Hello again! Yes, I take forever to update. I was/still am on a semi-hiatus. As always, this fic deals with some pretty hardcore stuff and is only intended for mature audiences, so proceed with caution. Actually, it's gotten to the point where I'm having second thoughts about the next chapter. I'm not sure I should actually post it.

Anyway, thank you for the comments and follows and favourites, they mean a lot to me. And I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 2. Black

Next day I woke up with the tear streaks still on my cheeks. I had a faint headache and my mouth was oddly dry. I got up and headed towards my bathroom, to wash down another one of those dreadful pills. It scraped my throat slightly as it came down; but it was almost a welcomed sensation to me.

I headed towards the League's canteen and had a nice hot cup of tea as I watched the other champions come in and order their own breakfast.

I was about to sip the last of my beverage when Sarah Fortune cleared her voice to my right and I was forced to look at her.

"Yes?" I inquired, an eyebrow slightly raised. This seemed to catch her off guard.

"Can I speak to you?" She bit her lip, which immediately grabbed my attention. I nodded, more intrigued about what she was going to say than anything else. I really wasn't up to talking with people that day, but this would be an exception.

"I don't like you, which is probably the reason why you're gonna doubt what I'm about to say, but, hear me out."

Because she paused, I was inclined to encourage her to go on by answering her with an "Ok".

"He told me you and him were over. I mean, it's not like you've been together in public anyways and I…"

My eyes narrowed, and she immediately shut up.

"Look, I'm not doing this for you. This is for me. I'm not ok with cheating and less still with lying, and I'm afraid he's done both, so I'm gonna tell. Jayce cheated on you. And before you go insane on me, I'm probably not the only one he's fucked."

Something caught in my chest, and something else in my throat. My eyes prickled and I swallowed hard to prevent the tears from falling and to help my breathing. I looked at her and she frowned.

"You ok?" She whispered. But of course she knew I wasn't. Nobody would be after hearing that, but I forced a smile on my face and nodded stiffly.

"I'm not angry at you. He lied to you, it wouldn't be fair of me if I was. Thank you for telling me."

She nodded curtly and waved goodbye, mouthing some sort of encouragement in my direction. I sat down heavily, feeling my heart beat faster in my chest and the world swivelling around me at a pace so fast I was getting dizzy.

I didn't know what to do or how to react. I was frozen in place, contemplating my actions. Should I just confront Jayce or should I pretend nothing happened? My tummy was doing summersaults due to my indecisiveness – or maybe there was a deeper meaning to my uneasiness I wasn't prepared to come to terms with.

I was so nervous I didn't finish my breakfast, forgetting the long cold tea on the table as I forced my legs to take me to the battlefield. My mind was on overdrive as I played the matches, and I couldn't honestly say I'd done well. My chest hurt like it was on fire, the words Sarah Fortune had said still playing inside my head like a melody stuck in my brain. The only difference being I wanted to rip my hair out and not dance along to it.

I got screamed at by our team's Udyr for failing to do whatever it was that he wanted me to do but nothing really mattered any more. My whole life seemed like it was falling apart in front of me and I could only reach out to the shattered pieces that were left and cut myself with them.

Lunch was hard. As hard as not finding him in the canteen, which roused a lot of suspicion in me. My throat wouldn't let me eat. It clenched tightly and it was near painful to swallow. I eventually gave up and walked off, hoping that a walk would clear my head. It didn't, though.

After another round of awful matches and the lightest dinner in the history of dinners I'd made up my mind to go to his apartment and to speak to him. He answered the door after I knocked on it lightly.

"Hey, Cait, come in."

I swallowed hard and entered, noticing his hand go behind my back and his lips kiss me on the cheek quickly.

"What's up?"

"Well, I…" I stammered. I couldn't control my emotions at that precise moment. I was furious, but somehow, the sensation had banished when I saw his smile. For a moment I thought it had all been a lie from Miss Fortune and my resolve tumbled down so fast I was left trembling on the spot. He immediately noticed and frowned.

"Is something the matter?" He asked, his arms wrapping around my waist. I flinched and pushed him back, determined to do this at least.

"Are you sleeping with other women, Jayce?" I asked, and for a moment, I felt strong and powerful.

His expression quickly changed. First, his eyebrows raised up, and immediately after, they fell down again, furrowing as they met. A flash of anger stroked his face as he grabbed my wrists and quickly pushed me towards him. The first thing I noticed was fear, crawling inside me, trying to push its way up, and then I felt the pain from the pressure he was applying to me where he was holding me.

His face was just inches away from mine and I could feel his hot breath tickling me as he whispered something incoherent.

"What?" I panicked, trying to get him to release my wrists. I struggled against him, getting anxious and he pushed me away, finally letting go. I had half a second to observe the damage and noticed two faint red lines.

The fear was creeping up from the pit of my stomach, and I felt the same uneasiness I had felt just the night before, when we'd had that uncomfortable sex and he'd growled at me to not lie to him.

"How dare you believe that nonsense about me?" He basically screamed at me, his face red and his expression deadly. I took a few steps back, leaving some space between us as a precaution.

I didn't say anything, I just backed away some more, hitting my head against the door and nearly cursing under my breath.

"Answer me when you're being spoken to!" He growled, leaning in, his nose nearly touching mine. "And who told you such lie, anyway?"

"Sa-Sarah Fort-Fortune." I managed to stammer, looking at him directly into his deadly eyes.

"And you believe her!? You fucking believe some lying cheating pirate over your loving, caring boyfriend."

When he said it like that, it made sense. It was probably a lie from Miss Fortune, maybe she just wanted to create trouble. Or wanted to fuck Jayce and thought that maybe by causing us to split up she'd be able to.

"Yeah, you're right." I said, lowering my gaze to the floor. "I'm sorry."

He smiled and kissed me on the forehead, then let me have my space again.

"That's alright Cait. Hey, I was just gonna head over to the Bar of Legends, wanna come along?"

"Sure." I mumbled. For some reason, my chest was still tight.

He opened the door and offered me to exit his apartment, following me close behind. We headed over to the bar, and, as soon as we entered, he wrapped his arm around my waist and guided me towards the crowd of people in the room.

To my surprise, we found Vi arm wrestling a very puffed-looking Graves.

"Ha, ha! Take that!" She screamed in victory as she won, jumping up from her stool, forcing it to fall.

Graves grumbled something as he massaged his sore arm and left the table, probably to fume on his own.

"Hey." Jayce smiled as he walked us over to greet them.

"Hi Jayce!" Vi smirked. She turned to me, her voice teasing slightly. "Hullo Cupcake."

My boyfriend wrinkled his nose at her comment, forming an impossibly to comprehend bad feeling in my gut. I was shocked to find myself angry at Vi for being the cause of his rash behaviour. He spoke then and I tried my best not to panic. "You know I hate that nickname."

"Oh c'mon! I was only joking." She grinned at him, but quickly glanced at me. Her eyes slowly roamed my face and I saw her eyebrow quiver and her smile falter.

"Don't call her that again." He spat, leaning in menacingly. Vi didn't give in to his threatening posture and brushed him off quickly by changing the subject.

"So, it's been a while since we've seen each other aside from matches." Her eyes were cold as she explored my facial expressions, probably waiting for anything I could do or say that might assist her in her suspicions.

She was being careful, testing the waters. Her gaze turned to him and she cocked her head as he answered her, back to his normal self. They spoke for a few more seconds but I couldn't understand what they were saying. My heartbeat was too fast and the throbbing in my ears caused by my previous panic was preventing me to focus on anything that was going on. He had been angry again, and his anger had freaked me out.

I felt a huge gauntlet on my shoulder and brought my head up to look into Vi's eyes.

"You okay, Cu-Cait?" She asked, worried.

"Yeah, I'm just…" Forcing a smile on my face I tried to find words to end my sentence with. "Tired."

Jayce's hand squeezed my waist, assuring me that I had done well.

"Maybe you should go home. Get some rest." A gentle smile was on her features, but her eyes didn't match the sentiment. They were burning me with an intensity I couldn't quite understand.

"She ain't that tired, right Cait?" Jayce pulled me closer to him and I forced my head to look into his smiling face. "You can have a drink or two, right?"

Something wasn't right. I could tell by the way his gaze was boring into me, as if saying that if I defied his decision he would show me no mercy.

"Yeah." I faintly said, turning back to her. "I'm fine."

"You heard the lady." Jayce laughed, finally releasing the grip he had on my waist and walking towards the counter "The usual, right, Vi?"

"You know it!" She shouted as he went away before she quickly looked at me, her expression unreadable.

"We should find a place to sit." I commented before she could say anything and start a much dreaded conversation. She just nodded and followed me as I lead her to one of the round tables at the back of the bar. "Is here alright?" I asked before sitting down. She shrugged her shoulders, still watching me.

She sat in front of me, and placed her heavy gauntlets on the table.

"Look, Cupcake" She tried to say but Jayce appeared with three huge jugs of beer and placed them in between us and I was almost happy he'd arrived. He handed me mine and sat down next to me, sneaking his arm around my shoulder.

I saw them grab the mugs and I imitated them, a bit slow on the uptake.

"Cheers!" They shouted in unison as they bumped their jugs against mine, the foam flying everywhere as my hand was a little shaky. I stared at Jayce – maybe for support – as he egged me on to drink with a smirk on his face. He already had the beverage to his lips and was about to chug all he could when I decided to take the plunge. Before I could think about the fact that I was taking very strong medication that could not be mixed with alcohol, his hand was on my glass and he was helping me down the awful tasting liquid.

Vi and Jayce slammed their empty jugs against the table, laughing and pointing at the foam on their lips. I heard him joke around about her moustache while I did my best to not retch.

Somehow the beer tasted worse than normal and I was finding it hard to keep down. I was half way through when I couldn't take it anymore and placed the jug on the table.

"Ain't she a doll?" Jayce nudged me gently, a warm smile on his lips. It was almost the one I'd fallen in love with. If only it touched his eyes.

"What? Can't finish it all?" Vi teased, her gauntlet creeping up on my mug. "Need some help?"

"She's just got manners, Vi." Jayce retorted, pushing her hand away. "She likes to take it slow."

She stopped, looking at him before turning to me. He was also watching me, maybe asking me to tell her that he was right. I couldn't voice what he wanted me to say so I grabbed the glass and lifted it to my lips, trying my damn hardest to swallow as quickly as possible so as to not have to taste it.

I finished it and breathed in, not realising I had been holding my breath. I let the jug slip out of my hands but Jayce caught it, placing it back down on the table.

"Good job!" He smiled, kissing me on the cheek. "Well done, princess."

"Well, my turn to order." Vi said, heaving herself up with aide from her gauntlets. She was about to go when she turned to me. "You sure you want some more, Cait? You don't have to drink if you don't want to."

"She's fine, Vi." Jayce snapped, his voice far from reassuring.

"I wanna hear it from her." She nearly snarled back at him.

"I could go for another round." I lied, plastering my fake smile on my face again.

"Don't feel pressured, Cait." Her voice was much quieter than before and her brow was furrowed in worry.

"You heard her. She wants to drink." Jayce barked. "Now get us some beers."

Vi sighed after watching my reaction for thirty seconds before leaving to get the drinks.

Normally Miss Fortune would be the one serving us but due to the fact that it was Friday, the bar was full and if you wanted your drink, you might as well go get it yourself or die of thirst.

As soon as she was off, Jayce placed his mouth against my ear and his hands wandered a little south.

"I want to get really smashed today." He whispered huskily before nipping my neck. "I want to have drunk sex with you sooooo muuuuuch."

My stomach felt weird. Bad weird. Like if I didn't do something about it I would die. I needed fresh air. The queasiness I felt didn't get any better as a second jar was placed in front of me.

"Cheers!" They went again and I gently picked up my drink. The taste of beer was on my lips and halfway through my throat when my eyes watered and I got up quickly, nearly throwing the jar against the table.

"Cait?" Jayce stopped his drinking game and rushed to grab my hand. "You okay?"

"I need to go to the toilet." I managed to mutter before I ran away, making it just in time to the ladies' room, opening the first cubicle that was empty and landing on my knees as I was violently sick, over and over.

My heart was pounding and the tears wouldn't leave my eyes as my stomach forced its contents out of me, which had been alcohol and the pathetic excuse for a dinner I'd been able to swallow.

I wiped my mouth sloppily as I tried to digest what had happened. My breathing finally calmed down but I could now taste the foul vomit flavour left in my mouth. It almost made me want to throw up again.

My body had rejected the alcohol. I was glad it had done it before most of it was absorbed into my system, but there was still something very unsettling about everything.

"Oh God!" Vi nearly screamed as she fell to the floor at my side. I hadn't heard her come in and I hadn't had time to close the cubicle door. "Are you alright, Cupcake?"

"Do I look alright?" I gasped, my stomach forcing me to heave again. It wanted me to keep throwing up, but I had nothing in me. I grasped the toilet seat with all my might as I spat and coughed.

"You didn't have that much to drink… was it too fast or…?" She was patting my head lovingly but I was disgusted by her being there right then. I didn't want to be seen, didn't want to be helped. The situation couldn't possibly be worse as she was still smelling it. The thought brought on a new wave of queasiness and my whole body lurched forward as I retched again.

I wanted to tell her it wasn't just the alcohol. It wasn't the fact that I'd had it too quickly. It was the medicine. And my being ill. Altogether it had been too much for my body to cope with and I had had to throw up.

"Must have been something I ate." I chocked, feeling the saliva pool in my mouth.

She was silent for a long while before answering, and when she did, I could tell she didn't believe me, even if her response felt truthful.

"Sure."

I wiped my mouth again, closing my eyes tightly. She helped me with my tears, and I avoided her gaze as she did.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Probably the best I'm going to feel." I muttered, slowly getting up. I was wobbly on my feet and she had to hold me as I flushed the toilet and walked out to splash my face with water.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror and I felt my stomach churning again. I was repulsed by my image so much I had to face elsewhere.

"Gods I look awful." I muttered, thinking she wouldn't be able to hear it.

"You look beautiful." She whispered and when I turned my head to her, she looked sad.

"I just threw up, Vi." I retorted, my tone snarky. "No one looks beautiful when they vomit."

"I didn't mean it that way." She muttered, her brow furrowed and her gaze turning to her feet. She let go of me then, taking a step back to see if I was stable enough. "Think you can walk?"

"No." I could. I just didn't want to. Her eyes met mine and she narrowed them.

"Want to stay here a while longer?" She asked and I nodded.

She stroked my hair as I tried to calm down. My hands were still trembling and I was sure I had a troubled expression on my face.

"Want me to deal with Jayce?" She whispered after a few minutes of silence.

I hesitated, pondering my options. My tummy churned as soon as I thought of him.

"Yes, please." I spoke softly, looking at the floor. She must've nodded in agreement, preparing to leave. Her cold metallic hand gently caressed my face before I heard the door open and she left.

It wasn't long before she was back, a gentle smile on her lips. Her next words were spoken softly, as if not to startle me anymore.

"Let's go home."

And as she helped me out of the establishment, her tight grip on my waist made me feel slightly less uneasy. As soon as we were out, I pressed my face against her body and enjoyed her warmth.

But no matter how cosy I was at that moment, nothing could stop the unholy black hole that was forming in my heart.