Chapter Text
The two months that had passed since Viktor had officially moved to Piltover felt more like two years. The city was smaller than Zaun, but he didn’t know it and he didn’t fit in in every obvious way. His accent, rare in the Undercity, was unheard of above. His leg and shabby clothes and wary disposition only made him stand out more. Before, he had just been at the Academy, which drew a larger swath of people from all over, including the Undercity. Now, he was out among the general population far more. The lingering hope that he would fit in seamlessly now that he had a Piltoverian partner and a handful of sponsors from the council vanished. There was a vague comfort, though, in the fact that he would always carry a hint of Undercity with him.
He had been back, of course. He had a deal with Silco that he was unlikely to forget or forgive. Jinx needed him. She was still too fragile to try to pry away from Silco. The man had a hold on her Viktor did not like. He’d managed to see her three times so far. He wished it could have been more. There was also Ekko to look for. There had been no sign of him, as if the Undercity had swallowed him whole. Part of him thought he should give up, but he knew he could never live with himself if he did.
Singed was still healing. The burns were extensive. Shimmer could slow degeneration, as it had with Silco’s eye, but had limited healing ability (something Singed was now working furiously on). He was stubborn about going back to his normal routine too early and acted as if Viktor had never left at all. The whole thing was frustrating, but two months in, he had finally healed enough that Viktor didn’t feel the need to visit him quite so often, a relief because he was running out of excuses to give Jayce and they had their own work to do.
“Viktor,” Singed greeted, as he always did, as if it were a given that Viktor would always return.
“I cannot stay long. There is a—” Viktor started, setting down the bottle of burn ointment he’d gotten from a Piltover pharmacy. It was not likely to be of much use now. Singed’s body was covered in a patchwork of thick scars. His hair had never grown back and he’d taken to wrapping the bottom half of his face, where his lips still puckered back gruesomely from his mouth, in a scarf.
“Come look. I have a new variant. The healing properties are—” Singed continued as if Viktor hadn’t spoken.
“I cannot stay. There is a…event. I am expected,” Viktor said, more firmly this time.
Singed let out a huff and turned to face him. Viktor leaned back, waiting. This also had become a part of their ritual and he had learned not to fight it.
“You have more important things to do. Up there and down here. They will only stifle you and this partner of yours—”
“Jayce.”
“It doesn’t matter. They all disappoint us eventually. You don’t know Piltover as I do,” Singed finished.
“Well, perhaps, but at least the air is clean. How are your burns today?” Viktor asked, hoping to cut off any more talk of all the ways Piltover and Jayce would eventually turn on him.
“They don’t bother me much anymore, you know that,” Singed said, unwrapping the scarf anyway.
“Eh, well, I brought you something for them anyway,” Viktor said, coming to study his mentor’s injuries.
“How thoughtful.”
It was hard to read the doctor’s tone. He could have been sincere, sarcastic, or dismissive. The accident had gotten under his skin in a way nothing else had. He barely left the cave, even now that he could, and had made no mention of seeing patients again. The last part bothered Viktor the most. There were few doctors in the Undercity and, despite his plethora of reservations about the man, Singed was the best one by far.
Viktor examined him in silence. His motor function was coming back to his hands and there would likely not be any lingering effects. If he had any other nerve damage, he kept it to himself. He was a practical man. Diminished feeling was bearable, as long as his hands and his mind worked. Viktor understood the sentiment all too well. He changed the bandages that needed changing as quickly as he could. He had cut it too close and would be late. He thought that would upset Jayce, but he wasn’t sure. He was unsure of their relationship in general. Jayce had adopted him too quickly and he was still catching up. He liked him, he knew that much, but he had had few friends in his life and still viewed all Pilties with an air of distrust.
“I have to go. I’ll come back—”
“How is your leg?” Singed asked, ignoring him.
“Fine. Look, I—”
“They are going to try and change you, fit you into their little box, but you won’t. You’ll be down here again, soon enough. Better to leave before they squeeze all you have to offer them and leave you withered and bitter. Your partner is one of them. He will take all he can for himself. You’ll see,” Singed continued bitterly as he wrapped the scarf around his face again.
“Jayce is not like that,” Viktor said, still only fairly certain that he was correct.
“They are all like that. But go. Enjoy your party.”
Viktor made a face. He knew he would not. Singed was right about some of it. He was largely ignored or called Jayce’s assistant, even as Jayce and even Heimerdinger himself insisted that he was not. He had never enjoyed large gatherings to begin with and the excess that marked Piltover’s grand parties made him uncomfortable. The money spent on food and drink alone was more than the average worker in Zaun’s monthly wages.
“I did not enjoy them much either,” Singed said with a laugh, a faint, wheezing sound. “Our time is better spent at our work.”
“Yes, well, I am expected. And…and we need funding,” Viktor said, wrapping his mother’s scarf around his neck as he prepared to go. It was ragged now. He would need a new one before long.
“Ah, yes. How unfortunate.”
“I’ll come back…soon,” Viktor said, unsure of what exactly “soon” meant.
The doctor hummed vaguely and returned to his work. It was as it usually was. He didn’t ask about Hextech this time, though. It was a relief. Viktor was tired of being vague about it or flat out refusing to give him any concrete details. The fact was, he and Jayce were still floundering about how to control it after that first night. They needed more runes and more time to gather crystals and refine the apparatus. The math was sound, of course, but sound was a relative term when one was inventing equations that no one had ever dreamed of before.
Viktor left and took his time getting back to his apartment and changing into his one suit for the party. He’d be late. No one would notice (aside from Jayce and perhaps Heimerdinger). He could grin and bear it for a few hours and then return to working on figuring out how to power the crystal’s housing without plunging all of Piltover into darkness. Or he could plunge all of Piltover into darkness and avoid being invited to another one of these parties ever again.