Chapter Text
Vi’s back hit the ground with a smack. She aimed the pistol in her hands upwards, but a swift kick sent it flying from her hands and clattering to the floor. She kicked her foot out, sweeping her opponent off his feet.
The man grunted as he landed on his back. He quickly twisted on the mat and lunged at Vi’s thighs.
Vi arched upwards, hovering slightly above him as she reached under his armpits. She twisted on her side and used the momentum to slam his back down onto the mat once more. She brought her thighs around his arms, squeezing them tightly against his torso. She reached down and pressed her forearm lightly against his throat.
“Yield,” he said with a groan.
Vi grinned and stood off the man. She offered him a hand which he took with some embarrassment. “You almost had me, Jarvan,” she told him with a pat on his back.
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said with a small smile. He left the exercise mat and fell in line with the other people in the small gym.
Vi turned to where a line of students in matching ‘SIS Recruit’ t-shirts and shorts stood. “I told you guys to just call me ‘Vi’. You don’t need to call me ‘ma’am’ like the other instructors,” she told them as she crossed her arms. “So. Who can tell me what Jarvan did wrong?”
One of the students, a small woman who looked so unassuming she could fool anyone while undercover, raised her hand.
“Lillia,” Vi said with a jerk of her chin.
“He didn’t secure the firearm once you lost it?” she offered.
Vi shook her head. “While securing the firearm could’ve helped, that wasn’t a fatal mistake.” She sat down on the mat so she could mimic the position she was earlier, legs straight in front of her and torso high.
“Jarvan aimed to secure my legs, but half of the battle is knowing how to size your opponent up,” she explained. “Now I’m top heavy, if you haven’t noticed.” She flexed one of her arms at the students who chuckled softly, already used to her antics. “Most of my strength is in my core, shoulders, and arms. Still, Jarvan is taller and heavier than me– he would’ve gotten me if he aimed higher and secured my upper body. From there, he could have used his cuffs to bind my legs.”
She glanced to her right as the door to the gym opened. Caitlyn quietly shut the door behind herself and stood in front of it, hands folded behind her back.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not a good fighter with my legs tied,” Vi said with a shrug.
There was another round of chuckles from the recruits.
She stood up and brushed the back of her legs off. “To what do we owe the pleasure, Miss Kiramman?” Vi called over to Caitlyn.
The line of recruits immediately straightened their posture at the name, willing themselves to not turn around and gape at the Head of Intelligence.
“I’m just checking on the progress of our newest recruits. Hopefully you’ve been teaching them to block with something other than their faces?” she responded with a slight smile.
One of the recruits snorted quietly.
Vi rolled her eyes, though she was smiling as well. “It was just bad luck that I broke my nose on our two assignments,” she said with a wave of her hand.
“Ah, yes, simply a coincidence,” Caitlyn told her with one brow raised. She was trying to hold in a laugh.
Lillia, the unassuming recruit from before, spoke up. “You were on assignments together, um, ma’am and Vi?” she asked.
“The details are still classified” Caitlyn said at the same time Vi answered “that’s how we met”. Caitlyn gave her a long-withering expression while Vi shrugged.
Vi glanced up at the clock along the back wall before she clapped her hands together. “Alright, that’s dinner. You all know where my office is if you got any questions. If not, I’ll see you all on Monday.”
The recruits shuffled their way out of the room, slightly more bruised and battered than when they had entered, but smiling all the same as they talked quietly. They bowed their heads with a quiet “ma’am” as they passed by Caitlyn.
Vi turned around and collected her bag and water bottle before grinning up at Caitlyn. “Now what do I owe the pleasure?” she asked in a low voice. She leaned up and kissed Caitlyn soundly.
Caitlyn hummed happily into the kiss, bringing her arms around Vi’s waist. “What, I can’t just visit my girlfriend while she’s at work?”
Vi reached a hand up and brushed a lock of hair behind Caitlyn’s ears. “I guess you can do whatever you want, Madame Head of Intelligence,” she answered, holding back a grin.
Caitlyn pulled a face at the title, already finding it unsatisfactory when she was called so. Hearing it come from Vi, who wiggled her eyebrows as she said it, made it even worse. “You’re buying tonight,” she whispered and pressed one more kiss to Vi’s lips.
Vi groaned. “You sound like Jayce.”
After the explosion that killed Silco and Sevika, and nearly herself and Caitlyn, Vi had gone back to Galveston with Caitlyn in tow.
They spent their two months of leave together, healing from ringing ears, broken noses, and too-clear memories. Neither were one for standing still, and Vi needed something to begin using Vander’s inheritance on so they hit the road after a week of taking in the warm, Gulf air.
They drove to Washington and emptied Vi’s apartment, cut north to see the Great Lakes, then continued west until they entered the Rocky Mountains. The snowy peaks and glacier runoff were no match for the warmth they found beside one another.
They kicked up dust in the Sierra shrublands between Salt Lake City and San Francisco, running up hills with a shout and easing into love like the gentle roll of the tumbleweeds they drove past.
As the Golden Gate came into view, to the soundtrack of Caitlyn’s radio sing-a-longs, Vi got a text from a private number. It read “thx sis”.
It was a start.
They found the places Matilda Leung and Hailee Lane supposedly worked at. It was easier to enjoy a museum without an earpiece or holster.
When they visited the house they would have lived in if they lived those other lives, the pains that came with what-ifs only lasted as long as it took for Caitlyn to slip her hand into Vi’s and say that the real estate market in London was doing well. Vi thought Caitlyn was certainly romantic in her own, analytical way and couldn't help but kiss her then.
They then turned back east, letting themselves get lost in the red deserts of the Southwest. There were mornings in each other’s arms, evenings in bars stuck in the 1970s, and nights under the stars. Each day was lived slowly, purposefully, until they found themselves back in Galveston.
When the two months were up, Caitlyn was called back to London as the new Head of Intelligence and Vi found that what she had known a year before was still true then: she would follow Caitlyn Kiramman to the ends of the Earth.
So she hugged her brothers and promised to call more, told them she was retiring from the Foreign Service, and became an instructor for new MI6 recruits.
“This round of recruits seems to have taken a particular liking to you,” Caitlyn said as they walked hand in hand towards their favorite restaurant in London. It was a pub with a Cajun menu, and while Vi would swear up and down that it didn’t hold a candle to Jericho’s, the food was still damn good.
Vi began to grin. “I’ve really been playing up being the only American instructor,” she admitted. She wrapped an arm around Caitlyn’s waist as she leaned in close to her. “I only play country music in my office,” she whispered conspiratorially.
Caitlyn snorted loudly.
’Score,’ Vi thought.
“You don’t even like country music,” she said with exasperation.
“They don’t need to know that.”
Caitlyn shook her head with another breathy laugh. “Ah, look,” she said with a jut of her chin. ”They beat us here.”
Vi followed her line of sight to where Jayce and Viktor were standing outside of the pub. Jayce gave them an enthusiastic wave and held open the door while Viktor nodded lowly in greeting.
They moved to the back of the pub, placing an order in for four pints and chips while they went over the rest of the menu.
The basement in Norway was bathed in shadows. Security guards leaned against walls, gaping wounds in their temples forcing their bodies to still. Blood and broken bottles of Shimmer glistened in the lowlight.
Caitlyn stepped from behind a pillar, black stilettos clicking against the concrete. She was clad in black latex and wielding a rifle longer than she was tall. She looked through the scope of the rifle with a smirk. “Silco.”
Silco threw his head back as he laughed maniacally. “And so we meet again, Matilda,” he growled. He snapped his finger at Sevika, who had been standing to his right. She nodded and stepped behind a pillar. When she returned, she yanked Vi from behind the pillar and shoved her to the ground, the American falling to her knees.
Vi looked up with wide eyes, struggling through the gag around her mouth and the handcuffs on her wrists. Her biceps bulged with exertion as she tried to break free, but to no avail.
Caitlyn kept her expression steely as she stared down the barrel. “This doesn’t have to end with you in a box,” she told Silco.
“That’s where you get it wrong!” he snarled, spit flying. “Peace was never an option.”
“Fine.”
Caitlyn fired twice, sending Sevika and Silco crumbling to the floor with twin shouts of pain as two perfectly placed shots threaded through their kneecaps. Caitlyn strode forward until she was standing over Silco. She lifted her rifle and looked into his eyes.
“Wait!” he cried out, face contorted in agony. He brought a hand up to wipe the sweat and spit that collected on his chin. “Please, Matilda, we can work something out,” he panted.
Caitlyn smirked. “Actually… the name’s Kiramman. Caitlyn Kiramman.” She cocked her rifle. “And peace was never an option.”
“What in the world are you going on about?” Caitlyn asked with a most bewildered expression. She stood with her hands, which were still damp from the restroom, against her hips and her eyes narrowed with intense suspicion.
Vi leaned back from where she had been regaling their mission in Norway to Jayce and Viktor. “My hero,” Vi greeted with a grin.
Jayce snorted into a cough and took a sip of his drink to try and soothe his burning throat. “The name’s Kiramman. Caitlyn Kiramman,” he parroted, attempting to sound like Caitlyn.
Caitlyn sat down with a groan and pointed an accusatory finger at the two men across from her. “Neither of you believe a word she says. Why Vi insists on painting herself as the damsel in distress is beyond me. She was using your gauntlets.”
“Don’t worry, Caitlyn, I know it’s an exaggeration. After all, you would never go in the field with stilettos,” Viktor placated. “You’re too sensible.”
“Thank you, Viktor,” Caityn said with a curt nod, trying to take the small victory where she could despite the jest in his voice.
“A wedge heel, however…”
Hours later, the four friends split and made their way back to their respective homes. Caitlyn and Vi walked through the streets of London with their elbows hooked together, pressed close together despite the warmth of the early Summer streets.
Caitlyn let them into their townhome, a brown brick building with a red door along the same tubeline as Vauxhall. There was a shoe rack by the front door, holding hiking boots and dress shoes; a pile of housewarming cards with the addresses of loved ones on the table by the living room entrance; a framed picture of the F/V Firelight above the couch.
“Are your parents still visiting next weekend?” Vi asked as she continued through the living room into the kitchen.
Caitlyn let out a slow stream of air from her mouth as she pulled off her heels. “Yes, they’ve got their train tickets booked now.” She followed Vi and leaned against the kitchen doorway. “You don’t…” she sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “There’s absolutely no pressure in you meeting them,” she said quickly.
Vi furrowed her brow as she stuck her head in the fridge. “I mean, we live together, cupcake,” she said with some confusion. “Of course I want to meet them.”
“I know, I know, my mother is just… a lot,” she finally settled on saying.
Vi chuckled as she removed their Brita and poured herself a glass of water. “I know. You’ve only told me a dozen times,” she said softly.
Caitlyn let out a slight huff of laughter as she pushed off from the wall and went to the couch. She stretched her legs out with a sigh. “My father is harmless, but my mother is going to absolutely bombard you with questions about your career and your views on marriage and children and–” She paused to groan in relief as Vi sat down on the couch and took her feet in her lap, giving her a massage. “Oh, you are a godsend, aren’t you?”
Vi looked up at her with a dopey smile. “I try.” She leaned back on the couch. “Anyway, you’ve already met my brothers and you know about the, uh, unique situation with Powder so,” she shrugged, “I’m not gonna be scared away by how intense your mom is.”
Caitlyn groaned and brought a hand up to her face. “Now realistically I know that, but I fear I won’t be able to relax until they’re well en route back to Dorchester.”
Vi hummed understandably, smiling softly as she watched Caitlyn’s face relax when she began to work on her heel. She bit her tongue before speaking next. “Besides, you’re pretty intense yourself, cupcake.”
Caitlyn brought her hand down from her face, giving Vi a front row seat to the offense that rolled across her features. “You did not just compare me to my mother,” she said with a scandalized gasp.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Vi bit her tongue again as she held in laughter.
Caitlyn lifted up one of her feet and sent her heel into Vi’s cheek, who made an exaggerated gag in response as she leaned away. “You are a scoundrel.”
Vi lightly pushed her leg down and crawled up the length of the couch, placing her palms on either side of Caitlyn’s head. “You love it,” she muttered, a cocky grin on her face.
Caitlyn’s face softened as she reached a hand up to rest on Vi’s cheek. “Yes, I suppose I do.”
All of Vi’s bravado flew out the window in that moment. Her grin fell and her expression morphed into something softer, something more vulnerable and true.
Caitlyn flushed at the intensity. Even after their weeks alone, weeks of making up for lost time, the honesty Vi showed her in their quiet moments and the softness they were able to give one another was a cherished gift each and every day.
Her eyes raked over a split eyebrow, went down to a crooked nose, fell across a scarred upper lip, and back up to eyes the color of rain clouds.
No, not rain clouds.
The storm had finished brewing; it was breaking up over land. Why focus on the clouds, when the steady pull of cool waves in the shallows licked at her calves and cooled her hot head?
“I love you, Violet,” she whispered into the space between them. She stroked her thumb just underneath Vi’s eye.
The next words from Vi’s mouth were with adoration, were a decree. Because Vi knew quite a few things to be truth:
Desert sand gets stuck where you least expect it.
She has a sister and two brothers.
Austin is the capital of Texas.
And she is so deeply in love with Caitlyn Kiramman that sometimes her chest, no, soul, hurts if they’re apart for too long.
Vi had never felt as if she were a half waiting to be made whole again, but she never did things fractionally either. It didn’t need to get more complicated than that.
“I love you, too,” Vi told her reverently. She leaned down to kiss her softly, a smile erupting on her face as she did so.
Neon lights flashed brighter than the first rays of sunshine after a stormy night. Smoke hung in the air and clung to the thin threads of clothing the patrons wore in the warm club. Outside, the Spanish summer blazed, with the club’s air conditioning doing little to keep it at bay.
A Cuba Libre slid across the bartop and landed in Vi’s hand, who gave a nodding thanks to the bartender. She took a sip and then turned around in her seat, scanning the crowd.
A group of girls jumped out of tempo as they screamed along to the song pumping through the speakers; a cold-sweating teenager who had clearly used a fake ID sat four seats down as he ordered a beer and tried to flirt with a woman twice his age; two men laughed together in a dark corner with their fingers hooked in each other’s belt loops; a woman in a red and white floral dress walked in and slipped her cellphone into her clutch, her brow knitted tightly.
Vi grinned as the woman drew near, lifting her drink up in cheers.
The stiff concentration on Caitlyn’s face slipped away as she stood between Vi’s legs, with a predatory grin taking its place. Caitlyn took the drink from Vi’s hands and took a long sip as she maintained eye contact. “Are you here alone?” she finally asked and delicately swiped her index finger across her lips to catch any stray drops.
Vi placed her hands on Caitlyn’s waist. “Who’s asking?”
Caitlyn hummed as she leaned forward, lips hovering just over Vi’s. “I don’t even need to ask if you’re American. This red, white, and blue Hawaiian shirt,” she said, a finger trailing down the line of buttons, “is positively horrendous.”
A shiver, oh, what a familiar shiver, went down Vi’s back. She leaned forward and pressed their lips together, kissing Caitlyn until a throat cleared to their right, jarring them from the moment.
Vi broke away with a loose smile and motioned to her right. “You waiting on a friend?”
Caitlyn took the offered seat and slid her hand onto Vi’s thigh. “A little bird.”
“You’re something else, Blue Jay,” Vi whispered against Caitlyn’s temple.
To the naked eye, they looked like a couple getting handsy at the bar. To Vi, that’s all they were. No plot to foil or secrets to uncover, just two women more in love than they had ever thought was possible.
“You’re more forward than I remember, Cardinal,” Caitlyn said slyly as she turned her head to face Vi.
Vi brought a hand up and softly ran her thumb across Caitlyn’s cheek. “Am I, though?” The soft joy and adoration that shone in Caitlyn’s eyes nearly reduced Vi to tears.
“Oh, screw it,” Caitlyn muttered, just for the fun of it, and kissed Vi once more. The hand that snuck underneath the hem of Vi’s shirt searched not for a hidden envelope, but the softness in her lover’s relaxed body.
The same throat was cleared to their right, with more force this time.
Caitlyn pulled away breathlessly. “It has truly been a pleasure meeting you, Cardinal,” she said with half-lidded eyes, “though I believe our time here is up.”
Vi quickly pulled out her wallet and threw down enough banknotes to cover the drink and then some.
Caitlyn stood and offered a hand to Vi. “Shall we find our way back to our hotel room?”
And just like that, the most incredible woman Vi had ever met led her out of a club in Barcelona and out into the warm, evening streets.