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Jayce hadn’t always believed in miracles. It hadn’t been until that fateful day out in the cold that his faith in the unknown had been hammered into his heart with a finality he still remembered to this day. The way the arcane, the magic , had swirled through the air, ripping it apart and piecing it together around him, had changed something fundamental in his soul.
Today, that faith had been shaken. He had pleaded with Heimerdinger to hear him out, begged him to at least consider what Jayce himself knew to be fact, and yet the professor had shut him down at every turn.
Jayce knew what he was doing, knew that his discoveries could change the world. He also knew that he had nothing -- was nothing -- without his research. Years of his life, gone in the blink of an eye, all because some burglars weren’t delicate enough in what they should’ve known would be a lab filled with volatile things.
The wind on his face was warm as he stepped up to the edge of what used to be his workshop. It felt fitting, in a way, that he would meet his end in the same place all his ambitions had been blown to smithereens.
He breathed in through his nose, inhaling one last taste of air, before closing his eyes and leaning out over the abyss below him.
“Am I interrupting?” The question behind him shocked him from his trance as he stumbled back from the ledge.
“The hell’s your problem!” Jayce exclaimed, gasping.
The man standing in the doorway moved closer. It was the one from earlier, Heimerdinger’s assistant, and he was holding a familiar notebook. It seemed as if he was only here to rub salt in the wound, as he proceeded to joke about the way Jayce wrote his notes.
When Jayce confronted him about his attitude though, the man looked taken aback, and his demeanour flipped on its head. Instead of insulting the work that Jayce had poured half his life into as he’d expected, the man expressed his interest in it, called it intriguing, said that he wanted to hear more about Jayce’s ideas.
He continued to stand there and listen, actually listen, when Jayce told him about the magic he had witnessed, about the good he believed it could do. His eyes had hung onto every word that spilled from Jayce’s lips, seeing him as no one else had ever done before.
And then he’d turned to him, held out his hand, and told him he could change the world.
It was the most beautiful thing Jayce had ever heard.
They had done it. They had actually done it.
The room glowed ethereal blue as the laughs of the two of them bounced off the walls. This moment felt precious, perfect, theirs despite the nagging of the professor down below. The ceiling was patterned with a thousand tiny galaxies of their own making, and as Jayce beheld the one who had made it all possible, he couldn’t help but be overcome with gratitude.
Viktor had done for him what no one else had truly ever done. All his talk of believing in yourself had been inspirational, sure, but having someone to stand at your side, someone who believes with their whole soul that you can achieve what you’ve set out to do, had been life-changing.
As much as Hextech was Jayce’s life’s work, there wasn’t a chance in the world he could have done it without Viktor’s help. They were partners now, forever linked by the passion that had created this .
Despite the enormity of their creation, despite the gravity of what they had done, this moment felt so small, so warm in Jayce’s mind. Right now, it was just him, Viktor, and the wonders they had made with their own two hands. There was magic in the air, and not all of it came from their device.
The edges of Viktor’s body were traced with light, the blue glow emanating from the centre of the room illuminating him as if he were the subject of a fantastical artwork. His smile was as bright as the light around him, morphing his face into one that had seen not quite so much hardship. Blue particles danced through his hair, and the shocked laughter that leapt from his lungs painted the room with joy.
It was beautiful. It was all so beautiful. Nothing else mattered. The council, the future, their lives, none of it mattered in the face of this moment, this beauty.
They were floating on the best academic high of both of their careers, and they were doing it together.
“This is incredible!” Viktor exclaimed late one evening, pouring over a page of notes Jayce had just handed him.
The two of them had spent the last few months since the opening of the Hexgate utterly swamped with work. It turned out, opening an experimental magical port in your city was much more complicated than simply implementing the infrastructure and turning it on. There was paperwork to do, safety checks to carry out, authority to delegate and people to educate. In the last week alone, Jayce had hardly seen his partner, who spent most of his time in the lab while Jayce did the heavy lifting when it came to selling their project to others.
The loss of the company of his steadfast partner had weighed on Jayce in a way he hadn’t ever noticed before. In the years since their first meeting, the two of them had spent so much time together that he had hardly ever noticed when Viktor wasn’t around, and that hole in his daily life had felt strangely large.
To make up for the time they’d been forced to spend apart, Jayce decided he should do something for his partner, something that would show him that despite the fact Jayce seemed to talk more to potential business partners than to Viktor, he was still in the forefront of his mind. Something to show Viktor that he wouldn’t be left behind in the wake of the progress Hextech was making.
“You thought of this?” Viktor asked, his eyes shifting with wonder from the paper in his hands to Jayce, smiling and nodding above him.
“I wanted to do something to create change for real people, to help real people, not just industry. Hextech is about making people’s lives better. Why not start with your people?”
“...This is, this is amazing.” Viktor glanced back down at his hands. “Thank you, Jayce, really.”
The plan Jayce had come up with was simple really, but he believed it could make all the difference in the long run for people who were growing up as Viktor had. It was a filter, powered by Hextech, designed to clear not just debris, but chemicals and bacteria from the criminally neglected water system in the undercity.
“I had begun to draft plans for something similar myself, but I haven’t had the time to invest in actually perfecting it,” continued Viktor. “Of course, this isn’t perfect either, but it’s a massive leap from what I’ve managed to throw together.” He pulled out a pen and began to make marks across the pages of Jayce’s writing, laying out his own mind over top of Jayce's.
Jayce watched, mesmerised, as Viktor was absorbed by the designs in front of him. Only occasionally did he feel the need to add his own points into the mumbled list of ideas pouring across the page from Viktor’s hands. For the most part, Jayce was content to just watch as the fantastic inner-workings of his partner's mind made themselves known with each stroke of his pen and word from his mouth. Viktor’s experience and knowledge transformed Jayce’s project from something rudimentary, to something actually functional, and it was captivating to watch.
In the end, what was left on the page looked nothing like the original plans Jayce had handed over to his partner’s care. Instead, the notes had been transformed into a map of both of their thoughts, every proposal countered or added to, every idea blooming through letters and drawings. It was Jayce’s favourite thing about working with Viktor. Neither was at their best without the other, every idea he came up with on his own felt stale, incomplete.
With Viktor's beautiful mind though, the two of them could make something magnificent.
Dawn was barely breaking over the tops of the lowest rooftops near the academy as Jayce hurried through its halls. He was going to be late, and he knew it. He had completely forgotten about this meeting, and none of the research he was supposed to present today was organized.
Whatever, what’s done is done, there was no use being upset about it now. He would just have to apologize when he got there.
Bursting through the door to the lab, Jayce’s feet ground to a halt at what he saw inside. His research, the things he knew he had left scattered about the last time he had been here, was stacked tidily on his worktable, ready and waiting to be presented.
Viktor, who was supposed to be at home resting, was slumped over his own desk, fast asleep.
Jayce made to walk over to him, maybe wake him up to thank him and then send him home for some proper rest, but stopped before he could move too far. It was so rare nowadays to see Viktor actually relaxed, and Jayce didn’t want to disturb him, for fear he would keep working on whatever had driven him to sleep in the lab instead of in his own bed. With his health declining so rapidly, any rest Viktor could get was probably a good thing, even if he would wake up with a sore back from hunching over a desk all night.
Despite the toll his sickness was taking on his body, Viktor looked oddly peaceful like this, alone in the lab with only his work for company. The soft rays of dawn were peeking through the windows, chasing dust motes and illuminating Viktor’s soft hair as if he were being crowned by the sun.
On his face was a smudge of ink, likely transferred from the sheet of papers he had pillowed his head on top of. Jayce had half a mind to go and wipe it off, if only to leave one less thing for Viktor to worry about when he awoke. He thought better of it. Best not to disturb him at all, if even to help.
As quietly as he could manage, Jayce moved to his desk to collect his things, before turning back towards Viktor. In the back of his mind, that fact that he was most definitely, damnably, late was hammering at his skull, but he ignored it. This moment felt reverent, still and quiet and special, and Jayce wasn’t going to waste it on silly things like hurrying to meetings.
So instead of leaving the room as he certainly should be doing, Jayce stood and watched over his partner as he slept. He felt lucky to have been graced with a moment like this in the midst of the whirlwind their lives had become, and squandering it felt like something he would deeply regret.
Viktor’s sleeping form didn’t stir the whole time Jayce stood there, but the longer Jayce looked, the more he saw. He gazed at Viktor’s artisan’s hands, at the callouses and the ink and small scars that flecked their surface. He watched the way his breath caused dust in the air to dance, as if set alight. Seeing Viktor so still, so unguarded, it felt like Jayce was being given a chance to stare into his very soul.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered into the still room, and was gone before he could see Viktor shift and turn to watch the door drift shut behind him.
Jayce hadn’t always believed in miracles. It had taken an act of divinity, of magic bringing his mother back from the brink of death, to prove to him that anything was possible if only he tried hard enough.
Jayce had to believe miracles were possible, because if he didn’t, he would fall apart at the seams.
He could see Viktor in front of him, breath barely pushing in and out of his body, flames and smoke and rubble surrounding the entire scene. He could feel how light he was in his arms as he raced for some way, some miracle that could save him. He could feel the pull as the Hexcore leaped for Viktor’s body lying on the table, could feel how his own resolve crumbled when he realized this was his only chance to save his partner.
Every single night since the explosion, Jayce had relived that memory over, and over, and over again. Every night, he was forced to live through the slow realization that Viktor was no longer standing beside him, that he and Mel were the only ones unscathed. He had to watch as his own eyes scanned the destruction, too slow, always too slow, until they located him. Had to feel his own heart pounding out of his chest as he raced against time through the halls of the academy, hoping against hope that it would be enough, that Viktor would live, that he could save him.
Jayce hadn’t always believed in miracles, but being awoken by a soft “Jayce” was all he needed to believe in anything.
He turned around and beheld his best friend, his partner, his everything, standing in front of him. He looked so different, so changed. It didn’t matter in the slightest. He was the most beautiful thing Jayce had ever seen.
“What…am I?” Viktor asked, his voice perfect in Jayce’s ears.
“You…You're alive,” Jayce gasped, and wrapped him in his arms, trying and failing to make it so their hearts were one, their souls were one. Viktor was alive, and that’s all that mattered. It was all that would ever matter.