Part I:

The Loose Cannon

Three hard knocks on the thick oak door made Caitlyn snap out of her thoughts. Her eyes moved in the sound's direction without moving her head. She frowned. It was close to 19:30 and while she lived to serve the city of Piltover, today—specifically so late in to her shift—she wished for nothing more than to go home. If it was one of her officers coming in to tell her that some shit had gone down and that their services were required, she was going to lose it.

"Yes?"

She didn't bother to hide the annoyed tone from her voice.

She watched as the knob turned and the wood shifted to reveal officer Vi—Caitlyn's partner (a pick that to this day baffled her entire unit) and right hand person—standing on the other side of the doorway with a cocky smile plastered firmly on her face. The tall pink-haired enforcer shifted her weight forward to lean on the door frame.

"Hey there cheerful!"

"Vi, what?" Caitlyn was exasperated but was trying to keep her temper at bay in order to hear her partner out as a way to reward her for having actually had the decency to knock this time rather than barging in like she usually did.

"Captain wants us all upstairs in two." Her smile waivered.

Caitlyn's frown deepened.

"Bad news?"

"No idea." She shrugged. "Come on princess."

Had anyone else directed themselves towards her in such a manner, they'd have a bullet blowing through their teeth this very moment. But Vi was Vi and Caitlyn was growing more and more painfully aware—through the hushed whispers that her officers engaged in when they thought she was out of earshot—that others had also noticed her special attitude towards the pinkette. People were starting to wonder about the relationship that existed between the two women and for someone as private as Caitlyn was, it was beginning to irk her.

Caitlyn finished organizing the documents on her desk and looked up as she stood to make her way to the conference room. Vi still stood by the doorway—obviously waiting on the Sheriff—playing with the massive fingers on her hextech gauntlets. She almost found it endearing how the brutish younger woman reminded her of a curious and innocent child who was fully immersed in trying to figure out how their new toy worked.

Almost.

Internally cursing at herself, the older woman tensed her jaw to keep herself from smiling.

"Shall we?"

Vi looked up and her usual arrogant smile came back in a flash. She stepped out of the way and made an exaggerated bowing motion.

"After you."

Caitlyn moved forward and less than two steps later she felt a gauntlet-less hand place itself on her waist. She froze. She hadn't even noticed exactly when the woman behind her had released her hands from their steel traps.

Vi moved her body closer and lowered her head to whisper near the Sheriff's ear. "You were in my dream last night."

Having noticed that besides the two of them, this floor of their station was absolutely deserted, Caitlyn allowed herself to smirk. She turned her head slightly to the right and glanced up and over her should at Vi. They were standing extremely close.

"Oh?"

"Mhm…" Vi raised a playful eyebrow and bit her lip.

Caitlyn turned and began walking backwards with a teasing smile gracing her beautiful face. "Was I firing you in this dream?"

Vi's eyes lost their dreamy haze, she sucked her teeth, and started to laugh. Caitlyn chuckled and shook her head as she turned back around to continue leading the way upstairs.

"ARVINO! Front and center!"

Caitlyn stood stock-still barely a couple of inches past the entrance. She should have left for home an hour ago when she was done with her paperwork for the day instead of staying behind to try and work ahead for tomorrow.

A tight smile formed and she turned to look back at her partner who simply stared right back with a guilty look on her face. A trimmed eyebrow shot up demanding answers.

"Sorry cupcake. Boss man put me up to it."

"Traitor."

Vi laughed and nodded her head towards the front of the room.

"Arvino! Come on now, while the rest of us are young."

Laughter rumbled throughout the room.

"All jokes, all jokes, of course. No harm." Caitlyn tensed slightly but managed a polite smile as the Captain placed a fatherly arm around her shoulders.

"Now, as we all know, including all of our other sheriffs in Piltover, Caitlyn is the best of the best that there is and so far, at least in my opinion, that there ever has been."

She looked around the room at everyone's encouraging smiles. Her pride swelled but as the perfectly aristocratic lady that she'd been brought up to be, her face betrayed no such emotion.

"Five years ago to the day, I had the pleasure of not only working with her on a huge case, but also of being the lead sheriff who coerced her into our ranks. I'm sorry to the rest of you that I have brought on before or after her, but I've never been prouder of any other officer, below or above me, as I am of her…"

Caitlyn slowly drowned out Captain Ronan's words as her eyes came to rest on Vi who by now stood all the way in the back of the room, a proud smile on her face, with her eyes dead set on the talking man to Caitlyn's left.

Pride…Caitlyn had never been as proud of anything in her life as she was of recruiting Vi. Her eyes slowly made their way lower and lower until they landed on Vi's lips and they lingered there long enough for her to watch them twitch with laugher at something the chief had said. She noticed a slight movement from the tip of the younger woman's nose and she tore her eyes away and upward. Vi raised her scarred eyebrow at her and smiled even wider. She'd caught Cait staring.

They held each other's gaze for a breath. Vi let out sigh before mouthing the words happy birthday at her followed by a wink and a blown kiss.

Caitlyn narrowed her eyes disapprovingly, rolled them, and turned her head towards Ronan, zeroing back in on his blabbering just as he was reaching his final punchline about her age.

Vi watched from her position as Caitlyn's practiced professional grin grew smaller and smaller as the Captain went on and on about how much of a grandma the Sheriff was.

Vi rolled her eyes.

'What a douchebag.'

"Some of us have shifts that already ended! We just want food!"

Captain Ronan looked surprised for a second at the sudden outburst before recognizing Vi's boisterous voice as it led a low chant of "cake, cake, cake" around the room.

It was at these words from her partner that Caitlyn realized that Vi along with ten other officers had stayed well past their shift hours for the day to attend her little birthday surprise. Her chest tickled but again, her face revealed nothing.

"Yes! Of course! With that said, Arvino, I wish you another wonderful year of life and another year of continued success with the Wardens."

A chorus of cheers, hollering, and happy birthdays were heard around the packed conference room.

Caitlyn had to bite back a small noise as Ronan clapped a burly hand on her back.

"We'll have that companion cat delivered to your house first thing in the morning grandma."

He threw a wink her way and she watched his shoulders tremble with laughter as he made a beeline for the tables of food that lined the walls on one side of the room.

The hairs on the back of her neck pricked suddenly and less than a second later, Vi's voice spoke up at her side.

"So, I've been designated as the one to find out what breed of cat you'd like this year."

Caitlyn let out an amused huff of air and turned to smack Vi on her arm.

"You know, I'm turning thirty not sixty-five?"

"Yeah, but…do you know that? 'Cause judging from your behavior sometimes…damn."

They shuffled their feet side-by-side as they went from table to table, picking the foods of their choice and piling them on to their paper plates. By the time they were done and had found a pair of empty chairs that were next to each other, Vi had an assortment of very colorful sweets and pastries on her plate while Caitlyn's was filled with different kinds of healthy finger foods and maybe one or two cookies.

Vi nudged her partner's leg with her knee to gain her attention. "Uh—actually, I was—I was the one assigned to try and convince you to come grab some drinks with a couple of us—"

"—Vi…"

"Come on, Caitie…you're turning thirty. That's a biggie," Caitlyn cringed at that thought. "Let us make your night fun…for once."

She chose to ignore the last part of that statement. "It's not ever a good idea to fraternize—"

"Frat—are you hearing yourself? Fraternize," Vi huffed. "You spend more time working than you do at home. If you don't "fraternize" with us, other than the criminals you verbally abuse on a daily basis, I can't see you having much human contact."

Those were clearly not the right words to say. Caitlyn's jaw stopped moving mid-chew and her expression grew cold. She made a face and stood up. "Go screw yourself."

Vi's eyes widened and she quickly tugged on her hand forcibly sitting her back down. "Shit, I'm sorry."

The enforcer knew that if she were anyone else, Caitlyn would have shoved her plate in their face.

"I'm sorry. That was—I was trying to be funny but I'm an idiot." She shook her head. "Please come out with us, we're all dying to see you drunk and honestly we all just want you to have a good night."

Caitlyn freed her fingers from Vi's hand and blew out an irritated breath of air. Her head lolled back against the wall behind their chairs and she angled it to be able to observe the younger woman.

Vi was an absolute charmer from head to toe when she wanted to be so it was no surprise that their comrades had entrusted her with the tough task of getting the Sheriff to go out drinking with them. Although, she would be willing to bet a year's worth of her salary that it also had to with the rumors she'd heard about the presumed relationship between the two and how her officers probably figured that if anyone could get the elusive Sheriff to do something out of character, it would more than likely be the person who was—allegedly—"fucking Arvino's brains out".

'It is my thirtieth birthday. A biggie…'

"Fine," Vi fist pumped in triumph. "BUT, only for about an hour and like two drinks."

Vi beamed brighter than she had all week.

"Done."

Five hours, way more than two drinks, and a couple of bars crawled later, Caitlyn and Vi stood under a chem-lamp saying goodnight to their fellow officers as they all parted ways claiming the night a huge success. They had managed to get their boss red-faced drunk, to laugh semi-heartily at their vulgar jokes, and had even at one point gotten a semi-nude male bar attendant to serenade the raven haired beauty with a birthday song—much to the distaste of both Vi and Caitlyn.

The night had only come to a halt when Caitlyn declared that enough drinking had taken place after Siggner, the youngest of their group and their unit's rookie, had thrown up all over himself. Vi had been doubled over in laughter which quickly turned to displeasure when she finally realized what the woman had said. The bandaged hand she'd been resting on his back as he expelled everything from his stomach gave him somewhat of a hard shove and he was branded a pussy light-weight by the tall woman.

Everyone began making their separate ways in the directions of their homes. Vi had insisted on being the one to walk Caitlyn the few blocks from the last bar they were in over to her place. A decision that no one in the group—other than the birthday girl—was trying to oppose.

Caitlyn took a moment to collect her thoughts before speaking and speaking slowly so as to keep from slurring her words. "Vi, really…I know you live way on the other side of town from me. You don't have to."

"Serliously?" They had all had way too much to drink. "Cait…have you seen what you're wearing?"

Since most officers had extra civilian clothes in their lockers at the station, they had all switched out to more comfortable celebratory clothes than their work uniforms were. Caitlyn happened to have a pretty low-cut tight black dress that succeeded in making all of her male companions for the night—and of course Vi—slack-jawed. After several drinks, the way Vi had been devouring her body with her eyes the entire night was more than welcomed and had further made her happier with her decision to have a night out with her co-workers.

That little black dress, however, happened to be the reason that Vi had adamantly refused to let Cait walk home alone at these hours of the night, rifle or no rifle.

Thinking it over a bit, especially in her inebriated state, Caitlyn had to agree.

The older woman came to an abrupt stop and frowned. "Why are we walking? We could signal a cab."

"It's nice out cupcake. And with the amount of toxic shit we just pumped into our bodies, we could use the walk."

Good points were made. The Sheriff nodded to herself and resumed walking; picking up her pace slightly to catch up with the pinkette who had pulled ahead of her as she'd paused.

As their amble brought them closer and closer to Caitlyn's house, the pair had managed to diminish the space between them to where one of the dark-haired woman's shoulders would constantly brush against the side of one of Vi's upper arms. Vi had also been incapable of shutting her mouth with regards to how amazing her partner looked and smelled, how sexy her laugh happened to be, and how unquestionably sexy and breathy her voice had gotten throughout the night whenever she would say Vi's name.

Caitlyn tried to plead absolute ignorance to the last part of her ramblings.

In the almost two years that Caitlyn had gotten to know Vi, she'd come to learn that her partner was not one to shy away from speaking her mind about anything. She would—on about a daily basis since the two had officially met—let Caitlyn know in any way, shape, or form that she was sexually attracted to her.

Caitlyn had become quite adept about teasingly shooting down or deflecting Vi's advances. She had to admit to herself though, that it had become significantly harder to do that as of late. She also had to admit to herself that as of late, the flirting and double-meaning in their banter had not been entirely one sided nor had it solely been Vi initiating it.

In this very moment, in her euphorically buzzed state, she was doing everything within her power—short of praying to the Gods above—to keep herself in check and from reacting to Vi's words.

Vi felt a soft arm gently place itself across her abdomen halting her from going any further. Looking from Caitlyn's arm, to her face, and finally to her surroundings, she realized that they were a couple of feet from the entrance gate to her superior's property.

"You're aware I'm not going to invite you in tonight right? Not with how intoxicated you are."

Vi pushed Caitlyn's arm away flashing her a sloppy smile. "I know, I know. Just walking you home safely princess."

The pinkette made sure to emphasize her message by patting the large black back-pack she'd been lugging around all night where her metallic weapons were currently housed. The last few feet towards their destination were spent in total silence; both women lost in their own thoughts.

The jingling of Caitlyn's keys along with the sound of metal grinding and squeaking as it was pushed open from its closed position, made Vi's whole body flush and her head grew dizzy as she began to lack enough oxygen to think.

She had to try her luck.

'It never hurts to try does it?'

And tonight seemed an excellent a moment as could possibly exist for this kind of situation for her to push her luck.

"Fuck…" She breathed out hard.

Before Caitlyn had a chance to ask what the matter was or even turn around, Vi had counted to five, taken a deep breath, and gently gripped Caitlyn by her slender hips with both of her hands, ushering her past the gate.

Vi used her right foot to kick the black iron gate shut behind them before she rested her body back against the tall stone wall that surrounded the gateway as well as the Sheriff's entire property.

Caitlyn truly cherished her privacy.

The dark -haired woman closed her eyes slowly and inhaled sharply as she felt Vi's hands shift from her hips and snake around her waist, pulling her tightly against Vi's own body in the process. Caitlyn instinctively brought her delicate hands to cover Vi's rough ones.

A bandaged hand pulled out of the embrace and it came up to sweep beautifully sleek hair away from Caitlyn's nape. Vi's self-control had gone out the window altogether. Two warm lips met pale skin and began to trace scorching wet kisses on a bare shoulder.

Vi wanted her and she wanted her badly.

"I'm sorry—I," It was said between kisses. "—I know you think we shouldn't…"

She was desperately trying to find the words to explain her actions in a way that might convince Caitlyn not to shoot her dead for being so brazen. "But fuck, Caitie, you look so fucking good right now…"

Long slim fingers tightened their hold on Vi's hand that still remained flexed against Cait's flat stomach. For the first time in her life, Caitlyn did not feel like questioning a damn thing.

She knew they shouldn't

But she could also care less about most things right now other than Vi's lips on her body. She couldn't feel anything besides the overwhelming warmth that was presently spreading throughout her entire being.

That and Vi's kisses.

Oh Gods, we really shouldn't.

"Vi…"

The woman mentioned clasped the other's hips once more and pulled her even tighter against her own athletic body. Her mouth moved upward until it was directly on that sweet spot behind the raven-head's ear.

"Caitlyn…" Vi flexed her fingers. Caitlyn spun.

If Vi wasn't as far gone as she was right now with her own emotions, she would have been floored when—instead of moving away from her or slapping her across the face—Caitlyn placed her hands on either of Vi's shoulders and pressed herself further in to the Enforcer, to the point that there was no space left between their bodies.

Their lips were centimeters apart in a torturously teasing dance.

Vi wrapped her arms tighter behind Caitlyn's lower back.

After a couple of endless seconds had gone by, Vi reached up to move some loose strands of hair out of Cait's eyes. Her fingers then traced their way down her face to a perfectly sculpted chin. She seized it—carefully—and angled the shorter woman's face to kiss her on the cheek.

Caitlyn moved her hands form their current places until they came to rest on Vi's chest, right beneath her clavicles, simultaneously finding the courage to look up and have their eyes meet.

"You're reckless…"

Their lips met.

"And a headache..."

Another kiss, this time their lips lingered a bit longer.

"Yeah?" Vi breathed out, barely above a whisper, before leaning back down to reclaim those lips that had turned out to be softer than she could have ever imagined. "You're fucking uptight..."

"Mmm." Caitlyn moaned in to the kiss.

"You have some boring ass hobbies…"

She felt the Sheriff smile against her mouth at that last one.

Vi brought down the foot she'd been resting flat against the stone wall behind her this entire time and she shifted her weight around—readjusting herself and her partner—in order to slip a leg between Caitlyn's thighs. The younger woman almost passed out when Caitlyn not only moved her hands to wrap themselves around the back of Vi's neck and head, but then proceeded to grind her center—almost imperceptibly—against the enforcer's leg.

Their kiss deepened and Vi applied a bit of pressure with her embrace to Caitlyn's body, encouraging to repeat her grinding motion. The moment she did, her lips parted the slightest degree and Vi took advantage of the opening to slip her tongue inside Caitlyn's mouth.

If people thought the Zaun Gray made it hard to breath, they had never had their tongues suckled on by the raven-head nor had they had their tongues caressed by hers. Vi felt as if any moment now, she would fall unconscious.

As intensely as things had started, they were precipitously suspended by Caitlyn pushing herself away from Vi as if she had been burned. She took her face in her hands and cursed into them. Vi kept her eyes closed momentarily as she focused on breathing.

"Oh, Gods."

"Holy fuck." Vi massaged her forehead with one hand.

"No. This—Vi—this? CANNOT. Happen."

"W—" Vi's shoulders slumped. She felt like screaming "Why not? Because it very much so just happened."

"I'm your boss. You're my partner!"

"Oh, geeze. Can you name one reason that isn't work related?"

"MY ENTIRE LIFE IS WORK RELATED!"

Her voice cracked. Vi looked into her eyes and the confliction she saw there in cerulean eyes made hear heart ache.

"That's my point, baby…"

"Can you not?"

Vi pulled her by her wrists—with very little resistance offered by the older woman to both of their surprises—into a soft embrace.

"I'm just saying, why—" Vi cleared her throat; she was losing her train of thought. "I'm not saying we have to have a full blown relationship and scream about it from the bell-towers."

"Then what? Risk our partnership and put both of our jobs on the line for a one-night-stand?"

She sounded mad and very offended. Vi was truly awful at all of this. Bedding all kinds of loose women she could do while in a coma, but trying to find the right words to say to Caitlyn was always a tremendous trial for her.

"NO!—Uh? No." The taller woman took a deep breath and shook her head. "No. Cait…your entire adult life, you have sacrificed it for this city. You're more than just the people's savior Sheriff. Just like you always wanted to be more than just a slave to a Piltovan clan like everyone else from your background is. But you've basically just replaced the all-consuming duty of one path for the other."

She paused looking down at the woman in her arms. She was hiding her face in Vi's chest and her thin fingers had a death grip on the front of the pinkette's red bomber-jacket. Her tongue peaked out to wet her lips before swallowing hard.

"I can't have imagined the past few months and your attraction to me. I sure as fuck did not imagine what just happened minutes ago, I'm not that deranged."

A small whisper sounded through the still night air. "You're not."

Vi nodded; the tightening she'd begun to feel in her chest the moment Caitlyn had pulled away from her, dissipated almost immediately at those words.

"You can't deny that." Caitlyn took a deep breath and shook her head while looking up into Vi's bright blue eyes. "And that's all you've done your entire life, deny yourself any kind of happiness that didn't come from your responsibilities to your clan, and now, any kind of anything that doesn't have to do with your job and with you fixing the world around you. Don't deny yourself this and please, please, don't deny me. Please…"

Vi cupped her partners tear-stained face and bent her knees a little to be at her eye level.

"Please. I will fucking lose it if I can't at least have you tonight, Cait, but I don't mean that as just a one-night-stand, it can be whatever you want this to be."

Vi sounded as broken as Caitlyn felt and just as desperate.

Caitlyn Arvino had never stepped a toe out of line. Being the only child of the Masters of the Arvino clan Kiramy and Desiree—something that the woman before her was wholly unaware of—she had known from a very young age that the duty to protect her clan and to serve as its shield, guardian, and protector would fall on her shoulders…if she'd so wanted that life. A great honor as it was, her parents had never been quite as traditional or quite as demanding of their only daughter as other clan families typically were and they had told her—also from a very young age—that they would be perfectly okay if she chose not to take that duty upon herself. They had been incredibly heartbroken when she had chosen not only not to be the clan's principal intelligencer, but to also not follow in their footsteps; instead, choosing a life that had nothing to with being a part of a clan at all. They had been heartbroken, yes; but understanding and supportive of her life choices nonetheless.

But still, she was raised to never step a toe out of line; raised to think of leading a life where she would have to put her own happiness on hold until the last of her days; her duties always to come first and above all else. Growing up this way, she had learned to never allow herself to feel anything other than love for her duties. The last time she had been selfish was on her sixteenth birthday when she informed her parents that she wanted nothing to do with belonging to a clan. Vi was right, however, and although she no longer had to live like the principal intelligencer of Clan Arvino, her upbringing had set her up to have her duties as a Wardens' Sheriff basically usurp the kind of position in life she had hoped to avoid.

Until she met Vi, she hadn't experience a lot of things in life.

She was thirty years old today and life wasn't going to slow down for her anytime soon—or ever really—in order for her to live it. If she didn't seize something of a life now, it would just pass her by like it did for all of the principal intelligencers of all of the Piltovan clans; like it had for that robotic scissor freak, Camille Ferros.

She blinked the last of her tears away before crashing her mouth against Vi's.

Vi kissed back with as much feeling as she had ever put in to any kiss in her entire life. She was almost scared to open her eyes when Caitlyn pulled away again. Instead, she was met with a hungry yearning expression raging behind those crystalline eyes. She had never seen it before coming from Caitlyn, but she had seen it before. Her heart sped up while her mind raced a million miles a second as thoughts of what was to come filled her head.

Cait's swollen limps parted momentarily, her tongue coming out to moisten them, before tugging on her lower one with a perfect set of teeth. She grabbed on to the Zaunite's fingers and curved her own around them, pulling her along as she turned to walk in the direction of her front door.

Vi swore she had completely stopped breathing at this point.