Fanfic / Run At The Cup

The Runeterra Hockey League is expanding, and both Caitlyn and Vi are up for grabs, their rivalry being a well documented storyline in the RHL for twelve years. What happens, however, when they're both taken to a new team? What happens when a relationship forged in belief of only seeing each other once in a while on road games is faced with playing beside each other every day?

Run at the Cup is a Hockey Alternate Universe Fic of Arcane by TheHomelyBadger. While initially centered on the relationship between Caitlyn Kiramman and Vi Wickett as they adjust to being on the same team, it expands to cover the Zaun Sumprats' first season. The story also touches on the intersection between sports and actual politics as well as disturbing revelations about Caitlyn's relationship with her former captain...

Note: This story contains a lot of Explicit Content.

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This work contains examples of:

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: There are some differences between the RHL and NHL, starting with the RHL being mixed-gender.
• Adaptational Heroism: Sevika is an antagonist in the series. Here, she's the Sumprats' coach and fiercely protective of her players, including Caitlyn and Vi.
• Adaptational Villainy: A very downplayed version with Heimerdinger. His actions as commissioner of the RHL are actually comparable to his negligence of Zaun in canon, but unlike his canon self, he never truly admits to his mistakes.
• Arch-Enemy: Caitlyn and Vi were this to each other (on the ice, at least) before being drafted by the Sumprats. After the revelations about Caitlyn's abuse at the hands of Terri Landsman, her former captain on the Lone Stars, Landsman becomes Caitlyn's Arch-Enemy on a much more personal level.
• Big Damn Kiss: Vi and Caitlyn kiss for the first time in Chapter 15, having avoided kissing during their previous hookups.
• Cast Full of Gay: In addition to Caitlyn and Vi, Diana and Leona are married, Graves has a husband, Powder and Lux are in a relationship, Jayce asks Viktor out, and Mel is not only sleeping with Sevika, but also has had a casual relationship with Elora for years.
• Career-Ending Injury:
  • Averted for Vi after Landsman attacks her. She'll be out of commission for months, but she should be able to return to hockey.
  • Played straight for Landsman herself when Mylo retaliates for her attack on Vi. It also ends Mylo's career, as he is expelled from the league afterwards.
• Chekhov's Gun: It's mentioned in their first sex scene that Caitlyn and Vi never kiss during sex. They do later, marking the beginning of their romantic relationship.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Silco, the owner of the Sumprats.
• Crippling the Competition: Landsman deliberately crashes into Vi during the RHL Finals, nearly inflicting a Career-Ending Injury on her. Played with as Landsman's real motivation was to make Caitlyn suffer, although taking out one of the Sumprats' star players was certainly a bonus..
• Crowd Chant:
  • The Zaun Sumprats have "Let's Go Thumprats!".
  • The Void Stars have an interesting one - their fans make an eerie "ssshhhh" sound.
• Dating Catwoman: Played With. At the start of the story, Vi and Caitlyn are in what amounts to a "rivals with benefits" relationship. They are genuine rivals on the ice, but they have also been hooking up pretty much the entire time. Their rivalry fades once they're on the same team, and they eventually begin a genuine romantic relationship.
• Drafting Mechanic: An important aspect of the story is how the Zaun Sumprats are assembled. Each existing team in the RHL places eight of their players under protection. The Sumprats can pick anyone who is not under protection, meaning that every single Sumprats player was effectively abandoned by their former team. Vi and Caitlyn (both star players of their respective former teams) being left unprotected was very unexpected and had many commentators wondering what the hell the Ironfists and Lone Stars were thinking. The reality is that Vi had wanted to leave the Ironfists, while Caitlyn had been isolated within her team by Landsman.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Averted for Raffi. After he comes clean about his role in abusing Caitlyn, she is unwilling to forgive him. Neither are the Noxus War Horses, who suspend him.
• Enemy Mine: Subverted. While Vi and Caitlyn being on the same team seems like this, their actual relationship, while not what anyone would call "friendly" is a lot less hostile (and a lot more steamy), so they don't have much trouble working together.
• Framing Device: Chapter 9 reveals that a documentary is being made about the Sumprats, with some of the events shown so far being footage from the documentary. After this point, excerpts from the documentary, such as interviews, become frequent.
• Genius Bruiser: Claggor is an enforcer (he's supposed to protect other players) so being a bruiser comes with the territory. He also knows a lot about hockey history.
• Heel Realization: Raffi has one after the Landsman scandal breaks, revealing his own role in abusing Caitlyn and the others.
• Hockey Fight: It's a hockey story, so there are a lot of these.
• Home Field Advantage: Played realistically. The effect is mostly psychological from the home team's supporters. Zaun, Noxus, and the Void are noted as being particularly rough on visiting teams.
• Honor Before Reason: The Noxus War Horses suspend Raffi after he admits his role in the Landsman scandal. While morally justified, this also cripples them going into the playoffs. Had Raffi remained on the War Horses' roster, they would have stood a better chance of beating the Sumprats and almost certainly would have crushed the Lone Stars.
• Intercity Showdown by Proxy: Any game between the Zaun Sumprats and the Piltover Lone Stars is this. Some time ago, Piltover was discovered to be dumping toxic waste into Zaun's water supply. Compensation has been paid and there is an ongoing effort to clean it up, but Zaunites are still very bitter about it.
• Let Me at Him!: After Landsman's collision with Vi, Claggor tries to go after Landsman, even dragging his teammates across the ice. Mylo talks Claggor down, arguing that Claggor is too essential to the team... then does exactly what Claggor was trying to do.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: A non-fatal version. Landsman is careful to make her collision with Vi look like it could have been an accident. The Sumprats don't believe it for a moment.
• Mama Bear: Cassandra is furious when she finds out how Amara mistreated Caitlyn when she was Caitlyn's agent.
• Miracle Rally: During the last game of the finals, the Sumprats finish the second period down 5-0 against the Lone Stars, struggling without Vi. Caitlyn pulls off the rally by not only switching to Vi's position (even wearing her sweater) but staying on the ice for the entire final period^note normally, hockey players spend only a minute or two on the ice at a time, given how physically demanding playing hockey is, running up the score to win the game (and the championship) 6-5.
• Modern AU Fic: Played with. While the story is set in a world with 21st-century technology and culture, some aspects of Runeterra are retained, such as nonhuman races.
• Obsessive Sports Fan: Cassandra Kiramman's support for the Zaun Sumprats is a natural outgrowth of her daughter Caitlyn being the team's star player, but seeing a retired politician become a devoted hockey fan who listens to podcasts and knows the ins and outs of both the sport and the industry is quite amusing.
• Opposing Sports Team: Downplayed. The Piltover Lone Stars are unquestionably the main rivals of the Zaun Sumprats and face them in the finals, but their victories are fairly earned. They do have a toxic and abusive locker room culture. They also get a partial redemption after the Landsman Scandal. Their former head coach is fired and Landsman is demoted, with the new head coach making it clear that he would prefer to cut Landsman entirely.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: CaitVi (which is common in the Arcane fandom) appears in-universe when people begin shipping Caitlyn and Vi together (although the initial ship name is WickMan).
• Shout-Out:
  • Two hotel staff in the first chapter are a Cat Folk woman with Shared Unusual Trait of heterochromia and a husky woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, confirmed by Word of God to be cameos of Catra and Adora. They show up again in the epilogue.
  • At one point, the Lone Stars and Ironfists used promotional material showing Caitlyn and Vi in something similar to their appearances in League of Legends.
• Shipper on Deck: Some fans notice the chemistry between Caitlyn and Vi and begin shipping them, unaware that they have been having sex for years.
• There Is Only One Bed: Averted in the story itself but referenced in the custom tags, one of which is "there was only one expansion team".
• Title Drop: Every chapter begins with a scene that ends with someone saying "Run at the Cup" (always written in boldface and centered on its own line).
  • This is parodied in Chapter 17, where Powder and Lux discuss having "Run at the Cup" (also the title of their documentary) appear on screen every time someone says it. They end up saying "Run at the Cup" quite a bit, each time written in the same dramatic fashion.
• Urban Fantasy: The setting seems to be this. There's no sign of actual magic, but the various nonhuman races of Runeterra are present. Mention is also made of Shimmer as a new medical treatment.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 15: Caitlyn and Vi finally kiss.
  • Chapter 20: Caitlyn reveals how she was abused by Landsman.