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Jayce Talis had not gone to law school to do air pollution law. He had confidently applied to the country’s top law schools thinking that he would go into criminal law. Maybe be a prosecutor for a while then run for office or become a judge.
He certainly hadn’t anticipated that 10 years after graduation his tiny law firm would be the country’s go-to experts for people harmed by air pollution.
But on his first day of law school classes, a thin, pale, painfully beautiful man with golden eyes and a hacking cough had sat down next to him and changed his life forever.
Viktor had been the first in his family to attend college, and then the first to go to law school, funded by a dizzying array of merit and need-based scholarships. He had gone to law school with one ambition: to make life better for the people of his hometown, Zaun, one of the most polluted cities on the planet.
Jayce had fallen hard and fast for Viktor. By the end of their first year they were inseparable. By the end of their second year they were sleeping together. By the end of their third year they had created a business plan for a law firm: HexLaw. By the time they were two years out of law school, they had won a significant victory for the people of Viktor’s old neighborhood against a local factory. Not only did they get the company to pay the medical bills for everyone in the neighborhood, but they forced the factory to install air scrubbers on its smokestacks. The air pollution cases kept coming after that and they never looked back.
“They need help, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them ‘no’ outright. I think my parents knew their dad,” Sky said, watching Viktor’s face carefully. “I know it’s not what we do, but I thought you would want to at least consider it.”
Viktor rubbed a finger over his lips as he scanned through the office manager’s meticulous notes. “They said they had been doing testing?”
“Yes,” Sky said, “they’ve been testing for months.”
“Ask them to send over their data. And see if you can find copies of the permits. They should be public record.”
“Are you going to meet with them?” Sky felt hope rising in her chest.
“If you can get the permits and if their data show the permits are being violated, you can put them on the schedule,” Viktor said. “Let me know if you can’t find the permits. We’ll do a records request.”
Sky’s smile faltered. “What about Jayce? Will he be willing to take this on?”
“Leave Jayce to me.”
Jayce was squinting at a blurry scan of a 20 year old toxicity report when he heard Viktor start coughing, though the speed of his typing did not change. By the time Jayce had decided that the number he was looking at was definitely a 7 and not a 1, Viktor’s cough had a rattling quality but still his typing continued.
“Vitya,” Jayce called without turning around, “you need me to get your inhaler?”
The only response was more coughing and more typing. Jayce turned around to see Viktor hunched over his keyboard, shoulders shaking with the force of his cough. The inhaler sat untouched on the desk beside him.
“Vitya,” Jayce said, louder this time, “use the inhaler.”
When Viktor continued to ignore him, Jayce stood with a sigh and walked to Viktor’s side, then grabbed the back of the chair and turned it, forcing Viktor to face him instead of the computer. Viktor scowled and glared daggers at him but was coughing too much for a verbal reprimand.
Jayce held up the inhaler. “You have it for a reason, love.”
Viktor gave an exaggerated eye roll, but took the inhaler and used it, then rested his elbows on his knees and hung his head. Jayce rubbed his upper back as the coughing lessened in intensity, then stopped.
“I was concentrating, ” Viktor admonished when he had caught his breath.
“Yeah? And your hacking was keeping me from concentrating,” Jayce said with a grin.
“After all this time, I would think that you would have learned to tune me out.”
“I could tune you out before you had something that helped,” Jayce told him. “Now that you have the inhaler it’s distracting when I know you’re not taking care of yourself.” Jayce definitely did not say that he was also sure Viktor’s coughing was getting worse and more frequent.
Viktor rolled his eyes again and muttered something in Russian as he turned back to his computer.
“What were you working on that required so much concentration?” Jayce crossed his arms over his broad chest and leaned against Viktor’s desk.
“Outlining the Mendelssohn brief. But since you’ve broken my concentration,” Viktor paused to glare at him, “we might as well go over Sky’s notes from her call with the prospective client we’re meeting today.”
Jayce frowned. Leaving client screening to Sky and Viktor was one of the many ways they had worked out an efficient division of labor for the firm. “Didn’t you already look at the notes before you agreed to the consult?”
“Yes.” Viktor reached for his crutch and tucked it under his arm. “But you should look at them too and we should discuss. Pull up the file and come sit with me while I stretch my leg.”
Jayce was already reading on his tablet when he joined Viktor on the couch on the other side of their office.
“Why does this keep talking about a river?” he muttered as he dropped onto the couch. Viktor swung his feet onto Jayce’s lap and without taking his eyes off the screen, Jayce moved his hand to Viktor’s right calf and began massaging the twitching muscle. Viktor loosened his leg brace then closed his eyes as he dug his thumbs into a knot in his thigh.
Jayce’s frown deepened. “This just has information on a water permit and water quality reports.” He scrolled through a few more pages. “Where’s the air data?”
“There is no air data,” Viktor said quietly.
“Then why didn’t Sky get the lab out there to install monitors? We can’t meet with them without data.”
“We have the data we need in the water quality reports. It’s a water case.”
Jayce stared at him dumbstruck. “A water case,” he said into the silence.
Viktor met his gaze but said nothing else, continuing to work on the knot in his thigh.
“Are … we going to refer them to someone else?” Jayce asked, his eyebrows reaching towards his hairline. “Like, I don’t know, someone who knows more than fuck all about water law?”
“No.” Viktor’s voice was even and definitive, his gaze steady. “We will take the case. Assuming everything goes well with the meeting today and the client wants us. We will make clear our limitations with the subject matter.”
“Our limitations!? ” Jayce ran a hand through his hair. “Vitya, we’re talking hours upon hours of research into the law, not to mention the science, just to get up to the baseline of where we would start in an air case!”
“That is true. Fortunately,” Viktor said with a mischievous twinkle as he began working on a different part of his leg, “I am a genius and you are much smarter than you look.”
Jayce pinched Viktor’s good thigh, making him yelp. “You’re an asshole and this is serious.”
Viktor sighed and met Jayce’s eyes again. “I know. And we are seriously taking this case.”
“But why, Vitya?”
Viktor’s hands stilled and he sat up straighter. “They are from Zaun.”
All the air left Jayce’s lungs in a rush and he slumped back into the couch cushions. “Ok,” he said.
There was a category in their operating budget for the money they would lose every year taking cases from Zaun, and they accepted every case that came to them from Viktor’s home town. It wasn’t that they lost the cases: they frequently won or reached settlements that were good for their clients. The losses were because Viktor almost always refused to pursue attorneys fees in those cases, opting for larger payouts for their clients instead. Jayce had accepted this as part of their business model when they started the firm a decade earlier. That business model, however, was premised on them being air experts, not learning a completely new area of law.
“Vitya,” Jayce said gently as he resumed massaging Viktor’s leg, “you know we’re not the best firm to handle this. If these people want the best chance of success, they need water lawyers.”
“We will discuss that with them. They can make their own decision.” Viktor was resolute.
Jayce heaved a sigh then leaned over to pull open the door to the office. “Hey Cait,” he called, “could you come in please?”
Viktor tightened his leg brace and moved his legs off Jayce’s lap just as their junior associate entered.
“Please don’t stop cuddling on my account,” she chuckled.
“We weren’t cuddling,” Jayce said with an eye roll. “Sit down.”
Caitlyn plopped onto one of the chairs facing them. “What’s up?”
Jayce had known Caitlyn since she was a toddler, when her mother had been judging a public speaking competition which Jayce had won and Senator Kiraman had decided to mentor him. When Caitlyn had followed Jayce to law school, he had been happy to give her a job when she graduated.
“Didn’t that non-profit you worked at during your 2L summer do some water stuff?”
“Yeah,” she said, “we commented on a draft stormwater permit while I was there. Why?”
“Because the love and light of my life has decided that we are taking a water law case,” Jayce sighed, “and we’re going to need all hands on deck to figure out what the hell we’re doing. Prospective clients are coming in this afternoon. I’d like you to sit in.”
“A water case?” Caitlyn sat up in her chair. “Cool! I’d love to know more about water law!”
“Thank you, Caitlyn,” Viktor smiled. “I’m glad someone is enthusiastic.”
Sky led two young women into the conference room and Viktor took the lead as he always did with clients from Zaun.
“Thank you for coming to see us,” he smiled, extending his hand first to the woman with pink hair, then to the teenager with bright blue hair. “I’m Viktor. This is my partner, Jayce, and our associate, Caitlyn.”
Jayce and Caitlyn stepped forward on their cues and also shook hands.
“I’m Vi and this is my sister, Pow- Jinx,” the pink-haired woman said.
“Just Jinx,” said the teenager. “Hi.”
Viktor was frowning at Jinx. “You look very familiar, Jinx. Have we met?”
“You judged the science fair at East Zaun High a couple years ago,” she said shyly. “I won.”
“Indeed!” Viktor’s face brightened. “You made the ‘timed fine material dispersal device’ that was definitely not a bomb, yes?”
Jinx nodded excitedly. “Yeah!”
Vi nudged her with an elbow. “See? I told you he’d remember you.”
“The design was inspired,” Viktor said. “I hope you’re still creating, Jinx. As long as your inventions have peaceful applications. I don’t practice criminal law.” He chuckled and gestured to the table. “Please, come sit.”
As they moved to the table Jayce placed himself a few seats away from Viktor. He had a tendency to touch Viktor without thinking about it, and Viktor hated when Jayce telegraphed their romantic relationship in an initial client consultation.
“So,” Viktor said as he reached back to lean his crutch against the wall behind him, “you’re here about the southern branch of the Pilt.”
“It’s disgusting!” Jinx spat out. “There are three factories that spew waste directly into the river. The gunk coming out of those pipes is completely foul. The water tests positive for every restricted pollutant in the state. And not just positive: wildly off the charts positive!”
“After you spoke with Sky she was able to pull copies of the discharge permits,” Viktor said. “Have you seen them?”
“Those permits are jokes,” Vi said. “The limits in them are ridiculously high but they aren’t even enforced! In any other part of the country the government would have cracked down on these factories years ago, but they’re in Zaun so no one gives a shit.”
“And people are getting sick!” Jinx said. “We all eat fish and mollusks from the Pilt. Everyone we know has these bleeding blisters in their mouths!” She pulled down her lower lip then stuck out her tongue, revealing several bright red sores. “Everyone has stomach trouble, people’s hair is falling out, and babies are dying at higher rates than before.”
“These public health problems are fairly recent, yes?” Viktor asked. “I'm from a different part of Zaun than you, but I don’t remember anything like that.”
“The newest factory opened two years ago,” Vi said. “The Pilt was never clean but it seems like once you mixed the crap from the new factory with the other two it became really toxic.”
“But we need all three of them shut down!” Jinx gripped the edge of the table. “That river shouldn’t just be not-killing-babies polluted! It should not be polluted!”
“You’re right, of course,” Viktor said. “But a more likely outcome is getting more stringent permits and getting them enforced.”
“But we owe it to you to tell you,” Jayce said with a glance at Viktor, “that water pollution isn’t our area of expertise. We don’t know the regulatory landscape and it would take us some time to get up to speed on the law and the science.”
“Your Piltie doesn’t seem too keen on helping us,” Jinx scoffed.
“My partner,” Viktor said firmly, holding eye contact with Jinx, “is absolutely correct and is trying to give you information you need in order to make an informed decision about how to proceed. You have not hired us yet, Jinx. This meeting is for you to determine whether or not you want to do that. And a very important factor that you must take into consideration is that we have never done a water case before. We are very good at what we do, but what we do is air pollution law. I think we would be able to help you, but Jayce is right that we have a learning curve here. And while we’re learning, the Pilt is only getting more polluted.”
Viktor was cut off by a coughing fit and Jayce felt his jaw tense. He took a breath, tried to force it to relax. Viktor turned away from the table and pulled the inhaler out of his pocket, using it quickly. As the coughing subsided he turned back to the group and made a go ahead gesture to Jayce.
Jayce turned back to Jinx. “I am keen to help you,” he said earnestly. “If you came to us with an air pollution issue, I would already have a strategy mapped out and could give you a pretty good guess at our odds of success. As it is, it would be doing your community a disservice and would be disrespectful to you if I wasn’t up front with you about our,” he glanced at Viktor, “limitations here. You should know that there are other firms that specialize in water law.”
“Are any of those water law firms run by a Zaunite?” Vi asked.
Jayce looked again to Viktor, who was still catching his breath, then back to Vi. “No,” he replied.
Vi shrugged and sat back in her seat. “Then I guess we’re going with you.”
When the meeting ended, Viktor asked the junior lawyer, Caitlyn, to walk them out and Vi couldn’t have been more pleased. That black-blue hair, the prim little nose, the - who was she kidding? - the perfect breasts, all had caught Vi’s attention throughout the meeting.
But as they left the conference room, Vi looked over her shoulder to see Jayce step into Viktor’s space and put a hand on his lower back. Viktor looked up at him with a soft smile and said something that made Jayce laugh, and Jayce drew his thumb over Viktor’s cheekbone. Suspicion confirmed.
“Your bosses are fucking, right?” she asked, turning back to Caitlyn.
Jinx squeaked in surprise and indignation but Caitlyn just chuckled.
“Oh yes. They’ve been together forever. They’ve just never bothered to get married. Viktor says they’re too busy.”
“Viktor’s actually with that Piltie?” Jinx sneered.
“Jinx!” Vi snapped, giving her a shove. “Sorry,” she said to Caitlyn, “we’re not, uh, up here much.”
Caitlyn shrugged and tucked her hair behind her ear. Fuck, even her ears were cute. “It’s ok. A lot of our clients are from Zaun. Viktor and Jayce get that reaction a lot. From both sides. Jayce isn’t so bad. I think you’ll like him when you’ve gotten to know him. And if your case goes to court there is absolutely no one else you’d rather have representing you.”
They reached the front door of the office and Jinx barreled through. Vi paused with a glance at Caitlyn. “It was nice to meet you.”
Caitlyn smiled. “Nice to meet you too! I’ll - um - I’m sure I’ll see you the next time the guys bring you in.” Was she flustered?
“See you then, cupcake.” Vi flashed a grin at her and shot out the door.