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'From all your ridiculous ideas, Jayce, this one seems to be the most asinine.'
'Where do you even know such words from?'
Viktor scoffed haughtily. 'The fact that I work with the language of science doesn't mean that I am incapacitated in a matter of communication.'
Jayce rolled his eyes. Normally, he would vigorously engage in a longer banter, but now he just wanted to coax Viktor outside, and any additional barbs would be counterproductive.
'Oh, come on, V. I didn't think you a coward, and I would never guess you're afraid of the goddamn sun, of all things!'
Jayce's arms shot up in a helpless gesture. Reasoning with stubborn Viktor was a toil almost as exhausting as the work in the forge, but trying to reason with Viktor dead-set on a solution he thought appropriate was simply impossible.
Viktor measured Jayce with a cold glare, his grip on the cane tightening. 'I'll have you know that humans are often afraid of the things they don't know, and a sunny day isn't exactly the most common occurrence in Zaun. I have perfectly rational reasons to be wary of the effect that sun rays may have on my body. And opposite to you, I do not stoop so low as to scorn your fear of the darkness, Jayce.'
Viktor gave him a very pointed look, and Jayce sputtered, flushing with shame. 'W-what does that even have to do with this?'
A darkly amused gleam in Viktor's eye told Jayce everything.
'Besides, being afraid of the darkness is perfectly reasonable! You never know what's...lurking there!'
'Do you even hear yourself, Jayce? And what would that be? A monster?'
Viktor quirked a mocking brow and Jayce felt cold sweat coating his temples even though it was the middle of the day. The nights when he was still a child and his family hadn't been as rich yet, so they often had to function without power to save money, and small Jayce had lain alone in the cold bed waiting for something to come and grab his leg.
'Okay, this isn't about me.' Jayce told himself that he only imagined the smug look crossing Viktor's face. Alas, Jayce was bad at lying, even to himself. 'But the more I'm surprised that you don't get my point. In fact, you should have more reasons than me to be— wary of the darkness, since you grew up in the darkened corners of Zaun.'
Instantly, Viktor's look hardened, and Jayce wished they talked more about Viktor's past—but all the same, he wanted to remain blissfully ignorant. 'And I'd like to notice that I survived there. In the streets of Piltover, everybody sees everyone, and that isn't exactly helpful, as you can imagine. In the undercity at least everyone had the same disadvantage of having to see through a half-dusk day and night. I could blend in, whilst I have never felt more exposed than here.'
A guilty expression flashed over Jayce's face, but he stifled it. Viktor never wanted pity, so Jayce redirected the discussion on the right track. 'But you've been living in Piltover for the last seven years. You had plenty of time to get used to the sun.'
Viktor's gaze grew bored, and something told Jayce that he was on a verge of walking away from the balcony door near which they had been standing for the past fifteen minutes.
'Do I need to remind you that I spent most of my time in the uppercity in the classrooms and labs, which aren't exactly outdoor spaces?'
Jayce was brutally reminded that reasoning with Viktor was so difficult just because, maybe, he was usually right. He rubbed his face helplessly. This talk was getting more and more vexatious, whilst all Jayce wanted to do had been to spend some time outside with his (lab) partner, and facilitate for Viktor getting some fresh air— okay, maybe he had some side agenda in a form of surreptitiously staring at Viktor in the sunlight (he wanted to check what shade would his golden eyes turn if touched by the sun, and that was a perfectly reasonable motivation to conduct a little experiment, wasn't it?).
So far, Jayce had managed to take care of Viktor's meals (unfortunately Viktor accepted only scarce portions of oatmeal cookies, refusing to consume anything more substantial, at least in Jayce's presence; Jayce would have never guessed that a Zaunite could be so picky, but perhaps it had its logic, and Viktor simply wasn't used to getting full meals— but that was a train of thought that Jayce wasn't yet ready to entertain, because it would mean that Viktor was even more malnourished that Jayce had given him credit for, judging from his slight frame); basic hydration (for now in a form of glasses filled to the brim with his favorite sweetmilk that Jayce discreetly left on the worktable—what at first earned him an up and down scolding for placing liquids in the vicinity of important notes, but later he saw with satisfaction that Viktor always emptied the glass and once, when Jayce teasingly 'forgot' to perform his daily ritual, Viktor even sheepishly asked if Jayce knew where his sweetmilk was); and sleep routine (by suggestively asking Viktor to leave the lab for the night—the research isn't going to vanish into thin air during the night, for fuck's sake, Viktor—or rather throwing him off, as offended Viktor put it. Although Jayce would prefer to take more direct steps in the matter, because he was almost sure that Viktor, the bastard, didn't go to bed after he came home, but continued to work. Jayce would need to put him to bed and watch till he fell asleep...of course, for the sole and noble purpose of monitoring his (lab) partner's well-being, nothing else).
Despite the whole procedure of 'taking care of Viktor' reminding Jayce somewhat of coddling a crazily intelligent toddler, he enjoyed it—a bit too much, if he was being honest with himself. One of the few factors that Jayce hadn't yet taken care of was getting some fresh air. And since Viktor wasn't exactly a person for long walks, Jayce struggled how to coax him out of the lab. Only yesterday had Jayce reminded himself of a balcony attached to their lab. They never used it, and all of a sudden, it seemed a tremendous waste. But nothing that couldn't be remedied.
So under the pretext of finishing their work for the day, Jayce had proposed they correct each other's notes on the most recent subject while sunbathing on the balcony (as a matter of course, he didn't dare to phrase it this way, instead using an incredibly convincing—in his humble opinion—argument that the warmth was beneficial for Viktor's aching bones, and yet Jayce's logic was horrendously dismissed). Only a mention of saving on the light was considered with a thoughtful hum. Jayce couldn't understand why Viktor would care about Piltovian energy resources, but he didn't dare ask. He suspected that most likely it had to do with Viktor's Zaun origin and the fact that old habits died hard.
Jayce picked afternoon hours because Viktor would likely be most persuasive when a bit tired. Also, Jayce was least apprehensive of the afternoon sun having a bad influence on Viktor's pale complexion.
But even though earlier Viktor had reluctantly agreed to Jayce's terms, now, when a push came to shove, he was ridiculously uncooperative. Almost as if he was petrified that the second he came outside, he would turn into a pile of ash.
'I promise the sun won't hurt you, Viktor,' Jayce said in a tone way too serious than such a statement deserved. 'I wouldn't do anything that could endanger my lab partner, you know it.'
Viktor's lips thinned, and Jayce could almost see him thawing. 'Maybe, but I'm also aware that the last time I checked you weren't omniscient, Jayce.'
Jayce used his best puppy eyes as a last-hope weapon, and he saw how his trick slowly caused the gears in Viktor's brain to turn and then, miraculously, he rolled his eyes and huffed in indignance (which signs Jayce had learned by heart to read as benevolent compliance).
'Alright, but you will be paying for my treatment in one of the fancy Piltovian hospitals if I get a third-degree sunburn,' Viktor said drily, and extended a hesitant hand outside. Then, he waited a while, as if he expected the skin to wrinkle and fall off the bone. When nothing happened, the rest of his body followed.
'See?' Jayce couldn't hold a smug grin out of his face. So what if Viktor once told him it made Jayce look like a definition of a term himbo? 'You're still in one piece.'
Viktor squinted at the sun, shielding his eyes with a palm. 'I still firmly stand that the experience is highly unpleasant. At least I brought my insurance.'
Jayce's heart stuttered in his chest when Viktor pulled out a pair of sunglasses, and then shamelessly covered his beautiful golden eyes beneath the dark planes. Jayce's heart sank to his stomach. His experiment had just failed, gloriously.
'Y-you're not gonna wear these all the time, are you?' he asked, dreading the answer.
'Of course I do,' Viktor scoffed, slumping on one of the two chairs that Jayce had earlier brought here (not stolen, just borrowed) from one of the classrooms. 'Do you want to damage my eyesight as well? Aren't my limp and the sunburns enough for you? Oh, Jayce, you have no heart.'
Jayce recognized that the exaggerated hurt in Viktor's voice was fake, but his personal hurt was real. 'Since when do you care about your health anyway?' he grumbled, eliciting a weak chuckle from Viktor.
'You are a man hard to please.' Jayce hoped that his coloring at the phrase wasn't visible. 'Whatever I do, you manage to complain.'
'The same thing could be said about you.' Jayce rolled his eyes and slumped on the other chair, hiding his burning face in the notes. He must've imagined the smirk crossing Viktor's face. (The bastard dared to look stunning in these stupid glasses, Jayce had to admit it in the silence of his heart)
They worked silently as the sun traveled across the sky, dipping slowly behind the tall buildings of Piltover as the evening came closer. Jayce tried to focus on the task, but Viktor's conclusions were, as always, almost impeccable. He needed to add just a few questioning marks, and even then he supposed the fault was in his meager understanding rather than in Viktor's error.
So, Jayce used the remaining time to glance at Viktor instead. Alas, he didn't have the aid of sunglasses to conceal his stares, but fortunately, Viktor seemed so engrossed in Jayce's notes that he wouldn't notice. Sad to say, the frantic scribbling once in a while must've meant that there were many miscalculations in Jayce's notes—not that it was anything new. Jayce got used to Viktor finding multiple mistakes in his math, as Jayce was bad at concentrating and tended to omit crucial factors and make stupid mistakes like an elementary school student (there was a reason why he couldn't push hextech any further on his own, after all). Practical stuff and creative solutions were his stronger side, while Viktor's level-headed approach allowed him to spot and correct where Jayce got too excited and forgot how to do the math.
Normally, it would be maddening to observe how Viktor read his stuff and didn't spill a word about it (he always waited until he had a full image, and asked Jayce to do the same, since Jayce used to jump in with a question every time he stumbled upon a questionable fact, and it often turned out that it was explained later).
But now, Jayce had other things to distract himself from being self-conscious about his lack of neatness. They sat so high that the noises of the campus were barely audible, and he could only see the small figures of students worming their way in the crowd, each one hurrying home, or to cafes with friends. But the students held a minimal percentage of Jayce's attention.
Despite his initial protests, Viktor's posture was visibly relaxed, as he leaned fully on the back of the chair and stretched his legs. At some point, he rolled up his sleeves, and as the light of day bled into a warm orange, it coated his pale skin in a gorgeous shade of golden yellow.
Viktor was right that the light revealed much. Jayce could discern almost each one from sparse hairs on his forearms, just as he could spot the tiny moles scattered across his skin. Usually unhealthy-thin—but just as beautiful—bones of Viktor's hands looked especially regal in the light. Jayce hoped that the temperature outside alleviated some of his aches.
Viktor tended to make small, involuntary noises while he was working or reading something (at least Jayce thought they were involuntary— even Viktor couldn't be a tease for eight hours straight, could he?). They had a bizarre ability to simultaneously soothe and distract Jayce, as his mind wandered to whether that was how Viktor would sound if he— this was usually where Jayce cut the thought, because his already tight pants became even tighter. Just like now. Jayce shifted uncomfortably in his seat and instead focused on the way Viktor's breathing slowed down significantly, deep inhales and long exhales, as though he was tasting fresh air for the first time in his life and wanted to savor it. Jayce's heart clenched at the thought that it was as far from the truth as he'd like. But the past had already happened, and there was no changing it (unless they invented a hex-time-machine, what Viktor mocked as the most ridiculous concept that would rip the time-space apart and even the golden boy of Piltover wouldn't be able to patch it up). All Jayce could, and would do, was make the present better, and paint the future in colors brighter than the greyness of the Undercity's fog.
He sighed contently, blissed out by the sole sight of Viktor, hair lightly swept by the wind, and a few loose strands tickling his cheeks. If only Jayce could see his eyes—
Before he could finish that thought, Viktor looked up and slid his glasses up, so they were sitting in his fluffed hair. When did the bastard gain mind-reading powers?
'Have you finished?'
'W-what?'
How was Jayce supposed to utter a coherent sentence while Viktor was gazing at him with those molten-gold eyes? The effect of Jayce's little experiment was even better than he'd anticipated. The color was like the enriched sun itself, not at noon, but rather around mid-afternoon—almost orange, but not exactly. It was mesmerizing, that much was obvious.
'Jayce? Are you, er, feeling alright?'
Viktor's face scrunched in worry, and Jayce mentally kicked himself. 'Uh, no— I mean, yes, I'm fine, I just, well—'
'Please don't tell me you're having a sunstroke. That would be somewhat— ironic, wouldn't it?' Viktor smiled thinly, as if he wasn't sure if he should joke or if Jayce was really in the throes of a life-threatening thermic fever.
'No, I guess not...I hope not.' Jayce laughed weakly, and couldn't help but internally admit that he was, in fact, having a kind of stroke, albeit caused by Viktor's shiny stare.
'Huh. You better not faint or something, as I lack the strength to drag you to the doctor.'
Viktor measured him with a wary gaze, and since Jayce knew that the dry half-joking was Viktor's way of showing concern, so he answered solemnly, 'I won't.'
Viktor's shoulders untensed minutely, and he leaned back in his chair. 'You know, Jayce...albeit reluctantly, I must admit that this idea of yours wasn't as bad as I initially expected,' he mused. 'It is nice in here.'
'Yeah, it could be,' Jayce agreed because he had no idea what else to say. His stupid brain stuttered, unable to process the gift that was Viktor softened at the edges.
'I thought it would be louder. But it is...acceptable.'
Jayce didn't know if it was a veiled jab at his big mouth or a mere observation that the campus didn't exactly belong to the calmest of places; he didn't care.
'I'm glad you like it up here. I wasn't sure if you would,' Jayce said cautiously. The talk seemed painfully superficial, but Jayce knew better. He could feel he was stomping over thin ice—one wrong move, too much pressure, and the atmosphere would crack, Viktor closing up again, leaving Jayce to struggle in the freezing pool of indifference.
'The company is not that obnoxious as well.'
A smile that graced Viktor's lips then was Jayce's favorite. There were casual smiles, of course, reserved for the long hours in the lab and punctuating his dry jokes, but smiles like this one were hardest to evoke. They usually came after a long, rewarding, but tiring time of coaxing Viktor out of his shell, when he decided to expose that soft, tremulous part of him that was wary of even existing. Jayce wanted to reassure this beautiful part that it was welcome here, safe and protected and cherished. But he was careful when making his steps, in apprehension that he would scare Viktor off by acknowledging this side of him that he so obviously wished to hide. So Jayce could only act as supportive and unthreateningly friendly as Viktor would let slide (acting as though he got a sunstroke didn't exactly help in the matter).
Before Jayce could realize what his hand was doing, it gently took Viktor's fingers and stroked his skin.
'Your skin is still warm. How are your bones?'
Viktor jerked slightly at the sudden contact and stared at him, appalled. Jayce could see as his throat bobbed with a hard swallow. 'F-fine, I guess.'
He wasn't recoiling, was must've been a good sign. Although each of Jayce's instincts was screaming at him to bring Viktor's hand to his lips and kiss the fingers reverently, he reigned them all in. That would be crossing the line, passing the point of no return, irrevocably, too much and too soon, and due to a moment of weakness, Jayce would risk losing Viktor forever. He wasn't ready for the prospect, would never be.
'Maybe we could make it a habit, then?'
Jayce sounded too hopeful, too desperate, but he was—desperate for this tender-crisp Viktor gazing at him with his eyes touched by the sun.
'Perhaps,' Viktor said hesitantly, gaze flickering between Jayce's face and his fingers barely woven through Viktor's. 'But don't entertain that prospect too much, Jayce. I still don't know how my skin will react to so much exposition.'
The second bottom in that sentence threatened to swallow Jayce whole, so he nodded, recognizing the moment it was right to pull away with skill. Viktor trembled slightly at the loss of contact. It did things to Jayce that he refused to acknowledge for the time being.
'You know it's impossible to discourage me from hoping on things once I see they are possible.'
Viktor huffed a laugh. 'Yes, I did notice that you are rather stubborn.'
Jayce grinned. The moment on the ledge flashed in their minds, and they were both aware that hopeful Jayce was still a hell of better than a hopeless one.
'Alright, but I believe that we came here for a reason.' Viktor cleared his throat, waiting for Jayce to catch up.
'Ah, yeah, the notes! Uh, can't we postpone it until tomorrow?' If Jayce was being honest, he had no mind for science now. 'It's getting dark. It would be unhealthy to read in low light. Besides, I'm tired.'
'Your hextech dream won't come true while you sleep, Jayce, you said it yourself.' Viktor raised a teasing brow, and Jayce decided it was okay to stay a while longer because otherwise, he would have to quit looking at Viktor.
'Fine, but I will not be blamed for the decrease of your eyesight as well, Viktor.'
'Shut up.'
The evening fell as they read their notes to each other, submerging in the delights of academic banter. Although the light dimmed, the warmth lingered in the air. Viktor's bones almost didn't hurt, and Jayce's heart swelled so much his ribs ached.