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The first time Commander Caitlyn Kiramman coughs up flower petals was during a meeting with the Piltover Trade Union. She had been feeling a sort of tickle at the very bottom of her throat since that morning and assumed it meant all the sleepless nights were catching up with her.
Only when she brings her hand away does she notice a stain of blood - and three shriveled leaves - laying on her palm.
Purple leaves.
Violets.
She shoots upright, shocking those in attendance.
“Is everything alright, Commander?” the representative asks.
Hastily, she clenches her hand to hide the aberration. “I'm fine. If you don't mind, I need a moment to visit the washroom. I'll leave you in Officer Nolen’s very capable hands.”
Maddie shoots her a concerned look, but otherwise jumps right into place for the negotiations as Caitlyn exits the room without drawing more unneeded attention to herself.
In the nearest bathroom, she stares down at what her lungs had evacuated with a sense of growing horror. How had these found their way inside her body? The only explanation she could think of was having somehow inhaled them by accident, but when could they have occured?
Caitlyn didn't keep violets at home, nor did Maddie ever include them in the bouquets she would sometimes bring over.
And why this flower in particular…?
Sighing, Caitlyn washes her hands of the petals and blood, then rinses her mouth for good measure. Better to just chalk the whole thing up as some odd coincidence and put it behind her.
She returns to the meeting and effortlessly steps back into the role of the dauntless Commander Kiramman. Her mind returns to the incident a few times that day, but otherwise she soon forgets the incident all together.
At least until it happens again.
~~✿~~
The next time she coughs up flowers, it's while making love to Maddie.
Perhaps that wasn't exactly the right term, given that there was no love between them - it was simply sex for the sake of sex. Regardless, Maddie was several knuckles deep inside her when the coughing starts up, wet and raspy.
She hunches over, hacking up air as something forces itself up her throat.
“Cait?” The movement of Maddie's hand had stopped as she looks over in concern. “Are you…?”
The fit ends as soon as she expels the offending substance onto the bedsheets. Instead of a small splatter of blood and some petals, this time it was an entire congealed lump. Just the sight of it horrifies her.
Remembering that Maddie was there, Caitlyn quickly covers the mass with a hand as she turns to face her. “I'm alright. Just something caught in my throat.”
“The same thing happened earlier this week,” Maddie points out. “Maybe you should see a doctor.”
Caitlyn waves her concerns away. “It's nothing to worry about, I promise.” She pretends to be embarrassed. “I am sorry for spoiling the mood.”
“That's alright,” Maddie replies. Still, she sheepishly holds up a hand dripping with arousal. “Let me clean off.”
Taking the chance while she's in the adjacent bathroom, Caitlyn hurriedly removes the expelled substance with a handkerchief. She makes up an excuse to dismiss Maddie for the night, then retreats to her father's office.
Using one of his scalpels, she cuts open the mass to reveal that it was entirely made of flower petals held together by her own hardened blood. With some further prodding, she also discovers what appears to be an entire bloom at the center.
The whole thing unnerves her. For the rest of the night, Caitlyn scours her father's medical texts to determine if such a phenomenon had ever been observed before, only to come up empty. Given the nature of what she was coughing up, it didn't surprise her. The whole thing seemed overly fantastical.
Violets. Again, why those?
Her mind flashes to the image of a woman with reddish-pink hair, which she vigorously attempts to vacate from her head. There was no reason to be thinking about her.
This was all just a coincidence.
~~✿~~
By the third time she coughs up violets, Caitlyn could no longer deny something was wrong with her.
It was only a day after that night with Maddie, waking up from a dreadful nightmare straight into a coughing fit. The pain was so awful that she's momentarily worried her body was actually trying to hack up a lung, and it only stops after she's coughed up a small garden’s worth of bloody petals.
Soon it becomes a disturbing routine - Caitlyn would sense the eruption of more flowers before the coughing fit begins, allowing her to excuse herself if she were in company. Then she would expel her bouquet’s worth of flowers before cleaning up and returning like nothing had been wrong. One week becomes two, then two becomes three.
At one point she's conducting a raid in the Undercity when the telltale signs present themselves. The following cacophony was so bad that for a moment the rest of her team believed she'd been shot, forcing Caitlyn to reassure them with hand gestures as she staggers over to the nearest dark alley and hacks up the entire content of her lungs.
It couldn't go on like this, she knows that. The coughing gets worse, the expulsions bloodier, and those around her start to outwardly worry for her health. She even overhears the cleaning staff joking about someone having a persistent admirer, with all the flower petals they'd find lying around.
She begins to search more esoteric sources for possible information, hoping that perhaps there was a mystical root to this problem of hers - and a solution as well. An old Ionian encyclopedia provides her first clue, containing a reference to ‘the flower illness’. Between her incomplete grasp of the language and the vague description, all this does is confirm to her that she wasn't suffering from some unknown affliction.
That, and a name.
Hanahaki.
Unfortunately, the rest of the Ionian texts she has brought to her office shed no further light on the subject. Aside from the occasional reference to this Hanahaki, there's no information on what caused it or how to get rid of it.
Caitlyn was effectively where she began, only it was getting worse.
After another fruitless day, she gets ready to return home and hopefully just fall asleep without too much of a struggle. As she's leaving, a violent coughing fit sends her rushing to the en-suite bathroom.
Though she doesn't think about it consciously, a part of her wonders if death might prove the only salvation. Was this a curse, she thinks, for what her leadership was doing to Zaun?
Making sure to wipe the blood from her lips, Caitlyn hurries from the office. There hadn't been any news about Jinx in weeks, so no one else had stayed late.
Or rather, she thought there wasn't anyone else up until the moment she nearly runs into Ambessa Medarda.
The Noxian general puts a hand on each of Caitlyn's shoulders to steady her. “Careful now, Child. Move with both your senses and your feet.”
“Apologies,” Caitlyn replies, flustered. “My mind was elsewhere.”
Ambessa's expression was skeptical yet concerned. “I have been growing worried. Your comrades tell me that you've been…ill.”
Frustration flashes in Caitlyn's chest at the idea of essentially being sold out by her subordinates, even if it came from a place of professional concern. “It's nothing. Just something I must have picked up in the Undercity.”
“Is that so…?” Ambessa moves a hand down to the lapel of Caitlyn's uniform, straightening it out. “You need to be careful in such environments.”
“I take precautions.” Truthfully she did no such thing, foregoing the use of a respirator during her unit's excursions. She hasn't needed it her first time in Zaun-
with her
-and didn't feel the need for it now. They hadn't been able to use the Gray since the botched fight with Jinx regardless.
It was obvious Ambessa didn't really believe her, but she chooses not to say anything. Instead, her hand drifts, then squeezes near one of the buttons.
She plucks something and holds it up.
A single violet petal.
Caitlyn almost forgets to breathe, but Ambessa claps her on the arm and offers a tight smile. “Go home, Child. Rest. I promise you will feel better in the morning.”
“...If you say so,” Caitlyn replies, a little weirded out by this brief encounter. She pushes past Ambessa and leaves the Enforcer headquarters towards home.
~~✿~~
But she doesn't rest, instead choosing to scour more of the Kiramman library for information on Hanahaki disease. This time she flips through books her father had brought with him directly from Ionia, works of fiction ranging from novels to illustrated fairy tales.
To her surprise, one book of children's fables contains a story featuring Hanahaki as the central conflict.
The narrative went as such; Once upon a time, a child was born to a family of prestigious knights. By happenstance the kingdom welcomed a princess into the world on the same day, and the two births were seen as a good omen. So the child of knights was promised to the princess as her future protector.
Both children were raised together, instilled with the values they would need to excel in their roles. Despite the differences in their stations they became fast friends, growing more inseparable each year. And on the day they came of age, the knight-to-be swore her life to the princess.
But it didn't take long for the knight to fall in love with their liege, her heart captured by the princess's kindness and beauty. However, she knew a love between them was impossible - one day the princess would marry a prince, and they would be happy together.
So the knight continued to serve.
All while her love grew and grew.
Until one day she began to cough up the most brilliant red flowers.
Caitlyn lowers the book, shocked and disturbed by what she had read. As if confirming her fears, she feels a mass work its way up from her lungs, filling her throat with violets.
Violets.
She coughs for almost a minute straight to expel the petals from her body, leaving them in a bloody pile on the floor.
It hurt so much, more than it ever had before. Because she knew exactly what was wrong with her, what she had been denying all this time until a fucking children's book no longer made it possible.
Her fingers desperately parse through the pages, skimming over whole sections to see how it might end.
The knight resolved to keep this ailment a secret. For nearly a year she stood by the princess's side, quietly bearing the burden of her hidden love.
All while her body continued to produce more and more of those flowers, the fits growing worse until it couldn't be denied that they were killing her.
That this doomed love was killing her.
Caitlyn hunches over as her own illness flares up again, as if activated by these further revelations. The symptoms of her Hanahaki infection were rapidly getting worse in an almost exponential manner. At this rate it would…
She tries to curse, but her mouth was too full of petals to say anything.
Now beyond a shadow of a doubt, Caitlyn knew what her fate was to be.
The flowers were murdering her. Violets would be the death of her.
Violet would be the death of her.
When the door opens and Tobias steps in to check on the disturbance, she's almost relieved to have finally been found out. He rushes over to his daughter, eyes flitting between the open storybook, the bloody pile of violets on the ground, and the sight of Caitlyn on her knees.
He'd always been an intelligent man, and so he puts the pieces together in seconds.
“Oh Caitlyn, darling,” Tobias mutters. He runs a hand comfortingly across her back, helping her to cough up what was left. “That's it, get it all out.”
Somehow she wasn't surprised that he could take this in such stride - Ionia had always been a land of magic, no matter how much Piltover tried to suppress any trace of the Arcane.
“How long have you been suffering?” he asks once she'd regained enough of her breath back.
Caitlyn wipes the blood from her mouth and sighs. “...Over a month.”
“Gods, then the symptoms are progressing rapidly,” Tobias says. His eyes fall back on the flowers. “At this stage, the growths…”
He says what sounds like an Ionian prayer under his breath.
“I don't know what to do,” Caitlyn admits.
Tobias reaches for the book and flips through the pages until he stops on an illustration of the knight kissing the princess.
“The disease is caused by unrequited love. Therefore curing it requires the inverse.”
In which case she was dead, Caitlyn realizes. A ragged laugh escapes her sore throat, the first since Cassandra's murder.
“She's gone, Papa. I struck her and left her to rot in the Undercity. Just because I love… She hates me.”
“You don't-”
“I do,” Caitlyn interrupts. “This is my punishment for becoming a monster.”
Tobias looks as though he wants to argue against what his daughter was saying, but he hesitates first. “...Hanahaki isn't untreatable. It is known in Ionia and Demacia that a combination of surgery and magic could remove the infestation.”
Closing her eyes, Caitlyn sighs. “There must be a catch.”
“Yes… supposedly you lose the ability to love.”
Caitlyn can't help from laughing again. Of course that was the price to be paid - she was already heartless, so why not make it literal. The universe truly had an ironic sense of humor.
Perhaps the worst part was that she couldn't even blame the woman responsible. It was all her own fault.
“I doubt we have the resources for such a procedure here in Piltover,” she says. “And I will not leave the city while a terrorist runs amok.”
“Then you will…”
“I don't know,” Caitlyn replies. “All I can really do is hold on for as long as possible.”
Tobias nods, visibly despondent. Realizing just how much emotional pain her father must be in, Caitlyn reaches out to hold his hand.
They sit on the floor together, sharing comfort through a touch without saying anything out loud. Caitlyn feels some twinges of guilt at how little she'd seen of Tobias since becoming Piltover's Commander - how much had he been struggling while she left him in an empty house day after day? There were a thousand different excuses, but they were the only family either had left.
And what did she have to show for it? Jinx was no closer to being caught, the Undercity burned with rebellion, and the love she had shattered was quite literally killing her.
Another burst of violets force her into a nasty coughing fit, which Tobias tries to help her through.
“It's probably for the best that we aren't in Noxus,” he says as if trying to lighten the mood. “Apparently their version of the Hanahaki story ends with the afflicted killing the one they love, so as to cure themselves.”
“...What?” Caitlyn asks.
Tobias scoffs and shakes his head. “I dislike disparaging other cultures, but it is rather fitting for them.”
Only she wasn't listening anymore, pushing herself upright and onto her feet in a daze.
“Go home, Child. Rest. I promise you will feel better in the morning.”
Ambessa had plucked a flower from her jacket.
A single bloodstained violet.
She knew.
Ambessa knew.
And she had a direct solution to her Commander's debilitating problem.
Caitlyn rushes out the room before her father could stop her, his voice calling uselessly for her to halt. She grabs her equipment on the way, dreading that it might need to be used by the end of the night.
Once her feet hit the cobblestone streets, Caitlyn realizes that she doesn't actually know where to go - though it hopefully meant Ambessa was just as clueless, giving her a little time. She doesn't stop running, deciding her plan of attack on the way to the bridge dividing Piltover from Zaun.
With each step her chest tightens and it becomes harder and harder to breathe. Multiple times she needs to stop in order to expel the damned Hanahaki flowers, though fortunately the ongoing curfew kept any potential onlookers away.
By the time she reaches her destination, Caitlyn was convinced the disease had a mind of its own and chose to worsen itself based entirely on dramatic effect. Perhaps that wasn't far from the truth considering the magical nature of it, the dead love in her heart having sensed an all-too-real death as a possibility.
There would be no children's stories written about Piltover's Commander, who succumbed to her own anger and grief only for it to kill her in the end. Because she knew this could only conclude one way.
Maybe she had been dying since the moment her hatred won out.
She has no time to make peace with this fact, but would accept it nonetheless. At least this was a recompense to all her crimes and mistakes.
Caitlyn reaches her destination and knocks on the door just as she battles another coughing fit. To her extreme mortification, she upends the latest bloody bloom right onto the boots of a very unamused Loris.
~~✿~~
The first thing he does is tell her that under any other circumstances, he would have slammed the door right in Caitlyn's face. She accepts this judgement without protest, knowing it was only her name that stayed his hand. Either way, Loris makes his distaste for the Commander's presence clear - they hadn't seen each other since the day she'd been bestowed that title.
Yet he still listens to Caitlyn’s plea all the same. Even more, he tosses her a coat more suited to the Undercity and says he'll show her where Vi has been spending time since they split.
Caitlyn’s credentials get her past the blockades and checkpoints while Loris navigates them through the streets of Zaun. She wasn't sure when he had become so familiar with this part of the city, but it was definitely to their advantage. That and his enormous frame probably scared off most ill-intentioned criminals.
While no more expulsions of flowers assail her, Caitlyn was still finding it harder and harder to breathe. She could picture the vines wrapping around her lungs, literally squeezing the life from her body. This would be the way she died - not from choking on violets, but simply that she couldn't live without the woman she loved.
She'd made her peace with that. If her last good action on Runeterra would be to save someone else's life, the cost didn't matter.
Certainly not her own.
The venue Loris takes her to was dingy, crowded, and incredibly loud. People were flowing in one direction, stopping either to grab drinks at the attached bar or place bets. It wasn't hard for Caitlyn to figure out what kind of place this was - she'd known about the illegal pit fights that took place in Zaun, but they were never a priority compared to hunting Jinx.
At least there was no sign of Ambessa or her subordinates.
“Please tell me she's here as a spectator,” Caitlyn asks.
Loris grunts. “What do you think?”
Thankfully people were too fixated on the upcoming entertainment to notice that the most hated woman in Zaun had just arrived incognito, and she does her best to keep it that way. Loris purchases two slips to get them inside, pushing aside the crowd with his size while Caitlyn hurries behind.
“You willingly come here?!” She has to yell to be heard.
Everyone around her was either drunk, high, or loud enough that they might as well have been. The pulsating music only adds to the atmosphere of a place she would otherwise never have been caught dead at.
It was all too chaotic. Commander Kiramman thrived on organization and discipline, not this brand of anarchy.
This was exactly somewhere she could picture her instead.
Loris just grins and offers her a flask of something strongly alcoholic, which she politely declines.
Their spot at least had a decent vantage point, and Caitlyn tries to drown out the crowd in order to focus. She didn't doubt for a second that her assessment of Ambessa was wrong, and they would need to be ready to act.
There wasn't any other choice.
Before long the lights start to strobe, the crowd somehow grows even more wild, and a voice announces the next bout would start shortly. Caitlyn doesn't pick up on the names amidst the screaming fans all around her, but Loris gives her a nudge on the shoulder and points forward.
The first fighter to emerge into the arena was some muscled nobody, and Caitlyn ignores them. Instead her attention is transfixed on their opponent.
She walks onto the dirt with confidence, then throws her arms up to the roars of the crowd. Despite the gaudy leather jacket and dyed black hair, Caitlyn could recognize this woman anywhere.
It was her.
Vi.
Immediately she begins to choke on a fresh expulsion of flowers, though fortunately everyone around her was too focused on the arena to notice. The amount of petals and stems forced up through her throat was so severe that Caitlyn could almost imagine how poetic it would be to die right there.
Through the hacking and wheezing, Caitlyn tries to keep her eyes on Vi, wanting her to be the last sight she might ever see.
And what a glorious sight she was - all movement and muscle. Her opponent barely has a chance to fight back as Vi bears down on her with an unrelenting barrage of strikes and blows.
Caitlyn wasn't sure if it was Vi or the Hanahaki which took her breath away.
It doesn't take long for the fight to end, with Vi delivering a knockout punch to the side of her opponent’s head. She raises an arm in victory to the adoration of her fans and those who bet on her. Even from a distance, Caitlyn could see the smirk on those lips.
After collecting her winnings, Vi pumps both fists in the air for more applause, then vanishes into the challenger's tunnel.
Loris leans over to whisper in her ear. “She usually goes to the bar and celebrates. That's your chance.”
Wiping away the blood and petals, Caitlyn nods. “Will you wait for us at the end of the street? That way they won't know you're with us.”
“Sure, just don't take too long.”
Caitlyn pulls herself together as best she could, then departs the fighting arena alongside the crowd of winners and losers. It takes longer than she would have liked to push through everyone and reach the attached bar.
And just like Loris had promised, Vi was already leaning against the countertop.
She watches as the bartender pours her ex-girlfriend something strong without needing to be asked. Resisting her body's desire to vomit more flowers, Caitlyn walks across the floor and slips into the open space on Vi’s right side.
“Violet.”
As expected, the expression on her face is one of complete disbelief. For a few very long seconds, Vi just stares at Caitlyn as if trying to figure out whether or not she was even real. Then she frowns and reaches for her drink.
“Fucking hell, I am not doing this sober.”
Caitlyn grabs the glass away from her, leaning closer. “Getting sloshed is the last thing you need right now.”
Throwing her hands up in the air, Vi starts to look angry. “I can't believe you! First you abandon me for not supporting your muder-boner, now this? Did you come all the way down here just to bust my balls?”
The guilt she feels physically manifests itself as a shortness of breath, and Caitlyn tries to prevent it from showing. “No, I… I came to warn you. You're in danger.”
“From you?” Vi snarks.
Oh.
She hates her, Caitlyn realizes. Of course she had always assumed that to be true, but it was quite different to be confronted with the reality of it in person. Each breath becomes more difficult than the last - as if the Hanahaki wanted her to know this was a punishment for destroying the only real love she would ever have.
That it would kill her because of it.
Still, she couldn't allow herself to fail when another's life was on the line. So Caitlyn does her best to speak, even if it came out weaker. “Please… I'm trying to help you…”
Maybe it was the weakness in her voice, or the pained expression she wore, but Vi drops the anger in exchange for concern. “What am I in danger from?”
Caitlyn tries her best to plan out what she would say, but a loud commotion from the main entrance draws her attention before she could utter a single word. Two large men were arguing with a bouncer, seemingly about the short-swords they carried on their waists. It didn't take a trained detective to see that despite their attempt to dress as locals, their loud accents and bearing immediately identified them as foreigners.
Now Caitlyn could consider it a stroke of good fortune that Vi had dyed her hair, since the Noxians apparently hadn't noticed her despite a clear line of sight. She decides not to waste any more time and grabs Vi by the wrist, pulling her away from the bar.
Vi, even for all her misgivings, must have picked up on the same details as Caitlyn and allows herself to be led towards a back exit. The two burst into the tiny alley behind the arena, after which they quickly block the door with a nearby dumpster.
“Were those fucking Noxians?” Vi asks.
Caitlyn nods.
“And is this even about me, or are they doing this to hurt you?”
It was almost astounding how Vi could always cut through bullshit and get right to the heart of the matter. “I…I didn't want this to happen,” Caitlyn says. “You weren't supposed to be involved…”
“Well, that didn't really work out, did it?” Vi remarks. Loud voices from behind the door cause her to grimace. “Maybe we should bail before they wise up. I've got a place nearby-”
Caitlyn holds up a hand to interrupt. “No, they…they might be waiting for you there.” She takes a deep breath, which Vi doesn't fail to notice. “Loris is waiting down the street. We can… hide with him.”
Though she looks skeptical, Vi doesn't argue against the idea. “Fine, but then you're explaining what the hell is going on.” After a pause she adds, “And what you're sick with.”
Damn, there really wasn't anything she could slip past her.
~~✿~~
The first thing Loris does after they arrive at his home was make an excuse about checking on Caitlyn's father in case he was in danger from Ambessa, after which he leaves in a hurry.
It was a kind gesture Caitlyn thinks, but she also suspects he simply didn't want to be around for what might very turn into an extremely heated reconciliation. Only now she and Vi were awkwardly pacing around his living room, neither sure quite where to start.
But Caitlyn knew the responsibility was on her.
“Vi… I'm sorry for putting you in danger and dragging you into this.” She can already feel her breathing start to slow upon speaking of the topic. “It was never my intention, I promise you.”
While Vi seems skeptical, she stops moving around in order to face Caitlyn head on. “Not that I don't believe you, but why would your new best friend care about me? Last I checked, we haven't seen each other in at least six months. Not since…”
Since I hurt you, Caitlyn thinks. The flowers in her throat felt more like a solid mass now, obstructing even the smallest breaths she tries to take. “I…I…”
She couldn't get the words out, not just because of the Hanahaki, but because the thought of Vi finding out still scared her. None of this was her fault, yet she knew Vi would still find a way to blame herself for it anyway. She was just that kind of woman.
Clasping a hand to her neck, Caitlyn tries to say what she needs to; I'm going to die because I can't stop loving you.
But all she's able to do is start violently coughing.
With concern that she didn't deserve, Vi places a hand on each of Caitlyn's shoulders and guides her to sit down on the couch. She kneels next to her, still keeping physical contact. “Just get it all out, okay?”
Caitlyn tries to fight it, but she's unable to stop herself from hacking up nearly a full flower, stem and all.
“The fuck…?” Vi reaches out and plucks it from Caitlyn's hand, seemingly not caring about the blood now on her fingers. “Was this inside you?”
“Yes,” Caitlyn admits, a few loose petals still falling from her mouth. “I'm… very ill.”
Vi scoffs with a slight hint of disbelieving laughter to her tone. “With a disease that makes you cough up flowers?” She twirls the one she was holding around. “This is a violet.”
“They're all violets,” Caitlyn responds. “Always… over and over.”
“That's a hell of a coincidence, Cupcake.”
Hearing that name for the first time in half a year almost breaks Caitlyn on the spot. How could Vi still think she was sweet in any way?
“It's not… a coincidence,” she confesses.
Vi brushes the hair away from her eyes, brow furrowing in concentration. “So let me see if I've got this right…You have a magical disease that makes you spew up flowers because of me?”
“This is my punishment… don't you see?” Caitlyn says with a painful smile. “For hurting you… for driving you away…”
“I know for a fact you don't believe in that kind of bullshit,” Vi responds.
If she weren't struggling for breath as the twisting vines inside her body slowly strangled her, she might have agreed. But what was there to deny now? The evidence was all around her.
“Hey, hey!” Vi clicks her fingers in front of Caitlyn's face to get her attention. “Stay with me, Cait. What's the cure for this thing?”
“Why… would you think there is one?”
“Because Ambessa trying to kill me only makes sense if it was to cure you.”
Unable to stop herself, Caitlyn lets out a choked laugh. “It's almost a shame… You'd be an amazing detective…”
“Come on, tell me what I can do to fix this,” Vi snaps, her voice bordering on panic for the first time. “There has to be a treatment. You've at least figured out what's actually causing this, right?”
Oh, you're absolutely adorable like this Caitlyn hazily thinks to herself as the oxygen around her becomes harder and harder to take in. “It’s…It’s…”
Vi drops the flower she'd been holding and slips a hand around Caitlyn's in order to be reassuring. Almost immediately it feels somewhat easier to breathe, giving her a chance to finally say what she needed to say.
“I love you, Violet.”
The effect is immediate - Vi’s hand squeezes down as her pupils expand to nearly the entire size of her eye. “...What?”
“I… I always have,” Caitlyn continues. Despite feeling delirious, she doesn't doubt her own words. “That's why this is… this is killing me.”
“I'm not going to let you die!” Vi protests.
Caitlyn smiles again despite the pain. “It's alright, really. I've made my peace with it. Just please… promise me you'll leave the city and hide until… until I've passed.”
“Cait, I am not fucking leaving.”
“You have to!” A violent cough produces more petals, none of which make her throat feel any more cleared. “Take… take your sister if you must. Don't let Ambessa… kill you…”
“Stop talking like that!” Vi exclaims. “I still don't even understand what this disease has to do with-”
She pauses, and Caitlyn is rewarded again to the sight of Vi putting all the clues together - eyes wide, brow high, mouth slightly agape.
“...You think I'm not in love with you anymore.”
That was the real truth she'd been too afraid to say, and an intense pain blooms across her entire body in response, worse than anything she could ever recall before.
“I know… that you aren't,” she murmurs through her breaths. “How could you? I… I hurt you so much, and-”
But Caitlyn finds herself interrupted when Vi leans forward and captures her lips with a deep kiss.
Her entire body shudders, and though the softness of Vi's lips takes up most of her immediate attention, Caitlyn still notices that the pain has quickly lessened.
She's left gasping when they pull away from each other, not because it was hard to breathe, but because suddenly it was entirely too easy to.
“You…” Caitlyn couldn't understand what was happening.
Vi laughs almost teasingly. “Wow, you really are the stupidest smart person I know.”
With a hand to her throat, Caitlyn tries to control her breathing. “But you shouldn't…”
“Come on, do you think I was fighting in the pits and getting hammered each night because I hated you?” Vi asks.
“Yes!” Caitlyn exclaims in a louder voice than she would have been capable of moments ago. “I struck you! I left you! I put your life in danger!”
Vi closes her eyes, letting out a deep sigh. “Obviously what happened sucks, and yeah, I am actually mad at you. But…” Her eyes flutter back open, and she reaches out to lay a calloused hand against Caitlyn's face. “The only reason it hurt so much was because of how hard I fell for you.”
Oh. Oh! Like before, the pressure in her chest grows lighter. Was the Hanahaki responding to the kiss?
“I regret everything I did that day,” she tells Vi with a somber tone. “Without you, I…”
But Vi just runs a thumb over Caitlyn's lips, gently silencing her. “Hey, enough of that. You came here to save my life, even if it killed you. That's the Cupcake I fell in love with.”
The word love instantly sends her into a coughing fit, but instead of expelling the usual bloody mass of petals and stems, only decaying plant life falls onto her hand.
“Holy shit, I think… Are we curing you?” Vi says, laughing happily.
Caitlyn, who had been ready to sign her own death warrant upon coming down to the Undercity, was struggling to allow herself to feel hopeful at this point. Perhaps sensing these worries, Vi moves onto the couch next to her and sticks as close as she could.
“Come here,” she tells Caitlyn, opening her arms. Not a command, but a gentle suggestion.
Grateful, Caitlyn scoots onto Vi’s lap and lets herself be held. For the first time since they'd split, she feels safe.
“How's your breathing?” Vi asks. She begins to stroke Caitlyn's back almost absentmindedly.
“I… it's a lot better, actually.” The sensation of Vi’s hand running up her body was nearly distracting her from the fact that most of the crushing pain within herself had started to ease - almost as if she could feel the roots and flowers shriveling up.
Vi presses a kiss against her jaw. “I missed you so much.”
Happy shivers run down Caitlyn's spine. “I… I missed you too. These last few months have been a nightmare.”
“I know what you mean,” Vi says. “On some of the worst nights, when I would get really drunk… I saw you everywhere.”
“Oh Vi, I-”
“It's okay, really,” she interrupts. “Honestly, I was pretty pissed seeing you in the flesh. But when that faded, all I felt was relief.” Vi smiles sheepishly. “Because you came back for me.”
Caitlyn has to hold back a sob. Instead of saying anything, she throws her arms around Vi’s neck and hugs her as tightly as possible.
“Heh, you really did miss me.” She squeezes back, and Caitlyn would be lying if she said the sensation of those muscles holding her wasn't incredibly pleasant.
“Don't gloat, it's unbecoming,” she murmurs in response, to which Vi chuckles.
“Hey, I'm entitled to a little gloating.”
Both a cough and a laugh escapes from Caitlyn's throat, producing only a handful of dust. “I'd almost forgotten how incorrigible you are.”
“Too bad you're stuck with me,” Vi grins. She wipes away some of the plant dust from her lover's lips.
That doesn't sound awful to Caitlyn at all, and she leans forward in order to kiss Vi.
As she does so however, her mind begins to race - there were so many matters that needed her attention. How would Ambessa react if she learned of her interference? Could she keep Vi safe going forward? And was the Hanahaki completely gone, or would it resurface at some point?
And gods, she hasn't even told Vi about Maddie.
Vi must have sensed this internal distress, and she pulls Caitlyn towards her chest. “You're overthinking, aren't you?”
“I…”
Playfully bopping her on the nose, Vi offers a reassuring smile. “I know you, remember? So what's on your mind?”
Caitlyn takes a breath and turns her head away so they weren't looking directly at each other. “While we've been separated, I… I've been seeing someone.”
She can't see Vi’s reaction, only hear how steady her voice was. “Did you have feelings for her?”
“No!” Caitlyn responds immediately. “It was purely physical. All I wanted was to dull the pain of missing you.”
There's no sound at first, and she panics at the thought of Vi rightfully hating her for this confession. But then she feels a large hand come to rest against her face, thumb gently stroking her cheek.
“Cait, look at me please.”
Slowly she turns her head until meeting Vi’s stormcloud-grey eyes. There was no anger there, only concern.
“I don't care,” Vi says, smiling again. “You’re here. That's the only thing that matters.”
With no small amount of relief, Caitlyn places her forehead against Vi’s and giggles. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” Vi affirms with a kiss.
On the floor, the last violet Caitlyn had coughed up finishes wilting before fully collapsing into dust.