WHAT: Vi and Cait discuss their future ward and what it means WHERE: Morningside Apartments WHEN: Backdated to Wednesday, Oct. 26th WARNINGS: None STATUS: Complete
Caitlyn had never been all that comfortable in the kitchen. Not that she was incapable of turning on an oven or working over something on the stove - she just never really needed to? It was a bit cringe to admit, but growing up they had staff in the house responsible for meals and she was always quite busy between schooling, helping Jayce (a short-lived run thanks to almost getting blown up), the extracurriculars. As an adult she was mostly out of the house anyway, working, and learning the ropes was not necessary or a priority.
Despite having their own kitchen in Vallo all she did was the bare minimum, while it was well-equipped with snacks she and Vi had gotten spoiled with this place’s culinary diversity and all the ways it could be delivered to their apartment (via speedster, or a magic portal, or some regular delivery service without any advantages). It worked well for them.
Now there was a child living with them. Temporarily.
Or perhaps permanently, in the future?
Not just any child, either. Plenty of people had children they were to have down the road suddenly show up. It’s happened before, and Caitlyn did her best to roll with it except she and Vi didn’t have a child that would call them their mothers. They had Jinx. Wait, no, apologies.
They had Powder.
Powder, who was tiny and delicate like a bird, with her big eyes and curious nature. Somewhere down the line she appeared in Vallo, and they had taken her in to raise her and when time displaced her here she had greeted Caitlyn with such familiarity that she was sure this had to be a dream. This was the same person who has tried to kill her, who has kidnapped her. Right?
Alas, the answer wasn’t that black or white.
Now she was attempting grilled cheese over the stove (trying to find the perfect balance between melting the cheese and not charring the bread) while Vi and Ji–Powder played Mario Kart in the living room. Her eyes would lift from the pan to them every few seconds, drinking in the sight. It was… sweet.
Clearing her throat, Caitlyn plated the final sandwich and was relieved to know that they didn’t look like they had burnt in hell. “Ah, Powder? Do you prefer crusts or no crusts?”
Two voices started to answer simultaneously. "Vander says-" before they realized they were speaking at the same time and the answer broke into giggles for one and a belly laugh for the other. Vi gave Powder a soft elbow to encourage her to take the question and the younger sister piped up. "Vander says crusts make strong muscles. So, crusts pl-- VI THAT'S CHEATING!!"
"Hey, you're the one who let yourself get distracted," answered Vi, smiling determinedly as she swerved her cart into the lead after a well-placed red shell. What she wasn't saying was it was rough enough having practiced this damn game and her little sister was already some kind of savant at it.
This, of course, was nothing compared to how happy she was to get, she didn't know, some kind of second chance with her sister? To appreciate what they had more instead of thinking that excluding her would protect her or losing her temper or or or, so many ors. She already knew it was completely weird for Cait. And the others, yeah, of course. But if they could just see that her sister wasn't a monster… at least not always.
It’s as if they were different people. Which, yes, now that Caitlyn thought about it she realized how utterly stupid that sounded, too - she was more than aware of how Vi’s childhood was shit, and the two sisters obviously had shared trauma and then eventually went in different directions with more trauma. Powder’s life was unscathed by the accidental death of childhood friends. She had her sister. She had a chance void of Zaun.
Now it was their responsibility to help her become someone better. Or it would be their responsibility, eventually. This was not a bad thing. This was just one of those oh, it’s a lot things. Cait knew it was best to cease all the overthinking for the sake of her sanity.
“Crust it is,” she smiled, arranging some chips and apple slices (had to have fruit in there somewhere) on the plates. Caitlyn brought them over and settled them onto the coffee table. “Pause on the playing to please eat something. Then I’m joining in as the third player.”
When she sat down, she sat next to Powder, the awe of her being here still sinking in. God, she was adorable. “What meals are you used to us serving you? I wouldn’t mind a… guideline, I suppose, for groceries while you’re here. I want to make sure we’ve got things you like.”
When Powder smiled, Vi elbowed her again. "I know that smile. This isn't a chance for you to make things up to get a bunch of--." Vi stopped and raised an eyebrow, like she just realized she was acting like Vander or just a parent in general, maybe. "Uh, who am I kidding, I'd be happy to live on tacos and pizza, myself."
Powder, in turn, gave Vi a very similar look and rolled her eyes. "I really like chicken nuggets. And french fries. And cheeseburgers. And pizza! Can we have pizza tonight?" At least that's what it sounded like she was saying, as she spoke through chewing her grilled cheese. Meanwhile, Vi picked up an extra controller and moved to snuggle up next to Caitlyn. Fuck, had she ever been this happy? It felt so alien, when she let herself soak it in.
She shook her head to get rid of those thoughts and passed the controller to Cait. "Maybe loser buys?"
Caitlyn wasn’t going to be controlling over junk food here. Would she prefer there be some options with a little more nutritional sustenance? Sure, and she hoped the older versions of Caitlyn and Vi were more conscious of decisions surrounding that but this Caityln and Vi would do their best. This was temporary. Everything goes.
“Loser buys,” she agreed, smirking at Vi with confidence that suggested it was not going to be her dishing out the funds for this. Caitlyn was pretty good with video games; she had the patience for them, didn’t lose her cool or go into a vulgar frenzy at getting blue shelled or anything. “Question is if we’re ordering it for delivery, or we can go out? They have some activities for Halloween we can probably do too. If that’s - have we celebrated Halloween with you yet?”
She had some questions and didn’t want to outright ask as if she was interrogating Powder, so slipping them conversationally seemed to be the angle she was working with.
"Once, a few months ago," answered Powder, reaching for a sip of her juice to wash down the sandwich she'd crammed into her mouth. "That means two really close together, this time travel stuff is really cool! Is Rizzo's open yet? They do Halloween pizzas!"
Vi looked blank for a second and responded first. "No Rizzo's that I know of, yet. I'm sure we can figure something out, though." But that told her that Powder was them in the future for less than a year, so that meant she must've been pulled from her own timeline before everything went to absolute shit back in Zaun, because there was no way she'd be able to adjust this quickly. It'd been the better part of a decade now and Vi still had vivid dreams of that night, even. She was pretty sure that was what broke Powder in the first place, Silco just nurtured it instead of helping. And it was Vi's fault.
Thinking back to all that caused some worried expressions to cross Vi's face, but she played it off by looking over at Cait. "We can figure something out, right?"
Caitlyn knew that face. She hoped Powder wouldn’t notice. “Of course,” she promised, reaching over to squeeze Vi’s arm. What Halloween pizzas even looked like, she hadn’t a clue - but Vallo liked its celebrations and finding something festive to do while gorging themselves on pizza shouldn’t be too difficult. “We will figure something out - with costumes. Powder, you should pick them out for us. I don’t think Vi and I had anything specific in mind.”
This could either be a great idea or terrible one. Caitlyn wasn’t sure - she was simply doing her best to make sure Powder was involved and included so her awkwardness about this entire situation wouldn’t be that obvious.
Powder perked right up at the idea that she could decide on the costumes. "Vi, you can be Frankenstein's Monster! And Caitlyn, you'd be a great Witch!" She immediately ignored her controller, Mario Kart instantly forgotten, as she jumped up and ran to grab some paper and a few colored pencils that they'd picked up earlier in the day. "I'll sketch some costume ideas!"
Vi had zero clue what a Frankenstein was, but the word Monster sounded pretty cool so she nodded at the idea. "I'll look into Halloween Pizzas while you're doing that, Powpow." Then she kind of nodded towards the kitchen at Caitlyn. "And one of those hot witches, not the warty ones." That got her a look and a shrug from Powder, who went right back to her drawing.
“I can be a warty witch,” Caitlyn corrected and had her face hidden behind her hands. It was to hide the grin Vi caused, and to maybe stop herself from letting out a giggle. If Powder wanted to design their costumes then that was perfect. It made the whole thing a lot more personal.
But while she was busy sketching, it gave her the opportunity to take Vi by the hand and maybe just - step away from the genius doing her work for a moment there. “Did not picture a future where we would raise your sister,” she said lightly, making sure to keep her voice quiet. They hadn’t talked about kids. Ever, come to think about it. Their relationship was still new but also felt so very natural, and she could feel that Vi was a forever thing. “You’re so… good with her, Vi.”
Glad that Caitlyn understood what she meant by the nod, Vi let herself be led away with a mock look of dismay at being contradicted. She ducked her head at the question, with a ghost of the smile still on her lips. "Yeah, it's crazy to think about. Maybe Vallo is giving her a second chance. Or giving me one. I don't want to waste it, Cait. Maybe this is a sneak peek, I don't care."
She leaned an elbow against the wall to slacken her posture, stealing a glance back at Powder hard at work on her sketches. This was Caitlyn's chance to see the non-malicious, non-taunty stuff that her sister could draw, right? Yeah. "I've got a chance to make right some of my regrets, I think. How many times are we going to have opportunities to fix our mistakes? … fuck, I'm talking too much, aren't I?"
“You were a child too, Vi,” Caitlyn reminded softly, trailing a hand delicately down her girlfriend’s arm. “You’re too hard on yourself for so many things that were not in your control.”
They were victims of their circumstance and society, and while Jinx (in her opinion) was too far gone to have any hopes for redemption, there was hope for Powder. It wouldn’t be right to hold the crimes of her older self over this little one’s head, and Caitlyn vowed to consciously fight the knee-jerk reaction to do so. That was cruel and unfair.
It was an adjustment that she surely had to go through in the future too, but she knew herself well enough that she would accept the circumstance and make the best of it. Giving a child the chance for a better future was hardly a burden.
“Keep seeing it as a second chance, and not as something to fix the past,” she urged on. “Because you can’t fix it. But you can help shape her life to be better here and I really like the chance to do that with you. Since - well, we haven’t discussed kids and I think it’s probably too soon and I don’t know if you ever…” Caitlyn frowned, stopping herself from the awkward rambling. “I’m sorry. What I mean say is that I’m all in - with whatever comes our way.”
Vi knew Caitlyn was right, about all of it, but her brain didn't want to agree - telling that trying to control things was what made it worse, or that she was the big sister and the leader, so she was responsible even for things she didn't control. And she lost her temper, if that hadn't happened, they wouldn't have been separated. Powder wouldn't have ended up with Silco. Or they might both be dead. "You're right, I know," she answered.
But the rest of what Caitlyn had said meant more to her than anything else. She wanted to look forward, not backward. And Caitlyn wanted to be a part of that - it wasn't just some hot babe fling. They just… fit. "I want to marry you so hard right now," she added, winking and tightening her grip on Caitlyn's hand. "But first, do you even know what a Halloween pizza is? Because I seem to have promised to figure it out."
Caitlyn made a funny nose. It was some mortified mix of a snort and squeak with the faintest flush of pink to her cheeks. “I have no idea what Halloween pizza is,” she confirmed, bringing Vi in close to press a kiss to her forehead. She had the height advantage for it. “I’ll Google it and see if I can find something similar around here for dinner. But, for the record...”
Her hands went up to cradle Vi’s face, and the next kiss was to her lips. She may have been a little stuck on the marry you so hard comment that had her mind whirling and it warranted affection. “I love you so very hard right now.”
All the rough edges and scars and ink made Vi look so intimidating, but she was so soft and Caitlyn liked seeing those parts of her. Having Powder brought more of it out, and it was a good look on her.
It's a good thing Vi couldn't read minds, because she'd have several things to say about being soft - even if it was accurate, damn it. But even then, she was a bit distracted by the declaration and the kisses, so she stole a few more in answer. She never thought she'd have something like this, any of it. A kind of job, an actual healthy relationship (or any, honestly), a clean place to live, honest income, and her sister..? If this was a dream, she'd fight tooth and nail to stay asleep.
After answering with a few stronger kisses that might've led to something far more interesting if an eleven-year-old wasn't maybe twenty feet away, Vi forced herself to step back and nod. It was as if confirming to herself that she had successfully managed to will herself back to regular Vi. "If it has pumpkin on it, I'll still try it. But it doesn't sound great."
“Could you imagine pumpkin-spiced pizza?” Caitlyn chuckled, placing one final kiss to Vi’s nose. Chaste kisses only. They had plenty of opportunity to indulge in the not-so-chaste kissing after this whole time fiasco finally righted itself. “Let’s go see what she’s got planned for us costume-wise. You know we’ll have to go shopping now, right?”
She was looking forward to it. She wasn’t looking forward to having to explain the whole Powder-Jinx thing to everyone else but that was a worry for later. Vi deserved this time with her sister without any added stressors.
Vi shrugged to answer both questions. "I like this kind of shopping. Costume shops tend to have cool shit to look at. And we can maybe find this Halloween pizza while we're out, or ask the employees if they know anything about them." Vi stopped and snorted her own laugh. "Yeah or maybe this Rizzo works there and this is where he gets the idea."
Still chuckling at her own time joke, Vi strolled back into the living area intent on peeking over Powder's shoulder to see what she'd come up with. Chances are there'd be some creative solutions in place, but she knew her sister had a lot of talent at design (for good or ill, unfortunately). Stay good, Powpow.