Vi remembered vividly. The darkness, never-ending darkness, surrounding her as she floated uselessly amidst it. Ages seemed to pass as she stared upwards, thinking nothing, saying noting. Her body wanted to sleep, wanted to let go. She was so tired. So very tired. Wouldn't it be easier to just let go? To just sleep after all this time. 'No' a voice whispered in her mind. 'you can't leave, Vi.' She tried to wave the voice away, but as she swatted at it, it got louder. 'Don't leave me Vi' it said. 'You still owe me dinner.'
Vi's eyes shot open and she gasped. Air rushed into her lungs like it had been absent for eons, and she gulped down mouthful of air after mouthful of air. Her eyes rocketed around the room, taking in her surroundings at breakneck speed. Where was she? How had she gotten here? Where was Alphons? Where was Caitlyn? She felt a pair of hands touch her chest and she reared back instinctively, ready to take a swing at her captor. Then she saw those eyes. Those beautiful teal eyes, surrounded by a mass of raven hair, black as night. The hat. The purple dress. It was Caitlyn.
"It's ok Vi it's ok!" she said, trying to sooth the pinkett. "Calm down, just breathe. Breathe, that's it." Vi relaxed a bit, laying back in her bed.
"Hey there Cupcake" she croaked. Her throat felt like sandpaper, dry as the Shurima deserts. "Where am I?"
And then Caitlyn was hugging her. Hugging her tightly, shaking slightly as she did. Vi's face became immersed in black hair as Caitlyns hat tumbled off her head to the floor. She didn't seem to care. Vi breathed in the sweet smell of that hair. Like roses, she thought faintly. She didn't care that the sheriff was laying atop her wounds, sending shooting pain throughout her body. She didn't care that she was having precious air choked from her lungs. Caitlyn was here. Vi weakly wrapped her arms around the woman.
All too soon, she sheriff had pulled away, sniffling and wiping the tears from her face. "Sorry" she muttered, sitting back down. She picked up her discarded hat and placed it on the bedside table, taking a deep breath before speaking again. "The doctors said you probably wouldn't make it" she said. "you were out for days." She took another deep breath, composing herself. She was a mess. Hair everywhere, bags under her eyes, and she clearly hadn't done laundry in days judging by the stains on her dress.
"You look like more of a mess than I do" Vi chuckled, wincing in pain as she did "bad idea" she added "no laughing."
Caitlyn giggled, shaking her head. "God's you're as incorrigible as ever." she said.
"How long was I out?" Vi said, trying and failing to sit up a bit.
"Two days" Caitlyn replied, taking a glass of water from the side table and handing it to Vi. She gulped it down with relish, sighing happily.
"That hit the spot" Vi said, handing the glass back to the sheriff. "Two days huh? How did Piltover survive without it's world famous protector?"
"Oh it managed" Caitlyn said. "I wasn't here all the time, after all." she smiled coyly.
Vi laughed. "Always about you, Cupcake." she said, trying to relax a bit. "So when can I get out of here? I'm itching to hit something."
Caitlyns face fell. "About that..." she said, pausing to collect her words. "The bullets damaged your spine a bit...the doctors said you can't be lifting anything heavy for a while, so that means no gauntlets."
"You must be joking" Vi said incredulously. "How am I supposed to keep the peace without punching anyone?!"
Caitlyn looked away, moving a few strands out of her vision. "About that..." she said.
"I'm benched." Vi said, mouth agape. "You're benching me. I'm fine Cait, really!" She put a bit too much motion into that though, and winced once again as pain ripped through her abdomen. "Ok, maybe fine isn't the right work" she said through gritted teeth "but I'll be fine, really! Just give me a couple days and I'll be totally ok, you'll see."
Caitlyn shook her head. "It's not up to me, Vi. Regulation states that any officer that recieves a crippling injury has to take at least two weeks leave, those are the rules!"
"Change the dam rules then!" Vi said loudly. Again too much movement, again pain.
"Vi please calm down!" Cait said. She was getting worked up again, Vi noticed. Calm down Vi, don't make her cry again. "It's just two weeks. It can't be that bad!"
Vi sighed, looking up at those gorgeous eyes. "I guess I don't have a choice." she muttered. Two weeks. It can't be that bad.
It was worse. Caitlyn had been sugar coating her injuries. The smallest of actions caused excruciating pain, and there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. Things she did a hundred times the day before were just impossible to do, like bending over to check the fridge, or reaching out to pick up the remote. There was a list of things she couldn't do a mile long, which Vi promptly threw in the trash as soon as she was released from the hospital two days later. Apparently driving was on that list, which Vi tired to do at least once. That didn't turn out well. She couldn't even pull out of the parking lot. And then there was the lifting thing. She couldn't pick up boxes of Hextech scrap, which she had delivered through totally legal means to her apartment. Most of it was trash, but there were a few good pieces in each box that gave her an idea for her gauntlets.
That was the biggest thing to Vi. She couldn't even put the dam things on. They were way to heavy for her damaged spine, but that didn't stop her from trying. At first she tried to strip weight from them, but that turned out to be impossible. The bases alone weighed at least fifty pounds. Then she tried to make the gloves longer, to support more of the weight on her arms instead of her arms. Bad idea as well. She went through drawing after drawing, idea after idea, each one as useless as the last. Caitlyn came by every few days to check on her, make sure she hadn't snuck out or died in the night. She brought food, more beer (which Vi went through rather quickly) and something to read, a magazine or two. She tried to keep her company every time, but Vi was so bitter about the whole ordeal that it normally devolved into the sheriff making some excuse to leave.
About a week into her incarceration, Vi had practically given up. She was flipping through one of the magazines that Caitlyn had brought her, popular Hextech or some other inventor porn like that, when a small article accompanied by a picture stood out at her. It was an interview with the newest member of the League of Legends, Rumble. The little Yordle had created a mech of some type that he could ride, making him just as tall and powerful as the champions he fought against. The design was crude, jankey, even just plain old impractical in a few places, but there was something about it. Something that really spoke to her...
"That's it" she whispered. "A chassis for the gloves. That's it."
Caitlyn was really starting to worry about the Pinkett. The last time she had visited, they had had a rather gruesome shouting match about who's fault this really was. The both of them had been rather rude, so she had waited an extra day before going back. "Eleven days down" she said to herself as she pulled up to the crappy downtown apartment that Vi called home. "Three to go."
Vi lived on the third floor in the north west corner of the building. All sorts of seedy individuals could be seen pacing the halls, but most of the time they vanished as soon as they saw the sheriff. She reached Vi's door and knocked. "Just a minute!" Vi shouted through the door. Her voice seemed a bit peppier than usual, Caitlyn noticed.
The door opened, revealing the Pinkett in a baggy shirt and shorts. "Good to see you Cupcake!" She said, smiling. "Hope you brought more beer."
Caitlyn rolled her eyes and smiled. "I'll never understand how you drink this stuff" she said, depositing her armful of groceries on the kitchen counter. "You seem awfully cheery this afternoon. Something I should know?"
Vi grinned. "Oh ya" she said, moving towards her workbench. She had draped a blanket over it, hiding a rather large bulge underneath it. "I've fixed it. I fixed everything, all my problems!"
Caitlyn approached the table cautiously. "That had better not be something illegal" she said. Vi laughed.
"It's not. I think. I don't know, I'm not sure what the laws on human augmentation are."
"There are none" Caitlyn said slowly, eyes narrowed at the Pinkett.
"Good!" Vi clapped her hands and rubbed them together fiercely. "No problem then. I was looking at a magazine you gave me, and something popped out; a mech some Yordle idiot made."
"Rumble?" Caitlyn asked. "You're talking about Rumble. Vi he's one of the brightest minds in Bandle city."
"Could have fooled me with that shoty design he's got. Anyways!" she continued excitedly. "I saw that and I got an idea" she pulled the blanket away. "and I made it better."
Caitlyn was speechless. It looked like a human skeleton, silvery chrome, with complex and intricate Hextech at each joint. It looked about as tall as Vi, if Vi had no head, no hands, and no feet. It was crude, but eloquent at the same time, each angle being carefully crafted and bent to fit the shape and design the pinkett wanted. After a few seconds, the sheriff stuttered "That's an...an..."
"An exosuit!" Vi exclaimed happily. "It totally fucking works too! I made it out of Adamantium, to save on weight and still keep durability. There's no power needed, so no battery. It disperses the weight of my gauntlets so there's not as much on my back. And it WORKS!" she shouted, jumping up and down a couple times. She swore in pain, not thinking before she moved. "Ok, way to excited Vi. But it works Cupcake, I feel better than ever when I'm wearing it! I tried it out last night! There are a couple kinks in the right knee I need to work out, but other than that I can't feel a thing! No more pain!"
Caitlyn looked from her partner to her creation and back. "This is incredible, Vi" she said quietly. "you did all this in four days?"
"Yup!" she said, her smile growing even wider.
Caitlyn shook her head. "You could be a brilliant scientist if-"
"If I didn't like punching people so much" Vi finished "ya. So can I go back to work now?!"
Caitlyn sighed and took a step back. "I'll tell you what" she said. "You take me to dinner tonight. You wear this. Then we go for a run. If I think you're ok, you can come back to work. Sound good?"
Vi raised her arm in a mock salute, sending shooting pain through her back. "YeAAH" she exclaimed, dropping her arm. "Yes ma'am, Cupcake" she finished, chuckling to herself.
God dam I love this ship. Hey all, Abe again. I don't know what get's me so much about Cait/Vi, but whatever it is, someone should look into marketing it as a drug or a food or something, 'cause I would buy that shit en mass. With their relationship about to begin, what more could I do with this story? Much. Much. More. Don't you worry you're pretty little heads, there's more to come for Love and Crime. I'm even planning a spin-off called "Love and War" that should be coming out as soon as I finish this one up. Thank you all so much for following me! Please show your support by continuing to read, and please, if you like it, take the time to write a quick little review. It really means the world to me!
Abe