Chapter Text
Viktor clenched his hand tightly around his cane, breathing roughly around the remembered echo of Jayce slamming the door behind him as he'd stalked out of their-... the lab. He sank into his chair at his desk and stared at the desk in front of him, filled with a mix of notations, a rune dictionary, welding equipment, and pages upon pages of notes. Most of which had his own handwriting, but some had scribbles from Jayce, here and there.
All of it, thrown away for a shouting match that had turned vicious quickly, because the Professor had decided to stop by after a Council meeting to give them a reminder and pressure neither of them had needed.
"I can't wait to see what you boys have for us for the upcoming Distinguished Innovators competition! We expect big things from you, you know! After last year, you will have to work hard to top it!"
The tense silence that had lingered in his wake had been oppressive, and ignoring it had seemed the best course, but turning back to his work had been the wrong decision, based on the ensuing fight. Viktor swallowed and began to organize the mess on his desk for sake of something to do with his hands. If he was going to be kicked out shortly, it wouldn't do to leave behind things that he could not do without.
Would Jayce summon the Enforcers to remove him from the premises?
Viktor's hand stilled over one of the notebooks, the growing discomfort in his chest burning as he tried to breathe through it, his chest aching as he fought down a cough. He would be gone before that was ever a concern, and Jayce could, could...
Viktor shook his head in determination. What Jayce Talis did or did not decide to do, was none of his business. Had never been any of his business, no matter what they'd spent the last year and a half doing together. He packed away his favorite tools, his notebooks with the ideas that he hadn't shown to Jayce yet, ideas that he could maybe find a way to explore on his own, and methodically worked his way through cleaning the rest of his desk. Best not to leave a mess for whoever ended up replacing him.
It took less time than he'd imagined to finish organizing his desk, leaving it clean, with the notes stacked neatly for filing at a later date. He would be gone before Jayce returned. It would be what he wanted.
Viktor turned and looked at the equation they'd been trying to work on before they had fought. Perhaps it was irony, or maybe fate, that looking at it now, the answer was obvious. With a sigh, he put his bag down on his chair and walked over to the chalkboard, picking up the chalk, erasing the half he'd been trying to puzzle out earlier, writing the rest of it out in steady strokes. With this, perhaps the stabilization of the gems would hold, and allow them to be refined and mass-produced.
With one final swipe of the chalk down the chalkboard, Viktor stepped back and admired his work, nodding as he looked over the equation again. It was correct, and would give Jayce what he needed.
With practiced ease, Viktor ignored the growing voice in the back of his mind screaming for him to erase all evidence of it, to destroy his notes, and Jayce's notes, to set him back months, maybe even a year, and leave him scrambling alone in front of the Council, wishing that he'd-
"Viktor?"
Viktor tensed, the piece of chalk breaking in his hand at the sound of Jayce's voice. He hadn't heard the lab door open, hadn't heard Jayce walk in, had thought that he would have more time. He looked over his shoulder, but there were no Enforcers flanking Jayce. A polite Piltie firing then. Jayce would let them go their separate ways and continue his work alone. "Yes?"
"I..." Jayce frowned, looking from where Viktor was standing, over to his now neat-desk, and his packed bag next to his toolbox. His breath caught, and he took a single stutter step forward. "What, where are you going?" He looked at the clock on the wall. "It's, it's early yet?"
The edges of the chalk were biting into his hand as Viktor lowered his hand beside himself, turning to face Jayce. If he was going to be fired, Jayce would do it to his face. "You can just say it, Jayce. You don't have to pretend." He would be kind, even if Jayce couldn't.
Jayce frowned and stared at Viktor and looked around the room once more, his eyes catching on the desk that had never been neat for a single day that they had shared space. It was worryingly neat now, and Viktor had packed up his toolbox, rather than leaving it spread out across several tabletops. His heart started pounding uncomfortably and he turned his full attention back to Viktor, who was still waiting for him to say… something.
Jayce held up his hands and sighed. “I know you’re angry with me. I’m angry with me. But I don’t have a clue what you want me to say other than I’m sorry.”
Viktor blinked and frowned, his hand tightening on the handle of his cane. “You’re sorry,” he repeated, cursing himself for sounding like a dunce as Jayce continued to walk closer to him. He took a calculated risk and cleared his throat. “I was not trying to ignore the directive from the Professor. However, I was in the middle of a thought regarding the calculation we’d been trying to solve for the stabilization of the gems and I did not not want to lose it.”
Jayce let out a rough breath and pushed his fingers through it. “And I should have, should have realized that you care. I know you care about this just as much as I do if not more.”
Viktor allowed his shoulders to loosen a fraction and gestured to the chalkboard. “Then you’ll perhaps be relieved to know that I solved the equation while you were out.”
“You did?” Jayce asked, excitement clear in his voice as he spun around and stalked over to the chalkboard, following it piece by piece, muttering to himself before he grinned. “Viktor! This is brilliant, I didn’t even consider that we needed to do something more than the standardized prismatic shapes. We’ll have to redesign the integration points as well, which will be frustrating, but we can do it!”
Viktor followed Jayce over to the chalkboard and debated a few different possible approaches for the production of the first generation of Hexgems, before he was in desperate need of more coffee and grunted, making his way over to the coffee machine. “Do you want some?” He called.
Jayce looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, please.”
Viktor prepped two cups and brought them over to where Jayce had migrated to, rapidly scribbling his notes. He set the mug down and made his way back over to his desk, reaching for a few of his notes that he’d sorted and put into the corner. He spread out three pages on the desk and immediately felt better for the small bit of chaos and disorganization he was able to bring back.
“Were you going to leave?” Jayce asked, bringing his notes and chair over to Viktor’s desk, sitting down beside him with a pleased huff. He gestured to the toolbox that was now open again and on the floor beside Viktor’s desk.
Viktor picked up his coffee and took a long sip, even though it burned his tongue and glanced at Jayce. “I thought you were going to fire me.”
Jayce blinked. “Why in Janna’s name would I fire you, Viktor? You’re my partner!”
Viktor blinked back at him. “We fought. Badly.”
“And?” Jayce asked. “Why would fighting with me mean I’d fire you? I mean, I was a dick, we were both assholes, but that’s not a reason to fire the actual genius behind Hextech!”
Viktor swallowed and realized, not for the first time, that his new partner was not like the rest of the Pilties around them who would have seized the moment to get rid of the sump rat tainting their project. Not to mention, Jayce’s sincerity that bled through him when he said things like the ‘actual genius of Hextech’. He meant it, and had always meant it.
“Viktor,” Jayce said, reaching out to touch his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “We’ve been working together over a year, yeah?” He waited for Viktor’s nod as he smiled again. “We’re both brilliant, we’re opinionated, and we disagree as much as we agree, and it makes us better. I love that when I argue with you, you don’t back down, thinking that I know best. You make sure whatever I am coming up with is its best possible form and I try to do the same for you.”
Viktor looked down at the blueprints on his desk and leaned into the hold from Jayce’s hand, just for a brief moment, allowing himself the moment of weakness. “We’re going to fight again.”
Jayce laughed. “Of course we are. Mark of a healthy partnership as far as I’m concerned. But I’ll make you a promise if you make me one, deal?”
Viktor raised an eyebrow. “What promise?”
“No matter how much we fight, we’ll always come back here and remember that we’re better together than we are apart. Deal?” Jayce held out his hand to Viktor, determination on his face.
His heart turned over uncomfortably in his chest, but Viktor managed a singular nod, reaching out to take Jayce’s hand and shake it. “Deal,” he agreed.
Jayce grinned at him. “Perfect. Now, do you feel up to talking about the Distinguished Innovator’s Competition? If we’ve got the equation for a stabilized gem, I bet we can build a small version of the HexGates. We’ll need four gems to power the transporter, and two for the receiver.”
Viktor stared at Jayce for a long moment, before turning a considering look to his notes. “We’ll need to get to work on the prototype immediately, to test the different metal integrity and how they respond to the Hexgems.” Jayce’s excited whoop had his heart leaping at the same time, but Viktor kept a tame smile on his face.
Jayce might think that their partnership would last forever, but Viktor was far too much of a pragmatist to believe that. However, there was no harm in enjoying thing as they lasted and doing everything he could to make a name for themselves.
~!~
The next four months were a non-stop frenzy that by the time Viktor looked up to breathe, winter was quickly approaching. (His body realized it long before he did, aching and refusing to work and exist in their life, which he ignored by increasing the doses of his pain medication and spending as much time in the lab as he could, because it was always so much warmer than outside.)
As if the weather wasn’t frustrating enough, Jayce had clearly been distracted, and had become prone to staring at the window as though he were waiting for someone or something. Viktor had to increasingly work to make sure that he was focused on their HexGates and all of the materials that Jayce needed to build because they simply didn’t exist in their current world. Wherever Jayce’s mind was, it was not on their projects, and Viktor couldn’t help snipping at him every time he found Jayce staring off into space.
Part of him was tempted to call Jayce out on it, to demand to know where his attention was, if it wasn’t focused on the HexGates, but he had his own secrets and it was not fair of him to demand secrets from Jayce if would not share in kind. So Viktor did his best to bite down his frustration and kept working, and pulling Jayce’s attention to back where it belonged every single time it decided to move away from where it should be.
The first snowfall though, proved more revelatory than expected when it came to Jayce’s behavior.
Waking up to the sight of snow falling steadily had Viktor wanting to curse, but the quicker he made his way to the lab, the warmer he would be. He added his heavier jacket (that was still not quite appropriate for the weather, but the walk would also warm him), and his boots after several minutes of struggle before he added a scarf, gloves, and hat, and opened the door to brave the cold.
Fresh snow like this was never something that he’d had the chance to experience prior to coming to Piltover, but despite how beautiful many claimed it to be, he hated it. It was cold, slippery, and wet, all things that he hated with a visceral passion, and by the time Viktor made it to the lab, he was already devising plans for how he could live in the lab for at least a week at a time. He was reasonably sure that if he did, with as distracted as Jayce had been, it would take him a month, if not more to notice.
Viktor was debating the efficiency of ordering a mattress for beneath his desk when he reached the lab doors and went to open them, finding them locked with a frown. He checked his pocket watch and found that it was well-after ten, hours past when he would normally arrive at the lab, and at least an hour after when Jayce would normally arrive. He frowned and dug his keys out of his pocket, checking the door once more to be sure, before he unlocked it and stepped into the lab.
It was warm (thankfully), but it was also dark, just like it was when he'd shut it down the night before, but...
Viktor closed the door behind him and looked around. There was no sign of Jayce, and normally if he'd been called away by the Council or someone else, Jayce made a point to send him a messenger to let him know. But there'd been none of that, and no sign of-
A sound, a small, quiet whimper had Viktor going still, standing in the middle of their lab. He put his bag down at his desk, and began a proper and thorough search of the lab, and while he'd thought there was no one in the lab, now that he was listening for them, he could hear the quietly growing sounds of distress. However, a deeper search of the lab didn't yield anyone, so Viktor stepped into the middle of the lab and cleared his throat.
"I won't hurt you, or be angry that you're here," Viktor said, raising his voice. "But some of this machinery is dangerous. I won't kick you out if you were just trying to stay warm, but-"
"-tor..."