Archive of Our Own

Jayce and Viktor had been at it for hours. They’d both spent the night in the lab, neither of them able to break their focus long enough to realize they should probably go home and sleep. No, they were far too busy grappling with their latest project. 

It had been Jayce’s idea to use Hextech to make a pair of gauntlets. When he explained that it would help the miners be able to do their job faster and easier, Viktor had quickly been on board. 

That had been several weeks ago, and they had spent nearly all of their time engineering the gauntlets. Jayce had drawn up some rough blueprints, which Viktor had fine tuned, smirking at his partner's almost childish sketches juxtaposed with the advanced calculations and engineering terminology that could be found in the margins.

After a week or so they had a fairly solid blueprint, and wasted no time throwing themselves into the building process. Now, what felt like decades later, they had reached a stalemate. A prototype of the gauntlet had been constructed, and though it was still a very crude early model, everything seemed to be in working order. 

That is, everything except the fact that it wouldn’t power up.

 It was a small bump in the road, and Viktor was confident that they could work it out. Still, both men were eager to test the prototype, and so, as the night wore on, they had been unable to tear themselves away from their desks for even a moment. 

They barely noticed when dawn broke, and it was only when Jayce frustratingly stood up from the papers he had been studying, flexing his arms to stretch his stiff shoulders, that he noticed the next day had arrived. 

“Huh,” he muttered, staring out the brightening window of their lab. “Well, good morning, Viktor… I guess.”

“Hm?” The other man hummed, folded over a small piece of the gauntlet, which he had removed to see if he could perhaps detect the problem within it. 

“I said good morning, I guess,” Jayce repeated, failing to hold back a yawn. 

Viktor spared a glance up, peeking briefly out the window before hunching his head back over his desk. 

“Hm.” The hum wasn’t a question this time, but a weary confirmation. “Good morning, then.”

Jayce ran a hand along his face. Searching across his desk, he grabbed his previously abandoned mug, swirling what little cold, dark liquid was left inside it. 

“I think I’m gonna need some more coffee if we’re keeping at it,” he admitted with a sigh. “How about you?”

“Hm?” Viktor said again, and Jayce bit back a smile. 

“I said Heimerdinger’s here to test our prototype.”

“What? But we told him that we needed a few more--” Viktor spun around, and the goggles perched on his head slid down over his eyes. 

Despite this, he could still clearly see that Heimerdinger was, in fact, nowhere to be found. Rather, in his place was a very sassy looking Jayce, one hand propped on his hip, his head tilted with amusement. 

“You know, you really have a problem with that,” Jayce commented, referencing Viktor’s determination to ignore the rest of the world while he was lost in his work. “What if there was a fire or something?”

Viktor blew a puff of air out his nose. He raked his goggles back onto his head, pushing some unruly locks of hair back with them. 

“I don’t think I’d make it very far, in that case.” He muttered, rapping his knuckles against the brace on his leg. 

“That’s what I’m saying; you need to listen better so you can get a head start,” Jayce shot back. Then, remembering why he had gotten the other man’s attention in the first place, raised his mug -- and his eyebrows --and asked, 

“Coffee?”

“Ah, no thank you,” Viktor distractedly replied before turning back to his workbench. 

“Any luck?” Jayce asked as he made his way toward the door. 

“Mmm,” Viktor tonelessly hummed. “Not yet.”

To anyone else, he would have sounded perfectly relaxed. But Jayce could tell that the lack of progress, combined with the exhaustion from pulling yet another all nighter, was frustrating the other man. 

“Yeah, well -- we’ll get it,” he tried to comfort his partner. “We always do.”

They worked for another few hours without interruption, and with lots of coffee -- at least on Jayce’s part. Somehow, to Jayce’s bafflement, Viktor could still function without any aid. Jayce, on the other hand, downed cup after cup as he poured through his blueprints and equations. 

“Do you think we need to adjust the bearings between parts twelve and sixteen?” Jayce asked, not looking up. “Maybe there's some friction we don’t know about, and it’s causing a short circuit?”

 He heard Viktor shift behind him, turning to the gauntlet, which was sitting on one side of his desk, and testing out the parts. The mechanics whirred briefly, prompted only by Viktor’s tools, seeing as they couldn’t get the pieces to work on their own. 

“No,” Viktor replied thoughtfully. “No, everything looks fine.” 

Jayce heard the sound of him throwing a pencil onto the desk. He spun around and glanced a look at Viktor, who was wearing the dark, closed off expression that he always got when he was irritated. 

“I don’t understand why it’s not working. Everything is in place, I’ve checked dozens of times. Nothing should be hindering it from powering up.”

“Alright,” Jayce began, his tone equal parts comforting and confident. “We’ll get this, we just need some time--”

“I don’t have time,” Viktor snapped.

His tone didn’t breach anything louder than an utterance, but Jayce knew it was the closest thing Viktor would get to yelling. At least, in this setting it was. 

Jayce nodded grimly. 

“Right. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Viktor’s shoulders sank a little. Jayce continued.

“It’s just… maybe we need to take a break…”

At that, Viktor shook his head. 

“No. I-- I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped--”

Now it was Jayce’s turn to shake his head, an empathetic gaze directed at his partner. 

Viktor sighed and said, “I can’t stop now… I feel that we are so close.”

“And we’ll get it,” Jayce adamantly replied, giving his friend a nod of encouragement. 

Viktor passed a weak smile up at the ceiling, rolling his eyes with fondness before flicking his goggles down onto his nose. Jayce snorted, grinning widely. 

“Back to work,” Viktor muttered before dropping into his chair to resume picking apart the gauntlet. 

Around noon, Jayce was stirred from his research by the distant sound of footsteps making their way down the hall. He shrugged a look behind him to Viktor, who was doubled over, hair sticking up at odd ends thanks to spending the entire night with goggles on his head. In his current state, he really did look like a mad scientist. 

The footfalls grew louder, and suddenly the door to the lab opened with a bang. Jayce swiveled his chair to get a better look. Viktor, on the other hand, didn’t move from his work, as per usual. 

“How are Piltover’s golden boys this afternoon?” came the all too familiar, teasing voice. 

“Not so golden,” Jayce sighed, any instinctive politeness falling away at the sight of their visitor. 

“Good afternoon, Vi,” Viktor spoke up, back still to the door. 

“It’s kinda creepy, how he does that,” Vi muttered. “I love it.”

Jayce shrugged, and Vi wiggled her eyebrows.

 Louder, for Viktor to hear, she said, 

“Good to see ya, Vik,” with no response from the man in question. 

“Anyway,” she continued, suddenly showing the only sign of hesitation since she’d let herself in. “I, uh, brought you some papers, pretty boy.”

She handed a slender file to Jayce, who took it with a curious glance at the box tucked under her arm -- he had only now noticed it -- before flipping through the file. 

“Caitlyn wanted to deliver them herself, but she got called into work, so you get my pretty face instead.”

Jayce rolled his eyes dramatically, and Vi gave a teasing sneer. 

Then, growing more serious as he leafed through the papers, he asked, 

“What are these?”

Vi shrugged. 

“Some enforcer stuff she wants to bring up with the council. She wanted you to see it first, get your advice, I guess.”

Jayce nodded, making a mental note to go over it in more detail later. Looking back up, he eyed the box again. 

“What do you have there?” He asked, curiosity getting the better of him. 

“Oh this? Mhm, sorry, that’s above your pay grade.”

“Ha ha,” Jayce replied dryly. 

“Kidding. It’s just some cupcakes and shit. Leftovers from a party Caitlyn’s mom had last night. Cait said to bring them along since, according to her, you guys never eat.”

Jayce raised an eyebrow, not exactly disagreeing with the sentiment. 

“Well, tell her we say thank you.”

Vi nodded, setting the box of cupcakes down and shoving her hands into her pockets. Elbows gently swinging, she began to prowl around the room, eyes darting intelligently over Jayce and Viktor’s workspace.

“Man, they really set you guys up with the whole shebang, don’t they?” she commented, picking up what looked to be (and was ) a very expensive trinket, spinning it around between her fingers before plopping it back where she had found it. 

“Yeah, something like that,” Jayce sighed, wondering when the girl would leave so he could get back to his work.

Instead of leaving, however, she planted herself on Viktor’s desk, sitting a few feet away from where he was working. Jayce watched him closely, anticipating some sort of comment, or at least a sign of discomfort -- the man hated to have his workspace invaded.

However, Viktor only looked up long enough to pass Vi a small smile before turning back to the cluster of metal and wires that he’d been tinkering with. 

Leaning back across his desk, she said,

“You should have seen the looks the enforcers downstairs gave me when I said I was coming to your lab. I told them I was on ‘official business’ and they looked like they wanted to arrest me just for suggesting such a thing.”

For the first time since she’d arrived, Viktor looked up for more than just a few seconds. Not bothering to take his goggles off, tools still perched in his hands, he sized her up with one of his more intense gazes. 

“Did they give you trouble?” he asked blatantly. 

“Nah,” Vi quickly waved away his concerns. “I mean, they did , but I can handle a few asshole pilties. Seems that’s become my specialty.” 

She winked charmingly at Jayce, and a seemingly satisfied Viktor sunk back into his own little world. 

“Well, here -- have a cupcake for your troubles,” Jayce offered, pulling a few cupcakes out of the box. 

There were more than enough -- way too many, actually -- for just Viktor and himself. 

“How big of a party did Counselor Kiramman have?” he wondered, peering into the bottomless box of cupcakes and other pastries -- enough to last them a whole week, with how much Viktor tended to eat 

“Way too big,” Vi replied, hopping off Viktor’s desk and wandering lazily over to Jayce’s. 

Rummaging around in the box, she pulled out a cupcake with pink frosting, then swiping another one from the desk, she gave Jayce a flamboyant bow before returning to Viktor’s side. 

“So, what are you guys working on?” she asked, licking the icing off one of the cupcakes. 

“A Hextech prototype,” Jayce responded, spinning around to his desk and thumbing through a textbook. “It’s not going very well at the moment.”

Vi cocked her eyebrow, then stuck the pink cupcake out, holding it slightly below Viktor’s nose. 

“Well maybe that’s because you both look like shit.” She waggled the cupcake at Viktor. 

He put his tools down, sliding the goggles up onto his head so Vi could see the ‘I don’t have time for this’ look he was giving her. 

Vi wasn’t one to surrender easily, however, and leaned down to level him up, her expression just as unwavering as his was. 

“Can you stop being a genius for five minutes and eat this cupcake?” 

Viktor stared evenly at her, one finger tapping lightly on his desk as he thought. Finally, he narrowed his eyes and took the cupcake from her hands. 

The smile that lit up her face was just about worth the interruption. 

Giving it a sniff, Viktor took an absent minded bite. His eyebrows twitched upward and he tilted his head, taking another. He hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning (he had eaten yesterday, hadn't he?), and was only just now realizing how hungry he was.

With a smug look, Vi bit into her own cupcake. 

“Just, do not get crumbs on my desk, please,” Viktor said around a mouthful of icing as he began rearranging some of the wires that made up the gauntlet’s interior. 

Vi turned to give the prototype a disinterested look. However when she saw what it was, her eyes flickered back, filling with an intensity that made them almost glow. She sat her cupcake down, sliding off the desk to turn and lean over it instead. Viktor gave her a sideways glance, curious at her sudden change in demeanor. 

With elbows propped on the table, she leaned forward until her shoulder bumped Viktor’s as she scrutinized the internal mechanisms of the gauntlet. Viktor continued to stare at her, now very interested. He had never seen this look on Vi, and though he had gotten fairly good at reading the woman, he had no idea what she might do next. 

“You’ve got the yellow wire all wrong,” she said, raising her hand to point at the mess of wires that ran through one side of the gauntlet. 

Viktor thoughtfully tilted his head, nearly bumping it against hers as he leaned closer to get a better look. Turning away briefly, he located a blueprint from underneath a pile of notebooks and slid it across his desk. Eyes flickering between the blueprint and the gauntlet, he said, 

“No… No, that wire provides energy to the boosters.”

Vi snorted. 

“I know that, what I’m saying is you’ve got it hooked up in the wrong place." She leaned forward, stretching her arm across the gauntlet to direct Viktor’s attention with a point. 

“If it goes in there , it redirects the power to here . That kills the whole system. No wonder you can’t get it to work.”

Viktor opened his mouth. He closed it again, frantically scanning the blueprint. 

“You…” he started softly, too busy eyeballing the gauntlet to give her a second glance. “You might be right.” Then louder, “Jayce! Come here, I think we’ve got it.”

The other man practically flew out of his chair, stumbling across the room to stand behind Vi and Viktor, who were still leaning over the desk. 

Taking a pair of pliers, Viktor slipped his goggles down onto his face. With a quick glance at Vi, he said, 

“Cover your eyes, please.” 

Grumbling, she complied, but not before rolling them first. 

Reaching forward, Viktor took a breath and carefully pulled the yellow wire out of the panel, mentally crossing his fingers that it wouldn’t blow up. 

It didn’t. 

He took another breath; so far so good. Stretching the wire down a little, he moved it to where Vi had pointed. With meticulous hands, he secured it into the new panel. 

“Okay,” he murmured, setting his tools down. “Everyone take a step back. Let’s see how this goes…”

Vi and Jayce got some distance, and Viktor swept his papers and tools to the other end of the desk so the prototype sat by itself. 

“Here goes nothing,” he murmured, and he flipped the switches to power up the gauntlet.

For a nerve wracking moment, nothing happened. 

Then, like a spark had been ignited, the gauntlet whirred to life, lighting up blue and charging itself almost instantly. 

Jayce whooped loudly, throwing his fists in the air. Viktor began to laugh, face lightened with awe and excitement. Even Vi couldn’t stop a grin from splitting her face, a proud gleam in her eyes. 

“Told you,” she muttered smugly, and Viktor passed her a thankful smile. 

“Haha! I knew we’d get it to work, great job, Vik,” Jayce celebrated, slapping a hand on Viktor’s shoulder. 

Viktor returned Jayce’s beaming smile with his own small one, the joy spilling from his eyes more than anything. Then he turned to level a questioning look at Vi. 

“How did you know that would fix it?” 

Vi scoffed, a teasing expression on her face. 

“Man, do I really look that dumb?”

Viktor had opened his mouth to protest -- that had not been what he’d meant -- but Vi’s explanation beat him to it. 

“Nah, uh… My father had a pair of gauntlets, kind of like this one,” she ran her hand almost nostalgically along the skeletal exterior of the prototype. 

“He stopped using them after…” she faltered, letting the sentence fall flat before continuing. 

“Anyway, he used to tinker with them a lot when I was a kid. I’d sit on his lap and watch him. Sometimes he’d explain the parts to me, or how they worked.”

She shrugged, shoving her toe into the leg of Viktor’s desk. 

Viktor’s eyebrows drew together ever so slightly. He didn’t know much about Vi’s childhood -- only what she had been willing to tell him -- but he did know how much she had looked up to her father. 

“Well,” Jayce spoke up before Viktor had a chance to reply. “In that case, we owe him our thanks. And you too, I guess.”

“Awe, do you really mean that?” Vi hummed, voice dripping with playful sarcasm. 

Jayce squinted at her, lips set in a fine line. 

“Ha ha, whatever,” he dryly fired back. “If only you were always this useful when you decide to pester us.”

Viktor exhaled a laugh through his nose. 

“Speak for yourself,” he scolded, giving Vi a timid smile. 

“Yeah, you hear that,” Vi defended. “Science boy here likes my company.”

She shot Jayce a ‘so there’ look, and Viktor couldn’t help but grin crookedly. 

“Yeah, well, he liked me first,” Jayce clumsily countered, turning away to his desk as he fought a losing battle. 

“Oh? Oh shit, is someone jealous? Damn, don’t worry Jayce, I’m not here to steal your boyfriend.” Vi grinned, unable to stop herself. “And anyway, he’s not really my type.”

Shrugging, she shot a lopsided grin in Viktor’s direction. 

“If you’re both done fighting over my affection,” Viktor interjected, “I’d like someone to try on the gauntlet so we can get an understanding of how it’s functioning.”

Jayce turned around, eyes falling on Viktor -- but the other man was too busy staring at Vi. She hadn’t realized it yet and was picking at a nail when she noticed how silent the room had fallen. Looking up, her gaze flickered innocently between Viktor and Jayce. 

“You can’t be serious,” Jayce muttered.

“The prototype is fairly small; Vi is the smallest out of the two of you. I can’t do it because I would probably end up in the hospital. What more is there to discuss?”

“Woah, wait a minute, I don’t--” Vi raised a hand, but Viktor interrupted her, seeing that Jayce still wasn’t convinced. 

“It’s nothing personal, Jayce. Factually, she’s a better fit.”

Jayce opened his mouth like he was going to argue, then looked around the room before sighing.

“Fine. Fine, you’re probably right.”

“Eh, usually am."

“Woah woah woah,” Vi cut in, stepping between them. 

“Are you bozos forgetting that you have yet to ask me if I even want to do it? Huh?”

Viktor turned to look at her. 

“Well,” he said plainly. “Do you?”

When Vi looked into his eyes, her strength wavered enough that Viktor felt he was getting a glimpse of the little girl who had grown up in the Lanes, sitting on her father’s knee while he tinkered with his long abandoned weapons. 

Because that had really been why he’d wanted Vi to be the one to test the prototype. The way she had looked at the gauntlet like it was an old friend, not to mention the fact that she probably knew what it could do better than either of them. He felt that, in a way, she deserved to be the first to use it. 

“Uhm…” Vi thought, a hand coming up to brush the back of her neck. She looked over at the gauntlet, and amongst the eager hunger in her eyes was one of remembering. One that was gripped by shadows from her past. 

“Yeah, okay." She shrugged, turning to look at Viktor, who hadn’t stopped watching her. 

He nodded once before turning, his eyes seeking out Jayce’s. He wouldn’t do this without his partner’s permission. It was his design, after all. Viktor raised an eyebrow. 

After a moment, Jayce nodded. 

“Good,” Viktor said to no one in particular, glad the situation had been resolved. 

With a gentle jerk of his head, he led Vi over to the prototype. 

“Now, it is still in the very early design stages, so we have to be careful.”

Vi watched him, eyes wide and attentive. If her safety hadn’t just been placed in his hands, he would have grinned at how much she looked like a little kid. 

“And… what exactly does that mean?” she prodded when he didn’t continue. 

Viktor tilted his head. Generally speaking, he’d never been one for taking safety measures, but that’s when he’d been the one putting his own life at risk. 

“Um…” he thought. 

Then, straightening up, he pulled the goggles off his head and placed them carefully on Vi’s. She didn’t protest, but stared at him like she was contemplating violence. 

“Wow. Great work. This is definitely up to code.”

Jayce laughed from behind them, and Vi turned to level him up with a piercing gaze. Unfortunately, safety goggles aren’t the most intimidating of accessories, and she ended up looking like she was scowling at him from inside a fish bowl. 

Jayce laughed even harder, doubling over himself. Viktor, too, couldn’t resist, and his shoulders shook with barely repressed giggles as he leaned heavily on his cane. 

Vi looked up at the ceiling. 

“Yeah, ha ha , laugh it up. Just wait until I get this large metal weapon on my arm, then we’ll see who’s laughing.”

“No, no, it’s just--” Jayce tried to save the situation, but couldn’t manage to stop cracking up long enough to get out a full sentence. 

“I think they suit you rather well,” Viktor admitted around a grin. 

He wasn’t exactly lying. The faint blue of his goggles was stark against the bright pink of her hair -- and if anyone could pull off the look, it would be Vi. Especially considering she would easily make a fearsome sight with the gauntlet on. 

“Alright, whatever, let’s just get this done and over with,” she muttered, waving a hand at him. 

Viktor nodded. 

“The opening is here,” he pointed at the base of the gauntlet. “There is a small, lined space for your arm. Let me know if you can feel any of the internal mechanisms…”

Vi propped the prototype up with one hand, carefully sliding the other into its base. She flexed her arm, feeling around the interior.

“Fits like a glove.” 

“You can’t feel any wires? Screws?” 

“Nope.”

Viktor stepped back. 

“Okay. For the time being, it’s all yours. Just… please don’t break it,” he added. 

“Relax, Vik, I’m not gonna break it.”

The muscles in her arm tensed as she lifted the gauntlet. It wasn’t too heavy, but since it was still somewhat of a rough design, it wasn’t light either. She got the feel for its heft, wobbling only slightly before swinging her arm, testing out its aerodynamic properties. 

Viktor watched, one eyebrow raised, face eager with soft anticipation. 

“Whaddaya say, should I give her some life?” Vi looked up expectantly, and Viktor nodded. 

“Alright… here goes..." She flicked the switch. 

This time, the startup was instantaneous. The gauntlet whirred alive, rumbling as blue light began to shine from within its core. 

Vi was grinning from ear to ear. She took a swing at the air, and the gauntlet pulsated, dealing what would have been a powerful blow, had it come into contact with anything. Then, bringing her fists up to her chest in a boxer’s position, Vi leveled her gaze and threw a punch. The gauntlet blew forward, the mechanics cracking and popping. 

“Hell yeah,” she beamed. 

“Jayce,” Viktor suddenly spoke up, unable to tear his eyes away from the prototype. “I want you to throw something at her.”

In his peripheral vision, Viktor could see the dumbfounded and slightly horrified look the other man was giving him. 

“You want me to what ?”

“Oh yeah,” Vi interjected, suddenly sounding very excited. “ Hell yeah. Let’s go, pretty boy, hit me with all you’ve got.”

“Just -- not anything too heavy, Jayce. I don’t want to risk the gauntlet being damaged.”

Vi shot him a look. 

“Oh you’re worried about the glove, huh? What about my pretty face?”

Viktor smirked wryly. 

“I have a sneaking suspicion that your face will remain just as pretty as it currently is.”

Vi grinned ecstatically, and it lit up every one of her features in a lively glow. He could tell that, with the gauntlet on, she was feeling very much in her element. 

“Well? Don’t just stand there, go on,” Viktor spurred Jayce into motion. 

At a loss, the man looked around for something to throw. Reluctantly, he grabbed the thing that was closest to him. 

A cupcake. 

With an averse tilt of his head, he drew back an arm and hurled the pastry straight at Vi. His aim was true -- it was headed right for the girls’ face. 

With impressive reflexes, Vi threw her fist out. When the gauntlet connected with the incoming target, the cupcake exploded, sending a spray of crumbs and icing into the air. Viktor ducked, shielding his head, and Jayce barely managed to dodge a giant wad of pink frosting.

Vi gave a gasping laugh, excitement radiating from her whole being. 

“Holy shit! Do another one."

“I specifically asked you not to get crumbs on my desk,” Viktor muttered, wiping a glob of cupcake guts off of his forehead. 

Even so, he was smiling in his own quiet way. 

At this point, Jayce was just as excited as Vi and wasted no time fishing another cupcake out of the box. 

At least now they knew what they were going to do with all of them. 

“Alright, ready?” Jayce asked, his face flushed with exhilaration. 

Vi nodded, raising her fists. 

Jayce launched the cupcake at Vi, and with a fierce uppercut, she sent it rocketing toward the ceiling. The cupcake, along with exploded bits of icing and crumbs, smacked into the drywall with a sticky thump.

Vi looked at Jayce, wide eyed with pure, childish glee, and Jayce began to howl with laughter. 

“How are we going to clean that up?” Viktor wondered softly, not expecting an answer.

Even though they were making an absolute mess of his lab, Viktor couldn’t help but feel warm with happiness. The prototype was finally working, and his friends were having the most fun he’d seen them have in ages. His face was beginning to hurt from attempting to keep his smile at bay. 

“Okay, get ready for two this time,” Jayce grinned wickedly. 

Vi narrowed her eyes, a smirk darkening her features. She rolled her shoulders, lifting her fists. 

“Bring it on, golden boy.”

Viktor watched as Jayce threw one cupcake, then another immediately after it. 

In quick motions, Vi swung the gauntlet out and slammed the cupcake from the side, sending it flying toward the door. 

Just as Heimerdinger opened it. 

It was a good thing the yordle was short. The cupcake thumped into the door a few feet above him. He spun around, ears perked, and watched as it began to slide down the wood. 

Jayce immediately straightened up, putting his hands, which were already holding another round of ammo, behind his back. 

Vi, who’d had to duck for cover to escape getting hit by the second cupcake, scrambled to her feet. The cupcake flew past her, splatting on the window across from Viktor’s desk. 

Every sign of easy-going joy vanished from Vi’s face as she pulled off Viktor’s goggles. At the sight of a stranger -- and one who was on the council, no less -- Vi had instantly put up her guard. 

Heimerdinger’s attention quickly left the cupcake, which was gradually creeping its way to the floor, and turned to survey the room. His eyes floated over Jayce and Viktor, and lingered on Vi -- though if it was because she was a strange Zaunite in their lab, or because of the gauntlet she wore, Viktor wasn’t sure. 

Instinctively, Vi took a step back toward Viktor, as if his simple presence would explain that it was okay for her to be there. Viktor recalled Vi’s familiarity with Stillwater Prison, and what she had told them about the enforcers below giving her a hard time. 

He stepped forward, stopping next to her just long enough to lay a hand on her shoulder. No one was getting arrested today. He tried to reassure her with a squeeze before taking another step, positioning himself between her and Heimerdinger. 

The yordle strode into the room, stopping by a pile of pulverized cupcake to bend down and peer at it. Reaching out a finger, he raked up some of the icing and brought it to his mouth before wiping his hands together.

“Hello my dear children,” he greeted them, eyes once again lingering on Vi, whose expression was stony. 

“I’ve come to see how your work on the prototype is going. It seems the answer to that question is a little too well.” Though his voice remained passive, there was a devious smirk on his face. 

“Forgive us, Professor, I may have gotten a little carried away with my testing,” Viktor hastily explained. 

“Our, our testing,” Jayce interrupted, brow drawn together in annoyance at Viktor trying to take all the blame, even if there wouldn’t be any. 

“I mean, I’m the one who threw the cupcakes,” he added, chuckling nervously. 

Heimerdinger, however, brushed their concerns away with the wave of his furry hand. 

“Don’t worry, my dear boys. When has science ever been neat or tidy? Though I do have to say, I’ve never seen it involve cupcakes in this exact manner. That will be a new one for the history books.” He smiled. Then, "So, I trust that your testing was successful?” he asked, glancing around at the mess.

“Yes Professor,” Viktor replied, taking another step closer. “Other than a few small adjustments, we should be able to begin constructing the final design very soon.”

Heimerdinger clasped his hands behind his back, giving an eager nod. 

“Very good to hear, very good indeed. Keep me updated, will you boys?”

The boys in question nodded furiously. 

“Good, good.” Heimerdinger turned toward the door, once again stepping over cupcake bits to get there. 

“Now, I would say it’s time to clean up the mess that science has made, wouldn’t you?” Heimerdinger said. Then, with a twinkle in his eye, added, “I predict that one on the ceiling will require a bit of a team effort.”

Then he was gone. 

“Shit,” Vi muttered as Viktor helped guide the gauntlet off of her arm. 

“How can someone so small and fuzzy be so… intimidating?

Viktor exhaled a gentle laugh through his nose. 

“Academic influence and political power.”

Vi shook her head. 

They got the gauntlet sitting safely on the table, and Vi carefully propped it up against its stand. Then she looked down at her hands almost shyly. Viktor watched her with patience. 

“Uh… thanks for having my back -- when, you know,” she jerked her head toward the door, looking up at him from behind a sweep of hair.

“Of course,” he nonchalantly replied. 

Then, leaning closer, he added, 

“Whether you like it or not, you have assisted with great scientific research. You’re one of us now.”

Vi raised an eyebrow, smiling. 

“Well, considering how much trouble you both get up to, I don’t know how to feel about that,” she said with a kindly scoff. 

“Eh, we have fun,” Viktor replied, shrugging. 

“Yeah,” Vi looked around at all the cupcake splatters. “Yeah, I can see that.”

“Um, hello,” Jayce interjected, holding up an icing covered rag. “Yeah, once you two are done having a moment, or whatever it is that’s happening over there, can you maybe help me clean up the mess we all made.”

Viktor tilted his head, making a noise of skepticism. 

“If I remember correctly, I had no part in this matter.”

Jayce laughed in disbelief. 

“Uh, you’re the one that told me to throw something at Vi. I would say that’s a pretty significant part.”

Vi turned to look at Viktor craftily. 

“He’s not wrong. It’s called ‘guilty by association’, wise guy.”

Viktor scoffed, but he was smiling bigger than he had in weeks. 

Between the three of them, it didn’t take long to clean up the lab. Since neither of his friends would allow him to bend down and risk putting further strain on his leg, Viktor wiped the cupcake splatters off the door and window while Vi and Jayce took care of the mess on the floor. Viktor noticed that Vi also took some extra time to clean off his desk, careful to keep his notes and books out of the way.

He watched her with a level of confused gratitude as she attentively cleaned the wood, eyes scanning over some of his notes with genuine interest. 

“Okay,” Jayce grunted, rising from the floor. “I think that’s all of it.”

“Well, apart from the stuff on your face,” Vi added, earning a dirty rag thrown in her direction. 

“Uh, not exactly…” Viktor interjected, and they both turned to look at him. 

His head was craned up at the ceiling, where the final cupcake was stuck in a spray of globby pieces. 

Jayce stared up at it, sighed, and said,

“Alright… who wants to get on my shoulders?”

Viktor and Vi gaped at him. 

“What?” he shrugged. “Heimerdinger said it would be a group effort, and I don’t think either one of you will be lifting me up.”

The other two shared an unsure glance, and Vi rolled her eyes charismatically. 

“I’ll do it,” she offered.

Viktor had opened his mouth to argue -- though, rather half-heartedly, he had to admit -- but Vi was already walking over to Jayce. 

“Alright, pretty boy, how are we doing this?” 

“Uh…” Jayce muttered, looking a little embarrassed and very lost. 

In the end, Jayce dropped to his knees so Vi could more easily get onto his shoulders. Once she was straddling him, he grabbed her legs to steady her as he stood, wobbling more than a little. 

Viktor watched tensely, one hand worrying his cane, and muttering several “be careful”s. 

“If you fall, I’m afraid I will not offer a very cushiony landing,” he admitted to Vi, who snorted. 

“Oh don’t worry, if I fall I’m bringing Jayce down with me. I’ll just land on him.”

“Oh good,” Jayce muttered, holding even tighter to Vi’s legs. 

Vi didn’t seem too worried about falling, though, and confidently stretched her hands up to wipe the cupcake from the ceiling. They looked like a balancing act, and Vi’s casual relaxation paired with Jayce’s obvious anxiety was enough to make Viktor’s eyes light up with amusement. 

“Alright,” Vi strained. “I think I got all of it.”

“Good,” Jayce tried to nod, then realized he couldn’t, considering Vi’s legs were still wrapped around his neck. 

“Now how do you--” Jayce had just begun to ask how she planned on getting down, but his sentence was cut short. 

Viktor, who had the advantage of a wider viewpoint, had seen what Vi was intending to do, and hurried to stand in front of Jayce. 

Kicking her legs out of Jayce’s grasp, she flung her right one off his shoulder, which resulted in her swinging around to the front of him, where she dropped gracefully to the ground. Even so, Viktor was there to put a steadying hand on her back as she caught her balance. 

Jayce stood dumbfounded, hands held out by his sides.

“Alright,” he breathed. “That works too.”

Vi smirked.

It had been a long day, considering Jayce and Viktor were running on zero sleep. Their determination to get the prototype working, and then their excitement when it finally did, had supplied them with enough energy to get through it all, but now that they had cleaned up the mess, both men were exhausted. 

Jayce, Vi, and Viktor all collapsed onto the couch they had in the lab. It was the only comfortable seat in the room, but it wasn’t exactly meant for three people. None of them cared. They squished in until they were practically on top of each other, too tired to think twice about the close proximity.

Jayce sat on one end, his head tilted back against the cushion and rubbing a weary hand over his eyes. Vi sat in the middle, turning slightly to kick her legs up across Jayce's thighs. She leaned sideways against Viktor, who was sitting on the other end. He relaxed back into the couch and Vi’s shoulder, propping a hand up to rest his head against it. 

“Man what a day,” Vi sighed.

There were vague noises of agreement on either side of her.

After a few minutes of silence, Jayce began to snore. Viktor sat up a little, leaning around Vi to give his partner a fond look. The man was out cold. Turning to Vi, they smirked at each other.

Viktor giggled breathily, and Vi’s shook her head, eyebrows raised fondly.

They settled back against the couch, both of them more content in that moment than they could ever remember being. 

“Thank you for your help today,” Viktor murmured, his voice heavy with exhaustion. 

“Anything for you, wise guy,” she replied, closing her eyes with a smile. 

“Your father,” Viktor spoke up, only sounding hesitant at first. “He would be proud, I think.” 

And despite the ‘I think’, Viktor hadn’t been more sure of anything in his life. 

Vi’s eyes flickered open, and she stared up at the ceiling as tears began to cloud her vision.

She took a deep, shuddering breath, and she felt a hand grace lightly over her arm. A smile broke out on her face, and she laughed faintly, even though the tears had begun to make their way down her cheeks. 

“Thanks, Viktor. Really.” 

The man hummed -- a vibration she felt pass from his shoulder into hers -- and she could hear the hint of a gentle smile in the noise. 

Vi knew that Viktor had nodded off to sleep when his head bumped lightly against her own. She shifted so that it was resting on her shoulder, his hair brushing the crook of her neck.

To the sound of Jayce’s snores, she gazed up at the ceiling and let herself cry. She hadn’t cried about Vander in a long time, and it felt equally as cathartic as it did painful. Her face bunched up, tears streaking down until they curled around her jaw. With a start, she wiped them away, hoping that she hadn’t gotten any on Viktor. 

It was then that she realized his hand was still on her arm, grip light in his sleep. His thumb twitched over her skin, and she breathed a wavering sigh. 

She thought about Vander. About the way he would call her name with a grin, holding his arms out to her as she ran into them, her giggles filling the room. About how he would pull her onto his lap, hug her close, and say,

“Alright Vi, what’s this part called?”

And she would follow his pointing finger and tell him. 

“That’s the energy converter,” she would shout, her confidence hiding the fact that she was secretly hoping to be right. 

And when she was right, he would give her a squeeze, planting a kiss on the back of her head and say,

“That’s my girl. Now, what about this one?”

As the memories echoed through her head, Vi smiled up at the ceiling, her brow bunching together. 

I hope you’re proud of me, she thought, a warm tear curling down her cheek. 

And out of the quiet, still universe she heard, 

I always have been.

Caitlyn flipped through a pocket sized notebook as she strode down the hall, the heels of her boots echoing loudly through the empty space. She had just gotten off work and, hoping that Vi had already dropped off the notes like she’d said she would, was eager to talk with Jayce about her suggestions. 

She made a few mental notes as she read through her physical ones, and went over some of her strongest arguing points, knowing that, with Jayce, there was sure to be a debate. 

That was fine -- she was ready for it. 

With a determined smile, she swung open the door to their lab. 

“Good evening,” she cheerily greeted, turning to push the door shut behind her. 

“Sorry if I’m interrupting anything impor--”

She turned around and discovered the lab was empty. 

Well, not quite. It took her a moment to realize, but when she did, her body stilled in disbelief.

Rather than be working at their desks or at the blackboard as they usually were during this time of day, Jayce and Viktor were sprawled out on the couch, both men fast asleep. 

But that wasn’t even the unbelievable part. 

Smushed in between them, so much so that it had taken Caitlyn a moment to see her, was Vi, also asleep, her head resting on top of Viktor’s. 

Caitlyn brought a hand up to cover her mouth, then moved it to her chin as she attempted to take in the sight before her. 

Jayce’s head was craned back against the wall, mouth open and drooling on the couch cushion. Vi’s legs were propped up on his, and his hands had fallen to lay on her shins, a likely result of him shifting in his sleep. 

The rest of Vi was turned sideways, leaning against Viktor at an odd angle, and it seemed that this was the only thing keeping either of them upright. Viktor’s cane had fallen from his hand, and was tilting against the couch next to his legs. His arms were crossed over his chest, but Caitlyn didn’t miss the fact that the hand closest to Vi was gently resting on the girl’s arm. 

Dropping her hands to her side, Caitlyn quickly fished out the forensic camera she carried for work. Crouching down slightly, she leveled the lens at the pile of limbs on the couch and clicked. 

“Well, that one’s going on the holiday card,” she muttered, a foolish grin covering her face. 

She remained for a few more moments, staring at her three friends, and her heart was filled with so much fondness she could hardly breathe. Finally, with a shake of her head and a breathy laugh, she turned and slowly opened the door. 

As she eased it closed, she gave one last peek at Jayce, Viktor, and Vi. 

“Idiots,” she whispered, and the smile on her face was one of love.