Time slowed.
Time slowed and Powder laughed. Powder laughed, but the sound didn't come out right. The forced tone came out flawed, resentful, and fake. It was nothing like Powder's laugh. A laugh as angelic, natural, and warm as the memories Vi nursed close to her. Instead this laugh reached deep into Vi and ensnared itself around her with a queasiness she could articulate. It sent her shoulders rigid, her brow furrowed, and her stomach plummeting.
Time slowed and hints of green appeared in Vi's periphery. They twinkled to attention, beginning to reassemble from their scattered formation and float cautiously from the far side of the warehouse. It was natural and tactical the way the team of Firelights sensed trouble and pivoted toward it; toward Powder. They were meant to signify a united defense; a battered, bruised, resilient group of fighters working to make Zaun a better, more equal place. Yet Vi felt a greedy desire to send them retreating.
Time slowed and she heard the inhale of surprise from her partner. Her hand subconsciously extended to her left, feeling grounded when the tips of her fingers brushed against the embroidery of Caitlyn's uniform. She hated the uniform; the detailing, the lace, the fabric, the gaudy presentation of it all, and yet she sought it instinctively. The pads of her fingers brushed then clutched lightly at the rough texture, allowing its presence to calm her heart battering against her chest. She felt the same selfish pull to push it away.
Because time slowed.
Time slowed and Vi felt her world contract: surrounded by people she loved - surrounded by them in a world where coexistence was futile.
Her fingers snagged into a loop of Caitlyn's uniform, and she tugged her closer.
"Get Ekko and the others out of here," Vi muttered lowly in Caitlyn's ear.
"Aww, still playing hero?" Jinx asked, a makeshift grenade swinging from her right index finger.
It was cavalier and sent Vi's blood boiling.
"Don't do this. Let us help," Caitlyn argued softly, resolutely.
A flash of anger replaced the growing dread. Whether Powder was inside Jinx or not wasn't the problem. The problem wasn't whether she trusted Caitlyn to keep Powder alive. The difficulty wasn't even in the thought of having to face Jinx in a fight to get her sister back.
All of that drove her, but in the moment, there was something far simpler spurring her words:
"Don't you get it? I can't lose them," Vi argued, twitching her head toward the sky of twinkling green stars. "I can't lose you," Vi confessed, her eyes breaking from Powder to settle on Caitlyn's. There was such compassion in the blue sea that stared back at her. It was the same warm humanity that motivated the Sheriff to upend her own life and unquestioningly pursue this wild goose chase.
"You won't," The conviction in her eyes almost made Vi's crumble, but then the taunting noises from her sister solidified the wavering resolve.
"You don't know that," Vi continued, her voice agitated and layered with the insecurities that sent her to the warehouse alone in the first place. "You don't… please; please just go. After last time-"
"I won't let you do this alone."
Caitlyn Kirraman was far too good; far too deserving of something better. She deserved the world and a partner who didn't flee or hesitate or question her. But more importantly, she deserved someone who wouldn't put her in the path of danger.
But that was the crux of the issue: she had better. She had everything and more topside, and yet here she was, ready to put all of that and more on the line in pursuit of something - of someone - who was the source of her greatest loss. Jinx had taken her mother, and yet she was still here - not to fight against her but to fight for her.
The sound of stone scraping metal drew both Caitlyn and Vi's eyes back to Jinx.
"You two done yet?" Jinx asked, her tone light and carefree considering she now wielded a machine gun the size of herself. The sight of it sent the color from Vi's cheeks, the breath from her lungs, and the impending future crashing down on her shoulders.
"Please-" she begged, shooting Caitlyn a look of desperation.
"I'm not going anywhere, Vi."
It was unflinching, and that's what terrified Vi the most. This wasn't Caitlyn's battle. This wasn't her world. This wasn't her stand to take, and yet she was there, standing beside Vi as though it was.
Any effort to convince Caitlyn otherwise was interrupted by a crack that sent dust and stone exploding from behind Powder. The swarm of Firelights had arrived and with them came half a dozen bursts of energy sending debris flying and Powder retreating to the other side of the rubble.
"Stay here," Vi commanded, racing for the hill.
It wasn't a hill before, but the enormity of the situation contorted everything around her; every small task somehow felt monumental when also consumed by the fear of an errant bullet lodging into something soft, warm, and breathing. Especially when that soft, warm, breathing individual wasn't herself.
Adrenaline replaced the aches, bruises, and cuts that covered her body. The thought of a sore wrist and another batch of stitches was nothing compared to the fear of losing anyone in the building to her own stupidity.
She'd trekked with intention across the metal graveyard alone for one reason: to end the battle tormenting her mind once and for all. From the moment Ekko let slip that Sevika was working with Powder and that the dwindling remains of their army were retreating to some abandoned warehouse, she'd counted the seconds until she could finally face her sister; finally face the choice: accept the monster everyone said she'd become, or find the little girl who once raced up, down, and around the Lanes with her as kids.
It had been her pilgrimage. Vi wasn't much for giving things meaning, but the hours-long walk, climb, and trek through the labyrinth of metal, barbed wire, and waste felt endless, foreshadowing, and holding the weight of her future in it. Or her past. It was difficult to know the difference when her present felt so burdened.
Restlessness settled into her travels; carelessness caught her sleeve on an errant wire; frustration left her grappling for a shortcut. The last time she'd been this isolated was Stillwater, and if those years were anything to go off, being alone with her thoughts was the last thing she needed. Introspection was the last thing she wanted. And yet she hoped that, with each passing hour that carried her to this isolated destination, she'd finally get her answer. Somewhere in the abandoned factory of decay, rust, and shimmer she'd either find Powder or she'd find Jinx.
At first she found neither. In the chaos of fists clashing with fists, she held onto some hope that the information had been wrong. The nagging worry that she'd stumble across Jinx dissipated with each fallen body. Surely Powder was still out there; surely the information was wrong; surely her stubborn rejection of facts, experience, and the trust of friends could be fact.
That's what she clung to with every body that stepped out of the sea of attackers and challenged her willpower. Somewhere in the mess she saw, heard, and felt the presence of Caitlyn's rifle providing back-up. At some point she became aware of the Firelights providing coverage overhead.
Until finally the dust settled.
Exhaustion came knocking first. She'd wandered, disposing of the gauntlets and searching for privacy to grieve. For as relieved as she was not to find Jinx, she still wanted so badly to find Powder. She craved the innocence of her sister and a chance to claw back the lost years. She longed for normalcy in a sea of change, corruption, and maelstrom her new life found. It wasn't just a yearning; it was an attachment. It was something her whole being clung to, because if she didn't knock on that door and find her little sister staring back, she'd be forced to grapple with the denial she carried.
It was denial that Powder was gone; that Jinx had taken her and stood in her form, mockingly putting Vi's loss on full display; that the acts of terror and destruction branded with Powder's face were acts taken by Jinx. She understood there was a chance she'd arrive, see Jinx in Powder's cloth and be forced to swallow the bitter truth.
So when neither showed, it stung with bittersweetness. It would mean another day of not knowing. It would mean another night of withdrawing into her treasure trove of untainted memories.
But then everything changed. In the blink of an eye and the flash of an instant, her world turned upside down. It wrenched at her heart then when the flicker of blue braids appeared in front of her. Not because she'd found Powder, but because she'd found Jinx.
She'd found Jinx and saw the threat it formed: one where no one was safe.
But Vi didn't know how to go down without a fight, and she'd use the hill of rubble as the foundation for the wall she'd build between Jinx and Caitlyn.
Unfortunately, Caitlyn Kirraman wasn't much of a listener and offered her own flavor of stubbornness. The command to stay had fallen on deaf ears, and instead Vi heard the sound of stone crumbling next to her as Caitlyn scurried to join her at the top.
"What did I say?" she growled. A blast from above instinctively sent her body to the left, shielding the errant debris from slicing Caitlyn's unprotected skin.
"You can't protect everyone," Caitlyn said simply from within Vi's shadow.
There was something touching about the way Caitlyn could see past her defenses and grip her battered heart. There was also something utterly infuriating that drove Vi to push her away. That infuriating thing was fear and vulnerability. Both nagged at her. Fear that Caitlyn would suffer the same dark date as so many she'd loved before. Vulnerability that if she ever confronted the feelings rooted deep in her, she'd drown in them.
Vi pushed past her thoughts and climbed higher, trying to gain vision of Powder in the midst of chaos. It was one against NUMBER. Powder didn't stand a chance against the full arsenal of the Firelights. Perhaps the saving grace was that it wasn't the full arsenal: fighting back shimmer and half an army of delinquents had obliterated most of their options, leaving them dodging and weaving the rain of bullets spouting from… from somewhere.
Vi just needed to summit the tiny mountain of rubble to get a better-
A tug yanked her back. She slid down, grappling with the avalanching stone that fought her grip. A snarl escaped her lips before she saw the cause: Caitlyn's critical eye had caught sight of an errant GRENADE aimed by Powder at the Firelights and ricocheted off the hoverboard. Its unintended target? The rubble that sat where her right arm was aiming moments earlier.
"Limbs on, please."
The tone was dry and veiled with deceptive calm, but the grim expression on Caitlyn's face betrayed her words. Normally Vi would have offered up humor in reply - calling out the overly serious way Caitlyn was handling the situation. Except it all suddenly felt fitting: this wasn't just any escapade into the undercity - this was a factory filled with unconscious fighters, pools of shimmer, and the ghost of her sister wielding any number of weapons.
Limbs. Weapons.
"I'll cover you," Caitlyn replied to the unspoken thought. Vi didn't have the bandwidth to question it and simply nodded, racing along the base of the rubble. It sat like a trench, creating a buffer between the duo and the second battle.
And that battle was chaos. Unlike before when most of the fighting was with fists and well-placed explosives by the Firelights, Bullets peppered the air with carelessness; it was an uncoordinated, chaotic attempt from Powder to keep the BUZZING Firelights above at bay. She lowered to a hunch as the height of stone and dirt reduced. The faint glow of blue caught her eye, and she knew a well-timed sprint would get her within reach of them. Well-timed and well-covered.
Vi glanced back at Caitlyn to see she'd edged her way to the top of the rubble pile, gun barrel concealed from view but undoubtedly taking aiming at the beyond. Caitlyn glanced toward her, their eye contact a silent conversation:
I'm going to run / I've got you covered
The noise and rumbles of the one-sided battle rumbled and jolted Vi forward. It propelled her, but second-guessing made her halt. She turned back, but Caitlyn's eyes were already scouring for Powder; for her target.
Vi's stomach flipped with conflict: she trusted Caitlyn. It was implicit and not for even a second did she question whether Caitlyn had her back.
What she questioned was what lengths Caitlyn could go to. She'd seen the bodies that littered the warehouse: some were broken and battered at Vi's hands, but others were pierced and split open by a tiny, round-nose piece of steel that cut through skin and organs at a rate far faster and deadlier than Vi's fists. It was this capability that scared Vi into paralysis.
It was that deadliness she attributed to the way Caitlyn's eye lined up with her scope and took aim. It made her stomach clench and her throat struggle to contain a cry of warning to stop; to hold back; to let Powder live.
But whatever sound she tried to say was lost to the splitting crack of a bullet exiting the barrel. It was louder than anything Vi had ever heard, and it was exacerbated by the silence that rippled through the air afterward. It was impossibly quiet. It was a quiet that sent her spine tingling and skin chilled with dread. No more did the machine gun rattle into the void. No longer did the Firelights speed and maneuver in the air for fear of being hit. No further did her feet travel out of subconscious denial that something unforgivable had just broken the sound barrier and lodged into her sister.
Vi's mind lost track of the minutes, hours, and lifetimes that passed in the milliseconds of silence that followed. Her legs moved first, heavy and disoriented, pulling her automatically around the edge of rubble and into the main space. Gauntlets lay at her feet, all but forgotten. Her eyes scanned the ground desperately for the tuft of blue hair.
And then she saw it; saw her; saw Powder.
Except she wasn't on the ground. She wasn't covered in blood. She hardly looked injured at all, and Vi felt her lungs exhale in relief, then inhale in confusion.
Laughter broke through the uncertainty that hung through the space. An unlaced boot kicked at the machine gun, useless and heavy on the ground, and two pink eyes glowed humorlessly dirty at Vi.
"Your girlfriend's a terrible shot," she teased, bending down to lift a severed piece of leather.
Vi's eyes scanned for understanding, and then it clicked: the gun lay abandoned on the ground, the strap that Powder used to support its weight split and severed.
Split by Caitlyn's deadly eye.
"She's an excellent shot," Vi growled back.
Still crouched next to the clunk of metal, Powder shrugged, her hand slipping behind her to reveal a revolver. "Let's see how good she is at dodging."
Pink eyes remained fixed on Vi, but her arm lifted and extended with deadly intent toward the rubble.
"Don't!" Vi shouted, eyes glancing back to where the barrel had been hiding moments earlier. Her brow squinted in confusion at the absence of it when-
"Drop it." The sound came from behind Powder.
The words didn't miss a beat, and Vi shook off the memory of the last time Caitlyn had directed the same words at Powder - at the death and destruction that followed a lapse in judgment. Vi refused to let that happen again.
Instinctively she watched Powder's hands lift in surrender, the revolver hanging limply from her forefinger.
"Well aren't you the quiet little mouse-"
"I said, drop it."
Powder's mouth morphed into a smirk, and Vi felt her stomach clench again. The hums of hoverboards above sat as a reminder that Powder was very much surrounded. It wasn't just Caitlyn's barrel: it was a fleet of Zaunites seeing an opportunity to extinguish this latest row of chaos.
Ekko had given up on Powder months, if not years ago. If someone who knew Powder as a kid wasn't willing to fight for her, Vi had little hope in the strangers who stood by his side.
They stood but didn't fire. It was a clear shot; an opportunity they'd all fought for for weeks if not months. The omission of it struck her as odd. The seconds leading up to the wall of silence that filled the warehouse had been filled with the rattling of gunfire, but not much else. Vi glanced up wearily, and recognized immediately why: the Firelights were out of fire power. It was a humorless joke. It was also why they remained at a distance, even now with Caitlyn and Vi standing on either side of Powder.
It was a silver lining if one could exist: an army without a weapon. Now they just risked being a liability.
"Powder," Vi called, looking for a glimmer of recognition in her former sister's eyes. Her voice wavered; a weakness in her armor. She glanced back at Caitlyn. Another weakness. "Don't do this. We can still go back. We can still-"
"Oh, you'd love that wouldn't you? A chance for your little sheriff to parade me around town so all the Pilties have their chance to ogle at the loon who blew up their precious Council Building? No thanks, sister. I'll take my chances with the undercity."
"It doesn't have to be that way. We-" Vi continued, glancing over Powder's shoulder at Caitlyn; Caitlyn who was keeping a cautious distance from the Zaunite. "We can help. We can… make things right. We want to make things right."
She wanted to use Powder's name. She wanted Jinx to hear her old name, listen to her old memories, and feel the pull to give her up, but that want was shrinking with every second this stalemate carried on. There were too many variables and too many lives at risk. It'd been a mistake to come, and now the burden of eight innocent lives hung in the balance. Vi knew she could take on Jinx alone, but she didn't know if she could surrounded by allies.
"That's where you've got it all wrong. You want to make things right so badly, Vi? You want to be absolved of your sins? Let's make it right."
"What, no that's not what I-"
"Let's make ole Cupcake's head roll."
The words were choreographed perfectly with the swiftness of Powder's hands.
"Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you," Powder reprimanded, pivoting to show her finger hanging threateningly near the pin that separated peace from pandemonium.
Vi glanced desperately at Caitlyn, hoping - praying - that Caitlyn had a clear shot, but Powder wasn't a fool: her hand sat protected by the object, and until they knew what that object was, any shot could prove disastrous.
So instead Vi interrogated what she could. The object looked familiar. It reminded her of all the tiny grenades, explosives, and gadgets that Powder collaged together with scrap metal - little tricks designed to create distractions. They were usually harmless and rarely worked.
This one though was larger; where the others could be held in one hand, this was at least two times taller and three times wider. But that wasn't the only difference. The biggest difference of all was that Jinx made this one, and unlike Powder, Jinx had the confidence and vindictiveness to make it deadly.
"See, this bad girl right here? She's a special one. I call her Fish-bones Lite. Nice ring, don't you think?"
Jinx carelessly tossed it back and forth between her hands. With each new angle Vi felt the torpedo-like shape jostle free another foggy memory and realization took hold: the jaws, the snout, the mouth of a shark. She'd seen it before. So had Caitlyn. In unison the duo locked eyes, confirming this shared knowledge; this shared fear and memory.
"You like it?" Powder asked, a hand waving in front of it with all the pizazz of someone showing off a prize. "After that little mess topside, I couldn't exactly run around with Pow-Pow and ole Fish-bones. Rocket launchers are far more suspicious, wouldn't you say?"
Silence followed. Neither Caitlyn nor Vi knew what to say to temper the situation.
"You wouldn't believe the power this little puppy has. Especially on steroids."
Vi didn't understand her meaning until it was too late; until she saw the sparkle of blue from the gemstone that slipped between Powder's fingers and slid into the open cavity. A thumb quickly clicked the cavity shut and immediately sent a soft blue emitting from the cracks around it.
"Powder-"
"The funny thing is, it wasn't even armed until I added this," Powder mocked. "Too bad, because now no one has a chance."
"What are you doing?" Vi called, desperately trying to telepathically get Caitlyn to run
"Making you decide."
"Decide?"
"You want Powder so bad? Then come get her."
Before another thought, breath, or moment could pass, Powder's hand slammed against the machine, sending a high whirring sound emitting from it.
Vi flinched, her arms instinctively raising to shield her from the uncertainty held within the device. A moment passed like this before she squinted through her fingers and saw Caitlyn in a similar position, her rifle lifted away as a flimsy line of armor.
It struck her as odd that she could see all of Caitlyn. There was something there before. There was something between them. There was - Vi's eyes darted to the ground between them where Fish-bones Lite lay forgotten, then up and around in search of Powder. The high-pitch whirring continued, only now it was mixed with a laughter that echoed through the factory.
Vi squinted for a shadow; for a sign that Powder was skirting around the edges only to feel her eyes pulled back to the mechanism; to where Caitlyn had run and was now trying to disengage the gemstone.
It didn't work. The cylindrical body clicked and twisted open, revealing glowing blue innards. The top popped up, revealing another band of blue light. Whether for show or for threat, the sight sent a chill down Vi's spine.
"Ekko?" Vi called, forgoing any subtlety or attempts to downplay the panic in her voice. She didn't know what the weapon did, but she knew what gemstones were capable of. "Ekko, get everyone out."
Vi didn't leave time to breathe or process or think about what happened next. There was the chance the device would deactivate. There was a chance Powder had broken into Jinx's mind and made the mechanism faulty. There was a chance it was all one big ruse to give Jinx a chance to escape.
Whatever the odds and whatever the chances, Vi was certain about one thing: she wasn't about to let Caitlyn sit at the center of it all and take that risk.
Instinct reigned. Her right hand moved first. It reached down and she felt her fingers wrap around the gauntlet's bar. There wasn't time for the other. Somehow her left hand knew that. Second came her feet; charging blindly with one goal: to intercept whatever sat on the other side of that grenade.
The whirring increased, the mechanism sprouted new pieces, but none of that mattered if Vi was too late to do anything about it. Twenty feet had never felt so far; had never felt so impossible.
She hated Caitlyn for ignoring her shouts - her cries; her pleas to run, to hide, to escape. She hated her for being heroic and caring and all the things she'd grown to love about the topsider. She hated her for being just out of reach as the first charges of blue escaped the mechanism.
Defeat crept in as a bolt of energy shot through the air, but defeat wasn't something her instinct understood. It wasn't something her instinct had ever accepted. Too often she'd found herself face-to-face with a fight bigger than herself, and now was no different. Except it was, because this time the stakes were greater than they'd ever been.
So she charged.
Somewhere her instinct found the fuel, determination, and blind stupidity to close the gap, to hear the discharge rattle through time and space, and to leap.
Time slowed.
Time slowed, and her arms extended: her left hand wrapped around the familiar lace and embroidery. Lace and embroidery she hated but comforted her more than anything else in the world.
Time slowed, and the crack of blue erupted into a full blast. It was a blast that would shatter the glass from windows and crack foundations. It was a blast that would wipe out lives.
Time slowed, and Vi felt life flash. The blink of an eye lasted decades and somewhere in all of it she felt the love, heartache, fear, joy, confusion, comfort, isolation, and warmth her life had experienced.
Time slowed, and her right arm rose as the divider between their bodies and the device, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. Somewhere her instinct remembered the shield her gauntlets once produced, and the translucent shimmer of blue appeared again.
And for a moment life was suspended somewhere between existence and death. In that moment, existence was decided, and time returned.
It returned as it always did in the moments that followed. It followed in the thunder of the explosion fading out like a memory. It followed in the ache that ran up Vi's arm. It followed in the warmth and whispers and searching fingers that grounded her back to reality.
"Vi?"
Her eyes blinked open and into the glistening blue of her dreams.
"Cupcake," she muttered - groaned - out in relief. Blinking was hard, but Caitlyn made the pain worth it. "You ok?"
"Me? Vi, you - you just… you are such an idiot."
"I'm an idiot?" she laughed into a cough then a wince.
"Wait, stop, you shouldn't move so quickly."
Chastising turned to worry, and Vi did her best to wave it off.
"Where are-?"
"They flew."
"At least someone listened," Vi replied dryly, trying to break the wrinkle in Caitlyn's brow.
It didn't work.
"Vi, I'm so sorry. I… I didn't mean to-to - we'll get her back, I promise," Caitlyn replied, her voice thick with remorse.
Vi wanted to scream at Caitlyn; she wanted to tell her that didn't matter; that finding Jinx wasn't a priority; that she - Caitlyn - was.
"Cupcake-"
"I shouldn't have-"
"Cupcake-"
"-let Powder-"
Vi leaned up and cut off the rest of Caitlyn's words against her lips. A moment of confusion gave way to Caitlyn reciprocating and hands lifting to cup Vi's cheeks. It was terribly timed and dumb and, to her half-coherent brain, the best way to get Caitlyn to shut up. But it was also soft and warm and sweet tasting. It was exactly as Vi had hoped and imagined it to be, and it all ended far too soon.
"I'm so sorry about Powder," Caitlyn whispered when their lips parted, tears welling in her eyes. She blinked them closed and Vi watched a tear fall loose and trail into her thumb.
Her forehead fell forward in defeat, leaning against Vi's, and any desire to make light of Caitlyn's apology was lost to the moment; to the remorse and guilt Caitlyn carried.
"Powder's gone," Vi whispered, her voice cracking but her gaze steady. It was an admission; a recognition; a change in sentiment. Vi understood, finally, that the person she once saw as her sister had vanished. In her place stood chaos, confusion, and terror. Maybe Powder was still in there somewhere, but Vi couldn't wait for her to show - not when people she cared about were endangered. "But you're here."
"Vi, I-"
"You're here."
It took far too long to return topside. Between the injuries, damaged hoverboards, and coordinating back-up to collect and treat the thugs littering the old warehouse, the trek was slow going across the vast valley. The first change of dawn was breaking through the haze by the time the silhouette of Zaun came into view. Vi watched it through her makeshift mask, mesmerized by how different the return trip was. There was a beauty to the wasteland that couldn't be seen from the ground. The struggle of each step, choice, and path was clear when her field of vision wasn't overwhelmed by a wall of obstacles. It almost felt peaceful.
On multiple occasions she felt her eyes pulled toward Caitlyn who both towered over and gripped tightly at Ekko's frame. It was a reassurance and a reminder that not everything about the night was a total failure.
"So, Jinx is still on the loose, there was no sight of Sevika, and I've got weeks of repairs to these," Ekko grunted, gesturing to the three hoverboards piled up in disuse when they'd finally found the ground again. "Anything I'm missing?"
"We took out the shimmer factory."
"Still a pretty shitty day if you ask me," Ekko muttered through a yawn. "We have spare cots."
It was an invitation to stay, but Vi shook her head, fingers reaching instinctively to find Caitlyn's. When she did they entwined, and a quick squeeze of agreement sent the duo wandering topside.
The orange of dawn faded into a blue as they wove their way through the familiar alleys and roads. Once topside Vi would let Caitlyn take the lead, but for the moment this was her world, and she knew it best.
"I hate to agree with Ekko, but it's been a pretty terrible day," Caitlyn confessed when they stepped out onto Piltover's main promenade. She clutched her jacket tighter, fighting off the change in temperature.
The city was still covered in snow, and their breaths were encapsulated by pillows of steam that hovered lamely before disappearing entirely. Vi grinned at the storefronts blinking out from the blankets of white then up at the cloudless blue sky warming her skin against the morning's chill.
"Funny," Vi replied, finding Caitlyn's hand again. "I was just about to say it's cropping up to be a good one."
a/n: Well, we made it, folks. A huge thank you for hanging with this fic - it took far longer to write than I'd have liked, but I hope it didn't disappoint.
This story started with an attempt at creating a series of one-shots, but I'm clearly way incapable of sticking to a plan, so now we all have this 5-chapter short-fic to enjoy. Up next is... NOT a one-shot. It's going to be a modern au cait/vi story. It's a lot of fluff, but I never get too far into a fic without slipping into the angst. If you enjoyed this fic, fair warning, the next one will be very different, but I'd be thrilled to have you all along for the ride. It'll be under another cover for those interested (but no, it doesn't have a name yet).
To all who have commented, you've made my day. I love hearing your opinions and thoughts and feelings. These characters are pretty spectacular, and everyone sees them slightly differently; it's rewarding to see a few of you vibe with my interpretation of them.
