Chapter Text
Vi loved running. After spending so many years in the confined spaces of a group home, she appreciated every muscle cramp and every gust of wind messing up her bangs. Running in the morning, running in the gym, running in the park, running into trees and getting stitches in the fucking face because of tall girls who ran by her in tight shirts. Vi especially loved running from her problems.
What Vi hated was running after her dog in the snow. Blondie was very well-behaved for a dog whose owner had absolutely no authority over her, but when winter came, the 8-year-old golden retriever was suddenly a puppy again.
Vi was practically skidding behind the leash, slipping and sliding on the icy pavement of the riverside winter market. Thanks to her puffiest puffer coat, bumping into other last-minute Christmas shoppers wasn't a violent affair, just incredibly embarrassing for a muscular 30-year-old.
“B!” Vi yelled, pulling on the leash to at least try to stir her four-legged daughter towards their original destination: the discount craft store at the end of the lane.
She could practically hear Jinx in her ear telling her that that dog needed training and Vi was either a cheap bitch or a damn pushover.
As if Isha didn't spoil Blondie with treats all the time.
“Blondie!” Vi tried again, digging her heels in and getting no traction on the compacted snow. Her boots were made to look butch, not break ice.
Then, her boots became the least of her problems.
It all happened so fast. A tall woman with long, dark hair came out of the cutesy bakery a mere moment after Blondie passed her like a bullet. Vi wasn't lucky enough to pass her. The collision was loud.
The puffer coat absorbed most of the damage, but the woman's heels were obviously made to look femme, not break ice. She pinwheeled in the air when her legs gave out from under her.
Vi caught her in both hands—she was a washed-up volleyball star, after all—and they ended up twirling with Blondie's leash tangling them even closer. So now she listens, Vi cursed her dog in her mind.
It wasn't often that Vi literally ran into tall women, and her brain force-started emergency shutdown. She looked up into the woman's face and opened her mouth to apologize, but nothing came out.
She remembered those blue eyes. She remembered this silky ponytail. She remembered the fancy smell of Topside laundry. This close to the river, the cold winter air was burning her cheeks, but she felt very warm.
Vi had sex with this woman. Shorter hair and none of her chic winter layers, but yes, last summer, Vi saw this woman naked.
Like two arrows straight through the heart, curious blue eyes told Vi that this woman did not remember her own gray eyes or pink undercut or the smell of her sweat.
Caitlyn didn't recognize her at all.
Not a shocker. One, Vi was buried in a wool scarf and beanie. Two, Caitlyn Kiramman fucked.
Even during the lesbian pool party they'd hooked up at, all of Vi's friends and even some of Caitlyn's told her not to get caught in that sexy web. Caitlyn was some rich eccentric CEO workaholic who ‘didn’t do feelings’. Vi managed to behave herself for twenty minutes before her mouth got her into trouble.
And then Caitlyn ghosted her three hours later. And now they were literally tangled together with their hearts hammering against each other.
Vi looked down, realizing that their chests weren't fully touching because there was the corpse of a cupcake smushed between them.
“My dog, I… shit!” Vi finally managed to speak, taking a big step back. Caitlyn's tan cashmere scarf looked expensive under all that frosting.
Caitlyn pulled an actual for real kerchief out of her messenger bag and started dabbing at her beautiful chest urgently. “It is not the dog's fault,” she huffed.
Her accent was doing some heavy lifting for her personality, it seemed.
Vi rolled her eyes, kneeling to pull the curious Blondie back to her hip like a good girl. “Might even be your fault, cupcake. You're giving off black cat energy.”
Caitlyn just barely almost kind of smiled. It was like the prettiest double rainbow hiding just under a cloud. Vi would do anything to make her laugh, if she didn't know better.
“I have tamed a few strays, darling,” Caitlyn said with fluttering lashes. Then she bent at the waist and pointed a finger in front of Blondie. With her whole beautiful chest, she said, “Sit. Oh, good girl.”
Blondie not only obeyed—she started giving Caitlyn that dumb adorable golden retriever smile. Vi's right hand tightened on the leash, subtly trying to remind her dog not to be so openly gay in this economy. Trying to remind herself she wouldn't like to be called a good girl by this one.
Caitlyn lifted her other hand in front of Blondie, and Vi noticed that she was holding something. The plastic bag was clear apart from the logo of the discount craft store at the end of the lane.
Vi would usually not be caught dead on the Midtown side of the bridge on a weekend, but Jinx got a tip on the hot mommy Discord about this very item, and so Vi braved the snow and the crowds. For her foster niece.
“No fucking way,” Vi muttered, looking at a discount kid's paint-by-numbers watercolor kit with a steampunk blimp design. AKA three of Isha’s obsessions for the (discount) price of one.
“Tell me that's not the last one,” Vi said, frowning hard enough that her lip ring touched her nose ring. It was kind of her signature face when she had to talk to Pilties who ghosted her.
“Wot?” Caitlyn asked, folding her little kerchief up.
Vi pointed an angry mitten at the bag hanging from Caitlyn's gloved wrist. “I’m gonna need that.”
Caitlyn arched a sexy eyebrow. “I’m sorry, are you literally mugging me?”
“I…” Vi shook her head. “I need it more than you. And it's Christmas! Aren't you people all philanthropists?”
“My people?” Caitlyn scoffed, her gorgeous eyes narrowing nastily. “What makes you think I don't need it more than you?”
“Ya got a tiny niece?”
Caitlyn bit her lip. “Worse. An ex.”
Oh. Of course. Seasons changed, and so did pretty single girls who claimed to be too busy with work for a relationship. “A grown woman who's really into paint-by-numbers and blimps?”
“It’s an airship, actually, the hull is clearly metal,” Caitlyn argued, flexing a lot of neurodivergence at once. “And I'll have you know paint-by-numbers is not just for children.”
Ding ding ding.
“So you bought a gift for yourself?” Vi assessed, crouching to stop her dog from eating snow—and to be close enough to the gift bag that mugging would still be on the table.
“No, it's for… a delicate situation. A woman whom I found out got me diamond earrings for Christmas.” Caitlyn huffed again. “I mean, who does that for a hookup?!”
Vi blinked at the part-time airship nerd full-time biggest player in Midtown. “You're saying she's more into you than you're into her?”
“Precisely,” Caitlyn said in frustration. “I need a present that says I'm letting you down easy for the office gift exchange.”
Vi blinked at her more aggressively. “Holy shit, you fucked someone from the office?”
Caitlyn looked down so fast her ponytail bobbed.
“Holy shit, is she your boss? Are you her boss?” Vi gasped.
Caitlyn’s scowl was terrifying. “We signed a contract!”
The paint-by-numbers kit didn't offer any advice when Vi looked at the bag again. She sighed. “You might actually need it more than me.”
“Oh, don't be ridiculous,” Caitlyn said, pushing the bag into Vi's shocked hands. “Please, give it to your niece. It’s good optics for my philanthropy.”
Caitlyn smirked at her, so fucking pleased with her own joke. The sun was setting behind her, hitting the frizzy, snowy halo of her gorgeous hair under her fuzzy white earmuffs. Vi had the dumbest, gayest thought she ever had (and that's a long history of dumb and gay): I can fix her.
Vi took the kit before this crazy rich mongoose had a change of heart. “Thanks. How much do I owe ya?”
“Oh, don't worry about it,” Caitlyn said easily, removing the ruined scarf, under which she wore an identically chic and expensive black turtleneck.
“I'm not looking for charity, Topside.”
“It's not. It's an IOU.”
“You think I owe you something?!”
Out of nowhere, Caitlyn leaned into Vi's ear, just barely caressing the shell of it with her soft lips. “I think you remember.”
It was summer all over again. In Vi's panties, at least. A shock of heat went through her when she remembered getting a taste of that cupcake during the pool party. Then ruining it.
“I don't understand. After all that, you won't let me get you off?”
“It's not you, Cait. I just… don't really do that with strangers.”
The door slamming shut behind Caitlyn when she’d left.
Of course she remembered. Since then, it had been nothing but ice on the rare occasion they locked eyes out in dyke society. Vi never even thought about her, while also thinking about her almost every day and growing a mullet.
Yeah, Vi fucking remembered. The best sex of her life, and the most painful rejection. IOU? Debt paid, as far as she was concerned.
Keeping the damn free present for Isha, she turned around and called for Blondie to get going.
Vi left the riverside market, knowing full well that Caitlyn would forget about her as soon as she turned the corner.
*
Caitlyn had been obsessed with Violet for three years now. They didn't know each other at all, but the Midtown lesbian scene was small to begin with, and their best friends had been dating on and off for almost a decade.
They had a lot of secondhand contact over the years. They went to the same parties. Caitlyn stalked Vi on Instagram. She listened in on conversations hoping to catch a dirty joke. She changed from Pilates to CrossFit. She donated a small fortune to the nonprofit Vi worked for. She did everything except actually talk to her, because Vi made her fucking nervous.
Vi had a good heart, and Caitlyn was a vampire. Vi was an open, loving person who made everyone in her orbit feel like family, and Caitlyn hadn't expressed an emotion since the night of her mum's accident.
Then there was the pool party, and Caitlyn had just dumped a girl and drank too much and actually seduced Butch Dreamboat Violet—only to be rejected immediately after.
Which, of course, only made Vi more attractive to Caitlyn. And much more dangerous. She never intended to talk to her again, until a random golden retriever shibari’d them together.
And yet, when Mel barged into Caitlyn's office without knocking on Monday, she found her lying flat on her couch scrolling through Vi's Instagram.
Caitlyn immediately covered her phone with her huge Hexreader and pretended she was reading The Manuscript, but Mel had a truly magical bullshit radar. She crossed her arms and leaned on Caitlyn's doorway, jingling all the way.
Mel's penchant for gold accents was shared only by Christmas tree ornaments, so naturally, Mel was in charge of all the winter holiday celebrations in the office. She looked the part, wrapped in tinsel and wearing tiny bells on her earrings.
“Ms. Kiramman,” she said, her usual air of smug amusement already ticking Caitlyn off. “Is there a reason you're not at your own holiday gift exchange?”
“Oh, it's terribly awkward when the CEO shows up,” Caitlyn attempted, just like she'd practiced when she ran into her office without meeting Maddie's eye. “I'm sure everyone will have a better time without me.”
“Right,” Mel examined the points of her three-inch nails. “So you lied to me.”
“What on Earth?”
Mel put on a very droll voice and directly quoted, “Please Mel, tell me what Maddie bought for me, it's only so I know what to give her back, I promise I won't overreact—”
“I am not! Overreacting!” Caitlyn cut her off, gesturing to her prone position on the dark blue couch. “I'm not reacting at all. If anything, this is me underreacting.”
Mel rolled her eyes. “This is you hiding in a book, asking me to clean up your mess. Again.”
“Darling, this is Kiramman Archives. Hiding in books is our job.”
“Darling, I need you to give an inspiring speech to the staff or my mother will take it upon herself,” Mel threatened. “Maddie won't—wait, didn't I send you to buy her something unsexy at the riverside market?”
“And I did. But then I got mugged.”
Mel's eyes widened in alarm. She finally slipped into Caitlyn's office, but maintained the Casual Lean© against her desk. “Are you okay? Is the mugger okay? Did you lay someone out?”
Caitlyn groaned, laying the Hexreader back on her chest, on top of her phone. “No, I practically let her mug me.”
Mel smirked. “Her? So someone did get laid?”
“Don't be absurd,” Caitlyn huffed, not exactly beating the fuckboi allegation. “It was Violet, of all fucking people. You know, Sevika's—”
“Caitlyn, please. You know I know you know who Vi Nealy is.”
She had exactly one moment to make indignant eyebrow gestures before Mel used her three-inch talons to pluck the Hexreader off Caitlyn, revealing her phone.
It was still replaying a 2015 video of Vi serving a volleyball so hard she won a point barely two seconds into the run.
Caught with her hand in the lesbian cookie jar, Caitlyn grabbed her phone and held it far away from Mel. She was faster than her, but Mel had no boundaries, climbing on the couch to snatch the phone.
“Stop! You're going to damage the manuscript!” Caitlyn squeaked, not letting up on her phone.
“Bitch, no one cares about the 1985 Zaun miner's strike! Release your phone!”
Caitlyn kicked up, kneeing Mel's tit, but Mel used the momentum to launch herself on Caitlyn's chest and steal the phone.
They both heard the ping at the same time.
Caitlyn howled, pushing Mel to the carpet and taking her phone back. The damage was done. One of them accidentally liked Vi's video from 2015.
“Oh. My god.”
Mel had the nerve to smirk at her, adjusting her tinkling earrings. “Good.”
So maybe it wasn't accidental. Caitlyn went partially blind with rage. “Good?! She'll think I'm stalking her!”
“Weren't you?”
Mel took Caitlyn's wrist and helped her off the couch and to her feet. “That's besides—”
“Is it? You understand that Vi is the only person who doesn't know you're obsessed with her, yes? My mother knows. Your girlfriend knows.”
“Maddie is not my girlfriend, we signed a contract,” Caitlyn repeated. “You know I'm too busy for a relationship.”
“Good, come to the lounge and tell her that,” Mel said, pulling Caitlyn towards the door.
Caitlyn dug her heels into the carpet, pointing her phone at Mel desperately. “Obviously I can't now! How do I damage control the like?”
“DM her. Ask her out. Stop pretending you don't have any wants and needs just because of… the accident.”
Mel's eyes softened while her back straightened, getting into protective speech pose. Five minutes ago Caitlyn wouldn't have dreamt of going to the gift exchange empty-handed, but at the threat of being emotionally vulnerable with her best friend, Caitlyn found herself hauling ass to the lounge.
Nothing could be as awkward as staying alone with her thoughts. That was how she got in the Maddie situation in the first place, after all.
*
“Huh.”
Vi said it mostly to herself, one eye on her pinging phone and another on the wrapping paper she was cutting with a pair of kid friendly scissors.
She honestly didn't think Jinx would hear her over the metal Christmas playlist that traditionally accompanied wrapping day.
“What is it, Fat Hands?” Jinx asked gruffly. Her booted feet were on the table, and she used one to poke Vi's arm.
Vi shook her sister off, grunting. “Nothing.”
“It ain't nothing, or you wouldn't be fucking up that wrapping paper. I thought scissoring was the one thing you're good at?”
Vi sighed. The last person she scissored gave her the present she was currently wrapping. The last person she scissored wasn't looking for a girlfriend.
She pumped the scissors in the air, making threatening noises close to Jinx's shoelaces. “I said, it's nothing.”
“It's a girl, isn't it?” Jinx sighed. “Goddamn it, sis.”
“It's just a weird alert on Insta!” Vi dropped the scissors and made a point of turning her phone facedown on the carpet. “I don't even know a K8 LN!”
Jinx had spent the last twenty minutes painstakingly wrapping her present for Ekko, a dorky science-y tool thing Vi wouldn't know from a sonic screwdriver. At Vi's denial, Jinx threw it carelessly at her sister's face.
“Holy—” Vi caught it just before it broke her nose. “Pow!”
“You're an addict! You're addicted to emotionally constipated mean girls taking advantage of you.”
Vi wanted to yell back and defend her honor, but their repaired relationship hinged on honesty above all else. After everything Vi had been through, she knew how to be real with herself. “I like them mean.”
“Duh-doy. That's why you're still living with me.”
Vi tsked. “And social workers make shitty money.”
“You've been doing alright since that grant came in,” Jinx argued. “It's time to wife up, girl. In 2025, you're gonna stop answering every DM.”
Vi hesitated. Of course she did. Her track record spoke for itself—super short relationships followed by super long mourning periods. She was a sucker for a doomed romance. (Vi gave so much of her love to her sister and all the foster kids she worked with that she never saved any for herself.)
Maybe it was time to grow up. Maybe in 2025, she would look for love in the right places instead of in a woman who couldn't wait to leave her.
“If I ignore this DM, will I get an extra present?” Vi questioned, making puppy eyes.
Jinx made gagging noises. “This is exactly the kinda desperate behavior we need to work on.”
Vi threw Ekko’s present back at her sister's face.
And the DM from the mysterious K8 LN was left on read.