Chapter Text
Vi isn’t supposed to be out this late.
Her mom drilled it into her head over and over again; never go out on the streets of Zaun after nightfall unless she or Vander was with her. It’s dangerous. Even if Vi probably wouldn’t be messed with because people knew her ma was a popular member of a big mining gang; she could be caught in the crossfire.
But there’s been a riot. A bad one. Vi only has foggy memories of the last one, mostly she remembers her ma hugging her and Powder really tight and humming a song over and over again. Riots meant staying inside even more than it being nighttime but her mom hadn’t returned during this riot. Vi had to comfort her sister all on her own.
She needs to find her mom. So she holds Powder’s hand as they walk the lanes.
Zaun is weirdly quiet. It’s scary to not see anyone on the streets. The food stalls were empty and there weren’t any gangs hanging out. No music was playing when usually there’s bands on every corner.
Vi spots the first dead person. A miner from a different gang than her ma’s but still on friendly enough terms that she could recognize the marks from the gang coming into the Last Drop.
His eyes are staring wide open, his mouth stuck moaning in pain. Blood covered his mining uniform from neck to knees.
It makes Vi’s stomach hurt, and makes her want to cry. It’s the first time she’s ever seen a dead body and it's horrible.
But Powder doesn’t seem to understand what Vi is staring at in horror. She’s looking at the body then Vi with wide blue eyes but isn’t upset. She’s too little to understand what a dead person is. If Vi freaks out then she’ll freak out and they can’t have that.
“Cover your eyes Pow-Pow,” Vi finally chokes out. “It’s like a game, ok? Come on.”
By the time they make it to the bridge Vi is making Powder hum too because there’s a lot of… just horrible noises.
She doesn’t know what the noises are and she refuses to think about it.
The bridge is covered in smoke. Even though they’re on the river there’s so much of it that it scratches her throat and lungs. There’s a lot of dead people on the bridge but Vi tries not to look for anything other than a familiar shade of purple or Vander’s huge frame.
She hears Vander before she sees him. It’s a horrible wet thunking noise that she immediately doesn’t want to know the cause of. It takes Vander a second to see them but in the lamp lit smoke covered bridge, for the first time in her life Vi is scared of him.
He has his mining gauntlets on. She’s worn them a couple of times but she still can’t really lift them. She likes trying. The well oiled leather and iron gauntlets have been a staple in her house for her entire life. Vander has always kept them spotless but now they’re dripping thick blood. His body is splattered in it, from his face to his feet.
He’s breathing heavily, his eyes wide and ferocious in a way she’s never seen before.
Then he finally sees them and immediately closes his eyes, turning his head away from like it hurt to see them.
She pulls Powder towards him, hoping he knows where their ma is but he looks off to the side before she gets to him.
He looks so she does too and she sees—
She sees—
Vander ties his gauntlets to his belt before he sweeps them both up in his massive arms. “I got you,” he mutters along with other useless nonsense.
“Promise?” Vi sobs into his chest.
“I promise.”
The massive ballroom that this event was being held in had halls upon halls of either side of it.
This was, of course, on purpose. This kind of event spawn endless deals and there needed to be private rooms to discuss them. It’s easy enough to find a small empty meeting room. Inside was a large circular table and a couple of chairs.
Vi sits down and doesn’t raise her eyes from the table. Her godfather doesn’t sit directly next to her or across, instead taking a seat diagonal from her. This leaves them all in a triangle when Mel sits down.
Mel studies him with a critical eye. He’s older than her, perhaps Cassandra’s age but he’s lived a much rougher life. Gray and white have started to dot his roots, perhaps a sign of stress from whats been happening in the Underground. His clothes were the kind of old but well cared for that she’s come to expect from Zaun. His knuckles and wrists are covered in scars of all kinds and sizes.
And he looks at Vi with heartbreaking guilt, sadness and relief.
It’s clear that Vi won’t be starting this conversation after a few moments when she doesn’t speak up, doesn’t look at either of them.
“Vi hasn’t mentioned you,” Mel says. Her tone is cold but she keeps herself calm.
Vi starts picking at the table with her nail. “Vander’s my godfather,” she mutters. She sounds guilty or shamed.
Does she think Mel is upset with her ? When her body language is screaming she doesn’t want to even look at him?
“Mel took me and Powder in,” she continued. “We’ve been with her for … nine months? I guess.”
“And I did so gladly,” she makes sure to reassure her. Then her eyes cut to him, “Although I am now curious on why you were on the street if you have a godfather.”
Vander took a long shuddering breath. “I’m so sorry, Vi. Just so sorry. The Last Drop burned to the ground while I was away, I looked for you girls, I swear,” his voice cracks and tears build up in his eyes, “I looked everywhere. I even had someone standing guard at your old home in case you went there but there was no sign. None. Eventually I— I had to admit you’d died in the fire or maybe in a riot.”
He wipes his eyes then a smile grows on his beard covered face. “I should have known that you’d be able to take care of yourself though. Pretty impressive that you made it all the way to top side after the fire.”
Vi doesn’t smile or look at him at all. “I didn’t know there was a fire.”
Vander’s smile shrinks, “What do you mean?”
She glances up at Mel for the shortest moment and Mel tries to say with her eyes that she can say anything and she’d have Mel in her corner.
“When did the Last Drop burn down?” She says with a shaking voice. “How long after— after the last time we talked?”
He frowns, “A week. It was a week.”
Vi snorts, a little angry frown on her face, but it’s the first time she looks like herself since Vander appeared. “We were already in Mel’s shed by then.”
Vander’s face collapses. “Vi— You know how it was—“
“I wondered how long it would take you to notice we were missing,” she says like he didn’t speak. “How much longer would it have been if the bar hadn’t burned down?”
“Please,” he’s practically begging. “The Underground was in chaos, you know that. I’m sorry I wasn’t there enough —“
Vi slams her hands on the table and she’s finally looking at them. Her gray eyes are burning with a light Mel recognized from battle hardened warriors who’ve had enough.
“Enough? Enough? You weren’t there at all! You kept disappearing and just left us alone and wherever you were there you were mad all the time!”
Tears start building up and her voice cracks, “You promised and you left anyway. Over and over again.”
It’s a terrible thing, to see a man that clearly is a strong one break down in tears. “You,” he tries to control himself with a deep breath, “You ran away? Vi why didn’t you just—“
“Just what ? Talk to you about it?” Vi crosses her arms and looks up at the ceiling. “I tried. I tried. I told you I couldn’t handle taking care of Powder, that she needed somebody better, remember? And you—you…”
“I yelled at you,” Vander whispered. He covered his eyes with one of his large hands. “I— Violet, Please I didn’t mean any of that. You must know that, right? The Enforcers were making a muck in my city, the gangs were infighting, there were food shortages everywhere. I didn’t mean…”
Vi sniffles, “You said that Powder was my responsibility. You said that you had all of Zaun on your shoulders but all I had was taking care of her and that if I couldn’t I was a bad sister.”
“Excuse me?” Mel finally interrupted. She wanted to allow Vi to speak her mind because she clearly needed it but, “You said that to a nine year old child?”
Vander whipped his head up, “I didn’t mean— you can’t possibly understand what kind of pressure I was under! They were out there killing us everyday, I had enemies on every side, I just didn’t have time! I knew that Vi could handle it.”
“She shouldn’t have had to,” Mel says with clenched teeth, “She’s still a child herself and as her guardian you not only left her alone, you forced her to parent her sister? That’s extremely dangerous for both of them!”
“Vi handled it,” Vander repeated, “Powder was fine.”
“No she wasn’t,” Vi snaps. “She— she got super sick and I didn’t know what to do. She stopped talking, she wouldn’t sleep because she was scared all the time since you kept scaring her! That’s why I left, because you told me I had to take care of her and I couldn’t do it!”
Tears built up again and this time Vi couldn’t stop them. “I tried” she says. A sob broke from her throat and had Mel out of her seat immediately. “I tried really really hard but I couldn’t do it and you just did nothing—“ the rest was lost to sobbing.
Mel wraps her in a hug and Vi sobs into her chest. “You’re an amazing sister, Vi. Powder is lucky to have you, understand?”
As the girl sobs into her chest she looks over shoulder to Vander. He’s looking at them with devastation in his eyes, his hand covering his slack mouth.
“I think it’s best if you leave,” Mel says quite calmly considering her anger.
He stands, face pale and eyes wet. His mouth opens but after a moment he simply looks at how hard Vi is crying and he leaves.
“It’s alright,” Mel rubs Vi’s back softly. “It’s alright.”
No wonder Vi is so protective of Powder and no wonder she never asks for anything. She’d been turned into a mother before she was ten years old. So much responsibility well before she was ready had to have been crushing.
“I’m sorry I lied,” Vi says into Mel’s neck after she calms down. “I— I didn’t want Powder to go back there.”
Mel leans back and cups Vi’s red and wet face, making sure she looks Vi in the eye as she says, “You have nothing to apologize for.”
Vi shook her head, “You took us in because we didn’t have anybody but Vander—“
Mel hushed her quietly, “Even if you had told me I would have never sent you back to that. Not then and certainly not now. He was wrong for all of that, do you understand? You shouldn’t have had to go through all that by yourself.”
Vi looks at her then her lips quiver a little. “You’re not going to kick us out?”
“Child,” she sighs as she cups Vi’s tear stained face, “Why in the world would I do that?”
“Cause you don’t have to take care of us anymore since Vander could.” She whips her face with her sleeve.
Mel thinks about seeing Vi and Powder for the first time under that tarp. How worried she was to leave them alone, how taking them in worried her even more. How Vi had protected Powder with a passion Mel hasn’t ever seen in a child before. She remembers how Vi had surprised her tutors with her quick process and the bright smile on Powder’s face when she played with her blocks.
She thinks about the portrait she made for them, the sounds of playing that floated from the studio when Caitlyn came over and how Riven admitted that Vi had real potential. She thinks about Vi stealing her book and Powder stealing her papers to draw on. Vi’s horrible jokes about gangs which she does purely to be a nuisance.
And Mel thinks; absolutely not.
When Mel was a teenager, she wondered when a woman became a mother. What made a woman into one? What is a mother, if not just a woman who’s given birth?
Her own mother used to say she’d understand why she’s done the things she did when she had her own children. That all the violence and all the manipulation was to protect them. That Kino and Mel were the most important things in her life because they were her legacies in this world.
Mel thought that was foolish. Surely there were more important things about motherhood than violence and pain. More than simple legacy.
Wasn’t there protection? Wasn’t there support and love and care? The drive to shape a life into the best version of themselves or to watch as someone you cared for became brave and loved? The desire to provide or to see someone so small become so much greater than yourself?
She thinks she knows the answers to these questions or at least enough to answer the most important one.
Vi feels horrible and tired and sad.
She hasn’t cried so much since her ma died. The fact that Vander hadn’t even noticed they were gone for a week hurt. That he had to be disappointed that she couldn’t handle it all hurt. That Mel had to see how she failed hurt.
She says she’s not mad about Vi lying but that couldn’t be true. Mel doesn’t lie but she can’t truly be saying Vi and Powder can actually stay with her forever.
Mel gently pushes Vi’s hair out of her eyes. “I promise you, Vi: you’ll have a place in my family for as long as you want it. I won’t give you or Powder up without a fight.”
Vi looks into Mel’s gold eyes and doesn’t really believe her but for the first time she thinks maybe, possibly, she really means it.
Elora greets them with a confused smile that is quickly wiped clean off her face at the sight of Mel’s expression.
Vi, still probably embarrassed because of how many emotions she’s displayed tonight, doesn’t greet Elora like she usually does. Instead she rushes right past her. No doubt to go be with Powder. Normally she would have reminded Vi of her manners but tonight was rough enough to warrant ignoring such things.
The moment she’s out of hearing range she turns to Elora, “Do you mind working late tonight?”
Elora quickly shakes her head, “Of course not. Did something happen at the party?”
“The girl’s godfather was there,” she practically growls out his title. “And I’ll be damned if they go back to him.”
She breathes deeply, “We’ll be canceling all my meetings tomorrow, perhaps the next as well. I want to know exactly what processes I need to do in Piltover to make it official. Tonight we’ll draft a letter to send to Noxus Prime, even if I’ll be waiting to send it. I want to speak with Vi and Powder both when emotions are calmer but everything needs to be in place when I do.”
Elora blinks, raw shock on her face, “ Noxus Prime? I thought…”
Mel nods in agreement as she starts walking towards her study, Elora following behind her.
“That I was highly discouraged from communicating with anyone back home?” She says with a sarcastic smile. “I have, yes. But Noxus Prime holds the records of House Medarba and I haven’t been disinherited quite yet. I’ll be needing to change my records soon.”
Her assistant walks into her study and takes one of the spare clipboards that Powder uses to draw sometimes. “To include your wards?”
“No,” Mel sits down, takes out a pen and begins making a list of things to be done. “To add my daughters.”