Chapter Text
A/N: The fanart that inspired this story is brought to you by Julia, @nowwheresmynut on twitter. Link to the post is here. The fanart is featured at the end of the chapter.
After Viktor and I held onto the teleportation rune together within the Arcane, we were shifted somewhere else… still in that void dotted with stars and nebulas so far away we could never reach them. At the fringes of our minds, however, something akin to moments that we’d never experienced, blossomed. Memories seen through our own eyes with people and worlds we’d never known. Over time, we began to see more and more of them, flitting in and out of us, and we’d share the stories we’d seen while drifting towards the stars we’d guessed might be closest. Maybe, just maybe, we would be able to grasp our situation while peering into the other versions of ourselves. The first of our hypotheses was this: the realities that pass us by have a purpose. Our test: share the stories with each other and figure out what events were similar and gauge their importance. The control: our baseline reality; the memories we held of our time together in our physical forms.
I shared a story with Viktor about a world where we met as children. It was a hot day, and my mother took me to the local pool.
~~~
In that reality, Piltover and Zaun had entered violent conflict before our lifetimes and came to an agreement regarding the independence of Zaun. My mother and I returned to Piltover just a year prior, and I was as starry-eyed as ever. I ran across the side of the pool towards the diving board, my mother’s voice echoed behind me: “Jayce! Don’t run!” I received chuckles and chidings from other dotting mothers as I passed their chairs and umbrellas. It was a picture of the perfect day, in my memory, fueled by nostalgia and childlike excitement. The summer sun shone hot on my tan skin, goggles pushing my hair up in awkward directions, as I pushed off against the smooth tiles beneath me with every step, but I was a blur. I was seven and three months. I was on top of the world!
“Jayce!” My mom’s voice broke through my excitement. I turned to see her face, a slight smirk piercing through her otherwise disappointed demeanor. Her eyebrows furrowed. “Jayce Talis, you can’t swim in the deep end alone.”
I frantically looked around, almost giving myself whiplash with the amount of energy I out into it, as with every action I had as a kid. That’s when I saw him for the first time. Viktor. His swimsuit was combination of a big tank top and shorts, and his hair was just a sized down version of his older hair to fit his smaller frame. Or maybe I remembered it wrong. I knew for a fact, however, that he had a big pool floaty around his waist, and we made eye contact. He glanced around nervously. No one else was around him. “I can swim with him!” I pointed, looking back at my mom, then back at him. I basically demanded, “You’ll go with me, right?” My excitement diminished slightly, replaced with buzzing anticipation, as I awaited his response.
I received a quiet, “Sure,” from him. He was puzzled, analyzing me, but I erupted.
“Mom!” I whipped around again, “I’m going with my big friend!”
The moms I ran by eyed Viktor, for it was clear he was from the undercity: his hair was greasy from the air of the undercity and lacking regular washing, his skin was a pale white, and bags lined his eyes. I thought it was weird they didn’t chuckle at him too when I grabbed his hand and rocketed towards the diving board again. His hands were dry and calloused from work, and I was excited to show him the pool. I’d been going every weekend since it opened, begging my mom to take me. At first, she was hesitant, as the pool didn’t have the best reputation, being closer to Zaun than any of the others on topside, but it was the only one we could afford since my father passed years ago and business had slowed.
“I haven’t seen you here before, have you been in a pool?” I asked him before climbing the ladder onto the board.
“No.” He grabbed his bicep with his hand, looking downwards. “I usually sit on the side.”
My eyes lit up. “This will be so fun! Here.” I brought him to the edge of the pool. “Watch me jump in and maybe you can do it after?”
He looked around, considering it, and nodded a little. He dangled his feet in the pool, and I noticed his legs had devices on them, propping him up. He fell to the ground as he was about to reach the ground, and I realized he couldn’t support himself all the way to a sitting position. I got excited again, though, and climbed onto the diving board, the textured surface keeping my feet bolted to it as it moved and bucked under my weight. “Look at me!” I shouted, wanting him to join in on the fun. He looked at me and grinned, kicking his legs slightly in the water.
I concentrated on doing the best cannonball I could for him, bouncing as high as I could on the board, gaining so much air that I got shocked and jumped too early, hitting the surface of the water with just a little splash, not having curled my body in all the way for a proper cannonball. I broke the surface and took off my goggles, laughing my head off, looking for Viktor’s reaction. He smiled, and as I swam towards him, I huffed, out of breath but still laughing, passing the laugh onto him as his mouth widened and sound finally came out, his shoulders relaxing and bouncing from the fun of it.
The laughter stopped after a bit. “I can’t swim,” he said.
“That’s okay.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“I mean… I kind of lied to my mom because she said I needed to swim with someone else, but if I’m okay that should be fine.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What? It’s okay! Here.” I took off my goggles and put them on his head, forcing down some of his hair with the band. “Now you can practice swimming and see underwater with those!” I didn’t realize that he might not ever be able to swim because of the issues with his legs, but I didn’t care. He was my new best friend.
The memory faded out, blackness centered around Viktor’s face as it was taken away from my consciousness, like a television screen floating away into the darkness of the void around us in the arcane space. From the darkness, I opened my eyes again, right back into another memory, from years later.
I strutted across the pool; the same one we’d been to as children. I was 19 now and had just applied to the academy in Piltover. Viktor was already in his second year now but wasn’t against sitting on the edge of the pool with his best friend after all this time. His eyes were closed, his head aimed at the sky. He had a cane now, and it always laid by his side. I slowed to a crawl and made as little noise as possible, the tiles below my feet now cracked and worn after years of use, uneven and slippery on this overcast day.
“You know, Jayce, this might not have been the ideal day for a pool party.” He said, his eyes still closed. “And yes, I know you’re there. You do this every time.”
“And I will always try to sneak up on you. But you’re too smart for that.”
“More like… you’re too predictable.” He turned his head, inches away from mine. His eyes told me, all according to plan. He knew I’d be there. To be fair, he was right, I did the exact same thing every time.
I sighed. “I don’t want anything to change. Applying to the academy has been nerve-wracking. I barely have anything good to show for my time at school and I’ve been so stressed lately about all the expectation and starting to take over more of the business for my mom so she can relax, but it’s all just…”
“A lot.”
“Yeah.” I looked at Viktor’s feet kicking slightly in the water as I sat down next to him, my right leg outstretched as my left remained bent. I stared, my mind went blank.
Viktor sighed and looked up, thinking for a moment. “You know what might be so fun?” I looked up at him and he winked at me. I felt my face flush. It seemed like he remembered everything perfectly. He pointed to the diving board and nudged my foot with his elbow. “If you got a little wet.” His smirk melted me. He knew exactly what he was doing.
I sighed. “If you insist, pretty boy.” I stood up, cracking my back, stretching right in front of him. Showing off. He couldn’t speak. How could he? I looked great. I climbed the diving board ladder once again. My mom didn’t come every weekend anymore like when I was younger, but I always did, running laps and clearing my mind.
Planning my diabolical maneuver, I jumped on the board, launching myself as high as possible, and initiating the perfect cannonball, hitting the water and soaking Viktor. I emerged from the water in my practiced way, emphasizing my biceps as I pushed my hair back. I waded over to the pouting skinny boy and chuckled as he shook his head at me, peering down through wet hair and a scowl. “You’re lucky I’m your friend, or else that stunt would’ve ended your chances at securing a spot within the academy. I know the headmaster quite well, I’ll remind you.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of your influence at the academy, friend.” I put my hands on either side of his legs, lifting myself out of the water, placing my knees on either side of him, now staring down at him. I brushed his wet hair to the side, analyzing his skin and moles and amber eyes. My breathing hitched. This was too bold, even for me. I couldn’t focus on either eye, so my vision darted between the two, and the world beyond us became muffled and fuzzy. I leaned backwards on my knees and closed my eyes. “I’m sorry, I-”
He reached forward to cup my face and pulled me back towards him, planting his soft but cold lips upon mine. I put my hands on his face, enveloping his cheeks to help warm him up, and he put his other hand on mine. I pushed away from him slightly. “You’re cold.” I stood up, going to grab my pool bag. “I brought a blanket because of the weather let me-” His hand was still holding mine, not letting me go any farther.
“O-oh sorry.” He let go.
I ran to the bag and flung the blanket out of it, wrapping him up in one swoop, my arm landing gently on his shoulder. “You haven’t changed much since we met here, huh? Still saying you’re sorry? What have I told you?”
He looked away from me, down at the ground. “It’s okay.”
“And guess what?” I put my hand on his cheek, turning him back towards me. “It’s okay.”
And I kissed him again, longer this time, finally drinking in the moment, knowing he was going to be warmer, knowing he was going to be okay. The clouds parted, warming us even more, though my stomach felt warm enough from excitement and satisfaction, finally having given into my feelings for Viktor. I kissed him softly, several more times, before we both laughed under our breath, touching our foreheads together. “Now help me up, please, handsome. I packed warm clothes too.”
“Of course you did.” I rubbed my neck with one hand, while I helped him up with the other. “I forgot extra clothes.”
Viktor rolled his eyes. “You always do. I packed a sweater and pants for you.”
As he walked towards the chairs where we stored our things, the memory was pushed away at the same pace that he walked away from me, back into the inky void of our ethereal arcane existence.
~~~
I shared this story with Viktor, beat by beat, and tears welled in his eyes, a droplet floating off and away from his tear duct and off into the void while I wiped away the other one. “A universe where Zaun and Piltover made amends sooner is the same one in which we met sooner. Wow. And who know you’d be so into swimming?” His trademark smirk grew across his face.
I laughed. “And who knew I’d know exactly what I wanted so soon in my life? I’ve always been assured I’m on the right path, but with you… I was blind to how much you mattered to me. I assumed we were simply partners in hextech, nothing more." I shook my head. "When you were… in the hospital, Mel said I should be with you, seeing me so upset. She helped me realize how much I cared for you as more than just my partner, at least a little bit. I’m sorry.” I looked away from him.
“I think we should take Jayce’s advice from those memories.” He grabbed my wrist and cupped my face, like I had grabbed his in the memory, turning me towards him, and touching our foreheads together. He paused, and softly said, “Know that it’s okay.” He looked up at me and chuckled a little. “We are kind of stuck here now, either way.” He gestured at the space we floated in. “We cannot change the events of the past. We can search our hearts, our feelings, and these strange memories, and come to conclusions about our circumstances here, but that’s the best we can do.” His eyebrows furrowed as he turned back to me, and he sighed, puzzled. “I have a story of my own to share with you. It’s from a world where things were not so easy for us. You were the king of Piltover in an age of stone and iron, and I was on your court as merely a researcher recruited from another kingdom: Zaun. The two were on the brink of war.”
~~~
Fanart inspiring this story comes from @nowwheresmynut on Twitter! A link to the original post is here. Thanks for reading!
