Chapter Text
It was another day at Jayce’s workshop. Vi wasn’t even sure how she was helping at this point, thinking the boys only invited her over to lift the metal they had to smelt for their new “Hextech” prototype. She kept telling Jayce that his muscles were only for aesthetics and he needed to move his weights up everytime she trained him but of course he didn’t listen, and she’s being used as the muscle because of it.
She had shed her leather jacket, it sitting on a stool near Viktor to not get more scuffed up than it already was, her biceps bulging with the weight of the metal she had been lugging through the workshop to a huge furnace that sat in the back of the room. Her tank top was drenched, Jayce looking worse for wear as he chugged a water bottle he had received from the mini-fridge in the corner.
Vi dropped the metal into the semi-neat pile and walked over to grab her own bottle, gulping most of it down in one go. She moved next to Viktor, looking over the schematics of the mining gear that the men were trying to make for Zaun’s miners. The gauntlets were her and Powder’s, her sisters, idea. Watching her parents, before they passed in a mineshaft incident, come home everyday bruised and sore made the girls want to invent something to help the Undercity thrive under the conditions they were forced to endure.
Powder had met Jayce in an advanced thermodynamics class, she a freshman and he in his third year at Piltover University. It was rocky between them and for once pheromones weren’t a problem. Them both being betas made it so all of their relationship was based on attitude and connected interests. Powder was a spitfire not expecting Jayce to be too. But neither one could not acknowledge each others genius and a tentative friendship and partnership began to evolve.
Jayce then introduced Powder to Viktor, his official/unofficial mate. Viktor was a brilliant omega. He had been inventing things for years before he had even reached Piltover U. Him being from Zaun had been Powder’s icing on the metaphorical cupcake and she and Viktor had been great friends ever since.
Then came Vi. Violet Lanes, another brilliant mind, hadn’t had it nearly as easy as her sister did. After their parents had passed, Vi had been her packs leader. But at nine years old there wasn’t much she could do.
After becoming orphans they had been living on the streets. Vi hadn’t presented yet, still just a young pup trying to protect her little sister from the nightmares inside and out of her head. They slept in an alley outside The Last Drop, hiding during the day from enforcers and waiting until the evening to pickpocket the drunk patrons stumbling from the bar. Using the cash to buy Powder food, Vi claiming she wasn’t hungry most of the time just to make sure her sister ate.
A year passed, then three. As she got older she got stronger and riskier, stealing from houses, fighting in alleyways for cash. She knew she’d be an alpha. She felt it everytime an older alpha tried to step to her. She’d smell their pheromones, a sour anger welling in her chest before she knocked them out cold, proving that she was to be most respected in the orphaned streets unless they wanted to end up like their counterpart on the ground. Then one day the pain started. The boiling heat in her gut, the fever, immense hunger and anger bubbling. She was presenting and Powder was scared. So she did the only thing an eleven year old could do. Get an adult.
She ran into the bar they had been staying behind. Finding the owner and begging him to help her sister. He himself was an alpha, a gentle one much more in touch with his emotions. He ran outside and scooped the young girl into his arms and suddenly Vi had the closest thing to a family she’d thought she’d ever get again.
Vander took the girls in and things got easier, he then took two more orphaned boys in, Mylo and Claggor, and they became their own pack. But Vi was the only other alpha. She had duties to take care of her brothers and sister, help Vander at the bar, and keep out of trouble. She knew she wasn’t able to get into university no matter how smart she was so she decided to put all her effort in making sure her siblings would have the best life, working at the bar and gym, putting away every dollar in order for Powder, the smartest of them, to go to college. Vander was proud, but Vi? She felt destined to do more.
Jayce had come to the gym looking for a personal trainer. He felt “cooped up” in the lab and needed to get out extra energy. Vi was assigned to him and while talking one day realized their connection through Vi’s own sister. They already had a pretty easy-going friendship, but Jayce being the “brilliant pretty boy” Powder wouldn’t stop yapping about had them all in a pretty tight friend group by the time midterms that semester had rolled around.
When Powder took Vi to the lab the first time they had all worked together in such a glorious (as Jayce called it) way that it became their workshop. Ideas posted on every surface, some individual and some made as a group. This was their space and Vi couldn’t be happier being able to put both her mind and body to work anytime she came by, which was most days after her shift at the gym.
As Vi started reading over the blueprints she heard the workshop’s door open. Thinking it was just her sister arriving back from her last class she didn’t look up until she heard the voice.
“Jayce I swear mother is driving me absolutely crazy. She took away my rifle! My rifle just because I won’t attend this stupid gala.” A deep exasperated piltie accented voice came from the visitor. It was a polished, proper. An important pack type of accent.
‘Who the hell?’ Vi thought to herself. They were in a relatively secured building that she thought they, and the campus security, only had the keys for. Whoever this is either bypassed security or is important enough to be allowed in. It took Vi two full months before they trusted her with a keycard. Only getting it written off because of Jayce and Viktor being so adamant towards the Dean that Vi was extremely important to their cause.
Grey eyes slowly lifted to see the intruder, at first all she saw was legs. Very, very long legs that led up to a skinny and feminine waist. Vi tried, she really did, to not ogle the woman as she moved her eyes up but she couldn’t help but notice how tight the dark blue blouse was over a certain area that Vi, once again, was not ogling.
She snapped her eyes up finding a long elegant neck leading to a sharp jawline. Her eyes stopped again for a second too long before continuing moving, she noticed a small mouth, high cheekbones and finely the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.
Fortunately this blue-eyed piltie didn’t notice Vi just look at her like a slab of meat. She was focused on the man now lying on the workshop’s cold floor looking almost dead to the world.
“Ah Caitlyn it is nice to see you as always. Jayce is a bit… dead right now from moving some metal. Can I be of any assistance?” Viktor piped up from the work desk. Blue eyes moved over to where the two were sitting but Vi didn’t think this Caitlyn had noticed her yet.
“Oh! Good afternoon Viktor i’m so sorry for barging-“ Her voice cuts off as blue eyes meet grey. Vi swears she feels a spark. Caitlyn’s neck bobs as she takes in the other person in the room with them. A hot butch, with tattoos and piercings, pink hair half shaved and almost a mullet, and muscles. ‘Dear Janna who is she? Gods get yourself together Kiramman.’ She composes herself and continues on without saying a word to Vi.
“As I was saying I’m terribly sorry for barging on you while you have…company.” Striking blue flicker back to stormy grey. “My lovely sire is just being an absolute arse over another gala situation, ‘find me a mate’ party really. Would you be so kind to wake up my oh so lovely brother so I can rant to him?” She started rubbing her temples feeling the tension brew behind her eyes.
“Damn Cupcake you look like that and you don’t have a boyfriend? Obviously must be from a high pack if your mom is trying to choose your mate for you. I can volunteer myself ya just gotta ask.” Vi piped in with what she thought was a suave enough remark with the way Caitlyn’s cheeks dusted, until she heard the huffing sigh from Viktor. Blue eyes sharpened.
“And who are you? You don’t even go to this institute, you are probably just a lab rat for their next invention to make sure it’s safe for decidedly more important individuals.” Caitlyn responded quick and sharp. Being an omega she was used to people hitting on her in disgusting ways but to comment on what they thought they knew? Caitlyn decided then that no matter how hot this woman was, she wasn’t worth her time. Just another asshole alpha or beta trying to get her into bed.
Vi felt her temper rise, she suppressed the rumble she felt in her chest, her shackles going up when being undermined. She refused to be reduced to a “lab rat” when she was a whole quarter of this operation.
“Alright listen here Piltie Princess, you’re hot and all but I won’t be disrespected by someone with a silver spoon. I work damn hard to be here whether i’m enrolled or not so you can just watch that pretty little mouth before-“ Vi was cut off quickly by Jayce finally springing back to life.
“OKAY okay. I’m alive. Cait! How about we go for a quick coffee run and have a chat about Cassandra. Vi! You can look over one of the gauntlets fingers that’s been getting stuck! I’ll get you a double shot!” Jayce, always the mediator, steps in before pheromones start pushing out of the angry alpha trying to make everyone submit. He’d seen it happen before and while, yes it does lower everyone into submission, he knows Caitlyn is on such a strong dose of blockers she’d never raise her neck to another. Which all in all would just piss Vi off more. Caitlyn huffs and rolls her eyes, starting towards the door saying a casual goodbye to Viktor.
“Nice meeting you Sweetheart!” Vi yells, keeping her eyes peeled at the other woman’s back to see if she gets a response. All she gets are tense shoulders and a chuckle from Viktor. The door closes with a thud and Vi finally feels some of the strange tension in her muscles release.
“I haven’t seen Caitlyn get that angry in a long time Violet. You have a gift.” Viktor goes back to his work and Vi stares at the door they just walked through before moving to the gauntlet Jayce asked her to fix. Grunting to Viktor as a response.
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As Jayce and Caitlyn get out of the building she lets out a deep sigh. She hadn’t felt that close to letting her mask fall in front of anyone new in years. The last person she remembers losing it on was her Sire right before university.
“Well that got heated quick. You’re pretty tightly wound Sprout. Is Cassandra really making you that wound up?” Jayce was stepping into his big brother role quickly now that everything had cooled down and he wasn’t lying on the floor exhausted.
“Yes…no. I just have so much going on Jayce. Mother took away my only outlet because I won’t do this gala. It’s about to be midterms! I’m already behind in my calculus class and with the double major I almost feel like I’m drowning. I don’t need a mate right now. I need to get my career together. I only have a year left until I can go to law school and I still have three years until my criminology degree is done. A mate? On top of that?” Caitlyn takes a deep breath and slows her pace. “Then…then that woman has the audacity to act like she has any idea of what I’m going through by doing that fuck boy pickup line? I’m sorry I almost lost it. I’m just exhausted.” Caitlyn finally let it out, saying it made her feel like crying but her years of practice kept her face steady.
“Cait I know she gets on your nerves but she’s your Sire… she just wants to make sure you’re taken care of if anything happens.” He has a sweet heart and Caitlyn knows that but she needs someone on her side right now. There’s a bratty huff that comes from her.
“Jayce I don’t want a mate right now. Maybe never especially if I can’t choose my own. I need to become something first or at least fall in love with a person! Everything is chosen for me. They can at least let me settle into adulthood and maybe I’d find my own mate!” Caitlyn feels herself getting worked up again and just stops. She stares at the sidewalk for a moment until she feels Jayce’s presence, then arms, wrap around her.
“I’m sorry Sprout. How about this I’ll find you a calc tutor? Totally lowkey, someone who is brilliant and I actually know? I have a friend who could use some funds and is in Advanced Calc III. If she can’t help you nobody can.” He says gently as he rubs Cait’s back. She sighs again pondering it, knowing this could make or break her graduating with her Master’s the same year she’s graduating Law School.
“Also about Vi, she’s harmless. Just doesn’t know how to keep her foot out of her mouth. She’s brilliant too just with certain circumstances she couldn’t go to PiltU. You both have been through a lot. I could see you getting along.” He adds in, trying to dispel every stress that has his little sister so out of it. A smirk crawls onto his face as he leans back.
“Plus you gotta admit. She’s one hundred percent your type. I know you were staring at her muscles.” He watches a blush start blooming up her neck before she pushes him away and starts walking again. The calming moment between them over.
“Oh shut up. She revolts me, thinking she even has a chance is laughable. I’ll think about the tutor. I will not even consider becoming friends with Vi.” She says as they head into coffee shop. Nothing will happen with that girl Vi. No matter how hot she is.