Work Text:
His math was wrong. Viktor slammed his tools down, and tore the mask off his face to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
"Blyat." he cursed, then jerked his head towards the door as a familiar voice surprised him.
"That's a blyat I would know anywhere."
Viktor rolled his eyes.
"Why are you here, Talis?" he sneered, third arm rising from behind his back, deadly laser aimed right at the chest of Piltover's protector. He reached for his mask, but then dropped his hand, changing his mind. It would be no use wearing it now. Jayce raised a brow at the laser arm's threat, but didn't seem particularly afraid. He strode over to peer at Viktor's work over the Herald's metal shoulder.
"What you working on there, V?"
"Nothing that should concern you."
"Stuck on something?" Jayce asked, completely ignoring Viktor's previous comment, and reached for the papers. Viktor thought about stopping him and promptly kicking him out of his house, but- part of him wanted to hear what Jayce had to say.
"Oh, interesting." he commented, studying the concept. "Kind of fucked up, but not bad."
"How very gracious of you to say so."
"All values are according to how the Hexcore behaves as opposed to our original numbers, right? Everything reacts differently to the Hexcore, you have to account for the density of the air, and-"
"Obviously." Viktor huffed, annoyed. "All values are modified, I've been reworking all of our math to apply them to the Hexcore. I've been doing this for a while now if you haven't noticed, thank you very much."
"Ah, but you still put in the original value of gravitational acceleration we worked with" Jayce said, tapping with his finger at a certain portion of Viktor's calculations. "Is somebody a bit tired?"
The Machine Herald's eye twitched.
"I had a bad night, and now, I'm having an even worse morning." He snatched the notebook from Jayce's hand, and tried not to look at his smug face. He hated how the original values they established were still so alive in his memory, and of course Jayce had to visit right at that very moment he makes such a careless and braindead mistake.
"Why are you here, Jayce?" he asked in the grumpiest voice he could manage.
"A simple thank you would have sufficed."
Viktor narrowed his eyes, which made the man put his hands up in defensively.
"Okay, okay. So. The Hexgates are down."
"So I've heard."
"They are malfunctioning." Jayce plopped down on his old couch like he was at home, and kept talking. Viktor couldn't believe his nerve. "And I have no idea why. Something is messing up the system, but I checked all components and they are in perfect shape. And then I thought, maybe its the crystals, but they are perfectly fine as well. Everything checks out, until it breaks down and we have to reboot the whole thing. Now we have to keep it shut down because of the danger factor, and everybody is pissy because they are losing their time and money. And its obviously my fault, because, of course it is. I invented the damn thing, so naturally it's me who is to blame if they failed to keep it in top shape." He grimaced, then his expression turned into a sour smile as he looked at the Machine Herald. "I guess that means that you are to blame as well, Viktor. It's only right you help me fix it."
"And why would I do that?" he asked coldly. "Why should I care about pilties losing money, pray tell?"
"Oh, like zaunites don't use the gates" Jayce scoffed. "Come on V. Help me out. I can pay you."
"I don't need your money" Viktor sent him a death glare, and went back to his calculations to cross out the incorrect value and correct it. "I need you to leave, however."
"...Please."
The pen stopped in Viktor's hand. It's been a long, long time since Jayce Talis said that word and it would've been a lie to say it didn't had an effect on him. He kept quiet for a while, then spoke again.
"You've talked to those working maintenance?"
"Yes." a hint of relief could be heard in Jayce's voice. "Nothing unusual. No faults detected at routine inspections, either. The problem occurs seemingly random, it fries the system and just like that, it's dead."
"Hm." Viktor turned the pen in his hand and kept tapping it on the table in a steady rhythm. "What if the problem doesn't lie with the Hexgate itself, but what passes through the gate?" he offered.
"What do you mean?" Jayce furrowed his brows." There never occured a problem with anything passing through."
"But now it did." his ex-partner pointed out. "So what you have to do, is determine the exact date when the gates started to malfunction and see if there are any new factors that weren't present before."
Jayce stared in front of him in silence for a moment.
"Fuck" he said heatedly, and slapped a hand down on his knee. "Fuck. Me. That's it!'
"Oh?" Viktor's voice carried just a tad bit of amusement. "Care to share?"
"The shipments. The Hextech shipments. We started exporting them, but it didn't occur to me to check if they would cause interference. There's just so many things to pay attention to. I should've...Gahhhh" he buried his face in his hands with frustration.
"Some scientist you are" the Machine Herald slightly shook his head with a 'tch'. "It amazes me how a whole city is willing to put their trust in you."
"They don't have much of a choice. I'm just simply built different."
Viktor scoffed, but the corners of his mouth curled upwards. Why was Jayce so insufferable? And why did he find it annoyingly charming, still?
"Okay Talis, time's up. I solved your problem, you successfully managed to get on my nerves, so you have no more reasons to stay. I expect compensation for my contribution, in a timely manner."
"I thought you didn't care for my money?"
"I lied."
Jayce stood up, and Viktor focused on his calculations before him, but it all was a blur as he looked at it. A heavy tension lingered in the air, and the Machine Herald's heart was beating once again with that (sweet) sorrow he so desperately tried to purge. He waited for Jayce to go, but he didn't hear any footsteps.
"I miss you, Vitya." the man confessed quietly, and Viktor's breath stuck in his throat. Not again. Not this. He can't-
"Do you miss me?"
He finally heard Jayce moving, but - he was moving towards him. He stopped, directly behind Viktor, who did not turn his head, did not move a single muscle.
"No" he whispered. He felt Jayce's fingers at the base of his neck, right where metal collided with flesh, and shivered. The man's calloused fingers traveled up his neck to find their way into his hair, like they did so many times before.
"Not even a little bit?" Jayce breathed the question right next to his ear.
"Never" Viktor's voice was strained. He reached up to touch Jayce's face with his metal arm, and slightly turned his head to see his reaction. Jayce pressed his face into the cold touch, then took hold of the arm, just to lower his head and press a light kiss on it, eyes half lidded and his gaze meeting Viktor's.
"Show me how much you didn’t miss me." he then said, low and dark with emotion. Challenging him. And Viktor once again realized that despite all his efforts, he was not immune to Jayce, as he harshly grabbed his arch nemesis to pull him into his lap and kiss that irritating, knowing smile off his lips.