HOUSE KIRAMMAN

a feather - soft hand grazed her shoulder, where there was no clear distinction between bruising and tattoo ink, and vi shivered, swallowing down an almost knee - jerk wave of nausea. cait had never done that before. not down here. she'd always been lost in the margins of a crowd, just shy of her dimming periphery. always flickered under the dim amber lights that encircled the ring. when that cait looked at her, it was always with some vague intimation of expectation. of judgment that she could only seem to fend off with a bottle and a tin tub of cold, sludgy water, piped in from above.

there was no determining, in that moment, what hurt worse: cait, standing in her rat - trap of an apartment, or the persistent throb of yet another concussion blooming through her temple. the glint of sparse and waning sunlight haloing cait's likeness against her shattered mirror, or the twinge her ribs gave when she breathed too deeply.

"do you really think i'm in your head?" with one boot on the ground, and the other supporting a knee which bends so they're eye level, there's the faint clink of an empty whisky bottle against its heavy sole. she reaches with the hem of her jacket tugged over the tips of her fingers, and she dabs at the split in vi's eyebrow to draw a thick congeal of blood away from her face.

"the vi i know could fight ten of those men and come out unscathed."

she's a mirage. a ghost. there's nothing the other side of the shattered mirrors, and she draws nothing back on the arm of her jacket from the touch. vi tells her to get out of her head, but they both know that there's a reason she's here. a reason vi wants her here. (perhaps not want, but need. she needs to see her like this, while a fist thrums its way through the side of her head day in day out and stumbles back into a haystack bed. sit up, violet.)

"you're not going to give them the satisfaction, are you? you're too stubborn for that."

"thank you." it's diplomatic, swallowed in the back of her throat, and cait touches the edge of her finger over the hot porcelain of the teacup to her left — the burn grounds her slightly, and she feels it twitch as she pulls away from the steaming cup and settles her hands back in her lap.

"i apologise for my father's absence. he's feeling under the weather, but he sends his regards." it's formal — overly so, she knows, but it speaks of more of a defence mechanism than anything else. it's how she was taught — when in doubt, revert to ritual. (her back is stiff. her eyes shift from the teapot to the saucers and back. that rock in her stomach refuses to budge.)

Mel manages a small smile. At last, the battle is over. Though she isn't entirely happy with the outcome, since she had lost her mother. Still, she is glad the people of Piltover are safe. At least for now. She reaches a hand out to Caitlyn, to help her up. "Are you alright?" She wonders aloud, wanting to help if Caitlyn is not alright.

"i'm fine—" she feels her eye twitch, heavy and stinging with the darkening corners of her vision. (it feels... swollen shut. when she wipes at the crest of her cheek, a new sheen of red slicks into leather gloves, and she feels paralysed once more.) the sun reflects off a discarded blade and it makes her flinch, and it's all cait can do to look up to the other woman.

"you saved me."

in one way or another, she'd been spared. (ambessa was always the superior sparrer – but she has weaknesses, flanks unguarded out of sheer arrogance which she'd once pointed out to cait herself with a well-placed thwunk of a wooden pike. her technique was flawless, but the moment her daughter padded quiet feet into the centre of the battlefield, it was a... well-educated risk. or at least, that's how she'll explain it when her side is stitched and the bodies are buried.)

All prompts taken from season one of Arcane (2021). Adjust as needed.

07. THE BOY SAVIOR

"I knew it was a mistake trusting you."

"I told you the truth."

"Get your hands off me!"

"You look good for a dead girl."

"What do you know about this?"

"What the hell is this all about?"

"What were you doing with _____?"

"That was a long time ago. People change."

"Are you working for _____?"

"Fuck. You."

"I thought you were dead."

"I didn't know if I could trust you."

"Gee, I wonder who I learned that from."

"You still punch like a little boy."

"Nature has made us intolerant to change, but fortunately, we have the capacity to change our nature."

"I know the look of a doomed man."

"I must warn you—if you take this path, they will despise you."

"Love and legacy are the sacrifices we make for progress."

"How'd you find me?"

"Is that what's really bothering you?"

"I've had enough headaches."

"She'll come to you when she's ready."

"I should have been there. For you. For everyone."

"That's a good way to drive yourself crazy."

"If I just went with you that day, maybe none of this would have happened."

"You're wrong. She's still in there. I can reach her."

"Do you have any idea how this looks?"

"Have you forgotten where we came from?"

"Let me help you with that."

"Don't move, silly. I might hurt you."

"I wanted to protect you."

"I am your family. Everyone else betrays us."

"I need you. Now more than ever."

"You got a plan?"

"The peace is already broken, _____."

"Ridiculous. You cannot be considering this."

"There is always a choice."

"I'm worried I have to do something I never thought I would."

"I can't leave her again."

"You can't change her."

"Don't get yourself killed."

"I told you to leave this alone."

"Oh, look who it is—the boy savior."

08. OIL AND WATER

"Mark me, _____, if you want to last in this world, you must learn to be both the fox and the wolf."

"I will give you the world, _____, if you prove you can take it."

"Kill her now and only one must die. Let her live and you may need to kill thousands."

"A wolf has no mercy."

"It was all for nothing."

"You understand you've broken several laws?"

"Sometimes death is a mercy."

"Are you prepared to lose her?"

"Please understand, this is for your own sanity."

"Gotta hand it to you, _____. Every time I think you can't get dumber, you dig a new low."

"Ego is one thing; brain's another."

"Don't try to ingratiate yourself with me."

"That's a mistake I can't take back."

"Weapons can't be unmade, and they are always used."

"What happened to her—it's not your fault."

"I understand this must be painful. I'm afraid it will only get worse."

"I have to get home. It isn't safe for me here."

"We need to act. Before anyone else gets killed."

"When do we say enough is enough?"

"This is how things are, how they've always been. I was so stupid to think it could change."

"Oil and water. Wasn't meant to be."

"Do yourself a favor, _____. Go back to that big, shiny house of yours and just... forget me, okay?"

"You wanna make _____ pay for what he's done?"

"I could have you arrested."

"You said you were tired of doing nothing. That's the only sensible thing that came out of anyone's mouth tonight."

"We got a deal, pretty boy?"

09. THE MONSTER YOU CREATED

"You've always been a part of this. You just never had to look it in the eye."

"Get ahold of yourself. I taught you better."

"I've only accelerated a process you started."

"I would set the world ablaze to protect our family."

"You weakened me."

"I couldn't endure the look in your eyes whenever I made the decisions—the necessary decisions—to keep us safe."

"We lost ourselves—lost our dream."

"In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good."

"Today's the day you die, _____."

"You really think you're in a position to demand all this?"

"You want peace—this is the price."

"We can't make a deal with a snake and cut off its head. We both have our shitty parts to play."

"You'd be surprised what you can pull off when your life depends on it."

"It's not enough to give people what they need to survive. You have to give them what they need to live."

"A thousand times I've imagined this moment. Never like this."

"And what do I lose but problems?"

"I wish I could say it gets easier, _____. But I'd be lying."

"They're right not to trust us."

"You're walking a fine line, _____."

"With respect, I don't give a shit what any of you think of me anymore."

"Nothing ever stays dead."

"The only thing that kept me going was the thought of getting back to you."

"Are we still sisters?"

"I always knew you'd come back."

"You wouldn't lie to me. Not again."

"I'm on your side. I promise."

"They can all burn. Everyone betrays us, _____."

"_____, she's too far gone."

"I never would have given you to them. Not for anything."

"Don't cry. You're perfect."