Chapter Text
Caitlyn was the last patient here. Even Dr. Kulak wasn't in his clinic anymore, needed at the IVF unit. In the darkened examination room, with jelly still all over her tummy, she felt as though she was the only person in this hospital.
But she wasn't alone.
There was her baby. Sucking on a thumb. Inside her body.
She sat up and looked at the ultrasound screen. Then she burst into tears so suddenly that the sonographer startled, making the image fuzzy.
“Ms. Kiramman,” he clarified. “You understand I didn't find any abnormalities? Your baby's right on track.”
Caitlyn nodded quickly, not bothered by crying. If the last two weeks taught her anything, it was that holding onto her tears only ended in horny explosions. “I understand,” she said, eyes darting back to the ultrasound screen.
She couldn't believe the baby had a discernible thumb to suck on. When did she even get this pregnant? When did she find the time?
She sobbed, and the sonographer jumped to his feet, visibly uncomfortable. He should probably consider a career change if hormonal women spooked him. “Do you… want me to get someone?”
Caitlyn wiped her eyes with a kerchief, giving him an intent look. “Pardon?”
The sonographer shrunk before her. “I just mean, people usually bring someone to the 20-week scan.”
It was a good thing Caitlyn was already crying, or that would have been the final blow. “I'm a single mum,” she said quietly, almost to herself.
She vividly remembered saying that to Vi. She also remembered what Vi spat back.
I don't think you are sorry. But I think you will be.
If the last two weeks taught her another thing, it was how much she hated being alone.
“You know what? I do want you to get someone.”
The sonographer looked relieved. Maybe Caitlyn did, too.
*
Tobias Kiramman was good at being there on special occasions. He was there when she won things, and on holidays and graduations. Being a girl made her slip her mother's attention, and being a healthy girl made her slip her father's. But out of two absentee parents, he would at least make an effort when it suited him.
Caitlyn still remembered a time before boarding school, when she was eight or nine, and got strep throat. Her mother couldn't stay home with her, and neither could her father, so he took her with him to work.
She loved it. She sat in his lap while he gave consults, and played with all his sharp tools declaring she was a chief surgeon, and read the medical magazines in his waiting room front to back. She pretended to be worse off than she was so he would check on her. And when he smiled or combed a hand through her hair, she felt so special.
Since she saw him again in Piltover, Caitlyn had been keeping tabs on him like any PI estranged daughter would. She had his number and his address and the name of his favourite dim sum place, but she kept all of that information in storage, along with other useless things like the names of Bee's teachers.
A part of her firmly believed she could avoid him until one of them died. A different part of her gave his number to the sonographer.
Her father was working today, since he appeared within five minutes, but he wasn't wearing bloodied scrubs so Caitlyn assumed she hadn't pulled him out of something or someone. Apparently even after 30, there was guilt to be felt when asking for a parent's attention.
“Caity,” her father said when he walked into the exam room, dark eyes clearly surprised. “Are you quite alright?”
Caitlyn nodded, hand unconsciously going to her tummy. “Oh yes, the bed is just more comfortable than the chair.”
“I can find another…” he trailed off, realising maybe a second after herself that the automatic urge she'd inherited from him to replace and make right wasn't really applicable to all the chairs in Piltover General.
They almost laughed.
Tobias shut the door behind him and approached her bed hesitantly. “Is the baby… if I may ask…”
“We're both fine,” she said. The words were having a hard time climbing out of her throat, but she didn't ask him here just to be stared at. “Can you sit?”
Her father grabbed the back of an uncomfortable chair and dragged it closer to the bed, sitting down and changing the position of his legs three quick times.
“I'm sorry,” she began. “For the way I behaved last time. I was obviously caught off-guard.”
Tobias lit up, nerves eased. “Don't apologise, darling. I've waited years to talk to you. You deserved more than bumping into me while getting coffee.”
Caitlyn bit her lip. There was torrent inside her, of you could have reached out sooner and you should have cared before I left and mum wasn't supposed to come between us, but it stayed inside.
Just another thing she learned in the past two weeks: sometimes she was the unreachable bastard she accused him and Mother of being. She didn't want that anymore. She didn't want her daughter to see her like that anymore.
It wasn't just them against the world, and now was the time to do something about it.
“I was ready to never speak to you again, after the funeral,” Caitlyn admitted. “For so long, there was nothing but rage.”
He dropped his elbows on his knees, leaning closer to her. “I know, love. You felt betrayed. How could I blame you? I felt betrayed too.”
The urge to correct him, to insist that she was right and he was wrong, was strong, but she was coming to grips with the concept of letting shit go. “I don't blame you, Father. Not anymore.”
It was as shocking to her to see him burst into tears as it was for the sonographer earlier. Tobias’s hand hunted for hers and she let him hold it. “I tried, Caity,” he choked out like a confession. “I have so many regrets, but… I don't regret standing by her at the end.”
This was it. The trauma at the core of them, the ugly thing that always set her off, the reflection she crossed an ocean to not look at. “Of course you don't. It wasn't a choice. It's family.”
He looked at her like she was performing a miracle by relating to him, by opening up her heart, by deciding love was simply more important than resentment. Everything Vi taught her.
Vi.
“I need to tell you about someone,” she said, before she could lose her courage.
“Is it a woman?”
She was not expecting that to be the first thing he said, readily and obviously. Her heart was hammering in her chest, overtaking her hearing. It had been unspeakable her entire life. How could he even ask?
“It… it is.”
“Oh, Caitlyn.” He still had a hold on her hand, and to her shock, he kissed her knuckles. “I don't mind. I've never minded.”
It wasn't what she wanted to hear. But this was the same man that stood by her mother when she introduced Caitlyn to eligible bachelors with a wink. The same man that taught her old family recipes so she could cook for a future Chinese husband.
“I don't mind” sat somewhere between utter scorn and a gay pride parade, and maybe it wasn't what she wanted to hear, but it was so much more than she ever thought she would get.
“I thought you agreed with Mother,” Caitlyn said, surprised by her voice quivering. She didn't think she cared anymore. For a person who was always right, she was wrong about so many things.
“We disagreed a lot,” he said, sounding remorseful. “My darling girl, I've loved you from afar for so long. Just knowing you have someone close means so much to me, man or woman. Does she… take care of you and Caribel?”
Caitlyn didn't know how to be so sad and so happy at the same time. It was surreal to even have this conversation. Especially since her biggest regret was not letting Vi get close, not letting Vi take care of her. Her mother stained so many of Caitlyn's relationships, and seeing her father's eager face now was like proof. Some detective she was.
“She…” Caitlyn began, then hesitated. Never defining their situationship meant there was only so much she could say. Vi wasn't her girlfriend, but she was her lover. Vi wasn't her partner, but she was, inextricably, family. “She's a good mum. The kind of mum I want to be. That I wish I had.”
She regretted it instantly, worried about hurting him when she was trying so hard to make things right, but her father only had a pained-but-happy smile for her. “I’m happy for you, dear. I know I haven't… I know I never managed to make you feel safe, but you do deserve it.”
She heard someone sob, and didn't think it strange because they were in a hospital, until she realised the sound was escaping her. Did she deserve Violet, after everything? She wasn't so sure.
“Vi is… She's…”
Before she could find the words, what sounded like a stampede rushed Dr. Kulak's clinic. The exam room door, which her father had gently closed when he came in, was violently flung open.
Caitlyn first saw the security guard, a 6 foot woman in all black moving like she was trying to contain a wild animal. Then Caitlyn saw the animal, the storm, the wildfire, the uncontainable, dressed in last night's clothes.
“Here,” she said, in utter shock. “She's here.”
Vi threw the security guard off of her, snarling and cursing, and finally caught sight of Caitlyn. While her father was already standing, Caitlyn only made it upright on the bed with two feet on the floor. Vi's blue eyes rooted her to the spot.
For Caitlyn it was all happening in slow motion. Vi ran over to stand in front of her, and all at once, the whirlwind died down and Vi collapsed to her knees, planting her head in Caitlyn's lap and crying like Caitlyn's only seen her do once before.
She made eye contact with her dad, and he finally did something she was grateful for.
“Shirley, it's okay, I know her,” he said to the rumpled security guard, bodily blocking her from a woman who'd terrorised her only to sob at Caitlyn's feet.
“What?!” The security guard cried out. “She punched one of my guys!”
It didn't even give him pause. “I'm sorry, but this is right where she needs to be.”
He leaned closer to the security guard to say something Caitlyn couldn't catch. Whatever it was made her give up the fight. Her father smiled at her, that pained-but-happy thing, and then he was escorting the befuddled guard out the door. They left Caitlyn and Vi by themselves.
She put both hands in Vi's unruly hair, gently forcing her head up. “Darling, what on earth are you doing here?”
Vi's face was tear-stained and breathtaking. Puffy eyes the most brilliant blue. She looked up at Caitlyn and sniffled. “Cléo said you went to the hospital, I didn't—”
“It's okay, we're okay,” Caitlyn interrupted her. Vi's hands were flung on the bed next to Caitlyn's hips, so she took one and brought it to her tummy. “It was just a check-up.”
Vi put her other hand on the baby bump herself, looking down at it. Caitlyn saw a tear cascading down her thick eyelashes and wanted to cry herself.
Instinct told her to get to the bottom of this at once, to interrogate Vi until she confessed what exactly caused her to come here and make a scene, but what if it was just that? Just that Cléo told her that Caitlyn went to the hospital? What would that mean?
Caitlyn wiped the tears off of Vi's cheeks, like she did for Bee so often. Except that unlike Bee, Vi leaned into her touch, craving the softness despite how hard she looked on the outside. Caitlyn loved touching her pretty face. “Darling,” she said again, trying to soothe her. “The baby's right on track. There was nothing wrong.”
She thought a crooked smile might unfurl on Vi's face. Instead, it was a look of shame.
“Cait, I'm so sorry,” Vi whispered, avoiding eye contact. “She left.”
Caitlyn glanced at the door, but a part of her already knew Vi didn't mean the security guard. “Who?”
“My sister. Fuck. She tricked me, I didn’t—God, the only fucking thing you asked me was to keep her in sight, and I let you down. I'm so sorry.”
Caitlyn felt her heart sink. She should have been furious, she should have enacted contingency plan #3, she should have been consumed with worry. Instead, she cupped Vi's cheek again and asked, “You didn't go with her?”
“No,” she replied, no explanation. Still looking away. Still tearful, even.
“Why?”
“Because I love you, Cait.” Vi looked up with shiny eyes and an unfurling crooked smile. Her hands felt so heavy on her tummy. “And I can't save someone who doesn't want me to.”
Caitlyn gasped like an idiot, recognising the words she'd said to Vi after they made love last night. “You're supposed to choose family,” she said, still disbelieving.
Vi turned her face again, just so, just enough to plant a kiss on Caitlyn's palm. “That's exactly what I'm doing, Cupcake.”
Even with all the memories her father had just jogged in her, Caitlyn couldn't remember another time she was chosen. It was so inherently vulnerable to make a choice out of herself. Doing it for two weeks hurt like hell, the limbo constant and burning, but now it was salvation.
Caitlyn didn't say I love you back. She didn't say we are girlfriends and lovers and partners and family. She just said, “Well, good. ‘Cause we're having a girl.”
Vi's jaw dropped. “What?”
Caitlyn let go of Vi's hair to reach back, rooting around until she felt glossy paper touch her fingers. She brought the sonogram to Vi. “I know gender is a social construct,” she assured, “but most likely, Cakepop’s a…”
“Girlypop. Oh my god.”
Caitlyn did anticipate Vi jumping to her feet, but she couldn't have anticipated Vi literally jumping for joy and beaming like she hadn't been crying at all. She took the sonogram from Caitlyn and held it over her heart, like she wanted to keep it inside her chest.
Then she ran to the door, opened it and screamed into the hallway, “We’re having another girl!”
“Viii!”
Caitlyn laughed right up to the moment Vi pinned her to the examination bed, lifted her shirt and kissed her all over the jellified tummy.
Then she stopped laughing and said softly, “Let's go home.”
*
“A skateboard?!” Caitlyn shrilled, turning up the A/C as soon as she got the coupe running. All these baby feelings mixed with the Vi feelings were overheating her.
Vi shrugged, manspreading in the passenger seat, jaw working on some pink bubblegum. Caitlyn loved her profile like that. “You think I could get an Uber in your bougie-ass neighborhood?”
“You could have taken a bus! Or not come at all.”
Vi laughed. “Oh, no way. I'm coming with you to every appointment from now on.”
Caitlyn guffawed. “Excuse me?”
Vi stuck her thumb at her own chest. “This guy? Most involved dad in the world.”
Caitlyn's face felt too hot. She turned up the A/C, again. “Since when do you identify as dad?”
Vi smirked. All of a sudden, a large, confident hand was on Caitlyn's thigh, close to her knee. “Since now. But my Tinder profile does say Dad—”
Caitlyn reached for the dashboard again and turned the A/C up to the max, causing a strong gust of air to hit Vi square in the face and ruffle her hair. She took Vi's thick wrist and placed her hand back on the thigh it belonged to.
Vi gave her a betrayed puppy dog look, but Caitlyn only turned up her nose. “I hope it was worth it, because that was the last Tinder joke you'll ever get to tell.”
She had maybe five seconds to worry about being too presumptuous or flirty, before Vi said, “Yes, ma’am,” and deleted the app off of her phone ceremoniously.
It made Caitlyn's heart do unreasonable things. She hadn't felt like this since listening to a Joan Jett song for the first time at 15. Giddy and smitten. It was bothersome. “Where did you even find a skateboard?”
Vi tossed her phone next to the seat, peeking over her shoulder at said skateboard. “I asked Ekko to bring me one yesterday, I wanted to… teach her…”
Caitlyn bit her lip, glancing at Vi's profile just to see her face fall. Caitlyn's heart clenched with it. In a very risque, uncharacteristic move, she extended her pinkie over the console and brushed against Vi's pants. They stayed quiet for the rest of the drive.
*
The pool house door was open. Caitlyn could see more and more of it, as they walked from the driveway to the pool in the morning sun. But the thing she was most aware of was Vi's body slowly turning to stone, each step heavier, each breath harder.
Before they even made it to the doorstep, Vi stopped completely. “I'm so sorry, Cait. You worked so hard to find her and I fucked up your case.”
Caitlyn huffed. “It was her choice, was it not?”
Vi chewed on her gum, not saying anything. Red flag.
“Vi?” Caitlyn urged. “What happened?”
Vi answered so quietly that Caitlyn was sure she misheard. “She drugged me.”
“What…”
Caitlyn let out a slow breath. She put a hand on Vi's enormous shoulder and turned her body around, forcing her away from the direction of the pool house. “Go to the house. I'm going to pack your things.”
“It's a mess in there, just let me clean up first.”
Caitlyn put her hands on her hips, not afraid to use her mum voice. “Violet. Go take a hot shower. Now.”
It took a long while for Vi to actually get moving, but Caitlyn could outwait her easily. Watching her go home, Caitlyn realised that whatever situationship they were in now, it felt good to protect Vi for once.
Caitlyn had spent so much time staring at the pool house, spying on it and surveilling it, but she hadn't entered it for the whole of Jinx's stay. Whether it was for Vi's privacy or her own safety was up for debate.
Once inside, though, Caitlyn was swimming in evidence. It took her two hours to bag and tag everything. She took pictures of the graffiti, gathered everything Jinx might have touched, and then began collecting the slutty clothes Ekko had allegedly packed for Vi that first day.
The hardest things to find weren't the curses on the walls or the broken, expensive furniture, but the blue and pink hair dye sitting together on the bathroom counter. A stack of pancakes with chocolate smiley faces in the fridge. A notebook full of sketches of a young Vi and the Vi she knew. Like Jinx had been trying to sync them up as adamantly as Vi tried to find Powder in her.
And eventually, in the bedroom, inside the seams of Stag's dog bed, Caitlyn found two letters made of folded sketchbook pages. She turned them over in her hands and saw what should have been predictable: one was addressed to Vi, and one was addressed to her.
Heart racing, Caitlyn tried her best not to damage her letter while opening it with gentle fingertips. She should have taken pictures before, but she felt like she couldn't wait. The last time Jinx left her with evidence, she nearly got shot and Vi got stabbed. (She wasn't in any danger now, she made damn sure of it during the last two weeks, running surveillance on Marcus all through his resignation.)
The writing was quite legible for a recovering shimmer addict.
Cupcake-
Sorry I tried to kill you a bunch. Nothing personal.
PS tell your fed the password is blackmail69.
Her phone was out and calling Jayce before she even fully comprehended the words. When he ignored her, she called again, still scanning the page.
After so many years of cat and mouse, so many crimes and tragedies connecting her and Jinx… And this was all Caitlyn got? Soz for trying to kill you?
Then again, it was fitting. Why would the most elusive target of Caitlyn's career give her closure?
Jayce still wasn't answering, so Caitlyn pulled out the big guns and sent him a picture of the 20-week sonogram. All of a sudden, she got an incoming call.
“Caity, I can't really talk, is it urgent?”
Caitlyn tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder, shoving the sonogram back in her pocket. “This will sound strange, but are you in need of a password?”
Jayce went silent, and Caitlyn could hear other men and women over the line speaking in cyber emergency. It was easy to imagine some havoc being wreaked by her former(?) nemesis.
Confirming it without so many words, Jayce said to her, “That motherfucker. What is it?”
Two minutes later, Jayce’s tone was the polar opposite. “Oh my god.”
“What?” Caitlyn asked, too curious not to repeat herself twice.
“I… This is definitely classified, but, uh… Thanks for the promotion.”
He hung up before Caitlyn could finish gasping. During lunch last week, she gleaned from between Jayce's “classified” lines that Marcus was in protective custody, and Jayce's department was under a lot of pressure to find leverage on him. Marcus must have been hard to crack.
Like lightning from her head to her toes, Caitlyn realised who the blackmail material was about. In the same breath, she realised why Jinx had to abandon her sister.
Her (former?) nemesis just got Silco arrested, and her partner's sister could never, ever return to Zaun.
*
Vi was lying across the chaise lounge, half-asleep, finally out of last night's clothes. For some inexplicable reason, she was wearing Caitlyn's white T-shirt and stretchy denim shorts. Despite them being off the maternity rack, both items still stretched on Vi's huge shoulders and arse. She wasn't wearing a bra.
All of which to say, she looked like she owned the place. Like she'd always lived there. Jamie was so similar to Vi that sometimes Caitlyn felt like she was already living with her, but now…
Well, now Vi could move back to her flat, miles away from Caitlyn's house. Vi could make up all her hours at the tattoo shop, miles away from Caitlyn's new job at the Hub. They didn't have to see each other anymore.
When Vi noticed her at the door, she beamed like she did in the examination room, sitting up. “Hey, beautiful.”
Caitlyn cleared her throat loudly, ignoring the flush rising in her cheeks. Instead of staring at Vi like a lovesick idiot, she dumped the bag full of Vi's pool house stuff on the floor and said, “I found letters.”
Vi's eyes dimmed, her smile fading. “For who?”
“You, of course.”
“Oh.”
Caitlyn wasn't sure what to expect, having seen Vi both sob her heart out and jump for joy within the last six hours. Bringing Jinx up now was like pulling the pin of a grenade, but Caitlyn had done worse to avoid conversations about her feelings.
Vi did the only thing that could have shocked her. She stood up from the chaise and said, “I don't want to read it.”
“You don't?”
“Not today.” Vi took a hesitant, almost shy step towards her. “I already chose, today.”
She chose me.
Caitlyn didn't know what to say. She could barely contain her curiosity over Vi's letter, fully expecting to read it over Vi's shoulder, but now her plan was thwarted. Could Caitlyn choose family over evidence?
She couldn't even make eye contact with Vi right now, completely overwhelmed. She checked her phone and cleared her throat too loudly, again. “Well, I'm off to the office.”
“What?”
She started walking towards her office at the back of the house, half-ignoring Vi. She muttered to herself, “There’s only three hours before school's out. I'm supposed to have a zoom with a lawyer.”
Vi chased after her, sounding worried. “Is it about the case?”
Caitlyn stopped walking, but she didn't turn to face Vi. In fact, if her hair had been up in a bun, Vi would've noticed her ears pinking up. She could have said a million things about the millions of zooms she had to organise now that Ekko was officially enroute to Demacia and Caitlyn was In Charge, but she didn't want to lie.
“If you must know, I'm consulting her on Jamie's name change. Though I suppose now it would be more prudent to ask if it should precede or follow my adopting them.”
For a moment, Caitlyn would have heard a pin drop. Then Vi, with a running start, snatched Caitlyn up and carried her back to the chaise bridal style. Caitlyn screeched, wrapping her arms around Vi's neck for safety. Much like other times this year, when the discombobulation faded, there was just Vi.
Caitlyn looked up at her lopsided smile and her heart knew that Vi would never drop her. Being held and protected by this woman scratched a primal itch, deep inside her. There was no place for fear in her arms, no space for second-guessing and overthinking.
She felt like she did when Vi touched her thigh in the car, when Vi declared her love in the exam room, when Vi asked to be choked in her bed. She felt close to someone. The first someone ever. It was terrifying, and there was absolutely no looking back.
Vi sat down on the chaise, effortlessly adjusting Caitlyn to sit sideways in her lap. To Caitlyn's accusatory glare, she responded, “You just went to the hospital. You should be off your feet.”
“It's been hours,” she snapped back. “And do you really think the most restful place to put me is your lap?”
Vi seemed very into the idea of putting Caitlyn places. “You know, for like a year, Jamie wouldn't let me put them down? That's how good it is in my arms.”
Caitlyn chortled, fully believing it. “Bee learned to walk before she could crawl. She hated being picked up. I had to put a GPS tracker on her nappy.”
Vi smiled, glancing down at Caitlyn’s tummy. “Do you ever wonder what she'll be like?”
“Not as often as you, I suspect.”
“Will you let me talk to her again?”
Caitlyn bit her lip. It was getting way too gooey here. “I'm supposed to be on zoom.”
“So you want me to lift you back up in my strong arms, carry you all the way to your office, and then—”
Yeah, she knew what she was choosing.
“Oh, fuck it, just kiss me.”
They made out on the chaise continuously, up until the moment Cléo caught them and ooh la la’d, forcing Vi's hand out of Caitlyn's pants and making them both run up the stairs giggling like girls.
While getting air in her lungs was welcome, not being kissed was less acceptable. She pushed Vi against the bedroom door as soon as it was shut, fully intending to put their lips together yet again, but Vi hesitated.
She didn't fight the hold Caitlyn had on her shoulders, apparently not bothered with being pinned to things like Caitlyn might have suspected. No, she just blinked up at Caitlyn, staring sweetly.
Her hair was mussed and smelled like Caitlyn's rose and kukui oil conditioner. Her lips were raw and stained with Caitlyn's lipstick. Her freckles were illuminated by Caitlyn's warm bedroom light. She loved looking at her.
“I should've said it back,” Caitlyn muttered, brain running away from her again.
Vi's eyes flicked up from her mouth to her eyes. “Huh?”
“What…” Caitlyn bit her lip, instantly doubting herself. “What you said at the hospital. I should've said it back.”
Vi's lips drew up in a grin. “You think I don't know you love me?”
Caitlyn squawked unattractively, flummoxed. “Vi!”
Vi was straight up laughing at her, hands going to Caitlyn's hips. “You are such a dork. Talkin’ about adopting my kid, moving me into your house, letting me name your baby, sending me nudes, and you think I don't know you love me back?”
Great. Vi had a running list of every unhinged thing Caitlyn had done during this pregnancy. If her hands weren't on Caitlyn, she would've tried to disappear through the floor.
“At least let me say it with words!” Caitlyn insisted, disliking the feeling of owing Vi something. Vi deserved everything.
She only got an eye roll and a go on gesture, so Caitlyn took a deep breath and girded her loins. She was pretty sure she'd never said these words to anyone but her daughter.
“Violet,” she breathed. “I love you too. You're amazing.”
Vi melted into the bedroom door overdramatically, but Caitlyn wasn't convinced that she was just fucking around. There was something very pleased in her bright eyes and flushed cheeks when she said, “That's sweet, Cupcake. I guess I do like hearing you say it.”
“I love you so much,” she said again, surprised by how easily it came out now that she'd admitted it once. “God, I should have said it the first night we made love. I love you. I'm sorry I'm so…” Neurotic? Withholding? Secretive? Judgemental? A Kiramman?
“Hey,” Vi interrupted her thoughts, her right hand climbing from her waist to her cheek. One of them was blazing. “I love you. I know you.”
“Not everything.”
Vi was undeterred. “Well, I can't wait to find out. And I can't wait to tell the kids about us,” she added, her smile growing pretty goofy. “And I can't wait to stay up with Cakepop when she cries all night. But what I really, really can't wait for is fucking you. Is that prudent?”
Caitlyn didn't have the heart to yell at her for that. The pregnant-horny easily meshed with the love-horny, as if she even stood a chance with Vi's big strong hands on her waist.
“Quite judicious,” she allowed, and started taking her own clothes off Vi's body. Fuck. She'd touched it all last night, but she was starting to suspect nothing would be enough.
While Caitlyn spent two weeks crying, eating and being driven to madness by two children, Vi spent the time getting ripped. Not like she'd been lacking before, but Caitlyn just… couldn't keep her hands to herself, not with her wildest dreams on a silver platter. She couldn't do it last night, and now it was even worse, because nothing was stopping them.
Well, almost.
Caitlyn only realised she was sucking on Vi's nipple piercing when she forced herself to release it. She glanced at her watch and hummed. “We've got two and a half hours, minus one for naptime.”
“You got it, boss,” Vi said readily, excited. She was springing on the balls of her feet. “How do you want ‘er done?”
Just the question caused a surge of heat to climb inside Caitlyn. She stared hard at Vi's body, bare-arsed on her door. She'd had so many dreams and fantasies about this woman, it felt surreal that they'd only had sex twice. There was so much more to discover, and Caitlyn made her money from being thorough.
Indelicately, she blurted, “How do we feel about penetration?”
Vi's eyes darkened, and suddenly she was picking Caitlyn up again only to put her on the bed and say, “Chekhov's strap-on!”
“What?”
“Hold on.”
Caitlyn leaned back on her elbows, struggling to stay silent as she watched Vi swagger in the nude to Caitlyn's vanity and grab a bobby pin. Then, with shocking efficiency, she broke into the toy drawer in Caitlyn's bedside table and held up her red leather harness. She couldn't keep her mouth shut anymore. “Thief!”
“Strategist,” Vi argued back, smirking handsomely.
Caitlyn was so stunned by the crime that just transpired under her nose that it took her a moment to realise Vi was strapping herself in. In truth, “Chekhov's strap-on” had never been on anyone's hips but Caitlyn's.
She wasn't scared of it. There was absolutely nothing unappealing about Vi's confident pick of a dildo, Vi's sure hands on the leather, even the way she prowled towards the bed was sexy.
Caitlyn was scared of something else entirely.
Rain hitting her shoulders. “Guess fucking you is all I'm good for, huh?” Vi sucked her teeth in rage. “You used me.”
Her breath hitched. “You want to, erm, do me?”
Vi looked genuinely surprised, not even thinking for a second before saying, “Duh. Unless you don't? It's okay if you're not ready.”
Caitlyn had been ready to get railed from the moment Vi's hand touched her thigh in the car, but that wasn't the problem.
Vi spat into her palm and started rubbing the thick dildo absent-mindedly, like it was an extension of herself. Caitlyn forgot her own name, let alone what was the problem. In a slutty trance, she found herself naked on her back with her legs spread.
Vi stayed off the bed, bending her knees against the mattress for leverage. She kissed each of Caitlyn's ankles, and then used them to physically drag her down to the foot of the bed. Caitlyn's heart was in her throat, her body barely touched yet already aching. Maybe she was into the idea of Vi putting her places, too.
Of course, as hungry for Vi as she was, she was way too pregnant to spread her legs that far apart.
She debated complaining and potentially killing the mood, when Vi paused unprompted. “Wait, you're not supposed to lie flat on your back.”
“What?”
“Your uterus could compress a blood vessel and hurt the baby.”
Caitlyn scowled. “Are you mansplaining my uterus to me?”
“I'm not a man?”
“Just do it doggy—”
“Hmm,” Vi interrupted her, tapping her own chin in thought like the woman that assembled all of Caitlyn's baby furniture. Then she slammed Caitlyn's legs shut, mounted both of them on one huge shoulder, and lifted her arse off the mattress.
Vi waited, and Caitlyn was so eager to feel her inside that her head almost came off from nodding. Then Vi slowly fucked into her like that, tilted and weightless, and Caitlyn made a sound she had never made before in her life.
Vi didn't ask, the cocky bitch. She could tell how good it was. Her thrusts were steady, thighs slapping audibly against Caitlyn's arse. Caitlyn's hands shot to Vi's forearms, digging her nails in the muscles. Vi kissed the back of Caitlyn's knee.
Each time Vi’s strap filled her, Caitlyn shuddered, overwhelmed by the tension inside her. It was hard to tell which was more stimulating, Vi's fucking or Vi's fucking eye contact. She looked at Caitlyn like she was drinking her in, so intently she couldn't have missed Caitlyn’s inner turmoil.
Guess fucking you is all I'm good for.
“What's up, baby?”
Caitlyn clamped down so tightly on the dildo that she interrupted Vi's rhythm, making her slow down to a halt. “It's just. My bladder.”
Vi tried to hide her smirk behind Caitlyn's leg. She was unsuccessful. “You sure that's not the fun button?”
Vi braced herself against Caitlyn's legs and pushed inside her, relentless and thick and precise, every bump on the dildo making tears spring to her eyes. “God…”
Vi was Vi, and so she said, “I think we're on a first name basis at this point,” and ruined the moment.
Caitlyn let out a huge breath and released Vi's scratched-up arms. “Doggy style.”
“What?”
Caitlyn bent her legs, thumping Vi's shoulder blades. “Turn me around.”
Vi slipped out of Caitlyn obediently, giving her a worried look. “Did I hurt you? Did I hit the inferior vena cava—”
“No, darling, I was just…” Caitlyn turned herself around, getting on her knees and hiding her face in her arms. “I was about to cry.”
Vi wasn't moving. “That good, huh?”
Caitlyn rolled her eyes, tucking one arm under her so she could tease her clit. She spread her legs a little for it, making sure Vi could see. “Enough talking.”
“Yes boss ma’am,” Vi agreed, and slapped Caitlyn's arse hard, completely unprovoked.
Caitlyn moaned and arched her back, pushing into Vi's motionless pelvis. She was never going to get out of this with her dignity intact.
“Jesus,” Vi mumbled, still annoyingly not inside her. “Your ass is a wonderland.”
Caitlyn looked over her shoulder, ready to accuse her of being cheesy, but when she saw Vi's expression no words came to her. Vi was looking at her with so much affection it was bordering on adoration, on dreamy reverence, on…
“Ow!” Caitlyn yelped when Vi bit her arsecheek. Vi made an apologetic puppy noise in reply and started kissing it instead, nosing her way between her cheeks. Without warning or finesse, Vi shoved her tongue inside.
Caitlyn knew that tongue. She came on it once and had dreams about it a million times. Deploying it now would, quite frankly, destroy her. “Vi,” she whined, wriggling away from her face.
She heard Vi sigh as she straightened up. Then Vi grabbed her arse again in firm, possessive hands, and guided her back onto the dildo, pumping her. Caitlyn whimpered, her shoulders relaxing, chest melting into the bed. The dildo was rubbing her spot almost lazily, sliding in and out just from Caitlyn's intense clenching and excessive wetness. Fuck.
Caitlyn bit the back of her own hand hard enough to escape the hypnotic pleasure. “Maybe…” Her hips dropped forward, releasing the strap with a filthy sound effect. “Maybe I'll be on top. You'd like that, right?”
“I mean—”
“Or I could fuck you? I am more than adequate, I assure you.”
Vi sighed once more, and not in the enthusiastic way Caitlyn had envisioned. She tossed herself on her back, right next to Caitlyn, who was still hiding her face in her hands. Vi didn't force her to look at her. She simply got cosy and stared, perceiving Caitlyn like only she ever could. Exposing her completely.
Caitlyn sighed this time, girding her loins like before. “I don't want you to feel used. Again.”
“Okay.”
Caitlyn frowned, expecting endless platitudes and sympathy. Not just okay. Pretending Vi just didn't hear her the first time, Caitlyn added, “I don't want to fuck it all up.”
“I get it.”
In a flash, Caitlyn was propped on her elbows, looking down at Vi. Her pink hair was sweaty, but otherwise she seemed unperturbed, resting with her arms under her head, armpit hair just… gallivanting. “What do you mean?”
Vi rolled her eyes, fluffing up her hair casually. “I don't wanna fuck from a place of fear.”
“I am not afraid of getting fucked.”
“Honey,” Vi said, so Caitlyn knew whatever came next would be devastating, “You're, like, fear-of-clowns level afraid of intimacy. Your head and your heart might trust me, but your snatch needs a little more time, and that's fine by me.”
Goddamnit, that was way worse than platitudes and sympathy and “you're hot, Cupcake”. Caitlyn had no idea what to say to that without getting emotionally vulnerable. Goddamnit.
“Can I just say something, though?” Vi asked, faux casual again.
Caitlyn had nothing left to lose. “Yes?”
“You never made me feel used.”
“You said—”
“Yeah, I know what I said, Sheriff. I was upset.” Vi's hand suddenly snuck into Caitlyn's hair, toeing a fine line between playing with it and gently pulling Caitlyn's face closer to hers. “But giving it to you, it didn't make me feel used. It makes me feel proud. Even the first time. Knowing that I earned Caitlyn Kiramman's trust means more to me than getting squirted on.”
“Then you better stop saying all this romantic shit,” Caitlyn threatened, getting her knees back under her and moving to straddle Vi’s hips, basically sitting on the strap.
Vi moved with her easily, keeping a tender hand in Caitlyn's hair, slowly caressing her jaw. How easily she went with Caitlyn’s flow, despite it being insane and hormonal. Vi was so lovely. Accommodating. Trustworthy. Caitlyn tilted her cheek just to kiss the inside of Vi's palm, and Vi gave her a heartstopping little smile. “So what'll it be?”
Caitlyn ignored how her cheeks and ears were heating up. “Well. As long as I'm not fucking everything up. I would like to fuck you up.”
Vi's eyes were glittering with eagerness. “Are you gonna let me see you cry, baby girl?”
“Ew, you call my daughter that.”
Vi released Caitlyn's hair and sat up using only her core muscles, making Caitlyn gasp in surprise. There was just enough space between them for her tummy to be supported and for Vi's hands to clap on her arse again. “Are you gonna let me see you cry, Mistress?”
Caitlyn leaned forward, needing to kiss Vi before any more corny words came out of her silly little mouth.
She rode Vi like they had all the time in the world, kissing and kissing and kissing.
This time when she got close, Vi only held her tighter and started whispering about how she was beautiful inside and out, how she was Vi's queen and could do whatever the fuck she wanted to her.
This time, when she clenched too hard and the tears started coming, Caitlyn didn't hold back. She pushed through the fear and the doubt, trusting Vi to be close on the other side.
This time, she was ready to take the plunge. And whether it was a wheee or a wee, they would come out stronger for it.
*
The kids knew something was up as soon as they saw Vi in the passenger seat. They expressed themselves by asking so many questions that Caitlyn just tuned them out at some point, an hour’s nap not nearly enough to deal with them.
Thankfully, Vi was fielding the questions effortlessly, spending half the drive twisted around her seat to look at the kids and occasionally play with them. She was radiating joy. Even with her eyes on the road, Caitlyn saw how Vi glowed when she talked to them.
She told Caitlyn as much, when they were in bed, freshly showered and cosy. Caitlyn had not been prepared for Vi's version of pillow talk. I've never been happier and this is all I wanted and all manner of corny shit. Not even Bee's chattering broke her stride.
When they finally got home, Bee ran in to say hello to Cléo, but Jamie hesitated at the door. Caitlyn and Vi slowed their steps accordingly, looking down at their mop of curls.
“What's up, honey?” Vi asked casually, giving Jamie a moment to collect themself.
Jamie looked up at Vi with big eyes. Caitlyn's heart clenched—they were so, so alike. She loved them so much.
“You're coming in with us?” They asked.
Caitlyn held her breath even though she knew the answer. Vi glanced at her, questioning, and Caitlyn nodded subtly. They hadn't planned to drop the bomb at the doorstep, but they had planned to divide and conquer the kids and this was as good a chance as any.
Vi got to her knees smoothly, always taking care to be at eye level with Jamie. “Yeah baby, I'm not staying at the pool house anymore.”
“But what about Jinx?”
Vi's jaw clicked when she ground her teeth. “She had to leave, honey.”
“What? Where? Why?” Jamie delivered the final blow: “Was it ‘cause of me?”
“No!” Caitlyn rushed to say, weaving a hand through Jamie's curls. She looked right at Vi. “It is not your fault she left.”
Jamie's lips wobbled. “But I got mad yesterday.”
“So about that…” Vi adjusted, holding one of Jamie's little hands. “You know how you asked about Cait being your mom?”
Jamie peeked up at Caitlyn lightning-fast. “Yeah.”
“Well, would you like it if she was your mom?”
“Like, instead of you?” Jamie asked urgently.
“No, you goof, we'll both be your moms.”
“Whoa,” Jamie said to themselves, eyes going wide. “Two moms. Wait, does that mean Bee gets no moms? She'll be so mad at me!”
“Nope, she gets two too. Ooh, I'll be her Vio mom!”
Vi must have thought she was on the right track, but Jamie looked completely crestfallen. The rejection hurt Caitlyn to the core. She lowered her voice and said, “But that's only if you'll accept me, darling.”
Out of nowhere, Jamie reached up and held Caitlyn's hand. “We’re cool, it's just… I wanted to marry Bee.”
Caitlyn's brain was stuck on we're cool. Vi took over for her. “We got time to decide who marries who, kid.”
Jamie shrugged in the way of children who couldn't imagine being older than they were. “So what's different?”
Caitlyn bit her lip, glancing at Vi. There was a lot they hadn't discussed yet, but she knew what she wanted. “Well, I think we should all live together,” she asserted.
Vi absolutely beamed at her. “Is that so, Mistress?”
Jamie squeezed her hand for her attention. “Can we live together here instead of my apartment?”
Now Caitlyn was beaming. “You like it here?”
“Duh, there's a pool,” Jamie said, like it was a no-brainer, pointing behind them at the yard. Their dog was there, napping in the shade.
Caitlyn could have stayed on the stoop having this sweet moment forever, but Bee rushed them like a rugby player and screeched in her little voice, “It's pool time?!”
Vi rolled her eyes. “Not before dance class, Shortcake.”
Bee groaned, harangued in the way of children who couldn't imagine not being older. “Fine, Vio mum.”
“Droppin’ some eaves?” Vi asked, making a serious face at her despite looking like she was about to cry.
Caitlyn wasn’t surprised that dividing and conquering didn't work. She wasn't mad about it, either. Not having to do everything on her own might not take some getting used to, after all.
“It's called servilance,” Bee claimed. “Can you braid my hair for class please please please?”
Vi groaned when she finally got up from her knees. “Of course, cutie.”
Bee didn't hesitate before taking Vi's hand and dragging her inside. Caitlyn whistled sharply, waking Stag up, and he galloped all the way to the living room. Jamie followed, their hand still clasped in Caitlyn's.
She was the last to step inside the house.
It was good to be home.
*
*
Violet-
Mom and dad always liked you more. Vander always liked you more. But I didn't care because I knew you liked me best. You were my sun. And the night was too dark.
I can't be clean here. I can't keep thinking about what could've been if you stayed. We'll never change back. We need to exist apart from each other to grow.
I love you. I'm sorry. Be your kids' sun. They deserve it.
PS I'll send a postcard from Demacia when we get there.
The End