Ephemeral

As Viktor pushed the door open with much more force than necessary, he had to suppress a smirk. Not only was he over twenty minutes late, which was already a great offense given Talis’ house status, but he had decided to dress down compared to his usual attire.

He could already imagine the enraged expression the man would make, his face surely turning red in anger and already wanting to shoo him away. Soon enough, he would be sent away with a kind letter with the Talis seal—and he would be free.

Except, when he looked up to see the other’s face after introducing himself—he wasn’t very… angry looking. He had a look of shock on his face, eyes opened wide and brows drawn up—but he didn’t look mad.

Actually, on the contrary, he looked quite pleased with the outcome of the situation. Even with all his research scattered on the floor, which looked to be a pain to tidy up with the sheer amount of them, he looked good spirited. He stayed silent for a moment before walking over to Viktor and giving him a wide grin, sticking his hand out and introducing himself in a very dorky manner.

“Nice to meet you Viktor, I’m Jayce—Jayce Talis”

He stared at the outstretched hand for a moment, slightly shocked that he wasn’t immediately being scolded for his entrance.

When he looked back up, Jayce’s smile had dwindled slightly as the uncomfortable silence stretched on. Viktor cleared his throat, blinking at the hand. He waved it away and moved past it to the room ahead of him. “I know who you are, there are about a dozen posters of you lining every alley.” This seemed to further discomfort Jayce, as he squirmed a bit where he stood—still by the doorway.

“Eh, yeah…“ He followed Viktor to where he was looking at the desk, not really caring much for the temporary space.

It didn’t matter much, Viktor thought, he would end up irritating Jayce enough to get out of this god forsaken mission and leave it all behind anyways.

“The Man of Progress title is… a bit of a stretch, even I can admit that.” Jayce laughed, rubbing the back of his neck and averting his gaze with a flush. “I think I explode things more than I actually create things.” Viktor spared him a long glance, taking him in.

He was much more… bashful, than he would’ve thought such a favored icon to be. “That’s why I’m here, I assume.” He didn’t know why he’d said that, but the sad expression on Talis’ face made him want to smoothen out the furrow between his brows for some reason. Maybe that was the reason that Jayce had gotten so far. He would just pout, squeeze out a tear, and everyone would swoon.

Oddly enough, in the back of his head, he could see a very clear depiction of that happening with the way Jayce lightened up at his words.

“Yes! That is the reason. We are going to bring something beautiful to the world, Vik.” Viktor cringed at the nickname, scrunching his face up. “My name is Viktor.” He informed. Jayce winced, a flush rising to his cheeks and coloring his skin a bright red. “Y-yeah, got it- sorry.” Viktor let out an uninterested hum and moved towards more of the lab, assessing the quality of the space.

It seemed huge, but he was sure it had to be smaller than what Jayce was used to—especially with the fact that he would have to share the area. Escaping this horrid mission would probably benefit Jayce too, Viktor thought idly, with the way the man would have to share space if he stayed.

“Well then, uh, Viktor-” Jayce let out a meek, slightly forced laugh. “Since we’re going to be working together we’d surely benefit from proper introductions, no?” Viktor squinted at him, turning his attention from the bland shelfs to the other beside him. “Was my introduction not proper enough for your standards, Mr. Talis?” Jayce flushed a spectacular shade of red and shook his head quickly, looking mortified.

“N-No—of course not! I just meant that— uh.” Jayce stuttered out. “That’s not it at all, I just was just trying to… get to know you better.” Jayce went silent for a moment, before muttering out what almost seemed like an afterthought. “I’d… prefer if you’d just call me Jayce, if that doesn’t bother you…”

Viktor blinked at him, taking a moment to process the jumbled words. He’d not expected the reaction from the man, and he was starting to worry that the Golden Boy was not as easily irritable as he thought. No matter, he had to try—and he just found something that might be the key to getting a crack out of him.

“You don’t want to be called Mr. Talis?… Why is that, Mr. Talis?” Viktor questioned. “Oh- whoopsies. Pardon my mistake, Sir Talis.” Viktor suppressed a smile in the slight twitch of Talis’ eye, reveling in the small victory.

Jayce lifted his lips into a sad attempt at a smile, looking more like he’d just been told his grandma died. Viktor almost wanted to laugh at how easy Pilties could be irritated. “It’s fine, I just get reminded of my late father when my last name is used. So I’d prefer just Jayce.”

Oh.

Well… Viktor just felt like a bit of an asshole for that.

All the smugness was drained from his demeanor, and he quickly schooled his sly smirk into a less taunting face. As much as he wanted to irritate the man, to intentionally remind him of his dead father was a bit cruel.

He opened his mouth to apologize, but he was stopped as the door opened with a loud creak. Light seeped into the dimly lit room, making everything seem much more clear. The bland shelves were revealed to have small, intricate engravings in them—the academy logo—and shiny blue gems dotted along the edge.

He found himself enjoying the space much more when a subsequent amount of light was provided, and he quickly tampered down the thoughts at the reminder this was his first and last time in the area.

He averted his gaze from the shelf, having to rip his eyes from the shining blue, to a very… short, man.

Wait…

Not a man, a Yordle, his mind quickly supplied. Not just any Yordle, Councilor Heimerdinger to be specific.

“Oh- Professor! I wasn’t expecting you today—was I?” Jayce crouched down and began to scramble through the papers that littered the floor, turning them over and looking for something.

Finally, he pulled out a smaller paper, with what looked like a list written on it. He read it silently for a moment, murmuring to himself before looking up sheepishly. “Uhm… is,” Jayce chuckled a bit, looking nervously in Viktor’s direction. “Would you happen to know if today is the fourteenth?” He whispered out, looking quickly back and forth between him and Heimerdinger.

“Yes, today is the fourteenth.” Viktor confirmed. Jayce winced, standing up quickly and almost slipping on the papers beneath him before scrambling over to the professor.

“You’ll have to excuse my rudeness, Professor Heimerdinger—it seems like I’ve forgotten everything planned due to my own nerves.” The Yordle let out a quiet chuckle, moving straight past Jayce and into the lab.

“Don’t you worry, my boy. No harm done.” The professor walked up to Viktor and stuck a small hand out, beginning to speak as he did so. “Welcome to the academy Viktor, I’ve been told quite a lot about your expertise!” Viktor hesitated, before slightly bending down and shaking his hand back.

“You have? Well, I just do the best I can… Eh, thank you.” Heimerdinger let out a louder laugh at his words, and it sounded so warm compared to Silco’s that he almost gaped at the honey sweet sound.

“Don’t sell yourself short, I know you will exceed my expectations!” Viktor blinked, remembering Silco’s similar words. An odd thought of Silco dressed up in a Yordle costume invaded his thoughts, and he had to stifle a cough at the image that presented itself in his mind.

“Ah- uhm… Thank you, Professor.” Viktor mumbled out. “I hope to do well in my work here.” Viktor cursed his manners, he was really screwing up his plan with all this sweet talk. He wasn’t expecting a Councilor to show up for Janna’s sake- Silco hadn’t prepared him for this. But as he thought of the man’s sly smirk as he told him the plan, he was sure it was somehow intentional.

Jayce walked over to where they both stood, a short tack of papers in hand now.

He bit his lip, furrowing his brows in silence for a moment before he passed them over to Heimerdinger hesitantly. “The… the Hexgate’s blueprints might, uhm…” Jayce took in a short breath and pointed to something on the paper, tapping it a few times for emphasis. “I need more time, the Hexgems aren’t stable enough to be compacted into such a large energy source.” Heimerdinger read the paper, nodding to Jayce’s words before looking over to Viktor.

“Viktor, why don’t you take a look at this? You are partners now, so you will see this sooner or later.” Heimerdinger reached out the stack of papers for Viktor, waving them slightly.

Just as Viktor was about to gently take the papers, they were snatched back by Jayce—who held them close to his chest. “No!” Heimerdinger gave him a shocked look, and Viktor’s eyes went wide.

A silence was shared before Jayce cleared his throat, the tension now thick enough to cut through. “I… sorry. I just haven’t shown a lot of people my work.” Jayce handed the paper to Viktor, gripping it before fully releasing his hold.

Viktor kept eye contact as he took the paper from his hand, studying the nervous expression that took over his face. He let his eyes fall upon the equations, studying the unique formula of what could only be Hextech.

Silco would salivate over these papers, he thought idly as he flipped through the pages. His work was even better than he thought it would be, the precise formulas and neat rows of math looking like art to his eyes.

“This is beautiful.” He blurted out before he could stop himself, and he looked up with flushed cheeks to see wide eyes staring back.

Jayce had a shocked expression on his face, and his eyes were so wide they looked as if they were about to pop out. A slow smile grew on his face, and he opened his mouth as if to speak for a moment, before closing it and nodding his head in thanks.

Viktor swallowed down the embarrassment as much as he could, and handed the papers back quickly. “Well, you have… excellent technique—but,” He pointed to a specific graph of the Hexgem, underlining an equation with his fingertip. “I think you should try speeding up the gem instead of slowing it down. The vibrations paired with a set of runes could stabilize it better.”

Jayce looked down at the paper, squinting before bringing higher into the light. He pulled a piece of chalk out of his breast pocket and handed it to Viktor without looking away from the paper.

“Show me.” Viktor blinked at the bluntness of the request, but walked over to the nearest board without hesitation. He wrote down the equation with the sole difference of speeding it up instead of slowing it down, underlining the changes in the formula.

Jayce placed the stack of papers down and walked over next to him, tracing the chalk with his finger and mumbling under his breath. He suddenly paused and turned to Viktor, a wide eyed expression on his face.

“Viktor… you’ve figured it out.” He sounded breathless as he spoke, face stuck in shock. Suddenly, a large smile broke onto the man’s face.

“You’ve done it Viktor!” He was suddenly enveloped in large arms, being pushed into Jayce and squished against his body.

It took him longer than he’d like to realize it was a hug.

Maybe a year up here… won’t be too terrible.

—

It became increasingly hard to want to leave after that, and Viktor found himself dreading the end of the day when he would have to report back to Silco.

Jayce was… much kinder than he thought him to be, and he found himself wanting to stay in the lab throwing ideas back and forth. He was so terribly doomed, it was only the first day and he already was enjoying himself—getting ahead of himself as if this would last. It would all end in twelve months, and at the end of the year he would be gone—never seen in Piltover again.

He couldn’t risk enjoying himself.

But… if he pretended to be kind, to be Jayce’s ally instead of his enemy… he would surely get more information related to Hextech. It seemed like a perfectly logical plan, he would ‘befriend’ Jayce and pretend to enjoy himself.

And if he felt himself getting lost in the fake reality—he would simply snap himself out of it. He wouldn’t be able to risk getting comfortable, not now, not ever.

So he would play the game, he would work with Jayce. He would work for the Council. He would create whatever inventions they wanted him to.

But at the final move, the last play of the game…

He would be sure to win.

—

The meeting with Silco had gone well, much less small talk this time around now that he had an objective.

Beating around the bush was never efficient, Viktor would prefer someone be rude to him for a brief moment rather than waiting an extended period of time to hear the same thing. He was glad for the loss of weather chit chat, not quite enjoying the time he spent in Silco’s office being prolonged due to a ten minute tangent about the sky.

After a certain point you can’t really bring up much else about how grey it looks outside, because that’s just about the only season and or weather the Undercity had. Grey, very exotic.

That was besides the point, Viktor had gotten the good to go from Silco to start the mission. He would obviously have to wait to be settled in more, that was evident from the way Talis had barely given him his papers without a fight. He looked as if he was about to tackle him for breathing too close to his blueprints—which Viktor can’t find it in himself to be mad at because he reacts the same—so he sincerely doubts that he would let him be alone with his actual research.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you looked on the situation, he had a year to suck up to Talis. Though with the way he was treated on the first day, he doubts it will take more than a month to get himself alone time with the infamous Hextech blueprints.

Viktor could rest easy knowing that the work he stole would be benefited more significantly down in Zaun more than it ever could be in Piltover.

Janna knows they have enough tech.

He was to start helping with the Hexgates as his first objective whenever he decided to begin working, fully committing himself to the mission. Heimerdinger had briefly mentioned the idea of an assistant—and it almost felt a bit euphoric to be asked if he would like an assistant. Unfortunately, he could not let the ego boost it granted him go straight to his head—so he politely requested more time to think upon the offer.

(He wouldn’t admit that he had already agreed in his head the moment he was asked.)

Hopefully, the plan would go smoothly and he wouldn’t have to make a dramatic exit in the middle of the year. He was sure that Silco would personally throttle him if he messed up his perfectly planned scheme. Viktor wasn’t quite sure as to why Silco even wanted the blueprints to Hextech so bad, since he didn’t really need anything of the sort for shimmer—and Hextech wasn’t used for any weapons.

Maybe it was for his own personal gain, it made sense considering what he’d said to Viktor about his weird puzzle analogy. He could see that, Silco stealing Hextech from Piltover’s iron grip just to taunt them.

As he thought about that, he caught himself feeling slightly pitiful for Talis. He seemed less arrogant than most of the other Pilties he’d met, and Viktor almost felt bad about the fact he would be stealing his work.

Almost, because the man was probably beyond wealthy and would totally recover in the span of a week. Or maybe… the Hextech thing wasn’t just a scheme for fame and money, maybe he actually wanted to help.

No, he sincerely doubted it. Probably just in it for the money.

Anyways- he had a mission. A pretty big mission, so even if he felt bad for a little while, if he didn’t go through with it he’d be feeling a little more than bad for a long while. What was that saying—you can’t bake a cake and eat it?

Yes, Viktor could not enjoy his time there without getting attached and hurt when he had to leave. So he wouldn’t even bake the cake, he would throw the ingredients out the window and burn the recipe before he would allow himself to bake the cake.

The cake analogy is a bit weird, he thought idly. Makes it sound like he’s about to have dessert. His stomach grumbled loudly at the thought of a meal, and he suddenly realized he hadn’t eaten much since earlier in the morning.

The meeting with Silco and meeting Talis had seemingly erased his appetite, and he cursed himself for letting nerves get the best of him. He would finish planning out how to ‘borrow’ those pesky research notes, but for now—he would have a warm meal in the comfort of his temporary home.

—

The day they finally began working at the lab wasn’t very pretty, it had been raining all day and the sky was still dark with clouds. Every so often as they were moving boxes, a loud crack would echo through the dark—startling Talis enough to drop whatever he was holding.

They had finally made it through half of the boxes in a shared silence when suddenly Talis spoke up. He cleared his throat, turning around to where Viktor was standing. “So… after we’re all done setting up, that means we’re officially-” A loud crackle interrupted him as a flash of light hit their faces, followed by the sound of objects hitting the floor.

“Shit—I don’t know why I keep getting so startled as if this hasn’t been happening for the last hour...” Talis crouched to the floor to retrieve the items he’d dropped, continuing. “But what I was gonna say was that after this we’re officially…”

He paused, letting silence fill the room again. Viktor turned around from where he was staring out at the sky and taking a break to let his leg rest.

Talis was still crouched, but now holding a frame in his hands. He turned around and met Viktor’s gaze, before giving a small smile and stuffing whatever he’d been looking at into the box he’d dropped.

“Partners—we’ll officially be partners once we’ve finished unpacking all this stuff.” He said suddenly. “That’s- uh, what I was saying before I...” He clapped his hands loudly, taking a deep breath and smiling wide. “We should celebrate! This is the start of a beautiful thing, and it deserves a celebration, right Vik?” Viktor suppressed a wince as he heard the awful nickname again, furrowing his brows.

“It’s Vik-tor.” He flushed at that, grimacing. “O-oh yeah I uh, forgot. Sorry.” Talis smiled again, looking a bit more like his poster when his eyes didn’t match it. “Still, Viktor, we should celebrate. I know a really good bakery that makes cakes, we should get one! What flavor do you prefer?” Viktor stared at him for a moment, gladly letting the other wait in silence. “I don’t like sweets.” And with that final statement, he turned away again towards his work.

“Oh, uh… okay.” Talis didn’t talk for a bit after that, and Viktor took that as a sign that the conversation was over. He pushed himself up and out of the chair he was occupying, moving to grab another one of his boxes. Fortunately he’d gotten through most of the bulkiest ones, and only had research to unpack now. All the scientific instruments laid in their spots, and the only thing done after unpacked was to battery power some.

He lowered the box down onto the desk, letting out a huff of breath. He would have to find a way to organize all the papers, and he surely wouldn’t be able to store them all easily. Viktor grabbed a small stack, evening out the stray papers against the table, before placing it into a large binder and clicking it closed.

He sighed and looked back up at the window. It was still raining pretty heavily, and the clouds were dark enough that the lamp made a fair difference in the room. Suddenly, as if the gods were taunting him, the light began to flicker in short intervals.

Talis looked up from where he was pinning up blueprints, looking a bit like an owl with the way his head turned. “Is that the light flickering?” Viktor looked at him with a tired gaze, raising a brow.

“What else could it be?” Talis pointed to the window with a pin still in his hand, waving it around few times.

“Whenever the lightning struck it would flash, so…” Viktor looked up towards the ceiling and really thought about how he’d gotten here. He looked down to see Talis still looking at him expectantly, a furrow in his brows.

“…Yes, the light is flickering.” Talis nodded, and then the light promptly shut off. A shriek echoed through the space, and the telltale sound of objects dropping that Viktor was now used to was heard.

He took deep breath and a large sigh. Viktor was seriously wondering what in life had led up to this moment.

“Ahem… I think there was a power outage.” He heard a meek voice say. Viktor dragged a hand over his face, feeling around him for a light source.

“You think so?” Viktor replied curtly. “I just thought that was just the ghost turning off the lamp.” Talis didn’t reply but he could hear a light tapping, and suddenly a flashlight was in his eyes, and someone was very close to him.

Viktor jolted back and swatted a hand out, effectively slapping Talis in the face.

“Ouch! What was that for?!” Viktor felt heat rise to his face as he realized what he’d done, lowering his hand down to his side quickly. “I apologize, you startled me…” Talis was rubbing the side of his face with his hand, a playful smirk on his face. “What, did you think it was the ghost that turned off the lamp?”

Viktor choked on a laugh, covering his face with a hand and turning away. “No, I did not.” He said. “Is there anything we can do about the light situation?” He looked back to see Talis staring at him with a light glimmer in his eyes, and he’d realized that the man had heard him laugh.

“You’ve got a… nice laugh.” Viktor raised a brow, his face turning red. “U-uh… Thanks.”

Talis flushed brightly suddenly, and turned away. “Yeah, we just need to get the generator working again—there’s a backup battery they have for power outages.” He started walking towards a large closet like area, and opened it to reveal an empty storage area.

“It’s in here, right at the back.” Talis walked forward towards the end of the tiny room, crouching down and pointing the flashlight at the tiny panel.

“Do you have a screwdriver on you, Viktor?” He looked up to where Viktor was standing beside him, lips pouted in thought. He looked quite pretty looking up at him, his lips pouted and eyes big—

What the hell was he thinking.

This was his partner, his science partner. Not some sort of fling. He seriously needed to get it together.

He realized Talis was still looking at him expectantly, and he began to pat around his pockets for a screw. He found one in his right pocket, and he pulled it out quickly. “Here, I don’t know if it’ll fit though…” Talis nodded, taking it from his hand and lightly pushing it into the screw.

“It fits!” Talis whispered, a smile brightening his face. “I’ll teach you how to do it since we’re already here, you never know when you’re gonna need to use the generator.” Viktor nodded, tilting his head to see the panel better.

Practiced fingers worked at the screws, and they all fell out in good time. “Look here, just switch on these two—I have no idea what the rest do but if you wanna try them out be careful.” Viktor watched as Talis flicked on two of the switches, and suddenly with a flicker the light was back on.

Talis smiled as he looked at the light, turning to Viktor and blinding him with the sheer force of it.

“We did it! Good job, partner!” Viktor startled at the name, realizing it was directed at him. He felt himself smile as he looked at Jayce, a light flush warming his cheeks.

“Yeah… I guess we make a pretty good team.”