Hey guys, just wanted to thank y'all for enjoying my writing. I don't wanna take up too much of your time with this, so I'll keep it brief. If there's something else you wanted to see written in the League setting (Arcane or otherwise), feel free to let me know! This is the conclusion of this little story, as I have no idea where to take it, and just wanted a somewhat nice resolution.
Vi woke up to the sound of Caitlyn's breathing quickening, her light sleep easily interrupted by the slightest disturbance. She stood up quickly, the rickety chair squeaking as her weight left it. Caitlyn wasn't yet awake, but her dreams appeared to be restless. Worry crept over Vi's face as she gently stroked Caitlyn's forehead, trying to comfort her.
"It's alright, Cait," she whispers, trying anything to ease the woman's inner turmoil.
Caitlyn's eyes fly open and she shoots up to a seated position, nearly hitting Vi's face with her own as she lets out a short cry full of fear. Her eyes dart around, seeing an unfamiliar infirmary, the dim, dingy lightning of the undercity, and finally Vi, the only comfort to be found. Tears well in her eyes before she covers them with an arm, collapsing back down onto the bed, silent save the heavy, shuddering breaths as she tries to stop the crying.
"Hey! Hey, you're ok," Vi says, awkwardly patting the top of her head. "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere until you are feeling better, alright?"
She winces as she remembers the similar promise she made to Powder, before she realized what her sister had become. I'm not going to abandon you again... Vi shakes her head and internally wrestles with the decision she'd been putting off. I'll never be able to get close to Powder without people like Caitlyn getting hurt as a result. She's my sister, but Caitlyn is a good person who doesn't deserve what happened to her...
She looks down at Caitlyn who had just uncovered her eyes, tears dried up as she looks up at Vi. "I had the worst dream. I was hoping everything else was a nightmare too, but... I can feel the bandage around my arm. And my nose."
Guilt washes over Vi as Caitlyn lifts her arm to look at the tightly wrapped bandage around her stump, spots of pale red just barely visible on the surface. Caitlyn's face is cold as she looks at it, inspecting her arm as if it were a mundane bauble at a store, rather than the result of the most traumatic moment of her life.
She pauses for a moment, looks at Vi and in an even voice says, "I'd like to go home."
Vi felt her insides twisting at Caitlyn's pain, so much felt in so few words. She wanted to undo the events of the last day, but more than that, undo everything that had happened since that night so long ago. But she didn't know how to say it, and so she simply did what she had learned from a lifetime of pain. She steels her expression and looks at Caitlyn, only a hint of her sorrow remaining.
"Alright... If that's what you want."
As they prepared to leave, Caitlyn struggles to change out of her clothes, still feeling her missing hand and trying to use it as she would have normally. She looks down at the wrapped stump and sighs, wanting nothing more than to go back to her bed and fall asleep. She was exhausted beyond belief, emotionally, physically...
She exited the makeshift infirmary to an awaiting Vi, avoiding eye contact with the woman she'd grown so close to over the past week. I ended up getting too close. "Shall we go," she asks as Vi awkwardly, not wanting to say too much. She knew that if she ended up conversing, she'd fall back into the same patterns as before, get too attached, and end up disappointed once again.
Vi nods and stands up straight from where she leaned against the wall, guiding her out of the firelight hideout. In her undercity attire, only Caitlyns height made her stand out among the other ragged, tired, shuffling masses as they made their way towards the tunnels that connected to the topside. She tried to read the back of Vi's head, but got no indications of Vi's feelings until they entered the cramped tunnels and the sounds of the bustling undercity faded.
She came to an abrupt stop as Vi halted ahead of her. "Is something wrong," Caitlyn asks quietly as she notices Vi's hands are balled up in tight fists.
Vi turns and quickly wraps Caitlyn in a hug, the former enforcer standing like a shocked pillar as she experiences the most forthright affection she'd ever felt from her. She felt a small thrill, quickly followed by indignant anger as she thought back to Vi's frustrated words outside the council chambers. She opens her mouth to voice her problem, but Vi steps back and talks first.
"Caitlyn, I don't know how to make up for what happened to you. I know I hurt you, and I only did that because..." Vi pauses and takes a deep breath as if preparing to take a plunge into freezing water.
"I don't know how to do this. I was a kid when I was put in Stillwater, and the 'friends' I made there were only to survive. Everything I learned there was wrong, and I knew that even as a kid. But that's all I know now. You're so... You came to me as just some rich girl who didn't know anything, but you always wanted to do the right thing, and you learned what the right thing was when you didn't know how bad life is down here. You're just so... You're so good it's scary. We did everything we set out to do, and it just wasn't enough for the Council, so I thought, 'Hey, that was fun but it's over now. End it before she does.' And I know that was stupid, but you know me. I'm stupid sometimes. I understand that you want to go home to heal, and I understand if you hate me for everything that's happened, but I... I didn't want things to end without saying something. Whether or not you want something else, I don't want to lose another friend."
Caitlyn stands still, eyes wide as she processes Vi's speech, her exhaustion overridden by the fluttering in her stomach that threatened to make her sick. "I... I don't know what to say," Caitlyn starts, turning away as she attempts to think, bringing her hand up to her chin only to sigh in frustration as her stump painfully nudges against her skin.
"You know how I feel about you. I already made that quite obvious," she says in an exasperated voice. "But there's more to it than that. Certainly you've caused me one or two issues along the way, but you aren't the problem. It's your sister. I can't ignore what she's done like you seem to be able to. She has killed-"
Vi blurts out, "I know! You don't have to keep bringing it up."
"Apparently I do, and I will keep doing so until you either understand, or we are no longer associated. I turned a blind eye before, because I thought you might actually be able to talk to her, but she's been this way for years. We don't have years to wait for you to fix her. I've been involved for less than one week and this was the toll," Caitlyn says, lifting her handless arm.
Vi looks down at the small trickle of water in the defunct pipe, the darkness hiding her tears that fell from her face to add to the flow. As she opens her mouth to speak, the broken tone of her voice throws Caitlyn off guard immediately.
"I know. A part of me knew the second I heard that she was going by Jinx now. I wanted to believe it was an act, but then I actually got to see her, and I saw my little sister until the Firelights showed up, and Powder was gone," Vi says, her legs shaking before she falls to her knees, breathing hard.
"It's happening again," she mutters. "It's all gone. Just like that. All gone."
Caitlyn speaks up, asking, "What do you mean, happening again?"
Despite her attempt to try and keep distant for the safety of her own emotions, she couldn't help but feel the need to empathize.
Vi looks up at her, shaking her head and saying, "Right, you don't even know... The night I was taken from the undercity and thrown into Stillwater, I was trying to rescue my... adoptive father with the help of my adopted siblings. Silco had taken him, and killed another friend of ours. I told my sister to stay out of it because it was dangerous and she was too young. She didn't listen, ended up blowing everyone to hell. I lost my father and both my brothers, and then she shows up not knowing what she'd done."
Vi presses her palms to her closed eyes, trying to stem the flow of tears. She hadn't talked about that night to anyone, and now it was all spilling out.
"But she comes up to me, so proud of her work, not knowing she killed our family. I was mad. I was so broken and angry, I hit her. I called her 'Jinx' first. And then I left her there, next to our father's dead body. It was her fault, but she was trying to help us, and I abandoned her and Silco took her in."
Caitlyn listened to the story with bated breath, sympathetic tears of her own making her eyes glisten in the dark, her heart aching as she watched Vi tear into her own character. She couldn't just stand there so coldly while her friend was so obviously in pain, so she did the only thing she could think of. She returned the favor.
Vi hears a small splash, opening her eyes to see Caitlyn had dropped to her knees, leaning forward to wrap her in a hug.
Caitlyn whispers, "It's ok... You- you did the best you could. It was an impossible situation."
Any semblance of stoicism left in Vi's facade utterly shatters. She collapses in Caitlyns arms, sobbing into her shoulder. "I know... It's not fair! We were just kids!"
Caitlyn awkwardly holds Vi as she lets out years of pent up frustration. She didn't know what to say. There really wasn't anything she could say that would make Vi feel better. All she could do was be there for her and let her take the time she needed to feel better.
Vi takes a few minutes to calm down, her breathing slowing to a less erratic pace, her eyes drying as she wipes them and pulls away from Caitlyn, looking away embarrassedly. "I'm sorry you had to-"
"Don't apologize for that. This is what friends are supposed to be for. You've opened my eyes up to so much, and I don't think it was any secret that I got very attached to you very quickly," Caitlyn interrupts, standing up and reaching out her hand to help Vi to her feet.
"I still would like to go home," she says, Vi's eyes downcast as the words leave her lips.
"But you can visit me. I could use the company while I recover," she continues, trying hard to keep up the boundaries she swore to abide by after Vi left her. "Maybe if we talk enough, we can come to an understanding about your sister. And I can ask Jayce if he can help me with this whole hand situation."
Vi gives her the barest smile, glad that Caitlyn was giving her any chance, saying, "Who knows, maybe a Hextech hand will be better than-" cutting silent at the look Caitlyn gives her. "Sorry. I uh... That was a bad joke."
Caitlyn rolls her eyes before pointing down the tunnel. "Lead on," she says, waiting for Vi to turn around before letting herself smile. As much as she wanted to get back at Vi for how badly she'd disappointed her, she couldn't help but feel giddy despite everything. Maybe everything is going to be fine.