Arcane (Vi x Female Reader)

Act 1, Chapter 1

    I can hear Clagger's heavy breathing behind me as we inch our way along the deep blue, Topside window. The noises are a mix of the ringing of a bell sounding out from the river, the distant yelling of people, and the steps our group was haphazardly taking along the small railing. The air was clear with a cool, refreshing bite and minimal clouds. It had been good conditions for sneaking out of Zaun as we jumped across the rooftops of the Piltover buildings. This job was unlike any we had done before but Vi had insisted that it would all be fine. I had agreed, but now that we were actually going through with it I could feel my nerves rising. I would never tell Vi that though. "What if Vander finds out we're all the way up here," Clagger says, his voice shaky. It's clear his apprehension is heightened by the dangerous climb we were all currently making. Vi, who seemingly has no fear answers quickly,
glancing back at us.
    "Look around you, you think anyone Topside is going hungry," she says, a pleading but angry undertone in her voice "besides, this is exactly the kind of job Vander would have pulled when he was our age." We finally reach the edge of the building and Vi steps out to look over the ledge. I pull to a halt behind her and look back at the boys and Powder.
    "What, are you guys scared," I tease, chuckling at the sneer Mylo gives me from behind Clagger. Powder grins and I smile back at her.
    "I'm going," Vi declares "are you with me or not."
    "Let's do it," I answer, a challenging smile on my face as I turn to Vi. She smiles at me briefly with a look of determined mischief before turning her attention back to our companions.
    "Oh Vander's going to kill us," Clagger whines.
    "Only if we screw up," Violet challenges.
    "So don't screw up," I finish her sentence and she scowls at me for cutting her off before swinging down onto the balcony. I follow soon after her, stumbling a little bit. Vi reaches out and grabs my waist to pull me back down onto the balcony before immediately dropping her hands back down to her sides.
    "I'm fine you know, I don't need your help," I grumble, an uncontrollable blush settling over my face. I curse the light red I know must be on my cheeks.
    "Yeah, well, would you rather be on the ground," she says lowly, facing away from me as she searches through the windows of the home. I lean back on a pillar, crossing my arms and sigh. It had always been like this with me and Vi. I had met Vander and the others when I was about 10. Mylo, Claggor, and Vi had been about 11 and Powder 6 or so. Immediately when Vander brought me into the family, Vi and I had been in competition for the spot as leader in the group of kids. Over time, the competitiveness had turned friendly and we had learned to work as a perfectly in sync team. But there were times when we shrugged off help from each other for reasons I don't think either of us understood. Violet and I were, well, complicated.
    "I wouldn't have fallen, I can take care of myself" I argue, looking at her as she walks back to where I'm standing after checking our surroundings. She gives me a small nod and we make eye contact.
    "All clear," I yell up to the others and they jump down, Vi's eyes finally darting away to break the moment of brief tension as she shoots me a sly smile. Mylo hops down first and Vi follows him over to the door as he mutters something about locks and balconies. I wait by the ledge for Powder to jump down, giving her my hand when she does, as she balances on railing, giggling. I smile at the girl as she hops down. Powder was one thing that had never been complicated. Me and Vi protected Vi's little sister the very best we could. Behind me, I hear Vi bust down the door. I roll my eyes before stepping into the apartment with the others.

                                        . . .

    This had certainly not gone as planned. The  balcony had practically crumpled under our feet in an explosion, leaving burned paper with electric blue embers scattered on the street. Me and Vi were standing at the edge of the broken concrete, accessing the damage we'd done, when the Enforcers came into view. Immediately I exchange a look with Vi before she looks back down and makes eye contact with the men in blue uniforms.
    "Shit," she mutters under her breath and, a moment later, alarms begin to sound. I turn around quickly, grabbing Vi's wrist to drag her with me and she quickly shakes out of my grasp as we round the corner to get the others.
    I can hear the wind howling in my ears and I'm acutely aware of the sound of my heart pounding as we race through the streets of Piltover. The sharp, metallic sounds of rope weapons meant to immobilize us rush by in a threatening whirl. I take up the rear of the group and Vi runs out in front, an agreement that had been silently made over the years. I take in my surroundings and everyone's location, ready to react quickly if anything threatens us, while Vi directs us through the intricate streets. "Faster," Vi yells to the group as we dart through a town square. They are coming from above us on the bridges now and I let out a shriek as a rope weapon gets dangerously close to me. Vi looks back at me, alamered, before relief washes over her face as we made eye contact. We jumped over the lifting bridge and I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. We had made it across the river.
    Enforcers still trail us closely as Vi leads us through some tight twists and turns and we narrowly escape down the trash shoot after a couple complaints from Mylo about his shirt being new. We landed on a pile of trash, finally safe. "I thought last time was the last time we were going to do this," Mylo grimaces.
    "Well this time is the last time," Vi counters before looking over at me and Powder. Vi's eyes immediately flit down to my arm and she gasps a little. I am a little taken aback but I follow her gaze to see a big piece of glass stuck in my upper arm. It must have been from the explosion. "Fuck," Vi mutters scooting over to me. "Are you ok?" she says, quietly, grazing her fingers over the skin surrounding the gash. I feel my breath hitch silently, noticing the feeling of her fingers brushing near the cut, and curse myself for it. The weird reaction must just be because of the pain. Yeah that's it. "
Yeah of course," I grimace, putting an annoyed bite in my voice for good measure. In the back of my mind I hear Clagger say something and Powder responds. Vi sighs, ripping a piece of her undershirt into a strip.
"On the count of three, ok," she mutters and I nod flinching. This was not the first time we had done this for each other. "1, 2,," she hesitates. ''3." I bite down on my hand to muffle my scream, leaving an angry bite mark, as Vi rips out the glass and quickly wraps the fabric around my arm. We climb down to meet the others who seem to be arguing.    
    "Guys," I exclaimed to shut them up and gestured to the pack on Vi's back, "Let's get this home."
    We climb out of the garbage shoot, passing the bag between all three of us before walking through the sunlit streets and back down into an alley. I skip up to Vi, whose features are etched in determination.
    "What do you think Vander will say about this haul," I questioned the slightly taller girl beside me.
    "That I'm a goddamn genius," Vi smirks back and I immediately catch the teasing, competitive tone in her voice. 
    "Actually, I think he might be more concerned with the building you blew up," I shot back.
"I blew up," she emphasizes the 'I'. "You planned this job just as much as I did."
"Well if you're going to take all the credit, you can take all the blame too," I mock, bumping my good shoulder into hers. She grins back at me for a moment. I enjoy the warm feeling that her smile brings before we hear a voice from behind us.
"Nice haul?" he asks.
    "You could say that," Mylo responds. I silently curse him for saying something like that and I know Vi must be doing the same. We attempt to keep walking but it quickly becomes clear this won't be settled that easily.
"I heard there was some action across the river someone, someone really kicked the nest huh," he says. I turn to look at him now, and he looks like trouble. I take a deep breath and Vi and I exchange a look before she turns around.
"Is that so," she quips and I see the men beyond her blocking our path. Shit. An ambush.
"But now you're, you're tracking this mess of yours through our streets," the man says slowly. He's blonde and has the stalky kind of build you get from growing up in the Undercity.
"Your streets," I scoff, "what makes you think..," I'm cut off as Cagglor pushes me behind him and I topple into Vi. She catches me, her hands going to my arms, just under the cut. I scramble out of her grasp and we both avoid each other's eyes for a moment.
"Listen, we don't want any trouble, okay," he says. I fight the urge to roll my eyes. This man clearly wasn't going to call off his attack based on Claggors little sentiment. The conversation after that is brief, it becomes apparently clear that we weren't getting out of there without a fight. I put my hand on my cut arm and cringed, this was going to hurt. Vi knocked the blonde boy (who we had come to know as Deckard) across the face with the bag full of precious Piltover metals and it was all over from there.  It was a relatively average fight, Powder had been tossed the pack at some point, and the rest of us had eventually taken out a guy or two. I wiped my mouth as I noticed the bandage has come off my upper arms and the cut has begun to bleed again. I turn to leave with the others.
"Wait," one of the men calls out from behind us and I turn to see Decker with a knife. My hand goes to my side pants pocket where I keep a small dagger precisely for situations like this but Violet places her hand on my lower arm. She shakes her head lightly and gives me a look that says 'don't'. I nod as she turns away and walks up to him. My heart skips a beat as she gets a little close for comfort to the guy with the knife. I hated it when she did stuff like that. Not like I wouldn't do the same thing but still. She bends down.
"Wanna see how that ends," she says calmly and menacingly, looking at the knife. A moment of tension sits, dangerous and threatening, before it snaps and Deckard runs away. We stand together for a moment and I look around.
"Where's Powder."