Chapter Text
Caitlyn Kiramman yearned to know the color pink.
She’d heard it was warm, bright, playful, everything opposite her life so far. As the only daughter of a congresswoman, everything had been orderly and picture-perfect since the day she was born. Since before then, even. No room for warm or bright or playful when the eyes of the country were on you.
Not that she could see pink even if she had been allowed to have it. Caitlyn’s entire world was in grayscale. Her parents assured her that she’d meet her soulmate’s gaze eventually, that vivid colors would explode into her life all at once one day, but she doubted it. She’d been paraded in front of so many people over the years, and nothing. No luck. If it was going to happen, it would’ve happened already.
So she lived her life in black and white. It was fine. She didn’t know what she was missing, so she couldn’t be too sad about it.
But sometimes… sometimes she wondered about pink.
“Caitlyn?” Her father poked his head into her room.
She startled from the window seat, where she was curled up with a mug of tea. They had it imported from her parents’ hometown in England, because God knew how badly the Americans could bugger up tea. Iced? Or worse, heated in the microwave? Absolutely foul. “Did you need me?”
He stepped inside. “Nothing right now, but we have that photo shoot tonight. Make sure you’re prepared for that.”
Caitlyn sighed and nodded. “I’ll be ready.” Her daily gym run would have to be shorter than usual, but she’d survive.
He approached her and perched on the other side of the window seat. “Sweetheart, are you doing all right?”
Straightening, she raised her eyebrows. “What makes you ask?”
He shrugged. “You’ve seemed quiet lately.”
She pressed her lips together. “I’m fine, but thank you for checking in.”
Her father hesitated, then rested his hand on hers. “You can come talk to me about anything. You know that, right?”
Caitlyn smiled faintly. “I do. Thank you.” She didn’t want to sound ungrateful; she’d grown up with everything she could ever want. But there was no good way to explain that she was dissatisfied with it all.
Something was missing.
Something pink, perhaps. Whatever pink was.
Violet Vanderson slammed her fist into the punching bag in her cheap apartment. Across the room, her teenage sister, Powder, tinkered with one of her inventions. A typical Saturday morning for a less-than-typical pair.
Vi landed a few more solid hits before pausing to wipe sweat from her temples. “How’s it coming, Pow?”
“Good. You like it?” Powder held up her work: a miniature shark. Its serrated mechanical jaws opened and shut, and its body moved back and forth like it was swimming. She’d built it out of mismatched bits and pieces of hardware over the course of an hour.
“Very nice.” Vi meant it. Powder was a talented engineer on the good days. On the bad days… well, Vi didn’t like to think about the bad days.
Beaming, Powder set the shark aside. “I need more spray paint. Can we go to the store later?”
Vi nodded. “Okay if we go after the gym?” She wanted to put it off as long as she could. The art supply store Powder preferred was always a painful reminder that she couldn’t see the colors that her sister could, but she survived every visit out of love for that sister. And out of a healthy sense of self-preservation.
Powder had been able to see colors since she was five, though her soulmate was long gone now, a passerby in a crowd at the zoo. Vi, on the other hand, was still stuck in black and white. As if life hadn’t been hard enough without full use of her vision.
Allegedly, when she made eye contact with her soulmate for the first time, she’d be able to see in color. Not that she cared about having a soulmate. Soulmates were worthless on their side of town. What mattered was the color spectrum. Letting anyone know you could only see grayscale was an admission of weakness.
So Vi kept it to herself. Only Powder knew the truth. That she was incomplete.
But at least she had her baby sister. It was Vi and Powder against the world, always had been. Nothing would ever change that.
After a long shift at the sheriff’s department, Caitlyn drove to the local gym and changed into a workout outfit in the locker room. It was hard to find clothes that fit her six-foot frame, but today’s yoga pants actually reached her ankles. A miracle.
She strode out to the treadmills, right behind the free weights section. Putting in her earbuds, she took up a warmup pace on her favorite machine. The TVs on the wall were never tuned to any channels she was interested in, so she ignored them in favor of a little people-watching.
Caitlyn was gay as the day was long, so it wasn’t the men who caught her eye but the women. Specifically, one woman with her back to Caitlyn. Her hair was shorn short in an undercut on one side, with longer layers on the other. Several earrings curled around the shell of her left ear. Broad shoulders. Defined biceps and triceps as she lifted massive weights with wrapped hands. Her strong back was obvious through her cotton tank. Her legs were spread in a solid, confident stance. And as if she wasn’t enough of a looker already, she had an ass that wouldn’t quit.
Hot fucking damn.
Was she new here? Caitlyn had certainly never seen her at the gym before; she’d have remembered this amazing specimen of a woman. She sped up on the treadmill, trying not to stare. And failing.
The woman was glorious.
Don’t stare.
But Caitlyn couldn’t take her eyes off her.
A teenage girl with two long braids caught her looking. She scowled and moved behind the woman, blocking Caitlyn’s view.
Okay, that’s probably for the best. You’re being creepy.
Caitlyn focused instead on the screen of her treadmill, on the steady rhythm of her pounding feet. The next time she looked up, both young women had disappeared. Disappointment twinged inside her, but she brushed it off. Who cared? Better not to have the distraction. She turned up her music and ran harder. She had to get her five miles in and get home in time for the photo shoot.
Something ticked Powder off during Vi’s workout routine, but she wouldn’t admit what it was until they were done and leaving the locker room.
“Some girl was staring at you.” Powder scowled as she peeled the wrapper off a lollipop.
Vi arched a brow. “Was she hot?”
Powder chomped down on her candy. The resounding crack meant yes, and I don’t like it.
Vi glanced over her shoulder, trying to guess who it had been. Arcane Gym was busy, though, and there were plenty of pretty women around. It could’ve been any of them.
But if she allowed herself to hope… the young woman stepping off a treadmill in the first row was a showstopper, even from the back. Long dark hair in a ponytail. Legs for days. She had to be six feet tall, all willowy and elegant.
But elegance only begged to be mussed, in Vi’s opinion. She could just imagine those legs wrapped around her waist, her blunt fingers fisted in that hair… Vi’s pulse thrummed.
“I’m hungry,” Powder snapped.
Vi turned back to her sister. Throw away the daydream. Someone like that isn’t for you anyway. “Okay, okay, let’s go get something to eat.”
“And then the art store. You promised.”
“Yeah, I know. We’ll go there right after.”
They left the gym, and Vi didn’t look back. It was for the best.