Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Vi once read grief is just love without anywhere to put it.

Vi thought it was nonsense. Vi had always known where to put her grief; for her parents, taking care of Powder; for Vander, Mylo and Claggor, taking care of Powder; for Caitlyn, briefly, taking care of Jinx and Isha.

It’s a tried-and-true method. Vi sees the holes they left behind, sews them shut the same way her mother once sewed their clothes, and watches as they grow smaller. 

Wanna know the real kicker? Vi can’t sew for shit.

There’s a reason Jinx calls Vi “Fat Hands”, and it’s not only because the palm-shaped mountains she left on the faces of everyone who dared mess with them, messed with Powder. Vi is very clumsy with needles and threads, a fact unintentionally revealed to Caitlyn when she stumbled upon Vi trying to stitch up her torn-up shirt on her bed.

Grief-stricken, Caitlyn had wordlessly asked for the shirt and Vi had willingly handed it over. If Vi couldn’t mend Caitlyn’s broken heart, then perhaps Caitlyn could sew Vi back together.

Like old times.

Like before it all went to shit.

“She needs a haircut, don’t you think?”

It’s the first words Vi has uttered all day, and just like every other time they’ve come down to this part of the fissures, Caitlyn has nothing to say.

Grief has no words, and hers will make no difference.

Vi doesn’t blame her, feeling her own throat dry. She tightens her grip on Caitlyn’s hand like a ship to its anchor, taking every bit of warmth and strength she has to give.

“Can I get a minute?”

Caitlyn nods, kisses her cheek, and walks away. Vi doesn’t know where she goes nor does she ask. Some things should be reserved for themself, and Vi no longer has space in her heart to understand the tangled, complicated mess that is Jinx and Caitlyn. 

“Hey, Jinx. I’m here again.” Vi chuckles as she kneels, laying down the bouquet of flowers she and Caitlyn picked out this morning. “I know it’s only been a week, but man, so much shit went down I need to tell you about.”

Every week, without fail, Vi trudges down the Lanes and into the fissures to visit her little sister.

Jinx isn't actually there, no one has been able to find a real body, but Zaunites never put too much thought into that sort of thinking. So Vi comes down here, where they last spoke of a dream of a family, and pays her respect to this familiar slab of stone.

“I wish you could have seen her face, Jinx.” Vi snickers as she cleans the aforementioned stone, the movements of her hands methodical and gentle, just like how her mother taught her. “Never in my life had I ever seen Sevika turn that shade of purple. The other councilor assholes couldn’t tell, but I could see the smoke coming out of her ears from a mile away. Had it not been for Cait intervening with her iron voice, you know the one, I think Sevika would have murdered that guy. I mean, what a fucking joke. He took one look at our rivers and decided there was nothing he could do? I call bull. Ekko’s going to lay it into him in the next council meeting, Cait’s already setting it all up. I’ve never seen Cait so mad, even when we were fighting, I’m convinced she would let you have a go at him too.”

Vi talks about Sevika at her efforts to give back clean water and breathable air to Zaun, about Ekko and his plan to expand the Firelights back up the surface, about Piltover going into what they’re calling a depression due to the abrupt stop of everything Hextech, about Caitlyn signing the papers to her future independent investigative agency, about herself volunteering with the Firelights while studying to become a social worker.

Vi talks about discovering how good she is with kids and wanting to take care of them, talks about giving the future generation the protection and care they should have had when they were younger, talks about missing Jinx and seeing Jinx everywhere she goes and missing Jinx and hearing Jinx’s voice when she sings and missing Jinx.

None of that is what Jinx would want to hear, but Vi can allow herself a moment of delusion.

After all, Jinx wasn’t the only one in the family who heard voices that weren't there.

“I miss you, little sis.” Vi breathes shakily, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. She presses her lips against the stone, remembering the way Powder used to squirm at her affection but never once tried to get away. Her heart hurts. “I’ll visit again soon. Take care of yourself, alright?”

Jinx doesn’t answer. That’s alright, their love has always been louder than words.

Vi sighs, slowly standing back up from her kneeling position. She makes a soft groan as her bones twinge, considering asking Caitlyn to join her for a soak in her ginormous bathtub. 

Vi is slow to savor the new pleasures of her life, but with Caitlyn, she thinks she can brave through almost anything.

The thought has barely run its course before Vi senses a commotion. 

It’s barely there at first, only a pulsating throb in the air that Vi feels crawling up her skin. Her head swivels as she tries to locate the anomaly, heart picking pace when she sees nothing but overgrown grass and barren land. 

Vi’s fists twitch with the urge to punch, to fight, to defend herself. She misses the heaviness weighing her down but simultaneously fueling her with energy, the thrumming of technology synchronizing with the rush of her blood.

After the battle, the Atlas Gauntlets have gone completely out of commission. Unbeknownst to everyone, Vi has been working on fixing them by herself, learning from the notes she took out from the journals in Jayce’s lab and Jinx’s hideout. 

They’re very easy to understand, surprisingly enough, or perhaps like Caitlyn said, Vi is just a lot smarter than she gives herself credit for.

“Brilliance runs in the family, and you're a very smart cookie, aren't you, Violet?”

It's the memory, the reminder that wherever Caitlyn is right now, she’ll be here when Vi needs her the most, that roots Vi to the ground. Watching and surveying, Vi still tenses up as the ground beneath her shakes.

It doesn’t last long, barely a few seconds, before Vi has to lift her hand and shield her eyes from a blinding flash of light. 

The rumbling stops, replaced by ragged breathing. Every alarm bell in Vi’s head rings, hands curled into fists as she readies for whatever she is about to see.

It’s been a wild year. At this point, nothing surprises Vi anymore.

“Vi?”

Well, maybe there’s one thing.

Vi remembers very little from that day at the Hexgates. 

Logistically, she knows what happened. 

She was there in the bunker making plans with Caitlyn, Mel, and Jayce. She was there helping Loris and the other enforcers load up the Hexbeam. She was there with Jinx and Ekko fighting back against Noxians and Animatechs. She was there with Jinx fighting Warwick. She was there for everything.

But Vi can’t remember. 

She can’t remember what Caitlyn’s other eye looked like reassuring her it will all go according to plan. She can’t remember the last thing Loris said to her before he died of blood loss. She can’t remember where Ekko was when the anti-gravity turned on. She can’t remember Jinx dying.

She can’t remember. Every time she tries, a Chomper lights her heart on fire before exploding it from the inside. Her chest is covered in gunks and meats no one can clean, and Vi likes feeling the dirt, like Jinx is still there under her nails. 

Vi knows Jinx is dead. 

She knows, she knows, she knows.

But Jinx is… here.

Jinx is dead.

But Jinx is here.

Jinx is dead.

Jinx is here.

Vi remembers very little from that day at the Hexgates, but she could have sworn Jinx did not look like this.

Instead of the long braids that Vi used to dream would strangle her every time they come into contact, Jinx is sporting space buns and bangs. The two strands hanging out of her updo frames her round, kind face, which is the furthest thing anyone can say about the sister Vi has worked so hard to let go of.

Zaunites aren’t round. Zaunites definitely aren’t kind. 

This isn’t Jinx.

“Vi?”

This isn’t real.

“Oh, Vi!”

Vi eats her own words, her tongue too, when Jinx barrels into her arms. They weren’t open for a hug, for protection and intimidation more like, but Vi had learned to hold her sister to her chest before she could learn anything else, so really is it a surprise to anyone that Vi held Jinx back just as tightly?

“Vi, oh Vi,” The body in Vi’s arms trembles with sobs, her name spoken in a forlorn, longing way that reminds Vi of Stillwater. “You’re here. You’re really here. I missed you, I missed you so much…”

It’s everything Vi wanted since Caitlyn got her out of Stillwater.  

Jinx in her arms, Jinx telling Vi she missed her, Jinx holding onto her like she never wants her to let go.

It’s everything Vi ever wanted. Which means it can’t be real.

In Vi’s dream, no one is called by their names.

Felicia is mom. Connol is dad. Vander is dad. Mylo and Claggor are little bros. Jinx is sis. 

So if this is a dream, all Vi has to do is—

“Jinx?”

Vi expected a lot of things. What she didn’t was being harshly pushed back. 

Vi stumbles, her feet slow and her heart cold, before it sinks to the bottom of her stomach. 

Jinx is looking like Vi just slapped her. 

“What did you just call me?”

“Violet, please! I was only trying to help!”

“It’s Jinx now. Powder fell down a well.”

“Where should I sit? That’s your choice, really.”

“Finally got the name right.”

“I…” Vi blinks, stupefied. “I don’t—”

“Powder!”

The pounding of footsteps coming from Vi’s side is secondary in catching her attention, which is now equally divided between Jinx’s wounded face and Caitlyn's tight one. 

So distracted by the immediate comfort Caitlyn’s presence brings, Vi almost didn't register the voice and the name it spoke of. 

“Ekko?”

It is Little Man, albeit a clean, more politely-dressed version of him. 

Come to think of it, Ekko and Jinx are dressed completely different than they usually do, the former trading her crop top for a green and red sleeveless vest paired with matching pants and the latter shredding his dope bomber jacket and face paint for a more academic look Vi could have sworn Caitlyn used to have when she was still in the Academy. 

They're fussing over each other, hands on cheeks. Yet another thing that confuses Vi. There's warmth in their eyes and love in their mouth, Vi has never seen them like this, with anyone or with each other.

Just what the fuck is going on?

“Vi.” Caitlyn's voice startles Vi out of her spiral, blue eye meeting blue. “Are you okay?”

Vi shakes her head. “Cait, I…” She swallows something bitter, her breath hitching and her voice cracking. “Is this real? Is she… are you real?”

Caitlyn does the little nose scrunch Vi loves so much, her mouth forming a worried oh as she cradles Vi’s cheeks with her hands. 

“I’m real, darling. I’m right here.” 

Caitlyn leans down so their foreheads touch. Vi’s nose is assaulted with her scent, loosening the tension enough for her to nod. I’m okay. 

“Thanks,” Vi says weakly, powder blue catching ocean blue and straying towards violet gray. “And is she…”

A huff tickles her cheek, Caitlyn’s just as confused. 

“She’s real too. How? You said she…”

“I did. I mean, I don't know. I saw…” Vi bites back a curse, tightening her arm wrapped around Caitlyn’s waist. “Where did you come from?”

“I found him.” Caitlyn’s head gestures pointedly at the other two. “He came out of nowhere. One minute I was thinking about coming to get you, the next I swore the universe ripped itself a hole and dropped him right at my feet.”

Vi opens her mouth, to say what even she can’t tell, but a strange noise catches her attention. 

In unison Vi and Caitlyn turn their heads, automatically putting a bit of distance between them. Vi grabs onto Caitlyn’s hand, squeezing, both of them watching carefully as the strange duo scrutinize them to an uncomfortable degree.

Ekko opens his mouth, closes it. Opens, then closes.

Vi’s skin prickles with impatience, rolling her shoulder and tense for a fight. 

But Jinx. Powder. Who the fuck even knows anymore. Steals the show. 

“Is that you, Cassandra?”

Agitation replaced by bone-chilling fear, Vi barely gets to blink before Caitlyn is wrenching herself out of their embrace. Vi grapples for Caitlyn’s shirt, but she is moving so fast, Vi can’t stop Caitlyn from unfolding the rifle she stored hidden behind her back and aims the nozzle at Ekko and Jinx.

“Whoa, whoa!”

“Hey, what gives!”

“Keep her name out of your mouth.”

“Cait. Cait, please,” Vi pleads, putting herself in Caitlyn’s vision instead of Ekko and Jinx. “Please calm. She didn't, she didn't mean it like that.”

“What else could she have possibly meant, Vi?”

Caitlyn’s eye flashes with a blood-stirring anger Vi hasn’t seen in a long time. The lurch of her stomach aches like the butt of Caitlyn’s rifle, Vi doing her best to keep her composure and not react in a way that hurts Caitlyn’s feelings.

“Please. Let’s hear them out.” Gently, slowly, Vi puts her hand on the rifle. The texture of metal feels cold, like the rest of Vi. “For me.”

Sounds of feet shuffling behind her, Vi peeks over one shoulder to check.

It’s Jinx. Powder. Whatever she goes by now. She has her hands raised over her head and eyes wide in surrender.

The weight in Vi’s stomach drops further. Something is wrong.

“If I said something that upset you, I’m terribly sorry.” Caitlyn’s breath hitches, equally as shocked as Vi at Jinx’s conversation manner. “We mean no harm. We’re here to help.”

Vi surveys Jinx, then Ekko. 

Unlike Jinx, Ekko has his fists raised. But the arm placements are off, his defense leaving so much room for anyone to break through. No Zaunite who knows their worth would set themselves up like this. Vi herself had taught him to fight better than this before she had to go away, before it all went to shit. 

Something is wrong.

“Who are you?”

Neither of them look confused at Vi’s question, rather expectant, as a matter of fact.

“I’m Powder. This is Ekko,” Ji— Powder says, gesturing. “We’re… we’re from a parallel universe.”

Vi exchanges a look with Caitlyn, whose eye widens in bewilderment. 

So much for a simple sibling visit.

///

Caitlyn has a headache.

It’s been building steadily all day, even before she had opened her eye to Vi gazing down at her with a loving smile.

They were in bed, the sun barely rising over rooftops, and Caitlyn could feel herself tearing up at the overflowing affection in her chest.

“Good morning.” Vi’s voice was husky and rasp with sleep, but Caitlyn could tell she had been awake for quite some time.

Caitlyn’s heart hurt, recognizing the shadow for what it is.

Memories.

“Good morning, love,” Caitlyn’s lips curled easy at the blush blossoming on Vi’s cheeks, her hand moving to caress the soft skin before she was even aware of the urge. “Have you been awake long?”

“Only a few minutes.” They both ignored how obvious of a lie that was. “You slept okay? I didn’t hear you wake up.”

Caitlyn sighed, wanton, when Vi nuzzled her face against her hand. 

“I slept well, thank you.” She tugged, and Vi went willingly. Their foreheads touched, Vi’s hand reached for Caitlyn’s face, and it was Caitlyn’s turn to seek out her touch. “Are we going today?”

On many occasions, Caitlyn has tried to reassure Vi that her grief has a place here.

If Caitlyn could center hers for so long and hurt so many people in the process, then the least she could do was afford Vi’s the space and time to expand and shrink without chafing the walls of her heart.

And yet, Vi still looks like she is asking the world of Caitlyn for the chance to visit the closest thing to her sister’s grave.

Vi doesn’t know Caitlyn would give her the world if she asked. Vi also doesn’t know how deeply ashamed Caitlyn feels.

“We are.” Vi’s gaze was intense, almost a smoulder. Caitlyn should not find it as hot as it is. “Do you have any plans?”

Caitlyn didn’t. Vi knew she didn’t, she just wanted to give her a choice.

After everything, Vi still extended such tremendous kindness without thoughts. Caitlyn never stops feeling like she doesn’t deserve her.

She put all that love, all that gratitude into her kiss, tearing up again when Vi kisses her back.

“I’m going with you, Violet.” 

And that was that.

Caitlyn wishes they were back there, when the day was just starting and every heavy emotion felt bearable as long as they had each other. 

Alas.

“Cupcake?”

Fogging the mirror with her breath, Caitlyn lets out a tired sigh. She feels weighed down even after removing her makeup and taking off her eye patch, only a bit of it taken away when she sees Vi trudging in, swagger intact despite wearing goofy boxer shorts and a white tank.

“Hey.”

Caitlyn smiles, leaning back into Vi’s embrace. Broad chest pressed against her back, strong arms wrapping around her waist, holding her like she’s precious, Caitlyn hums happily at the kiss Vi places on her cheek.

The headache is gone.

“Couldn't wait?” Caitlyn asks, tilting so her head rests against Vi’s.

“Hmm.” Vi kisses her jaw. “Just wanted to be with you.”

Caitlyn’s heart sings, almost gushing. She's so in love.

“Did they settle in alright?”

They, referring to Ekko and Powder.

If someone had told her that she would be hosting Piltover’s Most Wanted and The Boy Savior in her childhood home a mere two weeks after everything, Caitlyn would have scoffed in jest.

Once again, the universe just loves to prove her wrong.

“Yep.” Vi answers curtly, kissing Caitlyn’s jaw again. “Put them in the guest wing. They looked like they were expecting it, it felt odd.”

That's certainly one way to put it.

It's not strange, that implies a lack of an answer. Caitlyn had her answer from how already familiar both Ekko and Powder are with the layout of her childhood home since the moment they step foot inside. How effortlessly Powder steered Ekko to the lone chairs while Caitlyn and Vi sat on the long couch, like they’ve always sat there, as they discussed why they’re here in a universe that isn’t theirs.

A universe where Caitlyn died in the explosion of Jayce’s lab and her mother made it her life mission to make sure Hextech never existed. 

It’s amazing, the power of hindsight. 

“I can imagine.” Caitlyn’s breath comes out shaky, just as shaken as she did when she first heard Ekko and Powder explain. “How are you, Violet?”

Whatever Caitlyn is feeling, Vi must feel a hundred-fold.

In this universe, Vi died too.

In this universe, Powder never became Jinx.

In this universe, the Kirammans sponsored Powder and Ekko and put them through school. 

In this universe, Zaun lost a child and Piltover lost another.

In this universe, Zaun and Piltover bonded over their grief and vowed to never let history repeat itself.

In this universe, everyone Vi loves is alive and happy.

“I don’t know.” Vi makes a noise between a sigh and a growl. Caitlyn’s stomach chooses the worst time to stir. “Feels like a fairytale. It’s me, but also not. That’s my sister, but she’s really not. I just… I don’t have the words for it. Do you?”

Caitlyn is a Kiramman. She grew up speaking Piltovan and Ionian, eventually learning Velarian and Solerian in school. She wields her words the same way she does her rifle, with precision and consideration. 

But Vi is right. There’s no language in the world that can convey what she feels.

There never has been.

Caitlyn doesn’t know what she’s doing, what her body is doing, for the message to convey so clearly. But one moment Vi is holding her tenderly from behind, the next Caitlyn is being kissed.

Her mouth works faster than her brain, Caitlyn cradles Vi’s face in her hands as she returns her affection, their lips making soft, squelching noises as their tongues plunge.

Before she knows it, Caitlyn is being lifted off her feet. 

Muscle memory makes her wrap her legs around Vi’s waist, head tilting for a better angle and kissing her girlfriend deeper. Vi moans in response, nails digging harshly into the back of Caitlyn’s thighs.

Caitlyn's vaguely aware she is being moved, realizing she has been when her back meets the cold wall of her walk-in shower, the door closing shut with a soft click. 

A breathy smile escapes when Vi finally breaks their kiss, moving her lips to trail down the column of Caitlyn’s throat. Content in the best way, Caitlyn reaches her one hand not carding through Vi’s luscious hair to twist the golden dial on the wall. 

From above, a jet of warm water pours over them. Caitlyn swallows Vi’s yelp of surprise with a kiss, languidly swirling their tongues and, through the peek of her eye, enjoying the image of a soaking wet Vi kissing her silly. 

“Checking off another box on your list, aren't we?” Vi chuckles, the vibration sending shivers down Caitlyn’s spine. Or perhaps that's the wet clothes she's still wearing. “Should have let me undress you first, sweetheart.”

Smirking at Vi falling hook, line, and sinker, Caitlyn gently pushes Vi away.

Her plan is branded a huge success when Vi’s eyes widen the size of a soccer ball, raking down the wet and undoubtedly soaked through material of Caitlyn’s white tank.

There's so much in those light blue, almost gray, eyes. A beautiful world offered to Caitlyn on a silver platter, with its black cog garden and coiling muscles for rivers. 

Caitlyn feels something throb, her nipples stiffened, her thighs squeezing a strong hip in search of friction. 

“And rob myself of the opportunity to see this look on your face?” Caitlyn tucks an index finger under Vi’s chin, flicking upwards and delighting in how Vi’s head bobbles. “I love the way you look at me.”

Vi’s throat bops audibly, the affection and desire shining so bright through that it wipes Caitlyn’s smirk right off her face.

She can come from just this look alone. Maybe. 

“How do I look at you?”

Caitlyn’s breath hitches, the visual of her girlfriend smiling smitten and dripping registering for the very first time.

Vi’s smirk turns wicked, before she presses that blasted thing against Caitlyn’s jawline. Her strong hands, calluses and all, slide just a little lower to pinch Caitlyn’s butt cheeks.

A strangled whimper ricochets off the wall, joined by ragged breathing as Vi sinks her teeth into her skin and sucks harshly.

The glass is starting to fog with the warm water, its moisture clinging to their skin and adding onto the steaminess of the moment. 

“Oh Vi,” Caitlyn calls, needy and wanting. Her hands tug at Vi’s tank, wanting it gone. “Take off, oh, Violet, please…”

What Caitlyn wants, Caitlyn gets.

Vi yanks her tank and her boxers off in a single swoop, before making quick work of Caitlyn’s soaked shorts. She tosses them over the railing with ease, but leaves Caitlyn’s tank sticking on her.

Caitlyn goes to ask, goes to take it off too, when her brain ceases to function at the feeling of Vi lowering her head and taking one pebbled nipple in her mouth, cloth and all.

“I asked you a question, Cait.” 

Does this maddeningly attractive woman actually expect Caitlyn to speak right now? If so, that's ludicrous.

“Vi, I—” A hand slides in between her legs, Caitlyn officially loses all her brain cells. “Fuck… please, my love…”

Never once stop pampering Caitlyn’s breasts, swirling one nipple with her tongue and tweaking the other with her fingers, Vi’s hum is dripping with smugness.

“Please what?”

“Please, fuck me.” Caitlyn outright pleads, mewling when Vi starts adding her expert hip thrusts into the play. “I need you. Please. Fuck me, so I know you're here with me. Fuck me, so I don't forget.”

Vi delivers.

Caitlyn doesn't know a lot of things, still has so much to learn, but she knows Vi loves her.

Caitlyn doesn't always get to hear it, but Vi’s love is so much larger than her body, that it overflows and colors everyone and everything she touches.

Vi is touching her right now, turning her to mush. As if Caitlyn hadn’t already ascended to another state of matter from being railed so thoroughly against the shower wall, the shower glass, the bathroom floor, and into the mattress.

They’re innocent touches. Barely-there touches. But Caitlyn is in love with her, so every caress feels like gasoline and Vi is the sun.

That makes absolutely no sense. “I think you fucked the smart out of me.”

When Vi laughs, bolstered and free, Caitlyn feels powerful. 

So powerful, in fact, that she conjured the strength of a 7th-century-born lesbian and pushed a hand against a muscular shoulder. Vi goes willingly, relenting from her half-sit position as she gazed over Caitlyn’s form, and makes the most adorable squeak when Caitlyn commences her attack.

Vi’s so handsome. Her smile lights up Caitlyn’s entire world, and the way she looks at Caitlyn puts her heart in a blender and turns the turbo to highest speed. 

What is she even saying right now?

Doesn’t matter. All that matters is— “Cait! Stop, that tickles!”

Fully lying on Vi’s chest, broad and strong and all Caitlyn’s, words spew out of her mouth, her chest, her heart.

“My Violet. My good boy.” Was that a whimper? Oh yes. “You like that? You like being my good boy? You are, Violet. You’re my good boy. You’re mine. Thank you, for being mine. Thank you, for loving me. Thank you for being here. For living, for surviving, for, for…”

So much for being literate.

It doesn't matter. No words will ever convey how much she feels for this loving brute, this wonder woman, this beautiful soul, the love of her life.

Caitlyn stifles a sob, presses it into Vi’s cheek, Vi’s forehead, Vi’s nose, Vi’s neck, Vi’s other cheek, Vi’s earlobe, Vi’s crown, Vi’s lips.

The prone form of her lover touches Caitlyn beyond the stars, allowing her ministrations without even a word of objection. What is love if not surrender?

Deeming Vi sufficiently kissed, Caitlyn flops her head in the safe nook between her sharp jawline and her sculpted shoulder.

Caitlyn sighs. 

She’s winded. 

This is home. 

She can rest here, she’s safe here.

“Their story really affected you, huh.”

Vi’s voice is soft, smooth, and almost amused. On Caitlyn’s cheeks, arise a blush, rewinding the last two minutes with a mortification more suited for pubescent hijinks.

Still, Caitlyn is a Kiramman. That means she is shameless when it comes to getting what she wants.

“How could it not? A world without you, Vi. It might as well be hell.”

Vi hums, like it's up for debate. “They look pretty happy— ouch! Cait, the hell?”

Soothing the bite with a kiss, Caitlyn takes Vi’s precious face in her hands. She has half the mind to squeeze those cheeks, so adorable when she pouts, but Caitlyn has a point to make.

“They can’t miss what they never had.” She leans in, and their noses touch. Vi goes a little cross-eyed. “I have you. God, I’m so lucky to have you, and I’d miss you. It’s actually a relief to hear I didn’t survive too.”

Vi’s hands, gosh they feel so good on her, squeeze her hips. “Don’t say that.”

Ah, there’s the steel that always makes her horny.

“Then don’t insinuate that the world would have been happier without you. I wouldn’t have been.”

Steel melts away, turning into a softer metal. 

Caitlyn knows Vi’s eyes are blue, they have that in common, but they’re so light blue they look gray. Gray like metal, gray like storm clouds, gray like the ocean depth Caitlyn ventures far beyond despite the risk and the danger, for there is a treasure.

“That’s… you can't say that. You don't know how you would have lived.”

Caitlyn scoffs. “Any person that I could have been is a pale comparison, a lesser version of me, because they never knew you.” She softens, because this is Violet. Violet who thinks she’s the jinx, who thinks she is the reason why everything bad happened to her, who thinks she doesn’t deserve Caitlyn when it’s the fucking opposite. “Don't you get it? I choose you.”

Caitlyn will say that however many times they need to believe it.

Vi laughs, a soft, tearful little thing. Caitlyn laughs too, wiping the tears with her hands and praying she won’t turn to gold too. 

My Midas, she thinks as they kiss again. 

Their mouths entangled in a dance that feels old, ancient. It feels like they invented love. 

“If this is the treatment I get, I should fuck you in the shower more often.”

Caitlyn laughs for real this time, smooching Vi’s cheek. “I won’t oppose.” Her eye is hooded, so Caitlyn hides away, allowing Vi to kiss her good eye, then her bad one. 

The moment fading away, Caitlyn goes to get off Vi’s chest, but the hands on her hips put her right back where she was.

That, out of all the things that happened tonight, makes Caitlyn blush like a peach.

Vi loves it. Vi loves her. “I love you, Caitlyn Kiramman.” 

See, Caitlyn knew that. So why does it still feel like the very first time?

“I love you too.”

Vi smiles, she’s not done. “I want you to know, I choose you too. You’re my choice, you're the only choice. No matter what happens, I will always choose you.”

And if that isn’t the most romantic thing ever.

After everything that happened, Vi would still choose her?

After everything she did, Vi would still choose her?

Caitlyn smiles, because she can’t cry. 

My mother loved me. She would have loved you.

Chapter Text

For the first time in a long time, Vi leaves Caitlyn sleeping in bed.

Vi can't remember when was the last time, but she knows it no longer feels right to not wake up with Caitlyn every morning. 

But she knows, as soon as she opens her eyes, that's what she will do.

Vi lingers, relishing in the soothing sound of Caitlyn's heartbeats, before she gently pulls away. Caitlyn immediately whines in discontent, her mouth forming the cutest pout and her hands grapple weakly for her Vi-shaped teddy.

The sight, so childish and pure, puts a blush on Vi’s cheeks. Carefully, she reaches for one of Caitlyn’s absurdly long, insanely firm body pillows and slides it into her arms.

Caitlyn takes the offering with a happy smile, her cheek squished as she nuzzles it. Vi wonders if the pillow feels as firm and nice as her muscles.

Laughing quietly at herself, Vi makes the rest of her way out.

Her feet are quiet, pitter pattering to the gigantic wardrobe for some clothes before heading to the en suite bathroom.

Say whatever you want about Pilties and their excessive use of, well, everything, the abundance of hot water is something Vi now can’t live without.

Powder would have loved this, she thinks as she dries herself off, her newly cut hair standing up to attention and sticking in all directions. She would probably laugh at me, call me names. I would put my wet towel over her face, she would yell at me to get off, and I would chase her around with it.

When Vi wipes the condensation with her palm, all she sees is herself, broken. Her eyes are far too light to see from this distance, but the teeth gnawing her chest, twisting her guts, tells Vi she is hurting.

Vi can't remember the last time loving someone doesn't hurt.

“Breakfast.” She tells herself, putting on a simple sleeveless tank and a pair of non-descriptive pants. Grateful for something to do, someone to take care of. 

Caitlyn was a downright darling when she found out Vi knew how to cook.

It was only a few days after the war was over, and Caitlyn had a terrible headache. Vi was told this was a regular occurrence, Caitlyn’s brain often works so fast that her body struggles to keep up with, but helplessly watching as Caitlyn cried out in pain at random moments before nuzzling her head into Vi’s palm like she wants her to go in there and remove the damn migraine herself was too much.

Vi, never one to just sit by, offered to find Caitlyn something to eat so she can take pills for the pain. Caitlyn had whined adorably, miserably, at the prospect of letting Vi out of her sight, but whatever jackhammer doing the Tango in her skull must be revving up for an encore, and so Vi was promptly let go.

Vi knew Caitlyn Kiramman’s heart was hers. 

It’s a fact tested by many and triumphed over even more, but the bright-eyed wonder and sparkling adoration that caressed Caitlyn’s face when Vi handed her a simple, practically mediocre bowl of hot soup, taste-tested to Zaunite perfection made Vi feel 10-feet tall.

Vi is hoping to replicate that expression today. After the long day they had, she would really like a reminder of why life is worth living.

For breakfast, Vi is making a traditional Ionian dish. 

After Cassandra passed, Vi was left alone for pretty much the majority of the time. Tobias was a wreck, Caitlyn wasn’t Caitlyn, so Vi came searching for an old comfort.

Books. Specifically, cook books. 

You can tell a lot about someone from the way they perceive food. 

For example, Vi devours every food in sight because of the days, weeks, months of being starved in Stillwater; she is damaged but passionate. Jinx eats everything she can get her hands on but only ever takes small bites; she is opportunistic but afraid of changes. Caitlyn scrunches her nose but ultimately accepts a bite of Jericho’s food; she is faithful to her teaching but open for knowledge. 

Vi hopes she will be open to experimenting as well, because for the life of her, Vi can't find the bottle of dark soy sauce anywhere. She can always substitute with brown sugar and regular soy sauce of course, but somehow Caitlyn can always tell.

And even though her girlfriend will eat anything Vi makes with love in her eye and stars in her mouth, Vi genuinely hates to disappoint her.

Burying her head inside the topmost pantry, “Dark soy sauce… dark soy sauce… ugh, who even eats anchovy sauce? Dark soy sauce… that's vinegar… dark soy sauce…”, Vi fails to notice incoming footsteps.

“Try the pantry by the sink.”

As a result, one of her hands gripping the countertop slips. Vi would have slipped and cracked her head open on the sharp edge had it not been for her other hand clutching the fridge for safety.

“Janna’s sake!”

“Sorry! Oh my gosh, are you okay? I’m so sorry!”

Well if it isn’t the devil in Vi’s head making an appearance.

“Hey…” Jinx. “Powder.”

Her shoulders hunch just slightly in preparation to be scolded, be yelled at. But nothing happens.

Vi braves a look over her shoulder, still hanging precariously on the counter, and feels her heart squeezed like a mere orange.

That’s her little sister. Her little Powder. Alive and well and smiling at Vi.

Juice drips from her eyes, Vi hurriedly turning away and wiping her face. She recalls what Powder just said, jumping down and locating the cupboard by the sink. 

She opens it, eyes round with realization. “Huh. What do you know…” Vi stands back up, knees creaking. “Good… good morning.”

Vi can’t quite look at Powder, head ducked as she returns to her cooking station. She catches small movements in her peripheral vision, Powder approaching the island. 

“Good morning. Whatcha making?”

“Just a stew.” Vi says, clenching her jaw. Willing herself to not say anything stupid. “How did you, uh, sleep?”

“Not well, I’d assumed it’s because of multiverse travel.”

Right. Just another one of those things that happen on a Thursday. Vi doesn’t even know why she bothers being surprised anymore.

“Do you, uh, want a snack? The stew will take a bit.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’d be lovely. Thanks, Vi.”

More than the fact that her sister is alive, alive, Vi can’t get over how polite she is. Powder, or Jinx, was never intentionally cruel, but this sort of niceness feels taught and so ingrained that it comes natural.

“It’s typical Piltover fluff. We were taught from a young age to disguise our intentions behind our niceties, whether it be genuine or not.” 

Caitlyn. Vi saw this in Caitlyn.

“Ekko and I were sponsored by Cassandra and Tobias after they lost Caitlyn. I like to think they’ve grown to consider us honorary Kirammans.”

Vi winces, remembering the inhumanly strong grip Caitlyn had on her hand as they listened. If Vi feels this messed up, she can’t imagine just what is going through Caitlyn’s head.

Her greatest enemy. Taken in by her parents and loved like their own. The one that filled the void she left behind by dying.

This is all too much. 

Janna, please. Give us a break. 

“Here. I don’t know if you still like milk on your toasts but…”

“I do.” Powder smiles, taking the plate from Vi with a smile. Vi is trying really hard to keep the plate steady. “Smells great, by the way. I can’t wait to try it.”

Never one to take a compliment, Vi scratches the back of her neck and gives a tiny, almost-grimace grin. Powder mercifully says nothing, munching. Vi doesn’t have anything else to say either, so she turns back around. 

The stew will be done any minute now. Vi contemplates going to get Caitlyn, but she doesn’t want to leave Powder all alone.

Not again. Never again. 

“P-… Powder?” That didn’t sound weird at all. “Did you tell Ekko where you went?”

“He was asleep, so no. We have this device that allows us to communicate from a long distance, though.” Right, the mobile phone or whatever it was called. Powder’s first invention, she mentioned, the one that won first place at the most recent Innovators’ Competition. Whatever that meant. “Do you want me to get him?” And Caitlyn, goes unsaid.

Vi would love nothing more than to have Caitlyn in her arms right now. 

“Yes, please.”

Doing one last taste test, confirming that she didn’t actually butcher the recipe so badly, Vi places a lid onto the pot and turns the heat down. It’ll keep itself warm until Caitlyn gets here.

And Ekko, says her subconscious. Don’t be a terrible host.

That’s Caitlyn’s expertise, not hers. But what the hell, sure.

“Ekko’s up. He’ll wake Caitlyn and get ready before coming down.” 

Vi almost asks how Ekko knows where Caitlyn sleeps, but reconsiders. If their Tobias was this wrecked over Cassandra’s passing, Vi can only imagine the length both of them went through to preserve memories of Caitlyn, who died so young, too young.

Intending to leave the awkward silence be, Powder says something that stops Vi dead in her tracks.

“Tell me about Caitlyn.”

This is so fucking weird. “Uh, what?”

Powder’s eyes are blue, so blue. She shrugs, clearly curious. “Caitlyn. Kiramman.”

Vi huffs. “I know who you meant.” She wipes her hands with a towel, tucking the thing over her shoulder as she sits down on the other side of the island. The pot of stew simmers silently. “I’m just, surprised. I guess. Surely they talked about her?”

“Not much.” Powder shakes her head. “Tobias and Cassandra… they never quite recovered from the grief. Can’t blame them, children aren’t supposed to die before their parents. They're really nice whenever I ask, and it’s obvious they love her, but they have a hard time talking about her.”

Vi can understand that. Vi can hardly look at Powder, talking about Jinx would destroy her.

But this is Caitlyn. Vi can talk about Caitlyn Kiramman until the sun turns blue.

“We met when Cait busted me out of prison.” Oh that doe-eyed, surprised look, Vi will keep in the pocket of her heart forever. “Yeah. It’s a long story, I won’t get through it all before Ekko and Cait come down for breakfast.”

“I’m smart, I can fill in the blanks.” Not those blanks. Nothing will ever fill those holes, no matter how small they get. “So?”

Vi coughs, grabbing a stray pen Caitlyn must’ve left down here and twirling it absentmindedly. 

“I’m a little hazy on the details myself, but what I did know was that Marcus threw me into Stillwater to protect me from Silco. I’m not sure who he is in your world, but in this one, he ruined our lives. He took you away from me. I was in Stillwater for 7 years. I would be there longer had it not been for this enforcer, all awkward limbs and insensitive mouth. Cait was looking into Silco and shimmer, and needed someone who knew Zaun like the back of their hand. Who better than yours truly?”

Powder laughs, sounding a little choked up herself.

Vi allows herself a smile. It feels good to smile. 

“Just like that? You guys fell in love?”

The barbaric snort that comes out of her echoes so loudly Vi is almost embarrassed. But she isn’t. Not when it makes Powder guffaw and tries desperately to hide it behind her hand.

An image flashes through Vi’s mind of a blue-haired topsider sitting under Ekko’s tree, laughing at a joke Vi can’t even remember now and blushing when Vi asked why she covers her mouth every time like that.

It’s my front teeth, Caitlyn explained demurely, embarrassed too. 

They’re adorable, don’t hide them, Vi scolded gently, not embarrassed but more shy.

Ekko pretended to gag and rolled his eyes. Vi pretended like the sight of Caitlyn’s smile hadn’t already decided the course of her life.

“Lots of things happened after I brought her to Zaun.” Understatement of the century, sis. “I wasn’t conscious about falling for her. I just did.”

“Really? No defining moment that made you go, oh I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you?"

Vi’s blushing all the way to her hips, it feels like.

“No.” Liar. “Not really.” Liar, liar, pants on fire. “It felt right, loving her.”

It’s the truth. No matter how much everyone else and herself tried to tell Vi otherwise.

Powder makes this sound, a swooning kind of sigh as she flops onto the island. “This is too romantic. I might melt. Then you’ll have to clean me up with a ladle and scoop me and turn me into ice cream.”

Vi doesn’t know what ice creams are. She won’t ask.

“What about you?” At Powder’s eyebrow raise, Vi gestures ambiguously at the ceiling. “Little Man.”

“Oh. Well,” To Vi’s delight, Powder begins to blush. It’s awe-inducing, it’s new, it’s unfamiliar. It’s everything Vi ever wanted. “Same as you, if I’m being honest. There’s no deciding moment. One day he was Little Man, the next he was everything I’ve been looking for.”

Vi can cry, instead she teases. “Now I’m melting. Never knew you could be so cheesy, Jinx.”

And just like that, Vi ruins everything. Again.

“Jinx.” Or maybe not? “That’s my name here, isn’t it?”

“No.” Vi wrings her hands, suddenly feeling the urge to run a lap, maybe two, around the mansion. “No, I never would have called you that had you not told me to.”

Liar. 

Powder nods, slowly. Like Vi is a delicate animal she’s going to scare away. Maybe she’s right.

“I did a lot of bad things, didn’t I?”

Vi’s first instinct is to say no, of course not, you could never do such a thing, you’re perfect, you’re all I have left.

But there’s a voice in her head, a voice that sounds like Jinx, and it says, There’s no good version of me.

Looking into the eyes of Powder, someone else’s Powder, another Vi’s Powder, Vi wants to bring Jinx back from the dead and scream in her face.

Instead, she says. “Why would you say that?”

Powder opens her mouth, then closes it. She repeats the motion a couple times, eyes darting back and forth between Vi’s, so much so that Vi is growing slightly dizzy.

And annoyed. Very annoyed.

Eventually, Powder sighs. She wipes her mouth with a napkin, again blowing Vi’s whole mind with this familiar but not really set of mannerism.

It hits her then. Hits her hard and hits her fucking deep.

This is a stranger. 

“You say my name like it hurts you. You look at me like I hurt you.”

“It’s not your fault.” Vi says. That, she is confident. “If anything, it’s mine. It’s my fault. I left you, I hit you, I went away for so long, I let Silco take you, I said the wrong thing, I couldn’t stop you, I couldn’t stop Cait, I couldn’t save Vander, I couldn’t save Isha, I couldn’t save you. I did everything wrong, I failed everyone. I failed you, I didn’t save you. I’m so sorry, I swear I tried. I told you not to let me go. I told you to hang on. I told you, but you saved me and in exchange I lost you all over again and— how could you! How could you do that to me again! Like I didn’t spend all those years begging any bastard kicking the shit out of me to let me see you! How could you!”

In the large space of Vi’s second favorite place in the mansion, there is only silence.

Vi is no stranger to silence. She hates it, hates it for the memories that kills her, hurts her. Stillwater is a shitty place for a child to grow up in, but Vi wouldn't wish solitary confinement on even her worst enemies.

There, silence kills. 

Silence means enforcers rushing in, silence means inmates dying, silence means being left alone to be tortured by wounds that never get to close before they are re-opened again.

This, however, dare she says, is peaceful.

Like a shower. Like a weight off her. Like relief.

How can such a pathetic thought bring up emotions like relief?

Vi’s so embarrassed she can only hide, her face as red as the tomatoes she was going to use to make omelette for Caitlyn in case she didn't feel up to hot stew for breakfast. Her fists are curled, nails digging into her skin and drawing blood.

What is she looking for? 

What is she trying to feel?

What is she supposed to feel?

“I was supposed to die in that explosion.”

Vi’s heart, the poor thing, sinks into a pool of acid. “W… what?”

It’s painful. So incredibly painful. But Vi has to see her.

Alas, Powder can't look at her either. 

“Ekko gave us the tip, but I insisted on coming with you.” Powder’s tiny hand is clenched too, eyes on her feet as she confides in Vi. “You tried to lay it on me gently, but it was clear that no one thought I was ready to do an actual job in Piltover. I followed you, caught up with you at the bridge, didn’t give you a choice but to let me come too. You… gosh you were so mad, but I knew you wouldn’t send me back on my own.” 

No shit I wouldn’t. “Mylo? Claggor?”

“Mylo was a dick, Claggor did everything you said.” Some things never change. “Mylo was very nice to me after that. You can imagine why.” Not everything. “Anyway, we went. Everything was fine, at first. We found so much we could sell, it would have fed our entire family for weeks. And then… everything changed.”

Vi’s hands twitch, aching with a long-harbored urge to hold Powder in her arms and chase all her monsters away. 

These aren’t monsters though. These are just memories.

Vi can’t bear the thought of being one of Powder’s monsters. She can’t. It would destroy her.

“We didn’t hear anything, nothing that could have helped warn us. One minute, I was grabbing the crystals. The next, you were screaming my name. I worked as fast as I could, but you must’ve thought I was so slow that you came for me anyway. Myles and Clag were already at the terrace, waiting for us. We were just running past the lab when I… I tripped. Face-planted and everything. Bit my tongue on the way down, like a fucking loser.”

Powder is shaking now. She tries to hide it, hugging herself and visibly willing to stand straight. 

Vi takes a step forward, called by the urge to protect, to care, but that seemingly is the push Powder needed to continue.

“For a while, I couldn’t see anything. My ears were ringing and my head hurt like a bitch. I managed to peek— just a little, enough to see blue sparks raining down. But then I felt you… sliding down my shoulder… dropping right into my lap…” Powder’s voice breaks, finally, trailing off into a sob that tears Vi’s into pieces. “You protected me. You wrapped your entire body around me, shielding me, and you… you took— you took it. You took all of it. The brunt of it.”

That does sound like something Vi would do, she won’t lie.

She’d do it all over again too.

“Powder—”

Powder raises a hand. “So, yes. That's a great question, Vi.” Shining blue eyes return to her, swirling with a grief Vi sees every day in the mirror. It hurts, Vi never wanted this for her. “How could you? How could you do that to me?”

There’s only one answer to that question.

“I was trying to protect you.”

The combination of Powder’s mocking eye roll and her keening laughter, she sounds like Jinx, almost makes Vi fall on her ass. Only until the epiphany of what spurs the reaction, and now Vi is eating her own words for an appetizer.

As if that isn’t enough, Powder teasingly extends a hand over the island.

“Hi pot, I’m kettle.”

“Shut up.” Vi growls, surprised that Powder isn’t flinching. “You know it’s not the same. I’m your big sister.”

“Bullshit.” Powder grins. “I’ve loved you since before I even knew what it meant to love someone, to share blood and a soul put into two different bodies. I loved you completely, Violet. Are you so much of a hypocrite to tell me I have no right doing what I did?”

Tears start pooling in Vi’s eyes, her lip quivering a mess.

But Powder is out for blood. 

“For years, I had to learn to accept the choice you made. You were in an impossible situation and blaming you would not have brought you back to me. I was angry, for a long time. Then I was sad, so sad. I don't think I’ll ever stop feeling sad.”

Vi sniffles, chokes up on her tears, her snots. There’s blood roaring in her ears, a monster of her own being. It bangs, and bangs, and bangs. Begging to be let go, begging to be set free, begging to find somewhere, someone, for it to hold.

Powder is right there. Vi’s precious kid sister. 

Powder is right there.

And she is cutting the chains off, opening the door, and waiting for Vi with open arms.

“We loved each other and that’s enough. It didn’t change anything. It didn’t save anyone. There were just too many forces against it.” Powder softens, matching wounds and matching tears. “But I need you to know that our love mattered because it was there. It still matters.”

Vi’s whole world is collapsing. Her ribcage shakes with the beast’s strength, her heart sings a song so beautiful Vi can’t put into words.

“I shouldn’t have left you…”

“It’s okay that you did.” Vi gasps, unsteady on her feet. Powder hurries to fill the silence. “When you left, your love for me stayed. You’re the reason why the hole is never filled. You’re the reason why I love and why I hurt and why I live. You’re the reason why I grew up the way I am, not despite. I am everything I am because I loved you. So I let you go.”

Please let me go.

Vi is too weak for this. Vi can’t do this anymore.

It’s time to let the monster out.

“Can I, can I hug you?”

Vi takes one step, and another, and another.

She’s at the door. 

It’s open for her. She has guests. 

This time, she lets them in.

“Come here, Pow-Pow.”

It feels like coming home.

Ever since she lost Jinx, Vi has had Caitlyn to hold. But if her love for Caitlyn is a beast oozing venom, her love for Jinx is a monster with teeth. 

There’s no comparison. But they’re different.

Vi hadn’t realized how much until she was holding a crying Powder in her arms. The universe shifts then, time like rivers and space like fabric, and suddenly Vi was small and was being handed over a much smaller Powder.

Vi cries, like she has never shed a tear. Vi screams, like she has never torn her vocal chords apart. Vi loves, like she has never lost the most important person in her life.

Powder cries too. Mourning for a life, a past, a present, a future, all of that they could have had together.

Misery loves company, and this one looks exactly like hers.  

“I’m sorry for your pain.” Powder sobs into her shoulder, clutching Vi like she will lose her, like she will lose her again.

Vi echoes the sentiment, squeezes Powder’s waist with all the strength of a big sister.

Larger than life. Larger than this life had allowed it to be.

“I’m sorry too.”

Chapter Text

Caitlyn’s life has changed a lot since she met Vi.

It’s to be expected, really. Not even her wildest imagination could have conjured up someone as wonderful as her Violet, but still. The amount of life-changing events that happened in this one year alone, had Caitlyn not had her eye on being Sheriff, purely so she can make the executive decision to reform Stillwater and abolish enforcers altogether, she would have made a great author.

Just when she naively thought they would, the surprises haven’t stopped coming.

“Let me get this straight, you two, Zaun’s Royalty, came up with a multiverse-hopping device just so you can, what, give us some papers?”

Judging by Vi’s red eyes, Powder’s puffy cheeks, and their smiling eyes, Caitlyn highly doubts they’re here just for that.

Not willing to be the one to tattle, Caitlyn fingers one of the files Alternate-Ekko brought out from his bag. 

Next to her, Vi is as quiet as a poro. Sitting right across from Vi is Alternate-Ekko and Powder. 

Besides the latter is their Ekko, wearing the same disgruntled expression Caitlyn has grown familiar with in these past weeks. He has her full understanding, because out of everyone, Caitlyn had hurt Zaun above all others, and as their beloved Boy Savior, it’s practically Ekko’s birthright to hate Caitlyn’s guts until the day she dies.

Vi, bless her forgiving heart, has tried to break the ice a few times. She only stopped when Ekko started yelling in her face, thus breaking Caitlyn’s heart even more, and Vi came home delivering the news that Caitlyn was not going to be welcomed into the Firelights’ Haven until Ekko said otherwise.

Honestly, Caitlyn expected worse. 

Caitlyn loves Vi so much, for trying. She wonders if there’ll ever come a day where she feels like she is deserving of her. She promises herself to make sure it never will. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dumb enough to not accept help when we really need it,” Ekko gestures at the thick binder on the coffee table, strewn with various plans to send relief effort, blueprints for rebuilding, proposals for newer and equally opportunistic trade route proposals for both Piltover and Zaun, and so much more. Caitlyn’s head is spinning with all sorts of potentials, plans, and meetings in front of The Council. “But to build a multiverse-jumping machine?”

Alternate-Ekko shrugs, sending Powder a soft, sweet gaze. It makes Powder blush. 

“It was all her idea. I was just there for the ride.”

Every mechanic in Caitlyn’s brain simultaneously whirs faster and comes to a stop at the sight of Powder smiling. How is she supposed to correlate this sweet, sweet girl with the person who killed her mother.

“Hah, you finally put that magnificent brain of yours to use?”

Powder huffs, the blush already on her cheeks hitching a ride down her neck. Her boys keep looking at her the same, the combined force of their affection almost bouldering her over.

All of a sudden, Caitlyn feels like she’s intruding.

“Can y’all stop? This is making me very uncomfortable.”

Trust Vi to say what Caitlyn was thinking, with none of the tact and all of the crass. Caitlyn loves her so much.

“Says the queen of PDA.” Ekko raises a high eyebrow, redirecting Powder’s blush to Caitlyn, regardless of Ekko only having eyes for Vi. “Or did I not see you liplocking Commander over here on the front page of the Piltover Times?”

The way he says Commander, dripping with resentment and disgust, still twists Caitlyn’s guts a bit, but she doesn’t have the heart to sulk. Not when Vi does that half outraged, half embarrassed, altogether adorable squeak she does. 

“Sh— shut up!” Choosing a random file, Vi throws it at Ekko’s face, hitting Alternate-Ekko instead. “Fucking brat. Since when do you read that shit anyway?”

“Since Sevika is a councilor, duh.” Ah, there’s that sassy eye roll. Caitlyn has always thought he looks especially like Vi when he does that. “How do you expect me to keep up with shit up here?”

Vi throws an incredulous hand. “By asking me? I’m down at the tree almost every day now.”

Ekko throws back an even more unimpressed look. Caitlyn has a feeling he’s about to unleash hell on Vi.

“The last time I asked you, you gave me a 3-minute monologue of how cool your girlfriend looks with her eye patch. Then, after you finished, you proceeded to rave about how much she adores your cooking. Then, you waltzed into our kitchen, threw out all our cooks, and decided you were going to make enough food for a week because your girlfriend loved your food so much, it’s your moral duty to spread the love. Never mind the fact that you simply wanted to take leftovers to her workplace.”

In all of Caitlyn's 24 years of living here, there's never been a silence so amusing filling the space. 

Ekko’s face is undeterred. Alternate-Ekko and Powder are stifling their guffaws behind their hands. Vi, her precious Violet, turns her adorable puppy eyes to Caitlyn.

Caitlyn, feeling four pairs of eyes on her, quietly picks up her bowl of stew and slurps.

The living room erupts in laughter.

Caitlyn has zero regrets, even as Vi blushes two shades darker than her own hair. Powder pounces on it, of course, promptly followed by the two Ekkos, and the conversation makes its own path from there forward.

Having not been paying attention to the time, Caitlyn only notices how late in the day it had gotten after hearing the grandfather clock ringing. She watches their Ekko take the alternate universe version into her study, intending on using her affectionately dubbed murder board to visualize Heimerdinger’s suggestion for a renewed and improved water system, which will connect Zaun’s to Piltover’s.

It's a small step forward, but a crucial one. Caitlyn remembers vividly the look on Vi’s face when she had topside's water for the first time, and it burns a hole Caitlyn could only describe as self-consciousness and shame with the way it made her feel.

“And you get to drink this everyday? Wow.”

Caitlyn doesn't know how to live with so much guilt festering inside her, but fuck she will die dying.

“Boys, am I right?”

Right. Caitlyn sort of forgot she was here too.

“Brats, what they are.” Vi rolls her eyes, gazing at Powder with insurmountable affection. “How do you put up with them? One is bad enough, but two?”

Blue eyes glint with distinct mischief. “If I tell you exactly how I put up with it, you’re gonna be grossed out, sis.”

True enough, Vi’s face immediately sours in realization. Vi has always been rather generous when it comes to expressing herself, but this sort of comedy, almost care-free, is not something Caitlyn gets to see often, and she loves it.

So much that it makes her giggle, which in turns makes her blush as both Powder and Vi turn to look at her.

Vi’s adoring gaze, Caitlyn doesn’t mind. Powder, on the other hand, Caitlyn can’t stop herself from tensing no matter how hard she tries.

As observant as ever— or perhaps not, Caitlyn’s rather confused about the rules of multiverse alternate selves— Powder takes note, bright blue eyes shifting to something apologetic.

Powder’s mouth opens, clearly has something to say. Something Caitlyn is likely not ready to hear, not from her and not for a very, very long time.

So. As a genius strategist, Caitlyn does what she does best. 

Divert. 

“Thank you for the wonderful breakfast, darling. Your stew was delicious.”

Having not been expecting it, Vi flushes at the praise. Her cheeks blush an unruly pink, one muscular arm raised to scratch sheepishly at the back of her head.

“I, um. Thanks, cupcake.” Caitlyn spares a second to think it through, before deciding to throw decorum out of the window and replace Vi’s fingers with hers. “Oh. Okay. Th— thank you…”

Caitlyn smiles her tooth-gap grin, further deepening Vi’s blush. She looks to her baby sister for help, only to groan and shield her face behind her hands at the split-open smile Jinx is sporting.

Powder, Caitlyn violently reminds herself. This is Powder. 

Blissfully oblivious to Caitlyn’s internal turmoil, Powder does what every little sister does best.

“I don’t know, I thought it could use more salt.”

Vi, to no one’s surprise, takes personal offense. “It would have thrown off the sweet and sour balance I was going for!”

“Well, it was clearly too sweet if I wanted more salt.” Powder snarks back almost immediately, feral only growing wider at Vi’s narrowed eyes. She doesn’t let it go on for too long though, face softening into a sweet smile. That same smile that gives Caitlyn a headache. “I’m just kidding, your food was great.”

“Thank you!” Vi throws up both her hands, then wraps one around Caitlyn’s shoulders. 

It’s very smooth, all things considered. It’s also incredibly cheesy and eye roll-inducing and gosh if it doesn’t make Caitlyn blush like a schoolgirl.

Powder notices too. “What about you, Caitlyn?”

Blush cooling, Caitlyn asks cooly. “Pardon?”

“Do you cook as well? Or is Vi just as commanding in the kitchen as she is out?”

Anticipating Vi’s indignation, Caitlyn says. “You do look rather intimidating with a spatula in your hand, darling.” She allows the pause, the gentle levity, before continuing. “To answer your question, Powder, I’m afraid I have a reputation when it comes to cooking.”

Vi snorts. “Understatement of the century.” 

Foreseeing Caitlyn’s elbow attack, Vi manhandles and twists so she is now holding her hand instead. Sly girl. 

“It’s not my fault cooking relies so much on intuition.” Caitlyn sulks, sighing in content as she falls against Vi’s broad shoulder. “Baking, on the other hand.”

Powder perks up. “You bake?”

“Yes.” Caitlyn gestures at the plate of frosted cupcakes Vi served as dessert. Wagging eyebrows purposely ignored for decorum purposes. “I made these.”

“Oh!” Bright blue eyes widen with excitement, a close cousin with Violet’s proud light blue. “These are magnificent. I totally thought they were store-bought.”

Much better at receiving compliments than her girlfriend, Caitlyn returns a grateful, polite smile. 

“Thank you, I’m glad to hear that you love them.” Then, a thought trickles past her mind. Caitlyn takes the leap. “Do you bake?”

Humming happily, Powder takes a cupcake for herself. Even though she already had 3, Caitlyn kept count.

“I do, occasionally. Benzo has quite a sweet tooth, even if he doesn’t like to admit it. Vander and Silco prefer bitterness, like in beer, so sometimes I make them root beer chocolate chip cookies. They're huge at The Last Drop. Tobias likes coffee candies, which makes me their dentist’s mortal enemy. And Cassandra… oh.”

Any lightheartedness meticulously cultivated is immediately gone. 

Caitlyn isn't even aware of what she is doing, how her body reacts before her brain could. All she knows is that a second ago, she was being held in Vi’s arms. The next, those strong arms are the only reason why she doesn't leap across the coffee table and wraps her hands around Powder’s throat.

“Cait! Cait, snap out of it!”

But she can’t.

Caitlyn isn’t here. Isn’t even in this room right now.

Caitlyn only sees blue.

Blue eyes.

Blue eyes sneering down at her, naked. So you’re the infamous girlfriend.

Blue eyes creeping into her vision, afraid. Be a good little Piltie and sit pretty for Vi, will you?

Blue eyes staring down at her from the dock, devastated. Boom.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“Caitlyn!”

Blue eyes again.

Blue eyes telling her they trust her, they rely on her, they love her.

Blue eyes. Violet.

“Vi… Vi—” Caitlyn gasps, coming up for air and getting whiplashed for it. “What are… where are we…”

“Take a deep breath for me first, Cait. Deep breath, come on. With me, in and out. In, and out.”

Caitlyn tries, refocusing her senses and allowing herself to reach out for the help she needs most.

There’s cold stone at her back and warm solid pressed against her front. Caitlyn’s nose is buried deep in between Vi’s shoulder blade, her arms winding around a sturdy waist and hands clutching the fabric of Vi’s shirt.

“There we go, baby. Breathe for me.”

A sob crawls its way out of her throat, Caitlyn stifles it as she clutches Vi harder. She tries to say something, to apologize, but for all the languages she can speak, all that comes out of Caitlyn is broken babblings of Vi’s name.

Vi takes it all in stride, holding Caitlyn up when all she wants to do is sink, and sink, and sink, until she can’t breathe anymore and everything stops hurting.

But Vi helps. She always does. 

“Violet,” Caitlyn calls weakly, tapping her shoulder. Vi knows to loosen her hug, but never once does she let Caitlyn leave her embrace entirely. “Vi, I didn’t… I don’t know what happened.”

A sweet mouth kissing her forehead, Vi doesn’t look at her like she’s just ruined everything.

“You got triggered, cupcake.” Oh, the irony. “I took you out here so you can take a breather.”

Rubbing their noses together, Caitlyn smiles. A grateful, endeared little thing.

Reality crashes into her with the impact of a bulldozer, Caitlyn left blushing to her roots out of mortification.

“Powder. Did I…” Did I hurt her?

“She’s fine.” Vi promises, her thumbs sliding underneath Caitlyn’s shirt and stroking the soft skin. “I pulled you back before you could do anything.”

You almost did, the implication lies underneath. 

Caitlyn exhales shakily, lip quivering as she tells Vi. “I lost control.”

Vi nods, smiling sadly. “I understand.” One of her hands moves to caress Caitlyn’s cheek, who immediately leans further into the touch. “I should’ve asked you. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now.”

Shaking her head before Vi even gets halfway through, “Please don’t blame yourself. I attacked her, unprovoked. This is on me.” Caitlyn sighs, terribly ashamed. “You should be furious with me.”

Blue eyes flash a spark of emotion Caitlyn can’t read. “I’m not exactly a fan, but I’m not going to leave you to fight your anxiety attack alone.” 

Vi is so kind. Caitlyn doesn’t deserve her.

“I should go back. Apologize.”

Vi’s head tilts, her hair falling into her face and making her look rather puppy-like. “Are you sure you can handle it?”

Not at all, but Caitlyn’s so fucking sick of herself. Her feelings don't matter in the long run, as long as she is doing what is right.

“I can do it.” That's not a lie. “Take me back.”

“Actually, I’d prefer it if you stay.”

As if acting on instinct, Vi and Caitlyn practically spring apart at the voice. She doesn’t know what Vi is thinking, but all Caitlyn can think of is Jinx’s perpetually angry eyes whenever the two of them stand within a mile radius of each other. 

Of course, this isn’t Jinx. But her voice is the same and Caitlyn’s body hasn’t yet caught up to her brain.

“Pow? Is everything okay?”

Standing at the end of the hallway, the same hallway where Caitlyn asked Vi to join the enforcers, Powder shakes her head. She wears a soft smile, one completely devoid of anger, just pure understanding.

In what mad world would Jinx be the calm and collected person while Caitlyn is on the verge of a breakdown every 5 minutes?

This one, apparently. 

“All good. I just think it’d do us good to address the poro in the room.” Sparing a look at Vi, Powder raises an eyebrow. “Me and Caitlyn, that is.”

Snatching Caitlyn’s hand, Vi asks with a good amount of suspicion. “Then I should stay—”

“With all due respect, Vi,” Powder gently interrupts, a hand elegantly raised. “This is a conversation best kept between us. I’m sure Caitlyn will regale you the details later, but at the moment, I want to give her all my attention. It’s what she deserves.”

Caitlyn feels like floating. Almost deranged and entirely unbalanced. 

Vi is just as surprised, but Powder’s obvious good intention for Caitlyn seems to be exactly what she needs. She turns around, light blue eyes asking a wordless question.

Will you be okay?

Caitlyn’s nod is almost imperceptible, so she raises their joined hands and kisses Vi’s knuckles. Appeased and blushing, Vi gives one last squeeze and goes on her merry way, giving Powder a similar squeeze on the shoulder as she walks back to the living room. 

And then there were two.

Taking a deep breath, Caitlyn pushes herself off the wall. Immediately she feels like staggering under her own weight, but still she keeps her head held high.

You’re a Kiramman, her mother’s voice echoes in her head. It’s exactly what Caitlyn needs for a boost of courage. 

She opens her mouth, ready to apologize. 

But once again, Powder is faster. “Growing up, it always felt like I had two big sisters.”

The pointed look, the none-too-subtle implication. Caitlyn swears it’s her that’s in an alternate universe. 

Powder smiles, not mockingly but clearly amused at Caitlyn’s bewilderment.

“You’re surprised, I can tell.” Understatement of the century. “But I’m being serious. Between Vander and Silco’s heroic tales of Vi punching her way through every argument, Tobias and Cassandra’s endeared ramblings about how you were always at the top of your class while effortlessly putting Sheriff Grayson’s marksmanship to shame in shooting competitions, you guys were always there. I grew up on your stories and, in a way, in your shadows.”

As Powder approaches, Caitlyn leans back against the wall. Her ponytail prevents her from completely reclining against the solid surface, which is well because Caitlyn wants to be fully attentive for this.

“I’m sorry.” For both things.

“Don't be.” Powder replies easily. “Vi’s obviously biased, but I know what I did.” 

While waiting for their Ekko, Caitlyn had shown them to the Kiramman Library to catch them up on all current events. It was hard for Caitlyn to watch, and she can only imagine how much it pales in comparison with Vi, who resigned to Powder looking through her rep sheet with heartbroken eyes. 

They’ve all heard tales of monsters. One must feel absolutely rotten to know the monster lies within them all along.

Caitlyn would know that better than anyone.

“Your parents love you so much, you know.” Powder continues, moving to stand next to Caitlyn. Their shoulders don't touch, a respectful space between them, but Caitlyn feels the closest to the girl than she ever did. “To the point where they usually can't bring themselves to talk about you. But occasionally, there’d be a celebration or a holiday, and their eyes would shine with a dull grief as they recite a precious memory with you as the star. 

Congratulations on graduating from the Academy, Powder. You know, we planned on bringing Caitlyn to Ionia to celebrate her graduation with her grandparents. She would have liked us visiting them more, so would you accompany us there sometimes?”

Her parents did take her to Ionia after graduation. 

Caitlyn remembers the ceremony itself being awful, donning a robe that felt suffocating and paraded around by her mother for hours as she simultaneously bragged about Caitlyn’s various achievements as well as her valedictorian speech. It was all worth it when they finally boarded the Piltover Express and arrived at the Kiramman Castle in Ionia just a few short hours later.

If she thought her chefs were overbearing with their constant need to keep her well-fed, Caitlyn was in for a wild ride with her grandparents who took advantage of every opportunity to make sure Caitlyn is always chewing something in her mouth.

It was a good vacation. 

“Anyway, the point is,” Powder pauses, glancing over. For the first time showing an emotion that isn't suave confidence. “I know we’re not blood, but I couldn't help but think fondly of you too. I've always imagined what it would be like to talk to you. Finding out what I did here was… a blow, to say the least.”

“It's not your fault.”

Caitlyn believes in what she's saying, no matter if her behavior earlier betrays a completely different mindset. She likes to think that, if she could hear her, Vi would be proud of her.

“I know.” Powder smiles, confidence back like it was never gone. “I’m not going to say sorry for something I didn't do, but I am sorry for the pain you're going through. If that means anything.”

“It’s everything.” 

They share a brief smile, the tension seeping out. A gradual lapse into silence, allowing Caitlyn a moment of reprieve to gather her thoughts.

There aren’t a lot, if she’s honest. Not the coherent ones, anyway.

Still, Powder has come all this way, revealed her vulnerability in a quiet voice that makes Caitlyn’s heart ache. This must be the protectiveness Vi always talks about, and only now does Caitlyn truly understand how encompassing and irrational it is.

“I talked to you, before it all went to shit.” Powder chuckles, Caitlyn’s lips curl. “You- Jinx, were the one who helped me bring Vi back home from Viktor’s commune. Jayce and Loris offered, but she wouldn’t let anyone but me help her carry Vi up to my bedroom. I took my eyes off her for a second, to fetch my father and the doctors, but she was already gone when I got back.”

Caitlyn remembers the panic, the petrifying fear, the sense of shame and disappointment threatening to choke her to tears. She had Jinx right there next to her and she lost her.

“Did she get distracted by the armory?” Powder asks with a smile, eyes twinkling. 

“No. She, uh, turned herself in.” Caitlyn takes too much joy in watching the way Powder’s jaw drops. “I only found out once we got Vi stabilized. To say I was confused was a bit of an understatement, but a part of me also felt relieved.”

A blue head tilts this way and that, clearly contemplating. 

“You think she regretted it?”

For which sin, asks Caitlyn’s mind. “No.”

Images flash of blue and white. The grounds shook beneath her feet, and there was a pulsating line of electricity crackling in the air, signalling impending danger. For a moment, Caitlyn had felt teleported back to that eventful day at Jayce’s lab. 

It wasn’t until the smoke was gone that Caitlyn realized what they had lost.

Whom, they had lost.

Caitlyn had never heard a scream so pained. It puts her own to shame. 

“I think Jinx lost everything then.” There isn’t even a glimpse of vengeful satisfaction in her. Caitlyn almost misses the bloodthirst, everything that had hurt also felt good. Now, it’s dull. “Vi told me later that she believed Jinx had changed. Vi has the best sense of judgement I know, but...”

“But it didn’t matter.” Powder takes over. “She hadn’t paid for what she did.”

Justice is a funny thing. 

Did Caitlyn ever want that? Or did she simply want Jinx to suffer the way she did? Worse than she did?

“No amount of good deeds can undo our crimes.” 

Powder hums. “That’s a nice saying. Puts the responsibility of goodness back where it should be. A continuous act that takes a lot of trying and doesn’t always align with who you are.”

Vi does it effortlessly, like kindness is fused into her soul and she is the embodiment of the best of humanity. Caitlyn has always wondered that about her, how could the world be so cruel to someone so kind?

“I don’t believe Jinx changed.” Caitlyn lets out a bone-wrecking sigh, relieved and immediately guilty about it. “Up until the very end, she was self-oriented, single-minded, emotionally-driven, and possessive of Vi. I found myself relating to a lot of those traits.”

Powder sniggers, gently elbowing Caitlyn in the hip. She barely feels it, but the gesture moves her all the same.

“I never understood her. I’ve tried, god believe I’ve tried, so hard. All those psychology classes I took in the enforcer’s academy, all those childhood stories Vi told me, nothing could give me a clear cut answer.”

“Maybe that’s where you went wrong.” Caitlyn hums in askance. “People aren’t clear-cut. We’re all one catastrophic event away from doing something we regret.”

“So, nurture over nature?”

“A bit of both, perhaps.”

“I believe it all comes down to choice.” Powder huffs, not of disagreement. “Vi chose to trust Jinx. Jinx chose to get Vi to safety. I still couldn’t understand the intricacies, the reasonings, the context clues, but that I knew. I don’t know siblings’ love, not like yours, but I knew what it meant to love someone so much they become your monsters. They would always choose each other. That is why I sent all the guards away.”

Powder keeps quiet for a bit, the sparse hallway filled with only the sound of Caitlyn’s patient breathing and the calm pitter-patter of drizzles on the window panes.

“You let Jinx go. You knew Vi would set her free.”

Caitlyn hums, a song to match with the birds’ chirp.

“Why?” 

“Hmm?”

“You would have never seen Vi again. Did you trust Jinx that much?”

“I trust Vi.” The sky is blue, the sun is warm, and Caitlyn’s heart has been Vi’s from the start. “But in the end, it didn’t matter who I trust. All I wanted was for Vi to be happy, and if that can’t happen with me in the picture, then I’d let her go.”

Caitlyn chooses Vi too. 

“Vi’s a very lucky girl, to be chosen by both of you.”

Caitlyn laughs, light and delight and inextricably flattered. Coming from Powder, that means the world.

“I mean it.” Powder joins in, her giggles a little more high-pitched. “You guys are so alike. I wish you could have been friends.”

“In another life, perhaps.” And wow, she means that with her whole heart. “Funny you mention it, Powder. From the time of her passing, I’ve been hearing my mother’s voice.”

“I’ll refrain from making a twin joke.” 

“I appreciate it.” Caitlyn chuckles, quietly closing the distance between them. If Powder wanted, she could lean her head down on Caitlyn’s shoulder. She wouldn’t mind. “Before, my mother was a wisp, a whisper. Shadows that are vaguely responsibility-shaped, hovering over me and blocking the warmth of her affection. After, she became clear.”

“Your Cass sounds awful. Mine let me eat all her ice cream when I got second MVP in Piltover’s Rifle Association.”

Caitlyn chortles, sobs a little when Powder does lean down.

Her weight is a comforting reminder. Here is someone who knew her mom, someone whose life is so entangled with hers but not in a way that hurts her. 

Here is a fire that warms instead of burns.

Here is, dare Caitlyn thinks, a friend.

“I hear her all the time. Telling me what to do. Telling me what to think. Telling me that she would be proud of me for continuing the family legacy, that she would approve of me dating an enforcer whose heritage and history is linked directly to Piltover, that she would be grateful I’m working so hard to avenge her unjust death.”

Tears flowing down her cheeks, Caitlyn has the briefest thought of wiping them away before she just doesn’t.

There’s no hiding from the monster inside you.

“At one point, I realized the voice was never hers.” Caitlyn’s eye twinge painfully, but she braves through the downpour. “It was me. It was me poisoning her memory, distorting her voice, mosaicing her face. To the point where I woke up one night, screaming, the shame pinning me down and putting its hand through my chest, screaming too.”

Grief will find you getting ready for bed. Grief will find you, not on the day of, but the day after you tell yourself things are looking up, you are doing well, and you are doing good. Grief will have you get out of bed, look into the mirror, and find her looking back. She lives, not in the flesh, but she lives in you. Grief will find you a day later, a week, a month, a few more… but it will find you.

Those are the lines Caitlyn wrote in her diary, long lost the meaning of her emotions and to whom she had assigned them. 

“It was the wake-up call I needed.” Caitlyn sniffles, finally wiping her face. Her hand is seized by a smaller, slimmer one, and Caitlyn does all she can not to squeeze it for all its worth. Powder isn’t Vi, Caitlyn could break her. “It found me. Vi found me, and suddenly it was quiet. I was so mad, my mother was taken away from me all over again. But I almost died, public execution style, and all I could hear was Vi.”

No more darlings. No more pick yourself back ups. No more I’m proud of yous. No more.

“I let her go.” And I’m so grateful, because it set me free.

Powder looks up at her, smiles, and Caitlyn feels nothing but understood. 

In every universe, Caitlyn and Jinx are each other’s literary foils. 

In this one, Caitlyn’s melancholy meets Powder’s sunny.

“Not to take away the cheese, but just so I get the full picture, I didn’t cut your eye, did I?”

“Oh no. That was from a warlord who filled my mother’s empty void with herself and Vi’s with one of her spies. Hilarious, actually. I bedded my own executioner.”

“Have you considered going to therapy?”

“That’s rich, coming from you.”

“Excuse you, I was voted most exemplary patient in Piltover’s General’s psych ward.”

“Was it because you gave them so much material to perform research on?”

“Says the pirate with mommy issues and muscle kink.”

“Excuse me?”

It’s a few minutes of playful jabs, most of which Caitlyn spends sputtering through forming lackluster insults that got her laughed at by someone who doesn’t even reach her shoulders, before Powder simmers down into a thoughtful quiet. 

Caitlyn gives her a few seconds, eventually growing impatient.

“What is it?”

Powder’s eyes are sparkling blue, swirling with a bunch of emotions she can’t read. Patience is a virtue, or so her mother once said, so Caitlyn keeps mum.

Eventually Powder finds what she’s looking for; judgement, perhaps, or reassurance, before confessing.

“Have you been to the Hexgates?”

It’s an odd question, but again, this is the girl who Caitlyn can spend an entire life trying to get to know. 

“No.” Caitlyn answers honestly. “I’ve only sent my enforcers there to look through the rubble to gather fallen bodies and return them to their loved ones.”

“Logical thing to do.” Caitlyn hums, awaiting more questions. “Look, Caitlyn, I have something I need to tell you.”

It’s Caitlyn’s turn to initiate, placing her head atop Powder’s and squeezing their joined hands.

Powder takes it as a cue. “When your Ekko traveled to our universe, he replaced my Ekko’s soul with his. They shared the same body, mine was in the backseat, so to say.”

Caitlyn knows close to nothing about the multiverse, but what Powder is saying sounds like…

“You’re inhabiting Jinx’s body, is that what you’re getting at?”

“That’s the thing, I’m not supposed to be.” Powder takes a deep breath, gently letting Caitlyn go. They stand face to face once again. “We studied this for a very long time. Took us months to even sketch a draft, even longer to make the machine. One thing I wanted was for us to not steal bodies that aren’t ours. It felt gross, not just to them but to you as well, a violation of some kind. Somehow, because he’s brilliant like that, my Ekko found the rune configuration that would allow us to co-exist with our alternate universe selves. Basically a separation of their DNA and ours.”

The dots are connecting. Caitlyn is understanding.

“But there was one condition, there must be a body to replicate.”

One of the strings snaps. Caitlyn hurries for a replacement, reaches for a pin to make it stay in place. She takes a step back, the bigger picture awe-dawning.

“You’re saying Jinx isn’t dead.”

Powder looks like she hates to deliver the news, but Caitlyn isn’t mad. 

“No, she isn’t.” Powder watches Caitlyn carefully, but she promises she isn’t mad. She is… ecstatic, even. “I wouldn’t be here if she was blown up like Vi said. I don’t know if your Ekko made the connection too, but I think he will soon enough, once mine stops distracting him with reform plans and whatnot.”

Caitlyn’s only half listening, questions and answers alike spurred in her mind. 

Admittedly, Vi didn’t give her a lot of information regarding her and Jinx’s final battle with Warwick and, subsequently, their deaths. All for a perfectly understandable reason, of course. Still, that means Caitlyn doesn’t have a lot to work with, and she’d need to get on her hands and knees if she wants to find out the bare truth. 

Before Vi finds out. Because Caitlyn would rather die than dangle a hopeless dream in front of Vi’s pretty, pleading eyes.

One more thing though, “Why would you tell me this and not Vi?”

Powder huffs, weirdly amused. “Because I trust you.” Caitlyn’s breath hitches, suddenly teary-eyed. “I trust you to do the right thing. That is the right thing to do.”

“Powder, I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, toots.” The nickname, familiar and startlingly new all the same, makes Caitlyn laugh. “Plus, I do feel bad for you. Welcoming your mother’s killer into your home couldn’t have been easy.”

Having been anxiously waiting for them to finish their talk, the sight of Vi laying eyes on Caitlyn and Powder holding hands was precious.

Caitlyn didn’t get to linger nor explain, as the two Ekkos came back into the living room and declared it was time to go home. Alternate-Ekko had reassured her that all the reform plans were safely in the hands of their resident Firelight, and he even wished her all the best in implementing them.

Caitlyn, Ekko, and Alternate-Ekko are all wise enough to leave the space for the two sisters to say goodbye, even if none of them have the grace to pretend like they aren’t listening in.

“Can I tell you something, Vi?”

“Of course, Pow.”

One hand holding Vi’s, Powder raises the other and gently taps Vi’s forehead. Caitlyn’s girlfriend blinks, but patiently waits for more.

“Ekko pointed out something to me the other day that I found very fascinating.” Both Ekkos look at each other, exchanging confused looks before shrugging. “He painted a mural of you for me, did you know that? Because he saw how sad I was about you.”

Vi’s lips visibly quiver. Caitlyn has to summon all her mental strength to not rush over and pull her in her arms.

“I asked him about his color choices. What shade of red was your hair, because I could have sworn it was a lighter red when we were young. He said it was just artistic license, but I knew it was because yours darkened over the years, and now that I know you were in prison for 7 years, it makes sense. We talked some more, I asked about your clothes, your jewelry, your piercings. He gained steam and started talking without prompting, and do you know what he had to say about your eyes?”

Besides Caitlyn, Ekko gulps loudly. Alternate-Ekko sends him a questioning look, but says nothing.

“He said the color he picked for your eyes was powder blue.”

Goodness, someone is cutting onions right into Caitlyn’s eye.

“Pow-Pow…”

“Don’t cry.” Powder says, like a hypocrite, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. “He was right, you know. Your eyes are powder blue, that means I’m always with you.”

Even when we’re worlds apart. 

Caitlyn hides her sob behind her hand, almost squeaking in surprise when she feels Ekko’s tapping her shoulder. This is the closest he’s gotten to her in months, their first friendly touch even.

It’s almost enough to distract Caitlyn from watching, through a curtain of tears, Vi pulls Powder in for a hug.

“I love you.” Vi says, sniffling. “Live your best life for me, okay? We’ll meet again.”

Powder is an equal mess, bunching Vi’s shirt with her fingers. “I love you too. In this life and the next, I want to be your sister again.”

Deciding not to drag out the farewells and make it more painful, Vi and Powder let each other go. 

They exchange well-wishes all around, and soon enough the time has come to say goodbye. Caitlyn holds Vi’s hand, Alternate-Ekko holds Powder’s, Ekko supervises the jump with a device Caitlyn doesn’t recognize.

They leave the way they came, a mini earthquake and a blinding flash of light.

Before she knew it, their visitors were gone.

Ekko doesn’t linger, doesn’t even say goodbye, just gives them a nod and walks himself out the door. Caitlyn is glad that he at least waves at Vi, pauses to make sure she’s okay, before he goes. 

The door barely closes shut before Caitlyn is cupping Vi’s cheeks with her hands, sweet honey coating her voice as she wipes away the tear stains.

“How are you feeling, my love?”

Vi sighs, sagging into her touch. Her arms immediately wrap around Caitlyn’s waist, their designated and most favorite place.

“I could use a drink, to be honest.”

“We could arrange that.” Caitlyn smiles softly, leaning in for a soft kiss that Vi happily returns. “You want to sit in the library with me? You can warm up by the fireplace while I use the computer.”

The Hexgates schematics are in there. Second to going to the site herself, this is the best place for Caitlyn to start. 

It thrills her to have a mystery to solve again, but she will not and never risk hurting Vi in the process. Still, that doesn’t mean Caitlyn wants to be alone. It’d be nice if Vi could be there and provide Caitlyn with moral support, regardless of whether she's aware she’s doing it or not.

“That sounds good.” Vi stands on her tiptoes to kiss Caitlyn’s forehead, swallowing her content sigh with another kiss. “I just want to be where you are.”

Caitlyn melts, would have melted, had Vi not been holding her up.

Vi always does that, always holds her up when she’s ready to break. Caitlyn wants to return the gesture with twice the gratitude and ten times the love.

So she pushes Vi down on the couch, crawls into her lap, and kisses her within an inch of her life.

“Baobei.” 

My precious. My love. My everything.

“Cait, I love you.”

I hear you. 

“And I love you.”

I can hear you now.