Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was not often that Viktor found himself in Zaun these days, but today, he was in the midst of the markets looking for a gift for Jayce. It was nearing the first anniversary of their partnership, after all. Maybe he would find a book on magic or folklore from one of its many pawnshops, or perhaps another rock for his partner’s collection, if nothing else. Though Jayce learned at a young age that few stones held the same magic the runestone in his bracer did, geology was still something that fascinated him, and he had said as much to Viktor. So, yes, rocks were a solid choice as far as gifts for Jayce went.

They were at an impasse with Hextech at the moment, equations and experiments all failing and leading to dead ends. Viktor figured that a gift may cheer his partner up at the very least, if not give him an inspired solution to their problems.

The day was warm, and it would be sunny, were he in Piltover and not Zaun. Viktor took a deep breath and regretted it as soon as he felt the pungent air enter his lungs.

“Well hello there, handsome,” purred a sudden voice from Viktor’s left, making him stiffen in surprise. Peeking out from the door of a shabby shop was an individual, certainly older than Viktor himself, though exactly how old Viktor could not place. They had black and white skunk-striped hair, making it hard to tell which was their natural color, and they wore dark makeup, giving their features a certain sharpness. “Care to browse my wares?”

Viktor glanced up at the name of the shop they’d exited to determine if he would just ignore them entirely or not. Hand painted in a font just as slanted as the person’s eyeliner, the sign read “Cat’s Third Eye Lapidary.”

Well. Lo and behold, it was a rock shop.

“Come in, come in,” they (presumably the owner of the establishment) urged, beckoning with a manicured hand and a held-open door.

Now that amount of friendliness couldn’t be more suspicious if they tried. Viktor turned to keep walking… but then he caught sight of the various gemstones in the shop’s window, eclectic and unique things he’d never find elsewhere, or perhaps ever again.

Well… it couldn’t hurt to just take a look, he supposed. Moreover, his money was tucked safely in the hidden compartment of his cane, so it was not like they could pickpocket him without a very rousing amount of suspicion.

And, well. For better or worse, impulsivity was one of Viktor’s vices.

Viktor followed them inside, the merchant’s skirts trailing behind them.

Upon entering, Viktor was immediately assaulted by fake eyes staring at him from all angles. On every wall and most of the available flat surfaces was cat-themed paraphernalia— statuettes, clocks, paintings, the works. Were it not for the shelves and tables of gems throughout the store, Viktor would think he’d walked through the wrong door. The part of him that found cats to be cute was a tiny bit endeared, but a much, much larger part of him was unnerved.

“I see you have a theme going on,” Viktor said to make polite conversation, glancing around at the glittering gemstones and trying very hard to ignore the eyes assaulting him from all angles.

“Who doesn’t love cats?” the merchant said with an odd smile. “And speaking of love…” they continued, prowling around Viktor like he was a mouse caught in the corner, “I can sense on you that you have a lot of it, for someone in particular. Buying a gift for him, hm?”

Viktor nearly scoffed, but held back, not wanting to be rude outright. What kind of marketing ploy was this?

“Mmhm, yes, I see him now. Hazel eyes, dark hair, with a brilliant mind. Handsome, too,” they continued, circling around him, their eyes boring into him just as the ones on the walls did. “Ring any bells, kitten?”

Viktor flushed pink. Well, that certainly was a lucky guess. Coincidence, nothing more. (The scientific part of his brain commented on the low statistical probability of them guessing Jayce’s eye color, hair color, and gender all correctly without something else being at play. Another part of his brain reminded him that he worked to harness magic on the daily, so someone with some kind of apparent psychic powers wasn’t really out of the question. He swept away both thoughts with the broom he’d conveniently just imagined.)

“You will win your man’s heart soon, I know it. Or, better yet, you will learn how you have already won it,” they said with certainty, brushing a hand on his shoulder. The touch made his hair stand on end— not in fear, but as if they held a static charge in their fingertips.

Viktor actually did scoff this time. “He does not see me that way, I can assure you.” Besides that, he was fairly sure that Jayce did not swing his way. And besides that, there was the fact that Viktor was… well, Viktor. The Zaunite with a prodigious brain, a bum leg, and not very much else going for him. Jayce was far out of his league. It was honor enough to be his partner and friend, and he would not delude himself into hoping there could be more. “But thank you for your time,” Viktor said, slowly stepping backwards towards the door.

The merchant just smiled at him again, much like they were in on a joke Viktor was not privy to. They walked to the inside of their display window, grabbing a stone seemingly at random.

They walked back and held it out in their hand for Viktor to see. It was ovular in shape and gold in hue, with a luminous band through the middle where the light hit it.

“Chatoyancy,” Viktor said in recognition as it was passed into his hand, rotating it back and forth to see the effect for himself. The stone almost seemed to shift in color from a deep honey to a light green as he turned it. It was nearly the color of Jayce’s eyes, Viktor couldn’t help but notice.

“Cat’s eye,” the owner corrected with a wink and that same knowing smirk.

Viktor, suddenly eager to leave the shop and Zaun in general, purchased the gem— a fair price, really, though he supposed he wouldn’t deign to know the running price of rocks lately. He should have left the shop then and quit while he was ahead, but a question was burning in the forefront of his mind.

“How did you know of my… of him?” Viktor asked.

“Careful, now. You know what they say about curiosity and cats, kitten,” they said, and there was that absurd term of endearment again. “I could smell it on you a mile away, your yearning. You really ought to do something about it. Maybe I’ve given you just the push you needed to do so, hm?”

Viktor just nodded at that non-answer and left very soon after, feeling… overly exposed, like a fruit peeled open and just waiting to be eaten. He did not let this weakness show on his face as he made the trek back to Piltover, to the safety and privacy of his apartment.

Once home, Viktor threw the gemstone in his nightstand drawer until he worked up the bravery to present it to Jayce. With it, he left a hastily scribbled note that read: “To my partner, Jayce— thank you for everything.”

God, that was far too sentimental, too personal, too revealing. It was just a first draft, then— he’d rewrite it later, he was sure.

—

Viktor struggled to fall asleep that night, tossing and turning. For once, it was not his back or leg that was the issue, but the heat. It wasn’t even hot outside that day, even less so now due to the cool nighttime air. Yet, inexplicably, Viktor felt suffocated by the temperature. He threw the blankets off of him, followed by his clothes. It was only then that he fell into a fitful sleep.

—

His awakening was not much more pleasant than his send off. In fact, it was worse. Sensations that were normally dulled in the background for him— the faint smell of his neighbor’s cooking, the rush of water through the building’s pipes, even just the warmth of the sun peeking through his curtains— felt amplified.

He let out a groan of annoyance… or at least, he intended to. He couldn’t put a name to the sound that came out instead; it was something not unlike a yowl, and very much not a sound a human should be able to make.

Viktor was quite aware of his body at all times, well-acquainted with all of his aches and pains. As the remnants of sleep shook off of his brain then, he became all too conscious of his body as it was now.

He felt horribly small, and wrong, and he swore he could feel the soft weight of what could only be fur across his skin. His legs bent in an entirely unfamiliar way. Worst of all, he could feel a limb he certainly didn’t possess yesterday flick back and forth at the base of his spine.

What… just, what?

He blinked his eyes open and looked down at where his hands should be, with his now horribly light-sensitive eyes, and found paws instead.

Paws? Paws?!

He yelled in alarm. Or, well, yowled, like a cat. Because, somehow, Viktor was a fucking cat.

—

Viktor would never admit the amount of time it took for him to crawl out from under his sheets and begin investigating his newfound circumstances. That entire morning was spent learning and practicing every variant of displeased noise he could now make, including yowling, growling, and the occasional hiss. Though no amount of noises made him feel better about this situation, really.

An unspoken number of minutes later, he took wobbly steps out from his hiding place and faced the world again.

He found his back right leg to be painful to put weight on for longer periods of time, which was familiar to him, but that three legs were completely adequate to navigate with once he got the hang of it. He also quickly figured out that the floor appeared to be much further away from the edge of his bed when he was now less than a foot tall.

Viktor did not face plant when he jumped down from the bed, but only just so.

His next order of business was making his way over to the full-length mirror that leaned on his wall. He was not a vain or preening man— unlike a certain incorrigibly handsome fellow he knew— but even he needed to own a full mirror to double check an outfit in its entirety every once in a while.

Viktor looked into the mirror, and… well, he had hoped somehow to be proven wrong, but he really was, disconcertingly, an actual cat.

His fur was overall a creamy tone, although his nose and mouth looked as if they had been dipped in chocolate, or perhaps lightly toasted. That same light brown color was on his oversized ears, his paws— he really had paws— and the tip of his tail— and he had a fucking tail.

By all scientific accounts, this should not be possible. Then again, as he’d learned over this past year of researching Hextech, science did not often account for the existence of magic.

Viktor did not have to think very hard about how this happened to him; the strange encounter with the cat-fancying shop owner in Zaun had been earmarked as the cause since he’d first woken up that morning. Still, he struggled to see the possible motive behind this, the why. They had said, what, that they had given him a push? Even if he had a chance in hell with Jayce to begin with, how exactly was he to woo Jayce in the form of a four-legged animal?

Viktor felt a pang of hunger in his stomach. Oh, god. How was he going to get food and water?

His prayers were answered by a knock on the door, causing his ears to perk up. “Viktor? Are you home?” called the voice of his partner.

—

In the past year of their partnership, Jayce could count the number of times Viktor was absent in the lab on one hand, and each of those times was due to an unexpected cold or a horribly bad leg day leaving him bedridden. Eventually, Jayce had badgered his partner into giving him a key to his apartment for such emergencies. Viktor had scoffed then— “What, so you can be the one to discover my dead body?”

Jayce did end up in possession of his partner’s spare key, though, in the end. Part of his heart warmed at the physical evidence of Viktor’s trust in him, while another part dreaded the idea of disturbing the other man’s privacy, and a third part was horribly afraid that he really would end up using the key to find Viktor’s dead body in his bed. (A secret fourth part of his heart hoped to find Viktor’s body in his bed, but in a much more salacious way, and he tamped that thought down immediately.)

Standing at Viktor’s front door, met with no response after knocking a second time, he elected to use the key entrusted to him, hoping against hope that Viktor had simply just overslept.

Jayce shut and locked the door behind him, then spent a moment taking in the interior of Viktor’s apartment. He’d never actually been inside, after all, only so far as the front door when he walked Viktor home on a few slippery winter nights.

The interior was very… Viktor-esque.

Simple, but by no means minimalistic. A lamp and a cozy chair in the corner for reading, the upholstery a rich emerald green, a throw blanket atop it. The kitchen in the corner was sparse but tidy, dishes left out to dry and not put away yet. Several bookshelves lined the walls. Handfuls of books were missing, though, and Jayce realized with a flutter of his heart that, gradually over the past several months, parts of Viktor’s collection must have migrated from his home to the shelves in their shared lab.

“Viktor?” Jayce called out.

In response, Jayce heard— well, wait, that couldn’t possibly be right. He thought he’d heard a meow just then, but Viktor didn’t own a cat. Surely he’d know if Viktor owned a cat, right? Viktor was his closest friend, and he’d like to think he was Viktor’s too, after all.

“Viktor, are you home?” Jayce tried again. And— well, he couldn’t deny it this time, that was definitely a cat meowing.

Sure enough, rounding the corner of Viktor’s bedroom was a small cat with oversized ears, beige and brown in color. Jayce noted that it seemed to favor three legs instead of four as it came bounding up to him.

Jayce also noted that it was so fucking cute.

It was meowing up a storm the whole way over to Jayce, like it had very important things to say that simply had to be heard, which was terribly endearing.

He crouched down instinctively, and the cat rested its front paws on his leg, propping itself up to get closer to face-to-face with Jayce. It kept meowing, and Jayce cooed.

“Hi kitty,” he said, scratching under the cat’s chin and across its neck. That shut the cat up in an instant, its eyes widening. “You are so cute. So cute. Has anyone ever told you that?” The kitty cat’s mouth dropped open, just a little, like it was surprised to hear about how adorable it was.

It was a little known fact, but Jayce was an animal guy, always dreaming of owning a cat or dog ever since he was a child. His mom was horribly allergic, and they weren’t exactly compliant to lab safety guidelines, so he’d never gotten around to adopting one. Still, when he was in the presence of animals, he couldn’t help but fuss over them and flood them with pets, his brain becoming mush at how damn cute they were.

“Is Viktor home, kitty? I didn’t know he owned a cat,” Jayce asked the creature. It snapped out of its scratch-induced stupor and yowled loudly at that, batting Jayce’s hand away.

“Okay, okay, it’s okay, kitty, I’m gonna go check on him,” Jayce said, standing back up.

The cat stood on its hind legs (well, leg, with most of its weight on just the left one) and pawed at Jayce’s pants, meowing mournfully.

“Do you want up? You can come up. Here,” and Jayce grabbed the cat from underneath its outstretched arms, settling it against his chest like a baby.

The cat seemed shocked, just lying limply in his arms and looking up at him. Its gold-yellow eyes blinked at him a few times.

Jayce smiled at the bundle of fur in his arms. Cat secured, he made his way to the door of Viktor’s bedroom.

“Vik? You in there?”

Viktor was not, in fact, in there. The bed was empty and unmade, sleep clothes strewn about on the floor. Jayce frowned. He checked the bathroom as well, seeing nothing abnormal, no lab partner passed out (or worse) in the bathtub.

“Would it be stupid of me to check if he’s hiding in his closet?” Jayce asked the cat, who chirruped at him in response. “Yeah, I thought so too. Guess he isn’t home.”

The cat then wiggled out of his arms, landing less-than-gracefully before recovering, and made its way back to Viktor’s bedroom. It turned back and looked up at Jayce, as if to make sure he was following along.

It then reached up and batted a paw at a metallic something-or-other on Viktor’s nightstand, which Jayce hadn’t picked up on his first cursory look into the room— Viktor’s key ring.

“He… left his keys here,” Jayce said slowly. The cat meowed at him and tapped them again, insistent. “No, kitty, you can’t play with those,” he chided with little heat, scooping up the keys and slipping them into his own pocket.

The cat scrunched up its nose, then made its way over to the far side of the bed. Jayce, curiously, followed it. He hadn’t checked there in his initial search, too preoccupied with finding Viktor. His partner hadn’t fallen out of bed and fainted, had he?!

No, he hadn’t, but what Jayce saw was arguably worse.

Viktor left his cane and leg brace here, just lying on the floor.

Jayce came to the only sound conclusion he could possibly make.

“Viktor’s been kidnapped.”

—

“What? No! I’m right here!” Viktor tried to say, but it came out as a couple of long and agitated meows.

“Fuck,” Jayce said, sitting down on the bed and burying his head in his hands.

Oh. Viktor stopped talking, then. The idea of himself being kidnapped, being harmed, was… really affecting Jayce, wasn’t it?

Whenever Jayce was upset or frustrated by something in the lab, Viktor would normally offer a hesitant and gentle hand on his back, not familiar enough with social boundaries and physical affection to do any more than that.

Now, he had a distinct lack of hands. What could he do?

Viktor hopped up on the bed to get a better look at Jayce, and by “hopped” he meant “clawed up and fumbled until his good back leg made purchase.”

Jayce startled at the sudden presence next to him, pulling his hands away from his face to look at Viktor.

His eyes were wet with unshed tears. Oh, god, Jayce was about to cry over him.

“No, no, please don’t, I’m right here, Jayce,” Viktor tried to say, butting his head into Jayce’s side gently.

Jayce let out a wet laugh, a big hand coming up to pet between Viktor’s ears and down his back.

Viktor nuzzled his head into Jayce’s side. “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here,” he murmured, though it came out as little chirps.

Inexplicably, Viktor felt something in his throat vibrate, which was alarming and felt unnatural for all of two seconds until he remembered that cats, typically, are known to purr.

“Good kitty,” Jayce said under his breath as he continued to pet Viktor. Viktor was trying not to think about the man he was in love with petting him and calling him good, lest he go insane, and was instead just glad that the repeated motion seemed to calm Jayce down.

“We’ll find your person, don’t worry. Until then, I’ll take care of you, okay?” Jayce said, leaning down and resting his forehead against Viktor’s own.

Chapter Text

Viktor did not own cat food, or a litter box, or any cat toys at all, and Jayce was beginning to wonder if the cat was just a stray who’d happened to wander in. Except, he couldn’t be, right? He— as Jayce had decided that he looked like a boy cat, and wasn’t about to invade the creature’s privacy to find out if that was right— was far too friendly to be a stray. A neighbor’s pet, then?

But the cat and Viktor both had the same weak leg… Jayce imagined with ease a narrative where Viktor spotted a stray cat outside with a leg just like his, empathized with it, and took it in. (Jayce might have been projecting, though, because that’s exactly the kind of thing he would do if faced with an animal that even remotely resembled Viktor.)

Maybe Viktor was just… out of pet supplies, then.

And another thing. Jayce was no detective, but Viktor’s door had been locked, and as far as he knew, only he and Viktor himself had keys to it. How could a kidnapper have gotten in and out? What did they gain from kidnapping Viktor, of all people? (Other than giving Jayce an aneurysm, of course.)

Still, he dutifully filled out the missing persons report with the enforcers, and then he turned his focus onto taking care of his new guest, starting out with cat food.

—

If Jayce offered him one more different flavor of cat food, Viktor was going to lose it.

That evening, following the enforcers coming and going through his apartment (thanks a lot, Jayce) and Jayce carrying him like a baby through the streets of Piltover all the way to his own apartment (earning quite a few longing looks and coos from women and men alike, which Jayce was seemingly oblivious to), Jayce had opened nearly five different containers of cat food for Viktor to eat, all of which he’d turned his nose up at.

“You try eating it, see how you like it,” Viktor muttered, chirp chirp chirping away.

“Come on, Kitty, just eat. I need to make myself dinner too, y’know,” Jayce said, frustration evident in his tone.

And, okay, it wasn’t just the cat food that Viktor was bothered by. (His empty stomach begged to differ, but nevertheless.)

It was absolutely everything about this situation. Not being able to communicate with his partner, having enforcers in his home, not being in control of anything since he’d woken up this morning with four paws instead of two feet and hands.

God, was that really just this morning? He was exhausted.

Anyways. It wasn’t just the food, no, but it certainly didn’t help.

“Do you want some of my food?” Jayce asked. Viktor blinked up at him. Well, if he was offering…

“I doubt you can have it when it’s seasoned and all, but maybe you can just have some of the raw chicken…” Jayce pondered. “Can cats eat raw meat?”

Raw chicken sounded heavenly right now, compared to the brown slop in front of him. Viktor let out a singular meow of approval.

And if Viktor purred and wound between Jayce’s legs when he was finally done eating his duly earned proper food, well. It was only to let Jayce know his appreciation, that’s all. Appreciation for the chicken, that is, and nothing else at all.

—

Jayce wasn’t sure when “kitty” had shifted from a noun to a name for the cat in question, but if he really was Viktor’s cat, then he didn’t want to just rename him! So, Kitty it was, a placeholder until Viktor returned and told him the cat’s true name.

God. Viktor. His partner, missing. His stomach filled with dread at the very thought. He couldn’t do this without him— couldn’t live without him, didn’t even know how to after almost an entire year spent side by side, sunrise to sunset everyday and then some.

He clenched his fist, nails digging into his palm. Viktor was strong, the most resilient man Jayce knew. He would be fine.

“Okay, Kitty,” Jayce said to the cat in question that next morning, crouching down to scratch at Kitty’s chin, who purred. “I have to head to the lab. Viktor and I are really, really behind, and hopefully we’ll get a pass because of this… extenuating circumstance, but in case we don’t, I really gotta get to work. Okay? I’ll be back tonight with your dinner.”

All of a sudden, Kitty blew up at him, meowing up a storm. He stood up on his good leg and reached his paws up, clawing at Jayce’s pants.

“Ah, watch the pants!” Kitty surely hadn’t understood Jayce, with him being a cat and all, but regardless, he thankfully sheathed his claws. Still, he kept pawing at Jayce’s leg, meowing mournfully.

“I’ll be back later, I swear. Now shh, or else the neighbors will get mad at me.” Kitty obliged, mewing quieter, but still not letting Jayce leave, twining between his legs and damn near trying to trip him.

“Stop it before I accidentally step on you,” Jayce scolded. Kitty stepped off to the side and sat down, blinking up at Jayce with those big yellow eyes.

“Aw, don’t give me that look. I’ll see you later, okay baby? Bye,” Jayce said, finally slipping out of the apartment to spend his day in a very lonely, Viktorless laboratory.

—

Jayce had called him baby.

Now, it was only because he thought that Viktor was an actual cat, but still. He could die happy, having heard that endearment from Jayce’s mouth directed at him.

It was a damn shame that Jayce didn’t let Viktor go to the lab with him, though. Viktor didn’t know how helpful he could be in his current state (the leading verdict seemed to be not very), but it felt wrong to have a day go by where he wasn’t working by Jayce’s side.

Well. He supposed he would go take a nap in a sunbeam until Jayce returned, or whatever else it was that cats did.

—

Kitty was an odd cat, to be sure, or maybe he was just not used to being in a new environment. There were many, many moments in their first few days together when Kitty would bite at Jayce’s pen while he wrote or drew as if to steal it for himself, and he would pilfer the pen outright if Jayce stood up to do something else.

These incidents lessened and then stopped entirely as the days passed, as did the odd rhythmic tapping of paws on his legs (Jayce would almost think it was morse code, if he didn’t know any better), and the torn out pages of books like his desecrated copy of Kanz Frafka’s “The Metamorphosis.”

He was just glad that Kitty stopped acting out and that he was getting settled into his apartment okay, though he was sure the cat still missed Viktor and his home just as much as Jayce did.

—

As it turned out, Jayce, the certified genius and half of the brains behind Hextech, was a fucking moron.

Viktor’s efforts to communicate his predicament dwindled, and his Plan B of “wait and see what happens” came into practice.

—

Jayce spoke an awful lot to a cat who couldn’t speak back, Viktor learned quickly. He knew the man loved the sound of his own voice, and Viktor found that very trait endearing (most of the time), but this was something else entirely.

“You’re awfully good at walking with just three legs. Nothing slows you down, Kitty,” Jayce said one night while watching Viktor roam, lying on his couch and nearing exhaustion after an apparently fruitless day at the lab. “Maybe Viktor should get on all fours too, if it’d help with his leg and balance and stuff…” Jayce’s mind caught up with his mouth, and he flushed red. “Wait. Wait, that came out wrong. Please forget I said that, Kitty.”

Viktor would’ve blushed himself, if cats could blush.

Another time, Jayce was lying in bed and Viktor found himself lifted above him like he was an airship. Viktor, obligingly, remained limp and pliant in his partner’s grasp, because what else was he to do? Not accept the attention from his long-term crush? Please.

“You kind of look like him, y’know?” Jayce said, apropos of nothing at all. “Not the ears, of course— sorry Kitty, yours are kind of huge.” Viktor blinked, looking down at Jayce underneath him. Who was the “him” Jayce was talking about?

“But you’re both so pretty. You have the same exact eye color. And face shape. Sort of like a diamond, with your cheekbones sticking so far. Do cats have cheekbones? Anyways,” Jayce rambled.

Viktor, the once-in-a-generation prodigy who had graduated from the Academy years early, was lost. Who was he…?

“Oh!” Jayce exclaimed, sitting up in bed and setting Viktor down on his lap to get a better look at him. “You have his same beauty mark, too,” he said, brushing a thumb by Viktor’s right eye, where Viktor knew a tiny splotch of brown fur to be.

Oh. Oh. Jayce was talking about… him. Himself. Viktor. He was talking about Viktor.

Jayce had called Viktor pretty. Jayce thought Viktor was pretty.

Viktor purred louder than he knew he could, and leaned into Jayce’s hand.

—

Over the course of two weeks or so, Viktor had upgraded from raw chicken to a varied diet of boiled fish, turkey breast, ground chicken, and the occasional nibble of Jayce’s deli meat from his sandwiches. (Whether the deli meat was freely given or surreptitiously stolen by Viktor depended on the day.)

It was… oddly domestic, sitting in the kitchen waiting while Jayce cooked him dinner.

Viktor wished it was in better circumstances, with him having two feet and not four paws.

He could imagine it, himself waiting at the dining table while Jayce prepared food suitable for human consumption. They could then sit across from one another, stealing glances between bites, and perhaps even kick at each other under the table like children at a banquet. He found himself yearning then for even the tiniest, most mundane things, like brushing their teeth at the sink next to one another, or picking out each other’s outfit for the day. With Jayce, such small activities would feel like… everything.

Viktor really was hopelessly in love, wasn’t he?

—

Two weeks. Two weeks, and the Enforcers have found nothing on where Viktor could have gone. Just a shrug of their shoulders and an unconvincing assurance that they would get to the bottom of it.

Jayce hadn’t made any progress on the Hextech front, either. It wasn’t just that two minds worked better than one, it was that he needed Viktor like he needed air in his lungs. He could hardly sleep, wrought with worry as he was— the only thing that calmed him was the purring furnace of Kitty curled up at his side.

(If he cried into Kitty’s fur one night when his worry for his partner was at its peak, then, well. No one but Kitty would ever know.)

Chapter Text

Like a good pet sitter, and in an effort to put his restless energy towards something productive, Jayce had been attempting to play with Kitty.

Keyword: attempting.

The cat found no interest in the stick with the string and a feather at the end, nor the little balls with bells in them, or any of the fake mice. It was no wonder Viktor didn’t have any cat toys at his apartment; this adorable thing was a downright curmudgeon.

Kitty just stared at him like he was an idiot whenever he presented him with the toys as gifts, which was not all that dissimilar to the looks Viktor would sometimes give him after he said something particularly stupid.

Rather than any of the things he so lovingly bought for the little beast, Jayce found the most success with a balled up piece of paper he’d crumpled up and threw on the ground in frustration. Kitty bat it back to him with his little paw, and Jayce, curiously, kicked it back to Kitty. Kitty sent it his way again, and thus their game was set in motion. Jayce was now sat on the floor with the lounging cat, the ball of paper passed back and forth between them.

“Makes sense that Vik didn’t buy any toys for you, if this is what entertains you,” Jayce murmurs. He’s met with a little meow and Kitty’s big ears pressing backwards, like he was embarrassed by Jayce’s words. Kitty pulled his front paws underneath his body in a loaf, evidently not interested in playing anymore.

Jayce pouted. “Aw, I’m sorry Kitty. I’m sure Viktor is a great cat dad,” he reassured. “He takes good care of me too; he always knows what I need before I need it, it’s kind of amazing. Not sure if it’s because I’m easy to read or if he’s just that smart,” Jayce said. He was always eager for a chance to gush about his partner to a rapt audience, one who wouldn’t judge him for his adoration (that) much. Unlike Cait, who constantly told him to get his head out of his ass and just tell Viktor how he felt, or his mom, who said about the same but in much gentler words. (Man, he really needed more friends.)

Kitty’s eyes dilated to big black saucers, so Jayce was guessing he was interested in hearing about Viktor. Kitty always seemed to be happier when he spoke of his partner. He must miss Viktor, too.

“He’s the smartest person I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting. Working beside him makes me feel stupid sometimes, and I know I’m not dumb. I’ve learned that that’s a good thing, being humbled,” Jayce rambled, the first thoughts that entered his mind coming out of his mouth without filter. “He’s so kind, too. When I first thought up Hextech, a part of me didn’t think past the whole ‘getting it to work’ thing, about the actual applications of it. I said I wanted to use magic to help people, and I do, but I didn’t know what that actually meant, or what it could mean. Viktor, though. It’s like I couldn’t see past my own damn nose until he explained how our work could be used for— for air filtering, or prosthetics, or tools for miners, or transporting medicine! God. He’s just… so good, it kind of makes me crazy.”

Jayce wasn’t sure when the dopey, love-struck grin had grown on his face, but he made no efforts to stifle it. It was just Kitty, after all. “Not to mention that he’s beautiful. That’s kind of shallow of me, right Kitty? It’s true, though. He is,” Jayce said, reaching over to scratch between Kitty’s ears.

—

Viktor processed the information coming out of his partner’s mouth as best he could— that is to say, poorly.

Surely, as sweet as Jayce’s sentiment was, surely he didn’t mean those niceties in the sense that Viktor wished he did. Surely it was just the admiration of a colleague, of a friend. He couldn’t let himself hope for more, and he wouldn’t deign to know the exact truth of the matter.

Viktor was rarely if ever a cowardly man, but if given the choice between the domestic limbo they currently existed in and the outright heartbreak that the truth could hold… the answer seemed easy, no?

He felt horribly selfish, letting his partner suffer without knowing that Viktor was safe, forcing him to care for and house and feed him, and buy him stupid cat toys that he would never touch.

Yes, Viktor was being selfish, but after a lifetime of hardships, he let himself revel in being cared for. He was a cat, or had the body of one, at least. It was expected of him to be helpless. In his normal life on two legs (plus a cane), he could not afford to show his weakness, at risk of being looked down upon or outright ignored. Here, though, when all Viktor had to do was tilt his head a certain way to be fed or paw at Jayce’s leg when he was feeling too tired to walk… when Jayce would spout compliments for his missing coworker apropos of nothing… well, it was all too easy to allow himself to lean into it.

All of it was a sinking sandpit of indulgence, to be sure. One he should not get used to relying on. And yet, when faced with the unabashed amount of care— of love— that his partner offered him in this form, he just couldn’t help himself.

It would all crash down around him, if and when he changed back. Now that he’s had just a taste of Jayce’s affections, he feared he could never survive without them, that he was somewhat addicted. But, for now, he let out a purr at Jayce’s warmth.

—

It was midway through week three of Viktor’s absence, and Jayce was at his wit’s end. He’s had enough of useless enforcers and endless platitudes and nights staying up late worrying, not knowing if his partner was safe or even alive.

What made matters worse was that today, or, well, tonight marked exactly one year of partnership between himself and Viktor. He wasn’t sure if Viktor would have remembered that fact, or even cared, not like Jayce did, but fuck, Jayce cared so damn much.

He himself wouldn’t even be alive were it not for Viktor’s help that night. That wasn’t even to mention the events of the past year, either— the late nights that grew into early mornings spent in each other’s company, breakthroughs and failed experiments alike bringing them closer together. He relished in getting to see Viktor’s smile at his stupid jokes, his day brightening when he managed to make the other man crack a laugh.

This past year, Jayce grew to fall in love with his partner.

He would have told Viktor as much today, as he had a suspicion— a hope, more like— that his feelings were returned. If only he weren’t still fucking missing.

So. Instead of heading straight to his own apartment after work, Jayce made a detour to Viktor’s, his copy of the key burning in his clenched fist. He needed to find answers, and if no one else would do anything, he’d find out where Viktor went himself.

Part of him felt horrible for snooping, but he needed to find a clue, any clue, to where Viktor had possibly gone. Even if it turned out that Viktor had skipped town because he’d had enough of him, had hated working on Hextech, hated working with Jayce— well, then at least he would have an answer.

The apartment was just as he left it the last time, the bootprints from the enforcers still tainting the floor. He scrunched his nose up at that and moved on, his feet taking him to Viktor’s bedroom. The room where he’d left his leg brace and cane, and where his last whereabouts certainly had to have been.

Jayce slunk around to the far side of the bed, crouching down to brush over the leg brace in question. The metal was cold under his fingers and had a faint layer of dust on it. He really should oil the joints for Viktor, for if— when— he returned, lest they rust from disuse. He sighed, and moved on.

He opened Viktor’s dresser drawers, only finding clothes. No hidden compartments, though Viktor certainly seemed the type to have such a thing somewhere.

Again, his stomach sunk at invading Viktor’s privacy like this, but he couldn’t not look, couldn’t leave without something found. Part of him hoped that, if Viktor were here, he’d be grateful and proud of Jayce for not giving up on him. Then again, that same part of him was the one convinced that Viktor returned his feelings, which, well. Jury’s still out.

Anyways.

He made his way to Viktor’s nightstand and pulled it open. Among other miscellaneous items— a broken watch, a notepad and pen for late night breakthroughs, a bottle of pills ostensibly for pain relief— there was a piece of scrap paper wrapped gently around something, the edge of the rounded object glinting in the light.

Jayce pulled it out, curiosity piqued. It was an oval-shaped gemstone with a chatoyant band through it— alexandrite, maybe, if the books on rock identification he read as a child were to be trusted. It glimmered and shifted in color as he rotated it between his fingers. It almost looked like the color of Viktor’s (or Kitty’s) eyes. That is to say, it was a beautiful specimen.

He then looked at the paper that was folded around it. A written note, it seemed, in Viktor’s familiar scrawl.

“To my partner, Jayce— thank you for everything.”

Dread abruptly filled every fiber of Jayce’s being.

Maybe it was just the fact that it was the anniversary of his own attempt— but. But. Viktor had gone missing, vanished, and left only a gift and a note for Jayce.

He left without his leg brace or cane, like he hadn’t needed them where he was going.

He left without his keys, like he didn’t plan to come back.

Jayce’s hand trembled where he held the corner of the paper.

—

Viktor had gotten very good at comforting Jayce, he’d thought. Now that he was a cat and his identity was a secret from Jayce, he effectively had eliminated any personal boundaries or holdups he held with the man in terms of affection.

Typically, when he was on two legs, he kept himself at arm’s length from Jayce. He accepted his hugs and clasps to the shoulder, but hardly ever reached back. This was not because he did not like physical affection— quite the opposite. He craved it more than anything. If he were to indulge, however, he feared it would be a slippery slope into being too much, too close to the other man, his lingering feelings inevitably brought to light and made horribly, embarrassingly obvious.

Now, he fully gave in to the urges to be in Jayce’s personal bubble. When Jayce closed the door behind him upon returning from the lab, a weary sigh leaving his lips, Viktor would be at his feet looking up at him. If he fretted about Viktor’s whereabouts, Viktor would speak reassurances to him (which came out as meows, sadly, but he hoped it was endearing). Even just sitting on the man’s lap did wonders for erasing the crease of stress between his partner’s brows.

Viktor couldn’t help but wonder if he possessed the instincts of a cat to purr and nuzzle and show affection towards those he cared for, as if his cat-body was simply expressing his romantic feelings and yearning for Jayce in the only way it knew how, or if it was Viktor’s own desperation for physical human contact bubbling to the surface and boiling over. Or both.

All of that was to say, yes, Viktor would like to think he was good at comforting Jayce. As much as he could do so as a cat, anyways.

So, when Jayce returned to their apartment much later than usual and looking absolutely, completely and utterly devastated, Viktor felt both prepared and determined to help.

Jayce let the door slam behind him. He had something clutched tightly in one fist. In the other, held gently like it was as delicate as a butterfly’s wing, was a scrap of paper folded in half.

Jayce’s eyes looked worryingly blank, glazed over. He paid Viktor’s meows no mind as he moved on autopilot to the bedroom, sitting down on the bed and looking at the objects in his hands almost reverently.

His hands were shaking, Viktor noted.

It took a beat before Jayce’s blank expression crumpled. His shoulders began to shake, inching closer to his ears as he curled into himself. His eyes welled with tears and his hands quickly rose up to cover his face, his possessions forgotten as they fell to the floor in front of Viktor.

What he could see of Jayce’s expression was broken, the scrunched face and clenched teeth of a man full-bodied sobbing. Viktor’s heart sunk. What had hurt his partner so badly?

Viktor took a glance at the objects that had fallen from Jayce’s loose grip, and quickly did a double take.

Oh. His note and gift for Jayce. Jayce must have stopped back at Viktor’s apartment. Perhaps he had been looking for more clues to his whereabouts, which he wouldn’t have found, because there had been no kidnapping to begin with. So why was he…? Did he just miss Viktor that badly?

Shit. What if Viktor couldn’t comfort Jayce properly right now, wasn’t enough to calm Jayce down, because he was trapped as a fucking cat?

At the very least, he could damn well try.

Viktor hopped up onto the bed with ease, then bullied his way onto Jayce’s lap past the man’s arms.

“Ah— Kitty, ‘m sorry,” Jayce mumbled, his voice wrecked. He pulled back to give Viktor more room on his lap. “I know you need dinner, sorry, I just… need a minute. Gimme a minute.”

Stupid, ridiculous man, putting Viktor’s needs above his own. “I don’t want dinner, I want you to be happy. What is the matter, Jayce?” Viktor asked, his voice (of course) coming out as little trills.

Jayce spoke as if he had heard Viktor’s question. “I went to Vik’s apartment, and I found… I found his gift, and his note, and I… I think…” Jayce heaved a shaky breath. “I don’t know if Viktor is coming home, bud.”

Huh?

Oh. Oh, Jayce must’ve thought… that he had…

Oh no.

“No! No no no no,” Viktor said, butting his head against Jayce’s chest. “I’m right here! I’ve been here the whole time, Jayce, I didn’t mean to worry you, I…”

“Shh, Kitty, calm down, it’ll be okay,” Jayce said, stroking a hand down Viktor’s back. Viktor shut up only because he knew his incessant mewling was not helping, but he was miserable about it.

It’s a long few moments, silent save for Jayce’s hitched breaths, before he speaks again.

“I just wish I could’ve told him… that I… I love him. God, I’ve never even said that out loud before,” Jayce said, back to burying his face in his hands.

What?

He… what?

Viktor was shocked.

Jayce, who Viktor had been pining for since the moment they’d locked eyes while floating in the blue glow of Hextech so long ago, loved Viktor back. Jayce Talis— the most handsome man he’d ever met, the genius who wanted to bring magic to the world, the man who held so much care for others even if his efforts were clumsy, the same man who rambled passionately and endearingly about rocks of all things with such a beautiful spark in his eyes— was in love with Viktor.

He wished more than anything to be human again, to able to speak to him just then, to tell him that he felt the same.

But, Viktor’s own heartaches were of no import— Jayce needed him, human or not, and so he would keep being there.

“I love you too, Jayce, I’m okay, I’m here,” Viktor chirruped. He willed a purr out from the back of his throat and pressed himself against Jayce’s chest again, as if he could force himself under the other man’s skin and mend his heart himself.

“You’re too nice to me, Kitty,” Jayce murmured.

Then he leaned down, and did something he had not yet done in their three weeks of living together: Jayce kissed Viktor’s forehead. Just a gentle, brief press of lips to fur, done as an unconscious reflex.

As soon as his touch left Viktor, suddenly and without warning, a deep amber glow filled the unlit room.

Jayce’s eyes were blown wide, staring at him, and it’s then Viktor realized that the glow was coming from himself. Viktor’s own eyes flinched shut, and then everything in the room burned with light.

—

In the middle of Kitty’s chest, right where his little heart would be, was an inexplicable gold glowing light. And it was growing brighter, and bigger, and spreading through the entirety of his cat’s body. Jayce squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away only when he could no longer stand the light burning his retinas.

Jayce then felt a weight much, much heavier than a cat’s land in his lap with a groan, and he, with alarm, blinked away the dark spots in his vision to see what had become of…

“Viktor,” Jayce breathed in disbelief at the man suddenly right in front of him, bringing a hand to the other man’s cheek on instinct. He felt real, and alive.

He scanned over his partner’s bleary-eyed face and drank in every detail. Viktor was just as he remembered, from his beautiful cheekbones to his kissable beauty marks— although, his hair might be a bit longer. It looked good on him.

And, god, Jayce himself must have looked like a mess, eyes swollen from crying and tears still staining his face and an intense five o’clock shadow, but Viktor was here and Viktor was beautiful and that’s all he cared about in that moment.

Viktor blinked slowly back at him, leaning into Jayce’s palm as a small confused noise left his throat, before he flushed, pulled back, and covered his mouth with his hand, eyes widening.

Jayce tugged Viktor in by the back of the neck for a crushing hug, made easier by Viktor already being sat down on his lap. “Viktor,” Jayce said his name again, like it was a lifeline. “You’re okay. You’re alive. You’re here,” he sobbed.

Viktor, hesitantly, like he didn’t know what to do with himself, brought his arms around Jayce’s own neck and shoulders to return the hug.

“You’re…” Jayce started. “You’re naked,” he said in realization, finally registering the bare skin under his hands, the uncovered neck his own face was buried into.

A few gears in Jayce’s brain clicked together in that very moment, and he froze completely.

“You’re here and you’re naked and you were Kitty,” he blurted out.

“Yes,” Viktor said, his human voice apparently rusty with disuse. Because he hadn’t been human thirty seconds ago. He cleared his throat. “Yes, I was… uh, the cat.”

Jayce should really have pulled back from the hug by now, the length surely becoming awkward, but… it was Viktor.

And, truth be told, it was easier talking to Viktor like this, his face pressed against his skin and not having to make eye contact with that piercing gold gaze. (God. He and Kitty looked just alike, had the same eye color, he’d even pointed it out— he dealt with magic on a daily basis, how did he not realize, or at least consider…)

“So, uh, how much of the past three weeks do you remember?” Jayce asked hesitantly.

“Everything,” Viktor said simply.

“Oh.” Jayce loosened his hold on Viktor, his already reddened face flushing even hotter, getting ready to (finally) pull back from the hug and have an uncomfortable and apologetic conversation. With Viktor. Who was still naked and sitting in his lap.

Viktor, in response to Jayce relaxing his hold, clung even tighter, a high-pitched whine leaving his throat. Jayce was oddly glad so much blood was flooding to his blushing cheeks, and not anywhere else.

“Jayce,” Viktor started, rubbing his cheek against Jayce’s neck, just like he had done while he was a cat. “My Jayce. You must know.” Viktor swallowed, took a steadying breath. “I… I love you, too.”

Jayce pulled Viktor’s arms off from around his neck— Viktor made a wounded and offended cry at that— so that he could see his partner’s face.

“Say that again,” Jayce said intensely.

“I love you,” Viktor said, like it was the easiest thing in the world, like it had been on the tip of his tongue every day for the past year just as it had been on Jayce’s.

“Can I kiss you, Vik?”

”Please.”

—

They had settled back into Jayce’s bed again, but not until after Viktor indulged in liberating Jayce’s icebox of every fresh fruit he had bought recently, because he was “free of his carnivorous diet and did not want to even look at meat for the next week, Jayce.”

Jayce, obligingly, peeled some oranges for him, because if fresh fruit was the cost to pay for the small miracle of his partner returning to him unharmed, he’d buy the man a goddamn orchard.

“So… ‘Kitty’ was the best name you could think of?” Viktor asked. He was snuggled up to Jayce’s side with some borrowed, oversized lounge clothes on. His head was resting on Jayce’s chest and shoulder, not unlike how he and Kitty would sleep. Or, well, he and Viktor, when Viktor was Kitty.

“Oh fuck off,” Jayce said, his face heating, though he pet Viktor’s hair fondly while saying it. “Is it strange that I’m gonna miss Kitty a little, even though he’s you?” Jayce asked, pausing in his ministrations.

“Maybe a tad. Is it strange that I may miss parts of being a cat?” Viktor tilted his head to look at Jayce when he asked this, blinking his pretty eyes at him.

“Maybe. Wait, like what?” Like the affection and the scratches and the pet names? Jayce would gladly do all of that for Viktor. Jayce had already been planning to do all of that for Viktor, but he could adjust and redouble his future efforts, if it was what Viktor wanted.

“I liked it when… ah, no, nevermind,” Viktor said quickly, his cheeks going pink.

“No, go on, say what you were gonna say.”

“I… liked being cared for, by you. My needs attended to, and affection given freely. I do not need to be taken care of— surely you know as much. I do not appreciate pity, and I can handle myself. But… truthfully, I enjoyed my time living with you.” Viktor said it like being taken care of by others was some messed up guilty pleasure he was confessing to, and not an inherent human need. That gave Jayce pause.

“Taking care of you is a gift, Viktor,” Jayce said, voice steady and serious. “Whether you’re a cat or a person, I don’t care. I’d do it gladly.”

After a brief awed lull, Viktor responded, “I think you do care.” Jayce was ready to protest before Viktor continued, smirking: “You could not kiss me properly if I were a cat.”

“Ah, you know what, that’s fair. Hey, speaking of kissing…” and Jayce chased his partner’s lips again, who just laughed and kissed him right back.