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“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Caitlyn stood in front of the mirror in their dresser, fixing the white ruffle on her uniform.
Vi watched her as she lay on bed, still recovering from the bout of fever she had the previous night. They already lived together but Vi hated the gaping feeling in her chest that she was missing out by letting her wife go to work alone.
“I left some beef in the freezer, just reheat it if you go hungry.” She picked up a bottle of her perfume, spraying it all over herself in three quick motions. “There’s some change I left near the telephone, you can order takeout if you like. You know the direct line to my office, if ever you need anything—now I can’t promise since I’m very busy but—”
“Babe, Cait—I get it.”
But she wasn’t finished—the way she always wanted to have the last word, whether at work or at home.
“Just please try not to get yourself in trouble Vi.” She turned around, fully dressed in her sheriff attire. She picked up the top hat hung on the coat rack and leaned over to give her a forehead kiss. In a few strides, she had left Vi alone in the room of the apartment.
Vi’s gaze fell on the small calendar by the desk. She immediately shot up, seated. How could she forget what day it was? It was so typical of Caitlyn to forget in her haste.
Not having completely shaken off the stupor from the fever, Vi carefully planned out the rest of her day. She had taken a seat by the telephone at the living room, address book opened with one hand. She punched in numbers belonging to the florist, the bakeshop and confectionary, Caitlyn’s favorite expensive restaurant—asking if they would do deliveries.
She spent the entire day fixing up their dining table, doing the best with the arrangements and the orders she placed. Vi may have paced back and forth more than she was used to, not used to being the one stuck at home. When evening came, she managed to unearth a candelabra hidden in a bottom drawer—Vi silently thanking Caitlyn’s mom for her ostentatious flair. She topped the dining table with the lit candelabra as she dimmed the lights. It was perfect—as close to perfect as Vi could manage with what she had.
She sat at the table, staring at their apartment door. Any second now she would come.
But those seconds turned to minutes and the minutes turned to hours. Vi watched the white wax of the candle drip past the metal and onto the tablecloth. She watched the food grow cold, the icing on top of the cupcakes melt next to the candle until she blew off the candles.
When the hands of the clock reached 10, Vi grew worried. Yet she knew if she called the station or Caitlyn’s office to check it would be too much.
Vi hadn’t realized she had dozed off on the couch until she heard the sliding of the key in the lock and the door slamming, sending her back awake.
She saw Caitlyn dart past the hall, past the dining room and into their room, shutting the door. Vi got to her feet and followed her partner in the room.
Caitlyn had her back facing Vi, tossed her hat on the bed, noisily unbuckling her leather gloves before slapping them on top of the dresser table. The air had gone thick, with Vi feeling the frustration pulsating from her partner even from the doorway.
“I laid out these procedures like that. Some ambassador thinks they can cross the line, overrule my procedures, question how I run things in the station, like I’m not doing my job.” Caitlyn just turned around, seeing the coldness in her face. “I’m not one to grovel but I will not stand by and see our work be treated like that, not after everything I have done to fix archaic processes.”
“And he had the nerve to act like I was going to do it for him anyway since I work late hours,” Caitlyn started pacing around, still not finished. “I do this because this is my duty, not because it pleases me. Well—it does, but you know what I mean—”
Vi sighed. “Look, I can tell you’ve had a rough day.”
Caitlyn suddenly froze, as if only seeing Vi for the first time. “Oh dear, I forgot.” Vi was thankful that she didn’t need to break the news about the surprise waiting for her at the other room. Caitlyn walked up to her, hands in her face. “How are you feeling?”
“Oh uh,” Vi spoke as her hands sized up her cheeks, “better?”
Caitlyn cursed under her breath and started pacing around the room again. Vi knew that if she just let her, she could go on, the way she can ramble on about things when she was in the heat of the moment. She went up to her, hands on her shoulders, making her meet her eyes.
“It’s okay, Cait. You’re home. It’s just work, you can think about it tomorrow.”
“It’s not just work to me, Vi—”
“My bad, I know. I know.” Vi watched Caitlyn’s face lose that austere look as she let herself relax. “Now, have you had dinner?”
Caitlyn chuckled, looking at her feet ashamedly. “I made all this fuss to tell you to take care of yourself but here I am, missing dinner for work.”
Vi took her by the hands, squeezing them tight. “Well, I’ve done some work of my own.” She pulled Caitlyn to the dining room, switching the lights on. Caitlyn’s jaw hangs loose at the sight of what she overlooked—the bouquet of roses on the table, the candelabra, the ceramic plates, trays carrying the roast chicken with exotic spices from her favorite restaurant, and of course cupcakes with pink frosting. “Now the food has gone a bit cold but—”
“Vi—why would you—” Then her face paled as she turns to look at the calendar hung on the adjacent wall. “Did I just forget—”
Vi squeezed her hand assuredly. “Maybe you did, but it just takes one person to remember. Luckily I had all the time in the world today.”
Caitlyn took her seat opposite Vi, her face softening in the yellow light—half of appreciation, half of realization. “What did I do to deserve you?”
“You looked out for me, now let me look after you.” Vi returned the smile, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
--
The smell of beer, vodka, and sweat fill the air of the Lock and Bolt Tavern, a downtown Piltovan bar Caitlyn found herself holed in. It was a Friday night when a couple of the boys at the station asked for a drink out. Normally, she would have declined on these outings since she always felt there was a line she couldn’t cross as their sheriff. But even Vi had insisted that she join along, the way her bottom lip stuck out—a face she didn’t have the heart to say no to.
The yellow light of the pub gave the place this more intimate feel. They occupied two connected wooden tables and was responsible for half the noise in the establishment, beer glasses clinking, laughing coming in choruses. They had urged Caitlyn to take a couple of vodka shots, which she wouldn’t have relented to if she didn’t see her partner’s face among those that waited, mouths agape as she downed the shot glasses. Still, that evening was enough to convince Caitlyn that was why she mostly kept to wine.
But part of her could admit it was nice, being shoulder to shoulder with people she went on patrol with—outside of their work uniforms. She heard the banter, some inside joke involving Jensen and something he did on duty, the little bits about their lives outside of work. It was nice, she could admit to herself.
She and Vi had strategically positioned themselves on either side of the table. It wasn’t that she was hiding their relationship, but it was just better to be with others other than her wife. She had been engrossed at the chatter at her side that it took the other enforcers calling for her to realize how she was faring.
“Hey sheriff, looks like someone needs looking after later.”
Caitlyn leaned on the table to catch a glimpse of Vi chugging a giant pint of beer, white foam dribbling down her chin and into her shirt. She slammed the pint down to the cheers of the rest of the team. Caitlyn felt herself get flushed, not from the alcohol. It was more of an open secret now between the station that they have been together—the type one wouldn’t bring up during work hours and pretended didn’t exist, but was certainly okay to bring up in a place such as this.
The night went on, with free-flowing drinks, food in all shapes and forms—meat in skewers, chips with different colored dips Caitlyn herself didn’t know its origins from. More and more enforcers got drunk—those who got drunk babbling nonsense, others with their heads against the beer-stained tabletop. Caitlyn stayed sober the whole time, until when she felt enough intoxication in the table that she could sit next to her partner.
Vi was the babbling kind of drunk if she wasn’t the restless one. She was having a full-blown conversation with Aleck, the lieutenant, who also was spewing incoherent sentences. Caitlyn found herself engrossed by the sight, trying to follow the conversation that led to nowhere.
But soon enough Vi was hit with that drunken stupor, leaning against Caitlyn’s shoulder. Everyone else in the table must have been drunk or were on their way there for them not to pay them any attention.
Vi suddenly put an arm around her, leaning her mouth near Caitlyn in an exaggerated manner. “I’m gonna vomit.”
Someone might as well have told Caitlyn her pants were on fire. She stood up and grabbed Vi, who seemed to weigh double her weight, sluggish, as she dragged her to the bathroom. She pushed open a cubicle and pushed Vi inside.
“I’ll wait here.” Caitlyn said, leaning against the white sink.
Seconds had passed, but she heard nothing. Caitlyn pushed the cubicle open to see Vi sat on the floor, one knee up, propped against the cubicle door. Glassy eyes, she spoke “I’m gonna vo—” And she did.
If Caitlyn had been the slightest bit drunk, then this would have taken her out of it. She ripped wads of tissue paper from the counter and crouched next to her partner, who was now falling asleep, eyes threatening to flutter shut. She wiped at her shirt then at the floor, when Vi clutched her arm with urgency.
“Are you going to vomit again?” Caitlyn asked.
She nodded. She helped Vi lean over the bowl, hand rubbing against her back, keeping her hair out of her face as she vomited most of the drinks she had that night. Caitlyn understood then why they said there was nothing more intimate than getting to know a person drunk—it let you see the whole of them, unfiltered. Caitlyn forced Vi to clean herself up as she led her to the sink, there was no way she would let their workmates see her like this.
“Are you feeling better? Is that every last of it?” Caitlyn asked, sounding more like she was checking reports at the station.
Vi nodded more times than usual. “I feel like shit.”
“I wonder why.” Caitlyn smiled, but the reaction flew over Vi’s head.
She then helped Vi out the restroom, one arm around her waist, holding Vi’s arm around her shoulder. When they got back near the table, most of the enforcers were looking at them, faces plastered with smiles as if they had expected this would happen. Caitlyn felt her ears go red as she swallowed.
Vi looked up and saw the whole table looking at them.
“Vi do you want to go home and call it a night or—" Caitlyn’s words were interrupted by Vi’s lips in hers. She outstretched her arm as if to show it off, to the howls and cheers of the table. Seemingly finding renewed strength, Vi sat back down at the table with Caitlyn following suit.
“I think you two alone deserve the moniker ‘Piltover’s Finest’” Aleck joked, taking a swig from a beer bottle.
Jensen leaned forward at them, face pale like he’d seen a ghost. “Wait—Vi and the sheriff…are a thing?”
Aleck clapped the back of his head. “Man, you really are slow.”
They stayed in the tavern until the wee hours of the morning, the table growing emptier as more enforcers left to go home. Caitlyn eventually called for a cab ride back to their apartment, Vi leaning on her shoulder the whole ride home.
Caitlyn didn’t know what strength she had left in her, to be able to get Vi changed out of her soiled clothes and into a clean undershirt. She hit her head on the pillow and Caitlyn knew that this sleep was for good this time. She meticulously changed out of her attire and did all her nighttime routines until she felt fresh enough to lay in bed.
She joined Vi not long after, dressed down, tucking herself under the sheets. She thought to the way Vi had drunkenly kissed her in front of everyone—a public declaration that she was hers. Hand in her mouth, feeling the way her lips felt against hers, Caitlyn found a smile spread on her face.
She turned to her partner who was already deep in slumber and kissed her.
Her stupid, reckless, loving wife.
--
Caitlyn pushed past the doors of the station to see that Piltover was covered in overcast clouds, rain muting the otherwise colorful painted buildings in town, the air a cold and clammy from the moisture. Vi came out of the doorway a second after her, noticing the predicament of the weather.
She cursed. “You say you left your umbrella this morning, right?”
Caitlyn sighed.
Vi held her hand. “It’s okay we’ll share mine.”
She already got hers out of the rack next to them and opened it up. Together, each hand on the metal rod of the umbrella, shoulders pressed against each other, they walked the soaked front steps of the station building. The umbrella was obviously big enough for only one person, the water droplets bouncing off the edge and wetting both sides of their exposed shoulders. Caitlyn couldn’t take long strides because the umbrella would cease to give enough cover for Vi.
“This isn’t going to work.” Vi said decisively.
Before Caitlyn could react, Vi pulled on her jacket hood. With a wild glint in her eyes before she did anything stupid, and she walked out from under the cover of the umbrella.
“Vi—” Caitlyn snapped. But it was no use. Vi walked the rain, soaking her uniform, all while looking like there was no change in the weather.
Caitlyn kept up with her, water splashing around her boots.
“You’re going to get sick tomorrow; you’re going to call in sick—again.” She warned.
Vi shrugged, the barest twitch of her shoulder.
“You’re going to miss work—again. I’m going to have to get worried while you die of boredom at home—”
“Yeah, I know. But I do like it when I get you all worried, caring for me. It’s cute.”
“Ugh, you’re impossible. I married a mad woman.”
Vi laughed, turning to her. “You never danced in the rain, growing up?”
Caitlyn frowned. “Why would I do that? Why would anyone want pneumonia?”
“A little rain never hurt, cupcake.” Vi walked a few paces ahead and as if to make a show for it, she spread out her arms to the sky. Vi started stomping her feet, breaking apart puddles in the cobbled streets. She was like a kid who wanted to do everything she was told not to by her mother.
Caitlyn looked around to see if anyone was watching, but the streets were deserted that afternoon as if everyone had decided to hole up indoors. Visibility was also murky, Caitlyn only able to see just a few feet in front of her. If she could set aside her horror for what her partner was doing, she felt this glow inside of her at seeing her forever in her own world, where she alone made the rules. One of the many things she loved about her.
Seeing the little sight unfold was the last push she needed to drop the umbrella and run after her partner. The rain was cold, damping her nape, parts of her that were clothed, but one of the things Vi taught her was not to care too much.
Vi looked surprised to see her without the umbrella, her cheeks parting for a smile—one Caitlyn had mentally photographed a million times in her head.
“Why’d you actually follow me, you might get pneumonia.” Vi replied, mocking the tone in which she spoke.
“Where I want to be is where you are.” When it came out of her mouth, Caitlyn was just as surprised how well thought of it was when she just plucked it out of air. Vi smiled at her reply.
Vi stepped closer, bridging the gap between them—two warm bodies that cannot be pulled apart by the millions of plump droplets raining down, an endless music of the skies. Vi looked up at Caitlyn’s hat and tossed it on the ground, sending a large puddle to soak it up.
Water was now coming down Caitlyn’s face, falling between her nose, dribbling down her neck. There was something about Vi that always made her do crazy things, like how she had the sudden urge to kiss her under the pouring rain.
Vi must have felt the same for she pulled Caitlyn into a kiss, hand behind her neck. Caitlyn felt her body wake up in the face of the rigid cold, doing the total opposite of nature’s design. She wanted more but Vi pulled away, clutching at her hand.
“We should go home.” She spoke.
Caitlyn nodded, head still reeling from the sudden kiss.
They had skipped through the cobbled path, avoiding the giant puddles as if it would make any difference to how damp they were in uniform. Eventually they reached the gilded apartment, the attendant at the door frowned to see two drenched ladies forming their own pool of water in the front door of the building but he didn’t tell them off.
Vi ran a hand back her hair, giving her a slicked back look that Caitlyn liked.
Caitlyn pulled and twisted at her dripping hair, feeling now that they were not under rain the uncomfortable cold stickiness of her damp clothes on her.
“If you call in sick tomorrow, it wasn’t my fault you ran after me in the rain.” Vi’s eyes still with their wild twinkle.
Caitlyn chuckled. “You wanted me there. Otherwise, you wouldn’t go about your whole story dancing in the rain.”
They were about to file in the apartment when Vi put a hand on her chest. “Where’s my umbrella?”
Caitlyn blinked once. Twice. “Oh—”
Vi gave her a look. “For the record, you’re the one who forgot their umbrella.”
“I’ll buy you a new one, no big deal.”
They walked towards the elevator while Caitlyn patted through her clothes to find her apartment key. Her hand went to her head. “My hat.” She looked at Vi. “Why did you throw my hat on the ground?”
Vi grimaced. “Okay I guess we’re even. Don’t get me an umbrella.”
Caitlyn exhaled. “You’re impossible.”
“You love me.”
“Mmm.”
“C’mon you do—look at that grin you’re trying to hold back.”
The elevator dinged and opened, the two women stepping inside. Vi leaned against the back wall of the elevator, Caitlyn stood facing her.
“You look good when you’re wet.” Vi spoke in a straight serious face.
Caitlyn narrowed her eyes. “Are we doing this here? You’re so—”
“I’m talking literally of course. We’re both drenched.”
“Sure.”
“I’m driving you crazy, right?” Vi was smirking now. “I’m still your favorite person.”
“I’m so hopelessly in love with someone who would rather run under the pouring rain. Woe is me.”
“If you hadn’t forgotten your umbrella none of this would happen.” She pointed out.
“I know, I know. Now shut up so I can kiss you.”
The elevator opened to the singular penthouse apartment they called home. Caitlyn’s lips were still on Vi’s, she had to press open the elevator button twice to keep it from closing. She finally pulled Vi out of the elevator, hand in her hand as they went to their apartment, leaving with them a trail of wet shoe tracks and water droplets.