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Despite the fact that the path to Yue’s house was straight and did not have too many loops or stairs to climb, it ended up being a long and difficult trek. Her house was situated right in the middle of a slope and the taller man’s leg did not look any better as it had been when he was lying on the ground.
She thought she heard his name was James, or was it John? The smaller man - who James-John had called Vik - always spoke so softly it was almost impossible to hear him above the busy buzz of the street they walked in. Moreover, she feared his stare. It almost felt like he knew everything about her, her thoughts, her worries, her aspirations, everything, as soon as she glanced at his bowed head.
Even when she had her back turned to them, he always seemed to know when she eavesdropped. It sent shivers down her spine and prickled her skin like thousands of icy, biting cold needles.
She may be curious about them, like any other respectable Piltie gossiper, but she was not suicidal and she had good survival instincts. As soon as she felt the hair on her nape rise, she quickened her pace and stammered the directions again to divert both men’s attention away from her. James-John always came to her rescue, unknowingly or not, by chatting endlessly about this and that as they passed by a few buildings and stores, all the while dragging his leg - and his partner - around.
When they finally reached the front of her door, Yue was almost overcome with tears.
As much as she had liked living in peace with her mother inside her villa, it felt as if her breath, which she had not realised had been stolen from her a year ago, was finally returned to her lungs. She took out with trembling hands her keys and reverently thrust the item inside the keyhole.
Hearing the door squeak as she pushed it was like music to her ears. Even the dust that lingered around the doorway did not deter her from immediately entering her house, feeling the walls and the little trinkets stacked on the shelf beside the door.
“Sorry,” she chocked out as she tried so damn hard to control her voice but her throat was simply not cooperating, “It’s just… It’s been a long time.”
She felt silly as soon as she uttered those words. Who was she to complain? Those two men had probably seen so much worse than her and here she was, sobbing snottily in the front of her house. Her intact house.
She had not right...
“It’s fine. We understand,” the smaller man’s soft voice cut into her thoughts as if he knew exactly what she meant. And wasn't it all unfair to say such a thing to her.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
“Let’s… Let’s just get you both rested, I did promise you that, did I?” she teased, walking inside with both men at her heels.
Her house was of a modest size with a large living room as the centrepiece, a kitchen and a restroom on each side while upstairs, there was another small bathroom and two other bedrooms. Yue immediately led them towards the couch placed in the living room and James-John almost collapsed on it as soon as it was into reach. He dragged with him his partner who only managed to keep his balance by tugging harshly on the man’s dirtied coat, thankfully preventing himself and the bigger man from crashing head first into the couch and potentially tearing a hole inside the leather.
“Be careful Jayce,” Vik said with a tired sigh and Yue could only relate with him. The man had said the exact same words at least four times during their walk to her house. Though now, in the silence of the room, she was finally able to properly hear the taller man’s name.
Jayce.
Why did it sound so familiar?
“Oh gods, I miss our couch. This one is so comfortable though, you should try it too instead of hovering around,” Jayce said with a long, relieved huff, patting the seat on his side. He then turned to Yue and said, with so much sincerity it was near nauseating, "Thank you so much for your hospitality, it is much appreciated."
“You can put your leg on the table as long as you remove the boot if you want, I'll prepare a small snack,” Yue quipped back before busying herself with her suitcase, opening it up as soon as she was inside the kitchen.
She tried not to eavesdrop but hey, her house was not that big and it was difficult not to hear things when they talked that loudly. She could hear Jayce grunt with effort while he supposedly removed his boot even while she opened her suitcase.
She tried hard to stay focused on her task, removing her clothes and putting them on a pile beside her to deal with later. She then took out the bag of cookies and the pieces of pie she had placed inside a tupperware, putting them on the table and glaring at it. That would not be enough for three, two of which were probably famished, she mentally grumbled.
Why had she thought bringing them to her house was a good idea again? They both looked like lost pets for all she could see until now. Were they actually just some escapees from a faraway land, instead of the hero soldiers she had previously - and foolishly - envisioned?
She was beginning to see more issues than benefits the more she thought about it.
She glanced back to the living room where Vik had helped his partner get his boots off and now his leg lay on the table. Bits and pieces of the contraption that kept his leg from moving lay on the piece of furniture while they unscrewed whatever they could without jostling his limb too much. They talked again in hushed tones, Vik seemingly scowling more than anything while slapping Jayce’s hand away from his leg and pushing him against the couch with a flick of his wrist like one would do with a fly.
“How did you even build this thing, it is such a mess -” Yue could hear Vik mutter.
“Hey, I was quite limited when I had to build this...”
“It does not even help withstand your weight or help you set your leg in the right direction, what the hell is even that!” Vik thrust a thin rod into Jayce’s face as if to prove his point.
“Try doing that with just a hammer and see if you can manage the same,” Jayce replied with a shrug, not even looking phased by the piece of metal almost poking him in the eye.
He almost seemed to be smiling, as if he was happy to be scolded.
That particular sentence seemed to break something inside Vik as the rod fell out of his spasming hand and he fell silent. Noticing his sudden change of mood, Jayce frowned, a worried expression replacing his playful one.
“Vik…”
“No. You’re right. I’m sorry,” he said in curt succession. Then, he took a deep breath and continued, seemingly having overcome whatever turmoil had been brewing inside him. “With just that, you managed quite alright I suppose. It is almost disconcerting how accurate some of those mechanisms are…” he trailed off, tapping at a few cogs and screws with his finger.
Jayce did not answer and simply bent down effortlessly to slowly ease his injured leg out of the dismantled brace. Vik took the brace in his hands and looked at it pensively as he sat down on the couch beside the other man. Jayce groaned in relief as he wriggled his toes and as he moved to find a better position, a few pieces of metal fell down the floor in loud clinking sounds.
Yue grimaced, she would probably need to clean everywhere as soon as they were gone.
Actually, though Vik seemed to be relatively clean, even hidden under that big dark cloak of his, Jayce on the other hand definitely had seen better days: his hair dangled in front of his eyes as if it had not been brushed in months, his beard looked like it had overgrown then cut with a jagged knife and the white clothes under his cloak were all rumpled if not… torn? Wait, was that a tear she could see there... and there too! And not to forget about those four marks on his forehead, catching the light each time he moved his head, half hidden behind his hair but still so luminescent no one could possibly not see it. Despite the white iridescence of each of those oval scars, it looked out of place, almost… from a forbidden origin, one she could not name.
One she should have never glimpsed at.
Where had they been?
She looked at how Vik - who was still stubborn enough to keep his hood up even in her house - put down the brace on the table and gently touched Jayce’s face. Although the other’s hair looked dirty and caked with dust, he swept some strands out of his eyes and murmured something she did not, and would not hear.
Not wanting to intrude on such a private event any more, thank you very much, Yue decided to busy herself with cutlery. Even if they had been neatly placed in the cupboard more than a year ago, it was always important to check if there was any dust, right?
A murmur, the rustle of clothes and the leather of her couch squeaking, then a firm “No.”
Some more movements before Jayce said in a softer, gentler tone but still so very clear, as if even her house held down its breath to not interrupt the both of them: “You shouldn’t have to say sorry. I am the one who was at fault. My fault, and mine alone. You warned me, you begged me, but I…”
There were some more furious murmurings to which Jayce exclaimed with an incensed ‘Vik, don’t…!’ but was promptly shut down by an even louder shushing hiss.
Yue suddenly stood up from her kneeling position among her bowls and pans and loudly clanked three plates together, took the cookies in her other hand before clearing up her throat and stomping back to the living room. Both men immediately quieted down and looked at her, Jayce from his slumped form and Vik from under his hood. He was trying to sit with his back straight but one of his arms was firmly gripped down by the other man, forcing him to bend across Jayce’s torso, their chest almost touching.
She kept her eyes firmly on the smashed blueberry that stuck out from the filling and slowly trickled down the plate.
She will need to find some handkerchief and cleaning solution for that. Wait no-
“I don’t have a lot of things left here," she exclaimed instead, "So here is some pie we made before I arrived at Piltover. If you wish, the bathroom is just this way. I don’t think I have hot water yet, but you can always try. I’ll go out and buy some more food down the street, I'll be back."
Then, she fled to the kitchen to retrieve her bag and immediately made it to the exit.
With her hand still on the door handle - she was about to bolt down the alley and go to that bakery she knew made delicious bread, then to the small grocery store a few streets away - she suddenly stopped short in her tracks.
A thought had come barreling its way inside her mind, almost as hard as the first time she had heard of the Noxian invitation, sweeping off her feet: she had strangers in her house and she was about to leave them unsupervised.
Them, inside her home. Her, outside and blissfully unaware of what could happen while she was out there shopping.
What the hell?
What an idiot she was…
What if-
She hesitated to touch that line of thoughts and shook her head.
That Jayce was in a pitiful state and the other man, Vik, looked like he truly cared about his partner’s health. And, she tried to reason, she had seen Jayce roll up his pant leg. There had indeed been a rather nasty-looking scar: red, irritated and probably even inflamed or infected. It obviously had not fully healed and ran across his knee to the top of his thigh, his pants covering the rest of it.
That leg sure like hell did not look fine.
She doubted anyone would put up with such a long act simply to steal from them. Bumping into someone, breaking whatever thing that brace was, feigning injury, looking that dirty... All of that just to lower someone’s guard?
Wouldn’t it be easier to simply steal from their pocket while they apologised for bumping into them?
Yue felt a bit ashamed as she shuffled through her bag... Just in case... Nothing was amiss.
She sighed again and rubbed at her forehead.
That was at that exact moment she heard it.
Such a heartwrenching, pathetic, sad little sob. One that came from within her house.
She did not move, but she did slightly turn around, curious, worried, afraid. She could not see anything from the hallway. She would have to walk a few steps inside and then turn to the left if she wanted to look at the entirety of her living room, where both men were but she did not dare move a single inch.
However, she did not need to know that this sound had come from the couch.
It was such a short, strangled and clear sound she could not have missed it. It felt as if it had unconsciously escaped someone’s throat, unwillingly and unexpectedly.
Then, there was that sound again, a second time.
A sob.
Then a whisper…
“I thought I’d never taste something like this ever again…” she heard, trembling wet words making their way to her ears and splitting her heart into two bloody halves.
“It was so difficult… so hard to just, continue walking and climbing and…” A wet laugh, “Those fishes were horrible, let me tell you.” Another pause. “Remember that time I tried to cook us something? Well that damn thing, whatever it was, tasted almost better. Can you believe it? And here I thought I cooked alright. You told me that.”
A muffled murmur as if those words came from a face hiding in fabrics.
Then, a small chuckle.
“No, don’t you understand? It’s always been you,” a sigh and the sound of a plate raking against the table. “You did say that to me, back there actually. Only you,” a short silence, then: “Yes, perhaps we’ve parted ways at some point. But it has always been you and me. From the very beginning. And now... See? You and me, to the very end,” his voice was now trembling again, pitch so high it sounded close to fainting, “See, Vik? Look at us.”
Then, there was more silence.
But this one seemed almost… affectionate, so heavy with emotion it felt suffocating.
Or that was because Yue, her ears and eyes burning bright hot, had left the house on her tiptoes, closing the door behind her as gently as she could.
Maybe, she thought to herself, those people were not so bad after all.
Perhaps, she mused as she made her way down the street, they were only in Piltover as two unassuming travellers, passing by, silent and inside their small little world.
Well, if her pie had been that appreciated, perhaps it would do good to buy some more flour, chocolate and fruits, she thought with a light skip in her steps.
.
.
.