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Caitlyn was, above all, a stubborn person. She never took no for an answer, and she could not be swayed in her beliefs. When she found her own mother's unrecognisable remains, she decided she would do anything to get justice.
And when Vi tore off her paint-splattered uniform in anger and gave a final, “keep it real, Cupcake”, tearing out Caitlyn's stupid heart and squirrelling away from her life and her bed like a… a… a sister-obsessed buffoon, she decided she was not going to let Vi out of her sight.
For weeks, her spies gave the same report over and over: Vi was drinking. Vi was drunk. Vi was drinking again. Then, the sudden appearance of a mullet; clear evidence of mental deterioration.
Caitlyn didn't act on this information, keeping her ear to the ground while trying to stop a Noxian invasion (no big deal). When body paint came up, though? Caitlyn had to see that for herself.
It took some finagling, but with help from Heimerdinger and a pretty cool disguise if she said so herself, she made it to Zaun in one piece. Having to avoid Jinx's territories of the Lanes made her journey a lot longer than it should have been, but she knew she was at the right place as soon as she got there.
Underground bare knuckle fighting. Caitlyn slowed her step, pulling her black hood up and trying to push through the rowdy crowd. It felt different than the reports had implied. It was the way the Undercity always made her feel: too bright, too loud, too awake. Vi.
She made it to the front row just in time to spy a pair of still legs being dragged backwards, disappearing behind a huge container. An emcee of sorts jumped on top of the container, voice booming over a megaphone. “Are you ready for the main event?!”
It was only then that it occurred to her she should have brought backup. Caitlyn was, perhaps, too stubborn at times.
“Straight from the sumps, iiit’s the Gauntlet!”
She was busy rolling her eyes at the corny moniker when screams erupted from everyone around Caitlyn, scaring the shite out of her. Neon toxic-green lights came to life with a flash, blinding her for a crucial moment. The next time she blinked, she thought she was looking at a figment of her imagination.
The reports had been inadequate.
Vi was not involved in bare-knuckled fighting, but bare-chested fighting.
Caitlyn staggered back, but the pulsing crowd buoyed her right up to the fence surrounding the ring. She knew then it was not her imagination, because the smell that hit her nose was simply unimaginable.
Vi's beautiful, delicate, heart-shaped face was streaked with tar or grease, as well as her hair and her full lips. Her mouth was open in a roar, spittle flying out and teeth bared for all to see. In all that black paint, even her bright, silvery eyes looked dull. Vi was drinking. Vi was drunk. Vi was drinking again.
Caitlyn had never seen this much desperation on her, not since she literally uncaged Vi in Stillwater. The fighter was snarling and screaming as her opponent came out of her corner, completely unnoticed by Caitlyn. Only when her view of Vi was blocked, did Caitlyn come back down to Earth, shaking off those haunted eyes.
The fight started without ceremony. Vi's opponent was lithe and agile, landing quick kicks to leave Vi disoriented, but each time, her foot connected with a solid wall of muscle. Vi barely even twitched. She couldn't have been eating well, not down here, but her body certainly… bulked up since she'd left Piltover.
Finally Vi was outpaced, her opponent hitting her dead in the liver and sending her reeling. Vi's body was flung towards Caitlyn's end of the fence. She fell to her knees, barely two steps and a fence away from Caitlyn.
For all her spying, Caitlyn should have had an incredible plan for what to do when she finally met Vi again. Yet now, closer to her than she'd been in months, she couldn't pull it off. She couldn't scream at her for leaving, couldn't insult her for running away, couldn't hug her or cry on her or beg her to come home.
Because Vi's opponent just kicked her in the jaw, and when her head snapped, her eyes landed straight on Caitlyn.
Caitlyn didn't know what Vi saw just then. She couldn't have recognised her under the hood, and she was probably actively being brain damaged. But it must have been something. Vi jumped to her feet, straightening her own jaw, and howled like an animal.
She took off her leather jacket, and the crowd screamed in appreciation. Caitlyn didn't even notice joining them until her voice was hoarse. She already knew Vi was topless under the jacket, but seeing the full picture was something else.
Torso covered by nothing but bandages and body paint and sweat, Caitlyn could practically count her bulging muscles. Obliques, abdominis, trapezius—Vi charged like a bull, and toppled her opponent within seven seconds.
More than the stunning display of physicality, Caitlyn couldn't tear her gaze away from Vi's back.
She could just barely make out the tattoos under the paint, but only because she knew where to look. It wouldn't be the first time. She knew how every line tasted, how every scar felt under her trigger finger.
Dramatic or not, Caitlyn knew that no one in that ring had ever suffered pain like the kind Caitlyn felt when Vi turned that back on her.
Vi lifted her arms high, basking in her violent glory as the crowd cheered for her. Caitlyn couldn't recognise her. Was this truly what she replaced Caitlyn with? And why did Caitlyn want to arrest everyone here for taking Vi for themselves?
The emcee trotted the victor into the mysterious shipping container, while the loser was dragged off by the armpits like the one before her. The neons died, and Caitlyn's ears regained function. The man next to her jostled her as he turned to leave.
“I told you, Vander's kid's built different,” he boasted to his friend, a skinny guy who looked sick to his stomach.
“You couldn'ta told me that before I put all my cogs on the Noxian?!”
The first man laughed, starting to lead his companion away. “You’re not the only one owing Corina tonight.”
“Jeez. C’mon, she's collecting at the bar.”
When Caitlyn was convinced the fights were over for the night, she snuck around the fence to the opening. She couldn't see Vi anywhere, deducing she was inside the container. Which was unfortunately guarded. But Caitlyn knew it would be from the intel she had. She came prepared.
Adjusting her hood and sticking her hands in her pockets, she marched confidently to the guard posted outside the big metal door. As he was currently picking his teeth with a dagger, he seemed particularly unimpressed with her.
“I’m here to meet the winner,” she said, accent nonexistent.
“Groupies wait in the back,” he said, pointing with his chin towards the back, outside the fence, where two long-haired women remained from the enormous crowd. Waiting.
Caitlyn's eyes hardened, and her right hand tightened on her pistol. Flintily, she said, “You'd do well to show me some respect. Did Corina not mention her special guest?”
The man finally flinched, and Caitlyn knew doubt was creeping in. “Why would Corina let you near her pup?”
Caitlyn's sudden anger surpassed her charade. She pulled her hand out of her pocket—the left hand, holding a pure sapphire earring. She dangled the pre-packaged bribe in front of the guard's nose. “Because I gifted her the left earring,” she lied, “and I have no use for the right one.”
Inside, the container was fully furnished and lit with string lights. The big space seemed to be divided between a locker room and a back office. It must have been full of evidence of criminal activity, but Caitlyn missed it since Vi was immediately visible, the only one inside. She sat in a large, tin bath, repeatedly dousing herself with water from a bucket.
The water was sloshing in an echoing loop, bouncing off the container's walls. Mesmerising. Caitlyn just watched Vi lifting and lowering the bucket with strong arms while the grease from her hair dripped down her shoulders and breasts.
She was so focused on the paint and blood coming off and unveiling her former lover, that she didn't notice being noticed.
“I need a minute, Cor,” Vi yelled out, grabbing a filthy towel and scrubbing her beautiful, delicate, heart-shaped face.
Vi discovered cleanliness when she lived with Caitlyn, after the bombing. She claimed that showering in hot water was addictive, and ran through Caitlyn's skincare products faster than her. She loved getting to look and smell good after so long in prison. A bucket? Was this truly what she replaced Caitlyn with? And why did Caitlyn want to arrest a bookie she'd never met?
She marched under the string lights, evading benches and workout gear and stopping a foot away from the tub. Then she removed her hood.
Vi dropped her towel straight into the disgusting water. Her face was more smudged but her eyes were less blurry, and they were wide with shock. She didn't say a word, just blinked and blinked as if it would make Caitlyn dissipate into thin air.
“The Gauntlet?” Caitlyn spat. “A bit on the nose, don't you think?”
Vi couldn't seem to collect her thoughts, just blinking away. Her next question made Caitlyn wonder how strong that kick to the face had been. “Are you real?”
Her voice was quiet, certainly quieter than all the warrior cries she gave in the ring. Stripped, just like her body. The rivulets of clownish grease didn't leave Vi clean, there was too much of it, but the revelation of her tiny face tattoo was enough to expose her soul. To Caitlyn, at least.
“Violet,” Caitlyn answered, barely louder than Vi. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Vi shook her head. “You are here. What are you doing here?”
Something annoyed drew her closer to the tub Vi was still sitting on the rim of. It was a risky move, but it had always been risky with Vi, even before the goth makeover. Approaching a snarling wolf, holding a volcano ready to erupt, lying on top of burning embers. Fucking the flightiest woman in the twin cities.
Caitlyn did it, all of it, anyway. “I'm here for you,” she announced.
Vi flinched, breaking eye contact. She looked down, at her hands or the murky water or her miserable reflection. “I can't,” Vi said, voice cracking. “I'm not finished.”
Caitlyn scowled. Angry like a wolf and a volcano and a fire. It felt as raw as it did during their last fight. Damn Vi's redemption. “I don't care.”
Vi's eyes opened a little wider. Painfully blue. “Cait, this is a really bad time to be saving me from myself, okay?”
Caitlyn came closer to Vi, her knees almost bumping the tub. Even after just seeing her wipe the floor with a woman larger than Caitlyn, even with the grimey makeup, even with her verbally asking Caitlyn to fuck off, Caitlyn was too stubborn to back away. “I'm here for me, then.”
“I got—”
Caitlyn reached into the tub, careful not to touch any part of Vi's muscular legs. She snatched up the towel in one leather-gloved hand, and brought it back to Vi's face. After a moment of panic, Vi's eyes dropped closed. The vicious pit champion, surrendering to Caitlyn within a breath.
Caitlyn started with Vi's lips, scrubbing hard and seeking the sweet pink she remembered. She moved to her thick neck, investigating the cogs she once traced in kinder candlelight. Her grip on the towel tightened when she reached Vi's chest, but she didn't hesitate. Cupping her left tit with her free hand, she wiped black paint off the little arrow tattoo. Switching, she made sure the barbell that pierced her right nipple was shiny clean.
It was pleasing to notice that Vi was panting harder than during a fight to the death. Pleasing, but unsurprising. Caitlyn knew what made this woman tick. Caitlyn was there for her first orgasm, Goddamnit.
Proving her right, Vi's eyes opened and there was nothing but hunger in them. “Cupcake,” she croaked.
The nickname tore a hole through Caitlyn's chest. Vi's lips stayed subtly parted. Distracting. Why did that stupid mouth love saying goodbye so much?
“Do you still want me?” Caitlyn asked. A better interrogator wouldn't have tipped their hand, a better detective wouldn't have walked right into a trap. But if Caitlyn was better, Vi would have stayed.
Vi's eyebrows scrunched like it was the single most idiotic question she'd ever heard. “You got no idea how many times I pictured this moment.”
What an insufficient answer, Caitlyn thought, and pulled back from Vi's body. She removed her long glove with ruthless efficiency. Her hand was cleaner than anything in this container, and she used it to cup Vi between her legs.
“Ah!”
Vi's sex sounds were always surprisingly feminine, in perfect juxtaposition to the wild, hairy bush under Caitlyn's palm. Soft butch. Pastel goth. Oil and water. If Vi was addicted to hot showers, Caitlyn was addicted to Vi’s body hair.
Vi wobbled precariously on the rim of the tub, her hand shooting up to Caitlyn's shoulder and holding tight. Caitlyn didn't appreciate the dirty water getting on her cloak, but it was a worthy sacrifice. She wanted Vi off-balance, she wanted to be leaned on. She wanted Vi to stay, for once.
Vi's bottom lip was clamped hard between her teeth, not one breath escaping her once Caitlyn's fingers moulded themselves to her. Caitlyn held her gaze carefully, persistently, when her middle finger circled her clit.
Vi couldn't stop a needy noise, her other hand landing on Caitlyn heavily. She definitely didn't appreciate greasy water getting in her normally shiny hair, but it was a worthy sacrifice when Vi pulled her in and kissed her.
Caitlyn grabbed Vi by the mullet, taking over the kiss like she took over everything. Her eyes slipped closed and she went by touch, by how Vi’s clit throbbed for her, by how Vi's moans found a hiding place in Caitlyn's mouth.
Discovering her like this, thoroughly, gave Caitlyn peace she hadn't felt in months. Vi looked and tasted and smelled different, but inside, it was still her. It was still hers.
No one would know how sweet Vi was. No one would get under her skin like this, no one would open her up like this, with a word and a tongue and a finger and then another. Caitlyn was her first, and if she had a say in it, she would be her last.
“Do you still want me?” Caitlyn asked again, her eyes still closed, something between a prayer and an accusation.
“Yes,” Vi confessed, shaking apart while clenching tight. “Yes.”
Vi came easy, despite crouching with a tub digging into her arse and cold bucket water covering her feet. Caitlyn wasn't expecting it, wasn't even thinking about getting her off. She wanted to be inside Vi to reach her, to find her, to get some fucking honesty out of her.
The surprise orgasm made both of them rock together, body to body, teeth clashing, her cloak getting drenched across the chest. Vi held her like she didn't want to let go.
So much for honesty.
Caitlyn slipped out of her, wiping the excess cum onto her thick pubic hair. She helped her stand up, unable to stop herself with Vi so weak and naked. She kissed her mouth one last time before the black veil could hide it again. Tar over violets.
She refused to wait for another rejection. She'd given Vi enough reasons to come home.
She put her glove back on, and flipped her hood over her head. “You should quit drinking,” Caitlyn said coolly. “The cities will need you back soon enough.”
Vi grunted, maybe unable to say more. Maybe unsurprised that Caitlyn had surveillance on her. Maybe in half as much pain as herself.
When Caitlyn exited the container, she left her peace inside it.
The same guard was posted outside the door. He outright refused to look Caitlyn in the eye, probably hearing more than a fair share of what she just did to the most dangerous woman in Zaun.
“Tell Corina I was here,” she said smugly, and with some finagling, disappeared.