Chapter Text
Show me the colors of your soul
Chapter 1
In this world, you see in black and white until you see your soulmate for the first time.
The night is quiet, the air is warm. Vi stands on a rooftop, overlooking the grand city of Piltover, bitterness gnawing at her stomach. It’s always the same, when she’s up there. She cannot conceive how these people can live like this when her own people are dying from hunger and sickness down there. The unfairness and cruelty of it make her blood boil anytime she thinks about it.
But she has to focus. Her anger actually makes what she’s doing tonight deeply worth it.
She got a tip. From Little Man. Some topsider came into Benzo’s to buy a whole bunch of stuff. Obviously Ekko tried to charge him double, and succeeded, and then true to himself he followed the man to the building Vi is currently scouting from across the street. Ekko said the guy had money, and the apartment he’s told her to check out definitely backs that up.
It’s a penthouse, one of those top of the building apartments, with a balcony running alongside it, large windows and a double door that should be easy enough to pick – or kick open. Little Man didn’t say anything about the layout of the place, but Vi doesn’t feel bold enough to try and break in on her own. It doesn’t matter anyway, the place is probably filled to the brim with things they’ll be able to sell, things the man probably doesn’t even need.
Disgusting. Vi clenches her fists, taking in a deep breath to keep calm. It’s a good job. One she’s sure Vander would have pulled when he was her age. She’s not gonna tell him about it though. Keeping this between Milo, Claggor and her. And Powder too, maybe.
She thinks she’s ready. Has been for a little while, if Vi’s honest with herself, but it’s hard to think about putting her little sister in any kind of danger. It’s different with Milo and Claggor. They’re older, tougher. Powder is still so young… maybe Vi’s being overprotective, but she kind of wishes her sister didn’t have to grow up too fast, like she herself had to after their parents’ death.
She’s been trying to protect her from all of this, but it’s next to impossible when you live in the Lanes, and she knows it. Sooner or later Powder will have to face the world, and Vi thinks it’s probably best if she does with her big sister by her side. Maybe this job is a good one to start with. An easy one, up there in one of the Pilties’ richest neighborhood…
There’s a lot of Enforcers down there in the streets, but if they stick to the rooftops they should be fine, Vi thinks.
She’s scouted their route twice already, and she thinks she’s found the best, quickest way to come here and leave unnoticed. They should be able to go in and out easily, but she still has to make sure there’s no security system of any kind on that balcony. The double door is probably locked, but Milo should be able to open it, and if he’s too slow, well, Vi knows how to make a door herself.
She’s been running on rooftops for hours now, and she’s a little tired, a little sore, but she figures she can check the balcony once before going home. The penthouse seems empty, she hasn’t spotted anyone and the lights are off. She should be fine.
Her thighs protest a little when she crouches, readying herself to jump. She thinks to herself she’ll wait a couple of days before telling the others about her plan. She needs to be at her best to pull this off. She makes it to the rooftop of the penthouse after a small series of jumps, her heart pounding excitingly in her chest. She’s always loved the thrill, and she’s been trying to warm Powder up to the idea, but her little sister is not that much of a fan. She’s getting there, though. She’s managed the way down from the bathysphere very easily the other day, Vi felt very proud of her.
Later, she’ll curse herself for being so distracted at that moment.
She doesn’t pay attention. She slides down from the roof, her feet landing on the banister of the balcony, and only then realizes the lights are on.
Vi gasps, heart hammering in her chest, and quickly tries to hoist herself back up on the roof. Her hands have grown clammy, and she can’t, and then she hears steps coming her way and she panics. She jumps down from the banister, notices a potted plant beneath one of the windows. She launches herself behind it, hoping, praying, that whoever is there won’t look that way.
She slides against the wall, making herself as small as she can manage, and just as she does the door to the balcony opens. She holds her breath, mind buzzing, heart pounding, and fights against the urge to close her eyes. It’s a stupid urge. If she has to fight her way out of here, she needs to know who she’s gonna have to deal with before they see her.
She carefully risks a glance in the door’s direction, ignoring the fear gripping her mind…
And her heart stops.
It’s like an explosion. Her eyes lay on the person that’s leaning on the banister, and suddenly her world is filled with colors. Colors.
The sky. Dark blue. The balcony. Golden. The girl’s dress. Blue. Her hair. Another deeper shade of blue. The flowers from the potted plant she’s hiding behind. Green. Purple. Violets.
She’s never seen colors before. A small part of her is amazed at how she knows these colors’ names despite it being the first time she ever sees them. Her mother used to try and describe her and Powder’s hair colors all the time when she was still alive. Told them how lovely they looked. How she couldn’t wait for them to see it, too.
Vi’s never thought about having a soulmate. She’s been way too busy trying to survive a life in the Lanes to wonder about soulmates. Soulmates are for children. She doesn’t need a soulmate. Especially not one from topside.
Emotions are at war in her mind right now. Anger, from such a cruel joke of the universe. Awe, from all the shades of colors painted before her. Curiosity, too, because her soulmate is a girl.
She’s never thought about that either. Her mother and father were in love, a woman and a man, but she knows homosexuality is a thing. She knows that sometimes people have to hide it. In the Undercity, no one cares. People have plenty of more important things in mind to care about who you want to screw. She’s never really been attracted to anyone before.
She’s never really cared.
Somehow her heart is skipping beats now, looking at that girl she doesn’t know. She’s got shoulder-length dark blue hair, she’s slightly taller than her – Vi knows because she was standing right where the girl is standing, barely a minute ago. She cannot see her face. She tries to convince herself that it’s a good thing, that if she saw her face she would most probably get caught, but a tinge of disappointment is weaving through her heart still.
She wants to see her face. Her eyes. Her lips. Everything.
Her fingers are itching at her sides, itching for something that she doesn’t want to put words into because it’s terrifying. She forces herself to sit still, barely daring to breathe, fighting the tears that are burning her eyes. This is too much.
Too. Fucking. Much.
But then the girl speaks. Over her shoulder, forearms leaned on the banister as she watches the city’s lights in the night: “I’m so sick of this.”
Conflict bursts through Vi’s mind. Her voice is lovely, with a posh accent, Ionian if she has to guess, and it’s making her want to punch something. How can her soulmate be a topsider?! Why is she still aching to stand up, show herself, talk to her? Her heart is hammering in her chest, and she’s almost sure if it weren’t for the noises of the busy street bellow, the girl on the balcony would hear it.
“You’ll convince her,” someone answers, from inside the penthouse, a man’s voice.
His voice brings Vi back to reality. The girl isn’t alone, there’s a man with her, her chances to fight off two persons are slim, especially if one of them is a grown-ass man.
She has to get out of here.
“Why do I have to convince my own mother of anything?” the girl – her soulmate – laments herself, turning toward the man inside. Vi’s heart clenches hard, and this time she does close her eyes, because if the girl glances to the left even just a little, she’ll probably spot her. She holds her breath, trying to disappear behind the potted plant.
The man replies something, that Vi can’t make out over the sound of her pounding heart.
When the girl speaks again, Vi can’t help herself.
She glances at her.
Blue eyes. Bright blue eyes. A lovely face, despite the frown currently on it. Ionian, or maybe half-Ionian, Vi thinks. Why is her throat so tight, why does her stomach feels the same way it does when she jumps off of a building? Why does she feel like her entire world is laid before her?
She hates this.
“Yeah well she has a weird way of showing it.”
The mumble sounds a little petulant, and Vi would quickly jump to conclusions, in other circumstances. Another spoiled topsider, they’re all like that anyway, doesn’t surprise her. Except… except she hears something else in her voice, sees something else in her posture. The girl is hurting. She’s hiding it behind her pout, but whatever is happening to her is hurting her.
Vi hates how much she wants to make her feel better.
It’s stupid, she doesn’t even know her.
This whole soulmate thing is bullshit.
The man says something else, and the girl sighs, her shoulders sagging. “Alright,” she mumbles, shaking her head, her gaze wandering around the balcony. For a split second, Vi thinks she’s seen her, her heart skipping several beats. Hopeful. Terrified.
But then the girl sighs again, and walks back inside the apartment, closing the door behind her.
Vi sits there for a few minutes, completely lost. Her heart is still hammering, and it’s aching, too. She tries not to wonder why, but the explanation comes to her unsolicited. Her heart aches from not being with her soulmate.
Her soulmate she doesn’t even know the name of.
Her soulmate, who is a topsider.
The thing is, she knows it would be easy to find out who she really is. A little part of her desperately wants to. But she knows it’s a terrible idea. It wouldn’t work anyway. She doesn’t care about the whole soulmate thing. Them being soulmates doesn’t mean anything. It won’t change anything about Vi’s life, except that she can now see colors.
It’s a good thing, when she thinks about it.
Bittersweet, because a part of her longs for something more.
But good, because it’s opened up a new world to her, and nothing has to change.
The lights are turned off eventually, and Vi waits a couple more minutes before getting out of her hiding spot. She makes sure she’s really alone, then she jumps on the banister and climbs back on the roof.
There’s a lump in her throat, and a familiar burning sensation behind her eyes, but she ignores it all, and heads home.
Tomorrow will be a new day.