𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 fourteen: baby deer

       ╰┈➤ 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: murder? short, half assed chapter

THE WANDERING SPIRIT OF PILTOVER.

It was a mantle Aviva had begun to adopt, though it was not entirely hers. Still, it fit—perhaps too well. She shed her old self like a worn-out coat, leaving behind the ghost of a girl who once believed in promises whispered through smoke and shimmer. The blue hair, once a mark of defiance, rinsed away in long, deliberate washes, the color bleeding out like remnants of an identity she no longer needed.

Four washes. That's all it took to erase the dye, but it felt like scrubbing away years of mistakes, of loyalty misplaced, of love given too freely.

Her white hair made her look ghostly, a restless spiriting haunting the streets of Zaun wherever she went. Angelic was the word Jinx liked to use, but Aviva thought differently. Paired with her piercing gold eyes and rich obsidian skin, it was a contrast that felt almost too sharp, too unnatural.

White hair, gold eyes? Her genetics truly were overkill.

Perhaps that's why Silco seemed to despise them so much—the way her features defied simplicity, as if she were carved to be something untouchable. Too striking. Too much.

Aviva knew Jinx missed him. She was the one who carried his body to the sea, her hands steady even as her heart trembled. And Aviva? She stood on the shore, watching. The man who raised her, the one family she truly knew. But family was supposed to feel like safety, wasn't it? Not like chains.

And as she watched Jinx emerge from the water, her blue hair clinging to her face, eyes red—whether from saltwater or tears, Aviva couldn't tell—she felt... nothing. Not grief. Not rage. Just the hollow ache of something long withered and gone.

Aviva loved Silco, she did. Love was all she truly knew—never taught, only named after the constant ache in her chest, the thing that lingered even when it shouldn't. But Silco had been right about one thing.

Love was the kind of weight that dragged you under. And Aviva had never been given the luxury of learning how to swim.

Yet she craved it—the water, the drowning, the suffocating depth—if that was the metaphor she chose to cling to. Because even as it pulled her under, it was the only thing that ever made her feel alive.

Jinx and Aviva walked in silence, their pinkies hooked together—not out of habit, but because it seemed that not touching Aviva, even for a moment, caused Jinx a pain she couldn't explain.

Neither of them spoke, too tangled in their own thoughts as the world around them blurred into irrelevance. Aviva tugged the hood of her worn cloak lower over her face, as if the weight of it could shield her from the memories pressing in.

They were fugitives now. Well, not they, not really—just Jinx. But Aviva had promised, and whatever Jinx was in, they were in it together. She'd be damned if she broke a promise to her.

She'd broken her promise to Celeste.

Promised that no matter what happened, she wouldn't lose herself. Jinx had lost herself, and Aviva swore she never would. But as they walked, with the weight of the world pressing down on them, she couldn't help but wonder if that promise had already slipped through her fingers.

She could only pray that Celeste remained forgiving, because Aviva wasn't sure she could forgive herself.

Aviva's grip on Jinx faltered as something collided with her, sending them both sprawling with a loud thud. She blinked, startled, only to find a small girl clinging to her, face pale with fear. The girl trembled, wide-eyed, her small frame pressed into Aviva's chest as if she could disappear into it.

With a steadying breath, Aviva crouched, pulling the girl close as Jinx sat upright beside her, irritation flashing across her face. Jinx's violet eyes rolled skyward, clearly unimpressed, while Aviva's golden gaze swept over the child, her expression calm but calculating.

"Who's this, hmm?" Jinx muttered, her tone laced with annoyance, though her hands twitched, ready to react.

Aviva didn't answer. Instead, she shifted her gaze toward the group of men looming at the edge of the alleyway, their eyes locked on the girl like predators closing in. Their expressions were cold, calculating—a silent threat—and Aviva's heart clenched, the weight of unspoken danger settling between them like a storm ready to break.

The men slid down the ledge with practiced ease, their boots hitting the ground with dull thuds as they approached. The small girl whimpered, pressing herself deeper into Aviva's embrace, her tiny hands clutching at Aviva's cloak like it was the only thing tethering her to safety. Aviva's arms encircled her gently, protective, her eyes never leaving the advancing figures.

Jinx, however, didn't bother with pretense. She leaned back on her haunches, violet eyes narrowing in bored disdain. With a slow, deliberate motion, she drew her gun.

Then, without hesitation, she fired—each shot a sharp, brutal punctuation. The sound echoed off the alley walls, each crack of the gun shattering the heavy silence as the men fell, one by one, lifeless before they even hit the ground.

The girl buried her face into Aviva's chest, trembling harder, but Aviva remained calm, her hand gently smoothing over the girl's hair, her golden eyes unreadable.

Jinx let the smoke rise from the barrel of her weapon, exhaling in mock exhaustion.

The girl shifted away from Aviva, her wide, trembling eyes locked onto Jinx. Gratitude shimmered there, a kind of naive awe, but it was met with nothing but cold indifference. Jinx tilted her head, pointing the gun directly at the child's face, her expression unreadable.

"You feel it?" she asked, her voice light, almost playful.

The girl froze, terror making her small frame stiffen as she backed up, eyes darting to Aviva for some kind of help. Jinx, oblivious or uncaring, continued with a detached curiosity.

"That..." She blew out a soft breath, lazily resting her head on her hand. "...buzzing behind your eyes? Because you know in a moment. It could allll go poow." She mimed pulling the trigger against her temple with a playful grin before pointing the weapon back at the girl.

"Best feeling in the world, kid."

The girl's gaze shifted desperately to the wall behind Jinx, and there they were—wanted posters, plastered with the unmistakable image of the infamous blue-haired menace in front of her. Recognition dawned, and her eyes widened in fear.

Jinx caught the look and sighed, exasperated. "Yup, that's me." With a lazy smirk, she plucked the girl's hat and set it atop her own head with a flourish.

"If you ever need to curse a sibling, or a family, or a society..." Jinx bent down, slipping an arm around Aviva's waist and pulling her effortlessly to her feet. She gestured grandly toward her poster, finger tapping the paper like it was an invitation. "My card!"

Aviva, still cradling the girl's earlier trembling in her hands, let Jinx pull her close. She didn't speak, but her gaze lingered on the child, something gentle and aching behind her golden eyes. Jinx's laughter echoed, light and unbothered, as if death hadn't hung in the air moments before.

With that, Jinx shrugged her hood back on, her fingers slipping effortlessly into Aviva's as she tugged her along, leaving the girl behind. "She was so cute," Aviva pouted, glancing over her shoulder. "Let's go back. Can we keep her?"

Jinx shot her a sidelong glance, unimpressed, the corner of her mouth twitching in amusement. "Viva, she's not a dog," she muttered. "Besides, we don't need any more dead weight." She paused, her voice dropping into something softer, almost bitter. "You already have me to deal with."

Aviva's grip tightened ever so slightly, her lips curling into a teasing smile despite the sting in Jinx's words. "Dead weight?" she repeated, feigning shock. "Please. You're the whole reason I'm still standing."

Jinx didn't reply, but the way her fingers clung just a little tighter spoke volumes, even as the two vanished into the shadowed streets of Zaun, leaving the girl and the chaos behind.

AVIVA TYPICALLY TENDED TO

get what she wanted. Not always, not really—but today, she did, and that was all that mattered. She beamed, cradling the small girl close to her chest, brushing tangled hair from her face with a gentleness that seemed almost foreign in a place like this. "Isn't she the cutest, Sevika?" Aviva cooed, her voice light and soft, like she wasn't standing in the middle of a war-torn city. She leaned down, her breath warm against the girl's temple. "You can stay with us now, hm?"

The girl's smile was tentative, small, but it reached her eyes. She nodded, nestling closer to Aviva as though she'd found something she hadn't known she was searching for.

Sevika, standing off to the side, watched the scene unfold with a scowl. Her face bore the marks of earlier battles—blood smeared across her jaw, bruises blooming beneath her skin. She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, unimpressed.

"She's not a pet, Aviva," Sevika said flatly, her voice rough, the rasp of exhaustion thick beneath it.

"I'm very much aware," Aviva replied, her tone breezy, unconcerned. She tightened her grip around the girl, her chin lifting in defiance. "But I'm keeping her anyway. She's like a distressed baby deer I have to."

Sevika rolled her eyes, glancing at the girl nestled against Aviva's chest before nodding toward her sleek, augmented arm. "And you didn't stop her from creating this monstrosity," she grumbled, flexing the mechanical limb now outfitted with absurdly extravagant features—ones Jinx had insisted were absolutely necessary. The enhancements glimmered in the dim light, absurdly flashy for the grizzled enforcer she used to be.

Aviva blinked up at Sevika, feigning innocence, a playful smirk tugging at her lips. "Was I supposed to?"

Sevika shook her head, exhaling sharply as if the weight of their absurdity was too much to bear. "God, you two are still helpless." She gestured toward Jinx with a tilt of her chin, her voice half-exasperated, half-amused.

Jinx barely acknowledged her, gaze locked on Aviva. She looked at her like she was something rare, something that deserved to be held closer, protected from the world. Her violet eyes softened, watching the way Aviva cradled the girl, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"In which ways?" Jinx asked, her voice quiet, almost reverent, eyes never leaving Aviva.

"All of them," Sevika answered, her voice softer now, the sarcasm waning into something closer to resigned affection.

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒!

So I did write part of the fight scene and I did write the scene where Jinx finds out Vi um have no excuse except assumed unencessity and laziness.  But yeah here's a really crappy chapter but we're finally in act 2. Promise you will see more relationship building in this act as well as more moments/chapters that won't follow the episodes. Last really long authors note I promise.

Thank you for 12k reads! Sevika book coming this week as a thank you. Haven't heard from Celeste in a bit. You'll see why soon unfortunately but also before you go read that book keep in mind Sevika and Celseste have a 17 year age gap if that makes you uncomfortable. To put it in prospective for people that it will bother. During episodes 1-3 of season 1/the first like 5 chapters of this book Sevika wad 33 and she's 41 now. You can do the math.