Archive of Our Own

So. They’re floating. 

It worked! Their prototype worked, and the world is alight with blue and everything is buzzing and shining and-

Wait.

Again.

They’re floating! 

Viktor from somewhere close by is downright giggling, and Jayce can’t tell what’s up or down but more than that he can’t feel his face from smiling so hard. 

They can hear Heimerdinger somewhere below, trying to urge them to come down with a desperate attempt at sternness despite the fact that his students are hurling around in midair right now.

Jayce turns himself around to look over at the little anomaly in the middle of the room, the one straight above the crystal that he’d sent a cog through, only for it to disappear and reappear on the other side by Viktor.

He looks at it with open awe, an expression that he can see mirrored in his new partner just a few metres away. It’s the hungry expression of two scientists, fascinated by something unbelievable, unexplainable.

Something that they want to understand. 

Viktor’s eyes are bright, and his brown hair pulls away from his face as it floats, and he looks so gleeful, so different to the fiercely put together, if at times snarky, man he’d partnered with that Jayce is in awe again just looking at him.

Eventually, Heimerdinger warns that he’s going to try and turn off their machine from the ground, if they could just try and reach a wall and pull themselves down. 

Jayce is reluctant to give up flying just yet, but listens dutifully- doing a sort of half aborted attempt at swimming through air like a frog. Air isn’t quite as viscous as water, so it’s very slow going, but he’s doing better than Viktor at least, who’s attempts at reaching a wall have somehow left him spinning in a slow circle in the opposite direction. 

He’s still laughing, despite it, and Jayce laughs along with him, much to Heimerdinger’s chagrin. 

“Just pretend you’re swimming!” Jayce prompts gleefully, despite the fact that his air-swimming looks ridiculous, and he should probably be worrying about how stupid it looks even though, hey it’s kind of working! 

“I’m not a very good swimmer,” says Viktor, now completely upside down. Which is probably code for, ‘I can’t swim’, which Jayce probably could’ve guessed if he wasn’t busy floating in the air by magic. 

Eventually, Viktor figures out that if he kicks off a few of the other objects flying around them with his good leg, he can gain a bit of momentum propelling himself towards the wall. From there, they just grab onto one of Heimerdinger’s many many bookshelves (which are super tall, considering Heimderdinger himself is barely pushing 3’0) and begin ‘climbing’ down-for lack of a better word- like a sort of reverse ladder. 

Once they’re a suitable distance from the ground, Heimderdinger begins trying his best to find a way to disable the prototype, getting a long umbrella from afar and prodding it, with a bright, curious expression, despite his previous anger. 

Whilst they wait, Jayce catches Viktor’s eye from the opposite side of the room, where the other is focusing on keeping a firm grip on the bookshelf so as to not float away again. Both their legs are swinging upwards, and Jayce smiles, and then they’re both laughing like they’re schoolchildren trying to stay quiet in class, and trying their best to muffle it as Mel and Heimderdinger shoot them looks. 

Eventually, something Heimerdinger does works as he shouts, “Cover your eyes!” and they fall to the ground with two twin thumps, both a mess of limbs as various other items fall, including a bunch of broken glass from where the windows had imploded. 

Heimderdinger starts huffing about goggles, and improper amounts of safety procedures, shaking off little bits of glass and tittering over to the table and the crystal.

Jayce and Viktor collect themselves dutifully, but Jayce rushes forward first, eager to see how their prototype has fared, but also carefully trying to make sure Heimderdinger doesn’t confiscate any of it.

Viktor steps forward too, a bit slower, and with an awkward gait. He manages the few steps to the table which he then leans on, and looks over their work too.

“Incredible” he says, like earlier, and Heimerdinger frowns. 

“Viktor!” He exclaims. “What in the world is going on?”

“Viktor’s my new partner” Jayce cuts in, in case the professor hadn’t gotten the memo. “He helped me complete my prototype, in time for the council to review it and reconsider their decision to stop it.”

The professor bristles then, looks over at his old assistant as if waiting for an alternate explanation, when he gets none he steps closer to him, reaching up to grab Viktor’s hand and pulling him aside. 

He leads him all the way to the other side of the room, and despite barely reaching his knees, manages to exude a time-old wisdom as he talks, arching a great bushed brow that dictates the depths of his unhappiness. He’s talking in a rush, and Viktor is responding with quiet surety, voice deep and low enough that Jayce can’t make it out, but shoulders confident and righteous. 

Without context, Jayce wouldn’t have been able to decide who cut the most noble figure- who was in the right amidst their gentle arguing.

Mel saunters over behind him, following his gaze towards the two in turn.

“The professor isn’t very happy with your new partner” she says, in her sharp accent.

“I guess not” he says. He’s not very happy with me either, he doesn’t say. That part’s obvious.

They both step a little bit closer, just near enough that their hushed conversation can be made out pretty reliably.

“With all due respect, professor, I do not have half a millennia of experiences to pull from, but that does not make my experiences any less convincing. This is not a quest for power and greed, but a venture for improvement and progress , is that not what you cultivate here at the academy?” 

“Not like this , Viktor my boy! You don’t understand what you’re playing with- the powers at hand. I’ve seen it before” 

“Professor, it is a scientist’s job to learn to understand! The lives we could touch with these inventions, it- it’s worth the risk. People always need help, the help of the academy, and that is not theoretical danger, that is true. It’s true now!” Viktor pauses then, reading something on Heimerdinger’s face in a split second, maybe seeing a crack, or a slip in the professor’s resolve. “ I value your opinion, and appreciate your guidance, professor, I have no intention of going off the board without your input. I’m sure the council will find great comfort in knowing you will be nearby to safeguard the process as well, sir. You can be involved first-hand.”

“Right.” Says Jayce, stepping into the ring. “We would be honoured if you could be our first breach of contact after any breakthroughs. We’ll move all ideas through you, as a scientist and as head of the council. Hextech won’t touch so much as an open palm without your go-ahead” 

Viktor nods in agreement, but Heimerdinger only sighs wearily, shaking his head as though to dislodge a century old headache. 

“Your hearts are in the right place, boys. Your good intentions, well… let’s hope they can be enough”

And the professor saunters out of the lab then, seemingly unable to look them in the eye as he moves past them. 

Jayce sighs. “He’ll come around” he says, half a wish.

“Yes” says Viktor assuredly. “We will prove it to him. He will see the potential” 

The way Viktor says it makes it seem like it’s just an undeniable truth, rather than just a comfort. It strengthens Jayce’s own resolve, kicks away the last of that hopelessness he’d been drowning in lately.

“Yes.” He agrees, with more heart this time. “He will”

“You boys should go home and rest” says Mel from behind them, eying the carnage left behind by their experiment. “We’ll meet back here first thing tomorrow and sort through your work- brush up on some things, work out a script- before scheduling a new meeting with the council”

She gives them a rueful smile.

“You’ll want to look your best. It helps more than you’d think to clean up pretty” 

She seems to be speaking from experience- and Jayce wonders how much of her carefully applied makeup and gold-white robes are there for that exact reason. She started from abroad, if her accent is any indication, like his mother. Medarda probably had some wide familial connections to get her some ways up, but getting onto the council like she did takes more than just that. 

They agree tentatively before she leaves, offering them one last goodnight with a graceful stride out the door. 

Jayce eyes the mess ruefully, a little bit hesitant to just leave it all here where anyone could walk in and take it- walk in and destroy it. This is his life’s work, finally with life breathed into it, and Heimerdinger’s haunted and furious eyes keep flashing in his head telling him to abandon it. 

“Well, there’s not much we can do now” says Viktor from beside him, “You will need to sleep so you don’t start raving lunacy to the council like you did the first time” 

“I was not raving lunacy!” huffs Jayce.

“Eh, yes- well I knew that, but not everyone’s as lenient with mad-scientist spiel as me”

“Only because you’re one yourself” Jayce walks up to the table then, pries the blue crystal from their machine with a careful twist and turns it over in his hand once, twice and then slots it into his pocket for safe keeping. 

“Don’t trust them?” says Viktor from beside him, with sharp eyes. 

“Just- being cautious of any wandering hands” After all, not even his apartment is safe now. It’s a disconcerting feeling, not knowing who you can trust and who you can’t. Not even his mother had stuck by him, in the end. 

“Yes well. That’s probably sensible” 

Viktor shuffles over to the door then, a harsh limp accenting his movement as he does- a few feet away from the door he crouches down, and picks up his cane. Or- at least, picks up the pieces of his cane.

Snapped clean in two, it wouldn’t help Viktor much now except as fire kindling. 

Jayce steps forward towards it too, eyes widening in abject horror.

“Viktor!” he says, “I’m so sorry! I can replace it”

“No need to be sorry” he replies. “It was my idea to use it to block the door.”

He wipes a hand down the varnished wood of one half, stopping just as it splinters and ends at jagged points. He sighs then, frowns. 

“Do you have another one for now?”

Viktor drops the pieces back onto the floor, unceremoniously and with a harsh clack of wood against marble. 

“An- old one.” he says, absentmindedly. “A bit short for me now- it won’t really do for the long term, but it should be okay for a day or two. I don’t make a habit of buying things when I don’t need them.” 

“Well, you kind of need one now” 

“How astute” Viktor snarks with a roll of his eyes. “Glad to know I have you on my side now to point out such things” 

“What are partners for” says Jayce, with a twist of a smile. 

Viktor looks back at him curiously, smiling too now with an edge of quiet bemusement. It should be weird how easily they click- how seamlessly they work together, how easily they’re interacting already- but then, Jayce has always believed in magic. In fate. 

In the space of a few days, Jayce had lost his apartment, the support of the Kirramans and of his mom, lost almost all of his research and his life’s work, even to an extent his will to keep going, but after all that had- tentatively - gained a new partner. 

And now, all the work he’d been doing tirelessly, pointlessly, for years has finally started to pay off. Because of one person. Viktor.

Determined to pay him back somehow- a debt Jayce suspects Viktor doesn’t even truly know the depth of- Jayce steels himself anew, 

“Let me help you home,” he says. “I’ll even make you a new cane! I’m more of a blacksmith to be honest, but I’ve done my fair share of woodwork” 

“You? Make me a cane?” Viktor turns the idea around confusedly, raises his eyebrows like he doubts Jayce’s even capable. 

“Don’t sound so sceptical. We built something ten times more complicated just this afternoon” 

“I don’t doubt your capabilities, Jayce” assures Viktor. “I’m just surprised you didn’t offer to just, well- buy one” 

“Oh. Well” Jayce stutters. “We can do that instead. I’m sure your cane is made special though, right? Can they make you one on such short notice?” 

“I got my cane from a carpenter in the underground, upon request. I- don’t think I would be in good shape to make the journey tomorrow though”

“And you thought it was a good idea to use your cane in the door then?” Jayce scolds, reminding himself vaguely of his mother.

“Yes, it was rather… short-sighted on my part, wasn’t it? I was maybe a bit too confident in its sturdy make.”

Viktor hums to himself, looking for a second like he’s going to say something, but ultimately doesn’t and takes a timid step forward towards the door. He dips slightly onto his bad leg, but holds steady.

“I-” Jayce stammers, not really sure if Viktor should be doing that. From what he’s seen of the other man, he has a remarkable lack of self-preservation instincts, and that’s coming from Jayce.  “Let me get us a carriage over to your apartment.” 

“Right.” Viktor looks uncomfortable then, scrunches his nose up as he grimaces in a way that Jayce thinks shouldn’t be as endearing as it is. “I-” He starts, accent thickening with apparent frustration. “I might need-” He makes a vague gesture towards Jayce, and then to himself.

Jayce startles then. 

“Oh, yeah! Let- let me-” He steps over to Viktor then, looping a careful arm under his armpit, on the side his cane usually is. “Is- Is this okay?” He says as Viktor swings an arm over to land over his shoulders.

“Yes. This is fine” he says, clipped. They start to walk towards the door, a careful shuffle, Viktor surprisingly sturdy for how thin he is. 

They’re really close now, and Jayce can smell the other man’s shampoo- something fresh and vaguely citrusy.

Viktor had seemed like a very put together character, back when he’d first been looking through his apartment for damning evidence to turn over to the council, and every day since. For someone so strong and elegant, it’s an odd thing to see him need help in this way. 

Or at least, it certainly looks to be bothering Viktor, who doesn’t seem to enjoy the vulnerability.

To help him feel better, Jayce tries to distract them both by talking about their prototype, and the crystals. He praises Viktor’s work, thanks him profusely for his help, and tries his hardest not to focus on the warm firm press of their bodies together.

This is your new partner, Jayce, he thinks to himself, Don’t mess this up with a stupid schoolyard crush.

“You don’t need to keep thanking me” The other is saying, voice close to Jayce’s ear as they lean together down a pair of steps. “In fact, I should probably be thanking you for letting me partner with you. There are few opportunities like this in all of Piltover, especially for someone like me.”

Anyone would be lucky to partner with you, Jayce doesn’t say, in case he’s pushing his luck.

“How long have you been Heimerdinger’s assistant?”

Viktor hums, thinking. “Two years?”

“You must… know him well, then?”

“Yes. He’s been very kind. Very generous for taking me on, some other professors would say, considering I wasn’t even… technically enrolled in the academy when he became aware of me”

“What?” Jayce laughs, “What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s exactly as it sounds. I was never a student at the academy”

“So were you… from a different school or…?”

“No, I-” Viktor huffs from beside him sheepishly. “I may have… bought a uniform and snuck in”

“Snuck in?” Jayce laughs again. “To do what?”

“What do you mean ‘to do what?’ to attend seminars!”

“To attend seminars! Viktor, why didn’t you just apply to the school?!”

But even as he says it, it sounds stupidly ignorant. There’s a very limited number of Zaunite students at the academy- actually, Jayce isn’t sure he could name more than, like, three. He’d never really thought about it, always assumed the undercity had their own academies, or that the people down there didn’t care much about formal education.

Now that he thinks about it, that sounds bad- he’s not gonna say that bit out loud.

They’re almost at the doors of the academy now,

“I have no real formal schooling” says Viktor, graciously, with the patience of someone who’s used to skirting past entitled Pilties toes. “And I couldn’t even get a day pass to try the entrance exam” 

“What? No way! Why?”

“It cost money to cross the bridge, you know, and you need a permit- merchants can usually get by with the excuse of wanting to sell in topside markets- and sure,  there are some Zaunite’s who could get a pass as a student, but the area I’m from, the school got shut because of a roof collapse and some bad pipe work, and the closest school after that was a few miles closer to the Lanes and well- I gave up trying to make that trek everyday, what with my leg. It was- even worse back then, if you can believe it”

“That’s terrible” says Jayce, “And no one rebuilt the school after? You never got to go back there again?” 

“I snuck in and stole all the textbooks I could find- I’m lucky I didn’t get seriously hurt, it really was unstable. After that, I got a few more resources from-” His voice catches then as they push open a door, a little awkwardly as they move together, “From someone I knew.” He finishes, vaguely. “I did what I could then by myself, with scraps and things. My parents would save me money and buy me books too, if they could. They’re the ones who saved up to buy me the uniform, actually. The one I used to sneak in.”

“No way!” Jayce says, “They sound amazing.”

“Yes.” He allows. “They were.”

The use of the past tense stops Jayce short for a second, and he frowns- thankful that Viktor can’t see his face. It’s amazing what Viktor has accomplished with so little. Jayce himself has seen how brilliant the Zaunite is, and knowing now that he’s basically completely self taught? And still so quietly confident and driven, even though he’s only just recently lost his parents? Because, he said so himself- it’s only been two years since being hired by Heimerdinger. 

Jayce would be a mess without his mother, and surely wouldn’t be half as smart without her support too. Jayce wants to ask more, feels silently in awe of one person’s strength and resilience, but knows that they’ve only barely reached passed science partners into friends- and asking probing personal questions about your barely-friend’s dead family and his life growing up in Zaun probably isn’t very appropriate. 

“So this isn’t your first stunt breaking the rules in the name of science, then?” he teases, instead. 

They’re in the open now, having reached the courtyard of the academy, and the wind’s started blowing strongly. Jayce feels a bit dumb for not having gone back for their coats, and is sure that if it weren’t for the fact that he and Viktor are basically cuddling upright, he would be freezing cold already.

“Ehh, not even close” 

He flags down a carriage then, thankful that there even are any this late at night, and aware that they must look like two drunk college guys after a late night bender, and that a lot of people wouldn’t even bother to stop for them.

Finally someone pulls up, clearly ready to end a long night but gracious enough to ask them where they’re headed.

“If it’s a short trip, I’ll take you boys” The driver, an older man with a severe moustache and a friendly gaze, nods towards his horses, “My girls are getting tired, you understand”

“Of course” Viktor allows, “It’s just round the other side of the campus. Should really only be a few minutes.” 

The man is surely confused as to why they can’t just walk the lengthwise of the academy, considering they’re only saving like twenty minutes wasting his time, but he lets them in anyway. 

“Thank you” says Jayce, hovering awkwardly with his hands inches away from Viktor’s hips, unsure how much he should be helping or what.

Viktor doesn’t seem to notice his dilemma, and climbs in- mostly easily- by himself. The carriage ride from there they can sit facing one another, and though there’s a little bit of light teasing the early morning through the window, mostly the inside is dark. 

“I can’t believe it,” he says, with an undisguised excitement. “It worked!” 

“Yes” says Viktor, a smile in his voice. “It did. I knew it would!” 

“I didn’t” Jayce laughs, “You’re brilliant, Viktor” 

There’s a pause then, and Jayce tries to make out whatever expression Viktor is making, but the carriage is too damn dark and he gives up. 

“It was mostly all your work” Viktor says finally, “I just cleaned up a few bits. Nothing you wouldn’t have figured out eventually.”

“No. Without you, I would’ve lost hextech forever. Thank you, Viktor”

Viktor makes a vague, ‘meh’ sound as if to say it’s no big deal, but it more than is a big deal. More than anything it is. 

They finally reach the apartments, a bunch of blocky student accommodation buildings with pretentious statues everywhere of Piltover’s founders. Jayce even wanders by one of Caitlyn’s mom, which he finds endlessly hilarious. 

Viktor’s apartment is up a flight of stairs, which seems really really unfair, considering, but Viktor doesn’t mention it so neither does Jayce. 

As they approach the door, Viktor unhooks his arm from around Jayce’s shoulder to get his keys, muttering quietly to himself as he does so. Which is vaguely adorable. 

He slots it in, but before he turns it he looks over at Jayce with an unreadable expression.

“Would you like to come… in?” He says, with the air of someone who’s never invited anyone into their apartment before. “I can offer you coffee, or tea or?”

If this is Viktor’s weird and misguided attempt at trying to say thank you, he really doesn’t have to. But then, it’s quite cold out right now, and Jayce left his coat behind, so it would be nice to chase some of the chill away and wait for the morning taxis to start coming in before he leaves. 

Viktor looks on expectantly, and Jayce realises he’s waiting for an answer.

“Oh! Um! Yeah, coffee… would be good?” 

The student accommodation Viktor’s staying at seems better suited as a broom cupboard than an apartment. 

There’s a very cramped arrangement of furniture; a bed beside a little table covered in notes and research papers, and then -barely a step away-, a small sofa and a coffee table covered in notes and tables, and a little opening of what could be generously called open space with a chalk covered blackboard and a floor covered in notes and research papers, and well- you get the idea. 

The only place not completely cluttered with paper is the small strip of kitchen on the far left side of the room, miraculously tidy for all that it’s tiny. 

“Ever tried to cook around your notes?” says Viktor ryly, already behind the sink and rinsing out two cups from the cupboard. “Eh… is not a good idea” 

“Is this all the accommodation the academy gives you? It’s on the first floor!” questions Jayce, indignant “Does Heimerdinger know?”

“Heimderdinger has no hand in academy housing”

“That’s bullshit! Of course he does, he owns it!”

“Well” Viktor smiles, quietly amused. “That might be true. I’m sure he’d have found something bigger, if I’d asked. But, I never brought the issue up to him” 

“Why not?”

“Hmm” Viktor places a kettle onto the stove and turns on the gas. “I don’t need it” 

“Why not?”

“Eh, seems like a waste. There’s only one of me, I don’t need anything bigger.”

“Viktor, the ceiling is leaking.” 

Viktor cranes his neck up to regard the leak in the corner- the bucket haphazardly placed below it just bordering on full.

“At least it’s only water. Nothing toxic.”

“How is that what you’re focussing on right now?”

Viktor chuckles then, like he’s said something funny. 

“What? You have never had a leak in your house before?”

“Maybe in our first apartment -me and my mom- when I was really young” Jayce allows, “Before we moved further into the city.”

Viktor makes a little hum sound, but doesn’t say much more.

“She’s always been super prideful about where we live.” He continues. “Not like- in a snobby way, but she says pride in where you live is the first step to living with dignity”

And she’s always said that dignity is the last thing you should take from a person. Without it, you don’t even feel human. 

Ironically, Viktor is probably the most quietly dignified person he’s ever met, and yet his apartment is a tiny, leaky mess. There’s just something about the way he carries himself, like he’s daring anyone to judge him, like he knows something you don’t, but is nice enough not to hold it against you. 

Even now as he peters around the kitchen, he looks so sure of himself. Jayce can hardly look away.

For an apartment with so little space, there’s seats and stools placed everywhere strategically. Viktor seems to use them to rest his leg between movements, sitting down to steep the tea, spinning off them to inch towards the percolator. It’s all a very practiced dance, and Jayce realises he still doesn’t have his cane. He was meant to have a spare here somewhere- an old one. 

He considers bringing it up, but something tells him not to. Viktor definitely hasn’t forgotten- how could he?- so Jayce wouldn’t be saying anything he’s not already aware of. 

Should he be using his leg like this? Is it safe? Is it rude to ask? The last thing he wants is to come off condescending, but then a voice vaguely like his mother is telling him to ask Viktor to sit down so he can help. But then, something tells him that wouldn’t go down so well.

“Thank you for your help” says Viktor after a time, placing the cup of coffee on the table beside where Jayce’ sitting, right on top of a stack of papers. “It would probably have been a very long and unpleasant end of the night without your help”

“You only needed the help because of me. Breaking your cane to test out a prototype that had never worked before, at the risk of literally… everything! ” exclaims Jayce, “I’d call you crazy if I wasn’t so grateful. And I owe you more. Honest. I don’t know how many times I need to say it.” 

Viktor looks at him really curiously, sits closeby with the tea in his hand. 

“Wasn’t so big a risk” he sniffs finally. “I trust my math.”

Jayce laughs. “For a second in there, you didn’t look so sure” 

“I was only catching onto the wafting nerves coming off you, you were shaking like a bunny.” 

“Hey! That was my life’s work that was on the line!” 

“So? First rule if we are to be actual partners, you need to learn to trust my calculations” 

“And you called me egotistical? Ever heard of humility?”

Viktor takes a long pointed sip of his drink with an obnoxious slurp. He holds eye contact all the while, and Jayce catches himself before his face decides to do something completely mortifying like go red.

“Being humble is a luxury for someone who is not me. Maybe for you, it comes easy. You are handsome, charming, well-off and from Piltover. People tend to assume the best, and push nothing but great expectations onto you.” says Viktor. 

Jayce’s brain tries to shut off somewhere around the words ‘handsome’ and ‘charming’, but he shakes the feeling away with an embarrassing amount of force.

“No one will ever assume better of me than what I tell them.” Viktor is saying, “Everyone is already assuming within five seconds of seeing me, and even less time talking with me, that I am at a disadvantage. Heimderdinger’s pity project, there for decoration so that they feel they’ve done their duty helping up the ugly side of the city they usually ignore.” 

He puts his mug down pointedly, with a firm clunk onto the table.

“If I am humble, they will take me putting down my achievements at face value. They won’t assume I am being modest, they will find it easier and neater to pin my feats on someone easier to believe. Someone from Piltover, raised and taught in their own cocoon of progress. Like you, maybe”

Jayce doesn’t pretend to understand what that feels like; had never really thought about it. He has the strange urge to argue, can’t help ruffling his feathers at the implication that he’s won favour through anything but his own skills. But then, he knows how the Kirramans are about people from the undercity, knows the kind of careless stereotypes they throw around. The truth is Counselor Kirraman probably wouldn’t have championed him the same way she had if he was a Zaunite, hell he probably wouldn’t have ever had the opportunity to meet her. The money she invested in him, the funds he used to fund his Hextech without telling anyone, it would all have been completely inaccessible. But she’s old school, surely. One among many. 

Surely there weren’t that many people at the academy, around Councilor Heimderdinger’s circles, that held similar reservations? In a city full of self-proclaimed scholars and free-thinkers, it’s baffling to him that they could look at Viktor and see anything but his clever eyes, and his long, deft, confident fingers as he writes on a blackboard. 

He’s not a street-thug, or an addict or an invalid- he wears neat ironed clothes, has softly combed hair and makes snippy, sharp comments even through his accent. 

 It took Jayce just a couple of moments talking to him, of really talking to him, on the rubbled edge of his blown-up apartment to see all that. 

“Why are you working with me then?” Jayce asks, before he can really catch up with the question, “If… you think they’ll brush over you in favour of me” 

Viktor wrinkles his nose. 

“Because,” he gripes. “I don’t need them to believe me to know what I am. I only wish to be taken seriously as far as I need to complete my work. No one gives you grants for research if they don’t respect or believe you worthy, no one gives you lab space or resources. With Hextech, with the support we will get from the councilor tomorrow, I won’t need to push my way into the conversation. Hextech will already be there, whether they acknowledge that we are both behind it or not.”

Jayce contemplates that for a second. 

“I won’t let them,” he says, assuredly, and he hopes he can convey at least half of the conviction he feels. “I won’t let them ignore you.”

“That is a tall order” says Viktor, but there is something light and wondrous in his eyes, the same kind of look he had when they were floating. “In my experience, Piltover does not like being told what to do.”

“Fuck Piltover!” he says. “We’re partners. We’re equal.” 

“Well.” Viktor smiles around the rim of his tea. “Yes.” 

“I know you think I was being egotistical,” Jayce begins, picking up his coffee all the while to nurse in his hands, having almost forgotten it. “But it’s good practice in research notes to sign every page. It’s to avoid plagiarism, and so academics can know exactly what’s yours. If we’re going to work together, and to make it obvious to anyone in the future that we’re partners , we should be signing your name everywhere too.”

“Don’t rope me into your hubris”

“I thought we just established the fact that you can’t afford humility?”

“Being humble and being ego-centric are not the only two options”

“I’m serious!” Jayce sits up straighter, indignant and filled with righteous fury. “I’m not gonna let them look through you. Your name is going on everything.”

“I somehow doubt I am the only Viktor around.” 

“Well, what’s your second name?” Jayce leans forward. “Sorry, I never thought to ask. Or well- I did, but it never seemed like the right time.” 

“I- don’t have one,” Viktor admits.

“What? How? Is that-” he hesitates. “Is that a Zaunite thing?”

Viktor shrugs, frowns a little bit.

“It is not common in the undercity, as far as I know. Though, not unheard of. But family names do not hold a lot of power back home, the way that they seem to topside. My parents are not anyone worth mentioning, by your people’s standards, and I don’t have a name anyway to show them off with.”

“But, how are you signed into the academy? You need a name to put into paperwork, don’t you?”

“I was never enrolled, remember? When Heimderdinger hired me, he had someone else take care of that side of things. They very well might have made one up for me- I know a few Zaunites who have done that before, to join the academy. But if they did, I don’t know what name they chose. I never bothered to check.”

How many Zaunites’ work has been stolen or looked over on account of this? How much innovation hasn’t been properly attributed, because no one taught Zaunites to sign their work in a way that can lead back to them? To make proof that they existed?

“We need to check,” says Jayce, baffled by his partner’s lapse in judgement. “Tomorrow, the first thing we do when we get back to Heimderdinger’s office is check. Before the counselor meeting.” 

Viktor nods then, a little bit subdued. He’s looking over at Jayce with that same curiosity as before, like he’s trying to figure out a difficult puzzle. 

“If there’s no name,” Jayce continues, trying to ignore the look. “We’ll just have to pick one for you.”

He almost, for a second, wants to offer the name ‘Talis’. It would definitely help in some circles- it’s at least a semi-respected house, and recognisable enough. It would give Viktor a slightly better edge, a leg up where he’s been forced to drag himself up from the worst odds. But then, he probably wouldn’t want that. 

And it would probably raise a lot of difficult to answer questions too, even if it would make Jayce happy to help Viktor in any way. 

Would his mother have allowed it?

He’s never thought to ask about her opinion on the undercity, and his mother has never felt the need to offer it. Him and Viktor are gonna be spending a lot of time together now, it would make sense to introduce them, right?

But he feels weirdly protective of Viktor now- or at least, of what people think of Viktor. If what he says is true, and people judge him so easily for his disability, for his thick undercity accent, he doesn’t want his mother to be one of them. 

And, in that same breath, he doesn’t want Viktor to think his mother to be just another topsider, looking down on him, when she’s been his rock for as long as he can remember.

He puts his coffee down on the table, noticing just then the ring of a coffee stain on the paper highest on the stack.

“Aren’t those important?” he asks, feeling a little bit guilty. Viktor follows his gaze, and he rolls his eyes, hard.

“Hardly. I mark some of the work for Heimderdinger’s students. It’s part of my job as his assistant.”

“ Ex- assistant” stresses Jayce.

Viktor smiles a little bit. “ Ex- assistant. They are all painfully dull. It has always felt like a tremendous waste of time.” He tilts his head to the side then, hums a little in contemplation. “It’s a shame I never got to mark any of your work. You’re one of Heimerdinger’s students, no? Would’ve made a nice change, to read something with substance.”

“Well.” Jayce grimaces. “I’m glad you never had to, actually. I’ve been neglecting my work at the academy, in favour of hextech. To be honest, if I’d kept it a secret for much longer, I was sure I’d end up expelled soon.”

“Ah. No.” Viktor shakes his head.

“No?”

“No.” He sniffs. “Heimerdinger only ever keeps his most promising students work to mark personally. It was a point of contention between us, as far as you can really argue with the professor, but since I’d never even come across your name before being sent to your apartment, that means he’d been personally overlooking your assignments.”

Viktor gives Jayce a look then, one that could be mistaken for judgemental, but that’s maybe just gently scolding.

“Even if your marks were dropping, Heimerdinger still thought you were worth your weight. He’s a hard man to impress, and he doesn’t waste energy on students he doesn’t genuinely believe are brilliant.”

Jayce smiles then, a little sheepishly. 

“Thanks, Viktor” 

Viktor’s eyes seem to flit down to his grin then, then back up to his eyes, and his no-nonsense expression melts into something a bit softer. 

“Humility does not suit you any more than it suits me,” he says after a second, rolling his eyes again. 

“I can sell it, if it needs selling” 

“Yes, I have seen that Mr It-Was-Revolutionary”

“Oh, God” Jayce wipes a hand down his face. “You saw that?”

“Yes” Viktor agrees gravely. “I was very moved.”

“Urgh, the council already thinks I’m an idiot. My mother practically called me an invalid in front of them.” 

Viktor tilts his head in contemplation then, makes a little ‘hmm’ sound. 

“Yes, they might have some preconceived notions about you, but I think the science will speak for itself. It seems you already have one councilor right in your pocket, anyhow”

“Who? Councilor Medarda?

Viktor shrugs a yes. 

“I barely know her”

“From where I was standing she seemed very… interested.” 

Jayce ignores the implication, not really sure what to do with that comment right now. He moves on instead to other things.

“Well. Speaking of Mel, she made a good point about us getting a good rest. It’s a big day tomorrow.”

“ Eh ” Viktor makes a vague sound of disagreement. 

“What do you mean eh ?”

“I don’t think I will be sleeping.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Viktor smiles a little deviously, which does something really embarrassing to Jayce, before somehow procuring something from behind his back. It’s Jayce’s notebook. He’s always got that damn thing, somehow.

“Where the hell were you keeping that?”

“Not important” he dismisses, passing it over to Jayce. They’d since updated his notes, a few more pages messily scrawled with corrections that look vaguely nonsensical. 

“What do you want me to do with this right now?”

“You’re telling me that after we cracked the crystals, somehow managed to fly, you’re going to be able to sleep without trying to find out why?” 

“Well… I…” Jayce pauses. Thinks about his life work, how many nights he’s spent pouring over it. It’s true, how can he take a break now with the biggest breakthrough in years hanging above his head? 

“You’re right”

Viktor makes a little “ha!” sound, and gets up. He heads over to his bed then, struggles onto his knees to pull something out from under it. Jayce resists the urge to help him, only watches on curiously as he finally manages to get a hold of, and drag out, an older, less sleek cane. 

“For a long evening, yes?” 

Now that he’s standing upright, it’s clear that the cane is a few inches shorter than his other one. He leans against it more awkwardly, puts tension in his back. Jayce hadn’t seen him lean so much on his other cane, but then, maybe the hours he’s spent without it have caught up. 

“I’m gonna make you another one tomorrow. First thing.” says Jayce, as they head over to the blackboard. They have a workshop in the academy that would have everything they need, and Jayce has a set of his family’s best tools hidden in one of the nearby classrooms. It should be simple and quick, considering. 

Jayce might be more confident with metal work, but Viktor said it himself he’s brilliant, and he can whip up a properly weighted, kick-ass cane in no time. He’ll need an hour or two tops. They can head back to the academy as soon as it opens.. 

Whatever’s on the board must not be that important, because Viktor props the cane against it and erases the whole thing. 

“So, which one's happening first?” He teases, chalk in hand and absentmindedly noting things down. “The name or the cane?” 

“The cane.” Says Jayce determinedly, “Then we’ll go back to Heimderdinger’s lab and talk to Mel” 

Viktor hums.

From there they fall into an easy rhythm, just as they did the first time around. They shoot ideas back and forth, compare what went right, and then what went wrong. They run calculations like a well oiled machine, and all the while keep a friendly, seamless chatter of science. 

Viktor, Jayce discovers, is a messy note taker, and Jayce spends a good chunk of time formatting what he writes into something a bit easier to revisit. He doesn’t mind it, funnily enough, and in fact he finds it helps him think things through a bit more thoroughly- he’d even caught one or two mistakes they’d made in their admittedly sleep-deprived delirium. 

He’s never had a partner that could keep up with him, but now he has someone who he not only doesn’t have to guide through his math and theories, but who adds to his work, enhances it. There’s a buzz about working with Viktor, one that he knows is mutual if Viktor’s bright eyes and terrible jokes have anything to say about it. 

They eventually move on to Viktor’s desk, after their exhaustion catches up, and Viktor’s bad leg starts to shake even with the help of his slightly-short cane. Jayce thinks he’ll never find it in himself to sleep, but then one minute he’s taking notes on oscillating rune patterns, and the next he’s squinting awake to the beams of sunlight moving through Viktor’s apartment, a loose page stuck on his cheek as he lifts his head of the desk.

He makes an embarrassing noise as he cracks his neck and is ready to apologise for falling asleep, but when he looks forward to the space opposite him, he sees Viktor in much the same position as him a few seconds ago, head down and eyes blessedly closed. 

His breathing is shallow, and his mouth is slightly open and he looks ethereal somehow. Is that a weird thing to think about a near-stranger-turned-partner-slash-friend? Maybe. 

But yet, he can’t find a different word to describe the gentle way the sunlight dances across the bridge of Viktor’s nose and cheek, his short hair slightly splayed over his crossed arms as he lays against them. 

Jayce is no stranger to crushes; he can be won over easily by the right charm, the right look on the face of the right person. Viktor is undoubtedly handsome, and has the right charm, and gives the right looks- and yet. 

He’s never worked better with anyone in his life. He can’t risk hextech over a bit of harmless attraction, when he knows now that he needs Viktor to make his dream a reality. Their dream now. 

Jayce’s usually a say-something-now-deal-with-the-consequences-slash-rewards later kinda guy, but this is too important to risk over dumb messy dating stuff. Besides, the crush will pass. It always does. 

Newly renewed, Jayce sits up straighter and cracks his back. Sleeping in a chair is never a good idea. 

He checks his watch then, but it’s still too early to head to the academy, even despite the sunlight. Viktor from beside him makes a little sound, a raspy ‘hmm’, grimacing as he reshifts his head against his forearms, still dead asleep.

Sleeping hunched over is torture, Jayce knows that. He also knows Viktor seems to be terrible at self-preservation, and that there’s a makeshift back brace beside his bed which means he must have spinal issues too. Is he meant to wear it when he sleeps? Now he wishes he had asked all the probing, personal questions he’d felt too shy to yesterday. 

He can at least move the other man onto his bed, right? Is he allowed to do that?

The idea of Viktor waking up somewhere he didn’t fall asleep and getting upset presents itself to Jayce. Would he feel like Jayce insulted him? His dignity? Would this be crossing some kind of line?

Viktor makes another noise of discomfort, and Jayce’s mind is made up scarily quick. If Viktor does get upset, Jayce will just apologise, and he’ll know then for the future not to attempt anything like this again.

For now he circles the width of the desk, careful not to bump his hip on all the furniture nearby- since this really is a small apartment- and pulls Viktor’s chair out as gently as he can. 

He catches him by the chest, and then pushes him back so he can hook an arm under his legs and carry him, bridal style, towards his bed. He’s heavier than he looks, but then Jayce has years of work in the forge under his belt and carries him easily. 

Placing him down as softly as he can manage, Jayce draws the line at pulling the covers over him. Best not to push his luck. Already though, Viktor’s face has relaxed and the noises have stopped. 

Hopefully a bit more sleep in a proper bed will diminish the damage already done- the damage Jayce is feeling right now as he sleepily heads back over to the desk to pour over whatever they’d managed last night.

He feels a bit awkward using Viktor’s kitchen, and he’s not going to leave in case the other wakes up whilst he’s gone, so all he really has left to do is this. He recognises Viktor’s handwriting quickly, this must be what he’d continued on after Jayce fell asleep. 

He’d written down a series of long equations and made vague, too sparse notes which seem unlike him- probably for Jayce’s benefit. Something about it makes him smile, and he goes to turn the page when he remembers to check something suddenly, but when he scans the page carefully, he doesn’t see it, even now. Viktor hasn’t signed the page. 

In fact, if he goes back through what they’d done, he’s never seen Viktor sign well, a thing. Not as ‘Viktor’, not even as ‘V’, nothing. Once they find him a full name, he’s gonna have to drill this bit into his partner.

It may not seem right, but it stands to reason that jealous, glory-oriented rivals would try and steal their work, and whether it seems egotistical or not, signing their work is an easy safeguard for the future. 

For now, he writes a looped, neat Viktor at the bottom of the page for him. And then, just because he can, he goes back on every other page they’d done last night and adds his name there too. 

And then, for good measure he opens up his notebook and goes through every page they’d edited or poured over together.

On each one, right next to his own neatly printed name Jayce Talis, he inks in Viktor’s above it. Every one. 

Until they all read, Viktor And Jayce Talis . 

Viktor And Jayce Talis

Viktor And Jayce Talis

And something about it feels right.