Chapter Text
As the orange light of the battlefield engulfs Isha, she’s in awe of the vast form of Vander as he beats back waves of Noxian soldiers. Her small body in position below the main action only serves to make her feel miniscule, as if she’s apart from it all. The orange light and the heat of the fire warms her, as if she’s in a dream, curled up in Jinx’s arms. Warm like a hug, a hug from her brand new family that is now being torn apart in front of her very eyes.
Pushing herself up, she’s forced to move quickly as a mass of metal and armor is launched in her direction. Turning, she sees Jinx moving towards Vander. Perfect, Jinx can fix anything, she’ll calm him down. She’d done it before, they were a family now, it has to work. Isha’s hopes are dashed as Vander turns and flails at Jinx in his rage, her slight frame being pummelled back and landing haphazardly in the dirt, bruised and broken.
Isha gasps, feeling like her body is stuck in something sticky, honey, the same colour as the air around her, this isn’t supposed to happen. Jinx pushes herself up and seems to be moving to try again. But not fast enough, Vander, blinded in his rage is moving rapidly towards her and mercilessly killing anything in his wake, quickly closing in on Jinx, crumpled on the ground. Isha knows Jinx would never hurt Vander. He’ll kill her before she can help him. Or a soldier might put their sword through her. something is bound to go wrong. There’s only one thing Isha can do, only one thing she has at her disposal that could be useful.
She thinks back to the conversation she and Jinx had been having earlier, how it was like she put on glasses, Isha didn’t really know what she had meant until this moment. But now she did. She couldn’t protect Jinx the first time she’d come face to face with Vander, Sevika had hauled her away as she screamed for the one person who had stuck by her. But this time Sevika wasn't here to stop her.
She could help.
As she makes her way towards Vander, passing Jinx, the woman still struggling to right herself after Vander’s blow. She slides under some fighting figures, larger than life, grabbing the gun that usually hangs on Jinx’s belt and coming to a stop under the immovably large form of the massive beast that had treated her so gently over the past few days, now almost unrecognisable in the twisted form he’s been reduced to. Isha knew that Jinx and her sister Vi would probably kill him if they had to, maybe only to save each other. But this was something she could give Jinx, she could blame Isha, she never had to hurt her dad. At least Isha wouldn’t have to be here to see the aftermath.
She shoves the two brightly glowing balls into the chamber of the gun, matching the warmth emanating from Vander towering behind her. The feeling of too much power in such a small space making the gun vibrate and crackle in her hands.
She looks up and sees a sobbing Jinx being held back by a straining Vi. She’s sad now, but Isha knows that this is right. Jinx lived her life for years without Isha, but Isha could never live without Jinx. Jinx would forgive her one day. With one last look, a familiar gesture and a soft ‘pew’, Isha raises the gun up and pulls the trigger, enjoying the light show that would save the life of the most important person in the world to her. She smiles, happy, her name desperately being screamed at a distance as she watches Vi move to shield Jinx from the blast.
But in the final moment, there’s a green light yanking her sideways that doesn’t mesh with the blue of the explosion, her consciousness snuffed like a snap to the neck.
*****
Vi wakes up slowly that morning. She vaguely remembers the movement that came hours earlier. Cailtyn waking up obscenely early, as usual, to leave for work. showering and quietly getting ready while Vi snoozed, comfortable in bed. She remembers the pressure of a kiss on the top of her head and a barely audible ‘love you’, her favourite part of the morning, right before the door closes and the residual silence lulls her back to sleep.
It’s become a Friday morning routine ever since Caitlyn moved in a year ago, her regular Fridays off starting so warm and soft as one of her favorite people just moves around her. The gentleness of her attempt to be as quiet as possible even though at this point she must know that Vi is awake, just barely, and taking in every moment of the meticulous morning routine that has never changed in a whole year.
That peaceful snooze is disrupted suddenly as the phone on the bedside table lights up and an obnoxious song exits the tinny speakers. Vi jolts awake with a violent start, scowling as she grabs the offending technology, another one of Powder’s pranks. Her normally silent phone is constantly being messed with by her techy younger sister. This time she’d made her personalised ring tone override the silent mode and play at an incredibly high volume. She probably got her newly appointed foster kid, Isha, to swipe it during family dinner.
Scraping the answer button up and over the call photo of the offending sister’s face with a lethargic finger and a groan, Vi brings the phone to rest against her ear, turning and leaving it laying on her face so she can relax her arms and enjoy the warmth of the covers.
“the fuck you want?” she slurs sleepily into the phone.
There’s no preamble, no mocking tone so prevalent in their regular sisterly interactions, in fact, Powder seems a little….stressed.
“Hey sis, can you babysit today?” there’s the sound of movement in the background. Stuff being thrown around and scraped over surfaces. Almost as if powder is in a hurry.
Vi takes a moment to adjust to the tone, waking up at the unfamiliar tone coming from her normally carefree sister. Powder doesn’t really do ‘stressed’. Not even since she started fostering the kid six months ago. She’s an unusually relaxed parent, clearly a product of the insane and almost abusive foster system that the two of them experienced when their parents died. Until Vander found them of course.
But powder’s one that usually lets Isha, play in mud, eat stuff, climb stuff, and generally get away with murder.
“If she gets hurt, or it tastes bad, she won’t do it again. And if it goes really bad, then I’ll be there to catch her” is the usual line.
It helps that Isha's generally a great kid. She hasn't pushed limits or done anything super harmful, so she supposed her sister got pretty lucky. Vi brings herself back to the conversation as her brain catches up.
“Babysit? Everything okay?” Vi sits up in bed and yawns into her next sentence “it’s Friday, doesn't the rugrat have school?”
“Yeah, normally, but I can’t wake her up this morning” the distress in powder’s voice seems to shine through a little more clearly and Vi actually wakes up. “I’m gonna be late for work and I seriously can’t afford to not go. Rents due and I’m all out of sick days.”
“Wait, what do you mean you can’t wake her up?” Vi can feel her heartbeat jackhammering again in an instant, for a very different reason this time. The kid had grown on her since Powder had found her on the streets, skittish to start off with, but as her confidence grew it had revealed a kid who had stolen the hearts of everyone who interacted with her.
“She’s breathing!” Powder was quick to reassure her, causing a huff of relieved air to exit Vi’s tense lungs “I just can’t get her to wake up, there’s no way I'm sending her to school like this and Vander… Can’t. Today.” Her sister’s voice became stilted as their adoptive dad came into the conversation.
“Shit. Did you two fight again?” Vi admonishes.
“Can you do it or not, sis?”
A sigh, “yeah, bring her over.”
*****
Twelve minutes later, her sister is rushing into Vi’s apartment, an unconscious Isha in her arms.
“Where can I put her down?” she asks, moving through the familiar apartment with a haze of anxiety in her shoulders.
“Put her in the bedroom, I wouldn't want to wake her.” Vi sips her coffee, moving to lean against the kitchen counter.
Powder’s laugh shines with anxious energy, “actually if you could wake her up that would be a load off” despite her words she does move to the bedroom, laying the six year old on the neatly made bed and moving back into the living area of the small one bedroom.
She leaves the door slightly cracked and walks over to her sister, accepting a cup of coffee that Vi had poured for her while she was busy subtly checking that her kid was, in fact, still breathing. She then positions herself across from Vi leaning against the opposite counter while still in eyeshot of the cracked door frame.
“Is she okay?” Vi asks, eyes looking at her sister’s regular space buns, the blue hair peeking out a little more haphazardly than most days. “Are you okay?”
“She’s fine, she’s just having a lazy day.” Powder seems to be trying to convince herself more than anything. Taking a chug of coffee as her mind still races in hyperdrive. Rushing so much in her panic that she now has a little extra time before work to have a short catchup with her older sister.
“And you?”
“Me? I’m fine, just a little caught off guard. This hasn’t happened before, usually she’s the one catapulting herself onto me first thing in the morning, now I can't even get an eye flutter out of her?” she shakes herself, “I checked her for a fever and she’s fine, if she’s still lethargic by the time i get back i’ll take her to get checked or something”
“Vander or Silco might be able to tell you if this is normal? They raised a ton of kids.” Vi pushes, she can see her sister’s eyes roll at the obvious lead into the question she’d dodged on the phone earlier.
“Vander and I had a fight last night, about Isha. same shit about how i’m ruining my life and all that.” Powder scoffs, “I'm not going to him for advice right now. Besides, he had the nerve to bring it up with Isha in the other room. She was supposed to be sleeping and I swear I saw movement from her door after.” powder plants her face in her hands. “That’s the last thing she needs, the last thing i need, is her thinking she’s a problem or she’s ruining my life or shit like that. Kid already people pleases to the extreme.”
Powder shakes herself out of the spiraling self doubt, doing a couple of her deep breathing exercises.
“She’s fine, I need to get to work, when she wakes up just make her some cereal or something.” powder says, moving towards the door, “thanks again, sis.”
“Wait, what do I do with her? I’ve never babysat her before!” Vi says as she realizes the gravity of the situation she’s put herself in.
“What are you talking about, you hang out with her all the time?” Powder stops, halfway out the door, with an incredulous look on her face. “she fucking loves you?”
“Not alone!” Vi complains, “you’re always there, what if she flips out when she wakes up and you’re not here?”
“Vi” powder laughs with a quick eye roll, “if you do one more cool thing in front of her she’s gonna give up asking for the blue hair dye and start dragging me over to the pink section of the dye isle, she said she wants to work in construction and build houses just like you when she gets older. She loves you.”
Powder shrugs “just ask her a question, she won’t let you get a word in. we’re on legos at the moment, ask about that, take her to the park, you’ll be fine!”
With that, powder leaves, closing the door softly and then moving at a quick pace to get to work on time.
Vi sighs and tries to will away the sudden anxiety that consumes her. She hasnt had to care for a small child independently like this since before Vander took them in, when powder was around Isha’s age, Powder’s right about one thing, Isha does seem to like her.
She pours herself another cup of coffee and moves to peer into the bedroom, eyebrows furrowing with worry, Isha seems deathly still. Just to be sure she moves over and holds her index finger under the kid’s nose, holding her breath until she feels that little puff of air against her skin that tells her that yes, the kid is alive.
After a few seconds of watching the faint movement of Isha’s chest as she breathes in her deep sleep, Vi moves out of the room, taking her second morning coffee to the couch and turning the TV on at a quiet volume. Hopefully the gentle noise will lull the girl out of her sleep, slow enough that maybe Vi can make a plan to entertain her for the day.