always a dance with you

At least Cassandra wouldn’t be mad at him.

Jayce ducked through the crowd, peering over people’s heads, looking for a certain someone he wanted to have this dance with. Caitlyn would be so mad at him for ditching her. But he’d much rather face her wrath than her mother’s; as much as she tried to deny it, they were similar in so many ways, especially when it came to anger.

Not a sign of that familiar mop of hair. It was expected that he wouldn’t be in here. Viktor had never been one for crowds.

Jayce headed for the balcony door.

His reflection on the glass greeted him before he swung open the gilded handle, revealing the silhouette of a man leaning against the railing, an elegant cane keeping him company. The cool night air was a welcome contrast to the warmth of bodies inside.

Viktor remained turned towards the night sky, the only acknowledgement a quiet, “Jayce.”

“How’d you know it was me?” Jayce grinned as he closed the door behind him, coming forward to lean on the railing as well. Their elbows touched. Viktor’s eyes darted down briefly to the point of contact.

“Easy,” he said, glancing up at Jayce before returning his attention to some point in the horizon. “You’re the only one who doesn’t knock.”

As much as he tried to keep the smile out of his voice, Jayce caught it. “That’s unfair,” he complained. “We know each other too well for those kinds of formalities at this point.”

“And you walk a certain way.” He didn’t bother stopping the grin now, and at some point he must have picked up his cane because there was something hard and blunt prodding at Jayce’s legs, half-heartedly jabbing at his shins like it was reprimanding them for moving “a certain way”.

“What’s wrong with my walk?” Jayce protested, dancing out of the way of Viktor’s cane.

Viktor’s cane. Red and gold and elegant. It still remained one of the best pieces of his craftsmanship.

Viktor smiled, and Jayce’s gaze was stolen away from the red and gold. He set his cane down between them, tapping their elbows together. “Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s just…” he hesitated, “you. It’s very you.”

He laughed, a short note. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Viktor chuckled. They fell into silence, staring out at the view before them. The stars were bright in the sky, drawing patterns scattered like stories of the past. Buildings rose out the ground. Tall and grand, and then dropping smaller and smaller the further out it was. Beyond was a dip in the ground that was glowing with faint neon lights; the Undercity, smog blanketing the air closest to it. The half-moon shone down on the world. It cast a muted light down on Viktor’s face, along the slope of his forehead and down the bump of his nose, and Jayce thought to himself, not for the first time tonight, how wonderful he looked in that tailored suit.

“I used to dream,” Viktor mused, “when I was a kid, that’d I’d get rid of all the haze down there.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of the Undercity. “When I first stepped up to Piltover… that first night – seeing the stars for the first time – it was like magic, to me.”

Jayce tore his eyes from Viktor’s face, turning to look at what he was looking. “My mom taught me how to read the stars. We went travelling a lot, to find new materials for my family’s forge. And my father wanted me to see the world. The stars were… always there. A guide, almost.”

Childlike wonder slipped into Viktor’s voice. “Yeah. Yeah. When I learned about them, about all their stories and uses – I got blinded. Blinded by their greatness and I forgot about…”

He trailed off, but Jayce didn’t miss the glance he cast at his cane.

“That could be the next thing we work on,” Jayce offered. He put his hand between Viktor’s shoulder blades, throwing his other hand out in the air. “Behold, the, uh, Hex-ifier! Because, you know, purifiers?”

Viktor snorted. “We are not calling it that.”

“Why not? We took your name for the Hex-Gates.”

“Because it was better.”

“I still think Hex-ports would’ve made a great name. It works both ways, too. Trading ports but also exports.”

Viktor shrugged. “The council disagreed.”

“Screw the council.”

Viktor raised his eyebrows, deliberately looking back at the busy room past the doors. Muffled music and chatter and clinking of glasses could be heard. The dance would be starting soon. Jayce had to hurry this up. Why couldn’t he find the words to ask?

The music changed pace. All the violins and flutes and cellos stopped to allow the piano to drop into a slower, sweeter melody. Jayce tilted his head to listen. Viktor did the same, their arms brushing against each other. Inside, people were pairing up, men and women alike bowing and offering their hands out to seated members of the party.

“You know,” Viktor said, and when Jayce turned the other man was looking at some point below his chin. Jayce swallowed, and Viktor’s eyes flicked up. Golden and warm. “When I first got to the academy, I chose music as the required side course.”

“No way.” It was rare for them to bring up the past, and even rarer for Viktor to do so. “You play an instrument?”

Viktor smiled at some old memory. “Yeah. The piano. I hated it, if I have to be honest. I did rig up a system so it played by itself for a month or so, and then I got caught.”

“That’s a very Viktor thing to do.” Viktor gave him a look, and Jayce laughed. “You should play us a song sometime.”

And a thought struck him. Jayce whipped his head around to look at the faint black shape of the piano through the dancers, and back at Viktor, and he knew some stupid grin was on his face as he raised his eyebrows, because Viktor couldn’t help but give that fond laugh as he turned to look at what Jayce was looking at. His brow furrowed, though his lips were pulled in a smile.

“Absolutely not,” he said, taking his cane from the rail, stabbing the handle into Jayce’s chest, and then leaning on it.

“Please,” Jayce said, drawing out the word.

“Nope.” Viktor was pointedly not looking at him.

“I’ll dance!” Jayce tried. “I’ll dance while you play.”

“It’s – it’s been a while, Jayce, I –”

“You’re perfect!” Viktor froze, and Jayce took the moment to step forward and adjust Viktor’s tie, crooked on his chest. Viktor looked down, staring at his hands, then up at Jayce, his gaze searching, disbelieving, softening, and maybe it was the champagne or the privacy of the moment or his knuckles brushing Viktor’s throat but Jayce swore, through the darkness of the night, Viktor’s cheeks flushed red. He could feel his own face burning.

“Come on.” He patted the tie and dropped his hands, already missing the contact. “As partners?”

Viktor stared for a long, hard moment. Something gave. He sighed. “Promise you’ll dance?”

“Yes!” Jayce shouted in joy, startling a flock of birds that had been taking nest on the roof. “Come on! I want to have this dance with you.”

There was a beat of uncertainty as Jayce led him back in, hidden by the laughter and chatter of the dancers in the room. Viktor stuck to the shadows, avoiding eye contact, the familiar rhythm of his cane muffled by the thick carpeted floor. Through the dimmed lights and the crowd, Jayce saw a flash of Caitlyn’s blue, bored eyes.

“Jayce.” Viktor hesitated when they reached the slight stage the instruments were held. The grand piano stood in the spotlight.

“I know,” Jayce said. He put his hand against Viktor’s back, tugging him to the side. “Over here.”

There was a smaller piano standing at the foot of the stage, elegant all the same, polished keys gleaming in the light, golden touches lining its edges. It was hooked up to the speakers already. Viktor drifted forward and slid a hand over the keys, fingers barely brushing the surface. It suited him, Jayce thought. Black and black, pale skin and pale keys contrasting beautifully.

A half-smile lifted Viktor’s lips. He patted Jayce’s shoulder and Jayce grinned. He watched as Viktor limped to the stage, stooping to catch the pianist’s attention, gesturing at Jayce’s general direction; Jayce tried his best to look important and it must have worked, because there was a startling pause of silence as the pianist played a last scale.

Jayce pulled out the bench for Viktor, mock-bowing. “Here you go, sir.” His whisper was loud in the silence, odd and out of place without the gentle background noise of the orchestra. Shuffling dressed could be heard, muttering rising in the crowd as faces turned towards the musicians in confusion and interest.

Viktor dipped his head in a sign of polite acknowledgement, though his eyes were full of laughter. “Why, thank you, young man.”

He was nervous. Jayce could tell in the slight tremble in his hands, the furrow in his brow, the tension in his shoulders.

And then he began to play.

It was unsteady at first. Like a newborn calf learning to stand. A wavering melody, an odd note here and there. Then it picked up. The calf stood and walked and then started to run. Viktor’s hands flew over the keys, leaping forward and back in elegant strokes, and Jayce couldn’t help but stare.

Viktor was nodding, the way he would when Jayce explained his notes to him in the lab, like a private equation seen by him only. Jayce stared, and stared, and stared, and he thought to himself, that the marks on Viktor’s face were more beautiful than the stars in the sky, mapping out something new, something exciting, something familiar.

Gold in his eyes, brighter than the gold on the piano, stole his gaze. “We had a promise,” Viktor called over the music.

“We did,” Jayce said, reluctant to turn away.

People were whispering. Muttering. Pointing. And that was when Jayce realized that the song wasn’t one from Piltover – he’d heard this song before, when he was buying the rarer and more reactive metals, playing from records in bars and shops down in – down in Zaun.

Well, he’d give them something else to talk about.

Jayce danced.

He’d never been good at dancing. It was an awkward dance, a stupid dance, one that looked undoubtedly foolish, but Viktor caught his eye and he laughed, and nothing mattered when they were both grinning, alone in the room full of people.

A kid bumped into him. Jayce apologized, helping the little girl up, and she was smiling ear to ear as Jayce spun her around, giggling as she started dancing with him. It wasn’t just her. The kids were dancing. The various young adults that had been flirting with him were picking up, slowly edging into the small circle.

The song turned richer, fuller, and Viktor’s face filled with wonder as the violins picked up on the melody. The pianist on stage started following as well.

Somewhere behind him, Jayce thought he heard Caitlyn laugh. The world flashed with dizzying colours as Jayce picked up hands and danced and let go and spun – the only constant was Viktor’s form, something alive shining in his eyes. He stepped on his multiple partners’ toes as a result – something they didn’t seem to mind, getting to dance with the Golden Boy. Jayce’s eyes remained fixed on Viktor. Viktor’s gaze flitted up to his. It was a beautiful moment. Amazing. Wonderful. Jayce wanted it to last forever.

Bang.

Like an explosion. Jayce flinched, whirling around to the double doors that had been thrown open, seeing a glimpse of bronze enforcer masks before the lights went out and plunged the room into darkness.

Panicked voices. The children around him cried out for their mothers. Viktor’s song had faltered, playing a slower version of the melody, dark and sinister and not helping with the situation – though it picked back up after a second or two, ironically joyful in the room of fear.

“Jayce?” came his voice.

“Viktor,” Jayce said, stumbling in the darkness. Enforcer’s voices were ringing out. Jayce walked into the side of the piano, a bolt of pain shooting up his arm. He felt around it until his fingers pressed a sharp key, and he followed it up to find Viktor’s shoulder.

“Nobody panic!” shouted an Enforcer, “Just a problem with the power!”

“Just a problem with the power,” Jayce repeated sceptically.

The same note played three times on Viktor’s piano, and then it stopped abruptly. Jayce blinked in surprise. The music continued, through the pianist and violinists on the stage, though something was obviously off about their version.

A hand touched his arm lightly, and Jayce froze. There was the faint scraping sound of the bench being pulled back as Viktor pulled himself up with Jayce’s arm.

Torches were being turned on all around them. It cast the room in a faint surreal light, shadows dancing where figures were still. Faint murmurs of indignation and confusion and fear blended in with the music.

A rougher hand grasped his other hand, and Jayce turned to see an Enforcer. “Have you seen a teenage girl with red hair, sir?”

“I – er –” Faces ran through his mind as he tried to pick one out.

“We haven’t,” said Viktor, politely firm. The guard tilted their head like they’d never noticed him there.

“Alright then. Please stay out of the crowds, Mr. Talis.”

Jayce opened his mouth to ask what, and maybe also why and how and where and who, but Viktor pulled him to the side with surprising strength, and Jayce’s mind blanked as they disappeared behind the piano, hidden behind the large house banners draping down from the ceiling.

A pause. No lights back here. Jayce wished he could see Viktor’s face.

“Would you have a dance with me, Mr. Talis?”

Jayce fumbled blindly in the dark. The back of his hand knocked against Viktor’s chest, and he followed the lines of his body down to his outstretched hand. He took it.

“It would be an honour.”

Boldness seized him, and he raised the hand to his lips, kissing those cold knuckles.

He wished he could see Viktor’s face. He was glad Viktor couldn’t see his.

They danced in the dark. Hand pressed to hand, feet shuffling awkwardly. Jayce very carefully avoided stepping on Viktor’s toes, hardly daring to breathe as voices passed by, too close for comfort, though Jayce knew they weren’t doing anything wrong – the moment just felt so private, so fragile, like the slightest breeze would shatter it and send it scattered under their shoes. Jayce felt like a teenager again, hiding behind the back of the Academy with his first girlfriend in his arms. Dancing blind from the world, blind to themselves.

Jayce started humming the song unconsciously; Viktor chuckled, joining in softly. They swayed to it, and Jayce could feel Viktor’s shoulders moving, hand braced against Jayce’s arm as he stepped away and back. There was something elegant in the way he moved.

Somehow, somewhere, Viktor had picked up his cane again, and as Jayce knocked their shoes together for the third time it came up to prod at his leg. “Seems like you dance a certain way, too.”

“Is that a good thing?” Jayce spun him around slowly, and Viktor turned, his back against Jayce’s chest. His hair was soft against Jayce’s throat. Jayce thought he might implode.

Viktor gave it a moment’s thought. “It’s a Jayce thing.”

Jayce laughed. There was the sound of dull explosions, and they both turned awkwardly to see it, untangling from their embrace. Outside, fireworks were going off, blue and green and pink. Like flowers blooming against the night sky. It illuminated Viktor in colours, bright and beautiful.

Their hands were still grasped. Viktor lowered his eyes to them, and back up. “Back to the lab?”

“Yeah.” And nothing, not even the fireworks, could be better than what he held in his hands. “Let’s go home.”