fantastic ✷ caitvi

2. heavy is the crown

"Absolutely not."

Jayce sighs at his best friend, giving her his best pleading look. "Come on, Cait, please? It'll be fun!"

Caitlyn's nose wrinkles in distaste. "And how on earth is watching two idiots beat up each other classified as fun?"

"Because it's meant to be entertaining," Jayce persists, eyes locked on the tennis ball that he throws up in the air and catches.

"To men, maybe."

"Hey now, don't be sexist."

Rolling her eyes, Caitlyn continues running a brush through her wet hair, untangling the strands. "You know I don't enjoy that sort of thing, Jayce. It's unnecessary violence."

"You want to be an enforcer. Are you really complaining about unnecessary violence right now?"

As much as Caitlyn hates to admit it, Jayce is right. Her dream is to be an enforcer, and violence comes with that, necessary or not. Still, she finds pitfighting to be idiotic and insensible. How could anyone enjoy watching two people try to beat each other to death?

"Look," Jayce starts, sensing her affliction. "It's entertainment. These guys get paid for this sort of stuff. It's like a job. And no one really dies."

Her eyebrows jump to her hairline. "What do you mean, no one really dies?!"

"It was one time," Jayce responds with a brash wave of his hand. "Anyway, it'll be fun, I promise. And you still owe me for scoring you a date with Melissa or whatever her name is."

"Maddie," Caitlyn corrects with an eye roll. "And the date wasn't very good, so I'm afraid that doesn't count."

"Cait."

"Ugh, fine," she relents, tossing her brush aside as she watches a grin break across her best friend's face. "I'll go with you, but that doesn't mean I'll enjoy it."

"Good enough for me."

"I still don't understand why you didn't ask Viktor to go with you."

"You and I both know Viktor would much rather stay at home and work on his inventions," Jayce points out. "He'd never agree to go watch a fight with me."

"So I have to subject to this torture instead?" She mumbles under her breath.

Jayce tosses the ball for her to catch. "That's what it means to be my best friend."

"Lucky me."

Truthfully, she is lucky to have a friend like Jayce. He's technically like a brother to her. Growing up as a rich kid who wasn't around many kids her age, she found comfort in the older boy. He stood by her side through thick and thin and taught her things she never would've learned without him.

Most people who don't know them well assume that they're a couple, which is hilarious because Caitlyn is only into women, and while Jayce is bisexual, he's had a fat crush on their friend Viktor for years now. He's just too much of a coward to confess his feelings.

"Yeah, lucky you." Jayce slides off her bed and stretches. Caitlyn swears she's hears his joints pop. "The fight's tomorrow night. I'll pick you up. It's gonna be great!"

Oh, how she has trouble believing that.

VIVIVIVI

She's heard countless rumors about the undercity from her parents and other people in Piltover, like how the people who live there eat out of the trash and never wash their clothes because they're all too poor to do so. She's never been to the undercity, so she doesn't know if it's all true, but she believed it. After all, her parents knew more than she did.