It was supposed to be a normal day, a day to drag Viktor out the lab after his collapse because the doctor had said rest and Viktor had said okay but in actuality had been a fuck no; a day to see Caitlyn again because Jayce hadn’t heard from her in a very long while now and missed her. Just a day with the sun shining and conversation and sandwiches from that little bistro near the academy, a day without politics and stress and whatever the fuck was happening to Jayce’s world, because too much was happening recently.
“Just like old times,” he’d told them both.
It was not like old times.
Sure, the setting was the same. They still got the same food, the same drinks, took their usual places at their usual booths. But Caitlyn had showed up with someone new, a brash, tattooed, pink-haired woman from the undercity, who did a double take when she saw Jayce.
“I thought we were having lunch with your friend,” said the new woman.
“We are,” Caitlyn had said.
“You’re friends with Golden Boy?”
Anyone not fluent in English would’ve thought she’d said a slur and not a title. “Who are you?” Jayce had snapped, defensive.
“Jayce, Viktor, this is Vi,” Caitlyn jumped in, shooting a look at her. “Vi, say hi and thank you to Councillor Talis for getting you out of Stillwater.”
Vi had muttered something unflattering under her breath and shook Viktor’s hand.
That was something, at least.
“So,” Jayce prompted after eternities that couldn’t have been longer than minutes of silence, turning to Caitlyn. “Why did you need me to break her out of jail?”
Something like pride crossed her face. “I went down to the undercity. Needed a guide.”
Jayce choked on his sandwich. “You went to the undercity?”
He could feel Viktor frowning from beside him, and Vi bristled. He was suddenly extremely aware of the forks and knives on the table.
“How was it?” he asked meekly.
“Horrible,” Vi said, still scarfing down her sandwich. She paused to swallow. “No thanks to you and you rich assholes up there. Lots of crime and violence, y’know, daily stuff. Food’s way better though. You really should’ve tried Jericho’s.” The last part was aimed at Caitlyn and she rolled her eyes fondly.
“Of course you know something about that,” Jayce muttered.
Viktor tapped his crutch against the table. “Jayce. The two of you just met. Please refrain from killing him. He’s paying for our lunch.”
“And he’s part of the council,” Caitlyn reminded her, for what purpose, Jayce wasn’t sure, but he thought it couldn’t possibly be good.
Vi huffed. “Yeah. Okay. And for your information, Councillor Talis, I do steal. Of course I steal. Only an idiot down there wouldn’t steal.” She shrugged. “This jacket isn’t even mine.”
“That’s all you steal? Jackets?”
“Oh, no.” Vi leaned in, a glint in her eye. “Way more. I’ve been told I’m an excellent pickpocket.”
It took a moment for his mind to register the words. Panic shot through him. He fumbled at his pockets, dread rising in his chest when his hands came up empty.
And then Viktor laughed, a sound he’d been hearing so little nowadays that relief nearly overtook the indignation as his partner held up his wallet in his hand, dropping it in his lap. Vi howled with laughter. Caitlyn was shaking, her grin hidden behind her hand, as Jayce pocketed his wallet again.
“Another one for Team Undercity,” Vi crowed. She reached over and gave Viktor a high-five.
“Not funny,” Jayce said.
“You sort of deserved it, Councillor. Quit pouting,” Viktor smiled. His heart lifted at the sight.
Maybe the humiliation was worth it.
“How come you’re such a good pickpocket?”
“I grew up as a cripple in the undercity, Jayce. There wasn’t much of a career path for me.”
“Have you stolen from me before?”
Viktor shrugged, but that was answer enough.
Vi finally managed to stop giggling, flinging an arm behind her chair. “I didn’t go to jail for stealing, if that’s what you were thinking, pretty boy. That’d mean I sucked at it. The good thieves are the ones who don’t get caught.”
“Well, if jackets are all you steal, I don’t see –”
She flicked her straw at him. “I don’t only steal jackets. I’ve stolen way more before.”
“Are do realize you are saying this in front of a councillor and an enforcer,” Viktor said, amused.
Vi shrugged. “Nothing can get worse than I have it right now. Besides.” She shot Caitlyn a sly grin. “I know an enforcer who’ll be there to bail me out.”
“So you make a living out of crime.”
“Jayce.”
“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “Don’t act all high and mighty. As if you topsiders would even notice if we took half your possessions. We broke into this guy’s house once, like seven or eight years ago, and he had so much gold and bronze and metal lying around, even a fraction of it could’ve fed my family for a year. And it could’ve, but the heist went, eh, awry.”
Seven years ago?
Viktor nudged him. “You don’t think –?” he whispered.
“Whose house was it?”
She shrugged. “Oh, I dunno. Some rich scholar or academy brat, was my guess. Had some weird trinkets lying around. Anyway, he came back before we got everything so we had to leave. I bet he wouldn’t even have noticed anything was out of place – wasn’t the most organized guy – but we blew up his house on accident, which I guess someone would reasonably take notice of and be pissed off by. Still not sure how that happened. Then my sister –”
Vi went uncharacteristically silent for a moment. “We lost the haul. And then stuff happened and I ended up in Stillwater.” She took a violent bite of her sandwich.
The gears were turning, click-click-click, but his mind wasn’t processing, or maybe just didn’t want to.
“You blew up my house?” Jayce spluttered.
Vi paused mid-bite. “That was your house?”
“That was you?” Caitlyn cried.
“You were there?”
“Guys,” Viktor hissed. “People are looking.”
There was a beat of silence as they all shrank down. Jayce stared at the half-eaten sandwich on his plate, his mind a mess – what was he supposed to make out of all this? A half-a-decade-old mystery solved, but it didn’t quite give him the epiphany he had thought it would.
Vi was the first to break the silence. “Well,” she said, “it looks like you’re pretty well-off now.”
“Now, yes,” Jayce stage-whispered, furious. “Do you have any idea – you blew up my research, got my equipment confiscated, nearly got me exiled! I –”
“Hey,” she snapped, “as if you’re the only one that suffered because of that. The enforcers came hunting for us, you know? All because you topsiders wanted to feel safe. They were going to hang us, shoot us, make a public display of us –”
“I wasn’t the one that started all of it!”
“Then why the hell would you keep explosives in your room?”
“They aren’t explosives!”
“Then what –”
“Crystals,” Viktor said, throwing a look at Jayce that he clearly understood as sit down and shut up after years of working together. “They were crystals. Highly volatile. While you were riffling through his research you must have accidently knocked one against a surface, sending a blast of energy that was the explosion you witnessed.”
“The one we saw hit the bridge several times,” Caitlyn frowned. “It didn’t set of an explosion of any kind.”
“You found the missing crystal?”
“Right,” Viktor said. “Because the stolen one was the stabilized version. They’re safer, evidently.”
“You found the stolen crystal?” Jayce repeated. “Where is it? Do you have it?”
Caitlyn and Vi glanced at each other.
“For a while, yes,” Caitlyn said. “We were… going to give it to the council.”
The council. The exact opposite of why Jayce had brought them all here, and a shit reason for making himself subject to all this torture. Just like old times. This was supposed to be just like old times.
He sighed. “Never mind.”
Viktor raised his eyebrows. “’Never mind’?”
“Yeah. Fuck the council. Well, I guess I have something to thank you for, Vi.”
“What. What? Somehow that’s worse than saying I ruined your life.”
“That explosion was how I met Viktor.” He draped an arm around his partner. “So thanks for that.”
Viktor rolled his eyes, but didn’t push away.
“I had to bear with seven years of that,” Caitlyn whispered to an over-dramatically fake-throwing-up Vi.
“No wonder you’re so sweet, Cupcake.”
Jayce didn’t miss the flush on her face.
And normally Jayce would disapprove, but there was also joy on her face, a grin so light and carefree and childish that he hadn’t seen in a while, hadn’t even realized he’d missed until he saw it again.
Viktor patted his hand and started on a story of his own about something stupid Jayce did in the lab years ago, something he’d long forgotten, and Caitlyn laughed and Vi grinned and Viktor talked and okay, okay, maybe it wasn’t exactly just like old times, but it was close enough and maybe even better. He ate his sandwich and forgot for an afternoon. Forgot about his duties as councillor, forgot Viktor’s collapse just barely a week ago, forgot Caitlyn’s trip to the undercity, forgot about the missing crystal.
Just like old times.