-Anarchy.-
"…"
"…?"
"You look… Nice."
Geez, what was with that surprised, almost grudging tone?
Vi shifted anxiously, tugging at the hem of the dark blue cocktail dress Jinx had picked out for her. She wasn't used to showing so much cleavage… Or so much leg for that matter. "Uh… Thanks."
Amber eyes lingered appraisingly and that just made the warrior fidget more.
Finally, Caitlyn murmured, "Let's go."
The Governor's Ball was a lot of things. It was impressively grandiose, beautifully elaborate, overly decadent…
And it, like most of the attendees, made Vi sick to her stomach—but none so much as Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow.
The man was a prime example of a womanizing pretty boy and he made the bruiser's skin crawl.
"Sheriff Caitlyn, you look wonderful." The brunette—tall, handsome, and impeccably dressed in a white tux—smiled charmingly. The expression soured a bit when he saw who she was with. "Hello, Officer. Any luck with that criminal that keeps eluding you?"
She smiled sarcastically in return, not bothering to hide her disdain. "Maybe if our so-called hero did something worthwhile, we wouldn't have such an issue."
"Vi."
His smile didn't waver. "Don't worry about it, Sheriff. Some people blame others to deal with their own failings.
… Was it possible to vomit purely out of anger? She was about to find out.
But just as she opened her mouth to tear him a new asshole, a hand on her arm stopped her from speaking. "Please, just behave yourself," she sniper hissed.
This was, of course, a rather common request, but it struck a nerve for some reason; she bristled, clenching her fists though the gauntlets she normally wore were absent, and rounded on her superior. "You're always siding with him."
"I hardly think that's true."
"But it is!"
That was said a bit too loudly; the throng of people nearest to them suddenly became hushed, eyes wide.
Nosy assholes.
"Ladies, please—"
"Stay out of this, douchebag. I'll deal with you in a sec."
Caitlyn sighed. "Honestly, Vi, is it really that difficult for you to behave like a fully functioning individual for one evening? You're like a child throwing a tantrum."
The pinkette bristled and the air around her crackled with static, her innate Blast Shield activating despite not having used any combat abilities or even having access to her gauntlets.
As if preparing her for battle.
"We fight because you're a humongous bitch… Then, you show up to my place days later, acting as though nothing went on to ask me for a favor. You don't ask how I am, don't find out what I've been up to, because it's all about what Caitlyn wants. I forgive and forget and even go so far as to agree to said favor for you—all without a single complaint. Here you are: bitching at me again because everything didn't go exactly as you planned. Yet I'm the child?"
Amber eyes narrowed. "Yes. You are. And until you start acting like an adult, you will be treated accordingly."
"So what, I have to be cold and unfeeling and obsessed with my work?"
The crowd stirred, an anxious murmur travelling through it. By now, even the live musical performance had quieted so that the musicians could better hear the altercation.
"Perhaps you could act more like Jayce."
Vi's vision actually dimmed and she had to hold her breath to keep herself from launching herself forward to deck the head of police right in her pretty face. The Piltover Enforcer trembled, her nails leaving little bloody crescent marks on her palms; every muscle in her body screamed to explode into violent, destructive action the likes of which the City of Progress had never seen.
After all, she and Jinx weren't so different… The thought hit her just then like a fucking sledgehammer and she blinked, realizing that this—all of this—wasn't the real her.
Not every animal living on the wild, mean streets was meant to be domesticated.
"You know what? Fuck Piltover and fuck you. Fuck swanky parties and rich assholes with something to prove. Fuck losing sleep because of your batshit insane need to know everything that's going on in the city. Fuck working my ass off to preserve the peace only to get chewed out for not doing it your way. Fuck trying to be something I'm not for someone who doesn't deserve me. Fuck it—I'm done."
Pure poetry—everything she had ever wanted to say, but had swallowed instead.
Vi left the resulting stunned, tense silence without a backwards glance.
"Hey…"
The sun was setting, casting long, romantic shadows over the towering buildings and colouring the horizon a bloody red that melted into a faint pink-orange.
"What'cha doin'?"
The bruiser was sitting atop the highest point in Piltover: the steam-powered clock tower. She didn't ask how the demolitionist had found her—didn't even look up at the other woman's question.
"Want some company?"
A shrug.
"Is it okay if I sit?"
After a moment's hesitation, Vi nodded slowly, bright azure eyes unusually shiny as she finally looked up. "Cait—"
She plopped down next to the Piltover Enforcer. "I know."
When the pinkette buried her head in Jinx's throat and wrapped her arms around a slim waist, the bruising force behind the action fueled by heartbreaking sorrow, the Loose Cannon didn't flinch.
"I know," she repeated, sighing softly.
'You've always had to learn things the hard way.'
"I'm leaving."
Okay, that was a little surprising. "Where to?"
"I dunno."
Leave it to Vi to not have a plan or destination in mind… Not that it really mattered. Jinx would accompany her to the very bowels of hell if the bruiser asked her to.
After all, it was them against the world. Always had been, always would be.
-End Chapter-