Chapter Text
A stern series of knocks at the front door broke Vi from her slumber. She blinked blearily and glanced around the room, not remembering falling asleep but now realizing she must have been out for a while. The flat was empty, Powder off with Ekko at the cinema, Claggor at his internship and Mylo not hanging around with her “bad vibes” as he called it. She groaned as her neck and shoulders protested at the awkward position she’d fallen asleep on the coach in, shifting slightly to dig her phone out from the sofa cushions.
The banging on the door repeated itself and Vi rolled her eyes. No-one would want anything from her and if they wanted something from the others then they could always come back later. She stretched out her right shoulder before cracking out some of the tension from her neck.
“I can see your in there, Lane” came a male voice muffled by the wooden door.
Vi leapt up from the sofa, not recognizing the voice and immediately on high alert. She picked up a wooden baseball bat that was kept hidden under the couch and softly crept towards the door.
“Once again I can see you Vi” came the exasperated voice from the figure obscured behind the thin, translucent fabric covering the glass. Vi sighed, lowering the bat but maintaining a firm grip with one hand before she strode forward and pulled the door open, keeping it on the chain for good measure. She immediately groaned when she saw the person stood on the doorstep. Well-groomed hair, sharp jaw, toned physique and three-piece suit that probably cost more than several months rent. Jayce Talis was looking around him as if concerned that his mere presence in the Lanes might make him dirty.
“What do you want?” Vi snarled through the gap between the door and the frame.
“Nice to see you to, Lane” Jayce drawled out, his face neutral but his eyes barely hiding his distain.
“You have one more attempt to tell me what this about before I slam this door in your pretty little face” she growled back.
“Caitlyn” Jayce sighed, his façade immediately shifting until he looked physically pained.
Vi faltered for a second, her grip on the frame tightening as she steadied herself against something solid. She nudged her leg with the bat, contemplating her choices. Sighing, she pushed the door to so she could unhook the chain before opening it fully, placing herself in the doorway to prevent Jayce from misinterpreting her action as an invitation.
“What about her?” Vi asked, her voice lacking the bite she wanted it to have.
“We need to make up for what we did” he said, barely making eye contact.
“What we did?” Vi asked incredulously “don’t draw me into your shit, Talis”.
“Hey, I may have poured the gasoline, but you lit the fucking match” he snarled back.
For a second they stayed frozen, both their faces wrapped in disgust, both leaning forward into the space between them, eyes fixed in an unyielding stare. Jayce suddenly dropped his shoulders and leant back, setting his hand in his suit pockets and staring at his feet.
“We need to fix this” he uttered out.
“You can’t fix people, Jayce” Vi responded, resignation wiping away her anger.
“Not with that attitude you can’t”
Vi huffed at his comment, shaking her head disparagingly.
“I’m not good enough for her” she managed to utter out as she stared at her feet, guilt coiling in her gut and making nausea rise up her throat.
“Neither of us are, but she doesn’t see that and so I guess for once we are just going to try and not disappoint her” Jayce offered out a hand, smiling awkwardly as Vi leaned against the door jamb and considered the proposition.
“For Caitlyn?” she asked suspiciously.
“For Caitlyn”
Ignoring his hand, she pushed off the door frame and stepped back inside, gesturing her arm in a welcoming motion and allowing Jayce past.
“Don’t make me regret this Talis” she muttered as she closed the door.
9 months earlier
It was Vi’s last year of school. She had promised Vander that this year she would keep her head down, keep out of trouble and get her certificate. Her track record wasn’t exactly gleaming but despite the notes in her files and never-ending list of detentions, she was due to graduate. She just had to claw her way through the next nine months and then she could leave this shitty school behind.
She had managed to make a good start. She had kept to herself, avoided the usual provocateurs and was even attending most of her classes. But then Deckard had to open his stupid mouth with a comment that was just begging Vi to close it for him.
“Your sister really is fucking crazy huh Lane?” he yelled, his voice echoing off the walls of the nearly empty corridor.
Vi stopped with her back to him, her hands balling into fists in the pockets of her trousers. She gritted her teeth and muttered for some divine intervention to help her resist the overwhelming urge to launch herself at him. She had just spent the entire lunchbreak trying to bring Powder back down from a very nasty and very public panic attack. At this point she wasn’t even sure what had instigated the attack, but it had culminated in Powder screaming and sobbing in the middle of the cafeteria while everyone else just stared. Vi was tired, emotionally spent and very aware of how close to the end of her tether she was. Willing her feet to continue down the corridor she did her best to ignore him.
“What you ashamed to be related to all that crazy?” came the next taunt, carefully aimed for maximum impact.
Before reason could take hold, Vi saw red. She came to with Deckard on the floor, blood pouring from his face and spilling onto the white of his collar. She was kneeling over him, one fist raised, the other gripping his jumper while she snarled at him. She was poised to strike him again, but someone had a grip on her raised arm, the contact helping her to surface from the rage.
“Vi he’s not worth it” came the calm voice, cutting through the internal pleading to just keep punching. Before she could tell the intruder exactly where they could shove it, she heard Headmaster Marcus’ voice bellowing from further down the corridor.
“Violet Lane, my office now!” he yelled. Vi could picture the look of anger on his face, the way that one vein popped in his temple when she had really crossed a line. The way his face would be beet red and his lips curled into a snarl to expose slightly yellowing teeth. It was a visage that seemed almost solely reserved for her and one she knew intimately at this point.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, she threw Deckard into the tiled linoleum with a sneer, before dragging herself off the floor. Staring resolutely at the white tiles, she ran a shoulder into the Piltie that had been manhandling her and stormed down the corridor in the direction of the Principal’s Office.
Vi wasn’t certain whether it was the public beating or the ensuing shouting match with the principal that did it, but by the time she left his office she had been suspended for two weeks starting immediately. Three weeks into term and she was already suspended. Fucking great. Deckard would probably get away with a verbal warning and a lunchtime detention knowing her luck.
After being escorted out of the main entrance and told to remove herself from school grounds, she had stormed across the car park and set up vigil on the low wall separating the school from the street. She set her head in her hands, wondering how the fuck she was going to explain this to Vander as she waited for her siblings to be finished for the day. Normally she would have headed home straight away, but she knew Powder would be feeling especially on edge after her panic attack. On days where Powder was struggling mentally the last thing the family needed was for Mylo to walk her home. Claggor would try to prevent anything from escalating but he wasn’t as good at balancing things as Vi. So, she had resolved to sit on the wall and wait. Bringing her head back up, she stretched out her shoulder while contemplating how she would pass the next few hours. With no money to her name and no friends to hang out with, she resigned herself to staying put. Lying down on the wall, she soaked up the sun and closed her eyes against the bright light.
Footsteps in the carpark made her turn to see Marcus striding over to her with a look of fury on his face. She sat up quickly, pushing her hair out of her eyes and jumping off the wall, turning to face him as he closed the distance.
“You are suspended Miss Lane, remove yourself from school property this instant!” He folded his arms across his chest and glared at her with distain.
“I’m outside the gates ain’t I?” she responded, fists bunched at her side and face scrunched up in frustration.
“This is still school property, you need to leave the premises. Now!” He took a step closer, sneering as he did.
“I’m waiting for my sister I can’t just…”
“Well you should have thought of that before you beat another student into a bloody pulp!” he spat “Now move along or I’ll call security to have you removed. Or should it be the police with your track record?” Letting the question hang in the air, he turned on his heel and stalked back towards the school.
Vi watched him go, seething but knowing she would only be digging her own grave if she yelled after him. Growling in frustration, she pulled her phone from her pocket to text Powder and let her know she would be waiting around the corner. She didn’t want her panicking when Vi was absent from the gates. As she tapped the screen it briefly flashed her home screen before the empty battery symbol flashed tauntingly a few times and then faded to black.
“Fuck” she muttered darkly under her breath, raising the phone high in the air before resisting the urge to punt it across the road and into the tarmac. Instead, she held it high in her trembling fist for a few moments before swearing loudly and slumping back down against the wall.
“Vi?” came a voice that practically dripped money.
Taking a deep breath and wondering what new torture had been sent her way, Vi turned to face the new arrival. The same Piltie that had tried to stop her from beating Deckard senseless stood in front of her, impeccably smart uniform and books held close to her chest with one arm. Her other hand held out a small black device and cable that Vi didn’t recognise.
“What do you want Kiramman?” she snarled, not in the mood to deal with whatever the fuck Stillwater High School’s resident princess could want.
“Thought you might want to borrow this” came the reply which was accompanied by the device being shook.
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s a powerbank. You needed to contact your sister, right?” Kiramman replied, cocking her head to the side slightly in question.
“You fucking stalking me now. First the corridor, now here?”
“No Vi. I just saw Marcus being a prick and you were both yelling so- You know what, just take the damn powerbank” she thrust the device into Vi’s hand before tutting, rolling her eyes and turning on her heel to walk off down the street.
Vi stared at her hand, back up at the rapidly disappearing silhouette and then back down at her hand. Who the fuck just handed over electronics and stormed off? Fucking Pilties…
Caitlyn set down her schoolbooks with a dull thud onto her desk and then gracelessly flopped onto her bed. She was so ready to be done with school, to be able to get away from Piltover and out of her parents’ shadow. Despite her best efforts, no-one seemed to take her seriously and she felt close to losing it entirely. If people weren’t trying to suck up to her in a bid to use her connections, then they were sneering at her for the same damn thing. She hadn’t chosen to be a Kiramman, to be born into a family that basically founded the city. She would have been perfectly happy being a nobody, then at least she could live her crappy little hermit existence in peace.
She had only tried to stop Vi in the corridor because Deckard wasn’t worth the trouble. Caitlyn hated the fact he used Powder’s mental health to goad her older sister but knew Principal Marcus would see it differently. It was only ever the person who got caught finishing the fight that got into trouble, no-one ever cared what had led up to the first punch being thrown. The school bullies knew and exploited this trend, verbally berating students they knew would crack just to watch as the teachers punished them for it. It was clear Vi was walking a thin line as far as graduating was concerned, so as much as Caitlyn empathised with the urge to pummel Deckard, she knew it wasn’t worth getting kicked out of college for. Caitlyn had just wanted to help and all it had got her was a sore shoulder and a bunch of disdainful glares.
She sighed and decided she might as well go do something to work out the frustration itching in her muscles. Changing into a t-shirt and sweats she walked out into the corridor to see if her father wanted to go to the firing range. Despite winning multiple competitions, she still wasn’t allowed to go to the range without an adult, which for some reason meant anyone over the age of 21. They didn’t need a shooting license or even an idea of how a gun worked, they just needed to be an arbitrary age that she wasn’t.
“Good afternoon, Miss Kiramman” came Dorte’s polite voice as Caitlyn poked her head into the kitchen.
“Have you seen my father?” she asked, swiping an apple from the central island and throwing it up into the air.
“I’m afraid he’s working late tonight. Your mother too” Dorte smiled a hint of sadness tugging at her expression.
“Oh. Thanks Dorte” Caitlyn felt her shoulders slump and she returned the apple to the bowl. She sent a resigned smile to the housekeeper and then headed back towards her room. Settling at the chair by her desk she figured she might as well make a start on her schoolwork if she was spending another night alone.
She pulled out the worksheet that had been handed out in Biology, scanning down to the base of the page where the main assignment for the next few weeks lay in bold. It was a class presentation, working in pairs on a topic of their choice from the textbook. Caitlyn groaned, group projects were an unnecessary and completely pointless task in her mind. She always ended up having to do all the work alone anyway, her peers merely a deadweight she had to lug around. The note added that they would be assigned partners and notified on the school’s online webportal.
Grabbing her laptop from the pile, she flipped it open and logged on. Clicking on the new messages tab she downloaded the file and scanned through looking for her name. Seeing her assigned partner, she kicked out in frustration swearing as her foot connected with the hard oak leg of the desk.
Of course she would get paired with the kid who had just gotten themselves suspended. Bloody brilliant. She opened the class chat and scrolled down until she hit Vi’s name. Opening a private chat, she wrote out a message before getting herself comfortable and waiting for a response
To: VL516
From: CK275
Hey,
We’ve been paired for the biology presentation. I don’t know if you got the assignment, but I’ve attached a copy to this message if not. It’s due in a couple of weeks so I think it would be good if we could meet up sometime this week to pick a topic and sort out a place/time to work on it. My number is 07874365245 if that’s easier.
Caitlyn (Kiramman as you are seemingly incapable of using my first name).
After half an hour she gave up and lowered the laptop screen. There was no point waiting all night, most people didn’t check the school portal with any frequency. Still feeling frustrated, she paced across her bedroom trying to find some way to burn the agitation itching under her skin. She pulled out her phone, flicking through the music she had uploaded, scrolling and humming over the options. She immediately flicked past the classical music her mother insisted she listened to for high society events. It wasn’t that Caitlyn disliked the genre; she actually liked a bunch of the pieces but the fact they were her mother’s choice left a bad taste in her mouth.
Suddenly finding a song that felt appropriate she connected her phone to the large speakers on her desk. Walking over to the ornate window that looked over the front of the estate, she flung the pane up as high as it would go, eagerly leaning out the window and grinning when she spied their doorman, Frank, by the main entrance. She pulled herself back in, moving to the speakers and setting the volume to full before grabbing an empty rifle case off the floor. Was it crass? Sure. Was it cliché? Definitely. Would it make her feel better? Maybe?
Selecting ‘Bad Reputation’ by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts she jumped onto her bed with the case in hand and waited for the guitar to kick in. Strumming along with one hand while wildly moving her other hand along the faux fret, she banged her head to the beat and grinned as the base pulsed through the furniture in the room. She sang along to the words she knew by heart, adding some extra hand gestures and kicks for flair. At the second chorus she jumped from the bed, screaming the lyrics at the top of her lungs, still easily drowned out by the music blaring from the speakers. She sang along for both the backing and main vocals, spinning on the spot at the key shift and watching herself in the mirror, grinning at her reflection. As the guitar solo began, she scrunched her eyes shut and lifted the case up, strumming furiously at the imaginary guitar before kicking at a bunch of papers and readying herself for the return of the vocals. She swiped her water bottle from the desk, using it as a microphone while also banging her head furiously to the beat. Discarding her bottle for the final refrain, she pulled back the rifle case and continued her air guitar performance.
As the music cut off, she stood panting in the middle of the room, bowing to the imaginary audience that were clearly thrilled with the performance. She listened out expectantly for some sort of angry or perturbed voice from the hallway, her shoulders slumping and face dropping as she was just met with silence. Throwing the empty case to one side she ran over and threw her torso through the open window. The night was still, no reaction from the neighbours and Frank was still stood calmly by the door. Huffing she slapped her palms on the wooden sill in frustration before leaning back in and slamming the frame shut, glaring at the glass pane as it wobbled from the impact.
Almost more exasperated than before, she picked up her car keys and threw on a hoodie before heading out the door. She threw her hood up as she stalked out the mansion, merely grunting at Frank as the older man warmly greeted her. She stopped several feet away from a sleek silver Audi S3 parked between the two divots where her parent’s cars usually sat. It was a ridiculous thing, even the dealer had raised an eyebrow when her mother and father had brought her into the showroom mere moments after passing her test. All told it was a nice car, but it wasn’t what Caitlyn would choose for herself and was another in a long list of gifts designed to appease the Kiramman heir. It was her parents’ way of trying to compensate for their late nights and long weekends working. Unsurprisingly it didn’t help Caitlyn feel any better when she was faced with eating dinner in the massive dining room all alone for the fourth time that week.
She ripped open the driver’s side door, starting the engine and revving it loudly before skidding the wheels on the gravel. She was almost immediately forced to slam on the brakes as the automatic gates at the end of the drive took their own sweet time to fully open. As soon as there was a gap large enough to pass through, she put her foot on the accelerator and sped out into the night. The streets were usually quiet at this time of day and while Caitlyn sometimes merely did circuits of the city in a bid to unwind, she had a different location in mind tonight. Sighing as the light from the streetlamps ran over the cabin, she turned towards the forest and hills on the southern side of town.
Here the roads were narrower and windier, the extra driving skill required helping to distract her from the feeling gnawing at her gut. Eventually the streetlamps petered out and the only light was the bright headlights of her car, snaking up between the trees. She smiled as she saw her turn, a small dirt track leading into a gravel car park. As she pulled in, she took a moment to admire the old, dilapidated radio tower that clung to the hill’s peak before rolling the car to the edge, killing the engine and stepping out of the cabin. Since the tower shut down twenty years ago the place had become abandoned, the only life being the stoners and/or street racers that would come up the hill for their own purposes from time to time. Tonight, the car park was empty, not a hint of another person anywhere to be found.
The car park sat high above the city, the sharp cliff it was perched on top of allowing an unobstructed view across the wide valley below. On a clear day you could see all the way to the distant mountain peaks that marked the border of the county. Caitlyn saw the mountains as a challenge, promising herself that one day she would cross through one of the passes and explore what lay on the other side.
Easing herself up onto the bonnet, she laid herself carefully back against the windscreen ignoring the city laid out below in favour of looking up at the sky. Sunset had been a while ago, so that the stars were slowly materialising out of the inky black expanse. She took a deep sigh, fighting off the chill from the metal and glass beneath her and set about picking out the constellations. It helped to know there was something bigger out there, a whole universe where people didn’t know her name and everything of importance was lost amongst the stardust.
Somehow it made her feel less lonely. To be out under a million stars rather than in a dark mansion all by herself. And Caitlyn Kiramman would do almost anything to not feel alone.