herself in the blankets again, and Vi can barely see her. 

"I know, but you have to eat something. You need to keep your strength up." 

"Maybe later." 

Vi tugs back the blankets just enough to get her hand on Caitlyn's forehead again. Caitlyn leans into it this time, instead of pushing Vi away, and yep - fever's higher. 

Vi makes the soup anyway and spends the next half hour cajoling Caitlyn into eating half of a small bowl. It's not much, but it's better than nothing. 

Caitlyn tries to tuck herself back into bed when she's done eating, but Vi stops her. "Do you want to try a shower? The steam might help your lungs." 

"That sounds like... a lot of standing," Caitlyn whispers. "See, if we had a bathtub, I could just have a nice bath instead." 

"Come on, I'll help you. Who needs a bathtub when you have me?" 

Caitlyn gives her a look. "That doesn't even make sense." 

"Yeah, my jokes aren't as good when I'm this worried," Vi admits, and goes to turn the shower on so it's not cold when Caitlyn gets in. 

Like everything else they've tried so far, the shower helps for a little while. Caitlyn stops coughing as much, she's a little more energetic, and then she crashes again less than an hour later. 

Vi keeps trying to take the heavy blankets away from her, because that fever is too high already, but every time she does, Caitlyn just tries to use her as a blanket instead. 

"It's not my fault you run hot," Caitlyn mumbles as she tries to get Vi to lie down on top of her in their bed. 

"Usually when someone refers to my body as hot, they're not referring to the temperature," Vi says, but she does lie down and wrap herself around Caitlyn the way she likes. 

Caitlyn cracks her eyes open, scowling slightly. "Who is referring to you as hot." 

"Oh, tons of people. It's nonstop. You should've seen the amount of people who hit on me this morning alone." 

Caitlyn scowls. "It's cruel to tease me when I'm in this state." 

"It's good for you. Gotta keep your mind sharp. If you abruptly stop being the most jealous person I've ever met, then I'm really going to worry about you." 

Caitlyn is clearly too sick to retort in the way that she normally would, so she just pouts until Vi starts laughing. 

"Give me back the duvet," Caitlyn grouses. "It'll keep me warm instead." 

"You're not jealous that it's been on top of me before?" 

Caitlyn laughs, even though the sound is hoarse and she coughs after, so Vi still considers it a win. 

It's not a good night. 

Caitlyn barely gets any sleep, and therefore Vi gets even less. 

Caitlyn tosses and turns and coughs and coughs and coughs and coughs. Vi brings her water and the tea she bought that's supposed to help with coughs and fevers. Then she brings Caitlyn more of that tea. Then more and more until Caitlyn says hoarsely, "Violet, if you make me drink any more of that tea, I'm going to start actively praying for death." So Vi stops bringing her that tea and switches to the tea that Caitlyn prefers. 

Caitlyn finally starts falling asleep in between coughing fits, so she's getting some rest, at least. She uses Vi like a human space heater when the chills worsen as the night stretches on. 

"You're warm," Caitlyn mumbles, tucking herself into Vi's chest and pushing her forehead into Vi's throat. "You're so warm. How are you this warm." 

"It's one of my many skills," Vi says, and wraps her arms around Caitlyn. She doesn't bother explaining to Caitlyn that she's the one who's burning up right now. Vi's starting to sweat from how hot Caitlyn is in her arms, but she'll stay here as long as Caitlyn needs her to. 

It turns out to not be that long. Soon Caitlyn is pushing Vi away, groaning. 

"Too hot," Caitlyn mumbles, rolling away from Vi to the other side of the bed. She tucks herself against the cold wall instead. "Why is it so hot in here? Can we open the window?" 

"No."

"Why not?" 

"That window doesn't open," Vi reminds her. "I mean, I can punch out the glass if you really want me to, but then we're going to have the opposite problem." 

"Oh," Caitlyn says with her eyes still closed. Sweat is beading on her forehead now from the fever. "No... don't do - that."

Caitlyn kicks off the blankets instead with an uncharacteristic aggressiveness, and then curls up again. 

Vi gets up and runs a washcloth under some cold water before wringing it out. She goes back over to the bed and sits down next to Caitlyn, gently laying the cloth over her forehead. 

"What are you doing?" Caitlyn asks without moving. 

"Trying to help you feel better." 

"Hmm," Caitlyn says. "It's working." 

"Yeah?" 

"Mhm." 

Vi does that for a while, running cool water over the cloth again and again when the heat from Caitlyn's skin dries it out. Eventually Caitlyn falls asleep again. 

That lasts for about thirty minutes, until she's awake again and trying to crawl back into Vi's arms, shivering. 

Caitlyn is not better by the morning. The cough's just as bad, and the fever is the same.

"Are you sure you're still feeling alright?" Caitlyn croaks from the bed as Vi makes tea yet again. "I'm so worried that you'll catch this. I've been coughing all over you." 

"I'm totally fine," Vi says. "I told you, I'm immune. Can you try a few crackers?" 

Caitlyn groans but reaches for the plate of crackers Vi left next to her on the bed. She props herself up on one elbow and nibbles on a cracker. "This is awful."

"Hey, I bought those crackers just for you. Don't insult them." 

"Not the crackers," Caitlyn says. "These are actually quite good. I meant this illness." 

"I think you have pneumonia." 

Caitlyn starts coughing again, just to prove Vi's point. It doesn't stop until Vi goes over to the bed and hauls Caitlyn upright, keeping her arm behind Caitlyn's back until she's breathing normally again. 

"Cait, I really think we have to talk about getting you to Piltover," Vi says carefully. 

Caitlyn shakes her head and reaches for another cracker. "I'm sure this is the worst of it. I'll start improving soon." 

Vi flops back onto the bed, throwing her arms over her face. "Has anyone ever told you that you can be really stubborn when you want to be?" 

"Oh, yes. Quite often, in fact." 

Vi lets her arms drop to the side. "Cait, are you afraid of going just because you're worried something will happen to me without you here?" 

"No," Caitlyn says flatly. She's still working on the same cracker. "I mean, I certainly would worry about that, but that's not the only reason." 

"Knew it," Vi grumbles. She sits up and points to the schedule on the fridge. "Cait, I'll be fine without you. I'll keep to that schedule and everything." 

Caitlyn sets the half-eaten cracker back down on the plate. "Will you? Because I'm certain that last night I heard you open the bottle you've been hiding underneath the spare towels. The one you think I don't know about."

Great. That's just great. Excellent. Perfect. Wonderful. Vi had thought Caitlyn had been deeply asleep enough to not hear that. "Don't know what you're talking about." 

"I'm sure." 

Vi needs to change the subject. She flops down onto her back on the bed. "Can you finish those crackers?" 

"I don't think so." 

"Can I get you anything else? Soup? Toast?" 

"Not right now. Thank you, though." 

Caitlyn lays back down, resting her head on Vi's stomach. Vi can feel the heat pouring off her even through Vi's shirt. 

"You have to eat something substantial at some point," Vi says quietly. 

"I will, just later." Caitlyn coughs for a minute or so again before she settles back down. 

Vi stares up at the ceiling. "Don't you have to go back to Piltover at some point anyway?" 

"Yes, but I can do that as a day trip, when I'm healthy. Maybe stay just a night. If I go now..." she trails off. "I'll probably - well, I'll probably have to go to the hospital and that'll turn into multiple days, at least." 

"So you admit you should be in a hospital." 

"No, not at all," Caitlyn insists. "It's just that my father is a doctor, and he's quite well known in the medical circles, so if I tried to see a physician in a clinic they'd likely just send me there anyway." 

"Uh huh." 

"You don't believe me?" 

"I just think a hospital would be a great place for you to be right now." 

Caitlyn props herself up on her elbow so she can look down at Vi. "Do you want me to leave that badly?" 

Vi sighs. "No, of course not. You know I don't. But I also don't want you to get any sicker than you already are." 

"I'll turn the corner soon," Caitlyn says. "You'll see." 

For a while, Vi gets her hopes up that Caitlyn's right. That she'll start getting better soon.

Caitlyn falls asleep again and stays asleep right through the afternoon. Vi even manages to get a few hours in herself, and when she wakes up, Caitlyn's still sleeping relatively peacefully. 

Vi makes herself some food and then pours herself her allotted two evening drinks. She's tempted to add just a teeny tiny bit more, because Caitlyn's sound asleep and won't notice, but she uses all the willpower she possesses and just puts the bottle back. 

She has to learn to manage this on her own. She can't rely on Caitlyn to constantly monitor her. It's not fair to Caitlyn. 

Vi distracts herself by cleaning the kitchen thoroughly, washing all the abandoned cups of tea and even scrubbing down the sink just because she's bored. 

When Caitlyn still doesn't move, Vi starts to get worried. 

When Vi puts her hand on Caitlyn's forehead again, her stomach drops. 

The fever is worse. It's significantly worse. 

"Cait," Vi says urgently. "Cait, you have to wake up for a minute." 

Caitlyn only groans and doesn't move. 

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Vi fucked this up. She knew she should've made Caitlyn go up to Piltover today. Now it's too late - the bathysphere only operates during the day and there's no way they'll make it to the station on time. It's possible to climb up to Piltover, sure, but there's no way Caitlyn can do that in her current state. Even if Vi could go topside, which she can't, it's not physically possible to climb up there carrying someone. 

Vi grabs all the spare towels from the washroom, which, yes, does mean that she has to take out the small bottle of whiskey she's been keeping carefully hidden there, but she can hide that again later. She does the same thing she did earlier with the washcloth and dampens all the towels with cold water before carrying them back over to the bed. 

Vi carefully pulls all the blankets that Caitlyn has cocooned herself in away, leaving her in just the shorts and camisole she'd fallen asleep in. After she moves Caitlyn onto her back, which still doesn't wake her up, Vi lays the towels over Caitlyn's arms and legs. There's not enough towels or washcloths in the apartment for more than that, and Vi's definitely not going to leave Caitlyn like this to go buy more, so she takes a stack of her own clean shirts and runs those under cold water too. She lays them over Caitlyn's collarbones and then over her forehead again. 

It's not going to be enough, Vi knows. If she's right about Caitlyn having pneumonia, this fever is going to keep burning through her no matter what Vi does. But if Vi can just keep it low enough until she can get Caitlyn to Piltover, it might be okay. 

Things like this don't normally go Vi's way, but she'll try anyway. 

"Vi?" Caitlyn mumbles after a few minutes. She shifts slightly and moans. 

"I'm right here," Vi says quietly. She tests the temperature of the shirt she's put over Caitlyn's forehead and tries not to panic when she finds it's already warm. She flips it over to get the cooler side against Caitlyn's skin. 

"Vi, I don't feel very well," Caitlyn says. She sounds strange, her words too slurred, too faint. The way she usually speaks is so crisp - she articulates every word, every sound. 

"Yeah, I bet. Your fever's spiking." 

"Oh." Caitlyn sounds distant. She hasn't opened her eyes at all. 

Vi is running through every swear word she knows in her head as she sits there and waits. After a few minutes, it seems like the combination of the cool towels and having the blankets off is improving things a little, or at least keeping the fever from getting even higher. 

Then Caitlyn starts coughing again. 

Vi scrambles closer and pulls Caitlyn up to lean against her. The coughing isn't all that much worse than it has been up until now, but usually Caitlyn wakes up a little every time this happens. 

This time, Caitlyn just falls back with her head against Vi's shoulder and coughs without even opening her eyes. Even when the coughing stops, the breaths Caitlyn takes afterward are still strained. She's struggling to get enough air in. 

Vi gives up on swearing in her mind and just starts swearing under her breath instead. She sets Caitlyn back down and goes to turn the shower on again. She keeps the water cool, bordering on lukewarm, this time - a hot shower with lots of steam might help Caitlyn's lungs, but Vi's got to get her fever down first before she can worry about that. 

Vi doesn't even know if this is the right thing to do. It's what she used to do with Powder when they were young to get her fever down whenever Powder got sick, which was all the damn time. It had usually worked, but is it the medically recommended thing to do? Vi has no idea. 

It sure would be nice to have some doctors here. Maybe a hospital or two. 

Vi reminds herself that there's nothing she can do about that right now and tests the water again. It's cool enough that it'll hopefully bring Caitlyn's temperature down, but not cold enough to be a shock to her system. 

Caitlyn doesn't make a sound when Vi picks her up from the bed. 

"Turns out you were right about the whole bathtub thing," Vi says as she carries Caitlyn into the washroom. "You can say 'I told you so' if you want." 

Caitlyn is completely silent. Vi tries to push down the fear spreading through her body. 

The shower in Vi's apartment is bigger than the one in Caitlyn's, but not by all that much. Vi ends up just stepping right under the water, even though she's still fully dressed, and carefully setting Caitlyn down on the floor of the shower. It sends pain biting through Vi's shoulder, but whatever. 

Caitlyn slumps against the side of the shower, her eyes still closed. She's not completely unconscious, but she's definitely not fully present. 

Vi's blocking most of the water, so she eases herself out of the shower while keeping her hand on Caitlyn's shoulder. Vi sits down on the floor of the washroom, right next to the shower stall, so she can keep her arm outstretched under the water to keep Caitlyn upright. 

Minutes pass. Vi has to do a lot of deep breathing - this is stressing her the fuck out. She hates cold water now, particularly cold showers. When she'd first gotten out of Stillwater, she'd felt the opposite. Vi had been so used to the cold floor of her cell, the cold air of the cellblock, the freezing water in the showers, that a hot shower or a warm room felt unbearable. But after a while she'd gotten used to it and now she never wants to touch cold water again. This water isn't that cold, and probably wouldn't bother anyone else, but it feels awful for Vi. 

But Caitlyn needs this. So Vi sits on the floor and tries to ignore the feeling of the lukewarm water pouring over her arm and shoulder. 

Finally, Caitlyn starts to stir a little. She opens her eyes slowly and Vi's heart sinks at how glassy they are. 

"Hey," Vi says, having to raise her voice a little over the sound of the water. "You're okay. Everything's okay. Your fever got a little high so I'm just getting you cooled down." 

Caitlyn nods slowly and then sits up slightly, putting her own hands down to brace herself. Vi finally gets to pull her arm back, relishing the relief of not having it under the cool water anymore. 

They both sit for a few more minutes. Vi takes a deep breath and then leans under the cool water again to get her hand on Caitlyn's forehead. 

To Vi's relief, it feels like Caitlyn's temperature is lower. She's still too warm, Vi can feel that even through the cool spray of the water, but when Vi had first moved her into the shower, it had felt like Caitlyn was moments away from bursting into flames. 

"Did you say something about me being right?" Caitlyn rasps out. Her voice is nearly gone, but she sounds a little more with it than she had a few minutes ago. Vi could cry with relief. "About the bathtub?" 

"Nah," Vi says. "You must be hearing things. From the fever." 

Caitlyn actually laughs. It's almost soundless and she coughs after, but Vi's never been happier to hear someone laugh in her life. 

"Could I get out now?" Caitlyn asks, opening her eyes properly. 

"Can you handle a few more minutes?" Vi doesn't want to risk the fever immediately rising again. 

Caitlyn nods. 

"Okay. I'll be right back." She leaves Caitlyn in the shower and goes to gather up all the damp towels that she'd left on their bed. She tosses them into a pile and then strips the entire bed down while she's at it. She puts new sheets on and leaves the heavy duvet off - if Vi leaves it on the bed, Caitlyn's going to try to get back underneath it and it's way too warm for her right now. Vi grabs one of the light blankets instead and spreads that out over the fresh sheets.

There. That'll be a lot nicer for Caitlyn to come back to than the sheets she's been sweating in all night.  

Vi quickly grabs some new clothes for Caitlyn to wear and goes back into the washroom. Caitlyn's still sitting under the water, and so Vi braces herself and leans back into the cool shower to turn the water off. 

Caitlyn immediately tries to get up and Vi has to scramble to grab her. "Wait, hold on," Vi says. "Don't try and stand on your own." 

She knows Caitlyn must still be feeling really sick because Caitlyn doesn't even protest. She just lets Vi haul her the rest of the way up and then leans against her, nearly boneless. 

It takes a few minutes for Vi to pull Caitlyn's drenched clothes off and then dry her off as best she can. Caitlyn doesn't really help at all - she just puts her arms around Vi's shoulders and rests her forehead against Vi's neck. Vi wrangles her into the new pajamas and then picks her up again, carrying her back to bed. 

Vi sets her down and Caitlyn immediately climbs into the fresh sheets and pulls the blanket over herself. 

"Better?" Vi asks.

"Yes," Caitlyn says groggily. "So much." 

"Okay, good. I'm just going to dry off your hair and then you need to drink some water, okay?" 

Caitlyn makes a small sound of what might be agreement. Vi finds a clean towel that's somehow still dry and uses it to carefully get most of the water out of Caitlyn's hair. When she's done that, she makes Caitlyn drink some water and is pleased when Caitlyn manages half a glass before pushing it away and lying back down. 

Vi's soaked to the bone herself, so she gets changed into the first clean clothes she finds, which turns out to be a pair of Caitlyn's leggings and an old shirt that Vi must have stolen from Claggor at some point because it's huge. 

Vi catches a glimpse of herself when she goes back into the washroom to find the overpriced stuff Caitlyn uses on her hair after she washes it. This outfit is actually kind of a good look.

Vi makes a mental note to herself to try this again with her own leggings and this shirt. She'll have to cut the sleeves off, but once she's done that, she'll wear this all the time. If she wants to wear her jeans with this shirt, she could crop the shirt, maybe. Oh, actually, those canvas pants that she hasn't worn in a while would be perfect with this - where did those go? When she finds them, she could wear the shirt and those pants with her pitfighting boots, that'll look really good. 

Vi finds the jar of hair product, grabs a comb and a hair elastic, and makes herself focus. She also makes herself ignore the whiskey bottle still on the floor next to the sink where Vi had left it earlier. 

Caitlyn seems to be asleep again, so that's good. Vi sits down behind her on the bed and opens up the jar. Caitlyn's hair is getting all matted from being in bed for this long and all the tossing and turning, and she'll hate that when she's feeling better. She's meticulous with her hair. 

Vi carefully works the conditioner through Caitlyn's hair and manages to do it without waking her up, which feels like a big achievement. Then she takes the comb and sets to working all the tangles and knots out. Vi's not particularly good at this; when her own hair gets tangled, she usually just grabs some scissors and hacks that whole chunk of her hair right off. But once she gets the hang of it it's easy enough, and she has nothing else to do while she sits here anyway. Vi definitely isn't going to sleep tonight, despite how exhausted she is. 

By the time she finishes, all of Caitlyn's hair combed out into neat and tidy strands, Caitlyn's hair is pretty much entirely dry again. Vi puts the comb down and then spends a few minutes braiding Caitlyn's hair into a simple braid down her back so it doesn't get all tangled again. 

Caitlyn stirs a little. She tries to roll over, and Vi hastily finishes securing the hair elastic just as she does so. 

Caitlyn still looks awful, her breathing wheezy and her face way too pale. "Were you doing my hair?" 

"Yeah," Vi says, holding up the comb. "I did a great job. New career for me, I think." 

Caitlyn smiles at her weakly. "Thank you." She reaches a shaky hand out towards Vi. "Lay down with me?" 

Vi hesitates. "Okay, but you can't touch me." She lies down next to Caitlyn but keeps a good amount of distance between them. 

"Why?" Caitlyn asks plaintively, trying to wriggle closer. 

"Because I run hot and you're already too feverish as it is. Don't make me put you back in the shower." She hates doing it, but she puts a hand on Caitlyn's shoulder to keep her back. 

Caitlyn looks broken-hearted. "No, it's alright. I'm cold." She's shivering again. 

"You just feel cold because of the fever. You're burning up." 

"No, that's..." Caitlyn mumbles. She's getting a little incoherent again, her eyes glassy. "That's not... please?" 

"I can't, Cait. I'm sorry. Soon as you're better, okay?" 

Caitlyn makes a sad sound and pulls the thin blanket up over her shoulders.

Vi has never felt time pass this slowly before. 

The bathysphere starts running pretty early in the morning, and it's a long trek from Vi's apartment up to the nearest station. Vi and Caitlyn will have to leave a lot earlier than they'd normally even wake up. But even then, the hours seem to stretch on and on. Vi finds herself counting the minutes as time slowly ticks by. 

Caitlyn gets progressively worse. Her fever stays high and the cough gets worse. She also starts struggling to pull in air between each bout. 

Caitlyn ends up getting her wish for Vi to cuddle her. Vi ends up sitting in their bed with her back against the wall and Caitlyn leaned up against her, her back again Vi's chest and Vi's knees on either side of her hips to keep her there. Caitlyn's breathing gets worse the second she lies down flat, and so Vi tries to keep her sitting up as much as possible. 

It shouldn't be as exhausting as it is. All Vi is doing is sitting here. But the worry is killing her and Caitlyn just keeps coughing, her head lolling back on Vi's shoulder as soon as she gets a second to breathe. 

Finally, it's time to get ready to go. Vi leaves Caitlyn propped up on the pillows as best she can and starts getting Caitlyn's things together. 

Caitlyn doesn't have all that many things with her, and Vi's priority is not packing her a huge bag full of everything Caitlyn owns. So she just takes Caitlyn's backpack and puts all of Caitlyn's notes and papers and work back in it. She doesn't bother packing any clothes for her - Caitlyn's going back to Piltover, she can just buy herself all new things if she wants. She's not going to be upset about leaving a random shirt or pair of socks behind in Vi's apartment. 

Vi doesn't bother getting herself together. She just throws her jacket on over the clothes she's already wearing and that's going to have to be good enough for today. 

Getting Caitlyn ready is another story. Of course, Caitlyn had started falling into an actual sleep only about an hour before Vi had gotten up, and now she's resisting Vi's efforts to wake her up. 

"No," Caitlyn groans as Vi tries to gently get her to the side of the bed. "No, we can - let's sleep in."

Vi sorts through the pile of Caitlyn's clothes she'd dumped on the bed, looking for something that looks Piltie enough. She finds a plain long-sleeve shirt, a plain pair of jeans - it'll have to do. 

"Where am I going?" Caitlyn mumbles. She's sitting on the edge of the bed now, slumped forward with her head resting on Vi's hip as Vi tries to help her get dressed. 

"Up to Piltover, remember?" 

"Right," Caitlyn says, and coughs. "But - you can't come with me?" As if that answer would have changed. 

"No," Vi reminds her. "I'm sorry." 

By the time Caitlyn's dressed and ready to leave, Vi's exhausted. 

"I'll carry this," Vi says, when Caitlyn tries to reach for her backpack.

Caitlyn's sitting on the edge of the bed again, looking disturbingly grey. "But you're not coming." 

"Not all the way, but I'm taking you to the bathysphere." She's told Caitlyn this like four times already in the last hour. It's really freaking Vi out, honestly - Caitlyn's usually so alert, so quick to catch onto things. This disorientation and confusion she's showing now is getting scary.

"Oh," Caitlyn says vaguely, and then she tries to lie down again. 

It's another few minutes before they get out the door. Vi has Caitlyn's backpack on her back and one arm around Caitlyn's waist, keeping her upright. Caitlyn is hugging her jacket to herself and shivering, her eyes half-closed. 

They're only halfway down the stairs when Caitlyn says, "sorry, I'm - " and drops. Vi catches her easily and sets her down on the stairs, but Vi's heart is pounding with anxiety. 

Caitlyn leans on Vi and coughs miserably. Vi's pretty sure Caitlyn didn't actually pass out - she's just so weak that she's having trouble walking. 

Vi gets her back up again and then the same thing happens when they reach the bottom of the stairs. 

"Okay," Vi says. She gets Caitlyn standing again. "Change of plans." 

She takes off the backpack and puts it on Caitlyn instead, who doesn't even seem to notice. Then, after a minute of shifting around and reorganization, Vi gets Caitlyn to stand on the stair above the street and then lean forward so she's slumped over Vi's back. From there, it's easy enough for Vi to get Caitlyn to wrap her arms around Vi's neck and for Vi to get her hands under Caitlyn's thighs to lift her. 

"Your shoulder," Caitlyn mumbles. 

"It's fine," Vi lies, and starts walking. 

It's not the easiest trip through Zaun that Vi's ever had. 

Then again, it's not the worst. 

It's pretty hard for anything to beat her escape from Stillwater. That particular journey still holds the title of being the absolute worst. No one's shooting at her this time, at least.

Caitlyn's not particularly heavy, but she's not all that light, either. She's fairly thin, but she's tall and she has a deceptive amount of muscle packed onto her frame. 

She's also barely conscious. 

Vi usually likes how far down in the fissures her apartment is. It makes her feel safe, being that far from topside. But now she's really wishing she lived just a little higher up, maybe. 

The walk feels like it takes forever. Vi takes every elevator she can - even the ones that barely go anywhere. Some of the elevators in Zaun are free to use, but a few of the bigger ones have tolls. Normally that would be enough to get Vi to avoid them, but right now she'll pay whatever it takes to make this easier. 

Vi doesn't dare try and put Caitlyn down even once, despite how much Vi is sweating and how her shoulder is throbbing. Caitlyn's fever is still so high that Vi can feel the heat coming off her skin even though they're both fully dressed. Even without that, just the amount of effort required for Vi to carry Caitlyn this far and up this many flights of stairs and ramps is taking its toll. 

When the last elevator stops and Vi stumbles off, Caitlyn limp on her back, Vi has to stop for just a moment to try and slow her heart rate down. 

This is the closest to topside she's been since she broke out of Stillwater, and Vi's fucking terrified. 

They're so close to the surface that Vi can see the sun. It must be dawn, because the light beaming down is a pretty warm gold. It's nice, in theory, but Vi could go the rest of her life without ever seeing the damn sun again and be happy. 

It's okay. It's fine. She doesn't have a choice. She'll get Caitlyn to the bathysphere and then Vi can go all the way back down to her apartment where the sun and the Enforcers won't find her. 

Vi carries Caitlyn through the winding streets. It's been so long since Vi was last up here that she has to use her memories from when she was a kid to navigate - she'd come through here when she escaped from Stillwater, sure, but that hadn't exactly given her a good lay of the land. 

Despite that, it's not long before Vi goes around a corner and finally sees the bathysphere station. 

The streets aren't all that crowded at this time of day; Zaun's slow to wake up. There's a small group waiting for the bathysphere to start up though, probably people who commute up to Piltover for work. 

There are also two Enforcers standing by the station. 

Vi's instincts are screaming at her to run. 

Vi's family used to joke that Vi's go-to reaction to danger was always fight, never flight. But it's not true, because she's definitely got some flight in her. All she wants to do is get away from here. 

She quickly backtracks and ducks into an alley. It's fine, it'll be fine - those Enforcers are just guarding the station. It's fine. 

"Cait, I'm going to put you down, okay?" Vi says, trying to keep her voice even. 

Caitlyn mumbles something that hopefully is along the lines of, "yes, Vi, if you put me down I'll be able to stand and won't collapse to the ground." 

Vi backs up against the wall of the alley so that Caitlyn has something to lean against and then carefully sets her down. Caitlyn doesn't hit the ground right away, which is good, but she does slump back against the wall and blink muzzily at Vi when Vi steadies her. 

"Are we there?" Caitlyn asks, and coughs. She looks terrible - barely conscious, sweating, her face flushed from the fever. 

"Yeah. The bathysphere's just around the corner. Are you going to be okay to make it there?" 

"Uh," Caitlyn says slowly, "yes?" 

Vi raises an eyebrow. "Gonna need a little more confidence in that 'yes'." 

Caitlyn just coughs again. Vi has to resist the urge to shush her - it's not Caitlyn's fault that she's coughing, and coughing's not a crime. The Enforcers won't hear it and come looking. Definitely not. That wouldn't make any sense. 

Vi has to get Caitlyn moving. "It's just around the corner, okay? You'll have to buy a ticket - " 

"I know how it works," Caitlyn rasps, sounding mildly offended.

"Okay, but you're also a little out of it, so," Vi mutters. Anxiety surges through her. "What are you going to do when you get up to the top?" 

"Get some medicine," Caitlyn says vaguely. She tries to lean forward into Vi again and Vi has to gently push her back. 

Vi keeps one hand on Caitlyn's waist to steady her and puts the other on her face, lifting her chin so that she's looking Vi in the eyes. "Cait, you gotta focus, okay? What are you going to do when you get there?" 

Caitlyn is trembling slightly. "Sorry. I'm - I don't - I don't feel like myself." 

"It's okay. It's okay. You're really sick. But you gotta tell me what you'll do when you get to the top." 

It takes a moment, but Caitlyn finally mumbles, "I'll go to the hospital." 

"Good. That's great. How are you going to get there?" 

"I'll... walk." 

Vi groans. This is such a bad plan. It had made sense when Vi had originally worked this out; she'd take Caitlyn to the bathysphere and Caitlyn would buy herself a ticket and go up to Piltover. Then Caitlyn could get herself back to her house or to a doctor or to the hospital. But Vi had made that plan before Caitlyn got this sick, to the extent where she's now disorientated and nearly unable to walk on her own.

"No, no, you're not going to be able to walk there," Vi says. "What else?" 

"I'll ask for help." 

"From who?" 

Caitlyn shrugs. "Anyone." She coughs and then makes a really bad wheezing noise. 

Okay. That's going to have to be good enough. If Caitlyn starts coughing like this in front of her fellow Pilties they'll probably freak out and have her brought to the hospital, so that'll hopefully do the trick. 

Vi pulls some coins out of her pocket and presses them into Caitlyn's hand. "This should be enough for the ticket. You have to go now, okay?" 

"But you can't come with me," Caitlyn mumbles for what might be the hundredth time this morning. 

"I would if I could, okay?" Vi says desperately. "I really don't want to send you off on your own when you're like this but I don't know what else to do." 

Caitlyn coughs again. 

Vi gently tries to get her away from the wall. "Okay, let's go - come on, Cait, please - " 

Caitlyn groans but lets Vi start to lead her out of the alley. 

It hits Vi then that there's a very good chance that this is the last time Vi's going to see her. 

"Wait," Vi says quickly, "wait." 

"You just said we have to go!" Caitlyn complains, and then coughs. 

"I know, just - " Vi grabs Caitlyn's shoulders and then puts both hands on her face, making sure Caitlyn's focusing on her. "Cait, I'm sorry, I know I should've said this earlier but - and now's not a good time because I don't think you really know what's going on and you might not even remember this - " 

"Vi," Caitlyn says flatly, which makes her sound more like herself than she has in over a day. 

"But you told me that you loved me and I didn't say it back because I was too scared even though I wanted to and then there never seemed to be a good time and I was still too scared and I didn't want you to feel like you had to stay if you wanted to go but then you stayed anyway but now you do actually have to go and so now there won't be a good time to say this but I have to in case I don't get another chance - " 

"Vi." 

"I love you," Vi says in a rush, and then grabs Caitlyn's shoulders, spins her around, and very gently shoves her out of the alley. 

Caitlyn stops in the street, turning to look back at where Vi is already retreating back into the shadows. "Vi!" she calls hoarsely, and then coughs so hard she has to bend over and brace herself on her knees. When she straightens up again, she has to take a deep breath before she can speak. "Vi, I'll come back." 

The thing is - Vi believes her. She believes that Caitlyn really means it when she says that she'll come back. 

It's just that Caitlyn means that now. 

Every Piltie who comes down to Zaun and falls in love with someone and then goes back topside says that and means it at some point. 

But then they go home and feel the sun on their face and breathe in the fresh air and eat their clean food and sleep in their warm soft beds and they don't come back. 

Vi keeps backing into the shadows and Caitlyn finally turns and stumbles down the street. 

Vi scales the building easily and crawls across the roof, keeping as low as she can. Fuck, it's bright up here - she can't see anything. 

She lays down just back from the edge of the flat roof and waits for her eyes to adjust. Her vision recalibrates just in time for Caitlyn to come into view.

From Vi's spot on the roof, she can see the street below and the bathysphere station. Caitlyn makes her slow, slightly halting way to the ticket booth and Vi keeps an eye both on her and the Enforcers standing off to the side. 

They're not doing anything. They're just standing there and chatting with each other. One of them is drinking a coffee. 

Vi doesn't care. They could do something, if they wanted to, and no one would stop them because no one can because they do whatever they want and - 

Anyway. Vi makes herself focus. She can't do anything about the Enforcers but she can make sure Caitlyn gets in the bathysphere and doesn't just collapse and die on a random street in Zaun. 

Caitlyn must get her ticket, because she disappears from view briefly around the ticket booth and then reappears, stumbling over to the waiting area. Vi watches her collapse onto a bench and fold forward, putting her head in her hands. Vi can see how hard she's coughing all the way from here. 

It is kind of funny how all the Zaunites near her collectively move away to the other side of the waiting area. Vi warned Caitlyn that they don't fuck around with coughs like that here. 

The bathysphere arrives and Vi watches as Caitlyn slowly stands up and gets in line. Vi waits until she sees Caitlyn actually go inside and sit down. Then she waits even after the bathysphere starts to move so she's sure Caitlyn's on her way. 

Then Vi backs up the way she came, jumps down onto the street, and takes off back down into Zaun. 

Chapter Text

The first thing Vi does when she gets home is grab the whiskey bottle she left the on the floor by the sink, open it, and chug as much as she can before she has to double over, coughing at the burn in her throat. 

She's exhausted - physically, mentally, emotionally. She's stressed. She's worried, both about Caitlyn and about never seeing Caitlyn again. She's in a fuck-ton of physical pain; her shoulder is burning and throbbing, her ankle is now both twinging and aching, and even her old hip injury that she got when she escaped from Stillwater is flaring up again. Her stomach hurts, her head hurts, and she's covered in sweat. She's hungry. She's thirsty. 

She's also still just plain scared. She'd made sure those Enforcers weren't following her when she came back down through Zaun, and she's pretty sure they'd never even noticed her at all, but just the sight of them has sent her into a fucking tailspin. 

Objectively, Vi knows that all of these things she's feeling are fixable, for the most part. They're temporary. Things she can soothe in other ways - healthier ways. She could even list them: she needs to sleep, eat, drink (water, not alcohol), shower, rest, ice her injuries. 

But her brain and body are stuck on the same one-track loop she's been on for years, and they're telling her that the only way to fix this is to down that entire bottle. 

The only thing that saves her from hurtling straight into a multi-day bender is that she's so exhausted. When she flops down on her bed, whiskey bottle in hand, she ends up falling asleep within twenty minutes of getting home and sleeping straight through the day. She only gets through part of the bottle before that happens.

When Vi gets up, the first thing she does, even before she eats and showers and generally gets herself together, is pour out every bottle in her apartment.

It was one thing to keep all of that here when Caitlyn was with her. Along with Vi's new drinking schedule, Caitlyn's presence and watchful eyes were enough to deter Vi from spiraling right back into binge drinking even when the craving to do that hit her. But with Caitlyn gone, Vi doesn't think she's capable of doing that. It's too tempting. It's too hard. It's been her pattern and her hobby and her coping mechanism for so long and she knows she can't let herself have this much unfettered access to alcohol. 

That doesn't mean that she's going to try to sober up on her own. Even without Caitlyn reminding her constantly of what could happen, Vi's seen people she knows die from alcohol withdrawal before. She's well aware that even if she tries it with help, it'll be dangerous, and if she tries it on her own there's a pretty high chance she'll die from it. Now that she thinks about it, she's pretty sure that some of the people she knows who died from it had even less of a physical dependency than she does. 

Vi takes down the schedule on the fridge, finds one of Caitlyn's pens, and then works on the schedule for a while. Her new plan is to just walk down to one of the many bars on her street a few times a day and get her drinks there. It's a little more complicated to work out a reasonable schedule for it, far more so than when she had whiskey right in her apartment, but she rearranges some of the schedule so she's drinking a little more at once but a little less frequently. 

She's not sure if it's going to work. There are multiple bars on Vi's street, so it's not like she'll have to go far, but hopefully even having to get dressed and leave her apartment will be enough of a deterrent to keep her on the schedule. But she hasn't tried this before, and now she's completely on her own, but... well, she'll do her best. 

She also re-works the schedule to knock half a drink off her daily amount. It's the least she can do for Caitlyn. 

At first, Vi keeps herself busy by getting her apartment together. 

She takes all the laundry down to the laundromat, including all her bedding and linens. This takes a pretty considerable amount of time considering she'd used up like every towel and shirt in her apartment trying to get Caitlyn's fever down. 

Once that's done, Vi scrubs down her entire apartment which also takes a really, really long time. 

Vi doesn't typically care that much about cleaning and tidying and having her apartment look nice. Her home growing up had been messy and dirty most of the time, and so she never developed any real focus on cleanliness or the skills to maintain it. 

She doesn't blame her parents for that at all. They'd been working twelve hour shifts in the mines and then coming home to spend a few hours with Vi and Powder before they passed out for the night and then got up and did it all over again. The last thing they had time for was cleaning. 

But what Vi does remember is her mom's routine after Vi or Powder got sick. 

It was the only time they'd all get roped into an intense deep clean of their home. Her mom would wash all the linens, the bedding, all their clothes. She'd drag their mattresses outside to air out. Then she'd scrub down every possible surface, including counters, tables, windows, sinks - anything and everything. 

If there's one thing they have in abundance in Zaun, it's chemicals, and some of the chemicals Vi's mom used to clean were so potent that she'd make Vi take Powder outside and stay away for hours at a time before she let them come back in. 

It was boring, and time-consuming, and Vi had found it intensely annoying as a child. As an adult, though, she sees the benefit in it. In retrospect, her mom's meticulous deep cleaning to prevent sicknesses from spreading around the family had probably been one of the reasons Powder had even survived to adulthood; she'd been a sickly, small kid growing up in a filthy neighbourhood surrounded by other sickly kids. 

So Vi now scrubs down her own apartment. It's kind of satisfying when it's done, actually. Her apartment had been grody when she'd moved in and she'd never put any effort into it until Caitlyn had shown up. Even then, that hadn't actually changed the state of the apartment all that much; Caitlyn likes things to be clean but has no cleaning skills herself, so despite her best efforts she hadn't made much progress with improving the place. 

Vi feels a little proud when she looks around at how tidy and pleasant her apartment is now. 

Mostly. 

There's only so much she can do when the apartment is this shitty. It's still an improvement though.

Then she thinks about what to do next and comes up with nothing. 

Vi is so bored. 

What did she do with all her time before she met Caitlyn? 

She sleeps. She works out. She wanders around the neighbourhood. She does chores and errands. She goes into a bar down the street with just enough frequency to keep herself from going into withdrawal. 

She does spend time just worrying about Caitlyn. She'd been in really rough shape when Vi had left her at the bathysphere. But Vi's also seen what Piltie medicine can do, and that knowledge alleviates a lot of her stress about it. As long as Caitlyn got to a hospital, she should be okay. She's probably better already, even though it's been less than a week since she left. 

Even with all that, she's still left with hours each day where she's bored out of her mind. 

She does a lot of walking. She roams through Zaun for hours, exploring areas she's not as familiar with. It's enjoyable for the most part, even though she misses having Caitlyn with her. There's always things going on in Zaun, no matter the time of day, and so there's lots to look at. 

Vi runs into Ekko in a street market. She doesn't even notice him until she hears him call her name, and she turns just as he jogs up to her. 

"Hey!" he says. "Is Caitlyn with you? We haven't seen her in a while and everyone's a little worried about her." 

Vi thinks it's sweet that they've all been looking for her. Caitlyn has this idea in her head that Vi's family only looks out for her because she's always buying things for them, but it's not true at all. They do genuinely like her, even if they do spend most of their time teasing her. Then again, Vi does too, so she's not one to talk.

"She got sick. I sent her up to Piltover." 

"Sick? With that?" 

"Pneumonia. I think." 

Ekko makes a face. Vi remembers him having it at least twice when he was a kid. "Ah. The standard." 

"Yeah." 

"Is she coming back?" he asks carefully. 

Vi shrugs. "She said she is." 

Ekko's face is carefully neutral. "Oh." 

They stand in silence for a moment. Vi's waiting for him to state the obvious, the thing that she knows herself and that everyone keeps telling her anyway; that Pilties who go back topside never return to Zaun. 

"Are you... okay?" he says finally. 

Vi gives him a look. "Yes, Ekko. I'm fine." 

"That's...great." He very obviously does not believe her. 

Vi narrows her eyes. "Ekko. I'm okay. Seriously. Don't send Powder to my apartment." 

"I wasn't going to do that!" 

"Uh huh." 

"Are you sure you're okay?" 

Vi holds up her wrist and pretends to look at an imaginary watch. "Oh, look at the time. I have to go." 

"Vi - " 

"Things to do, people to see," Vi says, and leaves the market. 

She goes home to her apartment where there is nothing to do and no one to see. 

Man, she's bored. 

"I knew this was going to happen." 

"Shut the fuck up." 

"I told you this was going to happen." 

"Loris, I swear, if you don't shut your fucking mouth - " 

"I warned you and now you're all grumpy and depressed and I'm the one who has to deal with that - " 

"I'm not grumpy or depressed!" Vi shouts. "Can you shut the fuck up and help me?" 

Loris keeps muttering, but he does take the other end of the wrap Vi's holding out and start winding it over the back of her shoulder. "You know she's not coming back, right?" 

"What part of me telling you to shut up wasn't clear? How else can I say it so that the message gets through? Do I need to - ow, that's too tight. That's not going to work." 

Loris steps back, frowning at the wrap he and Vi are trying to do around her bad shoulder. "I still think this is a bad idea. It's like putting a target right on your biggest weakness right now. Anyone who sees you with this is going to know you've got a problem with that shoulder." 

Vi looks in the mirror above the slimy sink. He's right. "If I just leave it off, I won't even be able to hit with this arm, though." 

"Good thing you've got two." 

Vi glares at him in the reflection in the mirror and rolls her shoulders again. Even with the wrap, her shoulder still feels like it's about to just drop her arm right off her body. "Let's do it again. I'll wear my jacket when I fight tonight to cover it up."

"Fine," Loris grumbles, but he does help her unwrap her shoulder so they can redo it. "Did you see that the new schedule's out?" 

"Yeah." 

"Did you see that you're on it for the next seven fights?" 

"Sure did." 

Loris gives her a baffled look as he starts the wrap around her shoulder again. "And you're fine with that?" 

Vi winces as he lifts her arm slightly, sending pain all the way through her shoulder and into her chest. "Doesn't matter to me what they put on the schedule. I'm doing two more after tonight and then I'm done. Whatever they're saying isn't my problem." 

"Do you realize you're making this my problem too? Do you know how many arguments I've had with Dayna this week alone about this?" 

Vi yanks the wrap out of his hand and starts trying to do it on her own. "Give me that. Also, that's your problem. Figure it out." 

"You're a real bitch sometimes." 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Vi says, distracted. "Go find out when I'm going in." 

By the time Vi gets called to go fight, she's got her ankle wrapped, her shoulder wrapped, and her wrists and arms wrapped. If she could figure out how to wrap her hip too, she'd also have done that. She's falling apart. 

But as long as her body hangs in there for three more fights, including the one she's about to walk into, she might make it. 

Vi goes into the pit. The spotlight shines on her. The announcer rambles on. 

She sizes up her opponent while she waits for the fight to start.

He's big. Much taller than her, and he's a particularly bulky, brawny guy even for that height. That's fine - Vi fights big guys all the time and she usually wins. They always underestimate her and as long as she's careful to avoid any hits that they can throw their strength and weight behind, she's typically fine. 

There's something about this guy that's bothering her though. It's not familiarity or anything; she knows she's never met him before. But something in her brain and in her spine is sending her a warning sign. A red flag. A little signal nagging at her mind that she needs to pay attention to. 

She's still thinking it through when the referee signals for the fight to start.

Vi moves automatically, letting her body and instincts do most of the work. The fight starts quickly; there's no blustering or showing off on either of their parts. They get right to it. 

It's fast but steady. They both get some hits in. They circle each other. They lunge and then back up. 

Vi starts to worry when she realizes how fast this guy is. Usually men this size rely nearly exclusively on getting in one or two good but slow hits; the sheer amount of power they can put behind those blows is enough. But this guy is coming at her with hits and kicks that are both fast and brutally strong. 

She's not going to be able to rely on her typical advantage, which is her speed and accuracy. He's got her matched there. 

This man is also unusually strategic. He's doing the same thing she is; assessing, reassessing, making a new plan. Constant adjustments. Trying out new strategies as they fight to see what's going to work. 

It's not good. That's one of Vi's other advantages - she's a quick thinker in a fight. If he's got her matched there too, it's not leaving her with much to fall back on. 

She tries a few things to see if he's willing to fight dirty, and yeah, he seems to be fine with that too. Shit. Some fighters aren't, and if that's the case she can sometimes get in a win that way. She can get her fingers into their eyes, pull out their hair, twist their limbs in a way that'll rip tendons or snap joints. But that's off the table tonight too, because it seems like that's not going to stop him. 

He's tiring her out. 

When Vi first started pitfighting, her stamina was her fallback. She could fight for as long as was necessary, until her opponent started to falter and she could use that moment of weakness to get in a winning hit. 

She's lost a lot of that now. Between the drinking and her hard lifestyle and her injuries, her stamina isn't what it used to be.

This guy's at the top of his game. He's still going strong, and she's running out of steam. 

Fuck. 

He charges her. 

She braces, throws her weight forward, tries to get low enough to stay under his higher centre of gravity. But it's not going to be enough - he's coming at her with an extra hundred and fifty pounds of muscle that she doesn't have, and an additional foot of height.

He hits her and she goes down. As her back hits the hard ground, she sees the look on his face, the gleam in his eyes, and realizes what it is about him that she was trying to pinpoint earlier. 

This guy likes killing. 

When Vi was in Stillwater, it didn't take her long to determine that there were three types of guards that worked there. 

None of them were good people.

Sometimes good people did apply to be guards, drawn in by the nice salary and steady work, but they never lasted more than a few days. They never made it past the first time they witnessed their fellow guards beat an inmate half to death, or when they saw the state an inmate was in when they were dragged out of solitary. 

So the guards who stuck around were all, to put it simply, bad people. Vi sorted them into three distinct groups. 

The first group consisted of guards who didn't like the conditions in the prison but stayed anyway.

They didn't like beating inmates with batons and rods and their own fists. They didn't like watching inmates live in a state of filth and humiliation and semi-starvation. They didn't like any of it, but that dislike wasn't stronger than the appeal of the high pay and regular hours. So they stayed, and watched and partook in it, then got their money at the end of the day and went home. 

The second type of guard was the kind who enjoyed the job.

They'd applied for the job for the same reasons as the others; the money and the stable employment. But they stayed because they liked having that power over others. They liked seeing the fear in the inmates' faces. They liked being able to get out their own aggression and rage and their own pain on the inmates who'd done nothing to cause it or deserve it. They liked having their complete and absolute power - they liked being able to decide if today was the day an inmate died or if they'd live to suffer another day. 

The third type of guard was the rarest kind, but the worst. 

They were guards who deliberately applied for the job because they liked to hurt others. They liked to kill. They liked to torture. They liked to do what a few of them did to Vi and most of all they liked that there would be no punishment, no consequences for anything they did to an inmate because in Stillwater, inmates were not people. A crime against an inmate wasn't a crime at all.

This guy that Vi's fighting isn't a Stillwater guard. But she knows that if he was, he'd be in that third group. 

He's pitfighting not for the money, or the local fame, or even as an outlet for anger. He's doing this because he likes to kill and in the pit, fighters can kill their opponents with no consequences.

The man slams Vi onto her back and pins her down. 

She fights. She does everything she knows how to do. She tries to get her arms free to scratch at his face, his eyes, his ears. She tries to buck him off with her legs, she tries to kick, and then when that fails she starts throwing herself to the side, twisting her back into an almost impossible contortion to get away. 

Vi's strong and she's fast and she's vicious and she knows it's still not going to be enough. He's got the leverage now - he's so much heavier, so much bigger, and he's using that to keep her down. She's a good fighter, better than most, and it doesn't matter. Never does, with guys like this. 

She screams in his face, and she tries to kick again and he lifts his hands from her arms, wraps them around her neck, and starts strangling her. 

With her arms now free, Vi tries to go for his face with her nails but he's clearly been expecting that because he holds his head out of her reach, and his arms are longer than hers. She scrabbles at his shoulders instead, which does nothing. 

She runs through everything again. She tries to get free of his grip. She kicks, she twists. Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. 

She loses her breath immediately and the blood supply to her brain a second later. He's cutting off her arteries and her breathing at the same time. 

Caitlyn was right, Vi thinks as she fights through her dimming vision and her lack of air. Vi is going to die in this pit. 

It hasn't even been a full week since Caitlyn's been gone - she's going to be so upset if she comes back to Zaun and finds out that Vi died at some random guy's hands while pitfighting. Vi hadn't made it even close to Caitlyn's predicted three to six months, either.

Vi's pretty upset about that herself, honestly. This is exactly what Caitlyn had been so afraid of and Vi had promised her it wouldn't happen, and now she's letting her down in the worst possible way. Vi won't even be able to tell Cait that she's sorry because she's just going to be fucking dead. 

Vi twists her body again and kicks and she thinks she gets the side of his knee or something, because he does grunt and loosen his hold on her throat for a split second but he's back again a moment later. It's enough for her to take in a desperate breath and for some blood to get through to her brain but then it's gone again. 

What are they going to do with her body? Is anyone going to tell Vi's family that she's dead?

Vi hopes that Loris will find it within himself to go do it, but she doubts it.

Ah, fuck, they're probably just going to hear it from a customer. News travels fast in Zaun - it'll probably be tonight or tomorrow. Whichever member of her family is behind the bar will greet a customer and the customer will say, "'hey, sorry to hear about Vi."

Vander or Powder or Ekko or Mylo or Claggor will say, "what?" 

The customer will say, "didn't you hear? She died in the pit. Pretty sad way to go, really." 

Vi's body is tingling, a step away from going numb. Her vision darkens again, narrowing. 

Caitlyn had said something once about how much Vi had survived in her life.

She'd been right about that too, now that Vi thinks about it. Vi hadn't had the easiest life even before Stillwater, but she'd survived that. Then she'd survived Stillwater itself, all ten years of it. Then she'd survived her escape, and then she'd survived the bad years since then, too. 

She'd really tried hard. She'd put a lot of effort into that survival. 

And all of that for what? So she can die alone in a pitfight in the worst part of Zaun? So she can die on the ground with hundreds of strangers looking down at her, all of them either bemoaning the loss of their money or actively cheering for her to die? 

The ref hasn't called the fight yet. Vi doesn't know why. Maybe her opponent paid him off? Maybe someone else paid him off? Maybe it's just because Vi's still moving around, still fighting - too much twisting and writhing, maybe, so the ref doesn't consider her actually pinned down.

The reason doesn't really matter. The ref isn't going to call it in time.

This guy is going to strangle her to death.

Vi wants so badly to have this be a victory for her. 

She wants to get this man away from her. Maybe one of her kicks frees her and she rolls away and gets to her feet. She punches him, maybe, and he falls to the ground and she jumps on top of him and now she's strangling him. In this fantasy, he screams and cries and begs and then he taps out and crawls away. She's the winner. She beat him. And most importantly, in that moment he feels her pain. He feels what he's doing to her now, outside of the fantasy she's creating in her mind. He feels the agony in his neck and the insane pressure in his head and the horrible feeling of a stranger's body pinning his down. 

It's not going to happen. It's just a fantasy. Just one of her damn daydreams. 

It's what she's been wanting for a long time. To hurt the people who hurt her. To make them feel like she felt. To make them feel that fear and that pain. She wants - not revenge. Or maybe it is? She just wants them to... know. To know what all of it felt like. 

It won't happen. Her revenge won't happen. Vi knows that. All of the guards who were with her in Stillwater are dead anyway. She'd found out later that the prison break she'd escaped in, the one that had also turned into an all-cellblock riot, had led to almost every guard's death. She'd tracked down the list of the names of the dead and all the ones she knew were on there.

There won't be any revenge for her. There won't be a moment where she gets to have the win that she wants. She won't get what she wants so badly because it's not possible. 

It's not even the first time Vi's been in a pitfight like this, against a man like him. She's won, before, against people like this. She's hit them over and over until they were down. She's screamed in their faces and kicked them when they were already unconscious. They were bad people and it didn't make her feel any better. She's won in this pit again and again and again and it never made her feel any fucking better. 

Even if the guards she thinks about the most, the guards who raped her - even if they were still alive, and she found them and beat them with her fists and tried to make them feel even a fraction of what she felt, she knows it wouldn't make a difference. It wouldn't make her feel better. It wouldn't undo what happened. It wouldn't undo what happened to her. It wouldn't change anything. 

Even if Vi wins this fight, somehow - even if she gets this guy off her and gets her breath back and then kills him herself - it won't undo what's already happened to her here tonight. It won't fix the pain in her throat and the pain in her head and the horrible feeling in her body. She's just going to feel hollow and empty and tired. 

She's out of energy to keep fighting. Her vision, already darkening, is blurring now. Her arms and legs are almost numb, her movement slowing. 

Maybe that's why she never tapped out in these fights. Even when her opponents had her pinned down. Even when they were hurting her to the point that it would really make more sense to just tap out and end it. She just didn't want... she didn't want to let anyone win. Not that she'd let the guards do what they did to her in Stillwater - she knows that, now. That wasn't her fault. She didn't have a choice there. She has a choice to tap out, fighting in the pit, and yet she's never used it because - because of what? Her ego? Her pride? No, that's not it.

Maybe it was her determination to make a reputation for herself, at the end of it. To be the person that was nearly unbeatable. To be the person everyone was scared of. To be someone that no one would fuck with. They would run when they saw her coming. No one would hurt her again. 

That sure didn't work out either, did it. 

Her mind is getting all fuzzy.

Dark spots explode over her remaining vision and she feels herself drop down towards unconsciousness. She's got seconds left. 

Vi doesn't want Caitlyn to be sad about Vi dying this way and she doesn't want her family to feel sad about it either, but now that she really thinks about it, now that it's really happening, Vi doesn't want to die alone in this fucking pit.

She just doesn't want to. Simple as that. She has worked hard to stay alive. She's fought hard for so long and she doesn't want that to have all been for - not nothing, maybe, but for her life to end here. 

She wants to see Caitlyn again. She wants to go to Jericho's with her siblings. She wants to make her old daydream of sitting in the bar with Caitlyn beside her and her family all around to come true because it actually doesn't seem like a total fantasy anymore. She could - that could - it could happen, if she doesn't die here alone today. She doesn't want to fucking die here. 

Vi takes all of the remaining strength in her body, lifts her arm, and taps out. 

Vi was right about this guy just wanting to kill. 

The ref has to get the security guys to come into the pit and pull him off her, because he keeps strangling her even after the ref ends the fight. 

They have to drag her back to the locker room. She's almost unconscious, flickering in and out. She'd been deprived of oxygen and blood to her brain for long enough that her body has to wake up again. 

They dump her on the grody tile floor of the locker room. 

Vi only takes a moment to lie there. Just long enough to get her breath back, even though every inhalation makes a weird whistling noise and every exhalation a groan. 

She pulls herself up onto the closest bench and sits there for a minute, trying to take stock of how bad this is. 

Her throat is the worst off. She doesn't think anything's broken, but she also doesn't know enough about the internal structures in her neck to know what's even in there to break. Her spine's okay, she thinks, but her windpipe is definitely at least bruised. It's probably swelling, which is why she's making these weird noises with every breath. 

The important thing, at least in Vi's opinion, is that she can still breathe. She's getting air in and out of her lungs, even if it's limited. 

What if her airway keeps swelling though? Is it going to close completely? 

The thought of that scares her. She wishes Caitlyn were here.

Other than her neck, Vi's in okay shape, she thinks. She's got some new bruises forming, sure, but that's okay. Those will heal. 

Loris hasn't come in yet. That's not surprising. He's going to be losing his mind about her tapping out. 

There's also probably a mob outside waiting for her, furious about their lost money, but that's not her problem. Just because she never once tapped out before today doesn't mean that she never would - if they bet all their money on that, they're just fools.

Vi gets slowly to her feet. She wobbles a little, but she steadies herself on the bench and then makes her way over to one of the sinks and looks in the mirror. 

If she had enough air in her lungs to do so, she might actually gasp. 

The damage to her throat is visible, much more so than she'd been expecting. The man's fingers have left noticeable marks on her skin, distinctive enough that if she looks closely, she's pretty sure she can see exactly where he'd had his hands. 

The marks are already darkening. Usually when she gets an injury that she knows will eventually bruise, her skin will stay red for a while and then start to darken into the standard black and purple colours. But these marks on her neck are somehow already getting noticeably darker.

Her makeup is smeared all over her face with visible tearstreaks through it. She doesn't think she was actually crying, although she'll probably start that soon, considering how she's feeling, but the strain that fight put on her body probably caused a lot of tears that she didn't even notice.

Vi's hair is a mess, of course - dirt and pebbles and grime all mixed in with the hair dye, from her head being pushed into the ground. She almost smiles, looking at her reflection though, when she thinks about Caitlyn griping about how she never wants to see that hair dye in Vi's hair again. 

Vi starts trying to wash her hands and then decides it doesn't matter. She'll do it later. 

She stumbles over to the bench near her locker and starts trying to take her jacket off. All of her movements feel slow right now. 

Loris comes in then, slamming the door shut behind him. "Vi!" he shouts. "Vi, what the fuck?" 

Vi ignores him and manages to get her jacket off her arms. She looks at it for a minute, trying to decide what to do with it. 

"Vi, this is bad," Loris continues. "The crowd out there is - it's going to be a fucking mob. They all lost so much money - it sounds like there were only two, maybe three people who'd bet on you tapping out and everyone else - " 

She keeps ignoring him. She can't take this jacket with her, probably - she definitely can't wear it out of here tonight, at least. It's too distinctive.

Whatever. She'll buy another one. It's just a jacket. 

Vi throws it in the garbage can and goes over to her locker. It takes her a few tries to get the combination open - she's starting to shake, pretty badly. It's from the adrenaline crash more than anything. Her body had given everything it had to that fight, into keeping her alive - she's burned through every bit of energy she had stored up. 

"Vi, listen to me!" Loris bellows from behind her. He's freaking out. She'd roll her eyes if the pressure in her head wasn't this bad. "We have to figure out a plan. Maybe if you go out there and convince them that they can win it back next week, or the following weeks - " 

"Loris," Vi interrupts, and her voice is so hoarse and thin that it takes her by surprise. She tries to clear her throat before she speaks again. "Loris, I'm done." 

He's silent as she gets her locker open and starts digging through it. "You mean, you're done after the next few." 

Vi finds the sweater she was looking for. It's plain, nondescript. Just a black sweater with a zip and a hood. It actually might be the one she'd loaned to Caitlyn, the one that Powder had recognized. That's kind of funny. She likes this sweater. 

She starts easing the sleeves over her arms. "No. I'm done now." 

"Vi, just - you - ah, fuck, this is such a mess, I - " 

Vi gets the sweater on and then tries to do up the zipper, but her hands are trembling. It takes her a few tries before she gets it zipped up. 

"We can tell them that you'll do a few more months worth of fights," Loris says. "That'll make them all their money back, if you win consistently." 

She rummages through her locker, seeing if there's anything else she needs to bring with her. There's not - it's just some spare clothes, her hair dye, a few containers of makeup. She'll leave it. 

Vi closes the locker and pulls the hood of the sweater over her head. She goes back over to the mirror for just a moment, brushing her hair back underneath the hood to hide as much of it as possible. The marks on her neck have darkened even in the few minutes since she last looked. 

"Vi!" Loris yells again. 

Vi turns around and starts towards the door of the locker room. He's blocking her way out.

She walks up to him and pats him on the shoulder. "Loris," she says again, "I'm done." 

Vi goes out the side door. She moves fast, even though she's struggling to breathe and her body is aching. She keeps her head down and the hood covering her face. 

Loris is still following her, still trying to convince her to come back and fix this. She ignores him until he says, "you've already got people following you." 

She glances over her shoulder as she walks. Yeah, there's a few groups coming down the alley behind her. Too bad for them. They don't know Zaun like she does. 

Vi takes a sharp left turn and then another. 

"What are you doing," Loris hisses, his heavy footsteps right behind her. He's drawing so much attention. She wants him to leave her alone. 

He doesn't know what she does - while it seems like her route is taking her right back into what probably is a quickly forming mob, this alley doesn't actually connect back to the street where the pitfighting arena is. 

It takes her all the way back through the neighbourhood, past the arena again but this time with a large apartment block between her and that street. Then she takes a right, and then another left, and then another right, and then a straight shot down a quiet street for a while. 

Loris keeps following her. His pleas are falling on deaf ears, that's for sure - she's not listening at all. 

She feels oddly... light. Even though she's just been hit hard and strangled half to death, even though she's just flashed back through some of her most traumatic memories. She is, quite literally, going forward. 

Some angry people who lost their pathetically earned money on her tonight do catch up to her and Loris after a while. Vi starts changing up her route again, ducking through alleys that are so narrow that Loris has to turn sideways to follow her. At one point she drops down to the ground and crawls under a gate between two buildings, which Loris then has to do as well, swearing all the while. 

There's a couple of really determined jerks who manage to keep up with her even after that. It's not a huge surprise - she's moving fairly fast, but she can't run right now and she definitely can't scale buildings, she can't jump. She can only keep walking.

After a while, Vi reaches the edge of Sevika's territory.

"Vi, stop," Loris hisses. "Are you losing it? Do you have a fucking death wish?" 

That's the opposite of what she has right now, actually. Vi keeps walking, right over the boundary. Those stragglers coming up behind her aren't going to follow her in here. 

Loris does, though. He's so annoying. 

Sure enough, the last people who'd been chasing her turn back. Vi keeps walking through the quiet, dark streets. It's the early hours of the morning now - she'd been one of the last to fight tonight so it had been late when she got into the pit, and even later by the time she'd left. 

Sevika's territory is large, but of course it's just Vi's luck that she turns a corner and runs straight into a group of Sevika's guys. They're all standing around, talking to - oh, that's Sevika herself. Great. 

Vi stops. Sevika's guys stop talking and look at her. Loris stops behind Vi so suddenly that he nearly knocks her over. 

"You lost?" Sevika says. She doesn't look impressed by Vi's sudden appearance. 

Vi has to take a deep, shaking breath to get enough air into her lungs through her damaged throat before she can speak. "I'm just cutting through. I don't want any trouble." 

"That'd be a first," Sevika mutters. Then she looks Vi over, her eyes fixing on Vi's neck. Something changes in her face, and her eyes flick to Loris and then back to Vi. "Did he do that to you?" 

Behind Vi, Loris shuts the fuck up for once in his life and holds very still. 

"No," Vi manages to rasp out. 

Sevika looks at her for a long moment and then, uncharacteristically, she sighs and jerks her head to the street behind her. "Just go home, kid." 

Out of everything that's happened tonight, this is what causes tears to build in Vi's eyes. She nods to Sevika and then hurries past her and her men down the street. Loris follows her silently. 

It's a long walk from there. Vi's route through Sevika's territory definitely isn't a shortcut, but the longer walk is worth it to have lost everyone that was following her.

Well, everyone except Loris. 

Vi thinks about asking him what he would've done if she'd died in that fight. If he would've been sad about it. Or if he would've just been disappointed that he couldn't make money off her anymore.

She considers asking him what he thinks she should've done tonight. If she should've let that guy kill her instead of tapping out.

Then she decides that it doesn't matter. She's not going to waste her breath on this anymore. 

She's not really crying. Well, she is, but it's just tears. She's not sobbing, mostly because that feels like it would hurt her throat. 

She's not sad, though. She's just - feeling a lot, she supposes.

There's no one around to see it, anyway. Even when she gets up into the Lanes, the streets are quiet and the windows are dark. A few of the clubs are still open but most of the bars have closed down for the night, the restaurants shuttered. It'll be morning soon. 

The streets become familiar. She could walk this route with her eyes closed. She's so tired that she's a little tempted to try it. 

It's not until she turns down the alley that she realizes she has no plan here. 

Vi does have a key to the back door of the bar, but it's in her apartment. She can't go in through the main door either - it'll be locked for the night. It's so late that the bar will have been closed for hours at this point. Everyone will be asleep. 

Vi starts to slow as she walks down the alley. She'll have to knock, there's no other option, but that'll mean she'll wake them up. 

She should turn around. She should find somewhere else to go. She can find somewhere to hole up for the night, maybe, and then - 

Vi cuts herself off. She tries to think about this like Caitlyn has told her to. To think about this kind of thing reversed. If Vi were the one at home asleep and Powder needed help and was standing in the street outside at night in the dark - would Vi want her to knock?

Yes, of course she would. There's no question. Vi wouldn't hesitate to get up and open the door. 

So she keeps walking, ignoring Loris behind her, until she's in front of the closed back door of The Last Drop. 

Vi knocks on the door. It's not loud - she can't bring herself to bang on it, to make a scene. 

They might not even hear it. This door is next to Vander's office, on the opposite side of the bar from the apartment, and even if it wasn't, it's so late that - 

She hears footsteps behind the door, and then the lock clicking. 

The door opens. 

Vander is standing there. He stares down at her. 

She doesn't know what to say. She can't speak. 

He looks at her. He looks at Loris behind her.

Then he reaches out and wraps his arm around her shoulders. In the same movement, he pulls her past him and through the door. 

Vander lets her go once she's inside. Vi keeps walking into the dark bar until she's at a table. 

Everything's closed down for the night. The chairs are flipped up onto the tables. The bar smells like cleaning solution and lemon. All the lights are off except for one above the bar itself. 

Vi takes one of the chairs off a table and sets it down. She drops down into it and tries to scrub the tears off her face with her sleeves. All that does is get makeup and dirt all over her sweater, so she gives up and just wraps her arms around herself instead. 

She sits there, feeling just... tired. Exhausted. 

Vander must be talking to Loris. She can hear the low rumble of Vander's voice from the doorway. He's speaking quickly but quietly, and Vi doesn't try to listen. 

After a minute, the door shuts and she hears the lock clicking shut again. 

Vander comes into the bar and goes behind the counter. She hears him putting ice into a glass and adding what's likely water. 

Sure enough, he sets the glass down on the table next to her a moment later. She can't look up at him. 

"This might help your throat," he says quietly. "I think it will, at least. I'm not sure what the best thing for that is." 

"Thanks," Vi rasps. It hurts, and she reaches for the water. 

The cold water does help a little. She sips it again and doesn't look up as Vander takes down another one of the chairs and sets it down facing her. He sits down slowly, quietly.

"Sorry," she whispers after a minute. "It's late, I know. You were probably asleep." 

"Kid," he says, "I haven't really slept since the day you walked out of here. I've been in that office every night just in case you knocked on the door." 

It makes her face crumple again. All this crying isn't helping her throat, so she takes another sip of water. 

"What happened?" he asks quietly. He motions to the marks on her neck. "Did that happen in the pit?"

"Yeah. But then I, uh. Tapped out. Told them I'm done." 

"Done - for good?" 

Vi nods, staring at the floor. 

Vander takes a very deep breath, holds it, and then lets it out slowly. "I take it that didn't go over too well." 

She shakes her head and takes another drink of water. 

"Did they threaten you?" 

"Um," Vi whispers, "yeah, when I tried to tell them I wanted to stop before. And then tonight, some people followed me."

"Does anyone there know where you live?" 

She nods. Loris does, and a few of the other fighters she used to go out with. They'll probably give up that information easily if they're asked. They don't care about Vi. 

"Okay," Vander says after a moment. "Can you give me the names of the people who were threatening you?" 

No. This is exactly what she didn't want to happen. It's exactly what she's been trying to avoid - 

"Vi," Vander says, interrupting her spiral even though she hasn't said anything. "It's okay. Please let me handle this." 

"They're dangerous," Vi hisses. "I don't want - "

"Kid, I've been dealing with people like that since before you were born," Vander says. "I can handle this for you." 

"But - " 

"Please let me do this for you," Vander says quietly. He sounds... sad. Pleading.

"Okay," she says finally, and rattles off all the names of the organizers at the pitfighting arena.

When she's done, Vander just says, "thank you." 

They sit in silence for a minute. Vi's made it halfway through her ice water and it is helping her throat a little. 

"I don't think you should go home right now," Vander murmurs.

She can't argue with that one. "Yeah." 

"Do you want to stay here?" Vander asks, and he sounds so hopeful. "Your room is still here. We didn't change anything." 

New tears burn in Vi's eyes. 

"Um," she whispers, "is that - would that be okay, or - " 

"There's nothing we want more." 

Vi has to put the glass down. She grabs the collar of her sweater so she can bury her face in it. 

She knows it'll come with a caveat though - she knows he's going to say that she can't drink here and she gets it. She remembers what happened the last time she stayed here and used that bar like her own personal liquor store. 

"I won't touch the bar," she tries to promise even though her voice is nearly gone. "I don't want it, I don't want it anymore, Vander, I don't want any of it." 

"Okay. Okay." He takes a moment before he speaks again. "If you're staying here anyway for a while - do you want to try to dry out while you're here?" 

"Yeah," she whispers into the collar of her sweater, because she's still got her face buried in it. She's getting tears all over the fabric. Ah, well, it's dirty already. 

Vander is very quiet for a minute, which is okay because Vi really can't get herself together. 

"Vander?" 

That's Powder's voice. Vi finally looks up from her sweater and then has to stop herself from crying out when she tries to turn her head and pain flares in her neck. She ends up turning her shoulders instead to look behind her. 

Powder's standing near the stairs, squinting in the dim light. She must have been asleep; she's in her pajamas with a robe tied over them. Her hair is messy and loose around her shoulders. 

"Hey, kiddo," Vander says to her. "Look who stopped in." 

Powder glances at Vi, and to be fair, Vi has her sweater pulled up over most of her face and the hood covering her hair, so it's understandable that Powder didn't recognize her until she turned around in her chair. 

Powder's eyes flare with alarm. "Vi? What happened?" 

She comes over to the table and grabs her own chair as Vander gives her the short version of the story. She puts her chair down right next to Vi's and then sits on it just like she did when she was a kid, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. 

When he gets to the end and tells Powder that Vi's going to be both staying here and trying to get sober, Powder spins in her chair to stare at Vi. "Really?" 

Vi reaches for her water glass again just for something to do with her hands and nods, not looking at her. 

"Thank fuck," Powder says. 

Despite everything that's happened tonight, Vi laughs. "Powder!" 

"What?" Powder says. "I'm an adult. I can swear." Then she lunges off her chair and wraps her arms around Vi even though it makes Vi spill some of her water. 

It's not until Vi's following Powder to the apartment that she realizes that her flask had been in the jacket she'd thrown out. The accidental symbolism of it almost makes her laugh again. 

Chapter Text

"I just think you're overreacting," Caitlyn says. 

"Overreacting? Overreacting?" Jayce overreacts. "Caitlyn, look at this from my perspective! I don't hear anything from you for almost six months, I'm worried out of my mind - " 

Caitlyn gives him a doubtful look. "You couldn't have been that worried. You never came to look for me." 

"I'm worried out of my mind," Jayce repeats loudly, "and then out of nowhere, the door to my lab opens, you walk in, and then you collapse on the floor!" 

"I've already apologized for that." 

Caitlyn really does feel very guilty about it, given that she likely did scare Jayce quite a bit. She certainly didn't mean for that happen - she actually has no idea why she went to Jayce's lab instead of straight to the hospital. 

She remembers buying her ticket for the bathysphere and going to sit down on a bench to wait, and then - nothing. She has no memory of the bathysphere itself, and no memory of walking from the station in Piltover to Jayce's lab. It's terrifying, actually - Caitlyn's never experienced a delirium like that before. The next thing she remembers is Jayce carrying her through the front doors of the hospital. 

"You could have died!" Jayce shouts, and then is immediately shushed by a nurse walking by the door of Caitlyn's hospital room. Jayce sits back in his chair and quiets down, cowed. 

"I know," Caitlyn admits. "It certainly wasn't intentional. I made a mistake." 

One of her worst mistakes, potentially. Caitlyn feels horrible about what happened. Vi had specifically warned Caitlyn about what could happen if she kept ignoring her symptoms, and Caitlyn had been too stubborn to listen. She had almost died from this, and likely would have if Vi hadn't taken such good care of her. 

And despite how Caitlyn's own decisions had gotten her into that situation, Vi had still carried Caitlyn all the way up to the bathysphere station. Caitlyn also had a blurry memory of some Enforcers standing nearby at the station, and she feels terrible that Vi would've had to be near them. Vi must have been terrified. 

Caitlyn's already started planning the apology she'll give to Vi as soon as she gets back. 

As soon as she's done apologizing they're also going to have a very long conversation about Vi telling Caitlyn that she loves her and then immediately vanishing into a shadowed alley when Caitlyn was quite incapable of following her.

Once Jayce brought her to the hospital, Caitlyn had been immediately triaged as the highest priority and taken for scans and tests. Within hours of her arrival, she'd been diagnosed with a severe case of bacterial pneumonia and admitted to the hospital for aggressive treatment.

Caitlyn does think Vi will be very pleased to hear that her diagnosis was correct. 

Once Caitlyn's illness had been identified, she'd been moved to a sunny and spacious hospital room overlooking the pleasant street below. She had then been hooked up to IV antibiotics and IV fluids. She'd been given her pain medication for the aches and fever reducers for her sky-high fever. She'd been served a bowl of nutritious soup and then they'd placed an oxygen mask over her face and settled her in for the night. 

Caitlyn had slept right through until the next morning, not even waking up when the nurses came in to check her vitals. 

She'd woken up the next morning feeling like a new woman. 

The day before, Caitlyn had felt as close to death as she's ever felt in her life. Looking back, it's hard to even comprehend how badly off she was. 

Today, after her night of intensive treatment, Caitlyn feels so, so much better. 

She can breathe again. She's still coughing, which the doctors have assured her is normal and that it's important to allow her lungs to clear themselves out, but even the cough isn't nearly as violent as it had been when she was in Zaun. Every breath she takes feels like it fills her entire lungs now. She's not struggling for oxygen - in fact, they've already allowed her to take the oxygen mask off and just receive supplemental oxygen through a nasal cannula. 

She still has a fever, but the nurse who came to do her vitals just an hour ago assured her that her temperature has been steadily dropping all morning.

Caitlyn's appetite is back. The aches and chills are nearly gone. Her mind feels clear again - the delirium she'd been experiencing when Vi had carried her up through Zaun disappeared within a few hours of treatment starting. 

If she's honest, she does still feel quite fatigued. Jayce had arrived thirty minutes ago to visit and yell at her, and as soon as he leaves she plans to go right back to sleep. 

"What were you thinking?" Jayce demands. "Why didn't you come home sooner? Why did you wait until you were this sick?" 

"I thought I would get better on my own." 

"You have pneumonia!" 

"I know that now," Caitlyn snaps. She coughs, and then keeps coughing until Jayce hastily pours her a glass of water from the pitcher on her side table.

"Well," Jayce says once Caitlyn has her breath back, "at least you're home now." 

Caitlyn sets the glass back on her side table and takes a steadying breath. "Yes, and when I go back to Zaun I'll - " 

"When you what," Jayce, Cassandra Kiramman, and Tobias Kiramman all say at the same time. 

Caitlyn looks at the door to find that her parents have just walked into the room. 

Wonderful. 

One hour of arguing later, Caitlyn's parents and Jayce are kicked out of her room by the charge nurse for the unit. 

"I am a councillor," Cassandra says coldly to the nurse, "and my husband, Tobias Kiramman, is an esteemed physician - " 

" - who isn't the attending physician on this unit," the nurse finishes. "If you'd like to speak with that physician, I'd be happy to go get him for you. If not, I'm going to once again ask you to leave. You're disrupting my patient's recovery." 

After a couple minutes of grumbling, Cassandra and Tobias do leave after telling Caitlyn that they'll continue this discussion when she's home. Jayce trails after them, shooting Caitlyn a wince as he goes.

"I apologize for that," Caitlyn says stiffly to the nurse once they're gone. "I'm sure that was... disruptive, to the other patients." 

"Oh, no problem," the nurse says. "Happens all the time. Half of my job is caring for patients, the other half is dealing with aggressive family members. Are you ready for lunch?" 

Caitlyn nods, and the nurse leaves. 

The room is quiet. The sounds of the hospital trickle through the open door - machines beeping, people murmuring, carts squeaking. The sun coming through the window feels almost blinding to Caitlyn after so many months down in the darkness of Zaun. 

Caitlyn looks out the window and fights back the urge to cry. 

It's absurd how quickly she's learned to cry again, after that breakdown she had in her room in Zaun. She'd had Vi with her then to comfort her, though, and now she has no one. She's just sitting alone in this hospital room. 

That argument with her parents and Jayce had not gone well. Caitlyn's insistence that she would be returning to Zaun as soon as the doctors approved her to had been met with outright disbelief and anger. 

Caitlyn will have to prepare some talking points for the next argument, once she's feeling better. They'd caught her off guard today, and they'd all been dressed in their formal daytime wear and standing over her hospital bed.

Caitlyn, by contrast, hasn't showered since she was admitted to the hospital. She's currently wearing just a flimsy hospital gown, which makes her feel self-conscious and vulnerable, and the necklace Vi gave her. 

When Caitlyn had been brought into the hospital, the nurses had taken the necklace off when she was being wheeled in for scans. She hadn't argued with them, because she understood it was necessary, but she'd deliriously begged the nurse who took the necklace from her to take good care of it. 

The nurse had returned the necklace to her as soon as Caitlyn was being settled into her room, and Caitlyn had put it right back on. 

On the plus side, Caitlyn's hair is perfect - but only because it's still in the braid that Vi had done for her.

Thinking about that makes it even harder for Caitlyn to hold back tears.

She's not looking forward to going back to her parents' house. She wants to go back to Zaun and to Vi. 

No one else comes to see her. 

Caitlyn is allowed to leave the hospital three days after she was admitted. She's under strict instructions to return every four days to meet with the doctors at the outpatient pulmonary clinic for assessment. 

The doctors have given Caitlyn a strict medication and lifestyle regimen, which is fine. Caitlyn is determined to be the best patient possible and follow every instruction to the letter, because the doctors have told her that as long as she continues improving, she can go back to Zaun within three weeks.

Caitlyn returns to the Kiramman estate. There's no one there to greet her except for the staff, which is what she expected. 

She goes straight to her room and takes a long, hot shower. She amuses herself by trying to determine how many people really could fit into this shower if she were to host an orgy in it, and makes a mental note to tell Vi the exact number she lands on. Vi will find that funny. 

After that, Caitlyn goes right to bed to rest and continue her commitment to being the best patient. She has someone to get back to, after all.

If there were an award for Piltover's Best Patient, Caitlyn would win it. At least, in her opinion. 

Maybe she'll create the award. She could fund it. She'll award it to herself this time and then someone else can win it next year. 

She sleeps a minimum of ten hours a night. She takes her medications at the scheduled times. Three times a day, the staff bring her a tray with a nutrient-rich, filling meal, which she dutifully eats. She has as much tea a day as she wants and then also drinks as much water as possible to stay hydrated. 

Caitlyn takes slow, short walks around the estate's gardens each morning. She's careful not to overdo it, but as her strength returns she starts lengthening the walks. She also adds in a gentle swim in the indoor pool to her daily routine, to continue to slowly exercise her lungs and body while not putting too much strain on herself. 

Every day, Caitlyn takes a long, pleasant bath in her giant bathtub as per the doctors' recommendations, to ease any remaining aches and to relax her body. Caitlyn can't help but smile thinking about how boring Vi would find it. 

She tries to spend as much time in the sun and fresh air as possible. If it's too chilly outside, Caitlyn bundles up and brings a blanket out into the gardens with her, but regardless of the weather she spends multiple hours a day soaking up as much sun as she can. 

Even when Caitlyn resumes working, she does that all from home. She commandeers a lovely room right off the solarium and turns it into a temporary office, where she can host meetings with everyone she invites to the estate. The room already has a comfortable chaise lounge where she can rest if she needs, and she makes sure to do that as often as necessary because she's going back to Zaun within three weeks and therefore she has to heal.

Caitlyn misses Vi to an extent that is potentially irrational. 

It feels like Caitlyn's missing half her body. There's an empty space to her side where Vi should be. Caitlyn's so used to turning to Vi constantly throughout the day to talk, reaching for her, leaning into her, that she still goes to do that automatically before remembering that Vi's in Zaun and Caitlyn's here in Piltover. 

Caitlyn's also just so worried about Vi. This is the worst possible time for Caitlyn to have had to leave. Just when Vi had expressed that she wants to stop pitfighting and then try to get sober, Caitlyn gets pneumonia.

Caitlyn can only hope that if Vi needs help that she'll go to her family. It's not that Caitlyn thinks that Vi can't function without Caitlyn there - she obviously can, she'd made it on her own for a long time before she met Caitlyn. But she's in a scary spot right now, with the balance she's trying to strike with her drinking and also trying to extricate herself out of that pitfighting ring. If there's any time when Vi's going to need people who love her in her corner, it's now.

Caitlyn is so tempted to go back to Zaun against the doctors' orders, but Caitlyn also knows the consequences of that decision. She would get to see Vi, sure, but she'd also risk her recovery from the illness that had gotten terrifyingly close to killing her. 

So Caitlyn stays, and is Piltover's Best Patient, and counts down the days until she can leave.

Caitlyn does also complete a significant amount of work during her convalescence.

The doctors hadn't recommended that, specifically, but Caitlyn considers mental health a very important part of one's overall health, and her mental health will suffer significantly if she doesn't work. 

So as she sits outside wrapped in a blanket, she brings her work with her. As she has her tea in her little office, she does some work. She even sets a tray up in her bathtub so she can work while she bathes. 

She has a lot to do, after all. 

Caitlyn quickly gets through everything she needs to do for her doctorate. She's a little hindered because she left some of her files and notes and comments down in Zaun, but she works around it. She has her supervisors and colleagues come to her home to meet with her, and soon it's established that Caitlyn is well on track to finishing her program even before her expected completion date. 

It leaves plenty of time for Caitlyn to focus on another task, one that has a more... personal priority for her. 

As Caitlyn rests and recovers and coughs until her lungs feel clear again, she also sends out some requests.

The first is a request for a specific file. 

Vi's file, from Stillwater. 

The absurd thing is that Caitlyn is not an Enforcer and hasn't been for years. She's not a councilor, like her mother, despite sharing the last name. She's a doctorate student at the university, but that doesn't entitle her to request any files of this nature. 

And yet, when Caitlyn sends her request and uses her Kiramman stamp and her Kiramman seal, she receives a shipment of boxes from Stillwater's records department within two days. 

Ridiculous. She hadn't even used her mother's name - she'd used her own, Caitlyn Kiramman, and they've just given this to her anyway. 

But that's fine. She can deal with privacy regulation breaches later, and this technically works in her favour. Vi is more important to her than dealing with some employee in Stillwater's records department who is bad at their job.

Caitlyn has to dig through the boxes to find Vi's file. There's nothing under Vi's name, and Caitlyn ends up taking out every file and looking through each one until she finds Vi's. 

As she should've expected, Vi's file has no name on it. It's the only completely blank folder in the box. 

Caitlyn pauses before she opens it, feeling horribly guilty. She doesn't think that Vi will mind her looking at this - she'd told Caitlyn about all of this herself, after all, and Caitlyn's goal isn't to pry further into Vi's time in Stillwater. Caitlyn is doing this to improve things for Vi now, but she still wishes she could at least ask Vi before she does this. 

But she can't, because Vi is down in Zaun and Caitlyn is here. So Caitlyn opens the file folder. 

Vi's file is horrifically small.

An inmate's file should be lengthy. It should have records of the inmate's arrest, trial, conviction, and any other relevant legal proceedings. It should have the inmate's personal information. It should also, crucially, contain documents detailing the date and conditions of the inmate's future release. 

Vi's file has none of that. 

It contains only a single document - the intake form required for Vi to be processed into Stillwater. 

When Caitlyn looks it over, she has to put it back down on her desk and then go lie down on the chaise lounge for a while. 

It's awful. It's worse than Caitlyn even imagined. 

Vi had been right about it being forged. This document should have been signed by a judge, and there is technically a signature under that section on the paper. The name of the judge is real - she's an esteemed Piltovian judge, in fact. But Caitlyn knows that judge personally and also knows her signature.

That judge did not sign that document. The man who put Vi into Stillwater clearly forged it.

The rest of the document is just as awful. There's a section for the inmate's personal information, which should be thoroughly filled out. On this document, it contains just an inmate number and lists Vi's age as eighteen. There's not even a name.

There is, however, a picture of Vi on the document. It must have been taken the day she was processed into Stillwater. 

She's so young. There's no way that anyone looked at her and thought she was an adult. The Vi in the picture is a child - she looks young even for fifteen. Her sullen expression is marred by the bruises and dirt and blood all over her face. Her hair, lighter in colour than it is now, is stuck down to her head likely from sweat or blood. 

There's nothing else in the file. No release date. No conviction, no sentencing. It's exactly as Vi had said.

The document does have the name of the Enforcer who did all this, but to Caitlyn's disappointment, some quick searching reveals that he's dead and has been for years. 

Caitlyn curls up on her chaise lounge and reminds herself that she can't undo it. She can't give Vi back those ten years of her life. Caitlyn can only do her best now to make things better for Vi going forward. 

Caitlyn summons Grayson to her house the next day.

Grayson is happy to see her. They exchange pleasantries. Caitlyn offers tea and refreshments. Grayson declines, and they both sit down in Caitlyn's little office. 

"I have quite a few things to go over," Caitlyn starts, and takes her neatly ordered list out of the folder on her desk. Grayson looks at the length of it with mild alarm.

Caitlyn launches into a brief summary of her time in Zaun. She skips everything personal and keeps the overview strictly to her work. There will be a personal component to this, of course, but Grayson certainly doesn't need all those details. 

"Now that we've covered that," Caitlyn says, "I'd like to circle back to the agreement you made with Vander." 

Grayson nods. "Ah, yes. I did wonder if you would ask about that. You're referring to the personal favour he requested as part of the agreement, I presume?" 

"Yes. I'd like to know what it was, and if it will be upheld now that I've safely returned to Piltover." 

Grayson sits back in her chair. "It will. It's important to me to honour agreements, and really, this particular favour is just correcting a wrong that should've been remedied long ago." 

Caitlyn has to work to keep her face neutral. 

"It was regarding one of his children," Grayson says. "I believe you met most of them on your first day there, but he has another, an older one." 

Caitlyn's neutral mask has never been tested like this before. 

"She had been incarcerated in Stillwater years before," Grayson continues. "Vander had actually reached out to me after it happened, many years ago, asking for help. I did look into it, but, well. You were so young at that time, Caitlyn, I'm sure you don't remember, but corruption in Piltover at the time and particularly in the Enforcers was...rampant." 

Caitlyn does not remember that personally, as her main concern at the time had been her school exams and her breakup with Ava McKinley. She is now fully aware of that corruption, however, from her very in-depth research into it since she first became an Enforcer. 

"I did my best at the time," Grayson says. "Perhaps I should've done more, but I did look into it for Vander. I simply couldn't find the daughter, after all that - it was as if she had just disappeared." 

It does make sense, now that Caitlyn has seen the file. Grayson would've been looking for a fifteen-year-old named Vi or Violet, not an unnamed eighteen-year-old. Even besides that, none of the paperwork for Vi's incarceration had gone through the proper channels that Grayson would've had access to. 

But even then, there's a small part of Caitlyn that wants to scream at Grayson that she should've done more. She should've tried harder. But it's too late now, anyway. What's done is done. 

Grayson sighs. "Apparently Vander's daughter escaped in the Stillwater prison break a few years back. You remember it?" 

Caitlyn nods, once again feigning neutrality. 

"Vander said she's been living in the undercity since then. His request was that her record be pardoned." 

Caitlyn stares at her. "That's it?" 

"Well, yes," Grayson says, looking mildly affronted. "You have to understand, Caitlyn, that this girl should never have been incarcerated in the first place. She was never convicted of any crime, and even if she had been, she would've been too young for an adult trial, let alone an adult prison. Vander's request was quite reasonable, in my opinion. He simply wanted to make sure his daughter couldn't be rearrested, given that she was never technically exonerated or released." 

Grayson is completely misunderstanding Caitlyn's protest. 

"But - " Caitlyn starts, uncharacteristically tripping over her words, "but someone's freedom shouldn't be - a woman who was falsely incarcerated, her freedom shouldn't be dependent on me. It shouldn't - what if something had happened to me while I was in the undercity? What if I had just tripped and fallen into a ravine? Should this woman have then continued to spend her entire life in fear of being taken back to Stillwater?" 

Grayson is now giving Caitlyn a slightly concerned look, which is understandable. Caitlyn's admittedly getting a little heated about this woman that she's not supposed to know. 

"No," Grayson says slowly. "Of course not. It was simply what Vander asked for, and I agreed to it." 

Caitlyn is about to lay into Grayson again and start demanding more information on what Grayson would've done if Caitlyn hadn't come back but - again, Grayson wasn't the one who did this in the first place. Grayson is the messenger, more than anything here, and although Caitlyn personally thinks she should've done more, expressing her rage now isn't going to help.

Caitlyn takes a deep breath to soothe herself and then coughs. Grayson watches her with increasing concern as Caitlyn hastily grabs her water glass. 

"So," Caitlyn says finally. "You will be securing a pardon for Violet's record, then?" 

"I never said her name," Grayson says, "but yes." 

Ah. Oops. "I've spent quite a bit of time with Vander and his family now. They've mentioned Violet before," Caitlyn says quickly. 

Grayson just raises an eyebrow. 

"Now that we've addressed that," Caitlyn continues, trying to move past her little misstep, "there's something else regarding this that I'd like to discuss with you." 

They spend the next hour going over the next Vi-related step in Caitlyn's plan. Once that's finally done, the process ironed out and the beginning stages in motion, Caitlyn goes back to her list and taps on the final item. 

"This is a long meeting, Caitlyn," Grayson says, but it's with amusement, not ire. 

"Yes, well, there are many things I'm working on," Caitlyn says. "So, my next point here. I understand that the corruption that was in place a decade ago has largely been rooted out. But the effects of that are still ongoing - Vander's daughter's case is a perfect example of that. How many others were incarcerated during that time without convictions, just to meet a quota? Or if they were convicted, how corrupt were those trials? There are so many cases here that need to be re-opened, re-examined." 

"I agree. But that's a big task, Caitlyn. Far too big for you to take on yourself." 

"Oh, yes," Caitlyn agrees. She has many other things to do, like getting home to Vi. "I'm also not personally all that suited to the task, given that I never did finish my law degree. However, I'd like to establish a team dedicated specifically to this project." 

Grayson raises an eyebrow again. "And the funding for that would come from..." 

"From me," Caitlyn says. "I would fund it. I've mapped out a reasonable timeline and the size of team required - I'm thinking six people working full-time, to start, with as many support staff as required. Two support staff per person, maybe?" 

"Caitlyn, your mother is not going to fund this endeavor." 

"I never said she would. I said that I would fund it." 

"But with Kiramman money?"

"No," Caitlyn says, exasperated. This is taking away from the time that she wants to spend discussing the logistics of the project. "My money. Which is technically Kiramman money, I suppose, given my name, but it's not coming from Kiramman estate funds. I sold some of my Hextech shares for this." 

Grayson looks genuinely surprised. "Oh. And that's enough to - " 

"Oh, yes. It'll cover the team's salaries for..." Caitlyn does the math in her head quickly, "at least three years, I believe. Should the project not be finished within that time frame, I'll just sell another share." 

"Caitlyn. How many Hextech shares do you own?" 

"Well, I own ninety-five percent of Hextech, so quite a few." 

"Ninety-five percent?" Grayson nearly shouts. 

Caitlyn's slightly taken aback by the volume. "Yes." 

"How?!"

"Jayce was sponsored by my parents as part of the Kiramman Young Inventors Initiative," Caitlyn says, frowning slightly. She thought Grayson would have known that. "By the nature of that agreement, any businesses created by the person sponsored are owned at least in part by us." 

"Yes, but you would've been a child at the time." 

"I was a teenager. My parents wanted to encourage my interest and understanding in and of our family businesses, so they had me choose one of the inventors we were sponsoring as my own, essentially. I chose Jayce, of course, and therefore became a ninety-five percent owner of Hextech when he founded it. It's my name on all the paperwork, not my parents'. Jayce owns the other five percent." 

Grayson shakes her head. "Well, then. I'll stop asking about the financial considerations of this project." 

"Wonderful," Caitlyn says. "So back to my team structure - " 

By the time the meeting is over, Caitlyn has her plans for Vi up and running as well as her new investigative team. She's quite pleased with all her progress. 

By the time Caitlyn receives the summons to attend dinner with her parents, she's nearly entirely recovered from her pneumonia. 

She'd met with the doctors at the hospital's outpatient clinic earlier that morning and had received nearly a clean bill of health. She has no fever, her energy is back to normal, and the scans of her lungs are clear. She hasn't even coughed in two days. 

The doctors gave her strict instructions to stay out of Zaun for another week, explaining that while she may feel fully recovered, complete healing often takes longer than a patient notices. 

Caitlyn agreed to it reluctantly. As much as she's desperate to get back to Vi, she doesn't want to return to Zaun only to immediately become ill again. She wants to go back to Zaun and stay there. 

Caitlyn isn't looking forward to the dinner. It's the first time she'll be seeing her parents since their visit to her hospital room, and therefore the first time they'll be discussing Caitlyn's future plans as well. Jayce will be attending, at least, so Caitlyn will hopefully have some backup. 

She has to go through the whole rigamarole of dressing for dinner. It's something she'd been used to before she'd left for Zaun; since she was a child, she'd been instructed to change into proper clothes for dinner. But now it just seems - wasteful, almost. Pointless. She could be doing other things with this time. 

It had been explained to Caitlyn by her nannies when she was young that it's a sign of respect. To dress properly for dinner shows that she wants to present herself well to the other members of the dinner party, even though those other members were typically just her parents. She hadn't questioned it - it was all she knew. 

But now it just feels like there isn't a space or time in this house where she's comfortable. Where she can be herself. Everything is a show. Everything is for appearances.

She misses eating takeout at Vi's kitchen island in her pajamas.

But she's here, and she has to do this, so Caitlyn puts on a semi-formal dinner dress and tidies her hair. She doesn't add any additional jewelry - she never takes off the necklace Vi gave her, even to shower or take a bath. It's so beautiful that she doesn't feel the need to add anything else to an outfit now. 

Caitlyn goes down to the dining room. She greets her parents, who are cold and distant, and Jayce, who isn't but is clearly nervous, and then they all sit down for the first course. 

"It must be nice to eat good food again," Jayce says, trying to break the tension. He gestures to the tiny salad on Caitlyn's plate. "Right?" 

Caitlyn picks up a single almond with her fork. "I'll admit that some of Zaun's food isn't quite to my tastes, but I found some wonderful little places. There's a lovely restaurant that sells the most delightful noodle bowls you'll ever have. I'd like to take you there, Jayce." 

Before Jayce can respond, Cassandra murmurs, "yes, we can certainly tell." 

Caitlyn's hand tightens on her fork. "What are you implying?" As if she doesn't know. 

"Just that you've gained a bit of weight, darling. That's all." 

Caitlyn wants to throw her fucking fork across the room, she's so angry. 

What she knows she should say, what she's been trained to say by the psychiatrists at the psychiatric hospital she was admitted to not once but twice in her youth because of what these exact statements from her mother had caused, is a clear statement to shut down the conversation and move on. Something like "It's perfectly alright if I've gained weight. It's normal for a body to fluctuate throughout one's life," or "it's not a bad thing to have gained some weight. It's a neutral thing. I am healthy and doing well." Both of which Caitlyn does fully believe.

But what she does say, because her anger takes over, is a sharp, "I have not." 

And she hasn't, even. Caitlyn knows she hasn't gained weight because she's worn this dress before and it's actually looser on her now that it was before she went down to Zaun. She'd lost quite a bit of weight when she'd first arrived in Zaun, simply due to the lack of food options that she could tolerate and the amount of walking she was doing. She'd gained most of it back once she'd met Vi and discovered that there are lots of places in Zaun that sell wonderful food, but she'd lost a bit again when she'd had the pneumonia. 

"Well, that dress begs to differ," Cassandra says. 

"Cassandra," Tobias says sharply. 

Jayce takes a gulp of his wine. 

Caitlyn drops her own fork down on her plate with a clatter. They have not even made it five minutes into this dinner. 

"I'm just saying, darling, that clearly the undercity is not a very healthy place for you to be," Cassandra continues. "We haven't even started talking about you returning nearly on your deathbed. Why did you not come home earlier? I know you feel your work is important, but surely it's not more important than your health." 

Even that digs into Caitlyn's skin. The deliberate dismission of Caitlyn's work. The implication that Caitlyn feels that it's important, but it's not. 

Caitlyn picks up her fork again and sets it down more deliberately on the plate, to signal to the staff to take her plate away. She's not hungry. "Let's all save ourselves some time. I won't be partaking in this derisive conversation about my life and my work. I'll be returning to Zaun as soon as I have medical clearance to, which will likely be within the week." 

Everyone's jaw drops. 

"Caitlyn," Cassandra says. 

Caitlyn keeps going. "I'll still be completing my doctorate - in fact, it looks like I'll finish ahead of schedule. After that, I'll be continuing to pursue that line of work but from a more tangible standpoint. I'll be using my research and my findings to guide the development of an extensive healthcare implementation plan throughout all of Zaun." 

Jayce interrupts. "So you'll be living in Piltover, but just... planning this for the undercity. Right?" 

"No," Caitlyn says easily. "I'll be living in Zaun." 

That causes the uproar she'd expected.  

The subsequent lengthy argument, during which the staff bring and remove plates of food as if nothing is happening, ends with Cassandra saying, "if that's your choice, Caitlyn, don't expect any further financial assistance from us." 

Caitlyn nods. "That's perfectly fine."

"Including living in our home," Cassandra continues. 

"That's your prerogative," Caitlyn says. "Jayce, could I stay with you for the remainder of this week?" 

"Oh," Jayce says. "Yes, of course." But then he glances over at Cassandra, who is glaring at him and shaking her head. "Uh. Well - maybe, I - " 

Caitlyn keeps her face blank, out of habit and training, but it does hurt. She understands it, sort of - her parents had been the ones to give Jayce his start. They'd taken him in, funded his work, his research. He wouldn't have any of his current success without them. He feels indebted to them. But it still hurts. 

"Fine," Caitlyn says. "I'll stay at a hotel until I'm cleared to leave, then. I've heard the gardens at the Piltover Regency are lovely." 

"You will not," Tobias interrupts. It's very uncharacteristic of him to speak up in an argument, and they all look at him with surprise. "You will stay here, Caitlyn." He turns to Cassandra. "We are not throwing our daughter out of our home. She will always have a place here." 

Cassandra stares at him, clearly as surprised by his statement as Caitlyn is. She says nothing, and the table falls into silence. 

"Well," Caitlyn says finally. "If that's everything, I'll be taking the rest of my dinner in my room." 

The dining room is silent as she leaves. 

Caitlyn takes her dress off the moment she gets into her room and changes into more comfortable clothing. Then she sits at the desk and tries to do some work, but most of her documents are in her little study on the other side of the house. She ends up just taking out her notebook instead and going to sit on her bed. 

She flips it open to the page where she's been creating a list of things she wants to tell Vi, so that she doesn't forget anything. It's all little things - just anecdotes that Vi will find funny, or Piltovian concepts that Vi will find absurd. 

She adds a line about having to wear a formal dress to dinner. Vi will find that hilarious. 

Caitlyn does not include any other information about tonight's dinner, because Vi would certainly not find any amusement in that. 

Caitlyn is working away on a little drawing of her room to show Vi. Caitlyn's not particularly good at art, but she can manage a vague sketch. Vi had mentioned wanting to see where Caitlyn grew up, and Vi certainly won't come topside anytime soon, so Caitlyn wants to show her. 

There's a knock on her door. Before Caitlyn can say anything, the door opens and Jayce comes in. 

"Hey," he says tentatively, giving her one of his winning smiles that falls flat when she just looks at him. "Uh, I brought you something to eat. You didn't get to the main course, so..." 

Caitlyn isn't hungry. She's about to say so, but she remembers that she's supposed to be a good patient and she's still waiting on that final clearance so she can leave. She needs food. Her body needs the fuel to continue healing. So she sighs instead and says, "thank you." 

Jayce sets the plate down on the small table by the window. Caitlyn gets up from her bed, tucking her notebook away, and goes to finish her dinner. 

Jayce sits down across from Caitlyn at the table and there's an awkward silence as Caitlyn eats. She keeps her eyes on her plate. 

"Sorry about that," Jayce starts uncomfortably. "At the table. I..." 

"It's fine." 

Jayce runs a hand over his face. "Caitlyn, you were just saying all that to get a rise out of them, weren't you? You're not actually going to go live in the undercity." 

"No, I wasn't, and yes, I am." 

He crosses his arms, leaning back in his chair. "But why? I understand how much you care about your work. I support it, you know I do. But why wouldn't you live in Piltover? Even if you want to get all these things implemented in the undercity, if you're using resources from Piltover, it'll be easier for you to be here." 

Caitlyn gives him a flat look. "It's not far. If I need to come up to Piltover for a meeting or something of the sort, it'll take me less than an hour from where I'll be living." 

It's true. She's mapped it out. Admittedly the trip she just took with Vi was a lot longer than that, but that's because Vi was literally carrying Caitlyn the entire way. Vi's apartment is also very far down, and Caitlyn's plan to find a new one for both of them to move into will hopefully bring them up a little higher in Zaun. 

"Then why wouldn't you do it the opposite way? Live here and go down to the undercity when you need to?" He gives her an assessing look. "Did you meet someone there?" 

Caitlyn scowls at him. "Why would you ask that?" 

"Because this plan of yours doesn't really make sense unless there's something specific you want to go back to the undercity for. You're also wearing a new necklace with a gem that matches your eyes which I guess you could've bought for yourself, but that's usually something given as a romantic gesture." 

"Fine, yes," Caitlyn admits, because she doesn't see the point in lying about it. It really is the main reason for her decision to live in Zaun - if she hadn't met Vi, then Jayce's idea would make sense. Caitlyn could technically live in Piltover and do her work in Zaun. But she did meet Vi, and Caitlyn loves their life together in Zaun, and so that's where she'll live. "But - " 

"Cait!" Jayce groans. "Oh, don't tell me you're throwing everything away because you have a crush - " 

"A crush?" Caitlyn snaps. "A crush?" The anger she'd felt earlier at the dinner table comes roaring back with a vengeance and she stands up so she can lean over the table to glare at Jayce. "Jayce, I am an adult and have been for some time. I am not making decisions based on a 'crush', I am choosing where to live based on my feelings for someone who is very, very important to me. I am also not throwing anything away - I've already told you that I'll be finishing my doctorate ahead of schedule and then continuing to work in the same field I had planned to be in. What could I possibly be throwing away?" 

"Your life here!" 

Caitlyn laughs bitterly. "My life here? What are you even referring to? Tell me, what crucial things am I going to miss."

"Events," Jayce tries. "Social events! Parties, galas - " 

"I don't care about those and neither do you." 

"Festivals," Jayce continues doggedly. "Shows, performances - " 

"All of which I can easily come to if I choose. Remember, again, that I will be less than an hour away."

Jayce changes tactics. "It's dangerous in the undercity." 

Caitlyn can't help but roll her eyes at that one. "I'm fully aware, given that I'm the one who has spent the last six months living there. But while yes, there are some instances of crime, I haven't been abducted during my last six months there, unlike when I lived in Piltover." 

Jayce sighs. "That's different. That was a one-off, Caitlyn." 

"Was it?" Caitlyn says sharply. "I'll tell you right now, Jayce, I've felt a thousand times safer down in Zaun than I do here." 

It's true. Yes, she may get pickpocketed all the time in Zaun and there was that one time she and Powder were caught in a gang war, but Caitlyn really does feel safer there. 

She's abruptly done with this. She finishes the last bite of her chicken. "I'll be selling off a handful of my Hextech shares if you're interested in buying any." 

"Are you going to sell them to me at full price?" Jayce asks, trying for another charming smile. 

"Yes. I wouldn't want to devalue your company, would I." 

"We can talk about it," Jayce mutters. 

"Fine." Caitlyn stands up. "We'll have to settle it by this end of this week, because, as I'll remind you again, I'll be leaving." 

In fact, she should start organizing what she's going to bring with her. That's a better use of her time than standing here defending her life choices. 

Caitlyn goes to her closet and pulls out a selection of bags, setting them all out on the floor. She'll need something easy to carry and, as she now knows, pickpocket-resistant. 

"Cait, I'm sorry," Jayce says finally. "You're right. You can make your own decisions. I shouldn't have - I still see you as so young, sometimes." 

Caitlyn starts setting out some clothes to pack. She won't bring much - she'll be wearing her Zaun clothes as soon as she gets there anyway. 

"What's her name?" Jayce asks. When Caitlyn looks at him, he clarifies. "The woman you're going there for." 

Caitlyn hesitates for a moment, and then finally says, "Violet." 

"That's a nice name," Jayce says, and Caitlyn shoots him a look to make sure he's not being patronizing. But he looks serious, and genuine - he's not using his 'Man of Progress' face. "Did she get you that necklace?" 

"Yes," Caitlyn says, looking away. She starts folding a shirt to pack. 

"What's she like?" Jayce asks. 

Caitlyn has to think about how to respond. There's so much to say about Vi that she doesn't know even know where to start, so she just says, "kind. Funny, too." 

"Could I... if I came to see you, could I meet her?" 

Caitlyn looks at him sidelong. "Would you really? Come to see me, I mean." 

"Yes," Jayce says. "I've been to the undercity before, Cait. I'm not scared of it." 

Caitlyn smiles a little. "Yes, you are." 

"I'm not!" He shifts uncomfortably. "Maybe just a little scared. I always get pickpocketed so badly anytime I go there." 

Caitlyn laughs outright at that. "Well, yes. If you come to visit me, you can absolutely meet Violet. As long as she wants to meet you as well." 

Jayce looks baffled. "Why wouldn't she?" 

Caitlyn rolls her eyes again, but the tension is broken, so that does make her feel better. 

Nothing is resolved with her parents. They don't throw her out of the house, but Caitlyn also doesn't see either of them again before the end of the week. 

The day before Caitlyn's final appointment at the hospital, she completes two more Piltover-specific errands.

In the morning, she walks over to the graveyard to lay flowers on the grave of one of her childhood nannies. 

She tries to do this on a fairly regular basis. Caitlyn had several wonderful nannies when she was a child, but her nanny when she was nine had been particularly special to her. The woman had been incredibly warm and kind, and Caitlyn had adored her. 

Unfortunately, nine-year-old Caitlyn had awoken late on a weekday morning to find that her nanny hadn't come to wake up Caitlyn up and get her ready for school as she usually did.

At first Caitlyn was delighted - more time to sleep! But when still no one came to get her, Caitlyn had gone through the house to her nanny's room and discovered that the elderly woman had died during the night. 

Caitlyn had been distraught. Now, as an adult looking back on it, it seems perfectly reasonable to her. She'd had a vague concept of death at that age, through the loss of family pets and distant relatives, but she'd never encountered it so directly. The combination of the abrupt loss and the shock of seeing her beloved nanny that way had sent her into such a state that the rest of the household staff had sent an urgent message to Caitlyn's mother to come home. 

Cassandra had arrived at the house, assessed the situation, looked at Caitlyn sobbing in the arms of one of the maids, and then turned to the head housekeeper and said, "why was I contacted about this? Oh, Caitlyn, stop that racket. Are those tears solving anything?" 

Caitlyn had tried to stop crying and failed. Because she was nine. 

"I absolutely cannot deal with this," Cassandra had muttered. "What about the weekend nanny? Have her come in right away. We'll pay her double-time until a suitable weekday replacement is found. Caitlyn, enough." 

Now, as Caitlyn sets the flowers she'd purchased on the grave and carefully brushes off the dirt and dust covering the stone, she thinks ruefully about how that had been the last time she'd cried until recently. She'd locked every emotion up tight inside her since that day and kept it all locked up until she'd gone down to Zaun and met Vi. 

Caitlyn sits in the grass for a while and lets herself cry quietly, for reasons she can't quite pinpoint. But then she tries to deliberately not pinpoint them and just lets it happen. She's tired of analyzing everything. 

Once she's done she gets up, brushes herself off, and goes to her second task of the day. 

She's arranged to meet with a physician who works at the hospital in psychiatry and addictions. Caitlyn had actually gone to school with her, back when they were children, but doesn't know her well. 

When Caitlyn tells the physician about Vi, she keeps the story as vague as possible and of course takes out all the details of her personal connection. All Caitlyn wants to get out of this meeting is advice and recommendations on what she can do to help Vi with the resources available in Zaun, which are virtually none. 

Unfortunately, the physician has essentially the same thoughts that Caitlyn has been thinking all along. Vi attempting to get sober on her own with her current level of physical dependency on alcohol will be possible, but dangerous. She does give Caitlyn some information and resources on how to manage withdrawal without medical care, but when Caitlyn reviews them it just makes her more nervous. 

"From a professional standpoint, I cannot recommend that this woman cease all alcohol consumption at once," the physician says. "The risks are simply too high outside of a medical environment. However, I'm aware that without access to medical treatment, she won't have a lot of other options. You don't feel that tapering would be possible?" 

Caitlyn shakes her head. "I'm afraid not. She's made attempts at that in the past and within a few weeks she returns to her baseline level of consumption." 

"That's fairly standard. If she does goes the abrupt cessation route, my strong, strong recommendation is that she is monitored constantly. In those documents there," she gestures to the pamphlets that Caitlyn's now holding, "you'll find advice on what you or the other members of her support system can do to make her more comfortable and keep her as physically well as possible. But the main thing, again, is that she not be left alone through this process. If the withdrawal escalates to the point that she's experiencing seizures, then it's crucial that someone be there with her." 

It makes Caitlyn feel potentially more dizzy than she even felt when she had pneumonia. But she nods, thanks the physician for her time, and then takes all the documents back to the estate. She studies them thoroughly and then copies the most pertinent information into her notebook. 

That pertinent information includes, well. Everything, really. But now at least it's neatly in her notebook and not in giant pamphlets that say things like 'So your loved one is at rock bottom (and the bottom of a bottle)? A helpful guide' and 'Jaundice: a warning sign'. 

It helps Caitlyn feel a little more prepared, at least, and that's all she can do for now.

The following day, Caitlyn goes to her own appointment with her doctors and receives a clean bill of health. Caitlyn goes straight back to her room, gets changed into clothes she can reasonably wear into Zaun, and grabs her bag. 

The only person she informs about her departure is the head chef, to let him know not to prepare a plate for her for dinner. 

Then she walks out the front doors of the Kiramman estate and heads for the bathysphere.

Chapter Text

Zaun's acrid, smoggy air has never felt so good. 

Caitlyn even takes a nice deep breath as she walks out of the bathysphere, just to remind herself that she's really here. She's really back. 

She makes excellent time as she descends into Zaun. It's so different from her first trip down here, when she'd been so overwhelmed by the sights and sounds. Now she feels almost like a local; she doesn't have to look at her map or double-check her route. She just makes her way through the crowds and the chaos with complete confidence.

She also, to her great delight, catches a pickpocket by the wrist just as the child tries to unzip her bag. She'd had one of the maids sew the zipper shut subtly, and the strategy clearly works as the child struggles for just a split second to get the zipper open. 

Caitlyn is so shocked and pleased with her success that she just holds the child by their wrist for a moment until the child shrieks and then tries to bite her. 

Caitlyn yelps and lets go. The child runs away, glaring at Caitlyn. 

Ah, well. Still a success. Vi will be proud. 

Caitlyn heads directly to Vi's apartment. She could go by her own room to drop her bag off first, but she can do that later. She needs to see Vi first. 

It's midday, so Vi should home. Even if she's gone out to get lunch, Caitlyn won't have to wait too long to see her. She has her key to Vi's apartment, so she'll just let herself in and wait for Vi to get back. She hopes that Vi won't be too surprised - Caitlyn had told her that she would come back to Zaun, but she's not convinced that Vi had believed her. 

The sound of Caitlyn's footsteps on the metal stairs leading up to Vi's apartment is music to her ears. 

She's so excited. She runs up the last flight of steps, just because she's so eager. 

When she reaches the top and turns to go to Vi's door, her excitement vanishes. 

Before Caitlyn even fully registers the situation, she's putting her back against the nearest wall. She hadn't been an Enforcer for all that long, but enough of the training has stayed with her that she's already scanning the scene in front of her, every instinct screaming. 

The door to Vi's apartment has been kicked in. It's hanging half off its hinges and the apartment behind it is dark. 

Cassandra Kiramman's insistence that Caitlyn learn emotional regulation from a very young age has likely done more damage than good, but in times like this, it does come in handy. Caitlyn wants to panic, she wants to let the overwhelming fear and worry take over, but she shoves those emotions down and boxes them up.

Fear and panic won't help her. Action and thought will. 

So Caitlyn moves along the wall, keeping her back to it. She scans the area as she goes, but there doesn't seem to be anyone around. 

When she nears the apartment, she pauses again and listens. 

There's no sound. The apartment seems to be empty, but Caitlyn waits a little longer just to make sure. She listens for anything that could indicate that there's someone in there, lying in wait. Any shuffling, breathing, sighing, or the click of a gun's safety. 

But there's nothing. So Caitlyn very cautiously moves around the edge of the door and glances inside. 

The apartment is dark, but the neon glow through the window illuminates it enough for Caitlyn to see.

The place has clearly been trashed. Even through the door, Caitlyn can see furniture strewn about and clothing in shreds. There's broken glass all over the floor.

Caitlyn once again pushes her emotions back into her neat little box and slams the lid shut. Once she's visually determined that there's no one in the apartment, she steps inside. 

The first thing Caitlyn does is clear the apartment. 

It's not hard to do. It's a tiny apartment, and every piece of furniture has been either smashed to pieces or flipped upside down, so it's easy enough to determine that there's no one in the main space. 

Caitlyn checks the washroom and determines it's empty as well. Only once she's checked all the cupboards that could conceivably fit someone does she turn to survey the situation more thoroughly. 

To her immense relief, it doesn't look like there was a struggle. There's no blood, and while there's significant damage to the apartment itself, it looks deliberate instead of something that would have happened in a fight. 

Fear rises again in Caitlyn's chest and she once again pushes it back. This is Caitlyn's nightmare, someone coming into her home to cause harm, and for this to happen in the one place that Vi specifically got for herself so she could feel safe and not trapped - 

Caitlyn visualizes herself literally shoving her panic back into the box and refocuses. None of that is helpful now. 

She restarts her survey of the space. On her second pass, she's even more confident that Vi wasn't here when this happened. If there's one thing anyone would say about Vi, it's that she's a fighter - no matter how many attackers had come in here, she would've put up one hell of a struggle. But there's nothing to indicate that, and so some of Caitlyn's panic recedes.

As long as Vi's unharmed, none of this matters. Caitlyn can replace all of the things in this apartment, but she can't get a new Vi. 

Caitlyn takes just a moment to steady herself by breathing like she does before she shoots. The breathing pattern is familiar, calming, and it helps her clear her mind. 

She starts looking around, trying to envision what situation would have caused this. 

There were certainly several people here, if not more. It's a tremendous amount of damage. 

She's also positive it wasn't a simple robbery. It doesn't look like anything was taken at all. Caitlyn does a mental inventory of what was in the apartment when she left, and all of it is still here, albeit either broken or strewn about. Vi has never had anything in her apartment of significant financial value, but poverty is rife in Zaun and if someone had broken in just to steal, they would have taken Vi's nicer jackets, her clothes, even some of her kitchen items to sell for some cash. 

To Caitlyn, it looks like this was done out of anger.

In her semi-professional opinion, it looks like a group of furious people came here looking for Vi. When they didn't find her here, they destroyed the place and then left again. 

Caitlyn starts to imagine what kind of scenario would have led to that and then disregards that line of thinking. It's too frightening and it's not helpful. 

Caitlyn keeps searching the apartment.

The odd thing is that Caitlyn actually doesn't see any alcohol here. There's none in the cupboards and nothing on the counters. Caitlyn even checks Vi's typical hiding places and there's nothing there either. Bizarrely, even the empty bottles that Vi always leaves around are missing. Caitlyn supposes that someone could have stolen them - even empty bottles are worth a little money in Zaun, but why take those and leave behind the items worth more?

Maybe Vi had gotten rid of the alcohol herself, before this break-in happened. 

It doesn't look like Vi has been here since the place was ransacked. Even if she hasn't been staying here, she likely would've at least grabbed a few things if she came by at any point. But all her clothes are here, all her items. Most are in tatters or ruined, but considering Vi's fashion sense, she'd probably still take them with her and make a new outfit out of them.

But either way, Caitlyn's main hypothesis about the break-in leads right into Caitlyn's next question, which is when did this happen? She's been gone for three weeks, and if this happened right after she left... has Vi not come back to her apartment for all that time? 

It sends another terrified jolt through Caitlyn's body. 

She starts assessing the space again, this time looking to establish a timeline. It's much more difficult to do this in Zaun than in Piltover; it's fairly easy in Piltover to use the build-up of dust and grime to track the passage of time, but Zaun is filthy. Even with daily cleaning, surfaces still accumulate dirt and dust. So while the counters and sink and broken furniture are dusty, that doesn't necessarily mean much. 

Caitlyn looks around. She's trying to be as quick as possible, just in case someone does come back. The apartment only has one exit, the front door, and Caitlyn doesn't like the thought of being trapped in here. 

From what Caitlyn can determine, she thinks it's been at least a week since anyone's been in here. Maybe even longer than that. 

Which is... not reassuring. Where has Vi been in that time, then? 

Caitlyn can only hope that Vi has been staying with her family. Caitlyn's enough of a pragmatist to know that if that's not the case, Vi's probably dead. 

Vi has been known to pass out in alleys, sure, or stay out for days at a time if she's on a bender, but she always comes back to her apartment eventually. For her to have been gone this long - it's not good. 

Caitlyn doesn't try to collect either her items or Vi's. If it's safe to do so, and if Vi is alright, they can both come back later and look through the destruction to see if there's anything to salvage. If there's not, Caitlyn will just buy them both all new things. These are just items. They can be replaced. 

She doesn't waste any more time. Caitlyn leaves, doing her best to move the door back into the frame to make it look closed and locked before she goes.

Caitlyn doesn't look back as she heads for the stairs, but there is a part of her heart that hurts as she walks away. That apartment is, and always has been, objectively terrible. It's noisy, drafty, and filthy. It's too small. The layout is poor. Despite Vi's insistence that the rodents that scurry through occasionally are mice, not rats, they're still rodents regardless. 

But Caitlyn has so many good memories from that apartment. It's where Vi had taken her back to, the first night they'd hooked up. Caitlyn had, over the course of the next six months, essentially moved in with Vi into that apartment. They'd spent so many nights in bed under that green neon glow through the window. They'd eaten so many meals at the kitchen island. They'd had so much fun there. 

Caitlyn tries to remind herself as she hurries down the metal stairs that she and Vi would've moved anyway. While Caitlyn has predominantly good memories from it, Vi spent a considerable amount of time using that apartment as a place to wallow in her pain and sadness and addiction before Caitlyn had come along, and even after that too. Vi needs a fresh start in a new place. 

But it still hurts. 

Caitlyn runs all the way back to the Lanes. 

Her fear only increases when she approaches The Last Drop and sees that the lights are off and there's a sign on the door. 

Caitlyn slows as she walks up and the words come into view. Her heart sinks further. 

The Last Drop has always operated like the other bars in Zaun. Businesses here tend to have vaguely scheduled hours of operation; they usually open and close around the same time each day, but it's not like in Piltover where doors open and shut on the change of the hour. Caitlyn has also seen Vi's family open and close the bar at will if something else comes up, or if all of them are too busy to operate it. 

But she's never seen this specific sign out front before. It reads 'Closed Until Further Notice' and provides no other information. 

Caitlyn does not typically experience fear like this. When she's scared, she usually just becomes more focused, more determined to get herself out of the situation that's scaring her. But right now she's so terrified that she has to fumble for her key to the door, and even when she gets it out of her bag, it takes her two tries to even get it in the lock. 

Then she can't get the lock open. She frowns, takes a steadying breath, and tries again. But it still doesn't work, and she notices that the key isn't even fitting properly in the lock. 

She actually looks again at the key in her hand to make sure she has the right one. It is, she's sure of it - have they changed the locks? 

Just then, she hears the quiet but distinctive sound of a safety clicking off a gun. Caitlyn is almost positive it's the shotgun that's usually behind the bar counter. 

Caitlyn steps quickly to the side as just as a panel opens in the door, just wide enough for someone inside to look out. 

"Put that safety back on," Caitlyn snaps.

"Oh, shit," she hears Mylo say from behind the door. "It's Caitlyn." 

There's the sound of the heavy lock turning and the door opens. Caitlyn immediately pushes inside as Mylo steps back, lowering the shotgun. 

"You have terrible trigger discipline," she tells him as she looks around the bar. 

It's empty, apart from Ekko and Claggor. They're both standing behind Mylo, staring at Caitlyn with shocked expressions. Mylo shuts the door behind Caitlyn as she comes in and locks it back up again. 

"What's going - " Caitlyn starts to ask, and then gets quickly shushed by all three of them. 

Just as Caitlyn opens her mouth to speak again, she hears the faint sound of Vi and Powder's voices coming from the apartment and relief washes through her. 

Caitlyn feels almost high, she's so relieved. That's definitely Vi. She's alright. She's not dead. 

She doesn't sound... good, necessarily. Even from this far away, Caitlyn can tell that her voice is hoarse. She must have caught what Caitlyn had - Caitlyn knew that would happen, she'd coughed all over Vi. This is awful, she - 

"Back here, come on," Mylo hisses, and starts pushing Caitlyn towards Vander's office. 

"What?" Caitlyn asks. "Why - " 

"Shh!" all three of them say again, and then Ekko takes Caitlyn's arm and helps Mylo tow her into the office as Claggor follows behind. 

When they're all inside, Ekko shuts the door and the three of them turn to Caitlyn. 

"What's going on?" Caitlyn asks sharply. She needs to go see Vi, she doesn't have time for whatever this is. 

Claggor holds his hands up placatingly. "We'll tell you. We just can't... if we talk in the bar, Vi will hear you and try to come in to see you." 

Caitlyn stares at him. "So?" 

"Just give us a minute," Ekko says. "We'll explain. You've missed... a lot." 

"But why can't Vi explain?" 

"Because she doesn't know everything," Ekko says impatiently. Caitlyn frowns at that. 

"We'll give you the short version," Claggor says gently, "and then you can go see her." 

Caitlyn wants to argue, but... clearly something major has happened here. Vi's apartment was ransacked, she's here at the bar, and now Caitlyn's not allowed to go see her? Oh, and they changed the locks. And Mylo had a shotgun pointed at the door with the safety off when Caitlyn had tried to open it. 

Actually, she does need to address that first. She turns to him. "You don't take the safety off until you've determined that you're going to shoot. You took it off before you knew it was me at the door." 

Mylo sighs. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry. In my defense, I really wasn't expecting it to be you." 

Caitlyn gives him a disapproving look and then turns back to Ekko and Claggor, gesturing for them to go ahead. 

Ekko launches into it. "About two weeks ago, Vi got hurt pretty badly when she was pitfighting. She quit that night and came here." 

Fuck. Caitlyn wraps her arms around herself and swallows hard. "Hurt? What happened? And - she quit? For good? But there'd been threats - " 

Ekko glares daggers at her. "If you'd let me finish - " 

"Right," Caitlyn mutters. "Sorry. Go ahead." 

He gives her another look, but continues. "Yes, she told them she was done for good. Then she came straight here and she's been here since then. Vander went over and sorted out the whole situation with the pitfighting ring, so Vi doesn't have to worry about that anymore." 

"We helped," Mylo protests from where he's now sitting on Vander's desk. 

"Sorted out?" Caitlyn says cautiously. "Are you sure that it's... handled? They really are a horrible group of people there." 

"Yeah," Claggor says easily. "It's all handled." 

They all look very confident in this and Caitlyn doesn't know how to feel. She's relieved, and overwhelmed, and she also wants every detail of what happened there, but her first priority is still Vi. "That's... good," she says, "but why can't Vi come into the bar? And why is it closed?" 

"This will take half the time if everyone just lets me finish," Ekko says, exasperated. "Vi's been staying here. We didn't think it was safe for her to go back to her place. Since she was going to be kind of stuck here anyway until we got everything sorted out, Vander asked her if she wanted to get sober while she's staying here and she said yes." 

Now Caitlyn's really experiencing a mix of emotions. 

"So," Ekko continues, "that's mainly why the bar is closed. We've just had too much going on, and with the whole situation with those pitfighting people, we didn't want anyone coming in and out until that all died down." 

That makes sense. But all Caitlyn can think about is Vi sobering up. "She's really trying to get sober?" 

"Yeah," Ekko says, "so that's why we don't want her coming into the bar if she doesn't have to. She's just been staying in the apartment. And yes, we know that a bar isn't the best place to dry out but we live here, so. It is what it is." 

"How long has it been?" Caitlyn asks. 

"Well..." Ekko says, turning to look at Claggor and Mylo. "We're on attempt number... three? So she's like a day in. She hasn't had anything to drink since yesterday. " 

"I'd call it attempt two," Claggor says. "I feel like the second time didn't really count." 

"Do you think it would help or hurt if we bet on it?" Mylo asks thoughtfully. "You know, some incentive for her to stick to it this time." 

"Hurt," Caitlyn, Ekko, and Claggor all say together. Mylo sighs. 

"What happened the first two times?" Caitlyn asks. 

"First attempt, she just said she couldn't do it and took off," Ekko says. "But she came back on her own like an hour later, so. That's progress." 

"The second one just didn't work out," Mylo adds. "She got a little ways in, but then we all had to go deal with some things and she was going to be here pretty much on her own, so we ended up just letting her drink until the timing was better." 

"Yes, good call," Caitlyn says. "So now it's... attempt three?" 

Ekko nods. "Yeah, and you're just in time for the fun part, I guess." He fixes Caitlyn with a look. "Before we let you go in there - you are here to, like, stay, right? You're not just stopping in to pick up your stuff?" 

"No," Caitlyn says firmly. "I'm staying." They all exchange a look. Caitlyn still doesn't think they entirely believe her, but she'll just have to show them. "Can I go now?" 

They all look at each other again and then Ekko gestures towards the door of the office. 

When Caitlyn comes into the apartment, she walks right into the middle of an argument.

"That's my chair, Vi!" Powder shouts. She's standing in the living room by the coffee table, her hands on her hips. "You're going to break it." 

"It's not your chair," Vi counters from the overstuffed armchair she's sitting in. "I dragged it in here when I was like, twelve! Ask Clagg, he helped me carry it." 

"Well, I've had it since then!" 

"And why did you have it since then, Pow? Because I was in jail." 

Vander, who is sitting at the kitchen table, says, "enough about that chair," just as Caitlyn walks in.

They all turn to look at her. Silence falls.

Caitlyn abruptly doesn't know what to say. She turns to Vi, who is staring at her in complete shock. 

It's Powder who finally breaks the silence. "Oh, fuck me," she groans. "I'm ruined. My life savings - " 

Vi whips around to glare at her and then gets out of the chair and turns to the stairs. "I told you all to stop betting on Caitlyn!" 

Caitlyn hears the faint sound of Claggor and Ekko saying together, "we're sorry!" 

"I'm not," she hears Mylo say. "I'm the richest man in Zaun." 

"Dude, I think you're overestimating how much money Powder has," Ekko says. 

Powder groans again and Vander gets up from his chair. "Powder, let's give them a minute." He gestures to Caitlyn and Vi and then ushers Powder to the stairs. 

"Yeah, yeah," Powder grumbles, shooting Caitlyn a glare as she goes. "I gotta scrounge together a ton of money, anyway." 

When they're gone, Caitlyn turns back to Vi, who is still just staring at her. 

Vi does not look... good. She's wearing sweatpants and fuzzy socks, with her hands hidden in the front pockets of an oversized sweatshirt that Caitlyn doesn't recognize. She's pale in a concerning way; Caitlyn has seen Vi turn pale before, when she's injured or not feeling well, but this is different. There's a chalky-white pallor to her skin, and it's offset by the shockingly dark circles under her eyes. 

Her hair, too - Caitlyn had thought at first glance that Vi's hair is greasy, but now that she looks again she sees that it's not. It's sweat, enough of it to darken Vi's hair and leave a sheen on her forehead. 

Vi is staring at her with huge eyes. Caitlyn's about to speak, about to launch into a detailed description of how much she'd missed Vi, when Vi speaks first.

"Are you okay?" Vi says with her oddly hoarse voice. 

Caitlyn frowns. "Me? Yes, I'm fine."

Vi starts pacing, following a path back and forth through the living room, keeping the coffee table between her and Caitlyn. She keeps her eyes trained on Caitlyn as she walks. "You're not still sick? You were in really bad shape the last time I saw you." 

Right. Caitlyn's so distracted by everything else going on that she's almost forgotten about that. "Yes. I had an appointment at the hospital this morning to be sure, and then I came right down to Zaun. You were right - it was pneumonia." 

"Ha," Vi mutters. "I should've been a doctor." She's still pacing, sending sidelong glances at Caitlyn as she goes. 

"Did you catch it too?" Caitlyn asks. "Your voice..." 

"Oh. No, I didn't. I'm immune to everything, I told you. My voice is from this," Vi says, and tugs down the neck of her sweatshirt as she keeps pacing. 

Caitlyn sees red. 

Literally. 

She's heard that term used in stories before, but she hadn't thought it was something that could actually happen. But at the sight of the faint bruising in the clear shape of handprints on Vi's throat, Caitlyn is hit with a wave of rage so intense that her heart thuds, pressure floods into her head, and her vision literally turns a faint shade of red. 

Caitlyn has to speak through her teeth because she can't unclench her jaw. "Ekko said you'd been hurt. Is that what he was referring to?" 

Vi shrugs and looks away again as she does another turn and starts coming back. "Yeah. It's fine, it's a lot better than it was."

Caitlyn is just hearing a roaring in her ears. "The person who did that, your opponent - are they... still alive?"

"Well, I didn't kill him, so I don't know," Vi mutters. 

Caitlyn wonders if some of the things that had been keeping Vi's family busy had included tracking down that man and killing him. 

If not, she'll have to run a little errand of her own at some point in the near future. 

Caitlyn has so many more questions and she doesn't even know where to start. The emotional back-and-forth she's been on since she set foot in Zaun this morning has rattled her.

First she was excited to see Vi, and then she was terrified that Vi was hurt or dead. Then she'd found out that Vi is alive, but is hurt, and then she was thrilled to hear that Vi quit both pitfighting and drinking, but that now leads into the complication of Vi having to go through withdrawal. On top of that, Caitlyn had the additional trigger of seeing Vi's apartment broken into and all their things destroyed. 

"Can I sit down?" Caitlyn says abruptly. She's confident that her current wooziness is from the adrenaline she's been filled with since she saw Vi's apartment fading away, rather than a lasting effect of her pneumonia, but still. 

Vi finally stops pacing and looks at her with alarm. "Shit. Yeah, of course. Are you okay?" She gestures to the couch. "I'm being such a bad host, fuck." 

Caitlyn sits down on the overstuffed worn couch. "You don't have to be a host. It's just me." 

"Yeah, but..." Vi mutters as she goes into the kitchen and takes a glass out of the cupboard. She doesn't finish her sentence as she gets some ice out of the freezer and adds it to the glass. She takes some sort of filtered pitcher out of the fridge and pours water from it into the glass before bringing it over to Caitlyn and setting it down on the coffee table in front of her. 

"Thank you," Caitlyn says awkwardly. She doesn't know why Vi's acting like they barely know each other. Caitlyn has only been gone for a few weeks. 

Instead of sitting down on the couch next to Caitlyn, Vi throws herself into the armchair she and Powder had been arguing about. She tucks one of her legs underneath her but props her other foot against the edge of the coffee table and starts using it to very aggressively rock the chair.

Caitlyn does have to admit that Powder was right. That chair is clearly supposed to gently rock back and forth by a few inches at the most, but Vi is pushing off of the coffee table so hard that the chair is nearly slamming back into the wall behind her with each rock.

Caitlyn smiles a little. "You are going to break that." 

"Ugh," Vi groans, but she slows the rocking to a more gentle pace. "I can't help it. I can't stop moving." 

There is a restless energy to her that far surpasses her usual level. Vi is a high-energy person by nature; she's usually moving around at any given time, using her body in some way, but this goes beyond that. Caitlyn had read in the informative pamphlets about the anxiety and restlessness that comes with the early stages of withdrawal but she didn't expect it to be quite this obvious. 

"Why are you sitting over there?" Caitlyn asks quietly. They never sit apart. 

"Uh, because you look like that and I look like this," Vi says, as if Caitlyn has any idea what she's talking about. "I'm disgusting right now." 

"You are not, and even if you were, I wouldn't care." Caitlyn picks up the glass of water but just stares at it. 

"Did Ekko..." Vi starts, "you said that he told you I got hurt. Did he tell you everything else?" 

Caitlyn nods. "Yes, but the short version. So I have the gist of it all, but no details." 

Vi slumps further back into the armchair, still rocking it with her foot on the coffee table. Her hands are back in her pockets. "That's, uh. Probably for the best." 

"Did you really quit?" Caitlyn asks. She takes a tentative sip of the water. It's good - clear, fresh. Nearly Piltover quality. She wonders if Ekko or Powder designed that water filter. 

"The pitfighting? Or the drinking?" 

Caitlyn glances at her. "Ekko indicated both." 

Vi slouches down further in her chair, avoiding Caitlyn's eyes. "The pitfighting, yeah. The drinking, well... trying to. I fucked it up already a few times." 

"But you're trying again." 

"Yeah," Vi says quietly. 

One of Caitlyn's earlier questions comes back to her. "Did you pour out the alcohol in your apartment? There weren't any bottles." 

"Yeah, I - " Vi stops and sits up straight in the armchair. "Wait, were you at my apartment?" 

"Yes. I went straight there this morning. I wanted to see you." 

"Oh, fuck," Vi says, her eyes widening. "I didn't think - was there anyone there? Did anyone follow you?"

"No, and no." At least, Caitlyn doesn't think anyone followed her. "I was only there for a few minutes." 

Vi looks horrified. "Shit, Cait, I'm so sorry. I haven't been back there, otherwise I would've left you a note or something."

Caitlyn hadn't thought she'd have to be the one to break the news to Vi about what happened to her apartment. "You haven't been back there at all? Since when?" 

"Two weeks - since the night I quit. I came right here. There were some people following me and I shook them eventually but - you know. Loris and a few of the others know where I live, so." 

Caitlyn's heart clenches. She should've been here. "Vi..." 

"No, it's fine," Vi says hurriedly. "I knew when I quit that I probably couldn't go back there. When I got here, Vander didn't think it was a good idea either, so. Here I am." 

That explains why she'd left all her things in the apartment. 

"Powder and Ekko offered to go over there and get some of our stuff," Vi continues, "but it wasn't worth them putting their lives in danger." She looks guilty. "Sorry I left all your things behind." 

"No, don't be," Caitlyn says firmly. "I don't care about any of that. We can buy all new things." 

"I mean, I think it's safe to go now?" Vi shrugs. "I don't really know everything that's been going on. Nobody's told me anything and honestly, I haven't asked. But Vander said there's nothing to worry about now. If you want to go back and get your clothes and stuff, he and Clagg can probably go with you - " 

"Vi," Caitlyn says gently, carefully. "There's not much... left." 

Vi stares at her. "What?" 

"Someone - well, I think multiple people, probably - broke in." Caitlyn makes herself continue the rest. It's Vi's apartment - she deserves to know the complete truth. "It looks like they kicked in the door and then trashed the place." 

Vi somehow looks even paler than she did before. "I didn't think... I guess I thought that they might be waiting for me there, not that they would - they kicked in the door?" 

Caitlyn nods. She's about to apologize for... everything, really. For refusing to go to Piltover for medical care until she had such a severe case of pneumonia that she got stuck there for three weeks and therefore wasn't here in Zaun when Vi needed her to be. 

But Vi speaks before Caitlyn can start her apology. "Cait, I'm so, so sorry. That must have scared you so badly." 

Caitlyn blinks at her, thrown off. "What?" 

"Seeing the door kicked in," Vi says. "Seeing that someone broke into our place." 

Caitlyn's eyes start to burn with the now-familiar warmth of tears. "Well, yes, but only because I didn't know if you were there when it happened." Her voice wobbles towards the end of her sentence, despite how even she tries to keep it. 

"Cait," Vi says, and launches herself from the armchair and around the coffee table. She tackles Caitlyn into the couch and wraps her strong arms around Caitlyn's shoulders and back. 

This is exactly what Caitlyn's been missing. This is exactly what she needed. 

She winds her arms around Vi's waist, letting Vi squeeze the breath out of her lungs. All of the tension Caitlyn's been carrying since she saw that door this morning starts melting away. 

"It didn't look like you'd been there in a while," Caitlyn mumbles into Vi's sweatshirt. "I was hoping you'd be here because otherwise - " 

"I'm so sorry," Vi says again, even though none of this is her fault. "I thought that even if you did come back to Zaun and you went there first, that you'd come here when you realized I wasn't there. I didn't think it would be... I didn't think anyone would have actually broken in." 

Caitlyn doesn't try to get out of Vi's arms, because now that she's here, she never wants to be any further apart from Vi than this, but she does lean back so she can see Vi's face. "Did you really think I wasn't going to come back?" 

Vi loosens her hold just enough so that she can lean her shoulder against the back of the couch. She's nearly straddling Caitlyn's hips with the way she's sitting, her waist twisted. "I wanted you to. I hoped you would. I thought that you thought you would. But I also thought that maybe... when you got back to the fresh air and the sun and your big house with your pool and your bathtub and your orgy shower - " 

"It could fit fourteen people, if you're strategic about it," Caitlyn says. "I mapped it out." 

Vi laughs and puts her hand on the side of Caitlyn's face, running her thumb over Caitlyn's cheekbone. There's a fine tremor in her hand - it's not bad, yet, but it's certainly there. That must be why she'd been keeping her hands in her pockets since Caitlyn came in. 

"I thought that maybe I wouldn't be... enough," Vi continues quietly. "Compared to everything you have there." 

Caitlyn shakes her head without looking away. "Nothing I have in Piltover compares to what I have here." 

Vi kisses her and just like the first time she did that, everything else melts away. It sends tingles and waves of warm pleasure all through Caitlyn's body, everywhere Vi's touching her. Vi pushes up on her knees so she can slide over to straddle Caitlyn as she deepens the kiss and it's so good. How did Caitlyn even stand three weeks away from her? How has she even spent three minutes of her life doing anything other than this - 

Caitlyn very abruptly remembers that they're in Vi's family's apartment and anyone could walk in at any time. She pulls back, gasping. 

"What's wrong?" Vi asks.

"This is your family's apartment," Caitlyn hisses. 

"Oh," Vi says, looking unconcerned, but she does tip herself off of Caitlyn and back onto the couch. She stays right next to her though, curling up against Caitlyn's side in a much more appropriate way. "They won't come back in unless I tell them to. They're enjoying having a break from me." 

"Vi, I'm sure that's not - " 

Vi smiles at her. Ugh, Caitlyn missed her so much. "That's not me being self-deprecating, I promise. I've been really cranky. If you hadn't shown up, Powder probably would've killed me."

"I think that's understandable," Caitlyn murmurs. "You feeling cranky, I mean. Not Powder wanting to kill you." 

Vi sighs. "I guess. It's - it's going to get worse, though." She shifts slightly on the couch so she can hold up her hands, the tremor visible in both. 

Caitlyn takes both of Vi's hands in hers and tucks them against her chest, pulling Vi forward. "I know. I'm glad I'm here." 

Vi huffs a laugh, leaning her head against the couch. She lets Caitlyn keep hold of her hands, though. "You might not be saying the same thing in a few hours." 

"No, I will be," Caitlyn says firmly. "I mean it, Vi. I'm glad I'm here."

Vi sighs. "I'm glad you're here too. I just wish I was - I wish it was like, a better time. I had some really exciting stuff planned." 

"Planned for what?" 

"For if you came back, obviously. In my head it was a super dramatic reunion. There was a lot of sex involved - " 

"Shh," Caitlyn hisses, trying to cover Vi's mouth with her hand. Vi leans away, grinning. "Don't say that here!" 

"Say what? Se - " 

"Violet!" 

Vi laughs. "I missed you trying to get me to shut up. They can't hear, I promise." She nods her head towards the stairs. "They were looking for you, just so you know." 

"What do you mean?" 

"When you went back to Piltover. I guess I should've told them where you were but I was a little distracted. They started looking for you when you just stopped showing up at the bar. Ekko finally ran into me and I told him then." 

"Oh," Caitlyn says, and tries to hide how emotional that makes her. Then she remembers that she's back in Zaun with Vi and she doesn't have to do that anymore, so she lets it show on her face. "Probably not Powder, though." 

Vi shakes her head. "It's not that she doesn't like you. She's just..." 

"Protective?" 

Vi shrugs. "Yeah, but you also kind of have to earn her trust. She doesn't actually know you all that well yet." 

"She knows me as a person a little," Caitlyn says, "but she doesn't know how I am with you. None of them do. They stared at me like I was a ghost when I got here, as if they didn't understand that of course I would come back to you." 

Vi laughs and squeezes in even closer to Caitlyn's side. "Yeah, that's true. I think they thought you were just using me for sex until you went back to Piltover." 

"Vi!" Caitlyn hisses, swatting at her. 

"What? I told you, that's usually what Pilties do when they come here." 

"Well. That's not the case with me." 

"I know that," Vi says. She gestures to the stairs. "But they don't. At least, they didn't until you showed up today. They're probably all sitting in the bar right now gossiping about us. I don't think they realize that you were pretty much living with me." She sighs. "I guess we don't live there anymore, though. Was there anything left for us to even go back and get?" 

Caitlyn gently runs her fingers through Vi's hair, trying to hide her concern when she feels how clammy Vi's forehead is. "Not really. Some clothes, maybe, but nothing we can't buy more of." 

Vi's quiet for a minute before she speaks again, leaning on Caitlyn's shoulder as Caitlyn strokes her hair. "Where are we going to go then? I mean, we can stay here for now, but... with the bar here, it's not..." 

"We'll figure it out," Caitlyn says. It's certainly a good point - living in a bar is probably not the best place for Vi when she's newly sober. "As soon as you feel up to it, we'll go look for a new place. I have a list of everything I want already prepared." 

Vi laughs. "Let me guess - a bathtub is on that list?" 

"Of course. I'll show you the full list and then you can add anything you want as well." 

"I have a pretty low bar. Just no rats." 

"Surely there's something else you want." 

"Not really." 

"Well, if you think of something else, we'll add it to the list. In the meantime, I do still have my room down the street." 

Vi groans. "Cait, we can't stay there. That bed is too small."

"What happened to all your bluster about being creative?" 

"My creativity is for sex, not sleeping," Vi grumbles. "I like a comfy bed with lots of space. If I can't have that, I'd rather sleep on the floor."

"See, you do have something on your apartment wish list other than rats. Also, no more floor sleeping." 

"Fine, add space for a comfy bed to the list." 

"Happy to." She keeps running her hand through Vi's hair. "I really missed you."  

"I missed you too." 

"I kept a running log of things I wanted to tell you," Caitlyn admits. "So that I didn't forget anything." 

"Did you bring it with you?" 

"Of course. It's in my bag." She suddenly remembers her earlier success. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I caught a pickpocket on my way here." 

"Did the kid bite you?" 

"Almost," Caitlyn admits. "Why didn't you warn me that they would do that?" 

"Honestly, I didn't think you'd ever catch one. They're pretty good." Vi sits up abruptly. "Wait, I forgot, I do have something for the list - a nice shower." 

"Absolutely. I thought that was a given." 

Vi settles back down against Caitlyn again. "I want it to have good acoustics so I can sing." 

"Can you sing?" Caitlyn asks. "I feel like this is something I should know about you." 

"Yeah."

Caitlyn pulls back to look at her face. "Really?" 

"Mhm." 

Caitlyn scrutinizes her face. "I can't tell if you're joking." 

"I'm not! Do you not believe me?" 

"I've just never heard you sing before. Not even in the shower." 

Vi leans her head against the couch and smiles at Caitlyn. "You know how thin the walls are in my apartment. You think my neighbours would tolerate the sound of me singing?" 

"I still don't entirely believe you." 

Vi turns to the stairs and shouts, "Powder!" at a volume that she really shouldn't be able to reach with her voice as hoarse as it is. 

Caitlyn is expecting Powder to just ignore the summons, given that she and Vi had been viciously arguing about the chair before Caitlyn had arrived, but Powder comes into the apartment a moment later inexplicably holding a giant ice cream cone. 

"What?" she says, and licks the bright-blue ice cream. 

Where did she get that ice cream from? Caitlyn is positive that there are no shops nearby that sell ice cream like that. 

"Can you confirm that I can sing?" Vi asks. "Cait doesn't believe me."

Powder nods and looks at Caitlyn. "She's not lying. She's a good singer. Our mom used to say 'Violet, if you spent half as much time practicing your singing as you do yelling at everyone, you'd be well on your way to a fulfilling career in the arts'."

Vi laughs. "I forgot about that." 

"That was before the whole thing with your neck though," Powder continues, gesturing to the marks on Vi's throat. She mimics the hoarse sound of Vi's voice and says, "now you sound like a ninety-year-old lifelong-chainsmoking Zaunite who worked in the mines since they were like, three." She looks at Caitlyn and switches her voice back to normal. "We were mine kids. I can make that joke."

"I kinda like my new voice," Vi says. "Makes me sound tougher." She points at the ice cream cone that Powder is holding. "Is that cotton candy?" 

Powder gives her a pitying look. "Vi, it's obviously ice cream." 

"I meant the flavour." 

Caitlyn cannot keep up with the speed of this conversation. 

Powder holds the cone up. "Yeah, it is." 

"Can I have some?" Vi asks. 

Powder shrugs and comes over to the couch to hand Vi the cone. Caitlyn is about to warn her that Vi eats ice cream in the most deranged way possible, but Powder suddenly yanks the cone back before Vi can take it. 

"Wait," she says, "you're going to bite it, aren't you. Because you're a philistine." 

"Hey!" Vi protests, trying to reach for the cone. 

"Calm down, I'll get you a bowl," Powder mutters as she heads for the kitchen. "I do not want bite marks in my beautiful ice cream." 

Caitlyn expects her to use a spoon or perhaps even a butter knife to slice off part of the ice cream, but instead Powder takes out a giant meat cleaver and a small bowl. In one swipe, she shears off part of the ice cream into the bowl. 

"Nice," Vi says approvingly. "Can you give some to Caitlyn?" 

"No," Powder says, and glares at Caitlyn. 

"I've done nothing to deserve this treatment," Caitlyn says under her breath. The continued glare from Powder as she brings the bowl and a spoon over to Vi indicates that she feels otherwise. 

"I'll give you some of mine," Vi says warmly, and holds her shaking hand out for the bowl. 

Powder snatches it back at the last second again. "You're not going to puke the second you eat this, right?" 

"No," Vi says, with a confidence that Caitlyn feels is probably unearned given the distinctively chalky pallor of her skin. From the doubtful look Powder gives Vi, it's clear she feels the same. 

"Vi," Powder says warningly. 

Vi sighs and amends her statement. "Not yet." She wiggles her fingers at the bowl. 

Powder sighs and hands it over. Vi takes it happily and snuggles up against Caitlyn's side again. 

"Want some?" Vi asks Caitlyn. 

"No, but thank you." 

"Suit yourself," Vi says, digging into the ice cream. 

Powder, still holding her now partially cleaver-severed ice cream cone, narrows her eyes at Caitlyn again and then turns to Vi. "Is she staying here?" 

"Yes," Vi says through a mouthful of ice cream. 

"In your room?" Powder asks. 

Vi rolls her eyes. "No, in yours. Yes, of course she's staying in my room." 

"For how long?" 

Vi shrugs and eats another spoonful of ice cream. "I dunno. Until I'm no longer actively dying." 

"You're not going to die," Caitlyn and Powder say at the same time, and then they glare at each other. 

"Aw, you both agree on something," Vi says happily. She taps the bowl with her spoon. "Hey, Pow, this is good, but do you know what would make it better?" 

"If you say whiskey, I'll kill you," Powder says. 

Vi looks thoughtful. "I was going to say some chocolate chips, but whiskey would actually be so good with this." 

Powder throws her hands up in the air, somehow maintaining a grip on the ice cream cone, and storms off to somewhere else in the apartment. 

Vi holds a spoonful of ice cream out to Caitlyn. "Are you sure you don't want some?" 

"Yes, but thank you." Caitlyn brushes some of Vi's messy hair out of her face and tries to subtly feel if she has a fever yet. She doesn't seem to, which is a good sign - she's only in the very early stages of withdrawal right now, but Caitlyn's very paranoid after all of the pamphlets she read. "I'm going to run over to my room down the street and get some of my clothes. Do you want me to bring you anything from my place? Or can I pick you up anything on the way?" 

"Could you bring some of your extra clothes so I can have something to wear for now? Powder bought me a couple of things because I was stuck here and couldn't go out myself, but I don't have much. I've just been stealing everyone else's clothes." 

"I can do that." Caitlyn starts to get up, but Vi throws her leg back over Caitlyn's thighs, pinning her down on the couch with rather shocking effectiveness. 

"How long are you gonna be gone for?" Vi asks, still holding her bowl of ice cream. 

"Not long at all." Caitlyn thinks about it. "I'll be fast. Thirty minutes?" 

Vi relaxes and pulls her leg back into the couch. "Okay." 

Caitlyn frowns. "Is that alright? Do you want me to stay?" 

"No, go," Vi says. "Go get your stuff." She sighs. "If you were going to be gone for a while, you'd come back to me being a total wreck, so. But I'll still be myself in thirty minutes." 

"I'll come right back," Caitlyn says as she gets up. "Enjoy your ice cream." 

Vi raises the spoon in farewell, and Caitlyn hurries to go collect some of her clothes. 

She does make it back within thirty minutes, even though she does get locked out of the bar again and has to bang on the door to be let in.

This time Mylo doesn't point the shotgun at her, at least. Another win.

Chapter Text

Despite the circumstances, the rest of Caitlyn's day is actually very nice. 

Once she gets back with the clothes she picked up from her room, Vi gives Caitlyn a tour of the apartment. Vi's bouncing off the walls the whole time, still filled with the anxious, frenetic energy that had led to her nearly breaking the armchair in the living room.

The apartment isn't at all what Caitlyn had expected. She's spent a lot of time in the bar itself, but not in the apartment, and she's surprised at how big it is. 

The layout is absurdly convoluted. They'd added onto the space over the years, apparently, and taken over part of an apartment in the neighbouring building. So some of the hallways lead to dead ends, and there are random steps into some of the bedrooms. 

It's so different from Caitlyn's home in Piltover. Nothing here matches - all the furniture has been accumulated over years of living, and the walls are covered in Powder's paintings. The bookshelves are stacked with books of all kinds and there is clutter everywhere. The apartment isn't dirty, by any means - Vi has reportedly been directing most of her energy into deep cleaning the entire place. There's just so many things in here. Stacks of paper, old maps, old toys, random pieces of machinery from Powder and Ekko's projects. Blankets, throw pillows, games. 

Caitlyn also learns that Claggor and Mylo used to have to share a room, but Claggor has just recently moved in with Serena. Caitlyn is briefly confused as to how that had escaped her notice, but it turns out that Claggor and Serena's new apartment is literally right next door to Caitlyn's building, and therefore they live only a few minutes away.

Claggor apparently hadn't wanted to be any further than that from the rest of his family. Caitlyn thinks it's very sweet. 

So now Mylo has his own space, Ekko and Powder share a large room, and Vander has his own room and washroom as well. The rest of the apartment is all shared space - the living room, the kitchen, the main washroom. 

It's fascinating to Caitlyn how they all actually use the common living areas as the space where they all spend their time. In Caitlyn's home, the only time the family congregates is for meals. In this apartment, they all just wander in and out, spending time in the living room and kitchen together and then leaving for their own tasks or duties. 

Caitlyn spends the rest of the afternoon in that living room with Vi. 

There's a level of comfort and safety in this home that Caitlyn's never quite experienced before. Clearly Vi feels the same - despite her pale skin and the sweat constantly beading on her forehead, Vi is in one of the best moods that Caitlyn has ever seen her in. 

It's like a weight has been lifted off her. Some of the darkness and gloominess and almost... dread that she'd been carrying around is gone.

Maybe some of Vi's good mood is from having Caitlyn back, but Caitlyn tries to not take too much credit for that. 

At first, Vi keeps buzzing around the apartment. She's constantly tidying, cleaning, showing Caitlyn different things around the apartment - anything to keep moving. It helps when Mylo and Claggor come in after a while, with Serena in tow.

It does make Caitlyn feel a little more comfortable about being here, right in a family's space that's not her own, when she sees how visibly nervous Serena is. She gives Caitlyn a hesitant smile when she sees her, and then jumps when Mylo grabs a box from one of the bookshelves and drops it loudly on the coffee table. 

"Serena, Caitlyn," he says, "sit down. You're about to learn something very important." 

Caitlyn, who is already seated on the couch, looks at him. "I am sitting." 

Mylo rolls his eyes and sits down on the rug, leaning over the coffee table to open the box. "On the floor. Obviously." He looks at Vi, who is curled up on the couch next to Caitlyn with a blanket around her shoulders. "Vi, you playing?" 

"Uh, of course," she says, and slides off the couch to sit with her back against it and her legs under the coffee table. She pats the space on the rug next to her. "Cait, come on." 

Caitlyn moves to the floor to sit next to her, shooting a conspiratorially-wary look at Serena as she too sits down next to Claggor around the table. "What are we doing?" 

"Playing a game," Vi says. "It's fun. We just have to teach you the rules first." 

Caitlyn raises her eyebrows as Mylo dumps out the box onto the coffee table. A mixture of cards, dice, small wooden blocks, and other assorted tiny items tumble all over the table. "What... is it?" 

"Powder invented it when she was a kid," Claggor explains as Vi and Mylo start rapidly sorting the pieces into piles. "She was annoyed that she could never beat us in other games so she designed her own and then made us all play it with her." 

"It's actually really fun," Vi says. "The first rule is that Powder and Ekko can't play." 

"Um," Serena says hesitantly, "but Powder invented it?" 

"Yeah, but she's too good at it," Claggor tells her as he helps sort the pieces. "She wins every time, so we have to start the game when she's not here. Otherwise there's no chance of anyone else winning." 

To Caitlyn's surprise, the game is actually quite fun once she gets the hang of it. It's shockingly complicated for something a child created and requires an astonishing amount of aggression, but it really is enjoyable. The game does require full concentration, which turns out to be the perfect thing for Vi to keep her mind off how she feels.

They play for hours, and Vi keeps up with the game the entire time. The trembling in her hands gets more and more noticeable as the hours wear on, but no one mentions it. Caitlyn assumes that Claggor must have filled Serena in on the situation because she politely doesn't say anything about it. 

At one point, Claggor and Serena prepare a bunch of snacks in the kitchen and bring them out, and Vi even eats those. She drinks the water that Caitlyn keeps putting in front of her. She makes jokes, she teases Mylo and Claggor, and she wins the first round of the game with a solid lead. 

Vi does keep the throw blanket from the couch wrapped around her, but other than that she seems to be doing well. 

Later in the evening, Powder, Ekko, and Vander show up with an unbelievable amount of takeout containers from the stir fry place down the street. Everyone immediately descends on the table like a horde of locusts.

It's such a different atmosphere than Caitlyn's used to, especially with having just been in Piltover for weeks. She hadn't expected anyone to dress up for dinner or anything like that here, but the chaos of everyone crowding around the kitchen table trying to get dibs on the different food items is... a lot. 

It warms her heart when Vi elbows Mylo out of the way to get the most coveted dishes, and then turns around and hands Caitlyn the heaping plate. 

"Thank you," Caitlyn says reverently as Vi then fights to make her own plate. 

Caitlyn can't help but notice that even after all that, Vi barely eats her dinner. She picks at her food and does eat some of it, but she doesn't even finish half the plate before she silently passes it over to Mylo. He takes it without even looking at her, dumps the rest of the food onto his own plate, and gives the empty plate back to Vi. 

Vi always eats whatever food is in front of her, and usually with gusto, so it's a clear sign to Caitlyn that it's probably time to wind down for the evening. 

"Do you want to go lie down?" Caitlyn asks her quietly. The general conversation around the table is so loud that she probably didn't even have to lower her voice. 

Vi tugs the throw blanket that she still has over her shoulders tighter around her body. "Yeah. You can stay here if you want though." 

Caitlyn shakes her head and finishes her last bite of broccoli. "I can help clean up, and then I'll come join you." 

Vi looks amused. "Cait, you don't know how to do dishes or clean up a kitchen." 

Caitlyn has never been more offended in her entire life. "That's not - that is not true. Of course I can wash dishes!" 

"You definitely can't." 

"I can!" 

Vi taps Caitlyn's empty plate. "Go try." 

She's caught. Caitlyn does not want to show off her ineptitude in front of Vi's family. They already tease her for enough things - they don't need to see that she really never has properly cleaned up a meal before. 

She makes a face at Vi instead and Vi laughs. "Just put your plate on the counter. I'll teach you how to do it another time." 

Caitlyn sighs, but she does put her and Vi's plates on the kitchen counter. She turns around just to see Vi get up from the table and then sway on her feet. She has to slam her hand down on the table to catch her balance and even then, it takes a few seconds of her staring blankly at nothing and leaning on the table before she straightens up again. 

"Woah," Mylo says, his hand outstretched from where he'd been sitting right next to Vi. He doesn't touch her though. "You okay?" 

Everyone is looking at Vi now. 

"Yeah," Vi says, but it takes her a beat too long to say it.

Yes, it's definitely time for her to lie down. 

Vi's room in the apartment is small, but cozy and warm. 

"This didn't exist when I was a kid," Vi explains as she flops down onto the bed. "I was so confused when I got here after I broke out from Stillwater. Couldn't figure out where this room came from, or if it had always been here and I just forgot it." 

Caitlyn starts sorting through the clothes she'd brought over. "Where did you sleep before Stillwater, then?" 

"Shared a room with Powder and the boys," Vi says. She's still wrapped in the blanket she took from the couch, but she pulls the duvet on the bed over her as well. "This was one of the rooms they added on while I was gone." 

"It's nice," Caitlyn says truthfully. She finds some clothes to wear to bed and then turns back to Vi. "Are you going to sleep? Should I just get ready for bed?" It's fairly early in the evening still, by Zaun standards, but Vi is looking progressively worse and Caitlyn can't imagine she's going to be up to socializing more with her family tonight. 

Vi huffs a laugh. "I'm not going to sleep, but you can. You must be tired." 

"I'm really not," Caitlyn says. "I was a very good patient when I was in Piltover. I've almost had too much sleep over the last few weeks. Don't you want to rest?" 

"Yeah, but I can't." Vi gestures to the nightstand. "I've got a book to read, I'm okay." 

Right. Caitlyn does remember reading something in one of her informative pamphlets about insomnia occurring with withdrawal. "I'll stay up with you." She'll get changed into something comfortable, then, if they're in for the night. 

"Why? One of us should get some sleep, at least." 

Caitlyn doesn't tell her that the physician she'd spoken with had specifically recommended that Vi never be left alone while she's going through withdrawal. "You'll be bored," she says instead. 

"That's fine. I was bored in Stillwater for ten years and I survived. Plus, I have a book now." 

Caitlyn gets changed into a pair of leggings and a comfortable sweater. She looks over at how Vi has managed to bury herself in her multiple blankets and pillows successfully enough that Caitlyn can only see her eyes. "How are you planning to read like that?" 

"You'll see," Vi says, her voice slightly muffled. Then she hesitates. "Can you pass me my book, though."

Caitlyn hands her the book from the nightstand and Vi snakes one hand out from her nest of blankets to grab it. 

"Are you really that chilled?" Caitlyn can't help but ask with a frown. It's pleasantly warm in the room. 

"Kinda?" Vi says from within the blankets. "It's hard to describe. It's more that I feel shaky, which feels like shivering, so the blankets help." 

Caitlyn tucks her worry away inside her little internal emotion-box and gets her notebook from her bag. She lays down on the bed next to Vi but stays on top of the blankets, because the room is quite warm already. "If you want to save your book until later, I've got some things to show you." 

Vi tugs the blankets away from her face. "Really? Like what?" 

Caitlyn arranges the pillows on the bed so she can sit propped up. "I've got the list of all the things I wanted to remember to tell you about."

Vi drops the book onto the bed and shuffles up so she can lean on the pillows too, with her head propped on Caitlyn's shoulder. "Show me, show me, show me - " 

"I am, just hang on - " Caitlyn says, flipping to the correct page. She starts with the first item and goes from there.

Just as Caitlyn had hoped, it entertains Vi for hours. 

Caitlyn gets interrogated by Vi regarding every item on the list. Explaining the intricacies of Piltovian high society takes a very long time, especially because Vi keeps laughing and interrupting. 

Caitlyn also shows her the sketches she did of her room and the gardens outside her window. 

Vi, still curled up against Caitlyn's side, stares at the sketches with her eyebrows raised. "Is that actually how big your bed is?" 

Caitlyn frowns at her own sketch. "Well, sort of. I'm not very good at drawing, so the proportions are a little off." 

"And you were fine to come down to Zaun and sleep in that tiny bed in your room here?" 

Caitlyn shrugs. "I didn't expect to find a bed the same size as my bed in Piltover. I don't need all that space, anyway." 

"Wait," Vi says gleefully. "Draw your shower. Draw me your orgy shower." 

Caitlyn sighs and goes to get a pen.

The resulting drawing sends Vi into peals of laughter. 

"Now draw the people," Vi instructs. "The... orgy-goers? What do you call them." 

"I don't know, given that I've never actually hosted an orgy."

Vi is grinning. "Start drawing." 

Caitlyn does her best. 

It makes Vi laugh so hard that she has to bury her face in Caitlyn's shoulder. 

"What's happening there?" Vi asks, nearly hysterical. "No one has legs that bend that way, Cait!" 

"No!" Caitlyn protests, distressed. She tries to correct the drawing and makes it worse. "No, the leg is going the right way - it's a knee, see, it's bending correctly. " 

Vi frees her arms from the blankets to point at the torso Caitlyn has just drawn. "Then this is backward. Did the person come to your orgy like this? Are they a contortionist? Nobody's spine should do that." 

"I warned you I'm not good at this," Caitlyn hisses, which just sets Vi off again, "and no one came to the orgy - " 

"Aw, that's terrible. You hosted an orgy and no one came? That's so sad. Maybe you did the invitations wrong." Vi's eyes light up as she clearly thinks of an addition to the joke. "Wait, or did you mean they showed up, but out of fourteen people, not a single person came?" 

"No one came to the orgy or at the orgy because it never existed!" Caitlyn shouts, and then immediately remembers she's in Vi's family's home, and claps her own hand over her mouth. Vi laughs so hard that it's soundless at first. It takes her about five minutes to calm back down. 

After a while, Caitlyn gets tired of having her sketching skills mocked and puts the notebook away. She's searching through her bags to choose something to read herself, now that Vi's settled down with her own book, when there's a knock on the door. 

Caitlyn opens it to find Powder standing there, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. 

Caitlyn is truly a little confused as to what she did to make Powder dislike her so much. She could've sworn that Powder had been really coming around to her until she'd learned that Caitlyn and Vi are together. While she knows that Powder is protective of Vi and worried that Caitlyn is going to hurt her, Caitlyn doesn't think she deserves quite this much ire. 

She's also not going to stand for it. 

"Yes?" Caitlyn asks tartly. 

Powder walks right past Caitlyn into the room. Caitlyn has to step aside to let her by, which rankles a little, but ultimately this is Powder's home and not Caitlyn's. 

"Hey," Powder says to Vi, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Everyone's heading out or going to sleep. Mylo is going to go crash on Clagg and Serena's couch tonight so it's not as crowded here." She nods her head to Caitlyn without looking at her. "Is she going to stay up with you?" 

"Yes," Caitlyn says, even though Powder had clearly been asking Vi. 

Vi sighs and puts her book down. "No one has to stay up with me." 

"Wrong," Powder says. She looks up at Caitlyn. "You're going to stay awake all night?" 

Caitlyn crosses her own arms. "Yes." 

"Are you just going to ignore everything I say?" Vi says to Powder. "Stop acting like I'm a kid. I don't need a babysitter." 

"You do, actually."

Vi rolls her eyes. "I'm fine. Caitlyn's going to be here with me."

Powder narrows her eyes. "That doesn't make me feel better." 

"Excuse me," Caitlyn says stiffly. 

Powder glares at her. "It's not about you, calm down. I'm not trying to be snarky. You trust Vi too much and therefore I don't trust that this is going to work." 

"Seriously?" Vi says, before Caitlyn can speak. "Powder, come on." 

"Yes, seriously." Powder gets up from the bed. "But you know what, maybe you'll prove me wrong this time. Just so you know, though, I took all the mouthwash out of the cupboards and I also found the mini bottles you stashed under the mattress, the floorboards, and in that empty bottle of shampoo in the back of the cabinet under the sink." 

A flush spreads over Vi's face. "Pow, I didn't - those are from years ago. I forgot I even did that." 

"Uh huh," Powder says flatly. She looks at Caitlyn. "Do you have any mouthwash in your bags?" 

Caitlyn is completely caught off guard by the direction this whole situation has taken. "Um. Yes." 

"Toss it," Powder says, ignoring the glare Vi is giving her. "Otherwise Vi might drink it when you're not looking if she gets desperate enough." 

"Powder, leave," Vi snaps. 

Powder turns to go, but then she stops and looks at Caitlyn again. "I know you think I'm a bitch. I don't care what you think about me, but just please get rid of the mouthwash."

She leaves, closing the door behind her. 

Caitlyn looks at Vi. Vi just sits on the bed, staring at the floor. She's not usually prone to blushing, but her face is deeply flushed. 

"Is there... context to that situation?" Caitlyn says carefully. 

"If you're asking if I actually drank mouthwash," Vi says lowly, "the answer's yes." 

Caitlyn goes over to her bag and finds the small leather satchel inside it that has her toiletries, including a tiny bottle of mouthwash. "Can I ask why?" 

"It was a bad night," Vi says quietly. "Didn't want to sober up but Powder took my stash and Vander had cut me off from the bar. Got desperate. Maybe the topside kind is different, but in Zaun, mouthwash has some alcohol in it." 

Caitlyn can only stare. "Well, yes, but - it also has a lot of other chemicals in it?" 

"Yeah," Vi says. She sounds tired. "It sure does. Fucked myself up with it, that's for sure. I never did it again, so I don't know why Powder brought it up now." 

Caitlyn can hazard a guess at that one. "I assume she brought it up because she doesn't want you to drink mouthwash again." 

Vi doesn't laugh. "I wouldn't." 

Caitlyn is still going to pour out the mouthwash she has in her hand now. She slips it into the pocket of her sweater. "What about the mini bottles she mentioned?" 

"What about them?" Vi says defensively. "I'm not lying, I must have hidden those around back when I still lived here. I forgot about it. It was years ago." 

Caitlyn approaches the next sentence with extreme caution. "Are there any more that Powder didn't find?" 

"No!" Vi protests. She looks genuinely offended. "Do you think I'm lying about this?" 

Caitlyn starts taking some of the clothes out of her bag and folding them, just for something to do with her hands. "No," she says honestly, "but I had to ask. You've lied to me before about things like this." 

"Things like what?"

"You had alcohol hidden all over your apartment," Caitlyn reminds her, "so you could drink when you thought I wouldn't notice." 

She glances over at Vi as she folds a shirt. Vi is sitting on the bed still, looking just... downcast. 

"Yeah, but..." Vi says, "that's what - that's why I'm doing all this. Because I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to be that person anymore." 

"I know." Caitlyn puts the shirt down and goes to sit next to Vi on the bed. "But I don't think you can blame Powder for... preparing for the worst, in a sense. Especially if you get to a point where you're not able to think as rationally as you are now. You might not want to go find a mini bottle you hid right now, sure - but if this ends up taking days and you aren't able to sleep, and you're not feeling well..."  

"I guess," Vi says quietly. "There really aren't any more. I swear." 

Caitlyn nods, because she does believe her, even if maybe she shouldn't. But when she goes to brush her teeth before bed, she does take her mouthwash with her and pour the bottle down the drain. Just in case.

Caitlyn does end up drifting off when she gets into bed. She can't even really blame herself for it - the room is dim, lit only by the warm glow of the lamp on the beside table. The bed is fairly small, but there's still enough room that they're not squished together. It's also a shockingly comfy bed, and the worn blankets are soft and cozy. 

Caitlyn also has Vi in bed next to her for the first time in weeks, so it shouldn't be a surprise how safe and comfortable Caitlyn feels. Even if Vi is wrapped up so tightly in her blankets that Caitlyn can't really even touch her. 

Vi is still reading her book as Caitlyn starts to doze off. Caitlyn keeps forcing herself back to wakefulness until Vi says quietly, "Cait, go to sleep." 

"I should stay up," Caitlyn mumbles. 

"You don't need to. I'll be fine, I promise." 

Caitlyn's eyes are so heavy. "Will you wake me up if you start feeling worse? Or if you need anything?" 

"Yes," Vi says firmly. 

Caitlyn sighs, but she does drop off into a light sleep. 

She wakes up about every thirty minutes; apparently even her subconscious is afraid to go any longer than that without checking on Vi. 

Each time, Vi seems fine. She's just buried in the blankets, reading. The quiet rasp of the pages turning puts Caitlyn back under again nearly right away. 

It's at least a few hours later when Caitlyn wakes up and notices that Vi's book is abandoned on the bed next to her. 

"Are you alright?" Caitlyn asks sleepily. 

"Mhm," Vi says. She's lying on her back with one of her arms thrown over her forehead. The sleeve of the oversized sweatshirt she's wearing obscures most of her face. 

"Do you want me to turn the light off?" 

"No, it's okay." 

"Can I get you anything?" 

"No. Thanks though." 

"Not even some water?"

"Cait. Too many questions." 

"Right. Sorry." That's fair. Caitlyn will stop interrogating her. 

Caitlyn drifts off again when minutes pass and Vi just stays in the same position. 

An indeterminate amount of time later, Caitlyn wakes up to Vi carefully climbing out of bed over top of her. 

"What's wrong," Caitlyn mumbles thickly. She'd fallen into a deeper sleep that time. 

"Go back to sleep," Vi whispers. "I'll be back in a bit." 

Well, that's against the rules that Caitlyn is strictly following because that seems to be the only thing she can cling to in this situation. So she gets up too and stumbles out into the dark and quiet apartment after Vi. 

She finds the door to the washroom already closed, but light shines from underneath it. Caitlyn walks right in without bothering to knock and shuts it behind her. 

As she expected, Vi is slumped on the tile floor in front of the toilet, one of her arms thrown over it and her forehead resting in the crook of her elbow. Her other arm is wrapped tightly around her stomach, her fingers digging into the side of her sweatshirt.

"Did you think I wouldn't follow you?" Caitlyn asks. She looks around the room and sees a stack of towels on a shelf in the corner. She takes all of them and brings them back over to Vi. 

"Thought you might just stay asleep," Vi mutters without moving a muscle. 

"I'm very vigilant," Caitlyn says. She crouches down next to Vi and taps her knee. "Move your leg for a second. You'll hurt your knees if you spend too long on the tile like this." 

Vi groans, but she does shift a little so Caitlyn can slide one of the thick towels between her knees and the tile. "I'll go get you some water." 

Caitlyn is only in the kitchen for a minute to get a glass of water from the pitcher in the fridge, but by the time she gets back, Vi is already retching into the toilet. 

Caitlyn swears under her breath and shuts the washroom door behind her. She sets the glass down on the counter and rushes to hold Vi's hair away from her face.

Once she has most of Vi's hair held back, Caitlyn uses her other hand to gently rub Vi's back. She doesn't bother with verbal platitudes or other empty comforting words; Caitlyn's not great at that sort of thing, and Vi certainly won't appreciate it right now either. 

It takes a long time for Vi to stop heaving and catch her breath. Even then, she's trembling under Caitlyn's hands.

When her breathing finally evens out, Vi drops her forehead back into the crook of her elbow and groans. Caitlyn lets go of her hair and flushes the toilet for her, standing up to grab the water glass and some tissues.

"Here," she says, and then just leaves the glass on the tile beside her when Vi doesn't move. She presses the tissues into Vi's hand so she can clean her face. "Do you think you're done for now?" 

"No," Vi croaks, her voice now even more hoarse than before. She's shivering visibly now, even through the thick sweatshirt and sweatpants she's still wearing. They're probably too thick, actually, now that Caitlyn thinks about it. Vi is sweating so much that her sweatshirt had been damp under Caitlyn's hand when she'd been rubbing Vi's back. 

Caitlyn looks around the room. It's very tidy, despite how cluttered it is; Vi's cleaning spree must have extended to this part of the apartment too. "Are there any hair elastics in here?" 

"Don't know," Vi mumbles. "Probably." She gestures vaguely with the arm that isn't supporting her head towards the sink. 

Caitlyn searches through the cabinets under the sink and finds a drawer that must be Powder's, and it does have some hair elastics. Caitlyn takes one and kneels down next to Vi again, gently brushing her hair away from her face and tying it up as best she can. 

"This would be easier if your hair was cut evenly," Caitlyn says mildly, trying to catch all the random shorter strands of Vi's hair. 

"But then I'd look boring," Vi mumbles. 

Caitlyn smiles. "Ah, right. Can't have that." 

"Mhm." 

Caitlyn gives up on trying to get all of Vi's hair into the messy bun and goes back to looking through Powder's drawer. She'll need some pins or clips or something for the rest. 

"Cait, you don't have to do this," Vi rasps. "Please just go back to bed." 

"Do what? Look for something for your hair?" 

"Take care of me like this," Vi says. She still hasn't lifted her head from her elbow. 

Caitlyn sighs and borrows another one of Powder's hair elastics to pull her own hair back into a ponytail. She sits down on the floor next to Vi and picks up the water glass. "I want to do this. I love you and I hate seeing you like this. If I can help you feel better at all, then I'll be happy." 

Vi finally lifts her head. Her eyes are bloodshot and she's somehow even paler than before. "It's my own fault though." 

Caitlyn shakes her head. "We've talked about this before. It's not that simple." She holds the glass out. "Have some water." 

Vi takes it with a trembling hand and takes such a tiny sip that Caitlyn's pretty sure she didn't drink any at all. She makes a face and hands it back. 

"This is like... above and beyond, Cait," Vi whispers. She looks miserable as she rests her head back on her forearm. "You came all the way back here for me and now you have to deal with all this." 

Caitlyn shakes her head. "Vi, I knew it was going to be hard to watch you go through withdrawal. But, like I said, it's only hard because I don't like seeing you feel like this and I wish I could do more. Not because it's a... burden, or anything like that. I knew you would have to do this at some point. I'm just happy you're not on your own." 

"I feel bad that everyone else has to deal with my mistakes," Vi whispers. 

Caitlyn sighs. "I can spend the rest of the night convincing you that everyone's just happy and relieved that you're here and you're doing this, or I can just remind you that you can't change the past." 

Vi laughs. It's weak, and a shadow of her normal laugh, but it's something at least. "True. It's - " 

Whatever she had been about to say is cut off when she abruptly violently heaves again, ducking her head back down. Caitlyn scrambles to get the looser strands of hair out of her face again. 

The night stretches on. 

Time seems to move at an excruciatingly slow pace. 

Caitlyn stays busy for a while by doing what she can when she's not actively holding Vi's hair or rubbing her back. She gets fresh glasses of water. She rifles through the kitchen cupboards quietly until she finds some tea and tries making some of that to see if Vi can tolerate that better.

The answer to that is no, which Caitlyn isn't really surprised by - Vi doesn't like tea at the best of times. Caitlyn drinks the rest of the cup instead. It's actually quite nice tea; she'll have to ask who bought it later and where they got it from. 

She ends up finding a stash of lovely blankets in a chest in the living room and bringing a few of them to drape over Vi where she's shivering on the floor. She finds some extra pillows in a linen closet too and adds them to Vi's little blanket nest. 

When it becomes evident that Vi's not going to be able to go back to bed anytime soon, Caitlyn goes to get the book Vi had been reading. Caitlyn ends up sitting against the cabinets with a pillow behind her back and Vi draped over her lap, her head resting on Caitlyn's thigh and the blankets still piled on top of her. 

"Is this the kind of book you like?" Caitlyn asks, flipping through it. She's never seen a book quite like it, actually - it's clearly written and published by a Zaunite, and it's about an explorer who finds a new society after being trapped in a mine collapse. 

"I'm not picky," Vi mumbles. "I like anything except for Powder's weird books." 

Caitlyn laughs. "What kind of books does she read?" 

"They're either super technical, like a bunch of theoretical math, or really artsy. Too artsy. There's no real story. I guess that's what I like, actually. I just like a good story." 

"Where did you leave off?" Caitlyn asks. "I can read to you, if you want." 

"You're not going to get bored?" 

"No, I'm interested in this," Caitlyn says. "I've never read a book set in Zaun. Just tell me where - Vi. Are you folding the pages? Why don't you just use a bookmark?" 

Vi laughs hoarsely. "I knew you wouldn't like that." 

Caitlyn sighs disapprovingly, but she does start reading. 

It's quite an engaging book. 

By the time Caitlyn hears a knock on the door, she's nearly to the end of the book. Despite having to stop occasionally to comfort Vi as she threw up, the rest of the night had actually passed relatively peacefully. 

"Come in," Caitlyn calls quietly. She's still in the same position she's been in for the last few hours; sitting against the cabinets with Vi sprawled across her. 

Powder comes in, blinking against the light. The hallway behind her is still dark; it looks like no one else is up yet, so it's likely still quite early in the morning.

Powder must have just gotten up. She's wearing flannel pajama pants and what looks like one of Ekko's sweaters. Her hair is loose and her face is scrubbed free of makeup, her eyes still slightly puffy from sleep. 

She looks so different. Caitlyn has only ever seen her with a full face of dramatic makeup, her hair done and her slightly bizarre outfits on. She looks so young like this, and it catches Caitlyn off guard.

"Hey," Powder says. She looks down at Vi, who is slumped over Caitlyn's lap, now wrapped in so many blankets that she's virtually indistinguishable from a pile of laundry. "Vi? Are you still alive?" 

"Unfortunately," Vi croaks.