Work Text:
Jayce wondered, sometimes, about the failures of human memory. That first night - had Viktor really interrupted him with such perfect timing, with such a smiling and understanding face when Jayce had so desperately needed one?
Had Viktor’s hand really been so warm when Jayce had taken the wristband back from him, his middle and ring fingers brushing against Viktor’s open palm? Had Viktor really grinned back so openly at Jayce, who was busy gaping at his sudden, unexpected saviour?
Jayce had his journals, of course, and all his notes, and though they had been confiscated that night, he had eventually gotten them back. He had pressed a sticky note onto one page, already bent in a corner and losing its grip, but it was a worthwhile memento —
Someone believed, he had written that first night, hands shaky over the small scrap of paper, unsteady and uncertain under the scant light of the city at nighttime. Someone had believed - and off of that, everything had changed.
[YEAR 1]
After their first major success, it took time to figure out how to work together.
A fellow scientist! Jayce wrote in his journal after a week. The kind of scientist that would have Cait scoffing and teasing and eventually peering over his shoulder delightedly as he worked, just like Jayce himself. And Viktor was a marvel of a partner, seemingly endless in his ideas, clever and quick and willing to push buttons with a wink at Jayce while Jayce himself stood braced on the other side of the workbench. Ask him if he wants to get a beer sometime.
Viktor sat stooped over the desk and stool assigned temporarily to him in Heimerdinger’s lab as he transcribed into a small logbook they shared. A day’s worth of experiments with the hextech crystals had gone by. Their initial success had been astonishing, of course, but Jayce was no stranger to long days of rigorous work, and it was all the better for having a new partner at his side.
He always orders beef sandwiches from the cafeteria. Jayce dropped two of them, wrapped and still warm, next to Viktor’s elbow and got a surprised thanks in return. A cup of coffee followed, and that was enough for Viktor to interrupt his work, looking up at Jayce with a questioning tilt of his head and a tentative smile on his lips.
Jayce grinned back, pleased. He was used to working alone, and the presence of another person made him more likely to remember to eat and drink and catch the hour at a reasonable time to pack up and leave the lab. Moments had more discernible beginnings and ends with Viktor. Sometimes his partner would call for his attention, wanting to discuss a new idea, but even just the movement of another person in his space - Viktor shifting from one seat to another, starting up the soldering iron, pushing a bundle of paper wordlessly to the side - could startle Jayce out of a reverie.
They did get a beer eventually, a few weeks in, still riding the initial rush of success as Jayce convinced the hostess to give them the corner booth for just the two of them. It gave Viktor a little more room to stretch out his leg, and then the two of them were chattering away over fried chicken and beers.
Viktor grew up in the undercity. Viktor wanted to be a scientist ever since he was young. Viktor likes beer well enough (he looks silly with the foam on his upper lip). Viktor likes the saucy fried chicken more than the dry one.
Jayce’s journals filled up.
Hextech crystals are most stable in the accelerator at 700-720 RPM. Burst of energy can be contained and directed using usual means (copper is the most effective material for this, though Viktor thinks Heimerdinger will let us try gold and others). Cause of gravity effect still to be determined.
“This must be the real thing, because I’ve barely seen you in three months.” Caitlyn laughed and ducked as Jayce tried to ruffle her hair, and he settled instead for bumping her shoulder with his. “Say hi more often. I know my parents have you reporting to them at the manor every week.”
“I’m sorry,” Jayce said, though he couldn't quite swallow his grin. “I've been busy. You understand.”
She looped an arm under his shoulder and leaned in for a hug. “Of course. This is your dream. This is your life’s work. I’m very happy for you, Jayce.”
“Yeah.” Jayce rested his cheek on her shoulder and breathed her in. “Thanks. I can’t wait to show you— to show everyone the things Viktor and I will make. You should see him work; he’s just incredible. Cait, we’re going to make the world better.”
Viktor is talkative until he isn’t. There was another doodle here, Viktor’s face furrowed in frustration. Prickly.
On the opposite page, Jayce had a new storage system sketched out. Need to be neater in the lab. New lab, new habits. NO more mess. Jayce had already been mortified twice as Viktor used his cane to nudge aside some of the various boxes and tools Jayce left sprawling carelessly around.
“We will get used to each other,” Viktor said, talking over Jayce’s string of apologies with that curving half-smile of his, “just like any new set of partners,” and he plopped himself onto his stool without any further comment and left Jayce to bashfully clean up the mess.
Treat Viktor like Viktor, Jayce wrote. (Like Cait.)
The first time Jayce tried to help Viktor out of his seat, stooping with a hand reaching for the curve of his elbow, he was swatting away gently and immediately.
“Before I met you,” Viktor said in his deadpan sense of humour as he got up, “I used to fall over every time I stood.” He smiled, then, because he had that way of keeping his voice flat and soft all the way until he was too amused at his own joke.
Jayce flushed and let his hands fall to his sides. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t assume.”
Viktor took some pity on him and tapped the side of his ankle lightly with his cane. “I am used to it, Jayce. I was born with this leg. You may very well only ruin my balance if you grab me.”
That Jayce could understand. Don’t surprise Viktor with touch.
The weeks trickled into months, and they managed to channel the energy of the hextech crystal into a single directed beam, and Jayce adjusted, and Viktor adjusted too.
Elbow touch for attention OK. Lab safety!
Viktor was far from fragile. Viktor was confident in a way Jayce had never been. Viktor was a string of assurances Jayce had never even entirely known he was missing: “This is brilliant, Jayce, I’ve never seen work like it” and “How did you come up with this? I’m fascinated by such an approach” and “I’m sure the council will be pleased with this when we present it to them next week.”
Arm on shoulder OK. Move slow, give him time to react
Viktor usually had enough patience to sit with him through one or two practice runs ahead of their scheduled bi-monthly meetings with the council, though more often than not he just shrugged at the end and said something like, “You are good at talking to them, Jayce. You will convince them.”
Councillor Medarda was a more useful gauge, though the rare few times she visited the lab unannounced were stressful enough to keep Jayce buzzing with adrenaline for hours afterwards, analysing all of her reactions while Viktor gave him utterly distracted mhms. It was exciting to see a non-scientist wide-eyed at the potential of their work, but her lines of questioning were far harder to predict than Heimerdinger’s.
“Well done, very well done,” she murmured with appreciation the first time they managed to use the hextech to propel a model ship - a toy, really - across the room, the accelerator whirring beside the three of them as they looked at the ship fly through their safety goggles. Viktor was pleased too, snapping his notebook shut with sharp finality as the ship landed in its dock without issue.
Think he might be OK with hair ruffles because he’s always touching his own hair. Ducked away today. Will try again in a week or two.
Heimerdinger was also a consistent mentor figure to them both, often toddling along to their borrowed lab space with a keen and careful eye. He even found a new assistant, after a month of passive aggressive sighing and grousing that Jayce tuned out nearly immediately.
“He doesn’t mean it like that,” Viktor said, when Jayce asked him if it bothered him. “If anything, it’s good to be appreciated.”
When the construction of their new, shared lab space finally opened - somewhere belonging to the two of them, without having to fight for space amongst decades of Heimerdinger’s shelved projects - Jayce brought a bottle of champagne the Kirammans had gifted him and popped it with Viktor.
He raised his champagne glass in toast: “To new labs, new partners, and being appreciated.”
“To changing the world,” Viktor said with a smile, "and changing it together."
[YEAR 2]
Jayce cleared his throat. “Councillors, my partner and I believe that these crystals can be used to create fast and effective propulsion systems. We’d be able to change what a vehicle in Piltover looked like, from the roads to the—”
“Bigger!” Councillor Salo boomed. “An old man like me hasn’t got time to wonder after small upgrades to our cars. Can this propel ships, Mr. Talis? Provide a more efficient way to move merchandise?”
“Now, now,” Heimerdinger said. “Let’s not get hasty—”
“Yes.” Jayce looked at Viktor beside him, who responded in the slightest of shrugs. “Yes, we think eventually it will be able to propel ships. And not just like a different sort of fuel, but really, actually, propel—”
“You’ve no proof of that yet!” Heimerdinger said scoldingly. “Councillors, understand that this work is in its infancy. We will develop it responsibly and safely, and—”
“I’m sure Mr. Talis and his partner can deliver.” Councillor Medarda smiled at the pair. “They’ve made significant progress so far.”
“The new lab space has been incredibly helpful,” Jayce added, and Councillor Medarda nodded in his direction. “Now, if we can procure a few more crates of the crystals—”
Once the ridiculously large doors of the room had thudded shut behind them, the sounds of the Councillors already turning their attention to whatever they were entertaining during lunch, Viktor turned to Jayce. “Ugh.”
He said it cutely - Jayce had no better word for the way Viktor purposefully tilted his head to meet his gaze, the enunciation of the sound clean and precise in his mouth - though he knew Viktor himself would’ve scoffed at such a descriptor.
“Not the best,” Jayce agreed, smiling. “But at least we got approval to buy more crystals. And this time Heimerdinger can’t come storming in when we start blowing things up if he’s already given us permission.”
“He will do it anyway.” Viktor gave a little snort. “When things explode, they are technically being propelled.”
“I’m not the one who needs convincing.” Jayce grinned and nudged Viktor’s elbow with his own. “Not bad though, was I? Thanked Councillor Medarda for the new lab and everything. Good enough to have earned a lunch somewhere outside?”
Viktor shrugged. “I think the blonde one was half asleep.”
“Hey,” Jayce said, and again Viktor was smiling at him, brown eyes warmed by the sunlight seeping through the halls. “We’ve sat in enough meetings to both know that Councillor Hoskel is always falling asleep right before lunch. He needs a bit of a pick-me-up delivered to him on a golden platter, and think of how much easier that would be if we cut down on travel times for merchant ships…”
Jayce let his voice trail off. He took off his jacket and stretched, revelling in the feeling. Despite everything, he still found the meetings with the councillors unnerving - he didn’t quite share Viktor’s unshakeable indifference to the table of people who, at one time, had voted on whether he should live or die.
“How about it?” He said to Viktor, who had loosened his own tie by about a centimetre or two in an absolutely wanton display. “Step off campus for once? Grab a beer before we disappear into the lab for another eight weeks?”
“We usually take a break after week five,” Viktor said. “Your union of one demanded it.” He cracked into another curving smile, and that was enough for Jayce to laugh and squeeze his shoulder and steer him towards the sunlight and open sky.
They tried some new café a twenty minute walk from the campus, skipping the beers but drunk on the feeling of success nonetheless. Every day brought them a little closer to genuinely refining hextech into something widely usable and then widely accessible. In the summer air, their dreams felt more real than ever.
The dishes they ordered came out. Jayce tried a piece of spicy tofu from one of the bowls and nearly died, choking and gasping for water while Viktor laughed at him and took the rest of the serving for himself.
“I used to eat things like this all the time,” he said, mouth full. “And this level of spice of nothing.”
“Oh yeah?” Eyes still watering, Jayce took a tentative stab at the bowl of stir fried noodles - these were more to his taste, he found, and he heaped his plate thankfully with more. “Cait said this place is some new fad. Neat that it came from the undercity.”
“Mmm.” Viktor was giving him that kind of look - not quite disappointed, but like he had marked Jayce against some unknown rubric and found him just shy of satisfactory. “Lots of things do. If we can use the propulsion system to build a better form of transportation between here and the undercity, we could go more often. I can show you around.”
Jayce thought of the mystery meat shop three doors down from Benzo’s shop and tried not to grimace. “It’s a good idea.”
“It’ll be good for everyone,” Viktor said. “Think of how much more united the city would be if it didn’t take over an hour just to get from anywhere here to there. And then everything here would be more accessible too, all the museums and libraries and schools.”
“Did you have to transit back and forth, when Heimerdinger took you on?”
Viktor had a pink flush across his cheeks, which Jayce found charming - it was evidence that he was not entirely immune to the spice. “It wasn’t— once Heimerdinger put in a word for me, I took up residence on campus immediately.”
“Oh.” A thought occurred to Jayce. “I’m sorry. You did mention before, that your parents …”
Viktor shrugged. “Many die at a young age in the fissures. That is why we do what we do, yes?”
“Yes,” Jayce said, pushing the plate of noodles closer to Viktor. “Of course. I’m glad you got out.”
“My parents were happy.” Viktor helped himself to some of the noodles. Then he added, voice soft, “They would have liked our work.”
Jayce gave him a smile. “You should tell me more about them sometime. And you deserve so much credit for coming so far.”
Viktor nudged the plate of chicken towards him. It had a bright, unnatural orange colour. “Here. Try this.”
Jayce took a bite, bracing himself for spice. To his surprise, it was sweet and tangy. “Good,” he said, and Viktor smiled, and Jayce savoured the bright taste on his tongue, beaming.
[YEAR 3]
“We need some cheaper way to reinforce these,” Jayce murmured, glancing around the lab as if inspiration might suddenly strike from its walls. “I can already hear Councillor Salo complaining about having to spend millions upgrading his fleet to use the hexgates.”
Viktor was silent across the lab.
“I know you’re not pleased,” Jayce said, aiming his words at the sharp hunched shoulders of his partner. “But it’s a good compromise. We show them how useful this technology can be and they’ll be much more willing to support our future ideas.”
Viktor sighed, but his shoulders loosened some. “Our current ideas are fine.”
“I know, I know.” Jayce stood and paced. His footsteps made dull thuds as he tread his half of the room - he was careful now not to hover in Viktor’s space, after one particularly snappish afternoon - but Viktor remained silent.
Jayce took a cautious step over the unofficial halfway line. When Viktor didn’t react, Jayce moved the rest of the way to place a hand on Viktor’s shoulder. “My father was an inventor but he was a businessman too. A real man of industry.”
“We are scientists,” Viktor said, and he shrugged Jayce’s hand off.
Jayce had clearly said the wrong thing. “We can be both,” he tried. When that didn’t stir Viktor, he added: “If we stay involved, we will have control over how they are using our ideas. And you can always set me straight, if you think I am straying. I will listen to you.”
“I am doing work,” Viktor said, his words sharp and precise. “You should do so as well.”
Jayce took another look at Viktor’s back and sighed, deflating. “You’re right. Sorry.”
“Jayce,” Viktor said, when he was already back at his desk, settling back onto his squeaky stool. He turned, but Viktor still had not lifted his gaze from his desk. “Aluminum bronze alloys. The undercity uses them.”
Jayce hid his smile. “Of course,” he said, “thank you,” and he turned back to the sprawling equations before him and got to work.
-
The bedrolls in the lab were Viktor's idea, miraculously, though it was always Jayce who pulled them out first with exaggerated sighs as Viktor continued to scribble on, fueled by the growing assortment of coffee cups around him.
Jayce unrolled the bedrolls next to each other and then lay down.
“I am in the middle of something,” Viktor said tonelessly, before Jayce even had a chance to say anything.
“I can help,” Jayce said, squinting at the bright lights overhead. He’d turned off all the lamps at his workstation, of course, but he knew from past experience that Viktor would continue to work even if the overhead lights were turned off, and he might as well save him the eye strain.
“I'm almost done.”
“I can think just as well on my back,” Jayce insisted. "Even better with my eyes closed."
“I’m sure you can,” Viktor said, and Jayce thought with a private thrill that there was something fond in his tone. “I’ll be just a moment.”
“These bedrolls were your idea, Vitya,” Jayce said. The nickname softened his partner not at all as the scratch of pen continued unperturbed, but Jayce liked the sound of it on his tongue, and now that Viktor had given it to him, he wanted very much to use it all the time. “We agreed constant all-nighters were not productive.”
A moment turned into nearly twenty minutes, of course, but eventually Viktor snatched the paper triumphantly from his desk and came over to show Jayce, and after another half hour of animated discussion between the two of them the lights were somehow dimmed and they were both lying down at the same time and that was close enough to resting.
This was their sixth or seventh night like this already in less than two weeks - time was starting to blur a little. The Council was incredibly keen on these hexgates. Jayce was incredibly keen on this work with Viktor.
They always ended up like this, facing each other in the dark, Viktor’s papers scattered messily around them. The conversation turned from the number of crystals they would need per hexgate - Jayce had thought over a thousand, but Viktor thought they could cut the number to 400, if only they could find some way to do it safely - and slowly meandered into other things.
“Did you ever really think your life would come to this?” In the night, Jayce sometimes grew bold. “I mean— I chased hextech for years, ever since I was a child. This was truly a dream.”
Viktor was quiet for so long Jayce thought he’d fallen asleep. He shifted in his bedroll, preparing to do the same, when Viktor said softly, “Someone once told me that great genius often leads to loneliness. For a long time, I thought that might be true.”
In the moonlight, Jayce could just barely see the way Viktor’s hair fell softly over his forehead. “Yeah?”
“Yes. But it didn’t really bother me.”
Jayce gave a little chuckle, though he wasn’t quite sure why.
“What do you think?”
“Me?” Jayce took a few moments to think about it. “Well, I don't know. Growing up it was okay. I had my mother’s support and the Kirammans took an early interest as something of a favour to my father. But later … it was frustrating, isolating, when people stopped believing in me. In hextech. I’ve never really had too many friends, I just had—” His hand lay between the two of them and he inched it forward, reaching for the shadow of Viktor. “You know. You know how I felt back then.”
“Yes.” Viktor didn’t pull away as Jayce’s hand reached his. “When we found each other.”
“You found me,” Jayce said. He felt bold, with Viktor’s skin warm against him and the dark around them. “Are you lonely?”
“No,” Viktor said quietly into the space between them. “Not anymore.”
-
In hindsight, trying to kiss Viktor without any warning was probably an astonishingly terrible idea. It was actually really, very obvious in hindsight, but Jayce had forgotten how tetchy his partner could be about touch, the way he always moved purposefully away from anyone else who laid a hand on his elbow or shoulder, because Viktor had long ago stopped reacting when Jayce threw an arm around him and pulled him into his side.
Now Viktor had skittered all the way across the lab, retreating to his half, eyes wide and mouth frowning.
Jayce held his hands up in surrender. “I— I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me, I’m—”
“Jayce,” Viktor said.
“Viktor.” That sounded too cold, all of a sudden, though him calling Viktor Vitya had been a recent, spontaneous thing. “I’m—”
“Jayce.”
"Okay. Vitya. Viktor."
Viktor was silent for a few long moments, staring unmovingly at some point above Jayce’s shoulder. Jayce dropped his arms and let their weight fall heavy at his sides. When Viktor didn’t react, he lowered himself back onto his stool behind him and sat, hunched, and waited.
Eventually, Viktor said, "We are partners, yes? I am your partner, you are my partner."
"That's how being partners works, yes." Jayce felt small. "We are partners."
Viktor nodded.
Jayce buried his hand in his hands then, hiding his face. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean— I thought, maybe—”
There was the sound of footsteps, of Viktor's cane hitting the ground. Jayce stilled.
They should get floors that muffle noise more, Jayce thought, listening to Viktor’s tri-pedal step. It would make sense for a lab full of explosions. They’d mentioned it a few times but somehow never got around to it. It always slipped their mind, between one thing and the—
Then Viktor was crouched in front of him and his hand was on Jayce's wrist, tugging his hands away from his face. His index and middle fingers were at his pulse point.
"I'm not dying," Jayce said wryly. He chanced a glance at Viktor, and then immediately looked away - he was close, too close. "I've been turned down before. I'll live."
“This is important to me.” Viktor’s voice was soft. “You know that, Jayce. The work. Our dream. Us. You must know that, Jayce.”
Jayce didn’t move. “I know.”
“It’s not you.” Viktor’s hand moved to encircle Jayce’s wrist entirely for a brief moment before letting go. “I’ve never— not with anyone. I have no interest. It’s a fault of mine, not yours.”
“Okay,” Jayce breathed, and when Viktor had stepped far enough back, he stood - gave his partner one last glance, took in the way Viktor’s face looked, flushed and lost - and bolted from the lab.
-
"Oh no," Caitlyn said, her voice flat. "One person doesn't want to sleep with you. It’s fine, Jayce. You weren't this upset when I turned you down."
Jayce flicked the bottle cap at her and then took another swig. "I was drunk that night, and it was a joke."
Caitlyn sniggered. "It wasn't a joke. You said some very earnest things about your… " She mimed grabbing his chest across the table, fingers squeezing.
"People like them," Jayce said defensively. "I worked hard on them."
She laughed again. "Sure. But they're not the same as ..." She moved her hands in front of herself and made the same motion. "You know."
"I know a lot of things, apparently," Jayce grumbled, and suddenly, mortifying, he felt his eyes well up.
"Oh, Jayce." He brought his hand up to his face but Caitlyn caught it and squeezed. He always forgot how fast and strong she was. She held on to him even as he tried to pull away, her fingers a vice around the same wrist Viktor had held. "I’m sorry for making fun. He's just— he seems like the kind of guy who's just married to his work. I would have said the same of you three or four years ago. Don't take it personally."
"No, no," Jayce managed to say without his voice wavering too much. "Nothing is ever personal to a scientist." He sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll go back to the lab eventually. I’m due a sabbatical, anyway.”
Caitlyn just gave him a look. Jayce buried his face in his hands again and groaned.
“I can’t take a sabbatical,” he said, muffled. “We have another meeting with the Council in a week and I’ve already wasted three days in the meantime.”
Cait’s thumb moved soothing at the base of his palm. “You can do this. You’ve done this before, remember, when Rosalia broke up with you right before entrance exams—”
Jayce laughed weakly. “Felt like the world was going to end.”
“And now, have you even thought about her in the past few years?”
“No.” Jayce had been busy thinking about Viktor, and hextech. Mostly hextech. Or maybe Viktor. “But she wasn’t my— Viktor and I, we’re partners in this. I can’t do this without him.”
“So do it with him,” Cait said, and she held Jayce’s hand until he finished pretending he wasn’t crying. She waited as he straightened himself out - squared his shoulders - and managed to give her a single, tremulous smile.
“It’ll be okay,” he said. He cleared his throat, which didn’t make anything better. “It’ll be alright. Anything for a dream come true.”
[YEAR 4]
Jayce lingered in the middle of the room. “See you at the gala later?”
Viktor glanced over his shoulder for just a moment. “See you at the gala.”
Jayce nodded and left, letting the door of the lab close behind him softly. The heels of his shoes clicked lightly in the empty halls as he made his way out of the science buildings and across campus to his rooms. He’d left the lab earlier than strictly necessary, but gone were the days when he and Viktor could straighten each other’s school ties ten minutes before an event and show up playing the part of precocious young things.
Instead, Jayce spent a good hour dressing himself. He showered, exfoliated, shaved. His suit had been tailored by the Kirammans’ tailor and each piece settled onto him with a comforting weight. He tied his tie thrice before he was satisfied with the knot, wavered between two sets of cufflinks before choosing the ones passed down from his father, and then wasted five minutes rolling ice cubes below his eyes before realising they did very little to get rid of his eyebags.
Once dressed, he still had forty minutes to kill before the gala, so he settled into an armchair to flip again through all the various bids that construction companies had submitted for the hexgates. Both Councillors Salo and Medarda had volunteered to oversee the construction themselves, but Jayce had pushed back, and eventually the legacy of the Talis hammer business had convinced the Council to let the decision-making power remain with him and Viktor.
After which Viktor had, of course, resolutely left the decision-making entirely to Jayce himself, and then Jayce buried himself so deep into work that they could sometimes spend an entire day saying no more than a few sentences to each other even as they sat in the same room, and then the silence of Viktor scratching away on the other side of the room drove Jayce to spend weeks working by the forge by himself, even if it was cold and dark in the room without the fires.
And so: Jayce, alone in his room, a cup of coffee in hand and a stack of bids balanced on the arm of his armchair. The gala was to introduce the project to the general public and to announce the winning bid. Jayce had a speech prepared, the papers tucked into the inner breast pocket of the suit, and his eyes glazed over before he made it through the first two packages.
He’d reviewed them a hundred times over already. There was no more use in reviewing them again.
His rooms were too quiet, Jayce decided, and not good for his nerves, when he’d already made his choice. He would take a walk before the gala.
-
The lab was surprisingly empty when Jayce returned. Unbidden, he imagined Viktor getting ready for the gala - where would he have gotten a suit from? did he pick red as an accent colour, as he usually did, so that he and Jayce would match? did he have a date (surely not)? - before shaking the thoughts away.
Viktor's side of the room was as neat as it ever got, pages of work and journals and scraps shoved mostly to the sides of his desk. If asked, he would say he knew where everything was and that was order enough.
Jayce paused. He shouldn't - he was teetering on the edge of privacy here - but it had already caught his eye, in one corner of Viktor's notes, conspicuously visible above a sketch of a runic sphere: a small doodle of Jayce. Viktor had given him absurdly broad shoulders and a stern face - he looked like he was in the middle of talking. This might be how Viktor saw him all the time in meetings with the Council, Jayce realised. The angle was right. Jayce often found himself standing these days - it was a more powerful position to speak from, rid him a little of the anxieties of looking like a puffed-up schoolboy - but there was no expectation for Viktor to stand when he did, so he didn't.
Jayce tore his eyes away. This was a waste of time.
-
The gala was already humming along by the time Jayce arrived. Some faces were familiar to him - the Council, of course, and a couple members of the Upper Houses that he had met previously through the Kirammans, and even a few men he recognized as business partners of his father, probably hoping to see if they were able to ride enough good will to secure some minor contracts.
But luckily most of the gathered crowd didn’t seem to recognize who he was right away, and Jayce was able to stay quietly at the edges for several minutes before Councillor Medarda found him and made a beeline for him.
“This won’t do,” she said, immediately looping an arm through his and drawing him into the crowd. “Everyone’s here for you, Jayce! I wouldn’t have guessed you were one to be shy.”
Jayce swallowed a sound of protest and gave what he hoped was a humble laugh instead. “Not so much shy as unaccustomed to such crowds.”
“Of course.” Councillor Medarda squeezed his arm. “Here, let me introduce you.”
It made the time pass, if somewhat dully - the same handful of stock phrases served well to entertain each smiling face he was paraded in front of.
Yes, very exciting news about the hexgates. Yes, it was so difficult deciding the winning bids - Piltover has no shortage of industrious contractors dedicated to advancing the city. No, he could never have imagined such an opportunity. Yes, he was most grateful for the Piltover Council for supporting and believing in him and his partner. Oh— no, he wasn’t sure where Viktor was at the moment, but he was probably circling, making his own hellos.
That last one was a lie. Viktor still lingered stubbornly around Heimerdinger and other scientists and students whenever he could be coaxed to attend anything, though at the very least he was sure to be at this gala. He hated the noise and the crowd and any attention, he’d told Jayce as much at their first such event together, and at the time Jayce had commiserated with him and spent the evening standing with him near the entrance to the kitchens so they could grab the food when it came out, fresh and hot and undisturbed.
Now, Jayce was being passed smiling from the arm of Councillor Medarda into the arm of Councillor Kiramman, who managed to discreetly adjust his tie as she leaned in for a polite hug.
“Come, come,” she said, shooting a pointed look at the back of Councillor Medarda’s head as she led Jayce away. “Some of our family friends have just been dying to meet you.”
-
Either Jayce got comfortable enough mingling with the crowd that his nerves eased or the number of cocktails he had sipped from were finally doing their job. When he finally made his way onto the stage, he was riding some kind of numb, pleasant high. So many people in a room who all knew his name and were happy to see him. It was good work, the hexgates, and he’d said as much to so many people tonight he was willing to believe it. His prepared speech passed in a blur, the words familiar on his tongue after so many hours of practice, and he saluted the group of representatives from the winning bidder with his drink.
“Cheers,” he called out, letting his gaze sweep across the room with a smile. “To many more years of Piltover progress! Together, we will build the future!”
The crowd cheered, gold and glitter bright from every corner. Off to the side, half-hidden behind an elaborately carved pillar, Jayce finally caught a familiar pair of brown eyes. Viktor was drunk, or maybe his leg was just bothering him, but he leaned heavily on his cane and the glass in his hands twinkled nervously under the lights.
His tie was red after all.
Jayce inclined his drink towards him, just slightly. Viktor returned his toast, amber liquid sloshing in his shaky hands, and then threw his head back and swallowed it all.
[YEAR 5]
The door to the lab flung open. Jayce jolted to his feet and had exactly no time to do anything else as Caitlyn came storming into the room.
“Jayce Talis,” she said, seething, and he raised his hands in surrender as she strode up to him and jabbed him in the chest with a finger. “Why did you tell my parents you were even considering marrying me?!”
Viktor rose from his seat and stared.
“Cait,” Jayce whispered. “Can we do this somewhere private?”
Caitlyn threw a tempestuous glance over her shoulder, but at least she did lower her voice considerably. “It seems like it’ll concern your partner if you’re considering entering into a sham marriage.”
“It’s not like that,” Jayce hissed, “and you know it.”
“Even just the— the time, the effort, you think my parents make you go to all these events now—”
“Well it’s the cost of being part of an Upper House, isn’t it—”
“Jayce!” Caitlyn jabbed him in the chest again. “I am not an instrument in your social climb—”
“Would it really be so goddamn bad, Cait, we’ve been friends for ages, and you’ve always known your parents would never— you know they would never— is it really so bad if it’s me, Cait?”
Caitlyn visibly drew in a deep breath. “Jayce,” she said coldly, “it is only because we’ve been friends for ages that I’m going to leave right now and give you some time to think about this and get your head out of your ass.” She let a closed fist thump against his chest, and he took her hand in his. “I know— I am trying to understand that this is your clumsy attempt at doing me a favour or thinking you can shield me from my parents and get something out of it in the meantime. I know you don’t mean badly, Jayce, but sometimes you are a goddamn idiot, and—”
“Cait,” he said.
She breathed again. “I’m going to marry who I want, Jayce. Just like I joined the Enforcers, regardless of my parents’ opinion. Just— just keep doing what you’re doing, Jayce, don’t let my parents get in your head.”
Jayce fought the urge to roll his eyes.
“They won’t cut you off,” Cait said, and her voice was softer now. “Even if you say no. I promise.”
“Cait,” Jayce said hollowly. “It doesn’t have to be about—”
“You’re worth too much now.” She smiled slightly. “People have been calling you the Man of Progress. Piltover’s new golden boy. The hexgates are open now and it’s you, it can’t be anyone but you. My parents can’t withdraw their support now.”
“I hate the politics, Cait,” Jayce said.
Cait nodded. “I know.”
“I’ll tell them no. I’ll come over tonight.”
“It can wait until the dinner tomorrow. My parents are entertaining tonight.” Caitlyn smiled wryly. “And I’ll make it sound like my idea. Put up the good fight.”
Jayce chuckled. “Of course. Okay.”
Caitlyn let him pull her into a hug.
“He’s an idiot,” she said to Viktor as she passed by on the way out.
Viktor shrugged. “I know.”
“Hey,” Jayce said, protestingly. The door clanged shut behind Caitlyn, and he looked at Viktor. Viktor didn’t say anything else, but he hadn’t turned back to his desk yet either. He just stood and looked back at Jayce, and Jayce realised suddenly that this was possibly the longest they’d made eye contact in— well, a long time. “It’s not— I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“Were you really thinking about it?”
“The marriage?” Jayce shrugged, uneasy. “I mean, yeah. We are old friends. It wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world.”
“That seems low, even for you.”
“I’ve had many years practice in considering what the Kirammans wanted from me.” Jayce kept any bitterness out of his voice. “Didn’t you ever feel the same, with Heimerdinger, with your position here at the university?”
“No. My morals are not for sale.”
“I’m not selling anything, Viktor. It’s just the price of doing work around here.”
Viktor was silent for a few moments. “She made it sound like you wouldn’t have much time to do work if it happened anyway.”
“Cait exaggerates,” Jayce said easily. “I would have made it work.”
“You are barely here as it is.”
“Well, someone had to oversee the hexgates—”
“The Councillors offered.” Viktor was starting to fidget, his hands tapping over his cane.
“They wouldn’t have done it right.” Jayce sighed and rubbed at his face. “I don’t want to fight about this again, Viktor. The hexgates are part of our legacy. Our dream. They’re hextech. They’re ours. I wanted them to be right.”
He let a beat pass. Viktor had given up on eye contact and was gazing at some point over Jayce’s shoulder.
“I would have liked to do it with you,” Jayce said quietly, “so that I could have had more time in the lab with you too.”
Viktor snorted. “No, you wouldn’t have.”
“Okay.”
“You couldn’t even stand to be around me. You’ve barely looked at me for two years.”
“Okay,” Jayce said, and he exhaled. “I’m sorry. I felt like you pushed me away. I thought it was for the better.”
“No,” Viktor said, and suddenly he was furious, meeting Jayce’s eyes again in a glare. “No, Jayce, you decided to change the parameters of our relationship without telling me. I have never been anything but honest with you.”
Jayce clenched a fist, inhaled, exhaled, unclenched it. “I’m sorry. It was— I found it hard. After.”
“Your pride,” Viktor said bitterly. “You let it blind you to what was important.”
“Well, I thought I had the situation pretty clearly, actually—”
“Jayce,” Viktor said, and he made his way across the room, coming to stand in front of Jayce where he was slouched against his desk. “The hextech— this work with you is the most important thing to me. It is my dream come true, just as it is yours. I meant what I said all those months ago.”
Viktor was standing close, close enough that Jayce could smell the sharp electric crackle of metal and magic off of him. Hextech. This was definitely the closest they had been in years. Jayce breathed and said, “It’s— yeah, it’s my dream come true too.”
“Jayce, tell me you understand.”
“Maybe.” Jayce was afraid to move, afraid to breathe too deep. Viktor stood so close. “I think I might.”
His partner reached out and took his hand. Viktor’s fingers were slender compared to his. He never came to the forge, never did any of the literal heavy lifting. It was Jayce’s space, and all the more so these past few years.
Viktor squeezed. Jayce tried not to startle.
“Tell you understand,” Viktor repeated. His hand was warm.
Jayce brought his free hand up slowly to cup Viktor’s elbow - when the other man didn’t move away, he held it, and then immediately wanted more. “Can I hug you?”
“If you want.”
Jayce did want. He wanted very much to lift his arms and wrap them around Viktor and bury his face in Viktor’s neck and hold him tight and breathe him in and pretend nothing bad had ever happened between them and pretend his shoulders weren’t shaking right now.
He did just that. Viktor’s hands came to rest tentatively on his back, the press of his fingers light and awkward.
“I’m sorry,” Jayce whispered. Viktor stroked his back once, twice. “Viktor, I’m sorry.”
“You used to call me your partner and mean it.” Viktor’s voice was low. “That’s— it’s what I want, Jayce. It’s what I’ve always wanted.”
“Okay,” Jayce said. “I could— I do understand. Even now— Viktor, there is no one else I would rather have. I want you as my partner, in every way that matters.”
Jayce’s arms were tight enough around Viktor that he could feel it when his partner’s shoulders started shaking too, and then he only held onto him tighter, and let Viktor hide in his arms as he hid in his, and they passed those few quiet moments together.
[YEAR 6]
“You know, Sky is a nice girl. She's into you.”
“I know,” Viktor said, from somewhere across the room. “I'm uninterested, not stupid.”
A moment later, Jayce felt a hand on the small of his back. Viktor's fingers, two of them, twin soft presses. They lingered longer than Jayce expected.
He wanted to turn, but his eyes were fixed on his soldering. Suddenly his face felt too warm.
Viktor almost never touched him. Jayce had come to realise this, slowly, then all at once, over their years together. It was always Jayce throwing an arm over Viktor’s shoulder, Jayce nudging Viktor with an elbow to get his partner to look at something, Jayce's hand enclosing around Viktor’s shaking wrist before Jayce suggested stopping for the night.
But now he was building (or re-building, maybe) a slow and steady catalogue of touch. If Viktor was happy with him or with their progress, he would make an obvious effort to reach out to Jayce: he might lean back against the press of his palm between his shoulder blades or return an elbow to the side with a playful swat of his own.
Two weeks ago, they had gone drinking together again, and Viktor had gotten such a pink flush in his cheeks that he only made one meagre protest when Jayce scooped him up and carried him back to their rooms, cane held loosely in the same hand that braced around Viktor's shoulder. Viktor had fallen asleep on the walk back, head resting against Jayce's shoulder and hand curled loosely against his chest.
Jayce thought about that night every day.
“Just passing behind,” Viktor said. His fingers were still there, warm even through Jayce’s well-tailored shirt. “Careful.”
“That’s my line,” Jayce said lightly. He could accuse Viktor of many things, but being stupid - or unobservant, or thoughtless, or carefree - was never one of them.
And if Viktor was tired or stressed, it always showed in his body: his tense shoulders hunched up to his ears, his sore hands and wrists, the limp that got more pronounced after too long with no sleep. When he started to develop a rattling cough, Jayce insisted he take a few days off from working in the lab.
Viktor sulked in his rooms the entire time, shrugging away Jayce’s hands under his elbows and scowling when Jayce suggested he actually take some rest.
“You’re my partner,” Jayce said, laughing despite himself as Viktor pettily took the cup of water that Jayce was trying to hand him from the bottom, so that their fingers would avoid touching. “You can’t die on me yet, Vitya. I still need your help figuring out how to stabilise the hextech crystals.”
“I am not dying,” Viktor said scornfully, and then he swatted Jayce with the notes he’d brought from the lab. “Come on then, show me what you did yesterday.”
But still, at the end of it all, Viktor returned to the lab and muttered an admission that he had slept better the past few nights than he had in the previous month.
“Just glad you’re feeling better,” Jayce said truthfully, and Viktor rolled his eyes at him before giving him a smile and moving away to his side of the lab.
Sky welcomed Viktor back happily as well when she came in for the morning. Though in theory Sky was assistant to the pair of them, she was so tremendously useful to Jayce in managing his administrative agenda that he took up the bulk of her time. If Viktor didn’t mind her attention, then Jayce was always glad to leave the two together whenever able.
Not for long this morning, apparently. “The latest reports on the hexgates,” Sky said brightly as she handed Jayce the stack of papers. “They’re doing really well, Jayce, the Council should be pleased.”
“No errors, nothing unusual or outside parameters?”
“All clean.” Sky produced his morning coffee from somewhere and handed it to him next with a smile. “My uncle was able to visit his husband last weekend, actually, using the hexgates. Usually it’s a whole thing for them to travel, but—”
“I’m very glad to hear it,” Jayce said, clasping her on the shoulder. She really was a charming girl. “How are your studies?”
She brightened again. “Great! Actually, reading the data for the hexgates was very useful, it helped me figure out …”
-
Jayce’s stool protested noisily as he stood and stretched. “Time for a break?”
“Hm?”
“I got you something.”
“Why?”
“Y’know, for your birthday.”
Viktor scoffed. “Jayce, only you insist on these things.”
“Don’t tell me you've been ignoring your birthdays.” Jayce fetched the box and presented it to Viktor, who was still vaguely ignoring him and frowning over his notes. Jayce leaned over and peered at his work. “Change this rune to river. It can substitute for through. Here, open this."
Viktor grumbled and scratched a note. “Why did you bring me a box.”
“I am not letting you convince me this is an abnormal thing to do.” Jayce was close enough to breathe in the smell of him, his chin nearly resting on Viktor’s shoulder, but Viktor didn’t shrug him away. “I know you know what birthday cakes are. I’ve given them to you before.”
Viktor finally turned to look at him. “Strawberry?”
“Of course.”
They ended up cutting the cake with a pocket knife, though neither of them were entirely sure whose it was, and Jayce found a plastic fork that was miraculously still untouched from some previous takeout.
“Here.” They fumbled for a few more moments - there were no plates, and Viktor started eyeing his empty coffee mugs with too much intent, so Jayce suggested they keep the whole thing in the box and then the knife was pointless anyway as Viktor just stabbed at the cake viciously with the fork. “Have you really been ignoring your birthday?”
“It doesn’t have to mean anything,” Viktor mumbled. His hair was getting long - he ran a hand through it and tucked some behind his ear. Jayce wanted to run his own fingers through it, but Viktor still pulled away whenever he tried it. “I went to the undercity. Around this time.”
“To your steel oasis?”
Viktor frowned. He had some pink icing on his lip. “Heimerdinger called it that, not me.”
“It’s a good name. Cool.”
“It’s not so pure as that.”
Jayce watched Viktor eat the cake, bite by bite. “Is it good? The owner nearly fell over themselves when I walked in, so it should be good.”
“Man of Progress,” Viktor said with his half-smile. “Well, I guess I won’t complain.”
“You’re welcome. All of this has to be good for something, right?”
“Cake today,” Viktor said, his mouth full of it, “and tomorrow, we are going to test M 8-71.”
“It’s the one. I can feel it. We’ll have a stable hextech crystal as a late birthday present to you.”
“That would be good.” The setting sun was shining on Viktor, lighting up the brown of his eyes into molten amber. Jayce always liked to look at him, especially in moments like this, though often Viktor would start to fidget if he noticed the attention. “Then we can finally start work on everything real, everything that will help our people.”
Jayce held up an imaginary utensil in cheers. “We’re changing the world.”
“Together,” Viktor said. "As partners." He carved into the cake again and emerged with a new forkful, crumbs falling away as he held it out to Jayce.
“As partners,” Jayce agreed. He leaned in and took the bite off of Viktor’s fork and chewed. It was a good cake, bright and springy, and he caught Viktor staring at him for an extra moment before turning back to the box, the fork stabbing down once again.
[YEAR 7]
Jayce woke suddenly. Viktor gave a faint hiss of protest and Jayce immediately loosened the death grip he had on his hand. “Sorry, sorry.”
Viktor’s eyes flickered up to his. Jayce wondered if he was imagining the reproach. “You do not have to keep sitting and sleeping here if you have somewhere else to be.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
When Jayce had found him, had bent to pick him up and carried him all the way to the campus hospital, Viktor had been so pale Jayce kept stopping to press a hand urgently to his neck then cursing himself for the foolish delay. Viktor’s head had lolled against his shoulder, and his arm and hand had flopped in such an ugly way in the night air until Jayce had shifted his weight to grip him even tighter and closer.
“We’ll fix this,” Jayce promised. He let go of Viktor’s hand for only a moment, to fuss with the hospital blanket, before he laced their fingers together again. He was never letting go for longer than a moment ever again.
Viktor just hummed in acknowledgement. “We cannot fix this from this room.”
“Just—” Now, Jayce squeezed on purpose. “Just rest, for a few days. Properly. For once. Let me take care of it.”
Viktor closed his eyes, though Jayce was not sure how much it was only to humour him. Viktor did have a particular sense of humour. “How was your night with the councillor?”
Jayce started. “Do you know about that?” He willed his cheeks not to flush, but it was a useless endeavour. At least Viktor wasn’t looking at him.
“I do now.”
Jayce hesitated.
Viktor said, “I don’t care, Jayce. Not about that. Will you move forward with our plans?”
“Yes,” Jayce said, with uncertain relief. “Yes, we are— she supports me. But Viktor, that isn't what's important—”
“You are an easy man to believe in, Jayce Talis.” Viktor’s lips twitched up in a smile, even as his eyes remained close. “The Man of Progress. Your councillor uniform looks good on you.”
Jayce flushed. “I hardly think that’s important now.”
“It makes your shoulders look bigger than they already are,” Viktor said, and he laughed. “Ask Councillor Medarda. She will tell you the same. It’s very impressive.”
Jayce scooted closer to the bed until he could lean his head low, pressing his forehead to their joined hands. “You believed in me first. I will never forget that.”
Viktor coughed and then heaved a slow, rattling breath. Jayce could do nothing but helplessly. But then Viktor’s hand tightened ever so slightly around his own, and he said, “I still believe in you. I always will.”
“Viktor,” Jayce said, his voice low. “Vitya. I am really so sorry.”
Viktor wiggled his hand, getting just free enough from Jayce’s grip that he could use his thumb to tap against Jayce’s fingers. “Jayce. This is not a good use of your time.”
Jayce smiled. “Between the two of us, worrying is my job. You’re the one who will save the world without ever flinching.”
“Flinch less,” Viktor said. “This city, it is not—”
“It’s yours.” Jayce wanted to trace the dark circles under Viktor’s eyes, wanted to brush the hair off of his forehead. “Whether you want it or not. Whether they know your name or not. You built Piltover, just as much as me.”
Tap, tap, against Jayce’s fingers. “That is easy for you to say, Jayce of House Talis.”
Jayce hummed low in his throat. “Will you tell me what you’ve been working on? How is the hexcore?”
“Dangerous,” Viktor said. He smiled. “Fascinating. Jayce, even if I—”
“Don’t say it.”
“It can’t be abandoned, Jayce, it’s too—”
“Still, don’t say it. You can work on it, when you’re better.”
Viktor drew in a shuddering breath and nodded. “I have some ideas.”
“Good.” Jayce wanted to draw their joined hands to his mouth, press kisses to the parts of Viktor that he could reach. But instead he just squeezed again, gentle. “Tell me. If there’s anything I can do today, I can— I’ll make sure it’s done.”
-
“I can do this myself if you can’t.” There was no bite in the way Viktor said it, and it was nonsense anyway because it was the opposite of what he had said just a few hours ago, which was the opposite of what he had just said a day or two ago, and anyway there was nothing being done except that Jayce was holding Viktor’s ankle in his hands and trying to study his bared calf dispassionately and instead thinking about how skinny Viktor was and when did Viktor get so skinny, anyway, when did Viktor get so sick—
The brace was still half-clasped on his leg, the runes carved into it dead and inactive. The purple - Jayce didn’t know what to call it, if it was shimmer or the hexcore or both that had taken over - that was alive in an unsettling way, pulsing through Viktor’s skin like blood in veins.
“Sky was smart,” Viktor said suddenly, “and kind, and even if she hadn’t been, she didn’t deserve this. She was trying to— to save me, of all ridiculous things, when—”
“You can’t blame yourself.”
“Can’t I?’ Viktor rubbed at his face tiredly and leaned forward, slumping into Jayce’s shoulder. “What have I done, Jayce? We have a responsibility, as scientists. As people.”
Jayce just held his ankle, quiet. He could circle a hand around Viktor’s calf. He could hurt him, without a second thought, and the idea disturbed him. In everything, Viktor had always been his equal.
“Did these work?” Jayce tapped the runes carved into the brace.
“Jayce.” Viktor made some wounded noise that sounded like it came from the back of his throat and pulled back to look at Jayce. “It doesn’t matter. You have to destroy it.”
“Tell me. You said it was fascinating, before.”
“It is dangerous.”
“You never think anything is too dangerous, Vitya.”
Viktor kicked at his hand. “So listen to me when I say this is.”
“Tell me.”
Viktor’s hand came to his face instead, to the cut that still smarted across his cheek. “What happened?”
“I don’t want to— it’s nothing.”
“Tell me.” Viktor echoed him. His thumb pressed insistently just below the wound.
“It’s nothing.”
Viktor huffed.
“The cut,” Jayce amended. “I’m fine. The rest—” His voice shook and he stopped. Viktor waited as Jayce gathered himself. “There was a kid. When we raided the factory— I wasn’t trying to— obviously I didn’t want to hurt him. But I did.” He closed his eyes, inhaled, exhaled. “He’s dead now, because of me.”
“You raided a factory? Here?”
“No,” Jayce said. The of course not went unspoken and suddenly he couldn’t meet Viktor’s eyes. “I know you hate the politcs, Vitya, but— I thought as a Councillor, I could just— I could act, without having to wait, I could force some change, but—” His own voice sounded feeble and shaky to him. “A lot of things have happened,” he said, pathetically. “But you were right, Vitya. We are scientists, not soldiers. We shouldn’t be politicians either. We had a dream, we—”
Viktor’s hand came up, his fingers fisting in the damned councillor’s uniform as he clung to Jayce and pulled him closer. “Tell me. Tell me all of it. We have to make this right.”
[SOME YEARS IN THE FUTURE, BUT NOT MANY]
It wasn’t quite a surprise - not anymore, not when the knock at his door was the telltale clang of metal on metal.
“Jayce,” Viktor said in greeting.
“Viktor,” Jayce said. He cocked his head. “Did you make yourself taller?”
Viktor huffed, which meant that he was probably rolling his eyes behind his mask. It made Jayce smile. “It doesn’t get any funnier just because you keep making the same joke.”
“I’ve only got an audience of two, and if I like it, that makes it half and half.” Jayce moved aside to let him in. “If you’re hoping to steal more of the hextech crystals, I’ve got them locked up somewhere else now.”
Viktor took a few steps and then stopped. “Did you at least consider what I said last time?”
“It doesn’t get any more moral just because you keep making the same points,” Jayce said. Viktor’s hair was sticking out behind the mask, as unruly as ever, and Jayce wanted to run his hands through it, as ever. “You know I don’t take this lightly, Vitya. But you’re wrong on this.”
“You used to say you would listen when I tried to set you straight.”
Jayce gave a wry smile. “I did. I used to think you had an incredible clarity of purpose, Vitya.”
“I still do.”
“The people matter.”
“This will save the people. The Void is coming—”
“They should get a choice.”
“Their choice should not come at the expense of others.” Viktor’s breath was loud and quick behind the mask. “Piltover has resided over the undercity for—”
Jayce sighed and Viktor stopped talking. Jayce held his hands out beseechingly, and when Viktor didn’t move, he took a step closer, then another. Viktor didn’t stop him, didn’t react, just let Jayce walk up to him and reach up.
“You’re so tall,” Jayce murmured quietly.
“I’ve always been this tall.” They were of a similar height - they always had been, Jayce supposed, just that Viktor had always been leaning on his cane or slouched over and making himself unnoticed.
Now he stood proudly, shoulders squared, mask unyielding. Unflinching as Jayce tapped his fingers curiously over the metal surface, exploring his face in a way Viktor likely never would have allowed if it was skin-on-skin.
“Can I?”
“If you want.”
Jayce did want. He wanted very much to lean in and press his lips to Viktor's metallic cheek and breath in the smell of him, metal and magic in one, and then bring his arms up and around and hold Viktor close.
He did just that, and again there was the gentle feeling of Viktor's hands against his back, one metal, one gloved, both warm.
"Jayce," Viktor said, that metallic sheen over his voice. "Please think about it. The hextech can be used to—"
"I don't want us to fight," Jayce murmured. "I miss this. I miss being your partner. I miss you."
Viktor's hands dropped. Jayce let him go and took a step back.
"Piltover will listen if you tell them," Viktor said.
Jayce laughed. "I don't know why they should. Especially after everything."
"But they would."
Jayce's mouth twisted. "I don't care. I don't want to be that kind of man anymore."
Viktor studied him for a long few moments.
"Don't," Jayce said at last, trying to shrug off his gaze. "Everything with the Council— it's not your concern anymore and I wish it wasn't mine, either." He offered a smile. "I will think about it, Vitya, but my answer will not change. But I will think about it, because I think about you."
“You’re a fool, Jayce,” Viktor said softly.
“Maybe.” Jayce let a hand hover at Viktor’s back and gestured to the door. Viktor didn’t resist, and he let Jayce guide him until he was standing on the other side of the threshold again. “Next time, I would really appreciate it if you told your thugs to try and avoid scaring my assistant.”
“They are not thugs. They believe in the cause.”
“In your cause.” Jayce lingered too. "My assistant believes in getting paid to sort my mail and generally ensure no one finds me passed out in the lab after not sleeping for three days." He let his fingers trace the bottom edge of Viktor’s mask again. “I wish you would let me see your face.”
“You wouldn’t want to.”
“I always want to.”
Another huff. Viktor turned to go, but Jayce caught his arm and pulled him back in for a hug.
"Jayce—" Viktor hissed, pulling away, but Jayce just crushed Viktor close to his chest. He held him tight - his ex-partner, his one-time saviour, his best friend - and listened, desperately, carefully, for the telltale beat of his hextech heart.