Arcane one-shorts

Hide the hallucinations (vi x cait)

Trigger warnings:
Hallucinations of course
Implied past abuse

She flinches, and caitlyn isn't surprised. She's very twitchy with physical touch. Especially considering vi's had been touched starved since - since who knows when. And she can tell Stillwater didn't help with that. So the piltovian woman has learnt to be gentle and patient. To not stress vi out about it, and to try to help her girlfriend.

But she can't help but see herself trigger her by accident. She's done it multiple times in the past week - vi has even became more on edge. She doesn't really understand why. Nothing has happened in the past week. Well - nothing big anyway that would cause a havoc. It's been awfully calm actually.

So when she's with violet and strokes her face, she sees her flinch, and Caitlyn's face softens. Looking at the masculine woman's face - she's trying to read her like a book. But this book has millions of cripples, and rips. It's got brown stains all over and the words are muffled up with dirt.

"Are you alright...?" She whispers gently, it's 9pm so she doesn't want to accidentally startle her with a bunch of questions at night.

She sees the fear in vi's eyes.

"Vi..? You okay..?"

Vi hesitate before mumbling, "do you ever get like.. fuzzy people.. in your head..?"

"No.... Why do you..?"

Vi goes quiet then she continues after a while, "I keep seeing her.. and.. other.. people.."

Caitlyn isn't quite sure what to make of this. Is her girlfriend hallucinating? She knows her sister hallucinates which has been an issue in the past but vi never talked about hers..

The red haired girl looks down, denying all eye contact and mumbles again, "like.. I've learnt that they aren't real.. especially after Stillwater.. but sometimes.. they come back.. more stronger.."

"When was the last time you've seen one of these people violet..?"

She stops to think then mumbles, "earlier today.."

"You mean when you had that panic attack...?" Caitlyn is aware that her girlfriend struggles with ptsd and panic attacks but gathered it was just flash backs..

"y-yeah.. I'm sorry I haven't been telling you.."

"Hey hey.. you don't need to apologise.. this is a pretty tricky subject to bring up.. and i understand you wouldn't have been able to this earlier in such a vulnerable state you was in.." she strokes vi's face gently, watching the little flinch before folding into the comfort that the undercity civilian needed.

Eyes fill in vi's eyes, "a-and in Stillwater.. they got- they got really bad.."

Caitlyn kisses her cheek and strokes vi's hair gently whilst she talks to her.

"I didn't know what was real or fake.."

"Well.." Caitlyn begins softly, "you're with me now.. and I promise I'll keep you safe.. you got nothing to worry about..."

"But my s-sister.."

"Shh.. we don't need to worry about anything okay..?" Caitlyn repeats calmly. After receiving a nod, she lets vi curl her body closer to her - nuzzling her face into her chest. Feeling their bodies wrap around each other and drift of to sleep.

Tomorrow, caitlyn will begins the process of getting Violet professional help; however that's for tomorrow to deal with.

For now she cuddles violet protectively, not once leaving her body throughout the night till morning comes, she will unconditionally love this woman till the end of time.

~~

Author note:  I'm so sorry these have been getting shorter and shorter, I've barely been able to write much recently in the arcane fandom so please bare with me.