Archive of Our Own

It’s been a long day.

Maddie looks over to the desk while she quietly gathers pictures to add to the pin board. Caitlyn sits there, tension pouring off of her in waves; in the set of her shoulders, the flexed muscle at the base of her jaw, the way her knuckles are white where she grips her pen. 

“We could probably call it here, commander.” 

The word burns on her tongue; she hasn’t grown used to it. 

Caitlyn barely spares her a glance. “I need to send these off in the morning.” Something stops her and she straightens, looking over her shoulder at the clock. “You should go home though. I’m sorry for keeping you.” 

Maddie’s eyebrows furrow. “What if you need something?” 

“It’ll keep until tomorrow.” Caitlyn looks back at her missive and starts writing again. “Goodnight, Officer Nolen.” 

“Goodnight, Commander.” 

She walks home alone, tired, irritated, and doesn’t think too hard about it when she touches herself until she falls asleep. 

– 

“Shall I make us some tea?” Maddie offers. 

Caitlyn looks at her, startled almost, as if she’d forgotten she was there. Maddie fights the urge to frown. 

“Yes, actually,” Caitlyn says, dropping her hands and rolling out her neck. “That would be lovely.”

Maddie heads for the door, is almost through it, by the time a “Thank you” sounds from within the study. She tries not to let it bother her. 

The tea she makes is strong, just the way Caitlyn likes it. She thinks about finding a biscuit or two, but decides against it. Caitlyn never eats them when she offers anyway. Tobias almost runs into her in the hallway as she makes her way back to the study. 

“Apologies,” Maddie says, clutching the small tray with both hands. The tea almost sloshes over into the saucer. “I was just taking this to Caitl– to the commander.” 

Tobias looks at her with haunted eyes and gives her a small smile but doesn’t say anything, just moves to the side and lets her pass. She feels his eyes on her until she’s back in the room. Unsettled, she hands one cup and saucer to Caitlyn and takes the other to lean against the spiral staircase. She watches Caitlyn sip her tea, grimacing through the initial burn. She never let it cool down, always scalding her mouth but never complaining. There’s something to it, Maddie thinks. To her draw to pain, to the impatience that puts her there. 

Maddie smiles behind her cup as Caitlyn hisses through her second sip. There’s something to it.

–

Maddie pins a photo to the board. It’s the third monkey head they’ve found this week. Caitlyn is upset, rightfully so. It’s a dead end, like the others.  

“We followed the trail. Everything lined up, but in the end…” Maddie fades off, looking at Caitlyn. “I’m sorry, Commander.” 

“Who gave you this lead?” Caitlyn asks sharply. She eyes the photograph. 

“It was an anonymous tip.” Maddie knows this is unacceptable. She should have answers. She is Caitlyn’s right hand. She should know something, anything, about this source. 

Caitlyn is silent as she steps closer to the pinboard, her eyes tracing some unknown path along the map. She reaches out and presses a pin in more deeply with her thumb, smoothes down the corner of one of the Wanted posters. 

Maddie’s eyebrows furrow. She touches the most recent photograph. “It’s as if someone is getting in our way, making it hard to track her,” she says distractedly, letting out a small huff of breath through her nose. “I just wish we knew who it was.” 

She feels Caitlyn’s head turn more than sees it, senses it in the sharpness of the action in her periphery. Maddie glances at her. Caitlyn’s eyes are narrowed slightly, her eyebrows pulled low over them.

“You think someone is purposely making this harder for us?” she asks, her lower jaw jutted forward just a little. “Who might that be?” 

Maddie knows this is delicate ground. She rattles off her response. “I don’t know. One of her friends. Her sister maybe?” She bites off her question with a grimace and blinks her gaze away, then back to Caitlyn.

Caitlyn’s cheeks are flushed, her jaw working. “Seems unlikely,” she finally says. Her voice is gritty.

Maddie swallows the small smile threatening to break out across her face and clears her throat. “I understand, given your history,” she says in a small voice, “that it might be hard to believe but it’s not the first time–” 

She doesn’t get the chance to finish her thought. Caitlyn turns to her with a coldness that belies the anger Maddie can see simmering beneath her eyes. “I am not interested in your theories about Vi .” It sounds like a curse. “Perhaps if you spent more time vetting your sources and less time following pointless leads, we’d be a little closer to finding Jinx.” 

Maddie’s humiliation swells in her stomach but it’s a curious thing, heated and molten. She nods once, succinctly. “Understood, Commander.” 

Maddie comes twice that night to the memory of the ice in Caitlyn’s voice. 

– 

It’s late. Their files are a mess. Maddie is doing her best to organize them when she hears Caitlyn swear. She looks to where Caitlyn is sitting; the inkpot has been knocked over, spilling onto her papers and the rug beneath her desk. 

“I’ll take care of it, Commander.” 

Maddie does not hesitate. She leaves her files, takes her handkerchief from her pocket and kneels at Caitlyn’s feet, mopping up the puddle of black ink. A shadow moves over her. Caitlyn is standing now, towering over Maddie, eyebrows knit together. She’s quiet. Maddie leans back on her heels to look up at her. Caitlyn worries her thumb against the knuckle of her other hand, pressing into it, pushing down hard until a white spot appears. Releasing. Pressing again. 

“You don’t have to do that, Maddie.” 

It’s the first time Caitlyn has called her anything but Officer Nolen. Maddie tries and fails to ignore the pleasant twist inside. 

“I don’t mind.” She leans down to continue her task. 

Caitlyn drops to one knee and reaches for the handkerchief. Her fingers curl around Maddie’s. She doesn’t let go. “I’ll take it from here.” She pulls the handkerchief free, a smudge of ink staining her hand. “You. You should go.” 

Maddie pulls her eyes away from the stain on the sides of Caitlyn’s fingers, from the flex of tendons in the back of her hand. “Let me stay. Let me help.” 

Caitlyn’s eyebrows flinch together, just for a moment. “Help with what?” 

Maddie looks at Caitlyn imploringly, glances at her mouth for a moment, then back to her shadowed eyes. Breathes out. Lets her silence sit. 

“Whatever you might need help with,” she finally says, her voice almost a whisper. 

Caitlyn looks away. Her throat bobs as if she’s about to say something but nothing comes. Not for a long while. Maddie worries she crossed a line, maybe too quickly, maybe not quickly enough. 

In one smooth movement, Caitlyn leans into the distance between them and kisses her. Maddie almost falls off balance but Caitlyn wraps an arm around her waist, moving to kneel on both knees. With her other hand, she reaches up and grips Maddie’s jaw. Caitlyn’s mouth presses bruisingly against Maddie’s, her tongue sweeping between her lips that are still slack with shock. The shock wears off fast though. Maddie is swept up in the near anger of the kiss, the way Caitlyn bends over her, holding her tight around the waist, bearing the weight of her body with one arm. Maddie can’t breathe, doesn’t want to breathe, wants to pull Caitlyn on top of her and forget her own name. She grips Caitlyn’s wrist, the one connected to the hand that’s gripping her jaw so hard it almost hurts, and makes a soft, wanting noise. 

Caitlyn breaks the kiss abruptly at the sound, releasing her fingers at the same time.

Maddie’s jaw aches. 

They look at each other, panting lightly. Maddie feels Caitlyn’s hand curl into a fist before she leans back, stands, and looks toward the window. The handkerchief is forgotten, lying crumpled next to the spilled ink. Maddie climbs to her feet, surprised at how her knees wobble a little. 

“Goodnight, Officer Nolen.” 

In the mirror that hangs over her dresser, Maddie looks at the ink stains on her jaw. She touches them, presses her fingertips into them like she would push a bruise. 

There is a different rug beneath Caitlyn’s desk after that. 

–

Maddie waits a day, two, a week, more. Caitlyn doesn’t kiss her again, doesn’t so much as mention it. She is the perfect example of decorum. 

Maddie broods.         

Caitlyn seems wholly unaffected.

Their days drone on, almost unbearable in their monotony. Maddie longs for the days of the strike team again, even considers a request to be transferred, but she stays, because Caitlyn is here. Because Caitlyn is the job. 

Caitlyn writes missives. Maddie fetches her tea. 

Caitlyn attends meetings.

Caitlyn studies their maps, books about strategy, scrolls given to her by Ambessa. She dictates things to Maddie who dutifully writes them and files them away for later. 

Ambessa visits, dismissing Maddie from her meetings with Caitlyn like she would dismiss a loyal hound. It only stings a little to stand at the closed door, waiting to be bid back inside. 

Maddie checks on Tobias, gathers Caitlyn’s correspondences, fetches the tea, fills her inkpot, takes her jacket to the tailor, fetches the tea, sits at her side while she studies, listens to her rant about Jinx, fetches the tea, fetches the tea, fetches the tea. 

Maddie thinks she might be going mad. The irritation she feels at Caitlyn’s cool distance is a nuisance on her best days, an actual distraction on her worst. She does not know how to pique Caitlyn’s interest beyond stripping naked and propositioning her in no uncertain terms. But no. She has to let the fire burn low and slow, to let the embers become flames, to prove her value to this woman she has come to dislike to such a degree that she thinks Caitlyn might be able to smell it on her. 

Today is no exception. 

They go about their business. Meetings, taking notes, filing, rearranging the pinboard, one more crime to add, one more piece to the never ending puzzle. Maddie sulks over their tea, sick of the flavor of it, her own tongue scalded out of the desire to feel anything beyond boredom and loathing. 

The day stretches on. Morning rolls into afternoon and on into evening and Caitlyn is quieter than normal, writing, writing so much that Maddie wonders how her wrist holds up to the sheer volume she’s managed to churn out over these months. She sits across from Caitlyn, face arranged into the perfect vision of neutrality. The clock chimes the time, surprising her. It’s well past the time they would normally wrap things up. Caitlyn doesn’t move, doesn’t do much as suggest to Maddie that their work today is done. 

“It’s late, Commander,” Maddie offers. “Surely that can be finished in the morning.” 

Caitlyn doesn’t answer.  She continues, pen nib scratching the paper the only sound in the room outside of the ticking second hand. 

Maddie decides that in the morning she will ask Ambessa for a new assignment and accept the bitterness of failure. 

Eventually Caitlyn’s pen slows, then stops. She places it in its holder, gently blows over the top of her paper, then gathers it with the rest into a sheaf she taps against the desk sharply until they’re all in a neat stack. She sets it to the side, she stands. 

Maddie stands with her, filled with relief, waits dutifully for Caitlyn to dismiss her. 

Caitlyn steps out from her chair and pushes it in, walks across the room to the office door and shuts it with a decided click. She locks it, her hand lingering on the turnkey. She shakes her head slightly, the barest of movements. Then she turns, crosses the room, and pulls Maddie to her. 

Her kiss is all teeth and tongue, rough, calculated movements as she slides a hand into Maddie’s hair, dislodging the tie that keeps it back. Maddie gasps as Caitlyn pulls her head back, exposes her throat above the high collar of her shirt and jacket. Caitlyn’s mouth is hot on her skin, her teeth catching the edge of Maddie’s jaw as she bends and kisses it. Maddie’s knees grow weak despite herself. 

“Commander,” she gasps, weakly pushing at Caitlyn’s shoulder. “Are you sure?”

Caitlyn lifts her head long enough to look Maddie in the eyes. “If you want me to stop, Maddie, you need to tell me now.” 

“I don’t,” she whispers, looking up at Caitlyn with wide eyes. She nods, just a little, the barest dip of her chin. “I don’t want you to stop at all.” 

And she doesn’t. She hates Caitlyn and everything she stands for but she can’t deny that Caitlyn lights a fire in her veins that’s stronger than any she’s felt from even the finest Noxian wine or Piltovan spirits. 

She feels her lip tremble as if she’s cold. Caitlyn’s eyes catch the movement.  

She’s not the gentle lover Maddie imagined her to be. She’s impatient, her fingers skillful as she undoes the fastenings of Maddie’s clothes, leaving them puddled on the floor. She pushes Maddie up against the office door noisily, naked, her hand dipping between Maddie’s legs to test how wet she is. Caitlyn doesn’t say anything as her fingers come away glistening, only holds them up into the meager light as if to show them off to Maddie and arches an eyebrow. Maddie hates what it does to her, hates the way it makes her stomach drop low and the ache between her legs grow uncomfortable. 

Caitlyn undresses herself slowly, makes Maddie wait as she carefully sets her clothes neatly on the chair. It’s a show of power, like her cloak, like her meetings with Ambessa, like the thrumming beat of the war drums that rattle around in Maddie’s brain when she feels herself nearing too close to failure. 

The strap that sits low on Caitlyn’s hips, waiting to be used, is a surprise. She’s a planner, Maddie has to give her that.

Caitlyn fucks her in front of the mirror that hangs over the table by the door. She pushes her fingers into Maddie’s mouth, holds her head still as she watches herself thrust into Maddie. Maddie has to scrabble up onto her toes, has to keep herself balanced with one knee on the table and her hands pressed to the wood. Caitlyn tells her not to look away, so she doesn’t. She can obey. She can follow the orders she’s been given. 

There’s a flush high on her cheeks, her freckles almost obscured by it. It spills down her chest, across her small breasts. Caitlyn reaches up with her free hand and grazes her fingers across Maddie’s nipples and it’s almost too much. She feels her breath catch with a whine, the sound pours from her throat half muffled by the two fingers that Caitlyn has pressed against her tongue. 

Caitlyn fucks into her furiously, oblivious to or perhaps uncaring of the sound of the table hitting the wall with each thrust. Her hips are relentless, her eyes on her own reflection, not on Maddie. Never on Maddie. 

The irony of that isn’t lost to her, not even with every inch of Caitlyn’s strap buried deep inside her cunt. 

Caitlyn reaches between her legs and fingers Maddie’s clit impatiently. Okay, she wants it quick and rough, Maddie thinks. Maddie can do quick and rough. She widens her eyes at Caitlyn in the mirror, makes a desperate sound, grinds her own hips back, driving the strap deeper inside. 

When Maddie comes, she comes hard. She forgets herself, accidentally bites down on Caitlyn’s fingers still in her mouth, hard enough to draw blood. Her orgasm is white around the edges and tastes like iron and Maddie feels like she might collapse into herself after weeks of waiting for this line to be crossed. She rocks helplessly against Caitlyn’s hips and whimpers, sucking on her fingertips, drool dripping down the side of her mouth, cum down the insides of her thighs. It’s horrible and it’s glorious and she’s angry that Caitlyn made her feel so good, so easily, taking Maddie apart as quickly and effortlessly as she can take apart one of her rifles. 

Caitlyn withdraws the strap without fanfare and steps back, wiping the head with her palm to avoid it dripping. Maddie carefully rights herself, drops her foot back down to the ground and turns, breathing heavily, leaning against the table for support. Her cunt is sore, but it’s the delicious kind of soreness, the kind she craves. 

“Is there anything I can do for you, Commander?”

There is a brief moment when Caitlyn’s eyes shift to Maddie’s naked body, hunger flitting across her face, and Maddie thinks she might take her up on the offer. 

“Get dressed,” Caitlyn says instead. 

Maddie obeys. 

As she buttons her trousers, she sees Caitlyn step out of the strap, discarding it on the table near the fireplace, before pulling her clothes back on. Her bun is still intact, her cheeks slightly pink from exertion. She is otherwise untouched, looking as put together as the moment she stepped into the study this morning. Her eyes are unreadable as she waits for Maddie to finish arranging her jacket. 

“You’re dismissed,” Caitlyn says in a flat voice while Maddie tries to pull her hair back out of her face. “I’ll see you in the morning.” 

“Yes, Commander.”

Maddie leaves without another word, a strange feeling twisting in her stomach. Something is off but she can’t put her finger on it. It’s not until Maddie is just on this side of sleep that it occurs to her. 

Caitlyn didn’t come. 

–

Where two armchairs once stood, now there is only one.

Maddie tries not to think about the implications of that, that the chair only disappeared after she spent the better part of an hour on her knees between Caitlyn’s legs, listening to her half-hearted noises as Maddie tried and failed to make her come. 

Her knees ached for two days after and Caitlyn’s fist in her hair had left a tender spot on her scalp. 

Let Caitlyn Kiramman feel unsatisfied after sex. Maddie always gets hers, so why should it matter?

Besides, Maddie is sure it has more to do with the Enforcer who stumbled upon the scene and was transferred to another unit by morning than the fact that Caitlyn didn’t come. Goodbye gossip, goodbye extra chair, goodbye one more comfortable place to fuck or be fucked. 

But try as she might to pretend she doesn’t care, Maddie does. It niggles at Maddie whenever she has a minute to think about it. She wants to make Caitlyn come, not out of any loyalty to her or her pleasure, but because it would mean something to melt the bitch. She takes out her frustration on a brothel worker in Zaun, late in the night, long after she’s been dismissed from Caitlyn’s side. The brothel worker is overeager and comes too fast but Maddie takes the win. She wants the satisfaction of making a woman come. As she walks home, the taste of the brothel worker still on her mouth, Maddie decides that she will be the end of Commander Kiramman. 

–

Ambessa visits for another meeting and, as usual, Maddie is dismissed when she arrives, left to stand in the hallway burning with humiliation. She overhears part of their passionate conversation through the door. Caitlyn is angry at Ambessa’s overreaching, at her request to fortify a part of Zaun that has been left exposed after the Enforcer raids. She argues that it will hamper what meager business the Zaunite merchants who work out of that area already have. Ambessa argues that no price is too great for peace. It’s a song and dance Maddie has heard one too many times; their back and forth fades into background noise as she stands ready to be bid back inside. 

Ambessa leaves with a final call to action that Caitlyn does not answer. Maddie hesitantly opens the door, peeks her head in to see Caitlyn standing at the fireplace, leaning her forearm against the mantle. She’s unmoving, not so much as a shift of her shoulders as Maddie enters. Maddie can sense the tension in her from a mile away. It rolls off of her in waves.

Maddie stands not too far away, waiting, hands clasped behind her back. It feels like an eternity before Caitlyn says anything, acknowledges her presence even.

“She wants more from me than I can give in good conscience. These fortifications would only hurt the people of Zaun, not help them. They’d be the cause of even more unnecessary violence.” Caitlyn sucks the back of her teeth as she bites off the end of her statement. When she inhales, it’s shaky. 

Maddie takes a step toward her, then another. “Perhaps, Commander,” she starts. 

Caitlyn straightens, dropping her forearm and turning to look at Maddie. Her face is an unreadable mask, her blue eyes studying Maddie’s face as she steps closer. 

Maddie licks her lips nervously. “The General seems to have an idea of how to handle these types of situations,” she says. “She has dealt with… unruly forces in the past. Sometimes it’s best to meet their violence with equal force.” 

Caitlyn’s eyebrows pull together with a flicker of something across her face. “You think we need to make more of a show of force?” 

Maddie shakes her head, shrugs one shoulder, looks away. “I wouldn’t presume to understand these things as well as the General.” She swallows. “Or as well as you do. I don’t mean to overstep. I just think it would serve you… us – Piltover, I mean – to trust her judgement a little more. Her experience is invaluable.” 

Caitlyn’s face twists with anger. She takes a step towards Maddie. “And I suppose you think these are the types of opinions that I’ve kept you on for? That Ambessa, a General from a foreign land, knows more about how to keep the people of Piltover safe than I do, someone born and bred to lead them? Raised from the cradle to step into my mother’s place as a councilor?” Her voice catches when she speaks, as if it takes great effort to keep her volume even. She takes another step in Maddie’s direction.

Maddie fights the urge to close the distance herself. She always was a glutton for punishment. Her stomach swoops low, her cunt aching as she watches Caitlyn struggle. She takes a single, small step backwards. 

“I only think that maybe it would make your mother proud to see you now considering the wisdom of someone with so much experience.” There. The bait. And Caitlyn takes it beautifully. Her eyes narrow almost imperceptibly at Maddie’s mention of her mother. “Someone whose only goal is to help you to achieve peace.” Her voice fades off in uncertainty. 

Caitlyn’s face flushes. In a handful of long strides, she crosses the distance between them. Maddie scrambles backwards on instinct, her spine painfully hitting the bannister of the curved staircase. Caitlyn leans in low, her eyes heated, her mouth tight with fury. She reaches up and grabs Maddie’s jaw, holds her in place as she speaks. 

“Do not ever presume to know what my mother would think about me or my actions, Officer Nolen. You did not know her. You would do well to remember that.” 

Maddie isn’t afraid of Caitlyn, never has been. This is all a game, one she’s well equipped to win. She looks at Caitlyn’s mouth, her bared teeth, then back at her eyes, pleading wordlessly. 

Caitlyn pushes her to sit on the staircase and kisses her without another word and it’s angry and it’s sharp and her teeth bite into Maddie’s lower lip as she bends over her. She pushes Maddie’s jacket off, unbuttons her shirt with impatient fingers and gropes her breast. Maddie arches into her, pushing herself closer. She grips Caitlyn’s jacket and tries to pull it off but Caitlyn pushes her hands away. Caitlyn’s kisses bruise her throat. Her fingers press into Maddie’s stomach and thighs as she pulls open her pants and slides her hand into them. Maddie prays for relief but when Caitlyn finally slips her fingers into her cunt, the ache only deepens. There’s not enough room for Caitlyn to move her hand easily, so Maddie has to make do with grinding up into her fingers desperately. Her shirt bunches up around her chest. Caitlyn finds her mouth again, kissing her insistently. Maddie opens her mouth to Caitlyn, lets her lick into her like the hungry creature she is. The metal step bites into Maddie’s back, scraping. She hisses against Caitlyn’s lips. 

There’s a tightening in her belly as she rocks hard into Caitlyn’s hand, gripping her wrist with one hand, holding herself steady on the precarious perch she has with the other. Inside, heat builds, licking through her. She grows more wet, thinks about the praise she’ll get for playing her part so well, thinks about Ambessa’s heavy hand on her shoulder. Imagines it on her waist. Inside of her. Maddie groans, grinds harder, feels the coil twist ever tighter. It’s right there, right there, she’s so near the edge she can see stars and color behind her eyelids. This assignment means something. She means something. Ambessa will have to see that now. 

Maddies shatters into a thousand pieces, throwing her head back, lungs heaving as she tries to pull air into them. She comes, clenching around Caitlyn’s fingers. Her legs shake, one heel slipping from the stairs, but the weight of Caitlyn’s body keeps her in place. Each wave crashes over her until she thinks that she can’t possibly take anymore. Overstimulation sets in. Maddie shudders and lets her hips drop, gasping for breath. 

“Commander, please,” she whimpers. 

Caitlyn’s hand stills and she withdraws her fingers. Maddie cracks an eye open, sees Caitlyn watching her. She lifts her hand, her fingers wet. Maddie parts her lips a little, eyes still on Caitlyn, and lets her tongue rest against her bottom lip. Caitlyn presses her fingers into her waiting mouth and Maddie takes them in. She doesn’t mind the taste of herself or the way Caitlyn’s long fingers brush the back of her throat. She sees the spark of interest in Caitlyn’s eyes as her gaze moves to her own fingers pumping lightly into Maddie’s mouth. It’s mild but unmistakable. If Caitlyn Kiramman wants Maddie to clean her up after a fucking, Maddie will do it. 

She’s nothing if not eager, just wants to make a name for herself in the precinct, after all. 

–

Ambessa does not get Caitlyn’s approval for the fortifications. 

A brief message full of chastisement is waiting in Maddie’s small apartment later that week, encoded. She reads it with a scowl. Ambessa expected more from Maddie’s influence. Maddie wants to protest, to remind Ambessa that Caitlyn is chasing one ghost and running from another. There is very little for her to work with. Ambessa wouldn’t approve, so Maddie says nothing, just glowers and makes her way to another day of work. 

The week is long, full of meetings with the merchants guild and several house leaders. Caitlyn  does her best to mitigate their concerns about Ambessa’s overreaching but it’s exhausting and never ending. Caitlyn is tiring, especially after a long day training with Ambessa. Maddie feels her own temperament balancing on a knife’s edge, envy flaring up inside of her that she works to tamp back down. She almost snaps at Caitlyn when Caitlyn asks her to, yet again, check on her father. As if the grown man is incapable of watching after himself. She makes tea and watches Caitlyn grimace in pain at the burn. Maddie rubs her forehead. Nothing is working. Caitlyn is impossible.

“You could just wait for it to cool down,” Maddie offers in a flat voice from her seat at the desk.

Caitlyn looks at her sharply, but there’s no bite in her voice. “I’ll thank you to keep your suggestions on how to drink my tea to yourself.” 

“Yes, Commander.” 

They fall into silence. Caitlyn holds her tea in her lap and stares at the embers in the hearth. She looks far away. Eventually she says, “I worry, sometimes, that I’ve given her too much leeway.” 

“Ambessa?” Maddie perks up, setting her pen down and her notes aside. Caitlyn’s admission is surprising. She seems lost, the tension between them shattered by her speaking these words out loud. It’s an olive branch of intimacy and Maddie doesn’t take it for granted.

Caitlyn nods. “I– it’s hard to admit but I am not wholly equipped to handle the repercussions of martial law. It’s been… difficult to find balance. More difficult than I’d expected.” 

She looks at Maddie then, her face oddly open. She looks tired; there are lines between her eyebrows and beneath her eyes, a tightness in her mouth that never seems to leave. 

Maddie pokes at Caitlyn’s wound. It’s an easy enough target. “It’s difficult not to want to place our trust in those we feel have our best interests at heart.” 

Caitlyn’s eyes grow hard for a moment. She laughs dryly. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.” 

“Maybe you could speak with her, share your concerns. I’m sure she values your perspective and experience as much as you’ve valued hers,” Maddie suggests. She pauses, letting her words sink in for a moment before continuing. “After all, as you said, you were raised to lead Piltover. She, of all people, would understand the desire to do right by your city. You have the right to decide what to do with the forces she’s provided and how to best use them.” 

“Perhaps,” Caitlyn says. She leans her cheek on her fist and looks at Maddie thoughtfully. “You seem to have put great thought into this topic.” 

Maddie ducks her head modestly. “I’ve learned so much from you.” 

“This arrangement has been beneficial to both of us, it would seem.” 

Maddie nods sagely. In the silence that follows, Maddie flexes her wrist, squeezes it with one hand. It’s a familiar action to both of them, one they saw many times on their missions with Vi whenever she’d work her joints out after a fight. Caitlyn’s eyes track the movement, her gaze distant. She looks down at the teacup in her lap, lifts it, takes a small sip. It’s cooled by now, the grimace doesn’t appear. She’s quiet. Maddie can almost see the wheels spinning in her head. She sips again, then looks back to Maddie. 

“I hope you understand how much your loyalty and companionship means to me,” Caitlyn says in a low voice. 

Maddie nods. “I believe I do, Commander.” 

“I also appreciate your discretion.” 

The statement is loaded. Who would Maddie tell about Caitlyn’s indiscretions, if she even wanted to tell anyone? 

Maddie stands and moves to Caitlyn’s side. She crouches and looks up at the Commander with an earnest expression. 

“Your trust is very important to me,” Maddie says. “I hope I’ve shown you that I will do anything asked of me, Cait.” 

Caitlyn’s eyes widen in surprise at the abbreviated use of her first name. They look at each other for a long moment. Caitlyn reaches out and idly traces a finger across her cheekbone. Her gaze softens into something like nostalgia. It’s almost tender. Maddie can almost believe that she means it. She smiles softly, despite her irritation.

Caitlyn takes Maddie to a bedroom in the Kiramman manor. Maddie wonders if it’s Caitlyn’s but decides it can’t be. The room is nicely decorated but impersonal. Caitlyn leaves the light off, reaches for Maddie, and pulls her into her embrace. When she ducks her head to kiss her, her mouth is gentle, so unlike the times she’s kissed her in the past. Her kisses are soft and insistent. Caitlyn touches her with hungry hands that graze Maddie’s sides and cup her jaw. She undresses Maddie slowly with eyes half lidded and allows Maddie to do the same with her. 

Even Maddie can admit Caitlyn is stunning, all long legs and lean muscle that almost glows in the moonlight shining in from the open window. 

Caitlyn leads Maddie to the bed, has her lay down on her back and climbs over her. The canopy obscures most of the light from the window and in the dark, Caitlyn brushes Maddie’s hair back from her face and kisses her cheeks and throat. It’s miles from what they've done together in the past. Her hand is gentle as she slips it between Maddie’s thighs and touches her. Maddie comes easily, with a mind filled with thoughts of other women. When she comes, Caitlyn muffles her cries of ecstasy with her own mouth, swallowing the moans and gasps. 

Afterwards, she rides Maddie’s face. Caitlyn is dripping, her hands fisted carefully in Maddie’s hair. Maddie supposes that Caitlyn thinks of this as a prize of some sort, deigning to let Maddie lay beneath her, mouth pressed tightly to her cunt. She puts forth a rather perfunctory effort to the action of licking at Caitlyn’s clit, her lips almost slack with annoyance. 

Above her, Caitlyn rocks, her head dropped back, her face hidden from Maddie’s gaze. She’s murmuring something, releases Maddie’s hair with one hand to cup her own breast. She flicks at her nipple with her thumb. Maddie realizes she’s whispering a name. Vi. Caitlyn is fucking herself on Maddie’s mouth and thinking of Vi. A golden opportunity has presented itself. Maddie reaches up to grip Caitlyn’s thighs, pulling her closer. Her jaw aches at this angle but she doesn’t care. She mouths at Catilyn’s cunt hungrily, tastes her, slips her tongue between her lips and inside of her. Caitlyn gasps. She grinds harder, desperation taking over. Maddie carefully sucks her clit, holds Caitlyn steady as she feels the trembling tension building in her thighs. All at once, Caitlyn unravels. Her legs shake, tightening around Maddie’s head. She bends at the waist, letting go of Maddie’s hair and pressing her hand against the bed to steady herself, breast still clutched in the other hand as she hunches over her pathetically. Maddie can see her face now, can see the rapture on her expression as her fantasy plays out behind closed eyes. 

“Vi,” Caitlyn gasps loudly. 

Maddie makes a sound, a pathetic whimper, her eyebrows scrunched together in a pained expression. Her fingers tighten on Caitlyn’s thighs. Caitlyn’s eyes fly open at the intrusive noise. They meet Maddie’s. She’s still mid-orgasm but has the good grace to look ashamed of herself as she realizes that it is not, in fact, Vi between her legs. Her pace stutters and she blinks furiously. Her hips slow and still, her thighs still shuddering with pleasure. Maddie uncurls her fingers and drops them to the bed. Caitlyn slides off of Maddie’s face and tucks her legs beneath herself, looking almost demure, even naked. She won’t look at Maddie. Maddie doesn’t say anything, just wipes her face and climbs off the bed but only gets as far as putting her shirt on when Caitlyn stops her. 

“It’s late. You should stay.” 

Maddie looks at her with a wounded expression. “I don’t think that’s what you want, Commander.” 

Caitlyn shakes her head. “I would like it if you would.” 

Maddie clutches her shirt in her fists, looks down at them, avoids Caitlyn’s gaze “Are you sure?” she asks, finally glancing at Caitlyn.

“Yes.” Caitlyn’s expression is penitent. “You don’t need to worry about getting a transport home.” She gestures vaguely towards the room. “You can have as much privacy as you want.” 

Caitlyn slips from the bed and moves to pull her trousers on but Maddie touches her arm. “Will you stay with me?” she asks quietly, a slight tremble in her voice.

When Caitlyn acquiesces, Maddie gets the impression that it is only for her benefit, that Caitlyn would rather spend her night anywhere but here, in bed, next to Maddie. But she stays, though there is a noticeable distance between them beneath the blankets. Maddie curls up on her side and watches Caitlyn’s profile in the dim light. She stares unseeing at the ceiling, her mouth pulled into a tense line. Maddie tucks her chin into her chest and smiles to herself a little. 

In the morning, Caitlyn is gone. 

–

They fall into a rhythm of sorts. Maddie spends more time at the manor than her own apartment. The spare room becomes a makeshift home for her, one that Caitlyn can access at any time. It’s convenient to have her so near. More often than not, their evenings find them together. Caitlyn fucks Maddie in every way she can think of, often just to get out some latent frustration. She’s more gentle than she’s been in the past, much to Maddie’s disappointment. Maddie misses it, the thrill of the chase. It’s too easy now. At least Caitlyn has the decency to ensure she comes. She’s still frigid, all but leaping from the bed or chair or floor the moment she’s worked out whatever is plaguing her most. But she’s tender mid-coitus, when she’s lost in the moment, almost wistful, and it nauseates Maddie.

Tobias seems to approve of their strange relationship, which is a small prize in and of itself. She wonders what Vi would think. Once, in a moment of rare openness, Caitlyn admitted drunkenly that her father didn’t approve of Vi. Maddie finds that absurd — who wouldn’t approve of such a warrior? — but later overhears a conversation between Tobias and Caitlyn during which he tells her that it’s good to see her with someone “so befitting her station.” Caitlyn is all fire and rage after that and Maddie comes three times from her efforts. It makes her laugh to think of how little he knows his own daughter. 

On the rare nights Caitlyn stays, it’s even more rare that she sleeps. Maddie tries to sit with her. She encourages Caitlyn to take back the power she has, to withdraw and reestablish the council, to give up the search for a single person who hasn’t caused any trouble in months and let her life get back to normal. Caitlyn distances herself from Maddie during these conversations, withdrawing into herself. In almost every instance, she chooses Ambessa’s plan despite Maddie’s gentle persuasion. But Caitlyn’s decisions are always made with an over-bloated show of guilt or grief, her blue eyes heavy with the weight of all this responsibility. 

Maddie is sick of the sight of her and sick of pandering to her ego, this spineless bitch who thinks herself an expert in warfare and strategery, who deigns to lay with the help and call herself their equal.  

Still, it’s better this way. Maddie has found the flaw in her makeup and exploits it willingly. In another life, it probably would have pissed Maddie off to have her suggestions so wholeheartedly ignored. 

But in this one, Caitlyn resists her and Ambessa’s power over her and the people of Piltover grows. 

–

Caitlyn is pathetic like this, legs spread, cunt dripping and on display for Maddie. She’s been teased within an inch of her life. Maddie takes her in: bruised nipples, bitten ribs, face red with wanting, eyes wide and pleading for release. 

Maddie will give her what she wants. 

Caitlyn whines as Maddie adjusts the harness on her hips, dragging one loose fist up the strap, fingers coated in lube. It’s not like Caitlyn needs it at this point but Maddie doesn’t want to risk her tapping out before Maddie has had her fill.

“On your knees,” Maddie bites out.

Caitlyn only nods, shifting quickly onto her knees, ass in the air. She’s delicious. Maddie leans down, bites down hard on the swell of muscle that curves away from her low back. Caitlyn presses her face into the mattress and shifts her hips back. She’s needy. Always has been. Nothing more than a bitch in heat with a fancy name and plenty of money to be had. Maddie’s hand comes down with a sharp smack. The handprint that lingers makes her lips curl into a half smile. 

She aligns the head of the dildo with Caitlyn’s entrance, fascinated by the slow drip of wetness to the mattress below. For a moment, she only holds it there, barely pressing in, resting in the entrance of Caitlyn’s cunt. 

“Please,” Caitlyn begs. “Maddie, please.” 

Maddie pushes inside without waiting any longer. Caitlyn takes her easily, hungry and desperate as she is, her back arching, pushing herself closer. Gripping her hips, Maddie slows, holding her steady.

“You’ll take what I give you,” she growls, leaning low to murmur into Caitlyn’s ear. “Greedy whore.” 

Caitlyn nods, whimpers “Yes”, her hair spilling across her naked back. Maddie can’t see her face like this. She wants to, wants to see Caitlyn take her, wants to see the pitiful way her mouth fucks open with every thrust of her hips. Maddie gathers her hair in one hand, pulls it back and to the side, forcing Caitlyn’s head to turn. There. Better. Her blue eyes track backwards, almost catching Maddie’s, lips parted, the barest hint of her pink, wet tongue showing behind gapped teeth. What a mess. 

Maddie fucks her roughly, delighted by the obscene slap of skin against skin. The room grows heated and damp with sex, the scent of an imminent orgasm heavy in the air. Drool puddles beneath Caitlyn’s mouth, the flush of exertion high on her cheekbones, sweat twisting her hair into tendrils that plaster themselves against her skin. She’s close. Maddie can feel it. She grips Caitlyn’s hair harder in her fist and with the other hand, she presses her thumb against the tight entrance of Caitlyn’s ass. Caitlyn makes a high, needy noise, so unlike her. It breaks midway through, cracks as it turns into a sob. Maddie presses harder, her hips moving frantically against Caitlyn. Her thumb slips inside. At the intrusion, Caitlyn makes a needful sound. 

“That’s right,” Maddie croons. “You like me to fill all of your holes, don’t you, Commander?” 

Caitlyn nods. Maddie can hear the friction of her cheek against the blanket, imagines the red mark that will be there after she’s had her fill. It makes her wet, slicks down the insides of her thighs. Perfect for Caitlyn to clean up. 

Caitlyn comes without a fight, clenching around Maddie’s thumb, around the hexstrap, her voice broken as she whines and cries out, hips stuttering. Maddie doesn’t let up, fucking her straight through her first orgasm and bringing her into the next. 

Despite her hatred for the woman, Maddie can’t deny the way it feels to have Caitlyn beneath her like this, to abuse her body the way Caitlyn has abused hers. Not unwanted but a show of power nevertheless. She wonders if this is how Ambessa feels. Her cunt aches.

Caitlyn cranes her neck, looks back over her shoulder at Maddie, just on this side of her second orgasm. Her lips are rough from panting, her legs trembling so hard Maddie has to fight to keep her hips upright. And just as Caitlyn is about to crash over the edge, Maddie blinks her eyes open. 

She’s disoriented at first. 

This isn’t the spare room in the Kiramman estate. It’s smaller, more comfortable. She’s home. It’s early morning, the light still a deep gray, but outside she can hear Piltover waking up. The vivid images from her dream linger; Caitlyn on her knees, pitiful. But she’s not here. Maddie’s bed is empty and she is alone. 

Maddie touches her head with one hand. It’s pounding. She takes a deep breath and remembers. Caitlyn and Ambessa are in Zaun, hunting some unknown beast, with strict orders to Maddie that she isn’t to leave unless called for. Someone has to ensure things in Piltover are running smoothly, after all, so it might as well be her. The anger comes back, the anger she’s been holding onto since they left her here. Dismissed, as she always is, like she matters no more than any other Enforcer, as if she hasn’t been holding Caitlyn together for all these months, indulging her delusions of grandeur, satisfying her every whim and craving. 

Maddie grimaces and sits up. Her Enforcer uniform taunts her from its place on the valet stand. She hates the sight of it, hates what it makes her into. In her heart, she’s already back in Noxus, at Ambessa’s side. The thought soothes her wounded ego. She closes her eyes, allows herself a few more moments to daydream. 

Soon. It will all be over soon. 

–

Vi is back.

Maddie can’t believe it. 

Vi is the worst wrench to have been thrown into things. The months of groveling and debasing herself and pretending that she was something she’s not feel like a waste to Maddie now. Caitlyn won’t leave Vi’s side when they first get to the Kiramman manor, bandaged and injured and dirty. Vi is unconscious for the better part of three days, hooked up to an IV in Caitlyn’s bedroom. 

In her bed.

Maddie is the one Caitlyn is fucking and she’s never seen her bedroom before now. The irony makes her sick. She wants, more than ever, to put this Piltovan bitch in her place, to shame her for the way she used Maddie. No matter that Maddie wanted to be used, needed it even, for Ambessa’s plan to work. She’s so riled up, she can’t even find relief that Vi survived. Vi, who was always kind to her. Vi, who Caitlyn has been grieving for months and never deserved in the first place. 

Everything has turned to shit. 

Rictus is dead and Jinx is captured and Ambessa’s army is the threat at Piltover’s door and Caitlyn is hovering over an unconscious Vi like there’s absolution to be found at her side. Maddie doesn’t even get the chance to mourn Rictus, to grieve him the way she was taught to grieve a soldier. She’s too busy playing house with Caitlyn. She dreams of the day she can put an end to this charade and to Caitlyn Kiramman. 

“You need to eat, to sleep,” Maddie insists. “You won’t do Vi any good if you’re out of commission yourself.”

“I know what I need, Maddie. And right now, that’s you focused on getting the intel I asked for.” 

So Maddie does. She puts in the work and she gets the intel Caitlyn needs, and she cleans up the corkboard, removing all the clues and evidence against Jinx, and she gets the tea, and she makes sure Tobias is eating, and she waits dutifully in a spare bedroom Caitlyn no longer visits and she grinds her teeth together so hard that her jaw aches. 

For this, she better be made Captain. 

Caitlyn finally emerges from her bedroom days later, sans Vi, to meet with Maddie in the office. They discuss the invasion. There are no real solutions here. War looms and Piltover is ill equipped for a battle of this magnitude. Maddie’s blood sings with excitement. She pulls it in, watches Caitlyn carefully. They arrange the ship pins in silence. Caitlyn is quiet, lost in thought. She moves away, back to the fireplace to lean against it as she processes their options, which aren’t many. Maddie goes to stand by her side. The sun comes in through the window, stretching the shadows of the ships across the map like an omen. The longer they stand, the more tense Caitlyn gets. Her thumb worries at one of the ship pins in her hand, rubbing the painted wood over and over again, like maybe the answer will come to her if she does it enough. Maddie waits for her to talk. When Caitlyn stays silent, she speaks. 

“Maybe we can negotiate.” It’s a stupid suggestion, she knows this. She looks at Caitlyn for approval. 

“Not with Ambessa. I saw it in her eyes. She will burn Piltover to the ground for my betrayal.” It’s overdramatic, just like Caitlyn, even if she is right. 

Caitlyn won’t look at her. She glances at the ship pin in her hand. 

Maddie reaches for her. “You can’t blame yourself.” 

Caitlyn pulls her hand away impatiently. It stings more than it should. The embarrassment flares hot in Maddie’s chest. 

“I don’t need consolation. I need a plan.” 

The door to the study swings open, banging against the wall as Vi comes in, a blur of anger and disbelief. Maddie tries to stop her. This isn’t the time. She needs to talk to Caitlyn in private, to discuss the possibility of surrender. Caitlyn dismisses her so easily though, as if she was never needed in the first place. 

Now that Vi is back, Maddie supposes that’s true. 

She listens outside the door for a moment. Vi is right. Caitlyn never would have done the same for Jinx. She’s too petty, too selfish, too swept up in her own righteous cause to consider anyone else. Maddie scoffs as Caitlyn defends her actions. She’s heard enough. 

Maddie leaves the manor long enough to send word to Ambessa about Vi’s state and the status of Caitlyn’s plans. She doesn’t have time to wait for a response, she’s sure she probably wouldn’t get one anyway at this point. She already knows the role she’s meant to play. She only feels a little guilty about anyone who might get caught in the crossfire - Steb, Loris, Vi. Good, kind Vi who only ever wanted to do the right thing, who Caitlyn manipulated to the last moment. Maddie hopes she makes it. Ambessa will  have use for her. Maddie is sure she can convince her to bring her back to Noxus once all is said and done. 

After their meeting with Jayce and the other house heads, Caitlyn disappears. Vi is also suspiciously absent. Maddie looks but they are nowhere to be found. Maddie wanders the Kiramman manor, looking for them. The garden is empty, so are all the main rooms and spare rooms. Caitlyn’s room is the last place she looks. It’s just as empty as the others. But Maddie goes in anyway, her curiosity too great to ignore. It smells like Caitlyn, her perfume on every surface. Every detail reeks of her privilege - the trophies and medals, the fancy coat hanging on a stand, the sheer size of the room, three times that of Maddie’s small apartment. The bed is unmade. The IV stand still sits nearby, a rumpled blanket laying half off the bed, forgotten. This was where Vi slept. Maddies sits on the edge of the mattress and lifts the pillow Vi had used to her face, breathes in the scent that wafts off of it. The scent is Caitlyn but it’s also Vi, right there where her head had been. 

Yes, Ambessa will have use for Vi. Maddie will make sure of that. She sets the pillow down and leaves. 

–

Maddie wants to say she feels bad for hitting Caitlyn so hard but at this point, she doesn't feel the slightest hint of guilt. She knows Vi won’t approve. Maybe she’ll leave that detail out for now. 

Caitlyn looks over her shoulder at Maddie and it’s clear she never expected this betrayal. She’s angry, hunched pathetically at the top of the platform, her teeth gritting all the same. Maddie holds her fancy, stupid hextech rifle to her head and meets her eyes unflinchingly. 

Ambessa reaches the top of the steps and comes to Maddie. She is as glorious as ever in her war mask, blood splattered on her face and clothing. Maddie salutes her. The pride she’s looked for all this time is right there on Ambessa’s face. She’s done it. Maddie has brought Caitlyn to her knees for Ambessa. Her triumph is all the sweeter in knowing that Caitlyn is fully aware of her betrayal. The satisfaction she feels is almost enough of a reward in and of itself but then Ambessa rests a hand on Maddie’s shoulder in praise. Her stomach tumbles pleasantly at the contact. She fights a smile and hands Ambessa the rifle, who dismantles it with so little effort, discarding the pieces as she moves to the front of the platform. Maddie trains her own rifle on Caitlyn, waiting for Ambessa’s signal. 

Caitlyn moves and Maddie is stunned by the blinding, white hot pain of taking the rifle butt to her nose. There’s a sharp crack and the wet rush of blood and she clutches her face, blinking the immediate tears away. Maddie looks up to see Caitlyn crumple to her knees, hands clutched to her stomach in pain. 

Maddie’s humiliation dulls the pride she’d just felt in delivering her mission’s success to Ambessa. It turns hot with swirling anger. Caitlyn made Maddie look like a fool. She thinks back on the months of frustration and irritation. Of all the ways she, quite literally, knelt at Caitlyn’s feet trying to earn her trust. Of the ways she absorbed Caitlyn’s anger and grief, taking on the burden of her senseless mission and failures. Of the degradation and the times she swallowed her pride, accepting scraps in an effort to prove herself. She catches the rifle that Ambessa throws at her and climbs to her feet. 

“Let’s get this over with,” Ambessa commands.

Maddie gives Caitlyn one last look, watches her straighten her back with a shudder, ever the privileged Piltovan bitch. It’s a shame all that beauty is wasted on a cunt like Caitlyn Kiramman. 

“I did appreciate your warmth.” 

Maddie cocks the rifle.

She pulls the trigger.