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Published:
2022-05-13
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1/1
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ginkgo

Summary:

There had been a heaviness to Vi, guarded, uncertain. Here there’s a lightness to her even from a distance. A shroud has lifted. Caitlyn hadn’t realized the weight of it until it was gone.

-

my take on the missing scene at the Firelight camp.

Notes:

Im alive with another exercise in posting something done in ~24hrs gone so wrong, life got busy. but here! also I get it this doesn't make sense but this is for ME. An idea popped up and wouldn't let me go so take this in the meantime before I drop angst again.

also follow me on twt I post fic sneak peaks and talk about Caitvi. a lot.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

 

The ginkgo tree in the haven of the Firelights is the tallest one she’s ever seen. The roots are stretched out over the ground, criss-crossed like a ginormous cat's cradle before they sink into the earth. The boughs hang heavy over her head, saturated with green. She is cast in dappled sunlight, a coat of shadows that shifts its spots as the breeze sends the leaves fluttering. The swinging branches fill the air with quiet cheers for the acrobats that weave their way through them, cutting light trails across sunset skies.

The Kiramman estate has grounds, Piltover has gardens, countless parks, lush conservatories, they aren’t like this.

Timeless.

Free.

She’d found a crevice, settled into a secluded area between the veins of an ancient being. Away from all the scrutiny while still being able to keep eyes on them.

Vi and Ekko have moved from in front of the mural to the shade across from it, still talking. The plans for the crossing are already set after a good hour of back and forth. Tiring in its own right to say nothing of the day they’ve already had. She had broken off before Ekko’s patience with her could wane. She had also begun to feel intrusive. Ekko had spoken with her but his focus would always veer to the woman by her side. Between every argument Vi helped stifle there was a look she gave him. Disbelief–as if she can hardly fathom he’s in front of her–wrapped in pride. Vi beamed every time something quick witted came out of his mouth, deepening the creases at the corners of her eyes.

Figures from each other's childhood, Caitlyn could see it before they could say it. Old friends. Shared stories. Carefully knocked together limbs. Time stolen. A gulf between them. A brief slip, where Ekko’s face had grown harsh, as Vi chastised him for putting himself at risk, and he had very rapidly reminded her he had to because there wasn’t anyone else. The creases had smoothed and regret had gathered instead.

When Ekko had concluded their meeting, Caitlyn had left but Vi had lingered. She would not deny them their privacy, staying out of earshot, but she takes them in from a distance.

Ekko stands firmly, arms folded, as if the burden on his shoulders weighs nothing. Vi stands with a slight curve, poised, weight shifting, knees never locked long. They don’t always draw themselves to their full height but their stances are wide, planted.

Occasionally, when no one is watching, the pressure eases, and they will bend towards each other with bitten back grins as they bask. The kind of closeness that warms the chest and makes the lonely hollow spaces ache.

There had been a heaviness to Vi, guarded, uncertain. Here there’s a lightness to her even from a distance. A shroud has lifted. Caitlyn hadn’t realized the weight of it until it was gone.

The closest glimpse she’s gotten of this authenticity was their entrance to the undercity. A fluidity unlike anything Caitlyn’s ever seen. A breathless wildness. That was real. That was Vi. This is another, longer, look at her.

There had been a layer of skepticism, when the bars had slid open, that stayed even when they left the walls of Stillwater. Vi had taken off, escaping, like the chains were only going to close around her wrists again. Then tried to drive her away when she found out she couldn’t outrun her.

All of that peeled away by four blades, bled out of her in a house with chalk and rust on the walls. Now put back together and set out in the sun. A tilted lip, eyes shut as the wind teases past her hair. In the light Vi becomes crystalline. The proof, undeniable, resting on her face, soaking into her bones. Not just set loose. Free.

A part of her has come back to life in this place. She took up space in this world, so much so that a void was left behind in her absence. It’s only confirmation of what Caitlyn already knew. Vi does have a good heart. She knew that before she saw the mural.

She was loved.

She was mourned.

Caitlyn wonders not for the first time how Vi ended up incarcerated. Her mind does not conjure many satisfactory answers. Nor pleasant ones.

There it is again. That wide smile of appreciation. A quick nudge with an elbow to Ekko’s side as he waves Vi off good naturedly, brotherly. It’s the most age appropriate expression she’s seen on his face all afternoon.

Ekko’s gaze sweeps to the open yard and Caitlyn follows it, to where a few of the children that roam around are now tussling, the mural their backdrop. The good humor on his face crumbles and his jaw sets. His shoulders roll and the boy is gone, a leader again. Grown up too soon.

She glances at Vi and sees how her gaze never moved off him. The smile is gone and the look on her face has twisted into something that borders pain.

Ekko’s chest rises and falls with a huge breath, he puts a hand on Vi’s shoulder, says a few more words Caitlyn can’t hear. Vi nods, keeping her hand on his until he slides out from under it. He walks away, out of the clearing, out of view. Vi tracks him the entire time, shoulders slanting towards the ground.

Caitlyn takes her eyes somewhere else, feeling intrusive.

She takes her hand out from under her chin to trace the bark near her head, following random rough lines downward. It might be time to take advantage of these few hours before dark. Rest. Help clear her mind. She can’t remember the last time she slept. Time seems so stretched. She leans her head back to rest on a burl, shuts her eyes to ease the burn of exhaustion in them.

It’s mere moments before she hears footfalls blunted by grass. A nudge to her boot. She peaks up to see Vi, tucked into her jacket, regarding her with a sly smile.

“How’s my knight in shining armor?”

Caitlyn huffs, feels heat prickling on her neck, already warm from the sun. “Just fine, thank you.”

The bit of Vi that seemed subdued pales to her sharpening grin. She casts critical eyes around the hollow Caitlyn sits in, giving her a sidelong glance when she’s done. “Whatcha doin’ hidin’ away back here?”

She’s being mocked but she’ll give the honest answer. “I was trying not to wear out my welcome.”

Vi settles roughly onto the ground, leaning back into her palms, stretched out parallel with an ankle near Caitlyn’s hip. Close. Enough to be intentional.

“They look mean but they won’t bite. You’re with me.”

Vi says it casually, not even looking at her, but Caitlyn’s pulse still stutters in her chest at the phrasing. She avoids her eyes to worry the chafing on her knuckles. There’s still blood under her nails. Not her own.

She clears her throat. “How are you?”

Vi glances up briefly from the line of ants she’s testing the patience of. “Worried about me?”

“Professional courtesy.” Caitlyn responds wryly. “You were knocked unconscious. After a major impact like that you should be resting.”

Vi mumbles ‘professional courtesy’ under her breath with a disbelieving head shake. Her laugh is dry, quick, and lacks the lightness from earlier. Caitlyn is immediately remorseful for robbing her of some of it.

“You know just how many major impacts I’ve taken? Relax. I still work.“

Vi was aiming for sarcasm, but there’s too much scorn, too much sincerity threaded into those words.

(“How many chats have you had with her?”

“You know? I never even thought to count.”)

Another injustice to correct.

One at a time.

There’s things that should be said. Condolences, apologies, an extension of empathy, all far better options than nothing. She won’t be another person, one more topsider, turning a blind eye, but the bridge she has to build to cross this divide is immense. She doesn’t know where to start.

As she’s conjuring the right words, Vi suddenly begins to adjust, getting her legs under her. Caitlyn worries she’s taken too long, raises a hand to stall her, until Vi tilts on her axis and suddenly her head is in her lap.

“What–?”

Vi wriggles, adjusting her shoulders, getting comfortable, eventually turning onto her back and cracking an eye open at her.

“Head injury. Was told to rest.”

She fights for words, stammering, torn between two entirely different leagues of thought. Vi closes her eyes and settles back shamelessly. Languid and lithe as the sunlight caresses her.

Caitlyn arches a brow at her, trying to reel in her composure.

“Must you do this here?”

"Doctor's orders."

Caitlyn sighs, put upon. "You couldn't find anywhere else that suits you?"

"Oh right here suits me just fine."

Vi’s mouth curves knowingly, lips pulled into a smug shape.

“I can move if her majesty desires.”

Vi's teasing but she recognizes the earnestness. She's giving her a way out. It helps to stabilize her, get her off the back foot. Something Vi seems well adept at putting her on.

Caitlyn glares down at her playfully, taking a handful of grass and sprinkling it over Vi's face. “And upset your delicate condition? God forbid.”

Vi laughs as she shakes it off, a loud carefree noise that moves through both of them.

Beautiful. Caitlyn allows the thought to linger.

When they settle back, she begins to dusts a few left behind blades away, absently pinching them out of her hair. Vi’s grin dulls in intensity but the smile stays as she quietly cleans her up. Caitlyn's cheeks heat and it has nothing to do with the skittering sunshine and everything with the gray eyes watching her.

She roves over her features, feigning diligence. Freckles, the faintest smattering of them, run along Vi’s cheekbones, the bridge of her nose. So she hadn’t been imagining them. Nor the scars, the burns and bruises. There’s a new one, red and purple, marking the side of her face that the shade had been hiding.

Her already flitting touch moves to trace the border of it lightly. Has her mindlessly whispering. “That’s a nasty lump.”

She doesn’t hear it, she feels Vi gasp, from the corner of her eye catches her chest rising sharply. Her hands dig tiny canyons into the earth. She’s gone taut, like a bending branch near snapping.

Caitlyn lifts her hands away, mortified, searching. “Are you alright? Am I hurting you?”

“No.”

Vi heaves. Like she’d taken a palm and shoved the words out her chest. The next words are softer, tempered, tired. “No. You’re not hurting me.”

Briefly, Vi unclenches a hand that lifts before it spasms, turns back into a fist, and returns to her side. Jaw setting.

And then Caitlyn remembers, the shuddering breath Vi had taken as they stumbled from that alley, collided together, body to body. The hitch in her chest as Caitlyn had cradled her in her hands in her broken house. The intense look on her face. The same as the one she wears now.

Want.

Cavernous and consuming.

Caitlyn very carefully reaches out again, glancing at her and waiting. Vi's expression doesn’t twist, only becomes expectant.

Gradually, Caitlyn rests her fingers on her brow, where sweat has started to bead. Vi’s eyes close and she breathes out noisily as Caitlyn follows the sweep of her hair with her fingertips. She is tempted to speak softly, to soothe, but she worries about upsetting the peace they’ve reclaimed. So she waits. Lets the wind carry whispers. Repeating patterns over Vi's skin, lightly tracing where her forehead wrinkles until it eases. She ventures into the roots of her hair, combing gently through thick strands until fists unwind and a body no longer bows.

Caitlyn brushes her knuckles over her temple, behind her ear, to the gears on her neck. A fragile feeling spreads out from under her lungs when Vi turns into her, cheek a gentle press on her thigh.

Her eyes flutter open and relief has softened the steel in her irises.

They sit there, soundless, until the hunger eases and the cavern fills.

Caitlyn's hand ends up between them with Vi tracing the lines of her palm. They tease each other. Never quite holding. Not for long.

“You really worried about me.”

Vi’s index finger crooks around hers. She says it like it’s a passing thought but Caitlyn hears it. The weight of it.

“Of course.” There’s no chiding, she states it as fact but it comes out too gentle. “Of course I did.”

Vi smiles softly, wistful. The knuckles on their hands align then slip apart.

Eventually Vi drifts off, curled up close. Caitlyn watches her doze, heart full, eyelids heavy.

There is a lightness to her.

Notes:

The ginkgo tree is a tree that’s origins can be traced back as far as the Jurassic period. It has very distinct fan-like leaves and represents hope, longevity, and endurance. It is said to be good luck should you catch a leaf while it falls.