Please Don't Leave (Arcane//CaitVi)

Part One- A Lover's Plea

Trigger warnings in the description

~~~~I hope you enjoy!~~~~

Caitlyn

"I'll be fine, Cupcake, please, I promise, but I have to go."

I felt my eyes burning as I clung onto Vi with every shred of strength I had left, my tired arms shaking as I used my own weight to hold myself to her. I was in my own bed, smoke and fire cascading outside the window. We still didn't know exactly who was attacking Piltover, but a good guess could be organized forces under Jinx's command paired up with traitorous enforcers, and possible soldiers from the Noxian army.

Either way, our chances of making it out alive looked to be slim to none.

"Please, don't leave, Vi, I need you," I choked out, my strength failing as my wounded body finally gave out and fell back to the pillows, pulling Vi down with me.

She made a quiet oof when she landed on me and then hesitated for a second, pulling away slightly so she could see my face. Her own expression softened as tears pricked both our eyes, and her mouth twisted into a frown. "Caitlyn..."

"Don't go," I said again, my voice a low wail in the back of my throat. In any other situation, I would have been blushing furiously at our closeness and how we were currently situated, and my heart would've burst from my chest at the way she was looking at me; but this was war, and I was hurt, and Vi was on edge, and I was in love.

What a mess.

Vi struggled to choke out her words, her eyes darting between me and the window, where the wreckage and death could be seen. "I- Cupcake, Caitlyn..." She swallowed hard, tears finally spilling over and dripping down her scarred face. "I don't want to leave you-"

"Then don't," was my whispered answer, desperation clawing up my chest. If she left and threw herself into the carnage that ravaged the city, I might never see her again. "I don't care if it's selfish, I just- I can't-" I sucked in a deep breath, chest quivering. "I can't lose you." I knew that both of our deaths were inevitable at this point, seeing as the bombs and gunfire were getting closer by the minute, but I forced myself to believe that if Vi stayed with me now, everything would be okay. We would be okay.

She grit her teeth, agony written across every handsome feature. "Please, Caitlyn, I have to keep you safe."

"Then stay," I said again, crying hard. I shook her shoulders gently, sorrow filling my gut as I knew my attempts were in vain. "Stay with me, keep me safe here."

"I can't keep you safe from inside the house," she sobbed out, panic melting into her eyes. She suddenly surged forward and crushed me to her chest, quickly sitting down on the bed and pulling me up to cradle my battered form in her strong arms. Her face was buried in my neck as she gathered a fistfull of blue hair into her hand, the other wrapped around my body ever so gingerly, afraid to hurt me further. "I- I can't sit here while there's danger and people dying and a threat to you just- right there, and do nothing." Her hold on me tightened, still somehow managing to be gentle and featherlight.

My heart cracked at the anguish in her voice, and my face crumbled as I leaned into her warmth, relishing the feeling of her calloused hands and hot breath on my neck while I still could. I tried one last time out of thin, wavering hope, reaching up to cup her face and smooth my thumb over her cheek tattoo. "Violet," I whispered. She shivered at my use of her full name. "Please. Don't go."

There was a moment of silence, both of us holding our breaths. Tears glistened on our cheeks. You could cut the tension with a knife. A slight twitch, a glance down, and then-

Vi's hand tightened in my hair, tugging it to tip my head back slightly and press a searing kiss to my lips. I gasped into her mouth, immediately melting into her and burying my own fingers into her shorter pink strands, pulling her closer and kissing her hard. The act was hungry and desperate, a message of hope and longing, sorrow, regret... love. I could taste the words on Vi's lips.

She was going to leave. Against every fiber of both our beings that screamed and begged for her to stay with me, for her to spend whatever time we had left together, she was going to leave.

I could taste the salt in my mouth that she had pressed past my lips with her tongue, and then her embrace was gone, leaving me feeling colder than I thought possible. She stood by the open window, her gauntlets on and fizzling, ready for action. The fire from outside lit her silhouette with burning licks of flame, and I could picture golden wings on her back- my angel, my savior, my... my Violet.

Vi turned to look at me, her blue eyes wide and full of misery, eyebrows furrowed in anger at who had hurt me. "I'll come back." The words were barely audible over the crackling heat beyond the glass, but I made them out, and their weight settled on my very being. I swallowed hard and nodded at her, biting my lip. "I promise, Cupcake. Caitlyn, I promise."

I bit back a sob, my wounded body shaking and sinking into the bed.

"I love you."

I stared after her in shock as she leapt down, an afterimage of blue trailing from the powerful Hextech gear on her hands. My own hands went up to my mouth, fingertips trailing over my burning lips. I choked out a whisper to the now devastatingly empty room, salt once again filling the corners of my mouth. "I love you too."

I stared at the wall in a numb sense of dismay, my hands quivering in my lap. I let out a broken sob. My shoulders shook as I leaned forward and curled up into myself, the reality of what my world had turned into punching through my ribs and into my heart.

My home was being destroyed.

My friends were being slaughtered.

My parents -the only family I had left- were both dead, their bodies drenched in blood that was both theirs and not, their eyes forever open as they sank into the river.

And Violet, Vi... I was too late to make her mine. I knew she wouldn't come back. I knew she couldn't keep that promise. I knew that one or both of us would die before a reunion could be initiated, either her at the hands of the danger that surrounded us, or me by the flames that crawled ever closer at a tauntingly slow pace. I was useless, having been hit with enemy fire hours before, leaving me unable to aid in any way without toppling to the ground and almost blacking out from the pain.

I wrapped my arms around my head and screamed into them, sickeningly content with the fact that for however long I had left, I would mercilessly blame myself for the inevitable death of my beloved. "Vi, Violet, please, Vi, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I love you, I l-love you, please, I'm so sorry..." My cracked lips trembled as I begged to whatever god could possibly be listening for the misery to end, as I pleaded to die first, so that I wouldn't have to hear of Vi being slaughtered in the streets that I had once hoped I would one day be able to call her home.

There was suddenly a silence outside the window that made me freeze, the hair on my body standing on end as my ears almost popped from the suffocating quiet. I didn't dare to breathe. My eyes never strayed from what I could see of the world through the opening in my wall. The fire was there, the smoke still drifted and billowed, and yet-

What is going on?

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