Stories of Violyn (CaitVi)

Paperwork

"If I ever quit, it will be because of this."

It was getting late. Vi and Caitlyn were sitting on opposite sides of their table in their bedroom at the Kiramman estate. Caitlyn's back was straight, her handwriting quick, and her attention undivided. Vi, on the other hand, was resting her head on the desk, and she was fidgeting with a pen. Even though Caitlyn's pile of paper was considerably larger than hers, she felt like she was never going to see the end of it.

She sighed, deliberately making it long and loud. Then, she glanced over at Caitlyn, but her girlfriend was so deep in concentration that she probably didn't even hear that.

"I'll do it," Vi tried again. "I'll quit."

"Mm-hmm," was all she got as a response.

"But first, I'm burning down the precinct. And I'm leaving you too. I think."

"And why would you do such a thing?" Caitlyn mumbled with her head still buried in a document.

"Because I don't love you anymore." Vi turned her head to the other side of the table. "I never did."

"Stop being silly, and finish your paperwork," Caitlyn told her with an amused smile in the corner of her mouth.

"And she doesn't even care," Vi commented, lifting her head and glancing at Caitlyn again. She was still writing ever so diligently. "Now that is seriously concerning."

This time, no reply came, so Vi also stayed silent. She kept toying with her pen, and after a few seconds, she stood up and walked over to Caitlyn's side of the table. She stopped behind the young woman's chair, lowered her head to her level, and peeked into the paper. Caitlyn barely gave any reaction to her; she was practically lost in her work, so Vi moved even closer to her face. She brushed the deep blue hair away and kissed her on her neck, lingering over her soft skin and savoring her sweet scent. Caitlyn leaned into her kiss, running her fingers through the short, fuzzy hair on the side of Vi's head, but after only a few moments, she pulled back. Vi raised her eyebrows, but at the same time, she had a knowing look about her.

"I must finish this," Caitlyn explained. "Please don't distract me."

"Wow. I'm starting to think you are actually enjoying paperwork. In some perverse, topsider way of yours."

Caitlyn put the document in front of her onto a pile on her right and opened another one from the pile on her left. "It's just another part of the job. I never loved it, but I accepted the necessity long ago."

"Uh huh, sure. The necessity. So it's not that you like ticking little boxes and crossing lines."

It was true that Caitlyn never loved doing paperwork, but she never particularly disdained it as much as the average enforcer seemed to do so, either. And she did love crossing out things from her to-do list, but she wouldn't admit that to Vi, especially not now, when she was already so grumpy about having to do a little work while sitting behind a desk. Instead, she stayed silent and kept working her way through her to-do pile. And after a little more waiting around, Vi stepped back to return to her place on the other side of the table too.

It didn't take long before she spoke again, though; "What's this word?"

"Um..." Caitlyn had to force herself to draw her attention away from the paper in front of her and process the question. She read out the word Vi was pointing at. "Corroborate."

"I can still read, Cupcake, thank you. But what does it mean?"

"It's basically to confirm something."

"Okay," Vi nodded, now that she understood what was in front of her. "Then why don't they just fucking write that?" she added, under her nose.

"Have you never heard the word corroborate?" This got Caitlyn curious.