Chapter Text
May I ask you something?
Vi read the message off the notification screen, grabbing her phone off of the counter she was leaning against to respond.
Vi’s phone buzzed again almost immediately.
It’s a tad awkward.
Vi’s eyebrow rose and she stuck her half-slice of toast into her mouth so she could use both hands to type.
She didn’t want to leave Caitlyn waiting with a question like that.
sure cupcake. shoot
The dots that meant Caitlyn was typing popped up.
Disappeared.
Popped up again.
Vi’s other eyebrow joined the first.
Caitlyn was really direct. Blunt, even. It was one of Vi’s favorite things about her - Vi’s always been a sucker for a woman who takes no shit - but it meant that, well. Caitlyn didn’t have that many friends.
A total lack of hesitation in telling someone that their decision is “completely moronic,” had that effect sometimes.
Vi chuckled through her mouthful of toast, wondering what in the hell Caitlyn could feel a tad awkward about asking her.
They’d been best friends since freshman year of college - roommates for two of those years - and had had front row seats to each other’s awkward phases.
They told each other everything. Caitlyn knew Vi had been to Stillwater on false charges, she knew Vi liked sour gummy worms, she knew how much more Vi wanted to be able to do for Powder - and for Vander, who was slowing down a little, she knew Vi pretended to like horror movies, but they actually scared her shitless, and she preferred to cry at a sappy rom com instead.
And Vi knew that Caitlyn had always felt like a misfit, that it weighed on her that she couldn’t be the perfect daughter her parents wanted, Vi knew that Caitlyn loved shooting more than just about anything - and was fucking good at it, Vi knew that Caitlyn was completely useless without a ridiculous amount of caffeine, and Vi knew that Caitlyn was technically out, but that her parents always told her to bring Jayce to events instead of a date… and she always agreed, even though it always made her sick to pose like a happy couple for the pictures that would be in the Lifestyle pages of the Piltover Gazette.
It was fucking weird Caitlyn was hesitating to ask her anything
im sure its not
A few seconds later, Vi’s phone pinged again.
It really is, though.
Vi sighed, starting to get a little frustrated at the back and forth. It was like seven A.M.
well
shit or get off the pot cupcake
Vi laughed, picturing the wrinkle between Caitlyn’s eyebrows as she frowned at Vi’s word choice.
She stuck the last bite of her breakfast in her mouth as the three little dots popped up in the corner of her screen.
Would you consider this “tasteful”?
Vi read the message, her own brow crinkling as she made a confused face at the screen. She started typing “what” but only got as far as “wh–” when an image popped up under the message.
Vi stared at it for half a second before she inhaled toast crumbs straight into her windpipe and her phone was on the ground with a loud clatter as she doubled over, hacking and coughing and spitting little hunks of half-chewed toast onto the ground.
Caitlyn had sent…
Caitlyn had…
Still fucking wheezing, Vi turned from where she was leaning against the kitchen counter, flipped on the faucet, and stuck her face under to drink some water straight from the tap.
It was too goddamn early for a fucking assault on her lungs.
An assault she had caused because she was so goddamn surprised her best friend had sent her…
As she gulped down water and a fair amount of air, she tried to process what she had just seen.
Her best friend had just…
Vi braced her hands on the sink basin, gasping for breath.
Her best friend had just sent her a fucking nude.
Flipping off the faucet and dragging the back of her hand over her mouth, Vi turned and crouched to swipe her phone off the ground, dusting half-eaten toast off of it.
She’d clean the rest up later.
For now she needed to find out if she was fucking hallucinating.
A peek at her now even more cracked phone screen revealed that…no. She hadn’t been hallucinating.
Vi clicked the little preview image with a trembling thumb, watching as the image expanded, showing…
Fuck.
Showing everything.
Vi could see rumpled, pale gray sheets, light, creamy skin, and… lace. Lots and lots of lace.
Or, more accurately, tiny, tiny scraps of lace.
She could also see the curve and dip of toned muscles, contoured in the shadows from the light streaming in through Caitlyn’s bedroom windows, and the…
Vi swallowed hard, staring straight up at the ceiling.
Shit.
Vi could see the dusky pink shadow of a nipple through the lace.
She took a deep breath, scrubbing the hand not holding her phone down her face and looked back at the picture.
Caitlyn’s face wasn’t in it - the image started at her collarbones and swept down over curves Vi had spent way too much fucking time thinking about. The last thing Vi could make out in the photo was a light gray sheet draped over Caitlyn’s shins, leaving her feet mostly concealed by the fabric and shadows.
It was fucking…
Vi groaned, chucking her fucked up phone onto the counter to press both palms hard against her eye sockets.
Her phone buzzed, and Vi jumped, shaking her head at her fucking stupidity and grabbed it to see that Caitlyn had messaged again.
I told you it was a tad awkward.
Vi blinked at the screen, trying to figure out what to say.
What do you say when the most gorgeous woman you’ve ever met sends you a fucking nude at…
Vi checked the time stamp on the photo.
7:13 A.M.?
Vi felt her phone buzz again before she could figure out what to say to that.
It’s too much, isn’t it? I thought it might be too overt, but I wasn’t sure.
Vi shook her head in disbelief, still trying to process the fucking situation.
She took another breath.
She needed to get it together.
Her best friend who she’d been fucking stupid in love with for ten years had asked for her help with feedback on a fucking nude, and this was fine, this was normal, this is what friends did.
And that’s all she and Caitlyn were.
Friends.
Caitlyn for sure saw her as a friend if she was asking for help picking out a nude.
Probably for whoever Caitlyn was “courting” at the moment.
Vi frowned, glaring at her phone screen, where the stupid fucking picture was now half off the screen from the messages that had come in.
That thought sucked more than she expected.
But she could do this.
Vi’s fingers only shook a little as she typed back,
yeah i mean thats tasteful
ur not really showing anything?
seems fine to me cupcake
Vi exhaled, nodding at her phone.
Yeah. That was fine.
Caitlyn really wasn’t showing anything in the photo.
Everything was pretty much covered.
Didn’t matter that Vi now knew what the swell of her perfect fucking tits looked like cupped by thin lace that barely concealed pink nipples, or that Caitlyn’s tiny waist looked like it would fit fucking perfectly in Vi’s hands as she encouraged Caitlyn to arch, to rub against her, or that she knew - could see - that the skin under Caitlyn’s belly button would be soft under her lips as Vi moved down, dragging the scrap of lace covering that forbidden little vee of her thighs with her before planting a firm hand on each of her strong, creamy, silky-looking thighs and pressing them wide as she took her first taste.
The one she’d been fucking dying for for a fucking decade.
None of that mattered.
Because they were friends
Vi’s phone buzzed again.
You’re sure it’s not too much?
Vi’s heart squeezed.
She knew how self-conscious Caitlyn was - even if she was good at hiding it most of the time.
Too many years of being told she was too tall, too weird, too bony, too focused, too much.
Vi wanted to cave in the faces of everybody who’d ever made her feel like she was too much.
Caitlyn was perfect. Plain and simple.
Fuck anybody who thought any different.
im sure
Vi hesitated, thumb hovering over the screen and starting to tremble harder.
She bit her lip as she finished out her last message, hoping it didn’t give everything away, hoping that the black and white text kept Caitlyn from figuring it out after all these years.
u look beautiful caitlyn
Vi blew a raspberry, trying to make sure her lungs kept fucking working while she waited for Caitlyn’s response.
If she even sent one.
She got distracted sometimes, absorbed into whatever she was working on or thinking about. When she was working on really big cases, Vi worked it into her schedule to either bring over dinner or call her best friend and stay on a video call with her while she ate. Caitlyn just didn’t notice that she was hungry if she was working, and she was bad about remembering with any reminder - a calendar, an alarm, a meal-prep box delivery service, whateveer - except another person there and having a meal with her.
Vi had never minded.
She got to spend time with her favorite person - who was actually a fucking fantastic cook, when she remembered she had a kitchen - and she got to know for sure that Caitlyn was taken care of.
Vi had always been a caretaker - first Powder and her brothers, then Vander…then Caitlyn.
She’d never once minded taking care of Caitlyn, though. It never weighed on her like her family responsibilities sometimes did.
Not that she minded taking care of her family. Vi loved her family - she’d fucking die for them.
But taking care of them felt heavy - had felt that way for a long time. And Vi was strong, but it was just…a lot sometimes.
Caring for Caitlyn had never felt like more weight.
Maybe because Caitlyn had never asked - would rather fucking die than ask for help most of the time, actually. They had that in common.
Or maybe just because…Caitlyn cared back. Vi got the exact same care - probably better - right back.
If Vi made sure Caitlyn ate when she was busy, Caitlyn kept Vi well-stocked with epsom salts for her sore muscles and had stayed up late in college to help her study - fucking read to her when the letters swam across the page too badly for Vi to make sense of them.
And she was always, always there.
Caitlyn was her 2 A.M. stuck-on-the-side-of-the-road phone call.
She was her “it’s okay to fall apart” shoulder to cry on.
She was supportive and stubborn and smart and she always gave just as good as she got…and she made Vi better.
They made each other better.
And Vi couldn’t stand the thought of losing that, of losing her by being selfish with her stupid fucking unrequited feelings, so here she was, standing in her kitchen on a random fucking Tuesday at 7:26 A.M. and giving her best friend - the love of her goddamn life - feedback on a nude Caitlyn was planning on sending to someone else.
Someone who was fucking lucky enough to be with her in a way Vi never would be.
Vi scoffed.
Fuck me running.
Vi’s phone buzzed again, dragging her out of her self-destructive spiral.
Thanks, Vi! <3
I’ll see you for dinner later?
Vi huffed a laugh, shaking her head as she typed a quick response, trying not to think about all the things she now knew, or how fucking friendly Caitlyn was being about the whole thing, or having to look Caitlyn in the eye at dinner knowing what she looked like underneath her work suit.
yeah no prob cupcake
see u there
Vi’s thumb hovered for another moment before she quickly tapped a heart emoji and then the “send” button.
It was normal to send a friend a little heart emoji.
Totally normal.
Even when that friend had just sent a fucking nude before 8 A.M. on a Tuesday.
Completely normal.
Yeah.
…
She was so fucked.