I found this one in my files while deleting some fledgling stories. Kat x Riv shipping and dark themes. Where does all this Kat shipping come from?
Riven sighs as she stares irritably at the torchlight entering through her small cell's bars, the imprisoned Exile's hands crossed lazily behind her head. Riven's mind wandering elsewhere, the former Noxian commander's body posture revealing her immense exhaustion. The white-haired swordswoman grumbles as she absentmindedly sends a baleful glare at the flickering form of the torch burning a few meters away from her cell, lighting the narrow stone corridor.
"From all the cells and the damp holes in this filthy hellhole why would they actually give me the one that's lit at all times?" The Noxian swordswoman grumbles under her breath, resulting in a louder snore from the other person that's lying on the mattress next to Riven. Dark maroon-colored orbs slowly follow the source of the repetitive sound until they stumble upon the sleeping figure that's pressed against the former commander's left side. Riven spots the long scarlet curtain of her cellmate's hair first, spread across the thin bed sheets like hungry red flames about to turn into a blazing inferno. Then, there are the swirling black tattoos, partially visible due to the clumped condition of the other prisoner's faded uniform. Black swirls and sharp lines decorate the unconscious body of one of the most notorious assassins in all of Runeterra.
Once Riven would have instantly darted out of the bed or pushed Katarina off the old mattress if she were told to share a bed with the notorious Sinister Blade of Noxus. Now things were different…
The Exile's maroon-colored eyes momentary linger on the abundance of band-aids and bandages that are covering Katarina's sleeping form. The bruises are still visible on the redhead's youthful face, Katarina's split lip isn't hard to spot under the flickering torchlight of the cursed torch. The sleeping assassin's brand new black eye is even more pronounced than the old scar that's running across the noble's left eye…
Riven's gaze softens, just a bit. Yep, Kat had gotten it the worse of them, after all. For when the Demacian clowns had finally managed to conquer Noxus and started rounding up its champions, old, redundant and new, the Sinister Blade had been the primary target of their 'righteous' vengeance.
Riven had done some terrible things in her life. Mugging and stealing when she had been just an orphan trying to survive on the streets of the Black City, fighting Ionian rebels that tried to defend their homeland from the Noxian invaders under Swain's orders. Killing an Ionian elder and then letting the deceased man's bodyguard take the blame for the attack… And yet, for all the terrible sins that the former Noxian commander had both witnessed and damningly committed in her relatively short life, the punishment of the sleeping Du Couteau had made her sick to her stomach.
Due to either spies or general knowledge the ruling Demacian council and its herd of cowardly sycophants knew of course of the harsh nature of Noxian ideals. The vile aristocrats and fat politicians knew that the soldiers and people of the Black City were being indoctrinated from a young age and turned into brutal warriors and merciless sadists. Sadists that hated weakness above all else. Sadists that felt morally obligated to punish the ones below themselves, those that they perceived as inferior.
Katarina didn't have many friends as it was, either due to the assassin's brash and often haughty behavior, or the redhead's cruelty and the weight of her family name. People wanted to be in the good graces of the Du Couteau family, but steered away from them if they were given the choice.
And so the Demacians had finally decided to take their revenge on the Sinister Blade for all the lives that she had taken from them, and the Black City's former residents would be their jury and executioners…
The self-righteous bastards had rounded up most of Noxus' champions and military personnel and dumped them in a colossal underground prison they called 'The Animal Cage', then a restrictive rune had been placed in the last surviving member of the Du Couteau. A terrible curse that drained the assassin's stamina and strength and considerably dulled her impressive reflexes. Poor Kat was then left to fend for herself in the pit of the Noxian vipers.
The weeks that had followed had been a living hell for the fallen, jade-eyed aristocrat with the rebellious spirit. Katarina's screams echoed throughout the night, her once proud form lying battered and broken in a pool of her own blood. Katarina wasn't some fragile weak-minded woman that was a stranger to pain like the Demacian nobles of course, and yet Riven would occasionally listen to her sob faintly into the night.
The beatings continued, the sobbing only got louder. Katarina's injuries didn't even have the time to heal anymore with all the new ones being administered on her body on a daily basis. Riven had found out later on that the redheaded assassin had been 'accidentally' given a cell with a faulty lock, and that Kat couldn't even get a respite when the majority of the other inmates were asleep during the night. The albino swordswoman had felt disgust flooding her being at the magnitude of the Demacians' cruelty. This punishment was too much, even for someone that the albino despised.
Riven had decided to pay a visit to her old acquaintance, and at times military academy rival, the next night to confirm the rumors flying about the cruel assassin's predicament. Upon entering Katarina's 'private quarters' Riven had almost collided with a company of laughing inmates leaving Kat's cell. The prisoners blatantly ignoring her as if a stranger visiting the Sinister Blade's personal cell wasn't at all unexpected or strange.
What the pale Exile had witnessed upon entering the dimly lit cell had been a thoroughly beaten and bruised Katarina Du Couteau trying to pathetically crawl back to her trashed and torn mattress. The Sinister Blade's body was stark naked and glistering with blood and sweat, her clothes discarded, torn rags on the floor beside her. Riven could see fresh bruises shaped like hands littering the former assassin's weak shaking body. Yet, the redhead's eyes hadn't lost all of their immense fierceness.
"The fuck are you looking at?" Katarina had muttered in a weak tired voice while sending the silent swordswoman her signature death glare. With bruises coiling like red ropes around her glinting, abused throat and half-dried tears still marring her dirty and wet face.
"A bitch," Riven had simply replied with a voice both commanding and resolute. "My bitch, and that's why you will be sleeping in my cell from now on, assassin." The albino swordswoman continues as she swiftly crosses the distance between the two and lifts the battered form of Kat in her arms, raising the fallen Noxian heiress away from the cold filthy ground.
Katarina growls at her, or perhaps she just hisses in pain, yet the Sinister Blade doesn't have the strength to punch Riven in the mouth, and so she merely glares daggers at the stoic white-haired swordswoman. Riven ignores her.
"Let's head for the showers and get you some food from the mess hall first, though," The pale former soldier mutters under her breath as she carries Katarina towards the shower room, eliciting a curious blink from the emaciated nude redhead. Riven's eyes remain glued to the torchlit corridor, staring at the frowning inmates ahead. The swordswoman raises her chin challengingly and the small barricade of prisoners grudgingly part with sounds of anger and disgust, some of them pointedly spiting towards the ground.
"You really stink and I strongly dislike overly-thin women." The Exile softly mumbles. But Kat is already asleep in the swordswoman's arms, having passed out due to the redhead's immense relief when the other inmates actually do back down at Riven's challenge, refraining from approaching her. Refraining from hurting her, at least for now.
It had been a long time since the fallen assassin had experienced physical touch that wasn't painful or fueled by hate and lust. Maybe that's why Katarina moves closer to the warmth of Riven's chest in her sleep. Maybe that's why Riven doesn't say a word and allows it, even if the former soldier's pale cheeks do briefly color.