Silent As A Mouse (Arcane League of Legends Vi X Reader)

Monsters

          Vi and I laid side by side on our stomachs, her legs bent at the knees and held up as Whiskers looked down at the map in front of us from the top of my head. I had to rebraid my hair after Vi's hand literally clawed the top half into a knot, my cheeks still a bright pink from moments before. Vi was smiling a little to herself, her left arm crossed in front of her with her chin rested on her forearm while peering down at the map Caitlyn had built just below us. Her other arm swung gently away from me since I sat on her left, my arms crossed in front of me with my chin resting on the backs of my arm.

          The sound of the door opening up piqued both of our interests, looking up to see Caitlyn closing the door after her.

          "We'll present our case to the Council tonight," she said seeming taken aback a little before beginning to walk in our direction. Vi sat up, swinging her legs over the bed before leaning back and propping herself up with her hands. But her eyes stayed glued to the map.

          "You did all this yourself?" Vi questioned, gesturing with her chin to the map at her feet. "Without even going down there?"

          Caitlyn didn't say anything as she continued to walk, and Vi gently bumped my shoulder with the back of her hand with a small sigh, "And I thought Powder could get obsessed."

          I hummed in agreement, smiling a little before my head twitched to the side. The memory of Powder fixing up her bombs flashed through my head, the blue-haired girl sitting on her bed while smiling and drawing faces on the metal.

          Caitlyn sat down beside Vi, her head ducked a little as I turned my head to look up at the two. Whiskers squeaked before jumping off my head, scurrying over Vi's lap as she raised on hand in surprise at the sudden tapping of feet going across her thighs. And then the small rodent ran up Caitlyn's shoulder, perching herself almost proudly on the enforcer's skin. And she looked down at me, almost bragging. Those eyes said, "Look at me--sitting on an enforcer! Never thought I would do this."

          "What happened to her, it's not your fault," Caitlyn suddenly spoke up, bringing my attention back to the human holding my mouse. Instantly I thought of Jinx back on the bridge and grimaced when flashes of pink and blue raced across my vision. Caitlyn laid back on the bed as I clutched my temple a little, turning my eyes downwards as Vi looked between the two of us.

          "When my parents were still alive," Vi began saying, making another flash of color go through my head and bring up the image of Vander carrying the two small girls on his shoulders through the Last Drop. When we first met. "Me and Powder used to share a bed like this. Except, maybe, half the size."

          Caitlyn sat up a little, staring at Vi intently while listening.

          "We played a game where we pretended to be bigger and bigger monsters," Vi continued saying while turning her head in Caitlyn's direction with a smile, but my grimace deepened as another wave of memories came crashing in. "So she would say, 'I'm a slug monster with venom for ooze.' And I'd say, 'Well, I'm a slug-eating crab with razor spikes.'"

         "Vi's a big wolf with razor-sharp fangs!"

          The tiny squealing voice belonged to none other than Powder, and I remember the feeling of her little hands grabbing my elbows as she hid behind me. The memory of her sister running and stopping just a few feet away from me clouded my vision, and my lips pressed inwards as Vi's younger self stared in horror at me. She scared her sister again pretending to be monsters, and now Powder didn't want to look at her anymore.

          "Well, you could be the jaguar with shining claws."

         My little voice rang through my head, playing out the memory as Powder peeked out from behind my back at her sister. Vi smiled while nodding before clutching her chest and falling down onto one knee.

        "Oh, no! I'm down--down!"

          The image of Vi's younger self pretending to die dramatically played through my head, making Powder's laugh echo through and making me sigh as I thumped my forehead against the bed below me. And the gentle touch of Vi's hand going through the back of my hair dragged me back to reality, and I blinked rapidly while hiding the few tears that had fallen down.

          "Sometimes, I--I'd get carried away and she'd get scared," Vi continued her story to Caitlyn as her fingers began playing with the base of my braid that laid against the back of my neck. "I didn't want her to start crying and wake my parents up, so... I pretended to chase my own monsters away."

         Whiskers gently ran up my arm, sitting just by my head, and rested her front paws on the side of my temple. I felt her little claws scrape my skin as she tried to shake my head around to get me to look up at her.

          "I'd say, 'No monster's gonna get you when I'm here.'"

          "No monster's gonna get you when I'm here."

          Vi's young voice repeated the phrase, and the image of Powder laughing and tackling her sister filled my head.

          "Then a real monster showed up," Vi murmured, and I felt her fingers tighten a little around my braid. I looked up at last, noticing Vi's eyes were straying to the ground away from Caitlyn, the story beginning to turn for the worse. "And I just ran away."

          She squeezed her eyes shut, her grip loosening from my hair.

         "I left her," Vi added in carefully. I pressed my lips together before gently reaching up with my right hand, my metal fingers laying themselves on her thigh. She quickly pulled her hand away from my hair and wrapped her fingers around mine, her eyes opening up and finding their way to mine. She smiled gently as Caitlyn rested a reassuring hand on Vi's shoulder, patting it softly as Vi turned away to look up at her with a thankful smile. But it wasn't the same one she casted my way--the one she gave me filled her eyes with a sort of sparkle that rained from the Heavens and filled my entire stomach up with fluttering butterflies that wouldn't calm down until she had turned away for some time.